That Certain Special Something - Images and Brief Reports from a JNSQ Career

[Norcalplanner]

Introduction

I've been a long time fan of Galileo's Planet Pack and the companion Grannus Extension Pack.  So when the new JNSQ planet pack arrived from Team Galileo, I knew it would be the setting for my next career.

This thread is intended as a single repository for all the noteworthy screenshots in my JNSQ career, peppered with occasional tales of achievement, setbacks, and derring-do.  Notable mods include BDB, SSTU, nearly everything by Nertea (including FFT), Snacks, and Kerbal Health to make long-term missions a challenge.  More will be posted soon, but we'll start with a few artsy shots:

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Norcalplanner
formatting

[Norcalplanner]

Early Efforts

Spent some time getting acquainted with the new system and launching some typical early craft around Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus.  

Definitely enjoying the new terrain around KSC and the implementation of various visual mods.

 

A small probe in high orbit (possibly geosynchronous), and a good shot of Kerbin Mk 2.

 

The terrain and biomes on Mun are redone and very much improved, IMHO.

 

First probe that landed on Minmus, with Kerbin low over the horizon.  These early probes always look a bit awkward and sometimes tippy with limited diameter parts available.

 

Same goes for this early manned Mun lander.  No style points for the craft, but still nice with the new textures and Kerbin low over the horizon.

Next time - more interesting things!  Really! 

[Norcalplanner]

More Advanced Probes and Boots on Minmus

Next steps involved landing more advanced probes with better science gear, plus a manned landing on Minmus.  Because I'm running Kerbal Health, keeping the crew alive and happy during the long transit time to Minmus required a bit of creativity.

 

An advanced probe getting to orbit.  This one is bound for Minmus.

 

Definitely not the stock version of Minmus.  While there are still large flat areas, they're more realistic and believable.

 

Almost down.  The wider stance from the larger diameter tanks definitely helps.

 

A nearly identical probe went to Mun and did some biome hopping, mostly under low light conditions.  Here's a shot of the lander probe leaving an Exotic Crater, one of the new Mun biomes in JNSQ.

 

Also launched our first LKO station, titled Genesis Station (since it's the beginning of our habitation in space).  We'll probably do an Exodus Station when it's time to leave Kerbin. 

 

Here's the architecture we landed on, as used in the second manned trip to Minmus.  The two-man lander and hab module (I can't really call it a station, since it's uncontrolled and has no attitude thrusters or propulsion) launched first into Minmus orbit.  A manned Mk 1-3 capsule with a Hitchhiker then rendezvoused with the stack in Minmus orbit, transferred crew, and then headed down.

 

Flag on Minmus accomplished.  With Strategia, Career Evolution, and some other contracts all offering payouts for various portions of the mission, this one was quite lucrative.

Next time - Station additions, and rovers on Mun and Minmus!

[Norcalplanner]

Asteroid PSA

Just a friendly out-of-sequence heads up that asteroids in JNSQ are a bit larger than stock.  I launched this lovely nuclear powered craft to try and grab a C class asteroid which was coming within 10,000 km of Kerbin:

Kerbal Atomics engine with 925 Isp, 5 meter tank, two drills and a convert-o-tron to mine the asteroid for fuel to help capture it.  5 km/s on tap with 310 kN of thrust.  How hard can it be?

 

Ummmmm......

 

That's a big negatory on asteroid redirect.  This C class asteroid massed over 528 thousand tons.  Acceleration was measured in micrometers per second.

We'll go after an A next time and see what happens.  E is right out.

[Norcalplanner]

Munar Station Assembly

 

Just a few images of a station put up in one launch, then assembled by a tug in orbit of Mun...

Little tug is at the top.

 

First arm being moved into position

 

Arm number two...

 

Time to launch a crew so we can inflate and start the centrifuge!

 

Done for the moment, with both the tug and the six person crew shuttle docked.  This station isn't growing on me like I thought it would - the part count is already too high, and there's too much yellow clock before we've even added any of the mining and EL manufacturing components.  We may end up abandoning it and launching a smaller, more compact design.  Sure looks pretty, though!

[Geschosskopf]

Very nice pics!  JNSQ definitely is a beautiful mod.

I feel you on the redirect fail.  I once used the USI asteroid mining/hollowing mod and discovered asteroids were WAY too big to move any the time I wanted to invest on them

[Norcalplanner]

And we're back!  After a long hiatus which included a time of no KSP at all, followed by Season 2 of the RP-1 Space Race, I've dusted off this career and put it into a new 1.7.3 JNSQ install.  Largely unmanned probes exploring the system at the moment, but once we've figured out what looks interesting then we'll start sending crewed missions with some of the crazy powerful late tech tree engines we're unlocking.

A bit of gravity assist shenanigans which will eventually result in a cheap capture around Laythe.

 

Our first trip to Dres in a long time.  Looking good, Team Galileo!

Nice terrain on Dres, too!  We'll have to land some sort of rover and explore a bit.

[KerbalKore]

Just noticed/remembered this thread was a thing, going through and liking all the posts.

[Norcalplanner]

Observation of the day: NFP and NFE together can compensate for a wealth of mission planning shortfalls.  Here's a probe spending far too much delta V to enter Laythe's orbit, even after a few gravity assists.  I was impatient. :-)

[KerballingSmasher]

It's ion-powered @Norcalplanner it's all fine those things have too much dV as is  

[Norcalplanner]

And we're back yet again!  After taking a bit of time off to check out The Outer Worlds, the JNSQ install has now been updated to release 0.8.6.  More interesting things to come later this week, but here's a brief taste of the first shakedown flight in the new universe:

All of the probes and other unmanned craft heading to various bodies appear to still be intact and on course, so we should be able to enjoy some close up views of various outer planets in the next year or so of game time.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Norcalplanner
added a bit

[The Minmus Derp]

This is very interesting! Where do you plan on going next?