Gaming The Kerbal Space Program - Version 1.2.x

The 2nd Mun landing mission from 2 weeks ago. The launch was at night:



A simple plan I used, including upper stage lithobraking:



After 2 or 3 orbits to locate the target, they finally landed. As can be seen on the attached picture, Jeb was singing the Kerbal anthem after Bob had planted the flag and Bob was just stupidly smiling (it might be connected to the anthem performance):



This is why the place was chosen for the landing site. Unfortunately, the arch itself is exactly the same biome as the surface:



After an expedition to neighboring big crater (East Crater) to get samples and plant another flag they've returned home:





For the 4th mission I've sent a probe heading into solar orbit, currently with no definite target, but there's some 3/4 of fuel in the stage's tanks left. I'll try to send it to Jool in 42 days:





The 5th mission is using just a science jet airplane. It's sent to bring some snow and ice from the north pole. Starting early in the morning:



Because too many flags have been packed in the cockpit, Jeb first went for a short stay at nearby island, to mark the ends of the runway on the airfield there:



After a quite fast trip at 13-16k altitude and 350 degrees heading, mostly filled with transmitting science from above passed mountains, Jeb reached the sub-polar region:



With lowering the altitude to 4-5k, he has began searches for a metallic object somewhere between the flat and not quite flat polar surface. Well, it's quite hard to spot even from the 4.5 km altitude (a black dot near the center of the picture):



The plane is capable of vertical landing... the Kerbal way, at least. That's why it has 5 chutes:



The metallic object has been identified as "unidentified", and as made of snow. Jeb didn't see there anything unusual or interesting, either:



The last part of the mission was to conquer the north pole. Some tectonic plate movement is happening there:



After this, only around 135 points have been transmitted and gathered. :(

The next mission will be back to the Mun, with a munbuggy, near south pole, and then probably to Minmus.
 
My most complex Munar mission until now, that is turning to scientific breakthrough given the amounts of science transmitted !

Py4JWqy.jpg

Separation of the stack in Munar Orbit, Kerbollo-style

CQO0VSb.jpg

Minor failure : docking port is obstructed by Kerbollo SPS engine fairing. Bill had to perform an EVA using the delicate Kerbal technique of "head bumping". Solved the problem, mission resumed, next step transposition and docking

D8J0doa.jpg

Hard dock and capture ! The stack is now fully operationnal in Munar Orbit. Ready for crew transfer into the MEM.

cjGBNkl.jpg

MEM undocked, carrying both the rover and the MSSL (Materials Study Surface Laboratory).

CIQesXU.jpg

Descent was nominal. The rover was dropped right on its wheel. A greet "Weheehee" could be heard in the KSC control room.

TPu2dDC.png

Jebediah proudly puts his feets on the Munar soil again. He's a veteran now. As you can see on the left, something didn't worked as planned during the delivery of the MSSL. First thing to do : push the laboratory back on its leg and then reach the rover to close it from the lander.

I6sl7OI.jpg

Jebediah's first attempt was unsuccessful. In fact, he mosty managed to stun itself. Bill is pretty panicked, he would be lost without his commander !

ScfQKyw.png

After more efforts, and some cooperation of the landing gear, the lab was back on its feets, ready to perform his duty in the name of Science !

kdwTZeL.jpg

After the on-site scientifcal experiments, it was time to climb out of the crater to reach the Midlands, a 20 kms land trip. So here are Jeb and Bill on the way, trying not to roll over at any moment, which requires a good lecture of the terrain and a lot of concentration, really !

BkTAtgE.jpg

Ahh... Kerbin...

aRQRZgf.jpg

This minor crater was the goal of the expedition, 20 kilometers away from the landing site. The altitude rised from 1800 m in the landing site to 4000 m here. The crater rim offered our brave Kerbs challenges like 30-40° coasts !

g9U4kw5.jpg

The back trip was epic ! It was like full reverse all the time with short brakes burst on -30° slopes to try to control the speed, the behaviour of the rover beginning to be tricky above a "12 m/s" reasonable safety speed. After (a lot) of quicksave/quickload, they made it !

So currently Jeb and Bill are still on the landing site. Bob wait for them in orbit. The MEM is in perfect shape, the ascent tank is full, and most of the scientific data (more than 1200 pts !) was transmitted. I plan another rover sortie this time on more even ground, to explore the bottom of the SouthWest Crater.
 
Last edited:
I've added to my campaign progress with three interplanetary missions.

