capi3101

Just looking at the design, I can address the yaw stability - the tail fins are too small. Try putting one or two of the shuttle-style ones on the back and see if that helps you out any. Might also try pumping some fuel forward if the stability issues persist. Three RAPIERs...how much does this craft weigh at takeoff? Just asking. Dark magic, obviously. Bill's been playing with his ouija board a bit too much again...

Okay, I can live with that quite happily.

Finished...finally. Wow, this turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought... https://imgur.com/a/7sXE39X Assuming I haven't broken any rules and my math is correct, the total mission time for the Kerboat 7 was 12:56. EDIT: Dammit - scratch. I didn't start from the east side of the hangar. Urg...well, it does give me an excuse to fix some of the noted shortcomings with the design.

I spent entirely too much time yesterday working on the Kerboat 7 for the AIRS challenge. The Kerboat 7, the boat that thinks it's a plane. Sponsored by Megadodo Publications and their friends at Sirius Cybernetics, who reminds you to "Go stuff your head in a pig". Wait, that's not right... My problem with the design is that it's a boat that I'm trying to use as a plane (you know, to get it out to the starting point). Maybe I need to be thinking of it as..well, a boat. It boats, and it flies; it just has a tendency to flip up onto its nose and kill Jeb when it lands, or at least break off the forward bits of the outriggers, and I have yet to land it safely (read: intact) on the water. And before y'all start, this screenie was from early in the day, before I took off the canards from the nose and moved the CoL back a bit. Atmosphere Autopilot was keeping it under control well enough for the five minute flight out to the island runway anyway... Regular game saw the launch of a Bill Clinton 7a grabber probe for a junk hauling mission. Owing to my own stupidity, I'm still waiting on the rendezvous with the target and hope to get that done later today. An Auk I rescue spaceplane was launched to rescue scientist Ditrey Kerman from LKO; the retrieval went well but the plane is still waiting for a window of opportunity to land at KSC. The mission was originally scheduled to pick up Hudbree Kerman, but the target craft was in a high inclined retrograde orbit over Kerbin, so a specialized flight will have to be sent up for that particular rescue at a later time. Last regular game event yesterday was the flight of an Auk XII 6-passenger spaceplane to space station Kerbinport: Auk XII, the hot rod of the Auk fleet. The plane successfully docked at Kerbinport this morning. Tourist Geofmon Kerman was joined on the plane by fellow tourists Barvin, Franler, Gercal and Philsy Kerman , and then the plane was refueled to maximum capacity before departing and burning for Minmus. Ordinarily I wouldn't go to Minmus in a spaceplane - they are largely designed solely for trips between KSC and LKO - but I've got a mission to test a RAPIER engine at Minmus and I had five tourists wanting to go out there, so end of story. The plane is scheduled to arrive in 4.5 days, though I'm concerned about its fuel supply; post transfer burn, it's only got about 350 m/s left. I might have to send space station Minmusport's tanker to meet up with it just so that it has enough fuel to finish heading towards the station... Yeah. Fun times...

...Jeb really doesn't want to talk about what I've been doing in KSP today. Suffice it to say that I'm still working out the kinks in the Kerboat 7, but at least the ejection system works.

Pretty slow day yesterday; didn't help that my lunch break was spent designing and I had to revert pretty much all of my afternoon break thanks to stupid-fingers... Strange Cargo returned safely to space station Kerbinport yesterday, bringing Jeb and his passengers home after a sightseeing mission to Mun. An Auk IX 4-passenger spaceplane flew up to the station to pick up tourists Ribbles, Geofdrin and Phoebe Kerman as well as pilot Tridrin Kerman, the last of whom had been rescued from Munar orbit. After docking and crew transfer, the plane performed a successful de-orbit and landing at KSC 09, clearing three contracts in the process. I mentioned designing - I did do that. Not that I needed another plane in the Auk lineup, but I didn't want to get out of practice and felt like making a three passenger craft, so I designed the Auk VX: This was supposed to be the Auk XV, but you can't argue with screenies much. I'll fix the name when I get a chance. Though I didn't have any passengers to send up to Kerbinport, I did go ahead with a shakedown run of the VX late in the day. Overall the plane's mission to rendezvous with the station, dock, undock and then return to KSC was a success. She does want to come in shallow at re-entry but not badly enough to burn up anything, so she's good as is I think. The last thing that happened yesterday was the successful establishment of the Michael Collins Convention Center on Mun. v0.21 me knew the coordinates for the Armstrong Memorial; I'm glad they haven't changed and I was delighted to discover that landing there apparently comes with a Worlds First bonus. Shows how long it's been since I've been there last... Following a tradition I established in v0.21 through no intentional means, the MCCC landed at the site at night. I don't think I've ever been here during daylight. Seriously. The Memorial is on the left. Putting the coordinates into Trajectories was quite effective - I had to drift a little just before touchdown, on account of I was going to land on top of the Lunar lander replica on top of the memorial otherwise (and that would've resulted in a tipover - the MCCC is bigger than she looks in the screenie...). Not much happening so far today. Did a High-Altitude, Low-Speed contract to test a Small Hardpoint; that was successful except for losing half the testing craft after touchdown when the thing tipped over. Picked up a tourist mission in its wake; probably going to be heading back to Minmus in the near future.

