KISP: KAA Integrated Space Plan - A Vision of the Future of Kerbalkind

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

KISP: KAA Integrated Space Plan - A Vision of the Future of Kerbalkind

In 1989, Ronald Jones of Rockwell International (manufacturer of the Space Shuttle orbiter, among other things) made a giant flowchart called the Integrated Space Plan. The original has been scanned in high-definition here on Makezine, converted into a vector file by a reader of that site, updated in 2015 into a slick website, and here's some BBC commentary and a Wired article on it. It basically laid out, on one chart, the visions of all of the world's aerospace agencies and companies, on a path from the Space Shuttle in the 1980's to the beginning of "Human expansion into the cosmos" in 2100. It is extremely optimistic, proposing that we would have multiple permanent bases in LEO and on the Moon by now (2015), lunar tourism by the end of this decade, and terraforming Venus and Mars starting in the mid-21st century (e.g. "Create new moons for Mars if required", ca. 2040), among other ambitious projects (though, given the success of the LADEE probe's laser communication demonstrator, we may get the "Advanced laser comm network" a couple of decades earlier than Jones thought we would). It's the kind of optimism and ambition that drives my interest in aerospace engineering, and I think that it's what drives a lot of what we do in Kerbal Space Program, so I wanted to make an Integrated Space Plan illustrating my ultimate plans for spreading Kerbalkind throughout their solar system (and beyond).

I haven't come close to achieving every goal yet (I've only launched a couple of probes into interplanetary space), but I'm working on it. Presenting the KAA Integrated Space Plan!

 

It comes in two forms. The first, vertically oriented, is what I call the "planets-in-sequence" approach, in which each planet's infrastructure is built up one after the other. The other, "planets-in-parallel", involves each planet's infrastructure being built up as soon as it is technologically feasible (launch windows and funding permitting, of course). Those of us who like to juggle a bunch of missions at once might find the parallel approach more familiar, though the sequential chart is more compact (and looks more like the original Integrated Space Plan to my eyes).

(I've put them both in spoiler blocks, since they're huge images.)

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Essential Addons

Some of the nodes are only meaningful (or become more meaningful) if certain addons are installed:

• AntennaRange to justify building communication networks.
  • AntennaRange Relays by yours truly (and its dependency, Contract Configurator) is recommended, to get some extra funds to make the relays happen.
• Community Tech Tree to give some of these mods' parts proper nodes of their own to live in.
• Extraplanetary Launchpads for off-world manufacturing.
• Home-Grown Rockets for 1.875m ("Size 1.5") parts, great for launching interplanetary probes, crewed moon flybys, and small land-and-return missions while staying light. It really helps to smooth out the jump from Size 1 to Size 2.
  • HGR Community Fixes by yours truly will bring HGR up-to-date for 1.1.
  • Filter Extension is recommended to give these parts (and lots of other wacky cross-sections as well, contributed by yours truly :)) proper icons and descriptions in the "Filter by Cross-Section" category.
• SCANSat for planetary mapping functionality.
• The Umbra Space Industries family for sounding rockets, colony parts, enhanced ISRU and asteroid mining, exploration parts, life support, survival bits, and advanced fusion and warp engines.

Recommended Addons

Other addons that I use which fit nicely in this plan:

