justidutch

I believe "idiocracy" is what you speak of!

They would come for the women, for the beer (in some countries), and the ski-boxing

My current career is in hard mode, all rewards are reduced to 40% from a normal game. I am currently about 3/4 of the way through filling up the tech tree, and have just implemented the science --> funds strategy at 60%. The conversion rewards aren't that great, but better than nothing I suppose. Once the tree is filled up I'll upgrade the admin building and put the strategy to 100%.

Built and tested a SSTO recoverable rocket to handle crew transfers from the ground to Kerbin Stayshun. It works, but somewhat unstable when the engines are firing, perhaps some tweaking of the gimbals and RCS is in order...

From what I understand, what you are saying is that "42" is as good an answer as any.

Mission Control gave the go-ahead to launch a ship to fulfil a Gilly-6 contract. Flybys of Gilly, Ike, Duna, Mün and Minmus, ending suborbital in Kerbin are on the menu. The engineers came up with this ship that will hopefully make it all the way without refuelling. This ship cost about $270,000, and the contract is worth $1.2M. It is currently waiting in LKO for 15 days until the prime transfer window to Eve opens up. The Rhino stage should get it to Gilly, the nuclear stage to Ike, and the Ion stage should handle the rest.

The fully loaded Minmus Factory ship returned to low Kerbin orbit, by way of Mün gravity assist pictured here. This is more or less a test run to see how much fuel can be returned with the factory ship itself, instead of using a dedicated tanker. Expectations are that a tanker will be beneficial instead of using the factory ship to haul fuel back to where its needed most. Then made the first of two rendezvous with the Solar-ResQ-ResQ mission. There is one other Kerbal to pick up as well, but this won't happen for a couple weeks yet as the most fuel efficient path is awaited.

The high-falootin' administrative types at good ole KSC got impatient. They have recently been all excited from recent technological advances, namely the lazy scientists finally figuring out how to derive fuel from moon-rock, and were itching to try mining and converting ore. So, they commissioned the engineers to build a ship that would go to Minmus, land, drill, convert, and return with a boatload of fuel. The prudent thing would have been to wait until some 3rd party submitted a contract for such an operation to offset the costs, but no, they went ahead and did it anyways, spending over $365,000 and taking a big bite out of the budget. This mission included a scanner probe... … and two autonomous robots to sniff out the highest concentrations of ore on the ground: Much amusement was experienced manoeuvring the two rovers around, the controllers at KSC learning all about drifting and slaloming down the various slopes on the surface. Finally the second robot settled on a decent spot that the main ship could land at, ore concentration there is 2.77%, the highest found after a couple hours of prospecting. The factory ship landed nearby and begun operations. After several days, a 3rd party company was intrigued enough to offer a contract to return 950 units of ore back to Kerbin's surface. This propitious offering was gratefully accepted, and shall be undertaken within a few weeks. Mission control will first oversee the return of the vessel to low Kerbin orbit so that it can refuel two or three ships waiting for the best transfer window to Eve, about 40 days away.

That's a lot of reading to be done in order to participate in the poll. I will do it, but it may take several days...

I wonder if that's the Golden Ratio? Mission control was attentive for exactly enough time to complete a 14 minute burn with the Solar-ResQ-ResQ mission, setting up a rendezvous with a stranded Kerbal in low solar orbit which will occur in about 40 days. The Solar-ResQubed mission will launch shortly...

A launch window to Eve is but a few days away, so the go ahead to launch a new Gilly station was approved. The contract only called for the station to house 5 kerbals, and the normal generate power, docking port and antennae requirements. But the payment for fulfilling the contract is such that adding an ore processor and a tank would be a smart thing to do. So, up went this ship into LKO, and it now awaits there for a couple more days. When that was done, a quick check with the administrators revealed that they had just received another contract, this time for a station around Eve! How convenient! Same minimal requirements, so the engineers drew up plans for a ship that would satisfy the contract, but also be able to land on Gilly, drill for ore, and transfer it to the new GIlly Stayshun. However, not all was perfect. One very sheepish worker on the assembly floor shuffled into the main office and admitted he had made an error: there was no antennae placed upon Gilly Stayshun! The only thing to be done was to send up a mission to attach a structural piece to one of the many docking ports that had antennae attached. This mission also brought a scanning probe to the drill ship, so it was quite useful in that regard. Also, the antennae mission was brought to orbit in a fully recoverable and reusable ship greatly reducing costs. The two station contracts together will still bring a decent profit, adding ISRU capabilities to the Jool system to boot. The poor forgetful worker has since been relegated to snack-wrapper-picker-upper, and his wage of 2 snacks/year cut in half.

