chicobaptista

Not on a phone no. But today it worked without a hitch. It was probably on my end, them interwebs have mysterious ways sometimes. Now that I could actually see them, I'm much impressed with the Prudence station and the Valor spaceplane. They are so cute! (One may prefer the most technical term "efficient", or "minimalist" but meh) Looking forward to your kerballed exploration of the Kerbin System. After scratching my head for a while trying to figure that one out, I finally googled it. I've yet to read any of Carrol's works on english, sadly. There are just some works that translation attempts can't do them justice. I take it Manxome is a reference to the power of the lifter?

Yeah, technically. But @Kertech got closer to the inspirations for the names. I sure did! I may have geeked out a bit too much, but all these names actually make sense (to me at least). Estë is also known as "the Gentle", and what better name for the forgiving atmosphere of Duna? Tulkas is "the Strong", which makes a lot of sense for me. I'll need a lot of boosting to get out of Eve eventually. Eärendil of course is "the wandering star", and just a great all around name for a rover. Dailir is a magic bow which is never out of arrows, a lucky name for a tug. And so on and so forth. Eventually I'm thinking in adding a full name scheme list on the OP. It may help to keep things straight in the future. The next report is in the works, and should be out in a couple days. I enjoy the exposition of the "hows" and "whys" of the mission, and always like that part of other peoples' reports, I learn so much and get insperd to make different missions on KSP. I hope whomever reads this report can take something out of it.

I'm enjoying the mid-game too. I specially like the approach of pushing the limits of current tech until it is absolutely necessary to unlock the next node. It makes us realize how efficient we can actually get, and how creative. Unfortunately, it seems the pictures of every post but the first two are now broken. Is anyone else having this experience or it's on my end?

Well, if you're so in need of thrust, the next engine on the scale is the Mammooth, which packs more than double the thrust of the Rhinos at 1atm, has better Isp while in the atmosphere and for bonus points it also fits the fuel tanks. They definitely look different, though.

Nice report! I'm conducting a Jool5 mission myself and am planning to shamelessly ste-- erhm, "get inspired" by other fellow Jool fivers. I like the reusability of the landers. However, if anything gets wrong, wouldn't it be better to have some redundancy? Duplicates might make it easier to balance the loads also, just slap them in opposite sides.

Yeah, space has this strange tendency of leading to unexpectedness. Because really, what could possibly go wrong in space? Love this series, don't sweat with any scheduling updates and keep Bartdon working on that swing! Cheers

Just dropped by to say that I like this concept! A huge colonization effort is on my long term plans, but as I always play with some kind of Life Support mod, it's always bumped to waaaaay long term. And I liked where you're going with that lifter!

