Ultimate Steve

Alright. I have the save now it will be back in about an hour.

So... Lunar dragon? Wow. China's really been going ham in the spaceflight industry in the past few years! I wonder how or if this will play into their lunar landing plans. Would the lander be launched with this on a rocket, or would the lander be launched separately with a meetup in lunar orbit?

Interesting idea but I don't see NASA trusting the job of launching Orion on board a rocket built by a company that has never built an orbital rocket before. If it flies several times with no or few problems before they put Orion on it, then that would be fine, but in that time it probably would have flown at least once, probably twice on SLS.

Okay, then, the rocket and stand are intact. This isn't as bad as I thought it was. Originally when I saw the tweet about them attempting the hotfire, that was when Firefly got real for me. I had heard all about what they were planning, but seeing a rocket on the test stand is something else. I withheld saying anything, though, thinking I'd post it after the hotfire, but, well, space is hard I guess.

Oof. Not good.

I've got a bit too much on my plate at the moment but maybe eventually.

That was spectacular! I hope we get more shots of that!

Alright. If we can figure out a role welcome aboard! That would be breathtaking. Alright! Fair word of warning, though, it is expected that the editing will be more complicated than most of what is on your channel. Alright! There are a few places where we could use that. None of the characters are specifically British or Scottish but there are several where the accent was never specified. I hope you get well soon! Interesting idea! I pay a mighty salute to the great Jim of Justice. I'm flattered that you're flattered! N nationality has been decided on for Chad yet, so anywhere is acceptable. There is one minor Australian role early on in the story as well that you could fill in for. Storyboarding and minor artistry is also good to have, since what we are doing is essentially a nicer looking storyboard. No Discord just yet. The Discord and shared storage stuff will be created once/if we have enough interest to start work. For now we will keep discussions to this thread and the forum PM. That could work, again Chad is not concrete yet. I've never heard of project Essence ore EEDC, what are those? Graphic design and public relations could be good too. At this point we will take anything art related that we can get. What kind of graphic design do you do?

Hold on I'll go through these comments more in depth after dinner here. It's been a busy day. Glad to see the interest!

Assuming Starship works IDK if it will be better to build a bigger Starship or build a mothership using the existing Starship, or use the bigger Starship to build a bigger mothership, but once we have Mars figured out maybe using Starship to assemble a giant nuclear powered mothership with Starships attached as landers and then sending the whole thing to Jupiter and maybe later Saturn may be a good idea. This would be risky but if the ship expended all of its fuel just getting to the orbit of one of the moons, the Starships could mine fuel and refuel the mothership over the course of many landings, leading to a far shorter transit time than taking all of the fuel to begin with. However, this is fairly still limited. The real fun starts after we build a working nuclear fusion thermal rocket engine. Specific impulses measured in tens of thousands unlock a lot of options. Just workable power producing fusion reactors are still a ways off, but those will probably happen in my lifetime. From there it is a lot more work to get it workable in a rocket engine, but one can hope.

Chapter 15

Recruiting thread is up!

