The Solar Poles

[zeilden]

Kerbal kind needs to know how long there sun will last. So they have chosen YOU to build and pilot a craft carrying a M700 Survey Scanner.

(Stock, Stock+dlc)

Requirements to complete 

                 Easy: get a craft into a polar orbit around the sun.

                 Medium: get a craft into a polar orbit around the sun. Then return and recover said craft

                 Hard: get a craft into a polar orbit around the sun. Then return and recover said craft WITHOUT ion or nuclear engines.

                 Pretty much impossible: build a station in the polar orbit. By station i meant 3 separate parts (launched at separate times) docked together in polar orbit around kerbol, and powered through the entire orbit. (requiring you to use either enough batteries to hold you over until you get closer to kerbol or rtgs) with room for at least 5 kerbols.

Brownie points to those who impress me.

Note: you can NOT use (hyperedit, Alt+12, ect.)

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by zeilden
dres conspiracy

[jinnantonix]

12 hours ago, zeilden said:

 

Pretty much impossible: build a station in the polar orbit.

 

Define "station".

Also, when  you say “science data”, be aware that the M700 requires a stable orbit between 1.5 and 26 Mm.  Pretty sure there are no stock parts that can get this close to Kerbol.

Edited February 19, 2020 by jinnantonix

[zeilden]

18 hours ago, jinnantonix said:

Define "station".

Also, when  you say “science data”, be aware that the M700 requires a stable orbit between 1.5 and 26 Mm.  Pretty sure there are no stock parts that can get this close to Kerbol.

Sorry i can see how this would be confusing, but by science data i meant as a sort of roll play or something 

 

By station i meant 3 separate parts (launched at separate times) docked together in polar orbit around kerbol, and powered through the entire orbit. with room for at least 5 kerbols.

 

although thanks for pointing that out i did not think about survey range

Edited February 19, 2020 by zeilden

[Jasonden]

23 hours ago, zeilden said:

and powered through the entire orbit. (requiring you to use either enough batteries to hold you over until you get closer to kerbol or rtgs) 

Why is this hard.  Are you worried about having it powered on the night side or something?

[zeilden]

22 minutes ago, Jasonden said:

Why is this hard.  Are you worried about having it powered on the night side or something?

no 

the hard part is rendezvousing in the polar orbit around kerbol, the power part is just so if a station has a near extra kerbol apoapsis (lower delta v needed) they will have to deal with that.

[oAsAo]

Easy mod entry.

[Pds314]

On 2/18/2020 at 4:43 PM, jinnantonix said:

Define "station".

Also, when  you say “science data”, be aware that the M700 requires a stable orbit between 1.5 and 26 Mm.  Pretty sure there are no stock parts that can get this close to Kerbol.

26000 km from Kerbol, which has a radius of around 260000 km? Yeah I'm gonna say no. Or at least, not stably without timewarp bug abuse.

[ralanboyle]

Since we have agreed that the scanner cannot actually be used, is there an orbital range that we need to hit? For example: Inside Moho? Or could one potentially do this challenge with an orbit outside Eeloo if they chose? Does the orbit need to be circularized or can it be highly elliptical? 

[zeilden]

3 hours ago, ralanboyle said:

Since we have agreed that the scanner cannot actually be used, is there an orbital range that we need to hit? For example: Inside Moho? Or could one potentially do this challenge with an orbit outside Eeloo if they chose? Does the orbit need to be circularized or can it be highly elliptical? 

it can be any orbital range 

and no it does not need to be circularized  

personally (haven't figured out the screen shot function for ksp) i sent a huge amount of batteries with 4 1x6 solar panels and used an ion engine to establish my perihelion (3 gm) doing my anti normal burn at the edge of the kerbols soi

Edited March 3, 2020 by zeilden
damn autocorrect

[jinnantonix]

I ran a test mission which established an elliptical polar orbit with Pe inside Moho,. and Ap somewhere beyond Eeloo, about halfway (in km)  to the edge of Kerbol SOI. According to the rules, I understand this is adequate to meet the challenge requirements.  I wanted to return the scanner to Kerbin, but forgot to take a heat shield, so it exploded.  Craft was stock with liquid fuel.  Will run the mission again properly when I have a free moment.

[jinnantonix]

OK, here's my entry, Hard mode. 

• 6 x asparagus launch vehicle with Mammoth engines
• 3 stage craft with Wolfhound engines, and Spider engines for final adjust at Kerbin.
• Jool fly by, assisting to distant Kerbol orbit
• At Ap, plane change from Kerbol equatorial to polar orbit, eject boosters for Kerbol impact
• Craft completes polar orbit with Pe just inside Moho orbit
• At Ap, plane change from Kerbol polar to equatorial orbit, and adjust for rendezvous with Kerbin
• Third stage ejected for burn up in Kerbin atmosphere
• Final stage adjusts for Kerbin atmospheric entry

I used a solar panel for power, which was useless once past the orbit of Jool, but set hibernate and reaction wheels off to ensure there was always power available when needed.  Gimbals provided attitude control when reaction wheels were unavailable.