My Space Program is now on its third year and has landed kerbs on all bodies on the Kerbin with project Oromë, built an Kerbin SOI infrastructure with surface bases and space stations on KSOI with Project Aulë and flung Palantiri probes with varying degrees of success towards Jool and it's moons, Duna and Ike, Eve and Gilly, Moho and Dres with Project Namo. And it has sent (but not returned yet) a kerballed expedition to Eve orbit and Gilly with the ambitious Project Tulkas. Some relevant mods that I'm using are: So now the board of directors have decided it is time for the next big step, put some kerbs on Duna and bring them back! This is the mission report of this bold endeavor. Ah, caveat emptor: English is not my native language, and even with spellcheck a few embarrassing errors may pass through. If I end up saying something weird or even culturally insensitive, please give me the benefit of the doubt and kindly warn me so that I may perform the necessary rectifications. KSC, Year 2, day 260 Board of Directors Meeting Mr. Kerman: All right gentlekerbs, we've assembled here to discuss Project Estë, which shall comprise of exploring all the biomes on Duna and Ike and estabilishing permanent colonies. If you recall, we've succesfully put a Palantir mapping satellite on a polar orbit of both Ike and Duna and landed three Calmainen probes on each body just a few days ago. We're confident in our abilites of controlling and successfully landing vessels in each of these bodies. Moreover, the orbital scans have provided us with some estimates of the resources available on the surface of both Duna and Ike, as Mortimer here has been reminding me since. The next transfer window for Duna is in little over a year. Linus, if you please: Linus: Yes, thank you. If you look at the projection, you will see the critical dates for Project Estë, kindly provided by our friends on Alexmoon's Astronavigation Inc.: Kerbin -> Duna Departure Year 3, day 302 at 3:50:24 Arrival Year 4, day 153 at 2:50:24 Time of flight 276 days 5:00:00 Stay @ Duna ~1 year 135 days Duna -> Kerbin Departure Year 5, day 298 at 5:26:24 Arrival Year 6, day 161 at 4:55:12 Time of flight 288 days 5:28:48 Total Mission time: ~3 years 140 days == ~1418 days By keeping in mind our last interplanetary mission, Tulkas I, where our kerbonauts are currently aboard their ship Eämbar awaiting for the return window after just over 20 days of surface activities this may seem plenty of time, but there we had only to land on Gilly, which has such a low gravity that we could perform multiple hops to fully explore the moon in one go, and as of yet landing and returning from the surface of Eve is out of the question. In this case, we plan to take advantage of our orbital readings to incorporate In Situ Resource Utilization in our planning, much like the later Oromë missions on the Mün, to refuel on the surface of both Duna and Ike, allowing for as many landings as we may wish for. This should greatly reduce the fuel we would otherwise have to haul along and allow for heavier - and safer - landers. On the other hand, ISRU takes time, and we'd like to take the time to perform some field geoscientific studies to improve our odds of successfully refueling our lander, since so much of the mission relies on that, as you'll see later. Mr. Kerman: Thank you Linus. Much like Tulkas I, Estë I shall be comprised of an expeditionary team of one pilot, two scientists and one engineer. I need not remind you that our primary purpose is exploration and advancement of our knowledge of the Kerbol System. All other considerations such as financial returns, Mort, and public reputation, Walt, are secondary. Gus, I know engineering has produced extensive reports on delta-V requirements, Thrust-to-Weight considerations, reusability, redundancy and recent improvements on Life Support systems and propulsion drives, but just give us the short version. What can you tell us about the hardware? Gus: Project Estë is essentially an application of all the technology developed during the exploration of Mün and Minmus during our very own Project Oromë. The proposed lander is the Melian-D model, based upon the highly successful Nahar lander series of Project Oromë. This lander can transport up to six kerbals and all the equipment for an inflatable surface base of operations and in-situ assembly of a Eärendil exploration rover with a full science complement for a grand total of 52,108 kg, fully loaded and a total delta-V of 2821m/s on a vacuum, which should be enough for one chute-assisted landing on Duna and reorbit without refueling or as many as three powered descents and reorbits on Ike, if for any reason our ISRU plans don't come through. Which it should, of course. Work I mean, not... well you got the idea. If you'll recall, all of this hardware has been tested successfully earlier this Münth on both Mün and Minmus during Project Irmö, which is in charge of stress testing all proposed new designs. Melian-D shall be transported to Duna Orbit and from there and back to Ike orbit by our reliable Dailir tug. Our intrepid crew, initially consisting of Mission Commander Jeb, Primary Investigator Leema, Second Investigator Gwenial and Extraplanetary Assembly Specialist Beazie will be transported from Low Kerbin Orbit to Low Duna Orbit aboard essentially the same vessel that Commander Bill and his team are using on their trip to Eve, the Eämbar Interplanetary Crewed Vessel. Of course recent breakthroughs on the SuperNova fusion engine will... well.. no matter. Suffice to say that it has greatly improved on efficiency and we can add greatly to the supplies for the crew in case of any emergencies. Improvements on greenhouse and recycling technologies have also greatly decreased the required mass of supplies in comparison with Tulkas I. Mr. Kerman: Thank you Gus, that was most enlightening. Gene, would you be so kind as to expose to us the proposed mission plan for Estë I? Gene: Sure. The general idea is to depart from Kerbin around Day 300 of the Year 3 with the Eämbar vessel and the Dailir tugging the Melian lander. They should arrive roughly at the same time and park into a Low Duna Orbit of 100km above Duna Datum. A crew composed of Commander Jeb, Assembly Specialist Beazie and probably Primary Investigator Leema will then depart on the Melian lander to perform the first landing on a suitable equatorial site of scientific interest, from which it shouldn't be too much trouble to return to Eämbar if the ISRU systems should fail. Second Investigator Gwenial will remain aboard Eämbar to make sure all the vital systems are functioning properly as well as analysing all the data collected on the trip to Duna and on its orbit on the Mobile Science Lab aboard. There on the surface Beazie will assemble the Doriath Surface Base of Operations and the Eärendil Rover, with the support of the other, of course. While Beazie remains on Doriath drilling ore and converting it to refuel Melian, Jeb and Leema will take the Eärendil rover to explore the surrounding biomes, collect samples, perform experiments, all in triplicate, of course, and plant flags. In the case of a successful refueling, Doriath base and Eärendil shall be dismantled and stowed safely on Melian, and the away team will launch back into orbit. If the refueling is not successful, Doriath and Eärendil shall be abandoned on Duna surface to lighten Melian and provide an extra safety delta-v margin for the crew. All going well, this pattern shall be repeated as many times necessary to fully explore all the biomes on Duna, rotating the scientist in charge of holding the fort aboard Eämbar. After that, Dailir will proceed to push Melian to an Low Ike Orbit and Eämbar shall follow. The same pattern will be conducted to explore all the biomes on Ike. Once all surface activities are complete, the crew will remain on LIO shifting through all the collected data on the Mobile Science Lab and awaiting for the return transfer window for Kerbin. They have enough spare supplies onboard so that in case of critical systems failure we can send them an emergency life support probe in a highly energetic transfer to tide them on until we can send another ship to bring them home. Mr. Kerman: Thank you Gene, for this most delightful exposition. As our final point, we have a report that should satisfy you, Mort. All this hardware, coupled with our reusable lifter division, developed as per your suggestion, will cost us no more than 2 million funds, well inside our budget. Now, fellow directors, any questions regarding the proposed planning for Project Estë in general or Estë I in particular? So that's it folks. I've already sent them on their merry way, so any suggestions and commentary, while much appreciated, probably won't change any of the hardware available to the gang. I'm planning on a bit of sightseeing, looking for the anomalies and such. If anyone knows of interesting places such as canyons or anysuch and would like to contribute please do so! I'll see you next time, when our valiant team will depart from Kerbin and arrive on Duna Orbit and begin exploring the system! P.S.: Bonus points for figuring out whence came the naming scheme! Hint: P.P.S.:Also, on the game I'll be running a parallel Jool-5 mission, with Mission Commander Val, accompanied by Chief Scientist Bob and the rest of her team. It is a much more complex mission, and will probably have it's own report in the near future. Stay tuned!

