CCKP: An eventful return.

[Hotaru]

"Kerman will not always stay on Kerbin; the pursuit of light and space will lead him to penetrate the bounds of the atmosphere, timidly at first, but in the end to conquer the whole of kerbolar space." --Konstanty Kerman, Beyond the Planet Kerbin

 

С С К Р

Space Program of the Kerbalist Union

 

Current objective: Duna!

Completed objectives:
Mun & Minmus

 

 

Flight log (kermanned missions):

Spoiler

* indicates cosmonaut's first space mission

† indicates cosmonaut killed/missing

 

Index     Mission           Launch vehicle    Crew                Remarks

 

17        Derzost 1         Iskra-K           P0 Valentina*       First kerman in space!

 

19        Derzost 2         "                 P0 Zelyz*           4-day mission

 

26        Derzost 3         "                 P0 Dzhedasyn*       Munar flyby

 

29        Otvazhnyy 1       "                 P1 Valentina        28-day mission

                                              E0 Byldo*

 

32        Otvazhnyy 2       "                 P1 Zelyz            First EVA

                                              S0 Bobyn*

 

33        Morzh 1           Sterzhen          P1 Dzhedasyn        First kermen on the mun!

                                              S0 Glemyra*

 

36        Otvazhnyy S-1     Iskra-K           P1 Valentina        Test flight

                                              E0 Nedmir*

 

42        Otvazhnyy S-2     "                 P1 Dzhedasyn        102-day mission to station Terpeniye 1

                                              E0 Venlana          Capsule destroyed on landing; crew bailed out

 

44        Morzh 2           Sterzhen          P1 Zelyz            First kermen on Minmus!

                                              S0 Dzhassya*        Landing + 3 biome hops

 

45        Kerbal 45         Iskra-K           P1 Valentina        In-flight abort (not enough fuel)

          (Otvazhnyy S-3a)                    E1 Byldo

 

46        Otvazhnyy S-3(b)  "                 "                   201-day mission

 

53        Otvazhnyy S-4     "                 P1 Dzhedasyn        1-year mission

                                              E1 Nedmir           Last mission to Terpeniye 1

 

58        Otvazhnyy S-5     "                 P1 Valentina        1-year mission

                                              S1 Dzhassya         First mission to Terpeniye 2

 

62        Kerbal 62         Sterzhen          P2 Zelyz            In-flight abort (2nd-stage engine failure)

          (Morzh 3a)                          S1 Glemyra†         Crew ejected on suborbital trajectory due to circuit fault

                                                                  Glemyra MIA, Zelyz parachuted

                                                                  First kerman to return from space without a spaceship

 

64        Otvazhnyy S-6     Iskra-K           P1 Dzhedasyn        1-year mission to Terpeniye 2

                                              S1 Bobyn

 

65        Morzh 3(b)        Sterzhen          P1 Valentina        Mun landing

                                              S2 Dzhassya

 

66        Morzh 4           "                 P2 Zelyz            Minmus landing

                                              E1 Venlana          Landing + 3 biome hops + "touch and go" on slopes

 

70        Otvazhnyy S-7     Iskra-K           P1 Valentina        2-year mission; last mission to Terpeniye 2

                                              S2 Dzhassya

 

79        Morzh Ch-1        Kvark             P1 Dzhedasyn        2-year mission to Terpeniye 3/Minmus

                                              S1 Bobyn            1st long-term mission beyond Kerbin's magnetic field

 

79-A      Morzh Ch-1-D1     LDK-1             "                   Landing + 2 biome hops

                                                                  1st automatic landings

                                                                  Guidance fault caused RCS fuel to be used up

                                                                  Manual docking on engine power only

 

91        Morzh Ch-2        Kvark             P2 Zelyz            2-year mission to Terpeniye 4/Mun

                                              S2 Dzhassya

 

92        Kerbal 92         "                 P1 Valentina        In-flight abort (guidance fault)

          (Morzh Ch-3)                        S0 Rosbella*

 

95        Kerbal 95         "                 P1 Valentina        In-flight abort (engine failure at liftoff)

          (Morzh TCh-1)                       S0 Rosbella

                                              E0 Mezhlana*

 

96        Morzh-TCh-1(b)    "                 "                   171-day mission to Terpeniye 3/Minmus

 

96-A      M.TCh-1-D1        LDK-1             P1 Valentina        Minmus landing + 3 biome hops

                                              S0 Rosbella

 

91-A      M.Ch-2-D1         LDK-2             P2 Zelyz            Mun landing; 1st on far side

                                              S2 Dzhassya

 

98        Vyzov 1           Sterzhen-ST       P2 Dzhedasyn        First kerman on Duna!

                                              E1 Byldo

 

99        Morzh TCh-2       Kvark             S2 Bobyn            2-year mission to Terpeniye 3/Minmus

                                              P0 Mirlyn*          Aborted 233 days early due to radiation exposure

                                              S0 Ivaryn*

 

102       Morzh TCh-3       "                 S2 Dzhassya         2-year mission to Terpeniye 4/Mun

                                              P0 Timkyn*          First use of air regenerator

                                              S0 Elitryd*

 

106       Morzh TCh-4       "                 P2 Zelyz            1-year mission to Terpeniye 3/Minmus

                                              E0 Nila*            Installed air regenerator, performed maintenance

                                              S2 Rosbella

 

 

 

Flight log (unkermanned missions):

Spoiler

Index     Mission           Launch vehicle    Remarks

 

1         Gagarka 1         Blokha            Parachute failed, payload not recovered

 

2         Gagarka 2         "                 First data from upper atmosphere

 

3         Gagarka 3         Blokha-Blokha     Guidance fault, some data recovered

 

4         Gagarka 4         "                 First object in space, not recovered

 

5         Gagarka 5         "                 Did not reach space, recovered

 

6         Novaya Zvezda 1   Iskra             First artificial satellite!

 

7         Gagarka 6         "                 Engine fault in first stage, fell short of orbit

          (Novaya Zvezda 2a)

 

8         Novaya Zvezda 2   "                 First object recovered from space/orbit

 

9         Kerbal 9          "                 Satellite prototype, failed to orbit

 

10        Novaya Zvezda 3   "                 satellite

 

11        Loonik 1          "                 First spacecraft to flyby the Mun

 

12        Novaya Zvezda 4   Iskra-K           Derzost spacecraft test

 

13        Loonik 2          Iskra             First spacecraft to impact the Mun

 

14        Novaya Zvezda 5   "                 satellite

 

15        Novaya Zvezda 6   "                 "

 

16        Loonik 3          "                 First soft landing on the Mun

 

18        Novaya Zvezda 7   "                 satellite

 

20        Loonik 4          "                 Mun orbiter

 

21        Loonik 5          Iskra-K           Mun flyby test of Derzost spacecraft

                                              First object recovered from Munar space

 

22        Malyy 1           Iskra             First spacecraft to orbit Minmus

 

23        Malyy 2           "                 First soft landing on Minmus

 

24        Novaya Zvezda 8   "                 satellite

 

25        Novaya Zvezda 9   "                 "

 

27        Loonik 6          "                 Mun lander

 

28        Malyy 3           "                 Minmus lander

 

30        Kerbal 30         "                 Kerbin surveyor

 

31        T. Zvezda 1       Iskra-K           Sample return from Kerbin orbit

 

34        T. Zvezda 2       "                 Sample return from Mun flyby

 

35        Loonik 7          Iskra             Mun surveyor

 

37        Dyuna 1           Iskra-K           First interplanetary probe; Duna orbiter

                                              Contact lost en route, regained at next opposition of Duna

 

38        Dyuna 2           "                 First soft landing on another planet; Duna lander

 

39        Yeva 1            "                 First data from another planet; Eve orbiter

 

40        Yeva 2            "                 First data from another planet surface; Eve lander

 

41        Terpeniye 1       Iskra-K           Space station

 

43        Malyy 4           Iskra             Minmus surveyor

 

47        Prikhvosten 1     Iskra-K           Terpeniye 1 resupply

 

48        Duayt 1           "                 Ike orbiter

 

49        Duayt 2           "                 Ike lander

 

50        Prikhvosten 2     "                 Terpeniye 1 resupply

 

51        Yeva 3            "                 Eve lander

 

52        Yeva 4            "                 Eve surveyor

 

54        Prikhvosten 3     "                 Terpeniye 1 resupply

 

55        Prikhvosten 4     "                 "

 

56        Prikhvosten 5     "                 "

 

57        Terpeniye 2       Kvark             Space station

 

59        Prikhvosten 6     Iskra-K           Terpeniye 2 resupply

 

60        Prikhvosten T-1   Kvark             "

 

61        Dyuna 3           "                 Duna sample return; crashed on hillside

 

63        Prikhvosten 7     Iskra-K           Terpeniye 2 resupply

 

67        Zhabry 1          Kvark             Gilly sample return

 

68        Yeva 6            Iskra-K           Eve lander

 

69        Yeva 5            Kvark             Eve surveyor

 

71        Prikhvosten 8     Iskra-K           Terpeniye 2 resupply

 

72        Dyuna 4           Kvark-I           Duna sample return

 

73        Dyuna 5           "                 Duna surveyor

 

74        Terpeniye 3       Sterzhen-T        Minmus space station

 

