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Imp Two - Asteroid Capture and Explosions With nothing better to do in the 300 days before Imp One reaches Duna, the LLC tracking station has been watching asteroids. It didn't take long before they spotted an interesting opportunity. An upgraded Imp should be able to handle a little class A like this one. Imp Two, piloted by Jebediah Kerman launches to intercept, carrying a new experimental bit of equipment. All the mission planners feel odd about such an unconventional trajectory - it's nowhere near equatorial! - but the fuel surplus on the upper stage means there is no problem flying it. Intercept maneuvres are complicated by the fact that the most efficient place to burn is in darkness, where the solar-electric drive systems won't work. A double burn is needed, raising apoapsis into sunlight, then correcting with a longer burn. The initial intercept course is not perfect, but the maneuvre to match velocities will be imprecise too. The ion engine causes problems with its low acceleration, but solves them again with high ISP. After a series of corrections and a long time cruising, Jeb and Imp Two are close enough to start making observations by eye. Mission control make a note. Never give Jeb a big red button to press. Having the big red button control The Claw does not help. Jeb is given authorisation to capture, despite the look on his face. Jeb immediately turns the engines retrograde for a capture burn. The initial mission plan was for several hours of scientific observations before attempting a turn, but Jeb was too excited. The asteroid is much less massive than expected, and Imp Two is able to bring it into a stable orbit with less than 20 minutes of thrust. Xenon reserves remain so high that authorisation is given for extra maneuvres. THM-614 is brought into a retrograde equatorial orbit with a high eccentricity in preparation for a long burn at apoapsis. Imp Two should be able to completely reverse the orbital direction before bringing the rock lower. At this point things start to go wrong. Jeb is left to his own devices for a few moments as the tracking station crew check on the progress of Imp One, but when the radar turns back to observe Imp Two again... There's not much left of the spaceship. It has a few bare tens of metres per second delta-v from its RCS systems, but the ion system is gone, the power system is gone, and most importantly, the parachute is gone. Something has gone very seriously wrong. The cause of the explosion becomes apparent as the tracking station tries to locate THM-614. The asteroid and claw are not just gone. Somehow they have teleported to a stable orbit on the other side of the Kerbin system. In only a few minutes, the rock has covered more than fifty million metres. LLC docking rings are not designed to handle stresses like that. Recovering Jeb and his asteroid samples suddenly become top priority for the Longbeast Logistics Company.

Imp One - Ion Engines to Duna LLC has been collecting science everywhere within reach to design a new general purpose spaceship. Ion engines are the key technology. This is the only way to cram enough delta-v into the carry weight of a Unicorn booster. Behold, the Imp. The Imp carries only orbital science experiments, as it is not designed for landings. It holds thermometer, gravitometer, material bay, and goo cannisters. The expendable experiments can be decoupled for an easier return trip and increased range. The Unicorn upper stage still has some fuel left, enough for about 400m/s boost out of LKO, so departure isn't painfully slow. The four sets of panels can run the ion engine at about 90% throttle at this distance from Kerbol. There was a perfect Duna launch window presenting itself to us, so that's our first interplanetary target. The ion engine will have a lower peak thrust out there further from the sun, but it shouldn't be so low that we miss the capture. There's some immediate science return on this mission. Gravity scan of the entire kerbolar system gets us a significant chunk of data, which we can transmit back right away. Seeberry Kerman takes a second reading for detailed analysis later, when the pod returns home, but that's over 300 days away yet. There's a lot to do in the meantime. Gryphon Station and Kelpie One - Medium Lift Capability There's still plenty that can be done with the standard LLC Unicorn light lift booster, but eventually we will need something bigger. While Seeberry and Imp One are cruising through interplanetary space, we have time to do some test flights. This is a Kelpie medium lift booster, carrying the unmanned Gryphon station, a test payload of approximately 16 tonnes. Gryphon station has no propulsion of its own, but it does carry a fuel reserve, so if the Kelpie upper stage fails to take it into stable orbit, a quick fuel transfer will rescue the station. If all goes well, this will not be necessary. LLC research has been heavily biased towards small components and high tech, so large rockets have been somewhat neglected. We don't have access to any unified first stage engines, so we had to design a cluster. Eight LV-T45s on stuctural hull segments provide enough thrust, and a suitably aerodynamic base to the vehicle. The solid fuel boosters let the first stage carry an extra fuel tank segment, adding a lot of extra payload capacity. Gryphon Station is designed primarily as ballast. It's job is just to be heavy on top of our test rocket. Secondary purposes are analysis of gravity scans in LKO, and refuelling visiting LLC ships. Success. 100% fuel still remaining in the payload. The Kelpie booster has been proven effective. Now it is time to send some crew up to the station to get it running. This is Kelpie One, a local orbit crew taxi with plenty of room on board for life support supplies. The space station will need a lot of snacks. The crew taxi is much lighter than the station, so it reaches orbit without any difficulty, and with plenty of fuel to spare. The pilots can burn a lot of delta-v to make a more rapid rendezvous. The version one crew taxi has a small design flaw. It has no solar panels or batteries, and so has to operate on the pod battery alone. This does not endanger the mission, as the power lasts long enough, and there is RCS as a backup system, but future versions will carry additional batteries. The docking otherwise goes smoothly. Science time. I send up my two least stupid crew, so hopefully they can do sensible things with all the gravity data.