For quite some time, a few readers of Voyage: The Final Warning have expressed interest in a possible movie or video series adaptation of the story. Recently, a few of them have gotten serious about it and want to try it. Welcome to the recruiting thread for the adaptation! In short, we are planning to animate a simplified version of the Voyage story in an episodic format. This will be in a storyboard-like animation style to save on frames needed to be drawn. These main points are in order to decrease workload and increase the chances of this getting finished. Before this, however, we will complete a short test clip (or perhaps multiple) to see how feasible this is and what needs to be changed before we start work on the series. In order to do this, we need many people including voice actors and probably an editor, but our most pressing need is an artist, specifically one able to draw people. The longer version: The Plan The current plan is a series of episodes. The story will likely be simplified and altered to better fit the series format and the workload that the team is comfortable with. The Plan for Animation The key idea: Animation is time consuming. Minimize the time spent while still maintaining quality. The series will be animated, but in a way that should require a low amount of effort but should still look good. The plan for animation right now is to animate the whole thing sort of like a storyboard with a higher framerate and detail level than the average storyboard - and, of course, in color. There will be backgrounds and "props" that are reused between scenes. The characters will also have stances that are reused. My current idea is to try to get away with 2D for many of the conversational scenes, with depth provided by the background. 3D will be necessary for some scenes, however, notably spaceships flying around, and for some scenes more elaborate than a simple conversation. For the spaceship scenes, the ships will be built in KSP and then screenshots or video will be traced over for the animation. This will help with consistency in ship design. The idea is to minimize frame changes, and reuse as much from frame to frame and scene to scene as possible. This is done to reduce the overall animation workload, reducing the chances of burnout and decreasing the amount of time it will take to finish the project. The exact art style, however, is still very much up in the air. I have decided to leave the art style mainly up to whoever ends up being the main artist. I am pretty flexible with whatever the style ends up being, but the people have to look like people and not people-shaped blobs. This mainly stems from the requirements that they must be able to move around well and fit into spacesuits. Almost everything in this section is negotiable, however. If whoever ends up being the head artist has an easier animation method, or has the time and will to put more time into this than what the above requirements necessitate, then so be it. I am very flexible with this. What is almost non-negotiable is that the method should be one that allows the animation workload to be split up between multiple people. For example in the above plan, I could focus my efforts on backgrounds, but I suck at drawing people, so another person could draw people, and another person could do props, and another person would arrange all of the characters, props, and background into frames and scenes, etc. There should be a lot of flexibility as to the level of subdivision. The Test Short Before we get started on the series, however, we plan on doing a test short, which will take place during one of Voyager's course correction burns. This short will be non-canon and will be modeled on the characters and ship from the current version of the series, rather than the revised versions that will be used for the animated series. Believe me, there will be a lot that changes... I also plan on directly revising the original story if I can get around to it. This allows us to jump right into practicing production without having to wait for me to revise everything. The purpose of this short is to practice and change/fix the techniques needed to create the series, and also to determine if there is enough interest and commitment to complete the series in a reasonable timeframe. If not, at least we have a cool short! If there is enough interest to do more than one short but less than the whole series, a few shorts of the funnier moments in Voyage could be made. If everyone is on the edge, one option is to do the first episode/chapter and then see how people feel after that. On the contrary, if there is a lot of interest we may do a second test short to test more changes. A Quick Note This project is getting started despite the fact that I have not finished writing the original story. I originally wanted to finish and then revise it to remove all of the things I regret putting in and make it make more sense before considering any video adaptations. However, I was convinced to start the process of the series early on for various reasons. In an ideal world I would finish it before moving on with the series, but I have a pretty good idea of how the story ends, and I have a pretty good idea about what I want to change. I've talked to the people that suggested this and some of them are very enthusiastic about it. I would hate to have the project die because of how long it takes me to write stuff, so I decided YOLO, let's let it happen. A Short Synopsis of Voyage: The Final Warning (For those who haven't read it) The Galactic Union, an extremely peaceful organization comprised of over eighty species from all over the galaxy, discovers a new world called Earth whose inhabitants, the humans, display extremely violent and selfish characteristics. The Union gives the humans a test, known as "The Final Warning," to see if they are able to change for the better. Everyone on Earth is teleported to Kerbin, where they are tasked with completing the test. The core element of the test, designed to stimulate cooperation, is the assembly of a space mission capable of landing at least one human on every single moon of Jool and returning them safely to Kerbin. This is done under heavy constraints of all kinds. Despite the odds, the the mission, called Voyager, gets off the ground with a crew of five humans and four Kerbals. Halfway through the mission, however, the Galaxy is attacked by an insanely