Weekly Challenge #14 - Space Station Build!

[Ghostii_Space]

Hello Kerbonauts!

This week, we challenge you to... build a Space Station!

• Primary: Build a station by docking at least two Wayfarer habitat modules together in orbit around Kerbin.
• Secondary: Add a deployable solar panel truss and a fuel depot tank to your station.
• Jeb: Dock a transfer tug to your station and send it to orbit another planet.
• Val: Send a lander to your station that is reusable on the body the station is now orbiting.

[Pat20999]

This is not possible!

1 FPS SPACE STATIONS WOW WELL THOUGHT.

I will try it, but beware: BUGS AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES!

[Ghostii_Space]

 

4 minutes ago, Pat20999 said:

I will try it, but beware: BUGS AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES!

A lot of players have been able to do our challenges, so we look forward to your feedback if you experience any issues or success! 

[some_failure]

darn i only really do giant 1 stage stations on monster rockets  and usually with those spinning rings 

Edited May 26, 2023 by some_failure
i just wanted to add something idk

[DerpyAintHere]

Another reason to build a space station!

[Pat20999]

42 minutes ago, Ghostii_Space said:

 

A lot of players have been able to do our challenges, so we look forward to your feedback if you experience any issues or success! 

Ok, sorry for my overreaction. I know it’s a good game.

[Pat20999]

35 minutes ago, some_failure said:

darn i only really do giant 1 stage stations on monster rockets  and usually with those spinning rings 

Oh no,         it’s orbital assembly time.

[some_failure]

darn i dont know how to rendevue, guess its time to go threw the scott manly archive 

7 minutes ago, Pat20999 said:

Oh no,         it’s orbital assembly time.

 

[Socraticat]

 

[Socraticat]

 

[Well]

[Socraticat]

On 5/26/2023 at 10:37 AM, some_failure said:

darn i dont know how to rendevue, guess its time to go threw the scott manly archive 

Today I learned that Rendezvous has a 'z' in it. Something new every day...

I made this just for you so you wouldn't have to search further than your friendly neighborhood Kerbal Forum. I'll post it in the KSP2 Tutorials. It is the exact footage from the shorts I posted above; this is how I rendezvoused for Weekly Challenge #14.

I too enjoy the SM Archive- I wouldn't have the knowledge of orbital maneuvering that I do without having spent time watching his tutorials. What I have made... is not that archive. It's voiceless, fast, undercooked, and maybe overly dramatic. I dunno... I like it

 

On 5/26/2023 at 9:28 AM, Ghostii_Space said:

... we look forward to your feedback if you experience any issues or success! 

Rendezvous was refreshingly easy, except for the Intercept Tags 1A-1B, 2A-2B. Something about the way they look made it hard to follow. I think it was just KSP familiarity messing with me. There is a moment where you can see one tag covering the other. Didn't look great, but functioned well enough.

I did finish Stretch level. I don't have a part count, but I can confirm a drop in frames. We'll see if I can't scale down my imagination to fit Jeb and Val level goals. So far I've had a safe playthrough for this challenge, but I can sense the Kraken in tow... It's lurking...

[some_failure]

11 hours ago, Socraticat said:

I made this just for you so you wouldn't have to search further than your friendly neighborhood Kerbal Forum. I'll post it in the KSP2 Tutorials. It is the exact footage from the shorts I posted above; this is how I rendezvoused for Weekly Challenge #14.

thanks    (also its some_failure not some-failure : )

Edited May 28, 2023 by some_failure

[Socraticat]

7 hours ago, some_failure said:

(also its some_failure not some-failure : )

I. Am. So. Sorry.

I've since corrected the mistake...

Would you take this video as an apology? Something else for your Kerbal Archive?

You won't earn a degree with this information, but you can probably become kerbal certified (which is good enough around these parts).

[Pat20999]

Can the weekly challenges stop for now and continue when the community says the game is ok?

[Skystorm]

My entry consists of two transfer vehicles, a space station, a small space tug, and 2x landers in orbit around Duna.

