Northstar1989

Use bigger solar panels and you can get a lot better energy capture for fewer parts. NearFuture mod adds some nice, huge arrays (you can delete all the other parts from the pack from the GameData folder so you're not taking up too much RAM)

@FractalUK The Haber Process at last! Awesome! Now if we can just see integration of Methane Pyrolysis (so we can recycle excess methane for hydrogen recovery) and the Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction (so we can jsut produce water, without all that wasteful and currently unrecyclable production of excess methane when all we want is the oxygen we can get from electrolyzing water- say for life support systems), the mod will be pretty close to golden when it comes to the key ISRU reactions (adjustment of the Anthraquinone Process to work off Hydrogen and Oxygen in gaseous form, like in the real world, instead of water and oxygen, would also be very useful) Regards, Northstar

Geschosskopf, I'm afraid the 0.23.5 save has broken a couple of my mods (in particular, MechJeb2) well enough that I'm going to give them some time to update before I attempt to recontinue the save that the Raven Mk2, Blackhawk Mk6, Eagle Mk2, and HORNET helicopter are all in- so it'll be at least several days and probably several weeks before you hear anything more about any of the missions (I'm taking a break from KSP for a little while). But, rest assured, getting the Raven Mk2 on its Duna intercept (preferably as previously described- first on an intercept with Duna's orbital rail on its own fuel, and then after an in-flight refueling, an adjustment to compensate for Duna's greatly suboptimal position), and finally bringing the other aircraft into Duna's orbit when they arrive and then down into the atmosphere to finally complete the challenge are all on the chopping block for me. I would still prefer, as described before, if you'd reconsider the Raven's SSTDABK capability- as the capability is clearly evident from its 1140+ m/s Delta-V capacity in vacuum (more than enough to make Duna from Minmus orbit on a good transfer window) as well as its ability to intercept the rail (but not the planet itself, in a straight transfer) from its current position. Seeing how many bugs the version updates have introduced to my now ancient save, at some point after I set up a sustainable Duna colony I am going to wipe the save and start from scratch anyways. So, I've decided I am willing to do the roleplaying unthinkable- if you won't give the Raven Mk2 credit for SSTDABK capability with an in-transfer refueling, I'll leave the Raven Mk2 in the Duna rail-intercepting solar orbit the Raven Mk2 can achiever without refueling, for however long it takes for Duna to phase into position and intercept it (it could be YEARS of game-universe time), aerocapture, and get the credit anyways. The only thing you will thus have accomplished is annoying me greatly, as I have to sit for potentially a half-hour, an hour, or possibly even several hours at time-warp (after my other flights are stabilized) doing nothing but looking for when it finally gets an intercept... Regards, Northstar

The Light Moon Explorer Mk3 made a successful ascent to a low Munar orbit of a a bit over 20,000 meters: As I feared though, it doesn't seem to have nearly enough fuel to reach the Munar Spacedock for refueling... (I'd have to wait for MechJeb to be functional again for a precise count on its remaining Delta-V) So, I'm going to have to send the fuel to it- most probably by arranging a rendezvous with the Light Munar Fuel Lander already in a low polar orbit (highlighted in one of the last images of the album). This means some rather precise maneuver plotting, of course, which I'd prefer to perform with the aid of MechJeb to get right, so... I'm going to be shelving this save for a while. It's not that I can't perform the remaining steps without MechJeb- but I'd also like to avoid the new bug with my Science points total resetting if I load up the R&d Facility (this issue only affects pre- 0.23.5 saves), and I know I'd eventually click on the facility and lose all my progress towards Fusion Power if I kept playing this save long enough... Before I'm tempted to do something stupid I'll later regret like scrapping this save and starting a new Career Mode save (I've been toying with the idea for a while anyways- several bugs have been introduced with the origin of this save so many versions ago- particularly in the Science Archives system...), I'm going to take a break from KSP for a while. But look for more word on this a few days or weeks down the line. Logging off for now. It was a pleasure writing to all of you. Regards, Northstar

