[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: A New Beginning

Northstar1989 · July 18, 2014

This thread is now closed. I have decided to terminate the corresponding savegame due to low readership of the thread, loss of the initial pictures, and most importantly- lack of sufficient challenge for me given my ever-increasing skill level. I have decided to start a new Career game thread with RSS 6.4x, TAC Life Support, and videos/pictures from the START (link to new thread coming soon).

FOLLOW MY PROGRESS IN KSP ON TWITCH: http://www.twitch.tv/northstar1989

Or check out my new series of YouTube videos hosting the same recordings (first episode below)

Some of you may have seen, or even followed my previous thread, "Kerbin and Beyond: A Maturing Space Program".

Now, in the same style, I will be documenting the progress of my Kerbals in their space program, from the beginning in 0.24

Mods Used:

Active Texture Management (Aggressive)

Ferram Aerospace Research

Deadly Re-Entry

MechJeb2

Chatterer

KW Rocketry

Edited September 22, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 18, 2014

EDIT: Sorry for the missing albums- I didn't realize that selecting "Hide" for images on Imgur would actually break previously-generated albums. They really should warn you about that before it lets you hide images. The images were visible for a few hours, but are now lost forever as far as I can tell- as were ALL my album images from my previous thread of 256 posts, which makes me want to cry... I'll be more careful in the future.

The story began as stories in KSP often do- with "equipment tests" (Crew Report, EVA Reports and Surface Samples) at the KSC

(Imgur has lost my images for this- sorry)

Simple enough- but it opens up my first major choice as a player: what tech to go for beyond just Basic Rocketry? (the first tech after "Start")

Foolishly, I choose to go with General Rocketry (longer SRB's and gimbaled engines). I didn't end up using any of the parts from it in my first launch at all (I would have been better off with Survivability, for reasons you'll see in my 2nd launch)

The first mission was both a shocking success and an unaccustomed failure:

(Album broken- thanks again to Imgur)

I wasn't very used to playing with FAR...

I knew it would increase the terminal velocity for relatively aerodynamic objects with a good shape, like my small rocket- but I didn't expect it to decrease drag quite so much. My small rocket made it all the way outside the atmosphere, which was entirely unexpected- and would have never occurred with the stock pea-soup model of aerodynamics.

My rocket ALSO experienced a major failure during re-entry, once again due to FAR. Quite simply, the aerodynamic loads were too high on the fragile stock fuel tanks, and they exploded during re-entry (modded tanks, such as those from NovaPunch, are more reinforced, with higher Impact Resistance, and should be able to put up with higher aerodynamic loads...)

Unfortunately, this also means I lost the valuable scientific data of the two Mystery Goo containers, as well as the value of the goo canisters and the rest of the rocket...

Now what did I buy with all that science, you might ask?

Survivability (for the landing legs), Flight Control (for the probe core- and the MechJeb features once I throw it in the GameData folder), and Stability (for the basic winglets and because it was all I could afford). The next launch should go MUCH better...

Still, I completed 3 of the 4 starting contracts with this mission, and had I known FAR would be so effective/realistic, I would have definitely packed on more fuel tanks and made it all the way to orbit and back... Here's the image from Mission Control:

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 18, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 18, 2014

For flavor, and to make up for the aerodynamic failure in my last launch, I'll be trying to focus on saving Funds wherever possible for a bit- after all, in the words of Einstein, compound interest (which you can only get if you have money to invest- like in reusable infrastructure down the line) is the most powerful force in the universe... (rather strange to hear what he said about topics OUTSIDE of physics, eh?) Of course, I expect to fall off that wagon pretty quickly when I start wanting MOAR BOOSTERS!

Anyways, Survivability comes in handy for using landing legs for launch stability, as in this brief LV-T45 test light I performed (I only activated the engine on low power for a few seconds, so as to hover briefly off the ground before touching back down on the launchpad. I thought of it as a bit like what they call a "hover test" in the rocketry business...)

Which, was for almost no money and basically nothing else. But it DID give me access to this MUCH more useful contract:

Launch Stability Enhancers- aka. Launch Clamps!

I haven't unlocked the node for these yet, but the contracts to test out equipment will give you early access to the parts if necessary.

That should come MASSIVELY in handy for safely launching a rocket actually large enough to make it to orbit (and shouldn't cost anything- after all the clamps expend no resources and never leave the launchpad...)

I probably only get one shot at it though (after that I'll need to unlock the node if I wish to use the clamps again), so I might as well make the best of it...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 10, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 18, 2014

OK, so I was going to have this up sooner, but Imgur is basically the "special child" of the internet photo website community- especially since the last update to the system. It kept telling me "no images found" when I tried to scroll down to some of the ones at the bottom of the screen, even though I WAS LOOKING RIGHT AT THE IMAGES a moment before... But like many special children, it's loved, and has its own place in the world (like as the preferred medium for a huge number of internet forums for some reason...)

