Angelo Kerman

Are you using JNSQ? I am seeing similar issues with JNSQ and Classic Stock mode.

Wow, loving the colony design! That ship blueprint looks really cool too.

Chapter 30 The Fliegenross (“Flying steed” in Kerman) was the vonKerman’s newest and most powerful rocket to take to the skies. Powered by a quartet of Walrus motors in the core along with Bear Claw motors in its four strapon boosters, the Fliegenross placed its tanker tug payload directly into orbit fully fueled, which also meant that it could place large space station modules into orbit as well. They just needed to finish developing their Drakken Palast (“Dragon Palace” in Kerman) space station first... The tug docked with its counterpart launched by the Drakken T2 and waited for its payload. Seven days later, Hanse vonKerman (PLT), Karl vonKerman (ENG), and Sara vonKerman (SCI) launched in Drakken 7, met up with the tug, and headed to Minmus orbit, arriving 8 days later. Within 3 hours, the Libelle lander rendezvoused with Drakken 7 and sheered off half of its solar arrays. Hanse proceeded with the mission anyway. Drakken 7 undocked with its tug, connected with the Libelle, and transferred the crew over to the lander. Out of communications range, Hanse spacewalked to the Drakken and manually docked it with the tug before jetting back to the lander. They were safely on the ground within hours. The crew posed for a publicity photo, and then Karl got to work bolting gyros onto the Schafer. The rover successfully righted itself shortly afterward, and Karl use the rest of his tools to drain the sky crane of its propellant and hooked up Hause 1’s service module to the outpost, increasing its fuel supply. Meanwhile, Sara and Hanse took the Schafer for a test drive, and Sara activated the Libelle’s seismic sensor pods. Unfortunately, neither one survived their jettisoning and impact, but the seismic hammer still produced some results. The scientist collected all the experiment data she could from the rover’s sensors and made an important discovery: Brown Basins was comprised of 3.8% ore! Where there was ore, there was the possibility of refining it into useful products like liquid fuel and oxidizer to power Hause 1’s fuel cells- and potentially refuel the grounded tug. The discovery had the potential to change how the vonKerman Republic space program shipped propellant to low Kerbin orbit. Flush with their discovery, while Karl activated the outpost while Hanse and Sara set out to find some rocks to scan. They came across a large olivine formation, scanned it with the rover’s arm, and checked out other rock formations as well. But it soon became apparent that the Brown Basins was flat with not much else to see. As they headed back to the outpost, Hanse discussed an idea with Karl… Karl got to work mounting the service module’s and Schafer crasher stage’s solar arrays onto the outpost, scavenging parts from the rover and Libelle, and heavily modifying the landing crane into a science hopper. Hanse was delighted to say the least. He jumped into the science hopper’s seat, hopped over to the nearby Highlands, took some readings, and then hopped to the Midlands to take more readings. With half his propellant remaining, he hopped back over to the outpost, arriving late in the afternoon. There were a couple more biomes to visit but he needed to refuel first and wait for morning. The next day, Hanse hopped to the biomes he missed: the Basin Lowlands and Basin Midlands. After gathering all the science data he could, he returned to base and stored the results in their lander. It was a major accomplishment, but without additional resources they could not reach other biomes. Kontrol asked them to sit tight and wait for resupply, so Karl took the time to make some additional changes to the outpost. He disassembled the rover’s service module and the now redundant docking port on the outpost and mounted the service module’s propellant tank to the top of Hause 1. The makeshift addition tripled the outpost’s liquid fuel and oxidizer capacity. Then he raided the Libelle for supplies and added them to the outpost. That gave them enough to wait for resupply. Three days after Tesen (PLT), Jofrey (ENG), and Malus (SCI) headed for Minmus on Munflight 4, a heavily modified Drakken service module and its tug touched down next to Hause 1. After some careful maneuvering, the new Drakken Driller did a backflip off its grounded tug and plopped onto the ground. In addition to bringing an experimental In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) drill set and resource converter, the craft had a large supply of fresh air and snacks for the outpost. Karl immediately got to work bolting the new supply containers to the outpost, repositioning the Driller’s solar arrays, and hooking up the pipelines. He ignited a pair of Solid Oxium Candle System cannisters to replenish their dangerously low fresh air and got to work activating the ISRU. Its air maker slowly replenished the outpost after the SOCS ran out and demonstrated that kerbals could live off the land with the right equipment. They were still limited by their snacks supplies but it was only a matter of time before they solved that problem too. A couple of days later, as the Munflight 4 expedition explored Minmus' North Pole and Pioneer maintained its vigil in polar orbit, the vonKermans still could not produce any liquid fuel or oxidizer from the local ore. Kontrol traced the issue to a lack of ore storage, but Karl simply lacked the training and experience needed to make the necessary modifications. Worse, the crew was staring to show signs of stress- Karl more so than the others. With nothing more that they could do, Kontrol praised the crew of Drakken 7 for their efforts and innovation and ordered them to return home.