• ADEPT (with dependency-removing and node-fixing patch to work in 1.0.x, with or without Deadly Reentry) and MonkeyWrench for heavy reusable (i.e. non-ablative) heat-shield parts.
  • MonkeyWrench's parts are likely going to be revised extensively, so be careful before using them, but the KIS configs (updated by yours truly) are pretty handy, and are available directly from the MonkeyWrench repository.
• Atomic Age and Nuclear Rockets (almost part of the USI family, still in development) for advanced nuclear engines.
• DDS4KSP by Lilleman, to crush old mods into less memory.
• Deep Freeze Continued to let explorers make long journeys without needing snacks in the meantime.
  • Field Experience (from Magico13's Modlets) so that said explorers don't have to come aaaallll the way back to Kerbin to gain the benefits of their experience.
• DMagic Orbital Science, Impact!, KDEX, Surface Experiments Pack, Starwaster's Probe Science Patches, and Tarsier Space Technologies for MOAR SCIENCE! Gotta unlock all of those new nodes somehow.
  • The Field Research contract pack to help grab new science.
• Kerbal Attachment System and Kerbal Inventory System for in-situ assembly, transfer, and repair options (I've saved several missions with them).
  • Infernal Robotics (with replacement models and expansion packs) for more articulation and in-situ assembly options.
  • Universal Storage and Multipurpose Express Pallet System (with my thermal and sorting patch) for more storage and transfer options.
  • OSE Workshop for in-situ part production.
• Karibou (almost part of the USI family, still in development) and KMPI (Inline Ballutes and Stork Delivery System) for heavy-duty lander and ground vehicle parts.
  • Be sure to grab the updated JSIPartUtilities and RasterPropMonitor from their respective repositories.
• Mk2 Expansion and Mk3 Expansion for more mid/late game spaceplane parts.
  • Instell Inc. Experimental Aerodynamics and Mk3 Hypersonic Systems for small and large (respectively) late game spaceplanes.
• The NecroBones family for super-heavy launchers (SpaceY and SpaceY Expanded), big lander parts (Lithobrake Exploration Technology), and filling a few stock gaps and supplying other nifty parts (Modular Rocket Systems).
  • If you're using stock aerodynamics, you'll need AnimatedDecouplers to let the MRS LAS shroud protect stuff.
• RLA Stockalike and SSR MicroSat for small satellites and launchers. (Most of SSR's "LV" parts are redundant with RLA or Sounding Rockets, so I've deleted those from my install.)
• SurfaceLights for lights that don't take up half the surface area of a spacecraft.
• Taurus HCV for heavy crewed vessels.
• Universal Docking Ports from Kip Engineering for universal space tugs and refueling stations.
• XT Landertrons repurposes some BD models into a set of Soyuz-like braking engines. (Be sure to grab my recompile.)

Extra Recommendations

I used to use these with 0.25, then I stopped during 1.0.x for memory reasons, and now that 1.1 brings Unity 5 and 64-bit executables, I'm using them again (and EVE). They're cool, but be advised that many of them take up lots of memory (>100 MB each in some cases) and are largely duplicated by several mods listed above.

• BoxSat, for small satellite parts and easy in-field assembly.
• Kerbonov for early- and mid-game airplane parts (especially for smaller vehicles),
• Angel-125's Mark One Laboratory Extension for early-game science and 1.875m parts.
• Nertea's Near Future Technologies and Kerbal Atomics for more mid-to-late-ish deep-space propulsion options, Stockalike Station Parts Expansion for some cool space station parts, Mk. IV Spaceplane System for massive cargo spaceplanes, Heat Control for nuclear reactor and ISRU cooling, and Cryogenic Engines for advanced chemical engines.
• Orbital Material Science (which has an unofficial 1.1 build) and Station Science for more science and more reasons to make space stations.
• Eskandare's Thermonuclear Turbines for some slick-sounding nuclear jets.

Former Recommendations

Addons which I don't use anymore (mostly because they've fallen out of date with the massive overhaul of 1.1, or I've grown away from them), but do fit in this plan:

• The ASET family, for landers (ALCOR), rovers (ERS and Portable Rover Components with KIS update patch) and Deployable Light Globes (and KIS update patch and Vanguard Technologies Plugin). Konquest will have more cool colonization bits when it gets completed.
  • Keep an eye on CxAerospace as well; it doesn't have any heat shielding ability yet, but it will, and it will have other cool colonization bits when it's finished.
• Asteroid Day for asteroid-hunting infrastructure.
• BahamutoD's Adjustable Landing Gear for flexibility in designing aircraft. They've also got motors, which is great for taxiing to survey waypoints with landed aircraft!
  • BahamutoD made some other cool stuff, like the Critter Crawler and retractable rocket engines (be sure you're using the BDAnimationModules.dll from Adjustable Landing Gear) and a set of docking parts, including shielded Size 2 docking ports, but mind the node orientations with that one. If you're going to use the Mk1-2 propulsion skirt, be sure to grab my hotfix patch.
• Civilian Population to allow colonies to be populated without having to bring new colonists aaaallll the way from Kerbin (handy for settling other planets, and for setting up Kerbinoid vs. Spacenoid conflicts -- feel free to use BD Armory to act out said conflicts, but that's beyond the scope of the Integrated Space Plan).
• Firespitter for early-game airplane parts (e.g. propellers, landing gear). (Obviously, I kept the plugin.)
• Hangar for keeping utility vehicles on-base without turning the game into "Space Slideshow Simulator 2011". (This one's going through beta testing for 1.0.x, so be careful.)
• Hooligan Labs for inflatable airships (handy for Eve or Laythe exploration -- or Kerbin exploration, for that matter).
  • Discreet Parts for collapsible airplanes and airships that can be carried inside or launched on top of rockets. (In 1.0.5, I used this instead of Hooligan Labs -- keeping the HL DLL only.)
• Kerbal Foundries for cool tank treads and hover parts.
  • KMPI Mobile Frame System for some slick utility rover chassis parts.
• Lack Luster Labs for more cool spacecraft parts (especially for long-range cruisers), and Stock Extension for more gap-filling. (I've kept the Mk3 ramp, the inline goo cannister, and the size 0 fairing and heat shield.)
  • Also Logan Darklighter's Eagle and Karbonite adaptations (Karbonite bits only work on 0.25, though).
• Netherdyne Mass Drivers (there's a WIP 1.0.4 revival) for kicking resources (or anything else, for that matter) from moon mines to orbital or planetary manufacturing plants.
• K. Yeon's OPT Space Plane Parts for...guess what.
• QuizTech Aero Pack for some later-game airplane parts. (I've kept the IntakeAir RCS ports.)
  • Also Dr. Jet's Chop Shop for more lander and rover parts.
• Solar Science for even MOAR SCIENCE!
• TAC-LS for a life support system grounded in reality (and a lot less forgiving).
  • Cargo Transfer Bags and HexCans have some nice storage parts for TAC-LS resources.
• Zero-Point Inline Fairings by NecroBones. If you're going to use this with stock aero, you'll need AnimatedDecouplers.

Alternate Suggestions

Addons which I haven't used (or don't use on my main install), but probably would fit nicely in this plan:

• Angel-125's Pathfinder and Buffalo for smaller "seed" colonies and exploration and Deep Space Exploration Vessels for mid- to late-game colonization parts.
• B9 Aerospace (with ongoing community updates) for heavy spaceplanes and spacecraft.
• Behemoth Aerospace Engineering for what I can only describe as ultra-heavy launchers.
• CactEye Orbital Telescope for more asteroid-hunting infrastructure.
• Dynamic Texture Loader, from the maker of ATM, to unload part textures until you're actually using the part in question.
• ESLD Jump Beacons or Parameciumkid's Jump Drive for in-system warp jumps.
• Extraplanetary Launchpads Extended for workshops in the USI MKS and OKS form factors.
• Interstellar (Extended) for more end-game options.
• KW Rocketry and NovaPunch for heavy rockets.
• Planetary Base Systems for collapsible base parts in an alternative form factor.
• RemoteTech or RemoteTech XF as an alternative to AntennaRange.
• Snacks! instead of TAC-LS or USI-LS, and the USI EZ-Snack Oven (may not work with 1.0.x) to close the loop. Are there any other life support systems that have ISRU support?
• WarpShip for advanced space exploration vessel parts and spacedocks.

Changelog

• 2015 Feb 06 -- Initial release.
• 2015 Sep 08 -- Version 1.1.
  • Updated chart to include size 1.5 vehicles.
  • Updated mod suggestions for 1.0.4.
• 2016 Mar 21 -- Updated mod suggestions for 1.0.5.
• 2016 Apr 28 -- Updated mod suggestions for 1.1.

Roadmap

I may refine or rearrange the plan over time, especially as I achieve more of the goals and get a better idea of what steps are prerequisites for what, but it probably won't change drastically. I might make a "KISP Chronicles" mission report series depicting my efforts as well.

Now that KSP 1.1 has the KSPedia system, I might be able to make a KISP chart that can be viewed in-game...

