DMagic

The part descriptions are a little screwed up in the most recent update. The 'aisle' and 'lobby' parts both use the same text, and the 'foyer' part doesn't have any. I think the other parts are all ok.

Having the info that engineer or mechjeb provides helps a lot. But it also helps when you avoid putting a bunch of unnecessary stuff on your rockets. Like huge amounts of useless RCS fuel, oversized engines, or 2.5m fuel tanks when your payload to LKO is less than 10 or so tons.

I hate it when I forget to deploy solar panels... I pretty much always slap a few on the sides of my rockets now, just so that I won't get screwed up if I forget, or if I'm oriented in the wrong direction.

I noticed that both the full sized and the small octagonal cargo parts (JARFR_OctoStrutCargo and JARFR_OctoStrutMiniCargo) have the same mass, 6 tons. I assume the mini should be 2 tons, as it looks like it is 1/3 the size of the larger part; 2 tons is also the dry mass of the mid sized octagonal fuel tank.

Rescue donut, brilliant!!

After lots of tinkering around and finally sending a small docking probe to meet up with Helios in solar orbit, I finally got the ports unstuck and completed Helios. After undocking, Pyrois slid out of place. Once the hab module was re-docked to the station core all of the remaining RCS thrusters and docking modules were released. With everything in place and the station secured the solar panels begin to unfurl, and the sunshield spreads out to shade the hab module. With the panels fully deployed the station can now begin transmitting power back to Moho. It's a little toasty this close. The station orbits at a distance ranging from 2.5 to 4 million km. The complete station. And here, just for comparison, is what Helios looks like during testing while still docked at Moho Orbital. Pryois, meanwhile, burned the rest of its fuel to bring it down closer to the sun. Back at Moho, the crew continues to load up on fuel using the kethane lander. Shepbro gets a few unnervingly closeup views of the lander's return. After a few trips the station is fully fueled. And back on Kerbin the base starts coming together. Here is the launch of the central hab module, and the utilities and rover dock module. The main components come from this station component mod. This adds a few simple parts that fit in really nicely with the stock parts. It also has two extremely useful parts, a large 6 way node that can be used with the big docking ports, and a small strut connector. This can be used in place of the small cubic truss pieces for radially attaching struts. The truss segments come from the THSS mod, the same mod that I used to build Pyrois. And here they are docked to Talaria in Minmus orbit. I used an extra fuel tank to balance the load, bringing to the total up to about 10 tons for each module, or 20 tons together. This is about half of what I was pushing along when constructing the stations. So these base construction missions should be a bit easier to handle. After re-positioning the payloads, docking the cap, and strutting everything together, Talaria is ready to go. Hermes will be used next to bring down the reusable skycrane, the construction rover, and more base components. Then we'll get busy bringing everything down to the surface and putting it all together.

This is a known bug, it affects all types of docking clamps, but it's a little tricky to repeatably trigger it. It's happened to me a few times, most of the time I was able to get around it by docking or undocking something else on the craft first, then the broken clamp reset itself and worked fine. But, obviously this isn't always an option. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/31591-Clamp-O-Tron-Sr-won-t-undock There are other threads on this as well, some of them are linked in that thread.

This set really fits in nicely with the stock parts. I already have some preliminary work done, I just need to get this down to Moho now.

You don't even really need a nuclear engine with such small probes. The LV-909 and a small probe engine can take you most places.

The Icarus mod has radially attached radiator panels that sound similar to what you are describing. They are simple, and fairly small, but I like the idea. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/31251-The-Icarus-Project?p=411792&viewfull=1#post411792

I really like these simple designs and the steady progress. It's also nice to see someone making reasonable sized lifters instead of some oversized monstrosity that's 10X bigger than it needs to be.

Moho is definitely a challenge. Good job for getting there and back. And yes, I would definitely add an extra docking port to allow for refueling, that has saved me many times.

