Alpha 360

NEWBIE CENTRAL Hello to everyone reading this! This thread is a collaboration of myself, @kerbalstar, @obney kerman, and last but not least, @VelocityPolaris. It is our goal to help introduce Newbies to some of the more time-consuming and difficult aspects about KSP, ranging from Interplanetary Travel, (My screenshot) To multiple-launch bases (@kerbalstar's screenshot) To Space Stations (@VelocityPolaris's screenshot) To aircraft, SSTOs, and VTOLs. (@obney kerman's screenshot) Also, just as a side note, people with more than 750 rep (unless you're a moderator) can not participate in challenges here, as it is reserved for the new-comers! Yes, I will resign as a sub-author of this post when my rep reaches 750, I follow my own rules . Anyway, if you have reached this far, and you are a newbie wanting a challenge to push you forward, or a player who has barely touched KSP and needs motivation to get back into the game, this is your thread. At the beginning of each week, one of the four of us will post a "mini-challenge". This challenge will be something simple and easy to complete, but the point is to defeat the challenge. For example, a person here will submit a Duna Probe challenge. Then it would be your goal to submit a reply, which would be a Duna relay satellite network. This will trump the original challenge, and then you will receive a "Electronic Newbie Central Challenge Completion"(ENCCC) medal. This doesn't mean that all of these challenges will be that hard. There will be a Mun anomaly challenge, a Kerbin space-station challenge, a VTOL aircraft challenge.....the list goes on and on. There will be links below to all of the different challenges, but the challenges have an expiration date. If you don't submit your challenge mission report within 10 days of the challenge, it will not count. Also, using cheat mods or the cheat menu is NOT allowed for obvious reasons. You are free to use whatever mods you can use that don't make you feel bad, but if the mod used is determined to be extremely cheaty, the four sub-authors will vote with each other and then disqualify the entry. Edit: @Lucast0909 is now apart of the team. Edit Number 2: @doggonemess is now apart of the team. Table of Challenges 1. Land near a Mun Anomaly - posted by @kerbalstar. Expired 2. Build a Mun Station - posted by @obney kerman. Expired 3. Build a Glider - posted by @VelocityPolaris. Expired 4. Rescue a Kerbal - posted by @Lucast0909. Expired 5. Skylab Challenge - posted by @doggonemess. Expired 6. Mun Satellite Network - posted by @Alpha 360. In Progress Good luck and I hope you all win a medal or two from this thread! Happy Explosions!

Right. I assumed it was a bug, but it fits in nicely with the story line. I hope you fix it soon so that no more kerbals will die while in stasis. Also, just so you know, I LOVE GPO! It is my favorite planet pack ever. In the next chapter, I will display some of the most beautiful views in GPO to confirm my last statement. Happy Explosions!

