jfull

Damn, the ion engines really have been buffed a lot...

Chapter 10: New Frontiers EDEE Rover Before the Asteroid Crisis, the Kerbco Robotic Planetary Science division had launched a mission to Duna to collect data about its environment. Long range observation from Kerbin had only revealed that it was a desert world with little to no water and a very thin atmosphere. More detailed observations would need to be taken in order to determine if there were any unknown hazards that could harm future astronauts (including indigenous life). Elley Kerman and the other robotics engineers determined that an automated rover would be the best option to explore Duna. Now, it was finally time for it to arrive at the red planet. (Note: at this point I have added some, but not all, of the parts from the Dmagic Orbital Science and Panda Jager Laboratories Parts mods) EDEE detected no signs of life, but did pick up signs that Duna had a much more complicated geological history than previously thought. Weak and variable readings from the magnetometer indicated that its core went cold long ago. Side Projects Meanwhile back at Kerbco, several other smaller and younger aerospace groups had approached the board of directors with an interesting proposal. Rather than compete with each other, they should collaborate to explore the final frontier. Tangerine Inc. was very interested in space stations, and requested permission to reactivate and expand on Kerbco's old Space Hab station. They would build new modules that would be launched on Kerbco's rockets. Alpine Aerospace also requested the use of Kerbco's launch pad for their new space shuttle, which could bring more Kerbals to and from orbit than Kerbco's current capsules. The Eve Initiative The remaining companies who partnered with Kerbco were interested in helping to take Kerbals beyond Kerbin and to the planets. This would require housing Kerbals for extended periods, something which Kerbco already had experience. Technology was still not ready for a manned Duna landing, but a potential window for a free-return flyby of the planet Eve was opening up. And so, the cooperative Eve Initiative began to build a craft to take a crew past Eve and bring them home safe. (In order to make the free-return flyby, I used this guide, though my implementation might have been a little sloppy) Next time: Kerbco finally goes to Duna, in a big way!

I think it needs a little more color variation, and of course to have its anomalies restored

I didn't fully understand this... but I did manage to pull off an Eve flyby using it. I had no way to know what the angle of the initial burn was supposed to be, but I got close enough to make it work. I did have to make a correction in order to intercept Kerbin afterward though, but it wasn't very big.

A long time ago, I marooned Bob on Gilly for over a year. He didn't even have a capsule, just an RCS propelled contraption with a command seat on it.

Uhm, no, this is not correct at all. We DO believe the device can do what you claim, but we are simply pointing out that there are explanations for why it might be doing it that are simple and non-physics-breaking.

So long as you are travelling over a surface, it is perfectly possible to propel yourself with vibrations and gyroscopic force (like those little hex-bug nano things!). I assume that is what this device is using. A "propellantless" drive is not physics breaking at all (anything that moves using electricity), but a "reactionless" drive is. Your device is probably exerting a force on the surface it is traveling on, thus moving it forward. Such a setup CANNOT produce thrust without a surface to act against.

Yeah, but it could have been something that happened at a date close to now. I can totally imagine a Star Trek character mentioning "the Great Copyright Implosion of the early 21st century"

I know you're referencing Mystery Science Theater 3000, but for some reason this reminded me of "Movie Night" on the Enterprise in Star Trek Enterprise (the prequel series). All they ever watched were really old public-domain films and the crew would talk about them like they were the best thing ever. That actually has me wondering if, somehow, all copyrighted material from Earth was lost at some point in Star Trek's past.

Well, if Asteroids are parts, then surely they must be able to destroyed with a hard enough impact

thank you (even though I actually just went into the config file and changed it already)

can I disable volumetric clouds just for Duna but keep a 2D cloud layer? I just think it looks better that way.

I'm glad you think so! I'm thinking about changing Kerbco's role for the future. They'll keep building rockets and flying missions, but the other Aerospace companies I've been hinting at might build their own payloads and pay Kerbco to launch them on their rockets. That way they'll be truly living up to their name as "Kerbco Launch Systems", and it'll give me a chance to show off craft from other groups that might have different plans in space than Kerbco does!

Yup, thats right, 2 updates in the same day! Chapter 9: Asteroid Crisis (or "Tom the Destroyer") At the Kerbco space center, things were quiet. The only mission currently underway was unmanned and in the middle of a long transfer (more on that mission later). Suddenly, there was a commotion at the tracking center. Some intern was claiming that he had seen something when he was cleaning the long-range telescope. Many were skeptical, but things started to get serious when everyone got a good look at the object he had found. It was a class-D asteroid, and it was headed right for Kerbin. (I know that asteroids don't really do anything if they impact Kerbin, and that even a class-E asteroid wouldn't cause the end of the world, but I decided that I should consider it a threat anyway. Imagine if it impacted or airbursted above a populated area, like that one meteor over Russia. It could cause some serious damage and possibly loss of life!) After hearing the news, the Kerbin goverment tasked Kerbco with diverting the threat. They dusted off a spare Skylance heavy rocket and fitted it with a modified Atlas orbiter. It was time to cancel a disaster. Atlas-6 The success of the asteroid redirect mission renewed the public's interest in Kerbco's space program. Their astronauts were real heroes and their engineers built machines that performed miracles. When all was said and done, Jebediah made another call to President Kerman and said "I think this means you owe us one". He hung up before the President could reply. Despite the other space programs continuing to pop up all over Kerbin, Kerbco was now firmly in the lead again. Revitalized, they set their sights on preparations for the next destination of Kerbal-kind, the planet Duna. Feedback and random comments are appreciated!

