Mod Virgin - Career playing with "Better Than Starting Manned"

[Dave Kerbin]

Victor 1

Cleaning up stray science I'm grabbing mapping sensor images of the Mun and Minmus. I planned this with the intent that it would probably take two missions (not enough battery power to loiter around Kerbin orbit for days at a time to line up transfers) but designed it with the ability for it to be done in one mission if the opportunity presented itself. So there is enough battery power to reach Minmus (Just over 2 days) plus enough power to transmit twice (6000em per reading!!!). The probe it mounted on the old reliable Quebec launcher. I'm still not 100% behind the second stage of the bigger Uniform launcher, while those Keel Haul engines are ok they are clearly a work in progress like the T15 was. While I might create a different heavy launcher soon (I did the numbers for a manned Minmus with my current tech, came up with 75 tons and that doesn't include a booster to perform the injection to Minmus) the Quebec launcher still works well for probes.

The first stop is the Mun. I keep trying to make adjustments to my course, both to try and keep the probe from being gravity assisted right out of Kerbin's SOI and to see if I could pull it over to Minmus. During the approach I pulled the post-Mun inclination as compared to Minmus down to 4.5 degrees. Approaching the Mun I consider a course that would have flipped which side of the Mun the probe passed on, reversing the gravity assist but that didn't seem like it would provide the benefit I wanted. In low orbit a mapping scan was performed and 5 minutes where spent transmitting. During that time a new maneuver was devised.

I was able to get intercepts with Minmus but with estimated arrival times that where too far in the future. All of those courses involved the probe going past the orbit of Minmus, slowing down and then coming back as Minmus was finally arriving. I eventually figured out the radicial course correction I needed to reach Minmus within the life of the batteries, a 1071 m/s burn as I came out of low Mun orbit that would make a direct intercept of Minmus that avoided the long 'turn around' at the AP of an orbit. You can see just how big a change this was. This course change would let me reach Minmus in 1 day 19 hours. The battery figures put it very close but since I still had the upper booster with its 3 T30 engines I would be able to generate some power for part of the burn, hopefully enough to make up any difference.

After the burn the final numbers could be checked. The actual time of arrival was just 10 minutes short of 2 days (48 hours). With 13725em of charge left (the booster was now discarded so no further recharging could occur), minus the 6000 needed for transmissions, I could now calculate that I had 51.5 hours of power, enough to reach Minmus and transmit.

Upon arrival the probe completed its last task and then before power ran out in 3 hours I made a small correction burn so that the probe would exit Kerbin's SOI instead of sticking around the local area as space junk. I've gained 240 science which will help toward my goal of unlocking the more advanced solar panels (540 science of 1800 so far).

[Sciuris]

I've gained 240 science which will help toward my goal of unlocking the more advanced solar panels (540 science of 1800 so far).

Ah, it'll be interesting to see how this choice will affect your progression. I've always cleared out one tech level before going on to another, so I'm curious whether this will make things easier or harder.

[Dave Kerbin]

Victor 2

Not much to say on this one. I just took Victor 1 and exchanged one battery for a 2.5m heatshield. Then I removed the map scanner and configured the top of the probe into the same return capsule I've used before with a decoupler. I then launched into orbit and immediately did a burn until it showed me exiting Kerbin's SOI. Then it was time warping ahead 2 days to reach deep space where I exposed my goo container and then a burn to push back into Kerbin's SOI (staging to the probe's engine when the booster ran out of fuel). From there I burned back into orbit of Kerbin and lowered my PE to 35 km. I time warped a bit until my charge was getting low and burned in order to widen my orbit - keeping the same PE but pushing it out (which also lowered the AP). This was to cut down on my speed when I reach the atmosphere. From there I seperated and simply had to sit through the inert return capsule cruising through the atmosphere once (on the dark side), coming out and around in a 300km orbit, then going back a second time and landing in the ocean for recovery. I did get a small bonus for returning an object from Sun orbit but most of the mission was just sitting around waiting.

I'll make sure Whiskey is more interesting.

[Dave Kerbin]

Ah, it'll be interesting to see how this choice will affect your progression. I've always cleared out one tech level before going on to another, so I'm curious whether this will make things easier or harder.

At this point while Minmus is technically within reach it would require a massive booster. I've already unlocked the 3 techs that I've come to think are essential in the 360pt tier. All of the others have something useful in them:

Very Heavy Rocketry has the Mainsail

Refined Rocketry has the Skipper and the 48-7S (though that engine isn't as useful for the moment because you just don't build stuff that light in BTSM)

Advanced Metalworks has Radial Decouplers and that super light skeletal mounting/support thing

Advanced Aerodynamics has the super heatshield

High Altitude Flight has the sensor nosecone - I'm not sure of the scientific return it offers (I'm guessing it will be biome specific)

Unmanned Tech has a marginally better probe core

Miniaturization has a marginally better communications dish

...but nothing that I see as absolutely essential to gaining for science. By comparison I see the advanced solar panels as essential to long range missions along with the Advanced Field Science (one at the bottom with a wheel icon) since it adds seperate life support supply pods. Once I have those two techs I can consider an interplanetary mission. Nuclear engines would be nice to have but I have no idea how far down they are. They could be on the 1800pt tier just past those Rocketry techs I mentioned but the tech tree might have another tier beyond that. I've have a better idea once I unlock the panels. I will likely unlock Miniaturization at some point too (maybe I should go ahead and do it) since that icon just above Specialized Electronics looks like it is related to power too. However I have doubts that it could be RTGs given that there are low efficiency solar panels at the same tier (which also makes me think there must be another tier beyond what I see).

[FlowerChild]

I'm a little surprised you consider the solar panels such a priority man. Can you describe your thought process a little more there?

