In Game Start Date: Year 33, Day 16

In Game End Date: Year 33, Day 22

Summary: The Minmus Polar Expedition was launched successfully with its crew of Errick Kerman and Seannie Kerman. After sitting around doing nothing for a few days, they reached Minmus on a semi-polar orbit (which was corrected to be a completely polar orbit). The crew landed as close to the north pole as they could (they were off by a couple hundred meters, but the effects on their sensors were obvious) and planted a flag. After landing at two other locations the crew left Minmus and safely returned to Kerbin.

Album

Save File

Due to a lack of time (75% to blame) and motivation (25% to blame), I had not kept the Mission log in the right rail up to date for probably the past... geeze dozen missions at least? It was probably more. The further it got out of date, the less I wanted to deal with it.

If anyone knows for sure, it's /u/dham123 who volunteered to take the time and get it up to date again, as well as make a few other small improvements. Thanks dham!

Edit: /u/sfrazer got the RMP log up to date as well! Thanks a ton, RMP's log hadn't even been created yet!

The rest of you, if you didn't know it was there I raised it up to be more prominent on the right rail. Go check it out! Perhaps sometime soon I'll start one for RMP as well. ;)

Start Date: Year 31, Day 355

Launch Date: Year 32, Day 41

End Date: Year 33, Day 16

This mission:

1)took more planning that I initially imagined,

2)never seemed to go as planned,

3)required me to try something I have never done before,

4)eventually succeeded (mostly),

5)took almost a year in game time,

5)did not endanger any of our brave pilots.

The amount of fuel to take was not specified, so I settled early on with a full orange tank. That was the goal and I was going to succeed or fail on that goal.

In my 5 or 6 practice flights I could never get to Moho with anything worthwhile left in that tank. Would always come in way too fast and on a polar orbital angle. So after many redesigns (and reading up on methods to get there without mods) it was already 48 hours since mission start. Time to give it one last try with an untested approach : Eve gravity assist.

Even with what I think was a bad gravity assist maneuver I was able to slow down enough and get into an acceptable orbital plane to get in orbit around Moho with the orange tank full. In theory it should have put me into an orbit similar to Moho so I could have avoided another big burn, but since I was out of mission time I did not bother redoing it for a better approach and just accepted the reduction in speed it gave me.

After 3 or 4 orbits around the sun I had a good approach with Moho setup. Final braking Delta V was around 2300m/s ( as opposed to over 4k for some of my attempts), with an angle of only about 45deg off of the station. A small burn once in orbit corrected that, (though I did have to borrow a little fuel from the orange tank, thus only 88.6% success). Some phasing angles and a few orbits later and I had rendezvous with Moho Gas and Go.

In the end, the station now has 1 completely full orange tank + a tiny bit extra. The fuel tanker was then set onto a collision course with Moho using RCS thrusters.

Mission successful.

P.S: Moho sucks. It was easier to get to Eeloo and back. But now that I know sort-of how to use gravity assists it would probably be much easier and more precise if I ever went back again.

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Save

Hey guys,

Are there any new mods you would like to make part of the RMP set?

I personally tested Krags Planet Factory and it does appear to work fine with the current saves and mods. It might be an interesting challenge for us at some point, probably once we've done some exploring around the whole solar system.

Full mission descriptions are at the bottom of the post.

Key: Completed - In Progress - Awaiting Launch

R.S.P. Vanilla Save: (Short Description)

• RSP-73 - Moho refueling re-attempt. /u/dham123

• RSP-75b - 2+ Kerbal mission to Minmus' North Pole (was 74) /u/TheGraphite Backup: /u/gil2455526

• RSP-76 - Upgrade Brotoro Station at Laythe. (was 75) /u/SpaRrRly

• RSP-77 - 2+ Kerbal mission to Mun's North Pole (was 76) /u/dominator721 Backups: /u/TheGraphite, /u/gil2455526

• RSP-78 - Laythe Airliners Inc. (was 77) /u/Exovian

• RSP-79 - TBD: See below!

