Angelo Kerman

Epilogue “Sandcaster was hardwired so that it could only create the robots that it needed to build Duna Base along with the base itself," Tobias said. “Why, exactly,” Dudmon asked “To avoid it becoming a Berserker.” “A what?” “A Berserker,” Tobias repeated. He saw Dudmon’s confused look. “A Berserker is a malignant version of a Neumann vonKerman Probe...” - Flight of The Endeavour, Chapter 4 As Kopernicus (DSEV-02) sped away from Duna and coasted back to Kerbin, the crew remained oblivious thanks to being tucked away in cryostasis. Duna Base remained on the surface and devoid of any occupants. When its ecosystem matured in a year, the next crew would have plenty to eat. But for now, the base’s computer systems kept the lights dim and the temperature comfortable and ready for the next visitors. Outside, the refitted Sandcaster sat idle, ready for its next print job. Mission Control was already drawing up plans for a tracking station/radio telescope array. Once they had the plans finalized in a few months, they’d instruct the Sandcaster, freed from its hardwired limitations, to begin building the new facilities. But several months too early, unbeknownst to Mission Control, the Sandcaster woke up. And it began printing… +++ Thanks for reading Flight of the Endeavour! I hope you had as much fun reading about my exploits on Duna as I had making them and writing about them. My JNSQ journey continues in… The Last Münflight.

