Fengist

There's a UFO anomaly up near the pole. Perhaps a flight up there to take pictures and return?

Velocity yes. Just goofing off with it the other day I hit an AP of over 100km with one. Orbit, that's very different.

Thanks. I did a tradeoff with it. I went for a higher lift than normal because I wanted off the ground rather quickly. On Eve, you don't have that end-of-runway ski-jump.

Yes, you do. Very observant. Read the rules. Only the AIRCRAFT must be stock. You don't see any on it.

For those who may be considering this challenge, here's some shots of my current re-attempt. So far, only two major problems have come up. The first was the initial landing. After entering the atmosphere my plane, PKP, went into an uncontrolled spin. I was pretty sure the weight distribution with 0 Kethane in the tanks was causing the problem. But, once I got down to 6km, something really odd happened. It smoothed out and started gliding rather nicely... backward. There's a screenshot. Take a look at the navball. 45m/s in reverse. Fortunately, I hit the ground at around 23m/s... nose.. or is that tail... first and landed unscathed. Only other problem is for some reason it wants to roll to the right slightly and SAS can't seem to correct it. Will cost me some fuel to keep it straight but it's very flyable... now that it's going forward. Oh, and except for a few flashy pieces on the tug, and the tug RCS ports it's all pretty much stock. On the Launch Pad Docked to a tug with a fuel drop tank attached to the rear. Arrival at Eve. Fuel tank discarded. Reentry burn complete, lander discarded. Landing on Eve... backward. Current Route.

I was a journalist in the Navy. Had my fill of writing for money.

And no, I do not currently have a 'stock' one on Eve. I did this stock before the last patch and did a complete wipe, along with screenshots when the patch came out. What I do have on Eve is a 'modified' B9. It hold 4,000 Kethane in wing tanks and has considerably better performing engines (fuel consumption, definitely not speed). So, I am aware of flight characteristics on Eve, as well as Kethane deposit layouts and know full well a stock plane with Kethane engines can do it. I will rebuild my old stock one and join in none-the-less.

Wanted to make sure that people knew the difficulties of it. I didn't want them thinking a Kethane engine flies like any of the stock engines. That was basically my advice to 'try before you fly'

If you read the wall of text it plainly says, 'I have done this myself and it's very gratifying. '

