jimmymcgoochie

Herman: Are we there yet? Dunmon: For the thousandth time, no, we're not- Herman: Then why can I see Kerbin out the window? Dunmon: Wait, we ARE there yet! Fire the engines! Dunmon: It's OK, we're practically home, nothing bad can possibly happen now *fzzt* engine failure! Herman: WHY!? Dunmon: Disabling the opposite engine to maintain control, let's hope we don't have any more *fzzt* another engine failure! Herman: *practically catatonic* Dunmon: We're well over the rated burn times on the remaining engines, but at least we're in orbit of Kerbin. Go fix those engines, will you? Herman: *inarticulate snarl* Dunmon: ...p-p-please? *later* Herman: Engines fixed. Park us in LKO so we can go home. Dunmon: And that's us in a nice circular orbit- and low enough that they can use the cheaper version of the Kronus to send that shuttle up too! Mortimer: Yeah, but we just had another contract expire and this mission to Moho has probably cost us about ten million funds so far, so... Dunmon: Wouldn't it be hilarious if they launched the shuttle but forgot to change the docking port on the back so it couldn't dock to this ship? Herman: *eye twitching* Dunmon: Heh heh, funny story, Herman... They, kind of, did forget to change the docking port... Herman: *whimpering* Dunmon: Just put your suit on and jetpack over to it, no problem at all. I'll get the samples- Herman: MINE! *yoink* MY SAMPLES MY SHUTTLE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Gene: *sigh* Great, yet more space madness to deal with... Dunmon: Ooh, pretty! Dunmon: Runway in sight, nice and gentle now... Dunmon: And he nails the landing! Herman: *exits shuttle* I'm done. *hands Wernher samples* These are for you. *hands Gene spacesuit* And that's for you. I quit. *walks off* Gus: Should we tell him he's completely naked? Bobak: Not in the pool, Herman! *splash* Herman: I don't work for you any more, I can do what I like! Dunmon: Was it something I said? *** Look, something shiny! And while they're distracted, it's Probe Time! Jool Care Package: 6/10. Stress-related breakdowns caused a sizeable portion of IS3's food reserves to be dumped into space, so now they need more food or they'll run out in ~600 days. Trouble is the next Kerbin>Jool transfer window is about a year away and would take too long to get there, thus this thing has to take a circuitous route, bomb down inside Moho's periapsis then sling around the sun and catch Jool as quickly as possible. Stupidly long transfer burn, multiple course corrections needed and it might just be able to capture into Jool orbit at the other end, who knows... *** Lensel: Engine cutoff in 3, 2, 1... Lensel: And that's us in our parking orbit of Jool. Just need to wait for the Nuclear Space Tug to arrive and then we can put some flags on some moons. Bartfen: Does Eeloo count as a moon now, even though it used to be a planet? Lensel: Well it orbits another planet now, so by definition that makes it a moon. Liszon: Yeah, but... *many days of debate later* Linus: NST is station keeping beside IS3, ready to begin the landings. Lensel: Who wants to go first? Gervin: I'll do it. Lensel: Great- off to Laythe with you! The sooner we can get rid of that stupid unpressurised cockpit, the better. Gervin: OK then... See you in a while. Gervin: Course set for Laythe, the NST has been released and will arrive at Laythe a little bit ahead of me so it can capture into orbit first. Also the radiation sensor is flashing red, so I guess I'm into the outer belt now. Gene: *worried* Gervin's biomonitor is showing a dangerous level of radiation exposure and she's not even reached Laythe yet. At this rate she might not come back out the other side... Kraken: *appears from nowhere* WILDCARD TIME!!! Lensel: What the-! Gene: [QuInDaR!] Gervin: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Kraken: Gervin Kerman, pick a number between one and a hundred. Gervin: *panicking* Uh, one? Kraken: One it is! Congratulations, your radiation exposure levels have now been changed to one percent. Have