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

[SSSPutnik]

At launch from LKO I was getting 2-3 frames a second according to FRAPS with approximately 1100 parts

Main burn took 10 hours real time... It's been a labour of love. Frame rate not too bad now I've dropped a fair bit of stuff but still laggy during docking operations etc.

Computers an i7 3.2GHz with 16GB RAM.

I use Dynamic Texture Compressor mod to reduce memory use.

[Patupi]

Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it. That's the important thing. I have to admit I was sorely taxed at Laythe. Weird that that was worse than Tylo, but then I designed the lander for Tylo first, and the others second. Now I just hope my fuel lasts out.

[SSSPutnik]

Laythe is deceptive. So easy to land, (assuming you miss the ocean) but quite hard to make orbit due to reasonable gravity and atmospheric drag.

Given I am doing the Kethane mission, my shuttles can refuel on the ground, so the most deltaV they ever need is about 3000. (For Tylo). Makes design a lot easier though I did stuff up a bit.

1) Wrong docking port on shuttle, (it can carry the rovers, but not the bases). Ziv has kindly allowed me to send a replacement shuttle with the correct docking port fitted.

2) The bases are too tall. (I didn't test). When I land them with the shuttle, the shuttles legs don't touch the ground. (All weight on the bases legs). I managed to land OK with one at Bop due to the low G, but I am worried about Tylo. The shuttles weight may crush the bases legs or it could topple. The shuttle does have a winch fitted at the connector, so I am considering getting close to the ground, winching the base down, decouple and land next to it. In Tylo gravity, low on fuel, it should be uhm, exciting.

[Patupi]

Yeah, my lander had that problem. The legs collapsed on Tylo, left it 'landed' on the engine bells, buried the legs in the ground, and one broke. But at least they can be repaired. On Laythe too the legs didn't hold it up off the ground much and the engine bells were on the ground again. Still, so far they're all still OK.

[loch.ness]

Something I didn't even think about asking before this but:

Is using KAS struts within the scope of the challenge? I notes that it is allowed on the Kethane mission but I'm not sure here.

I'm still ~ 60 days (game time) from my Jool transfer window. Still working on my Tylo lander designs and I already realize I could save myself a ton of headaches with redesigns at almost every step. If I don't get this thing launched before 0.24 rolls out I might scrub this entry for one in my 0.24 career save, but even just planning for it has been very fun.

I've learned alot just from this early stage. I've been waaay more conservative than needed for Mun and Minmas so far and pretty wasteful on many other things. At the same time as I work on this I'm also refining my design practices for a more elegant career in 0.24 (and since I'm enjoying doing mission reports I'll probably keep a record of it similar to the one I've been doing here.

Full mod list of my install mods: (I've removed almost all of my questionable mod parts from my designs, but I'm putting them all here incase there are problems I wasn't aware of).

Quality of Life mods: Texture Replacer, Chatterer, Visual Enhancements, KerbPaint, Final Frontier, MechJeb, Alarm Clock, KAS, Scan Sat, Custom Biomes (One of the reasons I wouldn't do a Jeb level even if I could).

Aesthetic part mods: LLL (only using greenhouses, currently on minmas Colony and some boat parts). Porkworks Habitats - Centrifuges mostly.

Functionality part mods: Near Future (mostly just using the electronics, still using .42 rather than most recent update which changes the LVN to Hydrogen) - nearly all NF parts are removed from the mission, one battery is used on my Val landers currently, weight/charge seems inline with other batters but I preferred the model.

KAS - Namely struts and the ability to move things about on EVA.

Kethane - Installed, not currently employed for this mission.

KW Rocketry - Currently phasing out KW rocketry as I plan to discontinue using it in 0.24 (can't paint the parts, can reproduce almost everything with stock) plan to replace it with KSO in 0.24 because the little orbiter looks fun.

Station Science - No effect on this mission.

Procedural Fairings

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Sorry for my lack of updates, been going through some personal stuff as well as building my fuel freighter... Have used a design suggested by SSSPutnik, so the complete tanker will be named in his honour - cheers for the idea, dude!

Pics to follow, maybe some time this evening...

[SSSPutnik]

Oooh, I'm excited to see it!

[Patupi]

OK, I'm trying to save fuel as I come to the last moon, Bop, and was wondering. I've got science probes with their own RCS, and I think they might be able to land on their own (haven't checked that yet). Could I do that, then 'land' the crew individually on their EVA packs? It'd save on the fuel for the ship... but that would mean there is no 'designated driver' for that landing, even if the Kerbal who was designated went down.

Would that be allowable in the rules?

Note, I'm doing the Jedibiah, basic Jool-5 challenge. No parts mods (other than MechJeb's parts), and using MJ, Editor Extensions, AGM, Tac Fuel Balancer, Ship Manifest and Alarm Clock.

I might be able to do a normal touchdown on Bop with my lander, but it'll eat heavily into the MS dV budget. After that I'd likely have to do a weird, multi-mun slingshot to get a return to Kerbin... or have to resort to yet another refuel mission which I'd really rather not do.

[dbmorpher]

May I have a suggestion for a super-Jebediah challenge?

After his fifteen minutes of fame (or flame) from his Jool V adventure Jebediah Kerbal was stripped of his successful career after it was found he used the wrong octane of monopropellent. Now Jeb must start at the bottom and get BACK TO JOOL

Basically you have to start off a new career mode and you only get 5 unlocks before you must make your craft and go to Jool. The person who can complete it and unlock the most science nodes with it wins. Although if someone does do this they basically won KSP.

Sorry if this should go on a new thread I just wanted to post it.

[SSSPutnik]

@Patupi.

