Angelo Kerman

Chapter 7 Scott Kerman, majority shareholder, chairman of the board, CEO emeritus, and Chief Test Pilot of the company that he founded, Orbital Dynamics, sat in the Kondor- the first new orbital-class vehicle that the company had produced since introducing the Mk33 almost five years ago. Revolutionary for its time, the Mk33 was the world’s first SSTO that had also put his company on the map. It was instrumental in creating several world’s firsts including sending the first space tourist into orbit, building the first space hotel, and building the first orbital shipyard. But as revolutionary as the Mk33 was, it paled in comparison to the Kondor and the technology that it possessed. While the Mk33 was built to carry cargo and crew into orbit like the retired Shuttle Launch System, the Kondor could only carry a pilot and up to three passengers- though larger models were also being considered. Kondor was perfect for those times when you just needed to ferry passengers into orbit and didn't need the payload capacity of a cargo plane. It was the size of a Buffalo rover like the ones on Duna; in fact, it shared the same body construction. It could easily fit inside a Mk33 payload bay and yet it too was an SSTO. It accomplished this amazing feat thanks to new propulsion technology that would forever change the nature of spaceflight. Kondor was powered by a gravitic engine. Developed as an application of graviolium- the exotic matter first discovered when his company captured an asteroid, dubbed “Magic Boulder” by the media, the gravitic engine worked by zapping graviolium with an electric charge, which in turn distorted a small, localized volume of space-time to form a mini gravity well. When electric charge is no longer applied, the distortion field dissipates quickly, and space-time reverts to its natural state. The field is projected a fixed distance in front of the ship- or above it or behind it- and the ship “falls” towards the artificial gravity well if the field’s strength is greater than the local gravity field. Gravitic engines aren’t powerful enough to continually apply electric charge and constantly warp space-time, but by rapidly blinking the distortion field- also known as a virtual singularity- on and off like how brakes are applied in an anti-lock braking system, the ship will fall in the desired direction of travel. Best yet, the occupants won’t feel the acceleration. Graviolium had numerous applications, and the gravitic engine was just one of them. Frolie Kerman, the company’s Chief Technology Officer/Chief Engineer, and “The Father of Gravitics”, kept thinking up new ways to harness the stuff. Just the other day, for instance, he proposed a ground-based training facility that would simulate weightlessness and make zero-g trainer aircraft obsolete. Today though, he set aside his inventor hat to be the flight engineer on Kondor’s last test flight before it was put into production. “Where are we going today, boss,” Frolie asked his friend. “Up to the Yard,” Scott answered, referring to the Orbital Dynamics Shipyard. “Not to Magic Boulder?” “We can if you want,” Scott said. “Yup, definitely want,” Frolie answered excitedly. “They just finished the new construction. Why the Yard though?” Scott searched for words to answer his friend. “I’ve got an idea… but… there are parts of it that I need context? Inspiration? for. It’s… hard to put into words… It’s right on the tip of my tongue but I can’t quite… articulate it… I think sitting in the Finch will help.” “Missing a sense of adventure, are we,” Frolie chided. “Heh. Something like that,” Scott admitted. Scott powered up the Kondor’s gravitic engine, extended its wings, and got permission to take off from the control tower. The spacecraft, dubbed a “shuttlepod” by its creators, lifted off vertically and hovered a few meters off the ground while the last system checks were performed. Scott selected a projection angle that let the Kondor both float in the air like one of the old hexium-gas airships and accelerate forward, and the craft rapidly gained speed. When it was flying fast enough to generate lift, Scott set the projection angle forward and raised the nose, and they began to fly into space… Three hours later, Kondor arrived at the Orbital Dynamics Shipyard, and the little craft docked at the forward port along its spine. After shutting down the engine and putting Kondor into hibernation mode, Scott and Frolie greeted the station crew before making their way over to the Finch. Scott and Frolie took their familiar places inside the vehicle, switched some systems online, and turned on the lights. During the Shuttle era, Kerbal Space Program requested proposals for a Münar Shuttle Module that would transport crews from the Kerbin Orbiting Station to the Mün and Minmus. The @RocketologyDesign Group (RDG) proposed the KSOI-1 Hermes Cycler, a vessel capable of traveling anywhere within the Kerbin Sphere of Influence. Budget constraints and technical limitations (Hermes was designed for stock scale, but I play in JNSQ scale, but it's one of my favorite ships by Rocketology) evolved the nuclear-powered design into the Magellan, a smaller, cheaper design that could be fitted with a conventional cryogenic propulsion system. KSP added a Münar Excursion Module-derived Münar Surface Access Module into the mix, and the pair visited both of Kerbin’s müns. Orbital Dynamics licensed the design from RDG and created the Finch-class Multipurpose Space Vehicle. Named after the first MEM, the Finch-class had a command module that could be fitted with a variety of different accessories that enabled it to become the first spacecraft to orbit and land on the Mün and Minmus. It took several iterations of the propulsion system to accomplish those feats, though… After landing on Minmus, Orbital Dynamics retired the Finch and stored her at the Shipyard. Scott wasn’t ready to send it to the Boneyard, he had many an adventure in the well-traveled spacecraft, and he felt like there was still some life left in it. Scott and Frolie sat in silence for a few minutes, remembering their previous adventures and resisting the urge to play like kids sitting in a cardboard spaceship. Finally, Scott spoke up. “The Kerbal Space Program, the Ministry of Space, and the vonKerman Space agency are teaming up again. We got a Request for Proposals from them as part of their DSEV(X) Program. That’s uh, the Deep Space Exploration Vessels-Experimental. Before they commit to the next iteration of DSEV, they are asking for two teams to create a prototype vessel within 60 days of selection. They’ll evaluate each design for 30 days before selecting the winner. The winning team will have just under 200 days to build the next DSEV and have it ready for the upcoming transfer window to Jool, and they'll build the next two DSEVs after that as well.” Scott paused to let Frolie absorb the information. "What are they evaluating that requires a prototype," Frolie asked. "Good question! A number of items, but chief among them is that they want to pit our gravitic engine against Kerbodyne's new graviolium-catalyzed fusion engine," Scott answered. "The KF-1 Supernova? I read about that," Frolie said. "It's a pretty clever way to drastically reduce the energy requirements needed to achieve ignition. I thought it was just a paper study. No wonder why they want a prototype..." “Yeah, makes sense," Scott responded. He looked around and then snapped his fingers. "I'm glad we’re here, I’ve finally figured out the questions that I wanted to ask.” “Sure, go ahead.” “Okay, so, we made Finch to be modular, right?” “…Yeah…?” “The DSX- uh, Deep Space eXperimental prototype that they want has a bunch of requirements. And each ship has a limited budget- but we can contribute our own funds too if we want to. I want us to have a ship that’ll meet all the requirements, and I think the Finch is a good starting point. But, I wonder if there’s a way to build a ship like Finch- only bigger, more modular, like, uh, like having an extended cabin, one or two of the vonKerman cryo-modules built in, an airlock- that sort of thing.” “Oh, and dock them together like Finch,” Frolie asked. “No, DSX wants more capabilities in the command hull. I was thinking that we'd meet the requirements, but like Finch, it can add additional modules like extra habitat areas, maybe a uh, cargo rack, modular engines, and so on. We could add modules to, say, have enough space to rescue the crew at Duna if their plan fails. If that happens, we’d have just under a year to prepare. We’ll need a shuttlepod to land, unless we use gravitics to land the ship…” “Yeah, ok,” Frolie said, already thinking about potential designs. “To move fast, we’d need several gravitic engines to move a larger ship- unless we build a bigger one… hm, maybe for a new Mk33… but yeah, I think we can do it… let me think on it…” * After their layover at the Orbital Dynamics Shipyard, Scott and Frolie boarded Kondor once more for their trip to Magic Boulder. A couple of hours later, they arrived at the asteroid. Formally known as VDP-762, Magic Boulder became so named for unusual glowing striations of graviolium ore. In fact, it had high concentrations of the stuff. The handful of other asteroids visited had nowhere near as much graviolium, but that wasn’t stopping various companies that had sprung up from proposing missions to go hunting for more. Thanks to rock-powered mass drivers generously provided by Drax Aerospace as a gesture of goodwill- and as part of the reparations for their industrial espionage- the company finally moved Magic Boulder into low orbit. Then, with Orbital Dynamics Shipyard’s help, they recently completed a newer, larger shipyard. The company wasn’t quite ready to decommission its predecessor, but it was only a matter of time. Frolie gasped. He was momentarily mesmerized as he watched the new shipyard’s centrifuge spinning off in the distance. “I know the yard was impressive on paper,” he said finally, “but seeing it in person… wow…” “Kinda takes your breath away,” Scott said. “I’ll say! Direct access to Magic Boulder’s resources, two docks to build Nautilus-sized Deep Space Exploration Vessels or supertankers, the largest orbital habitat in Kerbin’s SOI…” Scott got clearance to dock at Ventral Yard’s docking pier. The pier would have to be relocated to enable the construction manipulator to do its job, but for now it provided a handy location for shuttles with construction crews to dock. Once they shut down Kondor, the two commercial astronauts headed for the command deck to greet the skeleton crew and check out the new facilities. Scott could see that there wasn’t much to do aboard yet- he knew that the permanent staff wouldn’t arrive until next week, and they were still working out issues with the upgraded Payload Maneuvering Vehicle, but the station really was impressive to see in person. If his company could get the DSX-01 contract along with its production model, they could be built here too… After touring the station, Scott and Frolie boarded Kondor once more and departed the station. An hour later, they landed back at Orbital Dynamics’ headquarters.

