Forgotten Space Program

[Angelo Kerman]

Neat looking shuttle.  Looking forward to seeing it fly on Laythe.

[Cydonian Monk]

22 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Neat looking shuttle.  Looking forward to seeing it fly on Laythe.

Thanks. I'm hoping it'll still be able to land on Laythe in 1.1.2 (or 1.1.3, or whenever....).

[Geschosskopf]

On 5/6/2016 at 10:02 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Look at all those Round-8 Lifesavers!  Does my heart proud.  The Lifesaver is my most favoritest part in the game.

 

Quote

Actually docking the K-2 to the Si-7 and the ALEC was rather a bit daunting and slow. At this point both sections of the K-2 Jool payload stack were in the very-many-tonnes mass range, so any movement from either took quite a bit of time. And a few orbits to get all lined up and docked. Sunrise. Sunset. Sunrise. Sunset. Swiftly flow the days.

You should have waited a bit more, until all was right and proper

 

On 5/6/2016 at 10:18 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Easier to get a single kerbal back form Eve now than it was the last/first time I did it. And as of 1.1.x we've got that big inflatable heatshield, which makes landing on Eve a bit easier. We'll see. I doubt I'll get to that contract any time soon.

All Kerbals on Eve's surface are just condemned prisoners base personnel until sufficient technology exists to bring them up.  There are many options on the market.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Cydonian Monk]

6 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Look at all those Round-8 Lifesavers!  Does my heart proud.  The Lifesaver is my most favoritest part in the game.

Ditto. I've used that thing for everything from my first Mün landers to these Jool probes. So happy they didn't kill it off. Really hoping it gets skipped with the upcoming rocket parts art pass, too. 

 

6 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

All Kerbals on Eve's surface are just condemned prisoners base personnel until sufficient technology exists to bring them up.  There are many options on the market.

Heh. That's one way to look at it, and certainly an option. Completed something of a cheese contract this morning by docking a shuttle to a station to "expand" it (and then promptly undocked). That Eve flag may get cheesed in a similar manner. 

Hmm. I wonder if transporting a newly planted flag in a box or attached to a claw from, say, the Mün to the surface of Eve would count.......... Not sure I want to taunt the Kraken though (considering undocking from Kelgee Station is still slightly broken.... Kraken is already grouchy). 

[Geschosskopf]

8 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Ditto. I've used that thing for everything from my first Mün landers to these Jool probes. So happy they didn't kill it off. Really hoping it gets skipped with the upcoming rocket parts art pass, too. 

When 1.1 came out and I turned the game's graphics settings up, I noticed that the Round-8 has a pressure-gauge-on-a-stalk protruding from it.  I could swear that isn't there at lower graphics settings, but maybe I'm wrong.  Either way, though, I'd never noticed it before.

 

8 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Hmm. I wonder if transporting a newly planted flag in a box or attached to a claw from, say, the Mün to the surface of Eve would count.......... Not sure I want to taunt the Kraken though (considering undocking from Kelgee Station is still slightly broken.... Kraken is already grouchy). 

Hehehe, genius.  Plant a flag in a flowerpot, box that up, and drop it on Eve with a heatshield and parachute   It's a shame, however, that the flag painted on the side of a probe lander doesn't count....

[Cydonian Monk]

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

When 1.1 came out and I turned the game's graphics settings up, I noticed that the Round-8 has a pressure-gauge-on-a-stalk protruding from it.  I could swear that isn't there at lower graphics settings, but maybe I'm wrong.  Either way, though, I'd never noticed it before.

Yep. Not sure if it's always been there, but I first noticed sometime around 0.90 (when I bought a gaming PC and thus could turn the graphics settings way up). Very cool little detail.

[insert_name]

6 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

When 1.1 came out and I turned the game's graphics settings up, I noticed that the Round-8 has a pressure-gauge-on-a-stalk protruding from it.  I could swear that isn't there at lower graphics settings, but maybe I'm wrong.  Either way, though, I'd never noticed it before.

 

Hehehe, genius.  Plant a flag in a flowerpot, box that up, and drop it on Eve with a heatshield and parachute   It's a shame, however, that the flag painted on the side of a probe lander doesn't count....

Just have an engine pointed at the part that the flag is attached to and activate it once landed

[Cydonian Monk]

Titanium Flight Test

The Nitrogen program had proven more successful than ever hoped. Over the course of fourteen launches, twenty-two kerbals had traveled to space inside its cramped and tiny capsule. Yet the majority of each Nitrogen launch was lost and unrecoverable, and with the agency strapped for funds a new solution was needed.

