The Soaring Gardens of Laythe - COMPLETED

[colmo]

That ladder is terrifying! There is (yet another) mod with an elevator: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/46674-JonzCo-Enterprises-Exotic-Jet-Engines-Intakes-and-Mobility-Goods-0-2?highlight=elevator

[M4ck]

Thanks, but not this time I like it that way exactly because it looks crazy. Maybe when it comes to building a Rapture-like underwater base? Then something like that could come in handy(if kerbals didn't float that easily...)

[colmo]

Thanks, but not this time I like it that way exactly because it looks crazy. Maybe when it comes to building a Rapture-like underwater base? Then something like that could come in handy(if kerbals didn't float that easily...)

Crazy is good

With the Hooligan Labs submarine mod, Kerbals no longer shoot to the surface at high velocity. They can walk around on the seabed.

[M4ck]

With the Hooligan Labs submarine mod, Kerbals no longer shoot to the surface at high velocity. They can walk around on the seabed.

I guess I'll have to find/make a Big Daddy like EVA suit, then?... [grinning to myself in a villain-like way]

[M4ck]

Shortly after ground testing the new module, it was equipped with a pair of the same lifters used to deorbit, land and install the solar mast. The position of radial engines and reaction wheels was tweaked a bit to keep COT and COM relatively above each other. That is how it looked in low-Laythe orbit:

Next, the atmosphere-to-dock part of descent. This time it was a lot more precise(the previous module installation taught me that MechJeb gets really stupid when aiming for something above ground as a marker for landing, it tends to smack into the ground a few km away; so this time almost everything after the deorbit burn was manual only). This time I've neither landed nor anchored before docking, there was no need for that.

Fine-tuning the rotation

This time docking was much more vertical than horizontal - good thing the balloons don't have any collision on them, otherwise everything wouldn't have gone that nicely.

The last meter...

and...

thud. The ladder bumped into the floor panel. I've never thought about it while on Kerbin, as the whole base was launched as a single craft already during testing(and one craft parts don't collide with each other). Luckily, as you can see, the gap was really small, so I've managed to force the clamps together, and once they locked, everything worked as intended. After looking around I've noticed that the new part was twisted by about 15*. Not much, but it was clearly visible, therefore it was undocked, rotated and redocked again, this time lined up properly.

After detaching lifters and time-accelerating for a moment to get them removed(the craft counts as landed, so it was the "non-physical" warp, and everything moving in atmosphere got removed) the craft was rebalanced using the new balloon as well and saved ready for the installation of yet another module, this time - a habitation module(most likely using the hitchhiker storage parts instead of the intended tank+static solar panels ones, in order to cut down on the parts count). Probably coming here tomorrow evening or Friday afternoon.

[19spacepug]

Nice job what do you plan on doing now with the base. You should add a landing pad that works unlike the on on the moon base that was a epic fail.

[ninjakids]

I guess I'll have to find/make a Big Daddy like EVA suit, then?... [grinning to myself in a villain-like way]

Scott Manley said that.

[M4ck]

Nice job what do you plan on doing now with the base. You should add a landing pad that works unlike the on on the moon base that was a epic fail.

What do you mean? A landing pad, or a launch pad? The landing pad was fine on the Mun, as proved by for example the walkway transport lander. There is no need for it in this base other than as a marker for precise landing, as there is a lot of flat surface everywhere nearby. If you meant a launchpad instead, it is not going to work, for some reason(even with the current, unchanged version). I mean, most of the smaller crafts launch fine, but some randomly selected(at least I cannot find any logic) simply do not appear on the list at all. That's the reason why I've established a temporary space dock in the low Laythe orbit, it's fully functional but ugly at the moment, I'll launch a proper-looking one somewhere in the near future and document the mission. After all, Jeb and Bill need to be rescued and sent back to Kerbin(where they will keep training for future missions, after getting whacked repeatedly for sneaking in the first orbital dock).

As for the nearest future of the base: I'd like to add a habitation "bridge" module, with several "storage" parts side by side, with a docking port on the other end as well to make another extension there possible in the future, should I choose to do this. Later, a docking hub for several pieces of this, probably with some kind of an elevator on the other end for lowering kerbals and supplies to the surface(if they don't trust the little blimps), where a refinery, a rover/buggy and something between a spaceplane and a blimp will be stationed if it works well enough.

