Rouady Central

With a big bunch of science, I can now develop a few new craft.  The first two will be scanners for the local system and return probes also for the local system. The scanners will be the Spectrum series. The return probes will be called Armstrong series. Sims of the Spectrum series. This went exceptionally well.  Other than adding the fairing jettison to the custom controls, it was perfect. The Armstrong will b every challenging.  Many steps and sims will probably be necessary to get this right.  The challenge on return will be waiting for the window as well.  I can use the atmosphere for braking, but it needs to sling back. First sim of the top of the Armstrong core shows that I need to keep the retrograde enabled during descent.  It leans big time to the side and it will probably cause some heat issues that I am not seeing in the slower orbital return speed. The engine also does not appear to be strong enough to to lift off probably.  It appears it will work for most but not Serran.  I also think I want to add material and goo gathering for low and high space, so I want another level.  Serran will be a special case all around I think since it has atmo as well. Did a sim from Mun landing to complete return.  Got a bit hot at the end.  I hope that isn't the case with others.  My fuel was actually pretty tight but Mun has the highest gravity, so that should not pose a problem for the others non-atmo.  Serran, again, special case. Overall, the sim looked pretty good.  I may be ready to start launching some real missions soon. My launch test went well, but 7431 dV I don't think will be enough.  I need to add boosters I believe. Now with boosters taking it to good orbit, I did a sim run to Eli and had 319 dV left in the landing stage.  Tight but good. Everything was going fine (plenty for return) until I warped past the landing and then ended up leaving Kerbin orbit with no more engines attached.  Oh well.  The sim looked good overall. Launch date: 1y 210d Spectrum 1 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Eli. The porkchop had just over 100 dV but the actual turned out to be about 1600.  Odd, but fine since I have plenty.  Need to be more careful with lander mission. 686 dV left with a 260km circular polar orbit.  Scans underway. <Spectrum 1 Scanning> It looks like Serran may be in good position to send its scanner.  Aptur and Mun are pretty frequent so it doesn't seem that they would get priority. Back to the return mission.  I may test the craft a bit more with an actual dip into Sonnah's upper atmosphere with return.  Could get me some good science and would be a good 'real' test. Launch date: 1y 219d Spectrum 2 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Serran. In 260km orbit.  1490 dV left.  Quite a bit! The transit was not very expensive.  Was a bit challenging to set up (porkchop set weird values) but I was able to get it really good with a low dV demand. <Spectrum 2 Scanning> Launch date: 1y 235d Spectrum 3 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Mun. The incline change is a massive 1341 dV!  I hope I have enough fuel! Needed to reset. Cannot make a 90 deg incline.  Get in orbit and get as high as I can I guess!  Really demanding a lot of fuel here for some reason I don't fully understand. The porkchop really messed up because this is a 3k dV mission.  Way off.  I really need to pay attention because the lander mission would be toast if this happened. Because I did the orbit first, the incline shift was within my range.  Mission rescued since I could not so the Survey without being in polar orbit Final orbit will be at 297x260km with an incline of 90. Final dV left is 47.  That's all! <Spectrum 3 Scanning> Launch date: 1y 240d Spectrum 4 Spectrum core (7130 dV) Scan mission to Aptur. Tricky getting to Aptur.  Not real impressed with the MechJeb interplanetary window launch.  Not sure what the point of it is. Good polar orbit (260) 1454 dV left. <Spectrum 4 Scanning> Small complication. It looks like we need to be lower for the survey scan.  (maybe due to the planet size) Therefore, I need to get that done when we return to gather the science from the other scans which are all in the ideal range for now. Armstrong craft This is a science return craft. 1 - Jettison Fairing 2 - Toggle Panels 5 - High Orbit Science 6 - Low Orbit Science 7 - Ground or atmo science (depend son the mission) 8 - Dust science for transmit Launch date: 1y 241d Armstrong Sonnah Armstrong Sonnah (8136 dV) This mission hopes to send a return probe into Sonnah's upper atmosphere. The ranges are 265k to 6000k for low orbit. Below 265k for upper atmosphere. Need to swing through and then get a higher periapsis to return to Kerbin. In orbit 200 km 4335dV in tank. 907 dV needed to swing just above Sonnah atmosphere. 3428 dV available. 1251 to make a 33mm circular orbit for return.  Looking good! 2166 dV left. 3 days to a 200 dV burn to get back to Kerbin.  Almost 2000 dV left with only minor adjustments afterwards! It worked!  We got it back!  519 science recovered not including the dust science and gravity science transmitted. What a mission! <Armstrong Sonnah> Correction, I now have 519 science.  It brought back about 100.  Not as awesome... <Scan Science Recovered> Also a little less than I hoped.  About 100 science as well. Working with the Armstrong Serran simulations.  Hard to get it to work right.  Lands hard now and kills the gear.  Don't even know if I can take off yet.  More parachutes! It appears the micro gear is just too weak.  Need to reassess. After multiple sims, I have to conclude my core lander designs (Armstrong) simply won't work on Serran. Even when I can land clean with a full two stage launch, I don't have enough dV to make orbit and return.  Despite the small payload, I will need a much larger craft to return from the surface.  I may use the Armstrong craft to do an orbital return from Serran so I can get the science from low/high space as well as upper atmosphere.  Similar to my Sonnah mission.  I may actually use the same craft that I used on Sonnah. Launch date: 1y 248d Armstrong Serran Armstrong Sonnah craft (8258 dV) A low pass of Serran with return. Mission went well.  Used most of the fuel so the land return will require much more (of course). 75 science earned and a little more returned. <Armstrong Serran>  

I have been away from New Horizons for a bit but now I want to get going on the next two phases of the program which occur in parallel. The first is the local system landing missions.  That craft is designated the Erikson and will land and transmit science from the local worlds.  Later, the worlds will be scanned for new biomes, but this initial foray only makes a single landing on each, so that is not necessary. The second is the Magellan craft for heading to some other worlds in the Kerbol system.  Eve is first, but others will follow. It doe snot require an orbit, a flyby should work just fine and keep the rocket size down for now. Both of these craft need to be simmed and tested. Eriksen (misspelled) simulation. Standard ascent config: 98.9 turn, 15 deg 50%, alt 200 Sim went fairly well to Serran except I separated too early and ran out of juice (my panel is retracted for landing).  I will run the sim starting the Serran orbit to test the lander aspect. Landing sim went pretty well.  The heat generated on entry started at 35km and never caused any heat warnings (I was going about 1500 m/s so it may be faster).  I can keep the 2nd stage longer I think.  To land, you do need to apply some engine because the atmosphere is too thin and you come down too fast. I think this is ready for a real mission! Launch Date: 1y 160d Erikson 1 Erikson Lander craft (6609 dV) Serran Mission. This will be the only atmosphere mission of the Erikson series (at this stage) so it will use the parachute and atmospheric braking. Night launch! 811 dV needed for rough transfer to Serran (2824 avail) 212 dV needed for adjustment (~700k periapsis) Need 842 to land on the sunny side, so I will be using part of my lander fuel to do that (559 dV in 2nd).  I think it is okay because I only need a little due to the parachute and atmosphere. Speed is just above 1960 as it hits the 61k atmosphere. Probe fell over on landing.  