HSP: Mission complete.

[cratercracker]

@Hotaru ,I love the way you do mission reports! And i also recon some very nice screenshots!

 But as a small and awkward self advertising, check out my flags, there might be one that you will like! (i don't think so)

But please, just take a look at them!

 

Edited April 5, 2017 by cratercracker

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Planets packs that don't change the stock system? Try @Gameslinx's Planet Mod / Pack / whatever he/she has renamed it too. It adds a little dwarf moon in a polar orbit of Kerbin, and an absolute load of beautiful planets!

[Gameslinx]

15 minutes ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

It adds a little dwarf moon in a polar orbit of Kerbin, and an absolute load of beautiful planets!

It's changed a lot from that  there's over 23 planets to land on now

And I'm a he  

[KerbalKore]

@Hotaru, is this dead, if so,   

[StupidAndy]

someone doesn't update it for a week and they call it dead...

[Hotaru]

1 hour ago, StupidAndy said:

someone doesn't update it for a week and they call it dead...

I was about to say that. Don't worry, the report of my death was a slight exaggeration. I have been away from KSP the past week; among other reasons, I've been having mild but persistent headaches recently that have made playing video games a bit less tempting than usual.  No promises yet on when the next update will be but there will definitely be one.

 

@cratercracker Thanks! I really like the look of your flags and art, although to be honest I think MS Paint is holding you back. If you want my advice, try a more advanced paint program (I use GIMP myself, which is also freeware); even without a tablet, you'd have a lot more tools at your disposal. 

As far as this thread goes, I think I'll stick to using my own art for flags and markings for now--mainly because I like everything to have a consistent feel and your style is very different to mine--but I will not forget your offer for future projects. 

 

@NISSKEPCSIM @Gameslinx Thanks for the suggestion! I don't think I'll be making a call on this for a while yet--still got Eve and all the moons of Jool to deal with first--but that's definitely one to consider. 

[Hotaru]

Daring 5 orbiter Curse You, Red Baron! jettisons its last pair of boosters during its departure from Moho.

 

Daring 5: exploration of Moho.

Spoiler

Hayberta and Rodnard collected science data from the highlands region; although they landed too far from the anomaly to study it closely, they were able to identify it as

Spoiler

another monolith, the first directly observed beyond the Kerbin system.

 

After completing their survey of the landing site, the crew brought Foiled Again back to the orbiter to be refueled for a second landing.

 

Erithis and Valcee took it back to the surface for a second landing in one of Moho's minor craters.

 

Once they had returned, the lander was jettisoned in Moho orbit and Curse You, Red Baron! departed for Kerbin. The engineers predict it will have enough fuel remaining to perform a full propulsive capture into Kerbin orbit, the first of the Daring program, which will allow for more thorough processing of the mission's data as well as the recovery of the orbital module.

 

Exploration of the Mun.

Spoiler

The crew of station Persistence took LC-1 down to the East Farside Crater of the Mun to collect data.

 

Daring 6: destination Vall.

Spoiler

A Vorpal III launched the propulsion module for Daring 6, the first Block III propulsion module, featuring a triple-engine core, more compact engine layout, and welded construction. Aboard were mission commander P4 Geneming, pilot P1 Vasya, chief engineer E4 Traissa, engineer E1 Barsen, and scientists S4 Ziggy, S2 Eririne, and S1 Darina.

 

As usual, a Vorpal I rocket delivered the orbital module, which was assembled on-orbit by unkermanned tanker ship Aqualung 30, while a Brillig III delivered landing craft LLC-3.

 

With the assembly complete, the combined spacecraft fired its nine nuclear motors to depart Kerbin orbit.

 

Daring 6 will arrive in the Joolian system in about a year and a half; while its primary objective is Vall, the engineers are optimistic that fuel margins will permit visits to Bop or Pol once the main mission is complete.

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by Hotaru

[rkarmark]

yay it is back!

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Urgh, out of likes!

[Laythe Squid]

Dis you know Poland can Into Space?

