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[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program


Northstar1989

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This game is far too addictive to put down- even when I really should. So, after cleaning up my Kerbin orbits a bit (I recycled several ships- and designed a crew recovery vehicle to safely return the unneeded crew members of still-manned vehicles scheduled for recycling to Kerbin's surface), I want ahead and started the Eagle on its long trip to Duna...

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Before I go any further though, I made a mistake in one of my pictures a couple posts back. I fixed it now, but in one of the pictures I accidentally posted the same image twice- instead of a really beautiful picture of the Eagle and her transfer stage eclipsing the sun as they approached my fuel depot... Here it is again though, for those who already read the post and don't want to go back and find it:

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Anyways, still having plenty of fuel and Delta-V left- even after MechJeb blew nearly half of it rendezvousing with my fuel depot (from here on, I'll be keeping a much closer eye on MechJeb- I can't afford another incident like that- especially since I don't yet have the capability to send large amounts of oxidizer that far out to refuel my HUGE transfer stage... as my Mun regolith electroylsis operations aren't even off the ground- or the spacedock- so to speak...), I started my Duna transfer of the Eagle the way I start all my interplanetary missions- with a gravity assist from the Mun. I got some great pictures of it too:

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So, my Eagle transfer stage is on the way out of the Kerbin system (my framerate is also much better too, now that I'm away from Kerbin), and I'll be making some major orbital adjustments once I safely leave Kerbi's SOI to get a Duna intercept... As you can see- I missed the ideal transfer window by a good deal:

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By the way, for those who are interested, I've also highlighted my poor, damaged SensorSat, which is also making its way to Duna on a much slower intercept. Here's a couple new images of her for those who don't remember the damage she sustained on Minmus:

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Notice, of course, the missing solar panels and scientific instruments on one side. I didn't design her like that! Anyways, she's also got enough Delta-V to make an aerocapture and maybe even establish and orbit around Ike if I set the periapsis in Duna's atmosphere right... So I'll have more !SCIENCE! coming in- and even if this mission to land the Eagle doesn't work, I'll finally have the SABRE Engines to launch my next plane to orbit without needing to strap her to a rocket (I also suspect the part clipping this entailed was a large part of the reason for the extreme lag I had with the vessel near Kerbin- where gravity was highest).

Until next time, adieu, and travel the stars bravely- for to touch the void is to taste enlightenment.

-Northstar

Edited by Northstar1989
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Remember this rocket?

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It was the biggest, dumbest, most brute-force rocket I ever built. Also, it's the rocket that's going to carry my next load of Kerbals out to Duna- because the transfer window is already past the ideal point and rapidly closing (costing more and more time and Delta-V), and I currently have four brave Kerbals on their way there without a way home:

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Seen here, the Eagle is making its intercept burn for Duna (OVER TWENTY-ONE MINUTES LONG!) with two stock NERVA engines...

I don't intend to leave those brave Kerbals stranded along on Duna forever- so supplies and additional equipment will be on their way shortly.

Stay tuned.

- Northstar

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In order to send a mission to Duna, I need crew.

Rather than recruiting entirely new Kerbals, expanding my already unwieldy astronaut rosters even further- I decided it was time to put to use the crew recovery vehicle my Kerbals had been working on (Kerbals, being Kerbals, blasted off to space in vehicles not designed for reentry without a way of getting back home)

I present the 'Valkyrie' Crew Recovery Vehicle- so name because it will either safely return my Kerbals to Kerbin's loving embrace- or to the afterlife.

Here, it can be seen in the setup phase for re-entry, after setting its periapsis at about 48,000 meters:

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And here, shortly after releasing the Crew Recovery Module (the main vessel never enters the atmosphere), and during its burn to circularize at a lower altitude than the one returning its Kerbals from (it will be using this as a phasing orbit to rendezvous with my orbital spacedock and retrieve another Crew Recovery Module)

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Here is the Crew Recovery Module during re-entry:

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After deployment of the parachute in drogue mode:

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And shortly before splashdown:

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It's a rather efficient method of returning Kerbals to the surface- each of those passenger modules (from Firespitter mod) only has a dry mass of 0.45 tons. This save on needing to consume too many of my spacedock's valuable RocketParts just on crew recovery...

I know it's not much, but soon I will be posting on my major liftoff effort for Duna. I will be sending four Kerbals on three major modules to Duna. Each is on a massive rocket, which is a modified version of what I used to launch the Eagle to Duna (I added in a decoupler between the sustainment engine and extra-atmospheric stages on all my new Duna rockets, so I don't have to haul an 18 pound low-ISP engine all the way to Duna...)

The modules will be:

The Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform- this is a heavy unmanned module of RocketParts and (roleplaying here) supplies for long-term colonization of Duna. It also includes all the tools needed for in-orbit construction- particularly important for constructing m first actual landing craft to Duna's surface.

The Duna Crew Module- this module contains supplies and living space for two Kerbals (in a Hitchhiker Module) while in transit- with space for two more to be picked up from the Eagle's crew on Duna's surface (by my first lander ship- which will be built in-orbit)

The Duna Science Module- probably the most important module of them all- this module contains a KSP Interstellar Science Lab- which holds the equipment to conduct research (Science Points ftw!), reprocess depleted nuclear fuel (necessary in the long run to keep the Eagle Mk2 operational- though I'll be landing a difference science module on Duna itself for this task), and most critical of all to mission success- electrolyze regolith on Ike's surface in order to produce Oxidizer, and Aluminum for Aluminum-Oxidizer Hybrid Rockets (this is the most likely fuel source for my later heavy colonization landings on Duna- though my first lander will almost certainly be fueled by leftover LFO mix carried from Kerbin, as Aluminum Hybrid Rockets are far too powerful for such a light craft- at 550 kN each). The Science Module's lab itself also contains living space for two Kerbal scientists.

Here's a preview of the current incarnation of the Science Module, on the Launchpad:

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She's a little top-heavy as you can see, and I'm probably going to have to add some top-stage radial boosters to counteract this before liftoff.

Edited by Northstar1989
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Jebro Kerman sat in his launch seat, his heart pounding out of his little green chest. Beneath him sat over nine hundred and thirty-six tons of metal and highly explosive rocket fuel- by far the largest craft Kerbalkind had ever sent to orbit. Above him stretched the pristine blue sky- which he would soon be shooting through at incredible speeds. The only thing between him and certain death was the keen handling of this enormous rocket by the remote-control crews at Mission Control- who didn't have to risk their lives and pay the ultimate price if things went wrong.

The rocket had been extensively tested with dummy payloads, and all the quirks had been worked out- or so the engineering team assured him. Still, as he sat next to Donely, who looked only slightly less nervous than himself, he couldn't help but wonder what he had gotten himself into. After all, he was a scientist, not a former pilot like the rest of the astronauts. He has volunteered for the space program out of pride, patriotism, and the excitement that surrounded the prospect of going to space- but now he was starting to question his decision...

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It was too late for such thoughts now though. Already the launch countdown had begun... "LIFTOFF IN T-MINUS 60 SECONDS." Jebro thought of his family, and prayed he would see them again.

"LIFTOFF IN T-MINUS 30 SECONDS." The time really seemed to fly by, didn't it? It seemed like only yesterday Jebro had been a Cadet in the astronaut-candidate program.

"LIFTOFF IN T-MINUS 20 SECONDS." This was it, Jebro said a silent prayer that everything would go as planned.

"TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN...." Jebro felt his stomach drop to the bottom of his seat.

"SIX, FIVE, FOUR..." Jebro glanced over at Donely one last time- who seemed to be handlnig the situation a bit better than himself.

"THREE, TWO, ONE, LIFTOFF!" And with that, and an intense rumbling, Jebro felt himself slammed back into his chair as the rocket soared off the launchpad:

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So far, so good, Jebro thought as the rocket continued to climb- I'm not dead yet...

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A hiss and a loud thud, and the boosters fell away. Jebro felt the G-forces on him lessen a little, and was able to straighten himself in his chair.

Then, the rocket began to tip. Jebro panicked for a moment- before he realized this was just the beginning of the gravity turn...

Next came a click and a dull thud, and he was slammed back into his seat again- just the separation of the launch stage and the activation of the aluminum-hybrid bosoters, he thought.

The rocket tipped further over towards the horizon... Jebro gripped the arms of his chair nervously.

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Finally, one last THUD, and suddenly Jebro felt lighter than he ever had on Kerbin. Although the extra-atmospheric stage was still burning beneath him, its thrust was so weak that he could feel himself lighter than he ever had before (at this point, the vessel's TWR fell below 1- to about 0.2- meaning the Kerbals were experiencing reduced "weight"- but weren't yet in the endless free-fall that orbit represents). Donely looked about ready to barf beside him.

