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

[parzr]

Can i use ALCOR Capsule and TurboNisuReloaded pack in my mission?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/54925-WIP-ALCOR-Advanced-Landing-Capsule-for-Orbital-Rendezvous-by-ASET-%28UPD-30-06-2014%29

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/102041-0-90-TurboNisuReloaded-Stock-a-Like-Parts-Pack-22-1-14

if it's just a pod and weighs more than .66 tons per kerbal then it's probably fine.

[ACCount]

It weighs .56t per kerbal. Anyway, i decided to use stock lander can and go for class 3 challenge.

I want to use parts from RLA Stockalike, Kerbonov (both in "Permitted part mods" list) and TurboNisuReloaded (not in list, but all parts are stockalike) in my mission. Two landers are ready and tested, but mothership is still WIP.

[Xannari Ferrows]

Hey, Ziv! I know you're busy at work right now, and have other reviews to do. That's fine, take all year if you want. However, I'm currently doing a low mass entry to the Kethane sub-category, and I've already gone ahead a bit of math for you. Any information you need to know, I can provide.

Here's the link. Enjoy! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110643-Xannari-s-Jool-5-Kethane-low-mass-attempt%21?p=1735368#post1735368

[Nik333]

Can I post my trip in more posts or does it have to be here all together in one post? I can't wait to do an attempt in this challenge and it will be my first trip to Jool.

EDIT: I have just realized that there is huge text saying that it is not accepting new entries. I have already started so I will do it just for fun.

EDIT 2: Moved whole report to THIS PLACE. I will repost this link once mission will be completed! Currently, mission is NOT complete

Edited February 22, 2015 by Nik333

[Deutherius]

Can I post my trip in more posts or does it have to be here all together in one post? I can't wait to do an attempt in this challenge and it will be my first trip to Jool.

Hi Nik, welcome to the forum

You can, but it might be better to compile your entire mission in the Mission Reports first, and then post a link to your report here when it's done - just like Xannari did a few posts back. I would also advise you to keep those videos brief, as the judges might not have enough time to watch them. Videos AND pictures would be best, of course.

Make sure that you read all the rules and that your game/ship fits within those rules!

Edited February 22, 2015 by Deutherius
typo

[Nik333]

Hi Nik, welcome to the forum

You can, but it might be better to compile your entire mission in the Mission Reports first, and then post a link to your report here when it's done - just like Xannari did a few posts back. I would also advise you to keep those videos brief, as the judges might not have enough time to watch them. Videos AND pictures would be best, of course.

Make sure that you read all the rules and that your game/ship fits within those rules!

Thank you for making it all clear. Videos I make about this mission are very short, they aren't long like videos usually are and they are cut so it won't probably take too long to watch them. Next video, I am rendering right now, (getting to interplanetary and getting trajectory for Jool periapsis) is shorter than 4 minutes and I think it is faster to watch it, than reading text, which you can usually find below images.

[sdj64]

Hey, Ziv! I know you're busy at work right now, and have other reviews to do. That's fine, take all year if you want. However, I'm currently doing a low mass entry to the Kethane sub-category, and I've already gone ahead a bit of math for you. Any information you need to know, I can provide.

Here's the link. Enjoy! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110643-Xannari-s-Jool-5-Kethane-low-mass-attempt%21?p=1735368#post1735368

Something's fishy here. Your nuclear engines are modified. There's no way to have that much dV in that ship. Looks like you also used them in your earlier lv2 submission too. That means that you cheated, and not only that but you tried to pass it off as not cheating.

Do it again using STOCK nuclear engines (they have 60 thrust, ISP of 220 in atmosphere and 800 in space, and weigh 2.25, if you've forgotten) Yours have 75 thrust and much higher ISP.

Edit: I know I may have come off too harsh, I think it may be something with KSP Interstellar being installed and modifying the nuclear engines. I'm not sure, though. Do you have that mod?