Chapter 6 While the Duna Base Expedition 1 crew waited out the dust storm, engineers both on and off the planet poured over the images and notes taken by DBE-1’s salvage survey team. After some deliberations, the consensus was that DBE-1 should salvage as much as possible from all the wrecks, bring them all to Duna Base, and then assemble the new rocket. Since the Arrow 5 Upper Stage was the largest item to salvage, engineering teams focused on creating a vehicle that could haul it back to base. Meanwhile, another engineering team began designing a propellant refinery that could either be made from parts printed at Duna Base and/or created by modifying the Seeds or the Worker robots produced by the Sandcaster. Given the instability of the Seeds- they weren’t designed for long-term use- engineers focused on the Worker robots instead. They were confident that they could produce a refinery from them; it was only a matter of time to figure it out. The salvage engineers examined their options for building trailers and or self-propelled flatbed cranes, and to their delight, they discovered that the Buffalo rover system built by Orbital Dynamics was highly modular and capable of being assembled from components printed by Duna Base’s 3D printers. Even better, the parts could fit through the doors and assembled outside. It wasn’t ideal, but it was possible. To that end, the Ministry of Space negotiated with Orbital Dynamics to send very encrypted plans for their Buffalo rover system to Duna Base. The company would receive royalties for any Buffalo rover part printed up by the base... Meanwhile, the Public Relations teams from the Kerman States, the mcKerman Kingdom, and the vonKerman Republic worked overtime to quell rumors that the crews of Nautilus and Kopernicus had mutinied when they planted a flag of Kerbin ahead of the three participating space agencies. The official response was that “the Kerbin flag is the interim symbol of a new international partnership currently being formalized.” That response was the result of KSP spokeskerb Walt Kerman (known for his antics of wearing a hazmat suit during press briefings) panicking when reporters pressed him for an answer to the Kerbin flag, and despite attempts to retract the response, the idea stuck. MoS Mission Control- the designated control center for the mission- reprimanded the astronauts and kerbonauts on Duna. Although there wasn’t much that they could do while the crew were away on mission, their respective space agencies quietly made it clear that the crew of Kopernicus would never fly again. For some on the crew, that suited them just fine, and when they woke up from their cryo-nap, the crew of the Nautilus probably wouldn't care either. But KSP Administrator Gene Kerman had to admit that the two crews had a point: having to answer to three different space agencies, each vying for control at various points in the mission, was causing strife amongst the crews in the field. And with more Deep Space Exploration Vessels in planning, the situation was only going to get worse. As annoyed as he was with Walt Kerman’s panicked response, Gene thought that the idea had merit. So, while the PR teams got to work, behind the scenes, representatives from Kerbal Space Program, the Ministry of Space, and the vonKerman Space Agency gathered to find an acceptable way forward… Fifteen days of hunkering down later, the dust storm finally cleared, and Tobias, Jonas, and Emma were ready. The vonKermans took the time to print some test parts and practiced assembling them so that when the storm cleared, they could step outside and try to build a rig capable of retrieving the Arrow 5 Upper stage. Initial assembly went well; the jack lift made it easy to bolt the chassis components on top, lift it up, and place other components like the wheels. After reloading KSP to fix the EVA constructed wheels adjusting the wheels, the team repeated the process of attaching new chassis segments, mounting a jack lift underneath and extending it, and attaching more wheels. Six days later, they completed the Arrow Upper Stage Trailer. Tobias also welded a trailer hitch to Rover 1. The trailer was self-propelled thanks to its Auxiliary Electronic Navigator- the same design used on the Buffalo rovers- but for now it was relegated to deploying its solar array, moving forward and backward, and pivoting its alligator hinge. For now, the trailer simply backed away from Duna Base to give enough room for the Buffalo rover to hook up to the trailer. With that task completed, Tobias and Emma waited a day for the latest dust storm to dissipate before they hopped into the rover and set out to collect the AUS. After driving at unsafe velocities for half an hour, Rover 1 arrived at the AUS. The engineers carefully backed the trailer up until it was right next to one of the AUS’s refueling ports. Then they commanded the stage to retract its solar panels and antenna. Tobias and Emma hoped out of the rover to ensure that everything was lined up properly. Then, after adjusting the trailer’s docking port, they docked to the stage. Carefully, they abused the stage's refueling port when they lowered the stage onto the trailer for the trip back to Duna Base. The port shrieked, protesting that it had to perform a function that it wasn't designed for, and it would never again accept propellant transfers. But, it worked- though they blew out one of the wheels in the process. Tobias decided to leave it for now; the weight of the stage now rested on the front trailer wheels. Instead, he added a pair of struts to support the weight of the stage, and then got back into the rover. Once they settled some control issues by shutting down the stage’s reaction wheels, they began the 26 km journey back to Duna Base. They had a mishap on the way back to the base- one of the jack lifts scraped too close to the ground and sheared off- and yet another dust storm overtook them. Then, the rover kept jackknifing, so Tobias stopped the rig, got out, and replaced the broken wheel with one from the back of the trailer. Between that and adjusting the shock absorbers, they finally got the rig under control. It took about two hours to drive the rover and AUS back to Duna Base... “Well done, you two,” Dudmon said to Tobias and Emma as he looked at the AUS on the trailer. “Well done!” After setting the AUS back upright, the engineering team worked tirelessly to install decouplers and makeshift pylons- modular girder segments, truthfully- to mount the landing legs on. They also supplemented the RCS thrusters with ones fueled by liquid fuel and oxidizer. It was an ungainly solution, but it worked. The Arrow 5 Upper Stage was no longer condemned to rest on its engine bell, and it finally had a set of legs.

