lemon cup

February 3, 2021

It does not have anything to do with RCS.

It is the way KSP takes keyboard inputs; yes they are quite abrupt and makes controlling some vessels very finicky. Two things you can do to mitigate jerkiness:

-switch to “Precision” controls by pressing Caps Lock. You’ll see your trim gauges (the bottom left of the screen) turn from orange to blue, and the controls will be a bit less sensitive, letting you make finer movements.

-you can also set or “bias” trim by holding Alt (I think this is “Option” on MAC) and then making WASD/QE inputs. Watch the trim sliders on the bottom left and they will slowly move and then stay there, indicating that the controls will slowly “drift” in that direction.

Reset trim to 0 by pressing Alt+X. Setting trim works really well for planes and rovers, but is not so useful for spacecraft.

January 28, 2021

1 hour ago, Anonymous49 said:

atlas v deployed the second batch of 5 satellites in orbit! (Falcon 1 brought 5 experimental satellites which doesn't have batteries)

2 of them which had their antenna broken

Pictures not loading!

January 27, 2021

You seem to know the route you wanna go. Not everyone has insight into different mods and what they do. If you have questions like that, you will get the best results by finding the thread for that mod and asking there. But please read the thread first and see if your question has been answered already.

January 24, 2021

Do you have SAS turned on? Try turning off SAS and testing the controls on the ground while the aircraft is not moving. If you notice the control surfaces moving up and down like they should, then there is a problem with the design. But if it only moves in one direction clearly a control setting got messed up somehow.

SAS can create a false sense of stability when flying airplanes, and will lead to a sudden loss in control when you try to turn in any direction. I only use it after I’ve made sure the airplane is stable on its own without SAS.

January 23, 2021

40 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

so i made 2 things with a claw on one hand an an inflatable thermal shield on the other. and the claw is not a valid attachment point for the rest of the rocket.

Oh! Do you know how to use the interstage node feature on stock payload fairings? It allows you to stack two or more craft that would not otherwise be stackable (like your claw contraptions) inside a single payload fairing.

Right click the fairing in the VAB and turn “Interstage Nodes” on.

For a more detailed tutorial check out my answer in this thread:

January 23, 2021

Might not be the answer you are looking for but I’ve come to avoid using the robotic parts from Breaking Ground completely nowadays for the exact reasons you mentioned: they are buggy, wobbly, and hard to control.

January 23, 2021

What’s the idea behind the shuttle-style cargo bay as your payload option of choice? Rule of cool? Is the launcher reusable in some way? Both are acceptable answers, but if you are in fact looking for the most effective launcher the best option would be to ditch the idea and go with a traditional booster at the bottom and fairing at the top. The payload bay + whatever you have inside is serving to make the middle of your rocket less dense, and is definitely contributing to the bad drag characteristics.

If you are determined to use the shuttle bay though, I’d recommend adding more fuel tanks above the bay, maybe partially defueling the bottom tank that the Rhino is attached to and setting the top tanks’ priorities to “1”. (So that they drain first and don’t starve the Rhino mid-flight)

Also consider replacing the SRBs with liquid fuel boosters, with engines that gimbal (!) and lighting the Rhino from the get-go with its thrust turned down as @bewing suggested.

Edit: and to answer one of your questions, the tapered tanks at the top are more draggy than they look, more-so than a payload fairing or nose cone by mass ratio. Second worst offenders being the size 3 cargo bays!

January 23, 2021

1 hour ago, Anonymous49 said:

my plan is to have 1000 satellites, then I get a lot of data from every one of them then give it to a large science lab, also isn’t it cool to have 1000 satellites?

and the input is from those satellites

There is nothing wrong with putting up huge satellite constellations for the thrill and challenge, I’ve seen people try to recreate stuff like Starlink for instance, and it turns out looking very cool. Also it’s a game and you don’t need to worry about each vessel you create serving a purpose, that’s why people do things like build rocket cars to break the land speed record, or get payloads to orbit using only decouplers - just for the heck of it because it’s fun.

Though It is true that the science part won’t work out like you’re hoping. There is only a few types of unmanned experiments you can perform in Low Kerbin Orbit (where your satellites will be) and once you’ve processed each type of experiment one time in a lab, the same data can never be processed again, even if it comes from a different craft.

