TheShadow1138

Lovell, Haise, and Mattingly were originally slated as the prime crew of Apollo 14, but were bumped to 13 when it was decided that Apollo 13 prime crew Commander, Alan Shepard Jr. (the first American in space) needed more training after five years of inactive flight status due to Ménières Disease, which he had surgically corrected in May 1969, and so was moved to the prime crew of Apollo 14. Of course, Mattingly was bumped and replaced with Swigert when a blood test indicated that he may have the Measles.

On a late 2007 MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM and only 256MB of VRAM I saw no noticeable drop in performance from installing the 3.81 beta release. I should note, that I already had my graphics settings pretty low before installing, but no adjustment was needed after installation. Also, I installed the 3.81 release in a KSP installation that had some other mods, including the TextureCompressor, Protractor, and Achievements mods, which are the only ones that rely on plugins.

The Saturn I and Saturn Ib had no third stage. As for CSM, I would use the Mk 1-2 pod, and the SN Decoupler and SN Service Module by SuperNovy from the Spaceport with the "Poodle" engine. I have to correct myself a little here, a plan did exist to fly the Centaur, then called the S-V stage, as a third stage for the Saturn I launcher only. However, the Saturn I never flew in a three stage configuration.

He was featured in "From the Earth to the Moon", he was also quickly featured and mentioned by name in "Apollo 13".

To embed an album simply place the album's alpha numeric designation fro the full URL of the album leaving off the "#" and all characters that follow it between imgur tags like so: If the full URL on Imgur is: "http://imgur.com/a/fK8Zq#0" The code to embed the album is: [noparse] [/noparse]This will give you this: I hope that helps.

This is true, but the F-1 is the most powerful single-chambered liquid fueled engine ever built, as the RD-170 uses four separate thrust chambers to produce more thrust than the F-1. I have read, however, that some consider the RD-170 to be a cluster of four engines, and not a single engine. For those that do consider it a cluster, they would consider the F-1 to be the most powerful liquid fueled engine ever built. I do believe, however, that it is more widely accepted that the RD-170 is indeed the most powerful liquid fueled engine ever built.

Orbital velocity is, as has been stated already, dependent entirely on the mass of the parent body and the distance of the object from the center of that body. If I remember correctly, this is one manner in which a celestial body's mass may be determined. For instance, if we determine the orbital parameters of say, Io orbiting Jupiter, we can sue that information and the vis-viva equation (v^2 = GM*(2/r - 1/a), where "v" is the orbital velocity, "G" is the Universal gravitational constant, "M" is the mass of the parent body, "r" is the distance between the centers of the two bodies, and "a" is the semi-major axis) to determine the mass of Jupiter. So, If you want to perform a little bit of science on your own, you can launch a vessel to orbit of Kerbin, or any other body and note your velocity and altitude at a certain time, add the parent body's radius to your altitude (this gives your "r" for the vis-viva equation), use your periapsis and apoapsis to determine your semi-major axis, a=radius+(Ap+Pe)/2 (where Ap and Pe are altitudes relative tot he surface), and use the vis-viva equation to calculate the mass of the body you are orbiting. I believe that in the Tracking Station you can get both the radius and mass of each body to use for your calculation and confirm your result.

Here are some renders of my Saturn V and associated components.

Here's a rendering of a planet I made with a procedurally generated surface.

Here are a few renders I made in Maya 2008. Stargate: Atlantis My most recent attempt at the STS Stack

Nice Destiny model kerbtrek.

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that the docking hardware on the Shuttle was permanently installed in the orbiters in preparation for ISS construction. This would mean that a probe-and-drogue type docking adapter would have to be attached to the permanent docking hardware to allow docking with the Russian Orbital Segment of the station. It would probably have been possible to carry it up in the cargo bay, attach it to the docking hardware, or station, and then dock. This seems to me like an awful lot of work just to allow multiple orbiters to dock to the ISS at once. I can't really think of a situation where you would need, or want more than one shuttle to dock to the station, but with an adaptor it would be possible.