Chapter 5 Dudmon radioed Mission Control with their intention to conduct a salvage survey, and they immediately agreed, having come to the same conclusions. The expedition’s first task was to assess the condition of Estonian 2 and 3, search other debris sites for salvageable equipment, and examine the Arrow 5 Upper Stage. Once they knew what they had to work with, they could figure out how to transport it back to base. Dudmon and Tobias hopped into Rover 1, undocked from Rover 2, and set out to assess the various crash sites. Their first stop was Estonian 3, just a couple minutes’ drive from the base. When Dudmon and Tobias exited the rover, Tobias took the opportunity to unbolt and discard the payload mounting bolts that strutted the rover to its landing frame. Then, as Dudmon went inside to double-check the inventory, Tobias planted the flag for each space agency participating of Duna Base Expedition 1. Originally, a representative of each nation was supposed to plant their flag, but given the circumstances of their arrival, they elected to just plant the Kerbin flag. Following the crew of Nautilus' example, they planted the Kerbin flag in protest against the three space agencies constantly jockeying to determine who was in charge of the mission. And like the Nautilus crew, they got in trouble for it, but there wasn't much that Mission Control could do about it. Once completed, he performed a walk-around to assess the condition of the spacecraft before joining Dudmon inside the vehicle. “How’s it looking,” Dudmon asked. Tobias shook his head. “Not good. Estonian 3 landed pretty hard and cracked the outer hull. Several of the RCS nozzles are broken as well, and the upper transfer tunnel is, how you say, ‘a lost cause.’ The electronics appear to be intact along with the control panels, and the life support systems are working as well. We can live in it if we patch the cracks but I wouldn’t want to risk flying it.” Dudmon sighed, it wasn’t the news that he wanted to hear. “Let’s go check on Estonian 2,” he said simply. The pair exited the wreck, hopped into the Buffalo, and drove about 6km to Estonian 2. It didn’t take long as the second Estonian was downhill from its sibling. Off in the distance, the pair spotted the downed craft along with wreckage from the Sandcaster’s lander. Minus the flag plantings, the two repeated the process they used at Estonian 3; Dudmon peered inside to check the status, and Tobias performed a walk-around. “The crew capsule is intact,” Tobias began, “and didn’t suffer any major damage upon impact. The ascent tank took the brunt of the impact. It’s cracked and unusable. The RCS thrusters look good, and the crew tunnel isn’t warped like Estonian 3’s. But the interior…” “Yeah,” Dudmon said. “Aside from the flight computers, there effectively isn’t an interior.” “At least we’ve confirmed what the Ministry of Space told us,” Tobias responded. “We’ll need the interior panels, the seats, the control panels, and the life support from Estonian 3. At least the two hulls are essentially the same. Oh, and we’ll need to remove the probe core that’s blocking the docking port.” “We need to install the guts of 3 into 2, and then lop off 2’s ascent tank,” Dudmon summarized. “And clean off the uh, barnacles,” Tobias added. “Barnacles?” Tobias pointed to the externally mounted science instruments. “Ah,” Dudmon said and nodded. “Getting the capsules back to Duna Base is going to be fun,” he added. “Mission Control is already working the problem…” The two explorers boarded the Buffalo once more and drove to the Sandcaster's wrecked lander since it was a little over a kilometer away. When they approached it, the lander was embedded in the dirt at an odd angle. “That’s not something you see every day,” Dudmon remarked. He stopped the rover a few meters away, which was a good thing. Apparently, the vibrations of the rover approaching was enough to upset the delicate balance of the lander, and it began to tumble. It flopped around like a hog in the mud for a few minutes until it finally settled down onto its two remaining landing gear. The explorers waited a few moments to ensure that it wasn’t going to suddenly explode or wander off before approaching it. “Well, the fuel tanks aren't waffled,” Tobias said. Dudmon looked confused, then understood. “Toast,” he corrected. “Ah. Yes. Toast,” Tobias answered. “They might be usable with some repairs and reinforcements. The structural girders bore the brunt of the impact. They are sturdy and show just a few scrapes and dents here and there, and the saddle trusses are in a similar shape. Obviously, the lander lost its back legs- and it looks like one of the chutes failed to deploy. But there’s some good news: there are three Fulcrum engines still intact! We could probably get them working again with a few repairs.” “Great,” Dudmon said. “Looks like we’ll have engines to salvage. Let’s go check out that geology probe.” The Sandcaster Lander crashed near DGL-4, one of the Duna Geology Landers sent to the Rusty Planet with the Second Duna Fleet. It took just a few moments to reach the probe. The explorers stayed long enough to visually inspect it, which had been resting on the surface for a couple of years, and then returned to the rover. They knew that it was intact thanks to MoS Mission Control contacting the probe recently and running diagnostics. Tobias made a note of its working 48-7s Spark engine. The last two items on their list were going to take awhile to reach. DGL-2 landed 27 km away from their present location, but they needed to assess its condition nonetheless. The road trip reminded Dudmon of Münflight 5, where Bill and Jeb landed on the Mün to set up Billstown and then set the record for the longest off-world road trip in their Münar Ground Module Rover (169 km). Dudmon and Tobias were going to travel about a third of that distance as they assessed various spacecraft. He wondered how long it would take to break their longstanding record… The explorers drove for about an hour, and the rover had no trouble scaling the crater walls. That bode well for future rovers attempting to drive out of Gale Crater to go explore more of the planet. Finally, they found the probe where it had crash-landed onto Duna two years ago. It lost its primary science instrument and one of its solar panels, and it had punctures in its fuel tanks, but its Spark engine looked serviceable after moderate repairs. The landing legs also looked functional, though one of them appeared stuck. Tobias gave the probe a salute, and the two got back into the rover for the last stop on their tour. It was a long 51 km trip, and the explorers found some interesting rock formations that they’d want to investigate once their ride back into orbit was settled. Despite the growing dust storm, the explorers located the landed Arrow 5 Upper Stage standing on its engine bell approximately 26 km away from Duna Base. Sent to Duna over 4 years ago, the upper stage delivered the Duna Basecamp, an experimental space station, into orbit around the Rusty Planet. Given the worsening conditions, the astronauts stepped outside quickly and got to work making a visual inspection of the landed stage. “It sure is big,” Dudmon noted aloud. “Yes, it is,” Tobias agreed. He took note on the still working navigation lights. That was a good sign that despite weathering years of dust storms, the electronics still operated. He had to check out the top of the stage, so he went back to the rover and grabbed the jetpack for a brief hop. After setting the pack to full throttle, he leaped into the air and jetted over to the top of the stage. It took a few minutes, but he was satisfied. “How’s it look,” Dudmon asked. “Working lights, some dust in the instrument unit but nothing we can’t clean out. The payload fairing mounts are in good condition. The antenna connections are sandblasted but they can be repaired… I think it might work.” “What’ll work?” “If we can somehow bring this stage back to base along with the two Estonians,” Tobias answered, “and we can rig up a refueling plant, then we can refit Estonian 2 with 3’s interior, and then mount it to the upper stage. It’ll take some work, but I think we can build ourselves a new rocket.”

