Eve science grab challenge

[KincaidFrankMF]

That is one of the most wonderfully complex craft I've ever seen - love it!

To start a challenge this complex with only 93 hours on the KSP clock is staggering. I'm on 3,600...

Really, really rooting for a successful mission - you've earned it!

One thing I should warn you of - I did encounter a bug with the propellers on my craft during prolonged use. Hopefully they've fixed it by now, but I had to just ignore it while the problem gradually got worse & worse. I completed the mission just before the plane became completely unflyable. So I'd advise saving the game a lot once you've landed on Eve. If the propellers start to look weird, immediately reload, because it will only get worse...

[DennisB]

Thank you for the warning. Now I am a bit nervous, because my longest flight with the plane till now was 30-40 minutes.

Yesterday I made the first mistakes on the mission (maybe I was too tired after a 90km cycling tour), which make my job more difficult. But I'd like to complete the mission without reloading, so I continue as long as possible and reload only if really necessary.

[KincaidFrankMF]

Hopefully they've fixed the bug by now. Also, I was using fan blades, which might make a difference.

[DennisB]

Episode 1 - From Kerbin to Gilly
The journey begins   (Aug 08-10)

Kerbin ascent

Spoiler

Here we are, on the launch pad the rocket with three brave kerbals ready to explore a new world. Waiting for the transfer window opening, and let's start. The telemetry of some fuel tanks is visible on the screen, to know, when I have to decouple the fuel tanks, and as I mentioned in the introduction, before some decouplings I have to activate aerodynamic devices.

Decoupling the extra fuel tanks. Because they don't have any aerodynamic devices, until this point we are going straight upwards. A slight turn to the east starts only after this.

Decoupling the large boosters. Around 1s before the tanks are empty, I activate the control surfaces on the middle of the stage, to pull it away from the rest of the rocket, because at this speed such a long stage would destroy the engine of the next stage.

Decoupling the smaller boosters the same way. At this point it was already clear, that the ascent is a little steeper, than it should be. From the fuel, that's no problem, because the transfer stage is sized for the Gilly-Eve transfer with the main stage full with fuel. On the Kerbin-Gilly transfer, the main stage is empty, so there is enough fuel. The bigger issue is to reach Kerbin orbit, because the transfer stage has at Kerbin TWR=0,07, with the final stage together TWR=0,21 for a limited time.

Turning to build up horizontal speed, because there won't be any further decouplings until Gilly.

Reaching the edge of space with over 2 minutes to AP, it's time for some coasting. In practice I had the final AP between 90 and 110km. I'm already over it. This will be a quite high orbit.

Starting the engines earlier, than on a normal rocket, to gain time for the transfer stage to circularize the orbit.

All the side tanks are empty, only the central tanks and engines left.

The main stage is empty, switching on the transfer stage and the final stage to circularize orbit. There is still almost 300m/s to do.

And orbit. AP=131km, but it is an orbit.

Here are some extra shots of the decouplings during Kerbin ascent.
 

Spoiler

 

Kerbin escape
 

Spoiler

This would be the desired escape trajectory. Look at the burn time, 23min 56s. As you can imagine, there will be several burns necessary to achieve it.

Deploying some solar panels for the transfer.

Starting with a 4min prograde burn with a boost of 20s in the middle.

After the fist burn, 808m/s remaining.

After the second burn (4min with 20s boost), 614m/s remaining.

After the third burn (4min with 40s boost) the final stage is empty. Now I can trust the available burn time and dv shown on the screen. That should be enough to get to Gilly. The next 4min burn is just enough to avoid Mun SOI.

Only 203m/s to escape, that means, only one more burn.

Bye Kerbin. We will be back in two years.

 

Transfer to Gilly
 

Spoiler

Maneuver to get an Eve encounter. That's amazing, almost at PE. I think, this is my best transfer to Eve ever.

But we don't want to go to Eve, we want to go to Gilly. The plan is, to make a capture burn at PE and go directly for a Gilly encounter at AP. Our PE is a little after Gilly's, that means, the best encounter will be after Gilly's AP. But on this trajectory we are too early (Gilly is way before AP), so we need a little delay.

This looks better.

The final Eve encounter. Lowered PE to get some Oberth effect, but not too much, because we want to catch Gilly and adjust inclination.

Just a shot during the deep space maneuver. I think, the rocket looks in this configuration the best.

Planning the capture burn with inclination and AP adjustment. It looks perfect, just like planned before.

Arriving at Eve.

Only 200m/s to enter Gilly orbit. We have more than enough fuel.

Arriving at Gilly, the first pit-stop gets closer.

 

Establishing the satellite network
 

Spoiler

Releasing the scanner, because we want to know, where to land, to get fuel.

Deploying the fearing in a safe distance and angle to the main rocket. During the tests, the deploying fearing made a massive destruction, even as it was already in my opinion far enough from anything else.

Deploying the antennas and the solar panels.

And going to a polar orbit above 25km to scan Gilly.

Releasing the relay satellites, because we want to land on horizontal terrain to avoid unnecessary risks. This needs permanent connection to KerbNet. The procedure is the same as at the scanner satellite, except the orbit inclination.

I use the alarm clock, when there are more vessels on the way.

 

EVA construction
 

Spoiler

With over one hour until the next maneuver, it's time for the first EVA mission for Bill. You would say, there was plenty of time to do this already. Yes, but till now, the door of the command pod was blocked by the relay satellite. That's the design of the rocket, some features get available only later in the mission. Last check, that Bill has a jet pack, and let's go.

The goal of the EVA mission is to reconfigure the aerodynamics for Eve entry, because the wind will blow there from the opposite direction, than at Kerbin ascent. And losing one or more wings at Gilly landing would make Eve descent also very difficult.

 

Searching for a landing spot
 

Spoiler

Meanwhile the scanner did its job.

This is probably the worst result possible here. Ore is only on the highlands and in minimum concentration. That will be a very long pit-stop.

All vessels have an OKTO2 probe core onboard, so it doesn't need much time, to find potential landing spots.

The best topography is at the most southern spot, but it's at the biome edge, so I'm not sure, if there's ore or not, the scan isn't precise enough.

We will land on the most northern spot.

 

Gilly landing
 

Spoiler

Maneuver planning with taking care of Gilly's rotation.

Too short. So far in the north the rotation isn't so fast. We need a correction.

Retracting the solar panels for safety reasons.

On the final approach to the landing area.

The landing spot is in sight with a height of 5,57-5,62km.

There we are. Stop now.

Preparing for touchdown. Turning the central axis of the rocket to the direction of the slope for better ground stability. On Gilly it's quite difficult, because of its irregular shape there is no clear horizon for reference. But we already know, the terrain is quite horizontal, so no problems expected.

Trying a second touchdown after a bounce.

Finally, we are there.

Till now the journey went really well. I can already spoil, that it won't go as smooth on the next stage.

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by DennisB

[KincaidFrankMF]

Epic stuff there! Great mission report to read  Can't wait to see how it turns out!

[DennisB]

Episode 2 - Form Gilly to Eve
Problems are there, to be solved  (Aug 10-15)

Refuel on Gilly
 

Spoiler

After the landing Bill is going to his new workplace. In the game it's not necessary to have an extra command pod directly attached to the mining unit, but I assume, the drillers and the ISRU need permanent supervision by an engineer.

