Kerbals_of_Steel

My first career save has given me a series of Eve contracts, trying to knock them out and make my first interplanetary landing. Since Eve is vaguely Venus, I decided to make a vaguely Russian probe: Eve entry is a hell of a thing. A 60-65km approach captures into orbit, but I run out of ablator and nearly cook everything on the second pass. 50-55km simply cooks it on the first pass. I've mostly landed them (except for my first, 45km attempt, which was like belly flopping into wet concrete...) but they have been zero-margin results. I'd like to figure out how to put a little more insurance into the mission before launching for "real". I really like how this thing looks, and at 50K kerbucks for an interplanetary mission, it's very career friendly, but how do people land on Eve without bouncing ALL the heatbars off the redline? HALP!!!

Been getting into Career mode pretty hard lately, launched my most ambitious mission so far, an unmanned science and sample return mission to Minmus with two smol rovers for surface features: The monoprop maneuvering system on the rovers has *just* enough delta-V to land on Minmus. Probably not a system I am going to repeat. Science completed and loaded into the sample return capsule: Blastoff!!!

I've gotten temporarily burned out on my massive Mun colony, so it was time for some Survival, Search and Rescue training: One of them seems much less thrilled with the idea... Probably because she knew it was her turn to go for a swim. Jonpond lining up to drop the new survival pods on her location. Bombs away!!! Sanpond only needed to swim 80m or so to get to them Note: Tell Werner to move the pontoons forward for the production models Safe and sound with enough snacks and power for a few days. Next up will be some higher speed tests (more than the 65m/s that the Wrescue MK I tops out at, anyhow.) https://imgur.com/Mw4iX9e

I used one of the new releases (1.4.1, I think) with 1.10 for a few days with no ill effects. It can't be the newer release that uses the stock inventory system, but I think that's on a separate branch on Github. KoS

I used 1.4.1 with KSP 1.10 for a few days with no Ill effects. KoS

So, I did a bunch of math that I won't bore you, dear reader, with, but concerning only the ATLAS hab domes, the ideal ratio of months to multiplier bays seems to 2x Months and 4x multiplier bays. Of course, YMMV, since there are SO many variables and parts that turn the equation into an exercise in drunken calculus. The first rule of calculus, of course, is to never drink and derive... In other Atlas news, I trialed two 20m factory domes: With six bays devoted to Material Kits, it can kick out almost 8400 Mat Kits a day, powered by the three Honeybadger reactors (They need a little help from an external PDU, but not enough to justify another reactor). The 4 miners are required by the local conditions around my main Mun base, which needs 2 substrate drills for each metal or mineral drill to keep production balanced. The other factory is a true monstrosity simultaneously producing Machinery, Colony Supplies, and Mat Kits with enough Spec Parts to keep the production lines humming along: This one requires 4 Honeybadger reactors, but I went with a full 6 pack for fun and extra power. Both look quite good clipped into the hanger floor, but I'm going to wait to construct them for "real" until a flat bottomed variant (or some alternative) is available to make them look as good in the wild. They balance well enough on the rocker bottom with a little creative ballasting of the storage tanks, but it doesn't take much for them to just start tipping over. A few attempts to use various landing gears just produced the siren call of the Kraken, and the less said of that, the better... KoS

Spent some time this morning with my test save and the development constellation, ended up sending Jeb and 31 of his closest friends to live in the dessert for a few months: I was asking earlier for some ATLAS styled reactors, but I have to say, a silver Honeybadger reactor looks pretty good (with a bit of offsetting), and is up to the task of powering any practical 10m base. 20m domes would probably require a reactor per dome, and maybe even daisy-chaining them for the factory domes. Making the 5 way symmetry of the ATLAS domes mix with the bilateral symmetry of the other parts is a challenge, but not impossible. Mixing an Assemble Colony Supplies storage dome with a Agriponics dome gives storage for everything you'd need in a hab and lifesupport base. If you want to use the purifier instead of the recycler, just swap Agriponics storage for Cultivate storage, that will add water to the storage mix without needing another part. Since it's my test save, I've got USI on easy-mode, so no definitive numbers on Hab time. I need to sit down and math out the ideal ratio of months to multiplier bays for the new parts, anyhow. Just thought I'd throw out some ideas for those who are trying to build and power these new beasts. KoS

Is there a plan to port over the KAS "Kerbal-assist" that the robotic Konstruction parts give? It's one of my most used hacks for EVA construction. KoS

I wouldn't mind only one catagory, but having it NOT appear in the catagories with all the rest of the ATLAS parts is odd, at a minimum.