Yes, they are lighter, and yes they have sun tracking, but they don't produce any more power than the ones you currently have, and I have a hard time understanding why you'd consider them to me more valuable than the 5 nodes at your current tech level you could buy for the cost of that 1 alone.

For manned interplanetary missions I could see them being a priority to help reduce weight, but not for probes, and you're really not at the point yet where manned interplanetary missions will be feasible anytime soon.

Edited March 12, 2014 by FlowerChild

[Dave Kerbin]

I'm a little surprised you consider the solar panels such a priority man. Can you describe your thought process a little more there?

Yes, they are lighter, and yes they have sun tracking, but they don't produce any more power than the ones you currently have, and I have a hard time understanding why you'd consider them to me more valuable than the 5 nodes at your current tech level you could buy for the cost of that 1 alone.

For manned interplanetary missions I could see them being a priority to help reduce weight, but not for probes, and you're really not at the point yet where manned interplanetary missions will be feasible anytime soon.

There are a couple of reasons but first I'll quickly cover the mission I was sketching out the details for last night. Whiskey is intended as my first interplanetary mission. It's goal would be to fly to Eve and perform a low orbit pass of the planet (no orbit) to gain insight as to how much more science I might be able to gain from orbital measurements of other planets (is the multiplier higher, or do all bodies give the same amount for orbital experiments; the Sun readings lead me to believe bodies may be higher but they may not be as high as stock). From there I'll have an opportunity to try a tertiary goal of flying by Gilly. That wouldn't be easy on a single pass of Eve so it will only happen if everything is lined up.

The second goal would be to try a gravity assist / burn to push my orbit out just a little farther the Duna's. I'm not looking to reach Duna but to test the output of solar cells as I move out farther then Kerbin. That's why Eve was the first target, it is guarenteed to have the power I need. I was also testing on the launchpad effective solar panel layouts. For this to work I'll need to park my probe in solar alignment and I wanted to ensure that with about 80% alignment I'd get enough power. I tested it but in the raw form and then with the instrument attached to confirm the shadow wouldn't affect power. The probe's weight has already been determined based on the Quebec launcher. It will carry 2 Elite batteries for data transmission / dark side passes and have a few redundent instruments to let the probe store data for future transmission. It will take many hours for the probe's batteries to recharge after use.

I have a couple of reasons for jumping to solar tech (though the outcome of Whisky 1 could change them). The weight of the existing solar cells is not too big of a problem, as you said the newer ones only reduce weight by half. What I am working around is the panel's size and placement restrictions. Because of their large size there are limited ways to attach them to a spacecraft without looking silly/exploitive (panels floating at odd angles and somehow not being destroyed during launch) and ultimately getting a panel arrangement that maintains weight balance means either placing them on the top of the ship like I have, or doubling up along the sides (which still looks a little silly if you rotate them to maximize how many can fit on a tank).

It also took a while to find a top side arrangement that didn't seem to clip. If you start with a fuel tank then parts of the tank seem to clip through the solar panel, I wasn't sure if that compromised their effectiveness. The same is true of any flower pedal arrangement (6 or 8 panels) where they clip each other. Using a battery as my platform I was able to place the panels without visible clipping and since I calculated a minimum of 4 for safety I started rotating and figured out the square arrangement mostly fit with only a little overhang.

The sun tracking panels are not only smaller, letting me place more without looking silly, because they are sun tracking I can place them on both sides of a ship (weight balance) and they will all face the same source, automatically too! That would be essential for a Minmus mission which is my next major goal. Those sun tracking panels would also make any probe lander easier - with the static panels any lander would need to carry enough battery power for all operations after it landed since there would be little guarantee I could get the panels lined up. The big static panels would also not be likely to survive any entry on Eve or Duna, the two closest planets (Moho is annoying to get to and Dres may be too far for solar panels).

Edit: That was my reason for going for the solar panels, I guess I should also balance that by saying that while all the other techs contain at least one 'useful' item as I listed before, none of them contain an item that I consider 'essential' to exploring at my current level (that heatshield might be useful though). I basically see power generation as my main constraint to exploring for the moment, everything else I think I have the design and planning skill to work around until I reach the next stage.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[Sciuris]

Because of their large size there are limited ways to attach them to a spacecraft without looking silly/exploitive (panels floating at odd angles and somehow not being destroyed during launch) and ultimately getting a panel arrangement that maintains weight balance means either placing them on the top of the ship like I have, or doubling up along the sides (which still looks a little silly if you rotate them to maximize how many can fit on a tank).

The third option is to use the Rockomax HubMax to build an array, which is what I did on any mission requiring more than four panels on top as in your design. Assembling the array in orbit (necessary if you don't want to exploit the vanilla aerodynamics model) is kind of a pain, but the two missions for which I did it were the most fun I've had so far.

[Dave Kerbin]

Whiskey 1

As I mentioned this mission will be the first interplanetary one. My main goal is a flyby of Eve to collect science - not just to spend but to have an idea of how much I might expect to find out there. As secondary goals I'd like to know if my solar panels would produce enough charge out at Duna's orbit and it would be nice (but unlikely) to get a flyby of Gilly. I'm launching on day 25ish so I'm not really waiting for an ideal launch window in 100+ days. It's not the worst time to launch for Eve and I'll have enough delta-v to get there, exact calculations aren't really important as I'm winging a lot of it. We launch into orbit and setup the less then ideal transfer to Eve.

