Norcalplanner

Kerbal R&D allows you to spend science points to upgrade parts. It can be a bit overpowered in stock scale, but makes sense for upscale systems.

Can you post a picture of the craft? It might help the suggestions be more targeted and/or specific.

Spent some time working on a SSTO spaceplane for Tellumo in my heavily modded GPP 3.2x career. Using the power of Karbonite and Kerbal R&D, I've come up with this not-terribly-elegant design: After lifting off with a full load of fuel, it begins filtering Karbonite out of the atmosphere, then converting it to liquid fuel on the fly to feed the upgraded Rapiers and LV-Ns at the back. Right now it reaches LGO with 7,000 m/s left in the tank, so I'm cautiously optimistic that it may work on Tellumo (which requires 11 km/s to get to orbit in 3.2x). I'm a little concerned about upper stage TWR, though. We'll just have to see if it works. Here's a shot during reentry, heading back to KSC:

Chapter 16 - Lili Investigation, Boots on Thalia, and a Side Quest KABOOM administration is beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed. There are a lot of balls in the air, so to speak, with missions at or heading to nearly every body in the solar system. Things are getting a bit disjointed. The decision is made that only one manned interplanetary mission will be run at a time, to minimize possible loss of Kerbal life and keep everyone's blood pressure at reasonable levels. Jumping to the outer planets briefly, one of the Hermes III probes reaches Tellumo, then intercepts Lili. Orbiting Lily is a uniquely disorienting experience - Lili spins fast for its size, the orbital velocity around Lili is extremely low, but Lili orbits around Tellumo at a breakneck pace. Landing on Lili anywhere other than the poles is a tricky challenge, as Lili's surface velocity is greater than its orbital velocity. Eventually a method is found to keep the lander planted solidly on the surface near the equator so that science readings can take place. Interestingly enough, there's only [REDACTED], but the moonlet has [REDACTED]. Might make an interesting spot for a base. Near the poles, of course. After a speedy high-energy transit, Jeb and Bill arrive at Thalia. The planet definitely doesn't look friendly. Tortuga Station, Hermes IV, and Monarch IV arrive shortly thereafter. Here's Monarch IV, carrying six commsats to establish comm networks around Eta and Thalia. The last commsat going into place around Thalia, at a 5,000 km circular orbit. The little ant engines are great for this sort of work - you can thrust limit them on the fly down to 0.5%, then get your orbital periods within a few hundredths of a second of each other. Tortuga Station arrives at Thalia, and heads to an orbit of [REDACTED] km, coplanar with Eta. Why that altitude? Because that's where a workable concentration of Karbonite can be found. The Trey heads in to dock. Bill and Jeb look forward to getting a chance to stretch their legs and get away from the other's BO for a little while. Refreshed and refueled, Jeb and Bill head over to Eta first. As soon as they do, the two rally contracts are completed. Over 2.5 million funds is deposited into KABOOM's account... which is already way too big per my RP rule. Dangit. Bill and Jeb head down. Mindful of some of the more "enthusiastic" terrain previously mapped out by the earlier Hermes III probe, a flat landing site is chosen. Jeb and Bill's arrival on the surface of Eta make the front page of the