GarrisonChisholm

Gene settled into his usual chair at the conference table after greeting everyone. "Well, we have a rather full schedule, and some decisions to make." "This is our current status with active contracts. The most significant missions which aren't listed here because of the stupid copy machine I do NOT know why we need such a complex one- are the harvesting food in space experiment, which has no deadline, and our highlighted crewed flight to Minmus with an EVA. The former we haven't started to consider yet, and the latter we feel is capably in-hand with the under construction Liberty." "Now, given our previous conversations about Eve, when this contract came along which would allow us to but a probe into orbit around Eve I felt we should jump at the chance. The Nav team isn't excited about the precision being requested for the orbit, but we are planning to fly another Solar probe as the explorer. It should have ample Dv to handle any requirements as well as 'beginner's mistakes'- and, the boosters *have* been upgraded for a safe launch. I am not sure another prototype NERV will be available, but we have 4 years so we can be patient." "Lastly, we have been given a contract to return data from the surface of Duna. Obviously, this is very exciting in many regards, but some serious questions should be answered first." "We could very easily design a ground-up lander with every science instrument we can get our hands on and spend close to 300,000. Or, as Wernher points out, the Local Body Probe which he designed 6 years ago could also do the job for 25% of that out-lay. We would only need to rewrite the program to allow the probe engines to function as landing thrusters and the parachutes to deploy at the right time." "These are our two current technology projects- the former gives us some enhancements to existing experiments, and the latter the RTG which we will need for exploring the outer planets. There are several avenues of advancement which could give us more science experiments or better engines, but it will be a few years in the getting. The Duna probe has a 7 year window though, so we also have time to consider this carefully." "What do you think Mort?" "Gene, my friend! We need a complex copy machine, because we are a complex space agency, as simple as that~ Anyways, turning to more important matters." "So the NAV team isn't 'excited', huh? Who the heck do they think they are?? Gene, tell them that this is a job. A job which makes sure that their families are well fed. So if the client with enough funds asks them to jump, they should! I trust you will be able to handle them." Gene blinked; his pen started to creak under the strain of his crushing fist as he was chided about whether he could 'handle' his team. "About the Duna lander, I think I can authorize you to build a new lander with the upgraded experiments. Yes, Gene, pick your jaw off the floor." Gene felt he really should pick his jaw up off the floor... "I am allowing you to splurge money. Don't get me wrong, all I want is to get all that Duna science as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible, in a single launch. I want you to launch multiple CommSats and a lander to Duna, with all the experiments that we have. Strap the Ike mission in there somewhere as well. Give me a report, if you think you can do it." Gene boggled. Multiple comsats, a Duna lander *and* an Ike lander, in one launch. His mind reeled at the engineering demands and costs which had just been authorized. "I know that exploring the Joolian system and beyond has been a dream for many kerbals, but for now we need to exhaust the inner solar system of all the discoveries we can. The CA has been questioning the sparse presence of private partners in our space program, which was designed keeping public-private partnership in mind. The sooner we get all that science under research, the sooner we can start licensing it. This science and technology transfer might encourage companies to invest in our space program." Further conversation boiled on, but the firm decisions had been made. A broad, sweeping authorization for inner solar system exploration, and a full-up Kadillac-quality mission for Duna. The lights would burn deep into the night in the coming weeks.

C.R.A.P. 6 Year 7, 2 Jooly. Gene stepped to the podium with some comfort and panache, knowing that for this conference he had only to discuss a string of already well publicized successes. He turned and regarded the press with a smirk. "Well. K-Tech won." "But boy were the MSL/P guys peeved! The Mun probe completed *before* K-Tech landed, but we had already made the decision to not stress the flight center by needlessly pushing simultaneous missions. They would just need to swallow their pride and trust that everyone was working for the same team." "Now, the final probe which we launched from K-Tech will not look extremely familiar to their design team. Upon arrival it was discovered that due to a power integration conflict [version error] the entire probe had to be disassembled and rebuilt from scratch." "The final product however was as true to the original design as we could manage, while also carrying an array of experiments of the most advanced design." "The ultimate rocket stack was also fairly large, due to the high Dv budget of the probe." "However, the mission was carried off flawlessly." "The only disappointment was that we failed to come down in sight of Divinity, being only 2 km away but sadly just over a ridge. We had hoped to get footage of the landing. Regardless, the return was exceptional, as we were able to sample the ice shelf directly which Divinity could only image." "Shortly there-after Flight Control had to set aside the champagne and cigars to fly their own return mission." "The science return was quite welcome, despite the MSL/P showing an amazing proclivity to find crater slopes. However, this one shallowed, so we made the call to accept its long slow slide, trusting to the craft's reaction wheels and monopropellant thrusters to keep it stable. With the success of this flight, next for the MSL/P will likely be an LKO proving mission with crew." "To follow, we flew the first of 2 currently planned LBC LKO TOURIST missions, this launch being number 4 for the craft, which was later recovered without any excitement." "We also launched 2 of the new Libra relay satellites-" "The new satellite is a significant improvement over the original LBR. It has multiple redundant systems; battery, solar, & communications, hopefully prolonging its service life past 15 years. Libra 1 went into polar orbit around Minmus, and Libra 2 around Mun." "Lastly, we would like to reveal our first rocket to carry Kerbals beyond LKO, the LBRT, or Liberty." "We look forward to its first launch later this year. Given our confidence in the basic LBC from which it is derived, we will very likely crew its first flight, though we will of course allow discourse to influence our ultimate decision." "The Program is in a very comfortable place, with over $2 million in Funds available, and we have a very exciting future ahead of us. Now, Linus, why don't you step up to discuss the probe findings for both our moons." Gene sat down, quite pleased with how things had progressed. At the same time outside, Jebediah was taking out an old warhorse that the Aerospace wing had lovingly restored for use in local science flights, and was even more pleased. He was very much enjoying its first flight, and the plane verily leapt off the runway. He would look forward to its future use, and pocketed the keys when he landed.

This rather old thread none-the-less has some pleasantly evolved High DV probe conversation, and a land-mark submission by @Archgeek which I unfortunately broke while deploying.

