Sufficient Anonymity

@Captain Sierra Thanks for that

@icemonkey To embed albums, use [imgur ]tjYks[/imgur], albeit without the space (I can't work out how else to escape formatting here). The end result is this: Hope that helps

I sent an airship to Eve to act as a runabout for the kerbals living out there. Sadly, on arrival, it was discovered that the earlier autonomous science vehicle had been destroyed by Eve's harsh atmosphere (okay, the kraken ate it).

Science platform above Eve

I started colonising Eve - first to land was an automated science vehicle, followed by an inflatable habitat. They're only a few km apart, thanks to some luck and the judicious use of F9, but I want to send a rover out there to link them - I'm tempted to use a nuclear-powered airship. I also set up yet more ion probes (there's a cluster of four atop this rocket).

As someone who had a little incident with a lander on Eve last night (thankfully unmanned), I'd certainly second that warning. On a different note, the mod is excellent (especially the drag chutes), though a little cosmetic issue I've been seeing is that when triggering the combined chute cones at an altitude such that just the main chutes (for example, in an abort sequence very early in the flight) deploy, the cover isn't removed, with the lines to the chutes instead just clipping through it.

Continued playing around with my shuttle in sandbox (there's four more images at the end of this album) In career mode I decided to put together a new launcher/satellite system and a research jet to squeeze a little more science out of the Kerbin system.

I find an element of role-play is needed when using the mod; I limit myself to using orion in the late game, and never launch an orion-powered vessel with its crew on board, and payloads have to be constructed in orbit. This introduces the challenge of docking to a 1000 ton ship (things get even crazier when refueling, what with switching out one 3600-bomb magazine for another).

I built a shuttle.

A proof of concept of my next fuel station - I now need to split it into subassemblies and legitimately heft it into orbit (or rather, I really don't, as my degree takes precedent over things like this).

I'm still at the "develop a safe crew bus" stage of my 0.23 save. Today, I sent it to the Mun and back. Bonus station mockup (this was edited into orbit - now to split it up and fly it up there). The moment that Bill and Bob realised they had no control over the capsule whatsoever in a later crew bus test.

Used a fuel depot for conventionally fuelled craft, this station has capacity for 5 kerbals and a frankly silly amount of LF/O. It's also got a nuclear reactor to enable visiting crafts' capacitor banks to be rapidly refilled if need be. Notably, this station is unable to refuel my Orion driven vessels - they're so huge that it is more suitable to have small refuelling drones that move to the vessel needing to be fuelled, rather than the other way around.

For flights carrying small things (eg Kerbals, small communications satellites etc) into LKO, I tend to use SSTOs. The smallest of these just carries four kerbals... ...though for heavier cargoes I have a progression of three other craft.

I designed the craft that'll make up my latest attempt at establishing an Eve colony. A nuclear-powered airship will be used for most of the exploration work. It'll operate from a permanent colony on the surface. A pair of Orion drive powered super-heavy freighters will be used to carry the materials there.

Loving the new parts, but on the other hand, since updating, I'm now struggling to get the game to run in a stable manner. I've only got B9 plus a scattering of other mods which add 30 parts in total running, but I've had four crashes this evening (over that time I've been thinning out parts from other mods, so I probably had a few more parts loaded for the first couple of crashes). Each crash has occurred upon returning to the VAB/SPH after a flight. Here are the crash logs for those interested. EDIT: Potentially disregard this. Updating from 4.0 to 4.0c to see if things improve. Will update with news on performance.

The largest vessels I've ever built rely on Orion drives. Here's a fully laden freighter bound for Laythe: That vessel, however, was assembled in parts in orbit (yes, the docking did get pretty painful with the resultant lag). The largest thing I've ever launched in one piece was the escort below that accompanied a pair of the aforementioned freighters. Each of these vessels is around 1000 tons, and has SSTO capability. With such size and power the main problem becomes steering. In each vessel, sat atop the bomb magazines for the main drive is a stack of half a dozen or so large reaction wheels, plus a set of low-profile LFO thrusters in place of a standard monoprop-based RCS thruster array.

I've posted this in some other threads, but I've just realised I hadn't put it here, the home of one of the most crucial mods for the entire mission. Anyway, photos:

@M4ck The hab block is centred around one of the SABRE precoolers, with the living quarters etc being made from the S2 crew tanks.

I'm a big fan of the excellent work /u/nyrath has done on the Orion mod (for those not familiar with it, Orion was crazy idea someone in the US military had about powering spacecraft with nuclear bombs). I also wanted to do something a bit different from just putting a lander or small rover on another body, so decided to run an entire space program around sending some colonists to Laythe, with an airship. Originally, the plan was to send a single vessel out there, then potentially fly it back (there's never a shortage of dV with Orion, just the minor issue of vessels being so heavy they are nigh-impossible to turn) to pick up more gear. Eventually, this morphed into developing a small fleet, and flying the whole lot out there in one transfer window. Mods used: B9 Orion RLA Stockalike Mechjeb Navlights KAS Hooligan Labs

Calling it a rover is probably a bit of a stretch, as it doesn't have any wheels, but it gets used as one, so hopefully I'm justified in posting it. Anyway, one airship on Laythe: The base it acts as a runabout for

Despite the whole flotilla having been in orbit around Laythe for a while by the time I posted the last set of pictures, I hadn't had a chance to land the remainder of the base. I now, however, have.

Despite my original plan of sending one colony ship loaded up with everything, I decided that, to make best use of the transfer window (I try to be efficient, even with the massive power Orion provides), I'd send three. The original freighter, now named UKAF Hercules is carrying the surface habitation block and airship, Another freighter, UKAF Atlas, has a landing platform on board. They are both escorted by UKAF Odysseus, a carrier whose bays are stocked with autonomous missile deployment vehicles. UKAF Hercules in Kerbin orbit... ...and having arrived in the Jool system... ...and the pad on Laythe UKAF Odysseus Bay doors open

Despite my original plan of sending one colony ship loaded up with everything, I decided that, to make best use of the transfer window (I try to be efficient, even with the massive power Orion provides), I'd send three. The original freighter, now named UKAF Hercules is carrying the surface habitation block and airship, Another freighter, UKAF Atlas, has a landing platform on board. They are both escorted by UKAF Odysseus, a carrier whose bays are stocked with autonomous missile deployment vehicles. UKAF Hercules in Kerbin orbit... ...and having arrived in the Jool system... ...and the pad on Laythe UKAF Odysseus Bay doors open

Testing my debris-removal gunship at first produced more that it cleared up... ...but eventually, I got the hang of landing it safely (an extra wheel under the nose helped).

On bodies without an atmosphere, I tend to send very heavy and squat rovers. However, I tend to concentrate on bodies with an atmosphere, and thus tend to send airships to avoid the issues of rough terrain, phantom forces and inadequate grip. For example, below is the colony ship that I'll be sending to Laythe shortly - sat atop the drive stage is a habitation block, then the airship re-entry heat shield, then the airship itself. Due to electric engines and RTGs, it has infinite range. I'm still trying to get such a system to work well on Duna, however, as the atmosphere is very thin, and (as is probably obvious) I like sending heavy vessels.