[CLOSED] "Northern Lights": Northstar1989's RSS 6.4x Career Mode Game

Northstar1989 · August 27, 2014

Short and sweet, I decided to close down my previous 0.24.2 Career Mode game (the subject of the thread "Kerbin and Beyond: A New Beginning") and start a Real Solar System: Kerbin System 6.4x (alternate config) career mode game for the greater challenge- and hopefully the greater interest to other KSP players.

I've learned a lot since I started my first Career Mode thread- notably how to record and upload videos of my gameplay to YouTube using OpenBroadcasterSoftware... My skills as a writer have also improved since then as well- expect special tidbits of roleplaying intermixed here and there with the rest of the thread when the mood strikes me.

I do hope this thread is of as much interest to you as it is to me.

Enjoy the videos (uploaded on YouTube and linked here), and don't forget to follow my progress LIVE on Twitch when I decide to live-stream form time-to-time...

http://www.twitch.tv/northstar1989

Regards,

Northstar

Mods (updated unless otherwise noted)

Parts:

KW Rocketry

Procedural Parts

Procedural Fairings

DMagic Orbital Science

Karbonite

Utilities:

Module Manager

Kerbal Alarm Clock

MechJeb2

Active Texture Management

Atmospheric Trajectories

Chatterer

Gameplay:

RealSolarSystem (6.4x Kerbin System config)

TAC Life Support

FAR

Deadly Re-Entry: Continued

KSP-Interstellar

RealFuels ("Stockalike" config)

Edited October 8, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · August 27, 2014

Every great journey begins with a single small step (followed by another and another, until the destination is reached), and this journey of adventure and exploration is no exception. Our tale begins with a few simple test on the launchpad of our equipment...

And, for those of you without the time or ability to watch a video (or who don't like my voice), I'm still taking screenshots:

Basically, I performed a little launchpad science (including a "hot" test of the LV-909 which revealed its TWR is well below 1 on even a small craft with the available RealFuels at this tech level) followed by a short launch to obtain high-altitude scientific data as well as break the 5000 meter altitude record...

More interesting missions will be coming SOON, but not before I perform some additional science within the atmosphere... (remember, even achieving orbit is a MUCH bigger deal with Real Solar System installed- even only the 6.4x scale version)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 27, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · August 27, 2014

More basic rocket science. But it'll get more interesting SOON.

Anyways, the progress so far has been two more launch tests and some launchpad science to fulfill a few more contracts:

Regards,

Northstar

Sirine · August 29, 2014

@Northstar1989: Hey dude, Sirine here. Just drop by to give some thought.

Since your are using RealFuel... Why not Real Engine and Stretchy Tank?

The advantage of Real Engines, it configure the Engines ISP/Thrust to "Real Stage". And Stretchy Tank makes your RealFuel much easy manageable. Especially when you go to interplanetary, the gas tent to 'leak' seriously.

Northstar1989 · August 29, 2014

Hey Sirine, glad to see you're following my thread at leas this far.

The reason I didn't use StretchyTanks (or rather, ProceduralParts, which is the sequel to it), even though I have used it in previous saves (notably the save for me "Kerbin and Beyond: A Maturing Space Program" thread), and am perfectly aware of its benefits; is because it is not yet balanced for 0.24 Career Mode. Specifically, the code hasn't yet been finished for procedural costs (at least, as of when I checked the thread a few days ago). I am considering eventually adding that mod in once it has been updated for 0.24.2, but the update is likely to be major and save-breaking (or at least breaking of previous craft designs), as adding procedural costs to parts isn't nearly as simple as it sounds...

I also assume when you talk about fuel leakage you are talking about "boil-off" of cryogenic fuels (Liquid Hydrogen/LH2, at a *very fast* rate, and Liquid Oxygen/LOX at a *much slower* rate). This is actually a problem faced by space programs in real-life, and there is a much cheaper and easier solution to it than use of cryogenic storage tanks (which are included in Procedural Parts mod when using Realfuels- but cost Ec/s to keep cold): it's called hypergolics.

Hypergolic fuels are those that combust instantaneously upon combination. RealFuels includes a number of these in its fuel mixture (almost any of the fuel mixtures in the mod beyond LOX/LH2 and LOX/Kerosene), each with substantially different benefits and drawbacks (such as higher/lower density or ISP). However as a class of fuels, hypergolics tend to be much denser that LOX/LH2 (meaning you can hold more Delta-V in each tank, as each tank holds a much greater mass of fuel), saving on craft size and the fiscal cost for tanks; and ALL of them can be stored without boil-off or the need for cryogenic storage.

