PT

Continuing from last time... Some corpo really wanted a useless space station above Kerbin, so they ended up financing part of Watchtower II refuelling depot. We do not talk about Watchtower I. Albion arrived on fumes, puffing monoprop to match vectors, while Luna puffed LOX due to unexpected monoprop shortages... Based around triple core of https://spacedock.info/mod/364/Davon Supply Mod, it will serve to simplify boring parts of space fleet supply chain. Refuelling process highlighted lack of docking port pumps in my modset... Once both cruisers were neatly tucked in and pumped full of explosive goodies, empty drop pod arrived to take current passengers down dirtside. Next pod will be sent full, and wait at Watchtower for return trip, launching Albion full saved a bit of kash but made managing contracts annoying. Tourist bus looks like something made from medical silicon would, and lacks proper deorbit engines so RCS took half of hour to do it... at least it was compact enough to not invoke kraken an physics warp. Bill took a free seat on Albion and organized an adhoc show on servicing a satellite. Turns out nothing was broken, so it took some convincing for contractee to pay out. And after few weeks hoffmaning between moons everyone was back together. Albion got so famous that kerbs want to visit it for bragging rights, however civilians have some trouble booking tickets for docked ships... Not very eventful day, but important milestone non the less.

After harvesting kerputation and kash with Albion I cobbled together a modest science cruiser, added too much science cargo, added boosters, filled remaining docking ports with more landers and drones, so needed a quick and dirty tanker/booster... And then slowly seeded satellites on the way to Mun Sherfal played with wild rocks And then Luna shed its tail while Jeb made fun of scientists for calculating transfer to Minmus instead of just doing full burn at second start to the right... While previously detached satellites began magnetic field survey After some time Minmus got encircled for the first time, and pair of crappy drones got dropped to test structural integrity of surface Followed by obligatory taste test of new rocks. Apparently they taste like frostbite. And on suboptimal return trajectory last satellite was ejected into solar orbit With station-science modules not yet finished with experiments cargo had to be rebalanced a bit, then Jeb took Bill and Sherfal down to surface in drop pod to satisfy some annoying contract requirements.

After a year+ of A break, I stared new career. And of course I had to start building a space fleet yet again... As nice looking starships are expensive I whipped up a passenger cruiser to bounce from LKO to Mun and Minmus to drain cash from civilian sector for my orbital endeavours.

Today I got surprised that my new toy took only 3 days for delivery so of course I had to check out KSP... Default "steam controller" bindings turns out to be either unplayable, or unintuitive, or both.

I took Astarte to Mun, and finally drained last ascent boosters... Got some science from two biomes... Failed to establish comsat constelation with micro drones, RCS dV readouts are problematic, but at least they looked nice. And upon return to Kerbin Bob fiddled with secret cargo mumbling something about "only way to be sure".... ... Then there was time to replace one screaming gaggle of tourist to another. I probably kerbed around too much in this game if I can make ugly SSTO droppod from random parts in first attempt, wasn't it supposed to be hard?

I managed to scrounge enough funds to send a gaggle of drones.... ... inside double ribbed rocket, for science and pleasure I guess... ... choke full of space goodies ... .. and after surprisingly stable flight it reached its destination... A new and shiny space cruiser! It was financed by advance payments of both science and tourist missions so it ended up as a ship for nerds, where they can engage in such experiments as testing ice cream in space! At impressive ~0.6 TWR under full load. As experiments are comfortably nested in cargo holds, for aesthetic reasons, a servo is used to rotate MOLE segments for easy clicking! Not the ugliest vessel I have cobbled together, and even somewhat practical. To be continued ...

Switch to other craft in higher orbit? There's always some contract junk satellite floating around in silly orbit. But it would be good to have some kind of KAC to not miss maneuver. Tonight I continued looking for funds, thus I sent some cost-optimized trashcans on silly missions, and even managed to make them not look too ugly. And then I discovered MOLE research stopped working after last modding foray, blah.

Tonight started by doubling KSP load time with moar mods, and then I started looking for funds for next overly expensive spaceships.... Three satellites got launched to do some magnetic field science for long time ... but of course I had to do in in single launch of experimental vessel ... Due to some staging issues Jeb landed with more parts than expected ... In meantime I found not just a boulder, but a rock!

