Angelo Kerman

Nice, all roads point to Duna!

Somebody hasn't set up the stock props yet...

Well, the good news is that it doesn't happen if another gravitic engine is in the vicinity. The weird thing is that it happens when you have the AVR0 Coanda in the vicinity. Fortunately I found a fix, please download the latest update. I haven't looked at KFS in awhile- got pretty burned out trying to make mothership IVAs- but I'll get back to it in the summer. Meantime there are bound to be issues...

It might be compatible with KSP 1.7 but I don't know. There is currently no tweakscale support unless someone wants to make one. But there are other decal mods out there that do, I think. Their system is different.

Chapter 20 At the Darude Launch Complex, another Drakken leaped into the sky, carrying with it an experimental exposure facility. Unlike Drakken 3, which had a similar lab, the Drakken Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) had no means of returning the experiments to Kerbin. Instead, the craft had a docking port; their next flight in a few weeks would attempt to retrieve the experiment results. In the meantime, ground crews at KSC towed the new Duna 1B Upper Stage over to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The D1B, nicknamed “Dibs,” was equipped with embedded communications antennae, a set of small solar panels, and an improved aft thrust structure. The B model was designed after engineers learned lessons while building the first upper stage, and its predecessor’s flight would be the one and only A model to fly. Once mated to its lower stage and payload, “Dibs” had an important mission to fly. Three days later, after a record 25 days in orbit, Ranger completed its on-orbit research and returned home. Fourteen days after that Viking successfully tested the MEM’s emergency engine burn procedure, de-orbiting Viking right on target. The K-20 safely landed at KSC less than an hour later. It was Pathfinder’s turn next, but it needed help. With no docking port to connect with, KSC’s engineers had to get creative. They modified their workhorse Docking Target spacecraft, equipping it with a brand-new advanced grabbing unit (junior). Mission Planners hoped that the Docking Target could grab the K-20, circularize its orbit, and then perform the de-orbit maneuver needed to bring Pathfinder home. The Docking Target successfully attained orbit and rendezvoused with Pathfinder. Some careful maneuvering later, the Docking Target grabbed Pathfinder and circularized its orbit. The next day, it de-orbited after recharging Pathfinder’s monopropellant tanks and batteries. Its mission accomplished, the Docking Target disengaged from Pathfinder just before atmospheric entry. It met a fiery demise. Pathfinder, meanwhile, careened through the atmosphere. As plasma engulfed the craft, KSC lost contact with it. Unfortunately, the glider sailed well past KSC. But Pathfinder wasn’t done yet. The glider made a course correction and aimed for Welcome Back Island, hoping to reach the runway. Pathfinder's autopilot realized that it couldn’t make it, so it angled for an emergency landing on the beach. It flew over the shore at just 75 meters per second and deployed its landing gear 150 meters above the sand. In moments, it was over. Pathfinder flared and kissed the ground with its landing skids, then stopped after sliding a couple dozen meters. Despite the rough treatment, Pathfinder landed safely. A short time later, an engineering team from Wild Blue Industries set out to locate and assess Pathfinder’s condition; the K-20 landed on a steep slope along the beach and the craft looked fairly scorched from all the test flights that it endured. WBI sent out a flatbed truck to gather up Pathfinder and bring her back to the airport. Wild Blue’s engineers both sport advanced “OmniTool” prototype and one even had a prototype pair of holographic glasses- both items were much more advanced than anything else on the market or in government! At any rate, the engineers finally managed to load Pathfinder onto the flatbed and drive her to the airfield. They unloaded the glider onto the tarmac where it waited for its ride home. An hour later, Bill and Jeb arrived in the Sea Goat. With practiced efficiency, they backed the big plane over the K-20, Bill hooked up the winches, and then they hauled Pathfinder into the ferry position. After saying their goodbyes and expressing their gratitude, the Sea Goat took off again with Pathfinder. They landed back at KSC fifteen minutes later. After parking the Sea Goat and gathering a team, Bill, Jeb, Gerrim, Jebman, and Valentina drove over to Pathfinder to assess her condition. The prototype had been through a lot! Her fate remains unknown: would she fly again, or would she retire? Finally, Bob and Valentina were tasked with testing some new ground science instruments that would someday be used on Kerbin’s moons. They took a truck out loaded with the prototypes and visited the Flying Monolith near KSC. Aptly named, the Flying Monolith hung motionless in the air thanks to some very powerful magnets buried in the ground. Like a magnetic levitation display stand, there was a space in the middle of the magnet array where the monolith rested on magnetic field lines that also kept the monolith from moving around. It was another feat of engineering by the ancient Kermantians that modern society had yet to replicate on such a large scale. Just how did they manage to make a 100-ton granite monolith float? In theory, the magnets buried in the ground weren’t strong enough, and yet there it was. Since the magnetic fields were far too strong for the instruments to handle, Bob and Valentina kept going. They settled on a cluster of palm trees near the runway to deploy their experiments. Bob took care to set up the instruments while Valentina supervised. After they finished, there wasn’t much to do while KSC ran some remote tests, so Bob grabbed a couple of drinks, a boom box, and a guitar that he’d stashed in the experiment container. Valentina was touched, even though her husband couldn’t carry a tune.

