Nicknero1405 and the adventures in Kerbal Galaxy

[Nicknero]

This is just a funny story I wrote while taking pictures of my Kerbal Space Program adventures. I'll update it whenever I have done something new, and maybe some day I decide to go from pictures, to videos. We'll see.
I hope you enjoy it though! ^^

Introduction
Once upon a time... (Like, that's how all fairytales start right?)
*clears throat* Well, there was this planet we call Kerbal. And this planet has... A Space Center.

And what do you do with a Space Center? Well isn't that obvious? You build space crafts!


Very first project
So, me being completely new to all this, what ever should I build first? I looked up some tutorials, and figured that space rockets should be a good start. (Unlike idiots that believe aircrafts would be easier.)
So, after a little build, I present you: The Minmus Lander!

Why Minmus, and not Mun? Well, this tutorial said that Minmus would be way easier to land for a first timer, so I'll took it...

So, I launch the damn thing, bring it to orbit, plan my orbit transfer to Minmus, (took my a few tries because yeah, newbie) and eventually end up at Minmus. I prepare my Lander for decent, and eventually here I am!

Look him being happy. One step for Bill Kerman, a giant step for Kerbal!

Communication problems
So, now that Bill is all the way on Minmus for a while, he has some trouble communicating with the ground station on Kerbal. A problem I didn't exactly think about. So we need a satellite! Luckily, we already have one stock build:
3... 2... 1... LIFTOFF! For the Kerbal Communication Satellite.

After getting to orbit, I plan my Maneuver to create a stable orbit. However, I got to a problem. For some reason, it doesn't want to respond to my controls! What the fuck!
It runs out of fuel and ends up in an unstable orbit of 114x197km

I just realized what the problem was. Because this is an unmanned space craft, it needs electrical energy to control! And I was on the dark side of Kerbal... T_T UPS!
Oh well, nothing I can do about it. It's still in orbit and functions as long as it's in sun light...


Going to Mun!
So, I have a Lander, and a Satellite... What more can I do?
OH! I have an idea. Let's build a Rover! Not just a silly unmanned robot, but just a manned vehicle to drive around on Mun. *construction sounds*

That'll do!
Now just build a rocket for it, and we're ready for Mun!

Flight goes with success, and we eventually end up on Mun.


Kerbal Space Station
Now, how about an entire Space Station orbiting Kerbal? That'll be fun.
Me looking up tutorials again, I find myself with a nice Space Station Core:

Now then, this obviously needs rockets to get into orbit. And since I probably need bigger and heavier parts, I'm going to build a huge rocket which I can re-use for other parts too. And yep, here we are!

Sadly I don't have any pictures of the core orbiting Kerbal on it's own, oh well...

Well then, now that the core is up, we are going to build lots of things to dock to it. First up, is a refuel station for perhaps Space Planes and other crap.
It's going to be an unmanned craft again, so let's not make the same mistake as the previous time. INCLUDE BATTERIES!

However, I soon realized that trying to orbit these huge tanks FULL with fuel is a pain in the ass. In fact, I had so much trouble with this that it took me about 10+ tries to finally get it to work.
The problem was that between the Fuel tank, and the launch rockets I needed an Atomic Rocket Motor, attached with docking ports so that I could detach it in space and use the docking port for refueling. However, this was an extremely weak link and my struts always broke, leading in all my staging messing up and crashing the rocket:

However, after a lot of tries, design changes and lot's of F* bombs dropped, I finally did it!

Yay.

I realized that one SpaceStation Core would probably not be sufficient, so why not launch another one? You've already seen pictures of it, so I'll just leave it with the end result:

I also forgot to deploy the solar panels the previous time, so I just did that too.
I also know that this will block the refuel dock. But oh well, I don't care. I might just create a new refuel station some day and keep this fuel here whenever I want to rendezvous to a higher orbit. (Since currently we are only at 100km which is quite low for a Space Station...)

