Lyra Aerospace Exploration Agency - Career Mode to Nova Kiribani!

[Lyraea]

The Kerbals may not show it, but they get lonely pretty easily.

Of course, they have no issue sitting in a cramped 1-seat command pod for centuries at a time (Snacks and radiation permitting,) but the idea of being nothing but a bunch of frogs running around on a mote of dust in a sunbeam in a giant, empty room full of sunbeams and motes of dust in a building full of rooms that goes out in all directions as far as their tiny froggy brains can comprehend and probably much past that, is immensely disturbing to them. It makes them feel very, very small.

However, if there's one thing Kerbals have learned since they swam out of the Kraken's maw and plopped into the primordial muck, it's that the building won't seem so tall when you're standing on top of it. So, just as they've conquered all the things that scared them in the past, the Kerbals are going to conquer that big building to make it seem a lot less small. (If they could ever research a way to climb the ladder without getting turned over every which way, that is. Attempt no traversal of the ladder. Untold horrors await there...)

But their ladder-traversing days are far ahead of them still, so they'll  work up to it by taking baby steps first. Namely, by hopping to another sunbeam. The nearest one, in fact - Proksimus Kiribani, Kerbol's neighboring star. To this end, they've established a crack-team of their best and brightest Kerbonauts, who have called themselves...

The Lyra Aerospace Exploration Agency!!!

Hmm. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? I knew we shouldn't have let the nerds name their own club! Oh, well; we'll just call it the LyrAEA for short.

Playthrough's full modlist and description under the spoiler

Spoiler

Lyraea - Career to Nova Kiribani is an Easy(-ish) mode, modded career save with the end goal of colonizing at least one planet in the Nova Kiribani star system from Galaxies Unbound. Additional challenge is added by using the Nova Kiribani star system in conjunction with Sigma Dimensions to scale up the stock (+OPM) system up by 2.5x planet size and 3x orbit size. It is fairly heavily modded, with 106 addons (as of this original post.) As such, the full modlist is rather long, and will be below the second spoiler. Changes may happen to the modlist later, and since this is not rocket science, I will not guarantee that this modlist will always (or ever) be up to date.

