Yakez

Never actually thought about sending support package to the destination. Crap. Nice one. I actually redoing my Jool mission since on the first try I was going to delta V stuck in Laythe orbit due to my error in planning and not accounting that Minmus pit stop is an actual extra 600 m/s toll booth to Jool...

Back on my proper stock+ shuttles. Flat bottom is good to build space stations, but I prefer my supersonic abominations. While I wanted to do Jool 5, I am pretty much in 500 part count fro that and do not want to put myself through that... So I developed Laythe exclusive package for my smallest shuttle. Testing went pretty much ok. It is time to go for the Jool mission when I have time.

Alright... So this was my first asteroid mission ever... I have totally misjudged delta V. But after calculating several detour loops to go back to Kerbin, detaching extra fuel tank, using RCS for minor burns and enabling cross-feed from front section I had enough to make an actual precise landing at KSC with 500 atmospheric delta V. Gracefully touched the land in 20ish meters from runway and hoped precisely on it with 0 fuel left. Big grey avocado is delivered for culinary school of Kordon Jamsay. 3500 m/s reentry was brutal. Rolled quite a bit to survive. STS-9 report at Imgur (39 images)

So here is my embarrassing landing in middle of nowhere... Honestly I have mixed feeling about type 4 SMM from flat bottom parts. On one hand it can do cobra stops for 40-60 m/s landings all day long. On other hand it feels so immobile after supersonic SMM type 1-3. Made custom Skylab for this one. Launched it with a rocket and... Unity crashed, so it was alt-f12 time. My apologies for forgetting to get screenshot of habitation module on the ground. Made some EVA strut work on the Skylab, brought drone for orbit boost and service tasks. Deorbited solar array with SMM and brought new one with habitation module similar to Maris Station Core. STS-4T entry Imgur 77 images And while I am on it made STS-2T. I have simulated loss of 6 outer engines on "orbiter booster stage". Considering that whole contraption was totally unstable I now understand why nobody sane would done this IRL. STS-2T Entry Imgur 21 images

Following materials are for the internal use only. T.O.P. secret. SMM06 type 4 "Settia Senitia" Further step in SMM cargo capacity. While hull is limited by 3.75m width with factory dimensions of Yakez interstellar Corporation it certainly almost doubles total volume over SMM type 1. Cargo bay like that can swallow half of Adria Station easily. However it comes with a price. Previous military demands to have flexible long rage supersonic Starplane were lifted. Currently Settia Senitia undergoes sub-orbital trials. Huge budget cuts force YIC to actually test everything on actual production model. Totally reasonable? Report of test pilot Summer Kerman states: "Flies like a slow avocado." STS-1T entry

While I was preventing burnout by creating new modded shuttle I stumbled across this awesome mod: While it is abandoned it still work for the most part. However there is no compatibility with TweakScale and I wanted actual 3.75m size instead standard of 2.5m. Since I do have some experience in modding other games I have made small patch for TweakScale, so it would work with this mod. Everything aside some wing orientation glitches and one of the pods do work. For the most part all glitches and weird stuff would require modification of the modification. CODE: 1. Duplicate any .cfg with a new name in Gamedata/TweakScale/Patches. (called mine TCS_TweakScale.cfg) 2. Then replace contents with this inside: In this image mod parts are scaled to 3.75m size.

Thanks! Lander itself is rather unbalanced and rely on 4 reaction wheels to be stable at low fuel, not the brightest design. And I just put over 2k delta V in it to be safe and Maris Station was just sitting there doing nothing with all the delta V. if I initially knew that it would take 20+ burns to get to poles... I really just wanted to test viability of such lander if I ever would go and place actual base to Duna Surface. If I slap more radiators next time definitely can work. And this video made the rest.

I present to you. Duna STS-3. Took some time. I am certainly puzzled by the fact that I had yet again redesigned Launch System. I think I only had the same launch system when I was constructing Adria Station... LAME once again need more work to be something that I want to take for Jool. Large tanks of the launch system are from Near Future Launch Vehicles. Labeled DUNA STS-3 report at Github (65 images) Gibberish order full Imgur gallery (137 images)

That is neat... My totally not influenced double gondola top secret project "Bongo-Bongo" is now more viable. Meanwhile I am totally Von-Braunaning Duna STS-3 in all viable ways...

