purpleivan

Here is this judge's... er... judgement. In the case of Koolkei's river, the feature is of too large a scale to be considered a specific location. If the image had been closer to the river, focusing on a specific feature of it, then it would be most suitable. For example this is approximately the same as as Koolkei's view of the bendy river, ignoring the cloud of course. An issue with allowing very large area features to stand would be that they would encompass otherwise valid locations for Kayak Club. For example if we fly closer to the Southern part of the bend in @Koolkei's image, then we can see this neat tributary to the main river, a scale of feature more suited as a Kayak Club location. Koolhai's 2nd location "the iceridge" may well stand as a suitable location for the purposes of Kayak Club, in that it has a significant feature in the deep iceridge. However this judge has insufficient information regarding the uniqueness of this feature to provide a judgement. Above water the location is anonymous and featureless, similar to much of the length of both polar cap coasts. During the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation I boated the entire length of them, however the view below the surface was obscurred by Scatterer's water shading, making assessment of the depth of the iceridge beyond a few tens of meters impossible. Judge Purpleivan's exhibit A. For this reason I have to reserve judgement until Judge @Castille7 opines on this matter, or a survey mission to the region is undertaken, to determine the scale and/or commonality of the deep iceridge.

Here ya go. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pniu14rChEo68jJdMzvHItaFBfb79eTG The folder contains the configs for Flight, EVA, plus some additional ones for flight with various DoF settings.

A Kerbling is a young Kerbal... everyone knows that

Val headed for Ike, to grab its fat stacks of funds, in a contract free career game challenge entry. The Reuso 2 launcher (not used that for a while) dropped back down at the edge of the KSC property. Once Val arrived at Ike she proceded to stamp her bootprint of authority on the place. Little known fact, Val secretly had the words "Property of Valentina Kerman" etched into the sole of here left boot, as an "if all else fails" retirement plan. This was followed by a trip to Eeloo by Jeb, Bob and Val, courtesy of the new Reuso 4, heavy launcher. This put it's 51 ton payload into an 80km orbit, with only the fuel and 3% taken off the parts recovery price, as the cost. On Eeloo mighty rocks were conquered. Then run away from. Before finally returning home.

The cooler side of town The list of planets to visit and drain their cash filled rewards is definitely getting smaller (ok... that was true from the start), so things are getting tougher for in this career game. Next target... Eeloo. The means of travel would be The Big Chill, the launch vehicle, the new Reuso 4. This reusable launcher is capable for putting something like The Big Chill (weighing in at a not so svelt 51 tons) into an 80km orbit, then returning to do the whole thing again should the need arise. Yep things get pretty hot on the way to orbit. But all is well above the atmosphere. With circularisation done, The Big Chill is detached. Reuso 4 made the return trip to the surface for the pretty much standard 97% return value, after plopping down just a few km behind the KSC. Back in orbit, it was time to get out of orbit and on towards Eeloo, thanks to Mr Wolfhound. On arrival in Eeloo space, it was time yet again for the EVA, Crew Report and science data grab. Don't take too long Jeb, that planet is getting closer rapidly. The Wolfhound done, it was time to hit the nuke. With orbit established Jeb hopped out of the pod, to allow Bob to reset the Mystery Goo machine, ready for its use on the surface. Fat with fuel it took longer than anticipate slowing this thing down to a non flamey wreckage speed, prior to landing. it was travelling almost horizontally a couple of km up, at about 150m/s, when this was taken. But have no fear, the landing is here, with a nice smooth touchdown (ok... an F9 rescue was required after I fluffed the landing the first time taking this shot). Once the usual data was grabbed it was time for Jeb head outside. Bob and Val were sleepy after the long trip and couldn't be bothered to go with him. Leaving Jeb all along to go exploring. Ooo... shiny (kind of). Jeb made a beeline for this little lump of colourful rock, that was a short rocket jump from the landing site. "I claim this rock in the name of the Kerbin Guild of Pilots" (local 42). Having stack his claim to the little rock, Jeb's attention turned to something bigger. Yes... bigger. Much bigger. Wth his bootprints carved in the crusty outer layer of the large rock, it was time head back to the ship. Jeb decided that this rocket jumping thing was so easy he could do it backwards. With the inevitable consesquences. At least he's still smiling. Before departing the surface, don't forget to raise the flag Jeb. Don't that coming back for that one milestone is going to be cost effective. Up, up and away from yet another planetary body. After watching the calendar wind down to the time of the transfer window, it was time to light that nuclear blowtorch and head for Kerbin. Bob had a nice view of the home planet coming in, but Val, as much as she tried just couldn't swivel around enough to see it. The effort pincjed a nerve in her neck, resulting in her being stuck in this pose of manic laughter until the medics could deal with it, after landing. Using the remaining fuel, Jeb brought the re-entry speed down to something like a Mun return. Still... don't think those solar arrays are going to make it to the ground. The nuke engine did make to the homeworld, but only for an instant, as there was only 0.3 units of fuel remaining to arrest the 13m/s descent speed on the chutes. So it, like the solar arrays, went poof! But the rewards of the trip are plain to see. About 800,000 funds and 2600 science, not bad from the little ball of ice. Time to spend my science winnings. To unlock the remaining parts of the tree will only require another 2058 points. With a respectable amount of funds in the bank, it was time to upgrade something. What to pick, what to pick... ahah... VAB I choose you. Now this only leaves the Space Plane Hanger and the Admin Building for this challenge entry to reach its conclusion. At a cost of about 1.4m funds for the last two upgrades, a trip to the remaining Jool system bodies (Laythe, Tylo and Bop) might just pay the bill.

