Angelo Kerman

Yeah, it's in Cormorant Aeronology

“This changes everything,” Kelbin said, staring at the alien craft embedded in the hillside. “Aliens. Ancient aliens at that. Who’d thought,” Gregorio said, shaking his head. “I’m guessing no video, captain?” “Oh no, definitely document everything. You probably won’t be able to release it for a while, if ever, though.” “I understand,” Gregorio responded. “Just being here, seeing this… Wow. Just, wow.” The Akron’s crew went down the hillside to the alien craft. It was shaped like a disk, about 30 meters in diameter, with a bulbous top and bottom. Its seamless metal gleamed in the sunlight until the sun hid behind a ridge. Then it was a dull gray. There was no obvious way in. After planting a flag and posing for a picture, the team got to work setting up their Pathfinder base and Surface Experiment Pack. It took a few days just to print and assemble a leveled foundation for the base, but it was worth it. Gregorio and Pepe documented the whole effort. The crew radioed Kerbal Space Center over a secure channel, catching Gene in the middle of celebrating Elcano 1’s landing to discuss their discovery. “That’s just… incredible,” Gene radioed. “You’re on general communications lock-down as of now. No unencoded transmissions until further notice, and essential communications only over encrypted channels only. And please tell me you set up the Pathfinder base next to it.” “Yes, Sir,” Kelbin responded. “We had to use the Sandcastle prototype to build a platform and it broke down shortly afterwards, but that… saucer is technically in the perimeter of the base. I figure we’d want to claim it, at least initially.” “Good work, lieutenant! Good job! Ok. We’ll put in a Province Claim to the World Court right away. We’ll send the Fulton with a science team out to support you too. Once the base is firmly established, they’ll relieve you. You’ll be headed home soon for a debriefing. Well done, Akron.” Kelbin breathed a sigh of relief. Headed home soon. Finally! He liked the sound of that. A couple of days later, the Fulton arrived and settled down near the Akron. The crew got to work right away unpacking their additional Pathfinder elements. Fido’s front and mid wheels all suffered blowouts when the rover was overloaded with gear, but fortunately, Akron had several spares. Before long, Samalla repaired the reliable rover and continued expanding Camp Saucer. By sundown, the combined Akron and Fulton crew also established a small base camp up the hill. And after dinner, Kelbin quietly found his resignation letter and tore it in half. *** “Anything else you need, Captain Fredgan?” “Nope, we’re all good here,” Fredgan said, smiling at Kelbin. “Thanks for staying an extra few days. You cadets have gone above and beyond with the whole K.E.E.P. thing. You’ve earned your wings in my book.” Kelbin nodded. “Well, it gave us more time to check out that alien spacecraft! We’re all excited to learn more, but we’re also ready to go home and rest. If I wasn’t so tired, I’d stay just to figure out how to fly the thing!” “Maybe one of these days you’ll get your chance to,” Captain Fredgan said. Kelbin opened his mouth to say something, closed it, and was about to respond when Gregorio called out on the wireless. “Uh, captain? You know that ‘Valkyrie’ airship we met before? They’re hailing us and are asking to speak with you.” A few minutes later, the Valkyrie landed near the upper basecamp and her captain and first officer met with Kelbin and Fredgan. “No kerbonauts this time,” Kelbin asked. Fredgan chuckled and reached for another bag. He really liked Akron’s briefing room, it always had plenty of snacks. Siegfried smiled shook his head. “Nein. Zhey have other duties.” “Ah,” Kelbin said, trying to smile and nod politely. “So, uh, looking for more tracking stations out on the ice?” “Ja, herr Kaptin, zere must be vone out here. Zhey are all over ze globe. But ve zpotted you on ze ice und decided to visit. You vere such goot company ze last time, ja? Und look at what ve found! Incredible!” “Uh, well, we already staked a Province Claim on the site,” Kelbin said sheepishly. “I vould have done ze same,” Siegfried admitted. “But perhaps we can share ze discovery und excavation, ja?” “It would certainly help with international relations, but I’d have to pass your request on to my superiors,” Kelbin admitted. “Ja, cooperation iz goot! Much more can be done zat way.” Karl vonKerman, Siegfried’s aide, leaned towards his boss. “Hauptmann, Command vants us to resume our arctic exploration,” he said, pointing at his data pad. Siegfried shook his head and sighed. “Eh, ‘duty calls’ as you Kermans say. Very well, Leutnant, inform ze crew. Ve launch immediately. Kaptin Kelbin, thank you for your hospitality. Next time we meet, ve shall host, ja?” Kelbin nodded. The airship crews shook hands as the meeting adjourned, and they resumed their respective posts. Fredgan joined his crew at Camp Saucer. Not long after, Kelbin watched as the airship went aloft. Then she opened her cargo bay doors. Kelbin’s eye opened wide. “Gregorio! Send a distress signal immediately! The Valkyrie is armed!” Kelbin took a breath, then hit the ship-wide alarm. “Action stations, action stations! Set Condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Repeat, action stations, action stations,” he said as calmly as possible. It was the