ScrapyardBob's KSP 1.2 Career - Dec 2016 (image heavy)

[WuphonsReach]

Landing of the logistics module:

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Staffing needs:

• 'Duna' Logistics - (1) pilot
• 'Duna' Pioneer - (1) pilot and (1) scientist (somewhat optional)
• 'Duna' PDU - (1) engineer

That will be enough to start the Minmus base and see how things play out with my initial design.

 

'Duna' Pioneer module.

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Minmus base - crew A

• (P) Handock
• (P) Valentina
• (S) Ellan
• (E) Hilda

 

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Return from the Munar surface

y4 d260 - the crew of four are on their way to Minmus aboard the 'Dolphin'.  Along for the ride are the seven kerbals undergoing training (Mun landing, Minmus landing, Kerbol SoI and back to Kerbin).  All seven will make the ride down to the Minmus surface, but only the permanent crew will stay.

By using the 'Dolphin' as the mothership during initial configuration of the colony, I have the option to return the four-kerbal crew back to safety in orbit if I've forgotten something.  I think I have things setup so that there's about a year of supplies and hab-time for four kerbals, but I need to double-check during initial setup.

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Valentina was the first out the hatch on y4 d278 at the Minmus base (as yet, unnamed).  She piloted the lander to a position about 250m away from the buildings for safety.  Unfortunately, there's no rovers yet at the facility, so it's a bit of a hike for the four kerbals.

Hilda (E) is the first to be tasked with a duty, and that is getting the PDU unit up and running so that the other two modules have power.  She has to be sitting in the PDU module, not just in a seat attached to the same vessel.

Valentina (P) goes in the Logistics module.  Handock (P) in the Pioneer module.  Ellan (S) will be a floater, but normally stays in the Comm-Lab attached to the Pioneer module.

I only brought enough Material Kits to inflate one of the 'Ranger' Habitation Modules, configured as a Hab-Quarters (gives base hab-time, not a multiplier).  Once inflated, I have to right-click and "Start Habitat".  Now that power is up and running, I need to start all recyclers and habitats.

Estimated colony duration is around 300-350 days of supplies (due to the auto-leveling feature of the warehouse containers, it's harder to say, but I brought 4500 supplies and have a recycler).  Hab-time is shared across all three starter ships and is 3y122d for four kerbals.

I need to deliver 24,000 material kits in order to start up the next three hab modules.

I should also bring up a 2nd engineer who can float around and do maintenance such as disassembly into Material Kits of the parts I don't need.

Edited January 14, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Delivery of 54,000 material kits headed for Minmus.

That cost about 400-450k to launch and equip for landing at Minmus.  I'm hoping that I can salvage most of it for even more material kits.

It's enough MKits to expand 6.75 of the ranger hab modules, and I'm only going to expand three to start, which leaves me almost enough to expand four more.  The next ranger modules up will probably be low-level greenhouses that run off of mulch and fert.

Edited January 14, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Material Kits container arrived at the base:

I parked it off to the side for safety, but it's still within the 150m range.  As you can see, I expanded and started all of the habitats (a pair of Hab-Common and a pair of Hab-Quarters).

Kerbals returning from orbit in my 7-kerbal CRV (the clouds are from EVE):

Next up was getting a Karibou rover out to the Minmus base.  This was sent up in a 2.5m fairing.

The plan is that the VTOL engines on the front/back will be disassembled at the base, turning them into Material Kits.

However - a word of warning - make sure that your crew cab is the root part for the entire rover.  I made a mistake and the VTOL engine was the root part.  That caused me to not be able to remove the VTOL for parts until I did some KIS/KAS magic.

Notice the BZ radial attachment plate at the top (near the CoG) with an OKTO2 on top.  That is the control point for the descent down to the surface.

Separation from the booster.  Again, another word of warning; make sure to transfer your kerbals from the landing pod into the crew cab.

Now, at this point, you need to start tuning the thrust limiter on one of the two engines.  The process I used was:

1. Right-click the OKTO2 on top and "Control from here"
2. Point prograde, turn on SAS
3. Fire up the engines at low power and see which end is too powerful
4. Adjust the thrust limiter down by 10% at a time until you get something less flippy
5. Continue to adjust that thrust limiter any time that things start getting flippy

For the next launch, I will probably put more Reaction Wheels, RCS tanks and RCS thrusters on the ends.  I got it down fairly easily, but it was a bit touchy until I had the engines balanced (and they will go back out of balance as the fuel tanks drain).

