RoboRay

There is some "KSP 1.5.1" activity happening on the RO GitHub.

If you are only including the portion of Ferram's content that he has released under GPL v3, then no, you don't actually need his permission to fork the project and publish your own version. He already granted that permission by releasing his work under GPL v3. However... It is customary and, more importantly, polite to inform him that you plan to do so.

If you have truly replaced all of the assets held as "All Rights Reserved" by Ferram, would you consider releasing this as a standalone fork with your own forum thread and CKAN availability? The lack of a complete FAR package for KSP 1.4 or higher is (I think) the main blocker for getting Realism Overhaul officially updated past KSP 1.3.1.

It might be easier to spawn a FASA launch tower with a kerbal in it, EVA the kerbal, use the cheat menu to rendezvous the kerbal with the craft in orbit, and get in and drive. In any case, the code you need to enter is a different format that the Module Manager code you're using. Don't include Module Manager things like the @ sign. Instead of adding a new Module Command, you should just be editing the Module Command block that's already there. I would look at an unmanned craft in the save with a working probe pod and copy from that.

I suggest making a new Quicksave file and editing that one. Don't ever play around with your Persistence save file. If you break the Quicksave, KSP will refuse to load it... if you break the Persistence file, KSP will refuse to load your game at all. You should be able to find your in-flight craft by its name in the Quicksave. Do the same edit to the cockpit listed in that section as you tried on the RO config.

I think editing the RO config would only affect the parts in the VAB, and therefore newly created craft. Existing craft already in flight would not be changed.

Yeah... it definitely needs re-thinking. I had done an in-flight abort test in the upper atmosphere and it was OK. Found out the hard way that it really doesn't work well near Max Q.

I was amused by the timing, but I was not amused when the capsule spun around backwards with the LES still firing and flew right through the debris cloud of the shredding rocket, clonking into a detached engine.

Dilong 4 became an unplanned suborbital when a booster engine failed about a minute into the ascent. The launch escape system performed poorly and tumbled the capsule due to aerodynamic effects in the transonic regime, actually colliding with debris from the rocket, but the pilot did survive. Dilong 5, the last one-seat spacecraft to be built, will attempt to put a man... excuse me, a woman, into polar orbit around the Earth. Debris from the disintegrating service module burns up high above the reentering crew capsule. The Tulong spacecraft is a development of the previous single-seat Dilong, cramming in one or two extra crew depending on the mission to be flown. It also includes rudimentary docking capabilities. Engineer Lai Bai spacewalks while the pilot enjoys a few minutes of stretching out in the cramped capsule.

Let's try this again... There are no problems with the RD-105 this time. First orbit completed and all systems are operating within expectations. Mission Control gives the go-ahead to spend the next 24 hours in space! Engineer Bao Yong waves out his tiny window as Cape Canaveral passes near the northern horizon. The Americans have been beaten into orbit by two years! Two more solo Dilong flights are scheduled, then two and three-man Tulong flights will follow.

Chinese RSS/RO/RP-0 space program - First attempt at manned orbit: The Dajing launch vehicle is an outgrowth of the earlier satellite launcher, with the same RD-108 core engine. The lower stage core tank structure is extended and expanded at the top to accommodate a larger RD-105 upper stage than previously flown, along with the Dilong spacecraft above. Four of the same RD-107 boosters flown on the earlier launcher are arranged around the core stage. Everything goes as expected--- until the lower stage is exhausted and detached. Unfortunately, the RD-105 upper stage engine fails to light. The pilot detaches the capsule from the service module and activates the RCS to turn around for reentry. It's a disappointing day for pilot Liang Li, who had hoped his final flight would be an orbital one. He's scheduled to retire in three months.

