[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program

Northstar1989 · March 26, 2014

Got a RocketParts Tanker up to the 350 km Depot:

And also finished up my scrapping operations around the Mun:

And discovered that I *STILL* couldn't build anything at my various spacedocks...

SO, it looks like I'm going to have to wait until I can get my fueled-up RocketParts Tanker to the Minmus Spacedock before I can build anything more in orbit. And if that doesn't work- will then I just don't know...

Considering the immense persistence of these kinds of bugs now that I've surpassed a certain number of spacedocks, it looks like I wasn't wrong in saying I'd probably have to switch over to the Extraplanetary Launchapds system before. We'll see what happens...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited March 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · March 29, 2014

My fueled-up RocketParts Tanker is now en-route to Minmus:

Since some phasing will probably be necessary to rendezvous it with the Minmus Spacedock after its arrival, I plan on capturing it into a high orbit (over 500,000 meters) and then bringing it lower when in-position. So, no adjustment burn is necessary, and until it enters Minmus' SOI, that's probably the last you'll hear of it for a while...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 29, 2014

Some of you might also be interested to learn that the Duna Crew Module made a slight course-correction today (its projected apoapsis was at over 20 million kilometers.) Now it's on a collision-course with the surface, even ignoring atmospheric drag. Of course, another correction will be necessary once it enters the Duna system to set its aerocapture periapsis- but that's just all part of the fun!

Here are the "after" pics:

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 29, 2014

The Minmus Spacedock is now in a perfectly equatorial orbit around Minmus at approximately 25 km (peri: 24 km apo: 26 km) above Minmus' surface:

The Raven Mk2, meanwhile, is preparing to make its rendezvous with the spacedock so it can refuel and depart for Duna:

I don't know if I suggested performing a crew-transfer as well, but according to the orbital map the current pilots (Bartgel and Kelney Kerbal) seem to be quite brave and intelligent, so I think I'll leave them on board and give them the chance to set foot on Duna...

No post is ever truly complete without a beautiful screenshot to leave a pleasant afterglow for the reader, and this one is no exception. Kerbin looks so small from Minmus! Enjoy:

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 29, 2014

The Raven Mk2 made its refueling stop at the Minmus Spacedock, and is now ready to depart for Duna:

The only problem is, I couldn't seem to plot any transfer to Duna with the 1125 m/s of Delta-V available in the Raven Mk2 given how far off Duna is from its ideal transfer window:

It became obvious I would need to attempt the extremely difficult- refueling the Raven Mk2 *AFTER* it had made a burn around Minmus to escape from from the Kerbin system and send it in the general direction of Duna (the extra fuel would then provide enough Delta-V to get a Duna intercept even with Duna in such a poor position). The easiest way to do this would be to launch a much larger fuel tanker immediately after the Raven Mk2's escape burn, either burning against its velocity or utilizing MechJeb2's "Intercept at Time X" feature to plot an intercept just a few hours or days out... (I would then have to match velocity at the deep-space intercept)

So, I quicksaved, and then fast-forwarded through the rest of the wait to get the RocketParts Tanker to the Minmus Sapcedock, docked it, and transferred over the RocketParts:

And, as hoped, this allowed me to build ships using Orbital Construction again:

It's being very finicky, but based on the new limits on ship size (I think it's currently 60 tons- the mass of RocketParts on board the Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform- now me least supplied spacedock), I think I may have been right in saying the system is currently requiring that ALL the spacedocks have enough RocketParts to build a given ship design before it will let me build it at ANY of them. Which is, of course, just so wrong and buggy- but there is nothing I can do about it at the moment short of possible trying to track down the mod remake's author...

Anyways, I'll be building a new 350 km spacedock (sized to have a dry mass of as close to 60 tons as possible without going over), another scrapper ship to recycle my derelict vessels in 350 km orbit and below (as my earlier Heavy Scrapper Ship was too small to efficiently recycle some of them, and has been re-assigned to the Mun for the moment anyways...), a tanker ship to accompany the Raven Mk2, and then a rescue ship for the stranded Light Moon Explorer mission- in that order (the largest projects need to be built first to avoid facing the same problem I did before... The 350 km depot should be larger than the accompanying tanker, and the scrapper ship will be necessary to recycle the 350 km Construction Ship which will thereafter have all its RocketParts offloaded to the new 350 km depot and be abandoned...)