Edited February 23, 2015 by sdj64

[Red Iron Crown]

Hey, Ziv! I know you're busy at work right now, and have other reviews to do. That's fine, take all year if you want. However, I'm currently doing a low mass entry to the Kethane sub-category, and I've already gone ahead a bit of math for you. Any information you need to know, I can provide.

Here's the link. Enjoy! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110643-Xannari-s-Jool-5-Kethane-low-mass-attempt%21?p=1735368#post1735368

Sorry, but I have to say, this is a cheaterpants entry. You claim a total mass of 11389kg/12.555t (how are these not the same number?), for that design to deliver 10,769m/s of dV with a nuke's 800 Isp in a single stage would require a dry mass of 1.693tons, which is less than a single LV-N, let alone two with a bunch of other stuff. If it is really supplied by that single 800 unit tank, the LV-Ns must have an Isp of about 2859s:

10769 = 2859 * 9.82 * ln(12.555/8.555)

Have you got some mod installed that messes with engine stats?

Edit: Ninja'd

[John FX]

SORRY GUYS, BUT THIS CHALLENGE IS NOT ACCEPTING NEW ENTRIES UNTIL OPENED AGAIN!

So is the challenge open again? I'll give it a go if it is.

[parzr]

So is the challenge open again? I'll give it a go if it is.

Its just peer reviewed and a good place to post the accomplishment. Take a screen shot just before every new Burn, have the resources tab open and post away. Ziv is on hiatus.

[Ziv]

So here is my entry for the Jool 5 challenge.

Game Version: 0.9

Mods: KER, MechJeb, TAC fuel balancer. (Hyperedit for testing)

Number of Kerbals: 12, 4 Pilots, 4 Scientists, 4 Engineers

Launches: 6. Main ship, Refuel Mk1, Refuel Mk2, Pol-Bop lander, Refuel-Rescue, Refuel for refuel

Living quarters: All Kerbals travelled between Kerbin and Jool in Hitchiker containers and all landings were carried out in Mk1 lander cans

So having travelled to Jool and landed two Kerbals on each moon I have learnt a number of things.

1. Test everything – I tested the Laythe lander, but didn’t really do any testing on anything else. I barely managed to land on Tylo

2. Check you have all the parts you need – I forgot a probe core and a decoupler in the main vessel

3. Make sure your decouplers function as you expect – I probably should have been using stack seperators in a few places and it almost killed my mission as nothing worked properly post landing on my Laythe lander until I got the decoupler off the top.

4. Just because you think you might have to reload when something doesn’t seem to be working, take the pictures as if it does work you will probably want them

So without any further delays here is my mission.

I launched my main ship which contained my Laythe lander, my Tylo/Vall lander and my tug for getting the landers to the moons with the first launch. I had everything set up using asparagus staging but part way up I realized I would want to keep a couple of the empties or I would end up really struggling on the transfer. Luckily I had enough delta V to make this work so this launch was highly successful.

http://imgur.com/a/VHbji

Stage 2 was to start the refuel process; the first refuel ship took up 6 Kerbodyne 7200 fuel tanks and had a little left in the fuel tanks of the upper stage. Flying this mission it seemed to me that this wasn’t ideal and I could do it more efficiently so for the second stage of refuelling I built my Mk2 refueler. This used a little less fuel but was an absolute pig to fly and wasn’t worth the effort, I also thought I better take up some extra monopropellant as I will have a number of dockings and don’t want to run out. This was unnecessary as I had massive amounts of monoprop left over. Even though I thought I had done the calculations to know how much fuel I needed to lift, it turned out that no I still need heaps more. My final fuelling mission also sent up the Pol-Bop lander as this wasn’t sent up initially to leave a docking port free on top for refuelling. The Pol-Bop lander brought 5 Kerbodyne 3600 tanks and did complete the refuelling. I didn’t take any pictures of the docking and refuelling here, and I am not sure why I didn’t.

