Angelo Kerman

I've got a bunch of work at work to do today, but I still managed to create a design that I like for the fold-out ladders: It's inspired by the Kelus Mobility Enhancer, but redone for the Buffalo. I also did some number crunching for potential parts that fit into that alcove space. In a nutshell, each storage unit would be small, just 110 liters- a little over half the amount of the stock Mk1 capsule. A battery pack could store about 600 EC, based on the stock Z-400 Rechargeable Battery, a resource tank would store 20 units of Liquid Fuel, Oxidizer, or Ore, and a fuel cell would generate 10 Electric Charge. IMO, that's not enough to warrant creating parts that fit into the alcove, so for now I'm tabling that idea. Another idea I had today was to create a short hollowed-out part that has the side door and ladder set. The body components don't have doors on the sides like the OG Buffalo did, so if users want a side door, they'd add the hollow part with the doors and ladders.

Today I started working on the final bit of modeling for the baseline command pod. In a nod to the original Buffalo, the new one will have fold-out stairs. To do that, I created the cutout and alcove for them: This was tricky because I had to make a cutout that matched the textured door, but as you can see it worked. When the door is closed (it's off to the left at the moment) you'll barely notice the difference between the textured door and the 3D meshed door. At any rate, the fold-out stairs will be one of the variants for the command pod, so you can not use them if desired.

More progress today: I cleaned up the sharp sides on several parts, and cut the side doors into the command pod: I'm looking at adding different variants for the front windows including MSEV (shown above), Cupola, Puddle Jumper, and Retro (a nod to the original Buffalo). I also looked into a Size 1 variant of the docking tube: Such a variant is possible but it will cut into existing windows and doors. I was able to use a structural tube, which might be the way to go if people really want larger ports. I also double-checked to make sure that the existing ports will fit the standard Clamp-O-Tron:

Made more progress today, I learned about modifying vertex normals. This looks much better than before:

Always fun to see ETS-inspired missions play out in KSP!

I wonder what happens if a warp engine is cranky when it wakes up. Will the others accept it? Will it need warp coffee?