Scott Manley said that.

Wow... It's great to know I have at least something in common with that great man

[M4ck]

It looks like I have too much of free time recently, as I've just docked another new module. This time, a girder+railing+ladder spine with four hitchhiker storages on the sides. It's the heaviest module so far, even without the structure suspending it at the moment, it's over 15t.

I don't know if this was intended, but my kerbals hate girders and won't stand on any of them, therefore all the connections are covered in ladders. They cross in some places, but the movement is completely fine.

Here is the vessel during a test crawl performed by Bob

He got to the hatch without problems(after he disabled the gravity to reach the ladder's end, that is). Next, the lifter stage was designed specifically so that it had the COT and COL high up, but still pushed on the main part from the bottom. Of course, it also had to be able to detach properly without slicing the walkway in half(I know struts don't work like that in KSP, but still), hence the separators below SAS modules. It falls apart nicely when the separators detach simultaneously.

A closeup of the main attachment point

The module in LLO some time later

Landed and waiting for daylight to begin the installation

3km from target, not that bad. The altitude is maintained at around 1500m, the target's docking port is somewhere 1470m above the sea level

First visual contact

Getting close

And closer

Aaand... we're done here. Well, almost, as I had to rebalance the balloons' pressure a bit. Reducing the lift of the two Unas on previous modules reduced the overall wobbliness of the whole base.

The lifter frame will wait here until the next module is installed to support the other end of the "bridge". I am thinking of a small lift module for moving between the ground and the base. Or I could put a vertical module here, a long line of girders with a Ray(the larger one, like on the main module) or a Cirrus(a huge, vertical ovoid shaped one) on the top and a KAS-powered platform moving up and down(or simply the elevator colmo mentioned earlier, if it fits). Another ground lift will be placed at the opposite end of the colony, the mini-blimp station.

By the way, due to how heavy this part turned out to be, the orbital dock won't have enough spare parts to finish the colony(and not a single docking port to make any "refilling" mission possible - I know, yet another stupid mistake), so the remaining parts will be designed all together, tested on Kerbin, launched to dock to an interplanetary tug and sent together to Laythe as a single huge contraption(sitting on a proper, refillable construction yard modules in case I want to expand the base in the future even more than intended now; may also be used later for underwater constructions on Laythe). Maybe two separate ones.

Edited August 29, 2013 by M4ck

[ninjakids]

If you are going to make a underwater base on Laythe, have it near the floating gardens, like just out of render distance.

[Patupi]

Or you could build a miner and send it down to laythe? Using EPL you could mine materials to send up to your orbital shipyard. As I understand it (haven't tried it myself) Orbital Shipyards now use the same materials as EPL so you'd only need the mining, ore processing and manufacturing sections.... Yeah, they can be a pain to land anywhere due to lack of mounting points. However I think the runway is still in the game at present and that has all the components included to turn ore into parts. Admittedly I haven't played with EPL in a couple of months as I've been a bit involved in a challenge (Duna Architectural Challenge to be precise)

Great work on this. I've never tried out the balloons but you certainly seem to be doing well with them. You'll have a city on Laythe in no time!

[M4ck]

First of all - is it just me, or did all the post writing "buttons" like font size, img tag, code tag disappear after the recent downtime?

Secondly, I would have to send a manned expedition to the current orbital dock, as even if I were to send a KAS assisted refueller, it would not be able to attach itself - I need to place a removable radial KAS port for that. I cannot use Jeb or Bill for any of that, because their cams aren't showing in the corner of the screen, and the extraplanetary launchpad(the command pod they sneaked into at launch) seemingly HAS NO HATCH - meaning no EVA for them. Therefore, I need to deorbit it back to Kerbin to ever use them again...

