KSP: Project Jool

Blazer Ayanami

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#1
Okay, so this is going to be my first large-scale project in KSP. Also, my first manned mission to the Joolian system.

The plan is to make several passes at different altitudes to explore to planet itself, to crash a probe against it, to get science data from inside the atmosphere, to flyby all the moons, collecting science, and to land on Laythe, and the two smallest and outest moons on the system (Bop and Pol I believe they are called?).

Anyway, this is not gonna be a single mission, this is gonna be a series of missions, the last one will be the expedition to Jool itself. Its gonna require a lot of tests, a lot of preparations, because I don’t know KSP as I know SFS, and there is technology that I need to unlock and to test for the Joolian project, and that is what I’m going to post on this thread.

So, the first preparation mission and I would say the easiest, is to test the Joolian impactors, the probes that are going to dive into the green’s planet atmosphere to get science data from within. However we are not going to test them on Jool, because I don’t think I’m ready to go there yet, we are going to test on the planet who’s atmosphere is most similar to Jool’s. We are going for Eve.

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^There’s the first rocket being launched.
I also forgot to say that we are going to launch two separate probes on two separate rockets, because we are not only testing the impactors, we plan to get some science from this mission to unlock more things on the tech tree. So, one probe will land on Eve’s ocean, and the other one on Eve’s surface.

The solar panels are immense, true. But remember, that this design is supposed to be for Jool, where there is not much solar power, and I haven’t unlocked the RTGs yet. So, I brought these huge solar panels as well as 4 experimental fuel cells, that will power up the probe while falling into Jool’s atmosphere. Here comes probe 2:

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Yep, same rocket, same probe. Time for the transfer to the purple planet. Cruise stage separation!

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Unit 1 arrives to Eve. It will try to land on Eve’s ocean. I gotta say, I didn’t even try to slow down, I went directly into the planet. I needed to make the most aggressive possible reentry because I’m simulating a Joolian reentry, which is going to be very extreme… extremely extreme :p

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Splashdown! Okay, the probe survided! I guess the landing legs were not really necessary, were they? Anyway, we are deploying the instruments, allow some Eve water to enter, so the instruments can test and perform some atmospheeeeeeeeeeeee…. WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU MEAN BY “UNABLE TO PERFORM ATMOSPHERIC SCAN RIGHT NOW”??? I STRUGGLED SO HARD TO BRING AN ATMOSPHERIC ANALYZER ALL THE WAY FROM KERBIN!!!

Anyway, apparently you can’t perform atmospheric analysis from the water. We are not gonna get much science from this unit, guys :(. But, that’s precisely why brought a second unit! That is precisely why I needed to do all these tests :).

Unit number 2 needs to land on solid ground.

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Yay! A successful landing! This time we managed to perform all the science experiment, including the atmospheric analysis and transmit all the data back to Kerbin!

Alright, that completes the first mission of the project, we already have some certified impactors that can resist a severe atmospheric reentry. We are definitively taking two of those to Jool. :)
 

Marmilo

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#2
Cool. I suck at KSP tho.
 

Soyuzturtle

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#3
First of all , how far into Jool do you plan to go? If you want to go really deep , you may be needing more than just that heat shield. I haven't tried a Jool dive with that heat shield though so don't take my word for it. I can give it a go tomorrow for you if you want.
Jool's atmosphere is A LOT more challenging than Eve's.

Second , you can't take an atmospheric scan there because your in the water.

Thirdly , if you think the g counter while entering Eve's atmosphere is high , you've got another thing coming for you at Jool.
 

Blazer Ayanami

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#4
Cool. I suck at KSP tho.
I am still learning. I suck too.
First of all , how deep into Jool do you plan to go? .
As deep as I can. Until my probe explodes.
I haven't tried a Jool dive with that heat shield though so don't take my word for it. I can give it a go tomorrow for you if you want.
Jool's atmosphere is A LOT more challenging than Eve's.
Okay, I’ve seen some Jool dives on YT, and there is even a Jool SSTO, so I don’t think is impossible to dive in that atmosphere, at least until the pressure destroys you. Also, I don’t plan to dive on Jool as I did with Eve. I plan to use several aerobrake passes to descend into low Jool orbit before dive, so the speed is as low as humanly possible.
Second , you can't take an atmospheric scan there because your in the water.
Yup, I already realized. It shouldn’t be like that, I don’t get why the scan doesn’t work in the water.
Thirdly , if you think the g counter while entering Eve's atmosphere is high , you've got another thing coming for you at Jool.
Well, is not impossible and that is the best heat-shield in the game, so it should be able to resist. All I can do is to tie more parts, and add more heat shielding.

I got a question, adding radiators next to the heat shield will help disperse the heat?
 

