Kerbal Space Program, Revisited.

[PeZook]

Docking actually strikes me as pretty critical if you want to reach other planets in the star system one day. You simply can't construct a starship of practical weight and fuel carrying capacity on Kerbal.

You, sir, are a man of weak vision.



Works all the way to Duna!

Alas, it appears some plugins cause some serious crash issues, and I can't really remove any one of them, as all of them are critical. No KSP for me for some time.

[Imperial528]

Docking actually strikes me as pretty critical if you want to reach other planets in the star system one day. You simply can't construct a starship of practical weight and fuel carrying capacity on Kerbal.

Forget reaching planets. I plan to colonize them. All of them. My system shall have many orbital bases and fuel tankers running to and fro.

[Scottish Ninja]

I've been building a station in low orbit, using a nuclear-powered tug to get bits linked up with each other. It's working pretty well so far, though bringing in the second part (I borrowed the stock station core) was a little tricky since I still had a third of an orange tank on the core that I wanted to use to fill up my mostly empty fuel depot. The resulting arrangement was long and heavy and perhaps a tad underpowered, but I got it into position fairly quickly.



Since I confirmed that you can connect engines across docking ports, I've been considering the possibilities of having an engine junkyard in orbit, so you could launch, say, a spaceplane with standard liquid rockets and then once in orbit refuel and swap out your engines for nuclear thermals for an interplanetary trip. The main difficulty I see is that the engines, with no control, will start spinning once undocked and make it very difficult to redock with them.

[Imperial528]

I've been thinking of making an orbital shipyard where I just dock a bunch of parts and ready-made sections on to a station using regular ports for the big sections and the small ports for things like a basic engine block and fuel tank that have no maneuvering capability and are placed up there by a tug.

[Vanas]

With the advent of reliable aircraft, a mission was swifly dispatched to do SCIENCE.

The Probulator was launched into the skies with a single objective: To locate the rival aeronautics facility and drop a Probulator onto the runway to remind them who holds the mantle of SCIENCE on this planet.



The mission was an unqualified success.

The incessant bleeping continued for roughly 3 hours, until either the batteries ran dry or it was kicked off of the runway.

With the success of the Probulator, a new regieme was set in place. First, an Orbital Probulator was deployed, to better ascertain the location of things. The final goal of it was to land in the mysterious giant crater, but Mission Control has yet to finalise the landing profile.

With this vital Probulation data, the Mark 2 variant was mass produced and hurled into the air in an attempt to probulate further data about Kerbin itself.


Airborne deployment of the Local Probulator Mk2s was, once again a success, now over 100 miles from the spaceport itself.

The Mk2s do, at least, offer an advanced sensor suite over the Mk1 and also maintain a full solar array to ensure they can bleep incessantly.

With vital data about the surface of Kerbin being relayed from around and, indeed, over the planet, the next phase began. With data about a lot of the planet, there were two vital places to be explored. In an effort to save Kerbal lives and to increase efficiency, the Zero-Altitude Probulaton Rovers were dispatched to determine the precise amount of SCIENCE that can be done in the general vicinity of the spaceport itself.

Discoveries by the billion rubuloid rovers included that the launch pad made for a decent jump and that turning at high speed tends to make solar panels fall off.


A second rover was later dispatched to find the first rover after it drove off into the wilderness, a mission it performed flawlessly.

Finally, Jeb himself was placed within an advanced version of the Probulator aircraft itself to explorulate the remaining unknown area of the Desert. Sadly, Mission Control's nerves over the fuel supplies caused this mission to be pulled short over the northern area of the desert. Jeb will remain on the ground to poke things with sticks until we can dispatch a Probulator aircrafter overhead to determine his exact composition.

[PeZook]

Do you fly these using the keyboard or a joystick?

[Vanas]

I use a keyboard to fly them. I'm not even sure if there's a fine tuning control, the Probulator aircraft is suprisingly stable unless you accelerate time, in which case the skipping of vital physics and the Probulator's massive roll capacity will come back to haunt you.

The one that headed east with the Probulator on top took about 1/2 hour, while Jeb's flight was of a similar length. Both had plenty of fuel left, about half their load, I was just getting doubtful that they'd reach where I wanted them to go.

For a better illustration of ranges:


And that's on half the load of fuel they had available. Next we learn to land safely.

[PeZook]

Interesting...I find that the ball probe capsule causes uncontrollable issues related to drag, and thus I never use it on aircraft.

[Vanas]

I put in on there because it looks cool on the front. No other reason. The Probulator does tend to dip a lot in flight which does mean I have to keep an eye on it but once it's at about 5500m+ with SAS active, it can get a fair way without intervention.

