KAL 9000

Or an hour, whatever. We know that the landing sequence was going fine up until LOS, parachutes deployed, heat shield came off after passing through reentry, retrorockets started firing...

I seriously hope the antenna just failed for a minute and the onboard computer switches to the backup in a bit.

The iron farm is coming along BOODIFULLY! All we need now are the doors in place and some villagers! And also a grinder mechanism and some hoppers to grab the iron, but whatever We are on for finishing the iron farm in a couple of days. New request: I will give 16 iron for 8 obsidian, and 5 iron for an ender pearl (Ender Chest Security FTW)

It's transmitting the persistence! But to where? And why?

Well, in my sandbox save, the Dres anomaly is being investigated and the crew should be rescued soon. Now that the Dres mission is (sort of) coming to a close, KSC wants to explore the planets in the Outer Planets Mod! Ship design is progressing smoothly, and volunteers are lining up at the KSC doors to come on missions. The first planet that is planned to be visited: Sarnus! TOP SECRET DOCUMENT - SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED: LEVEL 7 - HIGH-RANKING BOFFIN Sarnus Expedition Alpha Crew Selection - By Gene Well, there's no shortage of applicants, but we do have a shortage of qualified applicants for this mission. Unfortunately, all our current Kerbonauts are on missions. Here's one example: Applicant #357 - Kergen Kerman "Ok, Kergen, do you have any experience piloting, engineering, or scienceing?" "Uh, no... But I do know how to decrease your insurance deductible!" Mort: "HIRE HIM! HIRE HIM!" "Okay... Let's present a scenario, to see how you'll act in emergencies and making tough choices. Let's say there's a fuel leak while you're at Sarnus, that if it continues, will leave the ship with not enough Delta-V to get home. You can save your crew by fixing the leak, but it would poison you. What do you do?" "Just one question." "Yeah?" "What's Delta-V?" Yep... Geez, that guy was stupid! -----End Of Document----- To pave the way for Kerballed missions to the Outer Planets, and while the design process is underway for crewed crafts, Operation POOP (Probe Operations for Outer Planets) began. The first probe flotilla to be prepared was POOP-Plock, due to the upcoming transfer window. The probes in the flotilla are: POOP-Plock Comms Relays: A deployment carrier taking 3 equatorial and 2 polar communication satellites to Plock POOP-Plock Multi-Purpose SCANSat: A SCANSat with plenty of Delta-V to be able to survey Plock and all of its moons (Karen, Beros, and Kyx) POOP-Plock Automated Crew Outpost "Hypothermia": ACO's are probe cores with Hitchhiker cans attached and life support to sustain Kerbals for a little while. They are basically tiny space stations used in emergencies, and as such, deserve individual names. Meanwhile, development and testing was done on the transfer stage that would take these probes to Plock. It would need to have a LOT of Delta-V to accelerate Plock probes to a speed where they would arrive in a reasonable time. That does it for the first episode of The Outer Planets Adventures! Tune in next time for the screenshots and moar!

There are many scientific advantages to having samples available to all the best labs on Earth. As for keeping the samples cold, I think we'll have no problem, considering the ships will be in the FRICKING OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM for most of the time, where it's so cold that ice is harder than rock.

Stock OPM

Wait, really? YUS! I can make a payload!

No, there's not gonna be a "The Martian" subplot other than this. You'll see...

Keep Calm And Crash Spacecraft

@max_creative I put three golden apples and three potions of weakness in the Iron Farm Fund chest that I made at the bulletin board, and am building the Iron Farm design for the Minecraft wiki (to keep it simple) out in a field close-ish to spawn.

-Story - Part 13- --At the KSC-- "Gene, alzough ze max_creative vas destroyed, ve have reason to believe ze crew survived, as zey vere on Dres ven ze incident happened." "Can we prepare a rescue mission, Werhner?" "Of course, Gene. Valt and Gus are verking on it, as KAL is busy." The BFR (Big Freaking Rocket) - 001 stood proudly on the launch pad, the Boss V engine cluster donated by Behemoth Aerospace powering up for launch. "T-1 minute. Guidance?" "Go." "EECOM?" "Go." "CAPCOM?" "Go." "Crew?" Both Milfred and Jonbal, in the rescue ship's cockpit, yelled "Go!" over the intercom, eager to rescue their friends. "FIDO?" "Go." "Trajectory?" "Go." "Bobak?" "Go, sir." "Flight? Go. All systems are GO for launch, T-15." "14." "13." "12." "11." "10." "9." "8." "7. Main engine start." The Boss V kicked on, flames spewing out the launch pad trench. "6." "5." "4." "3." "2." "1." "Booster Ignition." The mighty 5-meter wide SRBs roared a mighty roar as the launch clamps decoupled and the ship inched upward, slowly at first, but going faster and faster. "The imaginary tower has been cleared!" Things went smoothly with the launch at first, but an engineer [me] had made a mistake in the kOS launch script, and the boosters decoupled too early. With plenty of fuel left, they came barreling towards the BFR-001. "Milfred! Jonbal! Abort NOW! Activate LES! Eject!" Worried, Jonbal hit the big red button marked ABORT just in time, and the capsule decoupled, the LES firing to get it away from the doomed rocket. As Gene filed the mission debriefing report, he stamped FAILURE on the paperwork and added "No crew lost". The rocket would cost more than a million funds to replace, but at least no one died.

Chapter 1: I was born to proud parents: Cthulhu and The Devil...

Good point... I'm just proposing a concept using technology and hardware we either already have or is in development. Sadly, nuclear-electric propulsion isn't actually being researched by NASA or any space agency at the present time. As for the odd mix of propellants and engines, I'm trying to maximize efficiency: i.e. hypergolics are better in a vacuum, but methalox is better in an atmosphere. ISRU could be done by extracting methane from the atmosphere instead, but an airbreathing rocket on Titan would need a RIDICULOUS amount of air scoops. No matter what, you're gonna need to bring oxidizer with you, unless you plan to collect ice on Titan (and on Titan, ice is literally as hard as rock... In fact, it IS rock there) and electrolyze it. I'm just gonna say, the first ITS WILL explode violently, killing everyone aboard... It's a rocket straight out of KSP! It will take a while, at least until 2050, until it's actually ready.

You *could* build a larger fairing.

I calculated Delta-V using two amazing tools: NASA's Trajectory Browser and KSP RO. Yeah, this would definitely fall in the "Super-Flagship"-class.

The horrors of old sock smell are so great, it only makes sense the Kraken would smell so. For those who want to know what exactly the Kraken is (or isn't) and what beings are fighting / have fought / will fight it, it can all be deduced from this, as can everything else:

ZOMBAL APOCALYPSE!!!

All too true. Hey, that gives me a thought: Can an SLS get an empty SLS tank into orbit? According to NASA's Trajectory planner, a round-trip with the orbiter would take like 15 km/s of Delta-V, and that's just for Saturn and back, not counting any Titan maneuvers! That also includes a final Earth orbit insertion, because I highly doubt that any heat shield ever designed can survive a reentry at 25 km/s relative velocity to Earth. I'm just assuming 10 km/s for a standard Earth orbit velocity. I also doubt that an SLS could launch one payload with that much Delta-V... It doesn't really matter what tank it uses, you're gonna need to assemble the transfer stage in orbit.

I edited my post . You could also just use an SLS tank instead.

I know what it was used for, and you make a point. I just thought it might be easier to modify an existing design then to create a new one. Plus, the SLS is planned to use a modified Shuttle ET for its core stage fuel tank, so production will restart anyway. The orbiter is only designed to get from Titan to Earth, so I doubt it would have the fuel to get to a NEO, and I doubt the general population would approve of a RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPE in an orbit that would eventually decay and possibly crash into a populated area .

Yaaaay..... It'll be worth it in the end, though!

Sorry

Please move my Titan Sample Return Concept to Science & Spaceflight mods, I accidentally posted it in The Lounge.

That village + minecarts = Villagers transported to iron farm site = Lots of big noses