KSK

I'm going to add a fifth question to OP's list. What is the minimum level of technology needed to survive on Mars once you get there? I'm thinking that the simpler the technology required, the simpler the facilities needed to repair and replace that technology and therefore, the quicker your colony becomes self-sustaining.

Depends if those virions are exploiting existing ecosystems or barren rocks. Especially if the 'exploitation' produces an environment which favours or re-awakens any native lifeforms and then treats those lifeforms with appropriate care and respect.

D'oh. That slap of palm against face you just heard was me finally getting the 'waterfowl' reference. KSK - neither of those Ks stands for Kwick.

I find frequency of updates to be the main challenge myself. I don't have any hard evidence for this but I would think that regular updates can only help to hold reader interest and generate discussion - and that tends to be the start of a virtuous cycle of views and new readers. Unfortunately, as I think we all know, real life gets in the way and dedicated as us KSP fanfic writers are, sometimes it's nice to do something other than eat, sleep, day job and working on the next chapter. The possible wall 'o text issue - I'm not the best person to comment on that really, as I have more than a passing fondness for them myself. I've said it before though and I'll say it again - I've seen great examples on this forum of pure prose, graphic novels and about every level of illustrated story in between. All of them have had their aficionados, so pick yer poison, pick up yer pen and have at it! Your writing is easily good enough to stand alone without any pictures, so the level of illustration is really up to what you find fun to do.

I'm really enjoying Warped Stars. I don't remember the exact words but speaking about Terminator 2, James Cameron once said something along the lines of 'get all the ordinary bits really right and it'll make all the implausible bits fit in.' That sums up Warped Stars for me - I really like the attention you've paid to engineering and testing the Kraken drive. Personally, I would say that if you're having fun writing Warped Stars then focus on that and put Kerbal Future on hold for a bit. Keeping one story going can be tough enough. Keeping two going... I don't want to think about that! Besides, if you ever hit a block with Stars then working on Future for a bit might be the change of pace you need to get unblocked.

That sounds familiar! Saw a (very) early version mentioned in PC Gamer. Thought 'that looks interesting' but didn't do anything about it for a while. Needed a new game to play a few months later, decided to look up KSP. A free demo running under MacOSX made trying it out a complete no-brainer. After much learning, consulting of wikis and watching of one tutorial (made by somebody I'm trying desperately to remember), I managed to get to the Mún and back (although without landing). Decided this was a game I had to buy. Bought it.

I'm a male non-psychologist, so anything I say here is strictly speculative, particularly when it comes to makeup. With that said, I would imagine that astronauts probably are more resistant to psychological stress but on the other hand, I can also imagine that anything that can be done to reduce that stress is valuable. Living in space is such a bizarre (and in some important ways, fairly unpleasant or at least irritating) experience, that little pockets of normality, like applying makeup or shaving, become all the more important. As for classifying makeup as a hygiene product, I take your point but I suspect that 'hygiene' is just used as a general catch-all term for stuff that's applied to, worn in proximity to, or cleaned off of your body. I got an interesting book for Christmas about this sort of stuff. Packing for Mars is all about the day to day practicalities of living in space. It does get fairly earthy in places, so if anyone is likely to be squeamish about the uh, human interface aspects of space toilets for example, then it might not be the book for them. Long story short though - the hard practicalities of living in space often take a back seat to giving the astronauts what they want and what they're familiar with. Making space food, for example, would be a lot easier if you could dispense with trivialities like 'tasting vaguely acceptable'. Edit: Don't let the book cover put you off. I found it to be rather more serious and in-depth than the cover suggests.

Heh - that last one would be cool. I expect the real reason is more psychological. Given the amount of money involved in training the crew, getting them up there in the first place and keeping them alive once they're there (not to mention building their nice space house to begin with), the cost of transporting a lipstick or two is utterly negligible and if it makes for a happier, more productive crew member on-orbit then it was well worth it. Much like shaving - and I imagine that shaving is far more of a pain in zero-g and probably requires more consumables.

Oooh - just took a peek at the chapter list and I have but two words: Act Three. *Orders a bag of coffee beans, checks the snack cupboard and settles in for the long haul with a happy smile.* Edit: Congrats on the un-derping. I can attest to the lack of fun involved.

That second one is getting pretty close! Just remembered that I never did give the Word of God answer to this, so here goes. From All the Proof They Needed, way back in Part 1: "Picked out in white and green on a blue background, the flag was a stylised plan view of the Capital building itself. The twelve smaller circles around the centre green circle formed a flower motif symbolising Kerbin and each of the six white bars crossing at the centre of the flower, represented the people of one of its six major regionalities." To that you could add that each of the bars connects two of the smaller circles, symbolising the ties between kerman and kermol in each Regionality. The more cynical kerbals would also add that the crossed bars are also a rather apt symbol of Governmental departments working at cross-purposes... On a related note, I've just figured out how the next chapter, Thin Red Line, is going to work. Just need to sit down and write it now.

