Kerbiting System: Revelation and closing of Thread

[DAL59]

@Alpha 360, after booster landing, hit return to main mission.  Then from there go to tracking station and recover booster.  

[Alpha 360]

Installment 30 1/2: Some quick testing.....

Okay, going to test out your method, @DAL59. I have quickly thrown together a cheap rocket which is seen below. 

Launch in three, two, one. And Lift-off!

This is going to be quick. But I have taken a lot of pictures so who cares. 

The first stage is out of fuel. I started a half-hearted attempt to get myself higher in the atmosphere.

But then I hit the button saying FMRS Tester Probe. 

It took me back to the point of separation. I then pulled the chutes and waited until touch-down to see whether or not this would work.

The power then went out on the probe. Fine with me as long as the probe survives. 

Parachutes activated. 

I click the button, Jump back to Main Mission. 

It thinks for a second, this screen shows for a couple more seconds. 

Then I'm back with the main mission. YES!

I mess around a bit, detaching the liquid fueled stage then hitting the SRB to get up to very hot speeds. 

Then I click Revert to Launch. It waits a second. 

Then I'm back at the launch pad with this scrappy rocket. 

Looks like everything checked out. Thanks again, @DAL59! Next full Installment will be some more space docking and the first test of the Sirius Command module.

Happy Explosions Until Then!

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

My appreciation for those separation SRBs has returned

IMHO, the Sepratron is the single best, most useful, and most fun part in the game.  Its potential as a weapon component or dragster powerplant is unsurpassed.  Oh, and it's also got a practical use in pushing spent boosters away.  Who knew?  

 

2 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

Oh, this is brilliant. Just brilliant. Just stop reverting my flights, FMRS! I need guidance! BADLY. Won't be continuing until guidance comes. 

Maybe you could post up in the FMRS thread to ask for a slightly bigger window with more separation between the buttons?

I salute your stage recovery efforts.  I know this is a pain to do and appreciate the technical difficulty.,  But I'm lazy and like explosions so I just put TAC Self Destruct on anything that might otherwise stay in orbit and enjoy the fireworks  

[Alpha 360]

31th Installment: A Short Break

I will be taking a week or so long break from KSP after this next installment. School work has been lagging as well as a couple other pet projects. And to top it all out, I got a new book, Trident Deception, to read. It's at least 400 pages long so that should occupy me for a long period of time. Enough personal stuff, lets get Sirius docked to the KMSOS at last!

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Lift-off of Sirius! KASA's new mainstream do-it all manned command module!"

The rocket shakes and vibrates as it launches into the air. To go beyond the atmosphere which has retained kerbalkind for thousands of years. To defeat the Kerman Line and to dock to Kebalkind's first modular space station. 

Everything looks good. All lights are green for go. 

"Solid Rocket Booster Separation in T-10 seconds!" The four kerbals on board the Sirius spacecraft braced themselves for the detachment.

"The detachment of the solid rocket boosters wasn't clean! A solid rocket booster stripped off a fin off of the rocket. The kerbonauts report that the rocket still remains on course."

"Keep the engines firing. Its about time we get out of the atmosphere."

"We have reached 800 m/s. The first stage is due to run dry in 30 seconds."

"The First stage is dry. Decoupling it now."

"The second stage is at 1300 m/s and 40 kilometers above the Earth. The Poodle engine has started."

3 minutes of poodle magic later, and an intercept with the station has been plotted. Now I jump back to my first stage to land it.

The fuel from the radial fuel tanks starts to drain into the bottom tank for stability during reentry.

Now reentry has started. Luckily Mission Control still has a connection with the booster. 

The connection starts to weaken as the booster starts to descend pass the horizon. The missing fin causes the rocket to oscillate wildly. Mission Control has the first stage fire up its engines for a second to slow itself down for the parachutes to deploy.

 And the parachutes have deployed safely. The first stage is now 6,000 meters above the sea and slowing down. And then we pass the horizon and mission control has lost direct contact with the first stage. Luckily the first satellite is in the right position to pass the connection on from the booster back to Mission Control. But, the first stage is only controlled to a limited extent. 

Mission Control can only go 100% thrust or 0% for the engines. The rocket is descending at 20 m/s with parachutes. This is going to be tricky. 

With an unimaginable piece of luck, the engineer controlling the thrust hit the button only a fraction of a second too late. The main skipper engine is destroyed in the landing, but the outside engines still survive. 

Mission Control jumps back to the main mission. 

The intercept is plotted, but the Sirius Crew start making course corrections straight away. 

The intercept draws closer. The Sirius is now a couple of kilometers away now. 

The second stage is detached and solid rocket boosters deorbit it so that the area around the station would clutter with space junk. For framerate issues. 

The crew on the KMOSOS now are attempting to move the station to receive the Sirus spacecraft correctly. 

Sirius is 500 meters out from the station. Moving in slowly, Obbertty doesn't want to take any chances at all. At all. 

Sirius is now 100 meters out. The spotlight beams onboard now highlight the station. We're glad we put those on. Just another nudge to the left, I mean right. Now a nudge to the left. 

The two are drawing nearer and nearer. With some good luck ad Obbertty's piloting skills, it looks like this docking attempt will be successful. 

Within 50 meters. The approach looks good and the scenery looks pretty. This is why I play KSP. Just for moments like this. Wait, I am repeating myself from the last time I had docked to this station. I guess I do like to dock at this station. How about that.

Within 10 meters now. Everything is lined up. Mission Control is quiet. Obbertty holds his breath and the docking ports start to attract each other. 

5 meters. Everything is good to go.

And docked! Mission Control goes wild. Sirius has passed its test with flying colors. It has succeeded in both recovering the booster and completing its primary objective on the first orbit. 

This is the shot I am going to leave you guys. I would feel sorry that I won't be on the forums for a week, except for it is for my own good. This is as addicting as any video game (This is the only social media I follow, if the forums are even that. That's why I spend so much time on it). 

Anyway, the next installment will be the next module to be installed to the station as well as a Sirius Launch into high orbit to gather science data to bring back to the KMOSOS. Good-bye until next week. 

Happy Explosions Until Then!

