To Laythe and back again

[Deadpangod3]

I have never been there without hyper edit, and that was only twice or so, and I have never landed on the surface.

I'm going to change that.

My plan is to launch a transfer module and dock landers, sats, etc. to it, so far I've built the transfer vehicle, but it weighs a ton, and so far I've built a launch vehicle that would make whackjob proud:

And I was thinking of making some sort of special mission flag, I've seen how some people make patches for them, but I my drawing skills is aquivalent to a penguins ability to run, non-existent.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Deadpangod3
added pic

[Tank Buddy]

You are definitely taking the whackjob approach. You have a waaayy overkill rocket. It would be much easier, faster, and more efficient to design a lighter craft to go to Laythe.

[Deadpangod3]

The upper part is the transfer vehicle itself, the rest is launch vehicle.

Overkill?

What is this overkill you speak of?

[Captain Sierra]

Have you not heard of the wondrous idea of docking the transfer stage to the payload in orbit?

[celem]

Read the post again, thats just his transfer.... landers still to come. XD

I like it though, over-engineered it may be, but if that doesnt reach laythe then its pilot error and not dV lack.

[Deadpangod3]

I tried launching it once now, and mid gravity turn I shut the engines off for a moment to cool down, and the transfer stage fell off, losing all but four of its engines

*is surprised whackjob hasn't posted yet*

edit:

it seems to randomly explode about 20 or so km up, each time...

MOAR STRUTS!!!

edit2:

urrrgghhhh, Its about 9:10 pm here, might have to put launching off till tomorrow

Edited January 3, 2014 by Deadpangod3

[Deadpangod3]

ive strutted the living hell outta it and its still turning into a frag bomb 15 km up

Edit:

When I get home from school today I'm going to try and find the place where it starts failing.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Deadpangod3

[Deadpangod3]

I almost got it to orbit, but then I decoupled the last launch vehicle stage to use the transfer vehicles fuel to reach orbit, and guess what.

The engine fairings tear all the engines off!!

I gave up and hyper edited it to orbit, but that's the only hyper editing I'll do, I've got two rovers docked so far

[Deadpangod3]

I've almost got it fully built now, I had to replace the probe landers because I forgot the heat shields for them, I just gotta dock two more landers and a habitation module and I'll head to Laythe.

[Deadpangod3]

I've gotta replace the landers now, the unmanned ones because they don't have Telemachus, and the manned ones cause they don't have enough dv

Hopefully I can get it done today after school

[lajoswinkler]

You can make it to Laythe using much less of... well everything, but if you want a beefy approach, I'm interested in seeing it.

[Deadpangod3]

I got one probe replaced when I realized there was way too much debris for me to get out of lko without hitting something, so I spent the rest of the day developing a debris cleaner, but my designs probably gone too far.

It uses danny2462s mass relay idea to deorbited debris. It has a mainsail for an engine on the back, and before I went to bed yesterday, I had it coming towards rendezvous with the transfer stage, which is surrounded by debris, and the deorbited reached orbit with most of the second stage left, which only means more de orbiting

Testing will begin when I get done from school today.

[Deadpangod3]

I'm going to take the opportunity now to say that tomorow I have to go to the doctor and they have to poke me with a needle and come every half hour to take blood out, so I have to sit in a room for about six hours

But unless my mother lies to me again I should be able to bring along my computer and work on my mission, and I get the entire day off from school.

[Deadpangod3]

according to mechjeb, the lander has like 1560 atmo dv and around 3000 vaccum dv.

will it reach orbit from laythe?

[Deathsoul097]

With about 200ms to spare. IIRC it takes somewhere along the lines of 2500 to 2800 to return to laythe orbit, and if you can rely on parachutes for the landing, it should only take about 50 to 100 for an efficient deorbit.

[Deadpangod3]

It appears I've run into another problem,

The hole ship has gotten too high in the part count, and the landers are probably around another fifty parts or more each,

The ship is around 446 parts right now, and lags like hell, and each time it loads it freezes for about ten seconds.

And with the landers docking ports I'm pretty sure they will fly off when I go full thrust.

So how am i going to bring them with?

[Deadpangod3]

I think I may have come up with a solution,

But first, I have a question,

Yesterday I made a copy of my ksp install intending to pump it full of mods, but I accidentally put all the mods in the original, but i see there are some nice engines and fuel tanks that I bet can be useful, but I also installed far,

My question is, should I proceed with the heavily modded one, or use the copy?

Now for my idea, maybe I could redesign them and send them on a seperate ship, but I probably won't be able to keep track of two ships at once.

Should i try it?

[Deadpangod3]

Im going with the second ship idea,

and heres some pics:

me freaking out because a rover i had sent on a kerbin escape was now somehow coming back, while i was building the ship. it burned up on reentry

a probe right before crashing, it was one of the probes that had to be replaced

launching the habbitation module

the first version of the lander during testing

the second transfer vehicle

the ship disliked launch clamps

almost to orbit

the new version of the lander during launch, FAR keeps nomming it and making it flip

a launch failure with the original transfer vehicle

thats it for now

[Deathsoul097]

Lol, that last pic is just like "Yay! Fireworks!" to me.

[Deadpangod3]

I've gotten both landers docked now, I'm going to dock a main command pod on the second ship and then refuel,

So hopefully I can head for Jool today

[Deadpangod3]

Ah, I was so close

I probably would've got it done if I hadn't had so many distractions around,

On the plus side, I only forgot to dock the command pod to the second ship, so now I have only one more thing to do

[Deadpangod3]

I've finally got it all built...

But is 4779 enough dv to reach Jool?

Edit: I have enough dv, but I don't know what angle Jool and kerbin need to be at, and I remember seeing a transfer calculator somewhere, can someone giv me a link or something?

Edit 2: I found it

I'm leaving now, hopefully everything goes ok

Gunna be a bit of timewarping though

Edited January 21, 2014 by Deadpangod3

[Deadpangod3]

... Actually... I think I need to add one more thing to this, give me a sec

Can a ship from .18 work in .23?

Edited January 22, 2014 by Deadpangod3

[Deadpangod3]

if you were around when i was new to the forums, you might remember this ship, besides the heatshield and boosters.

this ship was ment for Laythe back in .18, when i was a newb, but i only got into laythe orbit with infinifuel, and never landed it.

now, im going to take it where it belongs...

the nostalgia is overwhelming...

Edited January 22, 2014 by Deadpangod3

[Deadpangod3]

I only managed to get the main ship sent yesterday, and I started the burn like a minute late of what the node said, and I couldn't get a Jool encounter like in the node