Taking on Tylo-A journey to a irradiated, grey moon. Part IIII-Kerbin once again.

[DMSP]

It all started out as a bit of a joke. 1.0.5 was ending. Why not send a mission somewhere. So Jool. Let's make some Jool craft that probably won't work!

I thought 1.1 would come out whilst the ships were going out.

And I was wrong.

So I went to Tylo.

Taking On Tylo Part I-Around Kerbin.

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Before I could go to any awesome and grey Moons, I had to get into LKO first. So, the following are images of the launches that took me there.

My first launch was the Tylo lander. It would carry one Kerbal, along with 4,000 Units worth of KIS Modules down to the surface. Please note that the lander is called Tylo Lander MK13.

The lander made orbit just fine. Of course, the lander and its fuel tug itself would never make it to Tylo alone, so I needed a refueling mission to make sure that that massive fuel tank on the back didn't go to waste.

Using the heaviest lifter I have used in the past year, I was set to bring fuel to that lander.

Physics got in the way.

My next attempt, more revised and ready to go, went perfectly.

It arrived late in the orbital night, and the fuel tug docked on in the pitch black, as is only normal in KSP.

In the Morning, the tanker said goodbye.

It burnt up soon after.

The next launch was the most part count heavy, the Jool Probe Stack.

It would create a relay at Jool so good, not a single probe would ever be out of reach from the others.

Scatterer really makes these launches brilliant.

This payload was relatively light, so there was no need for a tanker.

Lastly, with the crew self contained inside, was the crew transfer spacecraft.

The sky was red with the blood... Eh... Excuse me. The sky was red for reasons unknown.

Aha! There's the culprit! The Jool Crew Spacecraft was launching during an eclipse.

The launch went fine, once again not needing a refueling tug.

The departure date ticked down.

3 days. 2 days. 1 day. 4 hours. 2 hours. 1 hour.

The first spacecraft to go was the last to launch.

The Jool Transfer Spacecraft left Kerbin behind in the dark.

The crew, Jeb, Bob and Seetray, looked back at their home with tears in their eyes. When would they see it again?

Goodbye, Kerbin.

Soon, the lander was departing. It shot off using fuel from the upper stage, heading off into the inky black.

The last to leave was the Jool Probe Stack.

With two burns, it was gone, the last of the three ships out for Jool.

Time for a new adventure.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by DMSP

[DMSP]

I'm actually writing this from inside a test room, but I finished the test far early so here I am.

Taking on Tylo Part II-Hello, Jool.

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The three Jool Ships floated in the darkness. Millions of Kilometers away from each other, they flew out silently, heading towards the Green gas giant and its plentiful Moons.

The first to make a correction burn was the probe stack. 

It rotated and began the ignition, its 2 nuclear engines pushing it on a trajectory that would intercept the Jool System. 

The probe stack was quite interesting. Carrying 14 probes, consisting of 8 relay satellites, 4 advanced relay satellites and 2 landers. 4 Relays were for Tylo, the 2 landers were for Laythe, 2 of the advanced satellites would head to Laythein Orbit, the other 2 Advanced Relays would head to Bop, 2 normal satellites would head to Vall, and the final 2 would go to Pol. Confusing.

With the Tylo Lander already on an intercept trajectory, next up was the crew vehicle.

And that was that. Off to Jool.

A year passed in the void. Space was cold, but the 3 crew members were having fun in the cryomodule. They were pretty fine.

They were awakened roughly 40 days from Jool. They were tasked to deploy the two little probes that would dip into Jool's atmosphere to find out what it truly was.

And then they went back to sleep.

 

The arrival was magnificent. Dipper-1 Fell towards the incredible green planet.

Atmospheric entry was fast, but the first observations showed that Jool's atmosphere was mostly Hydrogen with Helium thrown in there. There could also have been a presence of Chlorine in the atmosphere, especially in Hydrogen Chloride.

It vanished into the depths.

Dipper 2 hit the atmosphere a few hours later, streaking across in a fireball.

Good thing it had a heatsheild.

Dipper 2 proved that Jool's Atmosphere was Mostly Hydrogen Gas, Helium Gas, and Hydrogen Chloride.

Soon afterwards the Jool Transfer Vehicle was barrelling towards all the moons of Jool.

It swung around Tylo, loosing Velocity whilst burning near periapsis to stabilize the orbit and make it equatorial.