FYI fun: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36367221

An uneventful day at mission control, two new contracts were undertaken. First up was a contract to expand Mün station by adding a cupola, berths for six and an auxiliary research module. The administrators decided to also add ore tanks and an ore processor. This greatly reduced the profits from the contract but basically added ISRU processing to the station for free. Then, similarly, a contract to add an ore processor and 6 berths to a station in solar orbit. This ship was created which fulfills to requirements and will be able to journey a fair distance afterwards. After getting to orbit and escaping Kerbin's SOI, the rendezvous burn was plotted and executed; meeting up with the station will happen in just over a year.

The engineers had a great night last night, after the previous days' disappointments. A mission to Pol needed to be launched, and after discussions with the scientists they came up with a two-stage 10-ton probe that will get the job done. To get that to orbit though, was where the real magic happened. They came up with a single stage to orbit booster that is fully recoverable. So, the only piece of the total vehicle that will be lost is the second stage: Nice smooth ascent driven by a Mainsail engine. The only unfortunate bit of this design is the lack of fins at the bottom, which during testing tended to mess up the return flight, making the booster flip around. It is easy to keep a natural gravity turn though, what with the large reaction wheel sandwiched between the two main tanks. Orbit was achieved with just enough fuel left in the booster for its return and braking burns. Separation of the probe was smooth... … it unfurled its solar panels, and waited in the parking orbit for a few days before the optimal window to the Jool system. Meanwhile, the booster burned retrograde and began its return to the ground. Engineers were slightly worried about the heat, but in the end everything was okay…. … ending in a gentle splashdown in the ocean. Mission control also insisted on the Ike group to get their act together and complete a couple contracts there, or no snacks upon their return. So the lander was deployed from the main ship... … science gathered on the surface, flag planted... … and a successful reunion with the station.

After a couple hundred days of no activity, things at KSC are getting busy. While there are 12 contract currently under way, none of them required attention until now. First up was the arrival of a ship at Duna and Ike to fulfill five contracts there. This is the ship that will be permanently stationed in the system, during its capture burn: After achieving stable orbit and matching inclinations with a stranded kerbal in need of rescuing, the next burn for rescue intercept was plotted. The attention of mission control was then switched to the Solar-ResQ-ResQ mission: This ship had reached its periapsis around Kerbol and it was time to bring the apoapsis down. The burn started with twin poodles firing hard. Eventually that stage ran out of fuel and time came for the twin nuclear engine stage. Decouplers fired, and... disaster! The nuc engines kicked in simultaneously with the decouplers, causing meltdowns of explodey proportions! Then engines were lost as well as the side-mounted fuel tanks, but the rest of the ship seemed intact… This mission is now doomed to end incompleted, as there will not be nearly enough DeltaV to pick up the two kerbals in low solar orbit and return them to their home. There is, however, enough to make the rendezvous with both, and perhaps get to Moho's orbit. So, the last stage separated and continued the circularization burn: After stewing in disappointment for a few days, everyone got back to work, switching their attention back to the Ike mission. The first goal there was to rescue one of two kerbonauts, this one in a very high Duna orbit. Rendezvous was achieved and the poor soul welcomed aboard. Next was to travel to and achieve orbit around Ike, which went without a hitch. There are three contracts to be completed there which will be accomplished in the coming days. In 8 days is the launch of a new ship to Explore Pol, and the deep thinkers at mission control are already beginning to plan a rescue of the Solar-ResQ-ResQ mission, which shall be dubbed Solar-ResQubed.

