Kerbal Space Center Rules and Regulations

[CoriW]

Hello everybody, today I would like to share with you my space agency's Rules and Regulations that have been put in place for a safer tomorrow as the Kerbals continue their expansion into the unknown void that is space!

General

1) No Kerbal Losses. (This requirement must be met at all costs, it is a sad day when a Kerbal dies.)

2) Minimal Debris. (Must avoid littering space with Debris if possible.)

3) Only allowed to use the "End Flight" button if the capsule or probe is landed on Kerbin, can not "End Flight" on debris. (If there are Kerbals aboard, must be recovered to KSC.)

Rocket and Ship

4) All capsules and probes intended for re-entry must have at least 1 parachute and be able to survive re-entry as it is in the Deadly Re-entry plugin.

5) No SRB's (Solid Rocket Booster) on any manned launch. (Sepratrons do not count.)

6) Limited asparagus staging. (Limited to 4 boosters, no more. This regulation can be bypassed for an Eve launch vehicle.)

7) Aerospike Engines can not be used for primary launch stages, only boosters. (This regulation can be bypassed for an Eve launch vehicle.)

8) LV-N rockets can not be fired or allowed to burn up in Kerbin or Laythes atmosphere.

9) All manned missions must have a launch escape system.

10) 1 and 3 man command pods must have basic maneuvering and de-orbit capability as just a pod. (RCS for maneuverability, Sepratrons for de-orbit burn.)

11) All ships must have a communication device. (Antenna or Satellite Dish)

Power

12) Every ship needs some means of regenerating power. (Solar Panels or RTG's.)

13) Manned missions must have at least one Solar Panel.

14) RTG's on manned vessels must have an emergency ejection system.

Planets and Moons

15) There must be at least one satellite orbiting a planet or moon before a manned mission can be sent to that planet or moon. (Space Stations count as "manned".)

16) A probe or rover must be landed on a planet or moon before a manned landing can take place.

17) A manned landing mission must have taken place on a planet or moon before a base can be established there. ("Manned landing" also includes the return trip.)

Space Stations and Bases not on Kerbin or Laythe

18) Must have crew cycled at least every 6 months. (In-game time.)

So these are the rules I've set forth for my space agency, and I was wondering if anybody else has set rules and regulations for their space agencies and if so it'd be awesome if you would care to share.

Edited May 20, 2013 by CoriW

[bsalis]

My only big rule is to have fun.

While doing so, try not to kill too many Kerbals and avoid abusing F9.

[drakesdoom]

13) RTG's on manned vessels must have an emergency ejection system.

I am wondering what your reasoning is behind this rule?

[Brotoro]

I am wondering what your reasoning is behind this rule?

Yes, I was as well. Please elaborate.

[CoriW]

I am wondering what your reasoning is behind this rule?

"A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is an electrical generator that obtains its power from radioactive decay. In such a device, the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material is converted into electricity by the Seebeck effect using an array of thermocouples." - Wikipedia under Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)

Radioactive decay, so I would assume there has to be some sort of radiation to worry about even if it is minimal. Now in KSP there isn't actually any of that to worry about, but I like the idea of an "emergency ejection system" even if it may never actually need to be used.

[Flixxbeatz]

1. Rocket designs must be as aerodynamic and realistic as possible (that is, avoiding using stack of boosters)

2. Crewed spacecrafts must be tested unmanned first.

3. Anything to be lifted into orbit must be tested on ground first.

4. Minimize crew casualties.

5. Minimize rescue missions.

6. No foreign parts. (on my stock-only save)

7. HAVE FUN!

I am wondering what your reasoning is behind this rule?

Radioactivity, imparting some realism.

[Francesco]

Radioactive decay, so I would assume there has to be some sort of radiation to worry about even if it is minimal. Now in KSP there isn't actually any of that to worry about, but I like the idea of an "emergency ejection system" even if it may never actually need to be used.

no, there is no danger of radiation: RTGs have a heavy casing. you could probably keep one in your living room

[CoriW]

no, there is no danger of radiation: RTGs have a heavy casing. you could probably keep one in your living room

Hmm... Point taken.

I think despite that I'm still going to keep that rule because it's an awesome idea to have an "emergency ejection system".

