Luovahulluus

My mission report thread is open! The first step was to build a mobile base, and test it on Minmus.

This is my attempt at the Jool 500 Challenge. In short, it means having a 500 kerbal colony in the moons of Jool. I've never used a life support before, or even any kind of in situ resource utilization. To learn all this, I first made a proof-of-concept mobile base that I flew to minmus. The launch mass of the base was 175 656kg. The plan is to use something similar in every moon of Jool, and then expand them until I have 500 Kerbals. I can only play about one hour per day, so progress will be slow. Mod list: KSP: 1.1.2 (Win64) - Unity: 5.2.4f1 - OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit MagiCore - 1.1.1 Filter Extensions - 2.6 Toolbar - 1.7.12 USI Tools - 0.7.2.1 AutomatedScreenshots - 0.7.3 B9 Animation Modules - 1.0.2 B9 Part Switch - 1.3 B9 Aerospace - 6.1.1 B9 Aerospace - 6.1.1 B9 Aerospace HX Parts - 6.1.1 B9 Aerospace Legacy Parts - 6.1.1 B9 Aerospace Procedural Parts - 0.40.7 Behemoth Aerospace Engineering Large Parts - 1.2.2 Camera Focus Changer - 0.9 Chatterer - 0.9.8.1230 Color Coded Canisters - 1.4.8 Colorful Fuel Lines - 0.3.2 Community Resource Pack - 0.5.2 DMagic Orbital Science - 1.3 CapCom Mission Control On The Go - 1.0.2.2 Contract Parser - 1.0.3 Progress Parser - 1.0.4 EditorExtensionsRedux - 3.2.12 Firespitter - 7.2.4 Kerabl Optical Alignment System - 1.0.3 Fuel Tanks Plus - 1.9.3 Interstellar Fuel Switch - 2.0.7 RasterPropMonitor - 0.26 Kerbal Attachment System - 0.5.7 Kerbal Engineer Redux - 1.1.1 Kerbal Joint Reinforcement - 3.1.7 Kerbal Inventory System - 1.2.10 kOS - 0.20.1 KSP-AVC Plugin - 1.1.6.1 Lithobrake Exploration Technologies - 0.3.5 Infernal Robots - 2.0.4 Docking Port Alignment Indicator - 6.4 NearFutureConstruction - 0.6.3 NearFutureElectrical - 0.7.4 NearFuturePropulsion - 0.7.2 NearFutureSolar - 0.6.1 NearFutureSpacecraft - 0.5 Final Frontier - 1.0.10.2467 Kerbal Planetary Base Systems - 1.1 DeepFreeze Continued... - 0.22.1 SCANsat - 1.1.6.1 ShipManifest - 5.1 SpaceY Expanded - 1.1.9 SpaceY Lifters - 1.12.9 Trajectories - 1.6.2 Kerbal Alarm Clock - 3.6.3 TweakScale - 2.2.12 USI Core - 0.2.3 USI Exploration Pack - 0.5.3 Freight Transport Tech - 0.5.3 Kolonization Core - 0.2.3.1 USI-LS - 0.4.3.1 USI Survivability Pack - 0.5.3 UKS - 0.40.3 WildBlueTools - 1.2.5 Buffalo - 0.2.15 Pathfinder - 0.9.25 [x] Science! - 4.18 I will add some visual mods at some point.

This thread has been surprisingly quiet. Let's try to change that! To me, it makes the most sense to have four small bases on four of the moons, and a few big ones on Laythe. The plan is to make the small ones mobile. The big ones will be at Laythe because it's the prettiest place to live in with abundant water and Kerbin-like gravity. I'd also like to imagine there is some kind of primitive life (because of the free oxygen in the atmosphere) so there is more to study than at the other moons. It's also fairly easy to land stuff there. My proof-of-concept base just landed on Minmus. I will be opening a mission report thread at some point.

Actually, it's an MKS thing. The wiki page explaining the usage of Livingspace variable is here: https://github.com/BobPalmer/MKS/wiki/Efficiency-and-Load#crewEfficiency. In short, having enough Livingspace makes the Kerbals happy, which in turn makes them productive i.e. the efficiency of the part goes up. There are two parts that have Livingspace, the OKS Habitation Ring and MK-V Habitation Module. They have a code like this in the part's .cfg: MODULE { name = MKSModule workSpace = 0 livingSpace = 10 hasGenerators = false } Livingspace and Workspace are never referenced in-game, which is a strange design decision IMO, but they are still used to calculate efficiency.

