The diary of a Kerbonaut in training --- short novel/story

[Columbia]

~~~~ENTRY 1 -- "APPLICATION TO THE SPACE PROGRAM"~~~

Well, seems like the space program's putting up applications again for astronauts. Pretty rare, nowadays they usualll0y have enough for about.. what, 5 space stations worth? And so far, 1,500 applicants have out forward their resumes, mine included. The only thing I really have that would probably help is a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

So basically, I'll most likely be an engineer/repairman/whatever, if I ever got in. Fun, isn't it?

Anyways, what next missions would the Kerbal Space Program (let's just call it KSP now) have in store? The only thing they're putting forward are tourist missions (using the "Tourist SSTO I." Who named this crap?) as well as.. a mission to Duna.

I know their launcher under development is the "Duna Launcher Thing" (What's the address of the guy who names KSPs' rockets?) and it's supposed to be what's called an "Apollo-style landing". No idea what that means, but it involves rendezvous and docking.

Whatever, I'll go back to playing Human Space Program. Damn, it's addicting.

~~ENTRY 1.5 "WHAT'S THIS??~~~

Human Space Program is insane. The developers named Kerbin "Earth", it's larger, and the parts seem to be like the 3.75m parts IRL. What?

~~~ENTRY 2 "OOOH, I WAS ACCEPTED!"~~~~

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!!

I was accepted for the Engineer role! I'll go to the Astronaut Complex for more details, but it'll be a long and hard training process ("long and hard"( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) that'll take months, probably even years.

That's nice, I'm being paid to use their equipment and learn things! Universities should follow the space program's path.

Also, what the hell is with the "STS" program parts in HSP? They look like the space program's Mk3 series, except far uglier.

I slapped a "Space Shuttle" together, slapped it on top of a B747 (Kerbal, isn't it?) and made it glide.

Oh my god, it flies so crappily. And the 747 looks horrifying! 

~~~ENTRY 3~~~~

I'm driving to the Kerbal Space Center now. I haven't been to the outside world in a long time and it's good to see some light again. The Space Center's the only thing really gleaming outside anyways. So it's pretty recognizable..

Oh god, it's huge! To put it straight..

*AHEM*

The whole thing seemed so magnificent, with the structures gleaming in all their glory. The VAB was so impressive in its size, a single Kerbal seeming to be molecular compared to the shining structure-- Screw this, I give up.

I can't do crap with literature anyways.

I parked right outside the runway. While there wasn't a fence (genius these architects are) there was a big sign telling me to be aware of jet blast. As far as my vocabulary is concerned, jet blast sends you flying, so you should probably stay away from it. I checked the signs. The astronaut complex looks.. okay? I mean, it's a small building, but pretty massive compared to the Administration building. But come on, the Admin. Building has a pool! 

I parked my rover near the lot, and decided to walk to the pool.

Faaaaaaake! Turns out the water is just.. light making it look like water. Wankers.

Anyways, I entered the building. Because I'm an engineer, I'll be serving as an engineer in the VAB as part of the training. Of course, I'll have the actual astronaut training as well because.. you know.

~~~ENTRY FOUR~~~

Okay, so I was assigned to work on the SRBs. There's things about O-Rings, there's rocketry things, and others. The boosters were already tested, so that's good. 

The booster's for a rocket to test the capsule. I still don't get why I was assigned to the booster. As an engineer, my job would be to repair rover wheels and extend solar panels, not learn how to try shutting down an SRB without wrecking it completely.

The training was sufficient. I was able to fit the segments with ease.

~~~ENTRY FIVE~~~

There was an argument today at Rockomax about whether conditions would work for the launcher, notably the SRBs. Oh well. I couldn't give two craps about it, honestly. Just follow whatever the higher-ups do I guess.

My first mission turns out to be taking ourselves to the space station "Low on funds so it's pretty small". Seriously, the giy who names them needs to get his head banged in or go back to school. Training's going to start soon

~~~ENTRY FIVE (2)~~~

Turns out no one really knows who named these ships. How lame.

~~~ENTRY SIX~~~~

Today, I was forced into staying into a cramped box with three other Kerbonauts as training. We got acquainted with each other before we were forced to stay there for a few days. Food was already stored in the capsule. Apparently it's simulating a rendezvous to the station. Ughhhh. Never again.

~~~ENTRY SEVEN~~~~

Oh, launch day's today! That's nice.

I went to KSC to watch the launch, and sat by a bench. It's one of the stepping stones for the "Duna mission thing" to be.. completed And um.. for Kerbalkind to know.. things.

This log isn't meant to be poetic.

It's particularly cold today, probably because Winter's coming around.

So it lifted off, yeah, yeah. It looks good. Okay. That's good as well. It's very nice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rocket rumbled off the launchpad, it's core and boosters shaking at the sheer power of the engines. The setup slowly lifted off the launchpad, smoke and fapor bombarding the whole of the launchpad. Soon enough, it was blasting into the heavens.

Sensors were scattered all over the rocket to send data back to Mission Control -- Speed, altitude and position.

The sensors responsible for detecting how close the rocket was to a certain marker on the "navball" froze as the rocket started accelerating more and more and the cold winds battered it.