Finally about to start a run (I think) using something I've called the Kerboat 7. Not exactly an imaginative name, I know... I say "starting to make a run" because yesterday I tried - multiple times - to do one. Discovering the real trick of this challenge is negotiating those slopes - both at the island runway and at the target zone - without breaking anything off... Now, for the record, she does fly (and in FAR) - which is how I got her over to the Runway in the first place. This is an older screenshot from while I was still checking the proof of the design; canards and flaps were added later. Provided I stick to the ground from here on out, is this design legal or not? Not trying to break any rules; just asking. Proof that she boats as well -

Reasonably full docket of events yesterday. After returning the Auk VI ore hauling spaceplane to KSC safely yesterday, Necessary Evil left Minmus's SOI and began her twelve day journey back to Kerbin. At least, I'm reasonably sure this is Necessary Evil - she looks just like her sister ships Strange Cargo and Next Objective...no wait, Evil's got the antennas...so yeah, this is her, and she's definitely leaving Minmus in this screenie. Meanwhile, Strange Cargo arrived in low Munar orbit, docking with space station Munport successfully. Tourists Barvin, Phoebe, Geofdrin and Philsy Kerman made their way to the Piper Alpha refinery aboard the station's Spamcan 7a lander for contract, and after refinery engineer Philmal Kerman refueled the lander, the four made their way back to Munport successfully. After transferring her passengers back and refueling, the Spamcan then conducted a rescue mission over Mun, retreiving pilot Tridrin Kerman. I keep telling you guys - the signs in your lander cans say "No Smoking" for a reason... Once the Spamcan returned with Tridrin to Munport, both it and Strange Cargo were refueled, Tridrin boarded Strange Cargo and then Strange Cargo departed for Kerbin. At the time I finished playing this morning, she was about thirty minutes from her scheduled aerobraking maneuver into LKO. Yesterday also saw a full refueling operation at Minmus, with both space station Minmusport and the refinery Deepwater Horizon charged to full, awaiting the next expedition. I also landed an Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane safely at KSC 09. This morning I launched a Heartbreak Hotel 7 outpost craft on a mission to establish a Munar outpost at the Armstrong Memorial - I plan to dub the craft the Michael Collins Convention Center upon landing. I also returned the Old Bessie 7 tanker lander at Mun from Piper Alpha to Munport, affecting a refueling of the station. I also fiddled around with this stupid thing in my litterbox: Jeb: "I'm gonna need a bigger boat". Me: "How'd that work out for Roy Scheider? Three seasons and they kept on blowing the damn boat up until he got replaced." Jeb: "Whut?!?!". Me: "Never mind..." I've been getting this design ready for the AIRS challenge. The craft did make it intact to the island runway; I'm rapidly determining that the real challenge is getting up and down those hills, though...