[Alpha 360]

32nd Installment: Back on track

I couldn't restrain myself. My 7 day fast turned into 4 days of restlessness, schoolwork and bore. Yesterday I gave in a played for about 3/4 of an hour and took a few too many screenshots. I find that every week I have to empty out my screenshot storage and dump it into the trash, is this normal? 

Alright. To get enough science to crack open heavier rocketry tech. This will give us access to the Mainsail Rocket Motor. Just look at those stats. This rocket engine will probably power the Dres Spacecraft, given it's power. 

We have launched another one of our economical landers towards Minmus for some biome hopping. It has changed a little bit, gaining more delta-v and looking a little bit better than the old lander. 

Okay, it doesn't look much better. But now, we have strapped on the reusable, standard first stage. We have started to call it the Atlantis booster. The story behind that name is interesting..... To say the least.

When we recovered our most recent booster from the sea, an engineer, dazed by the heat, upon seeing it sitting in the water, cried out, "Look! The Tower of Atlantis!" He then fell over unconscious from exertion. The name has stuck. 

Anyway, the additions include space for 3, large landing legs, and a pair of hatches near the bottom. That and the addition of the booster and the exchange for 5 terriers for 1 poodle on the second stage is all we changed. We promise. 

The launch was standard, if the trajectory was a little flat. I decided not to put in the pics of the launch because you have already seen them before.

Well, except this one. 

I will mention one bug with the mod. I accidently switched over to the booster when I decoupled. Later after the lander reached orbit, I couldn't jump back to the first stage which prevented its recovery. Bye-bye 40,000 funds.....

Here is the spacecraft in orbit. I set up an intercept with the KMOSOS because this lander has no crew members. Bye-bye 200 m/s. I'm being a little wasteful this time. I'm just getting back into shape. 

Oh, and due to save issues, now the capsule that I docked in the previous installment was still floating near the station. I attempt to do a speed docking. 

Coming in at 0.6 m/s in comparison to the 0.2 m/s last time. Luckily everything lined up and I docked in record time. 

Now I realize something pretty important. There is no RCS on-board the lander. Well, looks like this will just have to be disposable even after I lost the booster. Shoot. 

(In case you noticed, money is a little scarce around the KSC) 

I move close enough in to the station to start to EVA the kerbals over. I'm taking the rookies, Obberty and Elibert, out for a spin. I'm ready to level up my first engineer to level 2! 

Here is the station and the lander, which is parked up within 100 meters of it. Surprisingly, there wasn't as much lag as expected. In fact, there was none.

(I'm really loving my new computer )

Here is Obberty flying off to the lander. He still doesn't know how to use his EVA pack. tut tut. 

Elibert had a much better time of it. She's an engineer. They know EVERYTHING. Unlike the scientists.....

Here's a really cool look at the station and the lander. Should I continue to use those bright orange fuel tanks? They do make the spacecraft easy to spot.

Well, next installment will be the second Minmus landing, hopefully with less of a hassle than last time. I might do it in first person mode, this time starting a fresh from Obberty's perspective. 

Happy Explosions Until Then!

[Alpha 360]

33rd Installment: Obberty Kerman

Hello, I'm Obberty Kerman, more commonly called Obb. You say it like Bob or Rob, but just the end part of it. Obb. 

I have been in the space program for only a little while. I was rescued around Kerbin by a small rescue pod sent up by KASA. That was an interesting flight down, with lots of explosions. Anyway. This is another story of a Minmus landing, this time told from first hand accounts otherwise known as me. 

I am a pilot, like Roni. Roni had decided to take a break from space travel, saying that she can't deal with the stress the way she used to. I haven't a clue what that means but I have been rolling with it for a couple of days now. Roni now works in the trainers day-in and day-out. She says that she is training for the Dres Mission in 60 days. She probably is. 

I, meanwhile, work at training for the upcoming Sirius launch. I will skip over this, for this story was already told. I went up with (Ir)Fred, Eli(bert), and Billy on that rocket. Boy, it was smooth rocket launch. Fred and Billy complained that this was the same first stage that took their comrades, Ron(I) and As(sey) to Minmus's surface and back. I didn't care. The Atlantis booster was a brilliant piece of machinery which could land automatically on the water. This reduced the cost of the mission which was useful. Mort(imer) was strict as a schoolmaster and stingy as Scrooge when it came to funds, so every penny he could strike off he did. 

When the first stage booster ran out, the second stage picked up the pace and headed towards the KMO(SOS). It didn't take too many orbits for the Sir(ius) to reach the KMO. 

Billy and Fred recalled their stories of Minmus Orbit, thrilling me and Eli as we were rookies. We devoted 1 entire hour to story time, then we all went to our bunks to sleep. The next waking period marked our arrival in the KMO's Box. 

Each and every spacecraft in orbit of Kerbin had an area around it which was heavily censored, called it's Box. The Box for each spacecraft differs, depending on its size and its fragility, and acceleration. The Box around KMO contained about 1000 cubed kilometers in a 10 by 10 by 10 kilometer cube. Anything larger than a grain of dust would be detected by the sensors on the station and on the ground and the station would move just enough to allow the dust to miss. 

We entered the box moving at 10 m/s relative to the KMO. I lined up the nearest docking port and started to move in to dock. I will not account for each moment of this momentous part of my life, sitting at the helm of KASA's newest spacecraft piloting towards Kerbalkind's first outpost in space. 

It took about 2 hours to reach within the 1 kilometer mark, Then I slowed down to 5 m/s using the RCS thrusters and started to make the final adjustments for the docking. When we reached the 100 meter mark, I poured sweat into my suit. Little did I know then that in a couple days I would drinking that sweat in the recycler experiment. 

As watched us from a window. The first kerbal to set foot on another world. Who spoke such a powerful speech that would impact generations in the future. The prefect kerbal, the role model for millions, even tens of millions. 

She waved through the window at me. I stared stricken until Billy knocked me on the helmet and I quickly corrected a drift to the right. When the docking ports clanged together, I released the controls. I saw I had white knuckles when I pulled off my gloves, showing clearly through my green skin. I rubbed them quickly and then started the process of opening the hatch. It took 10 minutes for the hatch to open, but then it slipped open cleanly. As was floating just in front of me. I quickly glanced behind me at Billy, Eli, and Fred. 

