Pegasus - Grand-ish tour

[Brapness]

I thought I'd write an actual mission report, rather than spam the "what did you do in KSP today" thread. So without further ado I present Pegasus

and the view from inside the command tower

To be honest it was designed with no prior thought on efficiency or mass distribution, but it's actually pretty stable. It wobbles when the engines fire but the twin snr. docking ports seem to provide enough strength to hold her together. As for efficiency, kerbal engineer suggests that an object with that mass, fuel and engine layout should have about 10000m/s of delta v (so refuelling is already planned) but I'm skeptical after taking it on the first leg of its journey. Two Kerbal heroes, Scott and Kurt, were killed during construction when their ascent stage flew out of control. Though their pod successfully ejected it was hit by the spiralling lifter stage and the 2 were killed instantly.

So Pegasus left Kerbin with 8 Kerbals onboard.

Despite guzzling a ridiculous quantity of fuel our Kerbals arrived at Eve in good spirits. Unfortunately things just went wrong after that. I aimed a little high with the aerobrake and didn't achieve capture as intended. My navball glitched and seemed to be onboard a completely different ship as it just kept spinning and pointing all the wrong ways. The ship held together fine on the aerobrake but as it left the atmosphere it entered a spin, that in map mode I was unaware of due to the navball glitch. So I fired the engines unaware of the spin. Now as I've said, the ship wobbles whenever the engines fire, with the spin it sheered one of the engine block's docking points from the tanks. Jeb managed to fly the increasingly unstable ship into a highly elliptical orbit by eye but it looks like some deep space repairs are necessary. I'm not willing to rely on just one docking point. So our Kerbals are now looking forward to a 6 month stay in the Eve system.

There was no manned Eve lander as a returnable lander would have required too many parts for my laptop to manage, it's already struggling with the 336 that the Pegasus currently has. There were however two Rovers, named for my dead Kerbals Scott and Kurt. Scott landed fine at an altitude of 1500m. Kurt suffered a parachute failure (another glitch, despite fully deployed parachutes it was still going 30m/s) and ditched in the ocean.

Coming up next, a Gilly landing while our intrepid explorers await their replacement engine block.

[Brapness]

Well it seems our Kerbals' luck isn't getting any better. Initially upon detaching the Gilly lander, I forgot to check its fuel tanks, which were empty as I hadn't disabled crossfeed. The design of both landers is such that although they have RCS ports, to cut down on weight they have no RCS tanks. Instead a tug-like probe With an RCS tank docks first with the lander and then with the front of Pegasus. So having done this and refuelled the lander I undocked again and this time the tug's docking port simply tore off - despite half a dozen successful tests of the design. Fortunately the Kerbin-Eve transfer window hasn't passed yet, so I can send a replacement tug, along with a replacement engine block. I'm not sure if it still counts as a grand tour if you replace half your ship.

That said the Gilly landing went well. Jon and Tomvin Kerman performed the capture with the lander engines, rather than try flying Pegasus into a Gilly orbit. This marks the first manned landing of Pegasus's tour. The next planned landing is on Moho, although that's looking a long way off for now. Regardless Jon and Tomvin will have to wait 2 months in their cramped lander until the new tug arrives.

I landed using IVA so I could use the radar altimeter

Thinking about it, my landers should have names, any ideas?

Coming next, repairs in Eve orbit and the recovery of the Gilly crew.

[Brapness]

Well the RCS tug was the first of the two new sections to arrive, pushed by my standard interplanetary stage, which I call the Samson II.

In fact things were going so well I felt somewhat optimistic. I managed a rendezvous but as I edged the RCS tug closer, I noticed the Pegasus had begun to oscillate violently. Intrigued, I switched to the ship, at which point it underwent spontaneous unplanned dis-assembly.

DAMN YOU KRAKEN! Being a forgetful sort I hadn't quicksaved so it looks like this is another repair job, or rather I shall simply have to reassemble Pegasus in Eve orbit with new parts sent from Kerbin. Fortunately a new engine block is already on its way and will arrive in a couple of days, the new tug remains intact, the Heavy lander and crew sections are undamaged and the lighter lander is still on Gilly, unharmed. For now though this is all that remains of Pegasus.