The space station consists of a 4-person module, large hub, two wayfarer modules, 2x trusses with solar panels, and large methalox and monopropellant tanks.  All modules are docked together using large docking ports.  Docked to the bottom of the station is the transfer vehicle.  Inside the transfer vehicle bay is a small tug to move the trusses and other small cargo.  The transfer vehicle is powered by 50t of hydrogen and a LV-SW "SWERV" engine.

Here is the station and transfer vehicle in orbit around Duna.  The small tug is docked in the transfer vehicle's cargo bay.  This vehicle has a single kerbonaut.

The second transfer vehicle contains 2x landers each with around 2,900 m/s of delta-V which should be able to land and return once each.  Both landers have heat shields, parachutes and drogues which should allow the use of aero-breaking for the landing so as to consume much less fuel than a fully propulsive landing.  Each lander has two groups of four 24-77 "Twitch" landing engines for a total of 8x engines per lander.

This is the same base transfer vehicle as above except that it has a double-cargo bay with 2x landers.  Each lander has a full crew of four (4) kerbonauts each for a total of eight (8) kerbonauts.  The transfer vehicle and landers can dock to the main station when needed.

I ran out of time this weekend before I could take one of the landers down to the surface, but perhaps soon^(TM).

[Superfluous J]

12 hours ago, Pat20999 said:

Can the weekly challenges stop for now and continue when the community says the game is ok?

I seriously doubt making up these challenges takes up any dev time.

Giving players goals is a good way to drive interest. Until the game itself gives the players goals, this is a harmless way to do that.

[Pat20999]

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

I seriously doubt making up these challenges takes up any dev time.

Giving players goals is a good way to drive interest. Until the game itself gives the players goals, this is a harmless way to do that.

Perhaps I don’t want BOOM!

[febrion]

Well, I was only able to get halfway through the challenge before the kraken ate my whole campaign⁸, so I couldn't get better screenshots³, but here's what I was able to get...

 

Details:

Spoiler

The habitation arm contains the central Hub (at the bottom in this image), the wayfarer crew module, and 8 escape pods tucked into a cargo bay.

Each escape pod can carry one Kerbal, with a little bit of fuel for it's micro-engines and antennas to call for rescue.

The delivery tug (mounted on top) is just used to get the whole thing up there and help with docking maneuvers, but they're welcome to stick around for awhile if they want.  

 

A second habitation arm (identical except without the central hub) was also launched and mounted to the opposite end of the central Hub.

Details:

Spoiler

Pretty self explanatory here, several of the biggest solar panels I could find, a few of the big batteries, and some big antennas.  Basically, big stuff. 

This one also has a delivery tug on the end (also removable, attached with docking ports so other vessels can connect in the future), though this one is probe driven, so doesn't need recovery hardware (parachutes and heat shields)

A few more just for fun:

I was just looking around and spotted this guy looking at me out of the cockpit.  I could see them all in there, but couldn't get a good angle on more than one at a time.

I really liked this angle

Footnotes below, proceed at your own peril

Spoiler

^<Game crashed, and can't load the latest save.  Attempting to load a prior save works for a few seconds, but the game crashes shortly afterwards.  Was getting pretty hard to continue anyway - not sure if there's a memory leak in there or something, but it was getting pretty laggy.

²Also took videos of the docking maneuvers, but not sure how to get them upⁿ here

^pFrom what I've seen, youtube seems to be the way to go, but I'm sticking with one¹ new thing at a time

^Iimgur - and I'm not sure why the 'Insert image from URL" link doesn't work, but I suspect it's because of my newcomer status thanks to @fulgurfor the info there - when in doubt, the correct answer is "You're doing it wrong!!!"

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by febrion
Replaced links with images, as was foretold by prophecy

[fulgur]

@febrion - you'll be able to get your pictures in by copying and pasting the image link INCLUDING the '.png' or '.jpg' on the end. You should be able to right-click the Imgur image, copy image link and paste into the KSP forums.

It's an old-fashioned quirk of the software I think.

