Goomblah's Sandbox Shenanigans

[Goomblah]

I'm going to keep a running report of all my projects in my Sandbox save here!

Active:

Kerbin Flight Center

A refueling station in LKO, and my main base of operations in space. If any kerbals tell you that you can buy fried space chicken there, they are not in any way associated with Goomblah Aerospace Industries and should be ignored.

ICT-01 Atlas

A heavy cargo carrier capable of hauling heavy loads into orbit around any planetary body closer than Jool.

This image shows it with two fuel shuttles docked, waiting to be released to land and get fuel from the miner(s) on Minmus.

Currently is helping set up a mining and refueling operation on Minmus.

Minmus Mining Lander

A small mining vehicle as part of the refueling operation on Minmus.

MEaRL

"Minmus Exploration and Resource Lander"

Part of an earlier attempt at a mining colony on Minmus, MEaRL performed the initial survey of Minmus to identify ideal landing sites.

It was originally intended to serve as a miner as well, but due to a design error (No ore tanks!) it is more or less useless at this point, though it is capable of ferrying Kerbals around.

Currently active as a shuttle to carry Kerbals to and from orbit above Minmus.

Inactive:

Munar Refinery Module Mk. III

An early miner design that is probably outdated and useless at this point, but I haven't terminated just in case I want to bring it online again. The two previous iterations, on the other hand...

Nomad

Another early design; this one was supposed to be a light cargo hauler and orbital tug, with VTOL capabilities for planetary landings. It's pretty cool, but I don't really have a purpose for it, as it's a jack of all trades; KFC already has a smaller, more practical dedicated tug, and with Atlas around to take care of the heavy lifting, Nomad is abandoned on the Mun.

Munar Rover Mk. III

This is for whenever I get bored of launching rockets and just want to goof around in a rover for a bit. This version has an ion engine and some Puff engines for vertical flight, so it can clear pretty much any obstacle it runs into.

Dart Ion Transport

Designed as a pretty cool way to get someplace eventually, the Dart Ion Transport does not currently have any kind of function, due to its incredibly low TWR from only three ion engines. It can go fairly far (in theory), but you would get there faster using only RCS instead of the ions. It was cast out of its home at the KFC as a desperate measure to reduce local part count while the Atlas was being assembled at the station. Now that the Atlas is on the move and lag is back down to manageable levels, it could return to the station, except that I am far too lazy for that.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Goomblah

[Goomblah]

Testing how cargo bays respond to payloads clipping through them:

Not very well, it seems.

[Goomblah]

Sent over a new lander and crew to replace the one lost in transit:

I did it with a new cargo hauler with LVNs. The low thrust and heating issues make it very difficult to use, which is why I added nacelles with docking ports to allow for conventional engines to be added as needed to handle faster burns.

[Goomblah]

I managed to land the replacement miner with out any accidents or kraken issues, which is above average for my current luck.

Now I can fill orange tanks faster than I can dock them, so I decided it was time for a new miner and fuel hauler, so I designed this monster:

The only parts of this thing that stage are the Skippers and Mammoth. Six LVNs should carry it the rest of the way to Minmus after refueling in LKO. However, the fuel lines are poorly laid out and so fuel drains from the wrong tanks at the wrong time, so I couldn't even get it to orbit the first time I tried.

I've also been practicing flying SSTOs; this one (I haven't come up with a name yet, haha) can reach LKO super easily now that I know how to fly it; it can break the sound barrier and hit 1400m/s in a 45 degree climb, and is an impressive atmospheric flyer as well, with good maneuverability in atmo and a very high TWR and cruising altitude (it has more intakes than absolutely necessary, so it can maintain sufficient intake air at high altitudes). Of course, it can only deliver a single kerbal to space (and return via a clipped OKTO2), but it's fun and easy to fly.

[Goomblah]

I sent some additional engine components over to Minmus to make the return journey from Minmus less annoying for my LV-N cargo hauler (now named the Heron).

I added two more LV-Ns and a Rhino - way more thrust than is necessary, but I plan on using the Heron for my Jool mission, where it will be pulling a lot of stuff with it.