Yesterday was a reasonably busy day. First thing that happened was the arrival of space station Minmusport over its namesake minty moon. Once it was in orbit, Necessary Evil docked with the station, after which tourists Joner and Natafield made an excursion to the surface at the Deepwater Horizon refinery. I had forgotten that the stock Spamcan 7 2-passenger RCS lander, which the two used to make their excursion, didn't have a KAS connector port natively and unfortunately refinery engineer Julfry Kerman didn't have a KAS screwdriver handy to add one and conduct a refuel mission, so the lander merely returned to the station. Scientist Ludson Kerman and engineer Naford Kerman, who were also riding aboard Necessary Evil, went down to Minmus next, conducting flag-planting training before they too successfully returned to Minmusport. While they were down there, the Old Bessie 7 tanker lander that had been orbiting Minmus awaiting the arrival of Minmusport docked to the station, and Necessary Evil was refueled for her return trip to Kerbin. With all planned excursions complete and the crew transferred back, Necessary Evil undocked and burned to return to Kerbin; she'll hit Kerbin periapsis in twelve days - not exactly the best-planned return burn there... I got a contract to send tourist Ribbles Kerman on a Munar flyby; this gave me seven Kerbal tourists wanting to go to Mun and one Munar rescue mission to do, so plans were drawn up for a flight out that way. An Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane flew Ribbles up to space station Kerbinport and successfully docked. Ribbles along with tourists Barvin, Franler, Gercal, Phoebe, Geofdrin and Philsy Kerman, all of whom were already at the station, boarded Strange Cargo with Jeb at the helm. Strange Cargo then departed the station and burned for Mun, arriving a little over four hours later. Strange Cargo is still heading for Munar periapsis as of this post; she should arrive at space station Munport later today. Today so far has been quite profitable. I started with the flight of an Auk VI ore hauling spaceplane to LKO to deliver 1950 ore to Kerbin's orbit, with a side mission to deliver 1500 of that ore to Kerbinport. I don't get the Auk VI out of the barn very often, on account of the fact that it's easier to fulfill ore contracts with Con Job 7 craft. She was designed to haul ore from orbit, not to orbit...and yet she's done the job successfully twice now since I designed her. The Auk VI arrived at Kerbinport with only about 50 m/s of fuel remaining after rendezvous burn, but did affect a successful docking and ore transfer to the station. Just putting the ore into orbit netted me around √450k, and then a subsequent replacement contract to deliver ore from Mun to Kerbin's surface was completed using the refinery Piper Alpha on Mun and a Con Job 7 craft on the Runway, netting me another √600k on top of that. Not exactly in the spirit of those contracts, but it does work. I still need to land the plane (as well as Ribbles' Auk XIII); maybe that will happen later today. Got an offer to put a new surface outpost on Mun. I'm thinking it's been a while since I visited the Armstrong Memorial - like v. 0.24 or so, when I established a rover parking lot - so I'm seriously considering it.

No, I don't mean a joystick mod, I mean one that augments the stock SAS (which is actually pretty lousy if you want to plane a lot). The one I use is Atmosphere Autopilot; can't help but recommend it. Despite the name, auto-pilot is only one of its modes; I usually fly with it on manual unless I'm doing a long-haul survey mission on the far side of Kerbin. Also comes in handy for keeping craft steady during docking maneuvers, in my experience. As far as the stability problem goes, here's something to try; I vaguely remember ferram recommending this to someone on the FAR thread and it's applicable to stock air as well. In the SPH, with the fuel removed, take the root part and start rotating the plane along its pitching axis, and take a look at what the CoM is doing. At a high enough pitch angle, the CoM can go ahead of the CoL. If you can figure out about where that angle is, you can better avoid it with your designs. I wouldn't worry about having experience; the fact you got a plane into orbit is already 3/4 of the battle.

Open that craft up in the SPH and then drain the fuel from it, and look to see where your Center of Mass is. I'd wager both of my non-extant dollars that as the fuel drains, the CoM is shifting to the point where it's behind your CoL. You can fly a craft like that if and only if you've got a good fly-by-wire mod installed, and even then you'll still have problems. Going to be that, or you'll need to increase the height of your vertical stabilizers; in my experience, when a plane doesn't want to behave on re-entry, it's generally one of those two problems. Can't say I'm much of a fan of canards anymore either, but if they help you get airborne, they help you get airborne. Not likely to be the problem in this case though.

