SkyRender

The Dunaverse base has landed, and shenanigans have ensued! Plenty to report today, so go take a look.

KSD 2024.2 (Munday, Octember 21st 1895) - Duna's Surface The base landed safely, and so did we. The boffins even waited for our arrival to tell the base lander to extend the pieces out for placement on the surface, just so we could watch the show. And what a show it was! I was worried the whole thing might topple over any second, but it did fine. Then we got to watch the base lander craft fly up high and smash itself hard into the ground, giving our newly-deployed seismometer something to call home about. The base is very comfy! Just like up in orbit, we have a greenhouse to work with when we need time away from the others, though we have no lab down here. The boffins told us that they didn't want us running delicate experiments under the influence of Duna's atmosphere, which I guess makes sense. We can't seem to stop tracking red dust everywhere inside the base, no matter how careful we are! All of the life support systems came online just fine, and the drills both work just fine too (we were shocked when the water drill actually found anything, we're a long ways from the poles). Mission control has extended our surface stay maximum from 84 days to indefinite, so clearly they're confident in the air and water filtration systems! This might sound strange, but there's still more for me to learn about my fellow Kermans than I realized. I found out only today that Karman went to Pifler University, same as I did. In fact, we were both in the engineering program at the same time! How we never met back then is beyond me, even if we were one year apart. In fact, I honestly cannot for the life of me ever remember seeing her anywhere on campus, though she assured me that she was there the whole time. That seems almost impossible, given the size of the engineering campus and just how many students there are there at any given time. Well, maybe I did see her back then and didn't recognize her. I mean it is Pifler University, the single most popular university in all of Lovothoria! It's pretty easy to disappear in a crowd there. Once we're settled in, Jeb wants to take us all out on an EVA expedition. Mission control hasn't given the OK for it, but Jeb doesn't care. As far as he's concerned, he's the one running this mission. He'll get no arguments from me! KSD 2026.3 (Mohoday, Octember 23rd 1895) - Duna's Surface Mission Control and Jeb had quite a shouting match this morning! They've scheduled a formal EVA for us tomorrow, though they wanted to push it out a full week originally. But you can't argue with Jebediah Kerman, a lesson that we all learned a long time ago on this mission, so we're doing our EVA tomorrow. Bob and Bill both retreated to the greenhouse during the rant, while Val stuck close to Jeb and mostly just chuckled to herself as he laid into Gene Kerman for trying to tell him how to do his job. Most of us new recruits were too mortified to say anything, so we kept to the other habitation module for the whole thing. I noticed something I hadn't before: Pholie has some sort of tattoo or something on her neck. It's small but it looks pretty elaborate, whatever it is! I want to ask her about it, but I don't want to sound rude or anything. Maybe I can get Karman to ask her instead, she doesn't seem to be intimidated by that sort of thing at all. KSD 2027.0 (Dunaday, Octember 24th 1895) - Duna's Surface We went on our EVA bright and early today (well, by Kerbin's clock; it's still the middle of Duna's long night here), and performed quite a lot of maintenance and science on and around the base. Jonbert and Bob were at the lander most of the "day" managing the surface experiments, while the rest of us tended to the dust build-up on the exterior of the base. You wouldn't think that landing would stir up so much gunk, but we ended up mucking about 10kg of the stuff from the various modules! Jeb's invoked Contingency 27, the dust-proofing coating that can be applied to the air and water filtration systems. I guess that was one contingency that we were going to have to invoke! Good thing we didn't wait a week before doing it, too; the dust build-up would