Zephyrus Grand Tour & Jool-5 challenge (Jebediah's Level) - No refueling

[Himynameisjake]

Zephyrus - my "Grand Tour" mission, completed without refueling.

TL,DR:

I completed a Grand Tour while qualifying for the Jool-5 challenge (Jebediah's Level), returning 28,532.9 science points to Kerbin in the process. That being said, I really hope you do read, I tried to make it fun for you, the reader, and I hope you feel as though I take you along for the ride. The screenshot albums I upload (lots of pics below!) have a lot of added information in their descriptions, so I invite you to read them as well.

The backstory:

A while ago, I stumbled across Ziv's "The ultimate Jool-5 challenge" thread. At this point, I had been playing KSP for a little over two months, and I had never successfully returned a craft from beyond the Kerbin system. I had sapped Mun and Minimus dry of science, yet that is the furthest I had successfully traveled and returned a Kerbal to Kerbin. I had one catastrophic failure on Eve and one mission to the Duna system, which included a soft landing on Ike that continued to a soft landing at Duna that did not have the fuel to get home.

Amazed and inspired by the successes of those completing the challenge, I decided to give it a go, determined to turn my KSP career around.

As I was planning my trip, I was inspired by Ziv's mission. I decided that I may as well land on (and collect tasty science points from) all the celestial bodies in one big mission since I was already doing half the Kerbol system. And to make it even more impressive, I would do it without refueling. I had never heard of a "Grand Tour" before this, and I thought I was coming up with an idea that hadn't been done because it was so tedious, not because it was actually difficult. Little did I know just how hard it would be to complete.

Testing:

I would learn a lot in the testing phases of this mission, using Kerbin and Mun as surrogate testing grounds. I relied heavily on basically all the data and calculators at kerbalproof.com to design my ship and mission parameters. Eventually, I branched out and tested a couple of components of the ship in their real test environments, and made a couple early attempts at beginning the mission before abandoning it because of one failure or another. To an outside observer the schemes probably would have probably appeared hair-brained, and would have been complimented by a soundtrack of Yakety Sax. But I kept at it. I learned a lot as I made mistakes and learned to correct them, and eventually prevent them. I became much better at transfers, incline changes, and effective use of the information provided by MechJeb to more accurately and efficiently control my craft. I would need every bit of that knowledge to get home.

Here are some random screenshots I found from the learning process. I apologize, I didn't learn how to save uncompressed pictures in Steam until much later:

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If you made it this far dear reader, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the tour of the Kerbol system.

The Grand Tour:

Zephyrus, our vehicle to stars...or at least the Kerbol System:

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Landing Module launch:

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Fuel and Anemoi Drive launch:

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Docking:

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Mun Landing:

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Going to add a few more unedited albums tonight, will finish tomorrow.

Minimus

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Eve Transfer

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Moho

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Eve Landing

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Gilly Landing

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Eve System Rescue - this is why Hermes has a twin

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Duna transfer

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Duna Landing

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Ike Landing

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Dres Transfer and Landing

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Jool Transfer

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Jool Probes

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Laythe Transfer

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Tylo start to finish

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Laythe Landing

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Val

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Bop

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Pol

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Eeloo Transfer

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Eeloo Landing

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Return to Kerbin!

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I will be cleaning these albums up, but I just wanted to get them up so those interested could enjoy it! Thanks for reading!

Edited April 28, 2014 by Himynameisjake
Need to clean up albums still

[James_Eh]

I really liked the Eve lander - I remember the series of pix where it got downsized. Great job!

[Ziv]

EPIC.

No1.

[Himynameisjake]

Thanks guys, did a little more clean up of the albums. Will be continuing to do so in the future.

[timsfitz]

Just unbelievable. Fantastic mission.

[Stratzenblitz75]

Wow, this is just simply amazing. I have no words to describe the sheer epicness of this mission.

The fact that you landed on every celestial body in the Kerbol system and gathered science in the process is stunning... And all without refueling!

Once again, words allude me.

Sure as hell puts my little "grand tour" to shame.

I'm not even kidding, this is seriously one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in KSP.

[TJPrime]

Wow. This is what I'm trying to beat? Truly a great opponent! Very nicely done!

[Himynameisjake]

Wow. This is what I'm trying to beat? Truly a great opponent! Very nicely done!

Oh dear, what are you trying to beat?

[stanz250]

Wow, you sir are a Kerbal!

[TJPrime]

Oh dear, what are you trying to beat?

To be honest, I'm not sure. Right now, I'm making a ship in orbit to see how well it performs. After that, the real ship (with modifications, if necessary) will be constructed in a new save (I appear to get more lag after 10 years. I'm laggy anyway, so...) and that will be where the screenshots are.

[StevenLawyer]

Here's my single launch, no refuel, stock grand tour ship that includes a reusable lander for all planets except Eve (Eve is a separate one time use lander), including Tylo with reusable rover and reusable probes (you're not going to land on a planet without first sending an unmanned probe, are you?). I finished the mission with fuel to spare.

[Squidiness]

On 12/7/2014 at 7:43 PM, StevenLawyer said:Here's my single launch, no refuel, stock grand tour ship that includes a reusable lander for all planets except Eve (Eve is a separate one time use lander), including Tylo with reusable rover and reusable probes (you're not going to land on a planet without first sending an unmanned probe, are you?). I finished the mission with fuel to spare.

 

 

Wow. Just wow. That is amazing.