Round trip to Jool in less than a year?

[Tyko]

I was thinking about a speed run to Jool challenge.

Here's the scenario I'm considering:

Jebediah and Valentina are on a long term research mission in Jool orbit when a medical emergency happens. They must get back to Kerbin within 1 year, and there aren't any ships in a position to get them home in time. A 2 Kerbal medical team has to fly out and all 4 of them fly back. Only Jeb and Val have to land for the mission to be complete. A call goes out for the cheapest, fastest mission to rescue our intrepid heroes.

The Challenge: design and fly a craft from Kerbin KSC, achieve a 1000x1000Km orbit above Jool, return to Kerbin and land a 2 person pod.

• Waypoints
  • Starting point: at KSC
  • Orbit Jool in 1000x1000Km orbit (presumably to rendezvous with Jeb & Val, but the actual transfer is assumed and not part of the challenge)
  • Return and safely touch down on Kerbin
• Payload - Passenger space for 8 - 4 seats are occupied and only 2 seats have to touch down at Kerbin. The other 4 represent extra living space and medical gear for a multi-month journey.
• Time - no more than one year from first launch until return capsule touches down
• Launch and assembly - this can be a single launch or multiple launches with assembly in orbit.
  • Regardless of how you design the mission, the clock and budget count starts with the first launch and must include all assets used (fuel tankers, etc)
• Calendar - for consistency, the calendar starts on year 1, day 1 of the standard game calendar
  • This will ensure all players are starting with the same planetary alignments
  • We could change this as long as everyone starts at the same time.
• Mods - Vanilla with UI mods allowed
  • no mods allowed that add or modify parts or their functions
  • No mods that change the planets, their position etc
  • You can use UI/functionality mods - transfer window planner, MJ, KER, etc
  • Am I missing anything here? I want it to be fair for everyone.
• Scoring: Not sure...A couple of ideas:
  • Lowest cost? - This seems like a good idea because it will keep some focus on efficiency rather than just kerballing together moar boosters
  • Fastest trip? - also be fun to see how fast someone could do it regardless of cost

Any thoughts? Has this been tried before? Looking at transfer window planner I think the DeltaV budget would be well North of 50Km/s. Is it possible? 

Edited July 28, 2016 by tjt

[Firemetal]

I'm not one to talk but you should probably test to see if its possible yourself first. This is impossible as it takes at least two years to get to Jool. Nice idea though. Maybe make it like a moon landing in 5 years or something like that?

[Nefrums]

It is posible. You can get from LKO to jool in half a year with a 7km/s exit burn. 

[Firemetal]

3 hours ago, Nefrums said:

It is posible. You can get from LKO to jool in half a year with a 7km/s exit burn. 

Oh. Ok then. You're right but that would put you on an escape trajectory out of Sol AND you'd have to slow down a lot to get into orbit around Jool. And is it possible to get back to Kerbin within half a year?

[Tyko]

I did some initial porkchop plots and it was around 30Km/s to do a ~150 day transit to Jool. Depended on relative positions of the two planets of course. 

I can refine the scenario  my first post was more to discover if someone had already done this since I've only been playing since 1.1 release

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by tjt

[Iyaca]

I like it, what about making the trip time factor into a points system rather than a static deadline?