The Department of Booms and Snacks - Episode 22: Nearly Finished (with Kerbin)

LittleBlueGaming · May 27, 2015

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my career journal, I hope you enjoy it. Below you can read the first episode.

"There's got to be all sorts of new snacks out there, just waiting to be discovered." - Anonymous

The Department of Booms and Snacks (DoBaS) is a humble new agency, seeking to explore space and seek out new snack-forms. After unsuccessfully making it to the Mun by filling a garbage can with fireworks, Gene and Jebediah realized they would need funds, science, and an abundant supply of snacks to realize their goal. Calling on their old college buddies, they founded DoBaS with a government grant of 25,000 funds, and by taking up residence at a derelict snack factory. After accepting a few contracts from Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society, DoBaS embarked on the first of their historic missions.

Looking over Gene and Jebediah's first attempts, Wernher Von Kerman identified a few areas for possible improvements. By increasing the number of fireworks, welding the lid on, and punching a small hole in the bottom, Wernher created the RT-5 Solid Rocket Booster. Jebediah eagerly climbed on top and prepared to make history.

This will be my mission journal for my new stock career*. I've been playing for a little while now, goofing off in career and sandbox modes, trying new mods, but it's time to get serious.

*As of episode 18, I've added KER, KAC, and Window Transfer Planner to make the interplanetary era more manageable and enjoyable.

Edited June 12, 2015 by LittleBlueGaming

LittleBlueGaming · May 27, 2015

"Clearly this whole thing is something we're actually going to have to think about for a while." - Gene

Wernher Von Kerman was concerned that their last rocket didn't achieve orbit. He had carefully calcluated that 'around half-a-dozen' fuel tanks should have been enough. Frustrated in his attempts to improve his rocket equation, he turned to the Kerbalnet looking for answers. He soon discovered something called the boom-velocity equation (called the rocket equation by believers in tall grey men), which was developed by Konstantin Kerman in a fit of snack-induced inspiration.

Using this equation, Werhner designed a rocket with "probably somerwhere around 3700-ish units of that triangle vee stuff". Unfortunately, Jeb failed to achieve orbit, and had to be recovered from nearly halfway around the globe. Gene was furious, as the failure couldn't have cost more. "We're rationing snacks until you guys figure out what's wrong and achieve an orbit!"

Bob decided to help out by performing some science of his own. Specifically, he wanted to see if science performed the same at different locations. He asked Bill to create a moblie science lab, kicked Jeb out of the cockpit once it was finished, and set out to perform tests all around the DoBaS Space Center. Later at the Astronaut Complex, Bob burst in and shouted "It's all the same! Science is the same all over the Space Center!". Seeing that the disturbance had nothing to do with a new flight, Jeb turned back to his snacks, while Bill tried to come up with something nice to say about all this.

So I'm calculating my ÃŽâ€v and TWR by hand for the first time, and checking my numbers in a spreadsheet I threw together. I came up with a two stage rocket, first stage was 1663m/s of ÃŽâ€v and a TWR of 1.17. Second stage was 2078m/s of ÃŽâ€v and a TWR of 3.29. I thought that would get me into orbit, but ended up short. I've checked my numbers with KER and I had them right, I'm guessing it's just because the first stage didn't get me far enough, so I wasn't getting enough performance in vacuum with the higher Isp. I was going off of the numbers from this map, and although I haven't verified it I have made it to orbit with 3800m/s, IIRC. Going to unlock some better parts and try again with similar total ÃŽâ€v.

In the end I just tooled around the DSC for a bit so I could unlock Advanced Rocketry.

LittleBlueGaming · May 27, 2015

"Yeah, we finally made orbit. But more importantly, we get our snacks back!" - Jeb

[At the Agency Picnic]

Jeb: Remember that one mission where I flew a rocket, right after the other time I flew a similar rocket?

Bob: Refresh my memory.

Jeb: Don't you remember? We used a bunch of rocket parts to make a rocket, and then I flew it. I even sent you a report.

Bob: Uh... sure.

Jeb: Yeah! It was awesome!

Gene: Enough! We're going to start naming our missions. No more of this 'that one time' nonsense!

