[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program

Northstar1989 · May 24, 2014

I actually designed this to show a new player a few concepts about how to design an all-stock spaceplane, but since I did it in my main Career save, this has also become a part of my space program. The small Clamp-O-Tron Jr. on top should theoretically allow it to dock with other craft (if I had any equipped with Clamp-O-Tron Jr's), though due to the inconvenience of this, more likely I'll just use it to grab a surface sample from Minmus on an Extreme EVA, and ferry Bill and the sample back to Kerbin for a bit of !SCIENCE!

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · May 24, 2014

The stock spaceplane bravely voyaged to Minmus... (sorry- no pics of the capture burn, I forgot)

At which point I decided after a few (successful) F5/F9 attempts at an Extreme EVA, that while and EVA landing would work, it would be a pain to rendezvous back with the spaceplane each time I wanted to store a new sample for return to Kerbin...

So, I choose a nice flat landing spot with plenty of room to takeoff again, near three separate biomes (Lesses Flats, Slopes, and Lowlands), and landed:

And then Bill Kerman buzzed around with his jetpack on EVA, collecting some samples:

Before the spaceplane, loaded up with Bill, samples, and EVA reports; took off again, ultimately to head back to Kerbin:

In short, GREAT SUCCESS! Now I just need to land the stupid thing. In the meantime, I'll be busy with Project Amadeus...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 24, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 25, 2014

The Amadeus, first of all, made its planned maneuver after Minmus. Now I'll just be waiting until Asteroid-684 comes into position approximately along the prograde vector, and will make a burn to intercept:

Interestingly, it looks like the Asteroid should be less than 3 times the distance from Kerbin as Minmus by the time of intercept (which will be as low-energy as possible to sze fuel for attempted capture). It's getting worryingly close...

In other news, the Stock Spaceplane made its approach to Kerbin for landing, and...

Well, the pictures speak for themselves- things didn't turn out quite as hoped, despite getting an excellent re-entry position a bit west of the KSC that should have made it extremely easy to perform a runway landing...

The problem originated with quicksaving during stable atmospheric flight, but where quite a bit of SAS force was being used to hold the nose down (the airspeed/pressure being so low that the aerodynamic tendency to level out to the horizon was outweighed by the tendency of gravity to torque the heavy nuclear engines towards the ground...) The problem being, that after loading the quicksave due to losing control slightly later (from dialing down the thrust or pointing the nose too far above the horizon- I can't remember which...), the spaceplane would instantly lose control due to the SAS coming online a few fractions of a second later than physics- resulting in immediate loss of control before I could do anything...

Well, anyways, Bill Kerman survived- but now there's radioactive waste strewn across the terrain west of the KSC that the space program will have to clean up... At least the stored experiments (and Kerbal) survived, and I got some valuable !SCIENCE! out of it. I like to think of it as data that will theoretically help my Kerbals figure out how to better isolate water-ice from Minmus' soil, even though in reality it's worthless except for the tech tree...

Well, not ENTIRELY worthless- the Computer Core the Amadeus is equipped with can now be "Retrofitted" into an upgraded version with the science I collected (this is done on a part-by-part basis, and each upgrade costs over 1200 science points) into one of KSP Interstellar's more odd futuristic technologies- a sentient artificially intelligent unmanned rocket guidance system... The main benefit thereof (in practice) being that it GREATLY improves the SAS torqu that can be provided by the part.

So, perhaps the sacrifice of the Stock Spaceplane's NERVA engines and the terrain west of the mountains near the KSC wasn't in vain- the data provided on SAS and guidance systems from Bill's voyage might just help provide the Amadeus with the SAS torque to save hundreds of thousands of Kerbal lives...

Don't you guys just *love* the way I try and spin any event to fit into the story I'm trying to tell?

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · May 25, 2014

The Amadeus is in position:

Facing precisely away from the asteroid, in an almost perfect velocity match (the Amadeus is in fact drifting towards the asteroid at approximately 0.04 meters per second), and with a great angle set up for the grappling hooks...

There is a problem, however- the grappling hooks won't deploy! Any attempt to eject them does absolutely nothing. I cannot get them to separate from the winches at all- even boosting towards the asteroid with full cable length fed out, and then canceling the momentum doesn't carry them out from the winch controllers...

The problem *might* be that I built the hooks directly onto the winch plugs in the VAB, instead of attaching them manually with a Kerbal...

Anyways, I am left with the following two-step plan:

(1) Wait until the Amadeus' engines have inched right next to the asteroid surface (remember, it is approaching at a VERY slow speed) and then FULL POWER TO ENGINES! The 2.5 meter NERVA's should pack more than enough punch in their propellent stream to knock the asteroid's periapsis above Kerbin's atmosphere at this distance- causing it to miss the planet entirely... (I *could* also set an aerocapture periapsis, and attempt to capture with the same technique- but risk being unable to sufficiently adjust the asteroid's trajectory if all I have to work with is engine thrust momentum-transfer)

(2) Deploy a small, high-speed manned vessel with a single Kerbal to hook up the grappling hooks by hand (my understanding is that a Kerbal should be able to fix the hook connection issue, allowing them to connect properly) and then attempt to adjust the asteroid's trajectory again to set it up for an aerocapture through Kerbin's upper atmosphere (realistically, a low-atmosphere aerocapture, while likely more effective, might cause the asteroid to detonate if rich in volatiles...)

I list the plan because I don't think it's particularly good. While better than smashing the ship into the asteroid whole-sale, is is still a long shot from a carefully controlled course correction and capture if simply sending a Kerbal to the asteroid (which I was planning on doing anyways, to collect samples from it while still in Kerbol SOI- and already have a roleplaying explanation for...) doesn't work...

So, I would like to hear from you, the readers of this thread, if you have any better ideas you can come up with as an alternative. Or any idea how I might make the KAS grappling hooks work without needing to wait for a Kerbal to reach the asteroid (the manned mission is set to occur when the asteroid is closer- to reduce mission time as well as Delta-V requirements for course-corrections)

If I like your idea, and use it, you'll get a small roleplayed nod from Northstar Kerman himself in my next exposition on the Amadeus.

Let me know your ideas (post them here)- I have need of them whether you're enticed by that offer or not!

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 25, 2014 by Northstar1989

Speeding Mullet · May 25, 2014

Dinkelstein, the chief boffin behind The Sunrise Manifest can only think of one alternative: It could be possible, he thinks, to write a program update for Amadeus to get it to target 684's COM, spin itself around and gently nose into the asteroid. Using a very low thrust and longer burn may allow for basic control to be maintained and deliver enough force to nudge 684 onto the correct trajectory.