Chapter 4 “Let me get this straight,” Dudmon began, “Sandcaster can print up resource seeds, mining rovers, storage rovers, and the entire base, but it can’t make us a replacement lander?” “That’s right,” Tobias vonKerman, the expedition’s chief engineer, answered. “Explain.” “Sandcaster was hardwired so that it could only create the robots that it needed to build Duna Base along with the base itself.” “Why, exactly?” “To avoid it becoming a Berserker.” “A what?” “A Berserker,” Tobias repeated. He saw Dudmon’s confused look. “A Berserker is a malignant version of a Neumann vonKerman Probe.” Dudmon’s confused expression remained unchanged. “Ok, uh, Neumann vonKerman proved that the most effective way to conduct large scale mining of planets and asteroids is to send self-replicating machines. The machines would harvest local resources, replicate themselves, and their progeny would continue to self-replicate. With their exponential growth, the probes could quickly mine the resources for whatever purposes desired- such as building bases. These probes could even send copies of themselves to other planets and asteroids. “A Berserker is a Neumann Probe designed to seek out and exterminate lifeforms. The term was named after killing machines depicted in Saberhagen Kerman’s fictional novels. Technically, the berserkers were the warships doing the exterminating, but they along with the automated, self-replicating harvesters and miners and shipyards collectively constituted a Neumann Probe.” “Okay….” Dudmon said tentatively. “Sandcaster’s design pattern core was hardwired to ensure that the 3D printer couldn’t be altered and allowed to self-replicate- or to be messed up by cosmic radiation, which might result in a runaway replication. The Ministry of Space was so paranoid, they only gave it the patterns that it needed to build the Seeds, the Worker-B, Worker-T, and Duna Base. To replace those patterns would destroy its core programming and render the automated printer useless.” “But the base’s printers don’t work that way,” Dudmon pointed out, “we just upload a pattern and hit print.” “Yeah, but we are in control of uploading,” Tobias countered. “We feed in the resources, and we hit the print button. The Sandcaster is completely automated. No kerbals needed…” “Couldn’t we just wire up the base’s 3D printer brains to the Sandcaster,” Dudmon asked. “Unfortunately,” Tobias lamented, “they’re a completely different design.” “How convenient,” Dudmon replied sarcastically. “It might be possible,” Tobias quickly added, “but we’d need to build an... electronic bridge between the base’s printers and the Sandcaster. That’s going to take help from Kerbin and likely take months to design.” “Got it,” Dudmon said. “So, if we want to build a replacement lander, we’ll have to use the printers in the base.” “Yeah, but there’s a problem.” “Which is?” “We don’t have doors big enough to fit critical components like fuel tanks and engines. We could print them, but they wouldn’t fit through the door.” “Right,” Dudmon said. He sighed. “Wait… The First Duna Fleet.” “What about it,” Tobias asked. “They had a lot of trouble with their landers. All of them failed, including Estonian 1. They wanted a win. So, they deorbited an Arrow 5 Upper Stage. To their amazement, it landed fully intact.” “How does that help us?” “It isn’t far from here. If we can retrieve it,” Dudmon continued, “and it still works, then we can use it. If we can salvage one of the Estonian crew cabins, and repair it…” “We can build a new rocket,” Tobias finished for him.