Look how happy he is, to be the first kerbal on Gilly.

The ladder is not perfect. On Gilly it isn't necessary, but on Eve. The mining unit needs two radiators, but on Gilly the engine of the return stage is in the way, so it was only possible to place them like this. If the radiator is deployed and vertical, the ladder is free and the command pod is accessible. I think, the radiators should have an option to switch the auto-orientation on and off, but that isn't the case. I forced Bill to climb up, even as the radiators didn't have the perfect orientation, but I don't want to show you the scene. Luckily, kerbals have strong bones.

Starting the fuel production. On Gilly it is a straightforward process, because in the vacuum the solar panels and radiators are strong enough to supply everything the whole day. Unfortunately, the time warp works correctly only up to 100x. At 1000x, the batteries charge and discharge much slower, which would make the process much faster, but for me, that would be cheating. My strategy is, starting everything at sunrise, 100x time warp until the batteries reach full charge, 1000x time warp until close before sunset, then 100x time warp, deactivating the ISRU at sunset and let the drillers running, until there is power in the batteries, filling the ore container (and refine the ore the next day, when electric charge is available again), then 1000x time warp until close before sunrise, then 100x time warp until sunrise, finally exit time warp and start everything again. Day after day... at these low ore concentration... many days.

Satellite network transfer to Eve and surface scan
 

Spoiler

While waiting for refueling the main rocket, there is plenty of time to build an adequate communication network around Eve. With originally 4 relay satellites it was quite easy, but now we have only two plus the scanner and the return stage. This is the plan. The main rocket will start from Gilly at its AP and go for a polar orbit around Eve on the major axis of Gilly orbit, and leave the return stage in a low orbit. The two relay satellites will go for a high orbit with 45° inclination on the major axis too. The scanner will go for a polar orbit parallel to the minor axis at 1500km for the scan, and will rise its orbit after the rocket landed on Eve.

Starting with the scanner and setting an escape trajectory from Gilly.

Then going for an inclination of 90°.

Rotating the orbit parallel to the minor axis and reducing PE below 1500km.

Finally, lowering AP below 1500km too to scan Eve.

Circularized the orbit with 577m/s left, which will be used later to rise the orbit to improve the communication network.

The scan shows some really high ore concentrations, but those areas are too small and too hilly to land there.

50% ore concentration at the sea biomes. Also unsuitable for landing.

30% ore concentration on the highlands. That's good for several reasons. The area has a large north-south expansion, which makes it easy to get there from a polar orbit, and I made two of my three test landings with this rocket in that area, so I know, it's possible to land there.

Setting an escape trajectory for the first relay satellite at Gilly AP.

And adjusting the inclination to 45° and PE to 11500km.

And circularization with an orbital period of 4d 2h.

The same with the other satellite to the other side.

The second satellite arrived very close to the first one, only 1h difference.

For a better network, they have to be on the opposite side of their orbit. The first satellite will reach that point in 2d, that means, instead of circularizing the orbit of the second satellite now, it should make one orbit of 6d 2h before.

And then circularizing for an orbital period of 4d 2h.

Perfect till now.

Waiting for the launch
 

Spoiler

Meanwhile on Gilly, the refueling process is just at 20%. There's nothing else to do, than waiting.

After 127 Gilly-days (166 Kerbin-days) the tanks are finally full.

On the way back, Bill doesn't use the ladder.

Because Gilly is just at its PE, we still have to wait some days until reaching AP.

Blocking the fully charged battery of the plane for Eve landing.

After 7 days more waiting it's time to go to Eve. The Sun will be a good orientation point at the launch, because that direction is almost the retrograde direction on the Eve orbit.

Gilly launch
 

Spoiler

Immediately before the launch I noticed, that the drillers are still deployed. Just avoided a disaster. Retracting the final solar panel too, and launch.

Here I made the first mistake. I forgot to switch on SAS. The rocket was soon out of control, because the tanks are full and the reaction wheels are too weak for that mass.

Trying to get the rocket under control again, which was the next mistake. I didn't consider, that the Nerv engines don't have a gimbal. It would be more efficient to switch off the engines for the reorientation of the rocket. Much worse than burning fuel was, to go off the planned course. Instead of retrograde, it was radial out.

Now on the right course to escape Gilly. The acceleration with the two Nerv engines alone with full fuel is terrible 0,3m/s².

Gilly escape with 100m/s, and planning the next maneuver to get a polar orbit around Eve with PE=165km.

This was the next mistake. I planned the maneuver immediately after leaving Gilly SOI, but because of the low TWR, the burn started already inside Gilly SOI.

I didn't know, that this is a problem, though I already noticed some course changes during SOI changes. But this time it was much worse. I noticed, that the maneuver dv counter moved too slowly, even slower than 0,3m/s². After over 4 minutes burning I saw... PE=2,9km!!

We need a new maneuver. This looks better. Only 96m/s.

During the tests I found out, that moving the engines between the stages after they were activated doesn't mean, that they get inactive or get activated via staging again. But now I found out, that at least, the remaining burn time and dv data get right this way. Now it was obvious, that through the several mistakes, there isn't enough fuel in the transfer stage to get to the desired circular low orbit around Eve. I decided to go on, because the situation isn't fatal, it makes the challenge just more challenging.

Eve transfer
 

Spoiler

The Eve transfer is really boring because of the low TWR and long burning time. Because of the low fuel level I reduced PE to 140km to make the burns more effective.

Starting the first 6min retrograde burn around PE.

The orbit after the 1st burn.

After the 2nd burn (5min).

After the 3rd burn (4min).

After the 4th burn (4min).

After the 5th burn (4min).

After the 6th burn (3min).

After the 7th burn (3min).

After the 8th burn (3min).

After the 9th burn (3min).

After the 10th burn (3min).

After the 11th burn (3min).

After the 12th burn (3min).

After the 13th burn (3min).

Now we are low enough to decouple the return stage. It has enough fuel to rendezvous with the final stage after its ascent from the surface and bring it back to Kerbin. Blocking the tanks with the oxidizer, because it will be used to refuel the final stage.

After the 14th burn (2,5min).

After the 15th burn (2,5min) the transfer stage is empty. 125-211km orbit is not bad, but it could be better. I made the Gilly-Eve transfer only twice with this rocket for obvious reasons. Once I had a 120-140km orbit, resulted in a comfortable entry into the atmosphere. Once I had a 130-280km orbit, where I had to make a full retrograde burn at 80km height and could only pray, that nothing explodes. But the next problem isn't far away again....

Preparing for entry
 

Spoiler

Because the refueling on Gilly took sooo long, Eve moved around the Sun much further, and the PE is already on the dark side. I can't make significant adjustments to the orbit, because I need all the fuel for the landing. There are three options. Landing the same way as in practice, but in the night. That's too dangerous, because I can't see the terrain and can't rotate the rocket to the slope direction. If the slope is too steep, the rocket will fall over. The second option is to wait a half year to land in daylight the same way. But then I will probably miss the transfer window to Kerbin, and have to wait 2 more years(?).

Let's check the third option, de-orbiting on the high side of the orbit. I never did it in practice. 72m/s on the screen, but this is only for the fuel in the extra tanks. The final stage has around 2,5x more fuel. That means approximately 250m/s for the de-orbiting maneuver, and that's enough.

