Doing It Constellation Style

[Mikki]

Well this is quite a serious challenge, i am tempted to try this all stock too but the required time is actually not in abundance... going to watch the vids.

[septemberWaves]

57 minutes ago, Kertech said:

Why do the good challenges occur when I'm on placement!! 

The challenge isn't going anywhere, don't worry. And as it develops I'm going to add a few more sub-challenges beyond the main plans for the original Constellation program (including one that involves construction of a small Mun base with Constellation-style technology), so the challenge may have expanded by the time that you have time to attempt it.

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey all Kerbal-Lovers.

 

I have finished my Mun Mission.

The Mission Report was updated: Doing it Constellation Style

The Imgur album, mostly in order if you start from the bottom: http://imgur.com/a/3YW48

 

Spoiler

 

 

OK. There we are.

I would like to submit this exercise for my first badge.

 

Spoiler

 

• Launch Vehicles: Only use replicas of the Constellation-specific launch vehicles (Ares I, Ares IV, and Ares V) for all launches from Kerbin. (+10)
• Ares I: Your Ares I analogue has one solid rocket motor on the first stage* and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. *For stock entries you are allowed to use multiple first-stage solid rocket motors, so long as they all ignite at the same time and have the same burn time. (+5)
• Ares V: Your Ares V analogue has 5 liquid rocket engines and two solid rocket boosters on the first stage, and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. (+5)
• Stage Recovery 1: The solid first stage of the Ares I can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+3)
• Stage Recovery 2: The SRBs on the Ares IV and V can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+4)
• Asparagus Staging: Use asparagus staging on any vehicle. (-50)
• Orion: Orion is launched on the Ares I rocket and has space for at least three kerbals for stock entries, or four kerbals for modded entries. (+6)
• Crew Safety: Orion includes a solid-fueled launch escape tower. (+4)
• Crew Mobility: All surface modules have functional ladders. (+1)
• Crew Survivability: Any kerbal dies (or runs out of life support supplies if you're using a life support mod). (-50 per kerbal)
• Life Support: Use a life support mod (+25)
• Larger Than Life: Use a scaled-up version of the Kerbol system with a scale factor of at least 2. (+(5+scale factor))
• Commnet: Do everything with commnet enabled at the default (normal mode) settings or more difficult. (+10)
• Surface Science Bonus: If you're in career or science mode, gather as many science points as you can with only one landing. This is a separate score - not related to the main points system - for each challenge that you do, and it only includes stock science experiments. You may not use a science lab to increase science yield.

 

Challenge 1: Munar Sortie

A large part of the purpose of the Constellation program was to return to the Moon. In KSP this equates to a Mun mission.

• Objective: Using the Orion spacecraft and the Altair lander, send four kerbals (three for stock entries) to the surface of the Mun and return them safely to Kerbin. (+20)
• Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous: The Orion spacecraft and the Altair lander are launched separately and dock in Kerbin orbit before transferring to the Mun. (+8)
• Accurate Altair: The Altair Munar Lander includes a descent module and an ascent module, and has space for all four kerbals (three for stock entries). (+7)
• Fuel Cells: The Altair lander is powered by a fuel cell. (+2)
• Descent Module: The Altair descent module is left on the surface of the Mun, and includes: airlock, fuel and engines for landing, landing legs, power storage (at least 1000 electric charge). (+4)
• Kerbin Departure Stage: The Mun transfer burn is done using the upper stage of the rocket that launched the Altair lander. (+3)
•  
• Altair Orbital Insertion: The orbital insertion burn at the Mun is done using the engines and fuel system of the Altair lander. (+3)
•  
• Mun Rover: Bring along a rover with seats for at least half the crew. (+3)

 

My score is: 95

 

 

My score by my own accounting is 95.

 

Thank you, that was hard but I learned a lot.

 

ME

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2017 by Martian Emigrant

[septemberWaves]

Congratulations @Martian Emigrant, you've completed the Munar Sortie challenge and have earned the relevant badge.

Regarding your orbital insertion burn at the Mun, it does not count if you didn't use the fuel on the Altair descent module. You need to use the engines and fuel systems of the Altair descent module because the idea is that you should design the lander with enough fuel for the orbital insertion burn as well as the landing. So your total score for this entry is 95. I will add clarification on this to the OP.

