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Kerpollo - A Complete Science Mode Run In 9 Acts


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@Superfluous J, here's my next mission report:

DISCLAIMER: The following is a fictional account of a trip to a made-up world, Dres. The flight director producer would like to remind everyone that Dres does not exist, and rumors of its existence are false. Furthermore, rumors of a secret prison facility on Dres are patently false because, obviously, Dres does not not exist! Those continuing to spread rumors about Dres may be given the opportunity to learn about its non-existance firsthand!


With the KNSA legal mumbo jumbo out of the way (What's that all about?), I'm happy to report that the Dres mission is complete. The launcher flew really well and I put the transfer vehicle into a 250x250 orbit to make the long burn to Dres. I had a really hard time getting an encounter, so I launched with just a close approach and made two small correction burns along the way. After inserting into a polar orbit, Bob went EVA for a while until he had collected reports for all the biomes, then flew the lander down to plant the flag and collect a surface sample. The return was uneventful except that there wasn't enough fuel to capture in Kerbin orbit. I tried to aerocapture just for fun, but the angle was too steep and the remaining engine and fuel tank (aka, auxilliary heatshields) got all explodey. The capsule was unharmed and we had an uneventful landing on the polar caps. Next stops: Duna! And Ike!

 

Mission Details below:

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Full album is here: https://imgur.com/a/k0pwRNw

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  On 6/1/2020 at 9:47 AM, Grogs said:

I had a hard time getting an encounter. Whenever I would start moving the intercept closer, it would disappear. I finally launched with this and made two small corrections en route to finally get an encounter.

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I have this issue all the time with the smaller worlds. Dres and Gilly in particular are a chore to get to. I find that exactly what you did (eject with the assurance that you can fix it later) is the best course of action.

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I'm happy to report that Dunpollo is complete! Middle planet for the middle mission.

I decided to set this up as a true Apollo-style mission with a 3-kerbal Mk1-3 pod and a 2-kerbal Mk2 lander. This decision meant I had a pilot (Val) to make maneuver nodes if necessary during rendevous. Of course that also meant a larger ship. I took advantage of the new 3.75 meter tanks and some Twin Boar and Pollux boosters to get everything moving in the right direction. I also employed the three new science instruments: the atmospheric analyzer, seismometer, and the infrared telescope. Bob and Val were able to plant flags on both Duna and Ike, and then return home with over 6000 science!

Next up: Eelollo, which sounds like a rock music festival.

 

Details below:

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Full album here: https://imgur.com/a/l181y1r

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@Superfluous J, I'm happy to report that Eelollo is complete and so is my tech tree. I was amazed at the amount of science I received, over 10,000 points. I guess it was a combination of the high Eeloo multiplier, plus all those gravioli detector scans of each biome. The crew decided that they weren't doing a 10+ year mission crammed into a capsule so I designed Eelollo Prime around a Mk3 Cockpit with a crew compartment and cargo bay. It made for a cool (not so) little ship, but it required a huge launcher and transfer vehicle to put it into Eeloo orbit. All four of my kebonauts (including Bill!) went on the mission.

Next mission: Mohollo!

Details are below. Full album here: https://imgur.com/a/XDhZs6X

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@Superfluous J, Mohollo is done! Bob and Val visited the Mohole-o while on Moho and pondered the idea (i.e., quicksaved) of landing at the bottom, but quickly realized that was ludicrous (i.e., blew up and then reloaded). Still, they landed on the edge and enjoyed the splendor of the 5-km deep hole at the top of the planet. I didn't do any tricks like gravity assists, so it was a brute-force 5-6k m/s of dV each way. Beyond making the large ship it wasn't wasn't too terribly difficult though.

Up next is Evepollo. I shudder at the thought of another visit to the purple kerbal eater. I've been working on some designs, and while I can get the individual phases working, they don't work together. For example, I've got a good Eve ascent vehicle and it can make orbit from Eve sea level in tests. When I put the chutes and heat shields on and actually land it first, it explodes on liftoff. And the launcher works great when testing it with a fuel tank as cargo, but when I put the actual lander on top it explodes just after liftoff. I'll get it eventually, but it will take some time to work everything out.

Details of the Mohollo mission below:

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Full album is here: https://imgur.com/a/74ljnp8

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  On 6/10/2020 at 2:45 PM, Venturer2Space said:

Hi @Superfluous J I'm new to the forums but I've been playing KSP for a few years now. I can't wait to give this a go after a few tests in sandbox. 

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Thanks! My original Kerpollo run (not a challenge back then just my idea for a fun playthrough) was back in 0.23.5 and I consider it the best teacher of the game I ever had.

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  On 6/11/2020 at 9:59 AM, Venturer2Space said:

I was just wondering @Superfluous J would it be ok for me to write up my report in the Mission Reports Forum, of course linking back to this challenge.. 

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Yes several others have and I don't mind at all. Just make sure you link to it here at least when you start so I can follow along, and when you finish so you can claim your prize.

Disclaimer: There is no prize.

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  On 6/11/2020 at 10:13 AM, Superfluous J said:

Yes several others have and I don't mind at all. Just make sure you link to it here at least when you start so I can follow along, and when you finish so you can claim your prize.

Disclaimer: There is no prize.

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Fab! I'll set it up in a couple of days ;) 

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Welcome aboard @sturmhauke and @Venturer2Space. It's a fun challenge and gives you a reason to visit every body in the Kerbol system.

 

@Superfluous J, I'm happy to report that Evepollo was a success! After several redesigns, I finally got all of the components working together without too many explosions. At Eve, Jeb wanted to see the beach so he set the 120-ton lander down in a spot only 160 meters above sea level. This gave him an opportunity to prove Bill's claim that the ascender was capable of reaching orbit from sea level. Bill came through on this one, and Jeb and Bob safely launched it back to orbit and rendezvous with the orbiter with almost 1000 m/s to spare. After that, the Nerv-powered orbiter took a tiny lander to Gilly where Jeb touched down briefly. The highlight of this phase was Jeb riding the lander's command seat while still attached to the orbiter like some sort of a prowhead from an old sailing ship.

 

Next and final(!) mission will be Joolollo! I'm going to try and do a Jeb-level Jool-5 with full science collection, 2 kerbals on every landing, and a unique kerbal for each moon. I'm sensing that it's going to be a big ship, so lots of design work ahead!

 

Details of the Evepollo mission below:

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Full album is here: https://imgur.com/a/k5etULX

Edited by Grogs
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  On 6/14/2020 at 1:21 AM, Grogs said:

Hey @Superfluous J did you see my Evepollo report above? I'm getting ready for the Joolollo-5 mission now and I want to make sure everything is good with Eve before I proceed.

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Weekends are crazy busy. I should hopefully have time to review all posts tomorrow. Sorry!

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  On 6/14/2020 at 1:21 AM, Grogs said:

Hey @Superfluous J did you see my Evepollo report above? I'm getting ready for the Joolollo-5 mission now and I want to make sure everything is good with Eve before I proceed.

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You look good. Sorry for the delay!

Nice job getting back to Eve orbit with only 7000m/s. I give myself more than the 8000 listed and usually have to try several times.

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  On 6/14/2020 at 10:10 PM, Superfluous J said:

You look good. Sorry for the delay!

Nice job getting back to Eve orbit with only 7000m/s. I give myself more than the 8000 listed and usually have to try several times.

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Great! I'll tell Wernher to get cracking on the Joolollo rocket.

 

I've always used the magic 8k number for Eve planning too, but when I finally came up with a design that worked I ran with it. There were a lot of flipping rockets and suborbital flights before I came up that design though.

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