Thanks for your inputs @Frank327 ! I'll try to address your points here, and also update the OP again, for you have swayed my mind on some points. Also, your mothership looks awfully like my Melian lander! I'll update the OP soontm with pics of my proposed vessels, so that you may compare them. Yeah, I'm totally convinced on that one. I'll send just one lander to do both Duna and Ike, for less hassle. And it's not like I'm swimming on funds yet, like some kind of Scrooge McKerbal, so that's a nice plus. It will rise the stakes, not having a backup system if the lander ends up lacking dV, crashes, or otherwise fails, but that's KSP for you eh? A good incentive for planning a rescue mission, at the very least. The thing here, as I see it, is that going up again will cost more fuel for the lander, since it now has to go all the way into that elliptical orbit. And since I'll be doing at least 3 landings on Duna, that cost will be multiplied by that. Also, I was planning on transferring just the lander to Ike, not the whole mothership (It has the dV to spare for that, being capable of landing on Duna and back), so that cost of transferring it (the mothership) would probably compensate the dV costs of parking it on a Duna Low Orbit. I'll have to calculate that, tough, so fun times ahead! Hurry, to the bat-calculator! I know! The scope of it is exactly what appeals to me so much. I've done Orbital Station Assembly, sky-craned surface bases on Mun and Minmus using USI-MKS and Infernal Robotics mods, played a lot with KIS/KAS on site constructions for both rovers and bases, built huge cargo freighters with ExtraplanetaryLaunchpads on Minmus, but never got to leave Kerbin's SOI. If I'm going to do it, I plan do do it with style. So yes, I'm planning in sending a small fleet, a flotilla, instead of a single assembled vessel. The synchronizing will be hugely assisted by Kerbal Alarm Clock, which helps me juggle all the maneuver nodes, SOI transitions etc. I've done it before, to Minmus. Not to the Mun though, for it is far too close, and it gets too hectic for me, even with the assistance of KAC. I've also practiced the interplanetary transfers by going from the Mun to Minmus, sending two or three ships at roughly the same time and juggling their capture nodes with KAC. It can be a bit nail-biting, but works. I agree, these are all good points. However, I'm not sure I'll have the patience to do this the simple way first and then await for the next transfer window to do a more complex mission later. I'll try to do things in a way that I can RP that the pilot will "simulate" the Duna and Ike landings once each before the real deal, so that if things go awry, I can simplify the mission plan or simply scrub the mission and get everybody back in one piece. It'll be a bit frustrating, but better than losing someone or having to leave them behind. That would be a huge morale breaker for the guys, and no fancy astronavigation using continual thrust maneuvers like in "some pieces of fiction" (sorry, spoiler alert!) to swing them back just in time for a rescue. Nevertheless, I'll take your points into consideration. I'm planning on redesigning the lander so that it can, if necessary, land, leave the equipment (base and rover) behind and rendezvous with the mothership at least once with it's own fuel stores, so as to not rely so heavily on mining and ISRU, and bringing extra fuel stores on the mothership as a safety net. Again, thanks for your thoughts!

