Ambitious project: The intrastellar Kolony ship "Ambitious".

[Xuixien]

The purpose of Ambitious is pretty straightforward: To explore other planets, particularly the moons, without the need to launch an entire rocket and it's payload each time. Instead, Kolony segments will be shuttled into space and docked together. Once the station is complete, the landers, scansats, shuttles, and krew will be sent up and Ambitious will launch. Also on the table is the potential to deploy Kolony modules on a planet ahead of Kolonists, who will arrive 1-2y later from Kerbin.

This is a pretty ambitious project for me. Originally I wanted to put a Kolony on Minmus, but I'm having some trouble with that (using USI). I've had space stations before so I figured this would be the same thing, but bigger and more self-sufficient. There are however challenges

• I'll need to have satellites that can go out, scan the planet, and come back and dock (because why put the scanner on the Kolony when I can make things harder by adding steps?).
  
• I'll also need multiple mobile drilling platforms (for different resources) that can land, mine, take off and return to Ambitious.
  
• Ambitious will also need work modules to process all that stuff. So far this Kolony is getting pretty big!
  
• The Kolony of course needs to have an array of landers capable of shuttle krew and rovers to the moon's - and back.
  
• I also want to do 1 planetary landing.
  
• I have no which method of propulsion would be best. I was thinking liquid fuel because I'm having an easier time finding ore than Xenon and such.
  

This is my problem with KSP. I haven't even left the Kerbin SOI yet, or even made my first Kolony, yet here I am 1 month into the game wanting to do this crazy thing. Basically I'm tired of Kerbin and want to take off in a big boat and not come back for like 8y in game. Anyone else do stuff like that?

Speaking of which would anyone like to work on this project with me?

[SciMan]

I'd love to be able to do stuff like that, but KSP just plain can't handle the necessary part counts required for that many different things to be docked together all at once (as in, doesn't matter how good your computer is, the program can't take it and will probably crash).

Even if, by some miracle, the game DOESN'T crash, you'll be playing a slide-show, and you won't have frames per second anymore. You'll have seconds per frame instead. That's not fun for anyone.

As always, there's mods to cut down on part counts, and to not require you to actually bring all the parts to begin with, and I use them (KSP Interstellar Extended, Extraplanetary Launchpads).

My problem is that I want to be able to do it (mostly) stock, and it's just NOT possible without these mods that are frequently seen as "cheating" (really not cheating, as there's nothing in them that isn't allowed by the laws of physics, and those are the only real "rules" for this kind of game anyways).

Basically, if you want to do a "mothership-style" Grand Tour, you almost need a bunch of really "over-powered" mods to get around the game's under-powered abilities to use the entirety of the processing power it has available.

Hopefully KSP v1.1 helps this out some. Even if it doesn't, 64-bit support and (partial?) multi-threading support will at least allow you to use more mods before crashing, and delay the crashes that are caused by memory leaks.

I'm just trying to say "Be prepared to come up against the limits of the game engine instead of the limits of the game", with as much info about it as I can come up with at the moment.

[Xuixien]

Wow, way to walk all over my dreams bro.

[selfish_meme]

Check out the Jool Grand Tour challenge thread, it happens all the time, also look for Kidonia, it's exactly what you want to do.

[Xuixien]

I guess I could split it into 3-4 smaller platforms and keep them far apart.

[peachoftree]

check out xtoros excellent Avalon Project, It sounds like just what you are looking for

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/93963-Avalon-A-mission-to-every-planet-and-moon-Investigation-Via-EVA

Edited August 24, 2015 by peachoftree
its and it's

[CalculusWarrior]

You could use the Part Welding mod to weld together segments of the mothership which will not dock/undock, etc. Then you only have to worry about tens of large parts, and you should be able to avoid the game-ending crashes others alluded to above. Of course, I would recommend KSP Interstellar or some other mod with high-ISP engines, as for ships on the scale of which you're talking about, the fuel requirements are extraordinarily non-trivial.

[Sirine]

A big dream start with a small step.

Step 1. Learn to understand the Navball.

Step 2. Learn to rendezvous.

Step 3. Learn to dock.

Step 4. Precision landing.

If any step you take fail. Go back to step 1.

