The Jebil went down to Tylo

[RoninFrog]

After finishing a No Contracts Career, I looked through Challenges and Mission Ideas for some inspiration.  Here's what I found.

And I thought, "160 points for Tylo!  Wow!"   ...so here goes. It's gonna be another Mission Report of @RoninFrog attempting (and possibly failing) a challenge.

The first thing is to get Jeb to orbit!  Here's what I got. The goal here is going to be to make Jeb as uncomfortable as possible.  This SSTO has a TWR of over 4.

Jeb said his last prayers, hopped out of his pod, and landed in the Kerbasket.  Good so far!

How are you doing, Jeb?  Feelin' a little...  toasty?  Don't worry, the worst part hasn't come yet.

How flat can Jeb's face get?  Let's find out!  Upwards of 10 gees while burning for orbit.  Don't worry, I bet these are standard procedures at NASA.

The Jeb is released into orbit!

More coming.  Very soon.

[RoninFrog]

Now it's time to lay down some Kerbal-catapulting infrastructure.  This next rocket is called the Claw.  Inside the fairing is a prototype of a possible Kerbal grabber.  This one will hopefully hurl Jeb out towards that large green thing called "Jool".

As I was building the rocket, I thought, "I could use a plain, boring engine like a cheetah or something for the second stage.  But that's boring!"  So I used Ants.  64 of them.  'Cause why not?  Looks almost like a giant, white-exhaust ion thruster.

Yes, I managed to get 64x symmetry in a stock game.  It's complicated.

And in orbit!

What?  I really forgot to take a picture of the claw contraption!  Blast!

Still got to launch a lot more stuff up into yon starry thing up there.  Lots more grabby things are coming.

[RoninFrog]

It's time for the big launch!  The HIVE is now scheduled to ascend into the heavens.  It's got four stages: a Mammoth+Clydesdale combo, then just the Mammoth, then a Rhino, and then some droptanks.  The payload is a whole bundle of Claw probes for maneuvering little Jebbykins around near Tylo.

Oh no!  Need moar struts!  The Clydesdales decided to desert the rocket and made off with the Rhino's droptanks.  Oh, whatever.  Didn't need those anyway!

It still got to orbit, though, in spite of the Clydesdales' attempted sabotage.  Lookie!  Our first shot of the Claw probes!  I hope they work...  I will include a more detailed description of their inner workings later when I actually use them.

The last thing I'm gonna need to launch is that lander for Tylo.

[RoninFrog]

Here comes a massive post.  Get ready.  (Hehe.  ready?)

 

Last launch and Jool transfer:

Spoiler

 

Time to launch the Iron Waffle.  I don't know where that name came from.  The lander is basically a giant bundle of LFO tanks and SRBs around a Claw probe with a Terrier instead of a Spark.  This time, the Clydesdales were attached properly!

This rocket is probably way too overpowered.  I'm just having too much fun in Sandbox after running a penny pinching No Contracts Career!

Half a year later, the lumps of rock orbiting Kerbol looked like this:

Time to grab li'l Jebbykins' face and throw it at Jool.  Hey!  The Claw works!  Got a great hold of Jeb's head there.  Somehow, it is possible to quicksave and physics warp like this without summoning the kraken.

So far, so good!  Acceleration is going nominally!

The Terrier has been jettisoned successfully.  Sacred Bovine, these Claw probes are way overpowered!  I probably won't need all 8 of the ones in the HIVE.

Succesful Jool encounter, hooray!

The Hive transfered next.  So far, it looks like I'll make it without the droptanks.

Jool encounter!

Finally, the Iron Waffle burns for Jool.

...and gets another very similar encounter.

 

Correction burn and capture:

Spoiler

Jeb had drifted nearly 25 km from his "pod".  Time to use some precious EVA fuel to get back!

Preparing to do a complicated docking maneuver involving a lot of hinges and robotics, commonly called "grab Jeb's head".

Successfully grabbed, and performing the burn!

Pretty good Tylo intercept there!  Jeb's Pe (purple) was drastically different than the Claw's (orange), so it's gonna be a little complicated to capture.

The HIVE's intercept would come up only two hours earlier than Jeb's!  That means a good Kerbnet connection the entire way!

Oops, I don't have a picture of the Iron Waffle's trajectory.  It's gonna do a Laythe gravity assist first since it was having some trouble .getting a good Tylo trajectory.

Relatively succesful HIVE capture.  It didn't have enough fuel to circularize, but it made it into orbit.

The Claw needs to grab Jeb before it circularizes.  Thank goodness for that Kerbnet connection!

Got him!  Ready to burn!

Jeb is now orbiting Tylo!  Things are looking good!

Meanwhile, the Iron Waffle gravity assisted at Laythe...

...and got into orbit of Jool.

And that was when I realized that the Iron Waffle transfer stage would not have enough fuel to make it to Tylo orbit.  So I thought, in the words of the scroll of truth meme, "Nyehh!  I didn't need you anyway!" and abandoned the Iron Waffle to the great Joolian pinball machine.

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by RoninFrog

[ManEatingApe]

28 minutes ago, RoninFrog said:

Hang on a sec, I gotta go.  I'll post more in an hour.

I'm on the edge of my seat! ...<gets popcorn>

[RoninFrog]

 Final Tylo descent:

Spoiler

I found that keeping the Pe just above the terrain was a reliable way to lower the chances of turning Jeb into a grease spot upon landing.  It takes a while to get places at 4x warp!

Everything's gonna be okay, little Jebbykins!  You're almost there!

Jeb stands victorious amid the non-flaming wreckage of the Claw probe!  Flag time!

I definitely overdid the infrastructure as I didn't end up using most of the stuff I brought.