Whisky Tango Foxtrot

Explorer 1 is still orbiting Dres, doing science while she waits for a transfer window to return to Kerbin. My original plan was to have the ship drop off her lander on arrival and then refuel, re-crew and get equipped with a new science package before blasting off for Eeloo. I've been re-thinking that lately, though, and while Explorer 1 was certainly a fine ship that performed her missions well, a few design oversights left her without some capabilities that would have been useful in her past missions and would be even more critical for its mission to Eeloo. With that in mind I went back to the VAB and designed Explorer 2. Like her predecessor she can carry a crew of five, has an onboard MPL for scientific research and is powered by four NERV engines. However, this new design carries 265 more units of liquid fuel, has capacity for 1375 units of oxidizer to better support landers (Explorer 1 didn't carry any oxidizer,) has built-in RCS (Explorer 1 depended on its landers and other docked vessels for RCS capabilities,) a self-lighting to illuminate her docking ports as well as objects in front of the craft, crew quarters that don't require a helmet, increased battery capacity, single-pilot probe control, level 3 SAS capabilities and a fuel cell to supplement her solar panels when far from the sun. Despite all this, her dry weight is still slightly lower than Explorer 1's was. Plus, this'll mean that I don't have to wait for Explorer 1 to return from Dres before launching my Eeloo mission, which will significantly move up my timetable for having manned landings on every solid body in the system.

This has definitely affected my surface mining bases. I replaced my Mun base because of it (and also because it was really old and was launched before I'd finished the tech tree and figured out how to properly build surface bases) and my Dres outpost (which was launched before the update but didn't arrive until after) went from operating at 100% thermal efficiency during tests to having significant losses during actual operation. The biggest problem is my Moho base, which was always pretty slow (it uses the small sized drills and ISRU) but who's output has gone down to almost nothing since the change. I don't need too much fuel from that base since I don't have any permanent manned presence at Moho but it's still annoying.

I launch my passenger SSTO and science plane from the runway. For everything else, I use the SPH/VAB.

Doing more testing of my Laythe stuff. I discovered that if I don't separate my mine's wheels then they cause its back-end to tip up far enough to give my drills clearance to work without shaking the base constantly. I'm still planning on sending a replacement mine, but it's good to know that things aren't as dire as I thought they were. I also tested my passenger SSTO on Laythe. I'd initially launched it under the assumption that if it worked on Kerbin it would probably work on Laythe, but I'd never actually tested it there. It landed successfully and was able to dock with the mining base to refuel. The part I was worried about came next: The takeoff. The ground was inclined slightly away from the mine which allowed the plane to roll backwards after being released from its docking klaw. Hopefully I'll have similar terrain when I do the "real" setup of this base, but if I don't then I might be able to use the plane's RCS thrusters to give it enough distance to turn around. Next step: Taking off without a runway. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, made worse by the fact that I'd forgotten to turn on SAS, but I was able to get it off the ground. The rest of the flight went pretty smoothly and I was able to rendevous and dock with Laythe Station with fuel to spare. So now I know that I have a way to get Kerbals down to the surface of Laythe and back again, which is a big relief. I still haven't tested the cargo SSTO, but that's not as critical as making sure my crews can make a round trip to the surface. All that's left now is to test the new redesigned mine and then reload my old save and do all this for real.