The good sides to that: I am now designing necessary modules for a complete interplanetary voyage, including landing chutes, heat shields, deorbit engines etc, 10 types(about 25 modules total) will be taken to Laythe in the first transfer, another 15 or so in the second one. Most of the core ones will be sent to orbit as one, to be later equipped with smaller ones I couldn't have launched already strapped, either out of fear that they could throw everything off-balance during the launch, or because I couldn't place them where I want to in VAB. Subassembly Loader doesn't allow placing anything if the picked/core part has no free nodes, and in case of my rovers and miniblimps, they don't. I think I've seen some tiny mod here which enables people to change the core part during the construction, but it seems my search-fu is too weak now... (and now I am waiting for the usual mod suggestion ). I'll post an imgur album with the pics of the separate parts in a day or two, the next episode will be all about the launch and transfer to Laythe, which will probably take some of my time to complete.

[Captain Sierra]

Yeah M4ck. All the buttons did dissappear. I first noticed it this morning when the forums were 500'ing.

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

Im guessing somebody was overusing the font and colors..

Congrats for sierra, He now just turned into the devil... (666 posts)

[Dispatcher]

Impressive. I can tell a lot of work went into this!

[M4ck]

This time it will be a short preview of the multi-module mission to Laythe. I will add more pictures later, these are here only to ensure you that I am working on it The pictures are high-res and the ship quite complicated, so you may want to watch the album on Imgur instead of the embedded one.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

By the way, I still have no idea how to name the ship - if at all. Any ideas?

Edited August 31, 2013 by M4ck

[littlebattler]

The Bubbleblower, because it looks like one and it's full of air and bubbles.

[M4ck]

The ship has been(almost) completely assembled and filled to about 2/3(it already has over 8km/s to apply, does it need even more?). Now it only needs a temporary orbital construction yard on its back, along with some spares. Once in Laythe orbit, the spares will be used to build a larger, proper yard. I am not taking the final one with me because of the massive lag. A spare parts container, a construction yard module and an RTG are three parts, the completed dock will be more like 75 parts when done. The ship has already turned into something similar to a slideshow... But it looks almost just what I wanted it to look

(again, zooming in can be useful here)

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[littlebattler]

Bubbleblower will be the best roundified ship of all time. OF ALL TIME.

[Captain Sierra]

Overkill on the heat shields man. Do you have deadly re-entry?

[M4ck]

Nah, I want them only to look like they should be there. They will be for landing various parts on Laythe(one per module, they fit rather nicely), and since I wanted more than one of them, I had to fit them on the main ship somehow... They look good while aerobraking at Jool, though. If only the ship didn't fall apart then... To be honest it doesn't get ripped apart by the drag directly, but gets incredibly wobbly and kinda rips itself apart. Anyways, there was no aerobraking at Jool and Laythe for the whole ship after all, it had enough fuel left to simply slow down using engines. I am now in the process of dropping everything to the surface, testing the ore miner etc, maybe I'll post it all today if I have enough time.

[M4ck]

About the heatshields: they turned out to be an epic fail. I had no idea the engines worked that way: they not only push the craft they are part of, but also push against anything they are pointed at, seemingly with great range. Therefore, even at full throttle, the deorbit modules remained stationary unless the heatshield was removed. After docking the first rover, the assembly turned into more or less a slideshow. 5 FPS most. Here's an almost complete documentation of the Bubbleblower's assembly, slicing into separate modules and deorbiting. Including tiny airships, temporary orbital yards, rover, explosions and other things. Very long. In about ten last pictures you can see everything that is currently landed near the base, and the base itself against the night sky and Jool.

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I really love the last picture, by the way. Like some good old airship from Final Fantasy IX, all "dreamy" and such.

Now, a preview and a question(the last picture) about the next module for the main base. This will be a communication/sensor tower, supporting the habitat on the other end, with a possibility of extending the base further.

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Next to do: the tower has to be taken to Laythe(constructed in orbit once the proper yard is built and refilled with spares), then the blimp station + base/ground elevator will be designed and installed. After that, only the plane and refinery are left.

Edited September 2, 2013 by M4ck

[Rainbowtrout]

To be honest, I can see this falling apart at the last step. But I hope it doesn't. It's awesomes!

[M4ck]

I really hope it won't. The Mun base faced crashes, explosions and such a few times, but this one has been intact all the time, not a single F9 had to be used during its construction But, what about the tower? The last picture. Really not too large?

[Shalashalska]

What mods do you use?