75        Kerbal 75         Iskra             Failed to orbit; intended as Malyy 5 Minmus satellite

 

76        Prikhvosten T-2   Kvark             Terpeniye 3 resupply

 

77        Moho 1            Kvark-I           4 flybys of Moho

 

78        Prikhvosten 9     Iskra-K           Terpeniye 2 resupply

 

80        Malyy 5           Iskra             Minmus satellite

 

81        LDK-1             Kvark             Minmus landing craft for Terpeniye 3

 

82        Kerbal 82         Sterzhen-T        Failed to orbit; intended as Terpeniye 4 Mun station

 

83        Loonik 8          Sterzhen MN-1     Mun surveyor; 1st booster recovery

 

84        Terpeniye 4       Sterzhen-T        Mun space station

 

85        Dyuna 6           Kvark-I           Duna satellite

 

86        Kerbal 86         Iskra-K           Kerbosynchronous comsat

 

87        Yeva 7            Kvark-I           Eve satellite

 

88        Yeva 8            Iskra             Eve satellite; intended as Zhabry 2 Gilly satellite

 

89        Prikhvosten T-3   Kvark             Terpeniye 4 resupply

 

90        Akvalang 1        "                 Terpeniye 3 refuel

 

93        LDK-2             "                 Mun landing craft for Terpeniye 4

 

94        Kerbal 94         Iskra-K           Kerbin surveyor

 

97        Prikhvosten T-4   Kvark-I           Terpeniye 3 resupply

 

100       Prikhvosten 10    Iskra-K           Terpeniye 3 resupply

 

101       Kerbal 101        Kvark-I           Failed to orbit; intended as Moho 2 orbiter

 

103       Zhabry 2(b)       Sterzhen MN-1     Gilly satellite

 

104       Moho 2            Kvark-I           Moho satellite

 

105       Moho 3            "                 Moho lander

 

107       Dyuna 7           Iskra-K           Duna satellite

 

108       Duayt 3           "                 Ike satellite

 

109       Duayt 4           Kvark-I           Ike sample return

 

 

See also this spreadsheet by @RocketMan-Explorer.

 

 

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

It's been almost two years now since I finished my last career and I think I've finally had enough of a break to get started on another one. I'm going for more of a kerbo-Soviet style this time, which is something I've always wanted to try and which the Making History parts make much more doable. I did the whole stock gameplay thing in the last save, and have no desire to repeat the experience, so I'll be using some more part and gameplay mods this time, both to remove stock headaches and to add some new challenges.

In addition to the two DLCs, the core gameplay mods are Kerbalism, Kerbal Construction Time, Kerbal R&D, and State Funding. I've turned off Kerbalism's science system (I like the stock one better) and I'm using the Simplex config to cut down on the resource micromanagement a bit and return ISRU to its stock behavior; otherwise it is on default settings. I'm also using some making-life-less-annoying mods like MechJeb, TweakScale, and KIS/KAS, and a few part mods to fill in some gaps in the stock catalog. Sticking to the stock solar system for now but not ruling out installing Outer Planets Mod later on. Also sticking to mostly stock-alike parts but may add Near Future tech or similar once I reach the late game.

I've written a custom Module Manager patch for this save which makes a few changes, most notably increasing the costs of developing new engines by a factor of 100, which should help keep funding an issue through the whole game, and multiplying the cost of the later tech tiers so that endgame techs cost 100,000 or more sciences, which, along with KR&D, should keep science an issue in the late game as well (in my last save I'd unlocked the tech tree before I even made it to Duna). This is my first time play testing these changes beyond the first few tech tiers, so I may have to do some re-balancing as I go, but I'm hoping it should make for a more interesting career than stock "sandbox as soon as you get labs" mode.

Really boring stuff (difficulty settings):

Spoiler

(Fatal EC/Heat should be ON, will fix later)

Giving myself a starting boost to science to skip the early game grind and some funds to develop my first engines (remember their development costs are 100 times stock!). Fund penalties at 10% to keep kerbal hiring costs non-stupid. Fund rewards at 50%, may give myself a budget cut later on if, in spite of everything, things get too easy. Trying to rely more on State Funding than regular contracts as well.

Last time I removed the originals, this time I'm keeping them but with Russified names (regular kerbal names taken from the Russian localization): Dzhedasyn (Jeb), Byldo (Bill), Bobyn (Bob), and of course Valentina was named after a Russian in the first place. And since I like to start with three pilots I've also hired one more starter, Zelyz, and made her an orange suit along with the others. I'm not sure how different the Russian kerbal names really are (hard to tell if the differences are intended or just due to my clumsy transliterations) but in any case I'll be continuing to use them for future cosmonaut classes.

TL;DR: Soviet-style career with Kerbalism, KCT, KR&D, stock system, limited part mods, custom career edits: super-expensive mid/late game tech and engine R&D costs. Kerbal names from Russian localization.

 

Further boring stuff (mod list):

Spoiler

Gameplay:

Kerbalism: science disabled, Simplex config

Kerbal Construction Time

Kerbal R&D: should be a good late game science sink, also an alternative to adding lots of advanced part mods. Usable for engines only due to conflict with TweakScale.

State Funding

MechJeb: because I've done enough manual circularizations, transfers, rendezvouses, etc. for several lifetimes already

Kerbal Inventory System

Kerbal Attachment System

TweakScale: I'll mostly be using it for cosmetic purposes for now, on tanks, structural parts, etc. Disabled for engines to avoid conflict with KR&D. May use it more extensively in late game to help with part count issues.

Custom Module Manager patch: 100x fund cost to develop liquid fuel engines, 50x for solids, mid-late game tech node science costs increased 2x-100x. Few other minor changes both of mine and from this extremely useful thread.

May add Kopernicus+planet packs, probably OPM, once actually reaching such destinations becomes practical. Have had lag issues with Kopernicus before though so no promises. KOS might crop up at some point as well for automating reusable systems beyond what MechJeb can handle.

 

Added:

Vanguard Parachutes

KRASH
 

 

Parts:

KW Rocketry: First part pack I ever installed back in 0.90, still my favorite. Using mostly for nostalgic reasons.

HullCameraVDS

Kerbal Hacks: wearable helmet lights, etc.

Kerbal Reusability Expansion: because stock legs are way too wimpy for large landing craft (and last time I checked TweakScaling them doesn't work very well). Adds a few nice other parts as well. Another favorite of mine

Nebula Decals

Deep Freeze: for long-duration missions with Kerbalism. It'll be a while before I unlock any of its parts though

Simple Adjustable Fairings: for pre-1.0-style KW fairings, which were the original reason I installed KW in the first place, back in the day

Atomic Age (via SpaceTux Industries Recycled Parts): mostly for the large light bulb engine, which will be better than clustering zillions of LV-Ns in the late game. Curiously, Kerbalism limits it to 2-4 restarts before it needs maintenance, making it slightly less comically overpowered than it normally is.

May add Near Future tech, Orion drive, other similar mods in the late game, especially if I go for OPM, but for now I think Atomic Age+KR&D upgrades+a bit of TweakScale abuse should cover most of my advanced propulsion needs.

 

QOL:

Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes

Docking Port Alignment Indicator

Persistent Rotation

Trajectories

Decoupler Shroud

Kerbal Alarm Clock

 

Cosmetic:

ReShade + my own settings for it

Chatterer

Environmental Visual Enhancements

PlanetShine

Sci-Fi Visual Enhancements: once Scatterer is available for 1.9 I may switch to that+AVP or similar, but for now I'm kind of enjoying the nostalgic 0.90-AVP feel of SciFiVE. It's easy on the performance as well so I may end up sticking with it permanently.

Texture Replacer + parts of several kerbal skin packs, including my own, necKros's, and Scart91's, the links to which can be found here. (Some, including mine, are in outdated formats but the actual texture files still work fine.)

 

Added:

Earn Your Stripes

Memorial Wall

 

Dependencies & Misc.:

Click Through Blocker

Toolbar Control

Community Category Kit

Community Resource Pack

Community Tech Tree

JSI Advanced Transparent Pods

MagiCore

Scrapyard

SpaceTux Library

ZeroMiniAVC

Module Manager

 

Added:

Flight Tracker

 

Boring stuff addendum (F5/F9 rules):

Spoiler

1. F9 only to prevent kerbal death
     1a. Must take first acceptable result (no deaths)

2. F9 only to escape dangerous situations
     2a. Not to avoid the situation in the first place
     2b. No savescumming to avoid random failures
     2c. Kraken attacks count as random failures

3. Each pilot or flight engineer gets...
     1 free F9
     1 per star
     1 for orange suit
     x2 for badS
     ...per accident

4. 1 copilot's and 1 engineer's totals get added to the pilot's
     4a. Only if ship has enough cockpit seats
     4b. Passengers don't count

5. BadS in a 1-seater, or all-badS crew, gets unlimited F9s
    5a. 1 badS pilot with other crew seats left empty doesn't count

6. Scientists or engineers without a pilot get none

 

 

 

The first three cosmonauts: Zelyz, Dzhedasyn, and Valentina.

 

 

Gagarka: sounding rockets.