Came down a bit hard.  Gamma doesn't work in atmosphere (great).  I was able to extend the panel and am getting science.  Not pretty, but functional! Barometer also does not transmit full value (?) The biome is called "Dead Continents" and is very rocky.  I can't get a picture because of the craft being on its side. <Erikson 1> Next up is the Magellan mission.  I am not going to upgrade the craft before I go with new science (or octo probes) because I just don't get enough from the lander.  I would need a lot of missions and multiple biomes, so I think it is time to head into the larger system! Launch date: 1y 169d Magellan 1 Magellan Core craft (8480 dV) Science mission flyby of Eve.  May go into orbit if I can. 697 dV needed for Sonnah orbit (40mmx47mm). 4159 dV available to start journey to Eve. 1521 required for push to Eve (1941 in stage, 4159 total) We have about a small adjustment in 354 days which has been put into the Kerbal alarm.  Until then! <Magellan 1 Underway> Taking a break.  Looking at my science (227.7) it looks like another lander mission and I may have enough for a telescope which could get me a bunch of science. Launch date: 1y 199d Erikson 2 Erikson Lander craft (7043 dV) Eli Landing Mission. 1049 for transfer to Eli (656 left in stage, 2164 total) In a 60k orbit of Eli.  252 dV left in the stage and the full 1508 available in the lander.  Should be golden! Solid mission.  Auto landing a little slow, I needed to do some manual adjustment along the way.  Good science and photos. Biome: Surface <Erikson 2> Got enough science that I can now explore the telescope options!  Going to play with making some telescope ships.  I have choices so I may try three variants. I simmed with the other new scopes and they don't really offer anything.  They take pictures.  Minor science (only one picture as well).  One is for surface (seems heavy-handed for that).  Guess I will go with my traditional space scope again. Lowell 2 needs another sim run/test.  But it seems ready to go! Simming Lowell 2 at 6505 dV (need polar launch).  Shift to 150 km orbit.  Looks like a good sim run.  Last engine is a bit wonky (requires heavy reaction wheel to compensate) but it is good enough and not needing to change. Launch date: Lowell 2 Lowell 2 craft (6505 dV) Space telescope mission.  Go into a high polar orbit to reduce movement.  150 km initial orbit. 'Final' orbit of 150km x 5.24mm. About 360 m/s near apoasis.  Not bad.  Still a bit shaky.  Better without the big reaction wheel active. I got more than 1000 science off that mission!!! <Lowell 2 First Light> So now the door is open to many new things.  I can upgrade my scanning capabilities and map all the planets in the Sonnah system.  I can build the octo probes which will allow me to do return missions from the planets as well as send out some interesting long distance probes.  I also can start doing some basic Kerbal missions and build up to build a space station which could bring even more science and then launch me into my next level of interplanetary exploration even deeper!  

I used up a bunch of science to add experiments and more Mechjeb capabilities so I could automate some stuff.  To start, I want to do an orbital material return mission which should bulk up my science a bit to get some bigger rockets and then score a telescope to get some of that science! Orbital Return (craft name, 4472 dV) Launch date: 1y 67d This has a bit of a tricky liftoff.  It needs to be held on accel and turn 20 deg to prevent a tip.  Since this overall craft is a single mission version, I don't think the instability is a concern. It will make orbit at 125km.  Increase its apoasis to 275 km so I can retrieve high orbit material science. Remember to get science in the upper atmosphere! Flawless mission. Solid science. <Orbital Return> I have now built an orbital probe with a few more experiments on it.  This is a testing probe for the next generation of system probes (and maybe further as well). Clark 1 Clark Probe ( Launch date: 1y 68d Clean launch. Testing going smoothly.  