Dinkelstein's caveat on all of this is that he's no specialist, and is desperately trying to figure out the logistics of stopping his own pet rock smashing into Kerbin.

Northstar1989 · May 25, 2014

Having already tried that with relatively large pieces of space debris in the past, and had no joy with it, I doubt it's going to work for an asteroid either...

Thanks for the response though!

I guess the good old "thrust cannon" method should work fine for averting a Kerbin impact though...

I'll probably set the periapsis for about 48-54 km if I can get it there: that should hopefully lead to an aerocapture, or at least bleed off a bit of the asteroid's velocity; and allow me to safely wait for the manned mission to arrive without worries that I won't be able to bump up the apoapsis again far enough to make sure the asteroid doesn't aerocapture if I can't get a good grip on it... (that MIGHT lead to another impact next orbit around Kerbol at some point- but I'll worry about that when I come to it...)

Regards,

Northstar

EDIT: Actually, the thruster-cannot method, while effective, proved a bit too imprecise. As such, I resorted to your method after all... Even though I was considering that particular method all along, I'm always one to keep my word and give credit where credit is due, and appreciate your responding to my request- so enjoy the reference to "Dinkelstein Kerman" in my next exposition.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 26, 2014

Northstar Kerman sat in his office, rubbing his forehead anxiously, until he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in" Northstar replied.

Striding into his office in firm, confident steps, was yet another of the normally-nameless KSC boffins- Dinkelstein Kerman- with a large grin on his face.

"What is it?" asked Northstar Kerman irritability. He didn't have the patience for boffins and more of their foolish ideas right now...

"Sir- I've been discussing it with some of the other engineers at the KSC, and I think I have a plan for how we might nudge that asteroid off its collision-course with Kerbin, and still manage to capture it."

"Yes?" asked Northstar Kerman, growing more impatient.

"Well, Sir- me and some of the engineers were discussing the friction coefficients of the asteroid's irregular surface- and we think the Amadeus might be able to achieve enough grip with the surface that it could physically nudge the asteroid's orbit off its course with a weak impulse from its engines, and not spin out of control or have as much trouble with slippage against the surface as did our early attempts to de-orbit debris in this manner..."

"So you want me to take a multi-million credit piece of equipment, with carefully-constructed grappling hooks that we simply can't get to deploy now for some reason- and just use it like a giant BATTERING RAM?!" Northstar Kerman half-shouted, growing increasingly frustrated with this particular boffin.

"Yes Sir- that's exactly what we want you to do- although I would hesitate to call it a 'Battering Ram' in your meetings with the Congressmen" Dinkelstein Kerman replied, in a small voice, trying not to offend Northstar Kerman further...

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" Northstar Kerman boomed, in an explosively angry tone, making a dismissive gesture towards the door to Dinkelstain Kerman.

Dinkelstein beat a hasty retreat, with a look of profound distress on his face...

Northstar, meanwhile, collapsed into his chair- with a very different expression on his face now...

"Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best- now how come I didn't think of that..." Northstar muttered.

The next day, Northstar Kerman stood before a congressional inquiry, reporting on how, despite equipping the Amadeus with expensive and innovative new grappling hooks; saving Kerbal lives had boiled down to simple use of the Amadeus as a sort of battering ram- a task that could have been accomplished at much less expense by a simple, tiny, and cheap ion-engine probe...

OOC: I hope you, the readers, enjoyed this particular post. The Amadeus drifted a short distance away from the asteroid and the matched velocity again- it will accompany it through the atmosphere so the asteroid stays in physics-loading range and experiences drag... This will also serve to keep it close by, should the manned mission manage to get the grappling hooks working when the asteroid gets much closer to Kerbin; and to allow it to stabilize the asteroid's orbit if the aerobrake should turn into an aerocapture... Further, the Amadeus will likely perform a transfer to Duna or one of my orbital scrapyards (spacedocks) around the Mun or Minmus when its mission is complete- where its leftover fuel and carefully-engineered nuclear reactor parts (in its NERVA engine) should prove useful to my future colonization efforts.

Last, but not least, I have now managed to re-direct Asteroid-684 off its current trajectory, and demonstrated a method I could use to stabilize its orbit after aerocapture, if that should prove necessary. Kerbals will frolic and dance in the streets of Kerbin cities everywhere tonight, and the three fuel tankers I launched from before will transfer their fuel and dry-mass (which will be salvaged for spare parts) to Duna...

Northstar Kerman, however, might be out of a job (never let it be said my Kerbals don't believe in accountability) after the asteroid redirect mission is finished- which would mark a convenient point to transfer the storyline to a new thread about my Duna colonization, as well as an excuse to take my space program in entirely new directions...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · May 26, 2014

Northstar Kerman knew his career was at an end. Less than an hour before, he had received word that the Kerbal International Congress (KIC) was appointing a co-director to 'assist' him in his management of the KSC. While the issue of Project Amadeus- and what the congress-Kerbals viewed as his wasteful and excessive spending of funds- had not been mentioned in the document; Northstar Kerman knew this was the real reason for the new 'co-director', who would likely take over most of the operations of the KSC in the coming days...

If he played his cards right, and was lucky, though, Northstar knew that he could probably at least still continue to work at the KSC- likely in a new position alongside the boffins, developing some of the systems for future exploration missions...

In the meantime, he thought, massaging his forehead for a few more seconds before examining the files on his desk, there was still work to be done. Northstar had been busy for most of the past few days since the congressional hearing preparing for the launch of the manned component of Project Amadeus- until the shocking news he received earlier this day that had temporarily distracted him from this work.

Over the past week, boffins at the KSC had been testing new microwave-powered launch systems to work out the kinks in the technology. Of course, none of them had enough thrust to even get off the launchpad with the meager sum of power they were receiving from the solar power transmitter in Minmus orbit. But, from the 1-2 second burns the test-rockets had managed before smashing back into the launchpad, the engineers had somehow managed to collect enough data to work out the remaining bugs in the power-management systems, and made last-minute improvements to the new medium launcher for the manned phase of Project Amadeus...

Northstar could already imagine the criticisms he would hear at his congressional meeting later the next day...

"Why didn't you just use the same reusable launch vehicle as the one for the unmanned components of the project for this one?" (the engineers had deemed the heavy reusable launcher overkill- and had designed a simpler and lower-maintenance medium lifter for the manned segment. Fortunately, too, as the heavy lift vehicle was still undergoing repairs from its recent saltwater bath)

"Why is a manned mission even necessary?" (Northstar had dictated that a large load of scientific equipment be included in this portion of the mission- and he had plans for further use of the mobile laboratory later...)