Only a few orbits away from landing. It's time to prepare the plane.

Bill is on EVA again.

Removing the struts to unfold the wing, because the door is blocked. Everything on this vessel is packed well, like a good present.

Bob is on the way to enter the plane. He has to land it on Eve, because Valentina is piloting the rocket, and Bill has to re-strut the wings for Eve descent and remove them later on the surface.

Re-strutting the wings.

The final orbit. We will land on the southern hemisphere, because that landing area is larger, and it needs less flying there to reach all biomes.

Hopefully, that relay will provide connection for the whole descent.

Retracting the solar panel and get the fuel levels on the screen.

In practice the distance between the start of the de-orbiting maneuver and the landing spot was between 80 and 105 degrees. This time I expect more, because de-orbiting on the high side. The landing area is between 15 and 55 degrees south. I start the maneuver at 77° north. That means, the distance to the landing spot can be in a range of 92-132°.

If you thought, the asymmetry can't be worse... it can.  Decoupling one of the transfer stages. The other one is necessary for the descent to counter the drag of the plane on the other side (the return stage isn't there anymore). Using the force of the decoupler only would be probably not enough, so using the deceleration of the retrograde burn too for a successful decoupling. From now there's only this landing attempt on Eve (or immediately abort the mission and return to Kerbin). This is the first time, you can see, how huge those tanks are (over 4000s burn time). Fun fact, I had much trouble with this decoupling during the tests. It worked on one side, but not on the other side. Everything should be quite symmetric, but not perfectly. There's everything so tight, it was finally the mounting point of one of the struts, which wasn't mounted in a 45° angle on the tank of the transfer stage. It was too close to the tank of the main stage, and made the transfer stage stuck at decoupling. I needed almost two weeks to discover this.

Considering the atmospheric drag, this is enough to not overshoot the landing area.

Decoupling the extra tanks of the final stage. Now there is enough time to do this. De-orbiting from a low orbit, the time for this is really tight, because it needs to orient the vessel radial in to avoid a collision with the tanks later. This decoupling is only possible before entering the atmosphere, and it is necessary, because without it, the kerbals can't reach the ladder to go to the surface of Eve and back to the command pod.

Eve descent
 

Spoiler

Reaching the landing area. Burning the final stage empty before entering the atmosphere for maximum efficiency. And orienting the rocket with the plane on the upside, because this way it creates lift, which makes the descent more stable.

Entering the atmosphere with 3110m/s. The final stage is empty, switching on the main stage.

Turning to surface retrograde to get the wind centered, because if the wind comes a little sideways, the drillers on the mining unit and the solar panels on the plane get too much heat. Starting a slight burn to reduce speed.

The speed isn't going down much, so throttling up.

The first heat peak at 55km, everything looks fine. The speed is going down, but below 50km comes a second heat peak.

The side tanks are empty. Only the central tanks and engines remaining. The engines at this point are used mostly for stability, the atmosphere is doing the braking.

The second heat peak at 45km. Everything looks fine.

Below 750m/s it's safe. Throttling down the engines, because I need some fuel for the landing. That was my best descent with this rocket. For the first time, there weren't any overheating bars visible the whole time. It was much better than the hard entry on the low side. Now looking for a good landing spot.

The landing spot has an elevation of 1,72-1,76km and it's a bit away. The vessel has very limited maneuvering capabilities, mostly below 20km in the thicker atmosphere, but there the speed is already so low, that it doesn't give much benefit. Facing horizontal, it can glide, facing vertical and with the chutes it can brake, that's all.

Arriving at the landing spot. Stop now.

Pre-deploying the drogue chutes.

And the main chutes.

After getting slower, decoupling the second transfer stage. Oops! The orientation wasn't vertical.  Hopefully the main rocket doesn't get damaged. The structure and the fuel tanks are OK, there are only the drillers critical, the ladder is on the other side.

Decoupling the plane at an elevation of 2500-3000m. In the atmosphere I can't switch between the vessels, so I had to make sure, that one of them will arrive much later. On the plane the main chutes deploy immediately, on the rocket only at 700m, and even then it has a higher descent speed.

Elevation 1,79km. We will miss the landing spot. That will be a slope. With this rocket I've never landed on a slope. In the night, the chance for a successful landing would be already minimal.

All chutes fully deployed. Turning the rocket to the slope orientation.

Starting the engines to reduce speed and for faster rotation. That slope looks quite dangerous.

A successful touchdown. I don't have more pictures of the landing, because I was too busy with surviving. It wasn't a smooth landing. In practice on horizontal ground I made really smooth landings with 0,6-0,8m/s touchdown speed, without using all the fuel. On a slope it's much more difficult. I oriented the rocket to the direction of the slope with the mining unit at the upper end, which touches the ground at first and gives then a bit more stability. At this moment, the engines want to flip the vessel uphill, so I have to reduce the throttle. It's some kind of a suicide burn. Turning down the throttle too much, the rocket could flip further downhill (or sideways), after full ground contact. With too much throttle, the tanks get empty before reaching a stable position, and the same happens as in the first case. I don't know how, but I managed to land in one piece.

The plane is on its way down slowly. After switching to it, I heard an explosion on the ground. I have no idea, what it was. Activating the battery, the engines and the propellers. The plane can't land in this position (it can, but with the propellers touching the ground, the plane could never takeoff). That's the reason, why it needs power and a kerbal on board.

Throttling up to flip the plane for a belly landing.

Touchdown with full throttle to make it smoother.

Get rid of the chutes for mass reduction.

The scenery at the landing spot. The desired place was 1,5km away on the right side of the picture.

I'm already sure, that I can't complete episode 3 until next weekend. I decided to split it into two parts. The first part will come next weekend, the second one, when I finished flying around at Eve.

Edited August 27, 2023 by DennisB

[KincaidFrankMF]

Awesome stuff. Very impressed!

[DennisB]

Episode 3 - On Eve
Part 1 - The first steps  (Aug 18-21)

Preparation
 

Spoiler

Expanded everything possible. After the plane and the return stage aren't attached anymore, there are some additional solar panels, which weren't available on Gilly, because of clipping. The Sun on Eve has less energy than on Gilly, because of the atmosphere. I have to wait a little after sunrise till I can start the drillers and the ISRU, and then only one by one. You will notice the different solar panels. I put on some of the more heat resistant ones for the case, some of the large ones burn at Eve descent. But that was luckily not the case.

It's time for Bill to go out. Let's check, he has no equipment, because he has to carry other things.

Now the way is free to the ladder. Here was earlier the fuel tank and the relay satellite, and underneath, the transfer stage.

There's just enough room under the solar panel to reach the ladder.

It looks really empty there, without the transfer stage.

Running to the plane to get Bob out and prepare everything for the flight.

Valentina is on the way too to help him and to take the command seat on the plane.

Taking off the unnecessary struts to reduce mass and part count. At Eve's gravity, there are two kerbals necessary to do this.

And the struts of the wings too to unfold them and re-fix them again. The wings look a little weird, I don't know why. I saw this also during the test, but as I built the plane, everything was inline. It happens probably at the game load.

First science on the ground
 

Spoiler

Bob starts the science collection with a crew report and the seven science experiments onboard and store everything in the science container. I show the whole science collection process in detail only here, it will be the same at the other biomes. I don't know why, but as long as the door of the cargo bay is open, the door of the cabin is blocked, so I have to open and close it several times during the mission.

