Modded 64k Career game UPDATE Year2 Day36 (09/05/2017)

[Shania_L]

Only a single launch this week as it is that time of year again for the 3rd quarter progress audit.

Day 318, KSC

Spoiler

 

This is a second flight for the HoundDog Ic recoverable booster, launching a science payload for duration study at Pandora before it will be returned to Kerbin for detailed analysis. (Station science mod parts)

A night launch to coincide with Pandora passing overhead, we are getting pretty good at aiming these intercepts now.

Core stage retains some 830Dv once a circular 125km orbit has been achieved, it is decided to separate the payload now and use its own motors to intercept the station. HDIc will use this bonus Dv to re-enter on a much steeper trajectory, this will allow us far greater precision for picking a landing site, but will put greater thermal and structural stress onto the vehicle.

HoundDog holds position at 125km awaiting an opportunity to re-enter as close to KSC as possible.

The payload burns 125m/sec to intercept Pandora, then a further ~200Dv to match velocities and perform a fairly simple and standard docking with the Lab adaptor module delivered on the last flight. The lab adaptor allows internal crew access to Jr docking ports, the only other Jr ports are on the lower fuel module and as such have no crew access.

Once docked the five scientists led by Jedke Kerman descend upon the module, Plant Growth studies in low gravity .... "eughh, how are we ever going to make any explosions with nothing but plant seeds?"

"Just wait, the lab techs back at KSC were developing a cyclotron for use in orbit, we'll be able to make plenty of explosions with one of those!. Trouble is they cant get its mass down below 30t ... something about it needing shielding, psh safety protocols."

Requiring 50 units of "Eurekas" to finish the experiments the current crew is able to produce 1.1 per hour giving them plenty to do for the next 7.5 days.

 

Meanwhile

Spoiler

 

Without the payload weighing it down and its 'secret Dv stash' unlocked, HDIc has approximately 1,170Dv to burn. Arriving over the coast of the KSC continent it is all burned putting the core stage into a steep dive towards the KSC.

Apparently believing they are piloting a spaceplane controllers hold the core stage in a 15 degree nose up as it burns through the upper atmosphere, surprisingly enough this actually manages to flatten the trajectory somewhat. The heatshield (no ablative) and a few other items reach 1,200degrees but nothing explodes, however two winglets break off (aerodynamic forces) trying to maintain the nose up angle once the airflow increases at lower altitude. This results in total loss of craft control and spinning to occur at around 30km altitude but by this time most of the danger is passed and no further damage is received, drogue chutes open at 15km and straighten out the fall.

Main chute deploys at 7km and HDIc flips into its proper and correct tail down orientation, airbrakes retract and legs deploy. With the KSC visible in the background!!

Touching down softly into the grasslands the recovery crew arrives in no time at all.

6,031km, 54% recovery. #@$$ !!

So yeah there is something screwy with my recovery calculations, this is identical to the km as the previous landing which was on the opposite end of the continent. This is probably the same issue which was creating the one star aerial survey contracts 1/3 the way around Kerbin from the KSC.

Still, 16,126 Funds is better than a kick in the teeth, so there's that

Mission cost, 45,233 Funds - ((2x944)+16,126) = 27,219 Funds
Hopefully the science payload will be recovered when it too returns to Kerbin next week.

 

Day 318, Mun Orbit

Spoiler

 

With the 3rd quarter audit rapidly approaching, KSC controllers had the overwhelming urge to fire stuff at the Mun at very high velocity, fortunately for them there was both a contract and craft in place to satisfy their destructive needs.

With a contract to observe a Mun'r impact above 75 degrees latitude with an orbiting spectrometer, Verity VII-Mu was awakened from its slumber.

Jettisoning an impact probe the controllers take pot luck guesses on what trajectory to plot, afterall you cant really miss a planet can you?

Fire!

Impacting the Muns Northern Basin at 3,440m/sec the controllers are quite surprised at just how far North 75degrees must be. Spectral imagery is recovered from the plume at 52 degrees North. Even though they missed the intended target, the spectrometer transmits 62.5 science home for hitting the Northern Basin.

Contract complete, Science from Mun Orbit. 84,011 Funds, 1 Science, 300 Reputation.

Loosing the 3rd of 4 probes from Verities stock controllers take a last gasp attempt to hit before Verities inclined orbit will take it below the horizon and make it unable to witness the impacts.

Hitting the Mun at an almost identical velocity (3,441m/sec) another 62.5 science is transmitted home for an impact into the Muns Polar Crater at 62.5 degrees North.

With Verity now too low on both its inclination and altitude a 203Dv burn is performed to increase inclination from 24 to 41 degrees for one final attempt on the next orbit.

 

Day 319, KSC 3rd Quarter Audit.

Career Progression

4,298,423 Funds , 3,065 Science , 896 Reputation.

Mission Control and Tracking Station fully upgraded.
VAB + Launchpad, unlimited parts, restricted to 1000t, 80mx40m
Admin block + Astronaut complex, 1 upgrade, 3 strategies + 12 Kerbals.
Science Facility 2 upgrades, restricted to 500 science.
SPH + runway, no upgrades, restricted to 20t, 20mx15mx15m

Current goal is final upgrade of Science facility allowing unlimited research, requires 6,360,000 Funds.

Verity, Orbital Science Division

4 operating craft, 2 de-commissioned, 0 debris.

2x Verity VI, Long duration Magnetometer/RPWS craft. Mun/Minmus
2x Verity VII, Spectrometer/Impact observation craft. Mun/Minmus
1x Verity VIII, Duna Orbiter, under construction. (In partnership with Centus OCD)

Centus, Orbital Communications Division

13 operating craft, 0 de-commissioned, 4 debris.

3x Centus II, Kerbin Orbital Relay.
2x Centus III, Kerbin-Mun/Minmus Relay.
6x Centus IV, Mun/Minmus Relay.
2x Centus V, Kerbin-Duna/Eve Relay.

Helmdar, Orbital Observation Division

3 operating craft, 1 de-commissioned, 1 debris.

1x Helmdar IIc, Minmus Surface Biome/Resource Scanner.
1x Helmdar III, Kerbin Surface Scanner (un-necessary really)
1x Helmdar IV, Deep Space Telescope.

Lunic, Surface Science Division

5 operating craft, 1 wrecked, 3 debris.

3x Lunic I, Mun Landers.
3x Lunic III, Minmus Landers.
1x Lunic IV, Duna Lander, under construction. (In partnership with Verity OSD + Helmdar OOD Division)

Hector, Orbital Resupply Division

0 operational craft.

Hector II + III under construction for Pandora re-supply.

Nyx, Asteroid Exploration and Development Program.

1 operating craft

1x Nyx I, Attached to 'Moros' in highly eccentric Kerbin orbit.

Medea, Automated Payload Transfer Vehicles.

0 operating craft, 1 de-commissioned.

1x Medusa crew/cargo transport stranded in eccentric Kerbin orbit.
Medea II, under development, possibly surpassed by enhanced launch capabilities.

Ascender Program, Manned Launch Capabilities.

2 operating craft.

2x Ascender V, Docked with Pandora.

Decender Program, Manned Extra-Terrestrial Landers.

2 operating craft, 1 debris.