[Martian Emigrant]

3 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

Congratulations @Martian Emigrant, you've completed the Munar Sortie challenge and have earned the relevant badge.

Regarding your orbital insertion burn at the Mun, it does not count if you didn't use the fuel on the Altair descent module. You need to use the engines and fuel systems of the Altair descent module because the idea is that you should design the lander with enough fuel for the orbital insertion burn as well as the landing. So your total score for this entry is 95. I will add clarification on this to the OP.

Thank you.

Yes, it's only when I read the text one more time while adding points that I saw the exact meaning.

The ARM mission is being planned as I write this.

 

ME

[septemberWaves]

Just now, Martian Emigrant said:

The ARM mission is being planned as I write this.

Good luck with it. For reference, I discovered when doing mine that if the Altair descent module has about 1300m/s of delta-v when connected to Orion, that seems to be a good amount of fuel for an asteroid rendezvous. But I was lucky enough to find one with quite a low flyby periapsis, so it's best to include a good fuel margin for that mission (this goes for Orion as well if you're planning on de-orbiting using Orion's fuel).

[septemberWaves]

I've made a minor change to the rules to allow satellite launches (like communications satellites and scanning satellites) to not require being launched by Ares rockets in order to gain the points for that category. This is because satellites tend to have such low masses that it doesn't make sense to launch them on medium/heavy launch vehicles.

[Xeldrak]

Does anyone else have problems with building a reuaseable Ares I first stage? These kickback boosters seems to dissolve on contact with water....

[Martian Emigrant]

9 hours ago, Xeldrak said:

Does anyone else have problems with building a reuaseable Ares I first stage? These kickback boosters seems to dissolve on contact with water....

Hi.

Yes, their impact resistance is 7m/s. When one end touches the water the chute disappear and the top end falls faster than that.

My solution was to place the chutes at both ends.

 

ME

Edited February 20, 2017 by Martian Emigrant

[Xeldrak]

Well, I finally found some time to build a few rockets. I hope it's allright that I live out my pet peeve and rename everything to something Norse. I give you some hardware of the Valhalla Program:

Freyja Capsule

Spoiler

Naglfar I
 

Spoiler

Naglfar V
 

Spoiler

That giant faring ontop of the rocket hide two orange tanks I used as test cargo. The Maybe she's a bit overpowered....but better to big than too small. 

[septemberWaves]

@Xeldrak Those are some pretty nice designs, I'm looking forward to seeing them in use. And changing the naming scheme is perfectly fine; I stuck with the original names where I could because I just felt like doing that, but there's no obligation to do so (and in any case I can't find original names for anything other than Orion, Altair, and the launch vehicles, so I've just been naming other things after various constellations).

Regarding payloads, two orange tanks is probably a good payload to aim for with the larger launch vehicle. Mine has about the same payload capacity actually (70 tonnes but that's with some room for error) and it's proven to be quite effective so far.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Update on the challenge: I've tidied up the original post and added placeholders for the optional challenges after the Duna mission. There's no details for any of them yet but it should give an idea of what to expect. I might add challenges for a couple more modded locations, but I'm not going further out than Jool and I'm not including an Eve mission because that seems to be a bit beyond the limitations of the Constellation program (even Jool is pushing it somewhat but it's at least doable).

Edited February 21, 2017 by eloquentJane

[michal.don]

Hi there,

after spending a while on designing and testing the vehicles, I completed the Munar mission. Some flaws occured, but none was mission critical, so I pushed on and will review the design for the next mission (most of the problems were caused by fairings behaving a bit unpredictably). I gave more attention than usually to the visual part of the design, so the fuel and thrust levels needed to be adjusted so the rockets wouldn't have too much delta-V (yeah, there really is a thing as too much delta-V  ) and the stages would be spent approximately in a similar time as they were designed to be in the real Constellation missions.

Here is the album of the full mission:

http://imgur.com/a/7vYn4

My game is modded, the mods used are several NecroBones part packs, Procedural parts, Tweakscale, KJR, and a handful of information and visual mods.

