Ho Lam Kerman

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Blyat!- Has your launch escape tower activate at random intervals on the pad, leaving your crew screaming and cursing in Russian, Soyuz T-10a style.

5163: You get your phone back since 3rd May. It's at 100%. Hooray. You check the internet. What's all this talk about Grumpy Cat? GRUMPY CAT IS WHAT?!?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/122_(number)

42. Is it okay to touch Mars?

Granted, but you now have insomnia. I wish communism will be reestablished.

5160: You don't see the pilot. You wonder where he i- A dawn of realisation creeps over you. HE WAS JEB.

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Floor 5158: Jebediah decides that an elcano is too boring for him, so he straps on a bunch of rockets and flies to Ike.

8/10 I see the Dr Seuss reference.

floor 5156: You land on Duna, and find Jeb driving a Crater Crawler across the surface on an elcano. (Reminder: on floor 5163 please get back your phone.)

Oh no. I've landed my kerbs on Duna. The antenna is damaged beyond repair. My worst fears have come true. (Not like I need it anyways. But I just like having it there.) And so off we go! Edit: Cruising along at 20 m/s, this feels like a piece of cake!

"The planet's on [snip] fire!" I would guess.

I've landed a rover on Duna. Yes, another one of those little Crater Crawlers. I like those. Now waiting for the crew, due to land in 20 days. This time, Valentina will have company. I've developed a new two-person lander craft. Unfortunately the antenna broke during the aerobrake so Val will need to fix it. Nothing too serious, not like I'll lose conta...

And... that's why I'm the Resident Orbital Mechanic and @MinimumSky5 is the Sr. Spacecraft Engineer. Well, you learn stuff every day. I guess this is it.

Why would the engine go RUD when the turbine starts sucking air? I imagine it's due to pressure of some sort but I can't imagine why. And I think there was that Falcon 9 landing attempt where they ran out of fuel just moments before touchdown and the Merlins didn't RUD. Btw that really needs to be a feature on KSP... Engine RUD when your tank is bone-dry, just to bug all the people who do stock super efficient rockets with 0.1m/s of ∆v left in the stage after mission completion.

How can you write something this good? Humor, suspense, and an entire plot paradigm shift all in one chapter. Your writing is better every chapter. Take your time... and write something good. Well worth the wait, I say. I look forward to the next chapter.

No, they could timewarp too fast and end up flying from the planet at 37612 times the speed of light

Has there ever been a launch without warning like this? Were NOTAMs etc issued?

Yup, you've found it! That's one of my favourite short stories!

This New Ocean is back! No images though. Sorry. If I don't need to actually do the missions on KSP then it'll be faster and I can start decimating my populace @Alpha 360, Chapter 10: Homecoming Wernher: "As much as we'd all like to see how deep this rabbit hole goes, we need you back on Kerbin, with the samples. Look, you're going on a Duna mission in 20 days. You need some rest before you're going back into space. We can send someone else to look at this anomaly. But we need you back on Kerbin, ASAP." Jeb: "Aww come on! I swear I can find the bottom of this if you give me a few more days!" Wernher: "Once we get the two-kerbal lander up and running you can explore this with Val." Jeb: "Good point." Everyone knows by now that Jeb has a crush on Val. Minmus: "Might as well take some aerials of the anomaly location during ascent." Jeb: "Okay, I buy it. I'm coming back next time. For Val." Little does Jeb know Val's hearing this live from Mission Control. She stifles a giggle and blushes. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Back on board the Saturn V, Bill and Bob have a hundred and one questions for Jeb. "What the actual hell did you see down there?!" "Just a few cans of nuthin." "Nothing?! It was on the front page! 'Mysterious tunnel found on Mun'! Lemme see the samples!" "This isn't a lab. Contamination of samples is a real threat, and more importantly we don't know what this stuff can do. I had to handle this stuff with a hazmat suit. Those are at the base." "You sound like Wernher." "Um, thanks?" "No, you seem quite different. Could it have been the tunnel, or... dare I say... the Kraken itself?" "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER... I mean, unfortunately, we cannot draw any conclusions at this point... I mean, I don't know what the hell this is..." "Jeb, something's happened to you. In the tunnel. Wernher needs to know about this." ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Wernher: "You what, Jeb?" Jeb: "My tone of voice changes quite rapidly, and I suspect it may be associated with exposure to the anomaly." Wernher: "When did you first notice?" Jeb: "Bill said I was talking a hell of a lot like you, and THEN I STARTED SPEAKING MONOTONOUSLY LIKE NOW and afterwards I realised that my tone of voice was changing extremely abruptly." Wernher: "What on Kerbin... no, what in This New Ocean could've possibly caused this?

Yesterday, I built a KSP clone of the cancelled TKS spacecraft. But who wants who know what I did yesterday? Today I was pretty much messing about in KSP, trying to make a Tsar Bomba without BDarmory (and putting it on top of a Proton, which I then put in a missile silo), messing with TAC self-destruct and the abort key (you can actually set TAC self destruct on the abort keybinding!) and taking a look at stuff littered around the Kerbol System. I jumped to a particular asteroid named Comet Halley that I HE'd into a high elliptical orbit 10 years ago reaching past the orbit of Plock. (That gives me something to be excited about when it comes back every few decades.) And then the planets of the Kerbol System, all of them except Plock, were lined up, ready for a photo shoot. And so I got a Voyager-style Solar System family shoot! In the remote outskirts of the Kerbol System, the Kerbol System poses for a family pic. (And yes, Dres is there. It's about three pixels in area. Try zooming in.)

15 years ago, two Delta II rockets launched two twins to two opposite places on Mars. The rover duo was only designed to last for 90 sols. Opportunity would eventually last 5352 sols. For 15 years, these rovers would be part of our lives. They've helped us discover so much. They were our two eyes on Mars. Hematite blueberries, proving water on Mars. Heatshield rock, a wonderful surprise sitting where the heatshield rested. An entire marathon, on Mars. Over 220000 pictures. 15 years. They had faced hardships, too. Driving backward to prevent wheel damage. Driving on slopes so treacherous the dust started sliding off the solar panels. Breaking both front wheels. 15 years. Now, they sit silent on Mars, listening to the wind and breathing the dust. Humanity's last words to the little rover that could were the song I'll Be Seeing You, performed by Billie Holiday. Ad astra, the little rover that could. You will be dearly missed.

This is the first day of my life when Opportunity wasn't roving around on Mars. The little rover that could now couldn't. A fitting end, perhaps- the greatest little rover went out because of the greatest dust storm in recorded history. We will forever miss you.

Your writing amazes and draws me in again and again, sir. Absolutely amazing. I eagerly await the next chapter.