capi3101

I don't necessarily want to break up the conversation y'all are having about SSTO design. I'll say that I've got a very successful series of spaceplanes - fourteen main designs now with variants on a couple of them - based solely on the RAPIER engine. I'm a FAR flier at this point, so I don't know how much advice I could offer that would be useful. As a rule though, when I build, I start with the paywad and assume a 15% paywad fraction to guess at the final mass of the plane at takeoff. From there I go with 17 tonnes per RAPIER, one brake per engine, one shock cone intake for as many as three engines. And then since I fly FAR and use Procedural Wings, I have a complicated set of formulas for figuring out wing design that uses the same proportions as the Shuttle orbiter. 1200 m/s at 20,000m in air-breathing mode is what I usually get; I plan for a 1.6 wet-to-dry ratio for after the plane becomes a rocket around 29,000m, which gives you about 1500 m/s of delta-V. You can actually make the calculations for how much fuel that turns out to be; I reverse the proportion - instead of 45% LF 55% LOX, I go with 45% LOX 55% LF. Fourteen useful spaceplane designs.... Now that's out of the way, on with the thing that I sometimes do on this thread more than once a month... Friday began with a 25 kilometer rove over the Münar surface using the rover Indecision, which ferried engineer Dilnard Kerman from the Hojo Alpha outpost to the Piper Alpha refinery. Dilnard's arrival allowed refueling operations to re-commence at Mün following refinery engineer Gillie Kerman's departure for training at Duna and Ike, and fuel run was made for the Munport space station. A Tater Catcher 7 Light asteroid probe was launched to attempt an intercept of asteroid MGH-836; the probe has just left Kerbin's SOI and should affect an intersect in about fifteen days. Meanwhile, after 29 days in transit, the Spamcan 7 lander from the Minmusport space station arrived at Mün. Since I needed that Spamcan back at Minmus for engineer Suus Kerman and pilot Helming Kerman to go to the surface (no landers were available), the Spamcan stopped at Munport just long enough to refuel and then was sent on a trip back. Meanwhile, the second and third excursions of the crew of Laggin' Dragon docked at the Dunaport space station commenced. The second excursion returned on vapors, but enough fuel was deemed available to send the third and final excursion down, landing three Kerbals at the Enchova Central refinery on the surface. Among them was engineer Magster Kerman, who resumed her role as the refinery's engineer following training on Ike. Since the station's fuel level was critical, the docked Old Bessie 7a heavy fuel lander was dispatched to the Scan Queen refinery at Ike, and a spare Spamcan was also dispatched from Dunaport to the Ikeport space station. Dunaport's periapsis had slipped below 60k during its operational lifetime, and so a short burn was made to return it above that critical orbital altitude. On Saturday, the third excursion returned to Dunaport. Laggin' Dragon was given as much fuel as was available at the space station, enough to fill her tanks up only to 88%, which was more that enough for her to head towards Ike. A final remaining Spamcan 7 lander got the remaining visiting Kerbals out, leaving scientist Kirmund Kerman behind to man the outpost. Spamcan 7 after departing Dunaport. Laggin' Dragon is visible immediately to the left of the station. Both Laggin' Dragon and the Spamcan arrived safely at Ikeport before the say was out. Meanwhile, with things to do over Eve, I decided to try a direct warp-back of the Heighliner 7 warp ship MSV Fat Man from Duna to Kerbin, forgoing the normal orbital period over Kerbol and just using a series of "warpbacks" to slow the craft down to orbital velocity. I discovered that the process shortened the wait time from days to a matter of hours - Fat Man was in a 600 kilometer parking orbit over Kerbin before Laggin' Dragon arrived at Ikeport. With the ship's return, I latched a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe to the side of Fat Man, warped the craft out to an Eve flyby and then returned to the parking orbit over Kerbin. I then proceeded to land the probe, thus fulfilling an Explore Eve contract point to return a craft from an Eve flyby... Even managed to get the thing down reasonably close to the space center... Only other thing that happened Saturday was the arrival of the Minmusport Spamcan at Kerbin, where a burn was made to return it to the minty moon. It should arrive in seven days. Nothing happened yesterday, so at this point I've got to get Dunaport refueled, land some Kerbals on Ike, get Fat Man back to Duna at some point and begin some more Eve ops. Fair amount going on.

