Cydonian Monk

Somebody that was shot in the face and lived, went on the be a prominent engineer under Korolev, all while NOT being a card-carrying member of the Communist Party? Oh, and also lead the Soviet's space station design group? I'd say Konstantin Feoktistov was probably "BadS=Y" enough to wear loafers into space. (Yes, he probably changed shoes after landing. Still....)

The very first probe I sent to Duna had an incredibly over-engineered transfer stage. I ended up landing that stage on Ike (becoming one of only three things I've ever landed on Ike). No pictures of that, but I had a similar situation at Dres last year when I sent a probe to every planet/moon. The transfer stage for the lander had more than enough ∆v to make landfall, and became the first object I ever landed on Dres: I only remember those because they were the "firsts".... Pioneer Base has to be the most complex thing I've ever landed (in pieces) and assembled in place:

What are my thoughts? It'll never happen and the project will be scrapped. But saying "well, we _could_ get the whole asteroid if we had money but instead we can only take a few bits out of the rubble pile" might be a good way to embarrass Congress in to giving them more money.

Mint Ice Cream. Squad should work out a partnership with HEB or Ben & Jerry's for "Minty Minmus" mint ice cream or somesuch. Meh. I've got no beef with the microcline. It makes good mechanisms for traps and blocks for lining the aquaducts and wells. It's the orthoclase that needs to go! Ugly yellow stuff....

Of course it'll take off. The propulsion unit is operating against the fluid (air), not against the ground. Besides - if the conveyor was moving fast enough it would eventually cause its own changes to the fluid (air), imparting motion that would help the aircraft. Ha! That's a bit like saying it's faster to drive from Houston to Dallas than it is to take a plane because the plane can't fit through the underpasses on the interstate.

Here in Houston it's hard to walk around in your own house without bumping into somebody that worked for Enron. Looks of distaste? Hardly. Unless you're also a Cowboys fan, in which case you should probably move back to South Oklahoma. If anybody at a party takes offense because of who you worked for a decade ago then it's a pretty dreadful party.

Absolutely. I didn't spell it out above, but that's specifically what I meant when I said their business model disagrees with thousands of years of standard practices. And to charge farmers at neighboring farms for cross-pollinated or windblown seeds is simply abuse. (Though, after reviewing that high-profile case a few years back, I was left with the distinct impression that Monsanto was in the right and the accused farmer _was_ actually being deceptive. Sorry, I don't recall the specifics of why. That should be an exception though and not the rule.) Edit ^^ Ninjas

Same here. The manager of the grocery store I worked at in college was a scout of some sort in Vietnam. (To hear him tell it he was part of a sniper/spotter team.) He was up in a tree when they got Orange'd, and managed to cover everything except his right leg. Somehow, and I'll never understand how, he got to keep his leg. It wasn't anything more than skin, bone, and chemical burns, about 1/3rd the size of his left leg. It eventually killed him. Not many people draw a distinction between Monsanto the Rainbow Defoliant chemical giant and Monsanto the Agricultural entity. They see the name, Monsanto, and remember the horrors that came out of the late 1960s. Sometimes it's better to ditch a name or bury it under mergers. And believe me - the folks that protested those other companies haven't forgotten about them. Neither have the anti-Carbiders that went nuts in my hometown after Bhopal. (Because they made, and still make, MIC there. Of course now it's part of Bayer AG... and the rest of Union Carbide is owned by the enemy Dow.) They may not march around with signs and pitchforks anymore, but they'll still curse at you in public. I do wonder - does broccoli count as a GMO food? While there wasn't any chromosonal-level modification being done (as with some GMOs) it was certainly the result of selective breeding. (Which Wikipedia counts as genetic manipulation.) Would "Organic Broccoli" then be an impossible juxtaposition?

I've never really been a fan of the current Google calendar offerings, but that's another discussion. You sound like you're on the right track, just need a few refinements. You might try one of the other agenda formats, such as one which drops the blank notes page and gives you more room for each day. (Lined pages are important.) If that's not a high enough level of detail you might look into the DayTimer month-by-month calendars that give each day its own page with an overview for the week. We lived by those at work in the pre-Outlook days, though they're a bit on the large size and make planning a bit more cumbersome for future months. We had a checkbox/priority system that I've long forgotten the exact details of, but before each line we'd either have a square or a circle. One had a higher priority than the other, and there may have been triangles involved too. When the task was complete we'd cross out or fill in the box/circle. That's something I still use on notes - Circles for tasks, Boxes for questions that need answers. Dashes for comments or reminders. Alternatively you could use different shapes to identify different entities related to the entry.

