JAD_Interplanetary

Epilogue "Wa-HOOOOOOO!" Cal shouted, as the sled hit the crest of the ridge and took off. The other side of the ridge dropped away, leaving the sled gliding a few dozen meters off the ground in the Minmal gravity. "Oh Kerb," Wenmar gulped in the seat behind him, swallowing down the breakfast threatening to come back up. "Would you mind not doing that? I'm...feeling a bit queasy back here." Cal grinned maniacally, and slammed on the downward thrusters, sending them racing back towards the hard packed frozen ground. They landed with a "THUMP", sending up dust and icy splinters. The skids bit into the hardpack, and slid forward another hundred meters before grinding to a halt. Wenmar burped nauseously inside his helmet. "Don't do that either, please." Cal turned around, flashing a mischievous smile. "You get used to the gravity. It's great. After a while it's like flying!" The sled teetered on the edge of a huge crater. The ground sloped precipitously away towards the flat bottom, eleven kilometers below them. The sun was just rising, casting sharp shadows over the landscape, every ridge and hill outlined in sharp contrast. The crater wall curved around almost two hundred and seventy degrees, before flattening out into a shallow ridge that connected it to the larger Flats to the west. The bottom of the crater had the same smooth icy terrain as the Flats, reflecting mint green sparkle in the rising sun. "It's beautiful, yeah?" Wenmar looked over the landscape skeptically. "If you like barren wastelands." "Who doesn't like barren wastelands?" "Hey, Cal, take it a little easier on the sled. If you don't want to walk home, that is." The second sled skidded to a stop beside them, a forward jet of monoprop slowing it before it plummeted over the edge of the crater. "Sorry, boss," Cal smirked. Gus checked the rear of his sled to make sure none of the surveying equipment had shifted. He turned to study the scene below. "We're here?" "Yes," replied Wenmar, pulling up the mapping details on a tablet. "Minmus 87-2." "Bo-ring," said Cal. "He has a point," Gus agreed. "What are you going to call it?" Wenmar looked around nervously. "I...I don't think I should. I mean, I've only been here two weeks, and..." "And you're one of the first three kerbals to ever set foot on this particular piece of Minmus," Gus cut him off. "That means naming rights go to you." "Surely, one of you is better suited..." "There's enough stuff on this rock named after Cal and me," Gus sighed. "Yeah," said Cal. "We just spent three days traveling over Caldan Ridge, the lower Cal Lands, across the Sea of Cal, through Gusdard Pass, up and down the Hills of Maryenny..." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Watch it," warned Gus, smirking. "Sorry, boss," Cal shrugged. He turned to Wenmar. "Go ahead, be famous." "Ummm, I guess...Wenmar Crater?" the surveyor shrugged. Cal made a sound like a game shower buzzer. Gus shook his head. "Wanna try that one again?" Wenmar pursed his lips and looked around again. "Erm, how about...oh, I don't know." "Take your time. It's an important thing. Kerbals on Minmus will forever know this place by the name you give it." "Yeah, no pressure," chuckled Cal. Wenmar tried to concentrate on a sufficiently grand sounding name, but all he felt was sick, like he had for the entire four weeks since he had left Kerbin. He felt as if he would never get used to the low gravity. His stomach rumbled again, threatening to bring up the shredded wheat-like paste they had boiled in the pressure cooker for breakfast back at Minmus Acres. The night before, they had used the same pressure cooker to make a stew in honor of today's expedition. Stew, he thought, boiler, pot, kettle... "How about, Wenmar's Cauldron?" Gus gave a low whistle. Cal gave a loud laugh. "Nice one!" "Wenmar's Cauldron, it is," said Gus, typing it into his tablet. "Now let's go do what we came here for." The other two nodded agreement. Gus gave his sled a shot of thrust, and launched himself down the slope. Cal and Wenmar waited until he was a safe distance below them, then followed. Minutes later, they were parked on the flat bottom of Wenmar's Cauldron. Gus waited patiently while the others unloaded the survey equipment. Wenmar planted the first marker away from the sleds, then gave Gus a high-sign. Gus swung his sled around and headed out to the edge of the crater floor. "This the last site?" asked Cal. "Yes, and the most promising," Wenmar confirmed. "They wanted something equatorial, but isolated, with a more exacting approach and departure than Minmus Acres." "Lots of different terrain, too," said Gus, veering around a boulder. "Yes, that was important. A variety of situations for different trainging exercises is a vital requirement." "You think this place fits the bill?" asked Gus. Wenmar shrugged. "Preliminary analysis was positive. We're here to take initial measurement and make absolutely sure." "So what's wrong with Minmus Acres?" demanded Cal. "Minmus Acres is residential, made for families, and kerbals who want a summer home in space. This new facility is a training ground, a full-scale laboratory for new habitation technologies, a blueprint for future colonies, and also a way-station for colonists. An interplanetary transit hub. State-of-the-art, and all that." "Hear that boss, we're obsolete already!" laughed Cal. "I look forward to a comfortable retirement in the near future," responded Gus. "On the contrary," Wenmar cautioned them. "While construction is underway, Minmus Acres will be the central hub for all personnel and equipment. You'll probably be busier than ever." "I didn't think we could get any busier," sighed Gus. His sled skidded to a halt. He spun it around to face back toward the middle of the crater. "In position," he radioed. "Proceed with first sighting." JAD Says: The sleds in this update are so much fun! I had a blast ripping around Minmus, doing power slides and jumping them over ridges and speeding down hills (up to 60 m/s in places.) Thank you to everyone for your encouragement! I hope you enjoyed the story and the build, and were inspired to make your own massive creations. This is the last chapter of this story, but it hints at what is to come. We haven't seen the last of Gus and friends, but the next story will probably see a new set of characters take center stage. For now, I'm putting the massive construction projects on hold so I can have some fun with 1.0 and get back to exploration and Science! I'll be posting some of my adventures, but they'll probably be more traditional mission logs, not dramatizations. Anyway, thank you again for reading and your kind words!

