Angelo Kerman

I'm hoping that KSP 2 will allow for instantaneous travel- repositioning the craft, like is possible in KSP 1. If so then the jump tech will be viable. As for special effects, I want to do something like this: I'm particularly fond of the effects used on Battlestar Galactica, and if KSP 2 can do what KSP 1 can then I can make the whole ship fade out when it jumps and fade in again when it lands.

Still noodling some FTL ideas for KSP 2... https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/24 Jump Engine · It takes a few milliseconds to jump. · Your velocity doesn’t change when you jump. · It takes 1 hour/50 metric tons to charge the jump capacitors. This might instead be tied to Gravity Waves. · Engines are limited by max jump range, max jump mass, and max gravity. · The bigger the jump engine, the better its max jump range, jump mass, and gravity. · Max gravity applies to both ends of the wormhole and is additive. Example: if the max jump is 0.1g, and the gravity at the ship’s endpoint is 0.01g, then the max gravity allowed at the destination end is 0.09g. · The above implies that the higher up the gravity well you are when you jump, the lower into the destination’s gravity well you can go when you land. In other words, the higher your jump orbit, the lower your orbit can be when you land. · When you jump, you jump in a straight line- except when there is a nearby celestial body. Project a 15-degree cone out to the distance of your maximum jump range. If a celestial body intersects the cone, then the destination endpoint will appear in the gravity well of the nearest celestial body. · Optional: Max jump range is further limited by max gravity. Waystation · It is also known as a Jump Point. · A wormhole’s destination endpoint will jump to the nearest Waystation along its flightpath before it jumps to the nearest gravity well. · A Waystation’s max gravity rating is added to the max gravity of the jump engine for the purposes of jumping into a gravity well. This allows ships to jump closer to a star than would normally be possible. Jump Gate · It is a Waystation with the extra ability to generate a wormhole. · It is limited by max jump range, max jump mass, and max gravity. · It can combine its wormhole with another jump gate or a jump ship. · Jump ranges can be extended by forming a pathway through multiple jump gates. Think of Mass Effect relays. · A jump gate combining its wormhole with a jump ship reduces the ship’s cost to generate a wormhole.

This is a very innovative concept! Congratulations on the release.

Nice to see the trailer frame getting some use.

