The Raging Sandwich

I'll investigate that, thank you

I would make an update, but after rebuilding the KSS Jool (which was supposed to be totally reusable) four times now, it's somehow even more wobbly than before. Normally it's completely fine after rebuilding it and adding landers to each of the docking ports within the payload bay. It isn't until you undock something from the forward 1.25m port in the payload bay that the wobbles start. But this time it started wobbling uncontrollably without even having something docked there to begin with. All I have there this time is a new lander docked to the aft 2.5m port. It's frustrating and I have no idea what to do. Any ideas on how to fix this issue are welcome.

Part 7 - Sarnus Everything was ready. With a little luck, the KSS Jool's second mission to Sarnus would go better than its first. For a little while that wish came true. A course had been plotted. With a basic transfer burn to the gas giant, it would take a little over six years to get there. But the KSS Jool was designed with this problem in mind, carrying with it an abundance of available Delta-V to burn just a little bit longer on the transfer maneuver to intercept the planet in only 2.5 years. Over the course of the ten-minute burn, everything remained stable and the radiators whisked away heat from the engine without issue with help of the new action groups. During its outward travels, the solar panels and power generation were closely monitored. At Jool's distance on the last mission, the four smaller solar panels generated only barely enough electric charge to maintain the cooling needs of the cryogenic fuel tanks, requiring a total of 5.88 EC/s. The two massive new solar panels on the revamped Propulsion Module (PM) Mk2 could generate more power than the four old ones at Jool's distance, but Sarnus was almost twice that. In case the solar panels were not sufficient, an emergency nuclear reactor had been added to the PM Mk2. But as proved to be the case not long after the ship crossed Jool's orbit, the solar panels were not enough and the storage of charge quickly depleted. I tried to take advantage of what I thought was a weird time warp exploit in order to not use the emergency reactor, as warping to 100,000x seemed to deplete the batteries only to a certain extent where just enough charge appeared to be maintained. Every so often I would drop out of warp and use the reactor to replenish charge and repeated the process until the ship reached Sarnus. This, of course, would have proved disastrous had I not taken a fast course to the planet. Though it appeared enough charge was being maintained at 100,000x speed, this wasn't the case in real-time. Every instance the charge had dropped below 5.88 over the course of over two years, the cryogenic cooling of the fuel tanks would stop and the fuel inside would boil off. By the time the ship got to Sarnus, it was discovered that almost half the fuel had already been depleted without having actually burned any of it. But luckily for the crew onboard, the KSS Jool was still stocked with more than enough to complete the mission as planned. The nuclear reactor would decrease its power input to lengthen its lifespan and remain on for the rest of the mission around the planet. Arriving at Sarnus, the first step on the itinerary was to slow down from the ship's fast trajectory into a stable orbit with a 5,000 m/s burn to intercept the large moon Slate. Wowed by the incredible ringed planet, there would be no choice but to take many pictures of the beautiful views (huge kudos to the creator of OPM!) Flyby over Slate's north pole From the ship's heavily-inclined orbit, there was some work to do to reach its first target: the atmospheric moon Tekto. The Surveyor 3 lander had already paved the way to its surface 18 years earlier, but this time two Kerbals would land and return with the same method employed by the Laythe lander in the previous mission. After slowing into orbit, a prime location was scouted on the edge of a large ocean for Val and Gerrigh Kerman to land on (upright this time). Tekto Flag Planted: Y27, D189 As stated before, the Tekto lander utilized a balloon like the Laythe lander. However, the atmospheres of the two moons are quite different, thus requiring a different balloon with different specs. The KerBalloons mod only has balloons for stock planets and moons, so only the next best thing could be used on Tekto to match the maximum and minimum pressure requirements to inflate. At its landed altitude, the nearly sea-level pressure exceeded the maximum to inflate the balloon, so a little kick off the surface was needed to reach a slightly thinner atmosphere. The balloon was inflated from there and the lander reached orbit and rendezvoused without issue. Next on the agenda was to return to Slate. Given the allotted space and arrangements within the payload bay, the Tekto lander had to be the first out. Seeing as Tekto was the farthest moon from Sarnus, it made sense to proceed inward in order to each moon as opposed to outward like in the Jool mission, hence why Slate was next. Reaching a 60 km orbit around Slate, the reflective surface between the many craters appears relatively flat. It isn't until you reach only a few meters off the ground that this is revealed not to be the case, as the entire surface is covered in rolling hills without a level plane anywhere across the globe. Not even landing at the terminator between night and day where shadows are their longest solved this problem. As such, the tall and heavy Slate lander had no choice but to touch down on the gentlest incline that occupants Ludmal and Elbro could find. This still wasn't enough, as the entire lander started sliding down the hill at a measly 0.2 m/s. Surface operations were quick so the Kerbonauts could get back onboard and lift off before they toppled over at the bottom of the slope. Slate's entire surface is pockmarked with craters and snaking riverbeds. Again, kudos to the creator of OPM. Slate Flag Planted: Y27, D213 But just like last time, the entire mothership became wobbly after the lander upper stage returned. There wasn't any separation between the docking ports this time, so the only conclusion I can come up with at this point is that undocking the lander from the forward docking port within the payload bay somehow causes Kraken attacks. Investigation of this hypothesis will be investigated once the ship returns to Kerbin. But for now, the same going-in-and-out-of-tracking-station exploit would have to suffice to keep it stable for the coming maneuvers. Next was Eeloo, the forsaken planet-turned-moon. For the first of the last three stops in the mission, the Vall lander had been renamed to the Eeloo lander. It carried a full crew of six Kerbals to the edge of a canyon - Val, Rosgel, Gerrigh, Elbro, Kathhat, and Tedby - to make up for my decade's-long neglect of Eeloo as a planet in the stock game. Eeloo Flag Planted: Y27, D216 The Eeloo lander was returned to the payload bay and refueled for reuse at the next target: the smooth, egg-shaped Ovok just outside Sarnus' rings. Reaching orbit, the KSS Jool revolved around the moon at only about 10 m/s. Given the efforts and general sloooooowwww nature of a moon with 0.002 g (which is less than half of Gilly's, btw), only Ludmal, Elbro, and Kathhat would make the landing. Ovok Flag Planted: Y27, D222 The final target was the tiny, 6 km moonlet Hale within Sarnus' rings. This landing went much like Ovok's (except even slower), with Rosgel, Gerrigh, and Tedby reaching the surface. Hale Flag Planted: Y27, D229 With its services no longer required, the lander was discarded after its crew EVA'd back to the ship. Only 25 days later, it was time to go home. The KSS Jool departed Hale and its magnificent views of Sarnus' rings and returned to a parking orbit. From there, a transfer burn to Kerbin was conducted, and the KSS Jool and its crew will return in just over six years. // TO BE CONTINUED //

