Space is too scary! (Dave's probe only career)

[Dave Kerbin]

The day has finally arrived, the first launch of the Kerbal Space Program. Lanlan Kerman enters the capsule and prepares for liftoff. After a launchpad check in the engine is started and the rockets lifts off the pad toward the sky.

I'm going up, things are going...ok I guess. I hear a lot of rumbling.

Why is the ground so far away? Am I going to fall? What if I'm stuck here???

I'm starting to come in. IT'S ALL BURNING!

Ok so maybe sending kerbals into space isn't a great idea but what alternative is there? The mission collected 65 science, that's just enough to unlock Basic Rocketry, Survivability and Flight Control.

That gives us the Stayputnik Mk. 1. We don't need kerbals brave enough for space, we can send machines instead!

Ok, so this is going to be a career file (I've documents my other careers here and here, warning they are pic heavy) using only probes, no more manned missions now that I've conveniently unlocked the absolute minimum tech needed for unmanned flight with no science left over. My goal is to get at least 5000 science (that's about half of the tech tree) but if things go fast I might try for the whole thing. Like in my last career I will avoid landing on the Mun multiple times to harvest science. I want to see how far I can get making only one landing on the Mun and Minmus. I'm also going to try to stay within the spirit of these being probes and not just spaceships with a probe core for a cockpit, so I won't be making anything heavy enough to warrant Skipper or Mainsail engines.

And if you are interested in the manned mission from above:

After reading a post I wanted to see what science could be done with just probes, to see how 'useless' they are. The Stayputnik is the first probe core you can get, and it's easy to see that going through Survivability is the cheapest way to get it (5 + 15 + 45). To get exactly 65 science I examined my previous mission logs and as it turns out there are several routes. My choice was exactly one EVA and one crew report from 5 biomes (surface, upper & lower atmosphere, low & high orbit) plus one surface sample and make it a suborbital but not orbital flight to get a total of 65.1 science. There where some alternate combinations by taking low orbit EVAs over more then one biome and skipping high orbit, or by also getting points for a full orbital flight but I decided those where too finicky. Done in the correct sequence I knew the high orbit strategy could be done correctly in one take without luck or guessing or even piloting skills (crew report on pad for surface, eva on ladder for lower atmosphere, then launch and do crew report for lower atmosphere and repeat for upper atmosphere. After engine cutoff and above 40km do safe EVA for upper atmosphere, then coast into low and high orbit doing report and eva for both. Finally land and do eva on ground and collect soil sample. My only variance was I saved some fuel so I could charge up and transmit the last crew report instead of storing it). I did want a more cowardly kerbal but Lanlan was the most cowardly one available for hire.

Career Summary

Missions: 16

Science: 7338.4

[table=width: 800]

[tr]

[td]Name[/td]

[td]Launchpad Mass[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[td]Mission[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]JebOne[/td]

[td]49.4t[/td]

[td]50[/td]

[td]Goo in Kerbin orbit[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]BillOne[/td]

[td]12.71t[/td]

[td]101.3[/td]

[td]Materials lab above Kerbin[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]BobOne[/td]

[td]23.35t[/td]

[td]259.6[/td]

[td]Mun flyby[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]BobTwo[/td]

[td]23.3t[/td]

[td]331.8[/td]

[td]Minmus flyby[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]GeofminOne[/td]

[td]29.67t[/td]

[td]282[/td]

[td]Mun landing[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]GeofminTwo[/td]

[td]29.67t[/td]

[td]352.5[/td]

[td]Minmus landing[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]TomvinOne [/td]

[td]13.45t[/td]

[td]1130[/td]

[td]Kerbin system orbital survey[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Dudvey X[/td]

[td]9.9905t[/td]

[td]60.6[/td]

[td]Atmospheric test run[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Lemgun X[/td]

[td]9.962t[/td]

[td]86.9[/td]

[td]Challenging Mun landing test run[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Lanfield X[/td]

[td]9.996t[/td]

[td]511.3[/td]

[td]Minmus and back test run[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]DudveyOne[/td]

[td]9.9905t[/td]

[td]594 [/td]

