purpleivan

I put this image together for the 1001st page in the What Did You Do in KSP Today forum, using just a few of the screenshots I've grabbed over the last (almost) two years playing the game. 1001 things to do in KSP (well... not quite)

Something for page 1001. 1001 thing to do in KSP (well... no quite)

Gotta get something in on page 1000 and what better that a long delayed return to Eve, Here Maxisa Kerman can be seen readying a flag for planting at the site of her vehicles' landing site (where it's busy making fuel for her return to orbit) My first Eve return mission since the Eve Party Boat in v0.90.

I'm new to this thread so I may not be aware of the details of what's being discussed, but if faced with an iconic (or close to it) character, I'd be tempted to subvert it in some way, so for example giving Wernher a strong accent, but one which is not expected (e.g. scouse, French, southern USA) and then play on that for additional detail/humour. This would also allow for fleshing out the character with an unexpected backstory.

For most of my "work" (wow, that's a fancy word for my few muddled stories about kerbals kerballing in the kosmos) I tend to go ad-hoc as Jim does, writing something that seems "correct" for the events portrayed, but making use of accepted/familiar elements of the KSP universe (Jeb is brave/crazy, rocket dev on a shoe string budget etc.) There are some exceptions to this, in that the more I write the more I develop my own canon to stick to (or at least steer in the direction of/use as a useful prop). For the 2001 A Space Absurdity, most of the details of my writing (ok, hands up... the basis of this was written for me over 4 decades ago by some rather well known people) I had no idea of what what the characters would be like, the way events would be portrayed (e.g. HAL portrayed as a pre-schooler) until I had to make the decision on what these would be. For example the ending was just coincidental, with the imminent release of v1.1. of KSP I realised that I had an opportunity to tie in to this in a way that made sense in terms of the plot I'd developed so far, as well as the source material. All of this with one overriding directive... always go for the funny. Written after a bottle or so of wine, so all bets are off

Maxisa Kerman on the surface of Eve. After setting of the ISRU equipment to produce the fuel for her to get home, she went about the serious business of flag planting.

A couple of pics of the Eve Redux, my first Eve return vehicle since the Eve Party Boat in v0.90 Vehicle carrying two tugs approaching the lander. One of the tugs coming in to dock (the clearance is going to be really tight).

Thanks. I must get back to doing some more wallpapers at some point.

Part selection has been fine for me too on 1.1.3 on Windows 7

This one was intentional though.