Part 6 - Explorer 7 & KSS Jool Reservicing After nearly 14 years, the Explorer 7 probe finally reached its destination: the ice giant Urlum and its eclectic series of moons 250 million kilometers away from the Sun. Its mission there began with a capture burn into orbit, where it first set an intercept course to the moon Polta which shares a co-orbit configuration with its smaller twin Priax. After completing the flyby, it set course for the large moon Wal which has its own unique characteristic. Wal orbits far enough away from Urlum that it is able to host another tiny moon, Tal, orbiting around it - a moon orbiting another moon. With its fuel reserves then running low, Explorer 7 settled itself within a comfortable final orbit around the planet. Arrival at Urlum with three moons (L-R): Polta, Wal, & Priax On the equatorial plane, Urlum's faint rings disappear Flyby of Polta The uniquely shaped Wal and its shiny sub-moon Tal Back at Kerbin, the KSS Jool was in dire need of reservicing. This included a redesign of its entire Propulsion Module. During its first mission to Jool, it suffered inconveniences with its radiators as well as power issues and stability problems in the docking connection to the Utility Module. The Mk2 Propulsion Module would keep the insanely powerful and efficient fusion engine but add action groups for easy toggling of the 18 main radiators, two new huge solar panels to soak in as much light as possible in the outer solar system, and a new nuclear reactor for emergency power generation. Theorizing that the previous mission's stability issues were simply due to an unfortunate Kraken attack, the 5-meter docking port was unchanged to fit with that of the Utility Module. The Mk1 Module was jettisoned and destroyed and the new Mk2 was launched with a Condor B-4. Though the new additions worked wonders and fixed their intended issues, the 5-meter docking ports still would not connect properly upon rendezvous. This meant one of two things: either the problem area was the Utility Module's docking port or 5-meter docking ports themselves was the problem. Hoping to avoid anymore redesigns, both an entirely new payload bay and engine were launched. The payload bay connected just fine with the resolute Crew Module - the second Mk2 Propulsion Module did not (ughh). And so, the two pieces were redesigned with smaller 3.75m docking ports and relaunched again which fixed the problem. This raised a question: why did the 5-meter docking ports suddenly stop working around Tylo? They were working just fine before. The KSC engineers and the man behind the computer screen are still scratching their heads about it. Nevertheless, the KSS Jool was back in business. The transfer window for the ship's next target, the beautiful ringed planet Sarnus, was approaching. Sarnus has a series of 5 moons that share many similarities with Jool's - an atmospheric moon with lakes and oceans (Tekto); a smaller, icy moon (Eeloo, which is demoted to a moon in OPM); a large, barren moon with intense gravity (Slate); and two tiny moons with ultra-light gravity orbiting within the rings (Hale and Ovok). Given the similarities, the Sarnus mission could utilize the same hardware as the Jool mission with minimal hardware changes. The Laythe Lander would be repurposed for Tekto, so the balloon was changed to suit its higher atmospheric pressure. Some of the fuel tanks could be removed from the Tylo Lander for a landing on Slate with its slightly lower gravity. The Vall Lander, renamed the Eeloo Lander for the purposes of this mission, remained exactly the same and could be used on Hale and Ovok as well. Like for the previous mission, the landers were sent up and docked within the payload bay with two launches of the Albatross B rocket. With just 14 days remaining before the scheduled transfer burn to Sarnus, the KSS Jool's next crew was selected. The Commander Valentina would be joined by six rookies with their next-generation space suits - Pilots Ludmal and Rosgel, Engineers Gerrigh and Elbro, and Scientists Kathhat and Tedby. A Kerbin D carried the crew of seven to the mothership waiting above before departing to its parking orbit to take them home at the end of the mission. With this, I am finally caught up chronicling my adventures of the solar system to the present day. // TO BE CONTINUED //