My next ship due to arrive at my Jool installations got a little closer to its destination, having successfully flown through its capture flyby of Tylo (I learned to always keep my craft in focus when they do these flybys after having a couple of ships encounter a spontaneous existence failure when left to make the journey on rails.) However, after it did so I re-checked the manoeuvres I'd planned to bring it in to dock at Pol (where all of my incoming ships first arrive in order to take on fuel for the remainder of their journey) and found that while the path I'd plotted out was a very efficient one, it was also a very slow one. It would still arrive before my first crewed vessels would (as they'd been sent out with the following transfer window) but the next Kerbin - Jool transfer window would already have passed before its tug would be able to transport the fuel necessary to allow my Laythe surface base to land. This posed a problem because the nature of the next Jool mission would depend heavily on the viability of that surface base. If it was successful then I could send a full relief crew with the next transfer, enough to man every base and station that I'll have in the system by that time. If it wasn't then the main cargo with that next ship would simply be a passenger module that would allow my original crew to come home, with the full conquest of Jool needing to wait until some later date. I couldn't wait for that next ship to find out if LaythePort could do its job; I needed to find out now. LaythePort consists of two parts; a docking assembly consisting of a series of AGUs mounted on a framework of girders at various heights in order to allow a variety of spaceplanes to dock with it to refuel and the mine itself, which would meet up with the docking assembly using rover wheels and connect with a Clamp-O-Tron port. The docking assembly needed a lot of fuel to land as it had no protection against the atmosphere and no passive means to slow its descent, relying on a set of Swivel rocket engines for both. The mine, on the other hand, was safely encased in a fairing and had parachutes to bring it down to the surface. Finding the exact right re-entry trajectory to land on the small island that I'd selected for my base site would be difficult, but once I'd managed that it wouldn't actually take much fuel to make the trip; just enough for my tug to slow the mine down to suborbital velocity and then get itself safely back into orbit after detaching. I was pleased to find that this part of the mission went smoothly. The mine touched down on its wheels without damage and, while navigating Laythe's hilly terrain proved difficult for the vehicle's electric wheels with careful driving it could be managed. So that's one part of the mission done, but what about the rest? I still didn't have the fuel I needed to land the docking assembly so I couldn't complete the base "for real," but I could simulate it. I created a new named save, cheated a tug and a tank of ore into a rendezvous with Laythe Station, used the ore to manufacture some LiquidFuel and sent the assembly down to its landing site. I then began the long and difficult task of bringing the mine across the 15km necessary to meet up with it, carefully negotiating a path around Laythe's hills that would keep me off the steepest slopes where the rover wheels would prove to be inadequate. At last, the two components of the base that would form an essential part of any future manned missions to Laythe joined together, the mine's landing legs were extended and its wheels (which were in reality a trio of independent rovers that could be decoupled from the main craft) were discarded. Everything seemed to be in order. At first. It was only when I extended the mine's drills that I discovered the flaw in my design - the drills were too low. While most of the length of a Drill-O-Matic has no physics collider, allowing it to embed itself into the ground in order to extract resources from it, the tops of the drills are much more solid. When I deployed them, I'd discovered that the drills had been mounted so low that they raised the mine off of its landing legs. Worse still, when I turned them on and they began the constant up-and-down motions that accompanied surface harvesting they began to shake the entire base. The base still held together and it was still able to generate fuel, but any plans to leave a crew inside for significant periods of time would be unfeasible; they'd be constantly shaking every moment they spent on the surface. So while this was a bit disappointing at least I know what I'll have to do going forward. That next transfer window will have to carry a new mine to Laythe, one that can fully function on its surface. It will need to be tested more thoroughly than this one was, but that'll be easier now that my surface scanner and the beginnings of my space station are already in place around the watery moon it'll be easier to conduct those tests than it was when the mine was originally launched. And even in its present condition it's not a total loss; I might still be able to get a plane refuelled at this base which will let me complete an initial flag-and-footprints mission to Laythe. It just won't be suitable as the core of a new colony.

When I completed my tech tree I decided it was finally time to start sending out manned interplanetary missions.

I just thought that harrisjosh2711 might not have known that you were referencing a movie and might appreciate seeing the original scene.

LaythePort has arrived at Laythe. Unfortunately, that's at Laythe, not on Laythe. I had to tap into the fuel that was intended for the landing in order to complete the rendezvous with Laythe Station. I might have enough LF left to send the tug back to Pol for more, but I don't want to risk it. Fortunately, my next equipment shipment is already in Jool's SOI (although it'll take a while to go through its arrival manoeuvres) and it includes a tug designed to remain in the Jool system permanently. I'll just wait for it to arrive and then use it to bring a tank of ore to the station, where I'll use the station's ISRU (powered by LaythePort's fuel cells) to generate whatever fuel I need.

My space program is built around a fleet of re-usable tugs, all of which are nuclear-powered. I don't build "spaceships" per se, rather I build payloads with docking ports attached to them. I use a variety of engines to get them into orbit but once they're up there it's NERV or nothing. Unless they need to land on something, in which case I hand them off to a landing craft powered by Twitch or Spark engines.

