KSK

Or possibly a dead thread. Just saw Jurassic World. Way better than I was expecting. The good bits are *really* good - enough to help move past the cardboard and cliches elsewhere. It also hangs together pretty well as a film, rather than a series of set pieces, which I remember being a problem with the original Jurassic Park. At its heart I thought it was also a rather sad film. We're talking about a safari park where you can ride giant hamster balls amongst iconic dinosaurs, or visit the petting zoo and get really close to them. So what's the biggest and most popular attraction? A giant crocodile eating a shark. What's wrong with that picture.

It's a bit shorter than the last few but... the next chapter is up. Pilgrims The Kerm branches lashed wildly against the roof of Jonton's hut, scattering glossy green leaves into the gentle afternoon breeze. Inside, gnarled vines dug into bloodless flesh, drawing the kerbal so tightly against the Kerm trunk that they threatened to tear skin and bark alike. Two bloodshot eyes rolled back in their sockets, staring up at the thick cluster of leaves swaddled around the kerbal's head and tethered to it by a dense fuzz of fine white fibres. A storm of memories ripped through Jonton's mind. He felt the scorching fire of acid on fibre, saw a blurred image of a scowling kerbal standing defiantly in front of a Kerm sapling. Swirling patterns of sparks shimmered before his eyes, twisting and vanishing beneath a many-layered torrent of scents, sensations and knowledge. A fractured rose exploded in the storm, fragments of stem and petal whisking away into dark corners. He watched the Others' swarming attacks and saw them beaten back. Before the battle, the fear. Formless shapes lurking in the dark, untasted, sensed but never caught. Once again he struggled for control against a barrage of conflicting and confusing signals, worn down and dulled by the need for a constant watch against unknown - and unknowable - foes... The uncounted years of peace whirled past. Strong and secure in his own territory, undisputed ruler of his domain with time to devote to tending the strange plants and tasting the dreams of a long procession of kerbals... Dully aching scars sapped his strength and fogged his mind. The aches became throbbing pain: clouding his thoughts, hiding them away from the raw wounds beneath. He heard screaming, pleading for the cleansing fire. Shattered fragments of mind slammed together in a blinding spike of agony and awareness, centred on a bright cluster of scents buried in the soil... The memories begin to fade, turned dull grey by the centuries. Endless peace and then endless war. Time and time again he faced the Others, holding his territory, strength and vigilance his only defences... Cannot yield. Cannot show weakness. Others will hurt me, hurt me badly...badly...badtree...bad tree...bad tree... “Bad Tree! Bad Tree!" The kerbal's head snapped forward. Dimly, Jonton felt something tear in the back of his mind. He heard Joenie screaming, watched her hammering on his trunk with both tiny fists, felt fingernails digging into palms as he fought for control. He called out to her through the pain, saw her face turn towards his... “Dada 'ossil." Joenie dropped the stone into his hand and he heard himself thank her. The pouch slit in the front of Gerselle’s poncho gaped open as she lifted Joenie up and put her on her shoulders... The smell of leftover white bean stew filled his nostrils as he watched Gerselle lift his tiny daughter out of her pouch and hold her out to him. He wrapped her in a corner of his poncho, felt her wriggling as she snuggled into his shoulder. Gerselle turned towards him... ...as a group of the villagers left the room, leaving the rest staring at Fredlorf lying nervously on her bed. He saw the fear on their faces as he lowered his leaves towards Fred's head, felt the first faint wisps of his friend's mind against his own. My friend... The Kerm branches slowed their frantic lashing. For a moment they stopped, held unnaturally still against the afternoon sky. Then they relaxed, swaying back and forth in the stiffening breeze. My friends. All of them - my kerbals and my friends. And I promised them that this an-Kerm would rather retreat than fight. ------------- Erlin drove the long end of the slender, L-shaped probe into the soil. Carefully, he fitted the syringe into the side arm, feeling the usual brief resistance as the needle punctured both membranes inside. The syringe piston slid out smoothly, coming to rest against its stops. Erlin eased the barrel out before depressing the plunger, twisting the syringe clockwise, and pulling it free. He tugged the probe out of the soil and swiftly dismantled it. Laying the core tube flat on the ground, Erlin tipped the probe head into the palm of his hand and examined the small, silicone capped, stainless steel vial that fell out. Satisfied, he dropped it into a matching aperture in the lid of the small but heavily insulated box by his side. Then he took the last core tube and vial from a nearly empty second box and reassembled