A little Jool mission

[Avesenchai]

Our story begins with Jebediah and Bill boarding this spaceplane. Its planned mission is to fly to low Minmus orbit, where it will dock with a tug that will carry it to Leythe. The 'boosters' on the wingtips will be dropped during the trip to Minmus. It uses Infernal Robitics hinges on its side engines, and can land in water on Kerbin and vertically take off from water. But it can also do horizontal takeoffs/landings, which will be useful on Leythe's ice caps.

Mods used

-TAC Life Support

-Infernal Robotics

-Chatterer

-Deadly Reentry

-NEAR

-TweakScale

-Karbonite

-MKS

Standing by to launch!

Liftoff!

Going faster!

The first (of many) things I will leave behind - the booster jet engines. Now the booster rocket engines are firing.

Upper atmosphere, jet engines are no longer useful at this speed.

Only a small burn will be needed to circularize the orbit.

Jeb and Bill have gotten to low Kerbal orbit. So far, so good!

- - - Updated - - -

Now Jeb and bill are flying toward Minmus, and planning a corrective maneuver.

Discarding the boosters (which also contain spare life support). The vehicle will need to complete the maneuver using its RAPIER engine.

Planning an orbital rendezvous. This is going to be MUCH closer on life support than I had planned - Bill and Jeb will be nearly out by the time they get an intercept with the mothership. If they don't make it on the first pass, they are in trouble. But it looks like this will work (barely).

- - - Updated - - -

Now we are docked with the tug. Ok, "tug" is a little bit of an understatement. It had a crew of nine before docking, and enough life support to last the crew of (now 11!) for the trip to Jool and back. It has a DRY weight of over 550 tons. It will need to refuel on Minmus' surface.

This was its launch configuration.

This image shows the (now-discarded) drop tank+booster stage, and gives a better view of the lander vehicle and rover.

Top view in the VAB.

Moving in for a landing on Minmus. Once on Minmus' surface, the vehicle will mine for more fuel, to power the long voyage to Jool.

I notice I miscalculated the life support recyclers, so I'll have to do a third launch to get a small payload to Minmus' surface. I also put a bit of spare RCS fuel in the package.

Docking is rather awkward; I have to put in this little package in between the plane and the tug.

The plane and helper have to dock while both are on a suborbital trajectory going straight up, and then redock with the main ship.

Fortunately, Jeb manages to pull off the docking.

Now, the crew waits on Minmus - both for the ship to refuel, and for a proper launch window to arise.

But that's when I notice another problem... The plane stage's VTOL engines are misaligned (I think it might be a glitch in the game, or maybe one of the mods I am using). For whatever reason they are down and to the right of where they should be. It's no longer going to be safe to put Jeb and Bill down on Leythe using this vehicle. Will that stage of the mission have to be cut? Whatever I do, I have to do it quickly, while the launch window is still open!

Edited January 18, 2015 by Avesenchai

[Avesenchai]

I detach the wings from the defective plane, and make a new plane. It will fly, uncrewed, into Laythe orbit and meet the larger ship there.

It flies!

Now in orbit, it will make a burn direct to Jool

Two of its booster engines are dropped...

Finishing up the burn. It will still need to do a small inclination burn later on.

Back to the main ship, it is now lifting off from Minmus, and discarding some unneeded equipment. Newdin looks rather cheerful.

Dropping down to an elliptical orbit to take advantage of the Oberth effect...

And this is my trajectory. This vehicle will also need an inclination burn.

The vehicles after their respective inclination burns. Looks like both will make it to Jool!

[DMSP]

Nice! I can't wait to see what happens! Also, Leythe is actually spelled "Laythe". Good luck!

[Avesenchai]

Approaching Jool with the mothership first (it launched later, but because I didn't get the most efficient trajectory, it'll arrive sooner than the plane)

Entering Jool's atmosphere for an aerocapture.

I'm freaking out, afraid my ship will break in two. Newdin doesn't seem worried, though.

Coming in for a second aerobraking pass. A moon, probably Laythe (thanks DMSP ) is visible in the background.