Poor little rover will be missed.

I scoured KSC and did research, unlocked 5-meter parts at last, and put my decals to use: Now you can put my decals to use too!

Latest Release (Art assets license: All Rights Reserved) Source (License: GPLV3) I found myself wishing that I had an easy way to add decals to my craft to make them look better. I wanted something that would be easy to use, with no config files needed. With Wild Blue Decals, you can decorate your craft too!

Today: Can the Estonian Duna Lander from my Deep Space Exploration Vessels mod handle JNSQ? Let's find out! Dumping the de-orbit stage, we're committed: Airbrakes deployed! These are new additions and not used at stock scale. Heat shield handles JNSQ Duna's atmosphere: Drogue chutes deployed: Landing... Touchdown! The Estonian can land with full fuel tanks. It can't have a combination of fuel and Pathfinder base elements as it can in stock. Now, can it attain orbit? Liftoff! Burning hard: 100km orbit attained with delta v to spare: Conclusion: DSEV Estonian Duna Lander can handle Duna so long as you completely fill the LFO tanks. Visual and part mods for those who are interested:

I finally got to put my decals to use:

Not yet, I have more work to do before it's ready.

I made some more decal parts to decorate my JNSQ save's rockets with: It's designed to use the stock flag picker so I don't have to worry about any config files.

Thanks! I still have more research to do to unlock the parts needed for the Lindor V. I plan to recover Pathfinder soonish. I could not land it on automatic because I had no probe control on the orbit that brought it in far enough to land.

