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

[Thunderous Echo]

Really? I'll change the video description, but I checked five points on the surface.

As for landing a craft, you could have HyperEdit start 150m above the ground and lower the craft at a few m/s. I'll try that now.

EDIT: No. This does not work. The glitchy bits spontaneously destroy your craft, even at 1.1 m/s.

Now to reinstall KSP.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Thunderous Echo

[jaddbo]

I had the exact same issue on my Jool-5 challenge... (gave me quite a surprise when my lander suddenly exploded). I ended up working around the problem by landing on a mountain ridgeline above 3100m. Interestingly it was in 0.25 just before I upgraded to 0.90.

yes me to but it was really strange because my kerbal died instead of my lander

[Thunderous Echo]

Nevermind, re installing ksp fixed it.

[Xannari Ferrows]

Perhaps it as due to Pol's collision hitbox lagging behind it's actual model along the orbit. Maybe try landing perpendicular to it's orbit?

[DBowman]

Here we go again!

Cupcake...

nice boat - I want one!

[Thunderous Echo]

Is planning, building, and flying a Jool-5 in less than 6 hrs. a great achievement, or is it ordinary?

(I need to know whether to brag about it).

[parzr]

Is planning, building, and flying a Jool-5 in less than 6 hrs. a great achievement, or is it ordinary?

(I need to know whether to brag about it).

Depends on ur skill and what version, but it's still good. Pics or It didn't happen

[Thunderous Echo]

Oh, shoot. I don't have any pics.

[Cupcake...]

Oh, shoot. I don't have any pics.

Wow, nicely done!

Cupcake...

[Ziv]

Hey guys, I know there are still some mission from the last two weeks waiting for review but I'm overwhelmed with real-life tasks. But I'm still engaged with this challenge and KSP completely.

Do you have any idea how is it possible to make it quicker? Maybe I should just quickly run through the pictures/video and if it seems all right I accept it, and maybe review it later normally? Or some of you could check them if it complies the rules, there's no cheating, and collecting the fun/interesting information for the Hall of Fame? But that could flood the topic too. Or private messages? Or any of these would just make it harder and longer for me?

Anyway, I will review every mission sooner or later, that's for sure!

Good luck with the Pol glitch exploring, I hope there's a good solution for that!

[Stratzenblitz75]

Is planning, building, and flying a Jool-5 in less than 6 hrs. a great achievement, or is it ordinary?

(I need to know whether to brag about it).

I don't think you're going to get an answer to that. Its not like many people (or any people at all) have tried to Speed-run Jool-5 so there's no reference point to judge the impressiveness of your mission.

However, it does sound like an interesting challenge. I'd like to give it a try, but I have my hands full at the moment. Maybe later, I have some ideas on how to get a fast time...

(Also, if you want to do speed runs, you need a timer overlayed on the video! Not the mission clock, an actual timer that counts in real time from the moment you start building the ship to end of the mission.)

Hey guys, I know there are still some mission from the last two weeks waiting for review but I'm overwhelmed with real-life tasks. But I'm still engaged with this challenge and KSP completely.

Do you have any idea how is it possible to make it quicker? Maybe I should just quickly run through the pictures/video and if it seems all right I accept it, and maybe review it later normally? Or some of you could check them if it complies the rules, there's no cheating, and collecting the fun/interesting information for the Hall of Fame? But that could flood the topic too. Or private messages? Or any of these would just make it harder and longer for me?

Anyway, I will review every mission sooner or later, that's for sure!

Good luck with the Pol glitch exploring, I hope there's a good solution for that!

In my opinion, one of the greatest things about this challenge is the thoughtful and thorough judge :wink:who spends so much time going over everyone's missions to provide feedback and include note-worthy stuff in the Hall of Fame (and occasionally disqualify entries for sneaky cheating). In my opinion, you shouldn't skim over missions quickly and review them later, that's just going to lead to an even bigger pile of work later on. Instead, I think you should enlist some judges (or maybe just a back-up judge that can step in when you don't have time) if you feel that it would be too time-consuming to give all these entries a thorough review. Just ask (Over PM preferably, the topic might get flooded if anyone could apply), I'm sure plenty of trustworthy people would like to help you review missions.

