Jakalth finally works on a functional Jool mission...

[Jakalth]

Well, yeah. Was going to try sending my Driad too Jool, but things didn't go so well for that craft. I kinda broke it... badly... So this time I'm starting over from scratch with a new plan. And thanks too a lot of tips and info from several different KSP regulars, especially Rune, I've got a new design as well...

So far the design is in it's early stages with lots of room for tweeks and changes. The idea, is to launch a space going tractor and pull all the cargo too Jool orbit. For this prupose I went a little overboard(yeah, not surprising for me. I've been doing that a lot lately) and built a multi role tug. This craft has a large docking port on it's bottom to attack cargo module too and has the thrust provided from 12 Nerv(nuke) rockets. Alone, the craft has just shy of 6500 delta-V, allowing it to make the trip on it's own. But where's the fun in that? So I'll be making cargo modules to drag along with it too be deployed in the Jool system for various missions. These missions include deploying space planes to explore Lathe, deliver satellites to various parts of the Jool system, bring a lander or two for dropping onto Tylo, and maybe even dropping a probe into the depths of Jools atmosphere where it will eventually be crushed.

So far, I've got the Tug its self initially designed. The design allows the tug to land on Vall, Pol, and Bop and refuel it's self using the built in drills and Refinery as well as perform scientific experiments. The Tug has sufficient TWR and delta-v to land and return to orbit from all three moons. It has a small crew compliment this time, with only room for 3 Kerbals in the command pod. But with it's towing capabilities, it can bring more Kerbals to the system in relative survivability, by towing them in crew pods behind the tug. Power generation comes from 6 large solar arrays and a cluster of radio isotope power generators for when solars don't do the job(at a much slower pace of corse). It even has radiators installed to help dissipate the heat of the Nerv rockets into space, for when long burns are needed. Hopefully, this will allow this craft to fill most of the roles to be performed in the Jool system.

Yeah, I went a little overboard with symmetry, but at least it should fly strait this way. And no, it's not self launching, that would be too easy.

I also have the Lathe spaceplanes built and tested for this mission, although not yet finalized. Coming in at around 20 tons, they are not the lightest sstos I've built, but they should do the job. Each are equipped with a pair of water skis made from radial intakes so they can land in the seas of lathe with no worries. Their safe landing speed is at or below 70 m/s, which gives them a nice large safety margin. They are equipped with science equipment to run experiments in Lathes atmosphere and waters and have landing gear if I can land them close enough to an island to make use of it. Takeoff from the water is achieved by getting the craft up to at least 35m/s and jettisoning the floats. The current versions have 6 sepratrons to give an initial boost to lift as the engines push the craft up to a high enough speed to sustained flight. They are a bit finely tuned though, and only have just enough fuel to reach orbit, from there they will need a smaller tug to bring them back to the primary tug for their return trip too kerbin.

This is an earlier version, possibly MK2. Newer versions have better wings, better floats, and sepratrons to lift them from the water for take off.

There is a lot more to get done for this mission, but hopefully, this time, I'll be able to complete it.

Download for the craft can be found in this thread: HERE

Edited October 20, 2015 by Jakalth

[Rune]

Pretty cool stuff. Glad to have been of help.

Rune. Keep us updated!

[Guest]

Have you though about a VTOL that can land on water?

That would be pretty epic for a laythe mission.

I've toyed with the idea for a bit already.

This one fits inside a medium cargo bay.

[Jakalth]

Have you though about a VTOL that can land on water?

That would be pretty epic for a laythe mission.

I've toyed with the idea for a bit already.

I actually have tried a vtol style water lander already. But it didn't end well... I couldn't get it to land stable. The bounce would always end up toppling it over... It was more of a jet powered drop pod then an actual plane though so it was taller then an amphibious vtol lander should be. I might have to revisit that idea for the other liquid filled planet, Eve. Sadly, the flotation tends to add a lot of weight, but a vtol would probably be the best way to minimize the total weight needed since no external structure is needed for the floats.

I also can't seem to get small enough craft, that are amphibious, to make a vtol viable and still be able to reach orbit with the same craft. Although... I could always ditch the ssto idea and make a vtol water hopper with a second return vehicle, leaving the hopper behind planet side...

*update*

Currently have a set of 5 different modules that can be dragged behind the space tug, that I am now calling the Jak-112 Lamp Post. So far, i'm keeping optimistic, but there are quite a few little hurtles to get past yet before I can see if this project will work. Got little bugs to fix in some of the modules as well as adding lights to my landers(seemed to have forgotten to do that...). Also need to test out the mini tugs to see if they have the snort needed to move around the space planes for deorbit and if they can shunt the different modules around if needed.

Fuel might also be an issue. The Tug it's self has 6500m/s of Delta-V and can do most of the missions by its self, including refueling, but it's the little stuff like landing on Lathe and Tylo that need more specialized equipment.

I also have a slight weight issue with my tylo lander. I can use a nice light weight, non-returning lander if I want, but if I plan on bringing a Kerbal down, I'm having issues keeping the weight down... the best I've got so far is a 45 ton mini-monster of a lander. not really the best choice for being lugged about behind the Lamp Post...

Edited October 3, 2015 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

Ok, the modules are ready for deployment. There are 5 total modules for this craft, more can be added as the missions require.

