Oculus Rift news around the E3

Waiting is sometimes frustrating. When I started this blog almost a year ago, by writing about my experiences with the game Elite: Dangerous, it was always with the prospect that this game in combination with the Oculus Rift will provide for a revolutionary experience in a virtual world. My test of the DK2 during the Elite: Dangerous Premiere Event confirmed my theory. However, the development of both the Oculus Rift, as well - at least as I am concerned - of Elite: Dangerous as one of the best possible experiences with the Oculus Rift, are still going on. Also, this being the main reason why my game time with Elite: Dangerous is on hold. I can power play already in lots of games, this is not really the revolutionary gaming which I got initally hooked for with Elite: Dangerous. I want the full virtual reality experience, and a free universe where you can go everywhere, i.e. including in Elite: Dangerous the feature of being able to land on planets is a must, if you adhere to this vision.

Scanning the news about the E3, there´s of course as usual lots of mainstream crap and no-content-news, but a nice surprise is the news about an Oculus Rift controller. Oculus Rift already mentioned several times that they are working on it. It looks good, those folks have a sound idea of how virtual reality could be properly accessed, and it is well received. Here is a nice article on IGN.

So, the idea is to bring your sense of presence into a virtual environment and also bring at least your hands along. There are already ideas and prototypes about some hand-motion-capturing tools, but it seems Oculus Rift went a way which is both conservative, by make it more resemble to a classic game controller, as well as innovative, by translating and linking these controller movements as best as possible into virtual hand movements.

BTW, game controllers in general have since long been amazing me how crappy they are. I mean, an avid gamer will easily spend 10 hours on a good day working with such a device. And they are at least from an ergonomical point of view, but also in terms of control options, a plain piece of shit. The best ergonomic sollution which I had found for me when I still played on consoles was the old SEGA Mega Drive controller, by holding it between thumbs and index fingers of both hands and pushing the controls with index and middle and ring fingers from both hands. But this "thing" they have for the Sony PS, X-Box, Nintendo, etc., I do not understand how people can accept to be reduced in their game experience to using only their thumbs, 90% of the time?!?

As full blooded PC Gamer, my right hand mouse has at least index and middle finger active, the rest guides the mouse itself, while the left hand rests fully on the middle of the keyboard, with all five fingers active. Instead of WASD, I have ZGHJ (on a German QWERTZ-layout) as the central keys, with action buttons keyed to all sourrounding keys, including down-far-off onces for my pinkie. No current mainstream console controller can get near this a strong level of control.

I am very curious if the Oculus Rift controller will be able to improve the control experience, with that neat trick of simulating your main hand movements, and having four fingers each from both left and right hand active. And the design looks very ergonomic, on top!

- ergonomically sound, reminds me of those highly professional foil-fencing handles








It looks good, both visual and in theory already. Need to test it! Preferably with the - finally getting close to release - Oculus Rift!

My Kerbal todo-list

A game session with the Kerbal Space Programme with only little action and much contemplation. The mission building has currently no more contracts to offer, so I basically just have to follow through with all projects on my list, the most prominent of them being the Duna landing (for which the transfer window is going to be ready in about 50 days).

With some careful orbital adjustments while on rendez-vous to the Scientia, the Mission Lander can tackle the 2nd mission point, a in-flight temperature scan on Mun at below 9800m altitude. The last mission point requires an in-flight temperature scan above 9800m altitude and will pose no problem whatsoever, once it is in reach of my polar orbit.


 



- checkpoint









My Munbus is slowly getting closer to my "simple" satellite problem in Kerbin orbit. Time is not pressing there. Just annoying is the buggy service bay, causing lots of jittering. After having refueled the satellite, the Munbus will help to fulfil another still open contract, namely to save a Kerbonaut.



 - the Fuel Ship coming close to Minmus (the little blue marker shows where the Scientia 2 had landed)


 








 - the Omniscient also reaches Minmus orbit










The Omniscient has only 900m/s left after reaching low Minmus orbit; I guess that about 500m/s will be needed for the landing and takeoff. Which means I have to reroute the Fuel Ship away from the Scientia 2 so that the Omnsicient receives enough fuel reserves in order to continue into Solar orbit and back to Kerbin. However, I still want to dock the Fuel Ship to the Scientia 2 first:

Checking my currently accumulated science over all, the Scientia 2 has 770 "collectable science" on board (i.e. the data still yields science points once brought back to Kerbin), plus a double data set for the Minmus slopes. Also, the Scientia in Mun orbit has 240 collectable science on board for the Mun poles. Unfortunately, this data is mixed with that from the Mun highlands, which can still be fed to the ship´s mobile lab, but is worth nothing anymore back on Kerbin (I brought this data already back from my first Mun landing). Well, at least no surface data has been in the lab yet, so I can redo the landing exercise later for the lab and bring all current surface data back to Kerbin.

This makes for both ships a sum of ~1000 collectable science points, which I could cash in on Kerbin even before Duna transfer has to start; and still some reserve for the labs remains. Good, this opens many more options, even for the Duna expedition itself, should I still wish to change its setup. Perhaps an improved barge for the Omniscient? Or even a new Omniscient Mk2 with nuclear engines?