Heh. Yes, & thank you! We had a lot to chew through before we could throw this one against the wall, and also a couple RL hurdles to surmount, but with luck we'll be at least a "weekly." *fingers crossed* The reward has been however some fantastic world-building, and I am very satisfied with our results. We hope everyone else will be too.

The meeting... Gene sat down at the conference table, pre-empting anyone saying anything by sliding the black folder across the table to Mort. "Did you know about this Mort? That is our 'VIP', from CA." "As you know, we had two TOURIST contracts, for 2 and 5 scientists. Consequently we flew 1 LBC and another less-expensive LBT. With the flight of the LBT already in final preparations, we get this request from the Program Civil Authority Office to fly Miss Mautrix here." "We were given no resume', no dossier, the medical pre-flight was refused, and there was no acclimation time permitted with her crewmates-to-be. By all accounts from them after reaching orbit everyone was engaged in their own work, and she kept to herself." "Now, when you had to smooth all those ruffled feathers up there I expected something weird to come down the pipe that we'd have to swallow, but I don't like this at all...- and No One I've talked to has ever heard of a company called MAXO." Mort responded. "A bogus company, you say? Come to think of it, I have not heard of this company either. This bears further investigation." "I was aware, that a CA official would be inspecting KSC soon. But why would they take such an indirect approach? KSC is a public sector institute. They just needed to pass a warrant, and we would have been obliged to give them all the information they need." "And about this 'Mautrix'.. The fact that the medical check up was refused meant that CA was sure about her 'space worthiness'. This makes at least one thing clear; she is military. Or ex-military, maybe. Most probably from the Air Force. I doubt any other branch experiences high gee as much as these kerbs do." Gene tapped his pen absently on the table. "Well, we know they weren't interested in those two scientists or their work, because we could have assigned her to the other flight just as easily." "So, ...if they want to know what we know, without asking us what we know, doesn't that mean that they don't want us to know that they want to know what we know?" "...and if so..., what would they do with what they apparently want to know; which seemingly is the rudimentary ins-and-outs of a mundane orbital space-flight?..." Gene looked at Mort to see if he had jumped to the same conclusion that he just had. Mort scoffed. "They planning their own space program? But that would be ridiculous! Remember when they submitted a report on a Mun base but couldn't say anything when you asked them about its usefulness?" "And more over, it would cost a lot to develop a new rocket, or even modify existing missiles to launch vehicles, when we launch their rockets at such a heavy discount!" Mort left his chair and walked to the window. A passenger jet was forming a contrail. A flash of an idea struck Mort. He looked at Gene, worry etched on his face. "Unless, they manage to develop an SSTO. Then they could launch almost for free. They could even end up snatching our customers from us!" Gene grimaced and shook his head, not understanding what was at risk, his job, the Program, or things he did not yet understand. "Alright. If they want to fly to space for their own reasons we'll deal with it when we have to, though I still don't understand it. So, on to the contracts I suppose..." "These are the current contracts. None are immediate, and the fairing test can conveniently be combined with whatever our next interplanetary mission turns out to be. As it happens, there is an intriguing - but complex - interplanetary mission proposal from J.E.B." "Following on from our successful NERV test last year, there is apparently discussion in the science circles upon whether the NERV would be suitable for use in an Eve mission. However, we don't know anything about Eve yet except that it is covered in clouds and warm. Polluting it with Blutonium is probably a bad idea, and it would require some real thought to accomplish the test requirements and still remove the engine from Eve's gravity well. As I said, complex, but it does pay a tidy f$200,000 ." "The TOURIST requests are all LKO, and the VIP seems to be an actual honest physiology study. The 2 atmospheric contracts would require developing an aircraft, but we do have the funds for that if you want to head in that direction. Lastly, DMagic is desperate to expand upon their Magnetic Field theory of atmospheric habitability, but I think we see eye to eye on the wisdom of accepting another large infusion of DMagic cash." "Oh, we have a new generation of relay satellite building, the Local Body Relay Advanced, or LiBRA, and as well the K-Tech sample return probe. It actually will not be as cheap as we hoped, lofting that much Dv is expensive. We feel it is worth it though as developing these relationships will be important in the future." Gene took a drink of his water as he sat up straighter to listen to Mort's decision making. Mort replied. "The Eve contract appears more trouble than it's worth. We don't have enough knowledge about Eve to try and get away from it's gravity well. What is the atmospheric curve? What will be the entry characteristics? There are a lot of variables, and we will attempt such contracts only when we know more about the Eve system." "All TOURIST missions, as long as they are limited to LKO, have my acceptance. We have proven and reliable technology, these missions will be easy funds for us." "I think we should work to develop a few aircraft as well. I would like to attract more investors from the aerospace sector, so that we have someone to fall back to, in case of 'emergencies.'" Mort looked at Gene, who nodded. "And tell the CA to reject any DMagic contract, or I will terminate their pay!" Everyone at the table chuckled. "I don't have any issues with the K-Tech probe however, please proceed," concluded Mort with a smile. Nodding in agreement, the group broke up, setting out to put their new plans in motion.

