Jool 5 Challenge (Failed)

[Yorou]

I wanted to try my hand at a Jool 5 Mission and I decided to try the challenge.

I must have spent a good 12 to 15 hours planning, designing, assembling what I would describe as my best ship ever. But in the end, this mission is a bust.

I want to share my experience and get some comments and recommendations so I can try again latter and learn something from this failure.

Some notes before we begin.

-I did respect the challenge's rules on mod. However, I used Hyperedit to test out my SSTO on Laythe before using the design for the mission. One mistake I realized while fueling the orbital craft is that I hadn't removed the mod. That is why you can see the icon in the early pictures.

-Refueling the ship was becoming ridiculous. Being fairly certain I had disqualified myself due to the presence of Hyperedit, I used it to refuel then promptly removed the mod.

-I wanted to try and make something different than the usual nuclear engine we see for most of these missions. My ship ended up weighing almost 5K tons. Changing its orientation was excruciatingly slow and the part count made the whole experience an exercise in patience.

-According to Steam, I have played nearly 700 hours of this game. I love this game and I have learned a lot since I started, but I still have a lot to learn. I can and have done pretty much everything that can be done within the Kerbin SOI but when it it comes to interplanetary travel, I feel I have a lot to learn still.

-Ultimately, my goal was to beat Nefrums's science score.

So, first off, pictures and explanation of how I designed and planned to use the ship.

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And now pictures of the failed mission. It was my first time documenting a mission. Appologies if the pictures don’t make sense.

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[sdj64]

Nice try, maybe next time. It looks like you have more than enough fuel to do it and your craft looks capable. I would avoid the narrow mid section of the ship that could create lots of wobble. You should be able to aerobrake at Laythe if you come in when your orbit is tangent to it, especially since your ship has nose cones and fairings at the front. Your initial transfer looks like it got messed up by the Mun. The transfer window is good for several days so just wait until the Mun is out of the way first.

I think your main problem is that you need practice with maneuvers and transfers. Use maneuver nodes, stick with them, correct your course far away from your destination so it takes less fuel, etc. Maybe mods would help, like Precise Node and Trajectories (for aerobraking).

[Yorou]

Thanks for your input and the mod suggestions.

I would say the wobbly tail is the main reason my initial transfer failed. But I didn't pay attention to the Mun which I will do next time.

I will get back to the drawing board tonight and build a new design I thought of today. Now that I have SpaceY parts, I should have a bit more flexibility.

[parzr]

Switch from Onion to Asparagus. Use <alt>f5 to make save files so you can go back and correct.

[Yorou]

I want to avoid making the ship slow to turn around. I think I may have messed up the reaction wheels placement. Does multiple reaction wheels grouped together helps or is it better to have them spread evenly?

[Nefrums]

If the ship turns very slowly you have to few reaction wheels. Add more of the stronger ones. If the ship is wobbly it might help to spread the reaction wheals between the wobbly parts, or just add more struts.

I also recommend saving before executing a maneuver node an reload if it fails.

Precise Node is the best mod ever! must have!