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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: ALMOST THERE On the surface of Kerbin, the sun was setting on the Wynter Kerman Industrial Airfield outside of Owl City. Originally a small industrial town, it eventually expanded into a fully functioning city that included a few schools, several parks and community centers – including its own library system – and many businesses, both small and large. The city’s most prominent business, and the reason for the city’s very existence, was the WinterOwl Aircraft Emporium. It was founded long ago, in the early decades of aviation, by a rebellious engineer named Wynter Kerman. Her company was often laughed at due to its founder being a woman, but it soon earned a reputation for consistently producing quality propeller-driven planes. When jet-powered aircraft became popular on Kerbin, WinterOwl shifted its focus to delivering small civil jets, though it still produced props. Sometimes, it would assist other companies in their research and development projects; for example, it recently accepted a partnership with C7 Aerospace in building a spaceplane capable of landing on all five of Jool’s moons. Today, WinterOwl is the oldest aircraft manufacturing company that’s still operational. Wynter Kerman the Fourth, the current CEO of WinterOwl Aircraft Emporium, was sitting alone in the executive catwalk office of Hangar SP2. Many years ago, when WinterOwl accepted contracts for roles in spaceplane projects, the airfield underwent heavy renovation to accommodate the new spaceplanes, which included increasing the runway size and building some new hangars. This evening, Hangar SP2 – “SP” for “Spaceplane,” since it was one of the hangars that was built during the renovation – was housing the latest prototype of the T-6 Cannonball. It was a large spaceplane that could land on the surface of Minmus before refueling itself with its drills and ISRU equipment. According to the kerbalnauts who tested the T-6, it would have enough delta-V to blast off straight to Jool after leaving Minmus’ sphere of influence. Of course, they never actually sent it to Jool since the Kerbal Space Program wanted them to test re-entry and landing on Kerbin. The emergency cabin ejection system had already been tested before the mission, but the crew was able to return the spaceplane without any problems. Recently, Wynter had received an urgent message from Val that Misty Kerman would attempt to steal the T-6 Cannonball soon. Although Wynter was honored to get a direct communication from one of the Famous Four, she dismissed Val’s warning. In her reply, she restated the commonly held belief that nobody could have survived the capsule explosion from over a year ago. The inability of the recovery crews to find kerbal remains was to be expected, as Misty’s and Jeb’s Senior’s bodies most likely disintegrated during re-entry. Regarding Victor’s claim that he saw Misty, Wynter scoffed at the idea that Val “… took the word of a convicted war criminal that some random woman passing by was a ghost.” As for the spaceplane’s security, Wynter assured Val that stealing it and taking it to Jool was impossible – even if someone other than Misty was to attempt it. Since it was a brand-new aircraft, it would be difficult for a thief to figure out how to work all the complex controls before getting caught. Wynter even joked that a thief was more likely to detach the cabin before taking off. On the off-chance that someone did manage to achieve low-Kerbin orbit, however, not only would the aircraft be tracked, but the military would be scrambling to intercept it immediately. Furthermore, the farthest it could go was the surface of Minmus before it had to refuel, and even that would take days whereas soldiers stationed on Minmus would be able to reach it in hours at a maximum. Although the T-6 was capable of docking with other spacecraft – even though it shouldn’t have to for the mission it was designed for, which was landing on all five of Jool’s moons without outside help – orbital refueling stations would be on full alert. It would not be mistaken for a legitimate spacecraft in need of fuel, as its design was brand-new and hence recognizable. Wynter sighed as she leaned on the window, looking at the T-6. WinterOwl Aircraft Emporium had already made all sorts of iconic aircraft in the past, but its spotlight was slowly fading thanks to the prominence of larger jet-powered airliners, supersonic aircraft, and spacecraft. Should the T-6 prove successful in landing on and taking off from all five of Jool’s moons – especially Tylo – before returning to Kerbin, it would cement WinterOwl’s legacy in the space travel industry; C7 Aerospace was already famous for other contributions to the Kerbal Space Program. The two companies would also make a lot of money producing and selling more T-6 Cannonballs to anyone who dared travel to Jool’s moons, and with complete mission independence too – albeit at a higher price than usual. The companies would also profit from maintenance contracts when the spaceplanes returned to Kerbin, and WinterOwl was planning on training kerbalnauts bound for Jool to perform regular maintenance on the spaceplanes. The entire project was a long and risky endeavor, but the rewards for completing it were too great to ignore. “Turn around, and you’re dead,” a woman’s voice whispered behind her. “Who are…?” asked Wynter, but she felt something press hard against her back. “This is loaded,” the voice warned her. “If you scream or reach for your pockets, I’ll shoot.” “Okay,” said Wynter. “What do you want?” “I know you have a T-6 Cannonball in that hangar,” her assailant began. “We are going for a ride in that thing.” “That’s a pretty specific request,” Wynter observed. “Why THAT plane?” “Well, I have specific plans for that thing.” “What are they?” “All in good time,” her captor assured, “but first, you are going to do everything I say.” “Oh, no, Val was right,” sighed Wynter. “What? Val?” Wynter wanted to turn around to see her captor’s face, but she knew that she would end up with a bullet in her spine if she did. “Never mind that child. If you deviate from what I want, I will not hesitate to kill you.” “Then what do you want?” “First, you are going to order a full pre-flight check on your most successful T-6 Cannonball prototype. After that, you will order all runways cleared from now until the next day. Don’t even think about getting me a prototype that will FAIL, because you’re going down with it if it does.” “Okay, I understand,” sighed Wynter. “I’ll need my cell phone for this, though. It’s in my jacket pocket.” “Then get it out slowly. If I think you’re getting a weapon or calling for help, you’re dead.” Wynter obeyed, and carefully showed her captor her cell phone. “Hey, uh… Ray,” she stammered nervously. “Yes, boss?” a man replied. “Which prototype has had the highest success streak so far?” “Let me look… Version Eight, mam. We just need the okay to roll it out to the market.” “Is it in the hangar you’re in now?” the lady with the gun whispered, and Wynter repeated the question. “Yes.” “Good, then I want a complete pre-flight inspection of that thing done,” ordered Wynter. “Wait, now?” “Yes, now.” “Tell them you want that thing ready immediately,” the woman with the gun demanded, and Wynter complied. “Okay, then,” answered Ray, then he hung up. “Miss, it’s going to be a while before their inspection is finished,” said Wynter. “Does your airfield have a runway with a heading of 90 degrees?” the assailant asked her. “Yes, we do,” Wynter responded. “Then clear the runways now.” Wynter then dialed Air Traffic Control. “Yes, Mrs. Wynter.” “I want all runways cleared now,” she demanded. “Wait, all of them? Now?” The man at ATC responded. “Yes, now,” clarified Wynter before her captor leaned in closer. “Ask them how long and wide Runway 0-9 is,” she whispered. “Let me hear his answer.” “Oh… and one other thing,” said Wynter. “What is the length and width of Runway 0-9?” “The east-west runway is 3 kilometers long and 70 meters wide.” “Okay, then. Resume clearing the skies and runway.” ATC acknowledged her commands before disconnecting. “May I ask why you want me to do all this?” “I told you, all in good time. Now, Wynter, is the Cannonball REALLY capable of doing the Jool-5? Be honest.” “I don’t know, it’s never actually been done before.” “Then how promising were the test results? Be specific, and do not lie to me.” “I heard that it should have enough fuel to get to Jool on nuclear engines alone after getting off Minmus,” started Wynter. “In another test run, the fuel-and-oxidizer engines were said to have enough to land on Tylo.” “How about simulated runs for this model? Did you do any of those?” “Yes, but they said that they did the Tylo and Laythe landings ‘By the skin of their teeth.’ You still want it?” “Yes. Like I said earlier, you’d better not give me a dud or else you’re going down with it.” “Okay, I get it,” sighed Wynter. “Honey, you can come out now,” the assailant said calmly, then Wynter heard footsteps enter her office. “Wynter Kerman?” a man’s voice asked. “Be quiet,” the female assailant ordered. Wynter then gasped as she recognized the man’s voice. “What? But you’re dead.” A few days later, the kerbalnauts were having a rather uneventful time in Pod 5B31. Cassie and Marge were working out, Hadgan was asleep, Jeb had just finished cleaning up after finishing his own workout, Val was typing the mission log to send to Mission Control – this entry was short since nothing was happening – and Bill had just taken off his EVA suit after brushing space dust off the solar panels. Bob was on his kPad playing Cult Clash awaiting responses from Guscan and Rob. He had previously told them about Victor’s assault on the woman suspected to be Misty in the Scorcher Desert. While Rob had disagreed with the chance of Jeb Senior also being alive, he entertained the thought of Misty hiding after he recalled that someone in his cell block was – and still is – serving time for conspiracy to commit murder and insurance fraud after blowing up his own private jet to fake his death. Guscan had refused to talk to Victor since he didn’t trust him to tell the truth about anything, but he placed wanted posters and electronic advertisements in the towns in the Scorcher Desert with Misty’s photograph on them. So far, there was no sign of her. It would not be long before their pod would reach Kerbin’s sphere of influence. Val was upset that Wynter had dismissed her warning about Misty attempting to steal the T-6 Cannonball prototype. Her email correspondence with the KBI proved less than fruitful as they were also not willing to believe that Victor was not just delusional. On a brighter note, Minmus Command promised her that the T-6 would be spotted if it attempted to land, and that the military would reach the spacecraft well before it could synthesize enough fuel to leave. Hadgan was satisfied with that response, but Bill was not and had cited Misty’s history of slipping past security on a regular basis. Jeb assured him that he was just being paranoid and that Minmus’ military forces would be better prepared this time. “Wow, guys, take a look at this,” said Jeb, then he played a video on his kPad. “What is it?” wondered Bill, but he soon got his answer. “We have received a video message from a source within WinterOwl,” a man spoke. “Apparently, the company’s CEO herself, Wynter Kerman the Fourth, is taking on the Jool-5 challenge.” “The Jool-5?” gasped Val. “Let’s see the video,” the anchor requested, then the screen showed Wynter Kerman sitting inside what looked like a cockpit. “This is Wynter Kerman the Fourth, the CEO of WinterOwl,” she started with a blank expression on her face. “After seeing the results of the T-6 Cannonball tests, I am confident that it is ready for what it’s designed to do. Therefore, I am doing the Jool-5 challenge in this plane. In the event I do not return, I have already named a successor to the company.” She paused for five seconds before speaking again. “Wish me luck.” “There you have it, folks,” the news anchor said. “While many praised her for her bravery, others criticized her for being reckless. The most damning argument came from her personal physician, who said that she was not medically qualified…” “What?” gasped Val. “Not medically qualified?” “What’s the big deal?” asked Jeb. “Regulations FORBID interplanetary travel for anyone who does not possess a current appropriate medical certificate,” explained Val. “In other words, she’s not allowed to leave Kerbin’s sphere of influence.” “Aren’t there multiple classes of medical certificates for space travel?” questioned Bob. “Yes, but if she doesn’t have the right one, she can’t leave Kerbin’s sphere of influence,” clarified Val. “Heck, depending on how bad her health is, she may not be able to leave Kerbin’s ATMOSPHERE.” “Big deal,” Jeb scoffed. “Jeb, this is serious,” argued Val. “Not to me. I don’t wait for medical clearance to do anything,” replied Jeb. “First of all, of course you don’t,” sighed Val. “Second of all, it shouldn’t be too hard… well… it WASN’T hard for YOU to get medical clearance. You’re an athletic young man with no allergies, disabilities, or other health problems that would impact mission performance.” “Wynter could be feeling courageous today,” Jeb suggested. “And spontaneously deciding to take a trip that will take up a good chunk of her life – if not outright ending it,” said Bill. “Come on, dude. Why are you taking Miss Downer’s side?” Jeb asked his friend. “Because the Jool-5 takes a LONG TIME to plan,” said Bill, “and it takes EVEN LONGER for a solo mission. Besides, there are a few things I find weird about that announcement.” “Like what?” asked Bob. “According to the latest edition of Spaceplane Monthly,” started Bill, “the Cannonball had some trouble during the initial ascent. More specifically, during some of the test runs, it did not have enough delta-V to make it to Minmus after reaching LKO.” “Does it mean that she’ll crash or what?” sighed Val. “It said that the programmers worked on an autopilot program designed to ‘maximize propellant efficiency enough to have more than enough delta-V for the Minmus refueling stop. That way, the Cannonball can be completely independent of other spacecraft – aside from relays – during its intended voyage.’” Bill then showed his friends a picture of the spaceplane. “This is a pretty big deal to her, since that plane won’t be able to fly on rapiers alone once fully loaded. It’ll need the large fuel-and-oxidizer rocket engines as well.” “Does that article say whether or not that autopilot program works?” wondered Bob. “No, it doesn’t say,” said Bill. “Even if it did work, don’t you find it the LEAST bit strange that the WinterOwl CEO – who’s not even medically qualified for spaceflight – just decided to do the Jool-5 when there’s no record of her plane doing it FOR REAL?” “She could have FORGOTTEN the medical exam,” said Jeb. “Besides, couldn’t she just take it on Minmus while she refuels?” “Which brings me to the next subject,” continued Bill. “She has… ZERO training OR experience in spaceflight, and there have been no records of the Cannonball ever being used to successfully complete the Jool-5, yet she wants to fly the PROTOTYPE to all five of Jool’s moons. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to send a TRAINED CREW to do it first… which would include an ENGINEER and a PILOT to help with the planetary landings and refuelings?” “So? I was like that too,” Jeb replied. “Val, you said it yourself, Wynter’s great-grandma paved the way for women in the business world. Why should SHE not do the same thing with the Jool-5?” “Because something is wrong here,” Val told him. “Bill and I warned her that Misty could steal the T-6 Cannonball, but she doesn’t believe us. Now, she’s using that same prototype without THE LEAST bit of evidence that she prepared for it.” “I think it’s a GENIUS move,” argued Bob, getting confused looks from Bill and Val. “Misty and Jeb Senior can’t steal the plane if it’s not even on the surface.” “Thank you, Bob,” said Jeb, pointing at him. “Even so, you need a current medical certificate to pull that off,” Val told Bob. “Now, let me remind you that she needs THE HIGHEST-LEVEL clearance to leave the sphere of influence.” “Who said she was ACTUALLY doing that?” smirked Bob. “What do you mean?” asked Bill. “She could have SAID she’s doing the Jool-5,” explained Bob, “but she’s actually hiding it SOMEWHERE ELSE.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” sighed Val. “First of all, where EXACTLY would she put it?” “Duh, in orbit or on Minmus or something.” “You know, now that you mention it, someone did leak the fact that the T-6 Cannonball was docking-capable,” said Bill. “Even if hiding the plane was her intention, do you have any idea how much her stocks would tank if everyone finds out she’s not actually doing the Jool-5?” argued Val. “SOMEONE’S going to end up finding out, and her company’s reputation is ruined.” “Until she tells them that she’s just HIDING it from Misty,” said Bob. “Unfortunately, her customers aren’t going to believe that,” warned Val. “They’ll just think she chickened out or just did it as a publicity stunt or something like that… which brings us back to the ‘Why not have a crew do it?’ question.” “Then just TELL the world that she’s just hiding the Cannonball,” suggested Jeb, “or just doing the Jool-5 FOR REAL.” “On the off-chance that she’s not actually doing the Jool-5, by the time she may even reveal that fact, her company could be in shambles,” said Val. “Someone is BOUND to find the Cannonball being hidden – let’s just hope it’s not Misty – and spill the secrets to everyone. Worst-case scenario, she gets thrown out of her position for sabotaging her own stockholders and then maybe investigated for embezzlement.” “Can we get back to the medical question, please?” interrupted Bill. “CAN she even get to low-Kerbin orbit, let alone out of the sphere of influence?” “Dude, her doctor just said she’s not medically qualified to do the Jool-5,” sighed Jeb. “I thought you were all FOR her doing that,” said Bill. “Her medical certificate could have EXPIRED,” Jeb pointed out, “or she could just get the right exam on Minmus or something. Can she?” “Okay, now I’m curious,” Bob conceded. “Val, do you have access to Wynter’s medical files?” “You know, Jeb has that clearance level too,” reminded Val. “He’s an admiral now, remember?” “Oh, yeah,” smirked Jeb. “Stephen, access Wynter Kerman’s KSP file. Password: I hate passwords.” “Voice key approved… three matches to ‘Wynter Kerman’ found in database,” a male voice replied from the kPad, then the screen showed him the three names with general descriptions. Wynter Kerman III Wynter Kerman IV Wynter Kerman V Alias(es) Wynter Three Wynter Four Wynter Five Status (DECEASED) Alive Alive Cause of Death (If Deceased) Lung Cancer · History of smoking prior to death N/A N/A Gender Female Female Female Role/s (Chronological) · WinterOwl CEO (former) · WinterOwl CEO · Tourist · Tourist · Piloting Cadet (KSID #: 193-519-572) “Wynter Kerman has a daughter?” gasped Jeb. “With the exception of Wynter Kerman the Fifth, all ‘Wynter Kermans’ listed have daughters,” said the kPad’s automated