Pioneer Mün Base

[Cydonian Monk]

A college friend of mine recently picked up the game and mentioned over some Twitter chatter about wanting to build a Mün Base... one of the many things I've yet to do in this game. So I decided to rectify that issue a couple weeks back by building a small base at the site I call "First Landing." (Where I first landed on the Mün with Hudwin Kerman, and where I've landed again 6 or 7 times.... Of course that was all in the Null Cycle Universe, so none of that really happened....)

First step in the project was to drop a Habitat Module on the Mün. I built a new launch vehicle, the Mauro Heavylift, using the new 3.75m NASA parts wrapped with a layer of the old 1.25m tanks to form a roughly 6.25m first stage. The first stage uses an S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster as its core and 12 LV-T30s mounted radially, and can manage some insane amount of mass to orbit that I've thus far failed to calculate. I added 6 strap-on solid rocket boosters to further increase the payload capacity. Second stage is a single Kerbodyne KR-2L. The landing stage "skycrane" for the habitat module used 3 LV-909s.

A while later and the boosters are dropped.... Hopefully not onto anything important. The zero-lift maneuver has to begin shortly thereafter or the vehicle will end up in much too high of an orbit (almost following Ferram rules, at 110m/s, though I'm still living in a stock world for this save).

The first stage separation is a multistage process. The interstage shroud is as much a structural member as it is a fairing, and as such can't be jettisoned until after the first stage has burned out. After those are jettisoned and are a decent distance form the craft the actual separation occurs. A short, low-thrust burn from the second stage pulls the two apart before the second stage is fully fired.

Once clear of the atmosphere the remainder of the fairing was jettisoned and the final orbital insertion burn was completed. The exposed base is visible in the shot below. This was the first of two different designs I was considering. For this design, the access tunnels were elevated above the base structure, and the module was intended to be landed on legs and adjusted to match any neighboring modules. The Pioneer Base Habitat has living quarters sufficient for 6 kerbals on a long duration mission, or so the geek on the ground calculate.

The transfer burn and the Münar capture burn all occurred in the dark, as is only proper with KSP. Once the landing site came within range I started setting up the descent, hunting for a nice, flat spot on the edge of the Farside Crater. The skycrane worked flawlessly, and the base landed very gently. Gentle enough that I decided to not use heavy landing legs on future modules.

With the base down I detached the skycrane and moved it to a "Garbage" crater more than 3km to the south. Just far enough to get outside of the draw distance and save my frame rate. Planning for the future here.

This mission wasn't without its share of severe bugs, and I had to spend a good bit of time fighting with the game just to get the second stage to decouple from the base module. Every time I tried to decouple the entire craft would explode into a shower of parts... not something that should happen based on how it was built.

So ultimately I had to edit the save file to replace the troubled part with a normal stackDecoupler. (Cheat? Maybe. But ultimately I would've just crashed this craft and launched a bug-free version later.) Yet even that hack had its issues, and ultimately I spent 30mins fighting this bug. I think the issue is ultimately caused by a confused part orientation, with the Top and Bottom attach nodes being reversed in the save (but not the craft file from the VAB). Weird. Something I'll watch out for in the future.

More updates in a little bit....

Edited March 28, 2016 by Cydonian Monk
Just fixing the title........

[Cydonian Monk]

The next phase of building Pioneer Base was to send up a small Greenhouse Experiment module, followed by a crew of 6, and a set of two Rothar-series rovers. Once again the various components were launched atop a Mauro Heavylift, using skycranes to soft-land on the surface (with the exception of the crew lander). The Greenhouse Lab's launch and transfer was identical to that of the Habitat module, except at night, and has been omitted. (No good photos.)

The touchdown next to the Habitat Module was also routine, and again I didn't get any photos worth sharing. The skycrane for the Greenhouse Lab was deposited 3km away in the "Garbage Crater." The Greenhouse Lab is not intended for ISRU or for edible growth, but will instead be used to investigate the viability of growing crops using Munar soil. If successful, later greenhouses will be sent up for crew-sustaining crops, though likely not until the interconnected second-gen base modules are ready.

Now to send up a crew.

Once again the crew and their Münar Shuttle was launched using a Mauro Heavylift. For those interested, the abort procedure for this launch was to jettison the fairings and fire the Shuttle's main engines and either abort to orbit or land on flames. Thankfully that wasn't necessary. To conserve fuel I used the (obviously overpowered) Mauro's second stage to perform the Münar Transfer and Capture burns, as well as the first of the descent burns. The second stage was jettisoned such that it would impact several kilometers beyond the base.

The Mün Surface Shuttle is a craft I designed back during Null Cycles when I was building the KARTE transit system. These shuttles are capable of ferrying six kerbals between a station in Low Munar Orbit and destinations up to 20º North or South of the equator on a full load of fuel. (And probably further if I want to press it.) It has a sufficient TWR to perform a powered landing on Kerbin should it be needed for a quick evacuation. Normally a craft such as this would be sent up to AnchorPoint Station, refueled, and then sent over to the Münar Transfer Station to await its crew. Except AnchorPoint and the Transfer Stations haven't been built, so I just sent the Shuttle up on its own.