This is more of a "What did you do in KSP over the last couple of weeks" post, since I've been doing a lot of fairly mundane things that I didn't think warranted a post of their own. For instance, I sent a new shipment to Jool. This consists of three science/relay satellites for Jool's moons (I already have satellites over Pol and Laythe,) a smaller satellite to orbit Jool itself (with just the science experiments, no scanners or relay) and a comm/power strut for Laythe Station, this time including a pair of fuel cell arrays to give it enough electricity to run its ISRU. I also sent some more tourists to Moho. This mission was mainly done to bring a new fuel transport craft to the planet (with increased oxidizer and monopropellant capacity, making it easier to fill up my station and lander.) I mainly picked up the tourist contract (three of them, two one-person contracts and one for two people) to offset the costs. They arrived successfully and are now waiting for the mining outpost to rotate around to the day-side of the planet before landing. I added a new extension to my Mun base. This one increases the base's crew capacity to six (it originally could only support two) and includes a parking port for a rover. My LaythePort mission arrived at Pol. The main purpose of this mission is to drop a mining/refuelling base onto the surface of Laythe to support future spaceplane operations. It also carried a second fuel tank and power/comm strut for Foothold Station, bring that station one step closer to completion. I haven't sent it on its way to Laythe yet as that's going to be the most complicated and failure-prone part of my entire Joolean operation thus far, since I'll have to bring the mine down onto the tiny island that I've selected for my base (it has rover wheels so it can move around the island a bit on its own power, but hitting the island itself will come down entirely to getting the re-entry trajectory right) and then link it up with the docking assembly that I'm going to use to allow my planes to attach themselves for refuelling. I've also never done an all-in test of this procedure, although I've tested the various steps individually. Finally, I sent a new rover to the Mun. This rover was actually designed for use on Duna (I've made a post about it before) but I figured I might as well test it out on the Mun first. Here it is being carried down to the surface by my lifting craft. Upon reaching the surface, the top docking port was detached via a radial decoupler and the lifting craft carried it far above the Munar surface, undocked itself, then returned to the base to re-fuel, allowing the port and decoupler to destroy itself on impact with the Munar surface. The next step was to bring the rover around to dock with the specially-prepared port on the Mun base's new module. I'd simulated this procedure on Kerbin, hacking gravity to ensure that everything would sit at the same height as it would on the Mun's surface, but I still had my fingers crossed for this part of the process since you can never be sure how things will go when you try something like this for real. Fortunately, there was no need to worry as the docking completed successfully on the first attempt. Unfortunately I didn't notice until all this was completed that I'd put a completely useless atmospheric analyzer on the rover (it was designed for Duna, after all.) Ah well, better to have a part you don't need than to be missing a part that you do need.

One of the reasons why I replaced my Minmus mining installation was because every time I sent its engineer on EVA they'd always be glowing red hot.

No, we only need to protect his hands. Hook them up to a machine that keeps them in a perpetual state of semi-life and KSP will never die.

My usual pattern is to first send a science/relay/scanner satellite into a polar orbit around the planet in question, often using disposable chemical rockets. With the following missions I send mining equipment, an orbital station (a simple fuel depot for planets that I don't plan on spending a lot of time around and more elaborate stations for planets that I want to keep occupied) and then finally a Kerbal crew, with all of these missions being sent via reusable transfer vehicles propelled by nuclear rockets.

I just added Dres to the list of planets that I've sent manned missions to (I'd previously put a science probe in a polar orbit, followed by an unmanned mining outpost and fuel transport.) I put the full details of the mission in the "What did you do in KSP today" thread, but basically I sent my science ship (which had already undertaken a successfully mission to the inner planets, retrieving a manned capsule launched from Eve and landing Kerbals on Gilly and Moho) to Dres, towing behind it a small space station (which will act as a fuel depot, supplied by the aforementioned mining outpost and supporting future missions to the planet) and reusable lander to be left behind at the planet and carrying a second, single-use lander which, in addition to being the vehicle for the first crewed landing on Dres's surface, also deposited a science rover which will remain there indefinitely. The ship's four-Kerbal crew (a pilot, and engineer and two scientists) have now all taken a trip to the surface and back again (most using the reusable lander) and they're now waiting for a transfer window home, using the science ship's MPL to analyze the data that they obtained on their landings in the meantime.

Venus? What the Krak is Venus?

Explorer 1 arrived at Dres! After capturing and circularizing I sent my fuel transport up from my mining outpost (where it had been sitting, fully filled, for quite some time) to replenish the ship's liquid fuel stores and give her enough oxidizer for a landing. Her tanks filled, the next step was to send down the single-use landing craft. The lander has no landing legs of its own and instead sets down on the wheels of its attached science rover. After its successful landing, scientist Mirtha Kerman exited the craft to take Kerbalkind's first steps on Dres's surface (and confirm once and for all that it has a surface) and plant a flag. The rover contains a gravioli detector, thermometer, accelerometer and barometer while the landing craft contains a Science Jr. and Mystery Goo container. Combined with Mirtha's crew report, EVA report and surface sample this allowed her to run every experiment possible on an airless body and load the results into the lander's ESU. Its mission complete, the lander separated from the rover and blasted back off into space with its data (and passenger, of course.) With the single-use lander safely re-attached to Explorer 1's bow docking port, the multi-use lander (which will be left behind in Dres's orbit) made its own inaugural journey, taking engineer Joezor Kerman to the mining outpost in order to boost its output so that it could quickly generate enough fuel for the rest of the mission. One fuel shipment later, it was time for pilot Obgel Kerman and scientist Wehrely Kerman to make their landing, touching down at Mirtha's original landing site. You see, that rover has a command seat attached, and it would be a crime most heinous to allow it to go unused. Whee! So Joezor's still on the surface but aside from that I've finished all I need to do on Dres. All that's left now is to wait the 1 year and 65 days for the transfer window home.