There are also a few very minor gaps in the space plan that aren't covered by the above list of mods. I'm working on making those myself...stay tuned!

Challenge

Note that I call this the KAA Integrated Space Plan for a reason -- it's very dependent on the technology tree and addons that I use, and my priorities. This is my plan. What's yours?

Edited April 29, 2016 by Kerbas_ad_astra
Updated mod recommendations for 1.1.

[Dres]

OOOOOOOOH! I would definitely want to make a career save based on the parallel plan. Star has been clicked

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

I'm glad you're interested -- and good luck! Space exploration is great, but it doesn't exactly pay the bills (though I guess you can be clever with satellite, station, and base contracts to build infrastructure, and ship expensive refinery products to Kerbin for more funds).

[Dres]

Yeah, that was I was planning to do. I'm planning to ship Korborundum back to Kerbin to recover it for money, because the engines generally require so little (I had a craft that had 12000 deltaV on twelve units of Korborundum, using the small engines).

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

The game has changed a lot over the last year. Surprisingly, the plan itself has held steady (though Home Grown Rockets's 1.875 m parts have grown on me so much that I've added a "Gen 1.5" node just for them), but the list of recommended mods has had some additions and, unfortunately, some removals (mostly because of memory limits -- the 32-bit struggle is real).

Also, I've been plugging along on my plan -- still no interplanetary missions yet (though I do have several Duna/Ike exploration contracts accepted), but here's the Kerbin Orbital Laboratory as it stands right now:

[davidy12]

I'd add the OPM mod. Also for colonization, what about Planetary base systems?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/127413-WIP-1-0-4-Kerbal-Planetary-Base-Systems-v0-2-2-Update-25-8-2015

Edited September 10, 2015 by davidy12

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

I'd add the OPM mod. Also for colonization, what about Planetary base systems?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/127413-WIP-1-0-4-Kerbal-Planetary-Base-Systems-v0-2-2-Update-25-8-2015

Sorry to let this reply sit unattended for so long!

I'm leaving out Outer Planets and other planet packs because the plan doesn't touch them at all (for that matter, neither does the original Integrated Space Plan -- Saturn and friends are scientifically interesting, but strategically, they're not known to offer anything we can't get at the Jupiter system).

And thanks for the heads-up on Planetary Base Systems. I look forward to being able to double-stack my colony modules!

On a sadder note, I've had to bump Orbital Material Science for memory reasons, so my Kerbin Orbital Laboratory is no more. (It will be replaced by a similar station which lacks the exposure platform.)

[Emperor of the Titan Squid]

On 2/6/2015 at 11:30 PM, Kerbas_ad_astra said:

KISP: KAA Integrated Space Plan - A Vision of the Future of Kerbalkind

In 1989, Ronald Jones of Rockwell International (manufacturer of the Space Shuttle orbiter, among other things) made a giant flowchart called the Integrated Space Plan. The original has been scanned in high-definition here on Makezine, converted into a vector file by a reader of that site, updated in 2015 into a slick website, and here's some BBC commentary and a Wired article on it. It basically laid out, on one chart, the visions of all of the world's aerospace agencies and companies, on a path from the Space Shuttle in the 1980's to the beginning of "Human expansion into the cosmos" in 2100. It is extremely optimistic, proposing that we would have multiple permanent bases in LEO and on the Moon by now (2015), lunar tourism by the end of this decade, and terraforming Venus and Mars starting in the mid-21st century (e.g. "Create new moons for Mars if required", ca. 2040), among other ambitious projects (though, given the success of the LADEE probe's laser communication demonstrator, we may get the "Advanced laser comm network" a couple of decades earlier than Jones thought we would). It's the kind of optimism and ambition that drives my interest in aerospace engineering, and I think that it's what drives a lot of what we do in Kerbal Space Program, so I wanted to make an Integrated Space Plan illustrating my ultimate plans for spreading Kerbalkind throughout their solar system (and beyond).

I haven't come close to achieving every goal yet (I've only launched a couple of probes into interplanetary space), but I'm working on it. Presenting the KAA Integrated Space Plan!