I've put my American RSS campaign on hold, because I'm still learning RO and RP-0 and want to experiment with non-US equipment and launch sites. I mainly want to use the Russian engines and capsules, but I'd rather be launching from closer to the equator than Kazakhstan. So, as a "what if?" game, what if China had made it a three-way space race? I'm assuming they would have been able to rely pretty heavily on the Soviets for technology, but also would have some avenues to gain access to some small amount of Western technology as well. And the Wenchang launch site on Hainan Island is at 19.6 degrees latitude... 9 degrees lower than Cape Canaveral. I've been busy, with a flurry of sounding rockets, then small satellites, then lunar flybys and now impactors. Here's some highlights. I'm naming probes and satellites for mythological birds and launch vehicles for rivers in China. Manned spacecraft will be named for dragons. I actually don't know that much about Chinese mythology or geography, so this is interesting as I read about things to find appropriate names. I'm picking rivers whose name starts with the same or similar sound as the name of the first payload they will carry, just so it's not completely random. It helps me remember what things are. The Jing Shui rocket above is a single RD-108 for the first stage, with an RD-105 propelling the second stage. After struggling with the wimpy early American rockets, wow! Playing with Russian engines is easy-mode. The Jingwei 3 mission was supposed to be an Earth-orbiting satellite, but I decided to see if I could get an apogee "high" over the Earth. I did, and then some. It's now orbiting the sun! This simple rocket can loft payloads considerably larger and heavier than anything I could manage early in my US-focused games. With a pair of RD-107 boosters, it can easily handle lunar impactors and flybys. Technically, the core by itself could do it from a pure delta-v standpoint... but this is Realism Overhaul and limitations on engine restarts mean I need to reserve the RD-105 purely for the trans-lunar injection. So, the boosters help the core stage get the upper stage to a parking orbit. Total time from launch pad to LEO is 3 minutes and 20 seconds, where I'm used to 10 minute launches on US equipment. Peak acceleration is almost 19 gees! Next up... manned Vostok flights!

I would use Janitors Closet to prune most of those parts (don't get rid of any stock parts, that causes problems). Keep the engines, and use Procedural Parts for all your tanks and decouplers. You can seriously reduce how many parts the game has to load with some aggressive pruning. I actually recommend against using RN's parts packs unless your goal is to create accurate replicas of actual flow spacecraft. If that is what you want do, RN's packs are perfect. If not, you get a lot of clutter of near-duplicate parts representing how the designs changed over time. The probe pack is nice if you want one-part solutions, but I prefer coming up with my own designs. The RP-0 campaign mode may also be really helpful. Just like when learning stock KSP, the tech tree hands you a few new things at a time so you can learn how to use them... where Sandbox dumps everything in your lap at once. RP-0 plays well with just the required mods. You can always add more parts pack as you get a handle on things.

I did RSS/SMURFF for months before I tried it with RO and RP-0. I can never play stockish KSP again. It's too simple. You have so many more design decisions to make with RO, and they all interact. Everything has to be considered and planned. The sense of accomplishment when you reach mission goals is just huge. And the dev RP-0 campaign game is fantastic. The tech tree alone is worth it... all the fundamental flaws of the ridiculous stock tech tree progression are addressed. Keep at it and give RO a chance.

Yeah, that's what SMURFF does.

If you're trying to use Kerbal-sized rockets in RSS, it's not going to get you far... even with SMURFF. Real world rockets are big compared to stock KSP rockets. I wouldn't expect any of the Squad-provided designs like KerbalX to accomplish anything more than suborbitals in RSS. With SMURFF, your engines are lighter, meaning your thrust to weight ratio is higher. And your fuel tank structure is lighter, so your TWR is higher. You should be taking advantage of this much better TWR to add a lot more fuel. You're going to need it.

This is fine.

I believe the Principia mod corrects the axial tilt, if you want to switch from patched conics to full n-body gravity.

First unmanned sample-return from the lunar surface: November 8, 1966.

