Jetski

EPL and Deepfreeze you could pretty much knock this out with a single launch. 500-pax orbital mothership of frozen Kerbals, and a single lander EPL mining base to bootstrap into the entire system, thawing crew as needed. Also there are a few workarounds to buying Kerbals with stock pricing - I've got a good thing going with mining for funds and hiring and freezing them in batches of 32, as frozen Kerbals don't count towards your pricing. If you don't want to use Deepfreeze, there are other mods that allow recruitment. I kind of miss CivPop, that was a really cool way to add Kerbals by recruiting them from a civilian population. Edit: this just got me interested in EPL and bootstrap bases. Now I'm going to be sidetracked for hours...

I would love to see this up and running in 1.1.2 - any plans to revive it? A few of us are tackling the Jool500 colony challenge, and this would be an amazing addition.

Klaw. Always Klaw.

Looking good, updated the OP. Cleared for next launch.

Add a service bay to the stack, and when the doors are open it's a low-part-count landing leg solution that prevents base roll. Here are a few of my surface bases - I mainly use Klaws to connect, and decouplers to get rid of extra parts once the connection is made. Also, here are a few mining bases that use the same general idea. Notice on a few of the rigs there is no fuel storage on the drilling rig itself. Allowing the fuel tank to be on a separate module than the mining/ISRU/Ore module is very efficient - you can keep the fuel tankage and landing engines as a separate lifter to get fuel into orbit, or a fuel truck to drive around and dock with landed spacecraft or SSTOs on high-grav planets. Just Klaw on to the drill section and start making fuel between visits. I've tried hard to make surface bases useful, but honestly most of these are for the Jool-500 challenge or some contract or other.

We are back in business with Chapter 6, after some grievous losses to the program. The 1.1.2 update killed my main colony transport with 55+ Kerbals frozen aboard, and also ate my mining rig. But both have been replaced, and we've loaded the first of the new Kolonists aboard.

Chapter 6 - Tragedy Strikes! Grievous losses occurred today in the Jool-500 program. The original Colony Transport, loaded with 55 frozen Kerbals, was eaten by the 1.1.2 update and the subsequent mod conflicts. Also, the Rolling Miner v1.0 was eaten with Valentina and a 1-star Engineer whose name will be forgotten. Apparently NFT isn't up yet, and the update got both ships when I transferred the save to 1.1.2. New hope has arrived though, in the form of a new Colony Transport without NFT parts, and the first new colonist shuttle has safely docked and transferred 36 ill fated wretches happy colonists to the ship. Also, a pair of engineers was retrieved from a Mun landing mission and have been put to work on a new mining rig with upgraded power supplies and higher efficiency than ever! A Klaw-equipped lander is arriving now in the Jool system, and we shall see if it can be put to use on the lost logistics base (assuming the Kraken haven't eaten that one too) Edit: Just put up another 64 Kolonists, and the first 100-pax ship is full! I'm getting the shuttle launches down to a science - it only costs me about 78k in non-recoverable parts and fuel to put 32 Kerbals in the Colony Transport (300km orbit) and land again. My SSTO and Space Shuttle designs were terrible, but a very simple ship with 2 16-pax cabins goes up and comes back and lands on its Inflatable Heat Shield with chutes. Of course, it costs me about 10 million to hire those Kerbals... I also launched a highly experimental floating Laythe base. It won't be able to mine, unlike my other bases, but it has habitation for 10, supply warehouses, a lab, and enough supplies (with a Greenhouse) to last a few years. Finally, I managed to get my utility lander to meet with the stalled Logistics base, only to find out my clever towing arrangement made it impossible for the NERVAs to generate thrust! I've left them docked together (and out of RCS), and launched a new skycrane design that I hope to use to land all 3 of the unmavouverable bases. Also, commenced the big burn with my massive 100-pax colony ship of frozen Kerbals. Each one registers with the game physics as a part, so my already-large ship added 100 parts. Kind of a lagfest, but the burn has commenced!

For what it's worth, the new inflatable heat shields are very hydrophobic - they might work well as giant floating pods to build on, as well as helping with the landings.

