Dave Kerbin

Victor 2 Not much to say on this one. I just took Victor 1 and exchanged one battery for a 2.5m heatshield. Then I removed the map scanner and configured the top of the probe into the same return capsule I've used before with a decoupler. I then launched into orbit and immediately did a burn until it showed me exiting Kerbin's SOI. Then it was time warping ahead 2 days to reach deep space where I exposed my goo container and then a burn to push back into Kerbin's SOI (staging to the probe's engine when the booster ran out of fuel). From there I burned back into orbit of Kerbin and lowered my PE to 35 km. I time warped a bit until my charge was getting low and burned in order to widen my orbit - keeping the same PE but pushing it out (which also lowered the AP). This was to cut down on my speed when I reach the atmosphere. From there I seperated and simply had to sit through the inert return capsule cruising through the atmosphere once (on the dark side), coming out and around in a 300km orbit, then going back a second time and landing in the ocean for recovery. I did get a small bonus for returning an object from Sun orbit but most of the mission was just sitting around waiting. I'll make sure Whiskey is more interesting.

Victor 1 Cleaning up stray science I'm grabbing mapping sensor images of the Mun and Minmus. I planned this with the intent that it would probably take two missions (not enough battery power to loiter around Kerbin orbit for days at a time to line up transfers) but designed it with the ability for it to be done in one mission if the opportunity presented itself. So there is enough battery power to reach Minmus (Just over 2 days) plus enough power to transmit twice (6000em per reading!!!). The probe it mounted on the old reliable Quebec launcher. I'm still not 100% behind the second stage of the bigger Uniform launcher, while those Keel Haul engines are ok they are clearly a work in progress like the T15 was. While I might create a different heavy launcher soon (I did the numbers for a manned Minmus with my current tech, came up with 75 tons and that doesn't include a booster to perform the injection to Minmus) the Quebec launcher still works well for probes. The first stop is the Mun. I keep trying to make adjustments to my course, both to try and keep the probe from being gravity assisted right out of Kerbin's SOI and to see if I could pull it over to Minmus. During the approach I pulled the post-Mun inclination as compared to Minmus down to 4.5 degrees. Approaching the Mun I consider a course that would have flipped which side of the Mun the probe passed on, reversing the gravity assist but that didn't seem like it would provide the benefit I wanted. In low orbit a mapping scan was performed and 5 minutes where spent transmitting. During that time a new maneuver was devised. I was able to get intercepts with Minmus but with estimated arrival times that where too far in the future. All of those courses involved the probe going past the orbit of Minmus, slowing down and then coming back as Minmus was finally arriving. I eventually figured out the radicial course correction I needed to reach Minmus within the life of the batteries, a 1071 m/s burn as I came out of low Mun orbit that would make a direct intercept of Minmus that avoided the long 'turn around' at the AP of an orbit. You can see just how big a change this was. This course change would let me reach Minmus in 1 day 19 hours. The battery figures put it very close but since I still had the upper booster with its 3 T30 engines I would be able to generate some power for part of the burn, hopefully enough to make up any difference. After the burn the final numbers could be checked. The actual time of arrival was just 10 minutes short of 2 days (48 hours). With 13725em of charge left (the booster was now discarded so no further recharging could occur), minus the 6000 needed for transmissions, I could now calculate that I had 51.5 hours of power, enough to reach Minmus and transmit. Upon arrival the probe completed its last task and then before power ran out in 3 hours I made a small correction burn so that the probe would exit Kerbin's SOI instead of sticking around the local area as space junk. I've gained 240 science which will help toward my goal of unlocking the more advanced solar panels (540 science of 1800 so far).

