GreenWolf

The Hindenburg was not doped with thermite. The doping compound used was similar in composition to thermite, and it was flammable, but it was not thermite. Additionally, the doping compound used was not unique to the Hindenburg. It was first used on the LZ 126, which was given to the US as part of Germany's war reparations following World War 1. LZ 126 served a rather uneventful career with the US Navy as the USS Los Angeles from 1924 to 1933. The Graf Zeppelin also used the same compound as the Hindenburg for its doping. The doping did not cause the fire (although it probably contributed to it). The cause of the fire was almost certainly a static discharge igniting hydrogen leaking from a punctured gas cell. The Hindenburg had been flying through rather rough weather, and would have built up a large amount of static electricity in its skin and frame. When the mooring ropes that were in contact with the ground became wet, they grounded the frame, but not the skin. The resulting difference in potential would have caused a spark. The leaking hydrogen came from a gas cell that had been punctured when one the airship's duraluminum ribs broke during a sharp turn as it was coming into Lakehurst. As for your claim that the Hindenburg was the first airship to be lost in a fire, this is patently and absurdly false. Most of the airships lost during World War 1 were lost due to hydrogen fires. And before you argue that this was because they were being shot, many other airships have been lost due to fire outside of warzones. LZ 4, one of the very first Zeppelins, caught fire after it broke loose from its moorings. Fire is, in fact, one of the more common ways that hydrogen airships are lost. TL;DR: Surprisingly, when you fill something with a flammable gas, it will burn.

You do know that Earth-Mars transfer windows only open up every two years, right? If your equipment will only last 9 months, total, you will be dead before the next window opens.

It's not like it's rocket science, right? Oh, wait...

But would it be better to colonize a Ganymede-sized sphere of uranium or a Mars-sized sphere of uranium?

Actually, I can testify first hand that there can be a need to make consecutive posts, especially if doing an AAR/Mission Report. It can be useful to keep the chapters/updates out of the OP (both for neatness and to allow direct linking to them from a chapter list/other threads/sites).

Telling SAS to hold along the radial out marker will do the same thing as MechJeb's Surface Up mode.

I might take a stab at this, but not for a few months. I'd have to find a way to work it into my current AAR save (so I can have other things running in the background [like my karbonite miners], and the best place to justify it would be an endurance test of a rover. Probably on Minmus.

Olympus Mons is actually pretty underwhelming from the surface. From the top, you can't actually see the bottom, so it just looks like a large hill. Same goes for the bottom. It's only really impressive from orbit.

There's a few different ways to approach the problem of building motherships. Many of them can be used together to increase stability. The first, and the most obvious, is to use the largest docking ports available. The 2.5 meter docking ports are stronger than the 1.25 meter ports. Depending on where you are in the tech tree, this might not be an option. You could also try triple docking the 1.25 meter ports, but this takes some skill and luck to pull off consistently. The second method is to reduce the number of docked craft. It's generally more stable to have two big craft instead of 4 small craft. You could also try doing a puller configuration instead of a pusher configuration. Stick your engines in the front, and string out the modules behind it, like a train. It will still wobble while trying to turn, but it's more stable while performing burns. If you insist on doing a pusher, build a "core module". This should contain the engines and most of the fuel. As you add more modules, try and keep the center of mass of the whole craft inside the core. For what you're doing (multiple Mün missions with a modular ship), a mothership is almost overkill. However, what I would suggest is instead build one single lander with around 2000 m/s of delta-v in a single stage (pretty easy to do). This will act as your drive unit and your lander. Attach some fuel tanks in front or behind it, and you have your mothership. When you get to the Mun, fill up the tanks on the lander, then detach it from the rest of of the craft and land. Once you're done with the mission, takeoff and rendezvous with the fuel tanks in orbit to refuel. You can keep doing this until you run out of fuel in the orbital tanks.

How does this handle gender assignment for existing saves? Basically, if I drop it into an existing save which already has kerbals in it, what will it do? Is there a way to manually assign gender? Does it add any new prefixes/suffixes to the name generator?

Speak for yourself. Sci-fi has been preparing me for the Great Colonial War of Secession since I was 10.

Huh, I thought they only flew separately. Guess you learn something new everyday. And yeah, I would be very surprised if future Russian space stations aren't based off of the tried-and-true DOS/FGB combo. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and all that.

Every single Soviet/Russian rocket for launching manned spacecraft has been based off of the R7, the very first ICBM. Zvezda, the core of the ROS of the ISS, was originally built in 1985 as part of the Salyut program, with the designation DOS-8, and was intended to be used in Mir-2. Its immediate predecessor, DOS-7, formed the core of Mir. The Functional Cargo Block (FGB) modules on the ISS and Mir were derived from the FGB spacecraft, which was to be used as the service module for the TKS spacecraft. The TKS spacecraft was intended for use as crew transport and resupply craft for the Almaz military space stations. Almaz was eventually ended, and the TKS spacecraft never flew, but the FGB lives on.