That solution came in the form of the Titanium spaceplane. Capable of transporting 6 kerbals to High-Kerbin Orbit, each Titanium launch was estimated to cost 82k funds, 71k of which were anticipated to be recovered. Or, roughly 86% recovery value. While not totally reusable, as the external tank would be discarded part way through launch, the Titanium was still a huge step forward. 

The design of the launch vehicle was incomplete when the first prototype of the spaceplane left the hanger, but it was scheduled for an airframe flight test anyway. Equipped with two Juno jets high and behind the wings (where they would be protected from the worst of the reentry), the Titanium was capable of sustained flight at low altitudes. Thomlock volunteered for the test flight, Titanium X-5 1, and drifted slowly off of the runway and into the air. 

This was to be a simple once-around and land, so he banked to the North, flew past the space center, then came in for a landing. Unfortunately the craft was found to have a rather wide turning radius, and Thomlock missed lining up on the runway. Instead of going around again he tried to compensate, came in at an angle, and bounced off of the edge of the runway and into the grass. This is where one of the aircraft's flaws were revealed - poor rotational control on the ground due to the close-in landing gear. 

[Gear which will need to be swapped out once I've upgraded to 1.1.2, but they work for now.]

The flaw became apparent when Thomlock attempting to pull back onto the runway. The plane wobbled, Thomlock cursed, and the port wing dipped too low and was shredded by the ground. Thomlock, veteran Kerbal that he is, managed to recover and save the rest of the plane, but the damage was done. He applied the brakes and got out to take a look.

No bueno.

The craft would undergo a bit of a redesign to fit a new, more powerful main engine, but the kerbals in R&D had the data they wanted. No other test flights were scheduled and the Titanium X-5 was disassembled, scrapped for parts. 

--

Meanwhile construction of the Jool Expedition was ongoing. The last remaining major pieces to launch were the two fuel tankers - one for Laythe, one for Vall. These would be critical for refueling the Sulpher LDAV after reaching Laythe Orbit and before/after landing on Vall, and thus couldn't be skipped.

First up was the Silicon 8. Launched atop the same launch vehicle as the Potassiums, a rocket now designated as an LV-08 Fortissimo, the Si-8 was a very simple operation barely worthy of mention. The large tank was deposited into an 80km orbit while its upper stage wandered off to become Chlorine 6.

The Silicon 9 soon followed. Launched atop a slimmed-down version of the Fortissimo, the Si-9 and its upper stage soon docked with the Si-8. Afterwards the Si-9's upper stage, now designated as the Chlorine 7, meandered over to the Chlorine 6. (As for what, if anything, these preserved upper stages will be used for? No idea yet. Probably they'll get refueled and used to push fuel tankers to the Mün and Minmus.)

Up next was expected to be the Potassium 3, but the agency was too short on funds to launch it. So an alternate mission plan arose....

--

Titanium Boxes

"So we're clear then?"

"Yeah, yeah." Mardi wasn't sure why she and Verly had been singled out for this mission, but hey - she was going to the Mün, so how bad could it be. She wasn't overly thrilled with the prospect of sharing engineering duties with another, but if it earned her a spot on the Dres mission she might as well go along with it. 

"And?"

And this Nelrigh guy was getting on her nerves. He wasn't very good at scheduling crews, to be honest, and none of them were quite sure how he'd convinced Gene or The Boss to let him take it over. How else could you explain a mission to the Mün with two engineers, two scientists and a pilot? Such a mission should surely only need one of each. 

And the directions for the mission were beyond weird, too. "And I take these two boxes with us to the lander. Once there I copy the contents of one of the boxes to the lander's memory, and then hang on to them until we land on the surface. That's where I leave them. On the Mün."

"At two different locations."

"Right, right. Got it." It was a weird mission, the two engineers tasked with determining why data on some old relic had survived while none of the others had. The two boxes were an experiment into the same - long term data preservation - and would hopefully provide details as to how fast bits rot when exposed to cosmic radiation. (Bit rot being the leading hypothesis as to why none of the other craft had any viable data.)

She tried explaining the whole mess to Verly once they were aboard the Titanium 2, but the launch and its thunderous roar rudely interrupted their discussion.