Relay dish sounds very tempting, definitely lack one for Jool mission. Actually I was thinking about fairings, but since I started using KIS, there is an actual functional cargo part in the exact shape and heat resistance that I need! https://imgur.com/Qo4uuds I do have a question about DUNA STS-3 Can I capture at Eve or it should be strictly flyby? Do not enjoy idea of throwing satellites while moving around.

I actually totally had no clue how exactly "difficult/problematic" heat shield was on real Space Shuttle when I started this challenge. I can only wonder how much problems Buran heat shield would had if it really flown. On other side Kerbin atmosphere is really thin compared to real one, so I guess stuff like that is totally easier when you have only minute or so of reentry heat instead of 10+ minutes. Other Idea was to actually dock two sky-crane modules on the both sides to save space in the cargo bay and still have VTOL. And it is easier on balancing, witch is a bit problematic if you want land on something big.

I do remember the exact same idea about my shuttle, before I turned cargo bay upside down and "fixed" the issue... That is one of the reasons why I have 2 senior docking ports on both ends of SMM. The biggest issue that I ran into is lack of properly shaped 2.5 - 1.25 fuel tanks/adapters to cover forward port. They all have max temperature of 2000K. Every single reentry I had some borderline overheating of that part. Most likely would be redesigning that whole module.

Well I opted for github wiki to be able to sort through all the stuff at later point. Forum do provide more options for text formatting but is rather bad when you want to create proper structure for a lot of reports. It is kind of odd. In STS-1 and STS-3 you are hauling stuff to Duna, while for STS-2 you can technically use shuttle without cargo bay. Maybe something along the lines of any "functional" payload? You can bring not only module for the station but ground research facility, manned or unmanned rover, plane, drone or maybe even helicopter?

sturmhauke Does Odin flip around after you detach side booster? I totally went away from configuration like that for more stability during launch. And here is my entry to Duna STS-2 and totally functional delivery of 5 man space station/module to Duna to fulfill Duna STS-1 Commander. I totally could overdone the presentation and some stuff maybe do not work as I intended, please comment. I am using Github for the first time. And Imgur is a pain to sort and rearrange screens. So totally grab a snack while examining all the stuff. Fully labeled Duna STS-2 report at Github (81 images). Imigur unlabeled full album (images travel around and a bit out of order) 178 images. Updated mod list.

So i finally done with Duna STS-2. EVERYTHING went wrong... aside Duna landing, that was smooth as smoothie. Would be doing report tomorrow. Want to try some new stuff. And in the meanwhile some beauty shots:

Btw, does Kerbal Joint Reinforcement really help with FPS? I am still hesitate to use it. And I do not had real issues before that point. And actually I think I just made NEC type 3, witch a bit brute force solution and do not have versatility of other enjine cluster as separate maneuverable craft, but looks awesome in my design. I hope it would lift the damn thing =) Also I miscalculated Minmus burn delta V (I forgot about circulation delta V), so I either need to make 2 trips to the surface to fill all the tanks, or inject some liquid fuel with my support package aside fixing engines. And if everything is a failure I just can go to Duna with 1 engine and 30 minute burn... ouch. And even using SMM fuel for Minmus maneuvers would still leave me with enough delta V to land and launch from Duna (I have around 900 m/s of headroom there). WIP fix to all my shortcomings: https://imgur.com/cO0KG3I

Failure like onions... After researching original NASA plans for shuttle I have made HOTOL stage for my SMM. It definitely is lighter than my HLS. But. It could not push FCMS or LAME with shuttle. And the amount of engines, coped with length of low FPS during whole launch just have killed any viability. And it is only like 20% cheaper. Second failure is my interplanetary engine adapter for Duna STS-2. It just is bending to much and I do think that what kills my burn efficiency... like 400% down the drain. Either restock engines bugs out or I just need to make different support package engine adapter. Without any unnecessary docking ports. 5 screenshots of failed prototypes.

