Angelo Kerman

Now that I've got the tracking plugin working, I'm leveraging it by redoing the ground-based Pipeline: The mass driver is pointing straight up right now but it'll be able to elevate like the dish does. I also have the observatory in the works:

Chapter Seven: Pipelines “Take good care of Skybase, Lemely,” Kelbin said, shaking hands with the new station commander. “Don’t worry, Kelbin! She’s in good hands,” Lemely said, beaming. “You know, I’ve never met a celebrity before, let alone three!” Kelbin, Samalla, and Munvan were famous for discovering the crashed saucer in the Arctic Circle. “We just uh, got lucky,” Kelbin said awkwardly. “I bet! But hey, you guys did a great job with Skybase. You know they cancelled the shuttle program because of how well you guys did!” Kelbin winced. There goes an opportunity, he thought to himself. “Ah, I didn’t know that...” “Oh yeah! Walt is making the announcement today. We’ll be receiving raw material shipments via expendable rockets- which themselves will be recycled- and we’ll build whatever we need. Eventually Minmus Flats will ship us the raw materials instead, which should make the environmentalists happy. So instead of being launched from the ground, we get to build Nautilus!” “Congratulations,” Kelbin said flatly, still reeling from the news. “I’m sure that’ll be fun to fly around.” “Thanks! We’re just the dock crew though. Somebody else gets to take her out on her shakedown cruise. Gene said that from this point on, Skybase will be continually occupied.” “Ah.” With that, Team Kelbin boarded Flapjack 1 for the trip home and undocked from Skybase. The rocket saucer performed flawlessly. After lowering its orbit to 100km, a well-timed deorbit burn put the saucer on course for a landing at KSC. Kelbin had no trouble at all lining up with the runway and making a perfect landing. He taxied the spacecraft over to its parking spot, where ground crews immediately began servicing procedures. Kelbin was unsteady on his feet after half a year in space, and he nearly toppled over from surprise when two figures stepped out of the Astro Van. “Gene? Wernher? What are you two doing here,” Kelbin asked. “Wernher’s here to interrogate- er, interview you guys about the Flapjack’s performance,” Gene answered. “And I don’t get out on the flight line much these days, so I gave the drivers the day off. We need to debrief you about the Munbase imediately- and your Skybase mission too, of course. Hop into the van. We’ve got to clear you through Medical and then debrief right away.” “We gave our reports during quarantine,” Kelbin pointed out. “I know, Major, but we need to hear it from you guys again. Plus, there’s been some new developments.” Kelbin sighed. He almost blurted out how much he despised meetings. *** “Naturally we get these plans after we moved here,” Captain James lamented, studying the blueprints. He set them aside and watched as Minmus Station’s new tank farm and drydock lifted off the pad. Minutes later, it achieved orbit, and within an hour, it took its place at the station. After the evening meal and launch party, Captain James gathered the team to brief them on the next project. “Alright, team, we finally have a Pipeline to build. Only thing is, we get to test the concept. We need to build two of these, one here and one at the Blutonium Mining Outpost, which we’ll have to expand to support the Pipeline. And we need to build the orbital Pipeline for Minmus Station. Once that’s done, we’re heading home.” “No pressure,” Marnica quipped. Captain James’ attitude was starting to rub off on her. “That explains why KSC wanted us to get our konkrete processors worked out,” Stelissa noted. “Right,” Captain James continued. “Our mission has been extended another 45 days to complete the refinery, expand the mining outpost, and stand up Minmus Station’s orbital shipyard. Lizchel and Dicie, can you two finish up your research by then?” “We should be able to,” Dicie spoke up. “Valentina and her team left us with a lot of data on Minmus, but we should be done by then.” “Good,” Captain James said, nodding. “Let’s get to work.” *** “Try it now, Jim,” Jane said. Captain James tapped in the launch request into the trajectory computer, then hit the go button. “Same error,” he said, frustrated. “We have a NO-GO on the liquid fuel and oxidizer, and we just don’t have enough power to launch the ROC.” “I think we need to rig up some larger capacitors then,” the engineer replied. “Which means heading back to the Refinery to print them,” Captain James grumbled. He sighed. “Well, we’ve made four trips out here and back, what’s one more among friends?” After completing their closeout procedures, Captain James and Jane hopped back into the Munbus for yet another trip to the Lesser Flats Refinery and back. They’d spent the last several days expanding the Blutonium Mining Outpost to support its new Pipeline mass driver, and it had taken several trips to haul the necessary components, equipment, and konkrete to the site. A few hours later, they returned, this time with additional Chuckwagons to increase their rocket fuel storage and electrical capacity. The Pipeline mass driver both simplified and complicated delivery of goods and resources between bases on the ground and between stations in orbit. It simplified things by launching Rocket-assisted Object Canisters (ROCs)- automated delivery vehicles- between sites. The delivery system removed the need for more traditional tanker or freighter flights. But it also complicated things as well; setting up a Pipeline was no small feat, and it required copious amounts of power along with a modest amount of propellant and trajectory data. Jane quickly got to work installing the new Chuckwagons and configuring them while Captain James went back into the mining facility to prepare the Pipeline. “All