Making Life Difficult (a heavily modded colonisation playthrough)

[RedDwarfIV]

I saw this and just had to take a screenshot.

Jool Surveyor is having to navigate its way around the inner system without getting itself yeeted by gravity slingshot right back out again, which Laythe nearly did. It'll be a while before it can perform its first scan.

As it turned out, WorldStabiliser was not responsible for the mysteriously rising launch clamps.

Most likely, it's KSP not quite knowing where the vessel is supposed to be, and in an effort to avoid loading the ship underground, raises the launch clamps each time instead of putting them at a set altitude. I have run out of options, and more importantly, patience. I can't be bothered with removing and replacing all the launch clamps every five times or so I visit Wyvern, which I do fairly often, as important as it is. So, I replaced all the lanch clamps with landing legs... except one. I figure one should be enough to prevent the base sliding about, and resetting it will be a fair simpler affair taking no more than five minutes.

I also took the opportunity to use the small vessel that carried the legs to push some of the base sections about. You may notice Stage 4 is now much closer to the rest of the base.

Edited December 11, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

Much of what I did today was sheperding various vessels through orbital maneuvers, nothing exciting. But once that was done, I found Wyvern had produced enough SpecialisedParts that I could finally try out Tarasque Station's manufacturing capabilities, end to end. For a very long time, I've had issues with Centaur Station's fuel capacity. It's good enough to facilitate the refuelling of various smaller craft, but it's woefully insufficient for interplanetary vehicles. So I designed a fuel depot for Tarasque to build... and then attach to itself.

It's entirely possible that I will decide to relegate Centaur Station to little more than a place to put the inter-lunar vehicles and Minmus landers when I'm not using them. The only thing it will have that Tarasque doesn't is a science lab, and that could be rectified easily enough.

The process was simpler than I thought it would be. 

Step 1: Open the Orbital Assembly Line's Workshop Window.  Click Create Empty Container. The Orbital Assembly Space will spit out a kit.

Step 2: Use a vessel with good RCS and an Advanced Grabbing Unit to move the Kit over to a docking port.

Step 3: Open the Orbital Workshop's Workshop Window, and click Start Construction. The station will begin to use Specialised Parts to inflate the kit to full size.

Step 4:  Do the same thing again when it's done inflating, it will now use MaterialsKits to build the vessel inside the kit.

Step 5: Launch. If the vessel has clipped parts, use NoCrashDamage and UnbreakableJoints in the Debug menu to keep it from flying to bits. Turn them off when it stabilises. This is the only time you will need to enable cheats to keep the vessel intact.

Documentation is sparse and the YouTube video explaining it is not the best quality. Like I said before, I'm partly making this thread so others new to USI/MKS can learn from it.

 

Jool Surveyor has been having a fair bit of trouble getting into a Tylo polar orbit. The moon's massive gravity well is overwhelming the probe's ion engine, which can only use around 20% thrust due to the low light levels out at Jool.

I'm not even entirely sure why I'm bothering. Tylo's only attractive quality for colonisation is the same gravity that makes it so difficult to land on... and Laythe doesn't lag so far behind in that department as to overshadow its many advantages.

If I'm unable to capture in this pass, I'll move on to Laythe and Vall. Laythe is the premier colonisation target in the entire Kerbol system, while Vall is a good candidate for resource extraction. Low enough gravity to make lift fairly easy, while being close enough to Laythe to make it worth doing. Bop and Pol are little more than scientific curiosities, which will be visited, but likely ignored afterwards.

With the expectation that Jool Surveyor 2 will at the very least be unable to scan Tylo, I have launched Jool Surveyor 3. Technically it's the fourth one, but I forgot to put a comms array on the 3rd and I'm going Soviet on it. Mission failed? No number for you. Anyway, this upgraded probe carries more advanced solar panels, a small nuclear reactor, and an ion thruster with twice the efficiency and twice the thrust but 25 times the energy use. Thanks to the reactor, it will be able to provide a full 3 kN even with the reduced sunlight out at Jool. In fact, the only reason I put solar panels on it at all was because of the remote possibility that I might find a use for it after the reactor ran out of uranium fuel. That won't be anytime soon.

Edited December 13, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

Failing to capture at Tylo, we're trying for Laythe now. It has less gravity to contend with, and I've gone for a less efficient capture that won't take advantage of the Oberth effect, but will provide Jool Surveyor 2 with a much longer encounter to carry out its braking burn in.

...still not enough. However, Laythe was kind enough to provide a slingshot maneuver that would reduce the probe's orbital velocity around Jool by a couple hundred m/s, which could well allow it to capture on the next go round. We'll find out in 46 days.

Once I'd remembered to transfer the engineers from the Orbital Assembly Line to the Orbital Assembly Workshop, it took only 5 days to complete the fuel depot. 

13,000 LF, 572,000 LH2, 54,000 Ox. I'm kicking myself for not setting the LH2 tanks to only have LH2, not LH2/Ox, but they'll serve. Besides, I found that they're actually light enough for a single Kerbal on EVA Construction to move around, so I could just replace them if I feel the need.

