Frank_G

Well, time to fulfill the first interplanetary contract. So, today i began testings for my upcoming Duna mission. I´d like to create a big ground base on Duna for a grand scale long term surface exploration. I started with the design of the DAV-Unit, the Duna Ascension Vehicle as part of one of the base landers. It will serve as a return vessel for the ground crew to low Duna orbit, where it will dock with the transfer unit, that will bring the kerbals back home. I really love the constellation style mission setup, so i´ll stay with some of the ideas for the lander crafts. Below is the first basic design for the 4 kerbal DAV, testing the separation sequence from the rest of the base lander and emergency landing capabilities.

You can stabilize the wobble pretty good by constructing your ship with additional trusses as fortification. Worked very well for my Jool exploration vessel. However its a real task to bring all the stuff into orbit and assemble it precisely. You can take a look here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84993-Grand-Tour-to-Jool

Because it hasn't! I find Tylo challenging and a nice addition to the variety of destination worlds. No need to make it more "real" as the rest of the kerbol system isnt too realistic too. Edit: seems like i am not the only one standing at that point of view ... Good to know.

Macfrid Kerman ...and i saw a youtube video by KurtJMac where he got German Kerman...

I love space night... gave me lots of sleepless nights, just because i couldnt turn off the tv...

That strongly depends on mood and mission... Here a small selction of nice launch themes Noise Unit - Monolith Rossini - Wilhelm Tell Overture (for the more ridiculous ship designs...) Also very famous: Captain Future Theme (for ye goode ole dayze) And of course... Battlestar Galactica Theme (1978 classic series) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzyHxYxc-Mo Enjoy

I never liked complex bulky asparagus setups. I find the construction annoying and not much of a challenge. Its more of a puzzle game than building a rocket. I sometimes use it, where 2 LFBs feed into the main stage, but nothing more. And as the new SLS parts can easily lift 200 tons into orbit with being nothing more than a simple big rocket, i really like the SLS parts. And i love to concentrate on complex payloads... Much more fun than to draw fuel lines and setup decoupler madness in endless stages. I cant imagine KSP without them anymore.

Today i designed and tested new space station parts in sandbox simulation, planned to be launched soon in my .24.2 career. Main goal is to have more versatility than only large dockable module sections. I want redundancy and the option to repair damaged solar panels f.e. without the need to exchange a complete module. Also i want the station to be as adaptable as possible – when KSP updates with new parts in the future, which could be science stuff or larger solar panels or new comm equipment or else, i want to stay up to date without launching whole new sections. A light launcher with light payload will be enough to refit most of the stations features. Each equipment or science micro module is equipped with RCS and some of them also with parachutes. So a damaged part can at least de-orbit itself and a science module can safely de-orbit and land on Kerbin to be retrieved for a full load of science. Overview. Modules from left to right as follows: Main truss: Science module - A reconfigurable module, with 6 small docking ports. Lab module - The standard mobile processing laboratory Station core - It features an 8 kerbal habitat and 4 senior docking ports for station parts. Located towards the sides are 2 shielded docking ports for small orbital service vehicles Docking truss - The docking truss features two inline clamp-o-trons, facing downwards. These two ports will be used by crew-, maintenance- und supply-vehicles. Equipment truss - The equipment truss features 12 small docking ports, allowing it to store spare parts, scientific equipment, probes and satellites Above the station core: Multipurpose equipment module - Docked to this module are solar panels and an antenna array. There is one free port to be used by upcoming thingies. This module is also the main energy storage. Below the station core: Fuel storage - The fuel storage features a large RCS tank and 4 dockable LFO tanks. This is not meant for large capacity. It holds 2 or 3 complete refills for an orbital service vehicle that yet needs to be designed. Survey module - This module is used for visual observation of space and for relaxing from space duty. It is also the emergency energy storage. Closeup of the equipment truss with spare solar panels and spare antenna array and two scientific assemblies The science truss features six junior docking ports, allowing it to dock a wide arrangement of scientific experiments. Just a note - The station in its current state is completely made of stock parts. It will later feature some JSI camera parts from Raster Prop Monitors. This is a work in progress... it will be updated and optimized a few times, before the modules are saved as subassemblies and transfered to the career mode game for in game use.