a nice flight! *disappears again* Gervin: Huh? Lensel: That was weird. Gene: Wait- all the biomonitors are now showing the crew's radiation exposure at just 1%. That can't be right! ...can it? Lensel: We can check it on our end, but so far, yeah it looks like it's real. Gene: So Gervin isn't going to die a horrible agonising death of radiation sickness after all? Hooray! Gervin: Say what!? Gervin: The sunshine on Laythe sure looks pretty... Wernher: Isn't that a song? Jeb: Nah, you're thinking of something else. Gervin: Bracing for aerobraking and landing... Ooh, that's toasty! OK, scratch that- that's very very hot hot hot ow burny hot hot is that melting? Gervin: Phew! That was unpleasant... I have an island in sight almost directly in front of me, preparing for parachute landing. Val: Try to relax, you'll hurt yourself less that way. Wernher: It's a good thing we added those parachutes, looks like the front landing gear have been bent out of position by the heat of re-entry. Gervin: It's almost like you're trying to kill me or something! Gervin: Chutes out, touchdown any second *THUD* ow! That was... Gene: Gervin, are you OK? Gervin: I'm fine, it's just... Woah. Gervin: Hey, science peoples! Is Laythe's atmosphere breathable? Wernher: Well, it has enough oxygen in it to get a jet engine to work, but I'm not sure- Gervin: OK, thanks. Wernher: I have a bad feeling about this... Gervin: *coughing* Wow, this place stinks! It's like rotten eggs mixed with really stale air. Gene: Please tell me you didn't go out without a helmet on..? Gervin: This is AWESOME! I can run! I can feel the wind in my hair! I can- ooh, pretty! Lensel: Leave the rock alone, Ger, there's only room for one sample in that plane and we need it for the surface sample. Gervin: Aww... I'm keeping a little bit though. Great idea, giving these spacesuits pockets. Gene: Have you taken the surface sample? Planted the flag? Wernher: Fixed the landing gear? Gervin: Yes, yes, and *zap* yes. Just tell me when to take off and I'll be outta here. Bobak: Optimal time to launch will be in... About ten seconds ago. Gervin: GOOOOOOOOOOOooooo..? This plane does NOT like to accelerate, even with the rocket engine switched on. No, wait, it's getting better now- just needed a bit of a run-up is all. Gervin: On course to rendezvous with the NST, time to do some "EVA construction". *Gervin Kerman went on EVA* Gervin: Don't need you, don't need you, don't need you, you, you or you, bin this, bin that, aroint thee landing gear! Gene: "Aroint thee"? I don't even want to know what the biomonitors are saying about the crew's stress levels. Bobak: No, you really don't. *Gervin Kerman boarded Laythe "Plane"* Gervin: Done! No more plane-y bits left, just a lean, mean rocketry machine! Preparing to dock with the airlock's external docking port. Gervin: Back to the ship, and don't spare the horses! *a few days later* Gervin: Finally, out of the radiation death zone. Gene: Her monitor says 56% exposure even after that Kraken intervention; she'd definitely be dead without that. We should definitely make sure the crew are at 0% exposure, or close to it, before sending them down to the moons in future. Gervin: ... Lensel: Welcome back! We've got a nice docking port waiting for you, followed by a mandatory quarantine in the lab to make sure you haven't picked up any Laythean microbes that could kill all life on Kerbin if it escaped. Bartfen: Yeah, hopefully you won't have any weird aliens bursting out of your stomach and trying to eat our faces or anything. Gervin: You're kidding... right? Lensel: Four crew safely aboard. Let's take what we can from that plane and then dump it so the rest of the ship can be pressurised properly. Liszon: Why couldn't we pressurise it properly before? The plane was attached to a girder with a docking port on the end; there was no connection to the rest of the ship for air to flow through. Wernher: It doesn't work like that. Liszon: But why? Wernher: Because it just doesn't, OK? Liszon: You have no idea, do you? Wernher: no