The module also provides extra docking capacity.

I decided to move the Orbital Workshop, because I felt this configuration was the most aesthetically pleasing option. It also reduces the likelyhood of the solar panels being blocked from sunlight. I have found that, on occasion, their power generation capability has been insufficient. For that reason, the next upgrade to Tarasque will be a nuclear reactor. Since it will be unfuelled, the station is also going to build an Anansi  FTV-NEU (Fuel Transfer Vehicle - Nuclear Enriched Uranium.) That will head down to Wyvern, aquire EnrichedUranium from the fuel plant, and head back up again. 

This will prove the concept for when I use Tarasque or Leviathan to produce nuclear powered vessels and bases.

[RedDwarfIV]

Having figured out this whole Orbital Construction business, I've used it a couple more times to upgrade Tarasque Station.

This kit included the Anansi FTV-NEU, a Garnet nuclear reactor, and the radiator array needed to cool it. They were constructed successfully. However, I am now having issues with the Deployment stage, where the kit decides to have an absolute fit of phantom forces, which on one occasion even NoCrashDamage and UnbreakableJoints couldn't prevent the docking port from detaching from the station. Fortunately it's easily handled by Time Warping through the minute and a half or so that deployment takes.

I had to dock the Manticore FTV with the Anansi to provide it with fuel. and then it headed down to Wyvern to collect a load of Enriched Uranium.

On return. the reactor was fuelled up.  The fuel depot's LH2 tanks would now have a source of power during the night. On 25% power, the Garnet will have a core life of 20 years before it needs its fuel changed again.

Docking a craft with no power, no fuel and no monoprop was a big hassle, so my next move was to build a Logistics Module. When the Quartermaster arrives, I should be able to simply transfer almost any resource straight from Tarasque to a constructed vessel, so long as it's less than 150 meters away. This is a feature I'll want to remember to add to all Orbital Assembly Platforms and Engineering Vessels in future.

[Kerbalsaurus]

With Tylo, you don't have to capture immediately upon encounter. You can use its large gravity well to get into an orbit of Jool (which I assume you know), and then once in Jool's orbit try to get an encounter with it again.

[RedDwarfIV]

1 hour ago, Kerbalsaurus said:

With Tylo, you don't have to capture immediately upon encounter. You can use its large gravity well to get into an orbit of Jool (which I assume you know), and then once in Jool's orbit try to get an encounter with it again.

Oh, I was already in Jool's orbit. The problem is that as the probe approaches Tylo, the moon's gravity accelerates the probe much faster than it can decelerate, so the probe is unable to capture. Ion enginesaren't the easiest to work with.

[RedDwarfIV]

Valkyrie performed it's mid-course burn to intercept Dres. Its solar panels weren't providing enough power, so I brought the reactor online. After getting an encounter with Dres, 1,700 ms/s of delta-V remains. However, the capture burn should take far less delta-V than for Odyssey because Valkyrie's current orbit has its periastrum beyond Duna orbit already. Also, the Kraken will be available to refuel it after arrival.

The Liberator engine at least seems far less hungry for uranium than the stock NTR or the Emancipator, so I have no concerns there.

 

I was surprised to see the Eve transfer window alarm so close, less than three days away. Not enough time to build anything out at Tarasque, so any mission to take advantage of it would have to be assembled in Kerbin orbit. So that's exactly what I did.

Launched in three sections (two of which use Konstruction ports that can weld together), the Valiant is a medium sized explorer. It has the science and life support capabilities of it's larger cousins, but a much smaller engine section. It's the Fission Fragment drive that makes this possible, with its absurd efficiency.

The central support section holds an LF tank and an LFO tank, for supporting any missions that might happen to need them. I plan to design and launch a nuclear spaceplane that will be capable of descending to Eve's surface, carrying out science there, then either returning to orbit or launching a pod that will return to orbit instead. Apparently the vessel will require 6 km/s of delta-V. That's a tall order, but I'm sure it's possible.

 

COLONISATION PLANS:

Moho: N/A. Far too hot, gravity too low, exceptionally difficult to reach. Of interest for scientific purposes only.

Eve: Viable target. Kerbin-like gravity, thick atmosphere, fairly easy to reach. Low priority due to atmosphere making any colony there essentially isolated by delta-V requirements, at least until propulsion technology progresses far enough to make SSTOs not just feasible, but easy.

- Gilly: Valid industrial site, only option in Eve system. Products to be ferried to Eve orbit.

Kerbin: Colonisation successful! Nothing more to do here.

- Mun: N/A. No atmosphere, gravity too low for colonisation, too high to compete with...

- Minmus: Valid industrial site, with orbital construction capability. 

Duna: Viable target. Low gravity, thin atmosphere, fairly easy to reach. High priority due to proximity and comparative ease of base construction. IPEV Leviathan already inbound to support that effort.

- Ike: Valid industrial site, only option in Duna system. Will have orbital construction capability and serve as resupply station until the Duna colony is self-sufficient.

