DonLorenzo's Forum Campaign: To space, the moon and beyond

[sjwt]

I don\'t know about anyone else, but I would like to take up the Don\'s offer of more time, I have only been working on the contract, and had a bug where the ZO2 main tank would explode every time it came out of time warp!!

Fixed it by going back to the old school large one!

[Bellaby]

sjwt, have you made sure that everything you have (addons) are completely up to date? Fixed my issue. Also you have all day to do this, it finishes at midnight (23:56 GMT + 2). So basically another 9 hours.

[sjwt]

It might be midnight over their when it finishes in 9 hours, but its already 10PM on the 6th over here!

I did a full reinstall and download for the last round.

[DonLorenzo]

Yeah decoupler-remains are fine, they don\'t count. No problem at all with \'nitpicky\' things like this. I can only test so much and some things I\'ll just plain forget. No worries.

Let\'s delay the turn by one day, making the deadline 23:59 (GMT+2) 07-06-2012 or when I have all submissions. Gives me a little bit extra time to work out next turn as well which is good. The new deadline will be adhered to, I\'m moving houses this weekend so I want to start the next turn on friday in case it takes me a while to get everything settled in (it shouldn\'t, but you never know).

Cheers

[Bellaby]

ah well delays will be perfectly understandable. Hope it all goes well, moving houses can be a hassle!

[robsr3v3ng3]

tbh I think a three day turn is too little, because sometimes people may have stuff on, so if you even loose one day and you have a pretty tricky design to do, then it can be quite hard to get it done in time.

So have the 4 day end at the start of the weekend and the three day finish as the new week begins, maybe tuesday morning to friday night and Saturday morning to monday night.

[DonLorenzo]

Turn 5 has ended!

Explorers from Awaras have sent a probe to orbit the sun, kermankind is sure to learn much from its transmissions. The rest of our intrepid engineering team has been busy going up and down into (almost) space and researching technologies to be bolder and go further. Many craft were commissioned on governmental order to facilitate the foreseen construction of a space station, I\'m pleased to announce that there was a lot of design variety. Fireblade carries away the prize for achieving the mission objective using only two engines, whereas Awaras is the king of efficiency by using only three fuel tanks. The missions itself where not uneventful, Awaras\' rocket was damaged in orbit during a separation maneuver, losing the center engine and possibly more importantly the \'mechjeb\' avionics and flight control package. Fortunately the craft and pilots were robust enough to set down on kerbin safely. Less fortunate were the crew contracted by fireblade, upon touchdown their RCS tank (doubling as landing gear) exploded, incinerating and killing the entire crew. The families of the deceased have been compensated to the tune of 2250 credits, according to the 25% of mission profits per deceased kerbal standard reimbursement policy.

In other news the government and private sectors have unveiled their intentions for the funding of space exploration. The program goal for now will be the permanent colonization of Mun, which has been discovered to consist of solid rock (as confirmed by the recently launched Kubble telescope) to build on. Before this can be even attempted extended space habitats will be constructed, the previously mentioned space stations. However before that can even be considered it has to be shown that kerbals can in fact survive prolonged exposure to zero-gee and the general space environment. To this end it has been declared that the mission \'complete one full kerbin orbit\' needs to be accomplished at least once, then a joint program to build a space station will be initiated, after the completion of which munar exploration will be put back on the table.

The contract for this turn will again be space station related, it will entail the construction of a lean crew transport to facilitate cheap and easy crew rotations.

Turn 5 financial breakdown

Player: Awaras Mission Completed: Launch probe to kerbol orbit Tech purchased: Liquid Tech II Spent:$27900 Income:$53500 New Balance: $69605

Player: Fireblade Mission Completed:80km Tech purchased: Liquid Tech I Spent:$18000 Income:$20500 New Balance: $19600

Player: Robsr3v3ng3 Mission Completed: 25km Tech purchased: Booster Tech Spent:$10200 Income:$11500 New Balance: $11750

Player: IssarlkMission Completed:80km Tech purchased: Salvage Tech I Spent:$12050 Income:$19500 New Balance: $19850

Player: BellabyMission Completed:25km Tech purchased:Decoupler Tech Spent:$10500 Income:$14500 New Balance: $14400

Turn 6 details are up in the OP. I\'ve decided that the first joint project will kick off next turn to give you all a chance to raise a little more funds. Also it will give me a little bit more time to work out the details. As I\'ve previously said I\'m moving house starting tomorrow, for that reason I\'ve slated this turn to last a full week. Should my moving proceed quickly and you guys all submit earlier, we can proceed faster.

@Sjwt & Sal_vager; because of the lenghty turn and dwindling amount of players, if you guys decide you want to keep participating after all you\'re free to use the extra time to submit both turns 5 & 6 this week.

Also, please answer the following questions:

-Do you guys want to see more (space)plane action?

-What are your views on joint projects, being milestones that need all of you guys to complete, will carry little to no pay but will pave the way for future missions. Intended as a (financial) equalizer, the richer more advanced players will be able to contribute more to these projects, spending their excess cash in exchange for brownie points.

