3rd manned mission to The Jool System!

[Firemetal]

Well the name is a lie. I did attempt the Jool V challenge once but that failed. Anyway I plan to take four rockets to the Jool system. Each one has a different purpose.

The Mission Plan.

I plan to take the Astro Explorer to Bop, (Download in my showcase thread!) The Astro Explorer II to Vall, my new rocket, "Ganymede" to Tylo, (and back  ) and The Serpent rescuer to rescue the Serpent's crew. (Surprise, surprise!) These are all standard launches to orbit, transfer to Jool, use Tylo/Laythe gravity assists to get into orbit around Jool and go to their destinations.

The Rockets.

Ganymede has two modules: A lander and a cruiser. (Named after Jupiter's biggest moon!)

Here is the cruiser. It has almost 11000 m/s of DV with the lander. The launch stage is so overpowered that it can use the middle stack to transfer to Jool as well as do some of the correction burns. A little overpowered but then we don't want what happened to Serpent to happen to this!

This is the lander. It has been tested via hyper-edit and can land and return to orbit with 1200 m/s left. It weighs 9 tons and has two stages. The first stage has an aerospike and two .625m tanks crossfed into the middle stack. The second is powered by a spark an has a low TWR in exchange for a lot of DV. However it does have enough to maintain altitude and keep ascending!

This is the Serpent rescuer. It uses the same lifter as Ganymede and thus can use the middle stack to transfer to Jool. It starts on a probe core but once it has kerbals onboard, it doesn't need the probe core anymore.

The Astro Explorer 2. It doesn't have as much DV as the Astro Explorer 1 but it can land on higher gravity planets more easily.

The Astro Explorer 1 was originally going to land on both Bop and Pol but once landed on Pol, it didn't have enough DV to go to Bop and return to Kerbin so it just returned to Kerbin instead. It was later planned to go to Bop on a separate mission but I never got around to taking it there so it will go there now.

Beginning the mission today and I will post updates as I go along. This will have a story to it as well unlike the Serpent To Laythe mission report I did this week.

The beginning will be the Ganymede launch to LKO!

Will post more soon!

 

 

[Firemetal]

Part One

Launching 4 rockets into orbit.

Ganymede is go for launch!

3...2...1 LIFTOFF!

Jeb: Yeeeeeehawwwwww! This thing goes fast!

Mission control: Don't go too fast, Jeb!

Mission control: Gravity turn is nominal!

Jeb: I'm in love with this rocket. It goes so fast :DDDDDD

Mission control: Uhh Jeb... Could you throttle down?

Jeb: Awwww I was having fun!

(One forgotten screenshot later)

Mission control: Ganymede has reached orbit! Launch the Astro-Explorer 2!

Mission control: Liftoff of the Astro-Explorer 2!

Bill: Uhhh where are the free snacks I was promised?

Mission control: Just look in the "Snacks" compartment.

Bill: Ok thanks!

(And then I forgot to take any more pictures for the rest of the launch :L)

Bill: AUUGHHHH This thing goes too fast!

Mission control: Then throttle down!

Bill: AUGHHH I dropped my sandwich!

Mission control: Then pick it up!

Bill. Auughhhhhh! My sandwich is flying everywhere!

Mission control: Then catch it!

Bill: Owwwww it hit me in the face!

A couple of screams of agony later:

Mission control: The Astro Explorer 2 has reached orbit! Launch the Serpent Rescuer!

Mission control: Liftoff!

Mission control: Booster separation nominal!

(I forgot pics again)

And the Serpent Rescuer has reached orbit! Launching the Astro Explorer 1!

Tine: Augh! I remember my last launch to Jool!

Mission control: Don't think about it. The Astro Explorer has been tested to go to Pol and back!

Tine: But...... but...... but!!!!!

Mission control: But what?

Tine: Ok I feel reassured now.

Mission control: *Whew*.

Mission control: We have booster separation!

Mission control: Fairing separation is nominal!

Mission control: The Astro Explorer has reached orbit! All four rockets are ready for trans-Jool injection burn!

To be continued!

[Firemetal]

Part Two
Trans-Jool injection burns

Mission control: Ok Jeb: Some idiot engineer messed up the staging so the outer tanks are not cross-feeding the middle stack. This means you must do the trans-Jool injection burn in two burns.

Jeb: Nah lets do it in one!

 Mission control: Jeb you just wasted about 1500 m/s of DV!

Jeb: Didn't need it anyway.

