Angelo Kerman

Moved to Technical Support (PC, modded installs)

@Invaderchaos Made the Moonraker textures and @DylanSemrau made the SRBs. One of my K-20 KerbalSoars was named Viking, actually. I had Pathfinder, Pioneer Mariner (destroyed on maiden flight), Ranger, Viking, and Sojourner, all names of probes. I continued the trend with the shuttle orbiters; Mariner was named after the K-20. Similarly, the munar shuttle is named Magellan, and at some point in my save, you might see Voyager... The Mk-33 launch tower parts are specifically designed for the Mk-33...

Not quite Constellation... Shuttle-C: Shuttle-C Inline Payload (similar to Ares from Mars Direct): Jool Heavy (WIP, it's what Shuttle-C evolves into): Shuttle Block 2: ..And the competition...

Epilogue “Main engine start…4…3…2…1…we have booster ignition…and liftoff. The final liftoff of the Space Shuttle Freedom, on the shoulders of the Shuttle Launch System.” Diller Kerman, KSC’s commentator, tried to hold back tears and focus on his job. As he had done many times before, he ran through the script from booster and external tank separation to orbit circularization via the Shuttle’s orbital maneuvering engines. The crew had a day-long wait while their orbit lined up with KOS before they could rendezvous with the space station. Created out of a need to replace the K-20 KerbalSoar, reduce launch costs incurred from expendable launch vehicles, and provide routine access to space, the Shuttle Launch System design went through several design iterations before KSP settled upon a design consisting of a winged orbiter mounted to an enormous external tank that also sported two huge solid rocket boosters. The design minimized expendable components and advanced propulsion technologies in the form of cryogenically fueled, reusable KS-25B main engines. Under contract from KSP, Drax Aerospace built four orbiters: Freedom (OV-201), Mariner (OV-202), Spirit (OV-203), and Opportunity (OV-204). A fifth, OV-205, was cancelled for budgetary reasons before it could be completed. The Shuttle lived up to its promise of reducing launch costs, albeit at a lower flight rate than expected. For the past four years, after completing KOS, assembling Magellan, adding additions to Billstown, and launching and upgrading the MIDAS constellation, the Shuttle Launch System averaged 10 flights a year while the Surveyor probes explored the solar system. Most of those flights resupplied and performed crew rotations to the Kerbin Orbiting Station and sent training crews to Billstown. But a few flew one-off science missions and delivered an occasional clandestine government payload into orbit. The mainstream media stopped covering Shuttle Launch System flights after SLS-50, but today’s flight made the headlines. Today’s Shuttle flight, SLS-85, launched nearly ten years to the day that SLS-1 launched, marked the final time that a KSP-owned Space Shuttle would leap into the skies. While Kerbal Space Center would remain an active space port and the hub of the Kerman States’ space exploration efforts, KSP was soon to become a paying customer for rides into orbit on commercial spacecraft instead of owning and operating their own. While bittersweet, their move freed their resources for the push to Duna and beyond. Freedom docked with KOS and offloaded the Permanent Logistics Module- formerly the Multipurpose Logistics Module. The PMM gave Starlab additional storage space for its resources. The Shuttle also swapped out the station crew. With its objectives completed, the last operational orbiter deorbited for the final time and landed back at KSC. From that point forward, KSP would be buying seats to reach orbit- and leasing facilities to commercial companies. As they had done before with the K-20’s final mission, active duty astronauts drove out to the runway to greet Freedom’s final crew and to say goodbye to the aging orbiter. Once the crowd cleared, ground crews towed Freedom back over to the OPF and prepped the orbiter for its retirement flight. Then the pilot astronauts held a lottery to see who got to fly Freedom to the Boneyard. Dudmon and Tesen won. Cleared for one last flight-albeit an atmospheric one- Freedom taxied into takeoff position, revved its engines, and jetted down the runway for takeoff. Out of respect for the retiring orbiter, KSC rolled the Sea Goat out of its hangar. As Freedom lifted off, Dudmon banked right to get a good view of the space center and made a loop before heading for the Boneyard. A few minutes later, the shuttle landed at the airstrip, taxied, and parked next to Opportunity, Spirit, and Mariner. He and Tesen took their time safing the orbiter and flipping the switches that enabled ground crews to drain it of its resources. After that, they exited OV-201- the first Block 1 shuttle ever built and the last to retire- one final time. But Dudmon looked up and smiled as the first of the next-generation orbiters passed overhead. The Shuttle Era was not over, it was just changing hands- and getting new competition... --- Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this JNSQ: Shuttle Launch System mission report as much as I did flying the missions and writing about them. This mission report sprung from a desire to recreate my old KSOS Mission Chronicles thread. This time, I kept the images. Anyway, my career game mission report will continue in JNSQ: Commercial Space Ventures. List of Shuttle flights

