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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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Today I accidentally learned you can preview class and vessel of rescue Kerb:

xzmGgJu.png

My spysat network have identified what wreck Tralo Kerman is orbiting in. Considering it is Kerb+Part recovery mission this intel will be of noticeable use... after I check what kind of pod it is in VAB, that is.

So I quickly designed basic grabbing and deorbiting unit, and built it in my Aptur Space Yard.

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Mr Grabby 1 was quickly followed by revision 1b which revolutionized design by adding antennas.

After discarding ascent booster and switch to Terriers for transfer...

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... a hidden retrograde antenna has been deployed!

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As Mr Grabby coasts to toward Mun, I decided to find out better spot for my mining operation by actually scanning Aptur...

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...and discovered that I simple have been lucky with my landing spot. I also suffer from too much resource types. Gotta mod a mod to remove unused ones, having two types of metal ore with different veins is not helping my efforts...

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RETURN OF SPACE DONGLE!

Sadly, Biome with most ISRU ore is different from one with Metal Ore for EL parts. I lucked out by landing on border of those biomes.

Once some mapping has been done I deployed a rover to find some nice flat spot with decent ore. Flatness being more important than ore quantity.

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Oh my. I gotta limit thrust on jump engines...

I also gotta add vertical control point, eyeballing landing after jumping too high (and far) with faulty instruments is hard!

But at 0.1g even I could make it :) Then I used some monoprop to repeatedly flip it back on wheels until I figured out wheel settings that works in low-g. Turns out secret is FWD and high traction control.

Space Pug features ore sniffer and antennas, mounted on big battery with solar roof coupled with overpowered RCS in case of emergency. Simple and sturdy.

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AND WORKING EARS/EYLIDS COMBO!

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Twice as much battery than monoprop, and that's a LOT of monoprop!

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A buttload of monoprop, you could say.

RUP0HKR.png

Off to find flatter pastures, thats gonna take a while!

 

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5 hours ago, PT said:

Today I accidentally learned you can preview class and vessel of rescue Kerb:

xzmGgJu.png

My spysat network have identified what wreck Tralo Kerman is orbiting in. Considering it is Kerb+Part recovery mission this intel will be of noticeable use... after I check what kind of pod it is in VAB, that is.

ORLY?

The main reason I don't bother with rescue missions is because they're like a box of chocolates, if each chocolate was one of the two types of chocolate you don't want.

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After years away (and never playing very seriously or much to begin with) I started again a couple weeks ago. 

Finally completed my first rendezvous and rescue mission. Got two separate kerbals back from LKO in one trip. I think I'm finally figuring out the rendezvous orbital stuff. Really rewarding, although making an EVA transfer that couple meters with nothing to hang onto is terrifying. 

The two rescues were basically exactly 180 out of phase which made the second one annoying, but I got there, and even had 400 delta v left, although very little electricity. 

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3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

ORLY?

The main reason I don't bother with rescue missions is because they're like a box of chocolates, if each chocolate was one of the two types of chocolate you don't want.

YARLY!

However, you need to accept contract first. So no preview of chocolate until purchase. 

As my current carrer os based on ISRU and EL, Engineers are most wanted chockos currently  :)

1 hour ago, Kchinger said:

After years away (and never playing very seriously or much to begin with) I started again a couple weeks ago. 

Finally completed my first rendezvous and rescue mission. Got two separate kerbals back from LKO in one trip. I think I'm finally figuring out the rendezvous orbital stuff. Really rewarding, although making an EVA transfer that couple meters with nothing to hang onto is terrifying. 

The two rescues were basically exactly 180 out of phase which made the second one annoying, but I got there, and even had 400 delta v left, although very little electricity. 

You can make EVA transfer much easier if you target your craft (just double click it). You'll get relative velocity and approach vector displayed on NavBall, just like with docking. 

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Yeah those rescue missions. I was up to my armpits in pilots and engineers, with NO scientists, so I broke down and hired two for, like, a million credits. Guess what flavour my next 3 rescued kerbals were?

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2 hours ago, PT said:

However, you need to accept contract first. So no preview of chocolate until purchase.