Year 6, Day 389 C.R.A.P. 5 Gene stepped to the podium, a joyful smile upon his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, Kerbalkind has successfully encountered- and orbited - another world." "Relay Duna 1 successfully fired its breaking motors and entered a polar orbit of Duna. These spectacular images of the southern polar cap truly excite the imagination. The satellite is currently engaged in studying the magnetic field and gravity of this remarkable world. However, we would like to point out one other remarkable image." "If you note here, the resolution of the imaging camera was sensitive enough to identify photons from Mun, whose arc-angle of separation from Kerbin at the time was finer than a sheet of paper seen from 10 miles." "Relay Duna 2 likewise entered orbit around Ike. Both satellites are functioning well and returning data, and additionally will provide communication relays for future missions to Duna. Linus will follow-up with details on all the science we have been able to recover." "An additional success was the decoupling of the NERV engine from SOLAR and dropping its periapsis into a true sungrazing orbit." "Repeated passes will no-doubt ultimately incinerate the remnants. Regardless, we have pushed the orbits of both the NERV & SOLAR out 30 years, and have found no encounters with either Eve or Moho." "Additionally, we executed 2 Transient Objective University Researching Interdisciplinary ScientisT contracts, using both an LBT and an LBC for short LKO missions." "There were also two minor set-backs, one of them a sign of some work that needs to be addressed. It was found that 2 LBR satellites in the local network were unresponsive- one of them had had its primary and a secondary solar arrays fail, and the other had had its primary antenna fail. To replace the Kerbin polar satellite, a replacement LBR was launched on a polar trajectory. Unfortunately, an untried maneuver- a 90 degree roll- resulted in the craft pronating off its line, and it quickly tumbled out of control, crashing just north of the runway." "A follow-on launch was not rolled, and successfully entered its polar orbit directly." "A second set-back occurred with our attempted landing of our first Mun probe, in a full-up, uncrewed test of a solo lander." Gene paused here, as none present had known that the Mun probe was crew-rated, and a rapid hubbub evolved amongst the press. "We did successfully return data from the surface, barely, but no footage is available from the event. The lander unfortunately came down on the steep slope of a large crater, after burning much of its return fuel in an attempt to steer towards level ground. The lander never came to a stop, and slid down the slope for a hundred or so meters. While science was hastily gathered, It was shortly realized the landing had to be aborted. The craft would have shattered at the bottom of the crater, and it was also at 'bingo' for return to orbit." "The ship will now function as a relay satellite about the Mun, and did allow us to complete a valuable contract, so the Munar Solo Lander Probe program will continue to be refined and tested." "Lastly, in related and exciting news, private industry has at last offered a Minmus Return Probe design, and for an incredibly economical sum!" K-Tech simulation footage. "The Kerbal Institute of Technology @kerbalstar Aerospace School has responded to the Program request with a return lander that is entirely battery powered and which comes in under the tuition friendly price of $f11,000. We look forward to receiving the probe at the VAB, and beginning vehicle integration. We shall shortly see whose design can succeed at a sample return first, the "professionals" with the Mun, or K-Tech with Minmus." Gene allowed the laughter to usher him off stage, as Linus stepped up to go over the recent science findings. He sat down, shifting the blue folder to the back of his collection of papers, and settling the black folder on top. When the CRAP meeting began after lunch, he had some things he needed to clear up with Mort.

No worries, I won't be able to get back to this for 12 hours anyway- at the next CRAP presentation I plan to announce the probe.

Gene sat down at the conference table with the build team, Gus, Wernher, Linus, and Pat, to discuss the soon needed Minmus probe, kicking around ideas about scale, costs, and build times. "Gene," interjected Wernher after a while, "You realize ve are going at this the long way around. Ve have a perfectly capable probe ve could fly for this mission, the LBP. It has already done fly-by return missions to both moons as well as Kerbin orbit, and should have enough Dv for a landing and return on Minmus, if a good trajectory is flown. If not, then certainly it should be able to land. Ve have only to attach a few of our more recent instruments for an exciting science return." So with this unexpected change in direction, an LBP was brought into rapid assembly, and plans made to alight upon the first extraterrestrial body. Unfortunately, there was a software glitch while burning for the Munar encounter. When the computer detected that it had pushed the flight path into the Mun's SOI, the navigation data changed as if the craft had done so as well. This unfortunately wasted likely all the Dv that was to have been saved as the onboard systems briefly steered the craft off in an undesired direction. However, a reversion to a pro-grade burn coupled with a second burn at Munar periapsis put the probe back onto its Minmus heading. It quickly became obvious however that the sample return opportunity was now lost, so the heat-shield was ditched to increase remaining efficiency. Some days later after orbit was achieved, a landing site was selected, just off the Greater Flats. With great excitement, and a nervous eye on the fuel reserves, landing was commenced. Above is our closest image ever of the Minmus surface, seen as a smooth expanse of ices of uncertain sorts. And, at last, the landing, accomplished on the lowland slopes above the flats. The landing site was named Divinity, in honor of Valentina's enthusiastic exclamations to the press after her orbital flight. Linus and the science team would be going over their data for months, only wondering at the materials experiments which they had run but whose data was accessible in only the most cursory form. This was a momentous occasion, but surely only the first of many for Kerbinkind. Divinity takes a MagCam selfie to send home.

Just lander and return. If it is small enough I'll use the LB series lifter, but if it is larger then I will just use the LBC's booster as the lifter. The LBR could handle up to 2.5 tons, and if I use the LBC lifter it would be up to 15 tons. Or, if neither of those are ideal, I will just build a custom lifter that could put your sample return lander into LMO, so you would only be looking at a DV requirement of 500 or so (with ample margin). However, bear in mind how cost conscious Mort is, so to take advantage of the return contract aspect the cost of the probe would ideally be <$F50,000. I am sure it could be done for far less than that, but that would be the ceiling I would wager.

Your timing is just fine! I actually just flew a very budget lander to settle onto Minmus (which will be documented shortly), but as I was using an off-the-shelf probe for a task for which it wasn't intended the sample return portion of the mission would have failed and so was not attempted. So, if you would be interested in offering a sample-return Minmus mission - the less expensive the better - we'd be very interested! Just make sure a materials bay is included in the design. I have a Mun mission in mind already, so I think we can limit it to Minmus. If you'd like to PM me the design we could make sure the write-up fits with the general tone of the story, and then you can post it yourself. Thanks for showing an interest!