Sorry, kiddies - capi remembered to take his screenies yesterday. So, recapping: Necessary Evil had made several back-and-forth Alcubierre Drive flights as part of MSV Fat Man's consist, each time spending significant time in a 1.6 GM orbit over Kerbol, more than close enough to melt all of the ablator off of the heat shield nestled at the bottom of the craft's crewed command module. I needed to replace the shield, but in order to do that it would be necessary to completely remove the service module first and then put it back into place once the refit had been completed. To that end, I planned a mission to send up a six-Kerbal KAS repair craft to Necessary Evil after it returned to the Kerbinport space station with the necessary hardware. Thus was born I Like Hubcaps 7, which launched on its historic repair mission with Val, Bill and engineers Halzer, Leaemy, Dezor and Megkin Kerman aboard. I Like Hubcaps 7, successful liftoff. Coming into approach at Kerbinport. Necessary Evil is actually that little bit sticking off the top of the station out to the right. The booster I put on the craft was actually overworked; I made it into orbit without hardly firing the core booster stage at all. To help distinguish Necessary Evil from her sister ships Strange Cargo and Next Objective also docked at Kerbinport, I left the ship's solar panels deployed. Definitely was a good thing I did it, too... Coming into final position for grabbing. Without instrumentation or being able to use NavyFish's DPAI, this was some tricky work. After successful grabbing, I discovered I had to get a little closer to the service module to actually move the thing. The ladders were moved to the bottom of the command module and everybody began piling out. We also moved the replacement shield closer to where we were working. Even after draining the service module of fuel, we discovered we were one kerbal short of having enough manpower to move the service module. Fortunately, Bob was manning the station already, so he came out to lend a hand. With Bob's help, the service module was moved to a Cubic Octagonal Strut stuck to the side of the CM, and the old heat shield was jettisoned. Then the service module had to go back into place. Halzer and Leaemy both had to move in closer to where the SM had been put temporarily in order to finally put it back, requiring the two to do some free floating nearby. Job finished, everybody piled back in and Bob returned to the station's cupola. The SM was refueled with bulk of the fuel from I Like Hubcaps 7's core booster stage before final departure. Re-entry was successful, the craft splashing down in the ocean about 80 kilometers west of KSC. The repair mission was a complete success. For good measure I did a quick-save to ensure that the service module could still be ejected via staging after the repair, and after confirming that it could, I reverted. Everything's good to go at this point, and I know now that when I need to do this procedure again for the other ships (if I'm going to be using them for warp travel, it's gonna happen), I have a craft that can do the job. Going to make a few tweaks for the next time out, of course... That took up the bulk of my day yesterday. Only other things that happened were the successful retrieval of engineer Edfield Kerman to the Ikeport space station and his later delivery to the Dunaport space station later in the day, and a 25-kilometer drive of the rover Indecision from the Piper Alpha refinery to the Hojo Alpha outpost on the surface of Mün. Indecision will be returning to Piper Alpha today if I get the opportunity with engineer Dilnard Kerman, who will run a refueling op at Mün since the refinery's commander is currently over Duna...

I had a pretty slow day over all yesterday. The day started with the Duna atmospheric entry of the Waste of Time 7 parts testing probe, which was sent to conduct a test of Kerbaloons parachutes in the Dunan atmosphere. The craft reached the target parameters and conducted the test successfully, but the intended return to orbit did not take place owing to a lack of delta-V. The craft sat down along the equatorial midlands around 12 m/s, fast enough to smash the engine though the module itself survived; it has been re-classed as a relay and will remain on the surface of Duna. The replacement contract was to rescue engineer Edfield Kerman from the orbit of Ike. The Ikeport space station's Spamcan 7a lander was dispatched to retreive Edfield from his shipwreck, affecting a successful rendezvous and pickup. Edfield clutching to the side of the Spamcan over Ike with his debris tumbling off in the background. Makes you wonder how he got into this mess in the first place, you know? Edfield will return to Ikeport later today if all goes according to plan. Since Laggin' Dragon currently docked at the Dunaport space station has an extra seat available, I'll probably send him to join the ongoing Second Duna Expedition upon his return to the station. Not much else happened. The Boop-Boop 7a probe Kerbin Omicron (yes, I'm up to Omicron - fifteen unnecessarily probes over Kerbin and only enough Greek letters for another nine) was put into equatorial Kerbin orbit for contract. Pilot Helming and engineer Suus Kerman finally got to Minmus directly from Mün in their Gusmobile 7 craft after a 28-day transit, and a new Exxon Valdez 7a heavy fuel module was docked up to the Kerbinport space station. I have plans to go pick up engineer Dilnard Kerman from the Hojo Alpha outpost on Mün with the rover Indecision at the Piper Alpha refinery to bring him to the refinery in order to perform a recharge job while Leedorf is visiting Duna, but I plan to wait for local daylight before that happens. I also need to start the excursions of the second Duna expedition to the Dunan surface. One last thing I have in the pipe is the replacement of Necessary Evil's heat shield, which is snugged in tightly on the bottom of the craft's CM and itself covered with the craft's SM, and due to time spent in close proximity to Kerbol is completely depleted at this point. Planning for this repair mission began yesterday with the design of I Like Hubcaps 7, which will take six Kerbals up to perform a KAS repair job. Definitely going to be one of the largest and probably convoluted repair jobs I've ever done, but I'm hopeful when everything's said and done that the craft's emergency ejection system will still work if it's ever needed. Screenies on that one for sure.

Wasted the better chunk of my day yesterday figuring out ways to get the Bleepity-Bleep-Bleep 7 warp probe back safely to the surface of Kerbin. After the initial failed attempt, I reverted and raised the periapsis five klicks with each attempt. Did that about five times in a row. After the raise to 40,000 failed (I experienced an unusual phenomenon where the probe would slow down as it got into the thick atmosphere but then start speeding up again, until the probe ripped itself apart due to the heat and atmospheric stresses, I decided that maybe what I needed was a damn heat shield, and to that end I stabilized the probe's orbit and then sent up a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe to grab it and haul it down. I figured this was a job for a ten meter heat shield, right? The two probes at docking, with the Bill Clinton 7b on the left and the Bleepity-Bleep-Bleep 7 on the right. Makes me wonder if I should be seeing this... So I got into the deep atmosphere and deployed the Bill Clinton's heat shield. Damn thing did absolutely nothing. I mean, usually if I deploy the heat shield down around 25,000 I see a fifteen- to thirty-gee spike and my speed goes down enough to deploy chutes, but in this case it only slowed down to about 600 m/s or so, and then started speeding up again until I lost both damn probes... So, with √18M sunk into the BBB 7 that it looked like I wasn't going to get back, I replaced my persistence file with a pre-BBB launch backup, and proceeded to get the ferry craft Laggin' Dragon and the parts testing module Waste of Time 7 docked up with the Dunaport space station. That's all I have to show for yesterday; pretty frustrating day over all.