Regardless, I've got at least (some) of the images up at last- and there are a lot of them to make up for the dearth of screenshots before. So without further adieu...

I kept getting over-ambitious, and trying to pack as many contracts into a single launch as possible to save on costs (if I was using all the components anyways, I wouldn't have to launch separate rockets just to fulfill the contracts), but eventually I decided on this relatively simple design.

I wasn't too familiar with how the "test part" contracts would work anyways, and it turned out it wasn't the way I expected- like for instance I didn't get credit for using the BACC SRB even though it fired through the range of altitudes and speeds specified in the contract- because apparently it needed to be *ACTIVATED* once the rocket was already moving at those speeds at those altitudes (how's that for nonsensical- a SRB that I need to fire AFTER being lifted BY liquid rockets- as using SRB's to lift the SRB wouldn't allow me to hit the desired speed of ignition in that altitude range very accurately...) You can see that the contract is STILL listed as "Active" after I launched a rocket to orbit using the BACC...

After circularizing the orbiter, and checking that the contract for the BACC was indeed still-unfulfilled, I decided to follow the lower stage down and attempt to recover it using parachutes. True, this isn't exactly the VTOVL capabilities of Space-X yet (that'll have to wait on some more technology- particularly longer landing legs), but if I could safely reduce the lower stage to a safe enough speed, my Kerbals could still at least fish the lower rocket out of the water, and after some refitting and re-testing re-use the modular components for future missions using these types of engines and fuel tanks...

I was also attempting to fulfill a parachute part contract in doing so- otherwise I wouldn't have bothered (but apparently, even if you fulfill all the contract conditions, it doesn't count if you activate the 'chutes by right-click: you have to use staging controls. And for some reason, the 'chutes wouldn't activate with staging, even though I had set it up that way ahead of time...)

Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well. It would have worked GREAT in wimpy stock aerodynamics, but I'm finding the aerodynamics stresses of FAR more than willing to tear apart my rockets if they undergo uncontrolled re-entry (like the case was for this lower stage- I'll have to remember to add a reaction wheel and some tail fins if I want to try this again with FAR in the future), or even if I try to hold a heading SLIGHTLY off the retrograde vector (like in my first launches, which you missed, where I attempted to use ASAS to hold a *slightly* more vertical angle than the angle of re-entry...)

Struts might be helpful (not available yet), but so would longer fuel tanks (fewer joints) or higher joint strength (like with Kerbal Joint Reinforcement). Right now I'm experiencing the unsavory combination of pitifully-weak stock joints (all the latest changes to joints did was exchange strength for rigidity- I've found the new joints actually much easier to tear apart than the old, whenever even moderate shearing forces are involved...) and highly-modular stock tank design. Oh, how I miss StretchyTanks right now (and for that matter, Active Texture Management- the lag when viewing Kerbin from orbit was unbearable...)

Anyways, after that was done, I moved on to the glory of !SCIENCE! My main mission besides attaining orbit was to gather scientific data from orbit- namely Crew and EVA Reports, Mystery Goo experiments, and the recovery of a vessel from orbit. That part went a little better:

By the way, I love Gene Kerman's comments ("it's not as if it were rocket sci-oh")- though I'm sure I can't be the only one utterly confounded by the horrible grammar and syntax (it's obvious what the devs were TRYING to do- it just doesn't look like they got it to come out right) in the Briefings... I'm not the only one getting something that looks like it was written by a heroin addict on recovery from a week-long binge for my Briefings, am I? :huh:

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 10, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 19, 2014

Apparently, my space program isn't the only one in operation. Somehow, Jergun Kerman managed to end up alone in orbit of Kerbin- which can only mean there must be other rocketry programs out there...

Time for a rescue mission. :cool:

All went smoothly, and I also managed to rack up some !SCIENCE!

The rocket touched back down with plenty of spare fuel... But that's fine- because it's a rough test of some systems (the upper stage, for instance, will be re-used exactly the same) for a later mission I have planned... You'll have to read further though to see what it is :cool:

Jergun Kerman, meanwhile, is busy enjoying a long debriefing from the "comfort of his quarantine cell" according to the game-text... He'll also be a new victi- I mean volunteer for my space program's future missions...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 19, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 19, 2014

You made it this far! Time to witness my Kerbals' first Munar flyby (OK, I know I didn't keep you guys waiting very long- but I had some backlog on my posts due to the forum being down on my ISP for a brief while last night...)

