Burned up on reentry - after hours long mission - loved it!

[Sagacity]

Hi, new here. First post and only played KSP a couple of weeks; but had to tell this story.

Well. It just happened. Hours spent planning. Trying to combine 3 contracts into 1 mission. Its tight to pack all this into 1 ship. But, it seemed like I finally did it.

Mun Flyby
Activate "Thud" engine on escape trajectory
Haul Hydraulic decoupler on escape trajectory

Wish I recorded this one. I had many tests and failures; but finally had a design that was working. I did a lot of planning on this one. Calculating energy costs of transmitting data based on the antenna. Using KER for TWR and D-v. Verified antenna range for going to Mun.

Wanted to maximize science so planned science moments using the Alarm mod to ensure I hit my marks. I also loaded a csv I found on the forums which lists Planet, Biome, Location, Type and then I created a csv for the atmosphere ranges on the different bodies, into SQLite and fed completed science into the tables. That way I could query that database with indicators as to where I'd be going, so I could plan which science was still available to do. Example query for this mission:
 

select *

  from science s

  join altitude a on a.planet = s.Planet and a.name = s.Location

 where s.Planet in ( 'Kerbin','Mun') <= Encountering Kerbin and Mun

   and (

          (s.Location in ('Lower Atmosphere','Upper Atmosphere','Near Space','Outer Space') AND biome = '') <== Needed records where there was no biome associated with the of the ground atmos as I did not know what would be below

       OR (location = 'Ground' AND biome = 'Launch Pad') <== Except for when on Launch pad on the ground

       OR (location = 'Lower Atmosphere' AND biome = 'Launch Pad') <== And in there air. Upper atmosphere has no Biome level with it (according to wiki) so this was not included

       )

  and s.[%done] < 100 <== Exclude experiments completed

  and s.type in ('Mystery Goo','Crew Report','EVA','Barometer','Thermometer','Science Pod') <=== Limit experiments to what my current tech level makes available

order by planet,biome desc,s.location ,type

;

 

Here's my Mission scratch pad for science (group # represent the custom Action Groups number):

KERBIN

(Mystery goo is 90% compl on the LaunchPad on the Ground, but didn't want to haul another experiment just for the tiny extra)
GROUP #1
alt 1000 (anything between 1 and 18k) 
    Crew    TRANSMIT
    Thermometer1 <-- Only need on Thermometer, since I have the chance to "get data" on EVA. Thermos completed stored 100%
NO GROUP
alt >18k <60k - while throttle = 0
    EVA        TRANSMIT
GROUP #2
alt > 250k
    Crew    TRANSMIT
    EVA        TRANSMIT    (RESET THERMO1) <--  Need this thermo for Mun Low Space reading
    Mystery Goo1
    Mystery Goo2

MUN
GROUP #3
alt 60k PLUS
    Crew Report    TRANSMIT
    EVA            TRANSMIT
    Mystery Goo3
    Mystery Goo4
GROUP #4
alt <60k (EVA Didn't show here b/c I didn't query for any Mun Biomes and EVA is the only experiment that is Biome rather than Global for Space Low - but technically could do it.)
    Crew Report    TRANSMIT
    Mystery Goo5
    Science Pod <-- This was available at every level, but, I did not want to haul more than one, so I used the wiki to determine what would have the highest multiplier for science and Mun, Low Space was 3x
    Thermometer1

As you can see, I really went crazy planning this one  (which is actually fun for me)

Anyway. The mission was going flawlessly. Great gravity turn so we got a nice circular orbit with minimal D-v cost and got a great encounter that, using 1 maneuver, got us <60k alt on Mun AND sent us in a Kerbin Escape trajectory! Perfect; one burn and all remaining D-v was available to get out of escape velocity and return. After all was said and done, we still had something like 200D-v left, give or take, after burning to get back into suborbital Kerbin.

And that's what happened; it was perfect. However, I burned retro and too soon. This dropped me abruptly into the atmosphere and upon arrival, way too fast w/o using SAS lock (so it was wobbling since there was a Science Pod and a storage section (for Goo and batteries)).

Science Pod was facing retro, with heat shield, but, it was not enough, and the Pod exploded - taking the shield with it...after that...everything burned up with it - including the Command pod and Jeb.

I sat in stunned silence as the burning pieces trailed off.

I couldn't be angry; even though it was a failure; it was quite the exiting couple of hours. A learning experience AND (except for reentry) it  WORKED!

There's probably more, but can't remember and don't want to make this too long. Totally doing this again; fixing the reentry issues.
Cheers,
-z-

 

P.S. Is it worth returning 5 mystery goos, 2 batteries, storage pod, and science pod or should one get all data then decouple them?
P.P.S What do you guys use to record in game video

[WanderingKid]

Sounds perfectly Kerbal!

Get the data and dump the science.  They're heavy and eat Delta V. 

I use Bandicam for recording.

[Adelaar]

Nice to hear such enthousiasm, and to experience such delight upon failure! As for your P.S. What it's worth is more a question of how strict your financing is and how stable your return craft is. The latest installment (1.2) has it's aero changed, which means that the odds that a long stack with the center of drag at the bottom is more likely to flip than before. So the amount of stuff you take along with you would probably be abandoned by me.

[steuben]

I've had good luck recording video with Open Broadcaster Software, http://obsproject.com/.

I play with full science part return, if transmit won't give me all the data. Even then I will return it all. That might change once I try out the science lunchbox.

 

[Sagacity]

4 hours ago, steuben said:

I've had good luck recording video with Open Broadcaster Software, http://obsproject.com/.

I play with full science part return, if transmit won't give me all the data. Even then I will return it all. That might change once I try out the science lunchbox.

 

Thanks! Also, what is the "science lunchbox"?

[steuben]

The Experiment Storage Unit, though rereading the description "science snackbox" might be a better name.

[Sagacity]

13 minutes ago, steuben said:

The Experiment Storage Unit, though rereading the description "science snackbox" might be a better name.

Maybe I'm missing something. Since you can store science data in the Mk 1 Command Module; why would I use this?

[FullMetalMachinist]

12 minutes ago, Sagacity said:

Maybe I'm missing something. Since you can store science data in the Mk 1 Command Module; why would I use this?

It lets you avoid having to EVA a kerbal and manually right click on every science instrument and click on 'collect data'. 

Also useful for unmanned probes. It used to be that if you wanted to send a probe to the Mun and collect several temp scans you had to transmit each result every time, because that was the only way to reset the thermometer and not lose the data. Now you can store it in that science container and return the science results instead of transmitting. 

[Aegolius13]

You might be interested in the "Science!" mod.  It shows in real time which experiments you have or have not done (including, I think, experiments you've conducted but not returned to Kerbin), and you can search by keyword.  

[Jonfliesgoats]

Cool!

[Sagacity]

16 minutes ago, Aegolius13 said:

You might be interested in the "Science!" mod.  It shows in real time which experiments you have or have not done (including, I think, experiments you've conducted but not returned to Kerbin), and you can search by keyword.  

That's awesome. Definitely want to look into that; but I wanted the (self-imposed) challenge of planning it out; whilst its all new.

Eventually, it will become "work" to plan out the science and that will be useful. Right now, its all new; so there's a lot of "discovery" .