"The hatch is open." 

"We see that, buddy-boy." Billy bobbled his head. He then shoved past me and floated down into the station. I then moved aside and allowed Fred and Eli to pass. Eli slowly approached As, staring wide-eyed. 

"Don't worry. I'm kerbal, just the same as you." Eli embraced As, then quickly pushed herself down the corridor, following Billy. 

Fred and As were teary eyed as they hugged. I waited, embarrassed at the display of emotions. I remembered that Fred was left on-board the old Minmus Outpost circling around Minmus. She stayed there for weeks until she was rescued by the crew of the first Minmus Landing. 

They were reliving that moment together. Finally, Fred pushed herself pass As. I floated out, blushing. 

"Hi. I'm the new pilot. My name's Obberty." 

She smiled a warm smile at me, "Welcome Obberty to the KMOSOS. I saw your piloting. That was a very good and precise docking." 

"eh. I bet you have seen better." I said non-committedly.

"Actually, Roni has done worse dockings." She said conversationally. I must have stared.

As laughed a beautiful laugh, "Roni isn't the prefect pilot that she seems to be. She shines during maneuvers and landings, but never dockings."

I blushed more fiercely, then I stuck out a hand. She shook it, and we entered KMO. 

The announcement came 1 week later that a lander was being sent up to rendezvous with the station, pick up a crew, then head out for Minmus. We were going to draw lots on who got to go, and who would stay behind. Fred refused to put her name in the lottery, saying that she had a bad experience with Minmus. Billy also didn't put his name in. That left me, Eli, and As the lottery.

I would like to say one thing about myself. Sometimes, I feel like I'm not qualified enough to be a kerbonaut. I often feel under par. Well, I haven't felt like that for the entire time I was on the KMO. I now have hope I might become a famous kerbonaut, like As. 

Three days later then lander arrived. Apparently it had no RCS, so that meant it couldn't dock. Fred cursed the engineers on the board fiercely. I did know that the main reason she had been left at Minmus was because Wehner's team forgot to put two extra seats on the reentry capsule. 

So the three of us floated in a circle as Billy drew the lots. Billy pulled one piece of paper out of a plastic baggy. He read it, then said, "Eli Kerman". She smiled, then started to head out for the airlock. 

Billy made a great show of pulling the next name out of the bag. He looked mischievously at the two of us floating in the air, then he drawled out, "Obberty Kerman". He beamed at me, as did As. 

I made it. I was going to Minmus. I hugged Billy, then pushed him out of the room. He looked confused. 

I turned to As. "I'm sorry that I'm taking your place on the mission."

She shook her head, "Don't worry. Anyway, my name wasn't in the bag. The lottery was just to get you two excited."

"Why don't you want to go back to Minmus?"

"I don't need to go. And I want you two have the experience of visiting it. There is nothing like stepping off onto a distant planetary body with the stars above you and Kerbin rising over the horizon. I want you to enjoy it. For me." 

Without thinking, I hugged her tightly. "I will. I will come back. I promise." I smiled at her, then I left for the airlock. Eli had already left for the lander. In big words, the words, "The Falcon" were stenciled on it. 

"The Falcon." I murmured. 

Billy helped me put my suit on. He stepped back into the KMO. I then pumped the air out of the airlock, then I opened the door. 

This was my first EVA. It was breath-taking. The stars dotted the entire sky in white lights. It was astounding. I pushed myself into the void. I saw the sun emerging from behind Kerbin, lighting up the station. It was one of the most breath-taking moments of my life. 

I then flew over to the lander, goggling all around me. My gut had the sensation that I was falling, falling, falling towards Kerbin. In reality I was not, just gliding in zero-g. I reached the airlock on the lander. When I turned around I could see As waving good-bye from the nearest window on the KMO. I waved back, then I climbed into the lander. That is how this story begins. 

Spoiler

The coming story will be a couple of installments long. Planning to do so as often as possible. As I have already played the mission, I will just be writing it down. I hope you enjoy this new first person experience brought to you by Obberty Kerman! The next story will be the transfer to Minmus and the preparation for landing.

Happy Explosions Until Then!

 

Edited February 6, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Alpha 360]

34th Installment: I am now a real Kerbonaut

I sat in the pilot's chair on the front. Eli sat in the lower command module, checking the stats. We didn't have a lot of delta-v left over in our second stage. Only about 200 m/s. The engine we were using as a second stage had 370 ISP while our Poodle engine had an ISP of 350.

I dwelled on that for a minute. Technically, if I put fuel from the lander into the second stage, wouldn't there be a gain in delta-v? 

"Eli! What will happen if we transfer fuel from the lander to the second stage?"

"I don't know. I'm going to run through a couple of equations and see where it get me." 

I waited. The maneuver node was coming quickly onwards. I debated just detaching the second stage after it ran out of fuel. Then I saw the T-3 seconds left. I fired up the engine to the second stage. 

Just as I started it up, Eli called from below, "It'll work!" 

"You could have said just a little sooner." I mumbled. I started to transfer fuel over to the second stage. But then I looked over to see how well we were doing on the maneuver node, and found that it would take two minutes longer than it said. 

I glanced out the window to see the KMO flying pass the Falcon. 

I waited for a couple more seconds, then shut down the engine. 

"What did you do, Obbertty?" Eli called from the other module. She sounded slightly irritated. 

"We're going to complete the maneuver node on the second pass. It should work. It all maths out."

A sigh issued from Eli, "That's not even a word, or a phrase."

"But it is my phrase. So it means something to me at least."

"Whatever. Let's start plotting the new maneuver node." 

"This is Mission Control, you haven't fully completed your maneuver node. What are you doing?"

"We're going to make this two burns instead of one because of the thrust of the second stage engine."

Mission Control processed this for a couple of seconds, then answered, "You may go through with your plan. God-speed."

We went around another orbit, and then arrived at our new maneuver node. I fired up the engine once more, then got an interception with Minmus. 

