Kolonization Mission Album

[BadOaks]

This thread is basically going to be an image album of my attempts to spread little green joy to every planet in the star system. I take A LOT of screenshots, so to avoid cluttering the "What did you do in KSP today" thread too much I'll be posting the majority of them here!

The recent historic mission to Duna was an outstanding success, and better yet, the autonomous mining rig they set up will provide a wealth of resources for future missions to use. I started off the follow-up expedition by lobbing no less than 5 ships towards the red planet: 3 cargo dumpers, a manned interplanetary vessel, and a rover/satellite combo.

Each of the 3 dumpers launched on top of a Driver IV rocket, and collectively they contain all the Kolony modules and equipment needed to set up an initial base capable of refining the resources that were collected by the mining rig and using them to produce material kits, specialized parts, and machinery, as well as construct new modules in-situ.

The first cargo dumper, designated REFLNDR 1, carries a refinery, assembly plant and ISRU (for LFO production).

REFLNDR 2 carries the support base components including logistics, power, material storage and basic habitation. It also has a DIY kit for a crewed exploratory rover.

REFLNDR 3 contains 2 DIY kits: a flatbed rover for transporting new kolony modules over long distances, and a set of 6 additional modules for the refinery base, including long-term habitats.

Interplanetary transport DTRN "Endeavor" launched atop a Driver II rocket with crew members Cathat, Wenfred and Hangel. She is the sister-ship to the DTRN "Discovery" of the previous mission, which is still enroute back to Kerbin.

The "Dandelion" rover and CSAT probe launched together on board an Eagle IV rocket. Because I wanted the Dandelion to scout potential base locations and serve as a visual target for landers, I had it do a high-energy transfer so that it would be the first to arrive at Duna despite being the last to launch. This very sadly left it without enough fuel for a propulsive capture, sooo.....

AEROBRAKING!!

The orbiter, despite probably being the least interesting part of the mission, was also the most profitable. It fulfilled several contracts and netted over a million badly-needed funds for the space program.

Meanwhile, Dandelion deorbited and touched-down in Duna's Northeast Basin, where it was able to locate several good landing sites.

Thanks for reading!

[DeltaDizzy]

This looks incredible, even with those MH Parts! You sir, deserve much more rep! I look forwards to seeing what you do on duna and the other planets.      

EDIT: I'm typing this on a phone, so I couldn't use strikethrough on the second part of the first sentence like I planned to.

Edited June 1, 2018 by DeltaDizzy

[Kerbalstar]

13 minutes ago, DeltaDizzy said:

This looks incredible, even with those MH Parts! You sir, deserve much more rep! I look forwards to seeing what you do on duna and the other planets.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This.

[BadOaks]

 

On 5/31/2018 at 9:20 PM, DeltaDizzy said:

This looks incredible, even with those MH Parts! You sir, deserve much more rep! I look forwards to seeing what you do on duna and the other planets.      

EDIT: I'm typing this on a phone, so I couldn't use strikethrough on the second part of the first sentence like I planned to.

Thanks! I'm actually really enjoying the look of the new parts, especially with the mesh switching feature.

Last night I only played for a few hours, but was able to aerobrake and land two of the dumpers, as well as get DTRN Endeavor a rendezvous with KTS Saskia.

REFLNDR 1

Aerobraking went well, the lander then made a deorbit burn over the south pole.

Northern Basin coming up!

The EDL sequence was a little nerve-wracking, but I was able to land within a couple hundred meters of the Dandelion rover.

Touchdown!

I call this the "Holy Crap That Worked" shot:

REFLNDR 3

The third dumper came into orbit soon after the first.

Stay on target....

Success!

Two down, two to go.

DTRN Endeavor

I managed to get the Endeavor an intercept with KTS Saskia on its way in. Great, two less maneuvers I have to do!

We overshot a bit and had to come back, but otherwise a perfect rendezvous!

Lining up for docking.

Docking achieved!

The Endeavor crew will sit in orbit for another week until REFLNDR 2 arrives, and after that things will start to get interesting.

[DeltaDizzy]

1 minute ago, BadOaks said:

I call this the "Holy Crap That Worked" shot:

[BadOaks]

REFLNDR 2 and KTS Saskia both landed safely. The dust storm in the morning after Saskia's landing made for a beautiful, slightly creepy shot.

Even with the KAS config changes I'd made to make base assembly much less of a headache, putting everything together still took awhile. Eventually though, I got enough put together to start work on the DIY crate for the crewed rover, which took about a day.

In order to build things from scratch (without GC's DIY crates) as well as swap MKS modules I'd need a supply of specialized parts. I'd planned to transfer over various supplies at the Polar Mining base using planetary logistics, but for some reason the specialized parts weren't transferring despite it working for the other resources. Since I hadn't brought any with me (stupid!) I had Wenfred and Hangel take the crewed rover on a week-long round trip over to Duna's south pole to troubleshoot.

After trying for a bit to make it work, I gave up and just strapped a crate of spec parts to the roof of the rover. Problem solved!

Once back, I unpacked a docking setup for the rover so crews can simply transfer into it without having to go outside. Also started work on the additional modules carried by REFLNDR 3, which would take about 20 days to complete.

Mornings on Duna are so cool!

Base complete! The additional modules upgrade the production ability of the base so it can start producing specialized parts and machinery in-situ as well as material kits. The second line of modules (on the right) are long-term habitats, making this base a permanent installation!

[RocketScientist]

What visual mods did you use? Also, awesome! I could never land that precisely on a planet.

[BadOaks]

On 6/8/2018 at 6:47 PM, RocketScientist said:

What visual mods did you use? Also, awesome! I could never land that precisely on a planet.

The visual mods I'm using are:

• Stock Visual Enhancements
• Stock Visual Terrain
• Scatterer
• EVE
• Distant Object Enhancement 
• Planetshine
• Realplume
• Engine Lighting

Landing was really challenging! The Trajectories mod (link is for a 1.4.3 version in comments) is incredibly useful for that though, as it can predict your trajectory and impact location while accounting for atmospheric forces and planet rotation. You can see a red X that marks the impact location:

I also use it for planning aerobraking maneuvers:

 

Blue is KSP's normal orbital path, red is in atmosphere and white shows the trajectory after aerobraking.