Zylark

Outfitting the Mobile Science Lab #2 Not one to let a little failure get in the way of spending yet more funds, getting the MSL Feynman up and running was on the schedule. First up a shipment of 3 Kerbals and 5 Experiments Pods. Next a Skipper Engine of all things - got this contract to test it out around Minmus - and also some more usefull stuff in the second shipment. A Nuclear Reactor, a container of Uranium, some Kibbal animal food and a tiny little tug to put everything in its' right place. A gazillion dockings and undockings later using the Tiny-Tug, all cargo got secured. Good to go, except you know, get 3 more Kerbals on board and fill up the tanks to capacity. --- Since I was in such a jolly spending mood, I just had to blow 100k and change on getting this puppy up... A new probe to Dres. Featuring less Solar Panels, more nuclear power, just as much sciency stuff and SCANSat equiptment - and most important, it actually works. It's also a tad more compact than the previous effort, certainly weighs less. Does cost just south of 90k, and that is before the cost of the booster to get it to orbit. --- Funds are down to about 500k. But soon on my way to Minmus with the MSL Feynman where a bunch of contracts will get done.

Probe behaving badly! So, Moho and Dres coming up in the transfer window. First did a copy-paste of one of the Duna Probes, with a few minor alterations. More fuel, more ScanSat stuff, more awesomeness. Going up by chance? Why yes, or no depending on point of view. Actually to Moho, which is in a somewhat lower orbit to the sun than Kerbin. And requires a whole lot of dV to get to. You'd think it be easier, going downhill so to speak, but no. Establishing a very high orbit of 30.000km before burn to Moho. That little chemical rocket in the rear there will be ditched soon enough. Got 7k and then some in dV from the Argon-Electric thruster on the probe itself. So tried same trick with going to Dres, only that is much further out (though ironically requires much less dV), and hence a big whopping Communication-Dish had to be put on it - made no room for a lander for one thing, and for another, well... Somebody at the VAB forgot to take into account how solar panels tend to follow the sun. As it happened when in orbit, and the big dish was out, all the solar panels got unfolded and then proceeded to break off from hitting the dish... This took place whilst trying to go to high orbit. Promtly retracted that big dish to save power - was only at batteries and capacitors at this point with no means of generating more electricity as all the solar panels went bye-bye. Got it into a semi-decent orbit before the power went to zilch. The orbit it made might be a bit eccentric, but ok for a later retrieval mission. So back to the blueprints regarding the Dres mission. Oh, and funds are down to a scary 850k...

The Replacements All of a sudden, Modular Kolonization System (MKS) got an anticipated update - putting my other plans on a big halt in order for me to get my Mun Base up and running again. Two modules had to be swapped out, the Harvester and the Terraformer. Also got to swap out the Terraformer on the Research Station, but that is not a priority as funds are tight... Sent up a train of four modules plus a Lander for them in two big launches - that only cost me an arm and half a leg. The last of the modules on its way down, a big tank of replacement parts and patch-kits and stuff. The other three were a Repair Shop, Aeroponics module and a big tank for storage of various resources plus the two drills to get at them. To ease the landing procedure, the train of modules had a Jumbo-tank of fuel plus some RCS at the end. This soon found its way to the Resource Station when landing operations was done - thus upping the capacity of the Station quite significantly. Next up is getting Life-Support and other products of the Mun Base storage to it. As it turns out, the new and improved Logistics system works perfectly fine. No need for doing it manually - just order a transfer, and a day and change later, it is done. At a cost of fuel. Certainly could have done it more fuel-efficient manually, but that eats of _my_ time, not just game time. Funds however, that I have to get up manually as it were. This little replacement operation cost as said a fair bit. Plus two chickens, a goat and if I did not get my funds up, a few kittens as well since I threw in a couple of additions. No kittens will get sacrificed on my watch, so had to demean myself to doing some very menial contracts... Like testing out some safety gear. Who needs it? Really? Well, maybe Bob as he seems a bit terrified. Bill and Jeb however think it is all just one big joyride. --- Funds down to a bit over 1 million - and that is after doing three contracts. Next up, the window to Moho and Dres is looking *very* tempting to take advantage of. Just 15 to 19 more days for optimal launch. Hmmm, dV requirements for Moho is pretty steep, Dres isn't exactly cheap either. But I am sure I can make it work - on a very strict budget.

