Northstar1989

I got so excited with building my first helicopter I just kept rolling out new designs until I got something I was satisfied with... I present, the 'Hornet': This is yet another craft I'm going to take to Duna. But first, the specs: Crew Capacity: 4 Kerbals (Kerbin) Altitude Ceiling: >12,000 m Max Landspeed: >240 m/s Cargo Capacity: 0.5 tons of LiquidFuel Note that helicopters, unlike jet planes, fly *faster* in thicker atmosphere, and *slower* in thinner atmosphere. The Hornet won't fly very fast on Duna under rotor power alone- hence the reason for the small KSP-I thermal rocket nozzle on one end, so it can get places more quickly in Duna's thin atmosphere (not coincidentally, KSP-I thermal rockets achieve MASSIVELY better ISP in thinner atmosphere- on Duna, I can expect ISP values well in excess of 1000). Despite appearances, it's not actually a very powerful rocket engine- it only produces 0.4 kN of thrust with the helicopters rotors also active on Kerbin. It's a tiny little bugger- it weighs less than 3 tons minus the fuel (for reference, a Hitchhiker Storage Container weighs 2.5 tons), so I should EASILY be able to build the Hornet into the top stage of a rocket to Duna (also unlike most plane designs, it has an entirely unoccupied attachment node at one end- so it can easily attach to a rocket via docking port or decoupler). Expect to see news on that launch soon (probably sometime while I'm waiting for the next maneuver node to get the Raven refueled and on its way to Duna). Regards, Northstar

I got so excited with building my first helicopter I just kept rolling out new designs until I got something I was satisfied with... I present, the 'Hornet': This is yet another craft I'm going to take to Duna. But first, the specs: Crew Capacity: 4 Kerbals Altitude Ceiling: >12,000 m Max Landspeed: >240 m/s Cargo Capacity: 0.5 tons of LiquidFuel Note that helicopters, unlike jet planes, fly *faster* in thicker atmosphere, and *slower* in thinner atmosphere. The Hornet won't fly very fast on Duna under rotor power alone- hence the reason for the small KSP-I thermal rocket nozzle on one end, so it can get places more quickly in Duna's thin atmosphere (not coincidentally, KSP-I thermal rockets achieve MASSIVELY better ISP in thinner atmosphere- on Duna, I can expect ISP values well in excess of 1000). Despite appearances, it's not actually a very powerful rocket engine- it only produces 0.4 kN of thrust with the helicopters rotors also active on Kerbin. It's a tiny little bugger- it weighs less than 3 tons minus the fuel (for reference, a Hitchhiker Storage Container weighs 2.5 tons), so I should EASILY be able to build the Hornet into the top stage of a rocket to Duna (also unlike most plane designs, it has an entirely unoccupied attachment node at one end- so it can easily attach to a rocket via docking port or decoupler). Expect to see news on that launch soon (probably sometime while I'm waiting for the next maneuver node to get the Raven refueled and on its way to Duna). Regards, Northstar

Just a question for anyone who's still reading my posts: What do you guys think of helicopters? This is just an early prototype (my first helicopter ever, actually- and all-electric), but it can hover at a bit over 9000 meters on Kerbin- which is a little less than the equivalent air pressure of Duna sea-level (the equivalent altitude is found at 8047.2 meters, to be precise). That means it can at least make it off the ground on Duna. The gravity there is only 30% of Kerbin's, so it can certainly make it quite a bit higher than that- but I don't know how much higher since I don't know the equation for how the Firespitter electric helicopter rotor's thrust falls off with altitude. It's nuclear-powered (a basic-level KSP-Interstellar thorium reactor, to be precise) since nuclear power is reliable day and night, and provides much better power-density for the weight than solar, both in KSP-I and in real-life. By the way, I don't want to EVER hear how KSP-I's power densities are "overpowered" or "unrealistic" again. The fact is, nuclear power provides much more power for its weight than solar in real-life (at the cost of posing a radiation hazard), especially as you scale it up. This fundamental realtionship accurately holds in KSP-I. If KSP-I's fission reactors seems overpowered, that's only because you're accustomed to the terrible power densities that using solar power entails, and most other mods inaccurately try to model nuclear power to have a similar or only slightly greater power density to solar- for instance NearFuture mod, which inaccurately places its reactors somewhere in the range between its smallest and largest solar panels in terms of power-density. ANYWAYS, a helicopter should be much easier than a plane to transport to Duna (the Firespitter electric rotors fold up- so they're not very bulky at all in-transit), so I could easily integrate it into the top stage of a rocket (a two-way decoupler should slice it off nicely when it arrives) if I wanted to transport one there. The only problem for trnasport is the slightly uneven weight the rotors provide- and even that I'm looking at fixing with a design that relies on utilizing 2-4 symmetrical side-mounted plane propellers re-purposed as vertical turbines. So, how do you guys feel about them, once again? Would anyone be excited to see me fly a nuclear-electric helicopter around on Duna? Regards, Northstar