Part 7 "There is no substance to the rumours of evidence on the Mun of life beyond Kerbin. That's just crazy talk." - The Minister of Official Explanations - Monalitha Rather than make the time (and fuel) consuming trip back down to their base on the surface of the Mun, only to then launch back of it again, the KSP made the uncharacteristically sensible decision to tank the MOAR up in obit. With full tanks again the vehicle was directed towards an anomaly that the team back at the KSC believed was something new, not just “one of those crazy arches again”. Even though Henley was doing his best to keep on the right side of Renlik by taking it easy across the Munar surface, it was only a matter of time before something came a cropper. In this case it was one of the wheels breaking due to getting to enthusiastic with the loud pedal. Henley volunteered to EVA and fix the damages wheel, but as he only had only a passing knowledge of engineering, his fixes were of the give it a kick, then duct tape it variety. Fortunately this rudimentary fix had a miraculous effect on the wheel, allowing it to look and function as if it was brand new. As the MOAR approached within a few hundred metres of the anomaly, it became clear that this was no arch. At first it appeared as just a black speck against the brightly lit munar surface, but soon grew in the view through the nav window, that Henley was able make out that it was “some kinda black square thing”. With the vehicle only a hundred metres or so from the strange object, it was clear that it was actually “square-ish” and appeared to be hovering some distance above the ground. It was almost unfathomably dark, giving the appearance of a hole cut through the mun, revealing the black sky beyond. As he felt pretty proud of his wheel repair, Henley thought he deserved a little fun, so he slew the MOAR to a sudden halt, spinning the vehicle to the left, coming to a rest a short distance from the strange black object. Pleased that his quick manoeuvre hadn’t burst another wheel, he called dibs on taking a look at the anomaly first, Renlik, who was still recovering from the sudden stop, said “sure thing… go ahead, just don't break it”. Henley approached the black object, looking up towards it as he got closer. Gingerly he made his way beneath , to see if there was anything on the underside to identify its purpose or origin, although a “Made on Duna” sticker was probably a bit too optimistic to hope for. Finding nothing but more blackness on the bottom of the object, Henley decided to take a closer look at the thing, so he readied his jet pack, then flew up to hover gently (or as gently as the controls of “on or off” would allow) alongside it. Staring into its inky surface, he was surprised to see something staring back at him, something that appeared to be a face. The shock of which made him forget about maintaining the hover and tumbling around helplessly for a moment, before recovering, just before hitting the surface. Rising up to the level of the object again, he heard Renlik over the radio. “Hey, see anything interesting up there” came his crewmates query . “Ah… dunno, maybe” came Henley’s less than clear response. “Ok, I’m coming to take look” informed Renlik, drawing alongside his pilot a few seconds later, the pair of them now hovering in front of what to Renlik, did appear to be a face. “Wow… what an ugly mug” opined Renlik “Only a mother could love that, I mean look at those eyes and and what’s all that fuzzy stuff around its chin. “Well at least he’s a spaceman” remarked Henley. “What do ya mean, why is…” replied Renlik before being interrupted. “Caus he got a helmet on… gotta be a spaceman” the pilot replied. Renlik was about to comment on how stupid that was, seeing as the helmet had no faceplate, but then realised that Henley might have a point, after all, how would they now what the technology of the species that had placed the object here would appear. Perhaps they had no need for a faceplate, which would have the huge advantage of making scratching your nose while on an EVA a hell of a lot easier. “I’ll get some pictures” said Henley and returned to the MOAR to collect a camera. While he was away, Renlik noticed that there was what appeared to be more writing of the same kind as they had seen on the first anomaly they had investigated and on his pilots return to the object, asked him if he could make out what it said. “Na lemme see” said Henley, rubbing the base of his helmet with his thumb and forefinger as if he was stroking his chin. “Ssssquaaark” enounced Henley. “Maybe them chickens” came his considered opinion. “Chickens” Renlik said, none too impressed. “Interplanetary chickens” “Sure… I mean they can fly cain’t they, they got wings” explained one of Kerbin’s best and brightest. “There’s so much wrong with that I don’t know where to start” Renlik retorted. “Naw… you just not usin’ yer ‘magination is all. I mean come on, it’s gotta be chickens. But real smart ones” the pilot replied, not wanting to give up on his theory. Rather than try to talk his pilot down, Renlik decided to take a scraping from the object for study back on Kerbin, but was surprised to find that the tool he used failed to remove even the smallest particles of it. From this he concluded that the technology of its makers must be significantly more advance than that of the Kerbals, who’s creations had the habit of exploding at the slightest sign of force being applied to them, especially landing legs for some strange reason. “What do say we go take a look at the next location on the list” Renlik asked his pilot. “Sure thing. Not much more we can do here” came his response. Minutes later the pair were heading up in another parabolic hop towards the next anomaly. On arrival, it was clear this was another one of the strange black objects as at the last site they visited, although this one at least was at ground level, which made an up close investigation of it less of a challenge. In the light at this location, the picture on its surface was clearer, revealing what appeared to be three stars on the helmet. Renlik wondered what these symbols might mean. “Watchya lookin’ at” enquired Henley, who had now joined him in examining the object. “The three stars on the helmet” replied Renlik, now doubting the wisdom of telling his pilot this, as it would no doubt elicit another bizarre explanation. “Hmmm…. now lemme see… starrrs” said Henley in deep thought, or at least as deep as he was capable of. “Well we’re in space” he followed. “Perhaps shows how many stars they’ve travelled to before they got here”. “You could be right” said Renlik wistfully, his opinion of his crewmate lifted by this reasonable suggestion. “The three stars of the chick’ns… makes ya think don’t it” replied Henley, his science buddy’s opinion of him now crashing back to ground level. “I think we’re done here” stated Renlik “time to go refuel”. “Can you take a picture or two of me with the chick’n” asked Henley “It’s fer me ma, so she can see what I been up to”. Ah well, Renlik thought, even if those photos have no chance of making their way into the guys mother’s hands, at least his hearts in the right place. So Renlik took photos of Henley from inside the MOAR. As well as outside of it... ...with the “chicken”.