2x Descender I, Landing stage remains operational on Mun.

Pandora Program, Long Duration Manned Operations.

1 operating craft

1x Pandora Low Orbit Habitat, Crew of 6.

Lilith Crew Orbital Transfer Vehicles.

No operating craft.

Lilith I, Lifeboat in final stages of development, test launch imminent.
Lilith II, CTV early development.

Launch Capabilities.

SkyBolt V,      - 8 Launches - Retired 1t.
HoundDog Ia, - 9 Launches -  Retired 3t.
HoundDog Ib, - 29 Launches - Operational 3t.
HoundDog Ic, - 2 Launches - Operational re-usable 1.5t.
HoundDog II, - 17 Launches - Operational 5t.
HoundDog III, - 15 Launches - Operational 10t.
HoundDog IV, - 0 Launches - Advanced Development 30t.

Launches in this quarter.

7x HoundDog Ib
2x HoundDog Ic
9x HoundDog II
14x HoundDog III

Edited March 16, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Your organizational skills continue to astound 

[Shania_L]

On 06/03/2016 at 7:37 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Your organizational skills continue to astound 

It almost looks although I know what I'm doing !!

 

or maybe I'm just good at faking it

[Marsu69]

Hello !

I've just create an account to post in your Topic. (English is not my native langage so I apologise for my mistakes)

First of all : Congratz congratz congratz !!!!!

Your space program is amazing ! I've read all of it and it's just fantastic

By the way i've got one question : with all the changes since the beggining is your modlist still updated ? 

Or to be more precise is it possible to have your full modlist ?

I've find some of them but not all.

Thank you verry much and keep going !  Can't wait to read the next episode ; -)

 

Marsu

[Shania_L]

On 09/03/2016 at 9:04 AM, Marsu69 said:

Hello !

I've just create an account to post in your Topic. (English is not my native langage so I apologise for my mistakes)

First of all : Congratz congratz congratz !!!!!

Your space program is amazing ! I've read all of it and it's just fantastic

By the way i've got one question : with all the changes since the beggining is your modlist still updated ? 

Or to be more precise is it possible to have your full modlist ?

I've find some of them but not all.

Thank you verry much and keep going !  Can't wait to read the next episode ; -)

 

Marsu

Glad you like it, its always nice to see the appreciation of others .. and with such enthusiasm too

 

The modlist is pretty much as it was when I started, with the exception that I have added "Impact!" which is responsible for some of the recent missions.
Also, I have done manual edits to some parts (half scale of the stock goo can, and removal of all standard fuel tanks for RAM usage reasons).

You do have to take into account though that I am still running this save on a 0.90 version of KSP, and such some of the mods I use may no longer be available in 1.0.x and even more so in 1.1.

 

Now that I have the quarterly audit out of the way I can crack on with getting some long duration missions underway, I hope that from this point on I will be burning through the days at a faster rate or any interplanetary probes I launch will take many months (of real time) to arrive.

[Marsu69]

Hello

Thank you for your reply.

I will try to start a new career with your setup in 1.0.5 to see if it is possible to get almost the same.

I really love your way of playing ;-)

Just one question : is your telescope actually a real one or is it just a bunch of pieces that "looks like" and you said for roleplay reason that it is one ? (Really not conviced that my sentence is understandable )

 

Marsu

[Shania_L]

Quote

@Marsu69

Good luck! A few mods would no longer be required in 1.0.5, (better buoyancy is the only one of the top of my head that is no longer required, possibly FAR as well, even though it will still increase realism, it just isnt required anymore)

If/when I get around to a fresh start I'd probably change a few mods around anyway;

I'd drop AJE, its restrictions on jet performance is difficult even in stock, and when you scale up to 64k you can kiss goodbye to any hope of spaceplanes.
Life support I would change from IFILS to USI, both work as simple representations of lifesupport but USI is better supported and integrates with other USI mods (OKS/MKS most notably)
Engine effects, HotRockets has been entirely superseded by RealPlume.
If all you want is basic ISRU then you can go with the stock ORE system and lose Karbonite, I however think I'll retain it providing it plays nicely alongside (or in place of) stock, it should do, the same guy coded both!!
And for re-entry, you will definitely need to use RealHeat either instead of, or in addition to Deadly Re-entry.

As for the telescope, nope its not 'real' although the parts I used to simulate the optics are actually telescopes themselves. 6 of DMagics orbital science telescopes radially attached around a Remote-Tech dish, with some other stuff in there all hidden in a casing of procedural fairings. So no it doesnt work, it doesnt even provide any science I didnt already have, it was literally for my own storytelling/realism reasons.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Shania_L

[Marsu69]

OMG !

This is going to be more difficult that what I was thinking.

I've tried to install theses addons but I'm sure I've miss something :

I have only one GroundStation for remotetech and I can see you have more. I will investigate to understand what I have done wrong.

Anyway I've tried to make a few launch just to see how it feels...... But all I got was catastrophic failures.

I've tried to "replicate" your SkyBolt V but mine was totaly uncontrolable. If I try to make a smooth gravity turn, the rocket flips out. The only solution I had was to go straight up until the solid fuel stage gets empty then turn to 0 degrees to burn the liquid stage. It work....... well not really. My crew died on reentry due to excess G-Force. (AP : 100 Km / PE -3000 meters)

Lol this game is going to be interessant !

Would you please tell me your SkyBolt V caracteristics ? Just to see how far I was ? I mean, lenght of the tanks, motor you use, command pod ? (BTW there are some changes in the tree I think because all I got is the MK1 command pod and the AIES first pod.)

To conclude here is the big lesson I've learned : You are trully impressive !!!!! Now that i've tried it, i'm really impressed by your skills !

 

Edit : after tones of crash and a few hours of trying, i've managed to get something in orbit ! Now I will start over with serious application :-) 

Edited March 13, 2016 by Marsu69

[Shania_L]

8 hours ago, Marsu69 said:

OMG !

This is going to be more difficult that what I was thinking.

I've tried to install theses addons but I'm sure I've miss something :

I have only one GroundStation for remotetech and I can see you have more. I will investigate to understand what I have done wrong.

Anyway I've tried to make a few launch just to see how it feels...... But all I got was catastrophic failures.

I've tried to "replicate" your SkyBolt V but mine was totaly uncontrolable. If I try to make a smooth gravity turn, the rocket flips out. The only solution I had was to go straight up until the solid fuel stage gets empty then turn to 0 degrees to burn the liquid stage. It work....... well not really. My crew died on reentry due to excess G-Force. (AP : 100 Km / PE -3000 meters)

Lol this game is going to be interessant !

Would you please tell me your SkyBolt V caracteristics ? Just to see how far I was ? I mean, lenght of the tanks, motor you use, command pod ? (BTW there are some changes in the tree I think because all I got is the MK1 command pod and the AIES first pod.)

To conclude here is the big lesson I've learned : You are trully impressive !!!!! Now that i've tried it, i'm really impressed by your skills !