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"Here, quick, take this!" Jebro handed Donely a barf-bag just in time- which the even greener-than-normal looking Kerbal quickly filled with some less than appetizing contents...

Doneley was another scientist, like Jebro- but whereas Jebro had made a name for himself writing theory on exobiology and taught at a college campus until joining the space program; Donely had spent years working in the chemical industry, and was an expert on the composition and utilization of regolith- which would serve their mission well, as his expertise was needed to run the host of processing equipment for doing precisely that they had brought with them to refuel their rocket on the Mun and Ike...

Jebbro's thought wandered for a period of time- but he was brought back to the present when the rumbling sound he had become so accustomed to for the last half-hour or so suddenly stopped. Without warning, Jebbro suddenly experienced true weightlessness for the first time. Looking out the small window by his side for the first time (he had been too terrified too earlier) he saw the mountains and valleys, hills and oceans of his beautiful homeworld stretched out beneath him...

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Then, less than a minute later, the rumbling started again. "Mission Control, what's going on?", Jebro asked. "Don't worry at all" came the reply "We just came into a stable orbit a little closer to our transfer window to the Mun than we expected. You can expect the engines to cut back out after several minutes, and to arrive in Munar flyby in a little over six hours. If anything should go wrong, we'll have you in a low-drag free return trajectory to Kerbin- so you can just bail out once you're in a semi-stable orbit and tail it to the nearest orbital station."

"That's comforting", Jebro thought. The last time Kerbals had tried something like that from an unstable orbit was on the first, nearly disastrous Mun-mission: and while one of the two brave Kerbals had quickly made it back to the Command Section, the other had calibrated his heading wrong, and spent over six hours in orbit, and ran out of oxygen shortly before the Command Section was able to rendezvous with him, and pull his oxygen-deprived, nearly lifeless unconscious body inside... He suffered moderate brain damage as a result- though for some reason, the space program still kept him on their launch rotation (interestingly enough, this Kerbal's "Stupidity" rating actually did climb heavily after recovery from that mission- I'm still not sure why...)

"I just hope something like that doesn't happen to me", was all Jebro could tell himself. The mission had gone off without a hitch so far though- and besides, once he got out past Kerbin's Sphere of Influence, he knew the chances or rescue or recovery were incredibly slim...

Finally, the rumbling of the engines stopped again, and a glance at the nav interface reassured Jebro that he was indeed headed on a free-return trajectory to the Mun, as promised.

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To be continued...

NEXT UP: Landing of the Science Module on the Mun (this should be good practice for landing something this enormous on Ike- and will let me completely refuel the vessel's Aluminum-Hybrid rocket engines by electrolyzing regolith...)

LATER STILL: Launch of the Crew Module (carries two more Kerbals, with capacity for four), and Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform (no crew on this one- it's an unmanned supply vehicle with the parts needed to construct Duna landers and an initial Duna base- I'll be sending more supplies in later launches if more or needed- so I won't be doing any roleplaying of this launch- just pictures and discussion...)

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Not much to say about this one- I decided to just go ahead and launch the Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform (after a bit of testing until I got a just-barely stable rocket design) with a massive cargo of 60 TONS of RocketParts to a parking orbit at about 348 km- before yet attempting a Mun landing with the Duna Science Module.

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Soon, I will be sending it to Duna- with a gravity assist from the Mun (aside from my Science Module, none of the other ships will be stopping or landing there) and Minmus too if I can line it up right (I've done double-assists before- but they're not easy at all to get).

In the meantime, my design for the Duna Crew Module is about to start undergoing testing (read: launches without a crew, and F5/F9 reverts- rather than recovering each and every bit of debris from unstable designs- until I get a design that looks like it can fly straight out of Kerbin's atmosphere.) I think I might launch that one without a crew, and then rendezvous the Crew Module with a crew carrier when it eventually is time for it to leave- which will allow me to also bring it some extra fuel at the same time...

I'll be roleplaying that post as well (the launch of the crew carrier)- but it won't be for a good bit- so expect to see posts of its launch (unamnned) but nothing on the crew carrier until a good bit after the Science Module has proven its electrolytic capabilities... No need to launch more Kerbals to orbit just yet if that critical piece of the mission doesn't work...

Edited by Northstar1989
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The switch to narrative style for that one post was a bit unexpected, but I ended up liking it -- I think you have a natural talent as a narrative writer. Keep up the good work; I'll be looking forward to seeing Jebro and Donely get "boots on the ground" on Duna soon :)

Edited by Specialist290
Redundant statement is redundant.
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The switch to narrative style was a bit unexpected for that one post was a bit unexpected, but I ended up liking it -- I think you have a natural talent as a narrative writer. Keep up the good work; I'll be looking forward to seeing Jebro and Donely get "boots on the ground" on Duna soon :)

Thanks- I'm glad you like it. I always had a talent for narrative and (especially) poetry growing up- but I didn't go to a very good high school, and my dad thought poetry was for sissies- so I never really developed my talent for either to its full potential...

Anyways, I've added one major mod, two smaller mods, and updated one other that I feel the need to announce:

NEW! Kethane Pack 0.81 (now Career Mode compatible!) - this also means I will probably be mining for Ore (an Extraplanetary Launchpads resource that requires Kethane Pack to find/mine) once I get the hang of the resource extraction/location system...

ALSO: Procedural Dynamics (aka. Procedural Wings) and Stretchy Tanks mods! Now I can design the (space)planes and rockets of my dreams- without killing my computer with part counts!

Also, I updated NearFuture Pack to 0.24 (from 0.22). This mostly includes a few minor bugifxes, but comes with one major addition- a 2.5 meter VASIMR (I was spelling it wrong before) engine! This might also make my Advanced Spacplane more feasible- depending on its TWR...

By the way, did you know they're putting a (small) VASIMR engine on the ISS for altitude-adjustments in REAL life? Just heard about that as well...

I had to convince myself of the realism of the Kethane Pack before I would install it (turns out, from a little research on the subject, the solar system is RICH in mineable methane deposits and/or atmospheric methane IRL)

Edited by Northstar1989
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Jerbo sat nervously in his seat again. The adjustment burn at Kerbin apoapsis, and the capture burn to orbit the moon had both gone routinely enough, but something in his gut gave him the willies about landing a ship this large on the Mun's surface... Stories he had heard as a child of the "Space Kraken" flew through his mind- and how it sometimes liked to eat really big ships that tried to land on other planets. Something about a strange thing called "collision boxes" also came to mind- though he had no idea what that was about...

Yet, as he sat, his stomach struggling to hold his lunch, he couldn't help but giggle at the excitement of it all either. If this worked, he would be going to Ike next! And then DUNA! Where no brave Kerbal had ever set foot before...

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Something didn't sit right about this whole thing though- and Jerbo's suspicions were soon proved correct. Suddenly, the nav computer (aka MechJeb ASAS) started gonig on the blitz during the beginning of the descent burn- slamming Jerbo about the Science Module's command room as the ship jerked randomly about. Thinking quickly, Jerbo grabbed the manual controls, and steadied the ship- burning away the ship's velocity as it descended to the Munar surface.

Soon, the Dunar Science Module had almost reached the surface. Remembering his training, Jerbo slowed the craft to the slowest velocity he could- less than 2 m/s- and then cut the engines only meters above the surface for a very gentle touchdown. Yet, instead of only a soft *thud* of the craft landing gently on the Munar surface, he heard a high-pitched screeching sound drowning it out- and then a second thud. Worried, Jerbo looked out his window to see the ships' radiators for its nuclear generators lying on the Mun's surface, instead of firmly attached to the craft! Only moment later, he heard a computerized voice announcing "Reactor Emergency Shutdown Initiated Immediately- No Radiators Detected."

[The Munar Landing Insertion Burn]

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[The Munar Landing]

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[The Aftermath]

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Jerbo began to shake uncontrollably, and felt himself beginning to have a nervous breakdown. This was simply too much for him. As the world around him closed into darkness, his last thought was that Donely STILL had that blank stare on his face...

(At this point, my computer began to have uncontrollable lag, and the game froze and crashed- followed by my computer. Even when I restarted my computer and re-loaded the save, every time I focused on the Duna Science Module, the lag became unbearable. That is, until I guessed that maybe since the radiator panels were submerged partway into the ground, there was a CPU-eating clipping issue going on. So, I ignored my new habit of leaving debris for future salvaging missions, and "Terminated" the debris. Sure enough, moments later when I reloaded the craft, minus the detached radiators, the lag was entirely gone and the game ran smooth as butter...)