Chapter 3 After speaking with Mission Control, their engineers worked the problem for a few days, during which time Sandcaster completed the base’s warehouse. With no more buildings or robots to produce, it went into hibernation mode. When Bobak contacted Duna Base during their regular check in, he had some encouraging news: Estonian 2 was still orbiting the Rusty Planet! Launched as part of the Second Duna Fleet, Estonian 2 was the Ministry of Space’s second attempt to test their lander design at Duna. Their first attempt was Estonian 1- part of the First Duna Fleet- it failed to land softly when its main chutes proved incapable of deploying in the thin Dunan atmosphere. The drogue chutes deployed, but they proved unable to slow the lander long enough for its descent/ascent engine to soft-land the craft. As a result, it crashed into the ground and scattered debris everywhere. The Ministry of Space went back to the drawing board, fitted Estonian 2 with all drogue chutes instead of a mix of drogue and main chutes, and made a few other minor adjustments. Once the other vessels in the Second Duna Fleet completed their objectives, MoS Mission Control began its test of the revised lander. This time, it landed successfully. After performing some science experiments, Estonian 2 decoupled from its ascent stage and launched into orbit again. It even simulated a rendezvous with a Deep Space Exploration Vessel by flying to and linking up with the Duna Fuel Depot. With the design proven, the Ministry of Space felt comfortable placing kerbals in an Estonian Lander. But two weeks ago, of course, Estonian 3 proved them wrong… Engineers back at Kerbin determined that the prototype lander had just enough propellant to land back on the surface. The ascent stage wasn’t designed to land again, and its parachutes were already deployed, but if it landed softly, it could rest on its aerospike engine long enough for the expedition to refit it and refuel it via modified converters in Duna Base’s factory dome. So, the teams got to work. Mission Control uploaded new instructions to Estonian 2- it couldn’t be remotely flown from Duna Base- and they triple-checked the numbers to ensure that everything was accurate. When there were no other concerns, they commanded Estonian 2 to perform its deorbit burn. On Ahuit 15, 2004, the ascent stage made a 239 m/s deorbit burn right on time- though a little off course. Fifteen minutes later, it made a shallow reentry to reduce atmospheric heating on its exposed hull. The thin Dunan atmosphere produced plasma shock as the spacecraft slowed down, but it wasn’t enough to cause damage. Though off course, the lander fired its engine to kill its horizontal speed, and then shut it off to conserve propellant for the landing burn. Less than 500 meters above the surface, Estonian 2 ignited its engine one last time- just a bit too late. Like its sister ship, Estonian 2 landed hard. In this case, the spacecraft crushed its aerospike engine and crumpled its ascent stage tank. When they saw the impact, the crew of Duna Base Expedition 1’s hopes were as crushed as Estonian 2’s engine. They needed a new plan, and as Dudmon looked across the desert to the Sandcaster, he had one.

