The Farside Mission: Operation Huge Freaking Permanent Munar Base

[gabyalufix]

Buckle up, folks. I\'m gonna show you guys how I roll. It\'s a long ride, so get comfy. Maybe make yourself a snack.

Originally, Operaration HFPMB was a modest proposal, intending to launch an unmanned, half-meter ball that beeped over ham radio. However, top KSP engineers soon fixed that. The Beep-Ball Manufacture and Engineering team requested that a manned command module be included, so that the frequency could be manually set before release. This of course required the addition of several other modules, so that the intrepid kerbalnaughts could breathe, stay warm, play regulation-size ping-pong, etc. This of course required ever-greater lift capacity. Of course, whenever the booster engineers built a new rocket, they inevitably added too much thrust, causing the rocket to tear itself apart from acceleration. Rather than forcing a redesign, more payload mass was added, inevitably in excess. This process cycled for several iterations until the road-sides were spotless, all across the nation.

The final mission goals were:

(1) Establish a permanent communications satellite in planetary orbit. The NearEar Communications Relay would act as a radio relay for transmissions from the other modules.

(2) Establish a permanent space station in low munar orbit. Lowball Station included a space telescope, a solar array, a communications module, and an return/escape vehicle, as well as a large central service/habitation module.

(3) Establish a massive, permanent base on the munar surface. Nobody was sure exactly what they would do once they got there, but everyone agreed that they were sure to think of something. Thus, they brought along every possible module and tool they could fit on top of the rocket. A radar dish, a huge solar array, a full set of left- and right-handed milspec can-openers, test tubes, various chemicals (many of which were labelled). The list went on. After all, one never knew what sort of brilliant Science(!) they might be able to get up to, on the far side of the moon.

(4) Send a small command module back home with soil samples, instrument readings, exotic alien servant-girls, and/or whatever else of interest that they might come across.

Mission Log:

-Launch! The first stage used 8x full-length 3m tanks, and 4x massive rockets. It handled about as well as a tank made of rubber bands. If you touched the sas button or fired the RCS, it instantly tore itself to shreds. A very touchy beast indeed.

The first stage cut out at aroung 45km. The burn was a little suboptimal, since the ship would snap in half if I tilted before I released stage 1, so I had to go straight up.

The 2nd stage was a set of 4 solid rocket boosters. Jeb enjoyed this part tremendously. I had to focus to keep it from spinning out, so I didn\'t get a screen shot of the burn. But it didn\'t last long anyhow. Release:

Stage 3 was a set of 5 high-efficiency, low-thrust liquid engines running off a single full-length 3m tank. Jeb sulked the whole time.

This brought me to stable orbit. 159km/103km apogee/perigee. T+13 minutes.

Let\'s take a look at the ship:

Mein gott . . . how the heck did I get this into orbit?

'How many solar panels do you think we\'ll need?' 'Dunno. How many ya got?'

Sunset. Probably should have packed some batteries too . . .

Stage 3 release.

All that\'s left are the three long-term modules: The NearEar Communications Relay, Lowball Space Station, and Farside MunBase.

NEC Relay has been released.

My luckiest shot of the series: You can see the NEC relay drifting away, the Mun in the background to the left, Kerbal below, and in the distant background, the discarded Stage III booster.

Another shot of the NEC relay, drifting away.

Okay! Now all that\'s left is Lowball and Farside. Let\'s take a look at lowball.

The Comms module, with a parabolic dish for transmitting messages to the NearEar. While other space programs might claim that a huge dish isn\'t strictly necessary for communicating over such short distances, the KSP\'s official best-practices specifications require that all kerbalnauts have access to full-HD television at all times; therefore, such additional equipment is considered vital to mission success.

The FWtSHtF C/EEV. Despite rumors to the contrary, a spokeskerbin for the Kerbal Space Program has assured the media at a recent press conference that the official title of this module is the 'For When the Stuff Hits the Fan Command / Emergency Escape Vehicle'. After a visit from the FCC concerning a few unfortunate live, on-air comments by Jeb, the kerbalnaughts were sternly ordered to refer to it by it\'s full official title. Since then, they have begun referring to it as the 'R-LAV', or 'Really-Long Acronym Vehicle'.

Kinda hard to see, but there\'s a space telescope on there. During the trip to the mun, an inter-module game of Eye-Spy was cut short amid accusations that the commander of the Lowball was cheating by discovering and naming new stars. A subsequent ruling by NESA (national eye spy association) determined that this was 'technically legal, but highly unsportsmanlike'.

Lowball Station\'s Solar Array and Utility Module provides power, as well as maintaining various life-support subsystems.

Sunrise.

Scaled to kerbin, Lowball + Farside have more living space than MIR, plus several times that much volume in engines and fuel tanks.

