Kervallum, a deep space journey

[Carcharodon]

Hi all,

First, I hope you will excuse my poor english, please... thank you

Coming from Orbiter space simulation (playing it for a decade now), I enjoy very much KSP (thank you very much, SQUAD !), so, I made a video of a mission, from kerbin to Vall and back to Kerbin (landed at the launch pad), with the 0.24.2 version of KSP (I already switched to 0.25 but the video was made 2 weeks ago).

=> Kervallum mission <=

Addon used :

- MechJeb2-2.3.1.0

- EngineerRedux-0.6.2.9

- KW_Rocketry-2.6c

- NovaPunch-2.06

- Astronomer's Visual Pack - Edge of Oblivion

- EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements-7-3

Many thanks to these great addon makers

This video of 1h40mn is divided in 4 (chained, you won't have to select them one by one) parts.

Here is the main steps :

I) Kerbin take off

- calculation of the launch window to Jool

- take off at the right time

- Parking orbit at 250 km

II) HTO to Jool

- Ejection burn (just some hours after the launch)

- MCC targeting 50000km altitude periapsis of Jool

III) Entering Jool's SOI

- reducing Rinc with Vall to 0°

- circularizing orbit around Jool at 50000km

- HTO to Vall with 60 km periapsis

- Circularizing orbit around Vall

IV) Vall operations

- separation orbiter / lander

- landing on Vall's surface

- lander take off to rdv with orbiter and dock

- crew transfer to orbiter

V) Back to Kerbin

- exiting Vall SOI to fall into Jool SOI at 50000 km again

- Waiting for the right window to Kerbin

- HTO to Kerbin

- MCC to Kerbin for 35 km altitude periapsis

VI) entering Kerbin SOI

- fine tuning of the altitude for aerocapture / aerobrake maneuver for ~200 km Kerbin apoapsis

- executing aerobrake

- circularizing altitude at 100 km

- landing at KSC pad

I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions about it, I will do my best to answer (in my poor english...)

I think more video will come at a time...

A little glossary to help to understand my comments in the video:

SOI : sphere of (gravitationnal) influence

Rinc : relative inclinaison

HTO : Hohmann transfer orbit

MCC : Middle course correction

Good flights to all !

[Carcharodon]

Hi,

you can now download the ship here, if you want to try the same mission =>

http://okofree.free.fr/ksp/kervallum/KerVallum_0.90.craft.zip

you'll have all the different phases of the mission described in the video to learn many different aspects of this flight.

How to : find a launch window, HTO, MCC, rdv, and even aerocapture (to lower your ApA without using your engines) at the end of the mission.

addon needed (for 0.90 version):

- Mechjeb

- Novapunch

- KW rocketry

(all these versions are 0.90 compatible)

For one of the most accurate, realistic and big mission you'll ever made on KSP.

Are you able to do this flight and come back to base ?

good flights !

Edited February 26, 2015 by Carcharodon

[sal_vager]

Very interesting Carcharodon, good work

[Carcharodon]

Thank you sir.

Thank you, Squad for this great KSP.

And thank you to the modders, especially the creator of Mechjeb, r4m0n.

Realistic flight (for those who like them, of course) can't be done without this kind of realistic and very accurate tool.

I hope some peoples could learn something with this flight, that's the goal, as I made it as a "tutorial" for many sort of situations.

That's why this vid is so long, this is just a non-stop record of the flight.

But, of course, you could eventually switch directly to the part of the video you want.

I suppose one of the most interesting is the aerocapture part, back to Kerbin, at the end of the flight.

Mechjeb manage to make very accurate a maneuver soooo sensitive !

Why using engines when atmosphere could do the job, if you have the right tool ?