Today i designed and tested new space station parts in sandbox simulation, planned to be launched soon in my .24.2 career. Main goal is to have more versatility than only large dockable module sections. I want redundancy and the option to repair damaged solar panels f.e. without the need to exchange a complete module. Also i want the station to be as adaptable as possible – when KSP updates with new parts in the future, which could be science stuff or larger solar panels or new comm equipment or else, i want to stay up to date without launching whole new sections. A light launcher with light payload will be enough to refit most of the stations features. Each equipment or science micro module is equipped with RCS and some of them also with parachutes. So a damaged part can at least de-orbit itself and a science module can safely de-orbit and land on Kerbin to be retrieved for a full load of science. Overview. Modules from left to right as follows: Main truss: Science module - A reconfigurable module, with 6 small docking ports. Lab module - The standard mobile processing laboratory Station core - It features an 8 kerbal habitat and 4 senior docking ports for station parts. Located towards the sides are 2 shielded docking ports for small orbital service vehicles Docking truss - The docking truss features two inline clamp-o-trons, facing downwards. These two ports will be used by crew-, maintenance- und supply-vehicles. Equipment truss - The equipment truss features 12 small docking ports, allowing it to store spare parts, scientific equipment, probes and satellites Above the station core: Multipurpose equipment module - Docked to this module are solar panels and an antenna array. There is one free port to be used by upcoming thingies. This module is also the main energy storage. Below the station core: Fuel storage - The fuel storage features a large RCS tank and 4 dockable LFO tanks. This is not meant for large capacity. It holds 2 or 3 complete refills for an orbital service vehicle that yet needs to be designed. Survey module - This module is used for visual observation of space and for relaxing from space duty. It is also the emergency energy storage. Closeup of the equipment truss with spare solar panels and spare antenna array and two scientific assemblies The science truss features six junior docking ports, allowing it to dock a wide arrangement of scientific experiments. [edit] Just a note - The station in its current state is completely made of stock parts. It will later feature some JSI camera parts from Raster Prop Monitors. This is a work in progress... it will be updated and optimized a few times, before the modules are saved as subassemblies and transfered to the career mode game for in game use.

I look at original spacecraft for inspiration, but never built any detailed replica. I love the massive Ares series of launchers though, so i modded myself a 3.75m orange tank to built a launcher that looks a bit like the Ares. But that ends my attempts to do replicas. I love to see my designs fly.

Today i advanced a little in the tech tree, allowing for some updates on my space station. I launched a new larger solar truss, exchanged the escape vehicles and rearranged the whole module configuration to a more versatile one. Also, i finally got the LV-N engines and constructed an orbital service vehicle with around 6km/s of deltaV and room for 2 kerbals. This will save lots of money and time for sure.

I never launch without various precautions taken... yes, of course i would.

I frequently use it with spaceplanes. As i use Ferram Aerospace, the standard ports get ripped off by drag forces during launch. Besides that it looks cool and i love the animation. I stopped using it in .23.5 as its mass was increased to 1 ton... Now that it has been changed back to 0.3 tons in .24.2 i cant wait to unlock it in my new career game. I love that part.

I like the pilot controls just the way they are. I find it much more intuitive to pull up and push down, than the other way 'round.

I would really like to see some details.

No, but Bratheringe is

This looks most impressive. I'll spend some time here with the videos when i am back from work.

Exactly what i have in mind, after finishing my grand tour

Possible and fun! Lots of

Well there are a lot of YouTubers i regularly watch playing KSP... My alltime favorite: KurtJMac... for his humor and for not spoiling beginners with high precision missions and floods of information. Fun, Inspiration, Information and Entertainment all in one. And then there are: Vaos3712 for coolness, style in design and his awesome Duna 1 series Danny2462, Xacktar and SWDennis for the crazy stuff... always good for a laugh Tyler Raiz and Bob Fitch for their love to realism, detail and authentic missions SimGamersTV, former Korbital Mechanics for the nice way to present good gameplay... Wooks for "driving" everyone crazy and Nassault for all the moody KSP moments Thanks to all of you guys... keep the boosters burning!

...when you aerobrake around Jool into a perfect Laythe encounter, where, after a second aerobraking maneuver, you only need a handful m/s of deltaV to end up in a perfect circular orbit... I did that once... by coincidence

Leaving a precision tool in the shed? Oh c'mon, i am german...

Well, today i finished my first .24.2 career space station. It uses early tech stuff and will serve to lower costs and decrease reaction times on certain missions.

Have you deployed some seismic probes yet? Maybe you can confirm existence of sandworms on Duna that way... some impacts from orbit might lure them to the impact sites... [edit] When i remember it right, the sniper rifle in Hellsing was called Halconnen - It was a Dune reference for sure. Go watch the movie, youre missing something.

Today i finished orbital assembly of my first space station in the new .24.2 career mode. It is by far the smallest station i ever built, but it was a lot of fun... and it doesnt lack any functionality in comparison to the large ones i built before. Its main purpose is to have the ability to refuel craft in orbit, especially small landers and transfer stages to do SCIENCE on and around Mün and Minmus and in space around Kerbin too. Also it will be a relay point for rescue missions. Costing only a 100000 funds (excluding launches), i hope it will help saving funds and cutting down mission times. Scientific results will be collected in the lab and when a satisfying amount is reached, it will be brought to the surface in one of the lander pods or in a craft that will need to land anyway. Next step will be designing an orbital service craft, that will do the rescue missions and deliver science equipment to special orbits. Future plans will include a truss with some deep space probes docked to it, so i can immediately launch interplanetary science probes and scanning missions on demand when a launch window opens.