Chapter 31 The waiting in orbit was finally over, the window opened at last. Each vessel in the Second Duna Fleet took turns igniting their engines, performing their Trans Duna Injection burns, and entering interplanetary space over the course of a week… As the Second Duna Fleet exited Kerbin’s SOI, the Eve Tug performed its transfer burn to intercept the Gilly Mapper in another six days... When it finally rendezvoused with the Gilly Mapper, it docked with it, and waited another 10 days to perform an interception burn with Gilly. Then, 20 days later, the Eve Nuclear Tug entered Gilly’s SOI with the Mapper in tow. The tug carefully burned its remaining propellium attempting to slow the combined spacecraft down. It was able to cancel all but 147 m/sec of velocity before it ran out of propellium, but it did its job. Gilly Mapper cast off from the tug, ignited two of its engines, and brought itself to a relative halt above Gilly. Sixteen minutes later, Gilly Mapper entered a 243.7 km by 327.9 km polar orbit above its namesake and began its high-orbit science. Sadly, the Eve Nuclear Tug found itself on an escape trajectory and before long it would enter high Eve orbit. But thanks to its sacrifice, the slow-motion dance around Eve picked up its tempo. Plus, Bumblebee’s landing site was finally in sunlight when the probe’s orbital track crossed over it. And with the Gilly Mapper safely in Gilly’s orbit and the Eve Relay network in place, it was time to try to land Bumblebee. * When KSP created the Kerbin Orbital Transportation Services, they did so to open up Kerbin orbit to commercial space companies- and to free up their budget to focus on Project Laythe by retiring their soon-to-be-obsoleted Shuttle fleet. KOTS was able to fund two independent space companies, Drax Aerospace, and Phoenix Aerospace, while leaving a third, Orbital Dynamics, out of the running. Then Orbital Dynamics single-handedly created the space tourism market, created the first commercial space station, sent the first commercial astronauts and tourists around (and onto) the Mϋn, sent the first astronauts and tourists to visit an asteroid, discovered water on the Mϋn, and created the first orbital shipyard. The company’s shipyard proved to be disruptive technology. Why launch vessels into orbit when they could be built in orbit and avoid the costs to launch them? Launch costs originally prevented Kongress from approving KSP’s Project Minmus, but with the Shipyard, nearly all those costs could be avoided. Hence, Orbital Dynamics’ disruptive technology gave Kongress a new, approving perspective on Project Minmus, one that KSP Administrator Gene Kerman took advantage of. Gene couldn’t simply cancel KOTS without significant penalties, but nothing stopped him from expanding it. His legal staff came up with the Kerbin Orbital/Mϋnar Exploration/Transportation Services. Essentially, while KOMETS kept the original contracts to transport kerbals and resources to Starlab intact, the new transportation services program opened the field for commercial companies to produce spacecraft and transport them to the mϋns of Kerbin. As with KOTS, instead of producing hardware for companies to launch, KSP laid out their requirements and invited companies to place bids for the contracts. And this time, Gene made sure that all three commercial space companies won contracts. Orbital Dynamics, for instance, won the contract to refit the Magellan by modernizing its components and expanding its crew capacity. But before that could happen, Starlab need some supplies and a crew exchange. That’s where Sunraker came in. The spaceplane began building speed, breaking the sound barrier as it climbed out of Kerbal Space Center. Several minutes later, the spaceplane achieved orbit, carrying some snacks, a module containing xenon gas, and Starlab’s next crew. Due to good timing, Sunraker didn’t have a long wait for their transfer window to open; the vehicle arrived at the old station just 2 hours after takeoff. After exchanging pleasantries and transferring cargo and crew, Sunraker undocked from the station and headed back to KSC… Not long after, veteran KSP astronaut Tesen Kerman said goodbye to Phildas, Starlab’s new station commander, and boarded Magellan for her trip to the Shipyard. The Mϋnar Shuttle Module had a nine-hour wait for its transfer burn, but Tesen had no trouble keeping herself busy. Upon arrival, the yard crew directed Magellan to the station’s upper docking pier, a temporary parking spot while the workers finished up Magellan’s new propulsion section. Once they moved it to its temporary spot, and the docking tube extension was deployed, Tesen brought Magellen into the yard’s construction frame where shipwrights got to work. They began by pulling apart the ship’s modular components and docking them to temporary spots on the frame. Then, with its old propulsion section unhooked, workers moved her new, OCTV-derived propulsion section into its place abaft Magellan’s lab module. Next, workers began stripping the MSM of its outdated service section to make room for the new additions. Then, they built an extension to Magellan via Extraplanetary Launchpads that included a new crew cabin, battery compartment, storage area, and new RCS thrusters. After that, shipwrights rejoined the two halves of the ship. Once rejoined, workers installed struts between the two halves to improve structural integrity. With the exterior work completed, shipwrights focused on interior remodeling. Mostly, they focused on reworking the resource stores and reprovisioning the vessel and repairing broken systems. Finally, the yard crew moved Magellan onto the station’s upper docking pier, where it waited for the final phase of its construction… Blackstar took off from Jay Kerman Air Force Base in the early morning hours of Tizoc 27, 2002, and climbed into orbit on her maiden flight. Five hours later, Mk33-05 docked with Orbital Dynamics Shipyard- in an unusual docking orientation to avoid colliding with Magellan’s old propulsion section. But the Air Force pilots handled it like they’d done it dozens of times before. Soon, the station crew began offloading the “care package” that Blackstar brought with them, including fresh air, some equipment for reconfiguring Magellan’s systems, and even some metal ore for the station’s smelter. But Blackstar’s crew handled a special shipment themselves: Magellan’s nuclear fuel. Unlike other Orbital Cargo Transfer Vehicles, Magellan’s OCTV had an NV-GE Liberator atomic rocket- the same design used on the Ministry of Space’s Interplanetary Tug. An improvement to the Emancipator used on the First Laythe Fleet, the Liberator was also designed as gas core atomic rocket. But unlike its predecessor, the Liberator could keep the nuclear fuel within its mixing chamber. After the station crew took care of the supplies, Tech Sergeant Chet Kerman, Blackstar’s flight engineer took a walk outside and installed the nuclear fuel into the MSM’s atomic motor. Not long after Chet got back inside, Blackstar departed and headed home… Finally, with Magellan’s refit complete, Tesen boarded the vessel, powered up its systems, spread its solar wings, and departed Orbital Dynamics Shipyard. Nine hours later, Magellan returned to Starlab. * Right on time, Bumblebee’s transfer stage lit its Wolfhound engine one last time, forever changing the course of the space probe. A few minutes later, the probe and stage separated before atmospheric entry. Quickly, the probe rotated until its heat shield faced prograde. Not long after, both spacecraft encountered Eve’s thick upper atmosphere. But while Bumblebee’s heat shield weathered the onslaught of hot plasma, its transfer stage fared far worse. The stage broke up and vaporized while Bumblebee remained cool in its protective aeroshell. Bumblebee undershot the desired landing site by 67 kilometers when its drogue chute deployed, but given how the mission had gone so far, none