The primary disadvantage of hypergolics is their lower Specific Impulse (like LOX/Kerosene, in the 300's range, although slightly lower than LOX/Kerosene. LOX/LH2 can reach into the low-to-mid 400's with the right engines). However, engines burning them tend to be capable of higher thrust than those burning LOX/LH2 (due to the greater mass-flow rate through the engine at a given pressure), reducing the need for engine-mass; and as already stated, there is no need for extra electrical systems to power cryogenic tanks: which can become quite power-hungry, like in real-life... (to the point that several NASA Mars Design Reference Mission variants proposed using a NUCLEAR REACTOR to power cryogenic fuel storage tanks- though admittedly this reactor was already to be onboard for nuclear-propulsion reasons... The reactors were for a type of nuclear propulsion known as BNTR- a superior-performing successor to NERVA, a working prototype of which was co-developed by the USA and Russia, and little-discussed until recently due to political reasons...)

If I were currently ready to start building next-generation reusable infrastructure (due to "tech level" advancements in the RealFuels engines, any reusable spacecraft launched NOW would quickly become obsolete when I advanced beyond tech-level 2/3, which approximately represents late-1950's/early-1960's technology...), then building orbital cryogenic fuel depots would quickly become a priority for me, due to the lower mass of fuel I would need to launch to fuel up the reusables for each mission. However, when using disposable spacecraft, LH2/LOX *simply doesn't make financial-sense*, as it means I have to launch a much greater mass (and cost) of fuel tanks, which only get used once and then get thrown away, compared to using LOX/Kerosene or Hypergolics, which only costs me around two-thirds as much on fuel tanks (after considering the need for more fuel mass due to lower ISP) due to the 2.5-3 times higher fuel-density...

(I only wish NASA and the United Launch Alliance would realize this in real life, like Space-X has already caught onto. Fuel costs are only 1-2% of real-life launch costs, which is probably why fuel is currently "free" in RealFuels- since even the minimum resource-cost allowed by KSP would quickly exceed real-life costs by almost an order of magnitude. LOX/LH2 makes no sense in real-life, like in KSP with RealFuels, because you end up launching more than twice as many expensive tanks just to save a little cheap fuel. It's like building a $2 million car just to save a few gallons of gasoline every year over a comparable $200,000 car... On second-thought, ULA probably already *has* realized this, which is precisely WHY they *choose* to push LH2/LOX on NASA- as United Launch Alliance is nothing but a bunch of money-grubbing dirtbags with no real interest in advancing the state of rocket science like Space-X or Boeing are both trying to do, albeit by very different philosophies...)

Finally, you mentioned "Real Engine" before. I can only assume by this you meant the "Real Engines" config for RealFuels mod.

I choose not to use that mod for three (all very good) reasons:

(1) The "Stockalike" config for RealFuels mod I choose to go with instead is easier to adapt to for a player who has never played with RealFuels before, and retains more of the "stock flavor" (in fact, I was surprised to hear you recommending the "Real Engine" mod to me instead Sirine- wasn't it you who was refusing to use anything but stock parts back in the early days of the Flying Duna challenge by Geschosskopf?) It also still maintains realistic TWR ratios and ISP values: by increasing or (more often) decreasing the mass of stock engine parts to bring them more in line with real-world rocket Thrust-Weight Rations (the rocket engines in Stock KSP are *much* heavier for the thrust they produce than their real-life counterparts...), and adjusting Specific Impulse as necessary to match comparable real-world rocket engines.

(2) The "Stockalike" config for RealFuels is compatible with a wider variety of mods. More precisely, it has been expanded to revise the engines for a much wider variety of mods than the "Real Engine" config. This gives me a wider variety of engines to play with- which is important to me, as I usually spend a lot of time looking for "just the right engine" for my purposes (this was probably never very apparent when viewing my screenshots, but should quickly become *VERY* clear to anyone watching me play this Career Mode thread through my posted YouTube videos...)

(3) The only up-to-date version of the "Real Engines" config for RealFuels mod I can currently find is bundled up with "Realism Overhaul" mod. Since I have *absolutely no intention* of playing with this mod, I can't play with "Real Engines" even if I wanted to (Realism Overhaul doesn't play nice with a lot of other mods, and forces me to install several mods I don't want or like, such as Advanced Jet Engines mod- which nerfs jet engines down to a 1960's/1970's level, rather than providing multiple tech-levels to reflect advancement like RealFuels already does with rocket engines... Given the choice between OP'd stock jet engines that outperform 21st-century tech, and jet engines that can't advance beyond the 1970's except for the RAPIER engines, I'll choose the OP'd engines any day...)