The past five days I've been busying myself with a bunch of little contracts in the wake of the return of the First Duna Expedition. After the ferries Strange Cargo, Next Objective and Necessary Evil all returned safely to Kerbin using the Heighliner 7 warp ship MSV Fat Man, I went ahead and deorbited the Incertae Cedis parachute adapter module carrying the skycrane from the rover Beulah, which was left on the surface of Ike; doing so allowed me to clear out the final Explore Ike contract in my queue, allowing me to pick up the first Explore Eve contract. After doing a quick ore mining job at the Scan Queen refinery on Ike for cash, I went ahead and loaded all the personnel that had gone to Eve aboard a waiting Auk XIV 36-passenger spaceplane already docked at the Kerbinport space station, and I also transferred all the available science I'd collected to the plane for good measure. The safe landing brought almost all of my kerbals home with a 4-star rating and nearly 15,000 science, which should set me for the foreseeable future. I went ahead and adopted a strategy at the Admin building to convert all future science into rep. I'm at 93% rep right now, so I figured 'why not'. With the first expedition complete, my focus turned to the Second Duna Expedition, whose point would be to take the personnel I'd left behind at Kerbin, Mün and Minmus to Duna so they could get their tickets punched. At Minmus, scientist Seanlan Kerman took the Minmusport space station's Spamcan 7 lander down to the Deepwater Horizon refinery on the surface to pick up engineer Theony Kerman, and after a safe landing and refueling op, the two took off to rendezvous with MSV Fat Man. An Auk IIIa xenon refuler flight launched to Kerbinport and after topping off there, the plane made its way to a rendezvous with Fat Man. Scientist Gillie Kerman made a similar run to pickup engineer Leedorf Kerman from the Piper Alpha refinery at Mun, and then the two made their way towards Fat Man. The refuel op drained the station's Exxon Valdez 7a fuel cannister, which was deorbited and has yet to be replaced. After successfully refueling Fat Man's fuel stores, the plane was deorbited successfully and attempted to land at KSC 27; I came into hot and overshot the runway by three klicks, but the plane did make it down intact otherwise. I had a couple of additional contracts to take care of at Duna, so I spent my day on Friday designing some payloads to fulfill those missions. After adjusting the basic design to put a docking port on top, I launched a Ray Charles 7a telescope probe, which will eventually head into a solar orbit in the vicinity of Eve for rock-watching duties. I also developed the Waste of Time 7 to do some tests in solar and Dunan orbits. Both craft were launched and successfully docked with Fat Man by the end of the day, and finally I had three tourists and four additional KSC staff depart Kerbinport aboard Laggin' Dragon, the only one the four ferries in my fleet to not have visited Duna at that point. The ship rendezvoused and docked with Fat Man successfully, and by the end of the day the next Duna expedition was ready for departure. Owing to the fact that they had visited Duna and Ike but not Mün and Minmus, I launched engineer Suus Kerman and pilot Helming Kerman to Mün aboard a Gusmobile 7; the two of them arrived at Mün on Saturday, and after planting flags and refueling, the two burned to go to Minmus. Fat Man departed for Duna on Saturday, stopping at Eve just long enough to tick the first two marks off the explore Eve contract before heading on to the ramp-up for low Kerbolar orbit. While the ramp-up was ongoing, engineer Dilnard was launched to Mun aboard a Heartbreak Hotel 7 module on a contract to expand the Hojo Alpha outpost on Mun, a mission that was successfully completed even though I had to deliberately tip over the module in order to link it to the existing outpost. Dilnard is still at Hojo Alpha at the moment, which is 25 klicks from Piper Alpha and I'm considering whether or not to send the rover Indecision from the refinery to go pick him up and have him man the station; Piper Alpha does need a recharge at this point and Dilnard is a four-star engineer, after all. I also hauled down a Mk-1 Lander Can and a cargo ramp from LKO before Fat Man completed her ramp up, quench and subsequent final warp to Duna. With Fat Man in Dunan orbit, Laggin' Dragon and the Waste of Time 7 module were both undocked and their respective rendezvous with the Dunaport space station were set. Both craft are still en route as of this morning. I did want to go ahead and check off the final mark of the initial Explore Eve contract, namely to return a ship to Kerbin from an Eve flyby; to that end, this morning I designed the Bleepity-Bleep-Bleep 7 warp probe, and made an initial attempt to get the craft out to Eve. Everything went according to plan except for the final recovery; the probe did not survive re-entry at Kerbin, likely because I chose to go straight for re-entry instead of taking the time to re-enter a parking orbit first so I could control the speed of descent. I've reverted that flight - I didn't want to lose a √17.5M warp drive after all - and will make another attempt later today as likely as not. So, a lot going on. Only other thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I'm going to have to perform some open surgery on Necessary Evil - since the warp ramp-up takes place close enough to Kerbol to melt ablator, and since Necessary Evil made four back and forth trips to Duna, the ship's heat shield has been completely exhausted. Replacing it would require me to detach the drive section, install the new shield on the bottom of the passenger modules, and re-attach the drive section, and then double-check (and revert) to make sure the craft's drive section could still be jettisoned in the event of an emergency. I should have the personnel to do it at this point, but it's going to take some very delicate planning to pull it off. I look forward to the challenge, and that one's going to have screenies for sure...