Chapter 15 Tomorrow was the big day, the day that they’d either soar or crash and burn. Dudmon could feel the tension in the crew- and himself- but they were making the best of it by making last minute adjustments here and there, last minute experiments, and so on. But for Dudmon, he didn’t have much else to do. He’d practiced simulated launches in the Endevour so many times, he could do it in his sleep. He’d availed himself of the Castillo’s arboretum for countless hours, toured the factory, the two automated drills, the science observatory, and even the nuclear plant. There just wasn’t much else to do. But there was one other thing that he could do: grab a Duna stone for Ribler’s family back home. He knew that Ribler had promised his son that he’d bring back a rock from the Rusty Planet, and with his death so many months ago, he couldn’t fulfill his promise. So, Dudmon took it upon himself to get a Duna stone. After leaving Jonas in charge, Dudmon stepped outside and hopped into Buffalo Rover 2. Seeing it in good condition, he retracted the ladders and disengaged the parking brake. Then he set out in search of a suitable stone. He stopped by one of the meteor remnants scattered around Knights Landing and activated the rover’s scanning arm. It collected some science, but it just wasn’t the kind of rock that he was looking for, so off he went looking for another candidate. His next attempt looked more or less like the previous rock, so he didn’t even bother to stop. Dudmon just kept driving, looking over the horizon for the next possibility. He appreciated the quiet time alone as he conducted his search, though he kept within site of Duna Base just in case something happened. He came across a small cluster of “Duna Berries” that looked promising, and even took a complementary soil sample- it had traces of water- but no luck finding the right rock. Nonetheless, Dudmon chiseled some sample berries, pocketed them, and kept going… Finally, just when he was about to give up- he envied the persistence of his science team- Dudmon found what he was looking for. He climbed up onto the rock, chiseled away a Duna Stone, and pocketed it for later. He took his time driving the nearly 5 km back to Duna Base. Before stepping back inside, Dudmon detoured over to Endeavour to carefully pack away the rock samples. He wanted to ensure that they weren’t forgotten. * The next morning, the crew had their last breakfast on Duna, put on their spacesuits, and stepped onto the surface one last time. The crew silently gathered at Ribler’s grave to say their goodbyes to their fallen comrade. Each member of the crew gave a short speech, or reflected on his or her time with Ribler, or both. Finally, Dudmon concluded his speech. “We’re going to miss you, Ribler,” Dudmon said, choking back tears, “but we know that you’d have been happy with what we’ve done with the place. And don’t you worry, I’ll get this Duna Stone back to your son. I Promise. Before we go, I have one more duty to perform. As commander of the Duna Base Expedition 1, I hereby declare that Duna Base shall be henceforth known as Ribler’s Refuge. Mission Control has already approved the name change.” The crew cheered the announcement, said their final goodbyes, and proceeded to the Endeavour… As they approached the ladder, Dudmon tried repeatedly to jump up and grab it. To his chagrin, he couldn’t! Tobias vonKerman chuckled, and then promptly ran over to the mobile crane that he and his engineers built, grabbed one of the jack lifts, dropped it on the ground, and triggered the extension spring. Then he helped each of his crewmates up onto the lift and watched them climb up the ladder. Finally, Tobias climbed the makeshift platform and grabbed onto the ladder himself. One at a time, the astronauts climbed up the ladder and boarded their ride into orbit… “Ok, master switch on, MPU on, power is online,” Dudmon said, going through his checklist. “Let’s go around the horn… Life support?” “Life support is go,” Emma vonKerman answered. She sat in the copilot’s seat. “E.C.?” “Electric Charge is at 2400 and steady.” “Prop?” “Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer at 100% capacity,” Emma responded. “Monoprop?” “61% and steady,” she answered. Dudmon didn’t like that, but all their attempts to patch the leaks had still resulted in a slow leak somewhere. He continued his checklist. “Fresh Air and Snacks?” “Both at 100%” “Always good to pack your snacks,” Ferwin mused. Dudmon grunted a response. “Ok, retract the ladders.” Emma pressed some switches on the console. “Ladders retracted and locked,” she said a few seconds later. “Ok, cycling engine hydraulics,” Dudmon said. The flight computer ran a program to wiggle the engine bell, and it responded as expected. “Emma, check the staging,” he called out. Emma called up the staging program. “Engine at Stage 1, gear separators in Stage 0,” she confirmed. “Acknowledged,” Dudmon said simply. He was mentally gearing up to fly their home-built craft. “SAS on. MechJeb disabled, quick save/restore off. Engine armed…” He paused for a moment. Whatever happens, happens, he thought to himself. “Crew, it’s been a pleasure exploring Duna with you,” he said. “Let’s go to space. Emma, start the countdown.” “10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… Ignition sequence start… 3… 2… 1…” “Liftoff! We’re on our way,” Dudmon said. “We’ve cleared the crane,” Emma said quickly. “Rolling right to zero niner zero,” Dudmon reported. “Commencing pitch-over maneuver.” “We’re headed in the right direction,” Emma said, smiling. “Altitude 2635 and climbing, velocity 186.7 and climbing.” “Pitching over to 45 degrees,” Dudmon called out. “Trajectory looking good, Dudmon. Zero AOA… Passing 10,000 meters…” “Jettison the landing gear.” Emma flipped the arm switch, then pressed the fire button. With a loud and satisfying clunk, the makeshift landing gear jetted away from the Endeavour’s body. There was no going back, they were at the point of no return. “Landing gear jettisoned,” Emma confirmed. “Altitude 13,180, velocity 331.6. Apo is 19.6 kilometers and rising. Hey, the navigation lights finally came on,” she said, chuckling. “One minute to atmospheric exit,” Dudmon said. “Apo is 100.2 kilometers, velocity is 1,110.8, altitude is 48,745,” Emma called out. “Ok, engine stop,” Dudmon responded. He waited patiently for Endeavour to coast above the atmosphere, and then plotted a circularization burn. “Time to Apoapsis?” “Three minutes, thirty seconds,” Emma said. It took a few tries to get the orbit plotted. “Got it,” Dudmon finally said. “Burn in… 55 seconds.” Nearly a minute and 452.1 m/sec of delta-v later, Endeavour was in a 94.9km by 106.3km orbit! Dudmon breathed a sigh of relief. “Deploy the high gain antennas and solar arrays,” he commanded. Emma tried to comply, even cycling