Out Of Science! - Destination Duna

[NewtSoup 348]

Hooray for struts and auto struts!  Hooray for Solar Panels.  Hooray for docking ports!  It's time to go to Duna! On this much Tech:




 First of all A lander was designed that would be capable of landing on Duna and getting off the surface again.  Secondly a ship was designed that would be able to transport the lander to Duna ( and Ike ) and then get home again.  The key to doing this is the ability to assemble the ship in space and swap parts ( I do love my engine swapping ).  Though this will be trickier than usual with no RCS ability yet.

Here is an Artists Impression of what the vessel will look like once it's fully assembled in LKO



Features:

KSS Overkill:
3800m/s dV
0.39 TWR from 5 Terriers
4 Krew - 2 Pilots, 1 Scientist, 1 Engineer

Duna Lander:
2200 m/s dV
3.01 TWR from a single terrier
2 Krew - 1 Pilot, 1 Scientist ( Away team from main krew )

Because there were no extendable solar panels available I put loads of them on the arms which are made of girders and a structural fuselage.
Each Arm is attached by a docking port to the core of the Overkill to facilitate assembly in orbit and provides external docking for the whole structure to allow refuelling.  The structural fuselages hide batteries and reaction wheels that provide almost enough torque to pull the ship apart  

The ship has enough fuel to service the lander on an Ike landing ( maybe 2 ) while we're in the area and get into LDO and back to LKO with little to no air braking.  The main Krew compartments are the four re-entry pods which will be used to return the Krew to safety.  Thanks to the magic of auto-struts ( careful use of ) the vessel despite being made of way more tanks than it should be has some rigidity instead of flopping around like a fish on land.

Edited December 21, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup 348]

Something I just learned in testing before actually launching and assembling:

The arms made of a fuselage and girders and holding the solar panel array -

First of all I put down a Docking Port, then I added a small adapter plate.  To that I attached the structural fuselage, then another adapter plate and then 3 girders and on the end of that another docking port.  The solar panels were attached to the girders.

I then wanted to hide batteries and reaction wheels inside the fuselage so I plopped them onto the node available on the docking port at the end of the arm and used the movement arrows to slide them right down inside the tube.  All well and good!

Except, once you have done that you can no longer use the docking port as a docking port.  It's node is of course occupied by the battery stack.   Glad I realised/confirmed in testing before I did the actual mission launch!  Time for a quick redesign.

[FleshJeb 884]

I appreciate your journeys through the tech tree—I always learn a few things, and it’s a mode I’m not willing to play.

Will you be bringing the lander back to Kerbin?

Will the Overkill get left in Kerbin orbit, or discarded?

[NewtSoup 348]

22 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

I appreciate your journeys through the tech tree—I always learn a few things, and it’s a mode I’m not willing to play.

Will you be bringing the lander back to Kerbin?

Will the Overkill get left in Kerbin orbit, or discarded?

The lander may get left in Duna Orbit if dV is looking a little slim.  As for the Overkill - you'll have to wait and see.  My plan is to record certain sections rather than just screenshot.  So the launch of the core.  Maybe attaching one arm ( 4 would get tedious ) I'll screenshot a refuellling trip to save the snores.  Mostly I'm going to try and capture the interesting bits

some of this depends on how frustrated I get with KDEnlive though   It seems to be quite powerful.  But also hard to use.

Dammit Jim, I'm an actor, not a video editor!

[FleshJeb 884]

2 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

 

some of this depends on how frustrated I get with KDEnlive though   It seems to be quite powerful.  But also hard to use.

Dammit Jim, I'm an actor, not a video editor!

Ha! Sounds like fun.

I know a bunch of people using OBS. I’m looking forward to your impressions of KDEnlive, since @Dark Lion and I have a shared save planned, and I’d like to do some recording.

I'm a surveyor, not a space jockey!

[NewtSoup 348]

I use OBS to record.  KDEnlive is a video editing suite.

[FleshJeb 884]

4 minutes ago, NewtSoup said:

I use OBS to record.  KDEnlive is a video editing suite.

Proof of how little I know. I thought OBS could edit as well. Thanks for the heads up

[NewtSoup 348]

1 minute ago, FleshJeb said:

Proof of how little I know. I thought OBS could edit as well. Thanks for the heads up

I think maybe it can.  I just don't know how to use it.

* Edit * A quick look suggests it can do "cut" and "fade" in studio mode but isn't exactly what you'd call feature rich.

Edited December 24, 2018 by NewtSoup

[Rauko 17]

NewtSoup, you inspired me so much that I drop my former career and started a new one with 10% science.

I use KEI for the KSC points and DMagic Orbital Science, so it could probably be easier, but to spice things a bit more, installed Kerbalism and Remote Tech.

I am happily strugling. My first orbital flight gave me the last only point I needed to get Basic Science, but without solar panels, I dont think it will let me visit mun with a probe. Too much time to depend on batteries...

I hope not to be in a dead end.

Anyway, its being really funny.

[NewtSoup 348]

3 minutes ago, Rauko said:

NewtSoup, you inspired me so much that I drop my former career and started a new one with 10% science.