January 20, 2021

No engine - stock or otherwise - has the ability to accelerate during timewarp without a plugin that modifies how the game handles vessels during warp.

That plugin is provided by this mod:

January 19, 2021

Not a lot to go off of, but my guess is yaw instability. Check out your plane’s Center of Mass indicator in the spaceplane hangar, and note that if your COM is closer to the back of the plane than it is the front, you will need a larger vertical stabilizer (or rudder) than you might think. And your vertical stabilizer needs to be as far back as possible.

Also, how are you trying to turn your plane? Are you trying to use the yaw controls (I forget what this is on console) to steer the plane in flight?

If so that is incorrect, you need to roll the plane to the side you want to turn, then pitch up.

*Sorry if that is already obvious to you; some players new to flight simulators are not always aware of this.

January 18, 2021

5 hours ago, derega16 said:

Will NFE reactor and all other parts that generate heat moved to new heat system that using in FFT soon? now it quite confusing to balance radiators.

FFT (or SystemHeat if you’ve downloaded it separately) comes with a folder of optional patches to convert the Near Future reactors and nuclear engines to use System Heat. I believe it is in the “Extras” folder in the FFT download; take it out and place it in your GameData folder to activate the patches.

January 15, 2021

3 minutes ago, Messeno said:

yes I have correctly installed the mod here is the screen:

HabTech2-master shouldn’t be installed in your GameData folder. Go into “Habtech2-master”, then go into “GameData”, and then copy paste whatever is in that folder into your GameData folder.

January 13, 2021

13 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

You have my attention. You have all of it.

Thank you! Shoot, now I guess I gotta do more of these ;.;

14 hours ago, Akira_R said:

...are you using the base TUFX config or do you have a custom one? Any chance you can share it? Those screenshots from your intro are truly beautiful and despite having nearly identical visual mods I still can't quite get that look.

Certainly, only I am a simpleton at making MM patches so I will just share my TUFX-Default.cfg and you can either copy-and-paste the profiles you like into your own, or replace yours with mine altogether. Real quick rundown:
Groundside: Used on the surface of atmospheric bodies, mostly Kerbin. Different planets usually need tweaking of brightness and color saturation to dial it in.
Groundside(Barren): Specifically made this for Duna but it works on other worlds with brownish hues too.
Low Orbit: Self explanatory, this looks best in upper atmosphere and space low
High Orbit: Same idea, also looks good on most airless bodies like The Mun. (I have this set for the map screen as well)
Deep Space: Harsh lighting and bloom levels, plus DOF effects, for when the vessel is the only thing in the picture against the black of space.

Also, check out Zorg's thread for more profiles and useful screenshot tips

January 8, 2021

38 minutes ago, Cheesecake said:

Yes, I have installed mods from benjee. The problem is: they are only part mods and don`t interact with other mods. Also I´m sure that I had this problem with 1.8.1 too and I hadn`t installed benjees mods at this time.

I totally understand and I had a tough time understanding too. It is very peculiar to diagnose, but I was helping him identify an issue where some of his parts were causing strange issues with drag on stock parts, yet his mods do not patch stock parts in any way.... Other mods probably have similar issues that go unnoticed but in benjees case his mods are very popular and any issues will eventually get noticed by someone.

You mentioned it did occur in 1.8.1, a good bit of code has changed since then in both the base game and in many mods as well, things that used to play well with eachother might suddenly conflict and vise versa.

I’d suggest just removing them and seeing what happens. Again, it’s a 50/50 shot.

January 8, 2021

33 minutes ago, Nertea said:

Can't reproduce this, has anyone else seen this?

1 hour ago, Cheesecake said:

The Launcher begins to wobble very strong. Only with this interstages.

I used to have this issue with many parts that identify decouple nodes, including some NFLV interstage adapters, in 1.10x - even with KJR installed. It was odd because I had carried over the same mod list in 1.8.1 where this issue was NOT present.

What fixed it for me was (unfortunately because I was very fond of the mods) deleting reDIRECT, Habtech, and the SOCK Shuttle from my mod list.

Can only be 50% sure that was the problem, if that, since I run a largish number of mods and they can all interact in unknown ways. But for me that fixed the problem, I just didn’t do any further testing after that point.