done here, Jim,” Jane said over the wireless. “You can launch as soon as the batteries charge up. Are you gonna fire the blutonium?” “Um, how about no,” Captain James responded. “Definitely not for our first attempt. I’m thinking just some ore.” He programmed the trajectory computer once again, this time selecting some ore. He hit the go button. “All systems go,” he said triumphantly. He watched the status display. Outside, the mass driver aligned with its target. A few seconds later, the trajectory computer had a firing solution. It pulled the ROC from the loading bay and chambered the round. The base shook as the payload canister shot down the mass driver coils and rocketed towards its destination. A few minutes later, Marnica confirmed safe arrival of the canister. Their mass driver caught the round. “It worked! It almost never goes well on the first try,” Captain James said, patting the trajectory computer. *** A day later, Team James boarded the last operational Brumby- built before the Flapjack and Munbus took over its role- and launched towards Minmus Station. They arrived a little under an hour after they launched and immediately began setting up the shipyard. The skydock and centrifuge deployed without incident. The crew celebrated by enjoying the view outside the centrifuge windows. Captain James discreetly kept his eyes away from the window- the spinning made him dizzy. Mission Control congratulated MEX-2 for completing Phase Two of their mission. “And from this point onward,” Gene said over the wireless, “Minmus Station and the Lesser Flats Refinery will be continuously staffed. Well done, MEX-2! You are go for Phase Three. Now let’s finish strong. Complete the expansion while we prep MEX-3 to relieve you.” To do their job, Minmus Station needed additional resources that they planned to receive via the station’s orbital Pipeline. That required more power. But when it became clear that the solar array truss they planned to add didn’t have enough room to fully pivot, MEX-2 decided to go nuclear. As a result, the Blutonium Mining Outpost shot a few payloads of blutonium over to the Refinery for processing, and Team Marnica got to work on a pair of new modules for the station. Several days later, the Power Tower launched into orbit and docked with Minmus Station. After hooking up all the power connections, Jane activated the nuclear reactors. The station’s new workshop followed next, but not without incident. The tank farm suffered an over-pressurization failure and exploded. Fortunately, nobody got hurt. Despite the accident, their Pipeline was operational. Resource payloads began to flow soon after. *** “So, like, the SEP was totally wiped and turned off,” Munvan concluded. “No way Bob forgot to turn it on.” “Bob said the same when I spoke to him right after their mid-course correction,” Gene agreed. “The instruments are working. We’ve been getting telemetry updates as the various experiments complete their analysis.” “Why would they do that,” Linus Kerman, Wernher’s former intern turned assistant asked. “To cover their tracks,” Kelbin said simply. “Who though,” Linus pressed. “The aliens, of course,” Samalla blurted out. “We don’t know that, Samalla,” Gene pointed out. “There’s no evidence that they’re still around and plenty suggesting they’re long gone.” “Maybe not here on Kerbin...” “Show me evidence and I’ll believe it,” Gene challenged. Samalla said nothing. “Wernher, could the vonKermans abduct our people and property, and make it look like aliens?” “Yes and no,” Wernher answered, his thick accent making him hard to understand at times. “We know they conducted atomic tests- the flashes of light that Kelbin reported- und ‘covered it up’ as you say. But my source says that the vonKerman Republic is focused on a replacement for their ‘Hause’ space station, returning the Abenteurer from Eve and ensuring that Das Wanderer reaches Duna. So they could enact such deception, but they lack the resources to do so.” “I see,” Gene responded. “We’ll have to keep digging then. In the meantime, Major, do you remember the atomic space probe that you found during the Elcano Project?” “The vonKerman one? Yes.” “Well, a follow-up team found this buried in the snow.” He produced two photos from an envelope and showed it to Team Kelbin. One depicted a broken golden disc. Another was a plaque with lines converging on a single point that was set below two circles joined by a single line. Below the lines were a series of worlds, with a line indicating where the probe came from. To the right of the lines was a simple drawing of the space probe, and two figures standing upright, one of which held up a hand. “The aliens made the probe? This is what they look like? That’s amazing,” Samalla said, astonished. “But why aren’t they wearing any clothing?” “We think their homeworld is quite warm,” Linus answered, “so they have no need for clothing to keep them warm. Another theory is that their technology is so advanced, they don’t need clothing.” “I guess they don’t worry about being modest,” Samalla chuckled. “What’s this have to do with us,” Kelbin asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand. Gene handed them another photograph, this one of the back of the plaque. It had writings of some kind. “Some of the symbols match those at the pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn,” Gene said. “The Gateway to Thel,” Wernher added. “Exactly,” Gene continued. “We’re assembling an expedition to investigate the pyramid more thoroughly than you could during the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project, and we need all the experts that we can get…” “Oh, so you want my team to lead the expedition,” Kelbin interrupted and nodded. Gene cleared his throat. “Not exactly, Major. I hate to say this but I have to break up your team.”

