Conquering the Solar System - A late game career log

[RocketPilot573]

Hey all. I have decided that I will write a mission report log of my current KSP career mode. The savefile itself has been in use since 0.90, but I still have a wide range of missions I would like to accomplish. One of the main goals of this space program is to fully explore all the planets and occasionally colonize them, not just plant a flag and immediately leave. Not sure how this will turn out, but enjoy!

-Upcoming Missions- List kept up to date

Major:

-Colonize Laythe

-Colonize Moho

Moderate:

-Manned Dres Mission

-Jool Five

Minor:

-Crash Probe into Sun

-Rescue Kerbal from Ike (Contract)

-Resuce Kerbal from solar orbit (Not a Contract;.

-Chapters-

Chapter 1- Housekeeping and Training Day

-Quickloading Rules-

-Perma Death = On

-Death do to engineering oversight is real (EI, Failure to achieve orbit, resulting in crash)

-The above may be re-attempted, but ONLY re-attempted, cant just not takeoff.

-Death do to navigation oversight may be re-attempted, even in a different way (EI, Give up trying deadly aerobrake and gravity assist instead).

-Death do to player (me) goofing around is a simulation (EI, Plane stunts, rover driving too fast).

-Death do to game bug is a simulation. Except in the event where quickloading fails.

-Mods-

-Chatterer... Makes Sounds

-Mechjeb... I only use it for readouts, Smart A.S.S., and for predicting the impact location of an atmospheric landing/aerobrake predictions, the autopilot is not used.

-The Career-

To avoid any confusion, I will briefly list all notable missions in progress as a preview:

This is the tech tree, the nuke engine is purchased even though the tech isn't unlocked (it's a long story), but otherwise everything else is fine.

Here is the tracking station. There is a large amount of junk (random ships) littered everywhere, but that should be cleaned up in the coming days.

This is the Orbital Hangar, basically a parking garage where all the equipment is stored. Nuke powered tugs, landers, etc.

Yes, it's very large.

Here is the massive Minmus mining operation. The base is currently parked on an area of only 6% ore composition, I decided that 1 drill was too slow... "MOAR DRILLS!" This is what fuels my space program. A large tanker occasionally lands here to pick up LF and O.

This Gilly base is as far as I have gotten with colonizing the solar system.

And here is the RNFSS! That's Research 'n' Fuel Space Station. This is the main fuel depot in LKO, where all ships come to refuel- Hey whats with the yellow?

Pretty sure those are supernova level temperatures- OH NO

Now as I was saying I spent a lot of time building this station and I had aesthetics in mind. Just um, ignore the debris there. Stupid Kraken.

We will rebuild.

First Chapter Coming Soonâ„¢

Edited July 18, 2015 by RocketPilot573

[GehringGame]

Holy frijoles, every one of those screenshots is glorious. Your bases and station are gorgeous!

[Mister Dilsby]

Love that hangar; had thought of building a similar structure for a Jool-5 "battlestar" style capital ship. That was before 1.0 though

[RocketPilot573]

[spoiler=]

Hello again! As you probably noticed in that tracking station pic, LKO is ridiculously cluttered. Long story short, a horrifically inefficient craft has consumed all the the fuel in LKO (was to expensive to fuel it via launches, so all the nuclear tugs donated their fuel). As it stands, many ships are stranded, along with a few Kerbals that need to be "rescued" do to a contract. So without further delay, lets clean this mess up.

...

Aerobrake coming in from Minmus, this is a universal lander which is rated for most planets (excluding Eve, Tylo, Kerbin, etc), it can also be used to transport 3 Kerbals around.

And here is the LFO (Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer) Tanker, also coming in from Minmus. This thing will run around resurrecting all the dead crafts. Also dragging a skycrane behind it.

-Much, much later-

...and we have liftoff! This is the Pelican HL-B rocket. HL meaning "Heavy Lifter," and the B indicating that this is the single booster variant. Either that or I just forgot to use symmetry.

This rocket is carrying over 40 tons of fuel to the RNF Space Station.

This is my first launch in 1.0.4 and I must say this atmosphere is much improved!

This fuel tank will be added as a new module to the station. Oh, and I am pleased to report that nothing went supernova this time.

Now to recover that rocket! A useful feature of the Pelican rocket series is the reusability of the core booster and upper stage.

Here we see the core booster slowing itself with 8 airbrakes and performing a flawless powered landing.

Landed! Mechjeb is to be credited for it's landing predictions (I hate quickloading 20 times just to get near KSC), but I performed the actual landing myself. I use a joystick throttle lever for more rapid and precise throttle actions.

Now for the 2nd stage... The nukes make rather effective heat shields.

-Elsewhere in LKO-

Most of the housekeeping is finally taken care of (phew). Unfortunately before I get to any interplanetary missions my Kerbals urgently need to be leveled up. The Minmus base could refine fuel much faster if I had a bunch skillful engineers; the ones stationed there are as dumb as rocks. High level scientists could work in labs to finish the tech tree at a more acceptable rate too. The point here is that every Kerbal in Kerbin SOI needs to be trained. I have determined that the most effective training course will be to plant a flag on both the Mun and Minmus, orbit the Sun (briefly), and of course collect any other XP along the way. Edlu Kerman, presently in the RNFSS, will pilot the docked SSTO crew carrier and collect Luke and Mary, who are in need of "rescuing" (contract) in LKO. Then, Lars and Valentina (stationed in the Orbital Hangar) will board one of the landers. Everyone will then proceed to Minmus.

Bound for Minmus!

Also bound for Minmus!

-A few days later-

First to arrive is the fuel tanker... This should give it time to refuel before everyone else arrives.

Mining!

The SSTO arrives. It will be landing a few kilometers (avoiding lag here) from the Minmus base so that the three Kerbals stationed there can join the training mission.

Alright class, pay attention! Planting a flag is a very difficult process. The most important concept being the direction that the flag faces! You must use this ludicrously complicated algorithm....

Next up is the lander, carrying Val and Lars.

Dumping science from the lander's sensors into the SSTO, hopefully it will end up at the RNFSS to be used in research.

Taking off! To Solar Orbit we go!

Edlu is mildly terrified of the ground.

But before everyone gets to see solar orbit, both ships need refueling. Deploy the tanker! Err, I may be torching the base a bit.

Refueling! It is decided that lander crew will hitchhike on the tanker after realizing said lander only has 1500 m/s of delta-V. Also the SSTO can't seem to dock to the tanker because an engine is in the way of the port... "Whoops." I guess the lander will have to ferry the fuel.

-Yet another Several Days Later-

Alright so everyone got to see interplanetary space (ooooooh ahhhhh). Took more fuel than expected but that tanker literally has 6000 m/s of delta-v. To the Mun we go!

Lander crew is first.

The SSTO landing with it's RAPIERs running at maximum closed-cycle power. The single nuke doesn't have the thrust for the mun.

Now THIS is how a skilled Kerbal plants a flag! All 6 flags placed in the perfect lighting on the first try! Shame they never do this when planting a permanent flag. These are just for practice and will be taken down.

Edited July 18, 2015 by RocketPilot573

[xendelaar]

the Orbital Hangar is absolutely amazing! What's the framerate when you try to dock a vessel over there?

[SnoopSLR]

That SSTO is freaking awesome is it stock?

[Iago]

Wow! I wish I had the patience to build stations like that