Challenge Go-Around

[flytandem]

Here's an interesting puzzle. You left Earth on Oct 23rd 2010, and did a sling around Venus and are now arriving back at Earth. Because of the party on your return to Earth you didn't pay enough attention and missed a couple of important mid course corrections. You just noticed you are missing your home planet. :facepalm:

You don't have a lot of fuel and are now scrambling to try to figure a way to get back. You have enough air and supplies for another 25 months. :thumbup: What to do? It is possible. :hail:
Edit: Wanted to add that there are a couple of ways. One that is easy as far as navigation but very tight on fuel. The other is more complicated in navigation, gets you home a couple months sooner and has lots of fuel to spare. It would have been easy for me to preclude the former by having a few Kg less fuel but I left the fuel as is to see who can do which and if anyone can do both ways.

BEGIN_DESC
Land on Earth within 25 months after start of scenario.
END_DESC

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 56187.4603485834
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_FOCUS
  Ship 3
END_FOCUS

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET 3
  MODE Extern
  POS 22.88 19.18 1.18
  TRACKMODE TargetRelative
  FOV 12.73
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_SHIPS
3:DeltaGlider
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS -66406853.33 -17571001.21 -10334260.59
  RVEL 13456.017 1324.795 -1382.057
  AROT 117.57 -75.18 -115.95
  AFCMODE 7
  PRPLEVEL 0:0.023000 1:0.079808
  NAVFREQ 0 524 84 114
  XPDR 6
  PSNGR 2 3 4
  TRIM -0.503000
  AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
END_SHIPS

 

[Tex]

Sounds tough! I might try this if I have time today.

 

[astrosammy]

Ah, slingshots, last time I did this was last year...
Time to create a new Orbiter installation for this challenge.

 

[hribek]

I did the simple-navigation, fuel-tight one. I've got a pretty good idea about what the other one will look like. Anyway, the entry was at about 17 km/s and I landed at the local airport few clicks from my house in central europe, without tearing the ailerons off. The AoA was pretty constant - 10 degrees. Fortunately the DG has an unmeltable windshield. I figure that must be why its nose is so massive. Or the other way around.

I practiced the aerocapture entry and direct landing by reducing the SMa via scenario editor (landed at SLF, KSC). That has the DG coming in at about 23km/s. It's fun to getting just about anywhere on Earth with the huge lot of extra energy in a heat-flux-immune vessel :thumbup:

 

[Tex]

Wow, this one is pretty tough! I didn't get a chance to try it until late last night, so I need to try again today with a fresh mind. There is a lot less fuel to work with than I initially expected!

 

[dgatsoulis]

Many thanks to flytandem for this GREAT challenge!

At first glance, the initial orbit of the DG brings it very close to Mars (with a very slight course correction.)
So i guess a slingshot over there, should come in handy.

Wow, this one is pretty tough! I didn't get a chance to try it until late last night, so I need to try again today with a fresh mind. There is a lot less fuel to work with than I initially expected!

Hi Tex,
I highly recommend to "brush - up" your aerosling skills.

It's quite hard to do, but i believe it's the most fuel-efficient course to take.

Now... i haven't found the second method yet... :hmm:

---edit---
Yeap, the aerosling on Mars worked like a charm. Eventhough i have to admit i could have done a better job, (i had to make a 400 m/s course correction to get to Earth after the aerosling), i managed to land on KSC, 18.9 months after the scenario start, with 0.6 fuel still left in the DG.

I hope i'll find the time to make LUA scripts - this weekend - for this wonderful challenge.
Probably two versions:
1. For the least amount of fuel.
2. For the least amount of time.

Thanks again, flytandem!

 

[flytandem]

I did the simple-navigation, fuel-tight one. I've got a pretty good idea about what the other one will look like. Anyway, the entry was at about 17 km/s and I landed at the local airport few clicks from my house in central europe, without tearing the ailerons off. The AoA was pretty constant - 10 degrees. Fortunately the DG has an unmeltable windshield. I figure that must be why its nose is so massive. Or the other way around.

I practiced the aerocapture entry and direct landing by reducing the SMa via scenario editor (landed at SLF, KSC). That has the DG coming in at about 23km/s. It's fun to getting just about anywhere on Earth with the huge lot of extra energy in a heat-flux-immune vessel :thumbup:

... and to the others who others who have tried it ...
Cool!

Glad you are having fun. I got stuck in jury duty today and might end up stuck for 3 weeks. :facepalm:With any luck they won't allow aliens to remain on the jury. After having to listen to a parade of what the average socal human thinks is logic, it was a treat to get online to see that at least somewhere in the world there is some logical thought process happening.

---------- Post added at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------

Many thanks to flytandem for this GREAT challenge!

At first glance, the initial orbit of the DG brings it very close to Mars (with a very slight course correction.)
So i guess a slingshot over there, should come in handy.



Hi Tex,
I highly recommend to "brush - up" your aerosling skills.

It's quite hard to do, but i believe it's the most fuel-efficient course to take.

Now... i haven't found the second method yet... :hmm:

---edit---
Yeap, the aerosling on Mars worked like a charm. Eventhough i have to admit i could have done a better job, (i had to make a 400 m/s course correction to get to Earth after the aerosling), i managed to land on KSC, 18.9 months after the scenario start, with 0.6 fuel still left in the DG.

I hope i'll find the time to make LUA scripts - this weekend - for this wonderful challenge.
Probably two versions:
1. For the least amount of fuel.
2. For the least amount of time.

Thanks again, flytandem!

:hail:

 

[dgatsoulis]

I'm attaching here a "scripted" version of flytandem's scenario.

The script i used is the same with the "2010 Edition\Challenges\Challenge 4 - Entry and landing" script.

Unzip the files in your Orbiter directory and run the Flytandem's Challenges\Go around scenario.

Have fun with this great challenge, happy orbiting!