We do it because it is hard... the Eeloo Challenge

[Hejnfelt]

The FL-R1_RCS_Fuel_Tank weighs 3.4 tons and holds 3 tons of monopropellent. Would it count for 900 kerbal days of supplies or 1020?

Not much is known about the Kerbal digestion system but I guess it's safe to assume they can't eat the container. So 900.

[alacrity]

OP Update

Misanthrope - It's the weight of the goods not the conatiner (Hejnfelt is right)

Blue - - I have looked over your activity count. The station gets you 36 point (dockable, and habitable... just not fuelable) so it works out to 612... another great mission.

Been fun watching all these missions come in, but I am really looking forward to a Technocrat attempt at this thing. Anyone with a mod heavy save willing to take up this guantlet?

Alacrity

[Stochasty]

Did this a couple of weeks ago, but it was fun (and worth showing off again):

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Point score:

100 - Party in the house: landed two Kerbals alive.

100 - There and back again: returned two Kerbals alive.

25 - Seeing the sites: the entire craft is a rover.

100 - Last year's model: she's all stock (only mod I had loaded was Engineer, which doesn't change the flight).

So that's 325 points.

Oh, yeah - and she's an SSTO. How many points will you give me for that?

Edited August 29, 2013 by Stochasty

[Mesklin]

There is my expedition to Eeloo - 10 kerbals on on the surface of Eeloo and back.

See mission report:

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Let's calculate my score:

Party in the house - 50 pts per Kerbal landed alive on Eeloo - 10 Kerbals, 500 pts.

There and back again - 50 pts per kerbal returned alive to Kerbin - 10 Kerbals - 500 pts.

Seeing the sites - 25 pts take a rover with you and land it on Eeloo. - 4 rovers - 100 pts.

Last years model - 100 pts. All Stock mission. - All crafts are 100% stock. - 100 pts.

Tab 'A' into slot 'B' - 25 pts per segment lifted from Kerbin for orbital construction. - 2 landers docked on main ship + light tanker + 2 spacetaxi - 125 pts.

Convoy - 25 pts per vehikle in the full mission profile. - 2 ships - 50 pts

Can you hear me now? - 20 pts per satellite. Launch commsats in orbit around Eeloo. Each inclination must differ by at least 10 degrees. Full coverage bonus for getting 4 satellites up of 25 pts. - 4 sats on orbit with 45 degree offsets - 80 + 25 = 105 pts.

And total: 1480 points

All used crafts you can see in attached zip file: http://www./download/vcxb4y08dym4apy/Eeloo_mission.ZIP

Edited August 29, 2013 by Mesklin

[ThreeMartiniLaunch]

Oh, yeah - and she's an SSTO. How many points will you give me for that?

I don't suppose you'd be willing to part with the .craft file now would you?

[YarTheBug]

is up.

I'm new to YouTube so please leave feedback. Anything you can think of to make it more interesting or entertaining would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

- Yar

[MrPopcup]

Eeloo is not hard to get to, Eeloo just takes more fuel than any other planet, also more time even while time warping.. but inserting yourself into orbit and landing is easy, just a little bit more than the Mun..

anyway, I did go to Eeloo about 4 times, I just don't find it intresting, it's just a lonley.. icy.. very far.. white-ish planet ever..

[Bobnova]

I'm slowly assembling my craft in orbit. One more tanker rendezvous and docking and it'll be time to set off. I've had to dock 'em all with the main engines so far, as the (*@&% RCS was left off one, and wouldn't change to docking mode for the second.

[Bothersome]

I didn't create the challenge, so I can't speak for alacrity.

Maybe it was about having to use all your skills to assemble something for fun that meets a purpose.

Maybe it was just to help educate the newer people here on the forums on how to go about getting to Eeloo.

If you don't find it interesting, why are you here? Are you trying to convince us that it's not something we should try to accomplish?

Maybe I read your post wrong, It's usually all my fault at the end of the day anyway.

[Stochasty]

I don't suppose you'd be willing to part with the .craft file now would you?

Sure!

There are two versions of the craft; Version A is located here, and Version B is located here.

I recommend starting out with Version A; she's the more forgiving version to fly, with twice as much jet fuel and much better handling in the atmosphere. Version B is the extended range version (the one used for the Eeloo trip, as well as trips to Dres and Vall), but she's quite a bit heavier, a touch sluggish on the ascent out of the atmosphere, and much less forgiving to mistakes. Version A can manage the Mun, Minmus, Gilly, Duna, Ike, and Laythe; you'll need Version B for more difficult targets.

[Blue]

Blue - - I have looked over your activity count. The station gets you 36 point (dockable, and habitable... just not fuelable) so it works out to 612... another great mission.

Thanks, Man. This has been fun! My first Challenge...

By the way, will you be updating the first post scoreboard?

____

Holy.. Cats! Mesklin that was awesome!

I'm totally ramping up my ambition based upon that.

All the entries here are really inspirational. I like seeing how my design of Beethoven (which is actually a copy-paste of a vessel I named in my main career called Tarsus II, designed for a mission to Moho) worked so spectacularly, with enough fuel to spare to get the capsule back out to Jool if I wanted.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Blue

[ThreeMartiniLaunch]

Sure!

There are two versions of the craft; Version A is located here, and Version B is located here.