I had promised to give y'all some screenies from the First Duna expedition a few days ago; once again time has gotten away from me... Tommund at the helm of MSV Fat Man at the beginning of one of several Alcubierre-drive powered runs between Kerbin and Duna. I think this was the third flight, hauling some money-making probes out there. Necessary Evil in orbit of Duna, with an Ike eclipse in progress. Successful first landing of the Spamcan 7c heavy passenger lander on Duna. The lander performed eight such landings on the Dunan surface during the first expedition. Fat Man returning to Kerbin with two expended Faux News modules and an Auk II 8-passenger spaceplane that appears to be missing a few parts. The Auk was eventually cut loose and self-destructed. Engineer Eriemy Kerman at the Scan Queen refinery, taking some of the first steps of any Kerbal on the surface of Ike. Necessary Evil arriving at Kerbinport after a successful mission, with Strange Cargo already in close proximity to the station. The Auk XIV 36-passenger spaceplane is also visibly docked to the station already, as is the sister ship Laggin' Dragon. Final science results of the First Duna Expedition. We didn't clean out Duna, but we sure as heck went gung-ho on Ike... I'll post about more recent events later today, if I get the opportunity.

I'm up to a solid month now without reporting on this thread. Seriously - the first entry in my log is dated December 30th... Short version - I've been mainly dealing with the First Duna Expedition, getting the bulk of my staff up to 4-star ratings by landing/planting flags on both Duna and Ike. Ike's tapped out of science at this point, while I've largely left Duna untouched due to the fact that the lander really only had enough fuel to land and return to orbit at points along the equator. I also determined that it was actually more fuel efficient for the Old Bessie 7a heavy fuel lander I'd designed to land on Duna to go all the way to Ike, land at the Scan Queen refinery and return with a load of fuel than it was for the lander to just go down to the Enchova Central refinery on Duna's surface. With the fuel savings, multiple crew landings at Duna from the Dunaport space station were possible with each load (as opposed to a fuel run after every passenger run with the way things were originally intended). I also did a refit run to bring back the skycrane for the Hellhound 7 rover Beulah with me to Kerbin; the craft wasn't designed to return after delivering its payload but by adding a dockable parachute module, it should now be capable of a return mission. MSV Fat Man has brought everybody home at this point (except for the four Kerbals manning the outposts in the Duna DOI); this afternoon I will bring everybody down in the Auk XIV 36-passenger spaceplane I flew up to the Kerbinport space station a couple of days ago. I'll also be making the attempt to land the skycrane; I'm hopeful that in doing so I will finish out all of the Explore Ike contracts. I'm still guessing Eve's next, but I've never actually made it this far without the developers putting out a new release... Screenies? I've got 'em. Don't really have time to post them right now, though...maybe later.

Thanks for your help, y'all. To be clear - the probe was launched after the contract was accepted, the asteroid hadn't been touched until the probe clawed it, and every other parameter was correct. Loading and re-loading didn't do squat; ultimately I did take y'all's advice and just Alt-F12'd it clear. I do wonder if it might've had something to do with when the asteroid was generated; I had started tracking the thing before the contract came up. Onboard antenna was a DTS-M1; not a relay antenna, but I'll bear that advice in mind in the future.