Getting a little science.  I have enough dV left (1755) that after going to higher orbit I may transfer to another body! 1598 dV at 275 km orbit.  Maybe a Sonnah pass? Requires 809 to go to  4000km Sonnah pass (low orbit science).  Ended up with a 2500 km periapsis. Electrostatic Analysis only works in near space.  Got the RPWS science for Sonnah as well.  The mag and scope had been done before. With 788 left, I am not sure what I can do, exploring the possibilities a bit. Using 650 to go into a big Kerbol orbit for the hell of it. I will get some more science out of it. Unfortunately, the ship got turned around with the panel facing away and used up it's reserve power.  I don't know if I will ever get powered again so it may be dead in space.  I am doing a save and am looking at running forward to see if I get some sunlight on the panel.  I think I might. <Clark 1> So I tested it and it does get power back but it takes almost a year.  I don't want to burn that time so I will simply have to use another ship to get high Kerbol science.  Anyway, that might be a good mission anyway because it will force me to make a better probe in prep for other worlds.  I just need a little more science... - Reset to Clark 1 I have updated the Clark Probe (5645 dV) and it looks like I can do a pretty good Eli mission. I do want to use the flipping solar panel though, the Probes+ version is driving me a bit crazy by not getting pointed right. Other research shows this may be a perfect time for a while for an Eve orbit.  May need to send something off to get some stuff out of it.  Maybe make a more advanced probe after an Eli mission? The other cool thing would be to get a sample return mission from Sonnah.  Maybe the craft descend into the atmosphere and after it collects the samples from the lower atmosphere, it fires rockets and returns to orbit.  That would be very cool to pull off! Clark 2 Clark Probe craft (5643 dV) Launch date: 1y 153d Eli probe mission with the 2nd generation probe.  If i can get enough science, I can create an upgraded craft for my first interplanetary outside the Sonnah system to Eve. After I arrived, I decided not to orbit Eli but to let it flyby and enter Sonnah Orbit.  I have 1097 dV left and maybe I can do something else with Clark 2.  I already have a probe in orbit, so another one doesn't really help.  In the meanwhile, this is not a great science mission (okay) and I got all that so maybe I just head out to space or something?  I don't know.  If I can encounter another system body, that may work too. <Clark 2> Did a full sim run to Eve using Clark Test craft.  It made it.  I had about 350 dV left after going into a 225x1000 orbit of Eve (which looks drab with a thick cloud layer).  But the science was huge!  I need to put together this mission.  I will shoot for 8000 dV (craft had about 7700) to give me a bit more flex.  Eve has no moons. My Sonnah sample return sim did not go so well.  The ship could not point up and I think I will need a ton of dV to make that work.  I need to do more sims before really trying it. Clark 3 Clark Probe craft (5603 dV) Launch date: 1y 157d A Mun mission with the Clark craft.  This should get me enough science to upgrade my interplanetary craft. The auto stuff did not work.  I was able to manually create a transfer maneuver. Pretty cool!  That did work and I am able to make orbit. I did get my science to break 90 so I have new stuff I can add for my deeper probes. <Clark 3> I want to spend a bit of time constructing the Magellan craft (which will be my interplanetary core) and also the Lowell-1 which would be our first space telescope. In building Lowell 1 I realized the camera does not act as a telescope.  I need to spend 300 science to get some real space telescope, so I will save the Lowell moniker. Next craft to build will be a system lander to get some surface science (no return).  Then I need an system return craft for orbital goo and material collection (and space dust).  This all should get me some good science so I can start evolving my kerballed program.  