Duxwing, Firstly, allow me to apologize. I did not mean to be condescending, nor to offend. On forums, since it's difficult to gauge how a person will react, I tend to err on the side of caution and I certainly meant no offense. I always say "specificity is the key", alas I failed to be specific in this instance and that's on me. As far as the word "but" is concerned, I meant that in certain circumstances "but" may replace, or be replaced by "whereas". In the case of "as" and "because", the word "because" may not always be able to replace the word "as". However, I feel confident in saying (since I cannot think of a particular instance where it is not true) that the word "because" may always be replaced (possibly with slight rewording) by the word "as". I feel confident in saying this as the New Oxford American Dictionary's third definition of "as", in the part of speech of a conjunction, is "3 because; since: I must stop now as I have to go out.". This indicates to me that since "as" can mean "because", it means exactly the same thing as the word "because". I believe this addresses the "prevalence of this error" by proving that it is not an error. Secondary to this, in the case of this story (a letter to a friend) it would make sense for some grammatical or spelling errors to be present (though this is, as I believe I proved, not an error) as it may be an indication of how the character uses language, and not necessarily an honest mistake on the part of the author. Such a device has been used in fiction many times, where a character's dialogue is written intentionally with errors both grammatical and spelling to indicate a character with less education than other characters in the same story. I believe Mark Twain made extensive use of such a device in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As far as the purpose of each word, and synonyms go it is quite true that many words in English have exactly the same, or nearly the same meaning (this is the definition of a synonym). Technically we could remove several words from English, we could even remove some letters from the Latin Alphabet if we wanted, however this would cause several problems. Not the least of these problems would be the need to rewrite and reprint an untold number of works, otherwise we would be presenting future students with a lot of words and phrases that would no longer be valid English. Another problem would be that if we removed such words we would no longer have a need for Thesauri and have the problem of deciding which word to keep, or which definitions of words to keep. This would also make fiction and poetry in particular a lot more bland. I can't really pin down how your first counter-example is a counter-example to what I said. The second one, on the other hand, I understand completely, and you are absolutely correct.

I believe the only available ports were PMA-1 and PMA-3. PMA-1 is the one the Shuttle used and, though I can't get a good look at it in the short time I've looked, I believe PMA-3 may be too close to the radiators on the truss to allow the Shuttle space to dock there.

I'm not sure it would be cheaper to put the program on a flash drive as opposed to optical media. Doing a quick search on BestBuy.com I found a 50 GB dual layer writable BluRay for about $16 while the closest equivalent flash drive (64 GB) was on sale for $27.99 (regular price, $89.99). I also noticed that some 16 GB flash drives cost more (at their regular price) than the writable BluRay. I also found a 25 pack of dual layer DVD-Rs with a regular price of $43.99, which comes to about $1.76 per disk, opposed to a $10 16GB flash drive when its on sale. I'd say that in the long run its cheaper to use the optical media, or we could be paying upwards of $100 per game if they were put on flash drives.

Duxwing, I feel I should point out that though you are technically correct in the usage of "but" and "as", they exist in multiple parts of speech. A quick look in a thesaurus tells us that "but" can be replaced by, or replace the word "whereas", and "as" can also be used as a replacement for the word "because". Examples: * "this one's expensive, but this one isn't", or "this one's expensive, whereas this one isn't" * "they were free, as the case had not been proved", or "they were free, because the case had not been proved" I applaud your attention to grammar and desire to teach and learn, I simply wanted to help ensure that your advise is as helpful and accurate as possible.

The Outer Space Treaty is officially titled, "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies", and Article IV of the treaty states: "States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner. The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes. The establishment of military bases, instal- lations and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and the conduct of military manoeuvres on celestial bodies shall be forbidden. The use of military personnel for scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes shall not be prohibited. The use of any equipment or facility necessary for peaceful exploration of the Moon and other celestial bodies shall also not be prohibited."

I would probably favor multiple relativistic kinetic energy weapons. Provide them with too many targets, overwhelming their defenses giving a much better chance that you will inflict serious damage. I would think that it would be wiser to cause an impact winter that would wipe out the civilization in question while leaving the planet intact. This would give you the opportunity to expand your own civilization into that star system unchallenged.

