Jool 500 1.05-1.1 New Beginnings

[Jetski]

Chapter 5 - Loading the Kolonists

After a brief hiatus while I burned through a 1.1.1 career, we are back on track for the Jool 500.  Most of the mods I'm using are working reasonably well or have been updated.  

I found out an interesting quirk of DeepFreeze - any frozen Kerbals don't count when hiring in the Astronaut Complex!  This will allow me to hire Kerbals in batches of 30ish for around 8 million funds, shuttle them to the Colony Transport, and freeze them down.  Prices for Kerbals will drop back to manageable levels (less than 600,000 funds is doable with my mining rig profits), and I can hire a new batch.  Cool!  I was worried about how I would afford 500 colonists, but if I plan right this will work out.

I tried a nice Space Shuttle replica for ferrying the colonists up, but it didn't work well.  Next I launched a very cheap disposable lifter for 20 Kerbals, which worked reasonably well, but I installed the wrong docking port.  After the tedium of EVAing over 20 Kerbals and freezing them, I upgraded for the next launch.  My third ship is a reusable shuttle using the new inflatable heat shield, and it worked perfectly to ferry 35 more Kerbals up to the Colony Transport for freezing.

The freezing process took quite a while, but now I have over half the colonists for my first 100-Kerbal transport frozen down and waiting in high Kerbin orbit.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2016 by Jetski

[Jetski]

...sigh.

Another update, my colony transport full of Kerbals is broken until SpaceY and NFT are updated.  Going to play a quick career using only planes until things are updated.

[Jetski]

Chapter 6 - Tragedy Strikes!

Grievous losses occurred today in the Jool-500 program.  The original Colony Transport, loaded with 55 frozen Kerbals, was eaten by the 1.1.2 update and the subsequent mod conflicts.  Also, the Rolling Miner v1.0 was eaten with Valentina and a 1-star Engineer whose name will be forgotten.  Apparently NFT isn't up yet, and the update got both ships when I transferred the save to 1.1.2.

New hope has arrived though, in the form of a new Colony Transport without NFT parts, and the first new colonist shuttle has safely docked and transferred 36 ill fated wretches happy colonists to the ship.  Also, a pair of engineers was retrieved from a Mun landing mission and have been put to work on a new mining rig with upgraded power supplies and higher efficiency than ever!

A Klaw-equipped lander is arriving now in the Jool system, and we shall see if it can be put to use on the lost logistics base (assuming the Kraken haven't eaten that one too)

Edit: Just put up another 64 Kolonists, and the first 100-pax ship is full!  I'm getting the shuttle launches down to a science - it only costs me about 78k in non-recoverable parts and fuel to put 32 Kerbals in the Colony Transport (300km orbit) and land again.  My SSTO and Space Shuttle designs were terrible, but a very simple ship with 2 16-pax cabins goes up and comes back and lands on its Inflatable Heat Shield with chutes.  Of course, it costs me about 10 million to hire those Kerbals...

 

I also launched a highly experimental floating Laythe base.  It won't be able to mine, unlike my other bases, but it has habitation for 10, supply warehouses, a lab, and enough supplies (with a Greenhouse) to last a few years.

Finally, I managed to get my utility lander to meet with the stalled Logistics base, only to find out my clever towing arrangement made it impossible for the NERVAs to generate thrust!  I've left them docked together (and out of RCS), and launched a new skycrane design that I hope to use to land all 3 of the unmavouverable bases.  Also, commenced the big burn with my massive 100-pax colony ship of frozen Kerbals.  Each one registers with the game physics as a part, so my already-large ship added 100 parts.  Kind of a lagfest, but the burn has commenced!

 

Edited May 5, 2016 by Jetski

[superstrijder15]

On 28-4-2016 at 4:20 AM, Jetski said:

I haven't found a good use for the very low thrust drives of the Propulsion part.

I got it too, but I only use the xenon tanks: the engine trusts are really low anyway and the ISP is lower than stock xenon, in my opinion it is thus pretty useless.

[Jetski]

Chapter 7 - First bases arriving

After another hiatus from this challenge, I finished a few months of timewarping and started some of my big ships entering the Jool system.  My first manned mission arrived, and is now safely orbiting Vall, preparing to land.  I also landed a big base/supply ship - no drills but tons of fuel and space for harvested supplies.  Another massive orbiting supply depot has entered the system, and will enter Valls SOI in a few days.  My first 3 logistics/mining bases are unusable as yet, but I think I can get them into a holding orbit around Jool, and I have a skycrane coming to help them land on various moons and get going.  I also have some bases coming for Laythe (including a floating one I want to try) and an improved design for logistics bases that I sent on a hyperbolic burn a full year after everything else, but should arrive shortly.  Lots going on, and the first Vall base is up and running!

