Project Archimedes- for the Duna Permanent Outpost Architectural Challenge(pic heavy)

[Patupi]

Hmm, is there a Duna triangle? Bases vanishing into the abyss? Maybe C'Thulu is standing in for the Kraken? I think Red is a good color scheme for R'ley (I forget how you spell that)

[Donziboy2]

So you can confirm there is a sand worm on Minmus?

[Patupi]

Looks guiltily to either side of the camera

"I cannot confirm or deny that statement. On a side note a new Sandworm Burger Bar has opened up outside Kerbin City."

[Patupi]

Well, day 588 and I wondered. If I normally have two 28ton modules stacked on an ITV and it goes on it's own on the way back, how efficient is it? Turns out... very. It has a dV of over 5000! So, rather than wait for the Hohmann return window I sent the Delta ITV back now, way out of the schedule. That way I can use it for the Zeta mission instead of sending one up from the ground. I gave it a delta V of 4000 on the return flight and got a 48 day trip on a very deep plow in system, crossing below Eve's orbit.

If this works I'll send another back for the Eta mission and it might just scrape in with a late launch just after the next Hohmann transfer window.

(EDIT: *sigh* I thought the pic had uploaded but it failed with 0 bytes. Now Filezilla won't upload anything. Well, the intercept went well. Glad there were no Kerbals on board though! Peak of over 6000m/s on aerobraking and maxed the dial on the G force guage! Well over 15gs there. Wouldn't have been fun, even for Jeb!)

(EDIT 2: Hah, finally got it! I'll see if I can upload pics of the aerobraking. Not as impressive as I thought it would be visually )

Edited August 27, 2013 by Patupi

[Patupi]

OK, got the aerobrake pics uploaded (finally!). First at the start of aerobraking with the high velocity

... and then when it hit 15gs (or slightly after actually. Sometimes screensave seems to delay)

[Patupi]

OK, next bit. Zeta mission is mostly ready. The Heron orbital hab. The slightly improved Destiny DL9 I just launched (added Ioncross air intakes and a light recycler and 4 more radial chutes. Now is 25 tons empty, 57tons fully fueled). This linked to the Delta ITV that has just returned. This frees up the old Zeta 3 launch to do Eta 1. If I can get the remaining ITV at Duna back to Kerbin before the launch window I should be able to launch Eta mission to Duna to arrive before the Challenge deadline.

Here's a pic of the Zeta mission assembled in LKO, ready to ship to the Mun for the Destiny to refuel it all. Should have enough fuel from the ITV to shunt into the Destiny to land and start mining. I've already moved the Satellite that was over Minmus over to the Mun and scanned it fairly thoroughly.

[Speeding Mullet]

That's some pretty good reentry effect! So you've saved yourself a launch window now right? Orbital lab looking good. I'm assembling mine but I haven't figured out how I'm going to rotate Kerbals through it yet.

[Patupi]

That's two launch windows saved, and I'm coming up on the third ITV coming back in at over 8000m/s! Might be some fireworks. I actually am returning my people early. The mission plan states they must not be away from Kerbin more than 1000days, but since the first group started late when they arrive back on Kerbin at day 1016 (hopefully!) they'll have been gone for less than 800days. I just wanted to get someone home to prove I could and do it without stretching this thing out much beyond the 1000days.

[Patupi]

OK, more re-entry aerobraking goodness at Kerbin. The third ITV, second to do a non-hohmann return from Duna, is back and I got some highlights from the trip.

Top speed coming around the sun. Over 33000m/s.

Top speed as I hit Kerbin. Nearly 9000m/s

And it hit the 15g mark for well over 10seconds. I should have thought to find a MechJeb screen that showed the actual gForce on the ship. Doh!

OK, I'm not going to post any more needless shots of re-entry stuff. That's quite enough of that!

[Patupi]

OK, had some 'fun' coming back from the Mun with a Destiny and an ITV. Was bobbing back and forth refueling ready for the next mission... and realized as I was coming close to Kerbin for an aerobrake that the two ships were docked heat shield to heat shield. Not a good position. So I undocked, flipped around, lined up to dock... and things went odd. I know my improvements on the Destiny seem to have thrown the center of mass off a little so the thrust of the RCS is not quite centered, but this was wierd. Still not too bad. Took a little lining up... then the ships slid apart as I came close to dock.

I thought I was having a fit, ships sliding around with no thrust, all sorts of weirdness... then I got it. I was at 40,000m and getting deeper! Yikes! Luckily both ships had heat shields so I flipped them around for braking and had to toggle the airbrakes on the destiny to alter it's drag to keep pace with the ITV. Both ships had rather different drag to mass ratios so would have drifted apart rather strongly, but after this I can prove positive that aerobraking works on other ships as long as they are inside physics distance OK, I knew this before but now I've proven it the hard way. Managed to keep them close enough together that I didn't have to mess around with their orbits to re-dock at least.

That was worrying, but made it OK at least. Sorry, it was a bit hectic and I didn't manage to get pics as it was happening.