So, this makes for the following to do list:
- Fly the Mission Lander remotely from Mun into LKO.
- Refuel Scientia 2 from the Fuel Ship just enough to fly the former into LKO.
- Refuel Omniscient with the remaining fuel from the Fuel Ship, land, launch, get into solar orbit.
- Fly the Fuel Ship back into LKO.
- Fetch the Mission Lander collectable science with the White Goose.
- Fetch the Scientia 2 crew+data with the White Goose.
- Refuel the Scientia 2, supply a new experienced crew and send it back to Minmus.
- (Put the old Mission Lander out of service and send a new lander to Mun, possibly a dual-pod lander)
- Once the Omniscient is back, send a new experienced crew to the Scientia at Mun and relieve the current one.
- Decide what to do with ~1500 science points and possibly adapt Duna expedition plans

Quite a list. I like it! I would have been a shame to miss all of this emerging gameplay if I just had time warped forward to the Duna transfer window, some sessions ago.

- ... and never forget to collect science for processing in the ship´s mobile lab!

Some small Kerbal expeditions

This and my last blog entry are mostly a recollection of several smaller ventures from game sessions from before and during my holiday. They might have happened some time in between, before or after the Minmus landing which I wrote about in my last blog entry, at points in Kerbal time when I wasn´t lazy by just time warping and waiting for my flagship, the Omniscient, to arrive at Minmus.

Concerning the earlier topic about transfer windows for interplanetary travels, I only recently realized that Kerbal Alarm Clock has them all incorporated already; so, no need to look up webpages at all. Duh.

- Installing some more mods

Sensible Screenshots - better naming of screenshots, save as jpg instead of png for my blog, very cool!
Portrait Stats - shows profession and experience in the Kerbonaut portraits, very useful!
Field Experience - no more need to bring Kerbonauts back in order to gain experience; unfortunately faulty in collaboration with Kerbal Alarm Clock and yields too much experience, so de-installed. Besides, this keeps an incentive to bring Kerbonauts back now and then!


- A little orbital rescue

Please save another poor Kerbonaut fellow from LKO. Yeah, thanks, I still have the Munbus ready and refilled in orbit, right on this task! Some careful orbital adjustments later, the Munbus floats by the shipwreck and collects another crew member for my roster.

- A "simple" satellite contract

Put a simple satellite into a simple Kerbin orbit, they said. A perfect occasion to test a new space plane, which should replace any launch stage for small payloads. Behold the "Cargo Shuttle"-class spaceplane. Yeah, I know, pretty uninspired name, maybe symptom of my lazyness which in the following leads to a lot of time consuming mistakes. I really should think about a better name. It is basically one of my many prototypes still from the time when I developed the White Goose-class, with just an added cargo bay. This cargo bay will in future serve to launch satellites into LKO.
The space plane has still enough of reserve fuel to also accomodate more heavy payloads, provided they will fit into the cargo bay. 



- one satellite shuttling up!











The simple satellite is held by a docking port inside the docking bay and, once I reach orbit without problems, I release it. It bounces out rather unceremoniously, having no RCS control. Then I realize that it got completely sucked out of fuel. How stupid is this? Trying to recapture the thing with the Cargo Shuttle is very difficult and I loose patience and reload. This time, I manually lock the fuel tank before launch. "Back" in orbit, I check and see the fuel bars are healthily green, unlock the fuel and then undock. Again the satellite bounces out (I really have to think about a more elegant solution). Checking its destination orbit, I set up a maneuver node and set the Kerbal Alarm Clock mod accordingly.

Before I send the Cargo Shuttle back down, I shift its orbit to collect the saved Kerbonaut from the Munbus. It would have been more efficient to let the latter do this maneuver, but the Cargo Shuttle had enough unnecessary spare fuel. Some more fine adjustments are then executed by the Munbus, and in the end the ships pass by each other at about 20km. In order to save fuel, I make the Kerbonaut EVA over. Which is the moment where I learn that the distance alone is not decisive for a save transfer, but also the relative speed. The cargo Shuttle whizzes by the Munbus and it takes almost all the Kerbonaut´s RCS fuel and one full revolve of orbit to catch up. Whew, what an unnecessary adventure.

Once the Kerbonaut is EVA´d over, Kerbal Alarm Clock informs me that it is time for the satellite´s maneuver node. Jumping to satellite, throttling up... aaaand, nothing happens. The satellite is again out of fuel! How could this happen?



 - Did some Kerbal sneakily drink all the fuel?










Since I spent some time and effort in taking the Kerbonaut over to the Cargo Shuttle, I do not want to reload again its whole flight from launch. Instead, I guide it back down, still wondering how and why the satellite again lost all its fuel. Maybe because during undocking, I first had to click a different option before the "undock" button appreared? It was something about "docking node"... have to check this on the next occasion.