The launch stage was essentially a clone of the one from the previous mission, but with the 3 BACC SRB's clustered under a tri-coupler instead of individual nose-cones to save on cost. This actually increased vessel mass a tiny bit, but reduced drag (thanks to the rocket having a better ballistic coefficient, and FAR being a lovely realistic darling of an aerodynamics system), so it made it to more or less the same altitude as before. The rocket was also cheaper (even with the addition of tail fins)- which was my main consideration for the new design :cool:

The rocket then embarked on a Free Return Trajectory to a low orbit around the Mun (which was planned from the start- hence why I burned *downwards* during circularization- I needed my apoapsis to be between 120 and 150 km to have a good shot at this). If you're not sure what that is, watch and learn... :cool:

So, after the transfer burn, all I had to do was sit back and wait (hence why its a "free" return- no return burn necessary). Oh, and collect some Science in Munar orbit (I was hoping 195 km was low enough for "low orbit" data, so I could rack up some biome EVA reports, but apparently not- next time I'll have to check the SOI figures for "low orbit" on the Mun)

And then coast on back to Kerbin... :cool:

This rocket is STILL over-engineered for the purpose at hand, though- even with the heavy reliance on cheap disposable SRB's (with their low ISP).

In fact, the rocket even has enough fuel to capture into Munar orbit (perhaps even a polar orbit) and return... :cool:

Before any great endeavor comes !SCIENCE! though, and I felt it appropriate at this point to perform a little launchpad-testing on my newest science systems so that my Kerbals can develop a basic understanding of Aerodynamics.

My next mission won't be to Munar orbit *just yet*- it'll be a bit of experimentation with flying planes around in FAR (should be FUN, especially with such a limited selection of parts) and knocking out a few of the contracts I currently have assigned (including one requiring me to test a splashed-down jet engine) so that I'll hopefully be offered some contracts more relevant to a Munar mission...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 19, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 20, 2014

After some runway science tests with a jet fighter that, while impressive-looking, didn't actually lead to anything- as I determined planes were far too expensive and risky of a way to meet my current goals...

I proceeded on to a ballistic launch of a jet engine into the bay near KSC for a contract to perform a splashdown test of a jet engine:

[imgur][/imgur]

Simple and cheap enough- and as you can see in the last image, I made a hefty profit from it (the reward was 1500, the cost after recovery was only 107.99) :cool:

And... We have another Kerbal trapped in orbit to go and rescue. Hmmmm, I wonder if he wouldn't mind my taking a little detour to go orbit the Mun (and return) after rescuing him...

By the way, these rescue missions are GREATLY aided by having the radial attachable MechJeb unit, which counts as a command module- so that I don't have to do the completely unrealistic looking stack-two-Mk1-command-pods thing in order to rescue stranded Kerbals at this point in the tech tree. I don't mind it- it's perfectly realistic to think that if my Kerbals could build a Stayputnik they could build a radially-attachable unmanned control unit as well (in fact, I'm pretty sure the historical Sputnik launches weren't controlled by the command systems in the satellite itself, but by control systems elsewhere on the rocket...)

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. There's an even cheaper rescue solution than launching an empty capsule for those players running KAS, but not Deadly Re-Entry: launch a stock radial parachute to the stranded Kerbal. The rocket need only have enough Delta-V to reach him: the Kerbal can detach the parachute and hold it on his back using KAS, and use his jetpack to de-orbit himself and safely skydive to the ground from orbit... With Deadly Re-Entry, one needs to also send up some sort of useless part as a heat-shield, a ladder for the Kerbal to grab onto the "safe" side, and a couple Seperatrons to de-orbit the whole package.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 20, 2014

After a quick bit of Launchpad !SCIENCE!

I prepped the ground crew, hauled my Rescue Rocket out to the Launchpad, and... We have liftoff!

I opted for a kind of oddly (and inefficiently) designed rocket for this mission so that I could rake in some !SCIENCE! for testing the TT-70 decoupler and BACC SRB "in flight over Kerbin"...

Soon, my mission was well underway, and I was raking in even more !SCIENCE!

And not long after, I had the poor Kerbal safe and sound aboard my rocket. Once again, after less than 6 hours in orbit (the estimated life support capacity of a real-world space suit when a stranded astronaut conserves Oxygen by moving very little...)

I've been focusing quite a bit on the aerodynamic Science nodes, as some of you may have noticed- but I'm not sure that's going to pay off very well without mods. I forgot just how lousy the stock Spaceplane parts were- there's not even being a good way to attach more than two engines to the back of a spaceplane without making use of weak SurfaceAttach nodes (which have a great chance of failing under the aerodynamic loads of FAR) to attach three fuselages in a row...

As such, I'll probably be throwing in some aerospace mods soon enough... My first choice would probably be Firespitter- as it's already in a preliminary 0.24 version, and the propellers should help enormously for low-speed fuel-efficient exploration of Kerbin's surface. I've also been eying TV's Aerospace and Pizza, Procedural Dynamics for its FAR-compatibility (which should let me design good supersonic wings- the stock wings all being terribly shaped for supersonic speeds...) And, of course, B9 Aerospace once it's updated for this 0.24...

These mods should also be useful for attempting the Flying Duna challenge again in the future- though this time without all the clutter of a million other mission efforts going on at the same time (if I'm going to use the plane to support a Duna base, I'll have that base set up BEFORE I leave Kerbin. If I make it a one-off mission, I won't launch anything else until the mission is complete...)