Chapter 19 Engineers at the Kerbal Space Center couldn’t agree upon whether the Block 2 K-20 could survive aerobraking from Munar orbit. The arguments became increasingly heated until Gene Kerman decided to settle the argument by ordering a test flight. Once again, engineers chose Pathfinder to blaze the trail-literally, in this case. Mostly through her Block 2 refit, Pathfinder still had her cargo bay, so engineers fitted a probe core and relay antenna into the bay, stripped the service module of non-essential equipment and replace it with extra propellant, and shot the K-20 prototype into space. Not bothering to circularize its orbit, Pathfinder kept burning its orbital motors until its apoapsis extended past the Mun’s orbit. Nine days later, the K-20 looped back around and retracted its sensitive antennas and solar arrays. It plunged through Kerbin’s atmosphere 60 kilometers up, then sailed through the other side. Its service module adapter almost overheated and nearly collapsed, but Pathfinder proved that a K-20 could survive an aerobrake from Munar altitude. In another 7 days, Pathfinder would fly through the atmosphere again. With enough aerobraking, KSC hoped to recover the craft. In the meantime, KSC engineers put in overtime to roll out several new mockups of their proposed Munar Ground Module System (MGMS). Headed up by Bill, Dudmon, Ferwin, and Valentina, the MGMS consisted of several ground modules modified from the K-20’s service module. Left to right, they included the Tug, Hab, Lab, Greenhouse, Hub, Logistics, Power, and Airlock. A pressurized rover was also in the works. Additionally, Jebediah and Jebman represented the Astronaut Corps during the development of the Munar Expedition Module (MEM). Designed to carry a crew of 2, the MEM was a two-stage lander with enough propellant in the descent stage to handle a short hop to another location after landing. If it worked well enough, then it would also deliver the MGMS modules. Speaking of bases and stations, with MOLE-1’s testing completed, KSC undocked it from Ranger and initiated its de-orbit maneuver in order to free up Ranger’s docking port for a supply run. They learned a lot about station designs, and the lessons learned would be applied to both future stations and the MGMS. The prototype station broke up 24 km above Kerbin’s surface. Then, for the first time, three K-20 vehicles flew in space at the same time. Viking made her maiden voyage with Valentina (CDR), Jeb (PLT), and Ferwin (SCI) aboard and launched on the brand-new Duna launch vehicle. Designed to test the munar vehicle stack, the Duna was a two-stage rocket whose upper Kerbin Departure Stage was slated for the larger Lindor rocket in development. Duna also finally settled the argument of how to shoot for the Mun. It was cheaper to launch everything on one rocket than to launch several and assemble the Mun craft in orbit. The launch didn’t go as planned; the Duna struggled to remain on course and clawed for altitude. Its upper stage lacked the power to complete its orbit, but when it shed its payload shroud, it revealed why- Viking carried the first Munar Exploration Module into orbit. In addition to several research experiments, Viking was charged with putting the MEM prototype through its paces. The K-20 burned nearly all its fuel to attain an 85km by 162.6km orbit, but KSC anticipated this and had a Power Support Module ready just in case Viking needed it. Once Viking settled into orbit and Ferwin got to work in the lab, Valentina entered the MEM, undocked, and took it for a spin. Val raised her periapsis to 130km, and 6km away, Jeb did the same with Viking. The MEM flew just past 15km before matching velocities with Viking and then sailing back towards the K-20. With no ability to survive atmospheric entry, Valentina had to dock with Viking in order to return home. Fortunately, she had no issues docking with the newest K-20 in the fleet. After transferring fuel from the MEM’s ascent stage into the descent stage tanks, she took a brief EVA to test the craft’s airlock system, got back inside, powered down the craft and headed back to the lab. In another 20 days, they’d test the MEM’s ability to perform emergency engine burns by de-orbiting itself along with Viking. Finally, Pathfinder looped around to periapsis once more, but this time it didn’t fare well. Its service module overheated and broke apart, leaving just the adapter attached to the glider. KSC engineers were disheartened at Pathfinder’s situation (not to mention that Funds changed hands as kerbals lost bets), but they knew that the glider’s sacrifice was necessary for research to ensure safe travels to the Mun and back. They continued to try everything they could to save the glider. After reconnecting with CommNet, engineers remotely activated the adapter’s monopropellant power unit and oriented the craft for another trip through the atmosphere. It survived, and more Funds changed hands. Five more trips were cringeworthy as the adapter nearly overheated and broke up several times. After the sixth trip, KSC calculated that Pathfinder would de-orbit and crash on its next aerobrake. But the engineers had one more trick up their sleeves. As Pathfinder reached an apoapsis of 1328.7km, KSC commanded Pathfinder to point prograde- and promptly light its abort motors. The K-20 rapidly burned through its monopropellant in a desperate attempt to flee a non-existent ailing booster, then ejected its spent adapter. KSC engineers watched helplessly as Pathfinder’s batteries slowly drained away. But they also had a smile on their faces; the glider’s orbit stabilized into a 260.5km by 1328.7km orbit.

Breaking Ground Mini Mods helps to some degree. It's not an IK controller as that's beyond my abilities, but it takes snapshots and has grouped control of the robotics parts under one roof: I ran into the same issues as really wobbly arms and agree that KSP desparately needs stronger joints for them. But with those issues, Benjee10's shuttle arm is truly awesome.

No support for Kerbalism.

Yup, the Mk-33 is inspired by the X-33 and proposed followup VentureStar. It isn't a replica though.

In KSP, I did this:

No luck for me, I'm afraid.

it looks like the MPL doesn't have the gui showing. You'll need to: Go to your WildBlueTools/ModuleManagerPatches/MM_Stock.cfg file. Find the @PART[Large_Crewed_Lab] line. Go to the WBIExperimentLab entry. Find the isGUIVisible = false line, and change it to isGUIVisible = true. Restart KSP. See if that helps. What you should see is something like this:

Last time I checked, I didn't have any problems with using Classic Stock with OSE Workshop.

Kraken strikes, egads! Nice salvage operation too.

That won’t matter. Unfortunately we need to wait for @JewelShisen to approve my fix for Hooligan Labs’ plugin. I can also do some work on my backup solution this week. Until then your airships are grounded in KSP 1.9.

Awesome! That means that I can make two versions of the launchpad, one suited for BG robotics and one suited for NodeRotate. Thanks again

Personally I like it. Is there a mass limit for NodeRotate? I am researching ways to set up a launchpad such that you back the rocket onto the strongback and then rotate the strongback. I can get it to work with BG robotics but I'm also looking at NodeRotate as an alternative. Context: This vehicle's dry mass is 50 metric tons.