JAD_Interplanetary

So according to this thread I have been misspelling the name of the moon for pretty much the entire time I've been playing the game. Brains are funny things, once you assume you know what a word is, you stop reading it completely. It totally made sense to me that the smallest digit is called the "minimus" and Minmus is Kerbin's smallest moon, so naturally, I didn't bother looking to closely at how it's actually spelled. Lesson learned. Now I wish there was a way to change the title of forum threads.

I'm going to keep calling it Minimus in my head, though. I already have a whole story written about a mission there. Now I have to go back and correct all the occurrences that I accidentally misspelled. I blame it on the fact that I already knew that about the pinky toe, so my brain interpolated an "i" into the name of the moon where there isn't one.

Chapter II: One Heck of a Pilot "Central Power Pylon 30-by-30 at .004 inclination," Maryenny said into her headset. All eyes in mission control were on the large monitors that covered the front wall. The base plate of what was now known as "Minmus Acres" was already on the ground. The first of the major components, a stack of batteries and generators called a "power pylon", had just completed its orbital insertion burn around Minmus. This was the first of the three dozen pinpoint landings that would make or break the entire project. Gusdard watched the monitors closely, running over the mission plan in his head. There was still time to correct any issues before the de-orbit burn, but once that pylon was heading for the target, there was no going back. "Alpha and Beta, docked," Maryenny's voice called over the intercom. Gus held his chin in his hand, and closed his eyes. In addition to the pylon and the base plate already on the ground, four huge fuel tankers orbited Minmus to resupply the four construction drones, also already in orbit. The drones (nicknamed Alpha, Beta, Carrot and Django) had already shown their capabilities for orbital maneuvering, dragging the tankers into their proper orbits, performing fly-by surveys of the chosen landing site, and precisely positioning the base plate exactly on target (twice! since the first base plate was scrapped due to misaligned docking ports.) Gus hadn't been around for those maneuvers, but he hadn't heard anything negative about the drones so far. That meant his automated systems were working. Aside from the misaligned ports on the original ground plate, everything had so far been going according to the project plan. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. All of KSC's top-level personnel were in attendance for this. Wernher, Bill, chief science officer Bob, head of mission control Gene, Rocky and other VIPs watched from the mezzanine of the large auditorium. Everyone was there. Except Jeb. Gus looked around the room. Jeb was conspicuously missing. And no one else seemed to be looking for him. "Where's Jeb?" he whispered to the tracking intern at the monitor next to his. "On the remote flight deck," the intern responded, surprised at the question. "Flying the drones." Gus stared dumbly at the intern for a moment, then leapt to his feet. "What!?" Gus shouted, pounding his fist on the desk and not noticing he had keyed open his microphone. Feedback blasted through the intercom systems, causing everyone to cover their ears or toss away their headsets. Dozens of heads turned to look icily at Gus, who waved a meek apology and sat down. Maryenny watched him with concern, and keyed open a private communication channel. "Everything alright?" she asked. "Yeah, fine," he began. "No, I mean, it's not fine. Why is Jeb on the remote flight deck?" Maryenny cut off the comm and walked over to Gus's station. She had a worried look in her eyes. "It's where he's been for every maneuver," she explained. "Piloting the drones. All of them...at the same time." The color left Gus's face, and his head went all swimmy. He tried to speak, but he only heard squeaks and wheezing come out of his mouth. "I thought you knew," Maryenny said. Gus shook his head slowly, trying not to pass out. "Well," she continued, "Jeb knows all the boys in flight systems engineering. He made some tweaks to the design, for better maneuverability. But they conflicted with your autopilot systems. So they took the autopilot out. The drones are all on manual remote control. By the time I heard about it, they were halfway to Minmus." She looked at him apologetically, then hurried back to her station. Gus stared after her, still squeaking in disbelief. It was only Maryenny's voice over the intercom that snapped him back to the mission. "Fuel transfer complete," she said, as the fuel finished draining from the pylon's orbital insertion engines to the drones' fuel tanks. "Transfer engines separated and prepped for de-orbit." As Gus watched the now-empty transfer engines plummet to the surface of Minmus, he felt his entire body shaking. Jeb was going to manually land the pylon with the drones. Orbital maneuvers were one thing, landing the base plate a few meters from a target was not much harder. But this operation required precise timing and almost superkerman accuracy. He turned away from the monitors, his eyes closed. "Pylon normal burn," the intercom said, and then "Orbital inclination nominal, prep for de-orbit burn." Gus buried his head in his hands. If the pylon docking ports were off by even a fraction, the whole assembly would tip over, the nuclear generators would go critical, and the batteries would explode. He could see months of planning and the endless stream of Rockomax money disappearing in a flash of fiery failure. A mistake like that, in addition to the scrapped base plate, would ruin all the work so far and probably end the entire project. "Pylon descent over target. Target in sight. Descent speed 57 meters per second." Too fast, much too fast, thought Gus, burying his head in his hands. Everyone would blame his designs for the failure. He imagined what his career afterwards would look like. No other agency would have him. He probably wouldn't even be hired to design landing struts. Beads of perspiration dripped from his forehead onto his console. "Descent burn complete, hovering. Lateral motion canceled. Horizontal offset, 3.28 meters north by northwest." This is it, Gus dreaded. It was all over but the endless resignation paperwork. "Offset corrected, descending point five meters per seconds. Touch down in 5...4...3..." He began to hyperventilate quietly into his hands. "Two...one..." Gus's vision went black. He was brought back to consciousness by loud cheering and slaps on the back. Through his grogginess, he vaguely heard the staff of mission control congratulating him. Maryenny ran up and hugged him tightly, and this more than anything brought his mind back to sharp clarity. The words "TOUCHDOWN" and "DOCKING CONTACT" flashed on the big monitors. Gus looked around wildly, and saw Jeb up on the mezzanine, flight suit jauntily half-unzipped, sharing celebratory champagne with Rocky, Wernher and Gene. Jeb caught his eye and raised his glass, nodding in approval. The pylon had landed perfectly. The drones had already separated and were back in orbit for rendezvous with the fuel tankers. The mission was a huge success. It was all Jeb's fault.