Then I re-plot the Munbus´ orbit towards the satellite for a refuel-docking. Thank god I have this ship left on stand-by in orbit! The rendez-vous is difficult to achieve, though. And I was so proud that my Cargo Shuttle achieved a precise 71km orbit! Undercutting this orbit for a fast approach is hardly possible. Since I do not want to waste more fuel than absolutely necessary, the rendez vous will take about 5 days and is put on the list on Kerbal Alarm Clock.

- Kearjet ("adding K to every word")

The prospect of rudimentary atmospheric plane flight always lures me back. There are still some untapped biomes on Kerbin, which now by should yield about 30 science points each, using all available science equipment and also surface probes.

So, I design a small and fast plane. The Fleabite-class still ran with a standard jet engine and had a maximum speed of 290m/s. This is way too slow for large distance flights like, say, to the polar region. So, a turbo-jet driven simple plane is in order. Which is, the "Kearjet". One of the rare cases of my designs which work first time, I nevertheless have to reload the flight to the arctic region, once the game crashes mid-flight. I was cautious to disable the heat gauges, but had to activate the overlay once in a while; the Keerjet´s turbo jet has considerable power and thus flies faster than thermic air resistance allows, i.e. the plane heats up considerably. The maximum speed I dared was about 850m/s at 16km altitude, which corresponds to a balance roughly around half-throttle.

- heat starts to build up around 780m/s









Some hour later (including the reload), I finally have reached my goal. Some more flights to various other Biomes net me also around 30 science points each. It might be little compared to the science from a Minmus landing, but it is virtually instant science points, requiring no time warp whatsoever.



 - The Kearjet´s virgin flight is complete











- One more Mun landing

Yes, Mun... I somehow neclected the wealth of still unexplored Biomes surfaces. First reason: While I had refilled my first lander with fuel, I forgot about the monopropellant. Which would make docking really an act of finesse. Second reason: Getting one example of surface probe up would only satisfy either the need of the orbiting Scientia´s lab (it is currently at ~480 units of data capacity, so the new data would need to sit there for a while), or go back to Kerbin, but not both in a timely fashion. I would need a lander with two pods, which can each store the same scientific data in parallel. This is a kind of playing the game´s game mechanics, but what can I do? I of course spend some time on designing an according lander, but am not sure whether I should go down that route.



- a still unemployed design of a "dual-pod" lander, for also keeping a  copy of the same science data
 




 


Third reason: It is kind of difficult to identify and land on the still unexplored Biomes; e.g., which of those craters is the "Far Eastside Crater"? No idea. Besides, I already have data from the polar region, the far eastside crater, the highlands. Unfortunately, the science archives back at the Space Center are not much of help. There is a mod out there called SCANsat, which would enable me to send a mapping satellite; this at least would allow me to spot all Biomes and plan proper landings.

All those reasons suddenly get overwritten the moment when a contract pops up which requires temperature readings at different altitudes plus one on Mun´s surface. And, by chance, the latter is right now right ahead under the Scientia´s orbit, where my old "Mission Lander" is docked.



- Undocking, and preparing descend in haste!













 - ... right on time!












 - touchdown, not too efficient a fuel use, but allright










After touchdown, piloted by Jebediah in person, the lander has 1100m/s deltaV left, down from 2200m/s. Is this enough to reach the second mission point, below 9600m altitude? I give it a try, but have to give up and reverse my heading mid-flight, as the deltaV marker reaches the dangerous limit of 900m/s which I still require to get back into orbit. With 211m/s deltaV left, the lander is then back in orbit. Without monopropellant, I again will have to do a very efficient rendez-vous to the Scientia, which makes for another spot far down on my Kerbal Alarm Clock list.

One little accident I realize only later when I switch to the Scientia; its main solar panel array points once more away from the sun. The problem is, this time I cannot turn the Scientia; why? Because it has no remote controls and the only pilot in the crew, Jebediah, is sitting far away in the lander. Ouch, no science, sucked out of electricity, and my lander better finds back to the Scientia or I have de facto two stranded ships in Mun orbit! Given that the lander has only so little fuel left and no monopropellant at all, a likely scenario! I will probably have to send the Fuel Ship to the lander, once it is back from Minmus.



Somehow, from all these ventures, I have now 446 science collected, a sum of crew reports, science from Biomes on Kerbin, and science from Mobile Labs. I am not sure what choices to take in the tech tree. I wanted to unlock the LV-N nuclear engine, but am not sure anymore. The advantage of a better fuel efficiency might be minimal, while its only burning of fuel without oxydizer could deprive me of flexibility in exchanging fuel e.g. between motherhips and landers. Would getting rover wheels be a better choice at this point? Or that new science toy, the Seismo-Meter? Some stuff for thought for offline, I am sure, so I go, well, offline.

Kerbin Slingshot and a first Minmus landing

Loosing track, there is lots of real life including a healthy holdiday in between. So... where did I leave off here? Right, the Omniscient had done a Mun landing and was ready to hit "nav point 2", Minmus.