Duxwing, thank you for taking the time to read my story and then take the time to provide your advice on how to improve my story. I, however, find myself admittedly confused on some of your points. 1. Wordiness. I am aware that I can be very wordy from time to time, which I tried my best to avoid. I do agree that I should have at the very least left out the actual "beep", but I don't think that I overly expounded upon the beep. I also can't help but note that in your edit of the first part of my story you added much more description of the closing of the hatch that was far wordier than my own very short description. I wonder if perhaps you meant to comment on my word choice rather than the amount of words I used. 2. Consistent style. I really don't understand why I should begin with a faceless, nameless Kerbonaut if I plan to zoom out from him at a later point in the story. If I will be using his name at a later point in the story, why not introduce him to the reader at the outset? I may just be misunderstanding what you mean though. 3. Simplicity of opening. Again, I may not be fully understanding your meaning here, but I don't see how a "meaningless action" at the beginning of the story complicates the exposition. I chose the action to introduce the character and provide at least a little context for his coming predicament. 4. Emotion. I tried, perhaps not as hard as I could have, to communicate Newney's state of mind, and I probably could have done better. If you mean that I should use the emoticons to visually indicate their feelings, that's just not something that I am willing to do in my writing. 5. The word "as" is not only a conjunction, but a preposition (like "while" and "when") and an adverb. The word "as" can, in fact, be used as a replacement for the worlds "while" and "when". Again, I appreciate that you took time to make these edits and to give this advice, however, I feel that most of it deals with the style of my writing. Correcting style is a task performed by copy editors, but typically that is in a journalistic context where the writer must conform to a particular style of writing, not a short work of fiction. I guess, what I mean by that is that I feel as though I have been told that my style of telling a story is "wrong", when style is mostly a preference of the writer except in journalistic or scholarly fields. Understand, that I do not mean to offend you in any way, this is just my view on the matter.

Thanks for the compliment, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I might write another, maybe about a successful mission this time. I could stick with the rescue-type missions though, I did recently have to rescue bill after a landing SNAFU on Minmus. Who knows.