Spoiler

KSP: 1.12.3 (Win64) - Unity: 2019.4.18f1 - OS: Windows 10  (10.0.0) 64bit
ClickThroughBlocker - 0.1.10.17
Harmony - 2.0.4
ToolbarControl - 0.1.9.6
KSP-Recall - 0.2.2.3
Airplane Plus - 26.0.5
All Tweak!!! -
Astrogator - 0.10.3
B9 Part Switch - 2.20
BD Animation Modules - 0.6.7.1
Community Category Kit - 5.2
Community Resource Pack - 1.4.2
CommunityTechTree - 3.4.4
ConformalDecals - 0.2.10.100000
Contract Configurator - 1.30.5
Contract Pack: Exploration Plus - 2.0.1
Contract Pack: Clever Sats - 1.4
Contract Pack: Field Research - 1.2.2
Contract Pack: Kerbal Academy - 1.1.10
Contract Pack: Bases and Stations - 3.7.3
Contract Pack: Research Advancement Division - 1.2
Contract Pack: Tourism Plus - 1.5.2
CrewRandR - 1.1.11.3
Crowd Sourced Science - 6.0
CryoEngines - 2.0.6
CryoTanks - 1.6.4
Community Terrain Texture Pack - 1.0.4
CustomBarnKit - 1.1.22
CustomPrelaunchChecks - 1.8.1.1
DeployableEngines - 1.3.1
Distant Object Enhancement (DOE) /L - 2.1.1.6
DynamicBatteryStorage - 2.2.5
EarlyBird - 0.2.1
EditorExtensionsRedux - 3.4.3.5
Engine Lighting Relit - 1.6.3.2
Environmental Visual Enhancements - Redux - 1.11.6.1
ExtraplanetaryLaunchpads - 6.99.1
FarFutureTechnologies - 1.2
Firespitter - 7.17
OhReallyAnotherNamingEndeavour - 1.0.3.1
ProgramaticExtensionAndRetraction - 1.0.2
FShangarExtender - 3.6.0.2
Fuel Tanks Plus - 2.0.2
Grounded - 5.0
HeatControl - 0.6.1
HideEmptyTechTreeNodes - 1.3
Interstellar Fuel Switch - 3.29.4
JanitorsCloset - 0.3.7.8
KAX - Kerbal Aircraft Expansion /L - 2.8.1
KerbalAtomics - 1.3.3
Kerbal Construction Time - 1.4.11.2
Kerbal Engineer Redux - 1.1.9
Kerbalism - 3.14
KerbalismCompanionCalculator - 1.2
Kerbalism - 3.14
KerbalKonstructs - 1.8.3
Kerbal Renamer - 1.5
Komplexity (KPLX) - 0.9.9.9
Kerbal Inventory System - 1.29.8039.40483
Komplexity (KPLX) - 1.0
Kopernicus - 1.12.1.90
KRASH - 0.5.33.5
Kronometer - 1.12.0.2
KSP-AVC Plugin - 1.4.1.9
KSPRescueContractFix - 1.1
MagiCore - 1.3.2.5
MechJebForAll - 1.3.0.7
ModularFlightIntegrator - 1.2.7
NearFutureAeronautics - 2.1.1
NearFutureConstruction - 1.3.1
NearFutureElectrical - 1.2.3
NearFutureExploration - 1.1.2
NearFutureLaunchVehicles - 2.2
NearFutureProps - 0.7.1
NearFutureSolar - 1.3.2
NearFutureSpacecraft - 1.4.3
Final Frontier - 1.10.0.3485
OuterPlanetsMod - 2.2.10
Persistent Rotation Upgraded - 1.9.1.7
Precise Node - 1.2.11.3
ReentryParticleEffectRenewed - 1.9.1.1
ReStock - 1.4.3
ReStockPlus - 1.4.3
Rocket Sound Enhancement - 0.7.2
Rocket Sound Enhancement Default - 0.1.0.2
ScrapYard - 2.2.1
Shabby - 0.2
Ship Effects Continued - 1.0.11.1
SpaceDust - 0.4.3
ButtonManager - 1.0.1.1
SpaceTuxLibrary - 0.0.8.4
VesselModuleSave - 1.0.1.2
StageRecovery - 1.9.5.4
StationPartsExpansionRedux - 2.0.6
Strategia - 1.8
SystemHeat - 0.5.6
ToadicusToolsContinued - 1.22.4.4
Trajectories - 2.4.3
Kerbal Alarm Clock - 3.14
TweakableEverything - 0.2.1
TweakScale - 2.4.6.11
Universal Storage 2 - 4.0.0.7
Waterfall - 0.8.1
WaterfallRestock - 0.2.3
Waypoint Manager - 2.8.3.3
BARISBridge - 1.10
BARIS - 1.11.1
Kerbal Actuators - 1.8.4
ZeroMiniAVC - 1.1.2.4

If you want to play through on an identical or similar install, I invite you to do so. You will probably do a much better job.
However, if you don't, I might be able to use your help! There should be a poll at the top of the post - you most likely saw it on your way down - which asks about the next step Lyraea space agency should take in their exploration of the wild blue yonder. Feel free to vote - the winning answer will be the next step in the career (Funds and time permitting!)

More updates coming Soon™. Fly safe!

And here we are!

A brand new, baby KSC. How cute! Well, we'd better get to work right away fulfilling contracts and collecting Science.

This one looks fine. Thank you Gene, very cool! And we'll take "Reach for the Stars" too, while we're at it. Now, how to fulfill them...

Edited April 21, 2022 by Lyraea
Updated modlist (again)

[Lyraea]

Aha! We've got it! I hereby present...

...Okay, it isn't much... but it's the best we can do for now, okay? The big rockets come later. Probably. Now to build it...

...huh?

The engineers tell me I can't launch something I only just barely drew up on the back of a snack wrapper - I have to give them time to actually build it first! About a month, to be exact. This is unacceptable, back in my day all we had to wait for to launch a rocket was the loading screen... I mean, what?

