Tony Swallow

We'll your're certainly no Robinson Crusoe! I've managed to do exactly the same thing where I had deploy-able solar panels, but forgot to deploy them so ended up with a tourist ship "dead in the water", heading back to Kerbin atmosphere from a Sol orbit! The suggestions above may get you out of the quicksand. However if this doesn't work then an answer may be to build a ship with high delta-V and crew it with an engineer to attach some solar panels to your ship in distress. If your ship in on the way back from the Mun you may have a limited window in which to do a rendezvous and attach the panels. If you have the issue that it will shoot out of the Kerbin Sphere of influence not all is lost, You can still make a rescue, but it may take a long time. In any case don't scrip on the Delta-V. This is the sort of thing that makes playing KSP both frustrating and rewarding! You can do this, go rescue your tourists. Note: you may end up loosing money on the mission, but at least you wont loose reputation.

Really cool telling the story, complete with facepalms and all! I know your pain. The first time I managed to dock I had spent an hour following the tutorial religiously and even then only "Just" managed to make it work. The good news is that you get better! Now I can Dock "on a dime". The two tips I'd give is take your time, and practice makes perfect! In no time at all you'll be throwing things together in orbit without a second thought.

A tidy ship. If you wanted to tweak it you could probably get away with not having the drop booster.

Nice!

I'm a bit of a purist, so I don't use Mods, at all, when playing KSP. Using the rotation adjustment with Snap on means that the minimum change in angle that can be achieved is 5 degrees. For making various spaceplanes, especially SSTO's, it is desirable to be able to pick a smaller angle. To do this I have made an Inclinometer that I use for getting precise angle with snap off. The inclinometer has been set with graduations of 0.5 degrees using small solar cells as "markers. I have saved the Inclinometer as a subassembly so I can bring it out as I need it. In this case I'm using it to se the wings for an SSTO cargo carrier. I want to set the wings at 2 percent. I attach an arm made of wing sections to the wing I'm adjusting and move it back and fourth until the arm matches with both arms on the inclinometer. Then I turn snap off and rotate to the angle I want, in this case 2 degrees. Using this I can confidently set an angle within a tenth of a degree. Then I can delete the arm and inclinometer and set the wing to where I want it! Can this be done with Mods? Absolutely, and no doubt more precisely.

Indeed, you are right, they are Mastodon's! It does the job! burning through 3000+ Delta V in about 60 seconds. I've done a couple of repeats, to make sure it's not a fluke. I've found that one of the hardest things to balance is the rate of rendezvous approach. When I have all the time I need I approach slowly, with the last 200m or so at less than 10m/s. When doing this capture maneuver time is a major factor. So I have to discipline myself to go hard for the docking. I don't even have the time to set up maneuver nodes to do an optimum burn. Real Piloting! I'm not too sure how much tourist contracts to Eve pay. Once set up I'm not disposing of parts so I can refine fuel and repeat as many times as I want. So yes, A lot of potential profit in the pot. On the other hand the way I've been playing is that I've completed a lot of Kerbin/Minimus/Mun/Sol orbit tourist contracts so I have a really deep pockets. It's been a while since I've had to "watch the cost" on any given ship

Interesting Problem. I've had to do a few "Oh dear I need to do a high Delta-V Intercept and rescue" Missions. A couple of thoughts. I don't think it's curtains yet..... But it could take a long time to get the home. One is that the longer you leave it the worse it gets, as the craft is getting ever further away. However, if you are happy time-warping deep into the future you will eventually catch up. Are you wanting to get everything back, or just the crew? If you just want the Crew then the return craft can be a lot smaller, lighter and have more Delta V. This would be lot easier. You've had 3 failed attempts, any chance of screenshots of what you have tried? and a screenshot of the orbit it's in?

Really cool lander/rover! Way more so than my recovery landers which are basically a tug with a clampatron on the bottom of them. I land next to the part and then use a small amount of throttle and RCS to get into place for the touchdown grab. I really like the idea of putting wheels on the hinges to deploy and also using struts to secure the load. Thankyou for sharing!

