KerbActual

LAUNCH PROBES! (Shameless plug: You can see the full mission report here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/32513-Project-Twelve-Mission-Caprica-%28Image-heavy%21%29 )

"I'm sorry, Bill. I can't let you do that." Darn it, beaten by about three pages or so. Instead, I'll go with this one. Jeb:"Stay on target." ASAS: "I Can't Hold It!" Jeb: "Stay on target" ASAS: They came from behin--" *splosion*

A probe landing on Gilly :-)

lol'ed at the thread order: "KSP has the best community. Let's keep it that way!" "Let's Not." But yeah, there seems to be a split in the community, to say the least. I think we could all do better by voicing our opinions, but at the same time being careful not to be hostile about them. Plus, in my experience, "complainy" threads don't seem to help the spirit of the community. Something like:, "The minecraft community sucks, and this community will suck if it heads that way." Could be rephrased to: "Concern for the KSP community" People have opinions. That's cool. What's not cool is people being rude. It's perfectly fine to voice any opinion, so long as it's not voiced in a rude way. Nothing excuses people from being rude. Personally, this isn't the best, nor worse, community I've been around. While it's not bad, I think it could be better.

"Where the fu-" MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, JEB! xD I laughed so hard.

Hi guys, I thought I'd document the missions I've been working on in KSP. The goal is to eventually have completed twelve massive(for me, anyways) exploration missions to chart the kerbol system. These will involve multi-part spaceships assembled in orbit, probes, landers, and just stuff I think is challenging and, most of all, fun. So, to start, we have: Mission Caprica Accessing files. . . . Password? Whereintheworldisjebadiahkerman Accepted. . . Loading. . . The Caprica The KES Caprica in high-orbit around Kerbin This is the Kerbal Exploration Ship Caprica. it is powered by six nuclear engines, and has three separate RCS tanks. It's most distinguishing feature is the two three-pronged probe arrays, which house a combined total of twelve orbital probes and six lander probes. Two large solar panels keep the ship's batteries powered. It's main power array is located just above the orange fuel tank, and consists of three stacked battery rings. It's secondary array is located around the remote guidance unit on the orange fuel tank. The ship is able to seat five, one in the top viewport, and four in the hitchhiker container just below. The Caprica's mission is to ferry all those probes to Eve, at which point it will deploy them to study the purple enigma, as well as it's moon, Gilly. Jeb will pilot the ship, and Bill and Bob will man the hitchiker capsule, because they wanted to tag along too. Note: At first the Caprica was hosted two manned landers as well, but I thought it would never make it back to Kerbal having to haul around all those probes AND the fuel for the two extra landers. Earlier in it's development, I tried to make it look more pleasing by adding additional viewports, but it proved to be too bulky and not have enough delta-V for my liking. Most of this mission was done off-the-cuff, kerbal style, so I didn't know exactly how much delta-V I'd need, so I decided to play it safe and prioritize function over form. Still, I think the ship has a bit of a charm to it. The Departure The Caprica burns to escape Kerbin SOI. After reaching an orbit around the sun, Kerbol, Jeb jettisons two probes off of gut instinct, making the ship lighter and thus requiring less fuel to push. ( I still didn't think this thing would be able to make the round trip, especially since I didn't transfer directly to Eve.) The initial burn didn't transfer directly to Eve, instead, Jeb went to an intermediate Kerbol orbit between Eve and Kerbin. With a little finagling, and some time warp, Jebadiah eventually managed an Eve encounter. The Arrival Jeb was thrilled to arrive into Eve's gravity well, but Bill and Bob were both quick to point out that their trajectory was. . . . . .less than optimal. Nevertheless, the crew bravely soldiered on, with jeb laughing like a maniac as he ignited the engines and burned one long correction burn to put the Caprica into orbit around the elusive purple sphere. Eve Operations Thanks to Jeb, The Caprica's orbit now looked like this: Taking into account the remaining fuel (which was now at about 45%, thanks to the energy-consuming correction burn), Bill and Bob hatched a plan to deploy half of the space probes at the periphrasis, and then alter their inclination slightly to intercept Gilly after the initial pass around Eve. In order to get back, they would have to start conserving every last drop of fuel. But first. . . . . Bill got a good look at Eve. This would be the closest he'd ever come to it. PROBES AWAY! There are many screenshots of the separate probes, but, for the most part, ran out of fuel before establishing any sort of non-inclined orbit. However, Bill did manage to use Eve's atmosphere to areobrake-assist one probe into a circular, equatorial orbit. Gilly Operations Jeb altered course very slightly to have a close brush with Gilly. On the map, the encounter was flickering, so there would be a very narrow window to drop probes to intercept Gilly. PROBES AWAY (AGAIN!) Now that all the probes are deployed, the Caprica shed those large, heavy probe arrays. After stressful ordeal (and switching through probes quite frantically) Bill guided all of the dropped probes into an orbital path around Gilly. Note: At this point, all the probes started bugging out. The navball thought prograde was retrograde, and vice versa, so I had to fly every one of those probes backwards *facepalm* After all was said and done, I managed to place one probe in a low polar orbit, one in an equatorial orbit, and land three probe landers. The rest of the probes were lost to space, and the low-polar orbit probe was eaten by the space kraken. Return Trip After all that maneuvering, there is very little fuel left. A direct transfer to kerbin would save the most fuel. The maneuver is made up of two nodes: One to get near kerbin's orbit, and the other to change the inclination. Jeb takes one last look at Eve. Much later, the Caprica reaches the SOI of Kerbin WAY TO HIGH. IT. KEEPS. HAPPENING! So close, yet so far! After dropping into a highly eccentric, elliptical orbit. Bill and Bob notes that the fuel is running dangerously low. Jeb is just disappointed. Because the Caprica does not have enough fuel for any more extended manuvers, a rescue tug is launched! KerbalCommand: We have just launched a specially designed rescue spaceship to bring you kerbals home. It is the height of kerbin technology. You three have nothing to fear. Bob: You took a capsule and just stuck lights on it, didn't you. Kerbal Command: Yes. Bill: Is that duct tape? Jeb: AWESOME! Back Under Blue Skies Once in orbit, the CKR (Close Kerbin Rescuer. It was going to be CCR, like the band, until I realized that Kerbin was spelled with a K.) Burns most of its fuel to align the orbits. This intercept was VERY difficult. I tried to make the orbits similar to eachother, but one smaller than the other. Eventually, I got something like an intercept. One by one, Bob, Bill, and Jeb EVA into the rescue tug. . . And return home Splash down! Just off of KSC Later, all three commemorate the mission by naming the nearby beach Caprica Beach, and plant a flag. Mission Summary Probes Deployed in EVE SOI: 16 Probes landed: 3 Probes in an equatorial orbit: 2 Probes in polar orbit:1 Probes lost to atmosphere:2 Probes abandoned: 2 Probes in an eccentric orbit: 6 Kerbals lost: 0