By "stabiliser", do you mean a fin, a launch clamp or something else entirely? Maybe you've accidentally turned angle snap off (or possibly on?); press X to toggle it and that might fix the problem. If that doesn't help, switch to rotate mode (either press the 3 button (above W/E, not the numpad 3 if you have one of those on your keyboard) or click the third icon with the circles at the top left of the screen), switch to "absolute" mode by clicking the button that probably says "local", then click each part and click all three of the circles that appear on the part to reset their rotation. Without a screenshot of the problem there's not much more I, or anyone else, can do to help.

Fine, but only because I was already lurking looking at the forums. Maybe @Admiral Fluffy is also lurking about the forums?

I meant X-ray vision in the true sense- being able to see X-rays, or photons with a wavelength of ~1nm.

X-ray vision.

Donmun: Approaching Moho, ready for deceleration burn. Herman: Are we there yet? Donmun: Not even close, still another- *fzzt* ENGINE FAILURE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-! Herman: I got this. Just hold the ship still. *Herman Kerman went on EVA* ... *Herman Kerman boarded Interplanetary Ship 4* Herman: All fixed, now punch it! Donmun: That was a bit too close for comfort. What if it had failed too badly to fix? Herman: Are you trying to jinx us? Gene: Proceed to the Moho Mega-tanker to refuel. Donmun: Roger that, plotting intercept course. *later* Donmun: You should tell them. Herman: You're the commander! Donmun: Well, you're the chief engineer! Bobak: Tell us what? Herman: ... Donmun: ... Bobak: Hello? Herman: The tanker is too big to dock to the ship. Which would be fine, except that the booster on our ship has no docking port to dock to the tanker with. Wernher: So take the port off the ship and put it on the booster. Move fuel from tanker to booster. Take the port off the tanker and stick it on the ship. Dock booster to ship again. Simple. Donmun: OK, here goes... Donmun: Hey Herman, how are you doing that? Herman: Doing what? Donmun: The tanker is following you around, even though it isn't firing its thrusters it seems to be staying exactly the same distance from you as you're moving. Herman: Wow, I didn't notice that. That's so weird... Herman: OK, ports reattached, we're ready to dock the booster back to the ship, be careful not to *clang scraaaaaaaaape* hit the NERVs as you dock... Donmun: I've been thinking- if the tanker is copying your movements, what happens when you get back on board? Herman: You're definitely trying to curse this mission... *Herman Kerman boarded Interplanetary Ship4* Donmun: What the- INCOMING! *CRASH* *EXPLOSIONS!* Gene: What was that!? Donmun: AAAAAaaaaaaaa..? We're alive? Herman: I think the tanker tried to kill us, but all it did was smash itself to pieces. We may have lost a solar panel though... Donmun: Phew! Looks like we've had our mishap for this mission. Herman: STOP IT! Dunmon: I'm heading down to Moho now. Try not to break anything while I'm gone, will you? Herman: *inaudible grumbling* Herman: Fine, don't put your visor down, don't come crying to me when you get mega-sunburn. Donmun: Whatever. Dunmon: Landing complete, flag planted, surface sample gathered. Just enough time to try this EVA experiments kit and- huh. Herman: What? Dunmon: I thought they said the banana thing would only work on cold planets? Herman: See, you've gone and cursed this entire mission now! Dunmon: *nervous* I have the strangest feeling that I'm being watched... How long until I can leave? Herman: If you launch now and pitch over right away you can rendezvous within half an orbit- Dunmon: That planet made my skin crawl. Or maybe that's just the sunburn? *later* Herman: Pay attention now, amateur- this is how you do it! Herman: That looks interesting, maybe I can get a sample of it too? Herman: Nope. Oh well, back to the lander I go- *no lander in sight* Herman: DUNMON YOU IDIOT! Dunmon: What did I do? Herman: You got this whole mission cursed and now the lander has disappeared! Dunmon: OK, so you just jetpack back up to us- Herman: There's no propellant in my jetpack, because there was nothing in the lander to fill it up with, because somebody used it all up and didn't refill it once they docked! Bobak: We're not detecting the lander from here- wait, there it is, right where you left it? Herman: I'm telling you, it's gone- *lander sitting right where he left it* Herman: What even- forget it. This mission is cursed. Let's go home. *later* Dunmon: Return course to Kerbin plotted, transfer burn is underway. You definitely checked the engines, right? Herman: Not. Another. Word. Dunmon: OK then, no chance of any failures this time- *fzzzzzt* Herman: *eye twitch* Dunmon: Heh, oops... *scuffling noises* *duct tape noises* Herman: *grumbling about space curses* Gene: What's going on, IS4? Herman: Fixing the problem as best as I can. Once the fuel runs out in the booster I'll dump it and continue with the ship's own engines. Herman: Farewell, cursed planet! Dunmon: mmmmph mmfmfm mmm! Herman: I'm not letting you say another word until we're out of Moho's gravity. This whole mission has been one disaster after another and it's all your fault. Dunmon: *sad mmmph noises* Herman: OK, we're finally away from Moho. Dunmon: mmmmmmf mmm-ow ow ow just tear it off in one go! Oww... Herman: Now are you going to behave, or are you going to spend the trip home duct-taped to this chair? Dunmon: I'll behave! I promise! Herman: You'd better. Dunmon: Besides, we have eight engines now, if one of those fails- Herman: *peels strip of duct tape off the roll* Dunmon: *locks himself in the cupola* Ha! Can't get me now! Herman: Fine, but now I have the TV all to myself. Dunmon: ...I didn't think of that

I'm not entirely sure how I did that either; must be some combination of the structural panels, the hinges for the solar panels and a big fat tank of xenon stuffed inside it.

1.12.2, and I have a suspicion that the OX-10L solar panel is involved as Herman was grabbing hold of one of those on both occasions (incidentally, the exact same solar panel) and it was acting a bit funny too.

