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Oh god I remember that Bebop, I saw it on Adult Swim not long ago. I definitely was thinking of KSP watching that, all the orbital talk made me smile. The JATO rocket takeoff was cool too.

CHAPTER 3 MUN SURFACE – MINMUS LANDING *** - Welcome back. How was your Mun landing? You are the first to walk its surface after more then 20 years after all. - It was incredible! I've never… - I'm sorry to interrupt but the Director Bob requires formal report from the landing and LAMGML behaviour during flight immediately. All crew members presence is required in the main crew module. - Reports, huh. And so begins the great adventure, am I right Jeb? - Yeah. Tell him we're coming. - Commander, shall I prepare the inflatable modules for a test deployment? - What? Oh yes, yes, please do it. - Engines operational, trajectory confirmed. Are we GO for a trans-Minmus injection, commander? - Yes, let's do this. - And engines stop. How are we lookin'? - We spent 167m/s for the transfer whether according to the mission's plan we should have used 100 m/s, commander. - Hmm, that's not good. - It also seems that we will have to make at least one course correction. - I don't get it. This is supposed to be the most advanced ship ever built, right? So how come that it's less accurate then old “Kadmosâ€Â? - But commander, we're calibrating the reaction wheels and ASAS. This is one of the reasons why we are visiting Mun and Minmus in the first place. Captain's log, entry 1. Or should I wrote - “commander's logâ€Â? I think I will stay with the old version, it brings some good memories. And bad memories too. A lot of bad memories. Well, mostly bad memories but to be honest, “Kadmos†was the best experience in my life. Yes, we were on the verge of failure since we enter the Jool system, but to be there and be able to see all those wonders – it was worth it. We're on our route to Minmus, yesterday we were on the Mun. This was very special experience, to walk there once again after all these years. Ned and Sid seem to be very excited about our trip to Minmus, Sid especially as the low gravity environment expert. Not all of us spent the last decades on worthless activities, as it turns out. I'll have to study – fortunately we have a huge amount of movies, e-books, audio books and songs here. The e-library is much better then on “Kadmosâ€Â. But will it suffice? After all our journey probably will be twice as long. There are always stars and surface of the bodies which we can study form the parking orbit. And there there is the Sun. - BERTY, could you repeat please why we are on the inversed orbit again? - To check the autopilot system, commander. - Yeah. Okay – Sid, come with me. This time we're going with this Orson, he can use some training. BERTY, start pumping the fuel. - Affirmative. - Separation confirmed. See you soon, “Proteusâ€Â! - There is no need for this commander, I can assure you that I'm present on every vessel including the LAMGML. - You don't get it BERTY, this is… just something you say, you know, in the situations like this. - Are you referring to the so called superstitions? - What? No, it's just the part of the way we do it, like saying “godspeed†and so on. - Oh, I understand. Godspeed. From Middle Kerbish phrase “Kod spede†- “may Kod cause you to succed†- specifically from “Kod†plus “spedeâ€Â, subjunctive of “speden†to prosper. Does saying these words increase our chances for success? - I'll explain it to you when I'll be back, okay? - Affirmative, commander. - And touchdown! Initiating Lazor system. - Done. Okay, you can go out guys, you gonna love this. - My miniLazor works fine, everything seems to be okay. - All right. Sid, take your time but remember that we're here to check out our equipment, the real exploration will begin as soon as we leave the Kerbin SOI. - I know Jeb, I know. But I think I'll perform one extra experiment. - What are you talking about? - You'll see when we're back on orbit. - And? What are you gonna to do? - Just watch. - Sid! What are you doing?! Stop! - Are you insane?! - Take it easy. I calculated everything – this jetpack TWR and delta-V will let me go down there and back again without any problem. - You better be right and not die on impact 'cause when you're back I'm going to personally strangle you, you stupid egghead! - I'll be all right, you'll see. - Ok, I'm loosing vertical and horizontal velocity, everything's fine. - This is a bad idea, I'm telling you. What's your fuel level? - Almost half of the tank. Just a few meters more… - Sid, talk to me! - I did it! The first Kerbal to land on a celestial body WITHOUT ROCKET. Hell yeah! - I think you have a sever case of a midlife crisis, you moron. Don't ever do it again! - Okay dad. - You will randezvous with us on our next orbit, you hear me? - Yup. - And turn on your lights, the night will fall soon. - What's the situation? - Err… I have 18% fuel left and I'm coasting to apoapsis. I tried to randezvous you but it cost me too much fuel so you will have to randezvous with me. - Don't spend fuel on inclination corrections! Just reach stable orbit and left the rest to us. (…) - Sid, report! - Well, the good news is that I've reached an orbit! Single Kerbal to orbit – SKTO, what do you think? - And the bad news? - I have no fuel left. I mean, zero. I can't move. Help? Please? - I told you! Frak this, we're coming for you! - Where are you? I can't see you! - I'm turning on the emergency lights. Hold on! - Listen guys, you see this small mountain over there? We're loosing altitude so I think that… - Maybe you should have thought about this earlier, don't you think Sid? - Ok, I'll move the ship so that you can grab something and get onboard. Ready? Now! - Crap, I missed it! I'm drifting away! - Frak! Orson, take care of the ship, I'm going for him. - So who was right after all, Sid? - You! You were right, you were right! Just take me from here, we're falling on this damn rock! - First you will apologize. - I'm sorry! Jeb, come on, we're 5 kilometres above the ground! - And promise me that you won't do anything like this unless you will get the approval from your superior, that is me, Bill, Bob or… - Jeb! - Okay, I think you learned your lesson. Hang on, pal. MISSION STATUS ***

Ah. Ok. I'll take a look. Hmm, all this talk about props and rotors has me thinking about torque, and maybe having it as a resource like intake air to be used to run things like powered intakes, turbofans/props, generators, as well as main and tail rotors. One turboshaft engine could run anything that spins. Alternativly, in atmospheres without oxigen, an electric motor, or thermally powered (think stirling engine for space: http://goo.gl/gNTA http://goo.gl/IVHQU)

stank like a You could just post your compiled version of the story in the fan works section, and talk about how we got around the whole forum outage thing by making the new story in a parallel universe or something

PROLOGUE – PART 1 *** 23 YEARS LATER - Are you sure that's the place? - I am boss. The address is correct and look, he even has a Gemini mock-up in a yard. - Where? - There, behind this garbage container. - Nice. All right then, I'm going. - Boss, are you sure this is a good idea? - What do you mean? - I know that guy was a hero once, but it was years ago. I helped the team in constructing his psychological profile boss, he's really a mess now. I just wonder is it a good idea to try to contact him at all. - He's the only one who was out there for such a long time. Even if he's just a shadow of his former self, his knowledge and experience are still invaluable. Wait here – if you want to smoke, step out of the limo. It shouldn't take long. *** - Oh no, they've captured the princess! Captain, what are we going to do? - We must rescue her! Come with me, RoboRay! - Aargh! - Stop right there! The crystal of Aiur is mine and with its power nothing will stop me now. - You can't win, Draxus. Your forces are surrounded by the Alliance fleet. - Oh really? With princess Elena as my hostage, they won't dare to stop me. First the AstroCity and then the world! - We will stop your vile plan, no matter... where is this damn popcorn? - We will stop your vile plan, no matter what! - You will try. Kill them! - SOCK! POW! ZOK! - Watch out, RoboRay, they have laser cannon! - PEW PEW PEW! - Ouch! - Captain, we can't win this! We have to retreat! - And now the best part: Captain Antares... - Captain Antares do not run! Come, friends – to infinity AND BEYOND! - Will the brave Captain Antares stop the sinister Lord Draxus? Will he save the princess and the peaceful citizens of AstroCity? Find out in the next episode of the „Space - Adventure Timeâ€Â! The only sci-fi show dubbed by the real kerbonauts! Next week on Monday at 8 AM. And now, commercials. - Stupid commercials. Wait, was it doorbell? I'm coming! Where the hell are my pants? One minute please! All right. I'm going, I'm going... well I'll be damned. - Hello Jeb. May I come in? *** - Nice place you have here. - Please Bob, I know when you're lying. Do you want anything to drink? Beer, whiskey, some drink maybe? - No thank you, I'm on duty. And isn't it a little to early to drink? - Heehee. Make yourself comfortable. Do you smoke? - Thank you. - I didn't see you at the cemetery. - I was... very busy. I'm sorry. - It's not me to who you should apologize. Damn, it's been what, 8 years since Mac's death? He was fighting the bastard bravely. - One has to be really strong to defeat the cancer. You did it after all. - Yeah, barely – but it costed me greatly. Two damn years in the hospitals, my old house sold and Anne. - I'm sorry Jeb. - Oh don't be Bob, you didn't really care after our divorce so why pretend? (pause) - You have quite a collection here. - Yeah, my pride. Last season our team won the second place in a league tournament. - Team? - I'm playing with Walter and this one guy who wants everyone to call him Dude. They had a third player but he had some accident or something and I always was good at bowling so I joined them. - Bowling medals, trophies… but where are your KASA's medals, Jeb? - I sold them. - You what? - Hey, don't give me that look. I needed money for the surgery, okay? - Weren't you earning quite a bit doing these conferences? - Try to fight the bone cancer and your ex-wife in a court simultaneously and then you can instruct me what's wrong and what's right. Frak, Bob! You show up here out of nowhere after what, 10 years, in this shiny suit and you think you can judge me?! Frak you, man. - Jeb, listen… - After the KASA cancelled the manned flights, what could I do, huh? Go to BobCat Industries and do what, “adviseâ€Â? When you were moving your sleeky ass to the administration I was terminally ill and you didn't even visit me! After Ann left, you didn't visit me, you didn't call to ask “hey Jeb, how are you holding up?â€Â. Not everyone had such a soft landing as you did – Ned's still fixing cars. Cars! And he was the flight engineer on “Kadmos†which had a frakin nuclear reactor. It ain't easy for any of us. I have to dub some ****ty cartoons to make a living. I walked on a surface of the Mun and Joolian moons and now I'm Captain frakin Antares. - Jeb… - What do you want from me? You certainly didn't come here to talk about the good old times. What is it Bob? What do you want from a fossil like me? Cut the bull**** and just tell me. *** - Hahaha! - I don't know what so funny in… - Hahaha! No, I'm sorry, it's just – it's great, really great, but the April fools was like a week ago. - Jeb, I'm not joking. - Well of course you don't. You're just trying to tell me, that the president Dixon's infamous KASA's manned program cancellation was in fact a cover for the top-secret program which involves several government agencies, top-notch world private space companies and the best minds from the whole world. And all of it, this gigantic international cooperation was executed in total secrecy for almost 20 years. Now when the project is almost finalized, you were sent here to recruit me as a commander of a new interplanetary spacecraft. Honestly, I'm impressed. Did you ever considered a profession as a screenwriter? - Jeb. - Really, this would be a great story. But I don't get why would you spend your precious time mocking me. There is no space travel for me anyway, don't you remember? “Excessive radiation exposureâ€Â. And after this cancer treatment I wouldn't be allowed to fly even in the first years of KASA. - I'm not working for KASA. We talked about this and even if you won't qualify we still want you as an advisor. - Oh really? So tell me, what were you doing for the past 20 years? Why has nobody tried to contact me? This story falls apart with every question. - We've had our reasons. We need you Jeb. - Yeah, sure you do. - I'm deadly serious. We're sending a new ship out there two years from now. And you're the only person who has any experience flying in deep space. - What about the rest of my crew then? Why didn't you contact them? - We did. And they agreed – didn't you wonder why they didn't have time for any meetings during last few months? - Ok Bob, this is enough. I don't know what games you're playing or whatever company put you up to this, but don't try to involve my crew in this petty scheme of yours. There is just no way that what you're trying to tell me is true. A project this big will require thousands, tens of thousands of people to work for years, billions of credits, reactivation of the old KSC and what, nobody will notice it? - 784 thousands of employees contributing to it worldwide, to be precise. - Tell me more. What next, you will try to convince me that the Mun landing was a hoax? You've been there with me. - So your answer is no? - Damn right it is. I don't know who came up with the idea to recruit me, maybe the same one that invented that crazy conspiracy theory, but tell the HR department in your company that this was the stupidest idea ever. Now get out of my house. - I'll leave soon but listen to this – if you change your mind or if you would like to see what we're working on, just call me. - Fancy card. - Think about it Jeb. This may be the last chance for you to go there. Wouldn't you want to see the stars once again? - It's the only thing I care about. Even now, after all these years, I remember the Jool rising above the horizon on Vall. But I won't be deluded by your stupid games. Now go. - What, another bowling tournament? Or maybe some groceries? You were once a hero to us all Jeb. You can still be. - Get out! *** - Take me to the HQ. - Yes sir. So how was it? Will he join the Project? - I don't know. He was always stubborn as a mule. Did you know that his application to the KASA was rejected 4 times before they accepted him? - No sir. - He's old and completely out of shape. But I think that there is still something left of the Jeb from the days of „Kadmos†i n him. We'll just have to wait. *** - I told you that I talked with him few day ago. No, I don't know how soon... wait a moment, I have a second call. Yes? - Bob? - Jeb! Have you considered my offer? - Count me in.