"Why use a microwave-powered medium lifter when we already have perfectly functional light and heavy chemical lifters?" (Northstar knew he would have to explain how the power-generation equipment connected to a microwave transmitter could be re-used on mission after mission, while the actual microwave receivers and thermal propulsion systems were much lighter and cheaper, and easier to maintain as they had far fewer moving parts...)

"Why rely on experimental, new electric propulsion systems on the payload of this mission, when we could just use chemical rocketry and the reusable heavy lifter?" (Northstar didn't know how he would address this critique- he would have to explain he had plans for future re-use of the mobile processing lab, and that launching Xenon to refuel the new multi-megawatt plasma thrusters would be much lighter and therefore cheaper than launching a massive tanker full of chemical fuel to some of these distant locations- yet he didn't want to explain just where he was planning on sending the mobile laboratory after Duna...)

Northstar was already exhausted thinking of the critiques- but he knew that one question would be difficult to answer above all:

"Why did the KSC already have a working design for an 18 GIGAWATT mobile nuclear-powered microwave transmitter under construction before Asteroid-684 was even detected?"

Northstar Kerman knew this criticism would be the straw that broke the camel's back- as much as he would try to explain that he foresaw the need for a cheaper way to get things to orbit in future years, with diminishing funding levels, and that it was not only a worthy investment on Kerbin- but an excellent testing-ground for the same technology on Duna, where the weakness of Kerbol's sunlight meant it would be sorely needed (already, recent experiences deploying the design had taught the engineers that 4 large wheel bases were not enough points of contact with the ground to prevent tire blow-outs on bumpy terrain, for instance).

The politicians would likely have none of his explanations, Northstar knew- and they would try and see to it that he spent the rest of his career at the KSP cleaning toilets if he didn't do a good job alleviating this particular concern...

The technology, nonetheless, was effective- after installing the 18 GW transmitter, not only did the thermal rockets soar into the sky (as planned), but they greatly outperformed expectations- one test rocket made it to a high suborbital trajectory, and likely could have even made it to LKO, for instance:

OOC: I hope you guys enjoyed this particular post, even though there was a lot of meta-analysis and discussion of why each action was taken rather than action this time around. I promise it's about to pick up from here though- I just wanted to get as much of the boring stuff out of the way as possible before some of what's coming next...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 26, 2014

Northstar Kerman sat at his desk, massaging his giant Kerbal forehead, and reading memorandums...

"The manned component of Project Amadeus shall henceforth be known as 'Project Williams'- signed Jake Kerman'

"All new initiatives shall now pass by my desk first. Northstar Kerman will be charged with the execution of operations- signed Jake Kerman"

"Payload engineers for Project Williams are to report directly to my desk, per a new equipment addition to Project Williams- signed Jake Kerman"

"Who did this Kerbal think he was, exactly?!" thought Northstar Kerman. "I've been doing this job for over 4 Kerbal years, and now he wants to just push me to the side?!"

Northstar Kerman was fuming.

"Alas, though- such are politics" Northstar thought to himself... "Time to report to the control room for the launch of Project 'Williams'" Northstar Kerman thought with a great deal of resentment at Jake Kerman's new name for the manned mission being launched that afternoon...

"Greetings, KSC, from space!" came the excited voice of Bill Kerman over radio transmission as the reusable launch vehicle cleared the atmosphere "We'll see you on the far side, after we get this baby circularized. Detaching reusable lower stage for recovery now..."

"Roger that Bill, Jerbo. Enjoy the view" replied Northstar Kerman, turning off the radio as he finished his sentence...

"That went better than expected- but what was this about an 'extra' payload that Bill kept referencing and Jerbo seemed so worried about?" asked Northstar Kerman, turning to Jake Kerman with a scowl.

"You got the memo like everybody else, announcing I would be adding new payload to Project Williams. There's no time to discuss that now" said Jake Kerman, in a respectful but slightly dangerous tone that told Northstar that he was in charge now, and not to pursue the issue further...

Northstar sighed- he would have to learn to control his famously-short temper in his new de-facto position in a subordinate again, even if officially he was Jake Kerman's equal...

The control center was a buzz of activity...

"Far side tracking station reports the Williams has reached target orbit" reported one boffin "We have reports of stage separation, and uploading the revised navigational parameters for the payload stage to finish the circularization now"

"Lower stage is beginning re-entry" rang out the voice of another boffin a few minutes later. "Telemetry indicates the landing algorithm has initiated, and has good parameters for touchdown" announced yet another boffin still...

"We have reports that the lower stage has safely touched down on the plains west of the KSC" reported a nameless boffin "Dispatching standby recovery crews now."

"Telemetry is indicating payload-stage power-allocation system failure" announced one concerned boffin. "But we have data indicating that G-forces were not excessive, and the payload has successfully stabilized orbit" added the same boffin moments later...

"We are GO for upper stage de-orbit burn" directed one particularly important boffin. "Upper stage is predicted to touch down on the eastern shores of the continent west of KSC, only meters from the ocean- dispatching naval recovery task force now"

"We have confirmation of upper stage touchdown on a steep slope near the sea" reported one more Kerbal boffin. "No, wait- we have lost signal! The upper stage probably fell over on its side and jarred the radio transmitter's feeds loose again..." announced the Kerbal again, correcting his earlier report.

Finally, one last boffin issued the final low-level report: "Payload stage navigation-system Minmus-transfer course data checks. Transmitting authorization codes for engine re-ignition now."

And with that, the KSC control room fell into silence for several more minutes.

At last, the silence was broken by the slightly shaken voice of Jerbo Kerman...

"KSC, this is Jerbo Kerman. We seem to have a bit of a problem here. The engines cut out asymmetrically during the stabilization burn several minutes ago. Bill Kerman didn't bother to strap himself into his seat properly, and took a bit of a knock to the head when the vessel suddenly spun out of control..."

A slight pause- everybody at KSC held their breath "Sorry about that- Bill lost his lunch again. He seems to have suffered a moderate concussion from the impact with the wall. He looks like he'll be OK, but he might not be fit to pilot for a while... I am switching over control of the multi-megawatt twin plasma thrusters to my console, and initiating burn at 5-10% throttle to avoid loss of control... "

Another suspenseful pause before Jerbo's voice cut in over the comm again: "Readings are indicating just 0.1 kN of thrust, from only the Kerbin-side thruster. This transfer is going to take a LONG time KSC..."