his soil sampler. The Kerm tree stood in the centre of the copse, it's thirty-six companions arrayed about it in a loose circle. Neatly tended fields spread out in the distance, some left fallow, some newly harvested, others planted with a selection of crops. The pollinator breaks separating the fields were vibrant and diverse enough to satisfy the most exacting of kermol farmers. Of the farmers or their village however, there was no sign. Pairs of tall, brightly coloured and numbered flags waved jauntily in the evening breeze, each flag marking one end of a slim metal plate that jutted out from the soil. Seen from above, Erlin knew, the effect was striking; concentric rings of colour centred on the Kerm copse. He shivered, tightened the drawstring at his jacket collar and set off for the last pair of flags on his round. The setting sun cast long shadows over the ground, its reflected light staining the marker plate a deep orange. Erlin gently tugged at the plate, frowning as it refused to move by more than a few centimetres. He sighed and climbed to his feet, brushing dirt and twigs off his knees, then picked up his equipment and set off across the fields towards his van. By the time Erlin drove up to the Berelgan, twilight had long since faded into dusk. Eve shone in the darkening sky, bright against the first few scattered stars strewn across the sky. Brighter light spilled around the edges of shuttered windows as he strode towards the chemistry department, clutching his sample box in one gloved hand. Half of the laboratories were still occupied; white-coated kerbals standing by fume cupboards or bent over their lab benches. Occasionally, one would look up and briefly acknowledge Erlin as he walked past. The mingled solvent smell of the wet laboratories gave way to the tang of ozone and hot dust as he turned the corner, the ever present whine of electronic equipment buzzing like a trapped mosquito in the back of his skull. He scratched the back of his neck absently and pushed open the doors to the mass spectrometry laboratory. Halsy was waiting for him. “How are they looking, boss?" “Well the new plates seem to be intact," said Erlin. He lifted the sample box onto the nearest bench and flipped open two catches on its rim. Icy white vapour billowed out as he lifted the lid away, revealing the frosted metal tubes fixed to its underside. “Although it would be a rare beetle that could chew through steel. Dispose of the dry ice would you - I'd better get these in the freezer." Halsy upended the sample box into the sink, carefully not touching the double handful of steaming white pellets that cascaded out. “So the plates were loose then?" he asked Erlin's retreating back. “Up to a point," said Erlin. “The newest ones still had some give but the five-lambda series looks like a wash - couldn't lift any of them more than a few centimetres." A stainless steel vial clicked against its labelled sample rack. “Wish we could work out what's causing that wretched chemotropism. Apart from anything else, if we had some kind of handle on its effective range, we could correlate root fouling of the plates with Kerm repulsion. If we ever find a repelling factor that is." “Maybe we won't," said Halsy sombrely. “Goodness knows we've been looking long enough." He waved at a tottering stack of paper by the printer. “GC-MS for the last lot of soil vapour samples was inconclusive. Most of it looks like typical background pheromones, some of them are out of their normal ranges but nothing startling. EGF-alpha tends to be high as you'd expect, phenolamines are all over the place. There's nothing consistent though - nothing I can pick out that matches up with observed fouling rates." Halsy rubbed his eyes. “Kerm are sentient, boss. They were smart enough to knock out the wooden plates and they're sure having a good go at the steel ones too, however they're doing it. Maybe the blasted fibres can't be repelled - maybe they're not even chemotropic at all." Erlin shook his head. “They have to be," he said. They're effectively nerve fibres - too valuable to risk them in unhealthy soil." “While they're growing, sure,“ said Halsy. “But after that?" He tapped the side of his head. “Dunno about nerve cells - can't see those - but I definitely can't wiggle my veins around at will. Maybe Kerm are the same." ---------- The living Grove. Trees providing shade and shelter for countless animals and birds; their roots the anchors that hold the soil in place. Ferns spreading across the forest floor, roots exuding subtle poisons which protect the anchors from burrowing mites, the grubs of a dozen species of insect, and other predators barely visible, or quite invisible, to the naked eye. A myriad of other plants carpeting the ground, each with its part to play in the finely balanced whole. Fungi feasting on the corpses of fallen trees, returning their essence to the soil. Out in the fields, the crop plants thrive, carpets of clover around their stems trapping water, their roots absorbing gases from the soil and turning them into vital nutrients. Lines of sweet