Good morning all, A few weeks ago I posted a challenge for myself, That is building an EVE Single Stage to SUB-orbital, and catching it with a passing capture craft. For a quick recap, I intend to use this in a Career game, with some self imposed rules: - NO mods. I'm using the full KSP1 updates including Breaking ground and Making history. - As Green as possible. Not leaving descent stages etc on the surface of visited bodies - Doing things as quickly as possible in game time. With ships with a high Delta V to do interplanetary missions so I can get there as quickly as possible without having to time-warp for days/weeks/months/years to get to optimum launch windows. Fuel is not a problem, I will have a refinery on Gilly to supply what I need. So why an SSTS Over an SSTO? Making a Ship which is forgiving and flexible is important to me. I want to have a ship that can be used for any number of missions, apart form landing and planting a flag for experience. So if, for example, I got a mission to do a scan of Basalt I want to be able to put the arm in a storage can, land near a formation, attach the arm with an Engineer and complete mission. Likewise, I want to be able to launch at sea level. I want to fly away from the equator. An SSTS will (in theory) give me that robustness. Without having to make a bespoke craft for every mission There are three craft involved in this mission. Obviously the SSTS itself, which will land. Then there is the "Catch-net" craft, which has to have a high enough Delta-V to match the velocity of the SSTS in space, and do a burn to get it into orbit as well. For this it needs a high thrust to weight ration so the matching can be done quickly. The final craft is the "Nudge" craft, which will be used to take the SSTS to Low Eve Orbit from the station (At 150km) and then retro burn to push the SSTS into the atmosphere. The "Catch-Net" craft, which has 6 mammoth engines, and lots of fuel (3740 Delta-V) It also has strong RCS and reaction wheels to enable a fast docking. It is set to orbit at 120km The "Nudge" Craft - A lot smaller! The SSTS docked to the Nudge Craft, ready to drop into Low Eve Orbit. The nudge craft allows me to burn for a steep entry into Eve Atmosphere. From a stable orbit of 91km-92km I do a burn dropping the Periapsis to 45km! In the minute or so before entering the atmosphere I undock, turn it around and do a burn to Keep the "Nudge" craft in orbit. This has the dual advantages of having full tanks on the SSTS when it lands, as well as allowing for a harder burn which helps with heat management later. The SSTS entering Eve Atmosphere, at the point where the heat load is greatest! The critical component is the FL-A215 Fuel Tank Adaptor which fails at 2,000 Kelvin. It maxed out at less than 1,950! A miss is as good as a mile. However the 1.25m to 2.5m adapter has a tolerance of 2,700K,which makes it far safer on re-entry, so the final craft may have that instead. Forgiving and flexible is the name of the game! The rest of the landing is pretty routine. I set down on the patch of land between between the Crater Lake and eastern sea. Obligatory Kerbins on the ground shot! I waited until the "Catch-Net" was approximately 180 degrees out of phase (ie, on the other side of the planet) before commencing my take-off and climb. I have used 2 rotor units (rotating opposite directions) with ducted fan blades in a 2.5m Service bay to power the craft to altitude. I have set the RMP at 400 and use the main trottle for torque and an action group ti incrementally change the fan blades. For Power I have two Z-4K Rechargeable Battery Banks for storage and 2 Fuel cell arrays (in the nose). I find that the weight of fuel used to get to altitude gives a better power to weight ratio than batteries or solar cells. However I still have solar cells that line the cargo bay (obscuring the propellers), and two batteries. This will enable me let the batteries fully charge and then do shorter "hops" across the surface. This is also why I've used two batteries instead of one, as it will more than double my rang for "hops" . The solar cells sit inside the bay, so no drag when they close(correct me if I'm wrong). The total mass of the ship is a bit over 200T full of fuel. I'm using the distance to the "catch-Net" as a "marker" for determining when I start my burn into Sub-orbital. This was my 3rd attempt. 300km was too late, 600km too early. Lets see how I go for 480km I'm a lot lower than I would like! I should be starting at 15K+ But I start the burn anyway! See how it goes! A single action group turns off the rotors, closes the bay doors, retracts the blades, activates the Vector engines, retracts the flaps (in case I'd forgotten to do that). Burning hard to get out! Note I've got the Shielded clampatron ready to open as soon as I exit the atmosphere! I'm back on the "Catch-net". It's not great, but it's "workable" The SSTS is on it's way out and will peak at over 150km. I should have started my burn a bit later, say 450km. I can make an intersect using an Anti-radial burn on the "Catch-net". I've got an intersect. But I will be docking on the downward (wrong) side of the SSTS Apoapsis. This has the dual disadvantage of needing more Delta-V to keep it in orbit and a lot less time to dock and do the burn before hitting the atmosphere! GOT IT! I have managed to dock! But now I'm in the atmosphere, no time for finesse, or to even get a decent screenshot! I turn the ship to somewhere between Anti-Radial and Prograde and open up with the engines! After some initial "by the seat of pants" flying I'm in orbit! with some fuel to spare! Conclusions This was by no means an "optimum" flight! The burn started late, I couldn't intersect on the upwards trajectory, I almost ran out of fuel and I dipped into the atmosphere. However It worked! With some adjustment in the timing I will be able to get a much "cleaner" recovery, with enough fuel to get back to the Eve Station. I'm considering having the "Catch-Net" sit in a higher orbit. The compromise is one of having more time in sub-orbital outside the atmosphere and easier to adjust the SSTS flightpath for intersect, V's the timing and also the SSTS having fuel to actually make a burn to improve the intersect. All in all proof of concept which can be refined! I will be able to use this craft in my Career game and know that I have "wiggle-room" in my flights that I wouldn't have with an SSTO. On a final note there are about 10 minutes of the mission which are really intense! from when the burn from the atmosphere starts to when you have it back in orbit. I really enjoy the challenge of "flying by the seat of your pants" that this entails!