Updates to follow.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 29, 2014

A Extraplanetary Launchpads style 350 km Spacedock is now deployed:

I also, as you can see in the album, ran over the remaining RocketParts from the 350 km Depot using the RocketParts Tanker that was already docked with it...

I've decided that a single Small Orbital Warehouse won't be large enough to serve my needs, however- so I'll be building an even large spacedock from the existing one (I needed to build an Extraplanetary Launchpads spacedock first to circumvent the size limits I was facing with Orbital Construction).

Once I take care of that, and perhaps scrap some of the abandoned ships at 350 km first, I intend to build that accompanying tanker for the Raven Mk2 I was talking about earlier. More on all that soon.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited March 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

Meet the Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship:

Massive isn't she? But necessary to recycle hulks on the scale of THIS 398.2 ton behemoth:

Kerbal Space Center has suffered enormous funding cuts in recent weeks, following the collapse of the Kerbal States economy. Unable to continue to sustain enormous launches of new vessels, it is from now on largely up to the already launched missions to build by space program.

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. I don't know how successful I'll actually be in curtailing myself from making additional launches. But given the enormous mass in RocketParts and debris already in orbit, as well as the capability to mine new fuel and new RocketParts on new planets using Kethane, Orbital Construction, and Extraplanetary Launchpads; I see no reason to continue launching vessel after enormous vessel from the KSC, except to test new reusable rocket/spaceplane designs or propulsion systems...

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

I present the final 350 km spacedock:

Unfortunately, Extraplanetary Launchpads' orbital construction system still has a few bugs of its own. One of those caused the previous 350 km spacedock I presented just a short time before to break apart and the pieces to fly off at several dozen m/s immediately upon detaching the new spacedock from the old. Here is a picture of the Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship mopping up the largest of those pieces:

I also cleaned up the Construction Ship I utilized before:

The 350 km Depot was detached from its orbital construction tools (spacedock identifier) tanker some time ago. That means the only function Orbital Construction mod spacedocks are now the Munar Spacedock, the Minmus Spacedock, and the DHEDP.

Therefore, I am now clear to build the tanker to accompany the Raven Mk2 I mentioned before. And a fuel-lander to save the stranded Light Moon Explorer mission (the Mk2 or Mk3, I can't remember the name of the one without the fuel to make it back to orbit). And then I'll just be left cleaning up the low Kerbin orbits (which are crowded with debris and decmoissioned ships for my Scrapper Ship to mop up- as usual) to reduce lag and prevent any Kessler Syndrome-style surprises... I might also start my construction of a Mun base and Minmus outpost- but then again I might just put it off.

And, finally, after recovering the Light Moon Explorer missions for !Science! (almost enough to discover Fusion Power), I'll be guiding the Duna armada on its final adjustment burns and first aerobraking maneuvers, and starting my colonization of Duna- the moment we've all been waiting for!

Now let's get to it! I've been talking long enough about where I'm heading, and not doing enough actual heading there- most of you who are still reading this must be in tears by now...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

The Raven Mk2 made the first part of its transfer to Duna (the escape from Minmus orbit and dive inwards towards Kerbin to make maximal use of the Oberth Effect), while its tanker followed closely behind it so as to refuel it somewhere out in the sun's SOI.

And, I'm also beginning the rescue of the stranded Light Moon Explorer mission (technically I could get the Kerbals to orbit without a rescue mission by bailing and EVA'ing, as the ship still has enough Delta-V for a high suborbital hop- but I want to rescue the scientific data on the command pod as well...) More on that shortly.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

The rescue mission for the Light Moon Explorer Mk2 went VERY smoothly (just look how close the Light Munar Fuel Lander came down straight from orbit- I didn't even need to perform a suborbital "hop" to move it withing winch-range!)