Morning, y'all. (At least, it's morning here. Sounds better than 'Diurnal period, y'all.' anyways.) So I've got a relatively simple contract to put a class-A potato-roid into Kerbin's orbit. Straightforward parameters - has to be a new rock, has to be in Kerbin orbit, have to leave the damn thing alone for ten seconds. Found the thing in my persistence file: CONTRACT { guid = 085d931c-056b-4904-ab37-19ae7ec9e76b type = ARMContract prestige = 0 seed = -1926842506 state = Active viewed = Read agent = FLOOYD Dynamics Research Labs deadlineType = Floating expiryType = Floating values = 21600,64411200,46000,125999.994277954,48299.9978065491,16,24.76191,13,10642195.0478442,10620627.3278434,75031827.3278434,0 targetBody = 1 asteroidClass = A isLanding = False PARAM { name = AsteroidParameter state = Incomplete disableOnStateChange = False values = 0,0,0,0,0 forStation = False asteroidClass = A seedList = -47370367 } PARAM { name = LocationAndSituationParameter state = Incomplete disableOnStateChange = False values = 0,0,0,0,0 targetBody = 1 targetSituation = ORBITING noun = vessel finalObjective = False } PARAM { name = StabilityParameter state = Incomplete disableOnStateChange = False values = 0,0,0,0,0 holdSeconds = 10 } } Now, I've got a probe that has gone out and done all of these things - I've got a class A rock in orbit of Kerbin and I haven't done anything to it other than grab it with the probe. Here are its parameters as far as the persistence file goes: PART { name = PotatoRoid cid = 0 uid = 418841873 mid = 418841873 launchID = 0 parent = 14 position = -0.057749748229980469,3.8429114818572998,-0.055772155523300171 rotation = 0.59200418,-0.0764016882,-0.777114213,0.199467972 mirror = 1,1,1 symMethod = Radial istg = -1 resPri = 0 dstg = 0 sqor = 0 sepI = -1 sidx = 0 attm = 0 srfN = , -1 attN = grapple, 14 mass = 4.3331604 shielded = False temp = 297.73862881646733 tempExt = 297.72289918508244 tempExtUnexp = 4 expt = 0.100000001 state = 1 attached = True autostrutMode = Off rigidAttachment = False flag = rTrf = PotatoRoid modCost = 0 EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } PARTDATA { } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroid isEnabled = True seed = 9709125 AsteroidName = Ast. VHW-690 prefabBaseURL = Procedural/PA_A currentState = 1 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidInfo isEnabled = True massThreshold = 0.43331527709960938 currentMass = 4.3331527709960938 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.184895828 displayAbundance = 0.166406244 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.166666672 displayAbundance = 0.150000006 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0 displayAbundance = 0 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0 displayAbundance = 0 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.143229172 displayAbundance = 0.12890625 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.184895828 displayAbundance = 0.166406244 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0 displayAbundance = 0 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0 displayAbundance = 0 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0 displayAbundance = 0 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.013020833 displayAbundance = 0.01171875 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0 displayAbundance = 0 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.00999999978 displayAbundance = 0.00899999961 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.0234375 displayAbundance = 0.0210937504 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.0338541679 displayAbundance = 0.0304687507 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.018229166 displayAbundance = 0.0164062493 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = ModuleAsteroidResource isEnabled = True abundance = 0.223958328 displayAbundance = 0.201562494 stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = GeometryPartModule isEnabled = True stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = FARAeroPartModule isEnabled = True stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } MODULE { name = FARPartModule isEnabled = True stagingEnabled = True EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } UPGRADESAPPLIED { } } } Game's not giving me credit for the rock being unmolested prior to putting into orbit. Even though it totally was a brand new rock when I went and got it. Any ideas why I wouldn't be getting credit for mission completion? I'd hate to think it was because I had to stop playing to do other things, or if it was something as stupid as needing to switch vessels - if that's the case, I wouldn't want to bother with asteroid collection missions at all (they just take too damn long to get everything done in one go). It's particularly bothersome because right now I've got four asteroid capture contracts active... Thoughts? Anybody?

Was going to sit down and type out a report for y'all today, but noticed the start date in my log is December effin 30th. I'll have to get a summary ready instead, I guess...maybe later.

If you're not adverse to mods, I might suggest Atmosphere Autopilot or a fly-by-wire mod of your choosing. Turns flying from tedium to a real joy. Did in my case anyway...

Hi. I've been using IFS for a while now. The other day (the 8th) I got a notice saying that a new version of Patch Manager was available, and so I went ahead and downloaded/installed it. Since then, Module Manager has been giving me the same error message when the game loads: I haven't noticed any effect on my gameplay just yet, but figured I'd try to figure out exactly what was going on. Already checked with the Patch Manager folks and they told me to try over here.

Hi. I installed Patch Manager 0.0.12 a couple of days ago when the game prompted me there was an update, and since then I've been receiving an error message for InterstellarFuelSwitch: The game also still says that there's a 'new version' of Patch Manager available; this despite attempting a reinstall twice. I can still play the game still seems to be working okay, but I figured I should report this anyway. IFS is the only mod that I have installed that requires Patch Manager.

Hmm. Okay...I'm down to grasping at straws (the rest of y'all can jump in with ideas any time now). Just out of curiosity, what was your heading (course and elevation) when you engaged the drive?

Ok...I'm assuming you meant that you hadn't been using the thrust limiter; there's definitely one there at 24:22 in your video you've got the Warp Drive GUI open. Putting in the dev version will probably solve the issue; as I said earlier, 500k was the failsafe altitude for Laythe, so the drive shouldn't really have been working at all. Be advised that the rate at which consumables are used while warping has gone up dramatically with the dev version of the drive, particularly if you're using non-stock EC sources (which you are). You might want to quicksave before attempting to use the drive as a precaution, and definitely watch your consumables.

Making sure I understand you correctly - you had a ship in orbit of Laythe with the old version in a 500k orbit, then you changed to the dev version. Is that correct? 500k is the old failsafe altitude for Laythe (new one's 250k for all drive models), so the newly-added braking factor will be pretty substantial at that point. You might check your thrust limiter; if you're not at 100%, start by ramping it up and see what happens. You might also try warping radially away from Laythe to 750k (the old failsafe altitude for the 0.625m drive) and see if you get a little more response out of it. If you still can't get anything to work, shoot a screenie on up to this thread with your drive GUI and consumables windows visible and we'll take another look at it.

