Kron series (Kron 6 end of mission) - temporary halt of program

[lajoswinkler]

Glad only because I wanted a flat surface for nice screenshots.

[lajoswinkler]

It's time to wrap this up. Time for Kerbals to go to bed for almost nine years.

 

The ship did a retro burn and has put itself on a direct collision course with Kerbin.

 

You know your job. Guess the reentry speed. Of course, I will try, if circumstances require, to slow down because I've got almost 4.5 km/s of delta v left, but I'll smack the ship into Kerbin first, probably at 40 km periapsis.

Whoever gets the closest to the experimental value, gets the opportunity to name the lander for the other mission, which will probably be Plock-Karen one.

[Bev7787]

7000m/s

[TaintedLion]

About 8000 m/s.

[Sanic]

OVER 9000 m/s

[DMSP]

I guess 4,500 M/S with braking.

Without braking 6,200 M/S.

[Geschosskopf]

And so another epic mission winds down.  Well done!

BTW, what sort of engine are you using here?

[tygoo7]

5,500 m/s

[Elowiny]

Sarnus was 5000 m/s. Urlum was 5300 m/s. So I would say... 5650 m/s (with no braking).

Edited December 31, 2015 by Elowiny

[Cydonian Monk]

0c +/- 0.1c. Or something in that neighborhood.

Nine years in the freezer, sheesh. 

[Randazzo]

5800 m/s

[lajoswinkler]

I could fire towards Kerbin, but that would only complicate things. It's relatively easy to escape the stellar gravity well fast enough, but returning to one specific point in it, fast, is a problem that makes KSP scratch its head. It shows as fluttering rendezvous points on the orbital line.

 

Also, I need to point out that I'm not ok with heat shields detonating before their ablator is gone which happens when they touch the atmospheric edge at high speed; their temperature jumps up. It's an unrealistic, silly bug. From now on I'll edit their configuration files, setting their maximum temperature to 10000 K which is higher than reasonably achieveable.

Edited January 1, 2016 by lajoswinkler

[lajoswinkler]

Voting is closed. Here are the values you entered, ordered from the lowest to the highest value.

Bev7787 - 7000 m/s
DMSP - 6200 m/s
Randazzo - 5800 m/s
Elowiny - 5650 m/s
tygoo7 - 5500 m/s

Cydonian Monk, TaintedLion and Sanic have been disqualified because I can't take into account approximate speeds as they can overlap.

 

I've ended the mission and will upload screenshots shortly. Stay tuned for more.

Edited January 1, 2016 by lajoswinkler

[lajoswinkler]

As each Kerbal woke up, TAC's bug forced me to shove food and water into the ship via Hyper Edit. More than nine years accounted for an enormous amount of nutrients being memorized by the mod even with taking care of when to exit the game and load it again.

After that, this is the sight they saw through the window.

 

This is the trajectory the ship had before slight tweaking.

I made some small changes because this periapsis was not enough and didn't even put the ship into orbit. Kerbals would've just slip out of the Kerbin system.

So I've set the periapsis at 25 km and changed the inclination so that the capsule passes over KSC. These opportunities are rare, so I wanted to grab one by the gonads.

 

Here's the ship impacting the atmosphere at 5277 m/s. As you can see, the critical part temperature wasn't 10,000 K as I've mentioned. I forgot to change it for Taurus HCV heatshield, but that didn't pose any problems. The shield stood throughout the reentry and lost around 60% of its ablating material. I doubt the crew would survive if there was a faulty stock shield on the bottom of the capsule. Shields should not heat up immediately. It takes time.

 

Some parts, including the main axis LF tank, detonated almost immediately.

 

This is the top speed. 5295 m/s as registered by the F3 window. That means tygoo7 wins. Congratulations.

 

It took a considerable time for the capsule to lose all its kinetic energy. The crew experienced a peak of 12.2 G which lasted for about ten seconds.

 

It's not like a 44 m/s burst from the built in monopropellant retrorockets made much difference, but anything was useful at this moment.

 

Kron 5 went over the KSC and deployed its drogue chute inland, near the mountains.

 

The crew is finally home after more than 12 years.