First, there was a favorable alignment of Kerbin and Jool, enabling myself to get into a high orbit without aerobraking:
Bw2gAQG.jpg


First Eve mission launched that I managed to land second, without legs or a parachute. Eve's atmosphere is forgiving:
Z8jSyiG.jpg
Z8jSyiG
8uZZSRB.jpg
tVNQTYw.jpg


First Eve landing mission with enough fuel after aerobraking to visit Gilly:
HoFUJsd.jpg
9UOIbQA.jpg


DO6mPwZ.jpg
F6ARcvW.jpg
uVgKaQC.jpg


5WzlUeG.jpg
VqAUktX.jpg
TZ556fA.jpg


And that longer Mun stay with a crater visit (click for full size):
 
With the pace I play the game, I don't know if I make it to Duna in the career before the 0.23 update (which by looking at updates to experimentals branch for last 4 days may be soon). :lol:

I've sent another mission to Mun on Monday and another one to Minmus just after the first one reached Mun's orbit, and only returned one of them back to Kerbin yesterday evening.

The Mun mission is first using a rover, so it felt appropriate to test it around KSC, and by the way plant some flags:



New launcher, Jeb and Bill, and yet another launch at night:



Injecting it into Mun's polar orbit:



After getting EVA reports from space near Mun above all the available biomes, they finally located their main mission's objective:



According to the maps, they needed to land around 3 degrees farther south to meet their science objectives criteria, and then take a rover trip north, avoiding 2 small craters on the way:



With some insignificant science value samples taken at the destination they completed their mission's main objective:



The trip back to the lander was uphill, and I didn't need to slow down all the time like in the other way.



Everything might look nice so far, but that's when it occurred to me there will be a problem. I hadn't thought before sending the mission that I'd need much more fuel than only for additional rover's weight, and there was usually some 1/4 of stage's fuel left after completing Kerbin return burns for all earlier landers, but this one was landed at 73.5 degrees south, with lower ISP engines, and eventually after launching they were stranded in the Mun's orbit.

After evaluating a few options, like making a permanent Mun base, sending a recovery craft only for Kerbals and transmitting the science, restoring to a quicksave backup from before the launch and losing all the progress and 2 launches, the Kerbin Mission Control have sent an unmanned, remotely controlled booster to try push them back to Kerbin. I don't know if landing legs were required, but I included them to prevent tumbling which could happen, and the recovery actually went quite smooth:



You can view some additional pictures from the Mun mission there.




In the meantime, another mission was underway with Bill and Chaddous on board, and I'm quite happy I use the Kerbal Alarm Clock, because I needed to switch between these 2 missions a couple of times to do burns, and it saves and restores the set maneuver nodes additionally to alarming me about the event.

The Minmus lander was using the same launch vehicle as the Mun lander. It's also probably the last of the small 2 Kerbonauts "hourglass" designs (the Mun mission unlocked bigger capsule):

 
So... I heard there was a multiplayer mod, did anyone tried it? I don't really understand how it works with the past and future thing. Like, what happen to the other ships when you warp time or when you sync with them. Does it just put you on the same time frame or does it predict where you will be?
 
KSP 0.23 update has been just pushed to Steam (at 19:53:46 UTC).
 
Orb, what mod are you using for the multi-colored fuel tanks? They look awesome!
 
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the KSP website is down.

Maybe it's time to migrate to a Steam key from the good old-fashioned download version...
 
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the KSP website is down.

Maybe it's time to migrate to a Steam key from the good old-fashioned download version...
Steam downloads everything you get from the normal download version, too. It even comes with the launcher in the files. So you could just download through steam and then copy the ksp folder elsewhere on your computer, if you wanted to.
 
Why is it that you have to choose either a Steam key, or a DRM free version? I've seen many developers allow their users to keep both.
 
Steam version is still DRM free, basically. If you want to update via either steam or KSP's store, you still have to log in somewhere. After you have the game, neither service requires logging into their system, etc.

Dunno why you can't have both options, but I also don't know why anyone would choose unreliable service over Steam.


Also, I love the sound of the new R.A.P.I.E.R. engines.
 
Last edited:
What about addons? How do they work with Steam? I guess there's some concern that having addons, then updating via Steam might leave things in a bad state?
 
Addons work the same as the direct version, and I believe auto-updates can be toggled off.
 
Addons work the same as the direct version, and I believe auto-updates can be toggled off.
Yep. Assuming default installation, ksp is in "C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program" To turn off auto-updates, go to your library, right click on KSP and click "Properties". Go to the Updates tab and select "Do not automatically update this game" from the dropdown.
 
Still no fix for the spaceplane parts. The Mk.2 fuselage is still lighter and yet holds more fuel than the Mk.1.

Sigh. The spaceplane parts have been completely imbalanced for ages now...
 
Still no fix for the spaceplane parts. The Mk.2 fuselage is still lighter and yet holds more fuel than the Mk.1.

Sigh. The spaceplane parts have been completely imbalanced for ages now...
It's a shame really. I'm not much of a space plane user, but the RAPIER engines have me interested in making one.
 
Back
Top