purpleivan

Crackers, chedder cheese and pickled onions So what do you say @Smokey the Bear

My collection's 11.9GB starting in 2014. Just over 14,000 images and I must throw out about 70% of the ones I take, so that's a lot of F1 action.

Some time ago, there was much discussion and theorising about the true nature of Kerbin's arctic ice. Does it sit on top of a great landmass, or does it float, possibly providing a navigable space beneath it, to act as a shortcut from one ocean to another. Well, Val and Bill finished their survey of that region today. After leaving the outpost, the Drop in the Ocean, the pair headed in the Naughtylus for the frozen icecap. The sub arrived and found... rock, lots of rock, near the surface at least. It looked like it went down a long way, but just how far, that's the question. Only one way to find out. After descending for several minutes the Naughtylus hid the seabed and the truth was revealed. "The Wall" as it's known in these parts, is just that... a wall, with no navigable way through it. But at least Bill got to try out Bob's latest creation, a diving suit that use a beathable liquid to allow for important reseach at these depths, such as will flags stick into rock 1.1km down. The answer is yes, they will, and in case you're wondering the breathable liquid is mango flavoured. With the question of the nature of the icecap resolved, Bill returned to the Naughtylus before it headed back to the surface. Special thanks go to the mods Kerplunk, MOIST and BallastWaterTanks for making this important research trip possible.

More nautical adventures for me today. The Naughtylus headed to the great wall at the edge of the icecap, on a mission to see if there might be a navigable passage underneath it. Val managaed to avoid a nasty collision with the wall, with just a few metres to spare. Nothing but rock here, so lets go down and take a look. All the way down. Down in the inky depths, the Naughtylus found the base of the wall. Bill went out to take a look. With evidence that the wall was indeed a wall, and not some kind of hugh icecube, it was time to head West to look at other parts of it, just to be sure. But sure enough all there was, was wall.

Part 3: The Wall This morning it was time to really put the Naughtylus through its paces and use it for what it was designed for. Investigating The Wall. Which wall, why the wall at the edge of the arctic. Val and Bill headed up towards the surface so they could see the wall up there as there approached it, instead of it suddenly looming out of the darkness, to be smashed into at 35m/s Once on the surface the wall is nowhere to be seen, but I am assured that it is there, just over the horizon. Over there. As the Naughtylus approached the ice cap, the silhouette of the wall began to grow. With about 200m of water above, this water is about 1100m deep. Once they seemed to be close to the wall (hard to judge distance down here) Val swung the sub round to approach it at an oblique angle. Suddenly the water cleared and the detail of the wall came in to view, forcing full left rudder and a quick roll to avoid a messy collision. Having brought the boat back to the surface, Val gently manouvered towards the imposing rockface. Then it was time to dive again, just to take a look... yep, still a wall down here. After decending a couple of hundred metres the Naughtylus leveled and headed back to the surface, then on the surface towards another part of the wall. Ok... time to follow this thing down to the bottom. Here we go. 1100m down and the seabed finally came into view. Val and Bill knew that the base of the wall should be nearby, but had no way of telling quite how close. Val gently nudged the sub forward until finally the dark rock was illumnated by the sub's lights. Then it was time to descend to the seabed once more, so that finally the base of the massive wall could be seen. Bill was eager to stretch his legs, so volunteered to do the honours of raising the flag. 2m from the wall... 1100m from the surface. Val kept a close eye on Bill durring his EVA. With the important job of nailing a bit of flappy plastic to the seabed dealt with, it was time for Bill to return to the Naughtylus. Then it was time for it to head back to the surface. Once there the sub motored along on the surface towards their next investigation site. Val enjoyed the sunset. While Bill cooked dinner. That next site would be right here. Bob had suggested that ther might be floating ice near the small number of holes in the icecap, possibly providing a way under the ice. But unfortunately no, there would be no travels under the ice, as yet again solid rock blocked their passage. The following day one last spot was chosen to assess the solid rockiness of the great wall of the North. After much time sailing on the surface, the Naughtylus made it to the Western edge of the wall. Land, the type with green stuff on, came into view as the sun was close to setting, Val swung the boat around to head towards the wall, hoping to find a navigable passage. But sadly there was no passage to be found.

