A Journey to Tellumo

[astroheiko]

Hello,

this will be a report on how to successfully get a mission to the planet Tellumo. Tellumo is a planet of the Galileo Planet Pack and it is a challenging goal to get there. My report will be held fairly objective, since English is not my native language. So you will see more pictures than text.

I first start by showing the vehicles.

We will need a Mothership for transfering an returning our brave Kerbals

a Lander for refueling and exploring Lilli, the Moon of Tellumo 

and at last the Spaceplane for Tellumo.

 

I will explain the vehicles in Detail when we have liftoff. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by astroheiko

[astroheiko]

I first start to launch the Lander.

The Lander is capable of ISRU, has docking ports on the Top and bottom and a delta V of 3500m/s. All Science can be made with it and i have left place at the bottom to dock a rover if necesary. On Top I can mount some Parachutes to land at planets with atmosphere like Niven or Duna. I once developed it in the Stock Game and I am very pleased with it. It is even capable to land and relaunch on Tylo.

So here it is on the launchpad on Top of my reusable SSTO Rocket which is able to bring 110 tons in LGO (LowGaelOrbit) and return savely.

 

Here is a picture during the ascent

 

Reaching Apoapsis and removing Fairing

 

LGO and Separation of the Rocket

 

The SSTO 110 on decending course, aiming for launchpad

 

Preparing for Reentry

 

It is loosing the connection during the Plasma Blackout but it will be stable

 

regaining control an triggering the Parachutes.

 

shortly before landing i jettison the heatshield because we need a powered landing.

 

done

 

and payback

 

Do you want to know more of the SSTO rocket or is it OK?

 

Greetings

[astroheiko]

Now I have to meet with my Refueling Station because I have to refuel the Lander. Also the Lander has a Claw and the Spaceplane has no Docking port, so i need the Claw later. Later the Mothership has to be refueled too and the Lander has to be docked with the Mothership. So it has to be at the Refueling Station anyway.

 

Burning to increase the Apoapsis for the Rendezvous with the Refueling Station

 

Reaching intercept

 

Approaching the Fuel Station

 

short bevor the docking

 

done

 

 

So now I can launch the Spaceplane, Valentina has the honor to fly it.

 

At this point I will give you some information for the Spaceplane.

I needed more than two weeks to develop a plane with whom I was satisfied. I was not really good in making planes but I believe now I know a little bit how they work. First I tried to aerobrake in the atmosphere but it won`t work propperly. So i decided to brake active with the Transfer Stage. I need the two Rhino`s because I have to brake 3500 m/s within 2 minutes or it will be destroyed in Tellumos atmosphere.

The plane itself has to land without fuel because of the mass. Otherwise the Rhinos could not brake enough. Once it is on the surface and is refueled with ISRU it can reach every place of the planet. It is able to reach over 1000m/s and a height over 15000m. So it can fly around half the planet bevor refueling. 

This is apicture what remains after it reaches the lower Orbit of Tellumo.

 

So let´s get started

 

Soon after the launch I am heading for 10 degrees over the horizon. It is not very stable so I do not very much corrections until 50000m.

 

We don´t need these things anymore

 

So this will get to Tellumo Orbit

 

But first we will have to refuel at the Refueling Station

 

After this we can plan the Transfer

 

Greetings

[astroheiko]

So now I need my Mothership for Returning to Gael.

 

I'll explain a few things to the Mothership.

It has a docking Port at the Top for the Lander and at the bottom a detachable Liquid fuel tank. So the Lander can bring more fuel if needed. On each Side it has a Cargobay for Probes or Relaysattelites.

In the middle is also a Cargobay with a Parachute and a rover for the Lander - if needed. On this mission this is not necessary, so i mounted an extra LfOx tank for refueling the Spaceplane in the Orbit of Tellumo.

Without the Lander and empty Cargobays it has about 8200 m/s DeltaV. Fully loaded with Lander about 5000. The Ascending stage is able to get back to the surface so i will get back some money.

Mass on the launchpad is 1424 tons - In LGO without the Asceending Stage 200 tons. When docked with the Lander an full with Liquid Fuel it has a mass of 442 tons.

