Long-term Laythe Mission (pic heavy) - ^_^ With Part 45 ^_^

[Brotoro]

Great story read them all, it is clear that you read and listen to books, since your stories are rich of content even in plain dunes of sand But how do you track your travels so nice on a map?

I took lots of screenshots during the mission, including shots of the rover's position in Map View at important points along the way, so I was able to reconstruct the rover's path from that.

[Kromey]

/** snip lots of good stuff **/

Thanks for the tips! I actually just had my most successful plane build yet, not a plane/rover BirdDog but just a standard jet. I found controlling the thing rather a pain (mostly in trying to turn), but even with my issues there it was remarkably stable in flight, and no matter how badly I screwed up it refused to flip or spin or anything on me!

Then I hit the ground too hard trying to land, and the cockpit popped off. Then everything exploded. And I was sad. Because I'd actually touched down within a KM of Tim (trying to do the Rescue Tim Challenge over in Challenges right now).

I think I'll do a lot better if I can figure out how to get an avionics package on the danged thing. That little part just doesn't seem to fit anywhere! It looks like you put a pair on the vertical stabilizers? Probably have to turn on part clipping to do that I'd imagine? I'm actually tempted to just mod it into my cockpits and be done with it!

My only warning about flying the BirdDog is to be careful about not pitching up too much, which you can easily do if the avionics package is turned off (I guess this is the price you pay for a plane that that lift off in short distances). But I have been amazed by the ability of the plane (when it did pitch up out of control on me in Kerbin test flights) to just keep doing tight loops at low altitudes when I was sure it would smash into the ground. I got out of that situation by rolling over at the top of the loop, and that got me back to horizontal flight.

Ah, nice! One of my earlier prototypes (again, just a regular plane -- trying to just dip my toes in rather than diving straight into the deep end here!) did the tight loops right off the runway, surprisingly climbing higher and higher as it did so. I keep trying to nose down to get out of the loops, which finally succeeded catastrophically as I dove nose-first into the dirt! Rolling at the top of the loop sounds a lot safer though.

[Brotoro]

...I think I'll do a lot better if I can figure out how to get an avionics package on the danged thing. That little part just doesn't seem to fit anywhere! It looks like you put a pair on the vertical stabilizers? Probably have to turn on part clipping to do that I'd imagine? I'm actually tempted to just mod it into my cockpits and be done with it!

I originally just stuck it on the front of the vertical tail using a cubic strut, but it looked better clipped at the top-rear of the tail...and it cave me a place to attach the OKTO2 probe body as well.

[Fractal_UK]

I'm actually amazed that you've managed to conduct so many landings with your plane - I specifically designed a VTOL spaceplane for my operations on Laythe due to the nature of the terrain but I'm still finding it pretty difficult not to just smash into a hill here and there. I might just be a useless pilot though! What kind of speeds does your creation land at?

[Elven_sword]

Why not do some rover missions to circumnavigate KSP's more neglected objects like Vall, Moho, and Eeloo? I'd love to see you bouncing around on Minmus' overgrown cousin, Vall.

[Brotoro]

I'm actually amazed that you've managed to conduct so many landings with your plane - I specifically designed a VTOL spaceplane for my operations on Laythe due to the nature of the terrain but I'm still finding it pretty difficult not to just smash into a hill here and there. I might just be a useless pilot though! What kind of speeds does your creation land at?

Let me check my gigantic folder of screenshots...

Unfortunately, I had the navball hidden when I made most of my landings (since I'm usually trying to take pictures as I land). The landing I made at Bill Lake had the navball showing, and I was still floating along at 33.6 m/s as I was pulling up more and more for the upslope landing. I think I generally touchdown in the low-to-mid 40s. The BirdDog lifts off the ground at just under 60 m/s on Laythe.

I'm very pleased with my BirdDog landings on Laythe so far...I haven't had to use a Quicksave to undo any of them. Eventually I expect I will get Aldner stranded on another island with a messed up landing, so that's why I'm sending out a single-kerbal rescue SSTO rocket during the next Jool transfer window.

[Brotoro]

Why not do some rover missions to circumnavigate KSP's more neglected objects like Vall, Moho, and Eeloo? I'd love to see you bouncing around on Minmus' overgrown cousin, Vall.

Circumnavigating takes a long time. Moho and Eeloo take a lot of effort to get to, but I did very much like Vall the two times I landed there. If fuel resources are hard to come by on Laythe (because there is a high probability that all the good stuff will be located under oceans), I'll have to set up mining operations on Vall, and then I expect I'll get plenty of opportunity to rove around there to narrow down the location of the resources.

[Fractal_UK]

I'm very pleased with my BirdDog landings on Laythe so far...I haven't had to use a Quicksave to undo any of them. Eventually I expect I will get Aldner stranded on another island with a messed up landing, so that's why I'm sending out a single-kerbal rescue SSTO rocket during the next Jool transfer window.

That's a good plan. I've got a VTVL SSTO on Laythe with transport for 7 Kerbals (1 pilot + 6 colonists) and it's incredibly handy. I also put a couple of rovers on the surface for transporting Kerbals on the ground between colony sites (long story short, the first habitat didn't work out as planned so I've been slowly ferrying the Kerbals to a new one).

[colmo]

Loving the narrative. You've taken care of your Kerbals enough to record what they've done.

How do you record the GIFs?

For vessel recommendations, I'd consider:

- a dual-cockpit (Mk1 + Mk2 cockpits) or Mk3 cockpit VTOSL transport (S for Short - you have Damned Robotics already, so might as well), handy for making those tricky landings.

- A boat, because you seriously have a lot of water to navigate. Trickier to do if you want to avoid mods, but there are a few out there that really suit, like Tosh's pontoons and the propeller mod (I doubt you'll manage to get Infinitedice's aircraft carrier to Laythe!). Plus, electric props don't need refuelling. This also makes an electric Firespitter powered plane or helicopter tempting.

[Brotoro]

Loving the narrative. You've taken care of your Kerbals enough to record what they've done.

How do you record the GIFs?

For vessel recommendations, I'd consider:

- a dual-cockpit (Mk1 + Mk2 cockpits) or Mk3 cockpit VTOSL transport (S for Short - you have Damned Robotics already, so might as well), handy for making those tricky landings.

- A boat, because you seriously have a lot of water to navigate. Trickier to do if you want to avoid mods, but there are a few out there that really suit, like Tosh's pontoons and the propeller mod (I doubt you'll manage to get Infinitedice's aircraft carrier to Laythe!). Plus, electric props don't need refuelling. This also makes an electric Firespitter powered plane or helicopter tempting.

