Cydonian Monk

Anny Kerman Present Day Anny awoke in a familiar room, his legs sore and the back of his head aching. He jumped out of bed and groaned and scratched at the back of his skull. Was this his room from the Academy? Looked like it. No no, this must be a dream. He'd graduated more than a decade ago. He blinked around at the dim light then remembered. "Lights Up." The room brightened immediately. Way too fast for the dorms in the Academy - those always took several seconds to process voice commands. "Yep, definitely a dream." He made his way to the dresser across from his bed where a set of clothes were laid out, rags far too ordinary for The Anny Kerman. He put on the trousers and tossed the rest over his shoulder to land near the bed. Fishing around through the drawers he found one of his old brightly-colored linen shirts and a pair of sandals. Just what he was looking for. A few minutes later Anny Kerman, Pilot Extraordinaire, walked out of his dorm room and into what should have been the busiest lounge in the Academy. Instead he found a nearly empty room. Three other doors and a kerbal sitting behind a simple desk. He smiled and started walking towards him. "Dreams are weird things, aren't they pal?" He wondered if this was one of those dreams where he could fly. Or would this be the one with the creepy bright lights in the sky? No, no, this was probably something boring that he'd vaguely forget come morning. The other kerbal was busy tapping away at some fancy keyboard gizmo and greeted him without looking up. "They are indeed. Though from what I understand your dreams must be especially, ahem, strange. Please, have a..." he looked up at Anny and cringed. "... seat. We set out clothing specifically chosen to match the needs of your day." Anny tugged at his shirt. "This is comfortable, unlike that horse blanket back in my room." "How do you know? You never tried it on." "Didn't need to. Those space digs are all the same." He looked around the empty room, taking the time to glance up at the skylights. It looked to be daytime. He turned back to his host and grinned. "So, Mr. Sandman, what dream have you brought me this time?" "This is no dream, I can assure you of that." Sure it wasn't. Just like that time Anny hadn't landed on the Sun. The other kerbal grinned dryly and looked at Anny in such a way that Anny almost felt he was reading his mind. "Tell me, Anny Kerman, what do you know of the artifact we recovered from the Mün?" Ad Lunam - Duna Thabit 4 Duna Capture Year 78 day 366 Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency The first out of the gate was, in this case, also the first to arrive. Thabit 4, the mapping and science satellite was sent to Duna well ahead of the other two ships. The intent was for it to begin mapping the surface and relaying information back to the Kraken's Harvest so they could narrow down the list of initial landing sites. I didn't bother trying to use Ike to shave a few m/s off of Thabit 4's velocity as it was bound for a polar orbit. And Ike was in the wrong place anyway. When the capture burn was complete, the little probe was sitting comfortably in a 1,000km by 100km orbit at roughly 88° inclination. Survey work began at once. Osprey Duna Capture Year 78 day 421 19th Kerbal Space Agency Next up was the Osprey mission: Dudry, Herhat, Enlan, Jack and Donnie. These five brave kerbals had continued on to Duna, despite losing contact with Cape Kerbal (and seemingly everything else in the Universe). They had considered the abort options, but ultimately voted to press on. Herhat's campaign of "Hey! We're going to Duna dudes! Kerbin can wait!" was all the convincing the other four needed. And besides, had they opted to abort they would have been forced to abandon the lab and all the attached station components - none of them cheap. They had put considerable effort into preparing this mission and along the way had lost their shuttle, Wanderer. They really couldn't afford to lose this mission hardware as well. Dudry set about preparing the ship and its kit for the most dangerous part of their trip - the Duna aerocapture. Too low and they'd be landing a bit earlier than desired. Too high and they'd be forced to use the engines to finish, possibly leaving them without enough fuel to return home. There was also a chance they might smack into the side of one of Duna's large mountains. Fun. The pass was set for just above 15km. Even at 15km the air was too thin to seal the deal, and Dudry was forced to make a short burn, bringing their apoapsis down inside of Ike's orbit. This was followed by a later burn to pull their periapsis up to the desired 150km, and the final burn at periapsis to circularize. Next order of business for the Osprey crew was setting up the science station. This was one of the simpler stations - all they needed to do was move the solar arrays into position and then redock the lander and the Osprey. Dudry was about to take over control of the construction bot when he remembered that he was no longer a pilot. "Herhat? Why don't I let you do this." "What's this now? Our fearless leader afraid of a little thing like union regulations?" "Yeah, something like that." So Herhat slipped into the pilot's seat and backed the little bot out of the crevice where it had been stowed for the trip out to Duna. "Y'know, the little prick might just be a bit hot. What with sitting 'round all that radiation on our backsides." Dudry clapped Herhat on the shoulder and made his way for the hatch to the lab. "We'll be fine. That bot'll only be out and about for however long it takes to us to install the solar panels." "Well, I guess it's like Anny says. You ing-gah-neers know best. I should know. Used to be one." Herhet aligned the bot with the end of one of the solar arrays and nudged over to connect up. Inside he was scared and nervous - if he accidentally punched a hole in the side of the ship all the way out here at Duna there was a good chance their bodies would never be found. On the outside though he was clam, cool, and collected. Or so he hoped. He pulled the first array free and spun it around, pulling far enough back that he couldn't possibly scrape the other end of the array along the paper-thin walls of the Osprey. A quick jet forward and the first array was installed. Herhat flipped the switch to extend the panels. The power gauge spiked up at once. "Good news boys. We've got sails!" A few minutes later and the other solar array was installed. Dudry was smiling as he floated back into the cabin. "Osprey Station is open for business." He looked around and then tapped his radio. "Jack?" "Sir?" "Would you be so kind as to go unpack the lander and park it on the station's main docking port?" "Gladly." "Ok Herhat, once Jack has safely docked with the station you're free to move us over to the opposite docking port." "You got it chief." The lander had been stowed at the far end of the Osprey stack, and had made most of the trip without any appreciable atmosphere inside the cabin. Jack had to keep his suit and helmet on as he brought the lander's systems online and pressurized the cabin. That was no reason to wait though, so he proceeded to undock, back away, and reorient himself to his chosen port. Once Jack docked back up, Herhat took the opportunity to stick the construction bot to the back of the lander. Whoever was chosen to land on Duna would then discard it during reentry. Afterwards he moved the Osprey out and rotated it to face its home for the next couple years. A quick burst from the RCS and they drifted forward and docked up. Now it's time to find a place to land. Kraken's Harvest Duna Capture Year 79 day 14 International Kerbal Explorers Society Several days later and it was the Kraken's Harvest's turn to get caught by the webs of Duna. Aboard the Harvest were Meldo, Milzer, Derbald, Gilvin, Gusbrett, Podner, Mitwig, Billy-Bobford, Gersted, Sigcas, Mac, Deruki, Lorim, Newwin, Dercal, Danlong, Melden, and none other than Bill, Bob, and Jebediah Kerman. Twenty kerbals representing five different organizations: The 18th Kerbal Space Agency, The Independent Southern Coalition, The Space Operations Consortium of the Highlands, The Forgotten Islands, and last but not least Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Inc, LTD, GmbH, etc. Collectively known as the International Kerbal Explorers Society. Along with the Kraken's Harvest was the Diophantus Laboratory and three Duster landers, all docked ahead of the main bulk of the spaceship. And there the mission package would remain until they had completed their capture at Duna. They had already performed a few alignment burns to bring their periapsis down within Duna's atmosphere, planning for an aerobraking pass just above 15 kilometers. I hadn't originally designed the Harvest with the intent to perform aerobraking, so I wasn't sure how badly the