Triskelion Station Mk. II

[Camaron]

I have a finalized version of Emerald Grinder for you. As a note, feel free to name it whatever you want in your universe, same as the Titans.

In case you missed it, here is the link to the Large Generators / Xenon Tanks / Batteries, which are necessary for Emerald Grinder.

http://www./download/2p589le82qlxgce/Camaron_Edits_MMI.rar

And here is the exact version of Kethane Mod I used with it: Kethane 0.8.5, just in case you want to be absolutely certain we have the same Kethane configs

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/23979-Kethane-Pack-0-8-5-Find-it-mine-it-burn-it!-0-23-5-(ARM)-compatibility-update

And, of course, The craft itself:

http://www./download/xnso6po6p5lly7s/Emerald_Grinder_Type_II_WL_B.rar

The final Emerald Grinder has four small converters on it which will activate and refuel everything on the ship as it drills, when the drills are triggered. Likewise, the deactivate when the drills are retracted. It also has two more drills, two more G30 generators, double the SAS modules to combat it's cumbersome nature, and has had it's outer columns re-positioned so that the Landercan at the bottom is right above the ground - your kerbal can simply walk up to it and grab the ladder, no flying or jumping or other acrobatics.

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It launches with three probes bound to it. the probes can be used in polar orbit to do the Kethane scanning without bothering your massive primary ships to deal with polar orbiting. If you don't want probes, just rip them off in the editor.

Action Controls:

Gear: Toggle Legs

Brakes: Deactivates all Converters

4 - Toggle Ion Engines.

5 - Toggle Nuclear Engines.

6 - Activate SAS Modules.

7 - Deactivate SAS Modules (Very important function when pairing to another bigger ship, so the crafts don't conflict.)

8 - Activate everything on the probe.

9 - Deploy Drills, activate Converters.

0 - Retract Drills, deactivate Converters.

Tell me if you find any problems. Enjoy.

Side Note - From what I can tell the Kethane Converters are both WAY off, mathematically speaking. Example - as it generates fuel from Kethane, my ship was gaining weight. And fast, too. Interestingly, the fuel is the closest-to-accurate of the bunch. The ratio on the Xenon is even worse, and the ratio on monoprop is just outright broken.

What I'm getting at is this - how would you like if I figured out the appropriate weight ratios and reconfigure the converter's rates? If you like that idea, I'll do it. For the sake of keeping things matched, if you don't like that idea, I'll leave them alone.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Camaron

[Saltpeter]

I believe the medium converter is a one-to-one weight ratio. The large one is supposed to be slightly more efficient. I don't mind kethane existing as compressed fuel that's more weight-efficient to have around as long as you can cover the energy cost of conversion. I'd prefer to keep it as is. I have nothing against mods that make the game easier in some ways, as long as it's not like god-moding. Having lots of xenon and monoprop isn't really a big deal to me, since they don't have much weight in the first place. ;>.>

[Camaron]

Edit: removed bulky Kethane discussion. It was boring anyway, you guys haven't missed anything.

Regardless, Saltpeter, I hope you have tons of fun with Emerald Grinder and your newest Triskelion.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Camaron

[Saltpeter]

Something has to justify the expense of landing on a surface, mining it, and bringing it back into orbit. I'm more concerned with the usefulness of kethane, the amount of kethane-equivalent fuel lost in the process of refining it and bringing it to space. The mass can be whatever you think is right, I just want gainful quantities of fuel.

[Camaron]

Then I will leave it as-is! I still feel like I want to bring it up to the Kethane Devs. We'll see if there's anything they want to say about that.

[Saltpeter]

Sorry about the delay, pilot error in my Combusting Personal Translation VehiclE (CPTiVE) resulted in an unscheduled metallobraking maneuver into the hatch module of someone else's CPTiVE. No one was seriously injured. We'll return to your regularly scheduled programming in a couple days.

[Camaron]

You broke it. It's dead.

Oh BTW are those damaged mining rigs still there? I would enjoy building a claw-based recovery Rover if you would like. Seems a shame to completely waste 300K Kethane on the ground.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Camaron

[Saltpeter]

I don't think the damaged rig is still there. That was a 126k kethane loss. The other 150k is still intact, I just need to recover the tank, which is proving most difficult.

[Camaron]

I forgot that I hate rovers, because rover wheels are disastrously incapable of their jobs. Nevermind that.

After painfully reminding myself how needlessly difficult such a thing is, I would recommend you also abandon that effort. There's a mod, (I don't know what it's called) that involves a fuel hose that can be manually attached with a Kerbal's help. It might be a mod worth adopting for future incidents like this.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Camaron

[Pyranz]

You can place landing wheels next to the r.wheels to take the weight, whilst still having traction.

[Saltpeter]

Just want to let the viewers at home know that it'll be a while longer before I can get back to this. Don't worry, I have not abandoned the adventure!

