czokletmuss

Good golly! Could you provide some link for us?

I hope that this project is not dead, there's a great potential in it

It's an unofficial rule on this forum to not ask for the ETA - you'll have to be patient (though I can't wait too)

Small update of my Grand Tour AAR - several postcards from the voyage!

Small update nr 2: Grand Tour postcards

Small update: the crew status. I'm glad to see so many comments about the voting; I hope you enjoyed the chapter too! The next one perhaps will be released during this weekend

Yup - I bet there will be a big party tonight in Mars Society.

Gosh damn it to heck! Wow. Just wow. This is the most important discovery made by Curiosity so far, maybe even by any Mars lander.

It's perfect! source: http://spacemodels.nuxit.net/N1_D.htm

De gustibus - Soviet spacecraft have a certain zeerust/raygun rocket appeal and I like this aesthethic Comparing them to Apollo program machines is like comparing Millenium Falcon to TIE Fighter, if you know what I mean.

Most impressive. Such a pretty piece of engineering - what a pity that the real N-1 failed during all four launches.

It depends. If we can predict the collision 30-40 years before it happens, there are plenty of solutions, the easiest being to spray white paint on its surface and let the Yarkovsky effect take care of it. It's doable in 5 years, including building the probe, sending it to the asteroid and painting it. If we're talkin about a just discovered comet coming for the first time from the Oort cloud in retrograde with 50.000 km/h velocity, there's probably nothing we can do but die

Thanks for the info, I'm waiting for more comments on this matter before I make up my mind And speaking about the Grand Tour: What will the crew of "Proteus" choose to do - go to Jool or come back to Kerbin? I'm curious what your thougts are, especially since I haven't decided yet