Part 5 - The Jool 5 The Jool transfer window was open. A Kerbin D was ready with the crew for the KSS Jool's maiden voyage - Jeb, Seanly, Piper, Bill, Kirely, Luke, and Neuki Kerman - three pilots, two engineers, and two scientists. Inside the ship, the crew of seven got accustomed to their living quarters for the next six years and the views that came with them. With everything settled and all systems checked, it was time for the transfer burn from Kerbin orbit. The ship's new fusion engine could provide a staggering 1100 kN of thrust with an ISP of 365,000, almost 15 times more powerful and almost 6 times more efficient than the KSS Dres' engine. These numbers got the KSC engineers thinking: is it too good to be true? Short answer: Yes, are you serious? Long answer: Problems arose immediately upon firing the engine for the transfer burn. First, the engine stops below 5% thrust, which isn't too much of a problem. Secondly, the engine must be completely charged before each use - a process that takes up 7,000 EC out of the 40,000 stored throughout the ship. While this wouldn't be a problem close to the Sun like around Kerbin, there was potential for this to cause problems in the shadows of moons or planets or in places far from light where solar panels were less efficient. This goes hand-in-hand with the third problem: didn't it have an on-board nuclear generator for power like the KSS Dres' fusion engine? You would think, but no. The KSC engineers didn't do a thorough read of the product description when ordering the engine online. While it produced power when the engine was firing, there was no sort of power generation in the shadows or when it was idle. If it remained in the dark for any significant amount of time and the solar panels weren't properly positioned, the entire battery bank could be depleted due to the fuel's cryogenic cooling. Fourth, upon igniting the engine, the entire ship started to gyrate wildly. Locking the engine gimble and turning off the artificial gravity ring's rotation just in case fixed the problem. Lastly, the engine required 54 MW of radiator cooling as to not overheat, and exactly 54 MW worth or radiators were included in the engine assembly. The engine was powerful enough to complete the transfer burn all in one go, but it quickly overheated and stopped only a few seconds in. The engine was recharged and reignited several times to complete the burn, but the KSS Jool was now on its way. It wasn't until the mid-course correction burn to narrow the ship's closest approach to Jool was the heating problem resolved. After completing the full maneuver with no overheats, Kerbal engineers first thought that the ship was now far enough away from the Sun that the temperature had dropped enough to keep the engine cool. But there was another hypothesis which turned out to be proven correct: I had simply missed turning on a few of the radiators the first time around. This revealed yet another problem in that I had neglected to couple the radiators to action groups for toggling them on and off. This proved to be quite a nuisance especially during the power troubles that plagued the mission later, as I had to turn all 18 radiators on and off individually for each and every ignition of the engine. But despite all the troubles the crew still chugged on, arriving at Jool almost three years later with its first landing target in its sights: Laythe. After arriving in orbit, the crew had just under 60 days to land on each of the five moons before the Kerbin return transfer window opened. If they missed it, their multi-year-long mission would be extended. The ship finally arrived at Laythe several days after plotting its first course in the Jool system, achieving a stable orbit around the moon. The first landing attempt could begin. The honors belonged to Jeb and Bill who EVA'd from the station core's main airlock to the Laythe lander in the payload bay. Seeing as Laythe had an atmosphere that could hardly be ignored, the lander featured a heat shield and detachable retro package to slow down from orbit. It wasn't until Jeb arrived at the lander's airlock that a new, potentially disastrous new problem was discovered: the dimwits at the VAB forgot to add a ladder. Nevertheless, Jeb and Bill pressed on. They had come too far just to not even try. A prime equatorial island was scouted for landing, but only mountains could be seen after descending through the cloud layer. This is when another insane plan was hatched - what if the slopes could be beneficial for the ladder situation? The lander touched down on a steep mountain at the island's edge, sliding down its slope like on skis. Jeb and Bill attempted to stabilize it by leaning against its descent to no avail. If they could just depress one of the landing legs enough into the slope to get the hatch close enough to the ground, they might be able to jump back in from the surface, but this too proved fruitless. With no options left, the decision was made to tip the lander over completely by retracting the landing gear, then roll on its side until the hatch faced the ground. From here, Jeb and Bill would be able to get back in after stepping outside. If this image doesn't perfectly encapsulate the KSP experience, I don't know what does Laythe Flag Planted: Y21, D72 Tipping the lander over would be idiotic, of course, if there wasn't any way to get it back upright and back into