My burn time is less then ideal using 2 very different stages (the 3rd stage booster and orbital engine) so while my start and stop times are roughly equal the actual delta-v applied is not resulting in a large correction required once I exit Kerbin's SOI. It will take a few weeks to reach Eve and in the mean time the solar array needs to be kept pointed at the Sun. That means a correction is done every 5 days (closer to the Sun the time between corrections can go longer as more power is being recieved). Arriving at Eve it's obvious that Gilly is out of reach and after burning a lot of fuel I don't see enough delta-v to kick myself out to Duna's orbit (Eve isn't providing much of an assist). Readings are taken and after passing out of Eve's shadow transmission begins. The multiplier in Eve orbit is 3, the same as the sun and Mun/Minmus surface. This means I'll get 531 science for passing through low Eve orbit.

Finishing up I do find one more possible use for the probe. I've got a raw estimate that the probe has 600 m/s left but that's being conservative. For 895 m/s I can push myself into a Moho encounter. With nothing else worth doing I decide to make the attempt and it seems like I'm going to make it until I run out of fuel less then 3 seconds before the engine shut off. 22.6 m/s remaining. I still have 33 units of monopropellent left so I start using that, completing the burn with 9 units left for the critical attitude adjustments needed to maintain solar power during the journey. The Moho encounter will be for less then 30 minutes (high orbit only) but I'll gain science and an idea of what Moho is worth. Traveling so close to the Sun even a small amount of solar energy translates into enough power to operate the ship.

The Moho encounter is so short that I almost time warped through it, catching it with 3 minutes before I would have left forever. Unfortunately the multiplier in Moho orbit is 3 too so there won't be a science windfall (and I'll only get the high orbit temperature reading). From the data I've collected so far I believe that Duna and Dres will probably be 3x in orbit too and that all 4 planets will likely share the same surface multiplier though I don't know what that will be. Following the Mun and Minmus it could be 6 but with only 1 data point it's hard to say. Gilly and Ike could still prove to have higher multipliers. At this point I still need some science (and having sun tracking solar panels would really help). I could risk a trip to Duna where it would be easier to swing around to Ike but that mission might end up producing no science at all if the solar panels fail. Alternatively I could go to Moho (not my first choice, I dislike reaching that planet) and with a lot of luck use it to get into a low enough orbit around the sun to take more detailed readings. Finally I could go the Mun and collect some more soil samples.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I observed no biomes over Eve (Ocean/Land), at least using the GravMax. I had packed extra units to store data just in case Eve did have more then one biome and I managed to pass over them.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[FlowerChild]

Edit: That was my reason for going for the solar panels, I guess I should also balance that by saying that while all the other techs contain at least one 'useful' item as I listed before, none of them contain an item that I consider 'essential' to exploring at my current level (that heatshield might be useful though). I basically see power generation as my main constraint to exploring for the moment, everything else I think I have the design and planning skill to work around until I reach the next stage.

Cool, thanks for the explanation. Will ponder how I can arrange things to not make that feel like such a priority, because yeah, the 5 other techs will likely be far more beneficial in the long run.

As Sciuris mentioned above the Rockomax Hub available at your current tech level is really the key part to making effective superstructure for the solar panels you currently have. The solar panels are also an incremental improvement, as are many of the techs you have access to right now (except the sensor array nosecone mind you, which is rather valuable when you first start probing the atmospheres of other planets). Will leave this here though in case it gives you any ideas:

[Dave Kerbin]

Whiskey 2

I'm not going to bother with pictures for this one. A duplicate of Whiskey 1 this probe made an attempt to reach Duna. I knew that the solar panels might not hold out at that range (which was why it was a secondary objective of Whiskey 1 to perform a check after it had gotten some science). And that's exactly what happened at 17.7 million km which is about 3/4 of the way between Kerbin and Duna's orbit. I had to make adjustments more and more frequently until I stopped gaining back power. I tried to get it exact but with time warp on it showed a net loss instead of a net gain (at normal speed the net power difference was too small to be observed). So I let the battery run down and shortly before it ran out I push up the throttle (full tank) and let it fly off. When the probe expired the batteries started charging again but there was nothing to power. I was also able to cut throttle with X after losing the probe core but it had no effect on the engine (still running full). It did have an effect on the timewarp messages - they changed from warning about the throttle to warning about the ship being under acceleration. When the engine finally ran out of fuel the dead probe was in an 18 million km x 32 million km (2/3 of the way between Duna and Dres) orbit.

[Dave Kerbin]

Uniform 4

I could plan out some different interplanetary missions, like a Gilly landing, which would give me the science I want to advance. But frankly those would require more time and work then just visiting the Mun. Uniform 4 makes minor modifications to the Uniform 2 ship that went to the Mun. The main change is the lander which now uses a one man pod. It also carries less battery power for itself which further cuts down on weight and increases range. To keep the weight balanced (I don't want to figure out if the launcher needs any adjustment or recalculate burn times and delta-v) I've added an idea I had when I plotted out the weight of a battery only Minmus mission. On the tail end of the lander is a battery module (BM) which in addition to providing the required ballast also provides the roughly 3 hours of power it will take to reach the Mun. Once used up it can be ejected before the lander module detaches.

This mission will be flown by Merdun and Nedvan Kerman. Nedvan flew the first pod into space and Merdun flew the first orbital mission. Since I only need one kerbal in the lander I don't see a reason to carry 3 kerbals, they'll just use up more life support (though as far as I know power use is constant).

The flight profile to the Mun is the same as Uniform 2, to settle into an equatorial orbit that will make operations easiest. Using the tracking station and my previous mappings of the Mun (scans from Oscar 2 and 3 and the crew reports on Uniform 2) I already have a good idea what will be on the sunlit side (which is currently facing opposite from Kerbin). I can see two promising areas that will likely be in daylight when I arrive. At the time of launch the Farside Crater is very visible on the tracking station screen and it has an easy to detect Highlands region around it. There is also what looks (but is not confirmed) to be a canyon to the north. Another destination, just coming into daylight is the East Farside Crater that was first mapped by Oscar 3. It has a confirmed Canyon biome connected to its east side and to the west is a bigger then average crater that I think matches my readings for a Highland crater, which would suggest some Highlands nearby.

