The Journey of Mapcom Express

[maro]

After the release of the latest remote tech update that had a 500Mio. km Antenna in it I started today a probe tinto Kerbol orbit.

I had two test targets.

- trying to control a probe throug the remote network altough long round trip delay times.

- testing of my first deep space probe launcher – how far I can go with liquid fuel?

Launcher weights 100,2t on the ramp (100 was my target)

The probe itself was build with parts of the RemoteTech and the MMI SatellitePack addons – with ion engine and Mechjeb, mapsat antenna and Camera – total weight 7,3t

The rocket itself is buildt with 1m parts out of the NovaPunch addon

Upper stage has an HH-77 tank with a K2-X engine

Center stage has a FL-S100L tank with a K2-X engine

Six liquid boosters around each with FL-S100L & HH-77 powerd by M50 engine

Boosters brought the ship up into a 15Mio x 16Mio. orbit around kerbol star

At apoapsis (day 64) I burned the center stage very slow – was about 30min. burn time- about half a litre per second. Delay time was 55sec. there. Brought periapsis down to less then 7Mio. km

At day 106 i reached periapsis with 15,7km/s – delay time 47 sec.

Altered apoapsis with upper stage to 31 Mio. km – only 90l fuel left then.

At day 192 I reached apoapsis with 247sec. delay time(!). Command path length 37Mio. km

Burned last fuel there and reached 5,71Mio. x 31,40 Mio. km Orbit with 88days between APO and PE.

Will now make some movements with ion engine – but that’s not included in the basic liqui fuel test.

Maybe I try to go into a polar orbit and/or trying to use Kerbin gravity for a swing-by

Results:

Test target 1

some funny things happen with the steering with such long delay time.

Some of the commands where not affected. The ships start to turn without delay if you put in command in the mechjeb Smart A.S.S.

But if you fire the engines it will take the whole delay time. Otherwise RCS thrusters will start instantly.

You even can affect engine burn tim by activating time warp. Engines will only start to burn after delay time passed AND time warp is deactivated. If you start engines, activating time warp and let it so, engines will never start.

It seemed to me helpful to calculate command delay with tools like this: http://www.online-stopwatch.com

Test Target 2:

You will not need powerfull engines out there. Never used more then 5% of the thrust . Even the weakest engine can move you – so it is better to take more fuel and less engine weight with you in order to maximise your ability to alter your course. Therefore my upper and center stage where large overpowered.

I was able to go a long way with more then 7% of launch weight - and it can be even better with a better fuel/engine combination.

Most critical seems to be the weight you want to move - playing around in the Kerbin system is fun - if you want to go far out its thinking about every part or puting together big ships.