I made a horrible thing Then flew that thing to Mun... ... and back after dropping two horrible landers Being capable of harsh aerobraking came at a cost of ~300m/s dV while saving over 800 on return trip.

Standard ports stick out further so it obstructed bigger cargo using Juniors. So mixing port sizes works only for micro cargo, like that tug drone, or if port is designed to stick out. Which I forgot to do so mission was mostly a failure.

Continuing from last episode... I screwed up. A lot. I forgot that standard docking ports are higher that Juniors, so I couldn't dock most of payload for Mun mission. So I took just one rover, left engine section in low orbit... Successfully landed and deployed rover... And found out that all deployable science experiments felt out of boxes somewhere on the way... At least elevator works fine.

Continuing from last episode... Today I noticed that in-flight resource meter shows OX above LF, while VAB numbers and part info shows LF first which explained why my tankers kept arriving with not enough fuel... In meantime I did the usual stuff, surprisingly without any (unplanned) explosions and amazingly docked everything in sunlight. I upgraded Alpha with a module designed to balance weight of its passenger cabin while looking nice, because MJ Differential Throttle couldn't keep it on course once Mun probes landed back on Kerbin. Turns out it was not needed, as I just had wrong control point selected after last docking. But at least I can get rid of that dorky bolt-on battery sticking on its nose while telling VIP's they got better seats available Once Snail upgrade was in place I added some more fuel.... And told MJ to do its job while I wrote this post... Of course four maneuvers with low TwR and SoI change made a mess, but it was expected so I planned-in significant margin of error and only LKO injection had to be recreated to avoid unexpected lithobraking. Two fresh tourists dumb enough to pick my space program for LKO visit were (ab)used as sponsors for return flight of Munar tour. From now on ascent rocket will await in LKO to get civies back to sea level, previous flight got mixed with crew return so there was imbalance in available seats. After getting paycheck worth of 13 tourists with fresh PTSD I snatched sponsors for two space stations a small LKO yacht for orbital slave hunt and another for finally leaving Kerbin SoI... but for that I need some moon rocks to discover how to build relay antennas.

Continuing from last episode... I enjoyed some structural integrity issues at night But after some redesign a freshly commissioned Carryall ejected spent ascent stage and unfolded its stubby solar wings. One tedious launch later a temporary engine section arrived. Nuclear replacement should become available after landing on Kerbin moons. Now it awaits some tanker flights and up to 72 tonnes of cargo to Munar surface.

Continuing from last episode... I went back to Mun with a cargo of two landers, contract satellite, and a gaggle of screeching tourists. Due to limits of early career lander barely managed to return,. With ~1300 dV and 4+ TwR it should work, but it was too unstable to be reliable. A look at Alpha remaining 3700 dV lead to quick visit to Minmus where landing was, obviously, a breeze despite imbalanced thrust. I decided against strip-mining and returned with just one drop per pod. Safe return of landers to Kerbin was primary objective to push forward World's First missions. Few wasteful burns later pods were dropped into atmosphere, cabins got re-kerbed with second batch of tourists, and Alpha officially became a passenger ship. On the way a fresh Kerbonaut was kidnapped from stranded pod, but she turned out to be disappointment engineer so I'll have to enslave some pilots for hard cash. While designing a starship for mission a problem of size came out. Having 5k LF and 7 seats conflicted with requirements for unassisted Mun/Minmus landing, so order was put for basic Carryall to finally obtain Mun rocks while a fresh, big, model will wait for better antennas... and some interplanetary transfer window.

