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[GreatWyrmGold]

Most of the Board supports researching "kethane stuff"; others advise Advanced Metalworks and Heavier Rocketry. Since "kethane stuff" could be construed as either Advanced Metalworks or Heavier Rocketry...well, we already have kethane drilling units, so let's go with Heavier Rocketry. And I'll also grab Specialized Construction, which has a few fun toys and docking ports, and also unlocks Advanced Metalworks so that's nice flavor.

People seemed interested in getting a kethane rig set up, so we prepare an automated rig.


_{During the demonstration, it wowed the audience by mining some variety of fluid from beneath the surface. However, we just burst a sewer main, something that we came to regret both when the smell of the attempted processing hit us and when we got the repair bill.}

Impressive, isn't it? When filled, it will have nearly 3,000 m/s of Δv, far more than enough to land on Minmus (or, indeed, to fly there from LKO)...but not nearly enough to get into orbit. Issue? We think not.


_{"The Mainsails and the Skipper, too, will do their very best/To get this probe into orbit so it can go to Min-mess."}

Using novel "asparagus" stagins and the newly-discovered Mainsail engines, this little thing should get the probe at least most of the way into orbit.
As we launch, I notice something...mildly irritating.


_{The rig was installed upside-down, relative to the rockets. Until we ditch the booster, we're going to be controlling it upside-down. More importantly, it's night!}

Well, nothing much to do but take off and HOLY CARP! We don't get a kilometer up before we swiftly approach 200 m/s. Our TWR turns out to be over 5; I hit the VAB, because six Mainsails and a Skipper is way more power than this needs and less efficiency than I would like.


_{This will vastly improve fuel efficiency. "The Poodles and the Skipper too" just doesn't have the same ring to it, though.}

Relaunching. It's a lot slower this time.


_{"I am incapable of maintaining visual contact with my housing unit from this location. Evaluation: Insufficient height."}

A kilometer up, we ditch the first Poodles. After we rise another kilometer, we hear explosions. Of course, we hear more a moment later, so...um...maybe the engine and tank exploded separately, and one hit a bit before the other?
We ditch the next pair at 4.4 kilometers.
The third makes it through the gravity turn. We ditch them around 13.5 kilometers. Now it's just the Skipper, with the double-sized fuel tanks. The initial turn was too hard, so we straighten up some. A lot. In fact, we're basically vertical again now. I fiddle with MechJeb to have it hold my position and wait. I'm hoping to only have to do orbital insertion with the rig. But with the fuel half-gone and the craft only at 22 kilometers ASL, apoapsis just a kilometer and a half past that...


_{In other news, night launches make it very hard to see what's going on.}

Around 30 km up, the Time to Apoapsis reaches the magic value of 40 seconds and I flatten out our trajectory slightly. Then slightly more. Then more. Then I remember that I want the apoapsis to be in space before this runs out of juice, and I'm not sure how much more it can give, so I increase the angle slightly. Once apoapsis gets close to space, I flatten out a lot. I get the apoapsis up to 73 kilometers before the fuel runs out, and then ditch the rocket and have the rig turn around.
I hit apoapsis half a minute before apoapsis. Several seconds later, we're close enough to prograde that I start burning. We start veering away from prograde! But...but...the ship has perfect balance! Three-way symmetry for everything not inline with the center! We quickly spin towards retrograde, but I've long since turned off the rocket. Wondering if it's a MechJeb problem, I turn SASS off and try manual control...nope, nothing. I burn when I'm pointing more towards prograde, but still...the inevitable is the inevitable. We re-enter the atmosphere, still spinning. In fact, our attempts seem to be worsening the spin! Certainly, we're spinning faster more than we're improving the orbit. Eventually, I give up and revert the flight to the VAB.

I check the centers of mass and thrust.


_{Nope, they're aligned. From every angle.}

...I got nothing. And we should probably scan for kethane first, anyways.

[Aseaheru]

Scan scan scan scan scaan.

[WillowLuman]

Polar orbit scan! The good news, it should only take a very tiny probe. Except, have we gotten probe brains yet?

[MarcAFK]

Stack a scanning probe above your drilling rig, add more fuel and replace that last skipper with a mainsail. If dV or TWR of the first stage becomes a problem, uh.... Boosters? :p
Also, don't trust mechjeb too much, It's only human it'll make mistakes. I've made rockets that are rather unstable and require constant realignment during flight, mechjeb does a better job keeping it pointing straight than i do, BUT, MJ starts the gravity turn far too violently which always sends the ship into a spin, but if I start the gravity turn myself MJ does a good job of finishing It off.
It also goes whacko when you raise auto ascent altitude after you've reached apoapsis. Seems to burn randomly or towards periapsis, usually dropping apoapsis down to ground level then raising your old periapsis up to the desired height, if you have enough fuel left it'll work out how to fix your new ground level periapsis about half an orbit later though.
For anyone following my LP, MJ was used in sandbox mode tests, all my failed ascents were entirely under my own power. :p

[GreatWyrmGold]

Polar orbit scan! The good news, it should only take a very tiny probe. Except, have we gotten probe brains yet?