For me, either 0.20 or 0.21. 0.20 was the one that added flags and a bunch of the KSPX parts, and came out a few months after I had bought the game. 0.21 was the one that added the new SAS and the new space center buildings, and happened right around when I really started playing the game (according to Steam, I put almost 150 hours into it during the summer of 2013.)

There's a few things I think could help here. The first is Flight Manager for Reusable Stages. It doesn't stop things being deleted when they leave physics range, but it does allow you to finish flying your main plane/rocket, and then time travel back to when you released the probe/booster/whatever and finish flying that. Then there's BD Armoury, which I believe doubles the physics load range. While 5 kilometers might not seem like a lot, it can make a big difference. Then you have Romfarer's mods, which were mentioned earlier. Haven't played with them in a long time, so I don't know if they still increase the physics range, but I do know that they've been updated to 0.90.

6/10 I recognize your signature

*furiously scribbles away on a notepad* This is a very interesting project you have here. Boats aren't normally something you see that often in KSP, much less interplanetary aircraft carriers. I'm particularly interested in your ideas and experiments on bouyancy, since I've been toying with the idea of building a floating base on Laythe.

1/10 Think I might have seen one of your posts before? It's possible I'm imagining it.

Thanks. I was originally going to try and come up with individual names for each module, along the lines of the Delivery and the Discovery, before deciding that there was just too much stuff for me to continue with the same theme. So the new stuff is going to be named with a mix of clever acronyms, bland Wernher descriptors, and nicknames given by the crew. Just as an example, one of the pieces of hardware set to be delivered soon is the Autonomous Liftoff and Return Module.

Yep. The real cost of the refueling missions to Zenith wouldn't be the fuel, but the rockets used to launch it. Even with the mostly reusable Liberty (the boosters and cores all have parachutes so that Stage Recovery can pick them up, and the upper stage is supposed to be able to deorbit and land under parachutes. I think I've only managed to actually recover about 60% of the upper stages.) it would still cost a lot to send up several missions that only had fuel as payload.

Somebody's gonna have to fly the fuel tanker out to the Mün with the next set of base modules. (Although maybe not, since one of the modules will have a probe core, and there's a used science module at the depot that could be used to fly the tanker back.) Regardless, the fuel tanker has room for two Kerbals, so they'll be able to watch each other to make sure they behave. And if that fails, Gene has a (mint flavored) carrot to dangle in front of them to get them to fall in line. As for any possible computer uprisings, Probodyne representatives have assured us that the possibility of a probe core led rebellion is remote. Edit: Shhh. They don't know that. High praise indeed. Hopefully future chapters will continue to meet or exceed the same standards of quality. Double edit: In all seriousness, the "mutiny" was really a spontaneous decision on my part. I had already planned to send refueling mission up to Zenith, and was even thinking of building a dedicated refueling vehicle to replace the upper stage + payload of the Liberty to perform the two to six refueling flights that would be needed before the base started making fuel. But then I decided that since I already had a kerbal and a lander in orbit around the Mün, why not start shipping up fuel now?

Well, I can tell you what didn't cause the mutiny: Space aliens Food poisoning Mind control/hypnosis Small dogs named Fido As for what might have led to the mutiny, there's a few possible causes: Stress Boredom Stress and boredom Feelings of frustration and anger directed towards mission control The realization that a lot of time and launches could be saved by refilling the propellant depot now instead of later Small dogs named Spot Don't expect an pause in the base construction, though. Münstay has started to build up momentum, and the next launch is already on the pad. And since the cause of this incident wasn't due to an engineering problem, there's not really a need to stop launching hardware to perform an investigation.

Indeed. It remains to be seen what disciplinary measures await our rebellious cosmonaut. Even if he was right about the necessity of refilling the propellant depot.

