KELIOS: kerbol polar observatory challenge

[1greywind]

This challenge is inspired by real world NASA and ESA Ulysses mission.

There's is an obvious urge for science in Kerbal Space Agency: the automatic probes are orbiting every stellar body in Kerbin system, a kerbonaut's foot had stepped on each solid surface. There's only one place in the system that remains a mystery: the polar region of Kerbol itself.

To fill that last white spot on the map of Kerbol system KELIOS  the small solar powered automatic spacecraft was designed.

Overview:

KELIOS .craf file can be downloaded from spaceport here. Craft mass is 2.2 ton, parts count - 44.

While KELIOS is a small craft, the target orbit has tremendous dV requirements: i.e. if done in Brute Force fasion, it will require around 22000 m\s (4100 - to get from KSC to LKO, 860 m\s to escape Kerbin SOI, ~13000 m\s for inclanation change and ~5000 m\s for Hohmann transfer to Kerbol circular orbit with PA with 4 000 000 km or less). For Patience way you will need to get familiar with concept of power flyby maneuver idea (Oberth effect).

Here is a link to my successful attempt using The Patience Way profile:: http://imgur.com/a/CzHr4#0

General rules:

No cheats allowed (no infinite fuel, no gravity hack, etc.)

No hyperedit

Use only stock parts for "Patience" and "Brute force" profiles.

Use any mod parts for "Kerbal way" profile.

Any information or autopilot plugins (KER, MechJeb, etc) are allowed.

Special mission planning comittie (Jeb, Bob and Bill Kerban) prepared three diffirent mission profiles (choose any profile you like, you can choose more than one if you wish):

The Patience Way (Bill's and Bob's proposal):

The Lightest rocket that will put KELIOS into the kerbolocentric circular polar orbit with periapsis inside Moho's orbit wins.

All should be done in a single launch.

Use of at least one powered flyby (Oberth maneuver) is recommended.

Only stock parts are allowed.

Target orbit parameters:

Inclanation: 90° or 270° ±0.1°

Periapsis/Apoapsis: 4 000 000 km or less

Eccentricity: 0.001 or less

The Patience Way mission profile participants can grab this badge for their signatures if they wish:

[table=width: 500][tr] [td][/td]

[td]

[img=http://i.imgur.com/qB1Yedw.png]

[/td][/tr]

[/table]

The Brute Force way (Jeb's proposal, Bill and Bob wanted to vote against it but forgot to get to the meeting):

The one to put KELIOS into the kerbolocentric circular polar orbit with lowest periapsis wins.

No gravity assists maneuvers are allowed.

All should be done in a single launch.

Only stock parts are allowed.

Target orbit parameters:

Inclanation: 90° or 270° ±0.1°

Eccentricity: 0.001 or less

Periapsis/Apoapsis: As Low As Possible

The Brute Force mission profile participants can grab this badge for their signatures if they wish:

[table=width: 500][tr] [td][/td]

[td]

[img=http://i.imgur.com/snUwHaN.png]

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[/table]

The Kerbal Way (Bill, Bob and Jeb combined proposal):

The one to put KELIOS into the kerbolocentric circular polar orbit with periapsis inside Moho's orbit in the fastest ingame time (from first launch until arrival to final Kerbol orbit) wins.

Any combination of plugins/mods is allowed

You can use as many launches to assemble you transfer vehicle as you want

Inclanation: 90° or 270° ±0.1°

Periapsis/Apoapsis: 4 000 000 km or less

Eccentricity: 0.001 or less

The Kerbal way mission profile participants can grab this badge for their signatures if they wish:

[table=width: 500][tr] [td][/td]

[td]

[img=http://i.imgur.com/0DGnWKN.png]

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SCORE BOARD

[table=width: 90%]

[tr]

[td]The Patience Way[/td]

[td]The Brute Force[/td]

[td]The Kerbal Way[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]-1-

gm537: 200.13 ton

-2-

1greywind: 455,286 kg

-3-

????

-4-

????

-5-

????[/td]

[td]-1-

gm537: 368,053 km

-2-

????

-3-

????

-4-

????

-5-

????[/td]

[td]-1-

????

-2-

????

-3-

????

-4-

????

-5-

????[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

Extended challenge: Do you feel that playing with a small 2.2 ton probe is too easy? Try KELIOS XL (244 parts, mass 53 ton) enlarged craft version instead!

Edited October 17, 2013 by 1greywind
scoreboard update

[Bushrod]

youmight what to change the title it says polar not solar

[MarkoeZ]

I think he actually means polar, you need to change your inclination by 90 degrees is what i understand

~13000 m\s for inclanation change

Sooo, Solar Polar?

Edited October 15, 2013 by MarkoeZ

[1greywind]

youmight what to change the title it says polar not solar

No mistake here . The KELIOS is polar observatory - meant to observe Kerbol polar regions "from above", which is impossible from plane of ecliptic (there Kerbin and all other planets orbits)

Sooo, Solar Polar?