 

[micha]

Finally got back to reading this; really enjoyed catching up with your missions, @Hotaru, thanks for sharing

(Ran out of likes half-way through, sorry!)

[Laythe Squid]

We Can Into Vall!

We Can Into Vall!

On 4/15/2017 at 4:03 AM, rkarmark said:

yay it is back!

It can Into Back

[Hotaru]

And we're back. Again. Still sticking to 1.2.2 for now although I'll probably move this save over to 1.3 once I've made sure the mod situation won't be a problem. I'm also a little less impatient to get through the stock-footprints-everywhere project than I was when I last played; I'm giving some thought to doing a few more stock projects before I start using part mods.

 

Launch of Super Aqualung 13 on a Vorpal III rocket; it will attempt the Space Program's first aerocapture at Eve.

 

Daring 5: back from Moho.

Spoiler

As expected, Curse You, Red Baron! had more than enough fuel for a full propulsive capture upon its return to Kerbin orbit.

 

Instead of bringing the crew back in the Daring 5 reentry vehicle as on past missions, the administration decided to bring the original crew home on an S-300 Valiance spacecraft and send up a skeleton crew to continue processing the collected data through Curse You, Red Baron!'s science lab. (KSC memo: Seriously, quit it with the punctuation marks at the end of names!) So Valiance 2 lifted off on a Vorpal I rocket with flight crew P1 Gregger, P0 Sigemy and E0 Gwenlanna and data processing mission crew P2 Jate, S4 Laselle and S2 Addan.

 

Valiance 2 rendezvoused with Daring 5 in Kerbin orbit and swapped crews; Melxie, Hayberta, Erithis, Joelin, Erigee, Valcee and Rodnard returned home while the data processing mission crew remained aboard.

 

 

Crew rotations and Kerbin system ops.

Spoiler

Starbus Elizabeth returned from Duna with the crew of Expedition Permanence 3; they returned to Kerbin aboard Defiance 33.

 

Starbus Phoebe arrived at Duna with Expedition Permanence 4.

 

P5 Burmin and S3 Thomptrey took LC-1 on a mission to collect data from the flats of Minmus to be processed through the lab at Munar station Persistence.

 

[StupidAndy]

seriously when will I get my likes back? I haven't had the ability in about 12 hours!

great to see you back in action!

[NotAgain]

WHOOP!

I literally jumped out of my chair when I saw this was back. Great job with Daring 5.

[Mister_Spaceman]

Huzzah! HSP has returned! 

[Hotaru]

One mod I particularly miss from my old save is Kerbal Construction Time. In addition to the immersion of not being able to conjure massive spaceships out of thin air, it was nice to be able to keep track of individual spacecraft through recovery and relaunch; in that save even my reusable rockets had unique serial numbers. Without KCT, it's never entirely obvious whether a new launch is the same ship that was recovered after the last mission or a completely new airframe. In an attempt to partly make up for this I'm reworking the numbering slightly on the Dauntless and Starbus classes to represent unique airframes used across multiple missions, while the Defiance and Valiance (which need new boosters for every flight and presumably require more refurbishment) will continue to carry unique mission numbers.

 

 

Cargo shuttle Dauntless 2001 taking off with the core module for Minmus base Tenacity. 

 

Super Aqualung 13: aerocapture at Eve.

Spoiler

A few months after its launch from Kerbin, Super Aqualung 13 jettisoned its transfer stage and deployed its heat shield in preparation for the Space Program's first aerocapture into Eve orbit.

 

Although close to its limits, the heat shield survived the maneuver and the spacecraft showed no signs of instability.

 

After several more passes through the atmosphere to lower its apoapsis, Super Aqualung 13 jettisoned its heat shield and maneuvered into a 250x250 kilometer parking orbit, where it will remain to provide fuel for future missions to Eve. Ironically, the Super Aqualung's aerobraking capability--and associated capacity to easily deliver large amounts of fuel to low Eve orbit--largely negates the need to develop similar abilities for other spacecraft.

