Ultimate Steve

Okay, RO/RP-0 update time! First off, Sapphire Station was launched (a few days ago irl). It was launched on Gravity II, a one core version of Gravity I. In concept it is similar to the MOL program. Its goal was not science. Its goal was mainly to win the million funds offered for staying in space 60 days. After its mission, the capsule was deorbited. It is still in orbit. As we no longer need it, we have licensed it to a private division which will send tourists to it in the near future. Sailor 5 landed on the Moon, hopefully concluding the Sailor program with 3 out of 5 landings being successful (Actually Sailor 1 was the lifter's fault, so as far as landings we're 3/4). Abort tests were done on the Spoice capsule, which is a 3 man capsule designed for circumlunar operations. Spoicy Joes 1, 2, and 3 were successful tests of the abort system. However, SJ1 tumbled out of control (the LES worked), and SJ3's parachutes ripped. The Spoice capsule was used on the Ruby Station Mission. Ruby station was a scaled up Sapphire station. It's goals were to get the 2 million fund prize for 90 days in space, and to test the Spoice capsule. It also discovered that real life solar panels are not as effective as stock ones. Upon re-entry it was discovered that inadequate parachutes had been installed. In a normal landing situation the capsule would be destroyed by the impact. Fortunately, due to jettisoning the heat shield late and dumping all of the resources overboard (Okay, I admit it, I used a tiny bit of hack gravity, but the crew also could have bailed out, and irl they probably could have survived 12m/s), the crew survived. Next up was a rocket the engineers built to see how cheaply they could launch something into orbit. Coming in at under 1000 funds, the Solid Rocket Motor Launch Vehicle (SRMLV) nearly entered orbit (800x130, PE is in atmosphere). Unfortunately, it has a useful payload of about 1kg, if that. Does anyone have a cubesat mod? Next was the first launch of Gravity III which is basically a less-cool looking Saturn V. In my defense, the largest I could make the tanks was 7 meters. Gravity IV will have a larger core. Unlike the Saturn, however, the four outer F1's separate halfway through the stage one burn. Stage two burn. Also, stage three took an hour to burn. IRL it was probably half an hour, even at 4x warp (oh, the lag!). Service Module 1 needed to perform a kick burn at perigee so that a moon encounter was achieved (because of an off-nominal S3 burn). Once in low orbit of the moon, the spacecraft split apart. On the left is Service Module 1, in the center is the one man lander, and on the right are the Command Module and Service Module 2. This mission would not attempt a landing, but it would de-orbit and attempt to re-orbit the lander. Unfortunately, the lander's ascent stage RCS did not work. As a result, the lander crashed on the moon. This is why we do unmanned tests! Unfortunately, the re-entry was too shallow. The capsule re-entered space. While orbiting around for another pass, the batteries were depleted. Even though the parachutes were armed, they ripped off. The capsule impacted somewhere in the middle east. I have a sticky note next to me right now with all of the problems I discovered during the flight which need to be solved before Spoice II mission. Stage one wants to flip on ascent. Add fins. Stage three engines are severely underpowered. 25% of the LH2 evaporates before and during the burn. Swap engine for a higher thrust one. The ullage engines on stage three require ullage themselves. Replace current ullage motors with solids. For some reason, the Service Module 1 RCS does not work. Probably using the wrong config. Stage two has no ullage motors. It shouldn't need them, but for peace of mind, add some solids. Fix the terrible paint job on the lifter. All Saturn+cryo, Titan+Cryo, Saturn, or Titan is fine, but Saturn+cryo+Titan is pretty ugly. Lunar Ascent Stage RCS does not work. Probably needs a config swap, but might also need separate tanks. Service Module 2 does not have RCS, even though it has RCS tanks. The mission currently has to use the capsule's RCS. Batteries could run out on re-entry. Lunar module does not have enough battery capacity - or the capability to generate power. Or science experiments. After some testing - PARACHUTES ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR A SAFE LANDING! DOUBLE PARACHUTES! Abort action group is not bound. The staging is a bit messed up. And that's why you do test flights!

So far I have finished up the initial design for my manned Moon landing mission in RO/RP-0. It is currently on the launch pad for its first unmanned test. Gravity III - Spoice I on the launch pad AAAAA So tempting! I want to press the space bar, but I have to go back to band camp in negative two minutes! AAAAAAA!!!!!