Fuel needs are difficult to guesstimate. Why I'd strongly recommend a mod such as Kerbal Engineer Redux or Mechjeb. Both will give you vital information on your rockets dV and thrust to weight throughout the stages and even adjusted for other planets and moons as you are building it.As for getting to LKO (Low Kerbin Orbit) it is done in a few easy steps - assuming you got a stable rocket that do not behave like a wet noodle: - Press T to activate SAS then throttle up to max. - Start your rocket, go straight up for the time being. - At 10km up, rotate right until your rocket tilts 45 degrees. - At 20km up, rotate to follow the prograde marker on the navball, add say 5 degrees lag to it. - Shift to map view, bring up the navball, keep an eye on the AP readout by hovering the mouse over it. Continue to follow the prograde marker. - When the AP readout says 100km (or whatever is your desired orbit altitude) cut engines and coast until you are at AP. - At AP, point about 5 degrees below the prograde marker, fire up the engines again until the PE marker is at same altitude as the AP marker. That should give you a nice circular orbit in a pretty fuel efficient manner.

One issue I see at a glance is that you don't have enough air-intakes. I can see on the picture you provided that your air-intake is down to zero at an altitude of just a smidge over 20km. R.A.P.I.E.R.S and other jet engines only really becomes useful (read: makes stuff go so fast that it practically throws you into orbit) when at over 30km. Here's one from my current Career: Notice all those long rectangular bits bolted on everywhere, those are structural air-intakes from the Spaceplane+ pack. got plenty of those in addition to 14 more conventional radial air-intakes and 4 nacelle intakes. That puppy will reach almost 35km altitude before switching over automatically to LFO. And at that time going so fast, that I only need burn 1-200dV more (basically just to keep speed up whilst still cruising hyper-sonic through the upper atmosphere) to reach an orbit of 200km. Also, as Red Iron Clown said - fuel flow. Jet Fuel like monoprop isn't that picky. You can leave your tanks wherever you wish and fuel will reach the engines. LFO on the other hand need a direct connected route to your engines. Just as you do with more conventional rockets and LFO fueled engines.

I like having the money restraint. Makes one prioritize a bit more, and it finally makes sense to go all out with in-situ resource utilization. Previously you could go all Battlestar Galactica on all your spaceships and mission. No need for SSTOs to haul crew and small cargo to space apart from the coolness factor. Now you got to think budgets, and rather than go big, try to go as small as possible. Even sacrifice some functionality to save mass and thus money. The big cost is getting stuff to orbit - the heavier the more it cost. My current career write-up (link in sig) gives a general overview of how the funds go up and down after various missions.

