TameCaveMan

Brilliant stuff! This will come in handy if I want to test something as part of my little story thing without needing to disable the plugin in case of accidentally completing a mission Loving the addon, I'd prefer a bit more variation in mission types and a slower build up.. In career mode these things are a LOT harder early on without the necessary science. Plus I'd rather not grind the random missions.

Meet Jebediah Kerman - high levels of bravery and stupidity. Doesn't care where he is going so long as it's dangerous. Bill Kerman - Just as brave as his brother in arms Jebediah, only far stupider-er. er. Believes books were created by the space Kraken to confuse Kerbals. Bob Kerman - It's Bob. Not overly brave, only traces of stupidity detected. Believes in something called "Mathematics" whatever the hell that is. Now for the new guys! D-D-Dunner Kerman - Incredibly brave, 0 stupidity. Claims to be smart. Such words are heathen. Eldan Kerman - Not as brave as Bob, not as stupid as Bill. Happens to be Dunner's brother-in-law. Dislikes bears. The Mission! After gathering the team together the original rescue plans were discussed and revised, if we were going to do this we had to do it right. After all it could be a very long time till we get another chance and it may already be too late as it is. Time is precious. Several ideas were drafted. Most were stupid. Jeb, Bob and Bill all wanted to go and find their lost comrade but this was costly and incredibly risky.. Already having lost 1 Kerbal on a routine mission to the Mun I simply was not going allow 3 more to potentially fly to their deaths. Dunner formulated an idea - a lander with a probe head attached, the plan was to arrive on the Mun and search for Bartrey, if found then he would take the rescuer's place who would then wait for an unmanned ship to arrive at coordinates he would send back in the first rocket. It sounds viable. The Problems! An attempt was made at building a prototype rocket to carry 3 kerbals with space for a 4th to the Mun, unfortunately with our current technology and budget we calculated that such a craft would be able to get there but not back.. It would simply be too heavy. We need a volunteer to step forward, a single Kerbal who is brave and "smart", if that really is a word, to land on the Mun, get Bartrey and then wait for a second lander to get them back too. Anyone? No? Okay I pick then. Dunner. Best of luck, now get in the rocket.

I think the issue is that it doesn't recognise the flight was a test flight. It will initially, but once you switch to the space centre then back again it assumes it was a real flight and completes the missions.

I noticed a slight problem.. I selected a mission, launched my rocket as a test flight and got orbit. Went back to tracking centre, changed to flight mode, went back into rocket and could complete the mission... Paid next to nothing for a huge payout. I accidentally did this and there's no way to say no thanks to the popup.. So I ended up with more money than I should have.

Gentlemen this is most auspicious occasion. A request has just come in asking for a probe to be injected into a Muner orbit. We will have to hand over control of said probe after it has a stable orbit, yes. However we can scan the surface briefly. It's not much but it's certainly better than nothing. We will find him. Dead or alive, we will find Bartrey damn it. No Kerbal left behind! Presenting.............. Tame Space Solution's latest solution: The Gambit Once this beauty finished charging up her batteries, the rockets will fire up and orbit will be attained. The Gambit, loosely based off of the Spudnik design features a similar probe stage with a few additions and the removal of all landing equipment, featuring swanky new solar panels and a 6 part asparagus system for initial lift. Along with the required goo canister and Communotron 16, we fitted a thermometer. Because why not. With a smaller yet more efficient engine equipped for the transfer and orbital stage. Incredibly light the Gambit reaches high speeds unfortunately quickly resulting in more controlled burns to reduce inefficiency. The extra fuel and stages do certainly increase costs by a significant amount. Not exactly cheap. BUT there is an offer of 120,000 K for the successful orbit AND the slim chance of finding Bartrey, definite must. Needless to say it made an orbit around Kerbin with ease. And shortly began burning away from Kerbin to inject itself into an orbit with the Mun Gambit approached the Mun and carefully began to slow down, burning retrograde in an attempt to achieve an orbit. Plenty of fuel reserves left allowed for several corrections that were needed. Mostly the angle of orbit.. It had to be at a particular angle for those buggers to be happy. Once the orbit had been corrected, we could briefly scan the surface with the prototype. It was only a small window but it bodes well. Only a few images came through.. We knew Bartrey crashed but was this from the initial failed landing? Or a later explosion? Was our beloved Kerbal even still alive? We MUST finish this prototype and push forward with the mission. Mission report - Gambit Mun Orbit Rocket: Gambit MK.I Location: KSC Cost: 73,756 Reward: 120,000 Aim: Achieve orbit above the Mun, AP at least 86.5Km Result: Success - 138.8Km AP, 123.8Km PE The government recognises our successes, granting us a bit extra spending cash.. Balance: 227,949 K We have enough. It's time.

Next time.. New recruits! New ship! Some testings and a new mission! (To the Mun?)