assistant voice. “It’s… part of her family tradition,” stammered Val. “They name their firstborn daughters Wynter.” “Try Wynter Four,” ordered Jeb. “Affirmative,” replied Stephen, then the kPad displayed the first page of Wynter’s personnel file. “Again, why does the space program have a personnel file on WinterOwl’s CEO?” asked Bob. “I believe it’s protocol to have files on EVERYONE it does business with,” said Val. “I don’t know what it has on the third Wynter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a file on the FOURTH since she was marked as a tourist. As for the FIFTH, she’s a cadet with a Kerbal Space ID number; they HAVE to have a file on her.” “That’s weird,” said Bill. “If Wynter the Fourth’s already a tourist, then why did her doctor say that she wasn’t medically qualified to do the Jool-5?” “Because she was REJECTED,” answered Jeb. “According to this, when she went to get her third-class medical certificate renewed a year ago, she applied for a first-class. HOWEVER, due to her heart condition as well as ‘family history of similar conditions,’ her first-class examination came back with a no-go.” “Doesn’t a heart condition automatically disqualify you from going into space AT ALL?” wondered Bill. “Well, they loosened up the restrictions recently,” explained Val. “Um, what exactly does a third-class medical certificate mean?” Bob questioned, and his friends looked at him awkwardly. “What? Since WE’RE obviously able to leave Kerbin’s sphere of influence, lower-class clearances weren’t really an issue for me.” “It means she can’t get higher than low-Kerbin orbit – or, more specifically, an orbit with an apoapsis of more than 200 kilometers,” answered Val. “Then odds are that she’ll croak before…,” started Bill, then he noticed Jeb typing on his kPad. “What are you doing?” “Maybe her daughter knows something,” said Jeb. “I’m gonna try to reach her.” “You might want to wait a few hours,” Val told him. “It’s midnight in Krakopolis.” “Yeah, so?” asked Jeb, and Val facepalmed herself. “Duh, she could be ASLEEP.” “Or she’s out taking the plane for a joyride,” said Jeb. “Where would you get an idea like that?” “I used to take the training jets out for night joyrides in Basic,” explained Jeb. “Well, that was until security caught me red-handed after the… seventh time. Huh, ironic that seven was my UN-lucky number.” “Hmm…,” said Val, scratching her chin. “What do you think she’ll know?” “Why her mom would do the Jool-5 all of a sudden when she’s not qualified,” answered Jeb as the kPad played a dial tone. “Kinda nice that her cadet file had her cell phone on it.” “Good luck getting a response,” sighed Val. “Hello,” a girl answered, surprising Jeb’s comrades. “Are you Wynter Kerman the Fifth?” asked Jeb. “I am,” she replied. “Who are you?” “This is Cap… I mean ADMIRAL Jebediah Kerman,” he told her. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it’s really you,” she cheered. “I’m Wynter Kerman the Fifth, but everybody just calls me either Wynter or Wynter Five. I just want to say it is an HONOR to talk to you, sir.” “Why, thank you,” said Jeb. “Are you sure you got the time right?” Bob whispered to Val. “She seems kind of excited for someone who’s supposed to be asleep.” “Yes, which is weird,” said Val, showing Bob a picture of the moon above a city labeled “Krakopolis” on her kPad. “I can’t believe I’m talking to Jebediah Kerman,” Wynter Five continued. “Could you calm down for a minute here?” sighed Bill. “Who said that?” asked Wynter Five. “Jeb’s lesser-known friend, Bill Kerman,” he answered, but that seemed to excite her more. “You mean just the COOLEST ENGINEER EVER!” “SHUT UP!” shouted Val. “Okay, okay, chill,” said Wynter Five. “Who was that, by the way.” “Elegail… uh, Kerman,” lied Val. “Yeah, I’m Admiral Elegail Kerman.” “Really, V…,” said Jeb, but she covered his mouth. “If she knew I was here, we’ll be stuck with introductions until we splash down,” she whispered. “Why’d you call me?” asked Wynter Five. “Are you aware that your mom is doing the Jool-5?” inquired Jeb. “WHAT?!” gasped Wynter Five. “Impossible!” “That’s weird, because she made a public announcement about it earlier,” said Jeb. “Well, this is the first time I heard about it.” “Hold up,” Val interjected, “are you saying your mom didn’t tell you?” “No, she didn’t,” answered Wynter Five. “She’s not allowed to leave low-Kerbin orbit, let alone THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE – and for good reason. With HER heart condition, that’s practically SUICIDE.” “Thank you,” said Jeb. “Let me get this straight,” started Bill, “your mother, who has a serious medical issue, just decides to do the Jool-5 and NOT TELL YOU BEFOREHAND?” “Apparently,” confirmed Wynter Five. “Did she tell you anything else regarding the plane she’s using?” asked Jeb. “What plane?” inquired Wynter Five. “The T-6 Cannonball.” “Wait, so it was MOM’S company that made it?” gasped Wynter Five. “Well, hers and C7,” admitted Bill. “I saw some of the other kerbalnauts use some weird-looking plane a few months ago,” said Wynter Five, “but I heard that they were testing it. I had no idea Mom’s company actually MADE it.” “Could you hold on a bit, please?” Bill requested, then he muted Jeb’s kPad. “What kind of mom doesn’t tell her kid that she’s doing a suicide mission?” “Mine,” sighed Jeb, “only it was my DAD.” “No, since your dad emailed you before he went off into space,” reminded Bill. “Aside from that, he was obviously qualified to leave Kerbin. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have ended up kidnapped on Eve.” “Maybe she’s a negligent mother,” said Bob, “or she’s actually stashing the plane in LKO.” “Then wouldn’t she have at least told her daughter that, or at least told her SOMETHING?” asked Val. “I mean… if I was Wynter Four, I’d at least tell Wynter Five that I was doing the Jool-5 just in case Misty captured her.” “I’ll have to debunk your ‘hiding in LKO’ theories right there,” said Bill, “since a large plane such as the Cannonball can easily be tracked. If not a government-sponsored agency, someone else will and then tell everyone.” “Hmm… can someone other than Jeb pull up the video Wynter Four made?” said Val. “Can-do,” Bob acknowledged, then he found what Val was looking for. “There.” “Hey, Wynter Five,” a girl’s voice said on Jeb’s kPad, “whatcha doing?” “Oh my gosh, Jebediah Kerman’s talking to me,” Wynter Five replied. “What exactly is she doing this late at night?” Val asked herself. “Start the video.” “This is Wynter Kerman the Fourth, the CEO of WinterOwl. After seeing the results of the T-6 Cannonball tests, I am confident that it is ready for what it’s designed to do. Therefore, I am doing the Jool-5 challenge in this plane. In the event I do not return, I have already named a successor to the company. Wish me luck.” “Jeb, you keep talking to Wynter Five,” said Val. “The rest of you boys, let me ask you this: how would you feel if you were about to do the Jool-5?” “I’d either be totally stoked or scared out of my mind,” confessed Bill. “And in a plane that’s never actually done it before, I’d be leaning towards ‘scared’ myself,” added Val. “I can only imagine what an older businesswoman with a medical issue is going through.” “Maybe she’s trying to look calm for her viewers,” suggested Bob. “Perhaps,” said Val, then she replayed the video again. “Huh, she seems… hold it.” “What?” asked Bill. “I got it,” interrupted Bob, snapping his fingers. “Wynter Four is DYING.” “Dying?” inquired Val. “She’ll either die doing the Jool-5 or from whatever problem she’s got,” explained Bob. “Really?” sighed Val. “Well, if her condition involves eye twitching, that could be it.” “Eye twitching?” wondered Bill. “Look.” Val then pointed at Wynter Four, who kept looking to her left with her peripheral vision during her speech. “That’s weird,” said Bob. “What is she looking at?” “Come to think of it, she looks like she’s in a cockpit or something,” said Bill. “Why not do it in a studio, or at least somewhere more appropriate?” “Yeah. If I was going to tell the world that I was gonna do something that risky, I would do it in a fancy studio WAY in advance – and with teleprompters, camera crews, makeup, and everything,” agreed Val. “Why do it in a cockpit immediately… before… takeoff?” “When you’re likely to croak outside of a 200-kilometer orbit,” added Bill. “And in a plane still in the experimental phase,” said Bob, then Jeb hung up. “And not tell your daughter a thing.” “UH OH!” Val and Bill said together. “What do you mean uh oh?” wondered Jeb. “I forgot to run software diagnostics today,” said Bill. “Can it wait for ten minutes?” asked Val. “Yes.” “Bob, you said that Wynter Four could be lying and is just trying to HIDE the Cannonball,” said Val. “Is that right?” “Yes, but you said that someone could find it and the hoax would ruin her company,” reminded Bob. “Then why not tell US that?” Val pointed out. “Because if she told everyone that she stashed the Cannonball in LKO, Misty will know where to look,” answered Jeb. “I mean telling just Bill and I when we warned her,” clarified Val. “She blew us off, and then she suddenly decides to tell the world that she’s taking that thing to another planet days later – without even telling us that she’s fine.” “Which would support my ‘doing it because she’s dying’ theory,” argued Bob. “I would agree with you,” said Val, pointing at Bob, “but NOT from any medical conditions.” “Uhh… I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that if Wynter Four WAS dying, then a medical condition is pretty much implied,” said Jeb. “Yeah, kinda like my mom,” agreed Bill. “What exactly do you think would kill Wynter