I'll need to take a look when I have more time. Right now I'm not sure why the converters aren't running in the background. Only thing that I can think of is make sure that they're turned on.

Chapter 2 The autopsy report concluded that Ribler suffered a severe concussion when Estonian 3 crashed, but he thought that he only had a minor head injury and kept going. The crew solemnly buried Ribler outside, said several kind words, and drank a lot of “hydrazine” in celebration of his life. When they sobered up, they continued with their mission. Ribler’s passing left Dudmon Kerman, formerly second in command, in charge of the expedition. Tobias vonKerman, the expedition’s lead engineer, expected the job, but he was too busy trying to keep things running. Dudmon (Dude-mon) was one of Kerbal Space Program’s most experienced astronauts. He made a name for himself on his first flight into space when he commanded Münflight 3, the third Münflight mission and the second flight to the Mün. On that flight, the Lindor 5’s third stage decoupled from its second stage- while the second stage was still burning! Dudmon expertly balanced the third stage while the second depleted its propellants. His efforts saved the mission- and earned him the Medal of Heroism. Later in his career, Dudmon was the copilot of STS-1, the first space shuttle flight, and he made numerous flights in the shuttle. Eventually, he became Chief of The Astronaut Corps, and he commanded MBE-1, the first expedition to establish a permanent presence on Minmus via Minmus Base. It bothered him to be passed up for the first kermanned mission to Laythe- Jeb and Val always got the best assignments- but he pulled rank and got himself assigned to the first kermanned mission to Duna. He would’ve overseen the expedition had the Ministry of Space not footed most of the bill. He wanted command of DBE-1, but not because of Ribler dying… “How long will our supplies last,” Dudmon asked Ferwin Kerman, the most experienced scientist on the mission. Like Dudmon, Ferwin was aboard Münflight 3, and the two had been friends for many years. So, when he assigned himself to DBE-1, he made sure that Ferwin had the opportunity to go too- and he couldn't say no. Dudmon’s only regret was that he couldn’t get Jebman, the flight engineer from Münflight 3, on the mission as well. Unfortunately, Jebman retired from the Astronaut Corps before he could recruit him. As it was, both Dudmon and Ferwin knew that this was their last spaceflight- especially after the stunt that they pulled with the Kerbin flag. In fact, many of the old timers like Bill, Bob, Jeb, and Val, Tesen, Hensen, Samger, and several others were looking to retire. Sure, a few were jumping over to fly with Orbital Dynamics, but many were just getting older and wanted to move on. “Well, Raald should be answering this question,” Ferwin said. Technically, she oversaw the science contingent, but both Raald mcKerman and Calbro mcKerman were rookie astronauts, so Ferwin became their de facto lead. “But anyway, between the Buffalo rovers and the supplies we scavenged from the lander’s wreckage, we’ve got about a year, maybe a bit more if we ration our uh, rations.” “Hm,” Dudmon murmured. “What’s up,” Ferwin said. He knew his friend was concerned. “How long until the arboretum can support us,” Dudmon asked, referring to the Castillo’s large agriculture dome. Ferwin immediately saw the problem. “Kerbin can’t send a rescue flight for another year or so, right? And it would take them six months to get here?” “Yeah. And our transfer window back to Kerbin opens in just under a year.” Ferwin nodded. “Yeah, that’s a problem,” he admitted. "The arboretum was designed to support crews for years, but it will take two years for its ecosystem to build up. We were supposed to live off of our supplies and get the arboretum started so that it would be ready to support DBE-2,” Ferwin reminded Dudmon. “Can we speed up the process?” “Not with the seeds we brought with us,” Ferwin admitted. “And sadly, we don’t have any potatoes handy that we could grow in our own soil.” “That leaves us with one option,” Dudmon said. “Which is?” “We need a new lander.”

