kraden

Hello probe cores, here we come! I also have a parts pack which adds a command module with an integrated probe core. I expect this will become more handy than just training new kosmonauts.

In recent events, I managed to build a ship which launched 19 tourists and 3 crew to land on Minmus, head out of Kerbin's SOI, return to Kerbin's SOI, land on Mun, and safely return to the surface of Kerbin. I cut it really, really close on DV and food (actually ran out of food just three hours prior to reentry), close enough that if I use the design again, I'll modify it to have a little more of each. I mentioned in an earlier post that my inner system probe passed by Moho and Eve: Also, my Minmus base is expanding quite nicely. The first picture is right after the base was equipped to build it's own modules. A couple rocket part containers later and were in business. Oh yeah, and this thing eats up electricity something fierce. The latest module included a habitat and more importantly a greenhouse. The next module the base is working on is a Karbonite processing facility. It will not only provide raw Karbonite as fuel, but it will be able to refine it into liquid fuel and oxidizer for ships and even distill it producing some much needed oxygen. Combined with its current ability to grow food, it will be much closer to being able to launch and supply it's own ships from the surface of Minmus. Until we learn how to grow kerbals however, it will still require kosmonauts from Kerbin itself.

Lol @JadeOfMaar "liquided". I thought you were using some new slang that I was unaware of. Well, despite my apartment getting torn apart due to the water damage, I found some time yesterday to work on my Minmus base. It now has a greenhouse and is working on it's Karbonite expansion. I also realized that I have 20 kerbal tourists all wanting to go to Mun, Minmus, and orbit the Sun. Trying to make one vehicle to launch them all is a pain. My inner system probe Intrepid has managed to do flybys of both Moho and Eve, even managing to scrape Eve's atmosphere for a little extra science. Hopefully I can put some pics on imgur tonight so I can share the progress visually.

The only way I know how in 1.1.3 is via infernal robotics. There is an additional parts pack for it which includes a surface sampler. I've never used it myself, but there is a promotional video which shows it being used.

He may be referring to the Mk4 spaceplane parts. @icedownI'm not at my computer right now and I'm short on time but I had found the same parts pack (if that's the one you're looking for) just by searching for Mk4 spaceplane parts.

Well, work today sucked so I really couldn't wait to come home and work on my Minmus base. I've been working on getting it to self sufficiency and eventually be able to launch craft (Extraplanetary Launchpads, Karbonite, Planetary Base Systems and Kerbalism are my primary mods that relate to the base). I was really excited about the next module as it is a greenhouse and habitat that will supply food (obviously) and house Kerbals prior to their launches. However upon walking down the stairs to my apartment, my last step was a splash... The neighboring apartment, which is vacant, had flooded and I had an inch of water in the hallway, and two thirds of my floor is soaked. So much for playing KSP today... or tomorrow...

The Excelsior was always my favorite class as a kid. Awesome work, very impressive.

@Dire_Squid @CatastrophicFailure how I keep stuff like this from happening is by having a "failsafe" save. Whenever a launch goes well or a mission is complete or whatever, when I'm back at KSC I save the game by it's name. During missions I'll quicksave after or just prior to major events; anything from a crucial maneuver node to landing a craft somewhere. If anything goes poorly I can just jump to a quicksave. But if something major happens like the docking port glitch I mentioned a page or two ago, I can revert to the "failsafe" save just prior to vessel launch. I did not know that Alt+F9 loaded the persistence save, that's awesome! That'll save me from closing and restarting the game to load it.

I have my eye on that one as well. @Galileo makes some pretty good looking stuff. I've avoided any planet mods thus far to encourage myself to completely explore the stock system first, however I really like the idea of having a bigger system and some of those planets and moons look really sweet. As far as FTL, I feel like it can easily be a cheat if acquired to early or if it is over powered. I watched a video showing someone using the one you have and I like the principal of the thing. High power requirements and as it moves space and not the ship, your velocity remains the same when you drop out of warp. Seems pretty awesome to me.

I suspected as much we tend to have similar taste in mods. Although I haven't downloaded any FTL mods, RoverDude's Alcubierre would be my pick. I'm still debating getting it, but considering where I am on the tech tree, I have plenty of time to decide. I figure I'd get OPM or something with a second solar system to give me new places to explore with the new drive.