My first reaction on loading my save file today was "What the %#^#!"- when I found that the interface was completely different, and MechJeb2 was entirely nonfunctional. Then, a search of the GameData folder revealed a new folder called "NASAmission", and I realized that I had forgotten to disable Steam's auto-update feature, leading to the installation of yesterday's patch without my knowledge... I feel it's a little late to undo this now, but it does pose some obvious problems for the rather tight Delta-V budget of the LME-3's return trip, as well as the rather precise execution required for some of the micro-adjustment burns on the ships of my Duna armada... (I was planning on relying on MechJeb to make sure there tiny burns were executed correctly...) I'll have to do my best to adapt, and keep my eyes out for the first updated version of MechJeb I can find... Luckily I didn't have any ridiculous 30-minute long ion thruster burns in deep space planned anytime soon, or anything like that... As always, here's an obligatory picture (note the lack of any MechJeb menu- which will be sorely missed for its ability to keep me informed of my Delta-V status...) Sorry it's so dark- the LME Mk3 will be lifting off from the dark side of the Mun: Note the topmost piece separated by a decoupler. That will be another attempt at an impactor probe, and will detached before orbital circularization to slam back into the Mun. Regards, Northstar

Meanwhile, the Munar ExAt ScanSat (EXtra-ATmospheric SCANning SATellite) continues its sweep of Munar latitudes between 45 degrees and the equator: The Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform also made its final adjustment burn before entering Duna's Sphere of Influence: More updates later. Regards, Northstar

Jerbo Kerman thought over the past day- it all seemed to have passed so quickly: As he finally laid back in his bunk at the KSC, he couldn't help but wonder if he would get the chance to go to space again. "Maybe not after how hard we came in on re-entry" thought Jerbo, thinking of the smoldering husk of the Light Moon Explorer Mk2 command capsule, and how the flames had danced around their spacecraft deep into the atmosphere. At 11 G's during re-entryg and unspeakable levels of heat, the Kerbals were lucky to still be alive. The engineers and medical experts still couldn't figure out how they were still breathing. He also remember he still had to find the time to hold a discussion with Donely about why Northstar Kerman placed more trust in him than the other astronauts... "All in good time" thought Jerbo to himself, as he roller over and went back to sleep. OOC: Sorry for the storytelling cop-out guys. Narrative just isn't coming to me easily tonight. Regards, Northstar

Before calling it a night (or actually, at this point, a morning) I thought I'd squeeze in one last thing... I'm sure you've all seen this kind of thing a million times before, so I won't bore you with a long explanation, but I deployed a Kethane/Ore Scansat at a 45 degree inclination to find easily exploitable deposits on the Mun. I'm leaving it scanning while I sleep and do other things. Since I'm sure to have a more or less permanent orbital presence around the Mun (although the nature thereof might change from time to time- for instance I'll probably upgrade the Munar Spacedock again at some point...) I figure I might as well exploit the equatorial deposits first, and ship the fuel and RocketParts up to the Munar Spacedock... Oh, and I might focus on converting the Kethane to Xenon (in real life, some lunar rock contains xenon trapped in bubbles within volcanically formed rocks), since it's both more realistic, and will get me a lot more Delta-V for my effort. I'll be able to scale up the Xenon much more effectively once I unlock the "Heavy Probes" tech node, as one of my mods (either NearFuture or KSP-Interstellar) assigns scaled-up Xenon tanks to this tech node. KSP-Interstellar is already quite capable of utilizing Xenon efficiently with its plasma thrusters- and if I set up a beamed microwave power network over the Mun using my already abundant supply of photovoltaics (RocketParts) on board the Munar Spacedock (more can realistically be produced from mined materials on the Mun- in fact in real life there has been much discussion of producing solar panels on Luna from the regolith), or alternatively utilize nuclear reactor/generators for the source of the beamed power (and mine Uranium or Thorium on the Mun), then I can probably beam spacecraft enough power to achieve the TWR necessary for orbital maneuvers and possibly even interplanetary transfers around the Mun using plasma thrusters, even on larger vessels... Aluminum Hybrid rockets will form the mainstay of my heavy lifting capacity from the Munar surface (mainly of mined Kethane and Ore- or RocketParts and fuel refined from those materials at-site, depending on the size of any individual deposit. Smaller ore deposits won't necessarily be worth landing RocketParts workshops at as well as Smelters, for instance...) But my ambition is to produce a powerful enough microwave power network to allow use of plasma thrusters fro transport of Kerbals to and from the Munar surface, as well as for interplanetary transfer burns on moderate-sized vessels... Enough time outlining plans. Time for me to get some sleep. Next, I bring the Light Moon Explorer Mk2 home, consider what to do with the LME Mk3, and make the last adjustment burns before the first ships of my enormous Duna Armada reach their target... Oh, and if you're following my progress in the Flying Duna challenge at all, I get to quarrel with Geschosskopf about why sending the Raven Mk2 a fuel tanker for in-flight refueling shouldn't disqualify it as a SSTDABK-spaceplane, especially considering it's capable of reaching and aerocapturing at Duna without it at a proper transfer window... THAT should be fun (I doubt he'll budge). Regards, Northstar