Steps to follow to make sure it's installed correctly: Make sure the .dll is in the Plugins directory inside the KSP directory Make sure there's a log message (checkable by pressing alt-f2 or checking KSP_data/output_log.txt) saying something along the lines of "hyperedit.dll loaded", or anything with the word "hyperedit" in it. Make sure there's no exceptions (red text) in the debug log (alt-f2) when pressing alt-h. If you're still having trouble, join the ksp irc (irc.esper.net, #KSPOfficial), and ping/tab me (I'm in there as "khyperia"). It'll be a lot easier to figure out what's going wrong if we can talk real-time. However, I'm probably going to sleep in a few minutes, so you might have to wait until tomorrow to catch me again.

Designing Planets BROTORO: Tonight on Kerbal Space Program Forum I'd like to welcome our special guest, Mr. Slartibartfast, who has consented to talk to us this evening about solar system design and construction. Thank you very much for being with us today! SLARTIBARTFAST: Well, I don't normally do interviews, but when a very important client asked for a representative from the Commercial Council of Magrathea, it happened that I was the only one who'd ever talked to an Earthman, so I got the job. It's all a bit of a bother, really. BROTORO: A very important client? Who would this very important client be? SLARTIBARTFAST: I'm sorry, but we do not disclose information about our clients. They are all very wealthy and powerful beings, and I'm sure you'll understand that they enjoy their anonymity. But I will say that you'd never have gotten this interview if the Mice were not very big fans of space travel. BROTORO: Mice are big fans of space travel? SLARTIBARTFAST: Certainly. Why else would they have arranged to be some of the first passengers ever flown in a rocket? But I've said more than enough on that subject already. BROTORO: Ah. OK, let's get right to tonight's topic. Is there any truth to the rumor that Magratheans did the design and construction work for Squad on the Kerbol planetary system? SLARTIBARTFAST: I've already told you, we don't discuss our clients. BROTORO: Well then, hypothetically speaking, could you tell us if it's possible to design a solar system with these specifications? (BROTORO hands Slartibartfast a sheet of paper. Slartibartfast glances over it briefly.) SLARTIBARTFAST: Ah, yes... Miniature planets are adorable, aren't they? They were all the rage with a certain portion of our clientele. BROTORO: So it's possible to construct a solar system matching those specifications? SLARTIBARTFAST: Certainly. We Magratheans pride ourselves on being able to build any kind of planet. BROTORO: But look at the densities of those planets. Most of them have densities greater than any known element. SLARTIBARTFAST: That's not a problem. We use black holes. BROTORO: Black holes? But wouldn't a black hole inside a planet just swallow it? SLARTIBARTFAST: No, no. We use spherical force field bubbles centered around small black holes. We can adjust the mass of the black hole and radius of the force shell to get any planet density desired, then cover it with the mantle and crust material of the client's choice. It's a very flexible system. BROTORO: So you're saying that Kerbin is mostly hollow inside, with some old rocky material thrown on top? SLARTIBARTFAST: No. More like the inner one third is hollow. And I assure you we use only the finest ingredients when building our planets. BROTORO: Wouldn't these force field bubbles require energy to maintain their structure? SLARTIBARTFAST: Certainly they require energy. We just allow a small amount of matter from the lower mantle to trickle through openings in the sphere. As the matter falls into the gravity well of the black hole, the energy equivalent to a sizable fraction of its rest mass is released as radiation before it crosses the event horizon. That radiated energy is captured and used by the force field bubble, which also acts as a Dyson sphere. BROTORO: Dyson sphere? So do Magratheans know about Freeman Dyson? SLARTIBARTFAST: Who? You misunderstood me. I used the Magrathean term for "spherical mega-structure that captures all radiated energy from a central power source," and that little fish I put in your ear translated the concept into a term you are familiar with. I've never heard of a freemandyson. BROTORO: Ah, so that's what the fish was for. I thought it was a quaint Magrathean greeting or something. SLARTIBARTFAST: You're sitting there wearing a digital watch, and you think my people are quaint? BROTORO: But wait... If Kerbin has no liquid iron core inside, how could it have a magnetic field? SLARTIBARTFAST: Does Kerbin have a magnetic field? BROTORO: Um... well, I'm not sure. The developers haven't given us any magnetometers yet, but I just assumed it did. SLARTIBARTFAST: And it well might. Magnetic fields are easy. We would just need to orbit a ring of charged matter around the black hole inside the force sphere. Adjusting the charge on the matter can give the client any magnetic field desired, and the inclination of the ring can offset the magnetic pole from the rotational axis if desired. Any field strength can be tailored for the client, although it's easier for us if they want a simple dipole. Haven't you wondered why Jool has such a weak magnetic field for a jovian planet? BROTORO: It does? SLARTIBARTFAST: Of course. If it didn't, the planet would have powerful radiation belts, and any kerbal you sent in there for aerobraking would be late. BROTORO: Late? SLARTIBARTFAST: Yes. As in, "The late Jebediah Kerman." Ah hum. BROTORO: . . . SLARTIBARTFAST: I don't understand why Earthmen always stare at me blankly when I use that line. BROTORO: I'm just wondering how you know about Jebediah Kerman. SLARTIBARTFAST: It's the Babelfish again. I just used the Magrathean word for "bad-ass space pilot," and the fish did the rest in conjunction with your primitive brain. BROTORO: Well. What about Kerbol, the sun of the system? How could something with that low of a mass possibly support thermonuclear fusion? SLARTIBARTFAST: I'm not part of our stellar division... I work on the planets, and I specialize in doing coastlines... but there are two different ways we handle miniature stars. BROTORO: One way involves black holes? SLARTIBARTFAST: Both ways do. In one method, we simply make the force sphere around the black hole small enough that the density and pressure in the overlying hydrogen-rich material is sufficient to maintain thermonuclear reactions at the rate needed for the desired luminosity. The second way involves simply letting sufficient matter flow through the force sphere and into the black hole to provide the desired luminosity. BROTORO: Which method did you use for Kerbol? SLARTIBARTFAST: I didn't say we made Kerbol. I was speaking hypothetically. Why don't you just measure the neutrino flux coming out of Kerbol... then you could tell if there are fusion reactions going on inside of it. BROTORO: Well... again... we don't have any neutrino detectors as yet. SLARTIBARTFAST: You really do need to take more interest in your greater environment. If you're not paying attention to things outside your planet, terrible things could happen to it. BROTORO: Yes, thank you. But what about Minmus? SLARTIBARTFAST: What about it? BROTORO: The developers tell us that it's made of ice, but that can't possibly be the case given its distance from the sun, can it? SLARTIBARTFAST: Kerbin, like your own planet Earth, is located at a distance from the sun where the equilibrium temperature is below the freezing point of water. If not for their natural greenhouse effects, the oceans on both bodies would be frozen over. The temperature is even lower when you are dealing with a surface that has a very high albedo, like ice, since that reflects away most of the incoming energy. BROTORO: Yes, yes, I know all that. But Minmus has no atmosphere. Its surface is in vacuum. And water ice would sublime directly into a gas and escape into space at the equilibrium temperature of Minmus. Minmus should be a gigantic comet! SLARTIBARTFAST: Ah, I see. Young Hargledertfirst of our small moon department solved that problem. BROTORO: Did he? SLARTIBARTFAST: She. She engineered a microorganism that was active in the small moon's water during its early warm phases. The organism excretes a clear polymer as a waste product...kind of like a resin. All of the ice on the small moon contains a small percentage of this polymer. When the ice is exposed to vacuum, the water will indeed sublime away, but the polymer is left behind and forms a barrier to further sublimation. And any future impacts or landing rocket flame scars on the surface are self-healing once the vapor clears. BROTORO: Really? And that's what you did for Minmus? SLARTIBARTFAST: I was speaking hypothetically. BROTORO: And I suppose you'll tell me that Eve is purple because of a little food coloring. SLARTIBARTFAST: Indeed. It takes a very small percentage of certain chemical compounds to give a planetary surface or atmosphere a desired color. You'd be surprised how many clients are upset if they don't get just the right shade of purple or some other color in their skies. We are very good at this, and all the chemical stains and particulates are USDA approved. BROTORO: You know about the USDA? Oh, wait...it's the Babelfish again, isn't it. SLARTIBARTFAST: Indeed. BROTORO: So... if you had to do it all over again, are their any changes you'd make to the Kerbol system? SLARTIBARTFAST: Well, yes, now that you've asked. I think Kerbin would look much better with more fjords on the coastlines. I always try to put a lot of fjords on a planet, but the managers always say it's too much. A lot of my work got erased. I was quite incensed about that. BROTORO: Hypothetically speaking, you mean. SLARTIBARTFAST: Um. Yes. Of course. BROTORO: Well, our time is up. We really appreciate you coming here today. So long, and thanks for the fish. SLARTIBARTFAST: No, I'm afraid I must take the Babelfish back with me. BROTORO: Oh, please? I think it would be very useful *arrgh* Hey! SLARTIBARTFAST: Flerti slark tilligert sibilas fer torrn. Ser fasto gerhs. BROTORO: Yeah. Whatever.