Cheers!

[Bellaby]

Sweet monies, finally have a reasonable amount, although still no-where near enough for liquid fuel rockets ;(

Ah well. As for your questions;

[More Space-plane stuff?] - Yes please!

[Joint ventures?] - Definitely, seeing as i\'m one of those guys with the smaller wallets, but you may want to add some greater incentives than 'brownie points', for example (if this is even possible) when/if a space station is constructed, the biggest donaters get the most launch slots from it or get use of the space station\'s labs (allowing for an extra research slot) etc.

But yeah otherwise i\'m all for it.

[Awaras]

Don, can you please clarify the 'Raise apoapsis to 350km' and 'Demonstrate at least 100m/s dV capability using only the RCS system'?

First of all, boosting with RCS prograde from a circular 200x200 km orbit for 100 m/s dV WILL increase the apoapsis of the ship almost to 350 km. Does that count?

Second, do we need to actually reach the altitude of 350 km? Circularize the orbit there? or just raise apoapsis to 350km and go straight to deorbiting maneuvers?

[DonLorenzo]

You need to just raise the apoapsis, not go there. No need for circularization needed either. the RCS dV has to be applied after the apo-raising. How you utilize that is up to you, probably retro-grade to facilitate de-orbiting. In short, the flight plan needs to be executed in order.

I made these requirements with a space-station rendez-vous capable ship in mind. to apo-raising to demonstrate fuel capacity for orbital maneuvering (raising/lowering to catch up) and RCS capacity to perform fine maneuvers. 100 m/s on the RCS is probably way more than needed, but you know, redundancy and all

[Awaras]

Thank you for your answers.

As for the space plane parts and joint ventures I am all for that.

[issarlk]

I don\'t care about spaceplanes but don\'t mind them. Joint projects looks like an interesting idea.

I have a question about the contract for turn 6, do fuel lines count as parts ?

[Awaras]

I don\'t think number of parts is a very objective metric... Total cost or total weight would be better imo.

[db101]

This game looks sweet, count me in!

Just a question: is the 'What you can do in a turn' in a fixed order (or can I start my turn with a fundraising drive then do a mission/contract/etc)?

[robsr3v3ng3]

If you take the fundraising option you get the money available for that same turns, the same with technology research. I\'m not sure about doing both missions and contracts in the same turn.

[Bellaby]

as rob said you get fundraiser money in the same turn that you run the fundraiser, as you do technology. You do NOT get the payout from a contract the same turn you run the contract, because Don is the one running the flights, you don\'t get the money until he says whether your flight was a success.

However you can do both a mission and a contract in one turn, and same with contracts you don\'t get mission reward until next turn pending mission success.

[db101]

I mean can I do the fundraiser as the first step in my first turn -- effectively giving me 10500 starting cash before my first turn tech research + mission/etc?

Just trying to see what I\'ll have the budget to build for in turn one (Looks like a cash-tight start! )

[DonLorenzo]

yes thats correct, if you choose to fund raise you effectively start with 10500.

[robsr3v3ng3]

it is a bit cash tight, the first couple of turns you will be lumbered with really budget rockets made up of SRBs, while you save money to do the more expensive tech research so it actually becomes feasible to use liquid fuel.

[DonLorenzo]

It should be a bit quicker now with the cheaper tech and passive income. In other news I\'m pretty much completely moved. Gotta love owning hardly any stuff, the tally is complete with:

-one (small) fridge

-one computer and peripherals

-one bag of clothes

-a chess board

-harpoon gun & crossbow

On the net now tethered through my phone, but should get a real connection sorted soon enough.

[robsr3v3ng3]

wow.... really have furnishings to suit every occasion. Fridge for beer to have a few drinks, computer to play on when bored, harpoon gun to kill attacking sharks, and a crossbow for those heavily armoured pets the new neighbours have.

[DonLorenzo]

I know right!? Definately shopping for a bed come monday though

[Bellaby]

harpoon & a cross bow?

Impressive. Prefer compound bows myself

[sal_vager]

Hi Don, have you thought of getting a hammock? I hear they are comfy and would be a lot easier to pack, you could even roll stuff up in it.

Also sorry I missed the 5th turn, I have emailed you and I had hoped to get back in time, If it\'s too late please use my turn 5 email as my turn 6 entry.

[DonLorenzo]

Just a quick update, I\'ve got the internets sorted at my new place, all you guys submissions have come in fine and I\'ll get to processing them in due time. I\'m also gainfully employed again so a bit busier than before. Sal your turn counts for #5, so you can get to work on #6! Also I didn\'t consider a hammock, it\'s a pretty neat idea, however I\'ve slept in them in the Colombian jungle and I didn\'t really like them there, they were a bit short for me though so maybe that was the problem. Do 2 person hammocks exist because that\'d be epic. Quite the feat of engineering though, I\'m afraid