Salamander Unmanned Missions The entire point of the Longbeast Logistics Company is to find something that works well, and reuse it everywhere it is appropriate to do so. Here is a Salamander probe. Without all the unnecessary mass of crew, life support, and return fuel, the Unicorn booster can easily land a science package on both of Kerbin's moons. Each probe carries seismometer, thermometer, and more mystery goo than it really needs. Each landing gets me about 80 points of science. There are big losses in transmission for some of it, but the Mun landers can't return, and 80 is better than zero. I did mention that we'd be reusing the design? Yes. There are a lot of Salamander probes. Every single Mun biome gets a permanent seismology station. Yes, and on Minmus too. One for each biome. There are really a lot of these probes. Always buy spaceships in bulk. They are cheaper by the dozen, and if your contract calls for two dozen, they're cheaper still.

Unicorn Missions Five and Six - Transmitting Reports To increase the range of the Unicorn spaceships, all the science gear is removed and replaced with electrical power systems. Kerbal batteries are amazingly light, so there's no harm in cramming a lot into the decoupler. Unicorn Five launches into an inclined orbit at the Minmus-Kerbin Equator descending node, and the upper stage carries pilot Herbert Kerman onto a Minmus transfer orbit. The dry mass isn't much, there's a reasonable amount of fuel left, and Minmus departure doesn't need much of a kick. It looks like Herbert will be able to come home, but before that, there is a lot of EVA observation to do. Herbert becomes intimately familiar with the pod hatch mechanism. Kerbal doors are marvels of modern engineering, allowing a helmet almost half a metre wide to fit through a 30cm hatch. Unfortunately, nobody has invented a radio that fits in an EVA suit, so Herbert spends a lot of time poking his head out, staring down at Minmus, then going back inside to transcribe a report. All science results have been transmitted home already, but Longbeast Logistics Company policy states that pilots should not be stranded in deep space in a tiny steel cone. This is all subjective observation, eyewitness accounts only, but it's still valuable scientific data. Through hearing stories about Minmus looking green, flat, or lumpy, LLC engineers will learn how to build longer fuel tanks and RCS systems. Unicorn Six is not capable of making capture into Mun orbit and returning, but a low Mun flypast will still get a small amount of useful data. By carefully fine tuning the approach, the craft can get a gravity assist, escape into Kerbolar SOI by the barest margin, and then make a small burn to return. The Mun is more useful for its gravity than its surface on this flight. Any reports we get on the way past are just a bonus. Less than 30 seconds after leaving Kerbin SOI, Bill is already feeling lost. The return part of the flight comes only a few minutes later. The return maneuvre is not as cheap as you might expect, as Kerbin's gravity is suddenly switched off once you pass the boundary, meaning that Unicorn Six has to spend over 100m/s delta-v in changing course. It's worth the fuel cost though, as it puts the craft on an almost direct course back to Kerbin's atmosphere. It's always worth remembering that a craft is a science instrument all by itself, as long as it goes somewhere new. With this knowledge, LLC will develop new probe cores and research seismometers. LLC has reached the limits of what can be achieved with a manned pod on a Unicorn booster. It's time to develop smaller payloads.