 

Crew rotations and Munar ops.

Spoiler

Defiance 34 (flight crew P2 Gilbree and P0 Virella) delivered the crew of Expedition Constancy 5 (P2 Chadgan, E3 Daphthy, S3 Rodnard, S0 Berelle) to the Mun.

 

They transferred to LC-1 at Mun station Persistence, then met rover Brevity II on the Munar surface to switch crews. The previous crew returned to Kerbin aboard Defiance 34.

 

A Vorpal III launched Super Aqualung 14 to the Mun, where it refueled station Persistence...

 

...and dropship Impertinence. The dropship then transferred to Kerbin orbit to pick up cargo for Minmus.

 

 

Transience and Perpetuity: resuming operations at Minmus.

Spoiler

A Vorpal I rocket launched Mark IV rover Transience, which will explore Minmus and eventually be attached to a planned surface base.

 

Impertinence picked up the rover in Kerbin orbit (a very precise docking, as the rover only has a few inches' clearance inside the dropship's payload bay).

 

The dropship then rendezvoused with Super Aqualung 10 to refuel; it was met there by Defiance 35 (flight crew P2 Gilbree and E1 Gergun) with its first crew (P4 Hayberta, E4 Carena, S0 Vertine).

 

Fueled and kermanned, Impertinence departed for Minmus.

 

After a four-day transit, it entered orbit and landed the rover and crew in the Greater Flats before returning to a parking orbit.

 

The primary mission of Expedition Transience will be to select a site for an upcoming surface station. The crew performed a preliminary reconnaissance of the area surrounding the landing site, including the flats and nearby lowlands.

 

Meanwhile, a Brillig V rocket launched station Perpetuity, the third Immutability-class torus station.

 

The station achieved orbit successfully and departed for Minmus under tow from its departure stage. It will ultimately replace decommissioned station Endurance I.

 

Dauntless and Tenacity: Minmus base assembly and SSTO development.

Spoiler

The original plan for Minmus base Tenacity called for it to be orbited by a series of Brillig and Vorpal launches and assembled on-orbit by an Aqualung, but it occurred to some of the engineers that the light-but-bulky cargo of space station modules would be perfect for the experimental S-200 Dauntless SSTO. The administration, which still lacked confidence in the SSTO program, considered it too risky, but when the engineers pointed out that the Dauntless system could do the job for less than half the cost of the Brillig and Vorpal systems, they reluctantly approved the idea.

 

So Dauntless 2001, the original prototype, lifted off with the core module of base Tenacity. The module was successfully deployed in a 250x250 kilometer orbit, but the Dauntless spacecraft was destroyed after its left landing gear collapsed on landing.

 

The loss of 2001 did little to increase the administration's confidence in the Dauntless system, but after a few experiments on a test article the engineers discovered the problem: a poorly-reinforced connection between the landing gear, aft wing section, and fuselage which tended to fail on all but the softest touchdowns. They managed to convince the administration to give the system one more chance (after all, in spite of the loss of the vehicle the mission had been a complete success), so the Tenacity solar array was prepared for launch on Dauntless 2002.

 

The new ship successfully deployed the array and, after a complicated transposition maneuver, attached it to the Tenacity core.

 

Although the first landing attempt had to be aborted after the vehicle developed a pitch oscillation just before touchdown, 2002 landed safely back at KSC on the second approach.

 

[cratercracker]

If you could hear me screeching out of hapiness, you would thing something is re-entering the atmosphear!

[Mister_Spaceman]

Ooh, the Dauntless is a beautiful craft. Let's hope the administration will approve more flights so I'll get to see it more! 