Second Chapter of Voyages Extraordinaire: Flight of the Freedom Part 2 "Getting into the cyro-capsule now. Wow, its cold in here." Bill watched his icy breath float in front of him. "Its meant to be cold. We don't have much life-support, so the goal is to lengthen our budget by keeping at least one kerbal frozen at a time. In the middle of our transit, two of of us will be in hibernation and one will monitor the craft for 90 days, then they will switch out with another kerbal and so on and so forth. Everyone will be awake during our treks into Low Olu'um orbit and...." "I get it, Stable. I also know you made the decision for me to be put in this can first." "We're past Gol now. Our cameras will take all the photos you can look at, so there is no reason to stay awake now. We need to save all the supplies possible." Grumbling, Bill opened one of the upright caskets. Ice floated out of his new home for the next 180 days. He sighed and shivered. Then he turned around and backed into the container. The door slid over him. A needle poked into his arm and he fell unconscious, not to wake for a long time. 4 days later an alarm went off. "We have passed through Gaia's SOI. What's gone wrong?" Stable said to herself. She glanced over at the temperature readings. "Holy Crap!" The temperature readings zoomed higher than reasonably imagined. The crew inside the cycro-pods could die if not kept under the correct temperatures. She hit the button, starting the thawing process. She then turned to spacecraft so that the solar panels would block out the sun. "Mission Control! We have an emergency here! The deepfreeze pods are thawing!" "Have you done everything possible to get Bill and Ally out of there?" "Yes, please let them be alright." She watched the camera showing the interior of the deepfreeze pod expectantly. "Radiators are at 100%" relayed Stable. "We're watching everything." "Can you see the bio-signs from the deepfreeze?" asked Stable hurriedly. "Ally is waking up now. We can't get a signal on Bill's bio-signs, blast them!" "What happened?" Ally asked from the deepfreeze container, "Why is it so warm in here?" "We're figuring it out. Is Bill okay?" asked Stable. "No. No no no no no no!!" Ally screamed. Stable leaned back shocked at the image which came up in her screen. Bill floated in his pod, his open eyes staring into space he could not see. He was dead. "Bill........Bill is dead." "What the &#%@!?" Mission Control exclaimed. There was a long silence on both sides of the microphone. The KASA had lost their nuclear specialist on their first interplanetary journey. Stable left the command module and got into the deepfreeze module. Ally floated in front of the pod which claimed Bill's life. "He drowned. He drowned in the ice which preserved him." Ally spoke, her eyes still wide in shock. They both stared at the limp body in the pod. Stable broke the silence, "What are we going to do?" Ally stayed silent. Then she turned to a button on the wall. Her breath began to condense in the dropping temperatures. She hit the button. The pod made a whirling sound. Stable moved away from the pod. The cyro-pod began to freeze over. "We'll....we'll keep him frozen until we get back." "But the extra mass..." Stable protested weakly. "&#%@ the extra mass. He just died. We'll give him a proper, heroic burial once we get back to Gaia and NOTHING you can do will change that." Ally stated vehemently. Stable, still cowered by the revelation that a crew member died on her watch, nodded sadly. "I'm not going to get into that deep-freeze again. I'll stay in the garden module." Ally walked through the hatch into the garden habitat. Stable floated in the now cold space. She shivered, partly with fear. She would be infamous now. She let a crew member die. She was completely and utterly responsible, at least in her eyes. With a sigh, Stable climbed through the hatch separating the deepfreeze module from the command module. Stable sat down in the pilot's chair. She looked down at the buttons and flashing lights that covered her console. "Dang it." she muttered to herself. She breathed in deeply, calming herself. She then glanced upwards. Space stared back at her. Thousands of stars filled her small window. She could see faint nebula and even a glimpse at other galaxies. The glory of the cosmos awed her. Maybe they would be able to push