babale

Each series of crafts (series being defined by the purpose of the craft) has a letter, followed by a version number. The craft also has a nickname. So for example, my most basic crafts are lifters -- after all the first thing you do in a campaign is lift up. So I have the A1 Launcher, A3 Orbiter, A12 Workhorse, etc. My B series are reentry crafts -- pods that can reach orbit and come back down. So the B3 Glider is a command pod with wings that gets carried up by an A3 or A4, reenters, and glides down to the runway, while the B1 is just a pod with a chute.

Is this compatible with Mission Controller 2? If not -- is there a way to turn on Grand Tours for that mod? And is there a way to pump the grand tour value up a bit? They seem... Underwhelming.

I strongly disagree with the worries about Tal! I love the idea! Yes, we don't have one in our solar system, but the fact that we haven't discovered one yet means nothing. We know virtually nothing about extrasolar planets, and we know even less about their planets, and EVEN LESS about their moons. If the orbital mechanics work in theory, I buy it. And at the end of the day, what really matters is gameplay, and this would be a unique and fun mechanic. I always thought that the change of Moho to lose that ridiculously difficult atmosphere hurt the game because it was a unique gameplay mechanic that led to interesting decisions. Unique circumstances like that need to be found in more places.

In the next couple of days, I will begin uploading a new LP series called Kerbal Kolonization. These videos will document my adventures as I seek to colonize each of the planets in the (much expanded, thanks to a number of mods) Kerbol system. As a sort of companion to the LP videos, which will focus on gameplay and the reasons behind the way I build and launch crafts, I will also be posting a story-based series that follows the journey of the Kerbal Space Agency as it lifts Kerbalkind out of its cradle and into space. You will soon find links to both the videos and the series here on this page. Before I start the playthrough, there are two things I need to do. First, I want to let you guys know what my goals and rules for the journey are. And second, I have a couple of questions I’d like you guys to answer, since I want this playthrough to have community involvement. So, first things first, my mod list: Convenience Mods These mods improve gameplay without adding new parts or changing the way the game is played. Mostly information mods or mods that let me do things I can’t easily do otherwise. Kerbal Engineer – to let me know everything I need to know about my craft in order to fly it. Kerbal Alarm Clock – makes time warping much easier! Trajectories – a great mod that accounts for the effect of atmosphere and planet rotation on craft trajectory. Helps land exactly where I want and aerobrake more accurately. Precise Node – I don’t know how I ever played without this mod, especially because I play on a laptop and so have no mouse wheel. Makes nodes a lot more useful! RCS Build Aid – every one of my ships spins when I use RCS. Every last one. With how much docking I will be doing, RCS Build Aid is a must. Will see how well it works. Chatterer – makes the game much more fun to listen to. Great simple mod! Planet Mods I’ve been playing KSP for a long time and have grown all too familiar with most of the game. There are still places I haven’t been, but nothing excites me like landing on a planet for the first time! That’s why I got these mods, to make things a little more interesting. Trans-Keptunian, Outer Planets Part Mods These mods are what makes this playthrough unique. Landing a base on another planet is easily in the base game; life support and base building mods make this a lot more challenging and fun! TAC Life Support – my favorite life support mod, combines simplicity with depth. USI FTT, MKS, and Karbonite – Roverdude is an amazing modmaker and these three mods are what really allows this playthrough to happen. Karbonite, MKS, and FTT let me harvest resources, use them to keep my kerbals alive with TAC, and (with Extraplanetary Launchpad support) make my bases into real, productive outposts instead of dots on a map. Extraplanetary Launchpads – Combined with Karbonite, Extraplanetary Launchpads lets me build real bases that produce real, useful things. I love it! Procedural Fairings – with the amount of payloads I have to launch, ugly rockets are inevitable. Procedural Fairings help with that, and also with Deadly Reentry. Deadly Reentry – stock aerodynamics are perfectly fine by me as far as flying planes goes – keeping it simple isn’t all that bad in my book. But slamming into an atmosphere at 6 km/h should kill you, and with Deadly Reentry it certainly does! SCANSAT – a great mod that combines amazingly well with Karbonite and gives awesome information about landing that can be accessed while flying a rocket! Other Finally, I also use Mission Controller. More on the contracts it provides below. Next up, the rules I’ll be playing by in this playthrough: Goal The goal of the campaign is simple: To colonize every planet and moon in the system. That’s easy to say, but what does that mean? There are 4 criteria I will require myself to fulfill before declaring a planet to be colonized: 1) It houses at least 2 kerbals in a self-sustaining habitat that doesn’t require more than an occasional (every 10 years or more) small resupply rocket. For example, if a planet too far from the sun for solar panels has no uranium, uranium will be shipped over occasionally to ensure that the base doesn’t run out of power. 2) It can produce vehicles capable of reaching any other spot on the body or heading back to Kerbin with no outside input. It has sent at least one rocket full of expensive, finished goods back to Kerbin to justify the cost of setting it up. 3) It is in some way unique. Every colony needs something to set it apart from other colonies. Maybe the Laythe colony floats on water, or maybe the Minmus colony sits on giant wheels and roves around the surface. No two colonies can be the same. 4) It looks awesome! I will consider the campaign complete when every moon and planet has been colonized; every gas planet has a station orbiting just above its atmosphere; and two solar stations orbit the sun, one as low as is safe and one in the asteroid belt. Rules I will be playing this campaign in career mode, with no use of cheats, debug mode, or any unbalanced mods once the game begins. I started the game in career mode, but edited the save file to start with enough science to unlock all nodes and begin with a fully-upgraded science center. I did not buy any items and edited funds to 1,000,000 kerbucks. I will follow the following rules: 1) No reverting once launched, except to rectify a bug (explosion on launchpad, etc.). Building a rocket, hitting launch to see, for example, how long life support will last, and reverting is acceptable. 2) Quicksaving is allowed, but if I crash due to pilot error or bad design the results stand. 3) No resource gathering on Kerbin’s surface – those resources are owned by someone! 4) All contracts are acceptable until the first station is built. At that point, only the “Explore [body]†contracts, civilian contracts, and contracts having to do with bases or stations may be accepted. 5) Probe cores cannot fly astronauts. If a craft is manned, it must be flown by a kerbal. Non-pilot kerbals may not use probes for their enhanced SAS abilities – probe cores must be shut off unless a pilot is on board. This makes pilots much more valuable! 6) No strategies from the administrative building. Since I don’t need science, they would be overpowered. So that’s that. I’ll hopefully start posting videos soon! Until then, here’s my question for you guys. What naming scheme should I use for my stations and bases? I’m open to suggestions!

Ah, that's the problem! Turns out that at some point after I installed Karbonite (by copy-pasting the files) I dragged the folder into my Game Data instead of deleting it and that messed everything up. Fixed that and now I can control the textures, not to mention add items to KAS containers which as it turns out also did not work. Thanks for the help, and again, my apologies. I didn't realize people were complaining about not being able to repaint once the mission is launched and that what I said could be interpreted as me saying that not having repainting makes the tanks useless. Reading the last few pages shows me why I probably offended you... I didn't mean to! Great mod, and thanks a ton!

Ah, I understand! Yes I meant I can't paint them in the first place to choose a resource. I guess I figured that there was a default "paint" and that selecting a resource would be "repainting". Here are pictures of my directory.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that to come off sarcastically. Limitations of a text based format and whatnot. I have great respect for you and all of your mods -- I use almost all of the USI mods and they are definitely some of my favorites. All I meant was, if I launch a probe core attached to the honeycomb cargo pod or a kontainer, I can't fill it up with anything, can I? There's no right click menu so it doesn't have any capacity to contain materials. I just don't see how to load those particular parts up with any materials. Am I missing an obvious solution, or should I be using different parts for now? EDIT: I think I am missing something, or I am experiencing a bug beyond just not being able to change textures. Here is what I see when I put in a kontainer. As you can see, I don't have a way to make it actually contain anything:

Oh, I see. So the containers are useless for now?

I've got a pretty major problem, I can't repaint anything. I installed the mod as instructed and the firespitter folder is in my gamedata folder, everything else works perfect -- but when I right-click a container from this mod, I get no options. Is this a known problem? Any way to fix it?

Alliteration. It's called alliteration.