Bob: That will definitely improve my science catalog system.

Built the Kerbiter 2(the last one has been posthumously named the Kerbiter 1) with similar ÃŽâ€v at both stages using the new parts, and I ended up with similar results. Thinking that it's because of the low amount of ÃŽâ€v in the first stage, I swapped some of the fuel tanks around to have 2348m/s in the first stage and 1433m/s in the second. Still around 3700, but this one made it to orbit and came back.

Using lean kerbalfacturing techniques, I also designed a 4-in-1 suborbital test rocket. The places where it doesn't look like the rocket is connected are just optical illusions.

LittleBlueGaming · May 27, 2015

"Don't blame us Jeb, you're the one who wasted all that fuel!" - Wernher

Excerpt from the Mun Landing Mission Log:

Day 3

Jeb: Guys, this is getting really boring. Why didn't you pack my KBox 360?

Bill: You wouldn't have been able to make it back with that extra weight.

Jeb: Worth it.

Day 5

Jeb: Is anyone even paying attention???

Bob: Don't get me started. I'm dying to take a look at all that science you picked up.

Jeb: Poor you.

Day 7

Jeb: I can't take it anymore!

Gene: Oh, hey Jeb. We just got back from karaoke. How are things going?

Jeb: AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHUUUURRRRRRBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEE!

Day 8

Gene: Good news Jeb, this is your last re-entry!

Jeb: ...

Gene: Look, I know this went on a little longer than we had planned...

Jeb: ...

Gene: And I know you ran out of snacks today...

Jeb: ...

Gene: Just hang in there bud, we baked you a cake for when you land in a few hours.

Jeb: Did somebody say cake?

Today I learned that landing without KER is a bit more difficult than landing with it. I had 500m/s of extra delta-v for the trip, and managed to waste all of that buffer, probably mostly in the landing. As you can see, my return trip didn't quite go off as well as I had hoped.

I also utilized the sub-assemblies for the first time, I think this will be a pretty good lifter for the near future.

LittleBlueGaming · May 27, 2015

"Like stealing candy, or chips, or soda, or pretzels, or... uh... from a baby" - Jeb

Excerpt from the Mun Rescue Mission Log:

Jeb: Hey there Lembles, fancy a lift back home? Just sign here.

Lembles: What's your benefits package like?

Jeb: We get tons of packaged snacks! *snicker*

Lembles: Whoa, sign me up and let's make like a cracker and leaf.

Jeb: Great, another wise guy.

I was inundated with rescue from orbit of the Mun missions, so I gobbled all those contracts up and prepared to pad my roster. I was planning on doing everything in two launches, but ended up taking three due to more plane changes than expected. 7 new kerbals, a large chunk of Funds, and a little bit of science. What kind of dingleberry would *pay* to get new recruits?

Edited May 28, 2015 by LittleBlueGaming

LittleBlueGaming · May 28, 2015

"Can I come home now?" - Catchelle

Gene: Listen up gang, we have a new plan. Since these missions are starting to take longer and longer, we're going to launch three rockets...

Jeb: I get to fly three missions? Awesome.

Gene: No Jeb, hold your comments until I'm finished. We're going to launch three rockets on the same day.

Jeb: Wait, how can I fly three rockets at once?

Gene: ... We will launch one mission to the Mun to establish a polar orbit, one probe that will escape the Kerbin system, and one mission to land on Minmus.

Jeb: You're not making any sense Gene.

Gene: It's ok Jeb, have a cookie. Dismissed.

I sent Catchelle to the Mun to complete temperature and crew report missions. Did a few inclination changes to speed up the process, but it still took quite a while to gather all 20-ish reports. That's ok, because it would be a while before the probe and lander got to their destination. Made some nice change and upgraded a lot of the DSC.

Tried my hand at asparagus staging for the Minmus Lander. I wanted it to have as much delta-v as possible so I could jump to as many biomes as possible, but an oversight by engineering meant I cut the mission short after the third landing(pity, I had so much fuel left). Good thing I had Jeb piloting that one.