Edited May 31, 2023 by fulgur

[febrion]

Eureka!  After a bit of scouring¹³ of the bug report forum⁴ I think I discovered the problem I^me was having - the Huge Save File Bug^TM  After stripping out about 2.5Gb of redundant blocks^c from the latest save, the KSS 2.1.2 "Big Bad Blue Behemoth" (or BB²B for short) is back in business!  Fuel arm 1^E is currently in orbit, once I finish rambling here I'll plot an intercept course and see if I can get this bad boy attached as well...

Footnotes, nothing important here

Spoiler

³⁷Yeah, I RTFM - what can I say? I was desperate

^UhFancy!  It was interesting watching the page change throughout the day as the new system was put in place.  Was half tempted to reply to one of the test pages, but figured I was too new to get away with such silliness

^&UAnd, fortunately for me, but unfortunately for them, several other people - it's not often that I look for a solution online and almost unheard of that not only do (1) I find someone else who had the same problem, (2) there is a solution that worked for them, and *most importantly* (3) it WORKS FOR ME!

^TMNot a footnote, but since you're here, what's your favorite creative bug title?  (Not saying this one is very creative, I'm running 2 different games at the moment, while listening to a random playlist that I keep stopping to adjust, while working on this post, so my attention is rather divided)

²Looks like XML, but it's a json file - never opened up one of those before, so maybe that's just how they look?  Kids today and their fancy  techno-wizardry - back in my day we coded with "cat > a.out" and our data files were compressed binary...  layperson-parsable stuff like this was a waste of precious storage space.

^{2(but a different one)}Another "Not a footnote" - just skip to the 'E'

^WEAST?Hydrogen and mono-propellant, that stuff is heavy, too

Edited June 1, 2023 by febrion
Rogue keypress - submitted before I was done typing

[GalileOh-No]

Primary - Jeb Level Objectives (so far)

The team at Aran Aerospace is feeling a little ambitious this go around and felt this mission a good opportunity to show other programs just what can be accomplished in the present day.  To this end, they've come up with a vessel that can travel as a traditional rocket and assemble itself into a space station once at its destination! 

 

Phase One: Solar Module (SM-1) to LKO

First thing's first, let's get this thing into space!  First to go is the "Solar Module" - the artfully named SM-1:

1. (1) Deep space antenna
2. (1) Wayfarer crew cabin
3. (2) autonomous solar truss probes
4. Truss structure for probes

Despite its unusual shape and radially mounted trusses, SM-1 makes it into LKO without much issue.  The orbital tug cleans itself up after reaching a stable orbit.
 

Spoiler

 

Phase Two: Fuel Depot Module (FDM-1) Rendezvous

Next up is the fuel depot module, FDM-1:

1. 66 t Methalox capacity
2. (1) Wayfarer crew cabin
3. (2) additional small docking ports
4. (2) additional medium docking ports

Due to its high center of mass, FDM-1 has to take a very steep and inefficient trajectory into orbit.  By the time it docks with SM-1 there is about 14 t of fuel missing.  The orbital tug heads back to Kerbin on fumes.
 

Spoiler

 

Phase Three: ITM-1 Rendezvous

OK.  Cool.  We have a space station in orbit.  Is it interplanetary? No, well, it'd be a lot cooler if it was! But where to go... this thing has a solar farm, a fuel depot and plenty of space inside for activities... Some place where such a thing would REALLY come in handy... hmm how about Tylo?!  With that goal in mind, the third in the series of launches is ITM-1 (no prizes for deciphering the acronym):

1. 160 t Methalox capacity
2. (4) Skipper engines
3. Approximately 4.7 km/s dV once laden with SM-1 and FDM-1

To save on weight and complexity, ITM-1 powers itself into orbit after ditching the first stage around 36 km.  After docking with the main craft, fuel inventory is taken - we are about 103 t low for our trip!
 

Spoiler

 

Phase Four: Refueling Missions

Time to gas the thing up!  2 separate refueling missions are sent to top off the vessel's reserves.  Speaking of which, the assembled craft doesn't have a name yet... for now, we will call it "TBD-1".
 