First off, the Lathe Plane Module:

This module houses the two amphibious space planes destined for lathe. The planes them selves are the MK4 variant of my original design. They have the adjusted wings, the 6 sepratrons to help lift them off the water, and lots of science gear for performing experiments on lathe. You can see 3 of the sepratrons on one of the planes, under its wing. They act like an air cushion after jettisoning the floats, keeping the craft above the water as the main engines push it up to flying speed. Some nose pitch-up occures but is easy to correct.

Not quite sure how I'll be de-orbiting them since their fuel load is quite limited...

Next we have the Mini-Tug Module:

This module consists of two mini tugs and a central refueling tank. The mini tugs are RCS powered and I'm hoping they have enough power to move things like the space planes around. The central fuel tanks house enough fuel for 3 full refuelings between the two tugs. This module needs some serious testing before i'm willing to launch for Jool with them on board...

The Passenger Module is next:

This module has room for 16 Kerbals, some liquid fuel, and monopropellant. It is one of the more important modules due to it carrying the majority of victim... er... Volunteers for the missions off world. It has some power gen and an array of rungs for Kerbal EVA activities. Hopefully the little guys remember to fill the snack dispenser this time...

The Fuel Module:

This module holds extra fuel for extending the range of the Tug. Nuff said...

Finally, the Tylo Lander Module:

After a bit of testing and a eureka moment, I was finally able to make a reasonably small Lander capable of landing on, then taking off again from Tylo, hopefully. I then packaged the lander in this neat little module binding for easy integration into the module system. The lander this time ticks off at 38 Tons, which is a big drop from my old design that weighed in at 80 tons and it's predecessor, that weighed 130 tons... The descent stage has 3200m/s delta-v while the ascent stage has 3100m/s delta-v. It's a pretty fine line, but if I fly it cleanly, I should be able to pull it off.

So now, along with the Lamp Post, I have the full train I'll be sending too the Jool system. After I have performed some testing of the minitugs, I'll just have to assemble the whole thing in orbit of kerbal and send it on it's way too the Jool system.

[Jakalth]

Ok, after 8 hours of work, I finally got the whole thing assembled in space. Man, 3 fps makes it very hard to put together... O_o Time to go eat something before I pass out....

It needed two fuel modules but it's now got 6,700m/s of Delta-V for launching too Jool. And I've got a headache... ugg...

[Jakalth]

Well, the craft takes a very long time to change direction and tends to flop about like a partly softened spaghetti noodle, but I was able to get it eventually lined up for it's initial burn. The Initial burn duration was 2 min 12 seconds. Aproximate delta-V changed, 230m/s. So, going around kerbal from what was a 75x80Km orbit too what has been elongated to a 80x438Km orbit. So far, the ship handled the full burn like a champ. The heat radiators were able to keep up with the heat generated by the Nuke engines, but only just barely. The bicoupler got pretty hot and the xl solar panels started to heat up as well. But it all ended fine. First burn and the ship is intact and no worse for wear.

Thanks again Rune for suggesting a puller design. I don't think this craft would even fly strait if it was a pusher. That is if I could even get it to hold together that way.

Time needed to make the initial turn to my orbital burn: 4min 38 sec.

Time needed to fine tune the angles just before burn: 1min 12 sec.

Time spent actually burning: 2min 12 sec.

Headache saved by going with a puller design: countless.

Much better picture this time.

That's about 230m/s gone, 6,470m/s left. And that will improve slightly once I can burn off the fuel in the last fuel tank. I am manually moving fuel from that tank to the front tanks between burns. It will be jettesoned once the fuel is gone, which will improve delta-V slightly, and reduce the spaghetti of the craft greatly.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Jakalth
replaced the bad picture.

[Jakalth]

Burn 2 went fairly well considering... The Node I had placed for the second burn bugged out causing the craft to try and invert its self about 1/3 the way through the burn, I had to kill the node and burn manually for the rest of it, hopeing I could keep it flying strait enough to pull it off. The node suddenly freaking out did cause a slight issue for the craft though. The SAS tried too keep up with the node inverting and caused the craft to start bending in a scary looking curve during a full burn. O_o Wasn't pleasent to see... But thankfully it straitened out after a hair raising 30 seconds, once I took over manual control. I really should of snapped a picture of how it looked at that point, but the pic would of been dark and I had my hands full trying to recover the ships trajectory.

The total length of burn two was just over 3 Minutes. Not sure of the total delta-V, but the orbit got elongated to 80x6420km. The parts got hot once again, barely hotter then last burn so no issues with longer burns that I can see.

It all worked out in the end though, guess that's the benefit of having lower powered, long duration engines. I did snap a nice pic of the craft at the peak of it's second orbit, just before I started the dive back to kerbal for the 3rd burn and the final gravity slingshot out of Kerbals SOI.

Burn 3 was uneventful. Emptied the tail tank and jettisoned it. This actually ended up giving me a jump of 2 fps, meaning it was now running at 5 or 6 fps instead of just 3. And the Lamp Post turns a lot better, less spaghetti wobble. The last burn got me on an escape trajectory from kerbal with a nice and short 1min 56 sec burn. Only needing around 200m/s of delta-V this time. 5,800m/s of Delta-V remains in the tanks for the rest of the mission.

Good bye Kerbal, you may keep the tail fuel tank as a momento, should we not return.