orbit. Luckily, the Laythe lander was the only ship this plan could have worked with due to its secret weapon: an inflatable high-altitude balloon to lift it into the upper atmosphere. This way, precious weight and fuel could be saved to get back into orbit. After the balloon inflated, the lander tipped back right-side up and ascended into the air to an altitude of nearly 40 km before popping, high enough to get back into a safe orbit and rendezvous with the mothership with its limited fuel supply before being discarded. Next on the agenda was Vall. A course was plotted directly from Laythe orbit to a Vall intercept, arriving at its next target in a matter of days. From the landing tests with the lander in another save file simulations, the Vall lander had to begin its descent from an orbit of 40 km to be most efficient. This, of course, meant that the KSS Jool was parked at that altitude as well. This is when the power problems that would plague the rest of the mission really began. At Jool's distance, each of the four large solar panels were only generating a max of 2 electric charge when pointed directly at the Sun as opposed to the 50 back at Kerbin. The low orbit altitude around Vall meant that it would remain in its shadow for longer, depleting more and more of its energy reserves after each orbit since the solar panels just couldn't quite keep up. The problem wasn't discovered until the Vall crew of four, led by Piper Kerman, returned the lander to the payload bay to find the ship running on fumes. Vall Flag Planted: Y21, D79 If the crew wanted to depart from Vall, the KSS Jool needed to start generating more power. This could be done in a higher orbit with less time in shadow and more time in the light. After gathering as much light as it could and turning off the ring and lights throughout the ship, the radiators were activated and engine ignited to boost into a 500 km orbit. From there, enough power could be generated to leave for the next target: Tylo, the biggest nuisance in the solar system. A massive moon with an almost Kerbin-like gravity of 0.8 g like Laythe, no cheats could be used this time on Tylo. Only brute force could get a lander to the surface and back. The 40+ ton Tylo lander consisted of two stages, with two aerospike engines for landing and takeoff and a final boost back into orbit after stage separation. Entrusted to pilot the attempt were veterans Seanly and Bill Kerman. Massively overengineered, the upper stage returned to the KSS Jool with fuel to spare before also being discarded. Tylo Flag Planted: Y21, D92 Next up were the tiny moons of Bop and Pol, but the transfer window back to Kerbin was coming up fast. The decision was made to visit Pol first as it would take the least amount of time travel-wise from the ship's position around Jool. The most time-efficient way to get there was to return to a low Jool orbit from Tylo, descending to periapsis for only a day or two before performing the transfer burn to Pol. However, the worst problem yet had just arisen. After the Tylo lander had returned to the KSS Jool, it was discovered that the Kraken had attacked the docking nodes between the payload bay and Propulsion Module, leaving the two still somehow connected but unstable. Firing the engine caused the entire ship to gyrate wildly, and the time warp stabilization exploit actually made it worse. Wobbling to the desired attitude and exiting and reentering via the Tracking Station every time the ship needed to burn or recharge the batteries was the only solution to this problem even after separating and redocking the two problem points. Combined with the power and radiator problems, the KSS Jool was only limping along, but still the crew pressed on to Pol. After refueling the Vall lander with the onboard LFO reserves, another crew of three descended to and returned from the surface. Though the Vall lander could carry a full crew of six, it was decided vital that at least one pilot and engineer remain onboard the sickly mothership at all times. The weird glitched separation between the payload bay and engine docking ports can kinda be seen here Pol Flag Planted: Y21, D110 A similar approach of returning to Jool orbit was taken to limp towards the last target: the heavily-inclined Bop. After reaching orbit of the lumpy moon, the Vall lander was refueled once again and carried a crew of four to the surface and back. With the final landing, the Jool system had been conquered. With SAS, lights, and gravity ring off and only the cryogenic fuel tanks drawing power, the KSS Jool was merely a ghost ship. Bop Flag Planted: Y21, D125 With no reason to return to the payload bay, the crew simply EVA'd from the Vall lander back to the mothership after rendezvousing. The airlock lights were turned on to illuminate their way back. The crew had completed their mission with one day left to spare before the Kerbin transfer window. Proper charge was gathered and the fusion engine was activated one final time within the Jool system to return home. Bop's shadow serves as a wave goodbye from the Jool system 2.5 years later, the KSS Jool arrived back at Kerbin from its first mission with a ten minute, 5,000 m/s burn where the Kerbin D waited to take its crew home. With the massive weight of its three landers discarded, the KSS Jool returned with almost 20,000 m/s more Delta-V than when it first embarked. // TO BE CONTINUED //