through the sequences three times before giving up. “High gain antennas and solar arrays are non-responsive,” she said, disappointingly. Endeavour had to rely on the OX-STAT solar panels that they’d bolted onto the sides as well as the fuel cells. “Alright, I guess that’s what we get. Let’s match planes with Kopernicus,” Dudmon said. Then the gyros on the Arrow 5 Upper Stage’s instrument unit failed. “Ugh,” is all Emma could say. “Switching to backup…” “I’m only getting about 10% authority from the Estonian gyros,” Dudmon noted. “Sorry, Commander, couldn’t be helped,” Tobias vonKerman said from the back seat. “It’s either that or let them break too…” “Ok, I’ll work with it. Activating RCS…” The crew could hear the loud banks of the RCS motors as Dudmon yawed and pitched Endeavour until it lined up with the navball’s maneuver reticle. Fifty seconds later, Endeavour made a 153.5 m/sec plane change maneuver to bring it into alignment with Kopernicus. Then another alarm went off. “Estonian RCS thruster quads disabled and in Safe Mode,” Emma said nervously. “We still have the AUS RCS thrusters and the 5-way Verniers,” Dudmon responded, trying to reassure the crew- and himself. He plotted an orbital interception burn, playing with the numbers, until he got something that would place Endeavour about 1.3 km away. Good enough, he thought to himself. “Ok, crew, we have four hours and forty-five minutes until the next maneuver burn…” Two hours of waiting later, the starboard fuel cell on the Arrow 5 Upper Stage failed and took out the starboard Z-100 rechargeable battery packs along with it. Jonas vonKerman, Calbro mcKerman, Ferwin Kerman, and Raald mcKerman were all stressed out at this point. Even Emma vonKerman was getting stressed. Only Tobias and Dudmon were keeping their cool. On time, Endeavour executed its 48.5 m/sec burn, but due to some maneuvering errors, their closest approach to Kopernicus grew to 3.8km. Six and a half minutes later, Dudmon made a small correction burn that would place Endeavour just 800 meters away. “Aux Tank 1 is leaking,” Tobias said, taking Emma’s place. “I think the Verniers that we installed are causing problems.” “Shut them down and seal the transfer valves,” Dudmon said simply. Endeavour had to rely upon its slowly leaking monopropellant thrusters for the remainder of her journey. Dudmon tried to not think about how Endeavour’s systems were failing… A few seconds after the correction burn, Aux Tank 2’s transfer valves slammed shut on their own. Tobias ran through the diagnostics but couldn’t find anything wrong. All his attempts to reopen them had failed. “Main tank has 558 m/sec of delta-v in it,” he said, running the numbers, “enough to make the rendezvous.” They would know in another 27 minutes… A few minutes before Intersect 1, Endeavour’s portside fuel cell failed, taking the portside batteries with it. Tobias shut down non-essential systems, though the navigation lights remained stubbornly on. “At least the life support is solid,” he quipped. Fourteen minutes later, the home-built SSTO matched velocities with Kopernicus. “I see it, visual contact,” Dudmon said. He oriented Endeavour towards Kopernicus and made a short burn towards it. A minute later, he parked the ship next to their ride home. Dudmon silently noted that the protective endcap of the ventral cryopod was missing due to KSP wigging out over autostruts… Since Kopernicus’ nose had the older Mk1 docking port and Endeavour had the newer Mk2 design, he selected the forward-portside docking port on Kopernicus’ greenhouse module. He had to be very conservative with his RCS thrusts given how little monopropellant remained. Next, he shut down the Fulcrum engine, knowing full well that it would never start again. But it didn’t matter, they only had a few dozen meters to cross. “Docking shield open,” Tobias said, confirming that the three petals on the new docking port opened as expected. With just a few more meters to go, Dudmon yawed Endeavour to the right as it neared the docking port. Within seconds, Endeavour docked with DSEV-02. Given the ailing spacecraft’s condition, the crew quickly boarded Kopernicus, turning on the lights and waking it up from its slumber. With that done, Dudmon turned off the lights in Endeavour and put it into standby mode before exiting the craft and closing its hatch. Then, from Kopernicus’ side of the connection, he closed the hatch and undocked their ride into orbit. Residual air in the vestibule served to separate the two craft. “Goodbye, Endeavour, we thank you,” Dudmon said as their home-built craft slowly sailed away… Two weeks later, on Jool 22, 2006, after the crew relaxed and gardened to reduce their stress, and Tobias had a chance to attach some much-needed struts, Dudmon once again sat in DSEV-02’s cockpit and prepared Kopernicus for her departure burn. Right on schedule, her atomic rocket roared to life and provided the 882 m/sec needed to escape the Rusty Planet’s gravity well. Two and a half days later, the ship exited Duna’s sphere of influence. When it became time to bed down in cryogenic slumber, the vonKerman engineers- Tobias, Jonas, and Emma- insisted, no, demanded, that they be the ones to take the damaged cryopod. They insisted that despite the damage, it was fully operational, and they trusted vonKerman engineering to get them home safely. After what he witnessed them accomplished on Duna, Dudmon wasn’t going to argue with them. The vonKermans were the undisputed masters of EVA engineering. One by one, his crew went into cryosleep for the long journey home. Then only Dudmon was awake, but not for long. He looked around, thinking about all that they’d accomplished… …They survived a hard landing… …They built the Endeavour from salvage… …They built the Buffabus to embark on the longest off-world “road trip” in history… …And they discovered incredible evidence that the ancient Kermantians had somehow reached Duna thousands of years before modern society did… Dudmon tapped the bulkhead of his cryopod. It was hard to believe that the ship had been state of the art when they left Kerbin orbit, but it was already obsolete before its return. He hoped that Kopernicus would become a museum ship when they returned to Kerbin, but her fate was uncertain. And it was up to someone else to decide. All he knew was that after a long career starting with Münflight and continuing through the Shuttle Era, he was ready to retire- and he was sure that there were those in the Ministry of Space that would ensure that he retired after all the antics that Duna Base Expedition 1 had pulled. Then again, the ISC needed experienced commanders for their new Deep Space Exploration Vessels… “See you in a few months,” Dudmon said finally before triggering the hibernation sequence. The door, and this chapter in his career, slid closed…

