RealKerbal3x's Mission Report Thread (Warning, image heavy!!) [STS-7 with Kerbin Prospector 1]

[RealKerbal3x]

Hello KSP Forumers! Until now, I've been posting very inadequate mission updates on the WDYDIKSPT thread, with no screenshots and a few pathetic lines of text. So I've decided to make this thread and post mission reports here. 

Note: this is a sandbox save. So don't look at my huge inefficient rockets and say 'That's so expensive! You must have spent so many funds!' because money's no object in my Kerbal universe.

Note 2: My mods are in a spoiler below, so if you ask I'll refer you back to the OP.

Note 3: This isn't the start of this savegame. I've already landed on the Mun and Minmus, just I didn't have the idea to start this thread when I did those missions.

Well, here are my mods, in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Note: I've given a shoutout to all of the makers of these mods. Great work everyone!

6 seat Mk3 Cockpit by Kerbal Space Command

Click Through Blocker by @linuxgurugamer (Thanks for all of your brilliant work Linux)

Toolbar Controller by @linuxgurugamer

Animated Decoupler by @Starwaster

B9 Procedural Wings fork by @Jebman82

B9 Part Switch by @blowfish

Basic Orbit by @DMagic

Better Burn Time by @Snark

Bon Voyage by @maja

Chatterer by @Athlonic (and Chatterer Extended by @hoover2701)

Community Category Kit by @RoverDude

Cormorant Aeronology by @Pak

DockRotate by @peteletroll

Easy Vessel Switch by @IgorZ

Firespitter Core by @Snjo

FMRS by @linuxgurugamer

KAS by @IgorZ

KAC by @TriggerAu

Kerbal Konstructs by @Ger_space

KRE by @EmbersArc

KIS by @IgorZ

KOOSE by @TiktaalikDreaming

Kronal Vessel Viewer by @linuxgurugamer

Missing History by @Snark

Mk2 Expansion by @SuicidalInsanity

Navball Docking Alignment Indicator Community Edition by @linuxgurugamer

Near Future Props by @Nertea (another creator of great mods, thanks Nert!)

Near Future Solar Core by @Nertea

Near Future Spacecraft by @Nertea

@Omega482's Stockalike Structures

PEBKAC Launch Escape System by @linuxgurugamer

Precise Manoeuvre by @Morse

Recovery Controller by @linuxgurugamer

Simple Fuel Switch by @Snark

SSPxR by @Nertea

Trajectories by @Kobymaru

Transfer Window Planner by @TriggerAu

Tundra Exploration by @damonvv

USI Warp Drive by @RoverDude

Kerbal Actuators by @Angel-125

This list will be updated accordingly if I remove or add any mods

Well, on with the first part! The first thing I'll be doing in this mission report will be building a space station. Enjoy!

Spoiler

Building a Space Station Part 1

Well here we go! Docking Module A launches on a Kraken V launch vehicle to the Space Station Eillorf Kerman (named after an engineer who died in a plane crash gave her life in the name of SCIENCE).

Pitching to 45 degrees by 10km. Sorry for the night launch shots folks.

I skipped over most of the launch because I'm sure you've all seen launches before. Here we are coasting to our orbital insertion. The 'Circularise' button on the Precise Manoevre interface is so useful!!

Now in orbit, we cruise to the incredibly inefficient rendezvous burn (167 m/s). It will take about the same amount to match velocities--I left out the manoevre fiddling as that's boring and you've seen it before. Once again, sorry for the dark screenshots.

After the burn and a bit of tweaking, we head towards our rendezvous.

Now these are the kind of scenes I love seeing in KSP. Space is beautiful, even in this game where I'm not using visual enhancement mods.

Finally, we approach the space station. Soon we will detach the Kraken V second stage and use the RCS thrusters on the module to dock. Later, when a crew arrives an engineer will remove those thrusters (KIS is a great mod!)

Finally we've docked! Eventually the station will have another similar module docked to the other end. I didn't get a screenshot, but I removed that tug docked to the side (those proved to be useless in simulations) and deleted it from the tracking station along with the Kraken V second stage. I want to limit space debris.

Here we are passing above the KSC. Well done me. Thanks, Me!

Finally, to celebrate I flew the Planey Plane Mk3 around (I know, rubbish name)

Whee!!

And from Jeb and me, thanks for reading!

Below, I've indexed the various parts so you don't have to go hunting through the thread for them.

Spoiler

Building a Space Station Part 1 (in OP)

Shuttle Troubles

Building a Space Station Part 2

Building a Space Station Part 3

Building a Space Station part 4

Coming Soon..