It's on various websites. If the past is any indication to go by we'll have video up on the SpaceX youtube channel in days or weeks max. Anyway, hello again. Odd that they didn't have a more recent backup than October. As for KerbX, I'm busy with other stuff but I'll talk to Stinger soon about where we go from here.

Why would you even think of Eve as a legitimate option to colonize? Colonies should be easily accessible and return-able by craft. Evacuating a colony should not take several ships, unless you REALLY have a lot of Kerbals. You need to be able to make frequent stops. Eve's delta-V requirements are simply not sufficient to maintain anything other than a prison. Let's talk about reality here for a minute. I'm going to remove myself from the KSP limitations currently in play, and pretend like we're actually planning a real mission. Because that kind of stuff is fun. We're going to assume that Duna is a very close Mars-representing planet, and Eve closely represents Venus. So, here's some of the preliminary problems you're going to face with Eve, and why my argument is massively in favor of Duna... -You're not going to have very much light. Even though you're closer to the sun, that atmosphere is going to pretty much stop any visible light coming in. Solar panels on a realistic Eve would be useless. Conversely, if you don't have light, that's another power requirement if you're going to do hydroponics to sustain breathing air and some sort of food for your crew. So, uh, that. -The pressure of the atmosphere would be enough to crush pretty much anything. You'd need some VERY resilient vessels, and crew would pretty much never be allowed to go EVA unless you had some kind of porcelain/glass (acid in the air, by the way) Newt Suit. Also, this alone would eliminate heat from the equation as a power generation method. -The only power generation you'd be able to do is a nuclear reactor or radiothermal generator. The nuclear reactor would be very large and heavy, and would need another launch to get it there, most likely. The RTG would be lighter by itself, but if left alone would immediately irradiate crew members to death. You would need to either keep it very far away and run large cables to it, or you would need to encase it in some sort of (inherently heavy) radiation shield... So uh, good luck finding power. Actually, you may be able to use a wind turbine, just make sure it doesn't break in the high winds or you'll be entirely screwed. -Re-entry would have to be done incredibly carefully, the g-forces encountered would easily kill crew if you didn't purposely try to speed yourself up to counteract the atmosphere so that you slow down slower. Parachute landings are a no-go until you get to about 50m/s or so., because they create too many G's. Also, the heat would probably melt the vessel before you got low enough to deploy your chutes anyhow... -Where are you going to get water? If you ship it with them and make them recycle their own waste water, that's more mass you have to send in and properly decelerate. If you decide to mine it, you're going to have to have some kind of mining rover that can extract it from the oceans, again, more weight to decelerate. This rover would have to be able to traverse VERY steep inclinations to reach the water, because your landing spot would HAVE to be on top of some kind of mountain, else return would not be practical. Once you extract the water, it would also be very salty from the sulfuric acid reacting with the minerals in the water and causing sulfates. So, there's another power draw. -Food? If you send them with hydroponics, that's a huge power drain. If you send them with a limited supply, that's not sustainable and is sadistic. -Return or resupply/crew changes. These would require a massive, ungainly rocket with tons of delta-V -Heat. Very much heat, but so much pressure that it can't really be used effectively. Here's some of the points about landing on a realistic Duna: -Solar power is a viable option. Solar power is very lightweight and safe around crew members. -Atmospheric re-entry would be much more viable, as the G-forces produced would not be deadly, nor would the atmosphere be thick enough to cause considerable heat. Landings can be done entirely by parachute if there are enough of them. -Leaving the surface would be much easier due to lower atmosphere and gravity. -Water could be extracted from the ice caps in small amounts, but separating it from the mostly carbon dioxide ice would be complicated. -Anything that was a threat on Kerbin to getting to orbit or doing atmospheric shenanigans is reduced. So is anything that's a benefit so there's that. Duna is the best place for a colony of what you said. Personally, though, my prime candidate for a colony has always been and always will be Gilly. -Lowest delta-V budget to get to the mothering SOI (Eve). -Gilly would likely have ice on it, as it is said to be a captured asteroid, and many asteroids contain some ice. -Any atmosphere a realistic Gilly would have would be absolutely miniscule. -Descent and return take incredibly small amounts of delta-V. -Close proximity to the sun would make solar power a very good power generation method. -Low gravity so base construction would be safer. -Crew would have to exercise to maintain muscle mass, as Gilly is essentially as low-gravity as a space station. -You still get to look at Eve. A realistic Eve (and the current Eve, really) should be meant for nothing more than a destination for one expedition, or as a prison planet for life-sentences. It just is not practical as a colony planet...

Oh man, all that funny random talk is lost -.- Including the post which started the series of incidents that got me into anime... Well hopefully my own thread is unaffected lol

NASA has a SpotTheStation service that E-mails you visible passes according to your location. Very handy in this Smartphone world. http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ Last Sunday we had the first warm day this year so all the locals went for a drink / chill at the park. Including me. We sat on the grass drinking some beer and having some fun. Till I remembered that the ISS would make 2 flyovers that evening. One that lasted 6 minutes and one that lasted 4 minutes. I got really happy that for the first night since December or something the sky wasn't filled with clouds. I could finally see my beloved stars and satellites! And the ISS! I told some friends what was about to happen and that I'd like to see it. Figured I go for a little walk to the water for a clear view of the Western horizon, to my surprise about 10 guys followed me. And some followed them. We ended up with about 25 people scouting the heavens for her. and about an hour and a half later we did the same thing. It was so cool. People where genuinely interested in the ISS and space and everything else. My hobby-knowledge of space finally payed of. I got a few beers from people who where interested in my stories about space travel. I told almost everything I knew, from the tense Apollo 11 landing to Allan Sheppard pissing in his space suit. Even had a great talk with a lovely lady who wants to watch the stars with me more often. Thank you NASA, ESA,ROSCOSMOS & JAXA!

I was watching a video of a speech Elon Musk gave at Oxford in November (http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/videos/view/211), where someone in the audience asked if he had ever played KSP. Evidently some of his employees do, but I guess he hadn't. If whoever asked that question is on here, thanks! Though my advisor and girlfriend may have some disapproving words for you... Edit: whoops it wasn't the Oxford speech, it was the Royal Aeronautical Society speech from around the same time, - I'll leave the other link there since it's an interesting talk too

Perhaps add a delta-v map of the system and talk about the reasoning behind rockets having multiple stages (fuel tanks have a mass ratio of 9:1 wet/dry - lim(m->inf) ln[(M+m)/(M+m/9)] is only ln(9), or something like 2.2, which means that no matter how much fuel you keep adding to a single stage, you're only going to be able to achieve a delta-v of something like 2.2x the specific impulse of the engine.) Although you may wish to describe it a little more coherently than I just did.

That's ok, I'm certain that once docking gets implemented I'll have loads to talk about. How's 0.18 coming along anyway? Any chance you---dopeslap--- OK, I'll stop with the current events of October references. Anyway good luck Sal, Damion, and Skunky, I'm sure that you'll be plenty busy with the rebuilding of the forums.