Your basic "To the Mun and back" rocket. Made with all stock parts - no extras included. The Lander and return vehicle: Top to bottom: Parachute - you'll need this later. Capsule - one kerbal only. If rescuing anyone, send off unmanned. 2xInline Parachutes - you'll need this later --- Decoupler Fuel tank - can never remember what they are called, but holds enough fuel for the return trip and then some. 2xBatteries - power you will need, but not much. 4xSingle cell solar panels - for recharging batteries, probably not needed but just to be safe. 2xRadial decouplers - also doubles as girders to widen your craft a bit. 2xTiny Fuel tanks - for Mun deorbit and landing. 4xLanding legs - for, well, landing. 2xLV909 - for Mun deorbit and landing. LV909 - for taking off from mun and return to Kerbin. Now all one need is something to carry this thing up to Kerbin orbit, say 100km, and get it towards Mun. This booster will do nicely: Again, top to bottom: The lander and return capsule from above. Decoupler Advanced Stabilizer - probably not needed, but makes everything much easier to control. Fuel tank - the long one that holds 360 units of fuel. 4xSingle cell solar panels - probably not needed, but again... 2xBatteries - electricity is good. LV-T45 Engine - plenty powerful enough for our needs. Decoupler Tri-coupler 6xFuel tanks - the long ones stacked two tall. 3xRadial decouplers - for hooking up those Solid Rocket Boosters 3xSRBs - again, the long ones, not those tiny short ones. 6xSepatrons - 2 per SRB. Without these you'll have a sudden disassembly when separating the SRB stage 3xLV-T45 3xLaunch Stability Towers - strictly speaking not needed, but I like them. Staging (parachutes and stuff to recoup launch costs removed for clarity): 6: Fires all booster engines (3xLV-T45 + SRBs) and release the rocket from the towers. 5: Release the SRBs and fires the Sepatrons. 4: Release the lower booster stage of 3xLV-T45 + Fuel tanks. Fires upper booster stage. 3: Release upper booster stage. Fires 3xLV909. 2: Release 2xLV909 + Fuel Tanks 1: Release LV909 + Fuel Tank 0: Deploys capsule Parachutes. Schedule: 1: Stage 6, 5 and 4 will get you to Kerbin orbit, with fuel left over in the upper booster to get you well on your way to Mun 2: When stage 4 is dry (upper booster), release it and finish whatever maneuver you were doing. When done, transfer fuel from middle tank to top off the radial tanks. 3: Orbit and then land on Mun. If any fuel is left over in the radial tanks, transfer it to the middle tank. 4: Do your Mun business. 5: Take off from Mun. Once the landing legs are off the ground - release the radial tanks and engines. 6: Once in Mun orbit, plot a course directly for Kerbin. Aim for a Pe of 0 to 10000 meters. 7: Before hitting the atmosphere of Kerbin, point capsule prograde, release LV909+Fuel tank. 8: When in atmosphere, point capsule retrograde (doesn't matter but looks better). 9: After the worst of the re-entry fires, release parachutes. 10: Happy landing. --- That lander and booster setup can be embellished on to do some science as well, by simply strapping a Science Jr pod under the capsule and then bolting on various science instruments and such to the Science Jr pod. Though, to be certain of a happy return, Id also add an inline Parachute or two to the Science Jr Pod. Good luck and have fun

Time has finally come to make the MSL Feynman a bit more operational. The shopping-list to make it good to go is quite extensive - and won't be done by the end of this installment. Got a fuel tank up there. Mind you, it is just a tiny Jumbo tank. Not even close to what will be needed for future missions to far away places. But considering the first 'shake-out' mission will only take the MSL Feynman to Minmus, it should be plenty. Now for the costly bits - two Cyclotrons - each hitching a ride up to the Feynman by means of their own 60Ton booster. First got installed nicely, the fuel left over in the booster was used to fill up the Jumbo, with plenty to spare, and then proceeded to deorbit the thing to get some funds back. Next Cyclotron moving into place. As was the case with the two at the Research Station and the previous at the Feynman, docking those things is a delicate operation. Very slow and careful maneuvering is in order for it to go without any embarrassing mistakes. the Eagle-Eyed will notice an adapter in the front, to make sure the Cyclotrons are moved a bit further out from the center of the ship. Those things are not only big and heavy, turns out - they are fat as well. The left-over booster got kicked up to a higher orbit of 150km. It is still pretty full of fuel which need to be put to good use before I deorbit it. Last the two base-landers got renamed EngineModule#1 & #2, transferred from orbit around Mun and then found their place at the rear of the now very much Mobile Science Lab. Just to test it out, I upped the orbit from 100km to 200km. Looked pretty good. Some oscillation up and down, but not too bad. Seen it much worse Now that all the big pieces are in place, all that is missing are all the small pieces. Kibbels for the animal-tests, some serious power for the Cyclotrons, at least four various experiments pods. But getting all that stuff up there should be cheap. Also need a refuel, but that is not only cheap but virtually free. Oh, and I need to crew the thing. Six Kerbals will be needed. --- Funds are down quite a bit to a smidge over 1.3 million. That will all change as I get the MSL Feynman to Minmus orbit. I got 13 active contracts, 7 of those involve doing stuff in Minmus orbit. 2 others involve Duna and Ike exploration, to which probes are already sent and should fetch a pretty penny once done. 1 contract is for Eve exploration, that transfer window is getting close. Also thinking of sending off probes to Moho and Dres now that the transfer windows are opening up in a matter of days. No contracts for those locations yet, but I can always just let probes to those locations be inactive until something crops up.