[blspblackdeath]

no, there is no danger of radiation: RTGs have a heavy casing. you could probably keep one in your living room

Yes, but probably not while its burning. ;-)

[drakesdoom]

RTG's do not burn like a reactor. All radioactive material is thermally hot as well and they use a small core of heavily shielded material to produce heat which is turned into electricity with a thermocouple(s). They work like a small electric space heater except the electricity comes out.

[CoriW]

RTG's do not burn like a reactor. All radioactive material is thermally hot as well and they use a small core of heavily shielded material to produce heat which is turned into electricity with a thermocouple(s). They work like a small electric space heater except the electricity comes out.

I'm just sitting here picturing somebody hooking a heater up to one, heat converted to electricity converted to heat! xD

[Alephzorg]

Sending probes before sending kerbals makes sense. I also do it that way.

And I try to avoid leaving debris in orbit as much as possible.

But parachutes or a mean to recover those deorbited parts is too strict a design rule for me. If it falls pack in the atmosphere, I consider it has burned.

Can we see what designs you came up with while following those guidelines?

[PakledHostage]

I recall reading in the list of launch window criteria for the Curiosity rover that the launch had to be timed to allow sufficient daylight in Africa for the RTG to be recovered before nightfall, in the event of a launch failure. The trajectory was also not allowed to overfly populations above a certain threshold. I don't have the link handy, but it was in a NASA mission design overview paper.

[Ryan7183]

What rules and regulations?

[rakutenshi]

it had to be recovered before raiding warlords could get a hold of it, and it's nuclear materiel.

not overflying major population centers because if something went wrong.. bits of flaming spacecraft raining down on a big city is bad- radioactive or not.

[CoriW]

What rules and regulations?

Sometimes people like to set rules for themselves in order to increase the challenge of KSP.

Sending probes before sending kerbals makes sense. I also do it that way.

And I try to avoid leaving debris in orbit as much as possible.

But parachutes or a mean to recover those deorbited parts is too strict a design rule for me. If it falls pack in the atmosphere, I consider it has burned.

Can we see what designs you came up with while following those guidelines?

3) Reusable. (All components must be re-used if at all possible, and if not they must make a successful parachute landing on Kerbin. Component = Probe body, boosters also count.)

So below is my most recent launch, it's intended to send satellites up to orbit Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus. The boosters have parachutes so that they'll come down relatively soft somewhere on Kerbin and the transfer stage probe body has parachutes and a heat shield for re-entry and landing.

Now on this particular design the only reason the transfer stage has a probe body is because I don't want to leave the debris sitting in orbit, so the probe uses the little bit of fuel left to return to Kerbin. Then the probe will decouple from the actual transfer stage, using the heat shield and parachute to return safely to the surface. (Note once the probe decouples from the transfer stage, the transfer stage becomes debris and is no longer considered a "component".)

The only reason I like to return the boosters is because the only difference it makes is swapping out nose cones for parachutes, which isn't really a problem. (And it of course means that we can theoretically go collect the boosters and re-purpose them, however I don't actually recover the boosters because the game removes them before they can actually land. The only thing I do actually recover is Kerbals, so far I rarely do manned missions and when I do I make sure they land within about 10 - 15km of KSC for easier recovery.)

Edited May 19, 2013 by CoriW

[Panichio]

Sometimes people like to set rules for themselves in order to increase the challenge of KSP.

I'm pretty sure he was joking.

[CoriW]

I'm pretty sure he was joking.

Yeah I caught on right after I replied to it. xD

On another note I've tweaked my "Rules and Regulations" a little bit.

Changed (3) from this...

3) Reusable. (All components must be re-used if at all possible, and if not they must make a successful parachute landing on Kerbin. Component = Probe body, boosters also count.)

To this... Also swapped (2) and (3) around so the list looked neater.

2) No Data Losses. (All probe bodies intended for re-entry must make a successful parachute landing on Kerbin.)

Slightly modified (5) from this...

5) All components and capsules intended for re-entry must have at least 1 parachue and be able to survive re-entry as it is in the Deadly Re-entry plugin.

To this...

5) All probes and capsules intended for re-entry must have at least 1 parachue and be able to survive re-entry as it is in the Deadly Re-entry plugin.

And added this...

8) Aerospike Engines can not be used for primary launch stages, only boosters. (This regulation can be bypassed for an Eve launch vehicle.)

The last one is because I personally don't like using Aerospikes too much, they're... Too efficient.