Thank you for the feedback. As you get later in the tech tree the part models aren't really a problem - the POT-1 batteries become obsolete pretty fast and the POT-2's are mostly obsolete (I'm not even sure radial xenon tanks are used). The stretched stack xenon tanks for batteries work pretty well (sometimes there is something like z-fighting). I did notice the part-welding used to create the cool mapping scanner, I'm guessing the fuel pump was created in the same way though it's less obvious to me exactly which parts have been used. I did post over in the feedback thread that while I think the weight of batteries is just fine the physical size of the stack batteries can make things a bit ridiculous. A lot of my probes have been using the POT-360 Elite batteries (yes I got the reference) even though they are the wrong radial size just to avoid the towering stacks. I did make a suggestion for fuel cells - they provide an alternative to endlessly scaling up the number of batteries on a ship while at the same time introducing their own limitations. Since they produce power continously at a fixed rate until the reaction mass runs out you can't use them as a complete substitute. It would have been cool if my Apollo style Mun lander carried a fuel cell in place of those 4 batteries - the lander uses a battery just like Apollo and there are reentry batteries (the 300 in the command pod) too. This would provide an alternative power source early on for extending range, and later when presumably you can get enough solar power to reach other planets fuel cells can still be used for landers to provide a short term, high output power source for transmitting mission results. The only places I think I've really felt I was in the dark unfairly was with a few of the numbers - it could help if the descriptions for the two suborbital pods make a more direct reference to the altitude they could operate at before kerbals died without warning (it doesn't need to be a number, the little altitude scale is also color coded and corresponds to where they can reach). I have really enjoyed the way I could pick up hints by reading all the part and tech descriptions (like how I was indirectly warned about how the higher speed from a Mun return might be an issue for the small heat shield). It could also help if the science parts state how many mbits they are up front - finding out the power requirements by trial and error is the one thing that seems a bit silly considering that kerbals built them in the first place and unlike stock some of the instruments consume massive amounts of power. And feel free to link to this anywhere you want. This is a great mod/conversion and has really extended the game. It will be kind of weird when stock .24 comes out (yes, there will be a virgin playthrough thread from me to cover how contracts and money affect the game) since I'll be back playing with far fewer restrictions. I assume it will take a while to rebalance BTSM.

Yes it would go down but on the scale of decades. Now technically many people play games that manage to warp through that kind of time but that runs into another thing which is that it's a game. Just like how the atmosphere suddenly stops (instead of extending far out and slowly eroding orbits of any near kerbin object) it's just not part of the game to make people micromanage stuff over large time scales. If you've got something working (a craft in stable orbit, a ship powered by an RTG) it's expecting that it will continue working while you go off and do something else instead of requiring on going baby sitting. But ultimately missions (even grand tours) normally end in 10 years or less so having an RTG slowly degrade is an edge case anyway.