[Jakalth]

Now that the Lamp Post is out of the Kerbin SOI, I set my sights at getting a Jool Encounter. This proved to be a bit easier then I had hoped with Jool being just barely in the right spot for a good encounter, with little mess. The burn will need around 2,800m/s of Delta-V and due to its long duration(24+ minutes) has to be split into at least 2 separate burns. As I begin the burn, the crew reports about their last view of kerbin with the following statement: "Its so small.."

Kerbin is in the top center, the tiny blue marble.

The first half of the burn goes well, but monitoring the temp did bring up an issue. At full burn, I was getting dangerously close to the thermal limits of some of the parts near the engines. So about 10 minutes into first burn I had to reduce thrust to just over half thrust. This increased the burn duration to 15 minutes just to get half way through the projected delta-V. Of course, due to how much this craft is slowing down my computer, the actual time it took to perform this burn was closer to 1hr 25min real time.

I shut down the engines and let the craft coast for a while and cool down, letting it travel past the transfer node to the same point past it that I had ended the first half of the burn. While this was happening, I took a break myself. Saved the game, went away, had something to eat, then came back. Upon loading up the game again, I found a problem. The Node had once again changed... the delta-V needed was reset to full and the position of encounter had been altered by a vast amount. The game was trying to make me fail at this! Again!!! So once again, I had to wing it, manually. And had to burn without using the numbers from the transfer node. At least this time the node was in the same place and hadn't inverted... So guessing the node amount, I once again went full burn. This time only being able to go full burn for about 8 minutes before the craft started getting too hot. Dawn to half burn again and carefully watching temp, it was another slow 15 minute(1hr and 20 min) burn until BINGO! Jool encounter, right where expected. And none too soon. Much longer on this burn and I would of started loosing parts. KSP, you will not deny me this mission!

Showing how badly the Node went off course and where I actually made the Jool encounter.(node glitch is too the right, actual encounter at top)

And the thermal sensors showing exactly how close the ship was too melt down... yellow was temps at or above 1200K... I checked using alt F12, thermal display option. Some of the parts close to the engines fail at 1200K. O_o The coldest parts were over 800K.

Next step, clean up the encounter and get the ship into Jool orbit. Still have between 2800 and 3000 Delta-V left.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Jakalth

[Rune]

Well she is really a beauty! And quite an inventive name.

Yes, thermal proofing is now a thing. I bet those place-anywhere linear RCS ports look much better now with their 2000º of max. temp, right? More things to look at in the VAB for the next one, how to keep the flimsy RTGs and avionics very far away from the nuclear engines. Hint: docking ports seem to be awesome insulators.

Still, if you have the dV to throw at the problem (and you do), you can take things slow and still get there (actually, the more wasteful trajectories are usually faster in gametime). I commend your patience! Though I don't envy your FPS: it's one thing to wait for a long burn, it's another to see a slideshow for an hour. I myself impose hard limits on part count for low TWR designs nowadays... Also, I recommend you read this, you'll like it: the art of the long burn.

Rune. Again, glad to have pointed you the right way.

[Jakalth]

Used two burns to clean up my approach too the Jool system and prepared for the final burn into Jool. The burn was looking to be a long 1400m/s burn, but after doing a little tinkering with different nodes, I found an entry profile that placed me into a clean Jool orbit after a small encounter with Tylo. This entry only required 790m/s with a 119m/s correction burn after the Tylo encounter.(so 909m/s) That saved me a good 500m/s of Delta-v and made the burn much shorter. Things were looking up. Hello Jool.

Not long after getting into the clean orbit, I tinkered around some more and found myself a nice Lathe encounter for only another 112m/s. It was an odd encounter, at a bit of an angle, but I'll take it. So burning this got me my Lathe encounter. Now I just needed to burn this encounter into a full orbit. I thought about ejecting the Latheplane module right here and letting it aerobrake into Lathe orbit, but I had doubts if I could pull this off before the rest of the Lamp Post train was flung completely out of the Jool system(what the Lathe encounter wanted to do). So I just burned the whole thing into an oblong orbit. I can fix up this orbit later. Hello lathe, your waters look inviting.

Now that I had the whole thing in orbit, it's time to break up the train...

And reconfigure it into a shorter Lamp Post train and lathe mission module. Thankfully, every module is self contained and can operate autonomously from the Lamp Post.

Next step, getting the Lamp post to Vall for refueling. I'm actually running dangerously low on fuel. I might have to cannibalize the fuel out of the Tylo lander so the Lamp Post can make a landing on Vall. But once the Lamp post is landed, fuel will no longer be a problem. It'll only take time to fill up the Lamp Post's tanks and bring at least half of that back up to the waiting fuel and passanger modules as well as refilling any fuel I remove from the Tylo lander. After two trips like this, I'll have plenty of fuel in the fuel module to resume the Jool missions. lso, dropping off the Latheplane modules has given me a boost of 10 fps. Now I can actually fly the craft like it was meant to fly.

[Jakalth]

Well, took several tries at finding the right node, but I got a VALL(halla) encounter that didn't burn too much delta-V. Not much to say, the craft only gets easier to fly with each module left behind. Higher FPS and more maneuverable. Plus I'm gaining a little delta-V with each drop off as well.

So, Vall encounter. Hello Vall. Nice too meet you. Can I borrow some ores to refuel?

Had a nice burn to circularize into low orbit of Vall. Went very smoothly, the easiest burn I've had so far. Getting down to the last few dregs of fuel though, even after scavenging the fuel out of the Tylo lander... Lets hope I have enough to land the Lamp Post drive section... But first, time to scan the moon for ores. Hmmm, not the best place to mine for resources... But needs must... And I REALLY need.

