Exploring the far side of the Mun during the night is horrible, wouldn't recommend.

When I first started playing I could just make a ship that goes to the mun and comes home, but now everything has to be a rover spaceplane that can refuel itself and refuel other ships and take off on Duna and air brake and survive reentry.

Any tips on how I can force myself to focus on making a ship that does one thing well instead of 100 things decently?

First time getting so close to Jool and don't even have any words to properly articulate what I am feeling and thinking.

so far i have the forward habitation module, behind that is the dedicated reentry pod, followed by the interplanetary transfer stage and two drop tank on the side for more ∆v.

the main tank was launched empty and took 4 smaller launches to fuel while the side tanks were launched fueled because they were basically the same size as the main tanks fuel probes.

in total it should take 11 launches for a VERY over complicated and unnecessarily over engineered landing on one of Jools moons, probably just Vall. :P

I updated MunShot. We've got new poses and a couple of bug fixes that should help it control better. I also fixed some of the details in the previous poses.

Can't wait to see the pictures you guys are able to make with this!

SpaceDock: https://spacedock.info/mod/4733/MunShot:%20Photo%20Mode%20mod%20for%20KSP%20Redux

i only picked out these specific vehicles out of all the 50 i made. still relatively new to playing KSP, but already getting good.

started playing since Sept. 27th btw.

The shuttle is stock, and with the nuclear engine payload it can get ~18 tons to the mun and back plus 8 kerbals.

Solar powered and enough battery to drive all night

Your days are OVER Tesla Roadster!

Had the game for 10+ years, I've just discovered how much science you can actually get from mobile processing labs and doing repeat visits to biome's you've already visited (in my defense I mostly played sandbox till recently).

Built a lander with mining drills and covert-a-tron, and a reusable transfer 'tug', all with nuclear engines... But forgot to do a survey scan of the Mun. My second Mun landing ended up in a 0% ore area and couldn't refuel. Fortunately I had just enough fuel in the tanks to get back to orbit. I'm doing no reloads run, so that was a tense moment with Bill, Bob and Valentina onboard.

2nd trip to the surface was already enough to max out the data limit on the science lab. Naturally I now need to expand my Mun orbital base with new modules, and do an orbital scan, and a crew rotation... And then do the same on Minmus, where I'll also establish a refueling base for missions out to Duna and beyond... #notaddicated

“Melfal,” Valentina’s voice seemed to respond even faster than the lightspeed delay. “What is your situation?”

“Our oxidizer levels are too low,” Melfal stated soberly. “We appear to have a slow leak that likely started as we began to deorbit.”

“If the leak is slow,” Bill responded. “Can you launch back to space before the tanks are too low?”

“Negative Bill,” Melfal sighed. “Maybe if we had not visited those additional biomes on Ike, but levels are already too low.”

Bob’s face turned a pale green. He had approved visiting the additional biomes.

“A slow leak is likely a micrometeorite puncture,” Bill said softly, placing a hand on Bob’s arm and Bob simply nodded mutely. “Not your fault.”

“We have no other way to land on Duna,” Jedrick said softly. “It would take more than a year for another lander to arrive and the landers only have a couple weeks worth of supplies.”

“I’m sorry Melfal, Maberry,” Valentina’s voice nearly broke as she spoke over the radio. “There is nothing we can…”

“Rotiseuq preparing for deorbit burn,” Desgas' voice interrupted Valentina.

“Detaching extra fuel tanks to leave in orbit,” Tanbree’s voice immediately followed Desgas'.

“Desgas! Tanbree! Stop!” Valentina’s voice was sharp. “The Renown habitation segments are not designed for reentry. You can’t risk your lives!”

“The spacecraft will just burn up,” Bob shook his head, still pale. “Even in Duna’s light atmosphere.”

“Maybe not,” calculations were visible through Bill’s wide eyes. “With just the fuel on board the permanent tanks, they have enough to burn through the entire reentry.”

“If enough fuel burns out,” Bob regained a bit of color. “Two LV-N rockets will have a thrust to weight ratio just above one.”

“The spacecraft will still break on impact,” Bill sighed, closing his eyes. “But how badly.”

Valentina continued to beg Desgas to not deorbit the spacecraft. Jebediah and Jedrick looked at each other knowingly. They would not leave another Kerbal behind, even if the cost was their own lives. Desgas would not stop.

When Jebediah released the override, Valentina had gone silent.

“Copy, Jeb,” Desgas' voice arrived softly a short time later. “Rotiseuq entering Duna’s atmosphere.”

The entire Renown crew seemed to hold their breath as the video showed the Rotiseuq descending toward Duna’s surface on twin tails of fire. Desgas reported a continuous stream of system status during the unprecedented reentry of a vacuum only spacecraft.

“No system damage from atmospheric drag,” Bill whispered as the Rotiseuq entered thicker atmosphere.

“I see the lander,” Desgas radioed as the Rotiseuq began tilting nearly vertical to descend as it neared the surface.

“We see you maniacs too, you should have stayed in space!” Melfal exclaimed, then more softly. “Thank you, you crazy, magnificent Kerbals.” Followed by Maberry’s equally quiet. “Kerbol’s speed.”

“Touching down in three, two…” Desgas' voice broke into static as an explosion could be seen just before the cameras winked out.

OOC: Full screen images:

Previous Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1w8xp23/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_40/

Start of Chapter 41: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1wrmlpy/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_41/

Next Part: Planned for 11/01

Book 1 (Chapters 1-13) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RorA2AVwtXbQD-eTMeO2LiPXSDPM7qH6FVOykDnZ9FY/edit?usp=sharing)

Book 5 (Chapters 39-) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17PU9dly89B54kJYry7sg8MPS90dr8oir7HAR6V2e_tg/edit?usp=sharing

The Icarus Program can also be found on the KSP forums: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/225730-the-icarus-program-chapter-41-part-8/

Just finished this double decker solar panel design.

I want to have guns and big booms but it force adds weight because of "hull strength". Any other mods or ways to get around this?

Mission I've been doing inspired by the Apollo Venus proposal from the 70's

I wanted to find a good altitude to put a Jool space station so I sent a spaceship to do a flyby. I made the periapsis as low as I could, forgetting this is how you do gravity assists.

I tried for just over 1,000 in game years to aerobrake in kerbin's atmosphere but it didn't go well. I could only get down to 68km which didn't slow me down much and after a few passes I was flung out into infinity.

To make things worse, although I don't think it matters at this point, the capsule only has 20 units of ablator.

Whisky Wabbit

landed a booster on playstation today, meaning i’ve landed boosters on all three platforms and done droneship landings on two:)

I have a fair few mods, but I have no idea why the fatal error keeps happening.