Later, after lunch... "Good afternoon everyone, Mortimer. The press conference took quite a bit of time so I will be brief with this presentation. These are our current active contracts;" "And the following is our current flight schedule, with the SOLAR orbit adjustments and the two Duna encounters our only current traffic." "Lastly, these are our current offered contracts." "None of these contracts are especially difficult, though we feel it is time to begin to address the need for a sample-return lander for Minmas, given private industry has not seen fit to offer a design as of yet. As we now have a similar contract for Mun, the lander should perhaps be designed to accomplish both tasks." Gene looked at Mort, a short uncomfortable silence building in as he realized Mort did not seem at all like he would be responding to the contracts in question. "There were some wonderful launches in the last six months and I am proud of every one involved in making these successful." Mort was smiling by the time he was finished. But suddenly his smile warped, from gentle to vicious. "But tell me Gene, if the SOLAR was undergoing a static test, why were the launch clamps released?" "Its odd, this doesnt look like a static test at all. More like a failed launch. Now, I want you to think about this, and I mean all of you! If the rocket had tumbled over, and hit the launch pad, what do you think would have happened?" There was deathly silence in the room. Mort was angry, and they could feel it. "Oh, what's with the grim faces? Let's make this an interactive session!" Mort was smiling normally again, but that was not going to fool anyone. "You are the smartest guy here, Werhner. Let's start with you! What do you think would have happened?" "Err.. there would have been an explosion, I think." "You think, huh? Very well then, what about you, Gus? Got something to share?" "The launchpad would have been damaged badly? But we had a mission abort scenario planned in such cases." "Oh, of course. Abort mission to LKO and lose funds AND reputation. Anyone else got anything else to share? And Aaron, stop playing with the pen or else I will give you a Kolonoskopy with it." Mort glared at Aaron, who suddenly realized he was not off the hook either. No one moved, not even an inch. "Now listen, and listen close, ...you imbeciles! If the rocket had tumbled over, it would have damaged the pad of course. But you know what's funny? The payload, the nuclear engine would have been badly damaged." Mort was looking at Gene, unblinking, and straight in the eye. "And you know what that means? The explosion would have scattered the blutonium all over the place, irradiating the launchpad, and PROBABLY THE ENTIRE KSC! And you did that, almost twice!." "You CAN NOT fool nature! If your equations say that the rocket won't lift off, then it won't! There's no 'maybe!' " "So congratulations, fools. You almost managed to shut down the entire KSC, twice. Do you know, how many voices I had to silence these past few months? I will not let this go unpunished. All personnel involved with the SOLAR launches will get no promotions, no increments in their salary for the next five years." "But Mort, the workers won't accept this!" Werhner interrupted. "Oh, really? Then I think you would have to do a lot of work, convincing them. And believe me, I am being gentle. If the Civil Authority learns of this, you would all be in jail!" Gene was uncharacteristically blank, but then he really had nothing he could say. Mort was right on all counts. But, the wage freezes... "Mort, I will accept full responsibility for the SOLAR errors, and you can *dock* my salary, but don't freeze the workers'. We will lose qualified technicians, and it comes off as simply a petty penalty." "So, please, let us reconsider the penalties, and focus on the upcoming year. Besides, do you think there has not already been a bloodletting in middle management and beating about the ears?..." Mort looked at Gene and his expression softened a bit. "Gene, Do you think I am doing this for my own pleasure? No! I am freezing my own pay too. I had to bribe and coax officials from all over the Civil Authority. And I had to use KSC's emergency funds for this. The money saved from the pay freezes will be utilized to refill the emergency coffers. Just docking your pay won't solve anything!" "And please don't worry about the workers. I have already silenced potential troublemakers. As for losing their services, I doubt there is any other organisation with more prestige and recognition as the KSC. The workers will be fools to resign, and they know it." "So, the pay freezes will remain in action. But I think we could reduce the penalty time to 3.5 years. An official notice will be up by tomorrow." Gene neither sighed nor nodded. His normal reaction would be to spit pencil bits or raise a most calamitous rage, but he knew they had screwed up this time. "Alright Mort." "And then what is your decision about which contracts to select for coming year? We can't do the satellite movement, SOAR has no available fuel, and the Munar seismic surveys would be a pretty far stretch when we haven't even landed a probe yet, but the rest- even the food harvesting - I think we could manage." Mort took a deep breath. He did not enjoy tormenting people, despite popular opinion. "Linus had been demanding a space farm for quite some time. Lets give him what he wants. And the tourist contract as well. A successful tourist mission would raise the morale of everyone at KSC, along with the reputation." "As for the remaining missions within our capabilities, accept them too. We need to show results, and we need to show them fast if we want the upper echelons of the Civil Authority to forget the SOLAR launches." There was a general nodding of consent and then the meeting broke up. Gene knew he had to take it, he had endorsed the idea to "spin" the first SOLAR launch as a static test, so he had no right to be mad at anyone but himself. That afternoon he saw paperwork that had transferred a couple VAB workers to off-campus positions, which explained the 'silencing' Mort had referred to. And he had no doubt that the Program Civil Authority would have been screaming blue in the face for a complete management change, especially given they were in on the 'spin' and would have known that the second near-failed launch should have been entirely preventable. He was betting some undesirable pet projects would be showing up somewhere down the line, and that the CA offices at the capital probably had some nice new kerhogany furniture. However, there was one thing Gene knew as a manager. If you find yourself standing in crap, the only next thing to do is step out of it. Gene set the next meeting schedule for the Flight Office. The next objective was landing a probe on Minmas, and to prepare for greater things to come.

Yes, no doubt and "wrist slapping" behind closed doors will be the order of the day. Truthfully it was my stupid fault (misreading KER), but Gene will have to pay the price in some fashion. The Mort/Gene relationship is very important here; the CRAP meeting (after the CRAP press conference) will probably not be filled with hi-jinks and chicanery! And that wreckage, yeah. I'm not sure why the graphics work like that. If the neighboring capsule is occupied, those water-bottles appear in the cabin. If it is empty though, they do not. If I flew only 3 crew in non-adjacent capsules then we'd see all their faces. I do think its funny though, Bill looks fairly concerned, but Jeb looks like he's about to start laughing

