Unknown Space: Modded Career in Uncharted Lands (Now with video!)

[Tiber9]

Hey awesome KSP community!

Unknown Space is meant to share and document my upcoming adventures in a new career game in KillAshley's Uncharted Lands!  

Full mod list to follow shortly. 

There will be a few layers to this: (1) the game proper, where I play and achieve or fail to achieve mission goals, (2) the role-playing/story 'game' that will mostly be about trying to balance the difficulty and create budgets and contracts for myself in order to have the experience I most enjoy in layer one, and (3) the file-juggling "game" of keeping the various mods I've installed getting along (can't thank ckan or the mod authors enough for making this mostly easy), which I like to call 'world-building'.  

Career Flag:

 

Introduction: An Agency Is Founded

Part 1: A Gritty Start

Part 2: Appeasing the Powers That Be

Part 3: Year Two and the First Satellite

Part 4: A Very Miniature Minmus (Minimus?)

Part 4.5: Mission Planning and MATH

Part 5: Video Recreations and First Kerbals In Space

Part 5.5: Video Update from the Actual Save

Part 6: Podus plays with gravity, and Bob almost strands himself in orbit.

Part 7: Endurance Record and First Mun Satellite

 

See you... out there...

 

Edited June 4, 2016 by Tiber9
updated table of contents

[Tiber9]

Mod list as of 5/3:

Spoiler

• ambient light adjustment
• capcom
• chatterer
• contract configurator
• contracts window plus
• Crossfeed Enabler
• CTT
• dmagic
• Docking Port Sound FX
• enhanced navball
• human colored faces
• KAC
• KCT
• KER
• kerbulator
• KJR
• kopernicus
• kOS
• kscswitcher
• KW
• KW graduated power cfg
• MM
• MRS-lite
• musicmute
• navballupdef
• navyfish
• nearfuture solar
• notes
• persistent rotation
• planetshine
• poodman's skybox
• precisenode
• procedural fairings
• procedural parts
• rcs sounds
• real fuels
• real fuels stockish cfgs
• real plume
• real plume stock cfg
• realchute
• remotetech2
• roverwheel sounds
• scansat
• scatterer
• science funding
• sigma
• Stage recovery
• take command
• Testflight
• testflight stock cfg
• texture replacer
• toolbar
• trajectories
• tweakscale
• uncharted lands
• unmanned before manned

 

Edited May 4, 2016 by Tiber9

[Nahim]

Wow! amazing

 

Good luck on these "Mares nunca d'antes Navegados" ( Through Seas where sail was never spread before. "Os Lusiadas" Camones, Luis)

[Tiber9]

Introduction: An Agency is Founded

 

 

From: Central Aeronautics Command:

(The Branch of Government that Oversees R&D of Aeronautical Projects With Possible Applications in Civil or Defense sectors.)

AnnualBudget, Year One

The World is not at peace, but our Nation has, so far, been able to remain neutral in the conflict. It is an uneasy balance, and every few weeks another global event threatens it. It is crucial that we keep apace with the technological developments of the other great nations, remaining always strong enough to deter attack, yet not threatening enough to incite it.

Despite these dangers, there is also great opportunity in our time. The pace of invention in accelerating, and we could be on the verge of a new era of wonders. Some of our best scientists believe we will soon, perhaps, rediscover the secrets of spaceflight.

You have been assigned these individuals, and been given the funds which we can currently spare for your project. Good luck. 

 

Synopsis: Found an agency at this secluded airfield to push the edges of aeronautical sciences. Focus on improving our current arsenal of guided missiles for range, accuracy, and reliability, while simultaneously pushing forward our knowledge of high-altitude flight. 

 

Note: You will not be receiving additional funds during this fiscal year. Next year's budget is contingent on your ability to impress the General Assembly with your achievements.  

Okay! After lots of tinkering I have my game set up for my best-guess of my play-style, we will see how it gets adjusted as that's part of the fun. I started with hard difficulty settings, made science rewards at 10%, heat at 120%, and am allowing quickloading as I often use quicksaves to figure out mod-related issues or questions. However, there should be no 'simulation' runs outside of the actual simulations in Kerbal Construction Time. Speaking of which I turned up some of the KCT settings and changed a couple formulas to make it a little more like the RP-0 preset. This will likely need balancing. 

