Kerpollo - A Complete Science Mode Run In 9 Acts

[FloppyRocket]

Meanwhile, back FloppyRocket-land, there will be brief delay while the Munpollo ship is re-designed into something that stands a chance of making the whole round-trip. Munpollo-A and Munpollo-B have been retired.

- Munpollo-A vanished in a cloud of reversion-dust when it failed to escape Mun's steely clutches.

- Munpollo-B made only one test launch before being retired to the land of shame.

I blame these design errors on uncontrolled weight-gain by the capsule occupant. Jeb seems to have put on an unexpected 0.9 tons between design and launch.

[VQkr]

Cool challenge, I'll give it a go. I'm new to this, so let me know if I need to provide more (or less) info.

My mods, as such, are all navigational and engineering: I have KER, transit window planner, and trajectories. Pretty vanilla start, except for some tweaks to the coms network:

https://imgur.com/36ufWhx

https://imgur.com/TIuIctb

Let's roll (heh). First runabout for KSC science works ok, as long as you stay below ~5 m/s. Not much fun to pilot, though.

https://imgur.com/ZqYb9ve

https://imgur.com/AudNlC5

That'll get me through the first two tiers. Time for orbit!

https://imgur.com/XtdzUo5

1 - Kerpollo: The first thing

https://imgur.com/Bxseijx

Pretty simple stack. Turned out rather conservative - about 1300 m/s of extra dV before I dumped the last thrusting stage on reentry. Munar orbital mission would have been possible, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I grabbed EVAs for all major biomes with a polar orbit, and ended up on the southern ice shelf:

https://imgur.com/D0Tb7en

That wrapped up science through the 90 level, plus fuel systems (gotta have those ducts):

https://imgur.com/0WIa2qm

On to the moon!

Edited February 20, 2019 by VQkr

[VQkr]

20 hours ago, VQkr said:

On to the moon!

2 - Munpollo: One biggish step for Jeb

No docking ports yet, but that doesn't mean we can't use an orbiter! Mission plan is to stay connected until in low Munar orbit, then return to the orbiter via spacewalk after the rendezvous.

https://imgur.com/kqJIDgJ

Launch went pretty well, though the use of a wrong-way decoupler on the orbiter seems to have confused the fuel flow presets. Some resource transfers will be needed to avoid separating the lander with dry tanks. Another polar orbit for EVA science. The farside crater seems flattish, so we'll give that a try... Jeb is the only landing-qualified pilot at this point, so he's hopping in the lander and leaving Bob in orbit.

https://imgur.com/ELjSVik

https://imgur.com/w5Y4HDc

https://imgur.com/1mECrer

Plenty of dV to spare; if we had a heat shield we could take the lander home! Oh well... time for a Munar rendezvous. Grab the science and move over to the equally-crowded orbiter, time for 6 days of endurance flight while we overfly the rest of the Munar biomes. Twin Craters finally came around about as we hit orbital alignment, and we have 16 units of fuel left after the Kerbin transfer burn!

https://imgur.com/xs2HA5I

https://imgur.com/nhYe3Ve

https://imgur.com/lwDbvNL

Back home, we've a splashdown this time so no flag to mark the spot. Mission science gathered: 1287.2. Time to find out how Minmus tastes!

https://imgur.com/pbF0HeV

Edited February 20, 2019 by VQkr
forgot screenshots

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, VQkr said:

Time to find out how Minmus tastes!

Welcome to the game! Nice pair of missions there, I especially like having an orbiter even though it's not necessary.

I'm on mobile right now so I'll update the list tomorrow.

[jinnantonix]

Quote

I especially like having an orbiter even though it's not necessary.

Necessary?  What does that have to do with it?  I say it just isn't Kerpollo without an orbiter and lander.

[FloppyRocket]

Completed Munpollo mission.

Ship Munpollo-C got the job done with about 260 m/s delta-v to spare. Only a couple of reverts needed.

Launch image here:

 

As landed image here:

 

On recovery from Kerbin grasslands, the net science for the mission was 760.4. Having Jeb do a one-orbit EVA around the Mun before landing covered a lot of biomes.

In other news, the end of the mission takes a long time when you do two orbits of aerobraking, and run out of battery power. 65 units of ablator left when jettisoned. 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by FloppyRocket
Removing double-redundancies.