In short, I don't expect the stock+FAR+MechJeb state of my game to persist for long. But in the meantime, it's giving me good practice designing lean missions (from a budgetary perspective). I can't overemphasize enough how much more cost-effective Solid Rocket Boosters are than LFO rockets for non-reusable applications, for instance.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 10, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 21, 2014

My second Rescue Rocket proceeded on its Munar Transfer:

And then began collecting !SCIENCE! Lots of !SCIENCE!

As a side-note, I really need to consider installing a mod like "Science Alert!", because this constant spamming of the "EVA Report" function in the context menu is getting sickening- especially when my right-clicks (as well as my staging commands) are having trouble registering in 64-bit KPS 0.24 for some reason...

And then, my brave Kerbal began his return-trip to Kerbin, transmitting a couple additional reports on the way:

And, back at the Space Center, my Kerbals developed the Advanced Construction Techniques that will eventually pave the way for the development of docking ports- essential if I want to make use of advanced low-cost strategies like reusable landers for my exploration of the Mun and the farther reaches of the Kerbol system...

If I keep it up, I should be able to set boots on the ground on Duna in no time. And, all the money I'm saving should come in handy for infrastructure development if I eventually install KSP Interstellar once it's up-to-date (and balanced) for 0.24

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 21, 2014

The recovery of the second Rescue Rocket went smoothly...

Paving the way for new science, and new contracts:

Docking ports have been designed! Next stop: Heavier Rocketry!

The larger SRB's should make for more powerful cheap launch vehicles. I bet I can lift useful payloads on nothing but a stack built on a single stock ultra-heavy booster... (and don't even get me started on what can cheaply be done using the 2.5 meter NovaPunch SRB's once that mod is up-to-date...)

It seems the Ares I had the right idea in real-life.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 21, 2014

Some ground-testing of equipment for contracts led to a useful contract for my continued Munar exploration efforts:

And here's a sneak-preview of what's coming up next (I'd have this in orbit by now, but MechJeb's ASA function started acting up when I tried to access the Altitude Adjustment tab, and I need the precise control over heading to get the right ascent-curve for some contracts I'm completing in this launch...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 21, 2014

My LV-T45 Drive Section made a successful launch to orbit:

Yes, you read that right- drive section.

That may leave you guys with a lot of questions- I know it certainly would leave me with some...

First of all, what is it for?

It's meant to serve as the main drive section for two upcoming missions- first of all, my manned mission to the Munar surface (to plant a flag and complete a contract), and second of all a probe mission to Duna.

The probe mission will involve a return of Materials Study data from orbit of Duna, so the drive section will return to the Kerbin system after this mission. At that time I can decide on future uses of the vehicle, such as further manned missions to the Munar surface (depending on the drive section's track record from the first mission).

I know a LV-T45 is far from the most efficient choice for a reusable tug: though with my current technology, I don't have access to a NERVA. I could have easily opted for an LV-909 for its higher ISP, or an LV-T30 for its lower mass. However the contract to test the engine in flight effectively paid for the engine, and it was the best choice for the ascent profile to orbit I made use of anyways, due to its thrust vectoring (which was highly necessary to maintain control under the strong aerodynamics forces acting on the rocket).

Now a brief word about the ascent profile: what was THAT, some of you might be asking...

What you just witnessed, was the full glory of body-lift with Ferram Aerospace Research.

Although this was not an original part of the design, I quickly realized when running a few launch-revert "simulations" to determine what Thrust Limiter I would have to apply to my SRB's to reach the target speeds for my contracts at the target altitudes (a REAL space program would have talented engineers who would simply be familiar with the mathematical formulae to determine such frivolities, but *I* was left running "computer simulations" since I'm not an aerospace engineer) that the flattened shape of the vessel when turned with the axis the SRB's were placed on parallel to the ground was perfect for generating "body lift"- aerodynamic lift experienced by even relatively non-aerodynamic objects, such as rockets and the fuselages of jet planes (though normally speed has to be quite high- as with my rocket- or the fuselage well blended into the wings of a plane, for this effect to be significant).

Thus, with sufficient speed, my rocket was able to hold much of its weight up with lift, rather than with gravity- enabling it to achieve orbit despite its rather shallow ascent profile.

This was not the *optimal* ascent- but it allowed me to efficiently fulfill three separate contracts for testing rocket parts at low altitudes and high speeds. There was simply no way to achieve these speeds without a very shallow ascent and high TWR- any vessel ascending vertically would have either been moving too slowly when passing through this altitude range with a low TWR, or much too quickly by the time of reaching this altitude with a high TWR. And since I was using SRB's, there was no way to simply throttle down or turn off the engines of a high-TWR craft so as to reach the proper speeds/altitudes with a vertical ascent.