[Xuixien]

A big dream start with a small step.

Step 1. Learn to understand the Navball.

Step 2. Learn to rendezvous.

Step 3. Learn to dock.

Step 4. Precision landing.

If any step you take fail. Go back to step 1.

I was learning these things, and then I learned about MechJeb.

[Luna-Industries]

I was learning these things, and then I learned about MechJeb.

You must learn the ways of the Navball, and to trust your feelings. Only then will the path of the Kerbonaut be fully revealed to you.

[Fearless Son]

• I have no which method of propulsion would be best. I was thinking liquid fuel because I'm having an easier time finding ore than Xenon and such.
  

Avoid xenon-fueled engines. You cannot extract xenon in the field, and the thrust you get out of xenon engines is really poor. Combine that with the high electricity drain demanded by a cluster of xenon engines (especially far out in system where solar panels are less effective) and you will have trouble getting anywhere.

You will need something with a decently high total thrust if you expect any of your burns to be timely. A Rhino engine is ideal for this, clusters of other engines might be enough if you do not have one. Even so, be careful not to accelerate too suddenly. Ships joined by Clamp-o-Trons can be a little "wobbly" when a sudden force is put on them, so ease them into a burn.

[problemecium]

"KSP is unplayable with any kind of large ship because you'll be stuck watching a 3 FPS slideshow and it'll crash to desktop and break your save every five minutes unless you install ATM, Part Welder, and Mechjeb."

^ Don't let anything like this discourage you. Obviously the game slows down with giant motherships, but they're so awesome you're likely to find it's totally worth it. Just try and build with part count in mind, i.e. don't put on 80 struts when 2 will do, use the largest fuel tanks applicable, etc.

[Sharkman Briton]

If you're going properly interstellar, you can download the Kerbal Galaxy mod, adds a few new stars to explore and such. For that, though, you will need the Interstellar mod, because going to those places takes insane DV. As that other guy said, you will need the part welding mod to avoid ludicrous lag and crashing, and some personal advice from me, don't rely on MechJeb, it will just make you worse at the game.

[mrclucks]

I was like you. Using mechjeb instead of doing everything 'without cheating". Mechjeb does however mess up so I suggest you learn how to do everything yourself and then when you go back to mechjeb you'll be able to correct any mistakes you find.

I do disagree with precision landing however. I find it almost pointless and extremely hard. Landings within a km or so should be good for almost everything you'd want to do

[Red Iron Crown]

If you're going properly interstellar, you can download the Kerbal Galaxy mod, adds a few new stars to explore and such.

Title says intrastellar, which I take to mean is within one star system.

[Merlin]

Fusion engines how to tank water is my kolony roadblock

[RocketBlam]

Sounds kind of like the K. S. S. Kerbia, a ship that can go almost anywhere in the system, and everywhere, without returning or more launches.

I designed this in .24 with Kethane, but it could of course be done stock now.

Edited September 12, 2015 by RocketBlam

[Warzouz]

I've recently designed the Salamander space station. : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464-Salamander-Exploration-simple-and-efficient-space-station-to-everywhere

Fully loaded fuel and ore, one configuration can has nearly 7000dV (at a very low TWR, though), even if I prefer using a proper transfer stage. It can go everywhere. The miner can refuel everywhere, except Duna/Tylo/Eve and Laythe. The generic lander (around 7 tons) can land and return from every body, except Tylo, Laythe and Eve (which need dedicated lander).

The station is designed to be stationary, but I already moved my Joolian station from Pol to Bop, then Vall by balancing fuel from radially attached lander and return vehicle.

Creating what you want might not be that hard even with a simple station. The issue would be to carry all those specific landers in a way your station is still maneuverable. Then packing enough fuel and have an engine section with reasonable TWR.

Then, beware about dV : you must always know, not your total dV, but your FREE dV : You'll need to land to get ore/fuel so you can't use that fuel during flight or your entire station would be stuck... Check here about mistake on my first prototype : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130691-I-m-smart-%28or-not-%29

So calculations and preparation is a very long way. It took me hours to design the Salamander Space Stations (with prototypes sent on every body), and it's far from being flawless...

Still, fixing ourselves objectives that are a bit outside of what we can do is what KSP is for, isn't it ?