While I waited for the Minmus Spacedock to come around for its next transfer window (after about 30-35 minutes, the reactor reached a safe reset temperature- I was AFK when it happened, but I had checked at about 30 minutes and it still wasn't ready...) I've been busy. OR, rather, my Kerbals have been busy: Guessed what that is? Yep, it's a helicopter, boss. My first one ever too. It's electric, so it might even fly on Duna! Its altitude ceiling on Kerbin is "only" about 9000 meters, which equates to a little *above* Duna sea-level in terms of atmospheric pressure. However, due to the way KSP models lift and thrust, a helicopter has no "lift", only upward thrust. That's not entirely accurate from a real-world perspective, but whatever. What that means is, the thrust counteracts gravity, and if it's great enough, the helicopter hovers or climbs. Since Duna's gravity is only 30% of Kerbin's, the helicopter should be able to climb much higher- theoretically infinitely high if the helicopter's thrust didn't fall off as the atmosphere gets thinner, but since I don't actually know the equation for helicopter rotor thrust (unlike lift, which simply increases as e^speed in KSP) I couldn't tell you how much higher it can climb. It MIGHT be able to climb to 5000 meters, it might climb to 500 meters. But either way, it can AT LEAST make it off the ground there, since it can hover at an altitude on Kerbin where the air is slightly thinner than Duna's at sea-level. So, I might try taking a helicopter to Duna. This early prototype has shown me it's at least possible. And, a helicopter is MUCH less unwieldy than getting a plane (one that can't function as a spaceplane, at least) to Duna. I'll probably play around with the design a bit more, first, and see if I can improve on it- but I'll definitely be trying for it sooner or later... Regards, Northstar P.S. A design note for those of you looking to make you own helicopters with Firespitter: the simplest designs are two-rotor craft like this one, but the rotors *HAVE TO* face in opposite directions- otherwise the helicopter WILL spin wildly around and CRASH. The helicopter rotors have an innate polarity to them, and that polarity determines the direction of the torque they exert on the craft. You can either balance this with two rotors roughly equidistant from the center of mass, or you can add a tail-rotor to a one-rotor (or imbalanced multi-rotor) design to cancel the torque. I prefer the two-rotor solution because it means that all my lift/thrust is pointed straight UP, increasing altitude-ceiling and lifting capacity, instead of wasting some of it just to cancel my torque...

You know, I'm sorry for being a nag about Steven's non-KSP-I entry Geschosskopf (on that note, I edited my reminder about it out of my last post). Especially, because you were right! You see, I was looking through the designs in my spaceplane hanger, clearing out old designs I don't use anymore or never used... And, remember the Hummingbird? Anyways, I was remembering why I never deployed this thing to Duna (even though it would have taken the cake for electric aircraft with its 22-Kerbal capacity, compared to Steven's 11, and slightly higher expected altitude ceiling- due mostly to utilizing the stronger variant of Firespitter electric propellers, and having enough electricity to overclock their thrust 50% using the mod's built-in "Cargo" mode), and then it came to me... The obvious reason is because it uses a KSP-Interstellar reactor to generate electric power. The non-obvious reason is because after those entries were placed in a separate category, I was unable to come up with an alternative powerplant for the thing that didn't use KSP-I... Why, you might ask? Well solar panels added too much weight to the vessel (I would have had to add even more propellers and wing area). RTG's were even worse. Kethane would burn through too quickly with that many propellers. And NearFuture mod greatly nerfed the ability of their reactors to generate electricity in-atmosphere back when they removed the built-in radiators... (as the radiators now break off if deployed in-atmosphere- much like solar panels... The built-in ones were incapable of breaking off.) Since Steven's non-KSP-I entry utilized one of the older NearFuture reactors for its powerplant, it doesn't work in 0.22 anymore either (it no longer has radiators- so its reactors don't work, and newer versions with the updated NearFuture mod won't generate enough electricity in-atmosphere without a much heavier powerplant.) So, I apologize for nagging you to remove your note on this Geschosskopf. You were right in your first instinct- neither of Steven's entries works after 0.22, as the mods both rely on were nerfed. Regards, Northstar

