DJRWolf

Been a while since any postings, any updates?

Just wait for the balloons/blimps you can store and inflate later. Just think of how that will help with exploration of places like Eve and Jool.

Anyone try using the 1-Kerbal one as a life pod? Besides the freezing pod I would think it would only need 3,500 EC charge (it is 3,000 to freeze if I remember right), a probe core to control it without a pilot and provide torque, a single RTG or a couple of solar panels to replenish power, and a docking port. A rescue mission could be unmanned and just dock to each pod and keep the Kerbals "on ice" until it gets back to Kerbin. Torque on the life pod could come in handy so you don't have to move the rescue ship around as much since you can switch to the life pod and point it's docking port at the rescue craft.

I think the balloons pop by about 50-55km up. So I don't think you will ever be able to hit 60km with one. There is also too little air up there for an air breathing engine to work so you will need a rocket.

Another thing I forgot to point out in my last post is the passenger section. The new Mk 3 one can hold 16 and the Mk 4 can currently hold only 8.

The probe core needs to be changed to prevent it from blocking the doorway to the cockpit from the cargo bay. I was thinking it could be integrated into the section with the mono-propellant tanks so that it is to one side leaving a gap to climb the ladder and that would also have a point that you could "mount" cargo. Another option would be to have two of the probe cores and move them to the sides and leave the middle open. Another idea is to have a large cargo bay (as long as the longest Mk 3) but have it open on the bottom. You may be wondering why but it is simple. You have a large cargo plane carry a rocket up high and then drop it out of the cargo bay (decoupler would be mounted on the ceiling pointing down to the top of the rocket). After it clears the aircraft you can ignite the rocket. Kinda like the old rocket X planes such as the Bell X-1.

The sticks are very weak. It almost comes off when the ship loads on the launch pad so I don't think it will last being driven around. You may have to go for a radial decoupler instead. Also, RoverDude, when you say there are plans for a folding balloon do you mean just the small weather balloon or the blimp as well? Because I can see an Eve lander use a couple of the blimps to handle most of the dV needed to get back up to space. Kinda like that rocket I posted a few days back being able to get into Kerbin orbit on just half a FL-T800 tank and a LV-T45 engine boosted by two small Karbonite SRB's. I would guess without the two small Karbonite SRB's it would take the entire tank of LFO but still it just goes to show this mod can be used to help a much larger rocket launch with a lot less delta v needed.

Can anyone tell me how well MechJeb can handle autopiloting a rendezvous with an asteroid? Long term plan is to use a class E as the center of an OKS base and I have not bothered with asteroids before.

I would like to see this having KAS enabled radial tanks so you can resupply it at each stop along the way if you have sent resupply craft ahead of the main one or just mounted enough tanks to keep you going after each stop. One mission I did with Near Future in .25 was a kind of Grand Tour that would have stopped at every planet past the orbit of Kerbal. But now those plans are on hold as that set of mods updates to .90. But being able to wake your crew up at each stop would be nice if you have enough Glykerol stored (or get resupplied from ReMo's (Resupply Module)). Also, different sized ones would be quite nice. But not just shorter 2.5m parts but also 3.75m one as well that can hold even more Kerbals.

Is there a larger space telescope in the works? I was thinking something about the size of a Science Lab that can have different modules added to the back of it for different cameras. The extra camera modules would be about the size of a large flywheel and can be attached by a docking port to the back if needed. Some of the camera types (besides the normal stock one) are: Far IR Near IR Wide Field Deep Field Near UV Far UV One feature you can use with it that I'm sure would be very hard to program would be having you take pictures of a target. An example would be to have the telescope active in orbit of Kerbin and you set Jool as the target. You can then run of the installed cameras on that target without having to go there.

D.E.R.P. Mk 2: Slightly larger and can hold 2 Kerbals with 10 days of life support. Should be long enough for a rover to pick them up. D.E.R.P. Mk 2-3: Same size as the Mk 2 but can hold 3 Kerbals with 2 days of life support. Warning! Due to low amount of life support is suggested for use around Kerbal only.