All right, thanks for the thoughts! A bit of clarification is needed, it seems, so: (I'll also edit the OP to incorporate these aspects) Thanks! Well, yeah, the base will be built from parts transported by the lander. But in theory, all of it will be disassembled and packed up back on the lander. So technically yeah, I can use the same lander on Duna and Ike. I am probably going to do that, as it seems simpler and more efficient. A backup would be nice, though... Not gonna lie, it can be kinda tedious and I made a few mistakes building my Eärendil-class rover on the Mun. It was nearly uncontrollable, until I figured out that I could plop the rover wheels in the correct place by changing attachment nodes with KIS. However, the Buffalo parts for rovers make it simpler than would be in stock and now it takes me 3 min tops to build them. and way less to dismantle them. I used Infernal Robotics for a while, but it seems to me way more complicated then assembling them on site. Of course, that means it has to be kerballed, so not doing that on Eve anytime soon. Docking the rover does seem simpler, and I'll look into that! Aerodynamics might become a challenge tough. Or is Duna atmosphere thin enough that I could ignore the drag of the rover dangling below the lander? Well, I have the crew space, but Life Support would become an issue. You see, the whole mission is planned to take around 1400 days, and in USI Life Support each kerb needs 16.2 kg of supplies each day. An extra kerbonaut would cost me another 22 tons of supplies. It would be reduced by using recyclers and converters, but still, not exactly cheap, mass-wise. And for not much gain, I guess. Unless the extra scientist would significantly accelerate my research on the orbital station? If I don't bring another kerb, probably the best idea would be rotating who gets to man the fort during the expeditions, so they don't get lonely for too long. Also, I guess putting some pictures of my crafts would help visualize the mission better? I'm nearly done designing them.