[Hotaru]

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

I'm still giving some thought to my plans once I've completed the original goal of the HSP save. Originally I was picturing installing some planet packs--probably OPM--and just continuing with this save (and I'll probably still do that eventually) but I'm also thinking about my next save. Whereas HSP has been a stock-parts-only save, I think my next one will be "anti-stock," doing the exact opposite and trying to use as few stock parts as possible. I'd also like to replace or modify the stock system--I'm debating whether to use Galileo's Planet Pack (which would mean waiting for it to update to 1.3, which apparently is taking some doing) or Gameslinx's Planet Overhaul, probably along with OPM. I definitely want to explore GPP eventually, but it kind of seems like everybody and his brother is doing a GPP save these days and I think @Gameslinx's pack deserves some attention as well--not to mention that it's already updated, so I could start whenever I like.

TL;DR: Still thinking about planet packs.

 

A nighttime view of Kerbin from Minmus base Tenacity.

 

Perpetuity, Transience, and Sanity 3: surveying Minmus.

Spoiler

Station Perpetuity was successfully deployed in Minmus orbit to await its first crew.

 

A Manxome IV rocket launched Sanity 3, a Minmus orbiter equipped with a narrow-band scanner.

 

The probe entered an equatorial orbit of Kerbin's smaller satellite and surveyed several possible base sites.

 

The crew of Transience surveyed several possible before narrowing the list to two: ore-rich but boring scientifically uninteresting Haiselle's Landing in the Greater Flats and less ore-rich but awesomer more scientifically valuable Dilwin's Ridge in the Regular Flats.

 

Base Tenacity: assembly and landing.

Spoiler

Two more Dauntless missions were required to complete the assembly of Minmus base Tenacity in Kerbin orbit.

 

Mission CS-6 launched the base's ISRU unit as well as two connector modules...

 

...while CS-7 launched the twin habitat modules.

 

Dauntless 2002--which the ground crew have unofficially christened Mortimer's Dream--performed smoothly on both flights; even taking into account the loss of the prototype 2001, the assembly of base Tenacity by the Dauntless system cost well under half what it would have using the Brillig and Vorpal rockets. Accordingly, the administration has tentatively approved both the disassembly of Kerbin station Patience II using 2002 and the construction of a prototype S210 passenger shuttle to ultimately replace the Defiance shuttlepod for crew rotations.

 

Meanwhile, a Brillig IV launched Aqualung 31 to deliver the base to its destination. (While there is some discussion of using the Dauntless to launch and retrieve Aqualungs, the administration remains skeptical of its ability to carry the 20-ton vehicles safely to orbit--although the finance department is eager to give it a try, given that sending them up on Brillig IVs costs several times more than doing so on Dauntlesses, to say nothing of the possibility of recovering them.)

 

Aqualung 31 docked with the base in Kerbin orbit, and the combined vehicle departed for Minmus.

 

Once in Minmus orbit, the Aqualung transferred the last of its fuel to the base's tanks and detached, leaving it to land under its own power.

 

It landed safely at the Dilwin's Ridge site, within half a kilometer of both the intended spot and the Transience rover, and the rover crew boarded and activated it.

 

The crew completed a successful test run of the base's ISRU system (the H. S. P.'s first) before settling in to process the science data they had collected aboard Transience and awaiting the arrival of the first regular four-kerman crew.

 

Crew rotations.

Spoiler

Defiance 36 (flight crew P2 Virlina and E1 Gergun) retrieved the crew of the Daring 5 data processing mission...

 

...while Defiance 37 (flight crew P2 Virlina again and P1 Mike) brought Expedition Persistence 7 (P2 Gilbree, E1 Gwenlanna, S2 Ribnard, S0 Harfen) to the Munar station. If the SSTO program continues to go to plan, the Defiance system will make only one more flight--Defiance 38, to relieve the current crew of Kerbin station Immutability--before being replaced by the S210 Dauntless passenger shuttle and the smaller S400, a notional six- or seven-kerman vehicle still on the drawing board.

 

Daring 6: arrival at Vall.

Spoiler

A year and a half after its departure from Kerbin, Daring 6--which the crew, in an uncharacteristic show of optimism, have unofficially named Exceeds Expectations--approached the Joolian system.