Making an EVA report.

Opening the door again to restore the science jr.

Then closing the door to climb to the other side, opening it again to restore the mystery goo, then closing it again to go back.

A group photo with the first flag. Bob will plant a flag at every landing spot to mark the route. (39°45'42"S 78°17'4"E)

Exchanging the equipment. On the plane we need only chutes for safety reasons. There's no need for a jet pack, Bill will carry it back to the rocket. Bob's taking the EVA experiment kit to make the final experiment here together with a surface sample.

Bob and Bill are running back to the rocket to deploy the surface experiments.

Back to the plane and ready for takeoff. During the equipment exchange, the EVA experiment kit somehow transformed to a jet pack, but "luckily", there's no need for it anymore. I can't do that experiment during the flight. I tested several ways, without success.

Bill is on the ladder. Again at the wrong time . There are some spare solar panels in the command pod and the storage unit for the case, some solar panels on the plane burns during Eve descent. That didn't happen, so they can be mounted on the rocket to produce more power.

Starting the fuel production. It's already late in the evening, but the batteries are full.

The first flight
 

Spoiler

Starting the plane for a short flight to collect science in low altitude flight.

But as picking up speed before takeoff, there was something. At all the tests I've never seen a surface object. Now there is a rock literally in the way.

But now really making a short flight before the Sun goes down.

Doing the five science experiments possible in flight, later there will be only the two of them, which are biome sensitive. For the atmosphere analysis, the door of the cargo bay must be opened.

Making a crew report, and Bob, like a stuntman, is making an EVA report during the flight.

But now it's getting dark, and the battery is discharging. It's time to land for the night. (39°9'19"S 79°5'27"E)

Summary of day 0: 30min mission time, 10km distance, 19 science reports

Finishing the satellite network
 

Spoiler

Rising the orbit of the scanner satellite for a better relay.

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by DennisB

[KincaidFrankMF]

Fantastic progress! I think you should copy all this over to the Mission Reports section as well, it makes great reading 

[DennisB]

I asked at the beginning, where I should post the mission report.

I don't want to make two threads parallel. Maybe, when I've finished, I will put everything at once into a new thread.

[DennisB]

Episode 3 - On Eve
Part 2 - The f(l)ight with the Eve Plane  (Aug 21 - Sep 09)

 

Day 1
 

Spoiler

The plan is, to fly almost straight to the east, to Olympus, visiting the Western Sea and a crater on the way, to get the most biomes as soon as possible.
Starting as soon as the battery get charged.

Heading towards the Sun means, the solar panels are generating less power, and the engines must run with reduced power.

Only after more than 20 minutes there is full power available.

After an hour, the Western Sea comes in sight.

Midlands is the first biome of the day. (37°11'26"S 99°9'45"E)

A lava dome at the coast. The second of the three surface features.

The scan of the volcanic stone was really easy, but the lava dome was frustrating. I don't know, if it was the terrain or the problems with the plane started already here.... but look at the clock.

The first scanning attempts failed with the message, that the scan is aborted, because the vessel is moving.

Maybe it was because the plane was in the direction of the slope? On the next attempts I tried it in perpendicular direction, so the plane shouldn't move forward or backward. But again, no success. I also tried to set the brakes to 200%, but it didn't help.

Maybe the landing gears don't provide enough grip? I tried to pull them in. But sitting on its belly, the plane still seems to move, at least the scanner arm said it. There's only one help against frustration... fun. I let Bob plant a flag on the lava dome. I don't know, how hot it was, but he survived it.

Surprisingly, the lava dome was in the Shallows biome. On land, there are more science available. If the other sea biomes have dry areas too, then there are more science reports to grab, than originally planned. (37°16'10"S 100°51'32"E)

Meanwhile, the rocket has enough sunlight to start the fuel processing with reduced capacity.

I really wanted this scan of the lava dome, so I tried another one, which was not far away. I tried this position, because on the earlier attempts it looked like, the scanner arm pushed the plane back, but here it's almost impossible. But again, no success.

Finally, after 30 minutes, I've got a wedged position, where the scanner arm could perform the scan.

But how to get out of here? In front, there is the steep lava dome, in the back, a slope, and the tail of the plane is pointing into the ground. Switching the direction of the engines and the propellers and giving full thrust for a minute was necessary to get far enough from the lava dome to turn away from it. One more challenge mastered.

Getting the flying science of the Shallows biome.

And from the Western Sea too.

It has also a dry area to land on and grab the surface sciences. (37°24'33"S 100°49'33"E)

The fuel processing can run on full capacity now. But I noticed, that the electric charge in the batteries doesn't get calculated, while focused on the plane. And later I noticed too, that the processed fuel is also less, than it should be, and the ore tank is full, though the ISRU runs only on less than 8% capacity with the 3 drillers. During the plane mission we can't expect to get a relevant amount of fuel.

The navigation starts to be interesting, when there aren't any features for orientation.

The Western Sea isn't too large in that direction. After 30 minutes we are over land again.

Arriving at the Lowlands biome. (36°30'27"S 114°31'26"E)

After a shorter stint, I landed on a hill for an IRL break. On a hill, to have a shorter ascent to the cruising altitude later. (34°40'40"S 122°2'16"E)

The crater comes in sight, but it's still 30 minutes to get there.

Getting the science from the Peaks biome. (28°45'23"S 139°45'48"E)

Next to the landing spot, there is a little Foothills biome. It's too small to land there, but it's close enough to drive to there... if the terrain wouldn't be so steep. It's a pain to get up there, but the reward is a basalt formation, the last surface feature to scan.

The terrain is much worse than at the lava dome, and again, the scan isn't successful.

But with the experience from earlier, it was much faster to do the scan. The strategy was similar. Climbing on the surface feature and hold the plane on position. This time, there was no slope in the back to hold the plane, so I used the propellers on half thrust to press the plane against the basalt formation. It took only 6 minutes.

Getting the surface science on the Foothills biome. (28°49'2"S 139°50'46"E)

The scanner arm has done its job, there's no need for it anymore.

It's already getting dark. That's the negative effect of flying to the east. The daylight time is much shorter. This position isn't ideal for the night, because the plane is already sliding down the hill. Let's go into the crater. It will last longer tomorrow, until the solar panels gets sunshine, but it will be safer there.

To the end of the day, getting the science from the Impact Ejecta biome. (28°37'11"S 140°43'52"E)

Summary of day 1: 5h50min mission time, 640km distance, 96 science reports

Day 2
 

Spoiler

As the Sun arrives over the crater hills, it's already powerful enough to provide full power for the plane. But full power is still not enough to get out here on a direct way. There are some extra turns necessary to gain enough altitude.

Here is a larger Foothills biome. Now we have the flying sciences from it too.

A final shot of the crater.

After 2 hours, arriving at a large bay of the Explodium Sea.

And getting the science. It's already visible in the KerbNet window, that there is a large land area in this biome too. This means again, unexpected extra science. (34°11'41"S 175°49'20"E)

This will be the longest stint over sea. I don't know, if it was intended by the game developers to visualize some kind of atmospheric refraction effect, but it helps at navigating over large distances. It is just strange, that the mountains far away look much larger than the closer ones.

After one hour, almost arrived on the other side. Here come the highest mountains on Eve (I think). But which one of them has the Olympus biome?