Returning goo samples turned out to be a little more complicated than anticipated. As it turns out, with the probe core's round top not allowing room for a standard parachute, we needed to use the radial parachutes R&D has been promising us. I accept their contract to test the chute, not letting them know that it will be used for an actual mission rather than a test run. A modified early model Airborne is sent out. It quickly rises into low space and the goo sample is taken. The chutes deploy early and are ripped away. R&D is very disappointed but I wrangle them into requisitioning us a second pair of chutes for another go. This time we only go up to 87,000 meters -- we weren't going to reach high orbit anyways, so might as well try for a lower speed. With the mission finished, I check with R&D to see if they have any other suggestions. Surprisingly, they do; they offer us a big boost in funding if we manage to crash a probe into the mun. With that, I design the Munraker. A modified Doohickey with a third stage on top, this probe can reach far beyond Kerbin. The Munraker 1 is aimed straight for the mun; the Munraker 2 will be sent at Minmus. Based on simple delta-V calculations, the Munraker 2 does not need any modifications; it will reach Minmus just fine. Before sending out the Munraker 2, I stop by the lab and find out that the scientists have built a new pod, capable of functioning in a vacuum. The next goal is to send a kerbal into space, to take crew reports and see if that vast, empty place is even survivable. First, though, I take on yet another mission: Docking two vessels in orbit. The R&D department promises tons and tons of science from this task, a great leap forwards. Of course, though the R&D department offered this contract, we don't yet have docking ports. So first we send the Munraker 2 out to crash into Minmus. Proud of our progress, the R&D department asks us to reach the Mun in a less destructive fashion. But first, we unlock docking ports and send up the Male Docker and Female Dockers. The two crafts reach orbit and successfully dock. Finally, we unlock advanced flight control modules. With these advanced probe cores, our probes will use half the power -- or last twice as long. Reaching the mun and sending back data is now a distinct possibility -- if we can get a powerful enough antenna. Meanwhile, we've decided to try our luck at military contracts once more. This time, they want a bomb delivered. Using our new aerodynamic techs, and after many iterations in simulation, I design the Arrow 5 -- a small, sleek, lightweight bomber jet powered drone. With two bombs weighing it down, it is not very maneuverable; at 13,000 Kerbbucks, it's too expensive to be disposable. But, with some tinkering, I hope to make it a reliable bomber capable of landing and being recovered safely. The first try drops the bombs right on target -- but sadly the plane crashes into one of the buildings. Oh well; future missions will hopefully be more successful. This mission went off without a hitch; sadly the landing was botched and the plane crashed. But much closer this time! Soon we will have a reusable bomber drone capable of delivering explosives anywhere on Kerbin. Meanwhile, another form of contract catches my attention. We are asked to deliver satellites into orbit. I design the Workhorse 1, a light lifter capable of attaining orbit and (hopefully) returning safely to Kerbin. It attempts to do this without dropping any stages, to ensure the most bag for our buck. Sadly, the first Workhorse design is destroyed on reentry. However, it successfully delivered the package in a single stage, making this my first SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) craft, ever! Future models will hopefully prove cheaper and more effective, perhaps carrying up multiple loads at once. Meanwhile, the time has come to take a kerbal into orbit. The (hopefully ironically) named Exploder 1 is designed for just that purpose, and reliable Jebediah Kerman straps himself in. It's a simple two-stage design; four liquid engines carry a fifth engine up far enough to pass the thickest atmosphere, then the second stage stabilizes an orbit. Either remaining fuel or RCS is then used to deorbit, sending the craft back down to Kerbin. We've done it! Jeb takes the Exploder 1 into a simple orbit, 100 by 70 kilometers. As he reaches the periasis, a second burn raises the apoasis to 347 km -- enough to reach high space with a kerbal. As soon as high space is reached, Jeb pushes the periasis back down, allowing him to return to Kerbin before his life support runs out. The capsule hits the atmosphere at over 2 kilometers per second, and the heat shield quickly reaches a thousand degrees -- right around the danger zone. Luckily, it soon slows down and cools off. Jeb breathes a sigh of relief and prepares for landing. After safely splashing down in the ocean, Jebediah and the High Space Goo (Band name!) are recovered and brought back to the space center. The scientists who studied the behavior of the craft are able to collaborate with the engineers who built it in the first place and design a better launch pad -- we can now launch up to 200 tons of spaceship, not to mention the development of struts! Now there are no more excuses -- it's time to go to the Mun. The Faraway 1 is a 94 ton four stage behemoth capable of bringing a probe to the Mun, allowing it to shoot around its far side, and back to Kerbin. It comes equipped with 8 hours of battery life -- enough to reach the Mun and make it to the far side. It needs that much power, unlike the Munraker, because it needs to make corrections at that point in order to return to Kerbin at the right height. The chutes deploy automatically and the return module is aerodynamically designed to fall shield-first; as such, the probe can run out of power as soon as it makes its correction burn. The Faraway 1 works perfectly, reaching orbit and setting a course for the Mun that already flings it right back on a collision course with Kerbin. That course will be corrected in Munar orbit; for now, it will do. As the probe begins its burn, the Mun itself peeks out from behind the massive Kerbin. Four hours and nineteen minutes later, Faraway 1 is captured by the Mun's gravity. It falls towards the larger body, rapidly gaining speed -- fast enough to escape the Mun on the other side. On the way, we catch some gravity scans, temperature scans, a barometer scan (which confirms that the Mun is airless), and goo samples from high and low mun orbits. As Faraway approaches the Mun, I plan the correction burn. Right now Faraway is going to be flung into a high-Kerbin orbit with an apoasis far beyond Minmus; that needs to change. A very short burn accomplishes this; I return to watching the probe, anxiously grabbing what science I can. With a periasis of 45 km set, I separate the probe from the engine. With power due to run out very soon, I will not be able to do this later. Faraway's core skims the atmosphere, but it's not enough; it still has a very high apoasis. Luckily, this was the plan all along; slowing down from Mun return velocities of 4 kilometers per second will crush the low-tech heat shields we currently use like aluminum foil. Instead, at 45km, the probe sheds only a small amount of velocity each time. It takes seven revolutions around Kerbin -- almost 14 hours' worth -- but eventually the probe slows down enough to make a landing. The Faraway 1 touches down safely, bringing home 221 science and completing part of the Munar Exploration contract! I unlock antennas capable of transmitting from as far out as Minmus along with landing gear and a seismic scanner. It is time -- the next probe will land upon the Mun. The Faraway 2 loses many of the instruments that the Faraway 1 carried -- no need for gravity scanners, at least. It also does not carry goo containers -- those need to be brought home before being studied, and as such are useless on this mission. It does have landing legs and antennas, along with a seismic scanner. All in all, it weighs in at 92 tons -- slightly lighter than the Faraway 1. Faraway 2 approaches the Mun and circularizes, eventually stopping with a very low orbit. Incidentally, this completes a second part of the Munar Exploration contract. The probe then burns retrograde, eventually killing its rotational momentum and falling towards the Mun. Soon, it reaches the Mun's surface -- so close its shadow can be seen. The Faraway 2 extends its landing gear and drops, slowly -- very slowly -- and finally -- Gently touches down, tips over, and falls. The engine is longer than the landing legs, meaning that the probe cannot land safely. In any case, seismic readings are taken, as are temperature readings and a barometer scan. It reveals that the Mun is scorching on its sunny side, freezing on its dark side; contains no air whatsoever; and has no seismic activity, aside from the reverberations of distant meteors. The data is sent home; most makes it, but about half of the seismic scan is lost due to power issues. Luckily, that still amounts to a large chunk of science. The dead probe remains on the Mun, forever a testament to Unrepentant's power. Meanwhile, it's time to look at manned missions once more. Heavy Rocketry, Advanced Exploration, and Advanced Landing are all researched. The Exploder 1.5 is sent up, with Jebediah once more at the helm -- a mostly unmodified Exploder 1, with the addition of gravity scanners. This time Jeb will try for a polar orbit, allowing some more science to be gained by studying the ice caps of Kerbin. The launch is routine, and after testing out the new suits in distant space and taking crew reports over half a dozen biomes, Jeb brings the ship home. Suddenly, disaster strikes! Ground control loses all contact with Jebediah Kerman. Desperately trying to reestablish contact, the engineers are confused, until they take a look at the flight logs. Power requirements of the life support system were horribly miscalculated -- someone forgot to carry a 0. Jebediah has perished in outer space -- the first kerbal casualty of the Unrepentant Space Exploration Agency. The empty command module, filled with Jeb's notes and observations, returns home. This is a great leap for knowledge, but a horrible loss for Kerbalkind. Jebediah Kerman will be missed as the USEA carries on. Unrepentantly. Definitely feeling no regrets here. I should mention that I'm playing this Ironman style -- no reverting or reloading, unless I'm testing something (in which case I try and redo it even if it goes right -- depending on time constraints ) or if there's a bug. So yeah -- this was a horrible loss. - - - Updated - - - With Jebediah dead, some political types began to question the wisdom of creating a space agency beholden to no one. Luckily for us, the Unrepentant Space Exploration Agency is not beholden to those political types doing the questioning. After a short interview process, we recruited four new Kerbals to the team: Eli Dullard, a scientist willing to go on even the most dangerous of missions with more courage than sense; the Nefarious Dr. Piddlebutt, an eccentric engineer whose strange designs tend to prove either very effective or very disasterous; Timmy Mack, an engineer with a knack for in-situ repairs; and Herlas Kerman, an expandable pilot who was told to buy a good life insurance policy. (Sorry about the jobs not matching your requests; it turns out that KSP assigns the jobs based on the Kerbal name. So for example, Eli Dullard was a pilot before I renamed him, at which point he became a scientist.) Meanwhile, it's time to move on. Jeb's death and the failure of not one but two contracts has taken a heavy toll on our finances. I turn to bombing runs to earn some money. Shortly after this picture was taken the Arrow crashed. It is simply too uncontrollable when unloaded by bombs. To fix this, we will need more advanced aerodynamic parts; but we will not get those until we can earn some more science. Before that, we need money. Luckily, the military approaches USEA with a new offer. Our surveillance of the Mun has show it to be a useful place to place missiles which could later be launched at Kerbin. To head off that risk, the army demands we develop a weapon capable of striking any location on the Mun. I have a plan -- but first, it's time to fulfill the Orbital EVA contract that Jeb was meant to take. Herlas Kerman, Expandable Pilot, straps himself into a carbon copy of Jeb's craft -- the Exploder 1.5. The mission is carried off quickly and efficiently; Jeb's sacrifice has made future missions easier for us all. Herlas makes sure to return right after going on EVA. Using the readings taken by Herlas in space, our R&D department is able to develop a more powerful type of battery pack. Much lighter than the previous models, these batteries will easily last long enough to get to the Mun while remaining reasonably light. That's exactly what we need to send a kerbal on a Munar flyby. The larger pods, while much more efficient in terms of light support -- nearly ten times more efficient, in fact -- are not equipped with a built-in heat shield, nor do we yet have a heat shield large enough to protect one. As such, the Gravity 1 -- Kerbalkind's first manned Mun-capable vehicle -- needs to carry two probes. After reaching the Mun and returning, the kerbal within will need to make his way outside of the vehicle into the smaller, tougher capsule. Eli Dullard proves that ladders are sufficient for this purpose on Kerbin's soil, giving Gravity 1 the green light. The 200 ton Gravity 1 is the largest ship we've built so far, and it's more than capable of reaching the Mun with up to three kerbals. Sadly, it is not yet capable of bringing three kerbals home; Dullard will travel alone, returning in the smaller capsule once the mission is complete. He prepares for the mission and sets off. The Gravity's lifter performs admirably, reaching orbit with no trouble whatsoever. The only drawback to the Gravity design is that its wet thrust to weight ratio is not high enough to lift off. The engines need to warm up, burning about 300 delta-V's worth of fuel before the ship is light enough to take off. But take off it does, crawling into the sky at first but rapidly gaining speed. The faster the rocket goes, the easier it is to keep steady. By around 7 kilometers the craft reaches terminal velocity and the engines are throttled down, keeping the ship below 120 meters per second. Any faster and we'll spend more fuel fighting air resistance than we save by escaping gravity. Past 13 kilometers, the air is thin enough to ignore terminal velocity. Dullard screams and puts the pedal to the metal, taking off in a hurry. Once in space, Dullard leaves the small capsule (which is equipped with a parachute and separator for reentry, both of whom can be activated prematurely in the event of a catastrophic failure requiring the mission to be aborted) and makes his way into the larger transfer capsule. Here in Low Kerbin Orbit, should this transfer prove to be impossible, Dullard might be saved; if the first attempt at transfer occurred on the way back to Kerbin, failure would be deadly. But Eli proves the concept sound and makes his way down the ladder. We find an insertion burn that brings us close to the Mun and flings us back towards Kerbin. Dullard makes the burn; this heading will save us fuel and time on the way home. A small correction in low Munar orbit will ensure that we come back with the right periasis. Eli Dullard is becomes the furthest kerbal from Kerbin. A few minor corrections are made on the way to the Mun -- Eli realizes that with the proper maneuver a correction in the Mun's sphere of influence will not be necessary after all -- and once again he's on his way. Soon enough, Dullard becomes the first kerbal in Munar orbit. Kerbin's Mun is tidally locked, meaning that as he passes by the far side of the Mun he becomes the first kerbal to ever see those lands. Three hours later, Dullard is almost home. His electric charge is running low; he can't afford to orbit Kerbin six times. He must make a decision on how to set his orbit. Too low, and he will burn up in the atmosphere; too high, and he'll freeze to death when the power runs out and the Gravity's heat escapes to space. With no fuel in the tanks, there is no way to charge the batteries by running the engines; worse, RCS thrusters can only apply so much force. If he comes any closer to Kerbin, he won't have the control he needs to choose his height. Whatever decision Eli makes, he needs to do it now. Perhaps hoping that even if Dullard doesn't survive his craft and notes will, Ground Control tells him to keep the periasis at 45 kilometers. But Dullard isn't willing to doom himself for data; against orders, he sets the periasis lower, to 35 kilometers. If the shields don't hold, he'll burn to death. But he prefers a quick death by fire than a slow one by ice. Dullard waits as long as possible before moving to the reentry pod. The Gravity's gigantic battery banks will be decoupled, along with the transfer pod and the rockets themselves; when they are, Dullard will only have the limited internal batteries of the smaller reentry pod to keep him alive through however many orbits of Kerbin it takes to slow down to a landing. But with Kerbin so close below, Eli can wait no more. He makes the transfer. At first, the plan was for the whole ship to plunge into the atmosphere, burning away and providing a buffer for Dullard's reentry pod. But the craft is too top-heavy; it flips the wrong way, threatening to incinerate the chutes. With the air thickening fast, Dullard decouples, falling away from the main ship. Not a moment too soon; all around the reentry pod, parts of the larger craft explode into fiery bursts. The pod flies onwards, protected by its thick ablative shields. The probe makes it through the worst of the atmosphere. It rises back up to forty thousand meters, but no higher; Dullard's risky maneuver allows him complete reentry in just one orbit. But the pod is still falling, towards the thickest part of the atmosphere now. Somehow, it makes it! With more than half of its power banks depleted in the short time since hitting the atmosphere, the probe slows down enough for the flames to die away. But now another problem presents itself! The probe is heading for a mountain range, where there is far less time for the parachutes to slow it down. If it smashes into the mountains, making it past the atmosphere will be but small comfort. The chutes deploy and miraculously Dullard comes down in the highlands beneath the mountain range. It still loses almost 3 kilometers of elevation compared to a sea level landing, but at least it misses the enormous mountain range by just a few kilometers. Dullard comes down safe and is brought back to the space center as a hero. With all that money, I decide to send a probe to land and return from the Mun, bringing back goo samples and the rest of that seismic data. The Highriser 1 is born! Like the Gravity before it, it also needs to warm up the engines before ascending. The probe heads out on a collision course for the Mun, but I can already tell that it's doomed to failure. The tanks are just too low, even after I shut down the central engine to conserve fuel. Indeed, the probe simple cannot slow down enough to land. It's not a problem with the lander design per say; rather, the fact that we had to make the transfer and deorbit burns using the lander simply put too much stress on the tanks. I decide to make a minor change. The Gravity's payload -- meaning the batteries, two pods, and RCS tanks -- weigh 15 tons. The entire lander, fully fueled, weighs just a single ton more. I copy the Gravity's lifter and dub it a Gravity Class Lifter. Altogether, the Highriser 2 has more than enough delta-V to reach the Mun -- in theory. The launch goes off perfectly and the probe is on its way. Success! The probe lands in one of the Mun's craters and takes the samples needed. But its tanks are nearly empty -- perhaps due to piloting error, or perhaps due to flawed designs. I will note that my orbit around Kerbin had an apoasis of 109 kilometers -- 40 too high, which perhaps wasted the fuel we needed to make a successful landing. Still, with no antennas, we may as well try and return. It's a good effort, but just not enough. The lander arcs across a quarter of the Mun before plunging down to its doom. Tired of trying to land on the Mun, I design a new craft in a new series: The Infinity probe, capable of transmitting data back from Minmus. Of course, the Infinity is just a tad too expensive at the moment. So its time to do that job for the military. I construct the two-stage ILBM: Inter-Lunar Balistic Missile. Capable of striking any point on Minmus, the ILBM is a truly terrifying weapon. Extremely easy to fly, the ILBM reaches orbit easily enough. From there its just a short hop into Munar orbit. At first, I consider coming at the target at an angle by diving straight at it instead of circularizing. But a moment's reflection tells me that this is a bad idea. The Munar surface is rough and full of craters; better to hit the target straight from above, especially since the missile is certainly not lacking in delta-V. As soon as it passes over the target site, the ILBM kills all lateral velocity. Then, pointing straight at the target below, it picks up speed with a short burn. The rest of its fuel and RCS is used to make corrections and land right on target. Bullseye! Sort of. Well, we're within 1,000 meters; that's what the brass asked for. With practice, and with the Mun's lack of an atmosphere, we can get this down to perfectly accurate strikes. An ILBM costs 20,000 Kerbbucks; the army pays us 60 grand a pop. Not a bad profit margin! We're still a bit short on cash, so I see what else the army wants. They ask for a bomber capable of hitting two targets in one run; the Arrow 5 is modified a bit and sent out to handle the challenge. But before that mission, we've got a probe that needs launching. We can finally afford the Infinity 1. Unlike its predecessors, it can take off right away. Launches like this are pretty routine by now; we easily make our way to Minmus. Three days of travel later, we arrive in Minmus' tiny sphere of influence and start sending back measurements. The probe is treated to a beautiful sight -- the sun rises over Minmus while Kerbin and the Mun float in the distance. Having sent back as much data as it could and out of fuel for course corrections that would allow it to pass by more biomes, the Infinity 1 sails past Minmus and into a highly eccentric Kerbin orbit. Perhaps eventually it will be captured by Minmus once more; until then, it will float for infinity. Minmus provides us with enough science to upgrade the launchpad to handle 600 tons. But we have no money! To earn some, I take on a couple of payload missions. Rockomax and Kerbodyne want satellites put into a Kerbin orbit. I decide to try and make a reusable Workhorse capable of taking loads to orbit in just one launch. While it can reach orbit, reentry turns out to be a bit of a problem. Without recovery of the craft, the mission is actually a net loss. So I turn to the military, which will hopefully prove more profitable. The Arrow 5 struggles under its heavy load, but reaches the drop sites successfully, only to crash on the way home. Another monetary failure. Meanwhile, I try my hand at a two-payload mission. This time there's enough of a margin that I can end up making a profit even if I can't recover the craft. The engines actually survive reentry this time; the tanks behind them do not, though. The craft falls apart, and I salvage nothing. Meanwhile, I've got a much bigger job. A payload to Munar orbit! And it promises to pay really well! I design the Infinity 3. So awesome, we had to skip a number. This enormous craft rockets up to the 600 ton limit, but can carry a lander fully capable of landing on the Mun and returning (and perhaps even doing the same with Minmus, if batteries are upgraded!). It ALSO delivers a ten ton load to the Mun. But the enormous rocket is enormously expensive, so first I design the next generation Arrow... The Arrow X. This craft is faster and more stable, able to carry as many as six sets of bombs to a target. Which is good, because now the brass wants me to bomb a target on the other side of the mountains west of the space center. Three times. Aside from a close call when pulling out of the first dive that lead to a stall and near-crash, the Arrow X perform beautifully. All 3 targets are hit in rapid succession and the arrow returns home. Unladen with weaponry, it now pulls up quite strongly; but I keep it under control. It skids right off the runway and tilts all the way onto its engines, but the Arrow X survives. The first bomber to do so! Flying the mission only cost around 3,000 Kerbbucks, mostly in explosives and fuel. As we still can't afford to launch the Infinity 3, I check back with the brass. Another warhead to the Mun? Their wish is my command. Will the second Mun rocket hit the bullseye? Will the Infinity 3 reach space? Will the new and brave pilots meet the same fate as Jebediah? Find out next time!

