Machinique

NFLV has a 6-enginge mount that can be rescaled for Ares V.

While there are significant issues with the LM-S landing site that requires abandoning the base (i.e., shouldn't have landed on towards the bottom of a hill), I feel like this is a good proof of concept for LM constructed bases. My next questions are a.) how to build LESA and successfully get a Molab tractor from the top of the lander to the ground, and b.) what to do for an unmanned supply vehicle? A Saturn 1B and a cargo LM can land ~2.5 - 3 tons on the munar surface, which is good enough for supplies and scientific equipment, but insufficient to land new modules or construction materials. ETS and plenty of rocket designs would work, but I want to do this in a semi-roleplay fashion with only the rockets available in the early 70s.

Trying out some Apollo Applications concepts. I launched an INT-21 to land a LM-Shelter (using SSPRx for now) and and a cargo LM to deliver a Molab tractor (will assemble the trailer in situ on the first crewed landing) at the south pole.

Fair enough. It's easy for me to tweak for my saves.

I don't know about stock balance, but the J-2X was supposed to have an ISP of 448 and a thrust of 1,307 kN. If you use the 1/4 thrust heuristic, then you'd get stats of ISP 448, a thrust of 327 kN. I think the engine would still be useful if you nerfed it to an ISP of 448 and a thrust of ~330 - 350kN. Personally, I've noticed that it's a bit overpowered when building Saturn Mk2 replicas in JNSQ (using NFLV and the KR-1 boar for the 1st stage).

The Minerva-1 stage is effectively a 1.5m diameter stage in KSP, so you can use the Thor/Delta tanks. The Minerva-2 Core stage would be a 2.5m core stage, so you can use restock tanks.

Yep, that's what I was thinking about, although I made mine at a smaller scale with only ~52 tons to orbit.

This is pretty close. The one I saw had an Saturn-styled render, but I think that the proposal matches up. The one I've been playing around in KSP uses x7 "Boar" engines from Restock, and x2 - x4 J-2X engines from Nertea's Cyroengines.

So, this is a bit tangential, but I recall someone sharing in the thread an image of a clean-sheet SLS proposal with a cluster of F1-B engines as the first stage and a J-2X cluster as a second stage. I was trying to recreate it, and I was wondering if someone knew the proposal name or had that image lying around, since I can't find it again.

I'm pretty sure that this is a 3D render that was never made in KSP.

I'm starting a new save after not playing KSP for a while. What's the recommended boiloff rate for LH2 tanks right now (dev branch, 1.11.2, JNSQ)? I know that when I was last playing with it, 20% was recommended due to some issues with the boiloff system. Thanks

On the topic of small labs, Bluedog Design Bureau has a 1.25 lab (Mercury - Agena lab) and 1.5/1.875 labs (M.O.L. and Gemini Modular station parts) if one interested in those profiles.

Using the x0.64 heuristic, Apollo should stay at a diameter of 2.5, so that scale is correct.

That's Observation

I think that bases/landers based off the LEM and the Apollo Applications Project would come before Jamestown.