Do you have any of benjee10’s mods? If so try backing up your save, removing those mods, and then testing out a craft with the interstages.

January 8, 2021

12 minutes ago, Overlocker96 said:

I have read the above problems, and I think it has something to do with having the Max Autoshutdown Temp of reactors on engines on 1000K by default. Most engines perform at a 100% at 1300K, so it will always shutdown no matter how many radiators you put on.
I have realised this yesterday

One of the extra challenges that System Heat introduces is that it makes you look at the max thermal load of different heat-generating parts such as reactors and engines, and devise the best way to separate them using “Heat Loops.” Heat Loops simulate sets of liquid coolant lines that are separate from each other and therefor will route to different sets of radiators (and coolant tanks of you use them).

You’ll see that engines usually have much higher max thermal loads than reactors. Sometimes they are close enough that you can keep them all in the same loop and raise the default shutdown temp of the reactor to tolerate the higher heat level, but the consequence is this decreases the reactor life and performance over time.

To keep your reactor running at healthy levels you will want to give it its own smaller set of radiators and put it in its own “Loop.”

January 7, 2021

11 hours ago, si2504 said:

hi guys, where can i find a craft file for the ISS? thanks

Here is an illustrated build guide for constructing the ISS using Habtech2 parts. It also shows what the Russian segment looks like using parts from Tantares.

January 6, 2021

Finished my futuristic 6-month mission to Laythe.

If you're looking for a decent read and more pictures, check out the mission report.

January 6, 2021

6 hours ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Ok, I'm out of likes for today, but I must say, that is extremely impressive! I love your ship design, and even though we use the same mods (FFT, SSPxR, ReStock) I just can't get my ships to look as good. Is there any chance you will post craft files?

Thanks! Oof, I might consider it but I'm leaning away from distributing craft files. I've got quite a few mods stacked on top of each other, and without ever really knowing how a large mod library truly ends up affecting itself, I would be hard-pressed to positively say which mods you would need to run the craft properly. That, plus my designs only scratch the surface, there's a lot more that someone with some practice and a different approach could pull off :wink:

7 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Are you planning a mission to Grannus?

Some day, though I'll be taking a break from KSP for a short time and might just get back into small-scale leisurely type stuff. But I'm definitely considering a mission report when the time comes!

1 hour ago, Nertea said:

Nothing like quality ships, quality screenshots to get me motivated to work on things. Need anything else for your next mission report?

MOAR radiators!

Thanks Nertea, highest praise coming from you. And in all seriousness what you've got already planned on your roadmap covers any wish list I could make at this time.

January 5, 2021

30 minutes ago, AeroSky said:

Is that a Dynetics lander in the background of the second photo in the Epilogue?

How did you make your photos look like it has post-processing or something? They look amazing! Looking forward to a continuation or sequel or something!

Yes sir, good catch! :cool: That lander is kit-bashed using various parts from NFT, Cryotanks, Restock, and SSPXR.

As for the effects on the pictures, that is all thanks to TUFX.

Very nice in-game post processing that takes very little performance toll, if any.

January 5, 2021

Epilogue: The Future
VIEW ALBUM

DEAR READER
If you've enjoyed this Kerbal adventure, I am inclined to recommend a similar work that happened to serve as my thematic and stylistic inspiration. A couple of years ago, Reddit user u/16807 posted a series of adventures from KSP Interstellar, culminating in an incredible multi-star system mission: The Voyage of Star Boom 2 - a Von Neumann Probe

I wrote Journey to Laythe as a "spiritual prequel" to this. I can only call it spiritual since his series already has an established backstory, and other key differences prevent a true crossover from being possible, but I envision my Kerbal civilization as arriving at a very similar interstellar future.

SCALING UP
While deployments to the S.I.S. seem mundane following the events of Paragon 1, LKO stations like this one will soon be serving as a vital link between Kerbin and worlds beyond.

Opponents of SFI had long criticized the organization as a massive misuse of resources that could be better spent solving Kerbin's energy shortage and overpopulation crisis. The Duna Exploration Campaign, which led to many breakthroughs in technology, was ultimately a waste of billions of funds, and a dead end. Likewise the fusion fuel harvested for use on Paragon 1 could have powered entire countries back on Kerbin. For this reason, future Paragon missions were specifically designed to be about more than just flags and footprints, something that Kerbin's industrial giants were privy to from the start.