The penultimate chapter of this mission report is here! Chapter 11 Despite regularly shuttling crews and supplies to KOS and sending explorers to the Mϋn, the mundane Shuttle flights to the station barely made the news. Instead they gave more coverage when the various KSP space probes sent to Kerbol’s various planets made an interesting discovery or two. For instance, launched back on SLS-31, the Edna Surveyor discovered that Edna had a mϋn! Scientists named it Dak. After entering Edna’s sphere of influence, the space probe settled into a 600km polar orbit for a 60-day survey. The probe had to switch between its radar altimeter and its survey camera due to the Surveyor-series’ limited power, but it managed to detect odd bands where resources could be found. Most of the planet had next to nothing except in the resource bands. Since the probe had delta-v remaining in its tanks, a well-timed boost moved Edna Surveyor into Dak’s orbit to survey it as well. The probe circularized its orbit around the irregularly shaped dark-colored mϋn after about a day’s travel. For the next 60 days, Edna Surveyor scanned Dak to build a detailed terrain map and a rough map of its resources. The probe found concentrations of several resources including gray water, minerite, and zeonium. With its primary and secondary missions completed, KSC gave the Edna Surveyor a new mission: land on Dak, and if successful, land on Edna as well. Dak was easy; it had such low gravity, the probe landed in the Midlands without any issues. It quickly took magnetometer and temperature readings before lifting off again. KSC risked a second touchdown, and Edna Surveyor stopped off at Dak’s Highlands to take more readings. After that, the probe escaped Dak orbit and headed for its namesake. A day later, the Edna Surveyor entered low orbit around Edna and immediately initiated its deorbit burn. Sadly, the probe didn’t fare well with Edna; in its attempts to slow down, the flight control software got confused between orbital and surface velocities, and the probe slammed into the ground at 35 m/sec, breaking up upon impact. KSC was disappointed, but still satisfied with the science return obtained during its primary and secondary missions. And it did land on Dak, something the probe wasn’t designed to do. *** Unfortunately, other probes had issues. The Lindor Surveyor missed its course correction burn. Then the Nara Surveyor missed its burn. And then KSC lost contact with the Hamek Surveyor. After troubleshooting the problems, KSC discovered that their MIDAS constellation lacked the range to communicate with the probes. Though the Lindor Surveyor still had an encounter with its namesake in about a year and the Hamek Surveyor had another seven years to go, the Nara Surveyor would miss its target unless something was done. The sooner that KSC could solve the problem, the better. To hopefully resolve the issue, KSC fast-tracked an upgrade to the MIDAS constellation and SLS-42 was re-tasked to launch the MIDAS JX2 Upgrade Kit into orbit. With Mariner and Spirit still undergoing OMDP and Opportunity developing cracks in its landing gear and needed extensive repairs after SLS-41’s rough landing, Freedom was the only available orbiter for the job. Valentina and her crew had no issues flying Freedom into a 250km orbit. After aligning planes with the MIDAS constellation, Jofrey deployed the upgrade kit and it sped off to meet with MIDAS-A. The Upgrade Kit was propelled by the new PAM-A3 that had reaction control thrusters and additional propellant tanks. It was barely adequate to deliver the kit, which meant yet another redesign of the PAM. As the Upgrade Kit began its voyage, Freedom returned home. Twelve days later, the Upgrade Kit arrived at MIDAS-A and docked with the relay. After deploying the advanced relay antennas, the PAM-A3 detached and deorbited. Mission Control spent a few days verifying that the MIDAS probe core's software upgrades successfully interfaced with the Upgrade Kit before they attempted to ping the Nara Surveyor. A few hours later, the probe successfully reported its status. Elated, Mission Control immediately commanded the probe to make a new course correction burn. A short burn later, the Nara Surveyor had an encounter with its namesake in 9 years. Better late than never... Flush with their success, SLS-43 and SLS-44 delivered Upgrade Kits to MIDAS-B and MIDAS-C, respectively. That gave the Multi-platform Interplanetary Deep-space Array System 360-degree network coverage. *** A year later, The Jool Surveyor finally entered Jool’s sphere of influence. The probe quickly made some scientific observations and beamed the results back to KSC just in case something went wrong. Then, over the course of two weeks, it performed a series of maneuvers that expended the L5US but also brought the probe close to the surface of Tylo. That is when KSC discovered that Tylo had a thin atmosphere! Mission Control quickly reprogrammed the probe to fly just above Tylo’s atmosphere and make its science observations before exiting the mϋn’s SOI. An hour later, Jool Surveyor exited Tylo’s SOI, coasted for 4 hours, and made a large correction burn that lined it up with an encounter with Vall. Jool Surveyor ended up in a highly elliptical orbit around its namesake as a bonus. Mission Control held their breaths as Jool’s bulk blocked their connection to the probe for several hours. But they reacquired its signal just in time for the Vall flyby. In high orbit, the Jool Surveyor found something really intriguing: a faint repeating transmission from the southern hemisphere! Scientists had no idea what the transmission was from, but without the propellant allotment to slow down, all they could do was record the signals and plan a follow-up mission. The probe fell to low orbital space and took more measurements. Its magnetometer detected the presence of sub-surface water while its radio plasma wave sensor continued to record the strange radio patterns. But within minutes Jool Surveyor approached within 60 km of Vall’s surface and sped away towards its next maneuver burn. Six hours later, the probe made a pair of burns that put it on course for an encounter with Laythe. But Mission Control had to wait another 66 days to reach Jool Surveyor’s destination... *** A week after Jool Surveyor’s transfer burn, the Dres Surveyor performed a flyby of its namesake. KSC’s scientists had a day with which to conduct their science as the probe flew past the planet. They took some initial readings as Dres Surveyor entered its namesake’s sphere of influence, but they were not impressed. Seven hours later, the probe dipped to within 14 km of the planet’s surface- at least that is what the trajectory predicted. It was hard to tell since the probe ducked behind the planet and out of contact with KSC. When Dres Surveyor emerged on the other side, it was still low enough to take additional readings and radio the results back to Mission Control. Scientists were still unimpressed. As the probe sped away from Dres and exited its SOI eight hours later, hardly anyone cared… *** Fifty-eight days later, the excitement at KSC began to build once more as Jool Surveyor made another course correction burn that put it over the top of Laythe. After a three-hour wait, the probe entered Laythe’s SOI. When they pointed the spacecraft’s cameras towards Jool’s innermost quarry, it confirmed something that scientists suspected- Laythe had liquid oceans of water and an atmosphere! Several Funds changed hands after that data arrived… The RPWS instrument detected periodic radio bursts from Laythe that many attributed to Laythe’s orbit within Jool’s magnetic field. Some scientists thought that the repeating patterns that they saw emitting from Vall were a similar natural phenomenon as well, but others argued that Vall’s patterns repeated too quickly, and they only came from the southern hemisphere while Laythe’s emissions happened globally. It was clear that they would need years of continued observations to resolve the debate. In the meantime, Mission Control commanded Jool Surveyor to perform its most important engine burn since entering orbit around Jool. It cost all the PAM-C’s remaining propellant and some of the probe’s maneuvering thruster fuel as well, but Jool Surveyor entered a polar orbit around Laythe. Once safely settled into polar orbit and positioned in a high inclination, Jool Surveyor began to map the mϋn’s terrain and scan for resources. It would take months to fully scan the planet- alternating between radar and visual resource scans. In the meantime, scientists began to ask how the mϋn could have liquid water on the surface- and an atmosphere- given how distant Jool was from Kerbol. And they asked when they could send a kermanned expedition to Laythe… *** Two hundred and eighty-five days after Jool Surveyor entered Laythe orbit, the Lindor Surveyor began its encounter with its namesake planet. After gathering science from high orbit, KSC commanded the probe to match orbital planes with the gas giant. Twenty-eight days later, Lindor Surveyor conducted a major burn that swung it around the ice giant to encounter Riga, the second outer-most mϋn of Lindor. The spacecraft made an orbital adjustment to align orbital planes and then slip behind the mϋn just above its thin atmosphere. It managed to grab science readings in low orbital space before the celestial body’s bulk blocked radio signals from KSC. After restoring contact, the probe relayed its findings. While interesting, nothing immediately stood out. Ten days later, Lindor Surveyor made another correction burn to avoid escaping the planet’s SOI. Then it waited another 72 days to make a small burn that put it on course with Huygen. Another 120 days later, the spacecraft finally entered Huygen’s SOI. It took readings from both high and low orbital space before exiting its SOI a couple of hours later. Its brief pass detected some strange readings such as raptium and hydrokerbon seas! With the probe running low on propellant though, KSC had to decide whether to take a low pass at Lindor and fly by Talos and Krel- the outermost and innermost mϋns of Lindor, respectively, or rendezvous with Huygen again and enter polar orbit to map it. Then Adsii Kerman, one of the senior planetary scientists, came up with a brilliant plan. A pair of small burns placed Lindor Surveyor on course to encounter Aden, the second mϋn of Lindor. 15 days later, it made a high-altitude pass and gathered data. Then after waiting a week, KSC commanded a large engine burn that enabled the probe to swing relatively close by Lindor before again encountering Huygen 6 days after its slingshot around the gas giant. They sacrificed passes at Talos and Krel, but studying the atmosphere of Huygen and mapping its surface was just too good to pass up. Lindor Surveyor did indeed find an ocean made of hydrokerbons and raptium along with a thick atmosphere. The planetary geologists went nuts- they wanted to know more! *** With one exception, all the Surveyor series of space probes were launched via the Shuttle Launch System. They would have cost over a million Funds to launch on expendable rockets. Instead, the Shuttle did the job for a fraction of the cost. Despite showing increasing signs of wear and tear, and barely getting mentions in the media, the workhorses still contributed to KSP’s space exploration efforts by providing cheap access to space.