An in-character account of the refueling and ascent back to Munar orbit will be coming next.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited March 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

Jerbo glanced out the window of the command capsule at the computer-controlled fuel lander just a short distance away:

"I still can't believe how close that thing landed Donely."

"Yeah, they keep making them more and more precise and accurate every day. Pretty soon they won't even need Kerbal pilots like us!"

"Nah- there will be use for us Kerbals for a long time to come. We're still a lot more reliable than a computer that could break or blow a circuit at any time. And who's gonna fix the computers when they DO break? Besides, there's a lot of political gain from saying they brought back more Kerbals from the Mun today..."

"You're right. Anyways, it was an extremely precise landing. Now get out there and let's get some fuel in this baby so we can go home!"

With that, Jerbo, who had been suiting up, exited the Light Munar Explorer and went about hooking it up to the fuel lander for refueling:

"This is great" said Donely, as soon as Jerbo climbed back in the capsule "Just look how much fuel we have. We'll be back on Kerbin in no time!"

"Alright, let's get off this rock!" came Jerbo's response. "Too bad Mission control directed us to use the new auto-ascent system to avoid risking any more monkey business on this mission. It would have been nice to feel the power of a throttle in my hands again."

Soon, the Kerbals were on their way back to Munar orbit:

"Watchya doin' Donely?" inquired Jerbo, somewhat bored and noticing Donely's discrete silence.

"Oh nothing Jerb'." replied Donely. "Just taking one last look at the Mun. I hope we get to visit her again..."

"Don't worry buddy- Mission Control says they've got something better planned for us. Maybe we'll get to visit Duna, or better yet, Laythe!"

"Now THAT would be exciting!" exclaimed Donely, perked up for a moment "Do you think it'll be anytime soon?"

"We'll see. After the recent economic meltdown, the toughest part will just be finding us the funding to get us to orbit. There's plenty of parts and fuel already up there to get us to Jool- and there will be more when the Mun and Minmus mining operations start rolling along. It kind of depends how things go in the next budget review I guess. Now let's get this bird on the way back to Kerbin!"

"Speaking of budget, we have quite a bit of fuel left. I'm going to radio up Mission Control and see if we can get permission to use it..."

Several minutes later, the Kerbals were on the radio with Northstar Kerman.

"Northstar, we have loads of fuel left over from our Munar ascent. Do we have permission to use it to flatten our obit and increase the speed of our return back to Kerbin?"

After a long and agonizing pause that seemed like forever...

"That's Affirmative Donely. But I'm putting Jerbo in charge of the navigational controls for this one. Jerbo, use you fuel wisely- we want to save some to try and land the LMe back as close to the KSC as possible."

"Roger that Northstar" replied Jerbo "Taking navigational controls now."

"That was so unfair!" replied Donely after the burn was complete. "Why did YOU get to perform the burn when *I* was the one who suggested the idea?"

"No idea buddy. We'll discuss it later, alright." replied Jerbo, moderately exhausted from the EVA, piloting, and days cramped in a tiny capsule of the Munar surface...

Silently, the Kerbals drifted away from the Mun, casting longing glances back at it at frequent intervals:

OOC: Next post will be coming soon- this was getting pretty long, so I felt the need to break it up.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

This seemed like a good point to bring the Light Fuel Lander back into orbit before continuing the story of the LME-2. It's now in a polar orbit (though not as circular as I would have liked- something screwy was going on with the MechJeb SAS again... I only saved the circularization burn by taking manual control partway through)- which is of course good for landing in anywhere I might need in on the Mun in the future, such as the location of my future Mun base, or near the Light Moon Explorer Mk3 if it turns out not to have enough fuel to make it back to orbit...

It also seemed like a great time to perform an impactor experiment, with the probe being built from the Munar Spacedock. This time it worked:

I forgot that impactor experiments have a 100% transmit rate. I guess there was no point in keeping the Light Moon Explorer Mk3 on the Munar surface the extra time to try and collect some of this data for manual retrieval. Oh well.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited March 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · March 30, 2014

Before calling it a night (or actually, at this point, a morning) I thought I'd squeeze in one last thing...