scented flowers threaded through the fields attracting - and feeding - the insects, on whose tiny wings, the next generation of crops depends. One guardian binds them all together. Ancient as they are, the thirty-seven gnarled and knotted trunks dotted across the Grove are only markers of the true - and incalculably older - Kerm beneath. Far under the soil, wrapped around the taproots, an intricate knot of fibres lies hidden under each trunk. Densely tangled, finger-thick fibres form the core of each knot, a core that sprouts countless slender offshoots which spread through the soil, dividing and dividing again, surrounding the core in a cobweb lace shell. Over time, the shells have merged, knitted together until the boundaries between them are all but invisible. Twisted bundles of fibres thread the shells together, linking the thirty-seven fibrous knots into a single sentient being. Like the ferns, the Kerm fibres exude poisons, as well as a subtle arsenal of thousands of other compounds to repel or distract any creature that would feed on them. The fibres sit at the focus of the myriad food chains threaded through the soil, holding them all in a fluid balance. Immune to the depredations of time and predators, the Kerm has endured for millennia. But now the barriers are crumbling. Along the edges of its domain, the Kerm’s defences are failing, not breached from without but methodically dismantled from within. Bit by bit the outer fibres are gnawed away, feasted on by swarms of tiny predators flocking to a new source of food. -------- “You're very welcome. No, I'm afraid that nobody has any spare beds but there's still plenty of room in the village hall if you can wait until after supper. Sorry - what was that?" Gerselle smiled. “Yes, I have - I couldn't find the words to describe it either. And yes of course I'll convey your thanks to the Keeper." The grey haired kerbal picked up her walking stick and shuffled off down the path. Gerselle watched her go, waiting patiently as she fumbled with the gate. Eventually the latch snicked shut and with a last tremulous wave, the kerbal plodded away towards the village proper. Gerselle waved back then went inside, closing the door behind her. Most of the section of Kerm trunk forming the inside wall of the living room was hidden behind an ungainly, ladder-festooned cross between a bookshelf and a set of bunk beds. Each of the shelf-beds was big enough, with care, to accommodate a single kerbal and contained a thin mattress and a pillow lying under a Kerm leaf cluster. Each bed also sported safety ropes and ceiling pads; Communion-dazed kerbals had a tendency to sit up or roll over, forgetting that they were resting in narrow wooden box. Ignoring the pile of laundry at the foot of the shelves, Gerselle made her way to the sleep room, pausing just long enough to retrieve a bottle of prickleberry juice and two glasses from the kitchen. Jonton looked up as she pushed the door open. “Prickleberry?" He smiled wanly. “You read my mind love - you didn't sneak in on the last sitting did you?" Gerselle shook her head. “No room - I had to turn the last of them away as it was. Going to be another busy day tomorrow too." She handed Jonton a glass of juice. “You need to drink more of this, Jonton Kermol - it's supposed to be good for wrinkles around the eyes." “How about grey hair?" said Jonton. His face spasmed and he hastily grabbed the glass with both hands. Gerselle looked at him anxiously. “Are you sure you're up for another long day?" she asked. “We could just do the afternoon groups?" Jonton willed his jaw to stop trembling. “I'll be all right, “ he said. “Honestly, love - the distraction will help. Better than...ow...standing here...owww...brooding all day." He forced himself to smile. “So - did we break the record today?" Gerselle took a long drink. “Kallahat," she replied. “Kallahat? said Jonton, “but that's..." “Yes," said Gerselle. “He's on a walking holiday apparently. He was on his way through to Barkton when he stopped for the night, two or three Groves away - didn't say which - and found the whole place talking about the “lore-Keeper" and the “truth-teacher."" Jonton shook his head. “I prefer “truth-teacher" to “Great Sage" he said wryly, “but Kallahat? What on Kerbin are we going to do if a whole kerman town descends on the Grove?" He gestured at the wall of shelf-beds arrayed agains the Kerm trunk.“We're going to be turning away more kerbals than we take in." “Patbro's Grove is already helping with the catering," said Gerselle, “and plenty of other Groves have volunteered to help too. Fred had some ideas for building platforms around your upper trunk so you could Commune with more visitors at a time but I told him that could wait until...until..." “Until I've finished retreating?" said Jonton gently. Gerselle latched onto his words gratefully. “Yes," she said. “Exactly." Jonton's jaw suddenly clenched and a dribble of prickleberry juice ran down his chin. “That would be best," he grunted. “Safer if Fred doesn't get too close whilst I'm being chewed on." << Chapter 47: Chapter 49>>

