Moho on "hard mode"

[technion]

Hey guys,

After completing all my existing goals in a mostly vanilla setting, I set out to play with some mods. No, not a bunch of overpowered rockets, but:

Deadly re-entry

TAC Life support

FAR

Restarting career mode with these made for a very interesting playthrough. TAC in particular has an element of limiting the ridiculous early tier constructions. In this mission, we carried a full science kit.

Having only been to Moho once before, I wanted to hit this up. So far in this career, I've cleared Ike and Gilly, then Eeloo, and now it's Moho. Moho in particular you would be aware is a huge pain as far as dv requirements go, so this is my first play through with Precisenode and Kerbal alarm clock to really get those transfers down pat.

When I went to Moho before, I did three docks in orbit to put together something large enough. Here we can see a "single launch" version.

Take off with FAR is very interesting. It also meant I lugged nosecones the whole way to Moho.

Launch continued.

Expanding solar panels as soon as I can. If this thing runs out of power - TAC kills everyone on board.

The first "in orbit" shot, with all TAC and KER components.

[technion]

Alexmoon gave us a good plan.

Using Precisenode to execute it.

Burning away.

Large tank dropped. We manually transferred fuel around to ensure we could do this ASAP. That's still one huge insertion burn. I'll admit by the end of it I was doubting the ability to return.

EVA to the lander.

Coming in for landing. There's a huge TWR on this baby despite a using small engines. I like it that way - makes for an interesting suicide burn.

Down.

[technion]

For some reason I never got the obligatory EVA photo, but I did walk around and gather science from the equipment, before decoupling the science parts and taking off.

The lander had an asparagus stage so I could lose a majority of the weight and assist with docking, only it turned out I couldn't actually use that until right near the mothership. See the problem? RTGs on the outside stage. I tried to stage this thing and do a lap looking for a good intercept, and ended up with dead kerbals and a quickload.

Once again, Precisenode gives a perfect demonstration of what Alexmoon claims.

[technion]

This is where the weight associated with TAC really comes into play. This rocket would be dead light if not for a few tonne of food, water, oxygen, purifiers and filters.

I was very nervous about this.

[technion]

A 45km approach. Any closer.. DRE starts to explode things. Fortunately, somehow, this rocket still had the roughly 900ms dv it had to burn off.

This continued for a while, with about five laps being done to slowly aerobrake the AP down without having to burn.

[technion]

HOW TO SUCK AT THIS GAME@!!@

Where is my decoupler? Oh that's right, I didn't pack one. There are no heat shields on this either. DRE difficulty is overrated (Until you try landing on Eve!).

With a combination of a low circular orbit, a shallow ascent, and 30pts of liquidfuel to burn off some speed, there wasn't even any red atmospheric effects to see.

FERRAM! Stop turning me!

Yep, the chutes broke off all the weight and the command module sailed down easily.

Science!

[technion]

And with that, I unlocked "large probes" as though that one probe is more useful somehow than the smaller ones.

[mellojoe]

*applauds*

Brilliant! I was going to do Moho myself recently, but I chickened out and did Eeloo instead. That capture burn around Moho scares the bejeebus out of me. Seeing yours, with Life Support and FAR, makes me a little less nervous about my ability to do it without those dificulty modifiers. It is one of the last places in the 'verse that I haven't visited. Your ship looks great. Real nice job all around.

[CalculusWarrior]

Moho is not to be taken lightly. You can't just pop a nuclear engine equipped rocket into orbit and decide on a whim to go there; it requires quite a lot of planning. (Like real-world space missions!) I've only been there once before, but it was a fantastic achievement for me, and I really enjoyed the experience. For some reason, the more difficult a space mission is, the more fun it is to just romp around on the surface with your kerbals after landing (maybe it's just me).

[Landge]

That's impressive! I'm finding out just how hard it is to get to Moho myself.

My Bob, Jeb, and Bill are stranded on the surface of Moho right now with 3 other Kerbals in Science Lab/Transfer stage, in orbit overhead, without a drop of fuel to get back.

If I had used TAC, well... they'd be dead by now. Just using KAS for now. No MechJeb or other mods for me.

So I did what any other Kerbal would do. I mounted a rescue mission. I sent 6 more Kerbals with double the amount of fuel AND 2 backup refueling ships in case I have to rescue the rescue ship!

Even with all the extra fuel I only arrived with enough to get both landers back into orbit to rendezvous with the Science Lab which is now half full of fuel. I will probably have to abandon the original ship in order to bring everyone home since there's not enough fuel for both ships to return.

I have a Kethane Rig waiting in LKO with the equivalent of 10 orange tanks of fuel (533+ tonnes), but I'm holding off using that to see if I can bring them back home without it.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Landge

[Whirligig Girl]

Harder-er mode: Use 0.17 with scary hell Moho.