strider3

LOL...some way to actually explore Eve biomes without having to strand a Kerbal scientist on each one! I've heard people have returned to orbit from Eve's surface...I just don't know how they do it, the DV is astronomical and landing is not a guaranteed success. Actually, I'm being facetious. What I would really like is a few more planets/moons, which was my vote. Oh...and biome maps with a legend on them...it's tricky using SCANsat and creating a BMP of the biome map with a legend. I have done it for Duna but, the "50 shades of brown" type color pallets are annoying? Anywho, keep up the great work...I love KSP!

I have been using 1.4.3 since it came out. Every time my 12 or so mods get updated for a newer version, you guys come out with yet another one! Your killin' me, smalls! Not this time, I'll be looking for 1.7 mods daily...you people aren't getting ahead of me again! LOL!

OK...thanks gang. Sorry I was so...frustrated...in my original post. I do apologize.

I'm not quite sure why using the "Alt+F12" menu to set a craft on a certain orbit height around a selected celestial body has to be so...difficult? Why can't I just select the body and orbit height, for God's sake?? But, since it apparently has to be "rocket science" (on a cheat menu???), please explain to me how one uses the cheat menu to set a craft on an orbit of a certain altitude around any given celestial body...before I throw a large hammer through my monitor.

The only RTG's I have are stock...and I would need 128 of them to make up the deficit. 6 large fuel cell arrays will be a much smaller mass craft and easier to get there.

Well, if you look at my last screen shot and the amount of fuel and LoX I'm producing at full production, then compare it to what the fuel usage of the large fuel cell arrays are, it's very doable. The fuel cells only use .02/sec fuel and LoX to produce their 18.0/sec electrical charge. With my full load production at 0.69/sec Lox and 0.56/sec fuel, I can easily bring 6 large fuel cell arrays up to Dres and have them producing 108/sec electrical charge (overcoming my full night power deficit) and only reducing my fuel and Lox output by .12 each (so 0.57/sec and 0.44/sec). I will still be able to run at full production 24 - 7.

These would be fuel cells, not solar.

OK...if I calculated correctly (), 6 large fuel cell arrays will work. They will produce an extra 108/sec electrical charge (enough to overcome my current 102/sec deficit at night). They will use .12/sec fuel and Lox, reducing my full load production output to .57/sec. LoX and .44/sec. fuel. Or, I could go with 5 large arrays and, again if my math is correct, I will have enough battery storage (26,600) to last 24 hours of darkness at full production. Somebody please check my math .

Whats really sad is, if I have finally gotten the numbers right, I will need another 128 nukes to remain at full production 24-7? (deficit of 102 charge per second / nuke charge production of 0.8 sec.). Seems like I might have to sell my original "emergency power" unit as it will be totally inadequate with 32 nukes. I'm going to take a look at fuel cells, instead but...the question will be will they burn more fuel than I can produce with my one ISDU? Back to the calculator! BTW, anybody want to buy a surface based power unit? It's already in orbit at 350 km over Kerbin and fully refueled with 5,183 DV...best offer? LOL!

I figured it out. I was not aware that my engineer, Dunnie, must be aboard the base and not on EVA, for full production. As soon as I boarded him in the rover production shot up and electrical charge usage increased: You can see production and usage, at full "load" at night, in the upper right.

I could only run 2 drills OR make fuel (not both), so quite a large deficit. Now, as you see, I can run it all AND lights, at night. If you look at an earlier screenshot, above, you can see my usage at 74.83 with (I believe) all drills running and the ISRU and the lights.

I can't explain this...but I suddenly can run all 4 big drills AND the ISRU AND all my lighting on Dres. As stated earlier I could not do nearly this much previously. The only thing I've done is landed the Dres fuel hauler and linked it to the mining station. The hauler has no nukes, 8 medium solar panels and a large battery...so it being linked should not have made any difference as I would think, in the middle of the night as in the screenie below, I would still have the problem of power consumption overriding the nuke power production. As you can see my electrical power is staying maxed with everything on and running. Weird.

LOL...a self-refueling amphibious seaplane...now THAT will be a challenge. Forgetting that this is quite beyond my current construction abilities (LOL), I'm assuming that some form of ore storage must be included? The drills can't send the ore directly to the ISRU, correct?

I'm thinking water surface only, at this point...that will be hard enough . The problem will be...how do I do the water exploration...do I carry enough fuel to make the seaplane capable of reaching all the water bodies or do I figure out how to refuel the thing. For now my Jool system exploration will be dry land until I learn how to construct something that will work on Laythe's water biomes. Not to mention that I have had no luck flying anything "plane"? LOL!