The animated GIFs are made from multiple screen shots...I just press the F1 key rapidly to get the images. Photoshop has a menu command (File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack) that will load the images into layers in one image, and then I can use its Animation window to have a different layer show up in each frame. Crop, optimize for Web, and done.

Yes...Because Laythe is mostly water I've realized that I need some ocean probes, so I've made a "boat/rover" (it is stock, so its performance is not great, but it was fun to pilot when I tested it in booster bay) and a brace of floater probes to drop into the oceans. They will go off to the Jool system in the next launch window.

[NuclearWarfare]

I love this

I also have a Kurt Kerman. He was used in my AAR series.... He murdered two men and tried to do so again, but he was soon put into custody for life.

[colmo]

This. This is the craft you need. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/24734-Amphibious-VTOLSSTO-%28Image-heavy%29

[DaserTheGamer]

Bring us more of the laythe base crew please!

[Culv3r]

I definitely liked reading over your Mission Reports, it gives me some good ideas as for what to do when I get further into my own personal space program. Keep having fun and thanks for the recap!

[Brotoro]

Long-term Laythe Mission - Part 6

TL;DR version: Brotoro spends a lot more time sending stuff to and from Laythe.

I am finding that supporting even a small base on Laythe to be a rather daunting task. But I slog on. The first launch window from Kerbin to Jool that occurred after the guys arrived at Laythe was coming up, and it was obviously time to send along some more equipment. Plus, the Nuclear Tugs that had carried equipment to Laythe in the first armada should be returned to Kerbin for re-use (since reusability is a major theme here). This was going to mean controlling a lot of flights at once again, so I installed the Kerbal Alarm Clock mod to help me track all the flight events. This helped, but it's still a lot of tedium. Version 0.20 was released as I was doing all this, but I'm still working in version 0.19 here because I have some mods installed that were not yet updated (Alarm Clock and Damned Robotics Hinges) that prevent me from updating this save file.

I decided that since Laythe is mostly ocean, I should be making more of an attempt to study the oceans...so I arranged to send out some Ocean Probes to be spread around the planet, and a jet-powered "rover/boat" to take readings out in the ocean. It would be nice if there were several small islands offshore from the Laythe Base area to make a rover/boat more useful, but there aren't. So it will primarily be an unmanned probe, but will have a one-kerbal capsule for test drives and for steering torque. I have named it the 'DogFish' and tested a prototype around the KSC. Below you can see the prototype in Booster Bay. It's basically four tanks of jet fuel, a jet engine, a capsule for steering torque, and a probe body for control and RTGs for power. The wheels are primarily for getting it down into the water, but they also allow it to explore the seashore.

The DogFish does not travel terribly fast (it gets very difficult to control at speeds over 7 m/s), but I was able to drive it out to the island near KSC that has the dirt landing strip...which took over 45 minutes. Be careful to go slow when putting the DogFish into the water or when exiting the water, or damage can result.

Once I got to the island, I took the DigFish to visit the hanger with the old rocket parts inside. In fact, I left the DogFish prototype there as part of the exhibit, since its testing work was done. It had used less than half of its fuel getting to the island, so it could come back to KSC if desired.

But let's get back to the mission at hand. One of the things the Laythe Base crew needed was a better way to rescue a crew member who gets stranded on a different island (if they wreck a BirdDog on landing or while roving). Currently the only rescue option is to use the 3-kerbal SSTO rocket, and that would involve hopping up to the station, refueling, then going down to get the stranded kerbal, then back to the station. And since this SSTO is the crew's only way back to the station to return home, this would probably mean having to bring everyone back up on the initial boost and returning everyone to Kerbin after the rescue...cutting the base mission short. Not at all a desirable option. So mission planners decided to send a compact one-kerbal SSTO rocket that could be dropped from the station to rescue a stranded kerbal, using much less fuel and not endangering the main SSTO vehicle. In the images below we see the 'SSTUBBY' vehicle ("Single-Stage To Up Barely Beyond Yonder") being launched on a Reusable Rocket. This payload also includes a set of eight small Ocean Probes (that crown of thorns the SSTUBBY is wearing), and is topped off by a refueler module that will be used to refuel the Nuclear Tug that will carry this payload to Laythe (just because I didn't want to have to bother with the extra work of more rendezvous and dockings to refuel the tugs...and the Reusable Rocket has plenty of lift capacity to bring the refueler).

The next payload for this armada will carry the DogFish rover/boat. It will also carry a replacement Fido rover for the crew to use in exploring Dansen Island because the Folding Fido turned out to be a bit of a disappointment (it's too loosy-goosey wobbly because of the hinges, so it can't be driven safely at high speeds). This replacement rover will be very similar to the Fido KE series of rovers that were used on Eve and for circumnavigating Duna. These rovers will enter Laythe together so that I only need to make one "heat shield" for them. Also included in this payload are two high-orbit ComSats (mounted on the heat shield either side of the rovers), and a Refueler top.

The third payload in this armada will carry another GasStation for the BirdDog. Also, one of the tanks in the GasStation will be used to carry three-quarters of a ton of supplies for the crew instead of jet fuel (or so I say...I will not use the fuel from that tank, and chalk it up as a cargo container, since we don't have specific cargo container parts). This payload also contains RCS fuel for the Laythe Station (since the Tugs were using more of that than expected). There are no fuel/oxidizer tanks being sent because each Tug that arrives has more fuel/oxidizer than needed, so it will be stored in the tanks on Laythe Station for future use (the Tugs are essentially little fuel transport ships as well). On top of the GasStation 2 is an RCS-powered Mini-Tug that has proven to be useful in moving stuff around the Space Station in Kerbin orbit, so it should also be useful at Laythe Station. And topping it off is a Refueler Module. Note that the right half of the image shows the separation of the boosters...these and the central core are reusable (in fact, there has been plenty of time since the earlier launches, so all of the rockets used is this part of the mission should be made from parts recycled from earlier launches).

Next, each of the three payloads needs a Nuclear Tug to boost it to Laythe. Since none of the earlier Laythe tugs have returned yet, Laythe Tug 6 being launched below is a new Tug. In fact, it is a modified design that has 18 extra probe bodies on it to provide steering torque. On some of my previous ships, I've added unmanned capsules or lander cans just for their torque, but somebody suggested that a lot of probe bodies could provide the same torque for less weight, so I decided to try that out (this will hopefully make it easier for the the Tug to wrestle around payloads while using less RCS fuel). It would be nice if the KSP devs just gave us some parts that provide steering torque (and, no, don't suggest SAS modules...they only provide dampening torque that slow rotations...they do not provide steering torque).

