purpleivan

No... not much of a plane jockey. TUBM has flown a rescue mission to Duna.

Chapter 12 - Snappy Dresser “We’re going with sunflower for the pilots... nah, just kidding Jeb” – Hansword Kerman (KSP fashion department). “Urgh... yellow, you’re kidding me right” exclaimed Jeb, none too impressed with the sartorial sense of Gelsey’s suit. “Who cares what colour it is, I’m inside it, can’t see it, the suit's functioning correctly, so why would I care!” replied the scientist, wanting to get on with exploring their new home, rather than discussing their wardrobe sense. Since the full team had assembled, Jeb had been waiting for a good moment for an important announcement, and this felt like that moment. “Ok... everyone in the Hab, I’ve got an important announcement for you all” commanded Jeb on the team wide comms channel, before striding off towards their main living quarters. A few minutes later the full LOST team had assembled in the Hab, ready for what Jeb had to say. Some were curious what this important announcement could be, while others felt it was cutting into valuable work and/or nap time. “Ok, ok... looks like we’ve got almost everyone here, just Bob left... ah no, I see ya at the back there Bob” said Jeb, just about able to see the lead scientist, standing hunched over at the back of the group. “So I’ve got a couple of announcements I need to make before we get to work today. First up, we’ve got confirmation for KSC that The Box is arriving tomorrow evening, should be making entry about two hours before sunset, so I want to get the Lifter recovered before then” stated Jeb, before continuing with the main subject of the announcement. “If clothes maketh the kerbal, then right now we’re a pretty confused bunch of kerbals. We can’t tell who’s who, we’ve got engineers in green and red, scientist in blue and even, urgh... yellow” continued Jeb shuddering. He had little time for the colour yellow, unless it was in the form of Flamin’ Kamin’s super hot mustard. “So from today we will be wearing our new LOST team suits, which are colour coded, based on discipline. Scientist in blue, engineers in green and pilots in red” he said proudly; looking forward to the increased efficiency and pep that the spiffy new red suits would give his team of pilots. “What shade of blue are the scientist suits” enquired Sindley. “Well, a blue-ish shade of er...” said Jeb, trailing off, as he hadn’t actually looked at the new suits, so didn’t have a good answer to give. “Ok, I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see... it’ll be a surprise” replied Sindley, busy adjusting her hair into a more attractive style for a range of shades of blue. “Ok follow me everyone” Jeb instructed, before moving off towards Arm 2, squeezing past Gelsey, who was more interested in finishing off her breakfast than a new suit. Once in Arm 2, Jeb opened up a hatch in the floor to the storage locker that contained the collection of nine suits. “Ok everyone, gather round” said Jeb, then reached into the locker, grabbed a suit and shouted “scientist, size 1” before handing it to an eager Sindley. Jeb grabbed another, this time a red one “pilot, size 1” then handed it to Elson, who seemed surprising keen to try something new. Next was a green suit “engineer, size 1” shouted Jeb, followed by Bill pushing through the group to grab the new apparel. He was the lead engineer, so it only made sense for him to get his first. This continued until all the suits, all size 1 (all kerbals are size 1) had been handed out and now there was much activity in the crowded Hab Arm, as the team donned their new gear. After a couple of minutes the task of turning the team into a colour coordinated group of efficient colonists was complete. “Ok everyone outside” shouted Jeb and made his way towards the airlock. One by one the team made its way out onto the surface, and huddled in groups, admiring their new kit. Valentina and Bill looked at the back of Sindley’s suit, admiring the new look this would give the team. “Love that logo on the back” said Bill excitedly “reminds us of just where we are” he continued, looking at the letters L.O.S.T that were stamped into the helmet, which was framed by the bulk of Jool. The logo had reduced the structural strength of the rear of the helmet by 40%, but the mission planners had decided it was important for the look of the new suits to make a real statement, and painted on logos were so last year. “Ok everyone, gather round” shouted Jeb over team wide comms. “Right, so we’re taking a team photo, I want you all to line up in front of that small mound of dirt there” instructed Jeb. The team shuffled off in various directions, each to one of the many small mounds of dirt that littered Laythe’s surface. “No, no... that mound there” exclaimed Jeb, frustrated at the team’s inability to clearly understand the mound he was now pointing at, was the one he had referred to. The team shuffled towards Jeb’s special mound of dirt, before forming up in a line. There was a shiny new blue suit, then a red, a glistening green, then another red. “No, no... not like that, group up by discipline. Pilots, then engineers and you scientists at the end there” the frustrated team leader instructed, determined that the arrangement have some kind of organisation to it. With the team finally arrayed in a satisfactory manner, Jeb tapped the timer shot button on the camera erected on a tripod in front of him, before running over to join the line up. He jostled his way in between Val and Elson, straightened himself up and smiled, waiting for the click of the camera over his comms. Two hours later, at the KSC, a proud and more than a little envious Gatler Kerman stared at the recently received photo he’d just affixed to the wall. Those shiny new suits, did look pretty good, and the wearers weren’t about to get incinerated by comet Tiddles. It joined other important images of the exploits of the KSP, on the walls of the most hallowed place in the complex... the staff canteen. There was the photo of the launch of the first kerballed spacecraft, next to that of its flaming wreckage. To it its left was the launch of the second kerballed craft, next to the one of its, clearly relieved pilot, after a safe landing. Other highlights of the program to be admired that day. The first sandwich to be consumed in orbit (before and after shots) The first near successful docking in orbit (missed by only 957km). The first fully successful docking in orbit (8th attempt). The mooning of the Mun and the Munnites (required a special “two helmet” design of suit and a belief in the the Mun being inhabited). The first kerbal to arrive on the Mun (still holds the record for the largest debris field). The first kerbal on Minmus, Dardew Kerman. The longest duration mission, Dardew Kerman (still there as far as anyone knows). The first kerballed flyby of Duna by Malon Kerman (left Kerbin SOI in something like the trajectory of Duna, so claimed as a success). The largest hoggie eaten while on an escape trajectory from Kerbin (also Malon Kerman). First kerbal to set foot on Duna, Jebediah Kerman. First interplanetary rescue mission (Jebediah Kerman from Duna after his craft toppled over following landing, due to too many, or too few rivets used in its construction). Yes... this new photo truly deserved its place on the walls that bore the record of the kerbalkinds space exploits. Too bad it was due to be obliterated in just under four days.

