RoninFrog

Made it to the Desert Airfield with my new and improved rover. I forgot to add some batteries and a ladder so I sent a package of parts to it when it arrived.

So even though I got about a third of the way through my Kerbin elcano, I decided to start over. The folding rover was only a prototype after all, and I had noticed so many issues with it after driving for over two hours. One problem is that pontoons suspended on hinges tend to wobble which throws watercraft off balance if they try to exceed 90 m/s. So, I yoinked @Pouicpouic's design of a flipping rover for extra stability. I also rotated the hinges to be parallel to the rover to dampen impacts with hills. Here's some performance testing: I almost feel like we should make a separate thread in the spacecraft exchange linked to this thread, where we discuss rover design over there and actual driving and challenge completion here.

Reducing the angle of the blades works. I've already got an action group I use to adjust them so I think that'll work. The trouble with hitting B is that it stops all the tires, making the landings super unstable because the tires' speed is mismatched with the ground. On the other hand, I've been haulin' absolute butt over the mainland. Broke 100m/s briefly.

Yeah, they are only upward facing while on the water. They actually flip over to generate downforce on land. One issue I do see is that I use the same propellors for land, and I can't really shut them off immediately when I unintentionally go airborne (which happens a lot; I usually travel at 60-80 m/s), so they still generate thrust during a jump. But the point isn't to try to maximize airtime so I'm not going against the spirit of the challenge. Here is a video of part of a driving segment: Also, I'm about a quarter of the way done with Kerbin: The thing handles a dream on land; It can survive 15m jumps at 60-70 m/s and can also make full turns at speeds anywhere less than 50 m/s. I bet it would shred through Eve with thicker atmosphere and greater downforce if I tried that next. The biggest issue I'm having with it is forgetting it's still going on water and coming back to it a couple minutes too late . Yeah that's the biggest problem with the rover is it is super finnicky to accelerate. I actually left the controls on wasd but set the only reaction wheel not on SAS only is the command pod. I use it at 28% power to kinda help compensate for the wheel torque, but it was still a big issue. Edit: Also, my submission should be marked as Stock Craft since all the mods are only visual. I'm going pure stock for my Kerbin navigation.

Here's a rover prototype I made that I could potentially do a Kerbin Elcano with. It's got hinge suspension on the wheels so it can take pretty rough landings, and the whole thing transforms into a boat capable of a consistent 70+ m/s.

I've brought a Mun Stone back to Kerbin. I think I can reuse the same craft to get the Green Sandstone. ...and Green Sandstone: Well I'm 2/12ths of the way done, I'll come back to this later.

The Cosmic Rock Collection One of your kerbonauts has recently become obsessed with rocks. So obsessed that they will travel millions of meters to other planets and moons to get the rocks they want. So get them the rocks they want! For those of you who don't know what rocks are, here is an example: Fig. 1: Rock The challenge is this: pick a single kerbal, and through any method put every possible Breaking Ground pick-up-able (or analysis of) into their inventory. You can either launch multiple simultaneous missions and bring the rocks back to them, or send the kerbal out in a full-blown grand tour, but every possible science pebble must end up in that specific kerbal's inventory. Here is the full list (to my knowledge): Laythe Stone Mun Stone Yellow Stone Duna Stone Volcanic Rock Duna Impact Ejecta Green Sandstone Moho Stone Light Stone Blueberries Ice Chunk (Vall) Ice Chunk (Eeloo) What to submit: Screenshots the "review science" reports for your chosen kerbal for each of the stones in their inventory. Happy hunting! I'll be attempting this challenge myself and I'll put my submission in the replies. SUCCESSFUL ROCK COLLECTORS: Extra notes: Modded categories will be marked as modded. I also think it would be fun to allow exploits in a separate category with the goal being to see how fast someone can complete the mission using things such as kraken drives and overclocking/underclocking.

Finished! I had to do some logistics work when a tire popped: Here's the flag ring:

I'm halfway done. Props to the rover's stability, SAS is literally driving it in the background while I type this reply. Edit: This little rover is a stud. I sent it off a 700m+ cliff and no damage.

I think I'll have a stab at the mun. I've tried to start elcano's before, and I've never been able to build a design robust enough to withstand my driving. But today I was just piddling around building random stuff and I built a rover that actually seems like it might do the trick. It's more like pitching a bowling ball than driving a rover, but so far so good. Here's the start of the journey including the relay setup, launch, and about 15 minutes of just driving and pulling random stunts. It's a unicycle rover that just kinda keeps itself straight up through reaction wheels. Very bouncy. It's survived 200m+ jumps no problemo.

In one decade war pushed us from suborbital to man on the moon. In the half-century of relative peace (no world powers in conflict) since, we haven't done almost anything further or even returned to the moon. NASA hasn't sent anyone to space in over ten years. War, or the threat of war, has a galvanizing effect on society. Without this, there isn't a unified interest, at least on a national level. We have private companies like SpaceX, but nothing government-funded and no national space programs doing much. A lot of Kerbin timelines of other fanworks, and especially the gameplay timeline itself, are much faster paced, where it goes probe-suborbital-manned-orbital-mun-interplanetary all way to fast, often times with the starting point of a funded, dedicated space program which doesn't seem realistic at all given how peaceful Kerbin is. Goodness sakes I've started writing my basic forum responses in the Saunter style. Also I do understand your point and I'm not trying to argue it with you, I'm just trying to help you better understand the premise for Space Saunter.