And then it was free of Tylo.

The plan was to swing around Laythe and make sure they were slowing down largely near Tylo intercept, limiting the amount of fuel used.

And so they swung around Laythe. Covered in seas, sure. Cold, sure. But undeniably beautiful.

And in the shadow and purple ring of Jool, the crew executed the last burn, where they would end up in Tylo orbit. That would be their home for the next few years.

And so they entered Tylo orbit, dropping their last expendable fuel tank. This concerned the crew.

They didn't have enough fuel to get home.

Oh well, too late for that. Dang it.

Next up for Jool entry was the lander.

Since it had had so much fuel left over, the lander preformed a direct capture. Nothing interesting would happen with it for a couple dozen days.

Viewing one of the many Joolian eclipses, the probe stack began a series of encounters and burns that would not only get it into Joolian Orbit, but give its 14 probes chances to explore.

With an encounter coming up, the four Tylo Relays were delployed to catch up with the Moon. Not pictured was the deployment of the two Vall sats.

Pretty nice.

Next stop was Laythe. There were four probes destined to be there, 2 landers with 2 relay satellites in orbits above, watching over them.

And so the probe stack descended on Laythe. It was around this time when the crew were getting their yearly update from the KSC. Heck, it was lonely up there. Oh look, Val flew a plane. How exciting...

Back at the probe stack, the two landers separated. One would hopefully splash in the sea whilst the other touched down on Laythein soil.

The sea lander, Laythe Lander 1, began an Aerobrake to slow down, but did not survive, making for the first loss of the mission. RIPeices Laythe Lander 1.

In orbit, the Laythe relays did a capture burn each and soon began making course corrections.

The probe stack then slipped away from Laythe's grasp, once again becoming a Moon of Jool.

Laythe Lander 2 began its correction burn to land soon after. The probe core could survive 40 m/s of impacts, so the landing stage would be fired off early and the egg shaped probe would touch down.

The fire was incredible. With the Oscar-B and the Twitch engine being plated with ablator, this reentry was ok.

Within 5 minutes, Laythe Lander 2 was transmitting photos from the Kerbin-like surface.

What a wonder.

Back at Tylo, the probes began their various capture burns. The idea was to create as diverse of a relay network as possible.

And so, really far away from Jool and the inner moons, the probe stack began one of its last burns and was intercepting Bop.

The advanced relays departed for the brown world whilst the probe stack (now with only 2 probes left) made its last burn to Pol.

The Bop probes shot out to their target.

 

And I'll end there. Thanks for reading! We'll be landing on Tylo in the next one!

Edited September 13, 2016 by DMSP

[Raptor9]

Looking forward to seeing the lander.  I've only managed to construct a Tylo ascent vehicle of reasonable size...can't pull off a descent stage yet.  Which is odd, usually it's the other way around. 

[DMSP]

  On 5/31/2016 at 8:57 PM, Raptor9 said:

Looking forward to seeing the lander.  I've only managed to construct a Tylo ascent vehicle of reasonable size...can't pull off a descent stage yet.  Which is odd, usually it's the other way around. 

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Trust me, it's not much, but it's Mk13 of the lander so it is a fun thing to play around with (I have done a total of 24 practice descents).

Actually it was the same for me. I just couldn't get enough TWR.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Moar?

[DMSP]

  On 6/3/2016 at 10:20 PM, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Moar?

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Yes, on both this and on The Beginning of a space program.

[DMSP]

@OrbitalBuzzsaw, here you are! The beginning of a space program will come sometime this weekend.

Taking on Tylo Part III-Tylo Touchdown!

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The Bop relays arrived at Bop safely, only a few days after they had departed. Inserting into orbit around the dark Brown moon, one more step was completed.

But back at Tylo, after many long days in Jool orbit and quite a few Flybys, the Tylo Lander Mk13 was arriving. The courses were set.

The engines were ignited.

And orbit was achieved.

At sunrise a few orbits later, the two spacecraft closed. This was the first time since the VAB that they had seen each other. The crew were awakened and Seetray, the only Engineer on the Mission, prepared for descent.

Within the hour, the go ahead was received from Kerbin. Seetray flipped two blue switches, hit a grey button (which turned red), flipped a safety switch (which turned the red button green), and hit the green button as hard as he could.

"Deorbitation commenced, Seetray," Jeb told him, "I'll see you in a few days."

