JadeOfMaar Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) @Enceos That's pretty cool. This glass station is just a fleeting concept item whereas I definitely want my OPT station to serve in my soon-coming long-term game (I think its looks make it worth hiding for now). I'm looking forward to seeing the new features. I hope they include hue shift because I need even more purple, haha. Yes your kerbals are actually EVA within the structures. The floors and domes are individual parts; the airlocks have hatches on both sides as well but no lights. I would add facilities inside but I have no fixed purpose to motivate me to choose stuff to put in there... unlike my mining/construction surface base concept using those parts and Karbonite or SimpleConstruction respectively. Spoiler Edited January 23, 2017 by JadeOfMaar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboi88 Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) My new freighter now has engines and attachment nodes. https://skfb. https://skfb.ly/Zwo8 Edited January 23, 2017 by dboi88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Flying Kerbal Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Unfortunately real life reared its ugly head these last few nights, and the Kerbals quest to reach the stars had to be put on hold because of wallpaper and paint (this never happened at NASA), and indeed there's no guarantee tonight will be very much better either. However last night I did manage to find a very few minutes to load the game up, but not really having time to do anything too serious, I decided to enter that strange and mysterious place known as the Space Plane Hanger... Now admittedly I have to say upfront I'd never even been in the SPH before, let alone try to put an aircraft together, and I suspect ten or fifteen minutes isn't quite enough time to figure out what makes those things work. However after my feeble attempts I now have to look at those amongst you who build aircraft regularly, with a great deal of new respect... those things are seriously tricky to put together; even Jeb had stopped laughing before I was finished, and Bob was found hiding locked in the loo in case I wanted to put him in one of my flying death-traps! Bob's not the stupidest of the Kerbals... Without any doubt I'll venture back into the SPH, but not before I've got a few more prestigious missions under my belt in the Space Program. What I would like to do is to build a Kerbalised version of the X15, with something capable of carrying it aloft. Yes I know, I know... that should come before any rocket trips to space, but hey, nobody has ever said Kerbals are logical creatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capi3101 Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (1.1.3) Had a pretty busy weekend. Given the recent near-disasters I had with the Old Bessie 7 fuel hauler on Mün and the ore hauler Lewis and Clark on Minmus, I began the day designing a combination crane/fuel delivery rover to attempt to at least give the Old Bessie enough fuel to make another shot at getting close enough to the Piper Alpha refinery for refueling (thus resuming Münar in-flight refueling ops), and to upright Lewis and Clark. After the sixth trial run in a row at KSC where the wheels simultaneously broke off just trying to get the damn thing over to the testing load, I decided to go with a hardware delivery system instead with the notion of adapting the existing Hellhound 7 rovers near both sites to do the jobs needed. To that end, I designed the Jiffy Lube 7 equipment delivery system, and launched the first load to Mün. The craft has yet to arrive in Mün's SOI, but should do so in the very near future. I've already considered sending two of these craft on the upcoming Duna/Ike mission, increasing the size of the Duna-bound armada from seventeen craft to nineteen... After the launch of Jiffy Lube, both Strange Cargo and Laggin' Dragon made their respective rendezvouses with the Kerbinport space station, Strange Cargo arriving just five minutes ahead of Laggin' Dragon. Strange Cargo docked successfully, but Laggin' Dragon - having left Mün for Kerbin with only 63% of her fuel - ran out of gas a mere ten kilometers from the station. Fortunately, an Auk III tanker spaceplane was docked at the station having made a fuel delivery run several days prior, so the plane was refueled with payload fuel and dispatched to dock with the Dragon. The emergency refueling operation was successful, and the Dragon went on to dock at the station. Both ferry craft had passengers going down to the surface (twelve in total) and so, contrary to my earlier protestations, sending up an Auk VII heavy passenger spaceplane in lieu of a smaller Auk II passenger spaceplane a few days prior turned out to be a wise decision. Personnel were shuffled around to their various destination craft and Laggin' Dragon was refueled in preparation for her departure on the Duna/Ike mission. The Auk VII departed the