scottadges

Looking forward to this, I love the look of this part. Will this be CKAN accessible, you think?

Support System: From the beginning, my thinking was that I needed to manage fuel consumption and be able to refuel easily. I designed this refueler craft that could orbit and land when necessary, refuel the Rover, and then go back up to orbit. It carries about 4,000 units of LFO. The shielded docking ports at the bottom are at exactly the right height to couple with the Mk1A on a level surface. The whole craft is built around this functionality, including the landing legs to allow the rover to pull up underneath it. As I'm finding now, this refueling craft is less important to the journey. But it is useful to have a craft with ample fuel to be able to provide support should I need it. The other thing I found during testing was not properly seeing Ore concentrations along my projected route. For that, I would of course need an Orbital Survey Scanner in a polar orbit around Minmus to provide just that support. He doesn't do much, but it looks pretty cool.

The Journey - Flags 2-13: Lots of driving. That's what this challenge is about. When they say in the OP "Not for the faint of heart" that is quite true. But it can be quite interesting. For me, it's about planning a route around the terrain. In my case, from the very start it was a large mountain. So what do you do? Go around? Nah: Go put a flag on it. It's hard to tell from this screenshot, but this is the mesa at the top of the large mountain. It was actually north of my equatorial route, but rather than drive all the way around... I zig-zagged up the slopes and got to the top. Otherwise... it's a lot of driving. Alone, on a distant moon. Driving. So you see what milestones lay ahead and where best to plant flags. In this case, it was weaving down through the foothills of the large mountain from Flag 7, cutting through hill passes and into valleys, all the while looking to the flats ahead. And when you arrive... Flag Time! (Also, saving the game and a prudent quick save before EVA) Finally, here's a view behind-the-scenes. This was my last stop at Flag 8 to harvest Ore and top off the LFO tanks. With fast-forwarding... spent almost 90 days to get back up to 100 across the board. But I'm using less LFO now in the way I drive, so I shouldn't need that as much in the future. For reference, I am using MechJeb's Utilities to provide stability and prevent Overheats. I also decided to use the Speed Control as a way to maintain consistent throttle. I figured that out after about 4 or 5 flags worth of holding down the "W" key and blowing through 75% of my LFO!

Thanks for your comments @B-STRK. I'm not actually using fuel cells, I've got 4 of the PB-NUK's nestled under the real wheel struts. I'm finding the electric wheels are in fact doing most of the work. Only using the 24-77 Twitch engines to get up to speed (short bursts of LFO) and help with steep inclines. I can cruise at a comfortable 18-20m/s with good control. But getting up over 25-30m/s using wheels & engines... she starts to fly off the surface. So the refueling thing is now basically a backup, whereas my original thought was to run the Twitch engines at low thrust constantly (needing more refueling). Also, the drills help to steady the rover for flag placement. And full ore containers provide good ballast in the front against the weight of the fuel in the rear. Anyway, you might be right about an Engineer... I do have 2 in orbit. When I originally thought fuel would be more critical, I put a Refueling Support craft in orbit that has 2 engineers aboard. So maybe my pilot Burberry Kerman might swap out for an experimental Engineer?

Agreed, they want this to be 'Star Trek' because they want the appeal of the brand. Except they don't want it to be Star Trek because they change everything it has meant over the past 50 years. My most-cynical self says it was a bunch of media executives looking around for a franchise, 'cause everyone's got a franchise. And figured out how they could sell subscribers. And could actually care less about "canon", etc.

I wonder, was the OP trolling everyone who wrote very thoughtful responses? I don't see he's responded in a week.

I just found this challenge and would love to do it. I'll see what I can work up as far as Cassini-Huygens replica. Is there a badge maybe somebody could do for this one?

This is a great idea. I'm sure they could work out the competition issue. I mean, LEGO does both the Marvel and DC universe properties. The real problem is the ownership issues that surround the Star Trek brand between Paramount, CBS, and formerly Viacom.

This sentence is exactly how I feel about this new 'Star Trek show' that masquerades as a Star Trek show. Somebody decided that everything they did in the '90s was wrong. Sure, there were some cheesy-TV moments in all those shows. But you gotta give them credit for consistency (generally-speaking) across basically 15 years worth of TV as well as the TNG-cast movies. I can't bring myself to support the subscribe-bait for CBS on-demand that this show is (and I'm literally a life-long fan of ST). Your point about the future brings to mind something else. I'm not sure which ST documentary talked about this, but Roddenberry was very explicit during TNG that the drama in these shows always came from external sources. Never the crew themselves in-fighting or creating problems with each other, etc. His vision of a utopian future was people working together to solve problems bigger than the mundane TV-type drama he fought against ever having in ST. I think they pretty much forgot (or willfully choose to ignore) those types of Roddenberry rules for this new show.

Hi there, checking to see if the best way to run this mod is still the 1.2 version with the 1.3 compiled DLL (referenced a few posts back from June/July). It doesn't show up in CKAN for 1.3 and when I've tried re-installing it using the 1.2 version (on my old KSP install), it wasn't showing me any action groups, etc. in my 1.3 game. But I haven't used the new DLL yet. Thought I'd ask before spending time on an "older" fix if a new release was available.