Chapter 10: Inter-Mission Theoretical physics says that traveling quickly through the three spatial dimensions causes you to travel more slowly through the fourth temporal dimension. Time slows down for people in space, and therefore the world speeds up relative to those in space. In a sense, this couldn't be more true. As Raymond gazed down at Kerbin, he could faintly make out faint, matte-blue landmasses amid the shining, sunlit seas. Although he couldn't see them in detail, he knew what those continents contained. On his left, young kerbal children were fed breakfast by their parents and driven to school. As his gaze drifted rightward, they sat in their desks and watched their teachers disinterestedly. Directly beneath him, countless thousands of children were eating lunch, playing on their many recess playgrounds, and picking petty fights with each other. Tiny, invisible specks in tiny, invisible buildings and playgrounds. Thousands upon thousands of them lived out their day in one sweeping motion from left to right, from one end of Raymond's view to the other. They ate, they laughed, and they cried in a silent, cacophonous choir as Raymond watched from his seat in the stars. Looking to his right, the timezones shifted, and the children left their schools and friends to go home and eat dinner with their families and complete, or in some cases neglect, their schoolwork. But not to sleep. For a kerbal, their entire life passes in one waking moment. From the moment a kerbal's eyes open when they are born, they remain open until death closes them. The life of a kerbal is like a singular, decades-long day. They wake up one century, live out their lives, and return to sleep in the next century (for some), unbroken by sleep or even blinking. And Raymond watched all of it. He estimated there were close to a billion kerbals in view from his place in orbit. For every of his kerbal seconds, one billion kerbal seconds passed in the lives of those beneath him. If he compiled each of those parallel seconds into a linear timeline, he could piece together the entire life of a kerbal. In three seconds, a kerbal would be born, grow up, grow old, and die. One-a-kraken, two-a-kraken, three-a-kraken. An asparagus farmer in Mercadia. A pilot in the Concord Republic. A school principal in Beldorra. Too fast for Raymond to fathom, they passed away in one blink of their eyes. And no different from the farmer or the pilot or the principal, a kerbal sat in a cockpit high above the Effem Sea Coast. Raymond thought about his own precious three seconds and what he wanted from them. Of course, he wanted to spend them taking kerbals such as the one in the back seat to space. But not just that. He switched his dashboard radio to a private channel and rang Rebecca. His voice traveled dozens of kilometers downwards and emanated from Rebecca's headset as she repaired an airless engine in Hangar A. "Hey, Becca. I was just thinking, it's been a hot minute since we've gone out and like gotten dinner or anything. How'd you feel about hitting up Integral or the cannery?" His own headset vibrated in reply. "I'd love that, Ray. The new chef at Integral just isn't as good though. Let's do the cannery." It was true. David Kerman, chief chef and founder of Integral Kitchen and Cafeteria, now slept. His few space-seconds had passed. One fine morning as Raymond had lifted the Dawn Treader off the runway, David Kerman had sat in his apartment across the channel of the Effem Sea. He had known about his diabetes for a while, but hadn't told his now-grown children of it. Until then. That morning, he had left them a telephone message to both his daughters telling them he loved them, and that he hoped their kids would love them as much as he knew they loved him. He had then carefully shuffled across the room and had sat to rest in his favorite chair by the balcony window. And with the rising sunbeams falling gently on his face, beckoning him home, he'd fallen asleep. And such was the way of life. The young, new chef, hired by Integral's main stockholder, just didn't make his food as heartfelt as Dave had. So that night, Raymond and Rebecca ate at Sean's Cannery. Although Sean's Cannery only served canned food, the food was guaranteed to be fresh, tasty, and hot. Raymond ordered canned chicken and dumplings, and Rebecca had canned pierogi lasagna. "So Becca, how's that engine coming?" Raymond wondered from behind his can. "Oh, it's going okay, I guess. I'm having some trouble getting enough fuel pressure for such a large nozzle, but it'll be at least three times as powerful when it's finished." Raymond considered for a moment. "Have you tested in a vacuum? The suction could probably pressurize the nozzle enough for a good reaction." "It's a good thought. I dunno how we'd lug one up to space though. Our planes are, after all, only passenger jets." Raymond took a big bite of dumpling. "Speaking of which, how are you feeling about being on-board engineer?" Rebecca pondered. "Well, it's fun going to space every day but having to monitor all the flight systems, let