The mods are all separate, so you can download the plugin separately from the parts. The plugin will patch the stock robotics so that the KAL-1000 will also use the plugin. It relies on the KAL-1000 to at least have the list of robotics under its control.

ugh. I think that will require a Module Manager patch to fix.8

@linuxgurugamer You're probably already aware of this one, but if not... The Servo Controller is specifically designed to run robotic parts from a central location. It isn't idea but it works. It doesn't do inverse kinematics. What you can do is take "snapshots" of the parts in various rotations and positions, and then play those snapshots.

Chapter 10 With the space station completed and the Magellan assembled, KSP focused on missions to more planets. SLS-35 launched the Moho Surveyor after a layover at Starlab. Slated for a fly-by mission, KSC’s engineers believed that the probe’s PAM-C would provide sufficient delta-v for the mission. SLS-35 was also the first use of the new “super lightweight” external tank. Lighter than the previous external tank designs, the SWLT increased payload capacity by another 4 tonnes, which enabled the orbiters to carry more propellant during their space probe deployments and OTV refueling flights. Next, with the launch window approaching soon, SLS-36 launched the Hamek Surveyor into orbit to dock with L5US-6- last used during the historic Munflight 6 mission. Opportunity approached the awaiting upper stage and its crew docked the probe’s PAM-C to it without incident. Soon afterwards, the Shuttle headed home to get ready for her next mission. Recently overhauled and upgraded, Freedom and Opportunity were scheduled to handle the next series of flights while Spirit and Mariner underwent their Orbiter Maintenance Down Period. The OMDP gave KSC the opportunity to thoroughly inspect their orbiters and make repairs. That proved fortuitous since engineers discovered corrosion on critical wiring in both Freedom and Opportunity that would have resulted in loss of mission, vehicle, and crew, and they found similar corrosion in Spirit and Mariner. Plus, the hexium pressurization tanks were due to be replaced on the shuttle fleet. If one ruptured during flight, the orbiter would be damaged beyond its ability to land safely. *** Seventeen days after SLS-36, as Opportunity got ready for its next flight and Freedom was nearing its next flight, the Ike Surveyor arrived at Duna. After a course correction maneuver to lower its periapsis, Ike Surveyor entered a highly elliptical Dunan orbit that took it all the way to Ike. The probe then detached the Duna Horizon lander as it coasted upwards to Ike. Eight days later, Duna Horizon entered Duna’s atmosphere, the first time that a spacecraft from Kerbin had done so. The lander survived atmospheric entry but briefly lost connection back to KSC. Once it exited the plasma blackout, KSC received more telemetry. Duna Horizon’s atmospheric sensor collected invaluable data as it descended towards the ground. The probe made an important discovery; Duna’s atmosphere was almost too thin for parachutes. Fortunately, the probe’s descent engine slowed Duna Horizon enough to avoid crashing into the surface. At the last moment, the chute deployed successfully, and Duna Horizon became the first probe to land softly on the rusty planet. Minutes later, Duna Surveyor’s orbit carried it over the horizon and the probe lost contact with the lander. Four days later, Ike Survey entered Ike’s sphere of influence and performed a couple of maneuvers that adjusted its inclination. Two hundred days after leaving Kerbin, Ike Survey settled into a 327 km orbit around Ike. The party at KSC lasted a full day. *** SLS-37 was a virtual repeat of SLS-36, with Freedom bringing the Nara Surveyor into orbit and attaching it to the D1B Minmus Tanker. Launched atop a Duna 1B rocket in support of Mϋnflight missions to Minmus, the D1B Minmus Tanker was a modified D1B upper stage equipped with extra fuel tanks and an RCS system. KSC no longer needed the tanker since they were switching over to cryogenic orbital stages, but with the loss of the Lindor 9R first stage, they were unable to launch additional OTV Heavies, and they didn’t have any expendable OTVs available to refuel the Magellan’s OTV. Since pulling the Lindor tooling out of mothballs and building another rocket would take too much time, KSC repurposed the D1B Minmus Tanker to meet the Nara launch window. With its payload docked to the tanker and ready to launch, Freedom deorbited and returned to KSC. *** Two weeks later, the Moho Surveyor entered Moho’s sphere of influence. The probe immediately took science readings from high above the surface. With no way to slow down enough to enter orbit, KSC commanded the probe to lower its periapsis down to a scant 4.4 km for a low-space pass with its instruments. Fifty minutes later, the probe skimmed by the surface and hit a record 8,113 m/sec velocity as it sped past periapsis. As the data streamed in, KSC’s scientists were ecstatic. They had just discovered that Moho had a very thin atmosphere near the surface! Two hours after its encounter with Moho began, it was over. The first fly-by of Moho was an astounding success and provided excellent data. Moho Surveyor exited Moho’s sphere of influence and entered kerbolar orbit. It would remain a monument of KSP’s achievements for centuries to come. *** Drakken 14 launched with Hanse, Karl, and Leon vonKerman aboard. It had a modified double-length orbital module. The spacecraft immediately headed to Drakken Palast after attaining orbit. Once docked at the station, the spacecraft detached its orbital module and then docked at an alternate port. A day later, Raumschlepper 2 leaped into the skies on a sunny afternoon and entered a 250.1 km by 247.4 km orbit. The tug also headed to Drakken Palast and attached itself to the orbital module. Hanse, Karl, and Leon then boarded the module, undocked from Drakken Palast, and headed for Minmus. Eight days later, the craft rendezvoused and docked with Unity Station. A relic from the Mϋn Race era, Unity Station- little more than a single station module- was brought to Minmus orbit on Mϋnflight 6 during the Mϋnflight Drakken Test Project. During that mission, the Kerman States and the vonKerman Republic jointly explored Minmus before going their separate ways. Unity Station was declared a neutral ground where both nations could dock their spacecraft before heading to the Mint Mϋn. Neither nation had returned until the Drakken 14 mission. As Raumschlepper 2 docked to the station, Karl confirmed telemetry readings from several years ago; one of the station’s inflatable docking ports had ruptured. Fortunately, all the hatches were sealed before the two crews departed, so the rest of the station remained airtight. After Hanse, Karl, and Leon transferred to the lander, they departed Unity Station and headed to Hause 2, the