No thanks, not unless there's a complete overhaul of what Science is for - which seems unlikely. I'd prefer to get a chance to use the end-tree parts within the main part of game, rather than having to work my way through most of the Kerbol system to unlock them. By way of a concrete example - I like building space stations. They look cool and they give me something to do whilst my interplanetary flights are in transit. For me, it would suck to *have* to run those interplanetary flights first to unlock all the parts that I want to include in my space station. I think it would also be pretty discouraging for less experienced players if Career mode games forced them to go interplanetary to unlock the fun parts. At the moment, Kerbin and its muns are a nice training area where new players can unlock all the parts and play around with them and intermediate players can unlock the technologies (ISRU, decent power supplies) for more ambitious missions. Meanwhile, as Kweller pointed out, more experienced players can use interplanetary flights rather than biome-harvesting, to get their Science.

Apollo 12 too if I remember rightly and I think the term was a part of Mission Control argot before then. Apollo 12 was struck by lightning just after lift-off which, unsurprisingly, sent most of its systems haywire. John Aaron (EECOM) figured it was a telemetry problem: "Flight - have them set SCE to AUX" and effectively saved the mission from being aborted due to the spacecraft being apparently crippled.

Thus sprach Zarathustra...

I'm rather fond of oxygen personally. In fact I live and breathe by it.

W.W.J.D - What Would Jeb Do? Although that's perhaps a little close to the knuckle.

I always thought TALENs were pretty neat too. Interesting question. My best guess (as a sort of biologist) is that your double nucleated cell won't be viable and won't develop into any sort of plant. Normally, having the wrong number of chromosomes in a cell is bad (for varying definitions of bad) and that's when the chromosomes are all from the same species. Caution - wonky computer analogy approaching. Imagine two BASIC programs, or any other language (if there are any) when line numbers are a thing. Shuffle them together and run. It might work but most probably won't.

Yep - hard to please a crowd to whom something will always be 5% wrong rather than 95% right.

Meh - it's close enough for me. Check out this picture of the Dragon 2 pad abort test. That's powered by nitrogen tetroxide/monomethylhydrazine and burns with an orange flame. In the book, I think the MAV propellant was hydrazine - or at least Watney referred to it as hydrazine and I'll forgive a non-chemist for that slip of the tongue. So the billowing orange exhaust in the film looks OK - its less constrained than the SuperDraco exhaust because of reduced atmospheric pressure. The Martian atmosphere is inaccurate - it was in the book as well - as acknowledged by the author, the storm that aborted Watney's mission was impossibly strong (assuming actual Martian atmospheric pressure) and was used for artistic license. So I reckon the film is just being nicely consistent in depicting the MAV taking off through an atmosphere that's thick enough to produce that storm but not as thick as Earth's atmosphere (natch) As for the 'sticks' - I went to a lecture from one of the Curiosity surface mission planners. Really interesting talk, lots of cool pictures, including ones of a rock formation that looked like nothing so much as the edge of a Styrofoam sheet poking out from under the sand. I was tempted to ask whether that was just the stage crew being sloppy with the packaging when they filmed that part, but thought better of it. So I can live with odd things on the Martian surface too.

Graduated with an MChem in 1996, finished the lab work for my PhD in 1999, graduated in 2001 after a year and half of learning a new job and writing up my thesis at nights. To all those still in the trenches - I'm just a wee bit jealous. Work hard, play hard and never be afraid to try new things - it's one of the rare points in your life when you'll have the time. Don't be afraid about being useless at them; at least you gave them a go and who knows - you might not so useless after all.

Looks more promising than I thought it would and the external shots of Hermes are excellent. Actually it looks quite similar to a couple of RSS ships I've seen on these forums.

Uh - what existing story? KSP is almost entirely gap. From a story writing perspective it's almost ideal; a handful of familiar names you can refer to and that's about it. Which leaves plenty of room to play in.

No but the words 'as it should' are a big clue that the physics are supposed to approximate to our reality, given that that's the only point of reference we have to work with. I'm hearing the crunching sound of straws being clutched and squashed here.

Yep - inverse-cube would be far more entertaining.

Taking a cue from 3001: Final Odyssey, I'd build an orbital ring around Kerbin, tethered in place by four space elevators. It might take a while. Either that or the SnackStar. Definitely not a mun and it can store all the snacks you could ever want. Features an equatorial trench for rocket races and many and varied challenging obstacle courses on the surface, for Rover drivers to explore.