When we last checked in on Moho Orbital the station was low on fuel, the landers were low on fuel, and the tug Pyrois was low on fuel. So I had to send out even more. I attached the second lander too, and we blasted off from Minmus. Here is an example of what I mean about using inclination changes at Minmus to alter my orbit. And you don't need to perfectly line up the Kerbin periapsis with your burn point, a little before or after works just about the same, and it means that about 40% of Minmus' orbit is suitable for the transfer burn. And here is what I mean about setting up a rendezvous the same way you do docking. I pick the most efficient node to correct the last of the inclination change, then slightly adjust my orbit and wait for a good time to set up an encounter. After getting to the station I was able to fill up Pyrois and one of the landers, with enough fuel to send Hermes back home. Unfortunately the docking clamp on one of the station's hab modules doesn't seem to work, so I have to leave the lander on the main docking hub. With a full fuel load the crew secures Helios and they blast off for an orbit about halfway between the sun and Moho. Two ten minute burns are all it takes to set up this orbit. Its periapsis is around 2.5Gm and its apoapsis is 4Gm. But once I finished setting up the orbit I got zapped by the stuck docking node bug. This is the third time this has happened on this mission, but the other two times I was able to work around it and get everything undocked. For some reason, complicated docking setups like this will sometimes disable a docking node, selecting undock doesn't do anything, action groups for decouple or undock don't work either. It's a known bug, but there isn't a reliable fix yet. I'm trying out something that might get it to work, but for now I'm just leaving it in this temporary state. After KSC's pilot (only pilot!!) threatened to mutiny I decided to come up with a better refueling solution. The Kethane mod was just updated, so I made a simple Kethane lander and launched it along with a refinery adaptor for Moho Orbital, and a small scanner probe. This is also, somehow, the first time I've ever used aerospike engines, I don't know why, they seem great for this type of lander. After getting to Moho the orbital scanner probe was released to identify Kethane pockets on the surface. I docked the adaptor to the station, then got zapped by another dead docking clamp. The small clamp on the top of the Kethane miner doesn't seem to be working, but thankfully I have a big clamp on the bottom that I can use to dock to the other port on the docking node. Now with a few Kethane pockets identified the lander sets off to the surface. The fuel tanks are only about half full for the landing so that I don't have to drag around too much extra mass. Once on the surface I was able to refine enough fuel to fill up the landers tanks. And with the Kethane tank full I blasted off for Moho Orbital. Refueling the lander requires about 1/3 of the Kethane I brought up, but this is still a lot easier than dragging down fuel tanks from Kerbin. With a steady supply of fuel available Jeb and Bob set off for the surface. The lander approaches the crater and gently descends to its floor. After a gentle touchdown the rover can be seen as a little glint in the background. Jeb and Bob climb down the ladder and take their first steps on the surface of Moho; another Kerbal first. The rover drives over to the ground crew where it can be inspected by Jeb. Satisfied with the location they climb back into the lander and blast off again. Soon enough they'll be back with the first of the base components and ready for construction. After a few more fuel runs I should have the station full. Then I just need to start base construction; I haven't even really started designing it yet, I just have a basic layout so far. And hopefully I can fix Helios and get it fully deployed.

Not the empty tank, it's just the density of kethane that has increased, from 1 to 2 kg/L. At least I don't think the dry mass has changed.

I did something like this, I had a TWR of 2 or maybe 3 by the time I got close to the surface, lower before that. It was really hard, but I think you have the right idea. If you have enough fuel just get into a somewhat high orbit, maybe 40 or 50km to kill your horizontal velocity. Once that is almost down to zero then slowly come down to the surface. This is really fuel inefficient, but if you keep your vertical speed low, maybe below 50 m/s above 10km, and gradually decrease it below that you should be fine. Use the nukes as long as you can if you have problems with fuel. Just use the aerospikes once you get closer to the surface.

After many, many trips down to Moho I've got it down reasonably well. From LKO I can usually get into orbit and rendezvous with the Moho station with about 5000 - 5500 m/s of delta-v. My best from LKO was just under 4500 m/s, but that was with launching into a 20o inclined orbit, and a lucky encounter that required no further inclination change. From Minmus orbit I can usually get there with about 4500 m/s, I think my best is around 4200 or 4300 m/s, but starting at Minmus complicates things and I wouldn't recommend it. The only major advantage of starting from Minmus, is that you can really easily take care of the inclination change. A 20-50 m/s burn at Minmus can make a significant change in your Kerbin inclination, and if you time your burn near a node with Moho, that can take care of most or all of the inclination change. You can do the same by launching into an inclined orbit, but that doesn't help if you're already in LKO. Mostly I don't bother with trying to get an ideal Hohmann transfer. I just do it like an orbital rendezvous, burning once or twice near periapsis and waiting for a good encounter. This adds to the total delta-v, but not by much, and I think it's much easier than trying to time everything perfectly. Getting back, at least, is really easy. It pretty regularly takes about 2300 m/s to get into Kerbin's atmosphere. And that's starting from a polar orbit around Moho, which makes it a little trickier.

Wow, I really like that rover. I wouldn't expect it to tip over either. Maybe make the wheel base a little bit wider.

I like how you've packed so many landers and rovers onto such a small design. I'll be interested to see how those probes actually work out, especially on Tylo.

I really like that lander design. I imagine it could be used to land and take off from most of the planets and moons, probably everything except Tylo and Eve. If you repack the parachutes you could probably even land back at KSC. My one suggestion, though, would be to lose that big RCS tank. You have more than enough torque from the command pod and lander can, so all you really need it for is docking. I think 1 or 2 of the 100 unit tanks would be plenty for that. Otherwise you're just pushing around excess mass.

Kosmos, it's just been updated for 0.2 so everything should work now, the connection nodes were screwed up before. The big 6-way node is from the same mod pack, but modified by me to fit the bigger docking clamps.

