pTrevTrevs

Well, I actually moved to Huntsville for school a few months ago, I actually come from a town in south Alabama, near where the army has its helicopter flight school. If I hadn’t realized how fascinating space can be I would probably be on my way to earning my wings as a Blackhawk pilot right now...

*laughs in Huntsvillian* God I love living here...

Thanks to the new power station and pipelines, Aurelian 2 manages to last through its second cold lunar night without a hitch. In the morning the crew egresses once more and boards the rover. As part of the emergency maintenance, the rover's roof was removed to allow easier access to the interior. This will be the only rover excursion on this flight, due to the damages sustained by the vehicle. The planned traverse follows the plain east, in search of a flat and level area free of debris in which a base could be assembled. Because of the inevitability that the base will have a high part count, the location must also be far enough away from the expedition's landing site so that the cargo lander's parts will not be loaded along with the base's. Here, the rover is exploring one such potential site. A crewmember places a flag at the site to mark it for future reference, and then the crew moves on to their next stop. The rover's main geologic investigation site is the edge of a crater complex to the south of the landing site and plain. Bob uses Nerva-2's cable system as a safety tether to climb down the rim of the crater and obtain samples and photographs from inside the crater. Following the crater exploration, the crew begins the trip back to the landing site, still looking for acceptable base locations. Upon arriving back at the landing site, the crew drives the rover to a place where it can film their liftoff and places it in dormant mode. Jeb and Bob enter the lander, while Bob first makes his way to Aurelian's fuel port and disconnects the pipe, freeing the lander for liftoff. This is the final map of the landing region. The landing site is marked by the grey dot in the center of the screen, while the two potential base locations are marked by blue dots to the bottom-right. The crater complex the crew explored is below the base markers. A few hours after the EVA closeout, Aurelian 2 lifts off from the Mun for the second time and begins its race to catch back up with Marius. Within a few days, Aurelian 2 arrives at Marius and delivers its crew and cargo of geologic samples and ore to the station. Surface Expedition 3 is now complete, and the goal of assembling a base on the Mun is one step closer to being realized.

I’ve got more content coming soon (maybe tomorrow or Tuesday), but I’ve been having more computer issues, as well as more real-life concerns, so progress has been a bit slow and frustrating.

Do you mean the pipes and gantries that wrap around the MLP like in this picture? I'm not really sure what their purpose is or why they were added to the shuttle MLPs and not Apollo (mostly because I've never been able to find any good sources about the MLPs and launch infrastructure in general), but I really think they help make a launch pad look distinctly shuttle-era.

I’m not referring to the mobile launcher platform, I actually use Modular Launch Pads myself. I meant the actual launch pad building, is it just me or does it look different than the usual model we have in stock KSP?

So I know I'm ten days late, but where did you get the model for those launch pads? They look different from the standard KSC launch pad in-game. Also, is there a particular mod you used to place multiple pads or did you do that yourself?

Aurelian actually has several fuel tanks partially clipped inside each other and attached to the engines via fuel lines, so it has more capacity than one might originally think. I couldn’t tell you exactly how much DeltaV it has or how much it weighs without consulting my computer (I’m not at it right now), but I would say that it weighs a bit more than your average lunar lander. I think the biggest way I optimize my deltaV usage simply has to do with the descent profile. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the best way to land that I’ve found involves simply lowering your orbit’s periapsis over the targeted landing site to about as low as you can comfortably make it, and then begin a powered descent as you pass over it, first burning to cancel your horizontal velocity and then slowly moving the lander to lower your vertical velocity. If you do it right you should be able to slowly lower your velocity to the point where you reach zero exactly when you touch down, without ever accidentally burning so much that you start going up again. Apollo used a descent profile sort of like this, with the LM entering a so-called descent orbit before slowing down to land.

After a rest period, Jeb and Bill exit the lander once again and make their way to the overturned rover in an attempt to repair it. Bob remains inside to monitor the drilling systems in case of an emergency. After initial attempts to knock the rover over using Jeb's backpack were unsuccessful, Bill began removing excess and unneeded parts from the rover to lighten it. The excess parts are then used to construct a lever of sorts on top of the rover. Jeb then backs up and attempts to ram the lever, taking advantage of the leverage to turn the vehicle upright. Unfortunately, this lever wasn't long enough, so Bill removed a few more parts, mostly struts from the front window, and extended the height of the lever. After yet another ramming attempt, the rover flipped with ease! Jeb nearly crashed into the SEP cables, but nothing was damaged. The rover was then driven clear of the debris created from the maintenance work, and the lever was removed. Although it now lacks a few frills and aesthetic features, the vehicle is now fully functional and ready to explore the surrounding plains.

So, last time I played, my computer experienced a BSOD, right after I lost Bill Kerman. However, upon rebooting the computer and reloading the save, I realized that it had been retained in a state where all three crewmembers were still alive. Although it felt like cheating, I took advantage of this second chance and quickly returned the kerbals to the lander. Once back inside, the crew activated the drilling rig and began filling the ore tank with material for refining and inspection. The landing site after the end of EVA 1. An attempt will be made to flip the rover upright later. Failing that, the crew will simply restrict all future EVAs to within a certain distance from the lander, maintenance on the SEP, moving the drilling rig, etc.