So, in summary- I'll probably eventually install a more up-to-date version of ProceduralParts mod (the successor to StretchyTanks) when it is balanced for 0.24's funds-system, but I have *absolutely no intention* of switching over to Real Engines config for RealFuels, as the "Stockalike" config is actually still quite realistic, and more fun for me to play with (sure, the "Stocakalike" engines don't precisely match any specific real-world engines: but they don't need to. The rocket engines fall within the range of real-world TWR and ISP values, and could perfectly conceivably be reproduced in real life if anyone so-desired...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · August 29, 2014

P.S. One last note on use of cryogenic fuels. I'm playing with the idea of eventually installing Karbonite mod, as KSP-Interstellar probably won't be updated before 0.25 (and would be save-breaking to install anyways, due to its optional-but-recommended reformation of the tech tree...) and I have a strong dislike for the Kethane mod's finite and exhaustible resource system (although I must admit, it does a much better job of detection that Karbonite- which doesn't produce any permanent resource maps of planets I can look at in-game: the only detection method being one of "blips" you can only see while directly overhead...)

If I installed Karbonite- which is already updated and balanced for 0.24.2, and compatible with RealFuels and all my other mods- then I would at the very least rely on the semi-cryogenic combination of LOX (which is only moderately cryogenic- much less than Liquid Hydrogen) and Kerosene (which is not cryogenic at all) rather than hypergolics in many cases (for the higher ISP). Both Kerosene and LOX can realistically be produced by ISRU anywhere there are readily-accessible sources of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen (on Mars in real life, for instance), so I would have no objections to setting up a base on Duna to produce these resources... I might also make use of LH2/LOX on/around the Mun, since on Earth's moon, it is probably much more practical to make LH2 from water-ice than it is to combine it with recently-discovered graphite to make Kerosene; as the latter would require harvesting and refinement of two separate solid-state resources not necessarily always found in the same place... (on Mars, there is Carbon in the atmosphere and water-ice in the soil; so one site can have easy access to both of these resources without having to gather them from disparate locations to a central refinery...)

https://www.gl.ciw.edu/carbon_on_the_moon

Edited August 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · August 29, 2014

OOC: Another update- this one's in-character from the perspective of my imagined space program chief- Northstar Kerman...

Northstar Kerman sat at his desk, watching the recording file, rewinding it, and watching it again, over and over.

"I can't believe we let this happen." went his recurring thought "How did the engineers manage to screw up and put the low-altitude version of the capsule on the sub-orbital rocket?"

Watching the video, the last moments of Jebediah Kerman could clearly be seen as molten metal from the exterior of the capsule folded into the interior of the crew capsule, and ripped through the arms, legs, and body of his fragile space suit. Strangely, rather than screaming in pain, Jebediah had the same old dumb grin on his face right up until the end...

"I always thought he was a little loony" ruminated Northstar Kerman...

But watching Jebediah's final moments did little to shed light on how the screw-up had happened, and did less for Northstar's mental stability. So, he rewound the tape to the beginning of the recording yet again, and attempted to discover how all this had come to be in the first place...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · August 29, 2014

More videos, more screenshots, and more !SCIENCE!

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 29, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · August 30, 2014

Another video, of my next launch:

What this launch was, basically, was an attempt at a Munar Flyby (for data on a Materials Study in the Mun's Sphere of Influence) that turned into just a Materials Study in Kerbin's High Orbit sphere after it turned out I didn't have enough fuel left after making orbit for a Munar Flyby...

Real Solar System is HARD (even on the 6.4x Kerbin config) compared to stock! FAR was almost a joke to adapt to (as I already designed all my rockets around sound aerodynamic principles), but what a difference a simple increase in the planetary radius (with adjustments to density to prevent changing the surface gravity) makes to required Delta-V! I enjoy the enhanced realism and challenge though- it's nice to finally have a (more realistically) tough time just getting things to orbit (in the stock game, this spacecraft would have been able to make it all the way to Jool and back with its fuel load...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 30, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · August 31, 2014

I performed some more simple tests of rocket parts on the Launchpad/Runway for a bit of additional science, managed to mop up enough science that way to finish unlocking "Advanced Construction" (and with it my first 2.5 meter fuel tanks- I have access to 2.5 meter engines through some advanced Contracts due to my space program's high reputation), and even "launched" a crew capsule at one of the Kerbin Real Solar System alternative launch sites (Orok, which appears to be a high-elevation Baikonour analogue- being located a couple km above sea level in the middle of an expansive desert).