New Kerbal Times. Although it was very challenging to get here, the two can't help but think that parts of Eta are very similar to Iota. They visit three more biomes, gathering surface samples and taking reports from each, before heading back up to Tortuga Station for a quick breather. Next up - Thalia. While Jeb and Bill rest up, the Cornelius VII arrives at its destination - low Ciro orbit. Cornelius V had previously traveled within 2.5 million km of Ciro, but Cornelius VII is going a lot lower. With upgraded heat resistance on all parts of the probe and three medium deployable radiators, it's hoping to find the near-mythical element known as Karborundum. Rumored to be the best fuel available, and commanding exorbitant prices, its acquisition in useable amounts will shift KABOOM's manned exploration efforts into high gear. Cornelius VII was successful. The monstrous-yet-assembled-in-secret Apollo I craft is wheeled out to the pad, and launched with little fanfare. Chances of failure with this craft are high, because it's heading to an altitude of only [REDACTED] km above Ciro, where Corenlius VII found a [REDACTED] concentration of Karborundum. Apollo I wastes no time, and conducts a massive ejection burn to get into the proper solar orbit. Not shown is the 5m Dual-Penguin powered upper stage, which conducted the first 3 km/s of the ejection burn. A small reactor and some solar panels provide power for the craft. Back to Thalia. Jeb and Bill have cast off from Tortuga Station, and are heading down to Thalia's surface. All parts have had their heat resistance increased with Kerbal R&D, and three of the medium radiators have been fitted. Hopefully this will work. Alas, things didn't work. Although the craft successfully set down on Thalia briefly, the camera malfunctioned and didn't capture the event. It turns out that one key part, the radial attachment points which connect the main fuselage to the nacelles, were not upgraded. With the radiators attached to the nacelles, certain incineration awaits our crew if those radial attachment points fail. Therefore, after touching the surface of Thalia for only 20 seconds or so, the craft heads skyward once more. A new design will be needed for future expeditions. The Trey makes it back to Tortuga Station, where they left the auxiliary fuel tank module before heading down to Thalia. Although Jeb and Bill are shaken, it's nothing some medicinal brandy and rest can't cure. It's decided that they'll pass the time cataloging their Eta samples and playing Parcheesi until the return window opens up. The Cornelius VII probe swings by Ciro again, but this time in a polar orbit - it changed its inclination at apoapsis so that it could grab some science from something other than Ciro's equatorial regions. This final stage uses one of the most powerful Argon-powered thrusters from NFP, and packed over 50 km/s of delta V with a full tank. Long burn times, though. Apollo I arrives at its target altitude around Ciro, then begins harvesting Karborundum using three of the largest collectors. The apoapsis of the orbit is lowered inside of Icarus's orbit to prevent any unintended gravity assists. This burn is completed using some of the freshly-harvested Karborundum being pumped through a 2.5m fusion rocket motor. Much shorter burn times than the NFP engine on Cornelius VII. After a few more orbits, Apollo I's task is complete. With a full tank of Karborundum, it's time to head back to Gael... in the next chapter.