station and entered the increasingly-busy traffic pattern in LKO. Next up was the landing of four spaceplanes in a row - an Auk VI ore delivery hauler, an Auk IV probe delivery plane, the Auk III that had been dispatched to refuel Laggin' Dragon, and finally the Auk VII. I was offered a contract to move the Auk IV into a new orbit but on closer inspection the plane didn't have sufficient fuel for the job, so I gave it a pass. All four planes landed successfully at KSC 09; the arrival of the Auk VII cleared a Minmus rescue contract, which I replaced with an LKO tourist mission and another Ore delivery mission in Duna's system (in this case, a delivery from Duna to Ike - I already had one such contract going the other way). Last thing that happened Friday was the successful docking of a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe to Lemsy's Hulk - a Mk 2 Cockpit - in high retrograde Minmus orbit. Probe reached the proper burn point and headed for Kerbin, where it should arrive in about five days. On Saturday, it occurred to me that my ferry fleet would be down to two ships - Strange Cargo and Next Objective - while Laggin' Dragon was off on the Duna mission, and that launching a new ferry would be in order to keep up three-ship operations at Kerbin in the interim. I made the decision to launch a new Superfortress 7 passenger ferry craft, The Great Artiste, with Genezer Kerman as capsule commander. The craft launched successfully to Kerbinport with Jeb, pilot Buremy Kerman, tourists Anya and Kertrid Kerman and engineers Wilberry, Kelzor, Phovie and Liztha Kerman aboard. Once docked at Kerbinport, Jeb was transferred to Laggin' Dragon along with Wilberry and Kelzor - the final manifest of the Duna/Ike mission was thus set: Val will command Laggin' Dragon with Jeb, Bill, Bob, engineers Edner, Wilberry and Kelzor and scientists Ziggy and Megissa Kerman aboard. Two of the engineers will be stationed permanently to the Duna system on the refinery craft Enchova Central and Scan Queen, a determination to be made when the expedition reaches Duna. I'm also debating whether or not I will be leaving Ziggy and Megissa there in the lab at space station Dunaport or not. With many of the other craft at Kerbinport low on fuel, I decided to attempt an Auk VIII heavy tanker flight to the space station later in the day, but wound up having to revert that flight. The VIII was giving me some pretty significant problems and wound up disintegrating on re-entry. Don't know if that was the plane or FAR having a migraine - I've flown that plane successfully before even though it's a really bad design, so it could be either one. I'll probably be making another attempt in the near future. I also need to bring an Auk II passenger spaceplane up to Kerbinport so that I can bring down tourists once Next Objective finally returns from Minmus, and I'm anxious to see how well the Jiffy Lube 7 system will work once it arrives. Duna launch window is coming up - now seven days away. Everything's ready to go - still awful nervous about launching so many ships that way... In RL, I've begun house hunting. Hoping that won't cut into my KSP time too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-M-TheDoctor Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Took some more tourists up in The Wonder of the Sky.... upload pics Then I started doing some upgradesto try and get the Wonder to orbit so I could complete orbital tourists. With Jeb gone brave Val had to take the controls.... She crashes better than Jeb, apparently. screen grab ... this testing is getting expensive... how do i print screen Why yes, that is the passenger section of the fuselage.... Val walked away by miracle of riding the wreckage to the ground. Our orbital tourists are going to have to wait... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jett_Quasar Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) I just finished testing my latest craft... yes it's another Millennium Falcon but this one is updated for V1.2.2 and there are some surprises in the video - Enjoy! The Falcon is a regular aircraft and flies just like any other plane. Hot Keys: 1) Toggles engine mode (wet/dry) - the craft starts in wet mode SPACE BAR fires missiles Some of the best fun in the game of Kerbal Space Program is flying the Millennium Falcon featured in the movie Star Wars - The Force Awakens. I have many interesting targets to destroy in this latest video. Have fun! DOWNLOAD THE MILLENNIUM FALCON HERE:https://www.dropbox.com/s/0swdojh6l919084/Millennium Falcon.craft?dl=0 DOWNLOAD THE STAR DESTROYER - CONSTRUCTION YARD HERE:https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5c8iwlvpgcvfps/Star Destroyer-Construction.craft?dl=0 DOWNLOAD THE SHUTTLE LANDING PLATFORM HERE:https://www.dropbox.com/s/mhjmz0zusqh7ngj/Landing Platform-Shuttle.craft?dl=0 DOWNLOAD THE IMPERIAL SHUTTLE HERE:https://www.dropbox.com/s/j386p71m28r5w8y/Imperial Shuttle.craft?dl=0 Jett Edited January 24, 2017 by