And behind the scenes, the Newton becomes a DSEV training vessel:

Interlude: Discovery Leaves Spacedock In just a few days, Endeavour, the makeshift launch vehicle would make its attempt to reach Duna orbit. In the meantime, with Orbital Dynamics’ Mk33 booked and Drax Aerospace’s OV-300 series suffering severe, uncontrollable rolling, the ISC chose to launch the crew of Discovery on one of the mcKerman Kingdom’s Arrow 6 launch vehicles. The crew- the very same ones who evaluated the two DSX prototypes- plus two rookie astronauts boarded the Arrow 6’s passenger module without fanfare and launched into orbit just before sundown. Two hours later, A6US-5 docked with Magic Boulder Shipyard, where the crew thanked the shipwrights for all their hard work before boarding the SCV Discovery. The crew stowed their personal effects before they got to work powering up the ship, turning on the lights, and unlocking resource stores in preparation for launch. Before Samny could take her station, Hanse beat her to it and sat in the helmsman’s chair. Hensen, sitting in the other piloting chair, gave him a puzzled look. So did Samny. “I’m driving,” Hanse said by way of explanation. "Captain's prerogative..." He looked at Samny and then pointed to the center chair. “Take us out, XO,” he smiled and said. Samny just shrugged and took the captain’s chair. Technically, ISC rules only allowed Rank 4 astronauts to command a Deep Space Exploration Vessel, but there was a problem with that- nobody had that level of experience! Both Hanse and Samny were Rank 3, experienced enough to be second in command, and would qualify for Rank 4 by the time that they arrived at Jool. In the meantime, the ISC had to waive their experience requirements for the first few missions until their Astronaut Corps had enough members to meet their rules. “Blue Alert,” Samny ordered as she took the chair. An old mcKerman Navy tradition, Blue Alert was used whenever a ship entered a harbor to dock or when it left. It was also used during secure communications since ships didn’t enter or leave the docks very often. And in typical bureaucratic fashion, the ISC added other situations that qualified for Blue Alert as well… “Blue Alert, aye,” Hanse responded. “Helm, arm RCS thrusters,” Samny directed. “RCS thrusters armed,” Hensen said. “Richny, signal to Magic Boulder that we’re ready to depart.” “The Harbormaster says we’re cleared to depart,” Richny answered a few seconds later, “and ‘fair gravity waves’ too.” “Helm, release all hard locks and undock the ship,” Samny ordered. With a satisfying clunk, the Discovery unlatched from her mooring. For the first time, she was flying on her own. “Helm, all back 0.5 meters per second,” Samny said. Throughout the ship, the crew could hear the RCS motors fire as Discovery slowly backed out of the yard. “Helm answering all back 0.5 meters per second,” Hanse responded. Several seconds per frame later, DSEV-03 majestically pulled away from the shipyard, put some space between herself and the asteroid, and aimed prograde. “We’re free and clear to navigate,” Hanse said not long after. “Very well. Helm, power up the main engines and make orbit for 500 kilometers.” “Powering up the main engines and making orbit for 500 kilometers, aye,” Hanse answered. A half hour later, SCV Discovery settled into a 500-kilometer-high orbit where she’d stay until the Jool window opened and she could begin her journey…