Val's Ike trip can be read about here. The current status of the game is... Buildings remaining to upgrade to the top level are the VAB, Spaceplane hanger and Admin Building. Total cost for that will be 2,253,000. Planets (and moons) left to vist are Moho, Eeloo, Eve (for a kerballed landing anyway) Laythe, Tylo and Bop. Just realised when I popped out on the runway to check on something for Kayak Club, that the runway is still at Level 1. Therefore additional cash will be required to fix that up to Level 3 standard, so an extra 360,000 funds of thereabouts to find.

Liking Ike Another day, another cash grab, this time on that little world, not too far away called Ike. The vehicle that would make the journey to that tiny grey dot in the sky was to be piloted by Val and in a break with the previous naming convention (planet name with a 1 tacked on the end was getting boring) was named the Ikester. This was dropped off in Kerbin orbit by a Reuso 2. After separation and a bit over 1/2 an orbit, it was time to hit the brakes and head back to the KSC. Nice... right in the parking lot, plus no drying the thing off afterwards. After a quick transfer to Duna SOI, the Ikester got this close to its target while heading toward Duna. A nice little burn to slow things down. Plus some aerobraking to save fuel, however... ... someone remind me again why I parked this thing in low Duna orbit. After the burn towards Ike the detachable side tanks were... detached. Once in orbit Val headed out to inspect her craft, not that there's much to take a look at. Also... EVA cash. Not the most hospitable looking place Ike. But once you get down there it's just another rock with grey dust on it. But hey, it does have a nice rosy planet in the sky. After landing doing an EVA report from the surface and grabbing a surface sample, Val spent some time pulling funny faces for the camera. Not forgetting the flag, which is worth its weight in funds. With the surface activities drawing to a close it was time to had back to the Ikester. Up, up and away. After waiting for the clock to count down to the transfer window, it was time to light that nuke and head for home. So long Ike and Duna... ... and helloooo Kerbin. Planet of wet stuff (if the camera's pointing the right way... Scatterer's water has been a bit glitchy lately). Funds, funds, funds... the Tigers are playing tonight. No... that's something else. But there is enough in the kitty to pay the stonkingly huge bill (1,655,000) to upgrade the R&D center to level 3. With the upgrade that big stake of science points that's been accumulating can finally be used. Need to earn roughly 5,000 science to unlock the whole tree, which isn't a requirement of the challenge (AFAIK) but would be a nice bonus. So... current status. The only buildings remaining to upgrade to the top level are the VAB, Spaceplane hanger and Admin Building. Total cost for that will be 2,253,000. Planets (and moons) left to vist are Moho, Eeloo, Eve (for a kerballed landing anyway) Laythe, Tylo and Bop.

Val just returned from a trip to Ike, which earned enough that I could finally afford to upgrade the R&D center to level 3, will some margin for comfort. I'll be posting a write up of that and my current career status later today.

I'm using KS3P, Scatterer, SVE and Planetshine as my visual mods setup. All of them have stock settings except KS3P. If you want I can pass on the config files that I use for that.

Ah... so the mountains have been spruced up. Maybe I'll have to dig out The Goat for an attack on the big one (well in height at least) Kerverest. In a challenge entry a year of so ago, it made it from the sea to the summit in 27 minutes.

There was further progress towards the goal of the contracts free full upgrade of the KSC, with a trip to Dres for Jeb, Bill and Bob.