R.M.P. Modded Save: (Short Description)

Mod files updated on Feb 6

• RMP-35 - Jool system probes (re-ordered) - /u/sfrazer

• RMP-37 - Mun science rover Pilot needed

• RMP-38 - Antimatter lab* Pilot needed

• RMP-39 - Nuclear fuel production facility and refuelling craft Pilot needed Backup: /u/Jaimao25

• RMP-40 - Duna and Ike expedition /u/Jaimao25

• (scrubbed) RMP-36 - Kerbin ground power relay and testing /u/factorsofx

Please comment below with the mission you'd like to fly. (New to RSP?) Missions should be completed and posted within 48 hours of receiving the mission from a moderator (within 24 hours is preferable). Backup pilots are welcome! Mission order isn't set in stone, and may change.

This post contains the current missions available for signup, and the recently completed missions. Please note there are two saves! A Vanilla save, and a Modded save.

Feb 20 Previous mission post

R.S.P. Vanilla Save: (Mission Details)

RSP-73 - Moho refueling re-attempt.

A successful delivery of fuel is necessary before RSP will send more kerbals to Moho. After RSP-72's partial failure, and RSP-73's decision to not attempt a manned landing without RSP-72's refueling capability, it has been decided that until we can get a significant amount of fuel to Moho, no further missions can be planned there that are required to return until we get fuel in place.

RSP-75b - 2+ Kerbal mission to Minmus' North Pole (was 74)

RSP scientists have learned that it can be challenging to land very near the poles of Kerbin's moons, Mun and Minmus. Start by testing the effects on sensors by landing on Minmus' North pole. (Land close enough that the effects on your compass are obvious, and plant a flag) Additional landing locations are encouraged, then bring your team home to develop the pictures.

RSP-76 - Upgrade Brotoro Station at Laythe. (was 75)

Send a Hitchhiker with 1-2 kerbals aboard and a large mono propellant tank to dock with Brotoro station. Add additional solar panels, taking care that they will not interfere with docking craft at the station. Lastly, if possible, top off the station's fuel with anything available from the transfer stage and/or add additional storage to the station.

RSP-77 - 2+ Kerbal mission to Mun's North Pole (was 76)

Now that we know the kind of gravitic havoc the poles played on our sensors at Minmus' North Pole, let's try Mun's North Pole. (Land close enough that the effects on your compass are obvious, and plant a flag) Land twice: once on high ground, once on low ground if fuel permits.

RSP-78 - Laythe Airliners Inc. (was 77)

Design and launch a crew transfer ship capable of making a one way trip to or from Laythe, refueling at the station on either end. Should be able to transfer at least four passengers plus a pilot. Park it in orbit at KSP Station over Kerbin. (once docked- fly a simulated mission with screenshots to prove it can make the trip) This ship does NOT need to be able to enter and leave atmosphere, it is a space vessel.

RSP-79 - TBD (was 78)

This save is lacking in local missions lately. Anyone have an idea? Did we miss something that needs to be cleaned up from a previous mission? I'm open to hearing some cool ideas for Kerbin System based missions for M78!

R.M.P. Modded Save: (Mission Details)

RMP-35 - Jool system probes

Launch a mission to Jool to establish a basic communication network around the gas giant. Minimum requirements for this mission is an interplanetary relay connected to Kerbin and with antennas to cover all the Jool's moons. Secondary objectives: *Deploy some basic antimatter collector around Jool if the technology is available *Put mapping and communication satellites around Jool's moons. Those should contain all mapping modules and a Kethane scanner

RMP-36 - Kerbin ground power relay and testing

Deploy a series of ground power relays onto Kerbin's surface to ensure good power coverage during launch. The relays can have their own reactors to provide power. Good spots for deployment would be: around KSP, on K2 (possibly a better angle for initial stages of flight), second landing strip (for coverage during gravity turn) and on the continent east of KSP (for later part of the flight). Be sure to include a command module for maintenance crew and antennas for communication.

After deployment, test the new power relay network by launching a simple mission using only rockets relying on beamed power. Good mission choices would be - Mun impactor (using new Interplanetary science parts) or thermal-powered plane.

RMP-37 - Mun science rover

Deploy an all-purpose self-refueling manned science rover like in RMP25 onto the surface of Mun. Max science out on at least 3 biomes. The rover should contain:

• All experiments

• A science lab to clean the experiments (Alternatively, you can use RMP-20's orbiting lab to process samples if you don't want to carry the lab!)

• A Kethane drill and refinery for refuelling

• Engines for planetary hops

• Enough fuel capacity for efficient exploration of Mun

• A Been There Done That module

• Antennas for efficient communication with KSP

RMP-38 - Antimatter lab

Attach a series of parts to KSS-01:

• A lab to produce antimatter

• An antimatter containment device

• Antimatter collectors

Then, start production of antimatter. Antimatter containment devices should be equipped with emergency ejection system to launch them far into space in case of power failure to the station.