I am currently suffering from a cough + sinus infection, so I'm sticking to just screenshots (no video) until that clears up or I do something really interesting... Anyways, here are the screenshots:

I don't actually *know* if I will be able to fulfill the contract to test the Skipper in a sub-orbital flight: the altitude range they want me to test it at is still within Kerbin's atmosphere in Real Solar System 6.4x. Howevere it's probably worth it to have early ("Experimental") access to the Skipper. If the contract proves impossible to meet (because anything at that altitude counts as "in flight" rather than "on a suborbital trajectory"), then I'll just have to remember to cancel it some time before the deadline (so it counts as "cancelled" rather than "failed").

Also, I hope you guys (the readers) are enjoying following this so far. I'll try to sneak some more roleplay in at some point to make up for this period without any video uploads and only sparse screenshots...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited August 31, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · September 1, 2014

I started off my play session today by checking the Science Archives, and realized I still don't have ANY data from outside the atmosphere (since Jebediah Kerman's ship incinerated during re-entry and my Materials Study launch is still in orbit...) So I made a mental note to get to work on some Science at sub-orbital trajectories soon...

Then, I performed another Launchpad Test (for !Science!), this one at the Pleasant Valley alternative launch site, so I could get a look at it:

It turns out that Pleasant Valley is at a lower elevation than Orok, and all the other alternative launchpad sites are near a coast (and thus couldn't be at very high elevation above sea level), so from now on Orok has become my new alternative launch site...

So, I performed a test of the Runway at Orok to see if it was functional (or if it were bugged and would cause planes to explode on "Launch"). It looks like it works fine:

At Orok (for the ISP benefits of altitude), I then proceeded to build my first airplane- using nothing but a huge number of the rocket control fins available from Stability and Flight Control (I haven't unlocked Aerodynamics yet) and a LV-T45 engine for propulsion (in RealFuels it gets better ISP than a LV-T30, and I had use for the thrust-vectoring). Surprisingly, after at least a dozen-and-a-half tests in which I *eventually* figured out that what was crashing my planes was Mach Effects (basically, I couldn't build anything stable past about Mach 0.8 in the first dozen km of atmosphere with only rocket tailfins for wings...), I built a functional subsonic rocket-plane that could briefly break the sound barrier at high altitude...

I used the rocket-plane to complete a couple Contracts- one asking me to test a LV-T45 (which was the other reason I selected this engine, rather than a lighter/weaker one from Realfuels/KW Rocketry such as the Coxswain...) and another a radial parachute (which was good, because the plane ran out of fuel just after reaching the test altitude/speed for the engine). I placed the radial chute as close to the Center of Mass as possible, and attempted to land horizontally- but that didn't *quite* work out as expected, and I ended up losing the LV-T45 engine on touchdown...

With the cost of the lost rocket engine, the total cost of the plane mission came out to around 2000 Funds- so I definitely could have done it cheaper with a rocket (a BACC booster plus a decoupler lifting a LV-T45 engine, a probe core and a radial parachute probably would have worked, and would have been cheaper...) But I gained some valuable experience building planes with FAR, which was probably worth the cost.

I also gained insight into the utility of Orok- the ISP of the LV-T45 engine I used for my plane was 18 points higher on the runway (280s) than at sea level (262s at this tech level) just from the 2500 meters or so of elevation... The higher terminal velocity at the launchpad (meaning you can utilize rockets with higher TWR throughout their ascent, and save on gravity losses without as high aerodynamic stresses or as much energy lost to drag) and reduced distance you have to climb to exit the atmosphere is also nice... So it's definitely worth utilizing over the KSC for most of my suborbital trajectories, where it really doesn't matter if I enter into an inclined orbit... (the only real downsides to the site are that it's not near the equator- where the rotational velocity of Kerbin is highest and you can easily launch to an orbit of ANY inclination- or water, which aids in recovery of spent stages by somewhat cushioning landings...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited September 1, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · September 1, 2014

Noting much to see here, just a suborbital Materials Study launch to pick up some !SCIENCE!

After which I was offered (and accepted) a contract to rescue a Kerbal stranded in orbit. Strangely enough, he's in a 750km x 700km orbit- and I don't think even RSS 6.4x increases the orbital height of rescue contracts by THAT much (the atmosphere is only 32% taller), which means he must have been in a pretty high orbit even in stock...

Also, I'm still wondering how he got to orbit, considering the only thing I've managed to launch to orbit so far has been an unmanned Materials Study to a substantially lower orbit. I guess there must be other space programs competing with my own? :confused:

Sometimes it's best just not to question KSP.

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 3, 2014

Some local science around the KSC to get a couple more tech nodes:

And said tech purchases:

And then I immediately put the improved ISP from the additional tech level (with RealFuels each additional tech node in rocketry unlocks another tech level) to use in my first manned orbiter in Real Solar System:

At the end of the album showcasing the launch of the "Rescue Orbiter", some of you may notice that I begin to perform a rendezvous with the High-Altitude Materials Study already in orbit. This was simply a mistake- playing at approx. 3 AM I forgot that I needed to rendezvous with the stranded Kerbal *FIRST* in order to actually be capable of picking up the data from the Materials Study later on...