It takes indeed a while until I have finally plotted a course. As it turns out, every vector which is prograde to Mun´s orbit turns out "empty", i.e. no projected Minmus encounter whatsoever. It is only until try out some retrograde vectors that I realize that Minmus seems to revolve much slower around Kerbin than Mun. That, combined with the fact that Minmus is actually "behind" Mun right now, of course invalidates every attempt to reach Minums by aiming "ahead" of Mun (i.e. prograde). The right way to do it is to go "backward" on a retrograde vector, sling around Kerbin and finally find that Minmus encounter.

- Kerbin slingshot to reach Minmus, due to starting from a very crappy transfer point









This maneuver costs me about 450m/s deltaV, about double the amount I would have required if I had timed my travel with a proper transfer window from Mun to Minmus. But, with the time constraint of the upcoming Duna transfer windows, I needed to make haste. I biefly think about actually "stopping by" in a low Kerbin orbit and refuel. But this would basically mean to start an entire new travel to Minmus, and using up ~600m/s deltaV more than from my current starting point. So I execute the maneuver and hope that the Omniscient has enough deltaV left for a Minmus landing, a sun orbit and a return to Kerbin...



- on slingshot course











From here on, things seem to advance very slowly. This is only because I cannot simply warp time forward, instead I try to make "good use" of the time in between. So, what leasurly activity am I up to in the meanwhile?

One idea is to refill both the Scientia and the Scientia 2 and finally do some more landings, in order to catch some substantial science. It would feel a bit cheesy for me to just time warp foward and cash in science from my three Mobile Labs. So I design and send a first fuel ship up to the Scientia 2 around Minmus. It can either refill the former, or give the Omniscient an emergency refill in case I once more underestimated the deltaV requirements for its further ventures. The Fuel Ship is a simple, remotely steered vessel, with a fuel capacity of 2880 units and propelled by a Poodle engine. I figure that after reaching Minmus, about half the fuel can be transferred and thus almost completely fill up the Scientia 2, while still ensuring the return trip.



- Fuel Ship (in the worst possible orientation, all solar panels shadowed...)










Sending the Fuel Ship into orbit deprives it about 1/3 of its in-space fuel capacity. Of course, I could have designed it in a more expensive way so that the final stage was still 100% full. However, I did not spend all that time designing viable fuel tanker space planes in vain! And thus, my honoured utility spaceplane, the Fuel Dragon, gets once more the job to go LKO and refill the Fuel Ship before it leaves for Minmus.

In preparation to my future spaceplane launches, I place two mini-planes at the start and end of the runway. As it turned out, the EVE mod features very nice clouds, which however also occlude sometimes the runway during approach. With those two miniplanes, I basically have two nav points which are always visible and can be also used as a bearing for a proper landing approach.



 - Fuel Dragon & Fuel Ship rendez vous completed










About half an hour later, the Fuel Ship has executed its burn for Minmus, which, due to its timely launch, it will reach even before the Omniscient. In the meanwhile, planetside things start to go wrong again. I sure did launch the Fuel Dragon about a dozen times already and should be very acquainted to handle it. But, this time, attempting to land on the runway goes wrong four times in a row! Thank you, reload screen! No idea, did I get sloppy, were there some bugs in between, but it is only at the end of that game session that the Fuel Dragon finally sets down properly.

- reentry during night; the EVE mod sometimes draws a weird nightly landscape, almost a cause to de-install it again, wouldn´t it be for those nice clouds!

- approach for a landing...
(two parking mini-planes serve as bearing through the clouds)

- ... ooops!











Ok, after this episode I am again saturated with atmospheric flights. Jump to Minmus.

The Fuel Ship will arrive first and dock with the Scientia 2, with the Omniscient coming in a day later (not sure yet if it will rendez-vous, too). The Scientia 2 has 750m/s deltaV left in its tank; since the refuel is planned for a totally empty Scientia 2, I can use this up before the Fuel Ship arrives, by doing a "first ever" Minmus landing! As a target serves me one last nav point from a mission contract, which requires me to take temperature measurement on the surface, coincidentally passing right now under the Scientia 2´s orbit. Timing and killing horizontal velocity, falling down slowly.

- initiating Minmus landing procedure










All goes well, until the surface is almost reached. This is a Biome called "Slopes". Yeah, I know now why; slopes of at least 30 degrees. How the Kerbuck can I ever touch down a church tower like the Scientia 2 is??? Three tries to find a more accomodating landing spot, then my deltaV figure tells me this has to be it...



- "any landing you can walk away from is a landing"










... whew. My three amazons survived, including the ship. Don´t want to think about launching from here! I have to admit, though, landing on Minmus in principle is much more forgiving than landing on Mun. These slopes would surely have been my vessel´s doom if on Mun.

My three Kerbonauts are busy collecting scientific data, several complete stacks containing every data type, going each into a different "pods" of the Scientia 2. One set will remain on the Scientia 2 for its lab, one set will be brought back to Kerbin for quick science points, one set will be passed over to the Omniscient´s lab.

Collecting the temperature reading, my mission contract strangely does not update, until I realize that the measurement was not required on the ground, but in flight below 8400m altitude. It is already late night and I also get confused as to what science data I can collect when. There seems to be also a "low above [Biome]" point of collection, which makes my Science-Alert mod ping every time my Kerbonauts do a step, also being a jump in Minmus´s little gravity.