This is probably the best place to land a science rover, if it has climbing and swimming capabilities. There are seven biomes next to each other. But we have already all of them, and we've already seen, that the plane isn't suited for such steep slopes.

There are several tall and conspicuous mountains. I thought everytime, this one is the right one, but no. At high altitude I noticed the first time, that the plane wants to turn to the left. As I looked to the screenshots, I saw, it started already earlier. To reduce drag from the SAS correction, I started to roll the plane a little to the right into a stable position. I don't know, why it happens, but it can't result from the missing scanner arm, because that reduces mass and drag on the left side, which would cause the opposite effect. Maybe it comes from the wings, which look meanwhile worse, than at the start.

The Olympus doesn't look as spectacular, like some other mountains and as the name suspects, at least from this side. (28°28'3"S 148°53'22"W)

It's getting dark again between the mountains. There are three biomes left. The Crater Lake, which is nearly on the opposite side of Eve, the Poles and the Eastern Sea, which is not far from the starting point. Flying further to the east doesn't make much sense (especially at the moment), because of the shorter daylight period, it would end in a long island hopping trip. Because we have to visit the South Pole anyway, there is an alternative route to the Crater Lake over it. With effective navigation, it could be possible to get away the sunset. Flying to the southwest along the shore will give an increasing western component to the plane movement to reach high latitude before the sunset catch up. This would allow to make the whole trip to the Crater Lake today. Another benefit of this route is, that the sunlight comes from the side, and the solar panels provide in that constellation enough power even at low inclination. So let's go.

This stint was the longest nonstop flight (590km). It was already late in the evening (IRL) as I reached 50° latitude, but I thought, the Poles biome should come around 60°, and I can make it to there. But there was still Midlands. I thought, it can't be far away, but at 64° I lost my patience and began the descent for an IRL break.

Immediately before landing, the Poles biome appears. That's a lucky situation... spared one extra landing. (66°5'23"S 162°52'31"E)

There are only two biomes left, but we are only at half distance. The Sun is still high enough to continue the trip to the Crater Lake. Flying parallel to the terminator and then to the north, there's no risk to get into the darkness for a while.

Passing the most southern point of the tour, and prepare for the landing for the next IRL break. (71°40'52"S 79°0'43"E)

That mountain is a good navigation point, it is almost in the right direction.

The next IRL break on the way to the Crater Lake. (36°39'51"S 26°59'46"E)

These lakes are also a good reference for navigation.

The mountains on the edge of the Crater Lake. At this time, it was more and more difficult to reach a stable flight position. It was not only necessary to roll the plane to the right, but also to pitch it up. In a normal horizontal position it started to spiral down to the left. I became a little fear, if the plane will last till the end of the tour.

The Crater Lake comes in sight.

Collecting the science in flight. The whole biome semms to be surrounded by the Impact Ejecta biome, which reaches into the lake. Probably, the Crater Lake biome doesn't have any dry parts.

The lake is huge, and with the broken plane I didn't want to spend a lot of time with searching for a dry spot. So it's time for some swimming. (4°43'53"S 10°14'33"E)

The plane can swim stable with up to 14m/s. The maximum speed is 18m/s, but then it goes only in a circle, that's too slow to take off, but in emergency it could land on the sea.

Bob takes a warm bath, and collects science data, two less than on land, because two experiments doesn't work here.

On the way to the final biome, the Eastern Sea. The target symbol on the navball is already our final destination. The handling issues are getting worse, and there are still three more flights after this on the schedule.

Finally, it's getting dark. That was a really long day. At the check of the solar panels, there was a surprise. Two of them are broken. I have no idea, when it happened. I thought, maybe this caused the handling issues, but no.

Landing for a night break. Poor kerbals. With their biorhythm of 6 hours day-night cycle they had to do today more than 17 hours without a longer break. (13°32'46"S 37°9'19"E)

Summary of day 2: 17h20min mission time, 3000km distance, 77 science reports

Day 3
 

Spoiler

Starting the final day of the tour. It should be possible to land at the starting point before sunset. Hopefully, the plane can do it.

Till now, I only had to adjust the pitch and the course of the plane every 10-15 minutes, if it was in a stable position. But here it happened, that it left its stable position without any reason, and as I looked on the screen, it headed to the opposite direction and was 1000m deeper, than it should be. From here, it was semi-manual flying, no "auto-pilot" anymore.

The Eastern Sea, the final biome of the tour. It should have dry parts to collect full science.

But not here, it's too steep to land there.

Getting the science in flight, and hoping, that the peninsula in front has the right biome, to land there.

But the whole coast is in the Shallows biome.

On the other side of the bay, there is the right place. (22°5'44"S 58°7'13"E)

The primary goal of the mission is completed. We landed at every biome on Eve and collected science, 187 till now. But there are still some science reports to do, and of course, we have to go home.

This looks just crazy. I was confident to get back to the rocket, but it's doubtful, if the final flight will be a success.

Meanwhile, there are three broken solar panels.

The target is visible. Only 100km(?) to go.

The final approach.

That was closer than necessary. The tour is successfully completed, with more science reports than planned in advance.

The fuel processing runs still really poorly, but from now, we can focus more on it.

Summary of day 3: 3h20min mission time, 570km distance, 14 science reports

Day 4
 

Spoiler

Early in the morning, Bill is on the way to prepare the plane for its final mission.

Grabbing the repair kits to fix the solar panels. We don't want to use all of them, so if the repair of a solar panel needs two repair kits, then only one of them will be repaired.

But one repair kit is enough.

After all solar panels are fixed, Bill takes all unnecessary equipment, to reduce mass, except of one chute for the last EVA report, and put them all into the storage container.

Dismantle the front solar panels to reduce mass. They aren't necessary anymore, because the final mission doesn't need a full day, and at noon, even the less solar panels provide enough energy. And some extra solar panels for the rocket are always good.

During the night, the plane and the rocket touched each other, I don't know, which one moved, but now moved the plane back to a safe distance.

Additional mass reduction. In the final mission there won't be any biome searching, so no antennas needed.

I think, you already know, that we will try to reach the upper atmosphere, so no seismic sensor and gravimeter needed, because they don't provide science data there.

At sunrise, Bill is going back to fill the tanks further.

Final check, that Bob has the chute, and ready to fly.

I added the engine data on the screen, and later also the pressure data to see, how they change with the altitude.

At 5500m, there was no stable flight possible anymore, so I switched SAS off.

After pressed the S key for almost 15 minutes, I searched in the key mapping, how to use the trim. It's much more comfortable to make only the adjustments with the Q and E keys.

At 15000m, everything looks fine.

At 17000m it looks like at the edge of space.

At 18500m the plane becomes more and more unstable, and the climbing speed starts to get lower.

At 20000m, still OK.

At 21500m, it doesn't look good anymore. The climbing speed is very low, it's doubtful, that we can reach 22000m.

At 21900m the climbing speed is nearly zero. I try to change the angle of the control surface and the propeller, because I optimized them to a fully functional plane, but this plane isn't fully functional anymore. But it didn't help, the original settings are still the best.

Reaching the maximum altitude at 21964m. 36m too low.

Going back. This plane needs further optimization. 36m are not too much to give up already.

