Haruspex

I have an ion probe with science stuff on it in polar orbit around Dres. Once in a while a contract for science from Dres comes along, so it's there to stay. But more than that? Meh.

http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

BIOLOGY The Kerbals are species noticeably different from humans when it comes to biology and anatomy. Like us, they are warm-blooded, breathe oxygen and consume proteins that come mostly from local plants and animals. But the most noticeable feature of Kerbals is the amount of control they routinely exhibit over their metabolism, being able to slow it down significantly for extended amount of time, and their ability to regenerate. Hibernation Kerbals can enter a state of hibernation at will; in this self-induced coma they can subsist on bare minimum of oxygen and food for years. Once a year or two a hibernating Kerbal might awake to have a snack, and then return to his dreamless sleep. This allows the Space Program to drastically reduce the resources allocated to life support aboard their vessels. One can send a Kerbal to a distant barren planet in a tiny pod and check on him several decades later, only to find him there unchanged and as stupidly cheerful as ever. The answer? He was sleeping most of that time. Regeneration Kerbals have strong regeneration ability. They can regrow lost limbs, eyes and most of the internal organs in a matter of weeks, and are susprisingly resistant to minor wounds and hostile environments, except high temperatures. Like with trolls of human legends, the best ways to kill a Kerbal are extensive damage to the central nervous system and/or fire. Kerbals are very susceptible to overheating, and heat slows down or stops their regeneration altogether. Most Kerbal deaths that don't involve fire are results of the mechanical stress that leads to lethal brain damage, such as being crushed or falling from great height. Regeneration starts to slow with age, but generally, a young or middle-age Kerbal is either perfectly healthy and whole... or dead. Longevity Kerbals are not immortal, and slowly age. But they have rather long lifespans, aided by regeneration, and if we take their ability to hibernate into account, these cute little humanoids can last a ridiculous amount of time - if nothing kills them. Especially interplanetary kerbonauts, who spent years and decades in hibernation, can live for many centuries. Procreation Kerbals have two sexes, but they are not mammals, and the sexual dimorphism is minimal. The females of the species lack mammaries and possess the same size and physical strength as the males. They lay one or two leathery eggs per mating season. As the embryo develops inside the incubated egg, the egg somewhat grows in size. As the progeny hatches, they are cared for and raised by the whole collective. There are no families in human sense and no strong emotional attachment between the parent and the child. Instead, each member of the genetically related "family group" (one can call it a "clan", or a "commune", or maybe even a "flock") considers every child in the group as "his" and protects them accordingly. SOCIETY Family The Kerbal society consists of groups of blood-related individuals living together. Such an "extended family group" can number from 15-20 and up to 300 Kerbals. There are no separate families within such a "clan", though Kerbals can form pairs, either for one mating season or long-term; but those "love pairs" do not raise their children separately from the rest of the "clan". Violence Kerbals, as a species, have instinctive aversion to any kind of violence towards each other. They do not wage war, don't make weapons and don't murder each other... directly. Nothing forbids a smart Kerbal from setting up a chain of events that might lead his rival to an untimely end. Or, better yet, from arranging for the enemy a suicide by stupidity. Or from sending a particularly disliked underling to a deadly trip from which there is no return. Kerbal criminals can be devious, cruel and very inventive in creating misery for their victims. Danger Rush Apparently, because in natural environment it is rather hard for a Kerbal to get killed, and if it even happens, the death is in most cases instantaneous, the nature equipped Kerbals (or at least some of them) with a curious mechanism of population control - the Danger Rush. The significant percentage of adult Kerbals can experience a extremely strong adrenaline rush when in life-threatening conditions. For those, it is an addictive joy, stronger even than the joy of mating. The Danger Rush and the social institutions built around it always were a most important part of the Kerbal culture. Recently, the Kerbal scientists claim to have found and isolated the gene that is responsible for this phenomenon. They have called it "BadS". Courage and Stupidity As the Kerbals are so long-lived and their natural survival rates are good, there is a strong population pressure and high levels of competition within the society. Kerbal society constantly produces "extra people", pushed to the fringes by the fierce, if mostly non-violent, competition. And because this competition is non-violent, it is the less intelligent who are always expendable. Those are relegated to the most dangerous tasks, often ignoring all safety, and die in droves. The Danger Rush also helps to motivate them. There is often another kind of fringe people: those, who are smart and ambitious, but lack the desire to participate in the never-ending influence games that plague Kerbal daily life. Driven by the Danger Rush, they become explorers and protectors of the Kerbalkind. Religion As many other sentient species, the ancient Kerbals were no strangers to religion. They worshipped multiple gods - Kerbol, the All-Father; Eve, the Night Beauty; Jool, the Great Green One, and Laythe, his daughter-wife; and, of course, that which will not be named, the force of the world-devouring chaos, the primal chthonic monstrosity... the Kraken. According to the Kerbal legends, the Kraken was slain by Jool, and his monstrous body handed over to one of the Jool's children for safekeeping, lest he be resurrected and awakens again... In later ages, the Kerbals became monotheists, with Kerbol the Creator becoming the only worshipped God. For some time, the Kerbal society was ravaged by the religious upheaval as different sects and cults struggled against each other. Eventually, the single Kerbol faith prevailed and became the only one remaining. One of the central myths of this religion is the creation of the first kerbal, the forefather of the entire race; you may guess his name - it is, of course, Kerman. The Order of the Source Like on many other worlds, the Age of Faith was followed by the Age of Enlightement. The Kerbal society at that point was obsessed with science, struggling to understand how the universe works. But the religion still had influence on the scientists' and philosopers' minds, and the universe was seen as a divinely created clockwork mechanism, eternal and unchanging, and Kerbals as the only sentient species. In those days, a secret society of most prominent philosophers, astronomers and alchemists that called itself "the Order of the Source" was born. Somewhat akin to the freemasons of Earth, but fixated on scientific knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The Order had a set of complex initiation rites. The recruit must shed all his old allegiances, his kin, his country, for the sake of SCIENCE. Like a first kerbal, humble and naked, he must stand before the eternal Creator at the beginning of time, single-minded and pure, carrying nothing from his worldly past. All initiated brothers and sisters of the Order, regardless of their origin, were given the new surname: Kerman.