<Pedant> - you're mixing up relativistic effects with quantum effects. </pedant> Like Kaos said, you could regard the ion thrusters as a kind of particle accelerator, and like Captain Sierra said, it seems like a lot of code to add to the game for something that you'll almost certainly never see without mods or bugs. Darn it - double if not triple ninja'd. If you want to try this in a limited fashion, you could download RemoteTech (or whatever the current version is called). It adds a lot more detail and challenge to un-crewed missions, including signal delays as your ships get further away from Kerbin.

Truthfully, I'm kinda sad that folks would want to take a determinedly non-military game - and then militarize it anyway. But at the end of the day it's their game and killing stuff has been a staple part of computer gaming since whenever, whether you're killing ghosts, mushrooms, ghouls n' ghosts or .... zombies. Edit: Sigh, that should of course read, extreme right wing, national socialist type zombies.

Yay - another CatastrophicFailure tale! Subbed and eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

I'm probably missing something here but why the orange tank body? Unless you're using rocket power (which, at first glance, seems unlikely on something that you're circumnavigating Kerbin with), wouldn't you be better off with a dedicated liquid fuel tank rather than lugging around a load of oxidiser that isn't helping you? Fuel consumption is less of an issue if you can carry twice as much fuel without penalty.

This might be a slightly odd suggestion but - download the demo. Treat it like a Facebook game and play it for ten minutes here, maybe twenty minutes there. Casual is what I'm getting at here. The sole aim of 'casual KSP' is to send a rocket as high and as fast as you can. Don't worry about all the orbital mechanics and stuff, just play around and see what you can lash together and launch into space. Bonus points if you accidentally send your crew into the Sun. If you find yourself enjoying it and/or can reliably get a rocket moving at around 2.3km/s, then go back to the full game and give it another try. KSP can feel a bit prescribed but that's because at heart it's a reasonably serious engineering/space physics game dressed up in a cartoon, although it's nowhere near as hardcore as, for example, Orbiter.

Today I spent some time hanging with Jeb. We went to the Mün. The spacecraft wasn't anything exceptional and we didn't even land. The flight was a little bit unusual in that our approach to the Mün was a little more inclined than we'd planned for, so a minimal capture burn with a plane change in high orbit before circularising was the name of the game. Nothing particularly challenging. But that didn't matter. After TMI, I ordered Jeb to flip the spacecraft around so we could get a good view of Kerbin as we began the long coast to the Mün. Jeb, of course, was thrilled to do a little flying (doesn't much matter how small the job is, any time he gets to fire the engines, Jeb's a happy camper) and then he sat back with that faint, relaxed smile and watched Kerbin shrink to an ever-decreasing blue, green sphere against the blackness of space. I like to think that he raised his thumb whilst I wasn't looking (like when I was setting up our MOI burn) and smiled as it covered his entire homeworld. At no more than x100 time acceleration, the journey took a while. But that was just fine with us. Jeb waved for the camera and I confess, I couldn't help waving back - and then laughing as he did his little two-fisted victory dance in reply. Flying to the Mün never seems to get old for Jeb and even after two years and more of playing KSP, it hasn't really gotten old for me either. Sure, I can find flaws in the game if I care to try but at it's core it lets me participate (albeit vicariously) in something awesome. You will go to space today folks. Happy launchings.

What Enkiel said - either space stations or going interplanetary are good challenges at this point. Sending probes to Duna, Ike, Eve and Gilly should get you some science (if you still need it) and are a lot easier to work with than kerballed vessels, since they're much lighter and you don't have to recover them. If you can send a kerballed flight to the Mun or Minmus, you should be able to build something with enough delta-V to get to Duna or Eve. Building a space station means mastering rendezvous and docking which are good skills to have for planning more elaborate missions!