[jinnantonix]

Final submission for Kerpollo: Part9 Joolollo, mission video below.  Mission notes:

• The self imposed challenge was to land a 2 man pressurised vessel on all five of Jool's moons. 
• In accordance with Werner von Kermans vision for a glider landing for Duna, this was executed on Laythe. 
• To provide aerodynamics to the Laythe glider and a robust landing module for atmospheric pressure, the lander chosen was a Mk2 Cockpit with Spark engines - and this was re-used for all other landings. 
• The Kerpollo mission trained an individual scientist for each of the Jool moons, so 5 scientists were on the mission, in addition to Jeb the pilot and Bill the ISRU engineer. 
• All landings included a full compliment of science instruments, although the team were enjoying themselves so much they mostly forgot to gather any science. 
• All flights were tested at Kerbin, so the craft components are all engineered with a design factor of 2 - Werner just insisted. 
• DeltaV was never really an issue, although Laythe to Pol turned out to be a bit closer than expected. 
• The policy of parking the NERVA tug in a highly elliptical orbit, and dropping the lander from there, saved valuable fuel at Laythe and enabled the Kerbin return direct from Tylo   .
• The safety and comfort of the Kerbal crew was also a priority, so as with all previous Kerpollo missions, the Kerbals enjoyed an PPD-10 Hitchhiker and an artificial gravity environment for the journey. 

All went well with no unexpected explosions, the Laythe landing being the most enjoyable and satisfying.   

Kerpollo mission complete.

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by jinnantonix

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, jinnantonix said:

Final submission for Kerpollo: Part9 Joolpollo

Awesomely done! And welcome to the winner's circle!

[GRS]

Is ordinary Science mode (where funds are no problem), is this fine ??? (Sorry but i still don't understand) i'll start after my Ultimate Challenge.

[Superfluous J]

18 minutes ago, GRS said:

Is ordinary Science mode (where funds are no problem), is this fine ??? (Sorry but i still don't understand) i'll start after my Ultimate Challenge.

I need to reword the first post. Not only is it fine, it's the mode you're supposed to use

[GRS]

K, Thanks !!! Now it's fixed, i'll do this later. 

[VQkr]

On 2/19/2019 at 8:48 PM, VQkr said:

Time to find out how Minmus tastes!

3 - Minpollo: Larger and in-charger

We've unlocked enough pods for a heavier mission, complete with docking.

Our space program has been expanded to seven Kerbonauts, and they all are taking part this time around. No 2.5m aeroshell, so the craft is a bit wasp-waisted:

Here's a view after TMI and MCC1, showing the exposed lander sandwiched between the orbiter and kicker:

To save weight, I didn't put any RCS on the orbiter. Turns out that I ALSO forgot that my lander pod has no built-in reaction wheel. That means that orbital transposition and docking was a bit of a pain - I only have a mission total of 30 units of RCS propellant to work with, and in the initial configuration the lander handles like a dead horse with a live elephant on its back. The slight offset and very high COG, combined with the minimal thrust vectoring of the Spark engine, make this a pretty tough landing. Fortunately, flats is something Minmus has lots of:

https://imgur.com/fLQm2IT

Turns out Minmus isn't edible. Fortunately, there are snacks in the orbiter. The ascent stage handles much better with the more balanced COG. Docking wasn't as easy as it could have been, but we managed it with just over 50% RCS remaining.

https://imgur.com/ozSqgDI

On the way home, we flew past the Mun to show the rookies the first manned landing site in our program. Our landing site was just near enough to dry land to catch the Shores biome.

https://imgur.com/sLCcwOV

https://imgur.com/rvxEWBv

1326 science collected, all of which was used filling out most of the tier 6 science. No new scientific instruments unlocked, unfortunately. No worry though: it is time to prove once and for all whether Dres exists.

[FloppyRocket]

Well, drats. Halfway through my first try at Minpollo, a thought occurred that I might have accidentally unlocked a docking port in Level 5 (via the Miniaturization node). I didn't think about checking for that before I launched Minpollo-A, because frankly I've never used a docking port before, and I really intended to make only small changes to Munpollo-C and re-use the core design for Minpollo-A. Per the challenge rules, I have to use an orbiter/lander combination after I have a docking port available.

Mostly my KSP time has been spent in Career mode churning out LKO rescue contracts via writing kOS autopilot scripts.  All my rescue contracts have involved an EVA between ships - docking ports are a novelty.

So, after I complete the in-progress Minmus landing just for the personal experience (because I've never been farther than the Mun before), I'll have to revert and not purchase the "Miniaturization" node, and then re-build and launch Minpollo-A again.

I'll have to figure out a strategy for the later missions where I might need items farther up the tech tree, which then will force use of the the orbiter/lander combination.

Edited February 22, 2019 by FloppyRocket

[ManEatingApe]

The Joolpollo mission started with this craft

has been finished and the entire tech tree unlocked in 2 missions.

Videos posted in the Jool 5 thread:
Part 1: Launch and KEKKJ transfer
Part 2: Tylo and Laythe
Part 3: Vall, Bop, Pol and return journey (the Kerbin re-entry was particularly fun)

Now for Munpollo, Minpollo, Drespollo, Eelollo, Mohollo, Dunpollo and Evepollo...

