Rakaydos

A relaible 3-seat suborbit craft really helps with the funds-farming. with just 1 passanger I was losing 3/4 of the rewards to 1st stage replacement, fuel and recovery costs, but I found a design that's just as reliable (though with less margin for biome exploration) that lets me get almost double the contract money. (replacing the "reserve fuel/ballast" with a capsule right above the engine." I've also replaced the FL100s with a pair of FL200s now that I have them. Unfortunately, a tragic science accident cost the life of bob- After jeb confirmed that the cove launch site has "splashed down as grassland" science, Bob tried to take an incomplete earlier model out to the cove to collect science, but lost control and forgot the parachute controls. The reputation hit wasnt bad, but I'll need a ton more VIP flights to get the rep up to the point where I can afford to hire a replacement scientist.

The reset run is going well. Accidently discovered this place with a slightly off vertical suborbital tourst flight, though Jeb had to swim out a ways to unlock it.

I think the wings may be a dead end after all. It's not like I can get a juno contract without air intakes, and the swivel's ISP is too low for a flight to the island airbase. Also, I tried to expand my optimized suborbital shuttle to a crew and 2 passangers to speed up fund/rep farming, but it had to use reserve/ballast fuel to hit the karman line and was too unstable tail first anyway to manage entry. Not quite a run ender, but I think I might reset anyway.

And through carful science pickups, I've already got the Big Fin, which works as a wing. Now to figure out how to fly without losing all my kerbals again...

And I'm already back to having a functional suborbital spacecraft. Taking my first VIP now. I'm thinking I'll try for wings instead of tanks. If I can get some of the observational science contracts, that'll help.

and NCD run failed, due to another budget cutting attempt to use the BACC. Though I still have funds, I have noone to fly my ships anymore. Tourst farming was down to a routine, though. I'm pretty sure I can catch up to this point with less dead astronauts, which will make "space over x" science possible.

...and I got 0 science from this crew report? Bob swam for over a day to get it!

Another day, another near run ender. goodby bill. It's all on bob now. No pressure. I have finally cleared out those random part contracts... and promptly filled it with the part contract I really wanted- 401 days use of the Terrier, followed by testing on the launchpad. I'm not going to try pushing for orbit yet, though. A new pilot will run me over 20 times the most funds I've ever had in this run, but I've got a system for these bezos contracts now, and I dont want to mess with a good thing by demonstrating a SpaceX package. Probably a whole weekend of tourist farming, if I can stand the repetition.

Figured out where we were talking past each other. My financial motives have been front and center in my recent posts. Until I get 45 science (or a stayputnik contract) I'm stuck with losing my first stage, and when I'm explicitly trying to farm funds, I can't afford to throw away a swivel every flight.

Check the prices and get back to me on that. NCD isn't like regular caveman runs. You don't have the money for optimized designs. I tried sticking a radial chute on the lower stage, but there was nothing to recover. No point in spending more on a forced disposable stage than nessisary.

What was supposed to be some basic funds-farming off suborbital tourisim almost ended my NCD run 3 times today. First tourist loaded up fine with val, went up, entry burn went fine, drogues deployed, got a good angle for some highland science angled my craft for a nice even touchdown... and realized 200m up that I forgot to deploy mains. Didnt react in time, loss of contract AND loss of vehical, AND loss of my last pilot. I had enough funds left to take another tourist up if I stripped the science gear, but Bill has to do the flying now. Hand sufficently burned, this went well, and the process repeated enough to get some science on the flights. Made it to 20 science exactly, unlocked the next rocket tech. Feeling I had enough reserve, I wanted to clear out a contract I picked up for the Hammer tech, before getting the requisite tech tree. Test hammer in basically suborbital. (50-off km with enough velocity to get suborital) A hammer without fuel is the same mass as the tourist pod, so I tried a simple substitution. stability problems caused by the additional length, however, required 2 non-paying flights before I succeded in clearing the contract. I go to load up the next tourist... and oops, I never actually bought the hammer part that is the first stage of my tourist ship. Stripping the science back off, getting another part contract(decoupler splash down) just barely let me buy the hammer back. Made it past that tried to build up funds reserve... and a poorly angled landing in timewarp broke an engine bell. This one was so close, it came down to losing a FL100 worth of entry burn fuel and stripping parachutes and EVA packs from the tourists. But it was survivable. I've stabilized, but I'm not out of the woods. I have less funds than when I started this "funds farming", down my last pilot kerbal, and still need to pay for the FL200 tank I just unlocked. Also the siren song of the BACC, which has killed my run every time I've used it so far.

If it's worth doing anyway, we call those "engineering trades."

If this was supposed to be a NSWR, the OP has COMPLETELY misunderstood the concept. A NSWR "salts" water with highly enriched radioactives, in a solution just below critical mass. Sodium Floride is REALLY not going to cut it.