I'll need to perform a 312.7 DV maneuver to get a Pol intercept, but before I do, I start moving food around in my food containers...

...So that I can jettison the mostly empty ones before I perform the maneuver.

I only use a small amount of thrust at first, to make sure the empty food canisters bounce harmlessly to the side.

A Pol intercept!

Planning my Pol orbital circularization

Shepzor on an EVA, to gather up materials study and mystery goo data so that the modules can be cleaned up before we enter low Pol orbit.

Burning to circularize Pol orbit

We're getting close!

A landing!

Unfortunately, one of the lander legs broke off during the landing, from a structural failure. Two others are damaged, but Bill should be able to repair those. Luckily, there are spare lander legs, so the mission should still be viable.

Shepzor collecting a surface sample from Pol's Highlands biome. The ship will wait here on Pol while it refuels - it'll take off from Pol when we are a couple weeks away from a decent launch window for returning to Kerbin.

Meanwhile, the Laythe flier is nearing Jool's SOI.

Aerocapture into a low but elliptical Jool orbit.

It'll take a few orbits to get a decent alignment with Laythe, but that's fine.

Approaching Laythe!

Aerocapture!

This is the orbit I wind up in. With a tiny adjustment, it can wait here until the mothership arrives.

Meanwhile, back at the mothership, Bill is fixing the lander legs, at least the ones that can be fixed.

Bill stops to enjoy the view before getting back into the crew cabin.

Before I leave Pol, I decide to test the lander to make sure it works even when missing a leg (Pol is a good place for this, since if the lander topples over and can't get back to orbit, the mothership can still come down to rescue - though that would probably mean aborting the Vall and Tylo phases of the mission).

Lander about to de-orbit. Jool and its inner moons visible in the background.

The lander's trajectory after the de-orbit maneuver.

Getting closer!

Looks like it's going to be a soft landing

Easy does it...

Shepzor collecting a surface sample. But we still don't have a surface sample, materials bay, or mystery goo from Pol's Lowlands biome.

Shepzor decides to go for a drive.

In the microgravity environment, with its stability system, the rover can perform some crazy stunts. It can actually use its RCS thrusters to fly under its own steam, but this flight is just because it hit a bump in the terrain while driving forward.

Shepzor reports his success in reaching Pol's lowlands!

Now to drive back to the lander.

The rover hits another bump on the way back.

Back to the lander.

The rover has to use its RCS thrusters to re-dock with the lander. The PLAN is that on higher gravity moons, the rover will still be able to dock because the lander will 'sag' in the middle from the gravity. But just in case that doesn't work out, the rover has a couple of emergency sepratrons to give it an upward boost.

The lander returns to orbit, with plenty of fuel to spare.

Getting an intercept with the mothership.

Docking is a bit of a hassle because the mothership is too heavy to easily rotate

But I'm able to get everything aligned.

Success!

I discard more food containers. These ones are mostly full, but they won't be needed since the long waiting periods of the mission are over. I have 1670 days of food left in the rest of the ship. That SHOULD be enough to explore the Jool system, then either return home or wait for a rescue (depending on how things go...)

Next stop, Laythe!!!

After the burn, I discard some unneeded engines and tanks.

[Avesenchai]

For some reason when I click the blue part of my path, I can't plan any more maneuvers. That's ok, I'm close enough that I can perform any correction after I get inside Laythe's SOI.

Shepzor on EVA, picking up data.

I lose a tiny bit of velocity in the atmosphere, but most of my capture has to be done with engines.

I wind up orbiting retrograde relative to the plane. It would take an infeasible amount of delta-V to equalize the inclination of our orbits using a burn.

Luckily, it's a plane, and can change its orbit by visiting the atmosphere for a while. It can also collect mystery goo and materials study from the "flying" situation in Laythe.

Now the orbits are on approximately equal planes.

A conservative aerobrake to help give the two ships more similar eccentricity.

Sherbles deposits an EVA report from Laythe's upper atmosphere, obtained near the end of an aerobraking pass (he's a little crazy, it would seem!)