[Pyranz]

And here was me, convinced it was already gone. It is the exam time of year, so I can understand your position if that's the case

[Saltpeter]

Well, I've not been in school for about three years now. Just, life things happened. Like I mentioned earlier, there was a car accident(no one was injured), a lot of thinking, some changes, etc. Have to get it sorted out, settle into the new routine. But once that's done, I will return to the Triskelion project, I promise. @.@

[Saltpeter]

Alright! The time has come to continue the epic adventure of Donory Kerman and crew! Schematics for brilliant new vessels have been uploaded to the KSP. KSC scientists are crowd-sourcing their rocketry from maker hobbyists and especially fanatical players of the official game of the space program, and are confident that these uneducated shut-ins are the solution they need to the complex problems they face getting kethane off of Minmus. Preparations are being made as we speak to launch the new generation of kethane production! The miner and ferry modules are being retired. In a satellite press conference, Donory and Jebediah weighed in on the old vessels:

Donory: "Terrible."

Jebediah: "Not even found lying by the side of the road would produce such roadkill."

Jerwin and Merkin: "Let's do the going-to-the-moon dance again! We're going to the moon!"

[Saltpeter]

Bill Kerman has returned! Apparently the KIA has completed their debriefing and psychotherapy of Bill and have given him the greenlight to fly the new Croud-Sourced Kethane Collector, or CKC. Bill had this to say:

"It's more like a really fancy module than a ship, really. The damn Mechjeb was installed the wrong way, so I had to fly in the reverse all the way from launch to Minmus. Dropping the booster tanks fixed it, but so much wasted fuel...wasted fuel...all those years..."

...before the transmission cut out. Here is an artist's impression of Bill's current status. There appears to be some artistic license with this impression. In the image, Bill's skin is a color not yet observed of any living thing.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Saltpeter

[Saltpeter]

The CKC has docked with the Triskelion and is providing fresh fuel to the ship! With a device like this, the Triskelion could conduct a major operation in Joolian space without any need for expensive rescue missions! The crew obvious has many comments:

Donory: "It's beautiful!"

Jebediah: "Definitely better than the last attempt!"

Jerwin and Merkin: "We're not going to the moon, are we? ;_;"

Bill: "It...it was so quiet on Ike. The gentle libration of Duna played its silent music for me. It is the only peace I've ever known..."

Bob: "Bill, are you okay?"

Jim: "Why are the drills still online?"

The CKC will continue to make trips down to Minmus until the Triskelion is completely restocked, at which point it will transfer over to Minmusopolis and commence supply runs to its massive tanks. Finally, the Triskelion will return to Hexaflexagon Station and await the attachment of a second CKC. This means Bill Kerman will be a permanent resident of Minmus. KSP doctors and Donory and Jebediah and Bob and I-think-Jerwin-too think it's best for Bill and the crew if he stays close to Kerbin, in the isolation he seems to enjoy.

[Saltpeter]

The Triskelion is fully fueled! It took three trips of the CKC to fill up the tanks from 20% capacity. That's not bad! The mission is almost over! All that's left is to navigate the CKC to Minmusopolis and return the Triskelion to Hexaflexagon Station for refit and debriefing.

[Saltpeter]

The CKC has docked at Minmusopolis. Since Minmusopolis doesn't actually have any housing, Bill will have to make himself comfortable in the CKC's capsule. Probably for the best, the walls of the capsule are padded.

[Saltpeter]

A near miss is still a miss. And the Triskelion crew couldn't be happier.

[Saltpeter]

The mission is complete! Kethane has been shown to be an extremely useful substance for lengthening missions and reducing the need for costly refueling launches. Exactly what everyone hoped it would be! And Donory thinks the hex planet overlay is cool!

Stay tuned 'til next time, when the Triskelion embarks on its longest, most difficult mission yet!

[Saltpeter]

In the first mission, the Triskelion became too low on fuel to make the planned Joolian grand tour. That gets remedied today, in style!

Joolian Fuel Economy/Floating Base on Laythe

1. Establish a floating base off the coast of any Laythan island with crew capacity of 3, science tools, a kethane mining/processing plant, and the ability to move across the surface of the ocean.

2. Deliver an amphibious vehicle to Laythe for land exploration.

3. Establish kethane mining operations on Bop and/or Pol. Scan Vall for kethane deposits. Briefly consider trying to land a CKC on Vall and change mind.

4. Transfer from Jool to Eeloo and collect science.

5. Return to Jool and deliver a kerbal to the floating base for permanent residence.

[Saltpeter]

Thanks to the discovery of a coastline roughly half a mile east of the KSC, scientists have been able to test the floating base before shipping it to Laythe. The first test was promising!

[Saltpeter]

A few tests later and something serviceable appeared! This will be the basic construction block for the base. I want it to be a port of sufficient size to simultaneously dock a VTOL spaceplane and the proposed amphibious vehicle, as well as contain all of the necessarily modules to complete the mission.

[Saltpeter]

Further testing has resulted in this:

(5x5)+9 squares of free space, easy walk-on ramps from the water for kerbals, smooth handling across water, max speed 4 m/s. This should be large enough for my needs. I'm calling it Barghest Barge, for reasons that would be obvious to Scott Manley.

[Saltpeter]

Somehow, KSC scientists managed to launch an enormous flat object faceward into a 100km orbit with plenty of fuel left for maneuvers.

The next launch will have the Barge travel to Hexaflexagon Station to dock with the Triskelion.