From now on, my sceenshots get a little scarce; which is a pity. The reason is, trying to launch the Scientia 2 from it´s precarious on-the-belly-downhill position takes all my attention, as this results in quite a number of reload-inducing explosions! After several tries to erect the ship by a Kerbonaut pushing with all the RCS power it can muster, getting annoyed that I cannot make all three Kerbonauts push at the same time, I experiment with the ship´s torque power. Rocking back and forth, the ship swings on its belly and even lifts off a little from the ground. Trying to fire the engines at the right moment (reload to find it), not too strong (reload to figure it out), not too weak (reload to... you get it!), not too long (etc), not to short (etc), I finally make the Scientia 2 lift off again. Whew. Thank reload, you can very well consider this launch a bit cheaty, but, hey, virtually every launch so far was like this; learning by doing, and all that! Taking that last temperature reading for my contract, with the last remaining deltaV, the Scientia 2 arrives back in a polar orbit (just 20m/s deltaV are left!). Phew.

Tired but somewhat content, with the resolve to eventually become a better space pilot, I log off.

Tour de Kerbin

Two more game sessions have passed. One of them consistet mainly of researching about mods and installing them. These are my current mods:
- EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements (EVE) - for nicer graphics
- Kerbal Engineer Redux - for data about deltaV and good in-flight information
- Waypoint Manager - showing nav points not only in map mode but in flight, too
- Kerbal Alarm Clock - for timing of maneuvers
- Science Alert - pings me when new science can be collected in flight
- Precise Node - for fine-steering maneuver nodes (I do not use it much, though)
- Docking Alignment Indicator - should help docking, but it seems I am docking in such a weird way that this tool is just getting confused
- Chatterer - random radio chatter in flight
- RCSbuildaid - installed it after getting fed up from annoyingly flawed RCS placement

Quite a list for someone who usually does not play with mods. But the mods from Kerbal community are excellent tools indeed!

After the two passenger flights with the White Goose at the end of my last report, the Omniscient is ready to go. Is it really? Did I forget something? Will I suceeed? It is amazing how this game instills a feeling of tension for such a mundane task as a travel itinerary. I imagine how it must feel to embark on a big expedition, or as if again a child, going on your first solo voyage on a flight or train. My tour de Kerbal SOI has commenced.

One thing I realize immediately is that two Kerbonauts are still sitting at the Space Center. But I am too lazy to still get them up; they are only pilots, their experience is not so valuable as I steer my vessels mostly via SAS or freely, anyways.

Many Kerbal stories in the forums are presented via a row of screenshots and I can start to see the usefulness of this format. Nevertheless, I also like to write a bit more about my stuff.





- sent off to burn during re-entry; goodbye, little thug, I promise to improve your design!








The flight plan is a tour de Kerbin SOI, to check all itinerary which is required by my tourist contracts, and to land at least on Minmus for my Kerbonauts to plant flags (this should give them enough experience points to finally advance a level!).

The Omniscient starts with 4700 deltaV, at Mun orbit with ~3500deltaV left, however, I want to block 1440 units of fuel to refill the Scientia2 -> down to ~2700 deltaV, and need another 1440 units of fuel as a reserve for the return trip -> down to ~2000 deltaV. 




- ready to embark!











The burn for Mun takes almost 2 minutes; a higher TWR would be cool, but such is the tech constraint. However, this ship turns like a slug when the engines are deactivated. Two normal inline reaction wheels are definitely too less; holding down a directonal key about 10 seconds finally induces a very slow turn. Ugh! Clearly a design flaw, but owed to that I do not have bigger reaction wheels available. RCS modules should have compensated, but they are surprisingly uneffective; maybe due to their position on the four outer rocket nacelles?

- some spacewalks to collect and reset scientific experiments; the ship´s lab gets the data

- the Omniscient closing in on Mun









Now I have to face a difficult choice. There is one tourist on board who ordered a Mun landing. This is what the docked Lander Mk2 can do at optimal fuel efficiency. However, I also still have that contract where I am to place an outpost on Mun. The Omniscient was built after I accepted that contract and it has all the parts which makes it eligible also as an outpost. So, I could try to land the whole goddamn big thing. With that crappy torque/RCS control surely a challenge, if feasible at all. Also, landing the Omniscient costs easily 20times more fuel than just using the Lander (four big Poodles vs. just one small Terrier engine). And, the consequtive question, will I have enough deltaV left to reach Minmus, land there, too, and then go into a solar orbit and then travel back to Kerbin?

I believe I spent almost an hour in just weighting my options. Then I do it the Kerbal way; by just doing it!

First, I decouple the lander, so that the mothership can land properly on its engines at all. Moments later, I realize that the lander got sucked out of fuel, because I forgot to block the fuel transfer. Redocking by using the awfully sluggish Omniscient thankfully works out because the Lander didn´t drift too far away yet. Good that I started to prepare well ahead of my intended maneuver node!