Yes there was a custom config for RemoteTech to add the multiple locations, I cannot for the life of me remember where I got it from though, so here is a copy of my RemoteTech settings file. If you just replace the entire contents of your "RemoteTech_Settings" file with this you will get the multiple ground stations, it will also remove the signal delay 'feature' if you want to retain that then you just need to change the line "EnableSignalDelay = False" to '= True"

RemoteTechSettings
{
	ConsumptionMultiplier = 1
	RangeMultiplier = 1
	ActiveVesselGuid = 35b89a0d664c43c6bec8d0840afc97b2
	SpeedOfLight = 3E+08
	MapFilter = Path
	EnableSignalDelay = False
	RangeModelType = Standard
	MultipleAntennaMultiplier = 0
	ThrottleTimeWarp = True
	HideGroundStationsBehindBody = False
	DishConnectionColor = 0.9960784,0.7019608,0.03137255,1
	OmniConnectionColor = 0.5529412,0.5176471,0.4078431,1
	ActiveConnectionColor = 0.6588235,1,0.01568628,1
	GroundStations
	{
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc488
			Name = KSC
			Latitude = 0
			Longitude = -74.6
			Height = 150
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc482
			Name = Roka Kosmodrone
			Latitude = 41.7593
			Longitude = 91.9
			Height = 295
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc483
			Name = Pleasant Valley
			Latitude = -15.2151
			Longitude = 101.2433
			Height = 2085
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc484
			Name = Iakod
			Latitude = -54.8877
			Longitude = 45.7251
			Height = 840
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc485
			Name = Olemek
			Latitude = -21.1816
			Longitude = -123.5356
			Height = 195
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc486
			Name = Orok Spaceport
			Latitude = 10.4508
			Longitude = -161.5649
			Height = 2600
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
		STATION
		{
			Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc487
			Name = Kermansburg
			Latitude = 21.6431
			Longitude = -110.7422
			Height = 1085
			Body = 1
			MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
			Antennas
			{
				ANTENNA
				{
					Omni = 7.5E+07
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

As for the SkyBolt V, I put up a detailed post of it back on the 2nd page of this thread, here. As for a flight profile you want to fly vertical until you hit around 100-150m/sec then gradually lower the nose by increments of 5-10 degrees. Flying gently is important, the early SkyBolt doesnt have movable aerodynamic surfaces (fixed position fins from sounding rockets) so you are entirely relying on gimbal and reaction wheels. The later SkyBolt V-Light had improved controllable fins.

Also, SkyBolt V was never a manned launcher in my career, it only ever flew probes, its payload to orbit of 1tonne (inclusive of propulsion) wasnt enough to support even the smallest capsule. SkyBolt IV was a straight up and down sub-orbital launcher and then HoundDog I served as my orbital launcher for Kerbals.

You need to be much more gentle on your re-entry, 100km Ap should be matched by something more like a 30-40km Pe, you want to spend a fair amount of time in the upper atmosphere losing velocity before you enter the thicker air lower down. Re-entry really is deadly when orbital velocities are 6,000m/sec.
Thankyou for your kind words and good luck with your career, it really is a challenge worthy of being proud of when you finally master it, whenever I go back and try a stock install I am surprised by how easy it all is!!

[Marsu69]

Thank you very much for the config. i will try it.

For the Skybolt, yep I know it was not design as a manned spacecraft. But you know it was just to try to put something up

For the AP / PE : It was a suborbital flight, I never managed to get the PE more than -3000.... I think my ascent profil was wrong

 

 

[Shania_L]

With the 3rd quarter audit now behind us we have a short pause in space operations due to extended build times of the next series of vehicles.

So we may as well finish what we started just before we got tied up in paperwork, firing stuff at the Mun, for explosions and science!

Day 319, Mun

Spoiler

 

Verity VII-Mu has reached Ap on its new higher inclination orbit, releasing the 4th and final impact probe KSC controllers suddenly realise the design issue Verity VII had been hiding right from its first launch, the main probe body has no reaction wheels or RCS of its own, it had been entirely relying on that of the impact probes. With the final probe now released the core probe can only self orient by means of the gimballed engine (670Dv), however we intend to leave this in orbit for now as the spectrograph will continue working for any impacts on the Mun surface (intentional ones ofc).

Lining the impact probe up we aim high and light the solid motor .....

You couldnt get a much better trajectory than that, impacting the Muns North pole 83.4 degrees North at a little over 3,050m/sec the tiny probe is instantly vaporised.

High above Verity VII witnesses the plume of debris, creating 62.5 science and transmitting it home for a spectrographic reading at the Muns Poles biome.

Contract complete, Spectrographic reading on the Mun above 75 degrees North. 336,248 Funds, 18 Science, 9 Reputation.

With This mission essentially over, Verity VII-Mu has more than paid for itself with 3 contract completions and 4 separate biomes sampled.

235,394 + 84,011 + 336,248 = 655,653 Funds earned
58,369 - (2x940) = 56,489 Mission cost
Leaving 599,164 Funds as profit.

In addition 4 biomes sampled produce 62.5 science each totalling 250 science.

 

Day 235, KSC

Spoiler

 

With a selection of newly developed components involved in its construction, Lilith has taken the best part of 8 days to build, subsequent vehicles will benefit from experience handling these new parts.

The Lilith crew recovery vehicle has been developed to reduce hardware buildup at Pandora station, currently with a crew of 6 Pandora requires the continual presence of 2 Ascender V orbiters as lifeboats, a single Lilith CRV can carry the full complement of 6 and return them to the surface. (or in other words, 2x Ascender V's have 30 parts each, Lilith has 16 total, with Pandora looking to expand further, part count is going to become an issue).

Having its position in the active roster come under threat from the highly successful HDIII, the HoundDog II out on the pad on this crisp dawn may well be an increasingly rare sight. For Lilith however, its 5t capacity is practically perfect, breaking through the dark yet calm clouds at 11km the solid boosters are jettisoned and the Skipper is cranked back up to full beans.

(Not entirely sure why the red sky is to the west, afterall the sun is rising from the East .. but still pretty non-the-less)

With Lilith targeting such a critical function, containing many new and untested components as well as utilising a new technique for atmospheric re-entry the KSC has demanded a practical demonstration of a successful recovery from Pandoras operational altitude of 500km. Thus this mission has been dubbed Lilith-Pre and will never actually meet up with Pandora, simply match its orbital altitude then perform a re-entry all completely under probe control.

HDII keeps its initial ascent Ap at a relatively low 115km, once reached the PE is brought out of atmo and boosted right up to 500km on the upper stage. With the fairings discarded and on the cruise up to altitude we can get a first look at this new craft.

Seating 6 Kerbals in two modules (4+2) Lilith has little room for much else, a pair of hypergolic motors and minimal fuel supply mounted either side of a tail mounted standard docking adaptor provide only 300Dv, Lilith contains a decent battery capacity but no generation ability (hence the retrofitted static panels on the HDII upper stage). Lilith is a first attempt at utilising a lifting body to slow the decent rate during re-entry to avoid hitting thick low altitude air before sufficient velocity has been lost higher up, 2 side mounted airbrakes will assist in creating extra drag early in the decent.

Once 500km is reached, the HDII upper stage circularises then detaches and performs its own destructive re-entry burn. Lilith is left to its own devices, holding position for 20 minutes Lilith targets a re-entry over the KSC, a single burn of 115m/sec is enough to drop to a 500x40km orbit.

