DerekL1963

Expedition II - Mountain Landing Practice Future expeditions may require landing in rough terrain to place a navigation beacon (a flag) or to overnight. Though the AEC has practiced rough field landings in the hills to the West of KSC, not all of Kerbin's terrain is so forgiving. In order to gain experience, Mission Control has planned an expedition to the mountains West of KSC. The Norge will transit to a point at the South end of the mountain range, and then proceed Northeast until they locate a suitable landing site. The choice of landing site will be left up to Mission Commander Hugo. Starting their turn to the South, the pilots are careful to avoid the exclusion area around the launch pad. Though there is no vehicle on the pad, there is no point is arousing Mission Control's wrath. Their instruments calibrated, there is little for the Science team to do but watch the Sun rise. As the Norge is illuminated by the rising sun, the crew are treated to a view of the full Mun and full Minmus. The new lateral solar arrays prove their worth - generating far more power than the original spinal array. Commander Hugo orders Engineer Umberto to shift to the electric motors, valuable practice conserving fuel for future long range missions. As the mountains approach, Pilot Emery moves to the upper deck of the gondola to assist in scouting for a landing zone so that Commander Hugo can concentrate on the demanding task of navigating the dangerous terrain. A potential landing zone is spotted, and course set for it. In this KASA supplied graphic, you can see how the crew made a vertical descent directly to the landing zone. Several hundred meters up, Commander Hugo judged the terrain to be too steep and moved West to the final landing point. (The graphic was created with the Persistent Trails mod.) Thirty meters above the ground, Commander Hugo checks the descent and uses the Norge's automatic stabilization systems and RCS to adjust vehicle's heading and position before final touchdown. In a postmission debriefing, the pilot crew was unanimous in praise of the value of this ability. The ground was too rough to permit the airship to fully touch down... But the automatic stabilization systems kept the vehicle level while Hugo skilfully adjusted the vehicle's ballast to put sufficient weight on the aft port landing legs to bring the airship to a complete halt. Mission Control cancelled the planned EVA due to concerns about the vehicle's stability, but directed the crew to proceed with the engineering tests of the access ladders and cargo ramps. After lifting off, the crew flew through some spectacular terrain before making another picture-perfect touchdown at KSC. After touchdown, Emery quietly passed a ten dollar bill to Hugo. Later, in his quarters, Hugo examined the bill closely - it was the same one. A KASA supplied graphic of the day's flight. Mission Control is currently reviewing data from the landing to determine if an EVA would be safe in such a condition. Vehicle Engineering has begun planning rebuilding the gondola to move one of the ladders to the aft end and to remount one of the cargo ramps to extend on the port side. An even more radical rebuild was proposed to move the Rover hangar to the forward end of the vehicle. This would allow deployment of Rover-1 on sloping ground, while keeping the Norge's delicate empennage clear of the ground. It would also allow loading and deployment to be supervised from within the command cabin and keep the rover itself clear of the empennage.

Which is of little interest - because you'll be dropping spent stages to the East.

Actually last night... but was too late to write it up. Despite playing for four years... my first visit to the Island Runway.

Expedition I - To the Island Runway. In the pre-dawn hours Mission Engineer Henri supervises the loading of Rover-1. After loading, Mission Commander Hugo and Mission Engineer Henri conduct a walkaround of the giant airship... The engines are of particular concern as this mission will cross open water. Mission Control has judged this to be an acceptable risk due to the short distance and the nearness of KSC rescue forces. As the sky lightens... Mission Commander Hugo gives the order - Up Ship!, and the first mission of the KASA-AEC is underway. The first phase of the mission is an airborne survey of Airstrip Island. Swinging around the south side of the island, Pilot Emery spots a broad flat area, and offers to put the Norge down on a dime. Commander Hugo reminds him that the primary purpose of this mission is to test the AEC and the Norge's basic expeditionary capabilities. Rough field landings will have to wait for a future expedition. Pilot Emery conducts a perfect landing at the Island Airstrip. As required by mission rules, a Pilot (Hugo) and an Engineer (Henri) remain onboard Norge. The remainder of the crew board Rover-I and conduct a traverse of the island - first visiting the artifacts in the abandoned hanger, then exploring the ridge above the airstrip. A huge as she looks up close, she seems tiny from the ridgetop... In Emery's skilled hands, the Norge ascends from the Island Airstrip and turns for home practically in her own length. As they prepare to disembark... Hugo quietly passes Emery ten bucks for winning their pre-flight bet - Emery landed with the runway centerline stripe within the width of the airships cabin.

AS-4 Norge The Norge is designed to be a long range general purpose exploration airship. She's equipped with a pair of Cyclone engines pushing, and three pairs of electric engines (one pusher, two tractor). Under full sun, she can cruise at 56 m/s (158mph/208kph) on all three electrics. (Eat your heart out Elon!) I've set up a set of action groups to control the major functions of the airship: Toggle Cyclone engine. Toggle pusher electric motor. Toggle tractor electric motors. Toggle reverse (all engines). Toggle compressors Toggle generators Groups 2/3 allow me to choose between 1, 2, or 3 electric engines. Group 5 is useful when making precision landings - those compressed air RCS systems eat compressed air like nobody's business. Norge is also equipped with a rover bay to carry Rover I, allowing extended exploration while landed. The vessel itself comes from the Heisenberg Airship Parts Pack, the solar panels comes from the Near Future Solar mod, the electric engines from Firespitter. She is also equipped with TAC Life Support. Rover I Rover I is a basic solar powered rover from the Buffalo rover parts pack. With a crew capacity of 6 and 8 days of life support (with a full crew), she's designed to explore the area around a landed airship.