Unicorn Missions Two, Three and Four - Material Science The next three missions will all be flown using a common design. The Unicorn spacecraft has enough payload capacity for more than two science bays, as they are relatively light, but the bulky components don't look good in huge stacks. Each flight will push the boundaries of exploration a little further, doing a material study experiment as they go, and using the secondary bay for some science nearer home. Unicorn Two doesn't even make a circularisation burn, instead remaining on a suborbital trajectory. This is because it can achieve its science objectives just by getting high enough, and also because the science bonus for recovering a suborbital craft hasn't been claimed yet. Good, but we can do better. On to the next flight. Unicorn Three finally starts putting those big fuel tanks to their intended use, and hauls some material bays up to high circular orbit. Nothing spectacular, but it gives us some new science, and demonstrates the capabilities of the ship. The Unicorn Three pod lands on the plains near the western deserts. It's worth taking the time to grab samples. Unicorn Four will push closer to the limits. This mission will require most of the ship's fuel reserves, so it has to be piloted efficiently on the ascent. For optimum efficiency, keep a close eye on vertical speed and the throttle. Seeburry Kerman (not to be confused with the pilot of Unicorn One, Seeberry Kerman) has been chosen for this mission due to his high stupidity. Nobody is entirely sure he'll get back home. Despite this, he pilots the craft well and brings it into orbit with plenty of fuel to spare. Seeburry's mission is to fly a Mun free return, taking material science results from exposure to conditions high above the Mun. There is enough delta-v, plus a small reserve for corrections. Now that Seeburry has shown that kerbals can survive out there, LLC feels more confident in sending crew with a lower stupidity rating. Important note: you are supposed to retrieve all science experiments before this point. I've made that mistake before, and never intend to again. On this flight, Seeburry recovered all the material samples many hours ago on an EVA over the Mun. High temperature, but relatively low G forces. Seeburry will be available to fly again immediately. A safe ocean recovery gives us no bonus science, but there's still a good return on the flight. I had to spend a very long time trying to decide what technology to develop next. Jet engines would have been useful for exploring the surface of Kerbin, and a thermometer would have given the Longbeast Logistics Company a few extra options, but I didn't have enough points to build craft that would put them to best use. The most immediate returns would instead come from long endurance craft with good batteries and good solar panels. For now at least, crew reports and EVA reports are the future.

Unicorn One - Unicorn Booster Proving Flight The first real flight for LLC will be using the Unicorn Booster. Unicorn One carries a basic science payload, and the mission is planned to make good use of it, but the real purpose of the flight is to demonstrate the capabilities of the rocket, and to prove its safety for carrying crew. The design is a classic one. The core first stage has a very long fuel tank and lots of delta-v, but a poor thrust to weight ratio. The boosters have half as much fuel, so by the time they run dry the core stage has a quite respectable TWR and still plenty in the tank. The upper stage is nothing special. It has plenty of delta-v for near Kerbin exploration though. Unicorn One easily reaches orbit, with a very substantial fuel reserve. This will be useful later, but on this mission Seeberry Kerman won't be going any higher than 100km. He has been instructed to go once round the planet, collecting science results along the way, and then return. The propulsion module is ejected sideways. Sending it off to one side prevents any risk of hitting debris during reentry. Reentry is relatively gentle on the spacecraft, but harsh on the pilot. Low temperatures, high G forces. Seeberry will need a few days to recover his full height. The LLC engineers will need to know how the pod reacts to water. Floating and not dissolving are both positive signs. LLC will be using Unicorn-derived spacecraft for a very long time to come in this career. The next few flights will be testing its ability to carry larger payloads to orbit, and testing its range with smaller payloads. It should easily be able to handle high orbit flights, even loaded down with more science gear, but beyond that it might need care and attention in trimming payload mass.