landing site of the joint mission. Karl scavenged several science instruments from the Schaffer-C and attached them to the Libelle. Then after refueling the lander, the trio set out on their science mission; they had several sites all around Minmus to take readings from. After the first site, they stopped off at Hause 1 to refuel. Given the large distance between sites, Kontrol authorized the explorers to scavenge what they needed from the Brown Basins Base, disconnect the Drakken Drill, and modify it for extended operations. The expedition planned to launch the drill to a survey site, then shuttle over in the Libelle to do survey, and then refuel from the awaiting drill. After investigating all the sites, they would return to Basins Base and land the drill to supplement their environmental resource needs. Karl gathered the minimum needed to make the drill effective but also to preserve the historical significance of the site. With the modifications completed, the Drakken Drill gently lifted off and headed to the first survey site. After it settled down and extended its drills, the Libelle lifted off to join the drill. Leon took the desired temperature readings while Hanse set the lander down next to the ISRU rig. Several hours later, once their next sites entered daylight, the team repeated the process. Within a week the team finished surveying all their sites. The Libelle went back to Basins Base while their partner Drakken Driller landed at a site surveyed for the future Hause 3. Back at Basins Base, Karl disconnected the transfer hose to the previous generation Drakken Tanker Tug. Uncertified for aerobraking, the tug, refueled at last after several months, could still shuttle propellant to Unity Station and refuel the Raumschlepper. After its brief stopover at the orbiting outpost, the tug undocked and landed at the new mining site. Their tasks on Minmus completed, the crew of Drakken 14 lifted off the surface- and accidentally clipped some solar panels as they launched- rendezvoused with Unity Station and docked. After boarding the extended orbital module, Raumschlepper 2 undocked and headed back to Kerbin. Hanse had eight days to listen to Kontrol scold him for breaking solar panels on a historic site’s outpost. Regardless they splashed down in Darude Lake, situated just a few kilometers away from Darude Launch Complex. Despite the accident, the team did accomplish their survey goals, and that enabled the vonKermans to launch their most ambitious project to date. Their first series of launches brought Hause 3 into orbit and the expendable fuel tankers that it needed to reach Minmus’ surface. Based on the Drakken Palast core, Hause 3 had repositioned solar arrays and a set of commercially available wheels and modular chassis to land out of harm’s way and then reposition at the desired site. With their fleet of reusable Fleigenross launchers working overtime, the vonKermans next launched a pair of advanced Drakken Drillers and a Drakken ISRU along with their entourage of expendable tankers. They landed near Hause 3 and docked to the core module over the course of a month. After celebrating their latest success, Kontrol got down to the business of deploying the drills and extracting as much ore as they could for conversion into usable resources. Depending upon the extraction rates, they had the option of sending additional drilling rigs and ISRU converters, but the vonKermans had a growing concern that off-world propellant production wasn’t economically viable- Kerbin’s mϋns just didn’t appear to have enough of the needed resources. *** With the Surveyor series of probes sent to every planet except Dres and Eeloo- those launch windows opened about a year away- KSP focused their attention once more on the Mϋn. SLS-38 delivered “Miss Piggy II,” a redesigned Mϋnar Ground Module Rover that benefited from the experiences of its predecessor. The rover had improved gyro assemblies and a redesigned chassis. A combination PAM-A2 and MEM-derived Descent and Landing Stage would bring the rover from mϋnar orbit to the ground. Once docked at Starlab, Opportunity offloaded Miss Piggy II while the station crew moved it to a staging port. Then Frolie hopped out and installed the rover’s wheels. Finally, they then undocked Magellan’s OTV Heavy and parked it on the rover’s PAM- without the ability to launch another OTV Heavy, KSP had to rely on Magellan’s propulsion module for mϋnar cargo trips. With its work done, Opportunity returned home. Not long after, Miss Piggy II undocked from Starlab and burned for the Mϋn. After the initial boost and some fine tuning, the OTV Heavy separated from Miss Piggy and decelerated to head back to Kerbin while the rover adjusted its orbit to circle around the Mϋn. As the rover waited for Billstown to enter mϋnar daylight, the OTV Heavy began aerobraking. The first pass went fine, but two days later, the vehicle either dipped too low or its regeneratively cooled engines proved inadequate to handle the thermal load. In either case, the OTV Heavy broke up as it plunged through the atmosphere. KSP was frustrated to say the least, but at least they did not lose the Magellan and any crew aboard it either. Miss Piggy fared better. The rover landed-barely- on the surface, albeit 14.5km away from Billstown. After ditching the landing stage, the rover engaged its wheels and drove the remaining distance. Despite the setback, KSC’s engineers went to work on an interim solution while Program Management rearranged the schedule. SLS-39, which was going to launch a cryogenic fuel tank to refuel the OTV, brought up the MGM ISRU instead. The Mϋnar Ground Module was designed to drill for ore and convert it into usable resources. After docking at KOS, Gerrim mounted the ISRU’s wheels and then moved the module to its staging port. After swapping out the station crew, Freedom returned home. SLS-40 launched KSC’s new PAM-D. Hastily modified from a PAM-C, the dash-D variant had stretched fuel tanks and a pair of Terrier engines. It had to be launched only partially filled due to the shuttle’s limited payload mass. Nonetheless, Opportunity docked with Starlab, the station crews unloaded the PAM, and they attached it to the MGM ISRU. The orbiter returned to KSC the next day. With its tanks topped off, the MGM ISRU departed KOS and entered mϋnar orbit 4 days later. As with Miss Piggy II, KSC waited for Billstown to enter daylight before landing the new module. With help from the new PAM-D, the ISRU landed safely and easily within range of the base... *** At last, both former rivals returned to the mϋns of Kerbin and established or re-established outposts with a limited ability to utilize local resources. But both outposts also struggled to produce enough propellants to make off-world refineries economically viable. Despite the setback, the outposts still represented the first steps in creating self-sufficient colonies in outer space.

