Parkaboy

Congratulations to Porkjet on getting the mod into the game! It was about time! SpacePlane Plus really fits so perfectly with the stock aesthetics, and has such high quality that one wonders why they didn't think of turning it into stock before. Now if only Squad considers adding the habitats...

I'm glad it's SpacePlane Plus. Porkjet's work is really superb and fits with stock parts even better than a few parts that were stock. Makes a ton of sense. Having said that, I hope Squad doesn't stop there, and consider other high quality mods to be integrated to the game futurely.

The banana is universal.

Sure, but they can't just create parts that look exactly, or nearly exactly, like the parts on a mod. That's plagiarism. If they want those parts, they have to buy them from the modder.

Someone mentioned a Pants Pack?

Not only it makes sense, but the only way they could use a part created by a modder, would be by paying for it (or by hiring the modder, as they did before). A plugin they could just code themselves. If they model themselves a part to copy an existing mod, it would be considered plagiarism. An art asset is an authoral creation.

I'm guessing it's definitely a parts mod. If it was just a mechanic, the devs would just code it. They could probably integrate it better with the game by doing it themselves. A part, however, consists on an art asset, something they could only add to the game if they bought from the creator. I speak from experience - I've sold art assets to another game studio once. From Squad's point of view, it makes more sense to buy a good parts mod that fits the existing style, such as SpacePlane Plus. I might be wrong.

The fact that Spaceplane Plus includes a part that looks like a pair of pants got me convinced that it may be it. That, and the "huge plus" comment.

It's definitely the banana.

Great report, lots of neat details! I'm curious to see how your space program will develop from here!

I agree with the foks above that the Porkworks Habitats are far superior and more stockish than RoverDude's (not to diminish his works - he has some awesome mods, too). But if you're looking at ways to improve and "overhaul" the inflatables, there's a small thing I've always missed: a flag decal. Here's an example from the Copernicus CTV. The inflatable module looks a lot more interesting and more colorful with a large flag decal on its side; if you could add tweakables to the habitats like those on some of the command pods, It would be awesome:

Funny thing, this doesn't actually impact much on my plans for "reusable" designs*, which consist basically on three stages: --> The payload, usually a ship (for a Mun landing I'm leaning more on a single ship mission, instead of an Appollo-like approach, since the whole ship could be recovered) --> The rocket itself, with enough fuel to put the payload in LKO; a probe body, batteries and excess fuel enough for landing back at the KSC --> Expendable SRBS for the initial boost, since I'm assuming these are probably cheaper than LF/O engines * not actually fully recoverable, since the SRBs are expended.

No, the grammar is ok. The syntax seems a bit wonky, though.

Terrific idea, wonderful concept, grat models! Can't wait to see it working fully!

Destination 1: Duna (part 6) Henfred and Aldbart travel across the surface of Duna, crossing the bottom of Pan Crater. The target of their first excursion is the mountain at the center of the crater, temporarily named "Mount Lump". Henfred guides the Mobile Lab slowly, since the rover ended up being wuite top heavy and prone to tumbling. They have a rudimentary map of the crater, based on pictures taken from the Von Kerman in orbit. Those pics were taken from quite far away, though, and not from an ideal angle, since Pan Crater is a bit further north than the ship's orbit. Guided by this map, they turn to investigate an unusual rock formation on the way to the top of Mt Lump, and are quite surprised to find out what seems to be a rock shaped like the face of a kerbal. Aldbart: "Is t-that wha-what I think it is?" Henfred: "If you're thinking it's a stone that looks like a kerbal's face, then I'm guessing it is. Holy Minmus, that's fantastic!" Aldbart: "That's s-s-scary, isn't it? D-d-don't you know wha-what it m-m-means?" Henfred: "You're not going to say 'aliens', are you? Probably someone is trying to pull an elaborate prank on us. Take a closer look. Doesn't it look familiar?" Aldbart: "Well, it k-kind of looks like Commander Scott..." Henfred: "So, there you go. Somebody at the KSC is probably having a great laugh at our expense right now." Aldbart: "B-but... How could they have even p-pulled it off?" With Aldbart too scared to go out near the Scott-stone, Henfred ends up doing the exploration work: he exits the rover, marks the spot with a flag/transponder, climbs the rock using his jetpack and collects some samples from the weird formation. Later analysis and further visits to the spot would reveal little about the mystery of the Face on Duna: its composition is no different from the many other rocks scattered around Pan Crater, and it shows no signs of being carved by any known method other than plain erosion. The most conservative scinetists back on Kerbin see that as proof that it is actually a natural formation, and that its resemblance of Scott Kerman is simply a coincidence. After all, they argue, the Commander has very ordinary features. Eventually the duo moves on and reaches the top of Mount Lump, where another flag is planted, and more samples are collected. Aldbart seems more interested on learning about the mechanics of crater formation and the intrincacies of Duna's surface features than in the mystery of the Face. Maybe thinking about it scares him too much. And finally they return to the base, after a few hours away. The first surface excursion was a success, and quite a shock. The discovery of the Face will be the talk on Kerbin for months to come, and the increased interest in space exploration might be the boost the program needs to go on. For our brave explorers, however, life on Duna is just starting.

