Beitrag von: Aura am Januar 30, 2014, 10:00:03 Nachmittag
Kerbal Space Program update!
In between editing Winter Summit sessions (which is going way faster this time thanks to CCP Logibro's notes), I've been building my space station. Finishing one summit session means I get to add one section to it. ;-)
It's looking pretty damn good, I think. From bottom to top, service module, science lab, 6-way docking node, crew cabin, 6-way docking node. On the very top, two big fuel tanks (more what they're for in a second). Engine facing the camera in the center, the crew escape vehicle which doubles as a fuel transfer vehicle. At the back docked to the center six-way docking node is the P0 truss with lots of rechargeable batteries and another 6-way docking node. Solar array trusses are docked to that, one on each side so far. You can see my truss delivery vehicle on the back right. I don't really need more arrays; there's nothing on the station that draws that much power.
But it looks good. ;-) And it's all done with KSP stock parts and no MechJeb.
At this point, I've clearly mastered orbital rendezvous, docking, and EVA. In particular, I've docked little things and big things, on-axis and off-axis, and I've done a couple of triple dockings with that fuel transfer shuttle going back and forth. At this point, I can just eyeball a docking if I have to (and I often have); I hardly look at the pink docking marker at all during docking.
As you can see at top right, those two big tanks are almost fully fueled. Next thing (after I've edited way more Winter Summit sessions) is to build a planetary transfer vehicle (to be called Enterprise, natch). She will dock with the station on top, and take on fuel from those two big tanks until she's full. Along her sides, six inline docking modules. Then I send up six landers. Then, test flight to the Mun. Put Enterprise in polar orbit, undock the six landers, and land on six biomes on the same day.
SCIENCE!
Next step, build and test the landers. For various reasons, they have to be capable of both landing on an airless surface and handling their own landings on Kerbin.
Source: Port truss (http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2014/01/port-truss.html)