Unfortunately, my math on electrical power requirements for this operation missed the mark by quite a bit. Even with all the nukes and solar panels, I can only run at 1/2 production. My best option, it seems, is to "batch" produce fuel and get a nuke power unit on it's way.

So, after many "mulligans", I finally got the Dres mining base placed, and making resources. As I understand, in KSP, all the really ore rich areas are usually NOT flat...and they aren't lying! So, I made a compromise, Dunie the Engineer found a "relatively" flat area (hmmm) with a 12.36% ore concentration to set up the mining operation on. After many attempts, all the necessary parts are landed, the ISDU and storage units were "rovered" close enough to link and are making fuel. The very light gravity on Dres makes transferring fuel from the mining base to the orbital stations easy...but it does nothing for moving the ISDU and Storage units, on rover wheels, close to the Drill, for linking. It was a long, cautious and very tedious process but it's over, now. Now we make fuel, LoX and mono and start sending the phase 1 (Jool) exploration and science gathering ships to Dres for refueling. I might even send some Eeloo ships in the same launch window...haven't got that far. So, here's a couple of shots of the Dres operation:

Is it possible to increase the amount of files that are saved in the saves "backup" folder?

The various parts to the Dres mining and refueling mission: The Hauler, which will transfer the fuel to the 2 orbiting stations The 2 stations, which will orbit Dres: The drill: The ISDU: The Rover, which will first search for the highest ore concentrations with it's attached surface scanning module. The area has already been scanned with various SCANsat equipment and prime location has been chosen. Secondly, the rover will be used to transfer fuel to the hauler as I don't see being able to land close enough to the drilling operation, every time, for a pipe connect. The fuel storage unit. This will hold the mined and processed fuel and LoX until it is sent to the hauler for transfer to the orbiting refueling stations Although Dres has a very limited gravity, I have still had problems getting the Drill, ISDU and Storage units landed close enough for my engineer to connect them. With that in mind I have added rover ability to the ISDU and Fuel Storage units. This will make landing each of these much less...stressful. I can move them to the optimal location with the rover ability. The entire Dres mining and refueling project is intended to support exploration of Jool, it's satellites and Eeloo. It seemed to me that, to explore these 2 systems, without constant launches from Kerbin, a refueling alternative was required. Wish me luck, brothers and sisters. ps. I still don't know how to explore Laythe's water biomes? I could use some help with that.

As promised, after the epic failure of the Duna mining/refueling station, we go for Dres. The usual parts...drill, ISDU, fuel storage, rover, 2 refueling stations in orbit, and a fuel hauler to get the stuff to the stations. The Dres swarm...on it's way. Blah...you've seen it before...;-)

Thanks gang!!

Tyko, do any of your suggestions above increase the DV required as opposed to just leaving Kerbin from 350k? The periapsis kick sounds like it may make TWP info "obsolete", as it asks for your Kerbin orbit and I assume it's wanting a "round" orbit for it's calculations? Although I would enter my final Kerbin departure orbit as my Kerbin periapsis in TWP ( I assume), my Kerbin apoapsis would be much higher. How would I do a periapsis kick with TWP...is it possible? Thanks buddy!

Thanks Tyko. I do use Precise Maneuver which allows me to copy and paste the maneuver from TWP...very helpful. I just wanted to make sure I was doing everything possible and, after reading your reply, it seems I am. Thank you!

A question for you all regarding getting to Dres, from Kerbin, using the Transfer Window Planner mod. When TWP creates a maneuver node to Dres, with its inclined orbit in relation to Kerbin's, does it expect me to be at a 0* inclination orbit around Kerbin...or does it want me to try and match the inclination of Dres, while I am in Kerbin orbit, before hitting the maneuver node? Either way, what would be an "acceptable" variance to the required inclination? I ask because using the node created by TWP for Kerbin to Dres rarely get's me an actual Dres encounter...it usually requires lots of "fiddling" with the node to get an encounter...LOTS of fiddling. Thanks, as always, for any insight, gang.

Thanks gang...that helped a lot!

I've read the KSPedia entry for SCANsat but I still cannot get a correct altitude for an SAR scan of Dres. I've done everything from 150 KM to 600 KM and I still have the flashing "HI" in the main map. I'm confused on what that flashing means...does a flashing "HI" mean I'm too high? When I open the context menu for the SCANsat SAR scanner, all it tells me is "sub-optimal"..."sub" as in too low of an altitude, or "sub" as in too high or too low. I know I need a lot of hand holding with SCANsat...but I wish the KSPedia for it was much more detailed than it is. Here is a screen...the "HI" is flashing.