The Dunatian, Playable Save File (Like a Scenario)

[Majorjim!]

Sure, there is a mod to help make them rounder if you want

It's just that my panel tent is the same shape as a fairing but is 39 parts.

[selfish_meme]

It's just that my panel tent is the same shape as a fairing but is 39 parts.

Part count is obviously a plus, also we need to remember he made this tent out of a patchwork of hab canvas and glue.

[selfish_meme]

Hmm the RTG is a real problem, I reverted back to the old save file with Mark Kermney alive and tried to place the new RTG, as soon as it touched the ground instant black screen. There are no cubic struts in this version. I didn't have an issue with the RTG when Mark Kermney was dead, coincidence?

[JAFO]

That's disconcerting..

Think I might try a bit of persistence file editing.. insert Mark into the new save in place of Merbly, and see what happens.

[selfish_meme]

I've got a feeling it's docking port distance, far away but within physics range

[JAFO]

There has to be something more to it than that.. loads of people have been using docking ports for roughly this kind of thing for a long time now, without problems.

[Majorjim!]

There has to be something more to it than that.. loads of people have been using docking ports for roughly this kind of thing for a long time now, without problems.

What is attached to the docking port? Try attaching the docking port to a battery first then the RTG. Maybe it doesn't like the surface attached RTG?

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Part count is obviously a plus, also we need to remember he made this tent out of a patchwork of hab canvas and glue.

Hmm, maybe mine is to clean then..

[selfish_meme]

It wasn't attached directly to the docking port last time, the only common factors are Mark Kermney, docking port, RTG and separator. I'm going to try with docked docking ports.

[Vorxotauriat]

Has anyone figured out the Hermes trajectory?

[JAFO]

Has anyone figured out the Hermes trajectory?

No.. that's one of the things nobody presently involved with the project is particularly good at. If you're willing to take a crack at it, that would be great.

[selfish_meme]

Has anyone figured out the Hermes trajectory?

I have not got anything, I tried a few bodgy things like putting her a few hours out at a transfer window and trying to get the correct periapsis that gave a kerbin return but nothing solid so far

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So I made a new save file and put the RTG, base and rovers on it. Works like a charm, I'll put up a screen shot in a second, theres a lot of unanswered questions about the Kraken, I am going to try rebuild the save file but place the RTG first.

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Is imgur being flaky for anyone else lately it seems to have slowed to a crawl.

Don't worry about the mechjeb tab, I have mechjeb and engineer for all, there are no modules on any of the craft

In the screenshot they are all docked after I went and got the RTG

Edited October 1, 2015 by selfish_meme

[Majorjim!]

No.. that's one of the things nobody presently involved with the project is particularly good at. If you're willing to take a crack at it, that would be great.

Nobody has asked me yet. In fact it hasn't even been asked openly if anyone can help with that. What is needed?

[Yukon0009]

I think a Kerbin-Duna-Kerbin trajectory without manuevers?

[Majorjim!]

I think a Kerbin-Duna-Kerbin trajectory without manuevers?

A Duna/Kerbin free return trajectory? Hmm, I've never plotted one myself but how hard can it be? You just have to find out the perfect time to reach Duna. There must be information here about this kind of maneuver.

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A Duna/Kerbin free return trajectory? Hmm, I've never plotted one myself but how hard can it be? You just have to find out the perfect time to reach Duna. There must be information here about this kind of maneuver.

OK looking into this the only examples of a Duna/Kerbin free return I can find involve simply performing a massive burn taking you close to a Duna encounter and out way past it back to Kerbin. That sounds like a crappy way of doing it. But it does the job, and if you do not perform an intercept burn you would simply return to Kerbin. It would be a long return though but this sounds like a simple way to do it.

[ttnarg]

Some nice looking crafts there but I could not dock the rovers to the hab. had to give up before I got started :-(

[selfish_meme]

Nobody has asked me yet. In fact it hasn't even been asked openly if anyone can help with that. What is needed?

The asset list of things needing building is on the first page, this is more of a do what interests you kind of project.

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Some nice looking crafts there but I could not dock the rovers to the hab. had to give up before I got started :-(

Hey there, I know about that and it is fixed, the new save file with new craft will be up soon, it is beta, so we have all the features and now we are working through the play testing.

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A Duna/Kerbin free return trajectory? Hmm, I've never plotted one myself but how hard can it be? You just have to find out the perfect time to reach Duna. There must be information here about this kind of maneuver.

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OK looking into this the only examples of a Duna/Kerbin free return I can find involve simply performing a massive burn taking you close to a Duna encounter and out way past it back to Kerbin. That sounds like a crappy way of doing it. But it does the job, and if you do not perform an intercept burn you would simply return to Kerbin. It would be a long return though but this sounds like a simple way to do it.

I'm only looking for a Kerbin return, the Hermes wasn't a cycler. In the book it used constant ion thrust but that is not really possible here so I am using nukes instead for transfers.

It needs to be saved at about 5 or 6 hours away from periapsis.

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Hey Majorjim, what's happening with your craft? I am going to create a new save file today, can I get them yet?

[Majorjim!]

The asset list of things needing building is on the first page, this is more of a do what interests you kind of project.

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Hey there, I know about that and it is fixed, the new save file with new craft will be up soon, it is beta, so we have all the features and now we are working through the play testing.

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I'm only looking for a Kerbin return, the Hermes wasn't a cycler. In the book it used constant ion thrust but that is not really possible here so I am using nukes instead for transfers.

