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

[SSSPutnik]

Hmm I've been popping them just after reentry on Laythe, seems gentle... But my guys in a pod.

[Space Viking]

It appears my mission has ended as a failure due to underestimating Laythe's atmosphere. Jebediah, Bob and Bill is in for a loong vacation. Hanbree and Gilwise currently in orbit may good as well join them.

Lander details:

Stage 2 is mainly intended for a brief powered descent as a complement to the parachutes. Stage 1 and 0 is purely for ascent.

[SSSPutnik]

That should be enough to make orbit?

[Norcurion]

The Kraken occured another time at Laythee... seems i wont quicksave on that planet again ( but this time i've got a quicksave secured shortly before landing)

@ Space Viking : That Lander looks great!

Edited February 6, 2014 by Norcurion

[Alchemist]

Be careful, Kerbin orbit takes ~4500 m/s, and Tylo landing and back from 10-40 km orbit takes about 5400-7300 m/s (depending on your TWR and skills - MechJeb doesn't help you much there).

Did you ever checked its deltaV with MechJeb, KER or something similar?

I Kerbin-tested it (not the single-stage Tylo landing, but it pulled simulated landing and back to orbit with not even being fully fueled - the tanker proved a bit insufficient to refuel this). And SSTO that barely pull 1g at launchpad do really exceed 5 km/s of delta-v (they waste terrible amounts of fuel in the first few kilometers). I've tested that.

Of course, Tylo landing with such TWR does require some skills.

[immelman]

Hi Ziv, Can I present my minimalist Jool 5 challenge?

102.44 tonnes on the launchpad, in the end I finished with the equivalent of a Rockamax 8 left, which means I could have gone to Duna too! I'm sure that this setup could be pared down at least another 6 or 7 tonnes, but not by me, that was a huge mission. All the landings went smoothly the first time, my only hiccup was lifting off from Laythe, I'd missed fully refueling the lander and reaching orbit was very close...

Your challenge gave me an excellent reason to try this out, thank you!

Mods: MechJeb, KerbalAlarmClock, TACFuelBalancer

Here are some pictures:

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Edited February 6, 2014 by immelman

[sullivap]

Immelman,

Fantastic! My hat is off to you Sir.

-Pete

[Ziv]

OK, Ziv, as promised here are all the pics from my Jool 5 - Mission 3. Sorry took so long but I was playing this at two places and it took a while to get time to merge and compile all the screenshots.

This is a level 1 equivalent entry, although the Osperus II had a ton of crew on board, only two crew flew landers.

Mission completed, with the following notes:

1) Did NOT land back at Kerbin, the ship returned to Kerbin orbit safely however with all crew.

2) Mothership and landers used modified parts from LLL, KW Rocketry and Kethane.

3) Kethane was NOT used, only scanned for.

4) No refueling required.

Ship comprised, mothership, two landers and two tugs.

After aerobraking at Jool and achieving orbit, I split the ships up.

Osperus II stayed in parking orbit whilst Lander 1+Tug 1 went to Tylo

Lander 2 and Tug 2 went to Laythe

Then did Tylo landing, and Laythe landing.

Lander 2 met with Tug 2 and they went to Vall.

Osperus II went to Vall.

Vall landing.

Met with Osperus 2 and head to Pol.

Tylo lander and tug went to Pol. Big party at Pol. Osperus II sucked the tugs and a lander dry, we dumped a lander and then fueled up the remaining lander.

(Seemed sad to dump em, they were perfectly serviceable but just dead weight without fuel.)

Lander went to Bop, landed, then back to Pol.

Landed Pol.

Docked with Osperus II and headed back home, (with the lander attached).

So, in summary - Kerbin->Jool->Tylo/Laythe->Vall->Bop->Poll->Home.

Here are the images. (Hope they are OK, there was quite a bit of quicksaving/restoring as well as working on two computers and having to merge them). (Same savegame file copied back and forth).

http://imgur.com/a/5tbak#0

SSSPutnik, pretty nice Expedition-style mission, especially with the greenhouse and the rotating living section! I think it could be a level3 if you had a lot of Kerbals on the deck, but -as we discussed before - I will put this into the Other Solution list anyway because of the lot of modded/LLL parts. I really like the inner views from the cockpits! That's cool that you didn't refuel, especially at huge ships like this! Good job!

[Ziv]

Hi Ziv, Can I present my minimalist Jool 5 challenge?

102.44 tonnes on the launchpad, in the end I finished with the equivalent of a Rockamax 8 left, which means I could have gone to Duna too! I'm sure that this setup could be pared down at least another 6 or 7 tonnes, but not by me, that was a huge mission. All the landings went smoothly the first time, my only hiccup was lifting off from Laythe, I'd missed fully refueling the lander and reaching orbit was very close...

Your challenge gave me an excellent reason to try this out, thank you!

Mods: MechJeb, KerbalAlarmClock, TACFuelBalancer

Here are some pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/HiBei

immelman: WOW, awesome mission, and you are the new leader on the board! This Low-Mass level1 sub-challenge started to be popular these days! This is interesting because landing on all the moons and coming back with one launch and no refueling is a pretty hard task on its own too!

Nice mission planning and I really like your landing gear solution! Unique lander and looks good too. Very good job!

[Ziv]

btw I'm working on my level1sub entry and I always feel I should make my lander look good too, even if I lose some dV... I'm close to launch my new version and I guess I will be able to make it under 100t! Or maybe much less, I had an idea today afternoon!

Edited February 7, 2014 by Ziv

[SSSPutnik]

SSSPutnik, pretty nice Expedition-style mission, especially with the greenhouse and the rotating living section! I think it could be a level3 if you had a lot of Kerbals on the deck, but -as we discussed before - I will put this into the Other Solution list anyway because of the lot of modded/LLL parts. I really like the inner views from the cockpits! That's cool that you didn't refuel, especially at huge ships like this! Good job!

