Kertech

So after my previous save died ( I checked for the autosave but decided that there was something rong with it anyway, something seemed to be making it buggy and crashy!) So I booted up a new game and tried out 10 times scale! My first real scale orbit, a tiny probe about 1 tonne HUGE LAUNCHER!! Tiny probe This is just to get a simple 4 tonne craft to orbit Reentry speed is about 7,500m/s so burns through a whole heat shield and then some! Then for laughs I Built a shuttle for this scale! It's ugly, can't carrymuch payload and return from orbit is hairy! I put about 6 hours into this save just to try it out. 10 times is fun, challenging, but I have a few issues with it. Mainly I feel that a lot of the stock balancing just does not hold (SRBs are a good example!) and I don't have the hardware to go full RSS/RO at the moment! This leads to the next issue, there are quite a few parts I simply did not use, and likely would never in this scale )like almost all the 1.25m equipment, that's why I made the shuttle! So yeah probably going back to 6.4, or maybe even 4 times!

We'll just say you're a well adjusted grownup to moral values! (At least you save them, I just hyperedit them back and pretend it was all a dream!) on on a different note, my save game of 6months died last night. Had an NaN error and on reboot would tell me the game had just started and that was it so new save just debating if doing it pre 1.3 or post

Hey @RaendyLeBeau, just wondering about the docking port cover, is it folding to 180'? My experience with other mods is that sometimes the cover can bump the target vessel. looking great, can't wait for this to be ready! (Though not to soon as gynae exams are next week!!)

'Twas the week of an update, And all through the drive, back ups were been copied to keep Jeb alive! (Not downing 1.3, I'm just comfortable with my 1.2.2 save!)

I don't check this thread for a few days and loads of developments! Rocket parts are looking great! Will the parts of the tanks that go in (non form factor) create fairings when the nodes are attached!

I do this a lot with stock spaceplanes due to needing different amounts of LFO and just LF. I normally work ut which bit has the most stuff attached to it. Press 4 to change the route part to the opposite side (it will require clicking on the part you want twice) and remove them all in the biggest chunk possible, especially for avoiding changing wing positions. change the tank and then re assemble. With to route changes you can normally isolate the right part.

Yeah it was driving me up the wall, I stole some configs from the RSS lot, which proved to be too much so reduced them. I'm gonna try and find another way soon, but for now I wanted a proof of concept that looked right!

Dear Agony Aunt. By Alanit Kerman Hello again my dears and welcome to my little corner of the chronicle. Here to solve your woes and personal drama in a compassionate, caring and extremely public way. Q) Dear agony aunt, I keep dropping things every time a launch. It's just so embarrassing! Please help!!! --- D Kerman from Korfolk. A) Well my dear, you do have a pickle don't you. This sounds like you're not one with your mind, a bit rash and impatient. I suggest relax, and meditate. Think about the universe and space, we all love it, but space if used too much makes a Kerbal foolish. Q) Dear agony aunt, my husband is stranded on the mun, what do I do!?! --- A Kerman, Kornwall A) Surprisingly common malady these days. I suggest sit back and relax, he is probably fine. You could instead join up and go get him, just make sure you have an extra booster with you. Q) Dear agony aunt, how do you tell if a girl likes you? A) Oh my dear you have much to learn. A woman has signs, however why not make your feelings known. What could be more romantic than building her a rocket and bring her the stars! Q) Dear agony aunt, how do you stop your house from being hit by rockets and exploding? A) Ahh my sweetie, you know the old saying, “rockets never hit the same spot twice” why not move into the KSC, they’ve all been hit there! Q) Dear agony aunt, is your column a thinly veiled recruiting drive from ksp? --- S Kerman, Kertfordshire A) No my love, but if you'd like to join, then write me a letter at the normal address! KSC, KSC road,KS1 P22. Till next week!

Hey @eloquentJane I did a thing Has some teething issues, currently have installed RCS, and solar panels got sheered off by fairing, but its a working 6.4 scale orion!