alone the passenger, is kinda taxing. Kinda takes some of the fun out of it." "Yeah, I feel you. What do you say we take the Treader out for a spin after dinner, just the two of us?" "Sounds like great fun, let's do it!" As Raymond and Rebecca stepped out onto the evening tarmac, the cool breeze of twilight wafted through their hair as the remainder of the day's heat radiated from the still-warm pavement. The clouds above them streaked across the sky, racing away from Kerbol along frigid jetstreams into the deep blue ocean of the stratosphere. The tide rose with the Mun, and it brought the faint sifting sound of waves breaking on the shore to their ears. As the pair sauntered across the cracked brown dirt towards the Dawn Treader, the crickets around them fell silent at their footsteps. The tranquility was only broken by the faint sounds Raymond and Rebecca made themselves: the crunching of the gravel under their boots, the stuttering pop of the cockpit door handle, and the clambering of two kerbals climbing through the hatch into the cabin of the Dawn Treader. And then the settling silence of the evening was rudely shattered by the roaring of a blue tube of exhaust blooming out of the back of the Dawn Treader. The landing gear folded into their compartments and the Dawn Treader was borne away on the noisy wind of the Whiplash. As the small plane rose from the runway and climbed into the sky, it was, for a brief minute, fully illuminated by the light of Kerbol until the horizon again rose behind it and the darkness once again prevailed. The sea below glowed a faint blue-green, the reflection of the sky giving it a faint luminous quality, as if it was not yet ready for it to be night. In the air, Raymond and Rebecca didn't talk much. Raymond had to focus on piloting, and the clamor of the engine and the crackle of the plasma cones made communication difficult in the first place. It wasn't until they reached orbit and the plane went into a continuous free-fall through the darkness of the night. "Ya know, Becca, even if LNR isn't seeing as much traffic these days, at least we got a lot of free time on our hands. Not constantly running kerbals up and down all day. It's more relaxing. I think I almost enjoy it more." "Yeah, there sure isn't as much to do around. Sometimes it can get a little boring, but it's good work." "Better than Kerbodyne?" "Yeah, of course! Working on real planes is way more fun than that. Back then half the job was legal paperwork and waivers and blueprints and such. Give me a welding torch and a spanner any day over that." Rebecca glanced at the horizon and pointed at a speck of light on the surface. "Hey, speak of the devil, there it is." Raymond couldn't quite tell what she was looking at. "What's it?" "Oh, you can't really see it from here. But that's my old Kerbodyne warehouse. Or at least that's the city where it is." "You miss it at all?" Raymond asked. "No, I didn't really know my coworkers very well. They were all just kinda grumpy old engine nerds. I enjoy working with you and Lawrence a whole lot more." As the sky lightened in the east, Kerbol suddenly blared its light from between two mountains, illuminating the interior of the Dawn Treader in a soft light. This was what astronomers call the "diamond ring" effect. The moment was perfect. Raymond cleared his throat. "Say, the real thing just doesn't look as good does it." "Huh?" Rebecca, confused, glanced over at Raymond. His face had an unnaturally bluish tinge to it. Clutched in his trembling, gloved hand was a diamond ring. Raymond stuttered out something. Crêpes! Practicing in the mirror would've been a good idea. "You know Becca, we've known eachother for a while now, and I'm hoping to know you for a while longer. In fact, Rebecca, I love you. And because of that, I'm hoping I'll be able to know you for as long as I live. Rebecca Kerman, will you marry me?" Rebecca's face took on a similar bluish undertone. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes, if possible, bugged out even more. "Oh, Ray, of course!" As they kissed, Kerbol grew brighter on the horizon and rose to conquer its kingdom of the sky with its light. For some unknown reason, kerbals like to get engaged in places like the tops of mountains, the roof of Hemingway Tower, or the bridge of the immense Cretisian Impact Cruiser. Something about being up high with a good view is inspiring and romantic. It's not exactly clear why, but places like those just draw young, passionate couples. But whatever the reason, one thing is for sure: of all the lofty engagement spots of all kerbalkind, Raymond and Rebecca had the highest of them all. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yeah the smallness of Kerbin makes multiple stages somewhat unnecessary for orbital trips so staging off boosters would almost be more technologically advanced than an SSTO. Also it'd be kinda hard for a private space agency to pay for all the boosters they lose unless they recover them like SpaceX, which would be even more technologically advanced than a Kerbin SSTO.