It needs to be saved at about 5 or 6 hours away from periapsis.

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Hey Majorjim, what's happening with your craft? I am going to create a new save file today, can I get them yet?

Sure but you didn't answer me before. The one I made maybe looks too clean. Not like a patchwork. The one I made looks like a fairing so why not just use a fairing and save on parts?

Which one would you like?

[selfish_meme]

Some nice looking crafts there but I could not dock the rovers to the hab. had to give up before I got started :-(

Also ttnarg, docking to the hab module is not really needed to continue gameplay, you can simply grab the rovers and head to pathfinder.

[selfish_meme]

I have uploaded updated craft files for the Hab and Rovers (not Majorjims new ones, just a couple of small changes)

[JAFO]

Since you've been busy working on the main components, I thought I'd throw a Duna Weather Station together for you. It consists of a Probodobodyne QBE, thermometer, barometer, atmosphere analysis unit, Z-200 battery, Communotron 16, a pair of SP-W 2x3 solar panels, and a small reaction wheel to assist with positioning, all on a Modular Girder Adapter base.

You can download the .craft file here: https://app.box.com/s/kqafhz0exk85cy8lppoe5v2glld1v1xb

While I'm at it, do you have any tips for placing objects on the surface with hyperedit? The handful of so-called "tutorials" and "how-to's" on youtube are pretty useless. Whenever I tried to put the weather station on Duna for pics, even though I had the lat/long correct, it kept placing the station hundreds of km away from where it was supposed to go.

[selfish_meme]

No I just plug them in the way they are written, try reversing, maybe the numbers are in the wrong order, can you put a camera lookalike on those weather stations? I imagine no one would go to the trouble of putting one on Mars without one, also it plays into an idea I had for the playthrough.

This save file stuff is frustrating, I just finished placing everything except the rovers, tried to land them near the base, no base, i could see the RTG in the distance, check the tracking station, they are orbiting the sun. Quickly try and get them back but they exploded from overheating.

[selfish_meme]

I have put up a new savefile, apparently renaming Kerbals leads to issues, this might only arise when they are assigned, I need to do some more investigation. I think this savefile will be good otherwise, some craft are updated and there are a lot less explosions and stuff.

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[JAFO]

Ok.. I figured out what I was doing wrong.. I had the numbers right, but didn't realise I could force a landing directly from the KSC launchpad by clicking on the 'Landing' light. The 'Land' button was refusing to land on Duna directly from Kerbin, so I was setting it to orbit Duna first, as an intermediate step, but then the orbital position was over-riding the set lat/long coordinates.

can you put a camera lookalike on those weather stations? I imagine no one would go to the trouble of putting one on Mars without one, also it plays into an idea I had for the playthrough.

Yep.. sure thing. Stock KSP doesn't have much that works as a camera lookalike, but I upended a Surface Scanning Module and embedded it in the QBE. The result is what I call a 360° Panoramic Scanning Camera on top of the weather station.

I've uploaded the new version, download link is the same as before.

Edited October 2, 2015 by JAFO

[selfish_meme]

I always go to the change orbit button first and put it in orbit around Duna, then a i close that and go to ship lander, enter the co-ordinates there and make sure the right planet is selected (important) and then click land. It warns against trying to land from a different planet, and when I have messed up and done it, ships have exploded several times.

Cool weather station, I wanted a reason to go up the mountain behind the Ares 4 DAV, and if there just happened to be a weatherstation near Anomoly B that KSC tells him to check out.

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Ok.. I figured out what I was doing wrong.. I had the numbers right, but didn't realise I could force a landing directly from the KSP launchpad by clicking on the 'Landing' light. The 'Land' button was refusing to land on Duna directly from Kerbin, so I was setting it to orbit Duna first, as an intermediate step, but then the orbital position was over-riding the set lat/long coordinates.

Yep.. sure thing. Stock KSP doesn't have much that works as a camera lookalike, but I upended a Surface Scanning Module and embedded it in the QBE. The result is what I call a 360° Panoramic Scanning Camera on top of the weather station.

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/ElYoda69/screenshot_2015-10-02--15-54-36_zpsjlaojofr.png~original

I've uploaded the new version, download link is the same as before.

I have added it to the project will place some later. Can anybody following this download the new save file and see if the glitches are gone (get the RTG and return) I found the renamed Kerbals even affected the frame rate.

Also I experimented with placing the cargo modules, there is a finite limit to the number of parts in physics range before it gets pretty slow, I don't think there is anyway we have more than one or two cargo modules.

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We are at position 14 on curse, a lot of that may be down to us downloading craft. I only know of one person who has tried to play it (non contributing).

[JAFO]

For anyone trying to work on the Hermes flight plan, here's an animation made with the software Andy Weir wrote to figure out the course/dates/transmission delay times, etc..:

http://www.galactanet.com/martian/hermes.mp4

Not do-able in KSP, of course, but pretty cool all the same.

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ICan anybody following this download the new save file and see if the glitches are gone (get the RTG and return) I found the renamed Kerbals even affected the frame rate.

I'm about to try that now..

Also I experimented with placing the cargo modules, there is a finite limit to the number of parts in physics range before it gets pretty slow, I don't think there is anyway we have more than one or two cargo modules.

Sounds like a good reason to not place any weather stations around the Hab site, then. In which case, even more reason to put one at the Ares 4 DAV site. Edited October 2, 2015 by JAFO