cheat-y "we're wings" Mk2 fuselage cabins would behave on the pass. So I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. The kerbals on the other hand seemed to be blissfully unaware that they might violently flip end over end and smash into one of Duna's many deserts. Even then it was a known fact the aerobraking pass would be insufficient for Duna capture. An artifact of launching and building the Harvest from Lake Fortunate was its 15º entry orbit at Duna - one I intended to retain. Being in a non-equatorial orbit would allow the landers a greater selection from the list of landing sites. This extra 20º inclination at Kerbin is also what contributed to the longer travel time to the mighty orange planet, but it would save lander fuel in the long run. With the worst of the atmosphere behind them, Meldo set up the initial capture burn. The plan was to keep the Osprey and its crew as far away from the Kraken's Harvest as possible - best accomplished by being on the far side of the planet in an identical orbit. They had plenty of time to observe the objects in orbit while on approach, and so timed the two legs of the capture burn accordingly. With the capture complete, it was time to start unpacking the landers. The three Dusters had been shipped still in their tied-down state in front of the laboratory and needed to be moved to the area aft of the habitat ring for easier access. Jeb, tired of being cooped up inside for more than a year, offered to take the first of these moves. Jebediah Kerman, robbed of the title of "First EVA" so many decades ago, was also not the first kerbal to EVA in the Duna system. That title belonged to Jack Kerman of the 19th KSA. Jeb didn't seem to mind. He was more interested in keeping an eye on Duna than any record books. The orange inspired in him a euphoria he had not known for many years. (1600x1000) He spent so much time on EVA that the Harvest completed a quarter of an orbit and moved into the night. So all the "unpacking" was seen only in the warmth of the ship's flood lights. With the first lander moved, Meldo ventured out to take the second. Later Gersted would complete the third and final Duster relocation, both EVAs and moves taking place in the shadow of Duna. It wouldn't be KSP if it wasn't happening at night. The Kraken's Harvest passed back into the sunlight just as Gersted returned to the Hab Ring. Now it was time to prepare for the Duster landings. First Duna Duster Landing Year 79 day 16 International Kerbal Explorers Society The Thabit 4 provided a tremendous advantage to the "Rebels" in its ability to be on-station many days in advance. The maps and survey data helped the crew narrow down the options for landing sites. So, while the 19th KSAers were still poring over pictures, the crew of the Kraken's Harvest already had several candidates ready for landing. The first landing site selected was in the lowlands roughly 15º south of the Dunan Equator. It was selected for having many flat areas of terrain and because it just so happened to be at the bottom of the Harvest's orbit when I undocked the first Duster. I oft subscribe to the "that a way" method of choosing a course, this landing not excluded. Milzer and Meldo were selected by the crew to be the first to land on Duna. Given the energy and effort they had put into making this trip a reality there was never a chance anyone else would have been selected anyway. Even Jeb voted for M&M. (Bill and Bob voted only "Not Us.") So a scant 2 days after their arrival, Milzer and Meldo pushed away from the Harvest in their simple little lander and set up their descent burns. Meldo in the lander can's "pilot seat" with Milzer overhead in the ride-along capsule. "How is it I'm the director of FLIGHT operations, and yet I'm not even allowed to fly?" "Why is the water commission in charge of the railroads? And why is the railroad commission in charge of oil and gas? Milzer, some thing we're just not meant to ever understand." "Such as why we chose a pilot to be Chief of R&D?" "Yeah. That too." The Duster rattled slightly as the non-existent Dunan air bit into it. The Dusters had been outfitted with wings to provide limited control during ascent, but in practice they did nothing while landing. If anything they made the craft want to spin around and fall like a dart. "Say, M? Shouldn't we have popped the chutes by now?" "Nah, I designed this thing to land even without chutes. Remember?" "But if we run out of fuel out here in the orange..." "Relax M, I've got this. If not, then I'll get out and push." The exhaust plume is something I'd forgotten about from my last landing on Duna (well over a year ago now). It was sort of a pleasant reminder that, yes, Duna does in fact have an atmosphere. It showed up somewhere around the same time the engine burn became audible. Its dull roar growing to a crackle and then rumble. The orange glow of the planet below made it difficult to determine exactly where the ground was. Chutes really would have helped here. The landing light was the only indication the Duster was close to touchdown. Meldo was sweet on the engine though, and brought the Duster down ever so gently. The orange powder of the surface kicked up and stuck to the underside of the craft. And where it didn't stick the intense glow of the planet made it look like it had anyway. "Y'know, this is just one big empty orange ball." Milzer started clicking away on the buttons on his science console, running the various experiments that were attached to the outside of the Duster. "Lowlands. I thought we were landing in the Midlands." "Nope. The impact biome readout from Engineer plainly said 'Lowlands' the whole way down." "The map from the Thabit disagrees though. It almost looks like the highlands are only a few meters away, too. All of these experiments are reading as Lowlands." "Whatever M. You just keep exposing your science bits to the orange. I'm going out for a walk." Meldo threw open his hatch and moved delicately out onto the ladder. This was the first time they'd been in real gravity for more than a year and he wasn't too sure how his muscles would react. He paused halfway down the ladder to take a closer look at the etching the kicked-up dust had given the underside of Duster. It had nothing at all to do with him being out of breath from eating too many bowls of Krunchy Bits cereal and spending entirely too little time on the exercise bike during the transit. Nope. Not at all. He backed away from the ladder and floated the rest of the way down, pirouetting around as he fell. Meldo's landing kicked up another bright orange cloud of dust, which he brushed from the arms of his suit as he started into a pre-prepared speech. "That's one short fall for a kerbal, one..." "Hey! Take a soil sample while you're out there!" "Would you shut up in there! I'm making history here!" Moments later and Milzer's hatch swung open. He opted to climb _upwards_ instead of downwards, and spent several minutes taking in the view. Little did Milzer know that his undocumented 'Standup EVA' would later become the crux of a major conspiracy theory. Had he known at the moment he probably wouldn't have even cared. All he could think of was the view. "Wow." "It sure is orange." "Yeah." Milzer started working his way down the ladder, eager to take some samples so he could mix them with his suit's water supply. "Do you think its some sort of sports drink? Maybe Kang or powdered KerbalAide?" "Don't be silly, M. It's obviously dehydrated Orange Soda." "Say, you got the flag?" "We both have flags." "I know that. I mean do you have _THE_ flag. Or do I have _THE_ flag." "Guess I'll take it. Would anyone remember which of us planted it anyway?" "Will we?" "Probably not. They'll just remember the picture of us standing next to it looking super cool." Second Duna Duster Landing Year 79 day 16 International Kerbal Explorers Society The second landing was targeting the Highlands on the opposite side of the planet from the first. Which meant it was to be a nighttime landing, the first I've ever attempted on any planet or moon except Kerbin at any time in Kerbal Space Program. At least that I can remember. Along for this trip were two of the international crew memberss: Dercal Kerman of the Independent Southern Coalition as Pilot and Danlong Kerman of the Highlands as Scientist. Dercal backed the Duster carefully away from the Harvest, allowing the two craft to drift some distance apart before he set up for the descent burn. It's my understanding the light blue area on the Biome map is supposed to be "Highlands." It's surrounded by the green bits that are connected to the dark blue bits, and the dark blue bits were very apparently "Lowlands" for the first crew. Right? Well, the second lander crew would find differently, and apparently the "Highlands" are actually the "Midlands" which are surrounded by the "Highlands" which then touch on the Sea of Confusion and the Mists of Insanity. Unlike M&M, D&D opted to use the parachutes for their landing. Mostly because it was pitch black outside and they had no good feeling for exactly what type of terrain they were landing in, but also to conserve fuel. M&M may have been quiet about it, but they were left with considerably less than half their fuel reserves after landing, which is cutting it a bit tight. Dercal was still forced to land "on the flame" as the Orange Planet's air is still a bit on the absent side. They settled down nice and soft and at only a slight incline. It wasn't long before Danlong was cursing at the science instruments in his strange Highlands tongue. He eventually filled Dercal in on the situation: Despite having clearly landed in the Highlands the science instruments were all incorrectly reporting as being in the Midlands, which made it difficult for him to properly record the results. "Look out the side. All Highlands. Yes?" Dercal peered into the inky black night beyond his glass. "Looks like a whole lotta nothing to me." "Grr." More strange words Dercal didn't know. They both opted to sleep for a few hours instead of wandering about in the deserts of Duna at night. Dercal took the pilot's option at sunrise and went for the first EVA. He spent half a lifetime hanging from the side of the ladder, watching the Duster's shadow shorten from several kilometers long to just a short hop. There was absolutely nothing out there beyond the darkness - just dust and rocks. Danlong followed him down a short while later and both of them planted their respective flags in the soil of Duna. The Green Cross of the Independent Southern Coalition and the somewhat new flag of the Space Operations Consortium of the Highlands, obvious derivative of the old CCHR vexillum. Afterwards they spent the rest of the day collecting rock samples and EVA reports from their area of the "Highlands" that were actually "Midlands". Despite wandering around on the hilltops, Danlong was completely unable to locate any actual "Highland" biomes. That would no doubt be a disappointment for the kerbals back home, possibly seen as a mission failure. Not that either Dercal or Danlong cared at that moment. Duna Duster Recovery Year 79 day 19 International Kerbal Explorers Society Both crews were allowed to spend several Kerbin days on the surface so they could each experience a full Duna day. Duna has a roughly 18 hour day, three times longer than the usual ones on Kerbin, which can be both disorienting and psychosis inducing to the poor ground controllers back on Kerbin who have to adjust to it. Our 4 crews seem to have been unaffected thankfully. (Though I still my have doubts as to the sanity of their ground crew.) First to land were the first to launch, and M&M were more than ready to get off the giant orange dust ball. Meldo nudged the throttle up slowly so as not to blast their flag out of the loose Dunan sand. Somehow it worked. He pitched the Duster over as soon as it made sense to do so and winced when he saw the ∆v numbers the Engineer console was spitting out. "Hey M. You know what I said about needing to get out and push?" "Really?" "Yeah. Really. Maybe we should've used the parachutes. I'm going to only bring us up to 50km at first, but I'm not sure we'll have enough to pull us up out of the atmosphere." "M!" "Look, what can I say? I swear these Dusters had more oomph when we launched! Something must've changed between now and then!" "Ok. Just start burning the RCS. The more of that we dump the better off we'll be." A few minutes later and they were nearly at their apoapsis. "Bingo RCS." Meldo turned the system off to save power. "Not that we had much to start with. Bingo fuel." "Ok, so where are we?" "55km by 40km, give or take. You following this Harvest?" Derbald's voice came booming over the radio. "We are, but we're too far behind you to be able to swoop down and save the day. The numbers don't work on the far side of the planet for an at-speed rendezvous. Best we can do..." The radio cut out momentarily. "Best we can do is have Dercal launch early and shove you the rest of the way. Over." "Great." Meldo started unstrapping from his seat. "Guess it's time to get out and push. Just like the old days." Second Duna Duster Recovery Year 79 day 19 International Kerbal Explorers Society The GOAP maneuver, otherwise known as the "Get Out And Push" maneuver, was only enough to raise the periapsis of the first Duster above Duna's trace atmosphere. Which meant Plan-C was in effect: Dercal and Danlong would launch in the second Duster, rendezvous with M&M, transfer some mono-propellent (so the first Duster would be able to dock with the Kraken's Harvest on its own), and then push both of them back to the rendezvous with their mothership. Naturally the launch was at night. Wouldn't be KSP without it. A few hours later and the second Duster drifted by Meldo's window. Dercal's voice snapped loudly across the radio. "Heard you two needed a lift. We've got some attractive towing rates if you're interested." "Very funny Dercal." "Maybe you should use the chutes next time. Or did you not read the operators manual after you wrote it?" As planned, at least in the alternate plans, the second Duster docked up with the first, transferred half of its monoprop over, and then boosted both vessels up to an orbit that met up with the Harvest. A meeting that also happened to be at night. (When else?) M&M moved in to dock first, just in case something else went wrong and they needed another rescue. Not so this time, and the docking went off without a hitch. Dercal and Danlong followed shortly thereafter. Each crew shuttled several canisters of surface samples and science data over to the Diophantus Laboratory, to be processed and compared at a later date by one of the scientists. (Likely Milzer.) Another successful set of landings and recoveries. Third Duna Duster Landing Year 79 day 20 International Kerbal Explorers Society Milzer and Meldo spent the better part of the debriefing explaining to Podner and Deruki why they should absolutely use the parachutes when conducting their landing. There wouldn't be a quick rescue for them if something went wrong, though both of the other two landers had been refueled and there would be at least one crew on standby. They were at too high of an orbit to drop down and safely grab another fuel-dry ship. The two new soon-to-be-Dunans had already EVA'd over to their Duster when Milzer decided his exhaustion was too much. "I'm going to bed." "Don't want to watch the landing?" "No, I'll just doze off if I stick around here. Wish those two luck for me." And so he floated back to his cabin. Had the ship not been spun down he would've tried to take a shower, but such a feat was next to impossible in the microgravity. (And he had no desire to drown himself in the attempt either.) So he just changed out of his dusty orange jumpsuit and strapped himself into bed. (He wasn't sure if the orange on his suit was from Duna or if he'd started out in an orange suit that morning.) The dream was terrible. As always. Something large and black was looming outside the ship, silent and deadly as the night. A giant tendril was wrapped around the hab ring and Milzer was scrambling for his helmet. It was just overhead in the emergency storage. He could hear the proximity alarm glaring loudly in his ears as he fumbled with the storage lock. "Why won't this open!" He smashed his fist on it, sending himself flying across the room into the far wall. The alarm grew silent as the air vented from his cabin. And then he woke up. Woke up to the sounds of the proximity alarm, louder in real life than in his dream. He was floating in the middle of the room, blood bubbling from a gash in his head. Had he forgotten to strap himself in? No. Maybe this was still a dream. He kicked off from a nearby object and made his way to the storage locker again, already hanging open. He grabbed the helmet and twisted it down over his head just as the ship's RCS system fired hard. The radio light blinked to life in the corner of his vision. "Milzer reporting in. What's up?" "Commander! Automated impact avoidance!" He barely recognized the rushed and panicked voice. Was that Gersted? "Ship's radar shows an object inbound, picked it up about 5 kilometers out. It's adapting to our maneuvers!" The radio went silent for a moment and then crackled back to life. "All hands brace for impact!" Milzer pinched himself, feeling the pain at once. This was not a dream. He reached out to grab the rails beside his bed but they slipped slowly from his grasp. He tried to push off of the ceiling with his feet just as the cabin lurched violently forward. The last thing he saw were the rails he had been reaching for, rushing forward with violent intent. The Kraken had come for its Harvest.