(Over 150 views on the thread - I hope you like it, any feedback is appreciated) It's time to make a decision, try and shoot for orbit as is or add more fuel - lower risk but also lower profits. Screw it! We did it once we can do it again, only this time with 20 big ones on the line. I gave the order, signed the contract and waited eagerly for Bob, Jebediah and Bill to ready the rocket. We're going to orbit Kerbin, we're going to get paid and we are going to keep pushing forwards! It's a necessary risk. Mission report - Spudnik Orbit Rocket: Spudnik MK.II Location: KSC Cost: 20,078 Reward: 60,000 Aim: Achieve orbit AP between 86.6Km - 106.6Km Result: Success - 101Km AP, 90Km PE achieved So far all successes, I'm liking this. With the tests completed and the rocket ready for launch we hurry down to the tracking centre with fingers crossed praying that nothing will go wrong. Please. We need this. Launch is a go and no failures, this is promising. We knew that it was possible but there was the gamble with fuel levels, chances are it was never coming back down but so long as we could get it into a stable orbit then the money would be ours regardless of it blowing up afterwards. The biggest worry is not having enough fuel to extend the Periapsis enough. As the auxiliary fuel tanks empty out they are jettisoned just like with the test. Now the burn up to orbit. If we fail here at least we can retrieve the craft and try again another day. The apoapsis climbs dangerously slowly, reducing throttle as the rocket gains altitude to reduce fuel wastage.. Every little drop counts. Success. With a few tiny drops of fuel left if we need to de orbit the probe head, Kerbals cheering, accountants sighing with relief and Bartrey you son of gun we're not far off now.

Growing impatient, I asked Bob to see if he could perhaps draft up a rocket design that could rescue Bartrey, similar to the rocket used to get him to the Mun this one would almost certainly work if it wasn't for the budget. 178,724 K Ouch. We need to roughly triple our balance to have a shot at a rescue attempt while keeping in the black, this is taking precious time we may not have, there hasn't been a transmission since those surface samples were sent over. Those guys that sent us a contract for a sub orbital drone flight? They just went a step further and are now asking we get one into orbit for the low low price of 60,000 K! Knowing the Spudnik MK.I could just about get sub orbital, Bob suggested adding extra fuel, the contract required a goo container to be added and the only way it could possibly continually transmit from orbit would to add solar panels - all of which is adding more and more weight. The somewhat intelligent Kerbal worked overnight to give us the mighty Spudnik MK.II! The extra fuel tanks can be jettisoned after emptying out to give more fuel to the engine while reducing weight once they're done with. Mission report - Test Flight Rocket: Spudnik MK.II Location: KSC Cost: 20,078 - Only 502 for a test flight Reward: 60,000 - Not awarded for test Aim: Achieve orbit AP between 86.6Km - 106.6Km Result: Success - 106.5Km achieved The MK.II in orbit, 20L of fuel remaining for de orbit burn. Just about enough. Successful De-Orbit burn. Safe landing, science included. The test flight was a success though a little tight on the fuel. Do we go for the real deal and risk losing 20 grand? Or add more fuel, more weight and less profit.. Balance after test: 69,807 K Note: Decided to change screenshot method, should result in higher quality now!

After the public demonstration using the Velocity to hit above our target AP, a request came in for something somewhat similar only unmanned and paid a hell of a lot more. Over double. This was the time to start bringing home the bacon. Mission report Rocket: Spudnik MK.I Location: KSC Cost: 12,313 Reward: 50,000 Aim: Achieve AP of at least 70Km Result: Success - 80km achieved Balance after touchdown: 70,309 K Initial testing of the Spudnik MK.I rocket indicated that while it could complete the objective it had limited battery power, potentially resulting in a loss of control mid flight. The version was revised and the decision was made to add a single battery to boost the probe's lifespan. There was just enough fuel to achieve sub orbit and a course correction burn to avoid splash downs. The unmanned Spudnik waiting for launch. After completing the objective and corrected the descent course, the probe head separates from the rocket. She lands safely and sends back the data for the flight. Success! Another successful mission, another delicious paycheck and one more step closer to rescue. We're coming for ya buddy.

With the budgets getting cut ever more, Tame Space Solutions decided to open itself out to private contracts in the hope of raising some much needed funding to send a rescue mission out to the Mun to hopefully rescue Bartrey. Note: This is done with the Mission Controller addon in career mode. If I'm not using certain parts, I haven't unlocked them. Also, I edit the MechJeb files to make it cost considerably less and I unlocked all functions for myself. I only use the information screens, smart A.S.S and the Translatron. The first contract came in, a nice easy mission - sub orbital flight with a Kerbal and a reward of 24,000 K. The rocket alone costed 20,499 K plus an extra 5,000 for insurance on the Kerbal, but so long as it was successful a small profit could be made and an inch closer to Bartrey. Mission report Rocket: Velocity MK.I Location: KSC Cost: 20,499 Reward: 24,000 Aim: Achieve AP of at least 66Km Result: Success - 70km achieved The Velocity was the attempt at building a simple yet cost effective sub orbital rocket. Comprised of two stages, the launch stage and the descent stage. The launch has a large fuel reserve with a single LV-T30 liquid fuel engine. The descent stage hold the basic Command Pod MK.I with landing legs and a parachute. A Communotron 16 was added to allow transmission of data back to the space centre. A successful launch and separation, the Velocity began transmitting data from the upper atmosphere of Kerbin. A safe landing resulting in one happy Kerbal and a positive bank balance.

