aspacecephalopod

Extremely relevant music to set the scene Well the kerbals did it again! Or rather, aspacecephalopod did it again and started a new savegame without finishing some projects in the others RSS and OPM explorations are still happening, but I thought it would be fun to take a break with something more... spinny. Enter... Mesbin! Where a sorry lot of kerbs have been stuck for ~1700 years, living sadly in battered old underground tunnels. But, they have recreated the space program they once had on other planets, complete with a KSC that features a runway that will have to be used sometime, despite the distinct lack of any way to generate lift here on this spinning ball of rock. In fact, they have developed some very advanced tech along the way (as in, sandbox with a fairly large suite of mods-everything from Laythe Space program and Restock/Restock+ to make things look nice). As such, this won't really be a career but more an adventure into the very cool Kaywell system, looking for fun exploration sites and homes for the kerbs that are more hospitable than Mesbin itself. Chapter 1: Dead or Alive?

Indeed it would seem this is! In which Leia builds things and Chuck flies things

Great shot! And thanks. It's a Canon 6D, with a 300mm F/4 prime tele lens.

Caught it last night! 300mm/f4 full frame, 2 second exposure, ISO 12800. Also looked awesome through 12x36 and 20x50 binoculars. Also, some Starlink sats crossed the frame during this shot but I kind of like having them in the frame too You can just barely see the second tail. I'm going to have to go farther out of town soon and try again...

Visited Wal, then took the whole crew and mothership in for a landing at Tal. (OPM/Sigma OPM Tilt). Nice views!

Jessel's Setup

More Lunar Improv

Had to give 1.10 a shot... this small comet base was the result! Full report here if anyone wants to see the process, nothing fancy though

Put together the beginnings of a lunar base on the Sea of Fertility (RSS, FAR, SMURFF, stock fuels/ISRU). The hab module hit bingo fuel about 1km off the lunar surface but some quick piloting got the ISRU down intact so mining and exploration can begin, until some new hab modules can be shipped out.

Not sure, running 1.8.1 for this save (and no plans to update)

Lunar problem solving

Deploying the Fleet

New rockets (and more)

Jessel's Journey

Some interim stuff

Chapter 2: Back to the Moon, so soon?

Chapter 8 is up now! In which both the Kerbin and Sarnus crews return home. A bit of housekeeping before Urlum...

Chapter 7 This wraps up Sarnus with some jetpacking fun at Hale, a quick refueling stop at Ovok, and then home!

Orbiters and Stations

Some logs from the two kerbals while off-duty: -Log: Maupin Kerman, Scientist- Well, we pulled off a Moon landing and return with some hideously bad hardware. I’m genuinely shocked and impressed it all worked! The Humans seem to be happy as well and have provided some more advanced resources. I don’t know how us Kerbals haven’t realized how heavy our engines and fuel tanks are, but that’s one are where we were able to improve. We’ve redesigned the Carrot with fewer 1st stage engines and better mass efficiency, and it can now put 25T into LEO. Progress! Now, we just need to get back to the Moon with more hardware as a proof of concept, then onwards to Mars… or maybe one of the gas giants or ice giants. It doesn’t look like we can get back to kerbin any time soon, so might as well see what’s around this system. ‘sides… Oblong got the first landing. That means I gotta catch up! -Log: Oblong Kerman, Pilot- Riding the high of the last successful mission, our little ragtag Kerbal crew put together a new thing: a Kerbal Space Station, or KSS. It’s the first launch on the revised Carrot and the ship did well. This deployed a small orbital station to LEO, although “station” is a bit of a misnomer; it’s also using an NTR for propulsion to move about orbits. This could come in handy to pick up crews and such as needed.

Chapter 6 is up now! This entire chapter is flying around Tekto. What a grand moon! So much fun to be had exploring there.

Moon Chapter Three

Moon Landing!

Yep-there's a really nice set of 5m, 7.5m and stockalike engines in NFLV. Also includes a 5m docking port and some giant RCS which could be really fun down the line.

Thanks for the encouragement and mod recommendation! That looks like more what I'd like to do with this save rather than full RO. Yeah the stock mass fractions are hideously hard to use for an RSS orbital launch, particularly as I was trying not to do crossfeed/asparagus staging. That mission definitely was an inspiration here, though I'm not sure how well some of those designs would play with FAR. As for actually pulling it off... we'll see! Haven't flown the landing yet but the TLI burn(s) went well and I know I have enough fuel in the NTR half to capture to low orbit with the 5 tons of lander attached. Having enough fuel to return though... that's seriously up in the air still. I know I have the ability to mount a rescue mission with the same hardware (minus the lander) if getting back doesn't seem doable though. Edit: Just read up about SMURFF. Think it's going to end up in the list of mods for this for sure... Maybe Stock Fuel Switch as well if it still works. But definitely going with this Moon mission as is just for the challenge.