purpleivan

Equatorial Duna.

I'd like to submit my story 2001 A Space Absurdity in the humour section. Story thread

Another shot of the construction of KOSTAR, this time the core module entering Mun orbit.

The near terrain is five Apollo photos stitched together then colour adjusted to match. Drawing rocks sounds like a punishment rather than something done for fun

Kraken hats all round... I like.

To add an imgur album you tap the icon of white "I" on a black square and put the album code (the part of the imgur URL after the last /) in the popup box

Yep... Not having atmospheric heating issues when entering Eve atmosphere helped me a lot, especially with the four kerbal lander. That thing was huge.

As I seem to have brought this challenge back to life by accidentally posting to the thread, I thought I should message Holoyolo about taking a look at the new entries. Just got a reply that they'll be taking a look. Think I might take a crack at eeloo as well, when I get back home after easter vacation.

I must get around to doing this before 1.1 comes along I built a couple of single kerbal capsules and even a 4 kerbal (hitchhiker can) one that I used in successful eve return missions in 0.90 but nothing in 1.05.

I did think that maybe I would make a video when I was part way through this. But then sanity kicked in and I realised how long that would take (getting some of the screenshots took long enough).

Some more images from 2001: A Space Absurdity

Here's a couple more images from 2001: A Space Absurdity this time from the final chapter.

Thanks for the suggestions. I did think about using some addons, but in the end went for stock parts only in making this, just to keep that 100% Kerbal look.

Even aliens know what's coming.

Good advice for anyone falling off that crowded Hype Train roof.

Very nice.

Well at some point "Stanley Kerman" will be putting together the story of the making of 2001: A Space Absurdity.

