jfull

There hasn't been very much in the way of indignities lately, I usually take very good care of my Kerbals Well, until today, when I crashed Jeb into the surface of Bop while he was exploring with his jetpack (and right next to the Kraken no less!) After sliding across the surface for an uncomfortably long time, he got up and dusted himself off.

While my Science Vessel was studying Bop, Jeb received classified orders to [REDACTED] the [REDACTED].

Alright, I've gotten a good intercept that also doesn't require too extreme of a burn to circularize at Bop

I'll try this

After waiting a few orbits, I actually did find a low-dV way to intercept Bop close to one of the nodes. However, it would cause me to arrive at Bop at a very odd angle. I'm wondering which option is more efficient in terms of dV: Getting an intercept at the node with less than half the dV it would take to match Bop's plane, but having to make a somewhat larger burn to circularize around Bop (even more if I want to move to a more equatorial orbit) or Doing the full plane change but arriving at a better angle.

I've got a ship in a high equatorial orbit of Jool now and I can't quite figure out the most efficient way to get an intercept with Bop. I could change plane completely to match Bop, but I can't help but feel that there's a more efficient way

No offense... but it seems that lately this has just been about Kerbals flying around Laythe and occasionally getting hardware deliveries from Kerbin. The Solar Flare challenge you did a little while was very interesting though. Maybe you ought to increase the scale of the operation on Laythe? Now that its been quite thoroughly charted, it might be time to send an entire colony (just a large base with many more Kerbals). Alternately, you could shift the focus to somewhere other than Laythe for a little while. Its just my opinion, but if you ever feel like you're losing your steam with this, it might be best to finish it in a grand finale rather than let it drag on. This is, of course, just my own opinion, and you need not consider any of it.

I wonder what kind of mythology they had before their space age. Did celestial bodies like Eve, Duna, and Jool represent deities to them?

Thanks And I've realized that it isn't really boring, but thanks for saying so.

Part 4: Homecoming The Complication: Aboard the Intrepid, the crew were both excited and restless. After over 330 days in space, they were nearly home, with Kerbin, the Mun, and Minmus all visible from the cupola. As they swung close to Kerbin, they fired up the thrusters to brake into orbit. It wasn't until after the braking and circularization was complete that I realized that I'd made a pretty big mistake. I'd put the Intrepid into a retrograde orbit. This of course meant that it was orbiting around in the opposite direction that Kerbin was rotating. The Intrepid was in a pretty low orbit now, and it simply would not be possible to reverse its orbital dirrection. Originally, my plan was for the crew to return in a state-of-the-art passenger SSTO that Bill had been testing. However, it cannot reach orbit if I try to launch it retrograde. Admittedly, this wasn't a major setback. The old Atlas shuttle was more than capable of rendezvousing with the Intrepid, so it was prepped for launch. As Bill climbs into space, he experiences the odd sensation of starting a gravity turn toward the west, rather than the east. Not long after that, he's docked the shuttle to the Intrepid, and everyone climbs aboard. Bill exchanges a round of warm "welcome back"s with the crew. All the experiment results were unloaded into the Atlas's bay. The next part would be tricky: trying to land at KSC from the retrograde orbit. Deleration on re-entry would be much more extreme, and I'd have to compensate for Kerbin's rotation when estimating the landing. After a few tries, the crew made a (mostly) safe landing. The tail grazed the ground and the engines broke off, but the crew was safe (as well as their experiments). Now safely back on Kerbin, everyone looked forward to the next 2 months of time-off. Recovery of the experiments yielded quite a bit of science, which ended up being enough to complete the tech tree. Preparing for Jool: The Intrepid preformed quite well on its shake-down mission, and even with some less-than-optimal maneuvers on my part it returned from Gilly with about a 3rd of its argon left. However, I was unsure about whether it would have enough propellant to reach Jool, perform maneuvers between its moons, and return to Kerbin. If I ran the engines at their lowest setting it almost certainly would be fuel efficient enough, but long burns are awful, so I came up with a plan to ensure that propellant wouldn't be a limiting factor in the mission. The first step would be to refuel the Intrepid up to full capacity with a tanker. The lifter was, admittedly, a bit overkill. The tanker also carried enough fuel and monopropellant to refuel the landers. Now that the Intrepid was at 100%, I launched another craft which would provide additional propellant capacity for the mission. A tanker, a bit smaller than the one I had just used and fitted with a single PIT thruster. It would be pushed to Jool by a nuclear tug I had left in Kerbin orbit a long time ago after the mission it was supposed to carry was aborted. It will be launched just before the Intrepid departs, and will be placed in high orbit of Jool to serve as a mobile argon gas depot. Even if this mission doesn't need it, it will be a useful contingency for the future. A Kerbal Vacation: With the launch for Jool still 2 months away, the crew (plus Bill) get together for some fun in the sun. (I had some fun with designing the cars and boats for this.) They climb aboard Jeb's pontoon boat and speed off to the islands near KSC. Pulling up to the far side of one of the islands, Bill points out a small beach that's perfect for swimming and relaxation. Jonnie and BB swim to shore, while Bob grabs some drinks from the cooler. Just because they're KSC's finest, doesn't mean they can't take some time to goof around! Not featured in this update: The Falcon SSTO was a craft I worked on for quite a while but, of course, was unable to use due to the Intrepid ending up in a retrograde orbit. So here's some pretty pics of it: It'll be making an official appearance eventually, after the Intrepid makes it back from Jool.

