Hotel26

I enjoy the system-tuning stage. You can taste the result. The basic configuration of 1x ISRU, 2x medium radiators, 4x drills, 8x fuel cell arrays and 1 5-star engineer seems to do it, even with premium-grade 14% ore. For production of LF/OX alone, anyway. I'm going to need more clearance between the Hitchhikers to get all 8 Orb refinery modules in place. At which time, we will see whether the Kraken cometh... So I imagine the deployment being packaged with Snowflake on a Zephyr launcher and the Spider sky-crane and the 8 Orb modules on an Aquila VIII. The Spider can serve double-duty and take the Snowflake down. Then return to orbit 8 times for the Orbs. Aquila VIII loaded with 8 Orbs and a Spider...

Busy with Mad Science, as usual. My original Snowflake didn't pan out. My intention was to land heavy miners on it. Bad idea. So this is Snowflake Gen 2... (The Sparrow in the center brought it down from orbit.) Sparrow hops off, or goes back to orbit. (8 Hitchhikers, so it is Mun HQ for my ops!) I didn't want to mess with all the paraphernalia on the periphery of Orb (the refinery unit) to get clearance for the exhaust of Sparrow, so I made an engineering trade-off and built a sky-crane: Spider. That hurt because building one-off, "key-hole" solutions is anathema for my design team (me). It was fun, though. For context, I found a location on the Munar equator with 14% ore grade. Shazbat!! That's hard to ignore. That's what got me started today, building a super-refinery. It'll be fine-tuned for the Mun and one or two sites with premium-grade ore. (I'm likely to move the right number of radiators to the Hitchhikers so that I can use just 4 slots (2x drills and 2x fuel cell arrays) on each Orb... Will all depend on what the optimal ratios turn out to be.) Spider deposits Orb directly onto one of the 8 Snowflake rim docks and then dismounts: The plan is that my "blimp", known as Zippo, will be able to dock to this super-refinery and fill up toute de suite. And can put as many super-refineries on the equator as I like and run N+1 Zippos to a Pole Star station to keep it fueled. Everywhere else, Gremlin is my portable solution. Goblin is almost certainly superseded. Next task is to start tuning radiators, fuel cell arrays, ISRUs and drills for the optimum ratio -- in this location. This is Zippo (with Goblin): : [Click any screenshot and use arrows to slide the show.]

Bombardier Craftyard Description 1:HORZ 2:VERT 3:dock 4:ladders A lo-power, hi-econo lunar crew transport called Bombardier. Built with 125 of the finest parts, its root part is mk2Cockpit.Inline. The engine pods are locked for launch. Cycle the dock to unlock them, start the fuel cell and extend the antenna. Use key group 1 and the I/K keys to rotate the pods. Recommend using s = v/a.v/2 to compute the stopping distance for precision landings as Bombardier will cover considerable distance while de-orbiting but can, nevertheless be landed accurately. [KER gives a (acc)] Passengers love the comfort of Bombardier because (apart from KSC launch) the flight profile is ‘horizontal’ which means you never spill your drink nor wrench your neck admiring the scenic view. ( Zephyr launcher included.) Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.7.3.

After a conversation with @Atkara: now undergoing trials. Imaginatively dubbed Hovercraft Bombardier... (I'm pretty new to robotics. I need one of those new-fangled KAL controller thingies to define preset positions, is that right?)