Hi guys! So, I've been playing KSP for 3-4 years now (that long? sheesh ) and have never left Kerbin's SOI in a consistent way. Well, I admit, I've made a few trips to Duna and Eve using AltF12 infinite propellant cheat, but never a proper interplanetary kerballed mission. However, I have been planning kerballed missions to other planets for years, only I play in career mode, usually miss the first windows and then I get too bored to wait for the next ones, do a lot of Mun/Minmus bases, rovering etc and there comes a new patch! Start all over again. This time tough, I am determined to land kerbs on Duna, Laythe and Eve, no matter what! I wanted to share my mission planning here so that more experienced travelers could point blatant flaws in my super hypothetical blueprints and maybe do a bit of constructive criticism (MOAR boosters!, while very much in line with my design principles, is not particularly helpful in these instances) So, without further ado: I calculated the interplanetary window using alexmoon's launch window planner, and got these informations: Timetable Kerbin -> Duna Departure Year 3, day 302 at 3:50:24 Arrival Year 4, day 153 at 2:50:24 Time of flight 276 days 5:00:00 Stay @ Duna ~1 year 135 days Duna -> Kerbin Departure Year 5, day 298 at 5:26:24 Arrival Year 6, day 161 at 4:55:12 Time of flight 288 days 5:28:48 Total Mission time: ~3 years 140 days == ~1418 days Notice that this gives me more than a year to perform all the explorations I want to. Is that enough for maybe 3 Duna landings, with ISRU to refuel the lander inbetween and another 5 to 6 Ike landings, also using ISRU? Important Mods used USI Life Support Pathfinder KIS/KAS Universal Storage That means I can store base and rover parts on my lander and build them insitu, which s my plan. Also, planning to use ISRU and SSTO landers/ascent vehicles to explore multiple biomes on Duna & Ike Planned hardware I plan to bring a small flotilla consisting of: Eämbar (Interplanetary Crew Transfer Ship) Two Melians (Duna Lander/SSTO Ascender) each carrying: Eärendil (Duna Science Rover) Duna Surface Base Dailir (Nuclear-powered tugs) to haul the lander (one-way trip only) So, the idea is to use the Crew transfer ship as a central hub for a space station. After landing, the engineer assembles the Base and the Rover insitu. The Surface bases works on Life Support (Pathfinder Greenhouses) and drilling ore/converting fuel to replenish the Lander/Ascender while the Rover roves (hah!) around gathering much SCIENCE! I'm playing the idea of using the same design of the Duna Lander for my Ike lander, for redundancy and safety, but also because then the Ike lander can use the extra fuel it can get to orbit to replenish the Crew Transfer's stores. Is it more work than it's worth? Also, it would be significantly heavier than a purpose built Ike lander. Crew Two scientists (Sa) & (Sb) One engineer (E) One pilot (P) They will all be two stars, tops, since they will be the first kerbals to venture in interplanetary space ever, in my save. Not much else to elaborate here, except that for RP purposes I'll be using Final Frontier ribbons to assign them special roles. (such as exobiologist, energy engineer, etc) Life Support calculations So, in USI-LS, each kerb consumes 16.2 kg of supplies per day. However my Mobile Science lab onboard Eämbar, I can cut this consumption to 4.86 kg of supplies. Also, the greenhouse allows me to grow supplies using fertilizer, dividing my required mass by 8.5, leaving me with a requirement of 0.571 kg of fertilizer for each kerb per day. In 1418 days, that's 810,7 kg of fertilizer per kerb, for a grand total of 3243 kg to suppor all 4 kerbs on the trip, which is less than a single 2.5 container. I'll bring some more as a safety buffer. Also some initial supplies are needed, not just as a safety net, but also to start the cycle. I'll bring along 500kg, which is enough for nearly 219 days for all 4 of them. For comparison, without using the recycler on the lab and the greenhouse converter, I would need to haul along 91,886.4 kg of supplies! Delta-V budgets I calculated the projected deltaV costs using a deltaV map (sorry, don't remember which, but it was updated for 1.0 aero) and got the following: Low Kerbin Orbit (LKO) -> Low Duna Orbit (LDO) 1700 dV LDO -> Duna Surface (DS) (aerobraking) 500 dV DS -> LDO -> 1450 dV LDO->DS->LDO 2000 dV LDO <-> Low Ike Orbit (LIO) 570 dV LDO->LIO->LDO 1200 dV LIO <-> Ike Surface (IS) 390 dV LIO->IS->LIO 800 dV LDO -> LKO 1700dV I understand that there are many different possible transfers, and that usually the more dV you can spend, the less time you have to wait. In a scenario with life support, do you think it is worth "kicking the door" so to speak to avoid huge amounts of supplies? Mission Plan Ah yes, now we get to the meat of it: Transfer from LKO to LDO a flotilla composed of: InterplanetaryCrewTransferVehicle with (Sa)(Sb)(E)(P) DunaLander+Tug IkeScienceLander+Tug Dock all the ships to create DunaScienceStation with (Sb) manning the science l ab Duna Exploration Land DunaLander with (Sa)(E)(P) Establish SurfaceBase (E) and start drilling to refuel the lander Build ScienceRover (E) ScienceRover explore nearby biomes (P)(Sa) Dismantle Rover and Base and repack into DunaLander (E) Reorbit and dock with DunaScienceStation Repeat #3 as needed Prepare for Ike Expedition TransferCrew to IkeScienceLander (Sb)(E)(P) Transfer DunaScienceLander+Tug from LDO to LIO Ike Expedition Land DunaScienceLander on IS Start refueling (E) Explore nearby biomes (Sb)(P) Reorbit and dock with Tug Repeat #6 as needed Transfer DunaScienceLander+Tug from LIO to LDO Prepare for Kerbin return Dock with Duna Science Station Transfer crew to InterplanetaryCrewTransferVehicle Transfer InterplanetaryCrewTransferVehicle from LDO to LKO Dock with KhazadDûm station (that's my Kerbin Orbital Science Station, by the way) and retrieve crew+science! Step 3: Profit! So, that's about it. Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks in advance, Cheers

