GarrisonChisholm

Gene stood at the open door of the vehicle assembly building, regarding the craft which would for the first time send Kerbal instruments beyond Kerbin's realm. The 30 meter rocket massing nearly 90 tons was built to cast into Kerbol's orbit SOAR, the Solar Observatory And Relay satellite. This mission would fulfill 2 valuable contracts and as well expand our knowledge of the solar system, with the added bonus of proving we could reach out successfully beyond Kerbin Orbit. Making economy of the boosters recovered from our Local Body Relay satellites, the main stage was built of 5 hex-clusters of LV-T3's, each with a center mounted LV-T4.5. 35 engines to set the craft on its way. The lift capacity was known to be barely sufficient after assembly, so 4 powerful sounding rocket motors were added to provide extra thrust until the fuel load had lightened. Unfortunately, shortly after booster burnout problems were immediately apparent. "Flight, motors 1 through 4 have burned out but are not disengaging." "What? That's never happened before, in any situation! Econ, do we have a short?" "Negative Flight, booster sep triggered, they appear to be physically fouled with the engine assemblies." "So that's extra mass and drag, with a booster that we knew needed help getting off the ground. What's our status?" "Craft had reached about 40 meters/sec and is now decelerating. Engines gimballing to maintain azimuth. So far trajectory is as programmed." Gene chewed an unlit cigar to ribbons as over the next minute the ship slowed to a bare 15 m/s before finally accelerating again. After nearly 2 minutes of flight the first stage finally burned out, managing a meager altitude of 3.8km and not even 100 m/sec. The staged booster glowed white hot, aluminum rain being found across the launch site. "Clear the viewing stands, that's not going to make the bay!!", as frenzied activity broke out in response to Gene's call, alarms blaring as the monitors showed the stage 2 motor igniting 4 km over their heads. Less than a minute later, the stage 3 motor fired with the altitude being only 17km high. "Jool-damnit we're not even at 20km and need to make orbit on a freaking Terrier! Range Safety stand by." "Gene we've got over 3000 dV available yet, we can at least make orbit so-long as we remain in controlled flight. We can do it." Gene chewed the remains of the cigar. "Safety, abort on my command. Navigation, its up to you. We will fry that thing before it starts to break up." Gene watched as over the next 2 1/2 minutes it was proven that the craft would be getting to space. Accomplishing its mission seemed laughably out of touch. ...unless. "We are coming up on orbital injection Flight." "Copy. Econ, take one of the main probe batteries offline- if we have a chance later on it won't do us any good if the probe is dead in the aero-shell." "Shouldn't we just deploy the Shell sir and use the solar arrays?" "Negative Econ. Until someone proves to me we can't do this we're doing it. ...it'll save me a long talk with Mort anyway..." And a few minutes later... "Stable orbit Flight, we made it." Relief and a few low-key cheers broke out around the room. "Very good. Navigation, check your plots with a Munar rendezvous, you have about 5 minutes to find something useful." "Copy that, Flight..." followed by backward glances. But is wasn't 2 minutes later that a young kerb popped up with a result. "Flight, a 854.3 m/s burn will get us a Munar encounter that will cast us into solar space. We can do it." Gene chewed. "What's our margin?" The young fellow replied without hesitation "1.7 m/s." Griff, the back-up Flight Director and next on duty scoffed. "You can't do that Gene! A burn like that with no margin? We don't have the tech to automate that, it'll have to be programmed manually! The tiniest error and we don't raise our periapsis out of the Mun and we make a new crater! We can't do that." Gene glanced askance at Griffon than back at the young kerb who'd figured the trajectory. "We can do it. Aaron, plot your course and prepare for the burn. Its all yours." "Copy Flight." Came his brisk reply. Griffon leaned over Gene's shoulder; "I hope you realize you're hanging yourself if this fails Gene." Gene didn't even blink. Well, the rest was history. Aaron Kerman's course was steered to a whisker's margin, and with the last .1 m/s in the probe's tanks the PE broke out from the moon. 2 weeks later the craft was fulfilling 2 contracts earning nearly F$ 400,000 as it crossed into interplanetary space. Gene was quite pleased with how the mission had gone, all things considered, and was thrilled he wouldn't have to announce a $F 100,000 failure in CRAP. He had ordered a round for everyone that night, and lifted a toast to Aaron Kerman, "Steely-eyed Missile Man."