If you're like me, you know the equatorial belt of the Mun like the back of your hand. I typically look for flat plains to land equipment on. I took a "flitter" for a spin on Ike, which is fairly mountainous. The flitter is just a fuel tank with a deck chair and a couple of tiny Twitch engines but it's great for lunar exploration. It has a surface scanner, too, although I've never made serious use of these. They work up to 1km above the surface. On Ike, I was shocked to see the ore concentration go from 6% to 12%. Because I didn't think it was worth the effort to go look for... So I've taken a spin on the (flatter) Mun -- I figured it's possible to do high-speed low-altitude terrain-following. Indeed. 200 m/s at around 500 m above the surface. Whereas ore is generally 5.2% at the equator, I'd say, and what I've been mining, I quickly turned up two stretches [no spoiler] showing a concentration of 14.3%. Now I wonder whether my fuel miner/refiner is adequately equipped to process ore at that rate?! Anyway, this is no news to anyone about ore concentration. The main exercise here was to have an excuse to blitz across the Mun surface at good speed! Fun and not much more expensive than running a Juno on Kerbin. (Which gives me the idea its time to fit a surface scanner onto a survey plane to do the same job on Kerbin.)

Really admire the forward-swept wings guessing they are to get the CoL precisely where you wanted...

Gremlin Craftyard Description 1:engines 2:drills 3:mine 4:dock A stock rocket called Gremlin. Built with 155 of the finest parts, its root part is asasmodule1-2. Gremlin is the long-gestated upgrade to my venerable Goblin fuel miner/exploration base. Like Goblin it: is maneuverable relocatable supports local exploration provides habitat for 16 Kerbals can refuel retractable nosegear craft (claws) can refuel light hover craft (top dock) can shuttle fuel to a space station in low orbit is dockable on both ends for flexible interplanetary transit In addition, Gremlin separates the heavy mining paraphernalia into its lower stage (to be left on the surface) and the main fuel tanks and propulsion into the upper stage. This permits the option to reorbit the whole vehicle, when supplying fuel to a space station OR to depart with only the fuel shuttle stage, leaving the mining operation running, and returning to redock from a hover. It is recommended procedure to land the fuel shuttle close by (landing legs extended), then adjust the thrust limiters to e.g. 30% (depending upon the lunar gravity) and then find a thrust setting that gives a slight sink rate. Then use the Vernors to control translation over the target and then perform a gentle sink onto the first stage top dock. You can use the Vernor H key to arrest and/or fine-tune the sink rate without touching the throttle. All done, needless to say, with SAS Radial Out mode selected. Note that Goblin LF/OX capacity of 20,000 kals increases to 41,520 kallons with Gremlin. Using this machine successfully is a buzz and it is, without doubt, a real pilot’s machine. It comes with a Zephyr booster to get you to LKO. Pilot Operating Handbook states that all engines should be kept until the apoapsis is achieved (nominally 90km); and the Rhino further retained until a periapsis of around 0 is achieved. Have tons of fun!! Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.7.3.

I went with 4x Darts on my Gremlin lo-grav fuel miner. I don't much like the landing struts on the shuttle and may try to move them to the inside and hope clearance with the engine exhaust is maintained. To top-dock, I land very close-by and then adjust the thrust levels down so that ~80% power will give me hover. That gives finer throttle control on the VERT while maneuvering over the target. But Gremlin is loaded with Vernors for translation and 4 for PRO/RETRO with the Prograde ones being especially useful for the final deceleration just before contact with the top dock. (I still haven't tried this maneuver with this craft, though!)

Initial flight tests are done. With twin Vectors, Gremlin gives rather an exciting ascent to orbit, even with a full load. The only part I haven't cough cough tested yet is the hover/maneuver to redock with stage 1 (the base) on the surface.

The idea is that you taxi a spacecraft in over the claw; set the brakes and then retract the nose gear to dock for fuel -- and transfer passengers. I use this system on Kerbin for aircraft, but it works for moon-jets, too. Check out e,g, Salamander or Cruciform for examples. My Ladybug and Hummingbird space rovers will use the top-dock for refuleing.

