J5 - A KSP2 Jool 5, Single Launch, Over 70,000 points For Science!

[Poppa Wheelie]

Following is a Mission Report for my 18th launch in my KSP2 For Science! playthrough.  I already had For Science! missions for Tylo, Laythe, and Bop.  The game also thought I had already achieved the "Plant a flag on Pol" mission, but I didn't want to claim credit until I had actually done it.  So I needed 4 of the 5 moons anyway, might as well make a Jool 5 out of it!  I had not done a Jool 5 before, so this was a first for me.

Some highlights:

• 70,476 science points
• Splashed and used a water probe on both Laythe and Vall - so both a splashdown and a landing on each of those moons
• My first Jool 5, my first landing on any of the Jool moons, and my first return from Jool -- I had sent a one-way probe to Jool earlier in the playthrough
• I used the same lander for Tylo, Vall, Pol, and Bop - although it had several "drop" components for its first use, on Tylo
• I started the design, build, and test for this mission on 20 Apr 24, made the actual mission launch on 8 Jul 24, and completed the mission on 23 Aug 24

Vehicle Names.  I attempted to rename the vehicles within the game after each docking and undocking.  I might have missed a few.  Here are the vehicles, by name, that I'm referring to in the narrative, and that you should see in the screenshots:

• J5:  This is the entire vehicle during launch, and all the way until establishing initial orbit at Tylo.  After this, J5 is that part which carries the various landers on the various sorties.  With the exception of 1 kerbal in a lander, the other 4 kerbals are always aboard the J5.
• Tylo Station:  This is the "remains" of the Kerbin to Jool transfer section.  Before completion of the Tylo Sortie, Tylo Station is put into a Very High Tylo Orbit (approx 10Mm).  Each sortie returns to Tylo Station to refuel and reconfigure for the following sortie.
• Moonwalker:  This is the wheeled lander used on Tylo, Vall, Pol, and Bop.  Moonwalker contains several "drop" components initially, that are used only for Tylo and then are discarded.
• Albatross:  This is the SSTO aircraft used for landing on Laythe and return to orbit.

Part 1:  Launch to LKO

Spoiler

Liftoff!

Drop 1st stage boosters

Jettison fairings

Complete the orbit

For each of the three 2nd stage boosters, I decoupled them, faced them Retrograde, and deorbited them, like this:

 

Part 2:  LKO to Jool System, Tylo Orbit

Spoiler

Setting up the Jool transfer

Jool transfer burn

Working the Tylo encounter

Approaching Tylo and capture burn

 

Part 3:  Tylo Sortie

Spoiler

Docking J5 with Moonwalker

Establishing very low Tylo orbit

Separated Moonwalker from J5

Discarded the docking port on the front of the Moonwalker nose drop tank.  I think this docking port is the only debris that I left in space, without deorbiting.

Tylo Landing.  This involved dropping fuel tanks twice.  I monitored on-board fuel levels during the entire burn, which was non-stop during the horizontal portion, and then intermittent during the vertical portion of the landing.  At the right fuel level points I transferred fuel from drop tanks, and dropped those tanks.  This took several landing trials during design and build, and then several landing trials during the mission.  

Once landed, I transferred all fuel out of the nose tank, and discarded it

I then did science at the landing location while the empty nose drop tank rolled down the hill.  Notice the fuel levels are almost full.  Plenty enough for the return to orbit later.

I then drove to the Tylo Monument, making one stop for science and a flag, and a second stop for science, along the way.

I arrived at the Tylo Monument, did science, and got mission credit

Return to orbit.  I had two aircraft landing gear underneath the Moonwalker.  These created the Center of Mass pivot point that allowed me to raise the nose for liftoff.  I discarded these shortly after liftoff.  I also had two dart engines that were used for the landing, and for the initial ascent on this return to orbit.  I discarded these once the desired Ap was achieved.

Rendezvous and docking.  After an inclination change and a few other small orbital adjustments, I had a good rendezvous set up with J5.  This is where the game bit me for using such a low Tylo orbit.  By the time Moonwalker caught J5, we were already on the dark side of Tylo, and I couldn't see well enough to dock.  It took me several F5/F9 combinations, and several game saves and loads, before I finally got the docking done with some light left.

Establish Tylo Very High Orbit for Tylo Station.  First I decoupled an empty fuel tank from Tylo Station and deorbited it.

Next, I raised the Ap of both J5 and Tylo Station to approximately the same value at approximately the same time.  They were relatively close to each other at Ap when I also raised each Pe.

After a few small orbital tweaks, I had a good rendezvous.

I parked J5 approx 138m from Tylo Station, with zero relative velocity.

The next mission is to Laythe, so we'll need to dock Moonwalker since we'll be picking up Albatross.  So I undocked Moonwalker from J5 and docked it with Tylo Station, then undocked Albatross, then docked J5, to end the Tylo Sortie.

 

Part 4:  Laythe Sortie

Spoiler

Decouple the fuel tank to which J5 is docked.  This detaches J5 from Tylo Station, and begins the Laythe sortie.

I also undocked the Laythe Probe, and moved Tylo Station out of the way so that J5 could approach the probe.  I then docked J5 with the Laythe Probe, and with Albatross

Transit to a polar orbit of Laythe

I transferred fuel from the counterweight fuel tank into the Laythe Probe, then deorbited that empty tank

I undocked the Laythe Probe, faced it Retrograde, and deorbited it to splash down near the mission target.