Arriving at the Mun the first proposed landing site is already receding into darkness. That's ok since the canyon at the first site would have required a large inclination change to reach. The second site is in clear view and while I can't for certain identify as many biomes (I was more sure of the canyon at the first site then of the Highland Crater or Highlands at the second) it will be easier to land at. Other sights include the discarded Uniform 2 lander on the right and at the far left you can see the first landing site as well just above the Twin Craters.

Power and life support is moved around and the extra batteries are ejected (the spacecraft is essentially fully charged at this point thanks to the extra disposable cells and the engine alternator). Merdun moves into the lander and as the landing site comes up he detaches and prepares for descent. I'm aiming for the mouth of the Canyon for the first landing. This way if I come up too short I'll still be in the crater and can collect that sample, then move a little farther into the canyon and collect that sample. In hindsight if I wanted to visit 3 or more sites the ideal flight path would have been to start at the west side and work east, that way if I needed to abort I'd be moving in the right direction. As it was I had a 90 L cut off at which point I'd need to return to orbit for docking.

Landing in the canyon goes smoothly. A quick sample is taken and a flag is planted. After that it is a flight west into the East Farside Crater for another landing.

Another sample is collected but the fuel usage to not even cross half of the crater is very worrying. I don't see any way of reaching the smaller crater to the west without using up the fuel I'll need to ascend back to orbit. I'm also using up a lot of electricity. I'm not sure if I've taken the EVA suits power usage into account. So after taking a sample it's quickly back into the lander to get ready for ascent and docking.

Docking goes on schedule, like Uniform 2 it's possible to launch and dock during the same orbit. On final approach I've got it lined up for a nice straight approach so all that is needed is a few taps on the N key to make sure I don't hit the docking port too hard and bounce off. Battery power was a bit of a concern in the lander, I think I would have only had one extra orbit to dock.

Back on the command module life support and power are in abundance and there is a good fuel supply too. The lander is flung off like before and a return burn made. On reentry Merdun and Nedvan decide to put on a light show for the guys at the KSC before coming in for a night time water landing. I'll need to make one more visit to the Mun.

[Dave Kerbin]

Uniform 5

This flight will be piloted by Jorster Kerman, who piloted the 2nd orbital mission, and new recruit Johncan Kerman. He'll gain experience with a veteran and bring my staff up to 7 kerbonauts, fully replacing the 7 who died during the early phases of the space program.

I'm pretty sure this mission will be to the East Crater (it's in a similar position to the one the East Farside Crater was in before I launched Uniform 4) and my second landing site will be an attempt to land in the highlands which are around that crater, I just don't know if the entire area is highlands or if it's scattered. The twin craters are just too far away and I don't know and can't see any other obvious biomes. The only difference in craft are that I pretweaked a few things in the VAB that I did on the launchpad for Uniform 4: closing the valves on some monopropellent and adjusting the staging for the battery module decoupler. It's a night launch so there is even less to see. It's a quarter new Mun so when I arrive my landing site is actually under/a bit before the capture point. Because of this I'll need to do an orbit to come back around to it after I burn. I can see the East Crater as I prepare for the capture burn.

The experienced pilot Jorster will go down in the LM, Johncan will remain and maintain the command module. There is a lot of debris in Mun orbit (and this mission will only add to it). The command module is shadowed by the battery module from Uniform 4 which passes to within 50km several times. This is also the first time I used to right click display for the landing radar, in this configuration it is useful for tracking distance though at this point I'm mostly used to just landing by sight. Jorster lands near the east rim of the crater, this will minimize the distance to fly out of it.

After getting a soil sample it's a short flight up the crater wall and a bit past the rim. In a bit of a "that's obvious" moment I realized using while using the radar display that I also had my readout for the biome I was over, removing any guess work as to whether I would be landing in a Highlands or Midlands area. It seemed to be all Highlands so landing was easy, setting down 16 km away.

Coming back up to dock things don't go perfectly. I had to make a somewhat lateral burn to get an encounter lined up in less then an orbit, the battery capacity of this lander really needs to be looked at before anything similar is used on a Minmus mission because it really doesn't leave a lot of room for error. The final docking sequence also goes bad, getting too close too fast to adjust. This requires the lander to backup and try again and at that close range with no torque steering I had more trouble with it then I should have (I will admit to being out of practice). The final docking spends over half a minute waitinf for the magnets to settle down, the longest I've ever seen (RCS was off on both ships).

Once docking is completed everything can go back on schedule with the lander module being drained and flung away and the return burn. On the way in the KSC gets a small day time show, but for reasons unknown to me the service module actually survived reentry.

I've unlocked Specialized Electronics giving me the sun tracking, half weight solar cells. From here I can start back filling the rest of the tech tree. At the same time I can see forward one step forward to Experimental Electronics. This tech unlocks some super power solar cells (on the order of 50 times better for similar cells, but also including the giga cells) as well as a long term crew living space with high power requirements but very low supply requirements. Of course I'm left wondering how useful those solar cells are in the outer solar system (Jool and my ultimate destination Eeloo). I'm also left looking at the cost: 20,000 science. Yes, that's 4 zeros. And so far the science returns have been far less then what I'd find in stock. I'm assuming that it must be the final tier. I wonder what other techs are up there.

[Taki117]

20k science 0_0 those other planets better be worth a metric buttton.

