MacLuky

Chapter 5: An new place to reach for the stars Later analysis would show that the retro rockets on the second stage fired with the first stage, forcing the second stage into the first. All that didn’t matter now. With the launchpad destroyed KSC had no platform to launch an alternative drive system, unless…. With the fission pellets cleared the runway and Bill, Bob, Jeb and Herley Kerman found themselves in a Bear class cargo plane on the runway. “I’m really excited about these new engines,” said Jeb. Completely ignoring Bob that was checking the radiation meters every 20 seconds. “I do hope these don’t explode too,” said Bill when igniting the fans and retracting the thrust reversal brakes. Bills fears proved ungrounded. Cruising at an altitude of 8km and with a max speed of 240 m/s it took them well over 2 hours to reach their destination. “Target spotted, slightly west. Suggest bearing 280 to swing around that hill.” Bob was really good at reading maps, Jeb was happy to have him on board. “Gear deployed, heading for that old large building over there,” Jeb said when he reduced airspeed and lifted the nose slightly to drop the horizontal velocity. “Touchdown! Let's deploy the cargo asap,” Herley sounded excited. Their mission was a simple one. The main thing the KSC needed was a new launchpad, and the Bear was caring the Atlas 1 mobile lab. The prototype that had led to successful Mun and Duna missions, but now its telemetry and camera systems would not be used to survey an unknown world but to provide a mobile launch lab - slash - relay for upcoming missions. “Looking good,” said Bill when inspecting the tarmac of the old launch site. In fact, since the unification of Kerbin and the creation of the new KSC facilities this pad had been unused. Jeb scratched his head, he couldn’t remember ever launching from this place. It was fortunate that Bob had remembered it from the early Fokker program where they had surveyed much of Kerbin to gather science. “Link is up, telemetry is good,” Herley would stay behind while the other three would head back after the first launch. A grossly overpowered and extremely expensive Saturn rocket was rolled out to the pad. With the new Jupiter class design still under investigation, KSC was not taking any risks. The problem with the Saturn class was that it was a 5m rocket and fairing could only hold part of the drive section, hence multiple launches would be needed. “Ignition, and liftoff,” said Herley. “and we are not registering any explosions, can you confirm?” Gene was far away but glued to the nav computers. “Roger, capcom, with have clear separation of the pad. All systems green.” Things were going really well, almost too well. But the drive section ended up perfectly aligned with the Ommadawn in orbit. Despite quite a bit of wobble during its ascent. “Ehm, KSC1, this is KSC2. I think we have a problem.” Gene dropped his coffee mug.

Chapter 4: The Jupiter Disaster One month later the largest rocket in Kerbal history was rolled out to the launchpad. Part of the new Jupiter program this beast stood over 60 meters tall, 7.5m diameter a fairing of 11 meters and nearly 600 tons. “I wonder where Werhner learned about aerodynamics,” said Jeb when he and Bill were inspecting the launchpad. “It just doesn’t feel very smart, shouldn’t it be more pointy?” Bill smiled, “The TWR on the first stage is quite low, we want to make sure the cargo doesn’t fall through the fairing.” The stabilizers disconnected at the exact same moment as the boosters ignited, and slowly did the majestic vehicle leave the launchpad for the blue skies. The Ommadawn had lift off the pad. Nine core engines where throttled down while the two side boosters did most of the heavy lifting. Just before the boosters had completely burned out the core was heated up and the RS-25 engines really started to sour. “Clean booster detach.” called out the mission commander. “That is one hell of an expensive booster that is just falling into the ocean,” mumbled Jeb. Who looked at the size of the boosters that were 3 times larger than his first rocket to space. “Just over a million,” replied Bill. Once the first stage had burned out another 700k of funds fell back to the planet while the 9 J2 engines kicked in and boosted the craft into a perfect 90x90 km orbit. It was only then when the fairing was released and the payload was revealed to the audience at KSC. The Ommadawn spacecraft command section. A next-generation craft for the long voyage to Jool. It would need multiple engineers to construct the ring section in space but that could wait. For now, the reactors were shut off, habitats were disabled and the mighty craft waited for the first crew to arrive. But first, it would need a drive section. Meanwhile, the second stage was deorbited and tested for re-usability. It appears that the Jupiter has the potential for recoverable stages. Three days later the press, the president and all dignities of Kerbin were present for the launch of the Jupiter 2. Bigger, better, and cheaper! At least that was as it was advertised. The payload was a new drive system. Based on the latest research this fusion drive carried 40,000 delta-v when properly docked. It would be the ultimate ticket to Jool since the distance was not the main issue, the travel time was. This unique propulsion system would change the way Kerbals traveled in space. “Well it looks like Wehrner took your remarks into consideration,” grinned Bill to his friend, “at least this looks more like a fairing.” “Yeah, but why no boosters? I get that H2 is lighter, but still, boosters make it look cooler.” The latest iteration weighted 666 tons, stood 70m tall, 7.5m rocket diameter, a fairing of 12 meters. The countdown has started:10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, engine ignited, 4, 3, 2, 1, releasing clamps and staging! Smoke filled the launchpad as the blast windows of the observation bunker closed automatically. When they re-opened, the launchpad was a smoking pile of debris and so was the Jool program. “Crap,” said Jeb, “Classic case of check yo staging!”

