Angelo Kerman

Yeah, still going. The idea is that you build the dock in orbit via either stock EVA construction or with Extraplanetary Launchpads.

It's been awhile, the burnout from work is strong with this one, but I've finally managed to do something this week that I've wanted for a long time: That's fifteen parts total, including the probe core. Obviously it will be more if I include lights and such, but 15 is a pretty good part count for a basic shipyard.

It's been awhile, the burnout from work is strong with this one, but I've finally managed to do something this week that I've wanted for a long time: That's fifteen parts total, including the probe core. Obviously it will be more if I include lights and such, but 15 is a pretty good part count for a basic shipyard.

Those are from my Deep Space Exploration Vehicles mod.

In that case, as time passes, parts will lose MTBF until they reach 0. When that happens, they'll break and need repairs.

Chapter 18 Space fans had several missions to watch and celebrate over the course of a month. First, Orbital Dynamics’ record number of tourists traveling into orbit inspired even more tourists to visit Homestead Hotel. Ascension broke her own record by flying forty-six kerbals into orbit on the same flight- 43 tourists and a flight crew of 3. The tourists enjoyed 3 days of microgravity before Ascension returned home and picked up 19 more tourists for their turn at the hotel. All those paying customers filled Orbital Dynamics’ bank account with Funds- more than enough to move to the next phase of operations once they moved their asteroid into place. * With so many tourists flying to Homestead Hotel, the vonKerman Space Agency couldn’t help but fly a couple of their own tourists to Drakken Palast to see if they could entice others to visit their old space station. Kallisto 2 launched into orbit with Sophia vonKerman (PLT), Karl vonKerman (ENG), and two tourists. The flight was uneventful, but when they arrived at Drakken Palast, things got much worse. When the space plane tried to dock, its docking magnets wouldn’t engage! Worse, when Kallisto 1 tried to undock so that Kallisto 2 could use their port, they couldn’t undock! Their deteriorating situation immediately caught the attention of media outlets around the world. Their space news coverage quickly soared; they hadn’t seen such public interest in space since the final flight of Space Shuttle Freedom. As Kallisto 2 floated nearby, the vonKerman Space Agency immediately responded by launching a Drakken Kargo ship to the space station. Within hours, the cargo ship arrived at Drakken Palast. It too could not dock at any of the available ports! But the vonKermans anticipated this situation and equipped the cargo ship with a mini grabbing unit. After arming the grabber, the Drakken Kargo ship latched onto the station. Finally, their wait was over- or so they thought. Kallisto 2 approached the cargo ship’s forward docking port- part of a spacer that Drakken Kargo brough to make it easier for Kallisto shuttles to dock- and still couldn’t dock! By then, the vonKermans knew that something was seriously wrong. But they had one more trick up their sleeve. The cargo ship opened its payload bay to reveal the Notfallgreifer- Emergency Grabber in Kerman. The Notfallgreifer exited the payload bay and latched onto Kallisto 2. Then the shuttle used Notfallgreifer’s second grabber to latch onto Drakken Palast. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. A short spacewalk later, everyone was aboard the station- except for Karl. The engineer stepped outside and replaced critical components on the open docking ports to get them working again. After a few hours, Sophia and the tourists returned to Kallisto 2, which detached from the station, deorbited, and returned to Darude successfully. Later, after the Drakken Kargo ship moved to the repaired ventral port, Karl stepped outside again to manually free Kallisto 1, the mini shuttle used the Notfallgreifer to reposition, Karl got to work once more... He disassembled the spacer unit brought by the cargo ship, welded it to the orbital module, and then re-attached its docking port. After re-pressurizing the orbital module and verifying the welds, he took the docking hardware over to the broken dorsal port. As before, Karl pulled the broken port and installed the new one, repressurized the module, and verified that the seals were intact. Finally, he packed up the Drakken Kargo with the trash before returning inside. Around the world, the public cheered at their triumph. Despite their limited budget, the vonKermans demonstrated that they were still able to innovate and could respond to potentially disastrous situations in space with creative solutions. And Karl’s work cemented the vonKermans’ place in history as the pioneers of orbital construction. * Improvements to the drill outputs enabled AstroTug to switch on two more of its ISRU converters and receive a five-fold increase in propellant production. They could activate a third ISRU, but only for a limited time as the drills wouldn’t be able to keep up. The tug chewed up VDP-762’s innards and extracted the liquid fuel and oxidizer from the ore that it needed. Orbital Dynamics’ science team still didn’t know what the gold veins were, and the probes that they sent simply didn’t have the technology to fully analyze it. If they wanted answers, they’d have to send a sample return mission- or better yet, a crewed mission with an advanced laboratory. But that would have to wait until they re-positioned the asteroid. At their current rate of processing, engineers calculated that AstroTug should fill its tanks within 2-3 days depending upon yield rates. That gave plenty of time to prepare for the first reposition maneuver that was currently scheduled when the craft reached the descending node in 32 days. But the company wanted to aim for a maneuver on the ascending node if possible, giving them two burns per orbit. Even though an ascending node burn was less efficient, it enabled them to reposition the asteroid sooner, and that would appease the eagerly awaiting tourists. Seanlock assured the Board that so long as it was safe to do so, they would try for the ascending node… A couple of days later, ODMC verified that AstroTug had indeed filled its tanks full- but it slipped past the ascending node and was out of position to conduct a burn. The company had to wait another 30 days before making its next move. * On paper, it looked great. The Sunraker- Drax Aerospace’s answer to Orbital Dynamics’ Mk-33 SSTO- looked like a majestic space whale that could deliver up to 34 tonnes into low orbit using advanced rocket-based combined cycle engines that could switch from jet engine mode to rocket mode. In reality though, things didn’t work out so well. Engineers couldn’t achieve the performance required for orbital flight using the RBCC engines. Worse, the conventionally powered prototype crashed spectacularly, and Drax Aerospace had to pay for damages to KSC. Forced to redesign Sunraker, Drax engineers went through several design iterations including adding a crew module and trying various tank configurations and engine combinations- including at one point, an atomic rocket. Unfortunately, KSC outright rejected that design. Frustrated with their progress, Drax Kerman personally “encouraged” his engineers to come up with a workable solution that could deliver 34 tonnes into low orbit from the runway. After many panic-stricken nights, they finally settled upon a design that utilized six revolutionary J-61 “Starwasher” combined cycle scramjet engines to propel Sunraker from the runway to about Mach 5, four uprated KS-25B “Rainbird” engines that were pushed to their design limits for the dash to orbit, and a single T-1C “Snow Dart” cryogenic aerospike for orbital maneuvering. Despite pushing current technology to its limits and introducing the scramjets, Sunraker could only deliver 26.5 tonnes to orbit and still have delta-v to maneuver and deorbit, and it only had room for six kerbals. Drax was disappointed, but the engineers pointed out that their SSTO delivered 6 tonnes more than the Mk-33, it had 80% more internal cargo volume, it could operate from a conventional runway, and it only required 1 pilot to fly, so it effectively delivered as many passengers as the Mϋnraker. That satisfied Drax enough to let the Sunraker engineering team keep their jobs- as long as they could turn their paper rocket into a reality. Now they just had to work with Kerbodyne’s OPT Propulsion Science Division to create those scramjets. They looked good on paper, but they needed Kerbodyne to actually build them… * Developing Sunraker would not happen overnight- they had to unlock expensive tech tree nodes research new technologies- so Drax Aerospace had to rely on Mϋnraker 1 for the time being. But for what they had in mind the orbiter was perfect for the job. The former KSC orbiter- what would have become Curiosity (OV-205) had KSP not cancelled it- rocketed into a 300.18 km by 300.06 km orbit without incident. As with nearly every Shuttle Launch System flight, Mϋnraker 1 retained its external tank until just after its orbital insertion burn. Unlike previous flights though, this external tank lacked a deorbit kit. Instead, it had a tank extension containing special hardware. The flight crew jettisoned the tank’s aft aeroshell to unveil its large docking port, and then deployed the orbiter’s payload as ordered by Drax Mission Control. Not long after deployment, DMC realized that the payload lacked half of its RCS thrusters! Without waiting for DMC, Manuela- the shuttle commander- calmly warmed up Mϋnraker 1’s RCS thrusters. With the external tank still attached, she delicately maneuvered the orbiter and docked with the payload, and everyone at DMC sighed with relief. After performing several checks, Manuela separated the orbiter from the tank and maneuvered away from it. DMC directed the complex to deploy its solar arrays, which had no trouble soaking in the sun’s light. Satisfied with the results, Drax Mission Control publicly declared the Drax Fuel Depot- the world’s first commercial fuel depot- open for business. Mϋnraker 1 reentered an orbit later- and found itself 400km away from KSC when it went subsonic- but it had enough jet fuel for the trek home. Clearly, the shuttle crews needed additional training and practice… * Given the international space community’s switch from Duna to Laythe and their largely supportive role in Project Laythe, the mcKerman Kindom’s public voted overwhelmingly to fund missions to Duna, a planet that the nation was practically obsessed with. With the Duna launch window nearly open, the Ministry of Space intended to test as many technologies as possible before sending a kermanned expedition on the next transfer window. To that end, they launched a prototype space station and a prototype lander into orbit. Both spacecraft used conventional propulsion; their relay satellites and science probe still needed to evaluate their respective atomic rocket designs before the Ministry of Space committed to one of them… As their orbiting fleet proverbially set sail over the course of two days, the public cheered as each vessel performed its Trans-Duna Injection Burn. Then 3 days later, the nation practically ground to a halt during the evening as the last vessel in the fleet, Duna Basecamp, left Kerbin’s gravitational Sphere of Influence. The fervor died down shortly thereafter; nobody really cared about the fleet traversing the void save for MoS Mission Control and a few dedicated enthusiasts. * “Two minutes,” Frobert Kerman said calmly. In reality, he, like many at Orbital Dynamics Mission Control, were feeling tense. The minutes passed by agonizingly slow. “And we have ignition. Good burn, stable thrust vector…” ODMC’s personnel cheered. With stable burns, it was a matter of time before they could align the asteroid’s orbital plane. “…And shutdown. 318 meters per second to go. Onboard computer has plotted the next maneuver burn in… 7 hours, 10 minutes…” Seven hours only partially filled the tug’s fuel tanks, and the ascending node maneuver was significantly costlier in delta-v, so the tug only performed a small maneuver. But in another 26 days, AstroTug only needed to make a 300 m/sec burn… Three months later, AstroTug completed its orbital plane change maneuvers. The onboard computer had to adjust its thrust level a few times to compensate for an unexplained a shift in the center of mass, but at last, VDP-762 orbited in the same plane as the Mϋn.

Hey folks, I've moved your posts over to this thread, which appears to be for KSPBurst.

@MirrorsareHard154@linuxgurugamer I've moved the most relevant posts (the log file URL and LGG's analysis) to this thread:

I did a nighttime launch of Ascension, my Mk-33 configured as a spaceliner: Ascension is bringing 28 tourists to Homestead Hotel:

Have you considered exporting a generic model with transforms without any renderers? I did that for Blueshift, at one point. Anyway, your generic warp transform could be like: And then in your config file: MODEL { model = Squad/Parts/Engine/liquidEnginePoodle_v2/LqdEnginePoodle_v2Squad/parts/ } MODEL { model = TrekDrive/Parts/Generic/genericWarpEngine } That might enable you to port your plugin and effects to any parts desired. Anyway, I love the artwork you did for the Constitution class!

I think the mod is finally stable enough to move it to Releases. Thanks to everybody for providing their feedback! Special thanks to @Rocketology for his feedback and putting up with the mods bugs during his live stream. Be sure to check him out!

Glad you like the mod. Buffalo's diving system is the precursor to SunkWorks. It works, but not as well as the SunkWorks diving system. I believe that if you have Buffalo and SunkWorks installed, then Buffalo will be using the SunkWorks plugin instead of Buffalo's. It's good that you are making part configs for yourself, that's something I encourage and do myself in my own game. Thanks to KSP being so moddable, that is easy to do. Thanks for sharing your configs!

EVA Repairs 1.3.3 is now available: Changes - Fixed NRE that occurs upon app startup - Fixed issue where debug buttons didn't notice when players updated the EVA Repairs difficulty settings.

Not sure what is going on here, did you crash a space anomaly into Kerbin?

I haven't figured out why that happens yet, but it might be because the warp coils don't realize that they aren't the active vessel. I haven't tried Blueshift with USI parts. For graviolium, you'd need the Stardust Graviolium Collector, but that is found in Kerbal Flying Saucers. For Blueshift, you can mine the asteroids for Graviolium- and Dres.

Not sure why you are having issues. I just performed an entry, descent, and landing today without any problems, and this is in JNSQ. I used Atmospheric Autopilot without issues. Meanwhile, Mk-33 1.1.1 is now available: Changes - Fixed issue where the Mk-33 Krew Module wasn't able to dock with the Clamp-O-Tron docking port (or any size1 port).

EVA Repairs 1.3.2 is now available: Changes - Added new Starting MTBF difficulty option. The Starting MTBF ranges from 600 hrs (the default) all the way to 6000 hrs. - Added new Debug Mode difficulty option. This is for convenience of testing. - Upgrading the R&D building will improve MTBF for future launches. - Fixed issue where parts could suddenly fail upon switching them back to an active state after long periods of dormancy.

I finished my Orbital Dynamics Mission Control diorama: This Mission Control is for my fictional space company called Orbital Dynamics.

Chapter 17 This ran a bit long, but then again, it's been awhile... Frustrated with the information leak that let Drax Aerospace land a water miner on the Mϋn before them, Orbital Dynamics locked down all information regarding Asteroid VDP-762 while engineers worked around the clock to build components for the AstroTug. But Orbital Dynamics had another payload to fly first… Launching into the orbital plane of asteroid VDP-762 taxed Skyranger’s delta-v and ate into its payload capacity. The crew- Scott (CDR), Jeslong (PLT), and Frolie (ENG) quickly deployed their payload- the Asteroid Sampler. Thirty-three minutes later, Asteroid Sampler made its transfer burn to reach VDP-762, and another nine hours later, it made a course correction burn to end up next to the asteroid. It had another five days until it rendezvoused with the asteroid. Meanwhile, with little propellant remaining, Skyranger waited on orbit for a couple of days until the space center lined up with its orbit. Given the inclination and the planet's rotation, Scott opted to aim for KSC and, if necessary, land at the space center before refueling before heading back to Welcome Back Island. Unfortunately, their navigation was off, Skyranger missed KSC by 115 km, and Welcome Back Island was 100 km westward. But with the Mk-33’s jet engines, it was a simple matter to fly back to the island and land- though everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Skyranger touched down and taxied into its hangar. * Three days later, on Itzcoatl 22, 2000, Asteroid Sampler “landed” on VDP-762 next to the Beagle Asteroid Probe and deployed its drills. When the Sampler Team attempted to extract ore, a software glitch of some sort prevented that from happening. The engineers tried restarting the game resetting the control software, but that didn’t work either. They began reading through KSP logs the drilling software until they found configs adding resources from CRP that were removed that were causing NREs the line of code causing the drills to break, deleted the CRP configs fixed the error, and then uploaded the patch a day later. Once they verified the upload, the Sampler Team restarted KSP cycled through the drill startup procedure once more. To their delight, the software patch fixed the issues, and Asteroid Sampler’s ore tank began filling. They let the probe acquire 10 units before shutting off the drills and running the ISRU. Fortunately, the converter had no problems extracting liquid fuel and oxidizer from the ore and filling the probe’s tanks. Two more test cycles definitively proved that Asteroid Sampler could extract useful resources from VDP-762. As a result of their accomplishment, Sara personally congratulated the team on a job well done. That afternoon, Orbital Dynamics filed a mining claim for asteroid VDP-762, citing the Prior Appropriation clause of the International Outer Space Accords, just like Drax Aerospace did with Drax Crater... * With VDP-762 legally in their possession, Orbital Dynamics needed to turn on Asteroid Sampler’s ISRU periodically to demonstrate useful resource extraction- or pay a claimant fee by no later than Ahuit 1 to retain possession of the asteroid. But the next launch would begin securing their hold on the asteroid. Skyranger launched into an inclined orbit with one of the most complicated payloads that the company had designed: AstroTug. Taking up nearly all of the Mk-33’s cargo bay and almost all its fuel to launch, AstroTug was a large, self-contained, automated drilling platform, complete with holding tanks for ore and ISRU converters that transformed the ore into usable propellants. It couldn’t fly to Asteroid VDP-762 on its own, however. Skyranger waited another nine hours for its orbit to line up with Welcome Back Island- or as close as it could considering their dangerously low delta-v and orbital mechanics. After burning all but a scant few units of its propellant, Skyranger deorbited and landed back at the island. The next series of flights brought up modular propellant tanks for AstroTug, but due to the propellant densities of liquid fuel and oxidizer, and Skyranger’s maximum payload capacity of 20.5 tonnes- more like 10 with safety margins to the inclined orbit- they could only be partially filled. While the central core tank flew without issues, the first side-tank had several problems as Skyranger struggled to achieve the correct launch trajectory and once more had precious little delta-v with which to deorbit and land. The crew waited 2 days in orbit to get a reasonable landing corridor, and even then, they had a long flight to return home. Playing it safe, the next side tank delivery flight carried no propellant to give Skyranger extra margin. It helped. Skyranger needed 730m/sec of delta-v to make the required plane change due to navigation errors during liftoff, but she rendezvoused with AstroTug successfully and delivered the second side tank without incident. Forty-five minutes later, the Mk-33 deorbited and returned home safely. The last flight brought up the tug’s propulsion module, which sported a single KR-84 Ocelot motor. The Mk-33 skid across the sky as the crew struggled to get onto the right orbital path. They made orbit, but Mabo had a 475 m/sec plane change maneuver to make afterward. Thankfully, the rendezvous burns were slight by comparison. The delta-v margins were dangerously low, so the crew took their time approaching AstroTug, and locked out Skyranger's mid tanks for emergency margins. Skyranger rotated the module out of its payload bay and handled the docking. After a 3-day wait, the Mk-33 deorbited and landed home safely. Everyone breathed a bit easier. The tug was fully assembled at last, but it needed some help getting to its target… * After waiting for several weeks, MIDAS-E finally embarked on its voyage to the outer solar system. The Kerbin Departure Stage burned first and dropped away, followed by the Arrow 5 Upper Stages. While the twin Arrow 5 Upper Stages headed out of Kerbin’s Sphere of Influence, the Kerbin Departure Stage was stuck in high orbit- but its reserve propellant was enough to deorbit it. It fell back to Kerbin two hours later and burned up. The prototype and the AUS did their jobs well; MIDAS-E had more than enough propellant to circularize its orbit between Jool and Lindor in another four years… * The Ministry of Space had been launching tanker craft since just after the very first landing on the Mϋn. Their Arrow 3B delivered the first Arrow Transfer Vehicle into orbit to refuel a Duna 1B upper stage that became the Duna Minmus Tanker, which in turn refueled the first Mϋnflight to Minmus. Arrow Transfer Vehicles and their derivatives continued flying throughout the Mϋnflight era to refuel mϋn-bound spacecraft and into the Shuttle era to resupply Starlab. They continue to fly in the present day, delivering propellant, important cargo, and scientific payloads into orbit. So, when Orbital Dynamics quietly approached the Ministry of Space about delivering propellant to AstroTug, they were absolutely delighted. In building their new tankers, the Ministry of Space took the opportunity to upgrade their Arrow 5 launch vehicle. They replaced the S2-33 Clydesdale solid rocket motors with karbon filament-wound SRB-5 Photon solid rocket boosters. Originally created by the vonKerman Space Agency for their Photon heavy lift launch vehicle- which was going to be their answer to the Kerman States’ Shuttle Launch System- the project was cancelled due to budget issues. The Photon SRBs were the only product to survive the budget cuts. But with no launch vehicle slated to use them, the empty casings languished in a storage hangar for years. With the Arrow 5 upgrades, they had a new purpose. In addition to the lighter and more powerful solids, the mcKermans replaced the second stage’s pair of venerable RE-I5 Skippers with a single KR-84 Ocelot and replaced the third stage’s RE-L10 Poodle engine with a single RE-10J Wolfhound. For the tanker configuration, engineers simply removed the fairing and added a conical fuel tank topped by a shielded docking port. The changes ensured that the Arrow 5 Tanker entered orbit with most of its propellant- even with the inclined orbit. After waiting for AstroTug’s orbital plane to rotate under the launch site, the Arrow 5B lifted off the pad and rocketed into the sky. The Photon solids jettisoned right on time, as did the propulsion module- though the parachutes failed to deploy, and the module crashed. The new Oscelot motor worked as expected, and the new Wolfhound finished orbital insertion of the tanker. Five and a half hours later, the tanker arrived at AstroTug. Despite the high orbit inclination, the tanker arrived with nearly three-quarters of its propellant load- enough to fuel up the center tank. Since Orbital Dynamics bought two Arrow 5B tanker flights, and the first one worked, the second flight launched a couple of days later and nearly topped off AstroTug’s fuel tanks. That gave it more than enough delta-v to rendezvous with and latch onto VDP-762. Forty-five minutes later, AstroTug made a 1,530 m/sec burn- half its propellant- into a transfer orbit towards VDP-762. A day later, it made a small correction burn, but it still had another 4 days to rendezvous with the asteroid… * After 40 days in space, Season 2 of Space Kamp wrapped up in orbit and the cast and crew piled back into Ascension for the trip home. With almost two dozen Mk-33 flights under their belt, Ascension’s return was uneventful. Though they were sworn to secrecy, Kendos (PLT), Willorf (ENG), and Maxbret (SCI) eagerly accepted their offer to join Orbital Dynamics. Mabo immediately started them on the company’s astronaut orientation. The cast and crew deplaned to allow the next flight crew- and a whopping thirty-three tourists to board the SSTO after the ground crew prepped the ship for its next mission. A day later, Ascension lifted off the pad once more and headed to Homestead Hotel… * Bill looked out beyond the confines of the crew access arm at the Ministry of Space’s launchpad, then gazed at the sky. He looked around again and sighed. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but deep down, he just knew. He motioned to Jeb to switch to the private channel. “The sky is… different,” Bill said. Jeb turned and looked at his old friend. “Huh?” “The sky is different,” Bill repeated. “It’s… not sure how to describe it… more vivid. And this launch pad. It’s not like it used to be. The design is different. It’s like what I said about Starlab. The KSP modules used to be off-white. Then they were gray.” Jeb reached up to scratch his receding hairline, and then stopped himself when he remembered that he had his helmet on. “You’re kidding, right? The modules have always been gray,” Jeb said. “This is the same pad design as when Phoenix Aerospace first created it. And the sky? Same as always.” Bill shook his head. “No, it isn’t-“ “Buddy, you keep talking like that, and the doctors will ground you,” Jeb warned. “You want to go to Laythe? Then keep quiet about that mulch. You want to end up like Gerrim?” “Gerrim injured her arm, Jeb, not her mind. And I’m fine. I’m just saying that the SAVE looks different. It feels different, somehow. Like it’s been- I don’t know- upgraded with new features, like, a… native alarm clock app...” "A what?" “If you two want to go sightseeing, all you have to do is ride that rocket next to you,” Gene broke into the private channel and chided. Bill froze. Did Gene hear their conversation? “You heard the General,” Jeb said, breaking the silence. “Let’s go upstairs.” * Phoenix Aerospace’s Crew Demo flight was originally scheduled for two months later, but the medical emergency couldn’t be resolved in orbit with the current technology. It was a good learning experience as KSC tried to improvise, but it was time to bring Gerrim home. Given the difficulties with Phoenix Aerospace's automation systems, KSP insisted on having one of their own pilots fly the mission, and Jeb was the best they had. “Feels like old times,” Jeb yelled over the thundering rockets as the modernized Edna booster launched Firebird, a modernized derivative of the K-24 Kerbal Return Vehicle- itself derived from the K-20 KerbalSoar- that Bill and Jeb had flown many times. The launch went flawlessly, with the Edna Jettisoning its side boosters on time for a landing on their barges, dropping off the core stage for a fiery reentry, and finally, separating its upper stage from Firebird so that the space plane could finish circularizing its orbit. The launch ended up in a 116.6 km by 128.9 km orbit. The crew took several minutes to run through their post-launch checklists. A few minutes later, they were orbiting the night side of Kerbin. Bill took a quick look out the window before returning to the work on his laptop. “I was out at the Boneyard the other day,” Jeb said, referring to the retirement home for old spacecraft. “It was sad seeing all the K-20s and shuttles lined up. I miss the days of blasting off to the mϋns, not sure if we’d make it there and back. Now all we do is go spinning around Kerbin. I tell you, Laythe can’t happen soon enough… You ever miss the old days?” Bill felt a moment of vertigo as his senses adjusted to the microgravity. To steady himself, he looked out the window. Then he gasped. What he saw wasn’t there a moment ago. My Squad, Bill thought to himself, it’s full of stars! “There are so many now,” he muttered. “Huh?” “Uh, so, uh, so many, uh, retired spacecraft,” Bill stammered. “The Shuttles were uh, retired before their time. Sure, they were showing signs of aging- Freedom especially since she was the first- but they still had a lot of life left in them. We should’ve kept flying them instead of retiring them and handing Shuttle flights over to Drax. That reminds me, is your ‘source still saying that Drax wants to fly six Mϋnrakers? That sounds like something that a secret agent’s evil genius villain would do.” “Manuela? No, she says that that Mk-33 from those Orbital Dynamics guys has them rethinking their whole strategy. They didn’t expect that SSTO to work, let alone so well. It’s making them look bad. That Mk-33 looks like a fun ride, though Mabo says it’s almost boring to fly. Anyway, I think they’re looking into a runway to orbit design.” “Ah. So, uh, are you two still dating?” Jeb sighed. “What? Oh. Uh, no... Manuela is great but uh, we don’t have a lot in common. We’re still friends, but I realized that I’m looking for someone…” “Closer to your age?” “…Yeah...” Jeb fell silent for a bit before continuing. He sighed. “I’m feeling old, Bill. I’m getting more tired these days. Some of the luster of flying has faded- though I think that’s more to do with spending a decade spinning around Kerbin. But after Laythe, I might take a desk job or retire…” * Ninety minutes after launch, Firebird arrived at Starlab. A few hours later, after the crew exchanged pleasantries and Gerrim briefed Bill on Starlab’s current condition, she said her tearful goodbyes to the crew and took her place in Firebird’s crew cabin. Not long after, Firebird departed, deorbited, and landed back at KSC. “I didn’t even need to use the jets,” Jeb remarked. * “AstroTug has arrived at VDP-762,” Neilming said at Orbital Dynamics Mission Control as he read the telemetry data. “AT is 84 meters from the target. Grappling claw has armed. AT is awaiting capture confirmation.” Seanlock Kerman gave the go ahead, and AstroTug aimed at the asteroid. Seanlock replaced Chadly as Resource Mission Manager after his predecessor leaked proprietary information about the Mϋn’s water content without permission. The research paper that Chadly published resulted in Drax Aerospace beating Orbital Dynamics to the Mϋn and becoming the first commercial space agency to extract water. “AT has targeted VDP-762’s center of mass,” Neilming continued. “Seventy meters and closing, AT is still targeting CoM… Relative velocity is 1.1 meters per second, crossing fifty meters… Thirty meters… Twenty… Claw has buried itself into the regolith… Capture! AT has captured VDP-762 on Moc 17, 2000 at 10:23:10 Universal Time. Current altitude is 3,903.3 kilometers.” Everyone in ODMC cheered. “Alright, settle down everybody,” Frobert Kerman, Flight Director for ODMC shouted after a couple of minutes. “We still have work to do.” The AstroTug team ran and verified the tug’s post-capture routines including shutting down the main engine, setting the reaction wheels to neutral, and turning off the RCS thrusters. With the checklist completed, the tug activated Stability Assist for station keeping, and the team watched the readouts for any excessive wobbling. “Smart Assist is causing excessive vibrations through the vehicle,” Neilming declared upon reading the telemetry. “AT switched to standard SAS. Star Tracker has acquired the Mun, and the onboard computer has computed Ascending and Descending Nodes. VDP-762 is an hour away from DN, but of course the vehicle’s tanks are showing 5 meters-per-second of delta-v currently available. “Vehicle is now attempting to orient the asteroid to the maneuvering orientation for a simulated engine burn. AT is successfully reorienting VDP-762… Asteroid has been successfully reoriented. Center of Thrust is in line with Center of Mass and the maneuver node within the acceptable error of margin.” More cheers went up in the ODMC, followed by Frobert calling for order. “Had we had sufficient propellant, we could make an engine burn. Very nice,” Seanlock praised. “Deploy the drills.” A few seconds later, Neilming confirmed the order. “AT confirms drills have deployed,” he said. “Excellent,” Seanlock said. “Go ahead with the converter startup sequence.” Neilming sent the commands to AstroTug, and it happily complied. First, it started its fuel cell and confirmed the expected positive flow of electric charge. Then it started both drills and reported a positive Ore flow rate of 0.1 units per second. Next, it started the Convert-O-Tron 125, and reported a 0.01 unit per second conversion rate. “Those numbers look low,” Scott said. “Not to worry,” Neilming responded, “we can increase output on the drills through a ModuleManager patch.” Scott thought for a few moments. “Sara, we just got a big payment for those tourists, can you spare some change for some tanker flights?” “Let me think on that,” Sara responded. “In the meantime, great job, team!”