Unity supposedly has an issue with rotation which doesn't let KSP model axial tilt. The axis of rotation for all the planets and moons is the same. This is why the plane of the ecliptic is tilted over in RSS instead of the Earth being tilted. Giving Earth the proper axial tilt was the compromise chosen, meaning the axis for all other planets is wrong. I imagine that the Jovian moons orbit in the correct plane when compared to the ecliptic... just not when compared to Jupiter. So, they will be in the expected place for your arriving spacecraft. It's just Jupiter itself that's wonky.

That's the backup plan, in case they can't manage to dock backwards. Acceleration pulling you back into your seat is more comfortable than getting pulled out of your seat, so they try it backwards first. The nose docking port will get used in a couple of months, when I put up my first tiny space station. A few flights to that station for endurance records should end the Gemini program... I've got Apollo under construction and crews training for it. It should be ready to go in about a year.

10 laps around the moon...

The world's largest rocket (this year, anyway) lifts a moon-bound propulsion module into low Earth orbit. My workhorse lifter for the past several years has a pair of H-1 motors in the core stage. This model features nine of them. I really need some more powerful engines. The lab geeks are close to a technology break-through, they tell me. The cryogenic second stage is propelled by three LR87s modified to burn liquid hydrogen with LOX. The third stage is the LR91 upper stage that I've been flying for years... it's become quite reliable by now. As the unmanned spacecraft circularizes, the crew roars into the fading sky behind it: I'll need to fly a slightly dog-legged ascent to match planes with the previous launch. Halfway through Translunar Injection, the crew set a new speed record for the fastest people ever. Ray goes on EVA to inspect the engines. There are no signs of cracking, nozzle erosion, leaking propellant, or anything else that would prevent the engines from firing again to capture the spacecraft into lunar orbit. But that's for the next mission. This is just a flyby to verify that such a mission would be reasonably safe. Jo gets to spacewalk too, with a view of lunar farside that until now had been seen only in photographs. A direct landing would put the crew in central Africa at sunset. A skip-reentry is performed to make one more lap around the planet, instead. The next pass brings them over the Rocky Mountains and down to Kansas.

Update to version 1.1. Removed tiling effect on Mu-pattern color variants. Added MainSailor Delphi and Blackheart612 CryogenicOrange color sets There's also a couple of other new patterns thrown in that I didn't keep good track of, so consider it an adventure in scrolling through the texture options.

Today we start out with Earth Orbital Rendezvous, because the launches had to take place at night to match the lunar orbital plane. The spacecraft has some upgrades, such as an androgynous docking port on the nose, and a lunar-rated heatshield enclosed within the aft housing. An umbilical routes propellant and electrical connections around the heatshield. The Gemini spacecraft will dock with an extended Transtage featuring two AJ10-138 engines, providing 4 km/sec of Δv for the combined vehicle... enough to go to the Moon! Trans-Lunar Injection places the spacecraft on a free-return trajectory, passing within 4000 km of the Moon. I experienced some serious attitude control issues during TLI. Neither SAS nor SmartASS could hold the spacecraft on course, resulting in a wandering, wobbling burn that nutated around the velocity vector as the guidance system alternated between under-controlling and over-controlling. I'm wondering if these small docking ports aren't strong enough to handle the load and began flexing under thrust, but it was only a fifth of a gee of acceleration. Regardless, we're on our way to the Moon! A small course correction is made at pericynthion to set perigee within the Earth's atmosphere. Then, the Transtage is dropped. A final tiny course change is made, then the aft housing (including the spacecraft's thrusters) is jettisoned to expose the new heatshield, which is hoped to be sufficient to protect the spacecraft during an 11 km/sec reentry.. The spacecraft rolls to the side and back upright again to control the lift resulting from the spacecraft's offset center of mass. Ascending briefly back to 80 km altitude, the equipment module is jettisoned. The capsule's own heatshield can handle the job from here. With the spacecraft settling gently to the ground, imagine the excitement everyone would be feeling if only there was a crew inside. But no... this was only a test. You didn't really think I'd send people around the Moon without knowing if the spacecraft could actually survive reentry at those speeds, did you?