Jool: N/A. While a floating platform would be cool, it would be entirely reliant on resupply missions with a high chance of catastrophic failure. Of possible interest for a research station.

- Laythe: Oustanding target. Kerbin-like gravity, Kerbin-like atmosphere, liquid water. Best location for a colony in the system, certainly for whoever has to live there. Easy access for SSTOs, making resupply, crew rotations and base construction simple.

- Vall: Valid industrial site. Fairly low gravity, proximity to colonisation targets, large areas of flat ground. Will have orbital construction capability.

- Tylo: Borderline target for colonisation, useless for industrial purposes. High gravity, no atmosphere.

- Bop: N/A.

- Pol: N/A.

Sarnus: N/A. Same story as Jool.

Hale: N/A. Of scientific interest, but too difficult to encounter with for industrial purposes.

Ovok: Possible industrial site. 

Eeloo: Viable industrial target. Likely to host orbital assembly facility.

Slate: Borderline target for colonisation, useless for industrial purposes, and for the same reasons as Tylo. However, it's gravity is 1/3rd lower, so it's at least a better candidate on those grounds.

Tekto: Viable target. Low gravity, but Kerbin-like atmospheric pressure.

Urium: N/A. Ditto.

- Polta: Viable industrial target.

- Priax: Viable industrial target.

- Wal: Borderline colonisation target. Comparable to Duna, but far more difficult to reach. Unfortunately, it is the best option in the Urium system.

- Tal: Good industrial target. A low-gravity moon orbiting a colonisation target. Its presence makes Wal look like a slightly better candidate.

Neidon: N/A. Ditto the Second.

Thatmo: Borderline colonisation target. Comparable to Duna, but far more difficult to reach. Worse, its retrograde orbit gives it no viable companions for industrial exploitation. Its low gravity and very thin atmosphere do mean that Thatmo should at least be a viable industrial target also.

Nissee: N/A. Of scientific interest only.

Plock: Any colony here would not be serving as a second Kerbin, but as a launch platform for interstellar vessels.

- Karen: Viable industrial target, supporting any development on Plock.

 

This is going to be a long project, but hopefully the various planets and moons will provide varied challenges. Much as I like the idea that I'll figure out MKS well enough to design a base that can be put down all in one piece, it would get boring if I had a standardised design for every single place and it was just a matter of getting there. 

I wonder, will any of my future crewed missions  have such advanced engines, that they'll reach the outer planets before the probes I've already launched do?

Edited December 14, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

Technically the Eve window is still two days away, but with 24,000 m/s  of delta-V, who cares?

On Valiant's nose is the lander that was originally intended for Adventure to carry. I figure, why waste money launching a new lander with only marginally more science gathering capability when this one still has most of it? It's only going to Gilly, after all. We can use the saved money to put a full suite of scientific instruments on the nuclear spaceplane that will be heading to Eve in the same transfer window.

That spaceplane being...

The Ronin SSTO.

While designing this vehicle, I looked into high-tech options like nuclear lightbulb aerospikes and fission fragment drives, but ultimately settled on tried and tested Project Eeeloo nuclear jet engines, something I've previously used on my Warrior SSTO. Their capability for high-thrust propulsion without using fuel just could not be passed up, not when Eve's thick atmosphere is the primary barrier to any return vehicle. Turning it into an asset would be a massive advantage over any other design I could think of.

Of course, the Project Eeloo engines have quite poor closed-cycle efficiency, with around 570 ISP. Fine when I need the extra thrust, but the interplanetary burn was going to need another engine. For that, I turned to the standard nuclear lightbulb. Compared to the lightbulb aerospike, its thrust was mediocre. But, if you're choosing an engine for efficiency, that's not so important. 500kN is plenty for orbital maneuvering. 

 

To ensure the Ronin would be fully fuelled - and therefore have its maximum delta-V - before Eve descent, I decided to send as big a tank of liquid fuel to Eve as I could manage. The second largest 5m tank served that purpose, and with it I built the Scylla FTV-L. It would then dock in orbit with its interplanetary drive, the Charybdis.

For that drive, I chose the lower-tech version of the Fission Fragment engine. I thought that since I'd been able to get good results from its higher-tech version, it might do well enough for an unmanned fuel transport. Boy, was I wrong. When I got it to orbit, I found that it could barely move itself, let alone a 150 ton fuel tanker. I attempted a 120m/s rendezvous maneuver, and at full throttle, received an estimated time to burn completion of three days. For an engine that requires an extensive array of extremely expensive radiators!

Rather than view it as a gigantic waste of time, I'm considering this an experiment, The results being that I plan to never use that particular engine for anything ever again. I would have literally been better off using an ion engine. Its thrust-to-weight ratio is absolutely abysmal.

Next time, I'll send up the right engine for the job.

[RedDwarfIV]

The right engine for the job.