I'll upload the craft I use in this save at some point, just not sure when.

If you haven't seen it before, you may be interested in checking out an old Gato submarine I built about two years ago: Probably won't work in the latest version of KSP (not that it ever worked well, but maybe you can gain some inspiration from the pictures I have on the thread.

At the incessant urging of one @The Minmus Derp, I've fast-tracked an already-planned Minmus probe and moved its launch date up by several days. This is Velite 1, The first of a series of unmanned spacecraft intended to explore the inner planets and their moons. It will orbit Minmus and deploy a small impact probe to acquire close-up photographs and measurements of the icy moon's surface. For historical context, Velites were a type of Roman soldier, most commonly seen in the mid-Republican militia-army. Their ranks were made up of the poorest, youngest, and most inexperienced men, those who either could not afford the equipment of a regular infantryman or were too young, weak, or inexperienced to serve as one. Velites acted as scouts and skirmishers ahead of the main army, providing a screen to disguise the main army's formation and to harass enemy movements before the infantry moved in. The launch is performed by a typical Auxiliary rocket, with six solid rocket boosters adjusted so that they burn out in sets of three, extending their burn-time long enough to place the sustainer stage in the upper atmosphere. In order to provide the extra power needed to reach Minmus, the spacecraft makes use of a new extended Auxiliary Upper Stage, consisting of a standard sized AUS, plus another segment beneath it, which is used for the escape burn. Velite 1 will reach Minmus in approximately ten days, where it will use the upper portion of the AUS to insert itself into Minman orbit. For the sake of continuity, future updates will be delivered after the conclusion of Surface Expedition 3.

The OP reserves the right to post whatever and whenever he wishes. Don't worry, I'm going soon Jeb, Bill, and Bob descend the ladder to begin work on the surface of the plains. After collecting contingency samples, they proceed to the cargo lander and deploy Nerva 2, their rover for this mission. They then unpack the cargo boxes and load the SEP and drilling components into the rover's cargo locker. The first piece to go up is the power station, which uses two RTGs to provide electricity to both Aurelian 2 and the drilling stand. During the day, Aurelian's solar panels will also be used to provide power for the drill. The power station is then plugged into the cargo lander, which is then connected to Aurelian 2, allowing the crewed lander to receive power at night. Another EVA will be made shortly before takeoff to disconnect the pipes. The drilling stand and its collection tank are next set up and attached to the power grid. It will be activated by remote control after the EVA. Unfortunately, after this things begin to go horribly wrong. Nerva 2 accidentally hits a small crater and flips over, with Jeb inside. He spends the next few minutes trying to right the vehicle but eventually has to evacuate and perform the rest of the EVA on foot. Unless Nerva can be flipped back upright the planned exploratory traverses will have to be cancelled, as the nearby objectives are all too far to be reached on foot. Anyway, while Jeb is working on the rover, Bill and Bob assemble the SEP. This one is a much more simplified model than the one deployed on the last mission. Instead of a bulky high-gain antenna dish, it will simply use Marius as a relay to return data to Kerbin, and it will be plugged into the power station to keep it running after dark. Having finished the day's construction and unable to perform the planned trip to a nearby crater, the crew begins heading back to Aurelian for a rest. However, at this point, the gravest disaster of the mission strikes without warning. Bill Kerman falls over and appears seized by the Kraken, which slams him into the ground, killing him instantly. The crew had planned to perform a few more chores outside, namely setting up the landing site's flag and photographing the area, but in the wake of Bill's accident the flight director swiftly aborted the EVA. Jeb now faces a difficult decision; whether to attempt to right the rover and continue the mission or to wait until the first available opportunity and perform an abort to orbit. Without the rover the main goals of the mission are unachievable, and without a third crew member the risks of exploring the area, especially on foot, are increased significantly. It certainly seems that the mission is cursed, and morale has plummeted, both on the surface, in orbit aboard Marius, and back on Kerbin. Bill's death is being kept a secret from the general public for the time being, while mission control and the crew work the situation and develop a course of action. Interestingly, my computer also crashed to a bluescreen of death immediately after boarding Aurelian 2, so I'm beginning to wonder if some higher power just wants me away from this spot...

Aurelian 2 undocks from Marius to begin its second mission to the surface. This expedition is crewed by Jebediah, Bill, and Bob, the same crew who also rode the first Scipio spacecraft into orbit. PDI is initiated over the landing site, at an altitude of approximately 5,000m AGL. Once pitchover is complete, Jeb takes partial-manual control of the spacecraft, trusting the flight computer to control orientation while controlling the throttle himself, while making occasional corrections to the computer's heading. Only a few minutes after PDI, Aurelian 2's contact probes scrape the surface of the Mun for the second time in its life. SE3's mission necessitated a much closer landing to the cargo lander than its predecessor's, because the crew will need to connect both landers with fuel pipes and electrical lines to facilitate the drilling and refueling operations. After a short rest, the crew will begin EVA1, in which they will assemble the SEP, power station, and drilling stand.

