GarrisonChisholm

Classified Briefing... Linus straightened his glasses and queued the first slide. "The Shaman Stones are part of our earliest recorded history on Kerbin, and likely reflect more ancient memories from the end of the Neolithic Intermediate. The Holy Texts of Jool record how, under the leadership of the Shaman priestly caste, Kerbin's first communities were established with a Shaman Stone at their center. It had been long supposed that the Shamans created these stones themselves, though modern scholarship has brought that into question." "Each stone is identical to the last measurement, no matter where they are found on Kerbin, implying a world wide communication or dissemination of information which is difficult to justify circa 12,000 BCE. Additionally, the shattered and fused basalt they are composed of would require blast furnaces far beyond the technology available, and recent early-century supposition that they were cast from molten flows is now clearly an untenable idea. Until now, the Stones have been an unexplained curiosity of our past." "It is not possible to carbon date the stones themselves as they seem to have zero natural elements which would experience decay, however it is possible to exhume some strata from beneath their foundations and date that. Dr. Annette Kerman recently published a paper stating that the monoliths were put in place nearly 19,000 years ago, however her publication was done without peer review as none in the academic community would vouch for her process and conclusions. Were I able to, I would now most certainly do so." "Given the enormity of the implications of the discovery on Mun, steps were immediately taken to gather more data. With an MSL/P craft in storage, it was immediately rolled out and Bob was sent to conduct a direct survey." "Unfortunately after making orbit it was determined that there was simply not enough fuel reserve in this design to justify a landing attempt given the extra Dv required for a targeted landing. However this was considered before launch, and we incorporated a 'Plan B' into the mission. Taking a very low-orbit pass, the ships's landing radar was used to record sub-millimeter returns which have been measured against the very same scan of the KSC monolith before breaking orbit, and I can now announce that the data - with its order of magnitude greater detail - is functionally identical. Obviously an in-situ examination is still our screaming priority, but for the sake of argument I am prepared to conclude that the Stones on Kerbin are identical to the Mun monolith. Bob, of course, successfully returned 2 days ago." "Now, the MASC probe, immediately after collecting its first imaging, recorded a broad spectrum phenomenon." "All of its recording devices logged just under 3 seconds of static, which was also logged by various satellites in distant Kerbin orbits. Triangulation allows us to deduce that some type of energy signal far more than could be confined by a simple definition was directed at Duna." Linus allowed the muffled exclamations in the hall to subside. "I will say that this is not without historical reference. One ancient text referred to the stones as the Screaming Stones, though no-one has understood why, and just 15 years ago when Sir Hillary Kerman made his historic climb he documented that upon approaching the monolith he discovered there all of their compasses briefly spun in wild career. The stones, despite being inert rock to the deepest attempt at our understanding, appear to in actuality be devices." Gasps were heard throughout. "So, in conclusion, it appears that just after the Neolithic Intermediate impact a power beyond our knowledge placed multiple monoliths on Kerbin and apparently Mun, and perhaps elsewhere as well. It is clear that 3 steps are called for with the highest urgency." "One, the Mun monolith must be examined by scientific minds and its foundation soil excavated and returned to Kerbin for confirmation of its placement era. A new Munar Solo Lander of enhanced capability already ordered into construction by Gene should be able to execute this task." "Two, Kerbin itself should be immediately mapped by our same Eve Scanning Radar which was used on Mun and searched for undiscovered monoliths, however unlikely. A satellite should be designed and launched for this purpose." "Three, it must be learned why a signal was sent in the direction of, with very tight tolerances, Duna. The Duna Probe already under construction will be able to address this point." "And lastly there is a fourth matter which must be discussed and decided upon so uniform decisions and expectations are in place. Should this discovery on the Mun be allowed to be publicized to the world at large? This question will be addressed by the PCA Group later today."

