After playing for 5 years, I finally made my first manned trip to Jool!

[SolitaryFortress]

I have been playing for KSP for about 5 years and I finally managed to do a manned trip to Jool!

My trip:

 

[netbumbler]

Nice mission.  I've been playing two years and am finally getting around to it.  Been planning it for over two months now: my ships have gone through 3 design iterations but I think I'm ready.  Planning my Eve mission was simple by comparison. 

[Piper]

I'm embarrassed to say, even after 5 years of playing KSP too, I've yet to actually have Kerbals reach Jool.  I've done tons of unmanned missions, including at least one landing on every moon, and parachuting down the atmosphere of Jool.  The closest was my last career save, where I had send a manned mission (two of them in fact), but when I upgraded to 1.22 I had some conflict with my save (likely with one of my many mods) and had to start anew before any of my ships actually got to Jool

Edited April 18, 2017 by Piper

[SolitaryFortress]

8 minutes ago, Piper said:

I'm embarrassed to say, even after 5 years of playing KSP too, I've yet to actually have Kerbals reach Jool.  I've done tons of unmanned missions, including at least one landing on every moon, and parachuting down the atmosphere of Jool.  The closest was my last career save, where I had send a manned mission (two of them in fact), but when I upgraded to 1.22 I had some conflict with my save (likely with one of my many mods) and had to start anew before any of my ships actually got to Jool

 

The main problem I found when wanting to go to Jool was fuel, I never had enough. Thankfully thanks to the aerobrake and the 9000 delta V I managed to make the trip. The original plan was a 5 man crew with 1 lander, but after many redesigns I settled for a flyby ship with a crew of 2

[TopHeavy11]

I haven't really delved much into the interplanetary realm,as my burns usually require me to leave Kebin first and then do adjustments and wait. I am horribly inefficient...but at least that means that any ship I design is foolproof!

[Enorats]

5 years? You didn't like, I dunno.. forget to time warp?

Those interplanetary trips can be a real pain without something like Mechjeb to plan burns for you. I've been playing for about three years or so and have more than 1100 hours in game and I still can't really eyeball that sort of transfer. I just recently got the hang of using moons to reduce delta-v requirements. Swinging by one of Jool's larger moons to cut off half the insertion burn just never occured to me until I saw another player do it in a video.

[Urses]

8 hours ago, TopHeavy11 said:

...but at least that means that any ship I design is foolproof!

Try DangIt! You can't build foolprof... only foolresistant... 

That is the only moment in KSP where i wish to have an army on Kerbin.

"If a soldier don't break it, nobody can" - Warrantofficer in every army- 

Funny Kabooms 

Urses 

Edited April 18, 2017 by Urses

[Snark]

20 hours ago, SolitaryFortress said:

I have been playing for KSP for about 5 years and I finally managed to do a manned trip to Jool!

Congratulations! 

Moving to Mission Reports.

19 hours ago, SolitaryFortress said:

The main problem I found when wanting to go to Jool was fuel, I never had enough.

Moot point now, since you've already been and gone and done it ... but for anyone who may be following in your footsteps, a few things that can help with the dV requirements:

• Pick a good launch window; makes a heap of difference to how much dV you need for the mission.  There are various planner tools out there-- my personal favorite is http://ksp.olex.biz, mainly because it's so simple/quick to use and has a nice graphical UI that makes it very clear exactly what to do.
• If your dV is hard... try launching to orbit so that you arrive in LKO with empty tanks, and then send up a tanker to refuel it in orbit.  That way you leave Kerbin with a full load of fuel.
• Consider using the LV-N as your interplanetary ejection engine-- the high Isp really helps for those high-dV burns.  Be prepared for some long burns, though.  Physics warp can help, if you're impatient.
• Using a reverse gravity assist from Tylo or Laythe can really save quite a lot of dV upon arrival.  Navigation is a little trickier if you're not used to it, though, since you need to get the timing right.
• If you'll be aerobraking, consider using Laythe for aerobraking into Jool orbit, instead of Jool itself.  Two reasons.  First, your velocity through the atmosphere won't be as high (because you haven't fallen as deep into Jool's gravity well, and also because Laythe is traveling along with you).  Second, after aerobraking into Jool orbit, you'll be in a much friendlier orbit for making rendezvous with other moons (i.e. requiring less dV).  Why?  Because if you aerobrake on Jool itself, it means your resultant Pe will be all the way down on Jool's surface, which means you'll need a bigger burn to match orbit with the other moons.

1 hour ago, Enorats said:

Those interplanetary trips can be a real pain without something like Mechjeb to plan burns for you. I've been playing for about three years or so and have more than 1100 hours in game and I still can't really eyeball that sort of transfer.

You really don't need to eyeball it, nor is MechJeb required-- just go to a trip planner like http://ksp.olex.biz.  You tell it which planet you're leaving from, which planet you're going to, and the height of your parking orbit before departure, and it tells you exactly when, how much, and in what direction to burn, with handy graphics to show you.

[Enorats]

Right, but that's more or less what Mechjeb does too.. except in game and it'll make a manuever node for you and even perform it if you like. How much assistance you want it to give you is up to the player.

Regardless, all I meant was that a tool of some sort is all but required for that sort of transfer (unless you're quite comfortable with advanced math). It's possible to get a reasonable transfer with something as simple as Kerbal Alarm Clock's transfer window calculator and a bit of guess and check with nodes. Just gotta have something that'll tell you when it's a good time to go.

[Mikki]

Congrats and thank you for sharing this adventure, travelling Jool is a great experience and worthwhile to commit! Cheers for you!