The design of the Titanium and its launch vehicle had been finalized during the launches of the Silicon 8 and 9. Instead of placing the craft atop a lifter, or strapped to an external tank as was tried with the Aluminium, the Titanium X-5B is launched with the "external tank" mounted to its nose. A new, very powerful engine had to be developed for this very purpose: the S3 KS-25 Vector. 

Once the fuel in the nose tank is spent, the main engine temporarily shuts down, the tank is jettisoned, the Titanium maneuvers clear, and then continues to orbit. The only parts of the craft to be discarded are the nose tank and a handful of struts and hoses connecting it to the Titanium X-5B. This is how 86% of the launch cost is recovered.

Verly, who had worked with the Titanium's design team on its communications system, was explaining this to Mardi when Mardi remembered the boxes. And their mission. She would've interrupted Verly, but the other kerbal was entirely too enthusiastic about the ship they were riding in, so she let her finish. 

The mission was simple. Upon arriving at Kelgee Station they would transfer to the Sulphur 4, take it to Pequoni 1 around the Mün. There Verly and Mardi would be left behind to examine the lander's computer system while Edsel would fly Rozor and Elkin to Pequoni 2. The two scientists would work their science magic until it was time for all five of them to land on the Mün.

"But won't taking the lander's electronics apart destroy them?"

"Not if we're careful." Mardi passed one of the grey boxes to Verly and held her own up as an example. "Shouldn't be much different than this, based on the notes from the previous mission. And when we're done we have to copy everything that's stored on these drives to the lander."

"Why?"

Mardi shrugged. "Got me. Maybe the plan is to use the lander as a control in this bit rot experiment."

Mardi watched as Verly spun the box in front of her, letting it tumble in the microgravity. She was examining each face of the cube as it spun, though Mardi wasn't sure what for. "Any idea what's inside?"

"Got me again. Probably just random ones and zeros in a known pattern." A quick burst from the RCS sent Verly's box tumbling towards Mardi. She batted it back to her crewmate and put her own box back into storage. "Hang on to that. No reason for me to carry both of them."

The docking at Kelgee was a bit nerve-wracking, bringing such a large ship into an already busy and chaotic area. The arms of Kelgee were designed for just this use however, and so fitting the Ti-2 into place next to the older, presumed SSTO was an easy operation. They docked just as the Sun slipped behind the limb of Kerbin. Perfectly right and proper. 

A quick check after docking showed that both their docking port and that of the Sulphur 4 were still functioning, but the ports onto which the discarded orbital modules of the previous two Nitrogen flights were still broken. Fixing that would have to wait for a later crew, as Mardi and the others were anxious to get to the Mün. 

First they had some chores to attend to. Verly and Mardi both set about removing the 12 RTGs the S-4 had returned with from the Mün, attaching them temporarily to Kelgee's hull. (A later crew would come along to return them to Kerbin for recycling or fit them to future craft at the station.) That done they next moved to attempt to wrest the derelict orbital modules of the two Nitrogens free of the station, with no luck. Manually undocking them also proved impossible, for reasons none could understand.

So instead they got ready to go to the Mün, a first for all five of them. Edsel undocked the S-4 once everything was transferred and loaded, backing away from the station slowly. The craft was aligned for the transfer burn as calculated by the astrogation specialists on Kerbin, and then they were off. 

--

The Münquake is in Another Castle 

A day later and they were on the approach to Pequoni 1. The S-4 had arrived in the night, and entered into an orbit that would rendezvous with their target in a little more than one orbit. That rendezvous was here, now, and so Edsel was busy getting them lined up and docked. Verly and Mardi meanwhile were gathering their tools and getting ready to transfer to the station. They would stay here, prodding the lander's electronics, while the other three transferred to Pequoni 2 and its orbital lab. 

Ground control had a strange request for them first, one that Gene radioed directly up to Edsel. "Could you undock the lander, pull away a few meters, await our signal, then redock?"

"Why?"

"Oh, no reason...."

"Ok, data looks good S-4. You're clear to transfer to Pequoni 2."

"Copy that, ground. Headed upwell to PQ-2. S-4 Out."

And Pequoni 2 is just where they went, at least for a short while. Elkin and Rozor set up shop in the lab and were busy running a few experiments when a couple more strange requests were called up to them from Gene. 

"First order of business is your signal appears to be relayed by way of Sulphur 1 and 2."

"Eh, the ships stolen by that Hallock guy?"

