purpleivan

To celebrate the 49th aniversary of the launch of a certain other species, first trip to their moon, the KSC decided to launch a mission of their own. This began with 4 brave adventurers hurtling skyward this morning, towards a rendevous with the Mun in 3 days... or is it hours.... er, sometime in the future. However only 3 will venture to the surface as Bill is getting a little tired of the trips up their and decided to sit this one out in orbit. Here are the broadcast highlights from todays launch and transmunar injection. The communication engineers at the KSC promise that further transmission will be of higher quality, once they remove the crows nesting in the main dish.

The latest image from The Truth Can Now Be Told.

It's one of the "anomalies" that are scattered through the game. Kerbin has several (not just saucers) as some of the planets and moons.

On a previous anniversary I flew a mission from from the Inland Space Center to the Mun and back. Nothing unusual about that I hear you say. Well I launched the vehicle from the KSC, then air dropped it (seated on top of a mobile launcher) then drove it to the ISC pad and launched from there. Trickiest part was that I landed a few km from the ISC in the hills to the East and driving that thing over the bumps climbing down from there was a little hazardous.

Throw in a giant squid and you've got this.

Another report was released this evening, detailing American astrounats' encounters with strange alien beings on the Mun, during the Apollo mission. The latest report was recieved by this reporter in an envelope marked "Do not open until April 1st 2019", slipped under the door of his office. In addition to a photograph showing one of these beings, the envelope contained a transcript of the debriefing of one of the astronauts. "We'd been at Station 2 for about 3 minutes, Dave was collecting samples around a boulder and I'd started on taking a 2nd pan at the site. I was a few shots into the pan and as I turned towards the rover, I could see one of those wierd critters. We'd come across them on EVA 1 and although they kind of freaked us out, they seemed essentially harmless, more curious than anything. I started to walk towards the, er... the creature, it had it's back to me, but I wanted to get a closer look and some more pictures. As I approached it started yanking on part of the Rear Payload Pallet, looked like it was trying to take a souvenir. Before I could get to it, to prevent any damage, it seemed to give up and bunny hop off to the North. While I checked on the rover to see if there was any damage, I lost sight of it. The only thing I could see wrong with the rover when I examined it, was that some of the Sample Collection Bags were missing. Dave was still busy collecting samples around the rock and didn't catch sight of the creature until it was heading away from us. He told me he'd found scuff marks and small boot prints in the regolith around the rock and some strange looking material underneath it. He bagged some of it and later the guys at the Lunar Samples Lab told us that it seemed to be some kind cookie dough. I guess that creature was trying to keep the place tidy and didn't have anything to put it in."

Made my first vertically launched SSTO. I've done harder things, but this is something that never occured to me before reading about other people's exploits with them. Probably should have equiped it with parachutes, so it could return to the surface.

Some pics of Val's one way trip to the Mun as an entry to the Weekly Challenge Impact the Mun. As I wasn't going to be in the running for the fastest time, I made an entry for what I like to call the "one brave volunteer" catagory. That volunteer being Val (Jeb wimped out). Lots of Vectors powering this thing straight up with a TWR of 5+ on each stage. Separating the many stages with many Vectors, to continue on powered by... more Vectors. This stage burning out could not come fast enough, as during the last few seconds it was wobbling heavily with large explosions from the engine area. Val powering on towards her impact... er... "landing" on the Mun Val leaves the "safety" of the command pod, for a front row seat. That Mun's getting bigger real fast now. Seconds away from impact, Val finally loses it completely. Manic laughter or sheer terror... I'll let you decide. Signal with the vehicle was lost on impact, in a time of 18m 28s from launch. Not a great time (several in the challenge faster than that, including a couple of mine), but my flight did manufacture some Mystery Goo as a byproduct

One of my early Eve return designs. It was far too tall and narrow based to make landings reliably and didn't have enough DV to make it back to orbit. But at least the detaching the long descent ladders prior to launch was kind of cool. Fortunately I flew it unmanned, so an Eve rescue mission wasn't called for.

Launch pad scene loads. Wiggle camera round to get a nice view of the craft. Zoom out a bit... no back in again. Hmmm... sun's low in the sky and it's over there, so spin camera round to other side of craft. Wiggle camera round a little more. Hide the GUI (wiggle camera round a bit more) and take a screenshot. More camera wiggling, to get a bit of the VAB area in view before taking another screenshot. Spin camera round so it's back in the default pointing North orientation. Unhide the GUI. T, Z, Space Go.