Started a deep sea adventure. Maybe not the start you'd expect. But that delivered this. Which went down here. Then this flew to where the Drop in the Ocean was, well... dropped. The submarine in the plane's belly, the Naughtylus, was detached and headed down to go meet up and dock with it on the seabed. Science and maybe shenanigans will follow.

Chapter 2: The Naughtylus The Drop on the Ocean isn't going anywhere, it's not a problem, it was designed to do that. Just sit in the depth of the ocean and wait. But wait for what. Why a submarine to come visit of course. But how to get a submarine all the way to those frozen Northern seas. Well for this the traditional, some would say dependable... I might say slow, method of one of those things with wings was chosen. I believe they're called aircraft. This was certainly a "thing" rather than a fine example of winged excellence. It was heavy, wobbly (especially when trying to take off) and suffered weird dynamics in flight. But more of that later. A little after dawn the "aircraft" with the submarine it's belly, tore across the grass at the KSC (the wobbliness meant that something as narrow as that big fat runway wasn't an option), it's afterburners blazing. This did not end well... but at least the sub was intact. Ok... time to load it into a new aircraft and try again. This could be the start of a trend. After, ahem... a few attempts, the sub was finally airbourne. This thing is not fast, after a few minutes of flight (the tanks were nowhere near full, but it probably wouldn't get of the ground if they were) it would barely excede 300m/s The angle of attack was rather steep for for horizonatal flight. Not long after passing this mountain a strange behaviour was discovered. As the fuel burned down, the nose started to drop, so fuel was transfered from a tank at the front, to one at the rear. The plane reacted by going into a nose dive... F9 time. Hmmm... so transfering the CoM back, causes the nose to instantaneously point groundward. Not had that before. Ok... transfer fuel to the nose then. Another couple of times on the journey North, more fuel was sent to the nose to stop this thing plumeting into the ground/sea. With the Drop in the Ocean coming into sight on the HUD, there was now no fuel at the rear of the plane, just the nose tank and a bit in the wings. As it was known that the outpost was 1km down, this looks like a good place to land. Land, crash... you decide. Either way the "plane" has done its job and the sub is in one piece. 1.3km to the Drop in the Ocean, must be almost right on top of it. So let's take a look at what this trip's been all about then shall we. This thing... the Nauthylus. Away it fell from the transport aircraft, sinking into the depths. With Val at the controls and Bob sitting in the back seat, the Nuaghtylus headed towards the bottom. On reaching the seabed Val turned on the lights. Then she deployed the tail fins and headed towards the Drop in the Ocean. They touched down about 800m from it, so the journey there didn't take long. The sub has a maximum speed of about 35m/s. Ok... now how to do this thing. First drop it down nice and close to the docking port and try to be at least roughly lined up with it. Then nudge forward. Eventually the two ports came into contact. Jeb informed Val that a sold dock had not been made. Ah... forgot to use the rams at the back, with them swung into position and extended the two ports lined up and docking was established. After this Val and Bill came aboard the Drop in the Ocean and some cheap champange (a lot of transport planes were demolished on takeoff) was consumed. Jeb opened the envelope containing their secret orders. Some gasped, others moaned, but none could complain... orders is orders.