Well, for my career game I decided that using the cheat menu for checking the specialization of a Kerbal awaiting rescue is not really cheating. Surely the agency that sent them there know how they were trained, so asking them for a résumé is reasonable. :D

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Was going to trash this long-abandoned Kerballenwagen (the rover with the service bay) since I don't do surface transportation any more.  Drove it 5kms to take down a flag also and the drive was so much fun, I hit on the idea of mounting the Hummingbird on it and space-lifting it out...

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Maybe I'll find some good use for it other than just dune racing...?

Edited by Hotel26
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Me, I've taken to hacking my persistence file. I could make all my kerbals engineers if I ever so deigned. Anyways...

 

(1.6.1) Bulk of my day yesterday was spent on the issue of getting some Minerals and Uraninite to to the Petrobas 36 outpost on Pol, without which further construction work at the outpost would grind to a halt. The day itself started with a mass driver shot between South Base near KSC and space station Kerbinport to bring up fuel supplies, followed up by quick visits to the Enchova Central outpost on Duna, Piper Alpha on Mun and Bohai 2 on Bop, all to clean up any residual Wild Blue colonist contracts that had been completed in preparation for crew retraining. Extensive retraining had already taken place at Bop; newly-frocked pilot Ralong Kerman EVA'd for the first time and plopped a flag into the ground on behalf of the sixteen newest KSC staffmembers, bringing them up to 3-star status after processing. Reassignments within the facilities at Bohai took place shortly thereafter, and later on in the day more retraining at other bases throughout the rest of the Kerbol system took place. By days end, the only un-trained colonists I had were the ones whose contracts had not yet expired.

My first idea to get the aforementioned supplies to Petrobas involved the establishment of a long pipeline out to a nearby adjacent biome; I knew there was one close-by the base already, on account of the fact that I had originally landed the Papa 2 lander (previously known as a TBD 7dG base-seeding lander) in said nearby biome. I wanted to see how long such a pipeline would need to be, so to that end I drove the nearby Papa 1 rover towards Papa 2; at a distance of 760 meters north of Petrobas, the rover crossed over into the Highlands. I spent the next twenty minutes with engineer Millas Kerman trying to establish a pipeline before I convinced myself that the idea really just wasn't going to work...

cK8YiSG.png
Twenty minutes of work for two sections of pipeline, maybe ninety meters or so. Millas damn near ran out of EVA fuel on the second go...and even 150 meters is a hell of a walk even in 0.038g. 750? Even worse...

Plan B was then put into effect - I went to the SPH and modified a Wisent 7 utility rover with a pair of Buffalo Wagons, essentially creating a poor-man's TBD in the process. The forward wagon was set for Equipment with Storage aft, into which was loaded a Pathfinder Pondarosa Geology Lab, a Hacienda Claimjumper and two Chuckwagons. No additional power supplies were included; I figured I'd have Millas and pilot Rodhat Kerman attach one of the base's SAFER reactors to the rover to provide power to the structures. The three 5-star kerbals at Petrobas all piled into the same Hacienda to boost the base's productivity as high as it would go and began printing the Wisent; construction time was just over three hours. 

While my people at Petrobas were working, I had another window to try to get tourist Henlorf Kerman down to the surface of Bop; his Spamcan 7 2-passenger monoprop lander had gotten stuck in the docking port the other day at space station Bopport and had to be cleared out via KML. The lander successfully undocked (finally) and Henlorf was treated to an hour-long visit to Bop's ridges before returning to Bopport without incident; flight time from launch to rendezvous was about ten minutes all told. Once docked, Henlorf transferred over to Gilligan docked at Bopport, at which point Gilligan departed and burned for alignment with LSV House Harkonnen, which was still in a low polar orbit (with Bopport in equatorial orbit). Once aligned, a rendezvous was set up; flight time from alignment to rendezvous was 79 minutes.