Part 4 - Moho & the KSS Jool After returning from its previous mission, there was only about a 30 day window to reservice the KSS Dres before the transfer window to Moho, its next target planet. Considered by some to be one of the hardest stock planets to reach due to its proximity to the Sun, the KSS Dres and its ~25,000 m/s of Delta-V would be more than sufficient to take on the challenge. Not even half of its fuel had been depleted from its mission to Dres, so the RT-01 fuel tanker was designed and launched on an Albatross A booster to refuel both the KSS Dres' cryogenic fusion fuel as well as the Space Skipper's LFO and monopropellant. With everything properly reserviced, the KSS Dres' first full crew of seven was sent up using another Kerbin D. From there, it departed to the innermost planet in the solar system. Only 90 days later, the interplanetary crew arrived at Moho after another dodgy 40+ minute injection burn into orbit. The ship's cryogenic systems worked in overdrive to compensate for the extreme heat of the close-by Sun, each of its two solar panel producing well over 200 EC/s. Though the KSS Dres was handling its environment well enough, a potential problem was discovered en route. The Space Skipper Mk1b non-atmospheric variant that was refueled and brought along on the journey had been designed for worlds with Mun-like gravity in mind, of which it was able to handle Dres easily. However, there had been a drastic error made by the KSC Tracking Station team. While the mission was already well underway, a routine double-check on Moho in the Tracking Station revealed Moho's force gravity was actually TWICE as much as previously thought, and NOT in fact the same as on Dres. Landing attempts with the fully-fueled Space Skipper could just barely attempt a landing and return to orbit and rendezvous on these worlds before. Was it possible to still use it? Despite the questions, the brave Kerbonauts pushed onward, refusing to have come as far as they had for nothing. After a few quicksave reloads simulations, the optimal method of landing and takeoff was deduced - using only the efficient main engine to land and then tip over onto its landing gear - allowing two Kerbals to land on Moho and return as planned, albeit from a dangerously low 7 km orbit. Another valuable reminder that no matter how experienced you may be, spaceflight is still tricky business. Moho Flag Planted: Y16, D235 The Space Skipper was returned to its payload bay in preparation for its last use in the upcoming mission to Eve as planned, but that would prove to be a story for another time. In lieu of a difficult development process for a lander capable of withstanding Eve's challenges, the decision was made to first focus on the outer gas giant planets - new and bigger targets that would require a new, even bigger ship. But first, the KSS Dres and its crew had to return home. From launch to landing, the Moho mission took less than a year but took up over half the KSS Dres' abundant fuel reserves. Many lessons had been learned from the KSS Dres, and it was time to use them to build the KSS Jool, a new modular ship designed to last for five grueling missions to Jool, Sarnus, Urlum, Neidon, and the far-off dwarf planet Plock. It would need room for a crew of seven to live in space for years, possibly decades. The Crew Module would come with a 5m command station core, science lab, artificial gravity ring, long-range relay antenna, and docking ports. The extended 5m payload bay would have enough room to fit multiple landers of different shapes and sizes for the outer planets' diverse series of moons, some of which had atmospheres. Finally, the Propulsion Module would feature four massive solar panels, a new Axial Flow Z-Pinch Fusion engine with massively improved thrust and efficiency compared to the KSS Dres, and enough cryogenic fuel to potentially shave years off of the long voyages outwards from the Sun. With the ship's full weight of over 220 tons, the Propulsion Module provided a staggering ~102,000 m/s of Delta-V, over half of what I imagined to be its design requirements. Selected to handle the job of launching each of these humungous several-dozen-ton payloads was the new and improved 7.5m Condor B with its 25 (!!!) Vector engines. Seeing as the next target was the namesake planet Jool, the three landers needed for the mission were launched as well during the ship's construction. Since the payload bay only had space for two docking ports, the Laythe and Vall landers were sent up connected together while the massive 40+ ton Tylo lander was sent by itself. Seeing as Laythe was the first target on the upcoming mission's agenda, it along with its 'secret weapon' for conquering the moon's atmosphere was positioned so that it could be the first lander separated from the cramped payload bay. The base of the payload bay also carried a sufficient supply of reserve LFO, as one plan for the light-gravity moons Bop and Pol called for reuse of the Vall lander for each. The other plan took inspiration from Valentina's daring landing on Gilly using just her EVA pack, so an ample supply of extra EVA fuel tanks were brought along using the ship's cargo space. During construction, a 4-crewed Kerbin C along with the necessary three engineers was sent to service and deploy the Crew Module's ring before returning. Crew Module launch with the Condor B Kerbin C servicing mission Launch of the payload bay Out of necessity due to the payload bay construction, the two-stage Tylo lander was launched first on an Albatross B booster Vall and Laythe landers docked, also launched with the Albatross B Clamshell fairings deployed on the Condor B-4 launch of the Propulsion Module Temporary RCS blocks detached after docking. The ship's design and construction were largely inspired by the video linked in the previous part, created by YouTube channel Nessus. Fully completed and with just a few days remaining before the Jool transfer window, the KSS Jool was ready for its first crew and mission. // TO BE CONTINUED //