[Akinesis]

I enjoyed this, even though you seemed to have suffered rotten luck. I'm sure it makes everything more interesting for you, tho It's got me excited to start my own crewed interplanetary missions!

[RocketYeah]

I also enjoyed this, I like your Pegasus design, reminds me of a boat I'm impressed you haven't given up yet with all your unplanned disassembling, keep going!

[Brapness]

And so, 4 days after the new tug, the replacement engine block arrives in Eve orbit. Rather annoyingly aerocapture left it in this orbit

The station icon here represents the Pegasus; but this was soon corrected and the new engines rendezvoused with the stricken Pegasus. The new engine block combines both the engines and the primary fuel tank into one piece, which made it harder to launch, but should cut down on parts and reduce flex. It is however missing the 2 large solar arrays the original had due to an oversight, so it will have to rely only on the four 1x6 arrays, until a secondary fuel tank is attached. It's here that Pegasus's design really began to shine through. Each crew section is a self-contained module capable of independant flight using RCS, so transferring them to the new engines was relatively easy.

and afterwards came the heavy lander

Jon and Tomvin then departed Gilly, eager to get back to Pegasus after so long in only their cramped lander, and despite some confusion (caused because when Pegasus entered the system it entered a retrograde orbit-I didn't pay enough attention) the light lander was able to return to Pegasus. Again I surprised myself with the level of redundancy I had unwittingly incorporated into the lander design. Especially when landing on an ultralight object like Gilly or another small moon, the light lander has considerable delta-v capabilities. Orbiting Eve the wrong way proved only a minor inconvenience.

So after the ill-fated Eve section of the tour, the much changed Pegasus is finally ready to depart. In 40 days the Moho transfer window will open and barring anymore catastrophes Pegasus will set off. The plan is for the secondary fuel tank to meet them in Moho orbit. My main concern is that without the ASAS modules located on the original secondary tank, Pegasus may be harder to fly. But we shall see, if anyone can do it, Jeb can...

[Brapness]

Just a quick update, I'm working this weekend and unfortunately that takes precedence. Pegasus has departed Eve for Moho in good spirits, hoping to leave their run of bad luck behind them. The new shorter ship is still remarkably stable.

A few days earlier the new secondary fuel tank departed Kerbin, also bound for Moho. In a frustrating continuation of bad luck, the fuel tank broke in half length-ways during a maneuver (guess I didn't use enough struts), so it has been re-purposed as two refuellers as I will not risk firing Pegasus' engines if the secondary fuel tank is not secure. This is probably for the best as Pegasus is running low on fuel and the secondary tank would end up being dead mass anyway.

I'll admit now to never having put an object into Moho orbit before, I've struck it head on with probes and performed flybys (one just 300m above the surface) but orbit has always eluded me. That being said I'm optimistic about Pegasus despite its diminishing fuel reserves. The two refuellers probably have the fuel needed, I'm just concerned they'll be forced to burn it decreasing how much they can bring to Pegasus.

'Till next time

Edited September 15, 2013 by Brapness

[Geschosskopf]

Fascinating ship(s) and trip so far, and WTG persevering in the face of various disasters! I wish you success at Moho. That little rock can be a black hole for delta-V. I've never gone there from Eve but I figure that would take less juice than coming from Kerbin.

Keep it coming!

[Brapness]

It seems I missed the Moho window with everything I have headed that way; due to its orbital period the window comes around often but is also very small. Pegasus ended up floating in interplanetary space for 400 days waiting for the opportune moment. I avoided more aggressive maneuvering due to Pegasus's dwindling fuel reserves, choosing the more efficient but slower option.

When that moment finally came Jeb piloted Pegasus into an equatorial orbit around Moho, the first ship I've ever put into orbit there.

Unfortunately the fuel situation is now critical. The crew had to drain the radial tanks on the landers and the tanks of the two probes still attached to the ship to make orbit. It has something like 500 units of fuel left. So Pegasus's departure is contingent upon the refuellers arriving. There isn't even enough fuel for me to be comfortable attempting a landing.

Coming next, the arrival of the fuel tankers and a Moho landing

[Geschosskopf]

Well, at least you got into orbit. I've had a few ships heading there that couldn't do that and ended up becoming part of the Oort Cloud .