 

It comes in two forms. The first, vertically oriented, is what I call the "planets-in-sequence" approach, in which each planet's infrastructure is built up one after the other. The other, "planets-in-parallel", involves each planet's infrastructure being built up as soon as it is technologically feasible (launch windows and funding permitting, of course). Those of us who like to juggle a bunch of missions at once might find the parallel approach more familiar, though the sequential chart is more compact (and looks more like the original Integrated Space Plan to my eyes).

(I've put them both in spoiler blocks, since they're huge images.)

  Hide contents

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Essential Addons

Some of the nodes are only meaningful (or become more meaningful) if certain addons are installed:

• AntennaRange to justify building communication networks.
  • AntennaRange Relays by yours truly (and its dependency, Contract Configurator) is recommended, to get some extra funds to make the relays happen.
• Community Tech Tree to give some of these mods' parts proper nodes of their own to live in.
• Extraplanetary Launchpads for off-world manufacturing.
• Home-Grown Rockets for 1.875m ("Size 1.5") parts, great for launching interplanetary probes, crewed moon flybys, and small land-and-return missions while staying light. It really helps to smooth out the jump from Size 1 to Size 2.
  • HGR Community Fixes by yours truly will bring HGR up-to-date for 1.0.5.
  • Filter Extension is recommended to give these parts (and lots of other wacky cross-sections as well, contributed by yours truly :)) proper icons and descriptions in the "Filter by Cross-Section" category.
• Hooligan Labs for inflatable airships (handy for Eve or Laythe exploration -- or Kerbin exploration, for that matter).
  • Discreet Parts for collapsible airplanes and airships that can be carried inside or launched on top of rockets. (In 1.0.5, I use this instead of Hooligan Labs -- keeping the HL DLL only.)
• SCANSat for planetary mapping functionality.
• The Umbra Space Industries family for sounding rockets, colony parts, enhanced ISRU and asteroid mining, exploration parts, life support, survival bits, and advanced fusion and warp engines.

Recommended Addons

Other addons that I use which fit nicely in this plan:

• ADEPT (with dependency-removing and node-fixing patch to work in 1.0.x, with or without Deadly Reentry) and MonkeyWrench for heavy reusable (i.e. non-ablative) heat-shield parts.
  • MonkeyWrench's parts are likely going to be revised extensively, so be careful before using them, but the KIS configs (updated by yours truly) are pretty handy, and are available directly from the MonkeyWrench repository.
• Asteroid Day for asteroid-hunting infrastructure and large probe parts.
• Atomic Age and Nuclear Rockets (almost part of the USI family, still in development) for advanced nuclear engines.
• BahamutoD's Adjustable Landing Gear for flexibility in designing aircraft. They've also got motors, which is great for taxiing to survey waypoints with landed aircraft!
  • XT Landertrons repurposes some BD models into a set of Soyuz-like braking engines. (Be sure to grab charfa's 1.0.5 reboot.)
• DDS4KSP by Lilleman, to crush old mods into less memory.
• Deep Freeze Continued to let explorers make long journeys without needing snacks in the meantime.
  • Field Experience (from Magico13's Modlets) so that said explorers don't have to come aaaallll the way back to Kerbin to gain the benefits of their experience.
• DMagic Orbital Science, Impact!, KDEX, Surface Experiments Pack, Solar Science, Starwaster's Probe Science Patches, and Tarsier Space Technologies for MOAR SCIENCE! Gotta unlock all of those new nodes somehow.
  • The Field Research contract pack to help grab new science.
• Kerbal Attachment System and Kerbal Inventory System for in-situ assembly, transfer, and repair options (I've saved several missions with them).
  • Infernal Robotics (with replacement models and expansion packs) for more articulation and in-situ assembly options.
  • Universal Storage and Multipurpose Express Pallet System (with my thermal and sorting patch) for more storage and transfer options.
  • OSE Workshop for in-situ part production.
• Karibou (almost part of the USI family, still in development) and KMPI (Inline Ballutes, Mobile Frame System, and Stork Delivery System) for heavy-duty lander and ground vehicle parts.
  • Be sure to grab the updated JSIPartUtilities and RasterPropMonitor from their respective repositories.
• Mk2 Expansion and Mk3 Expansion for more mid/late game spaceplane parts.
  • Instell Inc. Experimental Aerodynamics and Mk3 Hypersonic Systems for small and large (respectively) late game spaceplanes.
• The NecroBones family for super-heavy launchers (SpaceY and SpaceY Expanded), big lander parts (Lithobrake Exploration Technology), and filling a few stock gaps and supplying other nifty parts (Modular Rocket Systems).
  • If you're using stock aerodynamics, you'll need AnimatedDecouplers to let the MRS LAS shroud protect stuff.
  • Also Dr. Jet's Chop Shop for more lander and rover parts.
• Netherdyne Mass Drivers (there's a WIP 1.0.4 revival) for kicking resources (or anything else, for that matter) from moon mines to orbital or planetary manufacturing plants.
• OpenGL to be able to use all of these addons at once (I use them all and then some, though I have had to remove EVE and move several mods that used to be on this list into the new "Former Recommendations" category below since 0.25).
• RLA Stockalike and SSR MicroSat for small satellites and launchers. (Most of SSR's "LV" parts are redundant with RLA or Sounding Rockets, so I've deleted those from my install.)
• SurfaceLights for lights that don't take up half the surface area of a spacecraft.
• Taurus HCV for heavy crewed vessels.
• Universal Docking Ports from Kip Engineering for universal space tugs and refueling stations.