Kind of. For my attempt it was mainly getting gravity slingshots and intercepts spot on, particularly around Moho. Not sure if MechJeb does that other than providing the same kind of info as Transfer Window Planner. The main ship itself was a kludge with lots of docking ports and a tug (and the Eve lander was...well...just an Eve lander). Edit: also, I sent a "refueling station" (another ship worth of fuel and the Eve lander) as a second launch. Strictly speaking the challenge just boils down to same command pod landing on every body then home. I think @Kergarin should be scored on a different level altogether - the way he did it was much more difficult - a single SSTO launch is likely beyond my skills

You say impossible, I say engineering challenge. Post! Failed missions are part of the fun. Also KIS &KAS part can be used during mission but not left on station. It has to be usable pure stock, and any mod parts at all will delete the station on load.

That is a really impressive mission! Great ship design

Ok, sounds like @KAL 9000 will have to try again later. Latest save is my maintenance mission posted on the OP. Cleared for next launch. I'll encourage people to test fly their modules before taking the save, so others can contribute in the meantime. Cant help kraken attacks though Cant wait to see the next module!

Pics!

@MarkoeZ couldn't have said it better myself! @CheckYoStaging welcome to the forums. Take a look at the OP (the first post) and if you have any specific questions, just post here

Here's a 2 module shuttle that can reach LKO with 1000dv left, (my maintenance shuttle modified) so it could certainly do Laythe fairly easily. 8+1 port for the upper stage, and 8+2 for the lower stage. The pair of mini docking ports can be removed in orbit. I'm not suggesting we use it (I would rather see what you have put together!), but you might get an idea of what I'm thinking for multi-part launches. Edit, oops, uploaded the wrong thing. Replace the mini-decoupler with a stageable docking port Jr and the lower stage is 8+2 again. Forgot I messed with the design again.

Sorry @KAL 9000, 8+2 is the max for a ship module. I have to enforce that one, because if we go over the station will become unusable very quickly. Can you launch it in modular pieces so we can assemble in orbit? Remember, docking ports and such can be removed in orbit and the ship welded together! Cooperation is key here. Edit: for what it's worth, the little shuttle I used for the last maintenance mission is 14 parts (could be assembled as 2 modules). not an SSTO, but definitely capable of a Laythe landing and return to orbit. Maybe you can adjust your mission profile or consolidate?

OK, mission complete. Also cleaned up and updated the OP. Sorry guys, but the builders report got out of control and had to go, as we have had something like 40 modules completed and I can't keep track any more I did some cleanup and moved a pair of Gigantors over to the scout ship. I declare the scout ship officially ready for a Jool system scouting mission. Next Jool window is Year 2, day 242 at 2:24:00 Savegame is here. Cleared for next mission

Launching a Station maintenance mission - I have the savegame.

yes, the thrust works fine to pass through, at least in 1.05. I don't think it has been changed. Unfortunately, 5 ions stacked gives 0.01 TWR in atmosphere

Here's my unmanned Low Mass contender for SSTO 1.1.2, playing stock + KER 14 parts, 6.04 tons on the Runway. Landed back with 60 LF still in the tanks, so room for optimization.

Reminds me of this:

Nope.

So I landed on Mun, Minmus, and Eeloo without using any ElectricCharge. Used about 12 units of Mono, and just toggled Torque off in the Lander can, steering primarily with engine gimbal and occasional bumps of RCS. Flew an asparagus staged Terrier with a Poodle core up on a big lifter. Wasn't really intending to land anywhere, so the Poodle sticks out and makes all the landings wonky. Had the alternator running on the Poodle, but didn't need it as total consumption was 0. I'll say this was proof of concept, and we could have gone anywhere. No battery locking or other shenanigans used. Do I get a badge?

Initial surveys with probes indicate this challenge is unlikely to succeed at the widest point. 4.4 km is well out of the 2.25km physics range of KSP. Next step is to see how large a ship can actually be built. That will determine the location of our bridge. Here's a 1km section of teakscaled 400% I-beams. It destroys the launchpad instantly, but I was able to HyperEdit it out to the canyon. It starts spinning insanely fast immediately whether in orbit or landing, and destroys the probe core that controls it as soon as it touches down. Also it's clearly not long enough. Second attempt was a smaller section, only 700m long, but I included pillars, reaction wheels, and tons of struts. I think the results speak for themselves. Has anyone else even attempted this? I'm looking at you @KSP Bro AE Also an attempt with Tweakscaled Kickbacks at 3.4km long. Everything over 2.3km just vaporizes, and all the joints let go. Possibly KJR could help, but I'm not sure what can be done about the physics range issue.

No, it was a failure just attempting to assemble it in LKO, much less get it to Gilly. Just picture about 80 girders in a line with an SAS on each end, wobbling like a giant evil mechanical wormbeast and you pretty much have it.