Scout Test Flight

Scout to the Mun

Going Full Constellation

Internet in Space

Space Station Logistics Mission (STS-4)

Shuttle Landing Redux

Pigeon 9 v1.0 with Munar Satellite

SpaceK Moth DM-1

STS-5 + Minmus Mission

STS-6 + MOAR Comsats!

Snack Time!

Mun Infrastructure Project part 1

Mun Infrastructure Project part 2

Mun Infrastructure Project part 3

Mun Infrastructure Project part 4a

Mun Infrastructure Project part 4b

Mun Infrastructure Project part 5a

Mun Infrastructure Project part 5b

STS-7 with Kerbin Prospector 1

 

Edited July 6, 2019 by RealKerbal3x
link to the latest report.

[The Minmus Derp]

I really like this.

[RealKerbal3x]

11 hours ago, The Minmus Derp said:

I really like this.

Thanks  I plan to write some more either today or tomorrow.

[The Minmus Derp]

4 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Thanks  I plan to write some more either today or tomorrow.

Hooray!

[RealKerbal3x]

4 hours ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Hooray!

I'll be sending up the next station module using a space shuttle.

Edited July 2, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[RealKerbal3x]

Well, I finally have the next part ready! This is a bit different to what I was planning, as the game threw a wrench in my station-building system.

Spoiler

Shuttle Troubles

If you've seen my modlist (in the OP) then you'll know I use the amazing Cormorant space shuttle parts pack by @Pak. It adds a stockalike space shuttle that manages to be both realistic and balanced to the game universe. Talking of universes, in mine I am about to launch mission STS-3.

Here we go! Off the pad, and away to deliver the third module to my space station, if all goes to plan.

Which it won't! The Cormorant shuttle worked fine in 1.4.3 but in 1.4.4 it seems to be incredibly sluggish. We passed our apoapsis and fell back as I was doing a would-be nominal pitch programme at roughly 30 km. I'm not really sure if this is caused by 1.4.4 itself or one of my mods. (Note: You will see I have Gravity Turn installed in the toolbar. I have since removed that as I can't figure out how to get it to work)

Abort! Here's a nice fiery pic as we detach from the ET.

Luckily, we managed to land safely in the ocean. However, I was still confused about why this was happening so I just had to try again.

Here you can see the shuttle clawing its way back up to 10km. The relaunch didn't seem to change anything. Just the same stuff happening again.

At least I got another nice shot as we detached. We managed to land in the ocean again, but this time I didn't get it quite right and the station module exploded in the cargo bay.

So, the build of my space station will be on hold until I can fix this. Until then, thanks for reading

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by RealKerbal3x
Put the report in spoiler

[RealKerbal3x]

As you (hopefully) know, the Apollo 11 landing 49th anniversary is on Saturday, and I plan to do an Apollo homage mission using the Making History parts. I will of course post it here

[HansonKerman]

Hi.

[RealKerbal3x]

On 7/21/2018 at 11:20 PM, HansonKerman said:

Hi.

Why hello.

Next part will actually be more space station building, since I didn't get any time to do the Apollo mission on the anniversary.

[The Minmus Derp]

Well then  do one on the landing anniversary!

[RealKerbal3x]

6 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Well then  do one on the landing anniversary!

Sorry guys, I will be away from my computer for a couple of days (including tomorrow) so I won’t be able to play KSP. I will try and write a bit when I get back.

[RealKerbal3x]

OK, I finally have something of note to write about! I sent the third module to my space station!

(BTW, I will be putting my mission reports in spoilers from now on, just to keep the posts short. I'm also going to edit the previous parts to put them in spoilers.)

Spoiler

Building a Space Station Part 2

So I opened KSP. To be honest, I have no idea why I took this screenshot.

After a while constructing the rocket, here it is on the pad. A Kraken V with the half-size upper stage. The payload is the docking adapter/greenhouse for the SSEK.

Liftoff to the space station! Well not right now, as I haven't figured out direct rendezvous yet. We'll have to get to orbit before we think about rendezvous.

And I skipped out launch, as you've probably seen that before. If you want a tutorial on getting into orbit efficiently, don't look to me for that. Here we coast up to our orbital insertion, which will take 500m/s of dV.

And after some manoevre node fiddling and other stuff, I prepare for my rendezvous burn, which is even more inefficient than the one I did last time.....but hey, I have a lot of free delta-V! This aggressive manoevre will take roughly 340m/s of dV, kicking our apoapsis up to 900 km and bringing us in 700 metres from the target at 400 m/s.