[problemecium]

I'm getting ready for another shot at this. This time around I intend to build the Tylo and Laythe landers first and then design the mothership to accommodate them. First though I have to make sure I still have the hang of multi-docking ^^

[Xannari Ferrows]

In my opinion, one of the greatest things about this challenge is the thoughtful and thorough judge :wink:who spends so much time going over everyone's missions to provide feedback and include note-worthy stuff in the Hall of Fame (and occasionally disqualify entries for sneaky cheating). In my opinion, you shouldn't skim over missions quickly and review them later, that's just going to lead to an even bigger pile of work later on. Instead, I think you should enlist some judges (or maybe just a back-up judge that can step in when you don't have time) if you feel that it would be too time-consuming to give all these entries a thorough review. Just ask (Over PM preferably, the topic might get flooded if anyone could apply), I'm sure plenty of trustworthy people would like to help you review missions.

A series of judges? That actually sounds like an interesting idea! I'll support this suggestion.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

I'm sure some of us regulars don't mind stepping up, and we can send our verdicts and thoughts to Ziv via PM for him to just update the OP

[Xannari Ferrows]

I could probably go for home plate. Sure, I'm not exactly a regular, but I come here on occasion, and I have an idea of what Ziv ants to see. Then again, this is his decision to make in the first place.

[parzr]

Yeah, some people could be posted in the OP after the rules as approved judges and leave appeals/veto to Ziv.

I know a few of us have chimed in to help out; and we are happy to help keep a thread fun, that we also found fun.

The challenge wouldn't be near what it is, where not for everything Ziv has put into making it valuable.

Edited January 15, 2015 by parzr

[jake9039]

I would do this... if I could get there... but firdt, we need to find that big rock our ancestors brought into orbit of our planet

[Right]

Just want to check on this detail: For the Jeb level, a minimum of 1 pod is required (along with living space like a hitchhiker container) to land on each moon, but not necessarily ascend?

[redsh]

Just want to check on this detail: For the Jeb level, a minimum of 1 pod is required (along with living space like a hitchhiker container) to land on each moon, but not necessarily ascend?

Pod isn't necessary for landing at all. You must use them only for transfers.

[parzr]

Just want to check on this detail: For the Jeb level, a minimum of 1 pod is required (along with living space like a hitchhiker container) to land on each moon, but not necessarily ascend?

Jeb level requires 5 kerbals minimum and comfortable habitat for the interplanetary journey. there is no requirement for a pod per-se on any lander, but you need something to get a crew report.

Edit: The rules don't specify and it would be Ziv's call but he probably intended a crew report in the science packages. He has made very minor allowances for Jeb level but its so posed to be harder than the rest and just adding a few science items to a level 3 isn't that difficult.

Edited January 17, 2015 by parzr

[Ziv]

Hi guys,

hehe, I was waiting for this question since I made this challenge, because a pod was requested for interplanetary journey only for the low-mass category! And no, crew report is not necessary for Jeb Level. So if somebody would have just sent out 5 kerbals on seats and with the science packages then that would have qualified too! Hehe.

But I would have allowed this only until the orange tanks were the biggest one... so now it's not allowed. Rules are updated!

[Jouni]

I finally completed the Jool-5 in a brute-force way. I had two or three attempts last year, but I was always trying to do something too fancy, so I got bored with the mission before I had even started it. A while ago I had a simple ship that was able to land on Tylo, Laythe, and Vall, before it had to return to Kerbin. Now I just launched it on a bigger rocket.

Version: 0.90

Mods: FAR, DRE, MechJeb, Docking Port Alignment Indicator (Procedural Fairings was also installed, but I didn't use it)

Crew: 3

Other: 2 hitchhikers, no refueling

I just noticed afterwards that there were additional rules hidden in a later post. While I still have a pile of additional screenshots available, I didn't consider it necessary to document the routine transfers between planets and moons. If it disqualifies me, so be it.

The screenshots are downsized from 1680x1050 to 1280x800. The texts should still be legible.