I did exactly that for a recent launch of a fuel tanker (it relied on microwave power for SAS, as it was a HUGE tanker with very high SAS requirements- and a dish is lighter than most reactors). It works great- except you need to launch quite a bit BEFORE the satellite/relay is directly overhead (but after it's in-range), as most (efficient TWR) rockets climb too slowly to follow it with the pitch of their gravity turn early on... Also, Fractal, I don't mean to sound demanding- but I've made a hobby of building Duna spaceplanes lately... What are the chances we could eventually see 2.5 meter or even 3.75 or 5 meter version of the RAM intake, as a component of the KSP-I mod? Also, would we need larger-diameter pre-coolers to go along with it? (I liked having the 2.5 meter atmospheric intakes to couple with 1.25 meter Thermal Turbojets before- it really helps with flight in EXTREMELY thin atmospheres like Duna's... Similarly, a 5 meter intake for a 2.5 meter Thermal Turbojet would be a good combination...) At least answer the pre-cooler question. Since B9 Aerospace still has 2.5 meter SABRE intakes, and I will be coupling the B9 2.5 meter intakes to my Thermal Turbojets when I unlock them... I need to know how I can pre-cool that air... Regards, Northstar

Two MINOR updates here: The Raven made its Minmus transfer, and the Eagle made a RCS-only adjustment in its trajectory on the way to Duna: Regards, Northstar

"Mission Control, this is Minmus Spacedock, we have a problem" came Dudcott Kerman's distressed sounding voice across the communications link between Kerbin and the newly rechristened "Minmus Spacedock" (previously known as the "Early Spacedock") A moment of silenced followed... "Minmus Spacedock, this is Mission Control; Northstar Kerman speaking. What seems to be the problem?" Dudcott took a deep breath. "The engines, they can't be started sir. Sensors indicate that the reactor core temperature is still several hours away from the reactor safely being able to be manually re-ignited." Northstar Kerman took a deep breath as well. He had not foreseen this problem. Earlier estimated had indicated the reactor core temperature would reach safe levels for reactivation just before the spacdock's transfer burn... "Affirmative Minmus Spacedock. We acknowledge your problem. Please remain prepared to re-activate the reactor as soon as it reaches safe temperature levels. We might have to try for a Minmus transfer on the next pass around the Mun." OOC: It seems the reactor didn't cool quite as quickly as I anticipated from its last activation cycle. The largest KSP-Interstellar reactors have much better power:weight ratio than the smaller ones, but one of their unfortunate downsides seems to be that they take much longer for Decay Heating to terminate after a shutdown... It's a minor hiccup in my mission plan (the reactor is *very* close to safe re-ignition temperatures, based on current rate of cooling only a few game-hours away), but one I thought you guys should know about. In other news, the Raven Mk2 made its Minmus transfer burn without so much as an unexpected squeak in the spacecraft, and I performed an RCS-only adjustment on the Eagle Transfer Stage's trajectory to bring its Duna periapsis in from about 10 million meters to about 100 km. Regards, Northstar

Build a self-sufficient colony on Duna. That's what I'm doing. It's more fun the more mods you have to work with (and only truly self-sufficient if you at least have at least one mod that lets you produce fuel from mining or the atmosphere, and another that lets you produce rockets and such from mining ore...) Speaking of the challenge, I've made some progress towards putting the Blackhawk Mk6 on Duna for the Challenge Run (supposing something goes wrong with the Raven Mk2). Namely, I've made its transfer and first adjustment burn, and it is now on course for an encounter with Duna after an 82.5 day transfer orbit (much too long for my role-playing liking, but I couldn't get it much shorter with Duna in such a suboptimal position without wasting a lot more fuel- and I'd like to keep some for capture near Duna so I don't have to rely entirely on aerocapture...) Transfer Burn: Adjustment Burn: I also refueled the Raven Mk2 a bit earlier, and will be transferring it to Minmus for one last refueling stop very soon (it wouldn't need it if Duna weren't so very far past ideal transfer position) Once again, if both the Blackhawk Mk6 and the Raven Mk2 make it to Duna and manage to meet the challenge requirements without breaking, I'd prefer to count only the Raven's entry- as I consider it's use of the old KSP-Interstellar atmospheric scoops an unfair advantage (which were, as a reminder, one of the multiple now-fixed reasons the "Last Dancer" could reach almost unlimited speeds in-atmosphere: they experience no drag whatsoever, and were also both implemented and relegated to non-buildable yet still playable status before compressive heating of atmosphere during intake was ever implemented...) Regards, Northstar