My high school (in 1993) gave every student a pocket agenda/calendar. We were trained to use them. Forced to use them. You kind of needed to since we had a weird "Mod" modular scheduling system where classes could be of arbitrary lengths and start at arbitrary times. Imagine every kid in your high school carrying around an identical little black book (though in our case it was burgandy). It became a discipline supported by peer pressure. A ritual. A religion. Your calendar was never far from your reach. You probably even slept with the thing. This was a smart move, as it developed our discipline for scheduling and tracking at an early young-adult age. These days I just use the calendar on my phone and have stopped carrying the agenda, which somehow diminishes it. But still that discipline is there. In your spot I'd do two things: Go out and buy another little pocket calendar. One small enough to carry with you. A blank slate. Then buy a really nice ink pen, one that is also small, but won't leak and can stand up to the rigors of a busy life. Like a space pen or a bullet pen. The pen needs to be something cool to use. A reward. An incentive to write down things in your calendar. A psychological trick. Or, you could just use the calendar app on a smartphone, but I'm not sure how to incentivize something like that. The key is to make it a habit. A good habit that has tangible rewards. Not a chore. It's a hard thing to start doing from scratch, and it'll take time to become a habit, but when you're crazy-busy it's a great way to stay sane.

Roundup. And Roundup-resistant crops. Sure, Monsanto isn't the only "evil" in the world, but they've managed to be one of the most visible. And one that's very aggressive in protecting their "IP." They've rubbed many farmers the wrong way (because the Monsanto business model disagrees with several thousand years of standard practices), and seemingly try to suppress the negative press through "crop blackmail." I also suspect much of their negative attention is carried over from the Vietnam War. Agent Orange. That said, I'm old enough to recognize Monsanto is just a corporation, and is just out to protect its income. That income feeds the people that work for them, the vast majority of which aren't evil incarnate and are just normal, common, hard-working people. And "GMO" and the roundup-resistent naturally-occuring-plants-that-shouldn't-be-patentable are actually quite beneficial.

I can certainly understand that. We all have our preferences.

Thanks! I really need to catch up on reading other mission reports and AARs at some point, your's included. Perhaps this weekend while I half-watch the NCAA basketball tourney?... (Because I know my team probably loses on Thursday....) I've missed quite a few that have started or returned here in the last few weeks - it's the busy season again. Agreed on the somewhat confusing multi-launch site business, and that was part of the reason why I went back and added a pre-script header to every launch (and have stuck with it since). Things in the future... say, late April or early May post-KSP-v1.0-Release..., will be heading more out into the void, so where whatever gets launched from will be less important. It was also the reason I finally sat down and drew out the map, the country-less and simplified version of which used to be in the second post but seems to have disappeared. Hmm. Guess I need to go fix that. I think the sounding rockets could use a bit of a spray from a can of dull-cote or flat-finish, and do find them a bit too bright and cheerful. (Or maybe I just have too many ancestors from miserable places. ) In RoverDude's defense the real things tend to be bright and colorful for spotting purposes (See: Black Brant on the Wikipedia page as an example), so I guess there's good precedent. I'd still prefer to see something more in line with what's on display in front of the NASA IV&V facility in Fairmont, WV, as seen here: https://twitter.com/NASAIVV/status/565914581433090048 I've certainly gotten more use out of the sounding rockets than I expected.