Four?” “A gunshot,” answered Val, shocking the men. “GUNSHOT?” gasped Jeb. “Are you saying that Wynter Four was HIJACKED?” said Bill. “By none other than Misty herself,” finished Val. Inside Kerbin’s sphere of influence, a T-6 Cannonball was in a Hohmann transfer to Minmus. As Val and her friends had predicted, Misty had forced Wynter Four at gunpoint to film herself inside the spaceplane’s cockpit announcing her attempt to land on all five of Jool’s moons. Misty also made Wynter Four request a copy of the full report on the simulated Jool-5 the engineers performed, which included instructions on how it could be accomplished. After all the pre-flight checks were done – with Misty and her partner staying out of sight – the T-6 took off, ascended to low-Kerbin orbit, and made a Hohmann transfer burn to Minmus. Misty had explained to Wynter Four that she wanted the T-6 specifically because it should be able to get on and off Tylo completely on its own. Tylo was her focus because it was as large as Kerbin but without an atmosphere, which made ascent and descent extremely difficult for other spacecraft; they were also either multi-staged or dependent on Jool’s transport network. Few kerbalnauts dared set foot on the surface because of that, including level five veterans. This made Tylo the ideal place for Misty and her partner to spend the rest of their days at, and the T-6 was perfect in case they had to move. However, if the simulated Jool-5 mission report was an accurate prediction on how it would go, then the T-6 would have to land on Laythe first; it would then have to refuel and fly to Bop to refuel again before landing on Tylo. While this would slow down Misty’s plans for a Tylo getaway, her odds of getting arrested on Laythe were low thanks to Kerbin’s reduced military presence there. Political backlash from the Clivar Genocide had forced Kerbin’s central government to withdraw or decommission all their forces on that moon except for those necessary for base security, weather patrol, or light vehicle escort. The Fallout Zone surrounding Poseidon’s Palace also caused demand for tourism and kerbalnaut assignments there to drop, and since the T-6 Cannonball was designed for complete mission independence Misty did not have to worry about running into someone who would recognize her and ruin her plans. It also helped that she was presumed dead for over a year, which made Laythe a great romantic vacation spot for her and her partner while they weren’t on Tylo. That partner was someone else everyone assumed to be dead, Jebediah Kerman Senior. Unfortunately for all three of the occupants, Wynter Four suffered a heart attack a day after the spaceplane made its Hohmann transfer burn to Minmus. Despite Misty’s and Jeb Senior’s best efforts (short of calling for medical aid), they could not resuscitate her. On top of losing their best bet on knowing how to operate the T-6, Wynter Four’s corpse would become a health hazard if they left it in the crew cabin. At the same time, Misty did not want to risk sounding the alarm by ejecting the body there and leaving it for other kerbalnauts to find. Luckily, the engineers who built the T-6 included three body bags and some appropriately sized boxes in the cabin in the event of an occupant’s death; it was still an experimental spaceplane, so the risk of someone dying mid-mission was high. Misty was upset by this setback, but Jeb Senior argued that she was already planning to kill Wynter Four anyway. “Not yet,” Misty had told him. “We needed her to tell us everything she knows about this spaceplane, not to mention leverage in case some snoopy kerbalnauts form a paparazzi. Good thing we got her email and phone login, or else we’re toast for sure.” With Wynter Four’s body in a vacuum-sealed body bag, which was locked in a secured crate, the next few days were relatively quiet. Before they knew it, they were hours away from entering Minmus’ sphere of influence. “We should have enough fuel to land safely on Minmus before refueling,” Misty announced. “Once that happens, we shall be free at last to live our lives together.” “Looking forward to it,” said Jeb Senior, “but must we do it in this spacecraft?” “For the hundredth time, YES,” sighed Misty. “But if your intention is for us to live in isolation forever, then wouldn’t it be better to do it in a more LUXURIOUS spacecraft?” argued Jeb Senior. “At the very least, we should have taken a spacecraft whose performance has REPEATEDLY been proven.” “What do you mean by that?” asked Misty. “The T-6 is still technically an EXPERIMENTAL spacecraft,” explained Jeb Senior. “How do you know this thing will actually make it to Jool, or stay in one piece after landing? It’s never done the Jool-5 before.” “You can say the same about the first rockets that made it to the Mun before they pulled off that feat,” countered Misty, “or the first spaceplanes… or regular planes, for that matter. Besides, this thing had passed the simulated Jool-5 runs, so I’m pretty confident that it can do it for real.” “You bring a good point, but why must we use THIS plane? Why not just take a spacecraft that’s ALREADY done the Jool-5?” “Because everything else had to be done in pieces, like that one plane that sent multi-stage open-cockpit landers for Tylo. If we have to land there, then we can only do it ONCE.” She paused as she held Jeb Senior’s hand. “Also, we can’t use the KSP’s Jool transport network for obvious reasons – two of them being that they’re too slow for Tylo refuelings and that we’ll get captured. THAT, my love, is why we are taking a risk with the T-6 Cannonball.” “Sounds great,” Jeb Senior conceded. “On a related note, aren’t you concerned that our docking capability would be a problem?” “Well, Wynter told me that the monopropellant was mostly for fast maneuvering in case the reaction wheels didn’t cut it. The engineers then decided to add a docking port at the end in case ISRU refueling isn’t enough… and so that the plane can be used for more than just the Jool-5.” “Speaking of Wynter, wouldn’t peo…,” started Jeb Senior. “Alert: incoming vessel entering Kerbin’s sphere of influence,” a female computer voice interrupted. “Ooh, I wonder who that could be,” said Misty. “Computer, identify vessel.” “Vessel identified as Pod 5B31, coming in from Dres.” “Bill,” sighed Misty. “I had calculated that he would be home by now to intercept me. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew I was in this plane already.” “Then… I guess this means game over,” stammered Jeb Senior. “Not yet, it doesn’t,” argued Misty. “If you remember the news from last year, you would have known that they were taking my daughter’s killer back home from Dres. Therefore, Bill and his friends HAVE to splash down and hand over the prisoner before he could get airborne again. Besides that, they’ve been away from Kerbin for almost a decade by now. By the time Bill’s cleared to get back into action again, we would already be out of his reach.” “Bill and Val, maybe,” said Jeb Senior, “but not Jeb.” “Again, stop talking about your son,” Misty sighed in boredom. “BOTH our old families are GONE. Sure, Jeb is still alive, but he wants nothing to do with you. Furthermore, you were once rich before you ‘died.’ I’m sure you left him SOMETHING to satisfy his greed – not that you owe him anything.” “Jeb may be a knucklehead,” replied Jeb Senior, “but the only thing he IS greedy for is a high-risk thrill.” “As far as you know; you haven’t talked to your son much BEFORE I picked you up,” said Misty. “Besides, he is BOUND to spend his inheritance on doing whatever dumb acrobatics he would otherwise get arrested for.” “Would those ‘dumb acrobatics’ include flying to Minmus for me?” Jeb Senior pointed out, and Misty laughed. “Surely, with as long as JEB’S been on the program, Mission Control would have gotten wise to his antics. Besides, you remember how lousy you felt after landing on Kerbin; your so-callled son would WANT some time off.” “Good point,” agreed Jeb Senior, “but don’t expect him to take care of his own health before he does that. After all, he’s the kind to leap first and look later.” “Assuming he still cares about you,” said Misty as she embraced Jeb Senior. “Just remember: if you turn up alive, he’ll have no choice but to give back everything he inherited from you. If anything, he’ll benefit more if he LEFT you alone.” “Okay,” Jeb Senior conceded. “However, on the small chance that he DOES come for me – or if SOMEONE ELSE does – then shouldn’t we call for a fuel truck or an ore transport to meet us? It would speed up the refueling process.” “And risk someone doing Bill’s job FOR him?” reminded Misty. “First of all, someone operating the fueling vehicles could see us and kill us – if not radio for more men. Second of all, this spaceplane is designed to be the pinnacle of space travel; the one that can do the Jool-5 and return in one piece ALL BY ITSELF. If it can do that, then we don’t need any stinking help.” Since Misty had already told Jeb Senior that she had “taken care of” the possibility that the press would want to see their craft in person, he figured that nobody would come for him. “Misty,” said Jeb Senior, “I would like to send out another message… as Wynter Four.” “Everybody strapped in?” Bill asked his fellow crewmembers. “Dude, we’ve been strapped in for 20 MINUTES,” sighed Jeb. “Perfect,” said Bill. “As we all know, Misty Kerman is heading to Minmus to refuel her plane. If we don’t catch her before her tanks are full, we can kiss her good-bye. At the same time, we have orders from the top to splash down within 50 kilometers of the Kerbal Space Center so that the military can take us in.” “Yeah, yeah, we know they need to pick me up and debrief you guys,” said Hadgan. “Could you skip to the part where we… I dunno, DO SOMETHING?” “As I was saying – before Hadgan interrupted me – we currently do not have enough fuel to circularize our orbit before making a transfer burn to Minmus,” continued Bill. “You might want to ask me ‘why not just use ANOTHER spacecraft to chase her AFTER we land?’ Answer: by the time the higher-ups give us the green light to do so, it would be too late. However, you might also be asking ‘then how does Bill expect to get to Minmus if he doesn’t have enough delta-V?’” Everyone started looking at each other in confusion, then Bill got their attention again. “I’ll tell you how I expect to get to Minmus while conserving fuel: we’re going to AEROBRAKE.” “What?” gasped Bob. “Are you trying to blow us up?” “Uh… question,” said Maurge Kerman, the pod’s medic, “why are we even chasing Misty?” “She’s Irpond’s mother,” answered Val. “Yeah, so?” questioned Maurge. “She kidnapped my dad, blew him up while faking her own death, and now she’s trying to get away,” sighed Jeb. “Bill’s been out for her head for years.” “ANYWAY,” said Bill, “at our current trajectory, we’re at great risk of either blowing up or staying in a hyperbolic trajectory by the time we get through the atmosphere. Heck, we’re at great risk of losing one or more engines during said aerobrake. Therefore, I’ve DISABLED the navicomputer’s automated landing sequence and implemented a NEW program. If I did the math right – and assuming the repeated simulations were accurate – the resulting circularization burn should give us a 55-kilometer periapsis while having an apoapsis on Minmus’ orbit at the time that moon passes through that particular point in space.” “Can we get the TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ version, please?” Jeb requested. “We should be able to rendezvous with Minmus while saving fuel,” Bill summarized. “Um, excuse me,” said Cassie, “if this last-minute change in the mission is intended to intercept Misty Kerman, then how are we going to transport her back to Kerbin? We’re already at full capacity, not to mention we need to take ANOTHER prisoner too.” “Who said we’re taking her in ALIVE?” replied Bill, tightening his grip on a screwdriver. “When we catch up to Misty, I’ll KILL her and leave her body there.” “So, it’s a murder mission?” sighed Maurge. “Count me in,” Hadgan commented. “One problem: what about Wynter Four?” reminded Val. “What are we gonna do about HER?” “Who’s Wynter Four?” wondered Cassie. “CEO of WinterOwl,” said Val, “or at least she WAS. Now, we believe that Misty TOOK HER HOSTAGE as she made her escape in the Cannonball.” “Odds are Misty killed her already,” Bill guessed. “However, if Wynter Four is still alive when we find her, we’ll transport her to an outpost for a medical assessment and then have someone take her back.” “Why not just have one of us STAY on Minmus and have Wynter Four fly back with US?” questioned Jeb. “Given her heart condition, I don’t know if she’ll make it unharmed if she rides in this pod. At least Mission Control will know what to do with her,” answered Bill. “So, to recap,” started Bob, “we aerobrake, intercept Minmus, assassinate Misty and bury the body, and then leave Wynter Four there while we return to Kerbin.” “You forgot making our partial de-orbit burn before the aerobraking part,” said Bill, “not to mention we actually NEED to find Misty and/or Wynter Four. Even if we DO find Wynter Four – and assuming she’s still alive – we’ll take her to the nearest medical station for a full assessment. We’ll then radio Kerbin and have THEM deal with her while WE get back home.” “I’m in,” said Val. “Same here,” concurred Bob, and everyone except for Cassie agreed. “Why SHOULD we do this?” she argued. “You’re adding weeks to our mission time just so YOU can MURDER someone.” “Who murdered hundreds of innocent people, including Jeb’s dad,” countered Bill. “If we don’t stop her now, she’ll MULTIPLY her kill count.” “Then why not capture her?” said Cassie. “Killing a murderer is what got Hadgan in trouble with the law.” “Because the bureaucrats who charged him are corrupt, and Irpond was ALREADY imprisoned – and facing a death sentence, by the way,” spat Bill. “Besides, the last time the cops tried playing fair with Misty DIDN’T WORK. If she wants to play dirty, then so will I. Now, are there any OTHER questions?” All was silent for ten seconds. “No? Okay, then. Now, hold on to something. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” Almost a minute later, Jeb’s kPad buzzed. “Ooh, an email,” he gasped. “Who’s it from?” asked Val. “Wynter Four,” answered Jeb. From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Your Dad Jeb, I know you were not on the best of terms with your father. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought he deserved to get blown to bits. At least read what I have to say and don’t delete this. You won’t regret it. YOUR FATHER STILL LIVES – IN YOU Sincerely, Wynter Kerman the Fourth “That sounds so… fishy,” said Val. “You’re telling me,” agreed Jeb. “It’s been over a year since Dad got blown up, and NOW she says that ‘he still lives in me.’ A little late to tell me that now, isn’t it?” “Especially since Misty has Wynter Four held hostage in that plane,” reminded Val. “Why would Misty let her send YOU an email?” “I dunno, probably to throw us off,” suggested Jeb. “Then why email you SPECIFICALLY and not just… make it public?” countered Val. “Hmm… I wonder if BILL got an email from her too,” said Jeb. “Well, did she CC him?” asked Val. “Nope,” answered Jeb. “Hmm, that doesn’t mean she didn’t send him a SEPARATE email,” said Val. “Why would Misty let Wynter Four send BILL an email?” Jeb mentioned. “Better yet, you said it yourself, why would she let her contact anyone at all?” “Executing maneuver node in ten… nine… eight… seven,” the navicomputer started. “Brace yourselves!” ordered Val, and Jeb secured his kPad to the compartment under his seat. When the countdown was over, the pod fired up its engines while MechJeb kept it on Bill’s plotted maneuver node. The pod was about 150 kilometers above Kerbin’s surface when the engines stopped. “MJ, aim for the radial,” said Bill as he pressed some more buttons. “This should dissipate the heat while we aerobrake, but we need to spin the pod about it for a more even distribution. Jeb, you ready?” Jeb then flipped a transparent lever cover and pulled it from the center position closer to his own seat. “Manual override engaged,” said the navicomputer. “All ready, dude,” Jeb told Bill. “Just give the word.” “The pod will tell us when we get below 70 kilometers altitude, which should be any second now. When that happens, I need you to keep rolling and not stop until I say so.” “Should I roll left or right?” “Hmm… doesn’t matter, but pick one and stick with it,” Bill answered as he made sure that all the solar panels, antennae, and radiators had been retracted. “Got it.” “Alert: you are now within Kerbin’s atmosphere. Altitude: 70 kilomters.” “Hit it, Jeb.” Jeb began spinning the pod to the left as flames started forming around its exterior. A few minutes later, the flames subsided, and Bill told Jeb to stop and straighten out the spacecraft. He then checked their orbit with the navicomputer and gave a thumbs-up before entering some more commands into the MJ autopilot. “What are you doing?” asked Jeb. “I thought we were good.” “We still need a fine-tuning to get caught in Minmus’ sphere of influence,” explained Bill, “but this aerobrake saved us a lot of fuel.” “Hey, Bill,” said Bob, “better extend the panels and antennae now that we’re out of the atmosphere.” “Oh, right.” “Pod 5B31, this is Mission Control,” a man’s voice crackled on the radio. “Do you copy?” “We’re in trouble,” said Jeb. “Since when has that concerned you?” smirked Hadgan. “I’ll handle this,” said Val. “Affirmative, Mission Control. This is Admiral Valentina Kerman.” “You were supposed to be on a splashdown trajectory now,” said the man at Mission Control. “Explain your course change immediately.” “I knew this was a bad idea,” Cassie commented. “Relax. If there’s one thing she’s good at, it’s getting out of tight spots,” Bob assured her. “We’re talking MUTINY here. In the eyes of the law, we’d be pirates.” “Pirates? Cool,” said Jeb. “That doesn’t help.” “Quiet, guys,” ordered Val before responding to Mission Control. “Uh… we’re making a stop at Minmus to refuel.” “Good one,” whispered Bill, but Val gestured him to remain silent. “Why? You were ordered to jettison the engines during re-entry, and your previous trajectory would have had them land safely in the ocean.” “Right, but… why let this perfectly good spacecraft go to waste? I mean, can’t we use it again?” “Negative,” the man at Mission Control answered. “All Mark V interplanetary travel pods in active service have been mothballed.” “WHAT?! Mothballed!” Bill gasped in shock. “Any Mark V pods returning to Kerbin are considered decommissioned and are to re-enter immediately unless doing so would endanger kerbal life.” “You’re trashing…?” said Bill. “Tchhh… what’s tchhh… say again, shhh…!” Val responded. “Radio… wor…” She then disconnected the radio. “Did you just hang up on Mission Control?” asked Jeb. “I learned from the best,” Val replied, winking. “Misty’s caused us enough trouble already, and I don’t need Mission Control helping her.” “Just like when he ditched Jeb’s dad when we were kids,” Bill commented. “Dad…,” muttered Jeb, and suddenly his eyes widened. “Dad’s STILL ALIVE.” “What?” gasped Bill. “MY FATHER sent me that email,” explained Jeb. “We’d better get him fast.”

