bobcook

I've started to prototype a new "core" and mocked up the entire ship with landers in the VAB. Theoretically I'll get 14k delta V in this configuration. There are 75 days to go until the Jool launch window, so there is still enough time to do some more prototyping.

We've reached a moment of crisis in this project. Not quite "brown pants" level panic, but there is serious concern at mission headquarters. Seems like this "seat of your pants" approach has a flaw or two. Without the Tylo lander, the core vehicle is currently at 495 parts and 470.33 tons. But only ~5.3k of delta V. Seriously insufficient, I figure I'll need at least that much once I reach Jool. Considering scraping the entire core vehicle and rebuilding it.

Tonight's work brought the final BVP lander up to the core vehicle that will haul the landers to and from the Jool system. 78 days until the launch window opens, should be easy to meet that schedule. Including the fuel truck, 558 parts and 513.4 tons. Slight bit of lag now and then, but not really hindering things. I tested the ability to rotate the ship to get it aligned for the burn out of the Kerbin system. Large degrees of rotation takes a long, long time. Have to remember this when planning maneuvers.

Nice work CalculusWarrior, your module looks great. Nice job on the full debris deorbit.

My mission is now underway, I'm reporting progress with pictures here.

I brought up the Laythe lander and docked it to the core vehicle. After docking I adjusted the amount of fuel to approximately match the mass of the two other landers. This is a feeble attempt to avoid being too far out of balance. No idea if it will work but figure its not going to hurt. With the fuel truck still attached its currently at 475 parts and 494.75 tons. Two more landers to go. The final BVP lander will attach to the fourth docking port and the Tylo lander will take the place of the fuel truck. 79 days until the Jool launch window, plenty of time.

Thank you! This is certainly a gigantic challenge and I've got a long way to go...

Started bringing up the landers. In this series I launch and dock two of the three "BVP style" landers (identical landers for Bop, Vall, and Pol).

The first step is to launch the "carrier vehicle" (the central core that will haul the landers to and from Jool).

This is a mission report for my attempt at the Jool-5 Challenge and is by far the most ambitious project I've ever attempted in KSP. I'm not even sure its going to work. I have no idea how large of a ship I can create before my computer (a recent MacBook Pro Retina) slows only a few frames per second. Follow along as I try to make this work. My project is titled "Go Big and Get Back Home" and I'm going for the Jebediah level. I'm not trying to do this efficiently. I figure any government which hires my space agency will have to open up the bank and spend everything it has (mostly on fuel). Like most governement-funded projects, this also means I have likely over-committed on what can be achieved, and have only a vague idea how to achieve any of it. And I probably lack the talent to do it really well. Some things I've established for my project: 6 Kerbals will journey to Jool and return safely after landing on all five moons Four hitchhiker modules are necessary to have enough space for everyone to be comfortable Use a different lander for each moon (five separate landers) Each lander will carry two Kerbals to the surface of each moon Each lander has a science package of two SC-9001 Science Jr, two Mystery Goo canisters, and two of each sensor type (plus a sensor nose cone for Laythe) Each lander's science package has to land back to Kerbin (no transmissions allowed) I will need to bring along a heck of a lot of fuel to compensate for the eventual poor planning that will undoubtably occur When I began this project there were 89 Kerbin days until the next Jool launch window. I'm using KSP 0.23.5 with the Kerbal Alarm Clock, MechJeb (for informational displays) and RealChutes. I'm using the ARM parts (I need those huge fuel tanks). I dropped Kerbal Engineer, it wasn't performing very well. Wish me luck in what will be either a huge achievement, or a strong lesson for others to learn what not to do.

I'm preparing for the Jool-5 Challenge (its in the Challenges forum, if interested). Today's project is the Tylo lander. Under simulation (e.g. Hyperedit testing) it can descend from a 60km orbit, land, then launch back to a 60km orbit with more than 350m/s delta-v remaining. Not convinced this is the best design, but it works. Jeb is excited.

My first rover, delivered to the Mun, waiting for Jeb and Bill to arrive to drive it around. It was the first really complex mission I managed to complete without serious consequences or deaths. I've never built another rover since, haven't found the right motivation yet.

Nope, just let stations evolve as it suits me. I create new modules that look interesting or might be challenging to assemble, then throw them into orbit and see what happens. Have made some really interesting stuff, and also become very good at docking odd things together.

Approximately 325 km.

I expect this is more of a CPU/GPU issue than memory issue. The software will need to recompute and repaint the scene frequently. Nothing happens infinitely fast. More parts = more work for the CPU/GPU = slower frame rate.

Thanks! This is the first time I've participated in a community build, it was lots of fun, will probably sign up for another station build at some point.

The new residency module has arrived at our station! This lets us expand the number of staff and visitors. There is also a place for the poor Kerbals to hide when Jeb starts to do science.

Finished the tech tree with a couple of suborbital flights, a flight to orbit the Mun, 12 Mun landings, 6 Minmus landings, one Duna landing, one Eve flyby, and a probe into Kerbol. Certainly not the most efficient nor quick, but I'm glad I finally finished it.

I love building stations too. Sign me up!

When I'm within shouting distance of the target, I switch to that vessel, set its docking port as the "control from here" point, and set the docking port of the incoming vessel as the target. Then rotate around until the navball indicates I'm pointing in the right direction. Finally switch back to the original vessel and complete the docking procedure. As long as the rate of approach isn't very high, this is easy. Obviously this is easy with vessels that can rotate easily. For situations where the target is a gigantic space station that doesn't rotate, I simply bring lots of lights.

Mk 1-2 of course! Doing it Apollo style!

I had to learn what a Hohmann transfer for planetary rendezvous is all about. I thought I knew how it worked. I was wildly wrong, because I didn't realize you had to wait for everything to be at the right angle. My first few attempts were a disaster, until I saw a video with someone talking about putting a protractor on the screen. I was like "huh? why does the angle matter?" and then of course it all clicked. I know exactly what you mean. I really need to find some people IRL who play this game so I can stop annoying my dog by explaining the subtleties of docking techniques.

I play sandbox to explore all of the different parts. When 0.23.5 came out, I built a few rockets and captured a few asteroids (and failed to capture one) using sandbox. But then I switched to career to play a more elaborate game.

I answered "I started a new sandbox and got straight to testing" because I was eager to try out the new large parts and also go capture an asteroid or two asap. Did that, it was fun but not as difficult as I thought it would be (for a couple of C class). I have an unmanned probe that will ride an E class asteroid out of the Kerbin system soon, too little fuel to capture it. Oh well, I'm sure we'll see it again in the future. Now have moved on to a brand new career mode save, and working my way through the technology tree. Just completed a return from a landing on the northern pole of Minmus, and will revisit soon. Need to revisit the Mun for more biomes too.

Made my first attempt to capture an asteroid. Been too busy this week to have time to give the new version a try until tonight. I did have the chance to watch a few vids this week so I had a really good idea what to do, so it was actually very straight forward. Its not one of the huge asteroids but it was still a challenge.