Only 2.8km/s. Not sure how heavy the probe was on impact, I’ll check. Maybe all those structural panels (the gold bits) made a difference? edit: Probe was ~3 tons on impact. More than I was expecting.

Had an odd glitch during a bit of EVA construction- an entire ship, made mostly of 5m fuel tanks, began shadowing engineer Herman's movements, always staying at a fixed distance from him while he jetted around. As soon as he boarded his spacecraft the effect broke and the big tanker decided to hurl itself bodily at the ship, resulting in FIERY EXPLOSIONS!!! (though fortunately only the tanker was exploding, not the ship itself) and the remnants of the tanker flying off at a strange angle and spinning uncontrollably. It happened again later, but this time Herman was trying furiously to chase after his own spacecraft which somehow stayed tantalisingly out of reach. F5/F9 fixed it in that instance, but this is a new one on me.

Stock-only attempt: It's probably possible to build a more accurate replica using mod parts and/or Tweakscale, but this is the best I could do with stock KSP.

If you’re really new to the game, don’t use mods. Get to grips with the stock game first, understand how things work, and then once you have a bit of experience add some mods in. All those shiny mods seem very tempting but can easily become too much too fast; my first attempts at modding KSP made it balloon out of control with too many parts to deal with and too many systems to try and understand. Once you understand the basics, add a few mods if you want- some visual improvements e.g. EVE and scatterer, a few parts mods to plug some gaps in the stock lineup or add something new (engines, power systems, ship/base/station parts…) and some quality of life mods such as MechJeb or Bon Voyage which can make things easier- and also help you understand some of the more complex aspects of spaceflight by watching how it should be done and copying it. There are more layers you can add- part failures, life support, crew health and more- but again it’s better to ease yourself in rather than jumping in at the deep end. JNSQ is a great planet pack and very rewarding, but it’s also more than double the scale of the stock system- orbital velocity around JNSQ Kerbin is higher than escape velocity for stock Kerbin- so is noticeably harder in terms of the delta-V needed to go anywhere. I don’t recommend jumping right into it without first getting to grips with the stock system, but once you have some experience it’s definitely worth a look.

I’m pretty sure that the only science you can get from a comet is a sample taken by a Kerbal.