Below is Laythe Tug 7 being launched by Reusable Rocket. Remember that the mass of the Nuclear Tug exceeds the capacity of the Reusable Rocket, so the nuclear engines on the Tug are used to help out the sustainer so that both the Tug AND the sustainer can get into orbit (because the sustainer must orbit back around to land at KSC to be reusable). The Tug uses between 1/4 and 1/2 of its rear fuel tank to assist the sustainer like this (and to give the sustainer enough fuel to land). This is why the Tugs need refueling before heading to Laythe.

Below we see Laythe Tug 8 in orbit after giving the sustainer stage enough fuel so that it can head back to land at KSC.

Next comes rendezvous and docking fun-time! Tug L6 docks with the SSTUBBY/OceanProbe payload. After the Refueler Top Module replenishes the fuel tanks of the Tug (including its RCS tanks), the Refueler Module is separated. Any remaining fuel can be taken to the Space Station...but I wasn't going to do another rendezvous and docking, so I just brought it back to KSC.

I forgot to add MechJeb to the Refueler Top Modules, so I had to guide them in myself (these are also reusable components). One ended up on KSC property, and the other two landed several kilometers short of KSC property, so the recovery crews will have to drive further to get them.

Next we see Tug L7 docking with the rovers payload. I just love the docking camera mod...it makes my life much easier. Then the Tug was refueled as needed from the Refueler, which was then separated.

Then it was time for Tug L8 to dock with the GasStation2 payload. After some refueling, the Refueler Module was returned to KSC.

Time to boost the payloads to the Jool system. Again, for better fuel efficiency, I do the Trans-Jool Injection burns in two parts. Below is the typical trajectory plot for getting to Jool. The burns for the three ships each require about 18 to 19 minutes of firing the nukes, so I do the first 9 to 10 minutes to boost the payloads into orbits with apoapses out beyond the Mun, and the rest of the burn when the ships each return to periapsis.

Below are the first burns for the three ships. These payloads were all compact enough that they didn't wobble a lot, so I could run the burns a 2X physics warp to make things faster.

You can see the three initial high-orbits out beyond the Mun after the first parts of the TJI burns. The ships are spaced out (the third is still close to periapsis here) so they will not all come back at the same time. Also, I start these burns before the optimal time of the Kerbin-Jool launch window so that the ships will be returning for part 2 of their burns close to the optimal launch window time. Below the orbit plots you can see Tug L6 and its payload high above Kerbin, falling back in for part 2 of its TJI burn.

Below is the plot for the trajectory to Jool after the second part of the burn... you can see that about half of the delta-V remains to be done. The reason this two-part burt is more efficient than a single long burn is because more of the fuel is burned when the ship is deeper in Kerbin's gravity well (the Oberth Effect).

After all three ships escape Kerbin's S.O.I., we can see the trajectories to Jool.

In the meantime, there were all those Tugs from the first armada sitting at Laythe Station, and the first launch window opportunity for them to return to Kerbin came along at this time (as Kerbal Alarm Clock reminded me). My previous records of how much fuel it took for my Mark Twain ships to return to Kerbin from the outer system indicated that the Tugs should probably be able to make it back to Kerbin with just the fuel in their side-pod tanks. So, all of the fuel remaining in their central tanks was moved to the tanks that would remain attached to Laythe Station, and the four Tugs (L2, L3, L4, and L5) were separated and prepared for return to Kerbin (Laythe Tug 1 is attached to the Crew Return Module, so it is staying).

It might be more efficient to drop the Tugs into orbits around Jool with low periapses to take advantage of the Oberth effect for their Kerbin-return burns, but timing that (with the orbits in the right orientation and the ships getting there at the right time) was more of a headache than I wanted to bother with, so instead I boosted the Tugs out of Laythe orbit into holding orbits between Laythe and Vall, and would boost them to Kerbin from there. Below you can see that the escape from Laythe requires about 580 m/s of delta-V. And don't let the plot fool you...the ship will not end up inside Laythe's orbit...as Laythe moves around Jool as the ship is following that escape path, Laythe ends up curving around its orbit so that the exit-SOI point is outside Laythe's orbit when the Tug reaches that point.

Once the Tugs escaped fro Laythe, additional small burns moved their periapses away from Laythe so they were safe from any Laythe encounters. Then I waited for the optimal time to boost them to Kerbin.

Below is a typical Jool-to-Kerbin trajectory. The 1477 m/s of delta-V required looks scary when the Tugs have so little fuel left, but the masses of the Tugs are quite low at this point, so the the efficient nuclear engines can handle this easily.

The first of the returning Tugs heads off for Kerbin!

In the plot below, we see orbits of the four returning Tugs closely spaced (the ellipses coming from Jool at the top). Meanwhile, the outbound second armada is now reaching the ascending node point and it's time for their plane-shift and fine targeting maneuvers. The typical plane shift is seen below...it will take about 154 m/s of delta-V.

I use the Maneuver Node Improvement mod. This mod allows me to reopen maneuver nodes that annoyingly snap shut (by pressing the 'o' key), and fiddle with the prograde, radial, and normal values of the maneuver (although it's UI could stand improvement here), and it allows me to set the Conics Mode value on the fly. I use Mode 0 for targeting my trajectories because that mode plots the incoming orbit relative to the planet, so you can easily see if it's prograde, retrograde, or whatever angle it is at. The orbit is shown relative to planet at its CURRENT location, which looks weird, but I'm cool with that. You just need to focus on the planet, and then you can easily zoom in and see the orbit exactly as it will occur. Sooooo nice. The only problem I have is focusing on the planet... I already have so much stuff in the Jool system that double-clicking on it is likely to focus on one of my ships in the Jool system. KSP really needs a pop-up menu or something that will allow you to focus on a planet (even Haystack, which solved the problem of focusing on the ship you want {and this may have been fixed in KSP 0.20 as well} does not allow you to choose planets to focus on). Below is a plot of the orbit I'm fine-tuning for a 114 KM aerocapture at Jool done from way out at the ascending node point. You save fuel by targeting from far out...but in truth it's so sensitive at that distance that it's hard to get the exact number you want because even the shortest RCS burn I can make has a big effect. You may have to just wait until you get closer so the controls are less sensitive.