This is the Scylla FTV-L, with the Charybdis 2 interplanetary drive. Ignore the Skipper engines, they won't be doing anything. I'd originally planned for the two craft to be capable of separation, so the Scylla could land at the fuel production facility. Instead, I used Konstruction ports to weld the two craft together. I liked the aesthetics better, and honestly, the Scylla is far too big to be landing on its own. It would probably work at Gilly, but I don't want to take the chance. It doesn't even have any landing legs.

As you might expect from something this heavy, its delta-V is rather lower than the other vessels I've launched using the same drive. This one has 8,000 m/s, which is plenty for my purposes.

Edited December 16, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

The Wolverine GCV worked well enough on Minmus, but I always had to pair it with the Workshop lander just for the habitation and life support. Its tiny wheels were also an absurdity that really only worked because of Minmus' perfectly flat terrain.

For worlds with higher gravity and rougher ground, not to mention the impossibility of rapid crew rotation, a more advanced vehicle would be needed.

And here it is, the Kodiak GCV. Not only does it have a 200% efficient Workshop that can hold eight engineers, but it also carries a 3.75m Kerbitat and a hydroponics unit. This vehicle is built for long-term operations in remote areas where support is limited. Its likely first destination is Ike, where it will be assembled in-orbit by Leviathan, but the Kodiak should be capable of handling almost any world I'm interested in building something on. Places it can't get to, like Tylo, are places I'm unlikely to want it to be anyway. Not shown in the picture are the extra fuel tanks for descent from orbit, or the parachutes I added for target worlds with atmospheres like Eve or Laythe.

 

For the moment, not much is going on. I launched a large rover toward Eve, which will hopefully fulfil one of my mission contracts while gathering science. So even if the Ronin proves unable to return to orbit (I plan to carry out an unmanned test flight into Eve's atmosphere before transferring crew to the spaceplane) I will at least get some science from it.

So unless I want to carry out another Milk Run (and I am getting low on funds again) I'll be timewarping to the next event on the alarm clock. For the next 64 days, it's all adjustment burns. Adventure will arrive at Kerbin in 114 days, Leviathan will arrive at Duna in 144 days.

Edited December 19, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

Launched Milk Run 3.

Waiting in Minmus orbit for 12 days, when the moon passes Kerbin's equator.

 

Tenacity 2  made it's Neidon intercept burn.

At this distance from Kerbol, the solar panels had fallen from an energy flow of 40 to just 6. Happily, the probe has a big fat RTG as a maintainer, and a KerboPower fission generator to run the ion drive, even at full throttle.

After a successful burn, I set an alarm for when the probe would enter Neidon's SoI. 55 years.  I wonder how much could have been cut off that if the transfer window calculator had been more accurate?  I'm once again left thinking about how my probes will likely be overtaken by crewed missions later on, using higher energy burns to take a more direct route.

 

Jool Surveyor came to its next Laythe pass. This too was an unsuccessful capture, but the gravity assist did bring it into another encounter on the other side of Laythe which would require a far more maneageable 100 m/s to capture. The probe would be capable of that!

 

Yes! Successful capture in Laythe orbit!

Starting the resource scan...

...oh my fricking god

 

So, uh... Jool Surveyor 2 is now just a glorified comms relay. It's 338 days to the next Jool transfer window. Sigh.

[TwoCalories]

So, just as a quick refresher, what's the purpose of the Milk Run missions again? How do they work?

[RedDwarfIV]

6 hours ago, TwoCalories said:

So, just as a quick refresher, what's the purpose of the Milk Run missions again? How do they work?

When you recover a craft on Kerbin, you get the value of its parts back (less, the further you are from KSC.)

Resources also have value. In this case, I'm shipping Rare Metals and Exotic Minerals from Minmus to Kerbin, as (barring Enriched Uranium) these are the most valuable resources by weight. Uranium is difficult to transfer from one vessel to another, and is so heavy that landing it at Kerbin is a risky business. That same difficulty in transferring between vessels would also make splitting the return between multiple spaceplanes a more complex operation than simply docking two vessels together and transferring resources from one tank to another. You would need separate tanks, and to physically move a tank across. It could certainly be done, but I feel it's not really worth the extra hassle.

When I recover the spaceplane at KSC, I receive the value of the vessel and the resources. This means a profit in the millions of VF per mission to Minmus.

[RedDwarfIV]

Completing Milk Run 3 took a couple of flights of the Warlock before the Paladin could descend.

The first Warlock lost an engine and wing on landing. Hard landings being a recurring problem for that class of spaceplane - it had a tendency to max out pitch control at low speed without being able to complete its flare, resulting in a high vertical speed touchdown - I finally got around to redesigning its landing gear arrangement. Upping the size of the main and nose gear would give it more suspension distance to play with, though it would (annoyingly) remove the nose gear steering.  

This worked! The second Warlock landed perfectly intact! It spent most of its landing offroad instead of on the runway, but that's more an issue with my piloting skills. And the fact that it survived the offroading is also a testament to how effective the new gear was. I'm happy with it!