I recommend starting out with Version A; she's the more forgiving version to fly, with twice as much jet fuel and much better handling in the atmosphere. Version B is the extended range version (the one used for the Eeloo trip, as well as trips to Dres and Vall), but she's quite a bit heavier, a touch sluggish on the ascent out of the atmosphere, and much less forgiving to mistakes. Version A can manage the Mun, Minmus, Gilly, Duna, Ike, and Laythe; you'll need Version B for more difficult targets.

Thanks!

I've never flown a SSTO and am notoriously bad at planes, but I was so amazed that such a small craft could make it all the way to Eeloo and back that I just had to take a look.

I'm at work now, but cannot wait to get home to check these out.

[alacrity]

Capi3101

multiple vehikle missions are allowed... the spae station just needs to get there before the kerbals... bonus points if you launch some of the station parts from another celestial, like duna or something

BOTHERSOME

basicaslly you got it right.

this challenge is about doing something that required a little more planning, and using all your favorite bits and mods of the game. Stockers flying stock, modders flying modded ships, mission planners can put together overly complex multi stage missions.

this was less about IF you can do it, and more about how would you do it big.

Alacrity

Edited August 30, 2013 by alacrity

[alacrity]

Lots of new stuff I am reading.... This is my first challenge to the public and I really needed to be warned about how much tracking and such i would need to do to keep up with it all.... You guys are relentless

stochasty - 425 (+100 because since I hate making planes I forgot to add a pts thing for it).. ssto to Eeloo... you are just showing off and thanx for sharing the crafts

Mesklin - 1480.... Now thats a Lot of kerbals...and landing them walking distance to the VAB... now that's showing off twice. Any chance you remember the total flight time of your mission?

Loving the different goal envelopes of everyones missions... I am almost done designing My trainwreck of a mission and will post soonest (aftre the three other missions I am trying to get done.... sigh).

Alacrity

[Mesklin]

Alacrity, total flight time was about 3 years 90 days. It is from start of constructing and assembling mission's ships and with waiting for departure window to Eeloo (57 days). I created new game for this challenge.

[Blue]

Yeah, using Alexmoon's Launch Window Planner, the ideal launch window for Eeloo departure immidiately after starting a new game is Day 61, and no sooner than Day 45.

[Hejnfelt]

Since I started playing KSP, I made my first interplanetary transfer today and it was to Eeloo.

I won't bother with the score just yet as I now have bigger and more elaborate plans. But here's Jeb and Bill on the surface

[alacrity]

Hejnfelt...

Good show for your first venture... Just from the pick I think you did fine

100 pts - party in the house

100 pts - there and back again

100 pts - Last years model

So 300 for a first go around

Alacrity

[Justy]

Well, I made my first couple tries at this. The challenge for me is that I'm using Ioncross life support. I learned after my first two attempts that the air recyclers don't deal well with full (100,000x) time acceleration, so I kept running out of air. So I developed a process where I'd cruise for ~100 days of game time at full speed while Kermrade Kerbonaut Munfrod Kerman filled the recycler's CO2 storage, started the recycler, babysat the progress for a while at 1000x, stopped the recycler, and repeat.

So orbital assembly (1: NTR tug with drop tanks. 2: life support & refueling for NTR. 3: two stage tunacan lander with one crew) and the flight out to Eeloo encounter took, all together, something like four hours. It wasn't the greatest, it won't score anything like some of what you guys have going, but darnit, it was mine and I was proud of it.

I was especially proud of the communication satellites, I'd never done a constellation like that before. I put the ship in a 7h12m (1.33 Eeloo days) equatorial orbit with the Pe at 684 km; the plan was to drop one satellite at each pass of the Pe, then have it circularize and change inclination (30deg) on its own. That would leave me with three satellites each spaced 1/3 of the way around an Eeloosynchron-ish orbit, with the poles covered by each satellite one at a time. The fourth comsat was in a lower, high inclination mapping orbit.

After the first comsat completed orbital insertion, I couldn't switch ships. Or get back to the Space Center. Or quicksave. All I could do was kill the program and hope to restore from an autosave. Nope! Back to Year 1, Day 1. But lessons were learned, and I'll try again next weekend.

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[Synapse]

My ship, the Atlantis, is almost ready to embark to Eeloo.

[alacrity]

Synapse --

that is a dead sexy ship... Can't wait for the mission images

Alacrity

[Hejnfelt]

For image heavy submissions, what is the preferred method? Create a new mission report and link it here or submit post with full res images here? I am not a fan of the Imgur albums as the small pics never do the crafts justice.

[Synapse]

Leaving home:

Munar gravity assist:

[Hejnfelt]

Leaving home:

Munar gravity assist:

That's a sweet ship. Also, how do you fully utilize the Mun gravity assist? I don't seem to be able to create nodes that properly show up in the orbit map, taking advantage of the gravity assist when doing transfers. Meaning, I end up doing ballistic transfers. Any chance you want to educate a noob?

Also here's a teaser of what's to come

Prometheus on ascent to a 280km Kerbin orbit.

Fully unwrapped and self-sustainable. Currently acting living quarters while waiting for the tug. Then a refueling and it's off to Eeloo for permanent settlement.

[Synapse]

Wow that's a lot of struts! I'll message you about gravity assists.

Jettisoning empty tanks:

Bill, in the lander, detaches from the Command Module, piloted by Jebediah:

And successfully lands on Eeloo:

...It's all downhill from this point. A decimal point in the wrong place means that Bill doesn't have enough fuel to reach the Command Module. Desperately, he dons his spacesuit and attempts to fire his jetpack into a rendezvous with the module.