Y4d214, Kerbin Space Campus Program Proposal Memorandum Request for Type Reference- The Scientific Committee on Advanced Navigation has submitted this Ratified and Accepted proposal for the Program to obtain and transmit or recover data from the surface of Minmus. This probe though potentially designed by the Program and not of foreseen technical difficulty will none-the-less 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, and maximized science return. 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 should ideally be able to utilize our current Local Body lifter system; gross mass should not exceed 2,000kg. However, an especially enticing probe which massed more than this might still be considered. The probe should have *ample* dV available for landing, to accommodate unforeseen errors and occurrences in our first attempt to land on an alien body. A probe which came in under $F 31,625 would be preferred, the contract completion award. Please Note, the following contract also exists- This opens the door to a sample-return mission which could conceivably be budgeted in excess of $F 100,000. However, Finance will of course wish to maximize its return, given the funding apparatus by which the Program operates. Interested parties shall submit proposals prior to the next CRAP meeting [estimated at 3-8 RL days]. 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 where the collaboration I first envisioned comes in. 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!] The above tech-nodes are fully researched, and my operating Mod list is posted here;

"Good afternoon. At this second full CRAP meeting I will provide a survey of the previous 6 months of activity and then discuss plans for current projects and extant proposals under consideration." Linus grimmaced sourly at "extant" and grumbled. "Available funds have increased nearly 400%." "To begin with, we rolled the wheel unit and sepratron to the pad for a very unexciting test, though we did have a brief discussion about why on earth a hexagonal strut wasn't considered to be in touch with the pad..." "...because its not grounded Gene!" was shouted from the back. "Yes I KNOW that's what you said, and its still hooey!" Gene spat to the back of the room, before returning to his audience before him. "Regardless, the data was eventually obtained. Both Mun and Minmus survey contracts completed successfully as well, actually 3 in total." "As this series of stills show, the 2nd crewed flight of the LBT went well, saving for an early launch glitch which occurred when unmanned servo commands were sent to the vehicle on ascent which did not take into account that the vehicle was crewed. The slight initial roll to the south was easily corrected, and a quite nominal orbit achieved with no dangers. Re-entry was also nominal, and we had zero part losses from re-entry or recovery. Following this, we had a low-cost flight to carry a new meteorology sensor into the upper atmosphere." "The vehicle departed stable flight once the first stage burned out, but it had sufficient momentum to tumble into space anyhow, and with a safe recovery of all 3 science pods the mission was a success." "However, using low-cost sounding rockets on upper stages in the future is here-after resoundingly discouraged without appropriate attention to stability mechanisms. Lastly, here we see in development our soon-to-be standard crew vehicle, as yet un-named. Rather than build a vehicle from the 3-person capsule which we have developed and yet which would in time become clearly insufficient, we are constructing a 6 person pod with integrated thrusters for use in extremis." "This craft in assembly is a stability test, which will be launched uncrewed to about 30,000 meters and its recovery characteristics mapped and the thruster plumbing tested. Now. Here we see our current contracts." "We have plenty of time for all as we have discussed, and we are currently waiting just another week or two for access to new science instrumentation before starting on the solar probe that we will place within the aeroshell which needs testing. Here we see the contracts which have passed CA review." After staring at the D-Magic proposal glassy-eyed for 5 or 10 seconds, he proceeded. "The most interesting contract here is to obtain data from the surface of Minmus, which would be our first landing on another body. We see plenty of opportunity for innovation here, but with the VAB crew fully invested in the 6-crewCap, this may be a good window to open this to private industry for submissions." For a few minutes, there was silence in the meeting room. Mort could not take his eyes away from the Valentine mission details. “Hmm.. congratulations on the good work, Gene. Although I have to ask a few questions. How in the bloody Mun did the Valentine mission pass the CA review? Don’t they have basic astronomy knowledge? Do I need to fire someone, Gene?” “And you seem to have taken my advice in the last meeting. A probe along with the aeroshell. Clever, very clever..” “I don’t think that it would be smart or cheap to make a trip to the poles just to take a temperature reading. We are not that desperate.” “While its good to see kerbals at KSC innovating, could you please make your next crew capsule a bit more visually attractive? Look at poor Gus, he’s hyperventilating! It doesn’t matter much to me, though. As long as it can get its job done.” “And to think that you, of all kerbals, would support private industries… Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Gene? I don’t have any issue, just make sure you don’t do this more often. The Civil Authority may just decide to cut funding if the private companies produce probes at a cheaper cost.” ‘By all means, feel free to have private parties involved. But I will be the one to decide on the prices, and certainly not the CA reviewers’ Mort thought to himself." Gene smirked and grunted, bearing Mort's whimsical mirth and the barbs buried within. "In the future we may find a use for exoplanet observation projects, which I am sure is what the scientists were really interested in. Big satellite telescopes aren't quite yet our forte' though. I'll get to work on everything else, and we'll have a memorandum out to private industry by week's end." Gene nodded and rose, knowing they were about to embark upon a new chapter in the Program.