Bit of a string o' posts this, I'm afraid but they don't really work as a single longer post. Madrias - you had me at 'Pull the blue lever and brace for acceleration'! Works very well with your flavour text. That last sentence too - I can just picture the look on your pilot's face when he/she tries to use that trick for landing. End of the runway fast approaching, half the airplane dumped on the tarmac about 100 metres back, the rest of it making horrible scraping, grindy noises... Your MACE does sound different to mine but it sounds like a load of fun to fly too!

I think it probably was. And I'm very glad that First Flight had that effect because that way we all got to read Farlight as well.

That top right panel is awesome. "Angels 25 - going to rocket mode!", RAPIERS going full bore and general fire in the sky! Love it!

A fair point. KSP is interesting in that regard though because there isn't much canon material about any of the kerbals. Even the four orange suits are pretty paper thin characters and we see nothing at all about their lives outside of going to space. So for a given fanfic involving the orange suits, I would argue that the author was at least as much responsible for creating the characters as Squad, although Squad certainly provided the all-important inspiration. In your example, it would be as if some other writer came across a couple of scribbled notes on a manuscript: 'Romeo + Juliet - two young lovers living in Verona' and then wrote Romeo and Juliet from those notes. Not the best example to choose since Romeo and Juliet borrowed heavily from earlier works but I think it makes my point.

I don't recall that Romeo and Juliet ever existed either. With regard to KSP and fanfic in general - people like to make up stories. Their favourite games/films/books/whatevers are good sources of inspiration for those stories Good choice! I'll pinch your premise and go for Jonton and Gerselle. They're not even kerbonauts, just two kerbals, married with a family, trying to keep things together amidst a whole bunch of exceptionally trying and unusual circumstances.

*deafening applause* And that, right there, is a chapter written by somebody having a ton of fun doing it! I was going to try and quote the bits I particularly liked but decided there really wasn't much point quoting the whole thing when it's all laid out so neatly in your last post! I did like Anastasia though.

Added - and thank you!

Time to look at activity feeds then. It's annoying because I found notifications useful and the little red bell icon worked fine as a notification alert. Not quite in real time, which I guess is the advantage of the black box popup but good enough given that the red bell would update whenever I changed thread, or could be updated by a browser refresh. The black box is just too intrusive for me though, so activity feeds it is. Meh.

Not a problem Madrias and as always, thanks for the comments and kind words! That's about my definition of smooth switching too! Any engine start-up which gives you a working engine at the end is a good start-up. My version of MACE is fairly blatantly cribbed from the Reaction Engines SABRE design. It's a rocket engine in both modes, or at least it uses the same combustion chamber in both. In 'rocket' mode, the combustion chamber is fed from the onboard LOX tank, whilst in 'airbreathing' mode, the chamber is fed with cold but not quite liquid air. Avoiding liquefaction makes the plumbing a lot simpler (you don't need an air condenser) and significantly reduces the amount of LH2 required in your cooler, since you're not having to deal with all that pesky latent heat. To be honest, I'm not sure how the switchover is intended to happen in real life, so all this is largely based on gut feeling, but it seems like the place where things are likely to go wrong and story-wise it provides a convenient roadblock which I can use to spin out the spaceplane story thread a bit. Stopping a rocket engine in mid-flight and then restarting it using effectively a different oxidiser (and a liquid rather than a gas to boot) doesn't sound straightforward and doing a genuinely smooth transition whereby the engine doesn't stop at all, seems even less straightforward. If nothing else, the pre-burner is driving the compressor + LH2 pump in air-breathing mode, whereas it's driving the LH2 and LOX pumps in rocket mode. Managing that handover without spraying bits of gearbox, clutch (since I presume all three are driven on a common shaft) or impeller blade all over the inside of the engine sounds challenging all by itself. Then you either need to have an injector which can handle near-liquid air or LOX (and plumbing that can switch between the two) or a combustion chamber fitted with two injectors which can handle the (presumably) different flow patterns and flow rates from each. I'm actually thinking that a pintle injector (conical impingement injector in-universe) might be the way forward, although the idea of using one in such a high performance engine would probably make Wernher choke on his sandwiches. I'm probably overthinking this but hey - it's fun! Plus it lets me use all sorts of cool and sort of plausible technobabble.