[td]Duna landing[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]LanfieldOne[/td]

[td]9.996t[/td]

[td]973.2[/td]

[td]Duna flyby and Ike landing before return to Kerbin[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]DudveyTwo[/td]

[td]9.9905t[/td]

[td]629 [/td]

[td]Eve landing[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]LanfieldTwo[/td]

[td]9.996t[/td]

[td]1084.2[/td]

[td]Eve flyby and Gilly landing before return to Kerbin[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]LemgunOne[/td]

[td]9.962t[/td]

[td]318[/td]

[td]Dres landing[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]LemgunTwo[/td]

[td]9.962t[/td]

[td]574[/td]

[td]Eeloo landing[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

Ask any questions you want, I'd be happy to answer or clarify anything.

Comment or click the star if you like this thread.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[Captain Sierra]

This will be a fun experiment to follow. I'd also be curious to see a few things. After you go through one time stock, how different would it be if you did a few config edits to make sensors have to transmit (no collecting their data) and have them transmit for 100% as well as adding DMagic Orbital Science (more orbital science to be done, these default to 100% transmission value).

I personally advocate that as a good start to making probes not useless. I'd be curious to see how that setup compares to stock. Perhaps I can run this experiment/challenge side by side with you but with my more heavily modded setup.

One thing I bet you'll feel the hurt of really early on is the lack of crew and EVA reports. Without some probe camera mod or something to give a probe equivalent thereof, the inability to use those will certainly slow you down, as well as the goo and science jr., the most profitable experiments, both transmitting for less than 50%.

Edited January 28, 2014 by Captain Sierra

[jfull]

Good luck!

[Dave Kerbin]

JebOne - 49.4t - 50 science

JebOne has a lot working against it. With the minimum tech tree unlocked the only way to get science is with the Goo container. I have no batteries or solar panels. The charge in my Stayputnik will last just under 6 minutes. I can't use the much lighter, much more efficient LV-909 engine because it can't generate power. And I need to carry about a ton of fuel in my last stage to run the 1.25 ton 'generator' I'm carrying. With all these challenges I think Jeb is the right name to give to this probe.

So JebOne weighs in at 49.4 tons on the launchpad - the 1.5 tons worth of girders being carried on the 2nd stage certainly didn't help after I'm already lifting what is essentially a 2 ton electrical generator strapped to a ship into orbit. With my limited tech and need for science I can't really avoid it without spamming low altitude stuff. It's packed with 6 goo containers and a pair of parachutes. I launch it into a high Kerbin orbit (87km x 267km) to get as much Goo science as possible. The circulation burn helped to recharge the internal battery but after the deorbit burn I still needed to charge again at 80 km to keep the core from fizzling out. I chose to use that burn to speed up my descent, since I was still losing charge fast and I depleted more then half my remaining fuel to get the internal battery back up to 100%. A little thrust before landing helps slow to below 6 m/s and gently touch down without breaking anything.

With my 50 science I'm unlocking Science Tech so that I have batteries and the Science Jr.

[Dave Kerbin]

BillOne - 12.71t - 101.3 science

I think a common misconception is that probes are one way (transmit only). Probes can be used to bring back data, it's just a matter of if the weight savings are useful. If you are carrying over a certain amount then it makes more sense to do a manned mission instead. This is very true with 0.23 since kerbals can remove data from experiments and store it inside the command pod. That had a big impact on how missions could be structured and what mass was required, since you could pack an unlimited amount of return science into a 0.6t Lander Can. But in some situations a return probe can make sense - it can do a similar mission for a fraction of the mass, so you don't need a big rocket to launch it or advanced engines like the Mainsails or LV-Ns. Especially for newer players getting things into orbit is usually half of the difficulty and making the payload lighter makes an impossible target become possible.

BillOne is a sample return mission, but it's not a good example of a smart one. It's not by chance that this mission is named after my least favorite kerbal. The goal is simple - grab the material lab science close to Kerbin as quickly as possible so we can move on to other things. The rocket is good and simple, just two stages. We'll go up, grab the science and come back down. With batteries we don't have to worry about power for this short mission (there is enough for about 2 hours of operation after the first stage rocket shuts down).