@eddiew I've seen a couple different warp drives, who's do you have? Also yeah, that docking porport misalignment would drive me crazy. Last night I discovered that my new minmus base couldn't be properly landed due to the docking port glitch (really hope 1.2 fixes that). I had two halves of the base bottom to bottom with docking ports on top over their CGs. Due it being a base and me therefore giving not a single crap about aerodynamics, I simply put a fairing around it for launch. This was all well and good until I got one half of the base landed and could not undock from it. I reverted to orbit and tried to diagnose if it was a single docking port or all of them. It a was all of them. I then switched to my failsafe save back at KSC prior to launch and tried widening the fairing. This also didn't work. In the end, I had to launch this non-aerodynamically designed base with no fairing whatsoever. This led to intense drag and the launch section got a couple SRB additions to try to muscle through it. Got into orbit and on my way to minmus, but I doubted if my attached tug would have enough fuel to bring both parts down separately. So I decided to just wing it and take them both down at the same time and see how bad it goes. It went poorly. Though for being a total mess, it is now sitting where and how it's supposed to. I am actually suprised I didn't destroy everything. The tug was attached at one end so the base was set down on its nose. Luckily I put an excessively large reaction wheel and RCS system on this tug. I actually managed to slowly angle sideways, and disconnect the tug before the point of no return. The base fell and broke nothing. I then disconnected the hab portion but couldn't get it to slide entirely off the supply half. The tug ran out of power (I pulled the solar panels in during the tilt so they wouldn't break) so I had to EVA over to deploy a couple so I could control the thing again. That done, I carefully brought it over by the base and used an engine (this design had the engines protruding a bit) to knock the hab off of the supplies. At that point something exploded. However it turned out to be a docking port that held the supplies in place, something to be discarded anyway. Using the tug I managed to flip the supplies as well, then docked with them and connected them to the hab (which is hard when you don't have wheels). Now that it's all said and done, I have a science lab siting on a karbonite and metal ore rich site on minmus and the crew has enough supplies to last over a year before a resupply. Can't wait to unlock some ISRU to send up there. TL;DR Struggled with getting a base on minmus, but pulled it off. Hope to eventually make it a launch and resupply site.

@LordFerret I'm adding those pages to my list of useful KSP info, thanks a lot!

Well my plan was for a plane change but Kerbal Alarm Clock lied (or more likely I don't understand transfer windows well enough) about the window and if I waited until my descending node to do a correction burn then I would be too far away for an encounter. I saved loads of fuel by shifting my path such that my descending node became my encounter. It's a ScanSat probe anyway so I'll be just that much closer to the polar orbit it needs.

I MUST see whatever you're doing this for!

@JadeOfMaar I also just sent a probe to Moho. My first planetary transfer (just because it's window was up next) and I totally forgot that @CatastrophicFailure swears it's cursed.... until I noticed that because of the difference in orbital planes I couldn't have picked a worse time to launch . Good thing that probe has tons of extra delta V, I'm gonna need it. Edit: while sending a satellite to mun for a contract, I got a message saying that my Moho probe's reaction will failed to 50% (Kerbalism). Thought to myself, "50% isn't too bad for a probe that size, I can compensate with a little RCS", then just a little while later I got a new one saying it failed to a further 25%. Turns out I'll be relying heavily on RCS for this probe. I haven't even made it to Moho yet and I can already tell it's cursed!

That'd be one he'll of a ride!

I usually end up using Tweakscale in tandem with IR parts. They always seem overly large for whatever I'm trying to accomplish.

Anytime I have awkward parts that I need on a ship or station, this is how I get around it. If something is too asymmetrical or bulbous for launch, into the KIS container it goes. Who needs giant, fairings when you can streamline your ship by attaching the parts later

This was yesterday, but still! Adventures with the Kerbal Space Agency: An Intruder on Minmus.

Well, I tried my hand at building a shuttle-like craft and managed to repeatedly fail. I did, however, save the crew every time, so the spaceplane portion is good.

It would be dangerous if if this was how I chose ship names

There is a good chance that it is minmus, but I'm not sold. I encountered something similar before I had Distant Object Enhancement. On several missions I could see a speck of light like this, and I assumed it was minmus at first. I zoomed out to confirm, neither mun nor minmus were in that direction and as I zoomed out further, no celestial bodies we're in that direction. I rechecked this during several missions where it was spotted and during a couple I could identify both of Kerbin's natural satellites in addition to the speck of light.

I do see that our mods don't entirely line up so I was planning on doing some slight adjustments to that end (and possibly adding one I recognize ), however I would not be opposed to knowing what mods you use. I probably wont put a greenhouse on her at all since the stations she'll dock with either have or will have two each. Is the custom part the piece that the lander legs are attached to, or am I just not recognizing that part?

I like your ship design. I may have to borrow it for my Kerbin SO I bus.

That is awesome! Where can I get my hands on it?