Destination: Mun.

Apogee, after the first perigee burn. Bill heard somewhere that the best way to get into a transfer orbit with a weak but efficient engine was to burn at perigee. So I did that.

After the 2nd perigee burn, I was in an equatorial transfer orbit.

It took a few swings round, but eventually got captured by Munar gravity. Then I had to wait until sunrise over my Landing Zone, an equatorial crater on the far side. Sunrise, at last:

Made my way into orbit.

Released Lowball Space Station in a low orbit over the mun. (Approx) Apogee: 10km, Perigee: 5km. In hindsight, I should have written the exact numbers down.

So long, suckers!

Farside MunBase, with Lowball Space Station receding in the background.

Lowball Station, with Farside Base in the background:

Let\'s take a closer look at Farside Base:

The central fuel tank is where most of the fuel is stored. Fuel lines link it up to the four engines.

Goodbye, Kerbal! We\'ll miss you!

Crater ho!

Shedding all that nasty orbital velocity. I actually almost got hit by Lowball right after this pic was taken. Didn\'t react fast enough to get a pic though.

Beginning descent. I was really nervous now. I\'d already spent 30-60 minutes on this and had had incredible luck, so I was terrified that I\'d crash, or KSP would crash, or the power would go out, or something . . .

I always turned off the engines before I took a pic, because it was more stable with the engines off. I was afraid my pic-taking would be the death of me.

Farside Base has landed! PIC ALL OF THE THINGS!!!

The Comms module sends and receives radio transmissions and quality HD-TV programming, relayed from Kerbal to the NEC Relay to Lowball Station to (finally) down here on Farside Base.

The sunroom has nice big windows so the Kerbinaughts can get some sun. Someone pointed out that the sun is horribly radioactive without miles of protective atmosphere. Thus, they built the solar array on top, to provide the sunroom with nice, non-carcinogenic shade.

The Sensor/Science/Service module has a Big Ol Radar Dish, for potentially detecting hostile UFO\'s and azure-skinned alien nymphomaniac pleasure barges.

RED ALERT: THERE IS SUN IN THE SUNROOM! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

The auxilery solar tower / utility module performs basic life support functions, as well as containing the Military-Grade Zero-G Poop Disposal Unit.

Other misc shots: By my estimate, there\'s a kerbal-scale equivalent to around 200 cubic meters of living space. Most of the living quarters are converted fuel tanks with windows installed, or converted command modules stolen from other, less-well-funded projects. The crew complement is somewhere between 6 to 8 kerbonaughts, though it can support a full dozen if people are prepared to double bunk.

I actually did 2 successful runs of this mission. In both, I tried to calculate the lowball\'s orbit and get a sight of it from farside base. Both times, I failed to spot it. I dunno if it was too far up (5-7km, approx), or moving too fast, or if I miscalculated the orbit, or if I blinked, or what. The only time I sighted it after losing sight was that one time it almost hit me, and that was while I was still mostly in orbit with it.

After they ran out of sandwiches, Jeb, Bill, and Bob decided to abandon their Mun-Base friends and return home. The Return Vehicle was really touchy, so I didn\'t get many shots of it in flight. I really wish I had gotten a shot of Farside from above.

Munar orbit. If I did the math right, then lowball should be far enough around the horizon that they can relay Jeb, bill, and Bob their HD-TV from the NEC Relay.

Pretty big return vehicle. I brought a ton of extra fuel, hoping to meet back up with lowball. No such luck, so I just went home with extra fuel.

Hello, old friend.

I actually entered atmo twice. The first time was over land, so I rocketed back out and did some corrections from orbit. I didn\'t want to take any chances, at this point.

This looks like as good a spot as any. Lots of splashy blue goodness, all around. Someone should probably call mission control and see if they can get a boat coming our way.

Extra rocket stage, which might have been necessary if I had burned a bunch of fuel trying to link up with lowball. As it was: pointless.

Command Module, coming in hot. My velocity was really high at this point. Was beginning to worry that I had hit the chute too late.

Still moving pretty fast, but decelerating faster . . . . .

Splash, not boom. MISSION SUCCESSFUL!

WOO HOO!

[White Owl]

I think you won.

[RedDwarfIV]

Veto Aerospace is going to have to find a new CEO. Again. Though this time its because he was disheartened by the successes of another space program\'s work, rather than having messed something up and subsequently being shot from a Predator at in incoming missile.

[Tim_Barrett]

I think we have witnessed the birth of the god(dess?) of assymetry...

[NovaSilisko]

Unfortunately, tinypic doesn\'t work for me, and I can\'t view any of these pictures :C

Proxy away!

Edit:

[gabyalufix]

I think we have witnessed the birth of the god(dess?) of assymetry...