powerful intergalactic entity known only as "The Species," whose goal is to utilize the resources of the entire universe as efficiently as possible to increase the chances of escaping or reversing the universe's eventual end. The Galactic Union falls into chaos as they try to find some shard of hope that they can, in fact, survive. The Important Part: Recruiting In order to create the test short and series, we need animators/artists, voice actors, editors, and musicians. The two most pressing of those are animators and voice actors. Without a solid character artist, this project will not get off the ground. Animators/Artists Mostly self explanatory. We need people who can draw and arrange those drawings into frames. This role can be subdivided if necessary, into character artists, prop artists, background artists, and animators (who do the arrangement of those objects into frames). As said earlier, the current plan to make animation as relatively painless as possible is to have several background pictures which are frequently reused, with characters and props layered over them (which can also be reused), changing frames only when necessary to lower the workload. The framerate and quality will be higher than this: But lower than this: Video choices are just because they are examples of framerate and quality and don't have anything to do with Voyage. The framerate should be closer to the first one and picture quality should be closer to the second one. Fluid motion will not be used except for fast or sudden scenes. Again, this is fairly flexible based on the preferences of the artists. The number one person we need right now is someone who can draw people. The art style does not have to be (and probably shouldn't be) photorealistic, but the people should look like people and the characters should be fairly easy to draw as they will be drawn a lot from different angles. As for the art style, as mentioned earlier that is entirely up to the artists. In case it is not obvious, however, I believe that the drawing and animation should be done electronically and not physically. This probably goes without saying, but animators should have the capability to transfer many picture files around between users. In this day and age I doubt internet speed will be an issue, but this is here in case, for some reason, it is. In order to sign up please reply stating your interest with an example of your work. If you want to be a character artist, please reply with your idea for a character art style and if you have one handy an example of what you are thinking. Voice Actors This is another crucial area. There does not necessarily need to be a 1 voice actor per 1 character, as people can do multiple voices, but one person cannot voice everyone. The hardest part of this, I believe, will be getting two female voice actors. It is definitely no secret that men are more common on the forums than women, and if there is even one woman reading Voyage I am unaware of her. I could recruit real world friends to help me, but within the year I will likely be moving for college so that may not be too terribly practical. Everyone who voice acts must be able to coherently converse. If you can do a convincing accent that would be useful as well, but not required. They must also have internet good enough to transfer audio files, as with the artists. The one other requirement I will place on voice actors is that they have a decent microphone. It doesn't need to be anything over the top, it just needs to be good enough. I won't list every character here, but I will list the main ones. I am fairly sure that once we have a core cast, we will be able to fill the minor roles by having the main cast speak in different voices. Major characters: Ethan Edwards - The main character and, at times, the narrator*. An American teenager (high school age) who is a bit socially awkward. He is smart and usually kind. He is selected to be part of the crew of the spaceship Voyager. While on the mission, many strange things happen to him. NOTE I will likely end up being the one who voices Ethan, as I am familiar with him as he was modeled after me. * I have not yet decided if the story will abandon the concept of Ethan's journal entries, so Ethan may not end up being a narrator. There will likely be a non-Ethan narrator needed at some point. Evelina - A Swedish teenager, about the same age as Ethan. Adventurous, confident, and kind. She and Ethan were on the same development team for the Voyager project. Ethan's friend and eventually, love interest. She takes up an active role in Voyager mission control after the launch, but wishes she could have gone with Ethan on his adventure. Her wish comes true. Jebediah Kerman - Galactic Representative for the Kerbal species, which makes him the face and (to a certain extent) the leader of the Kerbals. At times he is incredibly carefree, badass, adventurous, and heroic. He is able to, quote, "land anything." In the story he mentions that he has landed a moon (yes, a moon, not on a moon) at least once. However, due to his normal responsibilities, the added workload of managing the rebellious humans, his crushing regrets from centuries past, and the impending doom of the galaxy are getting to him. As time goes on he gets increasingly stressed, desperate, and prone to angry outbursts. He longs to return to how things once were, back before he had a planet to manage. One of his clones is on board the spaceship Voyager to supervise the journey. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to make Kerbals talk mostly like humans I think. Jeb's voice equivalent would be middle aged I believe. Secondary characters: Alonya - A human crewmember on Voyager. Worked in a rocket factory in Russia. On the older side of middle aged, although for story purposes her age is fairly arbitrary. Not much of a distinct personality or character arc in the current draft but I plan on changing this. Cheng - A Chinese-born North Korean fighter pilot, although in future drafts and in the series this will likely switch to a North Korean born Chinese fighter pilot. He is incredibly self-centered, belittling others and often refusing to talk to them. In my head he is also very xenophobic, although this is the forum so that has been significantly toned down. He is selected for the Voyager mission and tries to refuse to go, not wanting anything to do with the crew, but once on the mission tries to take charge as he is the only qualified pilot on the mission. He later sees the error of his ways and tries to become a better person. Marie - A human crewmember on Voyager. On the younger side of middle aged. Is from Africa. She is extremely smart and kind. She is way smarter than Cheng, although Cheng refuses get help from her if he needs to understand something, until he changes at least. As with Alonya, Marie doesn't have much of a distinct personality or a character arc, but this will change in the story revision and in the series. "Chad" - A human crewmember on Voyager. He is a replacement for Jacksepticeye, who I originally put into the story as a one time gag. Except for a few moments, I regret adding him as beyond the few gags he basically just sits there because I don't really know anything about him, so in the series and in the rewrites, I'm replacing him with "Chad." The name isn't final and his story isn't final, but in short, he is an overly enthusiastic (and possibly cringey) YouTuber who is way too dependent on what other people think about him. Most of what he does, he does for views, likes, comments, and reactions on his social media accounts despite not having much of a following at all. He hopes to make it big on social media one day despite it being obvious that it will never happen (Also, he is in his 20s and still living with his parents) - Until, one day, he sneaks onto the Voyager mission. He has to stay for the entire mission and just because of being on the mission he receives a huge social media following. Throughout the story he has to learn how to actually cope with fame and how to get over what everyone says about him. Again, much of this can change. Valentina Kerman - A Kerbal crewmember on Voyager. She is there mainly in case something goes wrong. She doesn't have much backstory yet, but in the revision and series she will. Bill Kerman - A Kerbal crewmember on Voyager, again there in case something goes wrong. He enjoys robotics and engineering in general. Bob Kerman - A Kerbal crewmember on Voyager, there just in case, you get the point. He was formerly a scientist but is mainly a politician whose clone is on Voyager to supervise. He occasionally feels strong urges to get back into science. The Voice of The Species - The Species has no specific form but they do have a specific, dark, menacing, dramatic voice (they can change voice at will but they usually use this one). This effect will likely be achieved with voice filters of some sort and may not require a dedicated voice actor. The Narrator - It is not certain that we will need a narrator as I have not decided on exactly how I will go about adapting the story for the series, but it is likely we will need one. Must have a suitable voice for narration. Note: Depending on interest, one or two of the Kerbals on Voyager may be removed to simplify things. To apply for a role, say that you are interested and if you like, state the role you would like to be and send in a short voice recording. Note, depending on interest, one person may voice two main characters in different voices. Either way, there are so many minor characters that most actors will have to voice some of them as well. Editors Both of the roles below can be combined depending on interest. Sound editors will take the recorded audio clips (if not recorded all at once, perhaps over a voice chat or something) and place them together to create a balanced dialogue track for the animators to animate over. Once the animators are done animating, the sound editors will add in music, sound effects (clapping, clanging, engine firing, etc), and other audio related stuff. Video Editors will be responsible for assembling various scenes into a video if the animators haven't done that already, adding intros, outros, and credits, doing other video related tasks. They will also be responsible for uploading the video once it is completed. Internet speed and storage space is probably more crucial for editors than for the other roles. Whatever editing software you are familiar with is fine on using as long as you are capable with that software. If you are interested, please reply stating your interest along with a video you have edited. Musicians The series will likely feature a mixture of free music (as we have no budget ) and user created music, as already on the team we have many people that are into music. If you would like to write music for the series or if you would like to contribute music you have written please say so! I can't guarantee that we will use it but it will be great to have the option. If you are interested, please reply stating your interest along with an example of the music you make. Last minute stuff for anyone interested It is not nailed down how we will handle cooperation and file sharing, but at the moment we are working out of a forum direct message, and we will move to a chat service like Discord and a file sharing service like Google Drive (using a shared folder) or Dropbox or something similar. These may not be the exact services used, but you must be comfortable with making accounts for services like these if you do not already have them. I say this mostly because some of the younger users of the forum may have parents who tend to be cautious about what sort of accounts they can create. Current team members: @Ultimate Steve, Writer, director, voice actor for Ethan Edwards, possibly background artist, possibly musician, backup video editor. @LittleBitMore, Sound Editor/Audio Expert. @Kerbalstar, Role undecided. @fulgur, Role undecided. @VA7NFH, Video Editor. @Kerballing (Got Dunked On), Voice Actor for an undecided character. @ResonantWaves, Possible Voice Actor for an undecided character, possible storyboarder. Crucial roles that need to be filled in order for the project to progress: Character artist (determines character art style, very important) Artist (backgrounds and props) (at least one, to shift workload away from the character artist) Animator (arranges characters, backgrounds, and props into frames. Role can be independent, combined with an artist role, or combined with an editor role) (at least one) Voice actors for Jebediah and Evelina (possible to shuffle around voice actors for other roles, although ideally each primary and secondary character would have their own voice actor) Thank you for your time. I hope we can make this idea become a reality!