This is true. Maybe it's the word "game" that's off-putting for you. What if instead we called it "interactive art." Would that be better? There's plenty of room for any type of electronic media anyone wants to make. If this type is not your favorite, then you don't have to play it.

I'm really looking forward to No Man's Sky. I know it's on the hype train express, but it just looks so neat, and if they can pull off the procedural generation and mega-scale universe successfully, it will be awesome. Just need to wait for Steam+Linux version to come out.

I'm another one who bought that game due to XKCD, specifically Six Words. I would definitely have bought it without Kerbals, but I probably wouldn't have kept playing for as long, or invested nearly as much time and effort as I have without them in there and the background flavor they provide, and the opportunities to add your own narratives to your missions.

Is Merlin the one staying there? If so, maybe "Camelot". Otherwise, what is the purpose of the station, name it something clever based on what the station is used for.

It would be neat to see some of these designs incorporated into other planet packs. We need more multi-moon planet systems to explore!

I was just looking at kOS the other day, it seems like a neat mod. I'll be interested to follow the progress here. Maybe some day I'll know enough to contribute. Good luck!

Chapter I: A What on the Where? Gusdard Kerman enjoyed his work at KSC. Well, he enjoyed most of it. The small design and engineering team he headed was always given interesting work on modular construction systems for orbital stations and bases. Much more interesting, he thought, then the launch vehicles team. All they had to do was punch some numbers into a well-known equation for how much fuel was needed for a given payload mass, then design a booster to hold that much fuel. He also enjoyed to atmosphere at mission control during liftoff: the awe of watching the huge rockets rolling from the VAB to the launchpad; the deep chest-caving boom of the launch shockwave rattling the windows. And most importantly, the satisfaction of his team's designs assembling flawlessly, deploying their docking systems through the mostly automated system he had built early in his tenure at KSC. But most of all, he enjoyed working closely with Maryenny, over at mission control, who monitored the rendezvous and approaches of the modules his team was responsible for. She was incredibly smart, had a wickedly witty sense of humor, and was an amazing problem-solver under pressure. And she smelled like lavender. So Gusdard enjoyed most of his work. Most of it. He glanced up from his drafting table at the sound loud guffawing and back-slapping passing by his workroom. It was pilot Commander Jebediah having a raucous conversation with an unknown Kerbal with an expensive suit and slicked-back hair. Gus watched the two of them through the glass windows of the workroom, until they disappeared down the corridor. It wasn't that Gus disliked Jeb. No one could really disklike Jeb; he was too much of a lovable clown to really dislike. And he absolutely was the greatest pilot of his or any generation, a true legend. What Gus found irritating was Jeb's blatant disregard for everything Gus loved about engineering. For Jeb, no amount of fuel was too much to waste, no maneuver was too stressful on the ship, and everything had to be manually piloted. It was that last bit that really grated on Gus, who had devoted his university studies -- and his whole tenure at KSC -- to researching and developing automated systems to eliminate pilot error from the dangers of space exploration. And Gus suspected that was the reason why Jeb didn't like him much, either. A few moments after Jeb and the unknown stranger had turned the corner, Wernher von Kerman, KSC's lead scientist, and Bill, chief mission engineer and Gus's boss, walked past the workroom, deep in conversation. Wernher was shaking his head, and looking discouraged. Bill was talking quietly but emphatically. As they passed by, Bill glanced through the large windows of the workroom, nodded to Gus, then gestured at him while saying something to Wernher. Wernher scratched his chin and shrugged, and the two of them continued down the same corridor as Jeb and the stranger. And so it wasn't that big of a surprise later that day, when Gus found himself in a mission design briefing with Wernher, Bill, Jeb, and the slick-haired Kerbal in the expensive suit and bolo tie. Maryenny from mission control, and a few Kerbals from other departments were also seated around the conference table. Wernher got the meeting underway. "I'd like you all to meet our special guest today, Rocco Kerman Jr., president and CEO of Rockomax Conglomerate. I will let him explain why we are here." He gestured to Rocco, who stood up and flashed a wide, blinding smile at the room. "Y'all can call me 'Rocky'. Everyone does." He grinned widely at Jeb, and the two of them bumped fists. "We know each other from way back. We both attended Krashlands High School together," explained Jeb. "And that's why I knew this was the place to bring big, bold, fresh ideas. A place where Kerbals can get things done without worrying about things like 'budgets' and 'the laws of physics'," Rocky said, making quotes in the air with his fingers. "The truth is," he continued, "The Rockomax board is looking to rustle my company right out from under me! Rockomax Rocket Parts division revenues are down. Kerbodyne is eating our lunch on high-end launch equipment. If I'm gonna keep control of the company my dear departed Pappy started, I need to take us in a bold, new direction." He gestured to Wernher. "Rockomax, with the help of the KSC research, engineering and mission control teams are going to build..." Rocky's eyes gleamed and his voice edged with excitement, "...the largest, most expensive..." Rocky continued, pounding his fist on the conference table, emphasizing each word, "...high-end, luxury-class..." Rocky was practically preaching at this point, "...condominium skyscraper on the Mun!" Rocky finished, slumping back in his seat with his arms outstretched, eyes flashing. The room was silent. Gus could barely process what he had just heard. Rocky couldn't have just said "skyscraper on the Mun," could he? The room erupted into shouting. Gus looked around startled. Half the room was pounding the table, explaining exactly how the plan wouldn't work. The other half was yelling, explaining how KSC had never backed down from a challenge. "Quiet!" shouted Bill. Then he looked pointedly at Gus. "Gus, I wanted you here to get your opinion. Your team would be lead on this project. What do you think?" "It's...possible," conceded Gus, after getting over the initial shock at the scope of the challenge in front of them. "I'd designed a concept for a hyper-large colony in Eve orbit back in university. But it was just a concept, and it certainly wasn't meant to be built planetside. Far too large. Even for the Mun. Maybe Minmus..." he mused to himself. "Mun, Minmus, any random hunk of rock in space. I don't care where you put it, four-eyes, as long as it's got the Rockomax flag flying from every balcony!" exclaimed Rocky. "What about constructing it in orbit, then de-orbiting it?" asked Bill. Gus shook his head. "Once it's built, the fuel needed to de-orbit it and soft-land would be prohibitively expensive, even in Minmus gravity. And it wouldn't be maneuverable at all. You'd be as likely to land it on a mountain slope as you would your target site." "Don't you worry about the landing, kid. I got that covered," assured Jeb. Rocky slapped him on the back, grinning. Gus kept his mouth shut. "What about assembling it in pieces on the ground, like any building here on Kerbin?" asked Wernher. "That...could work," answered Bill. "No less fuel, of course, but if we broke it into small maneuverable pieces it might be possible." "Construction equipment would be unwieldy in the low gravity," countered Gus. "You'd be as likely to fling pieces back into orbit as you would to connect them." "Pinpoint landings," muttered Maryenny. All eyes turned to her. She was looking intently at Gus. He turned away from her gaze and cleared his throat. "Dozens of them," she continued, speaking up with excitement. "De-orbit the modules, and land them right smack on top of one another." She smiled at Gus. "You were talking about that at lunch a few months ago." Gus blushed, remembering that lunch, then blushed even deeper when he realized Maryeeny had remembered. "You're talking about accuracy in the range of millimeters," Gus said, looking anywhere except at Maryenny. "Over and over again, no margin for error." Bill cast Gus a sidelong glance. "But," he continued, starting to work over the design in his head, "yeah. Yeah, it could work. With the right guidance systems." The others around the table started chatting excitedly about their parts in the historic endeavor. "The right guidance systems, and one heck of a pilot!" exclaimed Jeb, shaking hands with Rocky and Wernher. Gus bite his tongue, and didn't mention that he had already planned to install his automated piloting system in every module. The meeting quickly collapsed into small, loud discussions about planning, development, schedules and budgets. Across the table, Maryenny smiled prettily at Gus. He felt his face flush again and looked away.

This is the running mission log of my attempt to build a modular skyscraper structure on Minmus. The tower has been named "Minmus Acres" and is being assembled by landing each module directly on top of each other module. When completed, Minmus Acres will be a high-class luxury condominium for hundreds of discerning Kerbals of taste and adventurous spirit to live and play in the frozen wasteland. The tower itself features individual living units for families, luxury penthouse apartments, stunning views of the Minmus landscape, and easy access to and from the Kerbin system and interplanetary space. Time-shares will be available. Why do this? Mainly for a challenge for myself. I wanted to get better at targeted landings, and there really is no better trainer than having to do it over and over again with a margin of error measured in fractions of a meter. Also, because Googling for "kerbal space program skyscraper" or "kerbal space program tall tower" yields almost no results. At least, not the type of results I was envisioning. So I wanted to fill that gap, and start a series of missions for building tall skyscrapers on the various low-gravity moons in the game. Minmus was an obvious first choice because: it is easy to reach; it's close by, so it can handle multiple launches/captures per day; and it has low gravity and no atmosphere, meaning fuel savings and easy maneuvering. All of these things add up to an environment that lends itself to trial-and-error experimentation. And there have been lots of error so far. About a third of the way into the project, when I sent my first kerbonaut to the construction site, one of those errors sparked the idea for a plot involving that Kerbal. So in addition to the pictures of the mission, there is also an episodic story line. The story line and the pictures are only loosely related! They are not 100% accurate reflections of each other. Artistic license was taken with the story to make it a bit more interesting (I hope), and the pictures can be viewed independently. I'm sure I'm doing a lot of things less efficiently than I could be. I'm learning a lot for my next attempt, probably also on Minmus to get a few things sorted before attempting one of the other moons in the system. Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Intermezzo The Hulk Chapter VII Chapter VIII - dramatized story, no pictures Pictures VIII Chapter IX - dramatized story, no pictures Pictures IX Chapter X Epilogue

Hey all, I've been playing KSP since .24, and really having a great time. I've been lurking on the forums for a while, and finally decided to jump in and introduce myself. I think this community is one of the best online communities I've seen. Everyone is so supportive and enthusiastic about this awesome game. I just posted my first (of hopefully many) mission reports over at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109325-Orbie-I-Refueling-Station I'm also working on a longer report for a pretty cool project I've been building in-game for a few weeks now. Thanks to everyone for being so great!

One of my first big construction projects from when I was just started playing. It's a refueling station in circular orbit around Kerbin. Command, habitat and science modules allow for up to 14 kerbonauts. My favorite part about it is the color-coded docking ports, so ships can be told to dock in north green, or south red, or west blue, or some other combination of direction and color. This was done before I had the docking port indicator mod, so all the docking was done by hand. Needless to say, I learned a lot about docking, especially how to recover from a misalignment while panicking.