Ulysses - Duna Exploration Command Craft

[MilkToast]

I've been in KSP for about a year or so - launched a whole lot of things - massive stations, rovers to eeloo, and so on.

What I've never done is any form of orbital construction.

So I decided that rather than fly a series of small ships, I'd build a big one.

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Meet Ulysses, my (excessively, in my opinion) large exploration command craft.

Ulysses masses just a nudge over three hundred tons, and has a part count of 452 (before final strutting, this'll likely change).

I assembled it in eight launches over five days:

-Command Module - The command module houses a science lab, a three-kerbal can, and four large solar panels on struts for power generation.

-Cargo Module - The cargo module is the smallest and lightest segment - merely a short truss with multiple docking ports radiating out from a central axis. All the sub-craft are mounted here.

-Ike Lander - This is a small lander, designed to shuttle from low Duna orbit to Ike and back, potentially several times. This one is an SSTO (which isn't really hard to do on an airless moon).

-Duna Lander - A larger, more powerful lander designed to descend to Duna, and return. This lander has many drop tanks, so this is a one-time trip for it.

-Duna Rover - A medium-size rover that will deorbit and land under its own power. More for fun than anything

-Science Return Craft (2x) - Two of these small pods are mounted to one rack on Ulysses - these are simple, fast craft designed to return all the science gathered.

-Propulsion Module - The simplest of the modules - this is a large tank with eight nuclear engines mounted on spars. Fully fueled, it'll provide approximately 1.5m/s2 of acceleration.

-Drop Tanks - Behind the propulsion module, I docked another tank with four double tanks on decouplers. I'll drop these two at a time as I progress on my tour.

Getting all this docked in orbit was the biggest challenge I've ever had. While I have MechJeb installed to help with orbits, I did all the docking by hand. Only one mishap - the drop tanks (roughly 160 tons) was parked close by a single Poodle engine - I was coming in at about 250 m/s on a transfer orbit, and shed about half that speed before plowing directly into the main structure of the ship. Sadly, I reverted the launch before taking a picture - but there were two ships in orbit for a moment.

Mission Plan:

I'm going to Duna! We'll park in a low Duna orbit after aerobraking (suggestions on how low to take such a large ship?). We'll deploy the lander and rover, visit some anomalies (I've got a probe en route already to find some), and return the science.

Afterwards, I figure I'll shed the cargo module and dock the command to the propulsion module, and fly it to Laythe. Not quite sure what'll happen there, but I'll probably launch a separate mission in parallel.

Things I need to figure out:

-My Hohmann transfer to Duna opens in 209 days. For slight role-playing reasons, I'd rather not timewarp like that. I'd like to depart sooner, using a non-optimal orbit. Any tools around to do this? Any ideas on best ways to accomplish this?

-Strutting. Gotta launch a small ship up to "service" Ulysses before it departs - it needs some serious strutting done through the KAS mod. Why didn't I think of this before? Particularly those engines - they wave all over the place at full throttle.

Travel Log

Departed Kerbin orbit in a non-Hohmann transfer - did this in two stages - a six-hundred m/s ejection burn (including Munar gravity assist) that put me just outside Kerbin SOI, and a longer transfer burn to Duna. With top acceleration a hair over 1.7 m/s2, this is going to be a loooong ejection burn.

We went with the non-Hohmann transfer to allow for a quicker travel time - I've got a satellite enroute I'd like to catch up to.

About the time I completed the munar assist, I discovered a stowaway! Jonming Kerman had rode up with the Duna Lander Module, but never got off. In the huge personnel shuffle that occured post-launch, I must have forgotten to let him off. So, now I've got SIX kerbals, instead of five. I think we're gonna roll with this. Unfortunately, we no longer have enough supplies to keep my guys alive on their long mission - supplies will have to be fast-tracked to Duna at considerable expense to meet the guys there.

Updates to follow!

Edited January 27, 2014 by MilkToast
The stowaway

[Genolution]

Ah yes, I remember my first mothership Congrats. Now go everywhere!

[Bedwind]

I thought I was doing pretty good with my little rinky-dink multipart ship. I need to catch up!