Post it to kerbalx i need this craft

exactly my bad ill do duna next

Chapter 9: KNR Orbital Tours One thing common to both kerbals and humans is their sense of prestige. People spend hundreds of dollars on Gucci sandals when a twenty bucks can get you a pair of tennis shoes at Walmart. Rolex watches sell four thousands while Fitbits cost less than a hundred and are far more functional. People will pay good money for a sense of exclusiveness and luxury. This thought process is often thought of as unnecessarily lavish and even irrational. But the fact remains that many companies have become massively influential, not through spamming their products all across the consumer world and not through finding the ideal supply and demand, but instead through limiting production and availability. They then find that the demand rises to meet them. Mortimer Kerman was a businessman. He had his supply and demand mapped out perfectly and scrutinized by multiple economists. His advertising was brazen and extensive. And his supply, well, his ability to supply the incoming demand was orders of magnitude greater than LNR Aerospace. Trying to compete with Mortimer would be futile. He had a fleet of eight planes, each carrying twice as many passengers as the Dawn Treader and Drefinger. And they could all operate for cheaper. Mortimer Aerospace would crush them. If KNR couldn't win with power, they would win with prestige. The giant garage door on Hangar A rattled up and banged, knocking down clouds of dust into the strong beams of Kerbol. Not just three, but five kerbals walked in, their forms silhouetted against the morning light. The hangar was in darkness for several seconds until Lawrence flipped a lever, opening the ceiling windows with a series of bangs, casting light on a newly outfitted Drefinger and Dawn Treader. The faint smell of welding exhaust still lingered on the four shiny new boosters on the Dawn Treader and aroma of ozone wafted from the four slightly sooty boosters on the Drefinger. There were two newcomers to LNR Aerospace. Cynthia Kerman was a forty-four year old kerbal with a sharp personality and sense of strict orderliness. If anything was amiss in the financial logbooks, if company taxes were overcharged, or if someone forgot to make a payment, she quickly found the source of the issue and forcefully dealt with it or them. Her hair was just beginning to fade to gray, but each of those gray hairs represented two on the heads of mistaken KRS agents and forgetful customers. Jim Kerman was a young engineer with an inventive mind, although his patience in his work was often lacking. He was fresh out of graduate school and enthusiastic about a job involving routine trips to space. The a roar rattled the windows in their frames as a shadow skittered up the beach and the face of the island toward the runway. The shriek of gear brakes drowned out the voice of Rebecca as she instructed Jim in pre-flight checks and maintinance. The first orbital tourist had arrived. Gilbert Kerman who was one of sixty handpicked invitees for a personalized, fully-orbital flight covering the entirety of Kerbin in less than an hour. Jim and Lawrence sat at the helm of the Drefinger as it glided up off the end of the runway. Lawrence had by now mastered the art of liftoff in the Drefinger. His liftoff flawlessly blended from riding a runway of dirt to a runway of air by merely retracting the landing gear and letting the built-up air pressure under the bring him up off the runway. As the airspeed filled the lungs of the plane, the Whiplash engine pushed the kerbals back in their seats and the Drefinger further into the sky. An alarm silently blinked on the left side of Lawrence's control panel. "Lawrence to Raymond, aerodynamic temperatures on the nosecone are at 92%. Should I cut throttle?" The plasma raged angry static in his ears. Well, what the Ike. The tourist didn't know how close he was to death so he didn't have to worry. Instead of cutting throttle, Lawrence pushed a button activating the four airless engines strapped to the back of the Drefinger. All the fire and chaos outside registered as pure joy on Gilbert's face as he beamed his wide, open-mouthed smile out the window at the wall of violent red-orange attempting to tear his molecules apart. In the cockpit, Lawrence wrestled the controls as he guided the Drefinger faster and faster around Kerbin. It was the moment when either they would make orbit or not; whether LNR Aerospace could fulfill its promise of a circumnavigatory tour or not. The guel gauges sank as the trajectory rose. A green light blinked on and Lawrence cut all throttle with barely five liters of fuel left. They'd arrived. The same joy registered on Lawrence's face as he stared out the window at the great blue marbled globe outside. They were in orbit. As the Drefinger departed the day and night loomed on the horizon, Jim offered Gilbert some in-flight snacks and entertainment in the form of naming all the major cities glowing like veins of gold on a smooth obsidian wall. Jim figured that that was the ideal time to bring the snacks out, as Gilbert would have recovered from the ascent, but still had enough time for the food to pass through his stomach before the 4+ g descent. As the Drefinger passed once again over KNR Aerospace Headquarters, Lawrence smiled and took a photograph of himself holding the island between his thumb and the rest of his glove. Raymond would find it amusing. Lawrence could almost make out a tiny wood-brown splinter in the pale blue-green thumb of the Effem Sea Island. That was the entirety of his livelihood. Years of his life had been dedicated to that tiny sliver. He could almost see himself bustling around at warp speed, performing various mundane tasks as planes whizzed by on the runway. And as Lawrence looked out over the rest of Kerbin's smooth, still face, Lawrence truly appreciated how insignificant he was. So much of Kerbin had he never touched, so much of its air had he never breathed. Such a perfect world, and he and Raymond contributed one small fraction of an island to the huge, animate whole; billions of kerbals bustling beneath him in what appeared, from a thousand kilometers away, to be slow motion. And as the Drefinger swung around Kerbin and passed over the Cretasian Impact Sea for the second time, it spun around and coughed out the last remaining drops of fuel and began its descent. Something caught Lawrence's eye in the south. A delicate contrail hung in the sky south of the crater, barely visible in the evening light. Mortimer. Lawrence made a rude gesture out the window, unseen by Jim and Gilbert. Kerbin's atmosphere began reclaiming the Drefinger as it returned its passengers to KNR Headquarters. Lawrenced monitored the elevon angle closely, deflecting the red-hot plasma away from the Drefinger while generating as much drag as possible. The Whiplash and the four airless engines had labored long and hard to give the Drefinger its velocity during the ascent, and now that velocity dissipated rapidly in the four-g forces as Kerbin reclaimed the plane under its inevitable gravity. With the fun over, the Drefinger drifted back down to KNR Headquarters and settled gently onto the runway, the overheated hull glowing faintly and distorting the air around it into a shimmer. Jim helped Gilbert out of the plane, and with that, the first KNR Orbital Tour was declared a success. Only four flights were scheduled for the week, but each would be worth at least fifteen suborbital tickets. The folks at LNR Aerospace knew life was going to be cheap for a while, but over time they would eventually build a name for themselves. A name of prestige. Mortimer could have quantity. He could be the reigning emperor of supply and demand. Hundreds of people could come flocking to him, waving their suborbital tickets. But one thing Lawrence and Raymond knew: they'd always provide a quality of experience beyond anything Mortimer could imagine. People would some day prize LNR tour tickets as something you'd flourish in your neighbors faces. They'd be a way to prove your importance and significance in the rat race of life. But until then, Raymond and Lawrence had work to do. A plane stood by, needing to be cleaned and de-prepped. They had many tours to fly. Lawrence and Raymond had a space agency to run.