This challenge has been expanded and reloaded. You can find the new one here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86344-Eve-Circumnavigation-Challenge-%28Expanded%29?highlight=eve+circumnavigation You're still free to do this one tho. I've seen challenges to fly around Kerbin. I've seen challenges to make an SSTO. I've even seen challenges to fly to another planet/moon and return. Now that you have those skills, it's time to put them to use and do something very different. The Eve Circumnavigation Challenge is one that that will require flying skill, rocketry skill, planning and a good deal of patience if you are to succeed. And a good deal of luck if you're not to explode. Goal. Circumnavigate EVE with an aircraft. More specifically, a Kethane powered aircraft. The Challenge Eve is a fantastic planet for flying. It's atmosphere is as thick as soup and reaches up into the heavens. But it's gravity well is something akin to a black hole. Your goal is to explore Eve in all of it's vastness from the comfortable seat of a pit. This challenge will be loaded with exactly that, challenges. From the skill of learning how to fly a Kethane powered engine to planning and managing fuel stops there will be plenty to do. Carrying enough Kethane to complete a non-stop, though possible, is (I'm thinking unless someone proves me wrong) rather impractical. You'll probably need to make several fuel stops along the way. Determining how you'll refuel is another set of challenges. Do you mount drills on your aircraft and suffer through their added weight, electrical and fuel consumption or do you pre-position drilling station fuel stops along your planned route? Whichever solution you choose, this challenge, reminiscent of the days of barnstormers, will provide you with amazing views of the new Eve, challenge both your flying and landing skills as well as your abilities to both think ahead and think quickly. This challenge is not about speed, it's all about efficiency, planning and being prepared for the worst. The problems: Jet engines don't work on Eve. It's atmosphere is totally void of oxygen. But, Kethane burns and Eve has vast stores of the viscous liquid spread over it's surface. Fortunately, there is a jet engine that specifically burns Kethane. Kethane jet engines love Kethane. A lot. Their efficiency is nothing to brag about. I recently flew twice around Kerbin on 800 jet fuel. 1,000 Kethane only got me 500km (at full throttle). You'll need to be able to pack on a good bit of Kethane to get from one fuel stop to the next and it's not light. Kethane jet engines do not work with air intakes, they only work with their own internal KIntakeAir sytems. These are beastly devices as they generate air based on not just air speed and altitude, but engine RPM as well. Meaning, the faster you fly, the faster the intake spins, the more air you take in. But, the faster you fly, the less air it's able to take in and the higher you fly, the less air there is for it to take in. Flying a Kethane jet is a delicate balancing act of managing altitude, speed and engine RPM. Doing it efficiently enough to get from one Kethane deposit to the next is a challenge to say the least. Kethane jets love to flame-out without warning. By the time you hear the whine of the engine start to dwindle, it's usually too late. Furthermore, Kethane engines can't simply be restarted by throttling back. They can ONLY be restarted when your airspeed reaches 80 m/s or less. And, if you try to reduce your speed and throttle your engines all the way back in flight, they will flame out. Flying a Kethane jet requires skill and attention. They are not speed machines nor are they high-altitude blast furnaces. On Kerbin, you're lucky if they can reach 10km without flaming out and 450m/s going down hill. They can however, be relatively efficient cruising engines if you manage them well. Eve has large quantities of Kethane buried just under the surface. Drilling it won't be a problem. However, there are often very large distances between deposits and the safest route to fly, may not always be the shortest. While some deposits are in vast mountain ranges and difficult to reach, others are located on tiny islands in Eve's vast oceans. Deciding where to fuel and hoping you have enough to get you there will not only challenge your planning and navigation skills, but your efficient flying skills as well. I have done this myself and it's very gratifying. And, with all the skills involved, it is a challenge. The good news is, you don't have to complete it all in one sitting and saving your game along the way is a pretty good idea. This is not going to be a 30 minute challenge and then done with nor is it going to be hours of ship building. And yes, a Duna challenge is on the horizon. Rules: 1. There are 3 categories for completion. Stock, Assisted Stock and Full Mods. Stock: Your aircraft must be completely stock with the exception of the Kethane mod. No infi-gliding, no part clipping. Assisted Stock: Only MechJeb or other autopilots will be allowed on fully stock aircraft. Full Modified: 'Reasonably' balanced mods and plugins (like FAR) will be allowed but in a separate category. If flying with mods or plugins, you must indicate which you used when you complete the challenge. Plugins or mods cannot be modified from their original distribution. The purpose here is not to limit creativity but to create a level playing field and to give others a fair 'gauge' of what it took to complete the challenge. You must provide a screenshot of this craft so that it's plainly visible. 2. Your aircraft must be piloted. 3. No rocket, srb or jet engines on the aircraft once landed on Eve. Only the Kethane jet engine. You may use rockets or any other stock/non-stock engine to fly your craft to Eve but they must be jettisoned before your initial landing. You may use any 'reasonable' number of Kethane engines. (sucking an entire deposit dry probably isn't a good idea and Kethane jets aren't light either) 4. You may either fly your aircraft to Eve (SSTO) or deliver it via a rocket. You can use non-stock parts and/or autopilots to deliver the aircraft to Eve if needed. The challenge is not getting to Eve but you must use 'conventional' methods to get there. No editing or other means of making your aircraft instantly appear on Eve or in orbit above it. Once your aircraft lands on Eve, it must contain only stock and Kethane parts. 5. Upon landing on Eve you will declare you starting point by taking a Kerbal EVA and planting a flag. This Kerbal can come either from your aircraft or from a base already established there but your aircraft must be at that location. You must provide a screenshot of the flag planting. Flag, flight stats, aircraft resources and plane must be visible to some degree. 6. You must land on Eve with 0 Kethane in your tanks. You may stop en-route for other fuel but you may not take on Kethane until you land on Eve. 7. Your circumnavigation not need take the shortest path and most likely won't. Once you choose your general direction you must continue in that direction. If you choose to fly east to west, you can only reverse direction in order to make fuel stops (should you realize you have to reverse course because you can't make it to the next one) and once fueled, you must continue back on the east to west path. You can of course fly north or south in this example in order to reach fuel stops. The goal is to circumnavigate. That means around. No flying east, then north over the pole then south and then back east. You can do a polar circumnavigation if you choose. 8. Fueling en-route may be either the aircraft fueling itself or from a base. To clarify, you can either pack your own drills or have a vehicle meet you and fuel your aircraft. No unlimited fuel or other such nonsense which defeats the spirit of this challenge. Use of drop tanks, even on a stock plane, will be considered as being in the 'modified' category. It's been proven that this challenge can be done without drop tanks. 9. Your aircraft must land back at your starting point with all the parts it left with. Losing parts anywhere along the way is a disqualification. You must provide a screenshot of the end of flight stats and the starting point flag. 10. Warping. This challenge is about enjoying the view and the flight. I don't encourage it but do it if you must. The only time warping is encouraged is if you are drilling (Depending on your electrical generation, that could take some time. This challenge isn't about watching drill animations.) Be aware that Eve is mostly desert. Warping while landed has been known to have detrimental effects on tires (they get buried in the sand). Fly safe and enjoy the view. Came to realize that not everyone is comfortable modding parts. Therefore, to help you test your jets, here's a pre-filled 1000 unit Kethane tank. Simply unzip to your GameData directory. 1000 unit prefilled Kethane tanks Changes/Additions to rules Changed the (FAR) category to Full Mods. This will allow usage of nice aircraft mods like PWings and B9. BUT. You must use STOCK Kethane engines and STOCK Kethane fuel tanks. No editing of .cfg files in this category. Challenge yourself, not the mods. [Eve Kethane Challenge Circumnavigators] (Stock unassisted) automcdonough | Landed on Eve backward but flew around it forward. Fengist | Because the OP has to do his own challenge! [Eve Kethane Challenge Circumnavigators] (Stock autopilot assisted) Spartwo | Handicapped accessible plane. [Eve Kethane Challenge Circumnavigators] (Full Mods) nhnifong Includes a 30 minute narrated slide show of the attempt... umm wow. Voculus Using Spaceplane+ mods. [Craft Files] Kethane Dart Mk2c | Rottielover created this aircraft for use by challengers and made it freely available. PKP-2 | This is the stock craft I completed the challenge with. Note that the tanks on this craft file are empty. Grab the filled ones linked above and swap them out if you'd like to fly it on Kerbin. Take note this plane is FAR from perfect and is a huge challenge to fly on Eve. Fly it there at the risk of your own sanity. And how bad is flying on Eve? Signature sized.