Tried replicating one of your cars for the hell of it on Friday. Couldn't steer the damn thing much past 25 m/s; always wanted to spin out and/or drive backwards. I assume I was using bad wheel settings. Any advice you can offer there? Spent most of my weekend at TokenCon in Oklahoma City helping to run one of the vendor demo booths, so not too much accomplished in KSC since...well, since Thursday, actually. The tourist mission/rescue mission of the Auk IX I launched last week was a success, with scientists Huddos and Jaoly Kerman both successfully retrieved from LKO. Auk IX rendezvousing with Jaoly's Debris. <Insert stupid quip here>. The mission to rescue Huddos was specifically a junk-and-kerbal mission, so a Bill Clinton 7a grabber probe was launched to retreive Huddos' Hulk from orbit and successfully returned it about 50 klicks downrange of KSC. Engineer Philmal Kerman transmitted a crew report from the Piper Alpha refinery on Mun for contract, after which the refinery Deepwater Horizon and the accompanying Hellhound 7 rover craft both reached Minmus, and the Kerbin Echo probe was put into a high equatorial orbit over Kerbin for contract. After that, I switched to my litterbox save for a bit and Jeb did some base jumping off of various buildings. The skyway jump was not as interesting as Jeb's jump off the VAB, on account of by then I knew what I was doing and got the chute to actually open... I also tried to get a Hellhound 7 rover to float. That didn't go so well. Friday saw the actual landing of the Hellhound on Minmus. The 'hound got an unintended encounter with Deepwater Horizon right about the time it was supposed to perform its de-orbit burn...came just a hair too close, if you ask me... After landing, I named the rover Fwot and confirmed that the intended site in the Great Flats along the equator would be suitable for Deepwater Horizon, and so I sat the refinery craft down safely pretty much in the exact same spot it has occupied since v. 1.2. Performed the first recharge of the refinery just this morning, and since I had one of those "mine ore from Minmus and deliver it to Kerbin" contracts, I followed up the mining with putting a Con Job 7 craft out on the Runway for an easy √450k. Later today, space station Minmusport is scheduled to arrive (finally), so I'll have some docking and landing ops on the minty moon to perform, and at this point I've got a full batch of tourists ready to head to Mun. Jeb will probably be heading that group aboard Strange Cargo as well.

Naw, navigating with thing in career is simple. The tough part is saving up ~√25,000,000 just for one part...

It does; my issue is figuring out how to start from the island runway. My sincere apologies for not being clearer there.

This has GOT to be an OSHA violation in progress... Jeb found the ladder leading up the side of the VAB. Base jumping ensued. A full report on the rest of the day's activities on Monday...

Couldn't figure out how to get the game to do this last night; any tutorials available for us mere mortals?

They're under the BODY group at this point; used them myself just last week.

Pretty anemic log this morning, and once again, no screenies... Yesterday was mostly spent performing refueling operations. With the refinery Piper Alpha now in place on Mun, I dispatched the Old Bessie 7 tanker lander docked at space station Munport to the refinery. Engineer Philmal hooked the lander up via KAS winch cable, fuel was transferred and the refinery's stores were recharged. Once detached, the lander affected a rendezvous with the space station and completely refilled the station's reserve fuel tank as well as the fuel tank of the Spamcan 7a lander currently docked at the station. Old Bessie still has fuel in its delivery tank, so refueling ops at Mun were secured. I also designed and launched the Heartbreak Hotel 7a outpost module - basically a cupola, lab and hitchhiker lander - to Piper Alpha for contract; the landing there was successful and the contract in question was fulfilled as soon as Philmal hooked it up to the refinery, again using winch cables. Space station Kerbinport also needed a refueling op and to that end I flew an Auk VIII heavy tanker spaceplane - one of those "full big orange tank to orbit" planes although the tank isn't orange anymore - to the station. The VIII is a pretty ugly bird that flies like a brick, but it does do the job; the station and the craft currently docked there were refueled successfully, and the plane then landed safely at KSC 27 (after overshooting KSC 09 by a hundred klicks). Earlier this morning I completed a pair of engine hauling contracts - one for an Ant, one for a Rhino (take a guess as to which one provided the bulk of the thrust) - high in Kerbin's atmosphere. With a pair of LKO rescue contracts underway, I next flew an Auk IX 4-passenger spaceplane to LKO with tourists Lisble and Ellwise Kerman aboard; the tourists were there for an up-and-down flight but I figured I could go ahead and combine the rescue mission with their flight as well for a little extra unnecessary excitement. The plane is scheduled for rendezvous with the first target - Huddo's Hulk - in a little over thirty minutes from now.