Good afternoon! I wanted to ask a question about this mod and its power requirements. The OP states it would be "really hard to achieve in stock", however I think this under-sells the difficulty. I built a trial ship in sandbox and obliterated my EC storage by simply jumping to Mun. I haven't had a further chance to play around with this. About how many RTGs are we talking if that would be the only power source, and what would be the simplest (least invasive memory wise) power mod to add if I should decide to go down that road? It will be a long time before I use it, so no hurry, but I am very interested in other folk's experience with this. Thank you immensely for creating it!

Gene returned to his office and wrote up an inter-departmental summary of the short-term plans for the Program and sent it out. He used lots of big words like the scientists liked, and was quite proud of it. It wasn't 15 minutes before his door was thrown open by a livid chair of the science wing, one Linus Kerman. "You 'demurred' on the Orbital Farming project???!! - 'DEMURRED' ???" "Linus, yes, now-" "DEMURRED ????!!!!" Gene sighed. Ok, note to self, avoid excessive thesaurus use. "Yes Linus, now take a breath before you turn blue." "YOU WOULDN'T NOTICE! GREEN AND BLUE ARE MONOLEXEMIC CHROMATIC AND DICHROISTIC!" Linus roared furiously. ...Gene was pretty sure Linus was just playing with him now, but he couldn't call his bluff and they both knew it. "Ok. Linus, there is no feasible need for growing food in space on the meaningful horizon. Simple stored supplies are suff-" "Gene are you That dim?!? ...It is not about supplying a mission! This is science! Elemental foundational science!" Throwing his arms in the air in needless emphasis Linus planted the book he had probably been holding when he had gotten the memo onto Gene's desk and yanked a chair over to fall into. Gene was just about ready to break another pen and grind the pieces into his palm as he glanced at the book's title, Kerbal Morphology; Kerbals as an R-Selected, Semelparous, Belemnoid Cephalopod. ...Fun. "Linus, -" "Gene." Fury. "...look. There is no need to do that project right now! We don' need it!" "Gene, why do we have a space program?" Gene blinked and his counter offensive sputtered to a halt before he could get it going. "Gene, I can tell you why, *and* I can tell you that the reason You believe we have a space program is Crap!" "...C.R.A.P.?" "No Gene, crap! Gene! 20,000 years ago Kerbal kind was cast back into the sea by a cataclysmic event and it took us probably 12,000 years longer to escape the neolithic than it should have! We nearly died because we didn't understand and couldn't act on Space! We survived because we are an Absurd species! These two facts inform each other, and that is why our government invested *anything* in your precious program! We need to understand what is out there! And if *we* are so absurdly vigorous, how marvelously tenacious is life Elsewhere?? These are the questions that drive us and inspire the people! Gene, it is about Knowledge! Not replacing supplies on missions." "Duna has polar caps, a moon of Jool has an atmosphere thick enough to support some kind of liquid, and Eve is a bath-house!" Linus pointed to two framed photographs on his wall. "Those two photos represent most of what we know! Gene, we have to know more. Science." Gene clicked his pen a few times, completely lost on how to regain the initiative. "...so tell me why I believe in the Program," he asked dangerously. "Gene, you want to put a Kerb on our Mun simply because someone told you you Can't." Now Gene smiled, an icy, gin-rummy, 'I've got you now' smile. "No. You're wrong." He leaned forward. "I believe in this program because I believe we are capable of amazing things. We didn't just crawl out of the mud, we crawled out dug our burrows and remade society into something that would survive and damnit we did! We are capable of great things, Mighty things, and they won't happen if we sit here in the cradle Linus. The Jool-damned cradle! We belong out there." He leaned back. "Am I happy that a vocal minority think the Mun is impossible and wasteful? No. But I'll be damned if I let someone else construct my motivations Linus. The program is worth more, much more than that to me. That is the task I am going to see through." Linus paused, then collected his book and headed to the door. "- I'll get your agricultural project in eventually Linus, ...I promise." Linus paused and glanced back at the door, nodded once, and then stepped out much more quietly than he had entered.

