A Little Bit on Remote Tech

I love the Remote Tech (RT) mod.  It adds a challenge to satellite design and it makes it much more difficult to just throw out probes for science.  In RT, you will need a link to Kerbal Space Command (KSC).  If you do not have one, your probe will become unresponsive.  If you can't re-establish a connection to KSC, your probe just became a multi-million Kerbit monolith floating in space.  The good thing is that it is relatively easy to make that KSC connection.  You do not need to be directly connected to KSC.  You can have your link run through as many satellites you want in your relay.  You can technically set up a probe on Duna that links directly back to KSC and to a probe orbiting Kerbal (if you have 2 long range dishes).  You just have to make sure that the probe at Duna is in line with KSC.  The only things that limit you are range and line of site.  The omni-directional (equally effective in any direction) and the directional-dishes (working on line of site).  

The antenna each have their own max range (measured in meters).  

• km = 1,000 meters - MechJeb will put you in a 150km orbit by default 
• Mm = 1,000,000 meters - Geosynchronous orbit around  2.8Mm 
• Gm = 1,000,000,000 meters

Here are the distances (from Kerbin) of the major bodies (at closest approach).  Some orbits are elliptical.  Make sure you pick an antenna that will reach.  You may need to piggyback off of other celestial arrays to get back to KSC.  At that point, you would only have limited connectivity.  You would have to time your burns so that they would be done AND completed while in contact with KSC.  If not, you will lose control and possibly forfeit the mission and the satellite.

• Mun - 12,000,000m (or 12Mm or 1.2Gm)
• Minmus - 47,000,000m (or 47Mm or 4.7Gm)
• Moho - 4,210,510,628 (or just over 4Gm)
• Eve - 9,734,357,701m (or ~10Gm)
• Duna - 19,699,121,365m (or ~20Gm)
• Dres - 34,917,642,884m (or ~35Gm)
• Jool - 65,334,882,253m (or ~66Gm)
• Eeloo - 66,687,926,800m (or ~67Gm)

You can find the manual on the RemoteTech forum page which will link to the Spaceport for download.  If you want a challenge (especially in career mode), this is the mod to do it with and as always, fly safe-ish.

Damned Weekends

I admit it.  I was slacking last weekend.  I did play some Space Engineers but I was busy on Saturday and caught up on TV shows from last week.  Diablo 3's new patch is coming out tomorrow but I will try to gather some science tonight,  I also have a few more videos to edit (including some Space Engineers stuff).  

Maybe by next weekend I will be caught up.  I have some lofty goals, but now that I have docking ports, I have opened up a few extra possibilities.  I can refuel in space.  This will make life much easier.  Moving fuel from the surface of Kerbin to low Kerbin orbit is soooo wasteful.  Regardless of what rocket you bring the fuel up on, there is still a large waste of energy.  The best method is to keep the fuel in space and not plowing through Kerbin;'s atmo or gravity well.  Ultimately, my goal is to have a refueling station on Minmus (that has the lowest gravity of the 3 orbital bodies (Kerbin, Mun, Minmus)), so it will make the best refueling hub for extra-planetary missions.  This is where the Kethane mod and Kerbal Attachment System come into play.  We will need life support, habitation and electricity to keep the fuel factory pumping out liters of liquid gold.  I have some exploration missions to run with Kethane detectors, but that is the easy part.   I just need to open up the tech node with more probe bodies.  Stayputnik's don't work so well when you need to stack things on top and underneath.  I hope to have this sorted by this weekend.  Stay tuned and as always, fly safe-ish.

Asparagus Staging

When I first started playing Kerbal Space Program, well before they implemented career mode, all there was to do was to play in the sandbox.  That was perfectly fine and I spent days trying to build capable rockets.  I had heard about asparagus staging, but I knew so little that I wasn't even at the level to comprehend and try another building style.  You see, my rockets were shit.  Some would say they still are, but they work for some reason.  Asparagus staging works in KSP because it allows you to ditch more weight earlier in the launch.  

Gravity is strongest and the atmosphere is thickest at sea level.  So reducing weight and drag earlier is good and keeping thrust to weight higher is best.

There isn't really a limit to how many tanks your set up in asparagus staging.  I have seen some pretty crazy designs that ditch tanks almost the entire flight up to low Kerbin orbit.  It takes a large toll on your system though.  Here is an basic example of how it works.

RemoteTech 2 Satellite Network

RemoteTech is an excellent mod.  It is very challenging for a new player to use in sandbox mode.  Career mode is a whole other animal.  If you are't sure how to set up a functioning network, you can check out my video here.

One of the most important things is to make sure you have enough transmitters/antennas to make all the necessary connections.  You want at least 3 dishes and 2 large solar panels (or a nuclear reactor from the Interstellar mod) in order to run the dishes.  You want the main (call it GEO-1) to have a minimum of 3 dishes and I always throw an omni-directional antenna on for good measure.  You need 3 dishes to make the following connections:

• GEO-1 to Kerbal Space Command
• GEO-1 to GEO-2



Geosynchronous Orbit

• GEO-1 to GEO-3

Regardless of whether you go with a 4-satellite or a 3-satellite network, you will need 3 dishes on GEO-1 just for the network.  If you wish to connect a satellite to another celestial body, like the Mun, Minmus or Duna, you will need 1 dish for that.  You will also require 1 dish for an unmanned rocket you want to operate around Kerbin or transfer out to another body.  

You can of course utilize other GEO-X satellites to run your Mun relay network or a particular craft.  If you have a space station that you wish to connect up to the network, you will need another dish.  If you want to keep the relays to the fewest amount of satellites, your GEO-1 could have a shit-ton of dishes.  If it goes down, you could really screw yourself over, but that is unlikely.  Hope the video and pictures help with your RemoteTech questions and as always, fly safe-ish.

Action Groups and You

A while ago I made a video tutorial on action groups.  It was short and sweet.  I received a lot of good feedback about it.  You can find it here.

Hopefully it will help someone and as always, fly safe-ish.

Timed Out

I'll admit, I am liking Space Engineers a lot more now that they implemented "survival mode".  That being said, I wasn't able to fit in my EVE online production line stacking, learning the new crafting mechanics of Space Engineers and building/launching rockets in Kerbal Space Program.  This weekend will be tough.  I have to work on my fiancé's car.  Her exhaust is leaking, making her Hyundai sound more like a lawnmower than usual.

I would really like to put some time into KSP.  I still have a few video's left to edit.  I filled up my 1TB HDD the other night with raw Fraps footage.  It seems like I might need another hard drive if I continue to stack up footage before I batch edit.  I really don't want to spend the money.  Once I edit the monstrously sized Fraps videos, they take up a fraction of the space.  

Anyway, until next time, fly safe-ish.

Career Hardmode Deluxe - Ep 3: Re-Purposed Rockets

In episode three we learn that rockets can become space planes.  While not efficient, safe or highly successful, they will still work.  I am able to traverse a few biomes and get some of that ever-important science.  Even though there are some control issues, we were eventually successful in getting a stayputnik to the mountainous area to the west of Kerbal Space Command.