So lets separate the Lamp post for the Vall landing.

Retract the solar panels and radiators, we're going in on reserves alone. Quick save!!! Burn for landing in one of the highest spots for ore nearby(less then 40% yield...), and hope the remains in the tank hold up. Initial burn for entry complete, only 450m/s of fuel left... O_o suicide burn calculations show 420m/s total for the suicide burn. Using Kerbal Engineer Redux to help me with the math of landing. Descent is going well, aproaching suicide burn height so I start the burn early. Burn... burn... burn... KER says I still have a few thousand meters and plenty of thrust to finish the landing... burn... the land is getting pretty close... O_o burn... almost there... burn... burn... EXPLOSION!!!! Nope... Impacted the ground at over 100m/s... KER you lied to me... Oh, I see... I had too much lateral motion for the suicide burn calculation to be accurate... oops... reload quick save, try again killing half of my lateral motion.

Attempt 2: same as first, started burn early but with reduced lateral motion. burn... burn... burn... KER readout is making a lot more sense now. burn... burn... only 1000m above the ground and speed is looking good for soft landing. burn... bu..fizzle.. crap... Explosion... Ran out of fuel...

Attempt 3: smaller burn to reduce lateral motion. different trajectory. following KER suicide burn more closely. crossing fingers. burn... burn... KER, that doesn't make sense, what are you doing? burn... burn... oh, now I see. oops my bad. inverted that part heh. fixed. burn... burn... getting close... burn... 100m/s delta-v left. 80m/s vertical(xxxx) speed. O_o burn... burn...

and, cut the engines. Hmmm, 3 delta-V remaining. That's cutting it a little close... At least I know this craft lands nicely on Vall. Now to try landing it on TYLO. No, that's not going to happen. One thing at a time though. lets get the radiators out and dump that built up heat and start mining the ores we need for refueling. Oh, I should probably turn off the survayer to conserve charge, I'm going to need it for mining...

Double barrels going right now, but power usage means I can only run one mining drill at a time without running my charge capacity down to zero. This is going to take a while...

Next step, go back to Lathe and use the latheplane module to land some kerbals on that water world.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Jakalth
corrected a mistake. said horizontal instead of vertical

[Jakalth]

Now with the Lamp Post drive section landed and very slowly refueling, it's time to play with the lathe planes. First though, I need to get the latheplane module into a lower more circular orbit to make it easier to launch the planes. Since I had to keep the module drained of fuel, I can't simply use the lathe planes as thrusters, so it's time for some aerobraking of the whole thing. And once the module is in a nice orbit, detach the planes and aerobrake them as well.

The braking went well. I went a little too deep the first time I tried aerobraking the entire module and had to restore the quicksave and try again. I don't have a lot of experience with aerobraking so this is a bit harder then it should be for me... Oh well, learning experience and all. Got the module down to a reasonable low orbit of Lathe and circularized it. Then it was time to send in the lathe planes one at a time. They aerobraked quite well for me. Not a problem to be had in the high altitudes of Lathe.

Latheplane 1 entered the atmosphere, descended, and slowed down nicely. I even made the water landing on my first try with it. During the descent, I snapped a nice picture of Jool rising above the horizion of Lathe with the Latheplane flying strait on into it. And yes, I have the nose pitched up on the craft. From testing and flying many spaceplanes, just as many made by other people, I've found that an ideal reentry profile is to have the nose of the spaceplane pitched up 10-20 degrees from prograde, with the aerobrakes deployed, for maximum deceleration. At least until the craft starts biting into the thicker atmosphere.

Now with the way these planes were built, they are a bit skittish and a hand full to fly strait when unpowered. But they still have decent glide even at speeds below 60m/s. So pitching the nose up just above the water allows the craft to basicly stall into the water at the last second, for a fairly safe 55m/s landing. Splashdown...

Latheplane 2, which is the exact twin of latheplane 1, was not so cooperative... Even though they both are identical, it took me 5 tries to get the craft to land in one piece... This craft starts it's entry just fine, just like Latheplane 1, but every time, Latheplane 2 goes into a slide at about 11Km and flips over backwards, forcing me to fight with the craft to get it to swing around and face the right way. It usually doesn't allow me to straiten it until around 6Km, giving me little time to try and carefully pull up to make the nose-up landing in the water. The first 4 times, I was able to recover the craft and pull up for a landing, but was not able to touch it down smoothly causing it to nose under and break up... Frustrating... Finally on my 5th attempt, after having to recover the craft from it's direction reversal yet again, I was finally able to get it to land safely. I now have both Latheplanes landed in Lathes' waters waiting for their charge levels to go up. Yeah, solar panels are next to useless on Lathe, only receiving a tiny fraction of the power they normally would...

Lots of "fun" had with the less then acceptable handling of the Latheplanes... They'll fly considerably better once I loose those Drag inducing nightmares they have as floats and can make their ascent back to orbit as a streamlined spaceplane. As for the Lamp Post... Well, it's going to take a very long time indeed for it to fully refuel its self. I don't know how long, but so far I've taken on around 1100 units of fuel, 20580 units to go...

Edited October 10, 2015 by Jakalth

[DMSP]

Cool!

Looks like a nice ship!

