TrooperCooper

Created the industrial core for my upcoming Eeloo Karborundum mining colony. Weights a little over 100 tons and is not only able to harves K+, but also mines Ore with large strip miners and can convert it into various fuel types. It comes with a fission reactor to provide power for the mining equipment and the other colony modules. A nuclear reprocessor above the reactor allows it to produce its own enriched uranium to ensure the colonys full power independency. Travel stage attached, payload to LKO weights 544 tons... The rocket that will carry it into orbit. Top stage will also assist in the Kerbin exit burn for a dV safety buffer. Total weight of 4713 tons. Extended Hangar, else it wouldnt fit.

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement mod might help. Amongst it features: Physics Easing Slowly dials up external forces (gravity, centrifugal, coriolis) when on the surface of a planet, reducing the initial stress during loading All parts and joints are strengthened heavily during physics loading (coming off of rails) to prevent Kraken attacks on ships http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55657-1-0-3-Kerbal-Joint-Reinforcement-v3-1-4-6-22-15

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/131433-1-0-4-Blue-Technologies

I suggest you take a look at the "Better than starting manned" mod. Its been a while since I played with it. But it is supposed to offer a much tighter gameplay... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/61632-1-04-Better-Than-Starting-Manned-Career-Mode-Redefined-%28v10-01-Aug-19th%29

That might have something to do with the known phantom forces kicking in at low orbital speeds. Slightly unrelated, but regarding permanent craft orientation towards sun or surface etc, I think you might like the persistent rotation mod, Cairol: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/113507-1-0-x-PersistentRotation-1-0-0

Thank you! That mod is exactly what I need.

Considering I'd just need a tiny bit of code, it certainly is.

That explains it. I had MKS/OKS installed all the time. But not now anymore since its to RAM-hungry and doesnt fit well into a RO setting. Thank you for the quick reply! Now I have to figure out a workarround or how to integrate just that feature of MKS/OKS.

I remember using the right click option to blow up unnecessary parts with engineers in EVA a lot during my last career. I think its a stock-option, but not sure. I am now playing with RSS + RO and many other mods that I havent used before and I dont get that option in EVA anymore. Since the ability to remove individual parts is a key-elemtent of my planned orbital assembly projects, I would like to get this option back. Does anyone know how? My current GameData folder:

The ESA began its first missions to Mars. Click here for details.

The ESA began its first missions to Mars. Click the spoiler below the picture for details. Several lifters took off from Kourou. They brought a bunch of improved long range communication sattelites into Low Earth Orbit. When the Mars transfer window opened up, those probes left the SOI of the Earth, becoming the first interplanetary objects... After arriving at the red planet, these orbiters formed a basic relay network at very high altitude. Next up a bizarre looking setup was launched... and moved to Mars as well... The vessel descended into a very low orbit, just above the atmosphere... And released twenty micro probes. These tiny sattelites with a weight of less than 100 kg each, consisted of nothing else but a probe core, a couple batteries, solar panels and relay antennas. Scattered out into a low aequatorial orbit, these relays are supposed to allow operating future landing crafts with just short range communication antennas. In the meantime, the engineers prepared Mars Explorer, the first unmanned Mars lander. Descend plan was completly based on parachutes. Lift off of Mars Explorer from Kourou... Woooooosh! Launch booster drop... Ignition of the last lifter stage... Burning for Mars... Arrival at the target. Beginning with descent. Seperation from the travel stage... The egg with a heatshield and heat insulator at the bottom, travelling through the thin Mars atmosphere... After slowing down enough, the aerodynamic protection is removed from the lander... followed by deployment of the drogue chutes... A few moments later, the main chutes came out as well... Slowly the lander descended towards the surface.... Touch down successful! Solar panels deployed... Com uplink to Earth through the relay network established... Sending scientific data back home. Mission accomplished! (to be continued)

Finding workarounds for the many bugs.

Wasnt there some sort of a problem with scaling root parts / parts that become control-parts in general?

Laythe of course!

Earth's atmosphere can be divided (called atmospheric stratification) into five main layers. Excluding the exosphere, Earth has four primary layers, which are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. From highest to lowest, the five main layers are: Exosphere: 700 to 10,000 km (440 to 6,200 miles) Thermosphere: 80 to 700 km (50 to 440 miles) Mesosphere: 50 to 80 km (31 to 50 miles) Stratosphere: 12 to 50 km (7 to 31 miles) Troposphere: 0 to 12 km (0 to 7 miles) Source: Wikipedia The real ISS sits just above 400 km and is still subject to atmospheric effects (has to adjust orbit regularly since the upper atmosphere is slowing it down). In RSS the atmosphere ends at 130 km. But 500 km can certainly still be considered as low earth orbit.

The ESA launched its new heavy lifter system, which is supposedly able to deliver 500 tons of cargo into a low Earth orbit. Click here for details.