The Tinfoil Times Looks like my friend wiv the special antenna aint gonna be sending any more pics wats really goin on up in the space. I went round his place and the peeps with the power have got him. There was a note on his door sayin he moved to Alaska and his neighbor says he helped him put his stuff on a truck, but thats just what an agent would say. The guy was totally a MAN IN BLACK as well. He had black jeans black hair and a black T-shirt, well it was kinda blue and had this garfield picture on it. Anyway no more pics from the special antenna so I gotta get new ones from somewhere else. I got this from this website that says this guys was a secret astronut who flu round in secret space ships for the secret goverment. He says you can't put a price on the truth and his site only costs $9.95 a month so a bargain right! He says he got this pic from another guy hu uses his brain to think into govrment computers and then he makes what he sees on his computer. That sounds so cool its gotta be true right! Peace Peeps Windows cleaned, 5 bucks!

A few wintery ones from Britain.

Thanks for pointing to that... I guess it's back to no reflections in visors for me then.

I'm seeing the same issue as @alexuswith the real time reflections and in the image posted by @therealcrow999 here. Something wierd happening with the render of the cubemap. It's happening in the portion of it seen in the North South directions when standing on the surface. I'm using the 3.5 version of Texture Replacer, but not using the shader provided by @Gordon Dry because if I use that, the reflections disappear completely (see image below). I tried removing Scatterer (just because) and that fixed the original problem with the reflection, but added another. The new problem is that something (possibly the same dark "something" that appeared with Scatterer installed) is changing the shape of the horizon. In the image below the horizon should be flat, as our little volunteer here is looking out to sea, but there are two large "hills" on either side of him. Viewed from the side, with the kerbal still staring out to sea, there is a large dark region in the direction in which he is looking. As extra info, this is running on Win7 x64 on an Nvidia 670 GTX.

For me the big one would be the radar altitude (although Ap/Pe readout would be nice), which always seemed such a strange omission. If the stock game included the radar altitiude as well as the announced dV readout, then I'd be able to drop using KER. I know that mod's got a lot of other functionality, but for me those were the only two I used it for.

A few more from Norway.

So glad you noticed the terrible MMU joyride. It rarely gets mentioned by people picking holes in the movie, but for me it summed up its issues pretty well. 1. The movement seemed pretty unlikely (only possible with constant depletion of propellant). 2. No astronaut would ever do it... unless "stupid reckless joyride" was a part of the mission schedule.

I sent up a vaguely Skylab design of station (stock parts) a few months ago. Then I launched a crew to it in a Saturn 1-b type vehicle.

I'm an incorrect planner of missions and proud. If I can forget chutes, solar panels, heat shields (to name but a few), then the last thing those little green fellas need is me taking care of the catering.

How... violent impacts with planetary bodies that's how. The force of the impact blends the mushy, gooey genetic material that prior to the impact was the occupants of vehicle. This blended material is vacuumed out by the recovery team, and placed into plant pots out the back of the Astronaut Complex, where they eventually grow into full size, and space besuited kerbals. They are then given a shove in the direction of the rear door of the Astronaut Complex (they're a little dopey at this stage), given a 15 minute orientation lecture and have a copy of "Space for Dummies" jammed into their eager little gloved hands. After that they are placed on the roster and shoot some pool while waiting to be assigned.

Great idea. Making fuller use of the courage/stupidity stats this way would give those stats more of a purpose. You want a crew that tends to strike strong brave poses... go with the high courage ones. Want panicked glove wiping, nervous jitters types... grab some with low courage kerbals. Don't have ideas of the top of my head for the high stupidity anims (other than ones that would be far too long/involve too much movement etc.) but I'm sure there's no shortage of suggestions here.

Thanks... I'd not noticed the likes on the OP for a while so 116 was a bit of surprise to me too.

Maybe I've missed something specific to this forum, but the primary purpose of "report post" on most forums is the reporting of unsuitable content. Fortunately on this forum such content is extremely rare, so perhaps the negative connotations I have regarding of "report post", might be misplaced here. My comment wasn't meant as any kind of dig at the decision to use this, just extreme surprise, as I've been on this forum for 4 years and this was the first time I'd seen reference to the report post system being used to nominate threads. I understand that your post with the information about using this method for nominating threads of the month, highlights this mechanism. However as things stand, shortly after this thread becomes un-stickied (and replace by the one for January), it will drop down the list in the Announcements section, and the highlighting of that information will disappear. Would it be possible to put this information somewhere more long term and prominent, so that future threads of the month stand the best chance of a complete set of nominations. Again, this isn't meant as criticism, just a suggestion.