[Jakalth]

The mission is still running as I type this. I've had the game running, at 50x time warp, for more then 12 hours(real time), trying to speed up the ore processing on Vall. Refueling this big gal is taking a long time... It has been 104 day, in game time, since I landed and it's been refueling continuously since landing. Power is not on my side since the XL solar panels, which I hoped would supplement nearly half the power requirements of the mining process, are woahfully inefficient at this distance from Kerbin's sun. The 24 RTG's only produce enough power to run the drill at a bit over 80%, with the IRSU shut down completely. With the sun up, the drill can run between 95 and 100% with the IRSU idling at 0.88%. Far from the full output I was hoping for, or the possibility of running both drills to double mining speed...

Oh well, soon enough I'll be able to launch the Lamp Post back into orbit to partly refill the orbiting fuel tanks. And then I just need to bring the Lamp Post back down, to refuel it...yet again...

:option: or, I could tug the Tylo lander into it's correct Orbit and send that kerbal on his way to fame and fortune. Then refuel the Lamp Post, then have to fill the orbiting fuel tanks... Hmmm.... lots of time to spend refueling either way.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

Option 2 it is...

Refueling has finished, finally, after 119 days on Vall. My Lamp Post pilot, Cisca, has been going stir crazy by herself being the only one running the mining operation. lets hope it hasn't effected her piloting skills. Maybe I should give her a break and let her get some R&R on the passenger module... All I need to do is reorientation the craft so I can make a cleaner ascent and double check that the tanks are all full. Cisca? Hold on a second... *radio noise*

Unintended launch... She couldn't take it any longer. When I told her to lift the weight off the landing legs so the craft could be turned to line up it's orbital launch, she went and launched it fully... No time to plan, ACT NOW! Making orbit quick and dirty it is...

Now that we're in orbit, we have some catching up to do, the rest of the train is on the other side of the moon. Time to bring the Lamp Post into lower orbit and race to catch the other modules. If you had only been patient for another few hours Cisca, this would of been a lot easier. *Radio noise* Honestly! Watch your mouth young lady... Your getting as bad a Jeb...

Several orbits and a realignment later, the rest of the train is in sight. Just a few precision adjustments and we'll have the crafts docked again.

Catching the four modules went smoothly. After getting the modules lined up and docked, a transfer of pilots happened. Lets hope they rest of the Kerbals don't end up throwing Cisca out of the airlocks... Time to disengage the tylo module and minitug module for their trip to Tylo. Followed by a close proximity reconfiguring of the Lamp Post.

Now that the Tylo lander module is in tow, it's time to head for Tylo its self. I tried several different orbital exit paths, but after quite a bit of fiddling, and only 1 extra burn to do, not only do we have an escape orbit from Vall, but a handy Tylo encounter as well. Means I just need to circularize, which saves me a lot of delta-V for later.

Next step, circularize the Tylo encounter.

- - - Updated - - -

Things went a bit quickly at Tylo, I circularized the orbit, dumped the Tylo module and minitug module, and set up another burn back too Vall. This time though, I was able to get a single burn to get me out of Tylo orbit and encounter with Vall. Currently mid burn back to Vall. The Lathe/Vall/Tylo orbital ratio makes it so much easier to get transfers like this.

With this transfer in progress, setting up a Vall capture is easy. All this orbital transfer shenanigans is helping me a lot with getting better at flying space missions in this game. Pretty soon I'll be able to start doing missions like this in career mode instead of just in sandbox. Anyways... The orbit gets circularized and I setup a burn to bring the Lamp Post down for another landing. It's time to refuel yet again.... yay....

New site this time, I had drained pretty much the entire other half of the planet down to just a few tiny deposits. This side still had some rich(relatively speaking...) deposits to be found using the planetary surveyor on the Lamp Post. It's on the dark side of the moon this time though... Not very happy with this. I'm basicly flying blind... Beginning the descent, I've got a bit more fuel so I can kill more of the horizontal velocity then last time. Doing so, means KER is giving me a better Suicide burn calculation. This time it all goes smoothly. Started the suicide burn a little early, killed the engines when my speed dropped below 7m/s, then brought the engines back up slowly untill I was just barely killing my vertical speed. Fuel level critical yet again... 60m/s delta-V left, about 100 meters off the ground. lower... lower... increase burn to bring speed down to 5m/s... lower... lower... touchdown! Woah there!!! Don't you dare topple over! RCS and SAS on full burn to get the craft back on all its landing legs... And barely any fuel left! I really need to stop cutting it so close...

about 1300m/s delta-V from circular orbit @ 60km down to the moons surface. Not bad for something as large as the Lamp Post drive section. Weighing 79 Tons with nearly no fuel on board and is landing using 12 Nerv(nuke) engines only. The Lamp post is parked on a 16.3 degree slope! Damn blind landings... And thank the kracken for it's wide landing base. If I had known the site was going to be that bad I would of delayed landing so that I could at least touch down on a flatter surface...

[Jakalth]

Sad news on the lathe plane front. After 10 tries to get at least 1 of the lathe planes back into orbit, I have to tip my head in defeat... I gave it my best, but the 2 planes would either reach a high enough velocity to get into orbit, then overheat for no reason and explode, or be unable to get enough speed and run out of power and fall back into the atmosphere... The Latheplane MK.4 is a complete bust... I was able to get orbital in kerbin's atmosphere, with no fuel to spare, but for some reason lathe has a much dirtier atmosphere that kills the planes even at 40+km...