in Mission Control were too surprised. The chute did its job and slowed the probe down considerably. At 4,000 meters altitude, Bumblebee cut its drogue chute, dropped its heat shield, and deployed its main chute to slow down even further. The little craft dropped- and terrified Mission Control- until its main chute finally inflated 1,600 meters above the ground and slowed the probe down to a mere 3 meters per second. That gave Bumblebee plenty of time to prepare for the next step. At 1,500 meters altitude, the probe deployed its landing skids and ran through its diagnostics… RTG check, control point cycling check, GPS check, biome check, and so on. At 1,000 meters altitude, Bumblebee ignited the explosive bolts holding it to its aeroshell and dropped once more. But this time, its quad rotors started while its control reference point shifted forward. The flight control computer immediately put Bumblebee in a hover to arrest its fall, and then shifted the probe out of the way of the descending aeroshell. Mission Control cheered; Bumblebee became the first vehicle to achieve flight on Eve! The probe quickly extended its high-gain antenna and pointed it at the nearest relay satellite. Finding a signal, Bumblebee tested its flight systems by locating the descending aeroshell and flying around it before settling down onto the ground. Mission Control cheered even more when Bumblebee became the first craft to soft-land on Eve! Moments later, the spent aeroshell landed nearby… After taking stock of their situation, Mission Control commanded Bumblebee to take its contingency science- in case it couldn’t fly again or it malfunctioned, at least the probe would return some science. “Ooo, look at that,” Adsii, the lead planetary scientist for the mission, said. “Gravity is 1.394g! Pressure is 495.38 kilopascals and temperature is 394.61 kelvin. And look at the resources! There’s 7.59% ore, 2.24% hexagen, 4.30% hydrokerbon, point 67% metal ore, 3.02% minerite, plenty of rock, and 2.42% zeonium… Ok, sensor data packets from the seismometer and surface samples have been sent off via bug-fixed Science Relay to Nautilus, Duna Basecamp, and of course KSC, and we have readings from the sensor package as well.” “Flight, eagle,” Bilford Kerman, KSP Mission Control’s Electrical Generation and Illumination (EGIL) engineer, spoke up. “Batteries are less than 5 percent from the data dumps. Recommend waiting for the RTG to recharge them.” Adsii sighed. There was data in the sensor package to transmit! But it was probably just as well; the sun was setting on Eve. It took a third of the night, but the probe went through several cycles of recharging and transmitting until it sent copies of all its data to Nautilus, Duna Basecamp, and KSP. Bumblebee’s engineers were delighted with the probe’s progress; the field test at Eve was providing invaluable data for the probes headed to Laythe. Once its batteries recharged, Mission Control elected to takeoff again and fly towards the originally selected landing site. As it began flying, it took atmospheric readings from various sensors. The next time it landed, Bumblebee transmitted the results- the probe didn’t have enough power to both fly and transmit data. The probe took small hops, taking data and radioing the results until it collected all that it could in Eve’s Highlands. Then it continued towards its intended landing zone. About 8 kilometers from the first survey site, Bumblebee reached Eve’s midlands and repeated the process of hopping, taking airborne readings, and transmitting the results. Then it landed for an extended rest and to take more readings. At sunrise, the probe flew the final leg of the journey to the first survey site. One by one, Bumblebee flew to each survey site and took seismic readings of the Faultline. After the last measurement waypoint, Bumblebee fulfilled its primary mission; to test the atmospheric probe technology by flying to a specific locating and gathering scientific data. With its mission fulfilled and the vehicle withstanding Eve’s harsh atmosphere, planners began looking for additional places to explore. The Sea of Nessus was “only” 781.2 kilometers away, so they programmed the probe to head for it and take readings along the way. It took a few days, but Bumblebee completed the journey by flying as far as it could, landing to recharge, and making another leg of the flight. The probe couldn’t manage more than about 72 m/sec and stay in the air, but Mission Control got smart part way through the flight by retracting the landing skids to reduce drag. By the time that Bumblebee reached the Sea of Nessus, it had taking measurements in Eve’s midlands, lowlands, and shores. Unfortunately, Eve’s corrosive atmosphere and high heat- pushing past 422 degrees Kelvin- were taking their toll on the probe. So, KSP decided to fly out over the Sea of Nessus for one last set of readings and set down into the toxic hydrokerbon. Bumblebee managed to grab temperature and pressure readings while splashed down, but sadly, the probe failed at this point. It sank below the waves, reached its crush depth, and went to the bottom of the sea. * Project Minmus called for a station in Minmus orbit from which to stage hardware headed to or from the surface. Unfortunately, Unity Station, originally flown on the Mϋnflight 6 mission, was well over a decade old at this point, ailing, and obsolete. To replace it, Project Minmus budgeted for the construction of Gateway Station, a small, modern, kerman-tended space station. And in the spirit of the Minmus Basins Treaty, Gateway Station was declared an international station where all spacefaring nations were welcome. The core station consisted of five modules: the Power/Propulsion Element (PPE), built by Phoenix Aerospace, the Refueling Module (REMO), also built by Phoenix Aerospace, the Habitat and Logistics Outpost (HALO), built by Drax Aerospace, the International Habitat Module (IHM), supplied by the Ministry of Space, and the Airlock Cupola Module (ACM), provided by the vonKerman Republic. To reach the surface, KSP intended to use their venerable Mϋnar Surface Access Module, but that wouldn’t last long. Project Minmus allocated Funds to design and build a Universal Landing Module- Drax Aerospace won that contract- and a Landing Command Module that KSC would work on. The ULM was powered by propellium and oxidizer to simplify fueling requirements and improve fuel economy. Its side-mounted KR-1E-V Angora engines made it possible to mount payloads on the top and the bottom of the ULM. The LCM was just one of many payloads for it; engineers had designs for a Multipurpose Tank Module, a carrier for the Orbital Standard Shipping Container, and of course the Minmus base components. Work on the ULM wasn’t finalized quite yet, but it wasn’t needed for the initial return to Minmus… To begin construction of Gateway Station, Drax Aerospace rolled out the HALO module atop their upgraded Moho launcher known as the Moheavy. For the mass and volume being lifted into orbit, Moheavy was cheaper than Sunraker’s fuel costs. Moheavy added two additional 4-segment SRBs to provide the initial kick off the pad. Once they burned out and were discarded, the 5-segment core SRB ignited and continued like a standard Moho. Moheavy had no trouble lifting HALO into orbit, and three hours later, HALO arrived at Starlab, where it docked with the station’s forward port to await the arrival of the next component… Three days later, an Edna 1F lifted off from Pad A carrying the PPE into orbit. After waiting for another three hours, the spacecraft and its payload arrived at Starlab. The PPE disconnected from its carrier rocket and watched as the E1F Upper Stage deorbited itself. The PPE unfurled its solar arrays and communications antennae and made its way over to HALO; its innovative ion-powered RCS thrusters puffed small amounts of xenon gas like the larger IX-8219 After Ion Thrusters mounted to its aft end