...at first glance I thought the title of this thread was "My Advanced Gambling Unit doesn't seem to be working." ...must...get...coffee...

Gene sat down at the conference table, not very comfortable with not knowing how exactly this was going to proceed. He couldn't read Mort at all, and had no idea if he was simply carrying instructions or if he had ground rules from which he would be making his own decisions. Gene passed out folders with glossy graphs to the baker's dozen of folks around the table. "Well. This is a representation of our current active projects." "It is very apparent that none of these current projects are especially difficult. We have the orbital mission for 3 university scientists, which will require the flight of another LBT which is presently in assembly, but otherwise the 2 Duna missions coming up in just over a year are the most challenging though - we believe - within our capabilities." "Now, as we can all see by the alignment of the outer planets, we have likely missed an opportunity to perform a multiple fly-by tour had we had the infrastructure 2 years ago, though we don't presently have the math to allow for such a complex mission. Indeed reaching even to Duna will be a gamble next year." "So to get down to business, these are the current contracts that have passed CA scrutiny. 4 of the 6 are not difficult at all; the magnetic field studies can be initiated immediately, and the part tests will require minimal prep. The additional TOURIST work would require two additional flights of the LBT, which is acceptable though we would like a more mature craft before sending crew beyond LKO." "The agricultural project we find we are not terribly enthusiastic on. While growing food in space may eventually be necessary for long duration voyages, in actuality stored provisions are far more reliable. The engineers and I agree that this is an unnecessary diversion of resources until mission parameters demand it." "Thanks to our recent Administration expansion, we could accept all 6 of these contracts, though we would prefer only 5. We could afford all 6, and if it is desired we could go into the exact funds demanded and awarded, though being at a non-critical stage this may be unnecessary at the moment." "Well? What are we doing here." Gene looked across the table at Mort and his bean counters, and waited for his reply. Mort sighed a little as Gene's presentation ended. This was not good, somehow the boffins had managed to develop financial sense! He figured he would be called upon soon and put his notepad away. It was time to mess with Gene a bit. “Thank you for the presentation, Gene. At the moment, we are in a very comfortable position. Specifically our finances are comfortable, and we are somewhat of a household name. At this point, it would be easier to take risks. Even if its something superfluous like Space Farm.. I am surprised you would willingly miss a chance like this!" Gene ground his teeth. Mort continued, "But the shortsightedness of the Civil Authority is no news. I doubt I could justify a mission like this.” “The other contracts look easy enough except the tourist contract. However, we have four years till the deadline. I am pretty sure your team can gather enough science for the 3 man command module? While two separate launches for this mission are feasible, I believe this would be an excellent opportunity to work on the concerned tech node.” Gene walked out of the meeting last. He had learned some important things in this first CRAP meeting, and they held him long in thought. First, Mort wasn't worried about suggesting that the government supporting the Program was out of touch with what was actively happening on the campus. Second, that Mort had said I. This was a critical discovery. "Knowing what side of the bread needs buttering is always important", he said to a quizzical Gus who had waited by the door for him to get up.