There was one other experiment being done on this mission. I wanted the parachutes to be mostly automated, so that they didn't open too soon (and snap). I came up with some easy numbers to program in: 300 and 0.3. 300 is the number of meters from the ground before the chutes fully deploy. Unfortunately the next option is 50m which may be a bit too close. 0.3 is the atmospheric density when the chutes first release. That density should release the parachutes at just under 6 km, but which time drag should have slowed us down to under 300 m/s and thus safe for deployment.

With the science gained I unlock Space Exploration and get the 2HOT Thermometer, the first instrument that can transmit multiple times. With 16 science left I am so close but not close enough to unlocking Stability (18). I want those radial decouplers soon.

[Dave Kerbin]

BobOne - 23.35t - 259.6 science

My next mission will be to fly around the Mun and Bob seems like an approriate name as he was my most reliable, no-risk kerbal of the original three. BobOne carries 15 batteries for about 14 hours of operation once we reach orbit. The launch system is still relatively small, certainly smaller and simplier then what it takes to send a kerbal to Mun orbit. The first stage works out well, dropping just as I hit the gravity turn. I'm beginning to get enough data that I could start designing my staging to time with that turn (I've already been doing staging in my other career timed with the orbital coasting phase).

BobOne blasts off to the Mun though it will be a basic pass by and not a complete orbit. I would have done a free return trajectory but I couldn't figure out if that was possible when combined with a low altitude pass (if I don't mind staying several hundred km above the Mun's surface it seemed relatively straight forward to setup a free return). Once in orbit around the Mun some readings can be taken (I also took 2 temperature readings on the way up from Kerbin) before exiting.

BobOne exits the Mun's SOI 12 hours after the mission started. That puts it close to the 15 hour battery life. But not to worry because I already tested the solution in the last mission. After another 2 and half hours to get closer to the AP the probe makes a burn to bring it back to Kerbin. It will still take another 13 hours to land but with power almost out the parachute system is armed. From this point on no more power is needed, the ship will right itself with drag when it enters the atmosphere and the parachute system is entirely mechanical and will release when the probe descends below 6000m (real world automatic parachute systems where initially mechanical and the military still uses them since they don't rely on batteries or computers).

I'll unlock solar panels and solar arrays with my science.

[Captain Sierra]

Well . . . you'r doing good. I like the clever parachute staging so you only have to set your Periaps to 0 and arm them before running out of power.

[Dave Kerbin]

BobTwo - 23.3t - 331.8 science

BobTwo is a close copy of BobOne, only this time the goal is to fly past Minmus. With solar power available some weight can be stripped off by removing most of the batteries. I could have used solar arrays and still been fine for weight but given how straight forward the flyby was (no landing or other situation where I might need power at a specific orientation and relatively short mission duration) I wanted to try an experiment. I equipped the ship with just 3 flat solar panels. Now normally it is important that probes have good solar coverage - if a probe enters a solar blind spot and time warps you'll have a dead probe that often can't be revived. Solar arrays are a good solution because they track the sun, so the only blind spots are if the ship itself blocks the array or array is extended straight toward the sun. 3 arrays typically provide complete coverage.

My experiment was to place the 3 flat panels at the 3 compass points (with the ship's only battery at the 4th for balance), one on the back of the fuel tank and one on the side of each Science Jr. To provide coverage I tilted each panel 10 degrees in a different direction. So the panel on the back is tilted down, one of the side panels is tilted up and the other is tilted forward. In theory this should provide complete coverage so that the probe is kept charged no matter which way it is facing. Testing in Kerbin's orbit while I waited for the Minmus burn it was a success. The worst case scenario still generated 0.14em/s (8.4em/min) so the arrangement should work for probes right out to Eeloo. It only saves 0.0375t but on very small probes that can lose hundreds of delta-v.