Hello KSP Community, I've been lurking here for a while and finally decided to post something, just for fun. As usual with writing, it's for writers to write and for readers to reject And I'm sorry for some less-than-smart humour. Really, sorry Loosing the Mün "A pleasant, joyful ride all the way up to the Mün, they said. A great and scientifically rewarding experience, they said", Wurt Kerman uttered as the g-forces squeezed him into the seat again. For a whole minute the hand of accelerometer stayed in the red zone as if it was its rightful place, and then, suddenly, the bone-crashing vibration of the solid rocket engine stopped, replaced by the weightlessness which made pieces of yesterday's meal rotate and tumble in his stomach. "Flight control, this is Unity-5, please confirm escape velocity, preparing to jettison direct ascent stage, over." "Unity-5, this is Control, escape velocity confirmed. Ascend stage separation in two minutes 30 seconds, over." Aldred Kerman, the ship’s captain, turned off the transmitter, set up the counter and began reading the check-list. Wurt, once again feeling his stomach's protests against rapid changes in acceleration, and quiet and calm Gimbal, the youngest of them, started to rotate dials and press buttons, answering captain’s commands. It went like this: Switch to on-board power? - Done. Main computer? - Turned on. Ascent stage ASAS & on-board computer? – Disconnected. Separation program entered. Attitude control? – Set to automatic. RCS slaved to computer control. Two rolls of toilet paper, three big tomatoes, a bottle of milk... – WHAT??! – Oh, sorry, that was my wife’s shopping list…err… Main thrusters? – Ready to ignite. Wurt did all this almost automatically, just repeating patterns he’d learned during his year-long training period, which consisted mostly of drinking beer on the beach near the Space Centre. If you’re good enough, they said, you’ll get the hang of it the moment you see it. Sometimes he thought he wasn't. “Good, now we’re ready to go†Aldred radioed ready to go status back to Control. As final seconds flew by, Wurt thought that when, or, rather, if it’s over, he’ll resign his commission and go somewhere quiet to live. Maybe he’ll marry Melody, his school friend, and they’ll have children and a small garden and he’ll grow flowers far away from the vast coldness – or cold vastness (or both) of space. And just as he started remembering Melody’s beautiful eyes the counter hit zero. Wurt readied himself, praying the decouplers won’t blow up the entire ship, when a sudden wave of deceleration threw him forward, and he landed head first on the ship’s forward window. It was over as quick as it started. “What the Hell was that? – Gimbal, check the engines, Wurt, check the ascent stage. I have a nasty feeling about this.†Wurt stared at the intensely flickering display. “It shows the ascend stage is disconnected. Is it?†– “How would I know? We don’t have, you know, rear view mirrors†– “Thrusters didn't fire, cap, there’re no problems with lander whatsoever. Yet.†“Ok, err, Control? We appear to have a li’l problem with our ascend stage. Please confirm separation, over.†“This is Flight Control to Unity-5, say again?†“Unity-5, this is Control, we now appear to have a fix on your position. Ascend stage separation not confirmed, repeat, NOT confirmed, over.†“Control, this is Unity-5, we sent Wurt on the EVA, and he should check separation visually. We’ll route his comms via main channel, over.†“This is Wurt Kerman to Control, do you copy?†“This is Control, loud and clear. What’s the status of ascend stage?†“It’s still attached to the lander, though all electrical connections were severed. Trying to de-attach it manually gives no results.†“This is Control, Chief Mission Engineer speaking. Wurt Kerman, our tech advisors advise returning to your ship. Chances of surviving impact inside the spacecraft are 4,867*10-8 % bigger than in your spacesuit.†“Unity-5 speaking, why don’t your techies do something useful for a change? Like, calculate whether we have enough delta-V to land on the Mün?†Their ship was gliding silently through the cold vastness of space at the breathtaking speed of 3680 with something meters per second. The huge solid rocket stage that allowed them to obtain such tremendous speed was just a dead weight now, hanging helplessly on the mess of wires and metal shreds connecting it to the lander. Retro-rockets, responsible for the ascend stage separation, were empty and silent now. Mün’s cratered surface was getting closer with each second, bringing imminent death to everyone aboard. “Unity-5, Control here, we advise firing the side-mounted engines. It may finally disconnect the ascend stage, and also by going upwards you’ll avoid collision with the Mün†Now, let’s talk about directions. Jebediah Kerman, the first kerbal ever to go into space, defined “down†as the direction his feet dangled over the edge of his bed in the morning. We’ll stick to that definition, not only because it provides us with a useful frame of reference, but also because it clearly shows that in space “down†is just a general direction your toes are pointing at. While this is pretty clear for every kerbal who’s been there, it still remains somewhat of a mystery to those who work on the ground. It’s just another example of how the special case hinders the understanding of a general theory. Being said, it explains the reaction our brave kerbonauts had from their discourse with the Flight Control crew. “Unity-5 to the flight control, DEFINE “UP†YOU IDIOT!!!!! And get someone useful on the line, for God’s sake! We’re in emergency situation here!†Then it became very, very quiet. And then another shout ripped the silence apart. “WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!! ME NO DIE, ME NO DIE!!!!!†“Gimbal, shut up! We won’t die today! We won’t crush into the Mün!†“Ahhh…ahhh….ouhhh…†“Yes, believe me, we won’t! There’s just enough fuel for our side-mounted engines to get us clear of it! And we’ll commence the burn as soon as those idiots on the ground tell us exact directions.†“Oouh. Ouh. Ok. Ok. We won’t die today. Ok.†“Yes, not today! We’ll die somewhere in the solar orbit when we run out of food and water.†“AAAHHHH!†A new voice, sounding worried, entered the conversation. “Unity-5, this is Crew Health Monitoring, we detect excessive sweating in the crewmember Wurt. Could you please tell him to sweat less?†“Why don’t you check crewmember Gimbal’s EKG instead?†“It’s not very interesting, going flat all the time…wait! Is he dead already? This is the most remarkable… †“AAAAHHHH! I’m NOT dead!!!†“Health Monitoring, did you hear that? That was Gimbal’s cry.†“Oh, come on! Your cheap tricks can’t beat science! Err….Captain, why your EKG is also flat?†Wurt closed the channel. It became silent again, except for Gimbal’s sobbing and unpleasant, mechanical noise of life support system rushing oxygen into the crowded cabin. Physicists believe gravity to be one of the weakest forces in the Universe. Apparently, they've never been stuck in the rocket that ran out of fuel while trying to land on the Mün’s surface. Even if they did, they never lived long enough to initiate that much-needed change of paradigm in the modern academia. When Wurt almost did all delta-V calculations himself, Flight Control called again. “Err, Flight Control speaking, guys, we've made our calculations, and you actually have just enough fuel to land on the Mün even with the ascend stage still attached. You’ll heat the Mün a bit hard, at 25 meters per second, but I’m pretty sure the capsule will survive. You won’t have much fuel for return trip anyway, so you’ll have to wait for the rescue mission.†“Unity-5 to Control, are you nuts? We know these “rescue missions†of yours. Bill Kerman lived in those caves on Duna for three years! And those guys on Laythe, they’re still growing chlorella, what is it, sixth year they’re stranded there or what?†“Err, Unity-5, wait a second, it seems we haAAAH!†They've heard some noises, and then a new voice, fresh and confident, entered the conversation. “Unity-5, this is Flight Control, Jebediah Kerman speaking.†Aldred’s expression changed to that of silent, deathly horror, as if Space Kraken was staring him in the face. Gimbal started his sobbing again. “Let’s get rid of this ascend stage, guys!†Having multiple stages is important for almost any spacecraft. When Konstantin Kerman, the grand-grand-father of modern space exploration and rocket design, came up with the idea, he was laughed at. A lot. People of his generation imagined spaceships as huge chunks of metal, all shiny and pointy, with nice aerodynamic fins, going up using one tremendous explosion they called “a blast-offâ€Â. But then the idea of riding up a continuous explosion and throwing away the dead weight to get even more explosions became much more attractive. Spandex spacesuits became obsolete approximately at the same time, opening the way to the true space exploration. Sometimes (fairly often, actually) incorrect staging or even simply having more than one stage resulted in huge problems both for the crew and the Flight Control. Jebediah Kerman knew it perfectly well. He also knew all the solutions. “Captain, do you see this shiny blue-brown ball ahead of you?†“Do you mean, the Mün?†“No, I mean, the blue-brown ball with numbers, on the instrument panel.†“Oh my God! How did you know it was there? What is it, anyway?†Jeb’s voice trailed off, but a second later he regained his composure. “Ok, never mind. Just strap yourself into the seat, disengage computer control, and set RCS to manual. We’ll shake this stage off using centrifugal forces.†“D-Done.†“Now turn the ship all the way down and keep on turning.†She ship went down spinning. Wurt felt his yesterday’s food trying to come out, and then he actually saw it floating around the cabin together with un-strapped Gimbal. Then, somewhere far away, he heard Jeb’s voice ordering computer control and maximum engine burn. Without thinking, he reached for the lever and pushed it all the way forward. His other hand reached for the ASAS button and pressed it hard. Acceleration pushed him into the seat, and Gimbal’s foot hit him in the face. The last thing he heard was a rasping sound of something breaking off. When he regained consciousness the ship was slowly tumbling around. Engines were silent (he or the captain must have turned them off), and computer control was disengaged. In the side window he saw the face of the Mün, now dangerously close. “How long have I been off?†“Unity-5, this is Control, please respond!†“Oh. Yeah. Control, this is Unity-5, what’s going on?†“Unity-5! Bastards, were have you been? I've missed my dinner because of you! Err…you shook off the ascend stage. Now – do you see this glowing blue-brown ball?†“Yes, it’s mostly brown now. What is it for?†Jeb sighed. Several hours later, Unity-5 was going around the Mün. Wurt, with a black eye and a visible footprint of Gimbal’s boots on the forehead, almost uninjured Aldred and beaten to Hell Gimbal were looking out through the window, seeing mountains and plains below. When the huge, green-blue Kerbin showed on the münar horizon, the first message to come was from the Space Program’s financial department. “Unity-5, this is Mitt Kerman, space program financial director, you’ll be fined for using your spacecraft to circumnavigate the Mün instead of landing on it, over.†Aah, not this idiot again, thought Gimbal. Go to Hell, thought Aldred. I’ll retire anyway, thought Wurt. The End. Anyway, thanks for reading, happy launching!