Placeholder post; for some reason the chapter submitted in the middle of writing. I'll edit this post later with an actual chapter. Edit: almost through finals, will have a new one up by friday night/saturday

Chapter 8: Bad Tidings "Kerbalkind is driven by two forces: money and snacks." -Nancy J. Kerman, KerbNet CEO It is a universal truth that whenever someone discovers something new and interesting, it's never long before business upon business begins taking advantage of it. This is why we have trademarks, patents, and taxes. When Belgram Kerman invented the telegraph, his patent was the thing that gave him a corner on that market, or else other money-hungry businesses would surely have begun creating telegraphs. When Mortimer Kerman discovered oil fracking, he patented it and then watched as his oil refining business far surpassed the others. However, some things just can't be patented. Space is that same way. It can't be owned, can't be bordered, can't be legally protected. It is, after all, literal nothing, a nothingness so vast and available that nobody can possess it. Raymond burst into Hangar B one morning with his face an unnaturally light green. "Lawrence! Come quick! And kraken save us!" Something in Raymond's tone caused Lawrence to throw down his torch and visor away mid-weld. "You all right, Ray? What's wrong?" "Look here. Lord help us, isn't it awful?" There, in Raymond's gloved hand, was a brochure. Mortimer Aerospace Tours - Join us in our quest for the cosmos! Underneath the caption was a beautiful, four seater plane, calmly gliding across a starry sky, the cabin windows filled with smiling faces. And it wasn't a thrown-together pile-of-parts-plane like the Dawn Treader and Drefinger. Mortimer's plane was custom-made by a crew of private engineers. This was a plane's plane. Side-by-side seating, a roomy cabin, a streamlined hull, flattened and tapering into not one, but two massive engines. The wings swooped back from each side of the plane, as graceful as a falcon's dive. This plane was made for space. And, worst of all, it advertised seats at three-thousand kerbucks per ticket. Lawrence's face also drained of color. His voice quivered slightly as he spoke. "Well, Ray, looks like we're gonna have some tight eating ahead of us. We'll manage, though." "I'm gonna check the schedule and see the damage. At least we have the KerbNet contract to pull us through. From now on, we're gonna have to be kinda careful who knows what if we don't want folks like Mortimer to get their grimy hands on our ideas." The future was bleak. Yes, the novelty of space tours had worn off and people were losing interest. For the last few weeks, there had been empty seats here and there, until the recent price cut to 400 kerbucks brought them back. But nothing like this. Raymond reluctantly logged onto his computer and opened the weeks flight plans. When Raymond refreshed the spreadsheet, it showed that of all twenty flights scheduled for the week, only five seats were taken. Raymond's jaw went slack and he slumped over his desk in defeat. Rebecca had heard what had happened. "Don't worry, Ray. Everything's gonna work out. The company's not going under just yet." She patted him on his hunched back. Raymond moaned. "Mortimer's got cheaper flights, bigger planes, and more money. We can't compete. I dunno how you think we'll get through this." "Well, we've still got the money from KerbNet, and we can always cut prices again. We can afford 250 a seat, although it won't be much. And besides, I've got an idea I've been wanting to show you." The Drefinger sat parked in Hangar A, lights off and seats empty where they should be full. But something was different. The Drefinger now sported four larger versions of the Hitchhiker's booster. Rebecca explained. "See, I was figuring that if we just didn't jettison the drone, it would push us further into space. So I've added some more bigger Hitchhiker boosters to Dreffy to experiment and see if maybe even the plane itself could get to orbit. Our tours could be an hour long whereas Mortimer's would only last for a couple minutes. We'd have to have higher prices and Mortimer would still be king of suborbital, but it would still give us an edge over Mortimer Aerospace." Raymond and Rebecca boarded the Drefinger Mk2 and blasted the throttle, sending LNR Aerospace and its tiny island floating off into the blueness of the Effem Sea. At around twenty-five kilometers up, the whiplash engine began to struggle, so Rebecca's four tiny airless engines entered the fight. The Drefinger steadily plowed its way through the incoming plasma as its Apoapsis lengthened. Space once again beckoned as the curtain of the atmosphere dropped out of view. The whole way up, Raymond fumed. Mortimer Kerman simply had no right sending his planes up here! To Raymond, space was a secret he shared with his closest friends, and although he made a living from it, space wasn't just another gem in the business world to be exploited for its wealth. Space was a beautiful golden treasure, something to be admired and studied from a distance, not to dig your dirty hands into. But as the angry plasma cleared from the windows, the anger cleared from Raymond's mind. Mortimer could have sub-orbit. Raymond didn't mind, after all he didn't own space and he certainly didn't own Mortimer's planes. He watched the slow, reverse starfall brighten on the eastern horizon as the Drefinger drifted over the face of Kerbin. Up here, Mortimer didn't matter to him. Mortimer Kerman was only an invisible speck of green somewhere in the blue face of Kerbin, an astronomical distance below him and Rebecca. As the galaxy slowly raised its arm in the eastern sky, Rebecca pointed at the navigation instruments. "Raymond, look. We made it. Orbit." Raymond glanced at the NavBall before looking back out the window. "You know, Becca, even if Mortimer steals all of our tourists, even if LNR Aerospace can't stay up, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we're here and the world is beautiful, and you're beautiful, and right here, right now, the most important thing is to stop and appreciate everything for what it is. It's so easy to become entangled in money and work that we lose focus on good things right in front of us." Raymond pointed down at Kerbin. "Somewhere down there, a band is playing, and people are laughing. Somewhere down there, someone is crying. Somebody's driving home from work, ready to be with their family again. Every star in the heavens above, every cloud in the sky below is so intricate and beautiful, and in a handful of minutes the clouds will be gone, in a handful of years we'll be gone, and in a handful of millenia even the stars will be gone. And then nothing will have mattered. So I'm going to appreciate everything for what it's worth while I still can." As Kerbol sank lower behind them, the blue of Kerbin gave way to a reddening darkness. A void opened beneath the Drefinger as Kerbol winked out behind Raymond and Rebecca. The Drefinger sailed on, almost invisible in the dim starlight. Just below, the atmosphere rushed past silently at an astounding speed. The world was nothing but darkness and starlight and silence for fifteen minutes, when yet again Kerbol dawned and fell into the sky like an upside-down pebble in water. One short retro burn brought the atmosphere clawing at the underside of the Drefinger as it meteored back towards LNR Headquarters, plowing a path through the conflagration with open arms. Although Raymond had just seen all of Kerbin, he knew he would be back again soon. And Mortimer would soon learn what three bright kerbal minds are capable of.