Hi guys! I've been posting a log of my Better Than Starting Manned over on my gaming community site. But I've realized -- not many people there play KSP! So while they're enjoying the LP, they can't offer much advice -- which I find myself in desperate need off quite often So, I decided to crosspost the log over here, too. The first few chapters are already done, but I'll be reposting them over the next few days. Once that's done, I'll let you know when you're caught up! Dawn rises over the Unrepentant Space Center on the first day of the project. Funding for the center has been swift and plentiful, so construction of the massive complex is already finished. All that remains is to build rockets! Unfortunately, the Unrepentant Kerbals don't yet have much in the way of technological progress when it comes to rockets. But no matter! We will learn through trial and error! Our first job: get a craft to 12,500 meters, the highest any kerbal-made object has ever been launched. It's a simple probe sitting on two tons of explosives. Almost as an afterthought, I attach a thermometer and antenna to get a bit of science out of the launch. Luckily, the barebones rocket is very cheap. It is also thoroughly uncontrollable; let's hope it comes down somewhere empty, rather than say, an orphanage. I name the rocket Airborne 1. The rocket sails beautifully, nearly perfectly straight until it runs out of fuel. We reach succeed in setting the world record! Also, we find out that high elevations are cold. For science! In fact, we shatter the record, almost hitting 20,000 meters. Hooray! The cash reward has more than paid for the rocket, and we will now be taken more seriously by aeronautics institutes. The rocket comes down in the uninhabited slopes near the space center. It's a marvelous explosion that luckily doesn't hurt anyone. We can research basic rocketry! It turns out that sending information back takes a lot of electricity, so we develop some batteries that can be attached to our probe cores. Also, the engineers design some smaller solid-core rockets that can be attached to the main rocket. And finally, the scientists design a barometer and ask me to find out what the air pressure is like at higher altitudes! They hope to find out how thick the aether is, and whether it is as flammable as legend states. One whackjob says that they're nuts, and that space is a vacuum, not a highly flammable gas in a liquid state. Ha! As if! Meanwhile, Gene and the other eggheads on the board decide that we should set another record, this time reaching 30,000 meters. What the hell; that sounds like fun. The Airborne 2 is very similar to the Airborne 1, except that it has four radially attached boosters. Two burn first, lifting the rocket as high as they can; just before they burn out, the two other boosters plus the core rocket are activated at once, sending the Airborne 2 even higher. It also has a barometer and a pair of batteries to let us transmit more data. Success! The Airborne 2 reaches nearly 35,000 meters, shattering any previous record! It takes air samples at this elevation. Unfortunately, it seems that two batteries weren't enough. The probe runs out of power, leaving us with only partial information. Worse, the partially transmitted information seems to have been corrupted; the barometer readings show very low air pressure, which is clearly ludicrous! We will have to send another rocket up. The Airborne 2 lands in the mountains with another mighty explosion. Meanwhile, the eggheads made some progress! They've researched what they call General Rocketry, and have invented a way to use liquid fuel in rocket engines. This is great news, as we will be able to control the throttle! Meanwhile, we've got some new goals. First, we are asked to take high altitude atmospheric readings again, to figure out what that error was. Second, we are given a new altitude goal: 70,000 meters, past Kerbin's atmosphere and into the aether proper. And finally, R&D asks us to test the liquid fuel engine by shutting it down and reigniting it above 70,000 meters. They want to know if igniting an engine at that height will even work, or if it will set the aether alight, dooming the world. Fun! The Airborne 3 is a 25 ton, 8,000 Kerbbucks behemoth. It will do the job. The three radial engines lift the Airborne 3 faster than any solid core boosters could. Soon enough the Airborne 3 reaches the same heights as its predecessors, but its fuel tanks are still half full. Finally, the three radial tanks run dry. The central engine takes over, sending the Airborne 3 out into space. The readings from the upper atmosphere are completed. Amazing! Pressure really DID drop, to almost negligible volumes! The probe caps out at 77,000 meters. Readings prove it -- space really IS a vacuum! There is no air pressure and temperature switches from very very high to almost impossibly low depending on whether the thermometer is in shade or the direct light of the sun. Amazing! That crazy scientist won about two million Kerbbucks in various office bets. The Airborne 3 never crashes; it simply loses contact halfway down. We will need to investigate further. Meanwhile, we research basic flight control, unlocking wings to stabilize and direct the crafts. In a final act of scientific stubbornness, some of the scientists in the aether camp have demanded that we send a rocket even higher. Perhaps, they argue, kerbal activity here on Kerbin has caused the aether surrounding our planet to burn away as part of the greatest environmental disaster of all times. 250,000 meters up, however, they believe we will find this fabled aether. The Airborne 4 is identical to the Airborne 3, except that it has fins. These fins, we hope, will stabilize the craft until it reaches space, allowing more energy to be expended in the right direction. The fins do their part, and the rocket's central engine doesn't run out of fuel until nearly 80,000 meters up. Sadly, it's not enough. The Airborne 4 falls about 90,000 meters short of high space. On the way down, the Airborne 4 heats up to incredible levels. So hot, in fact, that the probe disintegrates entirely! This explains why the Airborne 3 never crashed. Meanwhile, back on Kerbin, trouble in brewing. The Kerbal Freedom Commandos, or KFC, form soon after the USEA begins its work. Afraid of aliens, and with much public support, they demand we begin military testing in case the big beige men invade. The less said about the IDBM 1, the better. To recuperate some of the lost funds, we take on a corporate testing mission. RCS tanks are being developed by Jeb's Junkyard and Spaceship Parts; if successful, they will allow us to control our crafts outside the atmosphere, but the company wants to see how well they hold up in low pressure environments. Meanwhile, MAXO Constructions wants us to test the structural integrity of their girders. A simple craft fulfills both goals before crashing into the atmosphere. With that, there are no more missions for us to do. The Airborne 4 model is sent out on another flight to reach high space. Sadly, this flight also fails. Airborne 4 is simply not capable of reaching high space. So it is time to design the Airborne 5. Sleek and aerodynamic, the Airborne 5 relies on solid boosters to raise the craft past the thick atmosphere where acceleration is difficult and into the high atmosphere where a single engine with a double tank will take over, boosting the craft much higher. The Airborne 5 performs flawlessly, reaching 330,000 meters with ease. Of course, it never returns. Science from outer space allows us to research one more technology: Survivability. We design a cabin capable of carrying a kerbal up to the lower atmosphere and parachutes to bring him back down safe. Jebediah Kerman volunteers to take the Bravery 1 (also known as the Stupidity 1) up to 12,500 feet and live to tell the tale. It's a simple craft, but one that should be sufficient. There isn't much of a view from inside the cockpit, but Jebediah expertly reads the instruments as he guides his craft up. With half of its liquid fuel remaining, the Bravery 1 reaches 13,000 meters and begins to descend. Because it is such a heavy craft but only has one parachute, the Bravery 1 is moving too fast on the way down. Jeb keeps it upright and eases on the throttle, gently slowing down the craft. Touchdown! The main engine is ruined, but the rest of the craft is in good health. As is brave (or stupid) Jebediah! - - - Updated - - - Reading over the last update, I see that I didn't really go into my thought process very well. Will remedy that this time! So, when we left off, Jeb had returned the Bravery 1 from the first manned mission -- up to 13,000 feet. We find ourselves with a hefty chunk of change in the bank and a bit of science. Let's rock! It's time to do gravity scans. I unlocked these babies when I got wings for the first time, but it took me a couple rockets before I made orbit and in the meanwhile I totally forgot about them! Well, gravity scanners are super awesome. They are worth a decent chunk of science, but more importantly are biome dependent. An equatorally orbiting craft can get all of the biomes except for the poles, which is a huge amount of science! This relatively simply craft can't make orbit, but it can absolutely leave the atmosphere, which is good enough for one scan. 1,000 meters per second is the magic number. When the average craft hits 1,000 meters per second, it usually means that it can reach around 75-80 thousand meters, or right where I want to circularize. It's when I turn all the way and prepare for the circularization burn. Except in this case, where I messed up and kept going waaaaay too far. With RCS, this craft could circularize; sadly, at the moment, I have no way to turn after I leave the atmosphere. So for now, we're going far, far away! I grab a gravity scan over Kerbin's oceans. It's not ideal -- water is the easiest biome to grab, and if the craft had gone straight up I could have grabbed Shores instead. Oh well! 25 science is pretty nice. Or only 10; I run out of juice halfway through the transmission! Turns out that gravity scans require far more data than anything else at this point in the game, and they burn through power FAST. Still, as a proof of concept, it's not bad -- this probe design can let me grab quite a few biomes if I'm willing to do it in a slow series of launches, one or two at a time. Luckily, I have other plans. But meanwhile, the probe burns up in the atmosphere. Meet the Airborne 7. My other plans will have to wait; I don't have the science to unlock all the parts I'll need. But in the meantime, I can fill up on nearby gravity zones. The probe is pretty much identical, but since I made it to space easily enough it's carrying a bunch of batteries. I burned north this time, so that I'd fly over some different biomes, and it paid off. This picture is horrible and doesn't even show the top of the curve, but I reach space in a different direction, over land. I start grabbing biomes -- grasslands, highlands -- Annnnnd that's it. Not enough power. I got 31.5 science from this launch, which isn't terrible, but isn't great either. Stupid gravity scans taking up so much room and using up so much electricity! Deciding to take a break from gravity scanners, I use my newfound tons and tons of science to unlock the next manned flight node and to build the spiritual successor to the Bravery -- the Champ 1. The Champ uses more powerful engines to get up to the upper atmosphere, taking a kerbal with it. There are two reasons why I chose to unlock this specific node next. First, the Champ 1 alone will provide me with enough science to cover the cost -- a crew report from the upper atmosphere plus the new goo experiment at both the low and high atmosphere levels. Better yet, the Science Tech node also gives me two new batteries -- I can build an improved series of Airbornes that can actually get some useful data from gravity scans. Still, I decide to fly the Champ mission first -- the next node will also help with the next Airborne model. Best of all, the Champ 1 pays for itself thrice over. The Kerbin World-Firsts blah blah blah wants me to set a new record and is willing to pay big moolah for it. Suckers! The Champ is cheap enough to be built out of a garage and most of the cost will be recovered (assuming Jebediah makes it home, that is). The Champ 1 is a very simple model with a very great view. Three liquid engines give better thrust than a solid booster array would, and more importantly give me room to mount two parachutes. Better yet, a liquid engine plus tank is more expensive than a solid booster, but gives a higher percent of that cost back when recovered -- which means that a safe landing would make this trip practically free. Jeb easily hits 38,000 meters and could probably reach space if the cockpit was rated for the lack of pressure. Not wanting to risk it, I cut the engines early and send him home. The craft lands safely with all engines intact. It could be used again as soon as refueled, but we're done with manned missions for now. Meanwhile, we earn a whopping 80 science between the three experiments, allowing us to purchase one more node and putting us just short of a second! Total cost of the mission: Around 1,000 Kerbbucks. Make that about 23,000 Kerbbucks of pure profit! We've already got upgraded batteries; all we need now is a way to turn the Airborne-class rockets outside of the atmosphere and we can achieve orbit! Luckily, Flight Control is available for research. With RCS thrusters and a tank of monopropellant on board, our ships can turn on a dime. Or on a continent; orbital velocities and all that. Still, I research the new parts and build the upgraded Airborne 8, now RCS capable and with more efficient batteries. My hope is that this craft will reach orbit! So it turns out that when I built the Airborne 8 I screwed up and took off the gravity sensor and when I put it back on I didn't enable mirrored mode. The rocket goes up and comes right back down. You may notice a pair of lights on board the craft. One of the companies asked me to test their lights while on a suborbital trajectory. After this crash, they pulled their offer... Ah well, no harm no foul. It was stupid to turn those lights on anyhow; they use up battery. The Airborne 9 works much better. It doesn't quite have the delta-V to make orbit, sadly; if I could drop the solid core boosters once they are depleted, it might work; but as-is, the liquid engine can't pull all that weight that far. Still, I manage to grab the missing science from the gravity scans over water. Time to rebuild! I grab General Construction; decouplers will let me put much heavier loads into space since I don't have to lug whatever's used up, and a 75 ton limit on the launchpad lets me build big lower stages. I'm confident in my ability to reach orbit now; let's tell that to those guys at the World Record Society. Say hello to the Doohickey 1, first in a new generation of rockets. Four liquid rockets bring a fifth, smaller rocket past the atmosphere, at which point that rocket takes over and brings us into orbit. At 40,000 meters, the lower stage runs out of fuel and is dropped. By that point, the top stage is already moving at 1,000 meters per second. It easily tops off at 100,000 meters, then begins a circularization burn. The only question is, does it have enough juice to bring the periasis to 70,000 or above? The answer is no. The probe's trajectory takes it three quarters of the way around Kerbin, but not all the way. Orbit is not achieved, but the Doohickey 1 is carried far enough to grab a number of gravity scans. Shores and highlands; sadly we already have water and grasslands, which are the other biomes we pass. Back in the labs, we research Advanced Rocketry. A small but slightly more efficient engine and a smaller fuel tank; really not much to see here, but it unlocks the rest of the next generation techs. It seems to me that the Doohickey 1 failed not due to a failure in design, but due to a failure in piloting. A 100 km apoasis is just too high. I decide to chop off a few batteries and try for a lower orbit when flying the Doohickey 1.5. This time we reach 64,000 meters before losing the lower stage, having finished about a fifth of our circularization burn. We have much more delta-V now for circularization. An equatorial orbit is achieved! Just getting into orbit gives us 50 science thanks to that contract. Even better, we can now scan a bunch of biomes! I adjust the orbit, going slightly off the equator, in order to grab a patch of desert, badlands, and mountains. Success! We're up to 129 science! This is a major leap for Kerbalkind. Meanwhile, the military contacts us again. Time for the IDBM 2 -- hopefully we can reach the airport this time. Once again, the less said about that mission, the better. I research Aerodynamics, which unlocks the heat shield -- soon I will retrieve goo from outer space!