Mortimer: Can someone please do something with that space station orbiting the Mun? That thing represents a pretty significant investment and yet it's just sitting there doing nothing and- Linus: Why don't we just deorbit it and let it crash? Mortimer: Wait no- Wernher: We'd get some seismometer readings out of it at least, plus we'd no longer need to dedicate DSN time to it. Mortimer: But- Cliff: Yeah! Let's crash it! Mortimer: But- Bob: Farewell, Mun Station One, you've served us well but also irradiated us every other day. *explosions* Bob: ... Wernher: Seriously? No readings at all? Bob: But it was in sunlight and everything! Mortimer: *** Quick, while nobody's looking, it's Probe Time! Eve Rover: 8/10. Continued exploration of Eve discovered a "pancake dome", but faulty autopilot isn't detecting the RTGs and keeps assuming the rover has insufficient power from its single solar panel to operate at full speed. No part failures yet as the thick atmosphere shields against most radiation. Uh oh, someone's coming! Turn it off turn it off-! *** Jeb: Goooooooood morning Eve system! Today's your lucky day, folks- it's going home day! Bobak: Interplanetary Ship 2, this is Mission Control. Proceed with pre-departure maintenance EVA. Sanlan: Roger that. *Sanlan Kerman went on EVA* Sanlan: Hey, who has the jetpack? Duberry: I do, but- Sanlan: Yoink! Time to fix that busted Gigantor panel and why is this thing NOT WORKING!?!? Duberry: Oh. Oops. Sanlan: OOPS!? Duberry: Forgot to recharge the propellant tank. My bad. Sanlan: [QUINDAR!] Jeb: Hang on, Sanny, we're coming to save you! Sanlan: find a happy place find a happy place find a *bonk* Ow! Jeb: IS2 to Mission Control. Four crew safely aboard. *smack* Duberry: Aagh! Not the face! Sanlan: Fine! *smack* Duberry: *high pitched* Not there either! Sanlan: *inaudible muttering* Gene: Coffee break, back in 5. *5 minutes later* Sanlan: Hiiiii, Kerbin! Gene: What in the actual- Jeb: Taxi for four please! And two surface samples too. Wernher: Coming right up. *plane noises* Val: OK Jeb, your mission- should you choose to accept it- is to fly that shuttle down to the runway without breaking anything, making anyone puke or accidentally yeeting the samples out the window on final approach. Jeb: No problem. Deorbiting now. Jeb: KSC in sight. Jeb: Hmm, little bit too high. Brace for S-turns. Duberry: *huuuuuuuuuurk* Sanlan: Dude! Not cool! Kerdous: Use a sick bag next time! Val: Jeb, you do realise that an S-turn isn't supposed to pull 12Gs, right? Jeb: Bah, you're no fun. Touchdown in 3, 2, 1- *boop* and down! Brakes on- *scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaape*- whoops, that was the landing gear button. Jeb: Everything is fine! Duberry: *hurk* Kerdous: *hyperventilating into (unused!) sick bag* Sanlan: LAND! Nice solid land *mwa mwa* blech, tastes like jet fuel and burnt rubber... Whatever. *mwa mwa* LAND! Wernher: Uh, where are the samples? ... Jeb: In the sample box? Duberry: I definitely put them in there. Sanlan: Because we all know how you never forget anything you're supposed to bring with you Duberry: One time! Sanlan: Are you referring to the time you landed on Ike without waiting for me to stick the deployed science containers on the lander, or the time you didn't bother filling up the EVA pack and left me floating away from the ship with no way to get back-! Linus: I can fix this! F9 Linus: What the-? *loading persistent_2021_11_04_20_15_24.sfs* *explosions* Linus: How did-? F9 *pandemonium in the KSC* Linus: A-ha! So that's where they got to! Shan't take a moment... *alt+F12* Jeb, Sanlan, Kerdous, Duberry: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Jeb: Aaaaand touchdown! Duberry: *hurk* Kerdous: *hyperventilating into (unused!) sick bag* Sanlan: LAND! Nice solid land *mwa mwa* blech, tastes like jet fuel and burnt rubber... Whatever. *mwa mwa* LAND! Wernher: Where are the samples? Jeb: Right here. Linus: Two more for the collection! And absolutely no weirdness with the samples disappearing, the sample box exploding or somehow falling out of the shuttle on final approach! *** Gene: There's only one planet that we haven't sent a crew to yet, but it's probably the hardest one of all- Moho. With that in mind, the ship going to Moho will be smaller than the others, requiring a smaller crew of just two for that trip. So without further ado, the crew going to Moho are: Mission Commander: Dunmon Kerman. Dunmon: You got my name right! Chief Engineer: Herman Kerman. Sanlan: *sniggering* Herman: Joke's on you, I'm going to Moho Dunmon: So when do we leave? Wernher: Actually, about that- it turns out that the next Moho transfer window is RIGHT NOW! Dunmon: Two burns down, one to go... Bobak: Engine cutoff confirmed. Looks like you're some ways off course, calculating a course correction burn to get you back on track. In the meantime, Herman, your job is to keep those Cherenkov engines in tip-top condition. We can eke out more burn time if you keep servicing them after each burn, meaning less stress on the return section and greatly increased overall delta-V. Herman: You overfilled the fuel tanks, didn't you? Bobak: A little bit, yes Herman: I'll get right to- oh. Bobak: What? Herman: I just realised, I've never done the training module on servicing nuclear engines. It's a level 2 engineering specialty course and I'm still only level 1. *one day later* Gene: Congratulations, Herman, you're now a level 2 engineer! Herman: Eh? Gene: You're in solar orbit now so that bumps you up a level; normally you'd need to sit the exam either in a lab module or back on Kerbin, but we've decided to waive that requirement and send you the coursework for the nuclear engine servicing course straight away. Happy reading! Herman: I'm on a spaceship heading for another planet, but somehow I have homework?

240km is unnecessarily high, both for orbiting and for deploying a fairing. You should aim for an orbital altitude of about 100km which will save you a significant amount of fuel, and deploy your fairings as soon as you’re out of the thick part of the atmosphere where drag doesn’t matter any more- about 50km is usually a good benchmark, though keeping the fairing is a good idea if you’re getting heating effects.

“Sunshine on Laythe” I see what you did there

Not yet. There’s not enough to make a full update on there, most of the time was spent babysitting some rovers and time warping at maximum speed for some course correction burns.

Poor Sanlan… Went out to do some maintenance ahead of the return burn to Kerbin, realised she’d forgotten the sole EVA jetpack on the ship so nicked it off Duberry, but Duberry had forgotten to fill it up with propellant as Sanlan soon discovered while drifting slowly away from the ship… Cue a heroic effort from Jeb to move the entire ship using its RCS thrusters so that Sanlan could grab on, grab a spare EVA cylinder, complete the servicing- and then head inside to give Duberry a piece of her mind! This incident, along with the “taking the lander down to Ike before the deployed science containers were added to it” incident, have definitely soured the relationship between those two.