I also set the funds to 0. And using contract configurator I turned off all the contracts (for now).  I tried for a very long time to either get my custom contract into the game or save-file-edit the stock contracts to be what I want, but I give up. So I put 100K funds in, and have disabled all contracts for now. So, above is what the contract would have been. 

The upshot is: we have 100,000 funds and one year to operate with them. How well we do with this will affect our reputation, which I will use to calculate funds for the next year. Science, theoretically, will be very scarce, but since we're also going to get rep from experiments, that will translate into money next year for r&d upgrades. 

 

Next: (I think) we will use components already developed (I guess by the military?) to construct our first rocket! 

*I would LOVE suggestions for vessel names as this goes on. 

Edited May 5, 2016 by Tiber9

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Make the first few primitve rockets the Grit 1, Grit 2, etc!
*Determination.

[Nahim]

Anual budget?

How does this affect your roleplay?

[Tiber9]

Part 1: A Gritty Start

Well I've got some balancing issues, (ignore the ridiculous amount of funds in the screenshots, after these missions there should be 83,000 funds left). Anyway!

 

The Engineers started with some surplus Guided-RT-5 rocket parts from the defense department. They stripped the heavy explosives and added batteries, an omni antenna, and some basic science equipment. The result is the first four GRiT rockets. 

launch #	Vessel	Outcome
1	GRiT-1	Batteries died, burned up 27km
2	GRiT-2	Batteries died, burned up
3	GRiT-3	slow takeoff, pitched into ground
4	GRiT-4	Ballistic trajectory, reached space

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The success of GRiT 4 was met with mixed feelings at the Airfield. It was the first object to reach space and return scientific data, and was an enormous breakthrough. On the other hand, the rocket's ballistic path opened up frightening possibilities, and many wondered what would become of their scientific goals when Central Aeronautics realized the potential of such a long-range missile. The wondered if their ancestors who had first conquered space had faced similar questions, and how they had resolved them. 

 

Yay I'm finally building ships and not just messing with files. It's a small start but we will go far, especially after some better balancing.

(I have way more money and science then I expected, despite turning the reward slider to 10%. I must have made mistakes with my KCT formulas, and I forgot that I get rewards for breaking records regardless of contracts.) 

Next: I'm not sure, sleep, real life, and then we will see how the program grows and how the powers that be might respond to these achievements. And soon we'll actually go places! 

[Quijote]

Nice story, I'm following you 

What KSP versión are You using?

[Tiber9]

1 minute ago, Quijote said:

Nice story, I'm following you 

What KSP versión are You using?

Thanks and thanks!

I'm running 1.1.2 Windows x64. Not all mods are updated for it but so far so good:-)

[Tiber9]

Part 2: Appeasing the Powers That Be 

Tests at the secluded airfield continued, with further launches of the GRiT series, as well as some new technical developments aimed at providing readily usable upgrades to other government departments....

While many engineers on the development team have joined the program in order to get out of making weaponry, the administrators looked at the program's dwindling funds and important but so-far un-applicable achievements, and decided they would have to devote time and precious resources to a project which might secure the program's future the following year: the CROW series. 

A long-range guided bomb powered by a jet engine, the Crow can deliver over 1000kg of explosives to a target area with excellent accuracy. The assembled government officials are pleased. The Engineers who designed it grumble under their breath. 

GRiT-6

Weeks later, the next rocket is rolled out. This vehicle comes closer than ever to achieving orbit, reaching an apoapsis well out of the atmosphere and remaining in space for minutes. It is destroyed on reentry, but was less than half a kilometer per second away from a stable orbit. The team is once again encouraged. 

 

The second CROW is ready for testing, and this time the team takes better advantage of the demonstration by fitting it with a thermometer and taking readings above various biomes, advancing Kerbological Science. 

A side project originally suggested by one of the administrators who had spent all morning frowning over projected future budgets comes to fruition in the form of a partnership with the military contractor Rockomax Conglomerate. These are Rock-2 and Rock-3: (Don't ask about Rock-1), launched from a stand (not pictured) that sets them on the desired trajectory. 

After these demonstrations, a certain official from the General Assembly who wished to remain anonymous informed the Airfield administration that they could expect a continued program for the next year, and that their accomplishments were satisfactory in the eyes of Central Aeronautics. 

With that encouraging news, but the years' funds running out, the Agency attempts something truly bold: placing an object into orbit.  

With this embarrassing failure, and funds near zero, a new scientist joins the team. His name is Bob. 