Thanks - I hoped it would be. It was quite a way out my writing comfort zone - but it was also something that I'd been foreshadowing for a while so I wanted to do it justice. And on a different, less intense note, the next chapter is up! This is another one for Madrias - and everyone else who took part in the GAB (Great Acronym Brainstorm ) of October 2014... Engines and Engineers Thousands waited anxiously by the shore, watching for a glimpse of orange parachute although, in their heart of hearts, they knew there would be nothing to see. Thousands more watched the recovery ship’s triumphant return to port, scorched reentry capsule lashed to it’s deck. They lined the streets, a clamorous, worshipful multitude jostling for a view of the three Mün voyagers. Three of their own, two of them born and raised in nearby Groves, ordinary kerbals-in-the-street to look at – but only to look at. Three kerbonauts, hair still damp and smelling faintly of disinfectant, waved at the crowds through their car windows. Although the very idea had been roundly dismissed by most reputable scholars, the persistent fears of something living on the Mün and being brought back to Kerbin had proved hard to dispel. As a result, after a slow tour of the busiest streets, Jeb, Jondun and Malmy were whisked away to the Barkton medical centre for a week under observation, the medical centre staff keeping a close eye on the crowds of well-wishers waiting outside. Amusement turned to surprise which segued into disbelief followed by exasperation as the days dragged on, but eventually the few still remaining were rewarded for their patience. The KIS car drove away leaving behind a group of excited kerbals clutching signed posters and other crowning additions to their collections of space memorabilia. By the time the car pulled up at the Space Centre, Kerbol was setting behind the Vehicle Assembly Building, casting long shadows over the stands and smaller buildings. Geneney unlocked the museum doors and waved the three kerbonauts inside. He flicked the lights on and stood quietly to one side, letting them take in the refurbished exhibits in their own time. Jeb’s eyes flicked over the first exhibit with it’s familar Kerbal and Moho capsules on their stands. Behind them, sets of photographs gleamed in new frames: Bill’s original snaps of Kerbin taken from Kerbal 1, Geneney, Wernher and Lucan riding out to the launchpad and the waiting Kerbal 2, photographs of half built capsules and ascending Moho boosters. He smiled faintly at the large ‘First Steps to the Unknown’ signboard suspended overhead before turning his attention to the second exhibit: ‘Working Together in Space.’ There, the Eve 1 capsule sat side by side with their borrowed Rockomax docking adaptor, still mounted on its mysteriously acquired dolly and facing an engineering mockup of the Eve docking ring on its stand. Photographs of the Eve 1 and Next Step spacecraft joined nose-to-nose in orbit adorned the wall behind them, together with pictures of their crews floating together inside. Spacesuits and other pieces of equipment stood mounted in tall, glass fronted cabinets. Despite himself, Jeb’s chest swelled with pride at the third exhibit: ‘To the Mün and Back’. Above the first of three large display boards, a plainly printed banner simply read: ‘We, voyagers from the planet Kerbin…’ Below it, pictures of the Munar far side taken from the Muna 2 probe sat side by side with pictures of Kerbin framed in Pioneer 1’s rendezvous window, and the first pictures of Kerbin rising over the Mün. Next to them, Pioneer 2 floated high above the Great Tranquil Sea and Barrie stood atop Pioneer 3’s service module, circling the Mün with Seanan’s signpost clutched across her chest. The second display board labelled: ‘First set foot upon the Mün…’ showed pictures of himself and Jondun working on the Munar surface arranged around a huge blown-up photograph of the two of them shaking hands in front of the flag of all Kerbin. Then Jeb turned to the third board and a shiver ran down his back. Labelled: ’We came in peace for Kerm and Kerbal’ , it didn’t have any pictures of space or spacecraft. Instead it was full of kerbals. Kerbals packed into village halls. Winding queues of kerbals waiting patiently outside cinemas. A great ocean of green figures surrounding the Capital building and its seven huge screens. The Council of Twelve Pillars themselves, seated in front of one of the screens, watching two space-suited figures walking against a backdrop of grey. And one blurry, pixellated photograph of a group of uniformed kerbals sitting beneath a pair of flags. “We got that one in the post.” Jeb jumped, head snapping round to see a sombre Geneney standing beside him. “Sent anonymously but with a letter inside. Those are Wakiran, Kolan and even Firesvarn soldiers, Jeb. All sitting together waiting for you to come around the Mün after MOI.” Geneney swallowed hard. “We came in peace for Kerm and Kerbal. I don’t where you pulled that from but it was nothing but the plain truth that day.” ————— Muddy, trampled-down tundra, Val decided, did little to improve the view of grey mountains and grey sky. Although at least its not raining. Or snowing. A sudden clink of glass against metal caught her attention and she glanced down at her companion squatting by his open backpack and trying unsuccessfully to conceal an empty bottle. “I'll take that, Sergeant.” The weatherbeaten kerbal stood up, staring carefully over