Chapter 1 Several months ago, the Third Duna Fleet aimed for the Rusty Planet. The fleet consisted of Estonian 3- the lander, a Sandcaster 3D printer, a pair of Orbital Dynamics-supplied Buffalo rovers, and Kopernicus, the second Deep Space Exploration Vessel. With its crew of eight in cryogenic slumber, Kopernicus and the Third Duna Fleet made the months-long journey without incident. Sandcaster arrived three months ahead of the Fleet and set down at Knights Landing, a site located in Gale Crater that was scouted by previous robotic expeditions to Duna. Like its predecessor that the Ministry of Space tested on Kerbin, Sandcaster built its entourage of automated workers before printing the base itself. By the time that Kopernicus and the remaining vessels arrived, Sandcaster completed the base, made it warm and cozy, and turned on the lights. It even began working on the base’s warehouse. Not long after the crew woke up, Ribler mcKerman, the mission commander and captain of the Kopernicus, directed Estonian 3 to dock with the ship so that the crew could depart DSEV-02 and land. Everything went smoothly; Estonian 3 docked with Kopernicus, the crew transferred vital equipment to the lander, and they put DSEV-02 into hibernation mode. They departed the Deep Space Exploration Vessel with no issues. The deorbit burn completed on time, the deorbit motor was jettisoned as expected, and Estonian 3’s heat shield jettisoned the descent engine cap as expected. It even deployed its chutes right on time. Everything went like clockwork-except when it didn’t. Estonian 3 ignited its landing engine too late and the lander crashed into the desert floor. Everything from the landing gear to the descent stage crumpled and sheered away from the vehicle. But by some fortunate twist of fate, the crew cabin, and its occupants, survived the crash. They were marooned and suffered some injuries, but the crew of eight made the first crewed landing on Duna. Estonian 3 crashed 2.2km away from Duna Base- easily within range of the Buffalo rovers- so Ribler directed them towards the crash site. After they arrived, the crew stepped outside for the obligatory photo op before piling into the rovers for the trip to the base. They linked together before making their return trip. Shortly after arrival, Ribler directed the crew to set up the external science instruments. It didn’t take long, and the crew settled into their new home after completing their work. That’s when Ribler collapsed to the ground.

Prologue To The Mün had been an expression among kerbals to describe something impossible until two nations, the Kerman States and the vonKerman Republic, landed on both of Kerbin’s müns. After that feat, nothing seemed impossible. The Kerman States- via their Kerbal Space Program- set their sights on a kermanned mission to Duna, but they knew it would be expensive, so they created the reusable Shuttle Launch System to replace their expendable rockets. Then they partnered with the mcKerman Kingdom’s Ministry of Space to build Starlab, their Kerbin Orbiting Station. With their reusable infrastructure in place, the two nations began planning for their trip to Duna. Then the Laythe Surveyor sent back some intriguing results about Jool’s innermost mün. The space agencies immediately pivoted away from Duna and created Project Laythe. Due to the increased challenge and cost, the agencies invited the vonKerman Republic to participate, and the Kerman States seceded cisminmar space to various commercial space ventures. At great expense, the three spacefaring nations of Kerbin collaborated to build the First Jool Fleet. Among the many vessels in the Fleet, Nautilus, the first Deep Space Exploration Vessel, brought eight astronauts and kerbonauts to Jool’s innermost mün. After assembling Laythe Base from a collection of modules shipped with the Fleet, the crew spent sixty days on the surface conducting experiments before they had to spend another three years in cryostasis traveling home. Landing on Laythe- and finding phytoplankton in its oceans- was a huge accomplishment! But the Ministry of Space never lost site of their dream of visiting the Rusty Planet. So, as the brave kerbals orbiting Jool began their journey home, the three space agencies brought their dreams to reality. They leveraged orbital construction methods that were unavailable when the First Jool Fleet launched to inexpensively build Kopernicus (DSEV-02) and the Third Duna Fleet. Then they sent eight kerbals to the Rusty Planet. This is their story…

This short mission report takes place in the same verse as To The Mün, Shuttle Launch System, and Commercial Space Ventures. It is set in the time between Commercial Space Ventures' Chapter 40 and its Epilogue. As a quick refresher, Nautilus (DSEV-01) is on her way back to Kerbin... Chapters Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Interlude: The Discovery Interlude: New Uniforms Interlude: Discovery Leaves Spacedock Chapter 15 Epilogue --- Mod list A mapping of months Listed below are the names of the 12 months in my save, mapped to the Gregorian calendar months: Acama January Huitzil February Chimal March Itzcoatl April Moctez May Axaya June Jool July Tizoc August Ahuit September Cuitla October Cuahoc November Montezu December

If you add Fresh Air and Stress from Snacks (just enable the appropriate configs in Snacks/ LifeSupportResources folder) then you could increase the difficulty of using Snacks. Also, the gravitic engines from Kerbal Flying Saucers would definitely be Easy mode. This looks like a fun challenge.