RL kept me from getting a lot done yesterday; the approaching Halloween season means the missus will occasionally abscond with my laptop to help her with costume ideas... I was able to get my Bill Clinton 7 grabber probe up to its target - a 2.5m to Mk 3 Adapter - in LKO and land it safely. The refinery Piper Alpha landed on Mun a full seven klicks off its target site thanks to a last minute game hiccup; I had to set down, drill up some more fuel and try again. In the process I discovered I had one of my action groups set up incorrectly - it was supposed to toggle drill deployment and radiator panels, and while it did toggle the panels, it set the drills to turn on. So I had to deploy the drills - and then get them back into stowed position for takeoff - by hand. All fifteen of them (lost one of them during the launch). Ultimately I did get Piper Alpha into its intended final position 0.15 km from Jeb's marker flag, and this morning the refinery commenced normal operations. Refueling ops for space station Munport are scheduled to begin later today. Occurs to me that Deepwater Horizon, the refinery craft heading to Minmus, probably also has that flaw with the drill setup, something to fix if I want to keep using the design in 1.5. Dagnabbit... Meanwhile, Next Objective returned from her mission to Minmus, docking safely at space station Kerbinport. An Auk IX flight was sent up to retrieve tourists Lembas, Sanrim and Lanfrod Kerman; the flight took nearly every last kerbuck I had (got to the station with √1885). I was able to land the plane safely earlier this morning, clearing two contracts in the process and bringing my program back to solvency with ~√400k. I suppose I should report on the unfortunate fate of the rover Lunkhead. I had left it out on the edge of the Midlands/Lowlands about thirty klicks from the Piper Alpha site earlier in an attempt to find a better drilling zone (which I didn't) and decided to go ahead and drive it back so I could use it for utility excursions in the area. Got about five klicks before I managed to flip the damn thing up end over end... I effin' hate Mun. Passionately... Blew the surface scanner when the rover flipped; it was on the back end of the mast at the time. Still trying to figure out how I managed to do that. Anyway, at some point I'm either going to have to send a new rover out there or figure out a way to upright Lunkhead (you know, a 4.5 tonne Hellhound 7 rover designed specifically not to flip over on Mun). Either way, I just haven't got the money to do it right now...

Took screenies of yesterday's activities, but they were all boring, so I'm not going to share them with y'all. Trust me: it's better this way... After the launch of engineer Phimal Kerman aboard the Piper Alpha 7 refinery craft yesterday, I decided to busy myself getting together the rest of my infrastructure for Minmus. Scientist Leing Kerman was put aboard a Munport Core 7 craft and launched towards Minmus - her craft will become space station Minmusport upon arrival, which is scheduled in seven days. A Hellhound 7 rover was also launched towards Minmus on a quest to find a good spot for surface mining; it will arrive in just over five days. This morning saw the launch of another Piper Alpha 7 refinery craft with engineer Julfry Kerman at the helm, again headed towards Minmus. Her craft, which will become Deepwater Horizon upon arrival, is scheduled to arrive ahead of both Minmusport and the as-yet-unnamed rover, which just figures... Meanwhile, Necessary Evil arrived at Minmus and docked with the Spamcan 7 lander already in orbit. Pilot Nedbus Kerman and tourist Bilbald Kerman went down to the Great Flats - where Nedbus planted a flag - before heading for a rendezvous with the Old Bessie 7 tanker craft also in Minmus orbit. The craft refueled and then made its way back to Necessary Evil, and then a second excursion with tourists Siecott and Natafield Kerman then took place, landing successfully in the Greater Flats before returning. Evil herself will need to dock up with the Old Bessie to take on fuel before heading back to Kerbin, something that is scheduled to happen later today. I also did a quick low altitude haul of a Twitch engine for contract with a KerBalloon, and flew an Auk IX four-passenger spaceplane to space station Kerbinport to deliver tourists Philsy, Barvin, Franler and Gercal Kerman.. The plane delivered its passengers and returned to KSC 09 safely. I've also launched my first Bill Clinton 7 LKO grabber probe of this career save on a junk retrieval mission; the probe's rendezvous with its target should take place in just under an hour. The refinery launches have left me strapped for cash - they come in at just under √1M a pop. Right now my space program has all of √24k to its name, so I'm hoping to start wrapping up some contracts and make some coin soon. Good news there is that all the infrastructure I'll need to support tourism - orbital way stations, intermunar ferries, passenger landers, refueling tankers, scout rovers and surface refineries - now all exist and are either in place or en route. Next step - save up enough funds for an Alcubierre Drive ship. The design I've got costs about √26M...

