M4ck

Shame about crashing into the wall, but it was a good mission anyways. By the way, you could've just landed one on top, drop something else inside and have look at the altimeter for both probes...

They would only never meet if they were on a perfect 1:1 resonance, so no, they line up with each other as well, just like other planets. The farther from 1 the resonance is, the more often a pair lines up together.

Actually, that way will only get one of the 4 parts connected to the next. You could make it work if the stack under the coupler goes like this: engine/decoupler/docking port facing down(with 4x symmetry). Then, build down on one of them a structure of docking port up(so they are connected), quadcoupler(QEd so it lies properly under the previous one). Now add 3 more, separate docking ports under the other three engines. It's important to make sure that they are connected to the quadcoupler, not the other ports.(you can check that by trying to place some other part with a docking node; you will then see green nodes in your connection in places where the docks are NOT attached to parts; you want these nodes between the docks, not between the docks and the coupler) At the moment, the upper and lower part is connected by the one docking port pair you've assembled at first, but at the launch, the other three should click into place(at least that's what people say happens). Using docking ports is the only way to have "times X" connection in a vessel, due to each part having a single other part set as its parent, in other words when building from the core part, you can only spread the "lines", you cannot merge them back.

It looks like I have too much of free time recently, as I've just docked another new module. This time, a girder+railing+ladder spine with four hitchhiker storages on the sides. It's the heaviest module so far, even without the structure suspending it at the moment, it's over 15t. I don't know if this was intended, but my kerbals hate girders and won't stand on any of them, therefore all the connections are covered in ladders. They cross in some places, but the movement is completely fine. Here is the vessel during a test crawl performed by Bob He got to the hatch without problems(after he disabled the gravity to reach the ladder's end, that is). Next, the lifter stage was designed specifically so that it had the COT and COL high up, but still pushed on the main part from the bottom. Of course, it also had to be able to detach properly without slicing the walkway in half(I know struts don't work like that in KSP, but still), hence the separators below SAS modules. It falls apart nicely when the separators detach simultaneously. A closeup of the main attachment point The module in LLO some time later Landed and waiting for daylight to begin the installation 3km from target, not that bad. The altitude is maintained at around 1500m, the target's docking port is somewhere 1470m above the sea level First visual contact Getting close And closer Aaand... we're done here. Well, almost, as I had to rebalance the balloons' pressure a bit. Reducing the lift of the two Unas on previous modules reduced the overall wobbliness of the whole base. The lifter frame will wait here until the next module is installed to support the other end of the "bridge". I am thinking of a small lift module for moving between the ground and the base. Or I could put a vertical module here, a long line of girders with a Ray(the larger one, like on the main module) or a Cirrus(a huge, vertical ovoid shaped one) on the top and a KAS-powered platform moving up and down(or simply the elevator colmo mentioned earlier, if it fits). Another ground lift will be placed at the opposite end of the colony, the mini-blimp station. By the way, due to how heavy this part turned out to be, the orbital dock won't have enough spare parts to finish the colony(and not a single docking port to make any "refilling" mission possible - I know, yet another stupid mistake), so the remaining parts will be designed all together, tested on Kerbin, launched to dock to an interplanetary tug and sent together to Laythe as a single huge contraption(sitting on a proper, refillable construction yard modules in case I want to expand the base in the future even more than intended now; may also be used later for underwater constructions on Laythe). Maybe two separate ones.

What do you mean? A landing pad, or a launch pad? The landing pad was fine on the Mun, as proved by for example the walkway transport lander. There is no need for it in this base other than as a marker for precise landing, as there is a lot of flat surface everywhere nearby. If you meant a launchpad instead, it is not going to work, for some reason(even with the current, unchanged version). I mean, most of the smaller crafts launch fine, but some randomly selected(at least I cannot find any logic) simply do not appear on the list at all. That's the reason why I've established a temporary space dock in the low Laythe orbit, it's fully functional but ugly at the moment, I'll launch a proper-looking one somewhere in the near future and document the mission. After all, Jeb and Bill need to be rescued and sent back to Kerbin(where they will keep training for future missions, after getting whacked repeatedly for sneaking in the first orbital dock). As for the nearest future of the base: I'd like to add a habitation "bridge" module, with several "storage" parts side by side, with a docking port on the other end as well to make another extension there possible in the future, should I choose to do this. Later, a docking hub for several pieces of this, probably with some kind of an elevator on the other end for lowering kerbals and supplies to the surface(if they don't trust the little blimps), where a refinery, a rover/buggy and something between a spaceplane and a blimp will be stationed if it works well enough. Wow... It's great to know I have at least something in common with that great man