The KSP Moderation Team is proud to present Threads of the Month Awards for November 2020! Welcome to our November2020 installment of TOTM, where we showcase interesting forum content. As always we hope you are all happy, healthy and having fun in the game and on the forum. And so, without further ado, here are this month's winners: Firstly, clock-maker @Makc_Gordon creatively used KSPs' parts to make clocks! They can keep time and display it! Check it out here: We've had some good discussions too. First, @Popestar asked a simple question: PC vs Consoles. Share your opinions here: Next, it happens to all of us at one point or another: Mission Failed! What do you do when it happens? @Neil Kermstrong asked that question, and there are some great replies. Take a look: Finally, @AlamoVampire asks "what is something you saw for the first time in KSP that made you happy you saw it?" Great question! The moments that make you happy when you first see them can take the sting out of the failures that happen along the way. Share your experiences here: Congratulations to the November Thread of the Month winners! Shout out to @Lewie, @Poodmund and @AlamoVampire for nominating threads.

To calculate snack use without simulator, you need to know how many snacks per meal and meals per day each kerbal consumes. You can find that in your snacks settings (found when you pause the game). Once you have those two numbers you can calculate the snacks per day per kerbal. Then multiply by your crew size to get total snacks consumed per day. This number is also the total soil produced per day (if you have that feature enabled). Once you have total snacks per day, divide by the number of snacks that your ship has. Factoring in recyclers gets trickier. Once you know how much soil you produce, you need to calculate the amount of soil recycled per day (I think the Hitchhiker parts do that). Once you have the soil recycled per day, you can determine how many snacks are produced by the cycler. Subtract that amount from the total snacks consumed per day to get the net snacks consumed per day. Then take the net snacks consumed per day by the total snacks available to get how many days the snacks will last. You could also try out the Snacks/Docs/Snacks Trip Planner.xls.

A little something that I'm working on....

MOLE 1.25 is now available: - Reverted back to MOLE 1.22 and manually reapplied JadeOfMaar's updates. - Replaced Sledgehammer's MultiModeEngine and multiple engines with new WBIModuleEnginesSRB. This new module lets you define THRUST_PROFILE nodes within the part module. Simply select the desired thrust profile in the editor. - Adding Sledgehammer SRB segments will now slightly boost thrust. - Defined THRUST_PROFILE nodes for BetterSRB support based on JadeOfMaar's update. - Bug fixes from Wild Blue Tools

Ok, at this point I cannot salvage 1.24 so I will discard the previous and revert back to 1.22.1. It won’t have any of @JadeOfMaar’s changes but it is the last stable build. Expect to see that tomorrow as 1.25.

MOLE 1.24.2 should fix the z-fighting.

Here is KFS 0.4.10: Reworked hover mode resource consumption to not set the throttle.

Ok for that, the MOH18 and MOBL part configs need the following: MODULE { name = WBIMeshHelper objects = Cylinder003,TankSleeve002;MohBodyWhite guiNames = Theme: Black and White;Theme: MOLE White editorOnly = true showGui = true showPrev = false } I'll fix that this weekend. Any other issues you've noticed?

Can you give 1.24.1 a try?