I spent the science on Electronics, giving me another light instrument, and on General Rocketry and Stability, giving me T45 engines and radial decouplers.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[Dave Kerbin]

GeofminOne - 29.67t - 282 science

GeofminTwo - 29.67t - 352.5 science

Both of these probes are identical in design and are named after a famed kerbal designer and pilot who brought my first career file to the Mun with math. Their targets are the Mun and Minmus respectively. They are not entirely symmetrical because of some interesting center of mass issues. I determined I only needed one parachute for the return (even with the soft touchdown required by the Science Jr the probe was still much light then a capsule so only one was required) and balanced it with a Goo container. However the center of mass for the parachute seems to be in an odd position, so I changed the layout of the solar arrays to mostly offset it and put the center of mass over the center of lift.

All 3 engines are used for the liftoff, though even with the T45s running at slightly reduced throttle they burn fuel much faster (400% faster). The center tank is half full when the radial boosters are released and the ship begins to coast toward AP. The orbital insertion phase does have some issues relating to insufficient torque which made getting a nice circular orbit harder. GeofminTwo had to ride out a little trip back through the upper atmosphere (62km altitude) in order to come around and correct its orbit. Without a crew capsule you make a pretty light lander even without a lot of the tech tree. What you see on the right is in stable low Kerbal orbit and will make the entire injection burn to the Mun on its own (and it's twin to Minmus).

GeofminTwo runs into a slight tipping problem on Minmus but is able to take off safely.

GeofminOne returns to Kerbin normally, reaching the surface less then 16 hours after it left (MET 15:47:51). This is much faster then BobOne's time and probably has to do with GeofminOne's course - BobOne set a course ensured it's Mun flyby would keep it low in Kerbin's gravity well, while GeofminOne's course was an almost perfect gravity assist to fling it out into deep space. This allowed it to reach the capture point from orbit in 6 hours and touchdown on the Mun just short of 7 and half hours after lift off. On return it was able to plot the best escape course from the Mun.

GeofminTwo tries an experiment for its return. With more fuel left over then GeofminOne it sets up a straight down landing to stress test the automatic parachute design (this could be important to know later). The parachute release goes well despite the ship still traveling at 660 m/s when it reached 6 km. The touchdown isn't faster then GeofminOne but GeofminTwo seems to be jinxed for landings, 2 of the retracted solar arrays recieve bumps and are damaged.

The science from the two missions is used to unlock Advanced Science Tech which almost completes my set of instruments and unlock the rest of the 45 tier with Advanced Rocketry and General Construction.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[Dave Kerbin]

Ok I've got a question for anyone following this experiment. I have one more probe to do which will explore the Kerbin system and poke out into deep space, and after that I'll be traveling to other planets.

My question is do you want to see a probe roughly the same size and weight as the Geofmin probes I just flew (it would look very similar with an identical launcher, just a revamped set of science instruments and no landing legs) that would return to Kerbin and land, or do you want to finally see me transmit some data with a one way probe that will be about 40% of the weight, but since it transmits it will return about 40% of the science. My one other concern about the heavier probe is I think it will look ugly and be a bit of a pain to manage the instruments. The heavier probe would be safer on fuel though.

[Captain Sierra]

I think the most common use of probes outside the Kerbin system is just that, disposability. I'd be curious to see how effective deep space really is when you don't do a return, but that might be another experiment entirely. Half of me wants to see both, but in keeping with the way most people use probes, I'd say go transmission.

[Dave Kerbin]

TomvinOne - 13.45t - 1130 science

Tomvin Kerman was my first career Kerbal to reach deep space, so this probe gets his name. This will also be a one way probe so it can be even lighter despite me not having any truly probe appropriate engines yet. The staging here is really simple - in fact the whole ship is only 18 parts. The first stage lifts it to 35 km, so the orbital stage only needs to burn for another 10 seconds before reaching the coasting point. After burning to circulize it should have another 300 m/s that will be used to raise the probe into a higher Kerbin orbit.

The probe begins with a survey around Kerbin's equator. It will be repeated at a higher orbit for comparison. It carries a lot of battery power (810em) so that it can transmit up to 3 times in quick succession. The solar array is slightly larger then normal to support faster recharging (about 7.5 em/s in practical use). Each scan can be repeated a second time to collect about 5% more science if the probe is still over the same position. One area I was looking for was the badlands, I've never been able to pick it up. Despite a low and a high orbital pass I couldn't find it this time either. Since I was going around the equator I didn't take readings for the Tundra or Ice Cap biomes but I got all the common Kerbin ones: Grassland, Shores, Water, Highlands, Mountains, Desert.