In just over 40 days a DIL was bootstrapped to a new booster designed using the 4 available Fullsail engines that had been pulled out of Kopec II. Aside from a slight fairing detach difficulty, all proceeded as expected until the landing was attempted. The probe landed successfully, but it far overshot its intended destination as it was found that the descent motor was too feeble to swiftly arrest orbital velocity. Chagrined, Mission Control had to be satisfied with bringing it safely down almost 100km from the anomaly they had targeted. The reference mission was a 'success', as they had gained a valuable insight into their probe's characteristics prior to the Duna flight, but the anomaly still avoided explanation. So a new purpose built probe was assembled with a nearly 4-1 TWR and at 3 times the cost, but at least it was certain to get the job done. The Munar Anomaly Survey Craft marked the first use both of the Twin Boar booster and a full-scale Skipper 2nd-stage, and was assembled in just under 60 days. Its trip to LKO and Munar Insertion were delightfully trouble free. Using the Duna-Ike Lander reference as a landing beacon, MASC approached its landing zone. "1600 meters Flight." "Recon, are we getting any radar returns?" "Nothing definitive Flight, we'll be able to assess more fully after landing." Gene soured at the inefficiency, but a short 'hop' had been budgeted in the fuel allowance. There was just too much going on too quickly for his team to pinpoint the exact spot during descent. The altitude ticked down, and the probe's powerful motors swiftly brought its velocity to zero at the surface. "Touch-down Flight." "Copy. Run the experiment package before we lift off again just in case of a mishap. Recon, any news?" "Stand by Flight..." Linus leaned over the technician's shoulder, too impatient to not be present for this moment, watching the fuzzy crater get scanned by the BTDT radar. "Got it Flight, about 4km to the South East, returns echoing from the greater rim. There are craters within craters here, so no line of sight possible yet." "Alright. Aaron plot a short burn to move us there, plan for about 10 minutes from now how about." "Copy Flight." The probe's computer was programmed with the new calculated info for the short flight. With nearly empty tanks the thrust-to-weight was above 4 now, so it leapt deftly skyward in a short arc and followed Aaron's plotted descent. "...and...contact Flight. We're down at Majesty Site." "Imaging?" "Waiting for the dust to clear Flight..." The probe's high-resolution camera and floodlight pierced the settling dust, and at last on their screens they had the image they had sought. Gene discovered what gobbsmacked felt like. "...what the hell..." *somewhere in the building Also Sprach Zarathustra started playing...*

CRAP 10, the meeting... Gene stared at Mort, nearly zero expression at all on his face as he tried to process what had just been said. "The Air Force denies that any of these 'hits' are their responsibility? But, they are right-angle returns, they can't be anything 'organic' to Mun!" Linus cleared his throat and spoke. "They could be some kind of crystalline growth Gene, maybe from as a result of Mun's impact history. That could explain the radar returns and as well their-" Gene cut him off. "You're telling me as a scientist that it is rational to suppose that crystals could grow to multiple-meter size in the exposed vacuum of Mun?" "Now, now everyone.." Mort chimed in. "Lets not jump onto any conclusions. Linus could be wrong, but we don't have any evidence to back up that he's not right. For all we know, it could be some of our spacecraft debris which were lucky enough to maintain their shape when they crash landed on the Mun. Linus, whats the chemical composition of those irregularities? Do we have data on that?" Linus shook his head. "No, all that seems apparent is that the high reflectivity suggests clean planes and- as Gene already noted - right angles. Our highest resolution camera passes still have difficulty with sub 5-meter resolution, so we simply need to get closer." Gene strummed his fingers with briefly accelerating tempo. "So the Air Force couldn't offer us any additional data, and they're encouraging us to investigate further?" "As much as I would like to call KowMulch on the Air Force's claims of innocence, I don't think Joffren would mess with me. Not after my meeting in the office." Mort put his legs on the table, much to Werhner's irritation. "So let's see, the anomalies are reflective, that would mean it's metal or glass. Metal in its native state is rare in space. The only option left is glass, which might form when regolith is heated to very high temperature. But Nature has always been bad at right angles, you know." Linus looked at Gene, "Woah, woah hold the heck up right there! Is he saying that someone made those? Nope, not buying it!" Mort spoke before Gene could. "Its only a hypothesis. Say, we have those Ike landers ready, right?" There was a terrible smile on his face when he said that. Gene glanced from Linus to Mort, trying to be alarmed about two things at once. "- ...yes, the Ike landers have been finished and mated to the Duna Bus. We could, and rather cheaply, build a 5th and send it to the Mun. ...that *would* provide us a reference mission to test the lander, and it also would seem to be the easiest way to find out just what these things are." Here he looked to Mort pointedly. "And it would also, I hope, open up the funding gates for future Mun missions. We're doing our Job One here; Explore, Investigate, Discover. ...Let's hope it is something worth discovering." With a full slate of transfer windows up-coming, and a pair of Minmus science missions to build it was going to be a full year already- but now everything was stepped to second priority, as all the Kerbals 'in the know' waited expectantly for the upcoming probe investigation.

They are modified a bit of course, I avoided part clipping for one, but they are definitely the product of your labs!