Continuing from previous episode... I rescued stranded Alpha starship with freshly contracted passenger module expansion, already packed with terrified civilian space frogs wishing to fly around Mun. For some reason my starships tend to count as space station for contracts so I decided to keep requested expansions as permanent modules, thus lack of deorbiting capability in passenger module (and matching visual style, which is important!). Resulting mass saving allowed me to bring a hefty space tug drone and enough leftover fuel to get back into LKO. Continuing with headcanon that station=starship, I accepted request for new cruiser from Reaction Systems LTD capable of reaching Mun orbit with 4000 LF and 5000 EC. Hopefully Alpha second Munar voyage will get me enough science and funds to resurrect Carryall class from my last campaign. With limited funds, lacking base upgrades, and stone age technology, I struggled on to equip some fancy cargo on Alpha, but first I needed some more dV and raw omph to carry all that junk and dead mass around. And that joy of carrying satellites to space without cargo bays or fairings... But just in three launches I got Alpha blasting toward Mun for second time. Just a tad shy of 100 tons, with modest ~4500 dV (depends on cargo weight and thrust vectoring loses) powered by five measly terriers to get some extra mileage out of it. I refueled center tanks with leftovers from rendezvous stages of boosters, so that's one launch successfully avoided! Should be enough for Kerbin SOI tourism and lightweight science. Cargo: 6x tourist 2x reusable unkerbed Mun landers 1x contract satellite loooots of spare fuels for landers

Today I checked out what changed over last year, started new career and as always began creating starfleet yet again. With just Kerbin orbital science I crafted primitive inter-munar cruiser Alpha, which got to high orbit for science and missions thus unlocking solar panels... After Valentina got energy module and a bucket of fuel to three orbital stooges I got reminded that in Career you gotta do expensive upgrades to pump fuel around... So I took it whole to Mun orbit, got enough rewards for upgrade, ditched tanker, returned to Kerbin... and got stuck in elliptic orbit as stock dV readout lied to me. Oh well, Valentine drop-pod can circularize and descent on its own, at least I'll get reward for returning from Mun orbit? Nah. I forgot to put on radial chutes after putting docking port on top... So now I have to do a rescue with a low tech drone... Ugh. After flying around with a piece of junk loaded with horrified tourists... I got Valentine back and with a hefty bit of science I upgraded my suicide can to carry more fresh meat, and it became mostly reusable! Several rendezvous maneuvers later I decided that despite huge improvements, stock maneuver nodes are not enjoyable to use when precise plane matching is required. Apparently I prefer to have at least Apollo level of technology of computer assist, so back to MJ and KER it is... Next set of missions will be several launches of suicide cans to fund refuel of Alpha, expanding it to 10 Kerbs because some investor mistook it for space station, fill it with few Mun tourists, saddle it with contract satellites, and a Munar lander and maybe a rover. Because I gotta learn what in tarnation a Mun Stone, and how to load it on board. Yaay changes I have not read patchontes about!

Continuing from last time... I managed to gather everything together and 3rd Munar mission has begun. In style. All pieces of unwieldy cargo have been delivered in brutal way, then slowly docked. IGNITION! Once in high Munar orbit new space telescope and two scansat/relays have been shed And BigSky descended to low orbit where it left its RocketPack And landed on Mun Contracted outpost have been skycraned and after short hop two rovers have been released. TODO: Find some Mun rocks! Catch some wild Kerbs in Munar orbit Return that horde back to Kerbin Prepare for Minmus mission! BigSky has been added to https://kerbalx.com/hangars/96594 however new version must follow as serious design errors have been made, it sure needs more space in underbelly and its "OMS" terrier is too weak to be of use in early phases of landing.

Continuing from last time... I installed ScanSat mod to make biome-specific missions easier. And while testing dual-sat delivery system I played around with KS3P: And some more design, deliver and resupply in meantime.

Continuing from last time... More designing, launching, refueling. Then I checked out how my brainfarts look like in 4K. Without smart UI scaling KSP is not very playable at 50''.

Continuing from last time... I mostly designed and tested stuff for 3rd Mun mission, and first Minmus escapade. With focus of this career being on spaceships carrying around stuff I am both limited in design and freed from taking care of transfer stages. While testing armoured rover (Konstruction mod) I decided to finally check that dark speck near launchpad After failing to get any science from that black slab I went out to find a tree While designing payload I kept encountering same issue in each piece so I decided to resolve it all at once, and in style Stay tuned for great unboxing ;] TODO: ASE that will find that pesky Minmus Deliver space station to Minmus Explore Minmus (ughhh) Land bunch of tourists on Mun! Keep hunting for more stranded Kerbs Improve droppods to remove stability issues during burn Scan Baobab tree o_O Obtain Mun rocks!