We'll start off today with a few more crafts that need to be sent down to Moho. First up is one of the two landers that will be used to ferry crew from the surface to Moho Orbital and back. Launched on my 15 ton lifter and commanded by Bob Kerman, this is a pretty simple craft, just a lander can and enough fuel to get down to the surface and back. After that I launched Pyrois, named after one of the steeds that pulled Helios' chariot across the sky. This is the tug that will be used to push the Helios station into place. Parts used are from the tri-hexagonal structural truss set. The craft consists of four widely spaced LV-N's that will be secured to the solar arrays of Helios and placed between the central node and the hab section. After meeting up in orbit the lander was docked to the front of Pyrois and they set off for Moho. Meanwhile, back at Moho Orbital, construction of Helios began. The four solar array components had to be removed from the Talaria tug and put into place on the central node of Helios. My detachable docking system didn't work quite as well this time. For some reason the decouplers were giving a much bigger kickback to the solar arrays, making it hard to keep things aligned during docking. But I managed ok, and more impressively, actually kept everything rotated in the correct orientation. Here are a few stages of the construction. And the completed station. With the station complete, Pyrois arrives at Moho and enters an orbit reasonably close to that of the stations'. After arriving at the station, Pyrois was temporarily docked to Helios while the ferry was moved into position on the hab module of Moho Orbital. The Helios hab module was then undocked and Pyrois slid into place. Everything is completed and ready to go now, and of course, low on fuel. Moho Orbital is completely out, the ferry is running on fumes, and Pyrois is down to about half full. But at least the two tugs have enough fuel to get back to Minmus. I'll be sending out much more fuel next, along with the second lander ferry. And Jeb and Bob will descend to the landing site to conduct their initial survey.

Pretty much. I try to be really conservative with parts, that station has, I think, 88 parts without anything else docked to it. That's why I have all those ridiculous detachable docking systems. It really helps to keep the part count down. But even still things can get really slow, sometimes even when the part count isn't that high. Those solar arrays and the tug total about 200 parts, but it chugs along whenever I have to control those.

Now we'll focus on the next station, Helios. Rather than rely on the intermittent sunlight near the pole of Moho for power, the base will be supplied by a large solar array located between the sun and Moho. This station calls for a plan similar to that used by Moho Orbital. The components will be launched to orbit around Minmus where they will be docked to the tugs and brought to Moho orbit. The first launch is of the microwave transmitter array, used to transmit power from the station to the base on Moho. Launched on my 20 ton lifter, the array consists of a large dish and the central node for the station. That node is a modified version of the Kosmos 6-way node, I created an alternate version with 'rescalefactor=2.25' added to the .cfg file, this allows the large docking clamps to be used (all of the Kosmos parts need 'scale=1' added to fix the connection nodes). This was actually docked to Minmus Orbital a long time ago after a test launch worked well. Next up the solar arrays were launched on my 15 ton lifters. Two of the components have docking clamps and 6 gigantor solar panels. The other two have the large Kosmos solar panels, which will generate the majority of the power. All four components were then sent on their way to Minmus and docked, somewhat haphazardly, to Minmus Orbital. Now for the last component, the habitation module launched on my 40 ton lifter. This consists of two cupola modules and a large crew space. The large module on the end is a solar shield, and there are extendable radiators on the sides. These parts are modified versions of the icarus mod. Everything together at Minmus Orbital. Once the tugs returned they were docked on the ends of their payloads. After maneuvering the components into place the Hermes tug departs Minmus Orbital with the hab module and microwave array. After wrangling all of the solar array components into place the Talaria tug departs. Beginning the journey to Moho, Hermes ignites its engines over Minmus. After a rather arduous journey both tugs made it to Moho. And while they were able to establish an orbit reasonably close to that of Moho Orbital, they both ran out of fuel about 300 or 400 m/s short on delta-v. So another fuel tug had to be sent out before they could rendezvous at the station. Just in case you were wondering, this is a craft that is way too long. If you plan on building something like this make sure it has lots of command pods or probe cores, because this has almost no torque, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to turn this thing around. It is very stable though, there is no problem keeping it on course during burns. Hermes docked to Moho Orbital and enough fuel was transferred for its return to Kerbin. The Helios components were then moved into their temporary configuration while awaiting the other parts. And, finally for today, Talaria was wrestled into place at Moho Orbital. Next up, we'll continue with assembly of the Helios station, the launch of the specialized tug to carry it into place, and its deployment there.

I mostly use the regular struts, I think the ring of struts connecting the lower stage to the upper stage, attached to the small cubic truss pieces, uses the medium struts, but all of the others are stock. I don't think I've ever had a need for the heavy ones, but yeah, the medium ones can be really useful. I'm not sure if I used the regular or medium struts on the bottom fuel tanks, but either way I prefer making designs that don't need so many struts. Most of these lifters have a single strut at the top of each booster and a ring of 4, 6 or 8 connecting the lower to the upper stage.

Yeah, I realized that, but I've found for the most part that it doesn't really matter. During the early stage of ascent I generally have to throttle back anyway. Overheating becomes a problem later on, but it's never prevented me from getting into orbit. It may not be as efficient, but I prefer the added stability of not having wobbly tanks on the bottom, and not having to put multiple struts on every booster to minimize that wobble. That instability wasn't an issue when I was just using 4 boosters, like on the old 40 ton lifter. But when I put another pair on the 50 ton lifter I started having issues with the tanks colliding into each other. Struts helped, but the rocket was unpredictable and sometimes blew up. So I switched to putting the smaller tanks on top and haven't had an issue since then.