This One Goes to Eleven: Reports from a 10.6257x GPP career

[Norcalplanner]

This One Goes to Eleven: Reports from a 10.6257x GPP Career

Well, I'm either over ambitious or just plain nuts.  After finishing my 3.2x GPP career, I've decided to jump into a new career at the ridiculous (but accurate per @OhioBob) full tilt scale of 10.6257x, using SMURFF at full lever. Since 10.6257x rounds up to 11, I thought the title seemed appropriate.  If you aren't familiar with the reference, it comes from the 80s classic "This is Spinal Tap":

 

Goals for this save include more exploration of the outer planets (KABOOM Kronicle never really got out past Tellumo) plus more colonization, science, and refueling infrastructure.  Mods have changed quite a bit - I've moved away from my more typical SpaceY/Near Future/Orbital Science suite, and will instead be featuring the following: Bluedog Design Bureau, USI-LS, Real Scale Boosters, Kerbal Atomics, Cryogenic Engines, and the Mark IV spaceplane parts.  Karbonite is still there, but with no Kerbal R&D to increase the heat tolerance and my decision to delete the large umbrella-shaped collector, resource collection will be very slow unless on the surface.  I'll post more in a day or two, but here are some initial images to whet your appetite, courtesy of imgur albums working once again.  Also note that this is not going to be nearly as comprehensive as my previous report, since that started seeming more like work than fun.  Enjoy.

If you want to check out the old thread for reference, you can find it here: 

 

[Norcalplanner]

KABOOM's 10.6257x career continues to roll along, with new lifters and probes going to Iota, Ceti, and LGO.  We've got our first small station up, and Jeb and Bill made it to Iota and back in a Big Gemini-based design.  Enjoy.

 

[Norcalplanner]

I haven't forgotten about this - it's just that I've been laid up after surgery and haven't been able to sit at a computer for any length of time.  I'll get back to posting things for real later this week, but in the meantime, here are pictures of Jade Station around Iota and the rocket that got it there.

[cubinator]

That last rocket is starting to look like a fractal...awesome program!

[JadeOfMaar]

On 5/15/2017 at 3:06 AM, Norcalplanner said:

I haven't forgotten about this - it's just that I've been laid up after surgery and haven't been able to sit at a computer for any length of time.  I'll get back to posting things for real later this week, but in the meantime, here are pictures of Jade Station around Iota and the rocket that got it there.

Either I'm embarrassingly late to the party or I had no likes to give at the time.  

[Norcalplanner]

It's been far too long since I've posted, so it's time to put up pretty pictures again.  I'm nearing the end of the tech tree, largely thanks to all the science which has been cranked out from Jade Station circuling Iota.  No real method to all these, just a series of snapshots of the space program.  Enjoy.

I made a big rocket to take Jeb and Bill to Ceti and back, along with enough supplies and habitation to survive the trip.

Here's the craft that went to Ceti.  Sort of a variation on lunar orbit rendezvous, using the capsule and service module as a lander while taking along a disposable habitat for luxurious accommodations on the trip.

Docked to Cuyahoga Station briefly.  The "station" isn't much bigger than the habitat which came along.

Mugging for the camera.

Getting back in.  Lots of nice detail on the Bluedog Design Bureau capsule and service module.  I really like the decoupler, which properly routes the umbilicals around the heat shield (and not visible in this photograph, unfortunately).

Back on Gael in classic style.

Did a bit of biome hopping on Iota to grab more science for Jade station's lab, and give some Kerbals additional experience.

A scanning probe arrived at Tellumo, but didn't quite have enough fuel to circularize and complete the required scans.  Another probe is sent at the next transfer window.

I don't remember what craft this is, but the lighting is pretty awesome.

One of the two "Wuthering Heights" class DSN comm relays, each with three of the huge JX2 antennas. These are put into highly elliptical polar orbits for better lines of sight to distant interplanetary craft.  The name comes from the old Monty Python sketch where they're using semaphore flags.

Finally unlocked the Karborundum scanner, so I built my first-in-this-save ion-powered ship to go sun-diving and see where the resource can be found.  Much to my surprise (and thanks to a glitch because I'm still running GPP 1.2.2) the Karborundum concentration right outside Gael's SOI was 140,000%.  Hmmm.  That makes things a bit easier.

This lifter carried the Klondike I Karborundum miner/tanker.  It dipped briefly outside Gael's SOI, filled up it's tank with 900 tons (!) of Karborundum in less than 10 minutes, then came back home.

Here's the Klondike I on one of its orbital insertion burns.  Because of the low TWR when fully loaded, it took three insertion burns to fully circularize at 700 km.

An Icarus-bound probe was subsequently launched, filled with the new wonder fuel.  Because of the solar power bug in this install, I'm able to power the Karborundum engine without using a reactor.

