NorthernDevo

Near Future Spacecraft Parts; by Nertea_01. Great mod - I haven't updated in forever, but it still works great.

Er...good question. If it wasn't in the Making History expansion, then it's likely Near Future Spacecraft. That particular one is the "Nereid" and it's a terrific little capsule with a ton of adjustables. The reason I can't tell you exactly at the moment (I'm looking!) is because of my basic approach to adding mods in KSP. First, I play the game entirely stock, to really appreciate all the quality the devs put into the game. I will, in time, add DLC's and appreciate those as well. Next, I may add a graphics mod or two; to add to the visual flavour of the game. I may add a utility app like KER and decide if I like it. ...At which point, I generally go WHOOOPEEEEE!!!!!!!! and dive into the mods like Dudley Dursley in a cake shop. Me adding mods looks quite a bit like this: It can get ugly. Edit: It's definitely "Near Future Spacecraft". Get it. I mean seriously - it's an awesome mod.

Mission: Kermini IV Vessel: Minmus Explorer II Crew: CDR:Valentina SCI: Gemlie Task: Orbital Science and ground survey Mission Notes: With research from two successful landings on the Mun opening up new technologies to draw upon, it was time for the girls to show their square-headed brethren how it's done. After having successfully thumb-wrestled Jebediah for the first Munar landing, Valentina graciously agreed to fly the orbital survey mission, preparing the way for his Minmus landing. The two weeks away would be, she felt, a suitable vacation from having to listen to Bob going on and on about his sticker collection...again. Val was quite happy to have Gemlie along with her in the tight confines of the Nereid pod; partly because the young Kerbonaut was a brilliant scientist and friendly companion, but mostly she was also half the size of one of the boys and couldn't win a game of "Eye Spy" to save her life; no matter how many times Val used the letter "S". So - plusses all 'round, really. Minmus Explorer II lifted off the pad early in the morning, performing flawlessly for nearly three minutes before the first typically Kerbal problem was encountered. "Well, there goes Phase Three," Gemlie sighed as the rocket shook under heavy acceleration. "What's up?" Val shouted over the roaring of the motors. "Well, you know how Weiner put the contract instruments right up close to the ladder for easy reach?" "Don't be rude - Werner's a sweetie, and yes. Why?" Gemlie rolled her eyes - an expression Kerbals were uniquely skilled at. "Well, the thermometer and the MSIP just fell off when the SM's panels blew off!" Val looked shocked. "But we need those for the contract data!" The Scientist nodded. "Yep - so Gene either gets to plan another launch or explain to the DMag reps why they didn't get their data." Val nodded. "Oh...swell." Picture caption: 2 SM side-panels and 2 experiments breaking free of ME2. The rest of the flight went more or less routine. With Phase Three - the temperature and spectrum readings for an outside research company - now tanked, due to the fact the instruments needed were now several thousand kilometers behind the ship, ME2 now had more than enough fuel to complete her mission, so the experimental Chickadee engines (whose fuel took up far too much of the already cramped pod's space) would never be used. The vessel burned into a perfect 100KM orbit over the Mint Frosted Moon, and while Val snacked, Gemlie set about her work collecting valuable high-altitude data. After two orbits and receiving nothing from Kerbnet, Val brought the craft into a low orbit, repeating the process and completing the Phase One science collection. Phase Two - the Direct Observation of ground features - came next, and as Val called out biomes as they passed over, Gemlie climbed out of the capsule to take a shot with the telescope and report her own observations. Gemlie collects her data. The two Kerbonauts briefly discussed the possibility of changing orbits to get data from the remaining biomes. Gemlie was all for it, but Val demurred, saying the "boys" would need to be able to bring back some hard science on the next mission along with the contract data - which KASA wouldn't receive. Gemlie agreed - reluctantly - and after receiving clearance from Ground, Val aligned the ship for a return to Kerbin. MEII entering recovery orbit. After aerobraking eight days later to shed some of the insane speed they'd picked up, Val expertly aligned with the Mun to bring the craft into approach orbit over KSC. Minmus Explorer II had plenty of fuel to burn into an easy 100km recovery orbit, and retro-burn over the Dune Peninsula for a -144.5 entry Periapsis. A perfect entry, and nearly perfect targeting on Val's part brought the chutes open directly over the Space Center. Val used up the remaining fuel, burning the Chickadees to slow their lateral speed further, dropping the ship into the drink just West of the complex. Val: "Wheeeeee!!!" Gemlie:"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" "That's MY armrest!" "Well, move your foot!" Results: Mission Successful. Mostly. Data collected: 1189.