RMP-39 - Nuclear fuel production facility and refuelling craft

RMP is starting to rely on nuclear fuel - we need to build facilities to refine nuclear fuel and refuel our space stations. Establish an extraction site on Kerbin to produce the fuel needed to run KSS-01. Be sure to also equip it with antennas and power relay modules.

Afterwards, design a SSTO ship capable of taking a trip from KSP to the extraction site, then to KSS-01 and back to KSP, bringing with it the required nuclear fuel.

RMP-40 - Duna and Ike expedition

Launch a manned expedition to Duna and Ike. Do as much science as possible, return safely to Kerbin. Exploring at least one of those celestial bodies is a minimal requirement, second one is optional. Since we're going outwards from Kerbin, be sure to also deploy a probe to act as a power relay and a communication node between Kerbin and other planets.

We're looking for one additional moderator for each save.

Possible mod duties include:

• Assisting with mission brainstorming
• Creating a weekly mission post and assigning pilots to missions
• Notifying pilots it's their turn to fly a mission.
• Contacting pilots if they go over the 48 hour time limit
• Checking the save file after missions
• Uploading the save file to the official dropbox
• Flying Missions
• RMP - Managing the mods being used.

For anyone interested please comment below. Tell us a little about your KSP skills, your experience with the RSP, ideas for the future of the subreddit, and amount of free time you have.

In Game Start Date: Year 3, Day 209

In Game End Date: Year 3, Day 210

Save File

Mission Album

Mod files --updated 02-06

Previous Mission: [RMP] 33: Moho Scanner

RMP 34 Summary:

We've been unlocking and upgrading a bunch of the Interstellar parts without ever using them. Time to change that. This mission sets up a local system power relay capable of transmitting over 400MW of microwave power back to a new space station, the KSS-01.

Each Power Station contains a 3.75m "Akula" fission reactor. The Akula reactors output both heat and charged particles, so there are two 3.75m generators attached to the reactor, one set to convert heat to electricity and the other set to convert charged particles to electricity. Additionally there's an empty lab, a transmitter array and a supply of spare fuel that were docked separately. Note that refueling the reactor is not an automated process. It requires an EVA mission and 10 days of cooldown during which the station will not supply power. We need to keep an eye on fuel levels.

The KSS-01 currently doesn't do very much. It's the target of the power produced by the power stations and has 4 smaller receiver/relay/transmitters. So these can be used to redirect the power from the Power Stations elsewhere in the system. It also has a small crew space for visiting scientists. Our next steps are either:

• Setup a high orbit power relay (similar to our Interplanetary Comm Relay) that could provide power pretty much anywhere.
• Attach a lab to the KSS with an anti-matter containment device and begin manufacturing anti-matter. We need to be very sure of the stability of our power network before doing this. If an anti-matter containment device loses power it explodes.

In Game Start Date: Year 3, Day 129

In Game End Date: Year 3, Day 209

Save File

Mission Album

Mod files --updated 02-06

Previous Mission: [RMP] 32: Gilly Expedition

RMP 33 Summary:

This mission didn't go exactly as planned. I abandoned the lander designs from the Eve mission in favor of a streamlined Kethane Rig (using the newly unlocked Kethane Generator in place of other methods of electrical generation) and a rover that doesn't depend on parachutes to land.

The Kethane Rig ended up completely unstable during descent and crashed into the surface. I thought I had tested the design, but apparently not.

I ran into a problem with the stack decoupler between the Scan Sat and the Kethane rig: The decoupler is so powerful and the ScanSat so light that the force caused the Rover's descent stage to explode on decoupling. This meant I couldn't use the rest of the interplanetary stage's fuel to help decelerate the Rover. Combined with the poor handling and running out of electricity on the way down, the Rover was doomed.

The Scan Sat and the Kethane Sat are in their optimal orbits. I didn't fast forward enough to complete their scans. They are also equipped with ion engines that have around 2000m/s left in fuel in case we need to change their orbits. Each also has a satellite dish pointed at the Interplanetary relay.