Symmetry is for people who have downloaded an insufficient number of parts! Death before the symmetry button! Viva la Asimetría!

PS. I am male.

[Switchblade88]

Viva la Asimetría!

PS. I am male.

Yeah, yeah, we can all see that your entire project ran purely on Jeb\'s TESTOSTERONE instead on rocket fuel:

'I also nick named my testes - my left one is James Westfall and my right one is Doctor Kenneth Noisewater.' 8)

Glad to see you finally made it without crashing (your PC)!

And where\'d you get the parts for the \'non-command\' modules - or did you cfg edit yourself?

[gabyalufix]

Yeah. I just took all the command modules and copy-pasted them up, changed the configs so they\'re 'Struts'. I missed being able to stick command modules wherever I feel like it.

[Switchblade88]

That\'s a good idea there, actually; if the need arises I might yet look into that.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I am speacheless. So I better get building.

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

Speaking of horrendously huge space stations, I got this:

And it did not attained orbit.

Also,

[N3X15]

And a million engineers had nightmares ever after.

Seriously, though, it looks like you strapped half of Las Vegas to the top of those rockets.

[Huojin]

Simply amazing :3

Would\'ve been nice for you to link up with Lowball, though. Did you time warp at any point between detaching Lowball and returning to Munar orbit? I\'ve heard that can make parts disappear.

[gabyalufix]

No time warping, once I was below 5km. If you time warp while too close to the mun, sometimes the moon 'jumps' and your orbit changes. And then you die.

[Gojira]

I feel small and too symmetrical all of a sudden

.craft and required parts, please?

[gabyalufix]

Right. Now that I know how to do attachments, i can attach the craft file.

As for the part list - much trickier. First I downloaded every part I could find, then I used whichever ones I felt like at the time. Also, there are 2 different kinds of heavy struts used - I accidentally used some heavy strut from two different packs, and can\'t figure out how to get rid of them without just removing every strut, everywhere. So I just edited the configs so they\'re identical. One is harvester\'s strutConnectorHeavy. The other one was named something else--similar but different. Like 'heavyStrutConnector' or something.

Also, I manually edited the configs of the extra command pods. I made a new copy and called each one 'OriginalCommandPodName_aux', and declared it a 'strut'.

Maybe if I have time I\'ll switch over my external to my linux box and do an ls -r of my mods directory. Thank god I switched over to JSGME.

Edit: it\'s called NP_Heavystrut, from the novapunch pack. I think I changed heavyStrutConnector (from the kw challenger pack) to match the novapunch version. I suspect it won\'t fly if you leave it as-is, since the kw version is, like, 20 times heavier.

I tried fixing it by textreplacing instances of heavyStrutConnector with NP_Heavystrut, but it did not like that at ALL.

[Gojira]

just post your parts folder in a zip 8)

[gabyalufix]

Half a gigabyte, compressed. Ouch! I\'ll see if I can figure out a way to get this hosted somewhere . . .

[Satellife]

Jesus Christ.

It\'s as if every mission from Mercury through A Moon Base was combined into one launch...

Respect.

[RedDwarfIV]

I noticed when testing missiles that jettisoned stages usually disappear once their engines/SRBs are off, especially if they aren\'t in your field of view.

Though I\'m not entirely sure, as once in a Munar orbit I dropped a large fuel tank and engine. It went down slowly, not fast enough for me to lose sight of it. But after a while it went out of view of my camera, and I never saw it after that.

[gabyalufix]

I\'ve sometimes been in co-orbit with released stages, and I\'ve had them seem to go in and out of sight, as our two slightly-different orbits wave past each other. But I\'m never 100% sure they actually went out of sight, or if I just really tiny and I didn\'t notice. I\'ve also gotten log notifications of stages hitting kerbal, long after separation (for example, if I release while technically in orbit, but with a perigee just barely inside the atmosphere). But then again, I\'ve also had situations where I expected to see the impact logged and didn\'t.

Does anyone know for sure if stuff stays around even when far away? It can be hard to tell, due to the speeds involved?

Does anyone know if there is a 'fog plane' in the KSP graphics engine, beyond which objects are simply not rendered, even if their positions are still being tracked?

[Lord Strange]

???

Whoa. That\'s just incredible.

Quick Jeb, to the VAB!

[Guest ThatCrazyPilot]

Congratulations, you win KSP!

[nlancaster]

While not as large as gabyalufix massive undertaking. here is my semi realistic huge mun base and lander system.

Full size 3m tank as a Mun base.

Unfortnatly something went wrong when the lander/return stage landed again on the mun, and all 3 kerbals were permantly stuck on the Mun. Good news is they had a HUGE 3m tank to use as a shelter, and a rescue mission is on the way!

[gabyalufix]

Nicely done.

It\'s starting to get downright crowded up there . . .