[Geschosskopf]

You build some impress stuff! When are you taking this show on the road to some other planet?

[Goomblah]

My ultimate goal is to set up permanent bases in the Jool system, preferably on Laythe and Bop. Here's my planned mission profile:

- Heron will carry a small SSTO for Laythe, some landers, rovers, and survey equipment, and a small orbital tug to aid in space station assembly. Atlas will follow shortly after in the same launch window, carrying mining equipment and space station parts.

- Heron and Atlas will meet up at Bop, and will drop off one of two miners to begin refueling. Once they are refueled, they will move on to Laythe, the final destination for most of the mission's equipment.

- Heron's survey module will undock and shift into a polar orbit to scan Laythe for a good landing and mining spot; once it has found a good site, Atlas will drop the other miner to the surface, and Heron will drop its landers and rovers to begin building a land base, using the SSTO to transfer crew if needed.

- Atlas and Heron will also begin to assemble a space station around Laythe, using Heron's tug and Atlas' parts.

- Having delivered their payloads, Heron and Atlas will return to Bop for refueling before making the return journey to Kerbin.

I have no idea whether this will all work or not, so I am going to do a test run to Duna and back before heading for Jool.

Currently, the main items I still need for the mission are the base components, both for the space station and ground base, as well as the rovers. I just recently added a survey module to the Heron that can operate independently off of a Poodle, and the Heron has a small lander with a surface scanning module inside of its rear cargo bay. I can use the same type of mining equipment that I use on Minmus for Bop, and attach a few parachutes to the miner for Laythe. I do need to make sure that the SSTO can dock with the miner so it can refuel, but tweaking port heights shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[Goomblah]

I'm making some final revisions to the SSTO, now in its fifth version, seen here docked to the Heron's new survey module:

Some screenshots from SSTO v3 testing, after a water landing:

The nosecone was destroyed in the landing; I was using the fly-by-wire nose for some reason. It is redundant with the drone core, so it was replaced with a regular nose for v4.

Giant helmets are a safety hazard.

And a pretty neat screenshot from Jeb's POV:

[Goomblah]

Geofgard and Bartwise decided to take the new rover for a spin around KSC:

THOSE ARE SENSITIVE ELECTRONICS, DON'T DRIVE THEM IN THE POND!

"We were just testing the rover's self-righting capabilities!"

(They do work)

Now to send some rovers over to Heron!

Or not... the aero really does hate fairings, doesn't it...

I lost control at 15km, and staged repeatedly to try and save the rovers, which ended up looking really neat as all six descended on their parachutes:

However, a water landing causes issues for the rovers, which are intended to land on certain tougher bits to cushion the impact, but in a water landing, most or all parts impact at the full velocity, which destroyed a few 6m/s tolerance parts on the rovers, crippling them:

Time to revert and try again with no fairing (and probably fewer rovers; six rovers really bumps up part count)

~~~

Update time! I managed to get a four-rover rack docked with the Heron's side port, which is a little bit of a tight fit with the SSTO on the rear:

Part count in this area is now almost 700, and my computer is not happy. I'm going to have to really start reducing graphics quality to get acceptable framerates...

In the meantime I will put the Heron in a higher orbit so it won't be rendered at the same time as the Atlas, which will reduce part counts to manageable levels in any one location, and reduce dV costs slightly.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Goomblah

[Generalstarwars333]

This is so awesome! And, since you aren't using imgur, I can actually see the pictures on my school computer! yay! More please!

[Goomblah]

I haven't touched this save file in a while - the kraken ate a bunch of ships, sadly, and I've since moved on. However, I plan on doing a mission log of a big Jool mission for my career save, so keep your eyes peeled

[Generalstarwars333]

YAY! hope I can see the pictures!

[Mister Dilsby]

Really enjoyed this, +rep. Appreciate you showing failures as well as successes, working through problems is what makes the game so much fun.

[Goomblah]

Really enjoyed this, +rep. Appreciate you showing failures as well as successes, working through problems is what makes the game so much fun.

Thanks! The new thread for my career save is over here - I will probably make a new post with some new stuff over there later today.