I looked into that- to get the delta-V I’d need to go to Moho with even a modestly sized ship would give me a burn time of about 5 DAYS.

Gene: I know most of you think you know who the crew for the Jool mission will be, but after the recommendations of the Space Program's doctors I'm officially grounding anyone who has already performed an interplanetary mission with a duration of more than 90 days. Val, Bill, Bob, Valmal: All the other Kerbonauts: Gene: Now without further ado, here are the four lucky winners of the pull-names-out-of-a-hat draw: Mission Commander: Lensel. Lensel: I get to be Commander? Sweet! Chief Scientist: Bartfen. Bartfen: At last, I get to go back to space! Chief Engineer: Gervin. Gervin: This is going to look great on my CV! Second engineer: Liszon. Liszon: Wait, two engineers and one scientist? Also yay Gene: Yes, two engineers. We're not looking for science any more, which is why the ship's design has been significantly altered from the previous two- no long-term experiments, no greenhouse module, plus the centrifuge was moved below the lab to make space for docking ports to attach the various landers needed to land on all of Jool's moons. Wernher: We've been working on the Laythe SSTO recently. It's a pre-Anomaly design but the records indicate it was a bit of a handful to land on Laythe while fully loaded with fuel; we're hoping the parachutes will be enough to allow a safe landing without any danger of crashing. *plane noises* Wernher: Val, what are you doing with my Laythe plane!? Val: Well, somebody has to make sure this thing works properly, and who better than the Program's only four-star pilot? Val: Oof! That "landing" was pretty harsh. Ooh, my neck hurts. *neck cracking noises* Nope, that made it worse... Bobak: On a vaguely related note- the Duna scanners have arrived and captured into orbit of Duna and Bop to begin their mapping processes. Mortimer: Too late- we just had contracts for mapping a bunch of moons expire because nobody even bothered to send scanning probes there in time. *sigh* Still, selling all that science data has made us richer than ever so what's a few contract failures between friends, eh? *eye twitch* Or spending a couple of million funds launching interplanetary ships festooned with very expensive RTGs. Gene: Aaanyway, how's the ship looking, Wernher? Wernher: Everything checks out, just need to get the crew on board and it'll be ready to go. Linus: Looks like Jool is in the right place to leave straight away too. Gene: OK, crew, you've got an hour to say your goodbyes; you won't be coming back for a good few years so make them good. Wernher: Maybe we could send a fleet of scanning satellites out to Jool ahead of the crewed mission to map the moons out beforehand. Gene: We should have done that for Duna, but somehow we kept forgetting and now we've paid the price for that both literally and figuratively. Mortimer: Sounds expensive... But we have over ten million funds in the account so I'm sure we can spare some- Gene: Ten million funds!? Mortimer: I know, right? Turns out, having a giant space kraken show up and tell the whole world that the Space Program could save the world makes all our data stupidly valuable. I'm just dreading the day you decide to design the Moho ship though, just thinking of all the funds we've spent so far sending stuff out to that stupid scorched dirtball makes me feel queasy, let alone trying to get anything back. Wernher: The engineering will be a major headache too, trying to get hold of 20 kilometres per second of delta-V isn't easy. Linus: Now, if we only had some of those pre-Anomaly electric propulsion systems I keep seeing references to in the old archives. Ten times the ISP of a NERV, eight times the fuel mass ratio, sending a single ship to every planet and moon in a single mission within a decade; I'd sell all manner of body parts to see that thing in action...

One crew landed on Ike- twice! First landing went fine but somebody forgot the deployed science stuff, necessitating a second landing. That ship is now parked in a high Eve orbit waiting to head home in about a year. Meanwhile another crew returned from Duna and its moons, parked their ship in low Kerbin orbit and flew down to the surface with those precious samples. I also did a bit of housekeeping, clearing out a load of old crafts that were no longer needed or which had had terminal failures- several had lost all their solar panels and/or antennae, for example, and everything on or around Vall and Laythe was totally fried by Jool’s radiation belts. Hopefully deleting those will improve the game’s performance and/or load times a little bit.

