Cashen

You'd be surprised. Engineers usually end up in management (especially if they have an MBA) and a lot of CEOs are engineers. Also on-topic, sometimes I have issues selecting other vehicles to switch to in map view, especially if they're close together in sun orbit (several vehicles heading to the same place). I quit to the space center and switch to them from the tracking station if that happens.

Keep in mind that the ability of the temperature probe to "report a temperature" and "do a scan for science" are two completely different things in the game. The ability to report a temperature pre-dates the addition of "science" to the game in 0.22. So the two things are totally unrelated to each other. This can be viewed as the temperature sensor reporting the temperature of itself, which would normally represent the temperature of its surroundings. This is why it can report a temperature in a vacuum. However, temperature of the surroundings in a vacuum is meaningless because there are no atoms/molecules to measure the temperature of, except that of the sensor/vessel itself, so you could view the lack of science as the game recognizing that the temperature reading is meaningless.

All objects that are in an uncontrolled free-fall are auto-deleted after they are more than 2.5km away. There are two reasons for this: Objects further than 2.5 km are "un-loaded" from the physics engine and put on rails, to lighten the load on the CPU. Objects on rails that are on an impact course with a celestial body are deleted as having "crashed". This includes spent stages that are discarded during a launch, or any other parts your craft sheds while in Kerbin's atmosphere. In short, the game is programmed to do this.

I'm an engineer so for me, building new, different and better craft is one of the main reasons I play. Mods help with playability, like Kethane. I'm not particularly interested in their hamfisted attempt at science, or even in career mode. Like Minecraft I very much enjoy the pointless sandbox where I get to decide what the goals are. That style of game isn't for everyone.

They're either on backwards, or you didn't have the target docking port selected as target, while yours was set as 'control from here'. Sometimes KSP unselects the target in the background for whatever reason. Also the large docking ports are (somehow) easy for some people to put on backwards.

A good way to approach this would be to do a bi-elliptic transfer, by setting your periapsis near Eve and your apoapsis as far out as realistically possible. Then, if your craft has enough dV, at apoapsis you can burn to reverse the direction of the orbit, so you're orbiting the sun retrograde. Then not only could you get an extremely high velocity at your periapsis, but if you do encounter Eve you will be traveling in opposite directions, so the relative velocity would be... insane.

Thanks! I can't wait to get back to playing KSP actually. The station parts are FusTek, and the thread for that is here. The trusses used for the station are another mod that escapes me at the moment, since I don't have access to KSP and my mod list, but they are featured in a picture in the FusTek thread so it may be mentioned somewhere in there. Happy holidays!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope everyone is having a good holiday, whatever you celebrate. I've been brainstorming while I've not been playing, and I have some new and interesting ideas for vehicles for the eventual exploration of the Jool system. I think it's obvious that's where Horus will be going, but I've got ideas for support vehicles as well. Also looking forward to the probes getting there, and of course the guys landing on Duna. I'll have to update to 0.23 and update all the mods when I get back, but looking forward to more MASEC mission reports in the new year.

Just another quick addition. Because Jool's sphere of influence is so large, you can make tiny tiny correction maneuvers far away from the planet to force your ships to stagger their aerobraking quite easily. I always prefer to aerobrake ships individually, because if you fail to be captured on the first pass it means expending fuel to get captured, and that can be bad if your mission is limited by fuel (this was part of why my Gilly probe failed, because I had to burn fuel to be captured when the aerobraking failed because the two probes were passing Eve periapsis within a minute of each other).

As other people have said, you need to stagger your arrivals so you can control each ship as it aerobrakes. Fortunately, even if you send multiple ships on the same transfer window, with their ejection burns staggered by a few minutes, by the time they arrive at Jool they will probably be staggered by hours/days already. It's very rare that two ships that leave within a few minutes of each other will also arrive within a few minutes of each other. So you should be fine. In the case of one vessel that will split into multiple vessels (such as multiple probes traveling together, or a multi-part ship), have it aerobrake as one thing before splitting up.