Minor bug report: The ATLAS harvesters only appear in the utility category, not the Kolonization or Manufacturing catagories. I'm going to try and figure out Github, but no guarantees.

Rover Dude unleashed his newest MKS colonization update, so I had to play with it. I used the "small" 10m, 12 Kerbal factory dome to make a base I can use as a seed to locally build some of the truly massive 20m, 100 Kerbal habitation domes: It's nuclear powered, with 4 of the new "small" ATLAS miners for metals, minerals and polymers, and 5 medium sized drills for the minor material needs, and also includes life support and extra workshops. 5 large radiators is thermal management overkill, but I like the symmetry of it KoS

OK. I'll check for the cradle again, but I think the convertible mesh would be a cleaner solution, have the existing version for use on colony ships and a flat bottomed variant for surface construction. The harvesters look AWESOME, and were in fact the prompt for "I wish there was a 3.75m equivalent reactor that looks like this" Truly great work, thanks again.

A few thoughts: Seems backwards compatible with 1.10, I made a full backup of the KSP folder and tried, no glaring issues. It didn't break my old 1.10 save, either, which was a pleasant surprise. The drill changes broke the economy of the colony, but most of that I can fix with an engineer and a rover full of specialized parts. No sudden krakening or missing ships, VERY happy with that. Automated maintenance system is working MUCH better now, it used to hang up after one or two modules, now it goes through the entire base, major improvement in my book. HOLY COW the Atlas parts are huge... I'd half convinced myself that, due to the textures and sheer size they would be inflatable parts that could be delivered on a "normal" rocket. Nope. The shortcut recipes to make mat kits and specialized parts directly from the raw materials are a huge help. WOLF seems like a cool idea, but probably a bridge further than I need at the moment. I REALLY wish there was a "Mass Transit" way to move Kerbals around, because populating one of those domes will take forEVER... Now a few questions on the new domes: Are they supposed to sink into the surface a bit like the Ranger parts do? That tiny nub of a base has proven to be quite unstable, and sitting on landing gear puts all the entrances several Kerbal heights in the air. Messing around with them in the editor, they look really good with only the first bit of the black ring above the surface, but I can't figure out how to do that out in the world... Have there been any thoughts about maybe adding some reactors and containers that match the profile of the "Cargo Bay" entrance? I'm trying to work out how to integrate all of that into a good looking mega-base, but having some of those parts just randomly sticking out messes with me Overall, 10/10, would download again KoS

I think nuclear fuel, like machinery, is exempt from the logistics system, IE the spare containers need to be physically attached to the craft you are trying to refuel. That's the only way I've ever made it work, anyhow. KoS

It's doing that because the drill heads are too close to the surface. If you can mount the drill bodies higher, it will automatically reduce the bounce. Really neat solution for a super low profile mounting, though. KoS

<Happy Dance>!!!! Even if it kills my save, I can't wait to put the big boys to work on the Mun. KoS

Has anyone else used the Smelter unit and had runaway thermal problems if it's used for more than a few moments at a time? I built a ISRU unit with a combination of stock, MKS and Project Orion parts and with the rated amount of cooling the whole craft overheated and blew up after ~15 minutes of steady state use. I messed around with it, kept adding radiators, and I finally needed a total of 16!!! large radiators just to keep the smelter from vaporizing the ship. It seems like there might be a misplaced decimal point somewhere, perhaps causing the smelter to output 10x the rated thermal output. I love the idea of using rocket fuel to smelt metals, but it shouldn't take 1.6 gigawatts of cooling just to run one unit...

