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

[DMSP]

10 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

#1000th post in this topic.

Actually, that was the 999th reply.

But this isn't about Getting the 1000th post.

@lajoswinkler, thank you for creating something, that through your 6 missions, you have kept us happy and entertained, thank you for sending these missions out to places my computer could never run.

So enjoy Plock.

I hope to hear about it soon.

[KAL 9000]

I know! I just thought getting the 1000th post was a cool opportunity... I really do love this Mission Report!

[lajoswinkler]

Kron 6 Plockian capture complete.
Initial orbit: 120x700 km @ 94.5° inclination.

Valentina Kerman will proceed to correct it to make it suitable for scanning and landing.

Probe owners should start planning the landing sites. Kaos 3 partial maps already exist and the rest will be scanned in the next few days.

Edited September 20, 2016 by lajoswinkler

[KAL 9000]

Where are the Kaos 3 images?

[kunok]

Time to update the signature and more photos

[lajoswinkler]

3 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Where are the Kaos 3 images?

I've updated the post, check out the link.

 

3 hours ago, kunok said:

Time to update the signature and more photos

Indeed, thank you for the reminder. I will do it now.

[lajoswinkler]

Recorded data

One hour before the periapsis and around 45 minutes before the engines turn on, system checks are finished. Radiators are deployed and power producing reactor shut down. Plock and Karen are plainly visible in the void.

 

17 minutes before the periapsis, Kerty turns all engines at 100% thrust. Plock and Karen are getting larger fast. Beros is becoming visible and Kyx is passing nearby.

 

Couple of minutes before the periapsis, Kerty's calculations indicate the periapsis will initially be lowered enough to make the ship pass little over 6 km above the observed ground level.

 

Seconds before the periapsis, mountains are zooming past the ship as it crosses the terminator.

 

The ship has passed the periapsis and the terminator, entering the shadow.

 

Direct contact with Kerbin has been lost, as well as relayed transmissions with probes around other planets. Probes leaving the system are far too away to be able to relay the signal as their dishes are not larger than the ship's.

Edited September 20, 2016 by lajoswinkler

[_Augustus_]

20 minutes ago, lajoswinkler said:

Recorded data

One hour before the periapsis and around 45 minutes before the engines turn on, system checks are finished. Radiators are deployed and power producing reactor shut down. Plock and Karen are plainly visible in the void.

 

17 minutes before the periapsis, Kerty turns all engines at 100% thrust. Plock and Karen are getting larger fast. Beros is becoming visible and Kyx is passing nearby.

 

Couple of minutes before the periapsis, Kerty's calculations indicate the periapsis will initially be lowered enough to make the ship pass little over 6 km above the observed ground level.

 

Seconds before the periapsis, mountains are zooming past the ship as it crosses the terminator.

 

The ship has passed the periapsis and the terminator, entering the shadow.

 

Direct contact with Kerbin has been lost, as well as relayed transmissions with probes around other planets. Probes leaving the system are far too away to be able to relay the signal as their dishes are not larger than the ship's.

Good luck Kron 6 crew..

[KAL 9000]

I found the photos, and here are the scientists' most promising candidates for landing sites (A.K.A. chosen at random).

I took the "three phases" images and found some spots that I like.

Beros: You see the brightest pixel in the exact center column of pixels? The pixel right below it is the Romeo landing site.

Kyx: You see the exact center row of pixels? Take the length of the row in pixels, and multiply by 0.75. If the number is not an integer, round down to the nearest integer (even if it's 19.9, round to 19, not 20). That pixel from the left is the area of the Juliet landing site. (Example: If we round down from 19.9, as in the earlier example, the 19th pixel from the left should be around 3/4ths of the way to the right edge of Kyx in the image)

Convoluted, I know, but I wanted to make it random because I have no particular preference and there are no anomalies (as far as I know) on either moon.

I found the photos, and here are the scientists' most promising candidates for landing sites (A.K.A. chosen at random).

I took the "three phases" images and found some spots that I like.

Beros: You see the brightest pixel in the exact center column of pixels? The pixel right below it is the Romeo landing site.

Kyx: You see the exact center row of pixels? Take the length of the row in pixels, and multiply by 0.75. If the number is not an integer, round down to the nearest integer (even if it's 19.9, round to 19, not 20). That pixel from the left is the area of the Juliet landing site. (Example: If we round down from 19.9, as in the earlier example, the 19th pixel from the left should be around 3/4ths of the way to the right edge of Kyx in the image)

Convoluted, I know, but I wanted to make it random because I have no particular preference and there are no anomalies (as far as I know) on either moon.

[KAL 9000]

Kron 6's tracking beacon has been re-acquired, normal communications resuming. It has emerged from behind Plock. Romeo is GO for release, planning trans-Beros injection.