Integrating with other mods has been problematic. I recently tried integrating KRASH but it had null ref exceptions so I ended up removing the wrapper. I'll have to look into a way to increase MTBF after the part has been created- it's baked into the part when you first load into the VAB/SPH.

OO, I didn't know there was an Episode 2! And I couldn't resist, I named the repair bot from EVA Repairs the T.H.O.M.P.B.E.R.R.Y.

I've been very busy modding, and am in the process of updating my game to the latest KSP (for the last time!). Hard to imagine but this save started in KSP 1.8.1, and soon it'll be 1.12.2... Anyway, I have some more screenshots to take before I can post the next chapter.

EVA Repairs 1.3.0 is now available: New Part - T-800 Recharging Station: This small storage cabinet can dock a T-800 Repair Bot inside. It also doubles a small radially attached service bay. Changes - Removed ability for probe cores to fail. Game testing shows that they fail too early for interplanetary missions, especially since players are likely to forget to hibernate the probe. - Deployable landing gears and legs will only lose MTBF if they are retracting or extending.

Kerbal Flying Saucers 0.6.5 is now available: - By request, the Flapjack now has a more Restock-alike texture option. You can switch between original textures and Restock textures in the VAB/SPH.

EVA Repairs 1.2.5 is now available: Changes - Added new TECH_UNLOCK_BONUS config node that specifies which nodes will provide a starting reliability bonus. This config node makes it possible to support non-stock tech trees. - Removed hard-coded stock tech-unlock bonus nodes and moved them to the TECH_UNLOCK_BONUS config nodes found in BaselineConfig. - Fixed issue where probe cores that hibernate on warp were still losing MTBF while timewarping. One of the issues that came up during @Rocketology's stream is that a base MTBF of 600hrs is too short for missions beyond cic-minmar orbit- especially if you leave your probe cores, converters, drills, and reaction wheels running. We're working on some new mechanics to improve MTBF as technology improves. I also have another part to make- a proper storage box for the repair bot- so expect another update in a couple of days...