A plane would have worked too- but I don't have the tech nodes necessary for supersonic flight with jet engines yet (some of the test speeds were supersonic), and the basic "Swept Wings" available to me at this point are not only rather unstable at supersonic speeds with their default sweep (though I could always angle them into the fuselage with Shift+Click- sacrificing some of the wing area and thus lift, for stability), but would really require a powerful rocket-plane to reach the desired speeds anyways.

So, if I was going to use rockets for my propulsion, and I was going to be relying on lift to fight gravity, I figured why not do it in a badass and unconventional way? What's NOT to love about breaking Mach 5 (1710 m/s) before 27 km? :cool:

None of this would have been possible without the Mach Effects of FAR (like in real life), of course (drag in the stock pea-soup atmosphere would have NEVER allowed speeds like in the image above, *and climbing*, at 12 km with a TWR of just 1.71)

I'm just lucky the rocket (barely) held together at those altitudes flying at more than Mach 3.5...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 10, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 21, 2014

The LVT-45 Drive Section detached its boosters (in the target range for one of my contracts) and boosted itself to a higher orbit (just under 200 km) to make it easier for future missions to rendezvous, and the boosters began the process of de-orbiting by moving into unstable orbits:

I'd already have the boosters on the ground by now, but right-clicking isn't working in the game at the moment, and I need to tweak a few things (namely, put the probe cores into "sleep mode" by deactivating the ElectricCharge draw, and configure the parachutes for their eventual deployment), so that will have to wait a bit longer...

Also, the completion of the decoupler-test contract caused several companies to offer me some *extremely* useful contracts (the ground decoupler test is particularly lucrative science-wise, Science Data from around Kerbin was already on my to-do list, and exploring Minmus should be easy and quite lucrative). I also recovered the launch clamps from before:

I'm really liking 0.24 so far, *despite* all its bugs. :cool:

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 21, 2014

A little launchpad/runway science got me the last few points I needed to finish developing Specialized Control for the lander cans:

After that, I went about the business of recovering the two boosters I began on de-orbit trajectories earlier:

By chance (based on which direction the boosters were facing when entering the atmosphere), the boosters both ended up in nose-first re-entry trajectories though. So when the parachutes deployed in drogue mode (they were "pre-deployed", as I was having trouble selecting the parachutes with the right-click context menu, and didn't want to risk the parachutes no deploying during re-entry...) the aerodynamics forces proved too much for the joints with the SRB's, and those portions of the boosters were in both cases lost (the joints actually broke when the parachutes were deployed in drogue mode, but aerodynamic forces held the pieces of the boosters together roughly until the parachutes fully-deployed...)

The recovery revenue wasn't very high in either case (approx. 1107 and 1294 Funds)- but in both cases more than the marginal cost of 870 Funds for the MechJeb2 unit (700 Funds) plus the cost of using a Mk16XL parachute (850 Funds) instead of a nosecone (680 Funds), meaning I turned a slight profit... Less when you consider that a MK16XL parachute is a bit heavier than a nosecone, and thus the Drive Section ended up with less leftover fuel than it otherwise would have.

In truth, probably not worth the effort, except that I had to de-orbit the boosters anyways, and it allowed me to profitably complete a contract to test a radial decoupler in orbit. Might have been more worthwhile if the booster had managed a tail-first re-entry trajectory, though, as I would have then also been able to recover the depleted Solid Rocket Booster and attached decoupler.

By the way, boy are the lander cans expensive! I'll definitely be trying to amortize that cost over multiple landings with a reusable lander...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 21, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 22, 2014

Time for a little science- airplane style. :cool:

Meet the new Experimental Jet Plane. Taking advantage of the fact that FAR blends overlapping wings into one continuous wing (which performs better than either wing separately) for lift purposes, I managed to piece together a Delta Wing for her out of a Delta-Deluxe Winglet and a Swept Wing rotated into the fuselage so as to actually be swept (see the second image for a diagram of what actually constitutes a *swept* wing- credit to NASA)

She flies beautifully- a little touchy on the runway with some payloads (such as the engine I used here), but she's amazing once she actually gets off the ground. Her controls are rather powerful though, and KSP doesn't have a way to dampen control inputs (and I can't just limit MaxControlAngle, as I need a greater range of movement for things like pulling out of dives), so I mostly end up flying her with MechJeb ASAS- which is a shame considering her capabilities.

Anyways, here's the rest of the mission:

This mission pushed my design to its very limits (it ran out of fuel towards the end, as you can see), but allowed me to fulfill three contracts- a Rockomax 24-77 engine test at high altitude, a high-altitude Mk16 parachute test, and a test of the gear bays (provided as "experimental parts" specifically for this contract) when splashed down.