Final stats for Minmus Acres: Construction time: 287d, 5h, 18m Mass of tower: 1106.33 tonne Part count: 2624 Height at highest structural element: 152.7 meters Height at highest point: 154 meters Room for ~1041 kerbals (counting all parts with crew capacity) Designed living spaces (discounting parts with crew capacity not intended for habitation) 56 family habitats (hitchhiker pods) 36 luxury apartments (re-purposed science pod + 2 cuppolas) 1 penthouse (8 x science pod + cuppola) # module launches from KSC: 30 # module landings on site: 39 # tanker launches: 13 # auxiliary/infrastructure launches: ~5

Okay, here's my complete entry. I'm not sure how you want me to calculate a few things, namely "height" and "# of launches". For height, there's 2 possibilities: 1) Height at the last structural element: 152 meters 1) Height at the tallest part, the top of the antenna: 154 meters For number of launches, it's a bit weird because in a several cases, a single launch lead to multiple landings (for the columns, a single launch sent up bundles of 4 modules which were split in orbit and landed individually.) 1) # of launches from KSC: 30 2) # of individual landings when building: 39 So at the lowest end, I have 152m x 30 = 4560 At the high end, it's 154m x 39 = 6006 Of course, it could be any combination of those numbers, so pick whichever one you think is best. Height of tallest structural element: Height at the top of the highest part: Full view of the complete structure The complete story for how the structure was built, showing the individual module launches and landings: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110681-Minmus-Acres-A-Skyscraper-on-Minmus