Ummm... errr... that was, of course, supposed to be "...to Sustainer Station above Ceti to top off the tanks before heading to Thalia to top off the tanks". They'll get to Thalia soon enough.

J.J. Abrams would be proud.

I did a couple studies in 1.1 regarding ascent profiles in both stock and in RSS. Here's the link to the stock version: Here's the takeaway from the OP in the linked thread: 1. Launch with an initial TWR of at least 1.4. Piloting gets more difficult when it's over 1.7. 2. Don't worry about drag - gravity losses are much larger and more important, unless you reach orbital velocity below 30 km.. 3. Ignore the flame effects. Pay attention to the temperature gauges. 4. At higher thrust levels, crank it to the east immediately after launching, but be precise about it. 5. Try to keep vertical velocity below 500 m/s. If it's over 700 m/s, you're going to have noticeably higher gravity losses. 6. Getting a rocket to orbit in stock for less than 3,200 m/s of delta V is very doable. Using less than 3,100 m/s is a harder but still achievable goal.

Chapter 15 - Interplanetary Preparations (aka Thalia, We're Heading Your Way) [Editorial mode on] I got in several good play sessions in the last week, culminating in some big milestones and major developments. Because of the sheer volume of events, this post and the next are going to be a bit lighter on details than some others, and lean more heavily on pictures. Feel free to chime in if you want to know more about a particular mission or craft design. [Editorial mode off] In a choice that surprised nobody, KABOOM administration tapped Bill and Jeb to be the first Kerbals to head to another planet in the Trey. But first, it's time to resupply some stations. Three greenhorns head up with a bunch of supplies to top off Conqueror and Thunderer Stations. They'll also relieve one of the crews. Docking with Conqueror, transferring supplies and rotating crew. The former crew of Conqueror Station heads out to Thunderer, and relieves them. KABOOM HR is trying to get everyone more experience. Thunderer's crew comes in hot back to Gael. Hitting the top of the atmosphere at 6 km/s, they used nearly all the ablator and endured some serious G's. A lesser crew would have passed out, but these are all experienced hands and stayed conscious. Accolades are given by Final Frontier. Funds are now up over 10 million, even though funds and science were both previously dialed back to 50% levels. The hard and fast "keep it under 5 million" rule isn't holding up very well. We'll still launch big impressive things on a regular basis to chew through funds, though. Another Hermes probe is sent aloft to support the upcoming Kerballed Thalia mission. Tired of keeping track of all the Hermes III variants, this new iteration is christened the Hermes IV. This variant has more and larger radiators, as well as upgraded parts. Because of the surplus of funds, and to stack the deck in favor of success for the upcoming Thalia mission, Tortuga Station is launched aboard a new 5m lifter design. Although relatively small compared to other stations, it still has six seats, a science lab, and the ability to turn Karbonite into not only fuel, but also water and oxygen. It's going to head for a high Thalia orbit. Bill and Jeb head up to the Trey in a Bluebird and transfer to the mission craft about 50 days before the transfer window. In order to complete the Thalia 4 and Eta 3 rally missions, they'll need to go to Iota and Ceti first. After a quick dip into Iota's SOI, the intrepid crew heads to Sustainer Station above Thalia to top off the tanks. Docked with Sustainer, and a good view of the Bacchus Packus fuel and supplies module. Some experiments are clinging to the outside of the TAC-LS container, since the Trey was primarily designed to be fast, not studious. Bill and Jeb leave Ceti and head for Leviathan Station, both to top off again and wait for the departure window. This station was launched a while ago, but not featured until now. It's a fuel-making station in a 7,700 km orbit of Gael with a single engineer on board. However, the Karbonite concentration is very low, so it's slow work. Leviathan Station also has more LF tankage than Sustainer. Oops. Tortuga Station was launched with a Karbonite distiller, but no converter. A quick and cheap rocket brings up the mission part and docks it to the rear. KABOOM's practice of throwing an extra docking port or two onto most craft pays off yet again. With extra funds burning a hole in KABOOM's proverbial pocket, it's decided to send some commsats to Thalia as well. The Monarch IV is a new design using a 5m LFO core and no SRBs. Dangit. Old habits are hard to break. The 5m lifter was outfitted with enough parachutes to allow a successful Stage Recovery event. My tightwad nature and my agency's need to spend funds are in direct conflict. With a bit of time to kill before the Thalia window, the powered lander on the Hermes probe around Niven is sent down. The unaerodynamic design isn't a good fit for Niven. Only two biomes are reached before the lander runs out of fuel. Nothing to see here. Move along. The big moment has finally arrived. Bill and Jeb lower their peri to 205 km at the right point in their orbit so that they get a proper Oberth-optimized ejection burn. So long, Gael - we'll see you in a year or so. The Hermes IV departs for Thalia shortly thereafter. Monarch IV, with six commsats and an improved nuclear upper stage, brings up the rear. What's this? One final probe, the Cornelius VII, is also launched towards the inner part of the solar system. But it's not heading to Thalia. We'll find out where it's going... in the next chapter.

Does anyone else using this pack also have Karbonite installed? For some reason I can't seem to get the atmospheric engines to work, at least not on Gael. It's as if the IntakeAtm resource isn't defined - every one of the Karbonite jet and UHB turbofan engines flames out as soon as the engine is staged, with the right-click menu. I'm starting to trouble-shoot, and Karbonite seemed to work fine in a stock-ish install. Remove the custom "Improved Karburetors" config file included with GPP had no effect in my modded save - all the engines are still starved for IntakeAtm. Since I'm also running 70-odd other mods, including Sigma Dimensions for the 3.2x rescale, it very well could be something else. I'm just looking for a quick bit of information along the lines of "do you have Karbonite-fueled engines working in your GPP save" to make sure that I'm the only one with this problem.