Thank you- both guesstimates push it to the region I had considered, early pre-history. I'm more inclined to call it 15,000 years for my tale's purposes, but I had already imagined their current hobbit-like dwellings (in my mind) as a relic of vertical structures not being "safe" following the global earthquakes that may have sputtered on for decades. I see the Pyramid as an astronomical/religious structure that arose a few thousand years later on, once civilization had recovered (if you want to build elevated, build for stability). But, if I go on I will start to spoil bits of my story, currently awaiting a post-holiday resumption. At least now I can consider my figures to be utterly without validity, though I doubt this passes for peer review.

I was referring to the prominent ocean-filled crater with the island mid-most. However, I think this is my favorite answer- So, I think for the purposes of the tale I am writing, I will just invent a vaguely plausible figure and go with it.

@Geschosskopf, here is my mod-list! Forgive me it is in screen caps, far more expedient than typing; As to your specific questions, the checkered tubes at the base of the LBT are sounding rocket motors from SoundingRockets! by RoverDude. They are not as useful as they could be, as "normal" solid rockets (Flea, Hammer) are available just as soon, but they Are quite cheap so if your program is in trouble you can still cobble something together for science. However, the solid rocket motors have one Very useful ability. They mount radially, and automatically fall away when they burn out, so no decouplers required and useful initial thrust. They longest the largest burn is about 10 seconds (I think), but they can help you get off the pad.

USI for me provides the right degree of complexity, neither too simple nor too complex, and felt "right" when I played. Only for Minmus/Moon, LKO though. One thing I will note is the food density of storage for these mods. With Kerbalism, I can package supplies reasonably for 2 crew to Duna and back. In USI however, I could not. The craft was going to be massive. Kerbalism is more challenging and dangerous, but you are able to craft a much more reasonably sized vessel (in my opinion).

Well, it seems to work fine for me, & I have Valentine orbiting at 10 trillion km (fwiw).

Kerbin's large crater (of various names, depending upon where you look) is the predominant feature of its hemisphere. Yes, it is a ring of pixels in a computer game. However. If one were to use *only* our sparse observational data in a realistic "game" sense, how Young could it be? I know such a crater could not have formed in this 1/10th scale world, but if one is inclined to invest in the "story" of KSP (as so many Mission Reporters are), it happened, and should have an explanation. Foremost in such an investigation I would think is the fact that the planet has returned to a benevolent climate, as following this event the global climate was assuredly Not benevolent. For Earth's Chixalub event I have heard estimates of 200,000 years or more to return to full "normal", but I am unsure how that math should be modified for a 1/10th scale world. Any ideas?

Kerbalism, agreed. (though, if I find I am writing a disaster then my 2nd fav would be USI :P)

Thank you! I hope so. I actually have a very...mm, "Tolkienish" amount of Kerbal backstory, simply so as I know the foundation upon which I am writing. As I see opportunities I will drop bits in here and there, but a "modern day" tale of engineering and discovery won't readily lend itself to Gene kicking back and ruminating on all of recorded history. Yes, there has been no passage of time except for waiting for builds. I generally don't mind builds taking 60-100 days (its more realistic at least), and with KCT allowing builds to give you Science! I generally invest a lot of my KCT upgrades in that direction. For instance, I think building an LBR is worth about 70 science- maybe more, I'll see. I will post a mod list shortly, and identify where parts come from. However, the scaled down versions of engines is simply a "house rule" using Tweak-scale. When I first "unlock" an engine, only a scaled down version is available. When go 1 node further the "normal" version is available, and 2 nodes farther on Tweak-scaling becomes unlimited. I wanted to have a rationale to build engine clusters, because in past games it was too easy just to say "Well, what scale LV-T45 do I need for THIS job?...", which though effective was also dull. - & I insist on using Tweak-scale because I just can't abide that it is impossible to go to the manufacturer and say, "So, ...there's *no* chance you could just make this 5% more powerful? At all? ...given we're you're only customer?... No? Gosh, thanks." And MOAR will be provided!