Jett_Quasar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Kerman Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I did not play KSP today, however, I did do a cr*p ton of dV calculations to discover new designs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiew Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Forgot to put an antenna on Lyssa Kerman's ride to Iota... fortunately she's capable, if someone brash, and despite enduring two weeks of radio silence, she eventually returned home with all objectives complete. Nearly a million roots in funding, and some interestingly fluffy rocks that taste a little like marshmallow... or maybe creme brulee. Anyway, that's one for the Council of Chefs to ponder over. Of almost equal importance is the delicious science! 359 sweet sweet research points came home in Lyssa's footwell, the biggest haul since... well, ever, really. Mission control ponders where to invest them. Heavier engines? Tempting, but... biome scanner? Knowing where we're going and where we've been would be a major advantage on the search for the tastiest surface samples. Definitely biome scanner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triop Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Today we started training new pilots, we lost a few so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccidentsHappen Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, Benjamin Kerman said: I did not play KSP today, however, I did do a cr*p ton of dV calculations to discover new designs! I'm trying to decode the little man on your profile picture... Any hints? I've got C E H J 8, but that's it I'm probably not reading it right lol Edited January 23, 2017 by AccidentsHappen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Kerman Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 24 minutes ago, AccidentsHappen said: I'm trying to decode the little man on your profile picture... Any hints? I've got C E H J 8, but that's it I'm probably not reading it right lol It spells Benjamin in semaphore (but I assume you already know that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeiss Ikon Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Well, last night I made some upgrades to Selene 1. Turns out a booster that could SSTO with 16 tons and required throttling back a bit to keep G load and low-altitude Mach effects in check could barely lift off ground at all with the extra weight of a Mainsail engine added to make one tank into a second stage, and as a result, even the second stage had too little left in the tanks after circularizing -- certainly not enough for both transMunar insertion and Munar capture, never mind the hoped-for transKerbin return burn (though the latter could surely have been managed by the up-tanked Command Pod after staging off the lander's tanks, engines, and legs). So, I upgraded the booster to 3.5 m size, using four of the 72 tanks and the quad-engine cluster -- but still had no dV left to speak of after circularizing. Liftoff was painfully slow, and I think I burned too much dV fighting gravity the first few kilometers off the pad, so I've added four small radial engines, which combine to give almost 1000 kN of additional starting thrust (without much additional weight). I'm currently contemplating whether I'd gain anything by putting the radials on decouplers (I'd need fuel pipes, too, of course, which I don't when they're on the actual stage), but I'm inclined to test fly first. If this doesn't work out, I may look for a 2.5 m bi-coupler and use a double booster with the original tanks and engines, or strap on two additional cores -- either way, to increase stage mass ratio as well as TWR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 3 hours ago, eddiew said: Forgot to put an antenna on Lyssa Kerman's ride to Iota... fortunately she's capable, if someone brash, and despite enduring two weeks of radio silence, she eventually returned home with all objectives complete. Nearly a million roots in funding, and some interestingly fluffy rocks that taste a little like marshmallow... or maybe creme brulee. Anyway, that's one for the Council of Chefs to ponder over. Of almost equal importance is the delicious science! 359 sweet sweet research points came home in Lyssa's footwell, the biggest haul since... well, ever, really. Mission control ponders where to invest them. Heavier engines? Tempting, but... biome scanner? Knowing where we're going and where we've been would be a major advantage on the search for the tastiest surface samples. Definitely biome scanner. Moar Booster. Moar Struts. Always the way. 41 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said: Well, last night I made some upgrades to Selene 1. Turns out a booster that could SSTO with 16 tons and required throttling back a bit to keep G load and low-altitude Mach effects in check could barely lift off ground at all with the extra weight of a Mainsail engine added to make one tank into a second