It takes over three-quarters of a year (Earth year) for a ship to follow the Hohmann orbit from Kerbin to Jool...so as my armada was heading out to Jool, a couple more launch windows for Kerbin-to-Jool came up. Well...we shouldn't waste those. So mission planners decided to send out another ship in each of the launch windows that came up. For the first subsequent window, another BirdDog rover/plane would be sent out (this could be a replacement if the original gets damaged... and it gives another rescue option, since it can be flown unmanned...by remote control from Laythe Base, I assume). Also, its associated GasStation could be landed on an island far from Dansen Island, and a BirdDog could then fly there from Laythe Base (with double its normal range, since it would refuel there to return), and there would be enough fuel to explore the distant islands before returning. Below we see BirdDog 2 and Laythe Tug 9 being boosted on recycled Reusable Rockets.

There was no way to easily mount a reusable Refueler Module on top of the BirdDog payload, so three small refuelers were connected to the GasStation's docking arm ports, and after these were used to top off the Tug's tanks, they were separated with enough RCS fuel left to deorbit themselves. Note that in order to be sure that the Tug would be full, it did not give the sustainer of its rocket enough fuel to land on its rocket flame (as is normally done) so that sustainer had to land using parachutes.

I did not bother to add recovery systems to these little refueler pods... they were just deorbited and dropped into the oceans. Wasteful, I know.

BirdDog2 was sent off to Jool using a two-part burn as described for the previous payloads.

And then....we wait some more, because the armada is still not out to Jool, and the returning Tugs are still a long way from Kerbin. Sure, I could just time warp forward and space all this stuff out, but that would be unrealistic... they would not be wasting all these interplanetary transfer windows, so I shouldn't either. In fact...I should be handling all sorts of other missions to other planets...and be rotating Minmus Base crews...and whatever. But I only have two hands! So, anyway, when the NEXT Kerbin-to-Jool launch window came up, mission planners had a new Base module, packed to the gills with supplies, to send to our intrepid explorers (they won't get it for another 3/4 of a year or more, of course, but it's the thought that counts). And this base has rover capabilities so that it can be repositioned after landing. Sure...what I'd really like to be sending these guys is some resource detection and mining equipment...but that's not ready yet.

And where there's a payload, there's another Tug required. Below we see the Base 2 payload docking with Laythe Tug 10, which just came up on a Reusable Rocket. Is anybody counting all these rockets? I guess the accountants are. This should be the last Laythe Tug we need, since the returning Tugs can be refueled and reused for any future payloads that need to be sent to Laythe.

Again, after refueling, the Refueler Module is separated and returned to the KSC. And again, I did not include MechJeb on this, so I had to target it manually...but, as you can see below, I did quite well.

Off to Jool goes Base 2.

I didn't get a good image of the crowded skies when all of these ships were in transit, but the plot below was from after Tugs L6 and L8 were already in the Jool system, but the transfer orbit of Tug L7 is still there. So you can see the orbits of the three returning Tugs (which are getting close to Kerbin), and the outbound orbits of Tug L7, and Tug L9 (with BirdDog 2), and Tug L10 (with Base 2). When this operation is in full swing, with payloads and returning Tugs using all of the available transfer windows, there would be a couple more "petals" on this flower...and I'd be driven nuts.

Anyway...The three-ship armada is finally reaching Jool. First in is the Tug L6 with SSTUBBY and the Ocean Probes. And below that you can see the aerocapture in Jool's atmosphere.

The aerocapture at Jool was target to about 114 km to give an apoapsis a little inside Laythe's orbit. A burn at apoapsis raised the periapsis to 250 km, safely out of Jool's atmosphere. After a few quick orbits around Jool, an encounter with Laythe came up, and Tug L6 was targeted for a Laythe aerocapture

As Tug L8 with the GasStation2, etc., was coming in toward Jool, Laythe got in the way...so mission controllers decided to go for a direct Laythe aerocapture. What the heck...we won't get to do fun stuff like this once reentry heat damage is added to the game. Below you see the ship screaming in toward Laythe at interplanetary speeds...and the flaming aerocapture right above the Fido Bay Laythe Base area. I assume Thompbles got some cool pictures. This aerocapture had to be targeted at 16 km to get captured in an orbit with an apoapsis of 1000 km. And remember to do your apoapsis kick!

Just to make things "interesting"...right in the middle of handling the Jool aerocaptures, the Kerbal Alarm Clock was telling me that the four Tugs returning to Kerbin needed attention as they were entering Kerbin's S.O.I. and doing aerocaptures. Arrrrggghhh. So I ended up juggling seven ships at once. Below, Laythe Tug L4 heads in to Kerbin, targeted at an altitude of 28.45 kilometers (and adjusted for a near-equatorial orbit). This resulted in an apoapsis of 164 km. After apoapsis kick, the Tug had 26 units of fuel remaining.

And right away (things happen much faster around Kerbin than they do out around Jool) in comes Laythe Tug L3 to Kerbin, targeted at 28.9 km, resulting in an apoapsis of 588 km. It had 69 units of fuel left after apoapsis kick.

This was followed almost immediately by Laythe Tug L5 burning in to Kerbin aerocapture at 28.4 km, resulting in an apoapsis of 149 km. It had 36 units of fuel left after apoapsis kick.

And somewhere in here I got sloppy. Or there was a program glitch. Because as Laythe Tug L2 was coming in to Kerbin for aerocapture, I THOUGHT it was targeted just fine at 28.5 km...but after the aerobraking fire show, I saw that it was NOT in a stable orbit...it was intersecting the surface of Kerbin. I quickly tried to burn prograde to make orbit, but the nukes' thrust was too little, too late. So I flipped the Tug and started burning retrograde to ensure an ocean impact, and burned all the way down to slow the Tug as much as possible. Unfortunately, this was NOT one of the Tugs that was equipped with parachutes on its nuke pods. I did manage to slow its speed down to 96 m/s before it hit the water. Arrgh. More environmental impact paperwork to fill out. And two valuable nukes lost to the fishies. Below: Shortly before impact.

Possibly I fumbled Tug L2 because I was also handling Tug L7 heading in to Jool at the same time. And there was a problem there: Tylo got in the way of the incoming trajectory -- it was a distant encounter, but it was enough to throw off the aerocapture altitude that was targeted, so I had to do a burn to correct this. And immediately after the Jool aerocapture, the Tug got an encounter with Laythe. That aerocapture went fine.

And..........stop for a breath. All of the Tugs and payloads coming in to Laythe or Kerbin were in stable orbits (or crashed, in the case of Tug L2), and the other two ships (bringing BirdDog 2 and Base 2) were a long ways out. So it was time to rest. Below are the initial orbits for the three ships of the armada around Laythe.

Well... THAT was a lot of work. But you have to do the grunt work before you can have the fun of exploring new worlds.

Next time: Getting the new Laythe equipment into the right places, and sending the new toys down to the boys on Laythe.