Year 10, day 400; CRAP 10 "Good morning!", announced a beaming Gene. "Today we have a lot to talk about, in what has been perhaps our most successful year of Program activities." "To start with, Deep Regional Relay 2 set off on its 10 year traverse to its 183 million kilometer orbit, joining DRR 1 and about 180 degrees opposite to its orientation." "Next we had a simple part test, though not exactly uninvolved, as we put a prototype Linear Aerospike engine on an escape trajectory out of Mun at the engineer's request. The probe body has no other useful utility, and at test conclusion it traveled out of transmission range onto a solar orbit." "This was our first use of our largest solid rocket booster, and it provided significant lift at minimal cost." "Next, having gotten the Linear Areospike in the shop, the space plane side was eager to test in on Kopec, as it promised an improvement of almost 1000 additional Dv." "Unfortunately the thrust-to-weight trade off was more extreme in practice than in theory, and the flight was aborted while fuel remained to land back at the runway. The 2nd Jool Ion Probe, JIP2, would instead to be mounted on an LB series lifter and launched to orbit traditionally." "The next item on our itinerary was Eris 3 arriving at Eve, having launched shortly after Eris 2's unfortunate failure." "A bit of orbital maneuvering was required, but ultimately we were able to get the orbit we desired, and were afterwards able to reduce Eris 3 to a serviceable 150 x 300 mapping orbit." "Next we had a night launch of DRR 3, which will remain in Kerbin orbit for about 200 days until the alignment is satisfactory for its departure." "Following this launch we had the 2nd and successful attempt to get JIP 2 into orbit." "The Jool departure window is coming up in about 6 months." "We then flew 8 more TOURISTs to Minmus orbit in the second flight of Lustre." "The flight was incredibly smooth, and recovery a breeze. This capsule is extremely stable." "The VAB has also completed construction of the Duna probe!" "The 4 sub-probes and 2 relay satellites were mated to the bus, and everything is on track to meet our launch window towards the end of next year. The VAB itself was expanded so-as to accommodate construction, but we have ended the year with a net increase in Funds, up to just over a million." "Lastly we launched DRR 4, which is also waiting for its departure burn. Our full solar system exploration is on track to make the next several years the most momentous yet." Gene motioned for Linus to step up for the science Q&A. While Linus spoke, Gene opened his black folder to regard the very interesting imagery they would be confronting the Air Force with shortly...

Still over a year, I am having a save-load issue or it would have been less than that after today. I suspect however when I reach my next pause that it will still be at least 6 months. I'll have a couple more launches to update before I build the Duna probe.

"...Launch." Eris 2 slowly left the pad. Gene stood by his console taking the measure of the room. The next 10 minutes would be a fairly delicate ballet, but he had rehearsed how to handle it. The rocket proceeded through its staging, and the mission control staff flawlessly called out the steps all the way to orbit. The orbital injection burn was plotted, and everything looked fine. "We are go for injection Flight." "Copy." "3...2...1...burn." Gene glanced over at the row of techs, then looked down as he picked up his coffee. "Pyro." "Standing by Fli- whoa!!!" "Status Pyro? Everyone, status." "Flight when I armed the fairing bolts they fired, the jet key was not depressed!" "Propulsion, velocity is no longer changing." "Copy Flight, it seems the engine is offline, we are showing multiple ruptured feedlines." Gene took a deep breath and exhaled. "Did we lose the probe?" "Negative Flight, probe is responding, but we have lost the mission for sure. The 2 remaining stages *might* get the probe to Eve but no way can we meet the orbit requirements, or even make orbit without an aerobrake." "...ok people, let's get it to a stable orbit and take stock of things." Over the next several minutes the Orbital Dynamic Change engine brought the probe into orbit, and its various instruments were one by one brought online and checked, including the powerful scanner that had been designed to see through Eve's dense clouds. "So in summary, we have a functional probe, but no way to complete its mission." Gene looked over at Airkerb Leonard where he stood by the door and just shook his head as if to say 'can you believe this luck?'. Leonard allowed a brief tiny smirk in reply. Gene walked over to the coffee pot and picked it up. "Alright. Let's plan a grave-yard orbit for this thing. It will be the most expensive relay satellite around Kerbin-", where-upon he dropped the full newly-brewed pot and it shattered, casting glass shards and hot coffee across the floor. Everyone's head's jerked towards the sound. "Damn it. Leonard, would you unlock the utility closet and send someone in with a mop?" Airkerb Leonard was already fishing out his keys and left the control room to do as he was asked. "Alright gentlemen, focus. Please open your flight manuals to Appendix A and peel off the white laminated page. Aaron, analyze your course, we have 6 minutes." When Leonard and a custodian had returned, the probe was safely on its way to its new destination, a polar orbit around Mun. Gene smiled faintly. They would have their evidence in a few months...

This is why I still have faith in humanity.

Thanks! I hope it continues to be interesting.

