Shoot for the sun!

[JupiterII]

This challenge will get interesting when they add the sun as a body

[Spiz102]

This challenge will get interesting when they add the sun as a body

You mean almost impossible? We are looking at something like 10kps of delta-v in each direction.

[Damonjay]

This challenge will get interesting when they add the sun as a body

once the sun is added it will be impossible

1. The gravity of the sun will pull you in

2. if you get pulled in there is no return

[Zeroignite]

You mean the same way you can\'t orbit or escape from Kerbin?

Gravity doesn\'t suck.

[Damonjay]

i mean kerban x 10000000000000

[JupiterII]

once the sun is added it will be impossible

1. The gravity of the sun will pull you in

2. if you get pulled in there is no return

It\'s possible to escape but you would have to go so fast it would probably crash the game. So I guess it\'s impossible.

[thorfinn]

once the sun is added it will be impossible

1. The gravity of the sun will pull you in

2. if you get pulled in there is no return

It\'s possible to escape but you would have to go so fast it would probably crash the game. So I guess it\'s impossible.

Don\'t be so tragic... you 'just' need 9300 m/s of delta v to cancel Kerbin\'s orbital velocity (plus a similar amount to go back, if you wish, and the balance for grav and aero losses.)

Gravity slingshots will make one-way missions possible again when inner planets appear, and I\'m sure that inetrplanetary engines will be added someday that will allow two-way runs.

[boolybooly]

You are right thorfinn v0.12 isn\'t the end its a new beginning. Slingshots should make close passes to the sun and returns to Kerbin feasable. You dont need to reach solar orbit speed to pass close to the sun, you just need an eccentric orbit, and most of us seem capable of high degrees of eccentricity!

Besides there is no such thing as 'too far' if you have enough boosters!

[thorfinn]

You dont need to reach solar orbit speed to pass close to the sun, you just need an eccentric orbit

Depends on how close you want to go. Reaching a very elliptical Sun-bound orbit means almost stopping in space (relative to the Sun) and falling straight down from there

Obviously, in real life you also have to worry about your ship melting when you are passing that close. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Probe_Plus for details...

[Zeroignite]

Ok, that probe is badass.

I was a little disconcerted when I saw the solar panels sticking out beyond the sun shield, then promptly went 'Oh. Duh.'

[Omnivore]

I tried this again last night and my Sundiver III did pretty well until the attack of the bugs. Two of them, first everytime I\'d come back from pause or from warp, the throttle would reset from 0 to about 50% - wasted more than a bit of fuel. Second, on the return trip doing my orbit correction burns, I\'d get down to a perigee around 40000m but when I went to warp it would mysteriously automultiply whatever perigee I had adjusted to by a factor of 1000x... more fuel lost. Finally, hours later and frustrated, I crashed into the ocean.

I\'m going to adjust my ship design a bit in light of the Sundiver III suicidal return trip disaster and try again later today. On the plus side, Sundiver III did make it to the sun and back so not a total loss. Sundiver III used all stock parts, it is a bit large but not horribly so.

[boolybooly]

Gid up here on the back o\' the pick up truck Omnivore ol\' buddy, we\'re gonna have us a ticker tape parade... yessir!!

Good shot. Thanks for the screenies.

[Arc]

Hi there. I thought I\'d share. :-X

Completed the challenge with one design I\'ve been working, on on first attempt.

I\'ve designed this ship not specifically for this mission, but with hope for future explorations so it uses non stock parts mostly.

Purpose of that design was to test abilities of 'realistic' version of ion engine for space maneuvering and fuel efficiency, and to test design formula for a spaceship that will look futuristic and solid yet not impossible. 8)

Design is named 'Deep Space2' I\'ve built it on top of another test rocked kindly called 'Overengineering2' it pretty much explains the details.

It was a barely controlled disaster. Kerbonaut screams comforted me all the way.

The Plan

Ship is basicly two parts and three main stages. Boosters and space vehicle. Vehicle starts with wings on the sides

Huge orange stage1 should have got me to to the higher atmosphere where with enough accumulated acceleration kicks in the cruise stage2. It\'s inside the first one and has comparatively low thrust. It should\'ve got me to Kerbal orbit and provide jumpstart to the sun after one turn around the planet.

Then with a speed around 3000 it should\'ve been ejected and stage 3 used as braking and home return booster.

Ion engines then would be used for setting orbits and trajectories. And auxiliary thruster as a way of correcting mistakes and breaking the fall speed.

Small engine with a chute should\'ve give me enough power to hoover around Space center and attempt to land somewhere near the launchpad.