Disassembly of the big Kontainer with Material Kits (the excess was pushed into planetary storage):

The next thing I found I needed was LABELED storage.  While I was using a bunch of the 2.5m round / flat / white MKS kontainers, it was hard on EVA to keep track of which held what.

So I designed this.  It has four small 1.25m Kontainers, plus a larger 2.5m Kontainer on the base.  I label the part based on what is in the bottom Kontainer.

Note - putting a MCH (Machinery) container on that was a dumb idea.  Machinery will not get moved around by the logistics feature in MKS (this is by design).  Instead, I should have made it a second Material Kits or Recycleables or something else.

(Reminder - these are all 4k resolution screenshots.)

Edited January 15, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

So, now that I'm getting a grasp on Planetary Logistics, I'm designing a 6-drill ISRU converter to create Monopropellant and LF/Ox and shove the results into the planetary storage.

Minimum components needed in order to be a "pusher" into planet storage:

• A logistics module (no crew) such as the 'Ranger' or 'Tundra' series Logistics modules (pictured above is the 'Ranger' part)
• Warehouse enabled containers or Kontainers, one for each input and output

Ideally, you should have enough storage to hold 12+ hours of input/output.  I'm not sure that I have that, so I'll have to do some math in a bit.

The bottom tank holds 900 units of Ore, the larger 7-globe tank holds 1350 LF / 1650 Ox, and there's a small 900 unit Monopropellant tank.

Edited January 15, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

My first launch of the miner was missing the 'Duna' Logistics module, as such it can't push into planetary storage.  So my plan is to launch this second miner next to the first and connect them using KIS/KAS pipes.

The 1.3-1.5 TWR on the Mun makes for a long descent, it takes a few minutes to burn away all that speed for a landing.  Higher TWR would let me brake later for landings.

At 100x, production numbers look like:

That's with a 12% ore concentration according to the surface scanner on the side of the craft.

After a day or so (Kerbin time), I can see that Ore and the fuels are being pushed into planetary storage.

Parked next to the old lander:

If this works out with pushing fuel into the planetary storage, then future landers for that body will have Logistics modules, crewed by a Pilot, and on-board mini-warehouse tanks to pull fuel out of storage upon landing.  So that will give me the ability to hop anywhere on the body in such a lander, without needing to worry about fueling back up after each hop.

It also means I don't need to carry drills / ISRU stuff around on ships designed to carry fuel into orbit.  I just need to drive a rover with an attached Logistics module near the tanker rocket prior to liftoff, fill it, and then put it into orbit to refuel ships up top.

Another bonus is that I can send these miners ahead of landing parties, to "stock the fuel fridge".

One last bonus, I can land these in the middle of nowhere, outside of physics range and leave them on rails.

Edited January 15, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

The mining landers are working well.  I have to check back on them every 60/90/120/180 days in order to "catch-up" on their processing as they don't actually do work in the background.  Instead, KSP catches up in 6 hour chunks when you focus the vessel / base / station.

The Mun lander launched at y4 d349, that gives me the following output for roughly 80 days:

• MP = 2274
• LF = 29589
• Ox = 36164
• Ore = 34192

It's generating excess ore because the drills are pulling up ore faster then the 2.5m ISRU converter can handle it.  So possibly my next lander will be one with a pair of ISRUs.

 

[WuphonsReach]

Minmus crew is starving, so I need to ship out supplies.  The agroponics modules with the botanists (a pair of 3-star) are working, but there's just not enough supplies to go around (and not enough recyclers either).

[WuphonsReach]

MKS base design notes:

• Vessels have to be periodically focused.
• Recyclers do not work across vessels (I think).
• Supply and EC timers are not shared across vessels within 150m.
• Hab-time and home-timer is shared across vessels within 150m.

