Mun Base Alpha

[BLFonsworth]

[MISSION UPDATES BELOW]

Hey all, New here and still newish to KSP, 67 hours according to steam. Playing all-vanilla atm. I'm building my first Mun Base and looking for feedback on designs and also just to show off a bit too. I'm playing in career mode and have not unlocked the entire tree yet.

So far I've landed Jeb on the surface and he is holding down the fort. So far I've sent him a rover and a science lab. The lab is unmanned, waiting for the next kerbal to join him (I also missed the landing by ~2km lol) as well as a rover with a better seat design that I have ready to be sent up next.

My next steps past what I have already built will be developing some sort of science rover that can dock to the lab to be able to reuse experiments. (Ideas on designs would be greatly appreciated)

I will be posting pics with some updates on progress as I expand the base! For now, enjoy the couple screens of the base so far, the designs used so far, and Jeb saying hello!

http://imgur.com/a/BIIuS

MISSION UPDATES BELOW!!!

____________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE

ROVER DELIVERY #1:

Jeb has a friend! And a couple rovers..

I've successfully landed Steve K. on the Mun to keep Jeb company and help him in his research efforts.. After 3 attempts at sending up a rover, I realized 2 things. First: Always test the height of your docking equipment on the launchpad or somewhere at the space center before you send them to the Mun.. Second: Driving in low-G is not easy (i blew up the Rover once and had to quickload).

THIS IS THE UN-MANNED VERSION. I DID NOT ACTUALLY SEND THIS VERSION. MID-ORBIT I REALIZED MY MISTAKE AND REVERTED TO ASSEMBLY AND ATTACHED THE MANNED COMMAND POD

The rover pictured is the 2nd rover I had attempted to send. The first was a single man rover that was not very well built and was extremely unstable, eventually turning over and breaking while trying to make a turn on the Mun's surface.

Steve made it, just after sunset! You can see the manned rover delivery lander in the background.

The new rover seems to be just as stable as the last, despite being slightly larger and much more symmetrical. Here it is turned over next to the original Mun Base Alpha lander can...

The Next Mun Day I decided I had enough fuel left to move the rover delivery lander over to the Mun base. It was a quick lift off, turn and then landing. I only had to move it about a half a km.

ROVER DELIVERY #2:

These rovers just wont work.. too small, too slow, too unstable. I need a whole new design.. Unfortunately I didn't think to grab some screens building and launching. I will try remember to get some screens of the whole delivery system in the Hangar and post them, it is a very odd design but it worked. I do have some action shots though! It was a 2 rocket design and was actually kind of difficult to keep flying straight under thrust of more than about .75G

The new "Mun Car" in low-Kerbin orbit.

The Mun Car was a terrible design for fuel efficiency, but I have trouble with the builder still (I hope it's not just me, the builder is so awkward sometimes) so I really didn't want to re-design it. It took several f5/f9 presses before I got it to the Mun's surface. I ran out of fuel during descent several times. I got it to the surface, but about 20km away from base.. so.. I took the rover delivery lander, which still had a small amount of fuel left) It got me to about 5km away and the rest was up to Steve.. I first attempted the journey at night.. and after realizing you should never travel at night on the lunar surface w/o lights, I time warped to the day side of our orbit and went to retrieve my new Mun Car. The trip there took maybe 5 minutes, using the RCS thrusters to glide over the surface from the lander to the rover. The trip back took about an hour. The Mun car is much more stable than the other rovers and built waaay better. The problem now is going too fast and launching off bumps and small hills. I blew the rover up once and had to f9. I did manage to eventually get it back to the lab, AND DOCK IT!!

Going to get the Mun Car, at night. Bad Idea..

Much easier during the day

The New Mun Car! Still has that new-car smell!!

Steve really seems to like his new car! I hope Jeb likes it too, we'll find out next mission!

The Car next to my original Mun Base Alpha lander can

The Mun Car, docked to the Mun Base Lab, with the old rover still chilling out next to it. Lesson learned, practice docking your stuff before using it! I thought about this ahead, after landing the lab and first rover and the rover wouldn't line up perfect to dock. I decided to put small engines on all 4 corners of the new car and use them to lift it up to the highest docking port (the other 2 were too low).. It worked like... well let's just say it worked.

Edited March 30, 2014 by BLFonsworth

[Cdr_Zeta]

Hello,

I will tell ya I got half the real time in and I couldnt have landed any better; I probly will lose a few legs or as we are going for real hopefully tonite...Jeb and the crew are staying home to watch !

Cmdr Zeta

[BLFonsworth]

Hello,

I will tell ya I got half the real time in and I couldnt have landed any better; I probly will lose a few legs or as we are going for real hopefully tonite...Jeb and the crew are staying home to watch !

Cmdr Zeta

My first few attempts at the Mun were only flu-by's with probes, to figure out the approach. Once I had the approach down, I sent a lander.. The Mun's gravity makes it a lot easier to land on that you would think. It took a couple of quicksave/loads to get my first landing (which i don't have here, it's not part of the base). Once I i figured out how to land I decided to just make the jump to a Mun Base. I'll be honest, I haven't figured out a fuel efficient way of getting them home yet.. xD

I'm also about to make an update to the OP with more pics and mission updates.