Munlit Silence Course Correction Burn Year 78 day 239 - Somewhere between Dres and Jool Shepgee made sure he was strapped in and that his helmet was secured before he activated the RCS thrusters. The Munlit Silence had been rotating now for the better part of a year, and it was hard to tell what would float free once they were back in freefall. Not that freefall would last longer than it took to align for the course-correction burn, but better safe than sorry. The post-it note he'd placed over the "Kill Rot" button flaked off at his touch and landed on the faceplate of his helmet. He held his breath and pressed the button. "Wait!" Just then Haloly crawled out of the access tube, but it was too late. The burn from the reaction control system sent him flying from the ladder and tumbling about the cabin. "Ow!" A few seconds later he floated past Shepgee, grabbed a hold of free seat and strapped in. Shepgee gave him a sour glance. "Oly, did you not hear the warning?" "Cheese! Ike! We've got to go to Ike! There's cheese on Ike!" What? Shepgee punched the coordinates for the midcourse correction into the flight computer and hit the commit button. The ship rattled as the computer turned to the new heading. "There's no cheese on Ike. We're going to Jool, not Ike. Ike's behind us." "I know that. Look." Haloly passed him a wrinkled up sheet of paper. "I've worked out a plan for getting there from Jool." He looked over the paper, searching for an explanation or even a hint of sanity. Finding nothing he handed it back to Haloly and gave the main engines a test burn. "What's on Ike that M&M can't handle?" "Wildfire! The Ike Contingency! If I'm right, M&M won't be allowed to land on Ike. Something, everything, will go wrong as soon as they head for Ike. So we'll have to go there. Ourselves." "Hmm." Shepgee glanced out of the window at the stationary sky. After spinning for so long the unmoving stars seemed strange to him. Almost enough to make him dizzy. Or maybe that was just a product of Haloly's insanity. He shook off the feeling and looked Haloly straight in the eyes. "Is there anything I need to do now?" "No. The course change happens at Jool." "Good. That'll give me some time to think about what to do." With you, he thought but didn't say. Shepgee watched as the node counter ticked down to the target then gradually throttled up to 100%. The ship shuddered and recently-dislodged debris fell to the the back walls of the cabin. This was the first real stress placed on their ship since leaving Kerbin Even if they made the correction now to skip Jool and go to Duna it would be at least another year or two before they got there. Sure, Haloly was usually spouting some sort of insanity, but cheese? Diverting from a return to Kerbin to one for Duna? That was a bit much. No, there had to be some other reason. The paranoid parts of Shepgee's brain began to tingle, well trained by reading "Secret Agent Kirrim" novels. He glanced over at Haloly as the ship was throttling down from the burn. There he was, just smiling at the void as the Munlit Silence ejected superheated fuels, abnormally quiet. Shepgee armed the RCS system to spin the Silence back up to its normal rotation. What could Haloly know that he didn't? What was crawling through that strange mind of his? How did he really get to space all those years ago? Ad Lunam - Origins - Upgrades Mother of Necessity Survey Expedition Year 1 day 342 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 A few münths later and Jebediah was returned safe to Cape Kerbal. The CCHR had paraded him around the country in celebration of his accomplishments, recognizing him as a "Hero of Kerbin." They made sure to show him the devastation the meteor strike had levied on their country. Mention was made repeatedly of the Unified Government's refusal to assist the CCHR in its time of crisis. "They will only help us if we join them. Give up our sovereignty" he was told. "We have something else in mind." That was when they showed him the launch complex, well hidden in the mountains north of the spreading desert. "It is our second." When Jeb asked about the first his question was met with tears and lamentations. "At the center of a smoking crater." The news he brought back to DEMO and the Unified Government alarmed everyone. The never-ending desert, the burning wasteland, the "enemy's" new space program. So, after a long investigation of just what Jebediah had seen and said while held as a "guest" of the CCHR, an expedition was arranged for him and Bob. An expedition for Bob to see if the deserts were spreading beyond the mountains of K2, and to determine if Jebediah was still trustworthy. There were six survey points in two clusters around K2: 3 to the north, and 3 in the pass. A few days after Jeb's second release they set out aboard the Mother of Necessity. The plan was for Jeb to land near the center of each of the cluster of three survey points, have Bob get out and make observations, then fly to the next cluster. They headed for the northernmost set of surveys first: Kenfurt's Boundary. In ancient times this boundary had been established by a Kerbal chieftain, Kenfurt Kerman, to resolve a dispute between a Shepherd and a Farmer. Now it was little more than a memory and