Kerbals_of_Steel

I made a Duna-capable spaceplane for a challenge: 6 crew, twin service bays and braking chutes, a short cargo bay capable of deploying a small rover, or trade that for an extra fuel tank that allows for a round trip from LKO. https://kerbalx.com/Mobryan71/Annuki

Felt Inspired, so I made a thing: The Krew seemed to like the view: Deorbit burn with the imitation Draco thrusters: Dropping the trunk (should have put some collision lights on it or something... ) : On Target for a splashdown east of the KSC: Over too soon, so sad, but a safe landing: KoS

Those seem to be much more reasonable volumes. I can certainly see having a bit of overage for filler/packing/ext, but not 10 times overage. KoS

Sent a tiny lander to the Mun to investigate an anomaly detected from orbit: Found it!!! : Unfortunately it's at the edge of a major crater and between a number of smaller but still substantial craters. Landing at the site is not an option, so other options will need to be explored. In the mean time, the lander was diverted to a safe zone about 10km away: Doing some basic geological research in the main crater: KoS

Training myself to be better with SCAN sat maps, so I sent a surveillance mission to the Mun: The main orbiter has full life support, multiple types of scanning equipment, and some surprises: Two deployable 4U cubesats, one with a resource scanner, the other is a comm relay that will be put in a resonant orbit with the main vessel so it's always got a Kerb-net link. The relay sat has a xenon engine, and the resource scanner is conventionally powered: It was also an excuse to try my new cfg's that add fuel switching to some parts from Nuke Refueled. So far, working great, and the scans have revealed an anomaly that will require further investigation... KoS

The pre-release version of Konstruction also includes some parts that increase the weight limit for stock EVA construction. This is a replacement (in addition too??) the KIS weight bonus that has been baked into the Konstruction parts for a while. KoS

I'm currently observing them to see if they are more or less kraken proof than the KAS and USI mod versions. If they hold up I've got a few plans for ISRU craft that could take advantage of them. They also work quite well for either building a rover from scratch or anchoring one for a repair mission. KoS

Launched a radar survey satellite using SCAN Sats most awkward and infuriating science part, the REO-1 radar antenna: Using some 0.35m parts from the Squiggsy cube sat mod allowed for a smaller launch vehicle, but the power demands for the radar required a healthy solar array: KoS

Not much playing going on, but been cutting out a bunch of redundant or unused mod parts and building some CFGs to make other tanks compatible with fuel switching. Next up is a balance pass to tweak some engines and such that are super neat but also stupidly overpowered. Eventually I will have everything set up for a good long term career replay. KoS

I'm pretty utilitarian about most of my probes and such: "Duna Polar Rover, Minmus Comm Sat, Dres Conspiracy Buster". The big manned craft, though, all get named after various sky/ocean gods and then the support craft are named to match. My local Kerbin mothership is named Njord, after the Norse sea god, the landers are his children Frey and Freyja, the supply rocket is Skadi. I've got similar themes for the Polynesian and Akkadian pantheons for other missions. KoS

Made the first Krewed landing outside of Kerbins SOI today. After a few hundred days cooped up on ship and Val smacking his hand any time he wanted to do something "exciting", Jeb decided to start the mission with some stunt flying: The rest of the descent to Ike was much less adrenaline filled: Posing for a group picture on the surface: While Bill and Bob were busy setting up the deployed science site, Jeb dug his golf clubs out of the storage pod: Tagaloa, this is Pulelehua on final approach:

Not sure how, but apparently I did get the previous version downloaded. <shrug> All better now. KoS

Hmm, I will double check when I can open the game again. I thought it was an odd omission. KoS

One functionality that is missing is the ability to actually store samples (science points) in it. Add the following to the CFG for either part, duplicating the stock Experimental Storage Unit capability: KoS

The RoverDude/Umbra Space Industries MKS Mod. It includes a huge variety of ground base and colonization parts, probably my most used mod. I use those legs all the time: KoS

It's also an itty-bitty probe for scale . I love that Squiggsy mod!