Doing a little Kerbal archeology and experiencing the "joys" of 0.13.3 At least I got my three guys to orbit on my 1st attempt.

I'd have to say that I like the way the mouse wheel control works currently as it provides a broad range of input granularity, from the equivalent of giving the axis handles a gentle yank, down to a few cm/s of delta-v per click. But that's just me.

I'm looking at that and all I can think is "errm... errr... what?"

I had some seriously long burns flying this thing. It was for the How fast can you make a ship go. As I remember one of the stages took 3 hours to consume all its fuel and as the intention was to get the vehicle up to the highest speed possible (I got up to 90877.7m/s while flying really close to the sun) while zooming in towards Kerbol, then there was no practical limit on how long the burns could take.

Probably the biggest thing I've launched was the Eve Party Boat (4 man Eve return vehicle in 0.90). Here it is in Kerbin orbit once its two transfer vehicles had been docked. One the surface of Eve. I was using the rover to the right of the lander as a marker for my landing site and almost crushed it on landing.

So is it the accidental reverting or the kerbal homicide that you're confessing to

The clipping of the vehicle that you're seeing is not unique to KSP, it's just near plane clipping. The only reason it's more apparent in KSP than in most games is due to the decision (an entirely reasonable one given they type of game that it is) to allow a lot of freedom of movement of the camera, in particular not having the camera collide with the content of the scene, as is the case with most games.

