One life - how far can you get?

EricPoehlsen · January 12, 2018

I would like to use Mechjeb as informational mod - is that within the scope of the challenge?

Planned Mod Setup:

* Kerbal Alarm Clock to plan transfer windows
* Mechjeb for Maneuver-Node Tuning (using the Touchpad on Maneuver Nodes is a nightmare)
* Mechjeb as Build Aid for dV calculations
* Final Frontier - to track what the crew has visited.

Edited January 12, 2018 by EricPoehlsen
complete mod list

Ultimate Steve · January 12, 2018

On 1/12/2018 at 10:46 AM, EricPoehlsen said:

I would like to use Mechjeb as informational mod - is that within the scope of the challenge?

Planned Mod Setup:

* Kerbal Alarm Clock to plan transfer windows
* Mechjeb for Maneuver-Node Tuning (using the Touchpad on Maneuver Nodes is a nightmare)
* Mechjeb as Build Aid for dV calculations
* Final Frontier - to track what the crew has visited.

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Those are all fine as long as you don't use the autopilot or anything.

sevenperforce · January 12, 2018

I think you owe me a new spot on the leaderboard...

Ultimate Steve · January 12, 2018

On 1/12/2018 at 2:38 PM, sevenperforce said:

I think you owe me a new spot on the leaderboard...

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I can't update it right now but I will eventually.

EricPoehlsen · January 13, 2018

The Behemoth has been rolled onto the launch pad - start is scheduled for tomorrow ...

Planned Mission will be revealed shortly before launch. It will either be epic or a 0-points failure ...

michal.don · January 13, 2018

My first try. Planned destinations - Mun, Minmus, Duna, Ike. Not very ambitious, but should do for getting used to stock system again.

Liftoff. Simple launch vehicle, reasonable margins on every stage.

Fairing deployment. Boom. The vhole service module lost, no idea what happened. Well, back to the drawing board

This is the kind of thing which makes me happy to have a quickload/revert option, usually.

Michal.don

Piatzin · January 13, 2018

On 1/13/2018 at 10:16 PM, michal.don said:

Fairing deployment. Boom. The vhole service module lost, no idea what happened. Well, back to the drawing board

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This is why I neglected to add a fairing to my attempt

You should especially avoid them if you're packing wheels. They tend to glitch out, at least for me

Ultimate Steve · January 13, 2018

On 1/13/2018 at 10:19 PM, Earthlinger said:

This is why I neglected to add a fairing to my attempt

You should especially avoid them if you're packing wheels. They tend to glitch out, at least for me

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Yeah, fairings aren't usually dangerous enough to be concerned about but when you only have one life they are a major problem. I had an interstage fairing for my attempt and I only barely got it off - I realized that it would hit the boosters right after I detached it. I solved it by timewarping right after i staged.

michal.don · January 13, 2018

Did a few tests.

The "clamshell" fairings seem to have caused the issue. I loathe the confetti fairing type, but I'll have to put up with them, they don't seem to eat half of my spacecraft, which is a plus. And maybe I'll add a few struts, just in case

Michal.don

Ultimate Steve · January 13, 2018

On 1/13/2018 at 10:28 PM, michal.don said:

And maybe I'll add a few struts

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I got very nervous during my attempt and I think 2/3 of the parts on my craft ended up being struts.

michal.don · January 13, 2018

On 1/13/2018 at 10:31 PM, Ultimate Steve said:

I got very nervous during my attempt and I think 2/3 of the parts on my craft ended up being struts.

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Yeah, I get that, the whole "one life" thing is more serious and nerve-wrecking than I thought it would be

One question though - I'll probably attempt the same mission again, which will probably lead to similar payload, and therefore a similar launcher. I already deleted the sandbox save with all the ships, but is it a problem if the spacecraft will be pretty similar? Or do I have to build something entirely different?

Thanks,

Michal.don

Ultimate Steve · January 13, 2018

On 1/13/2018 at 10:49 PM, michal.don said:

Yeah, I get that, the whole "one life" thing is more serious and nerve-wrecking than I thought it would be

One question though - I'll probably attempt the same mission again, which will probably lead to similar payload, and therefore a similar launcher. I already deleted the sandbox save with all the ships, but is it a problem if the spacecraft will be pretty similar? Or do I have to build something entirely different?

Thanks,

Michal.don

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That's fine.

EricPoehlsen · January 14, 2018

As I said, it will be either epic or a failure - this is the plan ...