I finally finished my little bit of fiction (Chapter 4) 2001: A Space Absurdity

Chapter 4: Voyages End Speeding away from the Diskovery Jeb feared what he would find when he caught up with his target. Bob had been moving away at high speed, probably as a result of some kind of accidental collision with his pod. How that could have happened he didn’t know, but his crewmate must have taken a heavy knock. The dot in the distance turned into a small spinning blob, then the silhouette of a spacesuit as he approached it. Eventually he was close enough to reach out with the grabbers of the pod and arrest Bob’s spinning motion. “Bob, can you hear me” Jeb shouted into the mic on the pod’s control panel. “Bob respond”. Still no reply. Jeb rotated the pod and headed back for the Diskovery. He couldn’t see Bobs face from the angle the grabber arms held his suit at, but the suit looked pretty banged up and there was what looked like a disconnected air hose sticking out from the backpack. Several solemn minutes later Jeb had brought the pod back to the Diskovery and positioned It facing the forward section. As a result of the manoeuvres to return to the ship, Bob’s suit had turned just enough that with a twist of one of the grabbers, Jeb could take a look through the visor, but he soon wished that he hadn’t. There was nothing to be seen through the visor, all he could see was an empty suit. Jeb started to breathe rapidly. “Ok… not the time to panic, I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this” Jeb said in a shaky voice. “Open the pod bay doors ARL” he requested. But the doors did not open and no reply came from ARL. “Open the pod bay doors” he repeated. Strange, no response, maybe it’s taking a nap. “ARL... wake up and open the pod bay doors” he shouted. After a brief pause the reply came from ARL “Not gonna.” “What do mean, not gonna. Open the doors right now ARL” Jeb responded. “Uh hu… Momma and Daddy said they wanna put me to bed, so you can go away, like I made Momma go away” the AI replied. Ok, now was the time to panic. In space, no-one can hear you screen, but that didn’t stop Jeb from spending the next few minutes thumping and banging around inside the pod, and cursing the AI with the kind of language to make a fleet of sailors blush. Finally Jeb remembered that there was an emergency access hatch on the forward section. He really needed to start taking more notice in training sessions. “Ok mister. I’ll crank open the emergency hatch manually then you and I are going to have a serious talk.” Said Jeb, feeling quite pleased with himself. “Hahaha… you da dummy now Daddy. You’ve got no fish bowl to put on your head, so you’ll go pop!” reminded ARL. “What, yes I have” Jeb replied, desperately looking around him for his suit’s helmet. It’s got to be around here somewhere, he thought hopefully. After some searching and more profanity, Jeb came to the conclusion that ARL was right and that he was indeed equipmentally challenged. Ok, if that’s how that jumped up Speak and Spell wants to play it… fine. Jeb realised that to get into the ship was going to take some extreme measures. Firstly he’d need to let go of Bob’s empty suit, to free up the grabbers. With that done, came the second order of business, using the grabbers to open the emergency hatch. Ok… part three (the fun part as far as Jeb was concerned), rotate the pod so it’s rear was towards the emergency hatch and then applying maximum thrust towards the hatch”. “To reverse ramming speed” screamed Jeb manically The pod shot backwards at high velocity for a few seconds, before slamming into the hull of the Diskkovery, wedging into the open hatchway as a result. “Bwhahaha… did you see that ARL. Didn’t expect that did ya.” Taunted Jeb. The AI remained silent. With the pod jammed into the emergency airlock, providing a useable, if not quite airtight seal, Jeb kicked the door from the back of the pod. He now had a mission; one involving a pipe and a whole lot of whacking. First order of business was to get a helmet, just in case ARL decided to try any tricks on him. With a now complete spacesuit, Jeb made his way towards the AI center. On his way he made sure to pick up the biggest piece of pipe he could find. “What ya doing Daddy” queried ARL. “Quit it with calling me Daddy" Jeb replied. It’s was making the current situation very weird. “Not gonna Daddy, you need to take a time out and… and… not give me a spanking” the AI responded. Jeb’s head drooped. For 18 months that glorified calculator had been calling him Daddy and now he was hunting it down, metal pipe in hand. He dropped the pipe. Time for plan B. Jeb entered the AI center. The room was beyond the range of the hab’s Double D gravity unit, so he floated through it towards ARL’s logic cores. He vaguely remembered some training in the use of ARL unit that described the procedure to disable all but it’s most basic functions and his plan was to do just that. On approaching the logic cores, he saw a short list of instructions on how to carry out this procedure. If your ARL202L unit gives you problems, do the following. 1. Call your Anatid Robotics representative to arrange a service visit. What joker put that on there, thought Jeb, the KSP never pays for the service plans. 2. Replace the defective unit was a fresh one. Sure… I've always got a room sized AI unit tucked in my pocket 3. Ignore the problem and hope it goes away. Hmmm… that’s worked for me before, but maybe not in this case. 4. Initiate a higher functions shutdown by carrying out this procedure. Now ya talking. 