Operation Repo Anyone remember the Deep Space Network Satellite that in a sudden disassembly lost its solar panels? It's been taunting me ever since it malfunctioned. So decided it was about time to bring that kraken-infested puppy down - and in the process recoup a bit of its' cost. There is no fairing in the known universe that will make that particular trash-collector look pretty on the Launch-Pad. Sitting as it is with all its' giant protrusions - upside-down even - on top of the 20Ton booster. Met up with the derelict. Claw out, all lined up. Now just hit the gas and... Gotcha! Secured the cargo by means of quantum-struts. Handy little struts those. Just make sure they're off if you got any pointing downwards when on the Launch-Pad. Just trust me on that one A landing - sort of. Came in pretty hard at 7 m/s, but that is why we got landing-legs, right? Everything intact and looking good. The payout wasn't that great though. Fuel plus 15-20% of the cost of the booster, reduced the potential earnings from close to 50k to roughly 25k. But at least that reminder of failure is now down safe and not zipping around Kerbin.

My PC would scream for mercy with that part-count.

Karbonite Refining Test Since last done a couple of contracts and launched a Karbonite Truck to ferry said material from my Mun Base to my Resource Station - that also happen to double up as a refinery. First order of business, get the Karbonite Truck to the Mun Base... Proved simple enough, and since it isn't supposed to be permanently attached to the base, no need to be all that precise in lining it up either. Did hit one minor snag though. Fully loaded with Karbonite, the Truck had a measly 570dV, which is not enough to get back into orbit, much less maneuver to hook up with the Resource Station. So had to pump some back to get to about 1000dV available. To be able to fill up completely, I'm going to need a little refinery and fuel depot hooked up to the base. Will be nice to facilitate refueling of anything that pops in for a visit. As it was, after landing the Karbonite Truck had around 70% fuel left. Obviously not enough. Somebody had wildly optimistic estimates at the VAB when designing the thing Got back to the Resource Station with my load of Karbonite. Time to test the refinery part of the operation. Have three of the things attached. One for Monoprop and one each for Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer. Soon discovered that converting Karbonite to Monoprop is both slow and wasteful. The conversion rate is abysmal. Karbonite to Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer was a bit more speedy (helps having one converter for each, thus doubling the output rate) and the conversion rate was pretty ok. Now, as soon as that big thing in the middle there - the Logistics Hub - get up and running with Karbonite Transfer, I won't have to transport it manually. Which will ease operations quite nicely. Though I will still need that truck to ferry Karbonite to other installations and ships in the pipeline that just may put that resource to good use. --- Funds are up to a more comfortable 1.7 million. But as I am planning to finally get the MSL Feynman operational, those funds will dwindle quite a bit. Also pretty soon the MKS mod will receive a major update, so until then all further (MKS related) expansion of Mun Base and the Research Station is put on halt. Good news is, that update will fix the Logistics Hub and simplify things a bit. Bad news is, a few modules will go the way of the Dodo, so one module on the Research Station will have to be swapped out and two modules on Mun Base.

Never gonna' give you up, never gonna' let you down... "My turn!" Bill said "You've had your try Jeb, next flight up is mine I tell you!". Jeb didn't want to argue the finer points of how this is not a democracy and there is no such thing as 'turn'. But seeing as Jeb hadn't had a proper snack for a while - and eating in space is very messy, Bill would indeed get his 'turn'... ...in the new and improved Single Stage to Orbit ship, the SSTO Bufonem. Featuring a sleek hull and a proper Cargo-Bay. Looks pretty good compared to the previous effort, the SSTO Rana. Mission, capture the little horizontal lander to recover its cost. Funds low, lander expensive. Catching up to the lander was easy - the tricky part was docking it. Had to be done extremely slow and carefully. Eventually got it docked and secured. Closed the lid on the Cargo-Bay, and returned for KSC. Upon landing, available funds suddenly jumped up a bit, to just below 1.5 million.