"One and the same. Could you take a look out of your prograde windows and report on any flares?"

It took Edsel a moment to see it, but it was definitely there. A small speck, moving with them against the backdrop of stars. "What d'ya know. Got it." He relayed some numbers back to them.

"Ok, that should be good enough for us to track them. Yes, there's the telemetry now. Looks like Hallock drained them of fuel before he ditched them. Guy really could be anywhere."

Next Edsel and the S-4 were instructed to leave Pequoni 2, grab Verly and Mardi from Pequoni 1, and proceed to a landing zone nearby Phosphorous 1. The old probe had apparently been detecting strange seismic readings, and the kerbs on Kerbin decided it'd be cheaper to use the S-4 to get the follow-up data than it would be to send another probe. (And they couldn't move the Phosphorous 1 as it was lying on its side.) Conveniently this would also allow Mardi to carry out her mission. 

And just like that they were all together again, crammed into the Sulphur 4. Edsel decided there was no time like the present and plotted out the descent burn. As the only true astrogator on board, Mardi gave the descent plan a quick look over before she signed off on them. 

"You realize it's pitch black at the landing site, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Well, the flight computer can handle the initial descent burns, but the kOS onboard isn't really meant for precision landings. You'll need to do that manually. Think you can manage?"

"No problem."

"In the dark?"

"Eh, what d'you think I am? An engineer? We'll be fine."

All Mardi could think was "We're all going to die." 

All the crew in the back cabins could see was darkness. Endless darkness outside their windows. And that's about all Edsel saw as well, at least until they were close enough for the lander's spotlights to cast their warm glow across the regolith. They were lucky in that the first of their landing spots, VB-N1F Alpha, was on mostly level terrain. Edsel even considered firing up the kOS landing routine to let it finish the landing for him, but didn't want to risk it since they were so close.

Make no mistake - There is nothing right and proper about landing on the Mün at night.

And finally, a soft touchdown. A quick review of the area outside the ship showed what they all expected - complete darkness. Elkin attempted to run the seismometer scan, but couldn't read the report in the lack of light. So they decided to nap the few hours remaining until local sunrise.

Once the sun was up they all crawled out of the lander and made their first steps on the Munar surface. (Each planted a flag for sentimental reasons, all but one of which were packed back into the lander to return to Kerbin.) Finally, their initial giddiness of the landing having subsided, they all lined up for the group photo. Mardi dropped the first of the two data boxes here, guessing it was as good a place as any.

The interns and other kerbals in the R&D department back on Kerbin reviewed the seismometer data and decided their landing site was not the location they were looking for. Another site, some 10km to the southeast, might provide better results. So they climbed back aboard the Sulphur 4 and Edsel moved the lander to the new location: VB-N1F Beta.

Which also turned out to not be the spot. Still, it was good enough for Verly to leave the other data box. This time Edsel got to plant the flag.

That task complete they moved onwards to the third location: VB-N1F Gamma.

Yet another spot that wasn't the source of the seismic disturbances. This one proved to be a difficult landing, too, as it was on the edge of a crater rim. Edsel brought the S-4 down as softly as possible, so as to reduce the amount of rocking. It was just enough to keep the lander from tipping over.

After some consultation, it was decided the lander didn't have enough fuel to jump to another landing site. Bingo fuel. Go back to orbit, or stay on the Mün forever. So they planted a quick flag, packed up and returned to Pequoni 1 to top off their tanks. Tanks that were almost completely empty by the time they arrived. 

Half an orbit later and they were headed for the Munar surface again, VB-N1F Delta on their minds.

After VB-N1F Delta proved to also not be the spot, the R&D kerbs sent the crew back to Gamma, this time calling it VB-N1F Epsilon. The crew of the Sulphur 4 were close to mutiny, or at least close to going on a short-term strike, but stuck with it none-the-less. Epsilon turned out to not be the same as Gamma, but a spot yet further down the edge of the crater. 

Still not the Münquake factory they were looking for.

Increasingly frustrated, Edsel threatened to not visit VB-N1F Zeta. They were once again approaching bingo fuel, below which they wouldn't make it back to orbit. Only the assurances from the R&D kerbals that this new spot, which incidentally was less than 2km from Gamma, was most likely the final spot. Their readings had identified the crater they were jumping across as the most likely start of the fault line, and they needed to confirm the fault ran further to the South.

So they made one last jump over the crater.