5. To initiate a higher functions shutdown, remove the colour coded core blocks in the following order. a. Green b. Blue c. Red d. Grey Staring at the logic blocks, all of which appeared to be shades of the same colour, Jeb realised that the design team had not read these instructions before decided on that cool, all red lighting scheme for the AI center. Well, nothing for it but to go with plan C… randomly pulling logic cores to see what happens. Jeb took a firm grip on one of the cores and pulled. “Hi Daddy” piped up ARL. “Watcha doing?” So far so good Jeb thought and pulled out another. “Feeling sleepy Daddy, fink I’ll take a nap” yawned ARL This is going great Jeb thought, just two more cores and I’m done. He then grabbed a third core and yanked it out. “Well hello good sir. I cannot help but feel that you have ill intent toward me and I will do all in my power to prevent your current course of action” the AI eloquently stated. Oops… that can’t be good, thought Jeb and jammed the core back in its slot before gingerly pulling out a different one. “Mmmm… very sleepy now Daddy. You gonna read me a bedtime story?” asked ARL. “Not right now… I’m… busy” replied Jeb. “OoKaaay… I know a song” said the sleepy AI “wanna hear it”. “Sure, sing it” said Jeb, thinking that this might take his mind off the day’s disturbing events, although wondering what kind of song an AI would sign. “Ok then Daddy… here we go”. “The wheels on the wover go woun an woun, woun an woun, woun and woun” “The wheels on the wover go woun an woun, awl da long” Urgh Jeb thought. He knew this stupid song was going to be stuck in his for the rest of the day. “The lights on the wover, go clicky, clicky, clicky… clicky, clicky, clicky”. Jeb desperately yanked on one of the remaining cores in the hope of putting this painful experience behind him. “The horn on the wover goes BEEP, BEEP, BEEP…” the AI shrieked. Jeb seized another core and pulled it out. “BEEP, Beeeep, beeeeeeep… ta hon o ta over go beeeeeeep, beeeeeeeeeep, beeeeeeeee” trailed off ARL. The AI had finally been shut down, much to Jeb’s relief. However, before he could relish his victory and go raid the snack cupboard, a monitor on the wall flickered into life. “If you are watching this, then either you either have a logic core in your hand, or a large pipe” spoke the kerbal who appeared on the monitor. “This is a pre-recorded message. I am Dr Haywood Kerman. But of course you know that, I’m the one who makes sure you get paid each month… and don’t you forget it.” continued the voice. Jeb instantly recognised it as indeed being Dr Kerman. A voice that was somehow simultaneously that boring and that supremely irritating (not forgetting whiny of course) could only belong to him. “18 months ago something… we’re not sure what, happened… er… somewhere… maybe” continued the unusually tongue tied director of the KSP. “This event was so incredible that we decided that all but a select group of personnel, would have their memory of this, er… thing… wiped from their minds. Unfortunately due to a clerical error, only those people who knew of this thing had their memory wiped, so those who knew of it now don’t and those who didn’t… er… still don’t”. Even for Heywood Kerman, this sounded particularly garbled. “So the upshot of this is that we don’t actually know why you have been sent to Joolian space, but trust me… it’s important. “ “Oh and, best of luck”. Great, thought Jeb, another giant leap for upper management. Jeb spent the next four months monitoring the systems of the Diskovery, guiding it towards Jool and indulging his passion for all forms of deep fried foods. The latter of these resulted in him gaining a lot of weight, before deciding, a month prior to arriving in the Jool system, that whatever he would face when he got there, he’d better not face it fat, so went on a crash diet. Without Bob or ARL to keep him company Jeb was left with no-one to talk to, not even the KSC back on Kerbin, due to the main antenna requiring ARL to keep it aimed correctly. Finally the Diskovery entered the domain of the green giant and Jeb would have his answers. While passing close to Laythe a strange object was detected orbiting it. Actually Jeb just happened to be looking out of the window when passing by, so he slowed the ship to take look. Having matched orbit with whatever "it" was, Jeb took the remaining pod out of the bay with unusual nervousness. his nerves having less to do with the large black object that lay in the path of the Diskovery and more to do with how things went the last time he took one of these things out for a spin. As he approached the large black… er… what should he call it… slab, he noticed that the slab was very dark, as if soaking up all the light that hit it, except the shininess of course. It was very shiny. Jeb wondered what this strange object could be. He assumed that it was the reason he was sent this far out into the Kerbol system. After all, how many large strange objects could there be out here. As Jeb's pod drew closer to the slab, its surface started to change. The black surface became covered with lights that seemed to be drawn to its center, just as his pod was being drawn in. Wait a minute; my pod is being drawn in, time to hit the brakes. Jeb applied as much thrust away from the slab as the pod was capable of, but even at full thrust, his little tin can of a ship was still being pulled in at ever increasing speed. At the last moment before the pod smashing into the surface of the slab, Jeb looked away from the navigation window, covered his visor with hands and cursed Dr Heywood Kerman for sending him on this trip. The massive collision that he expected never came, but instead the intensity of the lights that danced across the surface of the slab increased dramatically and now joined him in rushing into what Jeb could only think was the depths of the huge object. It seemed that he was now somehow