This was the thirteenth revision of the lander. It was a hard thing to land, it was more than 4 tons overweight, had a tiny landing base, and had something like 50 m/s of deltaV to spare.

The problem with this descent is that it was coming in from a much higher altitude then tested, so it was unknown if the lander could make it.

Soon Seetray was going down vertically.

But the ground was still coming up to him, like he wanted.

As he burnt the last fuel tank through, Seetray set the Tylo Lander Mk13 down on the surface of that rugged moon.

2 years, 375 days, 0 hours, 41 minutes and 17 seconds after leaving.

Time to set up basecamp!

After saying the historic first words: "Wow, I'm in awe. Tylo is really just like Kerbin, except without an atmosphere, grey, with craters, no water, no life and bathed in radiation from a gas giant it orbits!"

And planting the historic first flag named: I can hear the Gieger Counter clicking...

He got to work setting up the first base on Tylo, known as Carval Base.

It was slow work, taking many hours in the harsh gravity all by himself, but eventually the base was set up and Seetray had a place to go away from the radiation of Jool.

It was a quiet and peaceful, on the airless grey body. In reality, it was more of a greyish brown color.

And the sun was a tiny dot in the dark black sky.

And with the first day over, Seetray slept uneasily. He was the first Kerbal to be alone on an entire world. And it was dark. And far away from home.

Nevertheless, he fell asleep, and woke up whilst it was still dark. Tylo's day-night cycles were weird.

He worked with the scientific samples he had, said hello to Jeb and Bob a few times, and then fell asleep once more.

He woke up just as the sun was rising.

On the way down, he had seen a dark patch of regolith a couple kilometers away.

And Seetray began the long walk there.

He marched for hours, planting a few flags, collecting grains and tiny rocks, taking plenty of photos on his suitcam, and thinking about the meaning of the universe.

And even all alone on this alien place, in the dark, Seetray was happy. He watched the stars of his childhood move slowly across the sky, he saw stars he never saw before, and he was in awe.

He discovered an awesomely large boulder on the way there, where he sat and rested for a bit, shielding him from the radiation.

And hours (5.5) after he set off, Seetray arrived at the dark plain, which he named Mare Stella Tenebris, also know as The Sea of Darkness and Stars.

And then Seetray walked home, straight home, no detours or stops.

He arrived home 9 hours after setting off.

He then took a few hours sorting the samples in the Lab.

In Tylo orbit, Jeb and Bob began the rendezvous procedures. Then burnt to a far lower orbit to make sure Seetray could get to them.

Soon they were coming up on the landing site.

Seetray planted the last flag on the surface, and looked back at the base.

The seconds counted down. Seetray made a quick prayer to SQUAD. It was time.

"Seetray, initiate the launch procedures, you are go for launch!" Jeb beamed to him.

"Ignition!" he shouted.

And he was off, leaving behind Carval Base and the irradiated moon that is Tylo.

Soon, it was just a dot in the distance. Another world was now a Kerbal world.

At Apoapsis, the Aerospike fired. Seetray entered orbit.

"Goodbye, Tylo." He whispered as the surface shot beneath him.

At Vall, the relays were making their final adjustments, entering two Orbits that crossed each other, one Polar, one Equatorial.

And Seetray began his approach. He collected the sample boxes, strapped the camera pack to his EVA suit, and vented the airlock. He then jumped into empty space.

And he was safe. The party they had in orbit was small, but it was needed. Then they went to sleep once more.

On Tylo's surface, Carval Base, the flags Seetray planted and the descent stage of the Tylo Lander Mk13 would rest forever.

And out, far out in Jool orbit, the last two probes were released from the Jool Probe Stack, headed to Pol. The stack was officially out of fuel and was renamed as Debris. It would also forever remain as a Moon of Jool, floating the the void.

Back, far inwards, Laythe Probe 2 was making adjustment burns to enter a polar orbit. It sent back this incredible shot.

And back on the surface, right before running out of battery, Laythe Lander 2 sent back a final photo of Jool.

281 days after separation, contact was lost.

Far out, whilst the Pol Probes caught sight of Pol, the universe broke.

Whoops. No more of those addons for KSP!

 

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by DMSP

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Much LoL, the last one.

[DMSP]

Well, I know I am LATE to finish it, but I'd like to call this off. Tie the loose ends.