 

A close flyby of Tylo put the spacecraft on course for its capture burn into the system; this was mission commander Geneming's view of Jool's largest satellite during the approach.

 

A few hours later, Exceeds Expectations's nuclear motors reignited to put the ship into a wide elliptical orbit of Jool.

 

A second, distant flyby of Tylo lowered the ship's orbit, and another burn at Joolian periapsis put it on course to encounter its primary target, Vall.

 

A few days later, Daring 6 approached Vall, the first kermen to do so since the single distant flyby of Jool's second satellite made by Bravado 6 several years earlier.

 

A long arrival burn brought the ship within a few kilometers of the tops of Vall's mountains.

 

After several more maneuvers, Exceeds Expectations was safely inserted into a 30x30km polar orbit, where it completed several surveys and searched, unsuccessfully, for a magnetic anomaly previously identified by the Sagacity 4 orbiter.

 

Once flight control had selected a landing site near Sagacity 4's lander "B," pilot Vasya and scientist Darina boarded LLC-3 to begin the first descent to the surface.

 

Darina: First kerman on Vall!

 

 

[Gameslinx]

@Hotaru

<3

[Hotaru]

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

I spent a couple days last week messing around in my 1.3.0 install, thinking about my next career. (This being the primary reason for the delay in getting this update up; sorry about that.) I've got @Gameslinx's Planet Overhaul and OPM installed and they appear to be working smoothly; since it looks like GPP won't be updated for a while I think that combination is probably the way I'm going to go. Now I'm starting to think about what parts to use. As I said in the last boring stuff, I'm thinking about an "anti-stock" save, trying to avoid using stock parts where possible, so I'm looking at big packs like KW Rocketry, Tantares, Bluedog Design, and the Near Future family that add not just engines and tankage but things like antennas, docking ports, science labs and command pods as well. Of course to say this results in a cluttered VAB inventory would be an understatement, but between Filter Extensions and Janitor's Closet I'm starting to get used to managing it. I'm also working on finding a good consistent "look" for the save, trying to find a balance between "stock-alike" packs and ones with a more realistic style (made the more difficult by mod makers' habit of branding anything not absolutely 100% realistic as "stock-alike.")

TL;DR: Thinking about my next save: planets, parts, etc.

 

Passenger shuttle Dauntless 2101 cruising back to KSC at the end of its first unkermanned test flight.

 

S210 and crew rotations: a new passenger shuttle.

Spoiler

Starbus Phoebe picked up the crew of Duna station Permanence and departed for Kerbin.

 

A Vorpal III launched Super Aqualung 15 to Duna.

 

The S400 program has yet to produce a working prototype, but the engineers rolled out Dauntless 2101, the prototype S210 passenger shuttle, for its first test flight in advance of the Duna window.

 

The one-orbit, unkermanned test flight was successful except for a minor problem with the undercarriage, so the ship took off again to deliver the next crew of station Permanence, P4 Melxie, E2 Chris, S4 Laselle, and S0 Debty.

 

2101 met Starbus Elizabeth and Super Aqualung 8 in Kerbin orbit; the crew transferred to the Starbus for the trip to Duna.

 

Elizabeth departed for Duna while 2101 remained in orbit with Super Aqualung 8 to await the arrival of Starbus Phoebe with its return passengers.

 

 

Daring 6: on to Bop.

Spoiler

Vasya and Darina spent a few days on the surface collecting data and observations before lifting off to rendezvous with Exceeds Expectations.

 

After they had docked with the orbiter, mission control decided to forgo any further landings on Vall in order to save fuel for the exploration of Bop and Pol; they hope for two landings on each of Jool's small outer satellites.

 

So the lander was secured for transit and Exceeds Expectations burned out of Vall orbit for its second objective, Bop.

 

The departure burn took the ship out of the plane of Jool's equator for the first time, and a course correction set it on a trajectory to encounter Bop.

 

Three orbits later, the crew of Daring 6 became the first kermen to observe Bop up close; until now it had been visited only by unkermanned orbiter Sagacity 4.