Shortly after ground testing the new module, it was equipped with a pair of the same lifters used to deorbit, land and install the solar mast. The position of radial engines and reaction wheels was tweaked a bit to keep COT and COM relatively above each other. That is how it looked in low-Laythe orbit: Next, the atmosphere-to-dock part of descent. This time it was a lot more precise(the previous module installation taught me that MechJeb gets really stupid when aiming for something above ground as a marker for landing, it tends to smack into the ground a few km away; so this time almost everything after the deorbit burn was manual only). This time I've neither landed nor anchored before docking, there was no need for that. Fine-tuning the rotation This time docking was much more vertical than horizontal - good thing the balloons don't have any collision on them, otherwise everything wouldn't have gone that nicely. The last meter... and... thud. The ladder bumped into the floor panel. I've never thought about it while on Kerbin, as the whole base was launched as a single craft already during testing(and one craft parts don't collide with each other). Luckily, as you can see, the gap was really small, so I've managed to force the clamps together, and once they locked, everything worked as intended. After looking around I've noticed that the new part was twisted by about 15*. Not much, but it was clearly visible, therefore it was undocked, rotated and redocked again, this time lined up properly. After detaching lifters and time-accelerating for a moment to get them removed(the craft counts as landed, so it was the "non-physical" warp, and everything moving in atmosphere got removed) the craft was rebalanced using the new balloon as well and saved ready for the installation of yet another module, this time - a habitation module(most likely using the hitchhiker storage parts instead of the intended tank+static solar panels ones, in order to cut down on the parts count). Probably coming here tomorrow evening or Friday afternoon.

I guess I'll have to find/make a Big Daddy like EVA suit, then?... [grinning to myself in a villain-like way]

Incredible project, plus a lot of great pictures and descriptions. It was a real pleasure to read it all, shame it has already been completed and ended and I've thought my Mun base was something to be proud of... thanks to you I hope to change the way I plan my future projects to make them more enjoyable to both the readers and myself. It must be great to have the ground base assembled at last or to watch the panels on the solar station unfold simultaneously

Thanks, but not this time I like it that way exactly because it looks crazy. Maybe when it comes to building a Rapture-like underwater base? Then something like that could come in handy(if kerbals didn't float that easily...)

Bobman Kerman Gilbert Kerman Kirk Kerman Danger Kerman Al Kerman Archibald Kerman The first two are hanging somewhere above the Mun ground, the last two are my main crew in a Laythe base of mine, while Danger is waiting until an underwater base comes to life... Kirk's missing somewhere... Will have to locate him and make him a captain of the next interplanetary ship.

The tiny blimps' tests resulted in the creation of one that does not need any servicing after takeoff, so four of them are scheduled for construction to be later packed on a carrier probe to orbit and a magical warp to Laythe orbital dock. The next thing to construct, test and prepare for launch is an observation deck, with a radar dish for added usefulness(not there during testing). Like previously, it was assembled as a part of a single craft which makes the entire base, to get the shape and dimensions right, and for easier testing at the KSC just to see if it works as intended. The whole craft designed so far(with some additional pieces here and there for better stability) Jonson Kerman is in for a long climb... He's so "BadS" that when he faces an impassable joint, he simply lets go and walks over it Now it's getting more interesting Even more so(yes, that messed up joint in the upper left part is passable without problems) But he makes it, with no problems at all Now it's time to pack it up nicely and send to orbit, then land it and dock it with the base(I'll update this when I have time to actually carry the mission out today or tomorrow morning)

Well, I do read it from time to time, but this was not supposed to be related to any strip at all. As for trying to get it to "fall" around the planet: I'll see if this single part (not with the probe core in the middle) will do that. It should probably work fine, as the COM does not have any collision and any "real" polygon of the part will not touch the ground.

Well, a SINGLE part can be extremely massive/large, as I've shown here, but it won't be "saveable" if put around any planet/moon, due to the game eliminating far away crafts which are not landed, but that have the COM below different hard-coded altitudes.