I stared out the window onto the planet Kerbin. It was so blue, so blue. I put my thumb up to block it out, but it was too close. I moved my thumb down, then I resumed to stay in the pilot's seat. 

The radio crackled suddenly. I quickly attempted to tune into the words, "This is Falcon. Please repeat order."

"This is mission control. Your connection is breaking down here. You are now on your own out there. Good luck." The radio fizzled out. 

The intercept with Minmus appeared on my screen. I examined it, looking at our perigee around Minmus. 

"Hello Obbertty." 

I leapt up from my chair and hit my head on the ceiling. I clutched at my head angrily. I turned around to see nothing 

"Come on, Eli. Give this up."

"I'm not Eli." The voice came from behind me. 

I turned around, and the face of a ghostly kerbal stared at me. I shoved myself backwards into the wall. 

"Ow." I moaned. I looked back where the ghostly kerbal floated. 

"Who are you?"

"I am a ghost! A scary ghost. A very scary ghost indeed!" It wailed mournfully.

I leaned back against the wall as it advanced upon me. I could feel it's icy breath upon me. 

"But. I am also." The ghost uttered quietly. Then he whispered, "Jebediah Kerman." 

I stared stupidly. The ghost of Jebediah Kerman floated before me.

"Are you going to kill me?" I gasped. 

Jeb rolled his eyes, "It was just a joke. I wasn't going to kill you. In fact, I want to help you!" 

I looked at him distrustfully. If this really was the ghost of Jeb, then why did he give me such a fright?

"Prove it."

Jeb threw up his hands, "Don't you know. I am famous for the jokes I play on people. I thought that if I played a joke on you, you would laugh and say, 'you must be Jeb because only Jeb can play such jokes.'"

"Do you mean that in a negative way?"

"I only mean things in a positive way. I'm Jeb." 

I accepted this. It made since. The only thing that did not make sense was, well, all of it. 

"Are you here to help me?" I asked. 

Jeb took a bow in zero-g which sent him spinning heads over heels. When he recovered himself, he said, "Yes, in fact I am here to help you."

"But. You died on Minmus, didn't you?" 

"Yes but I am also right here as a ghost. The kraken allows me to travel around, see the sights, and creep the heck out of people. I believe Bill and Val appear often to Kerbals down on Kerbin. Not me. I like being in space."

"Have you made any friends with us kerbonauts?" 

Jeb laughed, "I am friends with everybody, even with Mortimer. The whole world is my bestest friend." He floated through the spacecraft and appeared outside. I watched from a window as he made a show of attempting to embrace it. 

I chuckled a little. Jeb floated back inside of the Lander. 

"I can sense laughter issuing from you. Trust me, I know how to spot it." 

I heard the hatch behind me open and Jeb disappeared in an instant. 

"What's up, Obberty?" she asked, "What were you chuckling at?" 

"Um." I looked again where Jeb disappeared, "I was reading the news. Looks like a, a, a, er.....A giant fish was spotted near the KSC. A giant fish! Yes. Isn't that funny? A giant fish."

I held the day old newspaper somebody left in the capsule. Eli shook her head, then returned to the bottom capsule. 

Jeb didn't reappear, so I kept navigating. 

After detaching the spent second stage, we arrived at Minmus in time. 

"I need to see this." I said as we crossed its small SOI. 

I climbed down to one of the airlocks. I put on an EVA suit and pumped the air out. Then I opened the door. I gazed out, Minmus below me and Kerbin above. I was in-between it all. 

I remembered the embrace Assey had given me. I remembered my journey here, from a simple aircraft pilot flying 5 kilometers from the surface to 50,000 kilometers above. I had changed since my days at piloting experimental jet planes. I was no longer a crude being assigned at the low end of the social ladder. I made it to the top of the world. I wanted to stay here, floating above everything. 

I looked down again at the icy mint ball below my feet. I was going to feel its icy surface beneath my feet in a little while. I couldn't wait. I climbed back into the spacecraft. 

We were on an intercept course with it. We were going at 100 m/s laterally and about 300 m/s vertically. And accelerating. 

The suicide burn distance kept on increasing. I waited to hit the full throttle, my fingers itching for the trigger. Eli had strapped herself down below, ready for the poodle to fire up.

I waited until the numbers counted down to 200 meters until suicide burn. Then I hit full throttle. The engine fired up on time, and the rocket started to slow down. I had to angle the rocket to slow down the lateral velocity as well as the vertical velocity, wasting fuel. Precious fuel.

 The numbers on the suicide burn kept on counting down. It was down to 50 meters and descending at a tick a second. The ground ran towards the rocket as the poodle engine gave out its constant 250 kilonewtons of thrust.

We were within 500 meters of the ground now.

 I could see my shadow grow larger and larger as we descended. Then we stopped in mid-air. I switched the engine off. We were floating above the surface of Minmus. Landing gear extended and our velocity slowly began to go negative. We fluttered down towards Minmus. 

I fired up the engine to slow us down to 3 m/s approaching the ground. Then we landed. 

We landed on Minmus. We did it. I unstrapped myself and turned around. Jeb saluted me, "Well done, Tiger." I smiled back, then went down to the airlocks. Eli waited for me there. 

"Obb, I think you should take the first step out there."

"Thank you, Eli." We put on our spacesuits then readied the airlock. I opened the door. 

Minty crystals reflected the sun into our visors. Everywhere the green ice stretched to all horizons. Kerbin hung there in the sky, a friendly globe observing our progress. I loved Minmus the first time I set eyes on it. This could be my new home. I could live here, I thought. 

I leap out of the airlock onto the surface. It crunched underneath my feet. Eli followed me down. She planted a flag to serve as a reminder of where we landed. Then she took off and went back inside. I enjoyed the exterior of Minmus. 

Then I realized what a harsh place Minmus was. Jeb and Val died because of computation error with their maneuver. Fred was left in orbit of this barren moon twice before. 

I looked up at the night sky full of stars, I let my mind wander, here under the world. I closed my eyes, and relived the day I was admitted into KASA. 

"You say you are a good pilot?"

"Yes. I fly experimental jet planes."