 

The final pair of fuel tanks was jettisoned during the arrival burn; the spacecraft still has well over 3 km/s worth of fuel, which the engineers believe will be more than enough for a visit to Pol and return to Kerbin.

 

From their vantage point in a 25x25 km polar orbit, the crew was able to observe a reflection off an object on the surface near the north pole, not far from where Sagacity 4 had detected a magnetic anomaly some years previously. Mission commander Geneming and scientist Eririne boarded the landing craft to investigate the object.

 

Spoiler: Bop anomaly.

Spoiler

The spacecraft landed in a murky polar valley a few dozen meters from the object, which the crew reported to be a large, dead life form. Further investigation is planned after the crew have completed their initial data-gathering mission.

 

Eririne: first Kerman on Bop!

 

OOC: It's worth mentioning that this is the first time I've ever put an actual spacecraft on Bop; my only previous landing there was with an EVA jetpack back in 1.0.2. It's also worth mentioning that in all my time playing KSP, this is the first anomaly I've ever visited (apart from a distant glimpse of one on Moho during Daring 5) outside the Kerbin system.

 

 

[Mister_Spaceman]

Are you using KSPRC along with the software you use for the screenshots? I tried to get it back in 1.2.2, but my lack of tech savvy(savvi?)ness prevented me from updating the mods without breaking the pack. But that's not for this topic. As always, happy to read these updates, the program looks like it's running strong. As far as parts packs for the future, I could not reccomend DMagic Orbital Science more, although I'm sure you've considered it already.

[Hotaru]

@EvilEmotaku Thanks! My current visuals are SVE/SVT, I've never tried KSPRC. AVP is also a good one; I used that back in my 1.0.2 save, and I believe there's an updated 122/130 version out there somewhere. I've used DMagic in the past as well, and while I haven't thought much about using it later in this save I almost certainly will in the next.

 

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

So I've pretty much changed my mind about what I want to do for my next save. Thing is, while I like the idea of an "anti-stock" save with a more realistic style of parts, I feel like a "stock-alike" style would go better with the look and feel Gameslinx's planets--so I think I'll save the anti-stock idea for a future Galileo career and stick with a stock-alike style for the Gameslinx/OPM career. I'm thinking I may use Home Grown Rocketry, since it appears to still be a going concern, and go for some kind of Soviet/Russian theme instead, seeing as I've already done the whole American thing twice now. Maybe also Ven's Revamp, which I'm about 88% sure will work OK in 1.3 and which has a nice 2-kerman Russian-style pod. Got to come up with a good "identity" for the save though, something a little cleverer than "Hotaru's Space Program."

TL;DR: the usual.

 

Defiance 38 approaches KSC at the end of the program's final mission.

 

Sanity, Philosophy, and Lucidity: unkermanned probes.

Spoiler

With Daring 6 well on its way to completing kermanned landings on the last of the "easy" targets in the kerbolar system, the administration approved a series of new unkermanned probes to investigate the more difficult and dangerous destinations that will be the objectives of future kermanned missions: Eve, Laythe, and near-Kerbol space.

 

A Manxome V rocket launched Philosophy 1, a probe which will make several flybys of Eve to lower its orbit within a million kilometers of Kerbol; it will return scientific data and investigate the thermal environment in the innermost region of the kerbolar system.

 

A Brillig IB launched Lucidity 4, a heavier and more ambitious Eve lander than the old Circumspection series, which will attempt a precise landing on the kerbolar system's largest terrestrial planet and return more science data than the two previous successful landers.

 

Another Brillig IB launched Sanity 4, a mapping orbiter which will search for mineable ore deposits on Eve.

 

Finally, a Brillig III launched Lucidity 5, a lander of the same type as Lucidity 4, to Laythe, where it will attempt the Space Program's first landing on Jool's innermost satellite.