Oh come on man. It's a nuke. It can get anything to 35km in a minute and a half and not hardly use any fuel. The fact that I tried with a plane like his and it took me 5 1/2 minutes and ALL my fuel is because I'm a noob. And I screwed up. I couldn't find ANYTHING in stock parts that looks like what he has inside his wings. I could be mistaken but doesn't Nova Punch have those really tiny SRB's?

A 'rover' base I built recently for a challenge. More pics here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/45400-Stockless-Space-Program/page3

23 part count unintended double I NEVER planned this. I wish I could say that I had but in all honesty, I'd never flown a high altitude, high-performance jet before and I built this just to learn how the intakes would work, how efficient they were and whether I could even get to 20k altitude. I wanted to learn about them so I could enter this challenge. I only intended for this plane to take off, never land. I didn't even know if it could. But, fly it did and land... well it glides well. Here's the results. Oh, and it's completely stock. No Jeb, cheats, part clipping, etc. What you see is it (which, to me is even more surprising). And thanks for a fun challenge. I learned a lot and had a blast. Especially the last 5 minutes when I was sweating bullets. Leaving KSC The obligatory, 'I'm on fire' shot Flying over KSC after the first lap. It's the lil lights by the navball. Got fuel, let's go for lap 2 Cruisin during lap 2 Lap 2 -KSC is just over those hills and 11 fuel left. Oh crap. Glide baby, gliiiiide. Wow, it made it. I still don't believe this.

