GoSlash27

I think Twitter is the primary source. Somebody will be sure to relay it in this thread as soon as it comes out (probably in 45 minutes from now)...

There was, and it had 11 boosters mounted on it. But I believe it was never officially posted as a riddle, so I didn't count it. Best, -Slashy

Sure. It's common knowledge here, so I'm not spoiling anything. The answers thus far have been "Apollo 10", "Venera 9" and "Saros cycle 8". We are therefore confident that tomorrow's answer will be "something-or-other 7". The first riddle, posted 2 days ago: A capsule over the Mun with the crew being "L.Gordon Kerman, Jr" "Donn F. Kerman" and "Edgar Kerman". Their being over the Mun denotes a connection, and those names are weird for KSP. Googling the names gives you Gordo Cooper, Don Eisley, and Ed Mitchell. The only time those 3 were together was as the backup crew for Apollo 10 and the altitude was Apollo 10's CPA to the lunar surface. Next riddle was yesterday and somewhat trickier. An orbiter named Mares and a lander named Envision at Eve with a bunch of numbers on the mission clock. Envision and Eve both point to Venus, and "Mare/ Envision" is an anagram for "Venera Mission" Some google-fu reveals that the numbers in the mission clock correspond exactly with the numbers for Venera 9. Today was a Kerbal staring at a red mun and a series of numbers "6585, 21, 7, 29, 7, 22.". A red mun is clearly a munar eclipse. Googling "eclipse 6585" reveals that a Saros cycle is 6,585 days long. Looking at the Wikipedia article about Saros cycles shows that cycle #8 has it's eclipse types by occurrence in a pattern that happens to match 21,7,29,7, and 22. Therefore Saros cycle 8. So that's it so far. Tomorrow's riddle will be something-7 and you have an idea of how they're thinking when they put these together. Best, -Slashy

Probably tongue in cheek, but doubtful if not. You don't get your hype train rolling where nobody's expected to see it. That's also bad PR. Best, -Slashy

Sorry? Are you trying to solve the countdown riddles on your own? If so, I'll keep my mouth shut. Best, -Slashy

I'm thinkin' the former. Having a hyped-up countdown to the release date would be bad PR. Best, -Slashy

Aye. googling "6585 eclipse" should sort the rest of it out in short order. Best, -Slashy - - - Updated - - - It's not. It's a countdown. Best, -Slashy

days to go!

Ha, 8th Saros cycle. Good one! Best, -Slashy - - - Updated - - - The figure 8 is confirmation bias. That "figure 8" is visible every time you look at the Mun. Best, -Slashy

There are no solar or lunar eclipses upcoming within the time frame. I'm thinking eclipses may be involved somehow, but not central to the answer. Best, -Slashy

I got a hit on the sequence "6585 21 7 22" in the greenwich astrographic catalogue. Object # 6585, diameter 21, etc. limky I doubt it means anything, tho'...

googling... Luna 8 and Ranger 8 were both launched in '65. Inspecting both for matching numbers. *edit* I didn't see anything compelling for any of these missions. I also checked for upcoming lunar eclipses. Nothing there either...

The pic looks almost completely devoid of any useful info. A kerbal standing in a field facing East (I can tell by the Mun). The Mun looks like it's reddish (munar eclipse?) Nothing else I see going on there. Best, -Slashy

"Today's #KerbalCountdown riddle: 6585, 21, 7, 29, 7, 22. Full resolution image at http://i.imgur.com/46PRtNo.png "

Mares/ Envision is an anagram of Venera Mission *facepalm* Never even occurred to me to wonder why "Mares" seemed so out of place... *EDIT* PLEASE DON'T REP THIS POST! I didn't figure it out and getting repped for this makes me feel dirty. Sorry, -Slashy

Touche! As i understand it, that one has been especially difficult to sort out. But by your own admission, they have been trying to kill it. My point is they're probably not going to introduce fairings that make it impossible to get your payload into orbit intact and then just release it that way, thus killing their proverbial golden goose. After all, a space program simulator game that causes your rockets to self- destruct when you release the shrouds would be bad for sales. MGMT: "How's it going?" QA: "Every time we get to shroud release, the shroud takes out our rockets" MGMT: "Close enough! Let's ship!" ^ Probably not how things work there Best, -Slashy

Honestly, it's not that I'm not sympathetic, but don't you think Squad would notice during QA that the fairings are blowing up rockets and fix it if it's an issue? And also we're talking about the KSP community. You think we can't come up with a workaround if it's an issue? I still say let's wait for more info before getting all up in arms over this. Not terribly popular, I know... Best, -Slashy

Just speculating, but it seems to me that if we can find 9 things that point to Venera 9, then one of them would be a coincidence. If, OTOH, there are 8 things that point to Venera 9, then there's something else in there that was supposed to be a clue but didn't work out. I would guess it would be the latter, since 9 clues would reinforce the conclusion. Best, -Slashy

8 and a half clues. Clearly they have something in there that they consider a "sort-of" clue. Perhaps one that's coincidental or one that's botched? We should be able to find 8 or 9 things in this pic that point to Venera 9. Best, -Slashy

Eight. Best, -Slashy

Haha... If this isn't belittling, I'd hate to see what is! I'm personally not wound- up about it. I would prefer to have smexy clamshell fairings, but it won't break my game experience if I don't get it. I don't consider caring about it a medical condition. Best, -Slashy

Could be any number of missions. It'll be fun finding out! Best, -Slashy

Upon further reflection, I think you folks have nailed it. I think today's screencap is a reenactment of Venera 9. The 6h 6m 0s may just be a coincidence, tho'; a by-product of getting the required 53m mission counter on the lander? Best, -Slashy

Assuming the current logic is sound (not really sure), we have 11 boosters Apollo 10 and Venera 9 Their official word on the "Venera" angle is this: Not sure what that means. Best, -Slashy

Reeveli, That's the most exact orbit match I've ever seen! O_O Glad you got it sorted out, -Slashy