Unfortunately folks, my game seems to have experienced some sort of collision-box bug. Even though I touched down at LESS THAN 2 m/s (about 1.7), the radiators (Which have a much higher impact rating than that) fell immediately off the craft, and the entire ship began to do some sort of weird SAS-induced dance around the surface. It wasn't until I disabled SAS and cleared the radiator debris that everything returned to normal. I don't have a quicksave though- I accidentally panicked, and hit F5 when I meant to hit F9- overwriting my quicksave with a new (post-landing) one, rather than loading my pre-insertion quicksave!

I'm going to have to eventually perform a rescue mission for these Kerbals. I might even have them electrolyze as much of the regolith as they can on remaining stored electricity anyways; blast off the surface on the Aluminum-Hybrid rockets along; and transfer the remaining fuel to my next Duna Science Module in-orbit of the Mun- so *it* won't have any need to perform a Munar touchdown and risk this same bug again... The Mun's collision-box is known to be a bit buggy in some places...

This ends my story for the time being though. I'll have to figure out what to do next with my brave Kerbals- but real life calls louder and louder, so at some point (maybe even before the rescue mission) you might just see me disappear for a while until well after Thanksgiving... At the very least, it might be a while until I attempt anything as ambitious as a rescue mission (or, I might just attempt it in a few hours- only time will tell)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited by Northstar1989
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"No mission is beyond salvaging some usefulness- even if its goals do change."

Scant consolation that is, thought Jerbo, remembering the mission controller's words to calm him down.

Jerbo had come to realize that, painfully, he probably wouldn't be going to Duna. Instead, he and Doneley- with that weak stomach and blank stare on his face all the time- would probably be forced to spend the next few days extracting aluminum and oxygen from regolith, and the next few months or more performing research on the Mun.

"At least we won't necessarily be stuck in this same ship that whole time" Jerbo thought. There had been talk of landing the supplies for a more permanent base at their location- as it appeared reasonably flat, and was near several craters that might prove worth visiting. Mission Control had even provided them with an orbital image of the vicinity of their landing site, to illustrate this to them. The Lunar Science Module- as some buffoon initially renamed their mission- would eventually be drained of remaining fuel and scrapped. It's the *Munar* Science Module, thought Jerbo- what's Luna? (OOC: Luna is the name for Earth's moon.)

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In the meantime, their mission was now to rendezvous with a new model of Duna Science Module, that would be launched from Kerbin shortly- and transfer what fuel to it they could.

"Great", thought Jerbo- "we've become nothing but the space equivalent of oil drillers and gas station attendants." He knew, of course, this wasn't true. While Mission Control did speak of searching for Kethane deposits around the Mun- and especially in their vicinity- no gas station attendant could fly a 100-ton rocket, thought Jerbo- also thinking back to the 900-ton plus behemoth it had been back on the launchpad...

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Regardless, he had a mission to perform- and Mission Control was providing him with the tools to do it... As a first step, they had immediately ordered that a small probe be sent from the LKO Spacedock carrying a new "radiator tower"- whatever that meant- to allow them to cool their craft and reactivate its nuclear reactors and associated generators. In the meantime, they were to begin performing research on the local geology and radiation levels, to advance science and better characterize their location's suitability for a permanent base.

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Most of a day of research (6-7 hours) passed, and the radiator tower arrived as promised. Jerbo's first duty was to remove the still-functional solar panels from the nearby crashed-down skycrane-style probe that had been used to transport it, and re-attach them to the radiator tower facing towards to now setting sun. The extra electricity, mission control assured them, would help a tiny bit with running the ship's power-hungry electrolysis systems... Meanwhile, Donely would be employed at the much more "hazardous" task of re-routing the ship's heat exchange fluid to the radiator tower, and re-activating the ship's nuclear generators- as mission control still didn't trust Jerbo's unstable mental state since his breakdown...

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(OOC: KSP Interstellar's Science Labs appear incapable of utilizing ElectricCharge directly. Instead they utilize the "Megajoules" representing mechanical energy stored in its generators. However the generators only produce this resource when the ship is producing surplus power, and proportional to the surplus- as they are essentially a form of electrical storage. It is unclear to me if the maximum rate of Megajoule production can be raised by having a large EC surplus- but it *IS* clear that a proportion of the generator's Megajoule output can be diverted to produce EC instead if the ship would otherwise be running an EC-deficit. Since the Munar Science Module originally had no other method of producing electricity besides the generators, this was always the case- and so utilizing a few working solar panels from the gently-crashed ship would slightly increase the Megajoule output of the generators...)

Finally, after a hard day of work unscrewing solar panels from the crashed probe, and drilling them onto the top of the radiator tower- after carefully navigating to the top by RCS jetpack- Jerbo finally finished his part of fixing the electrical systems. Shortly after, Donely burst into the Science Module with a wide grin on his face, and announced "It's finished! The radiators are venting the reactors' heat correctly, and we'll be electrolyzing regolith at full-power now in no time!"

"Great" thought Jerbo- "now we get to haul glamorized rock-dust for the next week, and get filthy electrolyzing and purifying it into rocket fuel-grade materials". Of course, he didn't say this- instead he just game Doneley a half-hearted high-five, and returned to the scientific experiment he had been working on in the corner...

"This is going to be a looonnnng month ahead of me", thought Jerbo...

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OOC again:

As you can see, I did manage to figure out a way to save at least some of the usefulness of the damaged Science Module. Unfortunately, I don't trust a radiator stack tied to the front of the ship by nothing but a KAS stack winch to survive aerobraking on Duna... I could be acting over-cautious about this, but I've decided to go with launching an entirely new ship with two built-in 2.5 meter inline radiators instead of the deployable sort that broke before (the inline radiators would be identical to the two the tower you saw there was constructed of. They're heavier than the deployable radiators, but they should have a lot less chance of breaking on a possibly less-gentle touchdown on Ike than the super-gentle one I made on the Mun before- which still managed to break them anyways...)

In the meantime, I'll be needing to launch another Duna Science Module, and the Duna Crew Module, soon- and get them out of the Kerbin system before the necessary intercept orbits become any slower or require any more Delta-V:

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(Keep in mind that Duna is to the RIGHT of Kerbin's prograde vector as seen here. It should be DIRECTLY in front of the vector for the fastest and lowest-energy Hohmann Transfer, ideally- and it will only continue to move further to the right the longer I delay my additional launch windows... It would be to the LEFT of the prograde vector if it was *approaching* the transfer window instead of moving away from it, by the way. Given its current position, any intercept course will have to have a significant radial component outwards from the Sun in addition to its prograde component- which is a lot less efficient of a way to get a transfer...)

Edited by Northstar1989
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As I always say: Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

Rough luck with accidentally overwriting your quicksave; I've had that happen to me a few times as well (the most recent one being last night, as a matter of fact). Of course, it's often a better story when you have to overcome some sort of unexpected adversity, so in a way it's a bit of a blessing in disguise (at least for us, the readers :P ). Here's to hoping Jerbo and Donely Kerman make it home safely!

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OK, so a short post here, because the game is running unpaused in the background, and I'm steadily falling further from my transfer window to Duna...

I launched the final version of the Duna Crew Module (unmanned, with later rendezvous to add crew planned)- and boy does she carry a lot of fuel! Over 7000 m/s of Delta-V in LFO mix, in fact, and maybe even more than that in pure LiquidFuel to be combined with Oxidizer from Ike. I don't think I'll be having any problems with sending return rockets to Kerbin, or landers to the Dunar surface, anytime soon...

Of course, I don't have nearly as much mass in RocketParts (only 60 tons of the stuff- plus whatever I can recycle in net when I decommission the original colonization ships in favor of smaller permanent surface outposts and orbital stations on/around Ike and Duna...)- so my first priority after setting up operations will not be the mining of Kethane, but of Ore (think iron and titanium and stuff) from the Dunar surface...

I'll also need some way to transport the stuff between my mining outposts and central refinery- since the Extraterrestrial Launchpads refining infrastructure costs a LOT of dry mass (too much to build refineries next to every mine), possibly even more than I'll have initially available before recycling my colonization ships- which worries me... I remember one of the refining components costs more than 20 tons of RocketParts on its own- not to mention all the mass I'll need in a landing system to perform a targeted landing of something that massive from Dunar orbit...

[EDIT: Turns out the really heavy part I was worried about was the "Smelter"- which turns Ore into Metal- which can then be further processed into RocketParts. It *IS* really heavy, but it comes in a smaller/slower size as well- so I'll just have to use that one at first to avoid running out of RocketParts during the initial colonization...)