Part III And now, the conclusion... As the minutes ticked away Newney’s thoughts began to wander beyond the mind-numbing silence. “How did this happen?” He asked himself. “Was there a leak in the tanks? Was the mission not planned right? Was it something I did? Did I use too much fuel during the landing?” Question after question ran through his head as he tried to figure out how he had gotten into this situation. It was a few minutes before Newney realized that he was actually saying all of that out loud. He looked around the capsule sheepishly as if he had been talking to himself in the middle of a crowded room, and decided that he would close his eyes and try to relax. Back at KSC the rescue ship was on the launch pad undergoing final checks before launch. The spotlights shone upon the rocket causing it almost to glow amongst all of the other structures around the space center. Most of the pre-launch crews had already vacated the area and retreated to the safety of the VAB. The only technicians still on the pad were those doing the final check on the remote probe system modifications and those overseeing the final tanking operations. Once all of the technicians had completed their work at the pad, they fell back to the VAB. The Pad Leader called mission control to give the “Pad Clear” call at which point the launch clock was started. “T-minus two minutes and counting”, came the call. Gene Kerman, standing at his station stood and said, “Okay people, I want a Go/No Go for launch.” Gene then began calling out the titles of the various control stations. “BOOSTER?” “Go!” “RETRO?” “Go!” “FIDO?” “Go!” “GUIDANCE?” “Go FLIGHT.” He continued going around the room coming at last to the final controller, which for this mission was being manned by Jebediah Kerman who would be piloting the spacecraft. “REMOTE?” “I’m Go FLIGHT.” “Alright gentlemen we have a kerbonaut to bring home. Let’s get this done right.” “T-minus fifteen seconds and counting. T-minus 10, 9, 8, ignition sequence start, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ignition.” “All engines running. We have full thrust.” Said the BOOSTER officer. As the BOOSTER officer finished his call the rocket lifted off the pad with the Firing officer calling out, “We have liftoff!” The vehicle roared into the sky temporarily lighting up the entire space center. Soon, the light faded around KSC and the rocket became little more than a point of light amongst the stars of the night sky. The light of the rocket dimmed once the six strap-on boosters burned out and fell away from the vehicle. “We have good booster sep and good indicator on the main engine”, the BOOSTER officer said, breaking the silence of the control room. The Flight Dynamics Officer, or FIDO was the next to break the silence. “Trajectory is nominal. We’re looking good FLIGHT.” “That’s affirmative FLIGHT”, said the GUIDANCE officer. “How’s the telemetry looking?” Said Gene. “Downlink is good, and all telemetry is reading nominal.” A few minutes later, the rocket was no longer visible and its launch nearly complete. FIDO broke the silence once again, “Apoapsis approaching target.” “GUIDANCE what do you have for me?” Gene questioned. “Vehicle apoapsis will reach target altitude in 45 seconds.” “Alright. Call it out.” “Apoapsis in thirty seconds…fifteen seconds…five, four, three, two, one.” “We have MECO”, said the BOOSTER officer. “Apoapsis at target altitude, and on course for rendezvous with Mün VI.” Came the call from FIDO. “Alright people good job so far. REMOTE, how’s the ship?” “We’re good FLIGHT. Everything checks out.” “Good to hear. Let’s let our guy know we’ve got the lifeboat on the way.” Newney was on the verge of sleep when he heard Gene’s voice come over the channel. “Mün VI, KSC. Do you read?” At first he wasn’t sure if he had actually heard it, or if he was dreaming it when it came over the channel again. “Mün VI, KSC. Do you read?” Newney quickly scrambled for the transmitter and responded, “KSC, Mün VI. I read you. It was starting to get pretty lonely up here.” “Sorry about that Newney. We wanted to let you know that the rescue ship has launched and is on time and on course for rendezvous in about one hour. Do you copy that?” “Copy that KSC, one hour to rendezvous.” “We’re gonna keep a close eye on you and the rescue ship. We’ll give you another update in half an hour. We don’t expect anything to have changed, but we will be increasing the frequency of communication the closer we get to rendezvous.” “I copy Gene. Tell everyone down there I look forward to seeing them when I get back.” “Will do Newney. We’ll contact you twenty-nine minutes from my mark. Three, two, one mark.” “Copy that KSC, Mün VI out.” With that Newney settled back down feeling a little more at ease knowing that everything was going well, at least for now. Almost thirty minutes later the air was starting to get a little thin as Newney started his own countdown to when contact was expected. Then, right on cue came the beep from mission control. “Mün VI, KSC. Do you read?” “KSC, Mün VI. I read you loud and clear.” “All our data still shows rendezvous between your craft and the rescue ship will occur as predicted in one half hour.” “Copy that KSC. Listen, the air’s starting to get a little thin up here. Are we sure there’s enough life support to get me to rendezvous?” “Copy that Newney. Hold on for a second while we check some numbers.” The outro beep signaled yet another period of uneasy silence during which Newney’s anxiety returned anew. In a little over a minute the beep of incoming communication from KSC came over the channel. “Mün VI, KSC. We have some instructions for you, are you ready to receive? Over.” “Copy that KSC. Ready to receive.” “There is a very good possibility that without any action you may be slipping in and out of consciousness about the time of rendezvous. So what we want you to do is to reseal your helmet and switch to your personal life-support system. There will be enough air in it to get you through rendezvous. Do you copy that?” “I copy KSC. You’re certain there is enough air?” “That’s affirmative Newney. We’ve double and triple checked the numbers. Over.” “Understood KSC, over.” “We will be contacting you again at T-minus 15 minutes to rendezvous. That will be ten minutes from…now. Over.” “Copy that KSC. Mün VI out.” After releasing the switch, Newney reached up and sealed his helmet. He then turned a valve on his suit and heard the soft hissing of his personal air supply beginning feed fresh air. Almost instantly Newney felt more awake, he had not realized how much of an affect the thin air was having on him until that moment. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly just listening to his own breath fill the silence that had once again filled the capsule. The next check-in at T-minus 15 minutes and another at T-minus 5 minutes came and went without incident with the final check-in scheduled at T-minus 1 minute to rendezvous. At T-minus three minutes to rendezvous burn was initiated to bring the relative velocity of the rescue ship to within a few meters per second of Newney’s ship. Once the burn was completed Jebediah took control of the rescue ship and began maneuvering it closer to Newney. “Mün VI, KSC. We’ve reached T-minus one minute to rendezvous. Do you copy?” “KSC, Mün VI. I copy.” “The rescue ship is within 1,500 meters and closing. We’re going to keep the channel open and give callouts every 500 meters then a 10-count for optimal distance. Do you copy?” “I copy KSC. May I have a go to go ahead and prepare the capsule for EVA? Over.” “Copy that Mün VI. You have a go to prepare for EVA.” Newney went right to work flipping switches and turning valves going through the EVA checklist as quickly as possible. “1,000 meters and closing”, came the first callout. Newney watched the internal atmosphere gauge move toward zero. He sat back in his seat and waited as the callouts kept coming. “500 meters and closing.” His heart rate quickened and he squirmed around in his seat trying to get a good look out of the small window in the hatch to see the other ship. He stopped squirming, unfastened his belts and moved to where he could see the other ship approaching. “Optimal distance in…10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Rescue ship relative velocity is now zero meters per second.” “Mün VI, KSC. Newney this is Gene. The rescue ship is keeping station and is prepped for your arrival.” “Understood KSC. Do I have a go for EVA?” “Roger that Newney, you are go for EVA. Repeat you are go for EVA.” “Copy that KSC. Opening the hatch.” Newney slowly turned the latch and pushed the hatch open. “I’m leaving the capsule.” “We copy that Newney.” He slowly floated from the capsule and engaged his EVA pack. Grabbing the controls he gently nudged it forward towards the rescue craft. The quick jets of gas generated a quick whooshing sound to accompany the only other sound, his own breathing. He moved slowly towards the ship at what seemed an interminably slow pace, but he dared not move faster for fear of overshooting. Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, but would later be told was only about 45 seconds, he put his hands on the hatch’s handle. “KSC, this is Newney. I’ve made it to the rescue ship.” “We copy that Newney.” “I’ve disengaged the EVA jets and am now opening the hatch.” “Copy that.” “I’m entering the capsule.” As he floated further into the capsule he pulled the hatch closed. He turned the latch securing it, and pulled himself into the seat and fastened the belts. “I have secured the hatch and have fastened all my restraints. Am preparing to pressurize the capsule. Over.” “Newney, KSC. We copy that. Go for pressurization.” He turned the valves and flipped the necessary switches then watched the internal atmosphere gauge. The needle climbed slowly, but surely to read 1 atmosphere. “KSC, Newney. Gauges read good atmosphere. Does your telemetry show the same?” “Affirmative Newney. We read good cabin pressure and all environmental systems operating normally.” Newney then unsealed his helmet and switched off his personal life-support. “KSC, Newney. I’m all settled in up here. What are my instructions?” “Rescue I, KSC. You’re just a passenger along for the ride on this one. Jeb’s gonna be handling the pilot duty. I’m going to hand you over to him now.” “Newney, this is Jeb do you read?” “I read you loud and clear Jeb.” “I’m going to initiate the de-orbit burn that should last for thirty-five seconds in…5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ignition.” Newney was pulled back into his seat and the capsule began to shake as the engine ignited. He kept his eyes glued to the capsule chronometer counting down the seconds of the burn. “Fifteen more seconds”, he thought to himself, “five, four, three, two, one.” The vibration stopped right on cue and he heard Jeb’s voice come back over the radio. “De-orbit burn complete. Your trajectory is looking good Newney. It won’t be long before you’re back safe on Kerbin.” “That’s great news Jeb. Will the capsule separate on its own, or will I have to do that manually? Over.” “Rescue I, this is Gene. We will be commanding capsule separation from here once your altitude reaches about 100,000 meters. Do you copy?” “I copy that KSC. When I get back drinks are on me.” “We’re gonna hold you to that. We’ll talk to you again after comms blackout.” “Copy that KSC. Rescue I over and out.” So that was all that he had to do, just wait a little bit longer and this whole ordeal would be over. The silence wasn’t unbearable anymore; it was peaceful once more like it had been on the trip out to the Mün. Newney watched his altimeter as it moved closer and closer to 100,000 meters, and when it was nearly there he was suddenly jolted as the explosive bolts holding the capsule to the rest of the spacecraft fired, separating the capsule for reentry. “It won’t be long now”, he said to himself, “When I get back I’m taking a long vacation.” A few minutes later Newney reached entry interface and the whole capsule began to shake. The vibrations increased in severity the deeper into the atmosphere the capsule plunged. As it passed 32,000 meters Newney could start to see the orange plasma of reentry appear in the porthole. “It wouldn’t be but a few more seconds before the blackout is over”, he said to himself. Around 20,000 meters Newney could see blue sky and white puffy clouds out his porthole and decided to try mission control. “KSC, Rescue I. Do you read me?” He heard nothing but static, and so tried again, “KSC, Rescue I. Do you read me?” Again, static, but this time he decided to wait a few more seconds. “KSC, Rescue I. Do you read me?” “Rescue I, KSC. We read you loud and clear Newney. It’s good to hear your voice. Our recovery teams have a visual on your ship and are ready to pick you up after splashdown. Over.” “I copy KSC, it’s good to hear you as well.” A few seconds later the parachute’s explosive bolts fired and it began to trail out behind the capsule. He kept an eye on the altimeter knowing that around 500 meters the chute would be fully deployed. He wouldn’t need the altimeter to know when this happened because there would be a quick and sometimes rather violent jolt. Sure as the Sun rises in the morning around 500 meters the parachute fully deployed and Newney got the biggest jolt he had experienced since launch. But, after the capsule settled down he knew that at long last he could relax. A short time later the capsule splashed down in the ocean not too far east of the space center. Newney saw the parachute fall down in front of the window and settle on the water’s surface. “KSC, Rescue I. I have splashed down. The capsule is secure.” “We copy Rescue I. Welcome home.” “It’s good to be home. This is Rescue I signing off.” He unfastened his restraints, took off his helmet, smiled waiting contently for the recovery crews to get him out of the capsule. The End.