Former Recommendations

Addons which I don't use anymore (mostly because of memory limits -- the game may load with them installed, but won't play for very long), but do fit in this plan:

• Active Texture Management for pre-DDS versions of KSP.
• The ASET family, for landers (ALCOR), rovers (ERS and Portable Rover Components with KIS update patch) and Deployable Light Globes (and KIS update patch and Vanguard Technologies Plugin). Konquest will have more cool colonization bits when it gets completed.
  • Keep an eye on CxAerospace as well; it doesn't have any heat shielding ability yet, but it will, and it will have other cool colonization bits when it's finished.
• BahamutoD made some other cool stuff, like the Critter Crawler and retractable rocket engines (be sure you're using the BDAnimationModules.dll from Adjustable Landing Gear) and a set of docking parts, including shielded Size 2 docking ports, but mind the node orientations with that one. If you're going to use the Mk1-2 propulsion skirt, be sure to grab my hotfix patch.
• BoxSat, for small satellite parts and easy in-field assembly.
• Civilian Population to allow colonies to be populated without having to bring new colonists aaaallll the way from Kerbin (handy for settling other planets, and for setting up Kerbinoid vs. Spacenoid conflicts -- feel free to use BD Armory to act out said conflicts, but that's beyond the scope of the Integrated Space Plan).
• Firespitter for early-game airplane parts (e.g. propellers, landing gear). (Obviously, I kept the plugin.)
• Hangar for keeping utility vehicles on-base without turning the game into "Space Slideshow Simulator 2011". (This one's going through beta testing for 1.0.x, so be careful.)
• Kerbal Foundries for cool tank treads and hover parts. (I've kept the plugin, as it's a dependency for the mecanum wheels of the Infernal Robotics reboot.)
• Kerbonov for early- and mid-game airplane parts (especially for smaller vehicles), and QuizTech Aero Pack for some later-game airplane parts. (I've kept the Kerbonov heavy command seat, probe RCS, hood ornament, and grid fins, and the QuizTech IntakeAir RCS ports.)
• Lack Luster Labs for more cool spacecraft parts (especially for long-range cruisers), and Stock Extension for more gap-filling. (I've kept the Mk3 ramp, the inline goo cannister, and the size 0 fairing and heat shield.)
  • Also Logan Darklighter's Eagle and Karbonite adaptations (Karbonite bits only work on 0.25, though).
• Nertea's Near Future Technologies for more mid-to-late-ish deep-space propulsion options (I've kept Near Future Spacecraft for the big command pod), Stockalike Station Parts Expansion for some cool space station parts, Mk. IV Spaceplane System for massive cargo spaceplanes, and Cryogenic Engines for advanced chemical engines.
  • Also K. Yeon's OPT Space Plane Parts for...guess what.
• Orbital Material Science (which has an unofficial 1.0.4 build) and Station Science for more science and more reasons to make space stations. I've kept KEES from OMS, but the rest was just too heavy.
• TAC-LS (not removed for memory, but replaced by USI-LS).
  • Cargo Transfer Bags and HexCans have some nice storage parts for TAC-LS resources.
• Zero-Point Inline Fairings by NecroBones. If you're going to use this with stock aero, you'll need AnimatedDecouplers and my patch until the next release.