It's a value by how much consumption is reduced. So a value of 99.99 means that the consumption rate is reduced by 99.99%. For instance, on the S-3 "Star Frontier" Warp Engine, it consumes 0.01 units of Graviolioum per second. With the interstellarResourceConsumptionModifier set to 10, you'd expect that the consumption rate multiplier would be 1 - (10/100) = 0.9, and that's what I see. So, in interstellar space, the Star Frontier should consume 0.01 * 0.9 = 0.009 units/sec of Graviolium. The problem I'm running into is floating point rounding; that 0.01 units is showing up as 0.009999999.... and with a 10% reduction, it gives a consumption rate of 0.008999991.... Effectively, there's no difference with a 10% reduction due to floating point errors. I tried the other end of the spectrum, and set interstellarResourceConsumptionModifier to 90. Once I figured out that Blueshift wasn't properly reading the interstellarResourceConsumptionModifier override, I quickly fixed that and verified that the 90% reduction is working. Anyway, the fix is here, and the new default reduction is 25%.

Yeah, it looks like the consumption multiplier isn't being computed properly. I've got a fix in progress.

Those ships look great!

@kurgut Those stations look great! Today I recreated a spacecraft from my old mission report, When We Left Kerbin. First, here's the original: This ship, Atlantis (DSEV-05), was built in KSP 1.1.1 and for stock scale, so I made some small updates to reflect the latest KSP 1 and all the mods that I use. Surpisingly, I didn't need to update the delta-v since it was more than enough even in JNSQ (the original save was in stock scale). Here's the updated Atlantis leaving Kerbin orbit: She's nearly the same as the original, but I changed out the old DSEV fuel tanks for nicer ones from Restock, and added extra radiators for the nuclear saltwater engines. Then, I added four smaller tanks holding rocket parts for construction work at its destination. I also replaced the kermanned payload maneuvering vehicles with automated ones since I don't have some of the custom parts that I made during that save. I also replaced the conic landers with similar designs from my current save. Finally, I swapped out the small hab module aft of the centrifuge with a 3D printing lab. Anyway, nearly 3 years later, Atlantis is nearing her destination: And at last, her braking burn in low Laythe orbit to circularize: Atlantis is in orbit now... but in which save...?

Yes, this is my Wild Blue Suits mod. You can find it here (It's not on CKAN since I made these largely for my own use). Fair warning, it's pretty rough. It has my older WBI suits, the business suits, TOS-style suits, and TWOK-style suits. I recreated the TOS-style suits for Kerfbleet: A Jool Odyssey after the originals got lost (I don't know who made them), but I removed all the Kerbfleet references since that mission report is dead and I didn't want the suits to go to waste. The mod is set up so that you can delete the folders of suits that you don't want. It doesn't include the ISC suits that I just made as those are specific to my mission report.

Interlude: New Uniforms A few weeks ago... Gene Kerman looked at the image on the screen behind him, and then at the kerbals assembled beside him. They all wore the brand-new International Space Consortium Duty Uniform depicted on the screen, with slight variations depending upon division and experience level. He had to admit, their outfits looked spiffy. He continued his speech. “These brave astronauts represent the next generation of space explorers that will take kerbalkin farther than we’ve ever gone before. But before I introduce the first crew of the SCV Discovery, which is nearing completion, I’d like you to take a moment to notice that while they originate from the many different space agencies that comprise the International Space Consortium, they all wear the same uniform. The uniform is a symbol signifying that the modern nations of Kerbin, like the ancient Kermantians before us, stand united in our purpose to explore what lies beyond our skies. “But more than just a symbol, these duty uniforms are the most advanced spacesuits ever devised…” --- ISC isn’t a military organization, so its ranks are compacted. Initially, there are only three ranks: Cadet Astronaut (experience level 0), Junior Astronaut (experience level 1-3), and Senior Astronaut (experience level 4-5). That’s enough to handle ship crews of a dozen or less (Deep Space Exploration Vessels have a crew of 12). The ISC is already considering command ranks as crew sizes and the ISC exploration vessel numbers inevitably increase, but they’re only proposals. For now, Senior Astronauts with a level-4 experience level are eligible to command a DSEV.