In the following years, SFI's reliance on private industry for the development of off-planet infrastructure led to an economic boom like no other.

Owned and operated by Kerbin Resources Development Administration, vast helium fields like this one cause a spike in demand for virtually all commodities on a new frontier. KRDA seeks kerbals from all areas of expertise needed to run operations of this magnitude. In addition to aerospace engineering and support, every career from food service and custodians, to nurses, doctors, paralegals, and geologists are required to be on-site to sustain the growing industry.

Seasonal workers live in surface habitats on the Mun and Minmus, while planetside service firms now offer their employees regular stints to orbital facilities across the Kerbin system, for a sizable per diem, of course. SFI still holds the regulatory reins and operates via taxpayer money, but now subsidizes the majority of it through private contractors, where it flows back into the flourishing economy. Space contracting is the new gold rush.

Orbital fusion fuel depots like this one still take years to cultivate. Driving the Munar mining industry: the mission to expand into the Joolian system, the success of which will ironically lead to its very collapse.

An even greater industry exists beyond the bounds of the Kerbin sphere of influence, and holds the only hope of fusion drive transportation being sustainable: gas giant mining. While some industrial superpowers like KRDA are content exploiting Kerbin and its moons for fusion fuel, companies like the Post Kerbin Mining Corporation have their sights set on Jool, where profit margins are orders of magnitude higher. From the beginning of PROJECT STARPOWER and the Paragon program, Laythe was the key to unlocking it.

In a bold move, PKMC sells the majority of their Helium-3 rigs on the Mun and siphons funds into SFI for guaranteed seats on the upcoming mission to the Joolian system. Paragon 6 will pick up where previous missions left off, and it will be the largest single interplanetary mission to date.

Three of the latest iterations of the Paragon-class vessel will be used, each specialized for a unique part of the mission.

The flagship Hvaldimir will carry the crew transport SSTO. While sharing much of the same design, the Hvaldimir and it's two sisters differ from earlier ships of the line in many ways. In addition to the underslung spaceplane, the docking bus can also accommodate various orbital pods, making the ship it's own mobile space station. The fission powerplant is replaced with a new generation of large solar arrays coupled to supercapacitor banks, which can dump a huge amount of stored electricity to charge the propulsion reactor. The Fresnel engine has been modified with an additional 4 meter segment of mirror cells for even greater performance, and an LH2 afterburner can provide leagues more thrust when needed

For the Kerbin departure burn, even higher-thrust systems are used. Utilizing mad scientist Robert Kerman's notorious design, a Nuclear Salt Water tug docks to the rear of the vessel and provides the initial escape trajectory, after which it separates and reinjects into Kerbin orbit, where it can service the next vessel. Meanwhile, the first ship fires its Fresnel and takes over for the rest of the journey.

With previous missions having delivered the bulk of the materials and robotic heavy equipment, Paragon 6 will ferry the specialized components and a joint crew of 30 kerbals, a mixture of SFI mission specialists and PKMC engineers and technicians. Their goal is to establish the first Laythan spaceport, and lay the seeds for an interplanetary empire.

NEW WORLDS
In a few short decades, the Joeger Island Reserve Airfield, or "JIRAF" as it is referred to by it's inhabitants becomes the hub for the new Jool mining industry. It sits on the southern stretch of the archipelago, and staffs hundreds of pilots, maintenance personnel, administration teams, and researchers.

Over the ridgeline on the eastern tip of Manley's Reach, a fully developed Enming Bay Resort resides at the original landing site of Paragon 1, where a bustling tourist economy thrives.

Flying over JIRAF, a descendant of Jeb helps a new pilot earn their wings.

However, the majority of the island's air traffic is dedicated to the large mining SSTOs. Performing long, shallow dives through Jool's upper cloud layers, they can harvest vast amounts of Helium 3 with their atmospheric ram scoops. A prototype design like this one will depart from JIRAF fresh from overhaul, carry out it's months-long mission in the gas giant's atmosphere slowly filling its tanks, deliver the payload to fusion fuel stations in Laythan orbit, and return to the airfield for maintenance with full autonomy.

