Challenge Long voyage with the Delta-glider

[Goth]

Long voyage with the Delta-glider

Launch the scenario Delta-glider\Docked at ISS.
Land on Brighton Beach.
Dock to the Luna-OB1 space station.
Dock to the Mir space station.
Land on Olympus base.

In this order.

BONUS (hard): just sling Mars (don't land on it) and dock to the ISS.
(I didn't do it)
BONUS (impossible?): land on Olympus base, then go back and dock to ISS.
(I didn't do it)

Rules
​

Complex flight model checked ON
Damage and failure simulation checked ON
Limited fuel checked ON
Auto-refuel on pad OFF
Nonspherical gravity sources ON
Radiation pressure ON
Gravity-gradient torque ON

No scenario editor (RCS fuel to main tanks, etc.)

Don't wait entire months between a phase and the next one.

Don't enter Mars atmosphere as if you are a meteor. Imagine you're flying a DGIV with realistic settings.

You can use any MFD you need.

tl;dr stuff
​

So one day I decided to fly a stock DG around to see where it could bring me with its big amount of dV. Flying and flying I realized that I could go to a lot of places, so I started from square one trying to save more fuel possible to see how actually far it could go. I managed to go to the Moon, then to Luna-OB1, and then back to Mir. There I realized that I could still do something and that I could turn this into a challenge. So I decided for Mars, this way the challenge will let you visit all the interesting fictional base/stations of Orbiter. I'm sure people out there can do better then me so it's your turn now to bring the DG to a lot of difference places without refueling and to post your time and the amount of fuel remaining after the trip. Also post flight records/screenshots/videos/verbose details/anything.

I will post my quicksaves of the entire flight as soon as you want (let's hope someone partecipate beforehand ^^).

Have fun!

 

[flytandem]

Yes it's amazing how many legs of inner planet trips one can make with the Deltaglider even without doing slings. Not sure what you mean by not entering like a meteor since I have no real experience with the DGIV. But I do assume you allow aerobraking at Earth and Mars and staying within tolerances of the deltaglider with damage simulation on. Number of passengers affects how much dv is available. Flying alone it's about 32K. For the challenge I see choosing a good starting time as important if you have a requirement to not wait many months. Knowing a window of Earth to Mars then allow for the trip to moon and back before that plus knowing mir and iss nodes with the moon is helpful. But assuming we can wait for things like the moon to be in plane with the ISS ( week or two of waiting) the budget might be something like (m/s) ......
getting to ISS from ground = 9500
going to moon = 3200
inserting = 800
landing = 1700
lunar orbit @ wheel= 1700
eject to earth and dock with mir= 900 (using aerobrake for speed reduction and plane alignment)
eject to mars = 4200
deadstick onto base= 0 (easily done but groundspeed is about 300 m/s at initial contact, caution use of heavy yaw inputs)
total= 22K remaining = 10K
should be enough left over to go back to earth if you allow a lengthy wait for the window and maybe even something like aerobrake at earth but just enough to drop Ap to moon and land again at brighton. ??

 

[Goth]

Not sure what you mean by not entering like a meteor since I have no real experience with the DGIV. But I do assume you allow aerobraking at Earth and Mars and staying within tolerances of the deltaglider with damage simulation on.

Yes I just meant to enter the atmosphere "in a realistic way", i.e. not going at something like 10'000 m/s with the nose down lol.

For the challenge I see choosing a good starting time as important if you have a requirement to not wait many months.

Actually the starting time is when that scenario starts. You can wait a month, let's say, no more. You will not have a decent launch window for the Mir-Mars trip, and that is actually part of the challenge.
But if you think that the "bonus part" of the challenge is impossible without an initial waiting time I could change that rule.

 

[emmetthi]

when i read Goth's trip, i couldn't grasp how the trip could be possible without refueling somewhere. but your comments about the use of aerobraking and an optimum launch window suddenly makes this trip possible. 10k is not much room for error!