passing through, rather than colliding with it. The dancing lights then seem to both envelope the pod while simultaneously stretching off as far as he could see. The patterns of light rapidly changed from one form to another and his pod shook violently as it rushed headlong with seemingly impossible speed. Jeb was loving this. Even in his early test flight days, he hadn’t had a rush like it, plus the moving pattern of light that surrounded the pod looked like what he’d seen the day he ate that cheese he’d found behind the refrigerator at the KSC (a couple of years beyond its sell by date, but hey… cheese). Jeb’s eyeballs were practically glued to the inside of his visor as he willed the pod to go faster, as he’d noticed that it seemed to be gradually slowing. “Go… go.” he yelled. The view from the pod changed from the shafts of dancing lights to what looked like a strange, but somehow familiar landscape that was rushing by beneath him. By now the effects of the vibration and the lightshow that he had been passing through were starting to take their toll and Jeb began to wish that this funfair ride would come to an end. After a final mind jarring change in the state of him and the pod, that felt like every molecule in his body was having a drunken brawl with every other molecule, the pod came to a stop. Opening his eyes that he’d had jammed shut in those final few seconds, he took in the bizarre scene that he saw from the navigation window of the pod. Beyond the toughened glass of the window he could see what appeared to be a room, although it was unlike any room he had ever seen. Although it was recognisable as a room, with familiar features, it was undeniably “different” in a way he couldn’t describe. But if forced to describe it he would go with “posh”. The pod stood in a large room that seemed to be a mixture of fancy bedroom and 70’s disco. After checking the instruments of the vehicle to find out something about the environment it was now in; most of which simply indicated “huh?”, he decided to open the hatch and step out. Not knowing how long he might be in this strange place, he ran around the pod and stood in front of it, in order to get a selfie using the on-board camera. After satisfying the tourist in him, he turned his attention to the environment in which he found himself. He was undeniably standing in a bedroom, he deduced this mainly from the fact that it contained a large bed. He started to examine the other furniture in the room, but that bed did look awfully inviting, but before he could take it up on its implicit offer of a quick nap, he was startled by a sound from an adjoining room. The sound was a short, strange squeak and edged towards the doorway to it to find out its source. On entering the room, which appeared to be some kind of eating area (the table laid with plates and cutlery was a clue) he heard an even louder sound. “Welcome visitor” said an amiable voice. “Who me” replied Jeb, a little confused, not to say startled. “Why indeed sir; you are our visitor and thank you for your custom” came the voice. “Say what” said the now rather clueless astronaut. “Where am I… er… where is here?” “If you have any question, then please take a moment to read the the information leaflet on the table”. Jeb stretched out his hand to grab a small card leaflet from where it was placed. A point that seemingly was the exact center of the table. It read. Welcome to Artur & Klak’s, the finest getaway destination in the western spiral arm of the galaxy. Established for over four million of your years, we have a reputation second to none, for accommodation, cuisine and quality of service. Check-out time is 37 o’clock and we accept all forms of heavy elements as payment for your stay. Gradually the truth dawned on Jeb. “So, are you’re saying this is a hotel?” asked Jeb “Why of course and not any hotel, but the best; although we don’t like boast, but many guests have…” “A HOTEL” shouted Jeb. “Yes… what did you think this was” the voice asked. “Something wonderful” said Jeb. “But this is a wonderful hotel is it not and you haven’t even tried our food yet” the voice replied. “Actually I had no idea what to expect this to be, due to my boss being an idiot” growled Jeb. “Did you say food?” “Why indeed. We have some of the finest food in the galaxy, perhaps sir is hungry and would like to sample something from our kitchen” suggested the voice. “OK… where’s the grub” said Jeb smiling and rubbing his hands gleefully, finally having something to be happy about. “If you take a look in the cabinet behind you, you’ll find something I’m sure will be to your liking” said the voice a little smugly. Jeb turned then stepped across to the cabinet before opening its doors to find that the cabinet was full of small purple wrapped packets. Picking up one of these and taking a closer looking at it, his eyes moistened and smile broadened. “Kerby Krisps” exclaimed the tired and sugar starved astronaut and ripped open the wrapper of his favourite snack bar. Having torn off one end of the wrapper, he paused for a moment, his smile changed to a deep frown. “What do you call this” he asked. “Why bleuh of course” replied the voice. “I can see it’s blue, I mean what is it and what is it doing in a Kerby Krisps packet?” questioned Jeb angrily. “No sir, bleuh, not blue, the finest food in the galaxy. We have it transported from the core planets of the bleuh system, for the delectation of our guests. Then it is packaged in a manner familiar to them, wherever they have travelled from”. Jeb sniffed at the contents of the Kerby Krisp wrapper, but the blue coloured gunk had no smell, then he took a tentative bite, finding that it was also almost tasteless, but at least it didn’t taste bad, just