Part 3 - The KSS Dres With the success of the Explorer 3 and 4 probes sent to the outer planets Jool and Sarnus, respectively, two more spacecraft were sent to the next two gas giants - the twin Explorers 7 to Urlum and 8 to Neidon. As of Year 21, they still have yet to arrive at either destination. Explorer 7 - 237 million kilometers from the Sun Meanwhile, mission planning for the outer worlds and their moons were already underway with multiple different approaches being considered. A reusable modular spacecraft would be needed along with its own payload bay for several different landers, but what would these landers feature? How many would be needed for a planet with five moons and how much fuel would be on each? One of the approaches considered was mining a moon for ore to potentially save on payload weight for the mothership. A series of mining rigs, only the last of three being successful, were landed on an ore-rich crater on the Mun's north pole to test out the technology. The conclusion taken from these tests: the mining approach for the outer planets would be more trouble than its worth. But there were still two more unexplored rocky planets before the outer gas giants - Moho and Dres. The decision was made to target Dres first with an all new spacecraft dubbed the KSS Dres. Taking inspiration from the amazing video linked below (shoutout to the creator Nessus if they are on the forums), the KSS Dres would feature a crew module with an artificial gravity ring, payload bay with a Space Skipper Mk1b for landing, and a revolutionary new mirror cell fusion engine powered by Deuterium and Helium-3 fuels. Additionally, the engine housed its own nuclear reactor for power generation as long as it remained activated and properly cooled by radiators. Lofting the incredibly heavy engine would require an even more incredible new booster - the Condor. Assembled in three parts plus the Space Skipper, the KSS Dres awaited its first crew. The 7.5m Condor A-4 launching the Propulsion Module Manning the KSS Dres' maiden voyage would be a modest crew of five brave Kerbonauts, though it could house many more. Ferrying its first crew was the new Kerbin D, capable of carrying a crew of seven to orbit. The completed KSS Dres The KSS Dres' fusion engine is incredibly efficient, but of course that also means it only has a miniscule 70 kN of thrust for a ship of its size. The transfer maneuver to Dres took a total of four burns to maintain efficiency. The capture burn into Dres orbit took a mind-numbing 45 minutes, even with a 4x time warp. Departure for Dres Inside the artificial gravity module Arrival at Dres After reaching a stable circular orbit, the Space Skipper and its crew of two departed for the surface, landing safely with its VTOL engines before returning to the payload bay. If refueled back at Kerbin, it could be reused for future missions to Moho and Eve using the KSS Dres, on Moho as a lander and at Eve as a potential ferry from the mothership to a larger lander already awaiting in orbit. Dres Flag Planted: Y14, D218 With its mission at its namesake planet completed, the KSS Dres returned to Kerbin where the Kerbin D waited to bring its crew home. // TO BE CONTINUED //