Spoiler

Since the beginning of time, two fundamental desires have driven kermankind: the passion for exploration and the passion for explosions. The quest to learn more about their world and to create ever-larger and more spectacular fireworks is central to kerbal history, literature, art, etc., but it was not until relatively recently that an obscure Kerbalist schoolteacher called Konstanty proposed a way to combine these two enterprises. Konstanty reasoned that a sufficiently large and impressive firework, with the explosives replaced by a kerbal passenger, could convey such a passenger beyond the atmosphere to explore the other worlds of kerbolar space. He also suggested many innovations that might make such a firework possible, such as liquid fuel and multiple stages, but the technology of his day did not allow such machines to be actually built.

Recently, however, the Chief Designer of the Experimental Design Bureau for Fireworks (OKB-F) in the Union of So-called Kerbalist Republics happened across a copy of Konstanty's book, Beyond the Planet Kerbin, in a library, and realized that, if the radical step of removing the explosives were taken, some of his department's latest fireworks might be big enough to turn some of the old teacher's theories into reality.

 

As a precursor to kermanned flights, the Design Bureau dragged rolled out Gagarka 1, a Blokha firework with its explosives replaced by parachutes and scientific instruments.

 

The firework blasted off, reaching a height of 23.5 kilometers, but a parachute failure prevented the scientific data from being recovered.

 

The flaw was easily corrected, however, and Gagarka 2 became the first object recovered from the upper atmosphere, returning with temperature, pressure, radiation, and mystery goo data.

 

Next, the Design Bureau decided to implement another of Konstanty's suggestions and stack two Blokhas on top of each other to reach a higher altitude. Gagarka 3, the first attempt, flew wildly off course (although it was still recovered with some valuable data). Gagarka 4 succeeded and became the first kerman-made object to (barely) reach outer space, though it was not recovered. Gagarka 5 was recovered, but the necessary modifications had increased its weight and it fell just short of the 70-kilometer boundary of the atmosphere.

 

Novaya Zvezda: satellites.

Spoiler

Abandoning for the moment their attempts at recovering objects from space, the OKB-F engineers turned their attention to the problem of placing one in orbit around Kerbin. For this purpose (and at great expense), they devised the world's first liquid-fuel firework, the 48-7S, and used eight of them in two stages to create the Iskra rocket.

 

Onlookers were severely disappointed when they saw that the Iskra's exhaust was nearly invisible, but the rocket lifted off smoothly carrying an unkermanned scientific satellite.

 

The satellite, Novaya Zvezda 1, became the first kerman-made object in orbit.

 

It also transmitted scientific data, including information on the planet's radiation belts and the first images of Kerbin from outer space.

 

Returning to the problem of recovery, the engineers launched another satellite on a more patriotically-decorated Iskra. Unfortunately, one of the Iskra's first-stage engines failed and the rocket did not reach orbit. The payload, however, briefly entered space and was safely recovered--the first object retrieved from space--so the launch was publicly announced as a sounding rocket, Gagarka 6.

 

The next attempt was more successful, and the return capsule of Novaya Zvezda 2 became the first object recovered from Kerbin orbit.

 

After an initial attempt failed to orbit due to instability (it was disclosed only as Kerbal 9), Novaya Zvezda 3, a new type of satellite and the first to be solar-powered and capable of long-term operations, was successfully inserted into a high Kerbin orbit. Novaya Zvezda 5 and 6 were similar, although 6 fell short of its intended orbit due to engine failures in both the first and second stages. (Novaya Zvezda 4 was actually part of another project; see below.)

 

Loonik: Munar probes.

Spoiler

Having created a firework capable of achieving orbit with plenty of delta-v to spare, the engineers turned their attention to Kerbin's nearest natural satellite, the Mun.

 

Loonik 1, launched on an Iskra rocket, was the first spacecraft to fly past the Mun and return data and images of its unknown far side. (OOC: Yes, I realize that "Loonik" is not by any stretch of the imagination a word in Russian, but neither is "Mun" a word in English. So there.) Once more precise navigational techniques had been developed, another Iskra launched Loonik 2, which successfully impacted the Mun, becoming the first kerman-made object to reach the surface of another celestial body.

 

Next, the engineers decided to attempt a landing. Yet another Iskra placed Loonik 3 on a trans-Munar trajectory.

 

It touched down safely on the Mun after a 2-day flight, returning the first data from the surface of another world.

 

Derzost: kermanned spaceflight.

Spoiler

With the basic principles of spaceflight established and the temperature and radiation environments proved safe for kerbal life, it was time to attempt to actually realize Konstanty's proposal and send a kerman beyond the atmosphere into space.

 

Realizing that the basic Iskra wasn't powerful enough for the job, the Design Bureau engineers came up with a new design, the Iskra-K, a three-stage vehicle derived from five Iskra cores and a new, three-engine upper stage. Powered by a total of 38 48-7S liquid-fuel fireworks, 35 in the first two stages--all ignited at liftoff--and 3 in the third stage, the engineers believe it will be powerful enough to eventually launch larger kermanned satellites, circum-Munar missions, and possibly even small space stations.

 

The first flight of the Iskra-K successfully orbited Novaya Zvezda 4, a prototype of the Derzost one-kerman spacecraft. Novaya Zvezda 4 completed a single orbit around Kerbin--all its batteries allowed--before using its own 48-7S engine to deorbit and return to Kerbin.

 

Finally, another Iskra-K was rolled out with Derzost 1, the OKB-F's first attempt to put a kerman into outer space.

 

On board was Valentina, chosen randomly carefully to be the Kerbalist space program's first cosmonaut and the first kerman ever to leave the atmosphere.

 

The rocket lifted off, many remarks were made about the unspectacularness of the 48-7S engines, boosters separated, and the spacecraft was safely inserted into a 100-kilometer orbit of Kerbin.

 

This was Valentina's view of Kerbin from orbit.

 

Like Novaya Zvezda 4, Derzost 1 completed only a single orbit around Kerbin before firing its service engine a second time to send it back into the atmosphere.

 

After the deorbit burn, the capsule separated from the service module and made an unguided reentry, landing safely in the highlands just west of the Kerbin Cosmodrome.

 

Valentina: first kerman in space!

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Hotaru
OP edits

[RobFalcon]

Hotaru!  I'm happy to see you back in action!

Very much looking forward to seeing how this career goes, especially with the mod list you're running.  (I keep hearing about Kerbalism, but have yet to try it myself.)

Still, glad to see your return!

[SBKerman]

Great to see you back! Will definitely be following this.

[RocketMan-Explorer]

YES! YES! Hotaru is back! After HSP, this should be very interesting! *squee!*  

Will follow this one for sure!

Spoiler: stuff I did after HSP.

Spoiler

This may be the wrong post to tell you, but I made a comprehensive mission log detailing every single mission launched by the HSP. after it ended. Took me around a month of real time.

 

Quote

Novoya Zvezda

Oh, I see what you did there. New Star. Very clever. 

Edited February 22, 2020 by RocketMan-Explorer

[scottadges]

I might have missed it in some of your descriptions, but wondering about the choice not to use any of the Tantares - Stockalike Soyuz and MIR parts?

That said, I really liked your approach to building these Soviet-era rockets, etc. using (mostly) stock parts.

[Space Nerd]

@HotaruI really liked this!(just spent 2 days reading the whole HSP thread XD, and that made me want to do something like it!)

Edited February 23, 2020 by Space Nerd

[BowmanA081]

Here we go again.

[Hotaru]

Thanks for the welcome back, everybody! I'm glad to be back, it's nice to have had a long break and really be able to get excited about KSP again. I'm already looking forward to getting through the repetitive early game and on to kermanned Mun/Minmus missions and interplanetary probes (both of which should be starting in the next update), and I have a lot of ideas about how things are going to look beyond that, too.

 

@RobFalcon Kerbalism is a very cool mod and quite polished, even more so now than when I last played with it around 1.5 or so. I highly recommend it once stock challenges start getting old (or just if you want a more realistic experience).

@RocketMan-Explorer Wow, that's impressive. I'm glad you had fun putting it together! Honestly at this point you've got more detailed notes on HSP than I do, I mostly just reverse-engineered everything from my screenshots. PM me if you want to discuss it further, I could probably fill in a few gaps for you where flights weren't mentioned in the thread (mostly Aqualungs). And New Star (in English) was the name of my first probes in my very first career save, back in 0.90.

@scottadges Tantares is an excellent mod and I've used it in sandbox in the past, but for one thing I'm trying to keep my parts catalog uncluttered (probably a losing battle, to be fair) and for another I prefer "lego brick" parts like the stock ones to "plastic model kits" like Tantares, BDB, etc. I'm not really going for replicas in this save, more like "inspired by" while still being my own creations.

 

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

Added ScanSat, which will feature in the next update, mostly because watching its maps slowly fill in is so satisfying. Also gave Engine Lighting a go but it was a bit glitchy (it never did like big clusters and this career so far is kind of cluster city) so uninstalled it again for now.

Made some changes to my custom Module Manager file: increased costs of command pods by 50x, reduced costs of smaller solids (sepratrons, KW ullage motors, 0.625m SRBs) down to 12.5x-25x from 50x stock.

TL;DR: Added ScanSat, messed with my MM patch.

 

Dzhedasyn's view of Kerbin and the far side of the Mun during the circummunar mission Derzost 3.

 

Loonik & Malyy: probes to the Mun and Minmus.

Spoiler

The exploration of Kerbin's natural satellites continued with a series of probes built around the original Loonik bus and launched on Iskra rockets.

