Mars Simulation Mission

[Khrissetti]

With everyone so excited about the Curiosity news and announcements from the devs that new planets would be forthcoming, I thought it was time to prove to the Kerbal naysayers that interplanetary returns in Kerbal are currently possible. To this end I have come up with a challenge to simulate a mission from Kerbal to a hypothetical \'Mars\'

This is the Mars Simulation Mission (MSM) brief:

--Mission Conditions--

1) Leave Kerbin\'s SOI

2) Increase your Apoapsis to 17,111,000 km (This represents half of the distance it would be to go to Mars if the red planet was scaled to fit in the Kerbalverse) and fly to Apoapsis

3)Return to, and land safely on Kerbin.

4)Take off with the same craft and leave Kerbin\'s SOI

5)Lower your Periapsis to 9,889,000km and fly to periapsis

6)Return to and land on Kerbin, splashdowns are accepted, just get your Kerbals home!

--Ship conditions--

1)You can take as long as you need on this challenge, however to simulate the need to bring enough supplies with you you. The command module contains enough supplies for 50 days of spaceflight, each SAS or ASAS module you bring also contains 50 days worth of supplies. Therefore if your kerbals are in space with three SAS modules they can surive for 200 days.

2)Use any mods you like but don\'t change your persistance file to cheat. Brownie points for doing it with stock components.

Randox doesn\'t believe it\'s possible. Go forth and prove him wrong, fellow Kerbalnauts!

The real problem is that there is no point adding another plannet (at least not one with an atmosphere), because you would never be able to leave it. There are two problems.

First, you can\'t get a stock rocket into orbit that has the power to take off, perform the transit, land, takeoff again, and make another long distance transit journey.

--MSM Victors--

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

[shhhilent1]

I\'m not going to do this, but! that quote: The real problem is that there is no point adding another plannet (at least not one with an atmosphere), because you would never be able to leave it. There are two problems.

First, you can\'t get a stock rocket into orbit that has the power to take off, perform the transit, land, takeoff again, and make another long distance transit journey. My response: O rly? i mean like did he SEE the big landers people have made? ive made landers that could take off, perform the transit, land, takeoff again, and make another long distance transit journey.

[illectro]

I\'ve done this a couple of times, but, I use a different orbit outside the SOI to ensure that I return when kerbin is passing. (my orbit has a period twice that of kerbin, and the return has a period half of kerbins). Also I just used mechjeb for most of the maneuvering because I\'m lazy.

[Candre]

I have stock ships that are very much capable of getting to Murs and landing. I haven\'t considered return trips, however. I\'m very interested in the stock designs that people come up with.

[Accelerando]

My all-stock spacecraft Ana Bolic is currently in low Kerbin orbit, waiting to see the surface of 'Mars.'

I do have a question, though. You say that 17111000 km represents half the scaled distance from Kerbin to hypothetical Mars. Does this means that if I went double (Kerbin\'s orbital radius + 2x the difference between Martian and Kerbin orbital radius) I would be getting to an actual Mars orbit?

I ask because using Kessler and the Part Gravity plugins, I have placed a 500m asteroid at the double distance:

in order to simulate actually reaching a 'planet.'

[antiquark]

2) Increase your Apoapsis to 17,111,000 km ...

5)Lower your Periapsis to 9,889,000km and fly to periapsis

...

That sounds like an interesting challenge. However I wouldn\'t look forward to the hours sitting there waiting for my orbits to align.

Are there any budding rocket scientists here who can convert those numbers to velocities? Then I could simulate the fuel usage, without actually getting too far from Kerbin.

For example, the instructions would be something like:

- you enter orbit

- to accelerate to 5000 m/s

- then decelerate and land on Kerbin

- then take off again, accelerate to 5000 m/s, then land again.

Or something like that. Would save a lot of time!

[Bluejayek]

This is definately doable...

What I have done to attempt to simulate it is a double munar mission. Fly to the mun, land, return to kerbin, land, Back to the mun, land, return to kerbin, land. I figure the extra two landings makes up for the lack of the transfer orbit. I will try what you suggest.

[Divaglio3578]

If I were to use a MechJeb module for the raw data that it contains and not for the orbital maneuvers, could I still claim [sTOCK]? And also, Im a bit confused as to what you mean by LOWERING the periapsis to whatever value it is. If you\'ve just landed, your periapsis will be zero, so how can you LOWER it to \'X\'?

[hildegain]

Interesting challenge, I\'m going to attempt this right now, yay I\'m going to fail!

[Analogy]

Randox doesn\'t believe it\'s possible

Utter nonsense. If you don\'t think this is possible you\'re either a bad ship designer, bad pilot, or both. Just look at this vehicle, which is capable of going from Kerbin to Mun and back *twice*, as well as this vehicle which is capable of putting *that entire first vehicle* into orbit (admittedly, by using jet engines which are pretty overpowered right now).

[Khrissetti]

My all-stock spacecraft Ana Bolic is currently in low Kerbin orbit, waiting to see the surface of 'Mars.'

I do have a question, though. You say that 17111000 km represents half the scaled distance from Kerbin to hypothetical Mars. Does this means that if I went double (Kerbin\'s orbital radius + 2x the difference between Martian and Kerbin orbital radius) I would be getting to an actual Mars orbit?

I ask because using Kessler and the Part Gravity plugins, I have placed a 500m asteroid at the double distance:

in order to simulate actually reaching a 'planet.'

Well, the Earth is 10.63 times larger than Kerbin, its orbit is 11 times larger so to represent a \'Murtian\' orbit your asteroid should be at 20,721,737km

You can check my maths if you want, I could have missed something.

If I were to use a MechJeb module for the raw data that it contains and not for the orbital maneuvers, could I still claim [sTOCK]? And also, Im a bit confused as to what you mean by LOWERING the periapsis to whatever value it is. If you\'ve just landed, your periapsis will be zero, so how can you LOWER it to \'X\'?

Using Mechjeb as a recording instrument would be fine.

What I mean is that when you leave Kerbin\'s SOI for the second time and you begin to orbit the sun you should lower that Periapsis to 9,889,000km which represents half the distance you\'d need to go to get to a scaled Mars.