-10 Prime, Program Year 6 Gene stepped up to the podium and addressed the room with an attitude of defiance. The nervous whispers died on every lip as his burning glare blazed across the room. "Welcome to the new DMagic Science Hall on the grounds of our brand new research park, as we gather to review a very successful year of launches for the Program! Pat, Brutus, pass out the sandwiches; you're all going to be here for a while!" "First, we see here a static firing of the SOLAR mission stack before its noteworthy- but SUCCESSFUL- ...launch." "This follow-on to the SOAR mission would ultimately fulfill 2 valuable contracts, exposing the circuitry components of a Ruggedized Vehicular Wheel to direct cosmic rays and the very exciting prototype test of a new propulsion technology, the Nuclear Plasma Engine, and as well for the first time conduct experiments in near solar space." "Now in response to every Kerbal's concerns over the risk of sending radioactive elements into space, the mission has been very carefully designed. After the Periapsis burn to bring its orbit to within 1 million meters, the engine will fire again at periapsis to bring the Apoapsis down from the orbit of Kerbin. Then, upon reaching apoapsis again the NERV Engine will decouple, and unlock its remaining fuel to drop its periapsis into the sun, thus eliminating the threat of contaminating any world." "The resulting orbit of the SOLAR probe may eventually encounter Eve's sizable gravity well, but we project this will be well beyond the service life of the probe's components." "Now it is worth noting, this test firing did reveal the under-performance of the vessels LT-V300 engines, which lead to the addition of a pair of Thumper boosters which proved critical in the successful launch of the craft. Accolades are duly extended for the diligent conduct of the test." "Next, we have the successful 2nd flight of the Local Body Conveyor, for the first time sending all 5 of our astronauts into space. Dubbed "Yale" by its crew, the goals of the flight were to allow our astronauts to work together in space, and also to conduct the first near and high space EVAs." "This photo will no doubt be the most fondly remembered of the flight, as the capsule fires its de-orbit thrusters to return to Kerbin." Gene sighed slightly here, wishing the following slides could be avoided, ...but eventually took a drink of water and nodded to the technician running the projector. "It will be noted that Yale's much covered landing, while frightening to the whole world watching live, was successful. ...the anomaly in landing occurred due to the slight slope encountered, and as we can see Bill was able to exit safely to plant the flag as ordered despite the presence of toxic and corrosive battery chemicals infusing the very ground he stepped upon." "Contrary to news reports, there is no evidence he looks worried at all. ...none." "All 5 astronauts were deigned fit for duty mere hours after returning to campus, and an immediate redesign increased the size of the main chutes by 2% to allow for increased recovery reliability." "Following swiftly upon the recovery of LBC-2, our long awaited Duna launch windows finally arrived." "LBR-Plus 1 & 2 were staged to orbit sequentially, and then put onto successful encounter burns directly from orbit." "We extend our highest commendations to Aaron Kerman's Nav team, as it was entirely unexpected that mid-course correction burns would not be needed in the flight plan, especially without automated navigation." Gene straightened his papers, and after a pause nodded for the next slide reluctantly restarted, having gotten to the most infamous part of the presentation. "Lastly, we have the much discussed successful SOLAR launch." "We do not need to go into the minutia of the regrettable performance of the first stage..." "...which as everyone knows took more than a minute to climb past 40 meters, even at one point alarmingly beginning to drop back towards the pad. All emergency procedures were in place however, and despite being ready to ditch the stage and abort the mission to only LKO with the 2nd stage, thanks to the cool heads of the entire team we were able to get the lift we need out of the first stage with an ample dose of patience." "I would at this juncture like to point out two triumphs of this design which warrant note. Despite the LT-V300s providing less thrust than expected, the LT-V450 in the center stack performed a near miracle. During that first minute of agonizing burning it went to gimble-max over 6000 times striving to maintain its orientation, 100x times its expected service need, and it ultimately only drifted 30 or 40 meters to the north-east before finally beginning its climb." "Additionally, when the interstage faring was deployed in anticipation of aborting to the 2nd stage, the longitudinal bracing was also lost, with the result that the entire torque being applied by the first stage was supported by a single strut facing less than a meter square. Though this part remained with the 2nd stage, the explosive bolt holes in the top of the recovered 1st stage showed evidence of the tremendous strains endured. Wernher's team is to be lauded, as the entire mission unexpectedly rested upon the endurance of this part." "The remainder of the probe deployment was thankfully far less dramatic." "The NERV engine fired exactly as intended, and the probe is now on its long descent to Kerbol periapsis. We would like to thank everyone for the support and work which enabled us to overcome this mission's unexpected challenge. Wernher will now discuss the quality control changes the assembly team has undertaken to prevent these issues from arising again." Gene swiftly went to sit down and take a long drink of water as Wernher stepped to the podium. Gene was not looking forward to the CRAP meeting that would follow his CRAP presentation after lunch.

Gene walked down the hall of the Administration building towards the Finance wing. The main difference between this and other sections of the building is the staffers tended to leave their jackets on, which also tended to be more expensive. There would be no second CRAP assembly this year, the decision had been made to limit contract acceptance due to the upcoming launch schedule, though if something really juicy had come along he was sure they would have considered signing it. It was about something juicy that Gene needed to talk to Mort today. Gene knocked on Mort's three-quarters open door. "Mortimer, do you have a moment?" Mort looked up from his computer, a bit irritated at the sudden intrusion. But he relaxed a little whe he saw it was Gene at the door. "Come in, please." Mort then called his assistant and told her to serve the two of them tea in those Bone Kina cups. Now normally those cups were meant to be brought out only in the presence of a higher up or a dignitary, and Gene was neither. But Mort was feeling a bit cruel that morning and wanted to rub it in Gene's face that the offices at the Mission control did not have Bone Kina cups. Gene looked wistfully at the Bone Kina cups. His grandmother had passed on a set of Bone Kina to his mother when she died. Gene had used the set as ramp to jump his bike off of. ...sigh. "Thank you," he said simply as he was served. "Well. As you know, despite the C.R.A.P. agreement there exist discretionary powers within the Flight Control Office to deal with contract proposals that are presented between bi-annual meetings which require short term response. We had such a proposal 2 weeks ago." "D-Magic again was asking to begin a study for an eventual survey of a new perceived target orbiting Valentine. They were offering a 47 year term and almost another $f1 million advance." "I turned it down." Gene watched Mort, expecting a mild fuel-ox burn-off. Mort visibly twitched and he could feel the vein under his left eye popping. Did Gene just take a financial decision of such a colossal measure without consulting him? However he took a few deep breaths, calming himself down. Gene would not bait him in this manner if he did not have a plan. 'Let's hear his reasons. Then I will rip him into shreds, if I am not satisfied.' Mort thought to himself. "Hmm, that's odd, Gene." Mort folded his arms." Those discretionary powers are meant to deal with the more mundane, low paying jobs. You could have consulted me with this. But we are way past that stage now. So tell me, what possessed you to make such a decision." No matter how much he tried, some frustration slipped into his voice. "It is a very pragmatic reason. Visibility." "If we accept a single large influx of funding from D-Magic we can say it is in escrow, funding research, even granting scholarships or something. We can still continue on as we are." "However, if we accept a second large advance, suddenly D-Magic has given us far more than half of all the funding we've ever received. They would, likely rightly, want to have a voice in the direction of the Program. They would also have a right to complain, if say in 20 years their telescope were no where near close to being orbited. I felt it would set a bad precedent." "I want the Program to be steered in a useful direction, not a fanciful one." Gene slid onto the desk a picture of the mock-up of the next rocket under construction. Mort looked at Gene for a few moments. And then pretended to check something on the computer. He was a little impressed, maybe a bit intimidated by Gene's spirited answer. The next few moments were spent in silence, with just the slurps of tea interrupting the stillness. "Hmm, satisfactory reasons, I suppose I can let you off the hook this time. But I am curious about the rocket you are proposing. Tell me more." Mort pointed at Gene's picture of the rocket. "This rocket carries the most Dv we've yet taken to space. Taking advantage of testing a prototype nuclear Engine in solar orbit, we will attempt to sample the near-Kerbol environment for the first time. If the lifter proves serviceable, I could see further use. But *this* is the kind of science I feel we should be doing." For a few moments, Mort was silent. He looked at Gene, who was exuding confidence and an aura of, well, something. Mort could not put his finger onto it, but he had surely felt like this before in someone else's presence. "You are right, Gene. This is the kind of science we should do. But I must insist, at the end of your project, if it is successful, please design an interplanetary tug with those nuclear engines.. We might be able to use this for sending probes to Duna or eve, at the least." Mort put the empty cup to the side. "Now, is there something else that needs my attention?" Gene winced a bit inwardly, but shook his head. "No, nothing immediate. I'm glad we see eye-to-eye on this Mort," and he shook his had firmly as he left the desk. Leaving the office and walking down the hall Gene smiled. "Nuclear tugs my ass."