Brotoro's KSP Mission Web Pages

PART 7 Real Soon Now. Just editing it.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Brotoro

[Brotoro]

Long-term Laythe Mission - Part 7

TL;DR version: The boys on Laythe play with the new equipment.

As you may recall, the second armada of ships had just entered orbit around Laythe (after a considerable amount of work). The initial orbits had apoapses of around 1000 km and periapses (following the adjustments after aerocapture) of a little under 60 km, a little ways above the atmosphere. While the orbits were still big, the small plane adjustment maneuvers were done at the orbital nodes furthest from Laythe (which uses less fuel) to match their inclinations to that of the Laythe Space Station, which orbits the equator at 80 km. Then the periapses were dipped back into the atmosphere to do some aerobraking maneuvers to bring the apoapses of these orbits down below 90 km, and their periapses were raised to 80 km. Once the new ships got into these low orbits, the equipment could be deployed and the ships could each rendezvous with the Space Station as it eventually caught up with each of them.

Aldner: (Entering Command Pod of Laythe Base) "Top of the mornin' to you, Cap'n Thompbles! What are you up to on this fine day?"

Thompbles: "Good afternoon, Aldner. Just doing a little orbital ballet."

Aldner: "That would explain your lovely tutu, sir."

Thompbles: "These are standard issue spacesuit longjohns. Which are somewhat cleaner than yours."

Aldner: "I could handle laundry detail today if you'd like."

Thompbles: "Don't wander off. I'll need help with landing all the Ocean Probes later."

The first order of business after getting all of the ships into orbit was to deploy the ComSats. These two satellites were mounted to the top of the rovers-payload heat shield, angled outwards slightly, where they could be protected from entry heating during aerocapture (well...if we actually had entry heating yet).

Below, one of the ComSats has its two high gain antennas, two low gain antennas, and two solar panel arrays extended.

The ComSats each have two 24-77 radial motors and four Oscar-B fuel tanks. This was enough to lift the ComSats to their 1000 km working orbits with plenty of fuel left over for future station-keeping maneuvers. It would have been even more efficient had I remembered to eject them BEFORE the carrier Tug was placed in low-Laythe orbit...but they have so much fuel I was not concerned about it. First one was sent out to 1000 km and circularized, then the other was put into a transfer orbit with an apoapsis at 1000 km...then after a few orbits, the second satellite was reaching apoapsis again 180 degrees away from the first one, and its orbit was circularized.

Two ComSats is not the optimal number, of course, but all of the Laythe Base operations are being conducted in one hemisphere of Laythe for now, so all the crew needs is for one of the ComSats to be wandering overhead at any given time. I also did not spend lots of time tweaking the orbits to perfection (I've seen other players' comsat constellations that are very impressively laid out), but it's not as if these satellites actually DO anything for us at the moment in the game. So the satellites will drift around relative to each other over time...but the communications situation will be much improved over having only the Space Station as a comm link.

Next up are the Ocean Probes. Our brave kerbals, not being aquatic creatures by nature, are primarily exploring the island land masses of Laythe with their rovers and planes. In order that the vast stretches of ocean would not be totally ignored, a set of eight floating ocean probes would be deployed at various places around Laythe. These probes were carried to Laythe as part of the Tug L6 payload. Below we see the eight probes being ejected from the ship to spread out. The bulkhead that they were attached to was later separated from the nose docking port of the SSTUBBY to become space junk.

Each Ocean Probe has an Oscar-B fuel tank and an Ant engine, which is plenty of delta-V to deorbit the probe. Five of the probes would be spaced around the equator roughly 72 degrees apart, with one a short way outside Fido Bay. Three more of the probes would be positioned somewat north or south to monitor water conditions in some of the in the major waterways between other islands and the west side of Dansen Island.

When I designed these probes, I had to study how things float in KSP. In the programs questionable flotation physics, a metal plate will happily float at all sorts of angles in exactly the same way real metal plates don't. And if you position instruments, battery packs, and whatnot around the circumference of the metal plate, that makes it float nice and stable, flat on the surface. The Ocean Probes are made of a base of two square plates rotated 45 degrees to form an 8-pointed star shape. The Ant engine is on the bottom. Fuel lines are needed to connect the fuel tank to the bottom plate, which then crossfeeds the fuel to the engine.

Below, one of the probes parachutes down to the ocean surface with Vall and Tylo in the background.

Splashdown on Laythe...something I've tried hard to avoid up to this point. The probe will sit nice and stable on the surface in this orientation. I can use the probe body's torque to flip the probe upsidedown, but when SAS is activated, the probe is very resistant to being flipped by any waves that might come along. Solar panels and battery packs keep the probe core alive and happy all though the Laythe day and night cycle. Weirdly, some of the probes were initially floating deeper in the water than the other probes, but when I checked on them later, they were all floating at about the same depth, with the bottom plate at or slightly below the surface.

Closeup of one of the floating ocean probes with its antennas deployed. The thermometers on the probes all read a uniform 004.69 degrees. The other scientific instruments read as expected for Laythe's surface. The most valuable instruments on the probes would actually be the accelerometers -- these could monitor the up and down motion of a floating probe to keep track of wave heights. This could be vital to anyone making a base on a moon as volcanic as Laythe apparently is. An undersea volcanic erruption or quake could easily spawn a tsunami that would wash your base and its happy kerbals out to sea. The reason several of the probes were positioned in the areas between Dansen and neighboring islands is to better track any incoming tsunami.

Thompbles: "Laythe Base to Fido. Do you copy?"

Kurt: "I'm reading you just fine through the ComSat, Thompbles."

Thompbles: "Kurt, I need you to come up with an action plan in case the new ocean probes detect a possible tsunami."

Kurt: "Something more elaborate than '1) Place head between knees. 2) Kiss ass goodbye', I presume?"

Thompbles: "Yes. Oddly enough, that was Aldner's suggestion for a plan."

Kurt: "So more like: 'All personal at Laythe Base runs to the SSTO, which will be kept ready for emergeny liftoff. And anybody out in a rover hightails it to high ground' sort of thing?

Thompbles: "Yes. Where are you guys at?"

Kurt: "We are camped a little north of the mouth of Fido Bay. We should be back by evening.

Thompbles: "OK, Kurt. Drive safe."

Nelemy: "Hey, Kurt... Do you have any more packets of Yellow Mush in your capsule?"

Kurt: "No, Nelemy...you ate all of my Yellow Mush packets. Here, eat some of the Green Mush."

Nelemy: "Dude...did you ever stop to think that Green Mush might be...made from kerbals?