Working on it. Ran into a hurdle with college applications though so it's been delayed a bit. Also if anyone has any advice on how not to procrastinate that would immensely improve my life because it's become a real problem recently.

Thank you for your words, I will definitely not take it as an offence and I admit I am definitely by no means a geologist! I will take your words into account, though, thank you for pointing out some of the stuff that was wrong with the explanation. I admit and will never deny that the explanation was definitely not a very good one, but I needed something that would abruptly and dramatically end Meros accidentally. I will try to use this feedback to create a more realistic scenario. I intend to either fix the current Cetidra in the revision (if possible) or replace it with something else once I have figured out how to make it more believable while also maintaining the dramatic pacing. I could also take the route of "It was all or partly an illusion by The Species and it only had to be believable enough for Ethan and Evelina to get the needed emotional response to set up something else down the line" which I hadn't considered before but actually seems interestingly appealing now... I would also like to say that there is a lot of other information about Meros inside my head that didn't make it into the story because it would have turned an already long chapter into an even longer chapter, and some of it may help with believability. So the current Cetidra sequence is definitely not super realistic, but I will try to defend it at least a little with that omitted information. There are 2 parts and summaries at the end of each if you want to skip to the summaries. Part 1, reasons why Meros may have a massive hydrocarbon layer I admit I put very little thought into what would create a uniform worldwide layer. As you said, a mass extinction around the world in just the right way to make a uniform layer would be incredibly unlikely, especially given that Meros has been said to have both land and oceans. Edge case: Meros could have an underground populated or once populated by microbes living off of heat or minerals producing methane or something else as a byproduct, but this also requires a similar rock layer around the world although this is more likely than a worldwide mass extinction. I just thought of this and there are doubtless many problems with this so don't take this as fact. Especially the heat part, as you mentioned heat is already really problematic in this system. We have mostly eliminated life as a source for the layer, so maybe we can turn to chemical means. There is a real world example for a world having a lot of Methane with no known life (although life is possible): Titan, although this is admittedly atmospheric and surface methane rather than subsurface deposits of ambiguous "hydrocarbons." Titan also doesn't have oxygen (at least not a lot of it) so that does pose a problem... There are many theories as for where this methane came from, but one theory is that it outgassed from way below the surface, having been made through radioactive processes near the core, meaning that some of it was/is below the surface, just not in a uniform layer. If there was a gas-tight layer of rock then during the outgassing it could have gotten trapped below it in a porous rock layer, instead of reaching the atmosphere, I guess... But this would mean that there can't be a significantly large way up to the surface otherwise it would all leak out, and it would also require worldwide rock layers. Uniform worldwide rock layers are also unlikely, but more likely than a uniform hydrocarbon layer caused by a mass-extinction. Maybe Meros has a mostly uniform rocky body with only small bodies of water breaking up the uniformity. Summary: Meros's hydrocarbon layer is not very realistic, and pretty much impossible when considering a mass extinction. However, the outgassing theory might bring it into the realm of improbability instead of impossibility. There is probably some combination of factors that could make the formation of such a layer possible. Due to the size of the universe, if it is possible at all it will probably happen somewhere. If I decide on this theory I will need to slightly modify the story. Side note 1: I'm far from an expert on Titan. Side note 2: I played around with the idea of Meros having a methane atmosphere, negating the need for a gas-tight layer, but then they would have to have oxygen deposits in order to burn the methane, and a large oxygenated layer in order for the explosion, and I think the exhaust from methane is way less of a potent greenhouse gas than methane itself, so the climate change story completely falls apart when considering this. Part 2, the thickness and depth of the layers, and premature detonation I made a mistake saying the layers were incredibly deep. I don't want to put a number on the depth because again I am not a geologist, but I think I most likely overstated the depth. There is a fairly simple explanation for the Merosians not knowing about the layer. Meros in my head is like Titan's levels of fuel but taken to the extreme. On Meros there is a massive amount near (but not on) the surface (not enough to start a world ending explosion), which is the supply that the Merosians used to fuel all of their stuff. The near surface reserves, which would have been sporadic like Earth's, actually caused by dying stuff, would have held way more fuel than Earth's do. They