Press Release. The Kerbin Space Program Office here reports the successful launch and recovery of the first Local Body Conveyor, dubbed "Oxford" by its crew. The low-velocity boosters served their purpose well in assisting the stack off the pad. At the moment of separation the craft actually decelerates for about 10 seconds before picking up again. The 7 main engines burn to the inter-stage separation, when the 2nd stage motor ignites. Orbit was achieved with 44 m/s to spare, which was of course ample for de-orbiting without requiring the capsule thrusters to be used. The interdisciplinary science crew remained in orbit for 18 days, which was found to be the limit of the capsule to support 6. Recovery occurred without incident west of the Great Kulge Desert. We would like to thank the 6 crew for the hours of live reports they were able to share with Kermanity, and no doubt they will soon have ample opportunity to publish their experiences for academic review. We remain on track to conduct our first launches to another world in a few months, as our Duna launch window approaches.

This would be an excellent solution, but many have tried it and from what I understand it is frightfully hard. I just tinkered around with mine and have no real experience yet.

*drools* ...so...much...Arnold voice...

If I tried building that it would take me 15 tries just to hit it! lol

"Ah'd gess avter blohwing it ahp, like ze toy-let in ze Astronaut Complex." (Sorry, I have to do that once every 6 or 8 months)

I always heard a Sepraton was like a laser, a very damaging thin beam. I imagine a sep would work well for this, especially if you could give it a reservoir of fuel rather than just the road-flare amount.

Gene cleared his throat at the lectern and looked over the assembly. "Good morning, today's presentation will cover our productivity since CRAP #2, and summarize our available options on the menu to give us a great 3rd CRAP." Dead silence. In back, Gus buried his face in his hands and mumbled. "Available funds since our last CRAP meeting have doubled, now sitting at more than $F 800,000." "For starters, we again had some elementary part tests- we see here a simple A-4 design which we assembled to carry a heat shield to the desired altitude." "A decoupler was also tested on launch. The craft was not recovered and impacted the sea." "Our first major step forward was in testing the 6crew capsule, which we see here leaving the pad on its first test." "Launched on a simple Sledge-hammer solid rocket booster, which as you know is a scaled up Hammer, it descended from 11km to recovery." "Now, with this close-up we see one of the virtues of the design. The batteries are mounted between the heat-shield and the crew-pod, and though providing perhaps a level of "overkill" as regards available power, the vessel could survive a compete recharging failure on return from Munar orbit with as well the batteries acting as a crush-zone on landing." "Unfortunately, we found on this initial landing that the crush-zone needed to be demonstrated." "We see the parachutes were proven insufficient for a soft landing. ..and, as well, on the second test. Fortunately, the Program was very successful during this semi-annual, and we were able to absorb the cost of those batteries, ...valued at approximately $F 2000 each." "Ultimately, the correct balance was found, and our 3rd test was managed without costly damage." "The first crew-rated vehicle is now in assembly, planning an LKO mission to satisfy our current TOURIST contracts." "The vessel has been designated the Local Body Conveyor, though crews will be allowed the latitude to choose a mission name for their craft." "On LBC 1 the resource capacity will be tested, though we anticipate that we will find it is over 40 days for a crew of 6." "And, of course, I would be remiss in not mentioning our successful SOAR mission, which popular press has covered extensively. The probe continues to relay solar data, teaching us about our interplanetary environment." "Here we see our active contracts. None are fast approaching, and our launch window for Duna is coming up at year's end." "Our available contracts are somewhat more interesting." "We see here a paucity-" Linus here knocked over his glass of water with a start- "- ... of traditional contracts. The eye grabber is provided by DMagic Orbital Sciences. It seems they have developed something they are calling an 'electromagnetic telescope'..." Here Linus had to bite back a laugh as he had told DMagic not to use the word 'radio' with Gene. "...which has identified, so they say, that our binary companion Valentine has indeed its own planetary system." A few intakes of breath from the press corps and a blizzard of photo-snaps followed. "Not only do they feel Valentine has planets, but they are sure enough to have named one- Lomina, which is in an eccentric outer orbit. Lomina, they were surprised to discover in their data, seems to have a moon, which they have named Deemo. DMagic, or rather their science team, is now desperate to gather data on these bodies, as are of course all of Kerbal kind." "Having hardly begun the exploration of our own solar system, never-the-less DMagic is lobbying hard for an orbital telescope to study Deemo and Valentine as well, and they are offering the sizable advance of 1.2 million $F." Loud gasps spread throughout the room. "Despite our inability to act immediately upon such a contract, the extraordinarily generous terms of the offer- over 50 years to completion- allow the extraordinary ability to develop technologies and capabilities which we cannot now envision." "Given our investment in furthering the development of the LBC, we would like to submit that the Deemo proposal be accepted, and - for this, very busy year- no other contracts taken. Should simple, in place magnetic field contracts be presented through the year, we will of course however pick them up." "Lastly, the Program has identified a very promising engineering student, Peggy Kerman, with a very rare set of abilities and focus, and we would like permission to hire her into the program." "Oh- the Minmus lander contract window we feel should be extended another year, as no private contractor has yet had a chance to submit a proposal and we do not wish to discourage enterprise from contributing." 'Hmm... the naive kerb is learning the ropes.' Mort thought to himself as Gene's presentation ended.' I should add something to his diatribe. Best not to let him have a big head.' "This is a momentous occasion, indeed. Establishment of this telescope in Low Kerbin Orbit may look like a small feat, but it will be the first of the many steps which will lead Kermanity to the stars. I support this endeavor wholeheartedly, and hope DMagic will provide us with extraordinary results in the near future." Gene sat down while Linus stepped up to answer many clamoring questions about the Valentine discoveries. Gene looked over at Mort and took a drink, nodding his thanks. The finances meeting would follow after lunch, and he was now sure that they would have the huge influx of funds that would set-up the program for years.

