(OLD) The Ultimate Jool-5 Challenge:land Kerbals on all moons and return in one big mission

[shynung]

On Tylo the lander legs might not compress quite as far as on Kerbin. Would the ladder still be in reach if it was a little bit higher?

Acknowledged the concern. I have revised the Tylo lander some more, and designed an all-purpose lander in the meantime.

By the way, I made a thread on the mission progress. It's not finished yet, but feel free to look if you're interested.

[Rakaydos]

Ok, since theproblem with my tylo lander was pogoing and running out of return fuel, I took off half my engines, as well as the science gear. Now it's a single stage lander with 6000 M/s of delta V and 1.1 to 5.2 TWR on Kerbin.

Unfortunately, I accidentally overwrote my launcher with an older version, and I need to debug my fuel lines and staging again.

[Alchemist]

Ok, since theproblem with my tylo lander was pogoing and running out of return fuel, I took off half my engines, as well as the science gear. Now it's a single stage lander with 6000 M/s of delta V and 1.1 to 5.2 TWR on Kerbin.

I'd add a bit more fuel - you don't need the initial TWR at this level (having about 1.5 with half empty craft is good for landing, but the initial can be even slightly lower than Tylo's gravity), but it's better to have extra delta v or you risk running out of fuel if your piloting skills are not perfect. Also ensure you have enough attitude control authority, I've run into this problem and wasted quite a bit of fuel on trying to kill the lateral velocity (barely got out)

[chicknblender]

Hi folks! Seat of the Pants Industries has been working on the Level 1 Subchallenge for about a week now. A ship with a single ion engine for the interplanetary stage has been developed. Here is a composite image of the ejection burns. A full mission report will follow upon completion. Best wishes to all.

http://imgur.com/OcGYFva

[SSSPutnik]

Neat! How did you do the composite shot?

On my 5th boost loop around Kerbin now. 1100 laggy parts...

Around 100t of fuel burnt.

If game crashes now I think I'll cry.

[chicknblender]

How did you do the composite shot?

I took a screenshot after each burn, then overlayed them all in a photo editor (Gimp).

Good luck with your mission -- I know how that lag feels.

[Himynameisjake]

Neat! How did you do the composite shot?

On my 5th boost loop around Kerbin now. 1100 laggy parts...

Around 100t of fuel burnt.

If game crashes now I think I'll cry.

You guys and your Oberth burns. Go the Zephyrus way and do single transfer burns! All it takes is a gross amount of fuel!

[Himynameisjake]

Nice one. I think you are first for proper counting of score for this mission?

Just running mine through paces at the moment before departure. I think I have around 10,000dV!

Maximum acceleration with all full tanks - about 35cm/s

Mass firming at about 1350t

10k dv? That's a grand tour there champ

[ChaserGrey]

After quite a bit of orbital construction I've got my contender for the Kethane Expedition mode ready. Mission report is underway here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79598-Flight-of-the-Starcrane-A-Jool-5-Challenge-Mission-Report

[Rakaydos]

Getting ready to test my single stage tylo lander...

Just the fuel cans up front. And it's using the Stock Rebalance, so the Mk55 are actually useful.

[SSSPutnik]

I can't do a single burn. My TWR is too low.

I'm not sure, but I think my total dV is actually 16000.

[Rakaydos]

First try: manual landing tipped over, but still have over 3000 Dv left in the tank, so if I did manage to land it upright, I should be good to get back to my refueling ship.

[Rakaydos]

I can't do a single burn. My TWR is too low.

I'm not sure, but I think my total dV is actually 16000.

Does that include launcher? Because mine is rather silly.

[Rakaydos]

3rd try: a 30ms landing looked intact, though pretty much all the landing legs broke, but the craft abruptly wobbled itself to death. It remained upright until a side fuel tank blew up, though...

EDIT: 4th try: Success!

I'm too cheap for ladders...

Edited May 11, 2014 by Rakaydos

[SSSPutnik]

Does that include launcher? Because mine is rather silly.

No, that's dV total at departure. I think I have around 800ton of fuel.

[SSSPutnik]

You need a ladder or else it doesn't count for entry without touching the ground.

[Speeding Mullet]

Congratulations! Wow, that was one epic mission!

Thanks Kasuha, I'm both glad and sad it's over really, I'm going to take my time in picking the next big mission and do a few of the small fun challenges while I'm thinking about it. I might even put my own challenge together having done a few of the big architecture missions now.

SSSPutnik - 1100 parts....you really did "go large" didn't you?! You have nearly as much fuel as the initial weight of my ship on leaving Kerbin. Cannot wait to watch that one progress keep us updated!

[SSSPutnik]

Thanks, yours was really epic and so well documented.

Its getting dull doing Oberth burns. I just had to F9.

Computer crashed, (I have a weird RAID issue).

So I reloaded and kept going. For some reason MechJeb came back with "Prevent Overheats" disabled.

I wandered off for dinner, came back and was like, "Why is dV of burn not dropping, hang on, where are my engines in the stage tree? F3 engines exploded."

Lol. F9....

[Speeding Mullet]

Lol. F9....

I'd like to say I didn't use that during my mission, but the reality is I smashed F9 many many times.

Cheers on the documentation comment. I'm going to seek some advice on the forum about how to do a better report though as I got like 1,200 views, but yours I think were the only comments.