To the spud we go Soon after returning from the landing on Gilly, it was time for Jeb to once more hurtle through the cosmos in the quest for cash. This time the target was your friend and mine... Dres. Once again the Reuso 3 (no with added controllabilit thanks to actually including a probe core) did the honours of taking Jeb and his craft into orbit. The Dres 1 the same design as the Jool 1, minus the separate lander. It was such a rush job that the design team forgot to remove the docking port, which would be entirely pointless on this mission. With the Dres 1 safely in orbit, the Reuso 3 headed back down towards the KSC. Looks like it's going to be closer to the target than the last attempt. Oooooo... close, but no cigar. Still 97.8% return isn't bad. With the transfer window open the single nuke was lit and Jeb was on his way. Before entering orbit of Dres, Jeb threw open the hatch to grab that EVA cash prize, then snatched a bit of science and a crew report. Bob's pretty stoked to be here. As is Bill... seen here on his first flight. On this cash run there's not been much of a need for an engineer so far, but Jeb thought he could do with the experience. Ok... time to head for the surface. Jeb found a nice flat piece of dirt to put the vehicle down on, but given the weak gravity... ... there was no way this thing was going to stay upright. Jeb and Bob teased Bill by saying that he could only raise the flag if here was part of the 3 star club and with this being his first trip he had to wait by the ship. Their little joke over, they invited him to do the honours. Bill and Bob headed back on board, to grab a celebratory snack before departure. "Hey you coming Jeb?" With all 3 aboard it was time to get this thing upright. Wobbling it around on the SAS unit failed to raise it more than about 30 degrees, but at this did have the amusing side effect the ship appearing to do "one handed" pushup on a solar array. At the peek of a solar array push up, Jeb lit the nuke and vehicle steadily climbed as it sped across the surface. Some time later (another body where celestial health and safety set a really lot warp limit) the Dres 1 was back in orbit. Then... nuke time. A big burn and a plane change later (ok... plus a lot of waiting around) the Dres 1was rapidly approaching the blue hues of Kerbin. The usual firework display followed, with the nuke engine being use to reduce speed somewhat with the remaining fuel, before it could take the heat no longer and exploded. This is left the Dres with it's crew of three (protected by the heat shield) to drift Kebinward, splashing down a few hundred metres off the desert coast. Well... not quite the payday that was hoped, at only around 400k funds. With little more than it would cost in the bank, that R&D center upgrade will have to wait until the conclusion of the next mission.

The Pelican was my 2nd attempt, the first The Duck, was an abysmal failure. As I remember the biggest problem I had was making something that would lift off the water, instead of just buzzing around as a very fast jet powered boat. The 5 failed prototypes sounds like my first attempts at boats... one after another they'd roll upside down, chug along at pathetic speed etc. But what I learned meant I ended up with the boat (with rover on the back) the fuel was delivered to that I took around the entire mainland coast of Kerbin. So don't give up... maybe number 6 will be more successful. Alternatively take a look at KerbalX for something ready made that works, then build from there.

If you're just wanting to make a plane that can take off and land in the water, it's possible to do that stock. This is the Pelican, that I made to top up the Coastal Cruiser with fuel on the last leg of the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation. Yes... that's fuel delivered via the command seat. Or you could go with a boat that carries a plane (well 2)... and a rover... and a minisub.

More progress towards the goal of fully upgrading the KSC, with nothing but milestones to pay for it. The mighty Reuso 3 heads to orbit where glory awaits. The mighty Reuso 2 after being rescued (someone forgot to include a probe core in the design) with the addition of a module launched by the little tiddler Reuso 1. Eve awaits... and milestones... and cash... LOVELY CASH. Someone stole the ocean. Jeb's ship fell asleep on the job. Ship and Jeb made it home safely, with a whole load of tasty science morsels, so now he (and not forgetting Val, Bob and Bill... this is a team after all) are now considering where to go to next.