Anybody else excited about KSP v1.0? I know I am....

Hmm. Naming themes. Well, I use a few different ones, from Birds of Prey (Kestrel, Hawk, Falcon, Eagle, etc), to (semi-)Famous Cartographers and Engineers. Think for v1.0 I might add in some Native American place names (Kanawha, Etowah, Tenasi, etc), but other than that I'll probably just keep burning through the birds and famous folks.

The conspiracy of the clock! It robs us of our free time and reminds us the end is coming!

. Ad Lunam - Origins - Contractual Obligations Hawk 3-2 Launch Year 1 day 415 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 "Wernher, if these numbers are right..." "They are." "If these numbers are right, the Hawk 3-2 has enough delta-v to be ejected well out into the solar system." Wernher replied with a smile, a somewhat unsettling smile at that. "And what happened to Hawks 1 and 2? Or 3-1?" "We vill never speak of those, ok? This one is fine." "I certainly hope so. For Jenzer's sake." The Hawk 3-2 was a strange beast, and by Wernher's own admission it was an old design. Not very sleek, and not something that looks like it would fly very well. Complicated, lots of moving parts, and vastly overpowered. And expensive. Basically: completely kerbal. None of that seemed to bother the chief designer, which disturbed Gene. In truth the Hawk 3-2 was a holder-over from a much older universe. Something plucked from the dark, usually unreachable recesses of existence. Its previous passenger, Thomlock Kerman, had launched into a vertical ascent that was perfectly retrograde to Kerbin's orbit. That lowered his orbit down well below that of Eve, which didn't even exist at the time. And when Eve finally popped into reality, it caught Thomlock and the Hawk 3-2 and expelled them from known space. Yet that was a different universe. Today the Hawk 3-2 would lift Jenzer Kerman into low-Kerbin orbit where he would perform various tasks on EVA. And, as promised by Wernher, the launch went perfectly. As did the mission. With the benefit of being libbed into orbit, Jenzer was able to make EVA observations of every equatorial biome on Kerbin. Unfortunately this seemed to return very little in terms of science, but that didn't matter much to Jenzer. He was just happy to be aboard. And he certainly wouldn't fall off of the capsule with the excessive number of ladders! Nearly a day later and it was light again at KSC. Time for the Hawk 3-2 to return home. A short burn for reentry and the little capsule was propelled back into the atmosphere. Jenzer was all smiles when the recovery team reached him, just a few kilometers west of KSC. Another happy customer. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Crew[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Expense[/td] [td]Income[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Hawk 3-2[/td][td]Jenzer[/td][td]5h9m0s[/td][td]49.3[/td][td]31,659[/td][td]1,775[/td][td]69.2[/td][/tr] [/table] The Founding of the First Kerbal Space Agency... Year 1 day 416 ... was completely without pomp or circumstance. A few members of the Senate arrived the day following Jenzer's mission to congratulate Chris and Gene and everyone else, then announced they were closing the DEMO program. If they wanted to continue to fly, they were welcome to form an agency of their own and fly, but they'd have to start paying for the privilege. As it so happened there were already a number of contracts lined up and waiting. The CCS Program The Commercial Contract Service was to be the money making arm of the First Kerbal Space Agency. Funds raised by completing CCSs would go towards science and exploration missions, and maybe one day be used to complete contracts such as the Explore Ike one. A number of different organizations had expressed a need for placing platforms into orbit, most of which had fairly generic requirements. A simple and equally generic satellite was developed to complete these contracts: The Commercial Contract Satellite. CCS-01 through CCS-15 Launches Year 2 days 131-206, Cape Kerbal First Kerbal Space Agency Lofted by a Kestrel-Songbird booster, the CCS was an inexpensive solution to the contract satellite problem. All told, the base package cost around $16,700. The fairings used for the basic CCS package were sourced from Zero-Point Fairings. For the most part these worked as expected, though an occasional delayed deployment would result in the spacecraft pitching or yawing in an undesired manner. All told there were 17 CCS launches to complete 16 CCS contracts. Thanks to the timing of the launch windows, CCS-02 was first to launch, becoming Staedler-A and completing the first CCS contract. Following that was an attempt to launch CCS-01 for Periapsis. This flight was launched due-South, but progressed along a less than desirable trajectory and broke up unceremoniously over the ocean. Following the failure of the CCS-01 was the successful launch of the CCS-03 for Reaction Systems 11 days later. This became the first satellite to orbit the Mün and was designated as ReactionSys-A. A second attempt was made at the Periapsis contract on day 137, which successfully became the Periapsis-B. Some of the contracts specified custom equipment, such as the CCS-04 and the CCS-15 with their Goo canisters, or the CCS-09 and CCS-14 which required Materials Study bays. These were all well within the capabilities and mass requirements of the launch systems. And there were a few launches contracted into orbits around other bodies. The previously mentioned CCS-03 was the first to the Mün, followed by CCS-11 for VacCo. Minmus also received some attention in the form of CCS-09 for Probodobodyne, CCS-13 for Sean's Cannery (which has spawned countless conspiracy theories about the true origins of Sean's Mint Ice Cream), and the CCS-14 for Rokea. On top of the specific orbits required by their new owners, the CCS satellites were often able to complete new science contracts. (Most of the later satellites included a complimentary thermometer.) And then there was the occasional satellite that was ejected into solar orbit by a close encounter with the Mün. We'll get to those later.... The money raised by the CCS program allowed for upgrading Kerbal Space Center to support larger missions and more in-depth research. It also proved that a space program could be financed simply by completing the offered satellite contracts. Time to get back to the science and exploration parts of the KSA. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Client[/td] [td]Date[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Expense[/td] [td]Income[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]CCS-02 [/td][td]Steadler[/td][td]Y2d115[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]148,586[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-01 [/td][td]Periapsis[/td][td]Y2d120[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]18,000[/td][td]0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-03 [/td][td]Reaction Sys[/td][td]Y2d131[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]175,875[/td][td]70.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-01a[/td][td]Periapsis[/td][td]Y2d137[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]90,000[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-04 [/td][td]Ionic[/td][td]Y2d139[/td][td]16.3[/td][td]18,225[/td][td]155,926[/td][td]28.5[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-05 [/td][td]Rockomax[/td][td]Y2d143[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]206,989[/td][td]24.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-06 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d150[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]311,989[/td][td]22.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-07 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d151[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]320,387[/td][td]27.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-08 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d158[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]120,510[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-09 [/td][td]Probodobodyne[/td][td]Y2d159[/td][td]16.2[/td][td]18,405[/td][td]307,406[/td][td]174.5[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-10 [/td][td]VacCo[/td][td]Y2d168[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]117,033[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-11 [/td][td]VacCo[/td][td]Y2d170[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]278,938[/td][td]103.