The separation method, of dropping the pontoons, works a treat though. But it does require the assistance of the Nerv rocket to get the craft up to speed. The jet engine is not strong enough on its own to do the job, until it's actually airborne.

Of coarse, now I have to send a rescue mission to get these brave kerbalnauts(spell correct calls them butterballs for some reason...) off of Lathe. Since I couldn't fly them to orbit, I at least got them both to one of the islands on Lathe. Sadly, Latheplane 1 didn't completely survive the landing... At least the Pilot of Latheplane 2 is there to comfort them and they can give each other company.

[Jakalth]

After the complete bust of the Lathe planes, I needed something to go well... So I crossed my fingers, made a quick save, and jumped to the Tylo lander module for it's mission. Sadly, I missed taking a lot of the earlier screen shots...

Well, the mission started by getting the Tylo module into a low 55/60km circular(ish) orbit. This was followed by seperation of the Tylo module from the minitug module I was using to do all the orbital maneuvers up until this point. With the minitug module seperated, I jettisoned the lower docking port, freeing up the engines, and undocked the upper sr. docking port, from the roof mounter docking port on the lander, to free up the weight that was adding. This left me with just the Tylo lander and two pieces of orbiting debree.

I started the burn by finding a decent spot to do my mission, somewhere on the lighted side of Tylo. And a simple Retrograde burn later, started my descent. The initial retrograde burn was close too 900m/s delta-V used from the descent stage of the lander. This killed most, not all, of my forward speed, this way I only have too really worry about vertical motion while descending too the surface. I really liked how this descent was looking so I did another quicksave at this point to give me an easy reload if things go wrong. My first try was going well, I waited for the suicide burn distance to be close and started the burn early. Ends up a little too early... I ran out of downward speed too quickly and ended up sending myself back upwards for a bit before I could kill the engines. This cost me a bit of fuel... I then had to do a second burn to bring my speed down again, when I got close too the ground. But I ran out of fuel in the descent stage, and while trying to panic start the second stage to slow down, ended up running out of time. crash...

Attempt 2: Waited a little longer for the suicide burn timer to get closer. And ended up waiting a little too long... Had to add the ascent stage's engine to help slow down the craft in time to make the landing. But once again, failed miserably... crash...

Attempt 3: This time, I timed my suicide burn a lot better. started the burn about 600 meters early, but this time idled down the engines a little so the burn distance creaped closer too 0. This payed off in the end. I was able to slow down the craft to a nice safe-ish speed close too the ground, and pulse/idle the lander down the rest of the way. Not the most efficient way to land, but it did leave me with a lot more delta-V then I had initially calculated for this mission.

129m/s of delta-V, I'm quite happy with that. I had calculated that I'd be jettisoning the descent stage before liftoff, but now it looks like I get an extra boost. Happy Jakalth! Now that I'm landed, I lowered the ladders and sent my brave kerbal pilot down to the surface to place the landing flag and collect some science for this mission. Everything was working this time!

With the science collected, and the Kerbal returned to his ship, nothing left to do but return to orbit. Liftoff! The initial kick from the descent stage was a nice bonus and made a good show when they finally ran out and I jettisoned them and kicked on the ascent stages engine.

Now it's just a nice lazy ascent to orbit, making full use of a gravity turn, without an atmosphere making it messy. Nice and easy this time.

With sufficient speed and height achieved, I plotted an intercept orbit with the minitug module.

With this orbit in place, all I had to do was catch up with the minitug module and dock. Several orbits later, a few orbital shifts and a little maneuvering later, I was lined up to dock the two modules. It was just a quick switch too the minitug module for the final maneuvers, since the lander had no RCS after shedding it's module frame. This was an easy win. Finally I feel better after the nearly complete failure of the Lathe planes...

Now all I have to do is retrieve these modules with the lamp post, redock them with the rest of the train in Vall orbit. Top off the tanks on both the Lamp post, and make my way to either Pol or Bop for their visits from the Lamp Post. Refueling the rest of the train may be easier on one of those two moons since I burn close too a third of my fuel leaving Vall's gravity well. Here's hoping I can find a good mining site on either Pol, or Bop.

[DMSP]

Good luck out there!

And have fun at Pol. It's a nice place.

[SlithyTove]

Fun story, you have some great screenshots there.

I'm looking into doing my very first mission to Jool in similarly epic hit-everything style, nice to see others having fun with it.

[Jakalth]

The fact that there are ways to refuel in stock KSP makes it a lot nicer. It's quite doable to run a mission like this with a much smaller craft, and probably be more successful, but I like my large over-the-top Lamp Post.

A good suggestion, if your doing it in creative, or have LOTs of fund and everything basicly unlocked in other mods. Invest in ION engines for some of your mission craft. The weight and size reduction would be well worth it.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

Well, Finished refueling the Lamp Post, again... Now it's off the retrieve the Tylo Lander from Tylo orbit. It took me just 1 burn to get a Tylo encounter this time. The Lamp Post is getting pretty close to it's 10 Billion Km overhaul. That's a lot of distance covered tooling around the Jool system.

With the encounter found, I just need to snag the Tylo lander and minitug module. After several orbits and some adjustments later, I finally catch the module and lander, on the dark side of Tylo. Come join us, on the Dark Side. We have a dental plan.

Once the two were linked up, I plotted a corse back to Vall, yet again. This time, it took me 2 burns to get back to Vall. One to escape the OI of Tylo, and the second to find an encounter with Vall. It was quite a long distance to get to that burn and I spent a bit of time just floating between the moons. But a low delta-V orbit change is worth the effort.