Chapter 7: Kerbnet, Inc. Hemingway Tower was a megalith of a building, a towering heap of concrete and steel, square geometry and large-scale architecture. The building loomed above the surrounding countryside, a brazen affront to the forces of nature. There was absolutely no reason for it to be built as a skyscraper. It was in the middle of the Frescany wilderness: the area wasn't populated in the slightest, so property taxes and real estate availability was a non-issue. Hemingway Tower was simply built big to look big. It was, after all, the headquarters of Kerbnet, Inc., a megacorporation composed of various communication companies from all over Kerbin. If a signal wanted to pass from Mercadia1 to Concord Republic, it would be received first at Hemingway Tower from the cables labeled "Mercadia Input". Kerbnet technicians would then route the signal to "C. Republic Output". The entire population of 350 in the small town Hemingway, Frescany worked at Hemingway Tower, save for one old kerbal named Bernard Kerman who ran Hemingway's grocery store and gas station. The traffic along the six-kilometer single-lane highway from Hemingway to the Tower was absolutely unbearable at sunrise and half an hour before sunset, as you can probably imagine. This was an affliction felt by all the Hemingway locals, except for two: Bernard Kerman and Nancy Kerman. Nancy Kerman did work at Kerbnet, but she didn't have to drive to the Tower and back every day. She flew. Nancy Kerman was a middle-aged kerbal who always wore a white maxotech suit with violet highlights. A kerbal of flawless judgement and the C.E.O. of Kerbnet, Inc., she could be described as being in a constant state of "confidently correct". She didn't run her business; she sprinted it. Stock brokers found Kerbnet highly desirable, and Kerbnet's stockholders were always quite satisfied with their returns. Being the executive officer of the largest communications company meant Nancy was in charge of a great deal of money and was also constantly looking for ways to pour the money back into Kerbnet. Also, as the CEO of Kerbin's communications hub, she very quickly heard about the drone put into orbit by a tourism company based out of the Effem Sea. As it happened, she had overheard one of the technicians talking about the Hitchhiker drone and how a new LLC named LNR Aerospace had put a computer with data reception and transmission into stable orbit. Nancy's brain fizzled. This could be revolutionary. While telegraph lines were useful and could transmit data quickly, they were expensive to install, and repairing them meant either digging them up or climbing up twenty-meter poles. She began composing an email to a kerbal named Raymond Kerman, suggesting a business opportunity for the both of them. If data could be sent wirelessly, above the mountains, above the atmosphere itself, on drone relays that were eternally suspended in the sky... Well that would be cutting edge technology. "Greetings, Raymond. "As the main owner of the hub of Kerbin's communication, I've naturally heard about the drone you orbited a few days ago. I first want to congratulate you on your scientific successes and wish your company's tours the best of views. The reason I've sent you this email is to suggest a potential cooperative effort on the part of both KerbNet and LNR Aerospace. Kerbnet would like to offer you an opportunity to orbit several drones customized to Kerbnet, Inc.'s needs. Kerbnet would fully fund the cost of the delivery and the cost of the drone, as well as a cash payment of one hundred and fifty thousand kerbucks. Please let me know if you are interested in such an arrangement. "Best regards, "Nancy Kerman, CEO, KerbNet, Inc." That very same day, Rebecca and Lawrence began outfitting a new drone with a fancy antenna delivered to them by the engineers at the KerbNet Effem Sea Hub (KESH). As KerbNet was paying for the cost of the probe, Lawrence went with a smaller, more high-tech computer which, in turn, allowed Rebecca to build a smaller engine base with less fuel. Such a light setup would allow LNR to launch drones from their tourist planes, netting profit from both the passenger tickets and the orbital drone. When the passengers boarded the Dawn Treader as it stood ready with a KerbNet drone on the roof, they were told that the weather was clear and launch conditions excellent. What they weren't told was that there was essentially a guided missile strapped to the hull of the plane. As the Dawn Treader buoyed up off the end of the runway, Raymond realized that LNR Aerospace had "done it". From a passing dream to a physical reality, LNR Aerospace had now officially been recognized by one of Kerbin's largest corporations as a profitable, legitimate business. A business that had a unique market. KerbNet, the immense KerbNet Inc., had stooped to request the assistance of their tiny company. They'd been paid a large amount of kerbucks for a service that LNR Aerospace, and only LNR Aerospace, could provide. They had a place in the world. In his pilot seat, Raymond swelled with pride in himself, pride in Lawrence, and pride in Rebecca. Kerbol glinted off the sea and into the cockpit, lighting up Raymond's wide smile from below as he pulled the throttle back sharply and the Dawn Treader dove upwards into the sky. At seventy kilometers up, the unabated light of Kerbol blazed down on a tiny drone as it detatched from its mother ship. The engine sparked to life as it continued on its way, slowly growing smaller and smaller in the sky until both it and the Dawn Treader sank back towards the horizon. A hundred kilometers high and traveling over two kilometers every second, the probe extended its antennas and made its way around Kerbin, raring to receive and transmit data. Far away from the Effem Sea and LNR Aerospace, Nancy Kerman sat in her office. Kerbol was setting as she was finishing up the last of the day's paperwork. Of course, that was somewhat relative as the day's paperwork never ended. She was so engrossed in her work as twilight fell that she didn't notice how dark the office was until her computer turned on, unexpectedly bright in the dim light. On it was a single message from LNR Aerospace. "Stable orbit achieved. KerbNet Relay Drone 1 ready to receive and transmit data." The new Kerbnet drone rose above the western horizon outside Nancy's window, reflecting a tiny portion of Kerbol's light back towards Hemingway Tower. Outside, a massive radar dish slowly spun until it focused on the tiny point of light in the sky. The dish extended its transmission antenna and adjusted its rotation speed as the drone floated higher and higher. Some electronic mechanisms whirred to life as it translated a message into an invisible electromagnetic frequency. "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT." It silently spoke into the darkening sky. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1Any name for any country in the Space Saunter is completely made up and has nothing to do with anything outside of Kerbal Space Program. In this case, "Mercadia" is not based on whatever this is, but is merely a combination of the words "Arcadia" and "Merry Christmas." It just bothers me when the names I make up might be some accidental reference.