Lift is one of the many areas that needs to be tweaking in the configs. Once I get all the parts done I can look into that unless someone else gets to them first. The Mk-33 is intended to be easy to fly and should feel something like a shuttle.

Done, thank you for all the QoL improvements!

It’s all good guys, no complaints here. Squad did good with the comets. plus the mod will still be around for older games... Thanks for the Kudos!

Now that KSP 1.10 is out, we can see that the in-game comets do everything that I wanted to do with Kerbal Komets. I'm happy to say that I won't provide Kerbal Komets support for KSP 1.10. There are still people, including me, that use older versions so the mod will be around, but use it in KSP 1.10 at your own risk.

Comet tails and breaking apart when hitting atmo or hit hard enough? Tails visible from the ground? Thank you Squad, I can retire Kerbal Komets for KSP 1.10 and later. You guys made my day. Time to grab a comet! @nestor Any chance that we can customize kerbal head textures at some point? The new customizable suit textures and pickers are great!

Just a heads up that the configs aren't tuned yet. Mk-33 needs a lot of flight testing; I'm still working on getting the parts themselves done. This is good feedback though.

Really like those textures!

The best advice I can say is to build the ailerons with the wing parallel to the floor, and turn off angle snap. Then use the move tool (press F to move relative to the part orientation). I did experiment with using attachment nodes but that really messes up the symmetry...

I see your kerbals have been watching the A-Team...

The log entries are pretty cool. The guest also reminds me of the Andorians.