Part 6 No photos of any "anomalies" exist, the mission that took them does not exist, hell... I don't exist. - An unnamed source - Bridge to nowhere Back on the surface again Henley and Renlik headed towards the location of the next anomaly on their list. This time they set down within a couple of kilometres so they were able to get a look at the source of the anomalous readings just before setting down on the surface. Once their wheels hit the munar dirt, Henley spun up the wheels and headed for it. Heading up the side of a small hill, the object at this location loomed over the top of it. It was clear that it was an arch of some kind, but details of what it was and what function it served couldn’t be determined from that distance. Henley brought the MOAR to a halt under the center of the arch by slewing the vehicle to one side, setting it into a violent rocking motion and throwing up a huge plume of dust. This had Renlik having to brace himself against the wall of the vehicle, to prevent his face making a messy impact on it. Renlik looked over his shoulder at his pilot to find out the reason for this unconventional stop, only to see him giggling to himself. Renlik put aside his anger at his crewmates' reckless sense of humour and jammed on his helmet and headed for the hatch, closely followed by Henley. Once outside the scale of the arch quickly became apparent… it was huge. Dwarfing their vehicle the arch had near vertical sides at the points where it met the munar surface and climbing high above the surface at its center. “So, any ideas what this is” asked Renlik, without high expectations of any answer. “Ah… nope” replied Henley “I’m going to take a closer look at the base of it” informed Renlik, before hopping across the surface towards one of the ends of the arch. On arriving at the base of the arch, it was clear that it was composed of a similar rocky material that the first object had been composed of, although a little coarser in texture. He reached out his gloved hand to stroke the surface and could feel the roughness of it through it. Looking over to see what his pilot was up to, he saw that he was busy doing something near the MOAR. Henley was indeed busy, placing the flag of the KSP under the center of the arch. He was determined to place it under the exact center, so he kept looking back and forth, between the top of the arch and the ground under the flag pole he was carrying, shuffling around in the dust as he attempted to find the perfect spot. Finally he decided that he had nailed the location of the center and jabbed the pole into the dust at his feet. This object didn’t have the complexity of the previous object that they had examined, so after chipping of a small sample of the material it was composed of and taking some photos, the pair climbed back into the MOAR. “So, still no idea what this is” inquired Renlik “I’ve got a theory myself but…” “I know, I know… I know what it is, I’m so stupid I didn’t think of it b’fore” blurted Henley “it’s a bridge, coz you know, the shape” he said, slowly moving his hands in an arc in front of his face. “A bridge?” queried Renlik “why would it be a bridge, where does it go”. “The other side” responded Henley “you ain’t too bright today is ya”. As at the previous anomaly, Renlick decided that the best course was to avoid digging into Henley’s ideas any further and suggested that they head back to base to refuel. With the thought of the wider snack selection back at base, Henley gave it full thrust to blast the MOAR into a suborbital trajectory towards their home away from home. Once they had filled the vehicles fuel tanks (and their stomachs) the pair head off to the next anomaly location. “Ahhhhh” screamed Renlik “Waahoo” shouted Henley as he swung the MOAR around to point the engines towards the rapidly approaching arch. 20 seconds earlier, the vehicle had been in a gentle final descent towards the surface near the arch that was the third anomaly on their list, but at the last moment Henley became bored of the smooth descent and decided to rotate it towards the huge object and give a quick full thrust burst on the engines, to get them there a little quicker. The result of which was a sudden lurch forwards, that had Renlik regretting eating those last couple of Kerby Krisps back at the base. Finally the pilot brought the vehicle to rest on the surface near the center of the arch. “The look on yer face” laughed Henley. “You idiot, what was that for” growled Renlik “I nearly lost my lunch” “I know… so funny” his pilot replied Renlik took a moment to compose himself, before suggesting that they head outside. Once on the surface, the pair again split up to examine different parts of