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-12 [/td][td]Reaction Sys[/td][td]Y2d180[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]17,525[/td][td]176,963[/td][td]19.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-13 [/td][td]Sean's Cannery[/td][td]Y2d184[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]17,525[/td][td]145,114[/td][td]62.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-14 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d192[/td][td]16.2[/td][td]17,505[/td][td]455,650[/td][td]191.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]CCS-15 [/td][td]Periapsis[/td][td]Y2d206[/td][td]16.3[/td][td]18,225[/td][td]113,400[/td][td]26.0[/td][/tr] [/table] ION Test Article 1 (ITA-1) Launch Year 2 day 204 - Cape Kerbal Kerbal Space Agency The Ion Test Article was an exception to the CCS Rule. The Ionic Symphonic Protonic Electronic Corporonic wanted to test their new "Dawn" ION drive, and offered a contract to the KSA to test it in orbit. Never ones to pass up an opportunity, Gene and Wernher decided to build a fully-working Jool-capable science probe and launch it to complete the contract. If the test succeeded, great. If not, then it was a small loss. The ITA-1 was launched atop the venerable Kestrel-Songbird, which handily placed the satellite into a parking orbit around Kerbin. It would remain there until the Jool transfer window opened a few days later. it waited until then to complete the test burn of its ION propulsion system. The initial trajectory for Jool was less than efficient, but since the capture ∆v required from the probe was zero, I could afford to be as inefficient as I liked. Zero ∆v for capture? Yes. And not using the more popular aerocapture, but instead exploiting the gravity of Jool's moons. The initial capture plan was to use Laythe, as shown below. As that's several years away we'll get back to it later in this update. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Expense[/td] [td]Income[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]ITA-1[/td][td]15.0[/td][td]24,599[/td][td]308,427[/td][td]140.0[/td][/tr] [/table] CCS-16 Jeb-A Launch Year 2 day 208 - Cape Kerbal Kerbal Space Agency Around the time the CCS-11 launched it became obvious to Jebediah and the corps of astronauts that crewed spaceflight was being eschewed in favor of lucrative launch contracts. So Jeb decided to take action, and stormed into Gene's office one morning. "Look, we're doing these contracts so kerbals can go to space, right? And yet all I see are more and more funds spent on commercial launches. What's a guy got to do to fly around here? Put a contract out on himself?" Gene was used to these interruptions by now, and didn't even look up from his newspaper. "It'd help." "Ok, so I want to launch a satellite." "Good! We have a few models to choose from, all of them excellent options for Kerbin-system orbits. Mortimer has the details." "Not so fast. I've already got a design. Here" Gene traded his newspaper for the sheet Jeb handed him. "There's a capsule on this rocket." "Yeah. That's for me." he pointed at the top of the blueprint. "See." Gene slid the blueprint across his desk and went back to his newspaper. "We weren't looking to conduct any more crewed launches until the upgrades to KSC are complete." "And when will that be?" No response. "We both know I can pay enough to make it worth your while. Do this one launch and there'll be more to follow." "Ok, fine. Talk to Wernher and Mortimer, and come up with a better excuse. Some technical reason why you need to be there to deploy the satellite. Ok? Just no more screw ups, and no more unauthorized side-trips. Got it?" A few days later and Jeb was ready to go. As it turned out he had already built and assembled the smaller part of the craft in his spare time in the bed of the Mother of Necessity, and all he needed were the two booster stages. Nobody asked where he got the parts; most were pretty sure they didn't want to know. Jeb's Flight, as the CCS-16 was more colloquially known, was launched using an upgrade version of Wernher's "Hawk" booster from the Hawk 3-2 mission. (Which makes it the oldest piece of reused tech in my KSP play-throughs.) Atop that was a much simpler second stage, just enough for the craft to reach Low-Kerbin orbit. From there the third stage was used to inject the payload, Jeb and his satellite, into an orbit that would intersect with Jeb's desired orbit. Mostly. Jeb took the opportunity to go for a spacewalk. A very long spacewalk. Far above Kerbin. Far above the Mün. Well out into the dark where the stars shone bright. Big as the night even. He turned off his radio and drifted into a euphoria never before known to Kerbalkind. It was around this time the Flight Dynamics Officer realized exactly what Jeb had in mind. He probably should have noticed early, given that Jeb's planned orbit very obviously intersected with that of the Mün, but it hadn't yet occurred to him that the Mün would also be in just the right part of its orbit. He motioned Gene over to his terminal. "Twice?" "Yes. Once on the ascent, where I think Jeb intends to use the gravity of the Mün to complete the plane-change maneuver for the satellite." The clearly frazzled FDO handed Gene some roughly scribbled notes, few of which were legible. The periapsis for the Mün was, though. "That's not very close. What about the second time?" "Well," the FDO snatched the notes back and shuffled through a few pages. "Here's the thing. The entire craft, prior to satellite deployment, has enough ∆v to make it back to Kerbin. Once the craft is split in two however, the capsule won't have enough to return home. Unless..." "Unless he uses the Mün to drop his orbit." "Correct. The capsule has just enough propellent to shift his orbit again after deployment into one that intersects the Mün. And perhaps a bit left over for targeting a landing. Also, there's a chance the probe of his...." Gene turned to his right. "CAPCOM?" "Still silent, Flight." Gene growled and marched back to his console. He thought to look through his stack of manuals for one labeled "In Event Astronaut Absconds With Spacecraft" but realized there probably wasn't one. Yet. Jeb coasted past the Mün at high altitude, barely noticing the slight tug it gave him and his ship. Once that was one he made his way back into the tiny capsule, jettisoned the payload fairings, and then split the ship into three parts. He got out to inspect the satellite, pressing the large "On" button he had installed on the satellite at the last minute. "Some technical reason why you need to be there" he muttered under his breath and laughed. Jeb climbed back into the capsule and set up his return burn on the computer. He considered turning the radio back on, but by this point, nearly four days later, figured that would cause more of a headache that he wanted to handle right now. Besides, he was about the become the first kerbal to ever see the far side of the Mün! (Again.) Five hours later and his capsule was coming in for a landing just off the coast of KSC. He had overshot his target, wanting to land at the facility, but ran out of fuel at just the wrong time. No worries, though, as he would be close enough to swim back to shore should the recovery teams not be expecting him. The recovery teams. "Yeah," Jeb thought, "I probably should have radioed ahead." Sigsey would probably be out looking for him in the Mother of Necessity, no doubt with that obnoxious kid pilot they'd been working with. A year ago? Had it really already been a year? Time seemed to be flying past at an accelerated rate now that DEMO had come to an end. Jeb waited until the worst of the reentry flames had subsided before he popped the chutes. The sooner they opened the closer he'd be to shore. And then he turned his radio back on. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Crew[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Expense[/td] [td]Income[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]CCS-16[/td][td]Jeb[/td][td]42.7[/td][td]29,908[/td][td]180,446[/td][td]233.2[/td][/tr] [/table] Gene's Office Year 2 day 215 - Cape Kerbal Kerbal Space Agency "You're done." Gene wasn't sitting, but was instead standing behind his desk with his arms crossed. "After this little stunt, after dragging us along on your game, keeping us in the dark as you flew past the Mün, not once, but twice? You're done." his voice was calm yet stern, almost as though he had practiced the speech. Jeb smiled. "C'mon, Gene. We both know this was good for publicity." "Good for publicity? You've got a rap sheet a mile long. Everything you've done since joining the program has been mixed with insubordination and a complete disdain for the safety of everyone else involved. The only 'publicity' you bring is that of an astronaut who thinks he's bigger than the rest of the program. You're not. I want you gone by the end of the day." Jeb huffed. "Fine. But don't think you've seen the last of me." He jumped up, marched out of Gene's office, and disappeared down the hall. And just like that, Jebediah Kerman was gone. Gene really hadn't expected it to be that easy. He turned to stare out of his office window at the endless sky. It was quiet for once, with nothing being tested and nothing being launched. He could hear birds chirping. He watched crews across the lawn hard at work on the new Astronaut complex, larger, nicer, and with more bunks for more crews. He scratched at the back of his head, wondering if he had really made the right decision, and almost jumped when someone knocked softly on his door. "Gene?" Chris Kerman, head of the Agency. Gene turned and waved him in. "So, it's done." He nodded. "Harsh, but it had to be. Jebediah Kerman is a relic of the past. Something we need to move beyond. Anyway, that's not why I'm here. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Chris walked back into the hallway, motioned, and came back in followed by a strangely familiar kerbal. "Gene, this is Carl Kerman. He's to be your new chief of telemetry, and also knows a thing or two about radio astronomy. Maybe physics, too." Carl sheepishly raised his hand to wave at Gene, who couldn't shake the strange feeling. "Hello." "Have we met?" "Not that I'm aware of, no. Perhaps in a previous life?" He chuckled. "Gene, Carl here is a fresh graduate from one of those schools a bit up the river from yours. You might say we plucked him right out of your back yard." Chris grinned. "Now, I want you two to get to know each other, become like one mind. Ok?" He turned to leave, motioning Carl to sit, but stopped at the door. "Oh, one last thing. That Duna mission? With the lander for Ike? That's off the table." "What? Why?" "Senate's orders. They didn't offer any more details, just said if it's an issue to take it up with the Senator. Ok?" A loud noise outside caught Gene's attention and Chris was gone when he glanced back. He made his way to a small cabinet on the wall where he kept the good drinks, offered a glass to Carl, and watched as the "Mother of Necessity" rolled loudly away from the hanger and off into history. A new age had arrived at the Cape. Planetary Pinball Confusingly, many of these launch contracts place satellites into orbits that intersect with that of the Mün, and a few have the periapsis of the orbit just barely skimming the atmosphere of Kerbin. Errors from timewarp and just common interactions with the orbiting bodies meant more than a few of the CCS satellites were eventually "cast out" beyond the orbit of Kerbin. The first to be ejected was the first to launch - CCS-02 - which, following a chance encounter with the Mün, found itself on an orbit that intersected that of Eve. A small course correction set up the intercept, and CCS-02 became the first craft to enter Eve's sphere of influence. A quick aerobraking pass left the CCS-02 in a highly eccentric orbit around the big purple mistress, In something a bit over a 10 day orbit. Next up was the CCS-15 with its Goo experiments. It was lost due to an unobserved impact with the Mün. After that the little CCS probes declared some sort of mass exodus of the Kerbin system and set out into the void. I don't recall the exact order of events, so I'll run through the list in order of launch. The CCS-06 joined the CCS-02 around Eve a half year later. Following the usual aerocapture and orbital adjustment, it was moved out to Gilly and became the first object to orbit that tiny moon. CCS-08 was ejected into interplanetary space where it remains today, as it lacks the fuel required to reach any meaningful orbits. Finally, Jeb's CCS-16 probe encountered the Mün and was ejected into a higher orbit that nearly intersected Duna. It was a possibility the FDO had considered when the mission was in progress, but he could never manage to get the message across to Gene and the others. The little probe, being operated by Jeb at whatever remote base he had set up for himself, made the course corrections required to be captured in Duna orbit. Some further tweaks set up a partial gravity capture with Ike and the final aerocapture with Duna. And then several münths it simply disappeared, believed to have been lost to either Ike or Duna. Yet no one could be quite certain.... Ion Test Article 1 Jool Arrival Year 5 day [many] - Joolian System Which leaves us with the ITA-01. It arrived in the Jool system several years after its launch and set about visiting the three important moons. Starting with Laythe. The vagaries of the KSP physics engine (or perhaps inaccuracies in the predictions of the kerbals at KSC) resulted in a slightly different approach to the system than originally intended. Laythe would still be used for the gravity capture, followed shortly by an encounter with Tylo that would seal the deal. That resulted in a second encounter with Laythe on the second orbit that would allow for further "Fun with Gravity." All that was set up using less than 40m/s of sweet, sweet ∆v just after entering the Joolian system. The first flyby of Laythe provided a decent view of the smaller of the two ever-present storms. That was followed shortly after by a fly-by of the not-so-stormy Tylo. The extreme Joolian apoapsis also included a not-very-close flyby of Pol. The ITA never entered the small speck's SOI, but got close enough for a photograph. Can you see it? It's the small 14-pixel-wide speck on the lower left. I think. The second encounter with Laythe (not shown) allowed the ITA-1 to lower its periapsis down far enough that it could collect "Near Jool" science, which was nice. It was also close enough for a small bit o the green to reflect off the probe, thanks to the Planet Shine mod. Now it was decision time. No matter what, a burn would be needed to pull the probe up from its eventual fatal dance with Laythe. The ITA-1 had more than enough oomph to reach every moon in the system, but I wanted to see if I could set up an encounter with Tylo using the absolute minimum amount of Xenon expended. So I set up a third encounter with Laythe and a second with Tylo to pull the orbit up to that of Vall. The third encounter with Laythe gives us a nice view of the other superstorm that's raging on the small watery moon. The second encounter with Tylo gives us a nice view of some more craters, none of them with mysterious glowing white spots. So that leaves Vall and the final disposition of the ITA-1. (Nobody cares about Bop.) After some review, I decided to use Vall to boost the ITA's final orbit up high enough that it could circularize into a roughly 1-Kerbin-Year orbit around Jool. I had also considered using Vall+Tylo to eject the ITA-1 back into the lower solar system, perhaps even returning to Kerbin, but decided against it. Vall is an interesting little world, with a nice, believable color scheme and some interesting looking terrain. Even from orbit Vall makes for an intriguing target, and one I will very likely return to in the near future. Just not today. No, today all I need form Vall is a boost into high-Joolian orbit so I can bring this episode of "Fun with Gravity" to a close. Vall happily obliged. With that, and a short burn of its Ion drive at apoapsis, the journey of the little ITA-1 was complete. Kraken's Harvest Duna Approach Year 78 day 421 "That probe of mine wasn't the only mission we sent to Duna, but boy did I ever get in trouble over it. After the First KSA was dissolved it was a good long while before another came along that could reach Duna. A probe here, a mapsat there. One year there was a flood of ships, both from the KSA and the CCHR." Jeb took another sip of whatever he was drinking and leaned forward in his chair. By now half the crew of the Harvest had gathered to listen as Jeb, Bill and even Bob wove their yarn about the old days. "Funny thing is, none of them ever reported back. Just as soon as they'd enter orbit..." A loud alarm interrupted Jeb mid-sentence. The glance he gave Meldo sent the young kerbal scurrying off to the nearest terminal. "... They'd disappear." Meldo clacked at the keyboard then sighed visibly when the message appeared. "Story time's over folks. Duna is right ahead. Time to prep for the capture burn." "About time" Bob interjected. "I was starting to wonder if we'd ever get Jeb to shut up."