Next step is to go into a circular low Mun orbit. 1790m/s deltaV are left (exclusive the reserved fuel portions). This might just be enough for a landing and return to orbit ("screw-up bonus" included)!

- killing horizontal speed, letting Mun´s gravity grab my ship, now waiting for the time for a "suicide burn"







My biggest fear is the sluggish torque, so I let SAS handle the descent by activating "retrograde" position. Waitaminute, my SAS is not supposed to be able to hold retrograde? This must be my only pilot on board, Valerie, despite the fact that the Omniscient does not have a cockpit. Even the lander with its cockpit is not docked anymore. Interesting!

Anyways, Valerie´s retrograde piloting works well, and I can realize that during the suicide burn (i.e. slowing down from max possible descent speed by max possible burn), the ship steers well enough, thanks to the additional gimbal steering of the four Poodle engines. Unfortunately, the maneuver turns wrong in that moment where vertical speed drops to near-zero. Prograde and Retrograde markers veer off and inverse, Valeria follows the retrograde marker and shifts the ship almost horizontal. I understand too late what happened and react too late, but even an attempt at full throttle inverse cannot remedy this heading anymore. The Omniscient crashes at full engine power diagonally into Mun´s surface. Terminally.

I just have doomed 20 Kerbals at once to death. Jeez, failure really makes you feel bad in this game!

Of course, I reload the game; I am still too far away in skill to really do an "iron man" kind of playstyle in career mode! Unfortunately, my last save is still from leaving LKO, so I have to repeat quite some maneuvering. Including screwing up the Lander´s fuel supply, again! But, then, prepared for this unexpected-to-be-expected behaviour from SAS, finally, the touchdown!








- group picture; took 20 minutes to set it up...

- and again, a great moment when the Scienta again chooses to appear on the horizon and pass right over us...









- ... due to the inadvertetly chosen  prominent landing spot!







There is a little irritation; while my "put a station on Mun" contract blinks green, four tourist contracts suddenly give me a "failed" marker on the UI. Supposedly, I have failed to bring them back to Kerbin. Clearly a bug; what should I do? Reload and skip the Mun landing? Or can this still be remedied by actually bringing them back to Kerbin? Checking the mission office down on Kerbal in the Space Center, the contracts are still there and don´t show any signs of failure. So let´s try and see what is going to happen.

After some happy tolling around in Mun´s dust (sad that the other half of the crew, the tourists themselves, cannot do EVA), and gathering some surface science points, I launch the Omniscient again into low Mun orbit, switch to the Lander and re-dock it. Realizing that I forgot to refill its supply of monopropellant, this docking maneuver again requires more finesse than it should have. The Omniscient has now 280 m/s unreserved deltaV left, which could be just enough to reach...





- launch!










... my next destination in my "Tour de Kerbin": Minmus. Which raises the question, how to reach Minmus from here? Playing around with a maneuver node, I have to realize that I cannot just blow out of orbit like as if going from or to Kerbin! This is more like a mini-interplanetary travel. Which means I have to look for transfer windows and/or blow a lot of additional travel time and fuel. On top, I really do not want to miss the upcoming launch window to Duna, so I cannot travel too long on this tour. Regardless, I am a bit clueless how to setup course, the first node for getting out of Mun´s SOI, the second for a transfer to Minmus; but I do not seem to be able to find a SOI change to Minmus. This will take time to figure out, I guess...

... aaaaand again Kerballing this far caused a late night already, so I pause my ventures here.

How to plan interplanetary travels

By hindsight, I realize more and more that those flights with the Fuel Jumbo could have been much easier by doing three things: adjust the control surfaces so that they do not oversteer and thereby fix annoying SAS behaviour, add some struts, add RCS engines and use RCS instead of weak torque wheels (the bigger ones are still locked in a tech node). Looking at my screenshots, I also realize that this plane does not look so bad at all. And it did its job. Maybe I did a bit injustice to this plane type, so this should be remedied.

- henceforth to bear the honored name "Fuel Dragon"









So, Duna was on top of my to-do list, right? Having researched a bit more whether and what more there is to interplanetary travels, the following two link are really helpful:
- Best way to plan interplanetary travel!
- Best tool + links to plan interplanetary travel

Playing around with the calculator from the latter link, the shortest travel time to Duna could even be as short as 151 days, but a single trip would then cost 4463dV, which the Omniscient cannot muster. Then I realize surprised that the current launch window is not optimal at all (year 1 day 151) and it is going to be much better in year 1 day 272! Concerning the return trip, I also realize surprised that, apparently, it is not possible to use the same transfer window for a return trip. So, interplanetary transfer windows do not seem to be like "windows" or "tunnels" through which you can pass back and forth; they are one-way streets. According to the calculator, in order to get back from Duna, the Omniscient would have to wait about 1.5 years for the next suitable transfer window! Looking for other stuff to do instead, i.e. flyby´s to other planets is not an option: too much additional dV required. I guess this is where the new ore/fuel refinery equipment is going to come in. Which means, I will need much more tech, in order to be able to equip my spacecrafts with refuel capacity for a true roundtrip of the Kerbol system.