would be doing shortly. Although Phoenix Aerospace could’ve used the hall thrusters, they opted for ions due to their cheaper cost. Anyway, PPE docked to HALO, the station crew checked out the vehicle, and, finding no issues, sent it on its way. The core of Gateway Station made a slow plane-change maneuver to align it with the mint mϋn. But there was a problem: on the nightside of Kerbin, the PPE ran out of power! Phoenix Aerospace underestimated how much electric charge the spacecraft needed during nightside engine burns, so it ran out a third of the way through its plane change. Given its low thrust and extended night-time burns, Gateway Station was effectively stranded in LKO. With their reputation on the line once again, Phoenix Aerospace sprang into action. They quickly assessed the situation, tried potential fixes, and assembled the necessary hardware. Lacking an appropriate cargo craft, they bought an unused Drakken Kargo Karrier from the vonKerman Republic, who rolled the vehicle out to their pad at Darude and launched it into orbit in record time. It arrived at Gateway Station a mere 4 hours later. Not long after, Firebird blasted into the sky carrying the Gateway Station’s repair crew. A quick hour later, they rendezvoused with the station and docked to it. Not wasting time, the repair crew stepped outside and got to work. The first thing they did was remove one of the Kargo Karrier’s ladders and mounted it to HALO. That gave them a convenient place to hang onto while continuing their repairs. Next, they unpacked the Karrier and began installing the components that it contained. They bolted the new fuel cells onto the PPE and followed up with a set of LFO tanks to fuel them. Finally, they stocked the station with some supplies such as extra repair kits and a set of EVA gear. With their work completed, Phoenix Mission Control sent the Karrier on its way to a destructive reentry while Firebird returned to KSC. Successfully repaired and upgraded, Gateway Station again attempted to match orbital planes with Minmus. This time, thanks to the new fuel cells, it had no trouble burning its engine on the planet’s nightside. But all their troubles still weren’t over. KSP soon learned that using ion engines for large orbital maneuvers had significant issues with making large delta-v changes. They had to make burns over several orbits just to get out of low Kerbin orbit. Engineers had some ideas on how to overclock the engines in the future, but for now, Gateway Station had to make orbit after orbit to crawl its way out to Minmus. Eventually it worked; the station was on its way to the mint mϋn at last. Five days later, on Ahuit 9, 2002, Gateway Station entered Minmus’ sphere of influence and made a “left turn” engine burn a half-hour later to drastically lower its periapsis. Two and a half hours after that, the station entered a 55.5 km by 56.8 km equatorial orbit, ready for the next phase of construction… To support the initial landings, Phoenix Aerospace launched the Resupply Module into orbit. The Edna Upper Stage had no trouble rendezvousing and docking with Starlab’s forward docking port before detaching from its payload and deorbiting. A week later, Phoenix Aerospace launched PPE 2 into orbit to replace PPE 1. While the repair operations were successful, PPE 1’s engine performance was subpar, and the company felt obligated to fix that. To that end, PPE 2 had a stretched body to incorporate a liquid fuel and oxidizer tank for the craft’s fuel cell arrays, and it had an additional microprocessor to overclock the ion engines. This time around, the PPE had no trouble aligning planes with Minmus, though the transfer burn had to be done in two steps to avoid overheating the overclocked engines (sigh). Five and a half days later, PPE 2 and REMO docked with Gateway Station, where the replacement PPE swapped places with the original. The station was ready for its first expedition, but what to do with PPE 1? Phoenix Aerospace decided to send it back to Kerbin. Eight days later, it circularized its orbit. Rather than dispose of it, the company decided to keep it around for experimental development. * Over the course of a week, Drax Aerospace launched a pair of Jool Heavy Tanker spacecraft to fill Magellan with much needed propellium. The tankers made use of Block 3 Jool Upper Stages that replaced their monopropellant RCS thrusters with improved cryogenic versions, and replaced the LFO-powered fuel cells with cryogenic equivalents. Instead of deorbiting the tankers after completing their deliveries, Drax sent them over to their Fuel Depot; they planned to use them in the future. * A few days later, Hensen Kerman (CDR), Richny Kerman (ENG), Elke Kerman (SCI), Joeald Kerman (SCI), and Glesby mcKerman (SCI) hitched a ride uphill in Mϋnraker 1’s penultimate flight. The shuttle didn’t immediately head to Starlab after achieving orbit. Instead, the shuttle’s flight crew jettisoned the aft carrier shroud on their external tank, jettisoned the tank itself, and deployed the truss structure in the orbiter’s payload bay. Once rotated into position, Mϋnraker 1 docked to the external tank and then cut the structure lose. After the orbiter backed away, Drax Mission Control deployed the truss’s solar arrays, completing core assembly of Drax Fuel Depot 2. With Its first mission objective completed, Mϋnraker 1 rocketed over to Starlab. Since it lacked any docking ports, the orbiter’s flight crew expertly hovered a scant 5.5m away from the station’s forward docking port while Hensen, Richny, Elke, Joeald, and Glesby cycled in and out of the orbiter’s internal airlock and through Starlab’s corresponding airlock. Though a risky maneuver, they were kerbals, and taking risks is what they did... After dropping off the astronauts, Mϋnraker 1 deorbited and returned to Kerbin. Meanwhile, four of the five astronauts boarded Magellan and prepped her for departure. Hensen hopped into Sea Duck, undocked, and parked the MSAM on Magellan’s forward port. A short time later, Magellan shoved off from Starlab, ready to begin its journey. Within hours, the MSM ignited its atomic rocket and burned for Minmus, and the crew settled into their routine of stargazing and entertaining themselves. Eight days later, Magellan arrived in Minmus’s sphere of influence. Their mission was twofold: first, find a suitable polar location for the water mining, and second, find a flat equatorial location for Minmus Base. The crew tackled the polar mining site first. After course correcting for a polar orbit, Magellan settled into a 50.2 km by 50.5 km orbit. Elke, Joeald, and Glesby poured over the SCANSat data and found 3 polar sites and one equatorial site to check out. As soon as the first polar site entered sunlight, Hensen, Richny, and Glesby piled into Sea Duck, powered up its systems, and departed Magellan. Their first stop proved fruitful; the site had good resource levels and wasn’t blocked by hills. The second side, only 26 km away, also had good resources but poor lighting. The team skipped the third site after realizing that its terrain was too hilly- and they lacked the delta-v for another trip to the surface. After returning to Magellan, the expedition changed orbits and arrived at Gateway Station a few hours later. The REMO proved its worth, providing the resources needed to replenish Sea Duck and enabling the team to sortie to the surface once more. It took a bit of short hops to find, but the team located a flat spot in the Brown Basins that even had a good source of zeonium, a powdery substance that could be refined into xenon gas. Their objectives completed, Magellan departed Gateway Station- leaving Sea Duck docked to its forever home- and arrived in Kerbin orbit nine days later. When they docked to Starlab, they found Galileo, the Ministry of Space’s Arrow space plane, waiting for them. The astronauts returned to KSP, satisfied that they’d helped complete Phase 1 of Project Minmus.