Chapter 3: The highway to Eve Four days later a Proton rocket was rolled out to the launchpad. Despite numerous requests, the team still had not replaced the fuel barrels that made up the second stage with the more elegant SSTU provided tanks that the other lifters used. “It works, and it’s mostly reusable,” Jeb explained to the press. And just as the sun was rising over the VAB the majestic vehicle blasted off to low Kerbin orbit, revealing the first rays of light. Upon reaching 12km the boosters burned out and got detached. Due to strong winds one of the winglets got knocked off the rocket, but the main engine had enough gimbaling to compensate for the lack of control. Upon reaching 80km the second stage would boost back to Kerbin, hoping to get a reasonable recovery rate while the third stage would go for circularization and interplanetary boost. The payload was the R26 Eve Ranger. The 26th robotic probe that was launched by the KSC and the third attempt to send a rover to Eve. It would take 1468 m/s to insert the probe into a trans-eve trajectory and it was scheduled to arrive in 142 days, slightly later than the Odyssey would. The idea is that the crew of the Odyssey could control the rover locally and reduce lag to get better speed and coverage from the little rover. Meanwhile at the Odyssey Tamdock was performing a series of EVA’s. The heat shield would be properly mounted, several of the life-support systems were inspected and the containers with spare parts were transferred and mounted properly. The empty ones were accidentally discarded and became the first projectiles on a collision course with EVE. Tamdock needed to fix also some broken radiators and ended up creating more space debris when he discarded the old ones. “I hope this was the last of it,” he muttered. But a couple of days later he would put on the EVE suit again, this time for a more serious problem: one of the engines refused to come on-line. “Looking good kids,” said Harrick. “Well done.” when the engine came back on-line. Back at KSC the engineering team was re-doing their MTBF calculations, wondering when the engine would give out permanently. Meanwhile, the Progress D2 launched almost a year ago finished its final correction burn. The Nav team had calculated that the craft didn’t have enough delta-v for a capture burn, so they decided they would go for skinny dipping in the atmosphere. A risky maneuver since all previous attempts had failed. Altitude was set at 85460m and the craft would hit the atmosphere at almost 5500m/s. With a signal delay of 20 minutes all, they could do now was wait. At 85 km the first systems started to give out, solar panels exploded, RCS thrusters overheated and even the heat shield was not able to get rid of all the heat that was building up. Just before it would leave the atmosphere the heat shield exploded and the containers reached critical temperatures. But then the spacecraft left the vigorous strain of Eve’s breath and started its journey to the 12 million km apoapsis. KSC quickly shut down the batteries so that there would be a bit of juice left 5 hours later. The last RCS thruster managed to raise the orbit slightly and put the supplies into a 12Mx140km orbit. Safe but not easy to reach.

Chapter 2: an Eve-ntful landing “Command, this is Valentina. Burning for rendez-vous. We are closing in for the dock.” KSC had started to take control of the Odyssey and started booting up her systems. Lights had been switched on and docking ports had been extended and their docking lights had been switched on. “Dragon we are close to the target. Disengage and head out.” Valentina had opted for a double docking sequence where the payload would head out to the front docking port whereas the Enterprise would recover the lab that was attached to the docking port. “KSC here, we see some difficulties with the docking port.” sounded command over the aged speakers of the Enterprise. Telemetry had shown some incompatibility between lab section and the forward command port. “The Odyssey is on a very tight schedule, so we will detach the lab and hope you can dock it internally.” Valentina frowned but saw the lab section detach and the ejection force was sending the lab in her direction. “Closing doors KSC!” Valentina exclaimed. She was really happy to have found a way to dock the lab in the cargo hold, frankly, she was no sure the SSTU supplied lab would be a fit. But closing the doors proved the final nudge that the lab needed. 14 minutes after dock Milfry ignited the engines of the Odyssey and reached escaped Kerbins orbital velocity. It would take the Odyssey 4 minutes to burn a little over 1200 m/s. “Capcom, this is Odyssey. Trajectory is looking good. Burn complete, engine shut down.” The reply came pretty quick. “Gene here, thank you Odyssey. We’ve got some telemetry for you here. Please plot a correction burn of 10m/s in 42 days. Arrival at Eve in 149 days.” The team was working franticly to power up systems and bring the Odyssey back to life. “Goodbye Kerbin,” Harrick reminisced when he looked out the cupola. “See you in a year or so.” The next day Bill established a comm link with an aged R21 scan-sat satellite that had been orbiting Eve for over a year now. With its mapping task complete it was time to see if there was anything more than the could be achieved without launching expensive hardware. “It won’t burn at full speed.” Bill was passing on the data to the Nav team. “You cannot burn at full speed since 2 out of the 6 solar panels are broken.” The master engineer continued. “But at 50% you should be ok.” The Nav team had plotted a ballistic arc, this would not require a plane change and would bring the sat directly in a polar orbit of Gilly. The team waited for the proper moment and without a hitch, the satellite entered a polar orbit of Gilly. After the applause subdued, the science team had already activated the sensors and started mapping the surface of the little moon. Apart from data relay, the satellite's telemetry would prove extremely valuable for the approaching kerbals. Bill leaned back, “Let's hope the rest of the journey goes just as smoothly.” Two days later Valentina had completed her final set of experiments and with dwindling supplies, the course was set for home. When flying high over the Kerbin deserts Valentina fired the orbital thrusters since the main energy reserves were quite low. “Val here, picking up quite a bit of drag and heat.” She sounded nervous. Not that anyone could hear her due to the plasma effects that were surrounding the antennas. This would prove fortunate since no one hear her scream live on TV: “Oh crap, can’t keep her steady, this will be a spin.” and soon after that, the shuttle started spinning uncontrolled. At 8km altitude, Valentina recovered from her blackout and ignited the main engine. Blowing all the remaining fuel and most of the RCS she managed to pull out of the spin, “Val, do you read.” Gene sounded quite nervous since radio contact had been reestablished. Val gave a quick status update. “Here’s what trajectories is telling us.” said Gene. “Val here, gliding back to base.” It sounded easy but it was not, Valentina had overshot the landing site by 80km, and the craft proved difficult to control. The extra weight made the lack of a large vertical stabilizer quite obvious. “I won’t make it back to base,” Valentina said. “Losing altitude quickly, and running out of RCS to keep the nose up.” Valentina kept her cool when talking to KSC but also deployed the landing gear. “I’m not going to make it all the way back to land.” She said. “Godspeed, Val.” Gene sounded dramatically over the nav lines which suddenly sounded crystal clear. With a big splash, Valentina became the first pilot to successfully perform a water landing without breaking the craft into a zillion pieces. “Very eve-ntful landing, Val.” said Jeb. “well done.”

Chapter 1: A hasted departure It took the bureaucrats a long time to set up the KSC with the new contracts and funding system and while the kerbonauts were happily shuttling between Mun base Atlantis and Mercury Station in LKO there had not been substantial mission plans on the table. In fact, all had been waiting for the 1.4 update, though none had any clue what that would mean. So Mission control decided that the current operation would be the basis for the next step of deep space exploration. In order to secure the funding and keep the public momentum going, they would need at least to look like a professional, planned space agency. “What is the earliest transfer window we can get?” Gene asked the Nav team at Alexmoon. “Well, there is a departure window to Eve in a few days.” “We don’t have something that can ascent from Eve,” Tamdock explained, “not even close.” Gene zipped his coffee, “options people, we need options.” “We could try to visit Gilly again?”, Bob said. The room froze, everyone remembered the voyage of the Iliad. Where the Odyssey had successfully brought and returned 4 kerbals to the Duna system had its sister ship, that was heading to Gilly, suffered a severe and near-fatal disaster. “But how? We can’t build a new interplanetary ship in 10 days, nor do we have the resources!” Harrick rose from his seat, grabbed everyone's attention by raising his green hand in the air when he said: “we don’t need one, we have one. The Odyssey is sitting in its parking orbit waiting for another challenge.” Engineering was skeptical at first. After all, the Odyssey had not been built for reusability, it had performed admirably within in the last 3 years, but sending it off to Eve would stress the aged systems. “The plan was to re-purpose her as the new Mun space station.” said Gene. “but given the opportunity….” The next few days went by very quickly and before we knew it a team of brave kerbonauts headed out to SpaceBus 1 to taxi to their spacecraft and embark on an exciting new journey. The team consisted of Mission Commander Harrick, which had shown exemplary skills in research during the Duna/Ike mission and was the most skilled scientist that KSC currently had in their ranks. Senior Engineer Tamdock had volunteered. He had flown many missions to Mercury Station to prototype the systems that eventually had made their way to the Odyssey. Lolo Kerman was the rookie on the crew but make no mistake. He was selected due to his experience with Minmus geology research and had been on the team that had confirmed that the surface of Kerbin’s second moon was indeed not edible. Milfry Kerman was the pilot of the team, she had flown several missions to the Mun and Minmus and was more than qualified to handle the Odyssey on her interplanetary journey. Bill had pulled an old Enterprise class shuttle from the mothballs. “This will mark the tenth flight of the Enterprise.” Said Bill to Jeb who was overlooking the launch from Mission control. Little could go wrong with a vehicle that had been so battle proven, the last flight had been to the Mun on a rescue mission and Valentina had nearly burned up in the atmosphere due to the high re-entry velocity. “And yet it is as ugly as the first, you have no feeling for UX Bill,” smiled Jeb at his old friend. “Count down has started.” “Booster, go. Retro, go. Flight, go. Guidance, go. Medical, go. Electrical, go. Kerbalism, go. Guidance, go. Mapview, go. Stability Assist, pressing T.. go. Comm, go. Valentina?, go. ” It proved to be a wise choice to use well-proven crafts. The launch went off without a hitch. Booster separation had been perfected and the parachutes pulled the first stage boosters away 35 seconds after launch and would make a nearly full recovery of their value due to their close proximity to KSC. The second stage was detached at 45km altitude when orbital velocity was almost achieved. The Enterprise 10 went for a direct rendez-vous ascent. This meant that the trajectory was adjusted in such a way that the circularisation was to happen practically on top of the Odyssey. This kind of precession ascent was exactly why Valentina was chosen to fly the mission, that and her familiarity with the docking procedure with the Odyssey. The crew had transferred in the Dragon capsule that had been lurking in the cargo bay. Repurposed from its initial design as a Mun transport vehicle, it was now equipped with a full science package since the Odyssey had been cannibalized on their last trip. The crew had also brought a fresh spare parts container which they had almost forgotten, had it not been for @Geschosskopf . “There she is,” Valentina smiled when she saw the Odyssey appear in her window and fired the RCS thrusters to get a better view. “She is not showing her age,” Jeb said while watching the live feed, 120000m below.

Prologue: every journey starts with the commitment to take a step “We have done amazing things,” said president Kilcannon Kerman during the opening of the Kerbin space exhibition. “Bringing a crew of 3..”, “uhm 4 Mr. president”, whispered Gene Kerman who was sitting at the right side of the table. “..from the surface of Dina”, Kilcannon continued. “and with the latest discoveries in near future propulsion, we as a united Kerbin will vouch to put a Kerbal on all planets and safely bring them back!” As the room applauded loudly, Gene frantically explained to Kilcannon that landing on Jool was not possible and Eve and Eelloo were way outside the current capabilities. “and before the decade is over, we will have landed on three of them!”, the president continued as if he had not heard a single word his advisor had just told him. “I will now give word to Wilbur, Warner, Waller? what was his name? to talk about this new space propulsion system.” Wehrner sighted, “Tziss just one word, imagine learning a new language ja.” The rest of the new years evening progressed as one would expect, but it would be the day that the KSC secured the funding for their continued operation and mark their path to the stars.

Thanks to your kind comments and likes I've decided to continue this install, in favor of 1.4. I've ran a couple of missions already and it's going to be exciting stuff. Think explosions, and some launches that are trivial in 1.4 but not that easy in 1.3. You can follow their continued endeavours in

Brief This thread will continue the tale of the brave kerbonauts hat traveled to Duna with kerbalism. After the disaster with the Illiad and the success of the Odyssey funding was dialed back on KSC and it would take a new president of United Kerbin to re-ignite the grand tours despite the risks of kerbalism. Time will tell if they are prepared enough. I will update during the mission and it will be picture heavy. Contents 1.) Prologue 2.) An eve-ntful landing 3.) The highway to Eve 4.) The Jupiter disaster 5.) A new place to reach for the stars 6.) To dock or not to dock 7.) The Firebird 8.) Regular chores

Sorry I can't be more helpful, I believe I ended up uninstalling KJR and I may have ran grep to find a dll (kursk monitor docking thingy) that I deleted

Mostly functional. The hab will break down at some point and I couldn;t get a kerbal close enough to the com to fix it, so I ended up abandoning the base

First!, looks interesting. Will take some parts to the Jool system

@Daniel Prates thanks, I had great examples to draw from and the modding community has been very helpful in sharing their secrets.

Hi the taurus (lifters) & amarok (spacecraft) mod is 1.3.1 Lionhead launchers works on 1.3.1 IRAS and other stuff works on 1.3.1 too And many thanks for maintaining this awesome list!

Reserved for future use

Taurus & Amarok Mod Pack Download: SpaceDock Source: https://github.com/macluky/MacLuky Manual: Assembly Guide Taurus Launch Systems The Taurus Launcher series provide an early to mid-career set of lifters that enable you to launch payloads in LKO and beyond without too much assembly, whilst making an effort to look a bit more like a real rocket. They are based on bits and pieces from Lionhead's ESA Launchers, Socke 1.875 HGR extension, some texturing ideas from Benjee and a lot of creativity and testing. The included guide gives some examples of various configurations ranging from 1 ton to 12 ton LKO. Support for CTT is included. Parts Taurus Launcher Family Amarok Space Systems The Amarok Space Systems are a series of space craft that help you through your career in a fashionable and recoverable way. I never quite understood how the Navy was supposed to find grey capsules at sea, therefor these craft follow a pain job similar to that of Copenhagen Suborbitales (https://copenhagensuborbitals.com). Based on some texturing ideas from Martinezfg11 and modeling ideas from the Phoenix capsule from MoviesColin IVA snippets from Tokamak and Fuji parts from Beale. As well as the Circular Panels from Yogui, and FusTek doors, docking ports and some decal. The lunar module is quite in alpha yet and must be considered a prototype. All capsules come with pretty IVAs (hence Kottabos click-bait) but the Mk2 capsule is having difficulties on KSP 1.3.1 it does show properly on 1.3.0. Parts Requires ASET Props by Alexustas (bundled in download) and Module Manager Plays well with - CTT, Kerbalism, TAC, Taurus, StockeAA, HGR, Tantares, BDD, Kerbal Engineer License CC-BY-NC-SA Pictures or it didn't happen https://ibb.co/album/b7Cx6F

Chapter 23 Epilogue “T-90 minutes. Gene verifies go for the propellant load.” The familiar sound crackled over the speakers. “Liquid fuel loading is underway.” called out a new operator who was managing ground operations. “T-45 minutes, liquid oxygen loading is underway.” With half a million funds on the launchpad, people were a little bit more stressed than for your average Progress launch. “T-7 minutes Saturn 4B begins engine chill prior to launch.” The excitement was buzzing in the navigation room, many were eyeballing the orbital trajectory of the Odyssey which was approaching the optimal point in the orbit to rendezvous. “T-1 minute Flight computer commanded to begin final pre-launch checks, propellant tank pressurization to flight pressure begins.” When the countdown almost reached 0 the engine controller sends the command to the center core engine to start the ignition sequence, followed by booster ignition exactly on the mark. Bills assessment of the Odyssey had been a positive one and the craft was cleared for another journey. The supply mission carried a sizeable but not that expensive payload to orbit. Its job was to bring 16318 units of Oxidizer, 13358 units of Liquid Fuel, 296 units of monopropellant, 1255 units food and 297 units of water. That and a new array of 1.25m batteries would bring the Odyssey back on the planning board, and I hear that mission control was already looking at new launch windows, but that is a story for another thread. -- The end.

I've built Eve craft in the past, but they all felt too big to be near-real-future. I think the shields of the Odyssey could hold out to Jool, but not sure if the other parts will. It will take quite a while to get there and back. The design of such a mission is quite complex and I may not have the time. First I want to release the mod I was making for 1.3.x since indeed 1.4 is around the corner ;-)

Eve is out of my comfort zone, I don't like building a unrealistic ascent vehicle, though balloons may work. I may send a second crew to Duna if I can save the Odyssey or go to Jool. Frankly I want to finally move to 1.3.1 first ;-)

Chapter 22 : The return “Solar panels are back to nominal efficiency,” said Tomoly. “We can tune down the reactor a bit.” Naul nodded, it was good to have an alternative power source. There were backup fuel cells and a spare reactor, but she loved solar power for its simplicity. Having the panels in their normal output range also meant that they were getting pretty close to Kerbins orbit. That was something they guys at KSC were also thinking about. “Can you see them yet?” said Gene, since he had no idea why Wernher was pushing all those keys on the remote telemetry station. “Shouldn’t it work like a TV remote? I mean it is basically the same thing?” Wernher sighed, “Zysez, only your TV zis not orbiting Minmus right?” Using some crafty code, they had re-assigned the optical experiment aboard the Salyut 2 to become a deep, but not so deep space telescope. “There they are, right where we expected them to be.” “Ain’t that a beautiful sight,” said Harrick to Valentina as they finally entered the Kerbin SOI. They were swinging in from below and the Mun was just in the process of creating a beautiful eclipse. Tomoly was snapping a picture with his phone. “The ability to drive a screw in the wall with a hammer, may not be the most efficient use of the tool.” Naul said, leaving Tomoly with a puzzled face as she floated towards the command cabin. It was time to do the re-entry calculations. As the Odyssey approached Kerbin the team looked at their options. By now they had learned of the failed Eve mission and how that re-entry profile had shaved off the exposure to the radiation belt. Blessed with a better TWR rate and far less critical levels of radiation in the crew the team decided a more shallow approach which would not put too much stress on the engines. It would still take a lot of tweaking to get the encounter properly. It was a gentle balance between fuel reserves and lowering the orbit so that they would not end up as permanent residents of the radiation belts, which would be very, very bad. “Course laid in and all manoeuvre nodes set up, we are looking at an 8 minute burn.” radioed Valentina. “Roger that Odyssey, good to hear you guys without half an hour delay.” was the the reply. The engines of the Odyssey roared as bled of the excess speed, “3200 m/s and dropping fast,” said Valentina, strapped in her command seat. They had almost forgotten to set ‘control from here’ to the forward docking port, which would have been disastrous, but KSC corrected them in time. “Capture complete!” Valentina sounded relieved. “Lowering periapsis.” It would take a small burn at periapsis to bring the Odyssey in a stable 212x215 km orbit, with only 1.2 degrees inclination. The engines of the Odyssey fell silent, would this be the last time they roared? The team started shutting down auxiliary systems in the hope that it would increase the lifespan of the vessel that had been their safe haven for so long. “Home at last,” Tomoly sighed. “I miss Duna already,” said Naul who was stashing soil samples in containment boxes. Meanwhile on Kerbin Jeb, Bill and Lolo Kerman prepped the Falcon 7 on the runway. “This is the weirdest plane we’ve flown so far.” said Jeb to Bill. “Well, the scramjet is experimental, meaning we have never flown this, so I took the liberty of adding 18 Merlin-B engines to the fuel tanks.” was the reply. The three of them got jammed in their seats when the plane took off like a rocket. It proved difficult to raise the nose and actually get the craft to go up, but after some fuel was consumed it became easier. “shouldn’t you have added parachutes to the boosters?” Lolo asked Bill, “You know, reusability and so?” Bill muttered something. Apparently, his team forgot, Gene would be mad if he saw the Bill. This reusable space plane case was getting harder and harder to sell. “Nose is up,” said Jeb. “Trajectory is looking good, though we may not get a direct intercept.” “KSC here, go for a 72x72 km orbit and transfer from there.” The number crunchers at flight control had come up with a plan. “This never gets old,” said bill while looking at the sunset. “Cargo is still in one place, thrust is good. Orbit in 45 seconds.” Jeb was pleased with the result of this experimental plane. “Booster separation complete,” Jeb was giving regular updates and the flight team was going over the design specs, adding notes to indicate how the flight profile had affected the actual performance. While the Falcon was calculating its intercept and opened its cargo base door, the Odyssey completed its checklist. “There’s 500 m/s delta-v left, we will need fuel, water, and food resupply. A better communication array, additional batteries, especially in Kerbin orbit.” Tomoly was chatting with the design team. “Oh, and an SSTO lander would be cool too.” “I can see the Falcon,” shouted Valentina totally ignoring Tomoly’s report and the whole team was soon looking out the window at the Falcon that approached slowly. It took a bit of wiggling, but after a few attempts, Jeb managed to dock the SSTU supplied minilab to the docking port. “This is so great,” said Lolo, who was looking very much forward to analysing the samples from Duna and Ike. “Locking into place, and…. we have a dock!” Jeb sounded anxious! I had been more than a year since he had seen his friends and now they were only an airlock away. The lab that they brought had also a broader docking connector, allowing multiple supply ships to arrive and be docked. They laughed and they cheered, they drank and played their games. All of them enjoyed the view of Kerbin and how the cities illuminated the sky, and every orbit they would point their little telescope at that red planet which was now far, far away. After a few orbits, Bill and Lolo took residence in the Odyssey to evaluate the materials and think about potential upgrades or reuse. The original plan had been to turn the Odyssey into a Minmus space station. KSC had even accepted a lucrative contract for that, but Bill thought that she could probably make another trip if properly tended to. “Goodbye Odyssey,” Valentina said when she closed the hatch and detached the Falcon from her berth. “Here we go,” said Jeb as he fired up the main engines and started the de-orbit burn. They had never returned a space plane from this altitude, so the KSC crew was anxiously watching the return trajectory. “Lets not make it too shallow or too steep,” was the less than helpful comment from the guys in the Nav department. Slowly the Falcon coasted back to the Kerbin atmosphere, it would take almost a complete orbit before the spacecraft hit the edge of the planet and fired up its engines once more to slow down the speed. “Need to watch the fuel here,” said Jeb, we may need it to get to the runway. “Falcon, this is KSC, you are coming in fast, please adjust your trajectory.” the sound of the comm system was a little disturbing to the passengers who where for the first time in many days merely tagging along. The plasma effect cut off communications pretty soon after that and all temperature indicators were jumping way in the red. “Uh uh,” said Naul, who was in the seat next to Jeb, “We are heating up really, really fast.” It seemed this mission had not seen the last bit of action. “Firing RCS thrusters to maintain angle of attack,” Jeb was improvising as usual. “You need to bleed of more speed, the nose is heating up way too fast.” Naul said. “Think of something!” Harrick sounded a little frightened, but he had all reason to since one of the solar panels and an RCS thruster on his side of the plane had just exploded. “If we only had airbrakes,” said Tomoly. “Perhaps we have,” said Jeb while pulling the lever to open the cargo bay doors. “It works!” Naul exclaimed, “speed is dropping fast, temperatures are starting to drop!” The Falcon recovered about 20 km north of KSC, after switching the engines to air-breathing mode the nose was lifted and Jeb set a course for KSC. “Lining up for final approach,” Jeb was relieved. Despite being a test pilot, it is always an adrenaline event to descent a new type of spacecraft. There was a bit of side wind, but he managed to line up the craft pretty well. “T+14:23 in the flight and we have touchdown,” KSC tower control sounded relieved, Gene grabbed the mike. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Falcon has landed. Welcoming the crew of the Odyssey will happen in 2 hours from now in the spaceplane hanger A bit wobbly from the long journey in low-g the crew of the Odyssey returned to the surface of Kerbin. With great joy and honour they set foot on the concrete of the runway to be the first Kerbals to return from such a great distance. Their achievement showed that traveling to Duna is not only possible, but also a tale worthy of telling. “We should do this more often,” Naul smiled to the team.

Go ahead ;-) all stuff I post is in the hope that someone benefits, smiles, or gives me feedback about what I did wrong can improve

Here's what I've got for Kerbalism so far. Still need to add food to the containers. // Kerbalism Life Support functions // Authored by MacLuky // Airlocks // SCATTER-1 // PPD-EVAC-U-8 //@PART[sspx-airlock-125-1|sspx-airlock-25-1]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] //{} // RIGID HABITATS // PTD-5 'Sunrise' Habitation Module // PPD-20 'Shanty' Habitation Module // @PART[sspx-habitation-125-1|sspx-habitation-25-1]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] // {} // PXL-1 'Hostel' Deep-Space Habitation Module // PXL-2 'Shelter' Deep-Space Habitation Module // PXL-3 'Asylum' Storm Cellar Module @PART[sspx-habitation-375-1|sspx-habitation-375-2|sspx-habitation-375-3]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { MODULE { name = Comfort bonus = exercise desc = A treadmill designed to permit exercise in zero-g is included. The crew will love it. } MODULE:NEEDS[FeatureReliability] { name = Reliability type = Comfort title = Treadmill repair = Engineer mtbf = 36288000 // 4y extra_cost = 0.25 extra_mass = 0.05 } // Carbon Sabatier // Carbon Extractor // Water Purifier // Water Splitter } // PPD-24 'Panorama' Observation Module // PXL-9 Astrogation Module // PTD-C Observation Window @PART[sspx-observation-25-1|sspx-cupola-375-1|sspx-cupola-125-1]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { MODULE { name = Comfort desc = This is great to look at the panorama. bonus = panorama } } // RECYCLERS // PTD-6 'Star' Utility Module @PART[sspx-utility-125-1]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { // Air Filter // Carbon Sabatier // Carbon Extractor // Water Purifier // Water Splitter MODULE { name = Emitter radiation = -0.00033332 //improve by factor 4 toggle = true ec_rate = 2.5 active = e10 } } // PXL-2 'Fate' Deep-Space Laboratory Module // @PART[sspx-lab-375-1]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] // { // } // PXL-R4NCH-3R Hydroponics Module // PXL-F15H Aquaculture Module // PPD-F412M Hydroponics Module @PART[sspx-aquaculture-375-1|sspx-greenhouse-25-1|sspx-greenhouse-375-1]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { // Water Purifier // Greenhouse MODULE { name = Greenhouse crop_resource = Food // name of resource produced by harvests crop_size = 2500.0 // amount of resource produced by harvests crop_rate = 0.00000023148 // growth per-second when all conditions apply ec_rate = 2.5 // EC/s consumed by the lamp at max intensity light_tolerance = 400.0 // minimum lighting flux required for growth, in W/m^2 pressure_tolerance = 0.1 // minimum pressure required for growth, in sea level atmospheres radiation_tolerance = 0.000008333 // maximum radiation allowed for growth in rad/s, considered after shielding is applied lamps = Cylinder001 // object with emissive texture used to represent lamp intensity graphically shutters = door // animation to manipulate shutters plants = // animation to represent plant growth graphically INPUT_RESOURCE { name = Ammonia rate = 0.00695 // 37530 units required for crop } INPUT_RESOURCE { name = Water rate = 0.00023148 // 1250 units required for crop } OUTPUT_RESOURCE { name = Oxygen rate = 0.00463 // 25% of oxygen required by 1 crew member } OUTPUT_RESOURCE { name = WasteWater rate = 0.00023033 } } MODULE { name = Habitat toggle = false } MODULE { name = ProcessController resource = _PressureControl title = Pressure control capacity = 0.2143 running = true } RESOURCE { name = Waste amount = 0 maxAmount = 10 } RESOURCE { name = Ammonia amount = 1000 maxAmount = 1000 } } // INFLATABLES // PTD-E-2 'Eclair' Inflatable Habitation Module // PTD-E-1A 'Winston' Inflatable Habitation Module // PTD-E-1B 'Winston' Inflatable Habitation Module // @PART[sspx-inflatable-hab-125-1|sspx-inflatable-hab-125-2|sspx-inflatable-hab-125-3]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] // { // } // PFD-A Inflatable Habitation Module // PFD-B Inflatable Habitation Module @PART[sspx-inflatable-hab-25-1|sspx-inflatable-hab-25-2]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { MODULE { name = Comfort bonus = exercise desc = A treadmill designed to permit exercise in zero-g is included. The crew will love it. } MODULE:NEEDS[FeatureReliability] { name = Reliability type = Comfort title = Treadmill repair = Engineer mtbf = 36288000 // 4y extra_cost = 0.25 extra_mass = 0.05 } // Carbon Sabatier // Carbon Extractor // Water Purifier // Water Splitter } // CENTRIFUGES // CTD-5 Compact Inflatable Centrifuge Module // CTD-10 Inflatable Centrifuge Module // PFD-C Inflatable Centrifuge Module // PXL-E 'Mercury' Extensible Centrifuge // PXL-F 'Pilgrim' Extensible Centrifuge @PART[sspx-inflatable-centrifuge-*|sspx-expandable-centrifuge-*]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { MODULE { name = Comfort desc = Artificial gravity can delay the inevitable consequences of zero-g on the body. bonus = firm-ground } } // Add Kerbalism resources to containers B9_TANK_TYPE:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { name = SSPXFood tankMass = 0.0000 tankCost = 0.0 RESOURCE { name = Food unitsPerVolume = 2.6025954545 } } @MODULE[ModuleB9PartSwitch] { SUBTYPE:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { name = Food tankType = SSPXFood title = Food transform = LifeSupportDecal } } // CARGO @PART[sspx-cargo-container-*|sspx-cargo-container-radial-*]:NEEDS[Kerbalism] { @MODULE[ModuleB9DisableTransform] { transform = FoodDecal } }

Chapter 21 The slingshot home It was day 360 of the mission, and in the improvised lab Harrick was fussing with the console. “What do you mean you can’t find it,” said Naul. “I dunno, the data seems gone, poof vanished!” These were some frustrated Kerbals. It seemed that their soil samples and goo containers that they had brought back from Duna and mostly Ike had been misplaced. “I’m sure they are here somewhere,” muttered Harrick. “Damn you Kerbalism,” said Naul referring to the supplier of the computer cores, who had apparently messed up the ‘transfer data here’ functionality. “Guys I don’y know about you, but I am starting the feel homesick, do we really have to wait 20 days for the departure window?” Tomoly looked as if the prolonged presence of the red planet had started to affect his mental health. “Let me do some math,” said Valentina “we have lots of delta-v left and there might be something here to help us.” She quickly went over the numbers and plotted a series of manoeuvre nodes. “Okay, I can’t be sure about the Homhmann transfer, but I get get us out of the Duna system for almost zero delta-v if we strap in now.” When the trusted engines of the Odyssey kicked in they accelerated the 150 ton vessel while lowering the periapsis to 12 km. “We might scratch a mountain or two, but if I understood the ScanSat map correctly, we should be good.” Before leaving Ike some repairs had to be made on the treadmill, a solar panel and cooling radiator. Nothing serious but these Kerbals liked their ship tidy. The Odyssey broke orbit of Ike and slung itself around Duna and on the second encounter with Ike it used a gravity assist and the Oberth effect to get kicked out of the Duna system in a really efficient way. “Wow, I am going to miss this place,” said Naul. “Well, who knows you can be on the next mission, they will need an experienced commander,” smiled Valentina. Harrick was taking the last set of readings from low Ike orbit as they zipped by and finally got an exit vector. “ “Look at them, they were harsh but exotic hosts.” said Naul. “Don’t get nostalgic on me,” said Valentina, I need you to help me calculate a burn for Kerbin. With a little math magic and a bit of time, they came up with a nice course correction. “KSC, we have plotted our course,” reported Valentina while Ike and Duna sunk in the distance. “It will add 400 d/v to the minimal transfer, but it will get us home in 122 days and we should still have 4000 d/v left for breaking at Kerbin, meaning we don’t need to use the shield.” All systems green, there were no active defects or broken parts and so it happened that at year 3 day 309 time 3:09 the Odysseys engines lit up for a 5 minute burn that would give them an intercept with Kerbin. Post launch activities concerned of checking supplies, consumption rates, reactor health and a couple of external inspections of critical parts such as the engines. After a thorough medical check the team was cleared for duty though both Valentina and Naul had radiation levels of 10%, Tomoly almost nothing and Harrick stuck at 8%. “For now we would like you two to limit EVA,” radioed KSC. Harrick was still extremely annoyed that the samples were gone. “Can’t be found on any computer core,” he complained to Tomoly, “Well, when was the last time you saw them?” was the reply. Though it was meant as a joke, it got Harrick thinking, so he did an EVA to check the Dragon, but could find no evidence of data from the outside of the craft. “But what if,” he thought, and so he boarded the spacecraft, decoupled it, backed away for a few meters and to his astonishment the samples re-emerged for a cabinet. “There you are my little babies,” he cried out in joy. To make sure they would not get lost during the docking, he EVE-ed the data over to the Odyssey and re-docked the Dragon. Not having a lab meant they could not analyse the data on the Odyssey but they could either return it home or upgrade the Odyssey at some point in time.

So I finally switched to 1.3.1 but then noticed that one of my IVAs was missing. I did a fresh install and the logs said: [LOG 07:59:38.148] PartLoader: Compiling Internal Space 'MacLuky/Amarok/acm2i/MacLuky.Amarok.CM2.Internal' [LOG 07:59:38.174] WARNING: Quaternion entry is nor formatted properly! proper format for Quaternion is x,y,z,w [LOG 07:59:38.176] PartLoader: Compiling Internal Space 'MacLuky/Amarok/acm3i/MacLuky.Amarok.CM3.Internal' [LOG 07:59:38.261] PartLoader: Compiling Internal Space 'MacLuky/Amarok/acmi/MacLuky.Amarok.CM1.Internal' [LOG 07:59:38.265] PartLoader: Compiling Internal Space 'MacLuky/Amarok/alm2i/MacLuky.Amarok.LM2.Internal' [LOG 07:59:38.326] PartLoader: Compiling Internal Space 'MacLuky/Amarok/aomi/MacLuky.Amarok.OM.Internal' I presume the warning has something to do with it, but I am at a loss as to why. I am also in the process of downgrading my mac to Sierra, so now I can load unity again, only to find out that it doesn't like a case sensitive filesystem. (sigh.)

Ah it was launched empty, I may do a mars one scenario, just to see how long I can make them last, but Valentina has picked up 10% radiation nevertheless, so it may not be that long. Or I take and give it a ridicules shielding bonus Also planning a Jool mission but Nerthas new parts are soooo pretty

And so I had tried to resurrect the Hermes mod, only to see this come to life. I am breathless, it is so impressive! I love it.