I'm sure you've all seen this kind of thing a million times before, so I won't bore you with a long explanation, but I deployed a Kethane/Ore Scansat at a 45 degree inclination to find easily exploitable deposits on the Mun. I'm leaving it scanning while I sleep and do other things.

Since I'm sure to have a more or less permanent orbital presence around the Mun (although the nature thereof might change from time to time- for instance I'll probably upgrade the Munar Spacedock again at some point...) I figure I might as well exploit the equatorial deposits first, and ship the fuel and RocketParts up to the Munar Spacedock...

Oh, and I might focus on converting the Kethane to Xenon (in real life, some lunar rock contains xenon trapped in bubbles within volcanically formed rocks), since it's both more realistic, and will get me a lot more Delta-V for my effort. I'll be able to scale up the Xenon much more effectively once I unlock the "Heavy Probes" tech node, as one of my mods (either NearFuture or KSP-Interstellar) assigns scaled-up Xenon tanks to this tech node.

KSP-Interstellar is already quite capable of utilizing Xenon efficiently with its plasma thrusters- and if I set up a beamed microwave power network over the Mun using my already abundant supply of photovoltaics (RocketParts) on board the Munar Spacedock (more can realistically be produced from mined materials on the Mun- in fact in real life there has been much discussion of producing solar panels on Luna from the regolith), or alternatively utilize nuclear reactor/generators for the source of the beamed power (and mine Uranium or Thorium on the Mun), then I can probably beam spacecraft enough power to achieve the TWR necessary for orbital maneuvers and possibly even interplanetary transfers around the Mun using plasma thrusters, even on larger vessels...

Aluminum Hybrid rockets will form the mainstay of my heavy lifting capacity from the Munar surface (mainly of mined Kethane and Ore- or RocketParts and fuel refined from those materials at-site, depending on the size of any individual deposit. Smaller ore deposits won't necessarily be worth landing RocketParts workshops at as well as Smelters, for instance...) But my ambition is to produce a powerful enough microwave power network to allow use of plasma thrusters fro transport of Kerbals to and from the Munar surface, as well as for interplanetary transfer burns on moderate-sized vessels...

Enough time outlining plans. Time for me to get some sleep. Next, I bring the Light Moon Explorer Mk2 home, consider what to do with the LME Mk3, and make the last adjustment burns before the first ships of my enormous Duna Armada reach their target... Oh, and if you're following my progress in the Flying Duna challenge at all, I get to quarrel with Geschosskopf about why sending the Raven Mk2 a fuel tanker for in-flight refueling shouldn't disqualify it as a SSTDABK-spaceplane, especially considering it's capable of reaching and aerocapturing at Duna without it at a proper transfer window... THAT should be fun (I doubt he'll budge).

Regards,

Northstar

Edited March 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · March 31, 2014

Jerbo Kerman thought over the past day- it all seemed to have passed so quickly:

As he finally laid back in his bunk at the KSC, he couldn't help but wonder if he would get the chance to go to space again.

"Maybe not after how hard we came in on re-entry" thought Jerbo, thinking of the smoldering husk of the Light Moon Explorer Mk2 command capsule, and how the flames had danced around their spacecraft deep into the atmosphere. At 11 G's during re-entryg and unspeakable levels of heat, the Kerbals were lucky to still be alive. The engineers and medical experts still couldn't figure out how they were still breathing.

He also remember he still had to find the time to hold a discussion with Donely about why Northstar Kerman placed more trust in him than the other astronauts...

"All in good time" thought Jerbo to himself, as he roller over and went back to sleep.

OOC: Sorry for the storytelling cop-out guys. Narrative just isn't coming to me easily tonight.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited March 31, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · March 31, 2014

Meanwhile, the Munar ExAt ScanSat (EXtra-ATmospheric SCANning SATellite) continues its sweep of Munar latitudes between 45 degrees and the equator:

The Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform also made its final adjustment burn before entering Duna's Sphere of Influence:

More updates later.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · April 2, 2014

My first reaction on loading my save file today was "What the %#^#!"- when I found that the interface was completely different, and MechJeb2 was entirely nonfunctional.