A lot of progress was made in the quest for cash that is this career game, in the last mission that headed to Jool. This time it was time for Jeb to head for a solo mission to Eve and Gilly. Ok... the Eve part would only be orbital for Jeb, with a tiny lander heading uncontrolled to the surface, but it all counts. The Journey of Eve 1 First the business of getting things into Kerbin orbit. This started with the launch of the might Reuso 3, that carried the entire Eve 1 craft with it. Once in orbit the Eve 1 was detached, at which point it was noted that the Reuso 1 was now uncontrolled, due to some bozo (that would be me) forgetting to include a probe core in the build. Not a complete waste of funds though, as the recent splurge on tech included the grabber unit. So a Reuso 1 (not seen one of those in a while) headed upward on a rescu mission, to add the missing part. With the rendezvous made, all that needed to be done was the detach the little vehicle that was Reuso 1's payload. This included the missing probe core, some RCS for propulsion and manouvering, plus a little fuel to give the almost empty Reuso 3 a much needed top up. And that's what the full package looks like. Reuso 1 then de-orbited. Where it landed some distance beyond the runway island group, but close enought for a 95% return on the parts value. The Reuso 1 rescue launcher dropped into the ocean a little closer to home. Once all the rescue work and de-orbiting was done with, it was time to head for Eve, courtesy of Mr Poodle. In high space over Eve it was time for Jeb to head out the door for those EVA report points. Back inside Eve approached rapidly, or he the vehicle approached Eve... one of those. With some fuel spent to put the Eve 1 into a long eliptical orbit, a sequence of passes through the upper atmosphere cut the orbit down to something more reasonable to drop its tiny payload. It was a case of drop it and cross your fingers time, as this thing is uncontrolled with no relay system established to communicate with the probe. But after a fiery descent the probe finally made the glorious sight of the deployed chute was seen. Followed by the glorious sight of the Eve ocean... if it had been there. Looks like Scatterer freaked out a bit, ran home and took the water with it. Then with "splashdown" there was the glorious sight of milestones (and cash) from this little wonder. With the activity on Eve at an end, it was time to head for Gilly, the tru cashcow of this mission. Once through the tideous crawl down to the surface, due to warp getting disabled at some ridiculously high altitude, Jeb made a spotless landing. Once out of the vehicle it of course decided that it had had enough of standing and wanted to take a little nap. This didn't concern Jeb in the slightest, who got straight on with the EVA report, surface sample and raise the flag routine. With that important work out of the way, he climbed back in and headed back to orbit. The long slow boring climb to orbit. With an Eve landing and abunch of Gilly milestones under his belt, Jeb held out his thumb towards where he thought Kerbin was, squinted, made a rough calculation on the back of a cereal box and hit the throttle for home. There was a little fuel left in the tanks to burn off a couple hundred DV... ... before smashing into Kerbin's atmosphere. Actually the first of 4 trips through it, as the eliptical orbit gradually reduced on pass. Until finally good old gravity brought the Eve 1 safely back down through the clouds, its tasty haul of science aboard. While waiting for the recovery crew, Jeb went out for some much needed fresh air. He stared into the ocean... ... which was a good deal more watery looking than that on Eve. Well it didn't bring in a kings ransom, but the mission certainly made a useful addition to the pile of funds. Plus... more science!

Ah yes, the joys of asparagus. Examples 1. Detach 4 "spent" boosters only to have two of them whoosh upward on their own, burning that precious fuel, or worse slapping into the side of the vehicle turning it into flaming wreckage. 2. You're thundering skyward on your creation that pummels the laws of physics into submission with a hammer made of fire, that is about to become its latest victim. There's a slight change in the sound of the engines and the whole thing starts rolling over. Cause... one engine of the next stage to drop has run out of fuel and now the thing is inbalanced and rolls over with the result of flaming wreckage on the ground. I've had both of these more times than I'd like to admit, followed by the game of hunt the fuel line in you VAB filling monstrosity.

