Whether and How to Use TAC Life Support

[Duxwing]

Should I use TAC Life Support or not, and if I should, then how?

Using it has made kerballed interplanetary travel require such masses of food, water, and oxygen that I need Kethane and NFT, completely redesign my mission profiles, and greatly expand my orbital infrastructure to move the enormous masses of life-support needed for kerballed interplanetary travel; for example, a six-Kerbal Dunar mission requires almost seven-thousand kerbal-days of food, water, and oxygen, which together mass over one-hundred-fifty tons. Moving such great, inert payloads as that one is more bothersome than fun. Life-support limitations also inspire and motivate my play: retrieving Kerbals becomes not only important but urgent, and the danger of crew loss keeps the game lively and immersive.

-Duxwing

[Uzric]

Hard fix: send less kerbals or get a mod that can generate TAC LS goodies so you can send less of those (i.e.: MKS).

Easy fix: If you are not having fun, disable or remove the mod. If you really need that hard the acomplishment feelings the mod gives you, then its maybe a better idea to tweak in game the amount of goodies your kerbals consume. There is a button for that IIRC.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Uzric

[Duxwing]

Hard fix: send less kerbals or get a mod that can generate TAC LS goodies so you can send less of those (i.e.: MKS).

That option sounds good.

Easy fix: If you are not having fun, disable or remove the mod. If you really need that hard the acomplishment feelings the mod gives you, then its maybe a better idea to tweak in game the amount of goodies your kerbals consume. There is a button for that IIRC.

It's not a question of accomplishment but completeness: kerbals presumably are open-cycle systems and therefore would require support during long missions.

-Duxwing

[somnambulist]

Life-support limitations also inspire and motivate my play: retrieving Kerbals becomes not only important but urgent, and the danger of crew loss keeps the game lively and immersive.

Bolding is mine. I think you've answered your own question as to whether or not you should use TAC and are just frustrated with the logistics. First make sure you are using an adequate number of converters to recycle waste products back into usable life support resources. That alone will stretch your O2 and H20 supplies by 10x. Stock TAC doesn't have a part to convert waste to food but other modders have released greenhouses which will similarly stretch your food supplies.

Second consider breaking apart the entire mission's supplies into multiple, unmanned launches. Your initial outbound mission to Duna only needs to carry enough supplies for the trip to Duna plus a small reserve in case you didn't hit the launch window exactly. The supplies for use while at Duna and the return trip can be sent during either an earlier launch window or during a non-optimal window that takes longer but still arrives before/during the actual manned mission. The supply ships don't need to be fancy but it does help to put docking ports on each end -- that way you can dock multiple containers in orbit and form an orbital supply station with any surplus supplies.

You might also want to consider Modular Kolonization System and setup a self-sustaining colony. It's a larger time and mass investment but, once established, you can begin to sustain not only the colony itself but also supply return missions without having to ship everything from Kerbin.

[WeirdCulture]

Isn't the payload, for food, water, etc one of our main problems with a trip to Mars? so quite realistic... (and damn I am playing with TAC LS too, but didn't thought about the Payload yet)

[Duxwing]

Bolding is mine. I think you've answered your own question as to whether or not you should use TAC and are just frustrated with the logistics. First make sure you are using an adequate number of converters to recycle waste products back into usable life support resources. That alone will stretch your O2 and H20 supplies by 10x. Stock TAC doesn't have a part to convert waste to food but other modders have released greenhouses which will similarly stretch your food supplies.

I am using enough converters and will download the greenhouses should they be simple-enough.

Second consider breaking apart the entire mission's supplies into multiple, unmanned launches. Your initial outbound mission to Duna only needs to carry enough supplies for the trip to Duna plus a small reserve in case you didn't hit the launch window exactly. The supplies for use while at Duna and the return trip can be sent during either an earlier launch window or during a non-optimal window that takes longer but still arrives before/during the actual manned mission. The supply ships don't need to be fancy but it does help to put docking ports on each end -- that way you can dock multiple containers in orbit and form an orbital supply station with any surplus supplies.

I have been designing and installing an orbital infrastructure system for months. Until I noticed the huge payloads necessary, I believed that it could work on any world. I will describe it below because you might help me improve it:

1 - Gravimetric orbiter

2 - Sensory lander

3 - Sensory rover

4 - Kethane scanner

5 - Mobile Kethane rig, bare-bones station, lander, fuel tug, science rover, and supplies

6 - Kerbals

You might also want to consider Modular Kolonization System and setup a self-sustaining colony. It's a larger time and mass investment but, once established, you can begin to sustain not only the colony itself but also supply return missions without having to ship everything from Kerbin.

That idea seems great.

-Duxwing

[G'th]

The easiest thing to do is to just send an unmanned mission with your life support supplies for the mission itself plus the return journey (plus any other extra bits and bobs I might want to send ahead) ahead of your main mission. The forward probe will drastically cut down on what all you have to fit into your main craft(s). And not only that, it'll make it easier in general to just design every component when you don't have to accommodate large amounts of bulk mass and instead can move almost all of that mass into one, simple, bulk payload.

Designing things to be all in one is okay, but if its making harder to execute the mission, there's no real shame in breaking up the components.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Alternately, try something like using one of the hyperjump mods.

I'm particularly fond of this one I don't remember the name of, but you need a jump core on your ship, and a beacon at the destination to jump to. And jumps cost 10,000 electricity units.

(Beacon's a 2.5 meter unit, so is the drive unit.)

It's just sci-fi enough to be a useful alternative to long voyages, but still requires a little setup to exploit.