had enough fuel near the surface to last for a long time, it was not really beneficial to explore mining deeper, for fuel, at least... Mining for other stuff, maybe... That is something I have no explanation for. Maybe it wouldn't have been economical to exploit the layer even if they knew of it, because of all the near-surface reserves. If we're going with the Titan-esque, theory, maybe the near surface reserves are mostly oil and coal, and the deeper stuff is methane, and their energy grid is not set up for methane. This is also part of the reason Climate was such a huge problem, with all of the fuel available they would have ramped up usage early, and would have used it abundantly without much care for efficiency, hence why they are having climate problems despite being at somewhere around 40-s to 60-s technology depending on what you're measuring by. I also consider Meros to be a much more fragile world climate-wise than Earth. In addition, depending on the depth of the layer and mineral availability at the surface, it is possible that the only holes deep enough to reach the layer would have been the entrance to the Deep Heart and the Cetidra Detonation holes, all of which were focused mostly on speed and payed little to no attention to the geology of the surrounding rock beyond what it would take to get through it, and in the case of the Cetidra, how good it would work at blocking the sun. Focusing on how long it would have taken the layer to reach that depth, I have no idea how fast new rock is piled on top of old rock, but I think it happens at different rates on Earth and if we go interplanetary it is probably even more varied. I know nothing on this and there could be a real problem here, but if we don't go with the mass extinction model then it isn't a problem at all because the layer could have formed at a different time... Side note: as I type I am starting to like the Titan-esque theory way more than the Extinction theory but I will continue to address both. As for the layer separating the two layers, the Cetidra detonations don't so much melt it as they do pulverize it and kick debris from the layers into the air, where it mixes and reacts. Once the reaction had started it had enough energy to expand outwards, crushing the layer as it went, allowing for more mixing and reacting, etc. The problem now is, as you said, the layer in between melting or getting disturbed allowing for the rocks to mix, or in the Titan theory, allowing for the methane to leak out. As the layer isn't deep enough to experience high temperatures, melting by the core wouldn't really be an issue. As for the explosion reaching the surface and killing everything, again, the layer may not be as deep as originally thought. THOUGHT: Another interesting theory is that the Cetidra detonations cracked the surface enough to release the methane, which mixed with the oxygen atmosphere and burned the surface, but this would be a local event that wouldn't kill everyone, unless it used up all of the oxygen, leaving the Merosians unable to breathe... The atmosphere was already close to toxic and this would have put it over the edge. But this is just a thought experiment and has nothing to do with the other two theories, and it wouldn't be nearly instant. It would also leave people in shelters like the Deep Heart alive. IDK if I mentioned it in the story but on Meros the rich were building shelters, mostly on the surface, and stockpiling energy and oxygen so they could survive. /end thought The issues left in this part are (1) the explosion of the layer not being enough to make it to the surface, and (2) something not causing an early detonation. 1 is a major issue depending on the depth of the layers, which can't be too shallow that: A. The rock on top of it could have been eroded, exposing it B. An asteroid could have hit early and started the detonation (also plays into 2) C. It was discovered and accidentally mixed and detonated (the explanation also plays into 2) Whether the explosion will significantly disturb the surface is critical to the entire Cetidra. I am not very well versed in explosives, but I'd imagine we want the layer as shallow as possible while still avoiding A B or C to give the explosion the greatest chance of reaching the surface. Also, as with the in-between layer, I tend to imagine that this layer wasn't melted, but mechanically fractured to the point of destruction by the blast. A, well, maybe Meros doesn't get a lot of erosion, despite Merosian rhyming with Erosion. It's another planet, and we really only have one data point as to how geological processes work. B, this also plays into 2 as said before, Jupiter is theorized to, in effect, shield Earth from long period comets and some asteroids with its massive gravity well. It is possible that Meros has a gas giant or gas giants nearby providing the same effect but perhaps at a larger scale. C is a bit more difficult to explain, as it is known that the layers were breached at least twice (once for the Deep Heart and at least once for the Cetidra, it could have been one hole that branched out or several holes) without a detonation. The assumption that both layers could have mixed during this and may have been fairly easy to ignite. I mentioned that the rocks in the oxygenated layer require lots of energy to release their oxygen in the first place (didn't think this one out either, brings up more problems, but in this case it might save me) so it should require a large trigger event