TheEpicSquared

Ooh, a small duna base would be nice! Preferably a single-launch base, but with docking ports for expansion opportunities. Thanks for offering! Oh, and please try not to make them too part-count heavy, or my poor laptop won't be able to take the strain.

Lol good luck with that

I put it in a spoiler since it's so long: It's the instructions for my Swedish essay (which is very, very boring to write )

Maybe you should update the title to say 1.2.2 instead of 1.1.3

Falcon Heavy or the ITS? And this is amazing work

Nope. @Paaaad

Not sure if this is the right place, but is the Cheerson CX-32A a good quadcopter?

6/10 a bit simple and boring, but still cool.

I bet @Paaaad is getting hundreds of notifications

Nope. Eh, why not. @Paaaad again.

2:34:53.

Thanks, you'll be on the leaderboard by tomorrow.

@Ultimate Steve Your rover is stock, right?

Look. If you want to participate, then great. If you don't want to participate, then don't. Now let's not keep up with this argument or this thread will get derailed.

1. If you use electric wheels, your vehicle is considered Electric (E). If it uses jet engines, it's Fuel/Electric (F/E). The power generation system doesn't determine the category, it's the propulsion form. Hope that makes sense. 2. Yes.

I did? Whoops, I didn't remember.

Just wondering, is there a reason that we are limited to 25 likes a day?

Did you post a KSC2 to pyramids challenge? If so, go ahead and do that. DrunkenKerbalnaut PMd me, asking us to do a KSC2 to pyramids rally. I accepted, not knowing there was another challenge. If you don't like it, you don't have to participate, it's as simple as that. Also, I don't get why some people (not going to say who) are so hostile against our idea. We thought @Triop's idea was cool, and we were inspired by it to make our own rally. I don't see what the problem is.

Moar, @Draconiator?

As you can see, next chapter is up! (A bit later than expected, but shh.. ) Oh, and you can still submit payloads! @KAL 9000, your ITS will launch either in chapter 25 or 26.

@DrunkenKerbalnaut PMd me about a KSC2 to the pyramids rally, I said that rally would probably be number 2. Unfortunately, @Adelaar's track will probably have to be number 3. We'll definitely do it, though.