Thankyou for sharing your story! I've had a life-long interest in space which stays with me to this day, I had my kids in front of the computer at almost midnight (Time in Eastern Australia) to watch Starship 2 launch live. I've settled into a career as a civil engineer (Municipal, roads bridges etc) but there's still a part of me that dreams of space. Follow your dreams, be part of the new generation!

Thanks QF9E for your suggestions on power. This has been a "head scratcher" for me. With this kind of mission there is the potential of having to "loiter" at altitude whilst the catch-net craft gets into the right position before the final run to sub-orbital for the catch. the idea of burning energy reserves whilst waiting is pretty unappealing as this means more batteries, more mass etc for the sake of having wiggle-room before the final run. I did a lot of experiments with solar cells, working out the balance required to maintain positive power whilst doing so. I wasn't to concerned about them burning up on re-entry as I could position them in a "safe" place. The obvious problem is drag and mass. Also solar cells work better the higher into the atmosphere you get. Which makes balancing tricky as you don't need as many solar cells to Loiter but getting to altitude in the first place either takes a long time or more batteries. I gave your suggestion re fuel cells some thought and tried that. Using fuel cells, the mass cost of the extra fuel is more than offset by the savings that are made by not having solar cells, and no drag from the solar cells is a bonus! Also less problems with energy management as they have a consistent output (as compared to Solar cells). In short it looks as though the best outcome for me will be a craft with Fuel cells. I've managed to get craft into a solid Suborbital, and managed a simulated catch. But I want to optimise it and do a full "beginning to end" run before posting pics.

Thankyou to everyone replying to the thread, but especially to Serenity The bit about removing rigid attachment and Auto-strutting to Grandparent Part has made a real difference in my experiments in making an Eve SSTS. At first I made a spaceplant that was difficult to land so I went to great efforts to tweak it, in doing so I sure that everything was strutted and rigid. This had the opposite effect and got to the point where my craft was basically unlandable! I opened the saved craft last night, removed all rigid attachments and auto-strutted everything to grandparent and Presto! I could practically throw the craft at Eve and and land it! The plus side is that my piloting skill gets better, and I learn how to make more forgiving craft!