 

Loonik 4 orbited the Mun, completing a series of temperature surveys from a polar orbit.

 

Malyy 1 became the first spacecraft to encounter and orbit Minmus, Kerbin's small second satellite.

 

Malyy 2 made the first landing in the flats of Minmus.

 

Loonik 6 visited the Mun's East Crater.

 

Malyy 3 landed in Minmus's midlands.

 

Derzost 2 & 3: around the Mun.

Spoiler

An Iskra-K rocket launched Zelyz on Derzost 2, a four-day mission made possible by the addition of solar panels to the spacecraft's service module. She returned to Kerbin with no ill effects.

 

The unkermanned Loonik 5 sent a Derzost spacecraft on a free-return trajectory around the Mun, primarily to test the capsule's behavior during higher-speed reentry. It was also the first flight of a modified version of the Derzost service module equipped with emergency backup retro-rockets, in case the single 48-7S engine failed (which had in fact happened on the upper stage of a previous unkermanned mission, Novaya Zvezda 6, somewhat spooking the engineers). Loonik 5 became the first object recovered from munar space.

 

Next, another Iskra-K sent Dzhedasyn on a similar free-return trajectory on Derzost 3.

 

He became the first kerman to cross the Kerbin radiation belts (radiation was found to be high but not lethal--he was only 4% radioactive when he returned). This was his view of Kerbin on the way to the Mun.

 

Dzhedasyn: first Kerman to fly by the Mun!

 

Otvazhnyy: long-term spaceflight.

Spoiler

The next step toward landing kermen on the Mun was to prove that they could be kept alive, sane, and non-radioactive in space for longer than the 4 days allowed by the on-board reserves of the Derzost capsule. So the OKB-F designed a new service module and added another seat, creating the two-kerman Otvazhnyy spacecraft.

 

Otvazhnyy 1, featuring a new launch escape system using same new fireworks as the backup retro-rockets, was rolled out on an Iskra-K rocket.

 

On board were Valentina, the first kerman to fly in space twice, Byldo, the first engineer in space, and a variety of extraneous wasted mass they insisted on dragging along extremely critical equipment.

 

Otvazhnyy 1 successfully completed a 28-day mission. On landing, the two cosmonauts were alive, well, 97% sane, and only 3% radioactive, which the OKB-F engineers say is "good enough for now." 

 

Also: satellites Novaya Zvezda 7, 8, and 9 were launched on Iskra rockets into various high orbits of Kerbin.

[Vagrant203]

SCANsat eh? Notice anything - [CLASSIFIED DATA REDACTED]

[RocketMan-Explorer]

@Vagrant203 Of course, I think that @Hotaru will <redacted> to the <redacted> with the Otvazhnyy <redacted> carrying <redacted.>

Edit: Here is a spreadsheet that I made for keeping track of the CCKP's missions. Still a work in progress, though.

Edited February 24, 2020 by RocketMan-Explorer
added spreadsheet

[KerballingSmasher]

Hmmm, apparently I missed one of the classic threads. Can someone send me the link to this mentioned series that @Hotaru previously did?

 

Also...

 

RUSSIAN! KOVIET! YAY! Okay, in all seriousness, this is gonna be great!

 

[RocketMan-Explorer]

3 hours ago, Kerballing (Got Dunked On) said:

Hmmm, apparently I missed one of the classic threads. Can someone send me the link to this mentioned series that @Hotaru previously did?

 

[SBKerman]

This is off to a good start. I like the clean look of the Iskra rockets fireworks. Very nice.

[Hotaru]

@RocketMan-Explorer Very nice! At some point I'll get a flight log up in the OP which will help you with the one thing you can't work out from my posts: the order of the flights, which is often different to how I post them since I tend to group them in spoilers by program, not chronologically. (Not sure if I'll cover all the unkermanned missions though or just the kermanned ones, as in HSP).

@Kerballing (Got Dunked On) Calling HSP "one of the classic threads" a little optimistic, I think, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! It was... quite an experience.

@SBKerman Thanks! I did consider using the green/orange textures but (even with TweakScale) I had a hard time getting them to look good so I'm sticking with the plain-white look for now. Works better for painting "CCKP" on everything, too.

 

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

So far I'm pretty happy with my career mode changes. While the actual flights are (mostly) going smoothly, I'm struggling a bit to stay ahead of both funds and science (which is good). Right now I'm not having too much trouble keeping the OKB-F "in the black," but I had to spend something like 500,000 spacebucks developing the Mun rocket, on top of which each launch costs 75,000 (Iskra is well under 10,000, Iskra-K is about 25,000) so it'll be a while before we get any new engines or command modules. As far as science goes, I'm getting to the point where my edits kick in--I've just about finished the 90 point tier, the next one is 320 points and the one after that is 3,000. The end result is that I'm having to work with much less advanced tech than the HSP had at the same point, and that's only going to be more true as we get further along.

Also, somehow I had it in my head that Imgur automatically converts images to .jpgs; turns out it doesn't, so I've started converting them myself before I upload them. Should help the pages load a bit faster for those of us, like me, with antiquated internet connections. (Same reason I always scale them down to 800x450.)

TL;DR: Liking my career edits so far, photos are jpgs now.

 

A Sterzhen mun rocket on the launch pad.

 

Kerbal 30, Loonik 7, Tyazhelaya Zvezda: surveyors & materials science.

Spoiler

An Iskra rocket launched Kerbal 30, a surveyor, into a polar orbit of Kerbin; it returned the first global topographical map. It didn't find anything redacted yet but we may need higher resolution.

 

Loonik 7 created a similar map of the Mun. (Malyy 4, the Minmus surveyor, is currently delayed due to antenna problems but should go up soon.)

 

Two Iskra-K rockets launched Tyazhelaya Zvezda 1 and 2, materials science satellites, into Kerbin orbit and around the Mun, respectively.

 

The two satellites collected data and returned it to Kerbin in sample return capsules derived from the Gagarka system, which surprised the engineers by working perfectly even from a Munar free-return trajectory.

 

Otvazhnyy and Otvazhnyy-S: kermanned spaceflight experiments.

Spoiler

Zelyz and Bobyn (the latter becoming the first scientist in space) flew on Otvazhnyy 2, the main objective of which was to perform the first extra-vehicular activity. Bobyn had to hang on for dear life stay connected to the spacecraft after discovering his jetpack didn't work (OOC: How was I supposed to know Kerbalism makes them use monoprop?!) but he was still able to collect valuable scientific observations, and his spacewalk proved that a spacesuited kerman can survive outside his spacecraft. Which we obviously knew in advance anyway or we wouldn't have let Bobyn open the hatch. Obviously.

 

The next step will be space stations. The Design Bureau press-ganged hired two more engineers and two more scientists to fill out the crew rotation, and an Iskra-K launched Otvazhnyy S-1, a prototype station crew shuttle, with P1 Val and E0 Nedmir. 

 

The new spacecraft features an orbital module, docking port, and reaction control system which will enable it to service a notional future space station. At 5.5 tons (8 with the LES) it's also right at the limit of what the Iskra-K rocket can safely orbit. (OOC: I ended up with something like this instead of my usual Apollo type shuttles in my "trying-out-1.9" stock career due to not having 2.5m fairings yet, and the realization that I could make a decent little Soyuz with the MH Voskhod pods and Gemini SM was the main inspiration for starting a Soviet-style career.)

 

Dyuna and Yeva: interplanetary probes.

Spoiler

Now that the engineers have invented some better high-gain antennas, they decided to finally leave the Kerbin system and begin exploring the other planets. Four more Iskra-K rockets launched the OKB-F's first interplanetary probes, an orbiter/lander pair each to Duna and Eve.

 

Dyuna 1, the first to launch, became the first spacecraft to achieve the Second Cosmic Speed and escape Kerbin's gravity; it also transmitted the first data from kerbolar space. Contact with Dyuna 1 and lander Dyuna 2 was lost en route, whether due to the range or to a fault in the high-gain antenna the engineers aren't sure. They are still hoping to hear from the probes when Duna approaches its next opposition with Kerbin.

 

The pair sent to Eve had better luck. Yeva 1 successfully entered an elliptical orbit, transmitting the first scientific data and close-up images from the kerbolar system's largest terrestrial planet.

 

Yeva 2, the lander, entered the atmosphere of Eve at almost 4 kilometers per second.

 

The Design Bureau engineers weren't optimistic about the untested reentry vehicle's chances of surviving such a high-energy entry, but to their surprise everything worked smoothly. The probe jettisoned its back shell and heat shield and parachuted into Eve's atmosphere.

 

A few minutes later it touched down and transmitted the first scientific data from the surface of another world, confirming that conditions on the surface of Eve are harsh but survivable. While the dense atmosphere and high gravity preclude any possibility of kermanned missions in the near future, the engineers believe they may eventually be possible with sufficiently advanced fireworks.

 

Morzh 1: objective Mun!

Spoiler

Prevailing wisdom among the OKB-F engineers long held that a mission to the surface of the Mun would require a double spacecraft--an orbiter and a lander--a mission profile they called "Munar orbit rendezvous." Unfortunately, as they realized when they started trying to design the mission, this meant carrying two command modules and two sets of engines all the way to the Mun, not to mention a bunch of decouplers, docking ports, and reaction fireworks on at least one of the spacecraft, all of which added up to a massive vehicle which would require a correspondingly massive rocket to send it on its way.