Here is a small rocket I managed to get into orbit with the use of the blimp and weather balloon. In hanger. Just one long fuel tank and 2 small SRB's. Ready to launch. I set the small weather balloon on top to 0% and the blimp to 10%. 1m 47s after launch I'm going good. Not the more precise orbit but I got up there with about half a tank to spare.

Sweet! Could something like that be used to launch back up off of Eve? Also from what I read on the gas planet 2 on KSP' wiki one of it's moons, Fonso, will have an atmosphere double the density of Kerbin. Though it is not as thick as Eve's 5x thick atmosphere.

Are there plans to make a "packed up" balloon? Would be nice for a probe to drop into Jool, Duna, Laythe, gas planet 2, and gas planet 3. Also, there are "thin film" solar "panel" tech currently available IRL. Not as efficient as a hard panel. You could have a balloon with the top half as a solar panel but even with the entire top half of it being a PV panel it would only generate as much power as two OX-STAT PV panels (1.5 EC/s). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_film_solar_cell

I'm still waiting for Near Future Electrical to update anyway so I'll wait. Until then still using .25 so I can power all of the ion drives from Near Future.

I was about to download this mod but when I was looking though the Dropbox I saw that the 0.2.0_PRE is over three times the size. Will it have more parts and I should wait for the more stable one to come out?

Does it work with .90? A Mk 3 Spaceplane lab converted from the passenger module? I know you can put the current lab in a cargo bay but I would prefer something more matching with the Mk 3 parts. Also, reducing the science gained is counter productive for what this mod is for. It is to have science labs that are more in-line with the look of a ship. Just increase the power requirements and time it takes to process. Also make the parts no more rugged then the stock lab and an increase in cost. Never reduce science gains.

I think .90 has broken the Lopac boosters. Every time I load them in the fuel transfer pipes and struts are broken. Even putting them back manually will not fix them since I did that and as soon as I rolled it out to the launch pad they broke again.

Base game patches....hell for mod devs as the community wants both to patch the game and have to mods work without delay. Keep up the good work Majiir!

I look forward to the update to .90 on this. This mod has been a real help in getting craft back down to Kerbin.

I tried to use the 52 to launch a 160 ish ton craft to 300km orbit and give a kick start to Duna. As soon as it lifted off it would veer off to the east. When I swapped it out for the 40 it launched fine. One craft file with lander and one without. Craft has MechJeb. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47197519/Duna%20Alpha%20I.craft https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/47197519/Duna%20Alpha%20II.craft

I did try the new RAPIER engine and it did not have the thrust needed to get the job done alone. Been doing some more tweeking by adding more air intakes and it has been extending the life of the jets to a higher altitude. Now to work on getting it more refined. The pointers have been nice and thank you for them.

I decided to try out using jet engines in place of SRB's for my craft and it turns out they are not half bad. Granted you have to fire them up and let them get to full power before you let go of the clamps but it works. Next I need to try it out as more normal side strap on boosters to large (and then on the huge when they come out) size rockets. My first design, after finding that the engines take fuel out of the middle rocket fuel tanks I reverted to VAB and added fuel transfer lines. But then I ran into big problems with stage separation since they would last all the way up to it could not get any more air to burn. The Mk II design I put the jet boosters in a quad under the normal rocket to make staging safer and it work well...then I noticed just how little jet fuel the design used and decided to tweak it. The Mk IIB design is in general the same except it has 2 Mk 1 Fuselage's per jet engine instead of the Mk II's 3 per engine saving a little weight. After getting to the "Coast to circularize burn" point this is how much fuel was left in the first rocket stage on 2 different launches. Download Mk IIB here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5052189/Jet%20Test%20Alpha%20IIB.craft

+1 to this idea (and the ion engine as well).

I think Duna is most likely going to be a lock for the next place to get the Biome upgrade but I was wondering what was everyone's thoughts on where should Squad go for after that? Laythe might be a good place or even Ike since it is Duna's moon.