The Outrigger - A Jool 5 Mission

[Aegolius13]

I am pleased to report a successful outcome to my first Jool 5 expedition. I've called the ship the Outrigger, because the side-mounted fuel tanks remind me of canoe outriggers, as used by the Polynesians on long voyages. This was really a sandbox dress rehearsal before the “real” mission on career, though I'll make some more small tweaks at that point. But it's a full Jool 5 run-through. Pictures and mission narrative below!

http://imgur.com/a/OyaGo

Some more info about the mission and vessel:

Design Constraints / Principles

In addition to the basic Jool 5 rules, I've designed around the following:

-No ISRU or external refueling. I'm going face to face with the tyranny of the rocket equation. Landers can still refuel from the mothership's fuel supply, though.

-Everything launches in one go; no assembly in LKO. Not gonna bother with floppy ships or KAS struts.

-No command seats – all kerbals will be landing in enclosed command pods.

-To avoid electric drain, all of the landers will be controlled by pilots and will not feature probe cores.

-Even though all of the landers are one-person, I'll be bringing a crew of four on the mothership: two pilots, one scientist and one engineer (hmmm, that combo sounds familiar).

-No RCS or monopropellant. It's not necessary since I only need to dock one time (the Tylo lander refueling for Vall), and that can be done with the “point at target” technique.

-Landers will be used for multiple moons when feasible.

 

Craft Overview

The Outrigger can be broken up into the following sub-units:

-Launch stage: four Mammoths, asparagus staged. The two outer Mammoths are augmented with six Kickbacks each for some extra liftoff thrust. The Mammoths and Kickbacks burn out within a second of each other, so I can just use one decoupler for each cluster, rather than dropping all the Kickbacks separately.

-Sustainer stage: Two Rhinos, which will start when the outer Mammoths drop off, burn along with the other two Mammoths, and continue after the Mammoths burn out. These are not asparagus staged to the Mammoths, as I need them to burn off a little fuel to get acceptable TWR once the final Mammoths drop off. This stage will then get me to orbit, and do part of the ejection burn before turning things over to the nukes.

-Mothership service module: a long Mk 3 cargo bay to hold my two vacuum landers, along with some fuel tanks, a large reaction wheel, and three NERVs.

-The “outriggers”: two side-mounted liquid fuel nacelles, with another three NERVs each. These are segmented into three pieces so the fuel tanks can be detached once they're empty.

-Vall/Tylo lander: the core of the lander is a ground-breaking combination of the Mk 1 landing can, flat 800 tank, and Terrier (patent pending). This will serve as the ascent stage for the Tylo landing, and double as the entire Vall lander. A Dart-powered descent stage will take the lander down to Tylo, and be detached just before landing.

-Laythe lander: a small Mk 1 spaceplane with a single Rapier. I added a couple drop tanks to handle the deorbit burn and any cruising necessary to find a good landing spot. Since the wings are too wide to fit in a cargo bay, this sits on the front of my mothership like a prow / figurehead. Jeb likes to sit in here and pretend he's flying.

-Pol/Bop lander: another Mk 1 landing can, powered by an ion engine and a couple xenon tanks. Electricity comes courtesy of an RTG and 2k worth of batteries, which is enough for all the maneuvers I'll need to make. Almost 4,000 delta-v in a one-ton package – now I see why people put up with ions! (Full disclosure: I clipped the RTG inside the landing can to look better).

-Command and return module: a Mk 2 crew cabin, with an inflatable heat shield, a couple parachutes, flat 800 tank and Terrier. An Mk 2 drone core drives the bus. Would have used either an Mk 1-2 command pod or Hitchhiker, but the weight savings and crash durability of the Mk 2 cabin won me over (even though it looks kinda silly). Again, I clipped the RTG inside the module for looks .

 

Vital Stats

Mass on the launchpad is 1,697 tons. Cost is 868,803 funds. Starting part count is 215, about half of which are struts. (I kid. Sort of.)

 

Mods

List of my mods:

KER, KAC, KAS/KIS (I did not use on this mission), Docking Port Alignment Indicator, Better Burn Time, Jettison Fuel, Precise Maneuver, Trajectories, Transfer Window Planner, Science!

 

Hope you enjoy!  Let me know if any questions or suggestions.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by Aegolius13
Added sample pic

[DMSP]

Awesome mission. Jool 5s are hard to complete, and I have never actually done one myself. Congratulations!

[JacobJHC]

Nicely executed, I like how you simply dropped the Vall lander and flew past while Val conqoured Vall.  Your Laythe aerobrakes were also rather ballsy if I may say so myself. Congratulations on joining the Jool 5 Completionist Club.

[Aegolius13]

2 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

Nicely executed, I like how you simply dropped the Vall lander and flew past while Val conqoured Vall. 

Thanks dude.  That was one of my favorite parts - the Vall stopover seemed like it was "better than free" for my mothership, since it got a boost to Laythe.  

2 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

your Laythe aerobrakes were also rather ballsy if I may say so myself.

The many incinerated Kerbals from the "Jool 5 Test" and "Jool 5 Test 2" savegames concur.  

[Jetski]

Nice mission, looks good.  I like the Tylo lander, clean and simple

[Mister Dilsby]

Hey, great stuff! My mothership is just now burning for low Tylo orbit, so I'm still looking forward to Vall and Laythe

And might I recommend you embed the imgur album? It's very easy to do...or it used to be, I can't seem to find the album embed link at the moment. Will research...

ETA: Well, it seems to have been disappeared in the last forum update  Then might I suggest putting a good picture or two from the album in the OP? Pics --> clicks  

Edited September 1, 2016 by Kuzzter