Now that we have tested and used the System Simple Probe for a basic Mun flyby and Sonnah plunge, it is time to do a little system exploration and get some photos. Explorer 2 System Simple Probe (5956 dV) Launch date: 1y 37d This is a probe launch to Serran.  Good time for transfer. Since we are testing dV's we may or may not make orbit (it looks good though).  We also don't know the altitudes for Serran so those will be tested as well. First part is a 200km circ orbit of Kerbin. 2151 in 200km orbit. MechJeb said I needed 992 for transfer but then created a node for 907?  It also went pink in the interface, so maybe it is messed up.  I guess we will see. Porkchop transfer is not working in Mechjeb.  The other transfer type requires 740 and does not appear to get real close, so I am not sure, will need to adjust for sure. The fine tune adjustment will require 494 dV.  Should not be a problem as I have 1411 left.  Not sure about orbit, but at least this gets us closer. 918dV left after adjustment burn.  Planned periapsis is 284km.  Should be good. A 100x285 orbit will require 839dV which I have.  I will also have enough left to lower the periapsis further to get more science if it is still above "low space." High Space is 100km and up. Low space is below that, unknown about atmo at this time. Good science.  Will leave in orbit for the moment. (76 dV left). Something odd happened to the camera as it moved to the bottom of the ship?!?  Still works but less view.  Don't know how it moved! <Explorer 2> It looks like there is an atmosphere at 61km.  I may try dipping into that and see what happens! So, I am trying an orbital dip, used 36 dV and set peri to 50.  Will reset above atmo once I finish the dip (hopefully). Camera is back where it should be ?!? Need 17.5 to get peri above atmo.  Have 44, so it's cool. Good science! 26dV left and an orbit of 75x249. <Explorer 2 Dip> Explorer 3 System Simple Probe (5932 dV) Launch date: 1y 58d Going for Eli.  Moved the solar panels so a slightly lower dV. Reached 200km circ orbit, 2130 dV remaining. Mechjeb says 3 hr departure.  Needs 945 dV.  Let's try that! Changed it to 1071 after putting into the node. It also turns out to be sending us through Kerbin again.  Not sure why, trying the different approach. That one is 695 but will need a major adjustment.  Going to try that. Need 447 for adjust.  This is using more fuel than predicted but we are fine.  Orbit should be fine.  It is predicting a 55km periapsis. The burn went well.  988dV remaining. Need 440dV for a tight (55x20) orbit.  Yes! Turns out that Space Low is already in place at 55km.  So, I will raise my apoasis to 100km to see where it changes since my periapsis is now 21km! <Explorer 3> 518dV left after putting apoasis at 150km. Space Low/High break is at 75km. For the next (and final) Explorer mission, I want to get to Aptur.  iT seems to be in  abetter place for transfer from Kerbin (it is very close and small) but the transfer planner is only partially working.  It seems that because there are many impossible points that it cannot make a decent display.  However, it does appear that the current time does allow for a transfer with less than 1200 dV required so I am going to try it.  This is a little less planned than most missions... Explorer 4 System Simple Probe (5932 dV) Launch date: 1y 65d Transfer attempt to Aptur. Solid 200 km orbit.  2140dV in the bank.  Now the experiments. 711dV manual transfer and then will use fine tuning. Fine tune require 141dV.  This is looking good! 1287 left and I just need to fix the periapsis! That will require 306dV.  Plenty. In orbit of Aptur!  981 dV left. Need to find low space (no atmo).  I may even land it to get some more science since I don't think visits here are very worthwhile overall.  Mainly happy to pull it off. Space low <30km. I have 961 dV left. I think I will try a landing on the light side. Explorer 4 did land.  It was a little weird.  It is sitting straight up?  Anyway, I got some science and I got a surface photo (even thought the camera fell inside the craft again).  So, that was a good mission! <Explorer 4> I need to upgrade science and then look at some more system exploring and scanning, so a break on this one for now.

A basic Kerbin Orbiter (Manned Orbital 1) has been created to achieve our first Kerbal orbit.  It is a 2 Kerbal craft and will do a straightforward into space, do an EVA, get some reports and return mission.  Keeping it simple before we start exploring our little mini system. Chariot 1 (Valentina, Bill) Manned Orbital 1 (5001 dV) Launch date: 1y 31d 869 dV at a 200km near circ orbit.  Got some goo science and EVA reports. Returning for the basic mission. Solid mission and splashdown.  Decent science and awards. Kerbals have achieved space! Constructed System Simple Probe from the Probe+ parts (which are pretty cool).  