DDE

1.2 is here. HYPE! Oh... That's what they meant by 1.2: Disclaimer: yea, not the 1.2 release, not mine: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267225554884229254/34DB9ED64B69DA783292372CC2F492859460A2F2/

The antenna looks oddly familiar. Ah, Marsnik-1, or whatever the poor chap's name ended up being. That reminds me of the first, failed Venera probe; there's a worthy story from February 4: Its fourth stage also failed, and Venera-1 had to be jury-rigged with a random airtight can. It also reentered somewhere over Siberia. But the landing payload - a bragging rights medal that said "1961 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" - was returned to Korolev and Chertok in Summer 1963. Korolev got it from head of Academy of Sciences chief Keldysh, Keldysh got it from the KGB, the KGB got it from the local cops, who were contacted by some kid who injured his leg while swimming in a Siberian river.

I wonder how many people can be convinced of that...

Weird, so Titan is actually orange, but Tekto in OPM looks like this photograph... Kraken attack?

Chapter 23: Affordable, Reliable, Hypersonic The ground crew hastily retreated from Val’s newest contraption. The Super Darter turned out quite a bit different from the original. It dropped the crew entirely, with the intake in place of the cockpit for the apparent added insult. The quad turboramjets compensated for the increased take-off weight, making it only slightly more sluggish than the original. Even with brank new ceramic brakes, it still could not be held in place as the engines roared to life. The reinforced articulated front canards, combined with the pulsed attitude control jet system and a vanadium steel spring for the front gear, had solved to problem of ungluing the aircraft from the runway. Val watched it pitch up and blast off like a rocket, the engines only building up more thrust as they pushed onward in the dense air. At around 15 km she finally shoved the control stick forward. It was time to maximize downrange velocity before payload release. The airspeed kept climbing rapidly; high and fast was where those engines truly excelled. The Darter became visible from the ground once again as the plasma sheath formed around it. And at the predicted 26 km mark, alarms went off and the engines choked up. “Alright, we’re there,” Terigh noted. “Start the procedure.” Up above, the payload bay doors swung open and the separation rockets carried away an old fuel tank filled with concrete blocks. “Flight computer is entering braking mode,” Terigh reported. The Darter spent the next few minutes bleeding off speed and descending back into usable atmosphere. Eventually, telemetry reported that the engines came back on, and the autopilot began a turnaround as the plane fell out of the sky. “Course 1-2-0… 1-5-0…” Terigh read off. “Whoa, that’s a 15 g turn!” Val exclaimed. “2-7-0, it’s thrusting up.” “Down at 10 km?” “Yep… I’m getting a temperature alarm already.” “Twelve hundred… fourteen hundred,” Val read before the screen blinked dead. “Loss of telemetry from Darter,” Terigh drily stated. Val descended from the flight tower. The alert sirens went off. The half-molten plane had picked up enough raw speed to reach them; it came in screaming like a meteor, and augered in north of the runway. But Val had learnt from Gene’s Orion program. The second Super Darter stood ready in the hangar, with the cargo bay extension the upcoming full-spectrum test required. And besides, recovering the air-breathing stage was only a secondary objective. ---------- “Tower, Darter 2 requesting permission for take-off.” Val was cooped up in a regular Vector ship, mounted inside the spinal cargo bay of the spaceplane. This at least placed her in position to fly the plane herself if necessary; she had at one point undergone training for flying an aircraft while in a backward-facing seat, and it wasn’t particularly enjoyable. “Darter 2, clear for launch, course 0-9-0.” “Tower, engine start.” She watched the autopilot do the rest, her hands on the two sticks. The plane blasted off after reaching barely 80 m/s. The revised ascent angle was restricted to 30°, allowing the Darter to tear through the sound barrier seconds after launch. At 10 km, that angle was reduced to 17°, and the final acceleration began, with a sustained acceleration of 4 g. Slowly the acceleration began to die off as the engines ran out of air. Eventually, the thrust died. A klaxon sounded as the payload bay doors swung open. And then the “waist rockets” fired, pulling the Vector and its stretched upper stage clear of the Darter. The grid fin stabilizers snapped open and the Terrier sparked to life, ready to shoulder its half of the Δv budget. The Darter remained on its ballistic trajectory, shutting the payload doors and deploying the drag fins. Its attitude jets then forced it into a nose-up attitude to bleed off even more speed. At 30 km it let go and prepared for engine refire. The excessive thrust was resolved by keeping the two inboard engines off for the rest of the flight. The Darter came back to the runway, fins extended, eleven minutes after launch. ---------- A klaxon sounded as the payload bay doors swung open, and then the “waist rockets” fired, pulling the Vector and its stretched upper stage clear of the Darter. The grid fin stabilizers snapped open and the Terrier sparked to life, ready to shoulder its half of the Δv budget. Val felt the craft jerk upward, and then heard the whine of Terrier’s turbopump. The upper stage began to push the ship up and ahead. The launch resulted in a long coast through the upper atmosphere, but it spared the clusters of SRBs. After circularization, Val had the docking system lock onto the TARDIS. The old rendezvous training target was about to be used one more time. The docking itself was a boring process; despite all that time, the instrumentation bus on top of the rocket was still fully functional and guided the Vector in. But instead of undocking, Val reoriented the stack and fired her ship’s engine. TARDIS was due for retirement, and she was to drag it out of orbit.