The end was a little nerve-wracking, what with the unpowered spin and nothing but a parachute standing between my Kerbal and oblivion, but it all worked out fairly well- the plane even managed to splash down without losing a single part. However I got cocky, and tried to flip the plane over so my gear bays would be in the water (for a contract where I needed to test them splashed down- which apparently wouldn't work while the plane was sitting on its tail)- which didn't end well, and ended up destroying a couple of cheap parts on the nose of the plane... Loading the quicksave (taken right after the plane was sitting stable on its tail) didn't work either, as small fluctuations in the movement of the plane when quickloading caused it to flip over immediately...

Nevertheless, I opened up some VERY lucrative and useful contracts with this mission, and another Science Node:

The new Science Node (Landing) should open up some lighter (and cheaper) landing legs for my probe to Duna...

And the Poodle Engine should prove useful for my Munar mission. :cool:

All Controllers standing by to watch the firewor- erhm, the launch.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 22, 2014

Finally, my first 2.5 meter launch- the Mobile Munar Lab:

It successfully launched to orbit- dropping its boosters along the way (I was hoping to load those up and follow them down to the ground, in the hopes the parachutes would at least save the tri-couplers; but the boosters dropped below 23 km before my Mobile Lab even made orbit), and picking up a stranded Kerbal- Pomeroy Kerman- for completion of a contract.

The vessel is designed to service the Mystery Goo containers and Materials Bay of my reusable Mun lander (not yet launched). It also contains a 2.5 meter fuel tank large enough to refuel the lander- and serve as a minor fuel depot until I eventually install an updated version of KAS, and can rig parachutes onto it in LKO to return it to the surface (failing that, use of the "Claw" and a sufficiently large ship should suffice) of Kerbin for recovery of a portion of its value... The laboratory module alone is worth 8000 Funds- as much as a small disposable rocket- so I'm *definitely* not going to leave it in space...

Next, the Mobile Lab rendezvoused, and successfully initiated hard-dock with, the LV-T45 transfer stage I launched earlier.

Currently, I'm just trying to figure out how much fuel I need to safely de-orbit the upper stage- which is equipped with parachutes for landing-stability, but designed to make a powered soft-landing due to the much lower cost (and mass) of the extra fuel than the additional 'chutes... (there is an effect of diminishing return with parachutes- a craft with 4 'chutes won't fall at half the speed of a craft with 2)

I miss TAC Fuel Balancer- it would make the task of precise fuel transfers much easier- but alas, it's not updated for 0.24 yet...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 22, 2014

Another lucrative contract opened up- though I'm worried about the debris this is guaranteed to leave in orbit. I've got a few ideas bouncing around my head about how I might de-orbit, and even recover the decoupler ring after detachment though... (spoiler: one of the more promising ideas follows a sort of "ring on a stick" principle)

Additionally, I recovered the upper stage used to launch my Mobile Munar Lab. While FAR does make it extremely difficult to predict re-entry trajectories, and causes them to vary significantly due to heading (as a result of body-lift and shielding), I feel that I got this one pretty darn close. Probably just about as close as I'm ever going to come in KSP since I said goodbye to lousy, inaccurate, stock aerodynamics...

Now to launch a reusable Mun Lander- and maybe complete a contract or two in the process... :cool:

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 22, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 23, 2014

Today I took a look at the Experimental Version of KSP Interstellar, which is currently out (note that it is NOT considered a "Release"), having been developed by the current maintainer of the mod (WaveFunctionP) while FractalUK is out...

However, just taking a look at the configs without installing the mod, my jaw nearly dropped- currently a simple, dumb exhaust nozzle- little more than a glorified cone for the heated exhaust of a reactor or Microwave Thermal Receiver to push against, costs 25000 funds (that's 25k-no I didn't miss a zero).

For reference, my low-cost SRB-based rockets (the tri-rocket design used earlier to launch a Mun-orbiter) cost about 12k each, FOR THE WHOLE ROCKET+PAYLOAD ON THE LAUNCHPAD. That simple, dumb little exhaust nozzle would be cheaper if it were made of solid silver.

So no, I won't be installing that mod anytime soon- at least not until the costs are worked out and made reasonable (based on real-world publications on the subject, the entire propulsion system of a Microwave Thermal Rocket, which operates at lower temperatures than a chemical rocket, with a peak temperature of just 2400-2500K, and is made mainly out of thin layers of Silicon Carbide; should actually be CHEAPER than a comparable-sized chemical thruster, not more expensive than an entire chemical rocket just for the exhaust nozzle)

See my discussion of this on the KSP Interstellar thread for more information:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/43839-0-23-5-KSP-Interstellar-%28Toolbar-Integration-New-Models-New-Tech%29-Version-0-11?p=1294634&viewfull=1#post1294634

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 23, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 24, 2014

Good progress is being made towards my manned Mun landings...

Earlier this week, I launched three crew capsules to LKO:

The first was manned. It carries Bob Kerman as a replacement crew member for the Mobile Science Lab (needs 2 Kerbals to operate), as I decided that I would quickly finish my active Rescue Contract by returning that Kerbal to Kerbin instead of delaying it by sending him on my Mun mission...