This business model paves the way for future interplanetary trade revolving around fusion drive-capable vessels, and turns corporations like PKMC into muti-billionaire firms. In time, Laythe becomes what is effectively a corporate oligarchy, a chain of working-class citizens connected to middle-class subcontractors and upper-class prime contractors, fully independent from Kerbin. For now, the governments of Laythe and Kerbin live in equilibrium.

Meanwhile, the great minds of kerbalkind are looking to go interstellar.

DREADNAUGHT
Having invested a great deal into PROJECT STARPOWER, a once-smaller experimental program now has the freedom to expand. PROJECT OMEGA, which began as a parallel to STARPOWER, has been seeking to perfect antimatter drives for the purpose of exploring into interstellar space.

In the decades following the fusion revolution, and the dual-planet civilization that rose from it, vessels such as this might one day be constructed in Laythan orbit. The Vercingetorix-class starship.

With its daunting antimatter drive, this ship possesses about 8x the delta-vee of the Paragon-class ships, roughly 15% the speed of light. With this power and scale, we could launch a mission to Kerbol's red-dwarf binary, Grannus, and return in just a matter of a few short years. But with the existence of Nodens, the fabled Kerbin-like world of the distant star, would we even want to return?

If or when such a mission took place, it is safe to say that a breed of daring and adventurous Kerbals, just like those brave 6 that took to the stars and unlocked the road to Laythe, would proudly go forth on that journey to the unknown.

THE END

Thank you for reading! What started out as a simple mission report clearly turned into something else, whoops! But now that it's over I'll gladly answer any questions from those wondering about specific parts of the mission, or wishing to share some pointers and tips. This was actually my first ever mission to Laythe with a crew (I have launched many probes but never any Kerbals) and wanted to pull it off while respecting all of my personal rules. Yep it's odd but I just can't leave my Kerbals out in space for too long without feeling like I've done them wrong! As it turns out FFT was the mod that got me set to finally pull it off.

Again, thank you and hope you enjoyed. I'll most likely be adding one more post various notes and asides to correct some errors that are present in the story right now. Some of my numbers and principles are not so accurate and I'd like to try to fix them as best I can. So until then, cheers!

January 5, 2021

1 hour ago, Astronomer said:

Beautiful! Please make engine cost 150,000,000 for realism.

In this thread we pretend SLS and Orion are viable vehicles worth using, please let us continue that fantasy! ;.;

January 2, 2021

Part 6: Home
VIEW ALBUM

INBOUND
Only a few days from home, the crew watches in elation as Kerbin goes from a pale blue dot in the sea of stars, to the bright and beautiful planet they left behind almost six months ago. The return leg of their trip has consisted of sorting through the plethora of data and personal logs collected from the exploration of Laythe, along with routine maintenance, housekeeping, and one-too-many invasive medical screenings courtesy of Jan.

Word of the mission's success has spread far and wide among kerbalkind. The crew of Paragon 1 regularly receives the heartfelt messages from all walks of life, praising their bravery and accomplishments in the name of adventure. Global excitement is at an all-time high. Pictures of the six kerbonauts walking along the beaches of Laythe - with no helmets- sparks the hopes and dreams of Kerbals everywhere.

As the historical ramifications grow by the minute, Paragon 1 readies it's engine for the deceleration burn into the Kerbin sphere of influence.

As you may recall from the start of the journey, we used Kerbin's rotational velocity around the sun to our advantage, by launching at the time of year that Kerbin was directly approaching Jool.

Arriving at Jool full broadside to it's orbit, we netted no gain or loss from its own sluggish pace around the sun. But with the Rich Kerman Maneuver, we did manage to preserve our in-system energy to the fullest extent by passing very close to Jool at 16km/s, converting much of that into an escape trajectory.

Now on approach to Kerbin, the selection of our 6-month timeframe pays off two-fold: Kerbin is now in full retrograde. Coming up directly behind her, she generously gifts us 15km/s of dV.

The resulting capture burn costs only 47,000m/s, which the Paragon more than has.

Coming out of our initial elliptical orbit following capture, the engine fires for the last time of the entire mission, circularizing into Low Kerbin Orbit.

We made it!

