borisperrons

That's an amazing LK lower stage, kudos to you. How did you manage to build it out of panels? AFAIK you can't fire engines through a decoupler. Very curious about it!

The Italian Space Agency did have something similar, a refurbished drilling platform to launch Scout rockets from out of the Kenyan coast: That being said, there's actually no shortage of unused floating drilling platforms right now. I think at least 6 are mothballed in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. I can see them repurposing some for use as launch platforms as Sea Launch did. As for the launch crew it's actually easy, you just put them on a boat the GTFOes out of the danger zone when is launch time.

Thanks! I have shamelessly taken inspiration from sevenperforce for using the round capsule for the descent module too. Before I used a Gemini-like capsule with a fairing, but I needed the place to put the RCS for the reentry control thrusters. This way I have a nice space where to fit all that I need. The fuel cell cover is actually a case of necessity. Originally the fuel cells sat in the forward service module with oxygen and hydrogen tanks, but now that space is occupied by the comm system. So I went for the IRL location for the fuel cells, and since I'm running with Kerbalism, I definitely want them to stay all in one piece during launch. Yep, and again, they're there not only for the looks. The lander has a fairly high center of mass, and running some drop tests it tends to topple. Hopefully, those rockets will help it to settle down straight up in case of an hard landing, but I'll definitely avoid sloped landing sites. In any case, this challenge is really pushing my (poor) design skills. Can't wait to have it in the air too!

That was clearly a blatant lie. I went back and put an end to the voice in the back of my head that was saying "oi, redo them, they're a bit excrements". Now I can go ahead and actually go forward with the rest of the bloody rocket without looking back to what I've done. As a matter of fact, I also have the Block G and Block V done, plus the SAS. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All singing, all dancing new 7K-LOK: New spanking brand new LK:

Progress of my build: I have an L3 complex which I'm happy with. I could make the Blok D cryogenic with Nertea's mod to better fit the IRL one, but I'll see if that's worth the effort. In any case I will use it for the Lunokhod mission too.

Wonderful find! AFAIK, there was no footage of the spacewalk on Soyuz 4/5 because in the hurry of preparation they didn't start the cameras. Very glad to find that it was not the case! This is a wild guess on my part, but it might be a protection against both micrometeoroid strikes and direct sunlight. Welp, that's a very nice looking 7K-LOK, congrats! I guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board for mine, now I feel aahamed for using the single seat lander can as the orbital module XD

I'd like to go deeper into the nerdy points. In KSP, spacebar pressing and simoultaneously decoupling and activating the engine isn't actually hotstaging in my viewpoint. The soviets (and the americans too, with the Titan II) lighted the upper stage engine while the lower one was still running to have the propellant still settled in the tanks, as @sevenperforce correctly pointed out. But real life engines need some seconds to spool up the turbopumps and start generating thrust, so in KSP world hotstaging would need engine activation and decoupling to be on two different stages. As for the LK, I always heard it to be referred as a one and a half stage design, like the Atlas. Take it as you like, I think that the rules are clear enoigh, as if you want to build a two stage vehicle with only one engine, you'll necessarily end up with a design resembling the LK. If you want to be specific, say that the LK design would need to drop the landing gear on liftoff from the Mun, IMHO. That being said, is ok if I run this challenge on a 2.5x solar system with some badly necessary mods adding 7.5m parts?

Indeed it is! Frankly I see the score just as a way for you to know how efficient were you in your mission design, the important is to make something functional and sezy to look at u.u This was done in 1.10, now I'll go back to 1.9 for a nice modded run. I have my sights set on another goal...

Added scores for OP to my mission.

Now now, I think that perfect execution is a bit exaggerated... It's just that I like to play it safe, and I haven't pictured the tens of test flights of the hardware. It would make a nice bloopers reel, tho, with explosions 'n' stuff. Thank you! Have I said that I'm really proud of it? because I am really proud of it u.u I gave it lots of pitch authority, other than the ludicrous amount od RCS ports I've used, center of lift and center of mass are very close together, so it doesn't want to nose dive into the atmosphere. Then, I've aimed at a 35-ish km periapsis, and kept it at between 30° and 50° pitch angle to bleed speed while at the same time remaining in the upper atmosphere, thanks to the lift generated. This way it bleeds speed at a reasonable rate, with enough time to shed the reentry heat without fireworks. Also, using a lifting body reentry vehicle will avoid to squish the poor kerbals with a 15+ G reentry. After all they've spent several years in 0 G, it wouldn't be nice for their poor, poor bones... Were I more confident in my piloting skills I would have pulled some fancy looking S-turns, and, well, landed horizontally on solid ground. But eh, one step at a time. Then again, it likes to enter flat spins which are not that bad, or to go in uncontrollably back end first, without slowing down enought for the chutes to open, which is very bad. Of course, as soon I've recovered from the battle to upload the photos to Imgur, I will do the maths and post it!