It was a sad day for Jerbo Kerman. He looked back at the Munar Science Module- his home for the past four weeks. Today, she was finally being decommissioned. And as Jerbo stood, or rather floated, on the deck of the Munar Spacedock, watching her float away, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of nonstalgia. Jerbo had made many good memories there. Since he and Donely had landed and begun their primary mission of preparing large quantities of oxygen for the Munar Spacedock, and secondary goal of performing research, the two had become close friends. At first, Doneley grated a little on Jerbo's nerves, but over time stuck in close quarters with his teammate, he had come to appreciate his camaraderie and even sought to understood Doneley as an equal. Now, their time on the Science Module, and Jerbo suspected their mission as well, was coming to an end. In maybe another week's time, he guessed, he would probably see a relief crew coming on board the next fuel tanker. And once the combined crews had managed to finish constructing the new crew recovery vehicle they had already been ordered to begin work on from the scrap parts of two earlier fuel tankers and the Science Module, it was highly likely Jerbo and Doneley would be the first Kerbals hitching a ride on its re-entry capsule back to Kerbin. Right now, Jerbo was praying for delays in the construction of the recovery vehicle- perhaps even a reassignment to the new Munar outpost they had also begun constructing equipment for. Of course, he knew how Mission Control would feel about that- no Kerbal should spend more than a couple months in near-zero gravity, to avoid long-term side-effects, if it could be helped, according to Northstar Kerman's official policy. Thus, fresh Kerbals would likely occupy the Munar outpost- though Jerbo had heard rumors that the new crew were being trained on how to maintain their bodies in peak physical condition for extended stays of several months on the Munar surface... Jerbo wondered if the rumors were true. He also wondered if he and Doneley would be re-assigned to Duna instead: there was gravity there right? Though he knew even that wasn't likely- the high radiation dose he and Doneley had received during their extended stay on the Munar surface was already putting them at risk for the development of several disease if he didn't get some time back on Kerbin to receive the KSC's special cutting-edge regenerative treatments first. The new Munar outpost would be built with crew quarters underground, in depleted mining tunnels- which would begun to be dug soon after the first equipment landings for the outpost. Too bad Jerbo probably wouldn't get to see any of it... Jerbo cast one last glance at the Science Module, slowly floating away, and a tear came to his eye. Though this wouldn't be the last time he would see it, it would be the last time he would see it in its former glory- soon they would be ripping metal plates from the exterior, and stealing every bolt, screw, and other part they could find, for construction of the new recovery vehicle and outpost equipment... The Science Module, like the tankers, would eventually be entirely recycled into new vessels and new equipment, down to the last rivet- no trace of it would remain. OOC: I hope you guys liked this bit of role-playing. Part of it was my attempt my meandering thoughts on what exactly to do with these two Kerbals, when I get the chance- of which I'm still really not sure. Another was attempting to explain many things that can't be accounted for in-game: such as how my Kerbals can make trip after trip into outer space, with no apparent retirement in sight (I account this to futuristic regenerative medicine treatments designed to repair the damage from extraplanetary radiation, and even destroy/replace diseased or cancerous cells. Such treatments are at least a century off in real life: but so is antimatter power- which I will develop within a few game years I'm sure; and the kind of political unity and support to launch vessels in the scale and quantity of any normal KSP player's space program, nevertheless my own...) For the record: no, my Munar outpost won't actually be built partially-underground in-game: I don't think any modders have developed nearly the kind of technology to make this doable for the common player yet- and likely never will. Rather, it's just my explanation for something that will be presumed to be happening in the background, as I mine ton after ton of Kethane and Ore out of the Munar geology (something's got to take up the space left behind- whether eventual cave-ins or filler material. Why not seal portions of it, and utilize it for pressurized and unpressurized living and storage/industrial space instead, which had the side-benefit for being protected from radiation and meteorites?) Anyways, here are the pictures of my refueling the Munar Spacedock from the Munar Science Module- which I now consider to be decommissioned: Regards, Northstar

Ok, so I docked my second LFO Tanker with the spacedocks orbiting the Mun. I discovered I now had enough fuel to completely fill the Early Spacedock, so I've already prepared it for its journey to Minmus by filing its fuel tanks, loading over the 3 Kerbals who were on the LFO Tankers (two of them are decently intelligent, and will make good scientists in the built-in lab), as well as the tiny quantity of Rocketparts (only about a ton) left on board the Munar Spacedock- which would be usable to build a Lunar Escape System style lander for Minmus (no cockpit, just two ladders to hold two Kerbals, with panels underneath them...) or a tiny radiator addition to the Early Spacedock which could be floated nearby and connected by KAS to allow the nuclear reactor to be used to run the Science Lab more often... (currently it can only be used with long cooldown cycles, as it generates heat faster than the radiators can disperse it when active.) Here's a couple screenshots. The first is just before abandoning the second LFO Tanker shortly after draining all its resources (the Scrapper Ship will later recycle it for RocketParts), the second is after, and shows the first LFO Tanker floating serenely in the background: The Early Spacedock will be departing for Minmus at its next transfer window, as will the Raven Mk2- which will be refueled there after arrival in preparation for the final leg of its journey to Duna. The plan, as before, is to place the Early Spacedock in a low orbit around Minmus. The low gravity, lack of biomes, and lack of liquid water to render on Minmus should all combine to allow me decent framerate even with the Early Spacedock's relatively high part-count for a space station... In hindsight, I should have just transferred the Raven directly from Kerbin orbit to Minmus- but I had to at least *try* plotting a Maneuver node directly to Duna from the Mun. Navigation can be as much as art as a science- and with no definitive programs, charts, or table yet released by the player community to predict Delta-V requirements for a suboptimal interplanetary transfer, I had no way of knowing if it would work other than experience... Regards, Northstar EDIT: Looks like I was wrong about the whole Minmus still not having biomes thing. A quick visit to the Wiki confirmed that for me. It's late here, and I haven't been keeping closely enough on top of the latest updates, so... The spacedock with still be going to Minmus regardless- getting the Raven to Duna is a top priority.