Chapter 38 While two Orbital Dynamics spacecraft, OPTV-2 and OPTV-3, continued their slow fall to Kerbin and another of the First Jool Fleet entered Laythe orbit, the Kerman States National Transportation Safety Board published the results of their investigation into the crash of Drax Aerospace’s Sunraker. Based on the evidence, Sunraker’s flight control computer commanded the RCS thrusters to fire and the vehicle experienced uncontrollable yawing motions that stressed the airframe to its breaking point. In laykerb terms, the autopilot tried to maneuver at high speed and caused the airframe to break apart. Had a crew been aboard, the pilots could have corrected the issue. Grateful to have the NTSB’s investigation closed, Drax Aerospace moved forward with Project Pathfinder. Drax took the opportunity to roll out their new vehicle, Pathfinder, for a taxi test. The brainchild of Jadzia D. Kerman (her middle name is Drax- there was no way that her mom would let Drax name his daughter after himself), Pathfinder was the first of the 200-series Shuttle Launch System orbiter. Named after the first K-20 KerbalSoar, Pathfinder was a Shuttle-derived second generation orbiter that was powered by a pair of advanced CR-24 Longbow scramjet engines and a single LV-209 Promethium rotating detonation engine. The Longbows gulped air and sipped propellium to produce thrust. Once the air became too thin, the Longbows shut down and the Promethium took over. Its innovative rotating detonation technology detonated rather than combusted propellium and oxium to produce thrust. Kerbodyne’s engine produced thrust comparable to their KS-25B Rainbird, but with a whopping 512 seconds of ISP compared to 452 seconds for the Rainbird. Pathfinder needed help from a modified K-26 Behemoth to attain orbit, but today OV-200 operated alone. After rolling out of SPH 2, Pathfinder taxied over to Runway 090 and performed a high-speed taxi. Before it ran off the end of the runway, Pathfinder’s pilots slowed the shuttle down and turned onto the taxiway for its trip back to the hangar. It passed by the K-21 Sea Goat, the venerable sea plane that carried Pathfinder’s K-20 namesake into the air for drop tests and recovered wayward K-20s that failed to return to the space center. Surprisingly, the Sea Goat was still in service, leased by Phoenix Aerospace to provide the same recovery service for their K-24-derived Phoenix space plane. With their testing completed the pilots brought Pathfinder back to SPH 2 to analyze the data. * As part of their PR campaign to move past the Sunraker accident, Drax Aerospace conveniently scheduled a Jool Heavy launch right after Pathfinder’s taxi test. The enormous rocket blasted off of Pad B as many other Jool Heavies have before it. With so many Jool Heavy launches, the latest launch was textbook routine; the solids dropped away cleanly, the propulsion module was jettisoned on time, the core stage tank was discarded, and so on. Learning from the lessons with its Minmus Tanker, the latest Jool Upper Stage design is based on the tanker but without its additional propellium tanks. The additional hardware enabled the JUS to land for refueling if needed. Drax Aerospace wasn’t sure if the new design would replace existing Jool Upper Stages or if it would have limited utility, but the design was perfect for its payload. Stacked atop the JUS was the all new Münbus. Conceptually built like Orbital Dynamics’ Finch OTV, the Münbus was larger and held more passengers and crew in its luxurious accommodations. In addition to the cockpit, Münbus had two staterooms and a habitat section that could house up to 6 passengers much more comfortably than the Finch could (the flight crew hot bunked in the cockpit). Further, Münbus had a dedicated sickbay to help passengers recover from space sickness or other illnesses. Finally, the module had an airlock to allow passengers and crew to disembark onto the surface when Münbus landed. Today, Münbus headed to the Drax Space Hotel, but once its shakedown cruise was completed and Pathfinder was certified to fly passengers, the spaceliner would begin service to the newly completed Drax Minmus Orbital Hotel. Since it could land, it would ferry passengers to the Drax Minmus Resort once completed. And once they built out their infrastructure on and around the Mün and built a münar hotel and resort, Münbus and her sister ships would fly to Kerbin’s closest natural satellite as well. No doubt about it, Drax Aerospace was determined to make their rivals irrelevant. * OCTV-2 arrived at Oasis, and Orbital Dynamics remotely got to work unpacking the cargo, assembling BirbStar 2, and stacking its first payload. In this case, it had two of the core tanks and a Finch Converter Module. It took several hours to carefully maneuver everything into place and another day to land at the company’s polar mining station. A couple of hours later, BirbStar 2 maneuvered the upgrades in place, refueled, and headed back to Oasis. It had a seven-hour wait to arrive, but once it did, BirbStar 2 split in half and picked up the Finch Drill Module. But it had to wait another few days for the landing site to line up with Oasis’ orbit, so Orbital Dynamics decided to refuel OCTV-2 and send it home… Four days later, BirbStar 2 delivered the drill and immediately turned around to head back to the station. This time, it picked up the last of the original core tank structure and headed back to the mining outpost. From there on out, the two BirbStars rotated between the surface and Oasis, delivering propellant to the station’s upgraded fuel depot every three days. That enabled the two Orbital Propellant Transfer Vehicles to rotate between Oasis and the Orbital Dynamics Shipyard, delivering propellant every twelve days. That finally put the company on a competitive footing with Drax Aerospace. Now they just needed to catch up and place their own resorts on the Mün and Minmus… * After nearly two weeks of work, Sandcaster finished its latest contraption: The Worker-T. Based on the Worker-B chassis, the T variant replaced the B’s drills and refining equipment with a sizeable storage area and two converters that could melt rock into konkrete. Due to the large power requirements, only one converter could be run off the solar arrays at a time. Engineers made a note of the limitation and planned to equip Sandcaster with a power generator. By adding microwave transceivers to Sandcaster and its entourage, the construction bot could beam electric charge to its progeny and enable them to operate day and night. The Ministry of Space