have fried the motors on all of our extended life support modules if we had! How could Mission Control not have realized that might happen? It boggles the mind, but makes me all the more glad that we've got Jeb along with us. Jeb had another heated discussion with Mission Control when we were done. I think he invented a few new curse words in the process! Apparently Gene's promised that he'll interfere less when Jeb's intuition tells him to do something, which Jeb was pretty happy about. I decided to ask Karman if she could talk to Pholie about that mark on her neck, only to find out that she'd already asked Pholie about it a month ago! Apparently she's had it since she was a baby, so I guess it's actually a birthmark? It looks more like a tattoo, though... KSD 2028.1 (Dresday, Octember 25th 1895) - Duna's Surface Here we go again... Jeb wants us all to return to the station for a few days, and of course Mission Control is against it. Unsurprisingly it ended the same way as last time, with Gene bending to Jeb's will and agreeing to let him do it. At least they didn't argue for nearly as long this time. I think the stress of these frequent arguments is starting to get to Jonbert. He's started babbling again, but now it's all about his homeland of Devathoria instead of about science. I asked him to stop after I noticed how uncomfortable it was making Karman. Not sure what happened, but clearly she doesn't want to hear about the "good old days" of Devathoria when the royal family was in charge! She probably lost family during the Great Unification War. I know that'd be reason enough for me to not want to hear about Devathoria! I mean my grandpa was deported there after the war, and even I can barely stand to hear Jonbert rant about it. KSD 2028.4 (Dresday, Octember 25th 1895) - Low Duna Orbit The station was just fine. The Ike mining mission had taken off for its duties while we were away, and according to the station logs the whole thing worked out just fine. However, the fuel ferry rover is apparently jammed on the docking port it was carried in on and needs an engineer to free it up. Looks like I've got a job to do! Actually, Jeb wants all of us to go to Ike. I mean I guess it makes sense? It would really stink to come all the way out to Duna and never get to see Ike up close! So we're going to take the lander out there first thing tomorrow. Pholie said something very strange to me today. She told me that she doesn't trust Jonbert. I asked her if it was because he's from Devothoria, but she said that's not it at all. She wouldn't elaborate, so I didn't pursue it any further. Jonbert may be a bit of a blabbermouth, but he's hardly a bad Kerman. KSD 2030.4 (Eeloday, Octember 27th 1895} - Ike's Surface We made it to Ike! It reminds me a little of our beloved Mun, but somehow it seems darker... At least the miner's currently on the day side. I would hate to have to work on this thing without the soothing light of Kerbol! We got a fairly good-sized load of scientific data as we headed in, which has made both Bob and Jonbert quite happy. If it keeps Jonbert from rambling and making Karman uncomfortable, I'm happy too! The rover wasn't too badly jammed. We just had to move the docking port off the bottom side of the fuel tug and it will be good to go, bringing precious fuel to orbit for us to harness. I got to drive it around for a bit, and even found a way to make the mining rig work faster! Unfortunately I can't make that modification work constantly, I have to be there to make it happen. But hey, it still made me feel pretty awesome! We took advantage of the situation and attached one of the miner's spare docking nodes to our lander, so now we can refuel the lander on the surface of Ike! I wish I could say this was a home-grown contingency, but they actually thought of that with Contingency 121. Mission Control really does think of everything... Anyway, we're gonna stick around for a bit to do some science (Jonbert played a little golf earlier, his swing's impressive!), so I'm just going to relax with Karman and Pholie back in the lander while our science boys do their science thing. Further logs are still being processed. We thank you for your understanding.