Sorry that there wasn't any pics of the rendezvous burn or much of the rendezvous. I tend to concentrate on flying the spacecraft and often forget to take screenshots. Anyway, we have since detached the module from the Kraken V upper stage and are manoevring in with RCS. The four monoprop tanks turned out to be overkill, so I'll transfer the fuel into the habitat's tank later.

And the docking was successful! The full longitudinal length (not sure if that's a suitable word ) of the station is now done. We still need the big solar trusses and a couple of storage modules.

And unlike last time, I remembered to add a probe core to the upper stage, so I can de-orbit it. The excess of fuel still in the tank meant it could slow down to under 1km/s during the burn, letting it enter the atmosphere at quite a steep angle.

Plasma envelops the stage as it reenters over the desert.

The engine overheated, after surviving most of reentry, at 13km.

The fuel tank tumbles........

...before impact with the sand at roughly 80m/s.

So this was a successful mission! Hopefully next I'll be able to send the truss up using a shuttle, if I can fix that annoying problem I've been having with it. Until then, thanks for reading

 

[RealKerbal3x]

I haven't posted a report here in over a month, so if anyone actually reads my humble writings, I'm sorry for the hiatus!!

I have most of the screenshots for the next part already done, except for the final part where I need to move the two solar arrays from their mountings in the Shuttle cargo bay to their docking ports on the space station's structure. My bad design (RCS in the wrong place and not enough fuel) pretty much made me ragequit multiple times.

I feel like installing Kerbal Actuators. This would make manoeuvring the arms into place a lot easier. I promise I'll get another report up here soon-ish!!  

[The Minmus Derp]

Yes! Now. Since you are designing a space station, I am designing a space station.

[RealKerbal3x]

Hey guys! I plan to get a new part out tomorrow! I know you’re all hyped!

*space tumbleweed*

It will finally be delivering the solar arrays to the space station, but be aware that I have made some changes to the plan.

[SiriusRocketry]

Love station building! Yours is pretty cool, and I can't wait to see crewed launches!

[RealKerbal3x]

1 hour ago, SiriusRocketry said:

Love station building! Yours is pretty cool, and I can't wait to see crewed launches!

All of our threads are at the top of the sub-forum too

As soon as I've got the STS-3 crew back home I'll launch the station's permanent crew! BUILD THE HYPE!

*more space tumbleweed*

[RealKerbal3x]

Hey guys! Long time no see! I'm back! Here's a new part where I achieved exactly nothing, but had fun!

I'm going to make a couple of changes: I'll put the name of the part in the title of the thread, and I'll make a listing of parts in the OP.

Anyway, let's get on with it!

Spoiler

Building a Space Station Part 3

So, this time I decided to miss out most of the launch images, as it was in the dark, and you've seen them all before.

A quick shot of our orbit. You can see the exact details in the KER readouts.

Rendezvous worked well. You can see the Dislantis here approaching the space station and preparing for its velocity-match burn. The crew are looking unnaturally neutral at this point.

A couple more screenies as we get closer.

Jeb parks the shuttle 300 metres away from the station and prepares for a docking approach.

Now we are getting close, at only 20 metres. That red marker on the navball is from the Navball Docking Alignment Indicator mod. Thanks @linuxgurugamer for keeping that alive!!

And we have a dock! Nice sunrise, too.

Now to the aggravating part. I tried to dock these truss/solar array modules to the station many times, but I kept running out of fuel, bouncing off the docking port or spinning uncontrollably off into space. Instead, the mission controllers (me) came up with an alternate plan, which you will see in the next (and hopefully final) instalment of building this space station.

That means that STS-3's mission was unnecessary and a waste of time . At least Jeb got a good look around the space station and had some fun on EVA.

Time to leave. I considered dumping those solar arrays in the atmosphere after de-orbit, but we may as well get the 'money' back for them, so we'll land them back at KSC along with the crew and spacecraft.

After some annoying fiddling, we look back to the station just before we perform our de-orbit burn. You can see the pink marker to the left of the shuttle's nose.

Ignition! Bye SSEK!!

We warped around to atmospheric interface after OMS cutoff. Here we are as the wisps of Kerbin's upper atmosphere take hold.

Entry flames! Below are some more re-entry shots.

This is a nice shot, in my opinion. Those Cormorant parts are nicely heat-resistant.

Finally we come out of the re-entry plasma and enter a steep dive towards KSC. I was worried at this point, as my previous attempts to land the Cormorant space shuttle have not gone well.

