Nnimrod

I was just thinking yesterday that I could use a map with names and borders on it My story takes place in JNSQ and fleshing out the world behind the story is tedious.

Saturday, 30 July, 430 Gabnas' stomach was in a knot as he walked down the poorly lit hallway in the VAB's small office section. The hall was on the outside of the building and the last bits of orange sunlight fell on the wall opposite the windows. It was after eight and everyone had gone home and the lights were off. He was anything but sure about what he was doing, but he had to do something. He opened Bill's office door. It was a small office with a metal swivel chair and a desk, and remarkably cluttered for having been occupied a grand total of 3 weeks. He leaned over the drafting table and pushed a thumbtack through a photograph and into the sheetrock. Bill couldn't miss it when he sat down in his chair Monday morning. He knew this was cruel, and that's why he did it. But that's management, right? There were half a dozen aerospace companies all trying to launch rockets over the last couple of weeks, to varying degrees of success, and Kerbal Space Agency had to be the standout, the successful rookie. It had to. Upon finishing his degree he had applied to Floyd Dynamics, with hopes of working on the most important task to the nation's defense - the strategic bomber program. Long range bombers had played a pivotal role in the Western Alliance's victory in the second Big War™, and with the development of nuclear bombs in the years since, it seemed that the importance of the massive aircraft could only grow. He waited a month for a reply, and finally sent them another letter reminding them of his resume. They responded, telling him that he was not currently being considered, but that they would keep his resume on file and inform him if the situation changed. He wasted no time in applying to C7 Aerospace, Floyd's leading competitor, and unlike Floyd, they wasted no time in telling him that they had no need for more aerospace engineers at the moment. He had been in university for six years, his entire adult life preparing for his role as a bomber designer, and now that he was ready there were no more seats at the table? The recruiters had told him he was definitely going to be accepted. "For sure kid, you get that Master's and they'll pay you 5,000 kerbits just for showing up. Demand couldn't be higher." The next weekend after he got the letter back from C7, he went to a local job fair and met Magnus Kerman, a stern kerbal who was starting his own aerospace company right here on the peninsula. The pay he offered was generous, probably more than Floyd would have offered. "You'll earn it." Magnus said. At the time he wasn't sure why Magnus was building a company around launching rockets, he just needed a job. But the importance of it had fully sunk in now, especially when the Kermunnists had put that satellite in orbit. He was pretty sure that he had chosen the right career, but he still lacked any actual accomplishments. And the choice to work with space rockets instead of the strategic bomber program had hardly been his choice at any rate. And then there was vengeance. He had plenty of reason to crave success - it's pretty normal for a young professional. But success would also represent an outmaneuvering of the HR department at Floyd Dynamics on his part. They had barred the gate when he was marching towards success as a fresh graduate, and he couldn't think of many ways to even the score. C7 Aerospace was the lesser of the two companies - but they had denied him as well. That meant that his professional success had to be waiting for him somewhere other than the strategic bomber program. There was one way. If he were to be on the forefront of the field that made strategic bombers obsolete... that would allow him to transcend Floyd's rejection and emerge more successful without riding on the back of an already extremely successful aerospace giant. If space rockets really were the future, then he stood a good chance at writing his name in history as one of the driving forces behind the early development of orbital space rockets. That would be an acceptable future. The newspaper this morning had something to say about the likelihood of that future tho. The article didn't go into specifics because the reporters didn't know anything yet, but it did have a big picture in the middle of the front page of the crooked, corkscrewed smoke trail left by RR-3 yesterday morning. The mission had been only a slight alteration of RR-2, albeit a little less of a failure. For starters there was no explosion this time. Bill's revised fairing was stronger, but still not aerodynamic enough. About six seconds into the rocket's powered flight, which was to last eight seconds, it tipped over westwards about 30 degrees and started spinning. It completed two corkscrews before the motor mercifully burned out, ending the smoke trail. Telemetry continued however - the electronics were still working. But the rocket was not going nearly fast enough to make it to it's target of 85,000 feet. They sent the signal for the thermometer to record and transmit data early, since the rocket would fall out of the sky much sooner than anticipated, but it still didn't have time. It only made it to 50,800 feet before tipping over and coming back down. The electronics didn't have time to complete the transmission, so that objective was also failed. The engineering team had failed with RR-2, their fairing was not aerodynamic or strong enough, and it proved a fatal flaw. The engineering team had failed again with RR-3, again the problem was thought to be the fairing. Bill kerman led the engineering team. Bill was the one standing, whether he knew it or not, between Gabnas and that acceptable future. How much blame was appropriate tho? Supersonic flight and aerodynamics was a field as new as the paint on the office walls, and the smell had not yet faded. Bill had worked on helicopter development at Steadler Engineering before coming to the KSA, another new field, but not related to supersonic aerodynamics in the least. Not that it mattered, there wasn't anyone else who actually had experience with space rockets. Magnus had chosen Bill because of his team's resilience and perseverance when faced with the constant problems they encountered trying to build an aircraft that hangs from a single propeller. He knew making rockets that go to space wouldn't be any easier. There was no book to go by. But responsibility is a terrible thing. It doesn't care about how hard your job is. It wouldn't hesitate for a moment to consign Gabnas to the cubicle of a failed engineer, designing cost optimized washing machines for the rest of his career if he failed here at KSA. And so despite the knot in his stomach he pushed the thumbtack through the picture cut from the newspaper of RR-3's crooked, failed smoke trail.