Oh yeah, I was out of the interwebs for months now (moving kinda sucks, by the way), but if you're interested, I'd love to share them with you, if you'd still like them. PM me if that sounds good. Cheers

You sure haven't disappointed me! I'm enjoying this greatly, I must say. As to the whole gender issue, I think is a clever way to flesh your world and make your story more than a simple mission report, with real conflicts, issues and societal problems incorporated into it. The internet being what it is though, I concur that it can become a can full of worms and the ensuing discussion would probably miss the point entirely, which is the enjoyment and sharing a wonderful story!

oh wow. this chapter became an essay on "how to flesh out characters and not let them become flat". loved it! hope Martystu can live up to his expectations

argh the drama! will our heroine make it? will Camwise be left to ponder about making plane-like take-offs on a body without atmosphere for a couple weeks before he starves to death? heck of a cliffhanger, mate! looking forward for the continuation of this tale.

Very nice! Congratulations dude! I remember my first rendezvous and docking, and it was by far the most difficult challenge that any game had ever given me. Be proud of your accomplishments and welcome to the wondrous world of KSP!

Part 8 Kerbal Construction Time facilities After sucessfully taking a probe to High Kerbin Orbit, the Board of Directors decided to finally retry the ill-fated Almaren III and get bathymetry readings from deep under Kerbin's water. To do such, a new probe was designed, the Illuin mk3.5,which would be built in less than a day. Illuin mk3.5 While the VAB crew was busy, the R&D department started looking into new ways to attach stuff to the rockets (General Construction, 5 science, 2 days & 3 hours; Strap-on boosters, 25 science, 12 days & 3 hours) and into more powerful equipment to transmit data (Basic long range antennas, 15 science, 7 days & 3 hours) Almaren VIII Mission Objectives Obtain temperature and baromether readings from Kerbins Shores Obtain bathymetry from deep Kerbin's shores Test variable ballast with the flotation systems After liftoff and a early turn, the rocket zoomed towards the shore, decoupling the now empty solid booster and using its tiny monopropellant engine to slow the fall and get to deeper waters. When it could not be delayed further, the chutes were manually deployed and Illuin mk3.5 landed softly in the water. To Mission Control delight, it began to sink right away, and once it got to the bottom, aquired its bathymetry readings. Immediatly after, its floats were deployed and the probe rose back to the surface to be retrieved. Fortunately, no Krakens were found near the KSC, but the Board of Directors decided to not tempt fate. Mission Album Mission Results Mission Successful! With the success of the mission, Doktor von Kerman delegated his brightest intern, Bob Kerman, to a task force assigned with bridging the gap between the VAB and R&D crews (Engineering 101, 15 science, 7 days & 3 hours) as well as develop the existing means of atmospheric flight to use in the Space Program (Aviation, 15 days, 7 days & 3 hours)

I think this (and other stuff like it) could be well explained in-story as orbit decay. I know, I know.... KSP doesn't feature decaying orbits, so that's why I said "in-story".

Hey there! 1st reply from somebody else! Hope you didn't feel obligated to do it because of my post in your thread, hehe Thank you for the kind words! Really glad you liked it. There's a lot more in the works, so stay tuned!

