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Do you have any abandoned vehicles?


nascarlaser1

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For the first time in several version iterations, I've completed the tech tree in career. Beyond the 80+ pieces of debris forming a rather horrifying cloud (6km flybys on launch) around Kerbin, I have three major abandoned pieces around the system

Eisenhower 4 Station - Not... exactly a station, this is the science module of my manned mission to Duna. The thrust module was at bingo fuel, and I was quite happy I opted to stick a docking port there in case I needed to strip the vessel down to save weight. It has power, some science experiments, and could theoretically be operational with a command module of some sort (and a crew, obviously).

Eisenhower 4 Voyager - The remains of the thrust module. Five liquid fuel tanks, four NERVAs, a command module, and a solar panel. I re-entered kerbin retrograde on accident. The crew was de-orbited via shuttle (carrying over 2000 science in their backpacks), and the vessel has been left to orbit until I decide to try and recover it, or let it crash into the sea.

Munar Ore Miner - This thing managed to fly itself to Mun, land, and mine 900 ore. I forgot to attach radiators to the thing, it's underpowered, and under-torqued. Launched into munar orbit, and I'll probably deorbit the thing when I need more ore, since it's a clunky piece of junk.

There's also all the satellites I've launched: ConSats 1-7 (short for Contract Satellite), and Observers 1, 2, 3, 3a, 4, and 5 (crapton of asteroid-finders in various solar orbits, which I used to test some of the new engines that came with Near Future Propulsion while filling out contracts.

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Around the space center? No. I clean that up on practical reasons. I'd love to leave them out there but they all kill my framerate. Any active part count over 150-200 is in the mid teens on my processor and my space missions are already kissing that area as-is. I will leave behind surface scrap if it's out of physics range of the space center, though.

 

Up in LKO, however? Well, you can tell how long I've played on a given save by seeing how thick Kerbin's new ring at 100x100km is. I leave that stuff up there. There's spent transfer stages strewn about the system as well, from interplanetary missions. I generally don't leave rovers behind(Bringing their experiments back means more science, also they tend to have vital subsystems for the return vessel like MechJeb and EC generation), but flags and such do end up on the site of every landing I make.

 

In my current save there's some prototype starships floating around Kerbin due to the Kraken removing some xenon tanks without my permission. They're not abandoned in the traditional sense, but they're not in use as intended either.

Edited by Kenobi McCormick
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Just now, Ultimate Steve said:

That is definitely in the top 5 randomly generated Kerbal names I've ever heard.

And that is the way things should be done. :D

Hey... I hired him along with Jebwell and Jebfel. And I doubt I will forget that night anytime soon. :D

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So I got a story for this. So before 1.1 was released I had a pretty close to perfect bus design that weighed 40 tons. I had a bus park where the admin building is, and I have a couple of buses parked on the island airfield. And I had 3 buses on the island airfield. I also destroyed a building in R&D to make a garage, where 1 bus was. Before 1.1, these buses were perfect as they were high capacity, and looked good and drove their 25 m/s. 

But come 1.1, the weight of the buses made them obsolete. So I do BDA military training on them. And all are gone, barraged the last one down today.

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22 hours ago, 322997am said:

So I got a story for this. So before 1.1 was released I had a pretty close to perfect bus design that weighed 40 tons. I had a bus park where the admin building is, and I have a couple of buses parked on the island airfield. And I had 3 buses on the island airfield. I also destroyed a building in R&D to make a garage, where 1 bus was. Before 1.1, these buses were perfect as they were high capacity, and looked good and drove their 25 m/s. 

But come 1.1, the weight of the buses made them obsolete. So I do BDA military training on them. And all are gone, barraged the last one down today.

You could've made it a challenge on to make them workable again instead of blowing them up! (not that I have anything against fireworks, of course :D)

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In my career save I have a fuel base on the Minmus Greater Flats.  I thought it would be a good idea to have a automated rescue vessel for the inevitable contracts.  I also thought having a few drinks while I was building it was a good idea...

I almost always build sky-crane type craft to deliver things but for some reason (see above)  I built an in-line return stage.  On launching the return stage I realised I had destroyed the probe core and reaction wheel with engine exhaust.  I try flying that thing (now renamed to "half-safe") occasionally for laughs and the inevitable explosion.