Noted and noted. I'll take a look and see what's going on.

Currently no, I have to check and see how asteroids are classified. I don’t track flags, unknown objects, kerbals on eva, and “space objects “

I finally cracked the problem of how to properly track a vessel or planet and aim the dish- with angle limits: The dishes stay in sync. You can randomly track targets or specify a target by simply clicking on a nearby vessel or selecting an object in the map.

I haven't seen that issue. How reproducible is it for you? Meanwhile:

The construction ports come from Extraplanetary Launchpads by @taniwha

I have been focusing my efforts elsewhere. And with EL's new construction docking ports, my welding ports aren't that needed. @taniwha did a great job on those construction ports. Once the dust settles on Pathfinder, I may have to create some MOLE-alike construction ports.

Haven't seen that one. Odd! Can you consistently reproduce it?

I continued expanding Minmus Station: I finally have enough power to fire up the Pipeline mass catcher and build the remaining expansion modules.

I completed the Lesser Flats Refinery: The Pipeline mass driver is ready for test shots. Meanwhile, Team James launched in the Brumby Lander up to Minmus Station: ... and activated the drydock and centrifuge: Team Marnica will join Team James once they've finished setting up Minmus Station's new capabilities and they've tested the mass drivers.

BARIS 1.7.0 is now available: - New setting: Email vessel repair requests - Instead of interrupting your game with a popup containing a list of broken vessels, email you the list instead. - New setting: Report astronaut skill checks - Turns on/off the screen messages telling you when an astronaut's skill saved the day. - Added blacklist to resources that can't leak. Ablator, SolidFuel, and SRMFuel are on that list. - Removed Astronaut On Vacation event card since it kills astronauts. it will be revisited later. - Reduced explosion potential of parts that explode during launch failures.

You only get one of them. Which one... who knows at the moment, haven't gotten that far.

Snacks: When I took over and rebuilt Snacks, I envisioned it along the same lines as the design goals for KerbNet: enough to get in the way but not enough to brick your mission or save. So when you run out of snacks, you incur penalties like fines for treating your kerbals badly, lost science, losing reputation, and fainting (similar to loss of consciousness due to high g forces). There is a death penalty but that's optional and off by default. It's a simple life support mod so you can produce snacks from ore, but other mods provide greenhouses and such.

Actually, a boxed part that you build into an observatory with working telescope (if you have Tarsier or CactEye installed).

1.5.1 had several changes. I definitely killed a lot of bugs too. Meanwhile, work progresses: Once I get the modeling work done, then it's on to figuring out how to track spacecraft...