From high orbit the insertion stage has 1.45L of fuel left. That will give us just under 3 seconds of free thrust before it is dropped and the probe's main engine takes over for a push out to the Mun. As it coasts out from behind the dark side of Kerbin the final size of the probe can be seen.

As the probe approaches the Mun high orbit readings are taken. The capture is done at low orbit but without bringing the AP down, so that the probe can swing around again complete its orbit at high altitude. In addition to the Midlands and the Highlands the probe measures gravity over 7 large crater formations. When the probe returns to the low altitude PE it circulizes into a low orbit for another pass. Comparisons are made for all the readings made in the high altitude pass, however there where issues when making a comparison scan of the Mun's East Farside Crater on the dark side of the Mun when the batteries ran out mid transmission. The probe was dead and without power for 12 minutes until it emerges into the sun and rebooted.

From there the probe broke out of Mun orbit, timing the burn to provide a gravity boost outward (in contrast to BobOne which used gravity to help boost back toward Kerbin). From it was several days before an inclination change could be made to match Minmus, and then another orbit before a 70 m/s burn that would slowly spiral around the probe to Minmus in 2 weeks. This long path out to Minmus meant that capture would be easy because the probe was in an almost identical orbit - just 3 m/s needed to capture.

The trip in to capture is again used to gather information on Minmus. It is rotating faster in comparison to our approach so we can survey the whole moon before reaching the capture point where the orbit is lowered for a low pass around to compare. Mid, low and highlands are found along with slopes and 3 flats regions. The low pass reveals one region too small to be found on the high orbital pass, a lesser flats.

After a complete low altitude orbit the final stage in the mission is a gravity assist into deep space. The probe still has 11.8L of fuel left (600 m/s) after reaching deep space, that could have been spent also examining the poles around Minmus. Overall though there where 87 transmissions about 46 different sites, slightly greater then my own best case estimates.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[Dave Kerbin]

Tech tree wise I can unlock a bunch of useful parts for probes.

Precision Engineering for all the tiny sized parts, Unmanned Tech for the better probe cores, Fuel Systems for fuel ducts and the Rockomax 48-7S, Landing for the micro landing gear and Advanced Exploration for the barometer.

I wasn't sure about the last 344 and eventually went with Large Electrics for the Z-1k battery and XL solar panels. Alternatively I could have unlocked Ion Propulsion or went through two items to unlock Specialized Control and get the XL parachute.

[Captain Sierra]

Precision engineering also unlocks most of the probe parts from RLA Stockalike. If you find yourself needing more variety in engines, RLA included the LV-T5 engine, which has gimbal, 5 thrust, and an alternator (POWER!). That tiny engine even gives more dV than a 48-7S. Alas, no science parts to help you, but it does give good probe options (as well as more 0.625m fuel tank options) including a probe nuke.

Just thought I'd mention that. I see you have gotten the very lucrative gravity scanner.

[Dave Kerbin]

I have 3 designs on the drawing board that I'm fine tuning at the moment for different mission profiles. All of them are targeted to weigh 10 tons or less on the launchpad. I only have 3 other kerbals left from my 0.22 career to name probes after so they will all be used.

The probes are:

The Lemgun is a one way probe designed to land in a vacuum environment. The naming is appropriate because the probe has no landing gear (Lemgun's speciality was tricky landings). It has several design features intended to help it survive touchdown including a collapsing engine (it won't need to take off again), a second crumple zone to protect the electronics and roll guards. This ship has the highest delta-v (mostly gained by stripping non-essentials like landing gear) to help it reach the farthest planets.

The Lanfield is a shorter range probe but it makes up for that by being the only model of the 3 designed to land on another body and return to Kerbin. It's instruments are designed around storage with extended battery and communication gear removed to free up space and weight.