Chapter 1. Year 4, Prime Day. Gene cleared his throat awkwardly. "Good morning. It is with great, er, pleasure that I open this first ...C- ...meeting. As directed by our Program Civil Authority, I will now present a summary of Program activities through its first 3 years, our equipment and capabilities." "Three years ago our first craft to return scientific data from space was Explorer." "Explorer 1 was steered by fully deflectable fins, however the craft pictured here is a Bloc 3 design where-in our prototype gimballing engine was mounted centered in the engine hex-cluster. Those first engines were LV-T3 Reliants, and when the first LV-T4.5 was added then the fins were eliminated. This craft has not flown recently, though if new instrumentation were substituted it could again sample near space." "The original Bloc 1 hex-cluster was used as a laterally mounted booster in our next and current lifter design." "Whether it flies as Local Body Relay or Local Body Probe, the LB format rocket has flown repeatedly and reliably." "6 Local Body Relay missions have been flown, inserting communication relays into orbit around Minmus, Mun, & Kerbin, preparing the way to support future missions." "Mounting 4 LV-T4.5's in its core stage, the 2 hex-cluster boosters are fully recoverable. The core stage is not recovered, yet its value is only 2300 $F." "The relay satellites we have been orbiting are, for reasons of economy, also suitable for magnetic field surveys. 2 'LBR+' rockets are now in fact in storage, intended for use at the next Duna transfer window, where we have 2 magnetic field contracts to attempt to satisfy." "Now, ... the Local Body Transport system which recently successfully took Valentina to orbit, requires some explanation. Lacking timely capsule development, as the orbital contract approached we found ourselves in need of a command cockpit. The... unorthodox solution, as you will see, was provided by the aeronautics industry." Clearing his throat, Gene rolled on with the end in sight. "While lacking a certain ... refinement, the solution was eminently logical. The 'Stratocruiser' transport cockpit has the most robust heat resistance of any available, and it was easily adaptable to carry suitable resources for the proposed 30-day mission. It is also powered by our most powerful engine to date, a 3rd generation development of the LV-T4.5, the '450." "Our R&D branch has made the following progress, the greater portion of our scientific advancement coming from construction build growth. We have plans for the future path of research, as the next most desired developments by our engineering staff are Avionic Steering Hubs and RTG power cells." "The Space Center itself has been improved significantly, and more than likely the R&D Department is the only branch requiring needed investment. A heavy investment in the Administration Offices has absorbed most of our quite healthy balance of funds, yet sitting at 190,000 $F with builds already in process we should be in good shape for some time to come." Gene sighed, glad the uncomfortable presentation was over, and left the lectern while Wernher stepped up to discuss manufacturing improvements and quality control. After lunch they would all be stepping right into the meeting with Mort, which could very well determine the near direction of the Program. Thinking about this, he was surprised to discover he'd just broken his subconsciously abused pen.