How do you keep this many mods alive...

Monday, 18 July, 430 Gabnas put the phone down slowly as he absorbed what he had just agreed to do. It was 20 minutes to six and he wanted to get out of the office because he needed to pick up some milk on the way home, Abgee needed it to cook dinner. He had been doing his least favorite task, paperwork, since returning to the office after the launch earlier in the day, and he was not close to being done. And he had just been told that KSA had agreed to a second launch before the end of the week. Not only was this mission less than four days out, but it was actually a mission with non-trivial objectives! RR-2 was to carry a tiny probe to the upper atmosphere, and send back temperature information. That means the rocket would have to ascend to more than four times the altitude of RR-1, and the thermometer would have to be read somehow, and the information would have to be converted to a radio signal, and then transmitted by the telemetry antenna. But at least this time there was no parachute to worry about. Parachutes are tricky, and there was significant uncertainty about whether RR-1's probe would hit the ground at 10 feet per second or 150. The good news was that very little needed to be changed for this mission. Bill Kerman assured him of as much as they walked through the hallway leading to the VAB's main assembly floor. "It worked last time didn't it? It'll make the altitude easy, it's 435 pounds lighter with this dinky gadget and no 'chute. And remember? last time we only had half the propellant loaded." Friday, 22 July, 430 He had a bit of a headache. "I need water, not coffee..." he thought as he sat an empty mug on the cluttered table next to him in the observation hut. The bright morning sun did nothing for his headache. He hadn't slept very much since the call Monday evening, but he had somehow pulled it all together, and RR-2 sat on the pad 1000 feet away. The siren started to wail and kept bellowing for 10 seconds, signalling that anyone that was somehow still hanging around the launch pad had better duck behind something fast and cover their ears. Just as he noticed that his ears were still ringing after the siren stopped, RR-2 jumped into the air like it's predecessor had four days earlier. This time the smoke trail kept going for about 7 seconds, and then... turned into a white puff... BANG Before Gabnas comprehended what the white puff meant the crisp bang of an explosion hit the hut. All telemetry had stopped. Magnus was in attendance, and Gabnas turned around to look at him despite his better judgement. His lips had virtually disappeared into a tight line across his mouth. RR-2 was over after just seven seconds and nothing was left but the limp stalk of smoke that hung in the air below the now slowly drifting white cloud. Later that day Bill had his preliminary report ready. He said that the high speed cameras showed the rocket starting to turn ever so slightly immediately prior to the explosion. It started to turn, and then there was one single frame of the rocket tipped about 45 degrees off course, and the fairing seemed to be deformed. and then it exploded. But telemetry didn't show that the rocket had steered itself off course. Bill hypothesized that the rocket must have suffered an aerodynamic failure which caused it to tumble, and that the tumbling had resulted in a crack in the rocket's solid propellant grain. Solid rockets can't tolerate cracks, because the propellant burns at the surface, and a crack means more surface area. More surface area means more total burning propellant, and the throat of the rocket is only so big. So with too much gas being generated inside the rocket and not being able to escape through the throat of the rocket fast enough, it will explode. The rocket's airframe wasn't stiff enough to survive tumbling at almost mach 2, and that allowed it to flex, causing the propellant grain to crack. But what caused it to tumble in the first place? Bill pointed to the deformed fairing in the last frame of video. "These rockets had big warheads. 750 pounds of TNT. They never got going as fast as RR-2. And that's part of it, but it aint all of it. The other part is our fairing. I thought welded sheet steel would be plenty strong, but it looks like I was wrong. When the army used these rockets there was no fairing, they just bolted the 750 pound bomb to the rocket and it worked out ok for them. I have to take full responsibility for this one Gabnas. The fairing was fine for RR-1 because it only went just past mach 1, but RR-2 hit almost mach 2 and still had another second left if the damn thing didn't blow up." Saturday, 23 July, 430 The government was somehow only mildly put out over the explosion, and a couple hours after the reports had been submitted, Gabnas got the go ahead for RR-3, which was the same mission, and had a scheduled launch date of 0900 on the 29th. So he and the engineering team would be spending a lot of time together over the coming week. They had to come up with a stronger or more aerodynamic fairing that could stand up to the brutal acceleration from the artillery rocket that was accelerating a 5 pound probe instead of a 750 pound bomb. RR-2 with payload fairing removed To be continued