As such, I won't actually be finishing the incomplete rendezvous, which I accidentally Quicksaved in (luckily it cost me almost no Delta-V so far)- but looking for my first transfer opportunity to the stranded Kerbal instead...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited September 3, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · September 5, 2014

Real Solar System 6.4x scale is still making a noob out of me. Which is nice, for the challenge- but as I'm sure some of you have heard me say, I wish there was a version at a lesser scale. Something between 30 and 50% (instead of 64%) the diameter of Earth would make for the most !FUN! for noobs and experienced players alike, in my opinion, and even a 20% scale Kerbin would be much more tolerable than the annoyingly-small stock Kerbin.

That being said, I do like and appreciate Real Solar System, and think the mod and the 6.4x scale config are both well-made, and demonstrate what could easily be possible with a "hard mode" of the coming difficulty factors feature, if Squad were willing to set aside their blanket "no larger planets" ban...

Now, to the good stuff. Things started off fairly smoothly, with a rendezvous with the stranded Kerbal:

Billy-Bobblie made it safely onboard without issue, and began breathing the Oxygen and drinking the Water I prepared for him (I didn't pack any Food in order to pack more of the other two, and because Kerbals, like Humans, can live quite a while without Food but only a very short time without Oxygen/Water). However, things quickly got a lot more interesting with my second planned rendezvous, to pick up the science data from the High Altitude Materials Study:

The rendezvous and pickup were managed without major incident, but as you'll notice from the Delta-V screen in the very last screenshot, the rocket ran almost completely out of fuel just in the rendezvous...

Which made any thought of a de-orbit attempt INTERESTING...

My solution, as you might notice from a select few of the screenshots while also collecting Science, was to have the Kerbal get out on EVA and *push*...

However, re-entry attempts (not shown) didn't go so well as planned (everything burned up, consistently). I guess I should have packed some Ablative Shielding after all (the only problem being, it's heavy, and I didn't have enough Delta-V for it with the current rocket design: which pushed the limits of cost-efficient 1.25 meter designs...) I ended up having to push again to stabilize the orbit at a lower altitude after a single aerobraking pass through the very edge of the atmosphere...

At least this progress in the rescue contract (having successfully brought the Kerbal aboard a crew capsule) opened up a couple new contracts at Mission Control:

Of course, my situation is now not much better than when I started. I may have the Kerbal onboard a capsule, but this only means I've made him "real" to TAC Life Support, and started the long countdown until he eventually suffocates (he only has about two 24-hour days of Oxygen and Water- guess which will kill him first when both run out?)

Meanwhile, the situation isn't much better from a cost of mass-to-orbit perspective either. All that the "Rescue Orbiter" mission ended up being is a couple more expensive experiments stuck in orbit, and more pieces of space junk I had to "Terminate" (technically, I could have left them around- but they wouldn't have served any purpose unless I were to install Extraplanetary Launchpads and recycle them for RocketParts; which became a much more involved and expensive process as of some of the latest updates to ExPl Lnchpds and the stock game, if a lot more realistic for the inclusion of a massive time factor and crew-labor requirement you now need for things to be processed and built...) They weren't really a realistic collision-hazard though: space is such a vast place as to make such collisions infinitely unlikely (even more so in Real Solar System), the only reason it's a danger is real-life is because of the literally thousands of pieces of space junk that have been generated over the years (many have already decayed out of orbit), and many dozens of satellites currently in operation... (over a hundred total!)

I guess I'm going to have to launch a "bigger boat" if I want to save the Kerbal and the experiments (I'll need to transmit the data from one of the Mystery Goo containers, however, as I am limited to storing the data from just one container in a crew capsule at a time: IMHO a "feature" that is silly, imbalanced, and *not* fun...) I'm starting to wish I had just transmitted the data from the High Altitude Materials Study before (that ceased to become an option when a bug in physics-loading caused the empty fuel tank the antennna was connected with to spontaneously combust before the launch of the Resuce Orbiter, off-camera of course... I installed Kerbal Joint Reinforcement specifically to avert this bug in the future, by benefiting from its "physics easing" during craft-loading, another feature that should be made stock- as it prevents many such Kraken attacks...) and not bothered to pack so many scientific experiments on this mission (skipping either the Materials Study or the two Mystery Goo containers would have left me with enough mass for some Ablative Shielding for re-entry, and possibly enough fuel to not have to get out and push to try to de-orbit...)