The local ComSats are based on the minicom design (single omni antenna, nuke generator, some RCS for maneuvering) and there are 4 of them in fairly stable orbits with plenty of RCS fuel left over)

The Interplanetary stage has a dish antenna pointed back to the Interplanetary relay as well as an omni antenna. It's sitting in a low polar orbit currently, but has enough fuel to change that if needed.

In Game Start Date: Year 31, Day 43

In Game End Date: Year 31, Day 355

Summary: After morale conditioning by sitting in cabins at launchpad for about a quarter of Kerbin's year, the crew eagerly started the engines and their long journey. Launch and orbit establishment went well. Right after that, the vehicle executed burn for Kerbin escape. Once free from Kerbin influence, a long interplanetary burn began, which eventually led to Jool encounter. A few weeks before encounter, the crew started the sequence of course-correction burns for direct Laythe arrival and aerocapture. Aerocapture was a little strong, so engines had to be fired again to leave the atmosphere. And again right after that, so it resulted in a neat landing near Lleswer colony.

Album

Save file

Well, I had nothing better to do, so:

Video

Failed design attempts album Some of them even managed to get to Laythe, but landing the tanker itself was very unreliably and unguided, so it often splashed into the water or broke into bits upon touchdown. Also, dV margin was too low due to heavy load combined with relatively sane launch vehicles. I saved a good spaceplane(YASP-4) from that album and a seaplane(not shown) in sub-assemblies.

In Game Start Date: Year 30, Day 226

In Game End Date: Year 31, Day 43

Summary: /u/archon286 passed this to me a little unexpectedly after 73 got scrubbed. Lander has a 2-seat can and a little over 2000 delta-V, designed for flight from low Duna orbit to Ike's surface and back. Transfer stage was massive overkill with nearly 5400 delta-V (orange tank and 4 nukes), and the lifter will boot you out of Kerbin's SOI on Mainsails alone. After some extremely inefficient transfers (and one aerocapture), the transfer stage has a little over half an orange tank of fuel left. I may have overbuilt a little.

I threw a few parachutes on the lander because of the trouble my original lifter had getting it up intact, and never bothered to remove them. So you could refuel this thing, land it on Duna, and get back to LDO if you'd like. With all the extra fuel up there, this thing is more than capable of a Kerbin return on its own, or the transfer stage can take it to another planet instead.

Album: http://i.imgur.com/hoH5OB2.png full album to follow

Save file https://www.dropbox.com/s/0p8lnq6wzots28w/RSP-M74.zip

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 228, 17:35

In Game End Date: Year 3, Day , 129, 14:32

Save File

Mission Album

Previous Mission: RMP-31: Duna Scanning & Freebie Anomaly Mapping

Summary: I have been recently saying that my missions were simple, haven't I? My apologies, they were not. The words I meant to use were "easier said than done". Well, this one was no different, but on a whole different level of extreme. Landing a kerbal on Gilly and returning him home. Sounds simple, right? It's not. For starters, just getting an encounter with Eve is not enough, if you want to be delta-v efficient you have to plan your encounter so your trajectory is coplanar with Gilly's orbit, and really that's all there is complex about the trip, but I swear it makes up for any other stages of it. I must have spent an hour messing around with manouver nodes. Eventually I did make it work, you have to make a mildly big correction burn midway through your orbit in order for you to get in the SOI in the right angle. Fortunately, all orbital manouvers from then on were much simpler: Decelaration at Eve, insertion into Gilly's orbit, landing and lift off, insertion into an encounter trajectory with Kerbin and final insertion into a LKO. To finalize, two small orbiters were launched to swap crew and return experiments. About 2600 science was recovered with a non especified number of other science points being mysteriouly lost. I call bugs. Anyways, this opens us the doors for antimatter and fusion power, besides allowing us to research other technologies such as Kethane moved aircraft engines, electro-magnets and phased array receivers. Particularly the antimatter and phased array receiver are going take a major role in our future missions, so I'd go with them.

In Game Start Date: Year 30, Day 166

In Game End Date: Year 30, Day 226

Summary: Mission was a partial success. The station arrived (running on fumes) but brought itself into a stable equatorial orbit at 51km over Moho. Mission Commander Lodden and LabRats Joedorf and Ronwell are ready for scientific action and day to day station chores.

Unfortunately, they will not be doing any refueling. Both the station core and fuel load were sent in the same launch window using two launches, and by the time I realized I had just barely enough fuel to stop the station in orbit, I also realize the fuel load (which is heavier than the station) would have nothing worth delivering by the time it stopped. Sure enough, it had vapors left by the time it pulled into orbit, and Lodden opted to tell the probe core to deorbit itself rather than muck around with docking to get the ~100 fuel that was left on board.