I'm biding time until launch windows come around, and missions under way reach their destination. I have 11 contracts on the go at the moment, but none of them require immediate attention. So, some time-warping has been done, stopping every 50 days to transmit science from a couple labs. One of the labs is in Gilly orbit and was due for some more science so the lander was put into use, a soft landing in the Highlands to grab new experimental data. I then noticed a 12th contract for a rescue in LKO. I accepted it and tried to build some SSTO planes. 3 failed attempts... …before I finally created one that worked, which, naturally, I failed to take pictures of. After a few more 50 day time warps and science transmissions the lazy scientists finally got off their duffs and invented a couple new engines and some rather large fuel tanks. This allowed the engineers to consider, once again, a mission to rescue the low solar orbit rescue missions that have run out of fuel. The two rescue missions in need of rescuing are around 2.2 million meters orbit around Kerbol, which in map view looks to be about halfway inside Moho's orbit. It's a long way to go. But an attempt has begun with the following ship: The SRBs got it about 10km up... … the liquid radials got it to the karman line... … and some of the 1st proper stage - the mainsail stage - was needed to circularize orbit. The course to destination orbit was plotted, and the mainsails burned hard. That stage ran out about halfway through the burn, so on to the second stage, the twin poodles. The Solar-ResQ-ResQ ship is now about 45 days away from its 2.2Mm Kerbolar PE at which point it will attempt to circularize. Calculations suggest that over 6,500 m/s DeltaV is required for that burn. The poodle stage will certainly run out at which point the twin nuclear stage kicks in. Hopefully there will be enough of that left to begin the trek back. The last stage is two ion engines pushing a probe core with two external seats on it. There are worries that even with all this it won't be enough to complete the mission. There are some discussions under way to the benefits of hiring mathematicians to figure out the requirements beforehand, but the establishment is wary of new-fangled ideas...

CEO of Hyperloop One has wondered aloud if this technology could "solve some problems in Canada" http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hyperloop-one-test-nevada-1.3577990

Haven't had too much time lately, but I did finally return two kerbals who were rescued from the surface of Mün and recently loitering in Mün Stayshun. Joining them were two scientists who made the surface-to-station trip in a truly big hunk of grey ugly that you see docked at the top of the station: The four of them were chauffeured by Val in a nuc taxi back to Kerbin Stayshun... … and arrived just in time for the union-mandated monthly snack-time break. Then they were lobbying their union reps to get their boots back on the ground after over a year away from their homes, and on their behalf the higher-ups made a deal to create the cheapest vehicle possible that would complete the task. Thus this spaceplane was born, borne by four SRBs into orbit: The return trip was hot.

Not entirely accurate. While this new study has explained the 'gradual dimming of the star', it does nothing to explain the periodic dips in light. From the end of the article:

By no means did I say that in seriousness, more as a facepalm-type statement to point out how misplaced some peoples outrage is, IMHO.

The hardest thing I ever did was to rendezvous with a ship in a deep space orbit in order to fix it. I was so proud of it I created a post for it, found here:

If any of you have ever bought clothes instead of making them yourselves, you have supported child labour. If any of you have ever bought a piece of tech like a smartphone, computer, washing machine, hair dryer, etc etc etc etc, you have supported child labour. Cars, software, food… the list goes on and on. Or how about this thought: any of you ever download mp3s or movies? After doing so did you send any funds to the artists who created that content? You think a musician or actor doesn't deserve to get paid for all your illegal immoral downloads? Perhaps we should encourage Squad to raise the price of the game by a few thousand percents so they can afford to pay developers North American wages?

I suppose if your endgame is to fill out the tech tree, then yes using the MPL in a normal-mode career would be way overpowered. But there's difficulty sliders. I'm playing a career at 40% returns, and really enjoying it. I suppose I could still fill out the entire tree only visiting the Kerbin moons, but I'm too anxious (and get contracts) to explore the planets. Also, my endgame is to put a base on the surface of every body, a station around each one also, with full ISRU capabilities in each system. That is going to take a whole pile of $$, which I will need to make largely by converting science to funds. So, for me, the MPL seems to be right where it needs to be, in terms of the science it generates.

Three different missions were touched on yesterday: First was my Eve station ship around which is currently around Gilly, and the go-ahead to fulfill the Explore Gilly contract was received. The tiny lander was deployed... … then landed and collected science... …and docked back to the mothership. I think that took about 15 units of fuel, so I should be able to land on Gilly about 9,000 times. When that was completed, KSC received and accepted a contract to build a second station around Duna. Since there are already contracts under way for two rescue missions there the decision was made to build a ship that would fulfill those requirements, plus be able to return the rescuees home. The engineers and designers came up with... It has been dubbed the "Flagrant Fowl". After completing the burn to Duna intercept the lone Kerbal on board, an engineer, noticed that the solar panels were faulty since they were not generating any electricity, but then he looked out a window and saw the reason: The last mission of the day was a new rescue contract around Mün. The nuc taxi based at Mün Stayshun was deployed... … picked up the lonely kerbonaut and returned to the station, joining a second rescued 'naut there.

The thing is, this may only be a few decades away, not a couple centuries... Long live the AI revolution!