That gives a few design constraints:

• Any vessel where you are going to put kerbals long-term, must have enough supplies and mulch storage to last for X days (depending on how often you want to focus back on the vessel).
• You should provide enough EC storage to last for X days as well.
• If you need recyclers (and you should really use them for anything over 3-6 kerbals), you'll need to have enough on the vessel to cover the on-board kerbals.

Right now, my Minmus base is a jumbled pile of individual vessels.  I either need to replace them, or link them together somehow.  Which will probably involve use of a KIS/KAS winch and possible summoning of the kraken.

My preference for X days is 90 days.  It's doable, but you have to plan ahead.

[WuphonsReach]

Math:

• A kerbal consumes 1.8 supplies per hour and produces 1.8 mulch per hour
• Recyclers vary from 70% to 79%, but if you have enough capacity (measured in kerbals), it acts as if you have all of the best recyclers.

90 days x 1.8 sup/hr x 6 hrs/day = 972 supplies per kerbal + 972 mulch storage

However that doesn't take into account having a recycler, which would cut that value by about 75% (pessimistic estimate).  Which gives us:

90 days x 1.8 sup/hr x 6 hrs/day x 0.25 recycler = 243 supplies per kerbal + 243 mulch storage

That's much more manageable.  

The downside of recyclers is the power draw, so you need to plan ahead there as well.  The large recycler (3 kerbals) draws 18.75 per second.  The small only draws 0.5 per second.  One tactic at the expense of part-count is to have one large recycler, then a bunch of little ones (enough to cover all the kerbals).  It's also more mass-efficient to do it that way.

 

[WuphonsReach]

I have seven probes (six MAG/RPWS probes, one relay sat) arriving at Jool fine-tune maneuver nodes in the next 45 days.

The new PDU is on its way to Minmus.  The design is:

• 'Duna' Power Distribution Unit (PDU)
• 2.5m USI reactor (this is overkill)
• RT-5000 recycler (3 kerbal capacity)
• Mk2 Lander Can
• 20k EC storage (batteries)
• MK-V Saddle Tank for Mulch (1250 capacity)
• MK-V Supply Redi-Pak for Supplies (1200 capacity, plus 50 for mulch)
• 'Ranger' Habitation Module (set to Hab-Common), requires 8000 Material Kits
• 'Ranger' Habitation Module (set to Hab-Quarters), requires 8000 Material Kits
• XL solar panels (four, arranged two to a side to be effective on the surface)

Staffing needs at Minmus:

• (2) botanists for the agroponics modules
• (1) engineer to perform maintenance tasks

Equipment needs at Minmus:

• Maybe a new Logistics module design
• A second set of agroponics
• Another kerbitat with hab modules
• Four XL solar panels (that I forgot to install at launch on the new PDU)

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

The newly designed PDU does pretty well, it has over 100 days of EC storage and over 100 days of supply storage.

Getting the Agroponics module fitted out properly, OTOH, has taken three launches and I'll probably only get it up to 50-60 days of EC storage.  The current setup for that is:

• 'Duna' Kerbitat with a recycler
• RT-5000 recycler (3 kerbal capacity)
• (4) RT-500 recyclers (should give me the ability to have 7-9 kerbals in this module)
• (4) 'Ranger' Agricultural modules (Agroponics setting)
• Kontainer (warehouse) for supplies
• Kontainer (warehouse) for fertilizer
• Kontainer Tank (warehouse) for mulch
• (4) XL solar panels attached two to a side (to track the sun)
• 40k EC battery storage

I'll probably tear down the older agroponics modules once I get the four biologists moved into this new part.  Although I might try some tricks with Konstruction ports and a sky-crane to mount additional battery capacity to the 2nd version.

[WuphonsReach]

Shipped a large 2.5m KIS container full of KAS pipe connectors, wrenches, lots of 0.625m and 1.25m construction ports, some of the magnetic "targets" from the Akita rover section, plus some XL solar panels out to the Minmus base.  I'll need to send a second KIS container with the 20k and 40k batteries (which are almost light enough for a single kerbal to move them).

So many things needed...

