michal.don

Finally got to checking the videos - sorry for the delay (again). There is nothing fishy going on indeed, great series of missions, nice pinpoint landings, so no complaints on my part - here is your badge: Congrats! No, there is not any size limit, but I encourage people to go crazy - it's real fun trying to land stuff like this one: Screenshot reports are fine, too Nice mission, though I have to wonder - why did you aim for the "pilot" level only? Nothing wrong with that, I'm just used to people going for the "commander" level most of the time. About the fuel pod recovery - it seems that your script really manaes different masses quite well - better than I expected! Now I'm wondering how it will deal with high orbit reentries or inclined orbits So, two new badges for you: Congratulations! While your script is proving to be quite impressive and versatile, I don't think you are on the "Skunkworks" level yet That is really a rare award, as only two people have got the badge in the history of the challenge, and their missions were really something outstanding, even in this very creative community. But your script definitely caught my attention, so let's see everything it's capable of, and I might reconsider later Welcome to the challenge! I'm glad you like the premises of the challenge, and I hope you have fun designing and flying you shuttle! I'm looking forward to your first entry and awarding you your first badge, and hopefully many more later Michal.don

I don't expect anything fishy, I'd just like to have a look.... Thanks! I'll have a look at it when it's done then.

Alright, I've got a bit of time to finally look at all the stuff you guys did, let's get to it: And you are very right to be proud - this is some proper engineering! Very smooth entry, descent and landing, this is how it should be done. I'm curious though - how adaptible is the script for cases when you are bringing some payload down (STS-2b for example), doesn't the mass change mess it up too much? In any case, a very, very well deserved badge for you: Congratulations! That's a pretty neat shuttle design you have here - I really like it! Great to hear that the first (official) flight was a success, and I hope you'll stick around for more and show us what you shuttle is capable of! I have nothing to poke at, your mission is a great example of an STS-1a done the right way, so, here's your first badge: Congratulations! The station is looking great, but the videos are not working for me. Does anybody have the same problem with them, or is just my computer/browser messed up? Thanks for any information on that! Michal.don

I just want to let you know that I haven't forgotten about y'all, but the last week or two have just been crazy and I did not have time to check your missions. The busy time should be over soon though, so, please, just give me a little more time to catch up. Sorry for the delays on my part and thank you for your patience, Michal.don

Someone apparently took your Kraken trilogy as a manual instead of a novel...

Very nice station design, and a pretty advanced orbital assembly - great mission! The orbiter must be quite toasted though from the "separotrons".... A new badge for you: good luck with your school stuff and looking forward to hear from you here when you are finished And one of the "monstrosity kind" here, too Great looking station, especially the rings. I guess their inflatability comes in handy, even if you have this large cargo bay. Very good mission, so a badge for you as well: Congratulations! Michal.don

Wow, looking great! Which mod does that, and what is all added to KSC grounds?

So, my first entry: I used the following mods: And I think my score should be as follows: Launch vehicles +10 Ares I +5 Ares V +5 Stage recovery I and II +7 Orion +6 Crew safety and mobility +5 Larger than life +5+3.2 CommNet +10 =56 Objective +20 KOR +8 Accurate Altair +7 Fuel cells +2 Descent module +4 KDS +3 AOI +3 Mun rover +3 =50 It was fun flying, I should go asteroid hunting soon Michal.don

Last mission so far I know I don't produce the new missions as fast as some of you would like, but some new missions are definitely coming...

Yes, the mission is difficult. And it's supposed to be But despite the video issues, you tackled it succesfully - good job! So another badge for you, congratulations: Yes, real life has a tendency of interfering with KSP, that's the way it unfortunately is... Welcome back! Nice rescue mission! Your reentries are indeed getting very precise, I think that once you manage to hit the KSC from inclined obit, you pretty much don't need the jets anymore, because you can land the thing from wherever it might be, so very good job on your part! About the resource transfer in this mission - to be honest, I did not specify that in the rules, because I did not think anybody would need it - once you have docked the shuttles, you only need a bit of fuel for a short deorbit burn, but I'll mention it in the OP, thanks for your observation. Anyway, very well flown mission on your part, so another badge for you: And I'm already curious about the space station Michal.don

Wow. That sucks, big time... So you lost all the recordings and screenshot material from the whole mission?