HOMECOMING
Having exhausted nearly all of it's fusion fuel after faithfully blasting it's crew halfway across the solar system and back, the Paragon spools down and enters hibernation mode. Jeb and the gang set off in the Shadowfax, catching a glimpse of the interplanetary vessel receiving a congratulatory ray of sunshine from Kerbol, is if to praise a job well-done.

It may be months before the decontamination team arrives to clear the vessel for return to service, but after the long journey, it's in no hurry.

The issue of our malfunctioning power cores is mitigated as best as possible. Bob will be riding in the co-pilot seat to assist with operating the plane while engineers Leo and Kat will be manning the crew stations on the middeck, sharing the responsibility of power distribution and heat management through the descent.

After the deorbit burn, what little cryogenic fuel that is left in the Shadowfax is pumped all the way forward, and permanently sealed there with the use of pressurized breakaway valves. This is to ensure the craft's center of mass is correct for the reentry profile.

After the customary friendly banter between the flight crew and Mission Control, the order comes in loud and clear: "Commander Jeb, come on home!"

Our target is none other than the KSC. Jeb can recognize all the landmarks by heart, which is good considering his MFD is still covered in sharpie.

Kerbin's atmosphere catches us like a baseball glove at Mach 12. Minutes later, we're soaring through the stratosphere with the scramjets kicking, fine-tuning our trajectory to the KSC.

There is a small problem, however. We've come in a bit high, meaning that we'll miss a gliding entry into the Heading Alignment Cones at the end of the runway. We're set to come down miles out over the Cape, then turn around for a powered approach to KSC - usually not an issue. But, reentry heating combined with the power distribution malfunction means that the the cores are already dangerously hot. Running the scramjets for very long could risk a total meltdown.

Mission Control offers a few solutions, but the final call comes down to the pilot. Jeb decides to execute a high-speed dive to cut all of our lateral velocity, and get us onto a short approach to the runway below.

The crew crosses their fingers and tightens their straps, prepping for the high-gee maneuver. Nearing the HAC, Jeb pushes the Shadowfax near it's structural limits and subjects the crew to upwards of negative 5 gees, yanking them out of their seats against their shoulder harnesses. It feels like their eyeballs want to pop (more than usual) out of their skulls.

;

AND THE HORSEY YOU RODE IN ON...
We bleed off a ton of speed, putting us down into the lower atmosphere where we can acquire the control we need to turn around and land. Overjoyed spectators look up and cheer as we drop below Mach 1 over Cape Harbor.

In this picture you can see the mid-fuselage, where the power cores are mounted, glowing red-hot as they approach failure.

To the surprise of the flight crew, Valentina Kerman III comes in from Mission Control and, after a few quick jabs at the harrowing dive, guides Jeb in through the landing. Gear down, engines at 20%, feather the airbrakes gently.

Touchdown at KSC! The Shadowfax floats down elegantly onto the runway, and the drogue chute deploys. Mission Control erupts into a cacophony of cheers and jubilation, while the crew - now mostly in a liquid state - sinks back into their seats in relief. It is not known how many high-fives occurred after this point, but some say they are still high-fiving to this day.

It's a monumental event that is broadcast all over the world to homes, schools, and downtown city squares. Everyone on Kerbin knows the names and unique faces of all six members of Paragon 1, thanks to the popular action figure line new from SFI's toy department. The world is ready to give them the heroe's welcome they deserve.

However, instead of hanging a right to park in front of the spaceplane hangar and disembark like usual, the Shadowfax continues down the runway and exits onto the northside ramp, where a quarantine complex has been constructed.

The battered spaceplane pulls into the hangar and shuts down, it's power cores all but melting through the cabin structure. Within seconds, a crew extraction vehicle arrives and whisks our heroes away to the Kerbal Quarantine Facility on the northern end of the compound, where they will stay for the next two weeks. More vehicles arrive to fully defuel and make the vehicle safe for D-CON teams to get to work. A specialized apparatus is used to access the sample storage canister through a sealed hatch in the aft cargo hold, after which it is sent to the sterilized laboratory at the quarantine center's eastern edge.

Against overwhelming odds and insurmountable technological challenges, Paragon 1 draws to a close - a resounding success and a unifying event in the tapestry of Kerbal history. With this great leap into the cosmos, civilization is ready to take the next small step into parts unknown.

