KAL 9000

No, it's just a random fact. How could that be a pun.... Oooh! No It's not pure hydrogen. Add the 20% or so of helium and the atmosphere is more dense than hydrogen, so a pure hydrogen balloon would probably float. And there's very little free oxygen in their atmospheres to make a Hindenburg.

Big balloons . Like the creature is the tail of the whale, and the balloon is the whale minus the tail of the whale. Wait, what?

Here's how life (bacterial or otherwise) could / possibly does exist and thrive on every planet in the Solar System, even the gas giants. Mercury: Life here exists in the bottoms of craters that never see sunlight. It is adapted to cold temperatures and lives in the ice. (Yes, it's Mercury, but you know, craters that never see sunlight) Venus: Here, life lives in the upper atmosphere, absorbing organic compounds directly from the atmosphere. The wind blows the bacteria around, and they die if they get close to the hot, corrosive, crushing surface. Earth: N/A Mars: Life here lives on/in the polar caps. Most of the time, they hibernate in endospores, but when, once in several thousand years, a very warm summer occurs, a tiny bit of the ice melts. Quickly, before the ice evaporates or refreezes, the bacteria wake up, reproduce, and have a frenzy of activity before depositing endospores when conditions begin to return to normal. Jupiter: Life floats in the cloud tops of Jupiter, basically similar as on Venus. It's adapted to the cold temperatures here, and an entire ecosystem exists in the atmosphere, with dead creatures falling towards the core and being crushed in the pressures. Saturn: Life is similar to Jupiter, but the creatures are adapted to even colder temperatures and are ENORMOUS, with the smallest multicellular organisms being the size of Earthly blue whales. Uranus: Life here is like Jupiter and Saturn's creatures, except they are around they same sizes as the Earthly creatures that fill the same environmental niches and are used to even more cold temperatures. They are unique (except for Earth life) in the Solar System for having sexual reproduction. Neptune: Life here is similar to the other giant planets, except even colder temperatures are normal and they get buffeted around all the time by the enormous wind speeds. Here, creatures are small, with the largest being the size of an Earthly chihuahua.

@sal_vager?

Attention @SQUAD! We have a record here!

Don't forget the gods of Gilly, Mun, and Eeloo!

Ah, the infamous RatSquirrelFish! Unfortunately, it has spread like a plague to many planets, and exploratory crews usually have to deal with fishus ratsquirrelius.

First off, Nigeria doesn't even HAVE a manned space program...

Oh, sorry for your stress.

Awesome, and good luck! Hope you can get a better laptop soon.

I was talking about Imperfect Lock.

Actually, the Interstellar docking music from a couple of pages ago should be played when a stranded Kerbal from a previous save hijacks the LDAV and attempts to dock, but fails to dock and blows up half the Jool ship .

It surrounds us, and penetrates us... binds the galaxy together... What is it? Duct tape?

OK, I will post the screenshots in a bit.

Have fun, have explosions, and have some rep! Welcome to the forums, @Sprachenheitz !

Understood. I have screenshots of the failed mission, though! It was launched on a Delta IV from the Real-Scale Boosters Stockalike mod, but all modded (besides KAS/KIS, which we all have) parts were deorbited or didn't make it into orbit.

KSP keeps crashing on me . Luckily, I quicksave and make progress each time. Right now, rendezvous is complete. I had MechJeb start the docking, because although I'm good at docking, I don't want to accidentally bump into and break anything. The first section of the SSTO was almost docked... And then KSP crashed.

Ok, thanks ! The first section (of maybe 3 or 4, it's a big SSTO (but reliable and awesome)) will be launched as soon as KSP loads. Here are some screenshots of it in the SPH with Kronal Vessel Viewer:

Sooo... Which of us had it first?

Hi, @CheckYoStaging! Welcome to the forums, and may all your missions succeed (or at least go down in a blaze huge explosion of glory)! Also, I have the save

No, the Boss is actually you! In the dead of night, a device of your own invention zaps you when you're sleeping, downloading your soul and brain into the save file as a Kerbal! And then, when daytime comes, it zaps you back into the real world.

Thanks, but I really want my own design to go to Laythe as well. Looks awesome though! I should be able to get mine up with 2-4 launches. It has a Mk.1 cockpit for command, as well as a Mk.1 crew cabin that can hold 2 passengers. It's powered by 2 RAPIERs for in-atmosphere flight and relatively high thrust requiring burns. An LV-N is used for vacuum flight. It has 2 docking ports, one of which is a Jr. inside a service bay, for small cargo. It is capable of Laythe orbit => Laythe descent => Laythe landing => Surface activities => Laythe takeoff => Laythe ascent => Laythe orbit => Rendezvous with mothership on full fuel without refueling, or Kerbin takeoff => Kerbin ascent => Kerbin orbit => Rendezvous with mothership on full fuel without refueling, for the initial launch if it was going up in one piece. It's called the Peregrine Falcon.

All right. I think I can ship it up in sections, and I'll upload the .craft file of the completed SSTO, so that the maintenance mission can have a guide to go by during welding.

Laythe SSTOs for the Jool mission will be launched in approx. 8 hours (or 1 day and 8 hours, if delays occur). I kind of had to break the rules a little bit, because it's impossible to build an SSTO with 8 parts + 2 docking ports. My current estimate is 25-30, and I can't strip it down any more without it being unable to function properly. Hopefully, they'll be up before the launch window. I'll also transfer the Original Four and any other crew members needed to fill up the Jool Ship over. @Jetski, since you created this challenge, you should probably do the TJI (Trans-Jool Injection), interplanetary cruise, and Jool aerobrake or JOI (Jool Orbit Insertion).

When does SSM-15 launch? I have uploaded the .craft file. Thanks, and keep me updated!