[Vanas]

Apologies for the double post, but SeffTech SCIENtists seem to have accidentally broken the second law of thermodynamics. Will this be a problem?

Mission Control was testing out the Mk2 0APR when something unusual happened. Navigating it away from the pad and out into the hills behind, the damnedest thing happened. It accelerated up hill, without any usage of the engine.

Instead, gentle turns up the shallow hill allowed the 0APR to tack up-gravity in a manner that flies in the face of common logic. Sadly, after 25km of engine-free driving, Mission Control found a hill it couldn't tack up, so the engine was engaged. Tacking still allowed it to inexplicably accelerate up hill though.

On an unrelated note, the number of bleeping Probulators now scattered over Kerbin have enabled SCIENtists to locate Interesting Things via the reflectance of incessant beeping.

Efforts to deploy more Intercontinental Probulators to fill the skies with bleeping in order to track down more such Things are under way.

[Enigma]

With all the bleeping from those Probulators, it is like Kerbin is chewing out the universe.

[TimothyC]

The reason you accelerated is due to some glitches in the wing code - wings generate a bit of forward thrust as they move. For very light craft it is enough to let you generate extra long glides, or in your case, accelerate over the surface without engine use.

[Imperial528]

Yesterday was a historic event.

The NEW MS-I (Munar Station One) has docked with the SCI-A. Much SCIENCE will be had:



After we get the MUNAR INJECTION and REFUELING stages also attached.

Also, loving that everything is cross-feed capable now.

[OmegaChief]

So, tonight I was just messing around with the new rocket designer, finally worked out how best to use Nuclear engines too!

After succesfully putting Bill into orbit with fuel to spare, some refinments were made to the design.

The resulting UntitledShipBis was able to exceed expectations in... well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words so:



I am so crap at this game I've only ever achieved Kerbal Orbit, or permadeath in orbit of the sun before now, so by gods was I chuffed, and so the newly renamed Munshot one happily orbited the Mun with fuel to spare.



As you can see, she's not a lander at all, heck she wasn't even designed to go beyond a brief couple of orbits, and somehow thankfully she had enough fuel left for a burn that should take her back to Kerbin, so naturally I took the only possible course of reasonable action.

I attempted to land on the Mun.

What followed was an immensly tense decent, as all I had was a rapdily dwindling nuclear rocket engine, my RCS thrusters and the Mk1 eyeball to judge the landing, I managed to get her down to about 30 m/s before impact, which blew off the bottom of the craft, the remains tumbled down, exploding as they went, skidding along the Munar surfact which more and more parts flying off the ship in an event that was so hectic and nail biting I could not hit print screen in time.

Eventually, only the capsual remained, skidding across the Munar surface at 20 m/s, and slowing... slowing... stopped. Munshot-1 (Formally UnnamedShipBis) had landed. On the fucking Mun.



And so, Bob Kerman, on what had been a simple orbital test flight of a random rocket design, had landed on the Mun:



And spoke these historical words:

"Well fuck, how am I going to get back home now?"

[Vanas]

((In a similar vein to Omega's post, herein lies the tale of my first Munar mission. Heck ,the first thing that's even got near the Mun. It's taken most of this week, in between messing around with 0APRs and jets.))

While SeffTech has been deploying Probulators across Kerbin, one additional Probulator was deployed, and this one was Special.


The Deep Spess Probulator Mk1 was developed to test the Ion drive in space rather than on the ground as with the 0APR Mk1s and because venting a searing beam of superheavy gas out of the back of several tonnes of flying SCIENCE is pretty metal.

The initial orbit it was deployed in can be seen by the left hand ellipse. It reached a total distance from Kerbin of 22Mm, twice Munar orbit. After dumping the boost stage and testing the engine, enterprising SCIENtists noticed that the cack-handed orbit that it was in kinda passed sort of near Munar orbit.


As such, the engine was throttled up to bring the Probulator closer to Kerbin, hence the right hand ellipse on the plot.

The inital Munar pass achieved a notable SCIENCE goal: to bring a bleeping device within a reasonable distance of the Mun, in order to begin the probulation. As the Probulator whipped past the Mun, Mission control decided to burn the engine some more and abuse the gravity assitance that the Probulator had recieved in order to bring it closer to the ecliptic and a better chance of Munar approach, at a cost of 20% of the xenon supply.

Seven days into the mission, second munar approach occoured. Rather closer to the Mun that the previous flight, attempts were made to enter munar orbit at this point, using 25% of the craft's remaining xenon supply. Shortly after this, a cry of 'oh cock' went up from Mission Control. While the Probulator had indeed reached the same speed as the Mun as it passed it, the Probulator was in a retrograde orbit so it was passing the Mun at 1km/s.