I just edited it, I put in the wrong URLs for them.. Should be all good now!

Thank you very much, I think it probably was.. I just looked through all his posts and can't see it.

Sweet Jeebus, 200 views on this thread! Thank you all, whether you stumbled upon it and left or stayed for more. Also feedback. I like feedback. That is the Kerbal way! Or at least my Kerbals. Tame Space Solutions is headed up by a new CEO - TameCaveMan with a passion for science and all things data related. I hate losing hard working Kerbals but some times you can't predict their sheer stupidity, the latest mission, the first attempt at a manned Mun lander went horribly wrong. Monday morning, big file on my desk titled: "Reasons to go to the Mun" I didn't have time to read it so I simply called in my latest researched Bartrey Kerman and ordered that he get to work on constructing a craft capable of landing on the Mun. The specifics were clear, it had to be unmanned, fully equipped with the latest science and be able to get back home again safely. A few hours later and the first prototype was built, fully fuelled and waiting on the launch pad. The, "TSS Mun Lander MK.I", she was brilliant but looks meant nothing, if it didn't produce results then I was not interested. After a couple of checks the go ahead was given, the launchpad cleared and the solid boosters were lit. She was away. I hastily made my way into the tracking station and demanded half hourly reports on the situation. Orbit was made. Great, it could actually leave the atmosphere! The next few hours were tense as the calculations were made for a burn to intercept the Mun. I prayed it was possible, the Kerbal government had limited our budget and we simply could not afford too many loses, for this mission to succeed would save my ass and that of the entire program. Communications went dark. The probe had stopped transmitting reports to us, we had no idea what had happened. The next image we got through was a glorious one. She landed on the Mun, the very first prototype had done it, what we though would take years more of development to achieve was done in a single day. The science was flooding in, transmission after transmission, materials, goo and temperature readings all at our fingertips... But from the Mun. Once we extracted what we could I gave the order to make it's way back to Kerbin, then we could analyse the ship itself and any effects the Mun's environment may have had. Watching eagerly in the tracking station she made her way out of the Mun's orbit and began speeding towards the planet, it wouldn't be long now before I could shove some results up the gov's Kerbolic asshole. A safe landing. We successfully got an unmanned science station to the Mun and back again, so surely we could do it with a live Kerbal right? I'm sorry Bartrey. You're a God damned idiot. --Mission Day-- Bartrey built the original prototype, his creation excelled at it's job and so convinced of it's prowess that Bartrey forwarded himself to be the Kerbal for the manned landing. We know it's possible to get there, we got data back from our probe.. It even had a command module mounted to see if it could carry the weight. I had no reason to doubt the fuzzy green fellow staring up at me so I happily signed the necessary paperwork and begun preparing Bartrey for his first (and sadly only) endeavour! He shall soar past the atmosphere, break free of Kerbin's orbit and make a safe landing on the Mun taking important surface samples. For science! The procedures were relatively similar, the craft was fuelled and waiting on the launch pad for its commander. I told them to leave the probe head on just in case he wasn't competent enough to pilot the damn thing. Waving a happy and eager wave back to the team he began boarding the "TSS Mun Lander MK.II". Everything went as expected right up until landing on the Mun... The kerbal had managed to get himself dangerously off course and with no way of correcting his landing pattern, Bartrey put on a brave face and engaged the engines to slow his descent. Landing gear down, horizontal speed cancelled out. It just wasn't enough to save him from his own idiocy, upon hitting the surface at an angle the engines snapped off. His only chance of getting home rolled down the hill into the crater below. Bartrey had "landed" on the side of a crater, barely keeping the craft upright with the SAS module. But there was still science to be done! And by God was he going to do it, acquiring samples from all around the crater and registering data from the science machines on board. The last image we had of Bertrey was him climbing into the command module to begin transmitting the information. His current whereabouts are unknown.

I remember quite a while ago, I saw a thread to do with someone attempting to go about making a reusable space program via the Kethane mod and allowed themselves a certain number of boosters and fuel to start off with. I've tried looking for it for the past couple of days to no avail. Does anyone happen to know where abouts the thread is? Also please don't tell me to use the search, I already have. Many thanks!