The wiki says they are 90kg each, but I don't know if that's the number the physics engine loads. I've seen a few people mentioning using "a 0,08t probe core to emulate a kerbal in seat", if I remember correctly, during test launches, so it probably is somewhere near that point. By the way, you can just send one on EVA, open whack-a-kerbal, set some "nice" parameters(like 10kg, 100m/s or whatever is possible) and do what the feature's name tells you to do... Then have a look at the speed reached by the whacked kerbal. Or build a tiny craft with a known mass and TWR, then seat a kerbal in and see how the TWR changed, something should probably give quite precise results.

Not in this case, it still works beautifully, even with SAS off Next to do, the platform above the main balloon.

Well, in a lot of cases the COT at the front of a ship is actually better than one at the back, like with long interplanetary ships assembled in orbit. The ship "compressed" by an engine pushing it from behind tends to wobble much more than a similar one pulled behind an engine, plus the joints aren't stressed as much by bending when stretched.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions I've simply created another, recoded versions of the RCS block, RCS port and the RCS tank to work with air, and created a resized intake, simply copied the "Part{}" inside existing files, this way there are no more not needed models and textures loaded with the new parts. I've also replaced the top and bottom RCS blocks with linears on the sides. Now the ships work like a miracle no need to refuel anymore at all, everything self-sustaining(the docking port is there to enable them to connect with the main base when they are not needed).

Correction to he previous post: if your question was "can you have SOMETHING encompassing Kerbin", then the answer is... Well, yes, you can. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the toroidal fuel tanks(each attached to a small probe core(central part) + MJ). The scientific method of research relied mostly on a variation of the pure-blood-Jeb motto: "Moar zeros!". This one, with a resize factor of 2k This, 20k The next one, 200k And the last one, following the trend, 2M I DO know that is probably not what you had in mind, but hey! It actually works! By the way, this was done with no crash damage and unbreakable joints. Without that, the 2k one in a vessel made of clamp>core>toroid gets obliterated at launch, sending the probe core at the "sonic boom" effect speed, by the way.

It does matter where your COT and COL are located relative to the COM. Basically, the COM works like an axis for any forces affecting the plane. I'll use a shot from a project of mine to describe what I mean. It's a small craft with a propeller at the front. You can see the COT is a tiny bit below the COM. If you pinned the ship at the COM and grabbed the COT to pull it forward, the vessel nose would rise a bit. This means that in flight the vessel would slowly point the nose up. The same goes for lift(in this case, the lift-generating part is a balloon, not a wing, so it also works while the vessel is stopped); the COL is a tiny bit to the front of the craft, so it also adds to the "point up" tendency, as it'll lift the front part of the vehicle more than the back, until the COM is directly below it(it's a large simplification, but it works in this case). Basically the farther away is the line you would get by extending the COT/COL marker from the COM, the larger the "rotating" forces will be. In this craft, the differences are small enough that they can be countered by SAS, but if the COT was a lot lower, the ship would begin to rotate faster and faster all the time the propeller was turned on. I hope this clears everything a bit. If not, maybe the others will be of more help.

And then... "Release da Kraken!" And now on topic. Struts reinforcing between different stages still remain after separation on one end at least(the origin block - 100% sure, the other end - I don't think so, but will check soon). If it is only the first end that remains, you can save some parts count by always reinforcing multi-stages always towards the payload.

Even if everything mentioned here was somehow overridden, the station would have a center of mass inside the planet, and therefore below atmosphere pressure of 0.1(or whatever the line is...) and be neither landed, nor splashed down. Basically like something just launched. You could neither save with it nor switch vessels to anything farther than several km away from the center of mass(using the square brackets). Also, the camera would go crazy.

After following colmo's suggestion and getting a Firespitter parts pack I've created a new, much smaller vessel. The first one was almost nothing more than a probe core, a seat, an RTG and propellers/balloon. It was tiny and moved quite well, but was rather unbalanced and used up power quickly(plus the navball was aligned in some strange way, it was pointing to the side). After adding two more RTGs, an RCS pack(used for docking at the end of the flight) and tweaking the placement of various parts(including a Mechjeb case which is now the "pointer" part for the navball) the second version was tested. It flies even better, doesn't go vertical at accelerations higher than 5m/s2 and recharges very quickly when throttled down. Moreover, with the navball finally showing the correct orientation, the side propeller now works as it's supposed to. It's 16 parts total, so a few more than the jet-powered one, but it's much lighter and won't wobble the base too much when coupling/decoupling. Everything in an almost perfect alignment At launch At the monolith nearby Something like the previous version will probably be redesigned and included as a surface>high atmosphere>low orbit type of a craft, parked on the ground by the refinery module.

