The Duna Explorer

[JayKay]

Most of my activity has centered around LKO or the Mun. The only craft I have launched out of Kerbin SOI was a probe I called Pioneer 1 and a spent fuel stage of a Mun transfer vehicle which somehow achieved escape velocity. Pioneer 1 is just on a lazy solar orbit outside of Kerbin's, with little fuel left to get anywhere. I built and launched another deep space probe vehicle, but it has been orbiting Kerbin ever since because there hasn't been a favorable launch window to anywhere so far.

My Mun activities have suffered a few setbacks, so I backed away from them for a while. I was working on better boosters to get larger loads into Kerbin orbit instead. I hit on the idea of trying to get parts for a large interplanetary ship into space to give my bigger boosters something to do. Thus, with virtually no pre-planning at all, the Duna Explorer project sprang into being.

I knew I was going to build it at my space station, and that it would be big. That meant it needed someplace to dock which would give it some standoff distance from the rest of the station. I built a docking port pylon designed to mount to the bottom port of the station, and sent it up attached to one of the refueling ships. Now I had a place to build.

I reasoned I needed a lot of fuel for getting a big ship there and back. This wasn't going to be some wimpy little space probe. So I strapped three orange tanks together side by side, put Clamp-o-tron Srs on one end of them and a couple of regular docks top and bottom, and tied the other together with some trusswork which terminated in another docking port, attached to a space tug. This was perched on one of my Brutus II launch vehicles with a Skipper engine clamped temporarily to the middle port on one tank. After a couple of bad starts, I got this thing into space. It was docked to the bottom of the station.

I had designed the first section so that an identical unit could dock with it and result in a six section fuel tank with docking ports at ether end. One end would connect to an engine section, and the other to the control section. A second triple tank ship was launched and docked with the first. Then 12 (yes, twelve) nuclear engines were put together in one assembly and launched on a specially designed ship with a couple Mainsails providing most of the power to get the thing aloft. Once it was high and fast enough, they were jettisoned and the nukes crawled their way into orbit, and likewise connected (slightly crooked) to one end of the fuel tank assembly.

It occurred to me at this point that hiring a photographer would probably be prudent for documenting the process, if only to assist the enquiry later. Here is where the photos begin:

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I've been taking a lot of screenshots since then. I'm not sure if this is the best way to present them, or if individually posted photos would work better. In any case, I'm probably as interested as anyone else in seeing if this thing can actually get to Duna and get its mission completed. What could go wrong?

JK

Edited November 11, 2013 by JayKay

[Specialist290]

That looks like it took a lot of time and effort to assemble. Well done

Hope this mission goes well. Duna is indeed a very fun place to visit.

[JayKay]

That looks like it took a lot of time and effort to assemble. Well done

Hope this mission goes well. Duna is indeed a very fun place to visit.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to busting out of the Kerbin gravity well properly once.

I have to admit that I'm doing all this backwards, though. I had done a pretty good job of progressing from early test fights to first orbital satellite, to first Kerbal in orbit. Then I built a space station orbiting Kerbin, then one orbiting the Mun, then landing and finally a base there, too. Then I lost my mind. The Duna Explorer ought to be the last thing after sending flyby probes, then a lander, then maybe a small expedition to Duna; instead I build the big ship. Oh well. Maybe I'll do it "properly" when I restart the game again.

I picked Duna because it seemed to be the easiest target and its launch window was coming up soon. I don't like quick-timing to where I want things to be--would rather let things unfold more naturally. I consider this ship the prototype for my Jool Explorer which I will build next. I have already defined a lot of things I would do differently on the next one. That launch window is coming up soon, too...

JK

Edited November 11, 2013 by JayKay

[JayKay]

Haste makes waste, as they say, and this project is proof of that. It's a good thing that launching more ships only costs us time in KSP.

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After all this, we're still not ready to go. It's a good thing I had a bunch of time before the departure window came up yet.

JK

[Specialist290]

Well, that closing line sounds ominous. Still, here's hoping that the expedition gets to Duna in one piece!

[JayKay]

Well, I've been busy with various distractions from bringing this story up to where it now stands, but this will bring things up to date:

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There were a couple of developments since this. First, I installed Kerbal Alarm Clock. Very recommended if you want to juggle 10 balls (Kerballs?) at once. This is where I discovered that the Jool window will open before the Duna window. Hmm; decision time. I thought of re-purposing the Duna Explorer for Jool instead. I was concerned about having enough fuel for that, though. The ship is ridiculously big, and though the six tanks give her a lot of Delta V, it's not enough for a trip to Jool with any chance of returning, I think. So how much fuel would I need for such an enterprise? How many fuel tanks could I get up into space at once anyway? Well...

Next time I'll show you how many tanks I can get up there at once

JK