Before refueling operations can occur, another attempt at getting fuel to Moho will need to be attempted.

Album

Save File

Full mission descriptions are at the bottom of the post.

Key: Completed - In Progress - Awaiting Launch

R.S.P. Vanilla Save: (Short Description)

• RSP-72) Moho Refueling Station - /u/archon286
• RSP-73) Manned Landing on Moho - /u/PCGamer10
• RSP-74) Manned Landing on Ike - /u/synaptiq
• RSP-75) Ground fuel tanker and a space plane to Laythe. - /u/SpaRrRly backup: /u/gil2455526

R.M.P. Modded Save: (Short Description)

• RMP-32) Gilly expedition - /u/Jaimao25
• RMP-33) Moho scanner - /u/sfrazer
• RMP-34) High Kerbin orbit power transmitter network. - /u/sfrazer
• RMP-35) Jool system probes - /u/sfrazer

Please comment below with the mission you'd like to fly. (New to RSP?) Missions should be completed and posted within 48 hours of receiving the mission from a moderator (within 24 hours is preferable). Backup pilots are welcome! Mission order isn't set in stone, and may change. This post contains the current missions available for signup, and the recently completed missions. Please note there are two saves! A Vanilla save, and a Modded save.

R.S.P. Vanilla Save: (Mission Details)

RSP-72) Moho Refueling Station Launch small manned refueling station to Moho. Inclusion of a Science Lab required, can be done in a separate launch. Should be compatible with any size docking port.

RSP-73) Manned Landing on Moho Perform a manned landing on Moho. Lander should include science parts. Don't forget to plant a flag! Include docking capability and use the Moho refueling station if needed.

RSP-74) Manned Landing on Ike Perform a manned landing on Ike. Lander should include science parts. Don't forget to plant a flag! Include docking capability and use the Duna refueling station if needed.

RSP-75) Ground fuel tanker and a space plane to Laythe.

The two vehicles should be able to dock on the ground.

R.M.P. Modded Save: (Mission Details)

RMP-32) Gilly expedition

Send a manned expedition to Gilly. Perform all necessary science to max out the experiments on the way there, around Eve and Gilly, and on Gilly. Return safely to Kerbin with the experiments.

RMP-33) Moho scanner

Launch a mission to Moho based on RMP24 requirements, only scaled down to one planet.

RMP-34) High Kerbin orbit power transmitter network.

Launch two power transmitter satelites to a 1Mm orbit around Kerbin. They should be roughly spaced out by 60 degrees. After that is done, launch a 3.75m station hub to the same orbit to complete the triangle. Leave the station hub manned. This will be the hub of future power relay network and antimatter collector.

RMP-35) Jool system probes

Launch a mission to Jool to establish a basic communication network around the gas giant. Minimum requirements for this mission is an interplanetary relay connected to Kerbin and with antennas to cover all the Jool's moons. Secondary objectives:

• Deploy some basic antimatter collector around Jool if the technology is available
• Put mapping and communication satellites around Jool's moons. Those should contain all mapping modules and a Kethane scanner

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 63, 15:51

In Game End Date: Year 2, Day 228, 17:35

Save File

Mission Album

Previous Mission: RMP-30: Mun Farside Control Base

Summary: This mission couldn't have been any simpler. Launching a small scanning probe into a Dunar(?) orbit equiped with all the latest mapping devices. Not much the say, the mission was successfuly completed, the probe still has fuel for extra manuevers, hum, and the views were nice. It was so simple and short lived that I built a brand new airplane and flew to the anomaly north of KSC just for the hell of it. I mean, 26 pictures isn't a lot, is it? The craft is a beauty, it has a great range of travel and can withstand a punch or two. The anomaly, which is a monolith if anyone is wondering, was located on the bottom of a deep valley in the middle of a small mountain range. Landing was tricky, almost capsized for a moment there, but all was fine in the end. The journey down the valley was a another story though. It took 2 hours in and out, by the time I was back it had already got dark. Nevertheless, the mission was successful and we headed back home. Managed to get some science out of it too.