Kurt: "What? Just because it's green doesn't mean it's made from kerbals. The Soylant Corporation says these are pure protein from the sea. Very good for you."

Nelemy: "Ummm. Have you got any more Red Mush packets left?"

Below: Later that day, the Folding Fido tops a ridge and the Fido Bay Base comes into view. The original plan was to have Kurt and Nelemy circumnavigate all of Dansen Island, but when the hinges on the Folding Fido proved to be rather loose, making driving fast or on steep slopes unsafe, their route was changed to backtrack down the west coast again and then down to Fido Bay, making detailed geological studies along the way.

Meanwhile, Thompbles and Aldner were coordinating the landing of the other hardware. Tug L8 was carrying GasStation 2, as well as more RCS fuel for the Space Spation below the GasStation, and an RCS Mini-Tug above the GasStation... so they needed to separate the Mini-Tug, separate and move off the GasStation, and then redock the Mini-Tug to the RCS tanks so that all that part could go to the Space Station. Then the GasStation targeted for a landing at the Fido Bay site.

GasStation 2 passing through entry flames as it heads in to the Laythe Base area, then deploys its chutes for landing a few hundred meters beyond the original GasStation.

As soon as GasStation 2 landed, Aldner hopped into the BirdDog to see if the docking ports were at the correct heights for refueling his plane. As you recall, the first GasStation had a bit of a problem in that the refueling arms were mounted a little bit too low. The arms on GasStation 2 were placed higher. But, because GasStation 2 had landed on more of a slope, the first port Aldner tried was a tiny bit too high...but the second port he tried click perfectly into place when he lowered the nose gear of the rover/plane to lift its docking port into place. Good. There won't be any need for him to bang away on the refueler arms with a big hammer to make things fit. NOTE: I experimented back at KSC with a version of the GasStation that used Damned Robotics hinges to make the refueler arms swing down, allowing lots of adjustment of the arm height. But, whenever I used this to dock with a BirdDog, Weird Physicsâ„¢ would cause the opposite landing leg of the GasStation to ram deep into the ground. Ah, well.

I have dictated that one of the fuel tanks of GasStation 2 does not, in fact, contain three-quarters of a ton of jet fuel... instead, it is packed with three-quarters of a ton of supplies for the base crew. (Later on I'll edit the persistance file to remove the fuel from the tank.) Below we see Aldner heading up the ladder to the "door" of the cargo pod.

Aldner: "Yo, Thommy Boy! The cargo all looks to be in great shape."

Thompbles: "That good, Aldner. Do you see the flags the guys from Division 20 promised to send us in there?"

Aldner: "Hmm. No sign of them. They must be packed way in the back."

Thompbles: "OK...We'll get them out eventually."

Up in orbit, the stacked rover payload was separated from Tug L7 and made ready to deorbit. The rovers use a common heat shield, and have a retro pack consisting of an LV-909 and a small fuel tank mounted on top. Because of the large heat shield that would come crashing down, and because these are rovers that can drive around after landing, the payload was targeted to land a little south of the Base area for safety.

After retro burn and final targeting, the retro pack is jettisoned and the payload is flipped to present its heat shield to the entry flames. Note that the ship is now being controlled from the probe body of the lower Fido rover (it was controlled from an inverted probe body on the retro pack for the retro burn to make that step easier).

The six chutes on the DogFish rover/boat were deployed first. Then the landing gear of the DogFish was deployed (it's important to do this before separation because you won't have control later).

Then the spacebar is pressed several times in rapid succession. This separates the heat shield (note that there is an RCS tank on the heat shield used as a spacer...the fuel from that tank was moved to the Nuclear Tug prior to separating this payload), and then the stack of small decouplers are fired to separate the Fido rover from the DogFish, then separate the small decouplers from the Fido, and then deploy the Fido rover's six chutes. The stack of small decouplers plunks down on top of the Fido rover after its chutes deploy, but a little rolling of the rover can drop those free of the vehicle.

A view upward shows the two rovers descending under reefed chutes. The DogFish is currently higher, but it is heaveier than the Fido rover, so it will reach the ground first. For this reason, it is important do do the separations of the previous step while the ship is still coming in at an angle (not yet vertical) so that these two rovers will be spread out a bit... you don't want the DogFish coming down on top of the Fido.

Below, the rovers float down to the dunes about a mile away from Laythe Base. The impact of the heat shield and decouplers left no debris.

Below, both rovers have landed. Because of the heavier weight of the DogFish (since it's mostly fuel tanks), drop tests at KSC showed that its wheels tended to blow on landing. The lighter Fido has eight wheels to absord the landing force, so they do not tend to blow. To keep the DogFish's wheels from popping, four of the somewhat crappy medium landing gear were added to take the impact shock. This was lighter than adding more wheels, and if they broke on landing it wouldn't matter since they will not be used again after being retracted so that the DogFish could rove on its wheels.

The two rovers were remotely controlled to drive them to Laythe Base.

Shortly after this, Kurt and Nelemy Kerman arrive back at Laythe Base with the Folding Fido. Things are starting to get a bit laggy around Laythe Base with all this equipment in the area. Happily, the DogFish will be leaving later, and the new Fido rover will generally be away exploring.

Kurt conscientiously heads over to the Base vehicle to make his report to Thompbles, while Nelemy checks out the cockpit of the replacement rigid Fido rover.

Nelemy: "Dudes! The cockpit is packed with cargo...I can't even get in."

Thompbles: "Yes, Nelemy. Start unpacking the cargo from the cockpits and put it under the supply tent." (which the kerbals can see even if you can't)

Nelemy: "Dudes! Snacks! Boxes and boxes of them! And more Yellow Mush! Supper is going to to great!"

Thompbles: "OK, Nelemy. But just unpack the stuff. Don't go eating all the snacks."

Nelemy: "Mmumph? Whuf ya say?"

And indeed, supper was a fine reunion time for the whole crew, who stuffed themselves like Hobbits.

Thompbles: "It's nice to have you guys back home. Cheers!"

Kurt: "I agree with that. Cheers!"

Nelemy: "Hey, Aldner. Did you ever think that Soylant Green Mush might be made from kerbals?"

Aldner: (Ponders this briefly, then stares accusingly at Kurt) "I thought you said we weren't supposed to tell him that."

Nelemy: "What?"

Thompbles: "That's enough, Aldner."

Nelemy: "What?"

Aldner: "Just pulling your landing gear, little buddy. Here, have some more Yellow Mush."