8 million VF. All in all, a successful mission. Even if we did irradiate the runway,

 

I built a small FTV for Fission Fragments, then sent it to Minmus. Meanwhile, Tarasque began construction of a new vessel, the Harpy ARV (Asteroid Redirect Vehicle).  Asteroid TRK-003 will enter Kerbin's SoI in 38 days, and I have several contracts regarding various sizes of asteroids, so I wanted to make sure I caught it. The Harpy is a very large, very capable unmanned vessel mounting a pair of Advanced Fission Fragment drives in tractor configuration. A number of events interrupted construction - the arrival of the Eagle FF-FTV at Minmus, my moving an FTV to Wyvern to refuel a Ferret SPCV before it launched for Tarasque, along with the inclination burns to intercept Eve made by Valiant, Tarantula, the Ronin and the Scylla. 

Turns out I forgot to put anything more than the most basic comms antenna on the vessel. Oh well. The Tarantula's interplanetary stage may become a relay satellite once it's completed its primary mission, since it does have bigger dishes.

 

Assembling the Harpy kit took 25 days, while construction only took 5.

26,000 m/s delta-V, and a TWR of 14.34 on afterburner mode. TRK-003 enters Kerin's SoI in five days. It will have a periapsis just inside Mun orbit, and a high inclination. As Harpy has such high delta-V and acceleration, I can send it out to meet the asteroid on the Descending Node, then match velocity there before grabbing  the rock and making capture burn. No messing around with long orbits, trying to rendezvous while the rock hurtles toward perigee. I tried that a few years ago and didn't much enjoy it.

With the asteroid in tow, Harpy's delta-V and TWR dropped significantly, to 10,000 m/s and 0.31 respectively. No worries, the rock was only travelling at 700 m/s. Slowing it down and changing planes, or even reversing the orbit to match everything  else flying about, wouldn't even use a tenth of the fuel on board.

Success! We have a 90km orbit, perfect for conducting research.  This test went extremely well, but Harpy will likely have problems towing any larger asteroids, Not because of the mass, but because of engine angle and truss length. I'll need to add a long truss section to the tail end. LKO is a good place to do that, too.

 

19 days until Adventure returns to Kerbin.

Edited December 27, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

We begin today's update with a science probe arriving at Asteroid TRK-003 to perform some science, both nearby and while grappled to the surface.

It wasn't all that valuable scientifically, but it allowed me to complete a mission contract.

Next, the Harpy Truss Extender was launched, which was met in orbit by an engineer. Parts were rearranged, and the two sections welded together with Konstruction ports.

 

About a week later, Adventure entered Kerbin's sphere of influence, with 1,200 m/s of delta-V remaining.

The braking burn began. Capture was almost instant, but there was still another 900 delta-V to go to reach LKO.

Finally, Adventure was back in low Kerbin orbit, running on fumes.

149 experiments had to be moved from the Adventure's command pod to the descent vehicle. It took a while, and looked like the end credits of a movie on fast-forward.

The descend vehicle detatched, made its decel burn, and fell back through the atmosphere to land in the sea by the KSC.

Pretty good! It'll only unlock one or two more science nodes, though. I haven't built a nuclear saltwater rocket yet, so I'm gonna leave it alone until I have.

[Kerbalsaurus]

3 hours ago, RedDwarfIV said:

Only 3,162 science? Kind of a light haul, if you ask me. But seriously, nice job on the mission!

[RedDwarfIV]

58 minutes ago, Kerbalsaurus said:

Only 3,162 science? Kind of a light haul, if you ask me. But seriously, nice job on the mission!

Heh. I was a little surprised, but to be fair, that's almost all from Ike. Plus you can add a thousand science points from the research lab that was made on the journey there and back.

Thanks! It pleases me that at least one of my IPTVs managed to avoid needing a rescue mission. Life support makes vessels much heavier than they would be in stock, so it can be hard to gauge how much more fuel they need. Duna is not a hard planet to get to and from, and Adventure still wouldn't have made it back without taking fuel from the FTV and the garden station. It needed much more fuel storage than I gave it.

[RedDwarfIV]

The Tarantula rover arrived at Eve, capturing then separating from its transfer stage. The transfer stage performed an inclination maneuver to enter a polar orbit of Eve, where it could serve as a comms relay. After this, the descent vehicle performed an aerobrake to enter Low Eve Orbit. To prevent re-entry heating damage, each pass would be fairly shallow. The heat-shield couldn't be deployed, because that would bock the thrusters.

It would remain in LEO until a suitable landing site was chosen.

Many aerobrakes were needed. Both the Valiant and Scylla arrived in the Eve system during this time.

Final descent. With the landing site decided, the braking thrusters fired, and the ballute deployed. At first, the ballute's drag tried to pull it toward the back, which would have resulted in the drogue chute being destroyed by the heat of entry.

Eventually, though, the ballute faced forward, and took the brunt, keeping everything safe behind it.

Drogue chute deployed. Velocity 200 m/s.