If you can land on Bop and get back with only a jet pack, that's fine. You need to get a Kerbal down and back, how you do it is up to you as long as you stick to the rules.

You could transfer RCS fuel and use that or somehow grab onto the probe?

[Patupi]

Well the probe has RCS it'self, it can go down on it's own then the four crew go down separately. If you're talking just going down together... well there isn't anything on the probe that a Kerbal can hold onto, but I guess I could just park him on top and hope.... naaaah. The top is an atmospheric science nosecone. He'd slide off. I don't think you can transfer RCS from a tank to a Kerbal without the Kerbal entering a cabin can you? Even a chair (which the probe doesn't have anyway) doesn't refill the Kerbal's EVA tanks.

[Patupi]

Oh, and here's the Vall landing report:

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[loch.ness]

Will update the next set of mission reports over the next few days, I've got a lot of papers to mark this week and might not have much time.

I've refined my Tylo lander from the original 4 stage 158t single seat monster to a 38t 2 seater SSTO. Once the ship is mostly constructed I can launch it for docking.

I've also built a new Vall lander (the old ones currently docked to the ship were left-overs from an unrelated mission. For the same weight as the current ship I can the same Delta-V to Vall (chemical engines) and have a lander which stages 1 into my Bop and Pol landers (with ~ 3000 delta V of ion) The new models also removed the only currently unapproved part (A NF battery) from the design all together.

I have 2 bop/pol landers on route to Minmas for testing (the old design should reach stable orbit in ~ 15 minutes game time, the newer one is still about 2 days out.

The new Vall lander prototype is on its way to Mun for testing and has about 2 hours till its capture burn for a stable orbit.

In anticipation of successful tests (as on paper they should be very successful) I sent up one of the new Val landers for docking/RCS testing.

Will update the mission report soon (still in Kerbin orbit, ~ 58 days till transfer window.

[Kasuha]

After several days of struggle to get my ship to orbit I made major breakthrough in understanding how the game works and figured out a way to prevent asymmetric flameouts. Phew! Now I still need to get it to orbit but it shouldn't be that hard anymore.

[technion]

I just completed my second run at this. Full report here.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/81046-Jool-5-mission

I played with DRE which really increased the total mothership size.

[technion]

I'm planning to try this challenge with TAC, FAR, and DRE installed;

I tried exactly this combination and ended up dropping TAC. Food for five Kerbals travelling that far, and making that many transfers, ended up being ridiculous to hold.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Turned out (very late last night!) that the pull design isn't great using 2 x KR-2L's... the tug overcame the magnetic pull of the docking ports and flew off on its own until I hurriedly switched to it and found out how far it had blasted itself >.<

Just sending up a new one now, to dock to the bottom of my stack of 6 S3-14400 tanks... I think that will be enough fuel for the rest of the mission!!!

[TJPrime]

Is KAS allowed?

[SSSPutnik]

Only on the Kethane mission variant unless you do a "freestyle" entry.

[SSSPutnik]

Successfully landed on Tylo, and the good news is that the lander didn't get crushed.

For those using MechJeb, the Translatron feature is awesome for moving the sky crane part off the lander.

I set a 2ms vertical, went up, natural drift got me clear of the base then I just cut engines before I got two high and landed right next to the base.

Kethane mining commencing after flag raising ceremony. Eight Kerbals on the ground. Three returning back to the Osperus III.

[bobcook]

My mission is now officially underway after completing the burn to escape the Kerbin gravity well. Burned nearly 236 tons of fuel over an hour and twenty minutes. More details in the latest instalment of my mission log.

[SSSPutnik]

#%!%%* !!!!

Frigging game! I was going nicely, launched a science probe from Tylo base, but I forgot to switch control.

So I hit F9 and... Base and ground pylons are gone!

AltF4. Restart and still gone

I think its a KAS bug.

But, I did refuel before this thankfully. I had 1 Kerbal in the base. This leaves 4 stranded on the surface. (The lander can only carry 3).

So, I have visual evidence of landing and base deployment and flag raising, and before and after pics of the missing base.

Does the missing crewman count as dead? Or is he just keeping the Kraken company? I am unwilling to revert to my previous backup, hours of gameplay between them.

I do have a spare base. Considering landing again and saving the four on the surface.

I have enough fuel to land again and only Pol left.

[loch.ness]

KAS makes the mission free-style... well I guess my efforts to remove NF parts were for naught then as I had every intention of KAS strutting the monster of a mothership I was building.

That thing probably couldn't make it anyway, I'll likely wind up doing a sandbox save with a single launch ship once I've finished tweaking all my parts. I don't need science parts for level 1,2, or 3 (only jeb level which would cut down weight on my current landers and plane along with removing the need for a lab from the mission all together.

I'll keep going with my current mission reports because those are more for me an my fun anyway, but I'll also use some note-book time on a more "official" entry and I'll let this one before "Free-style"

The other choice would then be making it a Kethane mission, but I don't think Kethane missions can do orbital construction either (since its suppose to be single launch only).

[SSSPutnik]

No, orbital construction is fine as long as you leave Kerbin orbit with one ship.

[OgreMagi]

I would like to take up this challenge but I have a question or 2

I use the nuclear rocket mod, give you 3 new types of nuclear rockets, a 14 Kn, a 40 Kn , 160kn and a 280 Kn rockets I do like the standard LVN rocket but I use the 14kn, 40 kn on smaller craft to cut weight, and the 160 for interplanetary flights if that is against the rules then I can try to use a bunch of LVN rockets

second with only one ship would it be acceptable to launch is fuel tanks empty fuel it in orbit? is so great

third, I plan to attach a ssto to the main ship and a smaller lander but it would be easier to launch the main bus then attach the ships to the main bus in orbit.

let me know I am building it anyway