Anyway, enough problems occur once in a while, so I want my Kerbals to feel safer on board of the Space Station. So I decide to build an Emergency Evacuation Pod. I put it on my default launch rocket, and launch it into space. However, during launch my main engine overheated and exploded! Oh shit, this resulted in my having to decouple the launch rocket earlier as planned, and having to use the Evacuation Pod's engines earlier. With that result, their fuel was gone WAY quicker than I thought so I had no other choice than to use the engines of the Pods themselves. Otherwise this was a lost cause.

Now if that weren't problems enough, I was stupid enough to waste RCS fuel a bit to much trying to line up the damn thing with the docking port. As result, I ran out of RCS fuel too! Oh fuck!
Now I have to either call this a lost cause and terminate the ship, or I have to attempt to dock using only my Pod engines...
I choose the later, and after a lot of struggle and manually lining up, I somehow did it. (I don't even know how....)

It's on the wrong docking port, but fuck it, it's something... if I were to undock it now, it will end up aimlessly in orbit without any controls at all. And I doubt I have enough fuel left to deorbit and get it back on the ground with parachutes. So I don't know what I should do with it now. We'll see!

After figuring out how to transfer fuel etc, I filled up the Escape Pods and used the RCS fuel from the two cores to relocate the Escape Pods to the side, making more room for other things later on the long end.


The return of Bill Kerman!
After staying on Minmus for a long time all on his own, I decide it's about time for Bill to go home. However, since his ship doesn't have a MechJeb module, I'll have to plan a return maneuver manually... And by the looks of it, his fuel doesn't seem to be that much either. Oh boy!

Here you can see some difficult stupid maneuvers. With just that one out of a million chances, I hit Mun orbit on my way back which greatly helps me to get closer to Kerbal! What are the odds?
On my way back, let's say hi to Mun while we glide past it.

Now timing our final burn to get an as close orbit as possible, our fuel runs out. Our Periapsis is now about 200km away from Kerbal... DAMNED!


Two options.
Option A: Build a sort of pushing rocket to slowly collide with the lander and push it to slow it down.
Option B: Plan a rendezvous rescue pod to orbit at about 200km at the exact right time so I can transfer Bill to that one in EVA.
Seems like Option B is easier, so let's do that!
So designing the rocket, I just took the standard Minmus lander and added some extra shit on it. Simple enough!

However, figuring it's really heavy now, I didn't make it into orbit. Sooooo it took me a few edits to finally make the rocket strong enough....

But eventually I did it! And after some planning and maneuvers, I dropped Bill out of his ship, used his Suit RCS fuel to slow the fucker down, and then catch up with the rescue pod.

And of course, I made it! Finally Bill is going home!

Off to his final decent, slowing down in Kerbal atmosphere.

Bill is happy! After so long in space and so much trouble, he finally landed safely on the ground.

Rebuilding the International Space Station
How cool would it be to rebuild the ISS that exists in real life?


I'm up for that challenge. So let's start of with the first two Cores, also known as the Zarya modules on the ISS.


Node1 and the Airlock are on it's way.


Dock the nigger.


Next up: Destiny!


And not to forget, Node2


Destiny is waiting for me at orbit 200km, so I bring Node2 to it and together they shall rendezvous to the ISS at 300km.


And of course, added to the ISS:


For this one you'll have to use your fantasy a little bit, but this is the JEM and the outdoor platform.


Columbus and ELM:


I've found a problem. Having a closer look on the design of the ISS, the huge supports for the massive solar panels appear to be welded onto the Destiny Module. Since this is not possible (Or at least I haven't thought about it) on KSP, I had to come up with another idea. And I did:
I created Z1 Module and added a docking port on the side, so I can put the supports for the solar panels on the Z1. Not exactly how it works on the real ISS, but hey... It's somewhat on the same spot.

So yeah, here are the pictures. Starting with the Z1 module:


And since I'm an impatient bastard, I decided to launch 3 parts of the support in one rocket:

So that I can assemble them in space:

And add it to the ISS:


So, that's in position? Good, time for the first set of solar panels!


And of course, the other side.


