Airships on Jool Challenge (no scoring)

[linuxgurugamer]

Introduction

I actually have two different introductions for this challenge, I hope you enjoy them both:

Intro 1

Wernher von Kerman sat at his desk, frowning at the latest results from the probes dropped into Jool.  After thinking for a while, he finally reached for the phone and called Bill.

Bill answered the phone, but before he could say a word, Wernher started talking, “We aren’t getting enough data from the probes we’ve dropped into Jool.  We don’t even know if it has a surface or not.  The probes fall too fast and get destroyed by the pressure, it’s like sticking needles into an elephant (?) and expecting to get full information.  We need something that can float in the atmosphere.” 

Taken aback, Bill took a minute to absorb what was said, then “Come on down to the workshop, I have something to show you”

15 minutes later, Wernher finally arrived, grumping about the slow elevator.  Bob brought him over to the scale model workshop.

Werner stared in disbelieve, “What in the blazes is that?”

He was looking at something that looked like a fat cigar, floating above the workshop bench.  Next to it was what appeared to be an elongated balloon, floating on it’s side

“These“, Bob said proudly, “are our latest designs.  The small one is called a Blimp, and the larger one a Dirigible.  The main difference between them is that the blimp is essentially a large balloon, and the dirigible is built with a rigid internal frame.  They are filled with a light gas”

“We just finished them, will be starting the tests on them soon.  They can float indefinitely with very little need for any fuel or electricity.  Seems that if we could get one of them to Jool and into the atmosphere with some crew on board, they could do extended observations with whatever experiments we can send along”

Wernher looked at the airships, looked at Bob, then back to the airships.  Just then Jebediah popped in, “Hi everybody, how’s life here in the workshop”.  He took one look at the floating airships, then exclaimed “Wow, when is the first test flight?”

Intro 2 ( @Just Jim)

As Kerbol began to rise over the eastern ocean, Wernher von Kerman looked out his window and sighed. This was his third night in a row with no sleep. His office was a wreck. Papers and notes and snack wrappers covered nearly every flat surface, and he still did not know what to do.

One of the largest manufacturers on the planet was proposing an almost insane theory: Jool’s core might be composed of something called metallic hydrogen. And if this metallic hydrogen could somehow be harvested or manufactured, and contained, it could revolutionize space travel.

Personally Wernher thought the whole idea was crazy. But this party was willing to sink an almost unthinkable amount of funding into research. Funds the KSC were always desperate for.

The problem was probe after probe was sent to Jool, only to explode soon after entering its atmosphere. The heat, radiation, and pressure were just too great for anything they tried sending down into it. The space center needed a solution, and soon, or they stood a very good chance of losing this contract… and Wernher quite possible losing his job.

Wernher sighed again and tuned to his PC just as the door opened and Val came strolling in.

“Good morning Dr. von…. Oh…. Oh my…” Val looked at Werner’s bloodshot eyes, and the catastrophe that was his office, and gasped.

“I’m getting you out of here now, Dr. von Kerman. You, sir, need a break!”

“But….” Wernher started to object but saw the look in Val’s eye and knew he had already lost. “Where are we going?”

“Cheese-fest!” Val giggled.

“Cheese-fest?” von Kerman seemed to remembering hearing about it… But the last few days were fuzzy.

“Seriously, sir?” Val pretended to be shocked. “It’s been going on for three days in the south parade field, and you didn’t know???” Val and von Kerman were joined by Bob and Bill as they walked out to the colorful festival. Cheese-fest was one of Kerbin’s most beloved events, and von Kerman was more than a little mad at himself for almost missing it, especially the finale. But as they got closer, he saw a myriad of colorful tents, snack vendors… and yes, there it was, the balloon rally was just beginning!!!

Every year, at the end of the festival, hundreds of hot-air balloon enthusiasts gathered to the event, and launched their wildest balloons all at once, turning the sky into one of the most colorful… colorful….

Wait… Balloons??? Wernher stopped dead in his tracks…. Could it really be that simple???

It was a couple minutes before Val realized Wernher wasn’t with him, and turned to see the professor madly scribbling notes onto a snack napkin.

“Doctor…” she began to protest, but stopped when Bill and Bob looked at what Wernher was writing and gasped as well.

“Do… do you think it could work?” Bob asked softly, not wanting to interrupt.

“Maybe… maybe.” Bill whispered back. “Yes…. I think this could work!  OMG, professor… I think I can build this!”

“Build what?” Val asked, trying to figure out what all the excitement was about.

“The answer, my dear. The answer to how to survive in Jool’s upper atmosphere for as long as we want… gather as much science as we want. It’s right there…. Right there!” von Kerman pointed at the beautiful rainbow of balloons floating into the Kerbin skies.

“We are going to build a balloon. “ Bill smiled. “No, an airship. A whole fleet of airships. And we are sending them to Jool.