While working on an attempt at the weekly challenge (Impact the Mun) I've come across a wierd behaviour of the game when staging. I have a video below which captures this behaviour. What happens is that after loading a mid flight save, several of the staging levels disappear when I hit the staging key. This has happened several time with various forms of the vehicle in the video. In this specific case, I loaded the save (a few seconds before the video starts), then at 17 seconds into the video I hit the staging key, which that time works correctly. However the next time I hit the key (at 1m 02s) stages 8 - 6 just disappear, without being triggered. I'm running version 1.4.4 of the game on Windows, but I only updated yesterday and had the same behaviour occur on v1.4.3. I have various mods (visuals and infomation mostly) , but none which should affect the functionality staging. The only non-stock parts I have are those in the Making Kistory DLC and none of those were used on the vehicle. I've put the craft file and game save that I was loading from here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6yged3if5ehvuxw/purpleivan_staging_bug_craft_and_save.rar?dl=0

I had a crack at the Daily Kerbal: weekly challenge only to realise afterwards that I'd missed the week in which it was set by 3 days. The challenge was to send a vehicle to the Mun in under 20 minutes... a safe landing not required. I grabbed a video of the trip as well, seeing as it was a short one.

Bill takes a break from the argument over whether a TV show was better before or after star was hit by the Anchor Studios sign, in LOST on Laythe.