Edsel pulled the seismometer data just as soon as they touched down. "Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"No clue. I don't read science speak. How does this even work? We've been here all of three seconds and you're telling me this thing can already detect quakes? Get real." He tossed the printout from the seismograph down to the scientists in the lower cabin, Elkin caught it as it fell. They radioed the results back to Kerbin and were pleased to hear they were exactly what they were looking for. The Münquake was finally in the same sandcastle as them. Gene congratulated the crew, and suggested they take the next several hours off to enjoy the Mün. 

Mardi and Edsel both bounded out of the craft, Mardi eager to plant a flag at this sixth and final location. Though if the munquakes were as bad as the data suggested, it was entirely likely none of their flags would still be standing upright come the next morning.

A small party broke out on Kerbin when the checks arrived for completing the Munquake contracts. 13.2k for each of the six landings, plus another 71k for the entire contract. All told they pulled in more than enough to afford the third and final Potassium tug. 

Afterwards a few more contracts appeared on Gene's desk, one for planting a flag on Laythe, another for building an outpost on Minmus. Completing the Minmus mission and possibly one more contract would give them all the funds they need to launch the Potassium refueling flights and the two additional Jool contract satellites (small probes, one to test a Juno jet on Laythe, the other for orbiting Vall). 

It was finally looking like the Jool Expedition might actually happen, despite all the problems and roadblocks. The Boss was still worried. It couldn't be this easy, could it?

--

Kerbal Kerbals

In other news, the Kerbal Academy of Disciplines officially recognized a fourth position for space personnel: Kerbal. This new rank recognizes kerbals who are masters of all three disciplines: Engineering, Science, and Piloting, and allows them to practice their trades without restriction. To date Thomlock is the only kerbal they have promoted to the designation of Kerbal.

To honor their friend and newest "Renaissance Kerbal", the crews and staff at the space center through a large and not-quite lavish party. (They're strapped for funds, afterall.) It was a party the likes of which will never be forgotten.

Until it is.
 

[Also, in what I hope was the completely random work of the random name generator, my mother's name showed up as a recruitable kerbal on Mother's day... as a scientist. As she graduated at the top of her class for her physics in undergrad, the coincidence seemed too great to pass up.]

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Angelo Kerman]

Quote

The Münquake is in Another Castle 

For awhile this sounded like some kind of code phrase, heh!

[NotAgain]

10 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

In other news, the Kerbal Academy of Disciplines officially recognized a fourth position for space personnel: Kerbal.

I suppose that this isn't implemented in stock... have you actually managed to make the game do this, or is it a marvel of picture-editing?

[Cydonian Monk]

2 minutes ago, NotAgain said:

I suppose that this isn't implemented in stock... have you actually managed to make the game do this, or is it a marvel of picture-editing?

That's in the game. Kerbals are no longer solely assigned their jobs by using their name as a random seed (though their initial job may start that way). Instead the "trait" attribute in the kerbal's persistence node sets their profession, which can be reassigned. You can add new traits by copying the Squad/Experience/Traits.cfg file and using the same format. That's what I did - I created a "Kerbal" trait that includes the attributes of all three professions. 

There doesn't appear to be a way to keep this from applying to the new recruit pool, but my house rule is only kerbals that were in-save prior to the inclusion of the caste system will be allowed to become "Kerbals".

[Don't touch me]

Really great job!. I cat wait for you to go to Jool!

Why not Duna first? It is much easier, and you can get funds to Jool no problemo!

Just now, Don't touch me said:

Really great job!. I cat wait for you to go to Jool!

Why not Duna first? It is much easier, and you can get funds to Jool no problemo!

Don't let the space Kraken Eat you!!!!

 

[Cydonian Monk]

3 minutes ago, Don't touch me said:

Why not Duna first? It is much easier, and you can get funds to Jool no problemo!

The invisible hand of plot. And the Jool transfer window came up first. 

[superstrijder15]

1 hour ago, Don't touch me said:

Really great job!. I cat wait for you to go to Jool!

Why not Duna first? It is much easier, and you can get funds to Jool no problemo!

I think it is just easier to make an interesting story at jool, because of the diversity and the necesary mission size, and of course launch windows help to

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

That's in the game. Kerbals are no longer solely assigned their jobs by using their name as a random seed (though their initial job may start that way). Instead the "trait" attribute in the kerbal's persistence node sets their profession, which can be reassigned. You can add new traits by copying the Squad/Experience/Traits.cfg file and using the same format. That's what I did - I created a "Kerbal" trait that includes the attributes of all three professions. 

