New Jersey Department of Orbital Space: an RP-1 noob's first playthrough

[bigyihsuan]

I've decided to dive straight into an RSS/RO/RP-1 run, for the first time. I have used some of the individual components before (RealFuels, Procedural Parts, Kerbal Construction Time), but not in a big package like this.

I spent ~4 hours last night, and November 1954, I have completed the Downrange 3000km contract, and unlocked the level 2 60t launch pad. I shouldn't need to do a Corporal stacked on a V2 any more

My thoughts on RO so far:

• Everything being procedural is very, very unfamiliar for me. It feels like I've spent double the time building a procedural rocket, versus quickly throwing BDB parts together. Everything feels fiddly, for some reason.
• KCT simulations are neat. How can I get it for my non-RP-1 installs?
• I am very slow (at least according to https://rp1careerlog.azurewebsites.net/), 11/1954 is pretty late. Apparently first orbit IRL is in 1957, so I am behind a bit.
• Kerbalism science is neat, auto-collect and auto transmit.
• I wish the BDB tanks and probe cores, at least, were available to make building rockets a little quicker. Lego building blocks and all that, versus the 3D-printing of Procedural Parts.

I'll be uploading my career logs in a Gist: https://gist.github.com/bigyihsuan/1e59e64e7cb36f8759cf0b188b9f90a7

And to the RP1 Career Tracker: https://rp1careerlog.azurewebsites.net/?careerId=644846f1763150b279354eec

https://imgur.com/a/Hb2UeHA

Edited April 25, 2023 by bigyihsuan

[bigyihsuan]

Today: Managed to go bankrupt from tooling too much. Had to cheat in ~200k funds just to get going again. Also got into orbit.

It is 1960. I am waaayyy behind IRL by like 3 years.

https://gist.github.com/bigyihsuan/1e59e64e7cb36f8759cf0b188b9f90a7

https://imgur.com/a/E2m8Wd4

[jimmymcgoochie]

You have to start somewhere. Well done on reaching Earth orbit 

What did you do between 3000km downrange in 1954 and orbit in 1960 to delay it that much? And is that a sounding rocket with SIX TINY TIMS!? 

[bigyihsuan]

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

What did you do between 3000km downrange in 1954 and orbit in 1960 to delay it that much?

I started the level 2 pad upgrade a bit late, as well as not having enough science/money to unlock the needed tech and parts, so I had to wait for the pad to finish and techs to be researched before I could actually launch an orbiter.

[bigyihsuan]

Solar-powered sat and Polar sat contracts done, with a single mission. As it turns out, this Thor-Ablestar-Ersatz isn't quite enough to get to orbit, so I slapped a separation motor on the payload to kick it into orbit.

Next up is a comsat contract, and this thing doesn't have enough dV to do the plane change. So I've built a Thorad-Agena-like with 9 strap-on Castor 1s, but that needs to wait for the 130t launch pad upgrade.

https://gist.github.com/bigyihsuan/1e59e64e7cb36f8759cf0b188b9f90a7

https://imgur.com/a/2Wzo2zg

[bigyihsuan]

https://imgur.com/a/7wHrKK5

https://gist.github.com/bigyihsuan/1e59e64e7cb36f8759cf0b188b9f90a7

First launch of the Thor-ish 6-3 carrying a CommSat destroyed by range safety due to a failed LR89 seconds into flight.

Meanwhile, another Thor-ish hauls an AtmoSat for a different contract.

This AtmoSat gave me just enough science (0.2) to be able to unlock the Lunar Comms node, letting me upgrade my Tracking Station.

Second launch of CommSat failed due to the Agena stage failing earlier than expected, with the apoapsis not high enough for the kick motor to get the sat into orbit. And the contract expired. wew. Thankfully an identical contract showed up. Hoping for CommSat-3 will succeed this time.

[bigyihsuan]

Miscellaneous contracts time:

• First Nav Sat
• First Comm Sat
• Test Comm Sat 1

And had a contract expire on me, stealing all my money.

https://gist.github.com/bigyihsuan/1e59e64e7cb36f8759cf0b188b9f90a7

https://imgur.com/a/QWF4jHJ

[bigyihsuan]

Since last time...

• Lunar Flyby
• Lunar Impactor (twice)
• A few commsat contracts
• and a 350t monstrosity of a rocket that can barely get 0.4t to GEO transfer orbit. Features a QuadAble stage powered by 4 AJ10s, a 20m Thor-derived core, and 4x 10m Thor-derived LRBs.

Only launch I did with the Monstrosity is a science-farming sat in high Earth orbit. Did you know you need to go all the way to geostationary orbit to get high in space over Earth science? That's a lotta dV that I don't have lol. I'm bottlenecked by science currently, and it's 1969 (very, very behind in tech).

https://imgur.com/a/OyNkuO5

Spoiler

Edited April 19, 2023 by bigyihsuan