Yes, the Apollo style was really the most efficient way I could think of to do that mission and I did notice how the tech tree and new features/restrictions pushed me in that direction. The factors included: The only viable way for one or more kerbals to reach Mun orbit and return was to the use the Apollo style 3-man Mk1-2 Command Pod. This is because of the life support in BTSM. At this point I only had 3 vessels capable of supporting kerbals in a vaccum (I had unlocked tiers 1 through 6, with tier 7 items costing 360 science each). The little Mercury style 1-man Mk1 Command Pod only carries 200 units of life support (food/air/water) and more importantly the rate at which they are consumed limits the pod to about 2 hours of flight time. That's not even enough to get into proper Mun orbit. It's also much heavier then stock (2.99t). The second vessel was the Mk2 Lander can. It's much lighter then in stock (1.24t) but comes with a restriction that it can only be operated by 2 kerbals, 1 is not enough. Life support isn't much better - it provides enough food and air to those 2 kerbals for 4 hours of operation. That leaves the Mk1-2 Command Pod which can support 3 kerbals for 24 hours - that's just long enough to go to the Mun and back with some safety. Now in theory you could do a direct ascent mission using the Mk1-2. That was the original NASA way of doing the moon mission. However to land on the Mun with that capsule would need more then double the delta-v I had on it (without the assist from the booster it barely has enough delta-v to cover the trip, the booster assist was my safety margin). You see those batteries under the command pod weigh 1.6 tons each. They are critical to the functioning of the life support system - in fact my current bottleneck for a manned mission to Minmus isn't life support consumables, it's the electrical power to operate the machinery. The amount of fuel I'd need (and probably more thrust too!) would drive the lander above 70 tons. While I might try to chip away at that with staging I'm really restricted there due to the tech tree and changes to which parts can be radially mounted and restrictions on fuel flow (there are no fuel lines and you can't magically transfer fuel). Disregarding the challenge of getting it into orbit I would still need to safely land such a monster on the Mun (and I only have normal sized landing gear). The design of the command module followed a natural pattern of structural integrity. Since very few things can be mounted radially it would need to be one long tube. And to prevent it from breaking I'd want it to be short and as fat (same diameter) as the command pod itself. That meant using the largest batteries (same mass:em ratio as the smaller ones but 1/4 the height for the same energy density) and the Poodle engine. The choice for the Poodle engine was also down to thrust - the CM+LM weighed 38 tons so a little LV909 wouldn't cut it. It did the math for an LV909 and barely made a dent since so much of the weight was in batteries (so dry mass was high regardless of engine used). The lander design followed both structural integrity and low center of mass to make it easy/safe to land. I could have packed slightly less fuel but that would have meant using the smaller tanks and they would have to be stacked on top of each other (no way at all to feed fuel from radial tanks) which would have doubled the height of the lander and made it a bad shape to try and land. Carrying 3 kerbals and sending 2 down while 1 stays up and does orbital work was also natural. I would need 2 kerbals to operate the lander and structurally there wasn't a good way to attach a probe core to operate the command module. At that point the life support requirements for 1 kerbal for about 2 hours wasn't that bad compared to the required safety margins.

Uniform 3 This is a short reuse and technology testing mission. For this mission the Uniform command module recieves some minor modifications - 2 batteries are removed to make room for a life support recycling unit which will be tested on this mission. Additional monopropellent tanks and communications gear is also added to the command module. This mission will also test the new Variable Wavelength Surface Imaging Scanner. Since the lander module won't be used the scanner can be bolted on in place of the docking port (this means the interior hatch will be welded shut, limiting the command module to just one escape route via the side hatch). The mission will only be to Kerbin orbit, to test the scanner, life support unit and to pickup the 2 polar crew reports so along with the existing weight reduction the 1st stage booster won't be needed. Since it will also be shorter duration and in Kerbin orbit only one crew member is needed - this reduces the risk since I am slightly concerned about the placement of the recycling unit. It must be connected directly to the command pod and that means it will need to fit between the heatshield and the command pod. Along with the scanner this adds weight and might affect the reentry dynamics. The orbital mission is simple. The scanner appears to operate in low orbit (not biome specific) and provides 120 science but takes an extreme amount of power (about 6000em) and 5 minutes to transmit. The life support recycling turns on by default and reduces the life support being used at the cost of additional energy to run it. Unfortunately at this point I think that power is my limiting factor and not life support consumables. With a one kerbal crew and the smaller lander can I think I could fly to Minmus and back without even needing the recycler, but I would need about 4 times the battery capacity of my Mun mission. AlternativelyMinmus could be done with the existing launch system and a lighter one man lander, but the kerbal would die on the return voyage which is not acceptable. Reentry goes ok. The recycler heats up to over 200 C during the descent but the command module and sensor temperature remain normal behind the heat shield. So I gain 180 science and have information on the mapping scanner and assurance that the recycler can be safely configured with the command pod for reentry.

Well the starter solar panels are not much. You'll need several tons of them (all facing the sun) just to power a probe core. For a manned trip to Minmus I'll either need more batteries (probably 5 to 6 times as many) or better solar cells. I can also see the next tier of techs (which cost 1800 science!) which include an external life support pod (more life support supplies). Based on those numbers and the solar data I won't be going beyond Kerbin's orbit with a manned mission for quite a while, I'll need to focus my research in advancing my unmanned probes. To do that I'll probably start mopping up the left over science in the Kerbin system.