Ack! Here's an encore presentation... Chapter 9 “Valentina, I’m glad we’ve got this opportunity to chat in private,” Gene began, “I know that you’re considering hanging up your wings and focusing on managing the Corps.” “How did-“ Valentina said astonished. “Gene, you have a knack for knowing things about your staff, sometimes even before we do.” Gene just laughed. “You know someone long enough, you almost get a sixth sense for some things,” he shrugged and said. “And a good leader knows his people. Anyway, I hope you’ll reconsider.” “Why?” Gene sighed. “Well, the public is already losing interest in SLS since we declared it operational, and we completed Starlab, so our kongressional supporters are about to push for our next long-term goal. It will take some time to gear up for it and a lot of things must be in place first. But if you keep your flight status, then you’ll be ready for it... What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this office,” he said sternly. “You got it,” Valentina nodded and responded. “We’re going to Duna. I want you to command the first expedition.” Valentina’s eyes widened. She gasped. It took her several seconds for her to recover. “I… um, I’m honored, Gene, really. Thank you… Jeb is going to throw a fit when he finds out...” “I think he knows he’s not command material,” Gene responded, “A Mϋn mission? A shuttle flight? Sure. A long-term interplanetary mission? Not so much. But I’ll break it to him gently. Besides, he’s one of our best pilots. He’ll be on the flight too…” Swell, Valentina thought to herself bitterly. “I accept, Gene, but on one condition.” “Yes?” “I want Bob to go with me. Going to Duna has been his dream since he was a kid. Plus, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be an astronaut. I owe him.” “Done,” Gene said without hesitating. He knew that was going to happen. Valentina smiled. Change was in the air. “You know, Gene,” She continued, “Jeb’s situation isn’t unique. Not all our pilots want to be mission commanders… Hensen and Jeslong have been hesitant to step into those shoes, for instance… As our ranks continue to increase and missions extend beyond cisminmar space, we might want to have a command track and a technical track for the various astronaut departments, and training missions to give said individuals command experience.” “Hm,” Gene pondered. “You’re right. What did you have in mind?” “Well,” Valentina began… *** As Valentina’s plan began to take shape, SLS-31 launched the Edna Surveyor, rendezvousing with L5US-5 before sending it on its way, while SLS-32 sent the Ike Surveyor and Duna Horizon off to the rusty planet after a refueling stop at KOS. With KSP nearly out of available Lindor 5 Upper Stages, engineers knew that they had to create an alternative. Some wanted to build cryogenic orbital propulsion stages while others lobbied for atomic rockets. Both had their advantages and disadvantages. But given their experience with the Shuttle’s Vector engines, KSC leaned towards cryogenic technologies while making nuclear propulsion a long-term goal. With the decision made, engineers started designing an efficient and low-cost cryogenic engine and an upper stage to go with it. *** Meanwhile, the vonKerman Raumfahrtbehörde (vonKerman Space Agency in the Kerman tongue) launched their new Raumschlepper (Space Tug), a dedicated spacecraft designed to haul payloads to and from Minmus. Unlike previous designs, the new prototype tug hauled payloads under its bulk instead of on top of it. The change enabled engineers to place a large heat shield on the spacecraft‘s nose, but it also meant placing the engines to either side of the body. Raumschlepper-1 departed Low Kerbin Orbit, performed a flyby of Minmus 12 days later, and then fell back to Kerbin 9 days after that. The tug plunged through the atmosphere nose first in an effort to slow down. 22 days and 6 hours into the mission, Raumschlepper-1 successfully performed its aerobraking maneuver without incident. At last the vonKermans had a tug capable of surviving an aerobraking. It then docked with Drakken Palast as a test of its RCS thrusters, at which point the vonKermans realized that they needed a redesign. Nonetheless, the tug realigned the station to match Minmus’ orbital plane before undocking and deorbiting. *** Spirit leaped into the sky as SLS-33 got underway. The orbiter rendezvoused and docked with KOS a day later and unloaded Magellan, the Mϋnar Shuttle Module, which docked to the station’s secondary shuttle port. Magellan seated a crew of three- five in a pinch- and its modular construction enabled it to use a variety of propulsion sections. Engineers were already thinking about an orbital shuttle variant. After the orbiter departed and headed home, the McKerman Ministry of Space launched Magellan’s first propulsion section atop their new Arrow 4 Heavy. Powered by a new CE-60 “Pavonis” cryogenic rocket engine, the propulsion module was actually a prototype orbital transfer vehicle that KSP hoped would be able to boost payloads towards their destination, detach, and then return to Kerbin orbit. For the Magellan, though, the OTV would remain attached to the ship until it was replaced- if it worked. Since KSP wasn’t about to risk a crew on an untested ship if they could avoid it, they programmed Magellan to undock from Starlab, burn to mϋnar altitude, swing back to Kerbin nine and a half days later, and dip into the atmosphere to test its aerobraking and heat tolerances. The unkermanned shakedown cruise validated the design- especially the new engine’s regenerative cooling system. By sacrificing a bit of cryogenic propellant, the engine avoided overheating and exploding during aerobraking. Soon after, Magellan returned to KOS. Seventeen days later, Opportunity delivered KSC’s newest creation, the Mϋnar Surface Access Module, into orbit during SLS-34. Unlike its predecessor, the Mϋnar Excursion Module that was flown during Project Mϋnflight, the MSAM was a single stage to orbit design that could deliver a crew of three to the mϋnar surface and back again. Once docked at KOS, Valentina hopped into the MSAM and docked it to Magellan. Then, after Opportunity departed with the outgoing station crew, Valentina, Bill, and Bob boarded the MSM, undocked from Starlab, and departed for the Mϋn, arriving three days later. Not long after entering orbit, the awaiting OTV-E - an expendable version of the OTV- rendezvoused with the Magellan to refuel it. As soon as it offloaded its propellants the OTV-E undocked and deorbited. With Magellan refueled and set to automatic, Bill, Bob, and Valentina boarded the Sea Duck for their trip down to the surface. The MSAM performed flawlessly; Valentina touched down next to Billstown without incident. Bill, Bob, and Valentina became the first three-kerbal crew to land on the Mϋn and the first three-kerbal crew from the Kerman States to land on another celestial body. Bob and Valentina also became the first husband and wife team to share a mission together, and Bill became the first Kerman to return to a previous mission site. It was a groundbreaking mission in many respects. With the congratulations and pleasantries out of the way, the trio got to work. Bob and Val entered Billstown while Bill took a jaunt over to where he left the Owl’s rover from his Mϋnflight 5 mission. He had heavily modified the rover to serve as a makeshift fuel truck and hoped to use it as such once more. Bill was happy to see that the rover still operated after several years in the mϋnar environment, and he drove it back to base with hopes of refueling the MSAM. Sadly though, he could not find any power tools- he swore that Billstown had some! Frustrated and thwarted, he went back inside and vowed to ensure that