 

After detaching the mothership, I am going to bring the Ascending Stage down to where it started.

 

Here is a picture with the Chutes deployed

 

and touchdown - this will bring me back 289.000 Funds

 

So now I can do the Rendezvous with the Fuelstation and the Lander. But first I have to turn around the Lander because the Senior docking port is on the wong side. I also have to detach the drone which moves things like the Chutes or the Rover to its place in or out of the Cargobay.

 

I think I stick it here.

 

Now I can turn the Lander....

 

and meet the mothership.

 

After docking I refuel the Mothership.

 

Releasing the Fuelstation

 

Just stow the drone again...

 

and preparing for Transfer.

 

Meanwhile the Fuelstation is back to Iota and is harvesting again.

Edited February 4, 2017 by astroheiko

[astroheiko]

Okay- I think I have all. So let`burn some fuel.

 

The Periapsis at Tellumo looks good.

 

Somwhere in the middle of the Transfer I do a correction (by eyeballing) to match the Periapsis with the Ascending/Descending Node of the planet. When arriving the System I burn tetrograde for a high Apoapsis. One of the Ascending/Descending Nodes is now in the near of the APoapsis. So changing the Inclination will be very cheap.

 

Say "hello" to Tellumo

 

When both Vehicles have Orbit i first release to Relays from the Cargobays and set up a polar Relay Network to have KerbNet Access.

They also have some Science so I can do some contracts in the future (Transmit Science Data from Space around XY)

 

Here is apicture when this is done. PE is at 500km, AP at 100,000,km.

 

Next goal is to reach an equatorial Inclination for both vehicles. In this picture you can see, that I matched to set one of the AN/DN Nodes pretty near at the APO. So, like said before, changing Inclination is cheap.

 

Now I will retroburn for Rendezvous.I need to refuel the Spaceplane for braking in the atmosphere. I took enough Oxidizer from gael in the Mothership.

 

Greetings

 

[astroheiko]

Before I meet the Spaceplane I have to mount the Claw in Front of the Mothership

 

So I can catch the Plane

 

The approach to the aircraft follows aaand......

 

captured. At this poin my PC comes to its limit. 10 frames per second. Thank god it does not take long, I only have to transfer fuel.

Just before the release, I notice that I almost forgot to transfer the crew. 

 

Now I can dare to go down. To your memory: I need to reduce the speed by about 3500 m/s within 2 minutes. Otherwise, the aircraft will get burned or will break when turning around to prograde.

For this reason, there must be no fuel in the aircraft. I will have to produce fuel after landing.

 

If the Descending Stage is burned out, I can push it off and trigger the drogue Chute. Everything looks good...

 

Damn it. The parachute has been destroyed. He was actually meant to turn the plane forward.

 

Fortunately, I could turn the plane before this happend. The parachute was not necessary. In my tests that did not always work, so I had it with me. Now I am safe and can slowly reduce the height and look for a land-field.

Maybe this is because Valentina is allowed to fly this time. When testing, Jeb was always on board.

 

It looks like a nice place, does not it?

 

The plane can sail incredibly well. You can slow down to 25 m/s and still remain in the air. And so the landing is a children's game. 

 

I can still remember my first moon landing in the original game. I have not had a game for a long time with which I was so excited and so happy. Afterwards, every further landing on a body was never so exciting again.
Although I tested the landing on Tellumo dozens of times, I am always excited here again and again. 

 

 

[Garrett Kerman]

I like this story! Keep it going!

[astroheiko]

@Garrett Kerman

Thank you very much. It's nice to get feedbacks.

So let us continue...

 

To really get all biomes, I first mark in the Map everything I find. For this I had previously sat the satellites to get KerbNet Access. Then you can activate the waypoints and have markers in the Navball.

 

But first a flag is hoisted.

 

I have an Mk1 Command Pod installed in the back of the aircraft for Bob. So I save the ladder at the front cockpit. In addition, I can reset the Mystery Goo unit and the Science Jr. faster. Here is also a ladder attached, so that he can explore the surface and return safely, the gravity is enormous. I've highlighted the Mystery Goo unit, so you can see it better

 

Next, the aircraft must be refueled. Since we will not need an oxidizer in the near future, I have the appropriate tanks blocked. So we have more reach. I have been very careful in designing that the center of the mass is always at the center of lift or before. The aircraft should always fly smoothly.
(Woah ... Google wanted to translate lift with buoyancy)

For the electrical energy I used an RTG. If you activate the time acceleration fast enough, then it does not matter. Is that a little cheating?

