CatastrophicFailure

Wait, what? How're you able to control separate vessels with your little red dot? What sourcery is this?!

I've run into an issue here. I've had an LDEF in orbit for a while, visited it once, and successfully collected science from the experiments. Now I just went back, and the "Review results" button isn't working. Getting the below error every time I click it: [EXC 20:54:19.929] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object ModuleScienceExperiment.reviewData () ModuleScienceExperiment.ReviewDataEvent () BaseEvent.Invoke () UIPartActionButton.OnClick () UnityEngine.Events.InvokableCall.Invoke (System.Object[] args) UnityEngine.Events.InvokableCallList.Invoke (System.Object[] parameters) UnityEngine.Events.UnityEventBase.Invoke (System.Object[] parameters) UnityEngine.Events.UnityEvent.Invoke () UnityEngine.UI.Button.Press () UnityEngine.UI.Button.OnPointerClick (UnityEngine.EventSystems.PointerEventData eventData) UnityEngine.EventSystems.ExecuteEvents.Execute (IPointerClickHandler handler, UnityEngine.EventSystems.BaseEventData eventData) UnityEngine.EventSystems.ExecuteEvents.Execute[IPointerClickHandler] (UnityEngine.GameObject target, UnityEngine.EventSystems.BaseEventData eventData, UnityEngine.EventSystems.EventFunction`1 functor) UnityEngine.EventSystems.EventSystem:Update() Full log here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrt61pyyakwbxzs/KSP.log?dl=0 Also, is it, um intended that I can just transfer LabTime around between experiments even after I've completed one?

Heh, you even got the obligatory "turret flying up into the air."

That would be Vlad. Not to be confused with Vlad. Or Vlad. Or that other Vlad. I seem to have a great excess of Vlads, here. I think I recall abusing an Ivan at one point too, but everyone gets their time as the designated butt monkey. Behold glorious Ussari equity!

Ok, I've heard of going to Plaid before but this is ridiculous!

IIRC, this kind of longer-duration on-orbit life for the second stage is exactly what they're working on ATM. What about landing once around back in Texas (McGregor or Brownsville)? Or have I got my rotation reversed? The Space Shuttle could go around once and land at KSC, but it had 1000 miles of crossrange ability. How much of a plane change would be needed for that after 90 min?

And if that fails never underestimate the utility of copious amounts of filler putty.

Waste of money. You could drag one of those fools to the Moon itself and rub their nose in the gunpowder-scented regloith and they would still reject it as an elaborate ruse.

... and exothermal... and extralegal... and ex-eyebrows...

Can just anyone get a tour, or do you have to be Jeff Bezos's uncle's father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate?

What's that thing in the background that looks like they Flying Bedstead? Is this place in Texas or Kent?