Yet another modded install guy with the same issue. It's a bit difficult to pin down because half the people don't expect them to track the sun/

Well, I managed to uncover the old 1.0.5 bug that, after some time of playing a save, causes Mk1 pod to suck up the heat from a heatshield connected to it. And it only affects the Mk1 pod. This really rained on my parade.

It's back, yep. A Mk 1 pod heats as badly as the heatshield, and proceeds to explode. As before, it fails to affect other 1.25 m assemblies and other heat shield sizes. Partial mod list: Edit: overwritten stock files with a clean install; no effect.

Chapter 22: But Radiation Should Scramble the Photographic Film! Eil and Ros spent the next day cooped up in the lander, while the team “back down” was busy putting Hornet 2 into a parking orbit. Finally, a week into their stay, Roszie descended down the ladder one more time, and kicked the power lines free of the lander. The Poodle refired, and the acceleration crushed the away team into their seats once again. Jenrick didn’t move an eyebrow as Eilphie floated into his ship and shut the hatch behind her. He maintained a demonstratively stoic and annoyed look. Back in the lander, Roszie flushed the atmosphere out and stepped overboard one more time. Instead of floating free, she forced the ladder to redeploy, and descended down, facing the engine bell. The two targets of her interest were there, at 1:30 and 7:30. The RTGs were mounted onto quick-release bayonet lock systems, and it too only a minute to dismount them. Jenrick still remained stone-faced as she entered the Hermes and clamped the blutonium cans to the hull racks. “Missed me that much, huh?” she finally said. Jenrick cracked up for a few seconds. “Dumping the Hornet,” he said, trying to force the wide grin off his face. “Amber Actual, engage engines one through three, stand by for trans-Kerbin injection.” ---------- “Gantry-Four-One to Pad Leader, peas are in the can, clearing level twelve, over,” one of the hardhats yelled into his radio, before turning to Yaroslav Kermanov, “Gotta go, sir, five minutes until launch, we’re about to retract the crew gantry.” ISP had several Hermes flight crews. Gold was Jeb & Co., cooped up in Athens-Vulkan; Munar missions were by now way below their station. Amber were being trained up to the same standard of versatility, slated for an Eve flyby. Alpha and Bravo were from the start assembled as station rotation crews; Silver was bogged down by his and Valentina’s terrestrial engagements. That left X-ray and Zulu, two rookie teams. Zulu required the addition of a flown engineer to keep them… stable; X-ray were bright, and Kirsen Kerman was Yaroslav’s very own personal choice for the upcoming mission – the next best thing to going up himself. ---------- “Commencing injection burn. Thrust to full,” Newgun Kerman announced quite needlessly, as it was impossible to miss the Poodle firing. “Pump pressure nominal,” echoed Billy-Bobler. Kirsen Kerman just clenched up in her seat. “Insertion confirmed. Computing intercept solution.” “Docking vector acquisition complete. Engaging autopilot.” Once the ship docked with the lander stack, Kirsen and Billy-Bobler split off to get on with the actual mission. As to the new landing zone, it was on the farside, and it was a real treat. Hornet 1 had been just a dress rehearsal of actual work. “Contact lights. Engine cut-out!” “Green across the board.” “Hornet 2, you have a Stay.” “Suits on!” Hornet 1’s LZ had had an acceptable margin of around 12 km; the current LZ was nudged in between a sizeable impact basin, and a canyon two dozen kilometres long. Needless to say, the surroundings were considerably more scenic. Billy-Bobler meanwhile got busy with a wrench. As with Hornet 1, the mission began with an overnight stay. And in the morning, they broke out the rover. It was going to be a fun day. The rover was well-fitted for the terrain, with sharp inclines of crater walls, and plenty of ejecta boulders to dodge around. 18 km one-way total, and a good kilometre upwards too. Eventually the canyon walls came into view. The bottom was nowhere near flat, and Billy had to drive carefully through the narrows until finally dismounting in what was the lowest-lying part of the gully. Kirsen’s head slowly scanned horizontally, constantly running the risk of breaking the limits of the neck joint. “Billions of years right in front of us…” “Yeah.” “This looks like a rift valley, which means we’ve got quite old igneous build-up under our feet as well as plenty of exposed samples in the wall.” “Uhm-hm.” “I’m going to fill the sample bags to the top!” “You’ve got two hours,” Bobler finally responded coherently. “…I’d give anything for my Walkkerb right now.” “Trust me, I’m an engineer! I think we'll put this thing right here. Trust me, I’m an engineer! What the krak did just happened here? Trust me, I'm an engineer! With epic skill and epic gear! Trust me, I’m an engineer! Oh dear, I think I’m outta here!” “What?” Kirsen gasped. “I built a lot of bridges; some of them even dance. My buildings are VERY secure – intruders have no chance!” Billy continued singing in a nasal voice, “You want to drive a broken car? I can help you in this! No wheel, no tire? No problem! Those parts I never miss…” “For the love of all holy, STOP!” ---------- Mission Control revised the return route after one too many crater wall scares. Which in retrospect was a bad idea, because Billy-Bobler got the chance to break Roszie’s speed record. ---------- The magnetic guidance system hummed loudly as ISP’s fancy new 15 m synchrotron produced x-rays for the spectrographer. The trio of planetologists watched the printers spit out the results. “Basalt… basalt…” Eilphie translated. “Weird one in sample 174, though …whoa,” Slava noted. “Oh dear,” Kirsen exhaled, “Look at the signal from hydrogen-oxygen groups.” “There’s a lot of trapped water in there. And not just the poles. And here I was, thinking Minmus was weird enough for a PhD.”