CHAPTER 31 CROSSROADS *** ROZER: Ugh! JEB: I said tell me what you know! ROZER: :spits blood: I already told you I don't know. But I must admit, I didn't expect you to actually hit the prisoner. NED: You're not a prisoner, Rozer. ROZER: Of course I'm not. Still, I won't give you any points for creativity, Jeb – punch in the face? Come on, you could do better. I remember that waterboarding always worked, I wonder how effective it'll be in zero-g. JEB: You disgust me. ROZER: And you surprise me by thinking that brute force will solve any of your problems, Jeb. But it's not the first time you think that's the solution, aren't you? NED: Just tell us whether KSC knows about the Krussian spacecraft and we'll leave you. ROZER: I have no idea. If anybody knew, they didn't tell me. All I know is that nothing that big should be there, especially if it really is Mir-2 - and honestly, I'm as puzzled as you are. By the way, this whole bad cop-good cop thing would work better if you switched your roles. NED: :sigh: JEB: You better pray that we find some answers soon. ROZER: Why should I? If you had wanted me dead, I would've already be thrown out of the airlock. But you still cling to this illusion of moral superiority that guides you and causes so much trouble to us. NED: Don't you dare talking about morality after what you've done to Orsey! ROZER: It was a tragic accident, nothing more. Are you finished? If you want answers from KSC you can always just ask them, you know. But that'll reveal this little coup of yours, wouldn't it? NED: Accident?! You piece of sh- JEB: Calm down Ned, he's provoking us. Whether we contact with KSC isn't your business as long as I am the commander of this ship. ROZER: You're not in charge of anything, Jeb, none of us is anymore. JEB: And what's that suppose to mean? ROZER: :smiles: NED: You and you pathetic games. You really won't just give up and accept the reality, do you? ROZER: Oh, I believe I can say the same thing about commander here – am I right, Jeb? JEB: Come on Ned, we have better things to do than listen to him. NED: Yeah. ROZER: Pleasure is all mine. Drop in whenever you want – it's not like I'm going anywhere. JEB: Shut up. ROZER: :laughs: *** SID: Can we go already? DANREY: Give me a sec and we're good to go. SID: Alright. DANREY: We don't have that much oxium but we have even less fuel. I'll plot the trajectory for Hohmann, we're be down to 5-10% of air supplies but we're dock to “Proteus†in time. SID: Mhm. DANREY: Done. Undocking completed. Separation, RCS online. DANREY: I still can't believe that they managed to put this giant in orbit here. Must've used a lot of fuel. Damn, to do this without nuclear engines it's really someth- SID: Where are they, Dan? DANREY: Who? SID: The crew. This just makes no sense – we know that they were here, we've seen the food and the command module. If it was hydrazine leak that killed them, they should be floating somewhere inside – but they're not. Decompression doesn't explain in either and even the hypothetical lander attached to the docking port we used is not an answer: where would they go? Did they land? And why they were here in the first place? They wanted to secretly beat the Kinese to the Duna landing when they whole economy was collapsing? Damn, we've had to provide funding for their space agency so that it didn't have to fire all these rocket scientists! There's just no way they could've pull something so big. And even if so, why do this all in secrecy? This is just completely irrational! DANREY: And still it is here. SID: :sigh: DANREY: Are you sure you don't want to tell anybody about the signal? SID: Yes I am, although I know this whole thing will give me many sleepless nights. DANREY: Sleepless nights, huh? Kod, every time I think about this distress signal it gives me the creeps. SID: There has to be some explanation. And I'm going to find it. *** Commander's log, entry 60. What should I do? We can't fake the comms malfunction much longer, KCS will finally realize that something is wrong. And this Krussian spacecraft above Ike – what the hell is it doing here? Rozer says that he doesn't know but he can't be trusted. Fortunately Sid and Danrey will come back soon and maybe they will shed some light on this issue. Commander's log, entry 61. So the spacecraft was manned! But what's its mission? We'll probably never find out – hydrazine leak which killed the crew is so big that they couldn't get to the command module. I won't risk trying to get in there; when we come back home we'll give KSC the footage and let them figure it out. Speaking about it, this last unsettling discovery only worsened the crew's morale, despite the vast quantities of ice found on the Ike's north pole. It ain't good and there's not much what we can do with it. Commander's log, entry 62. BERTY told KSC about the ice and assured them that everything is going well. They were very enthusiastic about it and, what's more important, they finally said what they are planning to do about our low fuel levels: AMU 2.0. They want to launch it in the next several weeks when the transfer window to Jool opens. Well, judging from the mood of the crew it's rather unlikely that we'll ever see the upgraded miner unit. Besides, they didn't mention the Laythe lander. I ordered BERTY not to ask about this – who knows, maybe it's something Rozer knows about – so that they won't get even more suspicious. Commander's log, entry 63. This is the worst thing about space travel – waiting. It's just like before the battle, the anticipation and pressure is enormous but for the most time you just sit there and wait. Everybody would love to get out of here either to Jool or Kerbin but there are still several months before any transfer window. In the meantime we're stuck here, just like our scientists on Duna – but at least they have something to do. Ned and his men are doing they best to repair the insulation and make sure that all systems will work flawlessly. They don't work much though, only few hours per day – we agreed that the crew needs to have something to do. Sid is studying samples from Ike and apparently he's learning Krussian now. It must've been really tough to see the dead bodies of the crew, I guess he's trying to regain peace by doing this. It's better than apathy, that's for sure. Commander's log, entry 64. They launched it – AMU 2.0 is on its way to Jool. It'll need several trajectory corrections to get there but it will take months. I don't think we would be able to endure journey to Jool and back. Still, regardless of what Ned said I want the crew to decide. In 12 days we will lost contact with KSC due to the solar conjunction – Duna and Kerbin will be on the opposite side of the Sun and communication will be impossible. I know that if I want to confront them now I better hurry – but do I really want to do this? Commander's log, entry 65. Although our days are planned accordingly to the “Proteus†artificial light, it seems to me that they are getting shorter and shorter. The repairs are done in more or less 60% - it's too quick, it'll leave us without any objective for weeks before the transfer burn. AMU 2.0 should be now beyond Duna's orbit. BERTY says, that it'll pass very closely to Dres where we've left its predecessor. And