Chapter 11: MARC of a Rebel The next piece of Münstay hardware to be launched was the Münar Autonomous Resource Collector, or MARC for short, which would handle all of the karbonite extraction and refining for the Münbase. "MARC evolved through several different designs while it was being constructed. The original plan was to have two autonomous wheeled vehicles, one for extracting karbonite and one for refining it. This was later changed to a stationary refinery and a mobile extractor. The final design ended up being a single stationary extractor and converter, which would be dropped onto the Mün by a skycrane." – Ambrose Kerman, VAB Engineer The MARC and its skycrane would be launched together into orbit aboard the new Liberty Super Heavy, which used two Liberty cores as boosters. "It's interesting to look at the evolution of the Liberty family of launch vehicles. We started with the R7, then dropped in a new upper stage and updated the core to make the Liberty. Adding two more boosters gave us the Liberty Heavy, and giving it RCS gave us the Liberty Advanced. Swap out the boosters for a pair of cores, and you get the Liberty Super Heavy, which had twice the payload capacity as the Liberty Heavy, and required us to upgrade the launchpad to be able to hold its weight." – Ambrose Kerman, VAB Engineer Once in orbit, MARC and the skycrane rendezvoused with the Delivery, which would carry them out to the Mün. Next up was the Münar Fuel Lander, which would carry refined fuel from the surface up to the orbital propellant depot. It would be launched using a Liberty Super Heavy Advanced. "The Fuel Lander was relatively simple to build. We used the same twin engine pods as the Discovery, but with a large fuel tank placed in the center instead of space for a portable module." – Ambrose Kerman, VAB Engineer Delivery, flown by Jermin Kerman, would carry the fuel lander, MARC and the skycrane out to the Mün. Once in orbit, the skycrane would drop MARC onto the surface, then proceed to rendezvous with the propellant depot. MARC would then be joined by the fuel lander, which would land as close as possible to the drilling rig. MARC successfully landed 8 kilometers west of Münshot 8's landing site. It immediately began karbonite refining operations. The first batch of Münar fuel was used to top off the skycrane's tanks. Now fully fueled, the skycrane undocked from MARC and took off for the propellant depot. The fuel lander touched down next, landing itself almost on top of MARC. It was at this point that the very first space mutiny occurred. CAPCOM (Romal Kerman): Delivery, telemetry shows that you just performed an unscheduled burn. Is everything alright? TUG (Jermin Kerman): The mission plan has changed, CAPCOM. I'm gonna take the Discovery down to Enterprise Base and start pumping fuel into the fuel lander. CAPCOM: WHAT?! TUG: You heard me, Romal. This way, we can fill up the depot before the fuel tanker gets here with the hab modules. Then it will be able to return to Kerbin with a shipment of fuel, and we won't need to send up refueling missions to Zenith. Gene Kerman: Jermin, if you dock with that depot, I swear to God, you'll never fly again! TUG: Relax, Gene. You know I'm right about this. Without the fuel from MARC, we'd have to send up at least two dedicated refueling missions. Unless you want more stranded cosmonauts. Gene Kerman: It's too dangerous! The Discovery was never designed to be flown by a single kerbal! TUG: But sending Nel on a one way trip to the Mün is perfectly safe, right? Gene Kerman: *silence* TUG: I'm going to do this, Gene, and you can't stop me. So the question is, will you help me land the Discovery, or will I have to fly a two person spacecraft by myself? Gene Kerman: Let the record show that Cosmonaut Jermin Kerman has ignored direct orders from mission control and will be disciplined upon return to Kerbin. *pause* Now, Romal, get back over here and help him. The rest of you, see if you can find a way to feed range data from MARC into the Discovery's computers. If we're going to do this, we might as well do it right. – Recording of Jermin Kerman's mutiny Jermin docked the Delivery to the propellant depot, then transferred over into the Discovery. KSA mission controllers had managed to slave the guidance systems of MARC and the fuel lander to the Discovery's flight computers. This would give Jermin detailed range and altitude information, which would be essential for a single kerbal landing. Jermin undocked from the depot, and began his descent towards the Mün. "Gene was right when he said that the Discovery wasn't meant to be flown by a single kerbal. Normally, I would have had a flight engineer calling out range, altitude, and velocity readings, as well as monitoring structural integrity and fuel levels. But with the extra data from MARC, and with Romal guiding me through the landing, I was able to bring the Discovery down within 50 meters of MARC." – Cosmonaut Jermin Kerman, Pilot Once on the ground, Jermin started hooking up fuel lines between MARC and the landers. The fuel lander would have to make several trips between the surface and the depot in order to fill up the depot's tanks. With the depot finally refilled and the fuel lander standing by to bring up another load of fuel, Jermin took off in Discovery and returned to the depot, where he transferred back over into the Delivery. The flight back to Zenith Station was uneventful.

If you're referring to Biodome 2, that's not really proof we can't sustain a closed ecological system. It's just proof that we don't know enough about the incredibly complex interactions within Earth's biosphere to be able to reliably replicate the whole thing. But growing algae in a tank for oxygen and food is pretty simple. Relatively speaking. Of course, I completely agree with you that anyone Mars One manages to send to Mars will probably be dead within a few months. Not because closed ecological systems are impossible with current tech, but because Mars One is trying to do too much, too fast, too cheaply.