First successful missions

[Milkshakefiend]

So I'm starting to get to grips with things. More of my velocities are upwards, less of my ships run out of fuel, less of them go BANG on the launcher, and (slightly) less Kerbals are dying due to my incompetence. After doing some of the basic light satellites around Kerbin I thought 'The Mün looks like fun.' Erwise and Bob agreed, so into the unknown we went (After plenty of time in the VAB...)

First Munar landing - I was practically having kittens trying to land this as softly as possible

Bob and Erwise get out and look at their new home for the foreseeable future

They've unpacked, made themselves at home and even planted a flag

The next stage really was getting them mobile. After many iterations and spectacularly unsuccessful launches, the JebJeep™ was finally deployed to the Münar surface, and landed less than 1km away from the pod. Blind luck more than skill!

Erwise quite enjoyed the storage container for some reason.

Parked up after an exciting day zooming about

Obviously no fledgling Mün colony is complete without some sort of satellite, so back into space - this time No Kerbals Were Harmed In the Deployment of This Apparatus (which makes a nice change for me)

On the transfer across, I thought 'I wonder how low I can get this thing...' So the next challenge was exactly that. The orbital and transfer stage is seen here.

Fairings deployed, satellite decoupled, transfer stage abandoned in the background(I forgot to put another core on there to control it after. Rookies, eh?)

Got into a stable circular orbit

...And thats how low I got it. I'm not sure what the highest point is on the equatorial line, but I daren't go below 2600m

Thanks for looking. Hopefully tomorrow Bob and Erwise will have some slightly better accommodation and a few more facilities!

~M

[Flixxbeatz]

First successful interplanetary mission and landing, both done on Duna. Ooooh the feels

[Tw1]

Erwise quite enjoyed the storage container for some reason.

Erwise seems like an interesting guy.

You're very well prepared for a first-time Mun lander. Your space program must be pretty organised.

Mine was more like "MOON! GO NAO!" And I stacked SRBs until the rocket went high enough to get there.

Jeb loved it. Some photos from my first Mun (and rocket) attempts.

This stage looked awesome. Still experimenting with designs here.

Why the panels? Because they looked awesome, that's why.

And we're here! (Yep, were here, and alive, that's what counts right?)

Edited June 17, 2013 by Tw1

[Milkshakefiend]

Erwise seems like an interesting guy.

You're very well prepared for a first-time Mun lander. Your space program must be pretty organised.

Mine was more like "MOON! GO NAO!" And I stacked SRBs until the rocket went high enough to get there.

I like to give off an air of competence, however I can assure you that behind these 3 successes are 20 wrecked buggys, various probe parts littering KSC and alot of new craters on the Mün.

My general building strategy is 'Is it going quick enough -> No -> Have you run out of fuel? -> No -> Add more engines.' I think it's the same train of thought as your SRB theory lol.

[Tw1]

But still, you gave them things to do, which I didn't until my second interplanetary flight.

(Unless you count the rover-probes that were tacked on to my first Duna lander. None of them lasted a week, and I never placed control sources on the bottom of a rover again.)

[Milkshakefiend]

Dropped another rover on the moon today - a small crane this time though. Big enough to winch things if they get rolled over but not quite big enough to lift modules. Newbie construction error. Jeb came along for the ride this time. The uneven weight distribution of the crane made for a high pucker-factor on the landing, and it wasn't quite as accurate this time - 2 km off course. Still, it was a good chance to see what the tracked rovers can do!

Pre-final burn

The final approach. Fuel levels getting slightly worrying

Stuck the landing! (Just..!)

Parked up for the evening

Next on the list... Well, we'll see what happens in the VAB.

~M

[Milkshakefiend]

SO some mods decided to act up on my install of KSP, and long story short, my stupidity lost me my Munar lander and Kerbal satellites. I decided I could make my fledgling Munar outpost a little better, so it was redesigned, relaunched, relanded and renamed to Jeb N' Bill's.

Here it is on the platform with the lifter

TOUCHDOWN!

Bill tries to walk off the shakes from Jeb's landing...

...And smartly proceeds to break part of the capsule. Jackass.

Jeb discovers he has his own parking spot now.

As my satellites around Kerbin were no more, I decided to start the construction of the KSS. The habitation module went up first - to an circular equatorial orbit of 100km. Simple enough. The second piece involved a bit more consternation and much reading about rendezvous...

The faired payload and lifter enroute to interception

Success! The nuclear power module is docked and renders the tiny cells on the habitation module useless. There is much rejoicing, until the crew realize they are now living next to a nuke.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I may build a better mobile crane for the Munar base - The one up there is a bit micro.

~M

[Pipcard]

Some advice: fairings are supposed to protect the payload from Kerbin's atmosphere, so you jettison them once you leave it.