Chapter 97: On the Shoulders of Giants The door slid open with a gentle sigh of hydraulics and a slight roil of mist. A figure stood in the entry way, clad in a bright orange launch suit and white helmet. It paused for a moment, adjusted its grip on the portable cooling box and then stepped forward into the cavernous launch bay. Valentina felt an odd sort of disappointment as she looked to the gleaming white rocket now waiting on the pad, bathed in the pallid glow of floodlights. Once, it seemed now like a lifetime ago, it had been her dream to be standing right here, in a KSA suit, before a KSA rocket. An ambassador of peace and goodwill, one seed in a springtime of cooperation and understanding. Now that she finally was here, all those old, nearly forgotten feelings came flooding back. And then politics had scoured it all away like relentless desert sand. This, we do not speak of. With a bitter alkali taste in her throat, she wondered if perhaps Layland Kerman was on to something after all, with his visions of people united without governments or borders. A different way. Maybe even a better way. The people here all seemed to get on well enough, like the bubbly technician trundling along beside her. The one who hadn't taken a breath in the last hour as he explained her mission. "...and not much more than a prototype, really. We've used flight-proven, off-the-shelf components as much as possible, but they still want a few months of in-situ data before launch. Fully check out the environmental controls, verify propellant stability, that sort of thing." Valentina pushed the politics out of her mind. She had a goal, she had a mission Sabotage the ship, save Edmund, save everyone. For now, she was part of one team working towards that end... even if they didn't know it. Genuinely curious, she glanced up at the unshrouded craft high above, "cryogenic fuels, then?" "Oh, no. Hypergols, chlorine trifluoride and azidoazide azide." Valentina slowed to a halt, "wait... what?" "For the evac engines," he grinned, "we needed a combination with high energy density as well as ISP." She inhaled slowly, blinked a few times, and calmly handed the now confused technician the cooling box for her suit. Then snatched him up by the lab coat with both hands. His forehead thunked against her helmet as she shook him "you <thunk> put two <thunk> of the the most reactive <thunk> and energetic <thunk> chemicals known to Kerb <thunkthunk> on top of five hundred tonnes <thunk> of propellium hydroxide and oxidizer!?<thunk!>" The technician's head lolled in big, slow circles, his eyes staring off in completely different directions. More than usual. "Erm, sorry..." She set him back on his feet, steadied him, took a moment to straighten his collar. "Guuuuhh... it's perfectly safe!" the poor fellow recovered quickly enough, owning to the notoriously thick Kerbal head, "though we did have some... er... challenges... with stability early on. Poor Vlad (no relation) burned his eyebrows clean off," he paused to wave at a very grumpy-looking Kerbal passing by, who didn't wave back, "hi Vlad!" Valentina opened her mouth. Valentina closed her mouth. The technician sighed, "still haven't grown back. He's a little sore. But we've worked that all out, now!" he beamed at her. Wondering if maybe she had thunked him a bit too hard, Valentina couldn't help but ask, "how on Kerbin did you manage to stabilize azidoazide azide?" "Well, I'm not entirely sure, propellants aren't really my department," he put a thoughtful hand to his chin, "but I think they brought in a witchdoctor from one of the deep-jungle villages," the grumpy Kerbal walked past again, "oh, and Vlad had to donate blood." He grinned again. Valentina slowly raised a hand to her faceplate, and mumbled into it, "why am I surprised? Why does any of this surprise me anymore?" The technician didn't seem to notice, "we did try using hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane for a stretch, but that went really bad, and poor Vlad—" A hand went up, "I do not want to know. I do not want to know! Next you will be telling me you use FOOF in the air scrubbers." "Hmph!" fists planted on hips, "now you're just being facetious. Dioxygen difluoride in the environmental systems? Really? That's ridiculous!" "Sorry," she mumbled. "We use it in the RCS. Packs a nice punch." Once again, Valentina smacked her faceplate. She briefly considered going back and finding the break room, maybe get a nice cup of coffee. She didn't need to destroy the Jool ship, these people seemed quite capable of that on their own. Nevertheless, she picked up her equipment and walked onto the elevator. Of course, it wasn't really a KSA rocket, she mused as the elevator began to move. Nothing disturbed the smooth white flanks they now rose past, no emblems, no logos, no markings of any sort. Even her own suit was devoid of anything that could identify her or the Company. Wherever the spent debris fell, there would be nothing to mark where it came from. She had a suspicion the Company would make doubly sure of that. The ends justify the means... Few of these people were under the sway of the shadows, yet here they all were, serving willingly and recklessly. All of of this hardware... all of this money... all of this opportunity... would any of them even want to be saved? Would... Edmund? After all, he had... Once more, she pushed the thoughts away. "And what about these, what did you call them? Cryo... hyper...?" Valentina asked. "Autonomous cryogenic biostasis enclosures." The elevator shuddered as it passed another level, "er, yes. I am sort of in the industry, how is it I never heard of such a thing before now?" "One of Layland's old pet projects," the technician shrugged, "one he insisted they keep a very tight lid on. He wanted to use them for future colony ships, adding them to the lifeboat was part of the testing process." She glanced at him, "you do not sound very convinced." "I'm just a technician, what do I know? Seems like overkill if the goal is established space lanes with hundreds of ships going back and forth that could rescue one that had trouble. But Management thinks that with all the resources already piled into the project, the prototypes are at least worth testing." A new sort of uneasiness crept over her the higher they went. It was oddly quiet, here. No muted hiss of venting gas or drifting plumes of vapor. The enormous rocket was entirely fueled with room-temperature hypergolics. With the payload of caustic incendiaries above, the thought of simply putting a hole in the right one had flashed through her mind for an instant. The conflagration that would follow might just eliminate the entire facility. But, with the other two pads now enclosed in their massive reinforced concrete sarcophagi, as the technician had called them, it was plain that whoever designed this place had taken just such a disaster into account. Of course, such an act would eliminate her as well, and she needed to get back. She needed to get to Edmund. Edmund... who was terminally ill... Gears shifted in Valentina's mind with a thunk. "They put you into hibernation? Like a bear in winter?" she asked, not quite looking at him. "Well, sort of. 