 

Now, some of you might wonder why was the speed not considerably higher than encountered during reentry of Kron 4. It's because it relies heavily on the trajectory. A number of factors need to be taken into account, some of which are inclination, height of periapsis, position of periapsis. It's not just about the starting point. I honestly thought the speed will climb close to 6000 m/s, but I was wrong.

[Mister Dilsby]

Any interplanetary return that you can walk to KSC from... is OUTSTANDING! Well done!

[Aethon]

Nice work Lajos.  Now what?

[lajoswinkler]

Thank you, thank you. *royal wave*

Now what? That's a good question. I'm not gonna do another mission for a while. Future targets are Plock-Karen, Ablate, Eve. Same ship could visit Plock-Karen, but not before probes do it.

Ablate should be possible with the newest Heat Control mod, and Eve is easier nowdays, but the lander needs to be hauled there.

[Geschosskopf]

Outstanding as usual, Lajos!  Amazing the thing survived the reentry.

I used to be a big fan of the Taurus (mostly for the Quad-Poodle OMS engine) but I can't find a version updated to 1.0.5.

[Sanic]

Ablate? From Krag's Planet Factory?

[insert_name]

maybe the kerdaini system

[Elowiny]

I wonder how long the mission felt for the kerbals, since they were frozen during the long trips...

I suggest the Saru Planet Pack for a future mission, because it has some cool moons and it's not too far away. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/119263-wip105-saru-planet-pack-v01/

Or maybe the Urania system...if you can land on every single moon.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Elowiny

[tygoo7]

Nice end to an epic voyage. Since I got 5,500m/s and the reentry was 5277 m/s, does that mean I get to name the next lander?

16 minutes ago, Elowiny said:

I wonder how long the mission felt for the kerbals, since they were frozen during the long trips...

I suggest the Saru Planet Pack for a future mission, because it has some cool moons and it's not too far away. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/119263-wip105-saru-planet-pack-v01/

 

I beg to differ, I don't believe the pack is stable enough for a mission, since it's still very wip.

[Elowiny]

1 hour ago, tygoo7 said:

Nice end to an epic voyage. Since I got 5,500m/s and the reentry was 5277 m/s, does that mean I get to name the next lander?

I beg to differ, I don't believe the pack is stable enough for a mission, since it's still very wip.

Aw. It looked great for a mission...

[lajoswinkler]

15 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Outstanding as usual, Lajos!  Amazing the thing survived the reentry.

I used to be a big fan of the Taurus (mostly for the Quad-Poodle OMS engine) but I can't find a version updated to 1.0.5.

Indeed, amazing. I realized I haven't tweaked the shield while looking at the screenshots. It was a weird feeling because it must've been close to those 3000 K at one point.

Taurus HCV apparently works for v.1.0.5, but it still tilts during aerodynamic load as if its mass isn't symmetrically distributed.

11 hours ago, Sanic said:

Ablate? From Krag's Planet Factory?

Yes, that's the one. It's a target one can't tackle anymore without serious preparation because nowdays we have heat. Ablate is inside the zone where Kerbals and typical parts of the ship like tanks can survive. @danilon62 tried to make a manned rover for Ablate, but the thing was still overheating.

Heat Control has finally updated, so v.1.0.5 offers an opportunity for this to finally happen, but Sentar Expansion isn't updated. I will inspect the mod first. Ablate needs to be concoured.

 

6 hours ago, insert_name said:

maybe the kerdaini system

Which one is that?

 

5 hours ago, Elowiny said:

I wonder how long the mission felt for the kerbals, since they were frozen during the long trips...

I suggest the Saru Planet Pack for a future mission, because it has some cool moons and it's not too far away. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/119263-wip105-saru-planet-pack-v01/

Or maybe the Urania system...if you can land on every single moon.

Before (if ever) I head out to exotic systems, the stock system, OPM and Ablate need to be visited. It might seem like the Kron ships explored a lot of places, but that's just because the missions themselves are detailed, kind of massive and I'm stretching them like gum.

[lajoswinkler]

After the celebration has subsided, Wernher von Kerman ordered preparations for the scientific investigation of Plock-Karen system. A brand new large telescope will be launched into Kerbin's geostationary orbit to measure Karen's orbital period and to roughly determine the surface composition of both bodies.