Then, a search of the GameData folder revealed a new folder called "NASAmission", and I realized that I had forgotten to disable Steam's auto-update feature, leading to the installation of yesterday's patch without my knowledge...

I feel it's a little late to undo this now, but it does pose some obvious problems for the rather tight Delta-V budget of the LME-3's return trip, as well as the rather precise execution required for some of the micro-adjustment burns on the ships of my Duna armada... (I was planning on relying on MechJeb to make sure there tiny burns were executed correctly...)

I'll have to do my best to adapt, and keep my eyes out for the first updated version of MechJeb I can find... Luckily I didn't have any ridiculous 30-minute long ion thruster burns in deep space planned anytime soon, or anything like that...

As always, here's an obligatory picture (note the lack of any MechJeb menu- which will be sorely missed for its ability to keep me informed of my Delta-V status...) Sorry it's so dark- the LME Mk3 will be lifting off from the dark side of the Mun:

Note the topmost piece separated by a decoupler. That will be another attempt at an impactor probe, and will detached before orbital circularization to slam back into the Mun.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · April 2, 2014

The Light Moon Explorer Mk3 made a successful ascent to a low Munar orbit of a a bit over 20,000 meters:

As I feared though, it doesn't seem to have nearly enough fuel to reach the Munar Spacedock for refueling... (I'd have to wait for MechJeb to be functional again for a precise count on its remaining Delta-V) So, I'm going to have to send the fuel to it- most probably by arranging a rendezvous with the Light Munar Fuel Lander already in a low polar orbit (highlighted in one of the last images of the album). This means some rather precise maneuver plotting, of course, which I'd prefer to perform with the aid of MechJeb to get right, so...

I'm going to be shelving this save for a while. It's not that I can't perform the remaining steps without MechJeb- but I'd also like to avoid the new bug with my Science points total resetting if I load up the R&d Facility (this issue only affects pre- 0.23.5 saves), and I know I'd eventually click on the facility and lose all my progress towards Fusion Power if I kept playing this save long enough...

Before I'm tempted to do something stupid I'll later regret like scrapping this save and starting a new Career Mode save (I've been toying with the idea for a while anyways- several bugs have been introduced with the origin of this save so many versions ago- particularly in the Science Archives system...), I'm going to take a break from KSP for a while. But look for more word on this a few days or weeks down the line.

Logging off for now. It was a pleasure writing to all of you.

Regards,

Northstar

Specialist290 · April 3, 2014

Enjoy your break. We'll still be here when you return

Northstar1989 · April 11, 2014

As always, the various mods were updated surprisingly quickly...

I've already tested it, and all I had to do was update ModuleManager and MechJeb in order to get things back on track...

I've been a little focused lately on real-life, but I look forward to some more posts very soon (probably today).

Also, I've decided my space program has become far too bloated for the frequency I play KSP. Since I'll probably be starting a new save with 0.24 (or whichever updated adds the economy and contracts) at some point, I'm going to whittle down my program to virtually nothing- having already demonstrated the effectiveness and viability of various concepts... This means, most prominently, forgetting about most of my Kerbin SOI infrastructure (I probably won't get much use out of a Mun or Minmus base before I wipe), and re-focusing on Duna.

I might send a couple vessels from the Mun/Minmus with what fuel and RocketParts I can send off to Duna from the stations without too many more recycling operations. The rest I'll probably terminate to save lag...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · April 11, 2014

Ok, so a LOT going on today.

First of all, I decided to call off the whole Munar scannnig project, and crashed the Scansat into the Mun for !SCIENCE!

Then, I decided to send the Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship on a transfer to Duna- where it might be of some use... So, I started off by shooting it out of Kerbin's SOI. A later burn will be necessary to get a Duna intercept. It's had over 8000 m/s of Delta-V before departure, so it should be no problem getting it to Duna even now...