The probe literally had nothing else planned other than escaping the Kerbin SoI, and seeing if it could get anywhere else after that. I haven't done any interplanetary transfers before, and I didn't bother checking any transfer windows. This just seemed like a more Kerbal-esque idea.

benjiful9000 · May 28, 2015

[closed]

Edited July 4, 2021 by benjiful9000

LittleBlueGaming · May 28, 2015

"Say what? You want us to stay at the Mun Outpost for 3 years???" - Verree

Jeb: Bob, what are you doing? I thought you already did all the science around here.

Bob: Well, see, I've got these new instruments, and I wanted to know if they are the same everywhere too.

Jeb: Whatever, just get off the launch pad. Valentina's going to fly our space station up into orbit. *pouts*

Bob: You should be more interested in my research, we wouldn't have a space station if I didn't do all this science.

Jeb: Bor-ing.

Lot of things getting done:

Recovered 1500 science from Minmus, along with Bob and Jeb.
Launched and landed a Mun outpost.
Put most of a basic Space Station into orbit. Want to build a probe or two that can attach to it, as well as a spaceplane.
Used the Advance Grabbing Unit for the first time.
Used asparagus staging for the first time.

- - - Updated - - -

Hehe, thanks. I do RP in my head a bit while I'm playing, but it's when I go over the screenshots that I really start getting ideas.

It's also fun to blame the kerbal when you make a mistake... like when I rocketed Bob up through one of my solar panels, I actually said something like 'Nice work Bob!' out loud

benjiful9000 · May 28, 2015

[closed]

Edited July 4, 2021 by benjiful9000

benjiful9000 · May 28, 2015

[closed]

Edited July 4, 2021 by benjiful9000

LittleBlueGaming · May 29, 2015

"That's what you get for sending a rookie instead of me." - Jeb

Exerpt from Mun Outpost mission log:

Elliot: I'm going to hop over to Zone OM-8 so we can complete that contract.

Gene: Negative, you don't have enough fuel.

Elliot: I think I do... it's only half way around the Mun.

Gene: Look, you're new here, you're not very experienced. Trust me, you need to stay where you are and continue your original mission.

Elliot: Who are you calling new? If you don't remember, I had already orbited the Mun before you recruited me.

Gene: If you don't remember, you were stranded in that orbit when we rescued you.

Elliot: Poh-TAY-toh, poh-TAH-toe. *Turns off radio*

Elliot (to self): Mmmm, potato. Where did I put those chips?

[2 hours later]

Elliot: Uh, mission control?

Gene: What happened?

Elliot: Well, we made it all the way to zone OM-8, but we couldn't slow down. Long story short, we're stuck in orbit.

Gene: So you're saying we need to rescue you... again...

Elliot: I have a big pile of science!

Gene: Sure, we'll get you back here. Eventually.

I landed a permanent(was supposed to be at least) base on the Mun, with a pilot and two scientists from the newbies I've rescued. Things were going well, until I realized that they might be able to get the last EVA report for a contract I picked up back when I sent the first mission to Munar polar orbit. I really thought I had enough delta-v, turns out I needed about 70m/s more to be able to land. So instead of crashing at the north pole, I just pushed the outpost into a low orbit and started planning a rescue mission.

Meanwhile, I built two new probes to explore the Kerbol system, with far more delta-v than my first attempt. 5 FL-T800 fuel tanks staged asparagus style to a single LV-N, and a lifter stage that could get them out of the Kerbin SoI. I've set up maneuver nodes to intercept Eve and Duna, really hoping these two missions succeed.

Also built 3 satellites and sent them to polar orbits of Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus. Surveyed each body.

I'm a little flustered, since just about every lander I've sent to the moons has had one problem or another. I really just want to get two permanent bases up and let the mobile science labs grind it out. I may put up stations with at least a little fuel first, I'm just really eager to get more science.

LittleBlueGaming · May 30, 2015

"Driving on ice cream is hard!" - Probodobodyne HECS (aka Jeb Jr.)

Gene: Alright, who wants to man our new outpost on Minmus?

Gene: ...

Gene: Anybody?

Bob: No offense Gene, but remember what happened when Jeb and I tried to do that? You didn't give us landing legs!

Gene: Well, mistakes do happen...