[Dave Kerbin]

Whiskey 3

With my new solar cells it's time to go back to Duna. The same Whiskey probe is brought out and the flat solar panels are removed. To make some space the 2 monopropellent tanks are moved to the top where the panels where and 8 of the new retractable cells are mounted down the sides, 4 each. In stock probes would generally get a 'flower pedal' arrangement of cells because it ensures that at least one array should be able to track the sun. While sun tracking is a major benefit of these cells we want as many facing the sun at once as possible (preferably all of them) so they are setup in pairs so that the side of the spacecraft can be aligned to the sun and every cell can get 100% exposure. This makes the solar array placement much more realistic.

After getting into orbit the array is briefly tested prior to the injection burn to Duna. After checking that all the panels recieve the expected sunlight (no parts blocked) they are stored again since the injection burn could bring the ship into the very high atmosphere (60-70km zone) and I don't see any reason to find out how fragile the panels are. (as I always do, solar panels are bound to action group 1 to extend/retract all of them on command)

The injection burn to Duna goes fine. I'm surprised that I was able to complete it with the 3rd stage booster and still have fuel left. Once I'm on my way I can see how effective the new panels are. The biggest advantage was that while I was checking in to ensure the panels where generating enough power due to distance from the sun I didn't many adjustments. With the ship laying flat and the panels extended north and south they can all track and follow the position of the sun. I make some minor corrections to make sure my Duna approach is level and entering Duna's SOI I can start taking readings. As I suspected Duna's orbit is worth 3x like Eve. Low orbit provides more data and I start off loading the mapping readings immediately. Since I only need to pass low orbit once (I can store everything until I have a chance to transmit) I end up with a unique "capture" burn.

I'll make a second capture burn to park in Ike orbit where I can recharge my batteries and offload all the Duna readings before working on Ike at my leisure. On the way there I work up enough charge to send back my minor readings. Compared to the mapping instrument everything else is small on power. My Ike capture puts me onto a steeply inclined orbit of Ike with a high AP and a PE that just dips into low orbit (once I collect readings I raise it just slightly so I don't hit the slower time warp). I made no effort to stop this since it benefitted me - the probe rarely passes 'behind' Ike so I can recharge at the maximum possible speed. I should also note that it is only now that the 3rd stage booster has finally run out of fuel, leaving me with an almost full tank on the probe (about 2200 m/s).

It takes 4 days in Ike orbit to recharge the batteries so that I can begin transmitting again. Unfortunately Ike has a nasty surprise - Ike orbit is only worth 2x. So a temperature reading is only 16 science. After 4 more days of recharging I prepare the last part of the planned mission, a less then graceful landing on Ike (I'll just be trying to land without blowing anything up so I can transmit from the surface). Landing is soft but I'm on a hill and the probe has no way to brake. All the solar units on one side are destroyed (not just the collectors but the storage bins too) along with one on the other side. Transmitting from Ike's surface reveals it is only worth 3x - Ike data is worth the same as data from the Mun. I don't think I like Ike.

The landing position and damage means that it is unlikely that I can complete one last task (which was made viable by all the extra fuel). That would have been to take off from Ike and fly back to Duna on a collision course, using the PresMat to take a quick reading in the upper atmosphere (even if just to get the science multiplier) before the probe burned up. Attempting to take off with the probe proves useless, the loss of the solar cells on one side has seriously compromised the center of mass and the already low monopropellent (9 units left) is reduced further when one of the tanks breaks off during the take off attempt. The probe flips and crashes, broken beyond recovery. Here is a single frame where you can actually see the fuel tank has exploded but the other parts have not yet reacted, though they are traveling at 34 m/s close to the surface so they won't last long (in the next frame everything is a fireball again and by the time the smoke clears nothing is left).

My next steps at this point are to start filling in the tech tree tier I skipped. I'll unlock the nose cone sensor and do some testing on Kerbin to see what it costs to operate, what it returns and where it can be used. After that I'll unlock some of the engine nodes. I haven't been happy with the 2nd stage of the Uniform heavy booster and the Quebec platform is getting old. Having the booster stick around for so long on this mission proved a hassle so I want something that's a bit more predictable.

Ideally I want to use my engine tech (Mainsails replacing Keel Hauls) and structure tech (radial decouplers) to build a new versatile launch platform. It should be smooth and easy to control (man rated) and ideally will have at least 2 stages. Using both stages it would be used to put a heavier payload then the Uniform mission into orbit (so probably in the 45-60 ton payload range), while the upper stage(s) could be used alone, much like I did in Uniform 3, to put smaller payloads like probes into orbit. I will likely dedicate a series of missions to test and refine that system so that I can use it as a long term investment for the safety and good operation of future missions.

That also means I'll be running out of names. The sensor cone experiments will be X-Ray, the booster development will be Yankee and a Minmus mission using the new booster would be Zulu. Any ideas for a future set of names? My .23 career had pre-planned themed missions so the names where thought out with advanced knowledge of the mission sequence. My probe only career used the names of kerbals from my .22 career.

[Dave Kerbin]

X-Ray 1-5

X-Ray is just some simple tests to find the working parameters of the sensor nose cone. X-Ray 1 finds that the nose cone doesn't work on the surface but does work in the lower atmosphere. Further to that I get some more information: it produces 400 mbits so that should be 2000em to transmit with my dish. It also produces 40 science at that altitude so by my baseline it is an 80 point experiment (Kerbin atmosphere having a multiplier of 0.5X on my measurement scale). Finally it appears to be biome specific, labeling the reading as Shore. The sample is returned by parachute (I didn't know how much or how long it would take to transmit so that was the easiest way).

X-Ray 2 flies to the upper atmosphere and is also designed to verify my transmission calculations. Parachutes are carried as backup in case it can't transmit it all time. X-Ray 2 confirms that the nose cone works in the upper atmosphere however it is not biome specific there. The information is also a bit too late to save Luke or Fredson. Transmission completes just as the chutes are automatically opening at 6000m. Since I have the data the lines are cut to speed up the mission and simplify the cleanup.