http://imgur.com/a/YryYl

Stage 3 was transferring to Jool and establishing orbit. I got a good transfer with a minimal wait and set off for Jool, of course the good transfer did mean a very slow transfer but sometimes it is worth it. I aerobraked hard at Jool to set myself up in orbit approximately halfway between Laythe and Vall so as to control the amount of delta V to go to each moon. In retrospect I should probably have set up between Vall and Tylo as I used a lot of fuel in transfers to Pol and Bop that would have been reduced further out.

http://imgur.com/a/sMuPB

Having established myself in orbit I sent the first landing crew out. Jeb and Bob jumped into the lander, which was already attached to the tug. The tug moved to a safe location and set up for the burn to Pol. Following a fairly uneventful trip the boys circularized at Pol and prepared the lander for descent. A fairly innocuous spot was picked from the window and the deorbit burn commenced. It was a very easy landing on Pol as there was heaps of fuel so a very slow descent was used. Aster collecting as much science as was readily available Jeb and Bob jumped back in and headed back into orbit. They then went with a minimum velocity escape from Pol (as I had got this wrong a few times I don’t have any pictures of the return as I didn’t know if it would work) After rendezvousing with the ship the lander docked, swapped out its crew for Dodfred and Rodsey, cleared all the science to the lab and cleaned the experiments. The lander then redocked to the tug (which was not refuelled) and headed out to Bop. Circularized on arrival at Bop and aimed for a fairly high point to land on. Landing was made at 17,495m and was one of the more difficult as Neither Dodfred nor Rodsey were a pilot so there was no SAS on the lander. After getting out and collecting science and planting a flag it was time to head back. Very straightforward ascent and circularization, rendezvous and docking. The return to the main ship was more interesting, as my escape burn was probably all wrong so there was a huge (422 m/s) burn required to match planes that I hadn’t factored in to my fuel calculations. I then had a circularization burn (257 m/s) before the rendezvous proper could start. At this stage I had a little over 1000 m/s left in the tug and I was thinking I am going to have to quickload from before going to Bop and refuel the tug, however I persevered in case I might make it, however as I wasn’t expecting to keep it I stopped taking pictures. Along the way I transferred all fuel from the lander to the tug to give it a little more and got fairly close to the main ship. I ran out of fuel while closing the final gap, however as I had over 1400 monopropellent I allowed it to try to finish with RCS, which was successful. I then docked the tug to the Tylo/Vall lander and the lander to the main ship.

http://imgur.com/a/Zn8up

The Tylo/Vall lander was crewed up with Wehrsen and Lemvis and was ready to go once the tug was refuelled. The transfer to Tylo was fairly easy, but the circularisation burn at Tylo took a fair bit of fuel (730+ m/s). After having saved in orbit I then spent a large number of attempts to land on Tylo. Again I ran into the problem of lack of confidence in success resulting in fewer than ideal pictures. After 10 attempts I was able to impact Tylo at a speed that did not result in an explosion, I was however falling over on the bounce. I finally worked out the right position for the burns and stuck the lander to the surface of Tylo. What it wasn’t was a pretty landing and the craft was on a 15° lean, luckily it was a stable lean so the crew disembarked, collected their science and planted their flag. Then with a lot of hope flowing they attempted to get back to orbit, as they had less fuel left than planned (only 2744 m/s). Having established a low apoapsis (30 km) the circularization burn was planned and showed there was sufficient fuel, which was a major relief. While retracting the landing gear I discovered the impact had been sufficient to make one of the legs immobile. I then rendezvoused the tug and docked it to the lander and towed it on back to the main ship. After docking, transferring science, cleaning out the experiments and swapping Dodfred and Robsey for Thomfal and Wehrbert we set off for Vall. The transfer to Vall was very easy and with a full fuel load in the tug I didn’t even think about the need to document it properly. The transfer and refinement put me on track for a polar orbit with only 236.5 m/s required to form the desired orbit. Undocked the lander from the tug burnt for deorbit and proceeded to land on Vall. Again the science, moonwalk and flag followed by ascent. Rendezvous and docking were carried out by the lander as there were huge fuel reserves. The tug then dragged the lander back to the main ship. The tug then docked back to the main ship, the experiments were transferred to the lab, the crew returned to their quarters and the experiments cleaned incase a second Vall landing was to take place.

