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

[Findthepin1]

i gave rep

this is great

[lajoswinkler]

Today engineer Bill went to check the instruments.

Everything works fine.

Also, this was the perfect time to get rid of one useless piece of equipment. I had two water purifiers installed. I honestly don't know why, but I didn't want to remove it before as it could affect the balance at 4x timewarp thrusting. It really won't matter anymore so Bill unscrewed it and pushed it away. He also took the strut. It might come in handy.

[DMSP]

Cool. Like always.

[Rath]

You get to cannibalize Jeb! I'm getting the entire ship!

[lajoswinkler]

Thanks, all.

If anyone has a particular spot on Nissee they'd like to see visited (except for the poles, because I'm definitively going there), I'm opened for suggestions.

[MoeKitsune]

Flats. Because why not.

[Cornholio]

I've always been curious, why do you make your orbits around moons polar? I understand for nisse you want to check out the mohole, but how come for other satellites?

[lajoswinkler]

Because I want to check the whole terrain while orbiting it, and often to see the poles. So far every body had a fast enough rotation so it was useful.

Mission report.

Siren lander departing the ship.

Approaching the hole rim.

Landed.

EVA soon.

[lajoswinkler]

Nissee's gravity is very weak so the mission was quite easy. The terrain this close to the northern pole is quite jagged so caution is needed to avoid landing on a slope.

Bill stepped on its surface as the first Kerbal to do so.

Jumping will launch Kerbals 14 m up.

Performing experiments on Nissee proved it's an icy body quite similar to a comet. Incredibly cold surface. Dirty snowball.

Scientist Bob Kerman will depart on a jetpack journey to investigate the pole.

[lajoswinkler]

Off he goes to probe Nissee's hole.

It's difficult to predict when the hole ends. It's similar to Moho's mohole, only more serrated.

I tried to keep Bob close to the wall to have some kind of a reference point.

Half of it is in shade.

And here it is. Bob at 2635 m. There's probably some 4 metres below him, but Bob can't fit. The hole is too tight.

Unlike at Moho, I haven't had any kraken attacks or anything. Bob was able to pull out the hole with ease even though the thing was very constricted at the bottom.

Almost there.

Bob has exited the smaller hole feature, but he needs to get on top of the large one to measure the depth precisely.

Well then.

Top of the hole is 6739 m which makes the depth 4104 m plus whatever was beneath Bob at the bottom.

There are small canyons radiating from the center, large enough to house a small rocket in them.

Back to the landing site.

Siren takes off.

Rendezvous with Kron 5.

Docking and replenishing the oxidizer (orange tanks) in the lander.

Next stop - south pole of Nissee.

[VASMIR]

That hole must be a large fraction of Nissee's radius. I wonder if Nissee secretly houses a mass relay

[The White Guardian]

That hole must be a large fraction of Nissee's radius. I wonder if Nissee secretly houses a mass relay

That's it! Nissee was built by AAALIENS!

[Kosmonaut]

This is awesome! Someone please tell me how to give rep so I can give the dude some!

[nsgallup]

press the asterisk button to the right of the "blog this post" button

[lajoswinkler]

Ah, you don't need to give me more reputation, I've got plenty.

I had two accidents today, involving the southern pole. First the lander detonated 3.5 km above it "due to overheating". Next, while Bob was near the pole itself, he also died of overheating. This pole is obviously an extremely glitchy place so I recommend avoiding it. Avoid orbiting over it a low altitudes and don't approach it.

You can see Siren here, few hundred metres above its landing spot.

Touchdown was easy, but it's very difficult to find a place that's leveled enough. Don't try to land on the spikes. I suspect Kraken might attack you.

The pole itself is at the bottom of this cliff.

You can see the sense of scale on this screenshot where the lander is visible in the lower right part.

Bob is fine now. Back at the ship, thinking whether he has false memories or something.

[GabrielG.A.B.Fonseca]

"All of this moon is yours, expcet the south pole. Attempt no landings there."

I've come to notice that every single Kron mission gives us at least one occasion to say something along this lines.

[TaintedLion]

Poles are glitched on all worlds at the moment. It just causes sudden overheating.

[lajoswinkler]

Yeah, I tend to go to silly places.

I did not know the poles now cause overheating. I knew they were usually glitched, but this is news to me.

And the third and final visit to Nissee. These flowing places seemed the most interesting ones.

The area is also kind of difficult to navigate around, but low gravity helps a lot.

Jebediah got out first while the ship was gliding over the sky. One of the nearby dots is that water purifier.

The terrain is quite boring.

At least walking around is fun.

Going back.

Having a nice sunset before rendezvous with the ship.

Kerbin is nothing but a dot at this distance, as well as Kerbol. The whole inner system can be covered with a thumb on a stretched hand, and everything else with a palm of the hand.

The crew is preparing the ship for leaving Nissee's SOI. Next stop is Thatmo. Inclination difference is enormous.

[nsgallup]

That hilly terrain looks awesome

[Kosmonaut]

Oh man. If only my computer could handle something like that...

[Francois424]

Just watched the whole series. Amazing work.

OPM is so high on my 1.1 paythru it's not even funny.

Jool-5 ship here, 11k dV for the puller-engine-section + 5.2k lander = 385 parts and much lag already (1sec = 2.5sec).

You pulled a good one with a ~225 part ship with 13k dV and a couple of accessories/landers.

Then again I do not have the Procedural part mod, would've helped.

Thanks for making these.

Now going to find another OPM youtube series, but not having much luck (read as: "quality content / narrated / 15-20episode series).

[NotAgain]

I'd still like to add a tiny robotic rover somewhere...

You might try my rover design: USI Sounding rockets 0.35m inline probe core, kerbal foundries mini wheels either side, Squiggsey space research micro RTG. Some high-gain antenna.

[lajoswinkler]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been on a small hiatus because of some life changes. I'll resume the mission shortly. Kron 5 will certainly not be abandoned, it's safely copied on the disk after KSP got updated.

[lajoswinkler]

Mission resumed with latest set of mods for KSP 1.0.4, including OPM (everything worked out fine, positions were preserved).

The issue with orbital insertion at Thatmo wasn't just the inclination change as it's usually perceived. They're basically going around Neidon in opposite directions. It still is a difference in inclinations, though.

The ship and Thatmo were going head on.

[IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/403432173259593457/7BCF0B48D1B3923A04DC8C23D9C232B4ABB13CD8/[/IMG]


Engine throttle was at 100% as this wasn't a too long of a burn.

[IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/403432173259611754/A521994AD3E8795C6AAFDBB38C6A7119A73F3638/[/IMG]


As predicted, somewhere around half of the orbital insertion I could just dump the lateral engines and their tanks so I did it. That prolonged the burn, but at least I got more delta [I]v[/I].

[IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/403432173259675826/2D6C01CE94F68EF3E1028F963C105666A611BC95/[/IMG]

[IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/403432173259676455/F473F1385B94867F1F5FC5F1F54FF4805C9E98F6/[/IMG]


Continuing at around 0.88 m/s[SUP]2[/SUP].

[IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/403432173259677421/073B0FCAEDB2F737A9526206A360A9056D6E866E/[/IMG]


This is the first established orbit.

[IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/403432173259680858/8F95752061597F72B7BD93C6E8F2C75AF87A0700/[/IMG]


I'll have to turn it into a strict polar and a low one before I do any landings.
It took a bit over 1000 m/s to perform all of this.

[Seshins]

great stuff! Glad your back