I couldn't find any mention of livingspace in that cfg or in the cfg of the parts. I guess I'm stuck using the the two MKS parts. I even checked, it really is called livingspace in the MKS part's cfg.

I'm using this mod with MKS and USI-LS. I couldn't find any documentation, does any of the habitation modules have Livingspace? The kind that is needed for the kerbals to be productive.

Just wanted to chime in and say I'm starting a new career game to attempt this challenge. I already did it once, but managed to corrupt my saves playing around with installing more mods when moving from 1.1 to 1.1.2. I'm trying to keep it quite realistic: I will not bring with me lots of stuff I don't need, like a lifter that has no specific purpose planned. I guess that makes it an easy level entry. I'm using USI life support and a bunch of other mods. @eloquentJane, on page 4 you say "As for the career games, I did suggest having maximum returns on funds and science so that it's quicker to unlock everything". The first post doesn't mention maximum funds being allowed. Are they?

@eloquentJane. The difference between stock contracts and an epic challenge as the Jool 500 is the scale. I don't mind doing a quick contract for some money/science rewards, even if it really doesn't make any sense. The reward in this challenge is the accomplishment. That's why, in my opinion, we should have as much freedom to design stuff as possible. That makes the accomplishment even greater. So instead of having a 25ton lifter sitting at Tylo, you could tell a story that the scientist back home need 25 tons of soil samples from Tylo, and you get 5 points for delivering it to Kerbin. (You can use that if you want to.) Now the lifter has a purpose. I'm sure people will come up with so much more creative solutions when there is more room to play with. Btw. Kerbal Crew Manifest lets you add, edit and remove kerbals to your roster. I don't know if that's too cheaty for your taste, but it's updated to 1.1

@eloquentJane, you wanted feedback, so here comes. You said, in reply to me: "You don't have to complete all of [the categories] to qualify but you need to at least attempt every category of the challenge." And later: "You win if you make a self-sustaining colony of 500 kerbals in the Jool system in a semi-realistic fashion as intended by the layout of the challenge; at the most basic level that's all there is to it." I think you should be more clear in your op what is absolutely necessary and what is for points. The biggest problem I have with the challenge is, you tell us how to do, instead of what needs to be achieved. Like the 25ton Tylo lifter: instead of telling us we have to have one (for no apparent reason), explain to us what needs to be achieved, and let us figure out ourselves that we need a 25ton lifter or something similar. That gives us a feeling that we are planning our own colony instead of fulfilling your vision of it. Another example, the satellite network. Setting it up is a great achievement, and should be rewarded (if you feel like it). However, my kerbals use the instantaneous subspace communication, and the work required to set up the network (just because you want there to be one) seems kind of moot. If the task was clearly marked as optional, it wouldn't seem like such a chore. Those who have a lot of time to play the game and want the points would still do it. Those of us who can only play 5 to 15 hours a week can just skip it and still create a big, self-sustaining colony in a reasonable amount of real life time. People attempting the hard level are going to need to do some kind of network anyway, as they are using remote tech. I also don't see a reason why you are making limits for how heavy our satellites, probes and landers are. Making larger stuff requires a larger and more expensive lifter. You already have a system in place that penalizes large stuff. No need to make it a hard rule. All that said, I'm still going to attempt to create a colony, my vision of it. And I appreciate the work you have done to set this challenge up.

After reading @Jetski's mission reports, I decided to give this challenge a go. I just installed 1.1 for the first time. I have previously played with mostly stock game, but now I installed almost all of the approved mods I could find on Ckan. I've never used a life support mod before, let's see how lost I will be with the USI mods… Editor Extensions Redux has not been approved. I think it should be.

@eloquentJane Thanks for the clarification.

Just to make sure, do i really need to make rovers that carry rovers to qualify even on the easy level? That seems kind of limiting. If I really need to transport multiple vehicles to a new location, can't I just drive them individually? Electric rovers have an unlimited range after all, if they can generate their own electicity. Or make a kOS script to make everyone follow the leader. I really like the idea of colonizing the Jool system, but this is a very specific vision of how it should be done. I also dislike repetition I need to do to set up the satellite networks etc. My game time is limited, and I'd rather do something I've never done before, instead of multiple very similar satellite launches/deployments. I'm not sure if I want to do all the categories fully, but I might give this a shot later.