[Patupi]

OK, I have three missions sent on their way, Epsilon, Zeta and Eta. Epsilon was still around Minmus from when I was mining Kethane there so it went early, almost 11 days before the Hohmann transfer window. However from Minmus I had to adjust the timing and in the end tried something new. A slingshot maneuver around Kerbin from Minmus once I waited for Minmus to be in the right position to get the angle right.

Worked well, used WAY less dV than normal, though a fair bit of that might have been going from Minmus in the first place. Less gravity to fight out of. But it was a non-Hohmann transfer at an odd angle. I'd have expected it to normally take around 2000dV. In the end it took about 800dV! 200 for the maneouver from Minmus, and about 600 using the Oberth effect around Kerbin.

The other two launches were nearer the Hohmann window and more normal in launch. One had already been boosted to 600km above Kerbin using fuel mined from the Mun, but that one went a little early so it took about 1200dV anyway, even from that altitude. All three are on their way, the last usable missions. Now I just have to get them on the ground, transfer crew up and down from the Beta Odyssey to the Heron orbital habitat, and send it home.

Nearly there!

Edited August 31, 2013 by Patupi

[Patupi]

OK, did something a little different on landing both the Epsilon and Eta landers (four total in both missions). After aerobraking into Duna orbit, before correcting to lift the PE up out of the atmosphere, I separated the block of two Odyssey landers and left it to re-enter while the ITV circularized it's orbit.

Once the lander block had just started to hit air I separated them and let them land.

Took some playing with the Air brakes to line their orbits so they'd land in the same spot (using Mechjeb's landing calculator to plot landing zones from an arbitrary landing site).

They came down well within the 2.25km limit so chutes worked fine.

And landed just fine.

Did this for both the Epsilon and Eta. Now I've started driving the Beta Odyssey lander into a good, equatorial position (With Kethane for the lander) so the Destiny can start ferrying Kerbals up and down to the Heron Orbital Habitat. Nice long drive, but it'll be worth it.

[Patupi]

OK, all Kerbals are down on Duna, the first 8 ferried up to the Heron (4 trips with the Destiny). Yup, and Anwig didn't do the repacking of the chutes this time! Maybe Scott felt sorry for him? Anyway now he's living it up on the ship waiting for the return window. The Destiny can ferry up oxygen and CO2 for the Recyclers to keep them going until the launch window on day 951, Or earlier if I get a non-Hohmann intercept. This is just a Heron Orbital Habitat and the ITV so the dV available is larger than usual (with two payloads on the ITV) so a non-Hohmann intercept is likely. Anyway, the score is done even if the mission still has a little to go. Here's the score:

Early mission score: 118days with 8 kerbals + 150days with another 8 kerbals = 2144

Early mission NIMLKO: 12 launches, 28 tons each, total 336

Early mission efficiency: 6.38

Sustained mission score: 650 days with 8 Kerbals

618 days with 8 Kerbals

426 days with 8 Kerbals

421 days with 8 Kerbals

198 days with 16 Kerbals

190 days with 16 Kerbals

(Note, with the switch over of crew on day 815 the first '650 days' is part the first crew, and part the last crew taking their place)

total score=23,128

Sustained mission NIMLKO: 24 launches, 28 tons each, total 672

Sustained mission efficiency: 34.4

Achievements:

Mission execution: 3 (once I do the Kerbin return mission. Soon)

Crew mobility: 0 Not enough rovers

Base mobility: 3

Crew safety: 2

Mission robustness: 2

Total Achievements: 10

Edited September 1, 2013 by Patupi

[Patupi]

And we're done! Kerbals back home on day 990.

Crew Return Vehicle docking with the Heron to retrieve the valiant Duna Crew.

Made a manual landing (using Mechjeb visual landing plot to check course on the way down) and came down less than 250m from KSC.

And here Scott addresses his crew, thanking them (even Anwig!) for a superlative mission.

And I'm done. *PHEW* That was... what, over a month of effort for one game. Rather different from my normal KSP efforts and well worth the effort!

Thanks for putting this up Sturmstiger.

[KeithStone]

Conga-rats!

[Patupi]

Thanks KeithStone, and good luck on completing your mission!

[Speeding Mullet]

Excellent results!! Well done, I'm getting there soon need to update my thread

[Patupi]

Well, it certainly didn't beat 'In Situ' but it came close (sort of) and I really was aiming at the achievements and a more 'NASA' style safety conscious mission. I think it ended up pretty good. Plus no disasters, that's always a good thing... well, as long as Jeb isn't involved (I think he came in the Gamma mission, but no flames ensued, except maybe in the galley).

Thanks, and I hope you get your mission completed successfully Speeding Mullet, and love the name by the way. Have not a clue who'd be faster than you.

[Speeding Mullet]

Haha, yet I am slow at updating my challenge thread!

[Patupi]

Hey, RL happens sometimes. Just don't let it get in the way of the important things! Kerbals have feelings too you know.

[Speeding Mullet]

I just updated the thread finally!! I'm anxious to finish now as I have another mission in mind and also want to update the game.