her shoulder. "Ma'am?" "The empty bottle, Sergeant. Appreciate you taking the weight off my back but I can lug my own litter thank you. Besides - wouldn't want anyone thinking you'd stolen my peace offering. Carrying alcohol on patrol or stealing it from an officer - either of those can land a kerbal up to his neck in trouble." Val kept her voice carefully neutral. "On the other hand, the regulations don't say a thing about a commissioned officer exercising his or her operational discretion; for example electing to share her valued personal stock of redfruit brandy with her fellow officers at an impromptu peace conference." "Ma'am." Val sighed. "That's an order, Sergeant.” She held out her hand. Stuffing the pale red bottle into her own backpack, Val stared bleakly at the empty rings of impromptu seats around them. ““They came in peace for Kerm and kerbal,” she said. “What are we doing here, Sarge?” “Making a difference, ma’am. Stopping things from getting worse,” “And you believe that?” “Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t ma’am. For sure I’m not here for the fresh air or scenery.” He adjusted a strap on his backpack. “Tell the truth, I was never all that impressed by the space program. Sure it takes djo… it takes confidence to strap yourself to the top of a rocket, but going in circles ‘round Kerbin just looked like sightseeing to me. Landing on the Mün though - now that was different. That was laying everything on the line. A lot of…stuff to go wrong and if it did go wrong?” He spread his hands. “Game over. Not coming home.” He settled his pack into place and looked at his commander. “Think you could fly that Mün lander?” Val shrugged. “I expect so. Can’t be that different to flying a chopper.” She sighed. “Got a tour of this Kerm-forsaken tundra to finish first and probably another one after that. You didn’t hear that from me though, Sarge.” “Don’t know what you’re talking about ma’am, on account of me not hearing a thing over this Blighted wind.” Although once we’re done with this tour, it might just be time to send little brother Al a letter. “We’d better be getting a move on before it gets any worse.” ————— Framed pictures of jet aircraft decorated the walls of an otherwise modestly appointed office. One soared above the clouds, two others flew in close formation, another dived dramatically whilst turning on a wingtip. Still more stood on the runway, bubble canopies open with a very much younger Al Kerman sitting in the cockpit, staring at the camera from behind mirrored sunglasses. “… a Kerbal Space Program - tasked with nothing less than building us a new home amongst the stars.” Al stared at his radio, unsure whether to applaud or laugh out loud. Obrick’s voice turned suddenly serious. “Make no mistake my friends - this will not be easy…” And that has to be the biggest understatement of all time. “…Engineers and agronomists, young and old, kerman and kermol. Volunteers to forge our new path and lead us to our new home on another world… Volunteers for Project Starseed.” Well at least they picked a proper name for their madness. Al stared at a picture of himself sitting in a prototype Cloudrunner single seat racer, remembering newspaper photographs of the same jets on the runway at Humilisia, torpedoes slung under their fuselages. His gaze turned bleak at the other memories. At television footage of Kerm saplings in grotesquely oversized planters being hoisted off a ship whilst armed guards escorted sullen villagers and frightened kerblets down the gangplanks. Although their madness beats that madness every which way. And its going to take a whole lot of flying to pull off - they’ll be looking for any pilots they can lay their hands on. Al picked up a pen and tapped it thoughtfully against his teeth. Hah. Maybe they’ll even need flight-qualified desk jockeys, even if they’re not going to stick me in a Munar lander anytime soon. He shook his head. A thousand metres off the floor, barrelling in at Kerm knows what speed, radar crapping out and rocks all over the runway. Yeah, their flight director wasn’t messing. That was good flying. Al put his pen down, pulled over his card index and began flipping through it. And the President got one thing dead right. They’re… no we’re going to need better spacecraft. We ain’t going to be lifting everyone to orbit three-by-three in a bunch of tin cans. He grunted. There it is. And I’ll just bet that Mr Lodan is gonna be interested in an air breathing rocket engine right now. He picked up his phone and dialled a number. “Kerbin Space Agency. Director Lodan’s office. How can I help you?” ————— The bomb exploded with a sharp, firecracker retort. The torrent of flame pouring out of the SK2-G rocket engine flickered for a barely discernible instant before recovering. Thirty seconds later the engine shut down with a vast, sooty orange belch, leaving nothing but a dissipating cloud of steam and smoke and the pinking of slowly cooling metal. Hanbal turned to the engineers seated at the consoles beside him. “Damping time?” “Less than point one seconds.” Hanbal pursed his lips. “Consistent with the rest of the test series then?” “Completely.” Hanbal nodded at Danfen, who was standing quietly by the door, then turned to face his test team. “In that case, I think we’ve got ourselves a new rocket engine.” He bowed his head in thought before straightening up with a smile. “Good kerbals, I give you the SK2-M ‘Mainsail’!” There was a brief patter of