I, for one, am enjoying this. Although I agree that it could use a bit more....not refining precisely I would say, but tinkering. I don't think, for example, that the jumps are necessarily bad for the history, but it creates gaps. For example, did Bob go right through the Monolith? With all the excitement from the Crossoverload of Plan Kappa and KerbFleet I was sure that that was a multiverse shenanigan. But on the next update, it was as if nothing happened, unless of course the asteroid prevented them of discussing the issue and it will be addressed in a new update. Mind you, I'm not a great writer myself, and my Mission Report has exactly 0 replies from other people, but I enjoy reading and analysing other stories, so I hope that was constructive enough. As for the images issue, I do think that writtent text can be just as powerful, if not more, than a purely visual medium. I'm a firm believer in the words "a great storyteller shows, he doesn't tell." Which means (I think) letting the reader fill in the blanks as he invests himself in the story, creating a shared work. Aaaanyways, keep up writing!

Ahh the language geeks. Is there anything written in tengwar (elvish alphabet)? Tolkien was a big language geek after all.

Yeah, awesome! WIth this huge amount of Jebs, now they all must band together to solve the problems in each of their universes, à la Spiderman or Batman multiverse stories. They already wear tights, right? Can't wait to see them Jebs in capes though...

Part 7 Kerbal Construction Time Facilities Pouring over the design blueprints of the Illuin mk3 and what telemetry could be recovered from Almaren VI, engineering decided that the explosion caused by the decoupler destabilized the launch, and as the hammer doesn't have any gimbaling capacity, the probe core authority was insufficient to keep the rocket oriented right. By the time the liquid engine was activated, gravity already had a grip on the rocket, and the low TWR of the second lifter stage prevented recovery. The proposed solution was to dial up the power of the "reliant" engine to give the rocket a bit more of control. However, only a launch stabilizer system would have prevented the disaster of Almaren VI and as such, no decouplers shall be tested on launch as a first stage. Posterior simulations showed a much improved launch, with only a little manual steering required during the gravity turn. A new Illuin mk3 was then put in the works. Confident in this launch, the board gave the go-ahead for Mortimer to accept a new contract, this time to gather scientific data from space. After another four days, the brand new Illuin mk3 was rolled out to the launchpad. Almaren VII Mission Objectives: test Aeglos-1 lifting capabilities get barometer and thermometer readings from high kerbin orbit test reentry from HKO try to precision landing near the ksc The launch went beautifully, without any incident. The Aeglos-1 lifter pushed the apoapsis to approx. 250 km and then was decoupled to allow for recovery back on Kerbin. At apoapsis, Illuin made its Orbit Insertion Burn into an 267 km x 70 km elliptical orbit. At apoapsis, Mission Control remotely activated the scientific experiments, getting temperature and pressure readings from High Kerbin Orbit and burned retrograde to set the periapsis just below Kerbin's surface, aiming a pinpoint landing on the KSC. As Illuin passed the 75 km mark, the photovoltaic panels were retracted, the chutes armed, the orientation changed to retrograde and the probe core was shut down to conserve power. Now, all Mission Control could do was hope that the probe didn't burn on reentry. As Illuin screamed through the atmosphere, heat began to build up in the sensitive scientific instruments, coming dangerously near to permanently destroying them. However, as it slowed down due to the atmosphere, so did the heating subside to safe levels. After a while, Illuin zoomed above the KSC and the old Island Runway and finally deployed its chutes, landing softly on the ocean east of the Space Center, where it awaited for the recovery crews led by Gus Kerman. Mission Album Mission results Mission Successful!

oh boy, hope it turns out ok (trying to thread the fine line btween teaser and spoiler here). on other notes I enjoy reading your technical reports a great deal and have learnt much. thank you!