[Brapness]

Glad the forums are back up

Well, the first refueller arrived with an almost full orange tank of fuel. Half of this went into the light lander-which I still can't think of a name for. Six of the eight crewmen haven't yet landed somewhere, so after drawing straws Bill and Jim Kerman were selected to become my first Kerbals on Moho ever.

Turns out I underestimated Moho's gravity and the landing was a little more hairy than planned. I ending up in nearly a suicide burn purely by accident. Touched down pretty hard but no damage was done as far as I'm aware.

"Sun looks awful big in the sky Jim"

Having got back into the lander Bill spontaneously decided to visit the much famed Mohole at the north pole despite pleas from everyone to conserve fuel. The funny moving frame of reference around the pole phased me for a moment during the descent but I figured it out and landed 1200m away.

Over the last few days I've been organizing refuellers to come and end the fuel problem but getting a good Moho orbit is still challenging for me. The plan is to do only what's necessary and then refuel fully at the much easier to reach Duna. Fly to Dres and then Jool on a full tank, refuel at Jool and do Eeloo and then back home. The delta-v needed to reach Duna from Moho by Hohmann transfer is huge. So I'm thinking about ways to maximize efficiency.

[Geschosskopf]

Glad to see this show back on the road. Good luck with getting out of the delta-V hole of Moho. Maybe you can do a sun dive on your way out to get some more speed for the Duna trip?

[Brapness]

Geschosskopf, that idea had occurred to me and seems so awesome I might do it even if it's less efficient. At present I think I have just enough fuel for a standard transfer (in a 24-minute burn) to reach Duna, but it requires I get an intercept as soon as I correct the inclination (no fuel for additional course correction) and I'm not that lucky with transfer windows; maneuver nodes are great but due to the length of each burn I prefer to do the transfers by eye, so I often have no idea when or where I will arrive until I get that intercept halfway there. I have Kerbal alarm clock to help me get close but that's it.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Brapness

[Brapness]

Well after investigation I can say categorically that a sun-dive is a less efficient method of getting from Moho to Duna, by a lot. It is however awesome and I couldn't resist. So I condemned a few more refuellers to the depths of space so that a couple could reach Moho and raise Pegasus's fuel supply up to about 3 quarters full. Jeb decided to say goodbye to Moho by flying as low as the rest of the crew would let him over the surface.

Our Kerbals then burned to lower their Kerbol periapsis. The problem is that to achieve a major boost from Kerbol, you have to lower your periapsis significantly. From somewhere as close as Moho this takes a LOT of fuel. In fact the initial burn lasted 25 minutes and tallied about 6km/s of delta-v. But it was worth it for views like this.

The other flaw in this otherwise fantastic plan was that the resultant orbit meant that when I rendezvoused with Duna, I was going almost 7km/s, which led to some fierce aerobraking, followed by a desperate retrograde burn to actually make capture.

And so our band of heroes successfully made it to Duna; and what remains of their fuel? Of the approximately 10,000 units of liquid fuel they left Moho with, they have just 50.68 remaining. (By comparison a Hohmann transfer would have cost me at most about 6000 units).

[Geschosskopf]

Damn, Brap, that was awesome . Thanks for doing it that way.

[Brapness]

After a tedious, but complete, refuelling of Pegasus our Kerbals began their exploration of the Duna system. The atmo-lander dropped into Duna's atmosphere crewed by Bob and Seanbert, and successfully landed in what can be simply called 'the middle of nowhere', which I suppose accounts for most of Duna's surface.

At the same time chief-engineer Kirberry Kerman got to make his first landing, along with Jon Kerman on Ike in the light lander, while Pegasus remained in Duna orbit. They wanted to land on the Duna facing side of Ike and after landing I took quite a while trying to find Duna in the sky, until I realized it was directly above me.

And in Duna orbit the four remaining crew of Pegasus prepare for the arrival of the long-awaited secondary fuel-tank, the part that was meant to meet them at Moho but promptly broke in half; Tomvin conducted an exterior inspection in order to be sure no damage had been done by the fierce aerobrake maneuver and Jeb finally remembered to deploy the solar panels, which had been retracted during the aerobrake. Pegasus had a couple of RTGs on board, but if the lights are on they aren't quite enough to cancel out the draw from the ship. Pegasus does have an enormous charge capacity however. The new fuel tank will add a pair of large solar arrays which will help put an end to power concerns as we get further from Kerbol.