applause and more than a few sighs of relief. Groups of serious looking kerbals nodded in satisfaction at a job well done, before congregating around the test consoles to study the data. Later, Hanbal knew, there would be time to celebrate, but for the moment, there were reports to fill in and numbers to double check before any kerbal in the room would declare him or herself satisfied. No quibbles about the name though. He walked over to join Danfen. “We did it,” he said softly. “Over twice the thrust of a Skipper and only a little less efficient in atmosphere.” Danfen was a picture of barely contained excitement. “The thrust assembly and tankage for the KDSS test flights are on schedule. We’re recruiting heavily for the surface exploration teams - Bob’s crew are busy with the landers for Pioneers 5 and 6 but we’ll finally have the resources to build the Mark 2 - and rover - in parallel!” His eyes shone. “KDSS will be plenty for the new Endurance modules too. We’re finally getting there, Han - bigger and better!” Hanbal looked around and then shot Danfen a quick grin. “About that,” he said. “Step into my office for a minute?” Danfen nodded eagerly and followed him inside. Hanbal closed the door behind them and turned to find Danfen already staring open mouthed at the diagrams pinned to the wall. “They other two are just rough obviously,” he said. “but based on the numbers for the KDS and KDS Stretch, I think we can make them work.” He gestured at the wall. “The KDS Stretch. Extended tankage, bulked up thrust frame and central Mainsail engine but otherwise similar to the KDS. Four Skippers on lateral boosters, Poodle for the second stage.” He spotted Danfen’s raised eyebrows. “Sorry - team joke. But compared to the SK2-M, the 1G is a bit of a poodle.” He cleared his throat. “Anyhow - the Stretch got me thinking - what if we replaced all five Skippers with Mainsails? We’d only need a pair of lateral Mainsails rather than four Skippers, which should make the thing simpler and lighter. Roncott actuators should be able to handle the extra weight on the decouplers.” Hanbal gestured at the third diagram. “But then I wondered if we should bother with lateral decouplers at all? Why not go back to an inline design and put all the engines on a single thrust frame. Simpler and stronger, although a five Mainsail first stage would be massively overpowered for a Poodle upper stage. So I figured we could go with a three stage design. Five Mainsails on the first stage, four, maybe five Skippers on the second stage and Kerm knows what on the third stage. Same expanded nozzle Poodle as the KDS most likely - it makes a decent enough vacuum engine.” “With the rest of the Mark 2 Pioneer stack on top,” said Danfen, “Lander, rover, CSM - the lot.” He shook his head. “Kerm - we could probably strap one of Ademone’s habitation modules on there too and fire the whole lot off to Minmus!” Hanbal chuckled. “It might struggle with the CSM but actually, I think it could handle the rest.” ————— Geneney gestured at the door. “Anyway, the rest of the team should be waiting in my office.” He turned to Jondun. “I expect you’ll get all this from Ademone in a couple of days but you’re welcome to join us anyway.” Jondun nodded. “I’d appreciate that, Gene.” Outside, it was beginning to get dark. Small, low-set lamps glowed in the dusk, marking the paths between the warehouses. Geneney led the way over to the old vehicle assembly building, ushering them inside and locking the door behind them. Jondun fell into step beside Malmy as they crossed the factory floor, both letting Jeb go on ahead by unspoken agreement. Light spilled out of Geneney’s office windows and Jondun saw a group of kerbals inside, sitting around a table. Bob and Wernher leapt to their feet, closely followed by Richlin and Ornie and for a moment, Jeb was mobbed by eager friends. Bill and Lucan stayed in their seats, Lucan beaming happily at everyone and, Jondun noticed, even Bill seeming to forget his normal reserve. Ribory and Seelan came over to congratulate her, Ribory’s eyes shining brightly and a huge grin splitting Seelan’s face. For a long time, the conversation soared thousands of kilometres from Kerbin. The veteran kerbonauts in the room listened intently to details of the flight, occasionally nodding in agreement. Those that had yet to fly a Pioneer capsule paid particularly close attention, Lucan pulling out a notebook for a minute before grinning sheepishly and putting it back in his pocket. Bob and Geneney were most interested in the lander and how it handled, whilst Bill’s questions were all about the radar and computer systems. But whatever their speciality, they all sat spellbound at Jeb and Jondun’s pilots-eye description of the descent to the surface and the first Münwalk. At last, Geneney tapped on the table for attention. “Much as I hate to break up the party,” he said, “I have some news from closer to home.” He paused. “Sort of. Depends if you count the Koluclaw mountains as close to home.” Jeb’s mouth snapped shut. Ornie looked over at Geneney. “Ahh,” he said, “Got a plan for us have they?” “Us and Rockomax both,” said Geneney. Eventually to be called the Kerballed Spaceflight Division, he added silently, but I don’t think you’re quite ready for that old friend. Nor me for that matter. “Probably easiest to think of it as Pioneer Plus. We’re both getting a significant injection of funds to ramp up our manufacturing capabilities. He glanced at Wernher. “I