If you want something done, send Jeb! This will be long and convoluted, though the de-convolution machine will try and make it simpler. Basic premise... Send up the SP Firebug mk II - bigger and better - with Jeb at the helm. So far so good. The CRAPIT report came back saying something about clipping and docking port and whatnot. Either way, the mk II got somewhat simplified, more streamlined and with more cargo capability. Jeb jumped at the chance to take it up and after a brief visit at Minmus, to recover the stranded horizontal lander orbiting there and bring it back in the new and improved Firebug. Oh, and do some contracts and science whilst at it. Started out well, got docked with the Research Station. Soon after the Lander mk II arrived, and Jeb jumped over to that. Jeb got the Lander mk II over to the Transfer Station, and docked on the rear-end of the SS Asinum. Which for this Minmus mission will serve as the tug. Did a quick landing on the Greater Flats of Minmus, gathered some science, planted a flag and all that. Then got up again to intercept and capture the abandoned little Horizontal Lander from a few missions back. That is one tiny but very expensive piece of hardware. I intend to land it back at KSC safe and sound. After getting everything back to the Research Station it was time to try and get the little lander inside the Cargo-Bay of the new and improved Firebug. No dice however. Nope. Someone at Infernal Robotics have screwed up. That hinge would not move anything anywhere, at least not in space. Worked perfectly in tests at KSC, but when it counts, nope. As can be seen on close inspection, the hinge moves, but not what it is attached to. Also, by this time, Jeb have had enough. "Seen this before!" he said, "Screw it, I'm going home!" At least the view on the way back was kinda' awesome Down safe, and the evidence of malfunction protruding outside the Cargo-Bay covers. --- So, next I suppose is using some other SSTO to recover the Horizontal Lander - it is worth nearly 150k after all. It's not chump-change. Despite the failure to get that neat piece of hardware back to KSC this time around, this mission was not a total loss. From launch to done deal, some 300k made it into the account. Now got just south of 1.4 million to play with in funds - and a couple more easy to do contracts that should net 200k more.

Oh, a cookie for you, as I believe you may just have gotten the reference from the first post on this page (#21). And I suppose 400k for a mobile science lab isn't *that* expensive, at least not considering I got back about 120k by means of Debrefound from spent stages and deorbiting that big end-stage booster. Still though, big projects suddenly cost big money. No more free lunches

KAR-BO-NI-TE Last leg of the first steps to getting more or less free from Kerbin economics and stuff. Yes, new ships and parts and whatnot will still have to be launched from KSC, but at least now I won't have to think about fuel once in space. My new Mun Resource Station nicely parked in a 75km orbit around Mun. Why 75, because it is 3/4 to 100 and is thus a nice round number I can remember, which is not too high for vessels coming up from the Mun or too low for incoming vessels from Kerbin or Minmus. Two things to note here. First, my Lander mk II found its' way to the Station. It needed to fuel up and will in due time find its' way back to Kerbin orbit and the Research Station to clean out the experiments pods. I need to do some contracts, and some of them require doing some science on Mun and Minmus - hence I need the Lander. Second is that detached Rockomax decoupler. That gave me all kinds of technical issues later in this mission. More on that in the end spoiler tag. Got the Karbonite Miner that was attached on the rear end of my little Mun Resource Station Train down safe to Lunies Base and got it working as intended. Pumping out Karbonite very nicely, and not even making a dent in the electricity budget. My reactor is still only running at 10% of capacity. Funds are slightly south of 1.2 million - so next up are science and contracts in an effort to clear out a few things that have been lingering and keeping me from getting new juicy contracts. Hence why the Lander mk II got some new attention. After landing the Karbonite miner, all my ships started blowing up when going into time-warp for some reason - and then the game would crash. Tried all kinds of things, but eventually in restarting the game and reloading a quicksave for the umpteenth time, got into the mission control building and on a vague hunch deleted that decoupler. That solved it all. No more ships going kablooie when time-warping.