• The Karibou rover at the base needs the small recyclers plus a mulch tank.
• Need to reconfigure the Karibou rover to have one small mono-prop tank
• Either the Akita crane or forklift will allow a kerbal to pickup 7t, so I need one of those
• I need at least 2 small runabout rovers (Malemute)
• Robotic rovers to explore the terrain around Minmus
• An ISRU converter at the Minmus base to process the excess ore in planet storage
• Extra saddle tanks from the Karibou parts for supplies and mulch storage
• Possibly expando-tubes to link together some of the Rangers
• A tall tower of XL solar panels (tricky)
• More botanists?
• More of the small recyclers, maybe a big one?
• Think about how to harvest the other resources besides ore

 

Edited January 17, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Minmus base towards the start of year 5.

If you're following along, I had a problematic miner on the Mun which did not have a logistics module so it couldn't push into planetary storage.  So I sent brave Certi out to hook a KAS pipe between the new lander design and the old lander.  That gives me 12 drills and a pair of ISRU converters making LF/Ox/MP and pushing it into the Mun's storage.

Certi getting back into the lander for the trip back to orbit.  This particular lander design is underpowered for the Mun, so it got moved (via the Dolphin) to Minmus for future service.

 

[WuphonsReach]

For my next project, I need another runabout that can carry kerbals over moderate to long distances on the surface.  For that, I'm going to try out the Malemute series.  

I present the "egg carton" lander, which holds the Malemute on the descent down to the surface.

That's a Karibou RCS and VTOL section on the front (with a matching one on the back).  Plus the Karibou control pod up top (the white dome).

The Malemute rover is attached to the rear Mk3 tank adapter by a decoupler, but I've offset it forward to put the center of gravity closer to the center of the bay.  There's a second 2.5m decoupler at the front of the bay which separates the front Mk3 tank adapter from the cargo section.  Once that is separated, my engineers can start disassembling the front section to allow the rover to drive out.

When working with VTOLs, you need to adjust the power of one of the two engines so that the CoG (yellow/black ball) is directly above or below the lift vector (purple).

In this case, because I'm pretty well balanced already, I only had to turn down the front engine by 1.5% (via the Thrust Limiter).

Now I just need to put it on a rocket and send it to Minmus.  If I remember right, it had about 2200 dV for landing.  That's enough for most moons.

[WuphonsReach]

Started to re-arrange Minmus base.  The Karibou is facing the Pioneer module (with attached science lab and a pair of habitats), which I slowly dragged into position from where it was before.  There's a winch on the front of the Karibou rover.  The trick to safely moving the module was to turn the KAS winch speed from 1.0 down to 0.2.

I learned that you can't attach flex-o-tubes to the ends of the Ranger habitats.  I was very disappointed.  So I had to go with plan B and move the habitat to the outer side of the pioneer module.  Then I ran a flex-o-tube from the PDU to the Pioneer.

Oh, and the big KIS cargo containers from the MKS mod?  Don't stack them on top of things.  I originally had it vertical, but had to use a winch to tip it over onto its side so that I could access it.

Looking at the layout now, I want to move the Pioneer closer to the PDU.  Plus straighten out some of the crookedness in the tube going from the PDU over to the Agroponics module.

Edited January 18, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Current projects

• Winching modules around at Minmus base
• Building a 2nd Karibou rover and 2nd Malemute rover
• Installing more hab space at Minmus base
• Landing my fuel shuttle at Minmus base
• Reconfiguration of various warehouse parts at Minmus base

The winching of bases around is just slow, but not terribly tedious given a KAS/KIS ground pylon, a winch, a KIS/KAS connector and an engineer with the powered screwdriver.

1. Figure out where you want the module to end up
2. Plan a drag route that avoids obstacles
3. EVA the engineer with the connector, winch, pylon and powered screwdriver
4. Attach a KAS connector to the bottom of the module (as low as possible) on the side from which you'll drag it.
5. Attach (using the H key) the ground pylon up to 55m away from your target position
6. Attach the winch to the top of the pylon, use the A/D keys to rotate it
7. Right-click the winch and grab the connector
8. Go to the connector on the bottom of the module, right-click and "Plug [docked]"
9. Put your engineer inside the 'Duna' module
10. Save the game
11. Right-click the winch and bring up the GUI (if it doesn't show, go back to the space center and come back)
12. Set the winch speed to 0.10
13. Start retracting
14. EVA and pickup the winch and ground pylon
15. Repeat steps 5-14 until it is where you want it

 

[WuphonsReach]

I need more lifting capacity for my EVA'd kerbal that doesn't require positioning half a dozen extra kerbals at the start / end points of the lift (each EVA'd kerbal near the part increases lift capacity by 1.0t for the nearby kerbal doing the work).  So I'm going to setup the 2nd Malemute rover with one of the Konstruction thingies (claw or crane or forklift).  Hopefully I don't need to deploy it in order to get the extra lifting power.

