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Tales From the Deep


purpleivan

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Tales from the Deep - Part 1: Drop in the Ocean

The following is dedicated to all those brave kerbals, in game saves everywhere, that never made it back from the cold dark abyss, that are Kerbin's oceans.

I've sent kerbals to all the bodies in the system, climbed a lot of mountains and even boated around the entire mainland coast of Kerbin, but one place I've not been to (well, not often anywhere) is down in the deep. So today was the day that glaring omission would be rectified. The plan was to set down a base, an outpost, a marker in the deep if you will, that will forever be remembered as...

... ahhh, who I am I kidding with all the flowery language, I just wanted to mess about with some underwater stuff.

 

The Drop in the Ocean

The day's activitied started with the outpost the "Drop in the Ocean" being sent to the chilly North polar seas by the most suitable vehicle available... a rocket.

This rocket.

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Then this 2nd stage.

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Yar... ice cap dead ahead Captain (well, and sideways a bit too).

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With the fuel depleted and the worst of the atmospheric heating over, the fairing was dropped, leaving the Drop in the Ocean to decend on its own. The idea had been to use the air brakes at the top to guide it in close to the ice cap, but the trajectory didn't carry it as far as that, so they were never deployed.

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Then obviously, it was time for the chutes to take the strain.

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As the Drop in the Ocean decended, the ice cap dropped out of sight. This landing spot wasn't as close to the big icecube as had been hoped, but it would have to do.

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This part was tricky, because for some reason if the vehicle had touched down before the tower with the parachutes was detached, the separator wouldn't fire. This took a few attempts to get right, timing detachment just a meter or so above the waves.

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Ok, this thing's heavy, so we're on our way down now and with 23m above us.

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... and 983 below, that seabed is about 1km down.

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That pesky parachute tower just didn't want to let go and took a fair amount of wiggling to get it loose.

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That's done it, but now it seems to want to race the Drop in the Ocean to the bottom.

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I think it's going to win.

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Gradually the light began to dim.

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Then dim some more.

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Until finally it was pitch black.

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A few dozen metres from the bottom, the parachute tower comes into view, looming up out of the dark depths.

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A little closer to the bottom and the lights of the Drop in the Ocean start to illuminate the seabed.

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Finally the outpost touches down, just metres from the parachute tower.

How many metres I don't know, but metres nevertheless.

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Jeb headed for the hatch wearing the latest in KSC approved diving gear. Actually, a well past it's use by date spacesuit if we're being honest.

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Jeb told Bob that he would be back shortly after stabbing the sea floor with a flag pole, but immediately he was outside, he crept around to the front window, to give Bob the biggest jump scare of his life.

Bob is certain that all these pranks of Jeb are reducing his life expectancy.

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With the important task of getting Bob's heart to miss a few beats, Jeb headed down the ladder to the seabed.

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Then with no further ado, he raised the flag.

This scene does look familar, like so many flag raising's that Jeb's done, just with fewer stars.

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Once safely back inside it was Jeb's turn for a jump, as Bob was waiting on the other side of the hatch in a hideous sea monster costume.

Bob new it was best to be prepared on this mission for Jeb's inevitable pranking, even if the only available preparation was retaliation.

Always be prepared.

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To be continued...

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Chapter 2: The Naughtylus

The Drop on the Ocean isn't going anywhere, it's not a problem, it was designed to do that. Just sit in the depth of the ocean and wait. But wait for what.

Why a submarine to come visit of course.

But how to get a submarine all the way to those frozen Northern seas. Well for this the traditional, some would say dependable... I might say slow, method of one of those things with wings was chosen.

I believe they're called aircraft.

This was certainly a "thing" rather than a fine example of winged excellence. It was heavy, wobbly (especially when trying to take off) and suffered weird dynamics in flight. But more of that later.

A little after dawn the "aircraft" with the submarine it's belly, tore across the grass at the KSC (the wobbliness meant that something as narrow as that big fat runway wasn't an option), it's afterburners blazing.

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This did not end well... but at least the sub was intact.

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Ok... time to load it into a new aircraft and try again.

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This could be the start of a trend.

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After, ahem... a few attempts, the sub was finally airbourne.

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This thing is not fast, after a few minutes of flight (the tanks were nowhere near full, but it probably wouldn't get of the ground if they were) it would barely excede 300m/s

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The angle of attack was rather steep for for horizonatal flight.

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Not long after passing this mountain a strange behaviour was discovered. As the fuel burned down, the nose started to drop, so fuel was transfered from a tank at the front, to one at the rear.