This seemed like a good point to bring the Light Fuel Lander back into orbit before continuing the story of the LME-2. It's now in a polar orbit (though not as circular as I would have liked- something screwy was going on with the MechJeb SAS again... I only saved the circularization burn by taking manual control partway through)- which is of course good for landing in anywhere I might need in on the Mun in the future, such as the location of my future Mun base, or near the Light Moon Explorer Mk3 if it turns out not to have enough fuel to make it back to orbit... It also seemed like a great time to perform an impactor experiment, with the probe being built from the Munar Spacedock. This time it worked: I forgot that impactor experiments have a 100% transmit rate. I guess there was no point in keeping the Light Moon Explorer Mk3 on the Munar surface the extra time to try and collect some of this data for manual retrieval. Oh well. Regards, Northstar

Jerbo glanced out the window of the command capsule at the computer-controlled fuel lander just a short distance away: "I still can't believe how close that thing landed Donely." "Yeah, they keep making them more and more precise and accurate every day. Pretty soon they won't even need Kerbal pilots like us!" "Nah- there will be use for us Kerbals for a long time to come. We're still a lot more reliable than a computer that could break or blow a circuit at any time. And who's gonna fix the computers when they DO break? Besides, there's a lot of political gain from saying they brought back more Kerbals from the Mun today..." "You're right. Anyways, it was an extremely precise landing. Now get out there and let's get some fuel in this baby so we can go home!" With that, Jerbo, who had been suiting up, exited the Light Munar Explorer and went about hooking it up to the fuel lander for refueling: "This is great" said Donely, as soon as Jerbo climbed back in the capsule "Just look how much fuel we have. We'll be back on Kerbin in no time!" "Alright, let's get off this rock!" came Jerbo's response. "Too bad Mission control directed us to use the new auto-ascent system to avoid risking any more monkey business on this mission. It would have been nice to feel the power of a throttle in my hands again." Soon, the Kerbals were on their way back to Munar orbit: "Watchya doin' Donely?" inquired Jerbo, somewhat bored and noticing Donely's discrete silence. "Oh nothing Jerb'." replied Donely. "Just taking one last look at the Mun. I hope we get to visit her again..." "Don't worry buddy- Mission Control says they've got something better planned for us. Maybe we'll get to visit Duna, or better yet, Laythe!" "Now THAT would be exciting!" exclaimed Donely, perked up for a moment "Do you think it'll be anytime soon?" "We'll see. After the recent economic meltdown, the toughest part will just be finding us the funding to get us to orbit. There's plenty of parts and fuel already up there to get us to Jool- and there will be more when the Mun and Minmus mining operations start rolling along. It kind of depends how things go in the next budget review I guess. Now let's get this bird on the way back to Kerbin!" "Speaking of budget, we have quite a bit of fuel left. I'm going to radio up Mission Control and see if we can get permission to use it..." Several minutes later, the Kerbals were on the radio with Northstar Kerman. "Northstar, we have loads of fuel left over from our Munar ascent. Do we have permission to use it to flatten our obit and increase the speed of our return back to Kerbin?" After a long and agonizing pause that seemed like forever... "That's Affirmative Donely. But I'm putting Jerbo in charge of the navigational controls for this one. Jerbo, use you fuel wisely- we want to save some to try and land the LMe back as close to the KSC as possible." "Roger that Northstar" replied Jerbo "Taking navigational controls now." "That was so unfair!" replied Donely after the burn was complete. "Why did YOU get to perform the burn when *I* was the one who suggested the idea?" "No idea buddy. We'll discuss it later, alright." replied Jerbo, moderately exhausted from the EVA, piloting, and days cramped in a tiny capsule of the Munar surface... Silently, the Kerbals drifted away from the Mun, casting longing glances back at it at frequent intervals: OOC: Next post will be coming soon- this was getting pretty long, so I felt the need to break it up. Regards, Northstar