http://imgur.com/a/sTZ5S

The ship was then readied for sending the Laythe lander out, at this stage it was discovered that you can’t dock through a decoupler, and it was also noticed that I had missed two parts from the main ship. There was supposed to be a probe core to allow the main ship to return by itself and there should have been a decoupler to allow the Hitchikers to separate so they were guaranteed an easy landing. At this stage I also didn’t know how much delta V would be available to the main ship as the Laythe lander was still attached and quite heavy. It was decided to launch a rescue/refuel mission to make sure the main ship could return. The rescue ship was simple, 4 radially docked nuclear engines with probe cores attached to enough rocket to get it close enough to the main ship. Once in orbit I decided to refuel the lowest stage to maximise available delta V so a refuel for the refuel was launched. I then planned the transfer at the lowest fuel usage window. Part way to the transfer window I decided with how much delta V I have I can use a faster sub optimum transfer and get there much sooner so the plan was changed and 800 m/s extra was spent to shorten the transfer by more than 250 days. Once in Jools SOI I adjusted the orbit to get a Laythe encounter inbound. I set up for aerocapture at Laythe and for little fuel got myself into a 100 km orbit. I then sent the main ship to Laythe to meet up with the refuel. The refuel then rendezvoused with the main ship and each engine was docked to the main ship.

http://imgur.com/a/w38AA

The whole main ship with Laythe lander still attached dropped its periapsis to enable the lander to hit a clear point in the Sagen sea. After transferring out the last of the fuel in Laythes flotation tanks the main ship was undocked, turned around and burnt to lift its periapsis above the atmosphere. The laythe lander then proceeded down into the sea on parachutes, which given that there were many were staged to open at various altitudes to minimise the stress on the lander. Following a safe landing the boys (Jonbas and Elger) went for a swim in the sea, and collected the science. They were very disappointed to discover you cannot take seismic readings in the sea but had to make do with what their instruments offered. After jettisoning some parachutes (5T worth) they ascended. The ascent was odd as KER was saying I was still splashed down. I don’t know what caused this but it was a major problem for me. I got into orbit easily enough but I was still splashed down, so there was no time warp available nor could I rendezvous, and because I was moving over land I couldn’t change vessel. I tried getting the guys out and then rendezvousing with them, but it just kept crashing the game when I tried to take both out. Eventually while feeling extremely frustrated I decided to try to control from the docking port to see if it would recognise that as not splashed down. When I did this it offered me to undock the decoupler, how a decoupler can be docked I don’t know, but this was the magic I needed, I was now recognised as in orbit. I then rendezvoused the main ship and spacewalked the guys and their experiments to the main ship. Docking wasn’t an option as there were no free docking ports and I had forgotten the RCS ports on the lander.

http://imgur.com/a/Lgwbt

Having successfully landed on every moon and returned with science it was time to head home. I moved the main ship to a circular orbit at around Bops altitude. I then brought the tug and landers (which had two of the crew inside in case I had wanted to do an extra landing) to meet up with the main ship. I disconnected an engine to free up a docking port, transferred the crew from the the Pol-Bop lander to the Tylo/Vall lander and all the fuel from the Pol-Bop lander too. I then docked the tug and lander filled up the main ship to max fuel,transferred the crew to their quarters, undocked the tug, redocked the engine and we were ready to head home. I nice early transfer window was available, so the journey home started only 34 days later. 1 course refinement after a year put me on a good course for setting up an aerocapture at Kerbin. I set up my aerobraking periapsis andgot a reasonable aerocapture, though the apoapsis was higher than desired, so I merely raised periapsis instead of circularizing. I then circularized at periapsis to give a 150 km circular orbit. When I had done a few orbits a landing window opened up (large patch of water in the sun). My deorbit burn had me passing over KSC on the way down which gave the crew their first decent view of home in about 6 years. Landing was primarily by parachute with a small burn to ensure a safe landing speed.