the structure, with Henley taking a look at the base and Renlik jetting up to the top of the arch. Renlik came to rest near the zenith of the arch that stretched out across the surface below him. “Wow, this thing is really big” mused Renlik to himself “hmmm… what’s that” He leaned forward to take a look at some strange breaks in the surface of the arch, lines that stretched out along its length for some distance. “I wonder what those could be” he said and proceeded to take some photos of the unusual surface details, then scraped a small sample of the material into a container. Renlick had a great view from up here and he wondered who if the makers of the object might have taken a moment to enjoy the same one. Having soaked in the wonderful view for a moment more, he jetted back down to the surface to check up on what his crew mate had been up to. On his arrival at the base of the structure he was horrified at what he saw. Henley was lying on his back staring up at the arch, but it wasn’t the pose of his pilot that gave him concern, but what he had evidently been busy doing while Renlik had been up on the top. Scrawled around the base in big red letters made of duct tape were the words “Henley wuz heer”. Renlik didn’t know what to be more shocked at, the vandalism of the structure, or his pilots appalling spelling. “What the hell are you doing” shouted Renlik “I’m resting” replied Henley idly flicking one of his fingers in the munar dust. “No, I mean, what did you think you were doing when you stuck that on the object” “Cool huh” Henley responded “I left one just like it at the last bridge we went to” Renlik sighed, realising that at least when the follow up team visited these sites over the next few weeks, to make a more detailed study of them that Henley’s little arts and crafts exercise was likely to get him kicked of the flight roster, reducing by one, the number of crazy pilots he had to worry about. Their initial survey of the arch completed, Renlick climbed back into the cabin of the MOAR. He took a moment to look out of the navigation window seeing through it both the magnificent arch, with all the questions about who made it, when and for what purpose and Henley. Henley at this moment was busy scratching his rear end through the fabric of his suit while carefully drawing a smiley face in the dust at his feet with the toe of his boot. “Hey… time to get back inside” informed Renlik “we’ve got a schedule to keep”. “Ok, be right there” the pilot replied, before dabbing his toe in the dust to form the final eye in his masterpiece and heading back to the MOAR. With the pair safely back inside the vehicle, they left for their next anomaly site. Having been given a stern talking to by his science buddy, Henley opted for a more conventional approach to the next anomaly site, touching down a few hundred metres away and then proceeding from there on the surface. Even from that distance it was clear that the anomaly was the same as the last two they had visited, another huge arch placed on the Mun’s surface by some unknown entity. Henley parked the MOAR just short of the arch, claiming that he was scared that the arch might fall on it if he parked underneath it. Renlik didn’t see the logic to this as the arches appeared to be perfectly sturdy and they’d survived parking under the previous two, but thought better of questioning the pilot on his reasoning. After a short examination of the structure, after all it seemed to be identical to the last two they had visited, Renlik decided that he’d like to put up a flag himself, after all, why should Henley have all the fun. With the pole firmly planted in the munar dust, he released the catch that held the spring loaded flag and the support it hung from, freeing it from its casing. Renlik looked at the flag with the KSP logo emblazoned on it, then up at the arch and wondered if the two had the same purpose. “Henley, can you take a small sample of the arch for me” asked Renlik “Sure can do” replied Henley “do we have any dynamite on the ship” “What the… no we don’t and that’s not…” Renlik answered frantically “Just jokin’ with ya. I’ll chip off a little bit” chortled the pilot and with that removed a piece a little smaller than his hand. The pair and their sample back in the MOAR once more, Henley took the vehicle for a drive around the arch, so that Renlik could take a sequence of photos of it from multiple directions. Once these photos were in the bag Henley hit the throttle, causing the vehicle, which was almost empty of fuel, to shoot rapidly up from the surface, before gently rolling it over to head west and into orbit. Behind them was left the enigmatic arch, alone once more under the stars.