I'm feeling gleeful, I have to admit. Let's see how this turns out... This is stage 1 of an idea that has been brewing awhile: Gremlin I trust the sheer ugliness of Function triumphing over Form is making a suitable impression!!? This, gentle folk, is why we must never let down our guard... Yea, but this is a mining rig, after all! Here, I am refactoring my Goblin into two stages. As a unit, Goblin is maneuverable, relocatable and provides an exploration base capable of fueling large spacecraft that can taxi up and 'kneel' on a dock, or any light hovercraft that cares to attempt top-docking. Habitat for 16 Kerbals. And lifts off with 9,000 kallons of LF (and commensurate OX) to deliver 5,000 kals to orbit. That's hauling all that heavy equipment back and forth. The theory now with Gremlin is that the upper stage (not pictured; conceived but not designed) will consist of fuel tanks and propulsion (NERV exclusively, if I can make that work). The hard part comes next, then! Here is faithful Goblin, the starting point for the exercise:

Was going to trash this long-abandoned Kerballenwagen (the rover with the service bay) since I don't do surface transportation any more. Drove it 5kms to take down a flag also and the drive was so much fun, I hit on the idea of mounting the Hummingbird on it and space-lifting it out... Maybe I'll find some good use for it other than just dune racing...?

@Brikoleur upon reflection, I think you have the preponderance of argument on your side here. I think it's easily feasible to make a vehicle for the purpose of mining/refining on the surface and no reason not to make it auto-relocatable. For the sub-category of mission in which it is a primary producer for space, it will never be optimally efficient by itself (not ruling out a bootstrap capability at a new destination) -- but there's no reason to couple a tanker to its design apart from being able to dock in some manner. One tanker could conceivably, in fact, service multiple refineries. Thus considered, the tanker is merely an optimization layer over the base system.

Your surface-based equipment has to move once from KSC in order to become dedicated (permanently) to its site. Why think that the same mechanism cannot move it elsewhere, if desired? One site (at least) on the lunar equator to function only to provide fuel to low orbit. But other sites, mobile around the surface, at other latitudes, to aid exploration. One mechanism to power them all. (Think about two sets of engines possibly involved: one for delivery of the bulk refinery and the efficient NERVs for the shuttle boost to orbit function... But if the initial installation comes down empty (mostly) of payload, it's possible that NERV can handle it all.) The initial installation has two rocket stages: it all comes down together without staging. The first stage mines/refines the fuel. The second stage boosts the fuel to orbit without taking the first stage with it. It returns and re-docks. It can take another load to orbit. Or, it could relocate the whole installation elsewhere as desired. So in this conception, the same system of components is serving two purposes. Let me see if I can demonstrate it.

I like the flexibility of an all-in-one vehicle for this. As well as refining fuel, my Goblin also serves pretty well as surface base and roving explorer. The drawback is the yield going to space is lower than I'd prefer. (It uses a Skipper and, of course, it has to drag all the refinery equipment with it.) So this has got me thinking about splitting it into two stages. Conventionally, it would operate together, but in a high-demand situation (primary moon base), the refinery would stay on the surface and the second stage would depart with the fuel only and powered by NERVs.) Before I commit that to a design, this conversation reminds me that I have a Snowflake (pictured below) parked on the Mun, awaiting trial. I'll see if I can dock a Goblin (fuel refinery) on it and a Zippo (large capacity fuel tender) to see if I can refine/transfer/boost fuel... (Very surely, the Kraken network is already abuzz...)

I guess the advantage of moving ore is that you don't pay to shuttle the heavy ISRU back and forth between the surface and space, and you can also run fewer ISRUs on a better duty cycle.