The Blackhawk has finished its Dunar transfer. It is now en-route on a 82.5 day transfer orbit.. As that cost over 2000 m/s Delta-V, clearly I was wise to refuel the Raven at Minmus- even if it could have somehow made it to Duna at such a suboptimal time, its transfer would have been EXTREMELY slow (as if 82 days isn't fairly slow...) After some more messing around with fuel tankers in Munar orbit, the Raven will be departing for Minmus soon. Speaking of which, I docked the first of my fuel tankers with the Munar/Early spacedocks: Regards, Northstar

Oi! The first of the spaceplanes (the Blackhawk Mk6) has finally begun its Duna transfer! Also, I began moving those LFO tankers I mentioned before to the Munar Spacedock. I've kept it down to just a couple pictures... They LOOK almost the same, so I'm hoping I didn't accidentally screenshot the same tanker twice... Last, but not least, continued optimization of my Unmanned Heavy LFO Tanker has resulted in a SSTO variant. This thing is MASSIVE, but eh, all that mass will make for a lot of RocketParts when a (ultra-heavy variant) Scrapper Ship gets to it. It's also a flying lag machine, though, so I'll probably redesign it as a standard LFO tanker in the future. Mostly, I just wanted to get a bit of practice designing rocket SSTO's, since I'm probably going to be utilizing a lot of them on my Mun and Dunar outposts/colonies... I present, my first-ever rocket SSTO: It looks like with current technology I can design LFO/HydrogenGas hybrid SSTO's for Kerbin usage- but for the Mun or Duna I could probably get by without the HydrogenGas or the huge 3.75 meter generator that running eight Plasmodynamic Thrusters at full thrust requires (it weighs proportionally less relative to its generation capacity than a 1.25 or 2.5 meter generator. A 3.75 meter variant weighs less than eight 1.25 meter variants. Still, it *IS* big and heavy...) For those curious, the reactor is only a 1.25 meter Thorium variant, and I could have even got by with a .625 meter Uranium- all it needs to do is spin the generator up between burns (the generator runs off stored energy during the burns- the fission reactors could never generate fast enough at reasonable weight), and it has as long as I can afford to time-warp to do that... Also, there are 49 engines on the bottom as well as 8 Plasmodynamic Thrusters and 24 of the large stock radial boosters on the side (hence the flying lag machine- I had no idea my computer could handle so many, though admittedly it did almost freeze up several times doing it...) 48 of the ones on the bottom are the heavier and more powerful Aerospike engines that I think come with the NovaPunch2 pack... The 49th is the heaviest engine that NovePunch2 offers- weighing in at a massive 10,000 kN of thrust... The top section, for size reference, is the largest NovaPunch2 five-meter fuel tank. The bottom is an *extremely* stretched StretchyTank (the type that can be stretched both in terms of height and radius). The vessel mass before liftoff exceeded 2 Megatons. It's gigantic for weight-efficiency (KSP-I generators become more efficient for their mass with increased size) as well as lifting-capacity, but, in theory it's an infinitely re-usable way to get fuel to low orbits, provided enough parachutes for after re-entry (though my computer would DIE with that many parts loaded...) It also pushed the very limits of what the game could handle without the vessel exploding due to lack of structural integrity and/or the Kraken bugs, and the number of engines I could cram onto a single rocket (in fact, the TWR at liftoff was pathetically low- reducing efficiency). Regards, Northstar

You only need to prove re-entry high-altitude landing capability. Perhaps Geschosskopf would let you get away with Hyperediting the thing back into orbit, and then all you would have to do is prove it can land at high altitude after re-entry? Personally, I always found the rule a little irksome, because you could always pull out into level flight after re-entry BELOW 2500m (as long as the plane doesn't land), and then just climb back to 2500m and land there. Any plane capable of flying at 5000m on Duna (one of the other challenge requirements) is probably capable of doing that, even if it can't level out before 2500m.