 

Next time we will re-balance construction and research time at the Airfield, and soon move into Fiscal Year 2! 

 

 

Part 2.5 Side Notes

Today in Trying to Balance the Game While I Play It.... I had been having issues with my plan to operate under an annual budget because achieving altitude, speed, and distance records were giving me a lot of money, even though I have changed the funds rewards slider to only 10%. Paradoxically, to solve the problem of having too much money, I 'cheated' in a 100% strategy in the administration building to convert all income into reputation. I'll use my rep later to figure out next years' budget, but I think 1 rep shouldn't be worth more than 1000 funds for next year, so I'm still under what I would otherwise earn, at 5012 funds -> 1 rep -> ~1000 funds next year. The idea is that I don't get paid for doing things, I just get noticed.

 

Also, we have diverse Kerbals (including green). Let's talk about this...

 

 

Not all of my textures copied correctly. I love it! I don't want to fix it, cause these folks look awesome...

So... let's say that what we are calling Kerbals have many different genetic lineages. While they don't have a great knowledge yet of DNA and genetics, they know enough that, in the nation where this program takes place, anyway, they are very open to all kinds of appearances, hair colors or lack of hair, etc. Above are Texture-less Kerbals. Gus Kerman is Green. The textures for most-everyone else may give a clue as to my idea for Kerbal origins in this universe...

Edited May 7, 2016 by Tiber9
formatting

[Tiber9]

Part 3: Year Two and the First Satellite

Thanks to every who has read the first few entries in my career; I have to say that working towards a post really changes (in a good way) how I play. There is less fiddling around and more drive to get on with it, which makes me very excited for all the awesome possibilities in this new but still familiar solar system. 

Also, I have half the parts for a new computer sitting under my desk. When it's all together it will still be very budget, but it also will mean that the years of playing KSP on my not-for-gaming laptop can finally be over! If the new system is enough of an improvement I may be able to stream more reliably, or maybe edit together some videos, so let me know if there's any interest for that (sometimes the written reports are more fun to look at, because you don't need headphones if you're at work or waiting for a to-go order or something). Who knows?!

Anyway, wrapping up year one, here is the mission summary table I neglected to make for previous flights:

launch #	Vessel	Outcome
5	GRiT-5	veered into ground near pad.
6	Crow Demo 1	Traveled 300km before fuel leak caused break-up
7	GRiT-6	Sub-orbital flight (97km), burned up on reentry
8	Crow Demo 2	Longer flight. Control lost attempting soft ocean landing
9	RM-2 Rock	successful test, 30km downrange
10	RM-3 Rock	successful test, 74km downrange
11	RM-4 / GRiT7	2nd stage lost control, crashed near airfield.

Here are the launch stands for the RM-2 and RM-3 Rockets:

And here's the third test-flight/demo of the Crow, in which the team managed to bring it down for an ocean landing. By recovering the intact vehicle they were able to learn more about how it might be affected by wear during flight (I assume):

The first year of the program wrapped up slowly. As any unused funds would not roll over to the next year, the team at the secluded airfield made sure to unlock as many parts as they could afford. Construction of small test boxes enabled the building team to get practice right up until the end of the year. 

 

Then, the morning finally came. Year 2, Day 1.

 

Annual Budget, Year Two:

More is required of your program this year. While practical, basic improvements to our nation's armaments will be better generated by the dedicated R&D programs already in place. That said, the team of Scientists, Engineers, Builders, Administrators, and Pilots that have assembled for this program have shown a capacity for great creativity and invention. This is likely the course of your program. The achievement of reaching space has had further-reaching social and political impact than any other aspect of this past year. In our troubled times it is often essential that goals unrelated to the strife overseas are set, achieved, and surpased. Focus on space this year. 

While the continued funding of the program is still uncertain, it has been deemed appropriate to increase your funding this year. Spend wisely.

Funding breakdown: 
Year One Budget: 100,000 Funds
Reputation at end of year one: 41
New Budget = ((Rep/100)+1)*(Budget[previous]) = 141,000 Funds!

I made another tweak to my Construction Time settings, cutting the time to unlock nodes but increasing the build times. The result is, I believe, more balanced for how I am playing, as I'm less likely to sit around with no money if the few ships I can afford to build take longer to actually make. It's a constant work in progress.

 

A few months into the year the first vessel is rolled out onto the runway. This, however, is a somewhat underwhelming relative of the GRiT rockets, and is only meant to test the new parachute system (and perform water science). 