With airbrakes extended and the nose raised to 50 degrees Lilith aims to create as much drag as possible as high as possible.

Massing a little under 4,700kg Lilith is quite dense (unlike the easy re-entry of the spent HDIc core stage) hitting the atmosphere 91km up 5,625m/sec (surface velocity) Lilith is still gaining velocity down to 80km (5,634m/sec) from here on down however the speed continuously drops.
Dipping down to 65km the KSC passes by underneath, lowering the nose to 40degrees creates additional lift and Lilith actually gains some altitude whilst still slowing. Re-entry is proving remarkably gentle, peak G is around 1.8 and peak temperatures of 1,000 degrees are recorded on the RCS and airbrakes, nothing they cannot handle.

The only potentially mission ending issue came soon after peak heating/G force, Lilith utilises a 12Mm deployable antenna, this is more than sufficient to communicate with a range of orbiting relays, however it is also susceptible to breaking off under aerodynamic loading, retracting the antenna prevents damage but restricts it to 3.2Mm. This was fine whilst KSC was in sight, however Kerbin is round, and Lilith soon passed out of direct line of sight falling through 15km altitude, by now wholly sub-sonic. If it wasnt for the fortunate over flight of Helmdar III a few minutes later as Lilith fell through 11km that communications was restored and commands to re-extend the antenna could be received. Parachutes had been armed long before and the craft was never in true danger, however attitude control would have been locked at a high angle of attack which would not have been ideal for touchdown.

Chutes deploy at 7,5km fully retarding any remnants of forward velocity, airbrakes retract before full chute deployment at 700m and Lilith is dunked into booster bay some 1,800km East of KSC.

Apparently the ability to float wasnt a design consideration.

Recovery calculations once again seem screwed up, despite being clearly less than 2,000km from KSC it quotes 6,031km (exactly the same as all boosters and previous landings since I started making note of it)

With full mission success KSC gives the greenlight to produce a second Lilith craft to take up position at Pandora as primary lifeboat.

Mission cost, 60,338 - ((2x 940)+5,960) = 52,498 Funds

 

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Random question @Shania_L: Could you post your configs for city lights & clouds? It occurs to me I'm not getting either of these, and my game is telling me there's no config found.

[Shania_L]

8 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Random question @Shania_L: Could you post your configs for city lights & clouds? It occurs to me I'm not getting either of these, and my game is telling me there's no config found.

I will send you links to them in a mail, there are about 6 quite hefty configs that wont go well in a forum post

[Shania_L]

Day 327, LKO

Spoiler

 

After spending 8 days researching the effects of space on plants, the crew of Pandora signal to KSC that they had just about exhausted their imagination on things to do with seeds. Dersey in-particular had not managed to make even one single combination that was more explosive than the ignitors would have been on their own, in short it was time to return the capsule to Kerbin (before he worked out the combination lock on the LOx tanks).

I really do need to be more consistent in my colour choice for illumination, I think there are 7 different shades here (not including the white lab lights)

The Plant growth experiment pod is un-docked and backs away from Pandora with its full compliment of space science.
Burning itself into a 500x20km orbit the service module is jettisoned and the capsule enters the atmosphere protected behind its heat shield.

420kg of probe lands by parachute (exactly 6,031km from everywhere) and is recovered for 50 science and 2,604 Funds (30 science is sold for additional Funds)

Contracts complete, Science from Kerbin orbit, 42,006 Funds, 150 Reputation.
Plant Growth Experiment in Kerbin Orbit, 948,143 Funds, 36 Science, 12 Reputation.

Mission build cost, 45,233
Recovery of boosters, HDIc core stage and capsule = 2x944 + 16,126 + 2,604
Final cost, 24,615 Funds
Income, 990,149 Funds + 56 Science

 

Day 327, KSC

Spoiler

 

With Nelsy Kerman skillfully bamboozling the Health and Safety Officer with a range of card tricks, Sigbert sneaks himself, Podly and Aling Kerman onboard the HDII carrying the second Lilith I due for liftoff later today. The two veterans Scientist, and Pilot will escort the rookie Engineer as they head up to the station to relieve the long serving crew. Although Lilith has proved itself capable of attaining orbit and returning safely, it does not possess a launch escape system so should not technically be used for a crewed launch .... but whats life without a bit of excitement?

Approaching its initial Ap of 157km Sigbert flicks on the radio to report all going well, which somewhat distracts the HSE officer who was still trying to work out how the Three of Hearts managed to get into his wallet, whilst the majority of his loose change had managed to get into the Mission control vending machine. (Nelsy meanwhile was trying to chew quietly)

With only a 135m/sec burn required at Ap to intercept Pandora the HDII upper stage still has plenty of fuel left to cancel velocity once the craft meetup half an orbit later. The stage is released to perform its suicide dive and Sigbert spins Lilith around before performing an inch perfect reverse bay parking manoeuvre docking with the Lab adaptor module.

With Panodra briefly hosting 9 Kerbonauts, a toast is made (courtesy of the HSE officer) from old crew to new. All too soon though the air circulation system starts groaning from excessive intake of crumbs and the party is broken up, Sigbert as a pilot has little purpose staying in orbit so he will fly one of the Ascender capsules back with Billy-Bobdo, Jedke and Orgun will return in the second but flying on full auto.

Both Ascender capsules survive re-entry, but it is far from an easy ride, in order to get them launched atop the HDII lifter the mass of ablative in the heatshields had been tuned back to an absolute minimum. 300 kg may be enough for 100-200km orbits, but falling from 500 really could do with a bit more, very careful trajectories and high G forces have to be endured in order to bring these crews home safely.

Both craft land in entirely different oceans safely (both exactly 6,031km from KSC)

Scientist Billy-Bobdo and Engineer Orgun both receive 2xp and progress to Lvl1. Sigbert and Jedke dont get anything.

 

Day 328, Minmus Orbit

Spoiler

 

A bit of a blast from the past here, Helmdar IIc-Mi has been patiently orbiting Minmus in a 600(ish)km polar orbit biome scanning and after 121days it has finally finish... err achieved 99.9% of its map. Wait just one sec we can fix that ...

22m/sec burn adjusting Helmdars orbit by 10 degrees to catch the final piece of the map on this orbit.

Ok, After 121 days and 3 hours Helmdar has finished its biome map of Minmus, transmitting the results home for 50 science now renders Helmdar with nothing left to do with its life, but 1,000Dv still in its tanks.

50m/sec is burned to drastically lower Helmdars Pe to barely meters above Minmus' surface, transferring into this elliptical orbit will allow the similarly elliptically orbiting Verity VII to catch up and observe Helmdars final moments. The remaining 1kDv is burned putting the 321kg Helmdar onto a vertical plunge towards Minmus.

Unfortunately the 1,123m/sec impact creates only 203MJ which is not enough to beat Lunic IIIs previous impact and as such no additional seismic data is recovered, also impacting into the Lowlands biome recovers no additional spectrographic data.

However it does achieve the requirements for contract completion, >131Mj Minmus impact. 302,287 funds, 15 Science 8 Reputation.
Science from Minmus surface. 136,280 Funds, 1 Science, 367 Reputation.