I continued texturing my new ground station for Pathfinder: And I added the port hab/lab and starboard logistics module for DSEV-3: Once the port logstics module is installed, I'll have to retrofit a pair of RTG auxiliary generators- I don't have an nuclear fuel aboard the station. After that it's time for a shakedown cruise.

No worries, happy to give back. Yeah, I'm not knowledgeable about CKAN these days and don't have access to the OSE Workshop settings. Funny thing is, I haven't had time to play with the workshop since I updated it...

@Orbital_phoenix Your tug’s command pod is what the mk2 lander can should be.

@Omega482 These look great! Downloading tonight, definitely want for my GPP play through.

Today I launched Minmus Station's orbital Pipeline into orbit: I had to move fast due to a problem with the spacecraft colliding with the Rangeland that built it. The Rangeland exploded and catapulted the vehicle into the air. Fortunately the rest of the mission went off without a hitch: ) Next up was the starboard hab/lab module for Nautilus (DSEV-03): There's just enough room to install the module if I wait for the solar arrays to get out of the way... I also worked on Discovery (DSEV-04), but didn't capture any images as she's still in the design phase..

Need to accumulate trajectory data faster for your Pipeline? Want to set up a Deep Space Network on a remote planet? Then you'll need one of these (WIP): That's a 12.5m ground station, a new boxed part...

The core of Nautilus (DSEV-3) exited Skybase's drydock this morning: Her sister ship, Protector (DSEV-2) is currently en route to Duna. Over the next few in-game weeks, DSEV-3 will receive her habitation and logistics modules. Nautilus will shuttle crews between Kerbin and Minmus while she waits for the next launch window to Duna