Part 6 Kerbal Construction Time Facilities The eggheads at the R&D building finished their research on what is heat, how it can be measured, how to stop it from making things go boom (Thermodynamics) and also how to make other things go booomer (Solid rockets). With this new knowledge in hand, Engeneering developed prototypes for the 2-hot thermometer and a bigger version of the "flea": the RT-10 "hammer" solid fuel booster, amounting for another 3400 funds. With the new booster, Bill and his team finished designing the first on the series of reusable lifters, the Aeglos-1, capable of lifting a payload of 1 ton nearly to Low Kerbin Orbit, with only about 100m/s needed from the payload to finish orbit insertion. It is essentially a t-45 reliant engine with 3 lf-t200 fuel tanks on top and two radial chutes to allow for recovery and a disposable rt-10 "hammer" on the bottom to add that extra "omphh" and get the lifter going. So, engineering built a new probe, Illuin mk3, with the new thermometer added in the basic Illuin mk2 design and extra monopropellant to get readings from High Kerbin Orbit and return. Illuin mk3 While the assembly was going on, the board pushed for more contracts, to dilute the expenses of launching new rockets and an easy one was accepted: test a TR-18A decoupler landed at Kerbin. Immediately the VAB received orders to slap one on the bottom of the new Aeglos-1 lifter to fulfill the contract at the programed Almaren VI launch, which pushed the building time from 5 days and 3 hours to nearly 6 days. The assembly crew would be a bit overworked, but no big deal. Or so it seemed. Just as the new rocket was being rolled to the launchpad, Bill Kerman burst into Mission Control, demanding to talk to Gene immediately: "What's the fuzz Bill?" said Gene, looking at the flustered engineer. "You ne-need to ca-cancel this la-launch Gene!" stuttered the engineer. "It will go bo-bo-bo-boom!" "Of course it will go boom Bill, it's a rocket! That's what rockets do: go boom!" "No Ge-Gene! You don't un-un-dersta-and. It'll go...go...go boom on us!" "What are you talking about Bill? Your team made a great work and we are very confident on all of you. The simulations showed a better launch profile than we could ever hope for!" Bill, now that the conversation went into his field of expertise, lost nearly all his stutter and spoke with confidence: "Not all simulations Gene! I was ru-running a few more on my free time at Snack-time just now and discovered a hu-huge failure on the new design that the board pu-pu-pushed on us!" "Ok Bill, hang on a second. Attention Flight Operators, this is Mission Control! Abort the roll out, I repeat, abort the roll-out. I want that rocket back at the VAB! Now Bill, this better be good..." Simulations runned by Bill Kerman on his few spare hours showed that the stack decoupler addition created launch stability issues, making for a very early gravity turn and rocket orientation issues (such as pointy end to the ground). However, the board insisted on completing the contract and instead pressured the engineers to try and counteract the issue. So the rocket was rolled back and new fins added to the bottom of the solid booster stage, despite Bill's grumbling to the contrary. [They were legit for real simulations =P. KCT has this option and while I was tinkering with the Illuin mk3 in the VAB I took it for a spin. Surprisingly, the original design didn't work anymore and I didn't want to take any risks with the real rocket. So I took it back to the VAB and made some adaptations. Here's to hoping it'll work! If it doesn't then, well... we all fail sometimes right? Luckly this one is uncrewed, so no kerbalcides...this time.] To avoid further delays, the ignition sequence was initiated as soon as possible, resulting in a night launch this time. Almaren VI Mission objectives: test Aeglos-1 lifting capabilities get barometer and thermometer readings from high kerbin orbit test reentry from HKO "Three...Two...One...Aaand, launch!" boomed Gene's voice over the radio. To Mission Control horror, just a few seconds after ignition the rocket began to tilt due north. In a desperate attempt to regain control, the solid fuel booster was decoupled and the liquid engine activated, hoping that the engine gimbal would be enough to point the rocket in the right direction. Unfortunatly, this low in the atmosphere, the TRW of Aeglos-1 was too low, and the rocket continued to tilt. In panic, Mission Control decoupled the payload, hoping to at least recover the valuable instruments, but once again catastrophe hit! Aeglos-1 continued in contact with the payload, and pushed it to the ground. After only 37 seconds, the mission ended in complete failure and all hardware destroyed. The only positive aspect of it all was that the rocket didn't hit any kerbals and the mission was still unkerbaled. The incident got the engineers thinking of ways to safely decoupe the payload and retrieving it back to the surface in the event of another launch failure before kerballed missions can be even considered. Maybe a Launch Abort System, activated by a Big Red Button? Hmmmm... Also, the embarrassed Directors Board decided that never again shall be attempted a last minute change in the mission profile to cater in to a contract, no matter how profitable it may be. Mission album Flight results Mission failed! The disaster also prompted new investments in infrastructure, and therefore, 2 points were spent in improving the assembly line of the VAB and 1 more on science development.