I apologize for going one way, then another, than back to the first with my plans- but it looks like the Raven will be making a Minmus refueling stop after all. Considerable toying with Maneuver Nodes proved there was no way to get it to Duna with 1028 m/s Delta-V at such a suboptimal transfer window without cutting it EXTREMELY close, with a high likelihood of missing the planet altogether due to steering losses... However, I don't have any unmanned LFO tankers nearby, my existing heavy unmanned LFO tanker design has too short of a range (the design is greatly in need of refinement), and the Munar Spacedock was almost completely out of RocketParts and fuel- eliminating the possibility of building a tanker from there: That's when it occurred to me that I could utilize the Early Spacedock I had reluctantly slated for recycling earlier for this purpose. Like I considered doing before, it will be moved to a low Minmus orbit (the thrust needed to obtain sufficient TWR to maintain almost all orbital velocity when leaving Minmus' incredibly weak gravity-well is pathetically small), where it will serve as a refueling station and point of departure for occasional missions. This will allow me to refuel the Raven Mk2 near Minmus, and will also give me somewhere to stash additional Kerbals from future manned LFO tanker missions until the unmanned design can be sufficiently refined... Of course the Munar Spacedock/Early Spacedock had almost no fuel- so where then to find the fuel to transfer the Early Spacedock to Minmus orbit and still have fuel left over to top off the Raven? Why from the Munar Science Module. I suppose most of you have forgotten about it by this point, but I haven't. Before KSP-I switched electrolysis away from the Science Lab to the new ISRU Refinery and altered the heat radiation system such as to render its reactors barely-functional, the Munar Science Module managed to refine close to 7000 units of Oxidizer from Munar regolith. It also managed to fill up its Aluminum Hybrid boosters with Aluminum- which is good for additional impulse to get it into Munar orbit. Thus, I decided with its now relatively-full fuel reserves, it would be an excellent candidate to refuel the Early Spacedock to usable levels. Both the Munar Science Module and my two manned LFO tankers in Munar orbit will transfer their fuel and crew to the two spacedocks (and eventually be recycled for much-needed RocketParts). The Early Spacedock will then transfer to Minmus, where it should have sufficient fuel to refuel the Raven Mk2. Here the Munar Science Module is on ascent from Munar orbit and making adjustment burns for a quick (4 hour) rendezvous with the two Munar spacedocks: The Valkyrie has also begun its transfer to Dunar orbit. The maneuver nodes have undergone some optimization, and in the resultant shuffling of transfer order, it will be the first to depart. Unfortunately, I don't have time at the moment to carry through the spaceplane transfers as well, so those will have to wait until a later play session. Still, I got a few good pictures of the transfer burn. A smaller adjustment burn will be necessary later on: Regards, Northstar

OK, so I couldn't help myself. I hate time-warping when I could be doing something useful during that (Kerbal universe) time- and so I designed a new line of unmanned LFO tanker for liftoff from the KSC: It was my first attempt at a vessel that takes off from the KSC utilizing fuel tanks with a diameter larger than 5 meters, and it was mixed success... It CAN make it to my 350 km space station with a *BIT* of fuel left over- but not much. So it's actually more useful as a RocketParts delivery system (after the fuel tanks have been recycled into RocektParts) than as a fuel tanker. Part of the problem was the very low TWR at liftoff, causing a lot of the fuel to be wasted fighting gravity. This was inevitable since the largest engines available to me are the 5 meter NovaPunch2 engines... I can foresee two solutions to this- one is to install additional mods allowing bigger engines (there's a mod out there somewhere that allows procedurally-generated engines I think, and StretchySRB's does allow procedurally-generated boosters at least- which I think can stretch in width as well as length), and the other is to add MOAR BOOSTERS! Actually, the original design as seen here didn't have any, as I was having so much trouble controlling the craft and stopping the darn thing from imploding on the launchpad (once a vessel reaches a certain critical mass, KSP starts treating it almost like a little black hole- OK, really, it's just the Kraken...), but I'm sure I'll figure out how to add a bunch of boosters (solid or liquid) eventually... Oh, and by the way, the fuel tanker utilized beamed power from my Microwave Power Station to help power its three *HUGE* SAS wheels (125 SAS force EACH), possibly saving a bit of weight on the final design... That's what the big dish on the top was. Anyways, the Blackhawk will be making its transfer to Duna soon. I just thought I'd keep you guys in the loop on what I was doing in the meantime, so my next post can focus more closely on my spaceplanes... Regards, Northstar