I then rendezvous'd the Munar Light Fuel Lander with the Light Moon Explorer Mk3, but realized it didn't have an extra KAS port to transfer over the fuel anymore (my having left the KAs port on the LME-2).

As such, I switched over to the Space Center for a while to take care of terminating some debris and other flights at the Tracking Station (more on that later), and try and decide what to do next. But when I switched back to the LME-3, having decided to pull it as close to the Munar Spacedock as its remaining fuel capacity would allow (it had enough fuel to make it 95% of the way there), and then transfer over the Munar sample as well as Kerbals onboard via EVA...

Unfortunately, for some reason the LMe-3 broke apart when I reloaded it (no pics, sorry) for some strange reason- probably because it was so close to the fuel lander and the two had entered the same physical space while unloaded.. This caused nothing to remain but the command capsule and the parachute (I still have no idea what happened to the fuel tank or engine- they probably exploded before the craft was even fully loaded...)

So, I decided to bail out of the the Kerbals by EVa and transfer him and the Munar surface sample to the Munar Spacedock that way:

It took me several in-game days as I accidentally hit the time-warp up an extra order of magnitude at one point, but I'm willing to ignore the unrealism in the Kerbal's oxygen lasting that long as the LME-3 never should have broken apart for no apparent reason in the first place, and if I had waited until the correct transfer window, I could ahve EVA'd the Kerbal over in less than an hour (it took less than 30 minutes to set his apoapsis to the same altitude as the spacedock and allow him to float to that altitude- most of the time was spent phasing...)

Finally, last but not least, here is an image of the orbital map at close to the current moment. I am about to make the Raven Mk2's ejection burn that should raise its apoapsis to past Duna, and then follow it up with the fuel tanker. If Duna were phased into the correct position, that would be all I would have to do- but since it's not, I'm going to have to perform an in-flight refueling and then make an additional burn to add a much greater radial outwards component to the Raven's trajectory... (heavy aerobraking will be used to deal with its rather high velocity-difference when it enters Duna's SOI- although I could just as easily perform a standard capture with very little aerobraking, for realism' sake, if I performed a second refueling after the burn...)

As it currently stands, and as I alluded to before, I've terminated a great number of flights. Specifically, by this point I have terminated every single flight withing Kerbin's SOI except for the 3 final spacedocks (Mun, Minmus, and the latest one in low-altitude orbit around Kerbin), the impactor probes on the Munar surface (I'm going to use up some of the Munar Spacedock's remaining RocketParts and fuel by smashing a small fleet's worth of impactor probes into the Munar surface, for !SCIENCE!), the Raven Mk2 and its tanker (nearly on an escape trajectory from Kerbin anyways- even before I finish the main ejection burn), and the Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship (which has not yet exited Kerbin's SOI). Every single other flight, base, or piece of debris was terminated- including my Mountaintop Launchpad... This way, I can just focus on colonizing/exploring Duna, although my more permanent effort in that regard will have to wait until contracts and currency is finalized- and will of necessity be done on a MUCH tighter budget than this time around...

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. For those of you who don't understand why I keep saying "!SCIENCE!", which is probably most of you, it's a reference to the awesome game Dwarf Fortress- which I at this point haven't played for many months, but is still awesome. An awesome but difficult free game you ought to all try (use a tileset if you can't stand ASCII graphics, like me) the DF player community has made its motto, "Losing is Fun!"

Northstar1989 · April 16, 2014

OK, so the Raven Mk2 made its main burn at Kerbin periapse to head off in the general direction of Duna:

Then I had the Medium LFO Tanker I mentioned earlier make a burn for rendezvous a couple hours later, burn to match velocity at closest approach, and then pull in a bit closer until I was able to refuel the Raven Mk2...

However, I discovered that due to a bug, the Kerbal who got out to refuel the Raven Mk2 wasn't able to pull close enough to the cockpit to get back inside (he had refueled the Raven before around Minmus- so I know it wasn't an issue of craft design. But the game acted like there was an invisible wall around the Raven cockpits, preventing him from approaching even within 10 meters...)