One evening, however, while the engineers were having a drink after a long day of trying to minimize the mass of their single-kerman landing pod, they got to joking about alternative mission profiles. "Here's what we do," said one, "we have one kerbal jump out of the orbiter and jetpack down to the surface!"
"No, no, rockets are all wrong," said another. "The only way to the Mun is to take an airplane!"
"Better idea: bring along a mining rig and refuel the lander on the surface!" said a third.
"Better still: forget the lander and stick some legs on the orbiter!" said a fourth.

Everyone laughed at all these obviously stupid ideas.

The next day at work, however, one of the engineers said, "What if we did forget the lander and stick legs on the orbiter?"

"No, hear me out," he continued when everyone had stopped laughing again. "I've been thinking about it and it could save a lot of weight. No control fireworks, no docking ports, no extra crew cabin, no extra engine. Yes, we have to take the reentry vehicle and the return fuel all the way down to the surface and back, but I think that might weigh less than all the stuff we could lose. Plus we could take two kerbals down instead of just one."

They all considered this and realized he might have a point. And so they came up with a radical new mission profile, which they called "direct ascent," in which a single spacecraft would fly all the way to the surface of the Mun and back.

 

(OOC: I actually did consider a Munar orbit rendezvous to start with, thinking that leaving most of the life support supplies in orbit along with the reentry vehicle might make it worthwhile, but a bit of messing around in the VAB quickly made it clear that, even with Kerbalism, direct ascent was still the way to go. Also, note: this mission actually happened before most of the above, but I like to save the most interesting part of the update for the last spoiler.)

 

Even the direct-ascent profile required a much larger launch vehicle than the Iskra-K, so the engineers developed (at great expense) a new rocket, the Sterzhen mun rocket, powered by a new firework, the LV-T45, and a new spacecraft, the Morzh 2-kerman munar lander. Although the whole system was untested, the engineers had absolutely no confidence in the new vehicle--and, more importantly, it cost 75,000 funds per flight--so they decided to forgo an unkermanned test and send mission Morzh 1, with commander Dzhedasyn and scientist Glemyra, straight to the Mun.

(OOC: Yes, there's a lot of TweakScale abuse going on here. I could've done it with parallel-staged 1.875m stacks, but I wanted it to look like an N1. It's also worth noting that although it looks big and impressive, it's actually much smaller than the Frumious III that put the HSP's first kerbals on the Mun--14 1st-stage engines vs. 25--mostly because of the lighter 2-kerman lander.)

 

The 14 first-stage fireworks were run up before the launch clamps released, to make sure they all started properly, and, to the engineers' relief, Morzh 1 lifted off smoothly.

 

The launch escape system was jettisoned during the second-stage burn of four more T-45s.

 

The third stage, with 7 48-7S engines, sent the spacecraft on its way to the Mun.

 

It was also used to capture and deorbit, then jettisoned during the final descent to the surface.

 

The lander--powered by three more 48-7S motors, built to more precise tolerances to improve reliability and make up for the lack of backup retrorockets--completed the descent, and Morzh 1 touched down safely in the midlands of the Mun.

 

Dzhedasyn: first kerman on the Mun!

(OOC: Funnily enough, I've been playing since 2014 and I believe this is my first career save in all that time where Jeb--or his kerbo-Russian opposite number, anyway--was my first kerbal on the Mun.)

 

Glemyra joined Dzhedasyn on the surface a few moments later to plant the flag of the Kerbalist Union on the Mun.

 

The engineers realized, belatedly, that they hadn't invented a surface-deployable antenna (OOC: It's buried in the 3000-point tech tier so we won't get it for a while), but since they had plenty of life support reserves to spare, Glemyra set up the surface experiments anyway and she and Dzhedasyn spent the next 12 days on the surface observing the mystery goo.

 

On the 13th day, they got bored the engineers decided they wanted the cosmonauts back before their reserves ran too low in case of trouble with the departure burns, so the lander lifted off from the Mun for the return journey to Kerbin.

 

Morzh 1 returned safely to Kerbin, bringing back the first samples from the surface of the Mun. Next stop, Minmus!

 

 

[SiriusRocketry]

Considering your original mission report inspired me to join the forums in the first place, I'm happy to see you here again! Happy landings, @Hotaru!

 

[RobFalcon]

Three segments in, and already we've been treated to many excellent designs.    I look forward to seeing what you do with robotic parts!

[GEPEG_Unconscious]

On 2/26/2020 at 8:56 AM, Hotaru said:

Calling HSP "one of the classic threads" a little optimistic, I think, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! It was... quite an experience.

Classic might not be the right word, but I agree with @Kerballing (Got Dunked On) in that it should be read. The HSP thread is the primary ones I think of when I go through mission reports. The structure of it worked really well. I know I've gone back to it when making a couple of my posts.

[Hotaru]

So far we're making progress at much better pace than HSP was at the same point, due partly to MechJeb, partly to the early stuff being pretty routine (even with Kerbalism), and partly to me having more free time on my hands. I'm already thinking about the mission architecture for a kermanned Duna landing--which will be the first real challenge provided by Kerbalism, since sanity and radiation only start to be an issue on multi-year missions. Right now the USKR is about where the USSR was in the mid-70s (with the obvious exception that my Mun rocket actually worked); Russia hasn't really developed much in the way of new launch vehicles since then, except some little ones and the abortive Energia, and I've already got an R-7 (Iskra-K), an N-1 (Sterzhen), a Proton (which should appear in the next update), and the basic Iskra to cover all the little ones. It will be interesting to see how far we can get with just four rockets powered by two engines before I have to start developing something heavier, especially given that the Sterzhen is a lot smaller than the old Frumious series that got the HSP to Duna.

@RobFalcon I'm looking forward to robotic parts too. I was really hoping to use them on small probes but unfortunately they're all way too big. So far all I've done with them is make a deployable version of that damn Bravado antenna from HSP. Not sure if it actually has any benefit (i. e. if the antenna actually counts as stowed when it's retracted inside a service bay) but it definitely looks nifty. I do have some ideas for using robotic parts to deploy stuff from shuttle payload bays, which may come up if we ever get a kerbo-Buran type thing going, not to mention the obvious potential for Eve helicopters and so forth. And of course the temptation to build walkers is always hard to resist. We will see.

 

Boring(er) stuff:

Spoiler

Kerbalism's solar storms seemed to be happening about every other day at default settings so I turned them way down (something like 3%, down from 40%). Now they seem to have stopped completely though so I may turn them back up again. Call it a kerbolar minimum or something. (That was actually a couple updates ago but I keep forgetting to mention it.)

Added Vanguard Parachutes in response to the Otvazhnyy S-2 incident (see below). Also added Earn Your Stripes, which allows kerbals to earn orange suits, Flight Tracker, a dependency of EYS, and just for the heck of it, Memorial Wall. Byldo had to do some persistomancy to get EYS to give the original 5 their orange suits back and register the missions everybody had already flown, but it looks to be working fine now.

I've also discovered a couple interesting problems regarding exploration beyond Duna and Eve--one my fault, one Kerbalism's. The first one is that the long-range antennas are buried, not in the 3,000 point tier but in the one after that--which costs 55,000 points! Unfortunately a few critical parts are weirdly late in the stock tech tree; normally you would just beeline them and get on with life, but my edits make that a lot harder. (The same is true for large tankage, but I can TweakScale my way around that one.) I may have to move at least the deployable direct one into an earlier tier. We'll see how fast I'm getting science once I've got some labs up.

The second problem is that Kerbalism's radiation system basically makes the inner Joolian satellites almost completely inaccessible to kermanned missions, except maybe a high-speed flyby. While this is probably realistic with regard to the real Jovian satellites, I think having such incacessible worlds is really against the spirit of KSP--in real life, for instance the surface of Venus and the Jovian atmosphere are completely inaccessible too, whereas reaching the KSP equivalents is difficult but possible. While I suspect I could cheese it with Deep Freeze cryonics to sneak in a brief flags-and-footprints landing, I'm probably going to end up having to edit Jool's outer radiation belt to be more reasonable. (And in my defense, I believe the radiation environments around Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are much less hostile.)

TL;DR: messed with Kerbalism, added a couple mods, considered ramifications

 

 

Dzhassya salutes the flag of the Kerbalist Union in the flats of Minmus.

 

Dyuna, Malyy, Yeva, and Duayt: (mostly) interplanetary probes.

Spoiler

After some delays when the engineers discovered its antenna was forgotten broken, Malyy 4, launched on an Iskra rocket, returned topographic data from Minmus.

 

Just as the engineers had hoped, contact was regained with the two Dyuna probes as Duna approached its opposition with Kerbin. Dyuna 1 transmitted the first data and close-up images of Duna.

 

Dyuna 2's landing gear had failed to deploy and it was found to have landed on--and rolled quite a ways down--a steep hillside, but it was still able to transmit images and data via Dyuna 1 in orbit.

 

Hoping that by launching on faster transfers, probes might arrive at Duna before it moved out of antenna range, the OKB-F sent two more probes on Iskra-K rockets to Ike. Duayt 1 orbited Duna's satellite...

 

...while Duayt 2 became the first spacecraft to land on it.