Today, while working on Buffalo 2, I made a handy fuel pump. It's part of WildBlueCore. Here's a look: WildBlueCore isn't done yet but there's a pre-release available.

That might be tough to do. The connectors are sized for the body; any bigger and they'll stick out like sore thumbs. Meanwhile... The part and plugin are in WildBlueCore, which powers the part modules used by Buffalo, so anybody can use ModuleFuelPump. There's even a Wiki Page for it. Check out the WildBlueCore pre-release if you're interested.

The mass of a Tet is 324.1 tonnes- that's about 20 of the Size 2 ore containers fully loaded. What happens if, instead of hooking up the tet, you tried to build a warp ship with 20 fully loaded ore containers? Do you get the same results?

No modding updates today, but I did finally figure out how to turn XML documentation in Visual Studio into md documents for GitHub wiki pages. Here's a sample from an upcoming plugin that Buffalo 2 will use: https://github.com/Angel-125/WildBlueCore/wiki

In what way?

In the settings.cfg file, uncomment debugMode = true. That will give you more information.

Last bit for the night. Definitely WIP:

Due to a LOT of work at my professional job, this took a lot longer than I'd hoped. But, finally I'm making progress again: I finally have the front window section modeled and unwrapped! Off to the side is a guide for adding the side doors.

Not for Gateway Station... One more teaser, this one of the Drax Fuel Depot: I need to find a better way to store all the tankers and space tugs, this arrangement is beginning to look like a junkyard...

Looks like a space putting green.

Small teaser while I gather images for the next chapter:

Graviolium input is set to STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW. You could try ALL_VESSEL and see if that helps.

It would take more than that. The warp engine plugin would need to be modified to only allow interstellar after unlocking the node.

To be honest I haven't made such a consideration. Plus, I have no doubt I'd get complaints about the exceptionally hard to reach tech node just to go interstellar.

@Nate Simpson@Nertea Thank you for your insight on the design process for how parts are made for KSP 2! When the game gets closer to release, would it be possible to have a part creation guide for modders? Perhaps something like the above, but some descriptions about color palette, number of faces in a cylinder, that sort of thing. Modders have deduced these things for KSP 1 over the years, but with a style guide, it would be easier for us to make parts that mesh well with KSP 2's more sophisticated art style. Looking forward to playing KSP 2- and making a KSP 2 flying saucers mod for the little green men and women. (Well, that, and boats and submarines...)