Well... this is going to be a big one, KSC proudly presents the Jool 1. At 73k funds and change it better be, especially as about 65k of that is going to be dropped in the ocean or left adrift in space. The pan (what there was of one) was.. 1. Go to Jool. 2. VIsit moons. 3. Profit! .... at least there's a number 2. With the big stack of SRB's expended, the lone Poodle pushed the Jool 1 to a 765km orbit. Then the important task of getting the Jool 1 to, well... Jool. Burn baby burn. With the vehicle enroute to Jool, it was time for a little nudge to its trajectory, to play the game of "Jool system pinball), to get an almost free orbit of the gas giant. With the course correction burn done, it was time to grab some solar orbit science, which meant for the first time (with many more to come) Bob headed out to restore the goo canister. On passing into the Jool system Laythe was the first in the queue to be ready for its closeup. With Laythe in the rearview mirror and a bunch of science gathered, as well as its handy gravity assist, it was time for the next target. "Ok Bob... which of these is Tylo again". Jeb got a nice view of the fuel gobbling rock and Bob grabbed more science, before they all headed for their first landing target This little blue grey blob here. Vall... officially procounced "Vall". With a big burn done on the single nuke engine, it was time for Val to descend to Vall. She gave a wave from the window to... well, no-one exactly as no-one on the Jool 1 could see her from this angle, but it's the thought that counts. She made short work of the descent and wasted no time before heading out to get some blueish dust on her boots, to get with the red coated ones she has in her locker at the KSC. With another flag hoisted on a distant world, Val took a look around a little further afield from the lander, occasionally checking to see if it was still there. FInally it was time to leave the surface and head for a rendezvous with the Jool 1. This Jool 1. Firmly attached to the main vehicle again, Val joined Bob in the luxury cabin for a game of I Spy to while away the time before affiving at... ... Pol The plan (as much as there'd been one) was to visit Tylo, Pol and Bop, but with oxidiser for the lander getting low, it was decided to make do with Pol only. This time it would Jeb at the controls of the lander. Having made it to the surface Jeb took the opportunity to stretch his legs... ... and raising a flag of course. Jeb took a finally look out across his moody looking landing site. Then he hit the throttle and headed spaceward. The intention was to rendevous directly from the surface with the Jool 1, but these things are always at best guesswork, so it took almost a full orbit before the two vehicles actually met. Well that's it for this points gathering opportunity, time to put the ship in an orbit of Jool. But why is there still an lander on the front of that things? Well, the crew forgot to grab the science data from "high over Pol" and the gear for that is on the lander so... With that final bits of data grabbed, it was time to jetison the lander. Farewell Jool 1 lander... we thank you. Then all there was to do was to hunker down and wait for the transfer window, then burn for home. With the burn complete, plus a little course correction too, the fuel that would have been used to get to Bop (plus the reserve) was available to resuce their speed when hitting the atmosphere. The Jool 1 was still going faster enough to give an impressive light show though. But finally the flaming re-entry was over, then a gentle coast down before deploying the chutes. Well done crew of the Jool 1, now to see what goodied your trip has for us. Hohoo!... now that's a nice haul. About 1,400,000 in funds and about 5,300 science. Not bad for a single mission. After spending 2,300 science this is what the tech tree looked like. Some of the low hanging fruit in terms of building upgrades were done to. More tech would have been obtained, but that would require unlocking level 3 on the R&D center and at a cost of 1.65M funds, that's not happening today. So what's the current KSC status... let's see, let's see, righty clicky, notey takey. Level 3: Launch Pad, Astronaut Complex, Tracking Station and Misssion Control. Level 2: VAB, Spaceplane Hanger, Admin Building and R&D Center. With half the Jool system still to make an orbit and landing on, as well visits to Eve, Dres, Eeloo, Moho, Ike and Gilly to be done, things are looking good shape.

Val, Jeb and Bob just got back from a huge around Jool. Enough was made to upgrade a few buildings, so now all that remain is the top level upgrade to the Admin, R&D, VAB and Spaceplane hanger. Upgrading those is going to cost roughly 4 million funds, but definitely looking doable with a return trip to Jool (landings only made on Vall and Pol, with flybe of Tylo and Laythe), plus Eve, Eeloo, Moho and Dres not even looked at yet. Ike wasn't visited either on the Duna run. This was the trip that broke the model of going reusable on the launchers, as the transfer vehicle was just too heavy for me to be bothered trying. Probably could have done it, but the income from the mission (about 1.4M funds) was enough that saving 40k or so to by using a reusable launcher just wasn't worth it to me. Full write up with lots of pics (as usual).

Currently I'm in the middle of things as I've upgraded all the relevant buildings to level 2, the last one being the R&D center a couple of days ago. One thing that I've noticed is that in the early stages of a contract free game, is that you get lulled into thinking that you can hang around a single location, scooping up cash from milestones. That's true of Kerbin as you get awarded for all sorts of relatively minor things, but once you leave the planet there are fewer to collect per planet. A lot of these per planet milestones you pick up on your first visit if it's a landing mission, so probably not more than a single mission per planet required to grab the set. One thing that's going to do is push your focus from one planet to the next faster than I had expected. Not a complaint about the milestone system, just unexpected. When I've played career in the past (one game when some of the new major version come out) my aim has just been to complete the tech tree, then call it a day. That means my focus has been on sceince gathering rather than cash in those games. Enjoying the challenge of playing it the contract free way though. BTW... someone asked in another thread if I was using a convert science to cash strategy. My aim has been to not use the Admin building at all. Additional info on my game is that I'm "mod light", as I'm using KER and Kerbal Alarm Clock. Just couldn't part with KER's DV calculator during construction and KAC is just to handy to drop.