Hey, @Galileo, was it you who made the terrain scatters on the Mun tangible? I'd be asking for your contact details if I had rover insurance... but damn, that drive was fun.

@insert_name Assuming that its new grey version of the Mun isn't weirder... But it has textures for Duna and beyond! Does it have the redux for Minmus, I'm not seeing any screenshots and SVT does it really well. I'm also currently investigating what has caused terrain scatters to become tangible to rovers. Aaaanyway, you're about to see SVT's version of the Canyon biome. 18 km to go. I do think it looks nice.

Aaaand guess which branch of the Soviet-Russian armed forces celebrates its day today! Oh, look I've turned the abundance of Soyuz rockets on this thread up to 11. Some are, excessively.

Considering the UFP is Communist, this is a devious plot indeed.

* slaps forehead * And the new PTK is named Federaton/Federatsiya. ...I'm still miffed it's not Gagarin.

Better Isp because the energy is displaced in an honest-to-Marx explosion. This one's a kerolox model.

Have you noticed how this thread is about 60% the Soyuz, photographed from every imaginable angle?

I was under the impression that the V-2s briefly dipped into space themselves.

Pulsejets per se are non-starter since you still get all the trouble of an airbreather, although they are more easily used as an expendable airbreathing stage. Pulse detonation rockets are a whole 'nother matter.

Achtung! Achtung! The Mun is going to look somewhat different from here on. Feedback requested!

Least. Pretentious. Campaign name. Ever.