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, FloppyRocket said:

I've never been farther than the Mun before

I'm quite honored that you've picked my challenge as the impetus for pressing you to explore the rest of Kerbal space.

 

34 minutes ago, ManEatingApe said:

The Joolpollo mission started with this craft



has been finished and the entire tech tree unlocked in 2 missions.

What did you how did you I don't even...

[FloppyRocket]

19 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

The Joolpollo mission started with this craft

 

Egad...or Wow!... I'm not sure which is more appropriate.

Edited February 22, 2019 by FloppyRocket

[FloppyRocket]

@5thHorseman,

In the Joolpollo mission, it says "Do a Jool 5". Could you provide a little more detail, or a link? I'm not familiar with it.

Does "Jool 5" also explain why it says "you need an orbiter around every world you land on"? Does that mean you need a separate orbiter for each world? Or just that one has to be left in orbit around each world during the landing (as the challenge already stipulates once you have docking ports unlocked). I'm wondering if there is some non-obvious requirement hiding in the text.

The wording is a tiny bit unclear.

Thanks!

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by FloppyRocket

[GRS]

22 minutes ago, FloppyRocket said:

@5thHorseman,

In the Joolpollo mission, it says "Do a Jool 5". Could you provide a little more detail, or a link? I'm not familiar with it.

Does "Jool 5" also explain why it says "you need an orbiter around every world you land on"? Does that mean you need a separate orbiter for each world? Or just that one has to be left in orbit around each world during the landing (as the challenge already stipulates once you have docking ports unlocked). I'm wondering if there is some non-obvious requirement hiding in the text.

The wording is a tiny bit unclear.

Thanks!

 

Jool 5 = Land on all of Jool moons in one mission.

[Superfluous J]

37 minutes ago, FloppyRocket said:

In the Joolpollo mission, it says "Do a Jool 5". Could you provide a little more detail, or a link? I'm not familiar with it.

What @GRS said. In particular, you must, with a single launch, land on all 5 moons of Jool, each with an orbiter around the moon as your lander goes down and comes back up to dock them together.

And no, it's not supposed to be easy.

 

 

[GRS]

Shortly single launch Jool 5 with a Mothership, and an optional Inter-Jool craft part. (Just making @5thHorseman's words shorter)

[FloppyRocket]

Minpollo accomplished, using ship Minpollo-Aa. Re-built after reverting to fix my previously-reported accidental acquisition of docking port technology.

Tech tree (w/o the problematic Miniaturization node)

:

 

Ship Minpollo-Aa (never played with the Skipper engine before)

 

Landed - looking very minty

 

The mission itself ran pretty smoothly - didn't bounce the landing, used EVA during polar orbits of Minmus and Kerbin to corral some additional science.

Science net for this mission: 885.9 points.

Probably going for Drespollo next, but I'm going to need a bigger rocket.

[Superfluous J]

5 hours ago, FloppyRocket said:

never played with the Skipper engine before

Wait until you try the Mainsail And these days, those are the small "big engines."

Dres is a good choice for your 4th Kerpollo mission. It's a hefty bump up in difficulty but the axial tilt lessons you learned with Minmus should come in handy, and once you get there Dres is actually smaller than Mun so anything that could land on Mun will have no problem there.

[GRS]

Plans ???

Well...

Will send at least 5 Kerbals each mission. (25 or 125 for Dres, i guess)

Half (50%) science gain (because i want to).

No Landing Legs. (At least excepting Evepollo)

Will be executed after some vacation from KSP post Sheep v3 Grand Tour.

Edited February 23, 2019 by GRS

[VQkr]

On 2/20/2019 at 11:39 PM, VQkr said:

it is time to prove once and for all whether Dres exists.

4 - Drespollo: Skipping Dres Rehearsal

https://imgur.com/UvB9g9n

Minpollo had lots of dV remaining, so we are using nearly the same craft with some tweaks using newly available parts.

https://imgur.com/rpdOkKH

https://imgur.com/E7rMrRw

The lander, now modified with reaction wheels, handles much better. I also added RCS and spare monopropellant to my orbiter to provide some flexibility.

2121 science earned; enough to unlock the seismometer, nuclear engine, and atmospheric analyzer among other things. Put on your sunscreen; it's time to go tanning on Moho!

[FloppyRocket]

Today's observation (without having read @VQkr 's post which probably makes mine seem stupid...)

Designing a ship with orbiter/lander and return from Dres is much harder work than I expected. But, I didn't really know what I was getting into when I started this challenge. I'm learning a lot, though.