gather we’ll be getting a second VAB in time but for now the money is primarily to upgrade and expand our facilities here. That includes the machine shop, Assembly and Fitting, Propulsion and Testing, Kerbonaut training - everything. Rockomax are to focus on expanding their heavy lift capabilities, starting with more KDS boosters and moving onwards and upwards from there.” Jeb narrowed his eyes. "Upwards?" he said. "What exactly does Lodan have in mind?" "If you'd give me a minute," said Geneney patiently. "Basically a complete Mün - and Minmus," he paused to let the words sink in, "prospecting programme. Enhanced satellite networks around both muns for remote sensing and communications. Extended surface expeditions for geological surveys. Trips to the Munar poles to search for usable ice deposits. In short, we're going to be the exploration and survey teams for Project Starseed.” Bob's eyes lit up. "Minmus," he said softly. "That's going to take more than a Pioneer capsule," said Ornie. “‘Less you want the crew to get a bad case of cabin fever on the way?” Geneney shook his head. "Ademone suggested adding an Endurance sized habitation module to the Pioneer stack," he said. "I'm not sure I like the idea of juggling four modules around but it should work in principle. Anyhow, it's not tonight's problem." "Why though?" asked Jondun. "I thought we were going to Duna? Why so much effort on the muns?" "Partly for practice," said Geneney. "We're gonna need a lot of trained kerbonauts for the Duna flights and munar flights are as good as it gets for that. Then there's hardware development - Minmus isn't much more than a short hop away compared to Duna but it's a sight further out than the Mün and gives us somewhere to figure out the details of interplanetary flights." He stopped at the look on Jondun's face. "Are you OK?" "I'm fine, Gene," said Jondun slowly. "Just the way you're suddenly talking about interplanetary flights when we've only just been to the Mün. It's going to take some getting used to." "Tell me about it, " said Geneney dryly. "Anyhow - the main reason we're going to be putting so much time into the Mün and Minmus is for resources. Fuel at first but maybe metals and the basics of off-world industry later on. Sounds far-fetched I know but the KSA have been studying this for a while." He grinned at Jeb. "According to Lodan, after Moho 1, the Twelve Pillars were worried about the damage to Kerbin's environment caused by hordes of kerbals following your example." Jeb blinked. "And their solution was 'go big or go home?' he asked incredulously. "Apparently so, " said Geneney. "I believe the exact phrase involved gronneks and bags but either way, they realised that if we could do it then other groups were probably going to try too - whether they liked it or not." "So they decided to try for damage limitation rather than excess legislation," said Ribory. "That was...unusually enlightened." "Not to mention lucky," agreed Geneney. "But on a serious note, Starseed is going to need a lot of propellant one way or another. The less of it we have to haul all the way up from Kerbin the better. "It's going to mean getting a lot of kerbals to orbit too," Jeb pointed out. "Which is going to take a lot of rockets anyway - a couple of fuel haulers won't make a lot of difference." "That's what Ademone and I thought," said Geneney, "but Lodan seemed almost cheerful about that part - for Lodan. He didn't say anything but we got the distinct impression that he has a plan in mind.” “He might even tell us about it one day,” muttered Jeb. Ornie coughed. “I’m wondering,” he said, “what we’re actually going to use as fuel? Ice’ll be useful for plenty other things but it doesn’t burn very well.” “Electrolyse it into hydrogen and oxygen.” said Malmy. “Hydrogen is about the best fuel we could ask for.” “If we can keep it cold enough,” said Ornie. “Which won’t be easy.” “No,” said Wernher slowly. “Better if we could just use the water. Which I think we can do but… Kerm. It’s going to need Council permission at the very least.” He looked at Jeb. “And even then, a nuclear engine is going to be a tough sell.” Malmy choked. “Nuclear engines?” he spluttered. Jondun and Lucan stared at Wernher in disbelief and even Ornie looked taken aback. Jeb however, burst out laughing. “Go big, go home or go nuclear! I can’t wait to see the look on our dear Director’s face when we tell hime about this!” “Well, it makes sense,” said Wernher defensively, “Depending how hot we can run the reactor, it should be more efficient than the LV-T30 or the SK1-G, even if we’re only using water for the propellant. If we do work out a way of using hydrogen, a nuclear engine should be about twice as efficient as anything else that we have right now. “Saving the world with steam powered rockets!” said Bob cheerfully. “Joking apart though, I think you’re right, Wernher. Being able to use water as fuel would be a huge advantage - if we can find any water to use.” “Like I said,” said Geneney, “that’s why we’ve been given our next job.” He looked at Wernher thoughtfully. “If you can give me the rough numbers - and outline designs if you have them - I’ll have a word with Lodan and Ademone about using nuclear engines. We’re very definitely going to need Council permission to work on fissiles though.” ————— A rack of beaten-bronze watering cans stood by the open cemetery gate, next to a square stone pillar carved with sweetblossom vines. The taps jutting from each