Chapter X: Homecoming The shuttle flew in a low approach over Barttop Ridge, giving the passengers the best view of their new home. Eleven new residents of Minmus Acres were arriving today. They would be getting impatient to have a little more room to stretch out, after having spent almost a week aboard the orbiting transit depot, the newly re-named "Gusdard's Courage Station". Watching the shuttle from the upper deck of the executive penthouse, Gus sipped a juice box. A flashing console in his peripheral vision gave him the names and accommodation details for the new arrivals, but he didn't pay any attention to it. One of the staff would be in charge of briefing the new residents and showing them to their apartments. Gus would be down in the common room after dinner to meet and welcome them, but for now, he had no specific duties to attend to. Still, he felt something like a compulsion to watch each new batch of residents arriving. His silent vigil was broken by the pilot's landing request. "Minmus Acres, this is Shuttle One requesting landing clearance and coordinates." "Roger, that, Shuttle One, cleared for landing, zone northwest," Cal responded over the radio. Gus set down his juice box, and was surprised by an arm slipping itself around his waist. Even in her condition, the light gravity made it easy for Maryenny to climb silently through the hatches of their penthouse suite. Gus smiled and leaned back against her. "I'm doing the welcome briefing today," Maryenny said, looking over his shoulder at the incoming shuttle. "I have to head down soon." "Stay with me. You have a few minutes," Gus said, taking her hand and giving it a small squeeze. She sigh contentedly at the gesture, the tiny sign of their affection, and the reminder of what they had both almost lost. It had been that same small hand squeeze, Maryenny's hand on his, that Gus had felt after almost five weeks of unconsciousness. Hers was the first face he saw when he finally opened his eyes. She had been on the first new module delivery that had gone up after the incident. In addition to the observation deck, the top four luxury habitation modules needed replacement or extensive repair. When she arrived, every moment she wasn't performing her air traffic and monitoring duties, she had spent by his side. And even though she wasn't his doctor, it was her encouragement, and sometimes her stubbornness, that had kept him going through the months of physical therapy. Maryenny had been there when Cal told Gus the story of how he had been rescued. "It was all Bart," Cal told them. "After disabling the sensors, he got into his EVA suit and through the airlock just as you fell. He couldn't reach you before you bounced off the corner of the tower, but he caught you before you hit the ground. Managed to get his RCS under you and set you down light as a feather. Good thing, too. Another minute later and it would have been too late to slap that emergency patch on your visor. He even shared his air pack with you until I rescued Enwise and Johnski and we got out to you with a stretcher." Gus had spent days thanking Bart, until the young technician couldn't even come into the medical pod without a deep green blush on his face. Maryenny had baked him countless snacks as her own form of thanks. Johnski and Enwise had stuck around until repairs and construction were complete, then headed back Kerbinside. Before they had left, the five original residents of Minmus Acres had gotten good and tipsy on fermented juice boxes, and had a big send off. Gus watched them leave with a certain amount of pride and envy. The doctors explained to him how dangerous it would be for him to go back to Kerbin. The fall, more specifically, the initial bounce off of the tower, had shattered his legs and done a lot of damage to his internal bits. Lifting him off the surface probably would have killed him; re-entry to Kerbin definitely would have. And with his bones healed in Minmal gravity, it was a certainty that he'd never walk in normal gravity ever again. Staying on Minmus, it would be easier for him to get around, and in time, he was moving through the tower just as fast as anyone else. Being exiled on Minmus wasn't without its perks. Fear of a lawsuit by the kerbonauts' families had made Rockomax more than willing to offer up the full cost of repairing and completing the tower. Additionally, they made Gus the executive director of Minmus Acres, and gave him the luxury penthouse as his personal apartments. KSC had sent up the finest doctors and physical therapists money could buy. They had also shipped up a fully stocked engineering and design studio for him, so he could continue his work from Minmus. Bill had given him his pick of the engineering department for his team, with promises that they would be on-site at the tower at the earliest opportunity. Gus was given complete autonomy on which missions his team would tackle. The idea of having an off-world engineering team had apparently opened entirely new horizons for KSC. When the tower was finally complete and ready for residents, Rockomax and KSC had sent up a contingent of VIPs for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Rocky Kerman, Jr. was with them, and spoke with Gus after the ceremony. "Gus, we feel just awful about what happened to you. And not being able to come back to Kerbin, well shucks, that's a heck of a thing. But listen here, I couldn't be more proud of what y'all have accomplished up here, and when I think of how it all could have been for nothing without your sacrifice, well, it just don't sit right with me that you don't get a little more out of the deal. So I've decided to make you my Vice President of Off-world Construction Projects. Of course, you'll get to