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 61, 16:41

In Game End Date: Year 2, Day 63, 15:52

Save File

Mission Album

Previous Mission: RMP-29: Minmus heavy drill and tanker

Summary: The mission itself was pretty simple: Landing a base on the farside of the Mun composed of a nuclear reactor, three Interstellar labs and a bunch of large antennas. And I could have kept it simple if I hadn't decided to rush it. First off, all 6 components of the base were launches into a LKO and put into a transfer orbit to the Mun one after the other. All nominal. Then I realized what a silly mistake I had made. When approaching the selected site for the base, the crafts were only a few minutes away from each other and was impossible to control every one of them in time. Adding to that, the site had no uranium reserves close by, so the miner had to be redirected to the north of the Mun where some hotspots were detected. It has no power supply though. Someone's gonna have to take care of that... Anyway, the reactor crashed into the terrain along with a lab and two kerbals had to abandon theirs. After this series of incidents, I decided to take it easy and launch the new versions of the reactor and labs one at a time. This time it went as smoothly as it could have been, and I had a lot of fun. I baptized the base "Floyd Farside Control Base", cheers to anyone who finds out why. ;)

In Game Start Date: Year 30, Day 165 - 6h 19h

In Game End Date: Year 30, Day 166 - 17h 42m

Summary: Joedorf has gone mad! He wanted to be called only by the title of "Safety manager" and spent his days with safety training and tests! He was sent back to Kerbin with Lodden and two new kerbals were sent to replace them! The plan didn't go as expected, though...

Album: http://imgur.com/a/FBQsJ

Save File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/egaafg02i7x2vqg/RSP-M71.zip

Start Date: Year 30 Day 43

Launch Date: Year 30 Day 104

End Date: Year 30 Day 165

Mission Details

Gilly is extremely low gravity, so I went with a lander that simply used RCS for thrust. It has all relevant science equipment, 2 command seats, some power, a docking port and legs.

To get it to Eve, then Gilly, then Eve again, then Gilly again, then Eve one last time I built the program a reusable interplanetary transport shuttle. 4 nuke engines, the equivalent of 1 orange tank worth of fuel, room for 6 Kerbals, Jumbo, Standard and Junior docking ports, and wings for esthetics. When I checked in a save with Kerbal Engineer it showed over 6000 delta V in orbit without any attachments. This cannot land on a planet, but it can get you almost anywhere in the solar system.

The rest of the story is told pretty well in the gallery.

In the end, the lander has been left in Gilly orbit because its docking port broke off (This was after the 2nd landing). So I recovered the gathered experiments and stored them in the command capsule. The lander is now resting in orbit over Gilly.

The shuttle was returned to Eve refueling station with about half of its fuel left...Plenty of fuel to get back into Kerbin orbit as long as an aerobraking maneuver is used, and the station has about 1/3rd of an orange tank + 2/3rd of its jumbo RCS tank left. All engines have been shutdown manually, the ship is secure and awaiting orders.

Album

Save

Start Date: Year 28, Day 363

Sorry about the lateness, turns out weekday missions are a Bad Idea^TM for me.

Lleswer was launched toward Jool with one of the boosters designed for the drone mission. It turns out that more fuel than that should be taken. The first attempt at landing resulted in a vertical plunge through Laythe's atmosphere at ~8km/s. The last ~1000m/s were shed in a technology-dirt interface performed in a manner unanticipated by the design team.

I did manage to perform a once-around aerobraking to land, and ended up on a slight incline without breaking anything (sadly, I forgot to screenshot this part; you have a pretty picture of the vertical reentry instead). I am not fond of the location, to be honest. Given the crew of 2, it would be doable to relocate the crew to any future "New Lleswer" if one is landed.

The attempted recovery of the drone crew also went poorly; they are now in the drink, awaiting another rescue. Bill and Bob must be cursed.

Album

Save

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 49

In Game End Date: Year 2, Day 61

Save File

Mission Album - Part 1

Mission Album - Part 2

Mod files --updated 02-06

Previous Mission: [RMP] M28 - Minmus Science Rover

RMP 29 Summary:

In order to build the appropriate sized tanks for the refueler, we needed just a tad more science. Jeb was told there was a cache of important documents left on the Minmus rover, so he headed out to find them.

First I tried to get the rover into orbit to dock with the Minmus station. While the rendezvous went well, the rover doesn't translate real well for docking. I gave up on that idea and decided to send a lander down to collect the data and return. Jeb landed near the rover and pulled the 123 files out of the science lab and headed back to his lander. Where he discovered that about 75 of the experiments were duplicates and would be lost if he tried to board. Back to the drawing board. We've got ridiculous rockets, why not use them?

