Real Solar System – Getting Started
By
[email protected] April 3, 2015 Kerbal Space Program
Ever since I heard of the Real Solar System mod (RSS), I’ve always wanted to try it. It essentially turns the Kerbol system into our own solar system, swapping Kerbin for Earth, Jool for Jupiter etc etc. It also makes things much bigger, and therefore harder!
How much bigger you ask? Well I don’t actually know which is part of the fun! I know everything is scaled up and I’ve seen a few awesome videos like this one that have given me an idea of the scale but that’s all. No wiki or advice reading at all.
Since I’m making things more ‘real’, I’m also adding a few other mods I’ve always liked the sound of – FAR, deadly re-entry and procedural fairings.
All in all I’m hoping that these new mods will give me a new challenge and new things to do in KSP!
So let’s get started!!
The first objective is to get to orbit. Since I have no real idea what I’m in for, this was always going to be unlikely on the first attempt! To give myself an idea of what I’m up against, I started with my bog standard orbiter that can usually quite comfortably get a Mk1 pod into orbit of Kerbin.
The KSC as it is on Earth
My faithful orbiter on the pad
Blast off!
This craft didn’t have any modifications from my stock one. I’m guessing that not making aerodynamic noses for my boosters didn’t help and I was pretty much crossing my fingers that a Mk1 pod doesn’t need a heat shield, it certainly LOOKS like it’s designed for re-entry…right!?
So FAR so good (Bwahaahahha!). I was afraid the aerodynamics model in the mod was going to tear apart my ship but it seemed fine.
One problem I did have was not knowing where space was anymore! In stock, the atmosphere ends at 70km and I would start a gravity turn at around 10km. Everything is scaled up here so I started my turn at 30km and kept an eye out for signs that I was in space.
First stage separates… Still not in space!
I pushed on until I reached an apoapsis of 150km. Why I picked this number I’m not quite sure, but looking at the map it kinda looked like it was outside the blue haze!
As my little craft struggled on, a crew report finally reported that I was in space! And with a decent chunk of the stage’s fuel left too!
Another look at the map showed me that the RSS KSC is in florida, on the site of the Kennedy Space Centre (I see what they did there).
As I finally run out of fuel I take a look at my progress.
Doesn’t look too bad!
Until of course you zoom out and realise I haven’t made a scratch on getting to orbital velocity.
Dang!
The craft reached around 3500m/s, clearly this is nowhere near enough for an orbit in RSS.
Now there was nothing left to do except try out the next mod – Deadly Re-entry.
Normally I would recover the last stage in this sort of situation but I was aware that although the Mk1 pod might have a heat shield, that fuel tank definitely didn’t so off it went!
Parachute deployment unsafe…. Yep sounds reasonable
Luckily the craft survived and fell the loooooooong way back down to Earth (well, the Atlantic Ocean).
I’m already enjoying RSS, it’s adding an extra challenge to KSP that I’ve been missing with all my goofing around recently. Hopefully I’ll once again feel that new player buzz of getting into orbit and landing on the Moon!
Links to the mods:
Real Solar System
FAR
Deadly Re-entry
Procedural Fairings
Stay tuned for more RSS posts, feel free to share your ideas or experiences below!