Oh, now that you asked, I realised that there are no specific rules about CommNet So you might do just fine without local control after all

As long as you aerobrake on the second pass of Eve, yes. Welcome to the challenge! Yes, FAR is allowed, if you want to make your life hard, you can go for it And no - the shuttle doesn't have to be piloted by a kerbal, but from my experience, I would strongly reccomend it to be able to be controlled localy - signal blackouts can complicate your life a lot Michal.don

Yes, I meant that specifically for the Mun mission, the lander requires signal to operate. The SRB (with thrust curve, yay ) comes from this one: That's where the Orion capsule is from, too. I'll share the full modlist when the first mission is submited, it might grow a bit until then Thanks for the reply, Michal.don

Alright, I decided to give this another shot, and do it properly this time. I'm going to play this in a modded, 3.2x rescaled 1.6.1 install, with focus on hopefully good looking spacecraft What I have so far: Orion and Altair lander, WIP Ares I A question though - with CommNet turned on, is it possible to send a few commsats in advance, or is it required to struggle with signal blackouts? Thanks, Michal.don

It does? That should take care of my rescaling needs, thank you!

Hello there, I'm setting up my 1.6.1 install, and I'm wondering whether there are any rescaling mods compatible? I'd like to give a 3.2x rescaled system a spin again, but the mod I used in older versions does not seem to be updated anymore. Thanks, Michal.don

I agree, the 1.25 m habs do not look as good as the 2.5 m. I generally do not use, or like tweakscale very much (I prefer procedural parts for more diameter variability), but since the station doesn't have any size requirements, I do not see any reason to ban it. Or, there's a possibility to tweascale the shuttle so the 2.5 m parts fit in That's correct. Michal.don

(The video is not working - at least for me - it's the video of the STS-2b mission. But I can see enough in the screenshots) It seems you have quite an affection for cargo bays packed to the limit Very nice telescope design and good job on the orbital assembly part of the mission! I can't help but wonder how the spacestation from STS-5 ti STS-8 will look like, but I think it's going to be quite special! Here's your badge, congratulations! Michal.don

Up to you - you can leave them in orbit, let them burn in the atmosphere, or bring them back. I brought mine home, too, felt wasteful to do otherwise Michal.don

A method that I use, if I'm not in a mood to do much of previous planning, is like this: 1) Get the satellite to LKO 2) Raise the Ap to keostationary height (2 863 330 m) 3) When at Ap, raise the Pe so that your orbital period is a bit less than a Kerbin day, let's say 5,5 hours 4) Wait for the KSC to be roughly underneath when you are at Ap 5) Burn at Ap to circularize and correct the orbital period to 1 day It's not 100% precise, but doesn't require any maths or much planning and is more than sufficient for most purposes. Hope that helps, Michal.don

Well, if you're a fan of payload designs on the more compact size, I think that every mission is doable with one of the long, stock Mk3 cargo bays. BUte some of the folks around here just love to build monstrosities, so if you're rather in that camp, I think the Mk4 stuff will be the prefered option In that case it's not a problem Good luck in the future missions

Hello, welcome to the challenge! What place is better than this one? Not to brag, but there probably are not that many.... Jokes aside - your orbiter looks really great, and it seems to handle pretty nicely as well. Concerning the mods - I don't see any problem with the ones you use, except for the autopilot. This challenge is about both designing and flying the shuttle. Limited use of autopilots is allowed (holding attitude during reentry), but most of the ascent and the final aproach and landing have to be done manually. I hope that it's not a problem for you, but that's how the rules work around here Screenshot-based reports are completely fine, but if you feel like doing a video report, it's appreciated and encouraged Moving on to the mission itself - very good job on your first flight here! The orbiter looks really elegant, and judging from the fuel capacity, should be quite a powerful machine, even by itself. My guess is it should not have much problem completing most of the Kerbin missions, but we'll (hopefully) see about that soon So, here's your first badge (unless you let the autopilot do most of the work): Congratulations! I think one of the most used mods around here is the Mk4 parts (can't find the thread right now ) to build huge shuttles with enormous cargo capacity. I'm not aware of many people using the ones you listed. Michal.don

Yeah, the docking process looked like it was quite a struggle - the fuel pod is a really tight fit on your design But mission successful, and the landing looked quite graceful, considering you were hauling 40+ tons of cargo. Good job, and here's another badge for you: (next page coming soon)

(I'll check the STS-2b later, but here are the answers to your questions) Well, the telescope doesn't need to work at all - it pretty much comes to roleplaying on this one. If you enjoy it, you can make the telescope pretty complex, and pretend it does awesome science stuff. If you don't, you can slap two tanks together and claim it's a telescope. Designs of the telescopes here varied a lot, and some were really impressive, but the rules do not state it has to be. There are no size requirements, either. What is required though is the assembly, specifically solar array(s) installation by the MMUs. You can As far as mods go, I never used any telescop-focused, but I'm sure someone here will help out in that respect pretty soon I hope I answered all your questions sufficiently, Michal.don