PT

Continuing from last time... While trying to lower FPS I have accidentally recreated drone from Matrix. Then I tested my simple part reductor mod, because Hangars have too many features and "features". With a single click of a button it took it from 20fps ... ... to 60fps And then back to 20 again ';..;'

Continuing from last time... A dozen boring ejection/correction/capture burns, and some station stuff. Watchtower hotel module was lightly modified to serve as a passenger shuttle for gathering some easy funding. In meantime I skribbled up a simple mod to help me manage complex crafts. Annoyingly context menu is caching part name first tie its being shown, so for name tag to show on orange bar it needs some kind of craft reload (eg. scene change, quickload), but for naming stuff during build its satisfactory.

Continuing from last time... I tried to use landing gear, forgetting that KSP physics engine can easily be classified as a crime against humanity, and thus I had to take a mental break from virtual rocketry. Halfway between Moho and Kerbol, Hanoi liner docked at local Watchotwer to pickup a pilot of half-failed Sunshine mission. Xenon tanker is now one more thing on space fleet TODO list. While Hanoi was burning out for Kerbin, Baguette, with same engine but ten times the mass, burned five times to circularize around Eve... .. and Eveline departed for first stop on Grand Tour deorbiting on grossly underpowered ions... ... and after interesting aerobraking and triggering multiple landing gear and physics engine bugs invoking Kraken several times it managed to land. There was, however, one minor oversight which will have to be fixed on subsequent versions of Evelyn landers... Tho with some fine tuning of landing gear it was become possible to reembark after flag planting... however Gilrim had to sprint a bit to catch lander as it was slowly bugging away sliding under the grace of Kraken. Maintaining stability on ascent was troublesome, mounting radiators for aesthetics had interesting effects on lift. And then, after visiting a rock that was as much annoying but in opposite, it was time to randomly select next target.

Continuing from last time... Somewhere retrograde between orbits of Duna and Dres... ... last Sunshine managed to capture itself around Helvica. While it ran out of Xenon to fully complete its mission it still managed to put some of its cargo on target... ...including one sacrifice to a gas giant. Eclipse Liberandum corvette was thus launched to slowly gather pilots of failed Sunshine missions. While crew accommodations are rather spartan by the standard of space fleet, it should still be an improvement over being stranded in tiny Sunshine. Through advances in fission science, there was enough dV in mission budget to carry pair of Xenon drop tanks to hopefully finish satellite seeding in Helvica SOI., In meantime another Watchtower reached Gilly. Apparently contracted sub-6km orbit is possible on equator, although Dudford might need a change of spacesuit. And Boulderdash got launched to hunt for some asteroids to complete orbital casino contract. Loaded with a pair of rock spotter sats and a hedgehog of propulsion drones to make rock hauling less strenuous.

Continuing from last time... Baguette class has been revived! First of its series is now burning out of Kerbin. Constructed similarly to Modulus its center life support section can be repurposed as space station module. In its spacious cargo bay is assortment of parts and supplies, alongside two aerobraking modules.... .. for a Grand Tour lander docked on ventral slot. With first auerobraking module already mounted, Baguette is heading for Eve first In meantime Hanoi reached Jot... ... and took its gaggle of tourist on precariously low orbit around Subon, captured asteroid with annoyingly small SOI, Normally such fake moons are easy on dV, but this particular pebble sits very deep in gas giant gravity well so transfers are costly to its retrograde orbit and minuscule SOI do not leave much time for capture burns.