(repost since dataloss lost all of my fan-fics) Disclaimer: Possible Punctuation and grammar marks are probable. This fan-fic is long and made in the Novel style. First attempt at novel style so sorry for long winded sentences and probable run-on's! A Cold Day in space Jeb is sitting in the command pod waiting for the launch window. Several aborts have been postponing his launch to the New Kerman Space Station Liophis. Getting a bit anzy waiting Jeb squawks in and checks with the weather reports. Infinity to Control. Infinity to Control. Jeb waits for the reply. Control here. Nothing has changed Jeb the window will approach in t-minus 4 hours. Said Donald. Jeb glad to hear that reply's Roger that. Any cha- Jeb gets interrupted by someone screaming. WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SAYING MY NAME! Shouts Roger into the headset. Everyone in the Command Center just stares at Roger. He stares back and slinks back into his chair. ~Silence~ .....Okay then... Command any chance of you guys delivering me some pizza I'm getting hungry. Jeb asks with his stomach rumbling. Felipe asks. Um, Sure thing Jeb. Any specific toppings? Hmm they have so many toppings its hard to decide... Lets go with their Superduperrocketmanoverlycoveredineverytoppingbutanchovies Pizza! Jeb says with a gluttonous expression. Felipe didn't catch any of that and asks. Um ... can you repeat that? Jeb happy to reply says. Sure I said order the Superduperrocketmanoverlycoveredineverytoppingbutanchovies Pizza!Felipe is completely confused asks. Um .. how do you spell that... Jeb tells Felipe, Just ask for Jeb's usual. Roger that.,Felipe tells Jeb. Frustrated by that, Roger shouts Thats it! He flips his desk and storms out of the room. Everyone just stares and goes back to work.. Jeb thinks to himself. Mmmm pizza.... Felipe feels for his wallet and pulls it out. he searches for his Kerbal Speedy Pizza Discount card. He doesn't see it. Alright where did my Kerbal Speedy Pizza Discount Card go he asks the room. Jeb Looking around outside spots something on hte edge of his helmet. After struggling around with his harness he grabs it. When he looks at it he notices its Felipe's Discount card. Jeb tells Felipe Uhm.... Found it. Felipe dumb founded by what Jeb just said asks. What, when... How did it get into the rocket ship? Felipe looks around the room. Alex Kerman looks a bit suspicious... Felipe agitated shouts at Alex. Alex why does Jeb have my ID! Startled and stuttering for words. I-I-I didn't do it! I-I-I-It was Chad! Alex points to Chad. Felipe looks in the direction and only see's a empty chair spinning in circles. Jeb asks. Uh... So how am I suppose to get this to you... Felipe thinks to himself for a minute and says. I'll send out the ground crew to extend the platform to you and grab it from you. Alright... Jeb replys, Want me to read the card info to you so you can call in the pizza? Felipe calmed down now reply's. Sure let me grab some paper. Felipe looks around for some paper. He grabs it off of Adrian's desk who's out on sick leave cause he got the Klu. Jeb reads the info off the card. Felipe Kerman, ID:1328-0KPO. Felipe jots it down onto the paper. He motions for the ground crew to go retrieve it while he orders the pizza. He then proceeds to call the pizza parlor. The phone rings for a minute and gets picked up. A teenage voice answers. Kerbal Speedy Pizza, where the pizza is just finished cooking when we deliver it to you. My name is Jordan, how can I help you? Yes I would like to place an order for 12 orders of hot and spicy chicken wings, 4 orders of Barbecue wings, 2 Large Cheese Pizza's 4 Large Meat lover's, 1 large vegetarian lover pizza and 1 order of Jeb's usual. Felipe reply's with a pause after each order. The phone is silent for a little bit then Jordan reply's back, Did you say 1 order of Jeb's usual? Felipe confirms what Jordan hears. Yes, Is their a problem? Sir do you know how much it costs? Asks Jordan. Felipe Sighing asks, how much? Jordan reply's, Jeb's pizza is a 1 meter pizza.... It costs $630 and takes 3 hours to cook.... Felipe's jaw drops. Can you hold on a minute? Felipe asks. Yeah I can hold. Jordan replys Felipe puts down the phone and puts on his headset. Jeb, he asks. Yes? Did you order my pizza? Jeb reply's. You do realize it takes 3 hours to make and costs $630 right? Yes? He reply's wondering why Felipe is even asked that. then he realizes what he just said and asks. Oh do you need the money? It's in my pants in my locker. Feel free to take out them money to pay for my pizza. Surprised on what Jeb just said Felipe Reply's. Oh no you can pay me back on return. Just wondering how you planned to fit a 1 meter pizza on the rocket... Theres silence for a few seconds and Jeb answers quickly. I'll find a way. Felipe is more concerned on how logn it will take to make and deliver. Jeb... He asks with a stern tone. The window is in 3 hours and 40 minutes... you would have less than 10 minutes to eat it, are you sure about this? Jeb chuckles, Yes I know. It will be fine trust me. Alright... Felipe replys with hesitation. He puts down his headset and picks up the phone. Jordan are you still there? Yes I am still here sir. Would you like to finalize the order? asks Jordan. Felipe replys. Yes I would please, I also have my KSP Id card here. Jordan answers. That's fine, but to warn you the cards discount doesn't cover Jebs usual. That's fine. The info is Felipe Kerman, ID:1328-0KPO. Felipe Reply's reading the card information. Alright Sir. you want the pizza's delivered to the Cafeteria? Yup, can you ask your driver to rush here? We have a launch in 3 hours 40 minutes. Jordan asks, A rush fee will cost an extra $60. The total comes to $870.19, Are you paying with cash or credit? Felipe answers with, Credit. Alright the driver will bring the receipt for you to sign. May I please have the card info. Asks Jordan. Felipe reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. taking out the credit card. Felipe begins to tell Jordan the Info. The numbers are -INFO RETRACTED TO PROTECT CREDIT CARD INFO- (Gotta prevent that identify theft!) After a few minutes goes by Jordan answers. Okay then the pizza will be their in about 3 hours give or take 20 mins's. Thank you sir for your business Well thank you for making great food. Felipe answers back. Jordan answers to the complement. Well thank you guys for ordering so much from us all the time! Felipe answers to the complement of the complement. Well Thank you for being polite! Jordan answers to the complement of the complement of that complement. You are welcome! Have a nice day and hope for the best with the launch! Felipe says thank you a few more times and hangs up the phone. 3 hours and 10 minutes later the pizza comes over. An announcement goes out over the loud speakers. Pizza has been delivered to the cafeteria. Ground crew please deliver Jeb's pizza to him before you go eat. Kerman at different times go and get their food. Having a good time. The ground crew having trouble loading the large pizza onto their golf cart strap it onto a wooden pallet and then to the roof of the cart. They travel slowly so they don't topple over. and minutes later they finally get there. They load the pizza onto the lift and raise up to the capsule. They open up the hatch and see Jeb standing there eagerly waiting for his pizza. Oh yeah my pizza! jeb claims out excitedly. Daniel looking worried about the size of the pizza asks Jeb. Um... How do wee get this in there? Jeb looks at the box and then inside the capsule and gets an idea. he moves things around in the capsule. Jeb then grabs the pizza box and starts to twist it and yank on it and wiggle it through the door. Finally after much effort and one last tug he pulls it through. Like that. Jeb reply's. Daniel and Ezequiel look dumb founded that he manged to get the box into their. Since the delivered the pizza they close the hatch and seal it shut. Jeb mutters something after they close the door. Ezequiel thought it was a thank you but wasn't sure. They both head back to the cafeteria for their food. Seven minutes to flight time Jeb is done with his pizza. He opens the hatch and throws the box outside so the ground crew doesn't have to come up to grab the box. He then seals the door shut. Everyone has enjoyed their pizza. The general checks his account balances and notices his credit card has a charge of $1044.23 on it from Kerbal Speedy Pizza. He quickly checks his wallet and notices his credit card missing. The general starts to take off to the control room that's on the opposite side of the complex. The loud speaker squawks T-Minus 1 minute to launch time Begin final checks. The General scared he won't make it in time. Runs into the VAB and gets into Daniel's golf cart and speeds off to the command room. The loud speaker squawks again T-Minus 40 seconds. The general sees the command room door! He honks the horn to get some Kermen out of his way! The loud speaker exclaims, T-Minus 20 seconds! The general slams into the door getting ejected through the doorway, tumbling end over end and smacking against a desk. Everyone scared by the noise thought the rocket exploded and looked at their screens to see Jeb still with us. Felipe runs over to the General to see if he is alright The General starts to pick himself up. A little rattled but he seems fine. Gentlemen! The General exclaims hastily , is the launch still on schedule The Loudspeaker Chimes in. T-Minus 10 seconds and counting Yes sir answers Felipe. Were still A-GO. The loud speaker announces, 9, 8 ,7 stopping the fuel transfer. General speaks under hurried breath, Good, now tell me who just charged $1044.23 to my Credit card? The General stands up. Caught off guard by the question Felipe starts to mutter. I um it uh was uh. The general barks, Out with it man! Loud Speaker announces, 6, 5, 4, 3 Initial Sequence start. Felipe scared shouts, It was Jeb sir! Surprised the general looks around the room and asks, What, where is Jeb? He is on the rocket sir! Felipe says in a hurry. Surprised by this The General runs over to his desk and grabs his radio. The general try's to get in contact with Jeb but his radio systems offline. He looks at the box and it has a sticky note on it saying. "Broken cause of Hot Coffee incident." Darn it! Exclaimed The General. Loud Speaker announces, 2, 1. As the timer hits 1 the rockets engines roar into life. The Loud Speaker announces Liftoff of Kelta 4 with payload SpaceLab Mark 1. Jeb is slammed to his seat. The pizza box outside on the ground catches on fire and flys away. The rocket starts to pull away from the launch pad. The Command center starts to cheer as the rocket lifts off. Soon they get back to monitoring the ships status. Though as the cheer begins to die down The General is getting annoyed. Felipe! He yells. Who is gonna pay me back for the pizza? Felipe staring at the monitors turns and faces The general. Well sir Jeb said he would pay me back when he returned in 7 days. Unless I needed the money then he gave permission for me to go into his locker and pull the money out of his wallet. He explains to The General. Well when radio contact is established come get me from my office. The General says angry. The General storms off, slamming the door behind him. The door falls off the hinges. Everyone just stares at The General. He just sighs under his breath and continues to storm off. The rocket is 3000 meters in the air now. Felipe sighs in relief that The General is gone for now. Felipe looks around the room snapping his fingers to get attention. He asks Marco, Status? Marco quickly looks at Felipe and back to his monitors and tells Felipe. All Green across the board Sir. Jens is fixing the radio antenna and we expect it done shortly. Felipe lets out a sigh of relief. Good, Lets hope for Jeb's sake we stay out of radio contact a little bit longer. He replays. Time feels like it goes so much slower for Jeb as he sits in the cockpit pressed up into his chair. The clouds just wiz on by. He loses himself in them for a little bit but then the computer chimes in. The on-board navigation computer crackles into life. It begins its routine and says. Begin rollover in T-minus 3 seconds. Jeb reaches for the controls. Grabbing them firmly. ready to begin. NaVi starts to count down, 3, 2, 1, Execute rollover. Jeb starts to yank the stick and begins the rollover. Soon he is in position. He looks at all his instruments. Everything is in the green except.... Jeb looks and notices the light is off on the Strut monitor for the orbiting rocket. He try's to radio the KCC but remembers their radio is in repairs. He taps on the glass and the light flickers on and off. Must be a blown bulb. Jeb says to himself. He pays no mind to it. The altimeter starts to spin faster and faster has he blows through the atmosphere. 24000 meters then in a blink of an eye hes at 29000 meters. Soon enough Jeb is at 80,000 meters and begins to circularize the orbit. Mid way through the orbit the radio crackles to life. KCC to Kelta 4, KCC to Kelta 4. The radio chimes. Jeb reaches and flips the radio on. When he flips the switch the lights flicker on and off in the cabin. Jeb looks around for a sec. Then he speaks back. Kelta 4 to KCC, How was the pizza? Felipe puts on his headset and says. It was great Jeb though the general didn't like us using his card. Jeb chuckles to himself. Yeah I'll pay him back for the pizza when I return. By the way I've been having some instrument glitches and power fluctuations here. Anything off down their? Felipe can hear that Jeb is concerned over this in his tone of voice. Felipe looks around the room and everyone is giving a thumbs up except Donald. Felipe shouts to Donald. Hey, Donald whats wrong. Donald turns around and says. I have multiple sensor failures on the strut monitors for the orbiting engine and a power drain of 7%. Felipe looks back at the main screen. How do you feel up th- Before Felipe is able to finish his sentence. sensor alarms start to ring out in the pod and in the Command room. Donald alarmed by what he says screams. THE STRUTS ARE FAILING. Before Donald is able to finish their is a large bang noise that comes through the radio. All the instruments in the command room go silent. Jeb being the one who is in the ship. Is very scared at what he just heard and felt, he expects the worst is happening. He looks at the instruments for clues but they are dark. They are no longer showing anything. The only light source is from Kerbol. Ah.... this is not good. He mutters to himself. Jeb attempts to get the radio back on but its no good. The radio is out of power. He thinks to himself about what to do next. He remembers that in the event of total power loss that it will get pretty cold in the ship soon. He unstraps himself from the seat and wanders over to the storage box in the corner. He pulls out a flash light and grabs a Battery from the box. He also pulls out a small toolbox. His face is determined now. He heads over to the radio and takes off the covers. After fiddling around with the wires he connects the battery to the radio. The radio cracks on. All he hears though is static. He try's to reach KCC but its no good. The radio must have been hit. He thinks to himself and stares at the airlock. Looks like its time for a walk, he says under heavy breath. Jeb closes the radio up and turns it off. He turns the flash light off and puts it in his utility pouch. He ties the tool box to his belt too. He looks around the room to make sure there is nothing else that could get sucked out. He see's nothing else so he precedes to release the airlock. As the ships air gets sucked out Jeb thinks if everything will be alright. He wasn't in a stable orbit when the accident happened. Meanwhile in the KCC the crew is in a panic. They have no idea if Jeb is alive or dead, they've got no eyes on him at the moment. Felipe makes an announcement on the Loud speaker. Alert to all personnel Felipe chokes up a little bit as he begins to speak. An accident has accrued upon Kelta 4. It is unknown on Jeb's condition at this time. As is procedure the KCC doors will be locked and only key personnel will be able to enter. The General is in the can when he hears this. He quickly finishes up and pulling up his pants while running out of the bathroom. A toilet paper trail following him. The people that were enjoying their pizza in the cafeteria Shocked by what they hear they loss their appetite The general reaches the KCC doors and uses his keycard to get in. Whats the situation people. The General says. We are 2 minutes without contact Sir. Nearest satellite will be in visual range within 20 minutes. Felipe says with a heavy heart. Well what went wrong? The General asks the room. Donald stands up and says. Their was a strut failure on the orbital engine. When it was lost we speculate the engine started to swing and then slammed into the hull causing the loud thud that we heard. This swinging caused to much stress on the hull causing everything to shear off. The air now fully drained from the pod open the hatch the rest of the way and climbs out. As he does he see's debris every where. He looks towards the rear of the ship and ducking just in time to doge a chunk of metal whizzing by his head. As he gets back up and closes the hatch behind him. He just sees the scrap metal that was his engine. Jeb turns his helmets light on and heads to the front of the craft to get to the antennae. As he shuffles through debris, he wonders what happened. He thinks to back just before launch. when he threw the pizza box out the hatch... he wonders if the box whacked something on its way down. I thought I gave it a good throw, mumbles Jeb. As Jeb reaches