Radiators don't work as well anymore. A lot of my mining bases that were working fine in 1.3.0 are overheating and losing efficiency in 1.3.1.

My tourists came back from Moho. (That's a re-entry pod that they transferred into at Minmus.) Other than that I've mostly been conducting training missions to get a new crew ready for a trip to Jool. Lots of Mun landings and flag-plantings.

The trick to landing airplanes is to put a bunch of parachutes on them.

I landed a new base on the Mun. My old Mun base was my oldest mining installation still in service, and it had a lot of problems. For one thing, it was on the far side of the Mun, making loss of probe-control a constant threat. It was also dropped a fair distance from the equator (making landings more complicated,) didn't have any ladders reaching surface level (meaning that it would be impossible for an astronaut with empty EVA propellant tanks to enter the base) and it was entirely solar-powered and unable to operate through the Munar night. However, the biggest problem didn't make itself apparent until recently, when the upgrade to 1.3.1 rendered the base's previously-adequate cooling systems incapable of keeping its mining and ISRU equipment running at high efficiency. I'd already put together a "standard" base design that I'm currently using variants of on Minmus, Ike, Duna and Pol, but while that design works great once it's landed on the surface its extremely wide profile makes launching it from Kerbin a very dicey affair. Therefore, I decided to go back to the drawing board and create a new installation type that had the capabilities I needed but in a more compact form. The new base doesn't have the crew capacity of my full-sized design (having only space for two Kerbals rather than the six that the larger base can hold,) its ore storage is minimal (just one radial tank) and its fuel capacity is lower across all types, but it still has more than enough to fill up a docked transport craft and the whole thing fits nicely inside a 3.75m fairing. It's also got four fuel cell arrays capable of keeping the base running even without sunlight, and five Illuminator Mk.2s ensuring visibility at night. In addition, its two horizontally-facing docking ports will allow the base to be upgraded with additional modules if its current capabilities prove to be inadequate in the future. Given that every planet and moon that I'm planning on mining already has a base either on the surface or en route I'm not sure if I'll ever use this design again, but it's nice to have around just in case I decide to put a base on Bop or Vall.

I landed Jeb on the Mun. Yeah, despite the countless hours I've put into the game (literally; I play the GOG version without Galaxy so I don't know how long I've played) I'd never actually done this. Valentina was the one who made the first Mun landing, and I didn't notice until I arrived at Duna that Jeb seemed to be lagging behind his whiteshirt colleagues in level. He'd also never landed on Minmus, but I took care of that before he got into the re-entry capsule on the way back from Duna.

He, along with the rest of his crew (including the other three orangeshirts) are back from Duna!

The Duna crew is back! Upon arriving at Kerbin, they performed their capture burn, putting themselves into a highly eccentric trajectory that would take them just above Minmus, with a planar node at AP. Once arriving at that node, they added a bit of prograde thrust to their plane-change manoeuvre , putting them on an encounter course with Minmus. Upon arriving at Minmus Station, the crew transferred into a large-scale re-entry vehicle designed specifically for their return (although I may re-use the design later.) It was placed onto a Kerbin re-entry trajectory by a tug that then detached and returned to Minmus Station. The re-entry occurred on the night-side of the planet, so picture quality isn't ideal, but despite being launched without any ablator the re-entry capsule's heat shield proved to be easily up to the task of protecting the crew as they entered Kerbin's atmosphere. By the time re-entry was complete, the craft had moved far enough east that the first hint of dawn was starting to appear on the horizon, but there was still no direct sunlight. Splashdown still occurred without issue, though, and the first Kerbals to leave Kerbin's SOI are now safe at home where they'll enjoy a long and well-deserved vacation before embarking on their next adventure.

Unfortunately, HG-5 antennas really aren't suited to interplanetary communications. Their signal barely extends beyond Kerbin's SOI, even with a fully-upgraded tracking station. Even your second option probably won't work unless your trajectory brings the probe extremely close to Kerbin at its apoapsis. Unless you've got a relay with a more powerful antenna already in place around Moho it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever regain contact with this probe.