But first, it was finally time for KOPeC to take to the skies... Valentina and Peggy complete their pre-flight, with a cargo of a Jool probe and 4 TOURISTs. First 6 powerful sounding rocket motors fire, breaking friction with the tarmac, the most inefficient moment for the craft's engines. Then the main engines fire, 4 Fullsail [1.25m Mainsail] and 2 down-rated Skippers. When the empty sounding boosters break open on the tarmac there is a conflagration as aluminum powder and unused propellant ignite in the engine plume. Lift-off comes swiftly, as the immense canard authority and engine gimbal rotate the craft. Ascent is brisk. The engines shut down at 50km when the desired apoapsis is reached. Unfortunately, the cargo is heavier than what was flown in the sims, and it seems they are a bit shy of orbital Dv. A quick propellant pump from the cargo probe solves the issue. The probe's ultimate trajectory will need to be re-evaluated later. Finally in orbit, the cargo bays open and the solar panels deploy. Peggy prepares the probe for deployment. KRANG!! It seems the decoupler was not set low enough- the probe catapults into the aft bolster and swiftly tumbles away, taking the vertical solar panels with it. A quick check shows that that was the only damage. The ship will only make one orbit, however the TOURISTs are able to quickly complete their experiments. Re-entry is entirely nominal. The craft is soon met by oceanic recovery teams- an almost entirely successful first flight of cargo to orbit!

Gene glared at the small white ball sitting in the sand as if it were a viper. The chirping birds and beautiful day around him was wholly lost on his awareness as he settled himself in for a second try at getting out of the bunker. "I just don't get it Mort... ...its not a private crusade, the people-" he swung, pinching his eyes shut against the spray of sand, "-...dag nabbit." A loud sigh escaped him. "Bet that's on the edge of the rough past the green...the people Want us to land on the moon! But the PCA won't green-light the darned flight." "What the heck...", he then lowered his voice as Mort cast him a slow glare while he was lining up his shot, "...is the hold-up." "I am pretty sure that the PCA has her reasons," responded Mort. "I am not sure what exactly. But I can say this for sure..." Mort then estimated the trajectory his ball would need to take. "-She is clearly the Air Force's puppet." "As to why I think so, here, have a look." Mort tossed his particularly heavy smartphone to Gene. "I took some photos of documents in the Archives, back when I raided the AirForce HQ." He shouted at his caddie who was at the hole, waiting for his instructions. "HEY, GENERIC SIDEKICK!!! TAKE OUT THE FLAGSTICK!" and readied his iron club ignoring the indignant shouts of 'I AM A CADDIE, NOT A SIDEKICK!!!' "They have this crazy plan, The Munex Initiative, to setup a military base on the freaking Mun!! They seem to have.....'noble' intentions behind this initiative." The ball touched down on the putting green, and bounced its way to the hole. It danced on the rim and then dropped in. "Hah! Birdie!" Mort took out his score-keeping notebook and updated it. "As I was saying, before I played that fantastic shot, they want to protect Kerbin from asteroids. Hence the Missile Base. And why it is on the Dark Side of the Mun is anyone's guess." Gene stared at the phone which looked like it could be dropped in acid and come out just fine, and completely forgot his upcoming chip from the rough to save par. Gene had never liked golf, but as part of "mending fences" with Mort he'd said "he would take him golfing sometime." 'Sometime' had turned into whenever Mort seemed to be having a bad day. "Wh.. well." His irritation though shifted from anger to consternation to bewilderment to cold calculation in the space of about 4 seconds. "...we know that popular support is very high for scientific exploration and discovery because otherwise the CA wouldn't have bowed to public wishes and allowed the Program to be set up. Popular support is also very against militarism after the attempted return of the old Imperial government in The War 30 years ago. If the people knew that the government was putting weapons in space, whatever the cause, the CA might see itself removed just as the old Emperor's line was 50 years ago-" Linus here chimed in, who was acting as Gene's caddie and constantly trying to recommend the best club to use but just as constantly getting ignored as Gene would pick his own. "The CA clearly believes that a defense against the type of asteroid impact that caused the Neolithic Intermediate is their first priority Gene, but anything in orbit or on the near side of Mun would be obvious to any astronomer. Because they are not satisfied with ground-based interceptors, that tells you they are not confident of any long range assessment, and they believe that time-to-target is the most important factor they see." "And that also tells you that they are planning on using very big bombs!" Linus added with a cheerful grin. Gene stared at Linus, then looked over to Mort. "How could they afford to build a Mun base? *We* need private corporations to even exist! Where would they get the cash? And we've sent 3 probes to Mun, why allow a probe flight but not a Kerb?" "Pfftt....Ha! Funding, you ask? We will get to that later..He he.." Mort burst into a fit of suppressed laughter at Gene's naivete. "And you are absolutely right, Linus. They are going to be huge bombs, the kind which will make Werhner's toys look like a sounding rocket. I want to ask this to you though." He walked over to Gene and Linus. "Have you ever held a weapon, Gene? When you have one in your hands, you feel strength and power exuding from it. It feels as if you can do anything, as long as the weapon stays by your side. In fact, the very first part of weapons training in the armed forces is to remove this emotion from the trainee's mindset." "Now, the officers at the Air Force are trained and professional. But what do you think might happen if an arrogant and corrupt CA official decide to point those bombs in the wrong direction? To Kerbin?" Mort sat down on the green even though the rest of the gang frowned at this. "The point is, power corrupts people. Any weaponry under purely government control, whatsoever it might be, will entice zealous elements in the CA to use it for their own purposes." "They are still developing their heavy Mk3 SSTOs. From the technical reports, they can each haul almost 36 tons to LKO. But those are crashing a lot, plagued with developmental errors. But the missiles are ready!" "About funding, I knew this fact from Day Zero, that the CA is only making us 'look' poor. I however, assumed it was done partially to attend to the primary needs of Kerbals here on the ground and also have a public-private partnership between KSC and other organizations. I did not pursue this irregularity back then. And now I discover that AirForce's Planetary Defense' budget is 18 times ours!!" "And from what I can deduce, they are juuust giving us enough hope to hang on to the Mun to keep us content. If they allow us to land kerbs on the Mun today, the public might want a scientific base on the Mun tomorrow. So the CA is just giving us an inch, while making sure that we don't take a yard. Its insulting, being treated like a kid, you know!?" "Now, the big question. What do we do, now that we know what's going on? Let them build those missile base, and allow some Posterior-Orifice CA official misuse it? Or maybe throw a spanner or two in their works?" Gene looked at the sky and then back to the ground again, and slowly walked over to where his ball lay buried in the rough about 30 yards from the hole. "...if the CA is instructing the Airforce to get to the moon, they have to be stopped. The most likely scenario is they eventually succeed, and then they eventually get discovered, and for violating the Peaceful Space Act we'll either have a government tossed out on its ear or martial law. Both of these would At Best disrupt our work. And that's saying nothing about the dangers that would accompany that mess." Gene considered his stroke, noting he wouldn't be able to do anything until Mort stood up. "If they are planning a base on the moon..., and they don't want astronauts orbiting that might ask questions, they may have at least landed a probe or two of their own already even if their heavy craft isn't flying yet. So, ... if we could obtain some imagery of those probes, or whatever work has been able to be begun there, and we confronted them with it-" He looked at Mort. "They would either have to back down, or silence the whole Flight Office, wouldn't you say?" "They will find silencing the office quite difficult, in my experience, whether they do it conventionally or....unconventionally. Once we confront them, it won't be long till they give in. We will be playing a dangerous game there Gene." Mort grinned like it was Kristmas. "Well." Gene smiled, and lining up his shot dropped the ball about 5 yards from the hole. "Then I think I've got a way to get that imagery." Gene enjoyed the entire round after that, despite being trounced by nearly 20 strokes. Yes, the plan that had formed in his head was delicious.

