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Bechmeister's -= DUNA MASTERY CHALLENGE =- Companion Mission Report <<<<<<<<<<FOREWORD>>>>>>>>>> A while ago now I was recemented to do OJTs Duna Mastery Challenge: There was only one issue though - I felt my very detailed approach to writing mission reports were not fitting for the challenge post format. To me it felt like the challenge format had to be concise and to the point, and not including the failed attempts... design consideration etc. - So I decided I would make a companion mission report to the successes and failures of each challenge. Writing in excruciating detail - like I guess I have been come to be known for. I hope that It is not considered in poor taste - I dont want to take the spotlight from the challenge. I was super impressed by the scope of the challenge - all the steps from building a communication net etc. before sending the first kerbal (even if its theoretically not needed - especially not at the time the challenge were issued, were antennas were only really for visuals) It all fit right with my own tendency to try add some "roleplayed" realism into the game. I thought it was a great way to go about it with Duna, and decided I would give it a go... (And I hope OJT expand upon the challenge in the future.) I completed the first step back in February - because by chance a Duna was positioned for a fly by and an window to send a probe to Duna was there.. and I was a bit bored with finishing up K.G.01 and 02 at the time... and after that I decided to visit Minmus before continuing with Duna (it seemed like a better way to spend the time waiting for Duna to be in position again). Anyway I will be doing the challenges in order - maybe combining steps some times, (if its not considered cheating ). Feel free to join me in my success and failures, with your successes and failures here on this space.. or questions, remarks advice etc. <<<<<<<<<MISSION_TASKS>>>>>>>>> subsidiary goals: A. develop a reusable satelite carrier. + a satelite with enough Δv to get to Duna. - Success B. Launch satelite and return 1st and 2nd stage. - Success C. Perform fly-by of Duna. - Success <<<<<<<<<<< Lessons learned; Lessons Identified>>>>>>>>>> Goal Post A: Left - Multifuel glider (Methalox). Right - Prototype of Satelite Deployment Glider (SDG) The fact that the first mission task were so "easy" - I mean - flying by Duna within its sphere of influence should be a pretty easy task? Just make a vehicle with enough Δv and then some, to make room for rookie mistakes too - So I felt like I had to make it a little more interesting by launching it with a launch vehicle that were reusable. The easiest thing to do was to take my Multi Fuel Glider from the service vehicles for my Space Gates (K.G.01 and K.G.02.) and tweek it to my needs. Of course it would limit me in how big a satelite I could make - but that would give a fun constraint to design around. The Satelite Deployment Glider (SDG): The Multi Fuel Glider is normally carrying a payload of 4t methalox - which meant that as long as the probe only weighted 4t - the flight characteristics should be the same. The most important design goal was keep the center of Mass and Center of Drag at the same place - If not, the body flaps (the 2 AERO BREAKS bellow the rear engines), had more range of motion to balance slight changes. You see - previous versions of the glider had issues were going through the atmosphere with the rear frist - not ideal.. I ended up countering that with 2 aerobreaks I could deploy with a hotkey. When the vehicle was re-entering I watched the SAS - as soon as I could see it the indicators that it used "force" to keep its angle of attack (around 40°), I adjusted the deployment angle of the breaks. The glider became stable at 25% deployed.. So there would be plenty of angle to play with. The two gliders side by side. Because I hated the look of the cargo bay doors going through the tail wings - The space available for a cargo bay would be quite limited. To keep the weight as far away from the rear as possible (the reason I have a light tube between the engine plate and the wing section on the original glider) - I decided to place the cargo door between the RCW and the rear fuel bay. (just remember to connect the fuel tanks to the "engine plate" with fuel lines, if you use a tube to separate the the space like i've done. With the glider made it was time to make a simple probe that would fit within the cargo bay. If you want all the details in developing the Multi Fuel Glider - See the block post in the spoiler section: The Probe: The limiting size of the cargo bay (being a size medium and rather short) - made for a fun design challenge. To keep the probe within the limits. I knew the probe was going to be small - so a small 48-7S "Spark" would be plenty of power for the smalle probe - and the small size of the engine was also ideal. I tried to fit a OSCM-01 "Mini Lab" and make a voyager esque probe - but it was hard to give it enough power to be able to collect science and not have balloon in size. In the end I looked at the requirement for the challenge completion - and since it could essentially be a projectile.. I