Continuing from last time... Duna! Modulus III hauled Eclipse Nullam to Duna, which then established itself in Ike polar orbit to ensure constant coverage of (half of) Duna. In meantime, Wakizashi took the crew down to Ike for some exercise. Due to krakenization of Duna lander there was not much else to do, so after transplanting spare antenna to Wakizashi it was left in Ike orbit for future reuse. ... with all the cargo expended its bays were purged and escape craft was moved around to improve CoM. Afterwards I did crash-course on Porkchop graph and managed to put Duna, Eve, and Moho, missions return burns right next to each other. With 50 days left until next big thing, it was time for some Kerbin SOI fundraising. Full of spinning blinking lights, Kerbin orbital casino/hotel was built and on comet tail of Argon it inserted itself in contracted high orbit. Quite an eyeful on OLED screen. Now it needs asteroid hunters to bring there four rocks. With new found ability to read capture burn dV out of porkchop graphs, two more Watchtower stations were sent to Moho and Jot. Just with varying amount of extra Argon, solar panels, and radiators. And then third one was sent to Eve as I somehow misread Gilly for Moho... All together it took about a dozen rounds of skribble. ‪‫‭ Afterwards I remembered that Hanoi was still docked at Phybi's Watchtower, its gaggle of tourist now left for Jot tour while enjoying swimming in zero-g and fresh veggies grown onboard. No one told them what happens with all the daily mystery goo. And now fourth Sunshine is slowly decelerating for capture at Helvica. Aerocapture plans were ditched after last attempt at doing it at 10k+ km/s.

Continuing from last time... One of Sunshines reached its target, and after short cargo inspection some science has been done. Afterwards another one failed to capture on Blas. Aerocapture on low solar orbit does not work so well, inflatable shield seems unfit for shedding ~9km/s. Two Sunshine corvettes reached their targets, Moho and Jot. One started overheating before reaching its target and had to be redirected, then failed to capture and now is returning to Kerbin. Fourth one is still underway to Helvica. Could be worse. While Sunshines were bouncing around below Moho, all three Kerbin moons received a space station core. Fledgling Watchtowers are now being visited by bunch of tourist on board of first city-class passenger liner, Hanoi. Soon it will dip below Moho orbit to visit some scorching hot gas giants. In meantime I tried to design some semi-plane for Eve and Laythe, got reminded why I do not do planes in KSP, built simple air-dropped rocket instead.

I just tried to commit atrocity land on water with Nuclear Salt Water engine, but it keeps exploding due to "splashing down" (according to F3 window) some ~50 meters above sea level. If vessel is falling slow enough to not break on contact, it survives but there's still that physics jolt well above water level. I tested it a bit, and even simplest design of pod+engine experiences phantom crash above water on Kerbin, Eve, and Laythe, but landing on Minmus flats is ok. Other parts do not seem to have such issue which leads me to believe its NSWR only, I tried slapping bunch of stock parts below but then my craft just breaks apart when main engine suddenly goes poof well above water table. Is this a known issue?

Continuing from last time... I tested built-in transfer window tools against mods. Clock is totally useless, Maneuver Tool mostly works but fails for inclination change and sometimes waste few orbits when bouncing between moons. Ugh. Back to MechJeb it is, then. With transfer windows now being valid, I sent a quartet of Sunshine ion corvettes into inner Kerbol system. Mission plan is to establish relay nodes, mag sats, ore sats, and drop basic one-way drones on Moho, Blas, Jot, Cind, and their moons. And hopefully span some nice out-of-Kerbin contracts. Reusing "flatpack" cargo pods Sunshine class can carry three pods of varying length docked from front. Being built for cruise on low solar orbits, standard issue nuclear reactor was relegated to backup duty. Solar cells and radiators are aplenty. triplet of ion engines up back is spaced for balancing through differential thrust. Center engine is optional, providing fourth cargo slot at the rear when mission parameters call for more cargo. With cinders below Moho orbit somehow possessing an atmosphere and capture burn in excess of 7k dV, dragging along an inflatable heat shield seemed prudent. While Sunshines were being sent one after another, enough time passed for Modulus III to reach its second burn in wasteful non-Hohmann transfer to Dune. Just before its burn, Modulus got assaulted by wild Kraken but enough cargo survived for it to complete basic mission parameters thus it continues on course. Only space telescope and Dune lander, Tachi, got lost. Between some Kerbin SOI missions and various correction burns, enough time has passed for fist Sunshine to reach its target. And then I got reminded that even on hull-melting low solar orbit doing prolonged solar powered ion burn does not work so well in planet shadow...