Once in Vall orbit yet again, I brought the Lamp Post into an orbit that will intercept with the rest of the Train so that I could drop off the Tylo lander and minitug module. Before disconnecting the module from the Lamp Post, I made sure I had removed the kerbal from the Tylo Lander and brought them into the Lamp Post its self. To keep my pilot company. Once done with that, I disconnect the modules. From here, it was easier to bring the lander and minitug to the rest of the train and link them back together using just the modules RCS.

Several orbits later, and a bit of tweaking again, and the majority of the modules are reunited once more.

But while the lander and minitug were still orbiting, I brought the Lamp Post down for yet another landing on Vall. The Lamp Post landings are becoming routine and are getting easier every time I do them. Nothing to show for this landing, it's the same as the others, only this time I had more fuel when I started and a lot more fuel left when I touched down. Speaking of touchdown, if it goes well, this will be my last time visiting Vall. So my pilot goes out and plants the last flag and stands for a photo with the Lamp Post in the background.

With the end in sight, my pilot, Mica, takes one last look around. This last landing was the one to remember. Not only is it the last we'll see of Vall, but we finally hit the motherload! Ore concentrations 3 times higher then any of the other mining sites. We'll be refilled in not time at all. Mica is so excited!

Refilled in record time(only 12 days!) we blast off for orbit and the waiting train of modules to bring to our last 2 destinations, Bop and Pol.

Back up in orbit, we catch up with the modules and redock with them, finally turning the Lamp Post back into the hauling train it was design to be. Good bye Vall, it was fun, but we must be on our way.

Time to burn for Bop and hope for the best. This will be the hardest encounter so far, getting to that eccentric orbiting moon will not be easy. It'll take planning, timing, and many course changes to finally reach the moon. So lets get the first burn figured out to get us going in the right direction. And just for good luck, we'll get out orbital path to reach out to Bop's orbit and... Find an encounter... Ok, so much for hardest encounter... I guess we just got lucky? Anyways, I'll take any luck I can be given.

It's barely an encounter so I'll still have too tweak it and burn like mad to not just fly right past that little rock in space. And after doing just that, I find myself in a place I never thought I'd be, in orbit of Bop. Hello Bop, we're here!

Next job is going to actually be a tough one, landing on this tiny lump of stone and finding a nice deposit of ore to refuel with. The gravity is light, but the terrain is not even close to even... Even the wide stance of the Lamp Post is going to be tested by landing here. Infact, it's size might end up being a detrement to landing on this tiny rock... We'll have to see.

Looking up some info on Bop, since I've never been here before, I stumbled upon an interesting plan for after. This is quite unralated to Bop actually. It's about Duna. If things go well with this landing and the next one on Pol, and I can get a clean encounter on my way to kerbal, I might just be making a fly by landing on Duna, using the Lamp Post. I still need to double check my calculations, but I might just have enough dleta-V and TWR to land and take off again from Duna. It all depends on how much trust I'd loose in Duna's light atmosphere.

[Jakalth]

Well, dropped off the modules in orbit of Bop and made my way down to the surface with the Lamp Post. The light gravity made the landing quite easy, not to mention finding what may just have been the only relatively flat spot with abundant ore, on Bop. The landing went so well, that my pilot just had to jump out and check out the gravity for herself.

She was having so much fun that she decided to show off by trying to jump over the solar array while doing a pirouette. She was watching her jump, but apparently not where she was landing... This led to an accident... Her showboating caused her to hit the solar array, knocking it clean off it's mounting... As it shattered to the ground, it quickly sobered everyone up again. Time to access the damages.

Just the one array destroyed... Well, that just means the Lamp Post lost about 10% of it's mining efficiency. Now mining and processing takes just a little bit longer... but the craft still feels stable at least. Now that I've got the first actual damage on the Lamp Post(not counting the failed tries at landing on Vall...), it's time to focus on getting what I can from this landing. That being fuel, science, and a full tank of Ores. With the gravity being as low as it is, I can afford to lift off with full tanks of fuel and a full tank of ores to increase the total fuel I can transfer to the orbiting tanks. Speaking of which, liftoff went a little too easy and I was able to make a quick orbital correction to catch up with the modules and redock again.

The Lamp Post train is not as impressive as it used to be. Only 2 full modules and 2 half modules left to haul around instead of the original 6 I started with. But the tanks on the modules are now full, leaving the Lamp Post it's self, half drained. Just enough to reach POL. And to start this off, time to leave Bop SOI and start making orbital maneuvers for Pol. First burn got me free of Bop's influince, the second burn realigned the lamp Post with Pol's orbit, but the third burn actually got me the Pol encounter.

From here it was a Burn to get myself there. Full throttle Mica! And a pic of the burn this time, still balanced on that brown marble called Bop.

On my way to Pol, I took some time to finish the Duna plans. Seems, if I get the right encounter, before reaching kerbin, I can actually pull off a Duna Mission. The lamp Post will need to be just shy of Half full of fuel to land of Duna, and once I've refueled, will still have just enough to take off again, even with the reduced thrust of being inside Duna's atmosphere. Unless Kerbal Engineer's TWR calculator is off again... Even so, if I can lift off, I can still visit Ike for another refuel before continuing to kerbin to finish the mission.