Program Memorandum The sub-probes for the Duna flight have been selected! While Kan Diego State's submission was a quite robust probe in its own right, as it duplicated many of the capabilities of the core Bus itself it has been decided that WWYT Innovator's SSR will be the relay sat that is sent on this mission. There-fore the VAB's lander concept will be used for the attempted Ike and Duna landings, with 4 of them being flown. Kan Diego State's probe will be looked at however for deployment from KOPeC, our newly named re-usable space plane. Thank you to everyone for your consideration!

Ha! I like it, and it *certainly* has the antenna part-count to weather many, Many years of Kerbalism part failures.

Kerbin Space Campus Program Proposal Memorandum UPDATE: Request for Type; Ike Lander Duna Lander Relay Satellite Program Constructor Affiliates The Duna launch window has been selected, and is now a little over 1 year off. The deadline for submissions for this mission will be 04/13/18 2400, and the VAB will field sub-components for any non-tendered components. The Finance Wing and multiple corporate scientific interests have given the green light for a full-up "Kadillac" mission to Duna. Above you see our prototype orbiter 'bus' set for early testing. The orbiter has 6 attachment rings for 6 different sub-probes, all of which will be presented for 3rd party design. Submitted designs will be evaluated at the next CRAP meeting and the winning proposal chosen. Amongst the factors which will be considered under evaluation are simplicity, cost, elegance, maximized science return, but most importantly low mass. Each probe should come in under 3,000 kg. Due to this limitation it is fully expected that the science packages will not be everything we would wish them to be. Below we have attached a 1 meter by 1 meter plate for reference. Your physical limitations are likely 1 meter by 2 meters, with the attachment portion being less than 1 meter in diameter and allowance for the posterior portion to be 1.5 meters or maybe even 2. 2 identical probes/sats of each type will be flown and mounted opposite one another for weight distribution. The plan is to enter Ike orbit, remain in orbit while the orbiter supports the landing attempts, then to break orbit and find a Duna orbit, slowly changing it to deploy the satellites appropriately and then finally the landers. The Orbiter will have an insertion stage helping it enter Ike orbit, and possibly leaving it as well. The winning proposal will either submit their designs for VAB assembly, or ship the probe whole to the Campus for vehicle integration. Please note, any errors discovered during assembly would reflect negatively upon further work with that construction house. If plans alone are provided, the Program will assume liability for any errors in planning as they should be found out during assembly. The Probe in its entirety will use the Liberty first and second stages as its lifter, so the mass restrictions are hard caps. Interested parties shall submit proposals by [04/13/18 2400, Central Standard Time]. Should no interested parties field proposals by this time, the Program will have the VAB put together their best attempt. Successful partnerships born of this agreement would carry forth the good will of the Program when future Private Industry opportunities develop. [Author's Note!] [This is the collaboration portion of this story! Fellow writers, you are invited to participate in this narrative! We ask that you present your proposal in character, assuming either a specific or corporate (or University in the case of a JPL-like relationship) voice to represent the entity you create. KSP is a Fun/Cool/Cute game, so sticking to the classic Kerbal memes is fine, however we do ask that excessively silly names and nomenclature be perhaps thought about before being submitted. The tone I have tried to set of one of intensity where humor comes from our poor protagonist butting his head against his reality. Feel free to PM me if you would like further guidance, however if you simply give your best shot at matching the tone of the tale so far you cannot stray too far from the mark. Any general questions may of course also be asked below, if it seems reasonable the answer would be useful to the readership as a whole. Also, the authors of course reserve the right to remove any submissions which are deemed to detract from the enterprise. Good luck!]