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Okay, now I have a whole junkyard on Minmus, filled with junk - primarily transfer stages of goods delivered to the base. Four of these are actually completely spaceworthy.

Transferring stuff there by truck is tedious, so whenever the junk can fly, it flies.

Two of the scraps there were able to fly immediately - the gantry's transfer/landing stage was fully autonomous since moment one, as it had to rendezvous the gantry in orbit (it was too small to be included in launch stack, and too big to be included in the payload of the gantry, so it flew an entirely separate launch.) And PSUs were just dumb girders covered with gigantors, so the delivery craft had to carry all the intelligence.

Then I had the ore tanks. There was all the "smart stuff" plus some fuel on top, and a small tank and engine on the bottom, connected to a bunch of ore tanks in the middle. So after separating, I activated the "smart part", and using its reaction wheels I rolled up to the bottom piece. Then the engineer connected them with pipes to remove all the fuel from the bottom part (to make it actually liftable), then removed the pipes and just attached it to the top part. There, a fully space-worthy rocket!

The best was the last. Similar scheme but in MK4 form factor - two cargo bays in the middle stay with the drills and ISRUs, while the top and bottom get connected into a standalone rocket... I had to use a gantry to move them - the bottom, with engines and all the fuel weighs some 16 tons! Luckily the top part was just some 4.5 ton, so five kerbals were able to attach it. Although they didn't do a stellar job. I'll post pics in the evening.

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I actually dont have abandoned vehicles in my career game, as i construct my (fully stock) vehicles with the option to add or remove parts for upcoming missions. They get parked when not needed and new modules are ferried to them as needed. Several of my career games were filled with non-modular craft and ended with a lot of junk throughout the system. The modular approach is not only cheaper, you can also combine things of different missions and ferry them to new destinations.

 

The DTV "Robert A. Kerman" in Kerbin orbit - awaiting new modules and crew after its successful return from Duna. Cant wait to add the new Network functionality to it. Here it is seen in its prelaunch config, just before going to Duna. Its next mission will most likely be a grand tour mission to Jool.

OpuBvWz.png

Kerbin Orbital One - A modular space station, currently in a 100 km Kerbin orbit, working on SCIENCE. It was designed to be assembled by a spaceplane, so no rockets where wasted during its construction.

ukNCdr9.png

The Morray Delta VI spaceplane has an equipment module in its cargo bay, which holds all vital tech like fuel cells, solar panels, docking port etc.. If anything else is needed, i can simply exchange the module during the mission without losing its cargo capabilities or the need to redesign in the SPH. The module has a probe core and can be detached to assist orbital construction, or operate as an RCS powered tug.

yf7XTfS.png

The AT Rabbit multi purpose rover. Holds 4 kerbals, can operate independently and has a cargo bay with docking ports for mission payload. Several of these serve münar and minmian ground bases at the moment. I plan to bring some of them to Duna and the Jool system.

3PS77uM.png

There are a lots of more craft in my fleet. Most of them are already designed to be reusable. My launchers still need to be redesigned for reuse though. Both launch and transfer stage are usually lost, but at least, they can de-orbit, to keep the space around Kerbin clean.

Edited by Frank_G
typo
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I have many rovers that have fulfilled their mission, so they just sit there... Some are partly damaged as well, however most are fully functional, so I don't know if they count as "abandoned". I also have some old satellites around various planets that don't really have a use anymore.

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I try to plan all my launches so there is nothing left behind anywhere. Stage one always falls back. Trips to the Mun and Minmus create new craters. :lol: I collect/rescue the wayward Kerbals and I plunge their derelict craft into the atmosphere and sometimes even bring them back.

I have not always been successful. :o

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On 22.8.2016 at 11:48 PM, nascarlaser1 said:

Hi guys!

My question is, do you have any abandoned vehicles Kerbal Space Program? If you do, tell us what they are, where they are, and what happened that caused them to be abandoned. They can be manned or unmanned as well. Pictures are preferred , but are not needed by any means, and posts without pictures will not be frowned at.

I currently have a small manned mun orbiter that I miss judged just how much fuel would be needed to get it back, currently stuck in low Munar orbit. I don't think Bob Kerman is coming home any time soon, at least not till I get my docking skills better :P.

abandoned vehicles: yes.

i send probes to near every planet. Without a "comeback" ticked.

Abandoned Kerbals: no. - but mostly because i avoid to send kerbals. (expect minmus)

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