Beefing up the infrastructure Now that Lunies' Base on Mun is soon up and running to a degree, something is needed up in Mun orbit to receive the surplus from all the mining and other production that'll be going on down there. Hence the launch of this, the Mun Resource Station. A half-way home for products from Mun. Right now just configured for being one big fuel-tank, but before hauling it all to Mun orbit, I'll attach what I need to refine Karbonite into fuels plus add some storage for various other products. Already dumped about 3000 units of fuel into it from drying out the booster that sent up the MSL Feynman. Got that booster deorbited using RCS to get back some cash. Also one of the two boosters that's been used to kick Base modules up to Mun have been returned and deorbited. Still, cash is tight right now, below 1.3 million in available funds. The next launch won't be cheap, as it'll contain some heavy expensive gear, so depleting the funds even further.

Science on the go! Did a few contracts to get the funds up to about 1.7 million. then I splurged on something I've been planning for a while - so sent this puppy up for the not so reasonable price of 400k... It is a mobile science lab. The MSL Feynman. When I say mobile I mean it will be, in due time, at the appropriate junction. Yes there is a huge Booster strapped to it now, but that will soon enough get disconnected and the fuel in it will be put to good use on something or other before de-orbiting the thing to recoup about 70k of the launch cost. The Feynman is made with modularity in mind. First mission to test it out will bring it to Minmus. Picked up quite the few contracts to do various experiments in orbit there. But later by rearranging stuff and getting some seriously efficient propulsion system on it, it'll happily go to far away places. Like say Duna or even Jool. In other news, the accountants of the Budget Office is back from vacation, and looking at the bottom line they are not happy. Got nearly 1.4 million in available funds, and easy to do contracts only add up to 250k in potential earnings. Got to get some of my space infrastructure to turn a profit soon, or I'll be broke after a few more launches.

Mun Expansion I thought the previous launch was expensive. Launch two in the Mun-Base program came in at 607k and change. And not done quite yet, I will require one more launch to make the base somewhat useful. But not to get ahead of things. On its way to Mun with a much needed power-plant, and some other bits. Now, I did say in the previous post something to the effect of future launches should be cheaper due to not needing another Base Lander. Well, decided to add one. Two reasons - first using those nuclear engines to get to Mun is a whole lot more efficient than using the engines of the booster, I need that fuel to continue landing modules. And second, I am going to need two identical vessels looking just like those two Base Landers for a future mission that is in the works. So though it cost a bit more now, I'll save some funds in the long run. Module #5 is down safe. One more to go on this load. The base is shaping up nicely. The next load will add Karbonite Mining, some kind of fuel storage and transfer and one other module I've not decided on yet. edit: Just a small update... Lunies' Base so far. Six modules installed. From left to right: Kerbitat - With living quarters attached this will support a whole gaggle of Kerbals. Also recycles waste into compost. Biolab - To support growing plants once greenhouses are attached. Control - Manages the whole base. Harvester - Extracts resources from the ground it sits on - though not Karbonite. Powerplant&Coms - In space there are no EPA or IAEA, so why bother with free solar power when you can get expensive nuclear power? Terraformer - Makes stuff that the greenhouses will need. Also recycles waste-water into fizzy drinks for Kerbals to drink. I'd say maybe 1/3 done getting the base fully operational. Which isn't looking good for my budget. I'm down to 1.3 million. But as said, after the next batch of modules is delivered, at least the base will be of some use - producing fuel.