...Known internally as "USS Interrobang." This sounds like one of my KSP craft file names. For example, in my RO/RP-0 career, I have "Spoice 1," "Spoice 1 Testing," "Spoice 1 Testing 2, 3, 4, and 6" (I skipped 5 for some reason), and by the time I'm done with it, I'll have a "Spoice 1 non-test 7 v2.1.6 revision 8 FOR ABSOLUTE REALS (Final)." Water ice wouldn't. Oxygen ice would. Tungsten ice would probably be fine. If we got Hydrogen Ice we'd have a much greater scientific discovery in our hands than a rocket launch. But, we'll have to stick with Carbon ice for the time being. The one after that would be "Testing, Testing, is this thing on?" This whole thing is making me realize that more people would be into spaceflight if the KSP forum got to name all of the missions! How did you know what my favorite song is?

Haha. "Still Testing." I wonder what the third one will be called!

I have started Chapter 10, but it might not be ready for a while. My family was in a car crash and we're still trying to get everything sorted out. Everyone is alive, but I am now the most able person in the household, so I'm not going to have a ton of spare time in the next few weeks. It's definitely on the list, but I'm about 99% sure this takes priority over writing. Thanks for your patience!

Back in RO/RP-0, I'm working on designing a manned lunar lander. I wanted it to be as light as possible, so I chose an X-1 cockpit as the core, as it is only 0.35-ish tons. My new problem was that there were no engines that were restartable, throttlable, and small enough for my needs. I could coat the thing in 1kn thrusters, but those get an isp of ~180 iirc. I ended up with the Lunar Module Ascent Engine, which is still very overpowered on the ascent stage, and an Astris on the descent stage. It is a bit big, and can't throttle, but is restartable. No pics just yet! Also I launched a mini Salyut/Skylab on the new "Gravity II" booster, which is a single core version of Gravity I (plus a hydrolox upper stage).

I was at this restaurant which had a wall you could sign. I signed it. I also took the liberty of writing "gullible" on the ceiling.

Wait, I missed a Vector test launch? By one hour? Because I was weeding a friend's yard? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I'm still busy with RO/RP-0, but I was showing someone normal KSP. I eventually demonstrated a Mun landing, but because I've been playing RO/RP-0 so much, I ended up with an entire extra stage that I didn't need. I decided to show off by wasting the fuel in a spin and pulling out at the last moment to land on the Mun. However, the whole "pulling out of the spin" part did not work. So I end up slamming Jeb into the Mun at 300m/s in front of the person I was trying to show off to... smooth move, Steve.

BILL IS ALIVE!!! Shortly after disembarking from the Stargazer VIII capsule, he told the press He then proceeded to attempt to change his last name from "Kerman" to "Cipher." I guess he must have gone a bit crazy up there...

AAAAH I typed Kerbin, didn't I? I meant Earth. I'm playing RO/RP-0. TAC. I think. Again, RO/RP-0. The journey home was like 3 days, 2 hours from the point where I accidentally jettisoned the water. Stuff is a whole lot bigger in real life... I'm now loading KSP to make a third attempt at rescuing Bill.

Welp, I'm an idiot. During the part where I dumped the life support I accidentally dumped all the water overboard instead of all but 10. And Bill would have died 1.5 hours before landing on Kerbin. I went to quickload but quicksaved instead. I now have to do the entire rendezvous over again. But it's 11:30 here. I guess I'm going to bed frustrated today.

@kraden Thanks for the advice! I have actually done all of my launches from the same pad so far. All from the Cape, actually. I'll have to look into multiple pads. Update on Stargazer 8 - I tried rescuing but the upper stage was short on fuel by about 150m/s. I have loaded the quicksave and am trying to do some of the rendezvous with the EVA pack so that I can save 100m/s on the rendezvous burn (and end up in a slightly higher orbit). I am also going to have to dump most of the life support supplies... this will be close...

Four minutes to go!

Same here! This will be a first for me!

Probably the livestream: http://www.arianespace.com/mission/vega-flight-vv10/

Remember when I said Stargazer 6 was successful? And had a "dummy" upper stage that was not needed? So, I launched Stargazer 7, the goal of which was to take Bill Kerman to Low Lunar Orbit. However, upon return, I realized that I had neglected to fix the upper stage. So now he is stranded around the Moon with 52 days of life support left. I built Stargazer 8, which is mostly the same as 7 but without the science experiments and LES, and with a working upper stage and a probe core for the capsule. The only problem is that it will take 81 days to build. So, I clicked on the "rush build 10%" button, like, 7 times and now it will be ready in 26. But it takes five days to roll out for some reason. Now, let's hope I can save Bill! /run dramaticvoice.exe Bring. Him. Home.