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by jinnantonix

[jinnantonix]

 

[mystifeid]

Three part station assembled in Kerbol polar orbit with a mass of 129.5 tons. The orbit has been circularised at around 42 million km - about where Dres hangs out. Took a little over five years. Jool gravity assist used to reach Kerbol polar orbit. These oblique braking maneuvers required around 5000m/s dV. Not sure if they were the optimal thing to do. The rendezvous were trivial but because I wasn't thinking too hard when leaving Kerbin, required around 1000m/s for the intercepts. Docking was complete within about a quarter of an orbit and well before the circularisation burn. Survey scanners are on the science module and seven Kerbals are inside the station. DLC was used as well as Kerbal Alarm Clock. No other mods. Maybe a video or more pics later.

Also, very much not "pretty much impossible."

Edited April 6, 2020 by mystifeid

[mystifeid]

The video.

 

[jinnantonix]

I always thought the space station idea was impossible, but then I was assuming launching on three separate Hohmann transfer windows.  You have followed the rules by launching three separate craft in the same Hohmann transfer window, with the 3 craft arriving at Jool at about the same time.  Very clever.

 

[mystifeid]

1 hour ago, jinnantonix said:

You have followed the rules by launching three separate craft in the same Hohmann transfer window, with the 3 craft arriving at Jool at about the same time.

I made every mistake that I could so there were 89 days between the first and last ships entering Jool's SOI and still the rendezvous were easy. Probably wouldn't be hard to do better even using separate transfer windows. Just a lot more waiting around.

Edited April 6, 2020 by mystifeid

[RoninFrog]

1 hour ago, mystifeid said:

The video.

New challenge: Return the Kerbals to Kerbin.  That should be rather difficult.

[mystifeid]

1 hour ago, RoninFrog said:

New challenge: Return the Kerbals to Kerbin.  That should be rather difficult.

Given that the station parts have no heat shields or parachutes, it probably would be difficult. And I just checked : a maneuver to match planes with Kerbin and maintain current ap/pe would take around 7500m/s. If I put all the remaining fuel in just one of the station parts it has about 4900m/s.

[jinnantonix]

2 minutes ago, mystifeid said:

Given that the station parts have no heat shields or parachutes, it probably would be difficult. And I just checked : a maneuver to match planes with Kerbin and maintain current ap/pe would take around 7500m/s. If I put all the remaining fuel in just one of the station parts it has about 4900m/s.

Try sending a craft with chutes etc from Kerbin now to rendezvous with the space station.  It would be interesting to see how that would be done.  Arriving at Jool at just the right moment to align with the space stations orbital plane would be challenging.  Certainly possible though.

[mystifeid]

1 hour ago, jinnantonix said:

It would be interesting to see how that would be done.

I think it took about 7500m/s for the first ship to get there from KO. Building something to hold 7 Kerbals with more than 15km/s dV would be tough. And then you have to get it into Kerbin orbit. Something like Better Time Warp would also be an advantage.

Edited April 6, 2020 by mystifeid

[jinnantonix]

7 command chairs and a heat shield, plus lots of asparagus staging.  And endless patience waiting for a rendezvous with Jool to fly-by back into equatorial orbit.

BTW you sent 7 Kerbals to die in space?  You are obligated.  Bring them home!
 

Edited April 6, 2020 by jinnantonix

[mystifeid]

Took a while to stop laughing. Ok, not quite stopped yet. Yeah well, if my boredom level starts climbing out of control...meant to play around with those burns around Jool the first time anyway.

No promises.

[mystifeid]

Coming soon and proudly presented by the Old Orange Tank Appreciation Society, Gregnand Kerman stars in a thrilling new episode of Safety Orange Rescue - Bring Them Home!

Seven kerbals stranded on the Solar Polar Station, their fate all but sealed as they circle Kerbol in a - you guessed it - polar orbit 42Gm out. The return trip puts our seven heroes out of range of even the fastest interceptors. One hope remains and the call goes out - get the Safety Orange Rescue...

The mighty 20 kiloton Safety Orange Rescue - capable of delivering 14.5km/s into LKO with a crew capacity of 8.

 

Gregnand calmly fine-tunes his intercept with the Solar Polar Station using just one hand while scratching himself with the other.

 

The Safety Orange Rescue picks up the elated station crew while dropping some supplies off for future visitors.

 

Home again.

Edited April 7, 2020 by mystifeid

[RoninFrog]

2 hours ago, mystifeid said:

Home again.

Now they want to go back!

[mystifeid]

16 hours ago, RoninFrog said:

Now they want to go back!

Yeah, not gonna happen.

Anyway, watch "Bring Them Home!" below - the Safety Orange Rescue mission to the Solar Polar Station and back again.

It was a little surprising how little waiting around there was in this mission. The longest I waited was nearly a full orbit or 7 years for an intercept burn to the space station. When leaving Kerbin there is considerable latitude in the position of Jool simply by adding radial in/out to the burn and by adjusting the position of the manaeuver node around Kerbin. In real time the thing that took the longest by far was making this video. One day I promise to start adding soundtracks. One day.