 Mission control: Ugh. *sigh*

Mission control: The "launch stage" of the Serpent Rescuer can do the whole trans-Jool injection burn since it is way overbuilt

Mission Control: Being an engineer, Bill will not mess up the trans-Jool injection burn like Jeb. He knows how to conserve his DV.

Bill: Trans-Jool injection burns complete!

Mission control: Hey great job on not messing it up like Jeb!

 

(The Astro Explorer did one burn to raise the AP to about the Mun's orbit. Unfortunately it was slightly angled and I had to put the maneuver node to the right of it slightly)

Tine: Ok I'm diving right into the planet!

MC: No you aren't! It just looks that way! it will balance out gradually!

Tine: I know. I'm being sarcastic.

Tine: Trans-Jool Burn complete!

MC: Good job on you too Tine Kerman for not messing it up like Jeb! Looks as if Bill will reach Jool a hundred days before Jeb, Tine or the rescue mission will. He can then land on Vall.

Spoiler alert!

Spoiler

Bill is in Vall orbit at the moment!

More coming soon!

Edited July 24, 2016 by Firemetal

[Firemetal]

Part Three

Bill reaches Jool

Bill: Woah Tylo looks awesome! Jeb is lucky.

MC: Uh and unlucky at the same time.

Bill: I have reached orbit around Jool. Plotting Laythe assist to lower my orbit around Jool.

(One Laythe assist later)

Bill: Ok got a Vall encounter! The Capture burn is 700 m/s.

MC: Well that's better than 2000 m/s!

Bill: I guess so.

Bill: Capture burn started!

(One capure burn later )

Bill: Mission control, I have successfully captured into an orbit around Vall!

MC: Good job Bill! You have permission to land on Vall now but first lower your AP.

Bill: Will do!

More coming soon!

 

 

[Firemetal]

Part Four!

Vall and Bop landing and Tylo landing/ascent

Yes. This is a long part so I'm fitting it into a spoiler pocket.

Spoiler

Bill: Starting De-orbit burn.

Bill: Ok Mission Control! I'm landing now!

Bill: Landed!

(Meanwhile)

MC: Ok Tine. Due to Multi tasking, we forgot to do the mid-way correction burn. This means you are going to waste a lot of fuel. But don't worry! You'll have plenty of fuel to return! (I hope)

Tine: Bop encounter plotted!

Tine: Starting Circularization burn!

Tine: Circularized!

MC: Alright you have permission to descend.

Tine: De-orbit burn started!

(Then I forgot to take pictures of descent and "landing")

Tine: Ok Mission control. I landed on a slope and The Astro Explorer is sliding down. Any suggestions?

MC: Dang Squad! Fix th... Oops broke the fourth wall. Uh Tine... That problem cannot be fixed. Just hope it stops.

Tine: Ok it stopped sliding!

(Meanwhile)

Jeb has reached the Jool system and uses a Tylo gravity assist to get into orbit.

Then since his periapsis is quite low and he has loads of fuel, he burns retrograde at PE to slow down and get another Tylo assist. He then captures into a Tylo orbit.

Jeb: Ok guys I'm in Tylo orbit! Getting ready to descend!

Jeb then gets out of his command pod and sits on the external command seat atop the lander. He then starts his descent.

Now here, I tried to add the smallest landing legs possible so as not to lower DV. But this ended up being a big mistake!

Fun fact: Took me at least five tries to land it. I was exhausted by the time I landed.

Jeb: I landed! Heh this was easier than landing an SSTO on Duna. (And that was pretty darn tough)

MC: Great job Jeb! You have landed on the second most difficult body to land on and return in the system! (IMO)

Now here I was afraid since I wasted a lot of fuel landing that I wouldn't have enough to return to orbit and rendezvous with the cruiser. Because of this, Jeb unlike Tine or Bill had to ascend due to my impatience of not knowing whether or not I'd have to land it again.

And then the lander ran out of fuel so Jeb entered a stable orbit using his eva pack. I also totally misjudged the cruiser's position in orbit and missed it on my ascent. Luckily, with the help of a 6.6 m/s burn, I could get a .1 km rendezvous next time I came around.

Jeb: Ok mission control! I made it back to the cruiser!

This was too easy for Jeb though as we all know but for me and many others on their first round trip, it is a challenge. I'm not coming back any time soon either!

 

Also while doing a correction burn on the Serpent Rescue mission, I accidently clicked space bar. Well Bob and Valentina are going to have to wait another few years!

More coming soon!

Edited July 25, 2016 by Firemetal