Norcalplanner

Thanks for all the assistance. I'm not at the computer atm, so I may be mistaken on the day length - I was thinking that the 1.75 global day length modifier interacted with Gael'a 3x modifier, and I could well be mistaken. I'll apply the 10.6257 factor to both resize and rescale, and see what happens. Thanks again for all your help.

Bob, Would 10.6257 be applied to the resize parameter, or both to resize and rescale? And would it be for the whole system, or just for Gael? Any problems with keeping the rest of the system at 10x if it's just Gael that receives the additional bump? And is there a particular reason why Gael has a 31.5 hour rotation period? If it's resized to be the same as Earth, shouldn't it be 24 hours? Or will changing the day length mess up whether a particular body is tidally locked? Any additional thoughts you might have for a 10.6257x GPP would be most welcome.

You can use mechjeb to circularize at a particular height, so long as that height is between your current apoapsis and periapsis. Once the satellites are in the right orbit, you can fine tune by thrust-limiting your engine down to 0.5 percent and watching the orbital period time in MJ like a hawk. I'm generally able to match orbital periods within 1 or 2 hundredths of a second this way. One more thing - if you have a relay mothership, make sure that the docking port or decoupler is facing normal or antinormal when the satellite casts off. If the decoupler is facing prograde or retrograde, it will affect your orbital velocity enough to mess things up just enough to make things drift out of position over the long term.

I know, right?

And just for the record, I've only ever done 1x and 3.2x in GPP. I've done RSS at 10x in previous versions of KSP, and was able to get a full lunar orbital station / surface base / refueling infrastructure going. Going to 6.4x with 0.6 SMURFF lever might be a solution as well. I think I'm just getting a hankering to build some big things with NecroBones' Real Scale Boosters again.

I feel like I need to at least finish what my basic goals are for this career before starting something new - which means I need to get working surface bases on Iota, Ceti, Tellumo, and one other body. I also have plans for a Kerballed Icarus mission, but I really think I need to bring the crew back from Niven first.

Honestly, I'm started to get a little tired of my current 3.2x save. Karbonite and Karborundum are wonderful, but it ultimately takes some of the challenge out of the game, especially when combined with KRnD. Right now I'm sending Karborundum-powered probes to all the outer planets, using massive burns (such as 20 km/s) so they'll reach those planets years (and in some cases, decades) ahead of their more sedate nuclear-powered brethren. That said, I have a crazy idea based on watching RocketPC gaming's stream yesterday... 11x. He was noting how 10x isn't quite as large as true earth equatorial radius, being some 400 km smaller. I'm thinking keep the Karbonite, using SMURFF at full lever, and ditching RnD. Would probably start it up when the new version of GPP comes out, or I may take a little break to get my mojo back first. I think TAC-LS isn't my favorite thing, so I may use this as an opportunity to jump back to USI-LS, so I have a reason to go down to planets and moons again. It's also been a long time since I've tried Kerbalism, so I may give that a go now that it has a better habitation mechanic.

Here's a quick rule of thumb - lop a zero off the end of the thrust in kilonewtons of any engine in the game, and that will give you the approximate amount of thrust in metric tons. Thus the Poodle in vacuum gives 250 kN of thrust, which is approximately 25 tons. Do the math so that the sea level thrust of your engines is somewhere between 1.4 and 1.7 (depending on your personal preference and a bunch of other factors) when initially lifting off the pad. For example, a 14 ton rocket with 200kN of thrust off the pad should be good, since the initial TWR is approximately 1.42.

What you described is great, and I'd love it if that becomes possible with the DLC. However, the possibility for unknown events sounds even more intriguing. Something like a full fledged version of the K files, which starts out with "investigate the anomaly near X" which then points towards a heretofore unknown craft in orbit which has to be recovered, which then unlocks a new technology allowing you to detect an unusual asteroid, which contains a map to a special anomaly on Tylo... Basically something like a multi-part quest in Skyrim which can reveal secrets and take unforeseen twists and turns.