Sorry, wrong thread, carry on!

Welcome to last-minute launch thread #4 (since I started counting)! Today, Arianespace will launch a Vega rocket which will hopefully carry two satellites into orbit. Stream link: http://www.arianespace.com/mission/vega-flight-vv10/ Have a great time watching!

I completed my first manned Circumlunar voyage in my RO/RP-0 career! I present to you, the Stargazer VI mission (I, II, and IV were manned orbital flights with III being a failure, V was an unmanned test of VI). This is the Gravity 1A booster, which lofted the mission. Those are 4.6 meter cores. I find it easier to keep the launch pad permanently destroyed (because somehow KCT lets you do that) because Gravity 1A wrecks it at every launch. The three cores have a total of 16 engines, 6 per booster and 4 in the core. 2 of the 4 center engines are not ignited until booster separation to ensure that the core has some fuel left after booster separation. Contrary to popular belief, the rocket features a working LES. It is below the fairing, which can somehow separate fast enough to allow escape. The second stage is powered by one engine. It ignites right as the fairings separate. After its burn, it is jettisoned along with the LES. On this mission is Bob Kerman, Scientist. A closer look at the third stage. It is restartable and is only used for circumlunar or interplanetary missions. If you needed 30-40t of straight LEO payload, this stage would not be on the rocket. However, there has not been a non-circumlunar Gravity flight yet. Gravity has only had 5 (I think) flights so far. This stage also features an optional avionics and power section. That stage, pushing the capsule, has 4,000 m/s of Delta-V, more than enough for TLI. After TLI, no more major burns happened, as the ship was on a free return trajectory. Yay, the moon! There is also a fourth stage. However, since some idiot forgot to change the tank type from "normal" to "service module" the engines onboard cannot be used. Re-entry went well. And, now Bob is back on Earth! Now, to dock in LEO, send more lunar lander probes, send a manned lunar orbit mission, wow this is a long list.

GRRRRR! I just did my unmanned circumlunar flight with next to no problems. However, I landed in the middle of the ocean, meaning I had no connection to send the "deploy parachute" command on. I'm starting to hate RO/RP-0.

Recently in my RO/RP-0 career, I found the need for a super big rocket to take larger payloads to the Moon. Like, Saturn V sized. However, the 7m procedural diameter upgrade was still a few nodes away. I decided to design a medium lifter and use it for lunar satellites, Lunar lander probes, Apollo-like hardware tests (I'm probably going to call it the "Batman Program"), station modules (If I want to do that) and other medium stuff. With that, I would send a moon probe around the moon, gather science, and return to Earth, completing the "first unmanned re-entry" contract. So, I designed the "Gravity 1," which used three 4.6 meter cores, with engines staged so that the center core would burn longer. The cores were 30m long. The second stage was the same diameter but about 10m. The third stage was restartable. Doing the math, it can get over 30 tons into orbit. Unfortunately, it didn't work out correctly! Test flight 1 exploded on the pad. Flight two made it to orbit, but the top stage failed due to me not pressurizing the tanks. Flight three mostly worked except for re-entry of the probe. I'm going to admit, I was so frustrated at this point that I cheated it down. So, supposedly now I have a boatload of money, right? Nope. Somewhere in that long wait, the contract for re-entry expired, and I'm bankrupt. I managed to scrape together funds for one more flight, and unmanned circumlunar capsule. If I have the funds, flight five will be manned.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Brain fart. Saturn, of course. No, I forgot to mention the third aeroshell which has negative air resistance and would accelerate by going through Jupiter's atmposphere. The second one would obviously be for Saturn... Man, I must be either really tired or really distracted... Now I'm having daydreams of someone telling me Titan orbits Neptune or something...

Risky idea: lake science probe inside heat shield/aeroshell attached to propulsion section, all inside another aerocapture shell which will be used to get into Jupiter orbit, with a larger interplanetary power module all lofted by Falcon Heavy. Yeah, I can dream...

I believe the wind volume is controlled by the "ambience" slider. However, your other two suggestions would be awesome to have.