First Kerballed mission out of kerbin SOI. The youngest Intrepid class cruiser was selected (the Kydonia) with a deep space habitation module (Intrepid class vehicles are designed to be adaptable!) First minmus Landing. Mandatory reentry sunrise shot This concludes the veterans work together,they now all have their own commands with rookies. Jeb is going to take the 4th mun exploration mission, Val will take the second Minmus exploration mission, Bob will take his crew to do some orbital science and Bill will test some new exciting rockets... Meanwhile the first Plock-Karen window came up so the first Vagrant mk2 mission was launched (Pluto 1 [V2a] ) The mark 2's are nuclear powered and have 24,000m/s off the pad! Finally tested some nuclear thermal stuff!!

@Bornholio if you've got the patience a bi elliptic transfer is the most efficient way to get down there (without gravity assists). I aim for beyond Jool orbit, then the retrograde burn is about 1,000m/s for solar impact. But it takes a long, long time! Like Eeloo orbit time! This ship has made it and survived with no cheats (it's sister ship (impactor) blew up just above the sun, I cheated that one in, just to see what it looked like in there) General rules, no solar panels (they'll explode, so RTGs) heat shield has to be facing sun (so target radial) put as many radiators as your power will allow. Load it with no max temp on so you can orientate before it blows up!

Would say so too...

*Insert Star Trek theme here*

I think that Afallon is at about 350km, it's just the 6.4scale making everything seem closer!

Ahh but that design was cute,also nice use of fairing nodes Bigger eh, how about a Lion 20 tonnes LKO-Mun, and can land 10 tonnes and return (if refuelled in munar orbit) all in 6.4 scale! (lalnding is theoretical currently however) My current unseen workhorse, theres two of them floating about the system

So inbetween fifteen minute probe burns (4,000-7,000m/s takes a while at twr 0.2...) and many many course corrections I carried on working on building up infrastructure for a concerted attack on minmus and muns biomes. Station 2 now named Ynys Afallon was built to its full scale over the course of 16 launches! (due to world scaling mass to orbit is significantly reduced, 40 tonnes is pretty much my limit till I hit space Y! Another problem is I like things to look kind of, well, realistic (for a game about little green bug eyed aliens with parts made of high explosive...) Core module, basic lifesuppport, initial docking equipment, 4 large construction docking ports. Almost all of the external parts (e.g. solar) are meant to be removed when finished. Solar Trusses added Adding in 4 docking trusses Completed base, has all station science facilities and experiments, standard lab, lifesupport for 6 kerbals for 2 years, 4 capital ship docking gantries (3 for current use and the fourth for refuelling them!) crew transfer docking node and a hell of a lot of power. Sent Bill out on a part reduction mission, so all radial attatched rcs, batteries and cores solar array! Then just for good measure on the frame rate, I docked up my three current exploration vessels. The intrepid class is turning out to be oneof my favourite ever ships, just versatile. 6,000m/s and up to a year in lifesupport for a standard crew. They are the backbone of all of my current missions. The Intrepid (oldest and flown 3 missions to the mun is top right (with a broken battery, Bill is gonna fix it when they get out of 2.5km of this frame rate dropper!!). The Valiant is top left, flown one unmanned deep space test flight and one unmanned minmus flyby, being prepared for the first minmus expedition. The Kydonia is docking to thecentral gantry, youngest and yet to fly a mission. Most likely will be the first kerballed extra KerbinSOI mission. (Always a scary one!) On different missions, Leon 1 (one of my standard inner planet probes, a vagrant 1a) was going to change orbit when I found that both its engines had developed faults! They had two to begin with incase one dies, but both was just irritating! Science functions were shut down and it was turned into a relayfor future missions to cerillion (hopefully spelled right) Minmus station was set up And lander transferred Nothing particularly game changing, but been fun pretending to be a space agency. This mid game stuff feels kind of like current tech level, (well excluding my reliance on nuclear thermal!) Looking at the tech tree though things should get interesting soon with a combination of NF stuff and interstellar...