The kerbal behind the desk leaned back, "Here, a good kerbonaut doesn't just need to be a good pilot. He also has to be a good kerbal. Can you prove to me that you are a good kerbal?" 

I shook my head sadly. I couldn't. There was no measure of goodness that I knew. He smiled then passed me my papers with a big stamp on it. "There. Don't worry about it. I was just teasing you." 

I returned to the present.

I planted my own flag next to Eli's. 

I wrote on it, "The Falcon has Landed."

Then I wrote, "I am now a real kerbonaut"

 

Spoiler

Just so you know, Minmus alluded me once more for a little while. That was irritating. I had to burn quite a bit of fuel which I shouldn't have burned to get the intercept. I don't know if people will approve, but then at the end of this mission I placed an extra 300 m/s in the tank to replace the unnecessary delta-v wasted to encounter Minmus. I then used that to return to Kerbin. I hope y'all won't slam me for this... Anyway, the next installment will be the return of the lander and the one after that, that will be the construction of the Dres Interplanetary Spaceship.

Happy Explosions Until Then!

 

Edited February 6, 2018 by Alpha 360

[obney kerman]

Nice story! I probably will keep reading.

[Alpha 360]

35th Installment: Returning Home 

Spoiler

Well @obney kerman, you may do so by just hitting the like button. I'm glad that you have joined this thread!

Anyway, since it looks like my first person part of the story has done better than the narrated part, I might be doing more of that . 

"Lift-off in 3. 2. 1. Full-throttle!" 

The Falcon lifted off, the poodle engine firing full throttle. We quickly rose into the black sky. As our Apogee reached 15 kilometers I switched it off. We arranged out insertion burn, and then completed it. We were in orbit. 

"Yes!" I pumped my fist. We made it. 

"Good job Tiger." Jeb clapped beside me. I jumped, but I stayed in my chair. 

"You startled me, Jeb." 

"I know. Startling people is one of the best jokes out there."

"Alright." I took down the instruction sheet and looked it over. 

"It looks like we have to save a kerbal here in Low Minmus Orbit. And it looks like we have enough fuel. Let's set up a maneuver node." I put the sheet back. It didn't take long for the maneuver to be set up. 

All one needed to know about a maneuver was the orbit and position of the target, your orbit and position, and how much delta-v you have on-board. With those three factors, you can plot a rendezvous with anything object in space. Anything. 

After a couple of orbits, we were alerted that there was a Moho transfer window. Since we had no interplanetary space-ship ready in orbit, or any probes with antennas that could reach that far, we missed that opportunity. 

Anyway, we completed that maneuver and entered the scrap's Box. It was a curious piece of scrap indeed. The kerbal inside saw us coming and had exited the command pod. Then he let go of it and started to EVA over to our spacecraft. 

We had prepared an airlock for him, so he went in there. We waited for him in the secondary module. He popped in.

He was a taller kerbal than usual, with dark green skin. A rarity. He didn't smile, but kept his face in a neutral attitude. "Hello. I am Mr. Kerman. I beg of you to call me by that title. I will not give you an explanation of why I was stranded here, but all you need to know is that I am royalty." 

With that he strapped himself into a chair and kept his composed face. 

Eli looked at me. I shrugged and then said, "We will be preparing to burn to Kerbin, Mr. Kerman. I would advise you to stay in your seat." 

He nodded at me, then looked out the window non-committedly. 

When I reached the pilot's seat, Jeb appeared behind me, "Royalty in space! Around Minmus?! This is the potential base for my greatest joke yet to come!" He dreamily looked through the spacecraft, imagining himself telling this spectacular joke in front of an audience. Probably. I couldn't reach inside the head of Eli yet, so I could never predict what Jeb was thinking. 

We made our burn later that day.

We almost exhausted our fuel reserves with that burn, but our perigee was inside Kerbin's atmosphere. 

Our royal guest looked to be from around the desert regions of Kerbin, across the strait of Saint Kerman on the other side of the Generic Mountains. They had royalty over there who were interested in rocketry, but Mr. Kerman wore the standard clothing of a kerbonaut. There was no elaboration on his suit, nothing to distinguish him. He wore the space-faring medal, meaning he had spent a munth in space before hand. I looked down to the lack of a medal on my neck. I winced and continued to pilot.

 

Minmus spun away into the distance beneath us. I sighed as I saw it fade away into the night sky. Then a couple of hours later, we were nearing Kerbin's atmosphere. 

"Mr. Kerman. Have you tightened your seat belt?" 

"Yes, in matter of fact I have." 

I detached the lander module and turned retrograde. 

Then I realized that the engineers did something wrong with the rocket.

"The stupid engineers put the decoupler upside-down!" I swore. There going to be explosions. Plenty of them.

I felt the capsule slamming into the atmosphere. I looked outside to see the jettisoned lander module exploding.  

"The decoupler is about to explode!" cried Eli. 

It did a moment later. 

I thought we were dead. The entire capsule was engulfed in flames and fires. The skin was touched black, the wiring burnt, the ablator gone. 

u

Looking back I saw debris, our debris. The debris was falling in marvelous shooting stars. I wondered if any of the debris would fall upon the populated regions of Kerbin. Giving houses another entrance through the roof. 

I don't know how we survived, but we did. We eventually slowed down to a reasonable velocity and pulled the chutes. 

We landed safely in Gregmire's Ocean off the KSC where we were recovered. 

*End of Obberty's Narrative*

We made a profit of 200,000 funds on the mission and made 310 science from the mission. 

A ghostly Minmus looks down on the KSC, angry that we harvested from its surface. Most people here don't care. But 1. One person. 

Anyway, to show you what we did with that science. 

Yes, time for the big rockets to come to town!

Here are the contracts for the next installment. I'm going to complete three of these contracts in the next launch, as well as unveil my new rocket. I can't wait to show it off!

Happy Explosions Until Then!

[Geschosskopf]

23 minutes ago, Alpha 360 said:

After a couple of orbits, we were alerted that there was a Moho transfer window. Since we had no interplanetary space-ship ready in orbit, or any probes with antennas that could reach that far, we missed that opportunity. 