For people who like numbers. 170 km/s on tap.  It's actually more than that, because the craft separates into two parts so the majority of the fuel (which is heavy for its volume) can stay in orbit.

More numbers.  The beginning of the 22 km/s insertion burn.  It all has to be done at once - the burn is 50 minutes, and the craft's transit through Icarus' SOI (without any insertion burn) is just 56 minutes.

Almost done with the insertion burn.  We're well past the periapsis.

Fuel is pumped around, and the lighter lander casts off to land in three different biomes and complete the Icarus Probes strategy from Strategia.  Added a few million funds to the bank, then the probe ascended and docked with the orbital fuel tank / comm relay sat.  And in classic Kerbal style, one of the radiators broke during the landing in the second biome.  We'll need to be extra careful with future landings - we can barely skate by with two radiators, but we're out of commission if we go down to one.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my 10.6x GPP space program.  I take way too many screenshots, so if you want to see more shots of a particular type, just let me know.

[MatterBeam]

I really like the graphics quality. I see you're using Nertea's Cryo Engines pack. Are you also using other Near Future mods?

[Norcalplanner]

1 hour ago, MatterBeam said:

I really like the graphics quality. I see you're using Nertea's Cryo Engines pack. Are you also using other Near Future mods?

Thanks. I finally made a decent computer last year, so I can run this with all the visual bells and whistles.

Usually I run the full Near Future suite, but this save has MKS installed, and was trying to cut down on the total part count and potential mod conflicts. I also didn't want the two reactor/electric mechanics stomping on each other. This is also my first save using Vens and BDB, so keeping part count down steered me in a different direction.

[CatastrophicFailure]

What's the transfer time to Ceti in 10.xx?

[Norcalplanner]

13 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

What's the transfer time to Ceti in 10.xx?

Don't recall (away from computer atm) but I'll take a look tomorrow.  My impression is that it's somewhere north of 10 days - definitely had to worry about habitation and supplies with USI-LS.

Edit: @CatastrophicFailure I fired up KSP, and it looks like it's 9 days, 20 hours to get from LGO to LCO, assuming you leave from a roughly coplanar orbit and don't have to make a large correction halfway there.   I recall that my craft had enough USI-LS supplies for 22 days, and I ended up burning some extra fuel to speed the return trip.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Norcalplanner
Travel time added

[Norcalplanner]

The Klondike I brought back over 155,000 units of Karborundum.  So if a little is good, a lot must be better.

This lovely lifter here had three 10m cores.  The two outer cores were staged just under the threshold for successful recovery (set at 2,500 m/s), thus keeping the cost down a bit.  Each core had 9 RS-25 engines courtesy of RSB.

And this is why I needed such a big lifter.  The Klondike II did what the Klondike I did, but at an even larger scale.  Weighing 3,400 tons fully laden, it brought back over a billion funds worth of Karborundum.  So what the heck can we do with this stuff?

Here's a couple of things - a small two-man lander, along with an orbital scanning probe, both still attached to their transfer stages.  Probably won't be able to get very far on their own, though, even with Karborundum. They probably ought to hitch a ride with something larger...

Uh-oh.  Evidently a 10 meter fairing wasn't big enough for this payload.  4,500 tons on the pad.

I think this will do.  Here's your teaser shot of the KSS Overkill, carrying both of those smaller craft after a protracted docking session with the Klondike I. (Asymmetrical RCS thrusters on the transfer stage only are not your friend.)  After a brief shakedown cruise to Ceti to test systems, we'll be going interplanetary with this Karborundum-powered monster... with every one of the Fab Four on board... with USI-LS... at 10.6257x scale... what was I thinking?!? 

More to come soon...

 

[MatterBeam]

I... really like that you're going straight for 10m diameter designs. Build them big! Get your economies of scale!

If I were you, I'd mod the fairing mass in the .cfg settings to be much lighter than they currently are. Also, don't forget to autostrut them in the VAB so that they don't pop off on physics loading.

[Norcalplanner]

4 hours ago, MatterBeam said:

I... really like that you're going straight for 10m diameter designs. Build them big! Get your economies of scale!

If I were you, I'd mod the fairing mass in the .cfg settings to be much lighter than they currently are. Also, don't forget to autostrut them in the VAB so that they don't pop off on physics loading.

@MatterBeam I'm glad that you like them.  SpaceY Expanded is a great help for big rockets.

I'm still running KSP 1.2.2 with KJR, so no auto-struts are needed.  And I'm also running SMURFF at full lever, so most parts are lightened to be more in line with RL.  Not sure about the fairings, though... I'll need to look into it.

Right now we have 34 million in the bank, so spending 2 million on the KSS Overkill (including lifter) wasn't too bad.