With the new version out, it's time for a new career playthrough. I will be playing with one rule: booster designs must be reused whenever possible. The Longbeast Logistics Company doesn't like to set up production for a rocket design that will only be used once. Engineering costs money! All payloads will have to be built with this in mind. Given that limitation, I'd better make my first booster design a good one. Mission One - Research Shed Let's see how much science Jeb can collect without using any booster at all. Hanging on the pod ladder gets you an EVA report in flight. I can easily take reports and samples of the launchpad. A quick jog over to the runway gets a few more samples. Launchpad, KSC, and runway are all treated as seperate targets for EVA report and sampling, even if they're in the same biome. It's a longer walk out to the shore, but the water samples are worth it. If you take two trips, you can get mud samples too. That'll do.

Orbiter uses only the STS shuttle and a few near future spaceplanes by default, but there is an incredible number of mod craft for it. One of the best standard addons is a pack by dansteph that includes a large freighter ship and its little shuttle bay. http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/ http://orbiter.dansteph.com/forum/index.php?page=download Orbiter is about as close as you can get to real spaceflight while still on the ground.

If you really need to take a material bay reading on a manned trip, and don't want to make an ugly lander by cramming a material bay into it, send it down on a seperate lander and collect the results on EVA.

Does the availability of parts in BTSM force you into Apollo-style seperate lander/mothership somehow? This playthrough makes it clear that you are far more restricted in your options than in stock, but I can't tell how much it is railroading you into specific missions.

The Duna Colonial Transport brings 12 kerbals to Duna in perfect safety and comfort! Well... some safety, and a little bit of comfort.

Another fine addition to your series of career mode threads. I'll be watching out for more of this one.

As the KSP reddit pointed out, this means that Tiger Woods has a specific impulse of 8.2 seconds. http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1ywyps/xkcd_what_if_85_some_discussion_of_the_rocket/cfoqtnb

It looks like if you had the probe pointing engine towards the sun, the fuel tank could block out all light on the solar panels. That shouldn't make the game label them as debris though.

This is something I built last year. Full album of the flight can be seen here: http://imgur.com/a/HAXpJ#0 Craft file can be had here: http://mrp.ath.cx/stuff/Dunebuggy.craft (right click and 'download as') It comes mounted on a booster as standard, but it works perfectly well on Kerbin too.

The FTL Egg is somewhat controllable, though not in a useful way. It only activates if you try to climb your EVA kerbal along the ladder. That's what made me think it was the unbalanced ladder forces. I assumed that when you climb up a ladder, the kerbal is just moved, not experiencing a force, and so there's no counterforce on the ladder.

It is. http://imgur.com/a/01YgQ#0 This is the same bug that was used to power the FTL Egg, way back before the great forum derp. My own Eve flight didn't have any control on the ascent vehicle, so Jeb had to glitch up into a high suborbital trajectory then circularise on jetpack. It works though.

You might want to bring a good book or two to read while you're performing the departure burn for the crew ship. A large craft to Duna on ion engines will not go quickly.

The aircraft trim control works on rover wheels too, so you can at least set a rover to drive forward at low speed by itself. Alt-WASD does it I believe. It won't help you with heading, so your rover will drift, but it gives you something like cruise control in stock.

They did discuss it on that thread, but I made it for a different challenge. There was a thread to see how many bodies were possible to reach using a 30 tonne vehicle. Eve got listed as "impossible". I disagreed.

Way back before the great forum derp, I had a practical application of the FTL Egg as part of an Eve return mission. The ship had to be customised for the mission, so it was no magical single-stage-to-anywhere craft, but it got the job done.

The thing I want to know is what a reputation ship will look like. We know what a high-science ship looks like, and it's not difficult to imagine low-budget ships, but what do you need to gain a lot of reputation in one flight?

In career mode it is currently completely useless. You only need one kerbal for EVA reports and samples. I really like the looks of it. I can work with the ladder placement. I'm just never going to use it outside of sandbox mode.

If you can do a manned Eve return mission using rolling takeoff and staged-ascent with wings, you will have won the game forever.