Never use Moho transfer windows.  They're traps.  Instead, only leave for Moho when Kerbin is in line with Moho's AN or DN, no matter where Moho itself is.

The reason for this is that so-called Moho transfer windows only consider the 2D positions of Moho and Kerbin when viewed from above.  They ignore the inclination change, which is very significant.  Also, if you go directly from Kerbin to Moho, the capture burn is usually stupidly huge, way more than the transfer burn.  So what you do instead is a bi-elliptic transfer leaving when Kerbin is lined up with Moho's AN or DN, intended to hit Moho when it's at its AN or DN itself.  This avoids the inclination change entirely.  However, because leaving Kerbin at this point ignores Moho's position, it's unlikely that Moho will be there when you reach your solar Pe.  So you do another burn there to bring your solar Ap down somewhere between Moho and Eve, and eventually (sometimes after several solar orbits) you'll meet Moho at your Pe which is also at Moho/s AN or DN.  Then the capture burn will be quite reasonable.

 

27 minutes ago, Alpha 360 said:

I don't know how we survived, but we did.

Congrats on a successful mission and pretty fireworks

[Alpha 360]

36th Installment: More Pretty Fireworks!

17 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

pretty fireworks

I think I can add some more, especially for you. 

Spoiler

This isn't really an installment, but I just couldn't find a place for it. I hope at least some of you readers will enjoy the explosions.

This was the Minmus Station which saved many a kerbonaut life. I had shown before how it got to LKO, so lets just continue on with the story. 

When I turned on KSP, I wondered what I would do with this station. Then the answer hit me. It was so obvious, yet so bold. 

I was going to give it a proper Viking Funeral at last!

 

 

 

 

Oh. It lives. Well, it won't survive the ground very well!

Well. Looks like its done for. 

Wait. What?!?! 

It survived!

*dances around computer desk*

It made it! I just can't believe this! YES!

*punches the air*

I hope you had some

Happy Explosions!

Spoiler

Don't worry, the next installment will be good. In that installment, you will meet Xerxes. You do not want to meet Xerxes at night though. He has a fiery temper. 

 

[Alpha 360]

37th Installment: Meet Xerxes

We have decided, through Rock, Paper, and Scissors, to build a fully operational rocket SSTO. After some more RPS, we have got the basics of the rocket. After a little while, this monstrosity came around.

While it is huge, it cannot lift more than 12.5 tons to LKO. But it is fully reusable so that is pretty good. It costs about 65,000 credits so I better make sure I can land these. 

It has a pretty good thrust-to-weight ratio. If you have a good eye, you might notice some landing gear up on the adaptor to the station. Yes, those are makeshift air-brakes. I don't know if they work or not, but I decided to give them a try. 

I try to go flat with the rocket, conserving as much delta-v as possible. It only has 4,200 on the launch pad, so I am a little cautious. 

Okay, I might have gone a bit too flat. Obberty Kerman is feeling some heat now, I hope he doesn't burn up. 

He didn't burn up. Now we are in orbit. Soon, I will be attempting to land this massive booster. 

And a maneuver node has been set up and executed. The perigee has below the atmosphere and now its time to recover this big booster. 

I now deploy the landing gear, and the steering fins. 

The thing you can't see in this picture is that the Xerxes is spinning like a demon possessed. That makes it pretty hard to control. And worse, I am receiving my connection from the Primitive Satellite which will pass over pretty soon. That's not good. Oh, and to add to it all, I forgot parachutes. Shoot!

Here I am at 7,000 meters. I don't have kerbal engineer so that means I don't know when to fire up my engine. I also don't know how much delta-v I have. Also not good. 

I started burning my engine at 3,000 meters. I fired too soon. I was 100 meters above the sea. Then I lost my connection, which meant I couldn't move the rocket. Also it meant that I could only fire at full throttle. 

You know the outcome. It crashed into the sea.

Shoot. 

Bye-bye 65,000 credits. 

Now those were some

Unhappy Explosions!

[insert_name]

I dont bother with propulsive landings in ksp, i always use parachutes, and then if i need to slow down more i can still use the engine

[Alpha 360]

I don't either. I just forgot to add the parachutes. Though, with Kerbal Engineer, I probably could do a fully propulsive landing. Something to practice in Sand-box mode 

The next installment will be coming soon!

Happy Explosions Until Then!

[Geschosskopf]

10 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

I think I can add some more, especially for you. 

I'm greatly honored.  And I'm sure the shade of the Minmus Station is even now feasting in Valhalla.  OK, so part of it was too tough to die immediately from its many wounds, but trust me, that's a turn-on for the Valkyries  

 

8 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

You know the outcome. It crashed into the sea.

This the Valkyries also like  

[Alpha 360]

38th Installment: 0% Reliability 

We have decided to take up a contract to put a satellite into Keostationary Orbit. We need more communication satellites and we need to test the Xerxes booster further. It has a 0% reliability in recovery. That's not good.

The launch is fairly simple. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm speeding through this. I accidently refreshed the page with my fully completed 38th Installment. When I pulled up the 'add new comment', it was not there. Bummer.

Around here I realize that the orbit required for the satellite it at 45 degrees. I quickly swing the rocket to the left and start to change my inclination severely.

We arrive in orbit here. The Xerxes still has plenty of fuel left over in it, so that means I should have a better chance to land it. I hope. 

Just about to enter Kerbin's atmosphere. The reason the sunrise is that strange is because the Xerxes is sitting on a very weird inclinations. That will also effect the recovery. Well, as long as I recover it, it'll be fine.

Reentry is commencing. The delta-v number up there is correct. Looks like the margins are thinner than I thought. 

Now we're really roasting. Hopefully nothing explodes.

Now I am attempting to make the booster glide to burn off more speed. At 7,000 meters I pull the chutes. Then I watch in horror as the communication satellite goes over the horizon. I have lost connection to the KSC. 

But, I am unfazed. I would do it this time!

Or not. I fire the engine too late and the entire rocket crumples into the ocean. 

There goes another 65,000 credits. 

And the reliability of the Xerxes is still 0% recovery rate. 