You have to add their information to the four configuration files that govern how the mod behaves (one configuration file for each of the four different decal parts). I built a Python script that does the heavy lifting and had intended to turn it into a utility for general use by the community, but I haven't bothered to work on the GUI (I was going to say 'I haven't had time to work on it', but that would be dishonest). Anyway, if you want to do it manually, start with any one of the configuration files (I'd suggest the one in the blackheart/Parts/Stickerbig directory just because you have to start somewhere). Crack it open in a plain text editor like Notepad++ (regular Notepad works in Windows), and then look for the line that begins with 'textureNames ='. Tack on the directory name and the filename of the flag PNG you want to add (e.g., an American flag in the Flags directory might be something like 'Flags\usa'). Once that's done, look for the line that begins 'textureDisplayNames =' and then add the affiliation description (for the American flag, you might say 'USA'). Lather, rinse and repeat with the other three parts configuration files.

The dev version has got three new 'z-model' parts: a 1 meter, 2.5 meter and 3.75 meter engine. Specifics - the old parts are still there and they are more efficient insofar as the consumption of consumables is concerned, while the new parts fit inside fairings much more readily. In the dev version, all the engines share the same set of failsafe altitudes, which is one-half a planetary radius; a "braking factor" has been added that slows the drive down considerably in close proximity to failsafe (I've found that the data I provided in my earlier navigation guide is still very much usable in the dev version). Depletion of consumables has been stepped up considerably as well; I can only speak about stock power consumption, but adequate power for the drive's operation has gone from 4 RTGs in the current release version to a number of Fuel Cell Arrays in the dev version, with the number you need dependent on the engine you're using. My understanding is that if you're using community power sources, the electrical charge requirement is far greater; somebody else may need to fill you in there (I'd appreciate that information for the sake of my own knowledge, actually).

Actually managed to get back on here to give a 'daily' report for once (as opposed to 'weekly', 'bi-monthly', 'monthly' or 'annual'...). Not much really of note happened yesterday. I did three runs from the Dunaport space station to the surface of Duna with the station's Spamcan 7c heavy lander, planting a total of twelve Kerbals on the surface for advanced flag-planting training. The kerbals involved in these runs were scientists Kirmund and Catny Kerman (Dunaport's and Yokohama II's capsule commanders, respectively) and pilots Helming, Didrin, Phoming, Danrick, Malcolm, Gilvin, Newburry, Phildan, Catfrey and Agamore Kerman; due to their earlier orbital maneuvers over Ike, the last eight of these pilots are now up to a 4-star rating. After the flags were planted, the pilots were loaded aboard Necessary Evil and Next Objective along with the crews that had visited the Dunan surface earlier and the two ferry ships departed for Ike, arriving in orbit before day's end - only Kirmund, Catny and engineer Eriemy Kerman remain at Dunaport at the present time, and of the kerbals currently in the Dunan SOI, only Eriemy has yet to go to the surface to plant a flag. The Nostromo 7 ore hauling craft also departed for Ike as she'll be needed there first. The day ended with the first operational fuel run of the Old Bessie 7a heavy fuel lander to the Enchova Central refinery on Duna; the refuel operation was successful (eventually) and the craft is currently on its way back to Dunaport. Coming up, I've got to get the Old Bessie 7a back to Dunaport in order to assess the craft's effectiveness as a fuel hauling vehicle; hopefully I can certify Duna as a viable fuel depot for other points in the Kerbol system. MSV Fat Man remains in a parking orbit over Kerbol; she'll reach final position for the warp to Kerbin in a little over two days. The final three craft of the First Duna Expedition - a Hellhound 7 rover, Strange Cargo and the Ikeport space station - are scheduled to arrive at Duna in another 25 days at this point, and I've still got two outstanding asteroid missions going on. Still plenty busy at the moment. Had a screenie from the landings but imgur is giving me guff at the moment...

Are you trying to use the drive with the exotic matter generator activated? If you are, you shouldn't be...the bubble will collapse while running if the craft runs out of any of the three consumables the drive needs - exotic matter, xenon and electric charge - and since the EM generator requires so much charge to operate, lack of electric charge is a likely candidate. Just covering that as a possibility first. If that's not the case, can we see a screenie of your ship, preferably one with your drive controls and consumables windows visible?

@Jesusthebird Mass (and subsequently delta-V) doesn't matter with the operation of the Alcubierre drive itself; the consumables do. Provided you don't use anything beyond stock power sources, xenon's the main limiting resource (with the development version, fuel cell arrays are your best source of electrical charge for the drive, so liquid fuel and oxidizer become secondary limiting resources, which can be mitigated through off-world refueling operations). You'll need sufficient power to run the exotic matter generator to recharge that at some point, but in my experience interplanetary travel generally requires at least a portion of the flight in close proximity to Kerbol, close enough that eight Gigantor solar panels will provide more than sufficient power. MSV Fat Man has made a trip out to Duna, back to Kerbin and then back out to Duna without recharging its xenon tanks; she's currently got about half the xenon tank still full. This is with the dev version, where the resource consumption has been increased substantially; the Phoenix probes (using the current release version of the mod) have barely used any xenon at all.