Summary of day 4: 1h40min mission time, 0 science reports

Day 5

Spoiler

Everything today is improvisation. I didn't test this scenario.
Early in the morning again, the (de)construction continues. Removing two large solar panels (we wasted two repair kits for them yesterday), and the nose cone, to reduce mass and move the center of mass backward. Moving the center of mass backward is a good idea, because it allows to reach the same pitch level with less drag. I think, at 22000m the air is thin enough and the speed isn't really high, so the missing nose cone doesn't hurt too much.

Every little thing counts. Moving the barometer further backward.

Finally, I tried to move the probe core from the front to the back end of the fuel tank, but I didn't get the right perspective to do it. So it comes to the tail of the plane.

The next attempt of the final mission. With SAS there is no difference in the stability.

But without SAS it feels much more stable than at the last flight. The necessary corrections are much smaller, and at this altitude, we even don't need maximum pitch.

Reached maximum pitch level at almost 18000m. The climbing speed is getting lower.

At 21000m the climbing speed is still adequate, much better than last time.

At 21800m, climbing slow, but steady.

Reached 22000m. But we need some buffer, because opening the door of the cargo bay for the atmosphere analysis will increase drag.

The EVA report as the final act. In practice, it was a really dangerous stunt, because releasing all the controls resulted in a nosedive, and Bob's situation was very critical, it took a huge effort to get him back on board. But with the trim set to maximum pitch, it doesn't happen, and the EVA report is a relative safe thing.

I think, you understand, why I don't do the whole tour again, to collect the atmosphere analysis at high altitude at all biomes. The tour took already 3 weeks (IRL). And with this damaged plane, with reduced solar panels, without antennas (without KerbNet for biome searching), it would be just pure pain, and there's no guarantee, that it can climb up to 22000m at every biome. What if the damage gets worse? So let's go back and land it for the final time.

Bob takes the 194 science reports out of the science container.

On the way to the command pod he grabs a chute. But wait a minute. He had a chute on the last mission. Yes, but he gave it to Valentina, because we have an idea for a very last plane mission.

Bob is climbing up to the command pod, but the solar panel is in the way. Go away!

Putting the science reports into the science container in the cargo bay. I "can't" show it at the moment, because the doors are blocked by the fuel tanks, but there is a surprise within.

Arrived in the command pod, Bob's chute disappeared.

Valentina is in the air again with the plane. The idea for this mission came at the descent form the last mission. We collected already more science than expected, let's try to do even one more. There are all three surface experiments deployed, but completing the grand slam experiment isn't part of the mission plan (together with the EVA experiments in flight). But the plane is already damaged, let's damage it even more. It doesn't have the speed and the mass to complete the experiment, but maybe it will generate some data. The task is, to get the plane crash into the surface, but not into the rocket, and get Valentina out safe in time. Again, this is an untested scenario.

Valentina is out and gliding to the surface. Unfortunately (in this situation), the plane has large wings, so it glides wonderful in the thick air. It's impossible to crash it straight to the ground without control. Probably I had to cut the struts of the wings, but I had the fear, that Valentina can't open the chute in time, if everything gets out of control.

Crash. But almost 3km away. I think, that's not enough.

This will be a smooth landing.

Valentina grabs a second chute to bring it up to the command pod. Everything is in motion here, or how did the seismic sensor and the gravimeter land under the rocket?

Arrived in the command pod, the second chute disappeared.

The confirmation, that the grand slam experiment doesn't registered any data. The other two need a little more time.

Summary of day 5: 1h20min mission tine, 7 science reports

The rest
 

Spoiler

Because of the high latitude, the solar panels provide only enough power to run all drillers for 4,5 hours, with the batteries it's possible to stretch this time to almost 7 hours per day. The remaining time, there's power management necessary, with switching the drillers and the ISRU on and off. But without flying around far away, the whole process runs much more efficient.

A few days later, the mystery goo experiment is almost complete. In sandbox mode it's impossible to transmit the science data from the deployed experiments, and it's also impossible to take the science data by a kerbal if the experiment is complete. The best possible solution is, to grab the data at 99,99%.

A few days later, the weather observation experiment is almost complete.

On the way back, grabbing the EVA repair kit to bring it up to the command pod.

Which disappeared again.

196 science reports are stored in the science container. We are almost finished here. We are only waiting for Bill to fill the tanks.

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by DennisB

[KincaidFrankMF]

Yay, nearly there! The bug that makes it impossible to stay still long enough to scan surface objects is the main reason I don't generally bother with scanning arms, it's just too frustrating. Well done for finding a workaround!

I suspect it's the hinges on your wings causing flight instability - even locked & strutted they move around over time. Another bug, sigh.

Fingers crossed for a smooth blast-off!

[DennisB]

4 minutes ago, KincaidFrankMF said:

Another bug, sigh.

There was an other bug, which I found during the tests. If I loaded the game, while a kerbal was on EVA, it couldn't climb up the ladder, because it couldn't switch between the segments, and got stuck at the end of the first segment. Luckily, I know it already, so I keep it in mind, to get all kerbals inside, before I exit the game.

[DennisB]

 

Episode 4 - From Eve to Kerbin
The way to glory (Sep 09-18)

Before the launch
 

Spoiler

On day 28 on Eve, the tanks are finally full. The total time between the landing on Eve and the launch is 108 (Kerbin) days.

The orbit of the return stage is close to the terminator. In the morning, there is a little bit more sunlight, so there is almost a whole day until the launch.

Bill is leaving the mining unit for the last time, probably for the first time without an incident with the radiator.

Retracting the ladder, because it would cause trouble at the decoupling.

Taking some equipment.

Retracting the ladders on the other side too.

I have no idea, what's going on here. Some things are there, which weren't there some days ago. It's quite random. I just hope, when we need something, it will be there for real.

Retracting the radiators and the solar panels (except one) to avoid trouble at decoupling.

And the drillers too.

Eve ascent (not an ordinary one)
 

Spoiler

The final morning on Eve. It's almost time to launch.

Retracting the final solar panel.

Decoupling the structure (with the wings, solar panels and the mining unit) and the batteries. There are some little solar panels on the command pod and a battery in the cargo bay of the final stage, that must be enough. To make sure, the structure doesn't crash into the rocket, there are two Separatron rockets each side.

Liftoff. Until the decoupling of the fuel tanks, there won't be any course corrections, because of the high mass and drag, it would cost too much momentum (and fuel). During the time on Eve, the rocket slid down the slope a significant distance, so the inclination isn't as high anymore, as at the landing. Unfortunately it also rotated to a quite bad orientation, which must be corrected later during the ascent into a north-south direction.

Decoupling the fuel tanks. There are still all six Vector engines burning with an incredible boost. Before the decouplings, the TWR reaches 3 (in Eve's gravity!).

After the rotation, pitching a little to the south.

Decoupling the next parts of the main stage with manually activated control surfaces, like at Kerbin ascent. But these tanks are much more fragile, than those at Kerbin, and the atmosphere is much denser, so they rip apart immediately. It looks spectacular, but it's safe. At least, nothing ever happened during the tests.

Only two Vector engines remaining, the TWR is as high as before. After pitching more to the south, locking the trajectory to prograde, because from here it starts to be dangerous. A little deviation from prograde direction, and the same could happen, what happened with the dropped fuel tanks before.

Building up speed.