But this small launch is just the prelude to something much more exciting...

 

The Acamar Series:

While the skies above the airfield have been surprisingly empty so far this year, the scientists and engineers have been very busy. The result: the first Liquid-fueled, two stage rocket, Acamar 10. 

(1-9 have been tested throughout this series, but never were produced due to... well, they sucked). 

Acamar 10 is powered by a Kerosene/LOX 1st stage (edit: early versions used ethanol and liquid oxygen, I switch to ketosene later) that propels the entire vehicle out of the atmosphere. Then, once in space, a solid-fueled kicker stage is designed to reliably circularize the orbit. Unfortunately, to avoid losing antenna connectivity before the burn, the 2nd stage had to be ignited early...

While a stable orbit could not be achieved, the biological goo samples and other experiments were still able to perform their tests while outside the atmosphere, sending back valuable (I assume) data. 

Without skipping a beat, Acamar 11 was rolled out to the primary launch site:

News of the first artificial satellite covered the globe. The hitherto secretive government project was suddenly thrust into the lime-light. Central Aeronautics worked hard to downplay the agency's previous connections with military tech, and expended a great deal of effort in spinning the achievement as the dawn of a new era of orbital science and opportunity.

Acamar 11 lost power when a glitch (read, dumb operator) caused the transceiver to be deactivated. The satellite remained in space for almost 100 days before its obit decayed. 

Next time, the newly-famous space agency learns how to stay in space longer (I hope), and sets its sights on the glorious arch in the sky, Kerbin's rings. 

Wait, I almost forgot the Bloopers! 

See you next time...

Edited May 10, 2016 by Tiber9
Said wrong fuel type

[Tiber9]

Quick update, I had played ahead into year 3 and even landed on minmus (which is just so tiny in this universe wow) but I was having a lot of really strange behavior like trackih station hangs and orbits that spontaneously moved dramatically right before my eyes so... yeah I'm doing some mod reshuffling and probably going back to restart year 3, so updates to follow. 

I'm definitely enjoying the engineering and I budgeting challenges, as well as focusing on rep as the driving stat since I usually ignore it. I'm looking forward to getting my kerbals in space soon though.

Any favorite mod recommendations while I'm shuffling game data around?

[Tiber9]

Part 4: A Very Miniature Minmus (Minimus?)

Carrying on with our newly revamped space program....

The success of Acamar 11 and the first artificial satellite has made our space program world-famous. But the rate of technological development continues...

Launch 16: Acamar 12

The next rocket to be rolled out at the 'airfield', as I've been calling it, was designed before Acamar 11 was completed. It is nearly identical, with the addition of a magnetometer to study the rings of Kerbin. (well, really just to do one magnetometer reading, but the part looks cool...)

The main difference is that it looks super snazzy as I added Ven's part revamp when I was tracking down mod incompatibilities. To the launch pad!

Yes, and I totally planned that the probe passes through a little gap in the ring system... lots of planning went into that solid kicker-stage burn. Moving on...

 

The scientific data returned by Acamar 12 supports the prevailing theory among Kerbin's scientists that the planets ring system is being strongly affected by the 'shepherding body' which orbits along the outer edge of the rings: Minmus. And so, the next mission is designed with newly-developed technology to study Minmus's orbit, characteristics, and maybe even take its surface temperature!

So, in the stock game, Minmus has a radius of 60km, and Gilly a radius of 13km. The Minmus in Uncharted Lands has a radius of only 7km, and a SOI of 33km. Yes, it's about half the size of Gilly, and the Sphere of Influence is smaller than Minmus itself in stock. 

 

Launch 17: Acamar 14

(Note: Acamar 13 was made with parts I decided to prune out of gamedata). The new vessel improves on the previous designs in every way: It uses Kerosene instead of Ethanol Fuel and so gets better performance in the LVT-30 engine, it has more fuel to begin with, and the upper stage is now powered by Aerozine 50 (hydrazine + UDMH) and Nitrogen Tetroxide. The hypergolic propellant means that the Ant Engine on the spacecraft can restart up to 24 times! Theoretically, some kind of ullage motor should have been needed to settle the propellants, but just turning the craft seems to make the fuel very stable long enough to start the engine... not sure if that's intended but I'm going with it because we have not invented RCS yet. 

As we will see, the mission started to encounter problems only minutes after lift off... 