Haven't done a lot the last couple of days. Engineer Eriemy Kerman busied herself on Christmas day with an EVA to complete construction of the final three Dunacomm satellites, using the remaining parts from two Faux News probe delivery modules docked to MSV Fat Man. Once she completed the work, Eriemy transferred to Next Objective also docked to Fat Man along with the few remaining usable spare parts. Next Objective then departed from Fat Man and made its way to the Dunaport space station, arriving later in the day. Fat Man warped into a polar orbit over Duna after Next Objective was out of physics range and released the probes. Fat Man Deploying Dunacomms Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. After dropping off the satellites, Fat Man maneuvered into a 1.64 Gm parking orbit over Kerbol in preparation for the return trip to Kerbin; she'll reach position for the final warp in about five days or so. I spent a lot of my remaining time on Christmas Day getting the Dunacomm and Ikecomm satellites into their final operational positions. The Scan Queen refinery also entered orbit over Ike, a recharge operation at the Enchova Central refinery on Duna took place, and I leveled up the twenty Kerbals at Dunaport using the station's lab. The final thing that happened Christmas day was the successful landing of the Spamcan 7c at Duna carrying scientists Bobkin, Paley, Stapon and Cordan Kerban at Enchova Central, with the four scientists planting flags. Cordan somehow wound up with one of my wayward screwdrivers, so he was selected to help refinery engineer Magster Kerman with another attempt to right the nearby Heartbreak Hotel 7 outpost module, which had ran out of gas, tipped over and blew its engine at landing. The new plan involved using the engine from the Jiffy Lube 7 parts delivery module already hooked into the refinery and giving the module some fuel so it could fly itself over to the final position for hooking up to the station. After the two Kerbals maneuvered the engine onto the crane rover Malaise, the two drove over to the module and hooked up a winching cable to a KAS connector port installed on the craft's top end. A quad of spherical RCS tanks were also attached to the rover prior to the 700 meter drive to the module, the idea being to add some extra weight. The extra weight from the tanks and engine, along with the use of a connector port instead of an electromagnet, made the difference: ...and so did a lot of cursing. The attempt was ultimately successful. A 'Hallelujah' moment, which occurred shortly after an 'oh crap' moment when the winch cable got too short and the module started to lift up the rover instead of the other way around... Engine refit - successful. Once the engine was fitted to the module and the rover's fuel transferred, Malaise backed off with the two Kerbals aboard. With 700 m/s of delta-V available, the module was easily able to take off and land within winching range. After returning to the refinery, Magster hooked up the module, the five Kerbals at Enchova Central punched their respective tickets at the refinery's lab, and then the four Kerbal scientists returned safely to Dunaport, transferring to Necessary Evil docked at the station. I have three more expeditions of Kerbals to land on the Dunan surface at the moment, and I'm debating as to whether or not I want to go ahead with a fuel run now or later. I probably should just for safety's sake...the station's pretty much out of reserve fuel at this point. It's just that I haven't landed the heavy Old Bessie fuel lander on Duna just yet...

Welcome to the addiction forums. The forums themselves don't support images, unfortunately, so every image you see here is linked in from an external image sharing site. A lot of us (myself included) use imgur; there are a few others.