The probe body + external seat is another thing I wanted to try next, but thanks for the tip about Firespitter I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Hello again. This time I've given myself a break from interplanetary voyages and to design little, atmospheric crafts that can be used for short trips around Laythe. The first options to test was a body of Mk.1 cockpit, RCS tank + 4x RCS block, LFO tank, 2x air vents(?) and a jet engine(the one with better ISP at sea level than high up) with a single "box" envelope at the nose and two at the back, but it really lacked the lift to rise. The second option, the same body + a single Una balloon, worked perfectly. Bob took it on a test ride to the nearby island, only to discover something interesting there. Where to land? A stupid question - on the tallest structure available. But how to get down? Another stupid question... These helmets are bulletproof, right? Bob posing next to some suspiciously familiar objects... Time to go back to the KSC. But how? Good thing there was a MJ case installed as well RCS-assisted landing The vehicle is a little unbalanced - it leans forward a little bit, but with the addition of the docking ports on the sides and some tweaking to the balloon location it should go straight without any SAS on. It has enough fuel to go to about 1/3 around Kerbin, after replacing the LFO tank(my mistake during the construction) with a regular fuel tank it should do even better. Plans for the next few days: another tests with LFO engines to see if they are easier to use(the jet takes a looong time to throttle down) and at least a bit effective, then the next platform for the base. By the way, why was it Bob flying today, not Jeb, given it was a brand-new type of vehicle, perfect for some radical deconstruction midair? Well, it turned out the orbital construction yard WAS manned, after all... Although the crew cams didn't appear as always, for some reason. Anyways, Jeb and Bill are now orbiting Laythe, with tiny chances of returning to Kerbin anytime soon...

Hello everyone. A new module has arrived at the base(it had to be added to it now, as the tiny solar panels are not enough to keep it working at all times - the main module is the base's only electricity storage and the tiny panels are actually only effective around the sunrise and sunset). I apologize for the low quality of textures and meshes, but the game gets quite choppy on higher details due to the complicated coastline nearby(around 2-3 FPS if the "tip" of the island is in the view, even though it may be obstructed by some other terrain). The second step(after sending the main module there) towards the expansion of the base was getting an orbital construction yard to low Laythe orbit, filled with spare parts way more than it could ever be needed. Nothing special to show here. It couldn't have been the first vessel in the whole project - you have to begin with some style, and that(the yard) is no style, in my opinion. Anyways, it was time to begin designing the solar panel mast. After it was done and tested, I grabbed the bottom girder, placed it aside, deleted the main module and put a regular docking port as the new core part, then attached the mast to it. To do this, I've loaded the first module into VAB and began with forming the S-like shape to fit the main balloon. Then it was time for field testing to determine the lift required on the new structure to keep the base balanced. Nope Nope Finally a resized "Una" envelope got the job done, so now for the orbital descent stage(including two more Unas): The landing itself was done with the envelopes at 100%, they had the exact lift to keep the whole craft in air at the ground level. I've used the engines to move it towards the main module, as the landing overshoot by over 2km - the "target" marker was high in the sky, not on the ground level. My mistake. The docking was almost as easy as in a gravity-less environment thanks to the lucky shot with choosing three Unas that had just enough lift After the docking, everything unnecessary was detached The vessel tipped over a bit, but was soon balanced and the panels were deployed Next, I'll try to remedy the problem with the struts not showing up properly(this may require save editing, so once again - lots of backups will be needed) and assemble an observation platform. It'll be a 4x4 platform(the size of a single panel in the main module) to be placed on the front side of the base(the one facing the "Hooligan Labs" writing in the photos), probably about the level of the main balloon top. And, unfortunately, no high detail session yet. The game crashes when I try to even launch it with textures at 1/2 or 1, probably due to quite a lot of new parts added after the previous project. I'll remove the not needed ones once the base is finished and take Al or Archibald on a tour around the base.