One way trip - heavy mobile base on Eve

[LordFjord]

Jeb always wanted to build something with those huge rover wheels. Something useful, something BIG. And then launch it to Mun.

As always, the vehicles were assembled and tested on Kerbin. Soon it was clear that it will have mobile Kethane refinery on board, some bumpers to keep it from rolling over - this was a must-have for Jeb.

Long story short, here is the result, the Fatboy Mk III.

Jeb is own his way to a Kethane field right now. The plan is to refuel and return to Kerbin.

Bill and Bob were following the operation from mission control, thinking: what Jeb can do, we can do better! Bigger, moar boosters! And snacks! And a small buggy! A small VTOL for cruising around! And and and...

Fatboy Mk IV was the result. A massive mobile base twice the size of the previous model.

The approach was similar: first assemble it on Kerbin, do some tests and then "somehow" get it to orbit. Then build an interstellar stage, dock it, maybe refuel it and goto Eve.

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Here is an extended mission report:

The tests on Kerbin were successful, the Fatboy Mk IV turned out to be a very stable vehicle, despite its size. It didn't even flip over on full stop breaks from max speed, like Mk III sometimes did.

The first EVA was a big failure - no live Kerbals were harmed in the tests - merely a dummy, looking like Bill - was accidentally dropped from ~10m height to the grund - honestly...

A movable strut part with ladders and an attached mobility enhancer solved this.

The VTOL tests were not the highlight of the mission and were delayed. Too many crashes and a pilot who needs to learn how to fly these things. It was decided that the Kethane flyer will be built and delivered to Bill and Bob in a seperate mission.

A small kethane buggy was assembled instead, it fitted very well to the mobile launch pad. A crane was added to the base in order to release and recover it.

So far so good, but how on earth will this thing make it to orbit?

It has a good range on its own, thanks to plenty of fuel and skippers attached all around it.

The same rocket that launched Fatboy Mk III was used as well for Mk IV - as a 1st test launch at least. The test proved to be a full success, even though the rocket couldn't get it to orbit, but with the help of its own engines it managed to reach a stable 150km orbit.

Now to the interstellar stage: Bill and Bob always wanted to make something with the huge 200ton sphere tanks from the torodial tanks pack - so they added some nukes, some control elements and launched it right away. Again, the rocket was nowhere powerful enough to get it into orbit, but with the help of its own engines it was doable, with plenty of fuel left to refill the Fatboy Mk IV.

A second sphere tank was launched to refill the interplanetary stage.

Note to self: transferring over 150 tons of fuel at once move the center of mass SIGNIFICANTLY - causing uncontrollable wobble, so I had to emergency-release the refill tank. Luckily, the rover and interplanetary stage were not harmed.

No pic from this as I panicked

I "attempted" to create a waypoint to make a rendezvous with Eve, but due to my inexperiance with interplanetary travel - only been to Duna and back once so far - I could not plot an encounter. Instead, I did what I can do pretty well, thanks to my experiance with building my space station - docking. So I plotted a course to intercept Eve's orbit instead of the planet. After an endless burn to get out of Kerbin's SOI, another endless burn to match the orbits and some years of waiting for Eve to catch up, I finally managed to get an encounter. Probably among the most ineffective ways to get there, but I dont like to do things the easy way - the solution is mostly: MORE BOOSTERS!

Getting into Eve's orbit was easy from there, did a few scans for Kethane and plotted a landing in order to land in one. So much for theory, Eve's athmosphere is so dense that I missed the field by far. BUT the base landed safely, nothing broke (except some wheels that were fixed quickly).

Releasing the small buggy worked like a charm, right now Bill and Bob are having fun cruising around on Eve. I will try to move it to the kethane field, where I intend to set up a small base next to a beach.

Some more infos/lessons learned:

- never again. Ingame burns of 15 mins took real life 45 mins. 500 parts of rover is too much for my comp.

- so far I always attempted to build bigger and bigger - I guess everyone reaches this stage in KSP, from there its a turning point to try to build more effectively. I think I am right there.

- big rover wheels are insanely durable. They may bend, sometimes maybe break, but they keep the rover safe.

- The rover, fully loaded has ~215 tons. Together with the interplanetary stage it had 495 tons. I used 12 nukes to move it, probably not enough.

- Upon entry on Eve, I ditched the interplanetarystage with ~50 tons of fuel left.

- I really need to look up launch windows for interplanetary travel... and learn how to plot encounters properly.

- KSP is awesome

LordFjord <- very proud that the mission was a success and it all worked as I intended - at least mostly

Edited January 29, 2014 by LordFjord

[Bobnova]

Put just the JeDZ5 inside [noparse]

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tags, like so:

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[/noparse]

That rover is (&*%$& awesome.

[LordFjord]

Fixed the imgur tags now, thanks a lot for the help!

[LordFjord]

I recovered the small rover again, attached it on the pad again and started moving.

After a few km of driving on the surface, it turns out that Eve is very unforgiving for this scale of vehicle, or at least my design, so I am starting to doubt its unquestioned success

The wheels can hold the weight, but they tend to break. A lot. Every few km and every other turn, wheels start to break -> I didn't have a comfortable external seat at ground level, so I need to climb in and out each time, which is annoying.

Burning some fuel to decrease the weight also did not help much. Making use of the engines for longer hops also did not help, as it is very ineffective due to the thick atmosphere.

The terrain was relatively easy so far, I expect far more trouble with the craters/mountains ahead.

[Lucky90]

As I said last time, it took a monstrous rocket to launch that haha. But yeah it's pretty cool. It was interesting to look at and read.