Chapter 5: The Green in the Black “A depressed cat... I mean, is that really entertainment” - Coslin Kerman Small things matter “Roger that Jeb, we see that as well” came the voice of the KSC’s communicator over the speakers of the mining ship’s command pod, somewhat quieter than normal. Jeb looked at the speakers a little smugly, each of which had a pair of socks stuffed into them. He was pleased with his resourcefulness in muffling the sound of the Gat’s overly loud voice. However this was tinged with guilt over sneaking them out of Voyler’s quarters, but his need for socks was greater; he had a ship to fly after all. What Gatler Kerman had seen was that the mining ship Jeb commanded had just passed through its closest point to Tylo, precisely on schedule. Another box that Jeb could mentally place a tick in. The F12 engines that all the LOST ships were equipped with had done a fine job in whisking Jeb and Voyler to the Jool system in a fraction of the time with normal ones. It wasn’t known exactly how these new engines provided the thrust that they did. They seemed to draw more energy from the fuel than it actually contained; something scientists not on the development team said was a bit of a problem. Those on the team that had developed them (more accurately found them in crates at the back of a storeroom, marked “Do not open until apocalypse”) said that was just old school thinking. To them science wasn’t about following rules, it was about breaking rules and hell raising. In particular breaking speed limits near the KSC in the sports cars that the huge bonuses the F-12’s “development” had brought them. In the end the official explanation was that the Kraken must have “fiddled with the stats”, but whatever the reason, they were taking the LOST team to Laythe in weeks rather than years. After swinging by Tylo, the turquoise orb that was Laythe steadily grew in the view from mining ship’s command pod. Having spent much of the trip in her quarters, Voyler joined Jeb in the command pod to get a good view of their approach.. “Sooo... we gonna be there on time” drawled Voyler in the distinct accent of the Northern reaches of Kerbin. “On time, but not the right orbit” grumbled Jeb. There had been an error in the measurement of Tylo’s mass resulting in slightly less affect on the ship’s trajectory than had been planned. “Aw nooo, but we’ll be ok like” enquired Voyler, wondering what the incorrect orbit might mean for the mission. “400 metres...” began Jeb before being cut off by his crewmate. “We gonna orbit at 400 metres, will we still be able ta land” enquired the engineer. “The orbit’s too high by 400 metres” answered Jeb, annoyed by the small error, but also more than a little disturbed that the engineer responsible getting them fuel once on Laythe, didn’t realise a 400 metre orbit would be more than a little catastrophic. “Awww... that be ok then” said Voyler, clearly relieved at the news. Arrival As the mining ship approached Laythe, Jool had the appearance of a great black disc, with Kerbol hanging just off its narrow limb. The sight would have been foreboding anywhere, at any time, but for two kerbals, venturing further than any previous mission, with their home planet about to be decimated; it was enough to send a shiver down their spines. Contrasted with Jool’s dark mass, the turquoise limb of Laythe was a welcome sight, one that grew rapidly by the minute. “Ok there Jeb, 30 seconds to LOI burn” said Gatler, his voice weaker than normal, due to the apocalypse partying having run out of the good stuff, leaving the KSC with just the pad crews’ “special brew”. Voyler glanced at the speakers the communicator’s voice came from and recognised the items stuffed into them. “Jeeeb, why are me socks shoved in...” she started. “Can’t talk... ship to fly, species to save” Jeb blurted out, partly due to his need to concentrate on his preparations for the burn, but mainly to avoid the sticky subject of sock theft. Jeb’s fingers danced over the console, making last minute adjustments to the burn, then moments later the F-12 engines burst into life, bring the mining ship into a circular orbit of their new home. Opinions and theories As the mining ship entered orbit around Laythe, the second vessel to enter the Jool system was making its way inward. The Hab would provide the main living space for the LOST team and by the standards of most kerbal craft was spacious. Space to live, space to play, space to slink away and sulk, or right now... space to argue. “Season 8 and you know it” shouted Coslin, one of the LOST team’s engineers. “No way, season 10” retorted Bill, a fellow engineer and seemingly a believer in the theory of everything is better in bigger numbers. “What” exclaimed Coslin, thumping the table, causing her to float up out of her seat “The mystery of the singing shoe... All’s well that ends ill... The saddest cat... THE SADDEST CAT... are you crazy”. “The saddest cat is one of best, you’re just to daft to understand it” replied Bill, annoyed that a fellow fan of “Kit Kerman, Space Detective” failed to appreciate the humour of one of his favourite episodes “The saddest cat”. “Everyone knows the show went downhill after Jolin got hit by that sign” insisted Coslin, referring to Jolin Kerman, the 3rd of 5 actors to play the title role in the show’s 12 season run. Jolin Kerman’s unexpected demise came when signing autographs at the gate of Anchor Studios; the makers of the show. The famous anchor fell from the sign over the gate, crushing the star and setting off yet another search for a good looking, but overweight actor (the portly director of the show refused to have anyone skinnier than him play the part) to fill the role. “Ok... let’s just ask Bob” suggested Bill; certain that a kerbal of his intellect couldn’t fail to see the many strengths of the show’s tenth season”. The pair glanced nervously at the door to Bob’s quarters, before concluding that a guy who’d locked himself away for almost the entire journey, probably wouldn’t be too pleased being asked to settle an argument, even one as important as this. Kit Kerman Space Detective had a rabid following of highly opinionated fans, who liked nothing more than to theorise about the “deeper meaning” of the show. Although it was a highly formulaic detective procedural, the series of strange accidents that befell its leading actor, as well as the sets being burnt down 3 times, and a string of truly appalling scripts, led some to believe that the show was cursed by the Kraken. Others theorised that the show was being conspired against by “those in the know” who they believed were trying to kill it off before it revealed a dark secret about the history of kerbalkind. Still others, identifying as the Brotherhood of Kalkan, held that the pattern of incidents that befell the show, when appropriately transformed using a form of mathematics no-one understood (or they possibly made up) predicted the date of the apocalypse. To them “The Saddest Cat” was a pivotal episode. Given that comet Tiddles was on route to its fiery encounter with Kerbin, interest in the Brotherhood had spiked recently. The argument raged over the coming hours, as the vessel raced through the system, en-route to Laythe. Solitude Bob Kerman gave a deep sigh as he exited the airlock of the Hab ship. After closing the hatch, he used his suits thrusters to manoeuvre to a couple hundred metres from the vessel, then rotated himself to face it. Beyond the Hab lay the great green bulk of Jool, finally being seen in its true colour, as the vessel made its way through the system. Over his suits' comms connection to the command pod, he could hear the argument between Bob, with his Brotherhood leanings and Coslin, a firm believer in “the curse” in the background. The mission’s lead scientist turned off the comms unit and finally floated in blessed silence. No more arguments no more noise, no sound at all... just my thoughts. No please... not my thoughts.

I just wish I'd hurry up and get to Laythe in LOST on Laythe. Like most of my writing, I started LOST on Laythe as a result of a half minute decision on a Saturday morning, about something to try out in KSP. In this case, sending some colony vehicles to Laythe. That balooned into... hey how about writing someting about the antics of those along for the ride... what about a backstory... etc. etc. Then imagination (shut up imagination... always getting me into trouble) came up with ideas that required time and effort to see through. This message brought to you by cocktails... the sugary alternative to real drinks.

Probably best to ask about the addon here.

I liked that one of the topics it covered was "boom".

Laythe is a nice place for a colony... ocean, atmosphere, big planet to look at etc. For a Jool transfer, I'd recommend this addon. As for whether to send everyone on one ship or several, I guess it depends on how confident you are in being able to land separate ships in the same location, or whether the are mobile once landed.

A couple more pics from LOST on Laythe, with the colony team heading off from Kerbin orbit.

Looks like Kervin isn't being occluded by the moon, i.e. that it's being drawn after the moon in the render, even though it's behind it.