Aeroshell ejected. At this point, aerodynamic forces began interacting with the rover, sending it spinning. I had no choice but to deploy main chutes and separate the rover from the descent stage.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

This layer between the clouds looked like a gigantic cave system. No wonder the surface is invisible from orbit.

What the...? Bubbles?

They are bubbles!

...plants? Eve has plants?

Firing retros for landing. At 6 m/s, it was unlikely to be neccesary, but it still softened the landing.

Touched down, safe and sound! And an old friend happened to drop by.

I performed a number of science experiments, but transmitting them to Kerbin will have to waitt until I can take a look at the .cfg file for the triangular truss that makes up the Tarantula's body. It's set to Support, which is supposed to have ec storage, but for some reason does not. The larger octagonal truss does, and both have batteries as part of the model. Until then, it's stuck with 150ec, barely enough to send basic science.

...oh, and to top it off, I forgot to include a Bon Voyage controller. So any journeys to other biomes will have to be done on manual control. Good thing these wheels have a top speed of just under 40 m/s, and Eve's gravity should prevent any shenanigans.

 

As I mentioned earlier, several other events occurred while the Tarantula made its way to LEO. 

Valiant arrived at Eve, making a capture burn then maneuvering to intercept Gilly.

The Scylla FTV also arrived, braking into a 200km high orbit over Eve. It will stay there until the Ronin needs it, if that vessel actually succeeds in its test flight. The Ronin SSTO itself is still a day out from encountering Eve's SoI.

And finally, Leviathan arrived at the Duna system. It will perform a braking burn at periapsis, with the aim of intercepting Ike.

Edited December 28, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

After going through the Near Future Technologies .cfg files. I have absolutely no idea why the octagonal Support truss has both EC and monoprop, while the hexagonal one only has monoprop. They're both using the same MPEC code. Since this appears to be another KSP bug, I will be permitting myself to use the InfiniteElectricCharge cheat while using the Tarantula rover. If the Support truss was working as intended, it would be very difficult to use up its entire power supply.

[RedDwarfIV]

I switched to the Ronin 3 hours before it's Eve intercept alarm, to find something very strange had happened.

That... isn't right.

Somehow, the alarm had set itself for Eve escape, not Eve encounter, despite having been created in interplanetary space. As a result, by the time I had switched to the vessel, it had performed a gravity slingshot around the planet and was being flung onto an interstellar trajectory. It was moving at 6,000 m/s, and had 4,000 m/s of delta-V., so an Eve capture had been made impossible.

I came up with a contingency plan. If I couldn't send the Ronin to Eve, perhaps it would make an excellent Laythe explorer. 

It's tentative, but it looks like I can swing a Jool intercept in 9 years, 132 days. Not brilliant, as I may well have expanded my industrial operations out to Jool by then, but it's the best I can get from the vehicle. Quite a shame, I was looking forward to seeing whether it could escape Eve's atmosphere or not.

 

2 days later, Valiant arrived at Gilly. Travelling in retrograde, it had 300 m/s to shed in order to make orbit, but this was no trouble at all.

I'd forgotten about the Garden Station in Gilly orbit, and even after re-discovering it later on, felt no need to dock Valiant with it. The IPTV carries a tremendous amount of Fertiliser for its on-board hydroponics bay, which is more than capable of generating enough Supplies for a four-man crew. 

First descent. It was successful, but the next screenshot I have is of the Valiant's engineer following the lander to the surface using the EVA jetpack.

All scientific instruments deployed. I was forced to hack gravity because they weren't landing fast enough to deploy.

Gilly only has three biomes, and it's low gravity means hopping between them is a breeze. It also meant the last crewmember,  scientist Gilus, was able to EVA down just to plant a flag of his own. This done, the crew's performance was reviewed in the Science Lab and all personnel received a rank up to Level 4!

I considered leaving the lander behind at the Garden Station, but it's the only vessel I have with a Surface Scanner on board. This component has somehow disappeared from my VAB Parts list, so if I want to scan WOLF biomes, I'll need this lander available.

The transfer window from Eve to Kerbin is in 1 year, 129 days. Plenty of time for lab work.

[RedDwarfIV]

Another day, another asteroid to capture. The Harpy goes forth.

There was a lot of burning to get an intercept. This rock was way further out than the last one, and travelling in the opposite direction.

Intercept!

Lots of RCS needed to turn this pig.

This maneuver put Harpy on the Mun's inclination, and brought the periapsis down to 100k over Kerbin.

It'll take a few days to get there. Also, note how wonky this asteroid is. The clamp is aimed at centre of mass, and I had no control issues.

 

Kinda got lost in everything that was happening, but Leviathan reached Duna and swung back out to Ike.

Braking into Ike orbit.

Before any serious work could begin, I needed to address a problem that should've been solved about a hundred and fifty days ago. That being, I forgot to send a tug vehicle for moving empty construction kits from the orbital assembly unit to the docking port. So I designed one and set the ship to building it.

As you can see, I had to do a fancy dance to get the kit attached. Didn't want to have to do that every time.