keep your job at KSC, too. I don't expect you to have to give up what you love doing. But given the press this place is getting back home, and the length of the waiting list of kerbals wanting to move in, I'm sure there'll be plenty of more work of this type coming KSC's way. And I want you as our inside man on future projects." Gus had been too stunned at the time to accept. And he had been doubly stunned when the official offer letter came through. He hadn't ever seen a root-sign followed by so many zeroes in reference to a salary before. And yet, he still felt terrible about all the awards and accolades. He felt like a fraud, considering the whole incident had been his fault from the beginning. He confessed the entire truth about the botched docking connections to original team and Maryenny, but they all figured his actions and sacrifice saving Enwise and Johnski, not to mention the tower, had more than made up for his mistake. He also confessed it to Jeb, when the pilot had come up to visit for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Jeb brought the full engineering post-mortem report with him. It was then that Gus learned the entirety of what had gone wrong, the confluence of mistakes and unfortunate coincidences that led to catastrophe. "The original sensors were working perfectly," Jeb told him. Gus had already known that. "But importantly, the indicators were working just fine, too, showing red." Gus also knew that. "What went sideways, was that Bart replaced the sensors, thinking they were faulty. And the sensors he replaced them with had bad indicators. So even though the sensors still read that there was no mag seal, the indicators showed green. And no one bothered to check with the engineering systems computer until the incident. You all just trusted the indicators." Jeb had laughed heartily at that. "What did I tell you about safety systems? If it's not one thing, it's another." By this point, the entire incident had been thoroughly dealt with, so for Gus there was nothing to do except shake his head, and keep apologizing to anyone who would listen, until they finally told him if he didn't stop apologizing, they would gag him. Jeb had spent several days at the tower, mostly lounging around, or sightseeing the landscape on the new rocket sleds KSC had sent up. But he also spent a fair amount of time with Gus in the medic pod, talking about space travel, exploration, and kerbalkind's future in the universe. He and Gus still didn't agree on a number of points, but over the course of his visit, Gus gained a new respect for the swaggering pilot. Which is why, on the last day, Gus made a very important request of Jeb. Maryenny had come down to eat her lunch in the medic pod with Gus. Jeb was already there. "Jeb, you're a captain, right?" Gus asked. "Commander," Jeb corrected him with a grin. "Whatever. That means, you have certain authority, right? In various civil matters?" Jeb cocked his head, confused. Maryenny slowly lowered her spoon, eyeing Gus suspiciously. "I...I guess...I mean, I'm not sure..." Jeb stuttered. "Because there's something I've been meaning to do for a long time." "Gus," Maryenny began, "I think that can wait until you're on your feet again." "No," countered Gus. "I've waited too long already." Maryenny's eyes teared up briefly, but she quickly regained her composure, and smiled at him. "Well, I'm not doing it with a mouth full of lunch," she said. "So it can wait at least until after we've finished eating." "Fine," said Gus, grinning widely. "It'll give us time to drum up some witnesses. Cal is probably around somewhere." "I still have no idea what you two are yammering on about," confessed Jeb, looking back and forth between them. After the situation was explained, Jeb had been delighted to accommodate them. All the staff at the tower had celebrated that evening, toasting the new first family of Minmus Acres. Gus's attention turned back to the present, as the shuttle outside canceled its horizontal vector and began slowly sinking towards the base of the tower. Maryenny's arm was still around him, her hand in his. His finger rubbed slowly over the chip of transparent, mint-colored Minmal rock he had polished into a ring for her. She kissed his cheek and said, "I really have to go now. The new arrivals will be waiting." She turned towards the hatch, her growing stomach brushing his back, her uneven balance still graceful in the light gravity. Gus spun around after her, wrapping her in his arms. His hands rested on the top of her bulging belly, and he kissed the back of her neck. "I was thinking about names," he whispered. "What do you think of...Egghead?" She chuckled, then pursed her lips in mock serious thought. "Egghead...Egghead Kerman...little Eggy, for short...hmmm. That sounds...like a possibility," she laughed. Gus floated around in front of her and gave her another kiss. When he pulled back, she was wide-eyed and smiling at him. "You're going to be late," he said. She rolled her eyes at him, gave him another peck on the cheek, then left through the hatch, heading down towards the base of the tower. Gus looked back out the bay window at the broad landscape of Minmus spread out below. He sipped his juice box and contemplated his life. He would be in history books for completing the monumental engineering task of Minmus Acres, the first interplanetary wonder of kerbalkind. He was married to the kerbal he loved. Their child would be in history books as the first kerbal born outside of Kerbin. He had the respect and attention of an entire world. He had not one, but two high-paying jobs that afforded him many opportunities to work on projects that engaged his mind. There was always more work coming. Gusdard Kerman enjoyed his work.

I'm currently fighting a fever, so not many picture updates this time. The final chapter will include the pictures of finishing the tower, but for now, here are some teasers of the final modules.

This story chapter is about completely fabricated events, so there are no pictures. Pictures of the actual tower construction will be posted separately. Chapter IX: Take One for the Team Gus's head cleared as he surveyed the scene, rising towards the top of the tower. The damage seemed confined to the upper modules. As he passed by the residential pods, noting the small vents of pressurized air streaming from tiny stress cracks in the hull. The fact that the modules still had air left to vent gave him hope. The jets of monoprop above ceased. The swaying of the tower slowed. "Boss, we got the drones shut down," Cal said. "How's it look?" Gus glanced up at the observation deck hanging off to the side on its bent pylons. "Not great." He kept rising. He reached the upper module and waved at Enwise through a window. "How are you doing in there?" "Oh you know," replied Enwise, "thinking about the next chapter of my book, contemplating mortality, the usual." "Johnski?" The unconscious kerbal was stretched out on the floor in the middle of the pod. "Still out, but stable. What about out there? How screwed are we?" Gus described the sagging hull of their module, supporting all the weight of the tilted observation platform above. If it buckled any more, they might be facing a hull breach. "Yeah, I figured," sighed Enwise, slumping against a wall. "Do me a favor, tell Jeb he still owes me 100 roots from bowling that one time. He can pay it into my son's college fund." "Collect it from me, yourself," came a familiar voice over the comm. "But I still say you cheat at bowling." "Jeb!" exclaimed Gus. "What are you doing back? When..." "Just yesterday. But I thought I'd drop by the tracking station and see how the in progress missions were going. Gene and Maryenny filled me in. Sounds like y'all got yourselves into mess of trouble just fine without me." "Yeah, we're coming for your record in 'scrap metal generated in a single mission'," Cal quipped. "Things could be better," Gus said. "Any ideas?". "Don't ask me, egghead, you're the brains of this outfit, remember?" Gus grumbled a reply, but he was glad to have Jeb back. Things always seemed to go wrong when Jeb was involved, but he had never lost a crew member on a mission. Gus continued up to the observation platform. He maneuvered carefully around the mangled pylons, finally emerging above the deck. His eyes went wide he looked over the damage. The platform was tilted almost forty-five degrees. The deck was twisted and buckled. One arm of the gantry was below him, the other above. The drones hung limply from their docking ports, still swaying gently. He could feel the moaning and grinding of metal through the vibrations in his feet. "I...uh...oh wow," he stammered. "That good, huh?" Cal commented. "The platform is a total loss," Gus replied. "It's not even scrap at this point." "What are our options?" asked Gene. Gus ran through scenarios in his head, but none of them were promising. He was about to reply, when the deck jerked under his feet, almost flinging him from the tower. "What was that?" yelled Enwise. "Imminent hull breach in your module," responded Cal. "The bent pylons can't hold all that mass much longer." "Look at it this way," chuckled Jeb. "In Kerbin gravity, you'd already be crushed." "Small miracles," Enwise muttered. "Cal, how soon can we get the drones back online?" Gus demanded. "I don't know," Cal responded. "Hardwire links are borked. Maybe five minutes...each?" The platform shifted violently again. "We don't have that long," breathed Gus. He looked up at the drone above him, a bright yellow "A" painted on its side, then at the one below, sporting a bright yellow "B". Down, he decided, and began slowly climbing clear of the gantry. "Listen, Cal. Get Alpha online. Let me know as soon as you're done. When I give the word, pop the docking ports on the bottom of the platform module and full throttle on Alpha, got it?" "Pop the ports? Full throttle? With one drone? Boss, the platform will flip and crash right into the tower." "Not with one drone," hissed Gus, freeing himself from the tangled wreckage and firing his RCS pack. "They'll both be online." "What?" demanded Gene. "What are you talking about?" "He's going to manually fire Beta," whispered Maryenny. "What?" yelled several voices simultaneously. "Boss, you'll be on that thing when it takes off," Cal yelled. "I'll jump clear when it takes off, and RCS down." "Not if you're under the drone when the engines fire, that's...that's suicide," Cal pleaded. Gus didn't respond; the platform shifted again, swinging a beam close by his head. "Gus, there's no reason three of us have to die today," said Enwise. "The plan is for no one to die," replied Gus through clenched teeth. He was almost to the drone. "Cal, how's Alpha coming?" "How's Alpha...geez, three minutes..." Cal replied, cutting off his comm. "Egghead," Jeb said calmly, "There's gotta be another way." "If you can come up with a faster plan, let's hear it," Gus said. He grinned dopily and chuckled. "Worthless automated safety systems, right? Stuff busting and breaking, stranded a million million kilometers from home..." "Aw heck, Gus, don't throw that back at me. This isn't what I meant." "It's all about the mission." Gus said, finally reaching Beta, and settling on the gantry next to it. He popped off its access panel, trying his best not to notice he was well over the edge of the platform, with almost 100 meters of empty space below him. "And the mission is all about the team." He toggled a few switches, then pried off a smaller panel, exposing circuitry. He quickly rerouted a few wires. The mittens of his EVA suit made the operation painfully slow. "Gus?" Maryenny's normally strong voice wavered heartbreakingly. Gus froze, his chest cramping. "Gus, don't do it. If you die up there, I'm never speaking to you again." "I have to," he smiled sadly, resuming his work. "It's my fault, and now two of my crew are in danger. They need me." "What if...what if I need you, too?" Gus kept rewiring, bypassing the safety circuits. "Remember that night on top of the VAB? Before I left?" "Of course." "I should have told you then." "Tell me when you come home safe." He twisted the final wire into place. "No, I need to tell you now. Maryenny, I..." His words were cut off as the platform gave another violent jerk. Gus screamed, thrown from the gantry. His slow fall gave him just enough time to grab hold of a jutting strut, dangling by one arm. He thrashed wildly, reaching for his RCS controls, but his movements threatened to tear his grip from the beam. "I don't think we can take another one of those!" shouted Enwise. "The ceiling is starting to cave." "Alpha back online," Cal yelled. "Pop the ports and fire engines, now!" screamed Gus, flinging himself upwards, slapping wildly at the switch that would throttle up the engines on Beta. He missed, and slumped back down, pulling his shoulder painfully. "Gus, just wait..." said Cal. "Fire the engines!" Gus screamed again, once more flailing at the switch. "Fire the Kerb-damned engines!" howled Jeb. Gus's hand connected with the switch. The engine bells above him glowed white-yellow hot. He felt like he was being punched all over his body. His head rattled against the inside of his helmet. His hand lost its grip on the gantry. The platform fell upwards in slow motion. Hot exhaust washed over him, but it felt icy cold. The outer coating on his helmet visor began to crackle and blacken, obscuring his view. He heard voices crying out, but they were indistinct and far away. A wide shadow rose above him, pulling up and away from the tower. A tiny crack appeared in front of him. It was too close for him to focus on it, but his eyes followed the fuzzy line as it spidered its way across his vision. He smiled. Everything went black, and the sound of his breathing was lost in the whistle of air through the crack in his visor.

The physics is totally broken and not at all realistic. Seriously, I have to make my rockets aerodynamic in order to launch them!? What type of messed up atmosphere is this?

My $0.02: I like the white theme, but the layout is terrible: * I don't like that I can't see the thumbnails * The main picture is too small * Clicking the picture takes you to imgur, not the next picture in the album * Related to previous, the hit boxes for "prev" and "next" are too small and too close to the edges * The menu for "view full resolution" is gone, you have to click through to imgur to get it I prefer the old style layout, just with different styling to make it blend into the forum theme.

These are the pictures for the current state of the tower. Despite the latest story chapter's version of events, the landing went off without a hitch, other than some design flaws that got worked out in the prototyping and testing phase.

Sorry about the confusion. The pictures for the next few parts of the tower don't match with the story (story is just for dramatic effect for this and the next chapter.) I'll try to be more upfront about that in the next post. Pictures are being uploaded now, and will be posted soon.

This story chapter is about completely fabricated events, so there are no pictures. Pictures of the actual tower construction will be posted separately. Chapter VIII: Off Balance The observation platform loomed over the tower, blocking out the sky through the small windows in the upper hatch. It was the largest module so far, by dimension. By mass, it was actually one of the lightest. Yet it still required two drones to lower it into position. Johnski and Enwise peered through the windows, visually checking the alignment, and watching for any irregularities. The delivery gantry was a new system, custom built for the module delivery. It was designed to hold the drones well out from the platform, sending the engine exhaust away from the deck to avoid canceling out the thrust. "Fifteen meters," Cal read off the descent monitors, from the command pod in the lower section of the tower. Bart hunched over the engineering console, double checking sensors throughout the structure. Gus stood between them, periodically moving from one console to the other, looking for any anomalies in the flight data.. "How's it looking, docking crew?" "Steady and on target," Johnski replied over the comm, from the uppermost tower section. "Pylons are vertical, and we can see right up the middle to the delivery bolts." Once the module docked and the drones' engines shutdown, explosive bolts would sever the gantry from the the tower. In an emergency, the bolts kept the gantry attached to the module, allowing the drones to pull it away safely before it could crash into the tower. But as the module approached the abort limit, it looked like the mission was going to end uneventfully. "KSC standing by for module touchdown confirmation," Maryenny said over the comm from the tracking station. "Five meters," said Cal. "Wow, you can really feel the sway," said Enwise. "It's like a boat on a choppy lake." One of the issues as the tower grew taller was that the magnetic fields of the docking ports were having greater effects. As the fields neared each other, they pushed and pulled at the tower and module, causing the port alignment to shift. It had barely been noticeable when the tower was too short to flex very much, but as the tower grew, it was becoming more of a problem. They almost had to emergency abort a few of residential module deliveries. Gus and Cal, along with the team back at KSC, had worked for weeks on a solution. In the end, they devised a system that would read through the positioning and docking field strength sensors throughout the tower, figure out how much the tower was swaying, and send the data to the drones' onboard computers to make corrections during landing. "Sensors are feeding data to the corrections system," Bart announced. "Offset corrections look good," said Johnski. "One and a half meters...one meter...half meter..." The tower shivered as the module touched down, then was still as the drone engines cut off. "Docked! We have soft seal...", then a quiet "chunk" sound, followed by, "We have hard seal." "Awaiting docking inspection report," Maryenny replied. The crew breathed sighs of relief. Over the comm, Gus could hear the ground team at KSC cheering. A few moments later, Enwise and Johnski checked in. "We confirm all docking ports sealed. Hatches are secure, drones ready for gantry bolt separation." "Initializing bolt separation program," Cal said, tapping commands into the console. "Minmus Acres, go for bolt separation," Gus said. "KSC, go for bolt separation," echoed Maryenny. "Gantry bolts...fire," stated Cal flatly, pressing a key. Gus strained to listen for the almost inaudible click that signified the bolts had separated. Except for the constant background hum of the life support systems, the tower was silent. "Well that was anti-clima..." Enwise's words were cut short by a sudden moaning sound throughout the tower. The moaning grew louder, and the walls around Gus began to vibrate, then visibly shake. A loud alarm buzzed over the comm, and the overhead lights shut off, then blazed on in red "emergency" mode. "What the heck!" shouted Cal as he, Gus and Bart were thrown from their feet. "Minmus Acres, status!" demanded Maryenny. Cal grabbed a handhold and pulled himself back to the console. His fingers flew over the keys; system data scrolled across the screen. "What's going on up there, Johnski?" yelled Gus. There was a moment of panicked silence, then Enwise's voice in Gus's headset. "...engines fired...thrusters...going crazy...in all directions! They're..." his voice cut off. "Enwise, say again?" "...Johnski out cold, hit his head...tower shaking bad...emergency abort, now!" "Cal?" Gus's attention snapped back to the console. "Can we fire the emergency abort?" Cal's face was pale. He shook his head. "The drones are already in emergency abort mode. The system thinks the bolts attempted to separate before the module was docked. They're trying to pull the module away from the tower." "Figure out how to shut them down. Enwise? You and Johnski need to evacuate the upper tower." "Roger!" "Minmus Acres, do you copy?" "Copy, KSC. Drones are non-responsive to emergency shutdown commands." Maryenny's voice was smooth and composed, but Gus could hear rising panic around the edges into it. "They're not responding to flight commands either. Remote manual override is locked out until emergency mode is de-activated." "Gus!" Bart shouted, "Structural stress sensors indicate we're about to..." "HULL BREACH" flashed on an overhead monitor, and a louder alarm sounded. "BULKHEAD LOCKDOWN." A series of low "ca-chunks" sounded throughout the tower as hatches between the modules locked shut. "Where is it?" cried Gus. Bart pulled up the tower schematics. "Uppers E and D." "Great Kerb, no," swore Gus. Enwise and Johnski would be trapped between the depressurized modules and the wildly writhing observation deck. He keyed open his mic. "Enwise, you two need to stay put. We're leaking atmosphere right below you." "Figured that out when the hatch wouldn't open," Enwise replied. "I'm getting a little motion sick up here. Where are we on shutting the drones down?" A loud grinding sound reverberated through the tower. "Minmus Acres, we just picked up a massive shift in the upper module. What's going on?" It was Gene on the comm. Enwise broke in. "The observation deck pylons are starting to buckle." "Boss, here," said Cal, stabbing a finger at his screen. "The sway correction software. We're getting bad data from some of the sensors, and it's cascading through the system." "What?" "North- and south-west connector tower mag-seals. The sensors say they're not connected. The drones don't think they're docked." "Let me see," shouted Gus, leaning over Cal. "That's impossible, the system was designed to skip inactive sensors." "They aren't inactive," said Bart from his console. Gus turned slowly to look at the technician. Bart gulped, then explained, "I replaced the bad sensors a few weeks ago." Gus grabbed Bart by the collar and shook him. "You did what!? And you didn't see that the indicators were red?" Bart was trembling. "They were green. Johnski signed off on them," he whined. "There's no way they could have been green, those ports aren't mag-sealed!" Gus shouted. "We've been building on top of that module for weeks. How can they not be sealed?" asked Cal. "That's...they're..." Gus scrambled for words. He was saved by another loud grinding sound reverberating through the tower. "Hey guys, maybe discuss this over tea and snacks after GETTING US THE HECK OUT OF HERE," screamed Enwise. "Gene, we need to do an emergency EVA," said Gus. "Permission to override the bulkhead seals in the lower tower?" "Roger, Gus. You have full authority. Do whatever you have to do." Gus grabbed Bart, then jumped through the upper hatch, pulling the technician behind him. In the equipment pod, he tore open a locker and began pulling on his EVA suit. Bart started to pull on his own suit, but Gus stopped him. "No, you keep going up. Override the hatch locks up to the tower connector. Disable those two sensors. Maybe Cal will be able to reboot the system back to normal." Bart nodded silently, and leapt up the ladder towards the middle of the tower. Gus finished getting into his EVA suit, then climbed into a nearby airlock. "Cycling through," he reported. Outside, the silence was a relief from the constant buzzing of alarms. The floor beneath his boots was unsteady, and he could see the blasts of monopropellant from the drones high above him. The upper half of the tower was swaying silently and irregularly back and forth. The sight, combined with his unsteady footing made him nauseous. He focused his eyes on the horizon to the side of the tower, clicked on his RCS pack, and began to rise.

The last 2-3 chapters of the story diverge significantly from the mission pictures. So my plan is to post the final story updates and picture updates as separate posts. Anyone think that is a bad idea?

CKAN for me. I'd rather spend my limited free time playing than managing mods and their dependencies by hand. I don't begrudge anyone else their own way of doing things, though.

I will take that as a high compliment. Thank you.

I'm not done (there's no light on top just yet), but at 107 meters and 36 launches, I'm at 3852 points. You might want to rethink the (height) x (# launches) scoring equation It seems a bit out of balance, weighting number of launches more heavily than height. Not sure how to adjust it, though.

Chapter VII: Morning Meeting Gus looked over the duty roster for the day and the work order backlog, absent-mindedly munching on his breakfast snacks. Johnski sat across from him at the table in the pod they had set up as the team's common space, eating his own breakfast in silence. Gus appreciated that Johnski knew the value of being quiet. In a few moments, the other three would be joining them for the daily team meeting, and there would be talking and discussion. But for a these precious minutes, Gus could essentially be alone with his thoughts. He chuckled in his head at his own fickleness, remembering his weeks of solitude and the anxiety of being all by himself in the enormous structure. It was Johnski who had explained the phenomenon of "isolation paradox" to him, during their private debrief, when Johnski handed over command of the mission after the team arrived at the tower. "It's a pretty common condition among kerbonauts," he had explained, "even on small teams, but especially during a mission on your own. You crave contact with other kerbals, talking, laughing, joking, just being in the same space together, whatever. It can drive you bonkers." Gus nodded enthusiastically. "But," Johnski continued, "at a certain point, you get a little comfortable being alone, with your own thoughts, and doing things on your own time, in your own way. Then suddenly being thrown back in with a bunch of other kerbals, having to learn how to interact again, how to take and give orders, how to deal with them doing things their way and not yours, well, you kinda start to miss the loneliness. Just a bit." So Gus relished the few minutes of quiet at breakfast. And by the time the rest of the team arrived at breakfast, he was glad of their company. Cal and Enwise were already ragging on each other, exchanging friendly insults and inside jokes that stretched back years to the beginnings of their careers at KSC. The two of them worked well together, and had already gotten much further into the construction backlog than Gus had anticipated in the few weeks they had been at the tower. Bart followed Cal and Enwise through the hatch. He had worked directly with Gus and Johnski for the first couple of weeks, but by now had learned enough that he was pulling work orders off the construction backlog on his own, and only calling the engineers down to double check and sign off on his work. He was a fast learner, but he was a bit absent-minded. Gus couldn't fault him for that; he had been the same way when he had started as a technician. Once Bart learned to be a bit more detail-oriented, he would be an excellent engineer. Gus was pleased with his team. They all had strong technical backgrounds and didn't require much hand-holding. Cal and Enwise had been involved in the design of the tower from the start, and knew as well as he did how it was all supposed to fit together. Johnski had real interplanetary experience, including having a hand in the building of KSC's small space station around Duna. Gus was finding himself in better spirits than he had in months. When they had all assembled around the table, and Cal and Enwise had stopped talking long enough to stuff their mouths full of breakfast, Gus began the morning meeting. "Alright, status reports," he started. The team went around the table, giving their updates. "Power plants 3 through 5 still have some output fluctuation," said Enwise, through a mouthful of breakfast snacks. "We have it pegged down, but need some more time to get everything locked up tight." "EVA?" "Yeah," responded Cal. "Just to double check the exterior connections and patch up a minor thermal vent leak." "Buddy system, then, like always," Gus reminded them. "And keep the comms clear. No idle chit-chat." "Sure thing, boss," Cal said. The corner of Johnski's mouth quirked in an almost-smile. Bart giggled, but stopped abruptly when Gus turned to him. "Report?" "Uh, right," Bart began. "CO2 scrubbers are operational in all pods in the north west modules, water recycling as well. Everything reads normal, except a minor power fluctuation in north-east lower," he said, nodding towards Cal and Enwise. "Right. That's expected," confirmed Enwise. "Other than that, I'm just pulling priority work orders off the backlog," Bart finished. "Good," said Gus, "call Johnski for any work signoffs you need today. I'll be prepping for module E and F delivery this afternoon." "Geez, they're sending two down today?" asked Johnski, shaking his head. "That's pretty bold of them." "The windows open when they open," shrugged Gus. "We told them the system could handle it, and that we'd be ready, and they believed us. We've been keeping up. We did two in two days last week." Johnski shook his head again, but didn't complain. Instead, he gave his report. "I guess I'll be in the upper tower, locking down the holds and running the conduits. Do we have an ETA on mod E?" "Oh-three-thirty," Gus said, checking his laptop. "I'll be quick, then," said Johnski, leaning back in his seat and rubbing his eyes. Gus nodded in sympathy. The accelerated module delivery schedule had kept them all on high alert. After the first of the upper habitation and luxury residential modules had been delivered and field tested, project planners at KSC and Rockomax had decided to send the remaining residential modules up in a single fleet. Seven modules had arrived in orbit within days of each other. The team in the tower had been racing around like mad, preparing for each new arrival. It had all gone off without a hitch, but it left Gus, Johnski, and Cal with little time to go over the designs for the final tower modules. Still, it did mean that the project would be completed sooner than expected, which meant Gus would be back home in only a few months. And their supply drops were coming in more often, to accommodate the fast-paced schedule. Gus looked forward to the supply drops. They had started including homemade snacks again, which Maryenny claimed were for the whole team, and not for Gus specifically. Even so, the packages always contained one or two fudgeberry tarts, which she knew nobody on the team liked, except for him. "Alright, I guess that's it," Gus concluded. "We'll meet back at oh-two-hundred for module delivery prep. You all know the drill. Let's get to work." There was a brief commotion as everyone pushed away from the table. Cal and Enwise scarfed down the rest of their breakfast, then left through the lower hatch, heading down to the power plant level. Gus and Johnski headed upwards towards the middle of the tower, to ready the upper sections for the next module landing, leaving Bart alone to finish his breakfast. As he munched, he pulled up the work order backlog on a nearby screen, and idly scanned down the list. "More air scrubbers, electrical," he mumbled to himself. "Water filtration, bulkhead inspections." He scrolled down, then stopped midway through. He tapped the screen, opening a work order and reading the description. That sounds more interesting than another day of installing and checking CO2 scrubbers, he thought. He shoved the last spoonful of breakfast snacks into his mouth, then climbed up towards the pod where they stored spare parts. The list on the screen blinked, highlighting the item he had tapped: "Southwest connector tower mag seal sensor; faulty, need replace." JAD's Notes Wow, this one took a long time to get done, mainly because each module landing is now up to 3 hours or more (most of it spent doing other stuff and occasionally checking the screen to see how many frames have passed in the last 5 minutes), and unbroken chunks of time that long are hard to come by. The next tower will definitely be made with some techniques to reduce part count. With the length of time per module, a few scary Kraken moments, and a terrifying brush with what I thought was a corrupted save file, the project was just barely starting to scrape the edge of "not fun anymore". But the end is in sight, and I want to see it through! Just 3 modules left, new ones, not the same old hab and luxury hab modules.

Words fail to describe the joy I feel at the awesomeness of this pic.

Is this "Prices Right" rules (closest without going over), absolute closest (over or under), or exact velocity (within some +/- margin) ? Either way, my original estimate doesn't change, I'm just curious how you're judging.

I'd say ~7600 m/s

Wow, I really need to start expanding my horizons as far as mechanical devices in KSP. Thanks for the inspiration, that gyroscope rocks!

Oh snap, I didn't realize there was a challenge going on. I probably won't beat it for height (I don't believe I'll pass 130m) but I'm up around 20 launches so far, I think. I'm assuming I shouldn't count all the infrastructure launches I've done, like re-fueling tankers and such. Just launches for modules that actually became part of the tower?

Brief update: I haven't abandoned Gus or the project! I'm almost done with the module landings for the next post. Each landing takes about 1.5 hours now, with the part lag (the tower loads when the module is 2.5km away, so that's 1.5 hours to go 2.5km.) That's in addition to the time for refueling and maneuvering the drones, building and sending up more modules, waiting for transfer and landing windows, etc. It's taking a while. But the good news is, I'm almost done with the current construction phase, and I've begun the design and prototyping of the final upper modules that will finish the tower. And barring any major catastrophes, I'm also pretty sure how the story will end. In the meantime, here are some shots of the new "Hulk class" tanker I've built. The lifter is rated to bring ~100 tonnes to LKO, and it's inaugural payload is a full Kerbodyne S3-14400 fuel tank, plus a transfer booster to take it from LKO to Minmus. I think this will be the last refueling tanker I will need to send for this project. I'm quite pleased with the way the first stage boosters came out, but I still had to transfer just a bit of fuel from the payload to the transfer stage in order to slow down at Minmus. Annoyingly, it breaks the launchpad on every launch. Also, if you're keen on massive structures in KSP, check out the prototypes for Kieve's Modular City.

It's beautiful...no words...poetry...they should have sent a poet.

I'm gonna have to go with Minmus, for all the reasons above, but mainly because I've started already.

That is epic awesome! I vote for keeping both around. The story possibilities are endless. Both of them trying to decide who is the "real" Aldner, and both being right; the rest of the crew not knowing which one to trust. Or make one of the Aldners a mute, who follows the other around, observing, but never interacting or speaking, a "shadow-Aldner." So many directions you could take it.