January 1, 2021

Part 5: Return

VIEW ALBUM

[Disclaimer] This was going to be the last chapter before the epilogue, but as the mission played out, it became apparent that I needed more space
to expand on some of the key events. This post will soon be followed by Part 6: Home.

GOODBYES
Sunrise at Joeger Island on the morning of the 22nd day, overlooking Enming Bay. For the duration of their stay on the surface, Mission Control directed a wide variety of experiments, though the crew also took it upon themselves to come up with a few of their own. For instance, studies show that sand castles are extremely possible, nay - inevitable - when venturing out on foot. As for swimming in the ocean, the only Kerbal brave enough to try was Leopold. He made it a few dozen meters out in the cold black tide before realizing that the "Ocean" biome was not for another kilometer or so off-shore, and quickly returned science-less. Gravity is just enough to facilitate normal waddling, but light enough that a powerful jump combined with a standard-issue thruster pack can allow for sizeable leaps, such as onto the wings of the Shadowfax from the ground. In related studies, dents in titanium-alloy skin are relatively easy to buff out with the old "whack it with a mallet" approach.

Besides field science, the secondary goal of the expedition was pathfinding. Mission Control was very adamant on surveying sections of the island with a large area of clear, flat terrain, with stable ground composition and sitting above the water table, but also near the shore. Indeed, such a place does exist on the south side of the island. On one of the last expeditions to that sector, Katnand and Bob set up a locator beacon labeled "LZ Bravo." Little do they know that LZ Bravo is of supreme interest to SFI's many corporate lobbyists, and the industrial superpowers of Kerbin.

Though intrigued by the rumors of a future airfield on Laythe, our Kerbal crew's collective minds are elsewhere. While Laythe is certainly a gem among the cold airless bodies of the kerbolar system, nothing beats Mother Kerbin, and it's time to go back to her.

Leaving behind the Enming Bay Resort, and Joeger Island as a whole, The Shadowfax takes to the Laythan sky one final time. Unlike on the initial landing, the aircraft has no problem maintaining control with it's engines screaming full throttle. To line back up with the Paragon, Jeb takes the craft out over the water heading north-east.

Nearing the equator, a mild dog-leg maneuver puts the Shadowfax onto a matching 0 degree inclination. From there the ascent resembles that of a standard one on Kerbin, only much quicker. At max power the spaceplane cuts effortlessly through the thin air and jumps out of the moon's atmosphere like a Laythan Flying Fish out of water. Though unlike that totally-theorized and yet-unseen aquatic animal, the Shadowfax does not come back down.

REUNIONS
Towards the end of the ascent, what started off as a mild concern has escalated into a major problem. Multiple thermal warning alarms are going off in the cabin, and Katnand traces them to the dual D-D powerplants. The spacecraft's radiators are functioning properly, but both power cores are steadily overheating and approaching dangerous temperatures. It seems that somehow, instead of offloading their stored charges into the primary systems and throttling to meet power needs, they are instead remaining in a state of overvoltage, likely due to a malfunctioning distributor.

To stop the cores from melting, Kat is having to manually throttle the reactors and reroute power to the systems one by one - something that the interface was not designed to do. She is is now task-saturated, leaving Jeb and Leo to fly the craft, manage the instruments and software, AND plot orbital maneuvers on their own. Additionally, the power surges fried the mini-bar on the foredeck.

With the lengthier engine burns now complete, Kat is free to place one power core on idle and rest the other one, then alternate them after a short cooldown period. Back in the cold vacuum of space, the crew can now move to the rendezvous and docking phase. We come once more to meet the Paragon in low orbit, who has been patiently awaiting our return.

Lining up the final docking approach is even trickier than the initial one at the start of the mission, thanks to the fuel tanks being partially empty, giving the RCS system an especially hard time balancing the Shadowfax during translation. But thankfully as we faff about below, the Paragon remains motionless, and is not rotating at 68rpm, making it just a matter of time before the sound of the clamps locking together rings through the hull.

Mighty Jool above, the ward of the outer planets, silently spectates this peculiar little event.

Back onboard the Paragon, the crew has one week scheduled for thorough post-mission activities and routine maintenance before returning home. The next day, a quick multi-member space walk to recalibrate the ship's antenna array turns into an intricate game of hide-and seek.