 

Day 329, Moros

Spoiler

 

Having reached the ascending node of Moros' orbit the Nyx probe is forced to detach and re-attach in order to align itself with both the asteroids CoM and manoeuvre node as its onboard reaction system is woefully inadequate for rotating the 133tonne boulder.

Burning for 90 seconds Nyx expends its entire fuel supply and manages to change its orbit by a whole 13m/sec, this however is enough to ensure Moros will remain within Kerbins SOI and to reduce its inclination slightly.

Moros orbital statistics; 1,076 x 314,421km @ 52.5 degrees inclination This orbit is still twice the altitude of Pandora at Pe and above Minmus at Ap having a period of some 44D and 4 hours it will not return to Pe for any other craft to access for another 37D.

With the Duna window rapidly approaching we will now turn our attention to this slightly further away target, however Moros will be a very useful long duration isolated training ground for future crewed missions.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2016 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 331, KSC

Spoiler

 

Finally that day is here, a HoundDog III lifter with the Verity VIII Duna system orbiter is setup on the pad. This craft has been assembled, redesigned, re-assembled and been tweaked with so many times we have decided to get it launched a few days before the launch window just to stop the techs fiddling with it anymore.

Along with the soon to follow Lunic IV probe, these two crafts share the same destination but follow different paths to get there.

Verity VIII is a combination design between the Verity, Helmdar and Centus divisions. Verity and Helmdar share the core probe whilst a trio of Centus sub probes hitch a ride to Duna before separating to perform their own duties.

Boosting directly up into a slightly higher than standard circular 170km orbit to cater to expected loss of altitude during a long escape burn HoundDog drops its core stage and fairings as soon as possible.

Utilising the advanced technology developed and proved during the Verity VIII-Pre mission some months ago the full Verity VIII package can rely on its methane fuelled NTR to provide the majority of the 5,000m/sec escape burn required to hit Duna's orbit.

The downside of the efficiency gained using the NTR is both a cryogenic fuel system requiring active chilling (so the fuel is still there for breaking burns at Duna), and a very low thrust, only 13KN. Which for a 6,700kg probe means a very long burn, something on the order of 30minutes. Obviously this is not doable so we will split the burn into two separate parts and utilise the 1,250m/sec remaining in HDIII's upper stage due to the payload being only 2/3 of its rated load.

Verity orbital plot after the first burn of 2,350m/sec, (1m10s under the upper stage and an additional 9min on the NTR) we couldn't add much more than this to the first burn without achieving escape velocity as it is we are looking at a 13D (125Mm) orbit before we perform the second burn of 2,300Dv. Initial estimates are putting the second burn at 15minutes, Verity retains some 6,600m/sec Dv aboard after the first burn, the remaining fuel will be used for capture and movement within the Duna system, Verity does not possess a heat shield so will have to perform a propulsive capture.

The upper stage successfully separates during the burn and fires its retros upon reaching an Ap of 6,500km burning up in Kerbins atmosphere.

We will return to this craft when it is time for its second burn in 13D time.

Mission cost 191,074 Funds, 0 recovery 0 expected.

 

Day 332, KSC

Spoiler

 

As soon as the apprentices have painted over the scorch marks on the launchpad, technicians begin preparations to launch Lunic IV.

Launched at sunset Lunic IV arcs into the sky shedding debris as it goes (entirely intentionally, nothing much important falls off)

Whereas Verity opted for the new fangeled NTR motors, Lunic has simpler requirements so will use a conventional chemical rocket for escape and heat shield for capture at Duna. This is also the reason why it carries additional fairings to protect delicate components during the (quite possibly) dangerous entry to Dunas atmosphere.

Lunic also uses two orbits to perform its escape burn, however with only 436m/sec remaining in the HDIII upper stage after heaving 11,100kg into a 130km parking orbit it is decided to simply burn this off on the first pass and have the entire escape burn the second time around. This allows a much better approximation of burn time to be used, with no staging events (and changes in thrust/mass) halfway through.

HDIII upper stage correctly de-orbits itself from the 1,500Mm orbit and Lunic lines up for its 3,670m/sec ejection burn. Utilising a quad arrangement of our favourite probe motors burning KeroLox, Lunic is able to convert 8,000kg of fuel into velocity in only 8 minutes.

Lunics ejection stage is discarded once empty, and the radial hypergolic motors fine tune (100Dv) the ejection so as to actually hit the Dunan SOI.

Unfortunately this means the transfer stage becomes uncontrollable space debris, and our first item of interplanetary debris also.

The remaining 3,050kg probe is now travelling at over 10,000m/sec relative to Kerbin and will intercept Duna's SOI in only 411 Days.

Despite performing its ejection burn some 10D before Verity comes around for its second burn, Verity will be burning some 600m/sec more and as such will make up those 10D and around 30 more to arrive well before Lunic.

Mission cost 177,410 Funds, 0 recovery, 0 expected.

 

Day 336, KSC

Spoiler

 

Whilst reviewing our records it appears that we have neglected to scan the surface of Mun for its possible bounty of harvestable resources.

In order to rectify this before the next landing mission (in production) the Helmdar division is instructed to slap something together as cheaply and as quickly as possible.

As only a single scanner is required the probe could be very simple, and hence small, a retrofitted version of the Helmdar IIb was commissioned and one of the apprentices was set to adjusting the 'b' to look more like a 'd'

Launched atop a HoundDog Ib the Helmdar division had managed to get this probe designed and built in under 5 days .... it showed, they had entirely forgotten to put any funky lights on it at all!!

Getting the mission built and to the Mun fast was only half the battle, we required at least a mostly complete map before picking a landing site. The solution was simple, take more than one scanner then stagger their orbits so as to cover more of the Mun in the allocated time. However the Karbonite scanner does not lend itself well to multiple payloads, having only a single inline node. thus this Frankenstein's triplicate monstrosity was unleashed.

With the payload weighing in at just over 2.5tonnes, the HDIb could be stripped of its automation as it would only just be able to achieve orbit, the retros would be sufficient to de-orbit it at the point of separation. As it happened it managed to complete to 150x137km and re-entry was successful.

Burning 2,270m/sec of its 2,970Dv stock Helmdar IId heads for a Mun intercept in nearly 3D time.

During the transit to the Mun, Lunic IV becomes the third Kerbal made object to leave Kerbins SOI, apparently its own transfer stage debris managed to beat it there .....

 

Day 338, Mun

Spoiler

 

Helmdar IId arrives in Mun'r SOI burning 306m/sec to convert its impact trajectory into a 164Km Pe polar orbit.

A few hours later it burns all of its remaining fuel (minus ~20Dv) to capture to a 164x4,254km polar orbit. All three sub-probes are then powered up and ejected to burn themselves into a staggered orbit.

The first burns to a circular 164km orbit, its period of 1H51m is used to determine the following two probes to burn into orbits of 2H28m and 3H5m respectively, this will result in them arriving back at the start point 37minutes apart where the later two will circularise to 164km. Each sub probe having 1,630Dv was probably overkill, but they looked silly with tiny fuel tanks.

Fly my pretties!!

The core/transfer stage will burn its remaining 45Dv at Ap for an impact with the Mun.

Mission cost 51,164 Funds, 2x940 recovered.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

5km/s and 400-some days to Duna? More info on your transfer orbits, I would like. 