through. They had to. If they failed, kerbal kind would never venture beyond Kerbol. That night was a restless night for the pair of kerbettes on the Freedom. Stable dreamed of micro-meteorites smashing into the nuclear reactor, tearing it to bits in seconds. Ally dreamed of cold, hard, icy, white places....very similar to the poles of Gaia. After that long night the two met in the command module. "We have to keep going. We can't allow Bill's death to slow us down. We need to reach Olu'um." Ally punched her fist as a clarification. Ally unlocked some vault of character from Bill's death. Now instead of being timid, she changed to the opposite mentality. "Alright. I agree. We will both stay awake during the transit. Deal?" she held out her hand. "Deal." They shook hands and then parted. 2 years later......... "We have entered Olu'um's SOI!" cried an older Stable gleefully, "Do you hear that, mission control! We are here!" Two hours later Mission Control replied, "We understand and we celebrate with you! We'll tell the news to Gaia! We have succeeded!" "We have adjusted our course so that we will fly-by Fume on our way in, and then Telos to finish the capture. There will be no delta-v expended!" Again, two hours later mission control responded, "Great!" Conversation lagged considerably for the next while, but then they reached Fume. "We have reached Fume's SOI! Wow its pretty!" exclaimed Stable. "I can't wait to get the science from here! Its going to be a treasure trove!" Ally added excitedly. They reached their destination perfectly well. They still had 5,000 m/s delta-v so that meant that they could visit all the moons orbiting Olu'um. "We are getting a load of electricity from Olu'um! Each solar panel is giving us 600 units a second! Unbelievable!" Ally again added with a trill in her voice. They had been waiting 2 whole years to reach Olu'um, an huge amount of time in a single spacecraft. They had broke all endurance records ever taken. Two years in null-gravity had taken its slow toll though. "My legs are like jelly. I have taken body scans, and I have lost 25% of my bone mass, and Stable has lost 23% bone mass as well." she recorded and sent to Mission Control. "We are now approaching our PeriFume. Fume is so pretty with its green atmosphere. The amount of methane in it is incredible! In fact, I'll take an EVA." Twenty minutes later, Ally floated above Fume. "Wow." She gasped. She gazed down upon the large moon. Aurora covered the surface, not only at the poles. With Olu'um behind Fume, Stable could see through the hazy atmosphere at the land. "THERE"S LIQUIDS!" She screamed. "LIQUIDS! MAYBE EVEN WATER! EUREKA!" "Ow, my ears, Ally. Its not that big of a deal is it?" Stable asked, attacking her stress point. "OF COURSE ITS A BIG DEAL, YOU IGNORAMUS!" Ally came in later as Olu'um rose from behind Fume. "Orientating spacecraft to block Olu'um radiation. The sun is just as bright of Olu'um, if a little dimmer." commented a milder Stable. "Look at that, the sun is about to fall behind Fume." "Fume's atmosphere is gigantic. We are predicting that it has 1.4 times the atmospheric pressure of Gaia, while having 82% Gaian gravity." After a few hours, the Freedom reached Telos' SOI. "Telos has a moon, Mission Control! It has a moon! Its very icy and silvery. I can't believe the discovery!" Ally exclaimed to Mission Control. "We're beginning to reach PeriTelos. We had high passes with both Telos and Fume to get us an orbit that will not place us into the protostar." "Olu'um is so bright we can barely even see Telos, its incredible how bright it is!" "Only by blocking out Olu'um with the solar panels, we were able to see the little moon." "We have reached PeriTelos! Unbelievable!" The last word had quickly became Ally's most used word over the course of their mission around Olu'um. "TELOS ALSO HAS LIQUIDS! ALMOST CERTAINLY WATER! DO YOU HEAR THAT?! I DISCOVERED WATER!" "Um....no you didn't. The cavekerbs discovered water thousands of years ago." Stable commented. There was a brief struggle, but no one was harmed.....mortally. "Ally. Are our radiators supposed to be working 100% here? And are we supposed to be losing Ablator?" Stable asked Ally, gesturing to a panel covered in red lights. "Oh dear." "ABORT!!!!!!" Will our heroines survive the heat of Olu'um?? Stay tuned till next time Happy Explosions!