I should have set kill rotation on the flight computer rather than hold prograde. Either that or just burn longer at Ap. In any case, Acamar 14 had only 3/4 of an orbit to lift its Periapsis before it would re-enter. 

It was then that the story (and my laziness with cfg file editing) intervened to save the mission:

News of the second Kerbal Satellite's impending doom traveled fast. Across the sea, a steel warship rested beside its moorings, covered in parabolic dishes. The war was at a standstill, and peace talks, though slow, had been showing signs of progress. Yet the crew of the Navy Tracking Ship was still being kept on-the-ready, in case the worst should happen. Rockets and missiles were still new technology, but the tracking ship was crucial for supporting deterrence against attack. A radio box blared with the local news, and the crew listened intently to the breaking story of the doomed spacecraft. Suddenly, one of the radio operators jumped to his feet and exclaimed: "I have the probe's signal on the main antenna!"

Less than 20 minutes later at the Airfield base, a brightly-colored phone buzzed loudly in mission control. The flight director nearly launched himself when he heard the news: the other nation had picked up Acamar 14's radio signal. They wanted to help rescue the mission! 

So, what happened was that in moving the space center via KSC switcher (because I wanted a higher-latitude launch site), I decided to keep the intended space center--and its RemoteTech ground station, in the files rather than deleting or commenting it out. So. shortly before Acamar 14 hit the atmosphere, it passed close enough to KillAshley's intended Uncharted Lands launch site to regain communication. The mission was not over...

 

And I just have to re-iterate: the thrust-limited Ant engine, with only one notch of throttle, had more acceleration than the gravity of Mini-Minmus. 

 

Next time, I will try to plan a mission to fly by both Mun and Dres without patched conics. We shall see how I do...

 

[Tiber9]

Part 4.5: Mission Planning and MATH

Usually I spend way more time planning missions than playing KSP, and when I do play I'm usually in the VAB or error-correcting launch vehicles via simulations. So, I wanted to share some of this process. 

Acamar 15 is coming down the production pipeline, with a mission objective of one or two moon flybys (as rep is driving my annual budgets, hitting milestones allows me more funds to work with, which we will need to upgrade either the VAB or SPH so I can use more parts!). But we want to be utilizing our production facilities, as we need to spend the remaining funds before year-end, and because we accrue science during construction via KCT. So, I need to plan out the next rocket now and get it building. 

Design Phase I: Objectives

While we still only have simple antenna technology, it's high-time for a basic Kerbin Remote Tech network, and recent tech unlocks allow me to do this. The plan is:

• 3 identical commucations satellites, each with communotron 16s and a KR-7 dish
• low-eccentricity orbits with a semi-major axis of 1334km (634 for UL Kerbin plus 700km altitude)
• identical orbital periods (around 81 minutes)
• phase angles of 60 degrees (to form an equilateral triangle

Since the launch site has a latitude of 24 degrees North, we can't launch directly into an orbit with an inclination lower than 24 degrees, but for this application an equatorial orbit is not necessary. Assuming a 24 degree inclination, I've calculated that anything on Kerbin's surface within 36 degrees of the equator will have constant connection, and this is enough for now. I also don't believe that the ascending nodes of the orbits need to match, though this could be achieved relatively easily if desired. 

 

Design Phase II: Mission Profile and Delta-v Requirements

Since in KSP we tend to design from the top down, I like to start with the final maneuver and work backwards. First, I want to know the necessary delta-v for our insertion burn (i.e. circularizing at apoapsis). Ap is expected to be 700km, so the vis-viva equation tells me that velocity is equal to the square root of 1 over the semi-major axis times the standard gravitational parameter. (V^2=GM(2/r-1/a)-thanks Scott Manley)

Assuming no arithmetic errors, the final orbit should have a velocity of 1719.45m/s. 

To find the delta-v I need to subtract the orbital velocity at apoapsis of the transfer orbit, but to find that I need to know the characteristics of the transfer orbit. For a Hohmann transfer that's an orbit with the Pe at the initial circular orbit altitude, and the Ap at 700km altitude. At first I assumed that I wouldn't bother with any kind of parking orbit, since engine starts are at a premium and I could just burn until Ap=700km. But, I want to have the final spacecraft perform the insertion burn, and I want to make the final vehicle small. So, with the help of a newly-available upgrade via Realfuels that enables 2 ignitions for my main engine, I came up with this mission profile:

• Ascent performed by a new Launch Vehicle, to be dubbed Bellatrix I. 
• Main engine cutoff when Apoapsis reaches about 70km. 
• 2nd Ignition of main engine close to Ap to perform injection burn into transfer orbit. 
• Final spacecraft programming (via kOS) and separation from Launch Vehicle
• 25-30 cruise to Ap
• pre-programmed insertion burn of < 300m/s

This profile minimizes required spacecraft fuel needs while still ensuring safe de-orbit of the Launch Vehicle, since the transfer orbit Pe will be inside Uncharted Lands Kerbin's 80km atmosphere. KOS (or RemoteTech flight computer) is needed because the insertion burn will take place without Remote-Tech connection. 