Taking some notes from the calculator:
Prograde-Outward trips:
Duna: y1d187-d295 eta 272d
Dres: y1d360-d410 eta 268d
Jool: y2 d216 eta 199d

Retrograde-Inward trips:
Eve: y2d153 eta 197d
Moho: y1d263 eta 136d


Uh, why am I doing this work? I sure do not need to reinvent the wheel, there must be players out there who did exactly what I am doing here. Look internet? Yes, look internet! Presto, a spreadsheet which lists all transfer windows, together with the required deltaV; only the travel durations are missing. Do I love the Internet? Yes, I do love the Internet!

Surprisingly, a transfer window to Jool is close at y1 d166, needing only 2000 deltaV, and again one at y1 d282. And Duna is not so close as I had thought; the last transfer window was at y1 d58 and one will be open again in only in y1 d290, for 1700 deltaV. Of course, I could also travel outside those transfer windows; the travel time might even be not much longer, however, the deltaV requirements would easily skyrocket. There is only so much you can achieve with primitive combustion enginges, I guess.

So, the result of my little internet research is, there is currently no really good transfer window to Duna, so I am actually not under time pressure to launch that Duna mission. Good that I actually looked it up. This means I can rearrange my plans. Four more contracts did pop up in the meanwhile and I collect them all, they are well doable within the Kerbin SOI. Also, I now have a stash of four tourist contracts. They want to go a bit of everywhere, Mun, Minmus and Solar orbit and flyby (which should be synonymous). Combine this with this idea of doing an educational flight for all of my remaining Kerbonauts in oder to boost their skill level, and a new idea about another opportunity for a very efficient mission profile comes into my mind.

10 Kerbonauts easily fit into the Omniscient. The overall 10 tourists can be crammed in there, on top, too. So, the Omniscient´s virgin flight will actually not as a long-year home for four Kerbonauts, but as a tightly crammed passenger flight for 20 passengers. Since the roundtrip to Mun, then Minmus, then into the sun´s SOI probably takes about two weeks at best, there should also role-playing wise not be a problem having a this full spacecraft.

Concerning this role-playing thing: In a later new career run I might want to install two more mods; life-support and colonizing. This would make the game much more realistic and thus more coherent for me. I would have to plan and construct spaceships which have large living spaces and probably also agronomical installations which produce oxygen and food for multiple-year expeditions. Indeed, spacecrafts would not a spacecraft in the classic sense, but resemble more to travelling space stations. And I then could also settle out there, wohooo, this would give this game an entire new dimension. Sim-City in space, with real physics and logistics behind it! I realize there is also a mod which makes radio transmissions more realistic; however, this would just add more tediousness to the game and I prefer to assume that my Kerbals can coordinate at least the timing of radio transmissions and launch relay satelites by themselves.

In order to bring all passengers aboard, the White Goose spaceplane needs an additional passenger module. Like this, all passengers are going to be up there with merely two flights. As a positive side effect, the center of mass is now much better situated. Just the launch now needs to use the runway more like a ramp, but, hey, a launch is a launch!

- one White Goose passenger flight coming up; note the "fog" which are clouds from my latest installed mod ("EVE")









On my first trip up, I also use the occasion to rescue another Kerbonaut. After he is on board, I realise that the White Goose does note have solar panels and thus cannot make it in time to the Omniscient. The White Goose was designed for very short trips to a single destination and not for multiple extended rendez vous missions. Then I also screw up the re-entry by coming down way too early, thus needing a long flight to the Space Center. No, thanks, reload.

For my second try, I upgrade the spaceplane with solar panels from my recently unlocked tech node, stabilize the wings with more struts and adapt the control surfaces. Much much better, so I finally go up and dock to the Omniscient. Which makes me realize once more the bad response from torque, so I better also add more RCS and monopropellant for the next time. My spaceplanes are finally getting the required fine-tuning.

- a return trip with a rescued Kerbonaut on board










In the meanwhile, real life time warped from late night into morning time, the hallmark of really good computer games. Logoff.

SAS/RCS grind

Some more references I want to conserve:
- nice photo-story about a blue guy´s career mode
- enlightening thread about how the Mobile Lab works
- scientist levels and Lab processing time
- tips about useful mods
- wet spaghetti rockets

- Fuel Jumbo, marvellous union of joy and pain









 
My two current projects keep me busy for quite a while. My first interplanetary ship, the Omniscient, is in orbit and needs a refuel and a crew with scientists before moving on. My crew transport ship Munbus returns from Mun with a bunch of saved and thus newly recruited Kerbonauts, the two only available and still unoccupied scientists among them, and is on aerobraking course.

For refilling the Omniscient, I use the "Fuel Jumbo" space plane. It has a payload of 1440 units of fuel. Unfortunately, the Omniscient is a fuel-voracious beast; I am going to need 10 fuel flights with the Fuel Jumbo, omygosh. I can now understand a little bit where from all those launch&throwaway rockets gain their attraction from; Milkcan or Tetrapack, here is your answer!