Make sure you catch the post on the last page! Year 11, Day 91 Munar Surface As soon as the sun rose in the Munar sky, Matdan got to work. After donning his spacesuit he stepped out of the Armstrong Munar Base and leaped down onto the Mun's grey surface. Kicking up dust, he walked over to the lander. The massive base still stood upon the five engine clusters that had carried it there, but those clusters were damaged, each one missing three or four of its engines. The lateral movement on impact had carried the base towards a hill, which was lucky; if it was heading away from the hill, the base may have tipped over, meaning a lot more work for Matdan and possibly causing serious damage. Luckily, this wasn't the case. Before he left the base, Matdan undocked the engine clusters. Now the huge base rested atop them, unsupported. With a grunt of effort, Matdan started shoving at one of the engine clusters. The Pusher was normally quite heavy, but nearly empty of fuel and under the Mun's lighter gravity, it didn't seem to bad. Matdan managed to push it over. Then, using the controls on the side of the pusher, he activated it. The remaining engines thrust to life, pushing weakly, and the RCS thrusters struggled in vain to keep the engine's course straight. It slowly pushed away, then, once at a safe distance, the engines roared to life. Though they made no sound in the Munar vacuum, Matdan was nevertheless impressed. The engine flew away, tumbling into the distance, before crashing into the side of a nearby hill and exploding. Matdan grunted with satisfaction and heaved at the next engine. Soon enough, all five engines had been moved. As the last engine cluster pulled away, the base landed on its last legs, finally safe and secure on the Munar surface. Matdan smiled as he walked some distance away and planted the KASA flag. "All in a day's work" muttered the first Munar colonist. Stage 2, Mission 1: Complete!