There doesn't appear to be a way to keep this from applying to the new recruit pool, but my house rule is only kerbals that were in-save prior to the inclusion of the caste system will be allowed to become "Kerbals".

Have you actually tried using Thomlock to assemble stuff with KAS/KIS, or reset Goo experiements?  Because I'm pretty sure those things key off the class name instead of checking if the Kerbal actually has the skill that goes with it.  When the whole poorly designed, poorly implemented, and thoroughly unloved Kerbal craft line unionization class system 1st came out, I immediately tried to create my classes with all or various combinations of the skills.  And while KSP accepted these as valid classes, and new Kerbal recruits appeared with those labels, none of them could do any of the tasks that key off the class name.

For instance, you can give every Kerbal the engineer skill.  And THANKFULLY, it works and they can call fix flat tires.  But the Engineer's Union only allows members to assemble stuff with KAS/KIS, and bars all other classes from doing so even if they have the engineer skill.  Further, you can call a Kerbal an "Engineer" but NOT give him the engineer skill, and he can STILL build stuff.  LIkewise, nobody but card-carrying Scientists can reset Goo despite having the science skill.

This is why @Angel-125 wrote his Superkerbal mod.  This actually changes the class of the Kerbal, which AFAIK is the only way to get around this stupid restriction.

[Cydonian Monk]

36 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Have you actually tried using Thomlock to assemble stuff with KAS/KIS, or reset Goo experiements?

Hmm. Valid point. The only thing he's done since the change is fly the Ti-1, and while the SAS worked, that craft has a probe core (with Stab Assist) to allow for remote control. Some experimentation is in order. Those were certainly issues back in the early days of the caste system.  

I wouldn't be surprised or even disappointed if the KIS/KAS stuff fails, or any mod that's doing string compares against class. If so, I might either fix it or just hack it to allow all kerbals to build or do whatever. Might be a way to get the attributes from the class now, especially once I make it to 1.1.n. 

If "Kerbals" can't do science stuff then I'll just explain that away in story. At present there's only one (two), and his only qualification for being a "Kerbal" is he was stuck in a tin can for 95 years, 139 days, and 27 minutes. While that might be descriptive of the faculty at many research colleges, they also tend to write volumes of unreadable prose during their incarceration. 

[waterlubber]

You should make a ModuleManager patch that adds the Kerbal trait in as a rare thing to occur. It would be something like BadS, probably.

 

Keep up the good work, this is my favorite series. (The part textures look amazing)

[Geschosskopf]

5 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Hmm. Valid point. The only thing he's done since the change is fly the Ti-1, and while the SAS worked, that craft has a probe core (with Stab Assist) to allow for remote control. Some experimentation is in order. Those were certainly issues back in the early days of the caste system.  

I wouldn't be surprised or even disappointed if the KIS/KAS stuff fails, or any mod that's doing string compares against class. If so, I might either fix it or just hack it to allow all kerbals to build or do whatever. Might be a way to get the attributes from the class now, especially once I make it to 1.1.n. 

If you figure a way to hack all things, both stock and mod, so that they check for a skill in the traits.cfg file, and not the class / trait / craft line name, please make it public.

[Just Jim]

On 5/8/2016 at 8:57 AM, Geschosskopf said:

When 1.1 came out and I turned the game's graphics settings up, I noticed that the Round-8 has a pressure-gauge-on-a-stalk protruding from it.  I could swear that isn't there at lower graphics settings, but maybe I'm wrong.  Either way, though, I'd never noticed it before.

No, it was there before 1.1.

When I built the Doodlebug I noticed it, and positioned it so it's to the front.  You can see it in this screenshot if you look carefully:

 

And I agree... the lifesaver is a very cool part to play with.  And @Cydonian Monk, I love how you used them on the silicon 7!

Edited May 11, 2016 by Just Jim

[RocketSquid]

Well, that's one way to launch a spaceplane...

[TheEpicSquared]

Really looking forward to what comes next!

[Cydonian Monk]

Stellar[is] Launches

[Lost a bit of time and a lot of sleep earlier this week thanks to Stellaris, which just so happens to have a Kerbal mod up on the Steam Workshop. An interesting game that plays really weirdly when you think of kerbals as not being a warlike species. Anyway, the stars are behind us and we're back to KSP now.]