I believe my score should be as follows:

General Score

• Launch Vehicles: Only use replicas of the Constellation-specific launch vehicles (Ares I, Ares IV, and Ares V) for all launches from Kerbin (not including satellite launches). (+10)
• Ares I: Your Ares I analogue has one solid rocket motor on the first stage and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. (+5)
• Ares V: Your Ares V analogue has 5 liquid rocket engines and two solid rocket boosters on the first stage, and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. (+5)
• Stage Recovery 1: The solid first stage of the Ares I can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+3)
• Stage Recovery 2: The SRBs on the Ares IV and V can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+4)
• Orion: Orion is launched on the Ares I rocket and has space for at least four kerbals for modded entries. (+6)
• Crew Safety: Orion includes a solid-fueled launch escape tower. (+4)
• Crew Mobility: All surface modules have functional ladders. (+1)
• Commnet: Do everything with commnet enabled at the default (normal mode) settings or more difficult. (+10)

Challenge 1: Munar Sortie

• Objective: Using the Orion spacecraft and the Altair lander, send four kerbals to the surface of the Mun and return them safely to Kerbin. (+20)
• Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous: The Orion spacecraft and the Altair lander are launched separately and dock in Kerbin orbit before transferring to the Mun. (+8)
• Accurate Altair: The Altair Munar Lander includes a descent module and an ascent module, and has space for all four kerbals (three for stock entries). (+7)
• Fuel Cells: The Altair lander is powered by a fuel cell. (+2)
• Descent Module: The Altair descent module is left on the surface of the Mun, and includes: airlock, fuel and engines for landing, landing legs, power storage (at least 1000 electric charge). (+4)
• Kerbin Departure Stage: The Mun transfer burn is done using the upper stage of the rocket that launched the Altair lander. (+3)
• Altair Orbital Insertion: The orbital insertion burn at the Mun is done using the engines and fuel system of the Altair lander. You should design the lander to include enough additional fuel in the descent module to accomplish this task. (+3)

(Oh, I just noticed that all four Kerbals should land on the Mun, I left one in the CM, like Apollo missions did. But the lander has the capacity for four crew members, so I hopethat this is not too much of a problem?)

This should add to 95 points, or 75 if the Kerbal remaiing it the CM is a big issue.

 

A few pictures:

Orion and Altair in Munar orbit

Ares I

Ares V

 

I really enjoyed the first mission and I'm really looking forward to the next ones,

thanks for creating this challenge,

Michal.don

[septemberWaves]

Congratulations @michal.don, you've completed the Munar Sortie challenge and earned the relevant badge.

The fact that you didn't land all four kerbals on the Mun means that you don't get the points for that. Your entry is still valid only because the lander is capable of landing all four kerbals on the Mun. So your total score is 75.

It looked to be a pretty good mission. The vehicle designs were nice and fairly realistic-looking for the most part, and the mission execution appeared to be good other than the fact that you didn't land all four kerbals on the Mun.

[Xeldrak]

Here is my design for the Fenrir Munar Lander Mk.I: 
 

Spoiler

• It's powered by a quite large fuel cell.
• It has room for three kerbals (four actually, as I'm using a Mk.1 Lander Can as an airlock).
• The descent stages stays on the Mun with the airlock, fuel and engines for landing, landing legs and energy storage.
• Has rover for the whole crew.

 

And my munar mission:

Full Album

• Launch Vehicles: Only use replicas of the Constellation-specific launch vehicles (Ares I, Ares IV, and Ares V) for all launches from Kerbin. (+10)
• Ares I: Your Ares I analogue has one solid rocket motor on the first stage* and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. *For stock entries you are allowed to use multiple first-stage solid rocket motors, so long as they all ignite at the same time and have the same burn time. (+5)
• Ares V: Your Ares V analogue has 5 liquid rocket engines and two solid rocket boosters on the first stage, and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. (+5)
• Stage Recovery 1: The solid first stage of the Ares I can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+3)
• Stage Recovery 2: The SRBs on the Ares IV and V can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+4)
• Orion: Orion is launched on the Ares I rocket and has space for at least three kerbals for stock entries, or four kerbals for modded entries. (+6)
• Crew Safety: Orion includes a solid-fueled launch escape tower. (+4)
• Crew Mobility: All surface modules have functional ladders. (+1)
• Commnet: Do everything with commnet enabled at the default (normal mode) settings or more difficult. (+10)