I'm really enjoying the combination of 3.2x scale and Kerbal R&D. I actually played 3x for a career before finding out that 3.2x was a thing, so I switched over. No particular reason for the jump. Personally, I find 3.2x to be the sweet spot in terms of grandeur, challenge, and tedium. 6.4x is also good, but 10x is just too tedious for my taste. 3.2x with stock parts works fine so long as you have some experience and you limit yourself to operations in the Kerbin/Gael SOI. Going interplanetary is not fun without R&D- if I hadn't upgraded my LV-Ns, Poodles, and Terriers, I wouldn't have gotten nearly so far in my current career.

Anybody here playing Mass Effect: Andromeda? I've enjoyed the other three in the series (ME3 a little less than ME and ME2) but it seems like they have some kinks to work out with the new version. My current thought is to wait for a patch or two before diving in.

Chapter 21 - Gael Exploration Keeping with the card theme, the Karborundum-powered craft at the end of the previous chapter is dubbed The Ace. While KABOOM mission control is anxious to send it out, it's decided that it will wait until the current Niven mission is over to send any more Kerbals interplanetary. The chances of a missed SOI change or inadvertent shortage of life support are just too high for multiple manned interplanetary missions. Instead, some miscellaneous missions are flown, mainly on and around Gael. KABOOM accepted a mission to put a five-Kerbal station into Ciro orbit. As an exercise to see how cheaply it could be done, this design costing less than 41K funds is launched. Decrepit Station reaches orbit. Not much to write home about. Poodles are very capable at this point, weighing half as much as they do in stock, and putting out 375 kN of thrust at an Isp of 437.5. After burning out of Gael's SOI, the contract is complete. The first stage was recovered with Stage Recovery to reclaim 15K funds, so the net profit is 148K funds. With the Apollo III heading to low Ciro orbit to obtain more Karborundum, KABOOM administration decides to siphon off some more and return it to Gael for the funds. The Hawk II is launched to bring back 4,500 units of the wonder-fuel. Docking with the Apollo I. Because Karborundum is so dense, this return craft is fitted with an inflatable heat shield, along with eight drogues and twelve radial chutes. Returning was uneventful, except that the weight of the Karborundum meant that a precision return to KSC wasn't possible. Apollo I is in an equatorial orbit, and the Hawk II ran out of LFO before completing its reentry/plane change burn. Ouch. 865 km from KSC, for a return percentage of only 85%. Still got over 15 million funds, though. With next to nothing known about most of the rest of the planet, planes are sent out to reconnoiter some anomalies found by orbital satellites. Here's a first person view of the Jade I heading over to Nerd's Luck. Powered by two Karbonite-fueled turbojets, and with the tanks constantly topped off by atmospheric Karbonite scoops, the limiting factor with this jet is how much LS is carried on board. Pretty fast, too. Placing an anomaly marker seems to be a very inexact science. There's nothing at the marker location itself (unless there's something beneath the sea), but there's a strange, flat island nearby. Jeb heads over to the island to check it out. Wow. Definitely some structures down there. With the land mass blue and a bunch of sea life around, it looks like this is some sort of space-faring Kerbal version of Atlantis. Jeb sets the Jade I down and finds a number of old buildings, including a monolith hovering in mid-air. Note to self - don't use the large landing gear as a nose wheel, since it doesn't steer. Wing loading was a bit high on the Jade I, so some angled wing extensions and other minor changes turn it into the Jade II. And now it has a steerable nose wheel. We located an anomaly from orbit somewhere around here, which is on a different continent. Tthe only thing Jeb could find was this large green rock, and more undersea plants on the land. Despite flying back and forth near the target area, no structures or anything else of interest were seen. Jeb tests the field landing capability of the craft, and the Jade II passes with flying colors. With the newly installed ladders, Jeb is also able to descend to the surface without falling, and can then reenter the cockpit afterward. With the program flush in funds and 10 Kerbals still not having made it out of LGO, the Magnificent I is designed and launched. This large training craft is designed around a massive lander. Because the lander includes 3.75m parts, the bottom two stages are 7.5m and the upper stage is 5m so that there's a correct sense of proportion. After a brief orbit around Ceti, the Magnificent I heads over to Iota for a landing. Success. Most of the crew decided to stay in the craft while mission commander Val planted a flag. These LET landing legs must have repulsorlift technology, since they don't seem to be actually touching the surface. The craft wasn't as stable as we thought it would be on reentry. Thankfully all the key parts have had their heat tolerance upgraded with Kerbal R&D. Landed in the highlands - which seem to have cacti in them, for some reason. Much experience and many Final Frontier ribbons were earned by the crew. Finally, the Apollo III arrives in the correct orbit and begins harvesting Karborundum. Its Ap is lowered inside of Icarus' orbit to prevent any unintended gravity assists, and may still be lowered further. As it is, it's going to take at least seven or eight passes to fill up the tanks all the way. We'll see just how long it takes... in the next chapter.