On a different vein, thinking about the minimum for what I'll need on a different planet:

• Pioneer module - gives the ability to level up kerbals without having to go back to KSC, plus provides funds / science / rep on an ongoing basis depending on the kolony size.
• Logistics module with a pilot - gives access to the planetary storage for putting things away, and the pilot gives the ability to pull things back out.
• PDU with an engineer - power and distribution to other things within range

That's the absolute minimum set of 'Tundra' or 'Duna' modules (and the 'Tundra' series combines the Pioneer and Logistics functions).  Which is only a crew of two (engineer + pilot).

That brings me to the list of accessories needed.

• EC storage - 2.5m battery banks (40/60/80k, multiple)
• Recyclers - 2.5m RT-5000 recyclers (multiple)
• Cooling capacity (possibly combined with solar power on a tower)
• Warehouse-enabled storage parts
• Supplies storage
• Mulch storage
• Material Kits storage, plus initial supply of material kits
• Initial supply of Machinery and Specialized Parts
• Reconfigurable storage attached to main logistics vessel (can be scavenged from cargo supply runs)

The amount of EC, mulch and supplies storage will depend on how long you want to leave the base along before checking back in on it.  My preference is a minimum of 30 days with a goal of 90-100 days.

Much/supplies storage is reasonably easy to calculate: 972 or 273 per 90 day period for each Kerbal depending on whether you are at 75% recycling capacity.

The EC storage calculation is not as precise - I think I need 90k of EC storage per RT-5000 recycler to get 90 days.   Batteries are cheap and don't have a lot of mass (and with weldings can be low part count).  So they're easy to stick on top of towers later.

Edited January 21, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Delivery of the crew ferry Malemute to Minmus:

Now that the nose has been moved out the of way, I can drive right out:

I did a lot of clean-up on Minmus base today, lots and lots of leftovers turned into Material Kits so that I could expand new habitation spaces.  Here is Certi, installing the mono-prop tank at the base (it's a warehouse for mono-prop).

Unfortunately, that little tank is too large to carry, so she couldn't put it on top of the PDU as planned.  But I had this low-lying hub thingy with a node on top that I could attach it too.

[WuphonsReach]

I've figured out that if I bring 4500 units of refined exotics back to Kerbin, that's worth 1M in recovery funds.

https://github.com/BobPalmer/MKS/wiki/Functions%3A-Manufacturing#refinedexotics

But to do that, I need to mine Minerals (to produce Chemicals), Exotic Minerals and Rare Metals.  Those are the three raw inputs to the production chain to produce Refined Exotics.

Also, the last check of my Minmus Base produced about 1.9M in funds, but I'm not sure how long it had been since I checked the Pioneer module.

Update: I'm making 340k per 28 days at my Minmus base.

Edited January 22, 2017 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

Once I finish out the tech tree, I'm going to have to look into a science -> funds module.  Probably the one by KerboKatz called KerbalScienceExchange

https://github.com/KerboKatz/SmallUtilities/releases

 

[WuphonsReach]

Starting work on the Minmus space station.  The primary goal will be an overbuilt orbital hotel with lots and lots of hab-space in order to set the "home" timer for kerbals to a pretty high value.

First launch of the core mast was 1.5M, the next two launches with the docking wings are 350k each.  The greenhouses will be a pair of 330k launches.  Then comes the solar panel / radiator trusses (two at a cost of X).  Next up will be the four habitation rings from MKS (X cost), along with the launches of Material Kits needed to expand them (four at X cost).  Lastly will be the engine pack (X cost) that straps onto the bottom in order to move the whole thing to Minmus.

I'll need to figure out how to lift the full 46k Material Kits per hab-ring in a single launch.