The plane reacted by going into a nose dive... F9 time.

Hmmm... so transfering the CoM back, causes the nose to instantaneously point groundward. Not had that before.

Ok... transfer fuel to the nose then.

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Another couple of times on the journey North, more fuel was sent to the nose to stop this thing plumeting into the ground/sea.

With the Drop in the Ocean coming into sight on the HUD, there was now no fuel at the rear of the plane, just the nose tank and a bit in the wings.

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As it was known that the outpost was 1km down, this looks like a good place to land.

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Land, crash... you decide.

Either way the "plane" has done its job and the sub is in one piece.

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1.3km to the Drop in the Ocean, must be almost right on top of it.

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So let's take a look at what this trip's been all about then shall we.

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This thing... the Nauthylus.

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Away it fell from the transport aircraft, sinking into the depths.

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With Val at the controls and Bob sitting in the back seat, the Nuaghtylus headed towards the bottom. On reaching the seabed Val turned on the lights.

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Then she deployed the tail fins and headed towards the Drop in the Ocean.

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They touched down about 800m from it, so the journey there didn't take long. The sub has a maximum speed of about 35m/s.

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Ok... now how to do this thing.

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First drop it down nice and close to the docking port and try to be at least roughly lined up with it.

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Then nudge forward.

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Eventually the two ports came into contact.

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Jeb informed Val that a sold dock had not been made.

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Ah... forgot to use the rams at the back, with them swung into position and extended the two ports lined up and docking was established.

After this Val and Bill came aboard the Drop in the Ocean and some cheap champange (a lot of transport planes were demolished on takeoff) was consumed. Jeb opened the envelope containing their secret orders.

Some gasped, others moaned, but none could complain... orders is orders.

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Edited by purpleivan
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Part 3: The Wall

This morning it was time to really put the Naughtylus through its paces and use it for what it was designed for. Investigating The Wall.

Which wall, why the wall at the edge of the arctic.

Val and Bill headed up towards the surface so they could see the wall up there as there approached it, instead of it suddenly looming out of the darkness, to be smashed into at 35m/s

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Once on the surface the wall is nowhere to be seen, but I am assured that it is there, just over the horizon.

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Over there.

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As the Naughtylus approached the ice cap, the silhouette of the wall began to grow.

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With about 200m of water above, this water is about 1100m deep.

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Once they seemed to be close to the wall (hard to judge distance down here) Val swung the sub round to approach it at an oblique angle.

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Suddenly the water cleared and the detail of the wall came in to view, forcing full left rudder and a quick roll to avoid a messy collision.

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Having brought the boat back to the surface, Val gently manouvered towards the imposing rockface.

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Then it was time to dive again, just to take a look... yep, still a wall down here.

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After decending a couple of hundred metres the Naughtylus leveled and headed back to the surface, then on the surface towards another part of the wall.

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Ok... time to follow this thing down to the bottom.

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Here we go.

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1100m down and the seabed finally came into view. Val and Bill knew that the base of the wall should be nearby, but had no way of telling quite how close.

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Val gently nudged the sub forward until finally the dark rock was illumnated by the sub's lights.

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Then it was time to descend to the seabed once more, so that finally the base of the massive wall could be seen.

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Bill was eager to stretch his legs, so volunteered to do the honours of raising the flag.

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2m from the wall... 1100m from the surface.

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Val kept a close eye on Bill durring his EVA.

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With the important job of nailing a bit of flappy plastic to the seabed dealt with, it was time for Bill to return to the Naughtylus.

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Then it was time for it to head back to the surface.

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Once there the sub motored along on the surface towards their next investigation site.

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Val enjoyed the sunset.

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While Bill cooked dinner.

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That next site would be right here. Bob had suggested that ther might be floating ice near the small number of holes in the icecap, possibly providing a way under the ice.

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But unfortunately no, there would be no travels under the ice, as yet again solid rock blocked their passage.

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The following day one last spot was chosen to assess the solid rockiness of the great wall of the North. After much time sailing on the surface, the Naughtylus made it to the Western edge of the wall. Land, the type with green stuff on, came into view as the sun was close to setting, Val swung the boat around to head towards the wall, hoping to find a navigable passage.

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But sadly there was no passage to be found.

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Edited by purpleivan
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  • 1 year later...
6 hours ago, AtomicTech said:

Any news on when this series might continue?

No plans to continue this I'm afraid.

I got into playing about with boats in KSP when I did the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation and mucking about in boats underwater came out of that. Just a quick bit of evening/weekend fun with some mods which I did a writeup on.

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