@Tyko Just to add a few things to what OhioBob said: 1. The math isn't intuitive, and is very nonlinear. Here's a link to an album I did in a 6.4x save a few versions ago, where I show that burning just 35 m/s more when transferring from Kerbin to Minmus cuts the travel time down from 24 days to 12 days: http://imgur.com/a/dDCaC 2. An easy way to get a faster transfer to Iota (or any other moon) is to burn into a retrograde orbit around the target moon such that you get a free return trajectory. Not only will you head back to the parent body automatically if something goes wrong (a la Apollo 13), but the added delta V in the maneuver means you get there faster. There's a reason the Apollo missions used that mission profile IRL. (thanks for the formal name above, OhioBob)

It's been awhile since I played with Kerbalism, but I seem to recall that it changed the science experiments so you only had one low space EVA report available, but you had many biome-specific crew reports available. Sort of how they handle some of the other science things, where you have to bring certain experiments all the way home.

I found a thing on Gael. I also learned that the big landing gear don't steer, and shouldn't be used as nose wheels. This plane handled like a pig on the ground, even using differential thrust.

They're the best at providing both frustration (as you're learning to build them well) and satisfaction (after you've figured out how to do it).

Going deeper in the atmosphere will put greater G-loads on the craft, while a shallower reentry will put greater thermal stresses on the craft. If you really want to stress test, then place a maneuver node a few thousand kilometers before hitting the atmosphere, then fiddle with the prograde and radial out handles until you end up with a node which burns all your remaining fuel while maintaining the same Pe. It basically simulates an interplanetary reentry.

I guess I'm an oddball. I've never really used the Toroidal-8, and I only use Oscar-B's on unmanned probes. My standard-ish one-man lander uses a Rockomax 8 or Rockomax 16 as a wider base for greater stability. Here's one I've used on Iota and Ceti in my GPP game: I think that the selection of mods used, as well as whether the player prefers career, science, or sandbox also has a big influence on the direction of craft design. For example, one of my workhorse craft designs is the Bluebird, which was born out of a desire for a cheap rocket taxi to bring Kerbals to and from LKO. Since I was playing with Stage Recovery and KCT at the time (back in 1.1.3 when KCT still had a parts inventory), I designed it in such a way that no parts were discarded - everything was either recovered with SR, or was brought back to the surface as part of the reentry vehicle. Here's a look:

Chapter 20 - Karborundum Space Program The KABOOM team gazes out at the near-infinite possibilities before them, thanks to the Karborundum brought back by Apollo I. With so many choices, a bit of analysis-paralysis sets in: Should we do a hundred-ton SSTO grand tour mothership? Launch a station that makes Vanguard look small? Try to set a new speed record for Kerballed exploration to Hox or Leto? After a few days of thinking of possibilities, calmer heads prevail. A small unmanned probe powered by Karborundum is designed, intended to explore the reaches of the outer system far faster than the existing Hermes craft. That will be followed by a small Kerballed transport. And since Karborundum is so awesome (and valuable!), we need to obtain more of it. But first, let's shift over to Niven. With the antenna damaged on the Gibraltar Station Lander, it's decided to try landing the Trey III on Niven, with Sambert and Henley Kerman on-board. Sambert stayed on the station last time, so he's looking forward to getting some experience. Because the Trey III was never designed to land on a body with any significant atmosphere, it's decided ahead of time that this will be a "simulation". [F5] [IMAGE REDACTED] Aerodynamic and CoM issues result in the Trey careening toward the surface nose-first, smashing into the ground before the chutes could deploy. [F9] [IMAGE REDACTED] After much transferring of fuel to alter the CoM, the Trey III enters tail first, and is able to deploy the drogues, but engine braking is late and the craft still smashes into the ground at 80 m/s. [F9] On the third try, Sambert and Henley set the craft down in the Nivenean (sp?) Trench. After Henley repacks the chutes, Sambert plants a flag - because, of course, the best way to become a more effective scientist in the lab is to pound a metal rod with a hammer while wearing an EVA suit. In an ill-considered attempt at getting more science, the two explorers hop over to the nearby Lowlands. Ummm, that terrain looks pretty steep... ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! Wow, those deployable radiators sure make a nice mess when they break. [F9] Sambert and Henley remove their VR goggles, and quickly decide that someone is trying to tell them something. Dying three times in the simulation is more than enough. They're quite happy to remain in orbit. We interrupt this chapter to announce that a Hermes probe has finally entered Otho's SOI. That is all... Back on Gael, Jebediah is wrapping up stress-testing of the mobile Resolution Base, destined for Iota. Simple lines, combined with some strategically-placed I-beams, result in a base which won't break during most tumbles. Unless we hit the rim of a crater and crack the base in two like an egg on a the edge of a bowl, we should be OK. Because of the size of the mobile base, a 7.5m launcher is used. The mobile base isn't terribly heavy, but it is bulky, and the 7.5m fairing base is the largest we have available. Deploying the massive fairing. A much smaller transfer stage is sufficient to bring the unmanned base to Iota. I'd also like to note the use of the endangered and elusive Thud, an engine as controversial as it is rare. With a surplus of delta V in the transfer stage, the jettisonable landing pods aren't needed; the transfer stage brings the base all the way down to Iota's surface, where it then flops forward and lands on its wheels. The chosen spot is an interesting canyon-ey area, previously noted as a possible location for a base. Now we just need to send up a crew and start some motorin'. To obtain more Karborundum, a new craft is launched - the Apollo III. Where the Apollo I had a single 3.75m Karborundum tank and three of the large Karborundum collectors, the Apollo III has three of the 5m tanks and eight of the collectors. If I've done my math right, this will bring back over a billion funds worth of the stuff. Ludicrous speed is so yesterday - ludicrous funds is now where it's at. To provide another place to store the wonder-fuel in orbit, a new station with seven of the 5m holding tanks is launched. To put the new fuel to the test for real, the Mosquito I probe is launched aboard a custom lifter featuring the largest 2.5m SpaceY SRB as a first stage. It recovers nicely with three of the large radial LET parachutes. The fairing is bigger than normal because we ended up putting the big stock resource scanner on the side of the probe body. The Mosquito I heads in to dock with the Apollo I while still docked to the transfer stage. No RCS thrusters or tanks are fitted to the probe itself to save weight and increase delta V. After ditching the transfer stage, the Mosquito burns 14.5 km/s worth of Karborundum to do a high-energy speed run to Nero. Here's a shot with all the data for you data hounds. After conducting the burn, the Mosquito I will still have almost 170 km/s (!) of delta V left in the tank. To finish off the Karborundum section of the chapter, here's a small Kerballed craft powered by Karborundum. Using the same drive section as the Mosquito I, this craft (which is still undergoing testing) should have approximately 66 km/s in the tank and an initial TWR of 1.27. It should be capable of getting from LGO to the surface of Icarus and back again in less than a year. What I can't decide is what to call it. Names under consideration include: Uno I, Meteor I, Pocket Rocket, and Icarus Express. Please chime in and let me know your favorite, or feel free to suggest a name of your own. Hopefully we'll take the finished version of this craft on its maiden voyage... in the next chapter.

