Exploring Beyond Jool's Robau Belt (1.12.5)

[FTLparachute]

In my previous mission report for Beyond Jool, I sent a Cassini style mission to the mod's Saturn analogue, Sarkin. This completed the mod's 'Sarkin Surveyor' challenge. The next challenges were probe exploration of minor planets analogues for Pluto, Haumea and Eris in the 'Robau Belt'. However, as there was no Comnet range past Sarkin, and as I wanted to keep this mission stock, I decided on the logical solution - doing a full crewed mission to each. And throwing in a mission to another body for good measure.

Mission Objectives:

• Land on Plad (Pluto analogue) and its moon Chau
• Land on Hamis (Haumea analogue) and its moon Haki
• Land on Elross (Eris analogue) and its moons Mrokrok and Bongbong
• Land on all moons of ice giant Anune
• Fly-by Jool at least once

System map for reference:

Rocket

The rocket being used for this rocket is a remake of a launch vehicle I used extensively on console - the Finale series. It uses a fairing-protected MK3 fuselage (+ some MK1s, which is still less fuel than the fairing volume could hold) and 7 NERVs, assisted by a 2nd stage of 4 Wolfhounds and a 1st stage that is bolted together. This, alongside the placement of the Wolfhounds and a set of struts along the rocket, was to lower the amount of joints and keep the rocket as rigid as possible.

The lander is fairly solid, however the Science Jr is stuffed into the side of the cockpit. There is also the problem of the command stage having the radial tanks slightly clipped into each other.

I suffered for that mistake.

NBs

If you want to have a go at these yourself, note that Anune is part of its own pack, AnuneExpansion. See the Beyond Jool Thread (link above) for details.

Halfway through this mission, I re-installed AVP, so the skybox will change in some of the pictures

Missions

I have a lot to say about each, so they've been put into dropdowns.

Arrakis 1 (Anune)

Spoiler

This mission was the second launch, after Robau 1.  Actual ascent was standard.

The departure was done very poorly, as I was still trying to figure out how to eyeball Jool assists.

While I was able to enter the green boi's SOI, I had to spend an ungodly volume of dV to finally reach Anune

But reach it, I did. After exhausting the transfer stage's fuel. Oh dear.

Here's the system overview of moons.

Landing 1 - Arachnid

Arachnid is a reference to Arrakis from Dune, hence the mission name. It's also the hardest moon of Anune, as it has an atmosphere. This, however, allowed easy capture, with the lander using the last legs of the transfer stage to get there. And, after a short aerobrake, landing was achieved.

Jeb and Bob got out and planted a flag, before getting back in as the lander slid down the mountain. After reaching the base area, they waited until the eclipse from Anune, which was when Bill would arrive to ferry the lander.

However, due to my impeccable timing, the lander now had to launch during said eclipse.

After docking with the Arrakis mothership in orbit, the lander was refuelled via an extra tank I took along with me. This tank was then ditched in Arachnid's orbit, as the crew left for Anune's 2nd moon.

Landing 2 - Merza

Merza is surprisingly interesting for a grey moon, as unlike Dres the shades are contrasted to great effect. 

And the eclipses are nice too.

Landing itself was fairly trivial, but used a lot of fuel, which posed a problem for the final landing on Anune's innermost moon.

Landing 3 - Merrink

Merrink is a 'non-conventional moon', in that the terrain looks like this:

Very good Elcano potential here.

After careful consideration, I decided to land on a meridian ridge, with some, uh, 'fun' looking mountains.

After using even more fuel to stabilize the rover, I put the rover down in a small pass.

I think this looks quite nice, but it probably looks nicer during the morning. Hold on a sec...

Nice.

But what's not nice is the fuel levels - less than needed for orbit. Bob went first, using his EVA pack to make the journey. Jeb did the same, but used a second fuel source to get him off the surface.

After the two were recovered, the Arrakis mothership returned to Kerbin, making it the first back.

However, I soon realised the capsule had no parachutes. Bill tried to bail, but got stuck in the heat shield. Just as all hope seemed lost, the capsule survived the impact by using the heat shield to lithobrake. The crew was home.

Robau 1 (Hamis)

Spoiler

The Hamis mission was the first launch, but we're doing these in order of first landing.

The Jool fly-by went by perfectly. However, during the transfer to Hamis, disaster struck. The tanks on the mothership, lacking Autostruts, were destroyed by the Kraken, taking the NERV with them. Thinking quickly, I managed to correct the two halves, and used the decoupler to save fuel during final docking.

The transfer stage became the rocket's lifeline. 

System map time:

Landing 4 - Haki

This is Haki, a 3km radius lump. Landing here was trivial. (The below image has Hamis in the sky, why I didn't wait for day is beyond me)

Landings 5,6 and 7 - Hamis

Now, landing on Hamis presents a problem - staying upright. As Hamis is oblate, most of the body is a slope compared to the direction of gravity. This means that the only area this top-heavy rocket can land is the Equator.

Landing 1, in the 'Crater of Hershey'

Landing 2, in the Midlands. Landing 3 was in a Major Crater, but i forgot to photograph it.