Construction of the Wisent at Petrobas completed shortly thereafter, with the base transferring over 5000 units of Equipment to the rover before cutting it loose from the launchpad. The rover - designated Papa 3 - drove over to the base's main entrance, where Rodhat and Millas mounted a SAFER reactor as planned and Millas boarded the rover, stopping to grab the two Mineshaft crew tubes that had up to that point been attached near the base's main entrance. Papa 3 then drove to a point in the Midlands near Papa 2, where Millas unloaded the base equipment, hooked up the Pondarosa to Papa 3 via the Mineshafts and established the Petrobas 36 Annex mining outpost, setting up one of the Chuckwagons for Minerals storage and the other for Uraninite storage. With its Wagons emptied of equipment, one was reconfigured for Minerals hauling and the other for Uraninite; in retrospect the Chuckwagons weren't needed, but still allowed for some surplus storage.

z9M4Xku.png
Totally unrelated screenshot - this is the spot at which the Papa 1 rover landed on Pol; the skycrane is still there. I had thought to fly it over to Petrobas for recycling but at this point it's out of electrical charge and the drive up the cliff would be something stupid...

I spent some time accumulating a thousand units of Uraninite and 6000 Minerals for Petrobas, stopping only for Gilligan's rendezvous and docking with Harkonnen. Loaded up with the needed supplies, operations at the Annex were secured and put into hibernation, Millas unhooked Papa 3 and drove the rover back to Petrobas. Millas unhooked the first unit of the pipeline and attached the rover to it instead, at which point the resources were pumped into the base. Uranium enrichment began immediately and as soon as I was able to do so the four fission reactors came online, easily making up for the loss of the SAFER to the rover. Konkrete production also began in earnest and I soon was able to deploy the main Castillo dome, setting up its storage for Rock and setting up its OmniConverters into a quad of Rock melters for more Konkrete production. Millas also was able to attach the remaining planned base structures, deploying 5 walkway units and attaching the rest of the units to their intended positions. Before the close of business yesterday, the mass driver at Petrobas was deployed and brought on line as was the base's ground transmitter. 33,000 more units of Konkrete and base construction will be complete.

9kgKwFl.png
Petrobas 36 on Pol as of this morning, with Papa 3 parked nearby.

Goals for today - J. G. Backus is almost back to Kerbin after a ten day flight from Minmus; her aerobraking burn is liable to be my first order of business today. I also need to get Harkonnen over to Pol from Bop - the current exploration contract requires a return flight from Pol's surface to Kerbin's surface and Harkonnen is ready to go back otherwise. Petrobas can easily begin printing a G-LOC 7a return-to-Kerbin craft for that job, after which I'll want to begin building my Pol-orbiting space stations there. Space station Vallport and the Laythe-orbiting shipyards are still under construction but nearing completion at this point, so I may see their launches take place later today as well. Finally, I've got a new batch of colonists to send to Deepwater Horizon on Minmus; had twelve but the game gave me another contract, so now I've got fifteen Kerbals headed that way. Got plenty of available ships at Kerbinport, so I'll liable to send a few over to LSV House Atreides currently in high Kerbin orbit and just warp them over to Minmus - save me the transit time. Probably won't get to anything else today. Longer term I've got a drilling job at Mun to attend to, a science contract for Eve that I could knock out easily and a survey contract for Eve as well, and a pair of satellite missions for Dres that are still on the back-burner for now. I'm in a position where I could finish up a lot of my extant contracts in the next day or two; I'll have to see what else comes up before I can make any longer-term plans there.

Edited by capi3101
had a minor retraction to make/correct.
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I didn't have much worth mentioning in my career except for a pair of VIP's got the real VIP treatment of being flown to LKO personally by Jeb in one of my two Falcon-B spaceplanes.  They were treated to a night takeoff, with the sun peaking over the horizon about the time the airspeed indicator was breaking mach 2.  After establishing orbit, Jeb did a brief EVA to wave at them through the cabin windows, then climbed back in to get ready for the deorbit burn.  I don't think I could've performed it better - I dropped below mach 2 crossing the mountains west of KSC, almost perfectly lined up with the runway.  No overshoot, no circling to lose altitude, no establishing a barely stable 25km high-speed cruise to reach the airfield.  Just went straight from orbit to landing on the runway.

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Since it was just a quick orbit & return, Kelrik waited with the combo crew bus/fuel truck

VTPpbCk.png?1

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Continuing from yesterday....

I grabbed a thing...

ePnulRi.png

..reentered that thing...

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... and finally splashed this thing...

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Gotta work on those grabbing skills as thrust had to be limited to 30% for differential throttling to keep up with torque on such stubby ship.