[Avesenchai]

The spaceplane performs a burn to rise up to an orbit that matches the mothership.

And there is the intercept!

This is a particularly awkward sequence of docking events - Jeb and Bill will have to temporarily detach, in order to free up a docking port for the spaceplane.

Coming in to dock!

And the docking is successful! This will allow refueling, and allow me to clean out the materials bay and mystery goo.

Newdin transfers over to the spaceplane. Unfortunately, unlike the original design, this one only seats one. So Bill won't set foot on Laythe. Nor will he be able to repack the parachute.

Jeb and Bill re-dock with the mothership.

Gliding along. The idea here is to land in the ocean very close to the southern ice cap.

Parachutes deployed! Newdin will need to fire the jets slightly retrograde in order to soft-land in the ocean. Also, the booster rocket will need to be dropped.

Newdin can collect a surface sample of the ocean while standing on the platform.

Now he's flying toward the southern ice cap.

The water-landing stage needs to get dropped for a horizontal landing on the ice cap.

Newdin collecting an ice cap surface sample

Newdin gets ready for takeoff!

Because the mothership isn't orbiting on a polar orbit, Newdin needs to fly for a while before he gets to a sufficient latitude to be on the same orbital plane as the mothership.

Eventually, the air gets to be too thin for the RAPIER engine to operate in air-breathing mode. So Newdin switches it to closed-cycle, allowing him to rocket to orbit!

Planning an intercept

The spaceplane is too low on RCS fuel and electricity for a docking to be likely, so instead Newdin will carry his surface samples over to the mothership on an EVA. This unfortunately means Laythe's other biomes won't be explored this mission. Oh well.

Newdin spacewalking to the mothership. His abandoned spaceplane is visible in the background, along with Laythe, Jool, and another moon (probably Vall).

Newdin makes it back and boards the ship, after depositing his samples in the top cockpit.

Next stop: Vall!

[Avesenchai]

Firing up the engines to go to Vall!

The lander separates, with Sherbles onboard.

Sherbles is coming in fast!

Slowing down to land...

Sherbles manages a flawless landing!

For science!

Driving on Vall isn't quite as crazy as driving on Pol, but it's a decent way to get to a second Biome.

The landing site wasn't a great choice - it's a long drive to get to the midlands biome. But eventually the rover gets there and collects the data.

Sherbles plants a flag

Nice view of Jool and Laythe overhead

Oh no! Sherbles hits a bump going a little too fast, and flips into the air, breaking three out of his four wheels upon landing. He'll have to drive the remaining distance using only one wheel.

Sherbles drives carefully the rest of the way back. If that last wheel breaks, it will leave his friends in orbit with a terrible decision - they could attempt to land the mothership to rescue him, but the mothership might or might not explode from landing on a mid-gravity world like Vall. If he at least gets a little closer first, he might be able to use the sepratrons and RCS thrusters to fly the rest of the way.

Fortunately, none of that proves necessary

The rover can reattach to the lander

And take off into Vall orbit

Docking is a bit of a pain

Bill fixes up the damaged rover wheels

Next stop: Tylo!

[Avesenchai]

Tylo intercept!

Inserting into Tylo orbit

Jeb separates from the mothership to deorbit the lander

This is going to be the toughest landing of the mission

But Jeb is the right Kerbal for the job, he pulls it off flawlessly. Discarding two lander engines during descent was part of the mission plan.

Rolling along Tylo's surface to find another biome

It's over a 10 km drive, but Jeb finds a suitable place to take another surface sample.

Jeb planting a flag on Tylo

Reuniting with the lander!

Jeb is able to redock with the lander!

The remaining fuel in the descent stage is used to give the vehicle and upward boost, then it discards the lander stage, flips around upside-down, and fires up its remaining engine to circularize its orbit.

Joolrise

Nearing an intercept with the mothership...

Once Jeb kills his velocity relative to the mothership, he discards the engine and tank, and has to perform the rest of the docking maneuver using RCS thrusters only.