Verree: I'm not going if Elliot is the pilot. We could have died trying to stick that last landing on Mun.

Gene: I don't know who the pilot is going to be yet, that's why we're having this meeting.

Gwenthis: Uh, Gene? We've been here for a few months now, and haven't gotten to do any missions yet.

Edtop: Yeah, I think it would be fun. Gwenthis and I were lab partners in college.

Gene: Great, now we just need a pilot.

Elliot: I'll do it!

Gene: Anybody?

Elliot: Me! Me! Me!

Gene: Anybody at all.

Elliot: I promise not to do anything stupid this time.

Gene: ... Jeb? No? *sigh* Fine Elliot, but disobey orders again and you're out of the program.

Elliot: Yes! *fist pump*

Gwenthis and Edtop (in unison): Can we change our minds?

I had so much fun today...

Got to use sepratrons for my boosters, it's nice not having to worry about tearing any fins off.
Learned how to build modular bases, thanks to Temstar's excellent guide.
Managed to deliver my most complex payload to date: 3 base modules and a rover in 2 flights to Minmus.
Made a close landing to my first module with the second. Every landing until now has basically just been 'wherever'.
Assembled a base. Not as easy as a space station... I wasn't expecting Minmus to be so daggum slippery.
Also my first time trying any of the smaller engines. I didn't get the point of them until I came across Meithan's optimal engine charts.

So my outpost is a tiny little thing, really just proof of concept that I can do it, and the minimum needed to fulfill a contract I picked up. Still, I'm so excited that I finally have a working base.

Unfortunately, any decently-sized(probably small to most KSP players) construction kills my laptop, so I had to turn my graphics almost all the way down for this mission.

LittleBlueGaming · May 31, 2015

"More boosters works, more struts work, what about more control systems?" - Bill

Gene: Bill, we need to send a probe to latch onto an asteroid.

Bill: Ok... why?

Gene: Somebody actually wants to pay us just to move a rock around.

Bill: Does that mean we can buy more snacks?

Gene: You guys... there's more to life than snacks.

Bill: LIES!

Meanwhile on Minmus

Elliot: Hey, you guys want to hop over to a different biome?

Gwenthis and Edtop (in unison): NO!

I wanted to do some testing with control systems on space stations, specifically to find out what increases stability and what doesn't. I built a station core, 6 arms each with their own reaction wheel and RCS thrusters, and attached a power module that had its own set of RCS thrusters on the end. I found that I could have all the RCS thrusters on, and the station could rotate very quickly with no deflection to speak of at the joints, and I could also enable 1 or 2 of the reaction wheels in the core. Enabling more than 2 meant the core would rotate faster than the joint could keep up with. I'd really like to do some more testing with longer attached modules, but don't have the funds for it right now.

I finally finished the last of my Mun contracts by sending two probe landers and one manned... hit up 7 sites and got a bit more science. I'm trying to mostly clear out my active contracts, I don't like having so many just sitting there.

Also had my first encounter with an asteroid. I completely screwed up my Hohmann transfer, for some reason I just derped while manipulating the closest approach markers. Had to use a ton of delta-v to fix it, but having 5 fuel tanks and an LV-N meant I could afford to.

Getting close to my maneuver node on the Kerbin System Explorer 2... about a month away. I'm eager to try something new, so I may just warp through and see how the encounter goes.

Edited May 31, 2015 by LittleBlueGaming

LittleBlueGaming · June 1, 2015

"Let me get this straight... you can turn dirt into rocket fuel??" - Jeb

Wernher: What's on the agenda Gene?

Gene: You're not going to believe this. Someone wants to pay us over 500,000 funds to bring some dirt back from minmus.

Wernher: Really?

Gene: Yeah... well, 9 tons of it.

Wernher: That's probably more than a couple of the guys can carry in their pockets... especially since they're already full of snacks.

Gene: Yeah, I need to you figure out a way to dig up and store large amounts of it.

Wernher: On it!

First things first, I completed my transfer burn to Duna, just have to wait another 300 days to get there. Burns for Eve and and Gilly are coming up soon.