This is a pretty simple thread, you just talk about what you did today. It can be in games, but not ksp as there is a thread already for that. I went to our local mall because I have money from Christmas and wanted to see what I could get. I looked around, my indecisiveness led to me not getting anything. After that I looked for DnD books at a book store near us. I didn't do much else, a lot of sitting on youtube. I also have a bit of a sickness.

Bill was an aircraft mechanic during the War. He served as chief mechanic for Jeb's fighter and a couple of others. Jeb, a rich daring fighter pilot, was shot down near the end of the War flying a scouting mission near dusk. He bailed out wounded near the rocket factory of Von Braun. Val an aide to Von Braun discovered him badly wounded. She saved his life, treated his wounds, and captured him. A massive attack was planned against Von Braun's rocket complex. Jeb tried to talk Val against keeping him near the factory. She grew suspicious, after he insisted they needed to get out of there. She warned Von Braun and he arranged a trip for most of his staff the next day. Val and Von Braun brought Jeb with them instead of leaving him or turning him over to the MPs. The bombs came but most of Von Braun's team and a fair amount of his work was saved though the factory was destroyed. The alliance was clearly winning the War quickly. Jeb later was able to arrange protection for Von Braun's group from his friend Bob in miliary intelligence. Von Braun's group was able to surrender unharmed with most of their work. Jeb was rescued and War ended soon afterward. Jeb opened a sight seeing tourist air service on a tourist island. Bill ran a large aircraft shop near the Airport on the island. After the War, Bob was working in a research group with Gene Kerman. They had their successes and failures with unmanned rockets and craft, but mostly failures. Bob recruited Von Braun to assist under the table, as he couldn't bring Von Braun on to the team publicly. They realized they needed better parts. A secret operation was setup to build them. Bill was brought into create the parts from Von Braun's designs, and run the high tech research factory, nicknamed the "Junk Yard". That is when Bob talked a rich friend, Jeb, to open up a "Junk Yard" as cover. Jeb bought up some old junk for show, and Bill some War surplus aircraft and parts. But at the heart of the Junk Yard was its high tech research factory with the latest manufacturing equipment. Eventually a successful Mk1 capsule built and Bob was tasked with selecting a test pilot. Jeb had been giving private flight lessons to Val at the time. Val had passed her pilot license and was starting to give tours as Jeb's tourist business expanded. They were both invited to fly "just a test fight or two". From there, the rest is history.

KSP 1.12.x Near Future Propulsion [1.3.6] Last Updated August 14, 2024 This pack contains advanced electric engines for deep space travel. Generally engines split into the following categories: Gridded Ion Engines: like the stock Dawn, they have low TWR and great Isp. They run on Xenon fuel. Hall Effect Thrusters: similar to Gridded thrusters, but with better TWR at the cost of some Isp. They run on Argon fuel and are pretty cheap! Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters: with the best TWR of all electric engines, these engines are very power-hungry. They run on Lithium fuel. Pulsed Inductive Thrusters: similar to Hall thrusters, they run on Argon fuel and have the unique ability to dump extra electricity into the engine, increasing Isp but generating more heat. VASIMR Engines: high tech and fancy, these engines run on either Xenon or Argon fuel. They can be tuned for high-thrust, low Isp operation, or low-thrust, high-Isp operation These engines are all very power hungry - use nuclear reactors or high intensity solar to get the power you need. Their balance has been finely tuned to work with stock mechanics and to extend the KSP experience, particularly in combination with the Community Tech Tree. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Q: Does this work well with KSPI-E? A: Talk to FreeThinker about this, he manages KSPI-E and its compatibility with NFT Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Community Resource Pack Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (Github) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Electrical [2.0.1] Last Updated September 6, 2024 Ever wanted some futuristic energy generation that wasn't too... futuristic? I have you covered here. This pack contains: Nuclear Reactors: Turn Uranium into power! Attach nuclear reactors to your vessel and generate large amount of electricity. Ensure that you have enough cooling capacity with radiators for your reactors to work properly. Refuelling Parts: store extra uranium, reprocess it and extract it from Ore with containers and reprocessors. Capacitors: discharge for a burst of power! These parts can be charge up with normal generating capacity, and once activated will deliver a large amount of power to your ship's electricity banks. Very mass efficient! Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Does this work well with KSPI-E? A: Talk to FreeThinker about this, he manages KSPI-E and its compatibility with NFT. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch SystemHeat Community Resource Pack Dynamic Battery Storage Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Solar [1.3.4] Last Updated August 14, 2024 This pack contains many concept solar panels to use on your ships and stations. There are many sizes ranging from small form-factor panels up to gigantic solar arrays. Additionally, some wraparaound solar panels are provided, for coolness. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Construction [1.3.3] Last Updated August 30, 2024 This pack contains a good number of skeletal trusses and construction type parts for building those near-futurish ships you see in concept art. You'll enjoy: A 1.25m size class triangular truss set A 2.5m size class octagonal truss set A 3.75m size class square truss set A 5m size class annular truss set Adapters and connectors galore! Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Spacecraft [1.4.4] Last Updated August 14, 2024 This pack contains a variety of parts for making crewed spacecraft. This means command pods. Pretty much just command pods, but also monopropellant engines in many sizes! Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: What is up with the RPM IVAs? A: Some exist but now require the ASET props pack to work. They only function for the older (Mk4-1, Mk3-9, PPD-1) pods. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Near Future Props Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Launch Vehicles [2.2.2] Last Updated August 14, 2024 The latest and greatest (for size, perhaps) in launch vehicle components. This pack includes 5.0m Parts: a balanced and extensive part set that provides a new size of rocket parts. Comes with tanks, adapters, utility parts and specialized components for engine clustering. 7.5m Parts: an extra-large set of rocket parts for those huge constructions. Includes adapters, clustering, cargo and utility parts. Advanced Engines: several new rocket engines based on a whole set of concepts in the 0.625 to 3.75m sizes. Support Parts: new supporting parts that help enhance the large rocket experience, like heavy RCS thrusters. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch DeployableEngines Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future eXploration [1.1.3] Last Updated August 14, 2024 This pack contains a set of parts to help enhance and improve the KSP probe experience, particularly in the later game with larger probes. You will find: More Probe Cores: A set of eight new probe cores in medium (1.25m) and larger (1.875m) sizes. Probe Bus Parts: Cargo bay-like parts that match the footprints of most probe cores (stock and NFX). Useful for storing batteries, fuel and the like Probe Fuel Tanks: New multi-fuel probe tanks in stack and radial sizes that are in the vein of the stock Dumpling and Baguette More Direct and Relay Antennae: More antennae that seamlessly fit into the KSP CommNet system to fill in missing ranges and add more interesting options. Reflector Antennae: A new type of antenna that does nothing on its own, but instead bounces signal from another antenna to amplify its range. Point antenna at a deployed reflector to recieve the bonus. Available in many sizes. Small Probe Parts: A few small probe parts (battery, reaction wheel) to fill out the probe range Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: I'm using Remote Tech and something doesn't work! A: This mod is not compatible with RemoteTech. Some aspects may work but the reflector/feeder system would need to be reimplemented by the RT devs. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (Github) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Aeronautics [2.1.2] Last Updated August 14, 2024 This pack contains large and powerful aerospace parts, such as jet engines, intakes, and nacelles. It was preciously part of the MkIV Spaceplane system but has been split off. Large Multimode Engines: Big (2.5m), powerful RAPIER-like engines for your wildest spaceplane needs. Large Jet Engines: Hefty 2.5m engines - turbofans and turbojets for big aircraft. Advanced Propeller Engines: Super-efficient low speed propfans and turboprops. Lift Fans: Designed specifically for efficient VTOL and available in many sizes, these engines can run on LiquidFuel and air, or be driven electrically for flight in oxygenless atmospheres. Nuclear Jet Engines: Massive, rewarding engines that let you fly almost forever! Large Nacelles and Intakes: Of course, 2.5m nacelles, engine pods, precoolers and advanced intakes to help out. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: CKAN Support Questions? A: Talk to CKAN folks, CKAN is not supported. This is because KerbalActuators, a dependency of this mod, is specifically NOT listed on CKAN. Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: I don't like the balance of *thisPart* A: I appreciate suggestions from experience aeronauts for engine balance, it's not really my specialty (Sith lords are). Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Community Resource Pack KerbalActuators DeployableEngines Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source Special Thanks A big hand to @Streetwind , who basically designed the balance for the whole NFT suite. If you appreciate this project, please consider contributing to my caffeine addiction! I really appreciate it, and also helps justify this time sink to my wife , which results directly in more models.