Chapter 29 “Ranger, you are go for undocking. Fifteen minutes until your munar injection burn,” Gene radioed from Mission Control. Dudmon (PLT), Jebman (ENG), and Ferwin (SCI) were excited- they were going to the Mun! The string of ATVs (and one Docking Target with a busted engine) topped off Ranger’s newly renamed L5US- Lindor 5 Upper Stage- and Dudmon watched as the makeshift tanker backed away and performed its de-orbit burn. At least that part of the mission went well. As the first stage ran low on propellant, the launch suffered from some wild oscillations that threatened to wrench Ranger off course and turn its occupants into paste. Some quick thinking and careful maneuvering by Dudmon saved them from an embarrassing abort. Then when the payload fairing was supposed to separate, the second stage decoupled instead- with its engines still running! Dudmon carefully balanced Ranger and its L5US on the out of control second stage while its propellant ran out, again saving the mission. Then the makeshift tanker had a difficult time docking with Ranger, finally making a hard dock just at orbital sundown. Ranger performed its departure burn without incident and four hours later made its course correction burn as well. On mission day 4, Ranger entered the Mun’s SOI, made another burn to avoid smacking into the Mun, and settled into a 31km orbit on mission day 5. Back on the daylight side, Dudmon and Ferwin boarded Parrot, their MEM, and then decoupled the stack. The MEM got out of the way while Ranger backed up and docked with the L5US. “Looking good, Parrot,” Jebman said from Ranger’s cockpit, “have a good flight.” An hour later, Dudmon performed the de-orbit burn. Parrot was an upgraded MEM with an additional donut propellant tank in the descent stage, re-positioned science experiments, a third solar panel, and a mun buggy strapped to its back. Designed by Bill Kerman, the buggy was a far cry from the Munar Ground Module system proposed awhile back but at least it gave the crew more mobility. With the vonKermans building an outpost on Minmus, Dudmon hoped that the MGM system got a second look. “Ok, engine stop,” Dudmon said as Parrot plopped down onto the munar surface. “Descent engine shutdown.” “Delta 448 descent, 1151 ascent,” Ferwin said, calling out their propellant status. “Copy that. Mission Control, Lowland base here, the Parrot has landed. Commencing contingency science experiments.” Having landed in the munar Lowlands before, there wasn’t much new to reveal from the temperature and pressure sensors. But the new surface ablation laser light experiment found new things for the scientists back home to ponder. A short while later, Dudmon and Ferwin exited the lander. “So much dust,” Dudmon said as he planted the flag. After the obligatory publicity photo, Ferwin got to work setting up the ground science station. While the goo sensor likely wouldn’t find anything new, the Grand Slam Passive Seismic Sensor was another story. It was designed to measure seismic events from munquakes, meteor strikes, and the like, and use them to study the Mun’s interior. Munflight 3 had something fun planned at mission’s end… Finally, Dudmon climbed back aboard the Parrot and deployed their next experiment: the mun buggy! It decoupled successfully, but didn’t drop down onto all fours as expected, so Dudmon gave it a push. That worked nicely. The two took the rover for a spin, easily traveling 1.5km within minutes and proving the rover’s worth. As they drove around, they crossed over into the Midlands, and Ferwin insisted that they move the science station. Dudmon was more than happy to assist. With each of them holding one of the parts, it took three round trips to pack up and move the ground station. By the time they were done, Engineers were already looking into adding more storage to future buggies. After a day on the surface, Dudmon fired the explosive bolts holding Parrot’s ascent stage to its descent stage, lit the ascent stage’s engine, and said goodbye to Lowlands/Midlands Base. The module rendezvoused with Ranger and the astronauts transferred all their science and usable resources. On their next trip to orbital day-side, the crew said goodbye to the Parrot and Dudmon hit the undock switch from Ranger’s cockpit. But instead of being consigned to forever orbit the Mun, Parrot’s autopilot initiated a pre-programmed maneuver to de-orbit and impact it instead. 30 minutes after the burn, it smashed into the regolith a few dozen kilometers from Lowlands/Midlands Base- for Science! With nothing else to do at the Mun, Ranger began her trek home, left their L5US in orbit for future use, and arrived safely four days later. But despite touting the challenges and celebrations and new things to show, the Kerman media networks never covered the mission beyond a brief mentioning of its launch and landing.

Thanks! I did a lot and got help to balance out the aerodynamics on the Mk-33. Using RCS on reentry was done by the shuttle as well. And powering the RCS with the same fuels as the main engines was by design from the start. I wanted an integrated fuel system for the main engines, RCS, and the probe core’s fuel cell.

CKAN integration is already in progress. To make Konkrete, set up a Hacienda and use the Rock Melter omni converter. It will melt Rock into Konkrete (albiet slowly). There's another omni converter that will do the job as well, but I think it's just for Classic Stock Resources.