In meantime on Aptur...

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...certain cargo has been launched vertically up because MJ decided 20km orbit does not require any smart piloting...

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...after some coasting...

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...a planet has been encountered...

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... and used to ablate spare solar panels ...

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... due to fragile nature of cargo and suspicious atmospheric readings a mixed mode landing was employed ...

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... after which I lost contact due movement of heavenly bodies and lack of relay capabilities in budget satellite orbiting Serran ...

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... a seemingly simple solution has been chosen to send biggest relay antenna I can ...

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... a quartet of parasite relays has been deployed in orbit resonant 5 to 4 to polar target orbit...

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... while parasites were circularizing in turns, motherdrone switched to perpendicular, and much higher, orbit for long range transfer ...

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... a small issue with timing has occurred as decoupler blast disturbed parasite relays orbits, but redundant connection has been secured ...

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... and provided better connection to my solar orbiter...

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... after which I noticed I sent relays to wrong planet! At least movement of heavenly bodies gave me temporary weak connection to lander ...

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... so I returned to my almost failed lander to finally click a button ...

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SsX256i

... which unpacked my ground breaking lander! It was made out of science, and it did a lot of science.

Edited by PT
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Today I've learned how to recolor the new RoverWheels fenders, I'm so happy... ^_^

oZ31Nms.png

I might make a mod with more colors, let me know if you are interested, cause it will take a lot of work to make more colors.

Which I'll probably end up doing anyways.. :lol:

Edited by Triop
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I cheated a little. After assembling DST-1 I found a couple of things I wanted to change, and declared the exercise a simulation. Went back to my SIMULATION_START save all the way before the launch of the first module, deciding to do it really for real this time. And did. It is now reassembled with a survey scanner instead of SENTINEL, better positioned ports on the docking module, and action groups split into to sets for each of the craft. Unfortunately I made a little boo-boo which resulted in the Gigantor on the Tantor drill/tanker not deploying properly with the action group, so I have to toggle that manually; I consider that a just punishment for my little cheat and intend to live with it. If saves are compatible with 1.8 and in-flight action group programming then maybe I'll correct it there. 

There were still a few minor issues with deployment but nothing drastic -- in fact, rather like the kinds of little malfunctions real spacecraft sometimes experience. For example my radiators are attached to a utility bay, and apparently the game thinks they're inside the utility bay, so they'll only deploy with the bay doors open. That's all in a day's work too. 

In any case DST-1 is once again all set to go.I'll just have to remember to drain the main fuel tank of extra Ox, as the first step of the mission will be to get to Duna, survey Ike, and get ore mining going, and I won't need any Ox for that so it's just dead weight at this point. I'll only need it to support the lander missions to Duna later on, as well as any as-yet unplanned extensions.

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I'm feeling gleeful, I have to admit.  Let's see how this turns out...

This is stage 1 of an idea that has been brewing awhile: Gremlin

yJTtXsF.png

 

I trust the sheer ugliness of Function triumphing over Form is making a suitable impression!!?  :)  This, gentle folk, is why we must never let down our guard...

Yea, but this is a mining rig, after all!

                                            

Here, I am refactoring my Goblin into two stages.  As a unit, Goblin is maneuverable, relocatable and provides an exploration base capable of fueling large spacecraft that can taxi up and 'kneel' on a dock, or any light hovercraft that cares to attempt top-docking.  Habitat for 16 Kerbals.  And lifts off with 9,000 kallons of LF (and commensurate OX) to deliver 5,000 kals to orbit.

That's hauling all that heavy equipment back and forth.

The theory now with Gremlin is that the upper stage (not pictured; conceived but not designed) will consist of fuel tanks and propulsion (NERV exclusively, if I can make that work).

The hard part comes next, then!

                                            

Here is faithful Goblin, the starting point for the exercise:

kc0xvQK.png

Edited by Hotel26
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19 minutes ago, PT said:

Whats the deal with those claws? 

The idea is that you taxi a spacecraft in over the claw; set the brakes and then retract the nose gear to dock for fuel -- and transfer passengers.

I use this system on Kerbin for aircraft, but it works for moon-jets, too.  Check out e,g, Salamander or Cruciform for examples.