 

(OOC: All these could've--and from a financial standpoint probably should've--gone up on Dauntless SSTOs. The problem is, whereas rockets practically fly themselves up and don't have to be flown down at all, spaceplanes have to be piloted all the way up and all the way down, which takes a lot more time and effort--so I prefer to stick to rockets when possible. I mostly wanted to develop the Dauntless because A. it's awesome, B. it lets me do five crew rotations at a time and C. it can recover payloads from orbit. For routine payload-to-orbit missions I expect to mostly continue using the Manxome, Brillig and Vorpal expendable lifters.)

 

Defiance 38: final shuttlepod mission.

Spoiler

With the S210 system finally operational, the final Brillig IIIB/Defiance stack was rolled out to the pad as Defiance 38.

 

The mission was a routine crew rotation to Kerbin station Immutability, although it held a certain sentimental value for the kerbonauts who had been traveling back and forth to space on Defiance spacecraft for nearly 14 years.

 

The flight crew of Defiance 38 was P5 Burmin, one of the space program's most experienced pilots, and the one who flew the carrier jet for the Defiance's first air-drop test, and E4 Lizdrien, a veteran engineer who flew with Burmin on Valor 6B, the final mission of the Defiance system's early forerunner.

 

The shuttlepod delivered Expedition Immutability 4--commander P2 Virlina, engineer E1 Corrick, scientist S4 Valcee, and rookie scientist S0 Munvan--to the Kerbin station, returning with Immutability 3--P2 Eiliel, E0 Crisdia, S3 Tambe, and S0 Addon.

 

It then made a normal reentry and parachuted to a safe landing on the KSC runway.

 

Project Defiance was one of the Space Program's longest-operating and most successful systems, having flown 39 operational missions (35 for the Space Program and four for Hotaru Star Lines) over the course of 14 years with only a single failure (and that, of Defiance 6, due to a problem with the rocket, not the Defiance spacecraft). Not to mention the fact that just about every member of the kerbonaut corps flew on a Defiance at one time or another, many of them for their first space missions.

 

(OOC: The Defiance shuttlepod is one of my two favorite designs I've ever made in KSP--the other being the Starlet passenger shuttle from my 102 save--and I'll be sorry to see it go, but it's hard to argue with cutting the number of crew rotations down by a factor of five. That said, the Defiance might be resurrected in my next save--where I plan to limit the Whiplash and Rapier engines to the very late game, not least to make more of a meaningful gameplay role for shuttles and shuttlepods.)

 

Station Immutability: next-generation torus module.

Spoiler

While the torus module originally developed for Mun station Persistence and later used for the Immutability-class is a definite improvement over zero-g habitation, the crews have found it to still be a little cramped for two-year tours. With plans on the drawing board for stations further out in space that might require even longer tours (and with more funds in the bank than they knew what to do with), the administration approved a program to develop a new, larger torus module to be used on future stations and retrofitted onto the existing Immutability-class.

 

The result was the 100-ton Mark II torus, to be launched by a new vehicle the engineers call the Vorpal-HM (for "Horrifying Monstrosity" "Heavy-lift, Modular"). Surprisingly, it's not as expensive as it looks--the whole stack is about 500,000 funds. No one seriously expected it to work on the first try (the engineers hadn't forgotten that it took three attempts to successfully orbit the much smaller Persistence torus), but they had to start somewhere.

 

To everyone's amazement, it lifted off without shaking itself to pieces.

 

To everyone's continued amazement, it started its gravity turn without flipping over.

 

And to everyone's complete and utter bewilderment, it jettisoned its boosters without spontaneously disassembling any part of itself.

 

Much to the disappointment of everyone who came out to watch the fireworks display, the Vorpal-HM achieved orbit on the first try.

 

At this point the engineers realized they hadn't actually given much thought to what to do with the thing once they'd got it to orbit. They had been picturing using a Super Aqualung to connect it up to station Immutability, but once it was up there it occurred to them that the Aqualung would have a much harder time pushing around the 100-ton torus than it would maneuvering the 40-ton Immutability itself. So Super Aqualung 16, modified with a forward docking port, went up on a Vorpal II to rendezvous with the station.