Chapter 30 Early in the morning of Moctez 1, 2002, Sunraker made its way to KSC’s runway, revved up its engines, and lifted off. There was a lot riding on the mission; should something go wrong, Drax would have no choice but to continue the Mϋnraker program and write off Sunraker as a financial disaster. Several thousands of jobs were on the line too. It was bad enough that Sunraker had to swap out its T-1C Snow Dart engines and its KS-25B Ranbird motors for a pair of KR-2200L Velociraptor linear aerospikes- the same engines that their competitor used on their Mk33. It was even worse that Drax Kerman had to ask a favor from Kerbodyne to make the engines. But once convinced, he personally oversaw the redesign of Sunraker by sitting in on every design meeting, and, with his very presence, reminding the team that the company’s future was at stake. His thinly veiled intimidation, disguised with his “this is a whole team problem, not just a propulsion problem,” attitude, didn’t go unnoticed by the team. The savvy rank and file engineers in the group knew exactly what was going on- management wasn’t asking them to work harder or longer (they even said so!) but somehow, the team had to deliver large updates to Sunraker with high quality and within a short timeframe. And a good engineer knows that of the three design pillars- quality, features, and time- you can only pick two. No amount of senior-level-anything will ever change that. So, the Sunraker design team put in a lot of long hours to get their spaceplane ready to fly again. They made significant architectural changes to accommodate the Velociraptors and filled the void where the Rainbirds were mounted and painstakingly rerouted kilometers of control cabling and tweaked the Starwasher’s engine performance and rebalanced the fuel ratios and used hidden fuel tanks “super chill” propellants to increase propellant density- and on and on. But their long hours and hard work paid off. Sunraker and her flight crew and tourists arrived at Drax Space Hotel a few hours after takeoff with enough propellant to return home without the need for refueling. Then they returned to Kerbin a few days later. Sunraker was a success at last- but it came at a cost. Drax’s engineering staff was exhausted, demoralized, burned out, and looking for other opportunities. And Drax’s competitors were looking for new staff… * Meanwhile, at Starlab, Jebman Kerman stepped outside for a short spacewalk. He jetted his way over to the station’s first-generation Kerbal Maneuvering Unit, strapped in, and powered up its systems. It had been years since it was last used, but thanks to regular checks and maintenance, the old KMU still operated. It had half a tank of monopropellant, but it was more than enough for his task. Jebman undocked from the station and maneuvered over to the Pressurized Mating Adapter- brought up by the vonKermans when they visited in a Drakken spacecraft- latched onto it and undocked it from its berth. Jebman then flipped the PMA around and flew it over to the station’s Vista Kerbin Observation Module, where he docked it to one of its unused radial ports. With his task completed, Jebman returned the KMU to its cradle and went back inside… After Jebman returned, Dudmon Kerman, the current station commander, Chief of the Astronaut Corps, and veteran of the Mϋnflight program, boarded the Sea Duck Mϋnar Surface Access Module- successor to the Mϋnflight-era Mϋnar Excursion Module- powered up its systems, and undocked it from the Mϋnar Shuttle Module. Dudmon didn’t have far to go; he spun the MSAM around and paused for a moment. For the first time in a long time, he was a single occupant in a pressurized spacecraft orbiting Kerbin. Not since Bob remained in orbit around Minmus in Magellan while the mcKermans took Sea Duck to the ground had anyone flown solo. Jebman savored the moment for as long as he could, hearing nothing but the module’s electronics humming as Sea Duck coasted to its docking port. It felt like floating on a glass smooth sea, without a care in the world. Next month, his tenure as the station commander would end and he’d be back to his desk at KSC, so he wanted this moment to last as long as possible. Sadly though, his moment of serenity ended, but it would be one that he’d remember for years. Reluctantly, Jebman docked the MSAM to the PMA with practiced ease. With that task completed, he powered down its systems and returned to his command post. Dudmon couldn’t help but wonder how Orbital Dynamics was faring with their commercial mϋnflight… * With its cargo secured, OCTV 1 departed Orbital Dynamics Shipyard and headed for the Mϋn. Two weeks of maneuvers and waiting later, the spacecraft arrived at Oasis, where it dropped off its shipment. Not long after, OCTV 1 disembarked from Oasis and linked up with ODIN Fuel Depot to refuel. But more than just taking on propellant, the Orbital Cargo Transfer Vehicle repositioned the Depot and temporarily docked it to Oasis before leaving the complex once again and returning to Kerbin. Finally, Orbital Dynamics had everything in place for their next great adventure. * As Resolute backed out of its hangar and onto Runway 090, the flight crew and passengers could barely contain the excitement- they were going to the Mϋn! It felt like a lifetime ago, but at long last, Pacal, Tedsel, and Navin- the three passengers who’d signed up to become the first tourists to land on the Mϋn- were about to get their money’s worth. So too would Scott (CEO of Orbital Dynamics) and Frolie (CTO of Orbital Dynamics), the pilot and flight engineer, respectively, for the mission. While Scott wasn’t flying Resolute uphill, he didn’t mind; his thoughts were already on the mission at hand. Mk33-04 taxied past Welcome Back Island’s original hangars, and Mabo (Chief of the Astronaut Corps at Orbital Dynamics) could see that Ascension, away on her Orbital Maintenance Down Period, would be back very soon while Skyranger, the first Mk33, remained in retirement. She knew that Scott still didn’t know