Much more electricity is used... without an engineer?

Does anyone know what sort of effect engineers have on the various bits of Karbonite/Karborundum harvesting and conversion parts? I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of various manned and unmanned craft designs, and the Karbonite thread disappeared.

I think there may be a scenario, using a Karbonite-fueled jet and Karbonite intakes, where it's possible to fly around pretty much indefinitely. At the very least, a spaceplane outfitted with Karbonite tanks, drills, and an on-board converter should be able to use the Karbonite jets for the first part of the ascent, then turn the converter on and make LF in real time to feed any LV-Ns on board.

Karborundum has been located in two locations! Now I have to choose between trying to gather some from a ridiculously low concentration where it's moderately difficult to get to, or a healthy concentration where it's incredibly difficult to get to.

Have you gotten up to any of the fun overpowered engines yet from Near Future, Karbonite, or Kerbal Atomics in the tech tree? I seem to remember you saying that you were holding off on upgrades so you'd be forced to use the new stuff. That said, GPP is already much larger than stock even without a rescale, so I totally understand if you want to scale things back (ba-dum) a bit. Do what's fun. I miss some of your awesome spaceplanes, and they're the things that probably suffer most with an upscaled system. Honestly, 3.2x in GPP feels a lot like a 6.4x game in stock. I'm still a bit intimidated by Tellumo in 3.2x, and haven't figured out how to attack it - 11 km/s to get back to orbit, going through some very thick atmosphere for the first part of the ascent... [shudder]

When I've done rescales on existing saves like you describe, I'll bring all my Kerbals home. That way I save all my personnel, science, and funds for certain. My current 3.2x save may inflate later to 6.4x or larger, but only after I've done some more large things (like down and back on Tellumo, which requires 11 km/s in 3.2x). It will probably also depend on when I can set up infrastructure for a reliable Karborundum supply.