Continuing from last time... I devised lander with return pod to finally complete Mun Exploration contract, new ASE to find Minmus, docked them to Caryall together with space station and sent it all to Mun. Vanilia deltaV stats gave out, so now I have to fully rely on MJ and KER to properly execute maneuvers... Once in Mun orbit I found some stranded Kerb, as he was in perfect orbit for my station I decided to do all maneuvers at once. ASE retained its docking scaffolding as I decided to mount it as station module rather than separate drone. Afterwards Jeb led landing party, and personally planted contracted flag. Lander managed short hop to another biome, then feed the science to newly assembled Munar Observatory. Turns out telescopes have orbit height requirements, looks like I'll have to send another one out. After routine return, remaining cargo was jettisoned and Jeb happily took Mun lander back to Kerbin for that pesky mission. While tourists were subjected to test They survived. TODO: ASE that will find that pesky Minmus Deliver space station to Minmus Explore Minmus (ughhh) Land bunch of tourists on Mun! Hunt for more stranded Kerbs Improve droppods to remove stability issues during burn Scan Baobab tree o_O

Continuing from last time... I improved and tested support infrastructure for my fleet. Refueled both starship at same time with bigger tanker. Now with RCS refueling capability. Then after capturing rescuing some stranded Kerbs I sent them together with Caryall crew back to Kerbin for level up. They also survived successful test of single-stage multi-pod deorbit maneuver. One pod, worthy three unlucky Kerbs, left. After successful test Aviary Droppod (and optionally crew delivery) module entered mass production. Caryall received its own module as some tourist want to visit Mun, but this time primary cargo is contracted space station. Because "Return to Kerbin" contract requires part, not Kerbal, I now have to send another Mun lander but this time capable of return.... TODO new Mun lander spysat to find that pesky Minmus finish 2nd Mun mission

Aviary predecessor is Caryall: ...which I named after C&C Caryall: ...which, if I remember correctly, was inspired by that ugly Sikorsky skycrane chopper: Its also result of my previous experiments with reusable cargo spaceships where I learned that inline cargo sucks, limpet cargo sucks even more, and internal cargo sucks most. So I finally made cargo "hold" that is inline, internal and limpet at same time! Its convex spine is actually making it very good at load-balancing! By docking cargo in underbelly it becomes inline with CoT, and weight of spine tanks then aligns CoM with CoT. Additionally I can use spinal tanks for trimming CoM around with fuel. That design only has tiny problems when flying empty and fully fueled (which, of course, is rare), as ship itself has obvious misalignment of CoM/CoT. Caryall can easily takes care of that with differential throttle thanks to widely spaced engines, Aviary single engine however had to compensate with vectored thrust (and some reaction wheels dark magic). If you'll look at screenshots with loaded ships you should notice that cargo is designed to balance everything out. Once I laid the desired command section and cargo spine I attach dummy cargo, then I build engine section to deliver required dV. So once its loaded everything is fine. As for Aviary itself, I was reading through Honorverse novels while testflighting, and there was part with Aviary class carrier spaceships in combat right when I needed name. I made KerbalX hangar for my spaceships, because there will be more of them in this save :]

Continuing from last time... I commissioned Aviary frigate to operate in Kerbin sphere. First mission was to send Caryall crew back to Kerbin, and gather few stranded Kerbs. To make it reusable, and keep drop pods simple, I decided to deliver trio of them in bulk as underbelly cargo. As you can see, its pretty much downsized, modernized, version of Caryall which makes docking them together very easy and visually pleasing. TODO: refuel gather more stranded Kerbs drop kerbed pods find Minmus (Research Bodies) haul modules for contracted Munar station using Caryall decide which ship to send for passenger Munar cruise

Continuing from last time... I sent Caryall to Mun, for SCIENCE! And some cash. In meantime I learned that there are some solid rocks scattered on Mun nowadays, gotta figure how to get science from them... I also learned that stacking screenshot from orbit and surface combine very well Spaceship left with ~4300dV, and once all cargo was dropped it returned with ~3000dV and roughly one third of fuel left.