At this point, Mission Control decided to stop flailing around uselessly and just turn the engine off to see what would happen. As it happened, the gravity assist from this 750km pass of the Mun managed to flip the entire orientation of the Probulator's orbit so that the bleeping device was now orbiting prograde, if very slowly. With a hearty cry of 'fuck it', the engine was switched back on and the Probulator began to chase the Mun.

Two days later, the Probulator was approacing the Mun once again, but this time Mission Control had a plan.

A bloody stupid plan, but a plan nonetheless.

Sadly, owing to a hiccup in flight software at this point, the craft entered into emergency lithobraking mode. Mission Control, being undaunted and at this point just wanting to see what would happen, throttled the engine up again with a simple objective. 'Miss the Mun'.



Fuck, yeah, did it work. With brown alert lights flashing and rave airhorns blaring in Mission Control, the Probulator completed its 9km flight over the Munar surface and decelerated enough to enter a coherent Munar orbit to the utter shock of all present.

Sadly, Science objectives for this mission failed owing to unforseen consequences. Turns out that bleeps do not propogate well through space.


And God said, let there be light.


A second mission is projected for 'as soon as we work out a better way to get there' and will hopefully include some kind of electromagnetic bleeping device.

[Agent Fisher]

Fisher Enterprises is proud to announce that their MOS 1 (Manned Orbital Station) has reached a stable orbit of approximately 125km above the surface of Kerbin. A day later, it was announced that the first ODT (Orbital Delivery Truck) docked with the MOS 1, allowing the exchange of supplies and allowing MOS launch Commander Jebediah Kerman to return to KSP to lead future ODT and station add-on missions.



OOC: Thank god for MechJeb!

[OmegaChief]

The Moonshot program has hit a few snags of late


Caption: Jeb poking the remains of the most succesful landing attempt (Not pictured the remains of the capsual a hundred or so meters down a long gouged out trench)

Top scientists are contemplating going back to the drawing board now they know how to actually get to the Mun.

[Imperial528]

Another great day for SCIENCE!



Following a less than spectacular, but still massively successful, launch (read: final orbit stage dipped into atmosphere and almost crashed, saved by fuel consumption) we have finished 50% of the fuel capacity of the station.

Now, we ready a booster to send in to orbit to deliver our Munar lander to Mun!

[Agent Fisher]

Fisher Enterprises is proud to announce that their MOS 1 (Manned Orbital Station) has reached a stable orbit of approximately 125km above the surface of Kerbin. A day later, it was announced that the first ODT (Orbital Delivery Truck) docked with the MOS 1, allowing the exchange of supplies and allowing MOS launch Commander Jebediah Kerman to return to KSP to lead future ODT and station add-on missions.



OOC: Thank god for MechJeb!

A slightly embarrassing press conference for Fisher Enterprises today, when it was announced it's first Station Add-on Mission suffered a minor technical failure. After a tedious orbit and docking, Commander Jebediah hit the switch to separate the RTKS from the station addition. However, upon separation, it was found the RCS tank on the RTKS had accidentally drained dry. Not too concerned, Commander Jeb hit the decoupler switch to remove the engine shroud of the RTKS, and discovered hte malfunction. Thankfully the RTKS had only drifted a short distance from the station and Commander Jeb was able to EVA to MOS 1 while awaiting the next ODT to allow him to return to KSP.

[CaptHawkeye]

Got a manned ship to almost land on the Mun. I touched down too fast and one of the landing struts broke, so I immediately went full throttle and got my endangered Kerbal's back into orbit.

I need them to alive to fill out an insurance claim after all.

[Vanas]

And yea it came to pass that while assembling the gubbins required for an electromagnetic bleeping device to send to the Mun, SeffTech SCIENtists discovered an old Zero-Altitude Probulating Rover lying around in the back of the VAB.

Being enterprising young kerbals, they took a look at it and their new Mun rocket and went 'hmmm'. Bolting it to the rocket and an aerodynamic cap to it, they snuck the combined rocket onto the launchpad under the cover of night.



The launch passed... interestingly, as (as was found much, much later), the wings of the Probulator were slightly offset, causing uncontrollable roll in the atmosphere. Regardless, the Probulator slipped the surly bonds of Kerbin and was hurled towards the Mun with no fear.

On arrival, Mission control flew into a frenzy of activity in an attempt to crash the Probulator into the Mun in a manner that precluded terminal failure.

Simulations were run. Bits were jettisonned. Stages were dropped. Coffee was brewed. An incessant squeaking noise came from Ground Control who was spininng on his chair waiting for it to damn well land. Cakes were made. Vodka was drunk in large quantities.