to cause a detonation, something like a huge asteroid impact, or the Cetidra. Small fires or maybe smaller earthquakes or volcanic events would not be enough to trigger it. If the setup is right, the layers would kind of be like C4, hard to detonate without the right conditions, but very powerful if detonated correctly. This should also explain the rest of 2. Big important part: Now, as for plate tectonics and volcanoes, those big enough to trigger the Cetidra, it is known that Meros has no supervolcanoes, I believe I mentioned it in the story. Otherwise, the Kerbals would have attempted to blow up a supervolcano to block the sun out. Earth has several supervolcanoes, which implies that Meros has a much lower level of volcanic activity than Earth does, and possibly by association a much lower level of tectonic activity. The effects of not being very tectonically active go beyond just eliminating triggers for the Cetidra, they also allow for higher chances of a worldwide rock layer staying together over time and not developing massive gaps which would cause mixing, leaking, or detonation. I'm not a geologist, but if I understand correctly, lower tectonic activity allows for a more uniform surface, allowing for higher chances of a worldwide rock layer forming in the first place. Messing with tectonic activity could affect how life forms and evolves, given some of the theories that a reliable heat source helps with the formation of life, but we have a grand total of one data point on this topic so I'm just going to leave it as "It's possible it had minimal impact" Summary: I greatly overstated the depth of the layers. They are higher up, meaning that melting of the in-between layer by the planet's heat shouldn't be an issue, and also that the explosive energy needed to destroy the surface shouldn't be *as* much of an issue, although admittedly it is still an issue. The in between layer would be pulverized instead of melted, as would the surface layer, although definitely not to the extent that the in between layer would have been. How quickly the layers are covered up by new layers and how this plays into timeframes, well, this shouldn't be much of an issue as Meros's rock layers could be forming at a wide range of speeds and isn't too constrained by what we see on Earth. The chances of premature detonation, especially with the rock layers so high up in this revision, can be explained by the idea that the detonation would take a high energy event to start (AKA Cetidra or impact) (explained by the energy levels needed to get usable oxygen out of the oxygenated rock) and then minimizing the probabilities of those said high energy events happening. The most notable of those fixes are gas giants shielding Meros from comets and asteroids, and the low levels of tectonic and volcanic activities preventing volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and hot spots from detonating the planet. The reduced tectonic activity *probably* increases the chances of worldwide rock layers forming and staying maintaining a good enough seal between the fuel and oxidizer layers over time. With the high energy threshold, the issue of tunneling into the layers causing a detonation is also mostly solved. Note 1: I should have split this up into two parts, the second one for vulcanism/tectonics and the first for everything else in this part. Specific Heat Capacity is an important part of the picture when you involve melting stuff. Again I'm not entirely sure what real world physics and calculations would do to this assumption, but I assumed that the rock layers would be cracked and pulverized to destruction rather than melted to destruction. I think the only part where I specifically mentioned melting was that the surface was slightly molten afterwards but also in retrospect this was overstated and may have given the false impression that the whole surface layer melted. I think there would be some molten areas given the power of the explosion, but definitely not the whole planet. Again, not an expert, but you have definitely brought to my attention that the amount of lava hanging around should be much lower, likely only sporadic. Thank you for calling to my attention some of the more major issues. As for the happily ever after part... We will see. Movie/series thing: The current status is that we are trying to get a crew together to make a short test segment to see how feasible the whole project is and to see what will work and what won't before committing to the whole thing. The biggest remaining problem in my opinion is how the necessary layers formed in the first place, but I'm liking the Titan-esque theory although it is still incomplete. If I get it to a point where I am satisfied with it and the issues with it are gone, I'll retcon it into the story. A final note, the events of the Cetidra are likely still full of holes, and it is incredibly unlikely, but for story purposes, I just need it to be "not impossible." I hope that this explanation has brought it from "impossible" up to "improbable." More discussion about this is okay but I don't plan on dwelling too long on it. If I can get an overarching set of conditions that seem like they could work, then I'll stick with those and not elaborate further because beyond a certain point I have no idea what I'm talking about and I am beyond certain I will never come up with a perfect, detailed explanation so I will settle for a fairly believable rough overview. Wow that's a big wall of text.