Back in orbit, the satellite preforms a maneuver node to raise its apogee to the perigee of the assigned orbit. The little sparkler engine on the end is a very useful modded engine, the step between a terrier and a spark.

Ready to preform a burn to raise the Perigee to match the Apogee of the assigned orbit. Hopefully this will do it, then we can get to designing the Xerxes Mk2.

And the final stage fires up. When it completes the maneuver, 80,000 credits slips into KASA's pocket and the contract is complete. I should do more of these.

Unfortunately it looks like the current model of Xerxes isn't working out too well. Going to build a bigger, better, and more reusable Mk2 in the next installment. 

Happy Explosions Until Then!

[Alpha 360]

39th Installment: Xerxes Heavy

Yes. At last here is the Xerxes Heavy. The moment you have all been waiting for.

This is one expensive rocket, but with recovery, it should work. Yes, I will be needing to upgrade the VAB soon. Getting above the 250 part limit. 

Here it is on the launch pad. The payload it is carrying is the first part of the Dres Spacecraft. It contains the recycling, science, electricity, and life-support systems. There will be two more modules, a habitation module and a disposable propulsion module. That means I have to recover the next three missions at nearly 100% recovery value in order for this to work. 

Here goes nothing. 

The booster launches fiercely off the pad. As you might have guessed, I have my staging bound to the G key. I wasn't thinking too hard when I did that. 

This rocket is a beast, with four mainsails the gee-forces on it reach up to 5 gees. Wow. 

Finally with white knuckles I finish the insertion burn. There is roughly 700 m/s still sloshing around in the tanks, plus parachutes. 

Here I detach the Dres Spacecraft in a 75 by 80 kilometer parking orbit. I time-warp until the spacecraft core is 50 meters away. 

I have already fired up the engines, and now the Xerxes Heavy is on a sub-orbital trajectory. 

Reentry is fierce. Very fierce. I spin up the rocket to prevent the mainsails from exploding. They have a remarkably low heat-tolerance relative to other engines. 

Luckily we survive reentry and I pull the chutes, waiting for them to deploy

And we are landing on the side of a mountain. Brilliant. Just brilliant. At least we have connection. 

The chutes were not going to deploy fast enough, so I buy them time by burning the engines. My knuckles(finger joints) are whiter than ever. I hope that I would be able to recover the rocket, because if I don't, then bye-bye space-program.

We hit the ground. Explosions happen. I close my eyes and wait for the dust to clear. 

YES! It has landed! The Xerxes Heavy has landed! 

Sure its minus an engine and few other parts, but it is mostly intact. Looks like the space-program will stick around a little longer. I will be doing two launches in the next installment, documenting the construction of the Dres Spacecraft. 

Happy Explosions Until Then! 

[Geschosskopf]

13 minutes ago, Alpha 360 said:

Here it is on the launch pad. The payload it is carrying is the first part of the Dres Spacecraft. It contains the recycling, science, electricity, and life-support systems. There will be two more modules, a habitation module and a disposable propulsion module. That means I have to recover the next three missions at nearly 100% recovery value in order for this to work. 

Nice job on the SSTO lifter.  Cage lifters like this are wonderful things for lifting all sorts of odd stuff like this.  And, as you've demonstrated, having it all in 1 piece with the payload already safely in orbit makes recovery easier for those interested in such things.  Or makes for a MUCH bigger explosion for those who self-destruct their lifters    Good job on this!

But sending Kerbals to Dres?  For an extended duration?  I thought that was against several Kerbal rights treaties

[Alpha 360]

42 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

I thought that was against several Kerbal rights treaties

Don't worry, we bribed convinced the politicians to repeal the Kerbonaut Protection Laws, which covered any interplanetary missions, especially to Dres, with red tape. They said that the kerbonauts were forced to join against their will volunteered to become test dummies pilots and scientists and engineers and could be counted on to take additional risk. 

Also, our flag designers(me) have created a makeshift flag for the mission, as our main contractor is unavailable. I hope it will inspire the same confidence as a professional flag can. 

Happy Explosions!

[Geschosskopf]

4 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

Don't worry, we bribed convinced the politicians to repeal the Kerbonaut Protection Laws, which covered any interplanetary missions, especially to Dres, with red tape. They said that the kerbonauts were forced to join against their will volunteered to become test dummies pilots and scientists and engineers and could be counted on to take additional risk. 

Now you're starting to sound like the Circus   

 

4 hours ago, Alpha 360 said:

Also, our flag designers(me) have created a makeshift flag for the mission, as our main contractor is unavailable. I hope it will inspire the same confidence as a professional flag can.

Nice flag.  But if you're going to scale it down to paint it on the ships, I recommend thickening the orbit lines quite a bit or they won't show up.

Wait a minute.....   At first, I thought there was some mistake but then I remembered you're playing a randomized system.  That explains Gilly as a moon of Dres.  Well, that makes it more worth the trouble to go to Dres    

Speaking of which.... (goes back and checks system map from 1st post)...  Wow, Dres is now closest to the sun?!?!?!?  That's going to make for a substantial capture burn if you go direct.  Like going to Moho in stock.  I recommend getting there via a bi-elliptic transfer.  You spend a bit more on the transfer burn vs. the direct route, but you save way more than that on the capture burn.  And if Dres has an inclination on par with stock Moho or Dres, I recommend you only leave Kerbin when it's aligned with Dres' AN/DN axis, so you don't have make any plane change.  Making any sort of plane change relative to the sun, especially when closer to the sun than Kerbin, is ridiculously expensive.

Also, does Kerbiting Dres retain the "Dresteroids" that stock Dres has?  You've got Gilly to mine for fuel if necessary but should that prove to have nothing in this system, the "Dresteroids" might provide an alternative.

The Dres Endeavor is definitely a very ambitious project, especially when you're still low-tech and short on cash.  I wish you every success and wonder why you didn't go to Jool instead, which looks rather closer to Kerbin and thus not nearly as challenging.

[Alpha 360]

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

The Dres Endeavor is definitely a very ambitious project, especially when you're still low-tech and short on cash.  I wish you every success and wonder why you didn't go to Jool instead, which looks rather closer to Kerbin and thus not nearly as challenging.