The control room entered a state of frenzy. Boffins scrambled over chairs and around desks, analyzing the power-system readouts from Project Williams- trying to figure out why the algorithm was incapable of allocating the available electrical energy evenly across the two thrusters despite the presence of sufficient supply for several kN of thrust in each engine for a minimum of 10-20 seconds at partial throrrle...

Northstar Kerman got a concerned look on his face, and turning to leave the room, announced he would be in his office.

OOC: This last technical-malfunction, like any malfunction I report on this thread, was not faked or staged in any way (including the loss of transmission from the upper stage- what actually happened is the upper stage tipped over just after touchdown, and the probe core on top was destroyed- despite the very low velocity falling over from a stationary position...) I am not clear why, but KSP-Interstellar appears incapable of allocating the limited supply of electrical energy available evenly across the two plasma thrusters. My guess is that it is an issue resulting from how the engines were connected in the VAB using symmetry mode...

I'll be bugging FractalUK for a fix for this bug- but I don't anticipate a rapid reply. Expect a contingency mission to launch if I can't work this problem out somehow...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 26, 2014

Boffins at the KSC had come up with a solution to Project Williams' engine difficulties...

"Jerbo Kerman, I want you to re-initialize the starboard thruster on the count of three. Three, Two, One..." Northstar Kerman directed Jerbo Kerman in an unusually calm voice...

"Roger that, Northstar. We have engine ignition on the starboard side! We'll keep it at no more than 20% from here to delay the problem with asymmetrical engine cut-off we experienced before..."

Northstar breathed a sigh of relief. Another technical difficulty solved- even if the transfer burn was still going to take quite a few 'periapsis kicks' with the available power supply...

Maybe, Northstar thought, he could keep a job for himself as an executive director at the KSC after all- even while Jake Kerman gradually took over his former role as lead director of the KSC...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 27, 2014

Everything's a learning curve apparently. Like, for instance, getting used to microwave beamed power systems using KSP Interstellar.

At first, I tried to maneuver using the power that was available from pointing prograde- which was mostly power from the Minmus Solar Power Transmitter. But then that proved to be providing a completely unusable amount of thrust, so I was forced to rely on maneuvering solely when overhead the KSC- which proved to be extremely easy, as the plasma thrusters were able to achieve over 100 kN of thrust that way...

In the future, I'll have to remember to send up a Microwave Relay to synchronous orbit with the KSC, so I can extend the operating range provided by the KSC (and future solar power satellites I set up, if any- solar beamed power at 1 AU distances doesn't really seem to be very worthwhile for the amount of mass it takes, and the amount of additional lag it places on my game) to include more of the area around Kerbin, and further out into interplanetary space...

Regardless, here are the images:

I also leaned some interesting lessons about receiver area and atmospheric diffraction of microwave power (I'm guessing it's short-wavelength microwaves, because longer-wavelength beams wouldn't be very affected by the atmosphere, but would require much large receivers and transmitters...) which explained why the beamed-power reusable launch vehicle's power reception fell off so quickly with altitude (it requires and extremely tight beam- as the thermal receiver has relatively little surface area), but the payload stage was actually receiving nearly as much power from over 100 km up in orbit as the launch vehicle did stationary on the launchpad...

I expect, due to the thinner atmosphere, that microwave beamed-power launch vehicles will work MUCH better for high-altitude launch sites and my eventual colonies on Duna than near the KSC... (it also tells me that I should aim to build my launchpad at as high an altitude as possible, in order to minimize atmospheric diffraction of the microwave beams...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 27, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 27, 2014

Just another day, another dollar... A routine fuel tanker transfer to Muna orbit, and scrapping of the resultant emptied tanker shell for RocketParts...

And- DOH! Recycling that tanker didn't give me anything!

I did some research, and it looks like one of the updates to Extraplanetary Launchpads made it so recycling ships no longer gives RocketParts- it gives Metal (which can be processed into RocketParts at a loss of some mass). And since I had no Metal tanks on my salvaging ship, the tanker simply disappeared into nothing!

While I appreciate the realism of not being able to re-use literally every ton of ships you recycle, especially with the limited resources and tools available in space, this does kind of throw a kink in my plans... I had no plans to include metal tanks on my original Duna colonization armada, for instance, nor workshops to turn that metal back into RocektParts either (which said workshops I've no experience having used before...) This is going to make my colonization efforts a LOT more interesting...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 30, 2014

I've been busy while the forums have been down...

First of all, I captured Asteroid-684 in a stable polar (and slightly retrograde) orbit around Kerbin!

Second, uhhhh, it didn't turn out so well for the Amadeus...

I was, growing increasingly frustrated with the inability of the grappling hooks to eject from their KAS winches: as the only way to attach them to the asteroid was to first detach them from the ship, then extend the winch, then plug them onto the winch with a Kerbal in "undocked" mode (if they didn't drift too far away to be found again first), and then make use of conservation of momentum to sling them into the asteroid via ramming- which also proved relatively ineffective at low velocities... (and if unloaded and then re-loaded while attached, the ship became Kraken-bait, or the hooks detached, as seen in the album's two pics after grappling 'success'...)

So, in the end, out of desperation to prevent the asteroid from making a second pass through the atmosphere- which I knew it wouldn't make it back out of (and from a roleplaying perspective, would risk a massive impact somewhere on Kerbin's surface, enough to make it to the surface if one assumes a 10x larger asteroid to match real-life scale), I set the engines to full-throttle, and rammed the darn thing. That seemed to work...

You can see pieces of its debris in the atmosphere in some of the later pictures:

The collision also had an interesting after-effect: both the NERVA engines remained attached to their (nearly) full fuel tanks, and proceeded to shoot out of loading distance on full throttle. When I loaded them back up as debris, their engines began running again- leading one to de-orbit right in the middle of Kerbin's oceans. There's going to be some interesting storytelling focusing around THAT, and whose decision it was to order the suicide-ram, later...

I also re-positioned the Nuclear Power Cart (deployed a new one, and recovered the old one) to move it out of physic loading-range of the runway (it was already out of range of the launchpad) in preparation for some new vehicle tests...

Sorry that most of the pics of moving that are just of tire-changes: I had a lot of problem with tires popping even with an extra pair of wheels vs. the first design... (I only later discovered I could auto-repair rover wheels as long as a vessel was still on KSC grounds by right-clicking them...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 30, 2014

Northstar Kerman sat at his desk, and sighed. Yet he also had a small grin peeking out from underneath his concern...

Looking over the files from the past week, it was hard not to see that things weren't looking good for the new "co-director" of the KSC. Since Jake Kerman has, essentially, taken command of the KSC, failures and accidents had stacked up like buttery pancakes at his aunt's house on a Sunday morning...