[Shania_L]

3 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

5km/s and 400-some days to Duna? More info on your transfer orbits, I would like. 

Ok, further information coming up, I am not sure if your surprise comes from that being good or bad transfers, so I'll defend both points

First point, I do not have a whole lot of experience at interplanetary stuff, I have only ever visited Duna+Eve in previous versions so am no expert at this.

Second point, those are 6Hr days, so its a 100 (24hr) day transfer, second the 5,000m/sec quote was from before the actual burns were made, if you add the exact figures from the post it turns out to be less than 5km/s.

The first probe, Verity VIII, NTR powered making 2 burns, 2,350 and 2,300m/sec from a starting altitude of 170km. This is the fast boat, that 4,650m/sec ejection will get to Duna in 337-350 days depending on random generation each time I reload the game as its still a predicted value, the second burn has not yet been performed.

This is the interplanetary plot for Verity showing (in this case) a 344D transfer, hardly efficient but when have you ever known me to be efficient?

 

Lunic however performed a single burn, (plus a tiny pre burn) 436 + 3,670 (and up to 100m/sec adjustment to fine tune targeting) so 4,106 +/- 50m/sec, from a starting altitude of 130km.

Lunic is travelling much slower, I need time for the Centus probes aboard Verity to setup a comn net before it arrives. Lunic is still diving towards the sun to roughly the same Pe but despite leaving 10D before Verity it will be arriving something like 60D afterwards. Maybe a little bigger margin than I intended but it is what it is.

Here is its interplanetary plot.

These two screenshots were taken only a few minutes apart so can be used as direct comparison.

This could probably have been done better, (especially as you seem to have done it for 3.2km/s!!) I got this transfer window using the KAC RSS transfer window planner, any advice for future missions would be muchly appreciated!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Ah yes, nothing like a little interplanetary jet lag to throw off one's perception of time. That's pretty darn good if you're figuring them by hand, AND throwing a split burn in there too. An ideal transfer would have your encounter at apoapse, but this rarely happens, even in real life. 

 

Me, I'm inclined to just use MechJeb 

[Shania_L]

What happens when you take the payload from a pre-existing craft, and strap it atop a launcher with 6 times its lifting capacity?

Spoiler

 

Overkill. Lots of overkill.

HoundDog IV and Lunic IIb await their launch window.

 

Day 339-340, Mun Orbit.

A series of burns are performed by the trio of Helmdar IId probes, helpfully named 1,2 and 3 by the ever inventive mission controllers. Circularising into their 164km polar orbits, 2 and 3 are swung 5 degrees off in opposite directions in an attempt to cover more of the Muns surface per orbit.

Once the polar regions have been covered, probes 2+3 burn an additional 125m/sec to further increase (decrease?) their inclination to 80 and 100 respectively. Each probe retains a minimum of 1km/s Dv and the mapping is progressing at a steady rate.

Day 341, KSC

Spoiler

 

With resource prospectors having a fairly detailed knowledge of Minmus by now, attention turns back to Mun, Helmdar IId is providing basic information showing Karbonite is present, but confined to specific places upon the surface, the wide open Midlands and Highlands seem to have little to none at all, whereas the steep walled craters and polar regions have much higher concentrations. Minmus, with its low gravity and widely spread resources would be the ideal fuel depot if it wasn't so far away or at an incline which restricts easy transfers, If suitable concentrations could be located at Mun, the steeper gravity well may be overlooked in favour of a more local source.

The core payload of Lunic IIb is a direct relative of the Lunic II probes which were so successful at Minmus. The duplicate instruments however have been replaced with a single set and Karbonite sampling equipment has been added in its place, along with a Bang-O-meter seismometer.

In an attempt to both satisfy a requirement to provide a large heavy transfer stage to use as an impactor, and the increased mass of the Lunic lander it has fallen as a happy coincidence that this mission fits the requirements for an "easy" maiden flight for the latest in the HoundDog series, the IV.

Weighing in at 351,447kg on the pad, HoundDog IV is a significant step up from the 145,000kg HDIII. HDIV shares the same core staging as all previous HoundDog lifters, Core, boosters and upper stages, it just scales them up to the limit of current technology, 3.5m diameter tanks with 3m diameter interstage fairings and 2.5m nose fairings which leaves it restricted to the exact same payload volume as a HDIII yet payload mass can now push for 30,000kg.

Blasting into the post-dawn sky we see the main reason for this tripling of lift capacity, two massive additional boosters, each massing nearly as much as a HDI sport a single KW Maverick-V KeroLox motor. The core stage packs a third and in addition to the quad arrangement of solid boosters (added mainly for the cool looking smoke effects) puts the initial pad thrust rating at 3,911 KN.

The solid motors burn out all too soon, after travelling only 2.5km infact. With an Ap of only 4km at this point in any version of KSP after 0.90 they would have impacted the KSC, but with the 2.5km physics range they are safely deleted from existence before any damage can be caused.

With no crossfeed employed, a single Maverick-V cannot lift a fully fuelled core stage, the two side boosters burn for just over 3 minutes. Flying at 60km and Mach 6 they are jettissoned, pushed away by retros built into the nosecones. By this time the thrust of a single motor has increased to its maxmum rated output of 1,260KN and the core stage pulls away. The side boosters both carry chutes and will be recovered from their oceanic landing.

Another 3 minutes later and the core stage is running dry, practically at orbital velocity by now 138km and 5,570m/sec it is discarded to burnup in the atmosphere, or spread burning Kerosene soaked debris across the Peninsular, either way its job is done.

HoundDog IVs upper stage is stretched slightly and up motored in comparison to the HDIII. Replacing the service motor with a single KW Maverick-1D (the same as used on HDIII core stage (but 3 of)) tuned to the HydroLox fuel it produces only 175.3KN but is capable of dragging its 27,312kg record breaking mass into a 150x152km orbit. With 2,463m/sec still in the tanks it shows there is still plenty of capacity left in this design to increase payload mass.

Rather than waste this remaining fuel, it is decided that it actually has enough Dv to complete the 2,271m/sec Mun transfer burn, without the assistance of the 'transfer' stage.

Having ejected from LKO towards the Mun the HDIV upper stage retains 180Dv, it is decided to separate the stage now and use this fuel to guide the stage to a Mun'r impact as it (like all HoundDog upper stages) contains independent orientation and control facility. The interstage fairing protecting the 'transfer stage' motors has significantly too much ejection force, whilst 2 of the panels will hit the Mun, the third will get a gravity assist and go interplanetary. Which is a bit of a bugger.

With the official payload now separate from the launcher, it can be seen to mass in at 13,760kg and has 2,556Dv for its triple Galaxy VR-2 KeroLox motors. 2D 3H transfer to Mun.

 

Day 343, Mun

In what has become yet another change of intention for the HDIV upper stage, its designation as Mun impacting debris is once again re-assigned. It will now become Mun orbiting debris, with plans to later return to Mun impacting debris status.

Once Lunic IIb had de-coupled, the Dv of this stage shot up from 180 to 1,510m/sec, this will allow it to perform an early (and inefficient but necessary to avoid clashing with Lunics own capture burn). 411m/sec is burned at 2.7Mm above the Mun capturing it into a 31x11,240km orbit. With minimal battery capacity and only the Mavericks alternator to provide power, the stage is put into standby mode to await further orders.