Kerbolar Polar is the most precise definition I think

[gm537]

This challenge looks like tons of fun!!! Especially since there are three categories each judged on a different criteria!

Also I think for "The Kerbal Way" you may want to specify a few mods that can't be used, HyperEdit for example. (Sorry if you said this and I missed it) I'm working on "The Patience Way" right now, and it is indeed taking patience. Haha Also what screen shots do you need for the attempt to count? I have one in the VAB, one at launch (to show mass), and was planning one once complete. I also didn't initially read that info mods are allowed so I'm doing 'hard mode'. Oh well...

[1greywind]

Thanks for suggestion - I've added restrition on Hyperedit use to general rules.

I think it will be good you'll post screenshots that illustrate your mission's flight plan: each maneuver node, trajectory after node, and final screenshot on polar orbit.

To show orbit elements on screenshots (inclanation, periapsis and apoapsis) without KER or MechJeb use you can select Kerbin as target and then click on AN or DN, AP and PA indicators so they will stay highlighted while you move mouse cursor out.

[Mr Shifty]

Nice challenge! I think I could put together a Kerbal Way solution in about 3 minutes. Patience Way though... I have some ideas.

[gm537]

Thanks for suggestion - I've added restrition on Hyperedit use to general rules.

I think it will be good you'll post screenshots that illustrate your mission's flight plan: each maneuver node, trajectory after node, and final screenshot on polar orbit.

To show orbit elements on screenshots (inclanation, periapsis and apoapsis) without KER or MechJeb use you can select Kerbin as target and then click on AN or DN, AP and PA indicators so they will stay highlighted while you move mouse cursor out.

Haha yeah unfortunately I had already completed most of the mission when I read this. But I will upload the screenshots I have and describe my mission profile which was actually super simple. Thanks for being understanding!

This submission is for "The Patience Way" (although it didn't use any flybys so it could count for "The Brute Force"). You can see in the VAB that I have only stock parts and at launch that my launch mass was 200.13 tons (or 200,130kg).

After this I flew into orbit using a standard ascent profile to put me in an equatorial orbit around Kerbin. From there I simply made a long burn to bring my Kerbol apoapsis out to over 10 times the orbit distance of Jool. I then time accelerated for a very long time, eventually I decided I didn't want to wait another 12 years to hit AP and burned retrograde to bring it down to about 5 years. At AP I made the change from equatorial orbit to polar orbit and brought my PE down under 4,000,000 km. This next screenshot shows my ship after that burn. Notice how far I am from Kerbol and that my orbital speed is only about 200 m/s.

Once I was down at PE it was just a matter of circularizing!

The picture that highlights my orbital parameters had the AN shown on the right as it appears that you can't click AN/DN to show them. (Just AP and PE) As a final point with the AP and PE shown in the 4th picture I calculate my eccentricity to be 0.000042 < 0.001.

Like I said it's a pretty straightforward entry with a launch mass of 200.13 tons and a flight profile that doesn't technically use any gravity assists. When I try Brute Force I will be sure to highlight more of my maneuvers.

[1greywind]

@gm537: Oh. Yes, becouse inclination change dV is dependent from current orbital speed (to change inclination or a degrees we need dV = 2*Vorb*sin(a)) you can simple go for veeeeeery excentric orbit, change inclination in AP for almost free and then spent rest of dV to enter circular orbit. I haven't considered such easy approach

Adding your record to score board

Edited October 16, 2013 by 1greywind
grammar

[gm537]

Just completed a Brute Force attempt. Pretty much the exact same profile as before but with a much larger ship (and Mechjeb) and more screen shots. They're all in the imgur album.

http://imgur.com/a/nXXrW

The final orbit altitude was a PE of 368,053 km and AP 368,065 km.

Edited October 23, 2013 by gm537
Me being a grammar snob to myself

[gm537]

@1greywind: Yeah I'm sure a more 'complex' method could definitely be used to complete the mission but I'm lazy and it seemed straight forward enough. My math also says that my ship used had about 2km/s too much dV but for a first attempt I was pretty happy. As mentioned this is a very fun (and well organized) challenge and I hope it doesn't get lost in the .22 hoo-ha I also haven't check out the XL version but I think that 53 tons is gonna be quite the challenge.

[1greywind]

The final orbit altitude was a PE of 368,053 km and AP 368,065 km.

Added.

@1greywind: Yeah I'm sure a more 'complex' method could definitely be used to complete the mission but I'm lazy and it seemed straight forward enough. My math also says that my ship used had about 2km/s too much dV but for a first attempt I was pretty happy. As mentioned this is a very fun (and well organized) challenge and I hope it doesn't get lost in the .22 hoo-ha I also haven't check out the XL version but I think that 53 tons is gonna be quite the challenge.

Actually I think that 0.22 will open new opportunities for such missions: the probe design can be made more interesting by adding new science module stuff; second - we can know set tech tree restrictions: for example start with 1000 science points, open any tech nodes you want with that and try to make mission objectives with it.

[Vector]

This sounds fun, I'll definitely be trying my hand at this one with some gravity assists.