Jeb: Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Ike we go! Sanlan: Can I duct tape him to the top side of the centrifuge? Pleeeeease? Gene: *sigh* No. Sanlan: But it's for ScienceTM! Wernher: She may have a point, Gene. Jeb: I can hear every word you're saying, you know! Gene: I know. Jeb: ... Duberry: Lander away! Sanlan: Wait wait I haven't- Duberry: Landing at a totally random site on the surface- WOAH! Bobak: Duberry, what's going on? You're all over the place. Duberry: You guys need to see this! Linus: IT'S THE MAGIC BOULDER!!!! Gene: First of all, down an octave. Secondly, what? Linus: I thought you already knew about the Magic Boulder? Gene: Boulders, plural. But you said Boulder, singular. Linus: The Magic Boulder on Ike is the original; the rest came after. I've been searching for this one for years, even before I came to the Space Program- digging through every scrap of pre-Anomaly data I could find looking for any trace of its existence, but nothing ever turned up. Yet somehow Duberry just happens to end up right on top of it? Duberry: Speaking of which... Linus: He didn't!? Linus: *outraged indignation* Gene: Duberry, step away from the magic glowing rock. Duberry: You're boring . Fine, all done here, sample gathered and- oh. Gene: Oh dear... Duberry: Looks like somebody forgot to take the Eve surface sample out of the pod. Sanlan: Well, maybe I would have had a chance to do that if someone hadn't taken off with the lander before it was ready! Duberry: Ready? It was fine- full of fuel and supplies too. Sanlan: And the deployed science gear? Duberry: mulch Gene: You've got to be joking... Sanlan: Maybe somebody better bring that lander back up here so I can put the cargo containers on it, take the deployed science gear down to the surface and hopefully get back to the ship afterwards. Sanlan: Right, out. OUT! My lander. Sanlan: Move the containers onto the lander, check. Move the deployed science stuff into the containers, check. Fly back down to Ike, check. Deploy science gear, check. Back to the ship, check. Jeb: Guess who's the Chief Scientist now? Kerdous: ...me? Jeb: Correct! Have a cookie. Kerdous: Duberry: Bobak: You can stay in orbit of Ike, or move out to orbit Eve instead. Jeb: Moving to Eve orbit, we can't maintain power here because we're in the dark for too long and the flight computer can't calculate a return trajectory to Kerbin properly either. Sanlan: Ditch the lander though, it's just dead weight at this point. Farewell lander, you did good. *meanwhile* Valmal: Look, guys, it's Kerbin! Hi Kerbin! Val: Buckle up, Mal, we're about to fire the engines. Bill: So, Mission Control. How do we get back down to the surface with these samples. Wernher: Sending a shuttle up for you now. Val: Ah, the old X-20, I've missed you. Val: My piloting is a bit rustier than I thought. Hang on! Valmal: AAAAAAAAAAAA-! Val: Just kidding. Four crew, three samples and one yellow stone safely on the ground. *later* Gene: It's been a long time coming, but at long last we have successfully sent a crew to walk on another planet and blah blah blah yada yada BUFFET EVERYBODY! *riotous celebration!* *some time after midnight...* Gene: *rather tipsy* And that's when I had my epiphany: who better to land on Vall, than Val! Val: Gene, for the last time, my name is VAL NOT VALL! Gene: You said the same thing twice. Val: V. A. L. Val, like pal. Not Vall, like fall. I think you should send Valmal instead. Gene: HAHA! You're so funny. Val: No, seriously. I feel kinda bad for her, not getting to do any landings on that last mission, being stuck in the lab the whole time churning out sample analysis data instead of doing any of the cool stuff. And because I treated her like an unwanted tagalong just to make up the numbers instead of a proper member of the crew. She did a great job, and I never told her that. Valmal: *emerges from behind chocolate fountain* You really think I was good? Val: I certainly do. Valmal: *welling up* That's... that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. *sniff* Val: Besides, Vall has the highest surface radiation levels of any planet or moon in the entire system. No way I'm going there! Valmal: Wait what?

Landed on and returned from the surface of Eve, then headed up to Ike and landed there too. Also sent a massive fuel tanker to Moho because my mining operation just wasn’t working out. (Ike turned out to be translucent, which is a bit weird but probably a mod issue.)