"Kerbol is so ...Bright! - and in the beginning there was light, infinite light! And in that infinity how could there not be divinity? And if that divinity was at the beginning of everything, how could there not be divinity *in* everything?!?" So Valentina had answered the reporter's question, and now the press was eating it up. Her cheerful seemingly naive voice giving breath to the channeled hopes of a whole world desperate to explore and learn, and echoing the deepest beliefs of Kerbal kind. Jebediah the veteran test pilot was consciously keeping to the background, allowing the brilliant Academy graduate her chance in the sun. He had not been that way at the start though. In the blockhouse he had walked up to Gene's side as the early count-down checks were made and whispered, "what the hell Gene??" Gene had only spat out "not my call." Jeb was stunned, and ticked- but not for the fact that someone else was going to be the first Kerbal in space. Gene was beyond ticked, gone somewhere into that broad plain beyond it where you have to go to to get your job done. The huge stack- far taller than any other rocket they'd yet constructed- had been halfway to the pad when they'd discovered the problem. The probe core wasn't responding. In fact, no-one could find the certification documents from its installation- and the implications of that were just mind numbing. The contract would be in jeopardy, and things were still at the desperate edge in year 3 of the Program. Calls were made to the capital, and discreetly - though loudly - word was passed down that this launch would go forward. So, instead of helping to take notes to write the flight manual, Valentina had climbed into the cockpit with 30 days of hastily assembled supplies taking the place of the loaded dead-weight. Gene now rolled into Mort's office the day after Valentina's recovery- he knew he was coming, so he didn't bother to knock. Not that he would have today anyway. He tossed a handful of papers on Mort's desk as he hung up his phone. "If this happens again I'm quitting Mort. No, I'm not quitting, I care too damn much. But I'll sure has heck not stand for this again! In what was supposed to be our first unmanned test of our orbital capsule, SOMEONE forgot to install the probe core. With 2 hours to go and the rocket rolled to the pad, someone in Civil Authority orders that the launch proceed- which bless her soul Valentina cheerful jumps at! So instead of observing and "shadow piloting" the mission in safety, she flies the mission. She had to manually fly the pod down, because son-of-a-gun it wasn't neutrally Stable! And thank Jool the parachutes were calibrated adequately!" "Mort, we can't let anyone outside this campus run our program!! They give us funds, then shut up and let us work. That's it! That's their deal, and they have to Get that!" Mort looked again at the bristling kerbal standing in front of him. Did Gene have no understanding of how real world functioned? Those with funds were far and few in between. And those with funds to spare were even rarer! "Gene, lets assume you repeat what you said right now, albeit in a slightly civilised manner to the Civil Authority committee meeting tomorrow. Lets assume they are genuinely concerned about the safety of their beloved Kerbonauts and vow to take action. Are you with me till now?" "Yes, I am! But thats not the point! Someone has -" "And lets assume they launch an enquiry!" Mort raised his voice."Do you know what they wil find? They will find negligence by the VAB workers, who answer to Werhner! He will be implicated, no doubt. Don't forget, a brilliant rocket scientist he may be, but Werhner still has lots of enemies. Then the fingers will point towards you, dear friend. For you are the de facto leader at KSC. With you and Werhner gone, KSC will detoriate, further giving excuses to the Civil Authority members to cut funding." "Do you think you have a lot of ground to stand on? The KSC is your responsibility! And so are the constituent facilities. Best case, they will ask for your resignation for your incompetency. And worst case, you will be tried in a criminal court for negligence of kerbal life." Gene stood perplexed- "Mort, this can't go on! We can't risk our people like this!" "Of course not Gene. This will not happen again. You will have some words with the VAB workers and Werhner, while I will catch a flight to the capitol and sooth ruffled feathers. Quite a lot of people are upset that we are 'ignoring' safety of our crew. And then, we will forget all about this exchange" His wrath somewhat doused after having been correctly re-directed back at his own house, Gene returned to his own office where he soon after received word of changes to Program procedures. No longer would the engineers and flight directors simply be choosing whatever project or contract they wished over coffee and donuts. Every 6 months there would be a Corporate Ratification And Proposals meeting, at which the Program would lobby for their desired choice of direction, but the final call would come down to what the people would be willing to pay for- civilian oversight, from the finance wing. While swallowing this bitter pill, Gene started collecting the documents he needed to have at hand for his other set of new instructions- to deliver a summary and survey of Program equipment and progress at that first ...C.R.A.P. meeting. ...It was going to be a long night...

