Trying in vain to plant the flag, an Jool landing.

[magnemoe]

After landing on all other bodies in the solar system except one it was decided that an kerbal had to land on Jool and plant the flag.

This should be possible, an previous expedition went down in an balloon and was able to reach almost to bottom and get back out.

They did not go all the way as the kerbal backed out then an science probe was destroyed because of the pressure and heat.

Solution is obvious, we need an brave kerbal who can stand high pressure. In short its an job for Jerbadiah Kerman who was just back from an sample mission to Mun.

Improved technology make this expetion far more lightweight than the previous one, an new balloon should let the ship go higher before starting the rockets, the new rover seat make for an lightweight upper stage. Extra lenght cable was produced and the lander was launched.

It was then docked to the mothership and spare fuel from the boosters was loaded into the mothership.

After inspecting the ship in orbit they fond that an grappling hook who was planned to try to use on Jool was forgotten.

An mini launcher was sent out with it.

and it was mounted on the winch.

Off to Jool, then the transfer window or rush hour as mission control, the other ships is an kethane miner and an launhpad who will make an base on Bop. An probe sample return mission for Laythe and Tylo and a advanced kethane mapping probe. An Eeloo sample return probe follow in the same direction.

Close up on the ship around Jool.

Going down

g-meter at max just as Jeb like it.

Pressure is increasing.

Now this is not trivial, the ship like to go down front first and has to be pulled upright by the balloons. However going to deep before doing this will rip the lander apart.

Solution is to do it high up then lower the heavy anchor to stabilize the lander.

Doing science, yes Jeb can also do this sort of things.

Going down, ship behaves strange below 0 meter so I keep higher and lower Jeb down.

Note the grappling hook let me save the game down at Jool surface, the new anchor did not let me.

At the bottom, air pressure is so high Jeb is bouncing around, its impossible to plant the flag, tests on Mun say its posible to plant the flag even if connected with an winch.

Going back up a bit disappointed all the bunching took Jeb away from the lander and he is swaying a lot, however higher than 0 meter the jetpack start working again and he can stabilize

Time to get out of here, after entering the cabin and filling the helmet with snacks Jeb climb up to the seat, yes he attached the safety line before climbing.

Dropping the cabin winches and science gear and inflating the balloons carefully, doing it to fast will again rip the lander apart

Pretty fast for an balloon.

Starting rockets and dropping balloons.

The hardest part of the trip, the long burn to get up to Jool orbital speed.

Using an nuclear engine as upper stage,

The problem is that I have limited time to reach this speed before falling back down.

Solution is to do it manually, neither mechjeb or maneuver nodes help you here, keep the nose up so you don't fall down into the atmosphere at 140km, this is also why I aim for 200Km orbit and climb out of the atmosphere so fast.

In orbit, plenty of fuel left.

Finally back to the mothership.

The dV reading is misleading. first I lifted the lander as high as I could, then I took the mothership down and meet it with lander. No reason to waste fuel.

Edited July 24, 2013 by magnemoe

[Sesni]

A : Fix this bit "make an base on Bob" (Do this : make a base on Bop)

B : Will there be more???

[magnemoe]

Yes, might show something from the base on Bop.

Guess it will be much like my Minmus base,

It uses planetary launchpads to let you build and launch rockets away from the space center. The thing in the center is an stationary kethane miner and a living quarter.

I also trying to make an good airship/ plane hybrid, let you hover or drive slowly like an blimp or fast as an aircraft by deflating the balloons and using the wings for lift. Works for small planes but want to transport an large orange tank of fuel as minimum.

This is for use on Laythe where its either water or rugged terrain

[Hooligan Labs]

Nice! I was wondering if the Cirrus would actually work low in Jool's atmosphere. The pressure there is so immense, and the Cirrus so powerful, that I didn't know if control would be possible.

[Geschosskopf]

Wow! An impressive feat, even if you couldn't get the flag to stick. Maybe the flag itself can't stand the conditions down there on Jool, and just disintegrated in Jed's hand when he pulled it out of his pocket?

[magnemoe]

Nice! I was wondering if the Cirrus would actually work low in Jool's atmosphere. The pressure there is so immense, and the Cirrus so powerful, that I didn't know if control would be possible.

Yes it work however it require careful handling, anything to fast would rip the ship apart. For safety I think I opened it over 10 km up and then just set downward speed to 30m/s, problem was that it was falling nose down and just checking off keep attitude at 500 meter would disintegrate the ship, yes it was strutted as much as an mainsail and orange tanks rocket need to be.

Going up was just to click 100 times to increase inflation.

Wow! An impressive feat, even if you couldn't get the flag to stick. Maybe the flag itself can't stand the conditions down there on Jool, and just disintegrated in Jed's hand when he pulled it out of his pocket?

My in-game explanation was that Jeb was just floating because of the pressure made the atmosphere as heavy as water so no way to plat it, Jeb is to stupid to just drop it and call it planted.

[SuperWeegee4000]

Nice read! I did note you used "an" where "a" was correct quite a few times. But that's just me, the grammar pilot.