Rescued a brave explorer named Dunrick who spent over 30 years living in his lander on the surface of Ike. Dunrick nearly fainted at the news that the female recruits are now allowed into the space program, and is overly enthusiastic to return back to Kerbin.

"Target: Grand Tylo Expedition Lander Debris"

"...No, no, please, not the parachutes!!"

I was bored and made this: You may use this image as you see fit.

Fired since Year 2. He should concentrate on better management for his company -- the parts it supplies are, unsurpiringly, junk, and his hapless employees are getting stranded all over the system. Just yesterday I had to rescue another of his girls that crashed on Minmus, and they tried to offer me a contract to bring back some idiot that managed to lithobrake on Eeloo, no less. Get your priorities straight, Jeb. Have a medal, a T-Shirt and goodbye.

Definitely the flickering and wobbling orbits. Sometimes even timewarping x2 or x3 doesn't stop it. I understand that this happens because of rounding numbers, etc., but still - Grrrr.

"But... why is the fuel gone?"

Preparing this for a journey to Jool. Lander/miner/refinery/tug module that makes the forward half of this craft can land on all the moons except Tylo and Laythe (tested dozen times on Mun and Minmus), and refuel itself. (Well, it can land on Laythe, as well as Kerbin, but it's one-way.) Just need to add a separate lander for Tylo (the Tylo thread in the challenges forum section has loads of usable designs) and something small and airbreathing that can survive the reentry on Laythe and fly to the nearest island. There'll be no kerballed landings on those two moons, so it isn't a Jool-5.

"You'll like it there... Purple skies!"

Alone with the universe On the solar winds Starbound

"Tumbleweed"

This! It is pretty obvious that Laythe has bacterial life in the ocean. Maybe, some primitive algae, etc., like Archean Earth, with barren and lifeless continents.

- I suck at landing planes properly and put kazillion parachutes on each and every of them. - I sent a massive kerballed mission to Eeloo. It ran out of fuel, did a flyby and vanished into interstellar space. After a few years, I terminated it to clean up the bloated save that was turning into a slideshow, but then couldn't stand the guilt of looking at the names of the poor kerbals in the "lost" section of the roster... and edited the save file to erase all traces of that expedition and its crew as if they had never existed. - I fired Jeb, Bill and Bob.