first time in over twenty years that Condition One had been used aboard the Akron. It was reserved for combat operations. The crew looked puzzled and frightened but went to their stations like any other emergency drill. The copilot finished sending their distress call. “I thought that cloud shredders were illegal after the Total Disarmament Treaty,” he commented. Kelbin shrugged. “Tell that to them,” he said nervously and pointed at the vonKerman airship. Above the arctic plain, the Valkyrie trained its weapons on the encampment. For several long moments it just circled with its guns ready. “Why aren’t they firing,” Kelbin asked. “Kelbin, its Bobus,” the engineer said over the intercom. “I can see the Valkyrie from Flight Ops. Remember that important matter I had to discuss awhile back? I snuck aboard their airship and saw what she was hiding. Valkyrie’s not firing because I sabotaged her weapons control. Now will you listen to me?” Kelbin momentarily froze and blanched. “I should’ve listened, that’s my fault. I’m sorry, Bobus,” he admitted. “Moho right you should’ve,” Bobus thundered. "We wouldn't be in this mess if you had!" Then he calmed down. “If they’re smart, we don’t have much time. Whatever you do, make it fast,” Bobus continued. Kelbin nodded. They were unarmed and vulnerable and the Valkyrie knew it. He looked out the window and tried to calm his thoughts. His mind flashed to the dreams he’d had. That other self. He was a shuttle commander… Something in his mind clicked and fell into place. Kelbin felt calm and mentally focused for the first time in many months. He had to think fast though. They were unarmed. Unless… “Gregorio, you know those saucer videos you guys made?” The acting copilot gave him a puzzled look. “Yeah..?” “Send them everywhere you can. Hurry.” Kelbin punched the intercom. “Samalla, remove the general communications lockout. Crank up the transmitters to full. We’re going live. Then get up to the command gondola.” “Aye aye, Sir,” Samalla squawked back. “You sound like the Captain.” “That’s because I am,” Kelbin answered, knowing she referred to Captain James. Gregorio left his seat and headed to the science lab. Samalla took his place and strapped in. Seconds later, Gene could be heard over the wireless. “Akron, Flight. What the mulch is this about an ‘armed airship’ all about? What the mulch is going on over there?“ “Gene, the Valkyrie is a cloud shredder,” Kelbin said quickly. “They-“ Just then, a puff of smoke erupted from the Valkyrie’s belly, followed by a loud boom and an explosion. “Squad, that was close,” Kelbin said. There was a brief silence on the other end of the channel. “Ok, I’m calling the president,” Gene responded. “Stall them as long as you can.” “Already on it, Flight, we’re transmitting video of the site.” “You’re what?!” “Flight, if we go down, somebody has to know what’s here. If we don’t then we need leverage in the World Court,” Kelbin countered. “Well, you’re not wrong, Akron, but-“ a loud explosion rocked the ground as another round hit, this time tearing the upper camp site to pieces. “Those guys aren’t playing around,” Samalla said nervously. “Hey, we got a pirate studio helping us out, we’re going global,” Gregorio shouted over the intercom. “They’re going to break into some national broadcasts.” Kelbin was about to respond when the Valkyrie sent a large salvo towards their position. They heard the rounds whizzing by a split second before they found their target. The KSNS Fulton’s flanks exploded in a burst of fire as the airship split in two. Valkyrie wasted no time in finishing off the stricken airship with a hail of gunfire and missiles. Akron’s flight crew were in total shock. “- Repeat. Akron, this is your final warning. Withdraw immediately or you will be fired upon,” Leutnant Karl radioed over the international channel. “Better do what they say, Kelbin,” Fredgan radioed from Camp Saucer. He sounded both mad and scared at the loss of his airship. “We’ve already transmitted our surrender and we’re heading up the hill to you. Camp Saucer signing off.” “Akron, Flight. We concur. Vacate the area. President Kenny is talking to Chancellor Alebeard as we speak. He’ll handle it.” “But Gene-“ “Don’t argue with me, lieutenant!” Gene took a deep breath before continuing. “There’s nothing more you can do. Return to KSC. Get Fred’s team and get out. Fast! That’s an order!” “Akron, you have 30 seconds to comply,” the Valkyrie’s wireless operator added for emphasis. “Alright, we’re shoving off!” Kelbin reached for the lifting gas controls. Akron lifted off right after the last of Camp Saucer’s personnel climbed aboard. As the airship gained altitude, Valkyrie trained her guns on the flying aircraft carrier. “They’re going to attack,” Samalla said in horror. All of a sudden, their armaments stowed themselves and the airship’s cargo doors closed. “What the-“ Kelbin said and watched, stunned. The Valkyrie turned, throttled up her engines, and veered off. “That’s… not what I expected…” Circling two Hundred and Fifty kilometers above the vonKerman Republic, Dolores Air Force Station opened the doors on its three newly installed cargo modules. “Those aren’t ‘science return capsules,’ are they,” Captain Gedra asked. “No they most certainly are not,” is all Major Paire would say. *** Their around the world trip is over, but not this story! Stay tuned for the epilogue…