Chapter 14 - Thalia's Curse, and Something Completely Different With the work at Niven done for the moment, it's time to focus KABOOM's attention back on Thalia. The old Hermes IIIc probe, which contains minimal radiators, is ready to cast off its lander. As soon as the lander detaches, something explodes on the probe mothership. Knowing that we're likely fighting the clock with regard to heating, the explosion is ignored for the time being, and the lander heads down. This earlier version of the lander only has a single radiator. Will it be enough? This question prevented KABOOM mission planners from selecting the Thalia Probes strategy. We'll just forgo the extra funds and rep, just in case we can't do it. Yes, that single radiator will be enough. Although parts of the craft are hot, and the radiator is running at 95%+, we're down on Thalia. Science is quickly gathered and transmitted back to Gael. As per standard practice, a second set of experiments is performed and saved to the science container for later analysis. KABOOM mission controllers then made their fatal mistake. A real life distraction resulted in the game being paused for a few minutes. This is the screen that showed when the mission controller sat down at his console again. Uh oh.... Poof. The probe, along with all that extra science data, is snuffed out in an instant. A quick check shows evidence of the heating bug being the culprit, but mission control vows to continue on. We'll just have to send a new probe to Thalia, with more and better radiators - and make sure we don't go anywhere near the "Esc" key. Refocusing on the Hermes IIIc mothership, it turns out that it was the RTGs which exploded. With no power beyond what's in her batteries, it's decided to send the craft down to Thalia for a Viking funeral. After a series of explosions, the last part of the craft succumbs to Thalia's radiation while still 65 km above the surface. We'll definitely need to put more and bigger radiators on the next craft to visit Thalia. [Static hash] WE INTERRUPT THIS MISSION REPORT TO BRING YOU SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. [Needle scratch, followed by a whip pan to...] Jeb is sitting in Conqueror Station, bored out of his mind. As the nominal "pilot" of the station, he hasn't had occasion to crack open the throttles in months. Babysitting industrious scientists in orbit of Iota is not why he joined the space program. There's talk of selecting the crew for the first interplanetary voyage, and despite all of his accomplishments, he still has only a single star on his collar. And nobody seems to have remembered that it's his birthday. With nothing to do, he starts daydreaming of the old days, trying new craft, going Mach 2 with his hair on fire. Good times... His reverie is interrupted by the blaring klaxon and flashing red light of the station's collision alarm. A quick check of the monitors reveals a single craft on an intercept course with the station, travelling at over 300 m/s, even though it's only 5 km away. After a brief second admiring the sporty lines of the ship, he opens a comm channel to warn the craft off and berate the pilot for such careless operation... only to hear the opening guitar riff of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" come blaring through the speaker. As the drums kick in and the song starts in earnest, Jeb watchs agape as the craft gracefully pirouettes to face retrograde, burns the main engines to bleed off speed, then expertly docks while maintaining a forward velocity of over 4 m/s until the last moment. The hatch opens, and Bill sticks his head out. He's remembered Jeb's birthday, and has brought him two presents - a cold six pack, and the ship. It's called "The Deuce". As the two catch up over cold brews, Jeb learns the whole story. KABOOM administrators, aware of the PR value attached to the name "Jebediah Kerman" agreed to look the other way while Bill built The Deuce and then "borrowed" it. He's got a month to get Jeb as much experience as possible, then has to bring him back to Gael so Jeb can be considered for the upcoming interplanetary journeys. Bill needs an hour to refuel The Deuce and make a few adjustments... plenty of time for Jeb to hop in the lander and head down to the surface of Iota. With an ear-to-ear grin, Jeb hops in the station's Illustrious I lander, dogs the hatch, and casts off. If he does it quickly enough, nobody will even notice the lander is missing from the station. He lands on a slope, but it doesn't matter. He hops out and plants a flag, ignoring all the expensive experiments. Science schmience - this is about getting experience. With a high-energy trajectory back to the station, his whole trip clocks in at under 37 minutes. The two friends cast off and commence a high energy transfer to Thunderer Station around Ceti. As they approach the station, Bill explains a bit more about the ship - the colored lights were an attempt at looking like a flame paint job, and the rear fuel "fastback" conical tank is outfitted as a "wet lounge workshop" to increase the internal volume of the craft. The cockpit is fitted with an optional autopilot named after Jeb. Although it has seating for six, it's really designed to accommodate two in long-term comfort. And it has over 11 km/s of delta V on tap, without any staging. As he did on Iota, Jeb hops in the station's lander for a quick trip to the surface so he can plant a flag. Because Ceti is larger than Iota, it takes him a whole 45 minutes to get back to the station. The two veterans cast off again, heading for Sustainer Station in high Ceti orbit to refuel before heading out of Gael's SOI briefly. The docking with the refueling station was undocumented. The only noteworthy thing is that Bill volunteered to take Isane Kerman's spot at the helm of the station for a few days so that she could accompany Jeb and also grab a bit more experience. Jeb and Isane return from their brief visit to interplanetary space, and gather their rewards. Everyone on the station is now three stars. Mindful of their time constraints, Jeb and Bill open the throttles and head back to LGO as quick as they can, docking with Vanguard station. The Deuce has to stay in orbit, as it has no provision for landing. The two hop into an older Bluebird docked to the station, and head back down to Gael. They make it back to the surface with two days to spare before the one month deadline expires. Once back at KSC, Jeb shares some ideas he has with Bill about how to improve The Deuce... ...resulting in the launch of "The Trey" two weeks later. With three engines, three radiators, and more fuel, this should make a good first interplanetary spacecraft, capable of completing the rallies that KABOOM currently has contracts for. Once in orbit, a separate module (the Bacchus Packus) is sent up with several years worth of drinks and snacks, along with a bit more fuel. The Trey will hang out in orbit for a few months until the transfer window opens up. KABOOM mission planners are still weighing whether it's worthwhile to use higher energy transfers when going interplanetary, as the Kerbals may still have to wait around for a bit for a return window. We'll see what they decide... in a future chapter.