Wow, thanks for Sharing! This is really appreciated! I've also been using propellers to "claw" as high in the atmosphere as possible! I've found that the performance of the has an abrupt ceiling, whereby they stop "working" and the speed (and nose) drop rapidly, within seconds. At I first tried a "straight up" lander which worked reasonably well, however getting it to re-enter without a heat shield (which is not 100% re-usable), proved impossible. So a spaceplane it is. How have you managed Power supply whist using props to get above the atmosphere? I have used a combination of batteries and Solar panels, where I get about 80% of the way up and then open the throttle and deplete the batteries, aiming to almost drain them as the rocket engines kick in.

Yep, that the target! I Know I CAN build a lander that has disposal of stages. But I want to get a system that can do it without! This is for two reasons... 1 - Keeping in with the "Green" concept of not throwing away components to make landings 2 - The way I'm playing it will be a long time (in realtime) between sending ships to Eve. And there will be times when I transfer from a body other than Kerbin to Eve. If I can do it with an SSTS and catch-net then I can refuel the ships in orbit and do a landing, without having to send additional stages from Kerbin to reset.

Good morning all, I'm playing a challenging Career. I have the following self-imposed Rules - NO mods. I'm using the full KSP1 updates including Breaking ground and Making history. - As Green as possible. Not leaving descent stages etc on the surface of visited bodies - Doing things as quickly as possible in game time. This makes it particularly interesting as I'm making ships that have high Delta V to do interplanetary missions so I can get there as quickly as possible without having to time-warp for days/weeks/months/years to get to optimum launch windows. - I'm allowing myself to test craft on a sandbox game before committing in the career. - I'm regularly saving and I do allow myself the luxury of reverting back to an old save if I lose some Kerbins, The fact that I have lost a week of realtime progress is the punishment for my neglect (So far I have only had to do so once). So far I'm up to day 120ish and I've made a lot of progress. Tech tree is maxed out, Fueling facilities on the Mun and Minimus, Interplanetary ships on the way to Moho, Eve and Duna and the next interplanetary launch will be to Dres. Now the challenge that I've set for myself is the Holy Grail, EVE Fuel is not a problem. I have refineries (The Eve interplanetary mission includes a refinery for Gilly) so I can burn fuel as required. The trick is getting to the Eve surface, and back, without discarding stages which is a hard task. The obvious answer is an Eve SSTO. It is possible, people have done it, but it's a very hard craft to get right. The way I'm planning to get around it is to build an Eve Single Stage to Suborbital, and then "catch" the craft as it nears the Apoapsis with another craft that is in Orbit. What makes it hard is that the orbital Velocity at LEO is 3,200 m/s. The capture craft needs to do a rendezvous burn to match the lander, where the difference in speed will be massive, and then do an orbital burn. All this has to happen in minutes whilst the lander is above Eve atmosphere. The difference in velocity is huge, which makes for a huge capture ship. Assuming Zero orbital velocity of the lander at Apoapsis you over 6K Delta V. A ship with 6K Delta V is easy enough. Liquid fuel and lots of Nerv's. But this wont work as you simply can't burn fuel quickly enough to get enough velocity change in the timeframe of minutes. So it has to be a Conventional rocket. But this has the problem of the tyranny of the rocket equation whereby you just can't get 6K and have a fast enough burn to to the catch. The obvious answer is to discard stages but anything discarded will end up in a suborbital trajectory over Eve, which defeats the point of the exercise. So now I'm working on a lander craft that is as optimised as possible to get as close to orbit as possible. So far I have managed over 1K orbital velocity with the Apoapsis at 110km. My target is 2K, If I can get that then a "catcher" with a starting Delta V of 3K should be able to do it. and this should be achievable..... WIsh me luck, If I can do It I'll post a mission report with Photo's etc.