Realized I had forgotten about one of my science missions along the way. They were stranded in an elliptical orbit around Kerbin, I just was thinking that was debris for some reason. Sent a rescue mission, recovered the science, and unlocked the fuel cell array.

I had been planning my first mining mission, but couldn't see a way to make it feasible with just the fuel cells. With the arrays, it's a piece of cake. Made a core module and a freighter module, got them to Minmus, and mined about 2500 units of ore. Delivered that to Kerbin orbit for >500,000 funds for a contract, but I thought that was a bit silly so I took it all the way to KSS.

Mainly just a proof of concept, I'm going to set up new space stations with fuel depots around Kerbin, the Mun, and Minmus, then set up another mining facility on the Mun.

I feel like I'm going to have all the tech tree unlocked before my probe gets to Duna, due to the research labs... they seem kinda OP. With some mods adding more tech, and especially life support, I think it would be much more reasonable.

Lastly, I've got two asteroids (Class C and Class E) coming into the system soon... I have contracts to put them in Minmus orbit, so that will be fun.

Falkenherz · June 1, 2015

Very nice! And super interesting how you advanced in career in comparision to my game. My tech advances are slower, should probably have focused more on Mun/Minmus landings, but instead got caught up in building space planes!

Mister Dilsby · June 1, 2015

I do love mining Minmus. Great job with the vertical surface dock! All my Minmus craft are wheeled and dock horizontally (won't clutter your thread with my pictures, you can see them in the comic linked below if interested). That seemed the more repeatable way to do it for me, but now I'm going to have to try building a 'stack' somewhere just to see if I have the piloting skills

LittleBlueGaming · June 1, 2015

Space planes are still kinda mysterious to me. I finally made a couple that made it into orbit, but couldn't bring them back down. They were too unstable and would always flip/spin on re-entry. It's not something I've put a lot of time into yet, I'm waiting to unlock the RAPIER and Aerospike in this career mode.

I know I could just look at what other people are doing, but it's something I want to figure out on my own.

"We choose to dock vertically on Minmus, not because it is easy, but because we didn't think of the other way the first time" - Gene

Yeah, that would probably be easier, but after having such a hard time vertically docking my little lifter at my first Minmus outpost, I wanted to try again. I didn't actually have any RCS vertical control, so I was using WASD and IJKL at the same time

Love your comic, btw

Edit: I put a smaller fuel tank on each end of the freighter, so I could basically just transfer all the fuel to those ends before docking, really helped with the balance.

LittleBlueGaming · June 1, 2015

"What if I just crash into it going really, really fast?" - Jeb

Emergency meeting at the KSC

*Nervous chatter while everyone waits to hear the news*

Gene: Listen up, listen up everybody. Quiet down. We have a very serious matter to attend to. I'm not talking about a normal contract where we do seemingly pointless stuff for funds, this is as important as snacks!

*Loud gasps and chatter picks up again*

Gene: Quiet down! We don't have much time. We've recently discovered a Class E asteroid which is on a collision course with Kerbin. We only have a few days to come up with a plan, build an intercept rocket, and change its course.

Jeb: Could we just put down a bunch of pillows where it's going to land?

Bob: Seriously Jeb? Do you even think before you speak?

Jeb: What's that supposed to mean? I think its... uh... you're... hmmm... What was I going to say again?

Gene: Alright, enough. Bob, I want you to work with Wernher on the maths. Find out exactly when the launch window is, and figure out how many boosters we need to move this thing out of the way.

Bob: On it.

Gene: Bill, I want you to start modifying our Asteroid Grabber 1 design. It's going to need to be bigger, faster, stronger.

Bill: Right away!

Jeb: What about me Gene?

Gene: You have the most important job.

Jeb: Yes!

Gene: I need you to fly up to the KSS, get Valentina, and bring her back. We're going to need her... shall we say... finesse for this mission.

Jeb: Wait, what?

Hehe, I should have looked more closely at these asteroid paths. I was planning to intercept the Class E that was coming in soon, but I didn't notice until after I had launched that it wasn't just encountering Kerbin, it was going to hit it.