Tier-2 VAB was enough for building the rocket. The total price was 825704. (This is a duplicate ship on the launchpad, as I forgot to take this screenshot before the real launch. I usually don't take any screenshots with the UI on.)

The boosters almost got the entire ship to orbit.

Ready for departure.

After some mid-course corrections, I had my standard DRE Jool approach. From here, it takes 1150-1200 m/s to match planes with Tylo and circularize to a low equatorial orbit.

Approaching Tylo.

Ready for the first landing. The ship has around 4.5 orange tanks worth of fuel remaining, which should be more than enough.

The main reason for heading to Tylo first was to get rid of the 40-tonne Tylo descent stage.

The descent stage originally had an orange tank, but it made the ship too tall and wobbly.

Back on Tylo again. The descent wasn't very efficient.

The obligatory tourist shot.

With just 9.3 tonnes of payload remaining, the ship has a ridiculous amount of delta-v, which basically guarantees a successful mission. When I launched the same ship on a smaller rocket, I had just 5920 m/s at this point.

The difference between a highly eccentric orbit around Tylo and a transfer to Laythe is less than 5 m/s. It's about the easiest transfer in the game, as long as you don't accidentally hit Vall.

Some gentle aerobraking over three passes around Laythe.

Plenty of fuel remaining. The lander will be fully refueled (one X200-32 fuel tank) for the Laythe landing.

Hitting land on Laythe required a few quickloads.

Another tourist shot.

Jool rising.

Back in orbit. The fuel tanks are still halfway full.

The transfer from Laythe to Vall is the hardest one to do efficiently. Patched conics don't work too well deep in Jool's gravity well.

I ended up doing a weird transfer, where the apoapsis/Vall encounter was 3/4 orbits from where Laythe was when I started the burn. (I thought I had a screenshot of it, because it felt surprising.)

Going to Vall was quite expensive. On the positive side, all the remaining landings are quite cheap. For Vall, the lander will receive only 50% fuel (of X200-32).

Vall is one of the most boring places in the game.

Laythe was more interesting.

Back to orbit.

Last time I only had 1855 m/s remaining at this point.

The next stop was Pol. Going from Vall to Bop efficiently would have required some thinking, and I wasn't interested in doing that. I refueled the lander to 50% (of X200-32), because there was going to be some flying around to pay the bills.

The first obligatory landing site wasn't too nice.

Went there, got the surface sample.

One more place to go.

I did the transfer to Bop in a really lazy and inefficient way, but it still took less than 500 m/s. On the downside, I ended up in a really strange orbit. This time, the lander received only 25% fuel (of X200-32).

Bop wasn't supposed to be this flat.

Apparently the flat place was a high plateau next to an even higher mountain.

Ready to head back to Kerbin.

I returned to orbit Jool a bit below Bop (and with a bit less inclination). The timing was perfect, as there was a good launch window to Kerbin immediately.

With the fuel tanks almost empty, aerobraking at Kerbin was quite effective.

Back on a nice equatorial orbit with 1912 m/s remaining. Maybe the rocket was a bit overkill.

I missed the KSC, because it's located too far south.

[HANNIBALLA]

This my entry to the low-mass challenge. My ship weighs 37.359 tons on the launch pad and is made of 568 parts. Uses rapier engines, one ion engine, and numerous 48-7s. Three landers not including the main ion ship, which house the control pod. Airhoged into orbit.

http://hanniballa.imgur.com/

Edited January 23, 2015 by HANNIBALLA
spelling, syntax

[Himynameisjake]

Hey Ziv, I was wondering what you thought of this design for a biome miner, no clipping, but the nuclear engines are attached radially per the new in game design modifications, I could mount the tanks and set the engines under, but it gets a little ugly as far as clearing terrain goes.

[Ziv]

Hey Ziv, I was wondering what you thought of this design for a biome miner, no clipping, but the nuclear engines are attached radially per the new in game design modifications, I could mount the tanks and set the engines under, but it gets a little ugly as far as clearing terrain goes.

http://i.imgur.com/OpD0OEJ.jpg

Hey, if there's no heavy clipping then it's all right. Some "touching" is not a problem. On the front the science pack goes into a body part which is not a tank/engine/etc. so it can be clipped.