Kadvent Kalender - 24 missions leading up to christmas

[Treldon]

Due to crazy work schedule (3 night shifts in a row) I cannot post - or even build - for the current days, will have to catch up on Wednesday or Friday.

Until then have fun!

[capi3101]

Got mostly caught up with the challenges over the weekend; will post the imgur album when I get the chance. Still need to finish December 10 and 14. Meantime, here's my December 15th craft:

I suppose the rule does say a new craft...so I could just tack an antenna or two to this one. I might've mentioned the lander and KDS design was originally intended for Duna at some point or another. Whatever; I'm going to need to spend my ~1-1.5 hours tonight catching up and if I can get away with recycling a design - even if it's the same one I've already used once for this challenge - I need to do that.

[Pecan]

Back to the album - ARM (Dec 13/14) at pictures 19 and 20, Duna (Dec 15/16) prep at 21/22:

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ETA: You were right about 0.90 - it's out now :-)

Edited December 15, 2014 by Pecan

[capi3101]

Alright, y'all: here's my activities from over the weekend:

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That should catch me up on everything but the December 10, 14 and 16 missions. The Constipation XVI (capsule) crew is still in orbit of Mun and I've got Constipation XXI (lander) headed to Minmus; my intent is to transfer the XVI crew directly to Minmus from Mun, rendezvous with the lander and go from there. I want to use the same crew to go to Duna, so I need to get crackin' on that.

[MAV3RICK]

Day 15: Back to the Drawing Board (again)

Fairly simple design, trying to keep to the Orion/Apollo crossover I had with my Mun lander.

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Oh look, the new update! Ladies and Gentlemen, the Hype Train has arrived. All change please, all change.

[astrobond]

Hi All just before update ^^

December 15th, the Duna Ike Light mission is ready to launch

(Less than 10 Tons, full experiments for Duna and Ike onboard...)

Edited December 15, 2014 by astrobond

[SRV Ron]

Busy weekend with the Santa Village and model train club. So, way behind. Here are the ships for the asteroid intercept and a probe to Duna. As the encounter of the asteroid is project to take place around the Duna launch window, both missions may have to take place in close order. The asteroid intercept is my first effort which the maneuver modes is giving me fits with the targeting at present.

The Ships;

The Asteroid intercept ship on its way.

[bobcook]

Day 14 of this delightful challenge brought Jeb, Bill, and Bob into rendezvous with one of the strange "asteroid" objects spotted recently through the new high-power telescopes in the science division of KSC. The target object was considered "class C" with mass of 132 tons, so the crew was quite confident of success. The launch was pretty boring, with Jeb actually snoring through the whole thing. The orbital adjustments required for successful rendezvous took quite a few days to line up, but the crew managed to acquire their target and set up an intercept after eight days MET. Another two days of further adjustments brought the crew into visual range of their target.

The crew quickly realized this ship wasn't well designed for capturing an asteroid, as it lacked fine maneuvering jets that would have made the grabber maneuver a bit less of a bone jarring jolt. Also probably would have been more successful on the first attempt rather than requiring several attempts. But eventually they did attach to the asteroid using the grabber unit and began the slow process of bringing the asteroid into an elliptical orbit around Kerbin. The original plan was to put the asteroid in a circular orbit in LKO to facilitate easier access for the scientists to further investigate. Unfortunately the ship lacked the necessary delta-v to accomplish a circular orbit, so an elliptical orbit was considered good enough, with the periapsis of 100km. Again the poor design of this ship made the orbital adjustments much more tedious due to the lack of stability between the mass of the asteroid vs. the mass of the ship itself. The slow burn to correct the orbit required nearly two additional days, but eventually they were successful.

With these lessons learned the next time the KSC controllers plan an asteroid capture mission the crew will be better prepared.

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[bobcook]

For Day 15 the engineering team polished their designs for sending the crew to Duna. After all three primary crew members refused to board the ship unless they were assured of a safe return, the engineers added an additional stage to return the habitat (minus lander and transfer stage) back to Kerbin.

Tomorrow the crew will launch this craft into space.

[astrobond]

Hi All

December 16th, Full stock, KSP 0.90 !!!

The Duna Ike Light mission is now in LKO

After a looong ascent ending horizontally between 36km and 60km to 2350m/s speed using only turbojet engine, I had to finalize orbit after stage 1 separation by a 54m/s rocket last burn, so I keep max fuel for this economic mission... hoping this first 0.90 mission will be successful...

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[kookoo_gr]

December 16,

new version, new save since my ships got broken with the new update. Rebuilt my Duna lander and sent into orbit waiting for the Duna transfer window

[TJPrime]

Great entries! Already getting some 0.90.0 BETA entries, which I find amazing (although they would be amazing anyway)

[MAV3RICK]

Day 16: Once you're in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere...

Fairly simple day today, wobbly ships aside. Had to do some thinking (and use of http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ - the KSP Launch Window Planner tool) to work out when to send the ship up. Using TAC Life Support (I'm still on 0.25 at the moment for the mods) meant that time to Duna was more important than an efficient launch.

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[SRV Ron]

Minotaur 5i sends its probe to Duna in KSP 90 Beta.

First thing was a redesign of the ship, move the SAS to under the Stayputnik as it no longer has a built in one. Bummer, I don't need that much control once the SRB is staged. The ship on the left was the one sent to Duna.

After Kerbal escape to solar orbit.