This is an entire speculative timeline of KSP2 development based on Investigative Journalism done by ShadowZone, extracted from this video. A thank you goes out to @ShadowZone for doing thorough research on KSP2’s development, while remaining neutral and preserving integrity in the reporting of his findings. Recurring names and important concepts or events are in bold. Abbreviations are noted between brackets in (cursive) next to full names. Problematic events are denoted with !. All markings are applied by me and represent my own personal opinion. A PDF version of this summary is available at the bottom of this page, for easier reading. Pre-production, 2017 – 2018 (Star Theory) Take Two (T2) chooses Uber Entertainment, Later renamed Star Theory (ST), to develop Kerbal Space Program 2 (KSP2) T2 allocates 2 years and 10 million $ to ST to develop KSP2 This was supposedly seen as doable by the Studio Manager Jeremy Able)and ST Owners Bob Berry & Jonathan Mavor (referred to as ‘ST Management’ from hereon) ST Management’s plan at this time was to do a Revision of KSP1, meaning; take the original code, polish it up to modern standards, add new graphics and content and sell it as new version The creative direction, Nate Simpson, has a broader vision: a Reimagining rather than the Revision planned by ST management This would have included Interstellar and Colonies. Nate was a long-standing fan of KSP at this point Nate Simpson is able to convince T2 to approve his Reimagining ! Despite this, the timeline and budget already allocated by T2 would not be sufficient for the studio to pull of this Reimagining This is regarded as the start of a cascade of problems for KSP2 development At this time, the only engineer on the project is Principal Engineer Chuck Noble, an experienced software engineer with a degree in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering ! T2 keeps development of KSP2 highly secretive This forces ST team members to do recruiting and hiring in addition to their normal duties, hindering development ST team members are not allowed to tell potential hires what game or even what type of game they will be working on ! Due to budgetary constraints, only a few junior engineers with little to no experience are hired (senior engineers are brought onboard eventually, but much later on) All but one of these engineers had never played KSP1 before ! The junior engineers were considering building KSP2 on Unreal Engine instead of Unity, but were ordered by ST management to stick to the original code and engine (Unity) used by KSP1 As a result of this, some early prototype builds of KSP2 were done on KSP1’s user interface and graphics Early Production, 2018-2019 (Star Theory) Scope Change: Colonies, Interstellar and Multiplayer now considered “must-deliver features” ! Spring 2020 release date is communicated to the development team, and is considered Non-Negotiable This causes stress within development team, which possibly contributed to some wrong and hastily made decisions ! The decision to cram all these features into KSP1’s code, as ordered by ST management, ends up costing the engineers a lot of time People working on the project during this time estimate this resulted in around one year of wasted development time, compared to if they had been allowed to rewrite the code Multiplayer especially turns out to be incompatible with this framework ! Contact with Squad, the developers of KSP1, is prohibited (possibly by Squad upper management) This leads to nobody being available to guide the KSP2 engineers through the KSP1 code they were ordered to work with, forcing them to work in the dark and figure it out themselves The KSP2 engineers at ST would have loved to talk with the engineers at Squad, but they fear for their jobs being terminated by T2 should they do so ! This fear turns out to be warranted: a developer from ST is let go after answering a community question AFTER the game was announced, with T2 claiming it was an “unlawful disclosure” and that “communication to the public was not star Theory's decision, but the Publishers” Ultimately, the two previous points prove insurmountable and the engineers realize a significant Refactor of the code is needed to support Nate’s Reimagining ! This decision does not go down well with ST management, who do not understand the reasons behind it From this point onward, it is assumed new code is being written from scratch T2 continues to give ST pass after pass in Milestone meetings, despite people familiar with these meetings believing they should not have passed ! The most likely reason for this is that ST management had convinced T2 that they were sitting on a potential goldmine, claiming they were working on a ‘cultural successor to Minecraft’ These claims drive T2 to see Kerbals as their version of ‘Minions’ (A.N. The yellow creatures from the ‘despicable me’ movies), even planning a collaboration with a toy manufacturer Nate Simpson tries to appease both T2 and the existing KSP community by aiming to have the game be more accessible to a new audience and expand its player base, while also sticking to the core mechanics of KSP1 ! ST Management meekly goes along with the secrecy ordered by T2; one of the reasons for this being the aim to keep people familiar with KSP1 away from ‘interfering’ in the sequel They explicitly did not want KSP1 Veteran and well-known Youtuber Scott Manley to have any input in development Another reason for staying silent was that Uber Entertainment (now ST) had a bad reputation for previous games ! T2’s reasoning for keeping the project silent so long was apparently driven by a desire to avoid conflict with the community until it was too late At this point, due to the complete lack of outsider input, Creative Director Nate Simpson is basically the only person making gameplay decisions espite developing his first game at the age of 13, Nate is not an engineer; he instead has a bachelors degree in Arts (people working on the game describe him as a ‘very visual person’) ! This in turn caused a lot of focus to be placed on the visuals of the game, sometimes resulting in fundamental design and gameplay decisions to take the back seat Nate sometimes had a tendency to micromanage (something he admitted to in an interview) single elements of the game; one of which was wobbly rockets. Even before the Refactoring of the code, it was discovered the original KSP1 code could support significantly reduced wobble while also maintaining the option for joints to break under high stress ! Nate however was convinced that the difficulty from wobble and breaking joints was necessary for a fun game and made executive decision to keep them in the game Despite these flaws, Nate is considered by everyone spoken to by ShadowZone (SZ), be it someone who worked on the project or other content creators who interacted with him, to be a KSP Superfan with nothing but the community’s best interests at heart in his decision-making. The occasional disagreements between him and the engineers are attributed by the latter to Nate’s inexperience with aerospace, not to any form of malice. ! This inexperience, combined with Nate’s desire to expand the audience of the game to new players, somewhat resulted in the opposite happening; it reduced the capability of the game to serve as a teaching tool for people going into aerospace engineering and spaceflight, and overall reduced the priority of realism during development KSP2 is officially announced to very warm reception, with a release date set for the next year (2020) Content creators like Scott Manley, Matt Lowne and SZ are also brought onboard for the first time Hostile Takeover, 2019-2020 ST finally bring some Senior Engineers onboard. The Refactoring of the code is still only halfway done at this point in time ! By this time is has become clear that the release date of Spring 2020 is not achievable; despite this, ST Management continues to communicate to the team that this deadline and key features like colonies, interstellar and multiplayer are non-negotiable Chuck Noble, the only senior engineer who had been with the project since the start, leaves the team ST Owners Bob Berry & Jonathan Mavor begin negotiations with T2 to sell the studio to them, which are well underway by late 2019 ! Late 2019: Negotiations with Take Two break down and Star Theory loses the project ! ST’s Owners, Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor, raised their price last-minute betting on T2 being willing to cash them out before finding another studio to work on KSP2, making them multi-millionaires in the process In response, T2 pulled the intellectual property from Star Theory and started a poaching attempt, offering everyone on the team to transition over to continue working on the project ! Partially due to the complete lack of emotional attachment to the KSP franchise on the part of most engineers(they still had not played ksp1 at this point) and partially due to T2’s refusal to budge when senior engineers tried to get better deals and compensation, the poaching attempt mostly failed, with only 4 engineers initially making the transition to the new studio that would become Intercept Games(IG) ! A total of around 20 people ended up making the transition eventually, but most of these were either junior engineers, artists or production people, resulting in a small and inexperienced team once again Star Theory continued to survive for a few more months, but ultimately failed to pitch new projects ideas (supposedly due to Covid cancelling an expo they were planning to attend) to publishers, resulting in their closure not much after. Technical Director Paul Furio is brought aboard the newly created IG with the mission of rebuilding the development team and setting processes in place to allow KSP2 to succeed Bumpy Road To Early Access, 2020-2023 (Intercept Games) ! T2 gives IG the stipulation to keep the old, broken code from Star Theory and work with it instead of starting again from scratch Apparently this was done because T2 management felt uneasy about ‘Refactoring’ the code yet again, so the decision was made to keep the existing code There is some debate as to the ‘broken-ness’ of the Star Theory Code; A person working on the project under Intercept Games said “they had 0% chance of releasing anything with that" about Star Theory code. A person working on the project under Star Theory, on the other hand, said with a little more time it would have worked. This person does however agree that it would have been better for IG to start again from scratch, not because of code quality but because of fresh team and still no contact to KSP1 