Well, @Geschosskopf, it looks to be the closest to Kerbol, but actually Moho is still the closest to the sun. It is so close I can't believe that I could ever reach it. I would definitely need radiators on that trip...... Dres only takes about 1,5000 m/s to reach, and the transfer window is close-by. It shouldn't take no-more than 2 years, maybe 3 years for the mission from beginning to end. With recyclers, that's isn't a lot of life-support (relatively). 

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

Also, does Kerbiting Dres retain the "Dresteroids" that stock Dres has?  You've got Gilly to mine for fuel if necessary but should that prove to have nothing in this system, the "Dresteroids" might provide an alternative.

Actually, I don't have any mining tech on this mission. I'm bringing everything with me. This will be fun . 

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

And if Dres has an inclination on par with stock Moho or Dres, I recommend you only leave Kerbin when it's aligned with Dres' AN/DN axis,

Luckily, Dres is only about 3 or 4 degrees off from Kerbin standard. Makes it all the easier to reach. 

The next installment will be significantly delayed because of RL, which takes first priority. 

3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Nice flag.  But if you're going to scale it down to paint it on the ships, I recommend thickening the orbit lines quite a bit or they won't show up.

I don't know if I will be using the flag on the actual vessel. I will be showing off the flag on the table of contents, but I don't know if I will do much more. 

Anyway, expect regular installments after Monday and scattered ones this weekend.

Happy Explosions! 

 

[Alpha 360]

Update on flag:

Our flag correspondent has just produced a professional flag for this Mission

Thanks to @cratercracker, KASA now has a professional flag which will inspires confidence and reliability in this mission to another planet! Take a bow, @cratercracker!

I just wanted to post his flag because my flag is very insignificant in comparison to his. Especially that this flag has the names of the crew headed to that 'boring' planet!

Happy Explosions!

Edited February 10, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Alpha 360]

40th Installment: In-Situ Module Stealing Borrowing

So, guess what. I discovered the Xerxes space station once again. It has a lab, some solar-panels, two hitchhikers, and batteries. So I decided that this would make an excellent crew module for the Dres Spacecraft!

I apolisge in advance of the lack of content. I won't be able to play this weekend, so this is old news for me. Let me make it so to the readers.

Yes. It even has extra docking ports for the landers I'm going to shove onto the spacecraft. Also, I forgot to mention a little incident that happened around the KMOSOS. 

That is the fuel tank we sent up 8 or so installments back, and the engine which propelled the KMOSOS into orbit, and the Sirius Spacecraft. It took a bit of reorganizing but we did it. 

Here is the new spacecraft completing a maneuver node to rendezvous with the core of the Dres Spacecraft. The plan is to dock the poodle and the fuel tank onto the Dres spacecraft, then inflate the crew module on the Dres Spacecraft and move Roni and Billy onto the spacecraft. We do only have 30 more days until the window opens. 

Now we are approaching the Dres Spacecraft. Its on the dark-side so you can't see it yet. 

Now you can see it. This docking might be tricky, as the spacecraft is pointing away from the docking port on the Dres Spacecraft.

After hard work, I have aligned everything correctly, about to dock. 

This has been testing my docking skills of late. I have no docking assistant mods, so this is all on the fly. 

The docking looks to be a bit off. Lets fix that quickly before the docking starts. 

And the two docking ports are kissing each other very hard. Yes, kids, look away. This is how affectionate rocket parts can be!

* "Oh! My eyes!" screams a kerbal in the background *

Here is the propulsion module all docked up to the Dres Spacecraft. Minmus is just starting to rise in the background as it finishes, a good omen. Also on the screen is the time until the Dres Transfer Window. We only have 30 more days until the momentous occasion arrives, when our kerbonauts embark on the first interplanetary journey.

One might wonder why I am doing an interplanetary mission this early on in the game. I haven't even invented communications that can reach all the way out there!

I like the challenge of heading off to other planets with low tech. The only other time I have done a similar thing was with a nuclear-powered spacecraft with gigantors to Duna. Luckily here we are going closer to the sun, not farther away. I also like the risk I'm taking. I hate it when the tech tree slows down and all you can muster up the courage for is another Minmus harvesting mission. Really. 

Also on the screen is an incorrect delta-v number. We really have over 1,000 m/s on board presently, with more coming up on the next Xerxes heavy launch!

Forgot about the Sirius Spacecraft? Well I did too. But after a couple of minutes, it found its way back to the dres spacecraft. This is where I make the startling discovery that I can't inflate the inflatable module with an engineer on EVA. 

What?! I have to be in control of the spacecraft, and have an engineer on board!

As the docking port on the Sirius is positive, and the docking port on the other end of the Dres Spacecraft was also positive, it just couldn't work. Not at all. 

So I decided to bring them home down to Kerbin with the Sirius. It landed on the other-side of the KSC, so it recovered for about 53% value. Still, that was 18,000 credits 

I know that explosion is alarming, but everyone survives in the end. 

Roni and Billy are very glad to be back home to Kerbin. So glad in fact, that rumors say that Billy attempted to plant a big kiss on Roni's lips, only to be slapped out of the capsule. We don't know of the situation of the romantic relation between the two as of yet, but more rumors will be manufactured come. Find out in the next issue of the magazine "Rich and Famous" to find out more about the two of them!

* "Who put this advertisement of a fictional relationship between Roni and Billy Kerman in a stupid magazine!?" cried Gene Kerman. *

*  *

Anyway,

Happy Explosions Until Then!

 

[Alpha 360]

To Narrate or Not to Narrate? (2)

What do you think, readers? Do you want a completely narrated version of the mission to Dres, or do you want a 1st person account. Here is a straw poll set up from an outside source, http://www.strawpoll.me/15050331 - closed.

Also, I probably will not be able to post an installment today or tomorrow, as I'll be on the road for 13 hours. I will guarantee that by Wednesday, there will be an installment. 

Happy Explosions!

Edited February 11, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Geschosskopf]

Considering most of the trip is just coasting between planets, there's not much to talk about en route, so I'd only throw in 1st person when necessary for any plot development.