Chapter 8: Munar Exploration Kerbco engineers brainstormed hard to come up with a better way for the Munar Oupost crew to explore beyond their home crater. The Outpost had been Kerbco's most expensive undertaking yet, and if they needed to spend a bit more to make the whole endeavor worth the expense, so be it. Eventually they produced a new rover design, one that went far far beyond the capabilities of the rover that was originally sent with the habitat. This rover had 8 wheels mounted on an extra-wide frame, a pressurized interior, and even a set of rocket engines for flying over obstacles. It was named the Spider Crab (or Spi-Crab, hehe) after a hardy creature native to Kerbin's badlands. Extreme rovering in the Spi-Crab Bob and Seerie's discovery was so unusual that Kerbco decided to keep "The Memorial" classified for now. Only a handful of government officials were made aware. After a week more of exploring the surface, it was finally time to wrap up the Munar Outpost mission and bring the crew home. They had gotten quite attached to their home on the Mun, but they were running out of snacks, so they packet up their scientific gear and said farewell. After this mission concluded, Kerbco was forced to scale back their operations. They had pulled some strings with President Kerman to get the funding for the Outpost, but that wasn't going to work again. There were also some rumors that smaller aerospace groups were beginning to gain the favor of the government and the public. It seemed as though Kerbco's time in spotlight might be coming to an end. However, something big was out there hurtling through the void. Something that would rush Kerbco back to the forefront of spaceflight. Feedback and random comments are appreciated!

That is very strange. I can't see anything in your design that would cause that

I can very nearly dock in my sleep at this point I have lots of station and interplanetary ship building to thank for that.

Also, remember, the Hitchhiker didn't even have an IVA when it was first put in the game

The buttons above the portraits have never been the only way to get your Kerbals out of a pod. Try clicking on the hatch!

I'd prefer not to add KAS to my list of mods. I've used it before, and the pipes and struts can be quite useful, but I've never gotten the winches to work well. Also, the landers are very close to being single stage landers, unless they are used to hop between locations prior to liftoff, which the 2nd lander has. Your suggestion has gotten me thinking about how I probably should have done this mission though. I could have just put a station in low Munar orbit with a processing lab and a significant supply of fuel and just sent down a reusable lander to the various biomes. This way of dong it has been kinda fun though, I guess.

Chapter 7: The Munar Outpost Everyone in the Kerbco boardroom held their breath and waited. All the senior members of the R&D department, scientific teams, and most of the astronauts themselves had been called to this meeting. After a very long discussion, they had decided on Kerbco's next move. It was bold, but to pull it off they were going to need funding, and plenty of it. The next few minutes would determine whether they could go forward with the plan. Jebediah picked up the phone and dialed. "Hello, I'd like to speak with President Kerman." Eventually, Kerbco got the funding they needed for their next phase. They were going back to the Mun, but this time with a larger mission using more advanced technology. Additionally, the astronauts would be spending a month or more on the Munar surface. The first mission of this program would be broken up between 4 launches; 2 unmanned to send necessary hardware, and 2 manned to send the crew. With the surface hab, rover, and mini station in place, the crew could be sent. Atlas 4 Atlas 5 The Munar Adventure will continue! I am in need of suggestions! So, my little Munar expedition is trapped in one crater now and I'm not sure what to do about it. I had really hoped that they would be able to drive large distances over the Munar surface to visit other biomes, but that's not going to happen with what they have currently. My options seem to be to either ship the outpost some kind of new, super stable, giant rover, or just bring the crew back home after a month of partying on the Mun with the science they have right now. Just bringing them back home would allow me to move on to some very neat stuff like a grand Duna mission, but the super rover would let me get a lot more out of this Mun expedition. What do you think I should try to do?

I sent a second lander to my little Munar outpost. Now there's 4 Kerbals there, ready to party explore.

Any technologies that have solid theories behind them today. Obviously not necessarily technologies that have been built yet though

You'd probably be better off researching what the issue might be and editing the .cfg with your own fix. I don't think an official fix is coming any time soon.

This continues to be the most complicated and impressive spectacle I've ever seen in KSP.