the antennas he notice that the wires were severed. He cuts the bad wires off and puts on some new ones. making sure the splice will hold for a while. He then starts to head back. As he reaches the hatch he feels a shudder, Jeb looks up to notice some more debris heading his way. Quickly Jeb lets go of the ship as the debris wiz by inches from his face. Phew, That was a close one! Jeb lets out a sigh of relief. He then proceeds to reach for the door but hes just out of reach. He grabs his jetpack controls and gives himself a little nudge towards the door. As he reaches the door he wonders if their is anything to salvage from the debris and heads towards the rear of the ship. As he pushes through the debris he notices that a storage compartment is intact! he pries it open to reveal a small solar panel just big enough to charge the radio and a few other spare parts. He puts them into his toolbox and continues onward. He notices that the RCS tank is leaking out. He reaches it and shuts off the valves. Gotta save what I can. Jeb says.He goes to see if any of the batteries are intact. As he reaches to where they are he sees mostly a mess. He shoves away the broken stuff and finds two batteries that are damaged but Jeb thinks he can make at least one working one out of it. Jeb puts them into a bag on his side. Looking around the debris field he sees nothing of interest so he decides to head back. Jeb climbs out of the debris carefully so he doesn't lose any of his prizes. It feels like forever when he finally reaches the hatch. Before jeb enter he thinks it would be a good idea to check the heat shield. He turns around dodging a few more scraps of metal. He inspects the heat shield He cant see to far in though since the pod is still bolted to the ship. Seeing everything he cares to see he heads back to the hatch again. Jeb opens the hatch and climbs in. he pulls in his bag and toolbox. He closes the hatch and watches as a few more pieces of debris whiz pass the door. Jeb peals out the solar panel and sticks it into the window where the sun is. Taping it in place. He drapes the wires across the console and to the radio where he plugs it into the battery. Jeb turns on the radio. Fiddling with the tuner he starts to hear stuff beside static. It's the KCC! KCC to Kelta 4, Come in Delta 4, Over. Jeb happy to hear their voice plugs into the radio and with a happiness he hasn't felt since his delicious pizza earlier. Jeb Speaks. Kelta 4 here, over. The KCC roars with happiness as they hear jeb speak. feeling the worse had happen. Felipe tells Jeb. Oh thank God your alive. Jeb chuckles to himself. Yeah, Well you can't get rid of me that easily. The General gets on the radio and says. Jeb, my boy what is the situation up their? As The General finishes to say this Felipe Announces on the Loud speaker that Jeb has made contact and is currently Okay. The entire complex now roars into life. Jeb turns to look out the hatches window and sighs heavily. Its not good sir. The ship is gone. I've managed to salvage a few pieces here and their but most of the ship is gone. Jeb says heavy breath and all. I see, do you have any idea if you completed your orbit or not? The General says with a bit of sadness in his voice. After all this rocket was to test a new orbiting engine. Um, I am unsure of that Sir. The last I knew I was in a 80/66 kilometer orbit. Jeb says with a calm voice. Jeb begins to work on the batteries he salvaged. hoping that they will have enough power to boot the Navigation equipment long enough to give him useful information. We have a satellite nearing visual range of you. it will be their in about 3 minutes. How is your air reserves handling? The General still sounds concern. Jeb looks at his suits monitor and it says hes at 97% air left and his suits battery is reading at 96% charged. After some thinking Jeb says, I've got about 8 hours left in reserve. The KCC crew are all concern now. 8 hours is out of their range for a rescue attempt if Jeb is in a stable orbit. Jeb feels the pod shake around him. the radio goes out again. He attempts to talk to The General but its no use. He shuts off the power and unjacks his radio from it. he puts the cord away. He finishes up the battery. Hmm... Its working... though it only has about half of its charge left... Hope it will be enough. Jeb detaches the solar panel wires from the radio and hooks them into the battery. He straps the battery to his seat. I'm a let you charge while I go for a little stroll quips Jeb. Jeb seals up his tool box and puts away his bag. he then looks around the cabin to make sure nothing is floating around. He turns on his helmet light and proceeds to the hatch. Opening it ever so slightly so the small amount of air that is in it gets pulled out. He looks out of the hatch to see if anything is coming. It seems clear so he climbs out of the hatch and shuts it. He starts to climb to the antennae. He sees the hull has a few new dents in it as he climbs up. He reaches the antennae only to see that it is now gone. Dammit, Debris must of hit it off...Jeb sees a metal rod a few feet into space. Hmm it should work as a replacement, Jeb says to himself. He attaches a safty harness to the ladder and then jumps for the rod. He grabs a hold of it. He attaches it to his utility pouch and then pulls himself back to the ship. He proceeds to attach it to where the old antennae used to be. He sees a small metal box float past him and he reaches out to grab it. He puts it over the antennae and attaches it to the ship too. Hopefully you can help protect this one. Jeb says to the box. Jeb finishes attaching the 2 pieces to the ship. He then heads back inside after he detaches his safety harness from the ladder. As he climbs inside and turns off his helmet he closes the hatch. Proceeding to the Radio he turns it back on and jacks into it. He hears Felipe trying to contact him. KCC to Kelta 4, KCC to Kelta 4 Over. Jeb flips his headset on and says. Heeeeey their good buddy that's a big ten four. Had a bit of trouble with the misses but we made up. The guys couldn't help but laugh at the horrible impression that Jeb just tried to do. Felipe motions for them all to calm down. The satellite is gathering information right now. we have the first images. It is not a pretty sight. Said Felipe. I know it isn't I just had to swim through it again. Jeb said sighing. I just finished repairing a battery. I was planning to hook it up to the NaVi and seeing if I can get my bearings. Whats its charge at right now? Asks Felipe. Um... Let me find out. Jeb says to Felipe while heading over to the battery. It is at about 57% charge. I have it hooked up to a little solar panel at the moment. Jeb puts his hand to his helmet making a attempt at rubbing his chin with no avail.. Felipe gets some paperwork from a Engineer. It show what they all feared. The ship is torn to pieces worse then they thought. The main engine and fuel is gone. the only thing that looks mostly intact is a RCS tank 2 RCS thrusters and the command pod. Jeb, Felipe try's to get Jebs attention but Jeb is thinking of a song so his mind is else where. JEB! Felipe shouts out. Jeb startled by it snaps out of it and responds yes Felipe? Is everything All right up their? Felipe asks concerned. Yeah everything is fine. Jeb answers back. Was thinking of a song right then. Whats up? We just got the data from the satellite What we can see is that most of the ship is gone except a RCS tank, 2 RCS thrusters on the north and east sides and that battery you salvaged. Also the engineers think the battery will be able to run the NaVi computer long enough to get your relative data at 67% charge and full data at 82%. They want me to remind you to make sure their is no shorts in the computer or you will bleed power. We also recommend once you get your data to use your remaining power to have the RCS thrusters take you out of the Debris cloud. Felipe says all of that in one go. Well that might be a bit of a problem Felipe... Jeb says with a little hesitation in his voice. Why is that? Felipe asks. Jeb explains, when I went to go repair the Radio the first time I also went and salvaged some parts. The RCS when I found it was leaking out. So a pipe is severed along the line somewhere. Any ideas on how to bypass the Junction? Felipe turns to the engineers. Donald tells the both of them. Well tell you when we have an answer.The General barks out. Well be quick about it we have no idea if Jeb's orbit is stable or not! Jeb looks at the battery its at 59% charged. Jeb remembers about something in the box and goes over to it. scrounging around he finds a hand crank charger. He checks to see his suits power and its at 26%. Uh, That can't be good. Guys my suits power is at 26%. I should be around 92% charged.. I'm going to attempt to connect a hand-charger to this suit and charge it by hand while I wait for the battery to charge. Jeb said to KCC. The KCC team is even more concerned. IF Jeb's suit runs out of power he'll freeze to death. Roger that Jeb. Felipe acknowledging Jebs last message. From a distance Jeb can hear a guy scream ARGH WHY DOES EVERYONE USE MY NAME LIKE THAT. Has to be Roger Jeb thought to himself... Jeb cranks the hand charger while waiting for the battery to get to 88% charged. That way he could have a window for the RCS if he needed to use it. As time goes on he occasional checks his power level and the battery's. Eventually the battery reaches 88% charged. Jebs suit is at 32% though so all the time he spent cranking didn't give much. Jeb goes and checks on the radios battery too and its at 56% charged. Jeb squawks in to tell KCC the good news. Kelta 4 to KCC. The battery is done charging im going to be hooking it up to the NaVi. Felipe glad to hear the news tells Jeb. Good to hear it. The engineers finished mulling over the question about the junction and they say yes you can. There should be some spare hose in the storage box next to the RCS tank. You can use them to bypass the leak. Jeb sighs in relief about that. He pulls off the solar panels wires from the battery and connects them to his suit. He then starts to hand crank a little bit faster. after 5 minutes he checks his suits power level. Its at 42%. Jeb attaches the wires of the solar panel to the radios battery. He then tells Felipe that he will be going on a EVA and plans to shut off the radio to let it charge faster. Felipe acknowledges that with a Alright. We'll be watching. Over and out. Jeb shuts off the radio. Searching around the room for anything floating around. He sees nothing and proceeds for the hatch. He puts away the hand charger. Since his powers low he pulls out the little flashlight he has and straps it to his wrist with tape. As he opens the hatch slowly a small whoosh noise is made by the little bit of air in the pod. Jeb checks to see if theirs any debris coming. There isn't so he climbs out and shuts the hatch. He starts to climb down the ladder. Jeb sees a glint to his right and he looks that way to see one of the pods parachutes floating away. Oh that can not be good. Jeb says to himself. Jeb readies himself and jumps lightly for it. Slowly traveling to it. He reaches out and grabs it. He turns on his RCS and gives himself a small burst to get back to the ship. He turns off his RCS and climbs up to the hatch. He opens the hatch and puts the parachute inside for now. Jeb closes the hatch and heads back to the RCS tank. He gets to the storage compartment, pulls it open and takes out the hoses. he stuffs them into his bag and shuts the door. He then proceeds to the junction box and starts to decouple the pipe fittings. He connects the 2 good RCS fuel lines to the RCS tank and opens the valve. Jeb doesn't see any leaks anymore. He thinks to himself. Maybe its fixed, but I should hurry back cause I don't know if it is or not and I could be leaking fuel. Jeb gets back inside the ship and turns off the flashlight on his hand. He turns on the radio and checks its power seeing it says 100%. He unconnects the wires and puts them on his suit. He checks the power on the Battery and its holding at 88%. Jeb radios to KCC. Kelta 4 to KCC, Kelta 4 To KCC. I just finished with the RCS and if you noticed. I found a little friend on my walk. Yeah, we say you grabbing what looked to be a Radial parachute. Is it intact? asks Felipe. The chasing has a few scrapes and a dent but no obvious breaks in the metal. Can you guys see if the other parachute is still their? Jeb asks politely. Felipe motions for the crew to start to see if the other parachute is missing or not. They see it attached to the ship still. Relieved by it too. Its still attached Jeb. Jeb sighs with relief. Jeb shuts off all the switches before he starts to attach the battery to the NaVi. Jeb then finishes connecting the wires and flips the switch the switch. The NaVi Starts to come online! Jeb connects the solar panel to the battery to help it out. As the NaVi runs through its start up Jeb checks hsi suits power level. Its at 62%. Finally the NaVi finishes starting up and starts to attempt to find where it is. The guys at the KCC cheer as the NaVi sends them connection messages as it starts to communicate with the KCC to find its information. As it gets closer and closer to its Data the power keeps draining away. All of a sudden the alarms start to go off in the cockpit. The sensors on the ship are telling the NaVi theirs problems all over. Jeb flips off the master alarm and starts to take wires off so they wont use up the precious power. The NaVi Finishes its calculations and beeps. Jeb stares at it and sees that his orbit is at 69,730 Meters on the periapsis. relieved as he can be he radios the good news. My orbit is JUST barely stable. The crew cheer to hear that. Jeb looks at his power level. Its at 11% left. He quickly fiddles with the Computer to find out the best time to burn with the RCS. The burn is coming up in about 20 seconds. He needs to burn for 12 seconds. Jeb relays all this info to the ground crew who write it down for him. He then powers down all most all of the NaVi except the RCS controls. He uses the controls and gives a small ammount of thrust to get the ship out of the debris cloud. As 20 seconds approaches. Jeb hopes it works. He ties down the parachute real quick and the battery for the computer too. He then straps himself in. He grabs the controls and starts to fire the RCS. He burns and burns. Felipe counts down for when Jeb should stop his burn. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Jeb stops his burn and shuts off the remaining power to the computer. Jeb tells Felipe that the computer says it will take 6 minutes for reentry to acquire. Jeb disconnects the battery and the solar panel from the computer and connects it to himself. He then waits a minute for it to charge up. He looks at his power gauge and it reads 82%. Jeb takes everything off and puts the solar panel and the hand crank in the storage box. closing the lid afterwords. Jeb tells Felipe that he is going for one last space walk. So he can attach the parachute to the ship. Jeb turns on his wrist light and heads outside. He looks around and sees hes drifted a good 30 meters from the debris field. He goes over to the side that lost its parachute. Its just a bare spot on the metal of where it was. a noticeable gouge can be seen though of where the parachute got hit. Jeb reattaches the parachute to the ship and rewiring it too. using the last of the mini welder fuel he has left. Finished with the weld, He puts his equipment away and grabs a hold of the ladder. Jeb turns on his jetpack and starts to rotate the ships nose upwards. Since the ship has no power to do it on it's own. He then proceeds to the decoupler. he holds onto the ladder and pulls on the explosive bolts manual release. Jeb gets away from the panels and 5 seconds after the decoupler bolts fire releasing the pod from the ship. Jeb uses his jetpack to push the pod away from the wreckage. he checks his RCS fuel. He has only 8% left. He shuts off his jetpack and his light then he quickly hurrys back inside. There is less than 2 minutes to reentry Jeb makes sure everything is secure in the pod. Jeb turns on the controls to just the parachutes. Soon the descent begins. Jeb says to the guys back home. Be back soon. The radio goes silent. As Jeb plunges into the atmosphere he prays that the pod hold together After all his hard work. TO be done in by the reentry really would suck after all. Jeb watches the Altimeter. It springs to life at 67,000 Meters. he's going down at 1200 meters per second. Soon hes at 52,000 meters and the ships starting to decelerate quickly. Jeb hits 32,000 meters. the ships going at 600 Meters per second. Then the ship hits 22,000 Meters. Jeb fire the broken parachute to help slow the decent. 14,000 meters the ship has decelerated to 300 meters per second. When the ship finally reaches 3000 meters Jeb opens the other parachute. The pod's speed starts to drop very quickly. Eventually the pod reaches 600 meters and Jeb hears a loud BANG as the broken parachute rips off the pod. a few seconds later Jeb feels a hard tug. His altimeter says hes at 300 Meters and he is going down at roughly 7 meters per second. Then the pod touches down! The landing was a success The KCC roars in to excitement as they watched the entire thing unfold. Felipe and The General. get on board of a plane and take off to get to Jeb. almost and hour goes by when they arrive. The capsules hatch still in place. Felipe looks through some binoculars and see's the antennae melted off in the plunge. He sees a flashing glint in the window. It's Morse Code! Felipe reads it out loud for all to hear. I am hungry. I am hungry. Can we order another Pizza?