Dood... You is COOL!

Starting anew...again...because reasons. Following the usual progress; ignoring the usual "conduct a focused ground survey" missions, because I hate them. I like money; so the moment I can poop off a rocket with an untrained rich dude in it, off I go! Problem: launching VIPs one-by-one takes time, so I decided to shorten things up a little. I'd managed to upgrade both the VAB and the Pad one level each, and had obtained a couple of four-Kerbal VIP suborbital sightseeing flights. Now - as I said, shooting them off one by one would be boring, so I did it the Kerbal way. So: from the "Shut up, it works!" file I give you... Octo-Kerbie! ('Kerbie' is the name I give to all my first solid-fuel ships.) Giggle - I can't believe it actually worked, but it did. Remarkably stable as well. And - to my delight - it made a lovely picture following separation: Hehe - kewl!

That... is awesome! Way too cool, dude! Hallo - I'm just catching up after a few weeks away, but I just love that aerospacecraft. I must be dense though - I've been trying to figure this out for forever, and haven't managed it. I'm therefore just asking: how on earth (or rather Kerbin) do you manage to make fully-reversible nacelles with stock parts?! I'm trying to deduce it from your pic, but I'm still scratching my head here. Thanks - and great pics!

Another start recently; I've reached the latest Milestone: Dock two ships in LKO. Went easy; Jeb went first in RV1, and established a parking orbit at 100km. Val lifted off an orbit later, boosted to 150km and carried out a picture-perfect rendezvous.Post docking, she re-entered first and landed in the Kindian Ocean. Jeb returned an orbit later, with a bit more fuel he was able to burn for a drop right onto KSC: I just thought it was a cool pic.

My own first attempts to land on the Mun were pretty rocky - pun intended. I was poor; had indeed just made the step up from homelessness and alcoholism, was in rehab and was beginning to rebuild my life after a horrible few years. But with the help of friends I got a place and good job in my field. I managed to get a small PC - an Acer Aspire (this was in 2015) and downloaded an old friend: the KSP demo. The demo alone is fun enough to keep a player going indefinitely but finally - now with internet - I was able to afford the full game. That little Acer wasn't much help though - even with a video card it shouldn't have been able to run (took some tinkering lol) which sped it up significantly top speed for all but a small craft of perhaps a dozen parts was about 3 real seconds to one game second. Attempting to land on the Mun was a study in lithobraking at varying degrees of angle and velocity. Then in 2016 I'd saved up enough for a new computer and it was a REAL monster of a gaming rig. Big, powerful and stupid-fast it could - and still does - run KSP with fully maxed out settings and glorious frame-rates, even with add-ons up to the eyeballs. I figure my first successful career landing on the Mun happened close after - in fact, I'm sure I made a post about my attempts, trying to find it. Oh - here it is: Cheers!

I first got the demo - I can't recall the version - and played it for about three years until I could afford both the Internet and the game. My most common activity was carpet-bombing KSC with fuel tanks when my wobbly assemblage ripped itself apart 10 kms up.

I LOVE the Rhino as a transfer stage. Part of my gameplay is to build the most efficient rockets possible, but looks are an important consideration. I like using the thing as a transfer stage to the Mun with a 3-Kerb orbiter/lander stack, it just looks so cool when it separates and burns. I can't show a pic; I'm doing a new career and haven't reached that stage yet, but I do use it a lot, and quite enjoy it.

I'll pay money for that!!!!

I WANT THAT!!!!!!!

LOL that is freakin' hilarious. Thanks, folks!