I’m working on it.

I don't think that it would be all that useful to use Marius as a refueling stop for interplanetary ships instead of simply launching directly from Kerbin. The fuel I save would be negligible, considering that I would first need to travel to the Mun and rendezvous with Marius which costs more fuel. Additionally, I would then have to perform my planetary ejection burn from the Mun's SOI rather than Kerbin's, which means I could not make as much use of the Oberth effect to propel me along, should I choose to do so. In addition, the fact that I'm orbiting a body which itself is orbiting Kerbin, which is also moving in its own orbit means it will be much more complicated to calculate and achieve an ideal ejection angle, as I would have to wait for the Mun to approach the proper point in its orbit before departing, potentially giving me a much shorter time window in which to launch a spacecraft. In short, my fear is that I would end up using more resources and go through more trouble than it's worth to simply top off an interplanetary ship's fuel tanks when I could simply take slightly more fuel at the start. It's an interesting possibility, but not really one that I plan on exploring as of yet. To be fair though, manned interplanetary missions are still quite far away in my roadmap, so maybe my viewpoint will change between now and then. Anyway, make sure to post some pictures when you get your own base up and running, I'll be looking forward to seeing it!

Surface Expedition 3's cargo lander has finally launched, following repeated delays concerning the final payload. The changes made include the addition of a small refinery to allow resource sampling, as well as the replacement of the solar arrays originally intended for this mission with RTGs, to facilitate operations in the lunar night. The launch was pretty normal, nothing new or interesting to show. Unlike Surface Expedition 2, I have no pinpoint target in mind, but rather a large swath of land containing a bountiful resource pocket, just north of the Mun's equator on the middle of the near side. To help guide myself during descent, I used the Polybius scanning probe, still in orbit around the Mun, to lay down two KerbNet waypoints surrounding what appeared to be the flattest land in the region, to mark the ends of a target ellipse, for which I would aim with the cargo lander. The actual landing site turned out to be just south of the light blue marker. Cargo-2 passing above the landing site just after arriving in Lunar orbit. One orbit later Cargo-2 begins its powered descent, aiming for the plains marked out by Polybius's waypoints. As it turns out, the land is pretty good for landing, almost perfectly flat, but also bordered by craters which may offer interesting exploration opportunities. Cargo-2 is now safely on the surface, with its drilling and refining machinery ready to be unpacked by the landing crew, which should be arriving within the week. Until then Cargo-2 wait on the surface, doing with it can with its onboard cameras to inspect the site. Pending the successful conclusion of this surface expedition, I plan to begin development of hardware meant for manned missions to Minmus. Although a base there would be less practical than on the Mun, its distance from Kerbin allows ample opportunity to experiment with long-duration flight in deep space. A new version of Scipio specially intended for deep space missions such as this is under development, as well as a new launcher capable of lifting it to Minmus. Instead of an orbital module, this Scipio Block III will have a new Mission Module, which will be stored in the fairing underneath the spacecraft during launch and retrieved once in orbit. It will be larger than the current Orbital Module and will provide much more utility in deep spaceflight. However, the launch schedule is still clogged with Lunar missions, as well as new modules for Marius, and no flight to Minmus is planned in the short-term.

Oh wow, didn't expect that!

I don't know, I don't particularly mind crashing ships on the far side of the Mun, it's not hard to do.

I mean... it’s got to go somewhere...

Finally back into the swing of things after my move to Huntsville, and I'm still managing to find chances here and there to play KSP The fuel tanker has been emptied and discarded, it will be deorbited on the far side of the Mun, just like every other unmanned supply ship sent to Marius. Meanwhile, the next landing crew has launched from KSC, aboard Scipio 6. Unlike the previous mission, this crew has launched before their cargo lander, due to last-minute payload changes. Scipio 6 will dock to Marius and its crew will help man the station for the next few weeks while waiting for their cargo shipment to arrive and prep the landing site. This landing crew will be the first to extract resources from the lunar surface, and thanks to a newly added mission objective, they will use a small refinery sent aboard the cargo lander to produce fuel to help return to orbit. If the procedure goes well it will help lessen Marius's reliance on supply ships, and allow Aurelian to be refueled cheaper and faster.

I decided to give your shuttle a test flight tonight, here's a photo that was taken during the underwing inspection with the Canadarm: I think I'd like to try to reverse-engineer parts of your shuttle to build one of my own. I've never finished a working STS, but this example has a lot of techniques that have really piqued my interest and given me ideas...

I’m really interested in that Shuttle, can you go over any special techniques you used to build it?

If I could state my own humble opinion... My suggestion would be to finish the shuttle tower first, then work on a launch tower for use with smaller rockets, namely something like the Titan II service tower and erector, or the gantries used in Atlas and Redstone launches.