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Journey to the Centre of the Galaxy, Part 1

IMO those regulations won't be put into place until after it becomes likely that P2P will be a thing. When or if that happens is anyone's guess, but I agree that Starship will not be ready for P2P for a long time, if ever. Looking in the far future, if the business case is valid and we don't end up in a post apocalyptic world, reliability will probably improve to the point where someone will at least try it eventually.

Well I guess it must be a really long rocket then.

Can't wait to see what they choose!

Weren't they going to try to catch a fairing? Any news on that?

What about spraying the surface with a sticky substance? This would provide a sort of landing pad, preventing most of the rock from flying away, and it could be done with much less work and expense than a dedicated pad.

V - Spearfisher

If I understand this correctly, this is really only an issue if the Landers exhaust velocity is above lunar orbital velocity (disregarding weird compression at the surface which could result in a higher velocity) so I would imagine that the effect would be mitigated by using a low efficiency engine (200s isp, ~2km/s ev) for the final 100 or so m/s of the descent, the part that would kick up the most dust. The descent would likely have to be planned in a way that anything done before the last burn will not be low enough to kick up dust (so high above the surface that the plume will spread out). This goes both for Artemis Landers and Starship. Unless the problem is more about the amount of exhaust than the speed of the exhaust. It's probably both as the Apollo Landers worked but didn't cause a concern (maybe it wasn't known at the time?).

I can't guarantee I will be able to participate, but if I can I would like to. Real life has been all over the place recently though so I can't say for sure I want to do this. I would like some clarification on somethings though: What exactly constitutes a turn? I see there is a 5 turn limit per turn limit. With the examples given there is a lot of grey area into how much you can do each turn, I'd suggest making a list. Mods list and version. This is VERY important to lay down, and to keep as simple as possible. If it's not set in stone then we will have compatibility issues, and if the modlist is not simple it may discourage people, and it could get frustrating. Is there a win condition? If not this will likely end with people getting bored and dropping out. Additionally we need a surefire way to keep roleplay off of the forums. This means no nation building beyond maybe a simple flag (I suggest only using in game flags because if we used custom ones we'd have to share flags to each other and that can be confusing for those who haven't done it before). The mods tend to get uneasy about roleplay as it often results in fighting. Also I like the Discord idea.

It might be a small part of it. The big part of it is irl stuff. Despite it being a break I had a ton of stuff going on. However the college applications struggle is mostly over and now I have to start with the scholarships struggle...