X-Ray 3 checks if the nose cone can be used in orbit. After discovering the use of the PresMat outside of an atmosphere I'm not making any assumptions. It turns out the nose cone is useless in orbit. On the way back down the communications dish is damaged. Taking a reading before impact I did find a menu I don't yet know the purpose of. You can see "Transfer Atmosphere Analy...", I assume it might be to transfer the data to a command pod. The other instruments might have that too and I just haven't noticed.

X-Ray 4 is just a copy of X-Ray 1 that angles toward the water and takes a reading there before parachuting down (giving me a total of 120 science so far).

X-Ray 5 is a slapped together attempt to pickup the biomes going in the other direction - the grasslands, the highlands and the mountain range. I didn't really spend any time thinking this one through other then making space for 3 nose cones. I didn't pack nearly enough fuel to reach the highlands or mountains, but I did run over a strange region marked as tundra inbetween the shore region that the KSC is in and the grassland to the west. I got both the grassland and tundra readings returned for another 80 points. There is still another 160 science if I'm willing to send out some other flights (it will probably take 3) but I'll save that for later when I might be more desperate for any little bit of science.

[Dave Kerbin]

Yankee

Yankee isn't a specific mission but a program to develop 2 standard boosters, a 'light' booster for probes and a 'medium' booster for manned missions and dockable payloads (I'm reserving 'heavy' for a future booster that might be needed for interplanetary manned missions if I can't make it work with docking). I intended to make progressive designs and document the testing of this but I didn't. The idea was that both boosters could be part of the same system, the way I had reused the upper stage booster in Uniform 3. So the light booster would just be the medium booster with a part removed.

I also had some design considerations - to be useful as a quick and reusable booster it should be stable and easy to fly. That meant it should fly straight, carry and supplies it needed (with the exception of an SAS system) and the final stage should have enough delta-v so that it will have already started before the circulization burn is planned (this way the burn time will be known ahead of time). The light variant would need to keep clear of the payload area since it would carry shorter ships. The medium variant would need to keep some space around the payload but it would be desirable if it had some kind of stack to help tether the payload, the way that the Uniform launcher extended up to 'chest' height on the payload so that the lander could be tethered with struts. For payload I put it around 30 tons for the light and 60 tons for the medium based on my current ship and probe designs.

I went through a few designs on paper and started building one in the VAB. This is the closest the unified booster got. It flew once and as a result the sepratrons where added. The idea was the medium variant would integrate 3 more radial boosters that where taller to provide the additional thrust and fuel needed and to provide the tethering points. I just wasn't satisfied with the radial seperation of those large boosters and it was becoming obvious that a booster that could operate in 2 modes safely was a big challange. I was wasting a lot of time on an engineering task with no specific reason for being.

(Everything above the big decoupler is a payload simulator)

So I went back and much more quickly put together a light and then a medium lifter with the goal of making them simple and safe. Both are 2 stage launchers with the lower stage using control surfaces to avoid spinning (the gimbels provide attitude control) and the upper stage has an RCS system to cancel out any spin and to align for the circulization burn.

The light variant is based entirely around Skipper engines. The first stage burns 6 radial engines which cut out once the ship is essentially out of the atmosphere and burning toward the horizon. They seperate and a smaller fuel tank and Skipper take over (the small size and decoupler placement ensures a clean seperation without any extra seperation thrusters). This 2nd stage is equiped with 2 radial monopropellent tanks and a set of RCS thrusters for orbital alignment. The light booster can also stand on it's own engines for launch, though I might update this to include launch clamps.

The medium variant is composed of 2 nearly identical stages. The first stage uses 7 Mainsails (1 in the middle, 6 radial) to boost up to the gravity turn and have fins for spin stabilization. The second stage with the same amount of fuel then takes over, powered by 7 Skippers. The lack of radial decoupling is used to make it safer and easy to control (it can turn as fast as the payload can handle). The second stage has ample monopropellent and RCS thrusters for attitude control in orbit, and also has structural towers for tethering a payload (this helps when making the gravity turn, so tall payloads like the Uniform stack don't flex).

[Dave Kerbin]

Zulu, which is going to Minmus is already designed and in the VAB. Since it using an prebuilt booster and I have data from Uniform's trip to the Mun it took all of about 5 minutes to design and build. The lander is beefed up (overengineered a bit now) so that I don't run low on power. The only thing I was uncertain about was whether there would be space for all the solar panels. Fortunately with a big safety margin in fuel there was just enough space for them all. Should get a chance to fly it this afternoon.

Anyway, I'll still asking for any ideas on naming rockets. I'll be out of Nato letters with this mission and I sort of want to take the craft files I have now (lots) and archive them to another folder and start a fresh naming sequence, alphabetical again if possible. If I don't get any ideas it will probably just be foods starting with Apple 1.

[meve12]

Start With greek letters?

[FlowerChild]

More solar panel ideas in case you run into further placement concerns:

In the above, that was just the first of a three part ship I was assembling, and either end of the array detached when it was all completed (they were just for delivery and maneuvering during assembly) but you get the idea.

Cool arrangements are often just a docking maneuver away

[Dave Kerbin]

More solar panel ideas in case you run into further placement concerns:

Cool arrangements are often just a docking maneuver away

I'm just getting read to post my report on Zulu 1. As with Whiskey 2 it used the pole-ladder arrangement (center structural element with pairs of retractable panels), similar to what you have there just without docking.