every spacecraft from here on out would always have a set of power tools aboard. As the Magellan team reactivated Billstown and assessed its condition, KSC examined MunSCAN-2’s data for potential sites for the base’s relocation. None of the sites had all the resources that they wanted, but some had more than others. They narrowed down the list to three: the mϋnar north pole, which appeared to have water-ice; the Voloni Crater, and a site along the equator. Of the two, only the equatorial site was potentially in range. Unfortunately, it was also a quarter of the way around the Mϋn and well beyond driving range. Valentina checked Billstown’s flight systems and found that it had just over 1,100 m/sec of delta-v in the tanks. KSC was unsure if that was enough to reach the new site, so Bill hooked up Miss Piggy’s transfer hose to the base and drained its jump jet propellant. That gave Billstown another 150 m/sec or so. It still did not seem to be enough. While KSC debated what to do, Bill, Bob, and Valentina decided to take a short road trip in Miss Piggy, the base’s pressurized rover that Bill and Jeb drove on their off-world road trip during Mϋnflight 5. Bob wanted to conduct some research at a nearby impact crater. As they sped off, Val rolled the rover and scraped a few parts off accidentally, but she was able to set Miss Piggy onto her wheels and they keep going. The team found a crater about 2 km away, and Bob ran the science arm. He did not get the readings that he had hoped for though. Disappointed, they returned to Billstown. Six days later, the crew had done all that they could at Billstown and it was time to head home. After leaving the base in flight-standby mode, Bill, Bob, and Val boarded the Sea Duck for their trip back into orbit. The MSAM ran out of propellant due to the large plane change maneuver it had to make, but Valentina completed the rendezvous and docking maneuvers using the lander’s RCS thrusters. KSC engineers made a note to increase the Sea Duck’s propellant tank capacity and restricted the MSAM to equatorial landing sites. Not long after docking, Magellan performed its mϋnar departure burn and headed back to Kerbin. Four days later, the MSM tucked away its antennas and solar arrays for its trip through the atmosphere. After several aerobraking maneuvers, Magellan slowed down enough to circularize its orbit and then docked with Starlab. *** A few days later during the near side’s mϋnar noon, Billstown lifted off the surface and headed for Bartfen’s Obession, 272.8km away. As KSC scientists rejected landing site after landing site, Bartfen Kerman, one of KSC’s geologists, lobbied tirelessly for days for his chosen site until KSC’s senior staff finally caved in. About midway between Sector-QHQ9 and Lowlander 2/Billstown Site, Bartfen insisted that “his” site offered the best location for onsite ore gathering and had resource fields nearby for other resources such as blutonium. After several tense moments, Billstown settled back down onto the mϋnar surface with a scant 15 m/sec of delta-v to spare, but it made it to Bartfen’s Obsession. With nothing to lose, KSC attempted to drive Miss Piggy to Bartfen’s Obsession. A mishap cost it more gyros, but once back under control, the rover set its autopilot and began its cruise. Unfortunately, while dodging rocks, Miss Piggy tipped over too far for its gyros to compensate and broke up as it hit the ground at high speed. Despite setting the record for the longest off-world road trip, the Mϋnar Ground Module Rover met its end just 7.2 km away from its departure point. *** Magellan’s post-mission assessment demonstrated the viability of using cryogenic propellants for the next-generation space tugs, but the Orbital Transfer Vehicle prototype lacked the delta-v needed to reach the Mϋn, orbit it, return, and aerobrake safely before returning to Starlab. For Magellan’s mission, KSP got around the problem by sending an expendable variant of the prototype OTV, but they knew that that approach was not a long-term solution. For something like the Magellan’s mass, they needed a larger OTV. Fortunately, they had an idea. KSC engineers took the Duna 1B/Lindor 5 Upper Stage design as a starting point and modified it by slightly stretching and flaring out the aft tank and adding a heat shield at the flared end. Instead of the typical reflective white paint, engineers sprayed orange foam insulation onto the tank, and they filled it with cryogenic propellium and oxidizer in place of its predecessor’s liquid fuel and oxidizer load. In place of the single Skipper, engineers added two of the new CE-60 “Pavonis” engines. Finally, they added the RCS system from the D1B Minmus Tanker, a set of radiators and relay antennas, and a large docking port topped with additional habitation space for the Magellan. To reach orbit, KSC looked to the past and the future. They pulled their Lindor 9R first stage out of storage- last used to launch Skybase- and equipped it with a pair of experimental SRB-KD75K “Monsoon” Solid Rocket Boosters. The Monsoons were derived from the Shuttle Launch System’s SRBs, but they had an additional fifth segment for increased thrust and boost time. Drax Aerospace had been developing and ground-firing the five-segment SRB for a while but launching the OTV Heavy proved to be the perfect opportunity to flight-test them. KSC called the whole hybrid launcher the Lindor Int-20. The launch drew quite a crowd as many wanted to see the Mϋnflight-era booster launch and land once again, and they got a great show. The first stage lit all nine of its K-1 “Mastodon” engines right before the twin solids ignited and pushed the stack off the pad. 304 seconds later, the solids burned out and dropped away- though something exploded as they left. Nonetheless, the first stage continued its climb and built up speed until it too spent its fuel and was jettisoned. The OTV Heavy continued its climb to altitude and attained a 144.8 km by 269.8 km orbit 11 and a half minutes after launch. As expected, the twin solids impacted the water and broke apart, but they still gave Drax Aerospace invaluable data to perfect their new design. Sadly though, the Lindor 9R first stage was destroyed when it ran out of propellant and could not slow down enough to safely land. Flight data analysis revealed that when the starboard SRB clipped the L9R, it punctured the fuel tanks and caused a leak. With insufficient propellant to slow down, the reusable first stage slammed into the ground and broke up on impact. With the OTV Heavy docked to the end of Magellan, KSC decided to deorbit the prototype to perform a destructive test of its heat mitigation systems. The RCS had enough monopropellant to push the prototype into the atmosphere. Surprisingly, the engine survived the atmospheric plunge from near orbital velocity- without any available regenerative cooling. In fact, the entire vehicle survived and provided excellent data- right up to the point where it impacted the Western Sea and exploded… At any rate, with Magellan field-tested and Billstown repositioned, KSC got more payload opportunities for SLS in the form of OTV refueling flights and they gained new missions to the Mϋn via reusable technology. There were even whispers around Cape Kerman about reviving the Mϋnar Ground Module system proposed during Project Mϋnflight and shipping them into orbit via SLS- if engineers could figure out how to fit them into an orbiter’s payload bay... Valentina got her wish for a space-faring training vessel and the means to hone the command skills of promising astronauts. As KSP prepared to send larger flight crews further out into the void that inevitably would have a greater need for autonomy, her students would be ready for the experience.