I don't believe this has been mentioned thus far in this discussion, and I believe it should be. It is possible for the amount of energy obtained from say two annihilating particles (i.e. an electron and position) to be greater than the total mass of the system. The total mass would be equal to 2 times the mass of an electron, and if the particles annihilated one another at rest then the total energy obtained would be equal to 2m_e*c^2. However, I imagine most annihilations occur with the particles possessing some velocity, and thus some kinetic energy. This means that in the annihilation the total energy obtained must be, from the law of conservation of energy, equal to the sum of the rest mass energies and the kinetic energies that the particles possess.

Part II With every moment that mission control remained silent Newney couldn’t help but think that for them to be quiet so long his situation must be very bad. Finally, he heard the beep of mission control’s transmission. “Mün VI, KSC. Do you copy?” Almost frantically Newney keyed his transmitter, “KSC, Mün VI. I copy you.” “Sorry to keep you waiting up there Newney, but we wanted to double check our calculations before we got back to you.” “Copy that KSC. Well, give it to me straight guys, how bad is it?” “Well, the good news is that once you leave the Mün’s sphere of influence you will be in a stable orbit around Kerbin. “Okay. I hear the ‘but’ coming.” “But, your periapsis is around 2 million kilometers with an apoapsis beyond the Mün’s orbit. With no propellant you won’t be able to reach entry interface.” Newney sat in stunned silence for a few moments before slowly replying, “Copy that KSC.” “Newney I have Werner here to explain what we’re going to do to get you back.” “Newney, this is Werner”, he said in that familiar serious, but somehow reassuring tone. “We’re preparing a vehicle for launch as we speak. We have modified the Mün-type spacecraft with one of our remote probes. This will allow us to remotely control the spacecraft and will leave the capsule unoccupied. We will launch the vehicle so that it will intercept your trajectory at periapsis. At that point, Jebediah will take control from here to bring the capsule within range of your EVA pack. Do you have any questions so far Newney?” “I think I see where this is going sir. I haven’t exactly trained for something like this, but I don’t have much of a choice do I?” “I’m afraid not son. Once Jebediah has the rescue ship within range of your ship, you will go EVA and transfer to the rescue craft. Once in the rescue ship, we will initiate the de-orbit burn to bring you back home.” “Do you want me to bring the samples over to the rescue ship?” “That won’t be necessary. Secure your ship after you exit, then we can send another kerbonaut to retrieve the samples at a later date. Right now we’re more concerned about getting you back home before your life-support runs out” “I’m fairly certain I have enough air to make it until rendezvous.” “Newney, this is Gene again. All our boys down here are 100% certain that you have more than enough life-support to make it to rendezvous and even some beyond.” “Copy that Gene. So what am I supposed to do until rendezvous?” “Nothing much you can do Newney. Just sit back and enjoy the view, we’ll have you back home as soon as possible.” “Copy that. Newney out.” The capsule was now silent, more silent it seemed than it had ever been. This wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary for a Münar mission during the trip to or from the Mün, but this was different. During the trip to the Mün he had sat in silence for a good long while, but thought it was actually a pleasant change from the hectic pace of KSC. This time it was different. He had no way to change his trajectory, nothing he could do but wait and hope that everything went according to plan. To be continued...

