Engines are expensive Challenge

[Altaïr]

2 engine stock planet and moon flyby Grand Tour.

What? You said ambitious...

Well, maybe a little less ambitious...

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Well, maybe a little less ambitious...

I don't think you'd be far off. You did venus and mercury and got a tank and half of fuel left after making LEO again. Rather than slowing down at Earth, another slingshot, spank yourself out to jupiter and ping around there.

 

[Altaïr]

I don't think you'd be far off. You did venus and mercury and got a tank and half of fuel left after making LEO again. Rather than slowing down at Earth, another slingshot, spank yourself out to jupiter and ping around there.

Oh yeah, you said Grand Tour fly-by, I missed that part. Ok, I'll try this.

Saturn flyby?

With this too. Let's see how far I can go before I run out of fuel.

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Oh yeah, you said Grand Tour fly-by, I missed that part. Ok, I'll try this.

Yeah, I'd never suggest a landing grand tour on that amount of fuel. Not a chance.

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

Ok, I gave it a try. Here's my launcher, launched with active drag:
View attachment 35480

First step, reach LEO:
View attachment 35481 View attachment 35482 View attachment 35483

Then let's see my destination... I'll pick Mercury. Let's aim for Venus then (yes, that's perfectly logical):
View attachment 35484

After a slingshot:
View attachment 35485 View attachment 35486

Now the tedious part, getting a random encounter with Mercury:
View attachment 35487

First slingshot:
View attachment 35488 View attachment 35489

New encounter after 3 turns, and second slingshot:
View attachment 35490 View attachment 35491

New encounter after 6 more turns, and final insertion:
View attachment 35492 View attachment 35493

Now I can separate that tank and land on Mercury:
View attachment 35494

Then back to orbit:
View attachment 35495

At that point I thought I would just come back to Earth, but I have plenty of fuel left... It would be sad to stop there. What should be my next destination then?

Ah, I was gonna attempt something similar but with Ganymede. Guess I'll have to invent a new mission.

 

[In_thrust_we_trust]

I mean you don't see any up editing not allowed and besides you can use a fuck ton of side separators as an alternative it's like project: orion again

 

[Horus Lupercal]

I mean you don't see any up editing not allowed

Because there's no need to edit the engines to complete the challenge. It also doesn't expressly forbid cheats. But men of culture would know not to use those either.

you can use a fuck ton of side separators as an alternative

And you're better off using normal, large separators. They provide more kick.

 

[In_thrust_we_trust]

Yea your probally right in fact I'm coming that with my planet pack the earth and moon has no differences and I might be able to prove it

 

[Altaïr]

Because there's no need to edit the engines to complete the challenge. It also doesn't expressly forbid cheats. But men of culture would know not to use those either.

It depends on how you think...
If you think as a german, what's not authorized is forbidden.
If you think as a french, what is not forbidden is authorized.
And if you think as an italian, what's forbidden is authorized.

 

[Horus Lupercal]

It depends on how you think...
If you think as a german, what's not authorized is forbidden.
If you think as a french, what is not forbidden is authorized.
And if you think as an italian, what's forbidden is authorized.

And this children, is why Altair is Conseils au Doyen.
Cos even I hadn't thought of it like that.

I'm British (Welsh), so what is authorised, we end up queuing for.

 

[TtTOtW]

It depends on how you think...
If you think as a german, what's not authorized is forbidden.
If you think as a french, what is not forbidden is authorized.
And if you think as an italian, what's forbidden is authorized.

And this children, is why Altair is Conseils au Doyen.
Cos even I hadn't thought of it like that.

I'm British (Welsh), so what is authorised, we end up queuing for.

Oh no... haha, how will the UN ever agree on anything?!

 

[Altaïr]

Back to my mission. From Mercury orbit, I'll head to Jupiter. I'll reuse what I called the death road when doing the Grand Tour.

First, a burn from Mercury, followed by a deep space maneuver to lower my perihelion:


This trajectory is calculated so that I encounter Mercury again after 6 turns. This allows me to perform a new gravity assist, and I repeat the maneuver:


3 more turns, and again:


I'm practically at Venus level, but I can get one more assist after 2 turns. And if it looked tricky until now, then just watch this:

Yes, the last gravity assist send me directly on Venus!

Then I use Venus twice to raise my trajectory again:


The second slingshot with Venus sends me towards Earth. Two gravity assists with Earth send me to Jupiter:


Now I can made my fly-bys, Jupiter itself and its moons:


I've managed to burn only the fuel from my annex tank until now. Next destination, Saturn:

 

[TtTOtW]

Back to my mission. From Mercury orbit, I'll head to Jupiter. I'll reuse what I called the death road when doing the Grand Tour.

First, a burn from Mercury, followed by a deep space maneuver to lower my perihelion:
View attachment 35582 View attachment 35584

This trajectory is calculated so that I encounter Mercury again after 6 turns. This allows me to perform a new gravity assist, and I repeat the maneuver:
View attachment 35585 View attachment 35586

3 more turns, and again:
View attachment 35587 View attachment 35588

I'm practically at Venus level, but I can get one more assist after 2 turns. And if it looked tricky until now, then just watch this:
View attachment 35589
Yes, the last gravity assist send me directly on Venus!