CHAPTER 2 LOW KERBIN ORBIT – MUN LANDING *** - I repeat, we've achieved a stable orbit. When should we expect the Dragon with the rest of our crew? - „Proteusâ€Â, this is Space Station Epsilon. We have some technical problems with the launcher, so there will be a change of plan – instead of waiting for the Dragon, you'll randezvous with the LAMGML and proceed afterwards according to the phase 1 plan. - Problems with Dragon? Who could anticipate that? - In the meantime check all the systems. Bill out. - Yeah… Good thing we have you, BERTY. I assume that you can help us with this checking thing? - This is correct, commander. - Commander? Since when? - Since today, Ned. We've just started the mission and there will be quite a few people with the rank of captain. Let's get to work, the sooner we finish, the sooner we will be on the Mun! - Well, well, it's nice to be finally onboard. What, your not going to welcome me Jeb? - Welcome aboard. - Cheer up, commander. BERTY, status report. - All systems operational. We are GO for trans-Mun injection, captain Bob. - Splendid. Prepare the ship to Mun transfer, Jeb. Cambo, Fertop, follow me. - Transfer window opens in 20 seconds, commander. - Thanks BERTY. - Hey Jeb, be gentle with the throttle, shall you? - I know how to fly this ship, Bob! - Err, Jeb? He said “gentleâ€Â, and the computer shows me that the projected g-force will be… - Hush, Ned. - 5 seconds, commander. - And here we go! - I said gentle, goddammit! - Repeat Bob, I can't hear you. - Mun transfer completed. That was efficient manouever commander, but the g-force did exceed the limits set for the comfort of the crew. - Thanks for you pointing this out, BERTY, I'll try to remember about it next time. - Commander, we should start turning the „Proteus†for the braking burn. - Good point, BERTY. Can you do this? - Naturally. - Mun looks much more better from here. I've never performed any EVA in a gravity field different than on Kerbin, neither did Sid. I mean, I don't count the EVA in an orbital freefall. You know Jeb, I'm not so sure if this is a good idea that we three should land. We're not so young and… Jeb? Jeb, are you listening? - Low orbit achieved, commander. - Yay! Man, I feel like 30 years younger being here. - Have you heard anything of what I've just said? - Yup and I say we're going. Where is the better place for low-g training anyway? BERTY, pump the fuel to the lander and take care of the ship. - Affirmative, commander. I have a message from the captain Bob. He requests your presence in the crew module 3 before departure. - Err, tell him I'm busy now; I'll talk with him when we're back. - We've undocked. All right fellas, I'm going to take you for the ride of your life. - You know, last time when you said something similar it didn't really end very well. - Gosh you're grumpy, Ned. But it will pass soon, mark my words. Okay, I'm unfolding the solar panels…. - And we're on course. Man, this is a really good ship. Very manoeuvrable, powerful, efficient, light. Can one want more? - Some bigger windows, perhaps. - Ned, the LAMGML is also capable of aerobraking or landing on the planets with atmosphere, it can have bigger windows, its a structural weakness. You should now that as an engineer. But here, take a look through this periscope. - Final descent phase. Few more minutes and we will be on the Mun, pals! - And touchdown! - I have to admit that the view is amazing. Shall we prepare to the EVA? - Yeah guys, you first – I have to run some tests first. Don't wait for me, I was here few decades earlier after all. - This is awesome! It's even better than the training on the space station! - Be more careful, Ned, you can easily trip over here. - And the Kerbin is so big! It looks marvelous. Wait for me! - Okay, I finished. Where are you guys? In the front of the ship. You can probably see us through the periscope. - There you are. Wait a moment, I'll make you some nice pictures. - Smile! Perfect. - See, I told ya. Mun is great. - And you have experienced this more than 30 years ago? Now I'm really jealous. - Yeah, it's good to be back. - Are we going to pick up some rocks? - Only if you want to have some souvenirs, Sid. This is the most extensively examined celestail body in the system, I doubt we will find anything useful. The other planets on the other hand… - Get in, we don't have that much oxium for a prolonged EVA. Wait, where is Ned? - I LOVE LOW GRAVITY! - Ned! Be careful, this is less than a third of Kerbin's gravity but the fall can still be painful and you can damage your spacesuit. Ned, slow down. Ned! - Oh my Kod! Is he hurt? - Ned, answer me! Are you all right? Ned! - I've never felt better! - Man, you scared us. Come back to the lander right now! - All right, all right. But our planet is so incredibly beautiful that this is really the last thing I want to… - Righ now I said. - Ech, okay. - Are you sure you are all right? - Come on, I may be old but I'm not dead. Couple of bruises is not enough to stop me from exploring. When we will reach Minmus? - Soon enough. But before we take off there is one more thing to do here. - What do you mean? - Science, Sid. - Oh I get it, we have to check the sensors. - Exactly. Now, I will enter our landing site to the database for the future generations… and done. - Jeb, I have to tell you something. - What is it Ned? - This may sound strange but… I think I'm starting to have a good feeling about our mission. - I feel you, buddy. This won't end like „Kadmosâ€Â, I can promise you that. MISSION STATUS ***