Deleted - somehow I had two copies of Chapter 13 in the thread

Or you could have an unmanned craft that hits everyplace else first, then ends with a one-way trip to Tellumo's surface...

You may want to consider the extendable radiators. The fixed radiators will only draw heat from the part they're attached to, and one part further away. The extendable versions act like they're pumping coolant throughout the craft, so it will pull heat from all parts, no matter how close a particular part is to the radiator.

I agree with the last two posters that even numbers are preferable, especially from a mission planning / time warping standpoint. For what it's worth, I always go with 2x dayLengthMultiplier for 3.2x scale, 3x for 6.4x scale, and 4x for 10x scale.

Just look in the places that are really difficult to get to. All you have to do is.... overcome really difficult challenges.

The thing that scares the heck out of me is the prospect of trying to plant a flag on either Icarus or Thalia. I know I'll find out eventually if it can be done, but the prospect of one of my veteran Kerbals going up in a puff of smoke makes my stomach knot up.

I'm doing it by trial and error, although I am stacking the deck a bit and increasing the heat resistance on many parts by at least one level using R&D. My new probe lander with two small radiators did OK (just barely) on Icarus. However, at the risk of giving away part of my next mission report chapter, one small radiator was not enough for my Thalia lander.

Chapter 13 - The Probes Have Landed KABOOM's space program is now in full swing, with many different craft heading to many different planets, all still unmanned at this point. As soon as we're done with with mapping and gathering info from Gael's nearest neighbors, it will be time to put the "Kerbal" back in the space program with some manned interplanetary craft. For the moment, however, it's time to celebrate the recent accomplishments of the unmanned portion of KABOOM's program. The Hermes IIIj is launched to take advantage of a transfer window to Gratian. Similar to some other recent probes, this uses a lower cost SRB-only lifting stage. A combination of lower delta V requirements and a more capable nuclear transfer stage make this possible. Because Gratian has an atmosphere, the Courageous II craft is updated and launched again as the Courageous III to complement the Hermes IIIj. As with the Courageous II, much of the ablator is removed from the heat shields to reduce the total weight of each probe. The Hermes IIIf, carrying an upgraded lander with deployable radiator panels, arrives at Icarus. Because Icarus is in a lower part of its orbit, the insertion burn is only (!) 10 km/s compared to the previous 12 km/s. Circularization into low Icarus orbit was routine and undocumented. The lander casts off and heads down. The radiators are doing their job admirably so far. Some striking colors and landforms exist on Icarus. Touchdown! The Hermes IIIf lander comes to rest on Icarus' Calciferous Layers. An oversight by KABOOM engineers presents itself - most parts in this probe were upgraded using R&D to increase heat resistance. Looks like we forgot to improve the RTGs, which have their stock heat tolerance of 1200K. At least the temperature stabilizes short of actually exploding. After a brief stop at Icarus' Obsidians biome, a final hop is taken to the Coelom. I have no idea who or what a Coelom is, but it sounds vaguely naughty. It has a very interesting green color, and lots of mineral resources. May be a good spot to land a miner/refinery at some point in the future. Heading back up and showing all the info for you data hounds. We're doing the "put your AP at a DN or AN with your target in orbit so you can combine your plane change burn with your circularization burn" thing. Docked back to the mothership safe and sound. The "Icarus Probes" strategy from Strategia is complete. We have enough spare fuel in the probe mothership to refuel the lander at least four more times, but we'll hold off on additional Icarus exploration for the moment. There are some other craft we need to pay attention to. The Hermes IIIc has finished its orbital scans of Eta (terrain, slopes, and biomes) so the lander casts off and heads down. Really interesting terrain on this part of Thalia's moon. Touchdown! The crowd goes wild! No, wait, that's the Super Bowl... Anyway, the probe lands and does a bunch of science. As is standard operating procedure for KABOOM's probes, one copy of each experiment is transmitted home to Kerbin, and a second copy is loaded into