Artemis - Duna Mission Architecture

[AtomicTech]

On 7/14/2021 at 8:25 PM, jinnantonix said:

Overview:

It is 2030 and KASA has completed a pilot plant demonstrating ISRU, mining water ice and making fuel in the depths of a crater at the Mun's south pole.  KASA is planning a program of three missions to Duna utilising fuel mined on the Mun.

Challenge:

1. Create at least one orbital craft / space station with a minimum of 8 pressurised seats and four docking ports, to be used for fuel and crew transfer.
2. Establish an ISRU facility at the Mun south pole to make fuel.  Surface mining operations may not use solar power.
3. Launch 4 Kerbals from the KSC in a command pod/re-entry vehicle, and plant a flag on Duna. All 4 Kerbals must stand on the surface of Duna.
4. Deploy a Duna habitat,  modelled by a requirement for a minimum of 2 pressurised seats per Kerbal, excluding seats in the lander craft. 
5. Prior to landing on the Mun and Duna, deploy a probe to mark a suitable landing site.  Must include a resource scanner.
6. Deploy a minimum of three RA-15 relay satellites, in Duna orbit, to provide continuous communications coverage.

Rules:

• Stock parts and DLC only.  No part mods are allowed.  No EVA Construction. No airbreathing engines are allowed
• Visual, informational and flight control mods (eg MechJeb) are allowed
• No cheating, including debug menu, kraken drives, file editing or Hyperedit (except for testing)
• All fuel transfers must be at either the ISRU facility on the Mun, or between craft docked at the orbital craft / space station
• All Kerbals sent to Duna must return alive to the surface of Kerbin. No Kerbal can remain away from Kerbin for more than 3 Kerbal years, or it is assumed he/she dies of radiation exposure
• Crew cabins and lander cans may not be occupied while in atmospheric flight, but may be used on the Duna and Mun surface and in vacuum.  No command chairs allowed
• Kerbals must remain in a pressurized seat at all times except on the surface of Kerbin, Mun and Duna.  An airlock is not a pressurized seat. Jet packs not allowed
• The Duna habitat must be a single contiguous structure, a new Duna habitat must be established with each new mission and additional missions must land in different biomes
• No aerobraking of any craft with Kerbals aboard in Kerbin's atmosphere except when doing a direct (or "skip") re-entry.  A stock Heat Shield on the reentry capsule is therefore mandatory.   "Direct" means:  every part that aerobrakes at Kerbin with a Kerbal must land on Kerbin following the aerobrake"   Duna aerobraking of a craft assembly is allowed provided the crew is behind the heat shield.
• No craft may enter the SOI of any planet or moon except Kerbin, Mun and Duna.  Minmus and Ike are forbidden
• Gravity assists are not allowed
• Mining for ore is allowed only within 2 degrees of latitude of the Mun south pole, and must not rely on any solar energy.  No mining on Kerbin or Duna.
• Habitat and Space station must be able to generate power, sufficient to allow lights to be left on and the battery does not ever go flat
• Rovers may not travel more than 1 km from the Duna landing site
• All craft and habitats on the Mun and Duna may touch the surface only with stock lander legs or wheels

Scoring

• Five points awarded for each Challenge task completed (maximum=30 points)
• An additional point is awarded for aesthetics for each component  (maximum = 8 points):
  • Launch vehicles 
    • Initial
    • Resupply
  • Space station with docked craft
  • Mun ISR facility and craft
  • Duna transfer vehicle
  • Duna Lander
  • Duna Habitat
  • Re-entry capsule
• The mission value =
  the sum of points - (the cost of all launches from the KSC to complete 3 Duna landings)/10,000

Submission:

• Provide video or images of all craft and key mission moments, with the resource window open
• Show launch craft in the VAB  showing craft cost, and technical specifications.  Any parts that are purely for aesthetics may be deleted.
• Calculate the total cost of all launches to complete 3 Duna missions

Notes:

• Only entries that are considered within the spirit of this challenge will be accepted.  Any use of game exploits will invalidate the entry. 
• If you want to use a mod, and you are not sure, ask me
• No recovery cost of craft landing at Kerbin
• Default settings only, if you change any setting you have broken this rule
• Clipping may be used for aesthetics purposes. Clipping parts where the overall volume is approximately maintained is allowed.  All parts must appear adjacent to each other, and appear functional
• Aesthetics will be determined by both form and function, with points lost for obvious faults.  Since aesthetics can be subjective, feel free to message me with questions/images prior to submission, and I will advise. 
  Rule of thumb:  If a part is included, but without it included the rules may be met AND mission completed  AND it has negligible impact on aerodynamics, then it may be excluded from the cost of the mission.

 

Leaderboard:  (In order of submission)

1. .
2. .
3. .
4.  

I'll look into doing this for Kerbol Konquest on the next Duna Transfer Window.

[jinnantonix]

6 hours ago, Geryz said:

@jinnantonixAlso I wonder would a mission using Kerbalism Life Support be allowed? I feel like that'd add some extra challenge (I would have to alter my mission plan then), but technically it is a mod that adds parts 

You could do it, but the leaderboard is for stock + DLC only.

I have added a Rogues Gallery so you may be included.

Edited December 7, 2021 by jinnantonix

[Staticalliam7]

are crew cabins allowed if they are not manned except for when the base is landed?

