KAL 9000

I, for one, welcome our new cat overlords!

KNN: Kerbal News Network! News happens... or not! BREAKING NEWS: Scientists have confirmed that Kerbin's orbit around Jool is decaying. In a hundred years, it will either crash into Jool or be torn apart by tidal forces. Intern Linus Kerman, the Circus boffin that this reporter was able to interview, said that the Circus "could care less". The Circus motto of slow spin into damnation seems oddly apt. Next Up: KNN's Movie Marathon Night kicks off with Illinois Kerman and the Noun of the Semi-Mystical MacGuffin!

Unrelated, but RIP Cassini PRESS F TO PAY RESPECTS ---- Also unrelated: Have you noticed that Ike looks a lot like the Mün from the surface? Werner: ZE IKE LANDINGS ARE FAKED! VE FAKED ZEM VITH A MÜN LANDING!

NOTHING MATTERS ANYMORE!

Saturn. Part of the final frontier. Those were the voyages of the space probe Cassini. Its 20-year mission: To explore strange new moons To seek out new life, and conditions where life could arise To boldly go where three spacecraft have gone before!

Saturn's not a picky eater.

GNC, Flight. Lock the doors.

What about using the reaction wheels for pointing? Also: F Imagine if they could get enough bandwidth to send a final picture during Saturn reentry... The picture would be awesome.

INFERNUM III COMPUTER LOGS: THALIA APPROACH: Switching mission phase (Interplanetary Cruise -> Thalia Approach)... Gathering high-orbit Thalia science... 100% Transmitting science... 100% Science.AutoCollect("enable","newBiome") Science.AutoTransmit("enable","newData") Entering hibernation (WakeUp: WhenSituation == InThaliaLowOrbit)... Exiting hibernation... Rebooting... 100% Gathering low-orbit Thalia science... 100% Transmitting science... 100% Science.AutoCollect("enable","newBiome") Science.AutoTransmit("enable","newData") Periapsis in 1 hours, 32 minutes, 4 seconds WARNING! Overheating detected in subsections 5, 8, and 13! WARNING! Severe radiation detected in all subsections! WARNING! Overheating in subsections 5, 8, and 13 is now severe! WARNING! Overheating detected in all subsections! WARNING! Subsection 7 failure! DamageAssess: Subsection 7 failure due to radiation damage WARNING! Subsections 5, 8, and 13 failure! DamageAssess: Subsection 5, 8, and 13 failure due to thermal damage WARNING! Severe overheating detected in all subsections! WARNING! Structural integrity at 50% and dropping! WARNING! Subsections 1-20 offline! WARNING! Severe damage detected to control computer! WARNING! Control computer fail438hfwpahjajüsjaęasja;as20r290puhdja ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! SIGNAL LOST

Wow. Just wow. Have you been planning this the whole time?

Jack's well-being is, of course, of no concern. YES! My inspirational speech (and explosion GIFs) saved Jack's life the mission! And speaking of dead Kerbals... "Jebediah Kerman. Kerbonaut. A kerb barely alive. Gentlekerbs, we can rebuild him... Make him better, faster, stronger... the world's first bionic kerb..."

OH MY KRAKEN YES THIS MUST BE A THING

Not to be outdone by @cratercracker, I'll contribute something to the Circus! *cue old-timey adventure music* On a lonely moon slowly spinning its way into damnation A race of not-so-intelligent beings evolve and attempt to make their way to the stars They will suffer many failures... And endure many hardships... And although these explosions look cool... They will eventually make it... Hopefully. THIS INFOMERCIAL INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE TRAVELING CIRCUS

UPDATE: The first supply drops have touched down on Tellumo near Macfred, and he has set up the habitat, greenhouse, and lab. A rover has also been landed, and an expedition to a nearby anomaly is planned when the rest of the crew arrive. As for the anomalous asteroid flying between Tellumo and Niven, the Tracking Station computers are saying that the object's mass kept fluctuating for a roughly 5-minute period of time. This, of course, is patently ridiculous. What's really happening is that the computers are revising their estimate of the object's mass to make an N-Body simulation of the gravitational forces acting on it conform to its observed trajectory. To see what happens, Wernher has told the computers to regard the object as a spacecraft. Immediately, the mass issue is resolved. The object has a mass of roughly ten tons, and it appears to have performed a course-correction burn to reduce the distance to Niven on its closest approach. Radio emissions have also been picked up from the object. These emissions are more likely transmissions, as they are aimed at Tellumo, and clearly modulated to a degree that they are obviously artificial. It is entirely possible, indeed likely, that we have encountered a First Contact scenario.

Because I'm never able to commit to them For now, these Galileo missions will stay as snippets in the mod release thread.

Telemetry indicates that Macfred has landed! A complete set of sensor readings from the entire descent is attached to the report. Communications to the surface and voice chat with Macfred require more bandwidth than the drop pod's communications systems have available. If Macfred is sticking to the mission plan, he should be extracting the primary communications array from one of the KIS containers and deploying it. UPDATE: We have a signal from the primary array! Macfred reports that everything went smoothly and he is none the worse for wear from his ordeal. He does mention being slightly uncomfortable in the higher gravity (the ship's centrifuge was spun to emulate Gael-normal gravity), but is confident that he will adapt in a few days. The return-to-orbit vessel will land in 150 days, if all goes to plan. By then, the rest of the crew will have joined him in their own drop pods. The primary habitat and greenhouse units are stowed in KIS containers on the first supply drop. Macfred reports that he has found life! The limited scientific equipment that was able to fit in the drop pod included a microscope, and he's imaged bacteria in a surface sample! After triple-checking that this was not due to contamination from his vessel, he contacted GSC immediately. From what we can ascertain so far, the bacteria are similar if not identical to Gaelian bacteria. Panspermia is a likely explanation, as meteorite traffic between the two worlds would be commonplace in the early days of the Ciro system. Macfred has requisitioned for the science lab to be landed ahead of schedule, so he can perform a more in-depth study as quickly as possible.

After many procrastination sessions, the expedition I launched to Tellumo has arrived! Orbital insertion successful! Macfred Gaelan has been released in a drop pod, which has deorbited. Expect landing confirmation within the hour.

IT'S BACK! IT'S BACK! PRAISE THE KRAKEN, IT'S BACK!

All supplies have landed successfully! The base will be set up once our cowardly bold, incompetent highly-trained idiots crew arrives!

Ah, the Borg have showed up. And they want to assimilate us. And survive/stop the Heat Death. I fully support both. Wait, "Creatures of the Laniakea Supercluster"?! Our SUPERCLUSTER is a tiny thing to them?! HOW VAST IS THIS EMPIRE?! We do have a secret weapon, however! A GIANT DEATH LASER- Er, the power of love/friendship/hippie stuff!

Okay, but half-human, half-what? Or would that be spoilering?

That was brilliant, as usual! Great job, @Just Jim! Besides your own unique style, I honestly can't tell if I'm getting more vibes of Lovecraft, Gravity Falls, or Twilight Zone. Bravo, kerb! Wait, WHAT?!

This looks really cool! Will there be an "After Kerbin" mod which takes place when Kerbol is a red giant?

Progress is being made! The first supply shipments are arriving at Sarnus. First to arrive is the Eeloo base (or what will become the Eeloo base, at any rate). Stowed in the KIS inventories of the three Mule MLMs are all the parts needed to set up a base that can bootstrap to full operations. The next (and final, for now) supplies to arrive will be the MaterialKits and Equipment needed to set up the base.