YEAR 10, Prime Day CRAP 9 Gene stepped to the lecturn beeming. "Well, its not everyday that we get to start a CRAP with a beautiful launch, eh?" "The Deep Regional Relay satellite is on its way to a cissarnus orbit at 183 million kilometers, and 10-years hence it will fire its engines to circularize its solar orbit." "It will be joined by 2 or 3 other DRRs depending upon budgetary constraints." "This deep space network will be in place to support our explorations of the outer planets, set to shortly begin with the Bhiku series of deep space probes." "The first launch will likely be to Sarnus, since it is expected that existing communications technology can support such a mission. Urlum and Neidon will also be visited by Bhiku 2 & 3, leaving Jool as the only outer giant un-visited. This will be amended however in just a few months, as our new Space Plane carries an ion probe to LKO on its maiden flight. The probe is under final assembly even as we speak, and should have ample fuel reserves to break into the Jool system and enjoy multiple fly-bys of its host of worlds." "However, we have plenty to catch up on from the year beyond what today heralds." "Two K-Tech landers were flown successfully to Mun, taking advantage of their generous fuel allowances." "Two different craters were selected to ensure a good sampling of the lunar surface." "And both probes deployed their seismic sensors correctly, leaving them in place behind on the surface." "The probes also sent back some exceptional images in addition to their trove of information about the lunar surface." "We also flew a pair of TOURIST missions, though the first was a simple orbital flown in an LBC." "The second was the flight of our newest, and likely last Kerbin orbital capsule, called Lustre." "The Liberty capsule is a capable craft, but we found it would only reliably support 3 kerbs for a flight as far as Minmus. The new capsule will support 8 kerbs for 80 days, and successfully brought its full complement back from our second crewed orbital of Minmus." "The entry path was over the bay in the heavily populated Oracle River flood plain, providing quite the show for astronauts and citizens alike." "The craft traveled on into the Genosis region, and as chance would have it settled near the monastic community at the Valley of the Ancients." "While fortunately landing in a temple courtyard, the landing anomaly will unfortunately require quite a bit of cleanup." "The rupture was only a battery pack and an empty fuel tank, and the toxins didn't spray more than 4 or 500 meters. All crew were recovered safely, and in addition to the TOURIST's experiments, the addition of a docking port had allowed the craft to complete a Minmus Orbital Station contract. A very profitable flight, for all involved. All in all, we have had a quite fine year." He paused, as a very eager Kerb in the front row of the press rose and cut him off before he could introduce Linus. "Gene, could you comment on the failure of the Program to carry out its most passionately stated mandate, to land a Kerbal on Mun? You did successfully fly an un-crewed crew-capable craft 2 years ago, yet there has been no follow-up or official conversation." Gene cleared his throat. "Yes. Well, our Civil Authority appointed Program Civil Authority has not yet seen fit to authorize a crewed mission to Mun or Minmus. Rest assured however that we are ready to go when they give us the green light. I-" "But Gene," he interrupted, "what could possibly be the hold up? Is it concerns for safety?" Gene smiled, but grimly. "I am sure the CA has good reasons for their directives, whatever they are. Who are we to judge?" Gene left the podium and sat down, ignoring further questions while Linus stepped up un-introduced. His eyes locked on an Airkerb standing at ease by the door beyond Mort's shoulder, and he steadily tried to bore a hole in him with his eyes.

Alrighty, thank you for the diagnosis. I have a stock install as well, I will confirm it there.

Well, but that's just the thing- the buttons under Settings seem to do nothing, neither modify nor eliminate CommNet.