Another good idea that I use somewhat often is to have a small probe core and a battery/solar panel on the upper stage, so I can separate it and have a short time to do maneuvers with it, like point retrograde and burn off any remaining fuel, usually enough to get the orbit to intersect Kerbin, which will eventually auto-delete the stage.

I've not visited any of the planets yet with Kerbals, but looking at them I'd have to say Moho purely out of how difficult it is to reach. I could get to Eve just fine with Kerbals. Whatever, they don't need to land, I'm not concerned with that. Moho scares me because if I sent Kerbals there, they could easily miss the planet entirely and get stuck in sun orbit if I don't plan properly. Jool doesn't scare me at all because I use an aerobraking calculator and I'm patient enough to do multiple aerobraking passes, so I'm not likely to lose anybody there. Moho is a dead airless wasteland anyway so I don't see myself going there except with probes anyway.

A good rule of thumb if you're using expendable hardware for a Mun mission is to jettison everything but the capsule and chutes before re-entry, the way Apollo jettisoned the service module and only returned with the command module. This reduces the weight on the chutes. Two side mounted chutes will slow the large command pod just fine.

My SSTO has two jet engines and two rocket engines, and four air intakes. It can get to orbit with between 500 and 800 m/s delta-V remaining. Spaceplaces, you can't really do much math with them. For me it was very much a trial and error process; building something, flying it, and correcting deficiencies. One of the things I learned to do was to try to keep the thrust level of my rocket engines similar to my jets, otherwise if the jets are overpowered you'll actually lose speed at first when switching to rockets. I also picked engines from AEIS Aerospace rather than aerospikes, because the particular rocket engines I used have a crazy good TWR. Weight is extremely important for spaceplanes, you want as little as possible. As for the ascent, I fly up at 45 degrees until about 15km, then 30 degrees until 20km, then 15-20 degrees up until I get to the point of shock heating effects and low air intake. Once I think the engines are about to die and I'm going over 1300 m/s, I turn on the rockets and leave the jets on for a bit longer (the boost in speed gives them extra life for a few more seconds), pitch up to 30 degrees again and wait for my apoapsis to climb to 80km, then coast and circularize. My particular design has very good lift characteristics, and will take off at just 60 m/s of speed. Here's what it looks like:

I don't trust MechJeb to land me, ever. What I do like to use however is Smart ASS to point me either 'Orbit Horizontal Backward' or especially 'Surface Velocity Backward' and hold attitude while I control the throttle myself. Mun takes 840-860 m/s to land, and the same to take off (landing always takes more because it's never perfect). So for a single stage Mun lander I would normally aim for at least 1800 m/s for a safety margin, or even 2000.

Nice. Looks like I'm not the only one roleplaying the parts mods as contractors.

And that's probably it for now, guys. I'm leaving on Friday to fly home to spend the holidays with family, and I won't have access to KSP until I get back on the 3rd of January. I'll still have a computer and access to internet however, so I'll still be on the board, reading and posting, but until 2014 I'll leave the thread in a sort of cliffhanger with all the missions en-route to various places. Happy holidays!