thought it would be overachieving enough just to put a dish on that could reach KSC. So it became the simplest of probe. a core, some solar panels and enough methalox to get to Duna. Speaking of which - If you're new to the game and you dont know this interactive Δv map, I highly recommend it It looks like this: That together with this graph for the optimal transfer position: - makes it a lot easier to plan the vehicles. in the end the probe got look like this: The craft may be small but it still packs a wooping 1.986 Δv - which should be more than enough, considering it should only take 950 Δv to escape Kerbin SOI + the 130Δv to woosh by Duna. (If I am reading the Δv map correct) - I mean the probe will be doing its transfer burn from LKO. ~80km Goal Post B: The satelite deployment glider burning into a LKO while the 1st stage is burning back to KSC. As mentioned in Goal Post A - the Multifuel glider that this vehicle is based on is well understod from its use servising K.G.01 (Kerbal Gate 01 - a space fuel station in LKO). The satelite carrier with payload is not slightly lighter than the multifuel glider. So getting to space did not pose any deviation from the flight procedure: Launch the vehicle. as soon as it is clear of the tower, tilt ~5° eastward and lock prograde allow vehicle to gravity turn on its own - unless you can see you will hit the 45°E mark before hitting the upper atmosphere (band 3) - then hold and before allowing it to gravity turn once appropriate. Once at 1600 Δv - engine cut. stage separation. orbit the SDG. De-orbit the 1st stage. make sure the 1st stage does not exceed 700 m/s on the way down (the engine plate will not tolerate the heat from higher speeds) Land the stage at KSC. All these steps went without incident. 1st stage returning back to KSC. One thing that is odd though is that even though I copied the vehicle from the K.G.01 service vehicle package - 2/3 nozzle extenders break off on separation on this version, were it does not on the Multi Fuel Glider version. After the stage had returned it was a simple matter of getting the glider into space - it is very low powered. But it just means you have great control when circularizing the orbit. Here at 80km to comply with the Δv map. SDG deploying the communication satelite. After the satelite had been deployed it was just a matter of deorbiting the glider and landing it back at KSC. The glider is pretty well balanced at this point. My best advice for making space plane on re-entry is that if your ass is flipping up front - or you can't hold your desired angle of attack at on your way down (mine is 40°) - you can add aerobreaks to the tail of the glider - these will function as body flaps and help it hold its orientation. read Goal Post A for more details I wished we had dedicated body flaps - it looks alright with the aerobreaks, but an actual body flap would have looked better. SDG during re-entry - notice the body flaps helping it "keep its nose down". Another pro tip is to mark the runway with some sort of small rover - it gives good aiming markers and makes it easier to see if your prograde is on target - especially considering that the prograde most likely is a few degrees bellow the direction your flying:An example of the glider aiming towards the runway - the prograde is positioned on the target to make sure I have enough energy for the flare maneuver. Half a day later the glider was back at KSC ready for a refurbish and the next mission. For detailed slideshow of the mission, see spoiler section bellow: Goal Post C: Probe arriving at Duna. It was time for the probe to perform its capture burn to its destination; Dune - Desert Planet... As seen in my entry in the Duna Mastery Challenge - I did not have an optimal transfer window to Duna. But as you can also see, it didn't matter - the probe had ample of fuel to get it done: Image of the maneuver node that would bring the probe to Duna. If I can offer an advice - The game does not display the position markers for the vehicle and target when there is a Sphere of Influence between you and the body you want to intercept.. Let me explain: here we are moving from Kerbin SOI to Kerbol SOI and then Duna SOI - So the markers will only show once you leave the Kerbin SOI. do the maneuver burn as well as you can from the maneuver node (lets just agree that the maneuver node system in game is not really geared for high precision, I used it more as a guide line.) Once you leave the Kerbin SOI you will get the markers, and then you can fine tune the path until you pass through the Duna SOI. (because you are so early in the process, a lot of the time you can do the corrections with the RCS thrusters - this craft had none.. so it would be with main engine) From here on it was just coasting pass Duna and wave it goodbye - first challenge succeeded. The probe performing fly by of Duna. <<<<<<<<<<Moving Forward>>>>>>>>>>> Challenge one has been complete. I think I will challenge myself for the future by limiting myself to designing vehicles that fit within the space of the glider for as long as possible. After my Minmus mission, I am in the mood for something smaller and less elaborate. Stay tuned for more!