You didn't break him! You sent him through a radiation belt and he became Mr. Fantastic.

I took my Interplanetary Crew on a much needed vacation

thats really really neat Though, if it was made of a solid crystals, you might expect there to be actual impact craters on its surface. Minmus's lack of any craters is pretty strange regardless actually. Also, that doesn't explain the flat lowlands that, admittedly, do look like the result of ice melting and re-freezing.

Quite obviously Nowhere did I say that Minmus should be taken out of the game or changed at all. I just meant to start some discussion about Minmus, possibly including some alternate explanations for its composition.

You do know you can alter staging at any time in a mission, right? Sorry, I can't watch the video, so I don't know if the problem is something that can be fixed with that.

Assuming that Minmus has an icy surface, would it really be possible for that to exist? Icy moons are common in the outer solar system where sunlight is weak, but in Kerbin orbit, direct sunight would melt any ice. Without much gravity or any atmospheric pressure, the water would instantly boil off and probably be lost into space.

Well, if its possible for one craft to land on the Earth without any resistance via deception, then deploy some sort of life-ending biological weapon, that would certainly be more economical than hauling the military hardware necessary for an invassion. Anyway, I wouldn't expect the aliens to be completely unarmed. They probably wouldn't be carrying anything intended for mass destruction, but they might have brought devices for personal defense against native creatures.

Not necessarily, what if they were all taking shifts in suspended animation to keep their life support requirements low, but were counting on being able to end that once they reached their destination? Or, what if the cramped conditions aboard are damaging them psychologically? What if they just hate living in it? Anyway, I do think we would be able to work out something with these aliens, whether by providing resources for them to replenish their ship or by setting aside somewhere for them on earth

Well, I've hit a bit of a snag with Part 4 I've spent a lot of time developing the Falcon SSTO that Bill would be piloting to bring the crew home, and its been working rather well. However, when the Intrepid returned to Kerbin orbit, I failed to realize that I had placed it into a retrograde orbit, and now its too late to fix that. The Falcon simply cannot reach orbit if it tries to launch retrograde to rendezvous with the Intrepid. The old Atlas Shuttle, however, will be able to reach them. I suppose its not a major setback, but it certainly ruins my chance to show off a craft design I'm proud of.

Thank you!

Well that's plain rude

On a whim, I decided to start designing some recreational craft for my Kerbals (they certainly deserve it). I had heard before that the game would not allow Kerbals to stand on floating craft, but after some testing, its clear that this is no longer the case. (sorry for the night pic) Also, something I've noticed recently is that some of my Kerbals almost seem to be getting braver with experience. Or, at least, Bill and Bob do. As that boat was speeding across the water, I took this: Bill seemed stoic and had a hint of a smile while the other two less experienced crew look quite concerned. Am I imagining it, or did Squad sneak something in?

I had considered posting this in the fan-works section as writing, but a moderator recommended I post it here. I figured as much. Anyway, part 4 shouldn't take very long now, as I have just finished testing a new... uhm, well, I won't spoil it. Lets just say Bill will be flying something shiny and new when he comes to pick up the crew.

I have to wonder if I'm making this too long and boring, or maybe the mission just isn't interesting... Of course... its entirely possible that people like this series but just don't have anything to say, but I have no way of knowing. Anyone have any feedback on what I could do differently?

Here's my new crew transfer SSTO, its not too special I guess. It was mostly built with looks and realism in mind, so its really just limited to Kerbin orbits under 150,000m