Continuing from last time... Modulus III finally reached Eve and after seeding some satellites, it swung by Gilly. And I hated every minute spent there. Afterwards, to celebrate upcoming transfer window to Duna, I sent up new engine/cargo section for Modulus with some "flatpack" mission cargo in disposable Mk2 bays. Afterburnign Fission engine was picked for this mission, basically a tiny Orion drive with LH2 "wet" mode. ~40k dV at ~0.1 TwR and ~20k at ~1, quite flexible engine. With a place to gather finally up in orbit, two transformable VTOL landers joined the team. Ion powered Wakizashi and its longer brethren, LOx with Ion "booster" Tachi, are built to provide comfortable surface workplace for scientists while pleasing engineers and sponsors with unnecessary moveable parts. After science cargo was all loaded a turn came for simple escape craft, Tanto, in case engine/heat control fail. And then came test of next version of Eclipse Nullam relay drone, new tech hidden inside might turn relay constellation Seaman will establish in 4 years obsolete before its deployment even began. ...and a telescope for a good measure. With all modules locked and loaded, Modulus II performed swap maneuver. ... and then I discovered that built-in KAC ripoff is a piece of trash with transfer window alarms being off by hundreds of days. Eh. Well, time for wasteful non-Hohmann transfer. Which would went much better if I'd remember to switch cryotanks to pure LH2, all that unnecessary Ox is digging into TwR

Continuing from last time... DigDug had a lovely encounter with DigDug II, on which supernumerary pilots were shifted around to meet those silly "new station/base with 3 pilots" contracts. Then they made easy kash by "fixing" rover that only needed its long range antenna to be unfolded. In background Surveyor made course correction for Sarnus. Just some measly 6 years until probe bombardment can begin... Having discovered that no one did UX testing on Surface Science deployment before shipping DLC for sales, I have bit the bullet and abandoned all pending contracts for this garbage. Some are still wasting CPU cycles in background, but no more contracts for them will ever be picked. In meantime a profitable contract has been issued to test Tokamak fusion engine falling onto Mun, which was great moment to start establishing deep space relay network. On the way out of Kerbin new ship stopped by test unit of Eclipse class, to transfer engineer and Goo that was left on launchpad. Tokamak turned out to be very annoying. Not only using low density LH2, which makes it hard to meet starfleet beauty standards, but by acting as powerplant when not in use it will keep devouring dV if pilot forgets to shut it down after maneuver. After entering temporary lithobraking course, Seaman burned out to between Jol and Sarnus, ready to seed the system with its hefty load of relay satellites. Four years form now, Kerbol will receive a pearl necklace of relay satellites to connect inner system with gas giants loitering out there in dark. Similarly to Eclipse Magnum heading out to Urlum, Seaman crew quarters serve as a ion life boat, between full library of old sci-fi shows and two gardens to recycle mystery goo, Galvin should remain sane enough to accomplish his lonely mission and maybe even make it back to Kerbin. Mission budget even had space for autotracking tv dish.