The second and third were unmanned- they are return vehicles for my Kerbals on the Mun mission. I figured it would be a good idea to have the return capabilities successfully deployed BEFORE launching my Munar lander or transferring the Mobile Science Lab to Munar orbit. It never hurts to play it safe...

With each launch, I refined the design a bit further- the second launch was the first to implement recovery of the lower stage Solid Rocket Booster (profitable, but not by much), and the third launch eliminated the reaction wheel after I discovered the built-in SAS on the probe core (or command pod for manned launches) was perfectly sufficient to meet my needs.

By the end, I had narrowed it to an extremely efficient and cheap design that I would have a VERY difficult time refining further, even with new technology (excluding mods, of course). The current design should be even cheaper than the fuel cost of most spaceplane designs- roughly 900 Funds (after recovery returns) to put a little over 1 ton in the form of a 1-man crew capsule+ docking port + probe core + Mk16 parachute in orbit (just barely). The payload capacity doesn't include the half-ton dry mass of the spent SRB, of course.

However, the capsule can't necessarily be expected to return to the KSC (as opposed to elsewhere on the planet) during re-entry, so the total cost comes out to even higher than that. The only cheaper (per-Kerbal) design I could imagine would be a spaceplane design with many rows of command seats shielded from drag by an enclosure of stock structural panels or a cheap mod "cargo bay"... (and designs like that tend to be very laggy) Besides, I rarely NEED that many Kerbals in orbit- usually 1 or 2 will do the trick, with capacity for a third on the occasion of needing to recover a stranded Kerbal...

Anyways, I'm attempting a new project! I'm going to try and stream my Munar Mission live to KSP-TV, if I can figure out how to do that using OBS and Twitch. We'll see how it works out- expect a link here if I can get it working. :cool:

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 24, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 24, 2014

Last night (technically this morning) I launched my Reusable Lander LIVE on Twitch (unfortunately the hour was weird and I was having some issue with my streaming, so I'm not sure how many people actually stuck around to watch it. The recording also got corrupted, so I can't post that now...) Here are some screenshots I took during the process:

Unfortunately, as some of you might have noticed from the lack of re-entry images on the lower stage, I forgot to load the lower stage back up so it could land in the bay east of KSC on parachutes and be recovered; and I also forgot to open the shielded docking port on the topmost fuel tank (which was meant to serve as an orbital fuel depot) before deploying it... Thus are the vagaries of playing KSP at 2:00 in the morning...

Still, the reusable lander is now in orbit; and I can always de-orbit the mostly-empty fuel tank in the future (I have plans for a small tug that de-orbits debris using the "Claw" while remaining in orbit itself...) If I have KAS installed by then, I can even slap a parachute on it to ensure recovery!

Those of you watching my twitch stream might have also seen my launch of a "Space Taxi" that I messed up the deployment of the fuel depot on (by forgetting to open the shielding on another Shielded Clamp-O-Tron), and thus reverted before logging off. I *will* have the screenshots from a fresh attempt of that launch up soon, though- and perhaps even a recording of my playthrough!

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 24, 2014

I believe I've finally got my broadcasting software working correctly! (the problem before was that it was encoding in the wrong file format)

Follow my next launch (the "Space Taxi") on Twitch!

http://www.twitch.tv/northstar1989

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · July 25, 2014

OK, so I don't believe I had many viewers for my play session last night, but I have at least gotten the hang of how to broadcast to Twitch a little bit... I'm still having issues with the sound level being messed up and stuff like that, and running Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) lags the heck out of my computer- but it's better than nothing... Hopefully, I'll figure out ways to tweak and fine-tune my broadcasts in the future...

Anyways, I also took screenshots of my launches for the rest of you guys. Here are the shots of the launch of my "Space Taxi"

My "Space Taxi" will serve as my specialized Orbital Transit Vehicle (OTV) between specialized 1-Kerbal Crew Launch/Recovery Capsules launched to LKO (atop the semi-reusable SRB launch vehicles shown previously) and other orbital craft (such as interplanetary transfer vehicles) and installations- such as my Munar Mobile Lab (which will act as a permanent station for new Munar landings until I've exhausted all Science there, and after which I've decided I will re-deploy it to Duna instead of recovering it...) It will also double as an orbital tug for light payloads traveling to the same destinations as my Kerbals- such as Munar orbit when sending fresh crew to my Munar Mobile Lab or recovering previous crew members...