it's almost a month since it was launched and more than two months since we discovered Mir-2 or whatever its name really is. We've never used the names of the months during the mission – it too easily makes you depressed, another finding from our journey to Jool on board “Kadmos†- but still it forces one to think. Today is 297 day of the second year of our travel. Soon there will be New Year: and to think that the last one was celebrated mere hours before the transfer burn from Dres! Now it feels like an eternity has passed and there are still more than four weeks before either transfer window opens for Duna. Commander's log, entry 66. Two weeks since the last entry. The contact with KSC is restored but the atmosphere is getting tense – if only the team from Duna could return to us, we would vote and get this over with. But they are as cut-off from us as before. If it was possible I would take LAMGML and go for them myself. Unfortunately, the only lander we have now can't be used for this – the risk of loosing it, however small, is unacceptable. If something happens to “Proteus†while we're close to Kerbin it's our only lifeboat; if it happens when we're in a distance bigger than several days of travel, well, it won't matter than. But I can't risk it. They of course have the other LAMGML down there, which together with DAV should transport all of them safely to orbit before the transfer burn. If that's what Rozer's order was about. It's very unnerving – they are so close, just 80 kilometers below us, but still they are out of our reach. Commander's log, entry 67. Today AMU 2.0 passes closest to Dres. Commander's log, entry 68. BERTY detected something very weird – the last of the probes detached from the Payload-B and changed it orbit. It have to be our science team from Duna – did they find something? I can't wait for our reunion: they are the only ones who can give me answers. Nor Rozer nor KSC can be trusted but with this knowledge they can at lest be confronted. Commander's log, entry 69. It's done – every single piece of the spacecraft accessible to our engineers was double and triple-checked. Ned says that “Proteus†is holding surprisingly well considering exposure to such hostile environment for almost three years, acceleration during burns and aerobraking. Still, he argues, it will be unwise to travel to Jool – even with the supplies extracted by AMU 2.0 it could be just too much for us to handle. Sid pointed out that even the crew of Krussian spacecraft made it so far and that all these secrets are the very reason to go there and find the answers. But the Krussians are dead. What should we choose? Commander's log, entry 70. They are coming! BERTY has just detected the LAMGML's heat signature above the planet. Dear Kod, we'll see them again, after four months! We have to prepare the “Proteus†for docking, I'll write more later. Commander's log, entry 71. They are docking, they really are! But there is only the LAMGML out there and it can take only three people - where is DAV? Did something happened down there? Where is the rest of my crew?! Commander's log, entry 72. That bastard. Why didn't he tell us about the Source? Ned is very excited, he says that the discovery of the weak radio signal on Duna can be – if they will find it's origin and it turns out to be artificial – the ultimate proof of extrakerbestrial life and the greatest discovery in the history. Sid however is not happy at all, which is strange considering that this whole alien theory was his idea. I don't know what to think about this, the consequences are just overwhelming – assuming they are right. But I still don't understand the secrecy – even Mallock and Genanand after spending down there four months didn't have access to nothing more than some readings from the robots. Why the KSC don't want to put even them, the selected team, near what they think may be the Source? Of course they did astonishing job taking samples in the vicinity of the base – I'm no egghead but it seems that their findings proved quite a few theories about Duna and falsified several others. All these good news aside, there is one big problem. They told me that the rest of the crew isn't coming back – there are going to do precisely as Rozer told them to and wait there until the new mission from Kerbin shows up to pick them. Apparently there are also plans to build a permanent orbital station using the Payload-B as a core – why we didn't have a clue they are planning something like this? Anyways, there is still the issue of voting: shall the rest of the Duna team vote with the rest of us? They don't want to come back with us and I can understand them completely – for scientists to be on Duna and on the verge of discovery so big, well, there's nothing more important than this. So they are not coming with us but they are still part of the crew. We can now try to land near them – their comms system is still not responding – and try to get them to vote but it's risky and probably unnecessary. After all LAMGMLs weren't designed for multiple landings on planetes with atmosphere. I'll have to decide tomorrow. Rozer's and KSC games aside, I think that our eggheads were really happy to be down there and explore the planet. The passion with which they're talking about it is really strong. I wish I could've spent more time down there and in a different circumstances. Commander's log, entry 73. I made the decision – we are not going for them. This means of course that the rest of us will vote whether to continue the mission or not. The majority was against going to Jool but it was before professor Mallock and Genanand returned. Honestly, I'm not so sure what should we do. Even Ned who was strongly opposing the idea of continuing the mission doesn't seem to be so confident now. Today it's 343 day of the second year of our journey – the transfer window to Kerbin opens in 18 days. Soon after this we'll have a New Year, than the opportunity to execute transfer burn to Jool and two weeks after that KSC is planning to send supplies and scientific equipment for our base on Duna. Everything is so closely packed in time and we have to choose very soon. Commander's log, entry 74. Only seven days left until the window to home opens. The last days passed very quickly – after some minor repairs of the LAMGML “Beta†we were mostly talking about incoming vote. Well, arguing actually. What's important is that we've been this through and through and I think everyone has know a strong and well-reasoned position in this debate. Which means there is nothing left to do but vote – I ordered the vote to be organized tomorrow. Should we keep pushing the boundaries and risk the long travel to Jool? We've been there once, me, Sid and Ned, and it didn't end well. But maybe now there is something really worth the struggle? Or should we just come back home and than, in a year or two, continue the mission, this time without any mysteries? Two of us died already – can we really risk even more deaths while chasing the echo of what was discovered here? No matter what the crew decides to do, I know one thing about our mission so far. Despite all the pain, misery and fear, despite malfunctions and all the obstacles - we did a good job. *** MISSION STATUS ***