First, there was the latest test-flight of the "Thermal Test Jet Mk2". Jake Kerman had been so confident in the new design's success, that he had opted out of the engineers placing an ejection-seat system on the new model of aircraft, despite repeated warnings...

Initially, it looked as if his gambit was going to pay off: the airplane showed performance and maneuverability beyond any thermal-powered design ever seen before. But then, the plane entered into an un-recoverable dive, and subsequently spiraled out of control due to diving into excessive air pressures at supersonic speeds... (the boffins blamed the dive on the strongly nose-dragging, high-thrust, inclined-wing design: which they said would have made it impossible for the pilot to pull above the prograde vector when sufficient airspeeds were attained at low altitude...)

Jake Kerman had shrugged that accident off, but it wasn't the last...

Next, there was a problem with the rigging of the parachutes on the launch stage of a heavier-capacity redesign of the Medium Reusable Thermal Launch Platform he had ordered the engineers to come up with in order to launch both a Microwave relay satellite to KEO and a crew capsule to the Project Williams Laboratory/Relay (as it had come to be called after exhausting its Xenon supply in polar LKO) as a single payload...

The result had been catastrophic- the launch stage smashed back into the ground at close to terminal velocity, its one active engine proving insufficient to slow it down to a safe speed (engineers calculated that without the proper deployment of the parachutes, even with infinite fuel the launch stage would have been incapable of making a safe recovery on thermal rocket power alone...)

The politicians had heard enough after this latest incident...

Nuclear reactors in the ocean, following Jake Kerman's order to ram Asteroid-684 with the Amadeus. A dead test pilot. And the complete loss of the lower stage of a highly-engineered and extremely expensive reusable launch platform.

Kerbal politicians had held an immediate hearing, and issued a vote-of-no-confidence in the new KSC co-director. By comparison, Northstar's flub-ups seemed minor and inconsequential. They had ordered him to take a secondary role to Northstar Kerman "until a suitable replacement could be found..."

Thing were looking up again for Northstar Kerman's career.

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. The parachute "rigging failure" was actually a bug I accidentally discovered- apparently if you quicksave/quickload a vehicle with parachutes already deployed, the parachutes then fail to produce any drag, and the vehicle accelerates back to a terminal velocity as if they were not present...

Edited May 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 30, 2014

Here are the rest of the pictures, by the way...

First of all, the redesigned (heavier) Microwave Reusable Launch Platform- now made to operate off LFO for the majority of the ascent (after using MethaLOX to get off the launchpad) for greater total impulse, and thus a heavier launch capacity. The microwave receiver and thermal rocket nozzle were also upgraded to 3.75 meter variants- as the 3.75 meter variants provided more thrust and total power (but at the cost of higher fuel-flow, and possibly lower ISP) than the 2.5 meter variants, partly due to the larger thermal receiver area- capable of capturing a significantly larger portion of incoming microwave radiation... (note that the TWR is still lower than the 2.5 meter variant, however, due to the lower ratio of captured power to receiver/nozzle weight- diminishing returns are observed with larger receiver area...)

The screenshots show the launch of the combined crew capsule/ relay payload- which still had to be carefully controlled for weight, due to the limited lift capacity of of my Reusable Thermal Launch Platform to KEO (disposable platforms have higher payload fractions than reusables; due to their increased staging, ability to rely on throw-away SRB's to get off the launchpad, and lack of independently-operating guidance/landing/return systems for the lower stages... I'm REALLY looking forward to budgets, where I might be able to make a reusable launch platform really pay off...)

Here's the first part of payload delivery, by the way. Note that the upper stage is still attached: due to its generous fuel capacity (I could have given the launch stage more fuel- but it would have done very little to extend range or payload lift-capacity compared to the same mass of fuel on an upper stage...), it is easily capable not only of delivering a payload to KEO (KErbostationary Orbit), but also of then delivering a separate payload (the crew capsule in this case) to an alternative orbit, or even ditching the payload and making a Munar orbital injection...

(The thought of a Munar injection has crossed my mind- I need a good way to move fuel to and from my planned surface Mun base since ditching my previous fuel-lander designs, and from a roleplaying perspective it make perfect sense to re-purpose the reusable upper stage this way since the demise of the launch stage, as a new upper stage will probably be designed to match the demands of my next thermal reusable launch platform design...)

As always, I hope that you, the reader, enjoy my post. Look out for announcements of my new thread "Kerbin and Beyond: Colonization" soon- outposts on Duna (where there will be a full colony), Minmus, and the Mun are my next priority...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited May 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · May 30, 2014

My reusable rocketry program continues to make strides. Here, I present a launch of my latest redesign of the Medium Microwave-Thermal Reusable Launch Platform (finally worthy of the name "Medium Lifter", as I've managed to push its payload capacity to LKO up to about 17,500 kg- aka 17.5 metric tons).

This model's primary innovation is that of reusable drop tanks for getting off the launchpad, to increase the total staging...

It's true, the payload-capacity of this rocket is fairly puny compared to that of most disposable rocket launch platforms (especially those relying heavily on SRB's). But thus is the cost of reusability... The nicest thing about this technology is that it can easily be scaled up with more beamed microwave power- which would increase the thrust of the thermal rocket nozzle (currently a bit better than a Skipper Engine, with much lower ISP in the atmosphere) without changing the ISP... All I have to do then is add more fuel tank capacity to the lower stage (or increase the size of the drop-tanks), and swap the upper stage engine for something more powerful, and !VOILA!, increased lifting capacity...

Obviously I'm making use of this design for roleplay reasons- and to get used to more efficient technologies in preparation for budgets... (for the first time in a long time, I have to be careful about what I bother to lift to orbit again, which is good...)

Anyways, here the payload can be seen circularizing:

And by this point, some of you must certainly be wondering just what the payload is...

If the name didn't give it away, it is a supply ship meant to transport RocketParts and fuel from my 350 km spacedock to my Munar and Minmus orbital installations.

The purpose is to efficiently transport out all the material there before decommissioning the spacedock there once and for all (it might be replaced with a small fuel depot at some point, but no promises...)

Why, you might ask? Well Extraplanetary Launchpads' orbital construction dock turned out to be too buggy to build anything useful there, for one (large craft tend to cause Kraken attacks, due to spawning docked with the spacedock instead of a couple km away...) Second, I simply haven't gotten much use out of it, and wouldn't have even if it were a functional orbital shipyard. The fact is, there's nothing interesting in LKO- it's not the best place to start off from for interplanetary transfers in terms of minimizing burn length (Munar orbit, or an elliptical orbit's periapsis dropped down from Minmus orbit is better for that). I've already exhausted all the science there. And I don't really have any intention of dropping down another alternative launchpad somewhere on Kerbin... (even a mountaintop launchpad is vastly inferior to a Munar one)

So, LKO will probably continue to serve as a refueling waypoint for vessels en-route to more distance destinations (primarily spaceplanes and heavy RocketParts shipments to the Mun/Minmus). But I see no reason to have a large space station there capable of constructing huge rockets any longer- better to re-task the resources to building up infrastructure on/around Kerbin's moons instead...