At 40km altitude, the fuel tanks of the main stage are empty. Normally, they would be dropped now, but the atmosphere is still too dense, and the final stage has no aerodynamic elements, because it was surrounded by fuel tanks, and there was no chance to mount anything on it. The main stage provides stability until 50km altitude... at least, it did it every time before.

But not now. In practice, my ascent was often too steep, and I couldn't circularize the orbit. This was the first time, the ascent was too shallow. At an ideal ascent, the speed is at 1120-1140m/s at the burnout of the main stage. This time, it was 1290m/s. I think, it happened at the automatic switch from surface to orbital prograde. That course correction was probably too much at that speed. The central tanks of the main stage are the longest ones of the rocket, and the ends of them are not strutted, so at 44km altitude, the top part of both tanks ripped off. The rocket did a forward flip. Luckily, the aerodynamics at the bottom end was still fully functional, and through loosing the upper part and the reduced speed, it flipped immediately forward to prograde direction again, and I could decouple the main stage. After that shock moment, the final stage is on course. It lost some speed, but the trajectory is much better, than normally. You may ask, why do I such a shallow ascent, and why do I have such a massive final stage. A normal Eve rocket would make a steep ascent to build up time before AP and then circularize the orbit with a small final stage, probably with a Terrier engine. The reason is, the mission is still not completed. The atmosphere analysis experiment is biome sensitive at high altitude. It was clear since the first tests, that reaching high altitude with the Eve plane would be a pain. It's more efficient, to collect those science data with the rocket on the way home. The rules of the challenge doesn't allow to enter the atmosphere again, once left it. So the final stage must be large and strong enough to circularize the orbit below 90km and carry the science instrument. I think, it's obvious, that it would be barely possible after a normal steep ascent. That's the main reason, why I designed the final stage like this, and why I used a polar orbit around Eve. Everything else is collateral benefit (the use of the final stage for the orbit circularization around Kerbin and for de-orbiting at Eve, the use of a polar orbit around Eve for more flexibility at choosing a landing spot).

Over 60km altitude it's possible to leave the prograde direction. It's time to build up horizontal speed before reaching AP.

Adjusting the pitch to get AP close to 90km.

Starting the circularization with reduced thrust. We are still a little low. Below 87km altitude, there is some overheating.

"Orbit"

3,9° off. It's OK, but it could be better (my best was 0,9° in practice).

Reducing the thrust limiter to 10, later to 5%, because there are only very little boosts necessary to maintain altitude and not going accidentally out of the atmosphere. After getting connection to KerbNet, the biome hunting can begin. We already have the Highlands biome, there are only twelve to get.

Explodium See.

Shallows.

Lowlands.

Midlands.

Poles.

Eastern Sea.

A look inside the cargo bay.

Foothills.

Peaks. We did only two orbits. For the final four biomes we will need much more. In worst case, much much more.

The next orbit will be the most critical one. With much luck, we can get the Olympus biome. If not, we have to wait at least a half rotation of Eve, which is around 10 hours. Within the atmosphere, there is only 4x time warp possible, with exiting time warp every 5-10min for a burn, and it isn't possible to exit the game.

That's simply good luck.

Impact Ejecta.

Crater Lake.

The Western Sea is really far away.

4,5 hours later, we are almost there, but only almost. One more orbit.

Western Sea, the final biome and the final science report.

Now in a real orbit, with really much fuel left. There are two scenarios for the way back to Kerbin. With that fuel level, the standard plan is the right one. That means, after docking with the return stage and refueling the final stage, they go together to Kerbin, where the final stage performs an easy and safe landing. In the case of a low fuel level, there is an alternative plan. With a low fuel level, it doesn't make sense to bring the final stage back to Kerbin, because it can't slow down the entry too much, so it's just ballast during the transfer. The remaining fuel would be used for Eve escape. In this case, the transfer stage would have much more dv, than in the first case, but because of the lower TWR, the trajectory at Kerbin descent would be less predictable and the entry heat higher.

Like in episode 1, here are some extra pictures of the decouplings.

Docking with the return stage
 

Spoiler

The return stage, with its Nerv engine, has a higher fuel efficiency, so it will do the orbit changes to meet the final stage. At first, matching the inclination.

Then the PE.

Adjusting the orbital period for rendezvous on the next orbit.

The return stage in action.

A little retrograde burn for fine adjustment.

1,7km separation is close enough.

Checking the position of the relay satellites, like before all maneuvers of the return stage. I've lost one of my first Mun probes, when I lost connection during the capture burn, which ended in a crash.

Starting the burn to match speed, with slowly reducing the thrust to reduce the separation distance the same time.

45m is fine.

Checking the connection again before the final approach.

Almost there, but I realized there, that it's impossible to dock at the moment.

Bill is on EVA to remove the nose cone, to make the docking port free.

Reducing the thrust of the main engine to 1%. We will perform the docking maneuver with the final stage, because it has RCS, and so we don't need to worry about the connection anymore.

Matching the prograde and the target marker.

And preparing for braking.

Orienting the return stage to the right direction for docking.

The first approach wasn't successful, it ended in a little collision (with 0,3m/s) without damage, the second attempt was successful.

Bill is on EVA again to refuel the final stage. The bottom tank on both sides contain rocket fuel for it.

For the transfer, I switch off the engine of the final stage and switch the control direction of the command pod, because the transfer stage will fly in the opposite direction.

Ready to go home.... but nobody knew at this time, that it was only half time of the mission.

Transfer to Kerbin
 

Spoiler

In practice, I had a nice fast transfer to Kerbin, but this time, I have only this. I think, it's because the orbit has a different orientation to the Sun. With the final stage attached, the dv-budget isn't too high, so I don't want to do experiments, and take this transfer, which lasts over 100 days longer.

I split the escape burn into three parts. The first one is 4min20s long.

The second burn will be 4min long, to empty the side tanks.

Decoupling the side tanks.

The final escape burn.

Bye Eve. It was good to be here, but it's really time to go home.

The transfer trajectory to Kerbin.

A 218m/s course correction on the way to get the right encounter.

It was a really long journey to home, almost the half of the entire mission time, but now, Kerbin comes in sight.

Burning all the fuel of the transfer stage for capture. It's good to see some other colors, than purple and black.

Coming home
 

Spoiler

Undocking the transfer stage.

Switching back the control direction and activating the engine.

Lowering the AP before de-orbiting.

There is a large flat area, where we can land next time.

De-orbiting trajectory. If we go over the mountains, then it should be a very easy and safe landing.

Passing the mountains. There is almost 1000m/s dv to slow down.

Slowing down in the upper atmosphere.

Activating RCS after the burn, because the rocket still don't have aerodynamic devices, it will help keep it in retrograde direction.

Burning out the final drops of fuel.

From now, it's just waiting for coming down.

Decoupling the engine and the fuel tank at 10km altitude.

And slowly descend with the chutes.

The new heroes of Kerbin and the treasure box with the 208 science reports.

 

Final thoughts

My philosophy on the mission was, to use the reload option only, when necessary, and I also didn't recreate the mission scenarios in a separate game. I practiced the Eve descent and ascent before I did it in the mission, but I used the saved game of the final test, and repeated it again and again, which was of course slightly different from the real mission scenario. During the whole mission, I reloaded the game only four times, but only two of them were really my fault.