 

[N_Molson]

10k is not much room for error!

*ahem* Though they are not interplanetary spaceships, Soyuz and the Space Shuttle have both less than 0.5k of Delta-V

 

[dgatsoulis]

getting to ISS from ground = 9500...total= 22K remaining = 10K

Actually the scenario starts with the dg already docked to the ISS, so there is even more dv.

A brief calculation with rough dates.

ISS->BB Depart: 51988.6 Arrive: 51992.2. Total dV: 6000 m/s (TLI, MCC, LOI and landing).
BB-> L-OB1 Depart: 51994.83 (direct ascent, docking within 1/2 hour). dV: 1900 m/s
L-OB1->Mir* Depart: 51995.0(ish) Arrive: 52000.5(ish) dV: ~950 m/s (aerobrake for plane alignment and orbit synch).
Mir->Mars/Olympus: Depart: 52023.5 Arrive: 52315.5 dV: 3700 (since Mir is not coplanar with this plan (~6 degrees off), I propose a 2 step TMI. First burn of 3000 m/s 2 days before (52021.5), align planes at apoapsis (~30 m/s) and then complete the burn back at Pe (~600). The rest 70 m/s is for MCCs.
At this point we can either choose to make a lengthy stay on Mars and then return to Earth with an additional ~8000 m/s (take-off+TEI+MCCs) or we could skip the landing and make an aerosling on Mars that brings us back to Earth (1 orbit later, arrival ~52315).

With a Mars landing the total dV cost to get back to Earth is = 6+1.9+0.95+3.7+8=20.55km/s, let's round it up to 21 km/s leaving us with 11 km/s to play with.

With the aerosling on Mars we save an additional 8 km/s leaving us with 19 km/s .

* IMO, it's a waste of dV to get back to Mir from L-OB1 since we've spent all this energy to get here in the first place. We can get straight to Mars with either (a) ~1800 m/s (Moon-Mars, direct) or (b) ~1550 m/s (Moon-Earth-Mars).

 

[Goth]

IMO, it's a waste of dV to get back to Mir from L-OB1 since we've spent all this energy to get here in the first place.

Well the challenge is going from one place to another with no background story; it's not about an actual meaningful voyage. Imagine you are just someone who takes order to go here and there and you have to do it the most fuel efficient way you can. If you are on the moon and they tell you to go back to Mir, you cannot oppose. ^ ^

 

[dgatsoulis]

Well the challenge is going from one place to another with no background story; it's not about an actual meaningful voyage. Imagine you are just someone who takes order to go here and there and you have to do it the most fuel efficient way you can. If you are on the moon and they tell you to go back to Mir, you cannot oppose. ^ ^

Well... orders are orders!

What would you like to do with the rest of the 11 km/s (or 19 km/s-aerosling)?

 

[Goth]

Eheh you guys are beyond expectation. I thought that going back to Earth was enough for a bonus hard challenge. XD
I didn't took into consideration aerobraking.
I suppose I will leave the choice to you, or I'll take some time to think about the next steps.

 

[asbjos]

* IMO, it's a waste of dV to get back to Mir from L-OB1 since we've spent all this energy to get here in the first place. We can get straight to Mars with either (a) ~1800 m/s (Moon-Mars, direct) or (b) ~1550 m/s (Moon-Earth-Mars).

Maybe the commander forgot his toothbrush?

 

[flytandem]

ooops, hadn't seen we start with the docked at iss scenario. my bad.
hey after sling of Mars how about sling venus (among other places) and end up at Neptune? Would have said Mercury instead of Venus but that place is miserably expensive to get to.