The rescue mission for the Light Moon Explorer Mk2 went VERY smoothly (just look how close the Light Munar Fuel Lander came down straight from orbit- I didn't even need to perform a suborbital "hop" to move it withing winch-range!) An in-character account of the refueling and ascent back to Munar orbit will be coming next. Regards, Northstar

The Raven Mk2 made the first part of its transfer to Duna (the escape from Minmus orbit and dive inwards towards Kerbin to make maximal use of the Oberth Effect), while its tanker followed closely behind it so as to refuel it somewhere out in the sun's SOI. And, I'm also beginning the rescue of the stranded Light Moon Explorer mission (technically I could get the Kerbals to orbit without a rescue mission by bailing and EVA'ing, as the ship still has enough Delta-V for a high suborbital hop- but I want to rescue the scientific data on the command pod as well...) More on that shortly. Regards, Northstar

It's refueling in (transfer) orbit, not using any of the thrust from the tanker. It's reaching Duna entirely under its own thrust, with no staging, hence "Single Stage to Duna". And the tanker isn't disposable either- it will be continuing on to Duna separately as well, to provide additional fuel for the colonists. I could just as easily have set up a couple refueling depots in deep space between Kerbin and Duna, or have fast-forwarded to a good transfer window with the Raven in Minmus orbit if I didn't have other missions going on. So I would ask you to reconsider that judgment. Unfortunately, simply copying the craft alone wouldn't be a viable option- as it required a refueling in both low Kerbin orbit and Minmus orbit (and would even with a proper transfer window). I simply don't have the real-life time to design and launch the additional fuel tankers or fuel depots in a separate save, as well as re-perform the ascent to orbit and transfer+capture to Minmus in a separate save that would be required to have a good transfer window. If I was going to do it in a separate save, I'd need to have copied the entire save file BEFORE I left Minmus (the save file is now both updated and quicksaved past that point) and terminated all the other flights... This is about roleplaying (not waiting a year for another transfer window, or leaving the Kerbals in orbit for 20 years), not the craft's capabilities. I'm already playing by a lot of rules others aren't- like working in my Career save game and only utilizing pre-fusion technology, so cut me a little slack OK? I can easily demonstrate that the orbit reaches an apoapsis past Duna with fuel to spare for an aerocapture before performing the in-flight refueling. In fact, even now I could just leave it in that orbit and eventually (after several years or decades orbiting the sun) it would get a Duna intercept without additional refueling as Duna phases into position... The hard part of SSTDABK is escaping Kerbin's gravity with a ship that can fly on Duna- not getting to Duna. Any ship that can make Kerbin orbit can reach Duna with proper refueling (and I'm not talking about the in-flight kind) on a good transfer window. Even one that utilized jet engines as part of its Kerbin ascent, like this one- the Delta-V required to push out of the atmosphere and circularize is much greater than that to reach Duna (on a good transfer window) from the Mun or Minmus. Regards, Northstar