Ok, this post may get rather lengthy. If you don't like reading, just head to the pretty pictures. There's lots of them. If you read my previous post in this thread, you'll see the similarities. All except for the Kethane rig, are newly built. It was the template. Official Submission: Rovers? HAH! First, I may have goofed. I read the rules and was under the impression that the base was to be stockless. And, mine is. So much so, there's not even a stock strut on it. However, in my confusion, I used my mostly stock launch vehicle. It wasn't until I'd built ALL of my base modules and had the first 3 on Minmus that I realized perhaps the launch vehicles needed to be stockless too. Faced with starting over from scratch or spending HOURS rebuilding launch vehicles under my base modules, I hope I reached an acceptable compromise. Since all of my launch and landers are identical, I built a 'proof of concept' stockless launch platform and took the most challenging module, the power plant, with it. I hope you find that acceptable. Pics of it are at the end. If not, was fun building this monster and thanks for a great challenge idea. On with the show. My base is built on a few simple premises, keep it mobile, keep it functional and make it look good... with zero stock parts. Oh, and make rovers crunch when it runs over them. With that in mind, here's the results. Be sure to read the notes at the end and grab the craft files if you want to experiment with your own. Mods used: B9: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-19-1-b9-aerospace-pack-release-2/ Anvil Rockets: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/anvil-rockets/ RBI Tracks: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/?p=18654 Kosmos: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/kosmos-tks-spacecraft/ Kethane: which I can never find the link for Bobcat Home: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-1-h-o-m-e-start-kit/ Romfarer's Robotic Arms: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/robotic-arms-pack/ Modular Multi-wheels: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/modular-multiwheels-and-omniwheels-v0-6-tt-plugin-for-ksp-0-20-and-0-19/ Greenhouse: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/greenhouse/ KAS Winches: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/?p=3998 KXPX: The offset adapter which isn't in the stock any more/yet. and possbly others I can't remember. Part count: 303 (more or less and yea, it lagged my lil machine but it was still playable) Introducing: The tracked base! Or, did I just run over a rover? Built entirely on RBI Tracks this base both moves and serves as a Kethane drilling platform and habitat. Powered by a Bobcat nuclear reactor at night and Kosmos solar arrays during the day as well as a Kethane backup generator, it has more than an ample amount of juice to power all of it's activies. Shown here in just one arrangement of it's 'base' configuration, it uses B9 shielded docking ports on the rear and Kosmos ports on the front. The crew tractor at the center serves as the docking hub. Eppur si Muove More than just a base, this thing is mobile. Shown here in 'train' configuration, each tractor can be docked in series and driven to the destination as one unit. Prior to setting off for the sunset it's advisible to point the lead vehicle in the correct direction first. Turning, though can be done in limited form, is NOT advised. Party Mobile With room for up to 18 Kerbals there's more than enough bodies to really screw up a project. It's own Transporter Even fully loaded with fuel and Kethane, this monstrosity is still completely mobile. Best of all, expansion doesn't need no stinking rover to hook parts together, these bad boys move on their own. Gas Station And, with a mobile winch station, it can easily fill the role of a ground based refueling station or a horizontal bungee jumping platform. Better explosions Because this thing is not some puny rover, it doesn't just blow up, it detonates in proper fashion. Even through the vacuum of space, they'll hear it on Kerbin. Flies easy And who needs landing gear? These tractors ARE landing gear. The Modules Module 1, the Excursion/Light Recovery Tractor. Why? Because rovers are for sissies. The Excursion is designed to be small, agile and able to move a crew of 4 across the terrain WELL above the level of some squat rover. This is a vehicle you have the valet park one minute and go mud running the next. Since none of these tractors have thermoelectric generators, it's other role is to dock with it's larger cousins and help power them with it's solar arrays should they need to move longer distances. It also has a KAS winch with grappling hooks and leads other tractors in recovery operations. Finally, it's equipped with a Kethane detector just in case the puny satellites missed something. Module 2, the Crew Tractor. One of the larger tractors in the fleet, this unit houses 12 Kerbals in coffin sized bunks. Using B9 shielded docking ports, it's the hub of all activities. It also includes blast shields on the windows for those 'planned' explosions. Module 3, the Kethane Tractor. This beast holds 16,000 Kethane and has twin drills. With this kind of capacity, you'll be drilling dry holes in no time. It's also equipped with a robotic arm and, because of it's sheer mass when loaded with Kethane, assists the Excursion tractor in recovery operations. It holds a crew of 2. Here's an example of the Kethane tractor using it's robotic arm and the Excursion Tractor acting as a wedge to recover a disabled power unit. (not one of my finer landings). Let's see some tiny rover pull THAT off! Module 4, the Power Unit. Equipped with not just big but MASSIVE solar arrays, these were created in the days of Kommunism when destroying the planet twice over wasn't nearly enough. This top-heavy beast simply arcs with electricity. It's also equipped with a nuclear reactor and no place to store spent fuel rods. It'll definitely lite you up. Also included is a Kethane backup generator for when the nuke goes critical. Module 5, the Converter. Because breathing Kethane is hazardous, this tractor is a self-contained conversion unit that turns it into safe, harmless rocket