I use KEI for the KSC points and DMagic Orbital Science, so it could probably be easier, but to spice things a bit more, installed Kerbalism and Remote Tech.

I am happily strugling. My first orbital flight gave me the last only point I needed to get Basic Science, but without solar panels, I dont think it will let me visit mun with a probe. Too much time to depend on batteries...

I hope not to be in a dead end.

Anyway, its being really funny.

Wow, that is incredibly humbling.  I'm really glad you've enjoyed reading this so far.  I assure you, you can visit the Mün without a probe core and on just three tech boxes.  Go for it!.

Ahh I don't know what Kerbalism is - I'm playing with the following mods:

6 Crew Science Lab
6 Seat Mk3 Cockpit
ABFW 
Better Burn Time
Better Crew Assignment
Better Time Warp
Kerbal Alarm Clock
Kerbal Engineer
KOS ( not used )
Maneuver Node Evolved
TAC Fuel Balancer

The rest of my mods are all visual and don't affect game play beyond tanking my frame rate.

[Rauko 17]

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/172400-13x14x15x16x-kerbalism-v211/

Kerbalism is a masochists mod. It has life support, not only with oxigen and water, but also radiation, co2 poisoning, humidity, temperature, habitation, psichologic needs and whatnot, and parts can fail after some time of use.

And with Remote Tech you need an active antenna to manage unmanned ships, thus the EC issue.

Perhaps I can mitigate it with a Kos script that switchs off everything but the processor, and switches on the antenna when the probe is back on kerbin. 

Thats the imaginative solution your excellent "10%science" idea leads to. 

[NewtSoup 348]

Understood, good luck!

 

[Rauko 17]

Good luck to you on Duna! It looks promising!

(Grabs pop corn and waits for thread updates)

[Rauko 17]

No Duna this week? 

[NewtSoup 348]

I've been off for xmass and not really been able to play.  Duna very soon!.  

[Rauko 17]

Great!

[NewtSoup 348]

I'm so sorry friends

3 Things have prevented me from continuing this adventure at the moment.

1) I've not been well  ( I have long term illness )
2) I've landed my first professional acting job, this mixed with my day job is taking up so much time
3) My graphics card has died and I can't currently afford to replace it - I need a GTX 1160 or better as someone introduced me to VR and now I HAVE to have my own setup.

Edited March 3 by NewtSoup

[FleshJeb 884]

@NewtSoup

1. Sorry to hear that—hope it improves.
2. Which Avenger are you?
3. #2 = $/£/€, so that’s good.

It’ll happen if/when it happens. I have so many half-completed KSP projects, you have no idea.

[NewtSoup 348]

@FleshJeb

1) Thank you, I'll get there but it will take a few years
2) Oh I Wish, I'm a little old for Avenging but I could certainly be a Sorcerer.  I'm actually doing murder mystery evening but I don't get paid for it until the end of April
3) Yes  not enough to get a full VR setup but will definitely put a large dent in the price tag for the whole system upgrade.

Trouble is my day job is paying less at the moment ( wages vary from day to day depending on demand )
Today the weather is throwing 50mph winds at me so it's too dangerous to work ( I'm a cycle courier with a large backpack )

Edited March 3 by NewtSoup

[Rauko 17]

Hi NewtSoup!

Glad to read you again, and I hope your health will get better and better over time (that's really the only important thing, I think)

[NewtSoup 348]

Thank you, without going into too much detail it's something I've lived with since my early years and will experience for the rest of my life.  I'm just relapsing at the moment but outlook and mood wise I'm at the best I've ever been.  This is my year!

[Kerballing (Got Dunked On) 83]

22 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

 

It’ll happen if/when it happens. I have so many half-completed KSP projects, you have no idea.

yep... like spending an hour trying to get your Kerbals to Duna orbit only to realize that, crap, your 10% dV margin is gone and you have to quick load back to when the craft was in LKO and its all you can do to keep yourself from chucking your old computer out of the window with its terrible processor, but the main reason you don't is because you have a giant writing paper due in a couple of days and if you chuck it the paper probably won't be done on time with my procrastination skills... ugh.

[NewtSoup 348]

5 hours ago, Kerballing (Got Dunked On) said:

yep... like spending an hour trying to get your Kerbals to Duna orbit only to realize that, crap, your 10% dV margin is gone and you have to quick load back to when the craft was in LKO and its all you can do to keep yourself from chucking your old computer out of the window with its terrible processor, but the main reason you don't is because you have a giant writing paper due in a couple of days and if you chuck it the paper probably won't be done on time with my procrastination skills... ugh.

Yeah, please don't defenestrate your computer.  If I'd got to Duna Orbit and run out of Fuel I'd likely run a "Blunderbirds" mission to refuel it.  ( assuming you have docking ports or a grabber )

[Kerballing (Got Dunked On) 83]

18 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

Yeah, please don't defenestrate your computer.  If I'd got to Duna Orbit and run out of Fuel I'd likely run a "Blunderbirds" mission to refuel it.  ( assuming you have docking ports or a grabber )

hmm... didn't even think of that! I had an encounter coming out of Kerbin SOI but Time Warp ruined it... not once, but twice, resulting in a 531 m/s burn in Kerbol SOI, which screwed my dV budget.