Chapter Six: Missing Persons This time, the tank farm had plenty of struts. As soon as it was complete, Marnica rolled it off of the launch pad and started to maneuver it over to its intended parking spot. Along the way, several tires exploded from the weight- even in the low Minmus gravity. She decided to keep going and try to reach the parking spot, but to no avail. The other tires gave out as well. With nothing left to lose, she hit the detonation switch, and the wheel stumps exploded. This time though, the tank farm held together. “Close enough,” Captain James said and shrugged. *** With their supply of Liquid Fuel nearly gone, Scrapper Two stayed at Skybase, but that was just as well. There was work to be done! The drydock produced a pair of Pier docking tubes, and the scraper pod positioned them on Node 1’s dorsal and ventral docking ports. Three days later, after Flapjack 1 moved out of the way, the Density Lab emerged from its blanket of construction arms, and Kelbin maneuvered it to Node 1’s forward port. Next came the hard part. “Here we go,” Samalla said, flipping a switch. Munvan grabbed a handhold and Kelbin gripped the flight controls. There was a loud clunk as Node 2, attached to the Bigby Orbital Workshop, detached. As the remaining space complex cleared the area, Kelbin engaged its RCS thrusters and spun it around. He cursed as he pivoted too far and had to rotate a bit back the other way. The complex then crept forward. With a satisfying clank, Skybase rejoined with its wayward drydock section. “Hard dock. Seals look good,” Samalla said. She smiled. “See? That wasn’t so bad.” “Easy for you to say,” Kelbin responded, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. “You didn’t have to line everything up and avoid smacking anything against the outrigger tanks.” “Point,” she conceded. “Well, with that out of the way, we’ve got the aft port freed for the tank farm. Once that’s done, we can move the drydock aft and recycle the outriggers. Then it’s on to the truss and greenhouse, and then we’re done!” “Don’t forget about the new airlock,” Munvan pointed out. “Oh yeah, that too-“ “Skybase, Flight,” Gene called out over the wireless. Kelbin hit the transmit button. They were watching the station’s latest aerobatic maneuvers. “Skybase, go ahead.” “Go to Secure Two.” Kelbin blinked. He was expecting a congratulatory call for pulling off a difficult maneuver, not a terse directive. He switched channels, and the station’s interior lights turned blue. “Skybase on Secure Two. Go ahead, Flight.” “Skybase, there’s no easy way to say this. Munbase Enterprise has vanished without a trace,” Gene said simply. If he was at all nervous, he hid it well. “Uh, say again? Munbase has what now,” Munvan spoke up. Gene repeated himself. “Woah,” is all the scientist could say. “Yeah,” Gene continued. “We’ve learned all we can from the ground- we don’t really have the science gear we need. Or the astronauts. That’s where you come in. Munbus 2 is on its way to you now. Give it a thorough systems check, and if there’s nothing wrong with it, you’ll reconfigure it for a recon mission with hardware that we’re prepping for launch. We’re sending a tanker up to you too. “Major, you and your crew are headed to the Mun. You’re the only available team for this mission...” *** Samalla, Munvan, and Kelbin couldn’t find anything wrong with Munbus 2, either inside or out, its scorch marks from aerobraking notwithstanding. Once both they and Mission Control were satisfied, Kelbin moved it out of drydock and over to Pier 1 for refit- the dock was fine for making new craft, but too cramped for the orbital ballet that they needed to perform. A day later, Team Kelbin pulled the craft apart, removed the central tank, installed the lab sent up via Delta rocket, and put the Munbus back together. The modular system worked perfectly. While they waited for KSC to finish the Duna Tanker stack- and its associated stack of paperwork (yes, the boosters and first stage will de-orbit, no, the second stage won’t, yes it will be recycled…), Kelbin practiced simulated flights in the Munbus while Samalla supervised the construction robots and Munvan continued his science experiments. Four days later, they were still waiting. But in that time, the drydock finished making their tank farm, so Kelbin hopped into Scrapper Two and gingerly maneuvered it into position. After shuffling resources around, Team Kelbin recycled the outrigger tanks, re-positioned the drydock and built the central truss node. By the time they were done, KSC finally launched a Duna Tanker into orbit. A day later, Team Kelbin was on their way to the Mun. *** With the tank farm finally completed MEX-2 got to work on the first expansion module for Minmus Station- the Long Duration Habitat. One of the occupational hazards of being an astronaut was microgravity. Spend too much time in a zero-gee environment, and your muscles atrophy and your bones become brittle. As a result, KSC flight surgeons restrict crews to a maximum of 200 days on orbit, though kerbals could survive up to a year without irreversible effects. The MEX-2 crew noticed that Minmus’s 5% gee environment slowed the atrophy down, which meant that they could remain deployed longer, so KSC decided to try an experiment. When the Long Duration Habitat lifted off three weeks after construction began, it carried with it an experimental living section that could unfold and spin to generate artificial gravity! Its deployment would have to wait for MEX-2 to finish up on the ground, but the module rendezvoused and docked with Minmus Station without incident. With the Long Duration Habitat out of the way, the Minmus Flats Refinery crew began work on the next expansion module… *** “There it is,” Samalla said, pointing to their destination. Up ahead, the Munar Gateway space station hung motionless about 35km above the Mun’s surface. The station was sent by KSC- Munbase Enterprise’s first-generation production facilities couldn’t fabricate its advanced technology, and Skybase’s facilities were busy expanding the station. The Munar Gateway was designed to become the orbital hub of the Munar Transportation System, with endpoints in Low Kerbin Orbit and Low Munar Orbit. Visiting spacecraft such as Munbus 2 would stay at