 

• Objective: Using the Orion spacecraft and the Altair lander, send four kerbals (three for stock entries) to the surface of the Mun and return them safely to Kerbin. (+20)
• Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous: The Orion spacecraft and the Altair lander are launched separately and dock in Kerbin orbit before transferring to the Mun.(+8)
• Accurate Altair: The Altair Munar Lander includes a descent module and an ascent module, and has space for all four kerbals (three for stock entries). (+7)
• Fuel Cells: The Altair lander is powered by a fuel cell. (+2)
• Descent Module: The Altair descent module is left on the surface of the Mun, and includes: airlock, fuel and engines for landing, landing legs, power storage (at least 1000 electric charge). (+4)
• Kerbin Departure Stage: The Mun transfer burn is done using the upper stage of the rocket that launched the Altair lander. (+3)
• Altair Orbital Insertion: The orbital insertion burn at the Mun is done using the engines and fuel system of the Altair lander. You should design the lander to include enough additional fuel in the descent module to accomplish this task. (+3)
• Mun Rover: Bring along a rover with seats for at least half the crew. (+3)

So, overall I'm claiming 98 points.

Notes: 

1. The Fenrir lander needs more fuel in the descent stage. Fuel ran out 3 meters above the munar surface. But everything went well.
2. Need some batteries on the ascend stage. Energy became sparse during the ascend.
3. At some point during construction the Freyja Capsule lost it's RCS thrusters. Not good. Docked with the Fenrir using only the main engine ^^

Edited February 22, 2017 by Xeldrak

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Cool! I'm going to start this challenge after I've completed the Apollo Applications Program one.

[NISSKEPCSIM]

I'm surprised that no one has turned up with the Bobcat American pack, which has replicas of the entire lunar phase of constellation.

[septemberWaves]

Congratulations @Xeldrak for completing the Munar Sortie mission. You've earned the relevant badge.

 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

@eloquentJane can I do the 1st challenge landing on Minmus instead of the Mun, because I'm in career and have multiple contacts for Minmus landings and bases, or do I have to land on the Mun?

[septemberWaves]

12 minutes ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

@eloquentJane can I do the 1st challenge landing on Minmus instead of the Mun, because I'm in career and have multiple contacts for Minmus landings and bases, or do I have to land on the Mun?

It has to be the Mun. Why not do it in a different save? If you want to do it in career it's fine to edit the save file to get the required funds/science to do the missions.

 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Oh, okay, thanks for clearing that up.

I'm still doing it in my career save though. :-)

[Martian Emigrant]

Hello all.

 

Here is my take on the Asteroid mission.

Mission Repost Doing it Constellation Style

Imgur (More messed up than usual) http://martianarepeopletoo.imgur.com/all/

My game gave me a hard time. So this mission was made seemed worse than it was.

Glad to have done it though.

The Altair was modified for the new mission. The Orion was also redesigned as it was needlessly too big.

I have no real (Get it? Real?) experience with asteroids.

But I found that the only way to get an encounter was to be exactly on the same orbital plane.

Nothing else seemed to work. Close doesn't work.

But on it. Easy.

Here is the Altair taking down the Death Star probing Rock-24 with the Science TieBeam Impactor Coliider. STIC.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