Landing occurred right before Münar Sunset, but there was just enough light for the first crew of Pioneer Base to line up for their photo. From left to right: Gregory Kerman, Lobo Kerman, Hallock Kerman, Burvin Kerman, Joekin Kerman, and the base commander Roemy Kerman.

The two Rothar Series-C open rovers were launched atop yet another Mauro Heavylift, a vehicle which is rapidly becoming one of my most reliable launchers. Same script as before: launch with boosters, jettison boosters, Stage 1 Sep occurs around 50km. Use Stage 2 for circularization.

The two rovers were a bit heavier than the other things I've launched atop a Mauro thus far, and I needed to use their landing skycrane for both the Münar transfer and capture burns, as well as the full descent. Thankfully it was more than up for the job. The arrangement of the two rovers can be seen below. They were mounted back to back, with a ramp at the base of the lander to kick them out to the sides, and arrangement that had worked perfectly in tests on Kerbin.

Landing was another simple matter, though I targeted a spot a bit uphill from Pioneer Base. That way, should one of the rovers roll away after deployment, it would just coast down into the basin where the base modules are sitting.

Unfortunately the two rovers didn't cooperate while being deployed, and had to be "shaken" out of their cradles which caused them to flip over. This is exactly why I include self-righting legs on these things. A quick kick and they flip.

Although the Rothar Series-C includes a lander can, it's not intended to be driven from it. Instead it's included so the crew can stash it full of soil samples from the various nearby bikes or use in the Greenhouse experiment. Given the base's location, I should be able to visit 4 distinct biomes without spending too much time behind the wheel. Here Gregory and Hallock are out inspecting their new toys before going for a short joy ride.

After this small success I accelerated the development of the second-generation base modules. I decided to use the underframe of the Greenhouse Lab for the base of the new modules, as that made it easier to line up the docking ports and get everything arranged. The plan, which will be obvious in the next post, was to construct a large hex-grid facility using that structure. More on that in a bit....

[Cydonian Monk]

With my initial base designs for Pioneer Base now Mün-proven, construction continued on the next part of the facility. The new building was to be assembled from 10 independent modules, including 2 habitats, 1 lab, 1 communications array, and 6 greenhouse modules. This is expected to be able to support a crew of 6 indefinitely, assuming minimal atmosphere loss due to EVAs, and a crew of 12 for a few years.

As with before the modules were launched atop Mauro Heavylifts. This makes 14 successful launches of the Mauro.

First two launches were the Habitat Modules. I landed the first a good distance away from the existent base and spent some time bumping around the rover to find the absolutely flattest spot to build on.

Once I was happy with the location for the new facility I moved the first Habitat Module over and launched the next. Wash rinse repeat on the launch and transfer. I landed next to the first Habitat, set the throttle to a thrust to weight ratio of just around 1.0, and hovered into position using copious amounts of RCS and gently nudgings on the stick. It floated into place nicely.

So now with two launched I've tripled the crew capacity of the Mün. I left the sky cranes attached so I could move the combined facility around if the planned site turned out to be less than ideal.

Next I launched four of the planned six Greenhouses and the new Laboratory Tower. The Lab Tower was only a tiny bit heavier than the habitats, but the Greenhouses, being mostly glass, tested the limits of the Mauro launch and delivery system. Here an example of each can be seen during orbital circularization.

These base modules were assembled using the same mechanics as the two Habitat modules. The new facility was steadily growing.

The Laboratory Tower and the Communications Array were the two modules that would test an important question: Would two docking ports on each of the two legs be able to dock to the same ship at the same time. So, with the Lab Tower already installed, I landed the Comms Array and hovered slowly into place.... And was pleasantly surprised when both ports snapped into place, forming a continuous ring.

At this point I decided the frame rate near the base was getting to be a bit unmanageable. Since I was confident the location would work I went ahead and ditched the skycranes in Garbage Crater before sending up the final two Greenhouse Modules. This also provided the first view of the nearly completed base expansion.

Two routine launches later and the all of the base modules were on the Mün and installed. I deposited the last of the two skycranes in Garbage Crater (which is starting to get crowded) and set about moving the crew over to the new facility.

And with that Pioneer Base's Hudwin Hall was complete. The crew lined up for a new photo.

The name was chosen to honor Hudwin Kerman, who according to legend rode to the Mün after strapping several dozen rockets to the bottom of his recliner. He was subsequently stranded on the Mün, finding no spare rockets or extra fuel to refill his rickety little craft. As the legend goes, he was later visited by his friend Ronton Kerman, and rescued many centuries later by the great explorer Jebediah Kerman. Hudwin had allegedly lived for those many centuries on snacks grown from a magic plant which he had hidden inside his helmet.

Hudwin Hall is a very large facility, having been constructed over the course of the 10 very heavy launches with an average launch mass of 726,488kg. The complete facility has 641 parts and a total on-Mün mass of 180,930kg. Part count at one point in the construction (when the skycranes were still attached) was running well over 1,000 parts.