Gene stood at the open door of the vehicle assembly building, regarding the craft which would for the first time send Kerbal instruments beyond Kerbin's realm. The 30 meter rocket massing nearly 90 tons was built to cast into Kerbol's orbit SOAR, the Solar Observatory And Relay satellite. This mission would fulfill 2 valuable contracts and as well expand our knowledge of the solar system, with the added bonus of proving we could reach out successfully beyond Kerbin Orbit. Making economy of the boosters recovered from our Local Body Relay satellites, the main stage was built of 5 hex-clusters of LV-T3's, each with a center mounted LV-T4.5. 35 engines to set the craft on its way. The lift capacity was known to be barely sufficient after assembly, so 4 powerful sounding rocket motors were added to provide extra thrust until the fuel load had lightened. Unfortunately, shortly after booster burnout problems were immediately apparent. "Flight, motors 1 through 4 have burned out but are not disengaging." "What? That's never happened before, in any situation! Econ, do we have a short?" "Negative Flight, booster sep triggered, they appear to be physically fouled with the engine assemblies." "So that's extra mass and drag, with a booster that we knew needed help getting off the ground. What's our status?" "Craft had reached about 40 meters/sec and is now decelerating. Engines gimballing to maintain azimuth. So far trajectory is as programmed." Gene chewed an unlit cigar to ribbons as over the next minute the ship slowed to a bare 15 m/s before finally accelerating again. After nearly 2 minutes of flight the first stage finally burned out, managing a meager altitude of 3.8km and not even 100 m/sec. The staged booster glowed white hot, aluminum rain being found across the launch site. "Clear the viewing stands, that's not going to make the bay!!", as frenzied activity broke out in response to Gene's call, alarms blaring as the monitors showed the stage 2 motor igniting 4 km over their heads. Less than a minute later, the stage 3 motor fired with the altitude being only 17km high. "Jool-damnit we're not even at 20km and need to make orbit on a freaking Terrier! Range Safety stand by." "Gene we've got over 3000 dV available yet, we can at least make orbit so-long as we remain in controlled flight. We can do it." Gene chewed the remains of the cigar. "Safety, abort on my command. Navigation, its up to you. We will fry that thing before it starts to break up." Gene watched as over the next 2 1/2 minutes it was proven that the craft would be getting to space. Accomplishing its mission seemed laughably out of touch. ...unless. "We are coming up on orbital injection Flight." "Copy. Econ, take one of the main probe batteries offline- if we have a chance later on it won't do us any good if the probe is dead in the aero-shell." "Shouldn't we just deploy the Shell sir and use the solar arrays?" "Negative Econ. Until someone proves to me we can't do this we're doing it. ...it'll save me a long talk with Mort anyway..." And a few minutes later... "Stable orbit Flight, we made it." Relief and a few low-key cheers broke out around the room. "Very good. Navigation, check your plots with a Munar rendezvous, you have about 5 minutes to find something useful." "Copy that, Flight..." followed by backward glances. But is wasn't 2 minutes later that a young kerb popped up with a result. "Flight, a 854.3 m/s burn will get us a Munar encounter that will cast us into solar space. We can do it." Gene chewed. "What's our margin?" The young fellow replied without hesitation "1.7 m/s." Griff, the back-up Flight Director and next on duty scoffed. "You can't do that Gene! A burn like that with no margin? We don't have the tech to automate that, it'll have to be programmed manually! The tiniest error and we don't raise our periapsis out of the Mun and we make a new crater! We can't do that." Gene glanced askance at Griffon than back at the young kerb who'd figured the trajectory. "We can do it. Aaron, plot your course and prepare for the burn. Its all yours." "Copy Flight." Came his brisk reply. Griffon leaned over Gene's shoulder; "I hope you realize you're hanging yourself if this fails Gene." Gene didn't even blink. Well, the rest was history. Aaron Kerman's course was steered to a whisker's margin, and with the last .1 m/s in the probe's tanks the PE broke out from the moon. 2 weeks later the craft was fulfilling 2 contracts earning nearly F$ 400,000 as it crossed into interplanetary space. Gene was quite pleased with how the mission had gone, all things considered, and was thrilled he wouldn't have to announce a $F 100,000 failure in CRAP. He had ordered a round for everyone that night, and lifted a toast to Aaron Kerman, "Steely-eyed Missile Man."