knew that they’d need two Worker-T construction bots but for testing purposes they simply rolled out a prototype that they built. Sandcaster had one more item to build and it needed its entire entourage to make it. Unfortunately, it needed several weeks to complete the work. Nonetheless, the testing proved to be successful and an invaluable learning experience for the engineering team. The team even began thinking about new designs to expand upon Sandcaster’s capabilities such as advanced mobile refining robots. With the right Workers, Sandcaster could self-replicate, finally realizing Neumann vonKerman’s dream of sending out automated probes to other planets to build homes ahead of a kermanned expedition. * Orbital Dynamics remotely piloted the Finch from Homestead Waystation to the Shipyard in preparation for its next trip. Once it arrived, it docked to the upper pier. As the station crew cleaned the interior, restocked its supplies, and topped off its fuel tanks, Willorf stepped outside to perform a minor refit- replace Finch’s faulty boarding ladder. The replacement was straightforward and took very little time. Finch gained one other addition: a grappling claw vital for its next mission. Given the high part count number of vehicles at the Shipyard, ODMC decided to ferry OCTV-2 and OCTV-3 over to Homestead Waystation to await their next assignment. They arrived a day later… Not long after, Ascension arrived at the Shipyard to perform a crew swap at the Shipyard. The current crew had completed numerous constructions, but they were tired and they needed to recuperate from their time in microgravity. Willorf handed over the station to her counterpart, the two crews shared a meal together, and then they boarded Ascension for the trip home. Mk33-02 landed and taxied to its hangar without incident, but as the crew deplaned, they were met by Rangers. Willorf saluted them. “Calming Kerman, you’re under arrest for industrial espionage,” one of the Rangers said. “WHAT?” “You thought we wouldn’t find out? We knew you were taking extensive pictures of our 3D printing equipment,” Willorf said, “and sending them to someone. The second I saw your extensive bandwidth usage I knew something was up.” “I was sending pictures to my family,” Calming bleated. Willorf smiled. “There’s just one problem with your story- you don’t have a family. In fact, ‘Calming Kerman’ doesn’t exist.” Calming gasped. “I- I can… I can give you my contact at Drax,” he pleaded. She ignored “Calming’s” pleas as he was hauled away. * It was unusual for Sarah to personally drive out to the airfield with the flight crew and tourists, but this time it was special. “We’re making history, Scott,” she began, “This will be the first time that a commercial crew has gone to Minmus! It’s hard to believe that after this flight, we’ll have completed all our original contracts.” “Except for the casino,” Scott pointed out. “Except for the casino,” Sarah repeated. “Okay, I admit it, that wasn’t our best idea. Who would’ve thought that grabbing asteroids would be so difficult. No to mention the red tape…” “Now if we could just prevent Drax Aerospace from copying us and taking over our markets,” Scott lamented. “Such is the nature of big business, I’m afraid. Move and countermove. It’s a primary driver of innovation,” Sarah said. “It’s only a matter of time before Drax launches a Shipyard of their own,” Scott added. “Not if we can help it,” Frolie said, and grinned. “I’m pretty sure that Calming was sending those images to Drax. Anyway, all we need to do is tighten our security, and then keep outpacing Drax and create technology so advanced, they’ll never be able to duplicate it.” “Got any ideas, Frolie?” “Actually, I have quite a few.” “I shouldn’t be surprised,” Sarah said, “you’re a genius. The stuff that you keep coming come up with is amazing! You’ve really helped Orbital Dynamics grow. Making you CTO and Chief Engineer was one of the best things I ever did.” “I’m just happy to be a part of the team,” Frolie responded. “And I’m no genius. I just stick to things longer than most. Perseverance is the real genius…” Scott, Maxpond, Frolie, and four very excited tourists- Meldorf, Pepe, Frogun, and Ludus- boarded Ascension for their trip uphill. They were the last of the original four tourists who signed contracts almost four years ago. When the tourists signed on for their trip to Minmus, only Skyranger, the first Mk33, was flying, and it launched into space vertically. Today though, Ascension (Mk33-02) rolled out of its hangar, taxied over to Runway 090 Right, ignited its engines, shot down the runway and climbed into orbit like a high-tech airliner. Given the special occasion, Orbital Dynamics gave the tourists exclusive use of the Homestead Hotel to acclimate to microgravity while they waited for Finch to arrive. A couple of hours later, Finch, on autopilot, arrived at Homestead Hotel. The flight crew- Scott and Frolie- performed pre-flight checks while the four tourists settled into the ship’s habitat section. Not long after, Finch departed the station for her first trip to Minmus! Two days later, Finch crossed through the Mün’s SOI, making its closest approach at 9,352 km. The crew and passengers took turns looking through the ship’s command pod windows and snapping pictures. It was a nice treat to see the Mün relatively closer on their way to Minmus. Seven hours after münar periapsis, Scott made a course correction burn to compensate for the Mün’s gravitational influence on the ship’s trajectory. * As Finch coasted away from the Mn and towards Minmus, The Jool Mapper entered Tylo’s Sphere of Influence and released the Tylo Mapper. An hour later, Tylo Mapper circularized its orbit around the massive mün, deployed its sensors, and got to work while Jool Mapper continued its course. Not long after, Jool Mapper made a course correction burn that placed it on target to encounter Laythe. Once in Laythe’s SOI, Jool Mapper performed a 1,544 m/sec burn to aim for polar orbit, and after determining that the Laythe Mapper would have enough delta-v to circularize its orbit, Jool Mapper released the probe and continued coasting. Like its sister probe, Laythe Mapper circularized its orbit and got to work. Finally- at least for a while- Jool Mapper slowed itself down to enough to enter Jool orbit and plotted some maneuvers that would enable it to intercept Vall within a couple of weeks. * It took another four and a half days of anticipation for Finch to finally reach Minmus’ SOI, but the ship’s entertainment centers kept everyone busy. An hour later, Scott