And on the plot below, you can see the results of their hard work so far: Two ComSats in high orbit; Ocean Probes spread around the moon; and Latyhe Space Station slowly creeping up on the three Tugs in its slightly faster lower orbit.

The next order of business that night was handling the Tugs. As the Space Station caught up with each Tug, the Tug manuevered for rendezvous and docking. Below we see Tug L8 approaching the station.

The RCS-powered Mini-Tug was separated along with the RCS fuel tanks, which it took over and docked to the bottom of the station. Then the remainder of the Nuclear Tug was docked butt-first to the station (on the right in the right half of the image below). When the time comes to send that Tug back to Kerbin, it would leave its rear tank and most of the fuel from its forward central tank behind at the station. After docking, the forward central tank was still 79% full. The newer Tugs proved to be more efficient with their RCS fuel (since the multiple probe bodies provide a good amount of torque to point the ship...which required expending RCS fuel before if the Tug needed to be turned quickly.

Next came the rendezvous and docking of Tug L7, which was straightforward (or straightbackward, actually) since it had no payload left attached. Its forward tank was over 56% full at this point, and most of that fuel was moved to the rear tank where it would be left behind at the station.

Finally, along came Tug L6 with the SSTUBBY rescue craft attached. The Tug docked the SSTUBBY to one of the docking ports on a fuel tank that was left behind by one of the Tugs that had just returned to Kerbin. Then Tug L6 separated and moved over to dock butt-first to the remaining main port of the station. Now there were tanks (each with additional docking ports) or a refueler payload attached to all the main radial ports of the station. And things were getting a bit laggy...but that will clear up when these Tugs are sent back to Kerbin during a future transfer window. Tug L6's central tank had 77% fuel remaining.

The completed Station configuration is shown below. Note that the SSTUBBY rescue ship will stay docked to the station until it is needed (if it is ever needed) to rescue a kerbal from another island. If that happens, it will drop down to the surface of Laythe with nearly a full load of fuel (less what it takes to retro burn and target the landing), land via parachutes, and then take the kerbal back up to the station on its combination of jet engines and rocket engines. Depending on how close that kerbal is to being rotated back to Kerbin (and how much fuel is available on the station), that kerbal will either wait out the mission on the station, or be repatriated with his fellow kerbals on the surface. You will note that the rocket engine of the SSTUBBY is currently still covered with a fairing and docking port...this will need to be jettisoned before the ship is used. Also, in future, the SSTUBBY could be used to drop and return a kerbal to and from a distant island for exploration.

After several days of rest and relaxation, with a little unpacking and a lot of snack consumption thrown in, Kurt requested to test out the DogFish before it gets sent off on its oceanic survey mission. Thompbles agreed.

Nelemy: "Dude! Let me come along!"

Kurt: "Sorry, Nelemy. There's only one seat."

Nelemy: "No! I'll ride on the ladder. It will be a blast!"

Kurt: "You want to ride on the ladder, getting wet in the cold water?"

Nelemy: "Yeah! It'll be a hoot."

Kurt: "Well, OK. But first unload all the cargo from the DogFish's command pod. And don't eat the snacks."

Below: Kurt drives the DogFish down to Fido Bay with Nelemy hanging on the capsule ladder...

...and part-way there (as they are passing the old Fido Pup rover probe), Nelemy falls off and gets run over by the DogFish.

Nelemy: "Yoew! Ouch."

Kurt: "You OK?"

Nelemy: "Sure. Let me get back on. My hands keep slipping. Must be these gloves."

Kurt: "Try the front part of the ladder...not the part on the capsule."

Kurt eases the DogFish into the Bay (do this slowly...testing at KSC showed that the rover/boat can be damaged if you enter the water too fast). Nelemy is still hanging onto the front ladder.

Nelemy: "Dude! The water's cold!"

Kurt: "Turn on your suit heater."

Nelemy: "Oh. Yeah. That's better."

Kurt: "Hang tight. I'm firing up the jet engine."

Kurt tools around in the Bay, trying various throttle settings. Because the jet engine is mounted higher than the bulk of the ship (to keep it out of the water), the DogFish tips forward under thrust. In fact, at higher speeds the boat runs faster at a given throttle setting if you also hold pitch down to make it tip even more. This gets Nelemy even wetter, but this aspect only seems to make Kurt smile more. The boat seems to get about the same "mileage" at different throttle settings... but when you get the throttle up to seven ticks, it will cruise along at about 4 m/s...and if you give it down pitch at that point, it transitions into a mode that moves along at 7 m/s, leaving a big "splashdown effect wake" behind it. It also becomes harder to control at that speed, tending to veer left or right suddenly. Higher speeds only makes things more unstable. Tests back at KSC showed that speeds in excess of 10 m/s can cause the ship to start coming apart. Sometimes there are splashdown effects at lower speeds. If you shift your view to the front of the ship, you hear a strange "pink pink pink" sound effect, sort if like plucking the teeth of a plastic comb. Unless that's just Nelemy whining.

After a fun time (at least for Kurt) cruising around the bay, Kurt brings the DogFish ashore. This must be done carefully as well...making sure to cut the jet engine as you approach shore, since the jet engine will try to push the rover/boat along the surface too fast.

Kurt: "Thompbles, I'm done testing the craft. I'll drive it to the ocean shore and release it on its mission."

Thompbles: "I copy that, DogFish. Is Nelemy going along?"

Kurt: "Yes. He's still hanging on. Please send the new Fido out via remote control to pick us up."

Thompbles: "Roger. Base out."

But once the DogFish starts its overland trek, Nelemy falls off and gets run over a couple more times.

Nelemy: "Dude... This getting run over stuff is not as much fun as I thought it would be. I'll just wait here for the Fido and drive it out to get you at the ocean shore."

Kurt: "Well, OK, Nelemy. Here's some snaks to hold you over."

The point of taking the DogFish overland to the ocean was twofold: First, to save as much jet fuel as possible, since driving overland is much more efficient that slogging along in the bay would be; and second, to check out its handling on land. It's a bulky vehicle with all that jet fuel onboard, so you can't speed along like a maniac if you want to keep your wheels intact. Also, the DogFish does not have a lot of battery capacity or solar cells, so the only power comes from its two RTGs, and driving it around a full power will drain the batteries faster than they can recharge...so Kurt ended up stopping a few time enroute to allow the batteries to recharge so that he could handle the up-slopes better.

Meanwhile, Nelemey has radioed in the request to have the new Fido rover remotely driven out to his location. Aldner handles this job.

Aldner: "There you go little buddy. Hope on board!"

Nelemy: "Can't you drive it any closer?"

Aldner: "I don't want to accidentally run you over. I think you've had enough of that for one day. Run on over."

