Year 15 day 396, time to rotate out the crew of station ‘Alpha’ around Kerbin. Bill is going up in a 2-kerbal CRV for an extended stay, to be followed by X and Y in a second launch and then Bob and Jendos will be coming home.

Bob and Jendos launched as part of mission Y12-D268, so they have spent about 3.5 years in orbit at this point. According to the Life Support Status window, they still have 10-11 years of hab/home time and 8 years of supplies on hand. But I have a contract to do a crew swap.

With a 3-kerbal crew on the station, that will reduce home/hab time to about 7-8 years.

Jenemone (S) and Stelgee (S) launched on Y16-D042 to join Bill (E).

KSP: Crew Rotation for 'Alpha' (Year 16)

Expansion Plans

I still plan on expanding ‘Alpha’ station, I’m just not sure what I want to attach on the 1.25 and 2.5 meter construction points. Probably more hab/home time and/or some storage. I should really add some Station Science parts, but I have yet to fiddle with a re-entry vessel for returning the experiments. A 2.5m nuclear reactor may also be a good choice as we’ll start to exceed the possibilities with solar panels and batteries.

Expansion ideas:

  • 2.5m reactor
  • Station Science
  • Two or four 0.625m docking ports for Station Science experiment pods
  • Four more 1.25m docking ports
  • 2.5m and 3.75m docking ports?
  • More hab space, supplies/mulch storage
  • More agroponics and recycler modules to handle a larger permanent crew
  • KAS struts for stability