[Dave Kerbin]

Zulu 1 (Part 1)

This will be a manned mission to Minmus. Since we've already done a manned mission to the Mun and improved on that technology this should be straight forward. The mission will be carried out by Merdun Kerman and Gusbin Kerman piloting the LM and CM respectively. The last 2 Uniform missions showed a 2 man crew was sufficient and this helps to extend life support which is now the critical factor with power solved. The Zulu design was knocked out very quickly and assembled in the VAB, owing a lot to the Uniform 2 and 3 data and the Whiskey 2 data. The return capsule, which includes a life support recycler in addition to heatshield, parachutes and RCS thrusters, was reused directly from Uniform 3 since it was already fully tested. Zulu 1 has a much better safety margin for both the CM and the LM with both getting more fuel and monopropellent and both power systems being upgraded (the LM should now be limited by life support supplies instead of charge and the CM can operate at a net gain with the solar array). The launcher will be the recently completed 60t lifter.

The launch proceeds normally. There is some oscillation with the payload in the second stage. I'm not sure if it's an issue with the way the payload is tied down or not. After circulization the inclination burn is done mostly with the booster but then it is shutdown and the CM engine takes over for the last few m/s. This is to configure the burn calculator for the CM's engine, so that the times displayed for the injection burn are accurate.

In orbit now the solar cells are briefly opened up and tested just to make sure they are working as intended (with 4 hours of standby battery support there is time to abort and return if there is an issue). After that they are retracted just to be sure they aren't damaged by the G-forces during the injection burn. The engine will recharge most of the battery anyway. After some very small post-burn corrections the ship deploys and aligns the solar cells for the 2 day trip to Minmus.

Arriving at Minmus the solar power system has kept the batteries fully charged and the recyling system has reduce life support use to 1/5 that of the Uniform Mun flights. The ship lines up for a capture burn and enters a 25 km orbit.

[Dave Kerbin]

Zulu 1 (Part 2)

In orbit of Minmus crew reports are taken of several areas. The probe Romeo 2 identified 9 biomes and from orbit I'm able to reacquire 7 of them. I'm unable to find the Flats which are somewhere on the night side of Minmus and my orbit doesn't permit me to get the poles. As the ship comes around to the day side again Merdun boards the landing module and seperates. There is a brief time when both capsules are manned which causes the power usage to spike. Once the lander seperates Gusbin verifies that the CM is operating in positive electrical mode again (gaining charge). It takes a few moment for Merdun to activate all 4 engines and then he is descending to one of the salt flat regions a little north of the equater.

With landing radar, high thrust, low center of mass, plenty of fuel and Minmus's low gravity the landing is as easy as it could be. Crew and EVA reports are made and a sample is taken from the Lesser Flats. Walking on Minmus with no jetpack requires a bit of planning to avoid missing the ladder, the strides are very long in the low gravity. Traveling to some bodies without a jetpack could be dangerous. Back in the lander Merdun heads south east toward the high ground for another landing.

Landing in the Midlands another sample is taken. I had considered walking to the cliff edge to try and collect a slopes sample but on landing the edge is quite far away (probably 1000m or so) and I have very limited EVA life support (and the suit is using life support supplies much faster then my pod so I want to minimize waste). The next highly visible biome (another salt flat) is a considerable distance to the east. Between here and there is a bumpy region that I assume is a larger (and hopefully less steep) slopes region that I can visit.

Traveling east my cockpit instruments say I'm over the Lowlands so I land 10 km from where I took off and take a sample. From space it looks a lot like a part of the Midlands but maybe gradient isn't as steep as between the flats and their surroundings. You can see the general direction I'm trying to go, to reach the salt flats area in the east (right side) while making a stop over in the bumpy region just before it. At this point I've already passed the mission requirements for science (I had it with the second sample) so I'll have enough to unlock the rest of the 360pt tier.

Next I fly over the bumpy area which does register as Slopes. However as I slow down to land the reading changes to Midlands - I am forced to travel some more to find where it transitions back to Slopes which is a challenge as the area seems to be a patchwork of Midlands, Lowlands and Slopes. I finally find a place to land and take a sample. At this rate I can no longer see my original Lesser Flats landing zone, it being about 30 km away. All consumables are good and even with the landing radar usage the power is being consumed at a slower rate then life support which seems to be the limiting factor in this mission (I also have lots of fuel and monopropellent left).

For the last and longest leg of my journey I fly to the Great Flats, about 70 km from my original landing. By my estimate I've covered a little less than a quarter of Minmus's equater. Here I take a 5th surface sample to add to my collection. While I do have enough supplies to continue on I do have a problem and that is further east is the terminator into night. While I can make out another flats area from the orbital view I don't have lights on the lander and don't want to fly around blind with all the steep cliffs. While there is roughly enough fuel there isn't enough life support to fly back to the west of my original starting point (in additition to the time this would take it would also likely make me miss my docking window). So instead Merdun takes a quick nap while the command module completes the rest of its orbit and arrives overhead for a docking rendezvous.

[Dave Kerbin]

Zulu 1 (Part 3)

As the command module comes overhead the lander takes off to catch it. The latitude of the lander means it has to make a set of course changes and adjustments before it can meet up with the command module. I was afraid this might mess up the docking window but it worked out better then could have been expected. The initial interception was just 0.3 km about 270 degrees from the launch site. This made it easy to perform the docking with essentially one burn instead of the usual pattern of a 4 km interception followed by an orbit correction and then the closer interception followed by docking maneuvers.

At 320m the lander was able to make an extremely accurate burn to take it to the command module. The burn was so accurate that almost no further action was required beyond switching to the CM and turning it around so the docking port was facing the oncoming LM. The LM used a bit of RCS to slow down from 3.5 m/s to 0.5 m/s for the final docking, with minor translation burns to account for the change in speed (since both objects are moving in differing orbits, if you change the time of interception you also change the relative position they will be in). The docking port clamped on immediately and everyone was happy.

