700k contract to evac Kerbal and it wreck from surface of Duna. Craft cost 120k. It also delivered wheels and solar panel to close 2kk contract to finish rover on Ike. Now it will be refuelled and ejected to Kerbin with Research Vessel “Duna” (it have mining equipment and could be used as refuel ship and as additional reusable stage to boost delta v budget)
Just do a bit plane flight between space flights , btw I want to fly in Jool atmosphere with plane that will be capable to return back to orbit , so guys if you have some examples , please feel free to provide links on posts or on YouTube with examples of such plane.
1200 hours on steam and this is my first probe flight to Jool, received contract on it just after Dres (you could see on third screenshot how Expedition Fleet fly from Dres back to Kerbin, that why I send fast probe, Expedition fleet not ready yet).
48km/sec delta v in vacuum, power supply - 12 RTGS, reached Jool orbit for 216 days, will gather science data , close some contracts and will fly back to Kerbin. Hope in general this mission will not take more than two years.
BTW I tried to reach 100km/sec delta v in vacuum, but looks like it could be achieved (if possible at all) with only really very small probes, and my probe by itself it’s already 0.2 ton + 12 RTGS + science equipment, so only 48 km/sec I tried to take maximum with 1 ion and 1 atomic engines, I will drop science equipment before fly back it should add +1-2km/sec delta v for return trip.
Mission: Explore Dres, establish mining-refuel infrastructure, deploy relay network
Expedition composition:
Crew - 38 personnel
Universal class ship “Explorer”
Universal class ship “Horizon”
Universal class ship “Endurance”
Research Vessel “Kerbin”
Research Vessel “Mun”
Research Vessel “Minmus”
Mining class ship “Dres” (delivered 4 relays)
Dres Lander “Cossack” (with rover)
I am continue to explore the limits of possible , looks like near 10km/sec reentry it’s something near the limit , 33km altitude should be as perfect balance between burn out and staying on Kerbol orbit.
So while Expedition Fleet explore Dres, I used fast ship to pickup rescued on Dres Kerbal and close contract of main sequence on research Dres, it have 25km/sec delta v, 10 of them I used for transfer manoeuvre by retrograde orbit to fly to Kerbin for 217 days , and 15 to slow down before Kerbin reentry (2 days burn manoeuvre, did it on x300 physical time warp) and I needed 7km/sec more for slow down to stay in Kerbin that I done with Kerbin atmosphere.
Looks like next contract of main sequence will be to reach Jool, I am planing to build the fastest possible probe for this , will check if 100km/sec delta v is possible (so far my record it’s 60km/sec delta v for probe)
Rescued new pilot and her craft from Kerbol orbit, 1 year mission.
What is your record ? What velocity is possible to survive in Kerbin reentry and safely land after this ?
So far it’s my the cheapest Eve lander - 600k
Mission - deliver Eve ore to Gilly orbit (500 units), reward - 1kk
Crew - 3 personnel
From Kerbin orbit fly as one stage.
I arrived in season of thick fogs, visibility near surface is zero, lot of lightings, sometimes rain, (all added by SPVE mod), descent speed 6.5m/s still save to land without engines.
From Eve orbit ascent stage with crew and ore will be picked up by Mining class ship “Gilly” to finish contract with preparation to comeback home.
Guys what is your the cheapest Eve lander? (In condition that it can return to orbit)
5 brave cadets did they first trip with Light Mining class ship “Local” in home local region Kerbin-Mun-Minmus with fast short visiting of Kerbol orbit and back, to get their 3 stars and prepare to interplanetary missions, its base training for all new kerbonauts, after they first journey cadets parked on Mun orbit awaiting for transfer ssto, that soon arrived and take them back home safely.
Guys, mk1 cockpit it’s just pain in the ass in matters of Kerbin reentry , it have low tolerance to the heat and just want to explode , not sure how to handle it either than slow down before reentry or do long several reentry rounds by little slow down with atmosphere , or I thinking about just put it to fairing and let it be there the whole trip.
Delivery from Kerbin - Asteroid class E (huge) , fully mined in duration of mission.
Executor - Super Heavy Asteroid Catcher class ship “Goliath”, reusable one stage ship, cost 1.3kk, completed several contracts on catching class E asteroids, crew - 1 engineer
Contract reward - 2kk.