Anyways, here are some nice images of the takeoff of my Duna Crew Module:

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P.S. This is my first rocket to make use of StretchyTanks, by the way- which proved VERY useful in optimization without spamming part-count...

Edited by Northstar1989
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OK, a MAJOR update here, so I'm going to split into several parts. First, the manning of the Duna Crew Module:

Sheprim sat back in his seat. It had been several weeks since he was sent into space, and he was starting to get bored hanging around the Kerbin Low-Orbital Spacedock, where the most excitement on a lucky day was servicing the occasional return trip by one of the space agency's two roaming Scrapping Ships...

Then came the kind of transmission from mission control Sheprim had only dreamed of. "Sheprim, Jebediah- you two thrill-seeking madmen- you're both on the mission to Duna."

(OOC: Sheprim, like Jebediah, appears to have the rare "Badass" flag on his character card which sometimes randomly gets assigned- though I don't know where to find the actual config for it- so I can't definitively confirm this.)

Sheprim was THRILLED. This was the kind of opportunity he had always been hoping for! "What could be better than spending a year or more as one of the first colonists on Duna?!", Sheprim thought to himself. "Just think of all fun I'll have seeing stuff blow up!" (OOC: Remember- Sheprim is a badass.)

Jebediah seemed equally thrilled when he heard the news. "They chose the right Kerbals for the job!" he exclaimed. "You and me- the two bravest Kerbals in the whole KSC! It'll be just like old times riding the Mun Landers by nothing but the seat of our pants and a lawnchair!" (OOC: This actually happened in an early Mun mission- and Sheprim and Jeb were both on that mission... So guess who volunteered to ride down on the outside of the rocket rather than stay behind in the Service Module?)

Soon, Shep and Jeb were suited up, and strapping on their jetpacks to make their transfers to the nearby Valkyrie Crew Transport. And being how they were, they both jetted over way faster than they should have... (OOC: Shep actually face-planted into the side of the thing at relatively high speed- though surprising neither him nor the transport was harmed) Not much later, they had both arrived at the Duna Crew Module and transferred over...

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"Now that was FUN!" exclaimed Jebediah. "It was totally awesome when you slammed into the transport like that Shep!" Shep, running his bruises, didn't look so happy for a moment- but then a big grin spread across his face. "Yeah, you're right Jeb! Just next time, you get to play dodgeball with the crew transport!"

Shep and Jeb, in good spirits and sharing many jokes and stories, wiled away the rest of their wait for the remaining crew of the Duna Crew Module- which mission control had upgraded to a four-man crew to stick on Sheprim and Jebediah. Meanwhile...

(This actually happened after the DCM was fully-manned, but I'm taking a bit of artistic license here.)

"Mission Control, this is the Duna Science Module Mark-II. Checks have been performed. All systems are nominal." Radioed Enrick Kerman from the command room of the Science Module.

"This is Mission Control. Roger that Duna Science Module- you are cleared for Liftoff. Beginning countdown momentarily."

"T-minus 120 seconds to liftoff"

Enrick sat back in the pilot's chair of the Science Module, and casually glanced at Barwise Kerman next to him- who seemed less at at ease with their situation.

"Why is that?" thought Enrick. After all, the DSM had been tested up and down at least a dozen times with dummy payloads- until Mission Control's engineering teams were absolutely SURE it was safe for a manned mission.

"Why are you so nervous?" Enrick asked. "I don't know Enrick" replied Barwise- "Maybe it's because the last time we launched into space, we ended up hurtling to the ground and nearly dying instead of riding to Duna on the 'Eagle'. Maybe it's because this thing crashed at least eight of the dozen times they tested it before they finally got a version that was stable. Maybe it's because the engineer at Mission Control was VERY CAREFUL to tell us to set the SAS torque to EXACTLY 0.78, and got a very worried look on his face when I asked him what would happen if I just set it to 0.8 or 0.7. Maybe it's just because of the giant stretched fuel tanks extending out the top of this thing that look kind of like a pair of devils' horns..."

"Ahh posh" replied Enrick. "It'll be find- you'll see. We survived when the Eagle snapped in half, didn't we?" Then, thinking a moment more- "And if it's not, it'll be over before you know it anyways. Maybe a few moments of terror, then, nothing."

"That's what I'm worried about" replied Barwise.

Fortunately for the two brave Kerbals, thirteen WAS a lucky number this time around. The Duna Science Module rose smoothly into the air, and after dozens of test runs losing engines or snapping off fuel tanks for no apparent reason; the Duna Science Module sailed smoothly to orbit without so much as a scratch to the painted-on thermal tiles...

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OOC: I *REALLY* pushed the design limits of this style of rocket with this one. I must have had to add a million struts just to keep the thing from falling apart in the air- and half the reason it has the giant horn-like fuel tanks extending above it is actually, for stability. Believe it or not, the extra weight and higher Center of Mass they provided was actually the key to keeping the thing from ripping itself apart in the lower atmosphere with its huge thrust... The reward for this obsessively-optimized and overpowered design though- more than TWELVE THOUSAND meters/second of vacuum Delta-V in a high Kerbin Parking orbit... (That's more than the readily-usable Delta-V of the other two Duna ships combined- though the Crew Module does carry a lot more than that in pure LiquidFuel.)

This is enough for one post- but don't stop here. Take a look at my next post too- on the rescue of the crew of the 'Eagle' copy that was destined for Duna, but damaged and abandoned in Low Kerbin Orbit.

Also, for those who were curious- Enrick and Barwise were indeed the two Kerbals who plummeted to what I thought were their certain deaths after the breaking apart of the aforementioned copy of the Eagle. They were also part of the 'A Team" that I intended to send down to Duna first, if they made it- the crew that is now already partway to Duna is composed of four idiots and cowards who were originally assigned as a low-quality backup team...

Regards,

Northstar

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The remaining crew of the 'Eagle' sat uneasily. It had been more than two days since the disastrous launch attempt that had wrecked the ship and very nearly cost the other half of the crew their lives. Cut off from the storehouses of the main transfer stage, the crew was running dangerously low on water and oxygen. And none of them had eaten a real meal since the last time they had all sat together in the mess hall of the Astronaut Complex.

"Don't worry" radioed Lury. "Sensors show the crew transport will be here in no more than a few minutes."

"It had better be", radioed back Obwise. "I've been sitting in this tiny Service Module, nibbling on a bag of snack chips and defecating my space-diapers for the past two days- and I'm starting to feel lightheaded from the low oxygen..."

"Weakling", thought Lury privately. "A spoiled scientist like that- he doesn't know the toil of a hard day's work in the mines."

Lury was little more than the son of a rigger on Kerbin's northern Kethane fields, but he had come far from his humble origins. From the day he applied to the Cadet program at the Kerbal Space Academy, he had vowed he would make something more of himself. Now he finally had the chance- though he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that the only reason he had been brought on this Duna mission was because of his background in mining.

"I know what you're thinking" radioed Obwise. "You're probably just about ready to give me another lecture on how in the Kethane fields, a Kerbal might not see a clean change of undergarments for a solid month. You're probably wanting to tell me I should just toughen up, and be grateful for your EVA to bring me that bag of snack chips earlier." Exactly, thought Lury- "But in the Kethane fields, you have room to roam too. Here, I haven't been able to stretch my aching legs for days. I haven't gone for a walk or a run since the night before the launch. And I haven't seen a bit of green- besides my skin- since we lifted off. At least in the Kethane fields you're surrounded by life."

"He does have a point", thought Lury. "Still, why can't he just tough it out?" he muttered to himself.

"I heard that" radioed Obwise. "You forgot to turn your radio off after that last transmission."

"Oh well, so much for privacy", thought Lury. And then, out of nowhere, he noticed an approaching blip on his radar.

"THIS IS IT" radioed Lury "OUR RESCUE CRAFT IS HERE! Prepare your personal belongings, stick them in an EVA-bag, and prepare to transfer vessels.

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'The Valkyrie', being an unmanned crew transport, of course had no pilot to greet them. But as Lury and Obwise stowed their few mission-authorized possessions in their crew transit compartments on the the vessel, they noticed a handwritten sticky-note posted on the inside of the entry door. "NOT RETURNING TO KERBIN." The note read- "VESSEL IS PROGRAMMED TO INTERCEPT WITH THE DUNA CREW MODULE- WHERE YOU WILL CONTINUE WITH THE MISSION. SHEPRIM AND JEBEDIAH WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU ON-BOARD. ENRICK AND BARWISE WILL RENDEZVOUS ON BOARD THE SCIENCE MODULE IN ORBIT OF IKE OR DUNA."