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 6, 2014

Just a little more progress from my last play-session...

First, I terminated some space junk (such as the now-useless High-Altitude Materials Study), and cancelled the contract to test a "Skipper" engine on a sub-orbital trajectory after some off-camera testing revealed it would not count reaching those altitudes as sub-orbital since the atmosphere extends above them (making the contract impossible).

I then replaced the cancelled contract with a simple launchpad one that opened up as a result of the cancelled contract, and got some free Funds and !SCIENCE! on the launchpad:

I hope you guys enjoy. Keep an eye on the streaming calendar for my coming live-streams!

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 7, 2014

I present, a "bigger boat". Tongue-in-cheek I named it quite literally. As usual, I have both video and screenshots:

The launch stage was meant to be reusable, but by the time I was able to switch it to physics-loading it had penetrated so deep in the atmosphere (without drag) that it quickly burned up once loaded...

The upper stage then proceeded to rendezvous with the Rescue Orbiter from before, and pick up the Kerbal and scientific data before returning to the vicinity of the KSC...

This gave me enough !SCIENCE! for Advanced Flight Control (and with it the MechJeb2 autopilot functions), and with its discovery placed me one step closer to Specialized Control and the Mk1 Lander Can which I will need for an efficient Mun landing...

Science is a never-ending process though, and to unlock the remaining nodes for my Mun landing (Specialized Control and Specialized Construction) I have to continue launching rockets. Thus, I performed another local launch in the vicinity of the KSC to meet the requirements for some splashdown-test contracts...

Then I performed a launch in the vicinity of Orok (one of the Real Solar System Kerbin scale-up alternative launch sites) for biome !SCIENCE!

And another such launch around Kermansburg...

And then a launch at the KSC for high-altitude science (launching at Orok would have made for a cheaper rocket, but I've discovered the recovery costs are calculated from the KSC if you don't land directly on one of the alternative KSC sites)

Finally, I decided on a use for the Rescue Orbiter other than simply Terminating it...

In the short run, I will use it as a crew lifeboat in case a rocket in LKO runs out of life-support supplies (but can't safely re-enter) or I need to leave a Kerbin in LKO for an extended period of time. I might as well make use of the Oxygen and Water already onboard...

In the long run, I will probably end up terminating the craft, however...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited September 7, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · September 11, 2014

I present, the Kerbal Clipper:

Basically just another local science launch, but I decided to give it a fancy name due to its slight resemblance to the real-life Delta Clipper...

I also took on some new contracts, including one to test a LV-N in orbit (and, after declining several contracts asking me to orbit inside the edge of the RSS atmosphere, finally at a valid altitude to test it in orbit!)

More progress coming soon- including a video of the Kerbal Clipper launch and of another vessel I've been working on...

Regards,

Northstar

Sirine · September 11, 2014

@Northstar1989 :Much appreciated if you could convert your screenshot file format from PNG to JPG, before upload to imgur. and save me tons of time waiting pics to show up.

Furthermore, if possible please make your video 1mins ~= 1mb. without sacrifice too much quality. *This can be tricky but is do-able. PM me if you want to know how.

Northstar1989 · September 11, 2014

@Sirine

I'll PM you about both of those things, since I'm not sure the best way to do either...

As for the rest of you, here are images of my latest launch. I tried to take a video, but it turns out that the latest update to Open Broadcaster Software, while it improved my audio quality a bit, also broke the video portion of my recordings... So no more videos until I figure out how to fix it...

After this mission I got a couple interesting contracts, but only accepted the Mainsail one you see selected. I declined the one for the Skipper in the hope of being offered an easier or more useful/lucrative contract- but nothing was offered in its place...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 12, 2014

OOC: Sirine, I re-formatted these images from PNG to JPG file format just for you. I hope you have an easier time loading the images! Also, the discussion of finding Munar resources is a prelude to eventually installing an ISRU mod somewhere down the line like Karbonite...

Northstar Kerman stood near the window in Mission Control warily eying the rocket on the launchpad.

Scientists at the KSC had *insisted* on the utility of this mission. In order to begin looking for local resources on the Mun, the first step was to look for temperature irregularities, they said. Differences in the heat capacities of the surface would lead to "hot spots" on the Munar night surface, and a clever scientist might even be able to make some guesses at what these materials could be. In order to get close enough to read the local temperature would be to launch on a collision-course with the Mun, as a sufficiently close flyby would be next-to-imposible with a SRB final stage...

Northstar, however, was not convinced. To him, this was just an expensive exercise in smashing things into the Mun to impress the higher-ups who had demanded the space program obtain some sort of scientific data from the vicinity of the Mun...