Day 343, Mun

Spoiler

 

Lunic IIb arrives at its 16km Pe, burning 715m/sec to circularise the 3tonne lander is de-coupled and the 7tonne orbiter/impact hammer is then boosted back up to a 10Mm Ap.

 

Day 344, LKO

Spoiler

 

As fate would have it, this is the time when Verity VIII decided it needed to perform the second part of its escape burn. Damn you orbital mechanics, if only you could be more predictable!!

Revealing something of a shocking lack of for-thought mission planners at KSC decided to take a look at the Duna end of Verities expected 340D transfer. And discovered that coming in that hot would require a capture burn of some 6,500m/sec, considering Verity has at the moment 6,600 before its escape burn is completed, this is unlikely to be achievable.

Bodge-it and make do to the rescue, by reducing the upcoming burn from 2,300 to 1,590m/sec and burning early at a higher escape angle we can arrive at Duna much slower (best part of 2km/sec slower) the cost is that it will add 50D to the travel time. This is considered an acceptable trade considering the alternative is to shoot past Duna and into deep space which would cause orbital science to suffer somewhat.

Re-worked plot of Verity VIII escape burn.

Burning for 10m30sec Verity completes its escape, achieving 9,650m/sec at its 306km Pe. It still has 4,590Dv in the tanks to stop at the other end, with mass reductions once the Centus probes are released this should allow sufficient for manoeuvres around the red planet. The increased journey time has now resulted in Verity arriving 4D not 50 ahead of Lunic, this will make establishing communications tight, but not impossible.

Utilising two of the Centus dishes will allow specific satellites to be picked out rather than Kerbin as a whole resulting in communications throughout the entire journey and science in solar orbit to be performed. 3,662kg to Duna in 393D 3H.

 

Day 344, Mun

Spoiler

 

The Helmdar IId trio has located a decent hotspot for surface resources near Muns equator, an ideal location allowing easy access to and from Kerbin. It is also in a biome we have not yet visited, Canyons, hopefully its not too hazardous terrain.

Lunic II was designed to land on Minmus, so did not require much in the way of thrust, Lunic IIb has the same landing motors but a much greater challenge. So we gave it a little headstart in the form of a 510m/sec solid booster, this will allow us to get a more accurate impact/landing point.

After this has run dry and jettisoned for impact, Lunics own trio of hypergolic motors take over and burn at full thrust to kill off the remaining 890m/sec velocity and put Lunic down between the canyon walls.

Landing on the edge of a crater which spans the lip of the canyons Lunic IIb is put to work analysing the surface for resources with a range of instruments and even a small sample Karbonite drill.

Transmitting 215.3 science home, 241.5 is stored for later retrieval. Karbonite concentrations of 4.36% are discovered, similar to the average locations on Minmus, with its ease of access however this may be a more favourable prospecting location.

Mission costs, 252,934 Funds - 2x 18,498 recovered from boosters.

HDIV is not a cheap launcher!! surprisingly the majority (15,500) of the recovered value of those boosters comes from fuel tanks, not the motors (2,500)

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmm, quite a sizeable post this week.

Also I spent a large chunk of Sunday restoring all my contracts, again!! fortunately I did have decent backups this time and it was just a cut/paste job once I actually noticed they were missing.

Edited April 11, 2016 by Shania_L

[CSE]

Nice composition of the shot of the HD IV lifting off.

[Shania_L]

@CSE

 Thanks, I'm no artist but I do tend to try and get my craft lit well or have something in the background when I take screenshots.

 

Day 345, Mun

Spoiler

 

With Lunic IIb safely on the surface we have a fully operational seismometer (Bang-O-Meter) in place to record some lovely bangs.

The transfer stage of Helmdar IId, has been orbiting Mun in a highly elliptical orbit with next to no Dv remaining since it released the three scan probes, now it gets to end its life with purpose. Burning all its remaining fuel at the 4,400km Ap, 259kg of probe heads for an impact at the Muns northern polar region.

Observed by the still orbiting Verity VII spectrometer, the impact into the Poles biome creates no new observations we haven't already seen with Verities own impactors, however Lunic IIbs Bang-O-Meter records a 433MJ impact. This is converted into 25 units of science and transmitted home.

Contract complete, Mun impact exceeding 297MJ. 224,166 Funds, 12 Science, 6 Reputation.

That was pretty, but bangs can get much better, it was still only measured in MegaJoules after all.

Lunic IIb left its transfer/HDIV upper stage in an elliptical orbit of Mun, with the best part of 1km/s fuel aboard this should be much better.

With all of its fuel burnt, the stage still weighs in at 1,490kg, when it slams into the Mun at just shy of 2,200m/sec we get a much more respectable 3.63GJ seismic event. Surprisingly the 41 science that Lunic IIb generates is still far from maxing out the instrument, it seems we need to go bigger.

Contract complete (just barely) Mun impact exceeding 3.6GJ. 280,210 Funds, 15 Science, 9 Reputation.
Strangely enough it also triggered the spectro contract which really shouldnt have, with Verity below the horizon (and having completed this one previously, before contract wipe) 280,210 Funds, 15 Science, 8 Reputation.

Feeling we have pummelled the Mun enough for one day mission controllers turn their attention back to Kerbin in time to notice a strange highly excited Kerbal running across the KSC grounds waving a small printout high above his head.

 

Day 346, KSC

By the time Mortimer could be captured, it required a tazer and a large net, practically the entire facility knew that they had finally achieved their goal of putting a kerbal on Dun.. wait not that one yet? ohh ok, of earning 6.36 Meellion Funds, just think of how big a rocket you could build for.. a building? seriously?

So a good news / bad news situation, good news the R&D facility has been upgraded to maximum capacity unlocking unlimited research potential, bad news we are broke again.

With the accumulated science we have been storing (3391) ever since we ran out of tech nodes we are able to instantly unlock 6 of the 8 550 point nodes. These will take 8.5D to become available.

The 6 KCT upgrade points were spent increasing the 3 VAB build queue rates, #1+2 now at 1.5 and #3 now at 1.35. the final 2 points went on research, rewarding us with 3 science per 86,400 build points (it was 2)

Day 348, KSC

Spoiler

 

Just before sunset a HDIII is finally assembled on the pad, appearing to be somewhat incorrectly assembled, the techs assure us that this is the way it was designed and no the fairing isnt too small.

As this evenings overflight of Pandora occurs just before sunset, that is when Lilith II blasts off the pad to meet it.

Despite HDIII being equipped with the largest fairing it can manage Liliths exterior contoured fuel tanks (the designers refuse to call them wings) poke out from between the joins, lacking any control surfaces or air foil cross-section they actually hardly affect HDIIIs ascent.

Boosting up to a 130km orbit boosters, fairings and core stage are jettisoned.

Lilith herself performs the 138m/sec orbital adjustment to intercept Pandora, the upper stage successfully retro-burns and burns up. Weighing in at as close to HDIIIs maximum payload rating of 10,000kg Lilith is missing a good portion of her fuel capacity, yet still shows 3,040Dv in the tanks.