Part 2 - Duna, Ike, & Gilly With the first target planet of Duna properly investigated, it was time to think about crewed missions. But how to get there? Interplanetary missions would need increasingly more complex technologies to meet each new challenge. For missions to Duna, inspiration was taken from real-life concepts for manned Mars missions. After the Apollo missions, Wernher von Braun proposed the Integrated Space Program which called for Saturn V rockets with stretched upper stages powered by nuclear NERVA engines. Kerbal engineers thought this was a stellar idea, and so the three-crewed Duna A spacecraft was built, powered by an Eagle 3 booster with a nuclear upper stage adapted from the previous Eagle boosters. The spacecraft's maiden voyage was tested around the Mun to great success. The nuclear upper stage was efficient enough to send a crew to Duna and back by itself, no refueling necessary. But of course the mission requirements called for a little more than just getting there and back. The manned mission to Duna would require a stop at Ike as well, along with two separate landers for each. A small, one-crewed lander for Ike would be easy, but the red planet is another story. The futurists at the KSC were looking ahead to future landing missions and envisioned a multi-purpose vehicle that could be used on a number of planets and moons: The Space Skipper Mk1. Its lifting body design with parachutes would allow a smooth landing and takeoff using VTOL engines on atmospheric planets like Duna, and a separate, more bare-bones iteration could be developed for non-atmospheric bodies. But before any crew could be entrusted to pilot it, tests were necessary. An uncrewed article was sent to Duna using the Eagle 3 for testing and performed admirably, landing and returning to orbit from the surface where it rendezvoused with the nuclear stage. Ensuring a manned mission to the surface of Duna was possible, a fleet of three ships was launched - The Duna A, Space Skipper Mk1, and the Ike Mini Lander. The first step of the mission once the crew arrived was to rendezvous and dock with the awaiting Space Skipper and refuel with its spent nuclear stage just in case of any unplanned emergencies. From there, Jeb and Bill departed to the surface. Duna Flag Planted: Y6, D159 The next leg of the trip was to Ike. After returning to the Duna A orbiting above and leaving the Skipper behind, the three Kerbonauts departed for Ike to dock with the awaiting Mini Lander. The third member of the crew, Piper Kerman, successfully landed on the moon and returned. The Duna A remained in Duna orbit until the transfer window with Kerbin some time later, successfully returning back home. Ike Flag Planted: Y6, D351 The Duna mission came and went without a problem. The nuclear stages were a great success, but it was obvious that they weren't going to cut it if you wanted to get anywhere really interesting. They would work well for planets close by, but there would be more drawbacks than benefits if they were used to the outer planets. Any mission farther away than Duna or Eve would require a much larger spacecraft with an even more efficient method of propulsion. Such a spacecraft would have to be a modular vessel, assembled in multiple parts in Kerbin orbit before departing. A mission to Eve with existing nuclear technology would be a great chance to test out the concept. Thus, a new ship was designed: the KSS Eve, a first of its class modular interplanetary spacecraft. It would come in two pieces - 1) a crew module with docking ports and a payload bay and 2) a nuclear booster stage. Landing on the planet itself at this stage of the Space Program was out of the question, but Eve's moon Gilly proved enticing to a few daredevil pilots. The payload bay would carry a two-crewed mini lander, a relay dish for communications, and a small atmospheric probe to drop into Eve. A large ship also required larger boosters - the Albatross A and B which launched the two pieces listed above, respectively. Sending a crew of four to the newly constructed KSS Eve also required a new orbital ferry, the Kerbin C. And so, the crew departed, arriving at Eve a few hundred days later and plotting a course for Gilly. The brave crew of two, led by Valentina, undocked from the mothership and descended ever so slooowly to the surface, only to discover a grave error on the part of the KSC's engineering team: the only hatch was obstructed. They had come all this way, and now they couldn't even step outside! But a crackpot plan was hatched. The KSS Eve had its own unobstructed EVA hatch, and Gilly's gravity was amongst the lightest in the solar system. If the lander and its trapped crew could return, Val could EVA from orbit down to the surface using the EVA pack. As it turns out, it was more than enough to land back on the moon and return to the ship in one piece. Ever a good sport, Val planted the flag with both her and her copilot's names engraved on the plaque. Gilly Flag Planted: Y11, D90 Now with the lander expended, the KSS Eve was missing a major structural element in its payload bay which had adverse consequences on the ship's stability. Nevertheless, the crew pushed on back to the planet to complete the final leg of their mission which was to drop the small lander probe into Eve's atmosphere and return home safely to be picked up by the Kerbin C. // TO BE CONTINUED //