Politicians must be appeased, however, and so Northstar Kerman gave the order for the launch countdown to begin.

"Liftoff in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... WE HAVE IGNITION!" boomed an excited Kerbal voice over the loudspeaker, and with that the expensive piece of discovery equipment (or simple exercise in futility) lifted off from Kerbin:

Several minutes later, Northstar Kerman sat sipping Koffee with the KSC scientists, discussing the probe which now waited in orbit for its chance to make a Munar injection...

"You DO realize how difficult this mission was to plan, don't you?" Northstar started off "It took our rocket guidance specialists at least a DOZEN simulations to sufficiently narrow the transfer parameters such that a probe of this size and thrust could make an accurate injection into a Munar collision-course directly from Kerbin orbit..."

"Now, now then Northstar" replied Sir Dubya D Kerman, the lead scientist on the mission ("W" for short). "Would you rather that we launched a MANNED mission to the Mun this early on? Our engineers STILL haven't finalized work on developing a series of lightweight lander-capsules, and everyone here remembers what happened to Jebediah Kerman the last time we attempted a mission before we were fully ready..."

"You know as well as I that Jebediah's capsule only ended up a fiery BBQ because some fool in engineering forgot to replace the heatshield in the design from one of the launchpad tests" replied Northstar. "And as we all now, he's now stuck cleaning toilets for the rest of his career at the KSC. Let's just hope he doesn't manage to burn one of THEM up as well..."

Northstar paused to chuckle before continuing.

"As for the impactor- if we had waited just a little longer, we could have slapped the same temperature sensors on the first manned lander to the Mun. You know as well as I the only reason I approved this mission was to appease the engineers who wanted us to test one of those mini-decouplers in orbit of Kerbin, in the hopes of them coming up with more useful things for us to test once their attention is off those darn separators..." finished Northstar.

"Don't forget the politicians who promised better support for our space program if we collected scientific data from around the Mun!" an excitable young intern chimed in, before being slapped smartly across the back of the head by a senior scientist for interrupting a conversation between such senior staff members.

Northstar made a subtle nod at the intern for his accurate and useful comment, despite his annoyance at being interrupted. Then he gazed dreamily out the window, wondering when Kerbals might get the chance to go to the Mun, or finally set foot on Duna... Meanwhile, mission controllers in the next room carefully executed the probe's trans-Munar injection, and set about preparing the probe for its brief stint of data collection before forming a new crater on the Munar surface...

After the mission was over, while Northstar Kerman caught a nap after the success party, scientists set about reviewing the data, and discussing new proposed contracts for the space program in accordance with his standing orders. They also carried out a small launchpad test to examine the performance of the newest command pods on the launchpad as well as their integration systems with some of the older-style decouplers...

OOC: I hope you guy enjoyed this episode in the progress of my space program. More screenshots to come SOON , and hopefully I'll have my video recording software back up and running properly sooner rather than later...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited September 12, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · September 12, 2014

My next launch is, well actually, a takeoff. I present my next Test Jet:

It (just barely) had the range to fly from Orok to Kermansburg (although it would have been a bit less close if I didn't climb to such a high altitude, where standard jet ISP suffers significantly). However, as you'll notice, I actually had to land it on the grassland- this is because *apparently*, only one launch site can exist on Kerbin at a given time. Thus, when a plane takes off from Orok, Kermansburg doesn't actually EXIST until I go back to the Tracking Station and switch the launch site. frustratingly, recovery percentages are also calculated from the standard KSC location even if you use an alternative launch site unless you manage to land on the runway/launchpad (100% recovery) or launch facility grounds... (98% recovery)

I managed to easily stick a runway landing, though, thanks to my plane's excellent yaw ability (usually my planes have much less vertical stabilization and no dedicated rudder, and thus have a much more difficult time properly lining up with the runway...), and so basically got FREE !SCIENCE! out of the mission, as all RealFuels fuels are currently free (which more accurately reflects real life fuel costs- where the cost is all in the tanks/engines/structure/payload, and the actual fuel is less than 1% of the rocket's total cost...)

I also got some sweet new contracts:

I hope you guys enjoyed this update!

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 13, 2014

Yesterday, I launched a Solar Probe to complete a pair of contracts requiring me to test parts on escape velocity from Kerbin, as well as to achieve a new milestone opening up more contracts:

The intention here was to shoot the probe just outside Kerbin's SOI, then immediately turn around and return to Kerbin using the Seperatrons (the probe was equipped with a small heatshield for re-entry). However that didn't go as planned- the Seperatrons didn't have enough Delta-V to push the probe back inside Kerbin's SOI.