a line on a map. Once they were on the ground both Jeb and Bob jumped out, Bob making some observations about the grass, the presence of any sand (they found none), and the general ridiculousness of this mission. "I'm not sure I see the point in this, Jeb. It'd be more useful if I could take surface samples. Apparently that's not allowed. Something about paid-DLC-ransomware stuff and needing to spend more money to be able to pick up rocks. Again. Did you ever pick up rocks when you were a kid Jeb? Remember anything about needing to pay money to your parents first?" Jeb just shrugged and climbed back into his plane. "Hmm. Guess you're not in the mood to chat." Instead of taking off again, Jeb just taxied the plane around to the other two observation points. Only once Bob had his fill of data did they take to the air again. Next stop: Mora's Prize. On the way Jeb related the story of his time in the new desert to Bob. Of how the CCHR, the "enemy" of the Unified Government, only wanted to show him around the devastated lands. How they made a point of showing him the suffering caused by their governments's refusal to help. And then he went into the tales of the stars. How many there were, how vibrant they seemed from orbit, the endless and vast ocean of unblinking stars that could be seen from the night side of Kerbin. Bob was more concerned that Jeb was paying no attention to the large mountains that had just passed by on either side of the plane. A few moments later and they were there. No living kerbals remembered what Mora's Prize was, but a few educated scholars were keen to speculate on the very old name. Perhaps these were once rich, lush farmlands, prized by the ancients? Or maybe this area had been won in a raffle by some lucky Kerbal? No idea. Jeb looked around for a landing spot. "I don't know, Bob. There's an awful lot of trees. Maybe in that gully up ahead? Hmm." He brought the plane in low, skimming over the tops of more than a few trees before he found an open spot. This time Bob would have to walk, as there was no way Jeb could taxi the plane through the "dense" forest of Mora's Prize. And so Bob walked. And Bob ran. And Bob made useless observations about the lack of ash and sand. Jeb wasted no time once Bob was back in the plane, setting course for KSC. The sun was getting low in the western sky and he wanted to land before darkness fell on the Cape. "We've got to get you trained for your flight" he said to Bob. "You're up next, right?" Bob shook his head. "No, they're letting Bill go up next. They wanted me on this trip for some reason, so Bill got the Kestrel 2. After your landing," Bob was staring out the window at the grasslands west of KSC, "they weren't sure if we should fly again until they could add a remote-control to the ships." "And?" Bob shrugged. "Bill came up with one, but it's too heavy. So for now we get to fly." "Just not me." Bob looked right at him, unsure what to say. "You should've listened to Gene. He's not a kerbal you want to be on the bad side of. At this rate you may never fly again." "Mmm-hmm. We'll see about that." In the end their expedition proved little. The sand and ash that had claimed the Western Continent and the west parts of their landmass had not crossed the mountain range, though many considered a year too short of a time frame for such rapid desertification to have occurred. Sure, it was getting a bit cold, and it was downright chilly up in the pass, but that was to be expected. And as for Jeb? Well, maybe he was a little bit Red afterall. Kestrel 2 Launch Year 1 day 353 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 The grounds and launchpad crews had to practically drag Bill out of his workshop and throw him into the Kestrel 2. It wasn't that he didn't want to fly, but he was in the middle of fighting with a problem that had plagued him since they moved to Cape Kerbal: How to make the sounding rockets useful again. There was no debate that the small rockets were more efficient for atmospheric testing than a full-sized K-4, Kestrel or equivalent, but the thicker air and the heavier "pre-release" components in the sounding rockets made it difficult for them to reach the higher atmosphere with a meaningful payload. He was still running over numbers and ideas in his head when the second stage of the Kestrel 2 cut out and placed him in freefall. And that was when it hit him: He needed to develop a new type of engine for the sounding rockets if he wanted to use liquid fuels. Of course! He continued to ignore the fact that he was in space, surrounded by a vast ocean of nothingness and Jeb's endless stars, and set about scratching out ideas on his checklist. And then he happened to glance out of the window. So Jeb hadn't been kidding about the glow. Or the noxious yellow clouds. Or the incredible mass of water vapor that was still rising from the impact site nearly a year later. The glow of the still-molten core of the impact was dim and barely visible during the day, but Bill was sure he could see active lava flows. He wondered if the impact had punched through Kerbin's crust, though he doubted anything would be dense enough to do that. He took as many pictures as he could of the new crater and the desert beyond and relayed his