Yea I know sad Ike story. Actually Minmus Stationary and Synchronous orbits are a thing now! I stumbled on it during my STS-2a "struggles". I do remember that it was not possible somewhere before KSP 1.0. Maybe because Minmus was tidally locked. Just double checked in game and my relay stay put like a charm over the base. (3y and 100d in) I think it is possible in theory to create sky-hook from synchronous Minmus orbit to one of the flats (Imagine Delorian hooking to the station from flats and creating interdenominational rift...) I do use this handy tool to check orbit numbers: https://meyerweb.com/eric/ksp/resonant-orbits/ And here is wiki on Kerbol stationary orbits: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Synchronous_orbit So my plans for Duna STS-2 is pushing complexity of the mission. Now it looks like that von Braun Mars plan with shuttle as spacecraft. Nuclear Engines - check. Triple engines - check. Orbital assembly - check. I need to send 197 ton SMM + cargo payload to Duna. So here is the checklist that I was making for the mission: 1. Launch SMM type 3 with half fuelled LAME and 1 NEC type 2. 2. Configure SMM at LKO. 3. Launch support package with 2 additional NEC type 2 and engine adaptor. 4. Rendezvous support package with SMM. 5. Dock to the side and hold support package engine adaptor. 6. Release upper ascend stage of support package. 7. Start assembly of support package by docking NECs to the 3 sockets. 8. Dock assembled engine section to SMM and LAME. 9. Reach Low Minmus Orbit. 10. Undock SMM and grab engine section. 11. Undock and land LAME on Minmus. 12. Refuel LAME and launch it back. 13. Rendezvous with SMM and reconfigure craft back. 14. Burn to Duna. 15. Aero-capture and rendezvous with Maris Station. 16. Dock to Maris Station and separate Maris Station Logistics module. 17. Deploy and dock new Maris Station Module to Core Module. 18. Dock Maris Station Logistics module back. 19. Undock LAME + engine section from SMM and dock it to Maris Station. 20. Put one NEC to forward port of LAME. 21. Undock LAME from Station and engine adaptor and launch it to Ike. 22. Land LAME at Ike and start fuel refinement. 23. Leave one crew member at Maris Station for Duna expedition coordination. 24. Land SMM at Duna. 25. VTOL release Roaming Base. 26. Dock Roaming Base to the SMM and transfer 3 crew members for the Duna expedition (so comfy, no EVA...). 27. Perform Duna Expedition and return Roaming Base back. 28. Perform Duna ascend under power of 6 CR-7 and VTOL cluster if needed, dispose VTOL cluster otherwise. 29. Reach Maris Station and summon LAME from Ike. 30. Perform 180 degree flip to NEC during LAME ascend from Ike. 31. Configure craft back to the interplanetary configuration. 32. Burn to Kerbin. 33. Aero capture at Kerbin. 34. Leave LAME and engine cluster in LKO. 35. Land SMM.

As they say "A speediest way to the Naboo it is going through the plaanet corrre!". Fixed LAME would be absolutely part of Duna STS-2 and JOOL STS-1. So here are my proposals on Minmus challenge badge 2. Minmus saga continuous... Minmus is my favourite destination aside my mind constantly saying, that it is to unreal to have two moons so close to the Kerbol. Maybe someone have put it there? Advanced ancient lost civilisations? Aliens? Killing Death Machines? Spacecows? Oh common, Kerbin is flat and KSA is full of paid actors, check their bios, they all have attended junior school theater! Surprisingly it can be challenging! At least if you consider my commander requirements. Otherwise it is pretty simple - create Minmus refinery, put a lab, put a recreation module, refuel Shuttle and land on Mun or asteroid before Kerbin return. "Minmus STS-2-4. Ice cream mining operations: Mint contamination." To create big fuel refinement operation at LKO we do need a proof that Minmus can be viable fuel source for our Shuttle program. First stage: Deploy separate refinery module with dedicated power that can refuel Shuttle on the surface of Minmus. Then refuel Shuttle to full tanks for the trip back. Example of Minmus STS-2 challenge proposal entry: Second stage: For quality control of refined fuels deploy fuel analysis laboratory. This module should have custom lab, antenna, airlock, ore container, pressurized compartment for at least 1 Kerbal and should be able to dock to the refinery. Refuel your Shuttle to full tanks for the trip back. Example of Minmus STS-3 challenge proposal entry: Third stage: Deploy pressurized recreation facility for at least 7 kerbalnauts to make a stay at Minmus gas station more enjoyable. After Minmus pit stop you need to contaminate other celestial body with minty Minmus dust. Shuttle should land on a celestial body other than Minmus or Kerbin before returning home. Example of Minmus STS-4 challenge proposal entry: Commander requirements aside precise Kerbin landings could be as follows: - Deploy communication satellite above the base in Minmus Stationary Orbit; - Deploy communication satellite in Minmus Polar Orbit if you didn't done so in Minmus STS-1; - After last pit stop at Minmus Shuttle should land on a celestial body other than Mun, Minmus, Kerbin or asteroid before returning home.