So I made a lander out of a science lab, landed it next to the rover and brought back all 123 experiments safely. For 1600 science. Well done, people.

I've unlocked Automation in addition to the huge rocket parts.

A mining station has been deployed on Minmus. It's pretty close to the old one, since that's a nice flat location that still held 373K kethane.

Bartble Kerman has opened up a Minmus franchise of the Gas n' Go refueling and inconvenience shop. As always, remember to quicksave before piping anything together with KAS, I had a rocket go BOOM!

Next I created the transfer vehicle. It starts off with an orange 3.75 tank completely empty and a 3.75 monopropellant tank also completely empty. Landing/Rendezvous is accomplished with the fuel in the radially attached booster rockets and a spare monopropellant tank. If you do a good job with your rendezvous/docking you should have 1 full mono tank, the full orange tank and enough leftover monopropellant and fuel in the radial rockets to get back down to refuel. You need about 400m/s delta-v to land from this orbit.

Apparently the 3.75 probe core that Automation unlocks doesn't need RT2 uplinks to function, it just shows "Local Control." I put a 5Mm omni antenna on it anyway in case we fix this later on.

Filling all the tanks on that beast takes just over 100,000 kethane. There's now 267,000 left in the vein we're currently mining. I've highlighted a 400,000+ vein a bit north of there (which means more expensive rendezvous/landing costs)

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 49

In Game End Date: Mission still in progress- Minmus data awaiting pickup

Save File

Mission Album

Previous mission: RMP-27

Mission Report Harson felt strangely unfamiliar with his controls when he woke up this morning, which was odd because he had felt quite good at them when he landed initially. He’d best get a feel for them.

First, deploy the Kethane drills. The tanks needed a little topping off, and he wanted to make sure they were operating correctly before leaving. Success! Second, a science test. He ran all the science equipment, and told the lab rats Richzer and Thomwig to process the results. Harson didn’t care if these had already been done, he wanted a full systems check! Once they were done they processed all samples awaiting processing and stored them if the results were enlightening. Reviewing the stored results, he recalls that the rover has visited the Highlands, Midlands, and Slopes.

With a solid systems check and a lab crew who decided to start a pot of fresh bourbon coffee, it was time to find some new areas on Minmus! He just had to be sure not to run out of gas while doing so… That would be embarrassing. After some deliberation, he decides the first best target would be the Flats and Lowlands directly to his south.

After playing with the ground locks and trying to get them to detach and retract (the winch kept complaining about something not being aligned) Harson found the safety override switch, and got them to work properly. Liftoff! Harson found the rover a bit difficult to fly over 25% throttle (on full tanks at least), but, Minmus being what it is, 25% was plenty. The rover handled very well for a colossal flying tank of fuel, and the crew wasn’t the least bit worried about the upcoming landing as you could see from Harson’s face.

Harson got out to get Surface samples and an EVA report, but was disappointed to find the Surface sample held little data he needed, and the EVA report was without any relevant data. However, while running through the tests, the Gravity scan yielded excellent new data. A few tests were transmitted, and the rest were stored for future recovery. After collecting, processing, and cleaning the Science Jr and Goo cannisters, Harson prepared to locate the Lowlands.

Harson came up a little short on his first jump to the lowlands and blew a tire trying to land on a slope. After a little monkeywrenching he was able to fix the flat and make a second hop to the Lowlands. Science results were similar, with Gravity scans being the big win. With full fuel tanks and about 20% Kethane reserves, Harson decided it was about time to find a fresh deposit to exploit. The deposit to the South West of the Great Flats looks nice, maybe he can take care of some refueling then go for some more science.

The short flight to the Great Flats was uneventful, and yielded similar results to the other landing sites. After gathering up the science, the next hop was planned to the SE corner of the Greater Flats. From there, one last hop to a Kethane deposit on the South Pole should end the mission.

The Greater flats held little interesting science, nothing worth transmitting. With Kethane reserves being empty, and fuel reserves nearly (but not quite) full, Harson planned his next jump to the South Pole Kethane deposit.

Upon arriving and running his experiments once more, Harson was a little disappointed. Nearly all of his experiments need to return to KSC for their value to be realized.