Argon packs pretty densely in cryogenic form (much more densely than cryogenic hydrogen, which this mod takes Liquidfuel to represent). Actually, I;m surprised all the other implementations don't make it much denser... As for the Thermal Turbojets, apparently somehow I missed the addition of 2.5 meter variants in the latest updates to this mod. Now what about 3.75 meter variants? More seriously, though, there NEED to be 2.5 meter versions of the RAM intakes, to provide sufficient atmosphere for the 2.5 meter Thermal Turbojets... Otherwise, they're only useful in very dense atmospheres, with B9 Aerospace's 2.5 meter SABRE intakes, or with part-spam on the stock RAM intakes... Regards, Northstar

The Raven Mk2 and Blackhawk Mk6 both have tentative burns planned out to send them out of the Mun's SOI and towards the edge of the Kerbin system (currently, the burns involve waiting for Kerbin's gravity to turn them towards Duna after exiting the Mun's SOI, but I'll see if I can't come up with some more efficient one-part burns with a little tweaking...) but I just wanted to add one little bit onto that last post before I run off to go do something... The Valkyrie has collected its Duna Crew Re-entry Module, and is also preparing to set off for Duna in this (hopefully) final piece of my now very large flotilla... It will bring 3 more Kerbals to Duna. The more the merrier! I'll also be updating my version of NearFuture mod before the next set of burns- it supposedly has a few bugfixes, and since the Blackhawk utilizes NearFuture inline NERVA engines, it couldn't hurt... Regards, Northstar

*cough* what about the offset Center of Lift in the VAB with strongly swept P-Wings? When are we going to see a fix for that?

Glad to hear the fusion reactors are getting upsized- even though I've not yet progressed far enough in my Career Mode game to utilize them (I've followed a sort of slow, logical progression in technology- so I still haven't yet discovered fusion power... I've also been far more focused on establishing a sustainable Dunar colony with pre-fusion technology than on racking up Science Points...) Now what about a couple other requests I've seen knocking around in here for a while, or even suggested myself: bigger thermal turojets (to utilize with the larger reactors), and better ways to store nuclear fuels? I mention the fuel storage issue because HexCans simply don't cut it. They don't hold enough for large-scale mining operations (I'd like to see at least some sort of 2.5 meter storage container- maybe even a 3.75 meter variant, since I know a lot of the volume would be radiation-shielding...), forcing part-spam; and they're annoying in having to attach them radially and having no way to simply seat them firmly on the ground without landing legs (and the extra part-count that entails) like I could a short 2.5 meter fuel tank on its attachment node side... For that matter, I personally would also like to see larger storage containers for water, ammonia, and the other resources... Re-rextured versions of the stock 2.5 meter fuel tanks are fine- basically all that's needed is something inline and in the 2.5 meter size... Regards, Northstar

The establishment of my Munar outpost and Dunar colony is growing imminent. I need only finish up a few odds and ends... First of all, I performed some additional scrapping/recycling operations: Second, I recovered Bill and Lury Kerman from orbit: Third, I refueled the Raven Mk2 in Munar orbit: I've been thinking about it, and I decided a Minmus refueling isn't necessarily worthwhile for the Raven. While it would allow for a faster transfer to Duna, I forgot just how long it takes to get out to Minmus from the Mun (3-5 days!) Additionally, considering from Minmus orbit I would need to shoot inwards to a close Kerbin periapsis (both to utilize the turnnig effects of Kerbin's gravity- Minmus is currently moving in the wrong direction for a direct transfer- and to make best use of the Oberth effect), as well as wait for ANOTHER refueling, that would altogether add about another 7-10 days to the total time in space... So, while I might cut about a week off the Dunar transfer, I'd just end up adding a week in Kerbin and Minmus' SOI, as well as wasting a whole bunch of fuel and needing to design an entirely new unmanned LFO tanker design (my current LFO tanker designs are all manned, as they are only intended for occasional resupply/ crew relief missions to my orbital stations...) A bit of playing with maneuver nodes reminded me that if the Raven leaves the Mun's SOI at the proper time (from its current 750 km Munar orbit), I could reach an apoapsis near Minmus on only about 52 m/s Delta-V, and Kerbin escape velocity for only a fraction Delta-V more. That would leave me at least 850 m/s Delta-V to achieve a Duna intercept by adding extra burn time to my Kerbin-escape burn, which should be plenty... Expect news that the Raven Mk2 is en-route to Duna very soon! Regards, Northstar