Please don't do that. It's going to change the nature of the whole challenge. This is supposed to be the mission we design rockets way larger than anything before. ISRU makes the rockets too small.

I just realized, those windows are on the floors and ceilings of the ring. Wouldn't it make more sense if the windows were on the walls?

Your tutorial seems very thorough, although I didn't find the information I was looking for: what kind of twr do I need at different stages? (I'm planning to land and lift-off at Laythe.) I didn't read it all, but I noticed you have a small mistake in there: you can't use jets at Jool.

Depends a lot of the craft. Some rockets I manage to land within 500m of the estimated landing site, some an eighth of a planet away. Anyway, I find it is easier to plan a landing with it.

I'm planning to do this challenge again. I did it Jebediah level back in 0.24, when mach 20 aerobrake was just a gentle breeze. First I'd like to clear two mods I'm using. I believe those are both ok. The first gives information about trajectories, the second is a simple auto pilot. Edit: Found my old entry. Damn that asparagus pancake is huge! I made some quite interesting modular design solutions back then, ended up overengineering the ship by 6500dV! For those interested: http://m.imgur.com/a/Onck0 I might have to do something even bigger this time…

Is it possible to add a different biome to a certain altitude? Or put the 'landed on a biome' somewhere higher than the actual hard surface of jool?

Finally I completed my attempt at the Jool-5 Challenge! I was going for the Jebediah level. - Which game versions did you use? 0.24 - What mods did you use, if any? Editor Extensions (Does not add or modify any parts. Only makes the editor more versatile to use.) Kerbal Engineer Redux Enhanced NavBall Procedural Wings - How many launches was needed to start your mission from Kerbal? 3 (Well only 2 was needed, but I did 3. See details below.) - How many refueling did you do during the mission, how much and where? No additional refueling missions. Fuel transfers from one module to another are accounted for below. - Did you bring a Living Quarter (Hitch-hiker's Storage) for the guys during the long journey? 4 kerbals in HH storage, 2 kerbals in the lab - Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc? Nope. - Share the delta-V informations too, if you tracked it! Delta-V can be tracked by looking at the Kerbal Engineer Redux displays.

I'm planning a Jebediah-level science collection mission, and I'd like to have a little clarification to the rules. "- There's funding for one main ship only so all the crew, lander(s) and other stuff has to go to Jool as one big ship." My Laythe plane is capable of reaching the orbit in Kerbin too. Is it ok if I attach it to my "big ship" on Kerbin orbit and then continue on to Jool as one? Having a plane on top of a rocket messes up the aerodynamics and makes the rocket really difficult to steer. Also it would save funds as I don't have to have quite as many boosters on my main rocket. Getting a mobile lab and five material labs and goo containers in the orbit makes the rocket quite big already... Using Procedural Wings was ok, right?

I have the same problem with some parts, for example Ram air intakes. This is the first time I've ever installed TweakScale so your fix doesn't help me...

And on to the next entry Let me introduce the Minipossu It ended up to be quite similar to the current minimalist record holder, only lighter by 99kg. I tried several ways to make a horizontal take-off with less than three landing gears, until I realized landing gears are actually massless objects, despite the SPH and VAB showing them mass of 0.5 The take-off was short but horizontal and the gravity turn needed several tries until I got it right. Here I am on the orbit, with lots of fuel to spare The landing was quite easy, as this thing still glides at ridiculously low speeds. Just before touch down my horizontal speed was just 6.7m/s Still my end result was the same as splodens: the craft ended up on it's side, still intact.

