Reusable Kerbal Exploration 1: LKO
Introduction
Have you ever wanted to explore the Kerbal universe in career, but you keep running out of funds? Or are you just tired of crashing rocket boosters without seeing the explosion? Your solution is reusabillity!
KSP Loading...
To start your game, press the "Start new" button. On your settings menu, do normal difficulty, and put an entry cost on parts.
First launch
Once your game has loaded, go to Mission Control. Get the "Launch our First Vessel" and "Explore Kerbin" contracts and exit. Next, go to the VAB and build a vehicle with a Δv of at least 400 m/s and 6 Mystery GooTM. I have a design below if you want (Kerbin Atmosphere-1).
1x RT-5 "Flea" Solid Fuel Booster
6x Radial Mystery Goo™
Now that you have a capable rocket design, get ready for liftoff! Name and save your rocket, and hit the launch button! Once on the pad, get some science! Take a crew report, take an EVA report, take data, board, and take two Mystery Goo™ samples. Ignite the Flea engine and immediately turn 45° towards the ocean and take two Mystery Goo™ samples. Timewarp x4 until you are falling at about 150 m/s and deploy your parachute. Once you are 1 km above sea level, stop timewarping, take a crew report, and splash down. Take two Mystery Goo™ samples, do an EVA report, take the data from the capsule, board, and take a crew report. Now you can recover the vehicle, and if you followed the science sequence I did, you should have at least 45 science points. I got 45.6 science.
To orbit!
Now that we have our basic science, we can build our first SSTO. First, go to the R&D, and unlock the following nodes: 1. Basic Rocketry 2. General Rocketry 3. Engineering 101 4. Survivability
Next, go to mission control and get the contracts "Orbit Kerbin" & "Escape the Atmosphere". Go upgrade the Astronaut Complex, and there! We are ready to build the SSTO! You could make your own design, but even with the nodes we unlocked, the margins are extremely slim. I have one that you can use though (SSTO-I).
1x Mk16 Parachute
1x Mk1 Command Pod
8x FLT-200
1x 1.25m Service Bay - (Place 6 Mystery Goo™, 6 2HOT Thermometer, 4 PresMat Barometer, 1 Communotron 16)
1x LV-T45 "Swivel" Liquid Fuel Engine
Save and launch! Once on the pad, take a 2HOT Thermometer report, a PresMat Barometer report, close the sevice bay, and hit "SPACEBAR" and "Z"! For this specific gravity turn, hit "D" twice, "Q" until your capsule window is facing west. Hit the "W" key once and then, once at 5 km, follow prograde. In space, circularize orbit by pitching down gently. Keep firing until your Apoapsis is 250-253km. Do all your science, then timewarp to "Space High" (250+km above Kerbin sea level). Do your science from there again, and then deorbit so your periapsis is 45km. Do science from the upper atmosphere (do an EVA for moar science!), point with some deviation from retrograde (pretend you were trying to land an airplane backwards in the ocean near the KSC), deploy your parachute, do science from "Above Kerbin's Oceans", and once at 100m, fire low throttle and reduce your speed to 5m/s and splash down. Do your science and recover! You should get at least 200 science points, but you can even expect 210-220. When I flew the rocket, I got 235.1 science. Sometimes, you might get more! Now that you have the game started, what about a trip to Minmus?
