Post your most difficult contracts

[NSEP]

3 minutes ago, bigcalm said:

 

Oh god... thats, oh. Cool challenge though.

[invision]

in case you didnt know testing SRB or engines does not require fuel, so you can test then de-couple them right off the craft.

[Eric S]

3 hours ago, invision said:

in case you didnt know testing SRB or engines does not require fuel, so you can test then de-couple them right off the craft.

 

Yes, and if you activate them through the right click menu, you can later stage them to run the test, so the engine itself can be used to get the engine into the situation it needs to be tested in.  Or at least you could last time I needed to do that.

 

[septemberWaves]

Using various Kopernicus planet packs, I've had several contracts in the past to mine ore from gas giants.

Aside from that, I think the toughest tend to be things like hauling the HUGE SpaceY Extended SRBs far beyond Kerbin orbit. Those things weigh hundreds of tonnes when full, so it's no easy task to shift them around.

[Urses]

My craziest i get through my mode combinations.... now before i accept rescue contracts for outer planets i strictly build stations with lander/grapler there with really strong engines and big bulky tanks for masses on dv. Why?

Mission parameters: Rescue a Kerbal and his craft on orbit of Iota.

As i get the Contract and showed there,... the situation was Kerbal landed in EVA and the Kerbals Ship Debris 400km away landed too. I had 1 hour to catch the Kerb through LS.... that was a hot ride... and for the craft i had to bring a realy big ship with a buggy with grabbler... a MK3 passenger cabin

8 hours ago, NSEP said:

Oh god... thats, oh. Cool challenge though.

Will 700 years be enough to fullfill it? Hmm....

[Archgeek]

17 hours ago, bigcalm said:

 

The Grandest Tour.

Single vessel doesn't imply no docking to different transfer stages or no refueling at depots, does it?

[MR L A]

The mission was supposed to be rescuing a Kerbal on an elliptical orbit around Kerbin... by the time I launched they'd been kicked out of the Kerbin SOI by the Mun. I'd only unlocked 1.25m parts at this time so a solar rescue wasn't going to be easy. 

[septemberWaves]

17 minutes ago, Archgeek said:

Single vessel doesn't imply no docking to different transfer stages or no refueling at depots, does it?

I think as long as one part remains the same it counts as a single vessel. I've seen someone do a grand tour contract where the only thing which went everywhere was a Mk1 command pod with a docking port and a parachute.

[bigcalm]

3 hours ago, eloquentJane said:

I think as long as one part remains the same it counts as a single vessel. I've seen someone do a grand tour contract where the only thing which went everywhere was a Mk1 command pod with a docking port and a parachute.

Yes, in fact, I was considering accepting the contract and making it manned.  I could certainly do it - I have refuelling capabilities at Moho, Gilly (and by extension, Eve orbit), Ike (and by extension, Duna), Dres, Jool (particularly Vall) and within 100 days, Eeloo.  As I use MKS, I'd have to top up the fertiliser and enriched uranium occasionally, but again I have facilities to do this at Ike, Dres and Vall.  My hesitation comes from two things - it'll take 20+ years to complete the mission and I'm only currently on year 12 - almost certainly I will have abandoned this playthrough by then.  The second thing is that I'm about to land Kerbals on Eeloo for the first time, and this is the last body that I haven't landed on - I get the feeling that should I do this, I'll get a contract to land on every body.  Now that might rank as impossible, but I do have some ideas regarding how it might be done (without a terrifyingly huge ship anyway).

 

Edited October 27, 2017 by bigcalm

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

One mission that gave me a lot of trouble was early in my career when I accepted a "Test Poodle engine on an escape trajectory out of Kerbin" contract. I hadn't unlocked 2.5m fuel tanks yet and the only 2.5m engine I had was the Poodle given to me by the contract. I also didn't realize that I could re-stage an already-used engine in order to test it, or that the engine didn't have to have a useful amount of fuel to complete the contract. The line of "Poodlemobiles" I cobbled together to try to get an unused Poodle engine onto an escape trajectory were some of the most Kerbal-y things I ever attempted.

Eventually I gave up and just waited until I had enough of the tech tree unlocked to complete the mission easily.

[Delay]

I need to perform a Mun, Minmus and Duna flyby in one mission. That's gonna be difficult...

On 26.10.2017 at 11:34 PM, bigcalm said:

 

Nevermind.

Okay, really now, the Mun and Minmus have to be in a good position (to go from one to the other), with Duna also being in a good position for encounter. What exactly are the odds of this happening?

[bigcalm]

15 minutes ago, Delay said:

Okay, really now, the Mun and Minmus have to be in a good position (to go from one to the other), with Duna also being in a good position for encounter. What exactly are the odds of this happening?

You don't have to do the bodies in the order that it suggests, though the "Finally..." part is important and does need to be done last.

[Delay]

Just now, bigcalm said:

You don't have to do the bodies in the order that it suggests

I know, but to me, it make most sense to start in Kerbin SOI and work my way outwards, instead of doing them when coming back at a high velocity.

Oh, and this one has no "Finally", fortunately.

[dvp]

On 10/28/2017 at 2:30 PM, Delay said:

I know, but to me, it make most sense to start in Kerbin SOI and work my way outwards, instead of doing them when coming back at a high velocity.

Oh, and this one has no "Finally", fortunately.

Well, you just have to do a flyby. So it's actually not all that bad - coming back from Eeloo or Jool, drop your Pe enough, and aim it just right so you pass the moon too.