matched orbital planes with Refuge, and then three hours later, he circularized Finch’s orbit. Half a day later, Finch docked with Refuge. As the tourists got settled in and Frolie began starting up Refuge’s various system, Scott undocked Finch’s command module and moved it over to the OTV section. Once he got a hard dock, Scott retracted half of the solar arrays on OCTV-1 and Finch’s extended cabin to make it easier to maneuver the OTV. As soon as Frolie finished his onboarding tasks for Refuge, he hopped into the back of the OTV, and the crew and passengers departed the station. For the first time in many years, Finch was a simple orbital transfer vehicle again- but one that has made history as the first spacecraft to visit both of Kerbin’s müns. “Congratulations, guys,” Sarah called from Orbital Dynamics Mission Control, “you’re officially now the first commercial astronauts to visit Minmus.” The tourists asked if they could land on the Mint Mün for the umpteenth time, but Scott gently reminded them that it wasn’t in their contract, and that they were slated to visit Unity Station. But he also had a treat in store for them. KSP asked Orbital Dynamics for a favor: retrieve the Sparrow Münar Excursion Module and dock it to Unity Station. During the Münflight Program, the Münflight 2 went to Minmus. It was Sojourner’s first flight, and it was the first kermanned expedition to the Mint Mün. Bob and Jeb piloted the Sparrow MEM to the surface of Minmus- there wasn’t enough room for Bill- performed some science and returned to the awaiting Sojourner. As was standard procedure for Münflight missions, the MEM’s ascent module was either abandoned in orbit or deorbited and left to crash into the surface. Two and a half hours after departing Refuge, Finch arrived at the Sparrow. The passengers and crew took a moment to marvel at the old technology used to fly a pair of kerbals to the surface, noting just how much smaller and cramped it was compared to the Finch. Scott then grabbed the ascent stage near its engine bell and, thanks to orbital mechanics, delivered it to Unity Station an hour later. Münflight 6 was the last Münflight to one of Kerbin’s moons. Sojourner again made the trip, carrying Valentina, Gerrim, and Santrey along with Unity Station in place of a MEM. The vonKermans later joined them in what became known as the Münflight Drakken Test Project. As neutral ground for the two superpowers, the vonKermans continued to use Unity Station as a staging area for their missions to Minmus’ surface. Watching the mission play out on TV was one of the reasons why Scott wanted to be an astronaut. And now here he was, about to set foot in history! With some careful maneuvering, Scott docked the ascent module to Unity Station’s only docking port capable of accommodating it. Then he backed Finch up and parked it on the station’s nadir port. Scott, Frolie, and the tourists spent the rest of the day exploring Unity Station- Meldorf especially enjoyed his time and took extensive pictures of the interior for historical preservation. The next day, Finch returned to Refuge, and the tourists tried in vain one last time to land on the surface. Scott and Frolie flatly refused, citing that they had a schedule to keep and were awaiting a fuel shipment. As if on cue, the Drax Minmus Tanker showed up and docked to the station, delivering propellant for Finch’s return trip. Once refueled, everyone piled into the Finch and departed the station for a ten-day trip back to Kerbin. * While Finch coasted home, Jool Mapper performed a course correction after making gravity slingshot maneuver around Laythe to slow down. The spacecraft was on course to drop a probe off at Vall. Two days later, it entered Vall’s SOI and dropped off the Vall Mapper. The probe circularized its orbit and began scanning. KSP’s science teams hoped to determine the source of the odd radio signals that the Jool Surveyor spotted so many years ago. Three hours later, Jool Mapper left Vall’s SOI and was back in Jool orbit. With one mapping probe left, KSP Mission Control elected to drop it off at Pol- it had a greater travel time than Bop, but it required less delta-v to match its orbital plane. That was important since KSP MC hoped to mine the mün for propellant and ship it to Laythe. KSP MC was about to execute the maneuver when some bright engineer pointed out that Jool Mapper still had a lot of delta-v available. There was no reason why the spacecraft couldn’t hold onto the mapping probe while it did its work, and then drop off the probe at the other mün. That convinced Mission Control to change their target to Bop. A day later, Jool Mapper executed its 1,114 m/sec plane change maneuver, followed by a 695.4 m/sec transfer burn six hours later. That put it on course to intercept Bop Eight and a half days later. * Gene had been watching the news coverage of Orbital Dynamics’ Ascension returning home, carrying the first commercial crew and tourists to visit Minmus, when he got a knock on his door. “Come in,” Gene said. Two Rangers entered the room along with the District Attorney and what looked like an Orbital Dynamics employee. Gene had been expecting them. “It’s time,” the DA said. When the DA informed Gene that they were going to arrest someone at KSC, they granted his request to be present as a show of solidarity. Plus, learning that someone was conducting industrial espionage on his watch irked KSP’s Administrator. As they drove across the KSC campus, he listened to the DA instruct Louis Kerman, alias Calming Kerman, on his role in the sting operation. Louis just needed to hand the documents over, and then the Rangers and DA would take care of the rest. The DA assured him that he’d be granted leniency for his part in the operation. Gene, the DA, and the two Rangers waited outside while Louis went in. Everything went perfectly; Louis walked into Leando Kerman’s office- the Drax Aerospace liaison to KSP and Louis’ contact- he handed over the documents, and then the authorities busted in! “Leando Kerman, you’re under arrest for conspiracy to commit industrial espionage,” boomed one of the Rangers. Leando looked stunned. “I, uh- I want to plea bargain,” Leando blurted out in a panic. “I know about Project Eve!” “What is Project Eve,” Gene asked. “P- P- P- Project Eve w- was a p- proposal by Drax Aerospace for a kermanned flyby of Eve using a converted Lindor 5 rocket. This was before the Shuttle Launch System was proposed.” “Uh huh,” Gene answered, unimpressed. “It- It was a cover!” “For what?” Leando told him. “I knew it,” Gene said sternly.