We sent an automated rescue vehicle to Minmus. An automated refueling ship was sent to refuel that rescue vehicle. The craft that recently burned up in the atmosphere was automated.
No. We don't.

Also, don't trust mechjeb too much, It's only human it'll make mistakes. I've made rockets that are rather unstable and require constant realignment during flight, mechjeb does a better job keeping it pointing straight than i do, BUT, MJ starts the gravity turn far too violently which always sends the ship into a spin, but if I start the gravity turn myself MJ does a good job of finishing It off.

The only thing MechJeb was doing was maintaining attitude. And manual control wasn't any better. Somehow or another, the rig was unstable. MechJeb had nothing to do with it.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Kethane scanning probe time.


_{The marketing folks assure us it's better with the solar panels extended.}

The probe has a bit over 1900 m/s of Δv. That's more than enough to get to Minmus from orbit and get a nice, roughly-circular orbit. I'm aiming for a polar orbit, around 100 to 150 km above the surface, which I'm hoping will give me a decent balance between orbiting quickly and not being in the dark too much.

Because of the efficiency of the LV-909 and the size of the probe, we just need to get this little beauty into orbit. It's still night, so don't expect many screenshots. I'll give you one here, since I forgot to take one of the VAB for this simple little rocket.


_{I don't really need the adaptor, but I've got excess Δv even with it.}

The initial TWR for that Poodle is a measly 1.02, so takeoff is slower than the Skipper with Mainsail boosters we used to launch the rig. Which completely failed to not spin. Anyways, this technically-SSTO craft is simple enough to launch. I seriously contemplated how much of the launch I could do in the background while doing other things. I do note, however, that adding some kind of control bit would have probably been a good idea. Gimbal and probe reaction wheels aren't really enough for a good, quick turn.
Around the four-kilometer mark, I notice that we've gone through half of our fuel. Even though we're not even going a hundred m/s, I turn the throttle down to 2/3. My speed starts dropping. I turn the throttle back up. I do turn down the throttle a couple ticks around 8,000 meters, with the velocity being around 160 m/s. The gravity turn is pretty quick, although--not for the first time--I need to go steeper than the 45 degrees I always guess at first.
14,000 meters. Fuel's below a third. I'm starting to wonder how much that Δv map I'm using needs to be adjusted to account for low TWR and air and stuff. I'm flattening out my trajectory by 25k, watching my fuel dwindle and my apoapsis rise. By 40,000, I'm at 10 degrees and 10% fuel. Apoapsis: 50k. I'm probably going to be doing orbital injection with the probe.
51,600 kilometers. I hit escape as the apoapsis hits and passes 70k, and well...


_{How often do you have almost exactly 1% fuel at a time like this?}

I burn for a few more seconds, to push the apoapsis another several kilometers up. It's now more than two minutes out. I hit the staging button, then the x button, then I set up a maneuver node.
Let's see. I have 50 kN of thrust, a 1.25-ton probe, and hence accleerate at 40 m/s². The upcoming burn is about 400 m/s. That means it'll take about ten seconds!
...


_{A post-staging estimated-burn-time that's actually accurate?!?}

Awesome. And that only took like 30% of the probe's fuel.
I set up a maneuver node for correcting that 6.1 degrees of issues. Naturally, KAC warns me about the node right after I start fiddling with it.


_{Successful maneuver planning.}

While I wait for the maneuver node to show up, I extend the solar panels. Sure, we're on the dark side of Kerbin, and we've got a third of a battery left, but I don't want to forget.
We maneuver, burning another 250 m/s of fuel.

Finally, a maneuver just a few minutes out, to actually intercept Minmus's orbit. Again, as I'm starting it, KAC warns me of an upcoming maneuver node. It doesn't take long for me to get an encounter.


<sub>I can't remember how I ever managed without the Xrise Estimation method!
...Oh, right, I didn't.

Crashing encounters? Not ideal.</sub>

Time runs low, so I need to go with that crashing encounter. I'll...figure something out before I crash.
900 m/s. This is about half my tank.
Alright, we're done. How much have we lost from the inevitable errors?


_{...Problem solved!}

Alright. We're on a Minmus encounter. We have under 14% fuel, but that's okay, because we still have 332 m/s of Δv and only need about 80 to get into orbit. More, depending on how fancy we want it, but eh. I quicksave to avoid weird issues like last time, then warp ahead to the SoI transition.