Base modules are connected by a tunnel system that runs along the base of the structure. Rough tests on Kerbin have led me to believe an unhelmeted Kerbal can stand upright in one of these structural tubes, which should make for a more comfortable arrangement than suiting up, running over to the next module, and then getting back out of the EVA suit. Not that I expect my Kerbals to do anything logical like that.

The crew has a bit of work ahead of them, as there are 30 new Greenhouses that need 30 new loads of Münar soil. Maybe I'll send up a new model of rover that can dock directly to the base modules, or maybe not as time over the next six weeks is not on my side. Hopefully you've enjoyed this little base building exercise of mine.

[fcbayerndm]

Wow, beautiful screenshots and a wonderful story to go with it! Great stuff Cydonian Monk!

[Cydonian Monk]

Thanks!

I was pleasantly surprised at how well this build ended up working, and glad I didn't wait for 0.24 before starting it (as was my original plan).

[Commander Zoom]

Fantastic post, and great engineering too! (And a use for cupolas that I hadn't considered...)

I'll definitely keep this in mind for my own next "cycle"...

[Cydonian Monk]

Fantastic post, and great engineering too! (And a use for cupolas that I hadn't considered...)

Thanks!

The Cupola module is probably one of my least-used parts (I think Kelgee Station was the first time I even launched a craft using the Cupola), at least until I decided I needed some stock-only part that could replicate a greenhouse.

[Rhyunix]

This is such a cool base! I like how the whole thing looks with the kind-of hexagonal theme *scribbles notes*

[Cydonian Monk]

Thanks!

I'm considering using this format for a Duna base as well, except on a slightly smaller scale and assembled in orbit. It would then use a skycrane/parachute assembly to deorbit and land. (And maybe some soccer balls for good measure.) I don't want to think about the amount of fuel I'd need to build it the same way I did for the Mün.

[Pipcard]

Amazing base design!

Hexagons = cool

[Cydonian Monk]

Thanks!

I almost didn't make the base into two Hexagons. After I realized how it was going to look, I had considered tweaking the modules to resemble a certain popular and highly addictive drug: Caffeine.

So instead of the six identical Greenhouses, I would have used 4 of the hex-Greenhouses and one large one to form the pentagonal second bond. Ultimately I decided function was more important than building a shrine to Java, The God of Awakeness.

[technion]

I have no idea how you managed to dock everything on the ground - but great job.

[Transits]

My god.

It's so beautiful!

[Cydonian Monk]

Thank you, both of you.

As for docking on the ground - the bottom of these modules are the large box trusses, which slide rather well across level terrain. (And can take a fair amount of damage.) So I would "hover" just barely and push the modules around until they lined up and clicked. This wouldn't work as well on uneven terrain.

[Tw1]

I like the "garbage crater" approach. For my own M.I.S.S.S. and Prograde City, I just flung the junk into the sky and let it land (crash) unloaded.

Where abouts is this Mun base btw? From the kerbin sky position, it can't be to far from my own.

[Cydonian Monk]

Thanks.

I'll try to post a map screenshot when I get home, but it's on the prograde face (left/west when looking at Mün from Kerbin), just a few degrees south of the equator and a bit east from the true prograde point (so that Kerbin is fully visible in the Eastern sky). Quicksave (pulled up from DropBox) tells me the base is roughly at lat:-2.25 lon:322.85.

[Cydonian Monk]

The promised map screenshot. The garbage crater is the one due south of the base. That large crater in the upper left is the Farside Crater. Also sorta visible: My Mün "biome" probes scattered across the surface.

[Tw1]

Ah. As suspected, my base is NNW from there, around the "nose" of the smiley face arrangement of craters. I'll have to hop over and visit some time

Edited June 19, 2014 by Tw1

[Cydonian Monk]

Heh.

Just like Motel 6, we'll leave a light on for you.

[Arvolder]

Download please ???

[Cydonian Monk]

For the save? Sure, why not. Added bonus: The save includes probes landed in almost all of the biomes (I'm missing a couple of the "wet" biomes on Kerbin) and on all the planets and moons. I've updated the save to change my flags to one of the default Squad flags, and had already scrubbed it of all the non-stock parts, so you should be able to load it without issues in stock KSP. This save has already been updated to the 0.24 format, so I can't promise it'll load in 0.23.5, and definitely won't load in anything earlier than that.

Here's the zip file: http://0div0.org/files/InMediasRes.zip

For the ships and craft files? They won't load in stock KSP, and you'll need the FASA launch clamps, Kerbal Engineer Redux (with the parts), and Procedural Fairings to load any of them. I'm not even sure I still have all of them, but you're welcome to try the ones that are in the zip file. There are a couple "incomplete projects" in the craft files that never made it to production too, like AnchorPoint Station and a Stock-ish Saturn V.

Also: This save file has had the dates updated to my "Standard Accepted Kerbin Era", where time 0 = the start of the first game I played in the 0.18.3 demo. I didn't actually spend 64 years building this.

Enjoy!

[Arvolder]

Thank you