Anubis and Isis depart for Duna The big day is finally here for our seven brave explorers; Mac, Wildon, Richbur, Jonbart, Wherrigh, Jedlock, and Gilfal Kerman are set to depart for Duna, leaving Kerbin behind on a long mission of exploration. Project Anubis is Go. Project Isis will be tagging along, as a pair of RAMSES probes will be deployed to Duna and Ike on the same transfer window. The launch of the Anubis Lander, unmanned. This will be the lander that actually lands on Duna. Pitching to the east as the L-I separates. Safely into orbit, the L-II backs away before de-orbiting itself. Next comes the launch of the Fennec Rover the guys will use on Duna, with a new launch vehicle completely constructed by KW Rocketry. The payload fairing didn't separate properly and the upper stage engine fired, causing Fennec to strike the fairing. Inspection after orbit revealed no damage to the rover, thankfully. However, if you look just below the rocket plume in this image you can see a tiny object: I didn't spot this until after uploading the image and starting to write this post, but what it is became obvious later on during the mission. The timing for Fennec doesn't quite work right - a long wait. So in the meantime our seven explorers climb into the Aten IEV, take on a full load of fuel, and depart to rendezvous with Anubis. Fully docked, now awaiting the arrival of Fennec to complete the package. Fennec arrives, and once the RCS system starts taking over to move in to dock, a problem becomes apparent. One of the RCS quads is missing! While I didn't realize I had captured it in a screenshot until afterwards, striking the payload fairing knocked off one of the quads. No worries, though. To balance, the quad opposite was disabled, and Fenned docked underneath Anubis as planned. Isis, as mentioned earlier, is tagging along, and if you thought the Lupus V coming out of retirement was interesting, well, how about the Lupus IB? Because here it is, launching a RAMSES probe. Haven't seen this rocket since the first Aten missions. Like the last mission, the RAMSES probes aren't given a target yet, this one is just "RAMSES Duna A" In this case the L-IVB gets RAMSES into orbit, but the probe itself will perform the transfer, since Duna requires substantially less delta-V to reach. The second probe launches. The fifth launch of a RAMSES probe in a short span. RAMSES Duna B makes orbit and prepares to depart. The probes depart first, under their own power. Now comes the big moment, time for Anubis to leave Kerbin and head for Duna. The Kerbals on board will be the first to leave Kerbin's sphere of influence entirely, the first to head into interplanetary space. Mac Kerman: This is Anubis, everything looks good here. Our burn is plotted. Six minutes at full thrust, will carry us over KSC as we go. KSC Capcom: Rog, Anubis. You are go for Kerbin Departure. Good luck, be safe, and come back in one piece. Mac Kerman: Will do, guys. See you soon! A six minute burn of the main nuclear engine as the Aten-Anubis Spacecraft passes over KSC. The boys are on their way. Leaving Kerbin's sphere of influence a few days later. Jonbart sits inside the habitation module inside Aten. He looks a little concerened. Meanwhile Kerbin and Mun are getting awfully small in the window. Duna is 58 days away. TO BE CONTINUED

I have to give credit to Brotoro because his Laythe thread was my original inspiration behind even doing this level of in-depth roleplay. Laythe has always been the most interesting place to go, to me. And Jool in general. But I also wanted to take the proper steps beforehand to build up to that first.