They were an early attempt at making flat terrain. Unfortunately they didn't work out well. I do hope that colonies in KSP 2 are MUCH better and easier to work with.

Man, those look so bad now, compared to where my skills are at today. Back then that was the best I could do though, so, progress! I'm glad the kerbals are making use of the FlimsyTek portable bases.

Chapter 37 While the National Aerospace Transportation Safety Board convened to investigate the cause of the Sunraker accident, Drax Aerospace took a pause in their operations while other agencies continued forward with their plans. Via the Arrow Space Corporation, for instance, the Ministry of Space rolled out the newest addition to their fleet, the Arrow 6 launch vehicle. A product of two decades of flight experience, the Arrow 6 was a redesigned Arrow 5 that doubled the number of Oscelot engines in its first stage, shed its vonKerman-designed Photon solid rocket boosters, and greatly lengthened the first stage itself. Additionally, the top of the stage incorporated RCS thrusters, grid fins, and an array of parachutes to aid in landing while the bottom of the stage sported new landing legs. The increased propellant load and additional landing equipment enabled the Arrow 6 booster to land downrange of the launch site. The Arrow 6 could still make use of the existing Arrow 5 upper stage for backwards compatibility, but for this flight, the vehicle had the all-new, fully reusable Newton Upper Stage. Shaped like a mini external tank with winglets, Newton was powered by a new Kerbodyne KR-2200C Tyrannosaurus aerospike engine. Building on the success of their KR-2200L Velociraptor linear aerospike that powered Orbital Dynamics’ Mk33, the KR-2200C repackaged the same performance of the Velociraptor into a shape better suited to cylindrical rockets. But they didn’t stop there; following Kerbal Automatics Design Bureau’s example with their CE-2X Ulysses rocket engine, Kerbodyne invented their own transpiration cooling system and equipped the Tyrannosaurus with it. Thus, the KR-2200C doubled as Newton’s heat shield. On Cuahoc 7, 2003, Arrow 6 lifted off from the Ministry of Space’s launchpad at Kerbal Space Center and rocketed into the sunny sky. The booster burned through its propellants in under two minutes as expected and then separated from the Newton upper stage. As the booster prepared to land on a downrange barge, the upper stage- a shuttle in its own right- ignited its aerospike motor and continued the climb into orbit. Six minutes after liftoff, Newton settled into a 148.0km by 151.4km orbit, spread its solar arrays, unshielded its docking ports, and opened its payload bay doors in space for the first time. MoS Mission Control cheered as their hard work paid off. With Newton, the Arrow 6 launch vehicle was rated to deliver 34 metric tons to orbit, but its first payload was much lighter. At the dawn of the Shuttle era, the Ministry of Space debuted their then-new Arrow 4 launch vehicle and their Arrow Lab, a test module derived from the Arrow Transfer Vehicle. Had things gone differently, Arrow Lab, and other modules like it, would’ve formed a space station that mcKerman astronauts would’ve used to conduct research and learn how to live in space. Unfortunately, funding in the post-Münflight era dried up, forcing the Ministry of Space to slow development of their Arrow Crew Vehicle and partner with the Kerman States to build Starlab, the Kerbin Orbiting Station. For the past ten years, the Ministry of Space achieved their goals through their contribution to Starlab including the Pier module, the Beagle Support Module, the Newton Research Module, and numerous resupply flights via their Arrow Transfer Vehicle. But one thing eluded them- a space station of their own. With Starlab nearing the end of its operational life faster than expected and the Kerman States planning on relying on commercial space stations until Nautilus returns to Kerbin and is converted into a space station, the Ministry of Space saw an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. The module in Newton’s payload bay was the first step in reaching their goal. Newton spent a couple of orbits performing automatic system checks before MoSMC began the next phase of the mission. Engineers took the time to transfer propellant into the aft tank to balance the craft for reentry. They noted that by reprogramming the flow priorities, they could avoid the step in the future. After unlocking the RCS propellant tanks on both Newton and its payload and ensuring that the payload had a full electric charge, Guidance put Newton into station keeping mode, and Payload released the contents of the upper stage’s payload bay. Then, using its RCS thrusters, Newton gently dropped away from the new satellite and gave it some room. The satellite, the modest first module of the Space Operations Centre, spread its wings and oriented itself in space. Once its systems check reported nominal, MoSMC cleared Newton to dock with the SOC Node to test both spacecraft’s automated docking capabilities. As expected, Newton had no problems docking to Node One. The brief test validated Newton’s rendezvous and docking capabilities, but it was time to say goodbye to the fledgling station and head home. The freighter parted ways with Node One and calculated a maneuver node to deorbit itself. As it waited for the proper time, Newton stowed its high-gain antenna and solar arrays, closed the docking port shields, turned off the payload bay lights and closed the bay doors. Five minutes before the deorbit burn, it warmed up its aerospike engine and unlocked the flight control surfaces. Three minutes before atmospheric entry, Newton switch its control orientation so that the aerospike engine was now the “front” of the spacecraft. As Newton careened through the atmosphere, the engine quietly expelled propellant to keep it cool as plasma fire engulfed the spaceship. A quick retro-propulsion burn later, the freighter was on track to land back at KSC. With some maneuvering, it aimed at the landing pad and deployed its parachutes. Though it landed on the grass instead of the pad and set a small grass fire, Newton landed safely, ready for its next mission. * “Is that you, Robert,” Dolores asked. “No, mom, this is Adsii Kerman,” Daisy Kerman, Dolores Kerman’s daughter, answered. “She has early onset dementia,” she whispered to Adsii. “I’m sorry,” Adsii said silently. Daisy nodded. Sadly, the researchers in the photo that Adsii found had all passed away, and Dolores- the fellow student alongside Drax- was fairing little better. It took some doing to track her down… “Oh… Okay… You look like Robert,” Dolores said. “I could’ve been a general. I was a general in a past life…” “You would’ve been a great general,” Adsii said, playing along. He changed