Next appointment - refuel on Ike , comeback to Kerbin orbit, waiting for next asteroids contracts.
I don’t needed this asteroid as refuel station as Duna and Ike easy for mining by itself.
Didn’t wait for transfer window , dived to Moho orbit and from there jumped to Duna, did one slow down manoeuvre before Duna encounter and one slow down manoeuvre before dive into atmosphere.
This somehow was hard, guys.
It’s hard to do precise strike closer to science surface equipment and it’s hard to achieve some velocity near Eve surface while you accelerate through thick dense atmosphere in direction of the ground.
For first I send small impactor but enough to get 1km/s before impact , and I get only 7% from needed science.
So I send bigger one , but it was very unstable in atmosphere entry , so I send addon to it (with bigger heat shield and additional stage for precise strike)
And even after this , I get only like 0.001 science per strike, it’s some bugy thing for sure, so I figure out that need to flip rocket just before impact and it’s somehow work, maybe issue with fairing in the nose of the rocket, and it’s like significantly decrease power of impact (like on 99.99%) or it’s just Eve , not sure but I make it work, no profit from contract, I like spend on million more than I got from this, but contract is closed so it’s what matter in such situation.
And yeah in the beginning you could see Mining class ship “Gilly” , it like did 3 cruises from Gilly to Eve and back to refuel Impactor and put it all together, because initially, like I said I don’t plan it in this form.
Until recently for such rescue contracts I used craft with mini rover that could get wreck to lander. But when I build lander with rover for Dres I come to this scheme. Find it hard to imagine how to complete such contracts for Eve.
Be careful, if craft that docking will have target on moved docking port you will have bug where crew of docking craft could be duplicated if try to reenter to craft, game cannot be saved and you cannot switch to other crafts or to KSC, just don’t targeted moved port!
Btw it’s example of easy money, they docked only for contract, Research Vessel “Duna” then will deliver Duna ore to Ike (another easy money contract) and Duna mobile lab will stay on surface. Closed contracts on millions without actually send new crafts to Duna by only local resources of few ships that serve in Duna-Ike region.
I like to build practical manned fast rovers that could traverse all planet and gather all science from all biomes (including from flight), I put reaction wheel toggle to group action , so when need to speed up I disable it, when need control in flight/jumps I activate it.
Mission: gather seismic data from Dres (contract)
Craft cost: 490k
Contract reward: 900k (400k profit)
Delta v in vacuum: 35.6 km/s
Delta v on transfer manoeuvre: 31.6 km/s
Burn time: 1 day and 2 hours
Time in flight: 61 days(!)
Velocity on impact: 37.9 km/s
Just flying half of planet to gather some science data for my brand new Duna mobile lab plus close contract on science measurements in flight and saw this Dust storm, in first with lightings added by SPVE.
Builded it even before I start using any mods. Could lift back to orbit from sea level, used it several times. Flying to Eve like to my own home, could be helpful for those who struggle to build Eve lander.
So first scout Universal class ship “Horizon” from Expedition Fleet arrived to Dres and I already see serious issues with electricity, it have mobile lab, big converter and two big drill, I am thinking to send fast probe with upgrades on power supply , so how I should power it?
It should be update on future flights to Jool and Eeloo so it must cover all power needs , is 16 RTGS and two power cells (for mining and ore converting) should be enough ? How you power your ships in trans Dres flights?
Mission duration - 77 days
Impactor cost - 300k
Contract reward - 800k
Next target - Eve
Mining class ship “Ike”, Research Vessel “Duna” and Voyager class ship “Kerbin-Eve-Duna-2” arrived to Ike outpost to increase liquid fuel production (with engineer) to faster close contract on Ike outpost commissioning and refuel before next mission - send Voyager back home.
I spent all my delta v budget on transfer manoeuvre - 8.1 km/sec delta v , no slow down by engines.
Fly time - 132 days
Nearest transfer window almost in two years
Fly time with transfer window - 331 days
Overall delta v with transfer window - 1630 delta v
Craft cost - 920k, almost half of this it’s RTGS
Mission - close two contracts on sum 3.3kk