Y4d214, Kerbin Space Campus Program Proposal Memorandum Request for Type Reference- The Scientific Committee on Advanced Navigation has submitted this Ratified and Accepted proposal for the Program to obtain and transmit or recover data from the surface of Minmus. This probe though potentially designed by the Program and not of foreseen technical difficulty will none-the-less be presented for 3rd party design. Submitted designs will be evaluated at the next CRAP meeting and the winning proposal chosen. Amongst the factors which will be considered under evaluation are simplicity, cost, elegance, and maximized science return. The winning proposal will either submit their designs for VAB assembly, or ship the probe whole to the Campus for vehicle integration. Please note, any errors discovered during assembly would reflect negatively upon further work with that construction house. If plans alone are provided, the Program will assume liability for any errors in planning as they should be found out during assembly. The Probe in its entirety should ideally be able to utilize our current Local Body lifter system; gross mass should not exceed 2,000kg. However, an especially enticing probe which massed more than this might still be considered. The probe should have *ample* dV available for landing, to accommodate unforeseen errors and occurrences in our first attempt to land on an alien body. A probe which came in under $F 31,625 would be preferred, the contract completion award. Please Note, the following contract also exists- This opens the door to a sample-return mission which could conceivably be budgeted in excess of $F 100,000. However, Finance will of course wish to maximize its return, given the funding apparatus by which the Program operates. Interested parties shall submit proposals prior to the next CRAP meeting [estimated at 3-8 RL days]. Should no interested parties field proposals by this time, the Program will have the VAB put together their best attempt. Successful partnerships born of this agreement would carry forth the good will of the Program when future Private Industry opportunities develop. [Author's Note!] [This is where the collaboration I first envisioned comes in. Fellow writers, you are invited to participate in this narrative! We ask that you present your proposal in character, assuming either a specific or corporate (or University in the case of a JPL-like relationship) voice to represent the entity you create. KSP is a Fun/Cool/Cute game, so sticking to the classic Kerbal memes is fine, however we do ask that excessively silly names and nomenclature be perhaps thought about before being submitted. The tone I have tried to set of one of intensity where humor comes from our poor protagonist butting his head against his reality. Feel free to PM me if you would like further guidance, however if you simply give your best shot at matching the tone of the tale so far you cannot stray too far from the mark. Any general questions may of course also be asked below, if it seems reasonable the answer would be useful to the readership as a whole. Also, the authors of course reserve the right to remove any submissions which are deemed to detract from the enterprise. Good luck!] The above tech-nodes are fully researched, and my operating Mod list is posted here;

"Good afternoon. At this second full CRAP meeting I will provide a survey of the previous 6 months of activity and then discuss plans for current projects and extant proposals under consideration." Linus grimmaced sourly at "extant" and grumbled. "Available funds have increased nearly 400%." "To begin with, we rolled the wheel unit and sepratron to the pad for a very unexciting test, though we did have a brief discussion about why on earth a hexagonal strut wasn't considered to be in touch with the pad..." "...because its not grounded Gene!" was shouted from the back. "Yes I KNOW that's what you said, and its still hooey!" Gene spat to the back of the room, before returning to his audience before him. "Regardless, the data was eventually obtained. Both Mun and Minmus survey contracts completed successfully as well, actually 3 in total." "As this series of stills show, the 2nd crewed flight of the LBT went well, saving for an early launch glitch which occurred when unmanned servo commands were sent to the vehicle on ascent which did not take into account that the vehicle was crewed. The slight initial roll to the south was easily corrected, and a quite nominal orbit achieved with no dangers. Re-entry was also nominal, and we had zero part losses from re-entry or recovery. Following this, we had a low-cost flight to carry a new meteorology sensor into the upper atmosphere." "The vehicle departed stable flight once the first stage burned out, but it had sufficient momentum to tumble into space anyhow, and with a safe recovery of all 3 science pods the mission was a success." "However, using low-cost sounding rockets on upper stages in the future is here-after resoundingly discouraged without appropriate attention to stability mechanisms. Lastly, here we see in development our soon-to-be standard crew vehicle, as yet un-named. Rather than build a vehicle from the 3-person capsule which we have developed and yet which would in time become clearly insufficient, we are constructing a 6 person pod with integrated thrusters for use in extremis." "This craft in assembly is a stability test, which will be launched uncrewed to about 30,000 meters and its recovery characteristics mapped and the thruster plumbing tested. Now. Here we see our current contracts." "We have plenty of time for all as we have discussed, and we are currently waiting just another week or two for access to new science instrumentation before starting on the solar probe that we will place within the aeroshell which needs testing. Here we see the contracts which have passed CA review." After staring at the D-Magic proposal glassy-eyed for 5 or 10 seconds, he proceeded. "The most interesting contract here is to obtain data from the surface of Minmus, which would be our first landing on another body. We see plenty of opportunity for innovation here, but with the VAB crew fully invested in the 6-crewCap, this may be a good window to open this to private industry for submissions." For a few minutes, there was silence in the meeting room. Mort could not take his eyes away from the Valentine mission details. “Hmm.. congratulations on the good work, Gene. Although I have to ask a few questions. How in the bloody Mun did the Valentine mission pass the CA review? Don’t they have basic astronomy knowledge? Do I need to fire someone, Gene?” “And you seem to have taken my advice in the last meeting. A probe along with the aeroshell. Clever, very clever..” “I don’t think that it would be smart or cheap to make a trip to the poles just to take a temperature reading. We are not that desperate.” “While its good to see kerbals at KSC innovating, could you please make your next crew capsule a bit more visually attractive? Look at poor Gus, he’s hyperventilating! It doesn’t matter much to me, though. As long as it can get its job done.” “And to think that you, of all kerbals, would support private industries… Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Gene? I don’t have any issue, just make sure you don’t do this more often. The Civil Authority may just decide to cut funding if the private companies produce probes at a cheaper cost.” ‘By all means, feel free to have private parties involved. But I will be the one to decide on the prices, and certainly not the CA reviewers’ Mort thought to himself." Gene smirked and grunted, bearing Mort's whimsical mirth and the barbs buried within. "In the future we may find a use for exoplanet observation projects, which I am sure is what the scientists were really interested in. Big satellite telescopes aren't quite yet our forte' though. I'll get to work on everything else, and we'll have a memorandum out to private industry by week's end." Gene nodded and rose, knowing they were about to embark upon a new chapter in the Program.

Good afternoon! I wanted to ask a question about this mod and its power requirements. The OP states it would be "really hard to achieve in stock", however I think this under-sells the difficulty. I built a trial ship in sandbox and obliterated my EC storage by simply jumping to Mun. I haven't had a further chance to play around with this. About how many RTGs are we talking if that would be the only power source, and what would be the simplest (least invasive memory wise) power mod to add if I should decide to go down that road? It will be a long time before I use it, so no hurry, but I am very interested in other folk's experience with this. Thank you immensely for creating it!