the subject and showed her a copy of the picture of her younger self alongside a young Drax Kerman and four deceased researchers. “Do you remember when this was taken?” Dolores’ eyes opened wide. “Yes,” she said lucidly. Her mind snapped into sharp focus. “That was before he defaced it.” “He? One of the scientists? Or-“ “Drax,” Dolores finished for him. “Why did he deface the wall?” Dolores winced from the memory. “I can’t- He- he threatened me. if I said anything... He paid me to keep- to keep… I secretly filmed the conversation…” Adsii perked up. “You said you filmed the conversation?” “Yes,” Dolores said sharply. “Do you still have it? The film?” “Stolen… Someone stole it,” Dolores answered. She looked scared, but only for a moment. “It was… was… Robert? Is that you? My Robert is an astronaut, I’ll have you know…” * As Newton completed its mission and Adsii continued his quest, up in orbit, Orbital Dynamics Shipyard was a bustle of activity. First, Refuge’s core modules departed the construction yard with OCTV-2, lined up with Minmus’ orbit, and burned for Kerbin’s second natural satellite. Next, after taking the orbital transfer segment of Seagull, the new station’s fuel tank modules and Finch’s landing system departed and repeated OCTV-2/Refuge’s maneuvers. Finally, OCTV-3/Refuge Habs left the construction yard and begin their journey to the Mint Mün. The three craft had a little more than a week to reach their destination before they could link up for the first time. * A couple of years ago, Orbital Dynamics licensed the 3D printing technology pioneered by the Ministry of Space that was researched from within Starlab’s Newton laboratory module. They expanded upon the idea and created their own system that enabled the space company to create their Shipyard. But they weren’t the only company to license the technology. Dinkelstein Kerman's Construction Emporium also saw potential in the 3D printing technology and licensed it as well. While Orbital Dynamics focused on creating an orbiting shipyard, Dinkelstein turned their attention to terrestrial bases made from local materials. After numerous false-starts and years of annoying bugs, they finally achieved success and rolled out the fruits of their labor. The prototype Worker-C, automated construction rover- a.k.a. Sandcaster- guided itself to the designated spot by the Ministry of Space’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Kerbal Space Center. The robot had a Dinkelstein SC-150 Sandcaster 3D printer, a large, crane-like device capable of producing complete vessels- without the aid of kerbals! The revolutionary invention made it possible to send robotic scouts to other worlds to build bases and other infrastructure ahead of a crewed mission. All mission planners had to do was provide the resources that the Sandcaster needed- or better yet, produce them in-situ. Such a feat would eliminate the need to send hundreds of metric tons of hardware each time the kerbals wanted to build a new base on another world. Had the technology existed before building the First Jool Fleet, the Sandcaster would’ve saved millions of Funds spent on Project Laythe! Worker-C, so named because it was a constructor, maneuvered itself into place and deployed four survey cones via its aft-mounted CD-10 Cone Dispenser. The cones marked where the construction bot intended to produce its first vessel. Then, it deployed its construction arm and verified its operation. Finally, it got to work. It needed three days and change to complete its first project- nobody said that automated printing would be fast- but the mcKermans were patient. * Demonstrating a two-day turnaround, Newton rolled out to the launchpad once again, this time on the second Arrow 6 Booster- Booster 1 was on its way back to KSC. Three hours after launch, Newton docked with the fledgling Space Operations Center. After MoSMC confirmed the hard dock, teleoperators on the ground unlatched Newton’s payload- a Quantum Leap-derived airlock and a Drax Aerospace supplied Payload Maneuvering Vehicle- and flew it out of the payload bay. A short hop later, the airlock and PMV docked to SOC’s nadir port, where it would stay until Node 2 arrived at the station. With KSC shrouded in darkness, MoSMC decided to wait until the next day before bringing Newton home. The craft had no problems performing its deorbit burn, but the freighter experienced abnormal heating on the way down which resulted in its underside structural fairings tearing away. As a result, Newton landed short of KSC proper but still on the space center’s grounds. It was clear that the Arrow 6 Upper Stage needed additional work. * Meanwhile, in orbit, the shipwrights at the Orbital Dynamics Shipyard completed assembly of their latest project: the Orbital Propellant Transfer Vehicle. OPTV-1 backed out of the yard frame and parked itself on the forward-port docking port. Essentially a redesigned Orbital Cargo Transfer Vehicle, the OPTV stretched its tanks and added extra propellant tankage specifically designed to haul propellant from Oasis to the Shipyard or another designated facility. The OPTV was capable of hauling cargo like its OCTV counterpart, but Orbital Dynamics dedicated the OPTV to tanker flights almost exclusively. OPTV-1 was the exception; it would haul some cargo to Oasis before it began its regular supply run between Oasis and the Shipyard. After Willorf added a service port to the Shipyard’s construction frame, the OPTV moved itself over to the new port to make way for new construction. The crew got right to work on their next project: a tank cluster extension for Oasis’ fuel depot. * Back on Kerbin, Sandcaster failed twice to build its first vessel due to KSP driving it into the ground and causing it to explode software errors, but after moving away from the MoS VAB and correcting the issues, Sandcaster built its first craft. Due to its limited resources, Sandcaster had to start small, and its first construction, the Mining Seed, fit within its budget. Aptly named, the Mining Seed was designed to extract metal ore from the local biome and refine it into metal. Sandcaster’s onboard assembly systems could then take that metal and turn it into rocket parts. Once completed, engineers realized that the Mining Seed had no electric charge and charging it from Sandcaster would be problematic. They made a note to alter the design to add some “bootstrap” solar panels and add a grabbing unit to the construction rover. In the meantime, engineers drove out to the test site and gave the Mining Seed a quick charge- just enough for its command functions to activate and deploy its solar arrays and drill. And since it was frowned upon to extract resources on KSC grounds, the engineers loaded the device with metal ore to simulate extraction from the local environment. With