18648.9 science points were returned along with the 12 crewmembers who were now well experienced.

http://imgur.com/a/brrlI

Hopefully this will satisfy all the requirements for this challenge (what level I am not sure, I was aiming for a Jebediahs level but not sure if I hit everything needed)

Sqwazare: Congratulations, you have finished the JOOL-5 Challenge on Jebediah's Level!

Wow, you really built a huge main ship! I really liked that you landed two kerbals on each moon. Your huge floating solution at Laythe is a pretty unique one!

Well documented mission, good job! Thank you for participating, and sorry for the slow review!

Thanks for the help, Deutherius, Xannari Ferrows and sdj64!

Edited February 26, 2015 by Ziv

[Ziv]

One more for the pile, Ziv... I feel bad piling this on just after you asked for help looking through the submissions!

I used my Cormorant reusable SSTO to carry the Minnow interplanetary vehicle to orbit. Built and flown in .90, and the only mod used is MechJeb.

Craft file for download

Highlights:

* The whole thing fits cleanly in a cargo bay

* Jeb and Bill fly the Cormorant to LKO while Bob, Lorim, Nelfin, Elbald, and Borvey go to Jool

* It actually worked!

* 83 tons on the runway

* SSTO lifter and one pod fully recovered

Low points:

* The Kraken was ever-present. I've never had this many game issues before... but despite them all, everybody made it home.

* I accidentally attached the last few Xenon drop tanks to the wrong thing, forcing a change in the planned order in which I visited the moons to use the fuel

Mission Summary:

Five kerbals on five moons, making this an entry for Level 3, but with a launch weight of 83.217t, it's light enough to be #11 in the Low Mass Contender list! Can an entry be considered for both categories?

Jeb and Bill: flew Cormorant to LKO

Bob: landed on Laythe

Lorim: landed on Vall

Nelfin: landed on Bop

Elbald: landed on Pol

Borvey: landed on Tylo

Everybody: landed back on Kerbin, safe and sound, despite repeatedly meeting the Kraken*.

Without further ado... the exhaustive album of the trip!

http://imgur.com/a/MTIch

*Kraken stuff: I had five corrupted savegame files that couldn't be recovered-- when loaded, they all did insane things. One would load without any of the parts originally surface-attached to the command pods. Three different times, I had a bug where an undocking pod would suddenly catapult away from the ship 90 degrees from the docking port, the port would fly in a different direction, and small parts would remain in their original position by the main vessel, attached to nothing but unmovable. And once, a few of the SSTO's parts would detect collisions with the ground and explode (wing, tailfin, intakes) while the plane was still 100m in the air. The fuel lines on the Vall lander got corrupted somehow when the subassembly was placed in the cargo bay, so I managed the fuel manually during the flight. The lander pod would spin in small circles if you tried to use SAS to hold it still, but only when not attached to lift stages... it managed to make it despite this, but I wish I knew why. Near the end, a bug that caused the ship to disintegrate when undocking meant that all the kerbals had to be spacewalked back to the SSTO and the second pod and 4-man can had to be left in orbit. The original intent was to land with the entire Minnow back in the cargo bay, and I'm really glad I thought to put enough seats in the SSTO for everybody just in case. I've had nothing but good luck until now with KSP... I guess it was time for me to meet the Kraken. But despite the Krakens... everybody got home alive, with the mission accomplished!

raygundan: Congratulations, you have finished the JOOL-5 Challenge on Level 3 with an SSTO cargo-bay launch and a 24.5 tons main ship!

WOW, I'm really impressed with your SSTO launch!!! This is pretty cool. Although your interplanetary burn had to be a headache with that 0.02 TWR ion drive!