Edited May 19, 2013 by CoriW

[PakledHostage]

it had to be recovered before raiding warlords could get a hold of it, and it's nuclear materiel.

not overflying major population centers because if something went wrong.. bits of flaming spacecraft raining down on a big city is bad- radioactive or not.

I'll assume you were joking and forgive the cultural insensitivity of your response...

The point is that range safety conditions were imposed on Curiosity's launch that were specific to the RTGs. That is consistent with CoriW's self-imposed requirement for additional contingencies on launches that carry RTGs.

[Giggleplex777]

"A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is an electrical generator that obtains its power from radioactive decay. In such a device, the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material is converted into electricity by the Seebeck effect using an array of thermocouples." - Wikipedia under Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)

Radioactive decay, so I would assume there has to be some sort of radiation to worry about even if it is minimal. Now in KSP there isn't actually any of that to worry about, but I like the idea of an "emergency ejection system" even if it may never actually need to be used.

Jettisoning RTGs won't be a good idea if you're in the atmosphere. IRL, it'll either shatter when it hits the ground or burn up. Either way, they will not be good for your space program.

[SecondGuessing]

I think, if I were an astronaut, I'd be more worried about the highly lethal mono-prop, or the fact I'm sat on top of a controlled explosive, rather than the non-penetrating alpha radiation emitted by an RTG.

I have a similar set of rules, TS, although I don't use deadly re-entry because all it does is make the game more tedious (it's easy to survive deadly re-entry with any ship; just put yourself in a slowly decaying orbit and wait). When it comes to probes and manned missions I typically say that I need to have a probe in the medium before I can said a Kerbal there. So I need a satellite before I send an orbiter, a probe lander before I send a manned lander, etc.

[The Jedi Master]

1.Unmanned missions before manned ones.

2.Only use "end flight" if the ship is truly unsavable and unusable and is just clogging up space.

3.No more SSTO attempts, Jeb. Please. I beg of you.

4.Have fun!

[sturmstiger]

I used similar rules to create some sense of realism and additional challenge.

5) All probes and capsules intended for re-entry must have at least 1 parachue and be able to survive re-entry as it is in the Deadly Re-entry plugin.

I don't use Dead Re-entry. For me I consider Mk1 & Mk1-2 crew pods and all cockpits properly protected from re-entry from LKO, and for everything else I'll need to put something that "looks like" & "works like" a heat shield if they are to survive re-entry or aerocapture - the heat shield would "deflect" the re-entry effect flames from hitting the parts they protect.

6) No SRB's (Solid Rocket Booster) on any manned launch. (All though this says nothing about using an SRB on a manned mission AFTER launch... *wink*)

NASA somehow believes SRBs are quite safe - just take a look at their various studies and reports on manned space flights. Though in KSP I don't use SRBs either, as they are quite inefficient. Jeb hates me for that.

13) Manned missions MUST have at least one Solar Panel.

Why is that?

I also have an addition rule that LV-N cannot be fired or be left to be burnt in the atmosphere of Kerbin, Duna, or Laythe, for environmental reasons. Jool is okay though. Who cares about Jool?

Simplicity, commonality & modularity are the guiding principles of designs in my space program. And all crewed systems will have higher reliability & redundancy requirements, as I will usually consider abort modes at various stages to avoid Loss of Crew.

[T3E]

General

1) No Kerbal Losses. (This requirement must be met at all costs, it is a sad day when a Kerbal dies.)

2) No Data Losses. (All probe bodies intended for re-entry must make a successful parachute landing on Kerbin.)

3) Minimal Debris. (Must avoid littering space with Debris if possible.)

4) Only allowed to use the "End Flight" button if the component or capsule is landed on Kerbin, can not "End Flight" on debris. (If there are Kerbals aboard, must be recovered to KSC.)

Wow.

That means, you are either really experienced or spent a lot of time with returning to kerbin

I mean, when you design a new rocket, but you have a serious design issue which will result in a failure, you really wait until the Probe hits Kerbin again? I understand it with manned missions, but this is little too much (for me)

Also I wonder about the "No data loss", you ever heard of Communication systems ? I mean even in real life (as realistic as possible) probes can measure certain stuff without returning!

[AmpsterMan]

I use several self imposed rules. The biggest challenge however stems from my no LV-N burning in atmosphere. This means that unless I an using an interplanetary shuttle, that most of my interplanetary missions require done assembly in orbit.