My Growing Space Program: Kerbin & Mun Stations [KSP]

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

When I started playing Kerbal Space Program, launching a small rocket in space was very challenging, let alone putting it on a stable orbit around the home planet. But over time, I got better at controlling these flights. It still took multiple launches and iterations of the design before a rocket could launch out of the atmosphere without major issues. And today, I have almost colonised the two Moons of this planet, with a space station orbiting both that has scientists working 24x7 and performing experiments.

I have made a lot of successful launches and performed all kinds of manoeuvres around the home planet, Kerbin. I was able to put three polar satellites in the same orbit, about 120 degrees apart, which works as my relay satellites now. This was such a big achievement for me. Now, with the help of these satellites, every part of Kerbin is almost guaranteed to be connected at all times to my space centre via these.

Above is the Space Station, which also works as a relay satellite. I have multiple docking ports in here, with a couple of big tanks full of liquid fuel and oxidiser to aid in my future missions around the planet in space.

I have a docked vessel which has a smaller tank, a relatively smaller engine and almost all the scientific instruments to take readings. It is an unmanned probe with external seats, so I can rescue any stranded kerbal from orbit. There are occasional missions to save them.

Colonising the Mun

I have a bigger version of a similar space station in the low orbit of Mun as well. That one is even more useful. This station was assembled with multiple missions. I remember at least 3 seperate lanches were performed, each with one mobile processing unit and 2 scientists. Now, it has expanded a lot. I might have gone overboard with the solar panels on this one.

There is a small lander currently docked to this Space station, and its job is far more important than the other one over Kerbin. This one has the capability of landing on the Mun surface and taking off with its smaller engine. Because the gravity of Mun is only 16% of Kerbin's and the lack of atmosphere, it is easier to take off from the surface. I have a lot of rocket fuel inside the Space station to refuel the lander when required.

Communication becomes even more important at longer distances. So, to have a more reliable signal, I have placed a couple of relay satellites in the orbit of Mun as well. I didn't sync their orbit so now, they are all over the place.

I have never focused on making my rockets look better; they are all for functional purposes and not to win an art award, but one of them turned out to be really nice. Look at the symmetrical design of this satellite.

I had multiple landings on the Mun, mostly for recording scientific experiments, but sometimes done it for space tourism missions. Once you have a space station with a lot of extra fuel in low orbit, you don't have to worry about fuel anymore.

I remember my first couple of Mun missions. On my first landing, I could barely make it back to the home planet. I tried multiple times to get the most efficient launch from the surface to orbit and then back to Kerbin. At one point, I was thinking of leaving those astronauts on the surface and coming back with a rescue ship. Luckily, I had just enough fuel to get my orbit inside Kerbin's atmosphere. From there, the atmosphere did its job.

You can set up multiple surface experiments on Mun, and each biome will generate science points as well. So, it is good to have different surface-deployed science experiments on the surface in unique biomes. Mun has a lot of biomes like craters, poles, lowlands, highlands, etc. Some places are much easier to land than others.

Why do I love this game?

I love the fact that you can plant a flag on any surface you land on with a custom title and description. It gives you a strong sense of achievement when you plant your first flag on a body other than your home planet. From not knowing how to fly a rocket straight up to soft landing on the poles of the moon, you can see how far you have come. This is the only motivation which keeps us going in games like this.

I am having a lot of fun. When I start playing this game, I tend to forget about the outside world, and time starts to fly by very quickly.