Uniform 2 (Part 3) With the ships docked everyone moves back to the command module. All the samples and observations are transported as well before the lander begins to be stripped of usable resources - life support, power and monopropellent are stolen from the lander to top up the CM. The electricity is welcome as it was being used up faster then life support (this was known at the design stage, the ship didn't carry enough power by itself to use all the life support supplies) but now looks to be equalized. Since the CM spent two orbits with only one kerbal it's also saved a small amount of life support which combined with the life support taken from the LM has probably extended it by another 2 hours. After the exit burn has been planned I line up the ship on the same plane as the maneuver and then start a slow spin. The reason for this is that I'm still drawing from the LM's monopropellent tanks with the CM tanks full and the valves closed. In the current spin the ship will come back around to the node where a small thrust can stop it. Before that happens however the LM will be released so that the centrifugal force can carry it away and far behind the CM (relative to the direction it intends to fire the engine) without spending any fuel. The command module burns to exit the Mun's SOI, leaving the LM in stable orbit. After that the CM lowers its Kerbin PE to 25 km and begins the 7 hour journey back home. As it nears the atmosphere the CM battery is brought to full charge by transfering power from the service module batteries and then the service module is ejected. It would have probably been safer to eject it sooner to avoid flying debris but I was focusing on battery power. The entry angle also speed u So I've earn enough science to unlock 3 different techs. I'll definitely be unlocking the solar panel (needed for probes going beyond Kerbin) and the advanced landing tech (which includes both the lander can and the life support recycler which I'll need to reach Minmus). I think I'll also unlock the tech in the middle of those two offering a mapping instrument.

Uniform 1 (Part 2) With the LM seperated it begins descending to the Midlands in an area just north of what I believe are the Twin Craters. The LM is powered by a single LV909 so it needs to burn off speed early to avoid crashing. With BTSM it has landing radar which can be turned on and gives a tone to tell you the ground is getting closer. Apart from telling me when I was within 3000m of the ground I didn't find it as much help. I'm not sure if you right click the part with the radar you can see a readout of the true altitude like you can in IVA view. If that's the case it would be more useful but I just landed by sight - I already landed a probe here earlier with no special instruments so this shouldn't be harder. The LM has a very nice low center of gravity and big landing legs. It gets a solid touchdown on the first try, no bounce or roll. Gusbin carefully descends the ladder and takes the first cautious steps on the Mun's surface. After he does not explode Lemger joins him. The EVA report is worth a whopping 450 science though the surface sample is only worth 150. However the Surface sample is biome specific some more then one could be collected - they are very close to one of the Midland Craters but life support in the packs is limited and I don't want to make such a sudden change in mission plan. If I run low on science however I could return to the Mun for more samples. Meanwhile up in orbit Hanemone is making observations about the surface as he orbits back around to the landing site. After he passes overhead the LM takes off into a lower orbit to quickly catch up with the CM. A burn is immediately calculated to bring the CM and LM to within 2 km of each other. At that point the orbit of the LM is brought into near sync with the CM (canceling out most of their relative velocity) and leading them to meet after the LM has traveled 3/4 of the way around the Mun from it's launch on the surface. Docking is straight forward. It's actually been a long time since I've done an RCS docking. I make some minor adjustments to my approach and then switch over to the CM to order him to turn and face his docking port toward the incoming LM. Since I'm rationing RCS in the CM it's a slow turn and the LM is now within 50m and approaching at 4.2 m/s. Switching back to the LM I don't have time to adjust so I slow down instead. The two ships are now about 10m apart but seperated laterally. Since I can't fly straight in I switch to chase view so I can fly better by eye. I push in on a lateral approach at a slower speed (0.2 m/s) so that the docking port can handle it. Coasting to 3m I give a puff of reverse thrust before contact. The one thing I've forgotten in this time is SAS - as soon as the docking port begins to attract the SAS starts firing thrusters to try and correct attitude. I immediately shut it off and the ships dock. Now alternatively I could have turned both ships towards each other when they where stopped and flown straight in but that would have used more RCS and I really didn't want to use the thrusters on the CM unless absolutely necessary. [table] [tr] [td] [/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [/table]

