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Journey to Sentar: Other Worlds

Mr Shifty

By Mr Shifty
in KSP1 Mission Reports

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Mr Shifty

Mr Shifty

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Posted (edited)

UPDATE 2: New worlds have been delivered.

UPDATE 11/5/2013: The new worlds have been thoroughly vetted by myself and others and we've decided to accept delivery on behalf of all Kerbals. They're on their way and should be here within the day: http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1pxq4p/your_order_has_shipped/

I was a bit surprised when the Kragrathean showed up on my doorstep last week. He looked sleek and tan, much better than the last time I saw him, harried and disheveled from fighting the lawyers and bureaucrats. We exchanged pleasantries, and he showed me pictures of the fish he'd been catching. After a bit he got down to business.

"So, Mr. Shifty, my diplomatic failure on my previous mission to Kerbalspace was not looked on too kindly by my superiors. I'm afraid I've had to scrape by on other work for now. Nothing permanent, I hope, but it's a good idea to for me to avoid Kragrathea at the moment. I always enjoyed our previous negotiations and wondered if you'd be willing to consider a proposition."

Very curious, I expressed my interest, and he went on.

"I've had to resort to some of the less savory aspects of planetary engineering. I have in my possession a list of planetary systems delivered to other intelligent species, but who... uh... were delinquent in their reciprocation."

"You mean, they didn't pay up," I clarified.

"Yes, and I have been um allowed to convince these species that it is in their best interest to vacate these systems and return them to the factory."

"You're a repo-man!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, of sorts," he said, a trifle embarrassed. "So I've got some slightly used systems I'm trying to unload for nearly nothing. Vacant I assure you... probably."

"Wait," I said suspiciously, "It sounds like you're trying to unload stolen goods here."

"No, no, no," he said, waving his hands. "These are legitimately repossessed. My authority to re-sell them is a bit hazy, but that's just paperwork. Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Listen, why don't you just try them out and see what you think? A private tour for my favorite negotiation partner. I think you'll be pleased."

I quickly agreed, excited at the prospect of seeing new vistas. Krag gave me a rough idea where the new systems would be located, out in the darkness beyond even Eeloo. (Though I did notice that a new satellite appeared to be orbiting the Mun.) Sentar, a gas giant with many small moons piqued my interest. I recruited my favorite astronaut, Bob, and cobbled together an interplantary ship with the help of a lander designed by legendary engineer capi3101 and an excellent lifter/transfer vehicle (TCS Transfer Module Mark 3) designed by the oddly named and eccentric, but brilliant Turd. Then I lofted Bob into orbit and began his epic journey to Sentar.

***SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR KRAGRATHEA'S UPCOMING PLANET FACTORY MOD***

*

*

*

Bob blasted off for an undiscovered world.

09YUG1B.png

Sentar's orbit is inclined by quite a bit from Kerbin's, so Bob's transfer ellipse extended beyond Sentar's orbit to intercept where it crosses Kerbin's ecliptic plane. Unfortunately this meant that Bob's journey would last almost 6 years. Luckily Krag upgraded the Kerbal time-pass-o-meter so that time can appear to pass at 1,000,000x and 10,000,000x normal speeds.

uXuEQvS.png

After nearly 6 long years alone in space, Bob finally approached Sentar and... my god... saw the set of beautiful flat rings surrounding it, which Bob supposed must be made of tiny ice crystals and rocklets orbiting Sentar.

9YePMZA.png

There wasn't enough fuel in his vessel to slow down for capture, so Bob had to do a daring aerobraking maneuver in Sentar's thick atmosphere with the rings arching high overhead.

x2xFWGR.png

Aerobraking complete, Bob was on an intercept trajectory for one of Sentar's moons, which the Kragrathean said was called Erin. Bob decided that it was as good a place as any to land. Since Erin has a thin atmosphere, Bob was again able to use the aerobraking technique to enter orbit around Erin. During the aerobrake, he was able to fully appreciate the majesty of Sentar's system, with Sentar rising before him and Erin's small sub-moon Pock transiting overhead while the diminished sun shone in the far distance.

v6pKqwb.png

Erin has one hemisphere nearly covered by dune covered land, with the other nearly covered by water ocean. It is tidally locked to its primary, so Bob decided to set down on the Sentar-facing side, near one of the lakes that dot the broken coastline of Erin's huge ocean.

O70K15x.png

Climbing out of the lander on this unspoiled and alien world, Bob planted a flag with a reminder of home on it while Sentar and Pock looked on from high overhead.

7aGX2fr.png

Now Bob continues his lonely vigil waiting for rescue under an alien and somewhat forbidding sky, but excited by the knowledge that there are new places to go and new worlds to discover. In his final transmission to mission control before his antenna died he urged further exploration with the words, "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

Edited by stupid_chris
removing link to unlicensed download.
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DMagic

DMagic

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Very cool. I'm glad to see something come of Krag's planetary mod. Does this mean we'll actually get to see it released at some point (I guess that's what 'upcoming' implies)? I look forward to seeing more about this.

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Mr Shifty

Mr Shifty

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You're killing me with all of these new worlds:(. How many moons does this planet have? I think I spotted at least three.

Sentar has, I think, 4 moons at present (though I also think that might change.) Pock, which you see in the shots from the moon Erin, is actually a sub-moon of Erin. That last shot is of a totally different (tiny) planet circling the sun; one of two between Eeloo and Sentar.

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Mr Shifty

Mr Shifty

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It's not my mod, and Krag hasn't told me when release is planned. Still finding and squashing quite a few bugs; things like the whole screen going black suddenly, or having your ship spontaneously explode. I'll try to update progress though. Hopefully the biome stuff in 0.22 doesn't break what he's doing; one of the main reasons this mod isn't already released is because 0.21 completely broke an earlier in-progress version, and he had to take a break before totally re-writing it.

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Danish_Savage

Danish_Savage

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How are the rings are done? Just a flat texture? Because they look great. I hope squad catches on.

Well Mu has been talking about making rings whit rocks in 'em. Actual rocks. And he have been talking about them NOT being on rails. Holy Mother of the glorious cows, that would be awesome.

Also thumps up Krag

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  • 2 weeks later...
Pigbear

Pigbear

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b-b-b-but... I had given up. I searched all of the add-on section and there was no sign of Kagreathea only to come look at some mission reports to see this. Not sure if sad or happy. Oh, and is it still a scenario?

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Mr Shifty

Mr Shifty

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- Not a scenario. It's a mod that will add planets to your game, but there's an option to turn it off and on at the loading screen.

- I believe that this iteration will include no extra stars. We tested with a second star, but there were a bunch of issues; most particularly, the light from the new star didn't work -- didn't illuminate solar panels, didn't illuminate the ground. (Did you know that solar panels flat out do not work at a certain distance from Kerbal?) So Krag scrapped it with possible implementation in the future if the bugs can be worked out.

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