what to do with Mk33-01, so the vehicle stayed in its hangar. Resolute rolled past the runway’s blast deflector, and Mabo could see the Mk33 launchpad out in the distance in the corner of her front window. Until very recently, Mk33s were rolled onto the pad, rotated vertically, fueled, and launched. But not anymore. With their improved technology, a Mk33 could roll down a runway and take off like a normal airplane- shortly before pitching near vertical and boosting for orbit. Within moments, Resolute did exactly that. And five and a half minutes after takeoff, Resolute reached orbit. The SSTO didn’t head directly to Homestead Waystation though. Instead, six hours later, Mk33-04 arrived at Orbital Dynamics Shipyard to drop off some much-needed supplies. As the yard workers offloaded Resolute’s cargo, Scott, Frolie, and the three tourists made their way through the orbiting complex and boarded Seagull, the new Finch-class orbital transfer vehicle. Connected to Finch’s unused OTV propulsion module, Seagull served as a station-to-station space taxi. Scott noted its new spaceship smell as he powered up its systems, and before long, they were ready to depart. “Have a good trip,” Mabo radioed from the yard’s command center as Seagull departed. Seven hours later, Seagull arrived at Homestead Waystation, where the crew and passengers transferred to Finch. Half after arrival, they were on their way to the Mϋn. * Four days later, Finch entered mϋnar orbit, and Scott immediately plotted a course to reach Oasis. Unfortunately, it took another eight and a half days to arrive at the station due to the orbital mechanics involved. When they arrived, the tourists were eager to disembark, but Scott and Frolie had to go around and open the hatches and turn on the lights before their passengers could enter the station. But once they finished their tasks, the trio were delighted to be among the first to visit Oasis. They even didn’t mind helping by unpacking the station’s general stores. Unfortunately, the landing site was on the dark side of the Mϋn, but Oasis was specifically designed for situations like this. The crew and tourists had plenty to keep them busy- from setting up shop to gardening to availing themselves of the Homestead module’s entertainment center. As they waited, Scott had a private- and remote- conversation on a secure line. “The National Research Laboratory got back to me,” Adsii[1] began after the pleasantries, “what you found on VDP-762 is exotic matter. There’s no doubt about it. And it’s pretty interesting stuff! You wouldn’t happen to have more of it, would you?” “Not a lot, no,” Scott said, stretching the truth. VDP-762 had a lot of exotic matter, but Orbital Dynamics only collected a few liters of it. “Hm. Ok, well, the NRL would really like to get their hands on more of it because- well- it’s really weird.” “How weird,” Scott asked. “Ok, uh, our elemental chart is organized not just by mass, but by the number of protyles the element has, right?” “Right,” Scott confirmed. “If I remember my schooling, element 1 is propellium, and it has one protyle. The other elements are grouped relative to it. Hexagen, for instance, is element 2, with two protyles.” “Exactly,” Adsii said. “This stuff is- it has no protyles. It is effectively element zero- you should name it, by the way since you discovered it. Oh, ok, uh, according to the report, sometimes it does have protyles and sometimes it doesn’t.” “Sometimes? What does that mean,” Scott asked. “Uh, when you use a modulating current,” Adsii tried to explain as he skimmed the report, “the direction of the electrion flow can affect the nucleus. A positive flow somehow increases the protyles- they appear out of nowhere- until the exotic matter mimics a stable form of element 115. A negative flow reduces the protyle count back to zero, but it still gains electrions. With no electric flow, it sheds protyles and electrions[2] until it reaches equilibrium. And in both cases, once the exotic matter has reached its uh, ‘maximum or minimum charge state,’ the stuff keeps absorbing electric charge. And the weirdest thing is that they don’t know where that energy goes. “Anyway, as element zero, it is chemically inert. It should be a gas, like, uh, like xenon, but it’s solid at experimental equilibrium. So, like I said, that stuff is weird. When you guys acquire more, please send some our way.” * Several days later, the landing site finally emerged from darkness, and Frolie got to work. He used Oasis’ Payload Maneuvering Vehicle to pluck the landing system’s forward landing gear assemblies from their storage spot and attached them to Finch’s radial docking ports. Once he verified that the systems were connected, he returned the PMV to its perch and topped off Finch’s resources. With that completed, he, Scott, and the three tourists boarded Finch once more. Scott gingerly separated Finch’s command module from the rest of the spacecraft, translated over to the landing section, and docked with the tank cluster to complete the Finch Transporter for the first time. The crew took their time checking out its systems and made sure that Finch was ready for its historic journey. “Finch, you are clear to depart Oasis,” Frobert Kerman, the Flight Director at Orbital Dynamics Mission Control, radioed. “Just a reminder, the engine module’s solar arrays aren’t retractable.” Scott cursed because he’d forgotten about that and had already deployed the arrays. Fortunately, Finch had fuel cells as well. “Well, I guess we’ll be scraping off the bottom arrays when we land,” he radioed back. “We have to get those designs updated.” Finch undocked from Oasis and primed its main engine for use. The spacecraft had 5.4 kilometers per second of delta-v- far more than it needed- but Orbital Dynamics wasn’t taking any chances on this trip. They especially didn’t want any mishaps since the media was watching their every move. After circularizing at periapsis, Scott executed a plane change and deorbit maneuver to reach their landing site- just as