The Buffalo Recycler Arm is from Pathfinder, which has the necessary resource distribution code in its plugin. I was testing some fixes I made to favor the arm's vessel to store resources before looking for nearby vessels. meaning, if you run out of space on your vessel, resources will be distributed to other nearby vessels as well. It also now switches between Equipment (Pathfinder's resource for assembling and configuring inflatable modules) and MaterialKits (used by OSE Workshop).

Worked on my Minmus Station... When Kapollo 5 arrived at Minmus Station, Valentina found a bit of a mess. The core module arrived with its booster core and upper stage intact, but while the aging Mk 2 Titan Tug (lower left) successfully delivered the modified Hab/Lab module, its docking port was stuck and it couldn't undock. She decided to make the best of it, and make extensive use of the Hab/Lab's 3D print lab. Bobus went on EVA and performed an extensive spacewalk, stripping the Titan Tug of parts and recycling everything he could. He even got help from Valentina to pull the Fulcrum engines from the booster core and upper stage, and then recycled them. It finally came down to just four parts that couldn't be handled by the kerbals and stuffed into the converted fuel tanks so that they could be recycled. Sadly, Bobus was just too inexperienced to recycle the parts by hand. Fortunately, he had a plan. After stripping down every non-essential part and pulling some backup parts as well, he managed to create this: He called it the Scrapper Pod. Using @Pak's KMU from Cormorant Aeronology mated to a Coach 500 printed from recycled materials, his jurry-rigged scrapper pod could do the work that he couldn't- and a bit more. The pod could store the Equipment or MaterialKits. Bobus carefully maneuvered the Scrapper Pod towards its targets and one by one, they fell to his mighty robotic recycler arm, vanishing in a puff of smoke: Extensive use of the OSE Workshop as well as the tools from the Kerbal Attachment System- not to mention a lot of back and forth shuffling of RCS thrusters and fuel pods- turned the jumble of spent rocket stages into valuable storage space: Minmus Station was open for business, and KSC added scrapper pods along with OSE Workshops as must-haves for any deep space station or vessel.

You don’t need to be in synchronous orbit to use the mass driver. For that matter, you don’t need them pointed at each other. You can deliver supplies to the surface, point to point on the surface, surface to orbit, and orbit to orbit. As for Kraken bait, your mileage may vary.