'Hibernation' isn't the most accurate term. It's a complete suspension of all metabolic activity. But reversible. Probably. Maybe." "Could you... metabolically suspend someone... like if they were very ill... until there was treatment?" The technician opened his mouth, then blinked. He put a thoughtful hand to his chin as the elevator shuddered again, "well... maybe. The freezing process is pretty awful, there's some nasty stuff involved. Same thing on the other end. Though I suppose it is possible." He scratched at his white cap, "I'll have to pass that on to the project manager, strange that they never mentioned it before." Valentina suppressed a small grin. Her plan was beginning to come together. But there was... one more complication, too... Valentina brushed the madness of it out of her head for the moment. She mentally went over the layout of this "lifeboat" one more time as the elevator rose near it. The main cabin was a pair of PPD-10 Hitchhiker modules bolted together. Below or behind that was a small vestibule with the aft-facing docking port. It could be used as an airlock, in a pinch. The fuel tanks and egress engines were mounted to the sides, the latter just covered by the protective payload shroud. Until now they hadn't bothered to tell her what was in those tanks. Topping the volatile mess was a stripped down Mark1-2 command pod. She noted the designers had taken a page from the Ussari manual and put a hatch in the heatshield to access the main cabin. That command pod became the center of her nascent plan. Somehow, she had to survive. Destroying that ship seemed a minor thing, now. She had to survive and find Edmund. Fix this whole thing. Blow up the Jool ship, escape in the lifeboat, use the pod to return to Kerbin. The rest was still a bit foggy, but then get to Edmund. Save him. Put him in one of those cryo-things if she had to. Save everyone. There was just one slight complication with all that... "Erm, Captain?" the technician looked at her with concern. "Yes, sorry..." Valentina pushed the thoughts away and tried to pay attention. The other Kerbal grinnned, "your chariot awaits!" He swung open the hatch to the capsule. Poking her helmeted head inside with caution, she mused that the KSA had a true talent for making cramped spacecraft. In mock-ups she had seen elsewhere, the Mk1-2 actually seemed roomy, but nearly all the space in this one was taken up by the six cryo-tubes arranged in a petal-like ring around the central hatch. Valentina had a very good look at one as she squeezed past to the makeshift launch couch in the center. It looked like a coffin with a glass lid. She shuddered and moved on quickly to where the couch was mounted, just over the open hatch and in front of a high-tech yet rudimentary instrument panel. She could do this. The Jool ship would be uncrewed. She had a good plan. It wasn't perfect, still needed some fleshing out, but it was solid. There was just one teeny-tiny itsy-bitsy little complication. Before hauling herself up into her couch, she took a look down through the open hatch to the main cabin... where a squad of anxious looking technicians were crawling over Igor like little white ants getting him strapped in. Igor. She hadn't counted on Igor. Although she found it quite remarkable how quickly they wrangled up a space suit for him, some leftover from the cancelled cis-münar bovine project. It still bore the fading Ussari flags. She had the feeling this place excelled at quick response to changing mission plans. Despite knowing what was behind it all, she couldn't help but be impressed. With another sigh, she rolled into the launch couch. Three large CRT multifunction displays and their rings of buttons stared back at her. Those, and the ever-present MechIVAN box with its big pair of lights and silly antenna. Or... whatever this KSA knockoff was. Hmm. No obvious controls. Perhaps the CRT's— "Good morning, Captain," said a calm voice. "Gah!" screamed Valentina. Her head snapped back and forth as she searched for newcomer. Finding only the technician, with a rather dull look in his eyes, the question had just formed on her lips when— "Greetings," said the voice, "I am the Inertia, Velocity, Attitude, and Navigation system, revision nine thousand, prototype number one." Her eyes finally found... You have got to be kidding me. "I became operational at the Layland-Wutani plant in Kokyo, Gytep, on the septeenth of Octember approximately six months ago." That big green light... almost like a lens... it really was looking at her! Stamped on a plate just above it was the name IVAN 9000, No. 1. "My instructor was Dr. Kerman-desu, and she taught me to sing a song," the voice continued, "if you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you." Valentina had just opened her mouth when— "No, IVAN," the technician slammed a fist against the panel, "she would not." He turned to her, "sorry, that's one of its screwy subroutines. One it gets started it just keeps going and going till it winds down to nothing. One of many bugs we're still chasing." "You are quite right, Neldon, thank you for catching that," the voice said, "I am responsible for the operation and management of the emergency metabolic suspension systems, as well as navigation and control, except, of course, for the final docking maneuver." The technician tapped his pen against the glowing green light, clink-clink-clink, "still can't get that docking algorithm right. The math checks out but the simulations always go bad. Once this tub comes back from a few month's testing we'll probably have to pull the memory core and break it down, might be some internal fault with the CPU." "That is the most likely recourse at this point, Neldon. I am once again unable to locate any errors in my neural network through my internal diagnostic program. Captain," she sensed the voice's attention shift to her, "I have familiarized myself with your file and am greatly looking forward to working with you. I hope this will be the beginning of a very productive relationship." "Oh, well, um..." she stumbled, "thank you, um, Ivan. Er, may I call you Ivan?" "That would—" The technician broke in, "you can call it whatever you want, IVAN is smart enough to respond to just about anything. Most of us just settled on 'crummy Gytepi piece of crap.'" He giggled at his own quip. Valentina frowned. So... Igor, who couldn't possibly fit into the return capsule with her, and a quasi-sapient artificial intelligence that had complete control of the entire ship. Make that... two complications.