To find out how much dV you need to anywhere, just put some satellite into a decent orbit (300+ km), and then use that to plot a dummy course to wherever. Down at the Navball, you will see how much dV is needed to perform the maneuver. With experience you will get to know that with a very roomy dV budget, you will need about 1500dV to get to Mun and back, and 2000dV to Minmus and back. Plus whatever an optional lander will need to get down and up again to either moon. There is plenty of information both here on the forums and the wiki. Read some mission reports, look at some videos (Scott Manley is always a favourite) and just dive deep into the wast ocean that is KSP and all the wonderful mods that make the game your game, not just any game

Base me on the Mun The budget office decided to take a week-long trip to Kawaii to relax a bit and pat them selves on the back for all the funds they saved with the two multi-mission launches and success of the SSTO Rana. The engineering office however was working overtime. First another Cyclotron was sent up to the Research Station. That wasn't cheap. And next, well... If the bean-counters saw that thing, they'd have a collective heart-attack. Came in at the frightfull price of 550k - by far the most expensive thing to ever sit on the launchpad. Besides the 60Ton booster, it contains the first three modules for the soon to be Munar base plus the equiptment to land it on Mun. First module already set down nicely at the selected site - Lunies' Base. Picking up module number two. About to land the third module. As can be seen it is night-time, so the three modules won't be assembled together until daybreak. Getting more modules to the base-site is a matter of priority, as it'll run out of electricity in about 10 days. Food, oxygen and water in 60. So more missions to the Mun is most certainly in the making. Good news is, next installment won't be quite as expensive. Don't need another module lander for one thing, and for another, I can recoup about 160k of the cost by simply planting a flag and send off an EVA report. With regards to funds, I'm down to roughly 1.85 million.

Single Stage to Profit! Following the failure of the SpacePlane Firebug, the engineers at KSC have been working on another SSTO concept. Basic idea being, ditch the wings and all that nonsense - add engines. Plenty of them. This was the result in its cargo configuration. Named the SSTO Rana and featuring 4 Turbojets, 3 R.A.P.I.E.R. engines and two bi-modal Nuclear engines. Have not one, but two hinged cargo attachment points for carrying light cargo to orbit, I'd say 6 tonnes max. Basically supplies and experiments pods for the Research Station. Lift-off is a bit sketchy, as it tends to drift a bit horizontally until it gets it speed up - takes a while to spin up those Turbojets, and I need to kick in the R.A.P.I.E.R.s' to start lift-off before the Turbojets are at max, or the thing is liable to tip over. After that though it is smooth sailing, uhm, flying. For the test-flight, Jeb visited the Research Station to pick up the finished Plant Growth experiments pod and bring it back to KSC. Not long after, Jeb and the SSTO Rana was back home at KSC. Landing was pretty smooth. Parachutes bled most the speed off, and after that it was just a matter of using the Turbojets for a gentle touch-down. Cost of the vessel is about 135k, and after that mission I got back 190k - so made a tidy profit. Though I am sure some of that was due to the experiments pod making it safely back to KSC. Whilst on the subject of profit, also did two simple contracts for a small pile of cash, so now my funds are back up to above 2.5 million.

Poor Jebediah! In the future though, when designing rockets, use the mods MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer Redux so that you get some crucial information on your vessel as you are building it. Such as weight and dV per stage - even adjusted to the various planets and moons. That way you never run out of fuel by anything other than screwing up the actual flying of the thing. Which do happen to the best of us Oh, and welcome to the forums. May your stay be long and enjoyable

First rule of government spending: "Why get one when you can get two for twice the price!" (first to get the reference gets a cookie...) The budget office really liked this "one launch for two missions" concept. So another one soon found its way to the launchpad. "My wife got one of those..." Bob said. "Found it in the bathroom drawer yesterday - though it was smaller of course and for some reason need a lot of batteries." Once in orbit it was time to shred the fairings and separate the payload. The topmost part of it is yet another probe to Duna, the bottom part is destined for the Research Station. Kicked the probe to a high orbit of 800km, and plotted a course for Duna. Made it to within 16million meters. Not bad, got even better when I decoupled the little booster stage to get out of Kerbin SOI. The little nudge of the decoupler got the course to within 6 million meters. This probe is named Duna Inquisitor and features a little lander equipped with parachutes. Yes, it is destined for the surface of Duna. Research Station have grown a little more. Now the Life Support Cycle is starting to close a bit. Waste-Water is being purified nicely and upping the available water-supply with a good pace. Waste is being turned into compost. A few additions more, and I'll be able to grow me some green tomatoes in space Speaking of, the Plant Growth experiment is done. Not that big a yield of science in it. 50 if I bring the experiment pod back to Kerbin, 20 if I radio in the result. The scientists of the Research Station are now hard at work doing Creature Comfort experiments. Will dogs and cats get along in space? Time will tell. --- Funds are down to a little below 1.9 million. Time to start thinking about doing some contracts.