Looks really good and professionally done!

If you see both dds and another format, delete the non-dds files.

Uh, what? I have both RTG and SAFER in my saves.

I made a precision landing on manual:

One thing I'm experimenting with is an inflatable envelope. Just tack one onto some gondolas along with a couple of rudders, add a ton of heat shields, then send it to Eve. You sacrifice modularity for an inflatable non-rigid blimp hull. Admittedly the Skydancer is a starting point and hopefully inspirational in making something that would work much better.

Gene was too livid to respond. Hearing about the vonKerman Republic’s successes didn’t help the matter any. “So uh, I take it you’re still mad,” Bill radioed. The Flight Director still didn’t respond. “Gene, it was either crash-land Enterprise, or let two of our best astronauts die. Enterprise has enough snacks to last over a year- plenty of time to send a rescue ship. And she can continue her mission of testing deep space technologies- just on the Mun instead of in orbit.” Still nothing. Bill looked nervous. Gene sighed and finally spoke up. “Munbase Enterprise, your mission is to now use that 3D printer of yours to print up as many Pathfinder base elements as you can and establish a foothold. I want a sustained presence, not some political publicity stunt. You’ll be glad you have a year’s worth of supplies because you’re not going anywhere for a while. “Valentina, your Munar Pathfinder mission is hereby cancelled and redirected towards Minmus. Same mission as before: explore the terrain, find a good spot, and set up camp.” Valentina rolled her eyes at her mission parameters changing. Again. She nodded and said nothing. The brief look on her face spoke volumes. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” Gene countered. “Meanwhile, the Cargo Buffalo will link up with its Titan Tug and head to the Mun to support Munbase Enterprise. Kapollo 4 will be a repeat of 3- but actually work this time- and 5 will get Val and her crew to Minmus. I think you’ll like the new Buffalo rover that Wild Blue cooked up…” *** “Kerbin Galactic” knew a golden opportunity when they saw one. As the Kerbal Space Program literally picked up the pieces, the vonKermans refueled their mobile space station and launched a new pair of Falke landers to it while Hanse and Lagatha enjoyed a parade and brief rest. A week later, they again launched into orbit to serve as the Abenteur’s crew. Abenteur headed away from her home planet once more. By Kerba 34, they arrived in munar orbit. Like they did at Minmus, each pilot took a Falke down to the surface, ran some science experiments, grabbed surface samples, made EVA reports, planted a flag, and promptly boarded their lander and returned to their ship. Without much fanfare, the mobile station returned to LKO a couple of days later, where the crew placed the ship into a dormant state before taking their science and returning home. They received a standing ovation from the World’s First Society not long after landing and recovery- and a much deserved rest. With Eve’s transfer window just 34 days away, Kerbin Galactic announced their next goal: establish a basecamp in Eve orbit and land on Gilly. They definitely weren’t hiding it anymore, their space program, mothballed since the Last War, was in once again going strong. *** On Kerba 37, 1967, KSC launched a Cargo Buffalo with relief supplies to expand DSEV-1. It promptly acquired fuel from a Titan Tug for its trip to the Mun, and boosted to Kerbin's closest natural satellite. A day later, entered orbit around Kerbin’s nearest moon. The rover then landed and parked next to the fledgling mun base a couple days later. Enterprise’s crew welcomed the rover and its generators- they were slowly freezing to death while on emergency power in the dark munar night. *** On Kerba 39, KSC launched the first of three new classified payloads headed to Dolores Air Force Station. The Air Force listed them as “science instruments” on the manifest, but Gene suspected that they were some kind of surveillance gear or worse, weapons from that new BD Armory company that had been raiding weapons caches left over from the Last War and claiming them as salvage. The vehicle waited in its polar parking orbit for a day while it caught up to the station and then performed its rendezvous burn. Sixteen minutes later, the craft arrived at Dolores’ operational area. The docking was uneventful save for