 

The tanker docked with the station in Kerbin orbit, and by transferring fuel around between the two ships, the engineers managed to get the center of gravity near enough to the Vernor quads to make the combined vehicle manageable.

 

The Vorpal-HM upper stage then towed the module into the station's orbit, and the Super Aqualung pushed the station into position underneath it.

 

The two ships linked up smoothly, transferred some fuel to the station, and returned with their remaining fuel to 200-km parking orbits. (The administration is giving some thought to adding a fuel depot module to Immutability; in the meantime, Super Aqualungs continue to serve as temporary depots.)

 

Immutability's crew activated and boarded the module, and are currently enjoying the extra living space for the remainder of their tour on the station. Eventually, stations Permanence and Perpetuity will be expanded with similar modules, while Persistence will be the replaced by a completely new station built around the Mark II torus.

 

(OOC: I did cheat a bit here in one fairly big way: the entire torus module is welded, which is absolutely essential for part count but which probably eliminated some of the structural problems inherent to building stations like this. I expect that without welding it would indeed have taken two or three tries to successfully get it to orbit. It's worth mentioning, however, that back in 1.0.2 I did manage to orbit a similar torus on a similar launch vehicle without welding--or even autostruts!--(although it did take several tries), so I do feel somewhat justified in saying that it could have been done stock. If you were running KSP on the main computer of the Starship Enterprise.)

 

Starbus Phoebe and Dauntless 2101: crew rotations.

Spoiler

Starbus Phoebe returned from Duna with the crew of Expedition Permanence 4.

 

It docked with Super Aqualung 8, where the crew transferred to Dauntless 2101 to return to Kerbin.

 

Coincidentally, Janbe, the expedition commander, was the first kerman to pilot an SSTO to orbit and back about 13 years ago; with this mission she became the first to pilot a Dauntless through reentry and landing.

 

2101 landed safely back at KSC, completing its first operational mission and officially replacing the old Defiance system.

 

Daring 6: Bop and Pol.

Spoiler

(OOC: This was all actually going on concurrently with everything else; it's bunched together here mostly for readability.)

 

Spoiler: Bop anomaly.

Spoiler

Once the sun had risen, Geneming and Eririne took a closer look at the anomaly they had landed next to. They concluded that it was most likely a hybrid of an octopus and a watermelon, grown to enormous size due to low gravity and lack of predators.

 

Geneming used his jetpack to land on the creature's back, but it didn't do anything interesting when he poked it with a flagpole.

 

With the anomaly marked for future exploration, Geneming and Eririne returned to LLC-3 and made two additional hops from the polar region...

 

...to the nearby peaks...

 

...and the adjacent slopes.

 

They then returned to Exceeds Expectations so Vasya and Ziggy could take the lander back down to visit the two remaining biomes.

 

They collected data from an equatorial valley...

 

...and a nearby ridge before returning to the orbiter again.

 

With the exploration of Bop complete, the lander was once again secured for transit and Exceeds Expectations burned out of Bop orbit for Pol.

 

120 days, four orbits around Jool, and one small course correction later, Daring 6 approached Pol--the last body in the kerbolar system not yet seen up close by kermen.

 

Scientist Darina performed an EVA during the approach to collect observations.

 

Exceeds Expectations burned into orbit, having used only a few hundred meters per second worth of fuel to make the transit from Bop and with over four thousand left for the trip home.

 

Vasya and Darina boarded LLC-3 yet again for the first trip to the surface.

 

Vasya: first Kerman on Pol! (OOC: and six flag-planting shots in one update, I think that's a new record. At least I'm getting good at taking a variety of angles.)

 

 

[DeltaDizzy]

10 minutes ago, Hotaru said:

Maybe also Ven's Revamp, which I'm about 88% sure will work OK in 1.3 and which has a nice 2-kerman Russian-style pod.

The only problem with Ven's in 1.3 is the .version says 1.1.3.