So, after wasting mos of his EVA propellant trying to get closer, I decided to have him do the only possible thing to survive, and probably the most 'Kerbal' thing I've done in this game yet- I strapped him onto the front of the fuel tanker using nothing but the refueling hose, and had the tanker make its burn to intercept Duna (the Kerbal will transfer over an another spacecraft where he can be inside after the tanker circularizes near Duna). I went for a bit of a quicker intercept, so that the Kerbal wouldn't have to sit like this quite as long (and, a the tanker had thousands of m/s Delta-V onboard, I felt the extra expense justified to get its remaining fuel to Duna a bit quicker...)

I kept trying to get a good screenshot with the Kerbal having a manaical grin on his face , but unfortunately I couldn't get a good close-up, and his expression was rather bland anyways...

Then I had the Raven Mk2 perform its own burn to get a Duna intercept:

Based on how little it cost, it looks like I could have actually made Duna on its remaining fuel without refueling- even with enough fuel left over for a later adjustment to allow direct aerocapture (the burn I *did* make wasn't fully optimized- quite a bit less fuel could have been expended). But the margins were a little close for comfort, and I just didn't want to take any chances with the mission...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited April 16, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · April 20, 2014

I've been up to some exciting stuff lately. Namely, bringing my first manned spacecraft into a stable orbit around Duna! But before I get to the exciting stuff, I ought to catch you guys on a short mission I undertook in the meantime...

I present, the Reusable Crew Launch Vehicle (RCLV), a Space-X inspired 100% reusable launch vehicle designed specifically to ferry crew to my 350 km space station:

First, the rocket launches in a vertical launch pattern- this is necessary for the recovery of the launch stage later...

The launch stage separates near apoapse, and the upper stage engages in a rapid burn to raise the periapse above the atmosphere:

Immediately thereafter, the launch stage engages in a short burn to target its landing back at the KSC (with the help of MechJeb, of course), and begins to re-enter the atmosphere- eventually landing upright only a short distance from the launchpad:

The upper stage then delivers its payload (2 Kerbals) to the space station, and begins to plot a return to Kerbin under the guidance of the pilot (Kerbal #3) who remains aboard the vessel:

The upper stage re-enters the atmosphere, and allows drag (without parachutes) to do most of the work slowing it down through a long, slow aerobrake. It utilizes its leftover fuel to more precisely target its landing to a safe spot and neutralize its remaining velocity shortly before touchdown. As you can see, I was aiming to land back at the KSC- but times my return very poorly, and landed on the wrong side of the planet (good thing there's no Kerbal Cold War!)

This leaves all stages of the rocket safely recovered, with no missing parts (the design utilized mechanical decouplers- so theoretically even the decouplers can be re-used, and only need to be re-rigged). The two Kerbal passengers are now safely in orbit at minimal cost:

If currency/budget/costs were implemented, and I were running a life-support mod, this would also be an excellent low-cost way to resupply my space stations with food, oxygen, etc.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · April 20, 2014

Now, for the exciting part. Duna!

As the Duna Science Module approached Duna, Barwise and Enrick Kerman's first step was to perform a spacewalk and re-activate the KSP-Interstellar nuclear reactors they would be utilizing to perform all subsequent maneuvers, while simultaneously disabling the inline NERVA engines (with their ISP of 1000 for Molten-Sodium uranium-powered fission reactors, the KSP-I thermal rocket nozzles are superior to the NearFuture inline NERVA engines, which have an ISP of 800. Their thrust is quite anemic though- and I do wonder if I might not have saved fuel utilizing the NearFuture engines as well at some points where I was rapidly shooting away from Duna due to greater benefit from the Oberth effect...)

You can spot the nice little red marble of Duna in the distance of this screenshot if you look closely:

With the nuclear reactors activated, the brave Kerbals then plotted and performed an initial burn to bring their periapse closer to Duna:

As the Duna Science Module swung past Ike, the crew performed a second burn to set an even closer periapse to Duna:

Then came the fireworks! The Duna Science Module made the hard aerobrake it was designed for (hence all the struts- and there would be large heat shields as well if I were running Deadly Re-entry) in spectacular fashion!