_{The probe in all its scanny glory.}

Our periapsis is now almost 950 kilometers out, but eh. Now for a maneuver node.


_{Okay. This will take most of our fuel. Then we'll need to burn more to get into range. Who designed that Δv map?!?}

Thankfully, remaining maneuvers are insanely cheap. Thankfully, because I have less than 100 m/s left. I observe some graphical bugs...


_Whoo.

...activate the kethane detectors...and warp six days to the node.
Less than 12 m/s in this maneuver. It'll be tough not to overshoot, but I'll try. I slip up a bit, surprised by how fast the bar drops even at minimal thrust, and yet I hit it almost perfectly.
I make another maneuver node, four days and change out, that will bring the probe into a stable 127/128 km-orbit.


_{And it looks like it won't be in the dark often. Yay!}

It'll be 34.3 of our remaining 85 m/s. We're almost done.


_Waiting.

As we approach, I hear some pings. Kethane-detecting pings.
I do the burn slowly and carefully, and almost perfectly. The apoapsis is a couple kilometers higher than intended, but the periapsis is the same, the orbital period is a few hours, and...we've detected a solid trace of "not kethane".


_{All our data at this time.}

Alright. Two questions.
1. Do kethane detectors detect kethane while you're focused on other vessels?
2. What should we do next?

[Aseaheru]

1: Think so
2: Get a driller ready to go and collect that kethane.

[Rabid_Cog]

1: No.
2: Before you go drilling, consider how you are going to
       a) Convert the extracted kethane to fuel (you need kethane storage space, fuel tank space and a converter)
       b) Get that fuel onto whatever craft needs it

Are you going to shuttle it into orbit or have the craft come collect it on the surface? If you are going to shuttle it, how are you going to get it from the extractor to the shuttle?

[BFEL]

1: No.
2: Before you go drilling, consider how you are going to
       a) Convert the extracted kethane to fuel (you need kethane storage space, fuel tank space and a converter)
       b) Get that fuel onto whatever craft needs it

Are you going to shuttle it into orbit or have the craft come collect it on the surface? If you are going to shuttle it, how are you going to get it from the extractor to the shuttle?

a: Answered own question.
b: Mass Relay?

[GreatWyrmGold]

1: No.
2: Before you go drilling, consider how you are going to
       a) Convert the extracted kethane to fuel (you need kethane storage space, fuel tank space and a converter)
       b) Get that fuel onto whatever craft needs it

Are you going to shuttle it into orbit or have the craft come collect it on the surface? If you are going to shuttle it, how are you going to get it from the extractor to the shuttle?

1. Dammit.
2a. Um...yeah, you answered your own question. Does it have to be stacked in any particular way?
2b. The original design would have made the craft land, but some kind of shuttle would probably work better...although that requires either a small shuttle and a lot of docking, or a permanent Minmus presence. So, we're planning a Minmus base within a couple months of having set foot on Minmus...we may be going a bit fast.

[Rabid_Cog]

I think the best option is to land your drilling machine, drill, convert and fly the whole thing back into orbit. KAS gives some slight other options (like landing it close and pumping fuel over) but its still bloody difficult. Minmus has very little gravity, so it shouldnt be too costly fuel-wise.

[BigD145]

It looks like I'm retiring as an adviser. You're using mods I don't use. I'm unfamiliar with such technology as lift and aerodynamics. It's as if you rewrote the universe, or just Kerbin, Eve, Duna, and Laythe. I will live my life on the island in the ocean crater. STAY OFF MY LAWN

[GreatWyrmGold]

It looks like I'm retiring as an adviser. You're using mods I don't use. I'm unfamiliar with such technology as lift and aerodynamics. It's as if you rewrote the universe, or just Kerbin, Eve, Duna, and Laythe. I will live my life on the island in the ocean crater. STAY OFF MY LAWN

...
Huh? I'm not sure what you're talking about, or how that would affect things in the space program. Especially on your side.

[BigD145]

It looks like I'm retiring as an adviser. You're using mods I don't use. I'm unfamiliar with such technology as lift and aerodynamics. It's as if you rewrote the universe, or just Kerbin, Eve, Duna, and Laythe. I will live my life on the island in the ocean crater. STAY OFF MY LAWN

...
Huh? I'm not sure what you're talking about, or how that would affect things in the space program. Especially on your side.

Considering FAR and DeadlyReentry are not in space, but most definitely affect every single vehicle ever built, I would say the effects are great and many.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I've got Deadly Re-entry, but not FAR. Why did you think I had that?
And, again, how does this affect your participation? It's not like you're the one designing the spaceships.