Finally the Dudvey is another one way probe, designed to explore bodies with an atmosphere. I still need to do some work on this one in the hopes that I can extend its range far enough to reach Laythe without breaking the weight limit. The Dudvey has it's own unique set of instruments and a much larger power system then the other two.

[Dave Kerbin]

Dudvey X - 9.9905t - 60.6 science

Lemgun X - 9.962t - 86.9 science

Lanfield X- 9.996t - 511.3 science

I finished the blueprints for my three probe types that I hope will be able to carry me through my interplanetary study. I did want to do a little testing before I sent them out on a half year journey, checking that the booster system worked as planned (all 3 use the same boosters) and for the the Dudvey atmospheric probe I wanted to test it's power system during the parachute descent (solar panels are retracted and I plan to transmit while descending so it needs enough battery power). That led to me also seeing the value in testing the one way Lemgun, to be sure it could land correctly it despite lacking legs. The canyons on the Mun (which I haven't visited yet) seemed like a good target to see if it could meet the challenge. With the other 2 recieving formal test runs I made it even by testing the Lanfield with a trip to Minmus and back just to see if there where any oversights in the design.

The Lanfield X was the only one launched during the day. It also has a small launch advantage in that it doesn't need to rest on the rocket nozzles, it has landing legs (thanks to tweakables it spawns with them extended for launch). The launch system is simple, 2 pairs of boosters strapped to the sides of the probe. You can see (or rather you can't) why the probe is under 10 tons by the way it hides behind a single T400 tank. The 2 bigger boosters are dropped just as the gravity turn starts. The other two stay on into orbit with 3-8L of fuel left, which is good for up to 50 m/s of free delta-v. I was actually hoping for a bit to help push me along without going over my arbitrary weight limit.

The Dudvey X carries a lot of power, mainly to help transmit data from that sensor nose cone. The nose cone also meant I needed to use a much heavier radial parachute system (seriously, the parachutes are more then half the dry mass). The one advantage is that those parachutes will help a lot for the thin atmosphere on Duna and for the somewhat thin atmosphere on Laythe (where if I can make it I won't have enough fuel to do any powered braking). During descent the upper atmosphere readings are transmitted to make room for lower atmosphere readings.

The Lemgun X has lots of delta-v though that comes at the expense of removing all but the most essential hardware, making it a flying gas can. It uses the 3 panel system I experimented with before. The ladders might be a bit of a cheat. I wanted something to prevent a light rollover, it didn't have to stop much just a little pole or something sticking out so that the bottom of the lander wasn't so round. The ladder segments did that and helped give the Lemgun it's own unique look.

The Lanfield X has more equipment using up the surface of the probe. It is designed to collect data not just for a single target but to also grab a few gravity readings from a parent body for return to Kerbin. Its first real mission will likely be a trip to Ike traveling with a Dudvey probe. The Dudvey will make a one way trip down to Duna's surface while the Lanfield will swing out and land on Ike and then return to Kerbin with the data. On Minmus Lanfield X gets a lot of data by taking a polar orbit that had been skipped over by TomvinOne.

[Rhyunix]

I like this idea, nice layout too- Activating lurk mode

[Duxwing]

Have you considered to each planet sending a swarm of probes?

-Duxwing

[Dave Kerbin]

Have you considered to each planet sending a swarm of probes?

-Duxwing

The Mun and Minmus would get benefits from a swarm but I promised not to do that. Eventually the other planets will get biomes (Eve and I think Laythe have a seperate ocean biome but that's it) at which point I think probe swarms will make sense - landing and returning 10 times from Moho would be very difficult and expensive, but sending probes would be much cheaper. I even expect to see a combo - people carrying a set of probes with their manned mission (a descent only probe would be very light) to be released and land in other biomes while the primary manned expedition takes the most promising landing zone and returns. Sort of like how the later Apollo missions carried little miniature satellites that where released into Moon orbit from the command module by the CM pilot while the other 2 crew members where on the Moon.