There's a lot of contingencies. I'm sure we'll see at least a few of them invoked. What KSP mission ever goes perfectly to spec, after all?

The Dunaverse mission continues.

KSD 1234.4 (Eveday, Duember 19th 1895) - Solar Orbit We're well on our way to Duna! The overall flight is supposed to take about 204 days (still almost 200 to go...), which is a very long time indeed, but luckily we all get along quite well. If any of us needs time away from the rest of the crew, we can slip into the greenhouse or the science lab. We're going to test out the hibernation feature of the upper crew cabin today to see if it's effective. I'm on the second rotation for testing, so fortunately I don't have to worry about potentially never waking up again if the first test goes wrong. On the other hand, I also have 50 days of half my fellow Kerbals on this flight being fast asleep to look forward to... Well, maybe it's for the best. It will give me more time to get familiar with my fellow newer recruits, and let me have some time away from feeling intimidated by the Big Four. Jonbert's finally stopped talking constantly; I think it was mostly nerves causing him to prattle on. Maybe I should re-evaluate him a bit now that I know that. I guess I have 50 days to do so! KSD 1285.5 (Dresday, Triember 35th 1895) - Solar Orbit Jebediah, Bill, Bob, and Valentina all came out of hibernation just fine, none the worse for wear. Our tests showed that they made a full recovery from the long sleep effects in under a day, and are exhibiting no lasting side-effects. Of course, it could be weeks before actual side-effects show up, but so far this is a promising result. Jonbert, Pholie, Karman and myself are next up, so this will be my last entry for at least 50 days. The four of us really became close-knit during our stretch together. We know more about one another now than I think any of us know about anyone else back on Kerbin. In a way, I'm glad we're all going to wake up at the same time. I wonder if this sort of bond is the same shared by the Big Four. I hear they were pretty close even when the Space Program was founded, after all. KSD 1386.2 (Eveday, Sextember 29th 1895) - Solar Orbit They let us sleep far longer than they were supposed to... Apparently orders came in from mission control to see how long we could stay in hibernation before we started showing signs of difficulty. The thing is, that never happened; we were able to hibernate for months with no side-effects. We completely missed Quattember and Quintember, and most of Sextember too! We were brought out yesterday only because we're nearly at Duna. I don't like that I lost 100 days of my life to that hibernation system, but it is what it is. At least I didn't miss my birthday, unlike poor Pholie. We're about 50 days away from arrival now. Mission control only ordered us awake so we'd have some proper time to work together as a full crew. For what it's worth, the Big Four all seem genuinely upset that they were forced to keep us in hibernation for so long. I don't think they wanted to put us through that any more than we wanted to be put through it. They've been stuck with each other the whole time, too, so nerves between them are a bit high-strung. Apparently Bill and Bob have been sequestered away in the greenhouse and lab respectively for the entire journey, and neither one wants to talk to Jebediah right now; they barely tolerate it when Valentina drops in on them. I do hope they become more receptive now that the rest of us are awake! KSD 2005.3 (Joolday, Octember 2nd 1895} - High Duna Trajectory We're finally here! Duna has been slowly growing in size out the window for a month, and now we can clearly see it with the naked eye as we approach. Our course has been altered to allow for aerocapture, but