With the funds from the wild goose chase on the Mün in the bank and available for spending, the agency pushed ahead with launching the rest of the third Jool stack. This included the drive section, Potassium 3, an adapter to mount the K-3 to the Si-8/9, a probe for testing jet engines at Laythe, and one more commsat. 

The Potassium 3 was first up. This launch was exactly like the previous K-2 launch, a giant building-sized object being lofted into orbit atop another even larger building-sized object.

Once there it met up with the two orbiting fuel tanks that would serve as its payload to Jool. As somebody had forgotten to install a large-to-standard docking adapter on any other pieces of payload, the K-3 instead had to provisionally dock to the payload using the read docking port of its own orbital stage. That was an operation that apparently happened in the dark, as is only right and proper, and thus transpired without and cameras capturing it.

So next up was Silicon 10, a launch that carried an adapter to allow the K-3 to properly dock with the two fuel tanks. Also included was a new engineering probe for Laythe to test the Juno jet engine (as previously mentioned) that would become the Calcium 7. The intent behind this probe was for it to enter Laythe's atmosphere, spool up the jet engines once safely through the muck, then discard the heat shield and its lower stage in favor of flying around using the probe's two Juno jet pods. This will undoubtedly fail for reasons I haven't anticipated, but that's half the fun, right?

Also on this launch was another communications satellite for Jool. This was included more because the tug itself will need to be able to communicate with the network so it can perform any course corrections while still out in the void. (The lack of long-range communications on these tugs will need to be addressed in a future design.) This commsat will become the Scandium 3 once deployed, and will likely enter into a very high polar orbit of Jool.

All of this was launched atop an LV-07, a bit of overkill for the launch but the only real option as the LV-06 (and the revised version of it the LV-06A) have increasingly proven unreliable. Even this flight had a small issue, as the upper stage tumbled end over end twice after the burn reaching its desired apoapsis. The confetti fairing deploy was thus a bit... different. 

This was yet another launch where the docking occurred in the dark. (Perhaps I'm getting too good at direct rendezvous, as both of these past two reached their targets in less then half an orbit.)

In orbit the task was easy, if a bit tedious and slow. Dock the big end of this Silicon 10 to the tug, move the payload of the Si-10 (Ca-7/Sc-3) to the opposite end to dock at one of the standard-sized ports on the fuel tankers, then undock the K-3, spin it around to dock up with the payload, and then discard its orbital stage. (Which itself would then become Chlorine 8).

Moving around things as large and heavy as these craft takes TIME. And Patience. The larger pieces of the Jool mission can only maneuver using RCS as they're severely (yet properly) lacking in overpowering reaction wheels. And being so large means they're difficult to line up, so the majority of the docking is performed from this view:

Docking these beasts would take much longer if not for both Hullcam and the Docking Port Alignment plugin.

With that, all the pieces of the Silicon mission to Jool were in orbit with the exception of the crew and the fuel needed for the Potassium tugs. 

 

And fuel was next on the list. Originally intended to be launched over 6 Silicon flights, the crews designing the refuel payload quickly realized they could save money by launching two tanks worth of fuel in one launch. This was pushing the limits of the LV-08 Fortissimo, but a few Solid Rocket Boosters would solve that.

(Solid rocket boosters? Huh? I'm not sure I've used anything beyond simple kick SRBs since the very beginning of this playthrough.) Yes, solid rocket boosters were a newly discovered "thing." The crew that is presently on the Mün sent down some science data, those most magic of science points, which Wernher and the R&D interns used to develop a new, longer version of the old barrel of fleas. A regular old flea thumper, you might say. They conducted a few test firings and test launches and then declared the booster ready for use.

Anyway, the Fortissimo was outfitted with a collection of SRBs strapped on the end of the core stage's fins... because wings obviously look lke hardpoints and a better place to mount such things. This gave it just enough oomph to push the 808.3 tonne Silicon 11 "Potassium Refueler" off of the pad. Operating at the very limits of the LV-08 system, the Silicon 11 just barely made it above the thicker parts of the atmosphere before the boost stage burned out. 

After that it was a struggle to get the craft out of the atmosphere, and the kOS script had to be abandoned mid-launch. Had it been allowed to continue the apoapsis of the combined craft would've still been inside the atmosphere when the fourth stage burned out, and it was highly unlikely the Si-11 would make it out of the atmosphere on its own. Future launches will require a slightly different, perhaps slightly less efficient, launch profile.