Wow! This is a really cool idea! I'm doing something similar in that although I'm allowing myself to time warp for short hops (the 5 mins to the next maneuver) I don't do so to get optimum transfer windows. Also I'm trying to be as "green" as possible. Rather than Brute forcing a large interplanetary ship into orbit I'm sending up components with empty tanks and then assembling and refueling in orbit. With my Career I''m up to Day 113. The Tech tree is maxed out, and I've got ships on the the way to Moho, Even and Duna. I've got refineries on Minimus and the Mun. Note that I've been playing on average 1-2 hours per day for over 6 months real time. I have found this really rewarding! and I know exactly what you mean by using high energy transfer burns. The Interplanetary ships I have been building are basically massive boosters (which get turned around for refueling and reuse) with a small payload. But with 15K Delta V you can do a lot! Some of the interesting things that make it all the more real..... Tech Vs Time Paradox. Earlier in the career you have less items unlocked, so you build what you can with what you have at the time and send it on its way. Later you will be setting things up with "outdated" tech For Example, earlier in the Career I sent a craft to Eve to set up a constellation of satellites around Eve and GIlly, as well as a Scanner Sat over GIlly. At the time My Tech tree was mid-range so I didn't have the Narrow Band Scanner unlocked. But I did have repair satellite mission with the scanner on board, So I used an engineer to attach it to the craft going to Eve. It has only been in the last "week" that it has arrived and I've set up the Constellation and Scanner. Ready for when the ship with the refinery arrives. Race to the Launch window. For my Moho ship I found that if I got a launch within a tight time-frame then I could (should, ship's not there yet) be able to set up the refinery, do a refuel and then send the craft to Eve, Getting s "two-fer" with one mission. However I had to fuel it as quickly as possible to meet the first window. This meant that I needed to prioritise "milk Runs" to fill it up and get the ship underway. The feeling of satisfaction of getting the ship away was awesome! All you need is Fuel. I've set up refineries on the Mun and Minimus. I made the first refineries, then decided that I needed to have upgraded refineries. I'm up to the 3rd iteration which has 3 x 10,000 Liquid fuel tanks and, 4 Large Convert-a-trons and all the power, cooling and so on that I could ever need! I found that setting up the refinery for "set and forget" really helps. Have enough drills that the ore comes in faster than it is processed. Make sure you have enough power (day and night) that it never shuts down. Have lots of cooling so you don't have to juggle tuning of the Convert-a-trons on and off. Unless I'm doing a milk runs with ever orbit there is always a full tank when my refuel-er docks. Standardisation of craft. Rather than making a bespoke craft for ever mission, I have a library of components (subassemblies) that I assemble as required. It may not be 100% optimised but but it does reduce the instances of "Woops, forgot the solar cells" I have a standard "7 Nerv Engine Module" that is now up to iteration #7. with each one "teaked" a bit to make it better. Similarly I have a standardised science module with a mobile processing lab and all the experiments. I have an Interplanetary Transfer Pod (IPTP) which is a lander can, HItchhiker storage container single Nerv and tanks. This is for the single take of getting Kerbs and some storage interplanetary. It has 8K DeltaV, which can kick in After it detaches from the Booster. Return Capture Boosters. I have a constellation of 6 Booster, fueled and ready to go, around Kerbin. the intent is that I can have the IPTP come in "Hot" with inadequate Delta V to capture. The Booster will burn to match the IPTP and then backburn to a Kerbin capture. Meaning that transfers can be even faster! Have a great time with your Career. I find that that "way in which you play" is different for everyone and that there can be so much fun in it!

I think it is totally worth it! I don't see the KAL 1000 as a hack. If you are looking for a shortcut you might be disappointed. I find that programming it to do everything I want it to to can be tedious, but very rewarding! Also the robotic parts allow for all sorts of interesting things.