“It’s just crazy enough to work.”
 

Airship Challenge

This challenge requires mods.

Requirements

Game version:  1.12.4

Mods required

• Airships by Angel-125 (min version v2.19.1)
• Heisenberg Classic Stock Play Mode
• HL Airships Core
• Kerbal Actuators
• Module Manager
• Wild Blue Tools
• WildBlueIndustires Classic Stock Play Mode
• Tweakscale

I strongly suggest that you use CKAN to install.  A .ckan file is provided below

CKAN Files

• Recommended: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p4fw8dcu90xykjw/AirshipChallenge-RecommendedMods.ckan?dl=0
• Minimal:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3vyttc0b4zjfbn/AirshipChallenge-MinimalMods.ckan?dl=0

Mods suggested

• Hanger Extender
• Life support (for extra points)

A suggested CKAN file is available here: (soon)

Mission Goal

• Get a manned airship in the atmosphere of Jool
• Bonus:  Get additional airships into atmospheres of other planets with atmospheres

 

Construction Rules

• Stock and mod parts are allowed
• No overpowered parts or mods, if you have a question, ask
  • Note:  No FTL drives of any kind.  Ths includes warp drives, hyper drives, jump drives, etc.
• Airship must be manned
• No significant part clipping on the airship allowed.  Minor part clipping of wings and control surfaces of the vessel(s) are allowed, but don’t overdo it.
• Aesthetic part clipping allowed
  • Note:  If you are using an empty adapter, I will allow you to click a smaller tank inside it, since this wouldn't be having the same space doing double duty
• Airship must be powered while in the atmosphere of Jool

Challenge Rules

• Launches can be from any launchpad on Kerbin
• Most parts mods are allowed, as long as they aren’t overpowered
• Mods that affect gameplay (other than life support mods) are not allowed.  Information mods, autopilots, graphics mods are allowed.
• Taking advantage of quirks in the KSP implementation of aero is strongly frowned upon and mostly disallowed.  If you have a question, ask, please don’t assume that since it works in KSP it will be allowed.  

Submission Rules

• Pics must be taken in the VAB/SPH of each launch vessel with the Engineer’s Report shown
• A picture needs to be taken of the completed airship in the SPH showing the Engineer’s report
  • If you are launching the airship in multiple launches, you can do one of the following:
    • assemble it in the SPH to get this picture
    • Use the mod ShipSaveSplicer to extract the final airship from the save file and take a picture of it in the SPN
• Some pics of the launch(s), mission, atmospheric entry and final stable configuration in Jool’s atmosphere are required.
• Complete modlist should be provided

Given the lack of entries, there isn't going to be any scoring, other than a list of everybody who successfully completed the mission.

Successful Mission Completion

• LinuxGuruGamer, lmission post: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/211472-airships-on-jool-challenge-no-scoring/&do=findComment&comment=4228565
  • Airship mass:  125t
  • Launches: 3

Scoring (not fully finalized yet)

• Weight of the airship
• Length and width of the airship.
• Bonus points for:
  • Life support, additional points if you have recyclers, etc. included
  • A way for all of the onboard kerbals to be able to leave and get back to a mothership in orbit around Jool
  • Ingenuity of the design (by necessity this is a subjective judgement)

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by linuxgurugamer

[linuxgurugamer]

Placeholder for anything I need to add here

 

LGG

[damerell]

We spoke about this on Twitch last night. You're right - the Hooligan Labs inflatable envelope isn't forbidden - but maybe it should be? It essentially removes the challenge part of the challenge because you don't now have to be able to lift a stupidly huge object off the surface of Kerbin, it just becomes stupidly huge on arrival.

A dropbox link ending "dl=0" can be immediately and obviously improved by making it read "dl=1". :-)

[linuxgurugamer]

So, to prove that it can be done in a massive, brute-force manner, here is my mission bringing the largest supplied airship from Kerbin to Jool.

These vessels are huge, the main core is tweakscaled to 10m, the SRBs are tweakscaled to 7.5m

Note:  I could have improved this by using a nuclear engine in the transfer stage instead of chemical, would have been much easier to do

This consisted of 3 main launches, although the Kraken was eager to mess with this mission, causing numerous reloads.

First launch, the airship itself:

 

Second launch.  This was the first of two sets of fuel tanks.  As it turned out, one of these ended up being destroyed in the final launch, mainly due to the Kraken not letting things work normally:

 

Third launch, the final set of tanks and engine:

(missing an image here)

This image is after the initial burn to get into the transfer orbit.  Two supplemental tanks on the side have already been released

Circularization round Jool:

Just before entry into the atmosphere:

 

Airship at an altitude of about 49 km:

Finally, a view from inside the airship:

Edited February 6, 2023 by linuxgurugamer