Advanced Atmosphere Tools is a plugin that enables manipulation of atmospheric properties on a less-than-planetary scale, allowing for far more variability in atmospheric conditions on a given body than would otherwise be seen in stock. The manipulated properties are then seamlessly integrated into KSP’s flight dynamics systems to influence how craft fly through the atmosphere, all while having a very low performance impact, even with high part counts. Adv. Atmo. Tools provides ways to manipulate the following five atmospheric properties: Temperature Pressure Molar Mass Adiabatic Index Wind All properties can be influenced through a set of maps and floatcurves. Details on how to configure all the different options, as well as their effects on flight dynamics, can be found on the GitHub wiki. Link to wiki: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/AdvancedAtmosphereTools/wiki I have also released a set of maps and example configs that can be used and/or adapted for your own planets. These images and configs are licensed under the Unlicense and may be freely used, modified, (re-)distributed, etc. without permission or attribution. Link: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/AdvancedAtmosphereToolsExampleConfigs An API is also provided to allow other plugins to interact with Adv. Atmo. Tools. Installation Download from: CKAN (preferred) Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/3597/Advanced%20Atmosphere%20Tools Github: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/AdvancedAtmosphereTools/releases Dependencies: ModularFlightIntegrator Toolbar Controller Click-Through Blocker HarmonyKSP ModuleManager Source: https://github.com/CashnipLeaf/AdvancedAtmosphereTools Mod Compatibility Recommended Mods: KSPCommunityFixes Compatible with: FerramAerospaceResearch: If installed, Adv. Atmo. Tools will defer all relevant aero/thermal calculations to FAR and supply it with wind, temperature, and pressure information. Most, if not all parts mods Conflicts with: Other mods that modify the stock aerodynamics system. Other Features Adv. Atmo. Tools adds a few extra features to help you out when flying, including: A GUI which displays wind, temperature, and pressure information, along with other relevant aero- and thermodynamic information. A new pair of Navball indicators which display prograde and retrograde adjusted for wind, which will only appear if you are in an atmosphere, the Navball is set to "Surface" mode, the wind speed is greater than 0.5m/s, and the craft is in motion. To make craft recovery easier (or perhaps even possible in some cases), Adv. Atmo. Tools's GUI includes a setting that disables the wind effects if the craft is landed or splashed down, and moving at <5m/s. If you would like to join my atmosphere shenanigans, I now have a discord server! Invite link: https://discord.gg/SdSh8BVdCd Changelog: Credits and Acknowledgements @sarbian, @ferram4, and @Starwaster for making the Modular Flight Integrator that allows interfacing with KSP's physics system. @R-T-B for lending a VM to run ExoPlaSim to generate climate data. @Aebestach for donating Chinese Localization support. License Information Advanced Atmosphere Tools is licensed under the MIT license.