If you ever do figure it out, do let me know. I got a probe going to Duna, with a lander attached that is supposed to land on Ike. Which might not work all that well considering there will be a significant time delay making small adjustments pretty difficult. I am also using Mechjeb - but I guess that "sends" commands from KSC rather than local on the lander should I use the "Landing Guidance" function of MJ.

Two for the price of one! (...but still not cheap) Seing as all Spaceplane operations are put on a halt until the Crash Report And Performance Investigation Team have delivered their report on the failings of the SP Firebug, the return of the science from Minmus would have to be done the old fashioned way. By means of rocketry. Which is tried, tested and safe... ...ish. As the beancounters back at the KSC budget office saw this standing on the launchpad they almost threw a fit. They calmed down somewhat when it got explained to them - very slowly - that it isn't only to return some science and crew back to Kerbin. It got a secondary and glorious purpose as well. And in the long run, it'll save us some funds. One launch instead of two. It was that last sentence that convinced them to green-light it. The Surface Return Vehicle and the mysterious payload made it to the Transfer Station without any hiccups. Now that the shroud is shred, the payload looks very much like the Minmus Probe and Lander from a few missions back. Which it pretty much is. Though a bit reconfigured. Bigger dish, some ScanSat equiptment - and to make room for it all - a couple less science instruments. This thing is going to Duna. The lander attached to it, will visit Ike. After releasing the Duna Observer probe from the Transfer Station and kicking it to a higher orbit of 800km - the course to Duna got plotted. Not an ideal time to visit Duna, but the overhead is just a couple of hundred dV more than an optimal transfer window, so it's ok. The first burn got it to within 30million meters of Duna. So plotted an adjustment course that will get it to roughly 2million meters of the target. Still a while until the adjustment is to be made, so added it to the Alarm Clock for a timely reminder when the little burn is due. A while later, Bob and Adam made it back to the Transfer Station. Bob and all the Science got into the SRV whereas Burdo who came up with the SRV will now man the SS Prototype. Speaking of - the Shuttle mk II now got a name, the SS Asinum. On a side note - Connected Living Spaces or Ship Manifest is giving me headaches. Try as I might, but transferring crews isn't quite working on the Transfer Station. Everything else, just not crews. So had to do it the old fashioned way, by EVAs'. (and yes, hatches are open and all parts should in principle be CLS compatible and compliant.) Bob is back. And a bounty of science. 1329 science points to be exact. Funds are down to about 2.075million. I do got some contracts waiting though that should bump that up to nearly 3mill again. Spent the better part of two hours updating mods _and_ getting my save file to work after that ordeal. Unfortunately there are no updates yet for CLS and SM - so crew connectivity and transfers between parts is still a bit dodgy. Updated MKS/OKS and Karbonite to newest versions - the latter gave me trouble as some parts had been given new names and all parts had been moved around in the tech-tree. So four vessels suddenly would not load. Solved it all by some save-file editing. Compare-Copy-Paste is fun ya'll *cough*. Also updated SCANSat to work with ORS/Karbonite. Finally also figured out that RemoteTech is a bit fidgy about Dish-Setup. My Duna Observer probe was suddenly out of contact. Strange I though, as the dish on it, the Communotron 88 got a range of 40Gm - as do the same dishes on the DSN who got the Duna Observer as a Target. The dish on Duna Observer had Kerbin as a target - so they should speak to each other. But no dice. Only got connection once editing the save-file to point the dish on the Duna Observer directly at one of the Deep Space Network satellites. Or it could just be that since the dish on Duna Observer got such narrow focus, the probe simply wasn't far enough out from Kerbin to reach all the way out to the DSN satellites orbit in its field of view. I'll test and see once the Duna Observer is (much) farther out. After all this I need some beers to relax a bit