@ShadowDev Please post a link to your source code per https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/add-on-posting-rules Section 5.

Hm. Interesting. That's not something that I've messed with. I wonder what that state variable does?

Was state of 0 on the warp engine part module? Which state?

It would be helpful to the devs to provide steps on how to reproduce this. I haven’t seen this before in my game. Maybe post the craft file you are using?

As I recall, the Hacienda with IronWorks template provides EL functionality specifically to make rocket parts, smelt metal, and recycle scrap metal. The Hacienda in all configurations also has the best EL workshop productivity. How did you fix the engine problem?

If you changed the alien jump gate's spawn mode from everyLastPlanet to randomPlanetOrbit, then yeah, you'll get a lot of jump gates. The everyLastPlanet option ensures that each solar system in your game will get an alien jump gate- you don't have to manually increase the max gates, Blueshift will auto-detect all the solar systems and add a gate. last time I tried this with GU, it worked. If you need to clean up your save, try disabling jump gates, restart the game for good measure (technically it'll handle it in game), and then re-enable jump gates after setting the spawnMode back to everyLastPlanet.

@Ooglak Kerman Regarding Jump gates: I think what might be going on is that jump gates are supposed to spawn around every solar system's last planet in the system. If someone were to grab that gate and move it to somewhere else, then Blueshift might think that the gate doesn't exist and therefore needs to create a new gate. Have you been moving gates around?

Yeah, having a kerbal aboard the spent stage lets you control it. Be advised that there are a lot of bugs in KSP 2 right now, and it needs a lot of Quality of Life improvements to better match KSP 1. I wouldn't start a new long-term playthrough yet, but it's fun to look around. It isn't a complete game but it has great potential. IMO, the best way to ensure that it fulfills its potential is to buy the game, provide constructive feedback, and give the devs a chance. If money is tight then wait at least until the science system is in. If not, I'd say vote yes with your wallet. It's also clear that the designers are giving reasons to explore all the planets; a far cry from original KSP. And struts are your friend when it comes to stopping rockets from wobbling. If anybody is concerned, I'm not dropping support on my KSP 1 mods just yet. At the very least I want to wait until KSP 2 is out of EA.

It has great potential, the sound and music are superb, but there are also a great many issues that need to be resolved. I'd say that I'm cautiously optimistic. That's the best way to sum up my thoughts on KSP 2. I'm willing to give the devs a chance; I'm not refunding my game.

Yup, I got time to play over the weekend: Workaround for discarded stage not being controllable despite having a probe core, charged batteries, and antennas: Tooling around the Arctic: And today, I saw an anomaly that would, uh, justify having Kerbal Flying Saucers in KSP 2 once modding is officially supported. For now, I'm just having fun seeing the sights and messing around. Hm, there should only be one alien jump gate per solar system, so not sure why there are two or more. Did you attach anything to the rings? Bussard collectors were designed to work while at warp, though I recall trying to add the stock exoharvester to them as well. What I've found is that KSP 1's exosphere resource collection is... problematic. I did try adding SpaceDust/FFT collectors with mixed results.

KSP Version: 0.1.0.0.20892 Operating System and version (Windows 10, Windows 11): Windows 11 Description: A stage that was recently discarded is uncontrollable despite having power, antennas, and a probe core. Steps to reproduce: 1. Create a rocket with at least two stages and make sure that they all have probe cores. Example: 2. Launch the rocket, and release the upper stage once you're out of the atmosphere. The upper stage (the capsule in this example) is still controllable. 3. Switch to the previous stage (note: it must have a probe core, batteries, and antenna to ensure that it will be controllable). Expected: The stage that you switched to should be controllable. Actual: The stage has no connection to CommNet. Even if you wait until KSC is directly underneath the stage, it is still uncontrollable. Workaround: Add an astronaut to the stage:

I've been watching people play KSP 2 in between meetings and writing tech demos. From what I've seen, KSP 2 has great promise. I love hearing the kerbals talk when you do things like stage the rocket, and love hearing the tires squeal. And Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones is the PERFECT song for the EA video.

Yeah, thank you for keeping a copy around for testing purposes. That large shipyard is just a bigger version of this: The basic elements are the same. You have the Konstruction Manipulator (3rd row, 2nd column in the parts picker) to build the ships from rocket parts. The EL Smelter (2nd row, 3rd column) converts metal ore into metal. Along the spine is the Sandcastle 3D Printer (7th row, 2nd column) that converts metal into rocket parts. The DSEV Homestead module provides workspace productivity that governs how quickly the new vessel can be produced. The yard frames are completely optional and just for show. But here you can see that I set them up like a Star Trek space dock. They have flat and and angled attachment options.

I can take some, anything in particular?