Taking on Tylo Part IIII-Kerbin once again.

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The probes across the Jool system were setting into their final orbits.

The final Tylo probe entered orbit, and captured perfectly. The crew, looking above them out of the windows, tried to spot the probe, but their searching was proved futile.

Days later (things don't happen fast out at Jool), the Bop probes inserted into orbit around, well, Bop.

Oh heck, I'm trying to make this more interesting than it actually is. How about I give some nice photos and stop talking.

Oh wait.

That was the last probe.......

 

And with Pol Relay 2 heading into orbit, the crew of Tylo brought out some "fresh" food from the storage container. It was the equivalent of a grand party. And with a final toast of rehydrated water, the crew headed down into the cryopod, and went to sleep. They were expecting to be brought home when the transfer window opened up a few days later. They would wake up before reentry.

They all looked at radar photos from the Jool system before heading down.

Laythe, with its incredible sunsets and rolling Dunes, had two probes orbiting around it. The key was that these probes could all be used as relays, and no matter what, one antenna would always be visible to Kerbin, and another could always contact things from Dres to Eeloo.

Vall had two probes as well, both in orbits allowing them never to get blocked. One should always be in contact with the other.

Tylo had the bulk of stuff. 4 relay probes, which were the mainframe of the system, allowing them to constantly be in communication with (literally) everything else. Not to mention Carval Base and The return ship up in orbit.

Pol and Bop, the final two moons, had two probes each.

And so, with the probes spinning around the Moons, the were sleeping and Mission Control plotted the maneuver home.

Only to realize there wasn't enough fuel.

Oops.

 

About a year later, when the next window opened up, a refueling tug was launched. It would attach droptanks that would fuel the departing spacecraft.

Once it had made orbit, it made its final checks, and launched off outwards.

The poor crew had no idea.

 

Even more years later, the Tylo droptanks made a series of gravity assists around the moons to get into orbit.

And then, its engine ignited to put it on a path towards the craft.

Silently, it slipped into Tylo's gravity sphere, and captured into orbit, almost using up the main fuel tank, and almost using up all the Monopropellent.

And, even on a world a billion miles away, the rendezvous happened smack middle of the night.

Docking success. The crew were ready to come home.

And so, after relining the tanks, and waiting for Jool and Tylo to be in the right position, it was time.

Almost directly over Carval Base and Mare Stella Tenebris, the spacecraft counted down to ignition.

Mission control was waiting, some with tears in their eyes. And no, the tears weren't from Jeb finally coming home.

The controllers knew that a mission was almost finished.

And it was time.

Time to come back.

Tank after tank was dropped during the burn.

Soon, the escape had happened. The crew were free of Tylo.

And they were free of Jool.

The cameras onboard captured everything.

And then Jool was slipping into the black.

Falling inwards, Kerbol was getting bigger and bigger.

A burn was made.

Dres' orbit was passed.

Then Duna's.

And, finally, caught by the cameras, Kerbin was spotted.

The final droptank was released. Kerbin was getting closer and closer.

The crew were awoken. Mission control cut contact after hearing Jeb yell for 22 minutes about not getting him home sooner.

The last of the fuel was spent.

And, taking all their possesions and the samples out of the Cryo and Storage habitat, they said goodbye.

The goodbye was teary. That stage had gotten them home, and had been their home for more than 11 years.

The atmosphere was harsh.

Pieces of the spacecraft were exploding. Ablator was burning faster than anything before.

But, somehow, some miracle from SQUAD held the ship together.

It slowed down in the lower atmosphere.

Unknowing if the 'chutes would hold for the capsule after being in the vacuum for 11 years, Jeb punched the button.

One of the two drag chutes deployed.

Bob yelled, and trying to push his arm against the gravity, pointed.

"Trees..."

And it was almost done.

Lower they got.

And then, holding hands as best as they could, with tears in their eyes, the capsule landed into the soft, lush grass of Kerbin.

11 years, 228 days, 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

But they were home.

 

 

Edited August 8, 2017 by DMSP

[Andem]

Great conclusion to an 11 year mission. 

Salutations to all of the crew members.

[DMSP]

  On 9/13/2016 at 7:12 PM, Andem said:

Great conclusion to an 11 year mission. 

Salutations to all of the crew members.

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They did well. I hope they enjoy their eternal vacation.

These photos are from Months ago, but I found the save tonight.

I've signed it off.