After playing with the changes to hover mode, I hate how it sets the throttle, so I'll change that this week. Just goes to show that KFS is very much in development...

KFS 0.4.9 is here: Gravitic Engines (A-51 & S-4) - All activated gravitic engines will synchronize their flight direction and controls. For instance, if one engine is set to forward thrust, then all activated engines will be set to forward thrust. - Effect plumes on multiple activated gravitic engines now all synchronize and travel in the same direction. - Fixed issue where hover mode with multiple engines would not be able to cancel out vertical acceleration. - Fixed issue where hover mode didn't consume resources.

@Nate Simpson The new colony components look great! The texture artists are doing a great job. If new colony parts and game resources can be modded in as easily as regular rocket parts, then I can port over my flying saucers mod and build a custom production facility for their exotic resources. Heck, if we can mod new space center facilities, I'd be ecstatic. TBH if it's possible to bring KSP1 assets to KSP2, I'm looking forward to not porting some of my earlier mods like MOLE, Pathfinder, and Buffalo since KSP2 has them covered.

Yup, I haven't touched them in a long time. Meantime, I've fixed the missing textures in MOLE 1.24.0.

No more hover modes on multiple engines making it hard to stay in one place. You can still stack multiple engines for insane levels of acceleration. The next release will synchronize all running gravitic engines so that they'll all accelerate in the same direction- change direction on one engine and they'll all follow suit. Here's what I mean: I became a moderator a couple weeks ago.