Spoiler

 

Phase Five: TBD-1 to Tylo

Nothing left to do but hit the big green button!  TBD-1 transfers out of Kerbin's SOI and temporarily deploys some of its solar panels in situ to keep systems online during the years long voyage.  In order to keep extra some fuel in reserve for future missions, the craft enters a somewhat eccentric orbit around Tylo.

 

Spoiler

 

Phase Six: Space Station Assembly

Space Station: assemble!  The solar truss probes separate from SM-1's crew cabin and dock with the main support. Some of the engineers joke that the station must be T-shaped for Tylo. Once both probes are position, all panels are extended.  Nevermind that one of the arms is slightly off-plane.  It doesn't bother us at all.  We did not try to reseat that thing for like an hour. Nope.

Fuel from ITM-1 is transferred into FDM-1 before the former undocks for its final mission: touch Tylo.  Current fuel inventory aboard TBD-1:

1. Methalox: 18.3 t
2. Monopropellant: 4.8 t

Current mission time (approx.): 2y, 98d.

Spoiler

 

Phase Seven: ?

The next logical step would be to send a crewed lander to TBD-1.  Will R&D have enough time to come up with something before the next Jool transfer window? If so, will they be successful where so many have failed before: returning from Tylo without a rescue mission?   Will they figure out a better name for TBD-1?  Will anybody care?  Stay tuned. Or don't!

Edited June 2, 2023 by GalileOh-No
Emboldened post with cromulent words

[Aeolica]

It's my old work (before the 1st update). I think I can call it a station because it has seven docking port.

[Part 1] Launch a Starcruiser with reusable heavy Shuttles (LKO payload 150t) and assemble on Kerbin orbit.

 

 

[Part 2] Starcruiser fly to Dres through Mun's gravitational acceleration, and park in Dres star ring.

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Aeolica

[Skystorm]

So I finally had some time to take one of the landers down to the surface but not without a few issues.

I figured the struts would cause problems getting the landers out of the bay and they did.  Fixing this required editing the save game to remove the struts followed by undocking the vessel.  Not doing this in the correct order results in what appears to work at first until you realize it still thinks they are the same vessel.

1. First, make sure that you have NOT tried to undock the vessel locked down by the struts.  Unfortunately, you may have to go back to a previous save to find one.
2. Backup your saved game.  If the correct save game is loaded then creating a new save works.
3. Open your saved game in a text editor.
4.  You will need to find the correct instances of a part named "strut_1v_extensible".  For each strut there will be two (2) of these because they are the endpoints for the strut.  You'll have to figure out which ones are the correct ones.  Each of these endpoint parts is a JSON object with lots of properties and may be several hundred lines long.
5. Load the saved game after you finish the updates.  If you did everything correctly, the struts will be gone but the vessels will still be docked.
6. At this point you can safely undock and the game will treat them as separate vessels.

Here is a sample of what the start of the strut JSON looks like.  Note that in this example the object starts on line 81520 for me and ended on 81719.  It was nearly 200 lines long and was just one of the two endpoints for that strut.

Spoiler

The second problem I ran into was that deploying the parachutes and drogues for some reason disabled the engines.  Normally this would just merge the stages and the engines should still work but given the thinness of the atmosphere I didn't have time to fix it.  However, a workaround is to drag the engines and chutes into a single combined stage and they should once again work.  All I can say is save often because it will save you a lot of needless frustration not to mention many kerbal lives.

And so without further ado, here is the crew of lander 1 on the surface of Duna.

The chutes were able to slow my vertical velocity to under 30 m/s and the engines just needed to slow my descent to under 10 m/s for the landing phase.  As anticipated, it only required 55 m/s for the entry burn and 150 m/s for the landing burn, much less than a fully propulsive landing.

I can easily get back into orbit with over 2,650 m/s of fuel remaining.

[Heretic391]

Dres Station with 4 separate stages attached.  I guess I've done the primary challenge and maybe secondary?