My transfer of the Raven Mk2 and a fuel tanker for in-flight refueling is going smoothly. Here are some pics on the progress so far (the Kerbin-dive before the main transfer burns to Duna). I'd lump the whole thing into one post, but I've got an unrelated rescue mission going on simultaneously that would probably confuse my attempts to keep all the pictures organized for posting... I'll keep you guys posted as things progress on the Raven's voyage. Regards, Northstar

I present the final 350 km spacedock: Unfortunately, Extraplanetary Launchpads' orbital construction system still has a few bugs of its own. One of those caused the previous 350 km spacedock I presented just a short time before to break apart and the pieces to fly off at several dozen m/s immediately upon detaching the new spacedock from the old. Here is a picture of the Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship mopping up the largest of those pieces: I also cleaned up the Construction Ship I utilized before: The 350 km Depot was detached from its orbital construction tools (spacedock identifier) tanker some time ago. That means the only function Orbital Construction mod spacedocks are now the Munar Spacedock, the Minmus Spacedock, and the DHEDP. Therefore, I am now clear to build the tanker to accompany the Raven Mk2 I mentioned before. And a fuel-lander to save the stranded Light Moon Explorer mission (the Mk2 or Mk3, I can't remember the name of the one without the fuel to make it back to orbit). And then I'll just be left cleaning up the low Kerbin orbits (which are crowded with debris and decmoissioned ships for my Scrapper Ship to mop up- as usual) to reduce lag and prevent any Kessler Syndrome-style surprises... I might also start my construction of a Mun base and Minmus outpost- but then again I might just put it off. And, finally, after recovering the Light Moon Explorer missions for !Science! (almost enough to discover Fusion Power), I'll be guiding the Duna armada on its final adjustment burns and first aerobraking maneuvers, and starting my colonization of Duna- the moment we've all been waiting for! Now let's get to it! I've been talking long enough about where I'm heading, and not doing enough actual heading there- most of you who are still reading this must be in tears by now... Regards, Northstar

Meet the Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship: Massive isn't she? But necessary to recycle hulks on the scale of THIS 398.2 ton behemoth: Kerbal Space Center has suffered enormous funding cuts in recent weeks, following the collapse of the Kerbal States economy. Unable to continue to sustain enormous launches of new vessels, it is from now on largely up to the already launched missions to build by space program. Regards, Northstar P.S. I don't know how successful I'll actually be in curtailing myself from making additional launches. But given the enormous mass in RocketParts and debris already in orbit, as well as the capability to mine new fuel and new RocketParts on new planets using Kethane, Orbital Construction, and Extraplanetary Launchpads; I see no reason to continue launching vessel after enormous vessel from the KSC, except to test new reusable rocket/spaceplane designs or propulsion systems...

A Extraplanetary Launchpads style 350 km Spacedock is now deployed: I also, as you can see in the album, ran over the remaining RocketParts from the 350 km Depot using the RocketParts Tanker that was already docked with it... I've decided that a single Small Orbital Warehouse won't be large enough to serve my needs, however- so I'll be building an even large spacedock from the existing one (I needed to build an Extraplanetary Launchpads spacedock first to circumvent the size limits I was facing with Orbital Construction). Once I take care of that, and perhaps scrap some of the abandoned ships at 350 km first, I intend to build that accompanying tanker for the Raven Mk2 I was talking about earlier. More on all that soon. Regards, Northstar

