M700 scan... of the sun?!

[Krazy1]

There were 2 facts I was aware of:

1. according to the Wiki for M700 scanner, it is possible to scan Jool, despite not being able to land on or mine it.

2. When I attempted to run a M700 scan in sun orbit, it told me I needed to be in the correct orbit: polar between 26160 and 1500 km. 

So based on this I figured it might be possible to do a scan of the sun. I could find no record of this online. Since everything in KSP that could be done has been and redone and overdone, any reasonable person would have concluded that it is impossible. BUT NO! I persevered with the slightest sliver of hope that I could do something that nobody did before. Imagine the glory! 

So off I went, I built a ship with some SRBs and a Nerv with plenty of fuel. I launched into a polar Kerbin orbit and tried to push it into a polar sun orbit with a continuous burn near Kerbin to maximize Oberth but I only got to 75 degrees. It takes 80 degrees for "polar" orbit.  

So back I went and added some moar boosters and drop tanks for the LVN.  It had over 17 km/s dV. That should do it. And some thermal panels because the whole ship was overheating from the long LVN burn. A faring was not needed with the scanner folded - less mass.

I launched north in the morning. With 2 ejection burns near the north pole I had a downward escape from Kerbin SOI in 2 days after dropping the first pair of fuel tanks.

When I got out of Kerbin SOI, I tried to deploy the scanner and got this message:

Why didn't I see this message before I started this mission? Because I already deployed the scanner inside Kerbin SOI. Is only says it's disabled when it's deployed in sun SOI.

Did I quit there? NO! Jool has no solid surface so maybe it was still possible. Glory shall me mine. It took almost 12 km/s to go from 5.5 deg to 90 deg inclination.

And when I finally ran the scan:

BUT I AM IN A STABLE POLAR ORBIT BETWEEN THOSE ALTITUDES! AHHHH!

THERE MUST BE A WAY. I'LL ADD MOAR BOOSTERS AND MOAR STRUTS. I'LL GET OUT AND PUSH WITH MY RCS PACK. MUST HAVE GLORY! 

 

[CommanderSmith]

10 minutes ago, Krazy1 said:

 

[...]

[LAST PICTURE]

BUT I AM IN A STABLE POLAR ORBIT BETWEEN THOSE ALTITUDES! AHHHH!

 

The text says you should be between 26,160 km and 1,500 km to run the scan. That last picture, however, seems to show you at 13,378 Mm, or 13,378,000 km, which is a fair bit higher. I think you might need a bigger booster (and a lot more radiators) to get that close.

[Krazy1]

@CommanderSmith The units... of course. It's always the units. Thanks for pointing out the obvious  I guess 13.3 GM seemed plausible because it looks so gigantic.

And now I see the  Wiki actually says N/A for Kerbol altitudes. It's quite obvious the orbit message is just a bug and it won't work. I could just cheat it up there, it won't work and move on with life.

But this has become a challenge of it's own at this point. That's very low, polar and hot. I've only been down to 2.4 Gm for rescue missions before.To do it in my career game will take a couple months of human time because I have 15 contracts going now.  I welcome anybody to try it.

The Kerbol M700 Scan Challenge:

1. Your ship must contain a M700 scanner, an antenna with DSN connection to KSC and a way to store and generate electric power.
2. Put your ship in a stable polar orbit (90 +/- 10 deg. inclination) of the sun between 26160 and 1500 km altitude.

I guess I should move this to a proper forum location. Do we need badges? This could be a mod - actually make the scan work and overlay some graphic.

[jimmymcgoochie]

It is physically impossible to get into an orbit of the Sun (Kerbol) that low- anything and everything will overheat in seconds. I’m ignoring the ludicrous delta-V requirements to do so, which would be better expressed as a % of light speed...

[KerballingSmasher]

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

It is physically impossible to get into an orbit of the Sun (Kerbol) that low- anything and everything will overheat in seconds. I’m ignoring the ludicrous delta-V requirements to do so, which would be better expressed as a % of light speed...

What about turning on infinite fuel and turning off max heat?

[swjr-swis]

1 hour ago, Krazy1 said:

The Kerbol M700 Scan Challenge:

1. Your ship must contain a M700 scanner, an antenna with DSN connection to KSC and a way to store and generate electric power.
2. Put your ship in a stable polar orbit (90 +/- 10 deg. inclination) of the sun between 26160 and 1500 km altitude.

I guess I should move this to a proper forum location. Do we need badges? This could be a mod - actually make the scan work and overlay some graphic.

There's already a few challenges of the sort; not specifically requiring the scanner but seeing how low one can get. There's even a trick (exploit if you will) of a stock mechanic that will allow to go as far as slightly dipping into the surface. Search the forum for Kerbol Limbo.

[Kerminator K-100]

7 hours ago, Krazy1 said:

BUT I AM IN A STABLE POLAR ORBIT BETWEEN THOSE ALTITUDES! AHHHH!

THERE MUST BE A WAY. I'LL ADD MOAR BOOSTERS AND MOAR STRUTS. I'LL GET OUT AND PUSH WITH MY RCS PACK. MUST HAVE GLORY! 

I would say this made you sound crazy, then remembered how this post started... but NOW I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

[Krazy1]

15 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

It is physically impossible to get into an orbit of the Sun (Kerbol) that low- anything and everything will overheat in seconds. I’m ignoring the ludicrous delta-V requirements to do so, which would be better expressed as a % of light speed...

Yeah... like I said I haven't been that low. Squared law for radiation is a problem. OK. If it was simply difficult and pointless I'd try but since it's actually suicidal, that's were I draw the line. 

14 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Search the forum for Kerbol Limbo.

I found that after I posted. It looks like many got well below 1000 Mm but 26 Mm just won't work without bugs/ cheats. 

12 hours ago, Kerminator1000 said:

... but NOW I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

I do feel responsible for starting this shenanigans so I'll try it with maximum cheating and report back. 

[Krazy1]

So with thermal, fuel, orbit cheats... I was able to beam to a 2.3 Gm polar orbit but it didn't let me go any lower. Some warning about not safe - whatever. 

No worries though. With a tiny probe and a Vector with unlimited fuel, I got 222 m/s^2.  12 km/s to pull PE in (under a minute burn) and 21 km/s burn to pull AP in (under 2 minute burn). Then I was actually in the correct orbit that the message said. My probe core was almost 5000 K but no worries. 

And the answer is...

Yeah, just the same message. I was hoping for a kraken at least.