Chapter 6: Stable Orbit Achieved The difference in thought processes between a child and an adult can be summed up neatly: an adult can take nearly anything for granted. A child can be amused for hours by shaking a toy or running in circles. Their brain hasn't become fully accustomed to the world yet: it can always find newfound joy in repeating some amusing action. Children will go on the same amusement ride over and over and read the same bedtime story repeatedly. For an adult, this can become taxing and irritating. The ride goes around three times, through a loop, around again, and it's done. The adult's mind, fully developed, has learned to take things for granted. It has lost its innate curiosity at common, everyday trifles and instead focuses on larger ideas. This can be helpful in the advancement of engneering and science and economics. Learning to take things for granted, an adult can assume things about the world and only has to fill in the cracks between assumptions with conscious thought. This saves both time and energy. However, one can easily find their mind skimming over beautiful details in life without even a passing glance. The way the green leaves on that one tree billow in the wind, rippling sunshine into the rugged, brown wood and exhaling the life-giving oxygen. Or the way the clouds dance across the sky, tickling the sun into individual beams and bearing water from some distant ocean to bring life to more marvelous trees in a distant part of the land. The first snowfall of winter is always the most beautiful. Such is the way of a Space Program. The stars, so stunningly glorious on one's first flight into space, begin to lose their lustre. The Mun and the planets, once so calmly distant and yet immensely filled with possibility, begin to seem like monotonous pitstops on an experienced traveler's weary journey towards some mundane task. Sometimes, people resort to game mods to renew that feeling of delight and awe, revamping the way the game looks and adding more worlds to be conquered. Other people take on unnecessarily difficult challenges to put to full use all of the assumptions about the world that they have collected over their hours of playing, and even this only amuses them for a time. To put it simply, it is natural for people to lose interest. As kerbalkind begins to grow and mature in their knowledge of space, they also begin taking things for granted and finding things that had previously held their utmost attention to be, dare they think it, boring. As Lawrence and Raymond Kerman flew the Drefinger and Dawn Treader to and fro, they somehow kept their childlike awe and reverence for space deep within their hearts. The stars became like old friends to them, faithfully there to welcome them to space with their warm ardor. However, for the passengers, the stars became almost normal to them. They were expected. They were taken for granted. One night about two months after Raymond and Rebecca had begun dating, Lawrence was sitting at his computer, mulling over L. N' R. Aerospace's finances. Over the last week, there were five holes in the schedule where flights were launched with only one paying passenger. At first, kerbals packed out the flights for at least a week in advance. Recently, there had been a couple weeks with maybe one or two runs with an empty seat. L. N' R. Aerospace, for the first time since its founding, was failing to fill its flights. Lawrence did what he always did when he thought of something. He called up Raymond. "Hey, Ray. Hope it's a good time to talk." "For sure, Lawrence! I'm not busy at the moment, just sitting out on the landing strip enjoying my kool-aid and the view of the sky." "Ok, so I was looking at the numbers, and I noticed that we've had a few seats unfilled last week. And unfilled seats aren't very efficient at paying for gas and taxes." "True. Next week'll be better though." Lawrence paused and looked back at his computer screen. "Mm. I don't think so. That's what we said last week when we had three seats empty. No, Ray, I think people aren't as interested in going up in the planes anymore. They don't think space is worth five grand." Raymond took a moment to process what Lawrence was getting at. "You think we should lower the price of a ticket?" "Maybe. Not a bad idea. We'd still make a living. But I think that the general public wants something new and exciting. Some new thrill that they think is worth five grand." A distant memory struck a tiny bell in Raymond's mind. "Say, Lawrence. Becca had this idea a while ago. She was wondering how long either the Treader or Dreffy could stay up in space for. I know it all depends on speed. It's a long shot, but there may be something in it. If we could go even faster, people would probably think it was more fun. Me and Becca were gonna work on a project with it but work kinda got in the way for both of us." Lawrence had an idea. "Does she know much about Kerbodyne's newfangled airless engines?" "Yeah, why?" "I've got an idea. Get Rebecca and meet me at Hangar B tomorrow." The next day as soon as the flights finished and Rebecca got off work, the three of them lugged several chunks of metal in from the scrapheap next to the runway and began soldering and welding and whacking things with spanners. With the combined brainpower and skill of all three of them, they cobbled together what they considered a drone but was in reality more of a guided missile. After about an hour of dropped hammers and dented battery casings and near-explosions, the Hitchhiker was complete. The crew dragged it out of Hangar B and prepped it for flight. And finally, out on the landing strip in the blazing afternoon light of Kerbol, the Drefinger had a strange, new passenger, eager to take to the skies. Raymond and Rebecca boarded the Drefinger with Lawrence staying behind to man Mission Control. A harsh noise blared out of both Raymond and Rebecca's headsets. "Lawrence to Drefinger, copy?" "Raymond in, copy." "Rebecca in, copy." "Lawrence to Drefinger, you are clear for takeoff." The Drefinger's specialized engine, now nicknamed Whiplash by the tourists, flared to life and propelled the Drefinger down the runway and up into the sky. "Lawrence to Drefinger, fuel levels at 83%, vertical speed at 361 meters per second. Situation nominal." "Raymond to Lawrence, setting SAS to thirty-five and engaging autopilot." The radio cut out as the plasma blocked all signals. As soon as the plasma died away, Lawrence's staticky voice came in again. "Lawrence to Drefinger, copy?" "Raymond in, copy." "Rebecca in, copy. Payload primed and ready for ejection. Apoapsis at peak." Rebecca pushed a button, and something clunked on the roof. "Rebecca to Lawrence, Separation of payload confirmed." The Hitchhiker drifted lazily away before Rebecca punched the throttle on the remote control, firing up the airless engine and sending the Hitchhiker further into space. As the Drefinger fell back towards Kerbin, the tiny little motor on the Hitchhiker valiantly fought back against gravity. Eventually, the little drone began to slowly outmatch the pull of the planet and the onboard computer calculated an ever-widening trajectory. As soon as the probe was traveling at the calculated speed, Rebecca killed the throttle just as the the atmosphere began licking its red tongue up the windows. The sturdy little Hitchiker drone sped on its way overhead, evading Kerbin's atmosphere at every turn. One last sentence broke through the plasma chatter as reentry stole the Drefinger's radio signal. "Rebecca to Lawrence. Stable orbit achieved." Later that night, Raymond once again sat out on the runway in his usual spot, staring up at the night sky. Even if kerbalkind didn't care for the stars, he always would, deep down in his heart. Stars were the most faithful of friends. No matter what happened on Kerbin, no matter if kerbals didn't want to go on Treader and Dreffy anymore, no matter if Kerbol itself went out, they would still be there, glittering and winking in encouragement and hope. As the stars slowly fell into the west, a small, young star dawned and made its silent way across the sky. Raymond followed the spark of light with his eyes as it rose in the northwest. Of all the stars in the sky, that star promised a new future for L. N' R. Aerospace, a gateway into an unexplored world. The Hitchhiker winked across the sky, revolving slowly in the setting light of Kerbol, a quiet herald of the age to come. Raymond raised his hand and waved.

tee hee

Hmm well I found something. https://youtu.be/96RNsJjd7L8 Couldn't find a decoder online so I've no idea what I intercepted though. Anyone know how SSTV works? I'm not entirely sure if my KSP is up to date, and I've also got a bunch of visual mods installed, so not entirely sure why mine worked and other people's didn't.

I think I'll have a go at this. I made an attempt but things got all wacky: For some reason there seems to be some sort of physics barrier just short of 10000 Pm which is extremely frustrating. Not sure how to bypass it. It's definitely possible to get, like, waaaaaay past 10000 Pm but hitting the perfect 10k seems very difficult for no reason.