Well alrighty then. Best to keep all the background on this thread I think, rather than scattering it over the forum. And without further ado... Background Ethanol has a broadly similar effect on kerbal physiology as it does on human physiology although for the most part kerbals make for happy or (occasionally) melancholy inebriates rather than fighting angry ones. Like humans, kerbals also have a creative attitude towards alcoholic drinks. If something can be fermented, it's a safe bet that somewhere, somewhen, an inventive kerbal brewer has experimented with it. As such, many of the drinks available on Kerbin would be recognisable to humans and are produced in much the same way. Kerbals generally prefer lighter drinks and are particularly fond of fruit based beverages of all kinds. RT-5 As on Earth, Kerbal beer is produced from fermented malted grains. However, kerbal brewers tend to be more varied with the range and types of botanicals that they add to their beer, mainly because kerbals aren't as fond of bitter flavours as humans - plants similar to hops do grow on Kerbin but they're rarely used as the sole flavouring agent in kerbal beer. RT-5 is a local craft beer peculiar to the town of Barkton and inspired by the RT-5 'Trashcan'solid rocket booster used to launch the famous Kerbal 1 and Kerbal 2 suborbital spacecraft. Brewer, Jorfurt Kerman's new marketing slogan; 'One will give you a lift, four will put you in orbit' is technically inaccurate since the RT-5 SRB doesn't offer anywhere near the performance required to reach orbit and any kerbal consuming four glasses of RT-5 beer will be extremely lucky to reach an altitude higher than floor level. Fortunately, the crossover between 'kerbals who are pedantic enough to point this out' and 'kerbals who might seriously contemplate drinking four RT-5s' is vanishingly small. RT-5 is a powerful IPA style of beer, with plenty of hopping (for a kerbal brew) and interesting herbal overtones. 905 Also brewed in Barkton and named after the LV-905 liquid fueled, pressure fed rocket engine, Jorfurt Kerman describes his 905 ale as 'slower, smoother and not as punchy as the RT-5.' 905 is a gentle 'session beer' of which the drinker can consume several glasses over the course of an evening and still be entirely capable of unassisted mobility and coherent speech at the end of it. Taste-wise it would be familiar to any Scottish drinker as a light ale, somewhat akin to a very good quality 60 or perhaps 70 shilling. Citrus wine. The craft of making citrus wines has a very long history on Kerbin and is one which is practiced by commercial companies and keen amateurs alike. Local 'citrus clubs' are common and competition between clubs can be intense. Traditionally, a citrus wine is produced solely from a blend of citrus juices with no added sugar or flavouring agents. Developing a blend that combines acidity, balance and flavour with sufficient natural sugar for adequate fermentation is regarded as a real skill. One exceptionally well known citrus club releases its produce by batch number (not to be confused with date of production) and their '78 batch is very highly regarded by connoisseurs. Latterly, a number of clubs have also begun to experiment with sugared blends. Historically, 'adding more sugar' has been frowned upon as being against the spirit of the craft but proponents of the practice argue that it allows for much more creativity and the accommodation of a far wider range of palettes. The commercial success of heavily lemon based citrus wines does seem to have lent credence to this school of thought. Bill Kerman is an amateur blender of the traditional school, although these days he doesn't have much time to devote to the craft. Prickleberry cider One of the less imaginatively named fruits to be found on Kerbin, prickleberries resemble the Terran lychee, although with darker flesh and a somewhat stronger flavour. Prickleberries are a versatile crop which can be eaten as a fresh fruit, made into preserves (prickleberry jam is an excellent accompaniment to many cold meats and cheeses) or processed into a number of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. First pressing prickleberry juice is normally consumed as a fresh juice, whilst the second pressing is laid down in specially prepared wooden barrels for up to a year. The juice absorbs tannins and other phytochemicals from the barrels, which act both as flavourings and natural preservatives. Third pressing juice and pomace is typically used to make prickleberry cider, a light, sparkling drink of no more than 3% abv. Sapwood Wild sapwood trees originated in the Kerbin rainforest and Kerbal scientists believe that they became insectivorous as an evolutionary adaptation to wet, nutrient leached soils. Long parallel grooves in their trunks exude a sweet viscous sap which traps insects and gradually carries them down to the base of the tree where they decompose and are absorbed by a network of near-surface roots. Sapwoods have long been cultivated by kerbals and in the equatorial and mid-latitudes of Kerbin they are very nearly as ubiquitous as the Kerm. Domesticated sapwoods are larger than their wild cousins and less dependent on insect consumption. This is partly due to centuries of selective breeding but mostly because they are grown in Kerm enhanced soils. Although sapwood sap can be fermented and then distilled into a strong liquor, similar to a Terran rum, this is not a particularly popular drink on Kerbin. The vast bulk of harvested sap is cleaned of insects and then dried to make a sticky, toffee like substance, beloved of kerbals and kerblets alike. The dried sap is also used to make a number of extremely popular non-alcoholic cordials, which are consumed with water, sparkling water or milk. Two notable specialist cordials are smoky sapwood (produced in old-fashioned wood fired evaporating pans) and wild sapwood (colloquially referred to as 'crunchy sapwood') which is harvested, insects and all, from wild sapwood trees.

This sounds very Footfall to me. To answer OP's question, probably an Orion powered ship loaded up with all manner of nuclear nasties. Whether we'd ever get a chance to deploy it before it gets clobbered with a rods-from-god kinetic weapon, is another question.