I'm just going to go ahead and spam the thread with another entry. Can anyone guess which award I was going for this time? I present to you the BEHEMOTH V! Some stats: - Mass: 252.6 tons (or 234.6t if you don't count the landing gear, as Kerbal engineer seems to do) - 21 Turbojets - 2 Mainsails - 140 Ram air intakes (6.7 per jet) - 12 Mk2 fuselages for jet fuel (not enough) - 24 landing gears - 920 parts - All stock except for the Kerbal Engineer chip - No parts hidden inside the other parts Here she is in all her glory. Up we go! This is looking good so far... Except for the wings. They seem to bend alot. Yes, the part count is deadly to my computer. It took me 42 minutes in real time to fly the 14km between this screenshot and the previous one. I also forgot to raise the landing gear. Above 20km, I had some real trouble keeping her in the right direction. She really wanted to turn left, so I had to limit one of the engines to compensate. I had some mirroring issues when attaching the wings to the Mk2 fuselages, so I figured that's why I had more drag on the left. Because of the steering problems I had to fire up the Mainsails too early. I also had to cut down the other one to 91%, to keep the plane going straight-ish. Finally in space! It took me just over three hours to get there! Proof of orbit. 2400 dV left. With these frame rates I'm not going find out how far I could go with it. Carefully entering the atmosphere. Trying to keep the g-forces as low as possible, because I don't know how much the wings can handle. I was aiming for the peninsula in the continent, but it doesn't seem like I'm going to make it. Luckily there is a nice little island right next to my flight path. Finally I realized what was wrong with my plane. My fuel lines were messed up and fuel consumption was not even. The left Kerbodyne tank was nearly out of fuel and the right one was full. After balancing the tanks the plane became a lot easier to fly. What a surprise I have to admit, I felt kind of stupid there for a moment. Trying to find a place to land, with fuel levels nicely even . The plane is still a little difficult to handle in a turn like this. Luckily the island seems to be quite flat. Coming in quite steeply. The moment of thruth... This is kinda scary... Landed safely(?) on Kerbin on the first try! I'm happy and relieved, the kerbals seem kind of indifferent. The touch down was smooth but I almost broke the plane by braking too hard. Because of the high part count and slow computer, it took me 5h 35min in real time from lift-off to landing. I have some plans on how to convert this into a cargo plane, but with these frame rates it's not going to happen. If someone else wants to be my test pilot, give me a shout. Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kzgrtfzk2kd1o84/The%20Behemoth%20Vs.craft I removed the Kerbal engineer chip, so it's now 100% stock. Fix the fuel lines and add batteries and solar panels before lift-off.

My previous SSTO was missing a name. Let's call her Pre-Moth. This is the next version. Her name is Moth. She had a lot more power in the atmosphere, and was also able to land on Minmus. She also got back to Kerbin. The next step was the Big-Moth. Three jets, two nukes and a rover for a payload. When I first put this on the runway, for a second I thought it was upside down Leaving Kerbin Orbit Trying to get the rover down. Luckily the gravity is so low SAS can hold the plane in this position. This rover handles the best on Minmus out of every rover I've had there. It's COG is very low. It's still easy to flip over, we are still talking about Minmus here... Highlands was the last biome I visited on Minmus. Managed to get some science points too. Coming in nose down and wing first. Not as I planned... I also time accelerated past my orbital inclination change window, so I did not just overshoot the KSC, I also did so at the wrong place. Managed to land safely on the runway for the first time ever. This is a great plane too!

I got frustrated with my Eve rescue mission (seems like there are 4 kerbals stuck now, instead of the previous 3), so I figured I'd try to design my first SSTO. I only took one screen shot during my first successful SSTO flight. Not very informative, I'm afraid. Anyway, I got it quite easily to a LKO and managed to crash it about a kilometer away from KSC, due to the pilot closing in on the the runway at double time warp and having his hand at a wrong place on the keyboard... The next plane was basically the same, except I added the Kerbal Engineer chip, changed the single LV-T30 to two nukes and two turbo jets to a single one. I also added one control surface to keep the lift and weight in balance. 50 parts. As you more experienced plane pilots can probably guess, it didn't go up very fast. At T+21:35 I was at 30000, still powered only by the single Turbojet. I did have the same nine air intakes as in the previous version, so you could say it's pretty air-hogged. Around 31000 I fired up the nukes to get more speed. At 49km I'm keeping just enough thrust to keep my Apoapsis between 80 and 100km. The Jet still hasn't flamed out. Made it to the orbit, yay! Still plenty of fuel left, so let's go a little further As you can see by the numbers on the right, this is a low Mun orbit. Still some fuel left... Minmus orbit... Now it's time to head home. When I got to Kerbin, everything seemed very foggy... And things got even stranger when I got closer to the... I don't know what I got close to. Then I suddenly exploded... I woke up in my cockpit and realized it had only been a terrible dream... I decided to go for a completely unpowered landing. No fuel used on landing . This thing glides a lot better than my kethane powered VTOL Eve plane. It's terribly underpowered in atmosphere, but other than that, it flies great