Year 11, Day 90 Kerbal Space Center "Mission Control, we have a problem." Suddenly alert, the two dozen kerbals in the control room looked up at the screen. The dot representing the Armstrong Munar Base had been slowing down over the last ten minutes and was nearly still over the Mun's surface, only falling at a slow pace. "We read you, Matdan. What's the problem?" asked Director Wernher. Though directly managing missions wasn't something he did very often nowadays, he had demanded to be responsible for the safe touchdown of the first permanent outpost on the Mun. "Well, I need to maneuver the craft -- keep the engines pointed retrograde so I can kill horizontal velocity at the same time I slow down my drop. But the docking ports attaching the Pusher engines -- well, they aren't stable enough. I can burn just fine, and I can turn just fine, but if I try to do both at the same time the whole thing shakes itself to moho." For a moment, the kerbals at Mission Control were silent, contemplating their options. Finally, Wernher spoke up. "How bad is it? Can you finish the mission?" There was another delay, then: "No. If the craft doesn't shake itself apart, I'll still be unable to burn accurately enough to slow down to a safe margin. I'm sorry." Mission Control fell silent as the kerbals contemplated their failure. "Very well" started Wernher with a heavy voice. "Burn back into orbit and we'll launch a retrieval craft to --" "Wait!" said a voice. Meshy Kerman, one of the youngest yet most brilliant engineers at Kerbal Space Center, spoke up. She was the one who designed the LV-909 engine that first allowed probes to leave Kerbin's sphere of influence, and rumors that she had more to do with the Poodle than Wernher himself were not as farfetched as they sounded. "I have an idea. Official KASA protocol demands that all landing burns on low-gravity bodies be made with Stability Augmentation Systems and RCS thrusters active. Are you following that procedure?" "I am!" responded Matdan, insulted that his obedience would be questioned at a time like this. "Well, disregard that procedure. Make correction thrusts, turn off RCS, then burn; kill the engines, make corrections, and burn again." "Are you mad?" shouted Wernher. "Without the RCS stabilizers, a burn could send him in the wrong direction! Even if he successfully corrects his aim after burning, he'd be wasting fuel -- landing burns need to be made once, or gravitational acceleration wastes the change in velocity you've already made!" "True," responded Meshy, "But the Armstrong is equipped with enough fuel to land on the Mun three or four times. Why build in so much redundancy if we don't use it when we have to?" For a moment, Wernher considered. Then he nodded. "Alright, Matdan. Try her plan." "Roger that!" came the reply. "Is it working?" asked one of the kerbals sitting in front of the screen. "I'm not sure!" responded Matdan. "I'm not shaking nearly as much, and I've lowered descent velocity to acceptable parameters -- but I'm moving laterally at 19 meters per second. I can stop the base from gaining lateral speed, but it isn't maneuverable enough to slow lateral velocity down." Once more, the kerbals in mission control considered their options. Again, it was Meshy who came up with the solution. "Alright, keep making orientation thrusts only while the engines are killed, but start making translation thrusts to kill lateral velocity. How high are you?" "Twenty K's, and dropping slow." "Then you should be able to slow lateral velocity to four meters per second. Is that within acceptable parameters, Director?" Wernher considered. "It would damage the engines, since you are meant to land on them, but you aren't using them for ascent anyhow. Very well; follow her orders." Minutes passed. Every so often, Matdan would call out his lateral velocity over the intercom -- "Twelve meters per second!" -- and the dot marking his craft approached the Munar surface. Finally, Matdan reported: "One hundred meters above surface and dropping at nine meter per second. Lateral velocity --" he cursed. "Still high. Seven meters per second." "Abort the landing!" shouted Wernher. "Start rising, kill lateral speed, and try again!" "Negative. Fuel levels too low. I'm going in. Twenty meters above surface and dropping at three meters per --" a loud crash came over the radio, like the sound of scrunching metal; then static. A dozen kerbals flicked switches and punched buttons, trying to get the proper readings on their screen. "Matdan! Commander Matdan, answer me right now! What is your situation?" shouted Director Wernher. Finally, the radio crackled again. "--rol, all systems operational. Landing was a little rough but the Armstrong Munar Base is operational. Over." Loud cheers erupted from every throat in the control room. "Congratulations, Matdan! Now, undock the engines and get to work."