Part 5 Due to this report containing highly classified images of a number of anomalies on the surface of the Mun, those without K12 clearance, or of a nervous disposition should leave the room now. - From recently declassified meeting minutes - 13 Anomalous readings Weeks before their munar base was launched, a scientific satellite in Mun orbit provided strange data at a number of locations on the surface. With this data to wave in the face of those that funded the program, they were met by hands waving back at them, filled with cash, accompanied by pleas of “do something interesting, we’re sooooo bored of watching you guys plant flags”. With this fresh funding in hand, an addition was made to their plans for the upcoming munar base in the form of a lander/rover vehicle that would travel to and from the base, to the locations of the anomalies, with top up of fuel being made on each return to base. The intrepid crew of the MOAR (Mun Observation And Research vehicle), Henley and Renlik Kerman took off from the base that had been their home for the past few days, heading for the location of the first anomaly. Due to their vehicle being designed and assembled in record time, it was not equipped with the latest in anomaly tracking equipment, so had to rely on data transmitted to them from the satellite in orbit. This meant that each of it excursions would have it set down on the surface, somewhere within a few kilometres of their goal and then calculating the required direction of travel from there. After several minutes of driving across the surface, a bright blob on the horizon, that contrasted strongly with the dark munar surface at sunset became visible. With that as their guide Henley and Renlik homed in on their first anomaly. Henley flicked on the camera mounted inside the navigation window to give the team back at base and the KSC a view of what they saw. “Are you seeing this guys” he enquired. “Ahhh…. Yup” came the reply from KSC. “Before you ask we have no idea” they continued. “It looks a lander on top of a large box” replied Henley. Henley and Renlik knew that they knew about as much as they were going to, staring at the strange object from within their vehicle, so they donned their helmets and headed for the hatch. Out on the surface, the object appeared larger than it had appeared from within the MOAR, but before they could investigate it at close quarters, their vehicle needed some repairs. On approach to the anomaly, it had momentarily leapt off the ground, before crashing back into it, breaking three of its four wheels in the process. Henley insisted that this must have been due to the mysterious affects of the anomaly, while Renlik insisted that his pilot was simply a lousy driver. With repairs made, the pair made their way over to the object. Their first observation was that it appeared to be composed of stone, or possibly a concrete formed from the munar regolith. On closer inspection, they found that part was made of a shiny yellow metal, with some form of what appeared to be writing on it. “So what do you think that is” Renlik asked his crewmate, pointing at the shiny bit of the object. “Adveeertising” drawled Henley. “Advertising” Renlik retorted. “Out here, in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Nothingsville”. “Sure” Henley replied “why not”. “Who’s going to see it” countered Renlick. “Well we are” came Henley’s all too obvious reply. Renlik shook his head, flicked on his jetpack and flew up to take a closer look at what appeared to be a representation of a lander on top of the object. He noted that the “lander” appeared a little less robust than the sturdy products of the program that he was part of, especially its landing gear. “How would that thing survive a landing” he wondered, “Especially one of Henley’s”. Henley meanwhile had been scratching his head wondering what the writing on the side of the object could mean, so much so, that he almost rubbed off one of the red stripes of his helmet. “So… what ya sellin’?” He muttered to himself. Peering at the writing and squinting a bit, he decided that it appeared a little like old Keeglish, an ancient language of the kerbals, something that his mother had attempted to teach him the basic of when he was a child, to distract him from his rather dangerous interest in flying, especially dangerous given his apparent lack of skill at it. “Haamstriiing… kneel-in’ haamstriing” he mused. “I got it” he shouted excitedly over his radio “I know I got it”. “Got what” queried Renlik. “The answer… what this thing is fer” Henley replied. “Ok, so tell, me is this thing for” asked Renlik, preparing himself for the inevitable. “It an adver-tisement for hamstring cream. Yer know, for when it’s hurtin’” Renlik was about to respond, but realising that this would simply draw out the ridiculous conversation, decided instead to just say “ok, sure” and head back to the lander. The guys back at the KSC would have a better chance of deciphering the lettering from the photos they had taken than he or his crewmate. Before returning to the lander to join Renlick, Henley took closer look at the object and asked “Do ya think I should whack a chunk off of this thang… yer know, as a sample like”. Renlik took a look at the object out of the navigation window and was about to ask Henley to take off a small piece for later study, but for some unknown reason (given his fondness from a young age for collecting rocks) told his partner “No… don’t that. It does seem right somehow”. Having found out as much as they were going to at this site about the mysterious anomalies, Henley returned to the lander and the MOAR took off for the short hop to the next location on their list.

