Alright so, Horus and I were talking the other day (joking actually) about people who create an account and 5 minutes later post a challenge like: “make a Grand Tour, single launch, no DLC, no refuel, no pad assembly” and never even return to the forum… that led me to move the Official Challenge Guidelines from Legacy Division, to 1.5 Division. But also inspired me to make… well, a Grand Tour!
I’ll accept all these restrictions, but I’ll do it in 1.35 PC, and I’ll use the DLC.
So, here’s my rocket and the ascent to orbit.
No debris were left in Earth orbit, I even detached the two nosecones while still suborbital. The first target is Venus, obviously, because is the closest and the hardest. My plan is to be as small and efficient as possible. I have a main lander that will land everywhere, and an interplanetary transfer stage that will await in orbit before moving to the next destination (Apollo-style). This is the arrival to Venus:
And this is the escape and the rendezvous with the interplanetary stage.
Yeah, that huge lander I brought down to the surface turned into that little thing I docked to the Mothership. Notice the mothership uses Asparagus staging, Ion propulsion to be efficient and the minimum number of parts.
Okay, so the next destination is Mercury. I had to use 2 Mercurian gravity assists to lower my aphelion to the Graveyard’s level.
For people who are new to the Forum, the “Graveyard” is Mercury. I call it Merc cause is shorter. Here’s the descent to the surface, and the return to the mothership.
So the next target is Mars. To get there, we need to use a gravity assist with Venus to reach Earth, and another with Earth to reach Mars. Let’s fire those Ions for the second planet!
For some weird reason, when I entered Venus’ SOI, I noticed I was on a direct transfer to Earth… “Oh, okay…”. But then when I enter Earth’s SOI, I was also on a direct transfer to Mars… The screenshots will explain:
I have no idea how that happened, I didn’t calculate or time anything, it just happened. By the way, to save weight I didn’t even brought a parachute for Mars, I just did a propulsive landing. When I returned to orbit, I didn’t even have enough fuel to refill the lander.
I decided to keep the mothership only to keep using the Ions. I thought it will be more efficient than using the Broadsword, despite like this I have higher dry mass.
Okay, now that the mission on the Martian system is finished, is time to go for the final destination of the mission: our Moon. The most efficient way to return is to use a bielliptic transfer. Basically, I am going to wait until Mars is in a transfer window to Earth, then, from my current position (Deimos), I am going to burn for Mars, leaving the periapsis just outside the atmosphere, then I’m going to burn for Earth as soon as I reach that periapsis. This maneuver must be done when Deimos is in the correct position of its orbit around Mars.
Yeah, I also used Aerobrake of Earth. Anyway, time for the final landing of the mission: the Moon. It is also time to get rid of the Mothership, it has served us well, but now it needs to go away…
Mission Completed! Grand Tour of the SFS 1.35 Solar System, in a single standard building screen.