I'm a bit ahead in-game compared to my what I have posted -- let's just say that I've interacted with Minmus. Today I had time to either catch up a bit or make some design progress... And I decided to design So the good news is, I've got a design capable of landing on any atmospheric or nonatmospheric body from Moho to Duna and supporting 2 kerbals. Next chance I get I'll update this page, then see about sending Kerbals to Eve. Although I do want to take a detour and make a rover at some point -- not that Matdan can use it -- he's all alone, so he can't leave the base without stopping the study.

Woohoo, someone actually reads this! I'll post an excerpt from the notes of Dr. Wernher after every mission detailing my thought process in carrying it out

Year 11, Day 89 Low Kerbin Orbit "Matdan, you are about to pass over the horizon. All radio contact will cease for about 15 minutes. Do you copy? Over." "Copy that, Mission Control. Matdan out." Far above Kerbin, the lonely kerbal flicked a switch, shutting off the radio. He leaned back in his seat, the airbags which had protected him during ascent having been retracted. 62 miles above the surface of Kerbin, Matdan began to whistle. His tune was interrupted by the crackling of his radio. "I thought I shut you off" muttered Matdan as he reached for the button. He clicked it, and the crackling stopped, only to start again a few seconds later. The crackling grew louder, then suddenly stopped. A clear transmission came through the radio instead: "--ou copy? Over." Surprised, Matdan picked up the microphone. "This is Matdan, I copy loud and clear. Is this Mission Control? I thought we were out of range. Over." "This is not Mission Control, Captain Matdan. This is Prime Minister Derburry. Is Mission Control on the line? Over." Surprised, Matdan hesitated. "The Prime Minister? Err, no, Mission Control can't hear us -- they're using ground-based communication arrays until I start the transfer burn." He hesitated for a moment, then added "With all due respect, sir, why are you talking to me yourself?" For a moment, Matdan waited for a response; then he remembered to take his hand off the transmitter. "Err, over." "I just wanted to personally let you know how important your mission is" responded Derburry "and to thank you for your sacrifice. A mission of indeterminate length to the Mun, all alone -- not every kerbal is so committed to the Kerbin Federation. Over." Matdan's grin threatened to stretch clear past the ends of his face. "Thank you, sir. I really do appreciate that. I do what I do for my nation and my planet, but it is certainly pleasant to be thanked for it -- especially by you." Far below on the surface of Kerbin, Prime Minister Derburry's mouth stretched into a predatory smile. "Good, Matdan, good! I am glad we have come to an understanding. Tell me -- do you, by any chance, know why you were selected for this program, of all the astronauts that KASA has to offer? Certainly, someone who has actually spent time off-planet, like the Commanders Jebediah and Endo, would be more qualified? Why do you think it is that KASA chose to promote you, a fresh recruit, to Commander, and to send you on the first colonization mission?" Matdan hesitated. "I'm... Not sure, sir. They told me it was because Jeb and Endo were being reserved for pilot-intensive missions, whereas a habitation study on the Mun mostly involves sitting around." "Ah, that's where you're wrong, son! They did it because I asked them to." "You... What?" "Yes, you heard that right. I, Prime Minister of the Kerbin Federation, personally requested you to be put in charge of this mission. In fact, you promotion to Commander was only temporary; I have the pleasure of promoting you again, to Head Director of Munar Operations." "But... Why?" "Because this mission is about a lot more than a study of the effects of prolonged exposure to the Munar environment on the kerbal body. This base -- no, colony -- which you will be founding is a matter of national security." Matdan sat straight up in his seat. "National security? But, sir, I have no military history. What can I do?" "The same thing anyone else can" responded the Prime Minister. "Keep a weary eye upon your instruments. The results of your habitation study you can report to KSC, but the Armstrong Munar Base is capable of much more than that. It is capable of tracking NKOs with accuracy unmatched by Kerbin-bound instruments. You will report all unusual NKO encounters directly to the Kerbal Security Bureau, through the secure frequency which your radio is capable of transmitting in. Understand?" Matdan nodded silently before remembering that he was speaking over the radio. "Yes, sir. I won't fail you." Back in Kerbin, the Prime Minister shut off his radio and smiled. Three minutes later, the Armstrong Munar Base returned from the far side of Kerbin and the radio rattled back to life. "Commander Matdan, are you ready to begin the transfer burn? Over." "Director of Munar Operations!" whispered Matdan under his breath, but he got to work.