Played around with Karborundum powered craft using Near Future Electrical reactors in my 3.2x GPP career. Ended up with two designs: I can't decide whether to call this the Uno (it has one engine, and other similar craft with two and three engines are called the Deuce and the Trey) or the Meteor. 66 km/s on tap without staging, at an initial TWR of 1.27. Also equipped with ladders and landing struts for landing on any airless world. The second craft is an unmanned probe called the Mosquito. Loaded with science and scanning gear, It's currently headed to Nero on a high-energy transfer which used up 14 km/s of the 184 km/s of delta V on tap. This design is also equipped with landing struts for landing on airless bodies.

In case you still need some shots for Ciro, feel free to use any of these.

I ran an over clocked C2Q9550 for years. Great chip. Finally gave it up last year for a new system built around an i5-6600k. I've been very pleased with the new rig, which only has a mild OC but runs nearly silent most of the time.

I feel the same way. I've never used hyper edit, preferring to do all my testing on Kerbin/Gael and its moons. If there's the occasional failure, then that's just part of the enjoyment of the game. Heck, I'm currently on my third Icarus lander because the first two both met untimely ends. But this is what fun looks like for me.

Chapter 19 - Boots on Niven, and the Chariot Returns It's an exciting time in KABOOM mission control. Bob and crew are approaching Niven, a new probe is heading to Icarus, and other missions to various corners of the solar system continue to move forward. All this activity means that time is starting to pass more slowly, and the dreaded yellow numbers are making an appearance in the upper left corner of the screen. So before we do anything else, it's time for a bit of cleanup. Most of the Vanguard Station crew, including mission commander Valentina, hops into a Bluebird and heads back to Gael. A small caretaker crew of two is left aboard, with approximately six years of supplies. Valentina, Madberta, Siuna, and Signy Kerman are all given decorations upon their return. Next to arrive back at Gael is the crew of Conqueror Station. They were running low on supplies, so the station is abandoned altogether for the time being. Everyone makes it home safe and sound, and still more decorations are given. Final Frontier has a big warehouse full of medals. A few bits of debris are found and destroyed, but the dreaded yellow numbers are still present. It's decided to retire some old craft. Here's the Papago II attempting to make a powered reentry. This ended with the craft slamming into the sea at 120 m/s. The tiny Unicorn I satellite, our first in HGO, is put on a path where it will burn up in Gael's atmosphere. Pioneer Station joins the fiery fun. Much of the obsolete station burns up on reentry, but most of the core remains intact until it slams into the surface of the water. It was around this time that @JadeOfMaar helpfully provided a module manager patch from the Mk2 Expansion mod, which solved my problems with IntakeAtm for Karbonite-burning jets and turbofans. I think this will do just fine... as soon as I increase the heat tolerance on some more parts with Kerbal R&D. It's time for the Apollo I to come home with its load of Karborundum, so it burns at low Ciro periapsis to raise its apoapsis back up for a close approach to Gael. The great thing about this maneuver is that the craft can keep harvesting Karborundum during and after the burn, so it will enter Gael's SOI with a nearly full tank. Staying in the inner part of the system for a moment, Hermes V arrives at Icarus with a new, upgraded lander. Four small deployable radiators ought to do it. After conducting an 11 km/s orbital insertion burn, the lander casts off and heads down to Icarus. Four radiators work much better than two, comfortably dissipating all the heat that Icarus has to offer. Rugged terrain and poor lighting make for an interesting biome-hopping experience, but KABOOM mission controllers spend much less time in map mode and avoid slamming into anything. After hitting three biomes, the lander heads back up to dock with the mothership. It transmitted a bunch of science from the surface, but the duplicates are loaded into the