fuel. Capable of holding a small amount of fuel, oxidizer and mono-propellant, it's also the main tractor used in mobile refuelling situations. Docked to the Excursion unit and the Fuel Tanker, you simply drive up to the visiting ship and filler-up. Module 6, the Tanker. Holding 6,000 units of fuel alone in it's twin Bobcat Home Admin modules, it's a powder keg just waiting for a match. The good news, even fully loaded with fuel it can still move away fast enough to make sure you're on the edge of the crater it creates. Module 7, the Green House. The twin greenhouse tractor eats batteries like a Kerbal on Kake. Before you even launch, you better plan to be in sunlight and have those array's deployed as soon as possible. Along with the totally useless function of feeding Kerbals, it does generate a tiny amount of mono-propellant. Module 8, the Cargo Tractor. For all of you who INSIST on sissified wheeled rovers, here's the perfect place to hide them so no one will notice. It's also equipped with a Romfarer Canadarm and if you're lucky and they don't explode the minute you turn on the magnet, you just drop the rovers inside, close the hatch and nobody is the wiser. Because rovers are for sissies If you're looking for a base where you can miss by a kilometer and STILL land beside it, this beast is it. Big, brawny and packed with explosive power, nothing says, 'rovers are puny' quite like this. Proof and Notes 3 for 3 shots 3 launches, 3 landings. No reversals. If you notice in the 3rd shot some wreckage, that's from landing the crew module. I landed a bit too hard and popped 3 engines off the lander. But, I was able to detach the tractor and scoot out from under it unscathed. Proof of concept stockless launch vehicle Actually, in some ways, it was better than my stock one. I laned on Minmus only to realize I hooked the fuel lines to the center tanks up backwards, they were still full. It's built on smaller Anvils, B9 parts and some Kosmos enginesI kinda grabbed at random. The hub of the lander is Home fuel tanks and the girders are Kosmos. It does use stock fuel lines and struts. Notes: -DO NOT LEAVE THIS THING IN TRAIN MODE. You have been warned. Even knowing it would do it, I had to edit my quicksave once and lift this thing 2 meters because I switched out of it and when I switched back the lead tractor was on the ground and the rear one was buried up to it's tracks. Seriously, the explosion sent parts into Minmus orbit. Furthermore, the longer the chain, the greater the risk of what I call 'cracking the whip.' More on that below. -DO NOT LEAVE PANELS DEPLOYED. You have been warned. They may splode for no reason. -USE CAUTION WITH THE BIG SOLAR. Play with it in a big area before you hook it to anything. Learn what the two deploy buttons do. It's clearance above other tractors is pretty tight. -RAISE THE CHEATER WHEELS BEFORE LANDING Under the front docking tube of each tractor is what I call a cheater wheel. It allows me to lift the nose of the tractor a little bit in order to try to match docking ports. On Minmus, you won't need them as the 'suction' of docking ports lifts the tractors. Using them on Minmus can even cause problems and flip the tractor into the air. They deploy that hard and fast. The reason I laid the power unit over was because I forgot I had them down and landed on the side of a hill. Since it has 2 of the tubes, there are 2 wheels which made it unbalanced and it promptly rolled onto it's side. -Watch for whip cracking. See screenshot at the end for a very LIGHT example of this. When multiple tractors are docked and you either dock another or switch in and out of tractors there is an effect that can lift the end tractor well into the air. This is some crazy bug or screwed up game mechanic. It lifts them high enough that they'll slam back down and break things. I call it cracking the whip. There's usually a central tractor where whipping originates. Be aware of it and try not to attach too many tractors in a chain to it. If you're careful, you can attach them all in a train as I did, just make sure you break them apart in the middle when you're done. -The greenhouse. I wasn't joking. This appears to be a fairly new mod and there's no way to turn it off. It chews batteries like crazy and the instant you hit the launch pad, it's ON. It'll take some planning to get it where you're going, but the tractor drone command module has over 8k battries. You can get to orbit and deploy the panels, just don't waste any time. Once in orbit, I left them open till just before landing. -BEFORE YOU LAUNCH These were all built horizontlly. Therefore, look for the two docking ports on top of the tractor. You'll have to 'control' from here on the launchpad to get your navball correct. ALSO, these tractors launch upside down. Therefore, when you separate the lander you'll have to again, 'control from here' on the proper docking port and rotate 180 degrees in order to point the engines in the right direction. -I do not use mechjeb. I realized a while back it was having all the fun. Therefore, if you slap jeb on these and try to launch you probably won't get past the first stage separation. Stop jeb from auto separating and SLOWLY separate the first stage manually. After that, it should be ok to turn it loose. On the Cargo Tractor, be sure to stop it before the final stage. That was a new way of releasing tractors from my lander that got rid of the top docking port. -Docking ports. Unless you're a purist and want to remain stockless, get rid of those stupid Kosmos ports on the front of each tractor. The 'guide fins', while fine in space, are a nuisance on the ground. I know there are other things I'm forgetting to mention that are important but, that's the fun part of discovery... watching it all explode. The craft files. Take note these may not be exactly the way I launched. I often made minor changes to the units and forgot to save before launching. You may need to tweak them a bit. They all fly easy and land well, especially on Minmus where mistakes corrected by a short burn. There should be more than enough examples tho for you to tinker with making your own. http://www.datainterlock.com/Kerbal/StocklessChallenge.zip Cracking the whip, a very light example.

