My (mostly) un-crewed campaign.

[Vanamonde]

Just for something new to do, in .23 I decided to see how far I could get with uncrewed ships.

Of course, you don't have the option for your first few flights, so I made some sub-orbital and orbital flights,

then moved on to Mun.

I then flew a fairly elaborate Minmus mission

which landed at 4 places before returning to Kerbin.

But then I turned my attention to probes, including sub-orbital probes to Kerbin biomes,

Mun fly-bys,

and round-trip (non-transmitting) Mun biome probes.

Then it was on to solar flybys.

And at last, alien worlds,

where I took a bad bounce at Duna,

though enough solar panels remained intact to transmit the data, even if quite slowly.

On to Eve.

And then back to Mun, to do additional science with newly invented instruments.

Next step, the vacuum worlds, with a more sophisticated design which takes readings at several biome/altitudes, transmits the data, and then ejects the inert instruments before proceding to a landing.

That one went to Dres,

then Moho,

Ike,

Eeloo,

Gilly,

and Pol.

For variety, I then sent a similar probe to Jool,

though that one was only partially successful because I had forgotten how thick Jool's atmosphere is. I waited until my descent speed on chutes was 2.2m/s, but the solar panels still shattered when I opened them. And without power to transmit, over half of this mission's data sank with the probe.

So back to more forgiving worlds, such as Laythe.

Where it was Duna all over again, because I'd forgotten to replace those frikkin' weak landing legs.

However, that mission did earn me the last science points I needed to purchase the last invention. I have now entirely swept the tech tree in .23, despite the fact that my Kerbals themselves have only so far been to orbit a few times, and once to Minmus. Never fear, though, as they are about to set out on a new era of space adventures now that the campaign has reached sandbox-equivalent status.

Thanks for reading, and I hope it wasn't too boring.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Vanamonde

[Brotoro]

It would be nice if they had a probe core available at the start (and little solar panels to power it) so that one could do an all-probe game.

And some equipment for scooping up surface samples and drilling core samples and sucking in atmosphere samples for unmanned sample-return missions.

It looks like your Pol ship discovered a nuclear engine on the surface of Pol

Edited February 17, 2014 by Brotoro

[AmpsterMan]

Truly awesome probes Van. Thanks for writing this up and proving one CAN have a space program with probes.

[katateochi]

Very nice efficient probes and realistic approach! And very nice presentation of an entire career!

How many points had you accumulated before switching to just probes?

I think there should be two stock tech trees so you can choose which type of career you want to start; probe or manned. they both end up in the same place, but the probe one would start with probe cores and unlock the smaller engines and tanks earlier on.

Also what Brotoro said about having more probe gear for gathering samples would be very nice.

[-RanZ-]

nice write up!

[Vanamonde]

How many points had you accumulated before switching to just probes?

I don't recall. I didn't set out to do all-probes, so I don't remember when I switched over. I could have done more with probes if I'd set out with that intention. For example, that Minmus mission could have been replaced with more of the probes I was sending to Mun.

nice write up!

Thanks.