"Enrick and Barwise?!" exclaimed Obwise- "I thought they were dead! I *SAW* them hurtling back down into the atmosphere on that tiny winged piece of the nose section that broke off!"

"I guess we'll find out how they survived", replied Lury. "In the meantime, you'd better get on a fresh pair of undergarments in the restroom back there. I can see you weren't lying about the whole space-diaper thing. You smell like a pig farm right now."

"You would know, wouldn't you" retorted Obwise- "but you're right, I've been dying to get clean. I'll meet you up in the control room for EVA to the DCM in an hour or so. I'm going to take a long space-shower to try and get rid of some of this smell..."

A short time later, Obwise and Lury were securely aboard the Duna Crew Module. And *Lury* was the one whose smell Shep and Jebediah still found offensive...

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OOC: A short time later, there was a change of mission plans. I ended up re-assigning Lury to my Heavy Scrapper Ship, and Jennard to the Duna Crew Module: after examining the character traits of each side-by-side during a rendezvous to transfer the remaining LiquidFuel from the Nuclear Science Lab to the DCM (Jennard was much smarter AND more courageous). Here are some pictures from when I finally retired/recycled the Nuclear Science Lab (which had unusable fuel-routing issues)- where Jennard had until then been assigned- and of Jennard's transfer to the Duna Crew Module.

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Finally, last, but not least- I'd like to remind everybody that the undamaged copy of the Eagle is still en-route to Duna. Here is another screenshot of her I took when double-checking her time until encounter, and keeping an eye out for any damage I might have missed until that point.

2tClQsi.png

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OOC: I *REALLY* pushed the design limits of this style of rocket with this one. I must have had to add a million struts just to keep the thing from falling apart in the air- and half the reason it has the giant horn-like fuel tanks extending above it is actually, for stability. Believe it or not, the extra weight and higher Center of Mass they provided was actually the key to keeping the thing from ripping itself apart in the lower atmosphere with its huge thrust... The reward for this obsessively-optimized and overpowered design though- more than TWELVE THOUSAND meters/second of vacuum Delta-V in a high Kerbin Parking orbit... (That's more than the readily-usable Delta-V of the other two Duna ships combined- though the Crew Module does carry a lot more than that in pure LiquidFuel.)

Yeah, weight-forward designs usually fly the best, both in stock air and especially with FAR. The nice thing is, rockets tend to become more nose-heavy as they go during launch as fuel in the lowest stage burns while the payload remains the same. Getting this to work as intended has been my major adjustment in switching from KW Rocketry to Nova-Punch (which I did just for a new experience, not due to a failure of KWR). Nova-Punch tends to make shorter, squatter rockets due to both wider tanks and using the adaptors between tank sizes as fuel instead of just empty space.

You have a monumental amount of delta-V in these rockets. When going to Duna, 2000m/s is plenty even with a hefty reserve for emergencies.

EDIT: deleted stuff I meant to the 1st time

Edited by Geschosskopf
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Yeah, weight-forward designs usually fly the best, both in stock air and especially with FAR. The nice thing is, rockets tend to become more nose-heavy as they go during launch as fuel in the lowest stage burns while the payload remains the same. Getting this to work as intended has been my major adjustment in switching from KW Rocketry to Nova-Punch (which I did just for a new experience, not due to a failure of KWR). Nova-Punch tends to make shorter, squatter rockets due to both wider tanks and using the adaptors between tank sizes as fuel instead of just empty space.

You have a monumental amount of delta-V in these rockets. When going to Duna, 2000m/s is plenty even with a hefty reserve for emergencies.

Yeah, but if you can build a NovaPunch2 rocket tall enough with the widest tanks, the rewards (immense lifting capacity) are SPECTACULAR.

The idea is to take a high-speed transfer to Duna. I've never used less than about 2000 m/s Delta-V on the transfer burn there alone for a manned mission to the system (WITH a Mun gravity-assist) for this reason- I don't like the idea of my Kerbals spending months or half a year just floating through space, with no additional supplies or oxygen... (I'm not going to install a life-support mod though- the existing mods are too unrealistically power-hungry, and far too buggy... One of them in particular I remember has the tendency to kill all your Kerbals due to "lack of oxygen" during time-warp...)

Also, though the transfer window is getting further and further past, technically Duna is getting closer to Kerbin at the moment (the closest approach is when they are at the same angle relative to the Sun). Which means the transfer time should be getting shorter, if admittedly more costly fuel-wise.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited by Northstar1989
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Yeah, but if you can build a NovaPunch2 rocket tall enough with the widest tanks, the rewards (immense lifting capacity) are SPECTACULAR.

Personal taste, I guess. I'm more of a "swarm of ants" guy. I'd rather have a lot of small ships than 1 or a few big ships.

The idea is to take a high-speed transfer to Duna. I've never used less than about 2000 m/s Delta-V on the transfer burn there alone for a manned mission to the system (WITH a Mun gravity-assist) for this reason- I don't like the idea of my Kerbals spending months or half a year just floating through space, with no additional supplies or oxygen... (I'm not going to install a life-support mod though- the existing mods are too unrealistically power-hungry, and far too buggy... One of them in particular I remember has the tendency to kill all your Kerbals due to "lack of oxygen" during time-warp...)

Hmmm. How realistic can it be to impose humanocentric life support requirements on an alien species with a totally unknown metabolism, such as Kerbals? I mean, they have to wear spacesuits even on Kerbin, so oxygen might actually be bad for them. It is one of the most dangerous substances in the universe, after all. It corrodes just about everything it touches and causes fires and explosions :)

But anyway, fast trips raise problems of their own. Higher speeds require longer burn times, which decreases their efficiency. They also give you a significantly higher relative velocity when you get to the destination, due to the greater angle between your path and the target's orbit, so it's much harder to stop, even with aerobraking (which is limited at Duna by the thinness of the air compared to the height of the mountains). Good luck with it :).

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Personal taste, I guess. I'm more of a "swarm of ants" guy. I'd rather have a lot of small ships than 1 or a few big ships.

You're missing out on a lot of potential efficiency then. Even the largest ships still only need one cockpit- which saves on mass- and with the nuclear reactors of the NearFuture or KSP Interstellar mod you get economies of scale- with larger reactors producing more power relative to their mass. That's *IF* you still need as much power relative to the total vessel mass, of course (you often don't.) Bigger ships often need a few more struts- but that mass is usually negligible compared to, say, the mass of an entire cockpit or nuclear reactor.

Hmmm. How realistic can it be to impose humanocentric life support requirements on an alien species with a totally unknown metabolism, such as Kerbals? I mean, they have to wear spacesuits even on Kerbin, so oxygen might actually be bad for them. It is one of the most dangerous substances in the universe, after all. It corrodes just about everything it touches and causes fires and explosions :)

I don't know, how realistic CAN it be? Most of our knowledge of biology is derived from observation of life here on Earth (the only planet or moon to support life that we yet know of), and personally, as a Biologist myself in real life, I am of the school of thought that most life elsewhere would also have similar metabolisms. This is a result of the chemical properties of different elements- only a few have the necessary qualities to enable their use in construction of molecules that could support life. That is, after all, why science fiction usually has Silicon or Nitrogen-based life if it's not based on Carbon- because those are the only two other elements that could even come close to the versatility of Carbon in constructing organic molecules (trust me, take a year of college-level Organic Chemistry and a year-and-a-half of college Biochemistry classes and labs, and then you'll understand...) So, it's far more likely than not that any other life out there is also based on Carbon- and Kerbals are, after all, human-analogues...

As for the spacesuits, a number of the EVA reports from Kerbin's surface ask "Do you think a Space Suit was really necessary to get here?", and the Kerbal ground crews in both the VAB and SPH wear no space suits- which would imply Kerbals do just fine on Kerbin's surface without them...

But anyway, fast trips raise problems of their own. Higher speeds require longer burn times, which decreases their efficiency. They also give you a significantly higher relative velocity when you get to the destination, due to the greater angle between your path and the target's orbit, so it's much harder to stop, even with aerobraking (which is limited at Duna by the thinness of the air compared to the height of the mountains). Good luck with it :).

The burn times depend on how you get to the higher speed. If you perform one or two gravity assists on the way to your target (keep an eye out for my next post- I performed a double gravity-assist with both the Mun and Minmus for the Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform; and having already performed a Mun gravity assist for the Duna Crew Module, and am also planning to perform one with Minmus shortly...) then you can (and in fact should) break up the acceleration to escape Kerbin into multiple shorter burns.

