Finally did the grand tour!

[Ozzallos]

Mun, Minmus & Back... Alive no less!

Had to design a new vehicle from scratch since .16 invalidated all my older designs. After a bit of experimentation came up with the Epoch V design and after four not so successful revisions, was successful in a single Mun trip with the Block E model. Four stages: Lift, transit, lander and re-entry.

Since I\'ve been there, done that, I moved on to the goal I never got to complete under .15... The grand tour! The lander had to be redesigned since two of those gigantor fuel tanks stacked up makes for a touchy center of gravity. After another two unsuccessful revisions, Block H hit a home run.

The Epoch V, Block H (footage from Kerbal Space Program library).

First stop, the Mun!

Eyeing Minmus...

A sexy 8-point landing with fuel to spare.

The Block E lander by comparison (footage from Kerbal Space Program library).

I know I\'m not the first or the last, but it\'s a rite of passage in and of itself for me. About the only thing I\'d change is that 909 thruster. The anemic power curve on that coupled with such a heavy lander doesn\'t make me comfortable during the drop into Mun\'s gravity well. I still have enough fuel in the transit stage to tear a good chunk off of that 650m/s drop with its LV-230, but you don\'t dare let it get out of hand again once its gone and all you have is the 909 for company. Widening the base of the landing struts without making the lander taller really helped, however.

Otherwise, a pretty smooth tour!

[Endeavour]

Great job! It\'s a lot easier to go to Minmus first, so even better.

Now try Mun, Minmus, Mun, Kerbin

[sal_vager]

Gotta love those monochrome photo\'s Ozzallos, they are really good

[Atimed]

Congratulations fellow kerbanout..

I like your presentation.. Now try scraping half of the ship and make the same thing... :-P

keep up the good work.. And can\'t wait to see ur next achievement..

[Ozzallos]

Thanks all!

Oh, forgot this anomaly. As mentioned, I normally have enough fuel left on the 2nd stage to ride it straight down into Mun\'s gravity well before cutting it loose. When I do that, it of course drops... Apparently through the surface and down into the center of the well where it happily bounces around for the rest of eternity. Note the red underline.

[SkyHook]

Really good to see! Minmus intercept is challenging.. glad you were able to take the tour

[GOOMH]

Thanks all!

Oh, forgot this anomaly. As mentioned, I normally have enough fuel left on the 2nd stage to ride it straight down into Mun\'s gravity well before cutting it loose. When I do that, it of course drops... Apparently through the surface and down into the center of the well where it happily bounces around for the rest of eternity. Note the red underline.

Why that\'s a bug I\'ve encountered too. For one of my rockets I used my Munar Orbital Stage to judge how far I was from the ground but now I can\'t while I still can pull of my landings there\'s just more unknowns. Anyway good job on the Grand tour I plan to do it myself sometime but that\'ll have to wait.

[bsalis]

Good work!

Interesting that you chose Mun before Minmus. Since it\'s easier to do Minmus first, in terms of fuel, and in my opinion, navigation as well.

I done a grand tour in 0.15, with Minmus first.

Done it again twice in 0.16, however both of these suffered the dreaded parachute-ripped-off-capsule problem. First with 2 struts, then 3, even though testing showed that 3 was enough... Kerbal engineering *sigh*

I\'m not sure what I should set myself as a next challenge. Maybe a triple landing and return. Or double landing at the poles. I\'d like to do a double landing then a powered descent upon return to Kerbin, placing the craft on the lanch pad. However I don\'t think I will have enough fuel for that (even though I get back with a little over 1600ltr), or maybe I can put some chutes on decouplers to help... will have to think about it.