 

Meanwhile, two Iskra-Ks sent Yeva 3 and 4 to Eve. Yeva 3 splashed down in Eve's ocean, which appears to be made of a previously unknown explosive liquid.

 

After experiencing some initial trouble with its scanner, Yeva 4 returned the first topographic map of Eve.

 

Terpeniye 1: long-term spaceflight.

Spoiler

With the kermanned exploration of the Mun and Minmus underway, the OKB-F engineers began thinking ahead to kermanned interplanetary missions. The main question, they reasoned, was how large a spacecraft would be needed to keep a crew alive, sane, and non-radioactive for a three-year mission in deep space. They proposed a program of space stations, first in Kerbin orbit, later moving to Minmus orbit, to investigate.

 

An Iskra-K rocket launched Terpeniye 1, the Kerbalist Union's first space station. (OOC: Yes, I know it's exactly the same as the Patience stations from HSP. For the most part I'm trying not to let this turn into too much of an HSP rerun, but so far I have yet to come up with a better configuration for a small, early-game station like this.)

 

The station's first crew, P1 Dzhedasyn and E0 Venlana, arrived on Otvazhnyy S-2 for a 102-day mission--almost four times the previous record of 28 days.

 

The mission itself was completely uneventful--in fact the engineers were surprised that there were no faults on either spacecraft--but a guidance error caused the return capsule to descend directly over the Oyslishkom Korotko mountains west of the Kerbin Cosmodrome.

 

Dzhedasyn bailed out of the capsule as it descended; Venlana, who wasn't equipped with a parachute, jumped clear of the capsule before it rolled off the mountain. The spacecraft was destroyed in the crash but both cosmonauts were unharmed. After the incident, the Chief Designer ordered emergency parachutes (OOC: Vanguard Parachutes mod) issued to all cosmonauts.

OOC: It was actually a little more complicated than that:

Spoiler

The first time I went through this I was able to get Venlana out safely but the capsule exploded before Dzhedasyn's portrait loaded so I couldn't EVA him. I'd never really thought about what rules I was using for reverts on this save, but I had come up with some preliminary rules for the notional next save, and one of those happened to be that BadS pilots get unlimited reverts. (I've since changed it to be a bit less overpowered--see below.) So I reverted to right after the deorbit burn, fired the RCS a bit to change the trajectory, and of course the capsule safely overshot Mt. Whoopstooshort. But rules or no, that felt like cheating, so I went back and did it again. It took half a dozen or so tries, mostly because I was fixated on the idea it would be ungentlemanly of Dzhedasyn to bail out first, even though he was the only one with a chute, but that turned out to be the only way to have both of them survive.

The unplanned test of my F9 rules was definitely a success: whereas I felt kind of ripped off the way it happened the first time, and it felt like cheating just avoiding the accident entirely, successfully overcoming the challenge of getting the two kerbals out of the dangerous situation alive was very satisfying. So I went ahead and codified my F5/F9 rules as follows (I'll add them to the OP as well):

 

1. F9 only to prevent kerbal death
     1a. Must take first acceptable result (no deaths)

2. F9 only to escape dangerous situations
     2a. Not to avoid the situation in the first place
     2b. No savescumming to avoid random failures
     2c. Kraken attacks count as random failures

3. Each pilot or flight engineer gets...
     1 free F9
     1 per star
     1 for orange suit (which is why I've installed Earn Your Stripes, see boring stuff)
     x2 for badS
     ...per accident

4. 1 copilot's and 1 engineer's totals get added to the pilot's
     4a. Only if ship has enough cockpit seats
     4b. Passengers don't count

5. BadS in a 1-seater, or all-badS crew, gets unlimited F9s
    5a. 1 badS pilot with other crew seats left empty doesn't count

6. Scientists or engineers without a pilot get none

 

While I'm always wary of ending up playing Kerbal Paperwork Program, I think these are easy enough to keep track of--or tally on the fly so you don't have to keep track. Plus, in addition to striking a a balance between true die-for-real no-reverts play and anything-goes unlimited savescumming, they add an incentive to have things like copilots and flight engineers, as well as giving veterans and BadSs like Jeb Dzhed and Val an actual gameplay significance. I like that the results range from practically die-for-real--1 revert for a complete rookie, non-badS, P0--to practically unlimited--35 reverts for a crew of P5 Jeb, P5 Val, and E5 Bill. So I'm going with them for the time being.

Of course, I also always reserve the right to F9 due to dumS stuff like forgetting antennas, for sanity's sake.

 

The next attempt to send up a crew to the station fell short of orbit due to a slight trajectory error in the Iskra-K launch vehicle. Announced only as Kerbal 45, a suborbital test flight, the OKB-F internally referred to it as Otvazhnyy S-3a. The crew, P1 Val and E1 Byldo, landed safely.

 

For the next attempt, the engineers deleted the backup retrorockets (now redundant with the RCS) and removed two motors from the launch escape system. The resulting reduction in weight gave the Iskra-K rocket enough extra margin to comfortably orbit the same crew aboard Otvazhnyy S-3 (internally S-3b).

OOC: Of course I could build a much lighter LES, but I like the way this one looks. When that happens I just pretend that there's some unseen technical reason why the system in question is the way it is, and changing it isn't an option.

 

The station was resupplied during the 201-day mission by Prikhvosten 1, the prototype of a new class of unkermanned cargo ship, launched on an Iskra-K.

 

Also during the mission, Byldo performed the space program's first free EVA to do some maintenance on the station.

 

The two kermen were less than 10% insane and radioactive, so the engineers sent up a third expedition, Dzhedasyn and Nedmir, aboard Otvazhnyy S-4, for a 1-year mission currently underway. The ultimate goal of the project is to maintain a crew in Minmus orbit, outside Kerbin's magnetic field, for four years--more than enough for round-trips to the Duna and Eve systems.

 

Morzh 2: first kermen on Minmus!

Spoiler

The launch of Morzh 2, the OKB-F's first attempt to land kermen on Minmus, was delayed no fewer than four times over the course of two years due to problems with the rocket's first stage engines. Ultimately, the temperamental Sterzhen rocket was swapped with the one that had been intended for the next mission, Morzh 3, construction on which had completed in the time Morzh 2 was delayed.

 

Finally, on the fifth attempt, Morzh 2 lifted off (on the Morzh 3 rocket).

 

On board the spacecraft were mission commander P1 Zelyz, making her third spaceflight, and scientist S0 Dzhassya, a rookie.

 

Eight days later--we're using slow transfers because that's what's easiest with MechJeb and it saves some maneuver node fiddling the engineers don't want to send the spacecraft into a hyperbolic trajectory in case of engine failure--the spacecraft descended toward the flats of Minmus.

 

Zelyz: first kerman on Minmus!

 

With plenty of fuel left and the engines still in good shape, flight control authorized the crew to make a few biome hops to collect more data.  In the Midlands, Dzhassya made a long EVA traverse to investigate what turned out, in her words, to be "just a rock."

 

On the way back to the lander, however, she found an outcrop of Minmus sandstone, which Kerbalist scientists had long wanted to investigate, and sampled it for return to Kerbin.

 

After the third hop, and fourth total landing, the engineers decided to play it safe on fuel and bring the mission home. Morzh 2 returned safely to Kerbin after an 18-day mission, bringing with it more than 1,600 sciences worth of data and samples.

 

 

 

[Hotaru]

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

Gave Scatterer/AVP a go after learning that forcing DX12 allows them to work in 1.9, but it killed ReShade and caused a huge performance hit, so I'm sticking with SciFiVE (which I actually like the look of better, to be honest, although I do miss nice Scatterer sunsets). I also installed some of the other cosmetic mods I used for HSP--Engine Lighting, Real Plume Stock, KS3P, and Poodmund's Calm Nebula skybox--which all worked fine after a little debugging.

Also added Surface Lights, mainly for navigation lights on the Otvazhnyy-S and Prikhvosten-T spacecraft, RCS Balancer, which makes balancing ships with slightly offset centers-of-mass a lot easier, and Internal RCS and PWB Fuel Balancer, which I expect to be useful once we start getting into spaceplane and shuttle territory.

Finally, as promised, flight logs of kermanned and unkermanned missions have been added to the OP along with a link to @RocketMan-Explorer's spreadsheet.

TL;DR: Added some cosmetic and QOL mods, flight logs and spreadsheet added to OP.

 

 

The Sterzhen second stage ignites on Mun mission Morzh 3.

 

Dyuna, Yeva, and Zhabry: interplanetary probes.

Spoiler

The same OKB-F engineers who came up with the Direct Ascent plan for kermanned mun landings were once again out drinking after a long day working on plans for the Duna mission. The main problem, of course, was how to build a big enough ship to keep even a two-kerman crew alive and sane for a three-year mission in deep space--let alone how to get such a ship to Duna and back.

One of the engineers, who had had a little more to drink than the others, finally said, "You know, this would be so much easier if we didn't have to bring along any damn kerbals!"

Everyone laughed and went back to their drinks, but the next day at work, someone said, "What if we didn't bring along any damn kerbals?"

"No, I'm serious," he continued after the laughter had died down, "obviously we have to bring kermen on the kermanned mission, but we won't be able to actually do that for a while. What we can do is launch an unkermanned sample-return mission--we know the Gagarka capsule works at interplanetary speeds, it wouldn't take much of a firework to get it from Duna to Kerbin. And the science return would be almost as good as sending kerbals."