The best places to perform these burns are usually at a Periapsis with one of the gravitational bodies you encounter- due to the Oberth effect (you gain more energy from your thrust when you burn while moving at higher speeds). Especially if you perform a multiple-assist, you can end up with not just two or three, but four or more Periapsis points at which to ideally perform a burn. This is because the gravity assist with a body such as the Mun can easily slingshot you back towards a relatively close Periapsis with Kerbin given your speed- before you shoot out again towards the system's edge, with even higher speeds than when you left for the Mun...

So,you can get great efficiency if you let gravity do the turning for you, and realize you don't always need to burn towards your final target (in fact, often it is advantageous to simply be burning prograde- even if that's in the opposite direction. If you plan it correctly, gravity will end up turning around the direction of that velocity for you)- after all, energy is conserved. Any energy you lose in kinetic energy (velocity) you will gain back in potential gravitational energy- assuming you don't enter any atmosphere...

As for the entry angle and speed- that's entirely based on your transfer path. Even a very "slow" transfer will have a lot of relative speed to the planet if it comes in at a 90-degree angle. On the other hand, a properly-angled high-velocity transfer can actually arrive with very little speed relative to the target. The ideal angle is around 45 degrees- and varies based on your velocity- too much less than that, and you will arrive with very little velocity relative to the target- which will mean you will need to accelerate just to avoid a direct collision. Too large of an angle, and you will shoot through the system at very high velocity- which will make it hard to slow down or plot an aerocapture maneuver (if your trajectory isn't already pointed towards one). Of course, the higher the velocity of your transfer orbit, the shallower your angle should be, and vise-versa.

The Hohmann transfers most players love so much are actually quite terrible in this regard. They tend to arrive at the target with very slow speeds relative to the Sun at that solar altitude (if moving outwards from Kerbol- very fast if moving inwards) AND very shallow angles relative to the target. The combination of these two factors means a VERY high velocity relative to the planet when you enter its Sphere of Influence (the planet is moving in the same direction, but much faster/slower than you)- exponentially more so the further away the planet is from Kebin...

All that being said, I do prefer to come in at a relatively fast velocity to the target- but pointed straight towards the planet so it's easy to do an aerocapture. That does put a lot of G's on my ship- bu I've never had a ship fall apart on me doing it yet... Usually, if the ship can survive ascent from Kerbin, it can survive an aerocapture on Duna- I've so far found... Of course, one of my Eagles *DID* snap in half during ascent- so I might use some of my rather huge Delta-V budget and thrust on the Eagle's transfer stage to slow down first... As for the colonization ships- I'll probably use a combined aerobrake with Duna and gravity-brake with Ike (which also happens to be my initial landing target for the Science Module), if I can line it up right... (I've done it a couple times before, but it's definitely one of the hardest maneuvers to perform correctly)...

Edited by Northstar1989
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Ok, I meant to have this post up sooner, but a *cough* friend came to visit me at my apartment, and so I was busy with her for a while...

Briefly: I decided to show her KSP a bit before we got to *other things*, and performed a really quick suborbital flight to the polar ice caps as a demonstration for her (I was also lucky enough to land in the hard-to-fin "Tundra" biome- and rack up a few Science Points- though it looked just like any other part of the ice caps to me.) Since that was really quick, I'll start off with a screenshot of that:

oAymjai.png

Anyways, since my last post I got the Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform on its way. Since it was unmanned, I'm not doing any storytelling for that- but here are the screenshots:

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As you can see, I performed a Mun-Minmus double gravity-assist to escape the Kerbin system. It worked out perfectly. Which was good- because even after that, I only had a little over 600 Delta-V left in the thing after I plotted my escape trajectory (the DHEP had the least Delta-V of all my ships, due to its very heavy payload of RocketParts- 60 tons in all).

This left me a little cocky of course, which as you'll see shortly, got me into a little trouble with the Crew Module:

"Shep, are you SURE that this is a good heading to try a Mun slingshot?" asked Obwise. "I know that the DHEP managed to get an impossibly perfect double-slingshot to Duna before- but that doesn't mean we still don't need to plan our maneuvers carefully."

"Nonsense" said Sheprim Kerman- "If Minmus isn't in the right position when we make it out close to that altitude, we'll just hang out at a higher altitude until it makes its turn around Kerbin. It's not like we don't have plenty of supplies for a little bit of a delay in our trip."

"But I thought the whole point of the slingshot was to save time" interjected Jennard- "If we waste time waiting in a high orbit just to get a double slingshot then what's the point of trying for one at all? And with this trajectory, it looks like our elliptical orbit will be pointing in entirely the wrong direction- AWAY from Duna."

This gave Sheprim pause for a moment, but Obwise jumped in "To save fuel of course. You can never be too careful with that- I just think that we should wait here in low orbit a little longer until the Mun is in a better position. Besides- it's safer here, with Kerbin's magnetic field protecting us from all that solar radiation. We won't have that up past Minmus."

"Let's just go!" exclaimed Jebediah. "Mission Control gave us the authority to maneuver however we see fit- a nice bit of independence for one. Now why don't we just haul our tail out of here and stop arguing? Sheprim- begin the insertion."

And with that, Sheprim dialed up the throttle, and the ship's weak (yet efficient) engines began to rumble for the long, slow burn. Exasperated, Jerbo retired to a corner.

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Several hours had passed, and now Obwise had a smug look on his face.

"Just don't say- I told you so" Sheprim sighed.

"What would you prefer I say?" asked Obwise. "Now we're high above Minmus, and we've lost the possibility of a gravity assist with Minmus. Mission Control said something about our intercept trajectory being no good because Kerbin's gravity would be too weak to curve us back in towards the second moon, and directed us just to go straight for Duna. We're going to waste a lot of fuel, and we're not going to get to Duna nearly as quickly either."

Sheprim just sighed again, ad creased his brow. In fact everyone, with the exception of Obwise, looked rather disappointed. Mission Control had given them a bit of independence, and they had blown in. They probably couldn't count on being given such freedom again in the future seeing the result...

(OOC: I totally blew my planned double-slingshot utilizing both the Mun and Minmus with the Duna Crew Module. I was overconfident after the DHEP, and just took the first gravity slingshot with the Mun that presented itself. The result was that Minmus was nearly on the opposite side of Kerbin by the time I got out near its altitude.

I tried to fix it with an intercept trajectory that took me nearly an hour of trial-and-error [when not busy with real-life distractions] to plot without wasting too much Delta-V to make it not worthwhile: but then discovered that while KSP had no problem showing me an intercept orbit with an Apoapsis at 87,000 km; Kerbin's Sphere of Influence would cut out abruptly at around 84,000 km- leading to my loading the quicksave and just circularizing the orbit at 84,000 km for a straight transfer burn to Duna without utilizing Minmus. Not very efficient- I certainly won't be benefiting from the Oberth Effect on this one- but at least my heading will stay right on top of the maneuver node for the entire burn at that altitude... Oh well- I've got plenty of Delta-V to spare in the Crew Module...)

Edited by Northstar1989
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Well, this is embarrassing. Somehow I managed to duplicate the post before this. Since I don't know how to delete it, I guess I'll just make use of it with a little more storytelling...

Meanwhile, Mission Control was in a raucous. "They did WHAT?!" the mission control head, Northstar Kerman, asked. "You mean to tell me that they headed all the way out to EIGHTY-TWO THOUSAND KILOMETERS before they made their transfer burn?!"

"That's what they did sir" replied one of his subordinates.

"That's UNBELIEVABLE. Do you have ANY idea how much fuel they wasted?"

"We're more than aware sir" came the reply.

Northstar Kerman was angrier than he had been in as long as anyone at Mission Control could remember. Fortunately for the Kerbals of the Duna Crew Module, he was also well-known for being quick to calm down...

"Alright," said Northstar, rubbing his temples "How much fuel do they have left- and what's their trajectory? Patch me through to the Duna Crew Module on the double."

Northstar had worked long and hard to oversee the design and construction of the Duna Colonization Flotilla. It was supposed to be Kerbalkind's finest hour- not only their first putting boots on the ground of, but also their first settlement of another planet or moon outside the Kerbin system. The last thing he wanted to see was this effort go up in smoke, after all the effort he and so many others had invested in it. He also wasn't sure the Kerbal Space Program could ever afford another set of missions like this if this effort ended badly. Everything was riding on the mission's success.

Fortunately, after a long talk with the Kerbals on the Duna Crew Module, it was clear both to them and to Mission Control that the mission still had a robust chance at success- and that no more of the kind of the foolish impatience that had led to this mess would be tolerated...

Edited by Northstar1989
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You're missing out on a lot of potential efficiency then. Even the largest ships still only need one cockpit- which saves on mass- and with the nuclear reactors of the NearFuture or KSP Interstellar mod you get economies of scale- with larger reactors producing more power relative to their mass. That's *IF* you still need as much power relative to the total vessel mass, of course (you often don't.) Bigger ships often need a few more struts- but that mass is usually negligible compared to, say, the mass of an entire cockpit or nuclear reactor.

I think smaller ships are much more efficient than big ones, but I guess that depends on how you measure efficiency. Certainly I have to do more launches but none of the lifters are very big because none of the payloads are very big. So all in all, going small probably saves on fuel. Besides, it's more flexible, has better mission survivability, usually multiple means of self-rescue, and sews all sorts of useful seeds for future use.

Also, I don't man any ships unless absolutely necessary. Why add the mass and complication needed to send a Kerbal if you can do the job with a probe core? In the absence of science, Kerbals can only do a very limited amount of very menial labor, so unless you need that labor, there's no need to send Kerbals. Far better to use the smallest probe core :).

I don't know, how realistic CAN it be? Most of our knowledge of biology is derived from observation of life here on Earth (the only planet or moon to support life that we yet know of), and personally, as a Biologist myself in real life, I am of the school of thought that most life elsewhere would also have similar metabolisms. This is a result of the chemical properties of different elements- only a few have the necessary qualities to enable their use in construction of molecules that could support life. That is, after all, why science fiction usually has Silicon or Nitrogen-based life if it's not based on Carbon- because those are the only two other elements that could even come close to the versatility of Carbon in constructing organic molecules (trust me, take a year of college-level Organic Chemistry and a year-and-a-half of college Biochemistry classes and labs, and then you'll understand...) So, it's far more likely than not that any other life out there is also based on Carbon- and Kerbals are, after all, human-analogues...

Oh, I understand enough about chemistry that I think it's quite likely that carbon-based life is probably everywhere, just because its a form those atoms seem to fall into naturally. Complex organic molecules are all over space, naturally occurring, after all, and were probably the basis of life here, even perhaps multiple times. But even if you restrict yourself to carbon-based life, look at all the variety that can have just here on Earth, with all the extremophiles we keep discovering. Some of these extremophiles have metabolisms so different from the stuff we see everyday that we could just as well call them ETs except that they live here. So even if Kerbals are carbon-based, they could still die if exposed to oxygen :).

As for the spacesuits, a number of the EVA reports from Kerbin's surface ask "Do you think a Space Suit was really necessary to get here?", and the Kerbal ground crews in both the VAB and SPH wear no space suits- which would imply Kerbals do just fine on Kerbin's surface without them...

They don't wear spacesuits inside ships, either, probably for the same reason they don't wear them inside buildings :).

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Obwise sat fiddling with the navigation computer on the Duna Crew Module. He had been at this for over an hour.

"That's it! I think I got us a route to Duna that will get us there in under a month!"

After the previous incident with the failed gravity assist from Minmus, and getting sick of OBwise' incessant "I told you so" altitude, the crew of the DCM had decided to hand the navigating over to Obwise this time.

It turns out it was a smart move. After Sheprim was unable to plot any intercepts that would take fewer than close to three months, and Jebediah was unable to figure out a course that took less than 90% of their remaining fuel (we, need, MOAR SPEED!)- even if it did get them to Duna in less than two weeks- the crew had handed the controls over to Obwise (Jennard wisely decided to let the blame fall on somebody else if all this didn't work out). Now, the crew was going to reap the benefits of trusting a scientist to make their nav calculations.

Obwise' planned maneuvers were a little convoluted to be sure- to break up the burns into more reasonable lengths, and ensure they remained on-target, the crew and vessel were going to need to make as many as four separate maneuvers. But the results were worth it. In just under 24 days, and using a little over 40% of their remaining LFO fuel mix, Obwise' course would safely deliver the crew, their ship, and its heavy cargo of kerosene (LiquidFuel)- to be mixed with Oxygen separated from Ike's regolith by the Science Module- to Duna, and on a trajectory that would only require very slight adjustments for an aerocapture maneuver AND a gravity-brake from Ike.

Mission Control had of course needed some convincing to trust the DCM's crew to plan its own maneuvers again, but when they saw the course that Obwise had plotted, they were more than happy to leave the DCM with its autonomy...

CNOAtI5.png

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(OOC: I'm sorry you guys can only see two of the maneuver nodes in the images- but it ended up being about four in all. When I realized how long the first node was taking [over 12 minutes], I decided to cut it into about thirds, and make three separate maneuvers to ensure the DCM remained on-target... It cost about 2500 Delta-V in all due to the *very* slow extremely-high-orbit starting speeds I was making the burns from- transfer burns from low orbits benefit greatly from the Oberth effect, and cost far less Delta-V.)

Hours later, the burns complete, the crew of the DCM sat safely back- confident that they were on their way to Duna...

"We'll remember to leave the navigating up to you next time Obwise" commented Jennard.

"Don't put too much pressure on me. Maybe I just got lucky this time." was all Obwise had to say in reply...

OOC: I hope you guys liked my bit of storytelling again. If it's not really doing anything for you one way or another, I can revert back to my matter-of-fact discussions of what happened- it would save me a lot of time too. But, if you're enjoying this so far, let me know. Hopefully I'll have more exciting stuff to report on, like the landing of the first colonists on Duna (in the Eagle Mk2 from before) soon.

Regards,

Northstar

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Sorry to post this out-of-order, but it looks like you made your post while I was busy writing in my next story-update. I usually write them in the editor since Microsoft Office Starter isn't working on my computer at the moment...

I think smaller ships are much more efficient than big ones, but I guess that depends on how you measure efficiency. Certainly I have to do more launches but none of the lifters are very big because none of the payloads are very big. So all in all, going small probably saves on fuel. Besides, it's more flexible, has better mission survivability, usually multiple means of self-rescue, and sews all sorts of useful seeds for future use.

I was talking about the percentage of vessel mass that is useful payload, rather than cockpit or electrical generation equipment. But heavier lifters are actually more efficient too- you can more carefully optimize their thrust and staging to fall closer to terminal velocity (which is the ideal ascent speed) at all times. Lighter lifers have the nasty tendency to start accelerating at 3, 4, or even 5 G's before they're even out of the atmosphere- even when they were only pulling 2 G's on the launchpad. The more careful optimization with heavy lifters is possible mainly because a wider lifter can also safely be a taller lifter- which leaves you more space for vertical staging...

Also, I don't man any ships unless absolutely necessary. Why add the mass and complication needed to send a Kerbal if you can do the job with a probe core? In the absence of science, Kerbals can only do a very limited amount of very menial labor, so unless you need that labor, there's no need to send Kerbals. Far better to use the smallest probe core :).

Well there's the realism and the accomplishment of saying you did it, for one. Otherwise, why not just send a tiny probe core to every corner of the solar system and then call it quits. I like to think the Kerbals are a little more ambitious than real-life space agencies, and are actually willing to go that extra mile to colonize other planets with current-day technology. Aside from that, Kerbals are also very useful for making KAS soft-docks, rather than needing to go for a remote-controlled hard-dock. And manned cockpits also require far less electricity.

Besides, wasn't your Kethane Traveling Circus a manned mission? You sent two Kerbals won to Duna's circus in a biplane that could have been much more easily just controlled with a probe-core alone, and then went even further and made a challenge out of it...

Oh, I understand enough about chemistry that I think it's quite likely that carbon-based life is probably everywhere, just because its a form those atoms seem to fall into naturally. Complex organic molecules are all over space, naturally occurring, after all, and were probably the basis of life here, even perhaps multiple times. But even if you restrict yourself to carbon-based life, look at all the variety that can have just here on Earth, with all the extremophiles we keep discovering. Some of these extremophiles have metabolisms so different from the stuff we see everyday that we could just as well call them ETs except that they live here. So even if Kerbals are carbon-based, they could still die if exposed to oxygen :).

Perhaps- but isn't the sky an Earth-like blue on Kerbin? That would imply it's an Oxygen-Nitrogen mix atmosphere (the particular elements making up an atmosphere determine its coloration. Very few other element-mixes can reproduce that particular shade of blue.)

They don't wear spacesuits inside ships, either, probably for the same reason they don't wear them inside buildings :).

The VAB and SPH are both quite clearly open to the outside air. Just look out the huge hanger doors. Plus, if you watch carefully, the Kerbals seem to get a little loopy when flying at high-altitudes in standard airplane cockpits (the Mk1 and Mk2 stock cockpits- their eyes bulge and their heads wobble)- which would imply they are getting loopy from the greatly-thinned density of something in the atmosphere- probably Oxygen. Trust me, I've seen enough of it- I've done a lot of high-altitude flying with the not-fully-pressurized cockpits with my Kerbals...

Besides, Kerbal civilization would have had to evolve from cave-Kerbals, like humans. How could they have had space suits before they invented fire?

Regards,

Northstar

Edited by Northstar1989
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Barwise carefully inspected the navigation console.

"Are you SURE we're in the right position?" he asked.

"I'm positive" replied Enrick.

"Ok, let's do this then" came Barwise' reply.

The crew of the Duna Science Module had decided to try something different. Something that Kerbals had never tried before. They were going to pioneer an advanced for of gravity assist based on gravitational shadowing (OOC: I'm not really sure if this is the correct term for this IRL, but it *IS* an advanced technique used by some space agencies...)

Rather than simply plotting a curve around the Mun such that they would borrow a small portion of its energy while curving around it, the Duna Science Module would first curve around the Mun, but then fire its thrusters with a component of their direction TOWARDS the Mun on the way out- while still firing in the direction of their eventual target (Duna). If done correctly, this would keep them in the Mun's gravitational influence for an extended period of time, enabling them to borrow a much greater amount of energy from it for their eventual final trajectory. Further, to minimize gravity losses on the way out, for the final part of the maneuvering, the Duna Science Module would thrust AWAY from the Mun on its way out from the body- reducing return of some of that borrowed energy to the Mun on the way back out.

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After a long and careful set of maneuvers, the plan had worked perfectly.

"Give me a high-five!" Enrick exclaimed- holding up his stubby hand for Barwise to meet.

After a moment's delay, Barwise met Enrick's gesture.

"That was awesome!" was Barwise' reply. "We've pioneered an entirely new technique for gravity assists! I only hope Mission Control learns a thing or two from this!"

Back at Mission Control, Northstar Kerman was ecstatic.

"You mean to tell me they managed to plot a precise high-speed trajectory nearly exactly towards Duna *AND* borrow a significant amount of their energy for it from the Mun?"

"That's right sir."

"If they make it back to Kerbin, we'll have to give them sort of medal. After the Crew Module's foolishness, they might have just saved the mission!"

"We'll take note of it" was the only reply.

OOC: I hope you guys liked this little segment. True to my description, I made use of a rather advanced form of gravity-assist for this transfer burn. It took very careful timing, and a bit of luck, but the rewards in Delta-V savings were significant. Which is good, because I had the Duna Science Module go for such a high-speed trajectory to Duna that it will arrive more than a day BEFORE any of the other modules- despite being the last to depart Kerbin.

The DSM expended all but about 3600 of its initial Delta-V budget of over 12,000 doing this (although I did accidentally dump quite a bit of fuel and oxidizer into space, not properly balancing the fuel tanks with TAC Fuel Balancer and letting the engines flame-out a couple times), but its transfer time after leaving Kerbin's SOI will only be about 18 days (for a total Mission Elapsed Time of about 29 days- the DSM spent quite bit of time in Low Kerbin Orbit)- which is awesome from a roleplaying perspective. My Kerbals won't have to spend too long in dangerous interplanetary space, getting bombarded by tons of solar radiation (and, if it were implemented yet in this version of KSP- risking getting hit by dangerous solar flares... Oooh, that's going to be FUN to see in a later version...)

Also, here's a nice picture of the orbital map showing my entire flotilla of four gigantic ships (and my tiny damaged SensorSat from before- on far right) en-route to Duna. From left to right they are:

Duna Science Module

Duna Crew Module

Duna Heavy Equipment Deployment Platform

Eagle Transfer Stage (to Duna)

SensorSat II (the damaged probe from before)

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Finally, I still haven't forgotten about the Munar Science Module, or my planned Mun base. I'll probably be working on that a bit while I wait for the Duna flotilla to arrive at its destination- mainly as a pit-stop and launch point for future missions to Duna... (I'm planning on sending relief crews for at least some of the Kerbals eventually...)

j2mm5Jw.png

Edited by Northstar1989
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OK, not a crazy amount going on in this update.

I decided that now, while I wait for my Duna flotilla to arrive, would be a great time to clean up the orbits around Kerbin a little more. So, I put my Heavy Scrapper Ship to good use salvaging debris and abandoned ships. You can see it unloading its collected scrap in the last image:

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I also took this opportunity to move my Early Spacedock to a higher orbit above Kerbin. I did this for three reasons:

(1) I will experience a lot less lag trying to dock other ships with it there.

(2) I am about to commission a newer, higher-capacity, lower part-count spacedock at that altitude for permanent use. The existing spacedock is needed to construct the new spacedock.

(3) I am eventually headed to the Mun with the Early Spacedock- where I will place it into a relatively low orbit, build another spacedock, and then decommission (drain of all resources, transfer out all Kerbals, and then recycle the dead hulk) the Early Spacedock.

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The eventual plan is to use the Mun Spacedock I will be constructing as a combined depot for LiquidFuel hauled from Kerbin (or eventually, refined from Munar Kethane deposits), Oxidizer electrolyzed from the Mun's regolith, and Rocketparts from Kerbin and perhaps even Munar ore-mining/refining operations I might set up on the Mun's surface... Being in a low Munar orbit, it will also be conveniently within range of 100% reusable vessels propelled solely by Aluminum-Hybrid engines refueled on the Munar surface- which will eliminate the need to utilize more valuable LFO mix for transporting LFO and RocketParts produced on the Mun.

The Mun will form my main departure points for other points in the solar system; and while I wouldn't exactly call it a hospitable enough environment to consider my operations there a full-fledged "colony"- I will eventually establish a fully self-sufficient outpost capable of constructing rockets in orbit (and on the surface) destined for more distant locations like Duna and Jool...

Everything is almost in position to begin Munar base-building at this point. I'll have RocketParts hauled on-board the Early Spacedock- which also serves as a large mobile construction platform; a couple extra Kerbal crew members onboard the Early Spacedock to staff new rockets with; and a decent amount of LFO mix I'll soon be hauling from the Munar surface (onboard the Munar Science Module- which will then be recycled, the eventual base to be constructed out of lower part-count structures without integrated engines or even command modules, except for a central command module for the entire base- which will all be interlinked by KAS connections.) the Munar Science Module is almost full of Oxidizer at this point, by the way, and ready to lift-off the Munar surface again when the Early Spacedock reaches orbit overhead. Here's an image where you can see the resource screen of the Munar Science Module:

NFmtRiA.png

Regards,

Northstar

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While I try and figure out how to get this on the surface of the Mun with only engines that I can detach without leaving pieces behind:

RanfuRp.png

I overclocked my unmanned LiquidFuel Tanker design a bit (read: added MOAR BOOSTERS! Also, more engines to the upper stage for shorter/ more efficient burns, and a sustainment stage between the ascent and orbital stages since the boosters gave it a better TWR on the launchpad), and sent a copy on a SLOW (108-day) trajectory to Duna with the help of a Munar gravity-assist...

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I would have liked to send it on a faster route, of course, but as is it should only have about 400-500 Delta-V left after stabilizing its orbit to rendezvous with whatever other ship I have waiting for it by that time. I'm sure by just over 3 months (game-time) after the arrival of the first ship (the Science Module) my Duna colonists will be hungry for a little more LiquidFuel- seeing as the only fuel they will have had in that time is what they brought with them and what they can mine and refine from Kethane... If they're not so fuel-hungry, then maybe I'll just use it to start preparing a mission from Duna to Jool or Sentar...

Finally, last but not least, I set up a new depot/space station at about 350,000 meters like I was writing about before. I forgot to give it a Spacedock Identifier, so it's not actually a spacedock- but it is a GIGANTIC fuel depot (thanks to a HUGE Stretchy Tanks 9000-type tank) with plenty of RocketParts storage capacity (what looks like a Rockomax Jumbo-64 is actually a large Orbital Construction warehouse- the mod borrows stock textures, as it doesn't yet have its own), a reasonable nuclear power-supply, and two Science Labs (which require 5 MW of power each to run at full capacity- so only run at about 80%) for research and nuclear fuel-reprocessing as well... The current researchers/fuel attendants are Lury (who if you remember, was part of my earlier storytelling- and had been reassigned to my Heavy Scrapper Ship from my Duna crew) and Malman Kerman (who had been sitting idle in one of the extra seats on the Early Spacedock):

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I might add a bit of storytelling on that crew reassignment later, but at the moment I'm too tired/busy.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited by Northstar1989
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