How did you look out the window of the Hitch-hiker storage? Is there a double click on it already? (I didn't try it yet)

And I guess you had some hard time to brake into orbit around heavier bodies like Tylo... didn't you?

And you brought down your crew with the SSTO too... that's a pity that you didn't bring down the main ship too!

Really cool and patient mission, well done!

Edited February 26, 2015 by Ziv

[Ziv]

Hey, Ziv! I know you're busy at work right now, and have other reviews to do. That's fine, take all year if you want. However, I'm currently doing a low mass entry to the Kethane sub-category, and I've already gone ahead a bit of math for you. Any information you need to know, I can provide.

Here's the link. Enjoy! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110643-Xannari-s-Jool-5-Kethane-low-mass-attempt%21?p=1735368#post1735368

Xannari Ferrows, this is obviously a cheating one.

You just can't have that amount of Delta-V with that ship without modifying the cfg or the game engine...

And it turned out that your previous JOOL-5 mission was a cheaty one too!

Same problem. I can't belive I was so stupid to miss such an obvious cheating at first! I deleted it from the Hall of Fame.

Please remove the JOOL-5 Badge from your signature!

[Ziv]

.

Okay, I have figured out a new, experimental way to keep JOOL-5 alive!

It grew over me and would need more time what I have beside the real-life tasks but I'm committed to keep it alive, so I figured out a possible way:

1. a new entry has to be posted under the Mission Reports first

2. link your mission here so everybody can see and check it

3. people who want to help keeping the JOOL-5 alive checks the mission and writes a review (in that thread!) if it was done without cheating and by the rules. Anybody can be a judge!

4. If the mission gets at least three positive feedback I'll post it in the Hall of Fame

If somebody reviewed at least 3 missions already will earn a JOOL-5 JUDGE badge!

What do you think?

And any other ideas is welcome too! Even on reviews, the rules and general feedbacks on the challenge too!

Edited February 26, 2015 by Ziv

[Red Iron Crown]

That's a great idea to keep this excellent challenge alive, Ziv. I'll volunteer to review entries as I can, though I can't promise that I'll be as good at catching questionable entries as you are.

I would suggest that anyone reviewing a mission post their comments in the Mission Report thread, if they are the third reviewer they can post back in this thread to make you aware of it.

I think I speak for almost everyone when I thank you for all the time you've committed to maintaining this challenge, it is one of the best threads on the forums.

[John FX]

Right then. I'm going for a walk to the VAB. I may be some time...

EDIT : Just been checking the rules and can't find a mention of whether 'procedural parts' is on the OK or Banned list.

Same for the ALCOR (ASET) capsule. Is it OK to use? I saw someone else asked but there was not a definite reply.

(can provide links if needed)

In the OP it says "- Any other part mods are prohibited, except if you asked me before your mission and I permitted it." so before I go and build a huge monstrosity that will not be eligible I thought it best to ask.

Edited February 26, 2015 by John FX

[Camaron]

Gotta dig up all my Jool-5 experimental ideas now.

Thrilled to see the challenge is brought back online!

[Deutherius]

Neat idea. Peer reviews can be great and I'll gladly participate.

I just dunno about this:

4. If the mission gets at least three positive feedback I'll post it in the Hall of Fame

What if I post my mission and nobody reviews? Or just 1 person, or 2? Sure, it might be my own fault (bad formatting, over 2k screenshots, 5 hours worth of videos, unreadable sentences...), but sometimes folks are just lazy. I understand that without a new system, this challenge might die completely (I hope it won't!), but there should be a fallback system, imho.

Maybe set a time after which two positive reviews are enough, and one positive review? Or appoint a few trustworthy people to judge how many reviews are necessary? (Imagine that an epic mission was posted and the first judge writes the perfect review. Nobody has anything to add, so they just don't. The mission should still get into the Hall of Fame (because it was epic), but it only has one review, so it can't. Sad.)

