My first ever trip to Jool:

[User Unrelated]

So, I haven't QUITE unlocked the whole tech tree yet...but I'm getting close. Most of what I have left involves the massive amounts of science to unlock the interstellar mod stuff at the end.

But, I decided to go to Jool... with the same craft that had taken me to both Duna and Eve. I was just curious if I'd have enough juice to get there.

It's a small craft, consisting of a probe on top, and a turbojet ascent stage that gets the apoapsis up to almost 30Km using nothing but the fuel in one single liquid fuel tank. (it's my new favorite launcher design)

so, barring all of the launch pictures (because I forgot to take them)

let's just start out at jool...

A+ Jool encounter

aerobrake into laythe orbit... do science

Hi Vall! I honestly didn't even try. I was just trying to plop into a Jool orbit, and then go from there. MORE SCIENCE!

Oh... look at that! HOLD ON TYLO, HERE COMES SCIENCE!

Pol wants in on this action, too

Vall says hi again!

WARNING WARNING WARP DRIVE ERROR! COLLISION IMMINENT... also boot up that low-altitude science.

this emergency correction kicked me out into a big wacky orbit... but

Landing on Laythe?... good thing I packed a parachute just in case! LUCKY!

A beacon for all Kerbalkind... hopefully one day, Kerbals will set foot on this alien world, and claim it as their stepping stone to the stars.

so, I have a question: I had NO idea what I was doing this whole time. All of those encounters just sort of cascaded off each other.

Did I just get incredibly lucky? or is the system set up this way? I think I used MAYBE 1000Dv that whole tour... well maybe more like 1500 with that vall incident.

either way... I am definitely going back! That was a TON of fun! I can't wait to get some manned missions out there

With the amount of fuel I had left on landing... I bet this little thing could get to eeloo... I might have to try.

Edited November 26, 2013 by User Unrelated

[KvickFlygarn87]

How much science did you end up with?

Also, the Joolian moons are quite massive (Laythe and Tylo at the very least) so they have big SoI's.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

so, I have a question: I had NO idea what I was doing this whole time. All of those encounters just sort of cascaded off each other.

Did I just get incredibly lucky? or is the system set up this way? I think I used MAYBE 1000Dv that whole tour... well maybe more like 1500 with that vall incident.

The Jool system is famous for giving you encounters you wanted... and encounters you didn't want. It's a matter of luck really. Sometimes you warp until your next Ap and next thing you know you're out of the system altogether because some moon got you and that sent you to another moon that got you and...

I don't think there's any design decision involved, just a group of moons close to each other.

PS: Next time land on them. It doesn't sake a whole lot of dV and the sience is in the thousands.

[Vanamonde]

Did I just get incredibly lucky?

The Jool system is unrealistically crowded, with SOIs that are a significant fraction of the distances between the moons. It's not at all unusual to find yourself bouncing around like a pachinko ball there.

[Specialist290]

Nicely done!

As others have pointed out, Jool is quite crowded indeed, so it's very possible to get multiple flyby encounters without adjusting your trajectory at all once you're in Jool orbit. That being said, it's definitely quite an impressive achievement that you were able to get around the Jool subsystem like that.

[User Unrelated]

I was torn towards the end... I had missed bop (for obvious reasons)... and I had enough fuel to end my journey there

but I also really wanted to land on Laythe... as sort of a reason for me to take manned missions there. I had packed a parachute just in case, so I decided that it was going to be more interesting

I've almost got the antimatter physics unlocked in the interstellar mod, so I hope to start harvesting antimatter out in the Jool system soon. (The magnetosphere data for Pol was VERY interesting...)

After reading up on GP2 the other day, all those micro-moons sound really interesting, and I'd totally love that.

Edited November 27, 2013 by User Unrelated