Somehow, somehow, the Probulator kept flying steadily, reversing onto the Mun at speeds high enough to cause Mission Control to bottle the landing a few times owing to uncertainty as to the actual altitude of the ground. Finally, Ground Control wrenched the joystick out of Flight Control's hands and slammed the business end of the landing stage into the ground. Somehow, this lithobraking worked and the probulator remained intact, save two of the landing stage engines. They were hastily shut down and the probulator skidded to a stop. Sadly no-one remembered to take any pictures as Flight Control was being dragged out to an ambulanski owing to cardiac arrest.

Nonetheless, the final stage sperator was pressed and the probulator was jolted onto the surface.


At this point, as the command to deploy the wheels was given, one of the SCIENCE team piped up. 'What about the gravity difference? Those wheels pop out quickly.'

After much cursing, it was rembered that the probe had been fitted with a crude self-righting system. With manupulation of the solar arrays on the dorsal side of the Probulator and pulses of ion engine, the probulator righted itself and took its first real look around.



At a press conference later that day, a SeffTech spokeman showed a video of the landing and uttered the immortal phrase 'Hey, at least there wasn't anyone in it, right?'.
He was promptly booed off stage by members of the press who were hoping to report on something interesting.

[Darkevilme]

Shades Indoors Industries announced the successful assembly of the first part of their new interplanetary craft for a future mission to Jool, the Interplanetary Express.



attachment of the power module, auxiliary fueltanks and lander are scheduled as futuristic events to occur in the future.

This message has been brought to you by Shades Indoors Industries.

[Imperial528]

After many hassles with rockets, it was remembered that jet engines do, in fact, exist:



And, indeed, they can be fast:



And are valid ways to achieve SPACE!:

[Vanas]

In an attempt to map the Mun following the broad success of the original mapulating probulator in Kerbin orbit, a fully kitted out Deep Spess Probulator MkII was dispatched to the spacebound rock in what is now a routine fashion. For the first time, however, SeffTech mission planning hit a snag. While the probulator successfully reached the Mun, a hiccup in programming meant that the ion drive reached full power without the solar panels being deployed, draining the onboard supplies and rendering it a useless husk.

With a resigned sigh and liberal use of the motivational car batteries, Mission Control sent the members of the design team back to the drawing board to make a better model of probulator that would resist such expensive cockups. Within days, the Deep Spess Probulator MkIII was rolled out onto the launchpad and fired into space. The MkIII offers... well, one advance over it's predecessor. A set of passive solar arrays has been added to prevent batteries drying out in flight. An excellent attempt to test this came when Mission Control overheard one of the designers saying that the probe had enough fuel in the tank to get to Duna.


"Screw you, Mun!" was the cry from Mission Control as the craft was violently redirected out of Kerbin orbit. It was noted, however, that other companies and agencies had already begun to probulate Duna and while probulating is its own reward, probulating for a great deal of money and fame is better. As such, the probulator was fired instead into the inner solar system. The actual approach to the second planet of Eve took over a year owing to uncertainties as to the mass of Eve and its associated area of influence. Two distant flybys of the planet took place and there was much celebration as the first confirmed image of the Evil surface was transmitted back from the probulator.

It was, however, deeply hoped that the second flyby would provide a more detailed image. It did not.

Nonetheless, Mission Control persevered and over a year after launch, the probulator was finally caught by Eve's gravity. Finally plummetting towards the planet, wide vistas of purple sea and sky were revealed. All of which would undoubtedly be of great interest to Mission Control had the room not been filling with blaring rave airhorns and flashing lights owing to a series of 30-minute engine burns and the presence of the Evil moon, Gilly.

Still on approach, the very first SCIENCE results started to come in from the probulator as it completed its first deceleration burn and continued to be analysed as the probulator circularised its orbit at around 500km. Almost immediately, certain things became clear: Eve seems to be larger than Kerbin itself; the probulator needs to travel faster to maintain the orbit and the planet is significantly larger in the photos from that altitude. This is borne out by studies of the Evil gravity; even at 500km, the gravity is ~70% of Kerbin's surface gravity and it's suspected that the Evil surface has gravity somewhat more than Kerbin. As such, landing plans have been halted until SeffTech works out how to actually land an atmosphere capable rover. And then fly it to Eve. And then land it. In higher gravity.



Plans to head to the outer system have been put on hold as well owing to technical difficulties. A small team of sneaky SCIENtists were sent to acquire several RTGs from KerboNük. Sadly, the Seaborgium-258 generators failed to provide any noticeable charge when tested. ((Seriously, RTGs don't seem to do anything)). This will sadly preclude any further exploration of the outer system until the problem with the RTGs is traced.

[Imperial528]

RTGs provide a low rate of constant power. It's only 1/sec but it will keep a probe on forever.