The ESA launched the prototype of the new Colossus lifter class. Click the spoiler below the picture for details. The new 500 ton lifter standing ready on the launchpad with a depot strapped on top of it. Lift off! We have lift off! Trailing a little smoke... Launch boosters coming off... Now the 20 F1 engines of the first stage are on their own to push the vessel out of the atmosphere... Three minutes after take off, the second stage of the rocket is kicking in... Running on five F1s, the rocket is entering space... ...and the aerodynamic equipment is beeing dropped off... Seven minutes after take off: at an altitude of 270 km the third and last stage with just one F1 is igniting... After eleven minutes, the initial burn sequence is over and the vessel coasts to its apoapsis at 500 km. Once the periapsis is pushed out, the payload is beeing released... And nearly 3.5 million units of liquid helium plus a large supply of life support goods and CaveaB RCS fuel are now stationed in a low earth orbit. (to be continued)

The ESA is beginning to develop and install new tools for space exploration and logistics in the real solar system. Click here for details.

Thank you, guys! The ESA is beginning to develop and install new tools for space exploration and logistics. Click the spoiler below the picture for details. A series of four lifters took off from Kourou. Carrying a bunch of slightly improved communication sattelites. These were brough into 250 kkm orbits around Earth... ...and established the backbone for a long range communications network with interplanetary capabilities. In order to reduce costs of the space program, the ESA began development of a modular logistics network, mainly based on tugs and high-orbit launch platforms. Below is the blueprint for a heavy tug that is able to push payloads of up to 50 tons from Earth orbit to Mars or bigger ones into a Moon orbit. With Mars in mind, much heavier payloads are coming up on the horizon. And thus the ESA has also begun to develop a heavy duty launch vessel: the Colossus Class Lifter will weight about 22 thousand tons and should be able to propel up to 500 tons of cargo into a low Earth Orbit. The mainstay of the Colossus is the good old F1 engine from the Saturn. The first stage has twenty of those clustered together, plus four large launch boosters. The second stage features five F1s. And the third stage one. Once development is finnished, the first payload for this behemoth will probably be a large depot, filled with liquid hydrogen fuel for the tugs. (to be continued...)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/106975-1-0-4-Procedural-Parts-Parts-the-way-you-want-em-v1-1-7-July-14?p=2080809&viewfull=1#post2080809

The ESA launched its mission to the Moon. Yes, the Moon... not the Mun! Click here for details.

The ESA launched its mission to the Moon. Click the spoiler below the picture for details. After many testflights, redesigns, bugs and fixes, the final system for the first manned Moon-flight standing ready on the pad, crewed by Jeb, Val and Bill. Lift-off in an ongoing explosion of fuel, smoke and dust... The lifter headed due north-east, following the path of the MOM-probe... Two minutes after take off, the emptied massive launch boosters were seperated from the rocket... The three Euronauts left the atmosphere of the Earth... Five minutes after launch at 250 thousand meters altitude: the top lifter stage is kicking in and the payloads fairings are beeing removed... At the same time, the uplink with the sattelite com network is established... After eight minutes of contiued burn time, the orbit apoapsis of 500 km is finally pushed out. The crew optimized the orbit and two hours into the mission the package is performing its Moon-transfer burn. The last lifter stage was burned out and left behind... and the five inductor pulse engines took over... When the burn was completed, the solar panels were deployed and the Moon ship in all its beauty left the Low Earth Orbit... 36 hours later... incoming to the Moon... After the insertion burn: Low Moon Orbit achieved... Bill and Jeb moved over into the lander craft and undocked from the Mothership, leaving Val in orbit to keep control. De-orbit burn... Ullage problems during the descent almost ruined the landing... But Jeb managed to put the craft down in one piece... Party-time! When the Mothership came arround the Moon again, the lander capsule seperated from its descent stage and Jeb and Bill left the Moon surface... Accelerating back into orbit... Rendezvous with the Mothership. Lander capsule coming in to re-dock... After hooking back up, Jeb and Bill moved back into the main ship... Then the lander can was released and left in LMO... The Euronauts moved into a higher orbit... And then planned their return to Earth... Home, sweet home... The travel stage is released, to be burned up in the atmosphere... And the return-stage, which proved to be pretty much unnecessary (the ESA-chief designer still tends to overengineer ), was used to slow the returning ship down before re-entry... Capsule seperated, heat shield open... dipping into the atmosphere... Here comes the fire! And it ate the return-stage at once... But the heat-shield kept the capsule safe... and one week after take off, the three Euronauts were hanging on their chutes and landed in the Pacific just south of Japan... (to be continued...)

Krakens... lots of powerfull Krakens!

The European Space Agency is preparing to make the step to the Moon. Click here for details.

The European Space Agency is preparing to make the step to the Moon. Click the spoiler below the image for details. After deploying a few more communication sattelites... ...the orbital ComSat network was complete. From now on the ESA focused on its next big mission: landing a man on the Moon and bringing him back safely. In preparation, a light lifter was launched from Kourou... It deployed a small sattelite on a Moon-inclination parralel orbit to aid in the upcoming project. The probe received the designation "MOM"... Moon Orbit Marker. At the same time, the engineers began to develop the gear for the Moon operation. Below is one of the early lander designs, which was discarded later on... After making some developmet progress, the equipment was tested during several missions in Earth orbit... The (most likely) finalized mission concept: 2-stage lander at the right, command- and service module in the center and an inductor-based travel stage at the left. Total weight of this package is 105.6 tons. The crew will be riding the largest lifter currently available in the ESA arsenal: an eighteen thousand ton rocket. Its last stage will also shoot the payload out of the LEO into a Moon-transfer trajectory. to be continued...