Are those mun rocks you found stock?

The selection of mods we've got available right now looks about right for a really awesome career playthrough. One in which the mods work together coherently and without jarring differences. Huge thanks to people who make mods. I've worked on my own unreleased mods, so I know how much work it is. Mod list: Difficulty settings/theory: I get bored immediately if it's too easy. I can take tedious and difficult, but not easy. Past saying that I'm not going to go into detail about why I picked certain options or values, but feel free to ask if for some reason you want to know. Saturday, 16 July 430 It still smelled like wet paint when Gabnas Kerman stepped through the lobby door of the admin building, but at least they had finally finished installing the air conditioning system. It was hot and muggy every single morning here on the peninsula, and he had started working in the brand new building Monday - five days ago. Five days of sweat soaked slacks and shirts to be dry cleaned tomorrow. He had spent the last week plodding through financial and legal paperwork in preparation for the agency's first launch, RR-1, and he needed to be finished with it by this evening around 4pm in order to get home in time to wash up for the celebration dinner. It was a special company dinner twice over, first because the newly formed Kerbal Space Agency's launch facility was now operational, but also because this was the 16th of July, Victory day, marking the 10 year anniversary of the kerbals victory in the second Big War™. RR-1 was scheduled to lift off Monday morning at 0900 and it absolutely had to go as planned. Way too much money and influence had been invested in pulling the company together for the very first launch to go south. It was the epitome of a demonstration mission - an inexpensive unballed rocket with no payload and only half the normal propellant would fly up, and then be recovered after descending under a parachute. Still, it will be the organization's first launch, and confidence is no substitute for proper planning. Excrements! The coffee was way too hot and as he jerked it away from his mouth he spilled some on the RR-1 blueprint. RR-1 mission with payload It was a refitted old army rocket from the war - chosen because there were about 600 of them auctioned off a year ago by the government, and Magnus Kerman, a kerbal who owned a large portion of the heavy construction equipment industry, bought 20 of them for his fledgling project - a private space launch industry. A pretty big gamble considering that at the time no one had ever actually launched anything into orbit, and the only reason for high altitude rockets at all was either military related, or for weather research. But his gamble started to make him look like a visionary five weeks ago, when the Kermmunists launched the first satellite into orbit on board a rocket big enough to... big enough for exactly one purpose - to carry a nuclear bomb up through the stratosphere, into space, and drop it on our side of the West Kerbin Sea. That event had the government ringing the telephones of every aerospace company in the nation with cash in hand. It looks like old Magnus was on to something. But bureaucracies move slowly, and for now the mission was just to conduct this demonstration and christen the brand new concrete launch pad. The launch was entirely nominal, but still put a big smile on everyone's face in the observation hut. The rocket leaped off the pad and a half second later the sound washed over the observers, half shriek and half thunder. It shot up quickly for four seconds, riding on a thin stalk of grey smoke that connected it to the ground before the stalk of smoke ended and the rocket continued on, invisible now. But no one managed to keep their eyes on it because the observation hut had been placed 1000 feet to the west of the pad, and the morning sun was far too bright to look at. The sensors reported that it had ascended to an altitude of just over 20,000 feet and had broken the sound barrier. The fairing was supposed to blow itself apart to reveal the electronics package inside when the air speed dipped below 50 feet per second, and 10 seconds later separate the electronics package from the rocket to parachute to a safe landing. And one assumes that this happened, since the probe was retrieved as planned from the featureless grassy lowlands between the launch facilities and the sea.