This is awesome! I wish I had the time and the hand coordination to put together a few papercrafts from these models... Kudos to you!

Stumbling on this thread just made my day! The Klockheed Martian shuttle engines were amongst my favourite mods of all time, so it's great to discover its creator making more and more stuff!

This sounds like a great alternative for RemoteTech. I'm hoping the devs will someday implement some of these ideas on the stock parts!

Destination 1: Duna (part 5) Night falls above Duna Base, and our brave kerbonauts start settling on their new quarters. Everything must be ready for the first scientific excursion the next day. The night in the red planet is a lot longer than in Kerbin, but the members of the crew have a lot to do, checking up on the supplies and getting all the equipment working. Later, when they're finally resting, Aldbart approaches the commander privately. Scott: "Is there something bothering you, mate?" Aldbart: "Well, sir... There's nothing wrong with me, except for the back pain, the sore neck and the overall dreadful feeling that we're never gonna see our home again." Scott: "The usual stuff. What brings you to the boss' quarters, then?" Aldbart: "To be perfectly honest, I'm quite worried about Gerford. We've been together on this trip for over one year and I don't think I'v heard his voice more than a handul of times." Scott: "Oh, don't worry about that. He's just a quiet guy. I have known him for many years, and he was always like that. I can assure you he's handling the pressure of the mission well, that's just his normal self." Aldbart: "That's not what I mean, sir. It's just... I've been talking to Henfred about it, and we're convinced that... well, we think he's a robot. Scott: "HAH! That would be something, right? I mean, if he were a robot, it would be great. We'd have a lot more snacks for the rest of us." Aldbart: "But you're not seeing the danger, sir! We know very well from all thos movies that in space, artificial intelligence always turn psychopath! I'm telling you, he'll turn on us! And of course, with my luck, I'm going to be the first to die..." As the sun finally rises over the red horizon, Henfred dones his spacesuit and exits the habitat. His first task on the surface of Duna will be to prepare the Mobile Lab for the first scientific excursion, releasing it from the landing stage. Henfred: "Commander, now that we're on a private channel, there's something I'd like to discuss..." Scott: "You're not talking about that crazy idea that Gerford is a robot, are you?" Henfred: "It's not crazy, sir. We've been paying attention, Aldbart and I. That guy is definitely strange!" Scott: "I don't argue with that, but he's definitely not a robot. He's just a serious professional, unlike, apparently, the rest of my crew." Henfred: "But boss, in all the time we've spent together, he never laughed at one of my jokes! Not even once!" Scott: "There's a much simpler explanation for that, my friend. Your jokes just aren't very funny. Not focus on the work you're supposed to be doing." After Henfred gets the Mobile Lab out of its "garage", Albart joins him to test the scientific equipment. The first reading from the surface of Duna are taken, and the data is stored on the ascent stage. Aldbart then enters the Lab to prepare for the first trip on the surface of the red world. With Henfred on the wheel and Aldbart on the lab, the rover finally departs from Duna Base, rolling slowly over the surface of the Pan Crater. This feature was so named because it looked like a frying pan from space, with a large canyon serving as the handle. The target for this trip is the center of the crater, where there's a large mountain. Scott and Gerford remain on the base. Henfred: "Do you think we're going to find the commander alive when we return?"

Yeah, I have terrain scatter on, but I've never seen a rock like this one on Kerbin. I've seen some floating rocks, but they're usually among a lot of other similar rocks. This part of Kerbin had a few trees here and there, and this rock was the only one I could find in the area. It's funny how it did looked like it was standing in the ground in a manner very similar to asteroids that survive impact.