So they turned their attention to building a new two-stage firework to launch a Gagarka sample-return capsule from Duna to Kerbin.

 

The first attempt, Dyuna 3, went up on the second Kvark rocket (see next spoiler). It arrived at Duna safely, but due to problems reigniting the Kvark second-stage engine, it was forced to make a direct entry rather than capturing into orbit. It came down on the dark side of Duna and crash-landed on a hillside. While a faint telemetry signal was received, no useful data was returned. Nonetheless, the engineers considered the mission a successful test of the entry and descent profile (the landing, not so much), and Dyuna 4 is planned to make another attempt at the next window.

 

A backup unit for Dyuna 3, stripped of its parachutes, was also launched to Eve's satellite Gilly as Zhabry 1. The spacecraft landed safely on the small moon and made two hops to collect data from various locations; the engineers are optimistic that it will be recovered successfully, but even if it is not, the data it has already transmitted back to Kerbin is extremely valuable.

 

Another Kvark rocket launched Yeva 5, a surveyor, which entered a polar orbit of Eve and is in the process of mapping the planet; once the map is complete its orbit will be boosted so that its powerful antenna can be used as a relay for other spacecraft in the Eve system. (OOC: Also my first use of robotic parts, to deploy the solar panels, and of RCS Balancer to keep torque to a minimum on the asymmetric probe.)

 

Yeva 6, launched on an Iskra-K rocket, made a soft landing high in Eve's mountains.

 

Terpeniye 2: longer-term spaceflight.

Spoiler

After Dzhedasyn and Nedmir returned safely from their 1-year mission on station Terpeniye 1, still less than 20% insane and radioactive, the OKB-F engineers prepared to launch a larger station which, in addition to experimenting with missions of 2 years or more, will be the first to do actual science in Kerbin orbit.

 

The launch of Terpeniye 2 was also the first flight of the Kvark launch vehicle, a new firework designed to bridge the gap in payload capacity between the Iskra-K and the Sterzhen mun rocket. (OOC: Since this is my take on the Proton, the "boosters" are actually part of the first stage; there are no engines in the core. One thing I'm enjoying about this career is that aping Soviet launcher designs gives me a good excuse to get away from the standard engine-tank-decoupler-engine-tank-payload setup and come up with some more interesting launch vehicle configurations.)

 

Although the engineers had some concerns about the nine T45 fireworks (eight in the first stage, one in the second), which had proved somewhat temperamental on the Sterzhen, the Kvark lifted off without trouble.

 

Station Terpeniye 2 features the space program's first orbital science lab, and plenty of batteries and solar panels to keep it running. While the engineers don't expect it to be as productive as future Mun or Minmus stations, they still hope to get a few thousand sciences worth of research out of it.

 

The first crew, P1 Valentina and S1 Dzhassya, arrived on Otvazhnyy S-5 for a 1-year stay. Cargo ship Prikhvosten 5 transferred from the decommissioned Terpeniye 1 to Terpeniye 2--the space program's first transfer between two orbiting stations--and, after taking on fuel, Valentina took the Otvazhnyy-S on an excursion to high orbit to collect additional data for processing through the station's lab.

 

Prikhvosten T-1, the first Prikhvosten-T heavy supply ship, was launched to Terpeniye 2 as well; whereas three small Prikhvostens were needed to keep Terpeniye 1 supplied for a year-long mission, the Prikhvosten-T will be able to provide Terpeniye 2 with several years' worth of supplies.

 

After Valentina and Dzhassya returned to Kerbin--less than 10% insane and radioactive, a considerable improvement--Dzhedasyn and Bobyn flew a second 1-year mission on Otvazhnyy S-6, followed by Valentina and Dzhassya again for the first 2-year mission on Otvazhnyy S-7. (We've started painting the numbers on spacecraft to help keep track of them.) Unfortunately, it turned out that the Prikhvosten-T didn't carry enough air for such a long stay, so two more standard Prikhvosten flights, 7 and 8, were hurriedly ordered and sent up with extra air tanks bolted on.

The engineers currently plan to retire Terpeniye 2 after the end of the Otvazhnyy S-7 2-year mission; assuming that mission is successful, the space station program will continue with the launch of Terpeniye 3 to Minmus.

 

OOC: And so begins the long and boring saga of space station expeditions. These things were the bane of my existence in HSP (where I had SIX going at once at one point), and of course with Kerbalism I have to send up not just crew shuttles but cargo ships as well--there's a good reason I was so quick to replace my Progress with something more like the FGB, carrying years of supplies and intended as a semi-permanent addition to the station. Stations, and the systems to keep them kermanned and supplied, are a lot of fun to set up but a pain in the rear end to actually operate once the novelty wears off. My ultimate plan is to try to focus on planetary exploration rather than permanent space stations, and hopefully not have to maintain more than one or two at a time.

 

Morzh 3 Kerbal 62: a unexpected completely normal and planned "first."

Spoiler

Morzh 3 was the OKB-F's second attempt to put kermen on the Mun. After the landing of Morzh 1 they were confident in success, but the Sterzhen rocket proved to be extremely temperamental. Both Morzh 2 (to Minmus) and Morzh 3 were delayed repeatedly due to various problems with their first-stage engines. Finally, after four delays and two swapped rockets, Morzh 3 Kerbal 62 lifted off for the Mun on a suborbital test flight with P2 Zelyz and S1 Glemyra.

 

Unfortunately, while the first-stage engines worked fine, one of the second-stage engines failed to ignite, ultimately sending the vehicle out of control and forcing an abort. Still more unfortunately, a faulty circuit (OOC: Vanguard Parachutes mod) caused the capsule to eject the crew on a suborbital trajectory rather than deploying its parachutes. The suborbital test flight was a total success.

Glemyra was eaten by a space kraken after physics forgot she existed not on this mission, but Zelyz reentered the atmosphere after reaching an apoapsis of about 75 kilometers and parachuted to a safe landing.

 

Zelyz: first kerman to return from space without a spaceship!

 

OOC: OK, so normally, whatever the rules, I F9 when something this ridiculous happens, but the whole "returning from space without a ship" thing was too badS to not keep. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to F5 right after the engine failure so I could've followed the rules I so carefully worked out after the last update, but that's the way it goes. The fact that all this only happened once also contributed to the lack of good screenshots.

It's also worth mentioning that Glemyra is my first ex-kerbal in a main career save since Julina and Sidrie disappeared with Bass Station way back in 1.0.2. Between krakens and Kerbalism, however, I have a feeling she won't be the last.

 

Morzh 3 and 4: exploring the Mun and Minmus.

Spoiler

After no fewer than six attempts to launch this particular vehicle on three different missions and a final delay due to various faulty systems, the engineers cleared Morzh 3 for liftoff after all the faults inexplicably recurred even after the faulty parts had been replaced were corrected. (OOC: Kerbalism failures and KCT don't get along, it seems. I may have to develop some sort of gantry to allow an engineer to service these things on the pad, especially when we start talking about reusable vehicles--which may be pretty soon, as it happens.)

 

In spite of the rocket apparently being haunted experiencing some technical difficulties, Morzh 3 landed safely in the Mun's East Crater. P1 Valentina and S2 Dzhassya--the latter becoming the first kerman to visit both the Mun and Minmus--collected data and samples before returning to Kerbin.

 

(OOC: Turns out Kerbalism also doesn't get along with the Breaking Ground deployable experiments--they can be deployed but yield no data. I was so put out about this I almost decided to shelve this save and start another one without Kerbalism (I had really been looking forward to using those experiments). I'm still having too much fun with everything else though, so I'll carry on for now, although I may still call it quits once we get to Duna. I do have some ideas for my next save that I'm looking forward to trying out, but whether that will be after the end of this one or running concurrently with it, I don't know. We will see.)

 

Morzh 4, to the astonishment of everyone, lifted off on the first attempt with no difficulties, sending P2 Zelyz and E1 Venlana to Minmus.

 

The mission made three biome hops in addition to the initial landing, as well as a "touch-and-go" landing on the satellite's slopes. One engine failed during one of the hops, but the engineers were relieved to learn that the ship handled fine on two engines; Venlana repaired the broken engine at the next landing.

 

Morzh 4 also made the OKB-F's first precision landing on another planet by setting down less than 100 meters from Malyy 2, the first probe to land on Minmus over a decade earlier. After collecting data from five biomes, the mission returned safely to Kerbin.

Further Morzh missions were planned, but due to the fact that the cosmonauts are now too terrified to go anywhere near the engineers have concerns about the Sterzhen rocket, the design bureau has decided to cancel the program. Exploration of Minmus and the Mun will eventually be continued by a new program of permanent orbital and surface stations while the engineers' efforts are shifted to landing the first kermen on Duna.

 

[SBKerman]

Who is this Glemyra you speak of? She cannot be found in any of the cosmonaut photos. Surely those have not been altered in any way...

It appears the problems with the real N1 is somewhat mirrored in the Sterzhen. It'll be interesting to see what might replace it. Some Energia/Buran type vehicle perhaps. I do like your take on Salyut and Proton.

[RocketMan-Explorer]

11 hours ago, Hotaru said:

These things were the bane of my existence in HSP (where I had SIX going at once at one point)

Off the top of my head:

Patience 2: The first one.