1st reload: As I sent out Bill on EVA in Eve orbit to prepare the plane for Bob, I didn't catch him in time after leaving the command pod. He crashed against the structure, started to spin, and I couldn't catch him anymore.
2nd reload: At the preparation of the plane on Eve, I removed the unnecessary struts, and placed them on the ground, before I started to unfold the wings. The struts started to roll down the slope. After I finished with the wings, I switched the view between the kerbals and the vessels, and unfortunately, the focus switched to a rolling strut in a moment, when it left the radius, from where I can switch back. I could go back only to the tracking station, but this set back the game to the last quicksave, and that was, before I strutted the final segment of the wing, and after the game load, the wing was broken.
3rd reload: The terrain at the basalt formation was difficult. Sometimes I had to use full thrust to go uphill, and once I couldn't brake in time after coming over the crest, crashed against the basalt formation and lost one wing.
4th reload: I know, the controls don't work, when the mouse pointer is over the KerbNet window. But I had sometimes the same effect, even if the mouse pointer wasn't there. That happened also once at the start from Olympus and caused a crash.

The challenge was longer, than I expected in advance, but it had also some unexpected situations, which made the mission exciting. My fear was, because I did so much testing, the mission could be just repeating everything. "Luckily" that wasn't the case. Now I have 380 hours on the clock, and looking forward to the next challenge. I worked already on it at the end of May, and I'm still not sure, if it's even possible, like I want it to do.

Edited September 22, 2023 by DennisB

[KincaidFrankMF]

Whoop! *round of applause* 

Spectacular work! Love that you used a very different design to mine. More complicated, but you also bagged more science than I did (must admit, I forgot all about the upper atmosphere science on my run... oops!)

You very comprehensively smashed the challenge - well done!!

[DennisB]

6 hours ago, KincaidFrankMF said:

Whoop! *round of applause* 

Spectacular work! Love that you used a very different design to mine. More complicated, but you also bagged more science than I did (must admit, I forgot all about the upper atmosphere science on my run... oops!)

You very comprehensively smashed the challenge - well done!!

Thank you very much for the applause.

Now I'd like to see your mission report, even if it's less detailed.

[KincaidFrankMF]

I'll DM it to you, just in case anyone wants to try the challenge a different way and doesn't want it spoiled. Hint it can be done without mining...

[xendelaar]

Very cool mission. Will to try it tonight. I'm not going to watch the existing entries so don't get any spoilers. I  want to do this on my own.

 

[DennisB]

1 hour ago, xendelaar said:

Very cool mission. Will to try it tonight. I'm not going to watch the existing entries so don't get any spoilers. I  want to do this on my own.

Cool to have another contender to the challenge. I think, I couldn't withstand to look at the other entries, but if you can, I'm looking forward, to see a very different approach. If you didn't read through the thread, I'd like to point you to the difficulty setting.

On 4/20/2023 at 2:22 AM, KincaidFrankMF said:

Re. difficulty, I tend to go with Hard, but then tweak it to allow reverts & quickloading. No idea if that's the community standard, but it's what I do.

It makes a little difference, if you wan to use relay satellites, and a huge difference, if you want to process fuel on the surface. Maybe, it should be put into the opening post.

[xendelaar]

10 hours ago, DennisB said:

Cool to have another contender to the challenge. I think, I couldn't withstand to look at the other entries, but if you can, I'm looking forward, to see a very different approach. If you didn't read through the thread, I'd like to point you to the difficulty setting.

It makes a little difference, if you wan to use relay satellites, and a huge difference, if you want to process fuel on the surface. Maybe, it should be put into the opening post.

Thanks for the heads up. I did read the post but didn't  think about the effects on relays and mining. 

But in any case I will redo the designing again at hard mode. I experimented with some designs yesterday and that did not go too well haha. Back to the drawing board, I guess .

I'm very curious about your design to be honest!  and maybe I will take a look, just to be sure that I'm not doing exactly the same thing as you did. 

How long did it take for you to finish the challenge? 

Edited September 28, 2023 by xendelaar

[DennisB]

5 hours ago, xendelaar said:

I'm very curious about your design to be honest!  and maybe I will take a look, just to be sure that I'm not doing exactly the same thing as you did. 

How long did it take for you to finish the challenge? 

I'm nearly sure, if you don't look, you won't do the same .

The construction took a very long time for me, because I was a beginner. The first attempt took 2 months (and a break of 6 weeks), but the design failed. Then I constructed a completely new rocket, and adjusted everything else to it, with the final test together, it took another 3-4 weeks. The mission itself was around 5 weeks, but a significant part of it was, writing the mission report (I'm not so good in writing, and I had many pictures). The net mission time was around 80 hours, but my mission plan was probably the slowest possible.

I saw your RSS grand tour, so you have more experience for sure, than I had at the start, so I'm sure, you can do the construction much faster. The mission length depends much on your design and mission plan.

Edited September 28, 2023 by DennisB

[xendelaar]

17 hours ago, DennisB said:

I'm nearly sure, if you don't look, you won't do the same .

The construction took a very long time for me, because I was a beginner. The first attempt took 2 months (and a break of 6 weeks), but the design failed. Then I constructed a completely new rocket, and adjusted everything else to it, with the final test together, it took another 3-4 weeks. The mission itself was around 5 weeks, but a significant part of it was, writing the mission report (I'm not so good in writing, and I had many pictures). The net mission time was around 80 hours, but my mission plan was probably the slowest possible.

I saw your RSS grand tour, so you have more experience for sure, than I had at the start, so I'm sure, you can do the construction much faster. The mission length depends much on your design and mission plan.

You did this mission while you're still a beginner? Holy crap that is amazing!! Didn't the difficulty level drive you insane? I'm also very impressed by how much time you dedicated to this challenge. It must have been really frustrating from time to time? And performing the mission in 5 weeks? Wow that shows some real dedication! I'm assuming you flew around in a electric plane or something like that. Sounds cool. I think I will take a look at your report today, when I've got more time.

Writing reports is also a lot of work huh? I can't wait to read yours. I used to make elaborate mission reports myself but eventually shifted towards making short videos reports, which sometimes take up more time, than flying the entire mission haha. But its a hobby and I enjoy it. 

Thanks for watching( a part) of my rss video. It was a really refreshing experience to fly across our own solar system for a change. But nothing beats the kerbal system:) I've been playing the game since 2013 lol. 

[DennisB]

The most frustrating were the bugs, and when the game physics didn't act as I expected. I have a quite good skill to feel in advance, if I can master a challenge or not, and at this one, I had a good feeling. Then it's my mindset, to work on it as long as I have new ideas, or till I realize, that I can't do it.

I didn't consider to make videos, because my laptop is already at its limit with KSP. It reached the end of it's lifetime this week, tomorrow I will buy a new one.

[KincaidFrankMF]

12 hours ago, xendelaar said:

You did this mission while you're still a beginner? Holy crap that is amazing!

That's what I said!! I certainly couldn't have done it back then!

[DennisB]

On 9/29/2023 at 7:56 AM, xendelaar said:

I'm assuming you flew around in a electric plane or something like that. Sounds cool. I think I will take a look at your report today, when I've got more time.

I just see, you did already a part of the mission years ago.

You"only" need the science experiments, and something to return with to Kerbin. Fun fact, my fist plane concept was like yours (medium propellers at the front and back), but I changed it later.