Isis XI, XII, XIII, XIV: The Jool Science Package Transfer windows to Jool and Duna both open very close together. So MASEC has been quiet now for a while as all efforts are focused on a rapid series of launches over the span of just a few days. The window to Jool opens first. Jool and its collection of moons have always been a very high priority interest to MASEC planners; mostly because of Laythe. It's known from ground observations that Laythe is relatively warm and covered with liquid, most likely water. It's not known from this distance if there's land, or what the surface really looks like, but there are long term aspirations of permanent bases in orbit and on the surface of Laythe. And so, these missions have been in the works for a very long time, and in fact the recent developmnt of the RAMSES probe was driven by having something more advanved than IKSS to go to Jool with. While sending RAMSES to Mun and Minmus are obvious and easy goals, Project Isis works on a limited budget and all funding is necessary for these Jool and Duna windows. For financial constraints only four launches can be accomplished for this mission, so MASEC and the Isis team have prioritized the four launches as follows: Isis XI: Jool/Laythe Atmospheric Package This will be one launch with a payload of three small probes. Two of the probes will be Atmospheric Survey probes much like the one landed at Eve. One will plunge into Jool's atmosphere on a suicide mission to study its properties and composition. The other will plunge into Laythe, doing the same, and splashing down in Laythe's ocean to study that as well. An Isis IALP lander is also being brought along to attempt to land on Laythe's solid surface, should one be discovered. Isis XII, XIII, XIV: Jool RAMSES Armada Three identical launches, carrying the same payload. One RAMSES probe each. One will enter polar orbit at Laythe and map the moon, including conducing a surface radar mapping mission and a kethane survey. If solid land is found at Laythe, and kethane is also found there, MASEC wants to know if kethane deposits overlap with land, as this single fact alone will decide much of the direction permanent settlement at Laythe will take. While off-shore extraction of Kethane is theoretically possible, a deposit on land would greatly simplify logistics in the Jool system. It seems likely nevertheless that for permanent bases on and around Laythe, MASEC will need to extract kethane from one of Jool's small, outer moons (much like they do at Minmus already), and so the other RAMSES probes are being sent to orbit, map, and survey both Bop and Pol. For the moment, lower priority missions, such as landing probes on the four airless moons, or mission to Vall and Tylo at all, are being deferred to a future launch window. Isis XI, The Jool/Laythe Atmosphere Package, sits on the launch pad awaiting liftoff. This single rocket carries three probes bound for the Jool system. The Isis Jool mission is underway! Six solid rockets strapped around a large liquid core lift the payload skyward. All six solids are jettisoned and fall away in a pretty spiral pattern. Once in orbit, you can see the three probes clearly. The uppermost probe, the Jool Atmosphere Probe, has no parachute. It will be destroyed in Jool's atmosphere, but will transmit valuable data about the gas giant. The middle probe is nearly identical, but carries a parachute, and will drop into Laythe's atmosphere and then ocean, conducing the same sort of survey that was done earlier at Eve. The lowest probe is the familiar IALP probe that will land on solid ground at Laythe. This version is lighter as it carries no internal propulsion, only a parachute. The two uppper probes, interestingly, have their own tiny propulsion systems to guide them into a direct entry trajectory. With KW Rocketry making rocket stages for MASEC again, comes the opportunity to bring a beast of a rocket out of retirement. Since the new RAMSES probe is much heavier than the old IKSS, and because it's being sent to Jool, where delta-V requirements are higher, Isis has contracted NovaPunch and KW Rocketry to build three brand new, complete Lupus V rockets; the same rocket that first sent Kerbals to the moons. Except RAMSES will replace the Aten spacecraft as the payload. The Lupus V carries Isis XII off the ground, temporarily designated "RAMSES Jool A". The three probes will not be given actual destinations until they arrive at Jool. Which probe goes to which moon will be an opportunistic decision based on arrivel trajectory and differences in remaining delta-V. The massive L-I stage drops away as the vehicle begins pitching east. Shortly thereafter, the payload fairing is jettisoned. KW Rocketry makes better fairings than NovaPunch, but not as good as AEIS (who nevertheless don't make fairings this large) The L-II gives nearly all the boost to orbit, leaving less than 100 m/s for the L-IVB, which will act as the Kerbin departure stage. RAMSES unfurls its solar panels, but the science equipment remains retracted. The second launch, Jool RAMSES B, a short while later. The empty L-II stage falls away during the coast to apoapsis, before the L-IVB places the payload in orbit to await transfer. The final launch, shown here just after staging with the L-I falling back. The payload fairing opens up like the petals of a flower during second stage flight. Once all four missions were in orbit, they would perform the ejection burns on a course for Jool. RAMSES Jool B gets the first transfer and burns to escape Kerbin. RAMSES Jool A follows suit shortly after. The Jool Laythe Atmosphere Package then does the same. Finally, RAMSES Jool C completes the escape... ...and the Isis Armada is off to Jool.

Nice work on the four-panel SLA adapter. Clearly did a good job replicating the look of the Saturn V.