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the Threads of the Month June 2024 Edition The Future is Uncertain Edition Yes. The end of the month is almost here, and I have been very negligent in my duties in posting this month's thread of the month in a timely manner. I will say that it seems that next month, which starts in a few days, will be a much slower-paced month. Instructions on using the TOTM images: If your thread has been selected as a TOTM, you can copy the image's link above, go to the area of the forum where you want to place it, and then paste the link. Press the <CONTROL> button when the image appears and right-click on your mouse. A menu will drop down and allow you to edit the picture. You can resize it - the first number can be changed as large or small as you want. Eventually, I will add these images to the thread I've created as a repository. For those out there who like the nerdy parts of the TOTM: To continue what I started in May 2021, I have kept some forum statistics to respond to those claiming the forum was dying or interest in the Kerbal Space Program was declining. There were 313 new forum accounts created in May (an increase of 30 or up 10.6% from April). Out of the new forum members who joined last month, 25 transitioned from new accounts to being active and participating in the forum. This conversion means that 7.98% of the new users who registered their accounts last month are now contributing members of our community! (This is an increase from May; 3.88% of the new members became active and contributing members). If you're interested in meeting the new members of our forum, click here! Now, without further delay, I present to you the threads of the month for June: Cinematic-based Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features a video or other cinematic form of a Kerbal mission report using in-game video-recorded gameplay. Note: This has changed. Instead of awarding this to a thread, this is a *post of the month* since most new cinematic works are posted in a single thread. We have a lot of great content creators, but because they've been posting their mission reports as videos in a single thread, most of their work goes unnoticed by the general forum audience. Hopefully, this change in the category to a Post of the Month (POTM) will highlight the great job done by these deserving content creators. Other threads containing cinematic posts will also be featured in this category. Many great content creators deserve this recognition since we were aware of the thread by @Halban: Post Your Cinematics Here! (Cinematic Enthusiasts) that serves as a repository for cinematic threads. The thread received the TOTM previously, but it was felt that it wasn't enough for those who shared your fabulous creations featuring our favorite Kerbalnauts. Instead of being a TOTM, I've changed it into a CPOTM - a Cinematic Post of the Month. This cinematic work by @Oraldo revak, "The Launch: KSP2 Cinematic," as stated in the post, a test of KSP2's cinematic potential, was an attempt to test KSP2's "cinematic potential." Based on the forum community's reaction, I think we can say it was successful! Sometimes, the forum software will get glitchy, and an exact post may be hard to find. If this happens, here's @Oraldo revak's cinematic work: If you encounter other cinematics you feel are worthy of being recognized as this category's post of the month, please nominate them! You can use the exact instructions to nominate a post containing a video as you would use to nominate a thread. Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Works: This category features threads (or threads) that, while not directly related to the Kerbal Space Program, may be creative, fan fiction, or other presentations related to the game. Although Kerbal Space Program 2 might never complete the planned roadmap, it still offers a lot of opportunity to both the modding and fan-fic community. This month, we are happy to feature this mission report by @BechMeister, based on a mission challenge created by a member of our moderation team, @OJT (The Duna Mastery Challenge). This thread contains several missions already completed, but it's more than just a "look at my craft and here's a story" thread. There's a discussion of the math behind the mission, charts, and detailed explanations about mission requirements, craft design, and fuel requirements to achieve the mission goals. @Bechmeister begins the mission report with this introduction in the OP: Here's where you'll find this thread: So, if you're interested in reading a mission report and seeing how others imagine their Kerbal-verse, why not visit this thread? Forum Member Created Challenges and Missions: This category contains missions and challenges created by you, the members of our gaming community. Many excellent missions and challenges threads are created that expand our fun with the game and press our skills, creativity, and sometimes, luck beyond what we get accustomed to. Let's face it: we all have our go-to design basics and our go-to vehicles we like to use. Sometimes, a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals. There was no submission for this category this month. Game Support/Game Mod of the Month: This category features either help with the game (stock or modded) or mods that improve the Kerbal Space Program's quality-of-life gameplay. Since those early days of the original Kerbal Space Program, many old-timers remember the two common questions that we would flood the development update threads (and would hear NO!). Those questions were, "What about clouds? and "What about some weather?" We all know there's already a specific modder and a particular mod we can install that gives us the clouds we want. But this mod, thanks