Apologies, when I said "What are you guys doing for contract packs" I meant people playing JNSQ, not the team. I was just wondering what people have been using, not expecting you to do anything. Didn't realize it sounded that way. I actually just got Strategia and it looks like I may not even need a contract pack any more. It looks pretty awesome. And re. tech trees - No, they aren't directly related to solar system replacers or planet packs, but they are related to what contracts you use, and contracts are related to planets. I mean it would be no good to start with a contract replacer that gives you only plane contracts designed for kerbin, a solar system that replaces kerbin, and a tech tree that doesn't give you plane parts right away (Like stock).

What are you guys doing for contract packs? Solar system replacers, contract modifiers, and tech trees kind of go together, and I guess there's strategia, but that's not really a contract pack is it? And whatever tech tree goes with this family really should play nicely with BDB...

Hi, I'm guessing this does work fine in 1.7.1? And should I be using custom barn kit 1.1.19, or is there a more recent fork somewhere out there?

Damn that's an appropriate name Thank you for showing me this.

Yeah, you're right. However sigma dimensions doesn't seem to be working. Which is fine, I can wait.

I'm guessing compatibility with 1.7.2 is waiting on dependencies?

a 25. because I misread title, foxbat/hound.

I don't think that's a very fair fight :s EDIT: nvm I didn't realize that was a mig 31

Is Notepad++ passable for editing/writing stuff? I just need MVS or monodevelop for compiling, right?

Ah yes, thanks. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't know what I'm doing

darn. Yes I want different models to have different failure rates. How do I open the .dll and look at it? I don't know what I'm doing yet.

Can I use this to give individual parts unique failure propensities?

Other than just giving you science/funds.

Is this intended to be compatible with 1.4.3.2152? The version file says 1.4.x. I know it's not a proper bug report, but I've been trying to track down a bug that's causing a crash message to pop up when you launch anything for hours, and I've finally narrowed it down to this mod. This is with a pretty heavy load order, so... Well I understand that things are less likely to work when using 30+ mods.

Do I need to do something to make scatterer use the GPP config or does it do so by itself? When I load for the first time, scatterer has a dialog box (At main menu), and a field that says ".cfg file used: scatterer/config/config". I assume that means scatterer isn't using the GPP config?

ignoreForIsp = True Well damn that's perfect. Thanks

For engines that are pressure fed, or use a separate fuel for the turbine gas generator, like A-4 derivatives. I can just add it as another propellant, but then it affects Isp.

I am in complete support of lengthening your parts to make them the same L:D as their real world versions. And of having some larger nozzle GEMs.

Single use parts are not at all a bad thing. Almost all parts are designed as single use IRL. It's creative people that make them into rockets.