So... Here I am with my extra-large coffee plus double-espresso shot; 5 in the morning and sleep-deprived synapses sizzling like Rice Krispies. I click my KSP icon for a little relaxation before bed and WHUUUUT?! OK - DOODS! Dev dudes - that's funny as all get-out but MAN that freaked me out!

My usual naming scheme is "Untitled Spacecraft". ;-)

Chuckle - that reminds me of the very early days of the Simviation Forums - like - first page. One guy asked a question about that part of the airplane where the pilot sits. Given the censorship settings, the word that was printed in the post was "thingypit". Naturally; we had a WHOLE lot of fun with the guy, until we realized what was going on. (Then of course we had even more fun. )

Just a quick one: My last career - hard mode; no revert, no money to start - was getting more annoying than enjoyable so I restarted. I currently have a few contracts to gather science data from orbit of Kermin, test the big LV-601-4 OME, and save a couple Kerbals while I'm up there. Problem: I only have the 'Roundified' mono tank open so far so after needling Gene for a while to see if he could offer up a mono tank test (and failing), I just went with the tiny tanks. Lots of 'em. Cheers!

I'm constantly surprised when anything I build actually works.

Yup - I totally LOVE the thing! Rover Max is my land vehicle of choice; it's based around the MkII Rover variant. They really did a great job when they created the thing!

Just a quick easy mission; placing a contract science base on Minmus: Smile - I love my sunrise shots: It's just to satisfy a contract; Minmus is pretty much scienced out. Cheers!

Gorgeous!