The Raven Mk2 made its refueling stop at the Minmus Spacedock, and is now ready to depart for Duna: The only problem is, I couldn't seem to plot any transfer to Duna with the 1125 m/s of Delta-V available in the Raven Mk2 given how far off Duna is from its ideal transfer window: It became obvious I would need to attempt the extremely difficult- refueling the Raven Mk2 *AFTER* it had made a burn around Minmus to escape from from the Kerbin system and send it in the general direction of Duna (the extra fuel would then provide enough Delta-V to get a Duna intercept even with Duna in such a poor position). The easiest way to do this would be to launch a much larger fuel tanker immediately after the Raven Mk2's escape burn, either burning against its velocity or utilizing MechJeb2's "Intercept at Time X" feature to plot an intercept just a few hours or days out... (I would then have to match velocity at the deep-space intercept) So, I quicksaved, and then fast-forwarded through the rest of the wait to get the RocketParts Tanker to the Minmus Sapcedock, docked it, and transferred over the RocketParts: And, as hoped, this allowed me to build ships using Orbital Construction again: It's being very finicky, but based on the new limits on ship size (I think it's currently 60 tons- the mass of RocketParts on board the Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform- now me least supplied spacedock), I think I may have been right in saying the system is currently requiring that ALL the spacedocks have enough RocketParts to build a given ship design before it will let me build it at ANY of them. Which is, of course, just so wrong and buggy- but there is nothing I can do about it at the moment short of possible trying to track down the mod remake's author... Anyways, I'll be building a new 350 km spacedock (sized to have a dry mass of as close to 60 tons as possible without going over), another scrapper ship to recycle my derelict vessels in 350 km orbit and below (as my earlier Heavy Scrapper Ship was too small to efficiently recycle some of them, and has been re-assigned to the Mun for the moment anyways...), a tanker ship to accompany the Raven Mk2, and then a rescue ship for the stranded Light Moon Explorer mission- in that order (the largest projects need to be built first to avoid facing the same problem I did before... The 350 km depot should be larger than the accompanying tanker, and the scrapper ship will be necessary to recycle the 350 km Construction Ship which will thereafter have all its RocketParts offloaded to the new 350 km depot and be abandoned...) Updates to follow. Regards, Northstar

OK, so you guys remember the Raven Mk2? Well, it made its refueling stop with the Minmus Spacedock... (which just finished its transfer from Munar orbit) But I'm having some trouble plotting a Duna intercept with only the available fuel... You see, the Raven Mk2 has 1125 m/s Delta-V onboard, and Duna is here: I was able to plot plenty of intercepts using two-part burns that dived low to Kerbin and then made a 2nd burn there to reach Duna's orbit- so the Raven Mk2 does hold enough fuel. The only problem is they hit about where Duna would be if it was at an ideal transfer window, and it's nowhere near one... Since I'm doing all this in my Career Mode game, fast-forwarding to the next transfer window and sacrificing all my other missions is NOT an option (some ships of my Duna armada will literally crash into the surface of the planet even when unloaded their trajectories are so precise. Others will fly off lost into deep space). So instead, I'm going to to attempt the horrifically complex- I'm going to perform an IN-FLIGHT refueling of the Raven Mk2 *AFTER* it escapes the Kerbin system and is on its way in the general direction of Duna. To do this, I'll place another much larger (preferably with enough fuel to both refuel the Raven Mk2 and still make Duna itself) ship parked in a slightly different orbit around Minmus, and will have it burn against the Raven Mk2's relative velocity immediately after the Raven Mk2 makes its burn to escape the Kerbin system. Of course, this will mean waiting even later to make the transfer burn, as I will need to get this second ship in position... I hope this doesn't count against SSTDABK capability. As I said, attempts at course plotting showed the Raven Mk2 definitely has enough fuel (and then some) to make Duna on an ideal transfer window- it just can't do it on its own with Duna in such a lousy position... (many players would struggle to make this transfer with a craft of ANY size- it's not exactly an easy transfer to plot...) Regards, Northstar

The Minmus Spacedock is now in a perfectly equatorial orbit around Minmus at approximately 25 km (peri: 24 km apo: 26 km) above Minmus' surface: The Raven Mk2, meanwhile, is preparing to make its rendezvous with the spacedock so it can refuel and depart for Duna: I don't know if I suggested performing a crew-transfer as well, but according to the orbital map the current pilots (Bartgel and Kelney Kerbal) seem to be quite brave and intelligent, so I think I'll leave them on board and give them the chance to set foot on Duna... No post is ever truly complete without a beautiful screenshot to leave a pleasant afterglow for the reader, and this one is no exception. Kerbin looks so small from Minmus! Enjoy: Regards, Northstar

