Will KSP support an idea of mine? The Jovian Express.

[NorthernDevo]

'Allo!

Since Paypal has seen fit to STILL not run my payment through (growl!); I've still got the bloody demo, so there are many things regarding KSP that I don't know yet. I was at work today and something suddenly pinged in my brain: I wonder if I could create the Jovian Express within the Kerbol system?

The Express is a storyline I had about ten years ago; or rather is an environment to write stories in. It's pretty weird, which was the whole point - it was an environment where I could have a little fun and not be so serious about my plots (I write SF murder-mystery, so people have a habit of dying in particularly gruesome and colorful ways in my stories. The capital letter 'A' is frequent; as in "AAAAA!"). I abandoned it because it was just not realistic, and the ideas I thought up for the Express made their way - in a more mature form - into the books I'm writing now.

The idea is this: Humanity begins a massive commercial-based expansion into the Solar System within about 10 to 20 years from now. The Moon is colonized and quickly becomes a thriving community; Mars begins to be colonized from the Moon. Everything's going pretty hunky-dory, until 2046 - the year of the Petrocalypse; the year the oil stops flowing.

Earth civilization collapses completely; the off-Earth colonies have to fend for themselves. They do so, very well. The Moon becomes the new capital for Humanity's system-wide civilization.

Two hundred years later, all of Humanity's commercial and political strength is centered around the Moon. Earth, having learned its lesson, is now focused on an entirely green lifestyle, populated by shiny happy people holding hands, apologies to REM. (Er...actually; the song sucks. No apologies to REM.)

A true heavy expansion of Humanity is limited because of the limited resources. Earth is off-limits, and all the rich mineral wealth is way out there beyond Mars, in the Jovian system. Modern ships are short-range; resources for long-distance ships are limited. Some few can travel out there at great cost, so someone (in a possibly over-caffeinated state) comes up with an idea: the Jovian Express. Robot ships are sent to the Oort cloud to capture several (24) comets of similar size and shape, and send them on an orbit through the lower Solar System. As they travel, they're outfitted with bases, engines and support facilities. The comets are converted into huge orbiting ferries which carry cargo, ships and personnel from the inner Solar System out to the Jovians. They're each given proud names from history, though since the Internet (and much of Earth's record keeping) vanished in the Petrocalypse, by a small error the ferries have names such as Flying Dutchman, Marie Celeste and Harpswell.

Each has a crew of about sixty, and each carries a full load of about five hundred passengers and several dozen ships enroute to the asteroids and beyond. A four year journey...in a zero-gee metal-lined ice cube...cheek-to-jowl with other people...all of whom have some reason for being on this thing...

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?

Ultimately, the idea proved mathematically impossible, but I always thought I'd like to revisit it some day; see if, improbable as it is, I could make the idea work in an entertaining manner. I've spent all day at work today dreaming about building it in KSP, putting engines and habitations on asteroids (Does KSP have capturable comets?) and sending them down to orbit around Kerbin and Jool.

My question is, can something as wonderfully absurd as the Jovian Express be built within the confines of KSP?

Cheers!

Edited April 16, 2016 by NorthernDevo

[Mitchz95]

You can certainly do this in KSP. Just capture a big asteroid, attach an ISRU and a drill (along with whatever crew accommodations you want), and boom, you have a spaceship. There'll still be a lot of dead weight from the rock itself, though, so it might be more practical to just build a ship from scratch.

[Ultimate Steve]

Well, you could build a spaceship out of an asteroid, but it would be hard to get the balance right. It probably wouldn't be able to hold 600 kerbals, but with 1.1 you probably could (less lag). There would also be horrendously long burn times if you used nuclear engines. You could refuel using the asteroid, but it would run out pretty quickly. But, yes, it is possible!

[NorthernDevo]

Excellent! Might be a fun way to pointlessly waste a few hours sometime!

BTW - Ultimate Steve; I think I've seen you before...Might you be about the size of a volleyball, with a couple of handles and a big yellow eye?