Available from Bifurcation Tools Incorporated in red, blue or original kerbal green.

My vote would be for Jupiter.

Completing a rendezvous burn of a big ship to find that you've ending up within 50m of your target.

Yep... I use Alt-Tab all the time. During loading is a must, as is on longer nuke or ion burns.

Part 4 "Knock, knock... you say who's there" - Yermin Kerman - 10 What's that burning - a trip to Moho Another mission, more fuel shenanigans. As had become the norm, a by the numbers departure burn from Kerbin to (you name it) was immediately followed by the realisation that there was way too little fuel remaining for a landing and the trip home. This "shocking" realisation was first made by the mission's pilot Yermin Kerman, after putting the Moho Express in a comfortable 20km orbit of their destination. Noticing that the fuel gauge looked to be showing an reading of nearly empty, he gave the gauge a quick flick with his stubby index finger, then when it didn't budge, a good whack with his fist. Unfortunately neither of these textbook methods of fixing a dodgy reading worked, as the gauge still read "no landings for you today". Yermin confered with the mission's engineer Rolley Kerman and the decision was made to call up a KSP special, i.e. send us more fuel asap. This was done in short order, but on arrival at Moho, it was realised that although there was sufficient fuel to almost top up the tanks on the lander, there was nowhere near enough to bring them home again. Once a third transfer vehicle arrived at the toasty little world, the lander was filled brim full of fuel and separated from its propellant filled benefactor and headed to the surface. Fortunately getting to the surface was a straightforward task, that had Yermin commenting that "we're making this flying to other planets thing look easy". However this was a statement he would come to regret, when on his next mission, that would take him out to chilly Eeloo, a serious design flaw stranded the transfer vehicle in Kerbin orbit. Yermin and Rolley ventured out onto the surface of Moho, which Rolley described as being like chocolate syrup on an ice cream cone (a strange analogy given their proximity to the nuclear inferno that lit the system) they set to work collecting surface samples and making some observations of Kerbol, "it's big and it's bright" was about the sum of their report. Just before returning to the lander, Yermin insisted on going through his entire repertoire of "knock knock" jokes. Given his fondness for these, Rolley spent the next two hours listening to the king of comedy (in his own mind at least) before Yermin remembered that he'd left the popcorn maker (he'd insisted that this was essential equipment for a trip to Moho) running. On entering the capsule, they found it to be 1/2 a metre deep in the stuff. The combination of the jokes and the several hours they had to spend cleaning up Yermin's favourite snack, set Rolley in a foul mood for the return trip, vowing never to join the "that nutjob" on any future missions. Having waited for the desired launch window for the return to Kerbin, the transfer vehicles engines climbed out of the depths of Kerbols' gravity well, pushing their little lander along with it. With the Moho Express' fuel reserves used up in the insertion burn into Kerbin orbit, the lander detached from it and rendezvoused with the KOS. A welcome change of location for Rolley, who by then was thoroughly sick of the smell of popcorn. 11 Far flung Eeloo Following its mission to near the center of the Kerbol system, the KSP's next mission would take its crew to the outermost planet in the system, Eeloo. Mere days after his return as pilot of the Moho mission, Yermin Kerman was to fly to the outer edge of the Kerbol system. Officially his response to this news was "Sure thing, strap me in". However unofficial sources say that he his reply was actually "What!... I just got back from Moho you $%"£!^& and you want to stuff me back in a ^&$%"^" can again... %&£* that. How about some RnR". Whatever the truth, come launch day both Yermin and Bob Kerman were seated in their ship bound for for Eeloo, tha lander of which they nicknamed "Lucky" after Bob's dog. This was a name that they would almost immediately regret when, just after the start of the burn out of Kerbin orbit, it was realised that some "soon to be an ex-employee" had connected the fuel lines backwards between the the Rockomax Jumbo-64 fuel tanks and the small FL-T200 tanks attached to the nuclear engines of their transfer vehicle. Transferring fuel manually to the small FL-T200 tanks, Yermin and Bob put the vehicle into a circular orbit of Kerbin and waited for the arrival of a replacement transfer vehicle. Once docked with their new ride to Eeloo, an improved model with more fuel, just in case it was required, they set off again for their icy destination. After a thankfully uneventful trip to Eeloo, Yermin and Bob detached their lander and descended to the surface, deciding not to test the vessels lights system, but instead to pick a nice safe daytime landing site, in case their lander's nickname decided to take a bite out of them again. Once on the surface, even Yermin had to admit it was interesting to stand on the surface, look into the sky and know that all the other planets of their system were "roughly that way". After a bit more of his bar room philosophising, Yermin joined Bob in collecting samples, before heading