A successful docking!

The next stop will be at Bop. Escaping from Tylo will be easy because I left the mothership in an elliptical orbit around Tylo and am performing the escape burn at periapse.

[Avesenchai]

Performing the burn to get away from Tylo

Planning a Bop intercept

A transit of Laythe

Planning to enter Bop orbit

Firing up the engines!

The science processor, crew quarters, and life support recyclers are left behind in Bop orbit. Hopefully, this will make landing easier. Bop has very low gravity, but still higher than Pol, so anything I can do to make the landing easier is a good idea. The fuel mining module, main power reactor, main fuel tanks and main engine will go down to the surface of Bop! In total, the parts left in orbit weigh 92 tons, and the parts that will (hopefully) soft land weigh 424 tons - though they'll weight a little bit less by the time it lands, since landing will require some fuel.

This looks like an ok landing site.

Flying close over the surface of Bop

Managing the descent carefully

And then cut the engines just over the surface

Collecting science data from Bop's valley biome

Shepzor on an EVA

Launching towards the poles biome

Descending toward the pole.

Safely landing

Another EVA

We can get the science data, but there are no minable raw materials here that we can convert to fuel! We'll have to find another landing site - hopefully before we use up our little bit of remaining fuel.

So we fly to another landing site.

Landing with Jool and its inner moons visible in the background

Uh oh. No fuel here either. We have enough fuel left for one more takeoff+landing, if we don't waste any.

Success! We found a deposit. Now, we can sit back and drill for resources, which we can then refine into fuel. Unfortunately, this isn't a very rich deposit - the process takes almost 60 days. That means the 'good' launch window for a return to Kerbin has probably closed. Fortunately, with this much fuel, it isn't a huge worry. The mission plan called for discarding the mining module (along with those two remaining materials studies and mystery goos) before taking off, and using then using RCS thrusters to re-dock the lander can. But that won't work, because I used up all the RCS fuel on repeated landings. I'll have to dock with the ship I left in orbit, and use some RCS fuel from it.

After several unsuccessful docking attempts, I discard the still partly full side fuel tanks on the mothership, to try and make docking easier.

I have to break the orbiter into two pieces to finally get it to dock.

The mining module is discarded, and Jeb uses the remaining RCS fuel to redock with the ship (with 5 units of RCS fuel to spare)

Plotting a course home

[Avesenchai]

Farewell, Bop

Farewell, Jool

The journey home was long, dark, and uneventful. I overbuilt my rocket, so I can afford to take a slightly weird route back.

The Kerbals are eager to return home after so many years in space!

Once the orbit is circularized, Sherbles and bill detach to approach Kerbin

Parachutes deploy

Splashdown!

Sherbles and Bill are safely returned to KSC. The other Kerbals are still in orbit, inside a vehicle that was not designed for re-entry. The final step of this mission will be sending a vehicle to Kerbin orbit to retrieve them.

[Avesenchai]

Danfrey will fly this mission to recover the Kerbals (and the Jool data) from low Kerbin orbit

Takeoff!

The target is in a retrograde orbit, so there will be a bit more atmospheric flying than usual for an SSTO. Luckily, Danfrey has lots of extra liquid fuel.

Gaining speed

Visual effects!

Switching the rapier engine to act as a rocket

Danfrey costs up out of the atmosphere

And sets up an intercept with his target

There it is!

Newdin on an EVA over to the SSTO. All of the crew will need to go to it.

Jeb - the final crewman - gets ready to depart, leaving the spaceship behind after years. Some of the data went with Sherbles and Bill, but Jeb will need to carry the rest with him to the SSTO.

A brief burn to de-orbit

R

Re-entry

Gliding down

P

Parachutes deploy

An engine gets damaged during landing, but all the kerbals and data are fine.

The mission as a whole yields a little bit less than 7k science - more than enough for me to research what is left of the tech tree. Additionally, Danfrey reached level 1, and every other kerbal reached level 5! Finally, the mission as a whole was quite profitable, fulfilling several high-value contracts.