More Out of Contract career gameplay, in which Jeb and Val went to Duna, passing by Ike on the way. This little trip was probably the first time I've taken a look at the place in about a year, due to boating around Kerbin's coastline, doing strange things on Eve and flying even stranger planes around on Kerbin. That makes it the first time I've been there since installing KS3P and I'm liking how the place looks with that in coop with Scatterer.

I think you're allow to, but I've been playing without the aid of the Administration building, so nothing like that for me.

With the Mun and Minmus pretty much mined out in terms of milestones, it was time for my brave little adventurers to head further afield... to Duna. To keep the cost down the vehicle that would go to the red planet had to be separated into two parts, to enable it to be put into orbit on top of reasonable reusable launchers. The first, for the transfer vehicle, looked like this. A Reuso 2 with some SRB's slapped on the sides, for a bit of help off the line. It was hefted into a 95km orbit, ready and sat waiting for something to push. It's cargo sat on top of this similar looking launcher, a regular Reuso 2. The launcher and it's payload met up with the transfer vehicle. One separated from the launcher, Jeb guided the lander/return vehicle stack towards the waiting transfer vehicle. With its work done, the Reuso 2 headed down, arriving just off the coast from the KSC, for the almost obligatory 97% recovery of parts value. After a bit of warping it was time to throw this pair of kerbonauts away from Kerbin, courtesy of some Poodle power. After a couple minutes or so burn time, the engine was shut down and apart from a minior course correction, it was time for Jeb and Val to get the cards out and settle in for the long trip. On the way to Duna, it seemed only polite (and profitable) to say hello to Ike. Jeb even went outside to giver the little trash gatherer (and general disruptor of orbits) a wave. Once back inside he had a decent view of Duna as they approached it. Not long to go now. As they approached the great ball of redness, the vehicle took on a very rosy hue. Not as rose as when it plunged through the atmosphere, approaching about 20km from the surface, before passing through and into orbit. Once in orbit it was time for Val to head for the door for yet another EVA milestone. That surface sure does look inviting. Jeb took a last look at the landed attached to the nose of his craft, he wouldn't have it blocking his view of the planet nuch longer. Once detached the pair manouvered round to get a good look at each others vehicles. One short burn was all it took to drop from the 65km orbit and head towards the surface. Almost close enough to reach out and touch it. And TOUCHDOWN. Val quickly grabbed the scientific data and crew report, eager to head out and get her boots dusty. Of course not landing on a new planet is complete (or paid for) without hoisting a flag. "Val looked across the vast empty desert and silently she screamed"... that or she's got some corn stuck in her teeth. No screaming here, just a quick jog around the ship before departure. Ok, time to blow this popsi... er, planet. It's not the fastest liftoff ever seen, but with about 300m/s delta-v to spare it's provides a fairly dependable trip to orbit. Time to stop heading upwards and start to push that trajectory around the equator. A nice view was to be had while coasting towards the circularisation burn point. FInally in orbit, there was little to do but look out of the window until it was time to make a rendezvous burn to meet with Jeb in the return vehicle. There it is, just a 100m of so distant once the engine shut down. Val manouvered the lander in, sipping at the roughly 5% of its touchdown fuel that remained. Once parked alongside, it was time to head to the other vehicle, but critically she remembered to collect the data from the lander. Before entering the return vehicle she loaded (ecstatically it seems) the data into waiting module. Once the celestial timepiece had been advanced sufficiently, it was time to hit the throttle and head home. With that their new red friend receded into the distance. Sometime later to be replaced an old blue one, that rapidly filled the view. The capsule took the heat... "Fancy some barbequed ribs when we get back" asked Jeb. "Sure" Val replied "as long as it's not theirs" No need to worry Val, the pair of you made it back safe and sound and with a good haul of cash (a bit over 500,000) and science (around 1500) from the trip. With a healthy bank balance it was time to blow 455,000 funds on upgrading the R&D center and go on a technological shopping spree.

Currently I'm in the middle of a contracts free career game for a challenge, with the only income source being achieving milestones. That's resulted in me landing more reusable launchers in the past couple of weeks, than in the previous 5.5 years playing the game.

Pushed forward... well, more like sideways, in my no contracts career game. Brought 3 Reuso 2 launchers back home. Oh this looks like it might be good. It is... right on target. Dropping down in the front garden. Number 2... not so much, more like the scrub beyond the back garden. Ditto number 3. At least I got 97% the value of the parts back from those that dropped in the rough.