Designed to be able to carry 4 crew anywhere and back within the Kerbin system Lilith is effectively standing in for the disgraced Medusa CTV (This we do not speak of). Currently unmanned she will dock with and refuel from Pandora before receiving a crew and a mission.
No, they are NOT wings!! Lilith is not an atmospheric craft, the not-wings are simply nice looking kerosene tanks which may assist with any aerobreaking she might be forced to perform but are not sufficient to fly the craft .. even empty.

A further 150Dv is burnt matching velocity and docking with Pandora, where all of Liliths tanks are topped off with KeroLox.

Mission cost 99,727 Funds, 0 recovery.

 

Day 349, KSC

Spoiler

 

A final mission for today is a simple Lifesupport resupply mission. A Hector III is launched aboard a HDIc just before dawn as Pandora passes overhead.

Circularising to 150km, Hector is detached before self powering itself 127m/sec for a Pandora intercept. Delivering its 80 units of lifesupport Hector is quickly undocked and sent to a fiery death. Hector has more parts than Lilith I or II, Pandora gets quite sluggish with the 225 parts whilst Hector is on site.

The HoundDog Ic booster retains 810 Dv and uses it to deorbit into a fairly steep entry angle. Temperatures creep towards worrying levels but nothing catches fire or explodes and HDIc makes a safe landing in the Highlands.

With Liliths 62 units of LifeSupport off limits, Pandora can sustain its 4 Kerbals for another 29D.

Mission cost 49,505 Funds. 16,930+2x940 recovered.

 

Also on Day 349

Verity VIII passes from Kerbin to Kerbol SOI, and despite a brief Kraken/NaN attack it manages to perform a pair of experiments that were not present on the last visit to high Kerbol orbit. 110 science transmitted home.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Ah, @Shania_L, destroying the Mün, one bit at a time! And not-wings that stick out of the fairing? Brilliant! Now that's how you think outside the box.

Also, second from the last photo, how'd you make up that antenna? Looks like a telescoping 88-88?

[Shania_L]

16 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Ah, @Shania_L, destroying the Mün, one bit at a time! And not-wings that stick out of the fairing? Brilliant! Now that's how you think outside the box.

Also, second from the last photo, how'd you make up that antenna? Looks like a telescoping 88-88?

Outside the box? surely you meant outside the fairing ! .... I'll get my coat
I am not one for cheaty part clipping, but In this case I can allow it because I choose to believe that the fairings were produced to conform around the shape of the not-wings. Thus no clipping occurred!

Shooting stuff at the Mun, its both easy and pays well!

The antenna is indeed a standard 88-88 on the end of a stack of the three smallest telescoping sections from Infernal Robotics. (with a cubic octagonal in there to make it all stick together).

[Shania_L]

Day 354, KSC

With Pandora station proving Kerbals could be sustained for long, if not indefinite, periods in orbit and the discovery of usable concentrations of resources on the Muns surface the KSC begins to put hardware in place to exploit these resources.

The first piece of the puzzle is an orbital habitat around the Mun, Pandora Mun Station is designed to be a self contained yet expandable module. Light enough to be placed into LKO by a HoundDog III, experience from the previous Lunic IIb launch has shown that HDIV is capable of eliminating the need for any 'tug' vessel, and will directly insert the Station into Mun orbit on its own.

Solid motor burnout and jettison soon after a dusk liftoff.

Booster jettison just before leaving atmosphere, despite the considerable velocity and altitude already reached these are successfully recovered.
The core stage continues accelerating until it too burns out just short of orbital velocity, the upper stage is required to burn the last few hundred m/sec to circularise at 170km.

With a mass just short of 25,000kg the upper stage retains 3,230m/sec which, as the station itself only has fuel for RCS, will have to suffice for all manoeuvres. Burning just over 10,000kg of fuel gains Pandora Mun Station an extra 2,260m/sec velocity to intercept the Mun in 2D3H.

Pandora Mun Station and HDIV upper stage shortly after the ejection burn from LKO. Pandora has berths for 8 crew, but will most likely never have that many at once, this will extend its lifesupport capacity from the 20D minimum. 2 lateral and one linear standard docking ports allow for expansion and/or crew transfer to visiting craft.

Day 356, Mun Orbit

Following an uneventual transfer, both for Pandora and for the KSP in general, a 708m/sec capture burn is performed, with other minor burns performed to tweak the final orbit Pandora is finally settled into a non-inclined 30km circular orbit. The HDIV upper stage is retained to negate a small design error (no probe core on the payload .. duh) massing in at 12,500kg it retains only 250Dv.

Station will require a crewman in the cupola or a permanent expansion to contain a probe core to allow station to retain control. The RCS jets with the structural extensions and the fuel tanks for them will be removed by EVA once a crew arrives.

I always thought the cupola windows lit up, cant seem to turn its lights on ... ehh details.

Mission cost 263,796 Funds, - 2x 18,600 recovered from boosters.

Day 357, KSC

It seems that this is the season for transfer windows, Verity IX sits atop a HoundDog II on the launchpad with 17,400Dv in its tanks.

Not quite a standard HDII though, the payload fairing diameter has been reduced from 2.5 to 1.5m due to the small volume required for this craft.

As with the previous Pandora launch, the upper stage is to become more important for the ejection burn than for attaining orbit in the first place, 150km orbit achieved with only minor volumes of its fuel burnt.

The fairings having already been discarded allows Verity IX to be viewed, on its own a very lightweight probe. In addition to the HDII upper stage and its own motors Verity will employ an ejection stage to achieve the required velocity. 7,111kg in LKO with 9,984Dv in the combined crafts tanks.

Taking advantage of daylight for a publicity shot as all ejection burns to planets in higher orbits than Kerbin will take place on the dark side this will be the last time it is in one piece and properly lit up.

Verity IX is a simple fly-by probe, it is not expected to (but an attempt will be made) to capture at its destination so it only carries instruments capable of full science transmission.

The 7,350m/sec ejection burn will have to be split between the three stages, with their vastly differing thrusts and burn times, this means the computor predictions will have to be ignored and the burn performed manually.

HDII upper stage, 135KN, 4,519m/sec takes 2m12sec
Solid kick motor, 56.25KN, 2,420m/sec takes 42sec
Onboard thrusters, 8KN, 430m/sec takes ~20sec

Burning the solid fuel kick motor, chosen despite its relatively low ISP, it has the advantage of providing a decent chunk of Dv very fast meaning the total burn time is a little over 3minutes rather than 10 or more. Even if it did subject the craft to 9G of acceleration just before it burnt out!

Reaching 13,000m/sec only 300km above Kerbin the 425kg probe still retains 2,500m/sec which will be used to try and capture around Jool, or at least to setup an additional flyby with one of its moons.

Image is of planned transfer, actual transfer will take 2Y 318D.

The capture burn will have to be programmed well in advance, Verities dish is not capable of reaching Kerbin at all but the closest parts of the Jool/Kerbin orbits, more powerful dishes can be assembled in Kerbin orbit with the advances in technologies recently unlocked however it is unknown at this time if this will aid in establishing a connection.

Mission cost 59,000 Funds, 2x 820 recovered from boosters.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Now to answer the most important question: how many Kerbonauts does it take to change a light bulb?