I'm feeling optimistic, which is usually a sign that bad luck is just around the corner. Up next, doccking the new fuel tank and preparing for a Dres transfer.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Brapness

[Brapness]

While the landers were away, the remaining 4 kerbal crew on Pegasus took advantage of their absence by docking the new secondary fuel tank, adding considerable fuel supplies to the ship - also adding significant mass so I'm unsure exactly how much delta-v this will add to the ship.

Once the docking was complete. The absent Kerbals, Jon, Tomvin, Bob and Seanbert returned to Pegasus, in anticipation of the Dres transfer window in 17 days. On his way back from Ike, Jon piloted his lander to a lower altitude to try to circularize using aerobraking. Instead he successfully brought himself in for re-entry and had to fire his engines (wasting the fuel he saved), to keep from hurtling into the ground. Other than that the mission went without a hitch.

It's good to see Pegasus back to her old size. Sure she'll probably wobble like hell, take an age to get anywhere and is Kraken-bait if memory serves me right but this is the way she was meant to be...

[Brapness]

Not a huge update today, had the flu for the last few days.

So our Kerbals performed their Dres transfer, wary of the Kraken which might take interest in their newly extended ship. Their concern was also fed by the memory of my last Dres mission, during which the most devastating Kraken attack I've ever witnessed completely corrupted my game, forcing a re-install and the loss of every mission in every save game.

During their departure the crew were fixated by a strange glow on the surface of Duna. I suspect it was merely a graphics glitch or the sun shining through the planet as it occasionally does, but the angles were wrong for it to be the sun. Jeb toyed with the idea of dropping the lander again, but the glow faded as Pegasus continued its burn and our Kerbals were left mystified.

The journey to Dres was uneventful, though I believe a structural link on the right-hand side of the secondary fuel tank may have severed, as fuel is no longer flowing through it to the primary and engines, requiring manual transfer. It was a similar failure that spelled doom for the original engine block, but the ship remains entirely rigid with refreshingly little wobble. Plenty of lag though.

Next up, a Dres landing

[Geschosskopf]

Good luck with the broken connection .

I've seen those mysterious lights on Duna, too, but so far they've never been in a convenient place for me to land on them, and as you say, they don't even last long enough for me to fix their position with any accuracy anyway. My theory is that they're the ghosts of all the Kerbals who've died there, trying to lure more to their doom

[Brapness]

Another quick update, a Dres landing. Once again our explorers drew straws to see who would get to land. Only Desberry Kerman has walked on Dres before and he was killed by the Kraken on his return. Seanbert and Tomvin were the lucky ones and so they took the light lander, which I chose to name Shackleton, down to the surface. Rather than land in the middle of nowhere like on Ike or Duna, Seanbert landed Shackleton near the large valley.

They came down on pretty steep ground and despite not falling over I decided to hop over the terrain until it was a little flatter

Seanbert then planted the flag at the bottom of the trench, while Tomvin remained in the lander in case Seanbert hadn't enough pack fuel to fly out again.

It's 117 days until the Jool transfer window, not sure what they'll do until then

[Brapness]

Sorry for the late and small update, just started 2nd year physics at Uni so I have little time to spare.

Our Kerbals departed Dres happily, and no tentacled monsters came forth from the phys-warp to obliterate Pegasus. However I'm worried about her, the fuel crossfeed between tanks seems to have stopped working. This is either indicative of damage, or a bug; hopefully it's just a bug.

Whilst burning for Jool I checked through Kerbal alarm clock and realized the transfer between Jool and Eeloo is 7 years away. Admittedly it'll take a year (363 days) to reach Jool but it looks like our explorers will be at Jool for a very long time, longer in fact than the entire mission to date - which is presently at 1550 days. I suppose we'll have to have a very long beach party on Laythe.

On the bright side I got a Jool intercept in one burn.

[Brapness]

Had some spare time all of a sudden.