Well.....You don't need all of that. What I do for reusable rockets is a two stage rocket where the first stage goes to space and the second stage to orbit. I just slap on 8 radial parachutes, a 1.25 probe core and a pair of radial batteries. I can recover the first stage for roughly 75% of the cash I spent on it 75% of the time. It only takes an extra 2 minutes per launch anyway. The other way I did it was an SSTO rocket like you said. I don't like SSTOs very much due to their lack of payload capacity. And its rather difficult to land anything tall on land. So I often just do the two stage, first recoverable stage rocket because its time efficient, I get my money back, and its easy to design. Simple as that. Run the maths if you want, but I'll stick to that as a beginner.

First Chapter of Voyage Extraordinaire: Flight of Freedom, Part 1 "How do you know how to pilot this thing?" asked Bill. "Because I am obviously smarter than you." Stable replied, looking down her nose. If she had one. Bill rolled his eyes, then asked, "Why isn't there some sort of booster to get us up? We just have 8 Kickbacks strapped to the side of the Freedom. Surely the Freedom doesn't have the Delta-v to get to orbit and to Olu'um." Stable tossed her un-tied hair rebelliously as she explained, "The Freedom 1 is powered by a nuclear engine. The Freedom has a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1:05 and 9,000 m/s in space. We have calculated that the exit burn to Olu'um will be roughly 1,750 m/s, then the breaking burn at Olu'um will be negligible because of a gravity assist with Fume, Olu'um's largest moon, will get us an easy orbit. So once we reach Olu'um's orbit, we will have roughly 6,000 m/s, with 2,000 m/s for the burn back to Gaia, means we can easily visit every single moon and moonlet orbiting Olu'um." "What is the scientific benefit of going to Olu'um." Bill asked Ally. Ally replied in a monotone voice, "Olu'um is a protostar orbiting at roughly Jool's orbit. We haven't ever observed a star system with both a main sequence star and a protostar. It will be our task to look at the star and the moons and moonlets orbiting it to enhance our predictions at what our solar system used to look like. If we know that, then we can accurately predict where life will be possible in the future." "Wow." Bill said. "I didn't know this mission was that important." Both Ally and Stable stared at him. Bill explained, "I mean, this is just a mission to prove what kerbalkind is possible of completing, right? We have been given no scientific instruments, no extra luxury, not a spare kilogram. If science is the main reason behind the mission, why not send a probe?" Stable glared murderously at Bill while Ally shrugged, glad to have a case against pilots. "This is Mission Control, is everyone strapped in? We are about to launch." Still glaring at Bill, Stable replied, "Everyone is strapped in, Mission Control. By the way, thanks for the deepfreeze pod on-board. I can't wait to force Bill into one of them." "You'll get your chance." After the checklist was followed out, Stable started the countdown. "3........2........1......Liftoff!" "Freedom's flight has begun!" cried out Stable. The Freedom rose into the air powered by the kickbacks. The plan was to reach space and then kick-in the nuclear drive to reach orbit. From there, they could plot the intercept burn to Olu'um. The kickbacks carried enough punch to get the bulky spacecraft high above the low atmospheric layer before anything....broke exploded self-destructed rapidly dissembled unexpectedly. "Its a bit bumpy, but it seems we have a lot of delta-v here. Also, just a little something your engineers forgot to think about, the hydrogen is boiling off because you didn't put enough batteries on this dratted thing." commented Stable. There was some swearing on the other side at mission control which could roast a chicken a mile away which captured a sliver of what was being said. In other words, it goes something like this $&*#*@(&$%*#%$%#^@*$$^&%^#$*@@^%#$@^%#$@&*@^@#^$%*#*%@^@^#% Whatever that.......thing is, its probably not pleasant. "Boosters have reached 100% depletion! Detaching SRBs and firing up the nuclear drive." Stable reported. "Deploying radiators, Man that nuclear motor is hot." "Reaching orbital velocity. Everything looks good. You can also tell the egg-heads on the ground that we lost about 600 m/s to boil off. Looks like we won't be visiting some moonlet or other." Again language spilled out of the mission control that traumatized a mother who was showing her son the memorial to Jebediah, the first kerbal out of the atmosphere........10 miles away. "Mission Control. We are in orbit! Send up the calculations for the intercept burn. I'll get Bill to review the reactor data and unfold the solar panels. Its all he can do competently." "Thanks for the compliment, Stable." Bill replied, "Just keep us above the atmosphere, and I'll leave that comment be." An hour later the data arrived and the solar panels were also unfurled. A secondary purpose of the solar panels was as radiation shield once around Olu'um. The ship would return to a position where the solar panels would be between Olu'um and the crew quarters. The crew quarters were made up of a pair of garden habitats and a three-person deepfreeze-pod. The Mk1-2 command pod was designed to be detached at the end of the mission and the rest of the spacecraft would burn up on reentry. This was wasteful, but the eggheads wanted to visit every single planetary body around Olu'um. The next mission was going to be a lander mission using a special.....surprise. "Its sunset now, Mission Control. Burn will occur in 2 minutes, 12 seconds." Stable reported. "Good to know. Godspeed, Freedom." Stable felt her hackles rise. She was piloting the first ever interplanetary mission and their exit burn from Gaia's SOI was coming up in the next few minutes. "Reactor looks good. We can only run it for a short period of time before it has to rest. We didn't pack enough radiators for the job." "But we fired at full thrust for at least 2 minutes getting into orbit." "This type of reactor weakens every time you use it. Granted it has the best thrust-to-weight ratio and ISP, but I still wish they set us up with a nuclear areospike. Those are much simpler, much more reliable." "What about our burn home? How long do you think we can burn once we leave Olu'um?" "It will probably be two one minute burns, if we're luckily and don't have to maneuver much." Maybe this engineer wasn't as dumb as he appeared to be, thought Stable. A minute later the countdown for the burn. "3......2......1...Ignition!" cried Stable. The spacecraft shook around them. "This motor is a bit bumpy. Next time you could load twice the fuel for twice the delta-v." advised Stable. "Okay, thanks for that gem." Mission Control answered with a heavy voice. "Burn 50% complete!" "Aaaannnnndddd SHUTDOWN!" cried Stable. The Emancipator Nuclear Engine shut down and the Freedom was on its way to Olu'um! Happy Explosions!