[bigcalm]

I thought this would turn up after flag-planting on Eeloo.   Feel the terror.

 

 

[invision]

10 minutes ago, bigcalm said:

I thought this would turn up after flag-planting on Eeloo.   Feel the terror.

 

 

Eve and Tylo will be the hardest ones the rest is easy

[TimberWolffe]

I got one to build a surface outpost with room for 8 kerbals, a science lab, an antenna, a docking port, and power generation on the Mun's northern pole

that was a little frustrating

[MythicalHeFF]

I got one once where I had to haul a class E asteroid into orbit of Moho.

Nope.

NOPE.

Even if it’s worth 4 million funds..

[magnemoe]

12 hours ago, invision said:

Eve and Tylo will be the hardest ones the rest is easy

Tricks here is that you can use an single root part as in an small docking port. 
However you can just as well use an small probe as it would work as upper stage on the hard places and ssto with an extra fuel tank on smaller bodies. 
I probably send it to Eve first and start launching depots to all other bodies, Jool would need depots and an Laythe and Tylo craft. 
Think small

[Delay]

51 minutes ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

class E asteroid into orbit of Moho.

Class E in orbit of Minmus. And I accepted that one.

It was in the previous 1.2.2 save, though.

[Delay]

So, I need to get into a highly eccentric orbit around Kerbol, and it goes retrograde/clockwise. The idea I want to work with is to let Jool reverse my trajectory, then adjust until the requirements are met, which is difficult in itself.

And I "only" have 11 years left before it expires!

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

12 hours ago, Delay said:

So, I need to get into a highly eccentric orbit around Kerbol, and it goes retrograde/clockwise. The idea I want to work with is to let Jool reverse my trajectory, then adjust until the requirements are met, which is difficult in itself.

And I "only" have 11 years left before it expires!

You've got the right idea. Jool is definitely the way to go; especially in the timeframe you're lookin' at. It'll flip your orbit without even needing a boost from Tylo or Laythe. If you haven't tried it yet, I'll give you a quick word of advice; velocity.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Cpt Kerbalkrunch

[Delay]

Jool will arrive in the correct position between 7 and 8 years from now (depending on where I want it to be). Is that still enough time?

Also, I have problems getting the fly-by right. I've been testing the mission with probes for Sentinel contracts and most of the time Jool just throws me back to Kerbol instead of reversing my path.

[Aegolius13]

On 10/26/2017 at 10:49 PM, eloquentJane said:

Using various Kopernicus planet packs, I've had several contracts in the past to mine ore from gas giants.

I've just started using Galileo, and I've been offered a couple contracts to mine ore from Ciro.  Which is... the sun.  So I passed on those.  

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

7 hours ago, Delay said:

Jool will arrive in the correct position between 7 and 8 years from now (depending on where I want it to be). Is that still enough time?

Also, I have problems getting the fly-by right. I've been testing the mission with probes for Sentinel contracts and most of the time Jool just throws me back to Kerbol instead of reversing my path.

At 8 years, you'll be cutting it pretty close. Seven is certainly doable (remember, you'll be diving back from Jool, and even quicker than usual, so you'll be moving fast), but you'll probably need to make slight inclination changes to match the target orbit. Depending on how low in solar orbit you need to be, hopefully you'll have time to line it up right. The lower the orbit the better, obviously. It costs more to operate down there, but you're swinging around crazy-fast. That gives you more time to match orbits correctly.

As far as flipping your orbit, I will explain below. I'm gonna spoiler-tag it in case you, or anyone else reading this, wanna figure it out on your own.

Spoiler

First off, remember that flipping your orbit is just an inclination change. It's a radical, 180 degree inclination change, but still just an inclination change. You know from doing this around moons and planets that it's done with the normal/anti normal dial, and the prograde/retrograde to either speed up or slow down accordingly. Jool itself will handle the normal/anti normal (for the most part), and you will provide the speed (again, for the most part). Velocity is the name of the game. You need to be moving fast. A normal transfer to Jool costs about 2,000m/s. What you need to do, is wait until a couple of months after the Jool window has passed, and then burn for a Jool intercept using 3,000m/s. You wanna line this up using a pure prograde burn like normal. You may need to play around with exact timing of when to go, but just make sure you spin the prograde dial until you hit a Jool intercept at about 3,000m/s. Your orbit will kinda look like it's going straight up; and it pretty much is. As soon as you have an intercept, leave it at that. You'll fine-tune around Duna's orbit like always (or at least like I always do). Here is where the magic happens. Set up your maneuver node and focus on Jool. Now, instead of flattening out your orbit, use the radial in/out dial to move tour orbit until it's just above or just below Jool. And you want to be zoomed out a bit so you can see your resultant solar orbit (and right-clicking on either the an or dn of the orbit you need to match, for a reference). Now use the normal/anti normal dial to bring your path closer to the top or bottom of the planet and watch what happens to your orbit. Adjust a bit until you get the desired result. By this time, you should be in slack-jawed amazement at the power of Jool. It has completely flipped your orbit, and you're still a year or so away. You didn't even need a burn within its SOI. You'll still need to make adjustments later to arch the target orbit, but the heavy lifting is already done. All hail Jool.

Also note that there will be multiple ways to do this. This is just the one that I know for sure works.

 

Edited November 20, 2017 by Cpt Kerbalkrunch