mothership for later transmission to Thunderer Station. The Trey Mk III arrives at Niven ahead of Gibraltar Station and easily enters into orbit. This craft has real gumption, and will be used as the return craft to bring the Niven explorers back home. Here's the only image found in KABOOM's archives documenting Gibraltar Station's arrival at Niven. The photographer is given a stern talking to. After Gibraltar Station enters orbit, the Trey rendezvouses and docks. You can see in this image that this upgraded version of the Trey has two Hitchhikers, six of the medium deployable radiators, and three retractable solar panels to supplement the RTGs (handy when transmitting science). A 2.5m life support cannister is now integral to the craft, and the "flame job" lights have been removed in favor of a more functional arrangement. It also has uprated engines and parachutes, so it's able to enter and land on words with atmospheres more easily. Leaving Sambert alone in the station, the lander heads down with Bob, Burwell, and Henley Kerman inside. The docking port is open on purpose - it acts like a mini air brake, and helps keep the craft oriented correctly during reentry. Almost down. With two drogues and two standard radial chutes, final descent speed is 21 m/s. A quick burst of the engines just prior to contact ensures a soft landing. This is why we came. Bob and crew are genuinely thrilled to pose for the camera, marking the first time that Kerbals have planted a flag on another planet in the system. (Eta was just a moon, and Thalia was too dang hot for Jeb and Bill to get out of the ship.) A quick hop to one more biome, then it's time to head back up. The sun has just set, so the clock is ticking. This craft is is dependent on solar power. The ascent was not without incident. First, an ill-timed transmission of a science experiment resulted in the antenna being sheared off by the slipstream. Second, the Gibraltar Lander ran out of fuel before rendezvousing back with the station. Sambert, eager to help (and get a little glory), heads out in the Trey to tow the lander back to the station. Here we see the "Papago" DNA of the Trey in action, functioning as a nuclear tug, as they approach the station. The next landing will be attempted with the Trey itself. Sambert is given the honor of conducting an orbital EVA to fulfill a contract. While he's outside, he grabs the science from the lander and manually transfers it to the Science Lab. Somehow we neglected to put a single science container on any of the Niven craft. We'll give the crew a well-deserved rest before sending them down again. Shifting back to Gael, Apollo I finally arrives home. The 11 km/s orbital insertion burn takes a little while, but eventually the craft is directed into a 500 km equatorial orbit. The Hawk I is sent up to retrieve a sample of the Karborundum and return it to KSC. Everyone is rubbing their hands together with glee... especially Mortimer. The Hawk I siphons off 600 units of Karborundum (out of the 57,000 which Apollo I brought back) then reenters on a trajectory which will put it down a few kilometers from KSC. Karborundum is heavy, so this little 1.25m craft has four radial chutes and engines to slow down the final descent. YEAH BABY! At a price of almost 4,000 funds per unit of Karborundum, this small sample is enough to pay for the entire Apollo program and then some. The Schwalbe is quickly launched. After docking to Apollo I, it grabs 2,500 units of Karborundum and is ready to rumble. By itself, the seven-part craft (which includes a nuclear reactor for electrical power) has over 250 km/s of delta V. Pushing a craft like the Trey, it should add several dozen km/s. We'll need to do some more experiments to figure out how best to use this, since the conventional wisdom is that it's always better to burn lower Isp fuel first. This 1.25m engine, upgraded with Kerbal R&D, puts out 500 kN of thrust at an Isp of 12,500. We'll play around with this... in a future chapter.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not a huge ion guy, but I do use them occasionally. Right now Karborundum is the shiny new hotness in my GPP career, so I'm working out architecture to make best use of it. I'm also sending another larger ship down to low Ciro orbit to get some more.