Uniform 2 (Part 1) The first stage has been replaced and the 2nd stage has been tweaked. I might have moved the lander down so it wasn't on top of the command module, but the risks associated with how it would need to be strapped in below and retrieved vs the risk involved with extra complexity of a launch abort didn't seem worth it. The new first stage is half the height of the old one but fatter. Instead of each module containing two booster assemblies there are now three to a module. 4 modules, 3 assemblies each, each assembly containing 4 LV-T45 engines for a total of 48 engines. 48 thrust vectoring engines makes it very stable removing the need for RCS at this point in the flight (which is good because RCS and fins didn't seem to be enough against all that mass). The revised second stage adds a center stabilizing engine (a Poodle) with enough fuel to approximately equal the burn time of the other engines. In orbit some crew reports are taken while the inclination is fine tuned and the injection burn is setup. It's a complex job keeping track of 3 tasks at once so it's a good thing there are three kerbals on board. With the exception of Tundra and Poles this catches me up on the Kerbin orbital crew reports. The 2nd stage booster assists with the injection burn (saving some fuel on the CM) and then the Command Module takes over. I don't want to waste too much time or fuel. The command module has just short of 24 hours of life support - that number is mostly limited by how far the batteries can be stretched. The lander module has about 3 hours of life support and a small excess of power. It also carries 80% of the combined crafts monopropellent reserves. The tank in the CM will remained locked down unless the LM is operating seperately. The CM's fuel supply is limited - it has enough to make the journey with the LM and return alone but not much else. The LM has plenty of fuel to ensure a safe landing and so it can take whatever steps are required to dock with the CM before life support runs out. However I couldn't figure out a way to rig fuel flow and a hatch between the LM and CM without compromising stability. That means extra fuel in the LM can't be reused (I did the calcuations and it just wasn't practical from a number of angles to try using the LM's engine to perform the exit burn from the Mun). Upon arriving at the Mun observations are made of the surface. Once in low orbit Lemgur and Gusbin use the tunnel to transfer to the landing module. The LM's batteries are brought to full charge and the snack containers are filled with supplies from the CM. The LM detaches ahead of its planned deorbit point to put some distance from the CM without using additional propellent.

"So it's a lack of thrust vectoring huh?" the guys over at the VAB said in response to my concerns. "We've got you covered"

Even after being barred from further space travel (too much risk to a national hero) Yuri was still a colonel in the Soviet air force and was flying with another pilot in the dual seat version of the MIG 15 during some standard training exercises. In low visibility and for unknown reasons his plane entered a spin and crashed. There are a number of theories and at the time there was more then one investigation leading to some information being split between investigators. There was an official investigation which came to be official and secret conclusions, a secret KGB one and the central community may have also done yet another secret side investigation. The official report was that the crash was caused when Yuri or the other pilot Vladimir Seryogin turned suddenly to avoid an object that had appeared and stalled (the committee secretly believed it to be a weather balloon). From the secret investigations a number of other theories where advanced at the time and years later by those involved or gained access to the classified materials. One of the leading men who was originally involved in the investigation believes that an SU-15 (he refuses to name the pilot who he says is still alive) was flying too low at super sonic speeds during the exercise (again visiblity was an issue that day), passing close enough that the shockwave from his aircraft tossed Yuri's plane over on itself. Another theory that was secretly investigated at the time was that an oxygen vent had been left open. Yet another was that because of poor information provided by air controllers (who gave outdated weather information) Yuri flew the craft into a dangerous weather system he believed to be at a higher altitude.

Uniform 1 The first launch attempt for the Mun mission ran into some problems with the first stage booster. The rocket had difficulty maintaining its heading and 2 of the 4 booster modules snapped free under the stress. 1st stage is shutdown and 2nd stage engages to stabilize flight. The LM is undocked with mixed results, not enough horizontal seperation can be created in time. The CM then seperates and parachutes safely to the ground. The lack of thrust vectoring in the Keel Haul engines could be a major problem, there may just be too much thrust to counter with regular attitude control.