I'm not sure how closely timed I will do some of the probes. For Eve and Duna I'll be sending a pair each and I think I can handle sending them both at once. For Jool I think I'm going to need some navigation data to make the most out of my delta-v for some of the trickier landings. So I'll probably send one to do an easier landing and get experience, then send the harder ones.

[Geschosskopf]

I'm really enjoying this. Keep it up.

[Dave Kerbin]

DudveyOne - 9.9905t - 594 science

LanfieldOne- 9.996t - 973.2 science

The first wave to go out isn't exactly a swarm, but I have got a few up. I've launched 3 of each probe type into parking orbit. Unlike manned capsules probes don't get bored waiting in one place so I can just leave a bunch there and grab one when I want to start a mission. The other advantage is it let me tag them by how much fuel is left in the booster stage. It's not really a lot (best was 7L) but the extra fuel does give 25-100 m/s extra delta-v and so I can launch several of them and then save the best one (most fuel) for the hardest missions. So I've got the Dudvey with the most booster fuel (6L) marked for my attempt to reach Laythe.

The first 2 out are a mission to Duna and it's moon Ike. DudveyOne will fly in first and land on Duna, while LanfieldOne will follow on taking more detailed gravity readings of Duna before landing on Ike and returning to Kerbin.

DudveyOne's descent into the atmosphere includes transmission using it's large battery system. It provides enough power to transmit from the sensor nose cone while the solar panels are folded up. Redundent thermometer and barometer instruments store data about the upper and lower atmosphere and will wait until landing to transmit.

Once on the ground DudveyOne spreads the solar panels out to recharge and begin uploading data about Duna to mission control. In addition to sending the saved atmospheric data it can send information about the surface. It takes about 45 minutes (time warping is used to speed up the charging) to complete surface operations.

The second probe, LanfieldOne, uses the aerobraking to establish a long elliptical orbit stretching out to Ike's orbital path. At the AP I can expand that orbit (175 m/s) so that it begins to closely follow Ike, eventually catching up for a long encounter.

Having a very similar orbit to Ike means most of the capture is already done when we enter the SOI.

On Ike data is collected and stored for return to Kerbin.

The return to Kerbin uses the automatic parachute deployment, landing with about 300 m/s of delta-v left in the tank. Hopefully experience from this mission will help with a similar but more challenging flight to Gilly.

[Dave Kerbin]

DudveyTwo - 9.9905t - 629 science

LanfieldTwo- 9.996t - 1084.2 science

The next target is Eve and Gilly using the same strategy as Duna and Ike. I chose to travel here second because of the additional hazards - Eve has oceans which the sensor nose cone doesn't like, and the Seismic Accelerometer only works on a solid surface) and Gilly is a much smaller and more difficult target then Ike.

So anyway it's off to Eve. After aerobraking it seems that most of the land mass on Eve is receding into the night side. My best choice for landing in daylight seems to be a large island before it's basically all ocean up to the terminator. I'm not sure how much drag will affect the landing so I'm just aiming for the far end of the island with the deorbit burn - I don't think drag will be so bad that I'll undershoot the entire island and the only obstacle I can see is a small bay at the bottom of a series of lakes in the middle.

I end up landing a bit short of the bay, in an elevate plain between some mountains about 4km above sea level. The conditions on the surface are not very nice.

The usual readings are taken while the probe still functions.

LanfieldTwo follows a similar course and aerobrakes into a higher orbit. Initially LanfieldTwo's inclination and overall orbit is way off Gilly's, though hitting the same plane as Gilly is a challenge. A burn is used to line up the plane of the orbit, which has a side effect of stretching it out.

Another burn is used to lower that orbit back down to meet Gilly and after an orbit to let Gilly advance a final burn is used to setup an encounter.

After that it's a 3 day trip around Eve and meeting Gilly as we reach it's orbit, approaching from the dark side. To land on Gilly I'm reducing the engine to 10% thrust. Even at 10% it still requires only a touch on the throttle to deorbit and land.