we're still going to need main engines to finish the process as Duna's atmosphere is quite thin. To think, we're the first Kerbals ever to come so close to what was once merely a twinkle in the night sky! It is humbling. The crew's mood has improved significantly, I must say. Bob remains reticent, spending most of his time with Jonbert in the lab, but Bill has opened back up and even forgiven his brother Jebediah. He and Pholie have become good friends while working in the greenhouse, it's actually kind of cute to watch them joke with one another. Jeb's gotten pretty chummy with Karman lately, too, and Valentina and I have become very close. It's good to see us all properly spending time with one another! Jeb's proposed a crew exercise during our journey inward to help bring the team together, it should be interesting to see how that turns out... KSD 2012.2 (Dresday, Octember 9th 1895) - Low Duna Orbit Jeb's exercise turned out to be a half-hour spacewalk to run checks and maintenance on the Dunaverse, which was a good idea as it turns out because we found a few micrometeor impacts that had come dangerously close to damaging the life support systems. That's all patched up, so we should be good to go for the rest of the mission. It turns out that the station hub arrived before we did, and has been busy setting up the comms network while we've been on our way in. We have a full 6/8 ear back to mission control, no deadzones in the network, thank the Kraken! Mission control has swapped our comm dishes over from the long-range (and less reliable) mode to the shorter-range (and much more stable) mode. This does mean that we're dependent on the comms sats staying active for the rest of the mission, but there's no chance the whole network could go down. And even if it did, we could just switch the dishes back over to long-range mode. Contingencies 11 through 15 save the day! It's nice to be able to get regular broadcasts back from Mission Control again. I was getting sick of having to wait half a week between transmissions. Incidentally, we got word back from Kerbin about recent events. Prime Minister Merman Atis has been stirring up a lot of pro-Unification sentiment lately, because apaprently there's been a lot of unrest over in Devathoria these last few months. Jonbert's convinced he's to blame since he defected to Lovothoria, but we've assured him that's not it. Politics rarely come down to one Kerbal! My dad's doing fine, he sent his love. Donner's been assigned to Mun Base Alpha for the closer-to-home habitation experiment, and apparently he's having a blast driving the rover around. Overall, it sounds like Kerbin's doing just fine without us! KSD 2023.4 (Kerbday, Octember 20th 1895) - Low Duna Orbit All capture maneuvers completed successfully across all 5 Dunaverse craft, and at this point all of the final pieces of the mission have linked up to form the full craft (for the first and last time, I might add!). The Dunaverse looks like some sort of child's toy in its fully-assembled form, but it won't stay in this formation for long. Tomorrow we're sending the base module down to the surface, then following an orbit later in the lander. A new life awaits me, likely for some time. Our mission has us here for the next 560 days at minimum. More than a year of my life is going to be dedicated just to this leg of the mission, potentially even more if the mission gets extended since the next return window after KSD 3225 isn't until KSD 5295. Well, unless we invoke Contingency 31, which we have one month available to us to do if we're going to. But the odds of that happening are basically zero... Better to just focus on the mission and hope it all goes well! The next part of the mission logs is still being analyzed. Thank you for your patience.