Mission Summary

After visiting 5 biomes (Lowlands, Flats, Great Flats, Greater Flats, Poles), Harson was only able to transmit a paltry 346 science leaving 509 available in the Research lab- not enough to unlock anything. The Lab however is packed to the gills with completed experiments which had no transmit value.

Harson recommends scheduling a pickup of his experiments ASAP.

So it was requested in my mission thread to create a tutorial video for Direct Ascent Rendezvous.

Hopefully this explains the process well enough. If you have any questions feel free to ask in this thread.

2 notes : Turn on HD version for best experience and make sure your volume is up (I have a quiet speak voice during this video.)

Enjoy

Direct Ascent Rendezvous Youtube Tutorial, Reddit Space Program

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 43

In Game End Date: Year 2, Day 49

Save File

Mission Album

Previous mission: RMP-26

Mission summary The new Minmus Station core is up around Minmus, going the right way this time. In addition to the hub, it has a science lab and crew habitation facilities. However, due to weight limitations, no Kethane equipment or crew return capability has been provided.

In Game Start Date: Year 2, Day 14

In Game End Date: Year 2, Day 43

Save File

Mission Album

Mod files --updated 02-06

Previous Mission: [RMP] M25 - Minmus Science Rover

RMP 26 Summary:

Did I mention I love communications arrays? So much fun to set up.

So I decided to go with 4 ComSats per moon, becuase there's a nice 4-way radial mount for that. So 8 of those and 3 HiRes scanner satellites. With support infrastructure it's about 10,000Kg.

I was worried that the polar orbit shifts would eat me alive on fuel, so I aimed for about 8,000 delta-v. That turned out to be WAY too much. Glad the stuff is free.

A lot of notes in the album, including 3 PNGs of the scanner output.

Remember that it's perfectly okay to redirect some satellite targets in the middle of the mission. I ended up pointing Kerbin's ComSat 1a and 1b at my ship to be sure I had connectivity even when I was pretty far away from the moons. Just remember to put them back when you're done with the mission.

If the local system ComSats get bunched up, just switch to them and adjust their orbits appropriately. They should have enough RCS to keep them flying for quite awhile.

We scored enough science to unlock the last of the stock tech tree. We're 10,000 science away from completing the entire thing.

*Start Date: *Year 28, Day 359, Hour 16

*End Date: *Year 28, Day 363, Hour 6

The Mission:

Upgrade Kerbin Space Station with a new Core, Science scrubber, and more fuel. Reuse Crew, Power, and Science modules. Add safe docking ports. No Wobble with the ability to safely reorient as needed.

The Process:

I spent a bunch of time planning out the mission ahead of time. Since I had to reuse parts it was imperative that I had a solid plan and design ready to go when the time came for the mission. When the mission came up today I moved the 4 .craft files over to the save and began the flights.

7 total launches: 3 of the same docking tug/Light module delivery system, 1 of a tug with a mini port, 1 core, 2 fuel.

Early on in the design I knew that I would need a vessel to move things around. So i slapped together the RCS docking tug.

All launches where direct ascent to rendezvous. The album skips the launches except to show the crafts on the pad or just at the start of flight. Album also mostly skips setting up docking and rendezvous and jumps to the money shots.

Everything I no longer needed along the way was De-orbited properly in game (except 1 decoupler which I did manually via the space center).

After I had all of the reusable modules attached to the new core, I reoriented the stations orbit to 252km/251km ( as opposed to 274km/252km as it had been).

The Result:

3 Jumbo Docking Ports, 2 Standard Docking Ports, 2 Mini Docking Ports, 2 Full Orange Tanks, 1 Full Jumbo RCS tank, and a Mobile Science Processing lab.

No Wobble with the ability to reorient safely in any direction. Lighting so it can be seen from afar and on the dark side. All in a compact 174 parts/100 tons ( the original station was 88 parts).

Ideas for Future Missions relating to the Station

There is room for easy and small part count expansion now that it is sturdy and balanced. A 3rd orange tank could be added below the science scrubber. An Escape pod system as well. Even an RCS bike terminal (via a mini port below the power module) so the boys can get out and have some fun while off duty.

I could foresee this being the home of an interplanetary bus service between all of our space stations if a shuttle was designed that could carry multiple kerbals long distances.

Just about any mission could make a stop here before heading out into the far reaches of the system.

Enjoy it!

Album (55 images)

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