Adventures in KSP: Probing Duna

In this series of posts I'll tell my progression (and my throwbacks) at the brilliant Kerbal Space Program. I have currently set my sights to the neighboring planets, Eve and Duna. Join me in my quest for exploratory glory!

So, it was finally time to hit the first big point of interplanetary exploration. You see, Eve, interesting as the place is, was just a test. Or something like that. Anyways, Duna is the more interesting planet. Why? Well for one it has anomalies on it that can be discovered. Also, it's much more possible to do a manned shot with a return-option to Duna than to Eve. So, starting out unmanned, I launched an orbital Deliverator with extra fuel-tanks and a landing-probe attached to it in the general direction of Duna. Not only would this allow me to land an automated probe on the planet, it would also give me something with which to help a future mission retrieve their lander from a low orbit.

The mission started with a standard heavy-duty asparagus engine, in the middle of the night so that I'd get away from the sun and more towards the orbit of our target, Duna.

I'm missing something, aren't I?

Adventures in KSP: Roving Eve

In this series of posts I'll tell my progression (and my throwbacks) at the brilliant Kerbal Space Program. I have currently set my sights to the neighboring planets, Eve and Duna. Join me in my quest for exploratory glory!

After losing a rover en route to Eve, I refitted the design with solar panels and some scientific instruments, which I formerly wasn't able to employ due to resolution-issues with the interface. Other than the added solar-panels on the tanks of the nuclear engine stage and the detectors on the front, there wasn't a difference to the former version, as I was confident that I could actually get this thing to Eve, given that I didn't run out of electricity.

Nothing but two large rockets strapped to an automatic car, really...

Gamification of Christmas Gifts

This Christmas my family got together as we used to, each bringing one general-purpose gift that everyone could at least technically enjoy. To handle distribution of those as well as the basket full of cookies and chocolate that my grandmother brought along, I made a simple dice-game that gave the whole thing randomness, competition, and something akin to an economy. Let me elaborate:

There is a real gift for each family member in a santa-bag. At the end, everyone should have one of these. As they are wrapped up, you only know the contents of your own gift, but you can guess by size and shape (and temperature, more on that later) whether you want them or not. The grandma-stuff is bonus material and does not need to be distributed evenly, thus allowing for an actual winner of Christmas Eve.

The first phase works in the following way: Each player/family member takes turns rolling a pair of dice. A pair of either 1s, 2s, or 3s allow the player to take one bonus gift from the grandma-box. Any six and the player picks a regular gift from the bag. A pair of 4s, 5s, or 6s means the player must exchange their own regular gift with one that another player has already taken. The first phase ends whenever all regular gifts have been distributed (and are now secured for their respective owner). Over the course of the first phase, a mystery frozen-box my father had brought as a gift was the most coveted item, changing hands several times with my cousin and his wife trading it back and forth between them when they'd have to trade in order to keep it in their household. My uncle got it in the end and as it turned out that it was full of delicious frozen wild-boar steak, the calamity from those who had lost this prize was great.

The second phase kicks into gear with the war for the remaining grandma-gifts. A pair of 1s, 2s or 3s still means you can take one from the box but a pair of 4s, 5s, and 6s now means you can steal one of the grandma-gifts from someone else. On a six, one would unwrap their own regular gift. The phase ends once all grandma-gifts are out and all regular gifts are unwrapped. During this phase, as the market for sweets and cookies was definitely saturated, the fight was on over a bag of noodles, of all things. It ended up with my older cousin but I was able to strike a deal with her afterwards, exchanging it for something else. Cooked and ate them yesterday, tasting the sweet taste of victory over both my other cousin and my uncle.

So, the whole gift-ceremony took well over an hour and everyone was having a blast. I recommend gamification of your gift-giving ceremony, if your folks are up to it. A belated merry Christmas to those of you to whom it applies from MadZabGaming!

Adventures in KSP - Preparing Eve Exploration

In this series of posts I'll tell my progression (and my throwbacks) at the brilliant Kerbal Space Program. I have currently set my sights to the neighboring planets, Eve and Duna. Join me in my quest for exploratory glory!

So, Eve's the next target. Close to the sun than Kerbin is, Eve is a dense planet with gravity that is a bit higher than on Kerbin and an atmosphere that is quite dense too. Having landed there during a play in a previous version of the game, I know that the planet is pretty much impossible to explore with a manned vessel if you intend to get your astronaut back to Kerbin. This is what made me chose this as my next exploration target over Duna, which I intend to land a Kerbal on. Eve is going to get robotic exploration only, because the only thing I could think of that would get back out of that atmosphere and gravity-well would be some sort of really efficient space-plane and I'm horrible at designing and flying aircraft so forget it.

Adventures in KSP - Minmus Exploration

In this series of posts I'll tell my progression (and my throwbacks) at the brilliant Kerbal Space Program. The current object of my exploration is now Minmus, the outer moon of the home planet Kerbin. Let's get into it!

Getting to Minmus is a bit harder than getting to the Mun, as it is quite a bit further away from Kerbin and its much lower mass means you have to hit it somewhat more precisely in order to get caught by its field of gravity. Landing there on the other hand is easy as pie, since it has very obvious flat areas that have a zero-elevation and the low gravity means you don't have to reverse-thrust to much in order to land softly enough. All in all a good test-run for interplanetary travel. Thus the first ship I designed was more of a test-craft than a mission-specific design. Let me explain:

Adventures in KSP: Some Housekeeping

In this series of posts I'll tell my progression (and my throwbacks) at the brilliant Kerbal Space Program. The current object of my exploration is the moon, or Mun as it is called in KSP. Let's get into it!

So, before going any further into deep space, I decided that current projects, like my presence on the Mun and the Kerbal Space Station (henceforth abbreviated to KSS) needed some refinement. I had read up on the bug that had destroyed my first Munbase and had found a somewhat working solution to it (editing the safe-file) should it come up again. First order of business was enlarging and remodeling the KSS though. I didn't like the thruster-section I had docked to it and it would need more docking-ports than it currently had in order to grow into something like the orbital platform I had in mind. Getting to work on the space-ship designer, I constructed a re-usable orbital vehicle designed for docking with parts and then moving them about in space, called the Deliverator. The Deliverator was the first segment I sent up into orbit, thus allowing me to send any other object up to a somewhat stable orbit and then be able to go fetch it with the Deliverator.

Adventures in KSP - Salvaging the Munar operation

In this series of posts I'll tell my progression (and my throwbacks) at the brilliant Kerbal Space Program. The current object of my exploration is the moon, or Mun as it is called in KSP. Let's get into it

After having lost MunBase Alpha to a game glitch / massive malfunction in the reverse-thruster, Ed Kerman is alone on the Mun. He has the rover and even a MunShot I lander but the latter doesn't have the fuel to get back to Kerbin so using it to get home isn't an option. I imagine the Kerbals at the space center working feverishly to salvage the Mun situation. At this moment I really want to go further out, explore new places but I can't leave the situation on Mun in shambles like that. I need a permanent presence there. So I launch another MunBase Alpha, identical to the first one. During the approach to the crater where the rover is waiting, I notice another anomaly, sparkling on the ground. It's on the edge of another crater. That is interesting, I decide to slow the lateral movement of the base down to land closer to it. Have Ed drive there in the rover, then stage an expedition to it. It never gets that far. The station runs out of fuel during the descent, leaving about three kilometers of drop between it and the ground with nothing to slow it down but the puny RCS-maneuvering thrusters. It slams into the ground, destroying the lander can, killing its occupants. But the habitat is lying there, intact. A place where Ed Kerman could drive the rover in order to finally find shelter?