One life - how far can you get?

[EricPoehlsen]

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]

3 hours ago, 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. 

 

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

[sevenperforce]

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

[Ultimate Steve]

5 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

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

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

[EricPoehlsen]

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]

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]

2 minutes ago, michal.don said:

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

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]

3 minutes ago, 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

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]

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]

2 minutes ago, michal.don said:

And maybe I'll add a few struts

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

[michal.don]

14 minutes ago, 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.

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]

34 minutes ago, 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

That's fine.

[EricPoehlsen]

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

Planned Mission Profile for the Behemoth Mission

1. Reaching LKO ✔ Youtube Video
2. Transfer to Eve ✔ Beauty shot in eve orbit, after insertion burn
3. Transfer to Gilly > Landing on Gilly ✔ Jebediah planted a flag - returned to Behemoth
4. Fueling Eve Lander / Refueling Interplanetary stage ✘destroyed by gravity glitch
5. Transfer to Low Eve Orbit (did not happen due to failure of 4.)
6. Landing on Eve (did not happen due to failure of 4.)
7. Transfer to Moho > Landing on Moho (did not happen due to failure of 4.)
8. Transfer to Duna > Landing on Duna ✘Behemoth destroyed due to misjudged aerobreak maneuver
9. Transfer to Ike > Landing on Ike (all below did not happen due to 8. and 4.)
10. Refueling Interplanetary stage
11. Transfer to Dres > Landing on Dres
12. Transfer to Jool (order of next five mission steps will depend on orbital situation)
13. Landing on Tylo
14. Landing on Laythe
15. Landing on Bop
16. Landing on Pol
17. Landing on Vall
18. Refueling Interplanetary Transfer Stage 
19. Transfer to Eeloo > Landing on Eeloo
20. Transfer to Kerbin
21. Landing on Minmus
22. Landing on Mun
23. 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]

[added to previous post]

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

[michal.don]

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

Spoiler

Similar launch vehicle, two additional boosters needed because of increased fuel margins on the main ship

Fairings gone (so ugly, but doesn't damage anything)

Lander with a transfer stage to the Mun

On the surface

On Minmus

Burning for Duna

On Ike

Duna

On our way home

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]

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]

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]

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

[Jetski]

23 hours ago, 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. 

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]

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: 

• Kerbol - 10/-/-/-
• Eve - 20/-/-/-
• Gilly - 20/10/10/-
• Kerbin - 5/-/-/-

Maybe I'll do another run some day - yet with a really different design. The Behemoth had some shortcomings.

[Human Person]

this is my 2nd try, started a new save, build a new ship, landed on Eve but exploded on liftoff from Eve.

Mun and Minmus

Spoiler

Trans Minmus burn:

Minmus to Mun

 

Mun to Gilly 

Spoiler

Mun Orbit to low Kerbin periapsis

There it only takes a small burn to get to Eve

 

Gilly to Eve

Spoiler

So many aerobraking passes... Never do this again without heatshield, especially when I want to play it safe

decoupling return craft

use propulsion for not burning up on reentry

I feel like this was a close call

 

The Disaster

Spoiler

Dropping out of timewarp caused the landing legs to spasm and explode

It was a miracle it stayed rested on the drills.

I got my hopes up, wanted to launch quickly (had to press an action group to disable crossfeed on all the decouplers, throttle up and stage at the same time) and this happened:

 

 

Points:

• Kerbol - 10
• Eve - 20/20
• Gilly - 20/10/10
• Kerbin - 5
• Mun - 10/20/10
• Minmus - 10/20/10

add up to:  175

 

Edited January 18, 2018 by Physics Student

[Jetski]

I'm well on my way, pics to follow. I wanted to see how ions do on this one, here's progress so far:

Landed Mun, Minmus, Gilly, Moho, Ike 

Orbited but did not land Duna, Eve, Jool

I'm currently trying to land on Vall, a bit tricky

Edited January 23, 2018 by Jetski

[Kernel Kraken]

Does being in orbit count as points? (Misread point Tally's), and is there a rule against SSTO's? Seems more efficient when I learn how to build one.

[RedPandaz]

Only one launch or are we allowed to build our craft in LKO?

[Ultimate Steve]

Just now, RedPandaz said:

Only one launch or are we allowed to build our craft in LKO?

One launch.