 

We can now fly to the next Waypoint. At full weight, we have to accelerate to 50-60 m/s to take off.

 

I try to get over 16000m as quickly as possible, so you do not need much fuel. My first designs for the plane could not get faster than Mach 1.05 and fly so high. Therefore, the range was not very large. With this design, you can safely fly around half the planet without having to refuel.

 

I like it.....

 

Greetings

Edited February 6, 2017 by astroheiko

[astroheiko]

I spare you all the pictures from collecting the individual samples, it's always the same. But a few interesting things I still have.

 

To be able to take off again from the water, I was on the safe side with little fuel. Here I am in the landing approach.

 

I was not sure if it works. But it has.

 

Bob did not want to go swimming. He said it could be a Kraken in the water.

 

After the first charge of fuel I had already investigated 6 biomes.

 

After the second I was almost finished.

 

Here is a picture of the Northern Icecap.

 

And because I was just around I wanted to look at the polar lights. On Gael I have not done this yet. Already funny, you fly so far just to look at it even though you have the same at home.

 

Then I headed south to land on the equator. I have to start from there, since the mothership has an inclination of 0 degrees. There I will refuel one last time and then hopefully everything works and I can get it into the orbit. But I'll tell you tomorrow, here it's almost midnight and I have to get to work early.

greetings

[astroheiko]

Since I became a bit sick today I have a little time and write further.

Now comes the most important part of the mission. This time, I describe in detail the
individual actions so you can understand how difficult it is to get back into the orbit.

First I unlock the restriction for the oxidizer of the rocket fuel tanks and block the
two front Big S Wing Strakes, the two front Big S Delta Wings, all rear MK1 Liquid Fuel
Fuselage and one of the two rear Big S Delta Wings.

After refueling, only the rocket tanks, the two middle BIG S Delta Wings and one of the
rear BIG S Delta Wings should be full. Now fill the fuel of the rear wing halfway on the wing on the other side.

The settings of the fuselages are chosen so that the first, half-full wings first empty,
then the middle and finally the rocket fuselages. As soon as the rear wings are empty, they are detached.

 

I also transfer the crew forward into the passenger cabin. Then the two rear decoupler
can be triggered to save weight. Then I save the game.

 

Immediately after take-off, the front landing gear is detached. The main landing gear is
retracted and I aim to 25 degrees over the horizon at 90 degrees.

 

As soon as the rear Big S Delta Wings are empty, we do not need them anymore. In
addition, I go to 10 degrees above the horizon to get speed.

 

Over 15000 m I fly a little shallower. The aircraft is now over 1450 m/s fast and is
still rising. Soon the liquid fuel will be empty. The passenger cabin gets a bit warm but not too hot.

 

The wings are empty and the engines slowly die. So away with it ... We need the rocket
engines. I wanted to reach 17000m before that point, but it will go.

 

Now comes the critical phase. The nose must now aim at 35 degrees or we will lose height. The plane, now rather rocket, is now no longer very stable and so we have to be
very careful when making corrections.

 

Over time I can turn the nose more and more to prograde.

 

If the Apoapsis is at 40km, I go completely prograde.

 

The last stage is ignited. That looks good.

 

And there we are. PE at 50km and still 1200 m/s dV left. Do not wonder where the science
container is. I hid it in the passenger cabin.

Now we can meet with our friend Jeb. He will be pretty angry because he was not allowed
to go to the planet.

Greetings

Edited February 7, 2017 by astroheiko

[KAL 9000]

@astroheiko Jeb was not allowed to go down because it would double the chances of everything exploding.

[astroheiko]

1 hour ago, KAL 9000 said:

@astroheiko Jeb was not allowed to go down because it would double the chances of everything exploding.

Yes exactly. That's why I test new things every time with Jeb. If he does not get it broken, then it is foolproof.

Edited February 7, 2017 by astroheiko

[astroheiko]

And it goes on ...

We have an interception with the mothership.

 

I send the tug with the claw to catch the remains of the aircraft

.

 

This is better than maneuvering with the whole mothership.

 

After docking, I transfer all the research, the crew and the rest of the fuel, leave the remainders free and then I stow the tug again in the Cargo Bay.

 

Before I go home I want to go to Lilli. I need to refuel and have to take a dog for walkies (Jeb needs time out).

 

The first attempt in the orbit of Lilli to slow down did not go well, I was too slow. Then I added the two vectors and it worked. Overall, I had only 1 and a half minutes to slow down before I leave the SOI again.

 

When I tested I was here once. At that time I wanted to land at the equator to have nice lighting. But that did not work, I just could not hit the ground. I was thrown back out of the orbit. I needed some time to find out why.
At the equator the surface speed is so high that you reach the escape speed of the planet and will be thrown out of the system.
But where is that not the case? ...... At the poles
So we have to swing into a polar orbit and land at one of the poles.

 

When landing I noticed a nice flat spot on this mountain. I want to go there....

 

You sink so slowly that you can steer with the control nozzles already. You almost hover. So you have a lot of time.

 

And here we are, together with the whole mothership .... which was actually not built for it.

 

Finally, Jeb can make his pee. He was quite restless. In addition, some science, a flag and refuel. Oh .... and a postcard

 

After that, it went back to an orbit around Tellumo. The lander I now have to connect forward. Otherwise he will feel the LVNs.

 

How easy it is to do the docks with time. My first docking maneuver was a Deaster.

 

I have reached an orbit of 700km and now plan the transfer back home. In the tank I have over 6000 m/s dV. That should be much more than enough.

 

Greetings

 

Edit: Before I forget it. It is not possible to use the Survey Scanner at Lilli. It comes the message that you need a polar orbit between 25 and 35 km. But you leave the orbit already at 17 km. I will tell Galileo.

Edited February 7, 2017 by astroheiko

[astroheiko]

Today comes the last part of the report.

After the arrival in the Gael system I only brake so far off that I have a high AP.
Then I make a maneuver in the range of the Ap to change my inclination to 0 degrees.

 

Then I lower the orbit to 500 km. About 9 Mimuten Burning Time? For this I always used Physix Warp ("Alt" + "." In the German keyboard)

 

That's how it looks.

 

With my crew shuttle the crew and the science are picked up. This time I start at dawn because I want to make a nice picture with the sun in Front of the shuttle. So excuse the dark image.

 

Here is the picture

 

When I reached the orbit I still have 1200 m/s dV. The shuttle has RCS in the Cargo Bay and an MK2 Clamp-O-Tron for docking.

 

I'm planning a rondezvous. Here is a photo just before docking.

 

Now the crew is taken over and we may not forget the science. The mother ship remains in orbit and is being upgraded for further missions.

 

Undock and back it goes to surface.

 

The landing approach. I'm still a bit fast and the direction does not quite fit ...

 

But it still worked.

 

A huge bunch of science points. I play with only 30% science rewards. That would be 24646 points at 100%.

 

We get a little money back.

 

And the crew has gained a lot of experience. Jeb a little less because he was not on Tellumo.

 

 

Here are some settings for the game:

Basically, difficulty is set to hard
Re-Entry Heating 100%
Science Reward 30%
Funds Reward 30%
Comm Network enabled

All vehicles were built with parts of the stock game

Sometimes it occurred that the spaceplane broke apart when loading a quicksave in Tellumo's atmosphere. Then I briefly lowered the gravity and loaded it again.

I thank you for your attention and hope the story was not boring.

greetings

[boccelounge]

On 2/6/2017 at 5:55 PM, astroheiko said:

And because I was just around I wanted to look at the polar lights. On Gael I have not done this yet. Already funny, you fly so far just to look at it even though you have the same at home.

That is beautifully said.

Thank you for the report!  All the spacecraft were very interestingly engineered-- especially the intricate spaceplane.

I hope to see more of your adventure-- cheers.

[Luovahulluus]

This was a great read! Nicely planned and executed mission