Holy... Gasp...pant... Well; this was certainly the most terrifying return I've ever been a part of - a total and complete nailbiter and I'm not just having fun with the language here. How on Earth I managed to pull it off, I really have no idea. My science mission to Minmus was a success but there were so many points along the way where it nearly ended in disaster. Following a textbook landing on the Mint Frosted Moon's Lesser Flats, Engineer Algee and Scientist Sanmore suffered their first glitch while conducting ground experiments. One of the devices proved hard to reach and Sanmore tried to retrieve its data by climbing out of the Rover Max's top hatch. She stumbled and fell, breaking the port solar panel. Now - that's not a major worry; the vehicle simply charges a bit more slowly and RM has redundant fuel cells built in for security. It was, however, a clue to how things were going to go. The Rover Max behaved superbly on its circumnavigation of Minmus, carrying its crew on their journey with solid reliability. They quickly racked up full experiments from every equatorial biome, visited both the Black and Green Monoliths (the latter being conveniently spawned right on the Greater Flats), and carried out several surveys called up by Gene. Things went bad though when the Human Controller (ahem...waves) made a dumb mistake and accidentally hit the space bar while reaching for his coffee. Bang! There goes all the externally-stored mono-propellant; 4 Cylindrified Monoprop Tanks flying to the sides like depth charges from a K-gun volley. Following a string of vocal comments that sounded like some of the more colourful moments in Breaking Bad, the Human Controller continued the mission, with approximately 30% more fuel than required to reach the return ship in orbit. So long as nothing else dumb happened, we'd be OK. Yup - you guessed it. The journey to the Pole went perfectly; Algee electing to make a diversion to chase down a seismic anomaly into the nearby Highlands for Gene. Rather than waste fuel running the fuel cell, it was easy enough to simply turn and race towards Kerbol until the remaining solar panel began charging the batteries. All in all, a terribly fun mission. We covered the entirety of the Green Timbit's biomes and the last hour saw Rover Max racing south at 50kph to intercept the return vehicle's orbital track. (Rover Max races South to pick up the orbital track) Then...disaster. I was relaxing; it was going well. Just one more survey string to run for Gene; this one almost on the line of the orbital track.I forgot to zoom out to look ahead - at 50kph on Minmus the Rover takes a long time to slow down - it's off the ground half the time. Rover Max launched itself off the hills just north of Great Flats and sailed into a high, fatal arc. No help for it - I activated the jump jets, killed the Rover AP, flipped orientation to 'up' and conducted a decent belly-down landing; exactly how the Rover Max had been designed to do. Buuuuuut.... according to the Subway Map, it takes 180 Dv to reach orbit. I had 181 left. Problem!!!! Now - if this was 'normal' difficulty no probs - just F5-F9 until I get it. But not on Hard mode, no revert. I needed a way to shave those numbers. I found it. First, I closed the solar panel and drove around hard for a while, draining the battery. Then I turned the fuel cell on and waited for two days until it exhausted the Baguette tank. I was now as light as I could possibly be - with a DV of 188. It would have to do. I drove East until I was on Great Flats, made sure I was right under the orbital track and gunned it. With the reaction wheel and traction control off, Rover Max can hit nearly 70 kph on the flats. I got her going as fast as she would, then restarted the reaction wheel and TC, set speed control for 100 and ramped her off the slopes to the East, helping with a burst of monoprop. As she sailed into space with an AP of 7 kms, I set that number into MechJeb's Ascent Guidance, flipped Max's orientation to 'Up' and engaged. It worked - brilliantly. Max's blistering land speed was nearly half that required for orbit and while 7km is white-knucklingly low for an orbit, it just clears the highest hills. I made it into orbit with nearly 30% of that 188 DV left. There was enough to target the return vehicle, match planes (1.3 degrees), plot a VERY conservative interception and rendezvous with the return ship. (Rover Max ascends to RV with the return vessel) (A picture-perfect interception. LOL check out the remaining fuel!) There wasn't enough fuel left in RM's tank to deorbit the machine and really, I'm rather glad - she's a proud vehicle and did a magnificent job. Rover Max deserves more than to end up a pile of scrap on a distant moon. I hope one day we'll come out this way again to collect her. She'll have pride of place in the Kerbsonian Museum. (Algee and Sanmore transfer to the return vessel with loads of science.) Upon entry into the ship, I got another startling discovery: I thought this pod had built-in attitude-hold SAS. It doesn't - and neither Algee nor Sanmore is a pilot. Oooops. Well kids, this is where knowing the nav-ball REALLY becomes important. The little ship wiggling around like crazy, I got her going prograde right at the return point, then held down Q for a few seconds, putting in gyroscopic stability. A quick burn to break orbit, advance until I'm back in Kerbin's SOI, stabilize at retro and spin the ship like crazy again - those were two woozy little Kerbals by the time I was done with 'em. Burn to an Pe of 30, then since (Doh!) the life-support canisters are in the fuel tank, wait to detach the engine until the ship's well past the 70Km mark. (And yes, forget to transfer life support from the canisters to the command pod.) Fortunately, even unguided the pod was beautifully stable and conducted a lovely 3g re-entry. Lovely, until the Mk 16 chute decided to take forever to open; not fully deploying until she was a scant 200m off the ground! She smacked hard, destroying the heat shield but saving the pod. Algee and Sanmore - and all their data - were shaken up, bumped and bruised but alive! And the reward...was worth it. Whew! What a nailbiter - I definitely have to iron those bugs out. Cheers!

I spent the morning testing a cheap 'n easy transfer vehicle to get a Rover Max to Minmus. After working the kinks out, I loaded 'er up and set out for the Mint Frosted Moon: The Rover easily has the Delta-Vee to reach the return vehicle in orbit, and has sufficient science equipment to drain the orbiting Timbit dry on a single mission. It'll probably take me the majority of the weekend - after that I have to shut down KSP for a while and get some bloody writing done; I have deadlines to meet. Edit: Whoops; what the return vehicle doesn't have is a probe core - oops! Well; no problem. It has 'hold' SAS and that's about all I need. Rover Max approaching DOI over Minmus: She needs to switch from forward to 'up' when kicking off the descent engine and switching to hover-jets, but it's a simple, well-practiced procedure by now. Following this mission I'll be able to actively prepare for the DunaStar mission, coming in about 6 months.

This, plus connect up a few of the modules with TT-38K couplers. They have the same heat/pressure limit stats as every other decoupler but they seem to blow much quicker sometimes; especially if they're mounted side-on to the path of travel. So - they blow before the modules do; leaving tumbling pieces falling and blowing up all around you. Ought to be pretty spectacular!

Lol I didn't think you could either; given they can't do anything. But yup; you can.