Edited April 19, 2022 by Lyraea

[Lyraea]

So, we should probably spend some Upgrade Points on our facilities to make the builds go faster... but where?
I'll put 2 upgrade points in each facility for now, which already brings down Jumping Bean's construction time to about 17 days, and leaves me with 8 more spare upgrade points. What to do with these? I'll let the forum decide! Put your choice on the poll above:

• I'm going to be spending 2 more upgrade points on R&D regardless of the poll results, leaving 6 spare.
• If the VAB wins the poll, I'll put all 6 remaining upgrade points into the VAB and invest in VAB upgrades first, allowing me to build bigger rockets faster and start working on a serious sounding rocket program.
• If the SPH wins the poll, I'll put all 6 remaining upgrade points into the SPH and invest in SPH upgrades first, allowing me to build aircraft faster and start working on Kerballed flight and X-planes (an important step towards Kerballed spaceflight and larger rockets!)
• If they tie or the "both" option wins, I'll put 3 upgrade points in each and invest in upgrades for both facilities (I have the Komplexity mod installed, so even with my 244,665 currently in my account, I'll easily be able to afford the 17,500 upgrade to Tier 2 per building - keep in mind, though, that even Tier 2 in Komplexity is significantly worse than Tier 1 in stock, with a lower maximum part count.) This means that both facilities will have slightly improved capabilities, but neither will be as good as they each would be if I poured all my excess Funds and upgrade points into one or the other, so while my sounding rocket and X-plane programs will coevolve, neither will develop nearly as fast, and changes will be slower and more incremental.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Lyraea

[Ooglak Kerman]

2 hours ago, Lyraea said:

Aha! We've got it! I hereby present...

 

...Okay, it isn't much... but it's the best we can do for now, okay? The big rockets come later. Probably. Now to build it...

...huh?

The engineers tell me I can't launch something I only just barely drew up on the back of a snack wrapper - I have to give them time to actually build it first! About a month, to be exact. This is unacceptable, back in my day all we had to wait for to launch a rocket was the loading screen... I mean, what?

Quite obviously you need to "encourage" them to greater efforts.  I recommend the evil overseer approach.

[Lyraea]

Will consider enacting "evil overseer approach" in future engineering department meetings.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Lyraea
Making forum posts is not rocket science, therefore I am bad at it

[Ooglak Kerman]

3 minutes ago, Lyraea said:

Will consider in future engineering department meetings.

Meetings..  that is a good strategy for encouraging greater efforts.  Work harder and with more energy or the meetings will continue!

It is important to take into account the bladder to brains (B2B) ratio.  Something tells me their B2B ratio may be very high.

[Lyraea]

And continue the meetings did, with lots of accounting for the B2B ratios of engineers over the course of the next 17 days until I saw the Jumping Bean 1 rolling out to the launchpad.

Whether I will be hating depends on whether or not the bean rides dirty. My back-of-a-snack calculations are entirely perfect and infallible, so if anything at all goes wrong with this completely untested, cobbled together sounding rocket, it will be because of a mistake some engineer made at some point.

51 minutes ago, Lyraea said:

if anything at all goes wrong with this completely untested, cobbled together sounding rocket, it will be because of a mistake some engineer made at some point.

And yes, that includes the game crash that just happened. Someone in the propulsion division is going to experience being the highest a Kerbal has yet flown (shot into the air on a plume of SRB exhaust.) Now that's what I call a static fire.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Lyraea
Clearer wording

[Maria Sirona]

Awesome! Let me just do a... Aha... Now it's followed! Just to clarify, we're starting on Kerbin, right? 

[Lyraea]

On 4/20/2022 at 9:27 AM, Maria Sirona said:

Just to clarify, we're starting on Kerbin, right? 

Yes, this career save is starting on Kerbin (but 2.5x scale, courtesy of Sigma Dimensions.)

[Lyraea]

Here we are! It seems that the engineers have sorted out the whole "game crashing" issue. Hopefully, they've sorted out the "ship crashing" issue as well.

I can't quite launch us into the air yet, however - Gene Kerman has very specifically instructed me that I am not to launch until after I have run and transmitted at least one experiment on the launchpad. Contract requirements, and all... Ah, well, this'll just take a second...
...huh?