we left off, with the Boys up around the Mun, Val has got clearance for launch and has the solitary3 day trip to the Mun Docking her little Dennis pod, it's to be left there as an emergency rendezvous tug if someone (most likely Jeb) runs out of fuel on ascent. Immediately she grabs Bill and Bob and lands her own mun mission, this time to the east farside crater Eagle eyed among you will notice the plumes changed colour, may have installed real plume at this point... (oooh purple) At least Val sems happy with the new colours After wandering around they all go back to the Mun station and waiting intrepid. Overall this station + intrepid can house the 4 of them for around 2 years,which is considered more than sufficient leeway for supply missions. With this the first expedition is finished, the extended duration element not being a goal. This was merely a proof of concept beforeexpanind to minmus as well. For efficiency the deceleration was done over 4 passes (it is about 2000m/s) Meanwhile on the ground, plans were being made to retrieve them from the intrepid. issue was that the original capsules were either deorbited or at the mun. So two capsules were launched commanded by rookies, having two spare seats each. These rendezvous with the core module and await the intrepid. It was decided that all future launches would be to the LKO station where the Intrepid would be "parked" The rookies gave the command seats over to Val and Jeb who were to fly a pod each and both cast off, leaving the station unmanned for now. Meanwhile some of the rookies decided to head off on a long drive to go camping... (this was just a trial of howto work things, might end up using pathfinder,we'll see... annoyingly all other photos seem to have gone!) Up next two ridiculously over sized fairings with possibly some rockets attached! More specifically it's a Titan Ic below... Even the relative baby of the titan series was overkill for these launches, they had to be used though due to the scale of the faring and not the actual mass of the payload! Two trusses with more construction ports, bigger radiators and solar panels, and bigger reaction wheels (basically MORE!!!!!!!) The ports will eventually have long truss with docking ports for the Intrepid class ships and station science labs! Another ridiculous fairing And probably the biggest pain to launch so far... Inside is a fully fueled mk1 Lion tug! Immediately after this launch the Munar fuel pod was launched, this looked more like a rocket again!! This Lump was hauled over to the mun and welded to a construction port, it includes anoth hundred days of supplies, more RCS and more Liquid fuel for all those nuclear rockets up there! It is worth noting that the Lion is capable of landing on the Mun and Minmus , and also transporting light payloads to the ground! Finally one of the probey bits. There are currently 4 probes in Kerbol SOI, 3 going to planets (which will appear soon) and one thats a bit different. Based off the basic vagrant design the whole upper stage was flipped, a heat shield and lots of radiators added. With a relatively ridiculous 11km/s at LKO this ship is designed to go fast, well really it's designed to very very slow! The heat shield and radiators are cause it going to Kerbol (planned to impact!) the RTG's are there because ironically solar power is not the best idea that close to the sun!! Set off on a bi-elliptic transfer beyond the orbit of Jool it'll impact kerbol in 12 years time!