[SSSPutnik]

A lot of people will view items but never comment, even if they have a direct interest in the topic.

Delivery should be short and punchy, with an emphasis on clear pictures and diagrams.

The best way to get comments is to invite them by asking questions in the dialog, especially if you act stupid. (Nothing people love more than demonstrating superiority).

Done well this can invite decent comments but to be honesty, most people just can't be bothered even if they like what they see.

@Ziv. Congratulations 100 pages dude!

Edited May 11, 2014 by SSSPutnik

[Ziv]

Here's an expedition-style entry:

http://imgur.com/a/Qzx0q

Used an additional stage to get to the now-standard Minmus refueling, but then kept the same ship the rest of the way. Single rover with hopping capabilities that holds 4 Kerbals -- and I drove this a long way. Nearly 100km on Laythe, for instance (!).

Here's my calculation of the score breakdown (subject to Ziv's recalculation of course).

General:

+45 for 9 Kerbals

+10 for mobile lab

+40 Kethane back to Kerbin

+45 9 Kerbals all returned safely

+222.6 6678.1 science /30

-117 t in orbit

Laythe:

+10 Kethane Mining

+90 9 Kerbals on the ground

+20 rover

+50 Mobile Lab

+60 Experimental packages

+50 surface+water samples

Pol:

+10 Kethane Mining

+90 9 Kerbals on the ground

+20 rover

+30 Hopper (same as rover)

+50 Mobile Lab

+30 Experimental Packages

Tylo:

+20 Kethane Mining

+180 9 Kerbals landed

+40 rover

+100 Mobile Lab

+120 Experimental Packages

Bop:

+10 Kethane Mining

+90 9 Kerbals on the ground

+20 rover

+30 Hopper (same as rover)

+50 Mobile Lab

+30 Experimental Packages

Vall:

+10 Kethane Mining

+90 9 Kerbals on the ground

+20 rover

+50 Mobile Lab

+60 Experimental packages

Total: 1675 points

Jasonden: Congratulations, you have finished the JOOL-5 Challenge, Kethane Expedition version! Nice design with the great rover-hopper!

Now I see that maybe I should change a little on my point system, because it is better to bring a lot of Kerbals than to make science, and I want to avoid making it a how-many-kerbals challenge. So I would make the science more prominent by changing the dividing number to something lower... what do you think? I'll check all the entries so far and asking everybody about it to make sure it will be fair.

[Ziv]

I have completed and submit my complete mission report for your perusal and hopefully acceptance of a space suit well ruined. I've also copied the points below for your tracking purposes.

Speeding Mullet: Congratulation, you have finished an epic JOOL-5 Kethane Expedition Challenge! Your mission log is a real enjoyment to read!! Nice and complex design with a lot of funny moment, I'm sure a lot of people will learn from it!

[Ziv]

I have finally completed my JOOL-5 mission. The challenge motivated me to push my Kerbals forward to where they have never been before - these were my first landings on Jool's moons (except Laythe).

Some info:

- 3rd level - 5 Kerbals, one for each moon

- 0.23.5 - I probably couldn't make it if weren't for the huge NASA parts and accompanying monstrous engines

- no refueling, no significant mods (only informative: KER, Enhanced Navball, Docking Alignment & Camera)

- 1.75 approaches:

-- 1/4 to realise the ship lacks a docking port and can't leave an empty tank when needed

-- 1/2 to find out that the lander doesn't have enough dV to reach Laythe orbit

-- final approach for the mission was a success from the beginning to the end. Lets assume the previous failures were just simulated on KSC computers

http://imgur.com/a/muMXM

_______________

I was playing around with the idea of a "ribbon style" challenge badge. I have created these:

http://i.imgur.com/9vfqPvi.png (normal size) http://i.imgur.com/N1bYSwC.png (small size)

They're not as good as the official challenge badge, but are definitely more compact. Feel free to use them if you like or let me know if you have some ideas of making them better

8MMW: Congratulations, you have finished the JOOL-5 Challenge on Level 3! I always liked the Cupola but never used in serious missions because of it's weight... but yeah, with these new huge fuel tanks it is less compromising. And yes, the clouds are beautiful!

I also like your little badges! Yeah, maybe the original badges are too big so if somebody feels like it should be changed then go for it: badge post updated

Edited May 11, 2014 by Ziv

[Ziv]

Acknowledged the concern. I have revised the Tylo lander some more, and designed an all-purpose lander in the meantime.

By the way, I made a thread on the mission progress. It's not finished yet, but feel free to look if you're interested.

Remember that you will need about ~1000 m/s to get into low Tylo orbit too, and an other ~1000 m/s to leave Tylo... and the same at Laythe.

[Ziv]

Hi folks! Seat of the Pants Industries has been working on the Level 1 Subchallenge for about a week now. A ship with a single ion engine for the interplanetary stage has been developed. Here is a composite image of the ejection burns. A full mission report will follow upon completion. Best wishes to all.

http://imgur.com/OcGYFva

Ohh, sounds good, because I'm working on my ion version too! I'm still considering a nuke but surely ion is the best. But not surely if I want to wait and fuss with the long burning times... Also, remember that there will be times when you will need a decent TWR to brake into orbit around the bodies... I was thinking about a two-way ship so I can use the lander's engine too if neccessary...

Edit:

1000th post! YEAH!

Edited May 11, 2014 by Ziv