"As the Kastronaut Corps is charged with exploring outer place, the Aeronaut Expeditionary Corps is charged with exploring the surface of Kerbin and pushing the boundaries of lighter-than-air flight" - KASA Administrator at the Aeronaut Corps commissioning ceremony and the handover to them of the AS-4 Norge and Rover I. The AEC and their vehicles at the commissioning ceremony, from left to right: Hugo Kerman (Pilot, Corps Commander), Emery Kerman (Pilot, Chief Pilot), Charles Kerman (Scientist, Chief Scientist), William Kerman (Scientist), Umberto Kerman (Engineer, Chief Engineer), Henri Kerman (Engineer). In the background, Rover I and the AS-4 Norge. (Links lead to the historical inspirations for the crew names.)

It didn't stay at the bottom... better to use the little triangle/arrowhead shaped widget at the top right corner of a post (it says share this post when you mouse over it) to get the direct link, then paste it here.

More accurately - will any of the resulting materials have sufficient market value and demand to recoup the enormous costs of establishing and operating a production facility? It doesn't matter how useful the material is if you can't produce it at a cost the market will bear.

The latest version of the AS-4 Norge... If you've seen the previous versions, you'll notice a few changes... The stock solar arrays (previously only on the spine) have been swapped out for arrays from the Near Future Solar pack (20% heavier, but 40% more power!), and two lateral arrays have been added. The laterals increase performance at low sun angles, especially when not traveling due east or west. Given the additional power available in full sun, I also added an additional engine pod with two additional Firespitter electric motors. She'll cruise at an incredible 56 m/s (158mph/208kph) when all three electrics are firewalled. (Eat your heart out Elon!) I retained the Cyclones to provide backup propulsion capability (though with 64000 electric charge available in her batteries she can easily troll through the night). Just for the curious, here are the action groups I use to operate her: Toggle Cyclone. Toggle pusher electric motor. Toggle tractor electric motors. Toggle reverse (all engines). Toggle compressors Toggle generators Groups 2/3 allow me to choose between 1, 2, or 3 electric engines. Group 5 is useful when making precision landings - those compressed air RCS systems eat compressed air like nobody's business. I think I'm just about ready to head toward my goal - an around the world airship flight.

Moderately better, mostly because (as you surmise) your first stage engine(s) would not have to comprise *quite* so much on their nozzle designs.

My google-fu is weak, but I do recall them actually doing it.

Just curious - why?

What mod are those from?

Getting supplies from one LM to the other is going to be a problem, as is ensuring the CSM has enough supplies. Orbital precession has to be considered too - the longer the LM stays on the surface, the greater the divergence between it's launch plane and the CSM's orbit. IIRC on the later missions, the CSM had to make a plane change burn to stay within the LM's (very limited) capabilities. Supplies and plane changes aren't the only constraints on the mission however. When you balance extended stay time vs. the LM's limited lift capacity (for samples) vs. the need to keep the CM's CoG within a very limited range (storing the samples)... Could you bring back enough to make all the extra expense worth it?

I turned my light OTV (left) into a light (Kerbin orbit) tanker (right) by adding a new fuel tank and using the original tank as a cargo tank... But it turns out the light tanker *also* functions well as a medium OTV. The light OTV ended up pretty much eliminated from my Dres architecture. (The light OTV originated as a notional leftover from a previous Duna mission... so I probably ought to add it back in if the theme is "re-use"....) Speaking of Dres architecture, I built out the final piece - the station the crew will inhabit while in Dres orbit. The lower (vertical) leg is the cruise phase HAB, it's docked to the docking/service module, which in turn also has the LAB module attached. (Though, since this is in the sandbox this is strictly RP.) So, now that I have all the pieces, it's time to drop a tug under each one (to double check they're within the tug's capacity), build out my lifters, and work out my schedule.

0.o I find that the grind vanishes from the midgame onwards... without much trouble you have kash coming out your ears, especially once you max out the tree and can turn science into kash. Me, I find myself trying harder things...

I usually go for an even simpler method - I depart from much higher up, typically 2000-3000km. This works for capture burns too, capture high then transfer low.

Assuming of course that one is very good at designing rockets with just enough stability to not tip, and just enough control to start the turn, and properly balanced to steer itself. Most KSP players either aren't that good or aren't that experienced. My advice is aimed at that majority of players. For those of us in that majority, adding a bit of control authority alongside (or instead of, depending on the design) re-arranging the CoM/CoL is a perfectly valid way to build a rocket that does not flip and I object to being told that it isn't and that I'm "doing it wrong" because I don't build rockets that meet your standards.

The RSS (Rotating Service Structure)... No, that's in the process of being dismantled and scrapped. (It's not actually in the way of anything, so it's being tackled as time/budget/access allows.) The FSS (Fixed Service Structure) will (at some point) be expanded to accommodate both vertical integration and crew facilities.

Now all you need is the crane system from Heisenberg...

It can also mean you have insufficient control authority. But, either way, it's impossible to diagnose without a picture or a .CRAFT file.

Those altitudes are just rule-of-thumb... Basically you don't want to get too deep into your landing burn before jettisoning, because your t/w ratio typically takes a huge hit and it's hard for any kind of pilot to recover from that when you're down low. Some designs, after extensive testing and experience, I jettison much lower knowing that MJ can recover.

Using MOLE parts to make a simple communications relay bird.

Ah, I presumed "classic" meant "had been out for a while". I remember Speedy's... used to use them sometimes (though I prefer 4-way symmetry to 3-way) before Nert's NF Construction. I'm always on the lookout for truss systems, I'm a bit of a sucker for them.