The Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge Continued

[DerekL1963]

1 minute ago, sturmhauke said:

I dropped off 3 landers in Tylo orbit, one in Laythe orbit, and one out in high Jool orbit (I think that was the Pol lander). I picked up the Tylo lander from, er, Tylo, and everyone else got picked up in Laythe orbit. Mine was probably not the best method though - Laythe is somewhat more difficult to get to. Bop is the worst though. A highly inclined orbit and a tiny SOI makes for a ludicrous number of maneuvers.

I did the whole thing with two landers and tanker/crew transfer vessel.  The Laythe lander was specialized and abandoned in Laythe orbit. (Also because I didn't want to haul it back out of the gravity well.)   The core of the Tylo lander (which started life with a crasher stage and two radials) also served as the Vall, Bop, and Pol lander.  My problem with Bop was it's tiny SOI...  Even though MJ assured me I was going to intercept, the orbit lines didn't show the intercept until I was practically in the SOI.

[GRS]

11 minutes ago, sturmhauke said:

I dropped off 3 landers in Tylo orbit, one in Laythe orbit, and one out in high Jool orbit (I think that was the Pol lander). I picked up the Tylo lander from, er, Tylo, and everyone else got picked up in Laythe orbit. Mine was probably not the best method though - Laythe is somewhat more difficult to get to. Bop is the worst though. A highly inclined orbit and a tiny SOI makes for a ludicrous number of maneuvers.

you can still ignore that inclination of Bop's, if you use rendezvous style you will stay in zero inclination (sort of) orbit around Jool, just go to the "two points", Laythe wont be so hard compared to Tylo, better use jets, Laythe has atmosphere for some aerobrakes

[Marschig]

Three rocket spaceplanes with ISRU:

https://kerbalx.com/Marschig/RS-125

https://kerbalx.com/Marschig/RS-250

https://kerbalx.com/Marschig/RS-375

 

[sdj64]

This will be the 5th time I've attempted the Jool 5 Challenge

Today is the 5th anniversary of the Jool 5 challenge

And now, in KSP 1.5!

So naturally, 125 Kerbals are going to Jool.

Actually, 1.5 threw off my plan.  I had planned this mission when KSP was in 1.4.5, where the 3rd "5" was, of course, the 5 moons of Jool.  But when 1.5 dropped my first thought was "oh now I have to do 625" then "well this part count is spiraling out of control" then "better finish my 125 kerbal ship..."

[PTGFlyer]

I'm using heavily modded 1.1.3 because I just came back to KSP after a couple of years, tried to update, it didn't work, and I don't want to put the effort in. Can I still do the challenge?

[JacobJHC]

13 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

I'm using heavily modded 1.1.3 because I just came back to KSP after a couple of years, tried to update, it didn't work, and I don't want to put the effort in. Can I still do the challenge?

Sure!

On 11/7/2018 at 9:20 AM, Marschig said:

Three rocket spaceplanes with ISRU:

https://kerbalx.com/Marschig/RS-125

https://kerbalx.com/Marschig/RS-250

https://kerbalx.com/Marschig/RS-375

 

Three Jool 5s at one time... you deserve a medal.

Congratulations @Marschig for completing 3 Jool 5s on level 2. I was the most impressed by the Tylo landings for each plane. You must have really put effort into those landings. Visiting Duna and Minmus were also nice touches. One question I do have.. was the Duna landing for refueling purposes or just for destination reasons?

14 hours ago, sdj64 said:

This will be the 5th time I've attempted the Jool 5 Challenge

Today is the 5th anniversary of the Jool 5 challenge

And now, in KSP 1.5!

So naturally, 125 Kerbals are going to Jool.

Actually, 1.5 threw off my plan.  I had planned this mission when KSP was in 1.4.5, where the 3rd "5" was, of course, the 5 moons of Jool.  But when 1.5 dropped my first thought was "oh now I have to do 625" then "well this part count is spiraling out of control" then "better finish my 125 kerbal ship..."

The master returns. May I say that ship is very well detailed. I can't wait to see it in action. Will it be dropping a Tylo lander or going in itself?

[Marschig]

11 minutes ago, JacobJHC said:

Congratulations @Marschig for completing 3 Jool 5s on level 2. I was the most impressed by the Tylo landings for each plane. You must have really put effort into those landings. Visiting Duna and Minmus were also nice touches. One question I do have.. was the Duna landing for refueling purposes or just for destination reasons?

Duna was visited to check the possibility of vertical landing in a thin atmosphere.

Could I clarify? Why level 2 for RS-250 and RS-375? They have 5 and 6 seats. "at least one unique Kerbonaut landing on each moon" means "no together landing"?

[JacobJHC]

3 hours ago, Marschig said:

Could I clarify? Why level 2 for RS-250 and RS-375? They have 5 and 6 seats. "at least one unique Kerbonaut landing on each moon" means "no together landing"?

Whoops. My bad. I'll move RS-250 and RS-375 to level 3. Once again amazing job getting a SSTE to be able to handle Tylo of all places. Major hats off to you.

[PTGFlyer]

3 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

Sure!

well

time to figure out how to turn an asteroid into an orbital refueling station.

[PTGFlyer]

Idea: Use 1 ion engine for maximum efficiency.

[PTGFlyer]

3 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

well

time to figure out how to turn an asteroid into an orbital refueling station.

turns out I really REALLY don’t want to spend all that time and energy in Sandbox just to do a challenge. Career, maybe someday. Where in the game files do I go to stick a class E in an orbit of my choosing?

Edited November 9, 2018 by PTGFlyer

[sdj64]

8 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

The master returns. May I say that ship is very well detailed. I can't wait to see it in action. Will it be dropping a Tylo lander or going in itself?