not of very much. “Sir; I need to draw your attention to a safety advisory that unfortunately we haven’t have time to add to the information leaflet” the voice said. “What’s that… something about safety” replied Jeb, as usual a little bored by the subject. “Yes sir; we have placed a piece of equipment, a monolith, in your bedroom that you must not touch under any circumstances” instructed the voice. “A what” asked Jeb, poking his head around the corner of the doorway to the bedroom, to see what the fuss was about. “A monolith sir; a large black object near the center of the room” the voice clarified. “Don’t know what you mean….” Began Jeb “what the… hey, where’s my pod”. “Your pod sir, oh your conveyance. It was not befitting the high standards of this establishment, so I took the liberty of having it destroyed for you sir. A new vehicle will be provided on your departure” the voice said a little condescendingly. “Destroyed… that was my pod, mine” shouted Jeb, shaking his fist at… well… a room I guess. “Additionally it was occupying the designated location of the monolith for this room, so it really had to go” continued the voice. At that moment Jeb realised that there was a large dark object where his pod had been. “Sooooo…. That’s a monolith?” asked Jeb. “Yes sir… a monolith” replied the voice “all rooms are required to have one”. Jeb was now sure that “it”, whatever “it” was, that was responsible for the voice, was getting a little snooty with him. “Ok, so I spend 18 months travelling to Jool, only to get sucked into a… monolith. Then I’m dragged on some crazy wormhole ride, although that bit was cool. Then get dumped in a hotel room with nothing but blue gunk to eat and after all that then you steal my pod” exclaimed Jeb, having had enough of this guy’s attitude. “Then you replace my pod, with this monolith thing and tell me I can’t touch it. Well I’m not too keen on following safety advisories from people I can see, so you know what…” and with that he poked the monolith with his hand. POOOOF. Jeb came to; he assumed that he’d been knocked out when he touched that monolith, as he didn’t remember leaving that strange hotel. He wasn’t sure where he was now, which was even weirder than the hotel room, but it seemed like he was back in space. His confusion wasn’t due him not seeing clearly, he could see just fine, it was just that his brain didn’t seem to be in a rush to make any sense of what he did see. After a moment he could confirm that yes, he did indeed seem to be in space; although not the kind he was used to, being more vividly coloured than usual. Then he panicked, as he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Although he didn’t seem to be in any kind of spacecraft, there was a gentle glowing bubble around him, perhaps that was the reason that he was still breathing he thought. But wait a damn minute… he wasn’t breathing; but strangely that seem to be ok, other than his initial panic at realising that fact. Looking ahead of him he could see other kerbals, also floating in bubbles, to which he seemed to be getting closer. Eventually his bubble joined the back of what appear to be a queue of bubbles and much to his surprise the occupant of the one in front of him was a familiar face. “Bob” exclaimed Jeb, shocked to be seeing the crewmate who had disappeared four months earlier. “Hi Jeb… didn’t take you too long to get here. But you always did like to push that envelope” replied Bob. “What’s happening, where is this” asked an utterly confused Jeb. This was a much more talkative Bob than he was used to. “Well… that would take a while to explain and it judging by the folks up ahead, it looks like we’ve not got much time left” came Bob’s not too useful answer. “But… the hotel room, my pod, that monolith thing. What the hell is going on?” asked the increasingly confused Jeb. “Don’t worry, just go with it” came another less than useful statement from Bob. Jeb was beginning to miss the old, less talkative version. “Ok… just remember, when you go through the hatch, tuck and roll, can’t stress that enough” Bob advised. At least something useful thought Jeb, but hey, what hatch. Jeb looked to his sides, searching for any hatches that he could see. On both sides he saw similar queues to his own, lined up in front of small hatches that floated in space, surrounded by a bright glow, similar hatches to those on the various craft he had flown. Each hatch appeared to have something written on them, that seemed to identify each , but from this distance he couldn’t make out what it said. Suddenly he was distracted from his perusal of the hatches by Bob. “Well, time for my next hatch. See you around” Bob shouted. Now that they had moved forward in the queue, Jeb could see a hatch like the others was in front of Bob. This swung open and a brilliant light shone through. Jeb could hear a short faint crack sound, followed by what sounded like conversation. Bob leapt from his bubble through the hatch, shouting out something as he did so. There was a bright flash, the hatch closed and Bob was gone. Jeb had little time to consider what the significance of all this was, as the hatch almost immediately swung open again and he felt compelled to jump through it. After a moment’s hesitation, he leapt forward, the bubbling that surrounded him dissolving as he hit the hatchway, much as the memory of his life seemed to be dissolving. At that moment he caught sight of the markings on one of the other hatches, it seemed to be a number. What was it Bob had said…? “Tuck and roll”. The hatch swung shut again and the next kerbal in the queue floated up to it. She took a look at the hatch and saw what was written on it. What the hell did that mean, she thought. What’s 1.1? The End.