As far as needed Delta-v for the Launch Vehicle, that is really not my constraint right now, as the 30-part limit is way more of a problem. LV delta-v should be around 3.7-4 km/s, since the rule of thumb for orbit is usually 3.5, and we need 300+m/s for the transfer injection, and we want plenty of buffer. 

One final note: launches of the 2nd and 3rd spacecraft must be timed so that the injection burn takes place when the other comm satellite is about 180 degrees away. In other words, we want the neighbor comms sat to be one-third of an orbit away from our ship when we reach Ap, and the timing works out that one half of our transfer orbit (the time spent cruising from injection to Ap) is about equal to one third of the final orbital period. So, if the other satellite is on the opposite side of Kerbin when we do our transfer burn, we should expect to arrive in the right place at Ap. This is again assuming no arithmetic errors... which is a big assumption. 

 

Design Phase III: VAB construction and simulations

Really, this was also design phase 0, since it was poking around making something that looked cool which stated this whole thing, but you know how that goes... 

ok and um, well, this phase is where the camera thinks that my COM is several meters from my ship and spinning. And the ignitions it says I have I can't actually use, etc etc. So, to be continued!

 

[Tiber9]

... just an addendum to the last post, I tracked down the problems and ended up with this:

The spacecraft has just over 300m/s, so there are very tight margins. The lifter also has tight margins, but the hardest part is actually throttling down at just the right moment so that I get that 700km Ap. Also, it was the hypergolic engine configuration that allowed 2 ignitions, which I wish I'd remembered sooner. In any case, this over-designed yet still very small rocket is ready for construction. Let's go back to the space center and..... wait.... something seems different....

No this isn't part of the story. But it did make me giggle.  

Edited May 15, 2016 by Tiber9
typos

[Tiber9]

Part 5: Video Recreations and First Kerbals In Space

I didn't have my software working right until after I made these flights so I did a few re-creations in a sandbox. The space program is continuing with a new commsat network and the first manned space missions. Recorded on my laptop, still working out the technology but I had fun with editing it together, much is sped up for watch-ability. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

[Geschosskopf]

I like the setting and what you're doing with it.  Carry on.

[Tiber9]

Part 5.5: Video Update from the Actual Save

In which Calnand Kerman is possessed, Bob breaks things, Claudia finally gets to orbit, and Podus becomes stranded outside his airplane. 

 

I'm curious what people think of video vs slideshow updates. I can't figure out which takes more time on my end. Our space program is still in the early-tech stage, but we'll be sending probes to Mun and Dres soon!

[Tiber9]

Part 6: Podus plays with gravity, and Bob almost strands himself in orbit. 

Another video update! I want to put together another launch table soon but just haven't looked back over things yet. 

Today we pick up where Podus Kerman can't get back into his plane, and follow the story of Bob's Spearhead-Bellatrix mission. We've invented the 0Reaction Control System, and fitting it onto the Spearhead capsule turns out to be very important. 

 

Usually when I say "next time" it's really anyone's guess, but this time I know because I've already done it and have the recording, we make a shot at an unmanned mission to the Mun, which looks super interesting in Uncharted Lands. See you then...

[Tiber9]

Part 7: Endurance Record and First Mun Satellite

Finally got this up! Real life making me a bit busy lately (and I became re-obsessed with XCOM long war). 

This time in Unknown Space, Calnand takes the 'Spearhead Capsule' on an endurance cruise, using much of his built-in TAC life support. 

Auklet One, our first probe out of Kerbin Orbit, make a multi-part burn towards the Mun. Without building upgrades we use a combination of eye-balling and the vis-viva equation + pi*r^2 to meet up with the Mun. 

I really like the look of the Uncharted Lands Mun, and I'm excited to start exploring it, and Dres, in future updates!