Year 11, Day 88 KASA Spaceport Once more an enormous rocket was wheeled onto the launchpad of the Kerbal Space Center. This one was even bigger than the last, with eight additional engines in the first stage and six more in the second. The experimental Terminal-class rocket had an enormous payload capacity of over 400 tons -- more than sufficient for its payload: two Pusher-class remote controlled engine clusters, like the one that was already docked to the Armstrong Munar Base. Even as the first rocket prepared for liftoff, a second was being pushed out towards the launchpad. Eight hundred kerbals worked day and night since Director Wernher's strange order to simultaneously change the lifter and move the launch forwards by almost 24 hours. When questioned, the Director would only say that his orders came from high up, and so the other kerbals left the matter alone and got to work. The first rocket wasn't ready until 15 minutes before the launch, but as the deadline approached the final struts were locked into place and the rocket was ready. To Wernher's relief, even the experimental rocket and double payload didn't disrupt the launch and docking process. Within a few hours, the Armstrong Munar Base was ready for transfer.

Year 11, Day 87. KASA Spaceport The massive rocket stood on the launchpad, its mighty tanks lined up in all their glory. Atop the enormous vehicle, held in place with dozens of gleaming metal struts, stood the Armstrong Munar Base which will one day stand upon the Mun. A single kerbal sat in the padded chair in the center of the habitation module, straps and cushions covering him from all directions. "Ready for takeoff" he muttered into the microphone built into his suit's faceplate. "Roger that" came the static-filled reply from KSC. "Liftoff in T-60 seconds". In a tower a mile away, Wernher von Kerman stood, gripping the back of the chair he stood in front of. "Sit down, Wernher" said one of the other kerbals in the control room. "You're making me nervous". "Sit down?" stammered Wernher. "My career is riding on this launch, and you want me to sit down!" The other kerbals in the control room sighed. Director Wernher von Kerman was under a lot of stress, and he tended to take it out on his underlings, delivering verbal lashings that he would then spend weeks apologizing for. But before anything like that could happen, the door to the command room opened and three kerbals in dark suit strolled in. Two took their posts on either side of the door while the third marched towards the center of the room. He scanned it, his eyes falling on each kerbal, and then he raised a hand to his earpiece. "Room's clear. Bring him in". A few moments later, a fourth suited kerbal walked into the room at the Prime Minister's side. "Good, I'm not late!" he said as he walked up and shook hands with each of the kerbals in the command center. He stood before the window, arms behind his back. "T-10 seconds. Good luck, Kerman" said the kerbal to his side. "5. 4. 3. 2. 1." He pushed the big red button that lit up the command console in front of him. With a monumental roar, the rocket sprang into the air, carrying the entire Munar base with it. A few minutes later, the rocket had disappeared into the sky, the trail of smoke that still lingered being the only sign of its presence. "Now, Director, I had a few questions for you --" began the Prime Minister. "Shush! Not now!" responded Wernher. "The first stage is about to separate!" The kerbal sitting at the control panel muttered as she furiously pushed the buttons in front of her in some strange and complex order. Finally, the kerbal sat back, sweat glistening on her forehead. "Separation of first stage confirmed. Beginning orbital burn now." Even as the first rocket was making its way to orbit, a second was pushed forwards towards the launchpad. Just as big as the first, this one did not carry a base; instead, it carried a remote controlled array of engines. The engine cluster would make its way up and rendezvous with the base, docking on; once all 5 engine clusters were docked, the entire base would be pushed into Munar orbit, where a skycrane would meet the base and grab on, eventually lowering the base onto the Mun's surface. As the rocket was being carried towards the launchpad atop massive rails, the Prime Minister approached Wernher again. "This launch is what I meant to talk to you about. When are the other rocket clusters supposed to be launched?" Clearly annoyed by the interruption, Wernher responded, "Not for another three days. We need to get the base ready, and --" "Push it forwards". Wernher seemed dumbfounded by the interruption. "Impossible!" he responded after a moment. "We need to--" "You need to launch it tonight. And not one at a time, either. The file you gave me -- I understand that these launchers are Sovereign-class launchers, yes?" Wernher nodded. "Well, your file spoke of Terminal-class launchers, capable of carrying up to 400 tons. And I understand that these engine clusters weigh 165 tons each. I want you to launch tomorrow, using Terminal-class launchers and carrying two clusters at a time". Wernher paused for a moment, taking in his new orders. "That can't be done, sir. We only have two Terminal-class launchers ready --" "Excellent! You will only need two launches!" "AND they are HIGHLY experimental. And trying to get them ready in just one day, it's --" "It's exactly what you will do, if you want to remain director of this space program!" growled the Prime Minister menacingly. "Understand?" Wernher nodded silently. He feared that if the launch failed, he would be blamed -- although he had warned against it from the start. But there was nothing he could do; for now, he needed to launch the first engine cluster.

Year 11, Day 3. 0:00:00 hours. Deep underground in a nuclear shelter which has sat empty since the end of the Second Kerbstomp War, the Prime Minister of Kerbin is ushered into his seat. Worn screens line the walls of the shelter, thick and outdated by modern standards. A large, ornate wooden table sits at the center of the shelter -- the famous table where the Unification Treaty that ended wars on Kerbin was signed nearly fifty years ago, and the room from which the War was directed. Prime Minister Derburry Kerman sat down at the chair at the head of the table, flanked by a pair of suited kerbals wearing dark sunglasses. He put on his glasses and picked up the plain-looking file sitting on the table, opened it, and began to read. A few minutes later, a short kerbal with a pencil-thin mustache and a pair of thick sunglasses walked into the room. His white lab coat stood at stark contrast to the security's black suits and the Prime Minister's navy suit. "Wernher von Kerman, I presume?" asked the Prime Minister. "Indeed" responded the other kerbal. "I am here to inform you of the situation which is developing." Wernher picked up a remote from the far end of the table and pushed a button. The monitors flickered to life, their image slightly grainy but certainly usable. "As you know, we have outfitted the tracking station at the KASA spaceport with the capability to detect NKO's -- that is, Near Kerbal Objects" began Wernher von Kerman. "Indeed" muttered the Prime Minister, "I signed twelve million kerbucks to your agency for that task". "Well, that was money well-spent" countered Wernher. "As any child with a telescope can see, we have captured four asteroids which were on an impact path with Kerbin and brought them into a stable orbit". The monitors flicker again as Wernher plays with the controls, and four large, potato-like objects orbiting Kerbin can be seen. "But asteroids aren't the only thing the tracking station can see" continued the scientist. "Since early last month, we have been tracking a certain object which has been travelling along a very irregular path". The monitors flicker again, showing Kerbin, the Mun, and Minmus in their orbits. A few marked and coded asteroids, their paths highlighted in different colors based on their trajectory's proximity to Kerbin, also appear. Three other objects show up on the map, marked with grey question marks. "Two of these objects have been identified as asteroids, and their projected trajectory mapped for the next few hundred years. The third... Well, look at this" Wernher continues as the Prime Minister sits up, interested. "Here is the projected path of Object KEU176" begins Wernher, showing a dotted line that crosses near the Mun and is then flung out far away. "Here is what actually happened". The object comes closer and closer to the Mun, finally being pulled by its gravity; but at the lowest point in Munar orbit, it suddenly slows down. It slows until it is captured by the Mun, and orbits it for a few revolutions. Then, on its third pass of the Mun, it speeds up rapidly and flings away out of sensor range. "That sort of trajectory is completely and utterly inconsistent with an unpowered object" begins Wernher. "In fact, such maneuvers require power -- and lots of it. We calculate trajectory corrections around 2,400 delta-V to slow down as it did, followed by a second correction burn of 1,500 delta-V--" "Wait just a moment!" thunders the Prime Minister. "You are telling me that this -- this object, is powered, somehow? Like a spacecraft?" "Exactly like a spacecraft, yes!" says Wernher. "Further, based on our calculations of the object's mass based on its initial velocity and reactions to the Mun's gravitational field -- well, no need to bore you with the details. But we calculate that the mass of the object is on the order of a few thousand tons". The Prime Minister blinked. "That sounds like a lot. Is that a lot?" Wernher nodded. "Not only is that a large mass, but we have no known means of delivering the observed changes in velocity at the speed we have observed to an object that large. Whatever -- WHOMever -- was piloting that craft has access to technology far more advanced than ours". The Prime Minister nodded. "Well, Director Wernher, I believe that the reaction to this threat falls under KASA jurisdiction. What do you propose we do?" Director Wernher swallowed before answering. "Do you recall my proposals for bases on the foreign bodies of the Kerbol system?" the Prime Minister nods. "Well, we should be able to outfit those bases with tracking modules with only small changes to the original designs. With manned tracking centers across the Kerbol system, should the anomaly arrive again we will be able to accurately track its progress, and perhaps derive its point of origin". The Prime Minister nodded. "Very well. You will have the funding. Get to work!" Wernher nods, excited. "Of course, sir. We should have the first launch ready within the year!" As he departed, Prime Minister Derburry turned to one of his men. "Get me the Kerbtagon. I need to ready Kerbin's nuclear stockpile -- and to supplement it with modern designs."