Going Green I am now up to Day 94! The Eve Comsat ship is almost there! in another 10 day's I'll be setting up the Network. The Moho Mission and Duna Mission are on their way as well. But there is plenty of Career missions to keep me busy in the meantime. I like the idea of a space program that is "green" From the very beginning I have made sure that boosters don't end up in orbit creating a web of space junk. Now I'm switching to the next phase. Instead of launching everything from expendable rockets I'm creating SSTO's (Spaceplanes) to get things into orbit so I'm not throwing away boosters to burn up in the atmosphere. Having never built SSTO's this has been a bit of a learning curve, similar in scale to building the Seaplane. And similar to the Seaplane it has been a really rewarding process. The First SSTO was a simple "Get some Kerbins to the Station" It has a capacity for 3 crew and gets the job done Not the Best Screenshot. On the runway at night before launching Then I went on to make small SSTO based around the Mk2 Cockpit. It carries 6 Passengers to the Kerbin Station. This has become my "Taxi Service". The craft is easy to fly and has good maneuverability. It Looks good as well, which I think is an important part of making craft. I have always wondered where one might use an inflatable airlock. This craft has a small cargo bay that opens for the airlock to extend and the solar cells deploy. The cargo bay has batteries, a probe core (tilted at 30 degrees for re-entry) extra fuel tanks and a reaction wheel all squeezed inside it. MK 2 Passenger Space plane in orbit The next iteration is the same as the last, except it also has a large cargo bay with a Junior decoupler at the rear end. This is just the right size for Career Missions where you have to put a satellite into orbit around the Mun or Minimus. These satellites can be built small enough to fit into the cargo bay. The next step was making an SSTO with Space shuttle parts. This would enable me to put 2.5m diameter parts into orbit. I have a "standard" space station "hub" which other parts can be attached to. I wanted this craft to be big enough to carry this hub. It is a really good "workhorse" for various missions, Career missions where you have to put a station into orbit or land on the Mun or Minimus with a Viewing Cupola are easy to achieve, fitting into the bay with ease. It also has capacity for 4 Kerbins which u useful for getting that VIP or Rescued Kerbin into orbit or back home. Although harder to control than the Spaceplane based on the Mk2 Cockpit it is still fairly maneuverable. When I Overshoot the KSP on re-entry I can safely do an Immelmann turn and land at KSP from the East. For Takeoff it's a simple matter of opening the engines letting it fly off the end of the runway. I have the flaps as part of the gear action group so it's important that you keep the nose up as the gear retracts. After than you aim for 5 degrees and just let it do it's thing. Punching into the upper atmosphere In Orbit around Kerbin Bay Doors Open and solar cells extended. The cargo here is a small satellite and some cargo bays (For bringing components of recovered rovers and satellites home) This is an earlier version where I had the inflatable airlock. I changed this to the Shielded docking port on the nose as it "Looks Cool" and makes getting cargo in and out a bit easier. So I now have a stable of smaller SSTO's that enable me to get up and down, with Passengers and small to medium loads. The next challenge is getting Bigger cargoes into orbit!

Heaps of Facepalms..... But the one that takes the cake was the first time I did an asteroid capture mission, Didn't realise I had to have ore tanks for the ISRU to convert mining drill ore to to fuel. So I had to send another craft out that essentially just had to have an ore tank so I could do some mining, get refuelled, and go home!

Really cool! Thanks for sharing

Adventures in Asteroid Harvesting! "These ARE the Roids you are looking for" I am now up to Day 70 and I have already captured three asteroids. One to go into orbit around the Mun, One for Kerbin and one landed at Kerbin. Right now I have four missions to capture asteroids in play. One for an "A" class, two for "C" class and one to capture an "E" class asteroid. I assemble ships in orbit in a similar way that I have been assembling Interplanetary ships. Filling them from mining operations on the Mun or Minimus and then sending them out to capture and return. One challenge I have is that I have found and tracked about 250 Asteroids so it becomes hard to find the "right" asteroid to capture. Anything that comes into the Kerbin Sphere of influence is easier simply because you can zoom in and only see the asteroids that are close. It goes without saying that it tends to be easier to capture asteroids that are closer to home! I use two different "Capture Heads" depending on the size of the Asteroid. For smaller asteroids, "A", "B" and sometimes "C" I use a simple head with a Clampatron. But for Larger asteroids I use a "Head" that has Mining drills, crew space and ISRU, so I can get mine for fuel! Lined up to capture a "C" CLass asteroid TOUCHDOWN! A "D" class in orbit of Minimus Now that the Asteroid is in Orbit I can refill the tanks by doing some mining and send them off for the next task An "A" Class asteroid with the "Head" Attached. The Parachutes will bring it down onto the surface of Kerbin Entering Kerbin Atmosphere. This is really dramatic!