I also used my Space Taxi/OTV to de-orbit Pomeroy Kerman for a Rescue Contract, and replace him with Bob Kerman for my Mun mission:

Finally, for those of you who missed the front page, I'd like to let you know you can watch a video of all this I posted to Youtube at:

This video is just the beginning of a series of videos I'll be posting following my 0.24 Career Mode progression. I have 3 videos up so far, and a 4th video is in the process of uploading as I write this. I apologize for the sound levels being so imbalanced in the first videos (you can't hear my voice much of the time over the music or sound of rocket engines, due to my computer's use of an internal microphone and internal speakers- and even when you can hear it, it sound very different than in real life), but that will be something I'll focus on improving in the future...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 26, 2014

I also performed the Munar injection of my Munar Mobile Lab last night. Here are the screenshots from that:

These screenshots correspond loosely to my second uploaded YouTube video:

The volume is still a bit off, though better than in the first video for at least some of the beginning of this one...

After Munar injection of my Mobile Munar Lab, I followed that up with Munar injection of my Reusable Lander as well:

That went extremely well- I was lucky enough to get a very rapid rendezvous with the Muanr Mobile Lab soon after circularization.

Here's a link to video #3, by the way, where I transfer the Reusable Lander to the Mun:

Then I performed my first Mun landing! (video #4 shows this- being uploaded now)

And ascended back to orbit to refuel, transfer over the science, and clean out the used experiments... (this was my first time using a Mobile Lab to do either, so it was a learning experience...)

And then performed a second Mun landing (this time near a Mun arch!)

During this Munar sortie, my Kerbal (Jendin Kerman- Bob having had the opportunity to perform the first landing) jet-packed over to the Munar arch (not shown here, but visible in my fourth videos), and collected some !SCIENCE! under it. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, there was nothing particularly unique about the arch from a scientific standpoint; and my Kerbal used up so much EVA Propellent on the way there that he had to hike most of the way back, which took a LONG time...

Jendin did eventually make it back, though- and proceeded to take off for the Munar Mobile Lab and ANOTHER refueling + scientific analysis sortie:

It occurred to me while doing this that once I install TAC Life Support before my first manned mission to Duna (which is on my to-do list), I might be better off, when returning my Mobile Lab to Kerbin at the end of the mission, performing this kind of analysis of samples on the way BACK to Kerbin, as it takes a long time... I probably won't be leaving the lab at Duna unless I decide to develop ISRU life-support facilities there with locally-powered greenhouses, as the life-support requirements of a two-step transfer stopping at Duna to locations further out, such as Jool, would be ENORMOUS- due to the much longer mission time...

I then suited up Bob Kerman again, and performed a THIRD (and final- until additional fuel can be sent to the Mun) Munar landing:

I had about enough fuel for one-and-a-half Mun landings at this point, though- so I decided to push my luck, and made a suborbital hop to another nearby crater of interest for additional !SCIENCE!

As you can see, though, that left me with a VERY tight Delta-V budget (it would have been less tight if I had brought a bit less fuel on my initial Munar landing- but I didn't know precisely how difficult it would be to land with this particular lander design, and wanted to be safe rather than sorry...) So I ended up only having enough fuel to launch the lander back to an extremely low inclined Munar orbit- from which point Bob Kerman collected all the science, bailed out, and jet-packed over to the Munar Mobile Lab on his own... (no pictures shown of the actual maneuver, though I *think* you can find footage of it in the Youtube video uploading right now...)

I hope you guys enjoyed this mission set (there will be more once I manage to send some additional fuel over on my OTV/ Space Taxi), and remember that you can follow me (or subscribe to my channel) on Twitch or watch my videos (and subscribe if you want) on YouTube!

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 27, 2014

Just a quick update here...

Recently, my Space Taxi/OTV rendezvoused with another stranded Kerbal and brought him aboard. It is now waiting for a transfer window to one of the two orbiting Crew Recovery Capsules (I'll have to launch another one for the recovery of my Munar Mobile Lab's crew...)

Also, the LV-T45 Transfer Stage performed another aerobrake through Kerbin's atmosphere. As it's running out of ElectricCharge, it will have to perform a retrograde burn at apoapsis to speed the whole process up next time around...

Oh, and finally, my fourth YouTube video (showing my first Mun landing) is now up:

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · August 4, 2014

For those of you who didn't see the change to the front page of this thread, I've installed several new mods:

Active Texture Management (Aggressive) - Without this I wouldn't ever be going beyond FAR and MechJeb

Chatterer - this will make Twitch broadcasts (more to come, hopefully) a bit more interesting

Deadly Re-Entry - This will make KSP more !FUN!. Luckily, my existing Crew Recovery Capsules are based on Mk1 Command Pods (which have built-in heat shields), and I haven't yet begun preparing any interplanetary missions...

KW Rocketry - I caved and finally added a parts mod (as well as DRE). I'm interested to see how it compares to NovaPunch, which I'm more used to (although I do like NovaPunch's fuel-containing adapters). The 5 meter parts this eventually enables will also allow me to build rockets with better Ballistic Coefficients, which should allow me to utilize FAR to its full potential...

More progress (and screenshots) to come soon, once I'm sure the new mods are working correctly.

Regards,

Northstar

[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: A New Beginning

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