CHAPTER 24: DUNA CALLS It was time. After many, many hours of developing, testing, simulating and going back to the hypothetical drawing board, the first part of Operation Duna could begin. This first part was the Duna Orbital Vehicle (DOV). The DOV was the latest in spaceflight technology. Outfitted with the best comm systems, the best propulsion systems and the best life support systems, the gargantuan spacecraft really couldn't be beaten. Four huge solar panels were the main (and only) source of power, while four radiators got the job of cooling down the four Nerv nuclear engines and the rest of the vessel. The business end of the DOV consisted of not only the 4 Nervs, but also a 10m inflatable non-ablative heatshield. Instead of using an ablative substance, the shield's huge drag would slow the DOV to the point that it wouldn't overheat. In theory, of course. When Hardfield first saw the plans, the only thing he could say was, "SQUAD be damned... It's incredible!" Danker Kerman, the new head of R&D, replied, "Yes, the engineers have done brilliantly. The DOV can hold an ample amount of kerbals, and is spacious enough for multi-year trips." "So what exactly is the entire plan for getting to Duna?" "Well, we're currently developing the lander system, which will undock from the DOV in Low Duna Orbit (LDO), land on Duna at a pre-positioned habitat, take off again when the surface mission is complete, and re-dock with the DOV to take the crew home." Hardfield, a bit overwhelmed, said, "Hold on for a minute, hold on. How does the DOV get into LDO in the first place?" "Aerobraking, my friend, aerobraking. That's what the inflatable heatshield is for! We'll set our trajectory to intersect Duna's atmosphere, and we'll let it slow us down enough so we get captured. After that, we do a few more aerobraking passes to lower our apoapsis and then we'll deflate the heatshield and burn into LDO using the Nervs." Hardfield nodded and looked at the document. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his face contorted to a look of shock. "By SQUAD, a single DOV costs nearly 290 thousand kerbucks! You're going to build a new vehicle for each mission? That'll run our funds drier than the Eastern Desert!" Danker replied calmly, "Actually, we're planning to build only one, 2 at most. We did notice the cost, and so we decided that we'd reuse the DOV. It would aerobrake into LKO at the end of the mission, and a return craft would be sent up to return the crew back to Kerbin's surface. Then, we'd carry out standard maintenance and any potential repairs, and then it would be ready for the next mission." "Seems like you have everything planned out. I think I can approve..." Hardfield trailed off. "What is it?" "The mass of the DOV is over 190 tons! How are you going to get it into orbit?" "Ah, that. That's a small problem we're trying to figure out. We were originally going to launch it in the Kerbol 1, but it turns out that it doesn't have enough delta-v for orbit with the DOV." "And how are you going to do that?" "We're working on it, but I think we're close to a solution," Danker replied. "Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any more questions, Hardfield. As they say, my door is always open." Hardfield chuckled. "Your office doesn't even have a door. You knocked it down the other day when you fell off the ladder trying to repaint the ceiling, remember?" "I still have the back aches to prove it," Danker replied good-naturedly. "Well, see you around, Hardfield!" Hardfield nodded and sat back into his chair. *** The next day, Danker was once again talking with Hardfield. He was saying, "We've come up with a rocket that can lift the DOV to LKO!" "Well, go on then, show me," Hardfield said excitedly. Danker put a couple of pictures down on the desk. Hardfield looked at the pictures for a while and said, "It's very... umm... big." "It is, HArdfield. And you need big rockets to lift big payloads." Hardfield just nodded. He was still awed by the pictures. Danker then launched into a description of the rocket. "The Kerbol 1 Heavy, as you can see, is made up of 3 cores. This will provide plenty of thrust for heavy payloads, and the asparagus staging provides the necessary delta-v." "Asparagus staging? What's that?" "Asparagus staging involves pumping propellant from side tanks into the center tank, while the rocket is flying. This means that as the center core burns through its fuel, the tanks are kept full by the fuel from the side tanks." "So when the side boosters run out, the center core will be full of fuel, right?" "Exactly, Hardfield. It's like launching the Kerbol 1, but already 17 kilometers in the air and already traveling at 800 meters per second. It certainly helps with heavy payloads!" "It costs nearly half a million kerbucks..." "Er, yeah. No way of avoiding that, unfortunately. We won't be using the Kerbol 1 Heavy much. Here's the K1H attached to the DOV." "Are you sure that's going to work, Danker?" Hardfield asked dubiously. "It's the largest assembly we've ever constructed." "The simulations say we're fine. Sure, it