So I’m thinking of trying to keep a log of my progress in Kerbal Space Program… lets see how long that goes before I give up!
Today I added the Kethene mod to my setup, which gives you the ability to scan, drill, and extract Kethene to manufacture fuel away from Kerbin. This means I’ll be able to create refuelling platforms without having to ship supplies from the Kerbal Space Center, which is incredibly expensive (not that costs have been implemented yet) due to having to expend at least six times the fuel you want just to get it off the planet.
By drilling for Kethene on the Mun, I figure I should be able to operate a tanker ship of some kind to get the fuel to a new base in Mun orbit, which ships can then dock with to refuel. Doing all of this on the Mun means far less gravity to fight, and therefore far less fuel expended in getting it to where I want it.
However, first this means being able to search out Kethene deposits. I’ve been thinking of an expansion to MunBase One anyway, so it made sense to equip this for the job.
I wanted to get as much as possible on this launch, while trying to keep the weight down from the previous one as it was a real sod to land.
So, the first thing to go was the command pod. Yes, really. This thing would be just as easy to pilot in using a probe core, so that’s what it got!
Instead, there’s now a one-man RCS/Ion lander stuck to the top, which I’m hoping will make a useful little aerial scout vehicle once it arrives. This is equipped with a radiation scanner, camera, and thermometer for doing sciencey-things, and also has the nifty new Kethene scanner. There’s also a new buggy, improved over the last one through the use of new structural parts I was able to research – most notably structural panels and I-beams. Both of these made mounting wheels vastly easier than before as they immediately align flush to the surface. The new buggy is also equipped for Kethene scanning.
Another issue last time was ejecting the empty fuel tanks/thrusters from the base module. These were just in the way of future expansion, but unfortunately barely rolled away. They also exploded during reloading, but thankfully didn’t damage anything in the process. This time I added sepratrons – hopefully they’ll eject the engines to a safe distance.
Everything has been fitted with KAS connector ports for refuelling, an oversight I made on the previous base parts. This means if I can’t get the expansion to align for docking perfectly I can just land it nearby and run a connection. Luckily, there’s also a container of spare parts in this shipment so my Kerbals can attach some to the main base part too.
Speaking of aligning for docking, I’ve added wheels to this base part. Yes, wheels. I really wish I’d done this last time, too, as trying to relaunch a couple of feet into the air to use the RCS thrusters to realign the base was really hairy. I’m not 100% certain they’ll take the weight, but it’s worth a try. I’ve aligned them above the landing strut level, so theoretically I can land, retract the struts, and then be sitting on the wheels to drive the base to its final destination. Again, if this doesn’t work I can just use the KAS connectors to link to the main base.
Base Expansion – design phase
Well, time to see if it works. I’ll be sending up a couple of extra Kerbalnauts with this as we’re going to need more rover/scout crew . In the event of probe core failure, one of them should be able to hop into the lander module and take control from there, too.
Jebediah himself is going up on this one, to take permanent command at MunBase, accompanied by Calrey Kerman. This leaves me with just Bill, Bob, and Merlie at KCS so we’ll have to recruit a few more Kerbals when we’re done with this mission.
So, uh. Turned out I need a ton more struts to hold this thing together! Luckily no real damage done, just half the base expansion and a rover stuck on the ground next to the pad!
On The Launchpad
A Jebediah’s-Eye View from inside the habitat pod. Oh look, there’s Calrey!
So, uh. That’s as far as I got. At that point something screwed up in my design file. Any changes resulted in the game crashing. Luckily I managed to save most of the ship (everything except the rover and its docking arm) as an assembly, so a quick restart later we were back in design mode. This gave the the opportunity to revisit the rover and its docking arm anyway, and I implemented a much lighter version in its place. I also felt this would let me get away with less fuel on the lander stage – so that went too, along with a little redesign to get maximum elevation on the solar panels using a girder. You can see the final result later.
Okay, fixed version launch!
Oops. Terribly unbalanced…
Lets try that again.
Well, it wasn’t very stable, but I managed to wobble it over to the Mun and get it down. While I got into the correct crater, I was way over on the other side of it – 50km away!
After the lucky landing, there was no way I was going back up, so away went the fuel tanks and it was time for an overland trek!
Oh, and the ejection mechanism on the engines worked perfectly (at least something did!)
The MunBase expansion has landed
Then disaster struck yet again – this was just far too unstable to drive on a slope – the tower caused it to topple over the second it got moving on an incline.
Jebediah EVAed up to the scout pod – if we detached that, then we might at least be able to salvage the base without so much weight up top. Nope.. no dice. It was still dangerously unstable.
The next three or four hours were spent driving the base expansion across the Mun’s surface… with a number of RCS thrusters turned off and a couple on to allow me to manually stabilize the overweight part. In addition to this, I managed to wedge the rover under the heavy end and attach it using KAS parts, which helped a lot too. The thing was still near impossible to drive uphill due to sheer weight, so RCS thrusters were used once again for this.
Eventually we arrived, and it was time to dock. Five or six attempts at smacking the docking ports together finally resulted in a lock!
MunBase One was complete.
Main Crew: Jebediah, Calrey, Billy-BobDorf, and Sherfen Kerman.
Science Lab: Obgee and Dolan Kerman.
All in all, a successful mission. The Ion scout had to be abandoned at the landing site, but it turned out it wasn’t powerful enough to actually fly without RCS assistance anyway. Back to the drawing board for that one!
Future plans:
- Send over a 3-man lander to park at MunBase in case anyone needs to fly out.
- Ship over many more spare parts (especially KAS pipe attachments)
- Send over a new 1-man Kethene lander, this time powered by RCS alone (ditch the Ion engine for extra RCS fuel)
- Send over a fairly large tank of RCS fuel. This stuff is being burned faster than its arriving (the rovers are burning a lot of it, plus most of what was sent in was burned up moving the base expansion.)
- Find a way to dismantle the original large solar panel, which is now obstructed by the new paired panel.
- Revise the Rover design – there’s nowhere near enough battery power, or add a second solar pane, or maybe both.
- Put up an orbital probe around the Mun scanning for Kethene deposits.