[jinnantonix]

2 hours ago, Staticalliam7 said:

are crew cabins allowed if they are not manned except for when the base is landed?

Definitely.  They can be used for both the space station and the Duna Habitat, but ...  "Crew cabins and lander cans may not be occupied while in atmospheric flight".  

Edited December 8, 2021 by jinnantonix

[Death Engineering]

On 12/7/2021 at 5:46 PM, jinnantonix said:

You could do it, but the leaderboard is for stock + DLC only.

I have added a Rogues Gallery so you may be included.

As winter approaches (yeah, approaches, I'm in the south    ), I'll pick this back up.  Especially, with the rogues gallery.  I wonder how JNSQ would play out in this mission?    Thoughts?

[jinnantonix]

2 hours ago, Death Engineering said:

As winter approaches (yeah, approaches, I'm in the south    ), I'll pick this back up.  Especially, with the rogues gallery.  I wonder how JNSQ would play out in this mission?    Thoughts?

The fundamental idea behind this is to use a scaled down model (relatively easy) to validate the best architecture for post Artemis missions that use fuel manufacture on the moon.  JNSQ would be fun, but obviously more challenging than stock, and would not really add anything.  Having said that, go for it!

[TheKrakenHerder]

This is right up my alley, although I’ve become way too dependent on mods, so I’ll go for the Rogues Gallery.

[TheKrakenHerder]

Hey @jinnantonix I’m going for the rogues gallery, and I’ve got a question. Before deciding to take on this challenge, I put the core module of a Gateway style station in orbit around the Mun. I do not have any pics of the launch. Can I still use this as ISRU infrastructure?

[jinnantonix]

1 hour ago, TheKrakenHerder said:

Hey @jinnantonix I’m going for the rogues gallery, and I’ve got a question. Before deciding to take on this challenge, I put the core module of a Gateway style station in orbit around the Mun. I do not have any pics of the launch. Can I still use this as ISRU infrastructure?

It's rogues gallery, so anything goes.

[Death Engineering]

Death Engineering's Duna Mission Do-over Done!

After a save-breaking problem with the last attempt at this mission, we rebuilt the KSP mods* into the newest version and flew the whole mission again.  

Actually, flying these crafts was a breeze since I'd spent some time on the design, but the action groups were somewhat fogged over in my memory. Thank you quicksave/load! I'll put together a detailed post with the costs and such, but until then thank you @jinnantonix for putting this challenge together!

 

Gateway Orbital Mining Platform with CrewShut preparing for Duna departure

 

* Visual only, but that included Re-Stock and Waterfall which may add modules to the craft files. I dunno.. didn't want to take any chances.  

Edited April 14, 2022 by Death Engineering
* Visual only

[TheKrakenHerder]

7 hours ago, Death Engineering said:

Death Engineering's Duna Mission Do-over Done!

Awesome! Do you have screenshots of the whole program?

I love your whole build style, have you considered making a forum thread about your save?

[Death Engineering]

Duna Landing Crew on Gateway Prior to Duna Departure

Crew is home and ready for their next mission!

Thanks again to @jinnantonix for this challenge and keeping it going! This mission was definitely not a low-cost attempt, but did attempt to capture the nature of the Gateway station (as conceptualized) and a Duna Direct-style mission. 

This architecture was not cheap to set up, however repeatable Duna missions can now be completed with only the cost of the Duna Base and an Orion-Mun crew module to the Gateway Mun station with these steps:

• Duna Base Launch (uncrewed)
  • Includes Duna transfer stage and Duna return to orbit module
  • Reaches Duna orbit robotically and awaits crew 
• Crew launch to Gateway
  •  Crew mines the ore and processes it to refuel the Duna Shuttle
• Crew Boards Shuttle and departs from Mun polar orbit to Duna 
• Crew rendezvous with Base and perform Duna landing
  • Science!
• Crew returns to Shuttle which departs Duna for Gateway Mun station
• Crew uses the same Orion they arrived at the station with to return to Kerbin
   

Cost Breakdown

Gateway Station
HALO Crew Module	69,200
Ore converter	131,111
PPE (Power/Propulsion)	218,241
Surface Driller	161,174
Resupply	61,815
Total		641,541
Crewshuttle		88,596
Sats
Duna 2 x relays	36,983
Duna Relay 3/rover	59,044
Total		96,027
Duna Base and Crew
Orion (Mun)	67,057
Duna base	84,643
Total per Duna Sortie		151,700
2 Additional Duna Missions		303,400
Grand Total		1,281,264

 

 Two crew descend from Gateway to the South Pole for Ore to refuel the Duna Shuttle

 Crew arrives in the Shuttle and boards Duna Base

 Approaching the Landing Zone near the awaiting rover / surface scanner

 Crew leaving Duna's Surface!

 Crew back on board the Shuttle and leaving Duna SOI 

 Crew back on Gateway Station awaiting the Kerbin-return window

 Beauty shot as Sol rises while the crew descends

 Crew back on Kerbin!  And an all-female crew, too!

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Death Engineering

[jinnantonix]

@Death Engineeringvery impressive, you certainly get full points for aesthetics.  I have changed the scoring so that you get a positive score, which is 38 -12.8 =  25.2 .  This may encourage others to attempt the challenge.