its upper stage running out of electric charge and failing to deorbit. It was one more piece of debris that contributed to a growing problem. Gedra watched the upper stage drift away as she removed and secured the new module’s now useless RCS thrusters. Once back inside, she started taking them apart and recycling them in the station’s new 3D print lab. At least it beat the increasing repair requests aboard the station… *** With Munbase Enterprise busily turning material kits into new Pathfinder modules, Mission Control turned their attention back to Duna, where Pioneer 2 at last settled into high orbit around the Rusty Planet. With inadequate power reserves, all it could do at this point was serve as a relay satellite. With everything that had happened recently- the lack of power on the Pioneer probes to transmit vital SCANSat data, the vonKermans landing on Minmus first, then the botched Mun landing, followed by the vonKermans landing on the Mun and returning safely, the Kerbal Space Program needed a win. Gene checked on Elcano 1. It suffered a reaction wheel failure in the lander, leaving only the probe core to keep it pointed. It would have to do. Mission planners selected a landing spot along that enormous western canyon spotted by Pioneer 3. It would take almost all of the remaining delta-v in the transfer stage, but it was worth it. Half an orbit later, it performed its de-orbit burn. “Don’t jettison the transfer stage until the last possible second,” Linus, Elcano’s project director, decreed. “We can use it as additional shielding for the probe, and we may need its transmitter. Also, set the chute for minimum pressure and maximum altitude.” “Instructions sent,” Bobak called back. Elcano 1 acknowledged its orders and performed its de-orbit maneuver right on time. It was all up to the probe core now. The World’s First Society’s representative cheered- Elcano 1 became the first craft to achieve suborbit around another world! Whatever happened, at least they’d have that. “Signal strength at 45%,” Bobak said nervously, “42%... 40%... still dropping.” “If it drops below 20, the probe should follow emergency procedures,” Linus responded. “It’ll automatically drop the transfer stage and arm the chute. Let’s hope the programming works.” “Signal strength at 25% and still dropping,” Bobak called out, “24%... and holding…” Gene held his breath, there was nothing he could do at this point. Bobak continued his monologue. “Altitude just dropped below 20,000, Elcano is approaching the target area. Pressure and temperature sensors just took readings… Altitude 13,000 and dropping… We’re in the western canyon… Altitude 11,000… Chute armed and transfer stage jettisoned… Good chute pre-deploy!” Cheers rang out throughout Mission Control. The WFS rep made another note about entering Duna’s atmosphere for the first time. “We’re doing good,” Gene encouraged the team, “Keep going team! We even met our contract to explore Duna!” Bobak continued. “Signal strength is back up again, we’re getting a relay through Pioneer 3! Altitude 9700… SAS disengaged to conserve power… Chute fully deployed, Altitude 4300, speed 11 meters per second and dropping… "Terrain altitude just dipped below 1000 meters… 500 meters… 200... speed 9.6 meters per second… SAS activated, brace for impact!” Everyone at Mission Control held their breath and grabbed their desks. Elcano 1 hit hard at 9.3 meters per second. Its heat shield shattered on impact and destroyed its secondary solar arrays. But the thrown together probe stayed upright. “TOUCHDOWN!” Cheers went up throughout the Kerbal Space Center. Everyone in Mission Control gave each other high-fours. The little probe quietly deployed its solar arrays and began transmitting its stored data. When that successfully went through, it ran the rest of its experiments on the ground and sent their collected data as well. While it continued to note temperature and pressure and seismic data, its primary mission was now complete. Wernher looked at the preliminary results and then turned to Linus and smiled. “Ach! Zere’s water on Duna! Very important for future exploration! Looks like you just won ze bet. Und now ve must learn how to mine it.” Amid the celebrations, Bobak keyed Gene’s private communications channel. “Gene, it’s the Akron. They’ve found something. Something important.” The Flight Director listened to the report. His jaw dropped as he gasped. “That’s just… incredible,” Gene said.