Mars Pathfinder

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#5
nice :)

plan to go to laythe? :)
 

Soyuzturtle

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Okay, I’ve seen some Jool dives on YT, and there is even a Jool SSTO, so I don’t think is impossible to dive in that atmosphere, at least until the pressure destroys you. Also, I don’t plan to dive on Jool as I did with Eve. I plan to use several aerobrake passes to descend into low Jool orbit before dive, so the speed is as low as humanly possible.
Then I would imagine your ablator would have depleted by the time you get too deep.
Yup, I already realized. It shouldn’t be like that, I don’t get why the scan doesn’t work in the water
Get ready for more little yet annoying bugs in KSP. It's no better than sfs in that right and in sfs you don't have the kraken constantly hunting you down

Well, is not impossible and that is the best heat-shield in the game, so it should be able to resist. All I can do is to tie more parts, and add more heat shielding.

I got a question, adding radiators next to the heat shield will help disperse the heat?
Yes , just look at the g tolerance on all the parts before you head off. It shouldn't be a big problem to the survival of your craft. Radiators will disperse heat from atmospheric entry. That still doesn't stop your eblator from wearing away though.

I'll drop a probe from my orbital dock asap and find out about that heat shield.
 

James Brown

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#12
Can't wait to see how it develops!!!!
 

Soyuzturtle

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#13
Nevermind , it seems I am completely mistaken with that heat shield. It does not ware away so you will not need to have multiple ablators. Just add as many radiators as possible and make sure to put anything heavy as close to the shield as possible. Otherwise , your craft will flip around , exposing the unprotected parts of the vehicle.
 

Blazer Ayanami

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#14
Nevermind , it seems I am completely mistaken with that heat shield. It does not ware away so you will not need to have multiple ablators. Just add as many radiators as possible and make sure to put anything heavy as close to the shield as possible. Otherwise , your craft will flip around , exposing the unprotected parts of the vehicle.
Thanks, man :)
If you have any other advises, I’m willing to learn.
 

Soyuzturtle

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#16
Perhaps when one ablator finishes the second one can start its work, was my thought.
The heat shield he is using isn't any kind of ablator but that's what I was suggesting before.
 

Blazer Ayanami

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#18
The next mission is the test of the Laythe SSTO spaceplane (once I finish tweaking minor details with the help of Horus).
 

Soyuzturtle

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The next mission is the test of the Laythe SSTO spaceplane (once I finish tweaking minor details with the help of Horus).
That's always the best idea. The more self sufficient you can get not just in the Julian system but anywhere in KSP the better. Laythe is also a great place to do it because you can use efficient jet engines almost all the way to orbit. If your interested in using any mods I highly recommend extraplanetary launchpads. (The parts aren't particularly visually appetising but you can get mods to replace the parts ). It has a semi-realistic system to turn resources mined off-kerbin into spacecraft.
 

Blazer Ayanami

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#25
Okay, this is the second component I needed to develop for the Jool mission: the Laythe escape crew SSTO. I’d like to say that this is not the best SSTO out there, is just… my very first, well, not actually my very first… is actually my second, but it is my first SAFE SSTO, if you guys know what that means :p.

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, introducing… the Space Racer 2C:
Slide1.JPG

Slide2.JPG
It takes off using Ramjet engines, gains altitude and speed and as they go flame-out, due to extreme altitudes and speeds, it switches to rocket engines to get out of the atmosphere and circularize orbit.

According to Horus Lupercal, who helped me with advice and some tweaking (because I am new to all of this), balance-wise is really good, is controllable in almost any situation, including reentry, and is fast, really fucking fast.

Now, like I’ve said this is not the best SSTO out there, is just my first safe version of an SSTO, and first time working with realistic aerodynamics and controlling something with aerodynamics-only.

So, lets take out the Space Racer on a test mission to see what it can do! Let’s go to Low Kerbin Orbit!
Slide3.JPG

Slide4.JPG
There it is! We have reached orbit! Now, it doesn’t have much DeltaV remaining, true, but remember that this is actually designed to get out of Laythe, where the atmosphere is lower, the gravity is minor and the orbital speed is less, so it should work much easier there.

Anyway, time to return to the runway… Like I said, the plane is very controllable during reentry (but I forgot to take any pictures). The case is I overshot the runway of the KSC, so I had to turn 180 degrees and turn on the engines…
Slide5.JPG

However, the mission isn’t actually completed there, because I wanted to show that this thing is perfectly capable of a safe STS-style unpowered reentry, as well as to land safely, undamaged on water. So I saved the game on the runway to return to that quicksave later, and loaded the save I made just before landing. Then I turned 90 degrees to the right, to make a water landing…
Slide6.JPG

Now, is mission completed for real!