I am very close to posting my pre-amble, which will be under a new thread title so the first post is "story", though I do not wish to discourage conversation in there- that is a great deal of the enjoyment of such an enterprise. To note a couple of set-up rules, I am playing on (I think) 20% science rewards, and also a house rule about engines. When I first gain a research node with an engine, only a Tweak-scaled downsized version will initially be available. Once I expand a node further, then the "normal" engine will be available, and at 2 nodes further Tweak-scaling will be unlimited. Lastly, I would like to thank Sorabh for this excellent banner! The game will run on my machine, but thanks to his enthusiastic inquiries he will be a frequently contributing co-author, voicing Mort and advocating for the financial side of KSP. When a major decision arises which could be of dramatic interest, we will turn to my original concept and open the issue to the floor in a "staff meeting", wherein any interested party may introduce a persona to advocate for a particular line of debate. Here's to a healthy tale!!

*looks stupidly back on the 100s of hours he's flown aircraft in KSP* umm..., ...trim? 0.0

Oh dear heavens. I remember by first Eve orbit and Return probe- over 700 tons! It was ridiculous. I don't even remember if the return stage made it back...

Ok, let's see how this goes. This is the stack top, showing total Dv. This is the interplanetary craft- the whole thing lands, no docking required (a very unlikable task for me, though *yes* I have that skill- it just isn't fun). It has space for 9 Kerbals, though only 2 were intended for the mission. At 500m the small tanks providing settling thrust are ejected and the landing legs deployed. There was 3200 m/s Dv for return from the surface, which should have been ample. Supplies for 2 would have lasted for the journey and return even allowing for a missed return window. This is the return capsule, which is neutrally stable and safe from a test Minmus return to a 20km pe. The full test craft, unmanned & intact, now rests on its side on Duna in that save, 2 of its 4 landing legs having vaporized due to a 5-7m/s lateral sheer of unknown cause. I was actually inclined to proceed with the crewed mission, and had had secondary landing "piers" installed in case the same things happened again. However, it sounds like they would have fried half-way there, so perhaps it is just as well the save failed. My intent would be to do something similar in this game, though now that it sounds like I have interested partners the development might go in a different direction. Originally I was at a point of decision (Go/No-go) to meet the contract, and I thought to host a lively debate on the topic. Now that @Sorabh is very interested though, there may instead be many continual interjections as the game progresses. We shall see.

I will strive to get the ship file from my crashed game, and load it into the VAb- I would swear it would do it, but for the rads apparently! Thank you for the vote of confidence- I think. I don't think this will take off *soon*, but I do have the bug to write so I am going to strive to get my game in a position to support this enterprise. Once I am sure I can (and will not be leading anyone else on), I'll start a fresh thread. This thread will be the "how to/ground rules" thread. :]

Is it truly impossible to use Kerbalism beyond Kerbin SOI w/o Cryo Sleep? :\ This I find disappointing. I know this is a fictional universe, but this is a departure from "reality" that was a step farther than my vision had been prepared to go. Well, nothing to be done for it I suppose.

I sat down to launch a relay satellite to Minmas, thinking "I'm tired, but I can get this done." When I woke up the rocket was still on its original 5-degree angle of climb and plummeting from an apoapsis which must have been around 120km. It took almost all of its remaining fuel to save the launch, and even then the best I could accomplish was a 500km Kerbin equatorial orbit. ...not really the place you *need* a relay sat. :|

That seems the best solution; even though I can make a sound linguistics argument for 'balled', I just... yeah. "Crewed" it shall be. And Mikki, you would laugh at my prototype from my failed save. It is far less elegant and brute-force than yours, and also smaller. The thing is, if you are playing a "this is real" game, how do you "safely" find out about radiation exposure without killing Kerbals? My solution was to simply build as anti-radiation as I could and launch, and I bet they would have died about a 1/4 of the way there. ...I suppose a distant Kerbin orbit might have allowed me to note the slow buildup of radiation, so-long as Kerbalism provides it without a "whanny"; i.e., "they're dead, Jim." However, at this point I have a new game, I am working back up towards interplanetary, and I will be coming up with some distinctive (hopefully) back-story before the project begins!