stage, and as a result, even the second stage had too little left in the tanks after circularizing -- certainly not enough for both transMunar insertion and Munar capture, never mind the hoped-for transKerbin return burn (though the latter could surely have been managed by the up-tanked Command Pod after staging off the lander's tanks, engines, and legs). So, I upgraded the booster to 3.5 m size, using four of the 72 tanks and the quad-engine cluster -- but still had no dV left to speak of after circularizing. Liftoff was painfully slow, and I think I burned too much dV fighting gravity the first few kilometers off the pad, so I've added four small radial engines, which combine to give almost 1000 kN of additional starting thrust (without much additional weight). I'm currently contemplating whether I'd gain anything by putting the radials on decouplers (I'd need fuel pipes, too, of course, which I don't when they're on the actual stage), but I'm inclined to test fly first. If this doesn't work out, I may look for a 2.5 m bi-coupler and use a double booster with the original tanks and engines, or strap on two additional cores -- either way, to increase stage mass ratio as well as TWR. Stop trying to do the lift to Orbit on a single stage, it's doable but very tough and excessivlly heavy. My current endtech, (mostly, missing some science, aero, and landing techs), tourist orbiter takes a 30 ton tourist stack on a mun orbit and back. It consists of a Rhino on the biggest 3.75m tank plus one of the quarter 3.75m tanks with 4 Twin Boars with extra Orange tanks wrapped around it with fuel lines rigged so the rhino feeds of the boars and 2 of the boars feed off the other two. Makes orbit, to mun, mun orbit, mun to kerbin orbit, and deorbit with about 400m/s left in that tank. Replace my payload with a lander and viola. Mun lander. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiew Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 27 minutes ago, Carl said: Moar Booster. Moar Struts. Always the way. No choice, only have Skippers, can't build tall and thin so I'm launching pyramids for the foreseeable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Raging Sandwich Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Laythe TM-2 (The second mission launched to MunLab 2. A modified Duna A booster was swapped out for the newer Dres A booster to launch it. Although more costly, it would provide more opportunity for longer and more advanced missions. Its crew of 3 docked to the station in orbit of the Mun and will be returning to Kerbin on Year 9 Day 102. The L2a T2 will rendezvous with the station as the crew is onboard.): Probable success C7 S13 (A step-forward in C7's secret goal of beating the KSP in it's goal of putting a Kerbal on Minmus first. S13 was an orbiter that doubled as a ComSat. On top was S14, a lander. It kept communications with the lander on its way down to the surface.): Success C7 S14 (The lander in the S13/S14 mission. It was jettisoned from the orbiter and deorbited towards the surface. It landed inside a dried lake-bed. After a few hours, it lifted off again and landed on a plateau. It took a few hops to bring it towards the edge to recieve sunlight and to be able to take a picture of the other side of the lake-bed.): Success Submarine M1 (A new technology developed by the KSC. Upon going down the beach, the submarine flipped, killing the Kerbal inside.): Failure GWS-1 (The first launch of Kerbal Motion's Delta Mk1 rocket. It was to launch Global Weather Surveyor-1 after the sudden appearance of clouds [SVE]. The rocket could not provide enough lift to make it off the ground.): Failure L2a T2 (The second and final test of the L2a lander before Ike 2c. It was boosted towards the Mun, landed safely with fuel to spare, and lifted off again into orbit. Awaiting rendezvous with MunLab 1.): Probable success Next planned missions: GWS-1 (A retry of the original mission) Truss D (A retry of the twice-failed mission) Laythe TM-2 In orbit Kerbinrise is much better with SVE IVA Approaching MunLab 1 Docked C7 returns to space Bye, Kerbin C7 S13/14 In orbit Kerbin and Mun Steady... Landed! Arrival at the plateau Landed again Sunrise GWS-1 ready for launch. A Mainsail will replace the main engine on the next launch. First stage jettison Landing procedure initiated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantab Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 In RSS, thanks to the mighty Ant engine, made my first visit to the Moon! And in stock, was just clowning around and make a bona fide - albeit unstable - lifting body aircraft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munlander1 Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 (edited) Sunday, I landed on the moon and my engine exploded. Somehow... I got into kerbin orbit and Somehow I had enough science to unlock the klaw. Rescue is on the way... Edited January 24, 2017 by munlander1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odonian Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Today I sent some kerballed Hirudo resource extractors to Minmus. Strangely... cute? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuicidalInsanity Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Found myself subject to the whim of the Modder's Muse, and spent the evening making and fooling around with some bits that hail from an age when precision engineered meant 'within an inch or two', and cold rolled plate steel qualified as a light-weight construction material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 (edited) It's been awhile since I've felt compelled to asparagus anything, but I'm still fairly early in the tech tree and an old dog doesn't forget those old tricks. This new Duna transfer vehicle massed some 120 tons and, well, when you only have Mainsails... Rated for 18 tons of payload (4.2km/s pushing, 5.5km/s bare). It'll probably go to Eve first. vOv I love those Tweakscaled batteries for some reason. Edited January 24, 2017 by regex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enceos Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 @regex It's been a while since you posted your KSP vehicles, looking to see more from the old space dog of KSP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeiss Ikon Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 @Carl I'm not *trying* to SSTO, that was just a side effect of getting the Neptune series tuned up. Selene burns the booster dry with apoapsis around 90 km and around 1/3 of orbit velocity, leaving the job to be finished by the 2.5 m second stage (single orange tank with Mainsail engine). With the four added Mk 55 "Thud" radial engines and use of the "SAS point to prograde" method of flying the gravity curve, I was able to get to orbit last night with enough left in the second stage tanks for transMunar insertion and Munar orbit capture and circularization. Probably could have come close to transKerbin insertion as well, but since I was simulating a Munar landing mission (with the Apollo 10 trick, sending the lander with too little fuel to actually land) I put the second stage on a suborbital and used the service engine to recircularize the lander and return stage. That left Jeb and Val in a safe, stable Munar orbit, with Val's lander tanks effectively dry (I need to remember to disable the lander's monoprop tanks before launch, so it doesn't get burned dry using RCS to manage the second stage after the fairing is dumped), but about 95% Lf/O left for the return burn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyrt Malthorn Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Well after the flaws of Kermes, it's unconventional return to Kerbin's surface and donation to the Kerbal Spaceflight Museum.... I need a new long-distance transport for my kerbal'd exploration of the system. It'll have to be bigger. Way bigger. Big enough for my kerbals to call it a home for years. It's going to need battery power to run life support and things for hours so they don't go on strike on the night side of the orbit. It's going to need muscle enough to take payloads places. Here's what I have thus far: I'm trying out the 3.75m fairing rigging structure as a sort of payload bay. Anything 2.5m on at least one axis, not too much longer than an orange tank, can fit in there. In fact if I stick an orange tank in with the fuel blocked off, it's got as much dV as the Kermes launched with (over 3500) and made a round trip to Duna on. Empty payload / full tanks she's loaded with 5200 dV, and a tolerable TWR of 0.3. She's not finalized (hence VAB shot) and not christened. I'm hoping for a ship that will proudly carry kerbalkind to Duna, Ike, Eve, Gilly, and perhaps Dres, delivering payloads such as science landers, unmanned probes, scanning packages, mining equipment, and intrepid explorers. And the tyranny of the rocket equation lives... If I could stand the TWR I get with NERV's (suckers are HEAVY) she'd have a bit more dV, but not much. Aaaand I'm not about to power 500 ion engines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 3 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said: @Carl I'm not *trying* to SSTO, that was just a side effect of getting the Neptune series tuned up. Selene burns the booster dry with apoapsis around 90 km and around 1/3 of orbit velocity, leaving the job to be finished by the 2.5 m second stage (single orange tank with Mainsail engine). With the four added Mk 55 "Thud" radial engines and use of the "SAS point to prograde" method of flying the gravity curve, I was able to get to orbit last night with enough left in the second stage tanks for transMunar insertion and Munar orbit capture and circularization. Probably could have come close to transKerbin insertion as well, but since I was simulating a Munar landing mission (with the Apollo 10 trick, sending the lander with too little fuel to actually land) I put the second stage on a suborbital and