Jeb: I've got a need. Gene: No, Jeb. Jeb: A need for speed. Gene: No. Jeb. Jeb: A need for speed as we leave for Eve! Gene: *sigh* Jeb: That's not as much speed as I was hoping for but OK. Wernher: That's how nuclear engines work, Jeb- low thrust but high efficiency, you'll go further in the long run. Wernher: And speaking of things that will go slow but also far- the Moho Mega Tanker is finally finished! Mortimer: I can't believe you spent that much just to hire three newbie engineers, just to stick them on the Azimuth Station and tell them to build that thing. And then spent a million funds on refuelling runs with that weird winged rocket thing. Wernher: The mining thing wasn't getting anywhere, so this is the only way to get a crew back from Moho. Bobak: That transfer burn was terrible, it's not even going to touch Moho's gravity well. Wernher: Course correction plotted, no problem at all... *later* Linus: Just a second! F9 Bobak: What the- Linus: Everything is fine! The Moho Mega Tanker arrived at Moho and captured into orbit exactly as planned, no inexplicable trajectory drifting to cause it to completely miss the planet and get stuck in interplanetary space forever, nope, no siree... Bobak: You say that every time *later again* Jeb: We have arrived at Eve! IS2 crew: Yay! Jeb: Who wants to go out and do the spinny flange thing "for ScienceTM"? Kerdous: Oh. Small problem with that plan- we forgot to bring the EVA experiments kit with us. Jeb: Stuff like this is why Duberry is Chief Scientist. Fine- we'll just have to skip the science-y bit and do the capture burn when we're down there. Gene: Remember, Jeb- don't go all the way down into a circular orbit, it'll use a lot more fuel than keeping your apoapsis at Ike's orbital height. Jeb: Yes, yes, I got the point the hundredth time you told me that... Jeb: Orbit established. OK Sanlan, take 'er down! Sanlan: Undocking the lander, sticking its hat- er, nosecone- on the top and we're good to go! Jeb: Try to not get incinerated! Sanlan: Very funny... Sanlan: Aaah hot hot hot hot hot-! Sanlan: Atmospheric entry is over, but weirdly it's getting even hotter in here! Someone forgot to add air conditioning to this thing. *thud* Oof! Sanlan: Whose idea was it to make this thing so tall, with this much gravity? Climbing down the ladder is bad enough, never mind trying to get back up it... Gene: Remember the surface sample, Sanlan. Sanlan: Yeah, yeah, on it. Get the sample, deploy the science geegaws- huh. There are two mystery goo units in this thing for some reason. I guess I'll just take one of them back up with me then. Sanlan: Stupid landing legs keep breaking, stupid ladders in this stupid gravity, stupid goo thingy that wasn't even meant to be here, mutter mutter grumble grumble... Jeb: Did you actually just say "mutter mutter grumble grumble" out loud? Sanlan: You try dragging a bunch of rocks and a stupid goo unit up this many ladders in this gravity! Gene: OK, Sanlan, you're cleared for Eve ascent. Good luck. Sanlan: No problemo, boss, this thing worked before so no reason why it shouldn't work again. Gene: *confused* What? Sanlan: Here we gooooooooooo! Sanlan: Ah. Jeb: What? Sanlan: I don't think we really thought this through. Gene: What? Sanlan: I'm now in low Eve orbit, which is great and all, but I have very little fuel left. The ship is in an elliptical orbit to save fuel and there's no way I can get to it from here. It's going to have to come down here and get me. Jeb: But if we don't do anything, we'll get a free Ike encounter on the next orbit! Sanlan: And then what? I'm in the only lander, remember? Jeb: Oh yeah... Gene: Wernher, do they have the fuel to get down that low, pick the lander up and then go up to Ike again? Wernher: Yes- in fact there's plenty of fuel left on this thing, we built a pretty big margin into it in case we needed to go that low into Eve's gravity well. Gene: OK Jeb, go get our girl- and that precious surface sample! Jeb: On it. Sanlan: Look, Sammy, it's Jeb! Gene: Not this again... Sanlan: I'm kidding! *slightly maniacal laugh* Probably just all the blood that was getting dragged down into my feet by all that gravity floating back up into my head. Or something like that, I'm not a doctor. Jeb: Four crew safely aboard, as is the- Kerdous DO NOT TOUCH THAT SAMPLE! Kerdous: Must. Analyse. Sample... Gene: I can't believe I didn't think of that. Of course the ascent craft was only rated to low Eve orbit. Why didn't I think of that? Wernher: Don't beat yourself up about it, Gene, nobody else thought of it either. Cliff: I did! Wernher: *subtly moves between Cliff and Gene* We built the ship with a significant excess of fuel in case it had to go all the way down to low orbit, Sanlan had plenty of supplies to wait until they got down there and now they can boost directly to an Ike intercept. Everything is fine. Gene: But I missed this, Wernher. I missed something that could have jeopardised the entire mission, put the crew at risk- in fact, put our entire planet at risk! Wernher: You need a break. Gene: I need more coffee. Bobak: You need less coffee, that much caffeine can't be good for you.

“Oh no, we are stuck to the upper stage!” *makes absolutely no attempt to use the pod’s RCS to reorient or move the pod* Also the upper RCS bit wasn’t even switched on for the whole descent.