Perpetuity: Basically, a giant space donut ring station around Minmus.

Immutability: Perpetuity, but around Kerbin.

Permanence: Perpetuity, but around Duna.

Persistence: Perpetuity, but around the Mun.

Endurance: Patience 1, but around Minmus.

[RocketMan-Explorer]

55 minutes ago, SBKerman said:

Who is this Glemyra you speak of? She cannot be found in any of the cosmonaut photos. Surely those have not been altered in any way...

Glemyra? Why, Glemyra is-

<this post has been redacted by the authorities of the CCKP to protect the general public>

[KerballingSmasher]

10 hours ago, RocketMan-Explorer said:

Glemyra? Why, Glemyra is-

<this post has been redacted by the authorities of the CCKP to protect the general public>

Who is this "Glemyra"? I do not know whom you speak of, comrade. 

[Hotaru]

So we're getting into that boring period of the mid-game between the first Mun and Minmus landings and going interplanetary where there's not much happening besides space station missions and contractsats. There's been more than 20 launches since the last update of which only about half a dozen were at all interesting; all the rest were routine contractsats, station resupplies, etc. Fortunately, though, MechJeb makes the routine stuff go by pretty fast, and in the meantime I'm making good progress on developing both the Duna mission and the kerbo-Buran (see this post for a preview); the latter needs a bunch of stuff I'm not going to have for a while, but the former should be ready to go at the next launch window (i. e. in the next update).

@RocketMan-Explorer That was all the space stations (I'm impressed you remember them!), but the time I had six crew rotations at once also included two surface bases, Constancy on the Mun and Tenacity on Minmus. By that time, Patience II and Endurance had been replaced by Immutability and Persistence, respectively.

 

Boring stuff:

Spoiler

The main mod change for this one is the optimistically-named KRASH, which allows for "simulated" test flights in career mode. Up to now I've been developing everything from the ground up in career mode--no sandbox testing--but based on past experience I figured that would be pretty much impossible for a space shuttle, which would require many, many very expensive test flights to get it balanced. Allowing unlimited sandbox testing felt kind of cheap though, since it basically removes all risk, so I figured KRASH would be a good compromise--on hard settings, its simulations can be quite expensive themselves, so there is still an incentive to use them as little as possible.

TL;DR: KRASH (simulated test flights).

 

Space station Terpeniye 4 in Munar orbit, with supply module Prikhvosten T-3 and crew shuttle Morzh Ch-2 docked.

 

Interplanetary probes.

Spoiler

Zhabry 1 returned safely from Gilly with a considerable amount of science; it became the first object recovered from beyond Kerbin's sphere of influence.

 

Moho 1, launched on a Kvark rocket, completed four flybys of the kerbolar system's innermost planet, transmitting science data, close-up images, and a partial map of the surface.

 

A number of orbiters were sent to the Eve and Duna systems; this one is Yeva 8 (which absolutely was not called Zhabry 2 until the engineers discovered it didn't have enough fuel to make it to Gilly).

 

Finally, Dyuna 4 landed safely on Duna, collected data, and returned to orbit--in the process demonstrating that the delta-v requirements for a Duna landing are much lower than the engineers had previously believed. Plans for a kermanned mission have been adjusted accordingly.

 

Three years after its launch, the Dyuna 4 return capsule was recovered in the desert of Kerbin--the first spacecraft ever to return from the surface of Duna!

 

Loonik 8 and Sterzhen MN-1: a reusable rocket.

Spoiler

Funding has been a continual limiting factor for the space program--most of it going to expendable launch vehicles. During another after-work drinking session, one of the engineers suggested another stupid idea: "What if we could use the same rocket more than once?"

Meanwhile, someone finally got around to taking apart one of the AR-202 flight control units the OKB-F has been using since the beginning of the space program and trying to figure out how it worked. After some failed experiments, the engineers came up with an extremely useful new device called a "computer," which allows for much faster calculations than the room full of kerbals with pencils and paper they had been using. The computer they built was powerful enough to simulate the results of test flights without actually flying them--which opened up some possibilities for riskier and more expensive designs. (OOC: KRASH mod; see boring stuff.)

 

The first result of both these developments was the Sterzhen-MN, the space program's first attempt at a fully reusable launch vehicle.

 

After the usual delays (one due to a faulty engine, another to a fuel problem), the prototype, MN-1, lifted off smoothly carrying Loonik 8, a Mun surveyor.

 

The combined spacecraft reached orbit safely and Loonik 8 was deployed with its Blokha solid-fuel upper stage.

 

MN-1 then used what little fuel it had left to deorbit. The tail-first reentry was very smooth, with no signs of instability or overheating.

 

As it approached the Kerbin Cosmodrome, it deployed parachutes to arrest its descent. They aren't strictly necessary, but the engineers seem to think they save a bit of fuel on landing.

 

MN-1 landed safely just a few kilometers from the Cosmodrome (despite one of its engines exploding when it was re-ignited). Unfortunately, the engineers haven't managed to find another use for it and it hasn't flown since. The trouble is, very small payloads are cheaper to send up on an expendable Iskra, while larger payloads are beyond what MN-1 can orbit with enough fuel to land, so there's a very small range of payload mass where it's actually useful. It's since been modified with lengthened fuel tanks, however, and the engineers are optimistic that it may yet be useful for small interplanetary probes.

 

OOC: I'm debating at what point to start KR&D'ing up the engines on these things. Several of my current vehicles--most notably the Sterzhen-MN and the Iskra-K--would be a lot more useful if their engines were just a little bit better, but on the other hand I'm kind of enjoying seeing what I can do with stock performance. On the other other hand, upgrading old engines rather than building new ones is more true to real-life Soviet/Russian "just upgrade the R-7 again" style. We will see.

 

Terpeniye 3 and 4: Mun and Minmus stations.

Spoiler

The two-year mission of Valentina and Dzhassya on Terpeniye 2 was a complete success; the two cosmonauts returned safely to Kerbin less than 20% radioactive. The engineers were interested to note that while Valentina was only 18% insane on landing, Dzhassya was 29% insane (and beginning to make dangerous mistakes). The difference is enough to be significant on a three-year Duna mission in a smaller vehicle, where space madness is expected to be one of the main difficulties. This will be remembered when it comes time to select the crew for such a mission.

 

The first Sterzhen-T rocket--an improved version using a Kvark second stage as its third stage, and the second stage modified to accommodate it--lifted off with Terpeniye 3, the design bureau's first attempt to orbit a space station around one of Kerbin's moons.

 

Although a problem with the Sterzhen third stage caused it to be inserted into the wrong orbit, Terpeniye 3 arrived safely at Minmus. It was joined a few months later by supply module Prikhvosten T-2, which docked with the station and corrected its orbit.

 

Finally, a Kvark rocket lifted off on the type's first kermanned flight with P1 Dzhedasyn and S1 Bobyn for Morzh Ch-1, the first mission to the new station.

 

The mission was the first flight of the Morzh-Ch, a new crew shuttle derived from the Morzh munar lander, de-legged and with an Otvazhnyy orbital module added.

 

A few months into their mission, the station was joined by LDK-1, a reusable landing craft; it arrived with one faulty engine which Dzhedasyn performed an EVA to repair.

 

The two cosmonauts then took the new lander down to the surface. The series of three landings also tested some improvements the engineers had made to the AR-202 units after figuring out how they work--they now have the ability to automate more complex procedures, including landing and docking. (OOC: I actually didn't mean to have MechJeb's career unlocks enabled but the Module Manager patch to disable them wasn't working. I finally got sick of manual dockings and dug around in the files until I found where to fix it, so everything is properly unlocked now.)

 

While the vehicle successfully made the space program's first automatic landings, in three attempts the crew weren't able to get it to land as precisely as the engineers had hoped (or to match the precision of the manual landing of Morzh 4), although they did get close enough to revisit one of the old Morzh 2 sites. On top of that, while attempting an automatic docking, a guidance fault caused the lander to expend all its RCS fuel, forcing Dzhedasyn to make a tricky manual docking on engine power only.

In spite of the problems, however, the engineers are still optimistic that the new guidance systems will eventually make meter-precise landings possible--a necessity for the construction and servicing of future surface bases. (OOC: I'm actually a little worried about this: back in 1.0.2 I was able to get MechJeb to consistently land within a few meters of its target, allowing my Aqualungs to set down right next to a base to be refueled via KAS. If I can't replicate that level of precision in 1.9, I'd have to do it manually which would be a severe pain in the neck--I can do it once no problem, but doing it dozens of times will be very tedious. I would probably end up going for some sort of tanker truck arrangement instead, were that to happen. I do have some theories to test, however. We will see.)

 

Once the crew had departed after a successful two-year mission (15% insane, 25% radioactive), a Kvark rocket sent up Akvalang 1, an unkermanned tanker ship, to refuel the lander for the next crew.

 

Meanwhile, another Sterzhen-T sent Terpeniye 4 to the Mun.

 

Supply module Prikhvosten T-3 made the space program's first (successful) automatic docking with the station, followed by the first crew (P2 Zelyz, S2 Dzhassya) aboard Morzh Ch-2.

 

[KerballingSmasher]

10 minutes ago, Hotaru said:

Akvalang 1

Hmmm, do I detect an Aqualung?