Rule of thumb: if something is "better than SpaceX", and not already on SpaceX's roadmap, there's some kind of hidden drawback. Usually in the form of "the benifits are too small for the extra headaches (political, economic, material engineering, ect) to be worthwhile."

I think I've been getting better at the early game, that I can catch up in a single sitting. Hoppers to splashed shores, and water get me the thermo, roller for pressure sensor, roller again with the pressure sensor, and a second roller from the launchpad to pick up the microbiomes my roller route misses (launchpad and crawlerway) Stitting at about 15 science, with plenty of farmable contracts, I got greedy, and tried to get mountian biome science with a multi stage solid rocket, using a decoupler contract. Jed ended up going TOO high, and came in nose first, too fast for the drogue chutes. But, I still had money left. So I bought the rocket science, liquid fuel and tanks, and completed my reaching space science, followed by a VIP flight. Sitting at 16k funds and 13.7 science. Need mountian and highland science, which I can hopefully pick up with tourist flights.

And, Got a test the BACC at launchpad contract, tried for high over kerbin science. Got high over kerbin, failed at reentry. Goodby Jeb, goodby reputation farming. And goodby funds needed to acually meet any of my contracts. This looks like a run ender.

So, I apparently get suborbital tourisim contracts now. Modifying my suborbital rocket for a passanger wasnt too hard, and if I land near the KSC I even move a few hundred funds per flight (plus the Reputation farming). But since I have tourists footing the bills, I aimed some flights at the Highlands and Mountians for science purposes. (drogue chutes are amazing, BTW) But hey, I've got a rocket that can reach space with a second crew now. And supposedly ladder riding isnt THAT hard... Adding a structrual piece below the second capsue (with a mirror for balance) got it on the first try. Aero drag is significantly worse going up, but fortunately it helps coming back down, so I was safely dipping into my entry burn fuel. With Space Over Grassland, I was at 18. With Space over Water, I had... 19.9. Dammit. Edit: ok, picked up the spare with Splashed down at Shores crew reports, which I apparently missed.

Grassland and water hopper flights went well, but a contract to haul the swivel to 45 km was too good to pass up. However, there was one thing I had now that I didn't in previous attempts- radial parachutes and radial drogues. Money was a bit tight, so I stripped science off the flight. And I made it back. Got another contract to test the hammer at the launch site, and I did it again, for the full 70 km. Then I did it again with science. that frees up both contract slots. Now I'm sitting on 12.5 science and 14k funds, trying to figure out what's next.

New NCD run is going a bit smoother. the science roller was driven efficently enough to get 10 science in a single launch, enough to unlock the barometric sensor instead of basic rocketry. Two more roller launches to clear out KSC (plus shores) of the sort of science I have access to. Next up is hopper flights to grassland and water, then possibly to the mountains and island airfield.

Edit: made it through entry, parachute failure in th elower atmosphere. It was safely white, the the moment I pressed the stage key it cycled up through yellow then red.

my NCD run is almost certanly meeting an ignoble end. It started innocently enough. I'd just unlocked liquid engines, so I thought I had control for an observational contract. Got one that was due east of the KSC, below altitude, just north of the island airstrip. Made it out with plenty of fuel in the tanks, got my flight report, and popped the chutes. And the chutes broke. The complete destruction of my current rocket, combined with part unlock costs, put me in a bind. I'd completed the study, so I had some money, but not enough to do anything useful. I needed to go big. Grab the Orbit contract, and use it to afford to complete touching space. Bill went up relatively straight, paid attention to the orbital data to save fuel for entry/descent. Kept my descent speed between 500 and 750m/s though the upper and middle atmo, mostly. Got to safe speeds in the lower atmo, popped them. And the chutes broke again. bill tried for a spaceX soft landing, but I wasnt able to keep the rocket straight AND mess with throttle at the same time, and he splashed down just hard enough to kill the capsule (along with everything else). But I could see that the chutes were breaking because I was too full of fuel, and accelerating past the safe speed. Looking at contracts, nothing looked easy to accomplich with the money I had left. But there was a hauling a BACC contract, and with BACC booster, I was pretty sure I could complete the Orbit contract. Well, bob is in orbit now, with fumes in his tank after a deorbit burn into 200 by 67 km orbit. There's a contract to bring him safely home, which is good because I cant afford another astronaut and he's the last one left. He needs to dead stick through 120% reentry and descent, and hope the chute doesnt explode on him again. But right now he's playing cards as he aerobrakes down to rentry speeds.

Not a scientist. Ex-military analyst. (they DO pay me to think).

I grew up in earthquake country where "devastating thing that probably wont happen soon but we need to prepare for anyway" is a real thing.

What scientists are really worried about is a catastrophic breackaway of the damaged ice. Because merely melting is only giving millimeters, but significant chunks of the ice sheets would do much more to sea level if they fall in the ocean.

Edit: Or I can just open the next tab: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/ 3.4 milimeters per year. of Sea level rise.