After your first post that was my plan. The 2 kerbals would go down in the LM and land on the Mun. While waiting for the CM to circle around for the best launch-to-dock window I would be switched back to the CM to do crew reports, mirroring the experiments done by the CM pilot for Apollo.

I did miss that the orbital crew reports where biome specific in BTSM. I actually noticed a few times an 'over water' report when I was reviewing the science archives but it never clicked that it was a biome specific orbital report. Working it out I have a choice now - I could proceed with my manned mission (I think the craft is ready to go) using all the tech up to 180pts, or I could do a pair of low orbit missions to gather the missing crew reports (excluding the badlands which I never seem to find) and then do that sun orbit Goo experiment. That would give me exactly 360 science (30 * 7 + 150) which could be used to unlock Field Science. The small lander can would greatly reduce the weight of my manned Mun mission. Any thoughts?

So anyway there is some work on to get ready for the manned Mun mission. The operating parameters of the Keel Haul are being tested and the procedure for moving Kerbals and science between pods (internally) in being checked. There is assembly being done in the VAB but there will likely need to be adjustments, at the moment it's just much too tall to think it can fly straight. Even zoomed out in the VAB it's not even close to fitting on the screen from the side.

If you only want to remove the stock ships from appearing in one save game's VAB and not all of them you can edit that saved game's persistent file. Find the section labeled DIFFICULTY and change AllowStockVessels to False.

Tango 1 I need some more science to improve my set of engine, fuel and structural parts to prepare for launching a manned Mun mission with large radius stacking. There are currently two sources of science that I know about that I can reach with my current technology. One is to perform a Goo return mission from just beyond Kerbin's SOI. That mission would return 150 science based on the data I collected from Romeo 1 though there may be a few questions about whether the heatshield would hold up. That's not enough science to unlock even one item though, so Tango is going to my alternate source of science which is to get Goo sample returns from Minmus and surface seismograph readings (Romeo 2 already collected temperature and barometric data from the surface). That mission should return at least 550 science plus whatever data can be found examining a capsule returned from the surface of Minmus. I'm again using the same launch platform as Quebec. Fuel isn't as important as battery power this time. I could almost make it work with just one T400 tank but the batteries can't be radially mounted to the tank (the tank can be radially mounted to the batteries) which would have forced a really tall lander which you know I don't like. I'm using the larger 2.5m heatshield I unlocked for my manned mission. It may provide better protection for the return from Minmus. The science package is really simple, stacked up top are 3 Goo containers and a single Double-C to be returned to Kerbin. There is an SAS system it's mounted at the very bottom of the probe along with 2 of my new radial monopropellent tanks. The engines are still LV405s, one of the techs I want to unlock will give me the improved LV909 along with some other engines like the LV-T45 and the Poodle. The flight out to Minmus is by the book, though the actual travel time I get is a bit long, 1 day 20 hours, about 10 hours longer then my target time. In theory I have about 48 hours of power but with the transit stage attached that number is not fixed. Each of the T30 engines has an alternator so when that stage is fired up to 100% it is generating almost 8 minutes of power for every second it is running. This means that probes sent out on the platform leave orbit with a full charge. Arriving at Minmus 2 of the Goo containers are exposed in orbit and the probe settles into low orbit with the transit stage still attached and with fuel still in the tank. The descent is a little interesting. While I'd normally use some remaining fuel in a transit stage to aid in deorbiting in this case it took on special significance since I was running below the mark on power and above on fuel. The more of that transit fuel I could burn the more I could regenerate the power cells. This led to the clucky transit stage being used for almost the entire descent. With about 50L of fuel left and at 300m I was forced to drop it and try to alter the landers heading a bit with RCS translation. You can see the result of keeping the transit stage until the lander was about 300m from the ground. On the ground the last Goo container is used as well as the Double-C. I've got all the science I came for so it's time to leave. There is plenty of fuel (enough that I could land a second time) and about 10 hours of power. It's straight forward to take off and exit Minmus's orbit before lowering my PE for Kerbin. With reentry set to 36 km it follows the same pattern as previous returns with the probe making 2 braking passes flying as an unpowered mass before entry and automatic parachute deployment. I get enough science to complete the 180pt tier of the tech tree which should be everything I need to go to the Mun. Beyond that I'll need 360 science per node to unlock the life support tech needed to reach Minmus and solar panels to allow probes to go beyond Kerbin.