Planned Mission Profile for the Behemoth Mission

Reaching LKO ✔ Youtube Video
Transfer to Eve ✔ Beauty shot in eve orbit, after insertion burn
Transfer to Gilly > Landing on Gilly ✔ Jebediah planted a flag - returned to Behemoth
Fueling Eve Lander / Refueling Interplanetary stage ✘destroyed by gravity glitch
Transfer to Low Eve Orbit (did not happen due to failure of 4.)
Landing on Eve (did not happen due to failure of 4.)
Transfer to Moho > Landing on Moho (did not happen due to failure of 4.)
Transfer to Duna > Landing on Duna ✘Behemoth destroyed due to misjudged aerobreak maneuver
Transfer to Ike > Landing on Ike (all below did not happen due to 8. and 4.)
Refueling Interplanetary stage
Transfer to Dres > Landing on Dres
Transfer to Jool (order of next five mission steps will depend on orbital situation)
Landing on Tylo
Landing on Laythe
Landing on Bop
Landing on Pol
Landing on Vall
Refueling Interplanetary Transfer Stage
Transfer to Eeloo > Landing on Eeloo
Transfer to Kerbin
Landing on Minmus
Landing on Mun
Return to Kerbin

Asteroid Encounter maybe added between mission steps 19 and 20 (there is no grappler abord

All of the above will be depending on mission part 1.

Stages / Subvessels of the Behemoth

Asperagus staged Ascent System with a total of 90 S3-KS-25 vector engines
Nuclear powered interplanetary transfer stage with 15 LV-N Nerv Atomic Engine
Two unkerbaled resource harvesters
Two unkerbaled resource scansat
An Eve lander
Four one person landers with 3100m/s dV
One Tylo decent stage
Two atmospheric decent stages (for Duna and Laythe)
Living Quarters and return vehicle for a total of seven crew members

Edited January 18, 2018 by EricPoehlsen
Updated for final result

EricPoehlsen · January 14, 2018

[added to previous post]

Edited January 14, 2018 by EricPoehlsen
removed video and added link to previous post

michal.don · January 14, 2018

Alright,

after cursing the fairing for a fair amount of time, I redesigned the whole spacecraft and gave it another go.

Mission plan - use a single stage lander to land on the Mun and Minmus, redock to the main ship, transfer to Duna, land on Duna and Ike, leave the lander there and return to Kerbin.

The main pictures in spoiler, all of them in an imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/4PpCR

Reveal hidden contents

Turned out I was pretty conservative with the design of the transfer stage and service module - I had more than enough fuel in the tanks to reach low Kerbin orbit an the way back without aerobraking. On the other hand, due to bad piloting (too shallow ascent from Duna) I did not have enough fuel to rendezvous and dock to the main ship and had to do an EVA transfer in Duna orbit - about three kilometres. Apart from that the mission went really smoothly, so I might give this challenge another go with a more ambitious mission profile.

For this attempt, I believe my score should be following:

(Kerbin (5+5) + Mun (10+20+10+10) + Minmus (10+20+10+10) + Kerbol (10) + Ike (20+20+20+20) + Duna (20+30+50+50)) x 2 (for getting everybody home safely)

Which should add up to, if I'm correct, 700 points.

Thanks for the challenge, I had great fun.

Michal.don

Edit: Oh, I did not include the modlist.

KER

Transfer window planner

Scatterer

EVE

Edited January 14, 2018 by michal.don

EricPoehlsen · January 16, 2018

So it looks like my mission will be cut short ...

I set both my refueling landers down on Gilly, switched to the Tracking Station to fast forward and they vanished ...

I don't know why and how - but they are gone.

So now I will probably try to get the ship back to kerbin and do mun and minmus - delta v might be just enough for that.

Edited January 16, 2018 by EricPoehlsen
typo

Human Person · January 17, 2018

I assumed this challenge is a one time only deal, or can I make another entry with a new craft? I‘m still obsessed with doing an Eve return.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Physics Student

EricPoehlsen · January 17, 2018

@Physics Student You have to start a complete new safe-game and state that it is not your first try.

Jetski · January 17, 2018

On 1/16/2018 at 3:18 PM, EricPoehlsen said:

So it looks like my mission will be cut short ...

I set both my refueling landers down on Gilly, switched to the Tracking Station to fast forward and they vanished ...

I don't know why and how - but they are gone.

So now I will probably try to get the ship back to kerbin and do mun and minmus - delta v might be just enough for that.

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This is a problem on Gilly, the grav is so low that ships float off the surface in response to SAS or other slight impulses. Then you go to Tracking station, which sees a ship in an absurdly low suborbital trajectory, puts everything on rails and crashes the ship fatally into Gilly instantly.

EricPoehlsen · January 17, 2018

Behemoth Mission is over ...

After ditching the Eve Lander my deltaV looked promising enough to go out to Duna and Ike and after that return to Kerbin to do Mun and Minmus.

Unfortunatly I misjudged my aerobraking trajectory on Duna and as the Behemoth turns with the grace of a pregnant whale and has about as much thrust as Bob when screaming it crashed. I tried to seperate the Kerbin return vessel to land safely but it collided into the rest of the ship so the crew died.

Final results: