Angelo Kerman

I finished the exterior of my Mk-33 Krew Module and successfully tested the hatches and extendible docking tube: This week I'll be working on the IVA. It seats 16. The Krew Module is the last of the planned Mission Modules: I'm still on track for a mid-summer release

Derp! That static charge is a doozy.

Lol, yeah.

Chapter 23 The Lindor 5 was the largest, most powerful, and most expensive rocket ever built. The Kerbal Space Program had the budget for 4 Lindor flights before Kongress would evaluate the project and decide to either continue funding or cancel the program. Lindor had to work or the vonKermans were sure to land first and Kongress would pull funding. Losing a crew on a maiden flight was a worse fate, so KSC loaded up the first Lindor with 7 Pulsar communications satellites and rolled it out to KSC’s brand new Pad B. The satellites would improve data transmissions between Kerbin and the Mun and even reach Minmus. Lindor needed 7 new KE-1 “Mastodon” engines- 5 in the massive 5-meter first stage and 1 in each side booster- just to get off the ground. The Mastodons had better sea level performance than the Mainsail but worse vacuum thrust and cost nearly twice as much. It was the price to pay for rushed development. A minute and 23 seconds after liftoff, the side boosters dropped away, leaving the massive first stage to carry onward for another minute and six seconds. The decoupler and separatrons fired next, discarding the first stage and revealing five Skipper motors mounted to the 5-meter second stage. They lit up and burned for another 3 minutes, nearly placing the Duna 1B upper stage and its cargo into orbit. More separatrons and another decoupler fired to back the second stage away from the third and final stage. From there, the Duna 1B entered a 109km by 118km parking orbit around Kerbin. After performing status checks, the stage departed low orbit and burned for an 80,000km staging orbit- nearly to the Mun! Four days later, it circularized its orbit, and five days after that, it set up a resonance orbit, expending nearly all its propellant. With only 25 m/s of delta-v remaining, the stage would never return home with its current loadout, but every 25 days it would release a Pulsar satellite to build out the network. KSC had their Mun rocket. Now they just had to beat the vonKermans. *** The vonKermans fired the first salvo in the form of their Libelle munar lander, followed six and a half days later by a refueling tanker. After a rendezvous and quick refueling, Libelle burned for the Mun. Two days into its flight, the crasher stage engine’s throttle stuck open! Kontrol quickly closed the fuel tank values to stop the engine from firing, but it altered its orbit to impact with the Mun. Two days later, after careful fuel tank management, Libelle entered a 3500km by 8906km orbit. A day later, another Drakken Tanker lifted off, headed straight for the Mun, and entered its sphere of influence after a three-and-a-half-day journey. Another day later, the tanker rendezvoused with the Libelle and transferred propellant to its tanks-but someone forgot to close the fuel valve and the crasher stage engine fired again, putting the craft into a spin. Luckily, the stage ran out of fuel and the tanker managed to arrest its spin. After fixing the valve issue and transferring its remaining propellant, the tanker parted company and de-orbited. Yet another tanker launched a day later and took on fuel from the first tanker that refueled the Libelle. The older tanker promptly de-orbited. In between launches, the vonKermans also successfully repositioned the Libelle into a 183km by 191km low munar orbit. A fourth tanker launched six days after the third to refuel the awaiting third tanker. It had a two-day chase to catch up, but it topped off its tanks. Then three days later, Lagatha vonKerman (PLT), Donner vonKerman (ENG), and Leo vonKerman (SCI) took one last look at their Drakken booster before boarding it. Lagatha gave a salute for the cameras while rookie Kerbonaut Donner freaked out. Nonetheless, the crew boarded their ship and Drakken 6 successfully launched into orbit. *** Jeb lost the coin toss, and he was furious. He did not bother to watch Valentina (PLT), Gerrim (ENG), and Santrey (SCI) drive out to Pad A and ignored the TV as it showed them taking a ride up the launch tower elevator. He missed the dramatic shot of the crew boarding the Viking and the shift to a ground shot and then an aerial view of the enormous Lindor. But he could not escape the roar of the rocket as its engines ignited and it lumbered off the pad. His blood boiled. They were going to the Mun. Without him. The launch went flawlessly. The boosters dropped away first, then the massive first stage, followed minutes later by the payload shroud and the second stage. A 500 m/s burn put the third stage along with its precious cargo into a 118km by 121km parking orbit. Then seven minutes after Drakken 6 docked with its awaiting tug, Viking lit its Duna 1B for the second time and burned for the Mun. And twelve minutes later, Drakken 6 departed Low Kerbin Orbit as well. The race was on. *** Author’s note: This is how it played out: Each space agency could process one mission at a time. The time between launches was calculated as the cost of the vehicle divided by 10,000 to get the number of days. In the time it took to process and launch the Lindor, the vonKermans launched one Libelle munar lander, four tankers, and one Drakken. Each flight got one mulligan, whether through player error or BARIS mishap. After that, I let the chips fall where they may. Each phase of the mission was flown by hand unless done so before, in which case MechJeb was allowed. That meant the vonKermans got to use it but the Kerman States did not. A single Lindor mun rocket costs 472,847 Funds. A Libelle launch costs 73,027 Funds, one tanker costs 76,934 Funds, and a Drakken launch costs 71,024 Funds. The total for the Kerman States: 472,847 Funds; for the vonKerman Republic: 451,787 Funds.

Let's see just how far this rabbit hole goes... Way cool!

I hate it when rockets don't fly right. They looked so good on paper...

I finished up the Mk-33 landing gear testing:

Love Restock:

Bummer about the lost craft!

I'm delighted to hear that we'll get actual comets in game!

Woot! New Ariane 5 parts! New probes! And a comet mission? Does this mean I can retire this? Please say it is so! A proper comet (or comets plural) in game that we could explore and that didn't look like an asteroid would be truly awesome!

Chapter 22 Flush with funds from their windfall, KSC began to upgrade their facilities to support even bigger rockets and more launches. The project would take several months, during which KSC had a launch hiatus, and the vonKermans took advantage of their downtime. First, they launched a modified Drakken rocket that carried with it their first attempt to land on the Mun- the Schafer (“Sheppard” in the Kerman tongue). After delivery into orbit, the modified Drakken upper stage performed a deorbit maneuver. The vonKermans wanted to see if an upper stage could survive reentry, so they aimed for a landing spot near Darude. The probe core, tested on the Drakken LDEF, detected an engine overheat, and immediately commanded the engines to fire to slow down. Three attempts later, the main engine overheated and exploded, but the stage survived atmospheric entry. With careful management of the Vernier engine thrust, the stage made a low-speed impact into the ground. It survived and it would never fly again, but the experiment gave the vonKermans valuable data. A day later, another Drakken took to the skies. It shed its fairing to reveal its “payload” of fuel tanks and a docking port. The upper stage attained orbit, rendezvoused with the Schafer, and docked with the awaiting rover, all using automatic guidance. An hour later, Schafer was on its way to the Mun. Four days after that, Schafer entered the Mun’s sphere of influence, and within another 8 hours, the rover slowed down, dropped its transfer stage, and landed on the Mun, nearly on the far side. The vonKermans succeeded on delivering a small rover to the Mun on their first attempt, with far less resources than the Kerman States. Schafer zipped along the surface at a speedy 2 meters per second until it found an interesting mun stone to scan. Its science arm took several readings and transmitted the results back to Kontrol before the little rover drove over to the next interesting formation. After soaking up the sun’s rays and charging its batteries, Schafer scanned the crater and stored the results until its batteries recharged again. It transmitted the results and took more pictures for the vonKermans to publish. With nothing more to do, Schafer set out in search of a new biome to explore. Sadly, the rover flipped and damaged several parts including its scanning arm and several antennas, and that effectively ended its mission. But Schafer had fulfilled its primary purpose of reaching the Mun, driving around, and gathering science. It rolled uncontrolled for an hour and a half until Kontrol was finally able to contact the rover and lock its brakes. Several days later, the Darude Launch Complex launched their next Drakken rocket, this one hosting a new dedicated space tug. The craft struggled to attain orbit, but it made it with a third of its fuel remaining in the tug. Three weeks later, a modified Drakken “Sport” rocket launched with new mini side boosters to provide extra thrust and propellant. Soon after launch, the mini boosters dropped away, followed a couple minutes later by the usual jettison of the side boosters. The “Sport” showed another difference after jettisoning its lower stage: instead of an RK-7 “Kodiak” motor, the upper stage had a newer and more powerful RK-8 “Bear Claw” motor. The upgraded booster worked; the tanker arrived near its predecessor with just over half of its fuel remaining. The latest tug quickly docked with its older sister, took all its propellant, and undocked almost as quickly. The younger sibling deorbited via its RCS thrusters while a day later, the newer tug rendezvoused with Drakken 5 and docked. Devoid of any crew, Drakken 5 nonetheless had a mission to perform: orbit the Mun and return safely. Several days later, Drakken 5 entered a 148km by 145km munar orbit. The spacecraft spent one day and 10 orbits around the Mun before heading home. It exhausted all the Drakken Tug’s propellant in the process; vonKerman engineers took note and realized that they would need to refuel in munar orbit as well. After leaving the Mun’s sphere of influence, Drakken 5 separated from the tug. The capsule had a maneuver to perform while the tug slowed down slightly to ensure breakup upon reentry. Three days later, Drakken 5 seperated the orbital and service modules and hit the atmosphere. The first pass through the atmosphere cooked off nearly three quarters of the Drakken’s ablator, and the capsule ran out of electricity before it reached its 3,900 km apoapsis. It burned away the remaining ablator on its second trip through the atmosphere, but the heat shield held. Drakken 5’s chutes automatically deployed successfully, and the capsule landed safely in the eastern half of The Great Desert. The vonKermans were quite pleased that their craft could land intact from munar orbit, though they made a note to design a small power generator for use during the capsule ‘s landing. They even snagged a pair of World’s First Milestone