It might be old, but it's a 551 page, pinned thread which gets multiple posts every day, I must have posted dozens there myself. If this thread had a title and description that made it clear that people should post just that one screenshot that they think is their very best, it could be a good alternative.

I think there's already a thread for this.

Chapter 4 - Moment of drama "Tension, it's all about tension" - Jebediah Kerman The Call All of Kerbin, well those who hadn’t fled for the hills, or were laid up due to apocalypse party incidents, listened to the voices of the LOST team and KSC communicator Gatler Kerman, with baited breathe. “Ok let’s do this” boomed Gatler, to the team in the KSC control room, as well as the waiting press, “let’s get these guys to Laythe”. “Mining?” shouted Gatler in the most dramatic voice he could muster “go or no go”. “Mining is go!” replied Jeb Kerman in a calm and much quieter voice. “Hab... go or no go” inquired Gatler of the next ship in the fleet. “Hab is go!” came the answer from Elson Kerman. “Lifter... go or no go?” Gatler asked, as he ticked the box next to the word “Hab” on his clipboard. “Lifter is go!” responded Valentina Kerman then muttering “let’s go already”. Gatler ticked the following box. “Science... go or no go?” Galter inquired of the of the last vessel on his list, his pen hovering over the final tick box. Silence met the communicator’s question, with just a little static. The communicator stared at his microphone for a moment before repeating the questions. “Science... go or no go?” and started to nervously his pen on the console. Still no reply from the fleet’s science craft, this was not going according to the carefully laid out plan. “Science... go or n...” started Gatler, before a voice came of the speakers at the KSC. “Science vessel is ready for departure Gat” confirmed Gelsey Kerman. Gatler shuffled his ample rear end in his chair, a little annoyed at the scientist’s failure to use the approved wording for her response, before replying “Roger that Gelsey”. "LOST IS GO!" thundered Gatler, ticking the last box on his clipboard with a flourish. Gelsey chuckled to herself, a sly grin crossing her face. “Why did you keep them waiting” asked Sindley Kerman, fellow scientist and Gelsey’s sole companion on the trip to Laythe. “Why not” replied Gelsey. “The first ship doesn’t leave for 2 hours... we don’t go until tomorrow. But pilots just have to have their moment don’t they.” Gelsey thought back to the 3 days spent in discussion and planning meetings for the “We are go” moment and the reams of documents that accompanied them. Some of these now lay in the trash can in her quarters back at the KSC, their title pages poking out of the top of it. Mission Plan (LOST): MPL-23-A Stage 18 Pre trans-Laythian burn (TLB) status check. ----------------- LOST Crew Discussion Document: CDD(LOST) 12. Proposal for inclusion of EDM (Exciting Departure Moment) in Mission Plan. Proposer: Valentina Kerman Seconder: Jebediah Kerman ----------------- LOST Crew Discussion Document: CDD(LOST) 26. “To go or not to go... that is the question”. Meeting to discuss suitable wording for EDM. ----------------- Briefing Document: EDM -4a Re: Communication of flight status prior to TLB. Amendment to Tension Building Pause (TBP) time, following “Go no go” requests. Departure The hours, minutes and finally seconds ticked by, and in turn each of the four craft in the LOST fleet ignited their engines and made their trans-Laythian burns. The first to leave was Valentina, whose favour buying at the KSC had got her to the front of the queue. Next was the Mining vessel, with Jeb at the controls, who chalked up yet another textbook departure for another world. A few minutes later, Elson Kerman started the engines that would propel the Hab towards his crews’ new home. A process that he’d reduced from a plethora of buttons presses and switch flicks, to a dab at a single button, followed by shorting a couple of wires under the console. Finally, almost a day after the other’s had departed, the science vessel, with Gelsey and Sindley aboard, received the signal from KSC ,that ignited the engines and sent them too on their way.

A mission that I often post about on the forums is that of the Eve Party Boat. A four kerbal Eve return mission I did back in the days of v0.24. Usually the threads I post in focus on large things in the game (biggest ship or most ridiculous undertaking etc.) but in this case it's about the small. Small as in the distance between Eve Party Boat lander and the unmanned rover that I'd used to scout a high plateau landing site, as well as a marker for my landing. It took a few used of F9 to get the monstrosity down on the plateau, but once the excitement and rocket exhaust had cleared, I was in for a little suprise. This is how far I'd landed from the rover. Jeb wanted to see if the gap between the two was big enough for him to squeeze through. The answer... no, not without going eau naturel.

Thanks.... I'll look into the info you provided.