As our explorers left Dres behind, mission commander Jeb took one look at the empty secondary tank and decided to toss it on the grounds that a) it's empty, b)it's krakenbait, c)it would be simpler to attach a new one than refuel this one and we're gonna be at Jool 6 years. So in the depths of interplanetary space the Kerbals climbed into the landers, undocked and gently 'slid-out' the empty tank and condemned it to the depths of space.

After much time spent playing cards and solemnly watching Kerbol grow smaller Pegasus arrived at Jool. I love the Jool system, its SOI is so huge it's almost impossible to miss and all those moons make flying about awesome. Plus there are tonnes of pretty pictures.

There was just one problem, my inclination was way off. At this point I organised a maneuver that I'm stupidly proud of. Rather than waste thousands of units of fuel correcting the old-fashioned way, I played around with maneuver nodes until I got a Laythe fly-by that also corrected the inclination pretty well. All it cost was 200m/s of delta-v.

And our explorers were treated to a spectacular Jool-rise as they passed over Laythe's north pole.

Apart from a Bop outpost I built in another save, this is the furthest any of my Kerbals has ever been from home. I've never even entered orbit around Vall or Pol so I'm entering uncharted territory here. Nevertheless the Kerbals seem undaunted by their mission and the many, very many days that lie ahead.

[Geschosskopf]

There was just one problem, my inclination was way off. At this point I organised a maneuver that I'm stupidly proud of. Rather than waste thousands of units of fuel correcting the old-fashioned way, I played around with maneuver nodes until I got a Laythe fly-by that also corrected the inclination pretty well. All it cost was 200m/s of delta-v.

Back when I used to build racecars, I lived by the maxim than "handling beats horsepower". I've carried this over the KSP so am all about jiggling maneuver nodes and fly-bys to save as much fuel as possible. Therefore, I have to salute this .

[Brapness]

Now in a more practical Jool orbit, our explorers tried to decide which Joolian moon to visit first. There is no lander capable of a Tylo landing available as I explained before due to part limitations. As such Tylo will only be graced with fly-bys. The heavy lander is capable of a Laythe ascent, but Laythe's so pretty it seems like a good place to wait the 5 or 6 years until the Eeloo window, plus its atmosphere means I can approach at a much higher relative velocity and still achieve capture for less fuel so I might as well arrive there from somewhere far away, like Pol. So our Kerbals decided on Vall.

This proved more challenging than I expected, Tylo seemed intent on protecting her sister-moon as I lowered my apoapsis constantly supplying useless gravity assists

Jeb managed to correct so that Pegasus wouldn't be chucked back into a highly inclined orbit, so after one far-off fly-by of Tylo

and some aerobraking around Jool, once again to save fuel

Pegasus arrived in Vall orbit, unexplored territory for me. Bill and Bob were the lucky two and took Shackleton down to the surface. Shortly before touchdown Bob noticed his lateral speed was too high and tried to correct but it was too late. Miraculously the lander legs didn't break and Shackleton bounced across the surface, nearly tipped over and then settled.

And so Bill and Bob are my first Kerbals on Vall. And they set down with a great view of Jool above them.

Edited October 16, 2013 by Brapness

[Brapness]

Sorry for the lack of updates, my laptop has started acting up (something to do with the charger) and until I can figure what's wrong it's operating at much reduced performance so playing KSP is nigh on impossible. However here is a short exert from just before the problems started.

I was aware that the 0.22 update reset the landing legs to their retracted position so I activated unbreakable joints and no crash damage just to ensure Shackleton didn't fall apart upon jumping to it. As I deployed the legs though they sort of 'dug-in' rather than lifted the lander.

Noticing that the lander legs were also beginning to shake -a phenomena top kerbal scientists believe occurs when the parts shake in terror as the Kraken approaches- Bill and Bob hurried back into their lander and took off, as flying on a rocket is certainly safer than staying on the ground. Curiously though the lander legs contracted into their shock absorbers and stayed there. The legs won't even retract anymore, which is likely to cause problems when docking with Pegasus.

It still has enough clearance to keep its engines off the ground, so I suppose it could still work (that is, provided the extended legs don't interfere with docking). Shackleton, like Pegasus, has simply gotten a bit shorter.