The other component of the payload was a skycrane intended for delivering base components, rovers, etc. to the surface of Minmus (primarily) and the Mun. The radial thrusters on it and extra fuel capacity also helped with getting a larger payload to orbit (over 25 tons on the launchpad- though I used its thrusters and much of its fuel to get about 18 tons to orbit...) than the medium launch platform could normally handle (it's only rated up to about 17.5 tons- any more and the upper stage won't be able to carry the payload into a stable orbit). So, I'm about to finally get serious about my colonization efforts...

Anyways, the lower stage made a safe recovery:

And then the upper stage split off the payload (taking a portion of its remaining fuel with it), and made a safe return to near the KSC as well (the trajectory was originally plotted to take it right next to the launchpad- but I opted for an earlier landing in order to go make a burn for one of my vessels in interplanetary space...)

Also, you may have noticed the entry "Ultra-Heavy Scrapper Ship" on the Kerbal Alarm Clock screen. Here it is making a transfer to Duna. Somehow I managed to eject it out into interplanetary space without finishing its transfer to Duna before... Oops... :blush:

And then I set that crew module from my last reusable launch onto the same orbital plane as the Williams Laboratory/Relay, to act as a relief crew when it gets there (and retrieve the stored scientific data). Partway through the inclination-change burn I detached the upper stage, and then after the burn set it on a re-entry trajectory and the crew module on an aerobrake trajectory to lower its orbit and bring it into a good (close) phasing orbit with the Williams Lab/Relay...

Did I mention that I'm planning on starting a new heavy-lifter challenge: one limited purely to reusable vehicles? Should be fun...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 13, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 3, 2014

I have three things to report, before I proceed further (mainly, at this point, with my actual colonization efforts- though possibly also with a few craft inspired by some of the Challenges on this forum or my own whims here and there as well...)

First, the Crew Capsule I showed you guys the launch of earlier successfully rendezvoused with the Williams Lab/Relay, transferred over its relief crew (Lury and Malman Kerman), and recovered the scientific data and the original crew of Project Williams to the surface of Kerbin...

Second, the upper stage of the Reusable Launch Platform utilized for this mission made its recovery to Kerbin. However, I miscalculated on the re-entry, and ended up coming down over water- which caused the primary fuel tank to implode when it hit the water without landing legs to buffer it on what ended up being a rather rough touchdown (I overcompensated with the engines, causing the parachutes to auto-cut early, and then failed to make a sufficiently low-velocity splashdown by throttling back...) From a roleplaying perspective, I'll say it ripped open, flooding the interior with seawater- and damaging the craft beyond (cost-efficient) repair...

Third, the Supply Ship I launched earlier made a successful rendezvous with the Heavy Spacedock at 350 km, and loaded up its entire inventory of RocketParts, as well as fully refilling its fuel tanks, for a transfer to one of the moons of Kerbin... (now I just have to decide which)

The "Colonization" thread will be coming soon, but not quite yet...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · June 4, 2014

After an F5/F9 "simulation" which revealed that the Supply Ship didn't actually have enough fuel to make a Munar transfer at all (nevertheless a capture), I reduced its RocketParts load to 1/3rd the inventory of the 350 km spacedock, and sent it off to Munar orbit to deliver its cargo:

Note that I detached the Heavy Scrapper Ship from the Munar Spacedock when the Supply Ship came in. This was both to make room for the Skycrane strapped to the top of the Supply Ship to attach, and to allow the now-useless Heavy Scrapper Ship to drift out of physics loading-range to save lag on future rendezvous and docking missions...

As for orbital recycling, I've decided to call it quits for such operations in the Kerbin system for now. Since I can no longer recycle debris directly into RocketParts, but have to process debris first into Metal instead, I don't necessarily consider it worth my time anymore... Especially since I would have to design an entirely new line of scrapper ships to work with the new balancing, and I've never actually used any of the Extraplanetary Launchpads manufaxcturing supply chain before other than construction of craft with RocketParts launched to orbit or recycled from debris...

The previous recycling system was far too OP'd anyways. The new system much more accurately reflects the extensive time, effort, and equipment that would be necessary for orbital scrapping operations in real life (as well as the inability to reuse all the mass- with the new system I think only something like 70-80% of the mass is recycled). And I have more important things to do- like establishing my Duna colony. Although, relatively early on in that effort I will have to start recycling the armada that got the colonists there for easily-obtainable Metal, so this hiatus probably won't last particularly long...

Until next time, my best regards.

- Northstar

Edited June 4, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 5, 2014

I've launched a new, semi-reusable vessel- the KSS Nyrmidon (the shuttle is reusable- the rocket is not). She's primarily designed for the "Kerbal Shuttle Challenge", but will also serve some functionality in my mission of interplanetary colonization.

She's currently en-route to the Mun to drop off equipment for my Mun base (to increase the realism of my efforts to establish an outpost there, I'm launching more of the equipment from Kerbin than originally planned... Orbital Construction Re-Redux is OP'd, and Extraplanetary Launchpads is too buggy when used in orbit...)

Meanwhile, one of my Argon probes made a small adjustment to its trajectory to bring its periapsis closer to Duna. The idea is for the Argon probes to aerocapture at Duna, perform a Kethane-scan of Duna and Ike (the original plan also involved atmospheric analysis- but the part from B9 Aerospace doesn't seem to be working anymore...), and then to head off to the Jool and Sentar systems to collect as much scientific data as possible... (if science can even be produced in the Sentar system)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 5, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 5, 2014

Yet another update...

First of all, the KSS Nyrmidon delivered its payload to my Munar spacedock:

Note that I don't have any solar panels on the skycrane to carry the ISRU refinery (and later the 2.5 tons of radiators- assuming the skycrane has enough fuel to return to orbit...) I intend to throw on some OX-STAT panels with KAS (which I just updated- so hopefully the EVA attachment system works again), so that I can keep the sjycrane powered long enough to carry out its mission...