Stage 2 Mission 1: Munar Base Codename: Armstrong Base The Eeloo mission earned me the science I needed to pick up the Colonization tech. This tech gives me everything I need to build a self-sustaining base. Of course, colonization missions are possible without self-sustaining technology; but sending hundreds of tons of life support kegs to the Mun every few weeks doesn't sound like a lot of fun. So instead, my goal is to build a fully self-sustaining base from the start. Now, the center of any base is the living quarters. BTSM has a single command pod appropriate for colonization; the YU-GON-SOLNG habitation and science module. It only takes a single kerbal to finish a habitation study, but if I send two the habitation module can act as a science lab. Since I've already got pretty much everything I need from the Mun, I will only send a single kerbal, but allow modular support. Maybe later I can dock some more life support generators and send a second kerbal with a rover in order to grab the surface samples from other biomes. The next question is that of redundancy. The Mun's sidereal period is 1 day and 14 hours; since I want redundancy I will make my calculations using 45 hours, which is obviously larger than 38. I need batteries that can keep the base powered for a full 45 hour period; this way I account for things like Kerbin coming between the Mun and the sun. The habitation module uses 9 units of life support per kerbal per hour. A recycler reduces this by a .2 multiplier. 9/Kerbal/Hour is the same as 216 per Kerbal per day; recycled, that's 43.2 a day, or 1.8 an hour. The module comes with 1,000 units of life support, giving me 23 days -- more than enough to get to the Mun in the first place or send a rescue mission in the event of a system failure. So I don't need to send any kegs; just the module. Now, I'll be using 43.2 life support units a day. The processor creates 9.7 units of life support each day. That's 4.5 life support processors to keep up with the kerbal; clearly we can't send half a processor, so call it 5. Because of the way symmetry work, I can either send 4 in radial symmetry and one in a stack or 6. At 15 tons, these processors aren't something to send just for fun. I'll pass on the additional redundancy and go with 5. So I've got a weird little base with 5 processing units, a habitation module, and a recycling unit. I'm already at 90 tons and I still don't have electricity, nor a way to land this thing on the Mun -- much less a way to get the lander and base in orbit. Time to look at power. The processors use 21 electricity each minute. The pod uses 13.3 and the recycler uses another 3.3. That brings me to 121.6 electricity per minute, or 7264 electricity an hour. And we want 45 hours of juice... that's just about 330,000 electric charge. The best battery pack I have has 4,000 electricity. I'm going to need 85 batteries weighing in at 17 tons if I want to send that to orbit -- which, actually, isn't all that bad. Adding the batteries brings the ship up to 146 tons and makes it look a little weirder. After adding in some struts for stability, the next step is to figure out how we'll charge this thing -- getting something this huge into orbit only for it to die 45 hours later seems like a waste. We know that we will be using up around 122 electricity per minute; that means that we'd need just 3 Gigantors to power the whole thing. Since we already have 4 towers built into the design, though, we may as well place 4 solar panels. That gives us 216 electricity each minute -- not too bad. During hours of sunlight, we'll be getting 94 electricity each minute -- which means that it will take 68 hours to fully charge the batteries. That's not good enough; our plans count on the batteries being fully charged each evening. 4 solar panels would delay the inevitable, but every night the battery banks will be a weaker until they run out completely. If a day is 38 hours long, we need to be fully charged in 19 hours -- let's call it 13, since the panels can't be fully effective in the evening and at dawn. The actual battery banks have 384,000 units of electricity; that means we need about 30,000 units each hour. That's about 500 a minute, which takes 10 solar panels. Putting 2 on each tower (including the central one) should be sufficient, but I'd like to keep the central tower clear; instead I'll put 3 on each of the outer towers. It takes some jiggling, but I arrange the panels so that all 12 can be deployed at once. The base now has everything it needs -- life support, electricity, and... actually, that's it. But it has unlimited amounts of both of those things, which is nice. The final base, which includes things like landing legs and a science jr. lab on top of the base, weighs in at 168 tons. Enough life support kegs to last 5 years -- just under 80 of them -- weigh in at about 120 tons. Between the habitation module itself, the structural elements of the ship, the return craft, and so on, the 40 tons of difference shrink pretty fast. So a self-sustaining base is certainly the way to do things if the goal is to send a base up in one launch. Next time -- I figure out how to launch a blue whale to the Mun!

Mission 6: Eeloo Probe Landing Codename: Vaulter II The Vaulter II used the exact same design as the Vaulter I. That's not exactly optimal; in fact, it's far from it. The Vaulter II is geared for an atmospheric landing. But I was in a rush, so I sent the Vaulter II off to Eeloo. I had planned to only do a flyby, but when I arrived at Eeloo I found that I was travelling at about 1 km/s and had about 2 km/s of dV left. I decided to land, so I let the probe drift closer and closer to Eeloo and then burned retrograde. Surprisingly, it worked; I landed with barely any fuel left in the tanks. With the science I got from the mission, I got the science to unlock Colonization. Pictures of the Eeloo mission follow; after that I'll post my thoughts about Stage 2.

I might steal that idea for my own mission report when it comes to base and station names...

Mission 4: Dres Probe Landing Codename: Interplanetary III The mission to Dres was very similar to the one to Moho. So similar, in fact, that I don't have much to say about it. The solar panels did cut out as I neared Dres -- they still helped slow down consumption, but they no longer covered it. Still, the probe core isn't very energy intensive and my engines still helped fill the batteries, so things weren't too bad. I'll just put up some pictures now. You may notice that there are no pictures of the landing. OK, I admit it; Dres didn't go as smoothly as Moho. The landing shots would consist of a blow up fuel tank, legs everywhere, and the battery, science parts, and probe core sitting in a little dip on the side of a hill that they've rolled down for about 15 minutes. ... I think I'll keep those to myself. The Dres mission brought me close to the science I need for the next stage, but not quite there. I needed just over a thousand more science. Rather than do anything complicated, I decided to go with a simple mission to low sun orbit. Mission 5: Low Sun Orbit and Impact Codename: Sundiver I The Sundiver mission was a very simple one. I took the Interplanetary craft and launched it into a 100X100 KM orbit. From there, I pointed prograde while on the side closer to the sun and burned as hard as I could. That style of burn would take me away from Kerbin while burning retrograde to the sun. 6,000 m/s of dV later, I was diving towards the sun with a periasis inside the star itself. A few days later I passed through low sun orbit long enough to take readings and send them back. After 4 hours of falling, the probe crashed into the sun, putting me at around 15,500 science. With the inner solar system thoroughly probed and so little science remaining before I unlock Colonization, I decide to take the old Vaulter I design and send it to Eeloo for a flyby. The results of that mission are still pending.

Mission 3: Moho Probe Landing Codename: Vaulter II Long ago, the first probe to the Jool system was called the Traveler I. The Traveler I used revolutionary reaction cores to allow probes to reach the Jool system. Reactors were heavy, though, and so the probes tended to be sluggish and slow. As a result, though many Traveler-class ships made it to Jool, none ever managed to land on any of its moons. Eventually I came up with a new plan. Laythe was my target. It had an atmosphere, and thus would be much easier to land on. The last Traveler was redesigned with a Laythe landing in mind, and sent to the Jool system. Unfortunately, it couldn't slow down enough and burned up in Laythe's atmosphere. Enter the Vaulter. The Vaulter I was custom-built to deliver a probe core and enough electricity to transmit my findings all the way to Laythe. It worked flawlessly, aside from landing in the ocean preventing me from using a seismograph. Following the Vaulter I had enough science to turn to asteroids, which gave me the science to turn to manned missions. As a result, that first Vaulter was the last of its kind. But with manned mission prospects running out fast, I decided to go back to the reliable old Vaulter for some inner solar system landings. Moho is a planet that I have mostly avoided until now. I've done a Moho flyby before, but never a safe landing. So I took the reactor off of the old Vaulter, replaced the probe's heat shield with landing legs and the reactor with a landing engine, slapped on some solar panels, and called it a day. The Vaulter II was ready for action. Takeoff and orbit insertion were very routine with such a small ship; soon enough I was in orbit. Moho happened to be in a close to proper position, so I fired my engines right away and burned towards the sun. Soon enough, we see Moho in the distance. The sun seems much bigger from this close; good news for our solar panels. With Moho being so small, the capture burn is quite long and uses up all of the remaining fuel outside of the lander. We discover that sunrise on Moho is a very beautiful thing. After circularization, surface image scanning commences. Once that's done, the lander deploys. The landing goes off without a hitch, science is collected and sent home, and the probe is left on the surface.