Chapter 28 With Munflight 3 undergoing vehicle integration, KSC and their McKerman allies focused on refueling the D1B Minmus Tanker and launching a similar tanker for flights to the Mun. Kongress began debating the merits of the Munflight program; each mission cost north of 475 grand apiece, or two months of KSC’s regular budget with an 18% cost overrun. They had been compensating by receiving World’s First awards and the occasional contract, but that was guaranteed not to last. They’d achieved their goal of landing on Kerbin’s moons and returning safely and breaking the nation out of its apathy, but did the benefits of continuing the program justify its expense? Was there some way to reuse the launch vehicles in the same way that KSC reused their K-20 gliders? Ultimately, Kongress authorized the Funds for three more Munflights and one spare Lindor 5- a total of 2 million for the flights- while directing KSC to find a more cost-effective launch system. Meanwhile, Darude launched a rocket containing a heavily modified Drakken spacecraft. It replaced the descent module with two orbital modules welded together and added landing legs. Known as Hause 1, the new spacecraft was designed for extended habitation on the moons of Kerbin. After linking up with the refueled tanker tug, Hause 1 headed out to Minmus. A few days later, the vonKermans launched a Libelle into orbit as well. Back at KSC, Flight processed another launch of the Docking Target workhorse. The mission went flawlessly- right up to the point where it temporarily lost connection to Mission Control, regained it, and collided with D1B Mun Tanker 10 minutes later. The collision sheered the D1B in half, ruined the Docking Target's engine, and scattered parts everywhere. The stand-down at KSC gave investigators time to determine that the venerable Docking Target design wasn’t keeping up with the latest communications standards. A further evaluation showed that the newer ATV delivered a greater propellant capacity for a similar cost. KSC concluded that going forward, the Arrow Transfer Vehicle would handle all refueling missions for the D1B Minmus Tanker. And due to its modular design, ATV flights would provide a contingency solution to refueling munar flights. During KSC’s downtime, Hause 1 entered Minmus orbit, followed by the Liebelle four days later. The lander exchanged places with the outpost on the tanker’s docking port, refueled, and went into hibernation mode. Then the tanker de-orbited, followed by Hause 1. But while the outpost set down so gently in the Brown Basins that it retained its service module, the tanker deliberately crashed into the Mint Mun at high speed. After assessing the situation, Kontrol decoupled Hause 1 from the service module, lifted off, extended its landing legs and settled back down next to the service module. The vonKermans unexpectedly had a new addition to their little outpost. After lofting another tanker tug, the vonKermans launched a heavily modified Schafer rover to greet it. The pair then headed out to Minmus. Eight days later, it landed safely at Hause 1. It also marked the first time that a tanker tug soft-landed on another world. Kontrol carefully detached the Schafer from its transfer stage. It plopped down to the ground but tipped over due to the increased mass and lack of gyro control. Kontrol made a note to bring spare parts when it sent a crew. Finally, Darude launched its next tanker on a new Drakken “Turbo” rocket. The Turbo model had 6 side boosters instead of the normal four and a stretched second stage, both to put more payload into orbit. Unfortunately, it failed. Turbo’s first- and subsequently only- flight crashed back into Kerbin. Undeterred, the vonKermans rapidly introduced the Drakken T2 with stretched fuel tanks and a new KS-10 “Walrus” central core engine. The new single-chamber engine was a prototype for a much larger booster engine in development, but it had better thrust and fuel consumption than the Kodiak. T2 performed well, leaving ¾ of the tanker’s propellant load available for on-orbit maneuvering, and half available after the Minmus plane change. But the vonKermans also realized that to do better, they needed a more powerful rocket.

If you run KSP 1.10, I would agree. But not everyone is running KSP 1.10.. In fact I would say nobody is running 1.10 right now.

Very cool station! Some tense moments too. And the start of the Blue Man Group!

Finished up the exterior of the cockpit, and updated the pre-release. Next up is the IVA...

As noted in the OP: Optimized for JNSQ (which I play), and also works just fine in stock. Above is the suggested fuel loadout. Also, this isn't created to BDB-alike, it's Restock-alike.

Starting to look like a spaceship:

Minimum version I officially support is 1.8.1, but it works in 1.7.1 as well. Meanwhile I'm off to take care of personal stuff, so I'll finish up the day with this:

Down to the home stretch on the exterior: making the crew hatch on the side and rigging up the ladders. Then it's on to the IVA...

It is still pre-release. Not all of the parts are done yet. While I am currently working on the last Mk-33 part, I still have the launchpad parts to do. And I am still tweaking the existing parts... yesterday the aft tank got a variant that removes the docking pylons animation if you don’t have DockRotate installed (which will be needed to rotate the stongback). So yeah, I can confirm that is is not done yet. The cockpit should be done end of the month and hopefully the rest by August.