Tales from the Deep - Part 1: Drop in the Ocean The following is dedicated to all those brave kerbals, in game saves everywhere, that never made it back from the cold dark abyss, that are Kerbin's oceans. I've sent kerbals to all the bodies in the system, climbed a lot of mountains and even boated around the entire mainland coast of Kerbin, but one place I've not been to (well, not often anywhere) is down in the deep. So today was the day that glaring omission would be rectified. The plan was to set down a base, an outpost, a marker in the deep if you will, that will forever be remembered as... ... ahhh, who I am I kidding with all the flowery language, I just wanted to mess about with some underwater stuff. The Drop in the Ocean The day's activitied started with the outpost the "Drop in the Ocean" being sent to the chilly North polar seas by the most suitable vehicle available... a rocket. This rocket. Then this 2nd stage. Yar... ice cap dead ahead Captain (well, and sideways a bit too). With the fuel depleted and the worst of the atmospheric heating over, the fairing was dropped, leaving the Drop in the Ocean to decend on its own. The idea had been to use the air brakes at the top to guide it in close to the ice cap, but the trajectory didn't carry it as far as that, so they were never deployed. Then obviously, it was time for the chutes to take the strain. As the Drop in the Ocean decended, the ice cap dropped out of sight. This landing spot wasn't as close to the big icecube as had been hoped, but it would have to do. This part was tricky, because for some reason if the vehicle had touched down before the tower with the parachutes was detached, the separator wouldn't fire. This took a few attempts to get right, timing detachment just a meter or so above the waves. Ok, this thing's heavy, so we're on our way down now and with 23m above us. ... and 983 below, that seabed is about 1km down. That pesky parachute tower just didn't want to let go and took a fair amount of wiggling to get it loose. That's done it, but now it seems to want to race the Drop in the Ocean to the bottom. I think it's going to win. Gradually the light began to dim. Then dim some more. Until finally it was pitch black. A few dozen metres from the bottom, the parachute tower comes into view, looming up out of the dark depths. A little closer to the bottom and the lights of the Drop in the Ocean start to illuminate the seabed. Finally the outpost touches down, just metres from the parachute tower. How many metres I don't know, but metres nevertheless. Jeb headed for the hatch wearing the latest in KSC approved diving gear. Actually, a well past it's use by date spacesuit if we're being honest. Jeb told Bob that he would be back shortly after stabbing the sea floor with a flag pole, but immediately he was outside, he crept around to the front window, to give Bob the biggest jump scare of his life. Bob is certain that all these pranks of Jeb are reducing his life expectancy. With the important task of getting Bob's heart to miss a few beats, Jeb headed down the ladder to the seabed. Then with no further ado, he raised the flag. This scene does look familar, like so many flag raising's that Jeb's done, just with fewer stars. Once safely back inside it was Jeb's turn for a jump, as Bob was waiting on the other side of the hatch in a hideous sea monster costume. Bob new it was best to be prepared on this mission for Jeb's inevitable pranking, even if the only available preparation was retaliation. Always be prepared. To be continued...

Today was a day of rocket powered SSTO's. First was a spaceplane that runs on a single aerospike, which made it safely into a 75km orbit before returning to the surface in one piece. Then it was the turn of The Klipper, loosely based on McDonnell Douglas' Delta Clipper concept. This was also placed in a 75km orbit, but it had a healthy amount of fuel left onboard by the time it landed, so probably would make it to 90km and back.

This is what's under the fairing. The front tank had a small amount (120 units I think) of fuel when dropped in the water, the others were empty. I started out with a lot of fuel (no idea why), then didn't get around to removing or replacing the empty tanks later. The big SAS module is in there with the idea that it wouldn't hurt to have it... except for the mass of course.

This morning was all about boats... very speedy boats, for the Jetboat Speed Record challenge. This design managed to get up to 354m/s and survive, while maintaining contact with the water, so remaining, you know... a boat. A fraction faster (it hit high 355's when the fairing collapsed) and the boat stops being a boat and become flaming shrapnel. But afterwards Jeb was his usual positive self.

After @Pds314 extolled the virtues of farings as boat hulls in the Kayak Club thread, I decided to have a go at this with an "everything in the fairing" type of design. That did mean of course that Jeb was flying blind. I managed a speed of 354m/s which was at the moment the fuel ran out, which was pretty lucky as that's the limit of this boat before it transforms into shrapnel. I had a go at letting the thing run as fast as it can and see what happens. Turned out that at 355m/s the fairing shatters, followed soon after by the rest of the boat. It looks like at that speed the thing becomes unstable and gains air for a moment, as KER's Situation display changes to "Flying Low" for a split second befor the thing shatters.

Yes... more of a challenge now too as you can't just slam into an atmosphere at 30+km/s and expect to survive.

Indeed.

Does the burn have to be of a single stage or multiple, one immediately after the other. I've had a few very long ion drive burns, some with multiple stages. I definitely remember a 3 hour burn on a single stage while I was at the machine, albeit I spent a lot of my time in my browser and cutting back occasionally to check on things. There was also a burn that was 6 hours or so long, which I left running when I went to bed, then detached before lighting up the next ion drive stage the following morning. If combined stages count, then probably something in the region of 10-12 hours would be my max. BTW... these super long burns would have all been for challenges to get from Kerbin to another planet in the shortest time. Something like this xenon packed nonsense that got from Kerbin to Eve in 5 days.