findings back to mission control once he was back in radio contact. After the next orbit it was time to return home. Bill spent most of it perfecting his new small engine design, though he did make a few more observations of the impact site before the retro burn. He almost skipped a checklist item that read "expose science experiments" on account of all the random scratches and notes some lunatic had scribbled onto it, but remembered at the last second. He splashed down safely just off the coast of KSC (like a good little kerbonaut), though most of the science experiments were destroyed by the impact with the water. Or perhaps they had burned up on reentry. Bill spent all of 5 minutes in the post-flight debriefing and press conference before he ran back to his lab to commit his ideas to paper. The press could wait. [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]Kestrel 2[/td][td]Bill[/td][td]1h15m0s[/td][td]13.4[/td][td]11,195[/td][td]6,151[/td][td]10.9[/td][/tr] [/table] Year 1 day 364 - Gene's Office, Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 "Ike? The moon of Duna?" Gene read the contract again to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He looked up from the pages to Mortimer, the aged accountant sitting on the opposite side of his desk. "Yes. I thought it strange too, though as you can see the contract has no expiration date and came with a generous advance." "Ike. Why Ike? We haven't even sent a rocket to our own Mün, let alone another planet." He flipped through the pages of the contract to find a stamp and a signature on the last page. "Wait, Chris accepted this already? Doesn't he realize there's a limit of 2 active contracts?" "As it so happens," Mortimer steepled his hands, drumming the tips of his fingers against each other, "the funds received from the advances of our 2 current contracts were enough to upgrade the Mission Control building. As a result we have hired more clerks and accountants and can now keep several more active contracts." A wrinkled and creepy smile wormed its way across Mortimer's face. Gene wasn't sure if he should be happy or concerned. Vim Sounding Rocket Tests Year 1 day 365 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 Vim represented the first meaningful upgrade to Bill's sounding rockets in quite some time. While not as cheap as the solid-fueled equivalents, these new rockets could achieve more by their modularity and use of a more common fuel. He might have been in a bit too much of a hurry to test his design, as shortly after take-off Vim 1 pitched over southwards and met an untimely fate. A quick trip back to the workshop and he emerged with Vim 2 - this time with more fins for spin-stabilization. The Vim 2 exhibited a significantly improved performance over the Vim 1 and the Awk, reaching an altitude of 7.5km and falling for recovery on the KSC grounds less than 3km from the launchpad. So Bill repeated the tests as he had with the early Awks to make certain the one successful flight was not just a fluke. It wasn't. Maybe he was on to something here. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Apo[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Vim 1[/td][td]0m17s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1307[/td][td]120[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Vim 2[/td][td]4m32s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1367[/td][td]7,533[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Vim 3[/td][td]4m33s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1368[/td][td]7,444[/td][td]0.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Vim 4[/td][td]4m32s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1368[/td][td]7,396[/td][td]0.0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Vim 5[/td][td]4m35s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1368[/td][td]7,440[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr] [/table] Bash-Vim Sounding Rocket Tests Year 1 day 371 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 The purpose of the larger sounding rockets was to expose test equipment to the upper atmosphere. To reach such heights they would need a multi-stage rocket with a booster capable of lifting both itself and the upper stages. Except there was only one possible engine for a 625mm booster: The Rockomax 48-7S. Bill ran the numbers for the 48-7S and came up with a few possible options. He was tempted to develop his own 625mm engine as he had with the smaller one, but was reminded by the legal department of certain very enforceable patents held by the Rockomax Consortium. So the 48-7S it was. The low-thrust and high-mass of the 625mm stage required for feeding the 48-7S severely limited its use in this design. As a result the Bash-Vim 1 was unable to achieve sufficient spin on launch, and pitched over to the North. The flight was terminated when it became clear it would not be recoverable. The engineering package was later retrieved from North Bay. An extra set of spin-stabilizing fins were added for the Bash-Vim 2, with less than stellar results. Back to the drawing board. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Apo[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Bash-Vim 1[/td][td]3m13s[/td][td]2.4[/td][td]1849[/td][td]2,315[/td][td]2.4[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Bash-Vim 2[/td][td]0m52s[/td][td]2.4[/td][td]1905[/td][td]1,231[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr] [/table] Grep-Vim Sounding Rocket Tests Year 1 day 371 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 Why use a liquid rocket when you have a solid that is already proven and known to work? That's exactly what happened with the Grep-Vim. The Vim upper stage was retained, this time lofted atop an old Grep. These proved to be a great deal more reliable and successful than the previous attempts, but still not enough to reach the upper layers of the atmosphere. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Apo[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Grep-Vim 1[/td][td]5m20s[/td][td]2.6[/td][td]1549[/td][td]12,582[/td][td]0[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Grep-Vim 2[/td][td]5m39s[/td][td]2.6[/td][td]1564[/td][td]14,677[/td][td]2.4[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Grep-Vim 3[/td][td]5m49s[/td][td]2.6[/td][td]1264[/td][td]15,185[/td][td]0[/td][/tr] [/table] Emacs 1 Flight Test Year 1 day 371 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 And thus was born the Emacs - A step backwards to a refined version of a previously failed project, featuring lots of extra experiments and gizmos all glommed on for good measure. There may have even been a kitchen sink involved. Bill hinted that it could only be controlled using special key sequences, sort of like secret handshakes, all so Bob couldn't launch it early. Of course it was a completely successful failure. Despite not reaching any altitude that could be described as "useful," the Emacs had a horizontal deviation of effectively 0. (Actually 20m.) It landed almost on top of the launch pad from where it originated. Its designer (Bill) credited its success to freedom and a self-documenting, extensible existence. The remarkable amount of space available in its cargo bay allowed the inclusion of a mysterious new device: The Black Magic Major Mode. Something most folks were just calling a "reaction wheel." The success of the Emacs came not from its complete failure to reach any reasonable altitude, but from its ability to prove it could lift a heavy payload on a common and extensible platform. Which meant it was perfect for the next phase of Bill's sounding rockets project. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Apo[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Emacs 1[/td][td]2m35s[/td][td]3.0[/td][td]2033[/td][td]6,627[/td][td]1.8[/td][/tr] [/table] Grep-Emacs-Vim (GEV) Sounding Rocket Tests Year 1 day 372-395 DEMO-18 The GEV, not to be confused with the GSA. This was a Vim riding atop an Emacs riding alongside many Greps. At this point it became obvious that Bill had lost his mind. Several of the other DEMO-project engineers confronted Bill about the rocket's seemingly non-aerodynamic side-booster design. "Aerodynamics?" Bill was heard to respond. "Why worry about aerodynamics when you can just apply more thrust?" By now the kerbals had mastered the use of expendable serial stages, but not so much radial stages. Bill found a way to rig vertical "Pyrotechnic Slicers" so as to cut off spent Grep stages once they were no longer needed. With the extra cargo capacity he was also able to rig a more sophisticated control computer, allowing side stages and core stages to be ignited after lift-off. The result was, well.... At first it was less than spectacular, for a multitude of reasons. First: The expanded cargo area was simply too large and too heavy for the Emacs-Vim stages. The parachute also deployed during the ascent, resulting in undefined behaviour at landing. So Bill went back to his workshop, ignored the unresolvable, refined the correctable, and came back a few days later with a new design. This one shattered records. Not very good records, admittedly, but records none-the-less. The second GEV reached a maximum altitude of 38kms, well above the now nearly-undetectable ash layer, and high enough to conduct upper-atmosphere science. More important was the rocket's agility, which would come in handy for the third GEV mission. The secret to the GEV-2 was that it included nearly everything in a much smaller package. Batteries, flight control, the Black Magic Major Mode (reaction wheel), and every experiment known to kerbals. No kitchen sink, but maybe on a future flight? But for now it was time to prepare for the third crewed flight of the Kestrel program. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Apo[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]GEV 1[/td][td]7m12s[/td][td]9.3[/td][td]5,093[/td][td]16,718[/td][td]7.2[/td][/tr] [tr][td]GEV 2[/td][td]7m42s[/td][td]9.1[/td][td]5,037[/td][td]38,232[/td][td]21.6[/td][/tr] [/table] Kestrel 3 Launch Year 1 day 395 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 Like Bill, Bob had to be dragged onto the Kestrel 3. Unlike Bill there was considerable kicking and screaming. So much so that a security guard felt the need to make sure the "pilot" of the Kestrel 3 wasn't actually the victim of a kidnapping. A few moments later and Bob was away. What they hadn't told Bob is that he was going to be the first kerbal to venture into the mysterious region known as "High Orbit." There was some speculation that radiation at such a high altitude could be lethal, so it was decided the best thing to do was send a scientist up and see if he came back alive. All of the fear and apprehension had left Bob by the time he reached apoapsis (along with a few bodily fluids). He seemed awestruck by the stars and the endless black, just as Jeb had been. Most of his time in orbit was spent matching the bright clouds of stars to the constellations of his youth. He was very reluctant to align for the deorbit burn after only going around once, but followed the instructions like a good little kerbal. He changed his mind when the capsule hit the atmosphere, but by then it was too late to go back. Bob landed safely a few kilometers west of KSC. He was shocked to learn that, for a few brief moments, he had flown higher and moved faster than any kerbal yet. This simple little farmer-turned-soldier-turned-scientist was now at the top of the record books. Even Bob had to smile at that. [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]Kestrel 3[/td][td]Bob[/td][td]0h47m0s[/td][td]13.4[/td][td]11,195[/td][td]3,501[/td][td]85.0[/td][/tr] [/table] Grep-Emacs-Vim 3 Launch Year 1 day 395 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 What they didn't tell Bob was his launch only happened because they wanted to measure the exhaust left behind by the Kestrel 3 using one of Bill's sounding rockets. Several different branches of the government were interested in the exact contents of rocket exhaust. Was it dangerous? How long did it take to dissipate? Could it have other uses? This mission aimed to find out. The GEV-3 was launched immediately following the Kestrel 3, this new breed of sounder quite capable of flying out over the ocean, taking a few readings, turning, and returning back to dry land. At last that was the plan. And that plan worked perfectly. The GEV-3 followed the Kestrel 3's ascent profile, ventured out over the ocean, took a few more readings, turned back towards land and came in for an explosive landing just west of KSC. The recovery crews had already boxed up the GEV-3 and its payload by the time Bob landed, 38 minutes later in the Kestrel 3. Mission accomplished. [table=class: grid, align: left] [tr] [td]Mission[/td] [td]Duration[/td] [td]Mass[/td] [td]Cost[/td] [td]Apo[/td] [td]Science[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]GEV 3[/td][td]6m34s[/td][td]9.1[/td][td]5,037[/td][td]19,843[/td][td]20.0[/td][/tr] [/table] Falcon 1 Launch Year 1 day 405 - Cape Kerbal DEMO-18 "Hey! Where's my Kestrel?" The pilot formerly known as Anny was visibly confused as he exited the launchpad taxi. His voice was booming across the feed in Mission Control as he argued with the pad technicians. "This isn't a Kestrel!" Gene gave Wernher a strange glance. "He's right, you know. Somebody probably should've told him about the reassignment." Wernher shrugged. "There was no time." "Look! I'm supposed to be getting on a Kestrel, not, well, whatever that thing is!" They could see Annie waving his (her?) arms angrily all the way from the launchpad. "Are those solid boosters? Are those even safe?" "Kid's got a point, Wernher. I don't know where you dug this, ah...." "Falcon." "... this Falcon up from, but I'm not convinced it meets any safety standards. In any country. On any planet." "We needed another craft to place a Kerbal into outer space, no? Above the magic 250km line? I admit this is an old design, something pulled from the very early days of DEMO, but it is perfectly safe." Except for that time it killed Jebediah, that is, and maybe Bill, but nobody remembered any of that. Even Jebediah seemed to have forgotten, and Wernher didn't see the point in bringing those old incidents up again. No, this little craft had been the first he had designed when he started out as a rocket builder 2 years before, and he wanted to see how well it flew now. "Ok, I'll take your word for it. CapCom?" Bill turned around to face Gene. "Yeah?" "Patch me directly through to Annie." Bill fiddled about with some cables on his console and eventually found a combination that resulted in a new series of red lights. He gave Gene a thumbs up. "Annie?" Annie was still arguing with the grounds crew and gesticulating towards the rocket, completely ignoring the radio. "Kerbonaut!" "Yeah?" "Look, we had a last minute change of plans. The Falcon is a perfectly capable craft..." "But I was supposed to go into orbit!" "And you will, just not today. Instead, today, you'll become only the second kerbal to go above 250km. How's that sound?" "What's the point of putting a pilot on a ship that just goes straight up and down? Bob got to go to orbit, and he's not even a pilot!" Gene cleared his throat. "Your second objective today is to test the new EVA suit in a true vacuum. Which also means you'll be the first kerbonaut to leave his spaceship while not on the ground. That's something even Jeb can't claim. So, are you ready to fly or not?" "Hello?" "I'll take that as a yes." [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]Falcon 1[/td][td]"Annie"[/td][td]0h13m24s[/td][td]20.3[/td][td]14,137[/td][td]1,179[/td][td]21.3[/td][/tr] [/table]