The Second Interplanetary Trip - MOHO Having got the ship on the way to Eve the question was "Which Planet Next" and the answer of course was Duna. But then I had a look at launch windows . I have used https://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ for planning which is a really valuable resource. I found that getting a ship to Moho would be no problem..... But If I could get the launch underway sooner then I would have a window to get from Moho to Eve. This way I could get the "double whammie" of getting the experience of not just a Moho landing but Eve as well. But.... The longer I took to get away from Kerbin the less Delta V I'd need to get to Moho, but the later I got there the more Delta V I'd need to get from Moho to Eve. So the Race was ON! Build and fuel a Ship as quickly as possible! The principal behind the shi[ is the same as the Eve ship. 3 Pilots, Two engineers and a Scientist. Bu this time I assembled most of the "Hub" in the VAB and launched it to the Mun with just enough fuel to get there. The "payload" Component was launched separately. Then the whole lot is assembled in Mun orbit, fueled up, and launched!. The "Hub" in Mun orbit. ready to be mated to the Payload and more tanks. Not the best shot. The Payload heading to the Mun from Kerbin Assembling the ship in Mun Orbit. Note the "Construction Tug" on the side which has lots of RCS and reaction wheels so I can move the ship around easily. Also I have used the IPTP (Interplanetary transfer pod) to move a tank into place. From the Front. The IPTP has had Parachutes added to it so I can drop it straight back into the Kerbin Atmosphere if need be. The Mobile Processing Lab MPL-LG-2 Module has the Satellites for the communications array and the scanner sat attached to it. I've taken a slightly different approach with Science Experiments. With everything in a module that can be attached to wherever it needs to go for landing. The refinery module has the Senior Clampatron which will be attached to the surface, and the refinery docked to it (I hope I have enough cooling). The The "Tank with Wheels" will be landed onto Moho and mate with the refinery. I've done this for 3 reasons. 1 - It's more storage on the ground 2 - It can maneuver to the Liquid fuel lander (Milk Cow) to refuel it, with enough Liquid fuel on board to fuel the Milk Cow in one trip 3 - It has a Clampatron on each end on hinges. This enables me to raise and lower them as required to dock with the Refinery/Milk Cow In this picture the Milk Cow is missing! That's because I used it to do fuel runs from the Mun to the ship. I needed to refuel it quickly! Fueled up and ready to go Full throttle! Again there are 35 Nervs at the base. But added to that is the 8 Nervs of the Milk Cow, adding their thrust! A total of 43 Nervs at once From the Front Now this is where it gets interesting. Four of the Tanks are empty, so they are dropped off The drop tanks and their engines will be turned around to be used in the next iteration. Burning further and faster. Now down to 29 Nervs. The TWR is a bit lower then the original ship, but not by much..... Three more tanks are empty! So the ship is reassembled and three of the tanks are turned around. I should have a shot of the ship in interplanetary here.... The Ship is on it's way. On schedule to get to Moho with enough time to get science experience and send the IPTP to Eve to join up there. An update when the adventurers get there!

Thanks for the suggestions and advice! I haven't tied a split burn yet. But It is something that I want to wrap my head around as if I can save on the total time to transfer then it's a definite plus. I'll check out the tutorial. The Behemoth looks really cool, as well as the reusable launch system! My mining infrastructure has been a bit of an evolution with trial and error. Definitely better than it was, but no doubt more room for improvement. ONe of the things I need to consider/investigate is the advantages/disadvantages of converting ore to fuel on a moon as compared to moving Ore to Orbit and doing it in orbit.