Merdun transfer back with all of his samples - I've managed to collect samples from 5 of 9 biomes in one trip - and then the process begins of stripping the lander of useful supplies like life support and monopropellent. With the ships monopropellent tanks full and the valves closed the landers remaining stores are using to set the craft in a spin so that the lander can be discarded in a fling maneuver. A check of consumables shows 5.5 days of life support for the crew of 2 along with plenty of fuel and monopropellent. The command module is stabilized and brought around to the exit burn orientation. The ship is then rotated along the center axis to best align the solar cells, though they are stowed for the actual burn.

Return to Kerbin is a 25 km PE and will take just over 2 days. Solar alignment is checked before settling in for the trip home. Approaching the atmosphere there is far less preparation work required since the CM battery is kept fully charged. Only the valve on the CM's monopropellent tank needs to be opened before the service module can be jettisoned and the RCS thrusters are used to push the CM away and turn it into reentry orientation.

[Dave Kerbin]

Edit: This post contains BIG SPOILERS for the tech tree, click here to skip these spoilers (smaller spoilers are everywhere but this post basically reveals details for all the items in tier 8)

Zulu 1 (Part 4)

The mission brings in a lot of science. From here I unlocked the remaining 360pt items in sequence but stopped on the last one.

Miniaturization offers a slightly better communications dish, though from my experience in stock it might not be as easy to place. It slightly reduces the power requirements to transmit but not as much as the dish I have now did over the antenna. With the use of regenerating power the power use becomes even less of an issue. It also a reaction wheel I might actually use. Other parts include the place anywhere RCS thruster and the larger radial monopropellent tank along with another tiny fuel tank (tiny fuel tanks don't have as much use in BTSM). Thanks to me unlocking the 3 nodes below it much earlier, and then unlocking those final nodes above in sequence I can see that it doesn't seem to lead to any future tech (I assume this is a limitation of the current tech tree modding as described by FlowerChild). For this reason I'm going to hold off on unlocking it, for the moment that 360 science will provide a bump toward unlocking my next major tech (I have 927 science in the bank).

With that covered I'd like to talk a bit about my current tech tree position and plans. My previous tech tree jump to get solar panels was the product of 2 factors - the only techs where nice to have but in my view none where absolutely critical for getting my next batch of science. That was the second part, at that point I'd opened up a large number of potential science targets so I wasn't starved for new missions at that point. Prior to that I was frequently in the position of seeing every tech as vital just to get a rocket into orbit and needed any advance that would let me reach new sources of science since I was always close to drying up my current supply.

After completing the Mun mission there was a bit of a breather - the science from that helped unlock the most useful looking 360pt items (the ones at the bottom) and I knew that I wasn't going to exhaust my sources of science in the near future. As I am now on the 1800pt tier things have returned a bit to normal. I'm not as starved for new sources of science as I was in the early game though I'm also not as guaranteed to find large quantities of it, which is important given the large cost increase which now means that I may need to complete multiple missions to unlock a single tech. Of the 1800pt techs they all seem useful thought there are some notable ones.

Experimental Rocketry has fuel lines which are very useful, the ion drive less so (though I'll admit I haven't checked to see if the stats are changed to make it friendly to use). Meta-Materials will probably be my first tech as it contains a nuclear reactor capable of powering a probe core. This will be required to advance exploration beyond Duna. Composites has the Science Jr though I think I've been spoiled and suspect that it needs to be operated by a kerbal (this is actually how I assumed it worked when .22 first came out and it was only once I was in space that I found it couldn't be right clicked in EVA). Heavy Aerodynamics is the only item I don't have an interest in. After I've unlocked the other items in this tier I'll see if it seems to be blocking access to anything that looks crucial (for example if there is a grayed out tech to the right of it with a nuclear symbol). If not it may stay locked.

Hypersonic Flight offers the inflatable heatshield. I don't really know what the specific benefits of it are. There is also a shuttle cockpit which has an "Active Heatshield (directional)". There is no number of how much heatshield material there is and the nose cone sensor also has the same thing. I'm not sure what kind of heatshield this is (maybe it's reusable?). I don't know if the heatshield terminology is covered somewhere in deadly reentry but maybe the descriptions for BTSM could include some clues for these later heatshields, the way the flat heatshields include subtle clues about what scenario they are good enough for (orbit return, Mun return, interplanetary braking). Advanced Unmanned Tech seems to have the final probe cores, with the same weight and energy consumption regardless of size. I don't have a strong priority on this one but I suspect it may lead to important end game tech. Not Potatos answers the question of where the stock battery models are. These seem to have the stock stats so they are very light. At this stage I'm not entirely sure super light batteries are needed but like Advanced Unmanned Tech I suspect they may lead to something important like a light RTG.

Advanced Science Tech is something I won't unlock immediately but is high on my list. It has a very efficient pod for long range exploration and a kerbal life sciences experiment of some kind for studying crew. I'm not sure about the time aspect. Advanced Field Science is crucial for interplanetary exploration and will probably be the second item I unlock after Meta-Materials. While the wheels aren't special the seperate life support supply pods are key to manned missions beyond Kerbin's SOI.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[Sciuris]

Advanced Field Science is crucial for interplanetary exploration and will probably be the second item I unlock after Meta-Materials. While the wheels aren't special the seperate life support supply pods are key to manned missions beyond Kerbin's SOI.

Wow, I'm surprised that's so high on your priority list. My purchase choices for Tech 8 were very different (I got the solar panels third, the RTG sixth, and the life support pods will be ninth).

I really enjoy reading these reports, and I've learned a few things about ship design from seeing your thought process. I'm looking forward to see how you get through this tier!