I've been working on some new suits for my International Space Consortium (a global space exploration organization akin to Starfleet). First is a prototype of the uniform (Thermal Chaps not shown): Cadet Uniform: Junior ranks: Senior Ranks: Flag ranks. Commander requires minimum experience level of 4, Captain requires a minimum experience level of 5:

Well, don't know what's going on then. I installed REX only and latest Blueshift and I'm interplanetary

Did you edit the settings.cfg file in Blueshift so that it has this: // Stock solar system LAST_PLANET:NEEDS[!JNSQ] { // Name of the last planet. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! // name = Eeloo name = Plock // Name of the star that the planet orbits. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! starName = Sun }

Excellent new modular tank designs that enable you to create more advance spacecraft! I could see you using those radial tanks as drop tanks for extended missions to, say, Duna and beyond. Bravo!

Interlude: The Discovery This mission report is almost at the end, but I'm already planning the next one. In the meantime... With the excitement on Duna almost over- for now- the crew of Duna Base Expedition 1 settled into their new routine of building out more of Duna Base, processing the data from their historic land trip, and training for their upcoming launch. Over the next few months, their daily reports were informative but, frankly, boring. At least in Kerbin orbit, things were more interesting: Magic Boulder Shipyard got to work building the SCV Discovery. The core components of DSEV-03 consisted of the command module, followed by the habitat ring. Yard workers carefully built both components- Orbital Dynamics was responsible for building all the components for the lead ship in the Discovery-class- and assembled them in the Portside Yard. Then they filled all the resource bins and locked them until the ship was ready to launch. After that, they started building the next set of components. Except for the propulsion module, everything aft of the habitat ring was optional and mission specific. For her maiden flight, the Space Consortium Vessel Discovery would be fitted with a Shuttlepod Hangar to deliver two Shuttlepods to Laythe Base. Aft of the hangar, crews mounted a Type 1 Cargo Rack, followed by Liquids Container Module. Crews filled its tanks with propellium for the ship’s reaction control system- gravitic RCS “thrusters” for a ship the size of the Discovery-class were still in development, so DSEV-03 and likely DSEV-04 would need a refit once I make the part the new system became available. Finally, they built and mounted the ship’s Gravitic Propulsion Module, filled its stores of graviolium and xenon gas, and locked the tanks until the ship’s maiden flight. Except for the Shuttlepod Hangar, the International Space Consortium considered the modules comprising the ship’s keel as the standard layout for the Discovery-class. They provided the most versatility given the ISC’s current needs. But while the shipyard completed the ship’s initial configuration, they had more work to do… DSEV-03 had a few things to haul to Laythe to expand the kerbal presence there. First, the crews attached a pair of docking extension tunnels to the Type 1 Cargo Module. Next, they docked two large Drop Pods to the tunnels. Designed specifically for a one-way journey to Laythe’s surface, the Drop Pod landed large amounts of cargo and then shot away from its payload to dispose of itself. In this case, one drop pod carried a Sandcaster 3D printer while the other one had a submarine for exploring Laythe’s oceans. Once yard workers secured the two Drop Pods, they began docking additional modules to the ship. The starboard side of the ship received an Orbital Outpost designed and built by Drax Aerospace as a competitor to the Oasis-class station. It had six docking ports, a habitat cabin for up to 4 kerbals, a small laboratory, and a storage area. Its mid-section had a pair of solar arrays, but they’d be useless as Laythe orbited the dark side of Jool, so ISC ordered a pair of SAFER nuclear reactors and mounted them to the Outpost’s port and starboard docking ports. With that completed, workers mounted another docking extension tunnel, and then docked and secured an Orbital Dynamics Homestead Mk 4 station module to Discovery’s portside. When combined with the Orbital Outpost, the two station modules would form the core of Laythe Station. Finally, the Cargo Module gained a pair of half-sized Standard Shipping Containers that held graviolium and fusion pellets, along with a prototype Stardust satellite and a GPMV. While the containers would stay at Laythe Station, Stardust and the GPMV would cruise around Jool orbit and attempt to find the Green Giant's graviolium belt- if it had one. At last, the SCV Discovery (DSEV-03) was fully assembled and ready for its maiden flight- but it would have to wait a couple of weeks for the launch window to open, and it was time for Duna Base Expedition 1 to return to Kopernicus...

@Rakete Here is my configuration with OPM and REX: // Stock solar system LAST_PLANET:NEEDS[!JNSQ] { // Name of the last planet. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! // name = Eeloo name = Plock // Name of the star that the planet orbits. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! starName = Sun } Here is where I am: Here is my location: Make sure that in settings.cfg, you set up the LAST_PLANET entry for Plock. Now, here is the stock solar system, no Kopernicus, OPM, or REX: LAST_PLANET:NEEDS[!JNSQ] { // Name of the last planet. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! name = Eeloo // Name of the star that the planet orbits. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! starName = Sun } Here's where I am: Here's my status: I haven't tried your edited rex configurations, this is with the out-of-the-box mods for OPM and REX. If you're still experiencing issues with interplanetary/interstellar space after changing the LAST_PLANET config, then the fault might be in your edited config file.

In my cases, I'm interplanetary. Not seeing Interstellar when between, say, Kerbin and Duna.

Also verified that Blueshift is correctly identifying intersteller space with OPM and REX installed (at stock scale) In both of my test cases, Blueshift is correctly identifying interplanetary space, so I'm not sure why you're having trouble. As soon as I leave Kerbin's SOI, I'm interplanetary, and once I'm sufficiently out past Plock, I go interstellar.