the science container for further analysis at some point in the future. The lander hops to three more biomes and collects additional science, eventually visiting the Tenderlands, Midlands, Lowlands, and Valleys. One of KABOOM's younger engineers notes that Eta appears to be a good place to test wheeled vehicle dynamics. Or to quote him verbatim, "Dude! This looks like a killer place for dune buggies! We should totally have the next Dakar challenge here!" The lander comes back up and docks with the Hermes IIIc mothership without incident. With enough of Eta explored for the moment, it's time to send the craft to Thalia. The Hermes IIIc makes its burn, and transfers into a 400 km polar orbit to scan Thalia. Once everything is mapped, the lander will head down and see if that lone radiator panel is enough. The Cornelius VI is launched to rectify a problem. The Cornelius V had been launched investigate the exact locations and concentrations of Karbonite and Karborundum near Icarus, then around Ciro itself. Unfortunately, KABOOM's operators accidentally warped through the Cornelius V's Icarus encounter (which only lasts 20 minutes or so because of the huge difference in relative velocity). Therefore, a replacement is needed. We're getting better and more capable craft all the time - check out the delta V this one has on the pad. The Cornelius VI arrives in orbit and starts its burn for Icarus. A brief moment to appreciate the beauty of Gael as the probe heads out of the system. Well done, Galileo and team. A brief check-in at mission control shows that we've completed a number of contracts and strategies recently. Lots of science, and also lots of funds - we're now at 7.7 million. We'll have to spend that on something soon. The flotilla of craft begins to arrive at Niven. The Courageous II is the first to complete its insertion burn. It stays in a highly inclined orbit (about 70 degrees) for access to a wide number of biomes. The Hermes IIIh is the next to arrive. Pretty. After dropping off the scanning satellite portion of the craft in a high polar orbit, the remainder of the craft inserts into a lower orbit to await the results of the scanning. This particular lander has some chutes on it, but the overall efficacy of this design is in doubt... which is why the Courageous II was sent along with its unpowered probes. KABOOM's cameras are trained briefly on the Cornelius V Karbonite/Karborundum scanning probe. Although it missed Icarus, it burned all its remaining fuel to lower its Ciro Pe to less than 2.5 Gm. Things are bright and hot at this distance, but the three radiators are enough to handle the heat. Although the Cornelius V probe didn't get low enough to find any Karborundum, it did get low enough to be considered "low" above Ciro. Should have put more science gear on this thing... Switching back to Niven, the Monarch III arrives. Because Niven is fairly close to Gael, it will likely be a target of manned exploration, and therefore will need a good commnet. After getting into an equatorial orbit with an Ap of 5,000 km, the satellites are released and sent into their final configuration. Here's the Beta commsat casting off. The mothership has to rotate out of the way quickly to provide clearance before the solar panels can be deployed. After some fiddling, including dropping the carrier stage into the planet's atmosphere, we get what we came for - a functional three-satellite commnet in a 5,000 km orbit. All of Niven is ready to be explored. With the excellent comm situation, the first of the Courageous II atmospheric probes is launched. Almost down. There was an episode of operator error, in that none of the probes had photos captured while they were making their historic landings. Utilizing the landing prediction function of MechJeb (which is similar to Trajectories) we were able to land probes in the Poles, Midlands, and Lowlands biomes. The "Niven Probes" strategy from Strategia is now complete. Phew! That was a lot. We've now landed probes on all inner system bodies except for Thalia, which should be happening soon. With just a little bit more unmanned exploration, it will finally be time to pay some attention to the Kerbals again. We have contracts to put surface bases on Iota and Ceti, along with contracts for orbital stations around Niven and Lili, and Thalia 4 and Eta 3 rallies, and a contract to do a spacewalk around Eta. We'll get there soon enough, after we confirm the best way to handle refueling and life support for such long journeys... in a future chapter.

I love how your probe looks like an unhappy emoji.