Landed a series of small rovers in 4 separate locations on Duna in preparation for upcoming krewed landings: Turns out that the combination of drogue chutes and retro rockets were enough for safe landings without even needing the main chute: Each rover has a basic science package and low grade automation, allowing it to scout out a good landing spot, act as a homing beacon, and then provide local transportation when the Kerbals get there. Also landed an automated miner on Ike as part of an experimental ISRU setup to fuel the mothership (The dunce cap on top is a ferry tank for the transfer and insertion burns. ) : Making the landing burn with a team of Terriers: Set up and filling the tanks with 15000 units of ore: KoS

The interplanetary colonization ship Tagaloa has arrived in the Duna system: The original mission plan was to capture into a low Duna orbit initially, then use the two landers (Pulelehua and Meli) to make a total of three trips to the surface before moving outwards to Ike for one more surface expedition and possibly rendezvousing with an experimental autonomous mining unit for refueling. Tagaloa doesn't need refueled to make it back to Kerbin, but it would certainly ease Wehrner's stress levels. Due to the vagaries of interplanetary travel and orbital mechanics, however, Valentina decided to go for a direct capture around Ike: After the burn Bill went out to check the bearings on the grav ring: Sure is pretty up here: Valentina decided to use one of the ships built in science probes to confirm the landing site for the mining unit: Almost 13% ore and reasonably level, a perfect site. Next up will be the miner landing and putting some scout rovers on the Duna surface in preparation for the krewed landings there. Kos

Fair enough. I've had enough issues with reactors, ect, overheating during catch-up that I look at the whole system with a side-eye. KoS

Nothing. The multiple separators were ditched during the last big update, since the stock thermal system is so janky. Some of the documentation has been updated, but there is a lot of text to go through, so parts of the wiki aren't quite up to snuff at the moment. KoS

Put the first lander on Ike, today, along with an orbiting science sat: After getting a sling around Duna to match the orbits better, it was a cheap burn into orbit, and time to separate the lander/ground based relay from the orbiter and service section: The orbiter section had the fuel tanks for the capture burn, a plethora of science experiments, and a number of antenna as part of setting up my "Duna-Net" local Ki-Fi network. One big RA-100 commsat is in a highly eccentric Duna polar orbit, and the plan is to use a mesh of smaller and cheaper relays to bounce the signal to the big antenna that will spend most of its time hovering over the south pole. A key part of the plan is putting a ground based relay on the Duna facing side of Ike, essentially turning the whole moon into a geosynch communication satellite, and in combination with the big polar sat, providing near constant comms to half of the planet. Ike is known for being a moon that is as big up and down as it is around, so a wide stance and adjustable legs are critical: Fully deployed and ready to support the next wave of rovers and ultimately the krewed exploration of the surface:

You aren't on the most current build, then, that problem has been sorted. Try this one: https://github.com/UmbraSpaceIndustries/MKS/releases/tag/1.4.1 Or this one with extra goodies https://github.com/UmbraSpaceIndustries/MKS/tree/master/FOR_RELEASE If, for some weird reason, you try the 1.4 or 1.4.1 versions of MKS and it still hangs up on the light globe, simply searching for and deleting that parts .cfg in GameData/UmbraSpaceIndustries/MKS/parts/LightGlobe.cfg is a simple hack to get you started. I've used the 1.4.1 version of MKS going back to KSP 1.10, though, without any difficulties with the light globe. KoS

My invasion of Duna is about to commence in earnest. To begin, a pair of full featured landers with micro-rovers are being put on the poles both for science and to act as ground based relays: 4 parachutes aren't quite enough to slow it down for landing, so there are airbags tucked under the heatshield: Time to deploy the fairing/rover ramp and get this popsicle stand open for business: All sorts of interesting things for the rovers to look for: Despite not yet having an actual relay sat on station yet, still have an excellent Ki-Fi link back to KSC, though it is the bendiest of "bent-pipe" data streams. The North Pole rover has been put on standby for the moment, but the South Pole rover landed close enough to the edge of the icepack that the decision has been made to try the ~40km trek to the border, for science and glory!!! KoS

It affects overall efficiency, yes.

How many stars does the scientist have? KoS