Most likely, this was because I fired the liquid-fueled engines for too long when building to escape velocity (to the point where I escaped at approximately 700 m/s), and didn't have enough Delta-V to return with the Seperatrons (which only held about 400 m/s Delta-V). I managed to quicksave in the failed result, so loading the quicksave wasn't an option, and I had to live with the results.

On the bright side, the contracts did more than pay for the cost of the probe, and I earned considerable !SCIENCE! from the launch. On top of all that, I also noticed a randomly-spawning asteroid that had somehow ended up in orbit of Kerbin on the way out (this might have been due to a Munar gravity-brake on a previous orbit, or due to spawning inside Kerbin's expanded SOI in RSS 6.4x). So I have another future target for missions within the Kerbin system besides the Mun and Minmus...

In theory, there was nothing *wrong* with the mission plan, except that I fired the liquid engines for too long, which could have easily been fixed with more careful mission execution. That being said, I have no intention of carrying out another mission like this until I get more contracts that want me to test parts on escape velocity from Kerbin...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 14, 2014

Today I performed some more basic science around Kerbin. First, I fulfilled a contract to test a Mainsail splashed down on Kerbin:

Then, a contract I subsequently received to test a turbojet landed on Kerbin:

Followed by a contract to test a Seperatron landed on Kerbin (I simultaneously performed a freefall test on my Barometer)

Following that, I launched a sounding rocket just past Kerbin's atmosphere to obtain upper atmosphere atmospheric data in addition to recovering a vessel from a suborbital flight:

Finally, I performed a runway pressure test on Orok to get some definitive data on just how much lower the atmospheric pressure is there. I also used the opportunity to runway-test a jet design I have been working on utilizing the newly-unlocked Supersonic Flight tech node parts:

The plane you see here is highly similar to the final version, which I finalized at the end of my play session, but didn't get the chance to actually use as KSP experienced a crash after one-too-many reverts during testing... (I was having problems with the landing gear causing the plane to roll over while still on the runway)

I'll be busy with Dwarf Fortress the next three days, as it is currently my turn in a succession game I have been running there. I've also got lots of real-life stuff to take care of. So don't expect too many updates for a bit... Here's the link to the succession game if you want to follow it, though:

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=142169.0

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · September 19, 2014

Well, I'm back to KSP again, and found a little time today to perform some more science around the Orok spaceport!

First, I performed a couple simple launchpad tests to fulfill contracts and open up more interesting ones:

Then, I whipped out that test plane I was working on earlier (which was waiting in the SPH for its maiden flight) and took it for a spin around the Orok Spaceport for some !SCIENCE!

Not shown (strangely- I would've sworn I took a screenshot) is my test of the rocket engines for a contract.

What *IS* shown, however, is Bill Kerman getting out on EVA in an attempt to grab the data from the thermometer so I could take another reading (one over the desert, one over the grassland) and recover both. Unfortunately, what happened instead is that once I had Bill release his grasp on the cockpit, he slowly rolled around on the wing (using his EVA pack to attempt to right him proved ineffective) and eventually fell off.

Surprisingly, though, Bill survived the fall. I'm not sure if it was my using his jetpack to attempt to slow his descent, the low altitude he fell from, or shear dumb luck (he bounced once off the ground), but he managed to survive the impact with the ground and live to take a surface sample; after I switched back to the plane (gefore it exited physics-range: remember, I was flying very low to the ground) and landed it, of course.

I then went about landing the plane on the Orok runway- which actually provided a surprising amount of trouble: I was having difficulty lining up a good, long, landing approach, and so had to make a switch off the MechJeb2 ASAS and perform a steep dive towards the space center followed by several extremely low-altitude circles gliding around the runway to bleed off velocity...

One of my next contracts is to test a Mainsail Engine landed on Kerbin- which should prove easy enough to do from the Launchpad; and then I should have enough science to unlock probe-sized fuel tanks and engines (which should prove useful not only for probes- but also for fine-tuning my manned Munar Lander), or the Actuator Claw (useful both for debris-management, and operations to salvage leftover fuel and life-support supplies in abandoned ships), or be well on my way to an even more expensive tech node further down the line... (rocketry techs are always nice, for instance- because the additional tech level they open up improves TWR and ISP on all my existing rocket engines and SRB's...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited September 19, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · September 20, 2014

I had time to get in some more launchpad science today before heading off to my political organizing shift this afternoon...

It may not be particularly exciting, but it paves the way for more interesting missions in the future:

Note in particular this screenshot: I decided to unlock Electrics for the spotlights- which should be marginally useful on my manned Mun landing... (it also provides me access to electric propellers when I eventually install Firespitter)

Regards,

Northstar

[CLOSED] "Northern Lights": Northstar1989's RSS 6.4x Career Mode Game

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