 

Edited May 19, 2016 by Jetski

[Jetski]

Chapter 8 - First Kerbals on the ground

Ships are arriving in the Jool system fast now, and after some productive mining I've launched a few more colony ships.  I am testing designs to see what the most effective way to get large numbers of Kerbals to Jool, and I have a few ideas.  First I launched a colony ship with 36 frozen Kerbals, with plenty of dV to reach orbit around any moon.  Then I decided to try a Tylo base with 18 frozen colonists already aboard.  I plan to land the base, unfreeze and transfer the colonists to the inflatable habitats, then jettison the freeze pods, landing gear, and engines - basically a prefab base with the crew already landed.  Thinking it may save some Tylo landing missions.  Also I launched a similar ship (with drastically lower dV requirements) for another Vall base with 20 Kerbals.

My first Kerbal (Manfred) has landed and activated the base systems on Vall.  He is slowly producing a surplus of fertilizer and supplies, and mining and refining fuel.  I'm realizing I forgot to add KIS parts to most of the ships I'm sending, so next order of business is a few handy service ships/landers with lots of KIS toys aboard.

 

 

[Jetski]

Chapter 9 - Bases and more bases

Lots going on at once now.  The next Jool window came, and a new fleet is on the way.  I sent up a pair of skycranes with a ton of base building and KIS parts to start connecting bases together.  Also a few more colony ships went up.  Also launched a large number of greenhouses on a single ship, and 3 big drilling rigs with a lander to move them around.

The fun bit was all the ships arriving in-system now.  Pol now has 2 surface bases with mining and LS production (unmanned as yet).  I was able to rescue the drifting base and land it safely in the foothill of Pol, and another base landed on despite the lack of RCS or reaction wheels.  I used the 4 engines to steer by turning them on and off, quite difficult but landed safely.

Bop has 2 Kerbals running a base to produce Fertilizer and a tiny surplus of Supplies, and the base on Val is now full of fuel and LS.  

Laythe has a running mining/logistics base, and splashed down off shore is my favorite, the floating base!  It has a lot of food and LS, but no mining ability.  Lots of fun though splashing down on the giant floats (10m heat shields),

 

[Jetski]

Chapter 10 - Reaching Critical Mass

Lots has happened since last update here - the biggest event being my decision to start crash landing my colony ships and use them as base cores.  My massive lagfest 100-Kerbal Deepfreeze ship is now the core of Vall City, 50 of the crew are thawed out and living the good life in a sprawling base in Vall Lowlands.  the remaining 50 are on ice until the latest wave of ships arrives with more habs and greenhouses.  A large resource transfer shuttle has been taking extra modules and resources from the other 2 large Vall bases and bringing them to Vall City to aid in the expansion, while a little NERVA fueled lander has been running errands around the system moving crew and parts for bases.

4 large base expansion ships are en route to Jool now, each with habs and greenhouses for 125, so I'll be well over my 500 in living quarters, just need to get the inhabitants out there.  Right now there are 182 kerbals in the Jool system, but 70 are still frozen until the living space arrives.  I have another 100 on the pad now, prepping for launch.

Lag became a major issue here, I had to delete the probes and communications network - goodbye to 51 probe ships.  Even so, any ship with DeepFreeze is pretty much a lagfest - but the infrastructure to move 100 Kerbals (each eating 16 supplies a day) on a 3 year voyage is pretty intimidating without it.  I've been building the bases, thawing the kolonists, and scrapping the Deepfreeze parts, which seems to help a bit.

Tylo now has 18 Kerbals in a nice little base, and Pol got another 20+ as well added to one of the existing bases.

Some items of interest here - the MKS-Lite inflatable agriculture modules use a LOT less power than the USI-L greenhouses, but they need to be manned.  Since Mulch isn't produced unless a Kerbal is present anyway, this isn't an issue really.  Also, You can never have enough power - I have a mix of Gigantors (which produce about 1 ec each, lame) the little MKS Ore-burning generators, and fuel cells all over the place, and power is still an issue.  I don't want to use reactors, as they will eventually run out of fuel and leave me with no way to recharge them without sending more missions.  I want my bases self-sustaining thank you

 

 

Edited June 13, 2016 by Jetski

[Thalamask]

Great work so far, Jetski. Really enjoying reading about this!

[Blasty McBlastblast]

this is an amazing effort! great job 

 

I hope you keep up the effort and reach the goal of 500, and I'm looking forward to reading about it.