I've verified that Blueshift is correctly identifying interstellar space with OPM installed and setting the last planet as Plock. E.G. LAST_PLANET:NEEDS[!JNSQ] { // Name of the last planet. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! // name = Eeloo name = Plock // Name of the star that the planet orbits. // This is the name of the celestial body, NOT the display name! starName = Sun } works.

Are you sure Real Exoplanets works with the stock solar system? The mod description seems to indicate that it's for Real Solar System.

Yeah, that should be DSEV 3.30.0. I fixed the release.

Chapter 14 Although it felt like several long months, Emma vonKerman, Ferwin Kerman, and Calbro mcKerman had spent just over eighty days driving the Buffabus to various “anomaly” sites on Duna. It was difficult to adjust to the relatively cramped quarters at first, but the trio eventually fell into a routine that worked for all of them as they partook in the longest offworld “road trip” in the history of kerbalkin. By the end of their journey, they drove nearly two thousand kilometers- easily surpassing Bill and Jeb’s famous driving record on the Mün. “When Jeb wakes up, he’s going to be mad,” Dudmon Kerman commented. Cheers went up in the Buffabus and at Duna Base as the trio triumphantly returned to Knights Landing. Despite its wear and tear in the harsh and dusty environment, the Buffabus endured the long trip as well as its crew did. Emma took a “victory lap” around the base before parking it near one of the engineering building’s airlocks. She hooked up an umbilical hose to the Buffabus as the rest of the team headed inside. “Welcome back,” Dudmon shouted as everyone stretched their legs in the habitat building’s hydroponics garden. When the trio left, the space had been barren. Now it had grass, some fake plastic trees, and even a couple of park benches! “We printed the trees up to remind us of home,” Raald mcKerman said. “They’re hollow inside and have lights to help the seeds grow. We’ll take them down before we leave to give room for the real trees to grow. They should be fully grown in a few years.” “We’ve been building out the insides of Duna Base since you guys left,” Dudmon said. "We have more printers in the engineering building, the individual crew quarters in the hab are done, and even the labs are ready to go- minus the stuff we can’t make on Duna, of course. We also worked with Mission Control to devise a bypass to the Sandcaster’s hardwired memory core. We’ll be able to print up just about everything we need with enough resources once we install the bypass. As soon as you guys get settled in, we’ll get to work on that.” “What will you build next,” Emma asked. Dudmon grinned. “We’ve been watching you guys have all the fun exploring the planet while we’ve been sitting here building out the base,” he began. “But when you guys were ordered home, Tobias pointed out that there were a couple of anomalies on your list that you wouldn’t get to. So in between jobs, He and Jonas designed a new lander and flyer to go hunt for them.” “Lander? You can print engines now,” Emma asked. “No,” Dudmon admitted, “that would take a complete rewrite of the software just to print the tools that we’d need. But we have two working Fulcrums that need something to do.” * The commercial success of Orbital Dynamics’ gravitic engine hinged upon finding multiple sources of graviolium, and many companies were trying to figure out which asteroids might contain more of the stuff, and whether veins of the exotic matter existed on celestial bodies. In the vonKerman Republic, engineers at Das Kosmos, the semi-civilian supplier of the VKR’s rocketry, investigated a different approach in hopes of cornering the graviolium market. Their research into the exotic matter suggested that dust-form graviolium may exist within the magnetic fields of celestial bodies like Kerbin and Jool. If that was indeed the case, then it could be collected-albeit slowly. The day’s launch was intended to test that theory. The Fleigenross rocket lept off the pad without its side boosters. It didn’t need them given the mass of the payload. Within a few minutes, the first stage expended its propellant and dropped away to perform its automated landing sequence, and the second stage continued its climb into orbit. It almost ran out of propellant as it lofted its payload into a 511.7 km by 512.1 km orbit. Once the new craft reached the dayside of Kerbin, the upper stage dropped off its client and lit its engine one last time for a destructive reentry. Soon after, the client satellite deployed three large solar arrays and then unfurled several hexagonal collectors. The collectors contained dozens of aerogel cells that Das Kosmos hoped would collect graviolium dust. The satellite even had a storage container ready to hold collected graviolium dust and a standard docking port for visiting spacecraft to transport the graviolium elsewhere. The satellite, known as Stardust 1, was open for business. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The engineers poured over the data, looking for faults. The collector cells were in working order, the transfer system checked out, and the storage tanks were in good working order. The problem was that there was no graviolium to be found. There was only one thing left to try… Das Kosmos convinced the VKR to let them borrow the Raumschlepper, Drakken Palast’s space tug that was used to transport kerbals and cargo to and from Minmus. The venerable aerobraking space tug departed the station- leaving its passenger module behind, and made its way over to Stardust 1, arriving an hour and a half later. It had no trouble docking with Stardust. Once the satellite retracted its solar arrays and its collectors, it was ready to move. The problem was where to go; was it too high? Too low? The vonKermans didn’t know. For their first attempt, they decided to drop Stardust’s periapsis down to 87 km- just above Kerbin’s atmosphere. If that failed to produce results, then they would raise the apoapsis to 2,000 km, and see what they could find. If that too, failed to produce results, they’d try once more at 5,000 km. Raumschlepper executed the burn to lower its orbit, dragging Stardust 1 along with it. After the burn was completed, the graviolium satellite re-deployed its solar arrays and collector. Kontrol monitored the graviolium detector all the way down to periapsis. They found nothing. Going for broke, Kontrol commanded Raumschlepper to drag its client satellite all the way up to 5,000 km, and then went fishing. As the tug and satellite crossed 1,300 km, Stardust’s graviolium detector started picking up whiffs of dust. That excited Kontrol, but their hopes faded as the combined spacecraft flew past 2,000 km. It appeared that Kerbin did indeed have a “graviolium belt” but it was very slim. At apoapsis, Raumschlepper increased its periapsis to 1,400 km. Then, as Kontrol monitored the readings, they realized that the best concentration of graviolium existed at about 1,500 km. “We’re collecting 0.000022 units of graviolium per second,” Amber vonKerman said, confirming her readings. Though successfully testing their theory, the rate of graviolium collection- almost one unit per day- meant that it could take months to obtain viable amounts of the exotic matter. In Kerbin orbit, graviolium dust wasn’t commercially viable without deploying large numbers of collectors. But out in Jool orbit, they might have better luck. In the meantime, Raumschlepper disengaged from Stardust 1, performed a plane change maneuver, and returned to Drakken Palast- nearly out of propellant- two hours later. * Back at Duna, the vonKermans finished modifying the Sandcastle printer and put the finishing touches on their prototype Duna Drone. Given the difficulties over the years of flying aircraft in Duna’s atmosphere, they were taking no chances with wasting their precious rocket engines on a design that simply couldn’t fly. Tobias wanted to ensure that they had a working design before building a lander around it. The first attempt flat out didn’t work. At 410 kg, the drone was simply too heavy for its 4 propellers to handle. Disappointed, Jonas took the drone back inside and dismantled it. He rebuilt the drone to double its rotors, and that worked. The next version of the drone lifted off Duna’s surface and hovered around successfully! With a couple of modifications, it would be ready to be fitted to a lander… With the Sandcaster working around the clock, Jonas modified the drone to finish its construction, and the team mounted it inside the printed launch vehicle. “It can’t reach orbit,” Jonas pointed out, “but it has enough delta-v to make a hop to an anomaly.” The first location, dubbed Lem’s Knoll, was approximately 818 km away. The engineers mounted one of the salvaged Fulcrum engines to the rocket, fueled it, and sent it on its way. The unnamed rocket reached an altitude of 228 km and jettisoned its payload fairings before plunging back through the thin atmosphere on its way down. Nobody was sure if the plan would work- if it would have enough delta-v to slow down or not. But the good news is that if nothing else, it proved that the Fulcrum engines still worked. The landing burn began and just as immediately flamed out after running out of propellant. The rocket slammed into the desert floor, but the landing gear absorbed the hard landing. Then it bounced a couple of times before