Landing the Drop Carrier: After looking around for landing sites, I finally got an area that was flat enough along my equatorial path. I may go back and re-run that part of the mission, because the descent screenshots were actually terrible. Basically, I didn't realize that the axes of control would be so off-center. The problem was the probe core was placed vertically in the VAB. But the thrusters were horizontal to the Drop Carrier itself, intended to provide balanced thrust while descending. But that meant, when trying to de-orbit and then land, the probe core was controlling the thrusters along the wrong axis. Nevertheless, I got it down in one piece... although, at one point, it rolled over in mid-air. Yet it was saved! And no damage! This was probably a bit over-designed for what was actually necessary to land on Minmus. But I wanted it to look cool! And also be balanced (which didn't end up mattering... given the probe core / thruster problem). With the legs raised up again, the Mk1A itself is just slightly off the ground. Luckily, that truss from the fairing doesn't actually get in the way. The rover settled nicely to the surface once decoupled. With the Mk1A disembarked from the Drop Carrier, it was time to dispose of the framework. And why not use all that remaining fuel?Last I saw it, the Drop Carrier was orbiting Kerbol after a hasty exit from Kerbin SOI. Elkano Minmus Challenge Officially Begins And there you have First Flag planted. I noted the date in the game: Year 1 Day 22 This is important (as I've found out in the next phase) when refueling, it actually takes quite a few "days" to run the drills and process the fuel. A lot of fast-forwarding is required. Plus I think UT is based on Kerbin time, and Minmus takes a couple days to orbit, etc. At the end of this journey, it might take more than a year to do the circumnavigation. (Which is fine, because this is a stand-alone game. Not part of my main Career save. So what is time??)

Are you doing any more of these planes? They are pretty sweet.

*Sppffffflllllsssshhhhhhhgg* .... 'scuse me while I wipe off this keyboard. The stuff people make with KSP is mind-boggling Awesome work

If you tell me it actually moves, I'm going to spit this beverage all over my keyboard...

Ha "nice and quick" seriously how many hours went into this Amazing!

Hey @Paaaad Like that you're giving the love to the Duna Station! If you have a general idea of your plans for that station in the near future, I'd be happy to build off what you're thinking. I'd love to add a small module to it, a few turns down the line.

Today I put a Solar Array tower on the Mun Station as part of the Kommunity Space Station 1.3 group/challenge. Also did some more driving for my Elkano Minmus Challenge. Already to Flag #7... so much farther to go!

Is there a Kerbi-moji for "you blew my mind with KSP" ?! With a probe that big, you should get something for the Dres Awareness Challenge. Nice work!

Turn 63 is completed. I've re-uploaded the save file: "Kommunity Space Station Scottadges TURN 63.zip" @HerrCrazi is up next for Turn 64, otherwise it's @Paaaad who's next after Herr. Mun Station Solar Array (1 of 2) With this one solar array on the Mun Station now, I'm thinking for visual/symmetrical sake that I'd like to put another on the opposite side. I'll sign up for a later turn to do that. I also think there could be some re-org/adjustment with the Hab pods on the other side of the fuel tank. We could make that a little more aesthetically pleasing. The launch and orbiting were uninteresting. I didn't even test the launch stage and my gravity turn was crap LOL. Here's the orbiting transfer vehicle with integrated docking drone ready for the Mun Station. To dock this properly, I decoupled the drone and then flipped her around to connect with the shielded port. Also, I loved this angle where Kerbin came around the corner. Had to take a "selfie".

Thanks! @HerrCrazi I notice it's been a few days since you've been active (no worries, just saying) so if you're still OK with shuffling the order, I'd like to take Turn 63 to make my Mun station addition. I'll wait to hear back, otherwise I'll grab the save and finish that pretty quick. UPDATE: I've got some time tonight, so if it's cool I'll go ahead and run Turn 63 now and re-post the save file. Didn't want to overlap with ya, just in case.

Please ZIP the whole Kommunity Space Station folder and save it as "Kommunity Space Station JK_Kerbineer Turn 62.zip" then upload that to the Good drive.

I've gone ahead and updated the Waiting List document to show JK Kerbineer as Turn 62 and then HerrCrazi can take Turn 63

Indeed, I've spread this out across several turns in the Waiting List doc. I've also left spots for others to go in between. Don't want to monopolize the process.

Hey there, it's me again. I'm really not trying to spam this thread... but I'm basically obsessed with Kommunity Space Station stuff the past week or so (and I have a ton of free time right now). Anyway, here are some shots of upcoming modules I'm hoping to place on the various stations: KSS Polar Communications antennae (2) attached to the Docking Port Jrs. at the edges of the Hab Ring. This would use a similar delivery & placement method (screenshot below) as the other components I added last week . Mun Station Solar power array. To be docked off the 4-way docking ring. Might recommend 2 of these... we'll see. Minmus Station Docking tower with grabber arms for various types of craft plus a dedicated ship/lander shielded port. Thinking this goes at the end opposite the solar panels. The other thing I'm thinking about is a Minmus Lander (may be more than 5 parts) but I haven't worked out the design yet. Let me know if anyone has any comments or suggestions!