I've always imagined Eve to be more like Ray Bradbury's Venus than either of those options - constantly raining. Rain that bleaches out everything and numbs down to the core. Perpetual rain. Steaming rain. Purple... Rain.

Thanks! Good luck with the rebuild! I've not actually tried to load this in the newer versions of KSP, especially since all the wing parts and such changed. Pretty sure there's not an easy way to make those engine fins with the current parts. Just a really old design. Most of the parts were taken up either with spacing things to my taste or for the RCS system. These days I could cut out 90% of the RCS stuff and just replace it with heavier Vernors or the like, and spacing parts apart is much, much easier using the offset tool.

That's what I think it actually is - meant more for large partners than everyday Joes. Really need to see more details from Google regarding the uploader side of things before I light fires and turnover dumpsters. As for the subscriber side? I think YouTube (as it currently is) is long overdue for exactly that feature. Even with the 55% "processing fee" taken by El Goog, I'm more comfortable with them handling subscription money than I am with direct donations to random foreign nationals and folks unknown. (Such as the age-old PayPal donations some channels used to accept.... I don't really have an opinion on Patreon being used by YouTubers.) Depending on how you stack the numbers, channel subs or account follows, I either have 20-some-odd subscribers (19 of which I think are bots) or 7700+ followers (probably a third of which are Russians or bots or maybe even Russian bots). My channel is unimportant, but my Google+ account might be over whatever "common folk" threshold they have. Still in the "not that popular" camp, especially since I've been actively avoiding G+ for a couple years now, but algorithms don't always care. If I share something on G+ it can reach a not insignificant number of folks, several of which are in the "big guys" ballpark. Exactly the sort of thing their billing robots might look for. What I'm more curious about is whether this move (in which actual money from subscribers is changing hands) will criminalize the use of Ad blockers. I _think_ you could already argue that some of the things Ad blockers do are theft under current laws (though insignificant enough to not pursue), but establishing two classes of YouTube users - those with ads and those without - might mean using an Ad blocker is considered escalating access to a remote computer system that is engaged in interstate commerce - ie: a CFAA violation. If so, I'd probably just end up blacklisting YouTube on my PCs (which I try to keep clean) and only watch it through tablet, smartphone, set-top box or TV-dongle apps. [Yeah, I'm a little paranoid. Comes with the territory.]

Yep, and that's the killer for me if it's true (and it seems to be). Secondary income is expressly prohibited by my current employment agreement, so if I'm given a choice between being forced to monetize my uploads or making them all private-only? They're gone. Not that I upload much of anything (and nothing KSP related), but that'll change from "a little" to "nothing ever again" starting with this program. I'm still waiting for the official email from YouTube before I grab my pitchfork though.

Now this is just right cool. Have some magic internet points!

It's made out of the same stuff they occasionally serve in our cafeteria at work.