[imgur]">Javascript is disabled. View full album

The Kerbals weren't done yet, however. No, not nearly. Although still recovering from the blackout-inducing aerobrake, the automatic guidance system kicked in as planned and began performing a series of long, slow burns in the retrograde direction (periodic checknig of the orbital map introduced pauses) to prevent the Duna Science Module from shooting back off into interplanetary space:

Finally, to prevent the Duna Science Module from smashing into Duna on its way back in, and allow for another, lighter aerobrake maneuver; the Duna Science Module performed a short burn to raise its periapsis towards a target of 32 km:

This leaves the Duna Science Module where I have it now- floating back towards Duna for a second aerobrake to bring it into a lower orbit.

However, I have real-lift activities planned for the moment I'm already late to, so I'll pick this back up for you guys later!

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · April 21, 2014

The Duna Science Module made some nice, slow, gentle and uninteresting aerobrakes to bleed off a little more velocity while I waited for the Orion Nuclear Parts Tanker to reach Duna's SOI:

When the Orion did arrive, however, it malfunctioned violently and suffered an explosion wiping out one of its four RocketParts modules (1/4th of its cargo).

Well, actually, it encountered a particularly nasty variant of the Space Kraken. It proceeded a number of F5/F9 attempts at loading it in a row to wobble increasingly violently and then spontaneously explode. However, after quite a few attempts, and some random release of nuclear warheads (I was desperate to try anything to give the random number generators a slightly different seed to work with) I finally managed a version where it only lost one of its RocketParts modules, rather than being annihilated entirely...

I then proceeded to maneuver the Orion onto a collision course with Duna (I re-used a Maneuver Planner setting from the Science Module- knowing that the high imprecision of nuclear pulse thrust would lead to a collision course), bleed off its extreme approach velocity as it more closely approached Duna, and then finally maneuver it into a reasonably stable orbit around Duna:

While I waited for the Orion to approach periapse (where I will release a few nukes to create retrograde thrust and bring the apoapsis a bit lower- and make the orbit more circular) I also kept an eye on the Duna Science Module- which chance would have it ended up with an Ike encounter pulling its periapse back above Duna's atmosphere. This will cost me fuel, but greatly sped up the deceleration to a lower orbit by pulling the apoapsis down quite a bit as well...

In the meantime, I will continue to bring the Duna Science Module and Orion Nuclear Parts Tanker each to their respective parking orbits, while waiting for the arrival of additional craft of the Duna Aramada.

The next craft, scheduled to arrive in a bit over a game-day, is the Duna Crew Module (which carries crew members, as well as some extra fuel- both rules the Duna Science Module has also been filling since KSP-Interstellar updates made its planned role of Ike regolith electrolysis impossible...)

Shortly following that, the working copy of the Eagle Mk2 and its attached transfer vehicle will arrive in Duna's Sphere of Influence, and I will FINALLY get to submit my first entry to the "Flying Duna" challenge (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50619-Flying-Duna-AGAIN).

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · April 21, 2014

The Nuclear Orion Parts Tanker made it to a nice low orbit with 115 nukes left. Hmmm, I hope the Kerbals don't get too crazy with them when they finally dock with the thing to unload the RocketParts... (and eventually to recycle it for even more RocketParts)

Meanwhile, the Duna Science Module continued with its aerobraking maneuvers to eventually bring it into a low orbit- after performing another minor retrograde burn to bring its periapse back in the atmosphere after Ike pulled the orbit into a more circular shape. I'm bored out of my mind (shown here are 3 separate passes, which only lowered the apoapsis by roughly 1/6th in total- but I don't want to waste fuel needlessly, and I've got nothing better to do until the Duna Crew Module arrives). The Kerbals seem quite happy though...

Well, that's it for me for the night. Oh, and for those of you in US. Pacific time, I hope you're having a Happy Easter! For those of you further east- I hope you had a wonderful Easter as well.

Time to get some Zzzz's

Regards,

Northstar

Edited April 21, 2014 by Northstar1989

[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program

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