General Score

• Launch Vehicles: Only use replicas of the Constellation-specific launch vehicles (Ares I, Ares IV, and Ares V) for all launches from Kerbin (not including satellite launches). (+10)
• Ares I: Your Ares I analogue has one solid rocket motor on the first stage* and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. *For stock entries you are allowed to use multiple first-stage solid rocket motors, so long as they all ignite at the same time and have the same burn time. (+5)
• Ares V: Your Ares V analogue has 5 liquid rocket engines and two solid rocket boosters on the first stage, and one liquid rocket engine on the second stage. (+5)
• Stage Recovery 1: The solid first stage of the Ares I can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+3)
• Stage Recovery 2: The SRBs on the Ares IV and V can land safely in the ocean with parachutes. (+4)
• Asparagus Staging: Use asparagus staging on any vehicle. (-50)
• Orion: Orion is launched on the Ares I rocket and has space for at least three kerbals for stock entries, or four kerbals for modded entries. (+6)
• Crew Safety: Orion includes a solid-fueled launch escape tower. (+4)
• Crew Mobility: All surface modules have functional ladders. (+1)
• Crew Survivability: Any kerbal dies (or runs out of life support supplies if you're using a life support mod). (-50 per kerbal)
• Life Support: Use a life support mod (+25)
• Larger Than Life: Use a scaled-up version of the Kerbol system with a scale factor of at least 2. (+(5+scale factor))
• Commnet: Do everything with commnet enabled at the default (normal mode) settings or more difficult. (+10)
• Surface Science Bonus: If you're in career or science mode, gather as many science points as you can with only one landing. This is a separate score - not related to the main points system - for each challenge that you do, and it only includes stock science experiments (non-stock parts which do stock experiments are okay to use). You may not use a science lab to increase science yield. In order to do the challenge in career mode, you may use save file editing to provide yourself with funds and science points.

• Objective: Send a fully crewed Orion spacecraft and an Asteroid Research Module to rendezvous with a Near Kerbin Asteroid (NKA) - this is defined as any asteroid which passes through Kerbin's SOI - and then return the crew safely to Kerbin. (+20)
• Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous: The Orion spacecraft and the ARM are launched separately and dock in Kerbin orbit before transferring to the asteroid. (+5)
• Asteroid Research Module: The ARM is derived in some way from the Altair lander (it should be visually similar), and includes a grabbing unit to attach to the asteroid. It should be able to undock from the Orion spacecraft when near the asteroid, and land on the asteroid using its own propulsion systems. (+8)
• Asteroid Science: The ARM includes a functional drill, ore tanks, and some sort of science equipment for surveying the asteroid. (+5) OOPS
• Crew Comfort: The ARM includes habitation space for all of the kerbals on the mission. (+5)
• Moderate Duration: The total time the crew spend in space is less than 20 Kerbin days. (+6)
• Taking Things Literally: As per the quote used to introduce this challenge, poke the asteroid with a stick. (+2)

I forgot about the drill and tank,

My Orion couldn't take the re-entry heat from thatfar away. I ha to areobrake and go around a few times. That cost me time.

If I had spent less time "Over there" it would have bee fine. As it is the total trip was about 20 days but most probably more than that.

so Total score: 81

Total score: 81

I would like to request my next badge.

 

Thank you.

 

ME

 

PS

EJ I will make more mission patches.

 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Martian Emigrant

[Firemetal]

Ok so a few questions. First of all, you are aloud to have less than 3 or 4 kerbals, that's just for extra points, right? Also I'm doing it in RO. Does that count as extra points?

Thanks,

Fire

[septemberWaves]

@Martian Emigrant Congratulations, you've completed the Asteroid Rendezvous mission and have earned the relevant badge.

 

44 minutes ago, Firemetal said:

Ok so a few questions. First of all, you are aloud to have less than 3 or 4 kerbals, that's just for extra points, right? Also I'm doing it in RO. Does that count as extra points?

You have to have the stated numbers of kerbals in order for your entry to count.

Regarding RO, since it's essentially a rescale it should be treated as a 10x rescale for the points.

Edited February 22, 2017 by eloquentJane

[michal.don]

5 hours ago, eloquentJane said:

It looked to be a pretty good mission. The vehicle designs were nice and fairly realistic-looking for the most part, and the mission execution appeared to be good other than the fact that you didn't land all four kerbals on the Mun.

Thanks for the badge, and the next time, I'll pay more attention to all the requirements of the mission. Just like in the real life, it's important to read the whole contract, or you are going to have a bad time

Michal.don

[NISSKEPCSIM]

All four of my kerbals are now on a return trajectory from the Mun, will post the full report once they've landed. On a side note, I've discovered that Mechjeb autopilot can control a vessel even if it has no crew or probe cores. (I found this out when I tried to intercept the Altair ascent stage with the orbiting Orion)