The way I did it recently was from Kerbin orbit with another correction once I reached the Mun. Starting from LKO with an inclination of 0 degrees I plotted an 879 m/s burn that was mostly prograde but added a small normal burn. I was basically eyeballing it to try and pass over the Mun with a low orbit PE for capture. The better method would have been to do a correction earlier, once I was close enough to better see the line, but I had lots of fuel so it was easiest to just wait until I entered the Mun's SOI. From there I did a 116 m/s correction to get right on the pole, followed by 239 m/s to capture into low orbit for a total of 1234 m/s. If I had done the correction earlier it could have probably been done for about 60 - 75 m/s more then a normal trip to Mun orbit.

Even in stock probe cores have a constant drain on power to operate. If you've stacked 5 of them together there is a good chance that the reduced power the solar panels are receiving (due to distance and orientation) isn't enough to cover them all. In that event I believe they all die (a few mods do have a feature to let you disable some probe cores so they aren't all draining power at once, as long as at least one control device like a probe or crew member stays active)

Without mods solar panels only lose a percentage of their effectiveness as you near Eeloo's closest passage (50% if memory serves but it could be 75%). However if you are powering a probe core XL panels would be fine in stock, you'd just take a long time to recharge between transmissions unless you have a big battery reserve. One of the following has happened: You have a mod installed that changes how solar panels behave You have a lot of probe cores (unlikely) Your solar panels are not properly setup to cover all angles and your ship has been left in an orientation where the panels don't recieve sunlight. If you only have 2 XL panels deployed then there are going to be at least 2 blindspots.

Sierra 1 This was a manned mission to test out space suits. I've unlocked 3 techs, one which provided me with a large heatshield (and some plane components I won't use), another which unlocked the Apollo 3 kerbal capsule and the last which unlocked space suits, the bigger lander can (requires 2 to pilot) and some landing parts like bigger legs, radial chute and landing radar. Everyone was excited to start the flight, this would be the first spacewalk! Unfortunately not much was accomplished. First the EVA control is a bit weird in BTSM. When you click EVA the camera view changes but the control focus doesn't actually switch to the kerbal that is now on the ladder (even though it shows a message saying to 'press space to let go'). You need to use [ ] to switch to the kerbal before you press any keys that would do something bad on the spacecraft. The second is that apparently without jetpacks I can't make an EVA report while doing a spacewalk (I did double check on the surface of Kerbin and apparently I can take an EVA report or sample while standing on dry land). I even tried letting go of the ladder and I still couldn't do an EVA report (Lemger and Gusbin would have used the pods RCS to bring the hatch to him if Hanemone had drifted to far from the handles to grab them again). So until I land on the Mun or unlock jetpacks (which are probably somewhere in the aerodynamics branch knowing how important stuff is being placed there just to make sure I unlock it) there won't be any EVA reports. Since I've used up my science I guess I'll either need to start planning a manned Mun landing or an unmanned Minmus landing/sample return.