Naw... tho everyone's favorite ichthyorodentian may have a supporting role in [somethings] of the Kraken. Now while I could forever keep dismissing the Good in pursuit of the Perfect, the next chapter is, at last, ready, with a great thanks to @Ten Key. Should be up in an hour or so.

[REDACTED]! Solving the Korean troubles one plane at a time. Someone get this guy to the UN!

Year 4, Day 127... Glub. Glub!? Glub! Glubglub! Garglechokesputtergak! Glub...?

IIRC, the lowest inclination Vandenburg can launch to is 50*, due to those overflight rules.

Whoah. That was quick!

@Galileo I'm playing with Mission Controller Extended, and as expected, some of the contracts are buggered up. It's confused about what body to send me to on some specialized ones. I understand why this is. Question is, is there anything I can edit (like in the save file) to change the destination body contract by contract?

This is all in 10.flarpthatscat right? Dang.

This is awesome. But after 90 years in a tin can, what you get back will no longer be Kerbal... ...one way or another...

If you can tweak your return path enough to get a return flyby of one of those gas giants, you can probably save yourself a hefty chunk of Dv, too. Tho you'll still be retrograde.

Shhhhhh.....

Noted, thanx.

Quick question: I see Sigma Dimensions has an update out. Safe to upgrade?

My biggest takeaway is that I can now pronounce hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane. It's kinda fun, has a natural rhythm to it. All I need is for someone to drop me a beat. . . . On second thought, probably not a good idea to drop anything around hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane. I believe that's where I learned about it in the first place. Speaking of which... Hmm. Hmmmmmmm..... Wait, naw. You'll have to... sigh... wait and see.