The scientists tell me I can't expect the results from an experiment I only just pressed the button to start - I have to give it time to actually record them first! About 2 minutes, to be exact. This is unacceptable, back in my d...
I don't know what I was expecting, to be honest. Oh well, time for some meetings with my science department, although I fear that their B2B ratios will not be so much skewed in my favor as with the engineers. Just run the thermowhatsit thingamajig already so we can make something go boom!!!

Annd... FIRE IN THE HOLE!
What? No! Up, you're supposed to go UP! What are you slowing down and falling for? We'll never get to Nova Kiribani at this rate!

Well... at least you're aerodynamically stable, we got that much right...

[Lyraea]

Wait... aerodynamics... Aircraft! We can use aircraft! Aha, I'm a genius! Finally, a use for all these whiteboards (and eager test pilots from the engineering department) I have lying around! Speaking of, once we've cleaned up the shrapnel from the poor, poor Jumping Bean crashing into the launchpad at 120 m/s, why don't we go and meet them?

Wh- wait a minute... it actually survived that?! Maybe those engineers really DO know what they're doing, after all! Alright, I'll go get the pilots who actually did sign up for this. And just one engineer. Might as well throw that scientist in there too. I'm making all sorts of bold decisions today...

Edited April 21, 2022 by Lyraea
Word choice

[Lyraea]

And now, for those contract rewards... the sweet, sweet contract rewards... They've pushed me just over 500,000! I'm absolutely rolling in dough now! I'll be able to paint racing stripes on at least two of my buildings to make them go faster, maybe even twice! Time to actually read the results of that poll, and...
Hmm. "Tie" and "VAB"... have tied. Maybe it wasn't so good of an idea to add that option, after all. Oh, well; the forum hath spoken, so I will do what you wish!

• +2 points in R&D
  • Upgrade R&D to Level 2*
• +2 points in SPH
  • Upgrade SPH to Level 2*
• +4 points in VAB
  • Upgrade VAB to Level 3*

*This is with Komplexity mod, so those upgrades aren't nearly as impressive or expensive as they sound!

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Lyraea

[Lyraea]

On that note, the poll has been replaced by a new one, pertaining to how we're going to be running our new crewed program! There will be a few more uncrewed launches before that starts in earnest (I've got a Reach Orbit contract deadline coming up...) but you can then decide whether I put them on a much more reasonable, but somewhat boring X-plane first (like the real NASA did!), or forget that and go straight to crewed rocketry the second I get the chance.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Lyraea
Forgot a space

[Maria Sirona]

13 hours ago, Lyraea said:

On that note, the poll has been replaced by a new one, pertaining to how we're going to be running our new crewed program! There will be a few more uncrewed launches before that starts in earnest (I've got a Reach Orbit contract deadline coming up...) but you can then decide whether I put them on a much more reasonable, but somewhat boring X-plane first (like the real NASA did!), or forget that and go straight to crewed rocketry the second I get the chance.

The poll shows me having voted which i have not done

[Lyraea]

We have used the ~30 Science from our adventures so far to unlock these tech nodes:

and (after a while of waiting for them to fully research and unlock, and our VAB to fully upgrade) are planning two missions to further our Science gains! More details on these will be coming soon, when they are fully designed with the new parts.

We've also invested extra funds into

• Mission Control level 2,
• Tracking Station level 2,
• Launchpad level 2, and
• R&D level 3 so that we will be able to unlock the fourth tier tech nodes,
• 1 upgrade point each in VAB, SPH, R&D.

Painting all those racing stripes will take time, so we'll be waiting about 3 days for all of these things to unlock.

Edited April 22, 2022 by Lyraea

[Lyraea]

I present our second craft design: the JB-2!

The Bean's Revenge is a craft designed to reach the upper atmosphere, and maybe even space. It's made with an almost identical probe core design to the original JB-1, but with larger batteries, and has similar science equipment (not shown in the photo.) It is well below the level 3 VAB part limit of 40 parts, and later extensions may be used to put a simple probe in orbit (although I'd like to have aerodynamic fairings instead of hollow nosecones by then so I can deploy a semi-realistic satellite.)

Uh-oh...

Those careless engineers! Why, I oughta...
It seems that someone's misprogrammed the probe core for the first flight of the JB-2. Hopeful that this will not impact the mission... (It will.)

[Lyraea]

Despite the software bug, we had 5 good lights on the JB-2 first stage. Maybe this mission won't go so poorly, after all...