Sure was! Glad I had the lazor docking cam. The lander's apoapsis was around 85km but they had fallen downhill to around 41km by the time I got to rendezvous with them, and we were falling at about 200 m/s, which meant we'd impact the surface in less than 3 and a half minutes. So I had 3 and a half minutes to get docked, and then attempt to get into a stable orbit (not nearly enough time to transfer crew and dump the lander). Those nuclear engines don't have the greatest thrust-to-weight so I just pointed the engine as close to straight down as possible and went full throttle. It was on the night side of Mun so I couldn't really see the ground, but I could see my altitude dip below 5000m and was hoping I wouldn't strike a mountain. In the end I was actually really happy and proud of having done it, after I thought for sure I had stranded guys on Mun. I also really didn't want to have to try to land NAMLARV next to them because precision landings have never been my strong suit and it would have required at least two separate landings to rescue all of them. But it does pay to have assets at Mun already because that would have worked too.

Anubis IV One final test flight remains for Project Anubis: Landing the Ike Lander on Mun. Some have questioned if this step is really necessary, since the Ike Lander is so closely related to the Aten MLRM that was quite successful, but MASEC has deemed the test important enough to carry out. Meanwhile it will also be a legitimate Mun Exploration Mission in and of itself. The target is a deep canyon on the far side of Mun. This will also mark the first flight of the Aten IEV, or Interplanetary Exploration Vehicle, an up-rated Crew Operations Vehicle with a larger propellent tank and a larger, more powerful nuclear engine. Unlike the Anubis lander, this vehicle is not to be discarded, so the one launched here will be the one that goes to Duna. Also, the two scientists who will round out the Anubis team have been decided: Jedlock Kerman will study Duna's atmosphere and climate, while Gilfal Kerman will search for signs of past or present life. Mission Outline & Objectives Launch the Aten IEV and dock with UKS Kerbin Station Launch Crew: Mac Kerman (Commander), Gilfal Kerman & Jedlock Kerman (Passengers) Launch the Anubis Ike Lander unmanned into low Kerbin orbit. The remaining Ike team will transfer to the IEV, before undocking and rendezvousing with the lander. Jonbart will perform the rendezvous to simulating meeting the Lander after Duna Ascent. Transfer to Mun. Everyone except Jedlock and Gilfal will move to the lander, undock, and descend. Land in the canyon on the far side of Mun, do some exploration on foot. Return to Mun orbit, Jedlock will dock with the lander and everyone will return to the IEV. Discard the lander and return to Kerbin. During the Duna mission, Jonbart and Wehrrigh will remain in the IEV, and since the lander has no RCS of its own, the IEV will perform the docking. Similarly during the Ike mission, Jedlock and Gilfal will remain in the IEV. Therefore, one each has been chosen to be the pilot during the rendezvous and docking, so this mission will give them both some practice at doing just that. Launch of the Aten Interplanetary Exploration Vehicle, carrying Mac, Jedlock and Gilfal. They launch with the Aten's propellent tanks empty, a common way of launching to save weight. Being much heavier than the Aten COV, it uses two large liquid boosters and a liquid core stage, rather than the usual solid lower stage and liquid upper stage. Propellant cross-feed means the core stage tanks are full at booster separation. During the coast to apoapsis, the core stage transfers all remaining fuel up to the IEV, before being discarded. The IEV would then use its nuclear engine to circularize. The three Kerbals reach Kerbin Station. The upper part of the Anubis lander is placed atop an old Latrans II booster, ready to be hurled into orbit next. It's being launched unmanned. Note the lander's fuel tank has been changed. With KW Rocketry available again, they've gone back to the same (larger) fuel tank that was used on the Aten MLRM. This is needed anyway since the old fuel tank would not give enough deltaV for a Mun landing, though it would have worked on Ike. Anubis discards its booster and uses its own engine to complete the orbit. Aten takes on a full load of propellant at Kerbin Station, and then moves to rendezvous with the unmanned lander, with Jonbart piloting. Trans-Munar Injection. Coasting between Kerbin and Mun. Arrival at