Just gonna miss out a lot of stuff, mainly because I've read them all a lot and seeing someone set up maneuver node for comnets and interplanetary maneuvers is a little bit dry... After my 6.4scale save's previous three mun landings, all to non equatorial random sites apollo style, the powers that be decided to make some permanent infrastructure... Launched half fueled the first of a new class of ship, designed to be reusable, and have a wide range of utility, initially though it is a glorified long distance ferry! The Intrepid (which names the Intrepid class) has 6,500m/s when fully fueled and has life support reserves for an extended exploration mission of 100days (for the standard crew of 4). I'm quite pleased with it, looks like something that could exist The big reason for doing the switch to reusable craft so early is due to difficulty stuff. I started this save in 6.4 scale and wanted to focus on in-situ resources and colonization, as such there is a whole host of things just to make this happen which included MKS, which despite having played Kerbal for several years now I've never really used. I went to their relevant forum and got told that although tac is supported USI-LS is better for USI stuff (Sounds leggit). I've never used it before but had nothing permanent in orbit so gave it a go and found that it was pretty much impossible to do a standard fuel efficient transfer with a full cabin to minmus (standard is 7 days) due to habitation limits. So I designed a new ship, which just grew until I decided sod it and built this. (Though @RoverDude I am LOVING every second of it, and I'm probably doing it wrong, but having fun learning by error!) Onwards with the infrastructure: New rover Kerbin science/docking station first module (Titan IIa launch system is really getting its money's worth in this post) Lots of room for expansion on this one... Nearly Identical station for Munar orbit (Titan IIb this time, currently my heaviest launch vehicle though getting close to space Y) Of course it launched at night, but here is the first of the Eagle mk2 (there's a mk 1 in the first picture) Improvements, single stage and re=usable, 3 man instead of 1, better docking equipment, KIS storage and cameras, more science equipment. Cons 7 days life support for full landing crew of 3. Docked her over on the mun station (not named) Then sent a fuel pod to the intrepid for the first Lunar extended expedition. Finally the first three kerbals to use the intrepid launch, these are Jeb, Bob and Bill, Val will launch separately, due to the need for an emergency shuttle at the mun station. (why take a cruise ship for dinghy jobs) Then to the Mun Obviously just at a moment of success dangit steps in to break a battery, nearly ramming my ship with the station. Jeb decides not to wait for Val and takes the three down for a little Munar jog Finding an oddly flat area, flags were placed for possible base sites... I love the ASET interior, can't help but fly from IVA Anyway Bill now had to go and fix the battery on the intrepid ( I swear tht should be covered by warranty... ) Apologies for the long post, unfortunately there's more to come (not getting much chance to do this atm) your reward for getting this far is amadame who nearly ruined todays flight by walking on the keyboard during docking, hitting, space and confusing translation control stuff...

Whoops, posted the mission report into the wrong tab, I'll leave the cat (poppet) here though cause that really was today! High lights: First kerbin SOI reusable ship (the Intrepid) New space stations (identical core around minmus and Mun, though no lab there) First landing with an eagle mk 2 Added trusses to kerbin space station, will eventually add labs and more docking sites for the three intrepid class ships (the Intrepid, the Valiant and the Kydonia). New heavyreusable tug/ dropship lander for mun/minmus, first se wasto take a fuel pod to mun station And this is just the highlights! more detail here Found this photo which sums up my current mission infrastructure nicely Apologies for the long post, unfortunately there's more to come (not getting much chance to do this atm) your reward for getting this far is a madame who nearly ruined todays flight by walking on the keyboard during docking, hitting, space and confusing translation control stuff... [from earlier]

Mechjeb does have a launch to rendezvous feature, never been able to make it work though.

UK just got hit by storm "Doris", which sounds like an oldwoman rushing (well at least slightly faster than orbit around Gilly) for the last biscuit for her tea! Some damage was done, tea was cooled quicker, it rained in london (this is not really worth saying) and every british person discussed how awful it is.

eith near future you get capacitors, they weigh a lot less than a battery, so get each one to be under your maximum battery charge capacity, then discharge them one by one whilst doing a burn, makes cheap, light ion probes that can operate at full thrust!!

I've colonised Eve and Tylo a few times, not intentionally, but they weren't coming home so I say it counts!

They keep me nose and bum from getting mixed up!

So not been getting time to play much recently, but managed to find some free time to work on a Jool 5 project I've had on back burner for about a year! Mother ship and landers done, just need to evaluate fuel situation and then cast off. The mother ship is something like the 6th or 7th total redesign and the 4th or so iteration of that, but finally happy! Named the Elantris she is over 130 parts of industrial beauty! Plenty of scope for stable aerobraking with entire lander payload safe inside the internal docking structure (the big space with tubing in the middle!) Crew can access all docking nodes through access tubes Since I've been playing pretty much exclusively either 6.4 or 10 times scale recently I decided to launch it in one piece (genuinely learnt so much about flying from the big scale!) Also I forgot how ridiculous space y is! These aren't even the biggest possible rockets! Payload is three parts: a simple tug for getting places in the Jool system (the Elantris is heavy) a plane for laythe and a moon lander, the upper stage being refueled and capable of vall etc, whilst with the lowerstage able to do tylo! Quite looking forward to this mission, will eventually post a full log, including launches and many many dockings in mission reports!