Lost in Space. The original. Bill Mumy plays Will Robinson... I recognized it, and for the record my beard is more salt than pepper these days. I'll admit it.

Well, I finally was able to begin Munar landing tours over the weekend. On Saturday, the Old Bessie 7 tanker craft I'd launched on Friday arrived at space station Munport and docked, allowing Strange Cargo (already docked at the station) to refuel and giving the station's main reserve tank a partial refueling as well. With the Spamcan 7b 4-passenger lander also already at the station, Jeb transferred over to the lander with tourists Marburry, Munsby and Isadon Kerman to a point near where I had a contract to conduct a surface survey along the equator in the Midlands. The lander successfully touched down at the target area, at which point the rover Lunkhead drove from its landing site 11 kilometers way to where Jeb had parked the Spamcan. I should mention the drive was at night. The HullCamerasVDS mod rules - especially that night vision camera that comes with the mod. Lunkhead's coming up on the Spamcan in this screenie. After putting down a flag marking the ore content at the landing site as well as the grade, Jeb transferred to the rover and conducted the survey successfully, which was about another nine klicks north of the equator. Lunkhead then returned Jeb to the lander just in time; the Spamcan lifted off shortly thereafter and affected a successful return to Munport. Spamcan on approach to Munport. Though it isn't efficient, the "straight up, then burn to orbit" launch profile is pretty easy to pull off, I will say that. The lander was then prepped for a second excursion to the surface, this time with tourists Madsted, Irdred and Bobsy Kerman aboard along with engineer Julfry Kerman, who was the subject of an ongoing LMO rescue mission. The excursion took place successfully on Sunday, with the Spamcan returning safely to Munport after Julfry planted a flag in a different spot with a little daylight. Once all of the passengers were transferred back, Strange Cargo departed Munport and set a course for home, arriving safely at her designated berth at space station Kerbinport. An Auk II 8-passenger spaceplane was sent up to rendezvous with the station and bring the passengers home. Meanwhile, I drove Lunkhead along Mun's equator for a little ways trying to reach the Farside Crater, all the while looking for a spot with better ore. Drove nine klicks in the wrong direction before realizing it, then turned around. After I got back to Jeb's flag, that's when the fun began. ♫ Just the good ol' boys / Never meanin' no harm / Beats all you never saw / Been in trouble with the law / Since the day they was born... ♫ Let's just say on that particular score that I was happy for quicksaving. After three attempts, I decided that maybe that first spot wasn't so bad after all - especially after I double-checked the data from the Mun Charlie scanner probe this morning, which showed that the spot where the rover landed was one of the good ones on Mun. The reverted rover is about twenty klicks from its original position; I'll be driving it back that way next opportunity. Earlier this morning, the Auk arrived at Kerbinport. After the passengers were transferred, the plane departed the station and successfully landed (after a pretty harrowing 40-degree descent that I pulled out of about the same time I hit the outer marker - ten klicks away) at KSC 09. Five contracts and √1.1M were cleared in the process - enough funds earned for me to launch my first refinery craft to Mun. Yes, that is a Twin-Boar in the core. Yes, it's set at full power. Yes, the TWR of this beast right now is about 1.15. Yes, that is an ugly-looking and ungainly procedural fairing... The Piper Alpha 7 - which will properly become Piper Alpha once it reaches Mun - has reached orbit and has burned for Mun; Protractor says the craft will pass 15 kilometers from the surface, while the game doesn't even record an encounter for some reason. Hopefully it'll change its mind about that next time I fire up the game. I've got enough funds either for a companion refinery craft (Deepwater Horizon) to go to Minmus or to launch space station Minmusport, but probably not both. I'll probably wind up going with Minmusport since I haven't been able to conduct ground surveys on Minmus yet. Hoping to wind up in the same spot that I had in 1.3.x in the Great Flats, though. I probably oughta get a rover up there to do the survey too...

Key thing - don't try to operate the drive's Exotic Matter generator at the same time you're wanting to go somewhere. Just don't. You'll be happier in the long run. If you're sticking with stock power sources, the power to run the drive itself is fairly nominal - Fuel Cell Arrays are capable of doing it; how many you need depends on the specific drive used. For the 2.5 meter engine, which is what I use the majority of the time, you need six of them operating at the same time as the drive. As far as the 10,000:1 EC to XM generation ratio, put a dozen Gigantor solar panels on your craft and deploy them in close proximity to Kerbol (~1.6 Gm is generally close enough). That close to Kerbol, solar panels generate a huge amount of EC.