 - Fuel Jumbo, going up*10











On top, during those 10 launches, I have to suffer repeatedly through each of the design flaws of my space plane. Which mainly are an overcompensating SAS ("Stability Augmentation System", a very barebone autopilot) during ascend, which causes very difficult to control pendulum movements; this is probably due to having too many or wrongly used control surfaces. And on top (or maybe also inversely the cause for the crappy SAS behavious) a very poor torque effect and RCS during rendez-vous. It also seems to be impossible to construct a un-wobbly wing surface from multiple wing parts, even with stuts. There is also the odd bug which renders RCS ("Reaction Control System") unresponsive or makes my overburdened plane tear apart and explode before I even start a launch (a reload fixes this, fortunately).

- temperature gauges reliably cause crashes in game version 1.02; disable with F10







Altogether, the Fuel Jumbo indeed is a clumsy elephant, and docking clearly is no fun like this! But somehow, I had the idea those few flights stuff would be done quickly, more quickly than trying to fix all those little and difficult to remedy design flaws of a plane which is going to be obsolete anyways, once my tech level raises to Mk3 plane parts. By hindsight, I maybe should have indeed spent more time on the drawing-board in order to delete some of the grindy frustration I had to go through.

 - with or without SAS: extremely difficult to control!










In between my refueling flights, I guide the Munbus through multiple aerobraking passes. I am very cautious to not go too deep into the atmosphere in order to avoid an unintentional re-entry. A periapsis of 55km yield a very light braking only, going deeper to 45km seems to be ok, but you already loose height also at the periapsis and have to readjust it in order to avoid an amplifying and re-entry. This of course may differ according to the drag of the individual craft. About five rounds later, I can circularize the Munbus again into a stable orbit and start the rendez-vous procedure. The intended destination, the White Goose (my double purpose, crew and fuel, transport), got rerouted to dock with the Omniscient, and that´s where the Munbus is now headed, too.

 - the end of a long project phase is near, finally









Docking with the Munbus is a breeze after having handled the Elephant (formerly know as Fuel Jumbo; there, a new ship class name has been born!). The only caveat is that it has only the monopropellant from its Mk1-cockpit because I again forgot to add monopropellant-fuel tanks. And there I thought I finally had a perfectly constructed vessel...

- at long last, all vessels have rendez-vous´d










A nagging suspicion gets confirmed once I let the two scientists do some test work in the Omniscient´s lab. Not enough solar panels! Damnit, why did my lazy-ass not check before launch and for example compared to the number of panels used on the Science-class? Trial&error, aka, I never learn, do I?

So a new mission has to be set up; I call it Repair Ship. Thankfully, I had installed enough docking ports on the Omniscient. You can never have enough docking ports, I say! Four of them will now get docked with a small construction each, bearing solar panels. For this goal, I use the latest transmissions of science points from my Scientia ships and open the 160-point tech node which allows access to larger, foldable solar panels. They get attached to modular girder segments, add two docking ports top and bottom, presto. I also build a small drone thug on top in order to be able to actually place them at the Omniscient and then nicely wrap the stuff in a fairing.

- Repair Ship; has its flaws, too











Man, that rocket is unexectedly difficult to control. It is probably too long, and it seems that the stuff inside the fairing is also adding to the hated wobble effect which serves to throw the rocket further off course. Four tries, and that thing is in space. The fairing explodes into a bug, so I have to redo and relaunch once more. Then I am finally en route to a, thankfully and for a change, unproblematic rendez-vous. Or so I think. Once I decouple the thug with the payload from the launch stage, I discover that the RCS is severely imbalanced, relative to the payload. Docking is again an art with this, and this time I really have to thank the SAS that it somehow manages to keep the whole thing stable, and this also only when doing little RCS thrusts at a time. Fiddling around like this takes time and patience. Nothing is a simple matter in Kerbal Space Programme, aka, even just simulated physics is a harsh master.

 - this thug-setup does not work well










Once the additional solar panels are attached to the Omniscient, I undock the White Goose and finally bring the Kerbonauts back home. All of them have experience from Mun orbit, two of them were on Mun´s surface. The latter get 5 experience points (one of them inexplicably 7), which is a bit disapointing and makes me wonder whether my idea to ferry them all to Minmus for a landing really is worth the hazzle.

- attaching additional solar panels to the Omniscient; serves well to always have some spare docking ports







Altogether three game sessions have passed. The Omniscient is refilled, the Kerbonauts are back home. Next steps would be to man the Omniscient and then either burn directly for Duna or do a 5-6 day detour to Minmus first. Of course, it must be the latter, because I want the ship´s lab to work while it is on its long travel! After that I should focus on getting some more science points. I will want to launch the ships for my next contracts equipped with the highly efficient nuclear engines. So, either some Mun and Minmus landings are in order, or maybe just have a break and time warp my Duna mission. After those 300+ days, all three existing Labs in my ships (i.e. Scientia, Scientia 2, Omniscient) should have churned out plenty of science, probably even have exhausted most of their data (3x500 data should yield something between a whopping 4500 to 7500 science)!