It is a basic probe with a non-disconnecting base that hols some basic science for gathering from the nearby system that Kerbin is now part of. Temp, Barometer, Orbital Telescope, and Mag Boom. All this science transmits completely. So, I think I am ready to do some experiments with this probe and get some dV ideas. Explorer 1 System Simple Probe craft (5966 dV) Launch date: 1y 31d I think I may just try pointing the ship at Aptur and seeing what happens!  (It did not happen) 5966 at launch (going for 200km orbit) I screwed this up and started winging it.  Getting into a Sonnah orbit to see what I can do. Looks like I can pull off a Mun flyby, possible an orbit.  Let me see. Got to Mun, need 900+dV to make orbit.  Only have 644 so I may try something else.  I lowered the thrust but I just flew by. Got some more science and some closeup images of Sonnah.  I have enough dV (530 needed) to change my Sonnah periapsis to 1000km so maybe that is enough for low space.  Let's see! We have 114 dV left after burn.  We can get closer on another pass. Low space occurred around 6000km from what I can see. Okay, 114 is enough to send the probe plunging into Sonnah's atmosphere.  Why not! Explorer 1, you have been a good probe friend...Godspeed. I will try and get what science I can and also track where the atmo levels might be for future missions. <Explorer 1> An incredible job.  Got some science in the Sonnah atmosphere and also determined the approximate levels as follows: High space: >6000km Low Space: 275km-6000km High Flying: 175km - 275km Low Flying: <175km  

As has been my history, I have found enough interesting mods that I am creating yet another Kerbal game setup based on those. The core of this is the New Horizons mod which does a complete change of planet layouts and adds quite a bit.  Kerbal is now a moon of a large ringed planet and the system overall got much more interesting.  I also added KASE which 'jazzes up' the stock planets; Arkas, which adds another desert-like planet nearer Kerbol with a few interesting moons; and Keridani, which is a new sun located much further out with a whole slew of interesting planets and moons of its own! Other mods are being experimented with as well.  In the category of new equipment, I have added Contares and SST which are complete structure systems.  On a smaller scale, two new probe sets (Probe Plus and Procedural Probes) and two new station mods, Station Science and Stockalike Station parts. After that, it is much of the mods I like to use in a standard game.  However, I am intending this to be a science-focused game with no real settlement (that is my main game's focus) so I did not add planetary settlement parts of life support or other realism options.  I want to explore this system in a more adventure way and not have so many constraints. I still did science, though, because it does give rewards for effort and does provide a structure for growth.  I started with 500 science because I did not want to redo all the early nothing missions yet again.  Also, no contract stuff.  I still want all my images to betaken directly by the probes. Built Basic Probe craft for a simple orbital and return mission.  I am sending it up, and bringing it back down!  How fun is that!  It is going to take some lovely pictures while there and get the lay of the orbital land (so to speak). Some detail on Basic Probe: Action 1 releases the fairings. Action 2 opens the solar panels. Action 5 performs the science on board. Sims showed a need for a reaction wheel (could not turn basically).  That was added at the top of the first stage. Had 1062 in a 125km circ orbit.  Plenty (could go to high orbit).  Hold science on upper atmo until I open the panels.  I ran out of juice. I exploded on the sim.  Turns out I need all 200 of the ablator on this probe (I actually hope that is enough!) Running another sim on return. It looks like the ablator doesn't really matter. It overheats even when it is not all gone.  Is it maybe the camera?  Trying another sim where I move the camera. Camera was not the problem.  It simply is too hot even with the ablator.  I need a different view.  For now, let me get an orbital science mission and abandon the craft in orbit. Pioneer 1 (Basic Probe craft, 4666 dV) Launch date: 1y 13d Want to get some nice pictures and basic science (therm and pressure).  Sims say it cannot return. Keeping accel limit to 30 m/s. Got some decent science and great pictures!  First mission! <Pioneer 1> I am looking at using the already orbiting Pioneer 1 to venture further.  I have 817 dV in the can. Let's see. Not really finding a way.  I am down to 187 dV and I am orbiting Sonnah (the main planet) and I definitely cross paths with some of the other moons, but I am not sure how to intersect them without guessing.  I did get a bit more science.  I think I need more power to really do these transfers effectively. Built the Manned Orbital 1 craft.  It is on the edge for ablator (not much left) and it had a bit of extra dV in orbit, but not a whole lot.  However, it did successfully make the sim, so I think I want to give it a try.  Let's get those first Kerbals in orbit!