Eve science grab challenge

[xendelaar]

On 8/20/2023 at 8:31 PM, DennisB said:

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

Kerbin ascent

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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.
 

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Kerbin escape
 

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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
 

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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
 

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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
 

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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
 

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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
 

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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.

 

I haven't had the the time to work on my mission but I've decided I couldn't wait any longer to read your report  hehe.  

 

 Wow, this is an impressive mission and report! It's remarkable to see a beginner like you tackle such a complex journey in Kerbal Space Program. Your attention to detail in managing fuel tank decouplings and aerodynamic devices is commendable.

I particularly admire your strategy in re-engineering your craft in space so you're able to land safer on Eve. I've never done that in the 5k hours I've played this game . It's clear that you've put a lot of thought into your rocket design and mission execution.

I will read the next mission report when I've got more time. 

On 9/29/2023 at 8:34 PM, KincaidFrankMF said:

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

Lol! Me neither... it took me a full two weeks to reach the bloody mun haha. The thought of even trying to Conquer Eve, took many months of playing... this guy is speedrunning the game without even breaking a sweat haha

[DennisB]

20 hours ago, xendelaar said:

I particularly admire your strategy in re-engineering your craft in space so you're able to land safer on Eve. I've never done that in the 5k hours I've played this game . It's clear that you've put a lot of thought into your rocket design and mission execution.

There was a problem, and I tried to solve it, and it was faster to use/modify, what I already had, than start from scratch. Without the wings, I could use only 60% thrust during the descent, that was enough for not burning parts only on a perfect entry trajectory, which I can't reproduce anytime.

20 hours ago, xendelaar said:

this guy is speedrunning the game without even breaking a sweat haha

Maybe. But keep in mind, I didn't have a standing start, but a flying start. I watched a ton of videos, before I installed the game, so I already knew many important things. And I don't know, if it matters, but I'm 39 years old.

Spoiler

Before I started playing, I watched already these series completely

And a large part of this one

After I started playing, I watched this series completely

And some selected videos of Stratzenblitz75 and Bradley Whistance, but they are mostly on another level.

At the moment I watch these ones

 

[xendelaar]

2 hours ago, DennisB said:

There was a problem, and I tried to solve it, and it was faster to use/modify, what I already had, than start from scratch. Without the wings, I could use only 60% thrust during the descent, that was enough for not burning parts only on a perfect entry trajectory, which I can't reproduce anytime.

Maybe. But keep in mind, I didn't have a standing start, but a flying start. I watched a ton of videos, before I installed the game, so I already knew many important things. And I don't know, if it matters, but I'm 39 years old.

  Hide contents

Before I started playing, I watched already these series completely

And a large part of this one

After I started playing, I watched this series completely

And some selected videos of Stratzenblitz75 and Bradley Whistance, but they are mostly on another level.

At the moment I watch these ones

 

 

you watched the series of a game before you bought the game? interesting! I've never done that before. how did you find the game? I'll be reading episode 2 of your report soon. I want to take my time and savor it haha.

So you're 39 years old... pfff you're still a rookie at life.. I'm a 42 year old fart.  I've seen the worrrrlllddd haha