My Ladybug and Hummingbird space rovers will use the top-dock for refuleing.

Edited by Hotel26
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(1.6.1) Not a great deal to show for my efforts yesterday but there's enough to keep me typing for a good 45 minutes, I guess...

After starting my day by finishing up a colonization contract at the Deepwater Horizon outpost on Minmus (got two new scientists for my efforts there), I went over to the Petrobas 36 outpost on Pol, where I had the staff begin printing up a G-LOC 7a return-to-kerbin craft for eventual delivery to Kerbin. Construction time was estimated at 85 minutes. While that was going on, J. G. Backus finally arrived and aerobraked at Kerbin periapsis after a ten-day flight from Minmus. After leaving the atmosphere an intercept with space station Kerbinport was set up for nineteen minutes later. The rendezvous burn that occurred at the intercept point brought Backus to Kerbinport 56 minutes later and the ship docked without incident. Kerbinport's main docking ports are all full at the moment; all that's open right now are the spaceplane piers...

With the G-LOC already ready to roll of the printer at Petrobas, I needed to get LSV House Harkonnen, which was still in low polar orbit over Bop at the beginning of the day, over to Pol, so that was next on my agenda. The ship broke orbit and warped to Jool, maneuvering to ramp up her speed a little and get into a 6,526.2 x 6,370.5 kilometer, 21.83° orbit in preparation for a final warp to Pol. While Harkonnen was waiting for Pol to get overhead, I received word from the Vermilion Block 380 outpost on Vall that space station Vallport was finally built and ready for launch.

 3BSXqoe.png
Again, I need to redesign the craft to lose the fairing. I might remember that before I do this for the last time...only got four more way stations that need to be launched at this point...

Vallport's launch was a success, attaining a fifty kilometer orbit initially. Vermilion is about 30 degrees north of Vall's equator, though, so a set of burns was required to put the station into its final equatorial orbit; final disposition of the station is 66.3 x 62.8 kilometers over Vall at 0.04° inclination.

mGeMHm8.png
And Vallport looks just like all my other space stations...

Once Vallport was safely in orbit, I went back to Vermilion and had the crew begin construction of the planned orbital shipyard. Total construction time, assuming the base remains supplied with sufficient Rocket Parts, is expected to be 28 hours and 32 minutes.

Thinking I could try to save some time and get some more construction work over Pol, I next went back to Petrobas and had them finish construction of the G-LOC; the craft was released after fueling, but when I tried to switch back to the outpost to order up construction of the first of Pol's space stations, the G-LOC promptly decided to sink through the launchpad and blow its engine. Annoyed, I turned on the launchpad's recycler unit, allowed the G-LOC debris to get cleaned up, then shut off the recycler and ordered the crew at Petrobas to begin again with another G-LOC; print time was set to 81 minutes (where they picked up four minutes, I dunno). While that was ongoing, though, Petrobas had manufactured sufficient Konkrete for me to deploy another Castillo structure. I chose the Factory and promptly set all eight OmniConverters to Rock Melters; Konkrete started pouring out (figuratively), and before the new G-LOC was finished, I had manufactured sufficient Konkrete to deploy the other two base structures. As of this morning, I'm happy to say that all construction work at Petrobas 36 is finished and that the base is fully operational.

DStZtlt.png
Night still hasn't fallen on the new outpost too - got this all done in one day. Of course, daytime on Pol lasts twenty Kerbin days, so...

With the new G-LOC ready is was already waaaay past time for me to get Harkonnen to Pol. The ship conducted a final warp and arrived going about 208 m/s; a conventional burn was required to put Harkonnen into an orbit at 245.6 x 44.2 kilometers and 7.06° inclination, good enough for government work. With Harkonnen finally in orbit, the new G-LOC was fueled and released, and the craft launched. After reaching an intercept point with Harkonnen 45 minutes after launch, a rendezvous burn was conducted that will take the G-LOC to Harkonnen in six hours and 28 minutes. In the meantime, the crew at Petrobas has begun work on space station Polport, with construction time estimated at 22 hours and 40 minutes.