awards, one for a flyby of the Mun, and another for returning home from munar orbit. Three weeks later, a Drakken Sport Improved launched from the Darude Launch Complex. The Improved model split the upper stage in two and incorporated elements of the Drakken Service Module to form a third stage. After depositing its payload- a small probe named Das Wanderer in orbit- the vonKermans sent a small tanker to refuel it. While it sat in orbit, Darude launched yet another pair of Drakken rockets, one carrying another Schafer rover, the other a tug, and sent them to the Mun. Twelve days later, its landing site emerged into the sun. Schafer 2 touched down successfully and ran its magnetometer experiments, checking various sites as it explored. With its primary target surveyed, Kontrol attempted the nearly 200km trek to the secondary site. Things were going well until the rover ran across a large crater that it couldn’t navigate. It flipped over and skidded to a stop, losing much of its equipment in the process. Still, it drove an impressive 47 kilometers. A day later, Das Wanderer tested out its new Radio Plasma Wave Scanner and then lit its engines once again, burning for over two minutes and making it the first kerbal-made spacecraft to reach escape velocity. After confirming their calculations, the vonKerman Republic officially announced that Das Wanderer was on its way- to Duna! It would reach Duna’s sphere of influence in another 275 days. Three days later, Das Wanderer became the first spacecraft to exit Kerbin’s sphere of influence and enter interplanetary space. It transmitted back data gathered from its four scientific instruments. Then a month after that, they sent a third Schafer to the Mun. Schafer 3 was unusual in that it flew above the surface to survey several sites before finally settling down. The rover drove several kilometers to reach the designated survey sites; the last one required the rover to jump before taking a temperature reading, but it worked. Fortunately, Schafer 3 landed on its wheels and safely skidded to a stop. With nothing else to do, Kontrol commanded the rover to hibernate and celebrated their success. Finally, the vonKermans launched a trio of Drakken rockets, one of which brought their new Libelle (“Dragonfly” in Kerman) lander to the Mun. They even achieved three world’s firsts: the first rendezvous around the Mun, the first docking, and the first “station” construction. It took two Drakken Tanker Tugs to refuel the Libelle for its trip to the munar surface, but it was finally ready. After deorbiting and discarding the stage, it landed on the Mun. And after performing systems checks, Libelle lifted off the surface and achieved orbit. It even rendezvoused with the awaiting Drakken Tanker Tug, although the margins to do so where incredibly tight. Shortly thereafter, Libelle and her tanker de-orbited and crashed into the Mun. To say the least, the scientists and engineers at the Kerbal Space Center were stunned by the vonKermans’ astounding progress. They had gone from struggling to land their capsule safely to a kermanned launch and even made automated rendezvous and docking look routine, all in a short time and with fewer resources. Then they landed the first rover on the Mun- three of them- tested a kermanned-capable lander and launched the first probe into solar orbit- to Duna, no less! But it was their Mun exploration that bothered KSP the most. They caught up with the Kerman States’ efforts very quickly and proved that they could reach the Mun with a series of launches instead of one big, expensive, single launch. That meant that KSP could’ve reached the Mun earlier with existing rockets such as the Edna instead of creating the mighty Lindor. But it was too late to retrace their steps, they were committed. The Kerman States’ President became genuinely concerned. KSP began out of a desire to give the nation a goal to strive for to break themselves out of national apathy and economic depression and bad leadership. If the vonKermans beat them to the Mun, there would be no telling what would happen to national morale. KSC had to act, and fast.

Release the Kraken! Loving all the set designs.

Oh wow, they're fooked.

Understood. Well, if you get the time and inclination, a part shader would be great. Thanks again!

@blackrack This is an amazing mod! I like how you apply the shader effects to celestial bodies. This is kind of an odd question, but can it be applied to parts? If so, I have an expansion to Kerbal Komets in mind that spawns pairs of wormholes randomly. This would also be great for forming artificial wormholes in my Blueshift: Kerbal FTL mod that's in planning. Thanks again!

Running out of gas with no station in site...

Congrats! Can’t wait to use this in my career game!

Which version of the airlock? The square one or round one?

Thanks. It's built and tested, I just need @JewelShisen to accept the pull request (the request to merge the code) into the repository and to publish the update.

I finished the main wing:

I currently don't have a thread while I build up the part set. I generally post in What Did You Do In KSP Today. But here are a couple, these are the very latest:

Well, Excalibur needs a lot more work before she's ready for prime time. Once I get the Mk-33 done though...

Totally love the blueprints.

I updated the code and put in a pull request weeks ago. It's out of my hands. I'm going to dust off my alternate solution and get that working.