face of the pillar and the drain grates set into the simple stone trough around its base were also cast from bronze. Head bowed, Lodan filled his can and walked down into the grassy hollow. Neatly trimmed, living sweetblossom vines swathed the memorial poles, anchored securely to the, now hidden, trelliswork underneath. Lodan sprinkled water around the base of the nearest pole, before stepping back to contemplate the plainly carved Kerm wood plaque, standing in front of the grave marker on its slender pedestal. He sighed and walked over to the next pole. Al watched him from the gate. The other markers received their sprinkling of water and a suitably respectful pause by their name plaques, but weren’t given the lengthier contemplation accorded to the first grave. Poor fool - no kerbal’s got shoulders broad enough for that load. Enley’s death wasn’t his fault - and there’ll be more than one Kerm wood marker standing in for absent friends by the time we’re through with this. He looked up at the sudden clink of a watering can being put back on its rack. “Director.” Lodan checked his watch. “Director. I trust I’m not too early?” “Not at all. Security were a little surprised but that’s what we pay them for. You’re looking well, Director - surprisingly so in view of your recently expanded responsibilities.” Lodan looked at him. “To the general public perhaps. In practice, President Obrick’s - dramatic - lifting of the secrecy surrounding Part 3 has made the KSA’s task considerably easier.” He smiled faintly. “I much prefer Project Starseed as a name too. Far more evocative than ‘Part 3’.” Al frowned. “You knew about the President’s announcement?” He stopped. “Of course you did. “We have mapped our world from orbit and taken the measure of the Kerm challenge in full.”” “Indeed,” said Lodan. “And not just Kerbin. We have adequate maps of Duna and intend to map Laythe too, assuming the probes arrive safely.” “The Hope probes?” said Al. “An appropriate choice of… Oh, great Kerm.” He gave Lodan a look of grudging respect. “How long have you been quietly planning this under everyone’s nose?” “Well before we first met,” said Lodan. “and I believe the Council have been making plans for even longer, although I’m not sure precisely how long. The KSA was originally tasked with understanding the obstacles to expanded kerballed spaceflight in any case, so our new instructions were easily accommodated. The Kerbin mapping project was the first obvious departure from the KSA’s goals at the time and at that point the Council didn’t really have any choice but to give me the full story.” Al snorted. “Hard to get somebody to make a map for you if they don’t understand what the map’s for. But you mentioned an adequate map of Duna, Director. Is that where we’re going - Duna?” Lodan nodded. “It’s closer than most of the alternatives and certainly closer than any of the reasonable alternatives. The atmosphere isn’t as thick as we’d hoped for and the soil isn’t much more than mineral dust but the Berelgan team think it has potential for supporting plants and eventually crops. It’s not ideal,” he added dryly, “but under the circumstances, we’ll take what we can get. Then of course we need to get everyone there - but I presume you have some news for me on that topic?” “I do,” said Al. “We’ve made a substantial amount of progress since you were here last. No flight hardware yet but I think you’ll be interested in what we do have.” He led the way up the shallow rise leading out of the graveyard. “Infrastructure mainly and that was a headache all by itself. I didn’t think our head of engineering even knew how to swear but faced with using liquid hydrogen as a fuel, he soon became remarkably proficient. Not that I blame him. Just making enough of the damn stuff was, to use his phrase, a non-trivial challenge. Finding alloys that could handle it without leaking or shattering was another one. Then we had to building moving parts that stayed moving after they’d been soaked in it.” The corner of Al’s mouth twitched upwards. “His language got creative at that point.” Lodan followed him towards C7’s main hanger. “Hydrogen for your heat exchanger too I presume?” he said. “I remember that you were using cryogenics for that and I’m struggling to think of another fuel that would be cold enough.” “Indirectly,” said Al. “We use a helium loop between the hydrogen lines, the intake cooler and the compressor. High temperature helium from the preburner… never mind, you’ll see it all for yourself in a moment.” He unclipped his name card from his jacket and unlocked the hanger door. Lodan remembered the heavy security door and the harshly lit, stripped concrete corridor inside. The test yard through the second security door however, looked very different. The cryogenic apparatus was gone, heavily insulated pipes emerged directly from the thick concrete wall and disappeared into various access ports in the… apparatus, mounted on the test stand. He stared. From the front, the thing did look like a high performance jet engine, with a shock cone intake leading smoothly into a streamlined nacelle. At the back, two rocket engine bells sat side by side, surrounded by a shroud that itself appeared to consist of four curved exhaust nozzles arranged around the rockets. And in the middle, jet engine met rocket engine in a bewildering tangle of turbines and plumbing. He tried his best to follow Al’s explanation. “…secondary hydrogen lines here supply the