Nelemy: "OK." (huff, huff) "Hey, Dude! It's rolling away! Set its parking brake. (huff, huff)

Aldner: "Parking brake? Let me see... let me see. Ah! Here it is."

Nelemy: (pant, pant)

Kurt reaches the end of a small Peninsula over 15 km from Base, which he names Macydean Point, and does some minor reprogramming of the DogFish's autopilot in light of what he learned during testing.

In the meantime, Nelemy is driving the new Fido out to pick him up.

Nelemy: "Kurt, Dude! This new rover is great! It doesn't wobble around at all. And I can zip along at over 30 m/s downhill."

Kurt: "Good to hear it."

Nelemy: "Oops."

Kurt: "Oops? What did you do now?"

Nelemy: "Well, I was going at 35 m/s when I hit the bottom of a slope that sloped back up...and I blew a tire.

Don't worry! I can fix it."

Kurt: "Just take it easy, OK? I don't want to have to walk back if you explode."

Once Nelemy arrived, Kurt sent the DogFish out on its unmanned mission to explore the ocean. I don't know if it will be able to make it all the way over to the next big island, but it will head in that direction, pausing often to float a while and study the water conditions and currents.

There was a small island 2.5 km offshore, and the DogFish explored that first. It came ashore too fast, and the jet engine ran the rover right over the island and into the sea on the other side before I could stop it. So, again, take care when approaching the shore. If the slope under water is shallow, the DogFish can end up rolling on its wheels sooner than you expect. Second picture below: Coming ashore more carefully.

The DogFish drove around the little island. No rocks. No snacks. Nelemy named the island DogFish Isle. There was a tiny sandbar off shore of the little island... the DogFish was able to drive over to it without its wheels leaving the ground.

After exploring DogFish island, the rover/boat headed off into the ocean. Below is an animated GIF of the boat zipping along at 7 m/s. This is its most fuel efficient mode of travel...but it takes constant vigilance to keep it from veering off course at this speed.

15 kilometers out to sea, the DogFish arrived at the position of Ocean Probe 1 that monitors the waters outside Fido Bay. After hanging out there for a while, it will continue its journey across the ocean. Note that the DogFish only draws fuel from the rear two tanks. This should make it more nose heavy as time goes on (since it seems to be happier running in a nose-down attitude). Eventually, fuel can be transferred from the front tanks to the rear tanks when needed.

And so ends another adventure on Laythe. There is still another BirdDog enroute to the moon that will allow the crew to explore further afield. And, behind that, a new, bigger mobile base, undoubtedly packed to the gills with snacks and Soylant Mush of all colors. And there are the new Tugs to send back to Kerbin...and anything else to be sent out to Laythe can use the old Tugs after they are refueled in orbit...so the transportation system is set up and running.

Part 8 is on page 8 of this thread.

Brotoro's KSP Mission Web Pages

Edited June 10, 2013 by Brotoro

[Tangle]

Sorry to end up having to say this first, but can I/we have the craft file? I have a base on Laythe and I'd like to see if the Dogfish could be used as a good vehicle to get some kerbals swimming. They've been itching to since the start of the mission, roughly a year ago. The water's roughly a kilometer away, and they need some kind of rover to get there. Kerbal walking at around roughly Kerbin gravity is really, really, really annoying as you undoubtedly know. I landed basically in the middle of the main peninsula at Fido bay.

[Stelith61]

Great man, Love it!

Have you thought about exploring Vall at all?

[Brotoro]

Sorry to end up having to say this first, but can I/we have the craft file? I have a base on Laythe and I'd like to see if the Dogfish could be used as a good vehicle to get some kerbals swimming. They've been itching to since the start of the mission, roughly a year ago. The water's roughly a kilometer away, and they need some kind of rover to get there. Kerbal walking at around roughly Kerbin gravity is really, really, really annoying as you undoubtedly know. I landed basically in the middle of the main peninsula at Fido bay.

Sure, no problem.

This craft file FidoKL2payload.craft is the whole payload (heat shield, ComSats, Fido, DogFish, retro pack, and the Refueler Module on top)... just pull off the parts you don't want and pop in on top of your favorite rocket for getting things to Laythe. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Brotoro]

Great man, Love it!

Have you thought about exploring Vall at all?

I quite liked Vall the two times I've landed on it. I fully expect that if I want to mine fuel for a Laythe colony, it might well involve going to Vall as the closest place to get it (since deposits on Laythe could all be inaccessible under the oceans).

[Stelith61]

I quite liked Vall the two times I've landed on it. I fully expect that if I want to mine fuel for a Laythe colony, it might well involve going to Vall as the closest place to get it (since deposits on Laythe could all be inaccessible under the oceans).

Not to forget it would be much easier to get off of Vall, considering the lack of atmosphere and marginally lower gravity.

I had plans for a huge multi-part-roving base, but balancing things built in the SPH on a Interplanetary stage is a pain and was uncontrollable by the time I got to do the Vall Transfer. We need more accurate COG/COT markers! I had 3 modules tested and ready to leave - Crewed Command Module, Solar Power Module and a Fuel module, along with a Rover Station I'd yet to finish lining up docking ports for.

Then All I had to do when mining was implemented was send out Probes, Mining equipment and some crew.

I also had plans to try and build a Laythe SSTO that could fly from Vall to Laythe, Land, And retur to the Vall Base/Vall Station. When On the Laythe, the crew could explore there, without having to mine the fuel there.

Also, if you want to get to Jool without the hairy aerobraking in the thick atmosphere, you can use a reverse gravity assist to get into a high orbit, that would cross Tylo and possibly Laythe if done properly.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Stelith61

[Scotius]

After reading these two fine chapters i finally understood why guys keep on clamoring for some sort of multiplayer. I can imagine juggling all those inbound and outbound ships (almost) at once gave you couple of gray hairs. Being able to spread the workload between two or three players would be a huge boon for large scale missions.

[Elven_sword]

I can just imagine how fun that would be!

"I thought YOU were handling tug #3!"

"No, I thought that you were!"

Meanwhile Tug #3 hurtles through the atmosphere of Kerbin.

[Octobomb]

Smoke me a smegging kipper, I'll be back before breakfast, Listy old chum. Get the reference anyone?

But amazing work going on there.

[Brotoro]

Smoke me a smegging kipper, I'll be back before breakfast, Listy old chum. Get the reference anyone?

But amazing work going on there.

Yes, I got that line from Ace Rimmer. I thought they had appropriated it from some more classical source (about World War I aces or something), but Google just comes up with Red Dwarf references.