And as promised, here's my take on the Dunaproject! I tried to design the craft to look the most historically accurate as possible, with the notable exception of the EEV. I'm especially very happy how the MEM turned out! The flyby was very difficult to nail (I've actally ended up just using Eve to brake to Kerbin's altitude and just wait for the next encounter), end some components were overengineered, like the side PPMs or the totally unnecessary droptanks on the MEM, but still, I'm very happy how it all did end up looking in the end. Without further ado, here's the mission album: https://imgur.com/a/htfFotf The scores are as follow: Total Cost: 306,188 Mass in LKO: 223.351 tons Dry mass: 125.201 tons Mass / Crew: 37.225 tons Propellant Mass Fraction: 0.439

Thanks! Managed it, but now my kerbals have clocked around 4 years rolling their thumbs in space. Soon on your screen, my Dunaprojekt!

So, I have a small question. I'm planning on doing his challenge (actually I'm already flying it, but I'm stranded at duna for reasons that will become apparent later). I have tried using the flyby finder, but it's a royal pain to properly set up the maneuver node in game, or even understanding what the numbers are trying to tell me. Is there any magical tool that sets up maneiver and all for me, avoiding me a mental breakdown? Thank in advance for all the help! Since we are already here, have a sneak peek at my juggernaut of the skies:

Error double posting, sorry.

ORBITAL SHENANIGANS! ROVER AIRTIME! COSTUMES LADY ERRORS! THIS AND MORE, IN OUR LATEST IMGUR PRODUCTION: THE MEM WHO LOVED ME So, it's been a long time since I've touched KSP, but Big Rona made me appreciate again how a beautiful way of killing time this game is. To ease me back in, what's better than a nice Apollo recreation? he said, before realizing he doesn't remember how to dock anymore. Anyway, here's my score for this challenge:

MM 2.6.25 installed... I'll try on a new clear install ASAP and I'll get back with news.

Hello everybody. So, I have incurred in the same bug that other people found, I have only the button for the manual. I am playing in sandbox, installed it with CKAN, manually, modified the .user file, etc. etc. No joy. I will really appreciate any help. I want my ion land speeder without rapid unplanned explodifications : (

Yeah, but, well, it's simply not there. Edit: foreseeably enough I was running on an old MM version. Now all is good.

Yep and yep, mon capitaine. Fact is, I installed it with CKAN, and it actually changed a lot of stuff (no crew capsule at start, the aerobee sustainer, etc), but as I said, no X-planes. I'll try reinstall the lot, and be back with news.

Hello there rocketeer friends. A question: I've launched myself in the wonderful world of realistic space exploration, but I think my tech tree is fugged up (e. g. the conical crew pod and the other Xplane parts are nowhere to be seen). I've installed the lot through CKAN with the suggested and recommended mod, any idea on what I should do?

It didn't explode in the sense that it wasn't torn to pieces by a big boom from the fuel. After the Dragon had been detatched, the rocket ended up having exposed to airflow a lot of surface that wasn't expected to be exposed. So, everything start to tear apart, tanks ruptured and lox escaped, with some mixing (hence the flames) but not deflagrating.

Indeed thanks! I'll hammer my machine back to life and l'll finally put something together.

Bettur? I'm from the phone, so it's hard to tell the image resolution... : (

Maybe I'm a bit late to AntennaFest 2015, but here's something I'd like to see: The two little antennas protuding from the SAR dish have always caught my admiration. They are so conical, and they have a spiral on them! (Sorry if it's already in the pack, I'm unable to start KSP since a lot because of laptop shenanigans, so my memory is a little rusty on what's in there)

"It was Kamanin, in the Kvant-2, with a Raduga return capsule." "State-atheism-damnit, Popovich, if you win another time I swear I'll throw you out of the garbage airlock!" *Russian profanities* *More russian profanities*