Next I undocked Albatross, and deorbited the extra docking port

Then deorbited and landed Albatross

I did science and planted a flag at the landing site

I had what I call the "Laythe time of day" bug.  Albatross's landing gear was stuck in the mud, and Newrim could only walk a few meters towards the water before he wanted to float in mid air as if he was floating in the water.  It too some effort until I could get Newrim into the water.  Newrim swam to the target to do science, swam to the probe to do the same, then swam and walked back to Albatross.

The next morning, the landing gear were fine.  I activated the jet engine and got science credit for that mission.

Takeoff and return to orbit, and rendezvous with J5

Newrim transferred from Albatross to J5 via jetpack

Then I deorbited Albatross

Back to Tylo and Tylo Station

Docking with Tylo Station ended the Laythe Sortie

 

Part 5:  Vall Sortie

Spoiler

The Vall sortie begins when we decouple the fuel tank with which J5 is docked to Tylo Station

I then undocked Moonwalker, undocked the Vall Probe, moved Tylo Station out of the way, and docked J5 with the Vall Probe and then Moonwalker

Next I transferred from Tylo Very High Orbit to Vall with only 0.39m/s of dV, using RCS, and I adjusted the result into a good Vall polar orbit with 19ms dV more.

Like Laythe, we'll have both a landing and a splashdown on Vall.  First up is to land Moonwalker.

Next, fuel the Vall Probe with the fuel from the counterweight fuel tank, and then deorbit that tank.

Now splash the Vall Probe into what some people call The Scar, and what the game calls The Well.

Splashed down in The Well 44.3km from Moonwalker

I returned to the Moonwalker, and did science and planted a flag at the landing site

Then I drove Moonwalker to The Well, to get as close as possible to the Vall Probe.

I then had Erzon walk from Moonwalker towards The Well, in the direction of the Vall Probe

Half way down the cliff face, Erzon was able to do Landed Well science.  He jumped the rest of the way down.

At the bottom, Erzon did Splashed Well science, then swam to the Vall Probe

Erzon did Splashed Well science with the probe.  Then he used the rocket to drive the probe up onto the "beach" and do Landed Well science there.  Notice how little the Splashed well science is worth, and how much the Landed Well science is worth.  Also notice that we can get Water Samples science even while Landed (not in the water).

Next, I rolled the Vall Probe down the "beach", and back into the water.  I oriented the probe towards Moonwalker, then flew the probe and landed 135m from Moonwalker.

Erzon got out of the Vall Probe and walked to Moonwalker

Liftoff, return to orbit, rendezvous, and dock with J5

Return to Tylo Very High Orbit, rendezvous, and dock with Tylo Station

I docked in this way so that Moonwalker did not need to undock from J5.  This docking concludes the Vall Sortie.

 

Part 6:  Pol and Bop Sortie

Spoiler

The undocking in the image above begins the Pol and Bop Sortie.  We'll do both moons before returning to Tylo Station.

I transited to a Bop polar orbit, undocked Moonwalker, and landed

I did Mountains science at the landing site, and I "planted a flag on Pol".  Hey, wait a second, that sounds familiar, right?  Yes, the game told me that I had planted a flag on Pol much earlier in the playthrough (on Minmus, I think).  I never took the science points credit for it, though, and wanted to make sure I actually planted a flag on Pol before doing so.

I then slid down the hill and did Highlands science, then slid down a little further and did Lowlands science.  I was just very fortunate that I got all three regions (biomes) so easily, and so close to each other.

When I finally turned in the "Plant a flag on Pol" mission, I got the science points for that mission, and immediately received another mission to do a Radiation Observation in the Pol Lowlands.  Since I had just finished that science, I immediately got credit for this mission, too.

Pop a wheelie in preparation for liftoff

Liftoff, return to orbit, rendezvous, and dock with J5

The transit from Pol to Bop required going first to the AN/DN with Bop, then matching planes, then doing a Hohmann Transfer, and finally adjusting for a polar flyby.

After capturing in that polar orbit, I undocked the Moonwalker and landed.

I did science and planted a flag at the landing site

Then I drove to the middle of the target area

Doing science here satisfied the mission requirements

Pop a wheelie in preparation for liftoff

Liftoff and head directly for rendezvous and docking, without establishing orbit first.

Return to Tylo Station from Bop required change of inclination around Bop from polar to equatorial, then transit to AN/DN with Tylo, then Hohmann Transfer, then several adjustments after Tylo capture, and several adjustments to get a good rendezvous, before the final docking.  The lighting is particularly bad for the last two images, because we were in a Tylo eclipse of Kerbol.  The docking here with Tylo Station ends the Pol and Bop Sortie.

 

Part 7:  Return to Kerbin

Spoiler

In the image above, you can see that we returned to Kerbin without the adapter and lab that were forward of the command pods.

I had a little trouble setting up a good encounter with Kerbin.  I used Alex Moon's tool to determine the right window, and it turned out that I was in the window already!  The best I could get was this close approach, which I was able to fix, into a very good flyby, after leaving the Jool SOI.

I was worried about coming in too fast, so I set up a burn that used almost all remaining dV, captured in Kerbin Low Orbit, and had a Pe at about 30km, on the sunny side of Kerbin.

I jettisoned the fuel tank and engine aft of the heatshield, returned to Retrograde, and rode it on in.  Atmospheric entry, chute deployment, and splashdown were quite nominal.

 

At launch for this mission, I had 938 science points.  Therefore, this mission provided 25,000 science points from For Science! missions, 22,271 from Samples, and 23,205 from Data - for a total of 70,476 science points from this mission.

What's next?  I'm definitely planning to finish my For Science! playthrough.  I have missions to Eeloo and Dres, perhaps I'll do both in the same mission.  Then I have the grand finale of Eve and Gilly.

Edited August 26 by Poppa Wheelie