Intercept to Duna was a pain in the butt. Never had such an issue locking in the intercept or fine tuning it before. Thankfully, there was enough delta V to get an aerobraking for landing.

As there is no landing gear, the probe was allowed to fall over. Enough fuel was on board to cushion the landing.

The Mun and Minmus missions were brought back to Kerbal safely. The Asteroid intercept had issues with maneuver mode with the target asteroid and probe getting redirected by a Kerbal slingshot during the Duna mission.

Edited December 17, 2014 by SRV Ron

[bobcook]

Day 16 arrived and our three heroes boarded the KSC engineer's latest design for a long journey to Duna. Their space craft has a large habitat for plenty of living space during the trip. The launch was uneventful although the SSTO design was probably a bit inefficient. It worked though, the transfer stage separated from the launch stage once a stable 150km orbit was achieved. The next phase of the mission involved a 7+ minute engine burn to change orbits for a Duna intercept. This allowed a close orbital match although the final intercept will require a mid-course correction 56 days into the mission. If that burn is successful the crew should find itself entering Duna SOI with a periapsis below 150km.

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[Pecan]

@ SRV Ron and bobcook - Gone to Duna while the rest of us wait in LKO, huh? Oooo, you're going to feel silly if the next challenge is 'mission re-tasked - test by performing a Mun fly-by' ^^ (just kidding).

[SRV Ron]

@ SRV Ron and bobcook - Gone to Duna while the rest of us wait in LKO, huh? Oooo, you're going to feel silly if the next challenge is 'mission re-tasked - test by performing a Mun fly-by' ^^ (just kidding).

Did you see how small and cheap that lander was? Will be sending a new one capable of returning from Duna as that is now a requirement. Note, there is a scientific instrument on the probe with a transmitter. Anyhow, proof of concept that the Minotaur 5 design is fully capable of landing a probe on Duna under less then ideal conditions.

[Treldon]

I have good news and bad news (mostly for myself, but I'll share them with you)

Good news:

• a C-class asteroid has been redirected into Kerbin orbit - and an apocalypse averted, as it would have impacted Kerbin!
  
• my Mun lander desing should be able to land on and return from Duna without any modifications
  

Bad news: a Kraken ate my Duna lander a few million kilometers from Duna SoI...

Pics and new launch to Duna coming tomorrow - or on Friday

[bobcook]

@ SRV Ron and bobcook - Gone to Duna while the rest of us wait in LKO, huh? Oooo, you're going to feel silly if the next challenge is 'mission re-tasked - test by performing a Mun fly-by' ^^ (just kidding).

Well, the challenge did say "set yourself up for Duna transfer" - guess I took it too literally!

[MAV3RICK]

Day 17: Duna landing!

Fairly simple this one, though with a transfer stage TWR of 0.1, it took a while to get moving...

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[astrobond]

Hi All

December 17th, Full stock, KSP 0.90.

Time to go Duna, with a little landing and sciences on Ike before ^^

(Using Duna aerobraking to direct Ike Orbite is really low fuel cost !)

Jeb had to quickly Stop the SC9001 to take data on Ike after after decoupling !!! he was starting to run out like a wheel.... xD

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[kookoo_gr]

December 17-18

Went to Duna and landed at Duna Lowlands. Upon touchdown i had high speed, the landing gear broke and the ship glitched into the ground, luckily Jeb could repair the gear and repack the parachutes, went back to orbit and at 20 days before the Duna - Kerbin transfer window i am ready for return.

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[Darmok]

Days 13 and 14 - This one kicked my butt. It took multiple attempts before I even got an encounter with an asteroid then when I finally did grab one I tried an aerocapture that was way too low and the asteroid crashed into Kerbin. The next time I decided to aerocapture at a much higher periapsis which was working until the advanced grabbing unit snapped off and then an unfortunate Mun encounter sent the asteroid crashing into Kerbin. Finally after much swearing I managed to save Kerbin; well if you can say that preventing one out of three asteroids from crashing into Kerbin is actually saving it. I'm kind of the anti-batman.

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[Darmok]

Days 15 and 16

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[bobcook]

Day 17 brought the brave crew into the Duna SOI where an additional maneuver brought the space craft into a secure orbit. After detaching the transfer stage the crew performed a full check out of the lander. After a little more than 1 year after leaving Kerbin the crew was prepared for the final stage. Bob brought the lander into position for final descent to the surface, fired the engines to decelerate enough to dip into the thin atmosphere, and began preparations for landing. The jolt from the opening parachutes reminded Bob that he was only minutes from touching down on the surface. A quick crew report confirmed what everyone had hoped to hear: the lander survived intact and Bob was ready for some science at the surface of Duna.

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The challenge for day 18 required Bob to depart the serene surface of Duna for orbital rendezvous with his crew mates in the habitat module. Launch was smooth and the two space craft lined up for a successful docking. After additional science activities in orbit the crew prepared for return to Kerbin. Step one involved ditching the lander in orbit, then a maneuver engine burn to leave Duna SOI for eventual maneuvers for returning to Kerbin. Several maneuvers along the journey brought the crew safely back to Kerbin SOI and after 2 years 254 days it was time for additional maneuvers to bring the space craft into orbit around Kerbin. Final preparations for landing went quickly and before much time had passed it was time to return to the surface.

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MET 2y 255d 3:54:49 and a fully successful mission, all accomplished on hard mode of course.