resting on its side, intact. Luckily, clever use of the gyros and landing gear got the craft upright again. Once everything settled, the team took stock of the situation; they landed 7.3 km from their desired landing site. And after final checks, Duna Drone 1 powered up its fuel cell and lifted off of its transportation. A half-hour later, Duna Drone 1 landed next to its quarry- yet another stone arch. The anomaly was the original target of Duna Gravity Probe 5, but it never made it to the site due to the poor navigation technology at the time. Knowing that they’d discover little about the stone arch, the DBE-1 team decided to try and locate the old probe. It didn’t take long for Duna Drone 1 to find the probe. The exploration team noted the location of the probe- just 7.5 km from its intended landing site- and tried for one last location… It took another hour and a half, but the helicopter probe finally found its last target, resting in one of Duna’s many craters, and getting windblown by a powerful windstorm. “You can see the vortices of dust coming off of the RCS ports,” Ferwin noted. The cracked hull of the very first Estonian Lander laid partially buried in the Duna sand. It crashed into the crater nearly six years ago when its main chutes failed to open. The useless wreck was nothing more than a footnote in history now, but even still, it served as a reminder of the failed Estonian design that cost the life of Ribler mcKerman. With no other artifacts relatively nearby to explore, the Duna Base science team quietly shut down each of the drone’s electric propellers. Duna Drone 1’s mission came to an end, resting next to the wrecked spacecraft. * With one Fulcrum left, there was another anomaly that proved to be well out of reach for either the Dunabus or the Duna Drone and its current rocket transport. The problem was how to reach it, and the only solution was to add additional tanks to the current design to reach the distant site. The engineers elected to spread out the rocket by adding side-mounted drop tanks. A week later, the new delivery vehicle and Duna Drone was completed. The vonKermans carefully dragged the launch vehicle over to where they could install the last available Fulcrum engine and fuel it for launch. At last, it was ready to fly… Tobias vonKerman gave the Duna Drone 2 a salute before the trio of engineers went back inside for the launch. Site 04-9 was about 1,608 km away from Duna Base. The countdown proceeded normally, and Duna Drone 2 lifted off the desert floor without incident. It had some issues with its trajectory, but a few course corrections got it back on track. Mostly… “Dee Dee 2 is overshooting,” Dudmon noted, looking at the projected landing site. “Aeroshell deployed,” Tobias noted, reading the telemetry. That was by design. If the launch vehicle lacked the propellant to land safely, Duna Drone 2 had a chance to use its propellers to abandon ship and possibly slow down. It was a slim chance, but it was better than nothing. Fifteen minutes later, Duna Drone 2 hit its namesake’s upper atmosphere once again. “Core tank is fully fueled,” Tobias said, satisfied. “Final course correction burn completed… Drop tanks, uh, dropped… Looking good so far.” As the explorers watched the telemetry intently, Duna Drone 2 encountered shock heating, but the bulk of the launch vehicle protected the drone from the heat. It looked worse than it actually was due to the craft’s relatively slow velocity and the thin atmosphere. After the plasma shock dissipated, everything happened quickly. The craft performed a braking burn to slow down, gunned the engine at the last moment, and touched down safely, just 4.34 km away from the desired landing site! “Ok, engine stopped and safed,” Dudmon said triumphantly. The launch vehicle worked well, delivering the drone within acceptable parameters. After ensuring that the Fulcrum wouldn’t accidentally ignite again, Duna Drone 2 turned on its navigation lights, extended its comm antennas, and deployed its BTDT cameras. The probe was ready for launch. Duna Drone 2 reved its electric propellers and broke away from its delivery vehicle. Moments later, the drone began searching for the anomaly, got a reading, and headed towards it. The drone had a mishap and scraped the ground, causing it to lose one of its props, but thankfully it was still airworthy. A few minutes later, Duna Drone 2 found the anomaly. “All that work for yet another of those strange arches,” Ferwin said and sighed. With no other anomaly, probe, or other lander in the vicinity, Duna Drone 2’s mission was at an end. * “After careful deliberation,” former KSP Administrator and newly appointed ISC Chairman Gene Kerman began, “the International Space Consortium has selected Orbital Dynamics’ Modular Deep Space Exploration Vessel as the winner of the Experimental DSEV Program. Both teams provided outstanding designs, but Orbital Dynamics’ revolutionary concepts offer the best path forward. With that said, neither the Newton-class nor the Halley-class provide exactly what we’re looking for, and admittedly, our requirements have changed because of feedback from both crews.” Gene paused a few seconds to let that sink in before continuing. He put a new image on screen. “This is the Discovery-class Deep Space Exploration Vessel, a new class of ship that meets the ISC’s needs. The Discovery-class provides living quarters, deep freeze pods, a laboratory, a sickbay, and a briefing room for a dozen crew members. The command hull also has a large hangar bay capable of holding a Compact Payload Maneuvering Vehicle as well as a single Shuttlepod with its revolutionary gravitic engine. The Discovery-class is also powered by a gravitic engine module, but it can also accommodate other engines, such as Halley’s fusion engine, should graviolium prove to be too scarce to mine in quantity. “The modular nature of the Discovery-class enables the ship to be configured at an orbiting shipyard for a variety of missions- and enables the ISC to spread the production contracts around. Orbital Dynamics is responsible for the ship’s command hull, gravitic engine module, its Shuttlepod, and for the integration of all vessel hull components, while the Arrow Space Corporation and Drax Aerospace will provide other modules such as hab rings, cargo racks, and bulk fluid containers. In short, Orbital Dynamics is the primary contractor for the Discovery-class, but everyone wins with this new ship design. “Finally, the International Space Consortium has placed orders for two ships. Discovery, designated DSEV-03, is the lead ship in the class, and DSEV-04, whose name will be announced after the student naming competition. Both ships will serve as pathfinders for the next two vessels in the fleet. Given the tight time constraints, all our efforts will be focused on building Discovery in time for the next launch window to Jool. DSEV-04 will follow soon after. Now, I’ll take your questions.” “The Kerman States spent a lot of funds on the Nautilus,” Karbal Kerman, reporter for GNN, prompted before the other reporters had a chance to speak up. “That’s, uh, DSEV-01, the first Deep Space Exploration Vessel, right?” “Yes,” Gene answered. Gene hated that guy. He’d hoped that Karbal would’ve been promoted to news anchor by now so that he wouldn’t have to deal with him… “If you could direct your questions towards the DSEV(X) Program…” “What’s going to happen to the Nautilus,” Karbal interrupted. “For that matter, what will happen to Kopernicus- uh, DSEV-02?” Gene sighed inwardly, but publicly didn’t miss a beat. “The Nautilus is currently just over a year away from returning to Kerbin,” he began. “The crew is still in cryosleep, and the ship’s systems are functioning normally. Nautilus represents a huge investment for not just the Kerman States, but also for the mcKerman Kingdom and the vonKerman Republic. She was state of the art when she launched but that was over five years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Project Laythe originally planned to turn her into a space station when she returned, but that changed when we leased Sky Reef from Orbital Dynamics. Once she returns, Nautilus will be placed in a storage orbit and kept in ready-reserve status until DSEV-05 and 06 are operational. At that point, Nautilus will be decommissioned and offered to private ventures as a museum ship. “As you’re well aware, Kopernicus is still on active duty and orbiting Duna. She and her crew have another 190 days until they return to Kerbin. Given the decisions made during her design and construction and the technology available at the time, Kopernicus cannot meet the new quality of life standards set by the International Space Consortium for Deep Space Exploration Vessels. As a result, she will be decommissioned and recycled upon her return to Kerbin unless a private venture steps forward to preserve Kopernicus as a museum ship. “Now, if there are questions related to Nautilus’ and Kopernicus’ successors…”

Latest pre-release is available here. - Fixed issue with wonky resource generator display in the VAB/SPH. EfficiencyBonus is also accounted for in the display.

All good, no worries. Next update will fix some of the converter displays values. I have not updated the version number for the pre release. The link is the same, I just update the zip file. It’s not professional but it’s faster to just replace the zip file than to create a new pre-release version.