This caused the guidance system to malfunction, so for every course change, it would not stop before the node, but after. This caused the rocket to swing to one side, miss the designated node, swing to it again and miss, causing it to wobble.

Eventually, the shaking was too much for the rocket. The forces placed on it were too much, and it eventually started a slow disintegration.

The attachment nodes of the boosters snapped, causing them to thrust inwards into the core of the rocket, and causing the whole setup to break apart slosly, until the only thing left that looked like a rocket was the capsule, which was spinning repeatedly and eventually broke up. 

In KSC, the debris field was monstrous. The impact wasn't severe, but property was damaged nonetheless. The boosters were destroyed before causing any damage, and evacuations started.

~~~~~~~~~~ENTRY EIGHT

..Um.. yea.

The rocket disintegrated. 

From what I saw, it must have been a problem with the unreliable SAS. The roclet started to wobble, slowly at first, then eventually oscillate damn hard 'til it broke up.

No news from the space program right now, but it seems that they'll have to ground anything related to the Duna mission. Training will continue, of course.

~~~~ENTRY NINE~~~~~

The KSC was in total chaos today. Some were totally grieved by the events, others pointing fingers. Overall, a @%$#storm. I learned about orbital mechanics. Turns out rendezvous is damn complicated, and uses a lot of RCS.

I also learned how to "stand near a drill." Why? Apparently, when someone assigned the role of engineer stands near it, it becomes more efficient at extracting things.

Don't question the logic.

~~~~ENTRY 10~~~~

I flew a fighter jet today! It was scary, especially with my instructor seemingly not to give two craps about WALKING ON THE WING while I was piloting. He's crazy. In case you might know him he's Jeb K. One of the better known pilots bsck in the day when rocket failures were a common thing and the KSC still looked like trash. 

I could have killed a legend. Just saying.

~~~ENTRY 11~~~

Okay, so I learned the jiu-jitsu (or Japanese martial art thing) of extending a solar panel in the case of mechanical failure. Really any Kerbonaut could do that, but apparently, engineers have good hands. 

I guess being an engineer isn't that boring. 

~~~~ENTRY 12~~~~

Oh, rover wheels.

Really any old layman who's driven a car for an hour could fix it well. But as with everything the Space Program has, it has to be done with precise hands (omgggg im so special xDDDD). Seriously, you might as well just have a pilot and a scientist.. On second thought, going to space would be nice.

~~~ENTRY 13~~~~

I'm learning to sew cloth!

For what reason, you may ask, my fellow reader? Well.. to repack a parachute. 

Why couldn't they just fit another pair of parachutes on their rockets instead of having to waste the time and effort of training Kerbonauts to repack things?

Also, they're hiring new VAB workers after the destruction of the rocket. The space program wants to make sure that any worker doesn't get caugt up in other duties while assembling things. 

So I no longer need to work with filthy SRBs! Thank god!

~~~~~~ENTRY 14~~~~~

I practiced EVA today. A nightmare. My god. No, reader, it isn't all fun and games in zero-g, the side effects would be extreme, and even then the suit is so difficult to move around in. Also, it's pretty horrifying to see yourself in space, the only thing separating you and certain death a few layers of padding and machinery.

~~~ENTRY 15~~~~

My logs are getting shorter and shorter. My time's getting more and more used up, so it's tedious to fill up. Tedious as heck.

The space program finally relessed a report, blaming the faulty SAS systems after freezing up in flight. Surprising, really, that it wasn't given as much a big deal as other failures. Perhaps because it was unmanned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I.. have completely forgotten about this log. For a damn long time. Shame. 

Training's done, our mission is tomorrow morning. I'm somewhat scared for the outcome, and even thsn if nothing goes wrong, I might not be used to the forces. What about the side effects of zero-g?

Before going to sleep, I finally got to build a replica of the space station and docked to it a few times to replicate the mission. But that's not accurate because conditions are different anyways.

Anyways, goodnight, reader! I'm off for now. Hopefully I can bring this, but I'll mostly be busy in my experiments and work on making sure everything works on the station. I can fill it out when I want to.

I'll be bringing a camera too, I guess. Why not?

~~~~END/MIGHT BE CONTINUED~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

[OrtwinS]

Nice, I like the little Human cross-overs like the entire 'how to name a rocket' thing.

You  might want to throw in a training mission trick for our trainee. Fly-by Mun, plant a flag on Minmus, pop out of Kerbin's SOI and get back alive -> And he gets a promotion to 3-star Engineer.

Also, you could implement a change in the universe's basic structural mechanics like installing a mod (something like Kerbal Krash System, which makes engineers actually usefull)

[Columbia]

On 5/18/2016 at 6:56 PM, OrtwinS said:

Nice, I like the little Human cross-overs like the entire 'how to name a rocket' thing.

You  might want to throw in a training mission trick for our trainee. Fly-by Mun, plant a flag on Minmus, pop out of Kerbin's SOI and get back alive -> And he gets a promotion to 3-star Engineer.

Also, you could implement a change in the universe's basic structural mechanics like installing a mod (something like Kerbal Krash System, which makes engineers actually usefull)

Thanks, I'll write the next part when I have time. I'm thinking of sending him to train for the Duna mission (once he gets back from the space stationof course), and a similar mission to put his engineering to the test, perhaps. Or he could just be the one having to deal with the problems of the station.