Recently I tested a probe out to Neidon in Sandbox. It had 1 400bm antenna and 3 200bm antennas (I remembered something about multiple antennas helping a *little* bit). I learned a lot on how to make a bad probe, so it was worth the time (couple hours), but at around 420bm it went out of range. I checked occlusion, Kerbin was in LOS. Oh well, I figured, no relay is in range, but I'l just bump up the Antenna range by 10 in SETTINGS for the sake of completing my test. However this is where my test truly failed. I did everything. I raised Antennas to 100, I raised DSN to 100, I ran time forward several days, I re-loaded, re-booted and reloaded, even turned Off antenna range and that probe just would never open up a link again. I am running Kerbalism, but I checked and there are no part faults involved. This is rather disappointing, because I had planned to explore interstellar as well, just figuring at that time I would turn antenna ranges OFF. However it now appears this is not possible. O.O Am I missing something obvious? How do you change range settings, or successfully disable antenna ranges?...

Thank you for the answers everyone. I ave determined 'more is better' with a test, but now have a new issue I'll be asking about!

I have recently designed a deep space probe with at least some eye on economy, and noted that a 57% scale RTG produces .1 ec/s, but nudging it up to 58% produces .2 (figures from memory, so forgive a potential small error). Does anyone know if the ec charge production for RTGs is analog like that, or at 57% is it really producing ~.198 EC/s ? Additionally, I don't much care how long it takes to transmit back as it is a fly-by probe, but considering all it needs to power is a transmitting antenna for multiple (6?) instruments, would .2 EC/s be satisfactory?

You are in much the same boat as I, as far as progress and utilization, so I will eagerly watch this thread for a response.

I'm not sure a 'Like' is really the best term for the above. :\ I wish we had a "Read, sympathized, understand, love your stuff & best-wishes Amigo" button.

CRAP 8, the meeting. "Good afternoon all. As I covered in the press conference, we have had a couple of setbacks this year. However, Gus and I went over the math, and feel we came up with an infallible rationale to simply push forward, aggressively. This cost us significant funds, but by years end we'll be - we think - in a much better place for it." "This graphic displays almost the entirety of where our expenses were invested." "Needing to build the orbital rockets for the pending TOURIST contracts, building those vessels was of course a necessity. While we were debating how to proceed after the loss of K-Tech Too, we realized that those 3 rockets would together give us almost 300 science, thanks to the discoveries always made advancing technology during construction." "It then occurred to us that we were sitting on a great deal of funding that wasn't actively doing anything. However, if we commissioned the construction of most of the rockets we would need for the next 2 years, we would be turning that static funding into a working investment. So, approximately 900,000 are sitting in those 6 rockets under construction and 4 rockets in storage." "And, a further 1,000,000 is vested in this;" "- or, more specifically, almost 900,000 has gone to the runway expansion to support the vessel, our first fully functional space plane transport. It will carry 6 crew and a medium sized satellite or upper stage equipped probe." "So, yes, we are depleted significantly in cash, however - there would have been no way to expand the runway without half of the expense, and the rest of the expense should result in some significant science discoveries begun by years end." "Lastly... The senseless words faded into the background, as Mort closed his eyes and thought back at the disastrous year. Soon he could not hear them, the mortals had stopped droning. He opened his eyes and found the room looking at him. "Hmm, my turn already, huh? First of all, Gene, you did such a tremendous job!" He started clapping, the sarcasm so thick you could cut it with a knife. "And Gus, did I hear it right? You, along with Gene invested a million funds into a runway? That's some excellent financing skill you have right there, gentlemen!" Mort was still clapping, twisting deep that metaphorical knife. "If I deduced it correctly, you could have attached a few SRBs & launch the spaceplane vertically, stage the SRBs and then recover them while the spaceplane does its thing. In the end, you just spent a million funds just to make sure that your SSTO could take off and land like a "proper" spaceplane. Fantastic!!!" "But Mort, you should know! We had to upgrade the runway sooner or later!" Gus tried to reason with Mort over his scathing applause. "But Gus! You too should know, why, there is a department dedicated to manage finances and advise you!" The clapping finally stopped. "There's a kerb named Mortimer Kerman, who is right now lost as to why he was not contacted while such a huge decision was being made! I watched when the runway was being upgraded. I watched as money exchanged hands. Do you know what I was thinking all that time? I was thinking if I should go back to my old job. Because you know what? People LISTENED to me then!!" He bellowed. "Believe me, I am so tempted! But it would make you fools sitting ducks to those vicious pieces of mulch at the CA." This would not have stung so much, if not for our other failures. The Minmus mission failure was completely avoidable, the Eve mission failure as well. "Wernher, I will need you to get your rear in gear. There will be a new quality assessment report on my desk within a week." "As for the contracts, of course, go ahead with all of them, even the Duna Station. I have no issues." Not that you would have cared to ask anyway if you didn't have to, he barely didn't add. Gene just stared dumbstruck as Mort got up and dumped his handouts in the trash as he left. He was right. There was no reason they couldn't have launched it vertically. It would have cost about 40,000, rather than nearly a million. He looked at Gus, who looked red with embarrassment. "No, ...no. This one's on me Gus. ...I was the one looking at a problem through a straw. The Air Force space program problem, not the 'how to run the best Space Program' problem." Gene stood. "Everyone, eh, go get back to work. ...I am going to go mend bridges with Mort. If we ...I can." Gene left through the Admin-wing door, and followed the distant footsteps of the 4 accountants down the hall. They had a lot to get done, and now it was up to Gene to make sure they were on the same page, even if that meant Gene was tearing out a few he had written himself. And more than ever he was convinced they wouldn't survive without Mort.