Chapter 21: Where There's a Wheel There's a Way It had been a while since a Mainsail was joined by six Reliants to form a seven-barrelled chorus of fury. Hornet 1 was being inserted into position by LOC controllers. “Alright, prepping for TMI in thirteen.” With the Hornet on a five-hour cruise, Mission Control faced a mission that was enjoyable to some but seemed solemn to others. “Establishing uplink with Deacon. Receiving pingback.” “Prepare to discharge battery banks into the primary flight computer,” Gene ordered, “On my mark. Two, one, mark.” “Confirmed. Aaaand bricked.” “Switch to Eagle 0 and kill its comms.” “Confirmed loss of signal.” “Alright, now, Odin.” “And Loki.” “…Whatever it is,” Bobak chuckled. “Reorient it to prograde before dropping comms, will you?” “Executing.” ---------- ---------- With the Hornet lander dropped into the standard low Mun orbit slot, the manned portion of the mission began. Amber Team was an interesting bunch. Jenrick the pilot never made it past LKO. Roszie made it to Mun orbit. Eilphie had seen Minmus and already walked on the Mun. “FIDO, requesting revision to TMI. It’s looking like I can turn the orbital injection into a rendezvous.” ‘I’. Jenrick paused after noticing it. He liked this ship more than any other. That was hardly surprising – the EX version of the Hermes had none of the cost-saving measures, and the Poodle motor gave it a kick. It wasn’t figure-skating in bathroom slippers – it could put out 1.5 g. The drift to Mun orbit was uneventful. About twenty-five hundred kilometres away from the Mun, Jenrick re-fired the Poodle, cutting minimum separation from 47 km to 4 km. Orbital rendezvous went without a hitch either, despite the high initial relative velocities involved. The Hermes slipped into position at Hornet’s docking port. The ports slammed together loudly. That was the new SOP, supposedly it solved some problems with thermal distortion; but it really was satisfying. “Alright, you two, get off my ship!” “Gee, easy there, we haven’t opened the hatch yet.” “They don’t pay me enough to clean the snack wrapper out of the toilet, Eil. Shoo, out.” “I’m going to miss you too!” Roszie grinned as she closed the hatch behind them. The insides of the Hornet were largely inherited from Sarnus. Hermes cast off a few minutes later. “Finally some peace and quiet!” Jenrick called out on the radio, quote-unquote accidentally. Hornet also inherited the “crash stage” approach, using up as much of remaining hydrolox as possible until being overridden and dropped at the 5 km mark. The Poodle was designed to land the much more massive Sarnus return vehicle, so it was very nearly excessive for landing the much lighter Hornet. Contact lights lit up, engine cut off, suits were donned, and the hatch was pried open. The scientist descended first. “Oh, look!” Ros was too busy trying not to fall off the ladder head-first to look what caused Eil to skip away. “Got a permanently shaded part of soil here!” “I’m very happy for you,” Ros grumbled, struggling to stick the flag into the compacted regolith. “I’m filling up my sample bag, this is a good find. Wasn’t exposed to sunlight for millions of years.” “Yeah, I mean, I’ve only set up the base here, never mind me…” “What?” “Hurry up, I need your help with the sensor boom.” ---------- “…So,” Angelos Kerman continued before the breathless auditorium of cadets, “What inflatable structures bring to the table is a lot of usable volume without actually having to transport a lot of rigid modules. We can replace the rover and surface experimental gear with twelve times’ the interior space of Hornet’s cabin, including a two-level science module. “So, how does that work? We’re trying to sell the same kit to polar explorers, so we’re using dedicated tension units filled with nitrogen gas, not just the atmospheric pressure. That’s how we, for example, have a central support column in the Panderosa. In case of the Doc, the entire exterior is one large balonette, doubling as dampeners, while in the optionally pressurized Chuckwagon we use a rigid geodesic dome. Either way, don’t mind the razor-sharp rocks, our fireproof aramid fabric takes a lot more than that to breech. “Oh, a question, good.” “So,” Val drawled as she lowered her hand, “Is the cowboy get-up necessary to operate your inflatable habitats?” Angelos furrowed his eyebrows. “Yes, it is!” the orbital-range radio transceiver on the front table barked “Go on!” ---------- The two kerbonauts spent a munar night cooped up in the lander, warmed by the RTGs. At dawn, they began the second EVA. Before retreating into the ship, Ros had unloaded the eight-wheeled electric buggy. There were some… peculiar instances of outgassing from its battery banks, so it spent the night safely away from the lander. At dawn, it was still almost completely charged, so the two mounted the vehicle. Eil set the gyrocompass heading, and gunned the throttle as the headlights came on. The drive lasted half an hour. Half an hour of Rosgrid’s uninterrupted screaming. “Ladies, what the heck are you doing down there?” Jenrick called out from the Hermes as it came round into line of sight. “Eil’s trying to achieve orbit! In a rover!” “How much?” “25 m/s,” Eilphie responded, unperturbed. “Try harder next time. Fifteen klicks done, five klicks left.” “Alright, alright, dropping speed to eight. Ros, stop complaining, start looking.” “At oh-thirty, three hundred meters, see it?” “Yeah.” Eil slowed down to a crawl before stopping next to the target. “Engine blast crater to the left, see it?” “Yeah, it bore through a good centimetre…” “…Messed up the footprints for around twenty meters.” “Flag is still up, though.” ----------

The Soviets hit a rail-hard limit with Proton's 4.1 m, too; but Vostochny has a 3.8 m limit. BTW, the Soviets also innovated the superchilled fuel and oxidizer SpaceX toys with. And yeah, at that size the BFR will have to be built at the launch pad or moved by water. At which point you run into N-1's issues head-first.

Nobody really wants to deal with major quantities of H2O2, though. Ignition's chapter on it is subtitled Always a bridesmaid.

(downloads part pack)

Looks like Manley already has something.