Ok, here goes. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I first had to create my orbiting fuel refinery by flying up parts and connecting them via orbital rendezvouz (maybe, 4 trips?) then I had to spec and mine kethane for refueling operations on minmus ( 10 trips? ) and then assembly my primary interplanetary spaceship (~170tonne), maybe 50 hours into this doozy?
First image:
Kethane (mod) fuel refinery. It would have been way quicker to blast a rockomax up to it, but fuck it, lets have some fun. Partially constructed spaceship.
Second image:
Release from spacestation, blast off to match the inclination of eeloo. 15 minute burn
Third image:
Style shot, I prefer more exotic craft, but simplicity is king for these first of a kind missions. Basically engines, fuel, and batteries
Fourth image:
Map check. We can see I've matched the planar angle of eeloo (0.1degrees) and trying to meet eeloo at the apogee of its helicentric orbit. The reason for this is, essentially eeloo is a light mass space snowball, and in order to get "captured" by it, I have to wait till it "slows down" enough so I don't just rocket by it. Very challenging to plan interception course. The opposite side of this is, it takes the most amount of fuel to burn to the apogee of an orbit.
Fifth image:
Engine configuration
In the orange box is the my transit stage, just a hodge podge of engines and tanks. I had to do some fuel transfers mid sprint, to be expected. The reason why you see engines pointing the WRONG way is because of how I created them on the ground then flew them up, a limit on the KSP engine.
The Red engines (they have protective coverings, you have to blow them off on stage changes) are used for orbit correction and setting final stages for descent. Because they are very low power engines, this is all they are really good for.
Green engines: Descent engines, high powered, high consumption engines. Burn fuel quickly but excellent for setting up final trajectory for landing.
Blue: Final descent. Same as the green engines, but much lighter spacecraft by this time, so a high degree of movement can be achieved. Maybe, ~20 seconds of fuel? But that is a tonne when you are ~1000ft to the ground, and have a low surface velocity.
sixth image:
I've decoupled from my transit stage at this point, so making final corrections to ensure maximum capture point with eeloo
seventh image:
Excellent, rendezvouz!
eighth image:
Excellent, capture!
ninth image:
FIRST SIGHT OF EELOO (not in map view, which is cheating)
Rotate inclination so I can get the most amount of sun. On a landing this challenging, and all the time I've put into it, I want to maximize the percent of success and not land on a rocky distant planet at night. I did equip my lander craft with lights, but fuck it.
tenth image:
Whats this?!? I've lost an engine some how! Either on decouple stage or due to overheating. FUCK now I can't fire my other engines because my craft will spin out of control and I'm not sure my light engines will have the strength to slow down my rotational velocity to make a safe landing. FUCK!
eleventh image:
Didn't come all this way to give up. I hit the planet at about 600m/s, but the time I snapshotted, I was down to ~515m/s. Notice i'm full retrograde burning, and at this point, I'm committed, if I kill engines, I'll impact the planet my orbit has degraded to much. here goes!
twelth image:
Now I'm in trouble, I'm at 4000ft AGL and still moving pretty fast ~250m/s. I chance it, ditch the retrograde stage, and attempt a high descent stage on my light craft. I know I can do it, if I've got the fuel.
thirteenth image:
success! I've slowed down considerably (24 m/s) and I've still got a ton of fuel! (421/540)
Fourteenth image:
Final setup for landing. I prefer straight updown for simplicity. A little bit more fuel expensive, but I've got a tonne to spare.
fiftheenth image:
CONTACT!
sixteenth image:
I place this flag for the good of TD, excluding SJ, I hope that guy dies in a car fire.
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