[KAL 9000]

I made a pixel art mission patch for Kron 6, which I will upload soon!

Edited September 21, 2016 by KAL 9000

[KAL 9000]

Here it is!

Kron 6 Mission Patch

[lajoswinkler]

14 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Here it is!

Kron 6 Mission Patch

So high resolution. Wow.

New data dump. (I'm having a nasty time with flu, so I also lack the will for anything.)

Just after the orbital capture, waste tanks and engines were jettisoned.

 

Corrected orbit.

 

Kron 6 is ready for its primary mission.

[KAL 9000]

Sorry, it IS pixel art.

[lajoswinkler]

11 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Sorry, it IS pixel art.

It was a joke, relax!

I would, if it was possible to do just like with flags, stuff that on Kerbals' suits, but their resolutions are also way too low.

[lajoswinkler]

Small update.

Bill Kerman performed his first EVA at Plock and has checked and repaired all the stuff that had issues during the flight. Kron 6 is in full working order now.

Here he is, exiting the airlock lit by weak Plock shine.

 

Also, the greenhouse has been closed and deactivated as there's plenty of food onboard.

[lajoswinkler]

The first site to be visited was chosen to be Plock's southern pole, namely because the lander is, on the sunlit side, travelling from north to south. Not being familiar with Plock's gravity pull, I wanted to be able to see my heading at the first landing ever on that dwarf planet.

 

Valentina Kerman stayed on Kron 6 with Kerty while Jeb, Bill and Bob went into the Knugen lander.

 

After deploying the legs, engine was fired to slow the lander down on a trajectory over the southern pole.

 

Satellite Karen was looming over the horizon as the lander performed a controlled descent.

 

After few minutes, the lander is above the pole. Immediately, distorsions are noticed and Jebediah decides to steer away and land on a more calm ground.

 

This frozen world is very dark by itself, not to mention the conditions here.

 

Final descent was a bit above 2 m/s. Knugen just sat into the regolith.

 

"This is Kron 6 landing party. Knugen has landed."

 

Edited September 29, 2016 by lajoswinkler

[KAL 9000]

Great! Have the probes landed?

[lajoswinkler]

6 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Great! Have the probes landed?

The probes will land on Beros and Kyx. Kron 6 is above Plock and I don't want to lose precious fuel on reaching their targets. The ship will carry them to each destination.

[lajoswinkler]

Right before EVA, an external seismic probe has been released from Knugen.

 

After that, Jebediah Kerman emerged from the hatch into the darkness.

 

He placed a flag into the icy surface and named the site Kron 6a.

 

The crew will now begin with building a temporary sensor array station.

[lajoswinkler]

Working on Plock's surface has proven to be a hazardous job for Kerbals. It's so cold there that their enviromental suits need to work overtime to compensate. Their battery packs last for like ten minutes or so, and then life support fails so they have to return to the lander fast.

 

Here is Bill Kerman, the engineer, setting up a gravity experiment. He looks happy, but his bum is freezing.

 

Meanwhile, Jebediah is in the lander where it's warm, supervisioning the works.

 

EVA couldn't have gone without an argument. Bill (left) is not amused by Bob pooping on engineering.

 

To avoid Bill screwing something into his helmet, Bob went to examine a boulder closest to the landing site.

 

It seems close, but 177 m is kind of troublesome when gravity pulls strong enough to make jetpacks unusable and still weak enough to keep Kerbals from properly walking and preventing them from running.

 

The rock was named Sylvester (by @ZedNova). First rock my Kerbals have ever climbed on. You can see the south pole in the background.

 

After performing the experiments, the crew packed their stuff and launched into orbit. Climbing on the south pole was out of the question because of the distance and useless jetpacks.

Rendezvous with Kron was without issues.

 

South pole experiment results:

- surface is warmer than layers underneath

- Plock has no local magnetic field near south pole

- atmosphere is tenuous, in traces

- regolith contains hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and trace amounts of carbon

- regolith is dominantly solid water with some silicates

Edited October 3, 2016 by lajoswinkler

[KAL 9000]

Cool! I know they're going to Beros and Kyx, and I was wondering if they had detached yet.

[DMSP]

Pretty nice system!

So, are we naming boulders now?

[kunok]

Wait, since when you can climb in the terrain objects??

[lajoswinkler]

3 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Cool! I know they're going to Beros and Kyx, and I was wondering if they had detached yet.

Not yet. They will detach when the ship establishes orbit around each body.

 

3 hours ago, DMSP said:

Pretty nice system!

So, are we naming boulders now?

Just this one. It's special, after all.

 

26 minutes ago, kunok said:

Wait, since when you can climb in the terrain objects??

I've just noticed it few days ago, that's it... no idea what happened.