Stage two exploded. 8)

Due to mistake with decouplers stage two that should\'ve got me to the sun detached and exploded in mid air Jeb was happy. I\'ve decided to make my mission anyway.

Stage 3 surprisingly intact got me out of the atmosphere where I used half of space vehicle aux engine to get me to stable orbit. Then not being sure about anything at the point I\'ve reassigned some stages in midflight.

When orbit got me to designed AP used all remaining fuel from All that was left, even from nosecap solid booster to break orbit to the sun. I was left with ion engines only.

Full story with picture logs

Me breaking orbits.

So then I\'ve used Ion thrust to get me to speed around 900 and happily warped ahead. Without small thruster I was not sure I would even be able to land if I got back.

Shooting to the star, and halfway there.

At this point i understood that otherwise useless Ion engines are awesome in outer space.

I was able to fly few hundred miles near the sun and past it. Then I returned a bit and understood that I can 'dock' with a sun.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9819/unled8d.jpg

But hey. for now it\'s only a single point in void with 2d sprite attached. And you cant even lock coordinates on that. And I really did not have hours to spend.. :-[

So well I\'ve spent around 20 minutes accelerating on ion\'s that got me to speed around 1600. I warped and surfed the web.

Then half an hour later I understood that I\'ve missed the freakin planet :sos:

But ion engines saved me again. After an hour slowly braking and accumulating speed I warped at 600. Watching closely and correcting course. :probe:

So I was approaching Kerbin from dark side with almost no fuel left for ion\'s (except aux.), And having no ability to break planet gravity pull or even decelerate in some real timeframe I was left with two options:

Orbit down from outer orbits spending hours, or try to break in stratosphere making one shot. 8)One shot seem\'d much more fun.

Surprisingly i was able to ajust my trajectory to somewhere around space center. Thats when I got that i cant make out where exactly it is. And while falling down on planet i tried to google videos where it is seen from space. and carefully correct my course.

Arrrg. We NEED global navigation 3d map with ability to select objects and calculate stuff :

Also as I roamed through forum today I\'ve seen that wikimap shows KSC location wrong. What the hell.

At this point i remembered that trajectory precalculation does not account for drag

If only it did or at least map showed some atmospheric boundaries. Damn. I hoped I\'ll splash without a crush.

Ion\'s don\'t help at all.

Goodbye my perfect ion engines( time for me to die.

And I got lucky so I survived. Seems like this design can withstand a lot.

Now I can say I\'ve been there.

Mission summary: Alt:14081415523

Woah. Thanks for reading. My mind is full of that right now.

P.S I used Ps to store printscreens

[boolybooly]

Hi Arc, very interesting mission summary and well done on getting back to Kerbin. Fascinating looking ion ship you have there, looks like it works well.

You are for sure a Star Pilot Dude.

[thorfinn]

OK guys, who wants to try for the closest possible approach in 0.12X1 ?

[sneakeypete]

Just using a basic moon landing rocket, i\'ve gotten down to 1,797,659,252m

new rocket, much closer, orbited around it with no ill effects however. Need to get closer.

[Omnivore]

I\'m gearing up to give it a go, redoing my old designs though because seems like ASAS generates less torque - not sure if that\'s true but seems that way. If it looks feasible I might try: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=3651.0 again - combining this challenge with the 3 in 1 challenge as one mission.

UPDATE: A test run showed that even a one way trip to a close solar approach was pushing the limits of my current designs. So I\'m working on a new ultra heavy lift booster series in an attempt to get 16 full LFTs + engines and other gear in a stable orbit.

[DeltaBravo]

Used stock and Sunday Punch parts. I\'m fairly sure that I can modify that ship slightly in order to achieve Kerbal and back to Kerbin. Mainly just more boosters.

[Damonjay]

may i request to be placed in the lost in space category?

[Stevenator1]

I\'m working on making a set of deep space parts. Basically giant engines (but balanced)

[NovaSilisko]

I\'m working on making a set of deep space parts. Basically giant engines (but balanced)

You don\'t need giant engines for deep space travel. Smaller ones work better!

[Stevenator1]

You don\'t need giant engines for deep space travel. Smaller ones work better!

Very true indeed. If you have seen my other posts, my game is currently still running, onmy way to proxima centauri(I\'m on my iPad out right now)

[boolybooly]

Damonjay, done.

What about ... solar sails ... ? Are they doable do you think ?

[CarolRawley]

Trapped in immense gravitational field of Kerbol\'s core. Never coming back....

[KnightWhoSaisNi]

Did a close fly-by to the sun. Wasn\'t able to return safely, unfortunately.