used the service engine to recircularize the lander and return stage. That left Jeb and Val in a safe, stable Munar orbit, with Val's lander tanks effectively dry (I need to remember to disable the lander's monoprop tanks before launch, so it doesn't get burned dry using RCS to manage the second stage after the fairing is dumped), but about 95% Lf/O left for the return burn. Fair enough, the fact that you weren't trying to do an intermediate stage had me thinking you wanted to do it all in one go. It can be done, but it's cost and mass prohibitive generally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capi3101 Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 (1.1.3) Yesterday began with the flight of an Auk VIII heavy tanker plane. I had some significant problems just getting the plane into the air; despite having had a successful flight several weeks ago, this time around the aft landing gear kept on buckling on me. I blame KJR, which has otherwise been a very useful mod up to this point - adding it has been the only major change I've made to my save since that initial flight. The plane was redesigned with more aft landing gears and a pair of canards, and finally took off for a rendezvous with the Kerbinport space station. The plane docked successfully but immediately afterwards the station got the wobbles again, so I hurriedly offloaded the entire payload tank at 5x time warp and undocked the plane - the station stabilized pretty much immediately. The Auk then deorbited and made a successful landing at KSC 27. The successful Auk mission refueled every craft currently at Kerbinport and even filled up the station's reserve tank to 43% (says TAC). Next up was the flight of an Auk II passenger spaceplane to Kerbinport, with engineer Danuna Kerman as the only passenger on board. Flight was textbook and the plane successfully docked. Danuna's arrival means that once again the entire Kerbal engineering corps has been deployed. Engineer Liztha Kerman boarded Strange Cargo for that craft's next outbound run to Mün, where she'll be relieving the crew of the Piper Alpha refinery; those guys have been deployed for well over a hundred days at this point and it's time they came home. Similarly, engineer Phovie Kerman boarded The Great Artiste, with the intent that she'll be relieving the crew of the Deepwater Horizon refinery on the ferry craft's maiden flight to Minmus. Tourists Anya and Kertrid Kerman boarded the Auk and are awaiting for the return of Next Objective from Minmus, which will have five more tourists heading for home when it arrives. Seeing that Next Objective hasn't reached Minmus yet, they'll be waiting for a bit... With nothing else better to do, I went ahead and warped ahead to the arrival of the Jiffy Lube 7 parts container craft at Mün, putting it in orbit and then almost immediately de-orbiting it to land in the vicinity of Piper Alpha. The craft successfully touched down - at night, of course - about a kilometer south of the refinery. Engineer Corbas Kerman boarded the nearby Hellhound 7 rover MIRV and drove to Jiffy Lube, and then spent the next half hour refitting the rover into a combination fuel hauler and crane. My initial impression of the Jiffy Lube is that it needs to have an exterior ladder of its own, and needs to be hauling just one more long girder if it can. And a pair or two of portable struts. Other than that, though, the refitting mission went very well, and at the end of the half hour MIRV was ready. Corbas hooked up the rover's winch to a KAS port that he had attached to Jiffy Lube and drained four tonnes of fuel from the empty container craft's tanks, and then drove the five kilometers from there to the waiting Old Bessie 7 fuel hauler, which had landed the day before too far away from the refinery and without sufficient fuel to take off again. The rover imparted enough fuel to the lander for it to take off and make another attempt at getting close enough for a proper refueling (I'd use the rover itself to do the entire job, but it would take nine trips to fuel the lander up entirely and there is no provision at the present time for MIRV to refuel monoprop). The attempt to move the lander will be made at daybreak. So as a fuel carrier, I'd say the refit was a success. As a crane...well, I haven't had a chance to really judge that yet. But I'm hopeful and confident enough in the design to send a Jiffy Lube to Minmus so that the Lunkhead rover there can make the attempt to upright the ore hauler Lewis and Clark, and I'll be sending two along to Duna and Ike for the rovers Apathy and Malaise so they can do the same set of jobs if need be. Also had a thought for a probe parts hauler craft that I'm considering sending to Duna, the idea being to use it as a launching platform for new probes. My first thought is to call it the Faux News 7, though I haven't settled on that name just yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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