Bliss The sweet kiss of microgravity. The beauty of the endless void. The bright glow of your homeworld, far below. Bliss.

On a street corner in Kerbin City stands an old kerbal. Some call him Krazy Pete, most just ignore him. His two large sandwich boards are ragged with age, yet still legible. One side reads "The Reset is Nigh!" the other "The Cycles Are Upon Us!" His clothes seem a bit on the rough side, but who would expect any different? His hair is thin and disheveled, his eyes wild with bewilderment. He shows up every morning, buys a cup of coffee from Lengee or Billzer Kerman at the local diner, then spends the rest of his day preaching on the street corner. Flailing his arms in front of the non-believers. Screaming the truth into ears that have been plugged by complacency and contentment. Trying to get kerbals to listen to the good word. The true word. The only word. The Release is Imminent.

Oooh! So glad to see somebody picking this plugin up and giving it some love. I'd been patching the old plugin locally, just enough to keep it working, but gave up completely with the new SAS stuff (that I never really had time to sit down and figure out the APIs for). I'll definitely switch to using this if it works half as well as everybody is talking about.

Good point. Even with the insane densities of the planetary bodies in the Kerbol system, that shouldn't affect the behaviour of molecular CO2/H2O. I sense a market for a new line of exotic bottled waters.....

Hmm.... LotR mixed with Dune... a plane named Aragon.... The Aragornithopter simply must become a thing. Too bad the air on Duna is so thin - I could see an ornithopter working in the magic Kerbin soup, just not on Duna. I wonder if the ice on Duna is water ice or carbon-dioxide ice?

Today I finalized the design for my third-generation rotating Void Liners. Seats a maximum of 128, though it will be limited to a maximum of 60 kerbals in practice (for purposes of passenger comfort). Designed to be launched in fairing-sized pieces and assembled in orbit. They'll need to be stitched together with struts, though I'm undecided if I'll use KAS or just launch all the bits needed for the ship, dock them up, then HyperEdit in a version that already has the struts. Probably won't launch any more of these until KSP v1.0 happens, in case parts get nerfed or resized. I also tested some rotating station designs, but no photos of those yet. Too many phantom-forces and randomly exploding stations. Some of these SP+ size-3 parts just refuse to stay glued together....

Ah yes, that moment when you finally find a use for the Launch Escape System you spent so much time developing.

Very nice! That lab module definitely looks like it's begging for free-form "floating" IVAs or at the very least more seats.

That would be a good reason to release a mod under a permissive license - the only way the non-paying public will see it is if you fork it every 90 days and post the new fork as a new mod. Of course it'll have to have a new name to get around the auto-thread-merging bit, but modders are creative, right? Should be easy to come up with a new name 4 times a year. This may be a better solution for cleaning out old, unsupported mods than deleting SpacePort.

I think it's a wonderful idea. Even better would be if they could charge more for reading specific threads. DevNote Tuesday? That'll be $0.15 please. (Of course it'd still be delivered on a Wednesday, starting the week after next.)

And here I thought it was obvious. They're going to.... Release the Kraken! Though I'm still not sure what that has to do with the atmosphere. Maybe it's the year 1994 and a rogue planet passes between Kerbin and The Mün, taking half the atmosphere with it?