No, it's not Level 3 as the lander only carried one guy down. (Yeah I could have rotated crew, but the landers were off by themselves a lot so only 2 crew actually made landings, and only one on each moon).

Fuel did get tight, but not too bad. I am REALLY BAD at transfers, I need to practise and learn more about them, I am positive I am wasting tons of fuel at the moment when I look at other peoples missions. Half the problem is I get unwanted encounters while waiting to get into a better transfer orbit forcing me to evade or go when not optimal.

Half of not refuelling was the huge amount I used on departure in the two giant slack tanks. I burnt about 100 tons of fuel then ! Sucking the tugs dry helped a lot too. But really, the ship itself was amazingly efficient considering.

Thanks for the nice comments.

[Mr.Rocket]

*hi-5*

*returns hi-5*

I'm almost done with my mission, refueling mission done, and i landed on Bop and retrned to the mothership . I plan on starting my fanworks story tonight

4 out of 5 refuelers sent in the second refueling mission made it. The last one was just a complete disaster, i had gotten ignorant after success with the first four, luckily, the mothership has more than enough fuel. It entered Jool in a retrogade orbit, to start off. I thought, maybe i can get it to Laythe instead? It hit Jools atmosphere at somewhere between 10 and 11 km/s, and dipped too low (115 km) leaving its apoasis beneath Laythe, I raised it, and entered Laythe, where i was immediatly sent on a crash course. I tried to aerobrake, but was still going 5000 m/s, and almost landed, but crashed at 100 m/s. Thats why i sent 5. On the bright side, Hans made it to Bop And in those pictures, thats not mechjeb, thats VOID

Pictures:

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Edited February 7, 2014 by Mr.Rocket

[SSSPutnik]

I just updated my entry with a very average video of my ship

Least it shows the centrifugal habitats in action.

[SSSPutnik]

Hi Ziv, Can I present my minimalist Jool 5 challenge?

Awesome! Love the flag btw! Still colonising!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8

Edited February 7, 2014 by SSSPutnik

[Norcurion]

Do the rules allow the visit of other celestial bodys or will that disqualifiy the science collection part of the jeb level ? I've got some Delta V left and don't want to waste them...

(I could count out the science made on the other body from the total amount of science made)

[SSSPutnik]

Don't know. Ziv visited others on his non Jebediah mission. Don't see why not...

[Ziv]

Do the rules allow the visit of other celestial bodys or will that disqualifiy the science collection part of the jeb level ? I've got some Delta V left and don't want to waste them...

(I could count out the science made on the other body from the total amount of science made)

Sure you can visit other bodies, that will impress the decision makers about the funding for future Kerbal Space Programs! Hm, but for Jebediah's level, it's kinda race for the science points for some people, so yes, please divide the science points between the Joolian system and the others planets!

(SSSPutnik: no, I visited other bodies on level1, and ttnarg was the other one who visited others on level3 too, but nobody did that for Jebediah's level yet)

Edited February 7, 2014 by Ziv

[immelman]

"btw I'm working on my level1sub entry and I always feel I should make my lander look good too, even if I lose some dV... I'm close to launch my new version and I guess I will be able to make it under 100t! Or maybe much less, I had an idea today afternoon! "

I look forward to seeing it. Regarding using the landing wheels I found they are more forgiving under high speed impacts and come with lights

Edited February 7, 2014 by immelman

[immelman]

Awesome! Love the flag btw! Still colonising!

Brilliant! Yes Eddie nails that one, it's genetic

[Norcurion]

Sure you can visit other bodies, that will impress the decision makers about the funding for future Kerbal Space Programs! Hm, but for Jebediah's level, it's kinda race for the science points for some people, so yes, please divide the science points between the Joolian system and the others planets!

Well then... im in high Joolian Orbit, Big Five is complete, that is left of the Selene III, 108 Science Items collected so far, let's search for new landing sites somewhere else

EDIT: If anyone cares: Just sending Crew Reports from any Joolian site (all surfaces, hi/lo orbits, and hi lo atmo, land and sea at laythe) brings 790 Points of science

Edited February 7, 2014 by Norcurion

[sdj64]

I'm taking an unorthodox approach to the minimal mass challenge: a Jool-5 Spaceplane!

I just got this into orbit. I'm still not sure if it will be able to make it the whole way. It will be very tight fuel-wise. Through airhogging to orbit I was able to keep most of my initial mass in fuel, though. And the lander is super-minimal, with the delta-v (on paper) to ascend Laythe SSTO, and ascend Tylo dropping the nuke.

Asking for tips here - do you think that it will be more efficient to go Laythe - Tylo (drop nuke) - Vall or Laythe - Vall - Tylo (drop nuke)? Will the efficiency make up for the increased weight of moving it to Vall?

Also, to clarify, the challenge only requires a pod for the journey, not required for the lander, right?

Teaser pictures:

[Cupcake...]

Another moon down, three more to go!

Cupcake...

[Jasonden]

Cupcake...

Fun -- I really do enjoy seeing that lander design in action!

[Cupcake...]

Fun -- I really do enjoy seeing that lander design in action!

Cheers,

It's a little embarrassing how clunky my setup is compared to some of the more seasoned members of this challenge, but still, I think I'm on track to finish, hopefully!

Cupcake..

Edited February 8, 2014 by Cupcake...

[zeppelinmage]

I managed to land on Tylo today, but used WAY too much fuel. Clearly I need to perfect the suicide burn.

Tonight will have to be Attempt #40.