While I was tempted to just watch the show, I figured this could be a lot of fun. Hoping I had enough delta-v, I set up an intercept outside of Kerbin's SoI. Everything went smoothly, until the first time I tried to grab onto it. I just flew straight through it. F9'd, and this time managed to latch on. I wasn't quite lined up with the CoM, so my first burn started things rotating. Maneuvered my pivot to kill the rotation, released my clamp, and lined up again. This time, I was in line with the maneuver node, and CoM. Took a long burn with my LV-N, but I got it to a 35k periapsis. The airbraking slowed it down enough to get an elliptical orbit, and one last burn at the apoapsis to get the periapsis above 70k.

I can see a problem with trying to push these huge things around, you really have to line up perfectly so you don't induce too much rotation. I should try designing something that will pull instead, I'm guessing that would be more stable.

Didn't have enough mono-propellant to keep maneuvering the asteroid, so I'm going to have to launch another vehicle to get it to orbit around Minmus.

LittleBlueGaming · June 2, 2015

"What do you mean nothing went wrong? Is such a thing even possible?" - Gene

Bob: Guys, guys, the first science reports from KSE 1 are back. We have measurements taken from space all around Duna and Ike. This is awesome!

Jeb: Yeah, whatever.

Bob: And you'll never guess what we've learned...

Jeb: Science is the same there as it is here?

Bob: ... how did you know???

Jeb: Listen Bob, I may not be the crunchiest chip in the bag, but even I have noticed a pattern with all your experiments. Science is always the same... everywhere.

Bob: Fine, why don't you do all the science from now on if you're such a smarty-snack. *storms out*

Duna encounter was getting close, and I just didn't want to wait any longer, so I warped to it, skipping about 90 days. Considering how all my other firsts went:

... I was half-expecting to have messed up or forgotten something. After closing my orbit around Duna, then around Ike, and transferring to a low-Duna orbit, I realized it wasn't as mysterious as I was thinking. It's basically just a larger version of every other orbital maneuver I've done. I certainly could have gotten closer on the first pass, my transfer to Eve is supposed to bring me into near space right away, but overall I'm just very pleased with how things went.

There was something special about watching that red planet and its moon get closer and closer, I was more satisfied with that than anything I've done so far. I love this game so freaking much!

Falkenherz · June 3, 2015

I am still far away from those tech nodes and I wanted maximum cost efficiency. There is no cheaper way to bring things up from Kerbin. Think about a crew transporter and a fuel transporter. But sure it costs a lot of time to fly these things up and down again (especially if you screw up the re-entry curve and then get out of fuel on your final approach...). OTOH, flying a plane in between makes for a nice change once in a while. Just donÃ‚Â´t overdo it like me and do 10 re-fueling flights in a row....

Concerning the flipping thing, it is essentially the same as with rockets; too much drag in the front is bad. Plus, same thing applies for the center of lift; you just have to make sure that the center of lift is always a bit behind center of mass, also when flying empty. Too much lift tends to have the same result, even when center of lift is behind center of mass. While piloting, make sure you never shift heading more than 20 degrees at once at any time (the more lift rating you have the less shift is possible without flipping). For steering, make sure you do not have too many elevons because this will screw up SAS.

CanÃ‚Â´t wait to get to Duna myself! Everything is ready but the launch window... (I just wonder how a Kerbonaut can survive sanely in a small capsule for 260+ days!)

Edited June 3, 2015 by Falkenherz

Mister Dilsby · June 3, 2015

It's established 'fanon' (ok, this fan posting here, last week, in a comic page ) that Kerbals can hibernate indefinitely and at will. It's one of many evolutionary adaptations, along with small size and complete disregard for personal safety, that make them an ideal species for space exploration.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, I never get tired of that. I always try to stop and look the instant the planet is visible, and look in often afterwards.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, you can SSTO quite easily with a turboramjet. I have a couple of designs that work well, one of which is a liquid fuel only craft that finishes orbit on LV-Ns. You can find that and lots of other good ships on this thread. I also recently posted a brutally simple SSTO crew 'recruiter' that orbits on one TRJ and three radial 'carrot' engines.

Tl;dr: TRJ + low mass = mid-career SSTO.