NEVER MIND

Well, JB-2's Karman line attempt is a write-off. We'll try with the liquid second stage, but we can't guarantee anything impressive (or much of anything at all) due to its abysmal low altitude thrust. Time for us to build an identical third mission, hopefully without the software bugs this time...

Not aerodynamically stable, and it flipped and crashed into the ground. Nothing left but shrapnel around the space center and a probe core rolling across the ground... Truly a tragedy for the ages.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Lyraea
Centar

[Lyraea]

After rolling out another JB-2 to the Launchpad to run tests and verify that the bug was fixed (and then rolling it back and promptly scrapping it,) we built and rolled out the JB-2B - now with aerodynamic fins. This was totally because of a normal step in the development process to ensure the utmost confidence in the second launch, and not because I realized I needed fins right before launching the second JB-2. Just trust me on this one, I swear.

Okay, I also forgot reaction wheels. I'm not even going to pretend on this one, I considered adding them and deliberately decided against it. Turns out they're the only way such a long burning SRB stage can stay oriented...

[Lyraea]

JB-2B launched with flying colors, bringing back a yield of about 30 science and collecting the first science above the Karman line (100 kilometers instead of 70, thanks to the atmosphere rescale.) It had an apokee of about 133 km, but I wasn't able to capture any screenshots during this record-breaking spaceflight due to a communications antenna error (which I had to frantically troubleshoot in that 1m 30s time period, so I was able to transmit my science back before the probe was destroyed on reentry!) To my surprise, though, the ever-faithful JB-2B naturally oriented itself engine down during reentry and survived the heating basically untouched, only to be destroyed on splashdown. This means I may be able to use the second stage "Pug" engine from the JB-2B as a makeshift heat shield on later versions of the JB-series. Here's to the JB-3, a future attempt at orbit!

We also used the science from this flight to unlock these tech nodes:

[Maria Sirona]

We'll just write that off as a camera failure

[Lyraea]

I've designed the JB-3, but there's one problem: it's too complicated to fit under the 30-part limit! I'll be having to upgrade the VAB yet again to Level 4 to be able to build it, and that means I won't be able to launch rockets for a while until then. Oh, well... This is a great time to meet our trusty Kerbonauts!...

...what? Who are you? I have a feeling something's very wrong here, but I can't put my finger on it.

Ah, well, no need to dwell on it. These are some of the greatest pilots and most belligerent coworkers known to Kerbalkind! It just won't do to just stand here gawking at them, they deserve a proper introduction!

• Everybody knows Jebediah Kerm- ahem, von Kerman. The son of a genius scientist who kindly provided the initial Funds for me to start this space program, Jebby is also an ace pilot and a bit of a national hero for his exceptional achievements in Komplete Konflict II about... 7 years ago?! My, how time flies.
• That can't be said about these two, however. Bill Kerbrown is the engineer that had the gall to try and tell me he'd need a month to build Jumping Bean (poor, sweet Jumping Bean...) and didn't even get it to fly into space when he was done. Meanwhile, Bob King is a scientist that did I don't know what exactly, but I put him in the program for symmetry.
• Finally, there's Valentina Kilroy. A rising star in aviation, her recent achievements as an ace pilot have granted her the spotlight, and are even threatening to eclipse Jebby's own. They've got a bit of a friendly rivalry going, trying to see who can break more records.

Kilroy would like me to make a correction, her records have, in fact, eclipsed Jebby's own. Jebby objects.

[Lyraea]

Ah! The VAB is done upgrading to level 4, and it looks... different. The engineers tell me they ran out of space on which to paint racing stripes, so they built it bigger to fit more racing stripes on. This seems to have worked, since the engineers have stopped complaining about the "cramped working conditions" and "almost getting hit by work trucks and rolling rocket parts all the time." Now it's only some of the time! A significant improvement, I say. Maybe we should look into this "actually build a bigger building" business, and implement it elsewhere.

[Lyraea]

It took a while to refine the design (and real life got in the way,) but I've finally been able to design a working prototype for the JB-3! More in-depth post coming soon.

[Lyraea]

Night launch of the satellite, unfortunately. However, here's a photo during the circularization burn!