Kerbal Space Program: Mods and Minmus Science

I've been experimenting with a number of mods recently. I already had Kerbal Attachment System installed, because I believe the ability to refuel a spacecraft without docking it should be included in the base game, but I wanted to explore the magnitude of mods which exist for the game. I was particularly looking for mods which made bases and space stations worthwhile. I copied my existing KSP directory and added the following mods:

• Procedural Fairings - Introduces fairings which cover payloads.
• Kerbal Alarm Clock - Allows creation of alarms which interrupt time acceleration.
• TAC Life Support - Introduces life support (food, water, oxygen).
• Kerbal Engineer - Displays spacecraft information (thrust-to-weight-ratio, delta-v).
• Infernal Robotics - Introduces a number of small gadgets (hinges, washers).
• KSP Intersteller - Introduces future tech (nuclear power, antimatter, FTL travel).
• Kethane - Allows mining of Kethane from moons & planets which can be refined into fuels.
• Biomass - Introduces modules which can grow food or create oxygen.
• TAC Fuel Balancer - Provides a convenient way of moving resources throughout a craft.

The inclusion of these mods has meant that I've needed to start a new game in career mode. This isn't very problematic because I'm already familiar with the game concepts and it allows me to revisit places I haven't visited in a while. The 0.23.5 patch rendered my previous career mode corrupt and effectively turned into sandbox mode, thereby making collecting science meaningless. In my new game, I'm collecting science again and re-experiencing the challenges of hauling science equipment.

Minmus Mobile Science Lab

As part of this science gathering process, I created a Minmus Mobile Science Lab that was capable of gathering science from at least five of Minmus' biomes in a single expedition. I've been wanting to experiment with building a lander that utilizes nuclear engines, but haven't found the opportunity. Nuclear engines are highly efficient in the vacuum of space, however they have an absolutely horrible thrust-to-weight ratio (TWR) and are so long and heavy that building a lander that utilizes them becomes challenging.

I was able to use Kerbal Engineer to determine what the Science Lab's TWR would be before I launched the spacecraft and could be confident the lander would operate on the gravitational weak moon of Minmus. The mission was very successful and I collected a ridiculous amount of science from Minmus' flats, lowlands, slopes, highlands, and poles.

I have one more mission to report on from my previous save game, however I will likely switch focus to my moded save game moving forward.