Yours as well! Glad I'm remembered. Good times...

It's been a while since I've been on the forums, but I've been having so much fun with a new save file that I wanted to share my adventures. Like the title suggests, I'm landing on and returning from every planet and moon including those in the Outer Planets Mod in 1.12.3. For as long as I've been playing the game, I thought it would only be right to finally accomplish this task (with a few mods). Here I'll be logging my escapades along with the designs and mission planning that went into them. I've already made considerable progress, landing and returning from several places so far. Mods List: Part 1 - The Mun and Minmus Where else to start but Kerbin's own moons? There are a few non-critical probes and landers in between the important missions, so I'll skip those. But first and foremost, I needed a spacecraft that could perform both Mun and Minmus landing missions. Seeing as there's not much difference in Delta-V requirements between the two, it was pretty simple - thus the Kerbin A/B was born. Taking inspiration from the Saturn 1b, it could send a crew of three plus a two-crewed lander to both Mun and Minmus orbit and back with an Eagle 1 booster. Seeing as I've done it dozens of times over the past decade, landing on the Mun was a simple affair. Assigned to the landing attempt were none other than Jeb and Bill. All three splashed down back at Kerbin without a hitch. Mun Flag Planted: Y1, D41 The Minmus mission was even simpler. Next up was Val's turn to command, but none seemed too thrilled about it. Nevertheless, all three crewmembers returned safely once again. Minmus Flag Planted: Y1, D97 With the Kerbin system conquered, the Space Program could start looking outward. Nine planets and a whole host of moons awaited for Kerbal footsteps, but no Kerbonaut would feel safe there without a little investigative work. Three planets in particular seemed enticing: the red planet Duna and the outer gas giants Jool and Sarnus. Future missions there would require a powerful communications network, so a series of relay probes were sent to each: Explorer 2 along with the Surveyor 2 lander to Duna, Explorer 3 to Jool and its moons, and Explorer 4 along with the Surveyor 3 lander to Sarnus and its moons. Explorer 2 around Duna Surveyor 2 landed on Duna Explorer 3 around Jool Explorer 4 and Surveyor 3 around Sarnus Surveyor 3 landing on Tekto, moon of Sarnus Though the missions to other planets were performing swimmingly, communications with the last three planets - Urlum, Neidon, and Plock - would prove tricky with the established relay network. A much more powerful relay probe would be needed. Two relays circled Kerbin already, the Transit 1 and 2 twin probes. Replacing them was Transit 3, capable of communications with every corner of the solar system from a high polar orbit around Kerbin. That is all for part one. I hope you enjoyed my log as much as I enjoyed doing it. The next part will chronicle the missions to Duna, Ike, and Gilly. // TO BE CONTINUED //

I'm about to do shuttle missions in my main game, but I want to test the craft in a separate game. It's probably simple, but how do I move a craft file from one game to another so I can test it? After I'm done testing it, I'll want to move it back to my main game. Thanks

Thank you!

I've been having a lot of bugs happening lately, and I believe the Physics Range Extender mod is the culprit. I have a few mods installed such as the Near Future mods, Mechjeb of course, and others. The game and every mod is up to date with the current version as far as I know. From what I've gathered, these problems have only occurred around the Mun. There are a vast array of issues. Mechjeb tends to go go haywire from time to time. When I have something landed on the Mun's surface and another spacecraft gets too close to the Mun, the focus switches between the two and the craft on the surface ends of exploding. Another time I landed Val on the Mun and when she went to go EVA, the focus kept switching back to the lander and wouldn't even let me control Val. I had to completely exit the game without saving, reload the game, and head back to Kerbin without being able to walk on the Mun. Another time I had a lander on the Mun and a probe in orbit, and when I went to land another lander, both landers exploded and the probe fell straight out of orbit. I've blamed these problems on Physics Range Extender as everytime one of these problems happen, the mod gives a message saying something like "lifting vehicles." Is this the case and is this mod to blame? If so, would simply uninstalling the mod fix this problem? Is this mod essential? Thanks.

If you were to land on Duna, how much Delta V is needed to get back into a low Duna orbit? Thanks

I went to the Space and Rocket Center again in Alabama for the first time since Space Camp this summer. T'was still cool as ever.

ヤギ

Beautiful 10/10 - IGN

I'm commercializing the solar system. I'm launching commercial and private stations and bases plus mining bases. "Customers" can "pay" to have their payloads (probes, relays, stations, bases) launched wherever they need to go. So far I have a few commercial and private stations set up around Kerbin and the Mun plus a commercial Mun base (currently inhabited). I also have around 50 CubeSats around Kerbin. I plan to put stations and bases everywhere (including asteroids) except Moho, the Urlum system, and the Plock system.

Boi how is that boring

What kind of suggestions