is 76 meters tall, and weighs over a kiloton, but if it works in the simulations, it works in real life." Hardfield nodded and said, "Well, if you're sure it works, I'll go ahead and approve it. And if it doesn't?" Danker replied calmly, "Then we've wasted over 800 thousand kerbucks." Hardfield nodded grimly, picked up a stamp, and pressed it against the document. It was official. The DOV was approved. *** It took a week to assemble the DOV and the K1H, but eventually it was finished and the construction was slowly transported to the launchpad. Tens of thousands of kerbals from around Kerbin were watching this launch. It couldn't fail. Slowly, the countdown clock ticked toward 0. The commentator's voice said, "T-10 9 8 7, ignition sequence start, 6, 5, 4, engine ignition, 3, 2, 1, 0, and liftoff! We have liftoff of the Kerbol 1 Heavy on its maiden flight, carrying the prototype Duna Orbital Vehicle!" The rocket soared off the pad. A launch camera got a great shot of the launch. It would become the covers of calendars across Kerbin. The gargantuan rocket began pitching east, as did all rockets. As the rocket climbed higher and higher, mission control was delicately scrutinizing every piece of data that came through, to make sure there were no problems. Thankfully, everything seemed to be going well as the K1H ascended. Just over a minute after launch, the side boosters ran out of propellant. Everyone held their breaths as the boosters separated... The commentator announced, "We have successful booster separation!" The crowd cheered as the boosters fell away from the center core. Even better, the asparagus staging had worked perfectly. The center core was full of propellant, and was powering the rest of the assembly towards orbit. Nearly 2 minutes later, the center core burned out. Three seconds later, the spent stage separated and the Rhino vacuum engine ignited. A couple of minutes later, an acceptable apoapsis was established and the engine shut off. Then, the fairings separated. The circularization burn was one of the best ones yet, needing only 80m/s of additional velocity to reach orbit. One quick engine firing later, the DOV was safely parked in LKO. In daylight, it separated from the K1H upper stage. The upper stage deorbited itself to prevent space debris. It would impact in the mountains, safely away from any civilizaion. Due to its relatively slow speed, the stage survived reentry. But the impact with the mountain made short work of the lightweight alloys that made of the stage. Meanwhile, 100 kilometers above, the DOV had successfully deployed its solar panels and radiators. After the initial celebrations had died down, it was time to get to work. The first test would be to see if the heatshield could inflate and deflate. As soon as the command was made, air rushed into the hollow cavity of the shield, and it expanded to its full size. It also deflated brilliantly. The DOV had passed its first test with flying colours. But now, the real trials would begin. The DOV would use its four Nervs to burn to a Mun flyby to see if they functioned as expected. Then, it would aerobrake down to LKO, to make sure the heatshield worked. The Nervs began their multi-minute burn, spewing out red exhaust. A quick thermal check roughly halfway through the TMI revealed that the four radiators were doing their job perfectly. The Nervs continued burning. Finally, the burn was complete, and the DOV was on its way to the Mun. A few hours later, it entered the Mun's SoI. Back in Kerbin's SoI, a quick correction burn was executed to put the spacecraft's periapsis below 70km. A periapsis of 49 kilometers would do brilliantly. In theory. The solar panels and radiators retracted and the heatshield inflated as the DOV punched into the atmosphere at well over three kilometers per second. The early phases of the aerobraking appeared to be going well. But suddenly, and alarm rang out. Bobblan Kerman, head of mission control, said, "The DOV's deviating from retrograde!" "Put it in a spin," replied Danker worriedly, "Maybe it'll go back to retrograde." Bobblan complied, but it didn't help. The spacecraft deviated further and further from retrograde. "Quick, check the thermal data!" Danker said. The thermal data didn't look good. Everything was overheating. By now, the heatshield was pretty much useless. Only the precarious spin kept the DOV in one piece. The DOV passed periapsis. Mission Control was slightly more relieved. The heating would be less fierce from here. At least the aerobraking had worked. The apoapsis was now down to just above Gilly's orbit. But the fierce heating of reentry had taken its toll. A propellant talk started leaking, and alarms rang out across Mission Control. They eventually managed to identify the wrecked tank. Bobblan muted the alarm, and suddenly it was deathly quiet at Mission Control. Nobody knew if the DOV would survive the rest of the atmosphere. It did, thanks to its huge heatshield. Even better news, the DOV's apoapsis had come down to Gilly's orbit. The heatshield was deflated successfully. Now that the