Second, the Supply Ship began its return to my 350 km spacedock for another load of RocketParts, by making a return-trajectory burn from the Mun and setting periapsis at roughly 50 km, such as to allow either aerobraking over several passes (for fuel-efficiency) or just a circularization burn if I get impatient...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 5, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 7, 2014

I got impatient with waiting for aerobrakes on the cargo ship (oh wouldn't it be nice if those could happen unloaded?) so I decided to perform some burns and move it into a low circular orbit to phase with the Heavy Spacedock myself... (I actually originally intended to stabilize into a higher elliptical orbit with an appropriate Semi-Major Axis for phasing, but I lost power to the thermal receiver when I needed it for a large maneuver. Note to self- deploy more relay satellites...)

I also attempted to deploy a tiny satellite made of nothing but a Cubic Octagonal Strut and 4 OX-STAT solar panels so as to move the panels to my skycrane via KAS (and perhaps the cubic strut as well- to avoid free-floating debris), but I discovered that deploying such a craft caused Kraken attacks on my Munar Spacedock (the camera would freak out and I would see the spacedock flying off into space at what appeared to be escape velocity). So I had to abandon that plan altogether- and will be simply ripping a few extra OX-STAT panels off my Reusable Crew Launch Vehicle on its next crew rotation to the Munar Spacedock- which is coming up soon...

Also, I created a new challenge- The Kerbal Skydiving Challenge- and performed a recent example mission of it that some of you might think rather cool... 3 albums of images here, so bear with me:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/81682-The-Reusable-Launch-Platform-Challenge

Check out that challenge, as well as my Reusable Launch Platform Challenge, over in the Challenges section!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/81682-The-Reusable-Launch-Platform-Challenge

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 8, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 8, 2014

The KSS Nyrmidon made its landing/recovery at Kerbin, as planned, for the Kerbal Shuttle Challenge. This is quite a few albums, but I think fully worth it:

I ran out of fuel just shy of the runway, but managed to coast the rest of the way (it was mostly downhill) on land as you can see...

Go give the the challenge a try if you haven't already, and as always, I hope you enjoyed the screenshots!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79273-Kerbal-Shuttle-Challenge

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · June 9, 2014

So, I realized that I didn't need to launch a crew-rotation mission to the Munar Spacedock to fix the solar panels on my skycrane there after all... Instead, I simply sent one of my LFO Tankers to Munar orbit (it has a few OX-STAT panels I can rip off after transferring its fuel to the spacedock...)

The transfer went smoothly...

Meanwhile, my Cargo Ship made another run between the 350 km spacedock and the Mun (like the LFO Tanker, it hasn't rendezvoused with the Munar Spacedock yet...) One more run like this, and I'll have successfully moved all the 350 km Spacedock's supply of RocketParts to the Mun- where they'll prove of greater utility...

I know supply runs aren't the most exciting stuff, but it has to be done, and I thought I'd keep you readers in the loop on them. I've been a bit preoccupied with real life lately- for instance going on a date Saturday that turned out to be with a really AMAZING girl I'm glad I met...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · June 13, 2014

So, a few thing going on in this update, at pretty much the same time:

First of all, I noticed both Sentar and Inaccessible (both planets from Krag's Planet Factory mod) were in position for Hohmann transfers. So, I decided to launch a pair of probes in their general direction on my Medium Microwave-Thermal Reusable Launch Platform...

Each probe relies on Microwave Beamed Power to provide electricity for a Hydrazine-fueled (Monopropellant) ATTILA thruster (Adjustable Throttle Inductively Afterburning Arcjet), for an ISP of approximately 700s and *VERY* good TWR with multiple gigawatts of power available...

The probes are going to attempt to reach Sentar/Inaccessible by two very different routes (I'll decide which is going where based on a variety of factors- such as what the positioning for transfers further out in the star system looks like on my Long-Range Argon probes when they get to Duna...)

The first probe basically made use of the Oberth Effect and a close Munar gravity-assist to attain escape from Kerbol's gravity well with as much velocity as possible. After probably shooting out past Sentar, it will perform a maneuver to turn around (from escape velocity with the sun) and set an intercept with Sentar on the way back in (at such great distances, the Delta-V required to do this should be very minimal).

I will decide precisely when to turn the first probe around based on how long it can continue to receive enough Microwave Beamed Power, and light on its solar panels, to run its ATILLA engines with decent levels of power (at least a a kN or two, I would think), or in an even more extreme scenario, simply to run its Okto2 probe core and use its RCS thrusters for a "cold-burn" at a MUCH lower ISP... (260s vs 700s)

The second probe is going to capture into a Munar orbit and rendezvous with the Munar Spacedock- at which point it will top off its Hydrazine (Monopropellant) supplies (it currently has nearly fuel Hydrazine- having used only 3 m/s to take it off its collision-course with the Mun) from the small stock of Hydrazine stored in the Munar Spacedock (only a couple hundred units at most), and perform what I like to call an "Oberth Maneuver"- it will escape the Mun such as that its periapsis falls low to Kerbin, and then will perform an interplanetary transfer at this highly-elliptical orbit's periapsis...

Each probe is only designed for a flyby (or preferably a collision directly into Sentar for the additional data on gravity and temperature in the atmosphere, if Krag's Planet Factory turns out to work correctly with the Science system...)

Second, I docked the Supply Ship with the Munar Spacedock, and transferred over its cargo of Rocketparts. I have also been attempting to build a Microwave Solar Power Transmitter in Munar orbit with the Munar Spacedock (this one with a NERVA engine to push it out to a low Kerbol orbit for MOAR POWER!) in the background (no screenshots of this), but have found that past a certain part-count, any craft I build at the Munar Spacedock cause the game to bug out and eliminates my ability to switch to other vessels... If I have similar issues building base components for the Mun, then all those RocketParts might just end up being roleplayed as life-support supplies- and if I have these issues on Duna, then my entire colonization effort could turn into a failure...

After the rendezvous, the Supply Ship began its return to low-altitude Kerbin orbit... (note that I try to avoid the scientifically-incorrect convention of calling this a "Low Kerbin Orbit")

Finally, the drop-tanks from the Sentar/Inaccessible probe on escape-trajectory from Kerbol smashed into the Mun at over 4km/s for !SCIENCE!

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. If you're wondering, I try to avoid using the term "Low Kerbin Orbit (LKO)", it's because it is obviously an analog to "Low Earth Orbit" (LEO)- which is actually an orbit that is technically still in the uppermost reaches of the atmosphere for at least part of its orbit (comparable to something like a 67 x 70 km orbit in-game). The International Space Station is not fully outside the atmosphere in real-life (c'mon, did you THINK politicians were going to make the extra investment to put in in a higher orbit?), which is a big part of why it needs so much station-keeping to avoid re-entry...