LittleBlueGaming · June 3, 2015

That's inspiring, I think I'll work on something like that soon. I've figured out a lot of mistakes I've made with my first attempts, and I've got the funds in career to afford plenty of testing.

Edit: Dang, that went incredibly well. Still need to work a lot on my ascent path, but made it to orbit with a little fuel to spare. I haven't actually used airbrakes before, I kind of forgot they were there. I was able to deorbit without any heating effects, remain in control the whole time, and re-established powered flight to land on an island.

That's really relieving. I guess I've just been trying too hard, thinking I needed more than I did, so I ended up making big, heavy things with too much wing-surface and drag, and too many engines and fuel tanks at the back to maintain stability when the fuel ran out.

Edited June 3, 2015 by LittleBlueGaming

LittleBlueGaming · June 4, 2015

"There, there, it's going to be ok. Want to blow up some rockets with me in sandbox?" - Jeb

*Little Blue is sobbing uncontrollably, pounding his head against the hardest objects nearby, and wondering how he ever made it through elementary school*

Edited June 4, 2015 by LittleBlueGaming

Mister Dilsby · June 4, 2015

Well done! For you, the sky is no longer the limit w.r.t. planes

LittleBlueGaming · June 4, 2015

"Third time's the charm. Either that, or the last mission we can afford." - Gene

Emergency Meeting at the KSC

Gene: Alright guys, we need to make some changes if we're going to keep this space agency alive. The last three mission failures have cost us over 450,000 funds! I know some of you aren't very good with numbers, so let me put it this way. We can't buy you guys snacks for the next month.

*A rumble of murmuring, shouting, and sounds of incredulity fill the room. Jeb loudly yelled [removed from transcript]. Several of the new kerbals actually fainted*

Gene: Come on guys, quiet down. It's important that you all understand what failure means. Bill, you designed a grabber using Vernor engines, but didn't install any oxidizer on number 3.

Bill: I... i... well... you see...

Gene: And Bob, that guidance path you came up with for number 1 was horrible. We had to do a 160 degree inclination burn once it got into orbit, and didn't have enough delta-v to rendezvous with the incoming class-c.

Bob (under his breath): Well maybe if you hired an actual programmer instead of assuming I could do it...

Gene: And I don't even know what happened to number 2... we're still trying to figure out what went wrong with the staging.

Wernher: We discovered the sepratrons were not wired correctly.

Gene: Well, I have to take some of the blame too, I accepted some contracts that we shouldn't really have attempted until we progress a little further, but I was dazzled by the size of the advances.

*shouts from the crowd. 'Yeah, it's all your fault Gene'!

Gene: Hey, hey, hey, we've all made mistakes. This isn't about blaming anybody, this is about us doing a better job. We should all spend a little more time double-checking our jobs, and maybe a little less time running around the grounds pretending to be rockets and airplanes.

Jeb: You're a cruel man Gene...

So, yeah. I've been having problems with these asteroid redirect missions. My first attempt at this class-c, which was on quite the inclination, ended up being extremely inefficient, and I didn't have enough juice to even get an encounter.

For the next attempts, I designed a lighter payload, went back to a single LV-N, and abandoned the idea of trying to pull the asteroid rather than push it.

Unfortunately, the staging for my sepratrons went all wonky between builds, so the second attempt met catastrophic failure during the first separation.

The third attempt would have been fine, but I decided to switch out the RCS thrusters for Vernor engines, and forgot to swap out the mono-propellant for oxidizer. I got to within 200m of the stinkin' thing before I realized I had no control. I had looked a couple guides for meeting up with asteroids more efficiently, and I made it all the way to it without even emptying my orange tanks.

The third attempt worked out better. Again I made the intercept with fuel to spare in my orange tanks, grabbed the stupid thing on-center, and redirected it to aerobrake at 30km at Kerbin. It didn't quite work out as well for a heat shield as the class-e did, so I lost a few parts to the heat.

So now I've got two asteroids in eccentric orbits of Kerbin, I guess I'll just mine them till they're empty and then maneuver them to Minmus.

Edited June 4, 2015 by LittleBlueGaming

The Department of Booms and Snacks - Episode 22: Nearly Finished (with Kerbin)

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