pre-burner, which drives the compressor, hydrogen pump and LOX pump via the helium loop. Exhaust from the pre-burner is vented through the four bypass ramjet nozzles here. They’re more of a safety measure than anything else for the test unit but…” A foolish grin spread across Lodan’s face. “Bypass ramjets?” “Yep. The intake cooler can only deal with so much volume - the rest is just bypass, like in a normal turbofan. The intake also needs more hydrogen for cooling than the rockets can burn off in atmospheric flight. So we put ‘em both to good use. We figure it should help lift the service ceiling we can reach before switching over to internal oxidiser. Dear Kerm above. If they can get this thing into the air without it exploding, they might just be able to build a spaceplane around it after all. Lodan fought to keep the eagerness out of his voice. “It certainly looks the part. Would it be possible to see it working before I leave?” Al offered him a rare grin. “Naturally. I wouldn’t expect the famously skeptical KSA Director to be satisfied with anything less. The test team should be here in a moment to set up. We’ll be watching the whole thing from the observation room.” ————— The last technician gave the camera a quick thumbs up before shutting the heavy test bay door behind him. Lodan saw a pair of red flashing lights came on over the door frame, before the camera switched to a view across the test stand, zooming in on the back of the engine. To their left, the two stand operators sat in front of a bank of monitors displaying telemetry readouts and close up views of different parts of the engine. Al conferred with them briefly before turning to Lodan. “Okay. We’ll run the MACE through a standard test routine. Startup, throttle up to take-off thrust and shutdown.” Privately, Lodan rolled his eyes. What is it with engineers and acronyms? “MACE?” he asked neutrally. “Multi-aspect combination engine,” replied Al. “Although in truth, we’re still working on the multi-aspect part. Getting a smooth handover from external to internal oxidiser with the engine running is turning out to be yet another non-trivial challenge, but we can show you the MACE running in air-breathing mode.” He nodded to the stand operators. “Could we get some sound please?” The room suddenly filled with the scream of a high volume compressor, making Lodan jump. Al winced and made a sharp chopping gesture with one hand. One of the stand operators hastily twisted a dial, bringing the noise down to a level where Lodan could hear himself think. Al raised his voice. “…standard start-cart Once we have a steady airflow through the cooler we open the secondary hydrogen valves to the pre-burner and coolant loop!” A brief gust of flame spurted from the ramjets, which swiftly faded to a hazy shimmer around the exhaust nozzles. “Pre-burner ignition opens the helium feed to the intake cooler. As soon as the coolant loop is stable, the turbine spins up, the start-cart disconnects and the the primary hydrogen valves open…” Fire exploded from the main engine bells, glowing baleful orange and then settling into a watery, blue-white flame that seemed to start in front of the engines and taper to a brilliantly sharp point. The camera shook violently and even with the sound turned down, the roar of burning hydrogen sent thrills racing along Lodan’s spine. The glare from the screen sparkled off his eyes and he found himself grinning fiercely at Al. The MACE shut off in a cloud of superheated steam and a final judder from the camera. Al pretended not to notice the KSA director shake his head and retreat behind his usual impassive mask. “You mentioned something about problems with the transition from air-breathing mode?” Lodan said at last. “What do you need to get through that problem?” He lifted a finger warningly. “Your honest evaluation please. The KSA is still answerable to the Council and its budget needs to cover a great deal more than transport to orbit, however vital that transport is.” He raised an eyebrow at Al. “Besides - any funds that you spend on engine development are funds that you can’t then spend on airframe integration and flight testing.” << Chapter 57: Chapter 59>>

That used to be a real bear with the old forums. Sorry to hear that it's a problem with the new ones too.

Well for me it's neatly killed off the idea of following threads. Back to a short and very curated list rather than automatically following threads where I've posted. Oh - and who in the name of sanity thought a big black notification bar was a good idea on a supposedly mobile friendly forum? I wouldn't say that this latest nonsense was the straw that broke the camel's back but the poor beast is looking distinctly shaky round the knees. If it wasn't for a handful of threads which I actively enjoy keeping up with, I'd be out of here

I dislike it because my working day is filled with people clamouring for attention through various means. The last thing I want, need or desire is more of the same on this forum. Especially in the form of a butt ugly, intrusive, pandering to the ADD generation.

Yeah - is there a way of turning these off? They bug the ever-living heck out of me. Little red marker at the top of the screen that refreshes when I change forum page - nice. Ugly black, eye distracting box - not nice.

"Captin, you have your orders - go see what's out there." should be the silent tag line to every KSP flight once your space program has reached a certain stage. Beautiful.