So how do you plant a flag?

+ The internets to whoever gets the reference.

I tried stranding Jeb on Minmus, but he EVA'd and intercepted the orbital station with just his backpack. I can't seem to get rid of the guy.

What mod parts are those? They look nice.

Doing some orbital ballet. The tug is to dock with the newly-launched refinery and push it to the moon. The refiniery barely had enough DV to meet with the Mobius spaceport, where the tug is stationed at. There just happened to be a breathtaking sunrise in the middle of it all. At about 15 Frames per second. The tug drops off the orbital refinery at Kerbinset. The tug makes its way home

Going. . . Down? This was about a three minuet tumble due to an miscalculated landing during an EVA. *Plays the benny hill theme*

Not that I need to defend using or not using MJ, but for me it's a learning tool. Here's some of the questions it has answered. Where's the window for the planetary transfer? What IS a Hoffman transfer? How do I Hoffman transfer? Can this thing even get into orbit? How do I judge where I'm going to land? How do you change the orbit from a equatorial one to a polar one? I can do most of these things myself now. It's been a great learning tool. Do I prefer to do them myself? Sometimes, and sometimes I don't. I really don't see what this big deal is about anti-mechjeb "purists". Really, there's less conflict here than the dV required to escape Minmus orbit. Moving on.

This battlestation spaceport is now fully operational! It even has escape pods for some of the crew to return home. My first complete space station. I'm so proud

Duna. With style. "Great. How'd you break the front wheel, jeb?" "How didn't I break the rest of them?"

I think it would be cool to have other star systems. More content is always a plus! Besides, who doesn't want to try the ?

It was all perfect, except the front wheel broke upon landing. On the transfer to duna, I almost missed the window, and had to improvise (without mechjeb, mind you!). But I with only a little fuel left I managed to get this thing into the atmosphere and pop the parachutes. Turns out, the atmosphere is thinner on duna, so I touched down at 12 m/s and broke a wheel. Still, first duna voyage. Sweet.

I'm a bit confused as to how to go about extracting, converting, and storing kethane. I've got a drill, converter, and tank all on one ship, but I can't seem to find the pump or kethane control panel I've seen in earlier videos. Halp.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing xD

I luv bill's rover. It's got a "Gerrof my lawn, jeb!" type of thing.

I'm working on a moon base. So far, it's just been plopping landers in the same vicinity of one another and calling it a base. As for docking stuff together, test your stuff on kerbin before you fly it, just to make sure the docking ports are the same height.

it was fun to put into orbit and dock, to say the least.

So, I've been working on a space station. It's not quite there yet, but I just attached a huge awesome-looking tower. It's not the best place for a docking port. I'm just waiting for the tower to snap if I dock with it a little too hard. Still working on it though. The orange fuel tank has since been emptied and decoupled. Leaving me lots of docking ports to potentially expand.

Congrats! I landed on the moon within a week. However, I'm still trying to get Jeb back xD. I never seem to have enough fuel for the return trip. I'm trying out mechjeb right now. It's interesting. I like the hard data it provides. It lets me do the maneuvering by the numbers instead of just click and drag guesswork. The tool is invaluable with orbital intercepts and whatnot, but I still do the docking,landing, and takeoffs by hand.

Quick question: How does one transfer fuel from one tank to another? Is a mod required or can it be done in stock?