And now here is more reckless piloting in low Gee this time. This one become really interesting one, made rather strange docking from the first attempt, and suffered first real software malfunction during landing! Honestly I could not really push heavy launch system further because my FPS during launch already made manual piloting an issue... Even cutting main FPS offenders - Mainsail Engines did not really fixed an issue. Ok, so the Minmus saga begins! Minmus STS-1 entry:

Everything as planned, just like my hope and dreams for the April 2020... While original SMM design have proven to be reliable tool in the space exploration it nevertheless felt short of its initial goals. SMM01, SMM02, SMM03 of type 1 are not planned to be retired any time soon. Type 1 most likely would be the first crewed ships to reach as far as Jool. But SMM04 Lapis Livi felt short of its initial design. It has proved to be expensive toy for station resupply missions and after dozen or so automated missions was mothballed and later cannibalised for parts to create next SMM in the line. SMM05 Vita Vibius is actually 6th ever built Starplane. The first one was lost sub-orbital prototype SMM-P (report states: "Prototype was lost to an outstanding showcase of piloting skills by the test pilot"). Vita Vibius is officially designated as type 3 and it has extended cargo bay that meets original specifications for SMM program. Type 3 has bigger volume of cargo payload as it proven essential during Mun lunches by the type 1. Also after Aurora Arbore IX investigation Kerbal Security Committee is strongly opposed to usage of forward cargo payload on SMM as insecure and reckless cost-cutting feature. Vita Vibius re-imagines power section that initially was "strap on with of the shelf sub-orbital jet engines" solution for SMM type 1. Type 3 have custom engine design that do have oxidizer afterburner for more versatility. In this design 4 CR-7 are combined with 4 J-404 and allow for good performance in subsonic and supersonic speeds. Some advancements in the crew security were made. While majority of the crew still have one-way ticket if anything goes south, SMM now have double cockpit and both commander and pilot now can eject from doomed Starplane. While definitely heavier on the full load SMM05 is not scheduled to land heavy payloads any time soon. However it is clear that LKO construction is the playground for this SMM. After sub-orbital tests first real named mission is deployment and replacement of old glitchy Stationary Relay Network around Kerbin. STS-2a Commander entry: And yep... it is my first landing at TSC. And Summer Kerman is the reason that everything would be Kerbal every single mission she is on board.

And rabbit hole of redesign went to... conclusion. Did not meet my expectations to make 6 segment cargo bay, but! I met my expectations for 5 segment cargo bay as I wanted in SMM type 1... Just back from sub-orbital testing. Last flight is done fully in cockpit of my new SMM05 Vita Vibius.

Hey are you alright with me posting my Minmus "saga" before. I actually have some ideas for challenge base Minmus STS-2-5. Then I just want to try finally make my SMM type 3 to fly and do mammoth STS-2a and other LKO Kerbin stuff.

Decals is a life! Using Decalcomania myself. When we would see Huginn then? Talking about previews:

KSA need some dirty tourism money. I think on using mk3 passenger module, mk1 inline cockpit and mk2 lander can for airlock (19 Kerbals) as base for SMM05 starliner. And then I would have 2.5 segment of cargo space for maybe inflatable hotel module (if I would be happy with one mod). So from roleplay standpoint it would be starliner with accommodation module on board. Most likely I want to involve my automated cargo SMM04 Lapis Livi as rescue vehicle (SMM01 + SMM02 are at Duna and SMM03 is configured for Minmus mission). So does rescue vehicle without cockpit count?