Ended my day yesterday with a Spamcan 7c lander over Vall, which was left out there with engineer Genery Kerman aboard when Corrino dropped off the TBD rover that set up the Vermilion outpost. With a space station finally in place over Vall, I decided to go ahead and have the lander head over that way; fortunate timing with what was intended to be a burn for intercept led to a rendezvous 36 minutes later, with the lander docking without incident.

With more than a day until anything else is planned to happen, I started my morning today by beginning the next colonization mission to Minmus. Colonists Kathgar, Ludbert, Jeblock, Gilsen, Giley, Claumin, Nedwell, Irford, Loddred, Santrey, Lasey, Eridas, Anfred, Seedous and Anford Kerman all boarded an Auk VII 16-passenger spaceplane at KSC, which launched safely and burned for a rendezvous with Kerbinport upon leaving the atmosphere. That rendezvous is scheduled to take place 22 minutes from now.

iLQM0xb.png
Da plane! Da plane!

First order of business today is to get the Auk to Kerbinport. The plan is to have the fifteen passengers board a pair of ferry ships - and there's no shortage of options there - and from there head to LSV House Atreides in high Kerbin orbit. I plan to warp these people over to Minmus instead of taking 1-2 weeks getting there. I also want to get the G-LOC to Harkonnen and bring Harkonnen home; the Auk will then be bringing a bunch of folks back down to the surface to complete their contracts. The potential's there for me to rapidly complete up to nine contracts, something I'm definitely interested in trying to accomplish. Other than that, my mind has started turning towards putting a base on Tylo. I went ahead and began work on the TBD 7e base-seeding rover last night, an accumulation of everything I've learned with building Pathfinder bases up to this point. The rover unit is ready to go - it's forty tonnes. Just need to get a 2270 m/s landing stage on the thing now, plus about another 600 m/s to get from warp failsafe to minimal altitude, and maybe some extra for plane changes. And that all has to fit in a Mk1 Drydock. No problem, right?

I'll let y'all know how that goes...

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Initial flight tests are done.  With twin Vectors, Gremlin gives rather an exciting ascent to orbit, even with a full load.

D9xKOVB.png

 

sJFSKYZ.png

 

The only part I haven't cough cough tested yet is the hover/maneuver to redock with stage 1 (the base) on the surface.  :)

Edited by Hotel26
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After getting my Dres relay & landers sent on their way, I had three significant launches:

First up was the Duna Quad Lander - basically the same as the Ike Quad Lander, but with a shielded docking port, some parachutes & different engines

RFcZIvy.png?1

Then came the first Duna tanker

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Finally, my Minmus heavy mining facility was launched & headed for the minty moon.  Pictured here after staging away the 4 Mastodons and tanks.

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103tzLd.png?1

My sandbox testing had one little flaw - I didn't have the landing engines & associated fuel tanks added yet for the tests.  Their extra mass meant I didn't have enough fuel on the transfer stage to complete the Minmus transfer.  Happily, I did have a some fuel in the the mining facility's tanks (partially to shift the CoM up a little at launch and partially because the only time you can have too much fuel is if you're on fire), so I transferred some over to make up the difference.

Tvnigjc.png?1

Shortly before it gets to Minmus, a crew will be launching to bring the facility online. 

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(1.6.1 RSS/RO/RP-1)

Don't try this at home.

QXMnGxq.png

This should actually be SR-1c-Nike -- it's a C-model sustainer, with AJ10-27, not a B with XASR-11. The Nike booster is WAY too much -- this thing is about Mach 1.7 in the 4 seconds or so of the booster burn, and if staging isn't precise to a tenth of a second or so it'll either break up as the booster overruns the sustainer, or the sustainer motor will shut down when the drag of the booster causes deceleration leading to vapor in the feed lines (fuel and oxidizer fall to the front of the tanks, pickup pipes are at the rear). Cheap to fly, but maximum altitude with no payload is under 600 km, making it mostly a waste of money (especially given the upper stage will flame out about 4 attempts in 5 because it's almost impossible to stage precisely enough).

This booster gets the sustainer going fast enough, low enough, for the (B9 Procedural Wing, Early) fins on the sustainer to start to overheat just before it gets high enough for them to cool off again.  In my 1.3.1 RSS/RO/RP-1 saves, I'd have had the fins burning off at around 13-15 km altitude...

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