Update: I've moved it to the Mun (and lost 72 t of fuel in the process). So: - 154 t total mass: 15400 points - 1493 t launch (Tintagel) + 115 t launch (Goldfish): -3216 points - 4 kerbals at the station: 400 points - 36 comfortable seats (8x Hitchhiker at Tintagel, 1x Mk2 Crew cabin at Goldfish): 7200 points - two manned science labs: 500 points - "Goldfish" 4-kerbal shuttle (non-reusable) for personnel evacuation: 1000 points - 829x693 km Munar orbit: x0.75 ________________________________ It's 15963 points now. I had a really bad streak of flippings in 1.0.2, so now I never turn until 17-20 km, even if the payload is stable. Just a matter of playing it safe, I guess.

KSS Tintagel with Goldfish Shuttle Pure stock. - 217 t (Tintagel) + 9 t (Goldfish): 22600 points - 1493 t launch (Tintagel) + 115 t launch (Goldfish): -3216 points - 4 kerbals at the station: 400 points - 36 comfortable seats (8x Hitchhiker at Tintagel, 1x Mk2 Crew cabin at Goldfish): 7200 points - two manned science labs: 500 points (or 1000, if each lab is worth 500) - "Goldfish" 4-kerbal shuttle (non-reusable) for personnel evacuation: 1000 points - 122x122 km Kerbin orbit: x0.25 ________________________________ 7121 points total (add 125 if 500 per each manned lab). It probably has enough dV to move itself to Mun orbit, so there may be further updates to this to increase the score.

Aircraft name: Minotaur Orbiter Aircraft mass on launch: 110.1 t Propulsion: 8xRAPIER, 4xPuff for precision orbital maneuvers (not used in this flight) Pilot: Kenlan Kerman (EVA in orbit) Payload to orbit: 1.7 t ion-powered science satellite (see screenshots) Orbit attained: 127x82 km Landing on KSC runway. Flight time: 0:52:42.

It's long with engines at the end and has wobbly joints (docking ports) and lots of potentially wobbly elements stacked one upon another (SAS rings, i never trust those - as well as large batteries and remote guidance units - to hold under pressure). Great as a spaceship, but will most likely snap when trying to push it against a heavy boulder. Make your asteroid pusher flat (if possible), compact and sturdy. Or at least strut the docked sections to each other. And put all those SAS modules and batteries somewhere where is no direct stress applied to them.If did do something like that i'd put all that fragile stuff and the ore tank into a Mk3 cargo bay attached to the engine section, strut everything into oblivion and launch it all in one big piece.

...Whew. Finally. A proper velocity circumnavigation with a fully functional 90-ton transport SSTO (sans oxidizer, of course). Aircraft name: Minotaur Orbiter / Minotaur Mk III Aircraft mass on launch: 90.5 t Pilot: Philwig Kerman Flight time: 0:59:13 Circumnavigations: 1.

...It seems that I accidentally a sub-orbital entry because I went to get coffee and failed at monitoring altitude. Aircraft name: Mirax Aircraft mass on launch: 93.5 t Crew: 14 (all kerbals in my campaign save who weren't off planet decided to go on this sightseeing tour) Flight time: 1:05:33 Circumnavigations: 1 (Suborbital, broke max alt condition with 30813 m) ...Unlike many people here I don't build racing rockets. Instead, the planes I run around Kerbin are practical: ether heavy or superheavy transports, or SSTO prototypes. This one is the latter - with 16 kerbal capacity, the largest mk3 cargo bay and two docking ports, it is powered by eight RAPIERs. Unfortunately, this test went just a little more SSTOish than planned.

Well, here's my quick attempt at a speed flyer: I think if i build a proper racing rocket (see Kerbin circumnavigation challenge thread, there are lots of those) speeds of over 1700 are easily attainable.

A cruise missile?! You mean, a 144-ton intercontinental cruise missile with a suicide pilot's cockpit slapped on top! Well, that sounds like something late WW2-era Germany or Japan might have built. A retaliation weapon of bat-dropping insanity. Cool! By the way, looks like there are typos in the rankings: nicky4096 - 1:10:19 listed below me and Oxytropis, and Death Engineering - 1:32:312 has 312 seconds in his flight time, which is kinda confusing.

Aircraft name: Minotaur Aircraft mass on launch: 144.6 t Pilot: Kenlan Kerman Flight time: 1:19:13 Circumnavigations: 1 Well, that's a little bit better. I think I'll make a SSTO out of this.