Circumnavigation by water on Kerbin isn't actually possible as the seas don't connect up in any direction, essentially they're just one big lake stretched around the planet. That was the reason for the "Sorta" being added to my circumnavigation, as I was following the coastline around the mainland. But a point to point race somwhere could be interesting.

Jeb thought that without air time the new recruits would get soft and pudgy (well... pudgier). To fix this problem Jeb had the entire class take to the skies on the wings of the "Breezy Ride" The first takeoff was not without its mishaps, as in complete loss of aircraft and the class scattered along the runway. Fortunately there were no casualties. Before trying again Jeb ordered that as many as possible leave their helmets behind, to reduce mass and drag. Takeoff this time was more successful, but many of the class didn't appreciate the lack of protective headgear, even with social distancing being applied. To cheer them up Jeb took the Breezy Ride down to skim the wave tops. Some enjoyed this... others did not. Hmmm... does this game know something I don't. Now, where to head to... why the runway island of course, silly question. After a long smooth approach landing was a by the numbers affair and the recruits seemed to be relieved to be back on the ground. Before heading back to the KSC Jeb took the class into Hanger 1, for a quick history lesson. Then it was back out onto the runway again. Before heading home.

Getting in straight away with a visitation to @Paaaad's Null Bay. This was last year during the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation, you can see the distinctive mountain in this shot that matches the one in @Paaaad's "East" image. I've got another image with coordinates displayed by KER that show I'm in the area, but I'll send that to @Hotel26 privately, so it doesn't give the location away.

What at first seemed a respectable time of 2:30 now looks like a sleepy tortoise taking it easy.

The one thing that boat is missing though is Bob with an eyepatch, stroking a fluffy white cat.

Val's been getting cabin fever ever since she dropped out of the rotation, after a prank of hers turned into a major conflagration in the R&D Center. So she jumped at the chance to headed skyward once more, with a trip that would take her to @swjr-swis Cape Stinger, in a mini jet. It only has a max speed fully fueled of 185m/s but it's a short trip to the Cape. See ya KSC. Cape Stinger dead ahead. Now to swing around for a landing. Straighten her up and reduce power. Coming in at a nice gentle 35m/s Bounce, crunch ouch! This is not one of Val's proudest moments. But she's ok and glad that she decided to keep her helmet on for this little excursion. Right... back into the seat and fire up the engine and see if this thing can slide towards the water. Unfortunately Val slides out of the seat first. Somehow Val's muscles are a match for the roaring jet and she manages to make it back into the seat. Then it was time for more slide (grinding) towards the ocean. Every bump, every stone, every grain of sand... Val can feel 'em. Then it was one bump too many and she once more slid out of the seat, but this time with the jet at full blast. She stood on the shore for some time watching her ride head out across the waves. Well... better call a cab I suppose.

Well, here's something I made earlier. It was going to be a replacement for the Coastal Cruiser in the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation, as it had 3 time the fuel capacity of the original, so much greter range between fill ups. However I then realised it would take ages to fuel with my fleet of tanker craft and rockets, so it only had the one test run before being mothballed. In adddition to a couple of jet engines and sporty styling, it carried a rover that was similar to the original's but with much greater battery capacity, as well as parachutes for rapid descents of mountains. Drop it off a cliff, release the chutes and sit back which descending at 30m/s. The boat also carried some extra vehicles in the form of two mini jets. as well as a minisub in its belly. However this wasn't entirely stock as I used a mod to give it a tiny ballast tank. Right... time to to do some kayaking.

I tried a quick search but only came up with vehicles that had some but not all of those features. Is there anything else that could help identify it, such as where it flew to?

It also removes those stubborn, difficult to remove stains, or so I hear.

Fairings you say... extremely overpowered you say. I must look into that Certainly for speed the de-planed M-9 Axolotl has the Coastal Cruiser beat, but what about facilities. My kerbals can sit out on deck on fancy garden furniture, watching the sun go down, then the next day take a trip in the buggy. The crew also tells me that there's a pool table and restaurant grade kitchen inside, but I've not seen it.