Leaving Hamis, I realized that, past Anune, velocities would be so high at Kerbin that the capsule would be eviscerated. An emergency retro burn was performed just before hitting Kerbin's atmosphere, with scientist Randall performing a high-risk transfer of samples to the re-entry pod. And it worked - one 10m heat shield lithobrake later, the crew was home.

Robau 2 - Plad

Spoiler

This one had the most interesting Jool fly-by, as yet more shoddy timings for transfers meant a necessary kick at 9km above Jool's atmosphere.

After a couple of decades, the crew arrived at Plad and Chau.

System map (is this one needed tho?)

Landings 8,9,10 and 11 - Plad

Landing on Plad almost went south after tipping the transfer stage I was using for landing 1. Luckily, the lander was able to make a quick jettison and safely land in Plad's Midands.

Landing 2, in Plad's Highlands. The debris of the transfer stage is visible below.

Landing 3, in the Lowlands (trust me these are lowlands)

Landing 4. This is in the major craters biome, but below sea level the terrain disappears. Another glitch was the lander keeping a landed state even after taking off. This was remedied by loading a quicksave. Which also deleted this site's terrain colliders. A quick engine firing was all that saved the mission.

Landing 12 - Chau

The lander went directly to Chau.

On takeoff, the lander ran out of fuel, except unlike on Merrink this was unintentional. The command module then arrived to pick the crew up, before ferrying them back to Kerbin.

After a similar turn of events to the Hamis return, the capsule landed safely exploded on impact, leaving the crew (having bailed on attempt 2) to await recovery.

Robau 3 (Elross)

Spoiler

Some of the crew had grey hair. KSC is testing whether this developed on this mission.

The Jool fly-by occurred during the planet's eclipse season - the crew caught Laythe occluded by Vall

After 56 more years, the crew arrived at Elross.

You know the drill by now:

Landings 13, 14, 15 and 16 - Elross

Landing 1, in the 'Snowkerbal Formation'. Transfer stage ditched here.

Landing 2 in a midland crater. The lander was sliding, so Rozner thought of an ingenious solution.

Landing 3, in the Lowlands of the same crater.

Landing 4, at the opposing rim of the crater. No new biome. but a nice view of Mrokrok.

Speaking of which...

Landing 17 - Mrokrok

The lander was tugged over by the Robau 3 command module.

Landed in the Midlands. The lander only had enough fuel to make it back to Mrokrok orbit, so it had to be ditched there

Landing 18 - Bongbong

Bongbong is quite a nice looking moon, however the Kraken did not go easy with it. I wanted to land the ship at the rebound peak of Haldon Crater (pic at top of post), named after the ship's engineer. Once landed at the crater's rim, I timewarped to check if the crater would be in view of Elross. This caused the lander to violently bounce from the surface, and retain the landed state. I tried ejecting Rozner, the quickloading as before. This caused the craft to become frozen in midair. Just as all hope was lost, a second quickload teleported the craft to the surface (terrain under it, as it had 'landed' state), before yet again ejecting the craft, this time fixing the state. After all that, the landing was successful, as was the picture from the peak.

The return was standard by now, except for the water landing. Craving any stimulation after the 100+ years of space travel, the crew simply fell off the capsule, hitting the waters at 100+ MPH. Both the crew and the capsule(?) survived splashdown.

 

Conclusion

The combined efforts of all the crews netted me over 50,000 Science. Werner was content with all expeditions except for Elross, where the loss of a single gravity scan over the lowlands triggered a perfectionism.

I think these have also passed the remaining challenges, though there seems to be some more in the works. @Mr. Kerbin, bring 'em on.

(btw, this took over 2 hours to put together. why did i do this)

Edited December 28, 2024 by FTLparachute
proofreading

[Mr. Kerbin]

My oh my.

5/5 stars.

You win.

59 minutes ago, FTLparachute said:

Arachnid is a reference to Arrakis from Dune

Yes, my cousin actually gave me that idea! I’m glad someone figured it out. (Unless this is REALLY obvious.)

59 minutes ago, FTLparachute said:

Landing 4. This is in the major craters biome, but below sea level the terrain dissapears. Another glitch was the lander keeping a landed state even after taking off. This was remedied by loading a quicksave. Which also deleted this site's terrain colliders. A quick engine firing was all that saved the mission.

 

 

1 hour ago, FTLparachute said:

Landing 2 in a midland crater. The lander was sliding, so Rozner thought of an ingenious solution.

lol

[FTLparachute]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Kerbin said:

Yes, my cousin actually gave me that idea! I’m glad someone figured it out. (Unless this is REALLY obvious.)

It's all but stated in its description

anyway, if the next challenge is what I think it is i'm going to end up on that pin mountain on Moach

[Mr. Kerbin]

9 minutes ago, FTLparachute said:

anyway, if the next challenge is what I think it is i'm going to end up on that pin mountain on Moach

It’s not about the mountains, but you should take a EVA report really close.

(a special science blurb will appear)

Edited December 27, 2024 by Mr. Kerbin

[FTLparachute]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Kerbin said:

It’s not about the mountains, but you should take a EVA report really close.

(a special science blurb will appear)

noted.

[FTLparachute]

@Vanamonde, can I get the original post moved to this thread? I'm planning to do a lot like this and don't want to clutter up Mission Reports.