Today I begin the mission report on my grand adventure to Duna.

On KSD 1228.0, the crew of the two-year Duna exploration mission Dunaverse was sent into orbit, officially beginning the first interplanetary habitation experiment of Kerbalkind. The mission was ultimately deemed a success, but it was not without incident. Upon their return, the crew of the Dunaverse was debriefed and their personal logs for the mission were reviewed. In light of the events that transpired during the mission, particular attention was paid to the logs of Raner Kerman, an engineer who had been a late addition to the crew. What follows are her relevant mission logs, the strange discoveries that they document, and the unexpected late-mission event that heavily altered the future of Kerbal space exploration and even the course of Kerbal society itself. Mission Roster Captain Jebediah Kerman (51) - Owner of Jeb's Junkyard, founding member of KSP. Commander Valentina Kerman (48) - Chairwoman of Escape Velocity, founding member of KSP. Chief Engineer Bill Kerman (42) - Member of of STEADLER board of directors, founding member of KSP. Chief Science Officer Bob Kerman (46) - Founding member of Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society, founding member of KSP. Engineer Karman Kerman (31) - StrutCo senior engineer, last name not given. Rescued from orbit by KSC staff. Engineer Raner Kerman (30) - Periapsis senior engineer, last name Wellier. Rescued from orbit by KSC staff. Junior Science Officer Jonbert Kerman (26) - Devathorian defector, last name Metzli. Rescued from orbit by KSC staff. Junior Engineer Pholie Kerman (19) - Self-taught rocketry enthusiast, last name unknown. Rescued from orbit by KSC staff. The log entries of Raner Kerman begin here. KSD 1191.4 (Eelooday, Unember 12th 1895) High Kerbin Orbit This was my first New Year celebrated so far away from home. Over the last few weeks I've been further from home than I've ever been in my entire life, in fact. And it's looking like next year's celebrations are going to be taking place much further away still. In two days, my training mission will conclude and I will be standing on the surface of Kerbin again. It's been a long month and a half, all alone out here. I've done a solar flyby, a Mun landing, and a Minmus landing. I've had a lot of time to think, and I've decided that I am going to take the Dunaverse posting after all. This training mission was a great example of not only what can go wrong, but also why it won't be catastrophic if things do go wrong. This mission was originally going to have me go directly to Minmus after my solar jaunt, but poor timing put my return in exactly the wrong place. Mission control's instructions were to aim for the Mun instead, land there, then go on to Minmus, as a launch window to Minmus would be very easy to obtain from Munar orbit. Ultimately it extended my mission by a full 20 days, but the end result is hard to argue. My life support remains almost half full; they were fully prepared for an even more catastrophic mission result. I have ample fuel left too; I could easily land my drive stage on Kerbin if I wanted. I reviewed the plans for the Dunaverse mission over the extra days I had available to me (apparently they're still making last-minute additions, these blueprints were out of date by the time I got them!), and I am certain more than ever that it will be successful. We're being sent out with extensive life support, production facilities for ISRU on Ike if needed, a full-scale comms network, and probably the single most overbuilt lander I've ever set eyes on. In total there are 127 contingency plans in place, which is unprecedented for any Kerbal space mission; usually they top out at 15 planned contingencies. Dunaverse is scheduled for launch in one month, so I had better prepare while I can. KSD 1228.0 (Dunaday, Duember 13th 1895) Kerbal Space Center My birthday last week was quite a fun event. The whole crew for the Dunaverse mission arranged a surprise party for me with my family. I got an astronomer's compass from my dad (it even looks like a mini navball!). He told me I would always know my way home if I had that. He's such a softie. Well, the day has finally arrived for the launch of the habitation module. The previous day was marked with the launches of the station core, base, mining, and lander modules, and those are all on their way to Duna already. Now it's our turn to head up. By this time tomorrow, we will also be en route to Duna, assuming all of the systems checks pass and refueling goes off without a hitch. Refueling at night is a bit eerie... I'm a bit on edge about the whole thing, I'll be honest. Before today, I hadn't really given much thought to just how long this mission really is going to be. I won't see my family again for a very long time. I hope dad's still alive when I get back. I know that's a morbid thought, but he doesn't take very good care of himself and he's getting on in years. Still, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm not getting cold feet the night before the big event! KSD 1228.1 (Dunaday, Duember 13th 1895) Low Kerbin Orbit We are mere minutes away from our injection burn. Even though the other four modules have already been sent off ahead of us, the boffins are saying that our approach will result in us arriving a week before most of them do. Half the crew is horribly nervous, the other over-excited, and we are all looking forward to finally getting underway. As for me, I'm somewhere between the two, but mostly I just want the burn to Duna over and done with. Karman and I have had some interesting tales to swap while we waited for the burn. We talked about our misadventures prior to this mission, and how she got sent on a short one just before I got back from my training to prep Mun Base Alpha for habitation by the incoming class of Kermans. I think we're going to get along great. As for the others, I'm mostly concerned about how well Jonbert and I will mesh since he pretty much talks nonstop about science. I'm just an engineer, I don't know anything about the finer details of how the universe works. Pholie is pretty reserved, but she's also a great listener, and her memory is shockingly good. She remembered the smallest details of our conversation back on my birthday when I talked to her just before launch! I find it hard to approach the Big Four, the founding Kermans of the space program, but they're not bad Kerbals or anything. Jebediah is a blustery sort, always ready to jump into action, but he has a softer side too. I had no idea he likes to write poetry! Valentina is very no-nonsense when she gets focused, but the rest of the time she's actually a bit of a goofball. Bob is exceptionally quiet most of the time, but if you start talking science with him, he won't stop for hours; poor Jonbert found that out the hard way, I bet he didn't think anyone could out-geek him! Bill's the easiest of them to talk to, but it helps that he's a fellow engineer. He reminds me of my little brother Donner, actually. Well, I'd better stop writing, we're about to hit our maneuver node. Next time I write, we'll be in interplanetary space! Further mission log entries will be released as we process them. Thank you for your patience.