But we turned out fine! Despite the look of this shot, I actually landed just to the left of the runway, and then rolled on. One of the docking ports in the payload exploded for some reason on landing.

Thanks for reading! I'll get another out soon, I hope.

 

Edited September 30, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[HansonKerman]

On 6/25/2018 at 3:39 PM, RealKerbal3x said:

WDYDIKSPT

Very nice initialism.

[RealKerbal3x]

10 hours ago, HansonKerman said:

Very nice initialism.

It's 2018. People have short attention spans.

[Ho Lam Kerman]

Hey, nice station!

For the solar array trusses on my station, I used a Delta-III with an elongated payload fairing. I mounted the end to the decoupler, then mounted the decoupler to the upper stage. I used the upper stage to dock, then decoupled the upper stage.

Not sure if that will help- but still, nice station!

[RealKerbal3x]

5 minutes ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

Hey, nice station!

For the solar array trusses on my station, I used a Delta-III with an elongated payload fairing. I mounted the end to the decoupler, then mounted the decoupler to the upper stage. I used the upper stage to dock, then decoupled the upper stage.

Not sure if that will help- but still, nice station!

I plan to post a new report tonight -- I've already pretty much finished the station. The solar panels are mounted around a KIS storage module -- it looks a bit like the Apollo Telescope Mount on Skylab.

 

[Ho Lam Kerman]

Your "tonight" for me is probably at some ungodly hour... 

Heh. I still like how homemade the makeshift shade looks in comparison to the professionally-built Skylab.

[RealKerbal3x]

5 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

Your "tonight" for me is probably at some ungodly hour... 

Ahh, timezones

And of course, Imgur is being a potato and preventing me from uploading images. The report will come tomorrow, I guess.

Edited October 15, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[RealKerbal3x]

I have updated to 1.5! It's awesome! I have already had a play around with it, but this report is in 1.4.5 still because I hadn't actually realised that the update was out. Anyway, now I must write the last part of the Saga of the Space Station Eillorf Kerman!

The Saga of Emiko Station by @Just Jim? Who's that? I don't know what you're talking about.

I've also decided to add some humorous dialogue between my Kerbals, just to spice things up a bit.

Anyway, for your viewing (reading?) pleasure, this report contains 2 wholesome rocket launches for you to enjoy. Part of your daily KSP intake.

Spoiler

Building a Space Station Part 4 (final part!!)

Liftoff from KSC! On board this Kraken V rocket are the first four members of our station crew - Bill, who was the first kerbal to perform an EVA and was the second kerbal on the Mun, Rosgar (off screen) who spent a while orbiting Minmus during the Kerbollo 6 mission, and two rookie kerbonauts, Diny and Madsey. I'm sure they'll be the best of friends by the time they return to Kerbin.

Diny: Wooah! What the kraken is going on!?
Bill: We're launching, Diny. Don't worry, the guys at Mission Control have it all under control.
Diny: AAAAH!

The vehicle climbs higher and begins its gravity turn. By now Diny has got used to the feeling of 2G acceleration and looks quite happy.

Passing 10 kilometres in altitude and pitching to 45 degrees. The crew looks neutral at this point.

At 23 kilometres we reach a velocity of 1km/s and start to get some shock heating on the fairing.

Madsey: Wh-Why is the ship on fire?
Rosgar: It's called shock heating. You get it when you travel very fast, like we are right now. It shouldn't be dangerous but if you go too fast your fairing could melt.
Madsey: The fairing won't melt though, will it?
Bill: It probably won't. Maybe.

Diny: The shock heating is shocking me!
Bill: That is a really, really bad pun. We're together for 180 days so I want you to keep puns to a minimum. Understood?
Diny: Yes sir.

After a good ascent, here's our (currently suborbital) trajectory. We're going into an orbit close to our target's, to facilitate easy rendezvous.

Stage separation, preparing for our orbital insertion burn!

*ka-CHUNK*

Diny: Woah! Why did the rocket split in half?
Bill: That's first stage separation. The first stage is out of fuel, so we don't need it anymore. Did they not teach you any of this stuff?
Diny: Nope. They said 'you can have Pilot as a title! Sounds really cool, doesn't it! Don't worry, the computers will do the complicated stuff for you.' They didn't teach me anything.
Bill: Remind me to radio Gene once we reach the station. He needs to fire all of the Astronaut Complex staff, hire new ones, fire those, then hire new ones again.
Diny: OK. What's stage separation again? I forgot.
Bill: *sigh*

And soon after, fairing deployment!

Diny: What's fairing-
Bill: Shhh.