Snacks 1.10 is now available: - Fixed NRE causing the Settings menu to not appear. - Kerbals can now die from a lack of Snacks! This penalty is trned OFF by default, and you can change the number of skipped meals before a kerbal dies in the settings menu. Kerbals listed as exempt will never starve to death.

Ok, I found the problem. It has to do with the snack grinder efficiency. That's now fixed, though you'll need to redo your settings. Also, I have a new death penalty that I'm testing for Snacks. The original mod did have kerbal death as an option, and while I don't think it's in the spirit of Snacks, it'll be an option in the next release. By default it's turned off, and you can configure how many skipped meals it takes before a kerbal dies (max of 42 skipped meals).

That's done to help balance out the airship and keep it from getting top heavy. Now that MOLE is feature complete, I'm gearing up to finish up Heisenberg as well. I have some stuff planned like mesh optimizations to improve rendering performance, reworking the ground stabilizer into landing gear, remaking the Bison command pod, and some kind of wheel well so that the Bison can fit into a Mk3 cargo bay. I'm also experimenting with an inflatable airship envelope- if I can get that to work then you'll have an easier time lofting airships to other worlds as long as you can live with the fixed lifting capacity of the blimp hull. I might do some boat hulls/ rectangular lifting sections but we'll see. It depends upon my time and interest.

MOLE 1.15 is now available The last major parts update to MOLE introduces some new items to round out the 1.875m station parts including a cupola and a programmable station arm. MOLE is feature complete! New Parts - Mk1 Cupola (Space Exploration): This 1.875m cupola provides excellent views and can double as an airlock. - Mk1 Station Arm (Advanced Construction): This arm can be use to maneuver payloads around in orbit. Bug Fixes & Enhancements - Re-textured the Titan tanks to bring them up to DSEV standards.

Krakens you say? Hmm... Now I’m curious to know what’s on that data stick... Pretty neat to see the planes flying in formation too!

Sounds like an interesting challenge. That patch goes in the config files for the electric fans. it replaces what's there already.

Last part for MOLE feature complete: DONE! Need to do some thinking on the drydocks, but if I don't redo them, then I'll be making a new MOLE release very soon.

Ok, will get to it this week.

Try this: atmCurve { key = 0 0 key = 0.3 0.4 key = 1 1 0.4550138 0.5264686 key = 5 2.4 0.2480805 0.2329394 key = 20 4 } If that doesn't work, blame me. If it does, thank @JadeOfMaar

Give 2.11.2 a try: - Optimized meshes for all the electric propellers and fans. - Fixed hub wobbling issue on the WB-21 "Tornado" - Recompiled plugin. - Retested action groups for thrust reverse and verified correct operation. Please be sure to copy the included KerbalActuators as well, it has a few bug fixes.

I haven't seen reverse-thrust issues with the latest build, which specific engines are having trouble?

Thanks! I created the mod so I could fly around Kerbin in my Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project (K.E.E.P.) story that's nearly done now.. Yup, and they need a huge amount of E.C. to boot. Anyway, I have some more parts to add, then Heisenberg will be feature complete. With the latest KerbalActuators finally done (it's the modlet that drives the konstruction krane), I'm investigating making an inflatable airship hull: It'll need either new parts for nuclear reactor and super gyro or custom configs for the storage gondolas to do the same functionality. Any thoughts?

Looking forward to seeing the new airship! Hopefully the latest update will help with your endeavors.

Heisenberg 2.11 is now available: New Parts - Konstruction Krane (Advanced Construction): The Konstruction krane is helpful for picking stuff up on the ground and placing them were you want. - WB-51 "Monsoon" Ducted Fan (Advanced Aerodynamics): This ducted fan combines the power of the WB-50 "Jet Stream" with the rotation ability of the WB-21 "Tornado" ducted fan. - WB-52 "Thunderstorm" Ducted Fan (Advanced Aerodynamics): An immense ducted fan best suited to flying aircraft carriers, the Thunderstorm generates an enormous amount of thrust and can tilt just like the smaller ducted fans. Bug Fixes And Enhancements - Adjusted atmosphere and velocity curves for the electric propellers and fans- thanks JadeOfMaar! NOTE: additional tweaks for thinner atmospheres might be on the way depending upon need... - Fixed Hooligan Labs' lift issues with the HL-10L Dirigible Section. - Increased the Nuclear Gyro power output to 2000 EC/sec and tweaked its thermal parameters. - Nuclear Gyro stores 20,000 ElectricCharge instead of 4,500 LiquidFuel. - HL-10 Hangar Deck now has a battery template. - Increased the WB-50 "Jet Stream" thrust output to 500kn