Chapter 5: Date Among the Stars It had started about a week ago. A pulling, tight feeling in Raymond's gut. The first symptoms started to act up when he went for three days on end without sleeping. No, that was normal for kerbals; couldn't be it. He'd started losing focus and making small mistakes in his flights, such as leaving the landing lights on after parking, forgetting to kill the engine when it ran out of oxygen, or even forgetting to set SAS to surface prograde as soon as the wings' Lift:Drag was too low. Yeah, something might be wrong with him. Oh, and a third symptom was that he'd also lost his appetite. Now that was a symptom of something serious. As he gently pulled back on the throttle of the Dawn Treader, nosing it off the runway towards the clouds, Raymond thought back on what he had eaten in the past week that could be disagreeing with him. A bunch of five bananas, four Branola Bars, a couple liters of kool-aid, two packages of chocolate cookie sandwiches; everything that had always agreed easily with his stomach in the past. Too easily, even. Raymond locked SAS to thirty-five degrees up from horizon as the shock cones outside yellowed. Perhaps one of the kerbals he had met up with recently had given him a bug. He'd been on a business trip on Day 281 to purchase the Drefinger from a Kerbodyne supplier on the mainland. Glancing at the dashboard, Raymond noticed his Apoapsis was only seventy-three kilometers. Significantly lower than normal. Hmm. Maybe the old, balding warehouse manager who'd signed the license and title had had something. But for a kerbal going on fifty-three, he was abnormally spry and healthy and certainly wasn't sick. The dashboard now read an Apoapsis of only seventy-two kilometers. Perhaps he'd gotten something from Rebecca Kerman, the Kerbodyne engineer who'd helped him modify the Drefinger's engine and seal the interior for a vacuum environment. No, she was far too pretty to be sick. Raymond's mind lingered for a couple moments. Rebecca Kerman. Apoapsis of seventy-one kilometers and falling. The Dawn Treader soared across the Karman Line, landing gear fully extended, glinting in the pureness of Kerbol's light. Rebecca Kerman. The name flashed again in Raymond's mind. That elliptical, tennis-green face. That short, pudgy, lively body. Those white, bulging bug-eyes. As the Dawn Treader rotated away from Kerbol and the cabin darkened, the stars that usually dazzled Raymond shone in their eternal place in the sky. But on this flight, Raymond was dazzled by something else. The violet band of the galaxy's arm saluted Raymond from an unfathomable distance away. Raymond didn't wave back. Rebecca Kerman. She had been so interested in space and tourism and Raymond's work, had been so admirably dextrous in her use of a welding torch and open-ended spanner, and to top it off, she was also a thorough enjoyer of Sammy's Chocolate Sandwich Cookies and had the same taste in food as Raymond. The Dawn Treader plunged back into the atmosphere, compressing it until it lost control of its electrons. Raymond was sure she'd love Integral Kitchen and Cafeteria, his own favorite restaurant. A thought struck him. Maybe she really would love Integral. And if she was with him, he'd love Integral even more. As the Dawn Treader regained its purchase on the air and the engine coughed up a fireball and flamed to life, Raymond sped back to the Airfield. He had a phone call to make and a date to plan. The whole way back, the landing gear shattered through the air, proudly and defiantly battling the wind. That evening at 4:00, Raymond touched down outside Kerbodyne Depot-A1 wearing the nicest suit he had. Rebecca came out wearing a jaunty orange dress with a lovely red collar. Gallantly throwing open the passenger door, Raymond dismounted and gently helped Rebecca inside. Raymond and Rebecca had a lovely evening at Integral Kitchen and Cafeteria. At the diner, they didn't talk much, both fully engrossed in the food. Raymond's appetite had returned in full force. In the kerbal societal standards of beauty, largeness of eyes is found desirable in female kerbals, and largeness of appetite is found desirable in the males. Rebecca found Raymond quite attractive that night at Integral. After dinner, Raymond took Rebecca on a private, nightly flight in the Dawn Treader. This time, his mind was focused, his takeoff smooth as Eeloo, and his passenger as lovely as the starry sky. Rebecca, being a mere plane mechanic, had never explored the upper atmosphere. To her, the ride was a magical voyage into a dark and unknown world. Outside, Raymond noticed the shock cones changing colors. "Ooh, Rebecca, if you look outside you can see the plasma starting to form. Get's me every time." "We're probably going what, 1200 meters per second?" Rebecca asked. Raymond glanced at the NavBall. "1300 and rising. Yeah, the Dawn Treader really moves." "How high does that mean we're gonna go?" "Oh, probably around seventy-five, eighty kilometers. Passengers usually see space for about a minute forty-fiveish. Then we're gonna hit the atmosphere again." Rebecca paused for a second. "Raymond, wouldn't it be cool if people could stay in space for as long as they wanted? Like, I know what-goes-up-comes-back-down, but couldn't there be a way to get around that?" "Maybe. You'd have to be going awfully fast. I dunno if it's possible, never tried it." Raymond thought for a moment. "You know about Kerbodyne's fancy new airless engines right?" "Yeah, what about them? They're not super efficient yet." "Well, if we could use our engines without air, maybe we could go even faster. It'd be a big project though. Lawrence is pretty busy flying the Drefinger. Would you be interested in helping?" "Of course I would!" And then, as the kerbals slowly lifted from their seats and the flames cleared from the windows, space peeked in once again for Raymond, and the first time for Rebecca. The horizon glowed faintly blue-orange in the receding twilight and city lights scattered across the dark, sleeping face of Kerbin. Although Raymond had become accustomed to it, space astonished Rebecca. Each star donated a tiny fraction of its photons to illuminate a seemingly minuscule plane named the Dawn Treader billions of kilometers away. The local galaxy spun strands of light towards the Dawn Treader from a literal million places at once, filling the cabin with the softest light imaginable. If you've ever been out on a walk at night in the still calm of the evening and wondered at the hundreds of stars in the perfect sky; if you've ever just driven out of town at night for no reason at all other than to feel the peace of the dark landscape and behold the almost loving light of the stars and completely forget the troubles of the day; then you have felt a fraction of what Raymond and Rebecca felt in space, in the infinite stillness of zero gravity, in the ever-faithful light of the infinitude of stars, so far from their home city, now so tiny that they could simply hide it behind their little finger. And there, eighty-five kilometers above the Effem Sea, on Year 5310, Day 281, for the first time in Kerbin's history, was the very first kiss in zero gravity. Totally alone, save for the silent applause of thousands of tiny stars. Edit: Also what the heck? Thread of the month? Thanks, whoever is in charge of that!