-Stay tuned for more!-

[[CA] KiwieeEh]

Why not Send up a support module for your space station with a few extra crew? I would suggest, basically, a resupply mission for your tanks of fuel and RCS so you can breakaway and de-orbit in case of emergency.
Hell, why not try and build a SCS type of craft that NASA used to build and resupply the ISS? I'm currently working on making a shuttle that can make a standard orbit and then de-orbit as a glider and land on the runway, difficult as I can't slow it down enough without it starting to break apart because of the heat and it saddens me. But I'm almost there. (I have modded my KSP galore but will probably unmod when 0.21 comes out which is apparently VERY soon

also nickums, we should totally start making a version of the ISS that we can build together, IE, share the save and add new parts to the station over time.

Quick Edit: I forgot to congratulate you, how long did this take you? Without any tuts appart from some basic design principles (EG Asparagus staging, manouvres and docking help) I managed to get a moon base set up in about 2.5 weeks making my own rockets, testing them unmanned and then sending rockets up. I now have 7 kerbonauts in space on a 18 month mission
Then again, sometimes in this game, any time for success is a success heh. Good luck to you in your future endeavours sir.

[Nicknero]

Why not Send up a support module for your space station with a few extra crew? I would suggest, basically, a resupply mission for your tanks of fuel and RCS so you can breakaway and de-orbit in case of emergency.
Hell, why not try and build a SCS type of craft that NASA used to build and resupply the ISS? I'm currently working on making a shuttle that can make a standard orbit and then de-orbit as a glider and land on the runway, difficult as I can't slow it down enough without it starting to break apart because of the heat and it saddens me. But I'm almost there. (I have modded my KSP galore but will probably unmod when 0.21 comes out which is apparently VERY soon

also nickums, we should totally start making a version of the ISS that we can build together, IE, share the save and add new parts to the station over time.

Quick Edit: I forgot to congratulate you, how long did this take you? Without any tuts appart from some basic design principles (EG Asparagus staging, manouvres and docking help) I managed to get a moon base set up in about 2.5 weeks making my own rockets, testing them unmanned and then sending rockets up. I now have 7 kerbonauts in space on a 18 month mission
Then again, sometimes in this game, any time for success is a success heh. Good luck to you in your future endeavours sir.

I have no idea how transferring fuel works and such. Otherwise I could've refueled the emergency pods with the refuel station in the middle. Though I don't know if that requires a direct link with docking ports, because currently the only two docking ports directly on the refuel tank are the two cores.
Currently the station has a crew of 6 Kermans. (3 each core)

[[CA] KiwieeEh]

I have no idea how transferring fuel works and such. Otherwise I could've refueled the emergency pods with the refuel station in the middle. Though I don't know if that requires a direct link with docking ports, because currently the only two docking ports directly on the refuel tank are the two cores.
Currently the station has a crew of 6 Kermans. (3 each core)

As long as each unit is docked fuel transfer is done manually by right clicking on each fuel tank and rummaging through options, I can't remember what it is off the top of my head but it's easy. Here's an example from the wiki



Do you have any plans on rotating the kerbonauts in the station?

BIG EDIT:

Okay so I thought I might as well get involved with posting. I just started up a new program similar to nick's, a new station built out of large modules and completely self-made designs for ships, trust me, they won't look pretty or efficient but hey, I like them.

I begun by designing an intermediate port for the station, something I'd consider temporary until I can place all the modules on the middle portion, this was known as the INTER module. All is well.

I then designed a rocket capable of carrying the payload (Net wt. 130Tn Including the rocket itself) known as the STELLAR

The rocket is asparagus stage design and is very powerful at launch, dwindling in the middle but easily maneuverable in space, the first test launch was a success (launching the rocket and checking fuel lines).

After the test launch I sent the entire rocket up including payload and achieved a stable orbit (105KM-106KM) manually, the picture shows the module just after separation from the main booster with communication satellites active.







The plan is to keep the module up until I can dock four more modules, the first being the joining module which houses two living quarters separated by a docking port and two radial mounting points at each end, a communications module housing communications relays and a hefty power source and supply, a science module containing another hefty power source and space research center. The final module will replace the current INTER module and will be a dedicated shuttle docking port for easy rotation of kerbonauts.

[Nicknero]

Massive update to OP.
The ISS is getting closer to completion.