I'd like to see a procedural solar panel for making craft like the Dragon. Yeah, you can achieve the same thing with the regular fixed panels, some clipping, and some patience, but the time and part count gets very high very quickly. I think it could be done with a surface mount anchor point on one corner, then just click and drag to to the appropriate dimensions with the panel conforming to the existing structure underneath. Calculate the overall area then multiply by whatever efficiency factor the other fixed panels have. For the purposes of determining exposure, just assume a regular arc bounded by the Y and Z axis (since rockets are predominately circular in cross section), and math it out from there. That won't provide 100% accuracy, but it's certainly close enough for gaming purposes. Would also be great for large surface bases, especially with the new "KIS-lite" engineer abilities. Mount the corner piece on the base, then spread out the solar panel over the planetary surface. Thanks, KoS

ATLAS parts??? <crossing fingers> KoS

It fits the space better, the octagonal strut clips in weird places, which summons the kraken when I drop the tank and engine s off the back.

I have a whole series of self landing rovers that require the micro-node, but I don't think I have ever used the Kodiak engine, the flat octo-probe, or the Ant engine.

If you want to give it another shot, after you've got everything in the Game Data folder, just do a search for "Light_Globe.cfg" and rename the cfg extension to something else. That's all it took to get MKS working for me. There is supposedly a big update coming for MKS SoonTM but that will get you by until then

Most of what you see is from one or another of RoverDude's "Umbra Space Industry" mods, especially the MKS colonization mod. The life support domes are from USI-LS, the spacebus is a Karibou rover, the yellow crane on it and the other yellow objects are from the Konstruction mod. The other parts mod I have is the one used to build this lander: The little inflatable dome off the side is a USI part, but the rest comes from @SuicidalInsanity 's "Project Orion" mod. Originally I had just wanted to make a flying saucer for my little green beings to invade this new world: But they ruined the effect by making their entrance in the most Kerbal fashion possible: Other mods are basically just the usual suspects, KIS/KAS, Kerbal Alarm clock, Mechjeb, ect. I'm on the most recent 1.10 build, the only tweak needed is to delete a minor part CFG file in the MKS mod.

I've been very busy with the ruthless exploitation of the Mun, so I thought I'd just put up some before/after pics in honor of the Munar population going over 50 Kerbals for the first time. Munar One, before the solar wings are installed: After the addition of approximately an acre of solar panels, and spawning off part to become the new LKO station: Today, after the addition of nuclear power and the retirement of the solar farm: 20 Kerbals live there under Valentina's command, with room for even further growth, and it boasts a school, medical facilities, and a complete orbital manufacturing facility. My first Mun base, the North Rim outpost, after the installation of the life support systems for 2 Kerbals: The new base, capable of supporting over a dozen Kerbals who are almost totally involved in the manufacture of fertilizer for all off-Kerbin colonies: Facilities include (L to R) Workshop, Main base/barracks, nuclear power plant (with storage silo just beyond), Logistics and shipping, and the Fertilizer Plant, with the old base just visible behind it. Most of the population lives down in the East Crater: Crew quarters, Science lab, Agriculture and lifesupport, Workshop (illuminated), Logistics, and the first 3 star Munar lodging facility, the Hotel Kerbalfornia Thanks to the hard working Kerbals in the industrial park, the entire colony is now self sufficient, though any new buildings still have to be shipped in: The two mining rigs are L and R, manufacturing facilities in the background, and the foreground includes the local barracks and nuclear power plant, including a nuclear processing plant to export enriched uranium back to Kerbin for sale. There is an additional fuel refinery site that will soon become its own independent colony, here the first 4 pioneers mug for a photo to send back to KSC: All surface colonies are linked by Bobrin Kerman and his spacebus, inexplicably named "Furthur" : "Furthur" boasts seating for 6 passengers, a 5 ton magnetic crane, and is capable of hauling nearly any kind of cargo, whether bulk commodities, containerized goods, or simply by strapping equipment onto the flatbed. I've got a long ways before I reach my goal of a 1000 kerbal colony, but now it's self sufficient and even has surplus capacity to help support further expansions. Next step is to add some form of off-planet manufacturing so I don't have to ship in new components all the way from the KSC...

After much buildup, I finally installed MKS and began my long anticipated invasion colonization of the Mun: Ignore that randomly eccentric near Kerbin probe, it's debris from the unpictured first launch wave that will come down soon enough. Ended up sending 15 separate Saturn V analogue (or Saturn V heavy) launches and should be able to house 50-75 Kerbals with full life support on the surface, and added couple gravity rings to Munar Station: