GehringGame

Thanks! Yeah I used to play without it, and for a while I used it sporadically since it kept getting turned off by the xbox controller bug. Now that I'm using it consistently I can't live without it. It looks particularly good on Duna's south pole! As for the antennae - yeah that was just a bonehead move on my part. I really need a pre-launch checklist. I've toyed with the idea of using kerbal attachment system to fix antennae to them in a later mission, but I'll probably just bring new satellites with me and scrub the old ones. Thanks, so far the game has crashed twice when I haven't had time for trouble-shooting. I'll check things out once I have some more play time. Lot's of things to do IRL is definitely going to slow me down! Hopefully I can keep the updates coming at a 2-3 per week pace. Oh man, I'm not sure that looking at all the details is a good thing! I'm sure I'll make a continuity error at some point. Actually I just realized that the image of the orbits shows the Hobbes lander already down on the surface. Oops!

Welcome, Acheuro! Hang out and see what these amazing people have created

Mission Update: Duna Arrival! Spirits at the KSC were very high as SEAK's head of Duna operations announced that the DunEx There and Back Again had crossed into the red planet's SOI. At least, spirits were high among those who were in the room at the time. Actually, most of the SEAK staff had been so busy testing new technologies for their next mission that they had forgotten all about the the antiquated There and Back Again. It seemed the Interplanetary Welcoming Express had a shorter attention span than the 303 days it took for a trip to Duna. Eventually word got around to everyone, usually met with something along the lines of, "Oh, that mission? Wow I totally forgot about that. Ok, cool." Val, Eilla, and Neilberry shared considerably more enthusiasm about the event. The There and Back Again was designed for an aerocapture trajectory to save fuel. Over the course of their journey, Val had had plenty of time to check the fuel levels and conclude that the fuel budget was quite a bit tighter than anyone would have liked, so special care was taken to make sure she got the maneuver absolutely right. Those back at the space center (those that were paying attention at least) watched as the new apoapsis settled down right onto Ike's orbit. Val had performed the maneuver impossibly well. After spending the proper amount of time staring slack-jawed and watery-eyed at the red planet, the crew got to work deploying the Duna component of the mission. Eilla had grown attached to her probes during her many EVA's to escape Neilberry. She felt like a proud mother sending her children off to the first day of kindergarten. Remedial kindergarten maybe - the probes had been hastily and sloppily designed - but nobody wanted to tell her this. Simultaneously plotting the correct trajectories for the two surface probes and the mapping satellite proved too much for Neilberry to comprehend. He apologized cheerfully to a fuming Val and called Bob for help. The Hobbes probe was easy enough. It would land near the equator at the mouth of one of Duna's prominent canyons. The Calvin probe and the SEAKmap Alpha satellite, however, needed to move to a polar orbit. Bob tried to make this a teaching moment for Neilberry, but after spending the better part of an hour trying to explain that the term "orbital mechanics" didn't actually mean guys that will fix your car if it breaks down in space, Bob decided just to do it all himself and send over the final calculations. All it took were a couple small burns and a friendly helping hand from Ike. The crew had indeed forgotten to install the antennae on the SEAKmap Alpha satellites. They decided it was easier to blame someone else. It had probably been the job of some junior engineer back at the space center, right? Although the two satellites would be useless without antennae, they decided to put them into their respective orbits anyway. The surface probes, they hoped, didn't have any major flaws. Hobbes was the first to begin its descent. It was targeting a scenic canyon that the SEAK admins thought might offer breathtaking views to future hotel guests. Unfortunately, the probe was another casualty of the engineers' koffee-addled brains at the time it was designed. The solar cells hadn't been intended for atmospheric entry, and they broke away during the descent. Although the probe landed safely, power ran dry and communication was lost before it could transmit any meaningful data. The Calvin probe adjusted for the problem and was able to use its landing engines to slow its descent over the edge of the south pole. This time the solar cells survived and the probe landed fully intact. The first images of the landing site were enough to sell the SEAK admins on the south pole as the location of their Duna hotel. It had everything! It had a view of Ike, it was flat, it was exclusive, and, most importantly, it was pink. Next up: more updates from the DunEx crew as they explore Ike! I've had a couple problems since the 1.0.3 release, so it might take some time. Thanks for reading!

This is excellent! I love the look of your craft, your narration, and especially your flags. Keep posting!

That's a mighty nice rocket for someone who just got the game a couple weeks ago, nice job! That's a great science haul from Minmus as well.

Your Duna mission and gigantic launch vehicles were pretty epic. Share your RSS exploits as well!

I've stranded many a kerbal in orbit. You'll recover him someday I'm sure!

Really digging this thread. I've been lurking and catching up with the progress so far. Your ships are beautiful and unique, great work! Looking forward to what comes next.

You pinpointed the reason I went with the graphic format to begin with. It allows me to pack three or four screenshots into a single consumable image panel. I love writing the story text as background explanation and flavor, but I know that many people will just skim the images. For this reason I try to compose the images in such a way that you could skim them and still understand what's going on. If it turns out people aren't too interested in the background story text then I may move more of that content into the images themselves, we'll see how it evolves with time. For now a hybrid of text and images is the easiest to create.

Thanks Kuzzter - I'm glad you still found it entertaining. It is tough to make an interesting mission out of something that's boring for you in game, certainly. You seem to be adept at this. For example, the crew-gathering missions in your second interlude are routine for you I'm sure, but you make them enjoyable through witty dialogue and character interest, thanks in part to a creative story format that relies on these things. With the less interesting missions I'm inclined to put more effort into writing entertaining story text to compensate, but I don't want to create a wall of text that the reader will skip over. I'm trying to find a good balance there, but would love some feedback on the text/image balance from you and any other readers.

Hey there, welcome! KSP is an amazing game with a really supportive community. You'll fit in well here.

Thank you! I didn't study engineering in school but it has always been an interest of mine. I try to make my designs believable even though the Interplanetary Welcoming Express story is goofy. It's more fun for me as a player that way. And of course, the Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery is open for business! I hope you like ice cream. Mission Report: Personnel Management #5 Service Mission: Mun Base Alpha Moniker: MunServ 2 Objectives: Test crew ferry design elements, return long-duration base crew to Kerbin Vessel: Crew Service Bus Crew: Unmanned (5-Kerbal capacity for return) The simple task of ferrying crew to and from the Mun had been giving the SEAK staff anxiety since the failure of the original, child-designed Mun Service Bus. This anxiety reached an all-time high after the engineering team’s attempt at a nuclear lander suddenly became many small, burning pieces of a nuclear lander. The call was made to Bill out on Minmus and he painstakingly dictated a proper design over the phone. For now, SEAK just needed a craft capable of ferrying up to five Kerbals between Kerbin and its moons. In the future, the technology tested on the Crew Service Bus could be used in a more luxurious hotel shuttle. The first order of business was scrapping the painfully Hactar 1 AI core and never speaking to it again. Since the... enthusiastic personality of the first iteration caused it to crash into the Mun's surface, It's replacement, the Hactar 2, was designed not to have a personality. When the lander was fully assembled according to Bill's instructions, the engineers found a non-exploded Centaur rocket and modified it to carry the heavier payload. The primary objective of the MunServ 2 mission was to return Jebediah and Kenoly Kerman from their extended stay at Mun Base Alpha. The secondary objective was a bit more interesting. Two astronauts from a rival space program (Ribrey and Bilmund) had been on course to rendezvous in Munar orbit for a spot of tea. Embarrassingly, when they arrived at the Mun they discovered that they had were orbiting in opposite directions. Their own space program disowned them and made a public statement about not tolerating incompetence, etc. The SEAK admins, however, thought it was admirable that two kerbals would go to such lengths to meet for tea. The admins declared that Ribrey and Bilmund would be rescued and given the opportunity to join the Interplanetary Welcoming Express. They also made sure that they had stocked the Crew Service Bus with light refreshments and popular magazines so that the new astronaut's first impression of SEAK would be a good one. The Crew Service Bus had been equipped with flashing orange lights to help the stranded kerbals locate it in the blackness of space. (Editor's note: New mod!) Ribrey spotted it right away as it approached and wasn't the least bit hesitant to climb aboard. He had spent the last half a day shouting insults at Bilmund when he passed by. It had taken a long time to complete a meaningful insult since Bilmund passed him at over 600 m/s and he could only get a single word in each time. After picking up Ribrey, Hactar 2 guided the Crew Service Bus down to the surface. It was a clinical landing with absolutely no personality by design. The Hactar 1 module from the original Mun Service Bus scoffed at the lack of pizzazz, but was envious of how close Hactar 2 got to be to the pretty solar panel AI he had been trying to woo this whole time. Jeb and Kenoly said farewell to their Mun rock pets and climbed aboard. Tanwig, who had been chosen to stay behind and continue doing science, was sullen. Katmie the self-named Mun Queen, who the SEAK psychologists thought had a "seriously weird" relationship with the Mun, stayed behind happily. Hactar 2 took the Crew Service Bus back up the way it came and into a retrograde orbit to rescue Bilmund. Bilmund, who had passed the time stranded in orbit by making several expensive bets that he would be rescued before Ribrey, was none-too-pleased to see his colleague aboard. He spent the rest of the ride home making phone calls to explain that, yes, he had the money, but couldn't everyone just be happy that he was rescued for a minute and forget about the bet? #6 Service Mission: Minmus Science Lab Moniker: MinServ 1 Objectives: Test crew ferry design elements, return long-duration base crew to Kerbin Vessel: Crew Service Bus Crew: Unmanned (5-Kerbal capacity for return) The MunServ 2 mission was so successful that the admins were quick to request a similar mission to Minmus in order to retrieve Bill (who was clearly needed at home) and dynamic science duo Megcie and Karsy. The Crew Service Bus was refitted and relaunched. The mission went off without a hitch. Hactar 2 performed another purposefully dry and uninteresting landing, Wilfel and Caldorf bade Megcie and Karsy farefwell, and Bill sat comfortably in the command pod of the Crew Service Bus as it didn't break in any way. Now, with five valuable crew members returned from their posts, and two new additions to the Interplanetary Welcoming Express team, the SEAK admins could start planning their next interplanetary mission in earnest. Thanks for reading! These missions weren't the most exciting, but don't worry - coming up next: the DunEx There and Back Again arrives at the red planet!

My first minmus rocket looked very similar to that! It's one of my favorite places in the game.

I totally agree with this, coming up with a story and sharing your progress with others makes even small accomplishments much more enjoyable. Even failures can add to the story! As for image hosting, I use imgur. It's not the easiest solution ever but this forum allows you to embed imgur albums which might be a good way to post images depending on the format you are going for.

Yes you should! In my opinion the more people share their achievements the better. New to KSP or old, the mission reports are a great way to see what the other space programs are up to. You are getting views even if there are no replies

Thanks, I appreciate your readership! I seem to have trouble designing nerv-powered landers, but I always try. It had four fuel tanks arranged radially around a central nuke to keep it compact, and I think the source of the problem was with the girders that I had mildly clipped between the tanks for a landing gear attachment point. It suffered the classic and hilarious violent jiggly death when it loaded into physics. It wouldn't have even made it into the report except I couldn't pass up an explosion!

Hey everyone, this is a short mission update on the DunEx crew as they near Duna. I'll be pretty busy IRL this weekend but I hope to have enough play time to crank out the next MunServ mission and begin prep work for a larger set of interplanetary missions next week. Thanks for reading! Mission Update: DunEx There and Back Again and MunServ Failure #2 The crew of the DunEx There and Back Again had been confined together in what amounted to a hastily assembled camper van in space for the past 275 days. Finally, they were coming down the home stretch. Duna encounter would happen on day 301, and if all went well they would hit the atmosphere for aerobraking and NOT explode on day 303. Valentina and Eilla got along fine together. Valentina, Eilla, and Neilberry did not. The trio couldn’t wait to set foot on Ike so that they could get more than a few meters away from one another. Since that wasn’t an option aboard the There and Back Again, each crew member had devised their own way of passing the time. Eilla enjoyed reading through the ship’s collection of romance novels at marathon pace. Valentina enjoyed beating Neilberry repeatedly at zero-g ping-pong. Neilberry (who thought the whole trip was just a blast and didn’t know what the other two were all annoyed about) ate sandwiches and told jokes which he just knew were professional comedian material. Day 275 marked the final correction maneuver that would take their periapsis down into Duna’s upper atmosphere (actually it was planned for day 278 but Val was impatient). It was a short burn at minimum thrust, but enough to force Eilla and Neilberry to sit together for a few seconds. After the correction burn Val and Eilla suited up for a tandem EVA to check up on the There and Back Again's systems before Duna arrival. They checked the two SEAKmap Alpha satellites and the Calvin and Hobbes landers, then they just floated for a while enjoying the rare and wonderful silence, totally devoid of Neilberry's humor. Soon they would be able to complete their mission and enter into celebrity in the eyes of the SEAK staff. Just 26 days to go, with plenty of sandwiches to go around. Meanwhile back at KSC plans were already underway for missions to each of the other bodies in the Kerbol system. Before the next launch could happen however, SEAK needed to do some personnel management and bring in some contract funds. The first Mun Service Bus attempt had left the long term Mun Base Alpha crew stranded for an even longer term stay. It was high time to bring them back. With Bill absent on Minmus, the rest of the engineering team puffed up their chests and asserted that they could do just as good a job without him. They proudly proposed a nuclear powered lander, built it in record time, and strapped to the top of a modified Centaur rocket. Not ten minutes after they had finished telling all of their friends how perfect the design was, it spontaneously combusted on the launch pad. Fortunately no Kerbals were aboard at the time of the blast, but it did leave a black mark on the egos of the engineering team, and the destruction of the modified Centaur left a red mark in the accountants' ledgers. Everyone sheepishly agreed that maybe they had better call Bill after all.

I love the look of those decorative fins! Looking forward to seeing this one unfold - good luck with the challenge.

Hi Dh397 welcome to the game and to the community! Hang around and check out what these awesome people have created.

Great looking design! What kind of payload can she get to LKO? Repped!

Fun thread. Almost every time I design a lander for a land/return mission I forget some component necessary for it to return to Kerbin. For the first five or six Mun/Minmus missions in my career mode, what should have been an easy atmospheric reentry to Kerbin turned into an annoying rendezvous and rescue because I, A) didn't have parachutes, didn't have a decoupler, C) both A and B. I get so focused on designing a craft for my destination that I completely forget about landing on Kerbin again!

Clauselle!! Une belle Kerbal française - c'est bien! J'aime qu'elle a rejoint l'équipe. Elle sera divertissant , je suis sûr. Also, the je ne sais quoi joke got me

That's definitely a long time! Well welcome to the community proper. I was in the same place as you - long time player, long time lurker, only recently finally got around to participating in the community.

Welcome to the forums, UnknownOrbit. Enjoy the community! I've had many rockets point the wrong way up and cause me not to go to space today. The new atmosphere is an adjustment if you're used to the old one, but I'm sure you'll have a grasp of it in no time.

Snarfster, thanks for making my thread one of your many subscriptions! I'm glad you are enjoying it so far. Mission Report: The Interplanetary Welcoming Express Opens Their First Hotel! #4 Habitation Mission: Minmus Moniker: MinHab 1 Objectives: Open first hotel in the Interplanetary Welcoming Express chain, transport new science team to Minmus Science Lab Vessel: Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery Crew: 3 - Bill (Engineer), Wilfel (Scientist), Caldorf (Scientist) The admins had spent the past three days in an ongoing lunch meeting with a carefully assembled team of elite interior designers. At present, they were agonizing over which bed linen color would best communicate an atmosphere of comfortable opulence to future alien conquerors. The reason for this three-day lunch meeting (other than the fact that it could be expensed) was to ensure that the Interplanetary Welcoming Express’s first hotel on another world would be as wonderful and luxurious as everyone had dreamed. One of the web developers had accidentally launched the reservations website early, and as a result SEAK had been flooded with reservation requests for the Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery which didn’t yet exist. The admins didn’t want to lose out on this revenue, so they determined that the Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery should exist as soon as possible. They also determined that the name was stupid, argued over who’s idea it was, and said that they would change it after lunch, which so far showed no signs of ending. So Bill’s engineering team was swamped with yet another last-minute project – designing habitation facilities for the Majestic Minmus Inn and Suites or whatever it was going to be called. Bill didn’t like hotels, but he agreed to the project because it presented a challenge. The new habitation module would need to connect to the existing Minmus Science Lab, mostly because the admins wanted to save money by mooching electricity and central air circulation off of the other facility. This meant it would need to mate up to the old docking ports on the lab, and it would need to have a small enough utility footprint that the lab’s existing systems could support it. It also would need to be small and narrow enough to launch on the Newton V1 because there just wasn’t enough money sitting around to design yet another launch vehicle. The attempts made by the interior designers to communicate their vision of grand, beautiful opulence to a team of rocket engineers were about as effective as the earnest attempts of an American goldfinch to ask a blue whale out on a date. That is to say, not at all. It’s hard to describe how exactly they managed to put a final design down on paper, but when they did it looked like this: (Editor's note: Imagining these kinds of parts as hotel rooms on the inside takes a little lateral thinking. Some may look more hotel-ish than others, but a certain amount will be left up to the imagination.) Given the inflexible size constraints, the interior designers were forced to see efficiency as beauty. Inside each of the Mk2 crew sections is a private, two-kerbal suite packed with the most extravagant bed linens selected during the SEAK admins’ extended lunch meeting. Each suite connects to a living area with a full kitchen, bath, and top-of-the-line personal ice cream maker. To economize their launches, SEAK had decided to send the replacement science team for Minmus Science Lab along with the new hotel section. Wilfel and Caldorf (two rookies) were selected for the assignment. There were some concerns about the mating of the two sections once on Minmus. Since the science lab didn’t have a resident engineer at the time, Bill Kerman volunteered to ride along and provide support for the unwieldy chunk of metal his team had createad. When launch day rolled around, the Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery (nobody got around to changing the name) was carted out to the launch pad atop a fueled and primed Newton V1. All fragile decorations had been secured for launch and the three-kerbal crew were strapped into harnesses in one of the living rooms. Despite having three living crew members on board, the entire mission would be controlled remotely. The Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery was equipped with a descent system similar to the design that had originally landed Minmus Science Lab back before the Interplanetary Welcome Express was envisioned. It would touch down vertically on the main engine, then pitch forward and use RCS jets to fall gently into its final horizontal position. The landing was conducted at night, which as we know can be problematic for the Hactar 1 AI system. Fortunately the programmers sorted out that issue and the landing went over as well as anybody could reasonably expect. What the programmers did not sort out was the constant stream of questions along the lines of, "The AI controlling those solar panels, do you think she is single? I bet she has a bunch of AIs chasing after her, what do you think? Do you think I have a chance? No seriously, you think I do? Do you think she saw that landing? Was she impressed?" it went on for quite some time. Once on the ground, Bill had to spend quite a bit of time swearing at the Hactar 1 as it attempted to position the base for docking. It turns out that due to some oversights nobody was willing to accept responsibility for, the RCS jets used for the docking procedure weren't quite strong enough to lift the heavy descent system off the ground. This meant that there was a very tense moment in which the Hactar 1 fired the main engine to lift the whole thing off the ground rather more suddenly than anyone was comfortable with. Bill imagined this is what it would feel like to be agonizing over which wire to cut to disarm a bomb, only to have a hilariously incompetent and juvenile computer jump in a select for you. Luckily, nothing exploded, and the Magical Minmus Resort and Creamery was finally ready to dock! With the two sections connected together and power flowing into the luxury hotel suites from Minmus Science Lab's main system, the order came through from SEAK mission control that everyone should spend a few days enjoying themselves in their new home. "But, please," they added, cutting Karsy and Megcie off mid-cheer, "don't break anything because the first guests arrive next week. The long term goal is providing nice, welcoming hotel rooms for visiting aliens, but the short term goal is sweet, cold profit. So keep things looking nice!" Karsy had already stopped listening and was extending the TV receiver dish. Bill, on the other hand, was taking a moment to look out over Minmus's flats and think. As the sun set on the base, dynamic science duo Megcie and Karsy were showing Wilfel and Caldorf around their new science lab, but mostly around the arts and crafts station that they had constructed to pass the time. Bill was still looking out over Minmus and thinking about the future of SEAK and the Interplanetary Welcome Express. Bill soon found his train of thought tiring and returned to thoughts about riding giant columns of explosions up into the sky. "Rockets RULE," he thought. He liked this thought, and went inside to share it with the rest of the crew. Thanks for reading! I tried a larger image format this time in hopes that it will use the space on the forums a little better. Stay tuned! In coming reports we'll be hearing from the crew of the DunEx There and Back Again as they approach Duna. We'll also be doing a couple rescues and swapping some crew on the Mun to get ready for SEAK's next interplanetary mission!