My 1.6.1 / 1.7.3 Orbit world has been running in real time: ships I launched for Duna early in 2019 have just swarmed in on the martial planet. It's been very absorbing (I've taken a work off from real work to deal with these aerospace responsibilities.) So far, no casualties. [Pictured: an RA-100, deployed by Scout, engaging a steeply elliptical polar orbit] The "arrival" has given the folks here at KSC some practical experience with the Scout advance guard vehicle. It's performed pretty much as specified. Inevitably though -- and I am pleased to announce -- some inevitable refactoring has suggested itself and has been performed. Images may tell the rest of the story... Scout on lift-off: Scout clothed: Scout unrobed: Launches on a Zephyr boost vehicle (credit: @Atkara); Science Lab has been downscaled to a Mk2 lander can; a Terrapin xenon motor; an M700 survey scanner (unpropelled, but may be left in orbit by Terrapin); an autonomous RA-100 interplanetary comm relay; and a Beep combination of equatorial and polar 3x RA-2 comm relay pods. Scout will make Duna unaided from the launchpad, Presumably further afield if refueled in LKO. Almost anywhere if the spent Zephyr core booster is swapped out in favor of an Escort / Mule combination. Additional Beep modules may be docked at the bow of the ship as desired for multi-lunar destinations... E.g. Eve, Duna, Jool.

Regarding asteroids, I do wonder about the utility perhaps of a roaming space colony in a strategic Kerbolar orbit, that wanders from huge asteroid to the next as it consumes them. Imagine such a thing a stone's throw from Moho[*], but in the ecliptic (zero inclination). Getting there is half the job. Then refuel. Then perform the inclination change and set-up the rendez-vous. (This might work better further out, making the inclination change easier, but then you might need a series of them to give faster transfer windows.) There may be easier ways (in general), but I'm thinking in particular about the task of moving heavy equipment. Maybe another application is a series of gas stations in an inner orbit to allow more frequent transfers from Kerbin to outer planets (and vice versa). No slingshot but full tanks and a wind shield wipe. * clearly, Eve arguably fulfils this role, so it's not a fine example(!)

All of the above is no doubt good and something in it solved your problem. The most common cause for steering out of the true for me is a simple thing., When you place wheels, without snap and/or possibly with it, they may not be exactly aligned on the absolute direction. So I have a ritual of turning on Snap Lock after placing them and then wresting them in Absolute Rotation mode to line up with the airplane's longitudinal axes and, notably also the vertical axis laterally. If your craft tends to track to one side and then reverse and steer opposite, this kind of instability is most likely due to the main gear being splayed either inward or outward, causing one side to track better than the other as weight (centrifugal force, actually) shifts to one side and then to the other causing a nasty oscillation. Just ensure it's all aligned.

An SSTO, no less!? He'd better keep his foot off the Go pedal or he'll need a spacesuit. (Welcome back, Triop!) I would suggest exploring how much extra drag you induce by extending the landing struts out on beams. Or something like this (on a smaller scale):

This worked and, in the case of Spunk, the Okto2 (that was root) is buried inside a service bay, so hovering on the service bay lights the whole ship but is NOT the root part. It's good to know, thanks.

Has anyone else noticed this? I've upgraded my fleet from 1.6.1 to 1.7.3. I load and save them progressively as I need them. But I've noticed with 2 craft now (e.g. KerbalX.com/Hotel26/Spunk) that I cannot re-root them as a prelude to some kind of upgrade. I could be wrong. It could be that re-root is strangely different in 1.7.3 than I'm used to. Anyone have any clue about this; or run into similar? Specifically, when I click the first part, the editor picks up the whole ship instead of allowing me to next select the part I want to become the root.

Nope. Technical difficulties being resolved...

Asteroid HVP-683, originally 2,784t, captured on August 10th, is shown here, tagged by Mosquito, HVP-683 and then brought to heel with the help of an Escort (5x Rhinos), now in an equatorial Mun orbit, but mass down to 1,956t. It's making me think I should resurrect my Crab all-nuke space tractor. It'd be slower than the Escort, but much more efficient, ISP-wise. Had to dig a long way back through the archives to find this shot -- it looks like Crab has 24x NERVs. Shazaam. Here's a clearer shot of the protagonists...

Built this for fun. Fantail, also known as "Con Air". 32 inmates; 3 guards. Kinda fun to fly as long as you arrive at the destination before they break down the cockpit door... This one's for you, @swjr-swis