Or maybe I am being too skeptical?

And yes, I get that the judge badge is there to motivate people to actually review, but...

If somebody reviewed at least 3 missions already will earn a JOOL-5 JUDGE badge!

But who is going to review the reviews?! It doesn't seem that hard to exploit this just to get the badge (reusing a generic review, rewording of someone else's review...)

Not that anyone would be petty enough to cheat for a badge (oh wait)

Edited February 26, 2015 by Deutherius

[raygundan]

raygundan: Congratulations, you have finished the JOOL-5 Challenge on Level 3 with an SSTO cargo-bay launch and a 24.5 tons main ship!

WOW, I'm really impressed with your SSTO launch!!! This is pretty cool. Although your interplanetary burn had to be a headache with that 0.02 TWR ion drive!

How did you look out the window of the Hitch-hiker storage? Is there a double click on it already? (I didn't try it yet)

And I guess you had some hard time to brake into orbit around heavier bodies like Tylo... didn't you?

And you brought down your crew with the SSTO too... that's a pity that you didn't bring down the main ship too!

Really cool and patient mission, well done!

The burns do take a while-- I wouldn't want to fly it without MechJeb. With MechJeb, though, it's mostly just "set up the nodes and go to the grocery store for an hour or two."

The hitchhiker storage can has had an IVA view for quite a while now-- at least back to 24, and possibly sooner. I'm not sure if you can click on it or not, although I suspect you can. I usually just click the "IVA" button on a kerbal that's in there. I love that interior-- it's got a real "space station" feel to it, and there's a bunch of kerbal jokes in there. (Edit: on re-reading your post, I see you meant the window specifically, not just the IVA-- you're right, you just double-click the window)

It is a shame about the main ship. It was designed to be recovered and flown home in the SSTO, but I had so many KSP glitches toward the end of the flight, and the last save where the undock didn't cause things to fly apart in weird ways was three moons back. Fortunately the SSTO had extra seats, and spacewalking everybody over worked-- if it weren't for that, I probably would have had to launch a rescue.

I've got a better (shorter, much better summarized, extra sarcasm) writeup and some different models of the Cormorant SSTO at http://imgur.com/a/1Mz6C if you want to check them out. There's a single-pilot heavy-cargo version, the original general-purpose, and one that can take 18 kerbals *and* an orange tank's worth of cargo.

Thanks again for all your time and effort with this challenge!!! It was a lot of fun, and it's great to have an external goal like this to push you to try some cool stuff.

Edited February 27, 2015 by raygundan

[Nik333]

I have just completed my attempt! Everything can be found HERE. I have made 5 videos and then decided to just upload images. It was nice mission, but Jool transfer made me really crazy, because of massive 300 part wobbly unwarpable thing, which took 20 minutes to do a burn. Also I nearly gave up when I had to land on Tylo, but I did it using awesome idea which Bill had.

Info can be found in mission report itself.

[Sqwazare]

Thanks Ziv, this was a great challenge. I went with the floating idea after being unable to hit any sufficiently level land, and having seen this concept applied at Eve. It also was a good place to keep all the extra fuel I needed for the rest of the mission.

[Nik333]

It seems like I am first one to test new system and have 3 positive reviews on my Jool-5 attempt! Thread is HERE.

[Flixxbeatz]

I have a question, will it qualify here if I used multiple interplanetary ships to land on every moon of Jool? My plan is to send three interplanetary ships with different purposes.

[Nik333]

I have a question, will it qualify here if I used multiple interplanetary ships to land on every moon of Jool? My plan is to send three interplanetary ships with different purposes.

I am entirely sure that you won't. Rules say that you have to use one huge ship (or small if you are good engineer) to travel everything. Just one refuel accepted later.

[Flixxbeatz]

I am entirely sure that you won't. Rules say that you have to use one huge ship (or small if you are good engineer) to travel everything. Just one refuel accepted later.

Oh there it is sorry missed it the first time I've read the rules.