Not a whole lot accomplished yesterday going by my logs. I did a quick Mainsail test at the launchpad for 50k, then landed the Auk III tanker plane I flew up to LKO a few days ago. I never do get the entry profile right on that one; overshot KSC 09 by nearly a hundred klicks, but was able to get her turned around and landed safely at KSC 27. The plane's return gave my program a much-needed √250k - I might've mentioned yesterday that the III was an expensive plane... After that, I did an up-and-down flight of an Auk I rescue plane, with tourists Donming and Burfrey Kerman staying in Kerbin's orbit just long enough for me to cash in... The three degree glide slope descent always makes me a tad nervous. "Straight ahead, Mun. The bright dot below that, Minmus. Just below that and directly along our current flight path, Mount Kill-a-Kerbal..." Ended the day with the launch of an Old Bessie 7 tanker craft. Launch was a success and then the craft was sent on to Mun. Its rendezvous with space station Munport has been set at this point, and once it arrives I should be able to commence some landing operations there. I'll get to that next chance RL gives me.

With my funds a tad too far on the low side for my taste, I decided the time had come to get a few more of my contracts taken care of. To that end, while I was waiting for Bob to finish up his gravioli gathering mission at Mun, I launched the Kerbinport space station to LKO with scientist Antrey Kerman in command. Tourists Bilbald, Siecott, Merrey, Joner, Natafield and Aldfurt Kerman went up with the station as well, as did Bill, scientists Barley and Ludson Kerman and engineer Naford Kerman. In retrospect, I should've replaced some of the other KSC staff with pilots; the contract I had for Kerbinport specified two pilots aboard. Later in the day I launched the ferry ship Necessary Evil with pilot Nedbus Kerman at the helm. He docked at the station to pick up the passengers, and later still I launched a Spamcan 7b lander to the station to drop off pilot Libsin Kerman at the station, finally fulfilling the contract. Necessary Evil then departed Kerbinport for Minmus; she'll arrive there in six days. The Spamcan was sent on to space station Munport, arriving there this morning (and inadvertently fulfilling the space station contract for Munport by delivering sufficient liquid fuel - so I got a two-for on the 'Can). Meanwhile, the Spamcan 7 2-passenger RCS lander I'd sent to Minmus a few days ago arrived: Spamcan 7 at rendezvous with Next Objective, with an Old Bessie 7 tanker lander deep in the background. The craft docked successfully with Next Objective already in Minmus orbit. Val and tourist Sanrim Kerman took the craft down to visit the Greater Flats, where Val performed some needed flag-planting training; she became the second kerbal to visit the surface (after Bob). Spamcan 7 on return to Next Objective. That dark little circle below and left of Kerbol is Kerbin. The craft returned safely to Next Objective, though it did pass within 50 meters of the Old Bessie 7 tanker on its way back. Val and Sanrim transferred back to Next Objective and the Spamcan undocked. Next Objective is now on her way back to Kerbin, where she should arrive in four days. She's scheduled to head on to Mun at that point. Bob finally completed his science mission and burned for home, having just enough fuel to get the job done (had 12 m/s left at re-entry). He brought back 1,887.8 sci from his mission, enough for me to finish unlocking the rest of the tech tree with about 850 sci to spare. A few other little things happened last night. I landed the Hellhound 7 rover I'd launched to Mun a few days ago (finally) close to its intended mission area; I'll send Jeb down there to meet it as soon as the Spamcan arrives. I finally got around to landing the Auk XII 6-passenger plane that had delivered Val's tourists to Next Objective. I went ahead and launched the spaceplane pier adapter for Kerbinport and successfully docked it to the station, and then an Auk III tanker plane I launched a few days ago made its way to Kerbinport, dropping off the remainder of its payload fuel. I'll try to land that plane later today; those things are too expensive to just leave lying around in orbit. Finally, this morning I launched a Beep-Beep 7 probe to an high equatorial Kerbin orbit for contract. So far today, what I've got in the pipe is Mun landings and landing that tanker plane. I finished up the Munport mission last thing a little while ago and I didn't look to see what the replacement contract was before quitting the game; going to have to that too.