EVA Report from Jools Inner Athmosphere

[Elthy]

Im currently designing a mission architecture to colltect every single bit of science in the Kerbol system, including Jools atmosphere. Since i want to do that without loosing a single Kerbal just dropping him with an antenna attached isnt an option i need some sort of Spaceplane which should be able to return to orbit... Im considering a Kethane Plane, what would you do?

[Ralathon]

If you're not opposed to using mods, I suggest KSP interstellar. Using a space plane powered by a fusion reactor you should be able to dip into the lower atmosphere and crawl back out. Kethane planes have trouble with this since the kethane jet has a very lousy top speed, so it wouldn't be very well suited for spaceplane operations.

Alternatively, you can go with hooligan labs and use a balloon. Just lower the buoyancy to sink deep into the atmosphere and then float back up once you're done.

If you want to do it stock you're going to have a very hard time. You need in the order of 10km/s of dV to climb back from Jools surface to orbit.

[Elthy]

Interstellar is to overpowered in my opinion, especialy with the energy transfer over long distances. And i think a ballon wouldnt work since you cant keep any of the orbital velocity and you need an even larger rocket to get back to speed. I have no idea how the kethane engines perform at high speeds, perhaps its enough in combination with FAR that i dont loose to much velocity. Sadly im not able to test stuff since im not at home right now

[Tw1]

You could take some inspiration from magnemoe :

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50242-Jool-accent-the-imposible-chalenge

[Elthy]

You could take some inspiration from magnemoe :

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50242-Jool-accent-the-imposible-chalenge

That is just insane

I dont want to go far below the 118km needed for inner atmosphere science, so it will be a lot easier. Perhaps a large B9 rocketplane with a droptank will be enough...

[1of6Billion]

Will EVA-ing during an aerobreak not work?

[ComradeGoat]

Will EVA-ing during an aerobreak not work?

Get torn off the ladder, I expect.

[Elthy]

I read in the wiki that you have to be on a suborbital trajectory or it will count as a "in space near". To avoid gettig torn of the ladder i plan to store the brave kerbal in a cargobay or similar...

[Richy teh space man]

You could use baloons to float at a cetain altitude, and if you also use the KAS anchors you can *land* your ship and can then walk around if you have walkways.

At least it worked for me in a previous version..

[crazyewok]

Alternatively, you can go with hooligan labs and use a balloon. Just lower the buoyancy to sink deep into the atmosphere and then float back up once you're done.

Thats what I was thinking. It would likley be the way NASA or other real space agencys would design such a probe. Work with the dense atmosphere rather than fight it.

[Elthy]

The problem is that i want to return a kerbal, and with a balloon you would loose all your horizontal velocity and then its very hard to get back to orbit.

But in one hour im back home and can start testing...

[InfinityArch]

I'm hoping to do this at one point with deadly reentry installed.

[ComradeGoat]

I read in the wiki that you have to be on a suborbital trajectory or it will count as a "in space near". To avoid gettig torn of the ladder i plan to store the brave kerbal in a cargobay or similar...

Hmm, I suspect your solution could involve being at about 120km, a periapsis just disappearing, haste, and a ZOMG AEROSPIKE!

Possibly more than one.

[Ralathon]

Thats what I was thinking. It would likley be the way NASA or other real space agencys would design such a probe. Work with the dense atmosphere rather than fight it.

NASA wouldn't try to bring anything back. Just dump a spectrograph in there and frantically send data before it melts. That's exactly what they did with the Galileo probe

Not to mention that a balloon on Jupiter is quite hard. On earth we'd use hydrogen or helium since they're lighter than air. But on Jupiter the air is made of H and He, so that won't work. So you need to use a hot air balloon. Since we can't fill the envelope with rocket exhaust (water vapor is too heavy) you'd need a RTG or something to heat the gasses. It gets rather complicated and heavy rather fast...

[Highlad]

Shameless self advertising:

[Skorpychan]

You can get EVA reports from a command seat. Have a spaceplane cockpit to get a crew report, and stick a command seat on top with attached kerbal.

Otherwise, you'll need careful design, aerospikes, and a crapton of fuel.

[ComradeGoat]

Otherwise, you'll need careful design, aerospikes, and a crapton of fuel.

Not sure you will. Get a low Jool orbit, just outside the atmosphere. Thrust retrograde until your periapsis is negative, thorn prograde, wait to enter the atmosphere.

Enter the atmosphere, take the sample, full throttle and get the hell out of there.

Should be able to do the whole manoeuvre for a few hundred delta V. Climbing back up the gravity well from low Jool orbit is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Elthy]

My second attempt was good enough, even with lots of spare fuel: (Its an aerospike at the end)

My first attempt used a NERVA instead of the aerospike (8000m/s DV) but the T/W was to low to overcome the drag at 118km. With the aerospike it was quite simple, i burned retrograde until i reentered without leaving the atmosphere. When i was at 118km i did the reseach and started burning 45° upwards to gain altitude fast, because the drag is quite high...

Edited January 28, 2014 by Elthy

[Mr.Rocket]

Around the command pod, make a box out of the metal squares with a chair inside. The when he gets out, he will fly back, but will stay in the box, do the science, and then you can get him in the command chair for the rest of the atmosphere dive.

[RoboRay]

(Squad? Why is the Delete Post button still gone?)