But Mission Control has other plans. While the crew was on the surface of Laythe having fun in the sun, the team back on Kerbin was tasked with coming up with a solution regarding two pressing concerns.
1. We have less fusion fuel than was expected for this point in the mission. We can still get home, but our transit time will be longer as a result.
2. Solar recon probes have detected a spike in activity over the past several weeks, strongly indicating that a major solar storm will occur in roughly 60 days, or more according to some sources.

Weighing the options presents two clear choices. We could stay in the relative safety of Laythe's magnetic field and wait out the storm, rationing snack-intake to try to stretch the few months of limited supplies left on the Paragon, or chance a return now and try to squeeze out every last ounce of Helium-3 and Deuterium left in the tanks.

But a plucky intern by the name of Rich Kerman suggests a third option. If executed at the right time, an orbit-breaking maneuver down into an incredibly close slingshot around Jool could net a huge boost in dV and get the crew back home in less than 60 days, with plenty of fuel to spare. The big-wigs at Mission Control are doubtful at first but after plotting the maneuver nodes on the map screen, they realize it checks out. When asked if he used a supercomputer to come up with the idea, Rich simply stated "I eye-balled it."

OBERTH
To meet the requirements for the planned maneuver, the crew has just three days to complete their one-week checklist. Namely, all of the samples recovered from Laythe need to be carefully extracted, placed in sterile containers, and stored in the specially-constructed vacuum compartment in the Shadowfax's cargo hold. After doing so, the cargo hold is sealed and cannot be accessed for the remainder of the mission. This is to limit the possibility of rogue pathogens returning from Laythe, which could endanger all life on Kerbin. Jan regularly examines the other members of the crew and herself for any signs of infection. So far so good, but no risks can be taken here.

After securing the cargo and pouring through the ship's myriad of complex systems, it's time to hit the road.

The Rich Kerman Maneuver involves 3 burns. The first is a periapsis kick at Laythe to put us into position for the second burn, a well-timed orbit-break that will spiral us deep into Jool's gravity well. The third will be a single ejection burn at Jool periapsis, where we should be able to reap the benefits of the Oberth Effect and get in a high-velocity escape out of the Joolian system. Every stage of the maneuver has to go off without a hitch.

After hitting the first burn and swinging around once more to escape Laythe's sphere of influence, the crew waves goodbye as the alien moon gets smaller and smaller. Jeb searches deep within to find the right words. Then, as if to quote the great poetry of yore, simply says "We came, we saw, we left some doodads for later, possibly."

We're now on the right trajectory to pull off the slingshot maneuver. This will be our closest pass to Jool of the entire mission. Though we will spend a short time passing through the green giant's intense radiation belts, this is considered preferable to the pending solar storm. Here you can see us whittling down to the final orbit with a Pe of 770km.

As we come around the backside of Jool, the sun disappears, then so do most of the stars. Soon, one side of the sky is nothing but pure black. Then just moments away from periapsis, cresting the horizon, the Kerbals are treated to the most spectacular view in the entire solar system.

Dancing across the cloud tops at periapsis, Paragon 1 exceeds 16 kilometers per second, before our engine fires once more to send us home. Bathed in the green glow of the vast cosmic sea below us, an epic Hans Kerman score begins to play in Jeb's head. Shortly after, the rest of the crew informs him he is in fact humming this out loud. Then, they join in.

The Rich Kerman maneuver saved about 10,000m/s of dV while also putting us on a course to reach Kerbin a few days ahead of schedule, with plenty of fuel left in the tanks.

Pulling away from Jool, Laythe comes up over the horizon one last time.

In a few days, Paragon 1 and it's crew will be well away from Jool, and it will once more be a small green dot against the cosmos. They'll never forget what they saw, but before any celebration can take place, they'll have to make a safe landing back on Kerbin first.

January 1, 2021

For collisions I can positively so that no, an object will not have any left over “phantom colliders” when you move a part away from where it was originally attached. Wherever you move it, it’s colliders will go with it.

Though as far as drag goes I am a little hazy. I want to say in old versions of the game, if you surface-attached something to the outside of a rocket and then clipped it fully inside, the aerodynamics would still register it as being exposed to the air. But newer versions of the game I believe that is no longer the case (someone please correct me if I am wrong).

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