Howdy y'all. Merry Christmas, Happy Yuletide, Seasons Greetings, and a belated okayish Festivus for the rest of y'all. If you're not covered, my apologies. I've had a slow but productive past week in my KSP save. After last week's shenanigans with craft arriving at Duna both conventionally and via Alcubierre drive, I did a quick situation report of my ships and bases and double-checked what all I wanted to take with me on MSV Fat Man's next trip out to Duna. I already had launched the newly designed Old Bessie 7a heavy fuel hauler and Spamcan 7c heavy passenger lander to take to Duna and determined that I also wanted to haul another Hellhound 7 rover out there for a new Ike contract, a Jiffy Lube parts module to refit the rover Malaise at the Enchova Central refinery already on the Dunan surface, and a craft specifically to haul back from an orbit from Ike (anticipating that contract from experience over Duna). I had time to launch the Jiffy Lube and rover on the 16th, and then last Sunday I sent up tourists Sambur and Johnburry to the Kerbinport space station aboard an Auk II 8-passenger spaceplane; the craft was larger than necessary but I also had a contract to expand the station by that many seats. The two tourists were only headed to LKO, so they were dropped off at the station, the plane was refueled and then set to rendezvous with Fat Man. Similar burns were set up for the rover, Old Bessie, Spamcan and Jiffy Lube, and also for Necessary Evil, which undocked from Kerbinport unmanned. Jiffy Lube arriving at Fat Man (upper left), with Auk II (upper) and the Spamcan's transfer stage (lower right). The Hellhound rover and Spamcan had already docked by this point. Each craft arrived closely one after another; handling the rendezvous burns was more than a little bit interesting, and getting the Auk docked to Fat Man proved to be more than a little bit interesting (requiring no less than five attempts), but ultimately all six craft docked successfully. Fat Man with all of her consist finally docked up and ready to warp to Duna. Fat Man was then warped into a 1.7 GM orbit over Kerbol, reaching final position for the warp to Duna nineteen days later and arriving successfully in a 400 kilometer orbit over the reddish planet shortly thereafter. The only item of note in the interim was the return of Sambur and Johnburry to KSC 09 via an Auk Ia 2-passenger spaceplane. Upon arrival and plane alignment with the Dunaport space station, Fat Man's consist was unpacked, with the Spamcan and Old Bessie burning for a rendezvous with the space station and the Jiffy Lube sent to land at Enchova Central, landing safely twenty meters from the refinery. An old model Spamcan and Old Bessie were sent up from Dunaport to Fat Man. A Faux News module carrying engineer Eriemy Kerman was also undocked from the station and picked up by Next Objective, which delivered the module to Fat Man for final later delivery to Ike. By the end of the day on Monday, all craft had arrived at their respective destinations. Dunaport with new craft docked - the Spamcan 7c is docked upper left, while the Old Bessie 7a is docked to the station's reserve fuel tank. Tuesday was the big day - pilot Didrin Kerman had to retrieve engineers Magster and Suus Kerman from Fat Man using Necessary Evil, delivering the two engineers to Dunaport. The two engineers along with pilots Nelny and Lazor Kerman were transferred to the newly delivered Spamcan, undocked from the station and landed within winching range of Enchova Central. As the senior pilot present, Nelny was given the honor of being the first Kerbal to walk the Dunan surface. That's one small step for a Kerbal, and... Of course, he blew it... ......uh, never mind. All four Kerbals planted flags, with Nelny and Lazor returning to the Spamcan while Magster and Suus began the refit of Malaise. The refit took quite some time to complete, but ultimately the conversion process was successfully completed. Malaise crane conversion complete, with the Spamcan (left) and Enchova Central refinery with Jiffy Lube module attached (right). The rover was then driven over to the Heartbreak Hotel outpost module, which had ran out of gas and tipped over on landing (the reason why the rover's refit was required). The mission to right the module ultimately failed, unfortunately; I had failed to consider all the difficulties involved in using a thirteen tonne crane rover to lift a twenty-two tonne outpost module. I have yet to make another attempt to move the module, but intend to do so at the next opportunity. In the meantime, Nelny's walk cleared the remaining Explore Duna contracts - I picked up the first Ike exploration contract, to orbit and return a craft from orbit. Ike-bound craft had their burns planned, with a Boop-Boop probe put into orbit for contract (also fulfilling the first 'Orbit Ike' contract). Two more parts test contracts were cleared on Tuesday. Fat Man warped to Ike on Tuesday, and upon arriving in a 320 kilometer orbit Eriemy began construction of the six Ikecomm satellites stowed aboard her Faux News module. The Alpha, Beta and Gamma satellites were deployed successfully and the rest of Fat Man's Ike-bound consist was unpacked. Didn't I already do something like this already? Fat Man then warped into a polar orbit, and after completing final construction, the Delta, Epsilon and Zeta satellite were also deployed. Fat Man with the three communications satellites already deployed and nearly out of physics range. I spent the short amount of time I had to play the game on Thursday placing the Ikecomm satellites and making final arrival burns for several Ike-bound craft from the First Duna Expedition, with a Spamcan 7b and Heartbreak Hotel module making orbit by the end of the day. Fat Man also returned to an equatorial orbit over Duna that day. I will complete the construction of the final Dunacomm satellites in equatorial orbit over Duna, have Next Objective undock from Fat Man with Eriemy aboard and return to Dunaport, then have Fat Man warp into polar orbit to deploy the remaining satellites before returning to Kerbin. I've still got three craft from the First Duna Expedition inbound - a Hellhound rover, Strange Cargo and the Ikeport space station. I'm considering going ahead and skipping ahead to the arrival of those craft, but if I can advance the Ike exploration contracts before they get there, so much the better. The last Duna to Kerbin warp only took nine days to complete, so I think there's time to do everything I'd need to do there before Jeb and company arrive. Of course, I've got to find time to play the game - haven't actually played since Thursday, and with good reason. Maybe I'll get back to the game later this week, but in the meantime, I plan on fully enjoying the Christmas holiday. So I'll close this how I began it - Merry Christmas, y'all.

Yeah. The exotic matter generator requires 10,000 units of electrical charge per second input to output 1 unit of exotic matter per second. It'll drain your electrical storage really fast. So what likely has happened is that you fired up the generator and it sucked your electricity bone dry. Electrical charge is also required for the drive, but since you have none left, the drive will be non-operational. Not all is necessarily lost if you've still got Exotic Matter and Xenon - the situation can be rectified but you'll need KAS/KIS to do it. Here's what you do: Launch a parts delivery craft to your warp ship. You're hauling up four PB-NUK RTGs and eight Gigantor Solar Panels. Take an engineer and don't forget the KAS screwdriver. A Pegasus ladder or two will also help matters. Have your engineer attach the electrical generators (the RTGs and Gigantors) to the warp ship. The ladders are there to give her something to hang on to while she does the work. Alternatively, you could just have the engineer attach a docking port (any size) to the warp ship, and then dock a module with the generators installed. Once it's attached, warp to a relatively low altitude over Kerbol. 1.6 Gm (1,640,000 km) should do the trick. Make sure all eight Gigantors are pointed at Kerbol. The flow reading should optimally be 1250 or greater. Shut off the warp and activate the exotic matter generator. Profit. Now, this is assuming you're using the release version. If you're using the development version, replace "RTGs" with "Fuel Cell Arrays". You also want to be careful about warping towards Kerbol not to get closer than 261,600 km; if you do, the failsafe kicks in and the drive won't activate. Come to think of it, what's your current altitude? Current version you have to be at least 600 km over Kerbin or you're below failsafe. Dev version the distance is 300 km, but the failsafe is still there.