Mun. It's daylight on the far side of Mun, and here they pass over the canyon at the edge of a large impact depression, directly on the opposite side of Mun. This feature was first spotted by Bob Kerman during his famous Geb V mission. The five Ike Landers (Mac, Wildon, Richbur, Jonbart and Wehrrigh) crawl over to the lander and undock to prepare to descend. On the descent orbit, passing over the impact depression with the canyon starting to appear in the background. Powered descent begins, killing lateral velocity. They make a successful landing, and get out to stretch their legs. Landed on quite a slope, but the lander looks very stable! However, there's a problem. Richbur: Okay, Aten, we've got a bit of a problem here. Jedlock: What's the problem, guys? Richbur: The landing took more fuel than we expected. We don't have enough to make orbit again. Jedlock: Okay. Well, worst case scenario you'll have to be rescued by Mun Station's NAMLARV. The excursion on the surface is aborted. This is a serious problem. Mun requires around 600 m/s of deltaV to make orbit, and Anubis has only 570. It's not even close to being enough to make orbit. So some thinking and calculations are done. NAMLARV could effect a rescue to Mun Station, or ferry the stranded Kerbals back to the IEV, so they're not really at risk of being stranded. But Mac Kerman comes up with a different idea. Mac: We don't have enough fuel to make orbit, but we can at least get to a fairly high apoapsis on a ballistic trajectory. It might be possible to have the IEV perform a rendezvous and docking while on that trajectory, and then use its own engine to complete the orbit. Eventually, this is the course of action chosen. A rescue using NAMLARV would only be able to carry one Kerbal at a time, or perhaps three if they were willing to risk sitting inside the Fennec rover during powered flight. They decide that Mac's idea is possible and would be much faster. But it will require that the two rookie Kerbals in the IEV perform their first rendezvous and docking under incredible pressure. In the meantime, the IEV is raised to an 80km circular orbit to await the attempt. Calculations suggest Anubis should be able to get to an apoapsis about that high. When the timing is right, Anubis lifts off and pitches 25 degrees up from horizontal, and burns until the fuel tanks are totally empty. Shortly thereafter, the IEV makes a manuver to intercept them. An encounter is achieved, but Aten will have to make a move of over 200 m/s to null velocity, and it'll put them both in an impact course, accelerating towards Mun! The guys successfully perform the rendezvous. Now, time to dock under immense time pressure! Mun is coming up fast under them. They get docked. There's no time for a crew transfer, the IEV will have to burn to avoid crashing with the lander still attached. Aten pointed its engine down and slightly back and burned at full throttle to try to avoid crashing. They passed through a periapsis of just 4km, low enough to strike the surface in some spots, but they luckily cleared the ground safely! The burn also put the other side of their orbit into a Mun escape trajectory. Mac: That was some outstanding flying! A triumph in maneuvering. Jedlock and Gilfal showed some excellent poise under pressure. While they may be scientists by trade, all MASEC Kerbonauts undergo extensive training and simulation to make them pilots before they ever actually fly. It seems to have paid off, and the pair would be the first to be awarded with the Space Rescue Cross. On the way back to Kerbin, the empty lander is discarded to be destroyed on re-entry, and the IEV aerobrakes... ... And returns to Kerbin Station. Some will regard this as MASEC's finest hour. After the mission, it was decided not to make any further changes to the Anubis Lander, on the reasoning that the deltaV requirements at Ike are quite a bit less than on Mun: Even if Anubis has burned the same amount of fuel on Ike (which is unlikely), the fuel it did have would have been enough to get back to orbit. The next manned flight will be the departure to Duna.

Thanks! I really appreciate the kind words, and on your first post even! Welcome to the board, and I hope you enjoy it here and enjoy KSP as much as I do. In the meantime I'm actually in the process of writing up a new mission report. It was... we'll say it didn't go as planned, but I was able to salvage it and I'm very proud of it. We'll say I know how the Apollo 13 guys feel to a certain degree.

Lazor systems is not working.