he’d practiced in the simulator many times before. He was nervous but he reminded himself that astronauts had performed deorbiting and landing many times before. But he also knew that this was the first time that a commercial space company had made the attempt. After the deorbit burn, he only needed a small correction burn a few minutes later to ensure that he arrived on target. “Altitude thirty thousand and dropping,” Frobert radioed. “Looking good, Finch. You are go for landing!” “Gear down, altitude eleven thousand and falling,” Scott radioed back a few seconds later. “Braking Burn 1 completed. Stand by for Braking Burn 2… Less than 18 kilometers to Bartfen’s Obsession… velocity 499 by negative 104… Main engine is nominal… Awww mulch! Overshot, but it’s not too bad… Coming back around… Altitude 4126, speed 194 by negative 104… Okay, there we go… Stand by for Braking Burn 3… Altitude 600… Going horizontal… Billstown in site… Altitude 90... 80… 70… 60… 50… 40… 30… picking up some dust…. Touchdown!” Everyone in Finch cheered for several seconds. Over the celebrations, Scott radioed, “Mission Control, the Finch has landed!” In all the excitement, Scott stopped worrying about the underside solar panels, which flew off in all directions as they crunched into the mϋnar dirt. On Jool 10, 2002, the first kermanned commercial spacecraft to land on the Mϋn taxied over to Billstown, the first base on Kerbin’s closest natural satellite. KSP originally wanted to build a series of Mϋnar Ground Modules during Project Mϋnflight, but budget restrictions resulted in Bill Kerman designing a single module that was built from spare M.O.L.E. hardware. The outpost arrived on the Mϋn over a decade and a half ago, where it landed near Lowlander 2. It was first crewed by Bill and Jeb during Mϋnflight 5 but KSP later moved it to a region known as Bartfen’s Obsession. During the Shuttle Launch System era, Kongress finally approved funding for Billstown to receive expansion via the MGM system. But KSP launched the additional modules on Shuttle instead of using the retired Lindor rockets. Billstown received several crews over the years and served as a training complex for deep space missions, but a year before Shuttle retired, KSP stopped sending astronauts to the old complex. So, when Orbital Dynamics approached KSP about visiting Billstown, they were delighted to see how it had fared. Scott exited Finch first, followed by Frolie, and after hooking up the umbilical, the two stood on the surface of the Mϋn in awe and silence. “Hey, are you guys going to say something,” Frobert asked. “Oh, uh, right,” Scott answered, snapping his mind back to reality. “Uh… We stand on the shoulders of giants. We’ve taken the first steps for commercial space, but they’re certainly not going to be the last. As for myself, this is one giant leap!” Scott leapt into the negligible mϋnar air. The low gravity enabled him to jump rather high. The whole stunt was caught on camera- including his ungraceful landing. Afterwards, Scott planted the Orbital Dynamics flag, and gave it a quick salute. “Let’s head inside before the tourists go crazy,” Scott said. The pair entered Billstown’s airlock, cycled through, and entered the main module. Unlike their visit to Skybase a few years ago, Billstown had no odd smells from rotting insulation. Instead, the base was in good condition. The batteries were fully charged, and the fuel cells still operated- though not at peak efficiency. None of the modules had any leaks either. The only casualties were the botany module’s plants- they had long since died off from neglect. After making their report to KSP, the space agency cleared the three tourists to explore the base. Navin and Pacal headed to the botany module and began cleaning out the dead plants and turning the soil, while Tedsel took a nap in “Miss Piggy II.” Frolie had a look at Billstown’s science module, and Scott hopped into the rover’s driver’s seat. “We should build a rover like this,” Scott thought aloud. “Actually, I have some ideas on that,” Frolie responded over the intercom. Scott looked around. Apparently, someone had rewired the rover’s intercom to be always on. “When we first moved into Welcome Back Island,” Frolie continued, “I made some drawings of a boxy-looking pressurized rover called ‘Buffalo,’ but I shelved it. But the trip here got me thinking about it again… You know, these modules were derived from the old Mark One Laboratory Extension that was flown as part of the K-20 Kerbal Soar’s service module. Seeing them up close also gives me an idea… What if we made the body of the rover modular so we could use it as a base as well? That could keep our costs down. We'd essentially make our own Billstown, but modernized.” “Hm,” Scott thought. “That’s a good idea. Once we get the water mining set up, we’ll definitely need to build that Buffalo rover and base.” * Three days later, after the Mϋn rotated until Billstown was under the station’s orbital path, Scott, Frolie, and the three tourists disembarked Billstown and hopped back into the Finch for their trip back to Oasis. Scott backed away from the base before lighting the horizontal rockets for takeoff. Several hundred meters above the ground, he rotated Finch vertically and lit the main engine for the boost into orbit. A day later, they arrived back at Oasis. After Frolie returned the forward landing gear, Scott undocked the Finch command module from the landing system and connected it back to the OCTV. As soon as Oasis reached periapsis, Finch departed and boosted to escape the Mϋn’s sphere of influence. Four days later, they returned to Homestead Waystation, boarded the newly relaunched Ascension, and returned home. The celebrations lasted for days. - [1] Named after @adsii1970 [2] Protyles and electrions were early proposed names for protons and electrons, respectively.

Mk33 1.2.1 is now available: - Added Waterfall effects support- thanks @Rodger! - The Mk-33 Nose Cone is now animated and can open and close like its docking nose cone cousin.