Thank you very much although I'm not that happy with the last chapter. But I'll improve

Thanks, I guess :> IMPORTANT I'm trying to make some schedule for the both AARs and I'm wondering how many of you also read The Space Race. That is, would you like to get one chapter of each story in turns? Or would you prefer to get, say, two chapters of The Grand Tour per one of the Space Race - or conversly?

This is the mockup of the experimental version VF-200: The real VASIMR is not yet finished, so nobody knows how exactly it'll look like. But I guess you used these photos as a reference: Anyways, keep up with the good work EDIT: Are these fuel tanks?

VASIMR?! I've been waiting so long for someone to finally make this. It seems that your mission is to release every important and long over due part, MrTheBull I just hope it won't be OP with its crazy specific impulse. If sombody doesn't know what VASIMR is, I recommend going to the AdAstra page and reading this: http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/Technology I see you're creating the final variant of VASIMR - are you going to build the experimental one which is going to be tested on ISS too?

Personally I'm glad that the Soviet Union fell apart (totalitarian and opressive communistic empire it was) but to see high-tech rockets in such pathetic condition makes me sad

If you enjoyed the creepiness of the last chapter... well, what can I say? http://youtu.be/XzDqinO11O0 Space Is Not Nice.

Okay, thanks for the info!

I know it is tested right now but how heavy the payload to the low Kerbin orbit is going to be more or less?

Thank for the link, this is very interesting. However my point is still valid I think - when you have a big but rigid budget (SLS/MPCV + ISS + JWST + salary = not so much for anything else than PowerPoint) it's hard to overcome new challenges. And even if ISS part of the budget is released after ISS decomission it doesn't have to be used for a new station. Avarage USA citizen consumes during the year 6.95 tonnes of oil equivalent; in China the consumption equals to 1.69 ton of oil equivalent. Which is mostly imported from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuala and Russia. And of course, the culture of consumerism is much more developed in the West than in China. But what all of this has to do with Tiangong station? Exactly my thoughts. History shows us that everything changes - not so long ago (several centuries) China and the Far East in general was THE civilization of the world, leading in almost every aspect. Than came age of discoveries, colonialism, industrialism, capitalism and now the West dominates. It's just the way it is. Look at the USA - backward confederation on the peripheries of the civilized world transformed into the leading superpower in few centuries. World is always changing so we shouldn't be taking anything for granted. Personally I wish Chinese and Russians and every other space agency best luck. It's not a cold war, you know, and China isn't some kind of an Evil Empire - besides, a lot of people could say the same thing about USA hegemony. Remember, you can't see the borders from space - they are only in our heads

Question, questions, questions But don't worry, the answers will be revealed - in time.

Human rights topic and how USA or China treat them isn't really the topic of this thread so let's not start political offtopic. Let's just focus on space, not Tibet or Guantanamo, okay?