I hate to burst your bubble Fengist, but you failed to meet the challenge requirements in one *major* way (I was arguing about this requirement earlier, so I sympathize). It's clearly stated at the beginning of this thread that the plane must make an initial landing at "a minimum altitude of 2500m". Since your initial landing was at about 1500m, you clearly failed to meet this requirement. Try it again *from orbit* (a simple high-altitude landing won't suffice- a BIG part of the challenge of that requirement is making a high-altitude landing from re-entry velocities), and you should meet the requirements. Like I said before, I sympathize- personally I don't see the point in the rule, and would rather make an initial low-altitude landing myself... (the site I picked for my main Duna base is at about 1000-1250m) Regards, Northstar

More progress on my Challenge runs: The Blackhawk Mk6 is now fully-fueled, and has more than enough Delta-V (>4200 m/s) to transfer to Duna from its current Munar orbit in a semi-reasonable timeframe even given how far Duna is past its ideal transfer position: The Raven Mk2, on the other hand, has just finished its Munar capture, and has a fuel-tanker en-route to refuel it before the next leg of its journey: I anticipate the Raven Mk2 will need to refuel again in orbit around Minmus, due to how far Duna is past its ideal transfer window, and the size of its Delta-V budget (a bit over 1100 m/s- the bare minimum required to make a Duna transfer from LKO at the ideal transfer window). The normal designed operating profile of the craft is for it to refuel in LKO and Munar orbit, and depart from there- as this gives me more leftover fuel for maneuvers near Duna- but an extra refueling stop around Minmus will currently be necessary due to the planetary alignment... I also would prefer a more rapid transit than the 5+ months I estimate from a Minmus departure with the alignment this poor- so I may even attempt a mid-transfer refueling after the first burn is made (my heavy fuel tanker designs are more than capable of catching up to the Raven if they leave a couple minutes after it...) so I can speed up the transfer to something more reasonable... I hope this is allowable- I know it's pushing the boundary between transfer stage and refueling stop a little bit- but the vessel *does* have enough fuel capacity to make it on its own more slowly... Also, due to extensive and critical real-life obligations, and competing interests in establishing my operations on Duna with vessels that preceded the spaceplanes, I expect a large delay before I manage to land either on the Dunar surface- hence the reason for these updates: since it might be a long while before the actual landings, and I prefer to write on what I've done while it's still fresh in my mind... Regards, Northstar

OK, so real life will be keeping me pretty busy for a while. Expect continued very slow progress for a while longer... Regardless, I did get a burst of things done today, starting with the refueling of the Blackhawk herself. She's now fully-fueled, and carrying more than enough fuel (over 4200 m/s) to make a straight transfer to Duna even with the greatly subpar current planetary alignment... While that was going on, I also constructed a (hopefully) Duna-capable re-entry pod for the Valkyrie, and transferred Bob and Bobbro Kerman over to it from the Munar Spacedock in preparation for their long journey to Duna... The Valkyrie still needs to dock with the module and lock it into position before it departs, so they don't get left behind, of course... I also refueled the Valkyrie at the Munar Spacedock... The Raven Mk2 made its capture burn into a high Munar orbit- where it will soon be refueled, and then transfer to Minmus orbit. I've come to realize its chances of making Duna in this transfer window are growing increasingly slim, due to how far Duna is past the optimal transfer point. Still, I will see if I can't plot a course from Minmus orbit to Duna that fits within its Delta-V budget... (a bit over 1100 m/s fully-fueled) Most likely, I'll either have to accept a 5+ month journey (not good for roleplaying purposes) to get the vessel there without waiting for the next transfer window, or I'll need to pull one of the hardest maneuvers I can imagine- a rendezvous with a fuel tanker in an elliptical SOLAR orbit to give the Raven enough fuel to speed up the journey from 5+ months to something more reasonable like 2 or 3... Since the Raven is my preferred vessel for the Flying Duna Challenge, I probably won't wait for the next transfer window either way- I'll just be forced to accept a long journey (something I don't normally do for a manned vessel this small). It's not like any of my competitors are artificially limiting themselves to short transfer journeys... Also, a fuel tanker is already on its way to intercept the Raven's Munar orbit... Finally, I continued with my scrapping/recycling operations. I'll need all the materials I can get to establish my Mun outpost... Someday, I look forward to posting on the landing of my first colonists on Duna. But with all the effort it's taking to get the Raven Mk2 to Duna this late in the transfer window, as well as all the remaining work that needs to be done for my Mun base, I expect it will be quite a long while before that happens still... Regards, Northstar

Thanks, I appreciate that you're following my progress. Unmanned fuel depot? My plans are MUCH more ambitious than that... The plan is for a manned spacedock, complete with fuel storage, a rocket components warehouse, crew quarters, and spacecraft-construction equipment...