Then I use Venus twice to raise my trajectory again:
View attachment 35590 View attachment 35591 View attachment 35592

The second slingshot with Venus sends me towards Earth. Two gravity assists with Earth send me to Jupiter:
View attachment 35593 View attachment 35594

Now I can made my fly-bys, Jupiter itself and its moons:
View attachment 35595 View attachment 35596 View attachment 35597 View attachment 35598 View attachment 35599

I've managed to burn only the fuel from my annex tank until now. Next destination, Saturn:
View attachment 35600

Man... and I thought I was getting good with gravity assists! This here is why you are the Emperor's personal pilot!

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Now I can made my fly-bys, Jupiter itself and its moons:

Look at your speed and altitude.
You need to get lower, those are rookie numbers.

You fly like an old man scared of the ground.

 

[TtTOtW]

Look at your speed and altitude.
You need to get lower, those are rookie numbers.

You fly like an old man scared of the ground.

Hahahahahaha! Oh shit no...

 

[Altaïr]

Look at your speed and altitude.
You need to get lower, those are rookie numbers.

You fly like an old man scared of the ground.

Yeah I know, but I was fed up with crashing

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Yeah I know, but I was fed up with crashing

Ha, I'm joking. You're that low i could jump over you with a rover.

 

[TtTOtW]

Ha, I'm joking. You're that low i could jump over you with a rover.

That would be one hella impressive stunt!

 

[Pink]

That would be one hella impressive stunt!

Challenge time!

 

[Horus Lupercal]

That would be one hella impressive stunt!

Challenge time!

You read my mind. Io, one of my 4x4 rovers and a well positioned and eccentric orbit

 

[Altaïr]

Ha, I'm joking. You're that low i could jump over you with a rover.

Due to the speeds involved that would be very impressive if you can time it right

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Due to the speeds involved that would be very impressive if you can time it right

Oh yes. Closing at something like 3 and a half thousand m/s, it'd be impressive just to see rocket as it comes past, never mind get it timed so it's inside that tiny window of clearance.
Even if you did it as an inside SOI orbit, you're still going to be cracking about a 1000m/s.

It'll be all about the quicksaves baby. And lots of attempts.



Imagine the outtakes video though. Nailing an inflight rover with a hypersonic projectile

 

[Altaïr]

Oh, I have to finish that challenge!

Ultimately, I was leaving Jupiter, going for an encounter with Saturn. By tweaking a little my trajectory, I could get a Titan fly-by:


From now on, I'll just make a fly-by of each external planet, and its biggest moon (flying over every moon is a bit tedious...). So here are Titan and Saturn:

Hey TtTOtW , how are you? (Remember, he ended his mission on Titan)

Then once at the periapsis, I have to adjust my trajectory to meet Uranus (each planet fly-by acts as a slingshot that tends to kick me out of the solar system, so I have to brake at the periapsis):


Then same procedure, here are Titania and Uranus:


Slingshot again, way to Neptune and Triton:


And finally, let's go to Pluto (I know, it's not a planet anymore, but still, it's so emblematic that I can't ignore it).

I've been lucky to get a direct encounter this time. Those transfers are soooo time-consuming
Yet another challenge that could end in a fishy way...

As I had plenty of fuel left, I decided to land on Pluto and its moons. Here are Pluto and Charon:


Here are the other moons, Hydra, Nix, Styx and Kerberos:

(Seriously, who shut the gravity off?! )

Now I have to return, and to visit Mars that I still haven't done. But my fuel reserves are really low now.

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

Oh, I have to finish that challenge!

Ultimately, I was leaving Jupiter, going for an encounter with Saturn. By tweaking a little my trajectory, I could get a Titan fly-by:
View attachment 35776

From now on, I'll just make a fly-by of each external planet, and its biggest moon (flying over every moon is a bit tedious...). So here are Titan and Saturn:
View attachment 35777 View attachment 35778
Hey TtTOtW , how are you? (Remember, he ended his mission on Titan)

Then once at the periapsis, I have to adjust my trajectory to meet Uranus (each planet fly-by acts as a slingshot that tends to kick me out of the solar system, so I have to brake at the periapsis):
View attachment 35779

Then same procedure, here are Titania and Uranus:
View attachment 35780 View attachment 35781 View attachment 35782

Slingshot again, way to Neptune and Triton:
View attachment 35783 View attachment 35784 View attachment 35785 View attachment 35786

And finally, let's go to Pluto (I know, it's not a planet anymore, but still, it's so emblematic that I can't ignore it).
View attachment 35787
I've been lucky to get a direct encounter this time. Those transfers are soooo time-consuming
Yet another challenge that could end in a fishy way...

As I had plenty of fuel left, I decided to land on Pluto and its moons. Here are Pluto and Charon:
View attachment 35788 View attachment 35789 View attachment 35790 View attachment 35791

Here are the other moons, Hydra, Nix, Styx and Kerberos:
View attachment 35792 View attachment 35793 View attachment 35794 View attachment 35795
(Seriously, who shut the gravity off?! )

Now I have to return, and to visit Mars that I still haven't done. But my fuel reserves are really low now.

How about if you rescue TtTOtW from Titan on your next mission?

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Yet another challenge that could end in a fishy way...

Oh no, not the Altair Space-fish!