It's going to be tight on delta V but the intent is to land all 125 on every moon!  It has a VTOL system to land on its belly, since it's too big to tail-land and flop like Marschig's ships.  It also carries a lander in one of the cargo bays, but it's intended for biome hopping for science and can't both land and return to orbit on Tylo.

[JacobJHC]

1 hour ago, PTGFlyer said:

Where in the game files do I go to stick a class E in an orbit of my choosing?

I feel that would count as cheating....

7 minutes ago, sdj64 said:

It's going to be tight on delta V but the intent is to land all 125 on every moon!  It has a VTOL system to land on its belly, since it's too big to tail-land and flop like Marschig's ships.  It also carries a lander in one of the cargo bays, but it's intended for biome hopping for science and can't both land and return to orbit on Tylo.

Oh dang, this may be the most interesting ISRU ship I've seen yet.

[PTGFlyer]

 

1 minute ago, JacobJHC said:

I feel that would count as cheating....

Does setting up the space fuel station count as part of the mission?

[JacobJHC]

9 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

 

Does setting up the space fuel station count as part of the mission?

It wouldn't. Where would you be putting the asteroid? And would you be redirecting it using your Jool 5 mission or a separate mission?

[PTGFlyer]

I figured I'd find a way to spawn an asteroid in an 80k orbit and take it from there, because I don't feel like going through all the hassle of figuring out how to capture an asteroid.

[JacobJHC]

2 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

I figured I'd find a way to spawn an asteroid in an 80k orbit and take it from there, because I don't feel like going through all the hassle of figuring out how to capture an asteroid.

Spawning it into a perfect 80k orbit is just cheating by itself. If you want to use an asteroid in a Jool 5 mission you will need to first visit/ redirect it during the mission, no mission can come prior and set up a refueling base. If you want to fly to it, dock to it, refuel, and then go to Jool from the asteroid that is fine, but using a pre-placed asteroid or refueling base is not.

[PTGFlyer]

28 minutes ago, JacobJHC said:

Spawning it into a perfect 80k orbit is just cheating by itself. If you want to use an asteroid in a Jool 5 mission you will need to first visit/ redirect it during the mission, no mission can come prior and set up a refueling base. If you want to fly to it, dock to it, refuel, and then go to Jool from the asteroid that is fine, but using a pre-placed asteroid or refueling base is not.

So we don't get to set up any infrastructure whatsoever before the mission?

Edited November 9, 2018 by PTGFlyer

[DerekL1963]

2 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

So we don't get to set up any infrastructure whatsoever before the mission?

That's sort of the point IMO - an all-in-one self contained mission.

[JacobJHC]

3 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

So we don't get to set up any infrastructure whatsoever before the mission?

Nope. The idea of the Jool 5 is for a single mission to do it. This can take the form of one large ship launched at one time, or as one large ship assembled in LKO.

[PTGFlyer]

Fair point.

But it seems like assembling in LKO isn't functionally different from refueling. Couldn't you just launch a bunch of fuel tanks, transfer, light the engines, and immediately jettison them?

[JacobJHC]

21 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

Fair point.

But it seems like assembling in LKO isn't functionally different from refueling. Couldn't you just launch a bunch of fuel tanks, transfer, light the engines, and immediately jettison them?

You could, but the ship would still be departing from LKO as one big ship, even if there is staging involved.

Tell you what, if you manually capture an asteroid and build a refueling rig on it, you can build your ship on the station, fuel up the ship and then go to Jool, BUT, no part of the station or the asteroid can come to Jool. All parts of the base must remain in LKO and actually be flown.

[sdj64]

On 11/9/2018 at 3:23 PM, JacobJHC said:

Nope. The idea of the Jool 5 is for a single mission to do it. This can take the form of one large ship launched at one time, or as one large ship assembled in LKO.

On 11/9/2018 at 10:26 PM, PTGFlyer said:

Fair point.

But it seems like assembling in LKO isn't functionally different from refueling. Couldn't you just launch a bunch of fuel tanks, transfer, light the engines, and immediately jettison them?

Generally, I have allowed anything in Kerbin SOI before you leave, provided you fly it yourself and don't just cheat-menu it into position.  You could capture an asteroid, set up a mining outpost on Minmus, launch a huge fuel depot or tanker, or any other infrastructure of your choosing.  I have accepted entries that used each of those things, usually they were done in an existing save with the stuff already there.  You can't interact with any ships/stations beyond Kerbin's SOI though.

Jacob's decision is his to make though, this is just for perspective of how it was handled before.

 

Update on my own ship: I think I will probably have to add a couple of nukes for the transfer from Pol-Tylo and back.  It's just not quite enough to make it as-is.  Maybe I can switch some of the LF storage to LFO and eke out more vacuum performance, I did want to avoid having nukes on this ship.

[JacobJHC]

20 hours ago, sdj64 said:

Generally, I have allowed anything in Kerbin SOI before you leave, provided you fly it yourself and don't just cheat-menu it into position.  You could capture an asteroid, set up a mining outpost on Minmus, launch a huge fuel depot or tanker, or any other infrastructure of your choosing.  I have accepted entries that used each of those things, usually they were done in an existing save with the stuff already there.  You can't interact with any ships/stations beyond Kerbin's SOI though.

I like this perspective more than my previous one, I'll go by this logic. But @PTGFlyer if you do use an asteroid, you must actually fly it. No changing files.

[JacobJHC]

11 hours ago, PTGFlyer said:

I'm using heavily modded 1.1.3 because I just came back to KSP after a couple of years, tried to update, it didn't work, and I don't want to put the effort in. Can I still do the challenge?

Sure!