back into orbit for a rendezvous with the transfer vehicle. After the longest "wait for the window" time in KSP history, the two travellers lit up the transfer vehicle's engines to begin their journey home. On arrival back in Kerbin SOI, one last snag was to hit their mission, when it was realised that even the additional fuel of their replacement transfer vehicle was not going to be enough to get them into low orbit. So the newly constructed orbital rescue vehicle was sent out to refuel their craft, allowing it to rendezvous with KOS. On disembarking to the station, one of it's crew decided to play a misguided prank on the much travelled Yermin and told him that he had to report immediately for a mission to Eve. The result being a rather predictable brawl, with the unfortunate KOS crewman ending up in medical for a week and Yermin removed from the crew roster for an extended "cooling off period". 12 Learning the base hics Jeb Kerman had been busy, very busy, what with of his newfound space tourism wealth to spend. But it wasn't long before he yearned to get back at the pointy end of a series of slow explosions once more, so he was named as the commander of the KSP's first Munar base, that was due to blast off from the KSC a few days before New Year. This was launched by the largest vehicle constructed by the engineers of the KSP to date and with Jeb at the controls, the huge vehicle (by the standards of the day) made a smooth landing in the equatorial region of the Mun. Publicly the mission of the base was to further research into the origins of the Mun and to test new hardware, however it had another, far from public one, which was to investigate some anomalous readings that had been made by satellites in orbit. The base was to act as home for a wheeled lander vehicle that would in the coming weeks be sent to various locations on the Mun's surface to investigate these anomalies. Shortly after the arrival of the base, a lander, that had secretly been waiting for it in Mun orbit, descended to meet with it on the surface. the main purpose of the base with respect to its clandestine mission, was to keep the lander supplied with fuel for the multiple trips it was due to take to disparate parts of the Mun, in its investigation of the anomalies. Before the lander was due to depart, New Years Eve came round and in keeping with tradition, the crew of the base held a party to celebrate. With the party in full swing, it was discovered that one of the the fuel tanks had been "accidentally" filled with alcohol, rather than regular propellant. With this discovery made, the contents of the tank was soon vented into the largest punch bowl shaped containers the crew could find (a row of helmets on the dining area table) to be joined by a large quantity of prune juice, to soften it up a bit. The end results were inevitable, with the entire crew waking after their sleep period, suffering from "the sting of the Kraken" and finding evidence of the by now forgotten events of the celebrations. The entire base was leaning to one side, as one the the large wheels that supported it had been been broken as a result of the "coming in hot" game, they'd engaged in the night before, that had kerbal after kerbal, jamming on a prune punch filled helmet, then leaplng across the dining area table, sliding its length, and crashing into the opposite wall. Another sign of the revelry, was that the super secret lander, instead of being parked next to the base, was now in a small crater some 2km away surrounded by a set of complex geometric shapes carved in the munar dust, along with some string and a couple of planks of wood. With the base leaning at an uncomfortable angle, the most junior of the crew, Pilby Kerman was given the job of going outside to fix the wheel and retrieving the lander. Of course that meant the unpleasant task of jamming on one of the sticky helmets that had been used as a punch bowl the night before. Once the wheel was fixed and the base righted, it was only a few hours until the arrival of the first tanker vehicle from Kerbin. These took the form of a Jumbo-64 with wheels attached at each end, to allow it to be driven across the surface to dock with the base to offload its supply of fuel. As its landing was handled remotely from Kerbin, the less than stellar state of the bases' crew wasn't an issue, but once on the surface, they had to take control for the delicate task of bringing it next to and docking with the base. Despite the (more than) slightly the worse for wear state of the crew, the tanker was brought in a nice straight line towards the docking port, but instead of slowing in the last few seconds before making contact, to give a nice soft dock, the tanker was given a sudden burst of speed, the docking ports slamming together, damaging that of the tanker beyond repair. To make matters worse there was a dull thud heard through the structure of the base, followed by a familiar leaning to one side, leaving Pilby to jam on that prune soaked helmet once more. Jeb decided that as base commander it was his responsibility to explain the situation to the team at the KSC and suffer the consequences, so without a moments hesitation, he flicked on the communication circuit to Kerbin and informed them that the tanker's docking port was irreparably damaged, probably due to vibration during launch. With his record clean, if not his conscience, Jeb waited for the replacement tanker to arrive.