Some of you might also be interested to learn that the Duna Crew Module made a slight course-correction today (its projected apoapsis was at over 20 million kilometers.) Now it's on a collision-course with the surface, even ignoring atmospheric drag. Of course, another correction will be necessary once it enters the Duna system to set its aerocapture periapsis- but that's just all part of the fun! Here are the "after" pics: Regards, Northstar

I'm glad you appreciate all the careful design. You read my thoughts! Actually, that was and is more or less my entire plan with my Duna colonization effort. Rather than deploying a bunch of vehicles which require regular support from Kerbin, and new launches any time I need new equipment, I am deploying the entire infrastructure to build a complex network of orbital fuel depots, orbital power transmitters, surface fuel refineries, rocket construction facilities, and even a landing strip on Duna... Essentially, I am deploying a mobile VAB, and then some (the VAB doesn't come with microwave power transmitters, does it?) The only problem at the moment seems to be that I am experiencing difficulties with a mission-critical mod (Orbital Construction Re-Redux. The planes for this challenge weren't built with it of course.) My 3 planes (the Blackhawk, the Eagle, and the Raven- though the last of those is still orbiting Minmus and not in interplanetary space yet) and 1 helicopter are still all en-route, by the way. The first ships of my Duna armada are already less than a week of game-time away from their destination. The only problem is I haven't been playing KSP very often lately (I've actually spent more time on the forums than in the game), so a week has already dragged out to over a month and a half... The first ship of my Duna armada (not one of the planes for this challenge, but the first two won't be far behind) makes its SOI transition in just over 4 days. Let's see if I can't at least keep up with game-time in real life... Regards, Northstar

My fueled-up RocketParts Tanker is now en-route to Minmus: Since some phasing will probably be necessary to rendezvous it with the Minmus Spacedock after its arrival, I plan on capturing it into a high orbit (over 500,000 meters) and then bringing it lower when in-position. So, no adjustment burn is necessary, and until it enters Minmus' SOI, that's probably the last you'll hear of it for a while... Regards, Northstar

Got a RocketParts Tanker up to the 350 km Depot: And also finished up my scrapping operations around the Mun: And discovered that I *STILL* couldn't build anything at my various spacedocks... SO, it looks like I'm going to have to wait until I can get my fueled-up RocketParts Tanker to the Minmus Spacedock before I can build anything more in orbit. And if that doesn't work- will then I just don't know... Considering the immense persistence of these kinds of bugs now that I've surpassed a certain number of spacedocks, it looks like I wasn't wrong in saying I'd probably have to switch over to the Extraplanetary Launchapds system before. We'll see what happens... Regards, Northstar

Back to having no idea what's going on... I built this simple vessel (really little more than a bunch of RocketParts storage modules, a Spacedock Identifier, and a probe core), to try and put the 350 km Depot's RocketParts and Spacedock Identifier in the same vessel so I could upgrade the 350 km Depot. Here it is before orbital construction: And then I found that I could no longer build anything larger than about the 2.15 tons left over on the 350 km depot (I transferred almost all the RocketParts to the Construction Ship on build). Nor did dumping the 350 km Depot's remaining RocketParts or undocking it from its Spacedock Identifier (in F5/F9 "simulations") help either. So, Orbital Construction continues to act up like a spoiled child on crack/cocaine, and I have no idea how to fix it... I should have just stuck with building the rescue vehicle at the Munar Spacedock earlier when I still could, and then worried about fixing the 350 km depot later... My best bet at this point is probably to send another RocketParts Tanker up, and top back off the 350 km Depot. Meanwhile, the fully-fueled RocketParts Tanker at 350 km will head off to Minmus to eventually rendezvous with the Minmus Spacedock when it arrives, if that doesn't fix the problem. Yeah, that should work... hopefully. Regards, Northstar