Yes I have. The way it's built it is all theoretically reusable. The fuel tanks and engine units can be refueled ready for the next mission. The 4 tanks and 2 engine units that were the first to be "dropped" have already come back to Kerbin for reuse. The single engine unit with 4 tanks is currently floating between Kerbin and Eve and will eventually come back into Kerbin's Sphere of Influence. When that happens I'll "catch" them and get ready for another run. There has been a bit of an evolution of engine units, and probably not at the final iteration yet. I have been slowly decommissioning the earlier variants as they come back to Kerbin Station. I'll do a full post on that at some point in time. As for the Payload components. I'll see how they go. I dare say that by the time I'm looking to launch Eve No 2 that I'll have come up with a better/more efficient refinery and so on. Time and playing will tell!

My first Interplanetary Mission - Going to EVE The first planet that I'm visiting is Eve. I'm doing this in two parts. Firstly sending a ship with satellites to set up a communications relay around both Eve and Gilly. This is followed up by a ship with Kerbols, Infrastructure for mining on Gilly and a Mobile Processing Lab MPL-LG-2 with all the sensors I need to collect sweet science. But why two ships.....? The optimum launch window for Eve comes up relatively early from the start of a new Career. The Comms relay ship has been constructed and launched as early as possible to take advantage of the minimum Delta V requirement. At this point I did not have the tech tree fully explored so I had to "make do" with what parts I had. Of note is that I got a mission to repair a satellite that had a Narrow-Band Scanner attached to it. I hauled the satellite back to my Kerb Station and used an engineer to attach it to the eventual scanner satellite. The Comms ship in transit. Note the "7 Nerv Interplanetary Module Mk1" at the base. This has a RA-15 Relay Antenna nested in the 2.5m service bay. More on this module in a later post. There are 6 comsats, 3 of them have dual RA-2 Relay Antenna that will go into orbit around Eve, ensuring bulletproof connection to Kerbin Commnet. The other 3 have dual HG-5 High Gain Antenna to go into orbit around GIlly. On the front is a Scanner satellite with the Narrow-Band Scanner attached This will go into a polar orbit around Gilly. For fuel I have a Mk3 Liquid Fuel Fuselage (5,000 Liquid fuel). I would have used a Mk3 Liquid Fuel Fuselage Long (10,000 Liquid fuel) but I hadn't unlocked it yet. This ship will enable me to set up the Communications network around Eve and Gilly, ready for future arrivals! The "Main" ship was constructed in Kerbin orbit from components launched in multiple launches. Empty fuel tanks were launched, sent to either the Mun or Minimus and filled using the mining operations on these moons. For propulsion It has 5 x "7 Nerv Interplanetary Module Mk2" (More on the evolution of the Nerv engine module in a separate post) There are a total of 11 x Mk3 Liquid Fuel Fuselage Long (110,000 Liquid fuel!) joined with Decouplers and reinforced with Struts. This process of "nailing it all together" takes a bit of Engineer EVA time. When Launching the four "side" tanks are run dry. Then the tanks and engine modules are separated to be turned around to go back to Kerbin. Then the burn continues, draining another 4 tanks. These are joined together with a single 7 Nerv module to go back to Kerbin. This stack will take a long time to get home due to the high velocity and limited fuel. There are 6 kerbins on this ship. 3 x Pilot, 2 x engineer and 1 x scientist. The payload of the ship is 4 modules, An interplanetary Transfer Pod (IPTP), a Science module, Mining module and Transport T Ship Constructed, prior to Launch - Yes, it's a monster Front end view Closeup of the front. The IPTP is at the front, with the engine turned off for launch. This is the only module that "has" to come home to Kerbin Second from the Front is the Science Module. This has been loaded up with Data so a scientist can work on it in transit. It has a fuel cells on the side which will be attached to the Mining unit when it gets to Gilly. At the rear is the Mining module. There clampatron Senior on the side will be anchored to Gilly and the Mining module will be docked to it . In front is the "tug" which will be used to transport tanks from Gilly Orbit to the Mining Module, docking on top. All 35 Nerv's roaring to push into interplanetary space. Now the burn is complete and the ship is on its way. All but 3 of the Tanks have been dropped. There is enough Delta V left to get into orbit around Eve and Gilly. When the ship gets to Eve I'll be setting it up to do the mining, get the science and ultimately come home with more Experience Kerbins More Posts to come.