Continuing from last time... Not much. A new starship has been sent toward Urlum, draining almost all available funding. Upcoming launch windows for Urlum and Neidon prompted design of a deep space cruiser. Design based on Eclipse was chosen, which prompted some redesigns of existing satellites and landers to fit into Mk2 cargo bays. Fitting kerbed lander-rover into Mk2 cargo bay resulted in kraken infested wobbly sausage, which was saved in archives as learning experience. After testing it under simulated low gravity, with results matching its beauty, I went on to prep some classic landers for various moons, only to discover after two hours of building that MechJeb dV/TwR readouts are affected by gravity cheat... Redesigning standard probes to better fit into Mk2 cargo bays went much better. Eclipse Nullam relay satellite has been launched, with inline relay dish mounted on a hinge to uncover twin ion thrusters. It was then docked to Eclipse Magnum awaiting in orbit for transfer window to Urlum. It will be left behind at Urlum to provide access to planned inner-outer system relay sat constellation. Its three cargo bays loaded with orbital science boom, half a dozen small relay sats, quintet of generic science satellites, suicide drone for gas giant probing, kerbed ion lander for two moonlets, and a transformable Origami lander for other two heavier moons along with two refills of LOx stuffed in main hull. With all cargo mounted on hinges amount of RCS/SAS on deployable cargo has been cut to a tenth, and redocking has been greatly simplified. Due to uncertainties of such long voyage, command+lab module Eclipse Effugium can serve as escape pod worth few thousand km dV worth of Xenon. Similarly ships primary reactor, Eclipse Ardens, can also be detached be it for safety, replacement, or to serve as a tug drone. Rated for 27 years of continuous low power settings it should lats for duration of mission, but just in case it comes with a big drum of glowing stones and in case of accident Effugium module can take over with its onboard backup reactor. Reactor module offers ventral docking port, and sponson cargo bays are replaceable to allow for simplified cargo restocking. With tests and preparations done, for a brief 12 minutes a new star could be seen down from Kerbin... (all the handy Mk2 parts used for this vessel come from https://spacedock.info/mod/473/Mk2 Stockalike Expansion)

Continuing from last time... Surveyor was launched toward first star on the right first available transfer window sporting pulse fusion fresh out of factory it sails like Ion craft. Just with more explosions. Loaded with a dozen various mini satellites its meant to prepare comm network and basic telemetry of invasive astral bodies, regardless of their orbit... as long as its not retrograde. By the grace of transfer windows its now on course to Sarnus gas giant and its numerous moons. With resources now drained, some silly publicity stunts in Kerbin SOI had to be done. ISRU resource extraction was tested in various scenarios, as dictated by client requirements, and thus DigDug moon hopper/base was born. Some unlucky kerbonauts were drafted to test new simplified semi-propeled descent pod equipped on Bombardier. Discovery that nowadays one can stage both drag and normal chutes before entering atmosphere was a welcomed breakthrough in drop pod design. With some funding secured, first Modulus cruiser purged its modules... and performed propulsion transplant Aside of plentiful fuel tanks and scientific cargo, new engine section arrived with construction drone and some handy modules to upgrade other cruisers. Ivory Tower received battery module, which allows it to properly transfer scientific data from onboard laboratory. Due to some minor design oversights its capabilities were... less than stellar. Due to discovery that numerous kerbonauts were stranded in hulls with no airlocks, small hull breaching device was added to Bombardier. Apparently Claw can't be Clawed, thus tug drone had to let itself be clawed by its cargo for transplant to be successful. With maintenance done, Modulus proceeded to yet again investigate invasive astral bodies in Kerbin SOI. After two landings at edge of Kerbin SOI, Phybi was found to be slightly more annoying to land on than Mun although contrasting regolith colours helped with finding flat terrain. Iszmi turned out to be a colourful Minmus... with lander piercing mountains. Two Munders were then deorbited in tandem for further testing in planetary laboratories. With some funding secured, and research slowly recovering to pre-disaster levels, a new vessel was commissioned. Light cruiser Eclipse was build from keel to serve as orbital survey vessel. With four moons now around Kerbin, there is a plethora of contracts requiring just a simple low altitude flyby for quick scan. Some experiments, however, need to be dropped down to Kerbin for completion. With new propulsion and hull technology unlocked, and limited cargo space required, a small and nimble hotrod of a spaceship could be made. Central cargo bay is fitted with replaceable survey module, mounted on a handy hinge for easier access. Two sponson hold a trio of sample return pods each, which with proper mission planning can be used quite sparingly. During a flyby of Minmus at altitude which would terrify civilians not familiar with orbital mechanics, Thomney reported sighting of some mysterious monolith on surface. Reports remain unconfirmed so far, and Thomney habit of basking in radiant glow of reactor cores in constant state of meltdown puts his reliability in doubt.