I was just testing a new design for a rover-plane hybrid, when I found a rock. I've spotted it just as I was landing a few km northeast from the KSC, to test how my vessel fared on rough ground. Here it is: First I thought it was an asteroid, which lead me to wonder: it isn't hare to have asteroids impacting Kerbin, but don't they just disappear when it happens "off screen"? It's kind of a philosophical question: if a rock falls on Kerbin and nobody is looking, does it leave a trace? There are two problems with my first theory: the rock is too small to be an asteroid (I think), and it doesn't seem to be affected by physics. I can just walk through it, and it doesn't move: just stays there, impossibly balanced on one of its corners. I guess it's just terrain scatter, but I had never seen any rock like that on Kerbin. Is it common? What are your thoughts?

Thanks! Vehicle design is probably where I spend the most effort for this series. Everything has to look both functional and plausible. I only wish we had stock fairings. The Procedural Fairings mod is awesome, but even so I want to keep everything stock, to lessen the trouble between updates.

Destination 1: Duna (part 4) 249 days, 5 hours and 37 minutes later Aldbart: "Please, please, with all due respect, sir, stop talking about the toilets! I can't take it anymore!" Scott: "All I'm saying is that the early kerbonauts didn't have the same comforts we have. There are things that only work under gravity, and we're lucky they thought about spinning the Von Kerman to create the semblance of a planet's pull..." Henfred: "Better not talk about the artificial gravity either, captain! Poor Aldbart never quite managed to get used to the gravity gradient between parts of the ship." Aldbart: "Don't pity me. Pity the fool who suggested this to Mission Command, if I ever get back to Kerbin..." Scott: "Well, I like that the main living portions of the ship have gravity similar to Duna, while if you go down the corridor to the docked MPKV, you get an environment similar to Kerbin. Feels like home down there." Henfred: "Smells like home too, since that's where we go to exercise. Can't we just seal it and dump all the air?" Scott: "Not while we're spinning, Henfred. Good news is that we're getting near to Duna, and will stop the spin to start the arrival maneuvers in a couple of days." Since the KTV Von Kerman has a lot of delta-v (it still has fuel inside the discardable orange tank), it won't have to risk an aerobrake. Two plans for aerobraking were contemplated: if the orange tank was empty, it would be ditched and the MPKV would "hide" in the belly of the ship; or else the MPKV would undock and aerobrake separately from the ship, since that would be safer. But in the end they decided to just burn retrograde so the ship were captured in orbit, quickly putting it in a trajectory that would allow the rendezvous with the Habitat Module. As soon as the two vessels were close to each other, Henfred took the pilot seat at the MPKV and undocked it from the mothership, maneuvering it into a position that avoided the radiation from the NERVAs on the two vessels. Scott then took the helm at the Von Kerman and docked it to the module, while Henfred docked the MPKV on the other side. Next the fairings that protected the Habitat module were ejected, flying quickly away thanks to eight separatrons. One by one, the four kerbonauts left the Von Kerman and entered the landing cabin on the module. And finally the Habitat Module separated from the transfer stage, preparing to land on the red planet. Henfred took care of the landing, and it wasn't easy. It's trick to deorbit using one stage, drop that stage after facing most of the heat from atmospheric deceleration, and then turn the ship 90º to activate the landing engines. One misstep could mean the module wouldn't have enough time to decelerate, and would end up lithobraking quite hard. The Lab module, unmanned, managed to land relying mostly on the parachutes. Henfred ended up spending all the fuel on the Habitat Module to make his landing, although he got quite close to the chosen spot. In the end, the landing site wasn't as perfectly flat as intended, and they had to bring the Lab Module rolling under remote control, to get it closer to the Habitat. Finally everything was ready for the momentous occasion of a kerbal's first step on another planet. The captain had that prerrogative, of course, but he could have chosen better words to be recorded in the history of kerbalkind: Scott: "Hellou, it's Scott Kerman here, and I'm talking to you from Duna!" Soon all the four kerbonauts left the landing cabin, took their first steps on the red sand, and started moving to the living cabins. That's how the first day of kerbal occupation of the red planet ended.

Yay! Always a good read!

Hi, folks! Thanks for the comments! I'm a bit busy these days and couldn't post, but I hope to write about the Duna arrival, landing and surface exploration later this week, probably during the weekend. About the ships, I think I'll wait a bit before sharing the files at the exchange, because the first mission shown me there are a few improvements that can still be made.