Yet it still made orbit. This first refueler was meant for the most important item in the Jool expedition - the LDAV and crew compartments. And so it rendezvoused with the Potassium 1 after less than half an orbit. Yes, once again in the dark. This time, due to the difficulty expected with the operation, the actual docking was held off until both craft were in the sunlight.

Yet another docking viewed from the maw of the craft. Thankfully the K-1's orbital stage (Chlorine 4) was still attached, otherwise this docking would've felt a bit like running a camera up the wrong end of a spacecraft. It still felt like that. It's a bit unnerving to docking a craft to the engine-end of a spacecraft, especially when those engines are four large Mainsails. One slight outgassing and the show's over. 

Anyway, after what seemed like an eternity the docking was over, the cameras turned off and the fuel started flowing. There was one last piece of business to attend to before the K-1 stack was ready to head to Jool, aside form sending the crew up obviously. When originally docked, the LDAV and the crew hab were docked facing the K-1, which is backwards. A quick redocking was performed once the K-1 had been refueled to properly orient the two. 

The refueler and the K-1's orbital stage both undocked and pulled away from the mass. The Silicon 11 was then redesignated as the Chlorine 9, and is expected to serve for many years bringing fuel down-well from the not yet conceived mining and refining operations that might one day be built at Minmus.

The K-1 stack is all but ready, with a final on-orbit mass of 250.6 tonnes. (If you do the math to see how long it will take to complete the transfer burn to Jool using 8 LV-Ns, you'll probably cringe a bit. Yes, I intend to split the burn up over several passes.) The crew will perform a few alignment redockings to get the KAS anchors/tie-downs lined up, after which one of them will attach struts. they will then perform a quick full-throttle burn test after which the K-1/Silicon-6 will be declared fit for duty.

We've still got two more Potassiums to refuel first, so the stitching together won't be until the next update at the earliest. (I might even get to it today now that a nice Texas thunderstorm has driven me inside.)

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[DMSP]

Awesome work!

These Jool System craft are beautiful!

[RA3236]

2 minutes ago, DMSP said:

Awesome work!

These Jool System craft are beautiful!

Aaaaand... Biiiig....

[Cydonian Monk]

Seems I missed replying to a few posts this week.... I blame both Paradox and my work being busy.  

 

On May 11, 2016 at 7:53 PM, RocketSquid said:

Well, that's one way to launch a spaceplane...

Indeed. I developed a much larger version of the nose-tank shuttle about a year ago, and never got around to flying it. So I had the mechanics of what it needed to do down, just not a use for it. This smaller version will likely be my crew shuttle from here on out. (Though it obviously will get new landing gear.)

On May 10, 2016 at 3:57 PM, waterlubber said:

Keep up the good work, this is my favorite series. (The part textures look amazing)

Thanks. I've been playing on 100% graphics settings since I upgraded my PC last year (and since I abandoned the ways of logic and started using the 64-bit hack on 1.0.5). It makes a huge difference... even the stock parts look better. 

On May 11, 2016 at 7:09 PM, Geschosskopf said:

If you figure a way to hack all things, both stock and mod, so that they check for a skill in the traits.cfg file, and not the class / trait / craft line name, please make it public.

I'm going to test this in a few hours to see what's broken and where. I expect the stock functions to work as intended, as I know some folks have copied all the traits into all the kerbals in other saves... though not being one of the three named castes could pose a small issue somewhere. Not sure which mods will be grouchy about it. (KIS/KAS I expect. And maybe KER, but I seldom have a craft that doesn't have a KER tapedeck onboard.)

On May 11, 2016 at 7:36 PM, Just Jim said:

And I agree... the lifesaver is a very cool part to play with.  And @Cydonian Monk, I love how you used them on the silicon 7!

Thanks. That Doodlebug is still very cool.

On May 11, 2016 at 8:11 AM, TheEpicSquared said:

Really looking forward to what comes next!

Me too! It'll be nice to run a respectable Jool mission for once, instead of my usual flyby and plant flags on the easy moons.

1 minute ago, DMSP said:

Awesome work!

These Jool System craft are beautiful!

Thanks.

1 minute ago, RA3236 said:

Aaaaand... Biiiig....

As they say, go big or go home. The K-2 stack is insane part-count wise, and the K-1 isn't too shabby either. At least K-3 with the low-part-count fuel tanks won't dent the universe. (I hope.)