fulgur

@Kerballing (Got Dunked On) I've read them. :-)

Sounds like the Traveling Circus... which I loved. :-) A little note narration from the Kerbals and this could become one of my favourites!

I actually prefer landings to exploration in most cases, so I'd like more (barren) planets / moons, but that's just me. My only protracted (base building) missions have been to Mun, Minmus and Duna and I do think they need a bit of work. Actual meaning for rovers would be good too, you could see all these new things.

Made a space station with USI Life Support. Enjoying Navball Docking Alignment Indicator a lot! (Much simpler than the non navball version).

This is a great mod, I really like the parts and think it is better than Pathfinder in terms of gameplay. One question though: isn't this habitat meant to inflate? Downloaded in 1.7 with few mods other than USI-LS, KPBS, Outer Planets and a couple of visual mods. Thanks for this mod.

@swjr-swis: It's much better than mine so if you think it's good enough, I think so too. It's got a different flight profile to most of mine so I'm not the best at flying it when I tested it this morning, but it's good. :-)

I'm sorry I haven't been able to do much work lately as I have EXAMS the first week after easter. Not important ones but still, EXAMS. So I'll put the best version on KerbalX. It needs... a lot of tweaking. There is a fine balance between 'too little fuel' and 'too heavy to go supersonic' which I haven't been able to get right. Please feel free to tweak it until it gets to orbit. Or even re-design the whole back end. https://kerbalx.com/fulgur/Wisp-2

The Wisp SSTO is pretty bad at the moment and barely makes orbit. So I am trying to improve it. I will probably do that when I haven't so much REVISION to do.

The spreadsheet has been changed to use LIFTER RETAIL costs not ACTUAL costs as per the RULES.

57 (-)

I've just realised something about the spreadsheet we've got... "When calculating the budget, use retail cost not actual cost" - The Rules. So we need to swap in the actual costs for the lifter retail costs. Oops.

OK then, so I will not launch tourists until all the seats are complete. Can we add more modules using the revenue generated by tourism or not?

So will I 'build' 2 Wisp SSTOs? Or will I return the crew SSTO unmanned and re-launch? I wonder if the rules say anything @Ultimate Steve as I know the Soyuz etc don't return until the mission ends... Also how much are we charging them? And how long will they stay for? My vehicle brings enough supplies to stay for ~ 100 days (1/4 of a year), that is 1.5t shared between 6 tourists. So unless they eat into station supplies that would be the maximum possible stay. EDIT: 10 mins later... I got the Wisp to orbit with the 2 extra seats! All it needed was some extra in the form of another Dart engine!

I like the idea of tourists coming and making us MONEY, so I added seats for to my Wisp 1 craft. It now seats 6. How much can we charge tourists? Minimum for my craft would be around 6k. To make a bit of profit it would be around 7-8k. The only thing is, we need to schedule cargo flights before crew flights, or they won't have any supplies. The Wisp carries enough supplies to feed the passengers for 1/4 of a year. EDIT: Have just realised the rules say, "will be dropped TO 33%" not BY 33%. So my vehicle now costs 16.6k not 33.3k, so you can charge tourists a mere 3-4k funds! (Of course if you keep the old prices, you get 30k profit!)

Which mod sets you to Earth time? I always thought it was RSS.

Indeed, but they were of previous versions, and some were LES tests, and some were fuel cell/solar tests, et cetera. I've added a Tourism section to the spreadsheet. Tourist flights could pay for more modules. I've also set up everything so it calculates costs automatically. Which is what the weird =sum(C44:C56) things are, so don;t delete them.

I have done about 15 simulations so far, and only one has made orbit.

OK then, supplies are 1.5t in ore, plus two Science boxes. Carrying six crew means they can stay for 0.25 of a year each. I've increased the cost so it can carry 2 more crew in the cargo bay. How much would we charge for tourists? And how often can I launch? EDIT: Are the 'amount of time you spend between launches' in human or Kerbal time? And if they are in Kerbal time, how long is a month?

Currently the weight is 21.9 tonnes. Also, has anyone got a plan for tourists and prices? If they are to travel on the Wisp the minimum they would pay would be about 8k funds.

Put the full cost. We need to have an error margin if it breaks on landing or something; we don't get a refund if it's not fully re-usable. Anyway, I haven't actually finished R&D: it's slightly too heavy and either doesn't accelerate supersonic or runs out of fuel. Current design: Whiplash / Dart combo, 45.1k funds. Needs a lot of fine tuning. If it proves too hard, I might make it a cargo carrier for supplies. (Also are you allowed to take supplies with you? I have currently got 2x small ore tanks (1.5t) on this, as well as science return. But I can remove them if you want.) EDIT: 42.9k funds now!

I have begun R&D for the reusable Wisp 1 SSTO. Here's the Launch Escape System (LES) tests. Question: do I have to add a command pod or can it be probe controlled? @Johnster_Space_Program: The Wisp 1 preliminary test vehicle is estimated to cost 46.6k funds. 33% off due to re-usability.

Thanks for the clarification! Will continue designing tomorrow GMT.

For the crew vehicles we have to design, can they be SSTOs (if they don't use RAPIERs)? And would recovery change the budget?

Filter by Cross Sectional Area works, but not with all the mods I run. The arrow right at the top of the part selector, then the top blue circle thing, then one of the size options.

I just built a vertical SSTO. Very simple, just a 3 man pod, chute, orange tank and Skipper (or maybe mainsail, I forget the difference). But then I realised the TWR was too low, so I reduced fuel. I thought I might have to burn some on the pad because it still was too heavy. To my surprise, it lifted off pretty fast! I managed to get it into orbit... with 2m/s dV spare. Going back to the VAB, I realised my mistake... Kerbal Engineer was still on Eve sea level.