Pol encounter is reached, and a hard burn is under way to get captured in it's tiny gravity well. Hello you smelly little rock, Pol

I had to nearly stop the Lamp Post in order to get captured due to the 85Km orbit I had for the encounter. It was a longer burn then Bop, that's for sure. But once I got the orbit under control, I brought it down to 60Km, circularized, undocked the modules again, and started my descent down too the surface. For some reason I have a BAD habit of making dark side landing. Something about looking for the highest concentration of Ore and the flattest spot I can find like that, always ends up being on the dark side... Just with the planetary survayer was more accurate, or that I at least had a narrow band scanner probe with me to help narrow things down... But I didn't get those designed until after the mission was over... Anyways, down we go.

it's dark, lost of bumps, and I'm not so sure about the landing spot, looks a bit fishy... But, I'll take what I can get and this was a rich looking deposit... Touchdown. Ooh boy... Not as flat as I would like, and SAS has enough strength here to tip the craft up off it's landing legs at hold it at weird angles to the ground... O_o Messy... But I got it settled without further damage. Time to start mining again. We need full tanks to start our burn for home. And if the timing is right, a Duna encounter!

Last moon to visit in the Jool system. Not much to do here, just some science, some mining, and a fond farewell to the Jool system before I make my escape trajectory. Possible Duna encounter along the way home. But I do have one last little treat mission to perform before I leave. It has something to do with the Tylo lander, in case your wondering why I'm still dragging that basically useless dead weight around. It'll be FUN!

[Jakalth]

Well, I loaded the game today, with the intention of finishing Pol and making my way out of the Jool system. When it loaded, everything looked fine, so I transferred to the Lamp Post, already landed on Pol. And Just in time to see the whole ship clip into the ground and explode into a bit mess of confetti.... ...... The whole thing exploded into nothing... Kraken messing with my stuff again... So I try reloading the quick save from just before making the descent to Pol. It loads, a few seconds later, Explosions!!! The Lamp Post is blown to into nothingness by an unseen force... Again... Bloody Kraken... I tried a slightly earlier save, from just before the orbital maneuver to encounter Pol. Same thing... Fine for a few seconds, then Explosions...

I had to go all the way back to a save I made before even landing on Bop before I could actually fly the ship again without it exploding for no reason. A day and a half worth of work, down the bloody tube... So I've only been able to get back to the point of reaching Pol orbit again... After having to land on Bop all over again... And once I got to Pol, I couldn't even scan the moon due to the orbit refusing to settle... So tomorrow, I'll have to make a completely blind landing and hope I could actually find some ores to mine up. Grrr... Make multiple saves people, in case something like this happens too you.

[Jakalth]

The treat: Failed... The treat was going to be pictures showing what happens when you drop a probe into Jool, from Pol orbit. Even though I got a few pictures of the deorbit, the probe in flight, some of the orbital maneuvers, and the entry into Jool, there was nothing too see... The craft entered Jool atmosphere, started slowing down, then when it hit 200,000m it turned into a fireball and exploded before I could even take pictures... Sorry everyone. But that is what happened with the tylo lander that was being hauled around behind the Lamp Post.

Now back to the mission.

Having redone the entire Bop and Pol encounters and refueling operations, due to a physics glitch and corrupted saves, I am ready to launch the Lamp Post back into orbit and redock with the two remaining modules. The Laytheplane module is staying behind at Laythe, to act as a coms relay for the two stranded kerbalnauts(butterballs as auto correct calls them). The minitugs are remaining in the Jool system, as intended, one locked in close Jool orbit after delivering the lander to it's death, and the other in Laythe orbit to help with rescue operations when I can send that mission out to get them. The Tylo lander was a single use lander and has been disposed of, sadly not as dramatically as I wanted... That only leaves the fuel module and the passenger module to be hauled by the Lamp Post.

The redocking went smoothly and an exit trajectory was made to leave Pol orbit. Good bye Pol, and farewell Jool, you were a good challenge...

What is this oddity you might ask? Is that Eeloo? Why yes! Yes it is! It was in such a convenient position I couldn't turn down the chance to visit this far flung emissary of the kerbin system. It took me three burns to get close too Eeloo, one to leave Pol SOI, the second to change my orbital plane, and the third to find an encounter.

The fourth burn was needed to fine tune the encounter so that I could get a decent capture. I liken this last burn to performing a fine dance. The orbital change was performed in the upper right, while I was watching from Eeloo in center, with the encounter coming in from the lower left. Crazy looking from this angle huh?

But it was a good encounter that I finally circularized with a long 10 minute burn. Hello Eeloo, nice too see you.

Now that I'm captured into Eeloo orbit, it's time to detach the two modules and prepare to land. This one is going to be a very simple landing indeed. Eeloo has lighter gravity then Vall, but higher then Bop and Pol, and the surface is glass smooth. Nothing to really worry about on this landing.

So, I found a spot in the sun this time and started the descent. Too easy... Landind was no challange at all.... Time to mine up some resources, refuel, and get some science done while I'm here. Yes, that solar panel has "magicly" reappeared... That's what happens when the save files get corrupted and you have to repeat 4 hours of mission... *shurg* Oh well..

Refueled and ready to go, nothing left but burn back into orbit, redock with the modules and prepare to burn for our next encounter. Who knows, I might just aim for Dres, then Duna, and maybe even pay a visit too poor purple Eve before I return home. Basicly a grand tour! minus Moho...