its first construction completed, Sandcaster retrieved its survey cones and re-deployed them a short distance away. This time, it began working on a Converter Seed. A modification of the Mining Seed, the Converter Seed, as its name implied, converted one resource into another. In this case, the Seed converted the scrap metal produced when making rocket parts back into metal. Since the Sandcaster prototype lacked storage areas to collect scrap metal, engineers drove out to the test site and installed storage bins to continue their testing. Some field upgrades also sped up the production process, but they still had to wait a couple of days until Sandcaster finished the Converter Seed. As engineers monitored the progress, they realized that creating the Scrap Seed before the Parts Seed would slow down their in-situ production line, so they decided to change the build order for the production Sandcaster. Regardless, once the Scrap Seed was completed and powered up, Sandcaster collected its survey cones once more and re-deployed them again. * The shipwrights at the Orbital Dynamics Shipyard completed work on the extension to Oasis’ fuel depot, re-positioned the Finch tank cluster to the extension, maneuvered OPTV-1 to the back of the tank stack, and began work on their next project. In order to speed things along, Dauntless made four daily tanker flights to the Shipyard to fuel OPTV-1. Once topped off, OPTV-1 departed the Shipyard with its cargo and headed for the Mün. Not long after, shipwrights completed work on OPTV-2. The two Orbital Propellant Transfer Vehicles would cycle between the Shipyard and Oasis once the rest of Orbital Dynamics’ münar infrastructure was upgraded… Three days later, OPTV-1 arrived at Oasis and de-stacked its cargo, then took its place on the depot section to await refueling. It still had a long wait, but hopefully once the polar mining station was upgraded that would soon change. * The commercial space companies weren’t the only ones who were busy in space. KSP Mission Control was treated to a welcome sight as the Laythe Ascent/Descent Vehicle rounded Jool on its way to Laythe. It made a small course correction burn to ensure a low orbit around Laythe when it arrived, and then went back to sleep. A few hours later, it woke up again as it crossed into Laythe’s sphere of influence. On Cuahoc 13, 2003- 3 years, thirty days, and 48 minutes after leaving Kerbin- the Laythe Ascent/Descent Vehicle performed a whopping 4,500 m/sec burn and became the first vessel in the First Jool Fleet to attain orbit around Laythe. As Mission Control cheered, project engineers congratulated themselves for over-engineering the nuclear propulsion sections to account for such huge maneuvers. The LADV settled into a 151.2 km by 260.2 km equatorial orbit. A short burn later, the vessel aligned itself with Laythe’s equator. It was only a matter of time for the rest of the Fleet to follow suit. * The construction bot began working on the Worker-B, an automated rover capable of drilling for resources like metal or and rock and refining the metal ore into metal. It could also perform site surveys to find the best concentrations of resources. While the Sandcaster couldn’t build a Worker-B on its own, the two construction Seeds gave it the extra resources that it needed. Five days later, Worker-B-1 went online. That paved the way for Sandcaster to begin the next phase of its operations. * It took eight days to get there, but OCTV-2 arrived in low Minmus orbit at last. ODMC verified that the transfer vehicle’s engine was shut down successfully before orienting the station and directing the PMV to get to work. The Payload Maneuvering Vehicle’s first task was to move Refuge’s Power Tower to the proper docking port, then relocate the docking pier, and finally perch itself on the airlock’s starboard port, where it waited for its next task. A couple of hours later, OCTV-3/Refuge Habs arrived at the space station. OCTV-3 quickly proceeded to maneuver the two modules into place. Then, after OCTV-2 reoriented itself, Refuge’s propellant tanks and Finch’s landing system arrived. To make room for everything, OCTV-3 transferred its fuel to OCTV-2 so that it could return to Kerbin. Minutes later, OCTV-2 departed Refuge and headed home… Back at Refuge, the landing section and one of the core tanks undocked from Refuge and darted over to the port vacated by OCTV-2. After transferring their propellant into the relocated core tank, the PMV got to work again and repositioned the remaining core tanks. Finally, the PMV moved the OTV service module to its new parking spot before the payload maneuvering vehicle returned to its perch… Finally, as part of their negotiations with KSP to build the modules for Minmus Base, Orbital Dynamics obtained some "bootstrap" refueling flights for their commercial efforts around the Mint Mün. To that end, KSP hired Drax Aerospace- currently the sole provider of propellant from Minmus- to send a tanker to Refuge. A single tanker proved sufficient to refuel Refuge’s mission tanks as well as fill up OCTV-3 for its trip home. Not long after the tanker departed, OCTV-3 headed home as well. At last, Orbital Dynamics’ latest space station was open for business. * After a week of repairs and modifications, the Ministry of Space once again launched their Arrow 6 launch vehicle. This time, it carried the Space Operations Center’s Habitat Module into orbit. Newton docked to the station’s lower docking port to give the PMV enough room to pluck its payload out of the bay and then dock it to Node 1. A day later, Newton departed SOC and headed home. After a 30-minute wait, it performed a deorbit burn, and then coasted for another 5 minutes until it hit the atmosphere. Everything worked out well; the new wing design, coupled with shifting propellant to the nose tank, gave Newton the improved gliding capability that it needed, while additional parachutes softened the landing. As a result, the spacecraft barely missed the landing pad at KSC. With some additional practice programming refinements, the Ministry of Space had no doubt that Newton could make pinpoint landings. * Finally, on Cuahoc 19, 2003, Nautilus (DSEV-01) crossed over into Jool’s sphere of influence, becoming the last vessel in the First Jool Fleet to do so. The ship’s autopilot assessed its situation, verified its position, and calculated a course correction burn to properly aim for Laythe. Three days later, with its crew still slumbering, Nautilus successfully performed its engine burn. After verifying its arrival time, KSC Mission Control set the ship’s timer to wake the crew in 66 days, giving them a week to recover from any adverse effects of cryogenic stasis before entering Laythe’s SOI. It was hard to believe, but their years long journey to Jool was nearly over.