There is one thing about Gilly that is more unique then the gravity or shape. Every body has an area defined as low orbit, for example if you are below 60 km you are in low Mun orbit. On Gilly it is possible to touch down from high orbit without ever reaching low orbit. This is because low orbit starts at 6 km, but some of the terrain reaches 7 km. I was a little concerned as I observed ground scatter (rocks) while still in high orbit, if my landing site was too high I'd need to find another place to take low orbit readings. Fortunately the ground was at 4.5 km so I had enough time to take readings. Landing did pose some other unique challenges - setting down at 4 m/s the springs in the landing legs sent the light probe back into a several minute long suborbital flight. The second time I got my velocity to 0.2 m/s before touch down which resulted in only a tiny bounce before it settled.

Return to orbit is easy on the thrusters but long on time. It takes so little velocity to get on a suborbital trajectory that it takes 11 minutes of 1x coasting to reach the AP point for a burn. After that it is back to Kerbin. I check my fuel state and decide I can make an immediate return instead of waiting for a better window. I reach Kerbin with 100 m/s left and use the automatic parachutes to land.

[Dave Kerbin]

LemgumOne - 9.962t - 318 science

LemgumTwo - 9.962t - 574 science

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. My one way lander model Lemgun was sent on two missions to pickup Dres and Eeloo. I've been to both planets before so there where no real surprises. Getting LemgumOne to Dres seemed easiest using a mid course correction, once you are out from Kerbin's orbit it's a lot easier to adjust the burn to normal and the time to get an encounter then it is to get an encounter from a single ballistic burn in Kerbin orbit.

Landing on Dres isn't more challenging then the Mun (I would say it is easier as Dres has fewer sharp cliffs and steep inclines). After capturing I adjust my orbit so that my landing zone will be farther toward the day side rather then landing right on the terminator as the sun is setting. I've got plenty of fuel so I can do a slow landing and touch down at under 2 m/s. With the low gravity my reaction wheel is enough to keep the probe standing up even on a hill side.

After doing some science I did go looking for a flatter place to park the probe so that it wouldn't tip over when night came. Using fuel seemed wasteful so I just rolled over to the bottom of the hill.

LemgumTwo had further to go but followed a similar strategy. Getting an intercept with Eeloo needed a bit more patience but was doable. On the way out from Kerbin Minmus wanted to say hi as LemgumTwo spent 9 minutes passing over.

In Eeloo orbit power becomes an issue. Carrying minimal solar panels LemgumTwo can only charge a bit more then 550 em of excess power each orbit. About 150 em is needed to stay awake when it passes into Eeloo's shadow so there is only enough charge to transmit one block of data per orbit. I forgot to take a high orbit reading before getting near the capture point so I ended up with an orbit that would let me take higher readings on the dark side. That meant storing the data until the day side was reached since the batteries aren't big enough to transmit and survive the night on a single charge.

On the surface, where the panels don't have optimal alignment, charging was even slower. After transmitting a few readings the batteries had to be fully charged in preparation for night since there where a few more readings to take and it didn't seem like there would be enough time before the sun set. LemgumTwo survived its night on Eeloo and completed the surface readings the next morning.

I'm a bit short on time at the moment so I don't know when I'll get around to completing any other probe flights. If there is one in particular that would be interesting or you have questions about post a reply and I'll try that first. My current plans are to try the following:

Moho, the only planet not yet visited, will get a flyby which might also try to use a gravity assist to get low sun readings too. Without a specialized probe there isn't enough delta-v in any of my 3 stock probes. Around Jool I'd probably try a landing on Bop first to improve from Jool capture. From there there are 3 more ambitious attempts to be made: A one way landing on Vall using a Lemgum, a landing on Laythe with a Dudvey and an attempt to land and return from Pol with a Lanfield. Tylo would get a flyby like Moho (if I could work it I would consider a Tylo flyby with the Pol mission as that would return the most science).

[Claw]

Awesome thread. This has inspired me to do the same. I did a free return with 2xSciJr and 2xGoo around the Mun before doing the Sci Jr around Kerbin and that was a bit of a challenge to balance out the power.

Nice job! And thanks for the idea.

[ironcobra81]

Bro! This was one of the most entertaining reads I've come across. Well done. Your post is nicely illustrated and well documented. You keep your mission logs lite and fun to read. I look foreword to more!