Deployment. I discovered that I could Autostrut the kit and it wouldn't go Kraken on me. So long as I remember to do that, I shouldn't need the NoCrashDamage or UnbreakableJoints cheats on in future.

Tug completed, and a very quick job it was, too. Under a day, I think.

Tug moved to its rest position. Thanks to the Claw, it needn't take up any of the limited docking ports.

 

I missed Duna Surveyor's encounter, and had to maneuver it into another one. Good thing this vessel has the generation capability to power its advanced ion thruster. Hopefully this scansat has enough batteries on board to do its job, or I will be very sad.

 

Another arrival at Duna was Endeavour, the manned mission to finally land Kerbals on the orange planet.

 

The pilot and scientist transferred to the Matador Duna Ascent Vehicle.

Minmus' Lowlands were a very rocky, sloped area. Not fun to land on.

The Midlands were much nicer. Also, I remembered to use the airbrakes on my second landing. Not sure how effective they actually were...

What I assume is ejecta from the crater, which I have a contract to survey, but no scanning arm to survey it with.

Ah, something a Kerbal can smash with a hammer! We collected some Blueberries and a Duna rock.

Duna's gravity is just low enough that jet packs work after you jump in the air. It's a perilous activity, as you can easily find yourself landing faster than intended.

 

Having surveyed three biomes - Lowlands, Midlands and Crater - the Matador was ready for return to orbit. Slightly under 1,600 m/s of delta-V remained after the biome hopping. I was hoping it would be enough.

And it was! Squeaking into orbit, the DAV waited in LDO for the Endeavour to rendezvous with it. Since the mothership had no shortage of delta-V, it seemed the better option.

Blue dawn.

Rendezvous.

The fuel remaining in Endeavour's LFO RCS tank was not enough to fully replenish the Matador, leaving me uncertain whether it was worth sending it down again, where it could be marooned. This struck me as especially unneccesary when I had a Manticore FTV in hanging around in Ike orbit. Only minimal fuel on board, of course, since most of that was used up by Adventure's mission to Ike. But there's no reason that a fuel refinery couldn't be added to Leviathan's project list, is there?

Edited December 31, 2023 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

So, we finally get to play with the Leviathan. It's only got a limited amount of resources, however, and if I waste them, they can't be replaced until I can send a transport at the next Duna window. I designed a base that would be able to produce MaterialKits, Specialised Parts and Machinery. Not in any great amount, admittedly, but it would hopefully produce enough to keep the Leviathan stocked. I can use that to build a larger base with greater output later.

I set Tarasque to building two things - a Banshee RSV that could carry Supplies, Fertiliser and Machinery, and a copy of the planned base.

 

The Banshee had an insuffiently capable probe core, so I swapped it out for a better one before having Leviathan carry out construction of the redesigned version.

It was at this point that I discovered a problem. Endeavour was not the only spacecraft in the Duna system with limited supplies of LFO. All of my planned landing systems were reliant on it. And while Leviathan is absolutely flush with liquid hydrogen, there's no spare EnrichedUranium for nuclear engines. This bottleneck could seriously put a crimp on the operation.

 

In happier news, Harpy successfully brought its second captured asteroid into orbit over Kerbin. I'm honestly surprised at how well this vessel works.

 

Duna Surveyor arrived at Duna, and carried out its capture burn.

The moment I'd been dreading arrived. Would this probe suffer the same fate as Jool Surveyor 2? Would it have the juice?

Yes! Yes it did! In fact, its EC count barely moved during transmission, as the giant solar arrays kept it well supplied throughout, and the survey of Duna was completed.

A few orbits later, the probe was on its way to Ike. Getting there was a little fraught, as the Patched Conics orbital simulation was lying to me again. But I got it there.

Once again, the scanner activated. Once again, it produced results. Now I was able to choose a good landing site for the first base.

Good thing too, because Leviathan finished building a Kodiak GCV. I discovered the Resources tab in the Workshop window, allowing me to transfer fuel, supplies, fertiliser, materialkits and electric charge across before launching the kit into a vessel. Seems the effort I went to to fit a Logistics module to Tarasque was redundant, even if it had worked, which it didn't.

The GCV found a fairly flat spot in the area I'd chosen, a region of Ike where multiple resources overlapped. Including, to my suprise, Water. Apparetly it's really abundant on Duna's moon.

 

I somehow managed to lose the screen-cap, but the test version of Angel Base landed on Minmus was completed after 23 days of construction. All systems functioned, at extremely low efficiency. This was because of a lack of Machinery. It was at this point that I realised, I had sent very little Machinery along with Leviathan, just the 200 units in the Orbital Assembly Workshop. This... could be a problem. The base is capable of producing Machinery, so theoretically it could bootstrap itself up to full efficiency, but this might well take so long that sending a transport could prove the more effective option in the end anyway.

Ah well. Designing a freighter could be interesting.

[RedDwarfIV]

No update on the game today, but I do have news.

Recently I've noticed an increase in load times when entering physics range of Wyvern Base, and spikes of lag as well. I'm unhappy about this because it means I'm approaching the limits of what my computer can handle.