You can also mount a space elevator to the ocean floor in international waters and build a big oil rig type platform around it. Although, I think there has been a lot of talk about stability problems with the elevator as soon as you try and actually move something up and down it. I have my doubts we'll see it in our life time and I personally hope we never mass produce anti matter, just too dangerous. Fusions power and VASMIR engines would help getting things around cheaper once in space and really open up manned space flight to other planets. There is one idea that seems to have faded away in resent years that I think could be a more attainable alternative to the space elevator. Using lasers to lift payloads into orbit. I think on a technical level it could be done much sooner than the elevator.

Well. This much is obvious. You either understand where i'm coming from with this, or you don't. You apparently don't. Which means continuing this discussion would be about as fruitful as a discussion on religion or politics.. Where both sides are eager to talk, but neither will listen. So i'm out.

THIS IS, my 0.18 wish list Features: Polished IVA (All internals finished and internal movement started (like moving around in the rocket) More Parts (Simple Enough, I mainly want more jets and space-plane parts) (Also, jets that don't work on kerbin, but work on places like Duna and Eve.) More Planets/Moons (Also pretty simple, I mainly want more unique planets, like the crystal moon in Nova's dev blog) More Kerbal Animations (Just more animations (What I really want is you click a button and you kerbal does a pose... thing, like in TF2) More Scenes With Gene And Wernher Kerman (Kinda like the "At Kerbal Space Center" video, whenever you start a new save or make your first rocket/plane, land somewhere else, or blow up, you get a little video from Gene or Wernher.) More Kerbal Flight Cam Videos (Right now when we have a flight the only thing we see the kerbals do is be happy, be normal or be freaking out. I would like more.) Weather/Clouds (Not necessarily physical weather yet, just aesthetic weather. Like clouds.) Kerbal Voices (In flight kerbals do nothing but nothing. I would like for them to talk every once in a while or when something blows up, ETC.) Bug Fixes None now. Other Shenanigans: Graphics Card Physics Acceleration (I don't know if this is possible with unity but if it is that would help everyone, MASSIVELY. I will probably add more over time.

It started with Toribash (go check it out, it's free), where my username was adjective followed by something like a fruit, plant, or vegetable, and both starting with the same letter. My ranking would go up, but never my actual skill; because of how the ranking system works, I ended up restricted to playing with people who a) were far better than me. were absolutely no fun to talk to (which, in a game with several people, you end up doing more often than fighting) There are also custom games without rank regulation, but I'd have to browse the custom games for quite a few minutes to find a game I wasn't instantly kicked from. I had to create a new account, and after going through this cycle several times (KannedKiwis, OddOrange, FiredFicus), I reached LucidLemon and I've used the name for everything else since.

Granted, but nobody can talk now, or even usher a wish. I wish for the new season of DR who to begin.

Hi there, I'm sure I'm not the first one to play with this and sorry, I've not read the 76 pages of comments, so ignore me if it's boring or tell me where I should talk about this if here is not the right place. So I've written a Node.js script to generate maps using the elevation csv files of MapSat. I'm building my maps by drawing layers of geohashes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash ) , which allow me to interpolate values for the aeras around my mesure points, and it also gives us a mesurement of the precision for the map. ( Currently it generates 6400x3200p png files which you can find there: http://construct.ath.cx/~case/ksp_maps/ ) Here is the result for Kerbin, with a medium quality coverage on most parts, and high quality strips (I've to collect more data) (full size: http://construct.ath.cx/~case/ksp_maps/Kerbin_5_both.png ) The brightness represents elevation,and the color the precision of the mesure. Here is a closeup of this map, elevation only: (you can see a high def zone on the left) I've also mapped Laythe, but my orbit was far from polar, which explains th big squares on the poles here: (full size: http://construct.ath.cx/~case/ksp_maps/Laythe_5_both.png ) And here is a very partial map of the Mun, showing how the map is built from different sizes of geohashes: (full size: http://construct.ath.cx/~case/ksp_maps/Mun_5_both.png) If I continue working on this, I'll maybe try to rely on a database instead of plain files, maybe to agregate my own data with others in a single database, and what would be fun and not very difficult from the code I have : a tile based website to explore KSP bodies, Google Map style... Thanks for your attention, and kudos to Innsewerants for this incredible mod!

I'll put in a second vote for the Ender's Game series, the final books were certainly not as strong and much harder to read but they had a very important and valuable theme. The Ender's Shadow spinoffs that I've read so far were awesome, Bean is such a great character. I feel like Card really researches the hell out of his books too, they're believable. I'll also add my voice to the tumult for Star Trek, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica. I thought BSG got weaker towards the end but that happens to lots of shows so I wasn't surprised. If we can talk about video games in here as well, I'd suggest anyone play through the Mass Effect series. I spent more hours of my life with Shepard and friends than I care to admit, but the narrative and themes in those games transcended the medium. It's funny when a game can make you relate to real world issues; celebrating diversity, racism, political maneuvering, etc. The ending disappointed me, but I refuse to let that sour the overall experience. And now I've gone off-topic, drat.