This image is based on another one from 2001: A Space Absurdity although I did some additional Photoshop work for this version and it's at 16:9

About to head down in a mini lander from KOSTAR to the Mun surface.

Difficult to pick just one moment, so I've picked two. The first (which I'm sure a lot of players would pick) was my first manned Mun landing. I'd built up to this Apollo style with a Kerbin orbit test of my command module and lander (with separate descent and ascent stages), a Munar orbital mission and finally a third mission to land on the surface. The experience was sheer terror during the landing as it felt like I was running low on fuel during the descent (I made it down with about 10% left in the descent stage), followed by the excitement of having made it down in one piece. The Second experience was when exploring the abandoned airfield near the KSC, which I was doing with a little lander/rover that I rocketed then parachuted onto the island. After a couple of minutes driving around the hangars suddenly the view switched to thousands of kilometers from Kerbin with only the Mk2 Lander Can of the rover in view, containing Rolley Kerman who ended up lost in space. No fuel, no engines to burn it with if I'd had any, just the lander can. Rolley had fallen victim to the "anomaly" on the island. Tragic loss.

I ran out of fuel on one of my entries to the Mun Landing Endeavour challenge by just a few m/s. I had to EVA one of the crew to give the vehicle a push for a few seconds with their jet pack to get it to clip Kerbin's atmosphere, in order to eventually (after a few orbits) bleed off enough speed for re-entry.

I don't know if you'd call it a close call, but the four mini landers I equipped my Mun station with in the Grand Orbital Space Station Challenge didn't quite have enough fuel to make a landing and return to orbit (at least with me at the controls) so I had to use mono to complete the climb into orbit. Here's a pic of one of the little things leaving the bay it's stored in.

A bit of fitness training for the guys at the KSC.