to @CashnipLeaf and the other contributors, gives us the winds and temperatures we wanted on stock worlds. For now, the mod does add weather for the stock bodies within the Kerbol system, but the OP does state: You can find the mod here: We want to thank our family of mod contributors who continue to develop new and exciting mods that support our KSP1 and KSP2 community! So, if you're looking for something that will cause you to take your shuttle fleet to the next level, this is the mod for you! General community threads of the month: This category features a thread that adds to the community and doesn't fit the game support/game mod categories. There was no submission for this category this month. General space flight and space science threads of the month: This category features a thread that adds to our forum community's STEM knowledge (science, space flight, and related fields) and doesn't fit the game support/game mod categories. There was no submission for this category this month. Honorable Mentions: Sometimes, choosing which threads will be selected as the Thread of the Month for our five categories is challenging. We get many good nominations each month but limit it to one for each type. Threads nominated but not selected as a thread of the month become honorable mentions. The honorable mentions for this month are: Celestial Rescale v0.3.3 by @SpaceNerd24 Although this month's honorable mention may not have made the Thread of The Month, if you think it might be worth another opportunity, please renominate it! Congratulations to all the winners of the Thread of the Month! We want to thank our forum members @AlamoVampire, @CashnipLeaf, @Skrix, @SpaceNerd24, the moderation team members, and the staff who nominated this month's contenders. Thank you so much for helping us identify noteworthy threads and bringing their awareness to our forum community. We'd appreciate your continued help in the future. Odds and ends: TO NOMINATE A THREAD FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a thread you feel should be considered for next month's thread of the month, use the "Report a comment" feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the thread. Please put in the text field of the port post "Nomination for the thread of the month," and we will do the rest! You can always nominate more than one thread, too. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT GOES INTO THE DECISION WHEN CONSIDERING THE TOTM: Wonder no more! This helpful guide is to help you understand what we use to help determine what makes a thread a really good thread and one that becomes a thread of the month/cinematic post of the month. It's everything you did or didn't want to know and includes helpful tips. And the last word for this month's post: I'd like to thank a few people who trust me enough to continue supporting and allowing me to contribute to the forum. I want to thank the Lead Moderator, @Vanamonde, for bringing me on as a moderator. It was a decision, and I'm sure he has had moments where he often wonders why he did it. I'd also like to thank @PD_Dakota, our community manager, and @Nerdy_Mike, the KSP Franchise Community Lead, for tolerating me and allowing me to continue to serve our Kerbal Space Program forum community through the monthly Threads of the Month post. If you missed last month's threads, you can click here.

When I initially posted the OP for the Thread of the Month for June 2024, it contained the following: This has now been removed from the TOTM. I was asked if I would be willing to separate it from the TOTM to avoid confusing the thread's purpose by both members of the forum community and others on the moderation team. I add this not as a member of the moderation team but as a regular forum member. In repeated posts on the social media platforms I'm involved in (Discord, this forum, Steam, and X (formerly Twitter)), it's all the same - we are free to discuss Take-Two, Intercept Games, and the like. Still, we cannot make personal remarks, personal attacks, or salacious or defamatory statements about other forum members or members of Intercept Games (this includes everyone - including members of the moderation team). And I believe my statement above did no such thing - it was an agreement with most of the complaints many of you have had over the past year or so (which no one has been discouraged from sharing in the past). All I attempted to do was add another layer to what's really bothering me about the entire thing we are currently experiencing - the human element. I've personally worked with the team as a member of the Pioneer Group when Squad was working on Kerbal Space Program. For a while, I was a member of the Pioneer Group when Intercept Games was working on Kerbal Space Program 2 -- this will be ending when the studio closes on the 28th of June. When you work with people long enough and are in contact with them on a daily basis, you get to know them, and friendships develop. So, yeah, that's a big part of it. It bothers me when I see my friends facing so much uncertainty in their lives, and I am powerless to help. The other part is that many of you are friends, too. We communicate through the forum or the IG Discord. We still do not have any word on the future of this forum or the official Discord server. Everything is uncertain right now—we are literally in the dark. For all we know, on June 29th, the forum and Discord will operate as usual. Or we could discover something different. We just do not know. And that bothers me, too. Kerbal Space Program is more than a game; it is a sense of community for many of us. So while KSP2 may have failed to be the game we wanted it to be at 1.0, it's not really the game I'm worried about. I'm more worried about the community as a whole.