Romeo 1-2 Having discovered that the PresMat barometer can be used outside of an atmosphere (at least on the surface of the Mun) and with new battery technology unlocked I decided to create a mission to determine if the PresMat could be used in orbit too. Since I wanted some science regardless my plan is to also test the longer lasting batteries by getting a probe all the way out of Kerbin's SOI while still holding enough charge to transmit back temperature information. The design of Romeo 1 is based on the Quebec launcher, with the lander replaced by a minimal probe and a lot of batteries (over 10,000em). It has a PresMat and a 2Hot as well as the new fold down antenna whose performance I can evaluate. Finally it uses a new probe core which uses half the power of my previous one. Overall the probe should have about 3 days of power not including transmissions. Since the destinations are Kerbin orbit, Mun orbit and orbit around the Sun I plot a Mun gravity assist that is scheduled to take me out of Kerbin's SOI in 1 day 9 hours. It turns out I can use the PresMat in low orbit though high orbit doesn't work. Since none of these locations are valid PresMat biomes in the stock game I get to read entirely new messages. Getting out into orbit around the Sun gives me another temperature reading, though it looks like the Sun doesn't have the huge multiplier it does in stock. Romeo 1 is left to circle the Sun, though at some point it may get a gravity assist from Kerbin or Eve (the Mun assist seemed to put it close to Eve's orbit). Romeo 2 uses the same design, though I moved the instruments and communications dish to the top and added a GravMax. I will be flying out to Minmus to perform an orbital survey. The trip out is normal - I match inclination with Minmus and then burn to reach it. Arriving at Minmus's SOI I make a 10 m/s correction in order to line up my orbit as close as possible. Minmus orbit turns out to be the same multiplier as Kerbin and Mun orbit, so I won't be making the huge science leaps you can in stock. In fact even as I'm unlocking items in the 180pt tier (science costs are rebalanced, each their doubles so it looks like 90 > 180 > 360 instead of 90 > 160 > 300) I'm still only bringing in enough science on a mission to unlock one or two items. This is a big difference from stock where as soon as you start landing on the Mun you bring back these huge science gains that let you jump through the tech tree. Finding biomes with the GravMax is much easier on Minmus. I quickly pickup the Slopes, Midlands, Lowlands and the Greater, Great, Lesser and just normal Flats. I know that one or more regions of Minmus are refered to as the Highlands (I've landed there before) but I don't seem to find it around the equater. I also know there is at least one polar biome (maybe 2 like the Mun). Since I have lots of fuel I do an inclination change after one orbit. The change is such that I should actually hit Minmus after passing the Pole. This is deliberate since with my other readings done and lots of fuel I might as well try a soft landing and transmit with the instruments I have. I get my Poles gravity reading and as I near the ground seperate the bulky transit stage to give myself better attitude control. Landing is successful and I can transmit temperature and barometric pressure information from the surface. I still didn't find the Highlands and I've got fuel so I roll and bit and manage to take off again in the low gravity. I end up pushing my suborbital path around until it becomes a complete elliptical orbit with a very low PE and a high orbit AP. I'm out of fuel now but I do manage to find the Highlands with the gravity scanner before leaving low orbit. All that is left now is to dispose of the probe. Since I still have charge and monopropellent I wait until I reach the AP and then lower the PE into Minmus. At the time I lower my PE the ships electrical charge is running low, about 2 hours left. That creates an interesting situation as it is hard to tell if the ship will run out of power first (which damages the probe core, you can't revive them in BTSM) or crash. It really comes down to the wire, the ship losing charge 71 seconds before impact. I'll probably advance in the tech tree to start some more manned operations next, in preparation to reach the Mun. I can also see (at the 360pt tier) my first solar panel. It's not very strong but I could use it to fly to a probe to Eve or Duna. I also see a mapping instrument at that tier, I'll need more missions complete before I even consider unlocking it (still need at least 2 different manned tech, better heatshield and the solar panel at minimum)

There is an easy way to avoid running out of Steam. Just click on the menu in the top right corner and select the 2nd option Go Offline. Now you can run your Steam games without an online connection and it won't time out. At least I assume that is what you are talking about since no human could get bored of KSP.

Correct, the engines weigh the same before and after removing the fairings (in a similar situation the fairing added by a decoupler to a normal engine has no weight). The fairings discarded by the LV-N obviously have some weight as you've noted but since it didn't come from the engine I'd say they where seperate entities that where just spawned and given initial velocity.