But fear not! I have purchased many parts, and shall construct a new computer, one far more powerful!

So with luck, we will be seeing many more updates to come. On the meantime, I'll do some debris gardening to lighten the save file. Maybe deconstruct Meridian Base for the MaterialKits.

[RedDwarfIV]

After evacuating the Quartermaster from Meridian Base, I discovered that I could no longer use the Menu options, or change to a different vessel outside of physics range. Confused, I opened the debug menu, and discovered that there was a serious problem. I was being spammed with an error. Searching it up, I discovered that this was a bug with stock KSP called Docking Rot, that could occur in any vessel created from docked parts, though Kerbitrail ports seem to get it worse. 

There was no solution. I had to revert to an earlier save, and terminate the base from the Tracking Station. Sadly, this meant killing the base's lone crewmember. Rest in peace, Whats-his-name Kerman.

In an effort to resolve the lag issue, I decided that the best solution would be to replace Wyvern with a brand new facility, one that could perform all the same duties with a much lower part count. To do this, I would need to shift manufacturing to an MKS Atlas factory dome. Six assembly bays.

With those bays, I can produce pretty much every advanced resource worth making in a single dome. One part instead of six. Not a massive reduction, but these things add up.

Once happy with the design, and having tested it on Kerbin to ensure all the drills worked, I went to Tarasque Station and started work on the Ground Kit that would be used to deploy the base.

...oh wow. 210 days, and that's just for orbital assembly! Construction on the ground will take even longer. I'd better send more engineers when the time comes.

 

Kraken reached Dres and successfully captured.

 

Valkyrie did likewise.

 

Within a couple or orbits, she's rendezvoused with Odyssey.

All gathered data was transferred to the Valkyrie, over 200 of it. The crew followed, no doubt grateful to finally have clean air, power, and functional living spaces. And food.

Next up, meeting the Kraken for refuelling.

Propellant load complete. 4,196 m/s of delta-V, more than enough to return home without having to worry about any misjudged burns or inaccurate transfer windows. Speaking of, the window back to Kerbin is only 97 days away. The crew of the Odyssey marooned out at Dres, will finally head home.

 

As for the Odyssey herself... 

She was an outdated design, improperly built for her mission. There would be no attempt to fit the Kraken's drive to her forward section, the refuelling ship had no propellant left to burn with. At best, the vessel might serve as a minimally capable space station, and even that would only be possible if the Kraken's fission reactor was salvaged to provide power.

I saw no further use for her, and that meant her destruction as an anti-lag measure. But simply terminating the flight wouldn't be an honourable death for a spacecraft that had come so far, carried the crew to the first landing on Dres. And further, it would be wasteful.

Instead, I chose to deorbit the spacecraft, She would forever be a part of the planet she'd flown to, a permenant piece of Kerbin on a world that would likely never see the Kerbals return.

And I got 600 science from the seismometer, which is nice.

Edited January 5 by RedDwarfIV

[RedDwarfIV]

In preparation for resupplying Leviathan, I launched the new Basilisk Automated Freight Vessel (AFV).

For this mission, I decided I'd need thrust moreso than efficiency. What's being moved is incredibly heavy - 30k of Machinery, 30k of MaterialKits, and 30k of SpecialisedParts. I've ditched the glitchy PersistentThrust mod, as it kept preventing me from time warping at all, but the alternative - BetterTimeWarp - has its own limitations. Even stock 4x Physics Warp can be dangerous for craft of questionable structural integrity. Going at 8x, 16x, 32x or even 64x basically requires that you use incredibly low-thrust engines so as not to break anything. My point being, if I'm going to have long burn times, I'll want those long burns to be as short as possible.

Also, I've never used the Verne before. It has some quirks of operation. The capacitors must be charged before firing, requiring extensive battery arrays and an effective means of charging them. Every maneuver requires this, so every maneuver needs to be planned. Also, dropping below 5% throttle (or simply never raising it beyond that to begin with) will result in engine shutdown and, you guessed it! Another capacitor charge cycle before you can go again. This is not an engine for fine maneuvers.

It's a big adjustment from the Advanced Fission Fragment engines, which were simple enough to use.

I had launched the Basilisk with a small load of Fission Pellets on board, so that my launch vehicle - the Earthquake 50-ton-to-LKO reusable rocket - wouldn't have to lift quite so much mass. That meant sending up a refuelling vehicle, which I discovered had far too much LFO on board for its job.

Next came the RSVs carrying 30k of a particular type of resources. These also used the Earthquake.

landing in the rain

just landing in the rain

what a glorious feeling

i'm crashing again

 

The next Duna launch window is over a year away. That sucks. I don't think I can set up even a basic Ike base without a resupply of LFO. I might manage if I can build and land a mining vessel with a converter on board.

A Jool window, however, is coming up in a mere 20 days. I began work on a new exploration vessel, to be launched in sections (Tarasque is busy with Meridian 2) but KSP crashed right after I saved the command section. I'll launch it tomorrow.