Voyage Extraordinaire In @Gameslinx's Planet Pack! (Sneak Peak for the Third Chapter) Table of Contents 0.1 - The Voyage Extraordinaire 0.2 - Enter Kerbonaut Ally 0.3 - Enter Kerbonaut Stable 0.4 - Enter Kerbonaut Bill 1.0 - Flight of the Freedom part 1 2.0 - Flight of the Freedom part 2 3.0 - Flight of the Freedom finale 4.0 - Project Valkyrie 5.0 - "Blue is the most beautiful color." 6.0 - K- Prize Challenge 7.0 - The Fate of the Munar-5 / Part 1 - Liftoff 8.0 - The Fate of the Munar-5 / Part 2 - Departure 9.0 - The Fate of the Munar-5/ Part 3 - Landing and Sabotage 10.0 - The Fate of the Munar-5 / Part 4 - Exposed Settings Mod List 0.1 - The Voyage Extraordinaire I have created this thread to replace the Mr. Kerman or Roland series. Here once a week I will publish a Journey Extraordinaire chapter which would be a part of a series of chapters. These series will (hopefully) no longer than maybe 4 to 6 chapters long. I am still using Gamelinx's planet overhaul so things will stay pretty. The collective goal of the Journeys Extraordinaire is to do everything which I haven't done before. There will be an Asteroid Station, stations around other planets, SSTOs to other planets, and many other things I haven't done yet in KSP. Below is an introduction to a couple of reoccurring characters. I hope the reader will have an entertaining time reading the Voyage Extraordinaire. P.S I kinda took this from Jules Venre's Journeys Extraordinaire, please don't sue me. 0.2 - Enter Kerbonaut Ally I'm Ally.Yes, that is my real name. My mother was tired of having raucous sons, so she vowed to name the next baby, Ally. The name must have worked because I have been accepted as the physiologist for Freedom 1, the first interplanetary mission ever! I am so excited to be on this mission. As the Freedom 1 has a massive nuclear motor, it is likely to partial irradiate the crew. It is my job to make sure our kerbonauts don't get sick on the job and also make sure they don't suffer from too much radiation poisoning. If you want physical description, I am on the smaller side but my hair really does add to my height. Once in space and when my pony tail floats upright, I can be as tall as the command module! Kinda. Anyway I view myself as pretty with a decently pale shade of green, as well as a spotless face unlike Stable Kerman. Opps, I guess I have said too much. *Shuffles off stage embarrassed* 0.3 - Enter Kerbonaut Stable Hey everyone! My name is Stable M. Kerman, *Takes a bow*, the most important crew member for this mission. I am the pilot of the Freedom 1! This was only because I am the best pilot that ever walked the flight deck. I was an ace in the Kietnam War who transferred over to the kerbonaut corps because I wanted to be the fastest kerbette alive! In this mission we will reach unbelievable speeds of up to 5 kilometers a second. 5 kilometers a second! That's travelling around Gaia in 80 seconds! Unbelievable. Ally might have made a couple of rude comments about my facial features. That is only because she is jealous of my unbelievable beauty. *winks at the crowd*. I fancy myself one of the most eligible bachelors since Batman. Yes I read the comics thank you very much for your time. *Flutters eyelashes at camera crew member who falls over in a faint. Stable actually was fluttering her eyelashes at the camera.* 0.4 - Enter Kerbonaut Bill I'm here to provide mechanical services to the nuclear engine and the hydroponic gardens, and the deep-freeze unit. If any of those fails, then our mission will be terminated. So I have a heavy job on my shoulders without having to deal with two crew members which could have been chosen for better cohesion. Anyway, unlike the other two, I'm not a bachelor so I should be able to stand the nonsense I'm expecting to happen on this journey. Anyway I am going to play Mr. Levelheaded. LET THE VOYAGE EXTRAORDINAIRE COMMENCE!