Alternate Suggestions

Addons which I haven't used (or don't use on my main install), but probably would fit nicely in this plan:

• Angel-125's Pathfinder and Buffalo for smaller "seed" colonies and exploration, Mark One Laboratory Extension for early-game science and 1.875m parts, and Deep Space Exploration Vessels for mid- to late-game colonization parts.
• B9 Aerospace (with ongoing community updates) for heavy spaceplanes and spacecraft.
• Behemoth Aerospace Engineering for what I can only describe as ultra-heavy launchers.
• CactEye Orbital Telescope for more asteroid-hunting infrastructure.
• Dynamic Texture Loader, from the maker of ATM, to unload part textures until you're actually using the part in question. (It doesn't seem to benefit me much, since I'm using OpenGL. I'm keeping an eye on it, though!)
• ESLD Jump Beacons or Parameciumkid's Jump Drive for in-system warp jumps.
• Extraplanetary Launchpads Extended for workshops in the USI MKS and OKS form factors.
• Interstellar (Extended) for more end-game options.
• KW Rocketry and NovaPunch for heavy rockets.
• Planetary Base Systems for collapsible base parts in an alternative form factor.
• RemoteTech or RemoteTech XF as an alternative to AntennaRange.
• Snacks! instead of TAC-LS or USI-LS, and the USI EZ-Snack Oven (may not work with 1.0.x) to close the loop. Are there any other life support systems that have ISRU support?
• WarpShip for advanced space exploration vessel parts and spacedocks.

Changelog

• 2015 Feb 06 -- Initial release.
• 2015 Sep 08 -- Version 1.1.
  • Updated chart to include size 1.5 vehicles.
  • Updated mod suggestions for 1.0.4.
• 2016 Mar 21 -- Updated mod suggestions for 1.0.5.

Roadmap

I may refine or rearrange the plan over time, especially as I achieve more of the goals and get a better idea of what steps are prerequisites for what, but it probably won't change drastically. I might make a "KISP Chronicles" mission report series depicting my efforts as well.

In the long run, I'm kind of interested in making an addon out of it. It could be a roadmap that can be seen in-game, highlighting which steps have been achieved and suggesting technologies to help achieve the next steps. I've seen that some people like to play science mode, but struggle to seek inspiration for further missions once they've mastered flight, docking, inter-body transfer, and landing in the Kerbin-Mun-Minmus system; a chart like this, I think, would give them a good vision of what's possible, as well as a concrete path to achieving it.

There are also a few very minor gaps in the space plan that aren't covered by the above list of mods. I'm working on making those myself...stay tuned!

Challenge

Note that I call this the KAA Integrated Space Plan for a reason -- it's very dependent on the technology tree and addons that I use, and my priorities. This is my plan. What's yours?

This is really cool. I would hope to see it as an add on.

[Emperor of the Titan Squid]

why isn't anyone here? it seems like a good idea.

[Ourworldalpha1]

Im trying this with 1.2.2

You should make this a modpack, because it took me 2 hours to get the mod's uploaded

cheers

[linuxgurugamer]

I hate necro'ing a thread, but this is fantastic.  I have the original ISP, the redrawn one and the new one, will be putting them up on my office wall when construction is completed.  I'll probably get one of these made into a poster and put it up as well.

@Kerbas_ad_astra Would you be interested in collaborating on a set of missions to work through all of this?  I'm thinking that first we can define the missions, then work on a contract pack to go through all of them.

Using CKAN, it would be quite simple to create a ckan file to install all required/recommended mods

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by linuxgurugamer