This morning is off to a great start as I have discovered that Kerbals can and will walk anywhere as long as they have an RCS jetpack equipped and enabled. This includes walking on water, walking UNDER water, and walking several meters above the surface of the Mun. I wonder if Danny2462 knows about this...

I see you went for the adjustable counterweight solution! The heavy pistons were a good call too. Mobile cranes are such a nightmare to build. Cranes are most effective when they're heavy, tall and long, but "tall" and "mobile" don't like each other one bit (and "long" and "mobile" are on shaky terms too).

The Dunaverse begins. The station core went up this evening, as well as the base. The station core's off to Duna, the base is off to refuel before heading out to Duna. The miner, lander, and habitation will swiftly follow, as well as a mission report on the whole adventure in the days to come.

After what a bust asteroid mining proved to be, I moved on to building a recoverable SSTO that can bring a full Rockomax-64 tank to the fuel depot. I can recover about 75,000 of the launch cost when I land it back at KSC, and it can actually land fully intact as long as it lands on flat ground thanks to my piston-based impromptu landing gear and the glorious 10m inflatable heatshield. (Yes, I can get it to orbit with only 3438dV. I get it there with around 50 to 100dV to spare, in fact.)

I have three basic launch types I do most of the time: asparagus-staged, SSTO, and refuel hybrid. The former any old-school KSP player will recognize instantly (outer tanks feed one another and the central tank and are dropped when empty, all tanks have engines below them). SSTO is fairly self-explanatory, and mostly reserved for light payloads. The refuel hybrid is generally an underbuilt asparagus staged rocket that can only just get to orbit, but it gets refueled while in low Kerbin orbit so it can reuse that launch stage to go elsewhere.

And my ST:TNG reference was missed. Ah well.

Those are all TAC Life Support parts, and yes, they're all chemical processors that convert life support waste products back into usable life support products.

So you're saying it has a microbrain colony on it? Are they going to call the Kerbals "ugly giant bags of mostly water" and try to take over their ship systems?

Presumably it's referring to the Sabatier reaction, which produces methane and water from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. It's a theoretical way to get rid of built-up carbon dioxide while also producing more useful products (methane can be used as a fuel, and water has obvious uses). I know a few different life support mods have a Sabatier Recycler unit for that purpose, including TAC Life Support.

The big issue with Laythe is that its gravity is 80% of Kerbin's, but its atmosphere has 60% of the density. Meaning you're coming in at supersonic speeds far sooner than on Kerbin, you have nearly as much speed to eliminate as on Kerbin, and the air does not slow you down nearly as dramatically. Doing a very high aerobraking is helpful since it gives the atmosphere much more time to slow you down (though you're going to land somewhere very far from where you started and probably won't be able to pick your landing site). And even then, you still need to burn off about 300 to 400m/s you're at 5 to 10km up if you don't want to slam into the ground at 500m/s. Compared to the zero effort of aerobraking on Kerbin and Duna, it's definitely a deceptively tricky atmosphere!

Methinks the KSC is performing some censorship... Looks like you underestimated the need to slow down before deploying the chutes by quite a margin! Laythe's atmosphere isn't nearly as forgiving as Duna's or even Kerbin's...

Pretty sure what you need is a KOS script then. Because I'm fairly certain there's no existing autopilot mod that's that smart (and even if it were, there's a fundamental limit to how well you can land on a slope based on the height-to-width ratio of your lander and its stabilizing system).

That's kind of vague. What about those two do you not like? What is it that you're looking for out of a landing autopilot specifically that they can't deliver? Details are critical for good recommendations, especially when it comes to matters of automation.

Owing to the fact that the entire active duty roster of KSC is about to head off to Duna, one last trip was scheduled for maintenance to Mun Base Alpha. Karman Kerman ("the Kerbal to call when you need to draw the line on space") went up and delivered some repair kits, batteries, and solar panels. While she and her friends are off to Duna, the KSC is hoping to establish a permanent Mun presence at this base. We'll see if reality allows for their ambitions to come to fruition.

Staples. Or superglue if they're allergic to iron.

The day I run out of ship names is the day that KSP refuses to allow me to give my vessels terrible pun names. Long live Munity, Minity, Mohotivated, Eve Ent Horizon, Silly Gilly, Dunaverse, Ike-E-A, Dresperate, Joolific, Laythered Up, Tylo Brahe, Valliant, Teeny Bop, Pol Taker, and Eeloosive!

According to the Hitchhiker's Guide to Kerbals, Pol is considered cursed by some denizens of the universe and the harbinger of the Great Green Arklesiezure, supposedly having been one of the colossal grains of pollen that caused the sneeze that formed the universe. Of course, Kerbals themselves don't believe that at all, and have formally designated Pol as "target practice". To be fair, every celestial body in the Kerbol system has been designated "target practice", so it's hard to tell one way or another what they honestly think about any planet or moon. Attempts to get details on the matter have cost the Guide a few dozen Kerbologists in freak SRB-riding accidents, so there's not a lot of interest in finding out the truth. As a result, the Guide has decided to resort to their usual tactic of making things up and is claiming that Kerbals think Pol is made of cheese. Please note that no Kerbal has ever expressed this sentiment in the history of the universe, but since it sells copies, the Guide's keeping it in there.

So I've been noticing, ever since trying out 1.11, that the game crashes when going to the VAB around 5% of the time now. I don't have a lot of mods installed (KAC, PBS, and TACLS), so I'm not sure if it's being caused by mods or if it's something to do with the stock game. Anyone know anything about it?