Continuing from last time... Baguette reached Moho and started dropping cargo. Some space frogs enjoyed Lander Eclipse. Shortly after an enormous gravitational disturbance wrecked starfleet infrastructure and caused loss of most scientific data. But space frogs are not known for giving up, so after some scrounging new cruiser was sent to investigate the cause. Learning on mistakes of past designs, Modulus series is much more... modular. First two are now bouncing around Kerbin SOI, with nuclear powered third unit on its way to Eve to investigate loss of contact with Astarte sent there beforehand. An invasive mass has been found on edge of Kerbin SOI, and Modulus crew bravely landed to check how it tastes. Suspecting presence of other invasive bodies in Kerbol space a deep space observation vessel, Ivore Tower, has been launched. Of course rebuilding spacefleet would not be possible without its backbone passenger/rescue workhorse cruiser. This time Bombardier was commissioned. Initially sent with sixteen two-Kerb unpowered drop pods, under guise of cargo capacity extension contract its now testing new design of slightly powered drop pods after successful partial pod restock operation. Going by orbital data obtained by Ivory Tower, it would seem that starfleet will need much more capable spaceship classes to properly categorize all new invasive astral bodies by their taste.

Continuing from last time... Two new vessels joined Kerbal Space Fleet to meet contractual requirements, some science was done, and a rover was tested. In preparation for Duna mission, a self-propelled version of Hawking's Garden was tested. During testing a mourning for death of KSP development was held. and a proof of liquid water was found Jumper jumped around Mun, and lots of suffering later Hawking's Garden module was dropped close enough to interesting rock for scanner arm to reach it. And then Bob had to call Corrick to remount it few times before it finally had no collision with rest of science module, or rock, or ground, or Kerbonaut. Once all the annoying things were accomplished... I learned that scanner arm is same as Kerbal just picking a rock with their greedy gloved fingers. Ugh. Forager was build to operate in Kerbin SOI as a garbage truck. Featuring giant cargo bay filled with a sextet of abductor pods to safely deliver back to surface whatever our clientele requests. To simplify design, and part count, Forager is responsible for entering suborbital trajectory as its abductor pods are just a claw behind inflatable heatshield with basic attitude control. Four external docking ports currently hold a quartet of 4-Kerb descent pods, and one heavy duty slot for large cargo at the rear allows for limited hauling duty. While built with repurposement and long duty in mind, it is not fit for interplanetary missions. Conveniently high TWR does not come for free. On test cruise Forager picked up two volunteers for next interplanetary mission. As contracted debris recovery had space for both of them, there was no need to expend crewed pod (tho new members have not shared that view point). During debris pickup, a contracted space station was dropped from rear cargo slot. In meantime, a terrifying discovery was made. Dres exploration contract had only 6 years of duration, with just 5 left on a clock. As such, a stopgap design with greatly limited scope due to funding problems had to be launched on suboptimal trajectory. In order to afford new ship, previously deployed Tinkerer science module was picked up from LKO. Until smaller LH2 tanks are emptied, Tinkerer reactor is necessary to keep the cooling going. Crew was scavenged from Astarte I and II, and a just-in-case engineering drone was borrowed as well. Featuring: - Pair of upgraded Hawking's Garden modules in orbital and rover version. - Kerbed skycrane for rover delivery, and to complete "return to Kerbin from..." contracts. To simplify design it has no deorbiting capabilities, instead abductor pod will be used upon return. - Newest and strongest yet relay satellite, tho only one could be afforded at the time of launch. - Fourth edition of All-Seeing-Eye spysat, with build in magsat and limited survey functions. And now back to scrounging for money in Kerbin SOI....