This is a story I have based off of a problem I ran into during my first mission to the Mün's north pole in career mode. It is a little long to put the whole thing in one post (7 pages typed, single-spaced), so I am separating the story into smaller parts and will post each part separately over a period of time. I'm afraid that there are no pics to go along with it, but I think it can be enjoyed just as easily. Without further ado... ---------------- The Beleaguered Return (Part I) Just before opening the hatch of the capsule that would carry him home, Newney Kerman looked back down at the little flag he had planted and all the tracks he left in the fine dust of the Münar surface. He couldn't help but marvel at where he was and how as a kid looking up at the Mün he would have never dreamed he would be walking on its gray surface. He smiled and, feeling as content as a young child, turned and opened the hatch to his little spacecraft. Newney stowed the small satchel that held the rocks and soil he collected under his seat just as he had been shown back on Kerbin. "Lift the seat", he muttered to himself remembering the instructions. "Then, place the satchel in the container and tie it down. Once you've done that, lower and re-secure the seat." With the samples secured Newney plopped down into the seat, and just as he reached for his restraints he saw that he had not closed the capsule's hatch. "Newney, you idiot", he said to himself, "you can't go anywhere until you close the stupid hatch." He stood back up, closed the hatch, secured it, repressurized the cabin, and sat back down in his seat. He fastened his restraints giving them a good tug making sure he wouldn't be bouncing around the cabin like he did his first day in the centrifuge at KSC. That was something he never wanted to happen again. Now as securely fastened into the capsule as he could make himself he keyed the transmitter. "KSC, Mün VI. Come in KSC. Do you read me? Over." He waited for the distinctive beep that would precede mission control's response. In a few moments it came. Beep! "Mün IV, KSC. We read you Newney, loud and clear." Came the reply ended with the same distinctive beep as signaled its start. "I've secured the samples and myself in the capsule. Ready to commence liftoff." "We show all systems nominal Newney. You are go for liftoff." "KSC, Mün VI. Copy that. Go for liftoff in...five, four, three, two, one." Newney pressed the button to re-ignite the small engine at the base of the spacecraft. Newney was jolted back into his seat as the ship lifted from the Mu¨n's northern pole. At around 2,000 meters the ship pitched over just as programmed. Newney knew that all he had to do for now was to wait until the engine cut-off and he'd be on his way home. About a minute and fifteen seconds into a burn that was supposed to little over a minute and a half, the vibrations moving through the capsule suddenly stopped. Newney glanced around the capsule, halfway knowing and wondering what had just happened. He checked the engine burn indicator that was no longer lit, then looked with concern at the capsule chronometer and realized that the burn had not lasted as long as it was supposed to last. Newney keyed the transmitter and spoke with a tinge of worry in his voice, "KSC, Mün VI. My instruments indicate TKI burn terminated prematurely. Can you confirm?" There was a period of silence that only caused Newney more concern. Nearly a minute had passed without a response from mission control when Newney keyed the transmitter again. "KSC, Mün VI. Did you copy my last transmission? Over." "Mün VI, KSC. We copy Newney. Give us a minute to check some things. Over." "KSC, Mün VI. I copy." Newney did all that he could do; sit there looking over his instruments trying to figure out how bad his situation could be. To be continued...

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that various accelerometers and radar gather what information they can to determine position and velocity relative to Earth and any acceleration the spacecraft is experiencing and then uses an algorithm known as the Kalman Filter to process the information continuously predicting the next state (position, velocity, and acceleration) of the craft and then updating the prediction each second. Through this method the guidance system can determine the orbital parameters of the spacecraft.