Journey of the Avocado- a Jool 5 Mission!

[Kimera Industries]

Back To The Future Laythe

Since this is a big enough adventure on its own

Orbiting Pol, I had barely enough dv to transfer back to Laythe. The stress I felt orbiting Vall returned. But all I had to do was dock with the Avocado again. It had more than enough to refuel the Guac, and with a lot less weight from the fuel Guac used, I could go a lot farther. There was just one problem: (Just one? That's great!) I was far short of the fuel to circularize at Laythe. I could capture into orbit with my fuel, but it would be too elliptical an orbit to be of use. Then I had my worst best idea yet, taking a few cues from Interstellar.

"Airbrake?"

"We wanna shave some speed, don't we?"

"Actually we wanna get there in one piece."

Thanks again, Tylo.

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Using minimum fuel to capture into orbit.

Trajectories is very helpful for this kind of thing.

I should have put batteries on this thing. Without those solar panels, I'll have to rely on my engine alternator for EC production. Fortunately, I have engines with an alternator in the first place!

Ignore the thermal bars this is fine

Fixing orbit

I just warped until I got a close rendezvous

This is a nightmare. 

Transferring to Tylo.

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Hi-lo Tylo

Three retroburns because I crave the illusion of efficiency

Guac is refueled and the crew is transferred. We're ready for the most dangerous landing yet.

Coming up next on Journey of the Avocado: You guessed it, the Tylo landing!

Edited May 15, 2024 by Kimera Industries
Page 2? Will do!

[TwoCalories]

  On 1/12/2024 at 3:09 AM, Kimera Industries said:

"Airbrake?"

"We wanna shave some speed, don't we?"

"Actually we wanna get there in one piece."

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"Very graceful."

"No. But very efficient."

[Kimera Industries]

Bigger Up Close: The Tylo Landing

Completed by the "Guac" Vacuum Lander

This is the only moon besides Laythe I tested the lander extensively for. This landing, and the subsequent ascent, took many tries. Many things you've already seen did, so I don't want you to get the impression that this was flawless, easy, and smooth. It was very, very hard, and I nearly gave up many times. But did I give in to the gravity wells of despair? No! Did I let my orbit of hope decay? No! Did I-

"Jeb, be quiet, I can hardly hear myself think over the sound of your inspirational speech."

"My bad."

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Stage one, away! 

Stage two, away!

Touchdown confirmed!

"Tylo has some really interesting rocks!" Sure, sure.

Yup, five tries.

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Stage three, away!

Completing those maneuvers was the most peaceful I've ever felt during this mission. Tylo is actually kinda pretty up close, and I knew that from this moment forward the rest of the mission would be a breeze. 

The Avocado's on a diet... It just keeps getting lighter and lighter.

Coming up next on Journey of the Avocado: The Bop landing! And an ancient life-form?

[Kimera Industries]

Gilly 2.0: The Bop Landing

Completed by the "Guac" Vacuum Lander

This was the easiest landing: the Guac is now lightweight and unencumbered, having shed its drop tanks for the Tylo landing. With over 3km/s of dv, I could land anywhere I wanted on Bop. Naturally, I chose to land on the SPOILER ALERT. Yeah, there's a spoiler ahead. If you don't want to see it, the spoiler's within a spoiler, but I'm pretty sure most people know about this one.

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I'm changing this to a nice, equilatorial Bop orbit. Because I can.

All I knew was that the SPOILER ALERT was in this vague location. I was lucky I managed to spot it when it was just one pixel wide.

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Alright, it's the Bop Kraken. 

Hmm, an egg-shaped object found right next to a space alien? Nothing could go wrong with taking that aboard!

But is it really dead!?

*Poke*

This would make a good diving board. Maybe a pool should follow.

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After sucking all the liquid fuel and science out of it like a vampire, it's time to say goodbye to Guac. Someday, a future mission could dock with it and refuel it.

That's the last moon! All that is left is to return home and the Jool 5 is complete!

Coming up next on Journey of the Avocado: KEEEEEERBIN!

Edited January 13, 2024 by Kimera Industries
So it turns out if you put "SPOILER" in brackets, it puts anything after it in a spoiler. That just messed up everything.

[TwoCalories]

  On 1/13/2024 at 8:56 PM, Kimera Industries said:

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I love how it looks like Jool is just a part of the rocket in this picture. I guess that's how much hydrogen (fuel) it takes for a Jool 5.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 1/13/2024 at 9:36 PM, TwoCalories said:

I love how it looks like Jool is just a part of the rocket in this picture. I guess that's how much hydrogen (fuel) it takes for a Jool 5.

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Me too! It reminded me of the big hydrogen tanks in KSP2, I've seen a Jool ship somewhere that painted its green.

[Kimera Industries]

Arrival: The Kerbin Landing?

Mission finished by the Avocado's Crew Capsule

At last, at long last! It's time to come home! Here's a song from Tron: Legacy, because I can't get it out of my head now.

Goodbye, Bop.

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Correcting inclination because I have fuel to spare.

Tylo in front of Jool looks like the pit of an avocado... how curious...

We are very close now.

Sometimes we forget that the stock game looks pretty too.

This first encounter is just a gravity assist. Reentry from the altitude of Jool's orbit would result in easily imaginable destruction.

Much better.

Max timewarp is so sloooow

Using every last drop of fuel to slow down for reentry.

After quite a few tries, I finally came across a novel solution to the going-too-fast problem: the payload bays. I packed so much stuff into them that opening them caused enough drag to save me when the engines exploded and the craft flipped around. Yep, this took so many tries that I realized it followed that pattern every time.

Wut duh 

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What'd I tell you. Engines explode, then it flips around.

Hey, we didn't die!

Aaaand...

Splashdown!

The journey of a lifetime is complete! Let's see how much science we brought back.

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Uuh...

That's a lot.

"Ready for next assignment." After being in that  tin can for a decade? Yeah, right.

Tech tree before.

Tech tree after. Note the 11k unspent/unusable science points.

With that, the Journey of the Avocado comes to an end! See you in the next one!

[Watermel00n]

Huh, a white suit scientist Lisa Kerman... pretty sure she was the first Kerbfleet comic.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 2/1/2024 at 4:42 AM, Watermel00n said:

Huh, a white suit scientist Lisa Kerman... pretty sure she was the first Kerbfleet comic.

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Interesting. That was entirely on accident.