vehicle was in space, everyone could get a closer look at the leaking fuel tank. "Oh SQUAD..." breathed Bobblan, "The atmosphere burned a hole right through it!" "Do you think it'll survive another aerobraking pass?" Called an engineer. Danker replied, "Maybe, if we raise the periapsis. But I have no idea if the Nervs will work with leaking fuel." Bobblan said grimly, "We have to try." Danker nodded. So at apoapsis, the Nervs were ignited. Thankfully, they worked, and the periapsis was raised to 57 kilometers. Once again, the heatshield was inflated. The DOV entered the amosphere. This time, the craft had already been put itno a rather ferocious spin, to keep it on retrograde. It appeared to be working. The DOV passed periapsis, still firmly on retrograde. Everyone relaxed just a little bit. The aerobrake had worked. The vehicle's apoapsis was now well below Gilly's orbit. Danker said, "We should leave it up in orbit, before all our fuel leaks away. Otherwise it'll eventually fall back to Kerbin." Bobblan agreed, and so at apoapsis, the Nervs ignited a final time to raise the DOV's periapsis to 101 kilometers. The stricken spacecraft would be stuck in its elliptical orbit until a repair mission could be sent up. *** From his room in the Astronaut Complex, Caldos Kerman, the hero of flight KWA-556, had been following the proceedings of the DOV test flight. He was still thinking about the Hybridium, and their message. They were invading his dreams every night. He was going mad. He had to tell someone. Caldos decided to tell his friend Hardfield Kerman. He sighed and left his room, in search of Hardfield's office. A few minutes later, he had found it. Caldos knocked. "Come in!" Hardfield called cheerfully. Caldos walked in. "Hi, Hardfield. Are you busy?" "No, come on in. What brings you here today?" "I need to talk." Hardfield gestured towards a chair. "Sit down." Caldos sat down and after a few minutes of small talk, he got down to business. "Aliens have been talking to me." Hardfield, not expecting to hear the word "aliens", blicked and said, "What?" "Aliens. Extraterrestrials. They've been talking to me." Caldos thought he would be laughed at, but to his surprise, Hardfield just nodded thoughtfully as he pulled out a notepad and a pencil. "Go on, Caldos." "They're called the Hybridium. I first saw them during the flight here. They said they wanted to cooperate with the kerbal species, but first they would need to test me..." Hardfield finished scribbling on his notepad and gestured for Caldos to continue. "It was the Hybridium that caused the hydraulics failure on the plane, Hardfield. I'm sure of it. And when I landed it, they said that I had done well, or something. I can't remember it very well. The point is, they've been communicating with me every night. All they say is that they want to help. 'We want to cooperate', 'We want to cooperate', that's all they say. It's driving me mad." Hardfield nodded distractedly. A thought had come to his mind. Didn't two scientists say something about unusual samples from Gilly? Missing DNA... What were their names? That's it, Gildrin and Advin. Hardfield said, "I think I know what you're talking about. The same day that you crash-landed, two scientists, Gildrin and Advin, were looking through a rock sample from Gilly, when they found a hybrid compound. A stone-organic hybrid substance, they said. They were sure it was extraterrestrial, because it was made up of different DNA than all the life we know." "You mean, something other than the four DNA bases?" "Exactly, Caldos, exactly. It appears that your claims of aliens have been substantiated. Thanks for your descriptions, Caldos, I'll pass them down to Gildrin and Advin. But we're going to need a better computer to analyze the samples again. We're going to need a supercomputer to solve this enigma." *** Everyone agreed that a supercomputer would be necessary to analyze the samples. So thousands of kerbucks and countless amounts of resources were put into the computer. It would find out, once and for all, if there really was life beyond Kerbin. Finally, the Enigma SuperComputer was completed. The computer was the best one ever built. It was so powerful, it required five kerbals to operate it properly. On one side, screens of different sizes dominated the masterpiece. On the other side, it was sleek and shiny. At least, it looked sleek and shiny until the processor bay doors were opened, and the circuitry was available for all to see. When it was ready, it was transported by helicopter to the roof of a nearby building, where it would be kept for the foreseeable future. A team of scientists and engineers were controlling the giant device. The Enigma SuperComputer was ready to compute. A switch was flicked, and the computer started up. Kelly Kerman was one of the scientists operating the giant machine. As the screens turned on for the first time, she rubbed her hands in glee and said, "Time to find some aliens."

Chapter 24 should be out in an hour!

That is one damn sweet-looking rover! I'll be eagerly awaiting your entry!

Nice SSTO! Also,