Thanks! There will definitely be more of the Hydra in the future, probably well after KSP v1.0 hits, but I plan for that to be one of the more important cogs in a large system I'm designing. More on that much, much later. Thanks! Except for those annoying NREs.... I'm strongly considering launching the "full" version of the craft I have in the VAB and HyperEdit-ing into place, just to get past whatever annoying docking port bug I've discovered. I'm not convinced that will get around the issue though. We'll see. It's pretty heavy on the part count, so using it as any sort of busy orbital station would be painful. Soon! I think I've finally got the world under control now, and should be back on track with this either tonight (overly optimistic?) or tomorrow. Then it's back... to the future! Or something.

Interesting. Of course we're about 28 versions and half a century behind the one linked (assuming the current manual is for the current version), so it's unlikely it'd work for me _at_ work if it's something recently fixed. Scuttlebutt was Oracle only has a handful of maintenance devs on the VBox project now, so who knows if they've got the right personell to ever pull that out of "Experimental." I might just try that at home some weekend.

Wait. Are you no longer a "Grumpy Space Hippy"? [switches to a non-mobile view...] Flight Director? Sounds about the same to me.....

I can confirm this is the case for VirtualBox running a guest GNU/Linux system on my Win7 box at work. The hardware (a decent AMD card from a couple years back) is only exposed as an "InnoTek GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter." And the 2D acceleration only works for Windows guest systems. YMMV. Parallels for Mac is the greatest thing since sliced bread. As far as I could tell it provided direct hardware access to the guest, and its hardware pass-through worked just as well for Ubuntu as it did for Win7. VMWare's solution was equally capable when I last used it (a version or two ago). Until I finally caved and bought a new Windows box to game on, I played graphics-heavy games through one of those two via Windows as a guest on OS-X. That doesn't help the OP much, though. And running KSP on Linux isn't a panacea - there are still oddities and minor quirks just like there are on Windows. But the only way to figure out if it works for you at all is to try it. Just remember us and report back when it works out.

Glad I'm not the only one that saw weird biomes on Duna. I didn't have a rover with me so I couldn't wander around to check, but I was rather confused when I landed in some places that was clearly "Highlands" (based on the biome map) and ended up with "Midlands". As I understand it there's also a weird "Craters" biome on Duna that isn't anywhere useful. (Are there even any craters on Duna?)

Finally getting caught up on things. Gotta say, the previous update with the video was quite good. The video was improved by having read the mission report ahead of time, so I'm wondering if it stands as well on its own. Does kind of raise the point that recovering craft far, far away from KSC should maybe (maybe?) have some very steep impact in the early game. Such as a major rep hit or 0% recovery funds. Then again, as we've both discovered, the early game is really a slog. The tech tree and the bizarro upgrade costs don't really make "fun" sense. And I've got to agree with Ten Key there - in my experience they're just not as much fun to write. Part of the reason I tend to condense those types of missions into a few smaller updates (or skip them entirely - most of my parts tests never make an update). That's something I lost track of doing with the sounding rockets. Your artillery decouplers did give me a chuckle. Definitely prefer the inline images, but you've gotta go with what works for you. Ditto. And your photoshopped image reminds me of the two giant hurricanes I've got going on Laythe.... I think one of them was Hurricane Ike and the other Typhoon Haiwan, photoshopped/Gimp'd into the cloud layer for EVE. Makes the little moon look a bit more menacing.

Man, PPTS. I still can't get behind that... thing. Doesn't appeal to me as an engineer or a space geek. Just doesn't "ring" right, y'know? Nothing you've done wrong of course (my issue is with the real thing), it's just an odd duck. Your new Mir stuff though? That looks sharp. Same with the Soyuz IVA. Keep it up!

This thread is still going? Time for an update! 00: 0.18.3: First: Still dead in the DEMO. 01: 0.19.1: Second: Rescued from orbit in 0.24 "Save Unification." 02: 0.20: Third: Still safe on Kerbin after two successful missions. 03: 0.20.1: Fourth: Rescued from Münar orbit in 0.24 "Save Unification." 04: 0.20.2: Fifth: Still in LKO, frozen and dead, forever orbiting 190kms above his home. (Lost in Space while on EVA.) 05-07: 0.20.2: Sixth, Seventh and Eighth are back safe on Kerbin after countless successful missions. 08-10: 0.20.2-0.21.1: Ninth: Returned from Duna during the events of Null Cycles. 11: 0.22: Tenth: Killed after impacting the ocean following 0.22 "EVA while flying" surprise changes. 12: 0.22: Eleventh: Safe on Kerbin following many successful missions. 13-15: 0.23: There is no Jeb. 16-17: 0.23.5: Twelfth and Thirteenth: Safe on Kerbin following many successful missions. 18-21, 23: 0.24-0.90 Currently bound for Duna aboard the Kraken's Harvest, part of Ad Lunam. 22: 0.25: No kerbals left Kerbin during this save. Jeb angrily left the program, mad because "It's called KERBAL Space Program, not ROBOT Space Program!" 24: 0.90 RSS Jebediah perished following a failed reentry in RSS (parachutes burned off).

I'd like to see a full-fledged Buzz Aldrin RIS/SPM with KSP mix, not the half-baked, not-quite-BARIS system KSP has now. One where you have to hire and train your crews and flight controllers, and maybe one where you have part-reliability determined by your engineering corps. (That might be a bit much to ask at the moment, though.)

Dealing with people is ok (even the overly-excited ones). But the bots? Too many &@*#?!&+#!! bots these days for me to ever want to be a moderator on a popular site. Just rejecting the 30-50 or so bots a week that try to join one of the Facebook groups I help with is frustrating enough. (And I won't even get into how insane OneList/Yahoo!Groups were back when they were still usable and before they added some better mod tools.) So I'm with Norpo - I'd just step down. After I shadow-banned everybody.

Thanks! No idea when the next update will be.... I've been pulling my hair out over work and now my home internet's decided to play an April Fool's prank on me and go kaput (which I shouldn't have joked about yesterday....). Busy this weekend with model train stuff and friends in town, so maybe next week? 'Course I flew most of this stuff back in late February so it's really just down to editing. Just one last Origins post and then we're off to Duna. Also: I'll try to avoid using my new-found 1-day "April 1st" moderator powers to move this thread to the Announcements section or pinning it. (Though frankly I prefer the green name, but don't envy the real mods. It's enough of a headache moderating the model train groups I'm part of. Crazy bots.) Edit: Bah. April Fools Day is over, back to the normal color name. Cheers.

I like the idea of recruitment costs, but since I run with well over 100 kerbals already.... It's like the rent just went up. Way up. The game was already a grind, now even moreso. Think I might just go back to full-time sandbox.

There's a Kessler Syndrome contract? o.O (Looks cool regardless.)

They can all go through pipes, though I'm not sure how well vim responds to stream redirection. No real symbolism intended, just wanted simple names for the sounding rockets that had nothing to do with anything else I've ever launched. And grep, sed, awk, vim, emacs, and bash are the tools I use day-in and day-out. (Well, not so much awk and emacs.)