And now we're going to timewarp up to our insertion burn. I'm not going to have any dialogue about timewarp, as that would be breaking the fourth wall.

And now we count down towards our burn. Ah, the old manoeuvre node countdown...I will not miss it at all.

And of course, we complete the burn nicely. Time for some fiddling to get ourselves a rendezvous.

Madsey: Zero g is fun!
Rosgar: You're telling me! Wheee!

Here's the eventual burn. This is more efficient than previous rendezvous burns - it'll only take ~90 m/s.

Let's do the timewarp again!

Madsey: Wheee, this is so fun!
Me: Shhhhh! I explicitly told you to stick to the script and not break the fourth wall!
Madsey: Oops. Sorry.

With our rendezvous burn complete, we now wait for our velocity-match burn, which is not shown due to yours truly forgetting to take screenshots.

You do however get to see the tense, exciting buildup to this burn! It will be completed in under 10 seconds due to the power of the Rhino engine.

Excitement!

Madsey: Um, aren't we approaching a little fast?
Bill: Don't worry, we're about to do a burn to slow down. We need to get very slow to dock with the station.

The burn was successful, and soon we were parked 1.3 kilometres from the station. We'll have to do a short burn towards the station to get closer.

Diny: Wow, that was amazing! Can we do that again?
Bill: Sure, I'll just press this button labelled 'F9' and...
Me: NO!! Don't touch that!
Bill: OK, sorry!

Here we go. We'll get pretty close to the station.

Now we're approaching at ~10 m/s. The crew look very happy as they close into their new home.

Less than 150 metres from the station, and preparing to park next to it.

Madsey: Cool space station!
Bill: It'll look even cooler once we dock to it.

Parked about 50 metres from the SSEK, the crew prepare to perform their docking ops.

A surprising easy docking! The command module and escape pods will remain in the same position, but we still need to move the storage module to the opposite side.

First though, I transferred a bit of fuel from the fuel pods on the command module. They're not needed anymore, so budding engineer Madsey will have an EVA to do later.

I also used the great DockRotate mod by @peteletroll to get the new module aligned correctly.

As we fly the storage module to the other side, you can see the red marker added by the Navball Docking Alignment Indicator, maintained by @linuxgurugamer. Another mod that is so simple, yet so useful.

This docking approach went rather well too. We were docked in no time, and just as we were passing over the KSC, too!

With that complete, it was time to extend the solar panels and for Madsey to get her screwdriver out.

Madsey spent over 20 minutes outside removing RCS thrusters and monopropellant tanks.I have a ton of screenshots, but the page loading times are already getting a bit slow, so be happy with just the one. @IgorZ great job on KIS and KAS, by the way!  I guess today is Modder Shoutout Tuesday.

With assembly complete (sorry it took so long) let's step back and admire our work. The Space Station Eillorf Kerman in all its glory!

But we are not done yet! KSC mission planners planned (that's what they do) to send the last two members of the station crew up in a Shuttle. Jeb was relegated to testing cargo planes at the KSC after he snuck on to the last shuttle mission. In order to get his SPAAAAACE fix, Jeb bribed some engineers with snacks to fix the rocket he found in a barn a couple of weeks back. He will use this (he called it 'Zuyos' because it was the only word he could read in the manual he found in the cockpit. It is definitely not a reverse of 'Soyuz', whatever that is) to get the last two crew up to the station. While he will probably be testing cargo planes forever after this mission, he really wants to see if this rocket will blow up or not.

Jeb launches before Gene can catch him. Somehow, he has managed to get the two scientists, Barry and Thomry, on board. With Jeb's erratic flying, I'm surprised they aren't terrified.

Boosters away! The oxygen valves worked perfectly and the boosters did not hit the core stage. In the effort to keep things short (who am I kidding, this is the longest report I've ever written) we will now skip up to orbit, where we will perform a burn to bring us in close proximity to the station.

I remembered a screenshot during the burn this time! We will now skip forward to the rendezvous.

With effortless skill, Jeb moves in on the power of monopropellant. The Navball Docking Alignment Indicator really was a godsend during this docking.

We carefully moved in to the port at 0.1 m/s. I chose this port so I could perform a re-boost burn for the station.

Docking successful, for the third time in this part! Barry and Thomry moved into the station, and Jeb took some RCS thrusters back to Kerbin in return.

Time to go home. Jeb undocked and performed a de-orbit burn.

The re-entry went down nicely, and before long Jeb splashed down in the ocean, where the very angry recovery crews came to pick him up.

Thank you very much for reading all of this! I'm really not sure what I should do next in this report, but I'll think of something