The problem is that with 7,000, I can't even get into orbit from the runway, if that doesn't fail as well and destroy the runway in the process. All the contracts I have are either concerning Olei or Gol, meaning that I would have to resort to one of your "cheaty" methods which I would not like to do myself. I think I will start a science mode game with BARIS on the same settings as this game. Why science mode? I believe that people would like to see views of some of the many planets in the solar system instead of focusing so much on the Gaia system. I will put up a poll later concerning such a thing. Thanks for giving me those cheaty methods though. I now have them lodged in my memory so that I can use them when I'm not recording it. Happy Explosions!

"We failed." Brotherhood 3-d This sadly ends the Oceans of Emptiness Career Thread. Sorry for not posting this, but I just couldn't face the task of writing up my failure. I am willing to start up Oceans of Emptiness Mk2 Career Thread, this time using moderate mode instead of hard. Please post your opinions on whether or not to continue the series down below. I will do one last post about Roland Kerman abandoning the KSC along with his controllers, then either this thread will close down or we will continue on with the new career mode mentioned above. Happy Explosions!

Here are a couple more. Priority on the last one please. Happy Explosions!

"Running on Fumes!" Brotherhood Block II-3a Brotherhood Block II-3b

Here's a peak at the future.

"Another day, Another Launchpad." Brotherhood 3-b (Sorry for the delay. I just didn't have the spirit to write these up. ) Brotherhood 3-c

Well........After I have upgraded the reliability of the terrier and fuel tanks......after I land kerbals on Nightmare, Olemut and Gullis. I would guess around installment number 30.

I'll like this because you are always hilarious, but i would never read anything like this outside the kerbal forums. Also that is an unnecessarily painful way to clone. Granted it gets done in a couple of seconds, but surely they could have copied his brain onto a computer in a simulated universe where there WASN'T aliens wiping out the galaxy and wind it down so that he lives a lifetime in a second for less effort. Or put a copy of his brain and Jeb's into the spaceship, and then speed up to 10,000 gs without any side-effects. Or even better, send off the ship into deep space and then transmit everyone's copy of their brain over there once it set up a colony. And repeat the process until the nasty aliens can't keep up with the speed of light. I don't want to debunk this entire story though, and I only know all these things because I am a nerd, and if you had two crushes, you're not a nerd. Great set up and execution, and i just love your since of humor. Keep going with the story! Happy Explosions!

I was wondering more about tips on precise prose for story writing. I need to know how to recognize excess words, phrases and sentence structure. Also just some pointers for passive sentences and how to defeat them. Just sending me to a website will be fine. Happy Explosions!

"Brotherhood is terminated!" Brotherhood 1-b (Return) Brotherhood 3-a

Here's a few more. Could the last one have the priority. If you could, could you make the explosions cooler? Happy Explosions!

You don't have to have one, i believe. Anyway, the only things they ask for is your email and a passcode. Do that, and then show us your plan!

I was wondering if people here have got tips on writing professional prose? Prose is one of my weak points in writing, so can anyone give me some tips?

Here yet another screenshot. Just so you know, my thread is about kerbals, upon discovering themselves on a new and alien solar system, decide to explore it to discover WHY they arrived here so mysteriously. Happy Explosions!

"Brotherhood has Landed" Brotherhood 1-a Brotherhood 1-b

"The Time of the Brotherhood has Begun!" Brotherhood 2-a Brotherhood 2-b

Here's a screenshot

"Olei.....Olei Olei Olei! Olei!" (If you want to know where I got this? Click here) Childhood 1