Actually, I got bored. So, I'm working on my 'official' entry. That was must me goofin off with Bobcat Home.

Well, I actually built this a few days ago before seeing this challenge so there are a FEW stock parts, but not many. If I had known, I could have easily exchanged them for non-stock parts. If nothing else, it'll give some of the other competitors some ideas. Enjoy. Yes, it's small but that was on purpose. The goal was to keep the part count relatively low, pack a lot in a small package and just as importantly, make it mobile. This is basically a test base for what I'll be taking to Eve and Duna. And yes, this entire base moves (when it's empty of fuel). Simply daisy-chain behind the 'tractor' and drive on. Mods used: B1 Bobcat Home Kethane Multiwheels Romfarer's robotic arms RBI Tracks KAS Winch system and probably one or two others but can't think of them. Images: 1. This is the heart of the base. It's the 'tractor.' It's a Kethane drilling rig with the 16000 kethane tank and 2 small drills, robotic arm, tracks and B1 lights. It's purpose is to fetch base pieces (I don't use Jeb and my my landings, tho usually less than 1km away, have to be retrieved) and move the base when needed. The arm serves 2 purposes. Not to lift things but more to 'connect' to pieces that may need the landing gear changed, etc. It's also handy for lifting the tractor when the docking ports don't quite match up. 2. Moving pieces: Here's a shot of the tractor moving the solar array (yep, the panels are stock) Note the multiwheel gear on the underside of the array. That's what makes it mobile. Because I also had some issues with the tracks and wheels going in opposite directions when the tractor was hooked up, I put both of the 'gear' wheels in the same direction and added a B1 white light to the 'front' of each base module and a red light on the rear so I could easily spot which port I needed to connect the tractor to. 3. The base core. Bobcat's basic habitat module with yes, stock engines. Note the 3 multiwheel gear on the underside. Again mobile. Ladders, RCS and lights from B1. There was a docking port on this side but it got snapped off when I expanded the habitat. Lesson learned. The one on the other side survived. Also notice I put the ladder right above the landing legs. Another bad choice. Kerbals can get out but have to really work to get back in. 4. A few of the gang in front of twin Home converters. No, I can't convert the nonexistant Mun atmosphere. But, it's there for housing and fuel storage. Was a lot easier lifting it than full tanks of fuel. Also note the small Kethane tank and Kethane generator. There's a matching on on the other side. 5. Again, a couple more stock parts, the fuel tank and RCS tank but, I needed a small fuel tank to hook the Kethane converter to and not knowing about this I picked a small one. You'll notice that Jeb is standing on a platform. This is one of two winch stations. Since I don't use Lazor, this is mainly used for refueling visiting ships. 6. Twin Bobcat reactors. Every Kerbal needs radiation. Note another Kethane generator. This also shows the stats for the base. Note the gobs of electric. Since this was a test base, I wanted to be able to turn on the lights, drills, atmos converters and Kethane converter and see how much power it all drew. Good news, the solar array kept up with all of it (No, I was too lazy to calculate that before launching therefore, I overkill.) and one reactor EASILY replaced the solar array. 7. And for those wondering how I got them there... upside down. All of them. I rebuilt this launch vehicle under each base module. Just a couple of notes, that's a 'Skipper' under the shroud and two of the Home fuel tanks make the core of the lander. This launch vehicle easily got all of them to the Mun with fuel to spare. It'll take a good bit more to get to Duna and Eve. 8 & 9 Just a couple more shots. And for those who want TRUE mobility, one of my previous non-stock bases en-route to a new Kethane site.

Like virtually everything I've done in this game, I went to great efforts to build the 'perfect' one, admired it for a bit when completed and then, had no reason to use it.

Had that happen to mine the other day for no reason. Only suggestion I have is to right click on each one and make sure they're enabled. Keep in mind, if you're talking about just them operating when you have ASAS turned on, that was all redone this last patch and they aren't as 'active' as they were in previous versions. If you're actually using the thrusters to turn, then you should definitely see them.