Munar Gateway to take on or deliver supplies before heading to their destination, be it LKO or to the munar surface. The station was also going to test a Pipeline orbital mass catcher, able to receive payloads from its ground-based Pipeline that was going to be built and tested at Munbase Enterprise. Those plans were now on indefinite hold. A few minutes later, Munbus 2 docked with the station. They had some work to do before going aboard, however. The central fuel tank’s small docking ports weren’t designed for crew access, so Kelbin carefully undocked the Pressurized Mating Adapter and parked it on one of the side ports before undocking Munbus from the tank and taking the forward port. He had to be careful not to hit the tank; there were only a few centimeters between it and their spacecraft. A loud clunk told him that they had a hard dock. The crew eagerly opened the hatch to their temporary home. “Dudes, that radar mapper is totally awesome. I’m so looking forward to playing with that,” Munvan proclaimed. “Rumor has it, that radar was derived from an Air Force spy satellite,” Samalla said. “They’ve been launching them from a secret site.” Kelbin chuckled and shook his head. Ever the conspiracy theorist, he thought to himself. “You’ll get your wish, Munvan,” Kelbin responded. “Flight ordered us to stay here a few days until the site enters daybreak. They want you to map the area and look for anything out of the ordinary as well. And while I would’ve wanted better circumstances to say this, in a few days, we’ll be walking on the Mun!” *** As Munbus 2 approached the Arch, Team Kelbin could see the platform built by Bill, Bob, and Jeb. Kelbin could see DSEV-1 and the rover off in the distance, and as expected, there were no obvious signs of damage. Nonetheless, the Air Force pilot cautiously landed beside the konkrete platform. While Kelbin and Samalla recorded visual observations, Munvan ran the science lab’s suite of experiments. The new seismic scan and gravity scan produced intriguing results but nothing that explained the disappearance of Munbase Enterprise. After planting the flag and posing for a publicity shot, the trio jetted over to the platform. “Baris. It’s just, gone,” Samalla remarked. “No sign at all. It’s like the Kraken decided to have a snack.” “Let’s go inside Enterprise and see if we can find anything,” Kelbin said simply, trying not to sound equally in awe. He stepped up to the port side airlock and tried to open it. Nothing happened. “Gotta use the passcode, dude,” Munvan pointed out. Oh, right, Kelbin thought to himself. Bill wired in a passcode lock to keep tourists out. Kelbin couldn't help but feel like a tourist breaking into the historic spacecraft that was never intended to land. He opened the keypad cover, punched in the code, and opened the door. The team huddled inside while the airlock went through its cycle. “Our technology has changed so fast, we barely had time to fly Enterprise before Protector was on the drawing board,” Samalla said. “Think we’ll get our own ship someday?” “I hope so,” Kelbin replied. “The next two ships will be Protector-class. Maybe we’ll get to crew one of them.” “Dudes, they better not shut down the program because of Munbase Enterprise,” Munvan said. The airlock dinged before Kelbin could reply. Unlike the exterior, preserved as much as possible as the craft crashed into the Mun, the interior looked like a den being used to store random junk. There were no signs of struggle, just random stacks of electronics, spent material kits, and scavenged parts packed into every nook and cranny. Kelbin went forward to the cockpit to pull the flight recorder while Munvan checked out the lab and Samalla downloaded service logs from the engineering station. They would have to be analyzed later. The team exited Enterprise and surveyed the rover. Aside from normal wear and tear, nothing looked out of place. Samalla took pictures of the platform. It had numerous scuff marks. “Seems like some heavy machinery was here,” she noted. “Wouldn’t that be caused by normal activity? They did move the base once they built this platform,” Kelbin pointed out. “Of course,” Samalla answered. “Maybe somebody took the base?” “Why just the base though? Why leave Enterprise, the rover, and the Munbus?” Samalla shrugged. “I don’t know, Kelbin. Maybe the aliens didn’t need them.” “They’re supposed to be long gone. The murals we found were thousands of years old, as was that skeleton.” “Do we know that for sure though?” “They were pretty advanced-“ “Uh, dudes, can we like, check out the SEP now?” Munvan pointed to the Surface Experiment Pack deployed next to the Arch. If he didn’t interrupt them now, they’d keep arguing for hours. The astronauts jetted over to the experiments to check on their status. Each experiment tested something unique such as x-rays, infrared, and gamma rays. Munvan noted that the SEP was offline and devoid of logs. He went to each experiment. None were active. “Bogus. Either Bob forgot to turn them on, or somebody totally turned them off,” Munvan proclaimed. He calibrated each of the experiments and started the command processor. The diagnostics reported no issues. With not much else to do, the scientist jetted to the top of the Arch. While he had a great view of the area, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “We have one last thing to do before heading home,” Kelbin called out. “Meet us at the lander.” The trio touched down next to Munar Lander 1. They could see the scorch marks and shrapnel damage that occurred when Jeb and Bob tried to lift off and their engine exploded. Kelbin went inside to see if it had recorded anything, but as expected it was unpowered. With their data gathering complete, Team Kelbin lifted off the Mun and headed back to the Munar Gateway. After refueling the Munbus and disposing of the station’s transfer stage, they boosted back to Kerbin orbit and returned to Skybase. Since they had to wait a few days in quarantine, the astronauts received permission to complete their mission to expand the station. By the time their quarantine ended with no surprises and their replacement crew arrived, Team Kelbin had built and installed all of Skybase’s expansion modules.

Just add the science experiment and the lab itself.