Edited June 13, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 14, 2014

OK, so a little research on the subject reveals there are no Science Points to be gained in the new planets from Krag's Planet Factory- which I am greatly disappointed by. It looks like I'll have to try and target a different planetary system that normally takes a lot of Delta-V to get to with a Hohmann Transfer (such as Eeloo or Moho), so that this rather extreme maneuver (which would allow a flyby of any planet with enough precision and waiting) won't entirely go to waste...

There are no resources (Kethane or KSP-Interstellar ISRU) on any of the new planets either- making long-term outposts very expensive unless I colonize other planets first...

Aside from finding that out, and prowling the forums a little, I've been working on developing my Microwave Beamed Power network further. Mainly, I deployed a couple more ground-based fission reactors around Kerbin- one near the Island Runway, and the other in the foothills of the mountains west of the KSC.

First of all, the island reactor:

I decided I didn't want to leave the reactor with all those spent parachutes attached (every part in the game, even on an unloaded craft, adds to memory usage- as KSP keeps in memory all the craft files for active flights in the relevant save- which as I understand it is why there's no loading screen when a craft enters physics-range...)

So I para-dropped a Kerbal and a rover with a ladder (to help him reach the parachutes) onto the island, to remove them using KAS. While he was there, he also attached a couple OX-STAT solar panels from the rover to the reactor, for a backup power source and a tiny bit of extra juice for transmission during the daytime...

Actually, I first tried to do it with a couple Kerbals (sometimes the Kerbals die on touchdown from a para-drop, so I dropped two) and no rover- but the Kerbals couldn't reach the parachutes. So I designed a special rover just for the purpose...

It actually took me several attempts to get it right- the game kept bugging out and Kraken attacks caused the rover to spontaneously explode and such, and in one instance I accidentally loaded a pre-launch quicksave when I was trying to make a quicksave after a successful landing (the para-drop plane was also capable of simply landing and unloading the cargo and rover C-130 Hercules style...) So, a lot of repeats of the mission, and this gives me a lot less progress to report to you guys in the end...

Anyways, that was the SUCCESSFUL attempt. There was also a LOT of quicksaving that time- note that's why the Kerbal keeps jumping off the rover (which proved surprisingly useful as a Kerbal-transport) for most of the screenshots, even though he was riding it to the island reactor most of the time...

Then, I deployed a new, even heavier reactor cart to the foothills of the mountains west of the KSC. As usual, the reactor cart would spontaneously explode when moving at only 7 or 8 m/s with every small bump in the ground, so that took a LONG time as well, but I eventually got it done...

Now, some of you might be wondering why I'm dedicating so much effort to developing my Microwave Beamed Power infrastructure when I've got an armada in the process of arriving at Duna piecewise; a Duna turbojet (the Eagle Mk2) in an unstable "orbit" around said planet awaiting the rest of the armada to either save the crew and scrap it, or fix the landing issue it is having (due to more reactor fuel magically appearing in the rear) by adding extra cargo mass to the node; and the beginnings of my Munar outpost (a KSP-Interstellar ISRU refinery and a radiator tower for it- launched as two separate payloads due to payload limits on my earlier shuttle design) in position to land and begin sending up fuel shipments to whatever fuel lander I end up building at the Munar Spacedock (if I can get Orbital Construction to work without a Kraken attack in 0.23.5)

There are 4 reasons for my focus on Microwave Beamed Power:

(1) My extra-planetary outposts are going to need 100% reusable launch vehicles with decent payload capacity (preferably SSTO- although Space-X style works decently for Duna) in order to efficiently ferry the fuel produced on the surface to my orbital fuel depots (kind of one of the main points of the outposts). Microwave Power helps a LOT with achieving that without too large of a vessel- with enough beamed power, I can utilize the (ATTILA) afterburning arcjets you saw on my Sentar/Inaccessible probes on launch vehicles straight from the Munar or Dunar surface, for instance (this wouldn't work in the thick atmosphere and strong gravity well of Kerbin- but it's possible to do efficiently where the gravity-well is weaker...)

(2) High-powered nuclear thermal or electric rocketry (with all the power of the huge and sufficiently powerful reactor beamed instead of the reactor mass residing on the vessel) is probably the only way I can reasonably expect to send a manned mission to the Sentar system and back without building a huge pancake rocket (I tend to avoid those for realism) or assembling a gigantic interplanetary ship in a huge number of small pieces in-orbit, considering there is no option to utilize ISRU there to save on mass for return fuel...

(3) As of 0.23.5, Orbital Construction Re-Redux and Extraplanetary Launchpads both seem to be stimulating Kraken attacks when I build anything more than a modest-sized vessel with them... (this is going to create serious problems for my Duna colony- my plan involved initially consolidating resources into a massive orbital station...) As such, I will have to find ways to get by with less massive vessels in general- the excellent ISP's and TWR's that Microwave Beamed Power enables are one great way to do this...

(4) I have a strong interest in seeing just how far I can take this current-day technology, that we could be using RIGHT NOW to launch small rockets in real life- but without having to deal with as many budget restrictions as in real life (it costs something like $2 million for a basic 1 Megawatt gyrotron capable of being used like this in real life- although I am fairly sure the costs decrease per-Megawatt greatly with economies of scale and more powerful transmitters...) It will be interesting to try and apply the same approach with a new save in 0.24 though, due to budgets- if the costs are accurately balanced by KSP-Interstellar vs. other parts, usable amounts of Microwave Power (you need at least 100 MW to start thinking about launching rockets with it in real life- and only ones with *tiny* payloads on disposable lifting-body rockets at that power level) will become a SERIOUS investment (though still attainable, and capable of paying for itself with enough launches...)

Anyways, that's all for now. I've written too much text- but I hope you guys (the readers) are looking forward to seeing my Duna and Munar colonization in full swing, and my manned mission to Sentar (this will be a plant-a-flag-and-go type thing, no sticking around long-term like on Duna... And I HAVE TO do it NOW- the next transfer window won't come for a *LONG* time) soon enough, as much as I am...

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. Some of you might be intrigued to learn that *just getting to* Sentar is going to take a massive 6258 m/s for a perfectly-performed transfer (no steering-losses), according to KSP Launch Planner (http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/). The ideal transfer point is a little bit past, but not incredibly so (maybe a few hundred m/s at most). And that's assuming I leave in just a few in-game hours: the cost for a same-length trip goes up exponentially the longer I wait- about 25 m/s the first day, and more for each day after that... All this amounts to needing to use high-ISP propulsion and make *quite a few* launches to assemble the mission vehicle...

Edited June 14, 2014 by Northstar1989

[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program

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