---------- Post added at 10:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

Just saw a sling setup. Using same proposed date of leaving Mir that dgatsoulis suggested, 52023.5 , it is a free ride (sling) of Mars Earth Venus Venus Earth Earth then direct to Neptune with soft arrival meaning probably easy to land on one of its moons. Kind of reminds me of that old tv commercial where tiger woods is using a club to bounce (as in hakisack) the golf ball several times each time getting higher then on a higher bounce he winds up like a batter and sends it out of the park. LOL

 

[Matrix Aran]

Now that sounds like one hell of a sling!

 

[flytandem]

OK so I flew the trip. ISS to Brighton Beach to wheel to Mir to Mars, then sling Mars to Earth Venus Venus Earth Earth Neptune. At Neptune did an engine burn to insert then landed on its moon Nereid. At this point there is still over 17 Km/s remaining deltaV meaning I've used up less than half of the starting dv. Where to go next? I hear Saturn is nice this time of the millenium. :lol: It also has a nice moon with an atmosphere to act as a catchers mitt so I don't need to waste any fuel when I get there.

here's sitting on nereid , a nice place to go to get away from the rat race

BEGIN_DESC
on nereid, can you get back to Earth?
END_DESC

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 72544.9211768849
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_FOCUS
  Ship GL-02
END_FOCUS

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET GL-02
  MODE Cockpit
  FOV 10.00
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_HUD
  TYPE Surface
END_HUD

BEGIN_MFD Right
  TYPE Surface
  SPDMODE 1
END_MFD

BEGIN_SHIPS
ISS:ProjectAlpha_ISS
  STATUS Orbiting Sun
  RPOS -155544173615076930.00 -1884249167404319200.00 424874966988755200.00
  RVEL -3671268763.137 -44473444202.217 10028213600.820
  AROT -109.99 -14.93 -84.00
  AFCMODE 7
  IDS 0:588 100 1:586 100 2:584 100 3:582 100 4:580 100
  NAVFREQ 0 0
  XPDR 466
END
Mir:Mir
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS 692166.69 348707.56 6828075.88
  RVEL -7566.116 -14.490 744.419
  AROT 1.62 30.83 90.79
  AFCMODE 7
  IDS 0:540 100 1:542 100 2:544 100
  XPDR 482
END
Luna-OB1:Wheel
  STATUS Landed Moon
  POS -17.2998680 87.1703495
  HEADING 36.20
  AFCMODE 7
  IDS 0:560 100 1:564 100
  XPDR 494
END
GL-01:DeltaGlider
  STATUS Landed Earth
  BASE Habana:2
  POS -82.3988274 22.9994594
  HEADING 174.13
  AFCMODE 7
  PRPLEVEL 0:1.000000 1:1.000000
  NAVFREQ 0 0 0 0
  XPDR 0
  GEAR 1 1.0000
  AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
GL-02:DeltaGlider
  STATUS Landed Nereid
  POS -158.4323683 36.7601610
  HEADING 273.66
  RCSMODE 2
  AFCMODE 7
  PRPLEVEL 0:0.421354 1:0.681669
  NAVFREQ 2 466 0 0
  XPDR 0
  GEAR 1 1.0000
  SKIN BLUE
  TRIM 1.000000
  AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
SH-01:ShuttleA
  STATUS Landed Moon
  BASE Brighton Beach:1
  POS -33.4374977 41.1184062
  HEADING 0.00
  AFCMODE 7
  PRPLEVEL 0:1.000000 1:1.000000
  NAVFREQ 0 0
  XPDR 0
  PODANGLE 0.0000 0.0000
  DOCKSTATE 0 0.0000
  AIRLOCK 0 0.0000
  GEAR 0 0.0000
  PAYLOAD MASS 0.0 0
END
END_SHIPS

BEGIN_VistaBoost
END

 

[C3PO]

Nice one flytandem! :thumbup:

You even landed Luna-OB1. :lol:

Luna-OB1:Wheel
  STATUS Landed Moon

 

[Cras]

What happened?!?

 

[Goth]

Sometimes it happens, when time warping at the max speed while the focus is on another ship/station.