If you use Kerbal Konstructs you can apply a flat ground "decal" to flatten the ground. I did this on Minmus in my save.

I don't recall KSP having the ability to switch RCS modes, I'm afraid. @JadeOfMaar's OPT mod might have landing rockets though. I did at one point have other parts planned, including landing rockets, but life happened... I think it's indeed due to how the game handles drag and shielded parts. There is little that I can do to help with that. I use the Mk-33 a lot in my JNSQ game and while there's a lot of drag, I can still reach orbit and such.

In the part config, find the WBIPrintShop entry, and change printSpeedUSec. Every parameter is commented in the part modules: There's actually quite a bit that you can configure in Sandcastle. Be sure to check out the MaterialsList.cfg file for more things that you can configure:

After watching @EJ_SA's Kraken-powered Grissom stream, I've thought about one more KFS update with a 3.75m drive (based on the existing 2.5m engine) that can pull hundreds of gees to let you go fast through the solar system, to a max of 99.99% of light speed due to relativity limitations. It would be a prototype for what I'd like to do in KSP 2...

These are magic numbers for resource distribution in a biome. What they do is a mystery.

You're welcome! I'm glad I was finally able to figure it out, and fix the EL-Sandcastle issues with the survey cones as well.

*evil squirrel paws *

Unfortunately Pathfinder is limited in what you can do with attaching parts and the game itself. Hence why Pathfinder has supported EL for so long. If KIS doesn’t work then EL can help you make bases wholesale. I hope colonies will work better in KSP 2 and make Pathfinder obsolete.

With Pathfinder, you'll need the Hacienda set up as an omniworks or a Micro ISRU that can convert MetalOre into Metal. I'd also suggest setting up an omniconverter to convert ScrapMetal into Metal. Then you need another converter set up to make RocketParts from Metal. To make vessels, you need to either use the Rangeland pad or use the Spyglass observer module and several stakes from EL. Pathfinder modifies drills so that they'll all harvest whatever resources the local biome has, so you don't need a special drill to dig up MetalOre. With Sandcastle, you need the Sandcaster 3D Printer as well as the CD-10 Cone Dispenser to dispense cones. The Sandcaster can make rocket parts on its own, but can't convert MetalOre or ScrapMetal into Metal. For that you'll need the Smelter. The Sandcaster can build vessels as well as tear them apart. For orbital construction yards, you need the Konstruction Manipulator. It is equivalent to EL's Orbital Dock. In my play game, I just built this prototype: If I made it larger and added drills and a smelter, then it could become a von Neumann probe... But this rig is designed to build "Seed" bases- small automated bases that drill and refine Metal Ore, or remelt Scrap Metal into Metal, or make Rocket Parts, all using Wild Blue Core's Fuel Pump parts to distribute the resources. Once it builds the first Seed bases, then it will move onto larger projects.

Ok, I've verified that: This is the correct release for Pathfinder. You can also find it in CKAN. This is the correct link for Wild Blue Core (Which comes with Sandcastle and is in CKAN). This is the correct link for Sandcastle. (which is also on CKAN).

Happy Chinese New Year! Pathfinder 1.40.0 is now available: Changes - All parts that have Resource Distribution will now also have a Fuel Pump if Wild Blue Core is installed. (NOTE: Wild Blue Core comes with Sandcastle). - All Castillo parts now have a built-in probe core. - Added Sandcastle support to the Castillo Factory. - Added Ability to assign seats and change outfits to all crewed modules when Buffalo 2 is installed. - Fixed issue where the Castillo Depot had crew capacity; it's not supposed to hold crew. - Fixed issue where the Sandcastle and Sand Works templates wouldn't show any parts in their 3D print shops. NOTE: You'll need to update to the latest Sandcastle.

Happy Chinese New Year! Sandcastle 1.1.1 is now available: Changes - The Sandcaster 3D Printer can now recycle vessels, just like the Konstruction Manipulator. - Fixed issue where Sandcastle wouldn't show parts in the print shop window when Sandcastle was added to Pathfinder templates. - Fixed issue where the game would crash when deploying the Survey Cone from the Survey Cone Dispenser. - Fixed odd coloration on deployed survey cones. - Fixed issue where resources were pulled from the entire vessel instead of stage priority flow. Fully automatic base construction is finally working as it should.

At least the game doesn't crash when you deploy multiple survey cones now... The caveat currently is that you have to manually rename the stakes in order to get all of them in sync in order to have vessels built at the center of the group of cones. I'm working on that... Technically this is a Sandcastle fix.

Except for the Flamingos, Buffalo 2 has a seat switcher. I'll add it to the next update.

EL is optional in Sandcastle but it doesn’t support Simple Construction’s way of doing things.

If the game is as moddable as the devs claim then you could create a mod that adds money to the game. Personally I find not having Funds an intriguing idea. If Science was open ended then I could see trading in Science to unlock your tech nodes. If Science is finite and tech trees are per player then competition is going to be interesting.