Jool 5 failure!

[DustInTheWind]

Failed Level 3 mission report with fun observations that just might help other intrepid explorers: 

• I have almost 1,400 hours on KSP according to Steam, how did I live without Precise Maneuver before now?
• Single lauch of a six crew, 269T, 157 part mothership with landers to a 397km orbit with 7530 m/s of delta v ready for trans-Jool burn
  • The boosters were not recovered
• Conics gave me iffy predictions again. Combined with the inherent issues with low TWR ejection burns, it cost extra delta V to get a Jool encounter
  • The Thermal Control System panels are a lot more efficient than I remember. One medium for every two nukes is now overkill
• I lucked out with a Laythe/Tylo assisted gravity capture that helped save some delta V
  • Hmm, getting in Jool orbit with a low inclination still cost about 900 m/s more than I expected
• Tylo wasn't too bad, got it on the second try with a starting TWR of only 1.06. 
  • Used about 940 delta v to get the mothership into a low eccentricity orbit to save the lander some grief
    • Theoretically, I get this back plus some once I loose the Tylo descent stage and fuel from the ascent stage / Vall lander
  • Start you descent burn after the highlands 
  • I was just 88 delta v short on the lander to intercept the mothership. The mothership finished the rendezvous
  • Docking in a cargo bay was more of a challenge than I anticipated, only 2 units of monoprop remained
• The Kraken struck on my successful Laythe attempt
  • My first Laythe attempt was a 540 m/s transfer burn and 14 m/s after aerobraking for capture -- Sweet!
    • Eight aerobrake orbits to burn off speed with the lander
    • Bill and his trusty probe core stuck the glide landing like a champ
    • Hmm, quicksave seems to be behaving oddly
    • I need to recover science from the Tylo lander can while waiting for a good launch window, hey, what happened to my refueling tank for Vall? Did it go *poof* inside the closed cargo bay?
      • Okay, quicksave and load previous ones to see where it was last located
      • Black screen crash to desktop. Rinse, repeat
      • Woohoo! Got one to load! Oh, I still have to rendezvous in Tylo orbit
      • The best transfer burn I could find at this point was 760 m/s
  • Every other attempt included a crash to desktop, poor Bill going *poof* inside the service bay, or the loss of my Big-S wing strakes
  • Note to self: just because a SSTO design handles Kerbin like a champ, doesn't mean it will work for Laythe
• My earliest quicksave for the mission was in orbit, not on the launch pad, so recovery and redesign is not possible
  • Orbital re-configuration is iffy since the Laythe lander is attached via decoupler, not docking port. I do, however have a Clamp-o-tron Sr on the stern for potential refueling, but the role player in me doesn't like this option. Additionally, by the time I managed an orbital rendezvous, I would probably miss this transfer window since my TJI burn started six minutes after booster drop.

I used the large 3.75M command pod and the 2.5M engine cluster with pass-through tunnel from Near Future Spacecraft, a structural 2.5M to 0.675M x 2 adapter from Near Future Construction, and Modular Fuel Tanks to swap Ox for LF in the Mk3 adapter tanks. Information mods are Precise Maneuver, MJ, KAC, KER, Transfer Window Planner, and Docking Port Alignment Indicator.

If anyone besides me wants to see this ship design, and getting it into orbit, they can... 

Click here for purdy pictur's

I have another 50 screenshots of TJI, capture, Tylo landing, and Laythe failures that I won't be uploading since imgur likes to re-order stuff randomly.

Back to the drawing board, probably in a sandbox this time...

[DMSP]

Oh well, I've been stuck in the same place as you many times. Especially when going to Jool! You aren't alone.

I hope you end up getting out there!