I hope all the followers of this thread happened to notice that Sorabh very kindly created 8 panels of his stylized art to support our ongoing story over in Mission Reports. Thank you @Sorabh! I hope your story here continues to evolve!

CRAP 8. "Good morning everyone. This is the 8th quasi-annual Corporate Ratification And Proposals conference, and I will get right to our updates on the year's activities, with some emphasis upon what we have been able to learn about our two note-worthy failures." "For starters, we have the ill-fated flight of our second K-Tech probe to Minmus." "We were especially excited about this launch, for we had expanded the capabilities of K-Tech's original design by mounting a pair of drop-off surface probes which would stay behind after the lander left, and we planned to visit two different biomes given the luxurious Dv budget present in the design. However, a minor problem in orbital dynamics lead to fatal trouble for the mission." "Due to a poor Minmus window at launch, despite our best efforts we could not program an intercept from launch. So a mid-course correction was built into the flight plan. Unfortunately, when it came time to perform the correction burn, it was discovered that our closest relay sat had orbited out of range of K-Tech Too's short-range antenna array, and the command to start the burn could not be given. With our closest approach to Minmus not coming in range of the network there, we could only watch as the probe sailed rudderless into solar orbit." "As it happened, the last automated broadcast from the probe's tether-cam showed that the final inter-stage decoupler had become oddly dislodged, so there is ultimately doubt as to whether the probe would have performed as expected anyway." "The expense was authorized for a mid-range antenna to be installed on future versions of the K-Tech probe to eliminate a recurrence of this problem, and a 3rd vehicle was ordered." "Moving on from this unfortunate episode, it was then only shortly later that an unmanned high-mach aircraft successfully flew to orbit and returned for the first time." "The U.S.C. Alpha was recovered successfully with no difficulties, however it was not decided to fly the craft crewed. There would be small value in taking only a single person to orbit at present, so the flight dynamics lessons learned were immediately applied to a larger airframe which could accomplish some real goals in LKO. That craft is currently under wind-tunnel testing and flight simulation, and we have high hopes of being able to reveal something truly significant by year's end." "Next we launched a Libra+ relay satellite to Eve, intended to support the Eris mission which left orbit a few days before." "Both craft were sent on their way successfully, with Libra arriving 1 day before Eris, which successfully shed its aeroshell in interplanetary space to satisfy a lucrative contract." "After these two craft were on their way, it was not too long before K-Tech Tree was sent to Minmus, which thankfully this time performed all of its tasks flawlessly." "One of the two probes did settle in a proper attitude, and when K-Tech Tree moved on to its new biome it stayed behind and is available to relay data." "Finally, we have Eris and Libra arriving at Eve. It was here that we had our second, and most costly failure of the year." "Eris, when starting its breaking maneuver, was intended to slot into the same plane as its target orbit and a similar periapse. Unfortunately, for reasons yet unknown, the engine did not shut down as planned, but instead burned out its entire propellant load, dropping its orbit from 8,000 km to 200. This was catastrophic for the mission, as the remaining propellant could not come close to attaining the desired orbit." "So, though we have begun an intensive survey of Eve with all the instruments at our disposal, we are unlikely to be able to fulfill the expected contract. The year was expensive for us, as we additionally began development of a new crew capsule and requisite lifter, but the Program is still in good shape and set to capitalize on what gains we have so-far made." "Oh- as a last addendum, the VAB has provided a multi-use probe for the future Duna/Ike mission, which I can illustrate here with a couple slides." "It carries 3 different science instruments above each landing leg, and is powered by an Ant engine. In the second frame a pair of 1m plates have been added for scale. It should manage a powered or chute-assisted landing on either world. The lander will compete with at least one submission from Kan-Diego State, who will be submitting their design sometime this year we believe, plus a second submission from K-Tech." "Now, Linus, why don't you come up here to discuss what we have learned about our purple sister world?" Gene stepped away and returned to his seat, knowing that Mort would not be delighted with the Program's budget, which had dipped from a healthy $2 million to little over $600,000. It was the price of doing business however, and he hoped that Mort would see the importance of how the funds had been expended.