devs. In general, everyone SZ spoke to agrees that not starting from scratch was the wrong move Not starting from scratch also meant Multiplayer remained one the biggest challenges to making the game feature-complete In an interview with Nate Simpson, it appeared that KSP2 already had working multiplayer when he said “as we've been testing it internally, I have never heard people laugh so hard”. Apparently, this ‘testing’ was actually done using a multiplayer mod in KSP1. It is however worth pointing out that KSP2 did have some form of rudimentary multiplayer by this time, inherited from ST, but it was incredibly buggy, unstable and nowhere near shippable. ! At this point, multiplayer remained a secondary objective while the main focus was still very much on art and visuals. This lack of baking multiplayer into the design remained a problem throughout this stage of development. They did however make progress during this period; later builds allowed multiple players to inhabit the same world and launch rockets together A few months after the game released into early access, the entire multiplayer team was let go. The developers claimed they were still designing the game with the thought that multiplayer would one day be a big part of it in the back of their minds, but it essentially was put on the backburner entirely Despite the old code hindering development and Covid hitting the globe, progress was finally being made and experts like Dr. Michael Dodd, a physics engineer, and Chris Adderly (also known as Nertea), a prominent KSP1 modder were brought onboard the project. ! It would still be until mid 2021 before KSP1 developers could finally join the KSP2 team. The ban on contact remained in place until then. Upon joining the team, apparently their reaction was “you should have asked us a year ago!” (which the KSP2 devs wanted to, but still weren’t allowed to) This ban may be explained by Squad not wanting KSP1 developers to be distracted from the final KSP1 updates This does not however explain why ex-Squad employees who had left years prior, like KSP1’s original creator Felipe Falange (known as HarvesteR), were never contacted ! Problems continue to become apparent as development goes on. Some of these are exacerbated or even caused by producers changing priorities for developers, often forcing them to switch between very different features This was later addressed withing IG when the ‘feature team structure’ (detailed here) was introduced. This structure was something Paul Furio has tried to establish before Early Access, but it was only established after his departure Take Two forces a release deadline of February 2023 by this time, the project is already over its allocated budget It immediately becomes apparent that all key features would not be ready in time for this deadline. It is believed there was a chance Colonies could have made it, but this was foregone a few months later In September 2022 the decision is made to go to Early Access with a stripped down sandbox version of the game ! This causes a massive upheaval of development, as the project was never intended to be released in parts. Product managers started pulling developers from their tasks and assigning them new ones, causing even more problems An example of this is an engineer who was weeks away from finishing a colony builder tool being pulled from the task and assigned to another item that had to be ticked off a project list, as colonies were shelved ! Yet another problem presents itself; software engineers, in high demand at the time, could make $200 to $250K a year at large companies like Microsoft or Amazon, but at IG their maximum yearly pay was kept at $150K due to budgetary constraints. Not only does this result in difficulties with recruiting, it also drives several people, such as Dr. Micheal Dodd, to leave the project The biggest blow comes from the departure of Eric De Feliz, a Graphics Specialist working on shaders. Nobody was present to pick up where he left off, resulting in the game being shipped with seriously unoptimized shaders GPU engineers especially were in high demand around this time, resulting in even worse optimization ! Despite being requisitioned multiple times, the IT team is not able to provide the necessary tools to test performance in time, further contributing to poor optimization and a late release of minimum and recommended specifications to the public Early Access, 2023-2024 (Intercept Games) Take Two and Private Division put their marketing into full gear, encouraging the ‘hype train’ even more An event is held in the Netherlands where content creators get their first chance to play the game. The first problems start to become apparent to the public as the creators give mixed reviews. Meanwhile, tensions are high at IG and PD. Some people are not happy with some of the decisions made, and they are aware the game is not at the level they wanted to deliver. Anxiety about community reception is large. In spite of this, steam sale numbers are put on a big screen in the conference room as they hope to breach 100K sales on day one. KSP2 Officially releases into Early Access. The game receives mixed to negative reviews, and it becomes clear the secrecy pushed by T2 has hurt the relation between developer and community A person working on the project later admits not getting community feedback was one of the biggest mistakes. They go on record to say “We wound up shipping the wrong product and not focusing on the right features” T2’s marketing campaign backfires as people start to realize the flaws of the game they bought for (nearly) full price ($50) and negative reviews start pouring in from angry and disappointed customers Sale numbers fall short of the numbers hoped for, only reaching 80K. This number does not account for the many refunds that happened ! A few weeks after the early access release, Studio Head Jeremy Ables and Technical Director Paul Furio were let go by higher-up management, which deemed them as the most expensive people in the studio. Furio left immediately while Ables stayed on a few more weeks. Michael Cook, previously Brand Manager at PD, took over the job of Studio Manager. It is also around this time the multiplayer developers were let go. Multiplayer was still janky and buggy at this point, but it was functional in some capacity. Despite this, there was a silent understanding that the layoff of the multiplayer team might have meant the feature was now shelved indefinitely. Focus shifts to bug fixing and working towards the first milestone update, later dubbed ‘For Science!’ (FS!) FS! came out in December 2023 to generally positive reviews, 10 months after the game entered early access. This was a significant delay from the internal estimate of 3 months, brought on by the shift in focus after community backlash about the state of the game. It is during this period that Furio’s cross functional feature team structure is finally implemented Studio Closure, 2024 (Intercept Games) In late April 2024, a WARN notice appeared indicating T2’s Seattle office, where Intercept Games is located, was being closed with 70 people (about the size of KSP2’s full dev team) being laid off starting June 28th. The studio went into near-complete radio silence, with the only statement made on @KerbalSpaceP’s X account “We’re still hard at work on KSP2. We’ll talk more when we can.”. Take Two Interactive later released a statement saying they were “streamlining the pipeline” and implementing “cost-saving measures across the company”. Despite statements from Take Two’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, saying Intercept Games would not be shuttered, all employees were laid off on June 28th 2024. What followed was a period of radio silence, broken only by two emails from Alan Lewis in July, Take Two’s Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, which stated the following: “We are currently working on a plan for the future of Kerbal Space Program 2, which will continue its development; however, we have nothing further to say publicly at this time.” In a later email in October, the modding community was given permission to use existing game files in mods in an email from T2s Legal Department. On November 6th 2024, media reported Private Division and all of its live and unreleased titles, including KSP and KSP2, were sold to an undisclosed buyer. Take Two also officially admitted Intercept Games had been closed for the first time. This is a developing situation, and the impact of this on the future of the game is still unknown at this time. Conclusion (ShadowZone’s Opinions) KSP2 development has been plagued by a multitude of issues from the very beginning, ranging from diverging vision to corporate takeovers to mundane issues like tools not being ready in time The project was based on the wrong parameters from the start Technical decisions were made by people that had no business making them The developers were not paid accordingly There were a lot of assumptions about gameplay and mechanics that the community might have wanted that were not verified until it was basically too late The lack of open communication and extreme secrecy did severely harm to the trust of the already existing fanbase, especially after the game went into early access Speculative: the total cost of the project so far is assumed to be around 40 to 60 million dollars so far, compared to an estimated revenue from Steam of Only 30 to 40 million Notes (from ShadowZone, LinuxGuruGamer, Matt Lowne and Scott Manley) Nate Simpson should not take the blame; this was a passion project from him, and he genuinely appeared to want to deliver a great fun game for the existing KSP community, but he might have bit off more then he could chew, and made mistakes such as wobble. A big part of why he might not always have been able to deliver what he promised (despite wanting to do so) are technical and business constraints (example: modding API) Opinion from LinuxGuruGamer, Matt Lowne and Scott Manley: KSP2 can not reach completion under Take Two. The best way forward might be to focus on the modding API in the remaining time, but; mods have their limitations and they will not suffice to ‘save the game’ **PDF VERSION** KSP2 Development Timeline.pdf

It's possible that whoever bought PD didn't plan to keep all the IP that it has, but may have been negotiating a sale of some of them, to one or more interested parties. Of course that would make for pretty complicated negotiations and planning, but it's not out of the question. So, in theory at least, company X (not suggesting it would be RW) could buy up PD, with a sale of the KSP rights to company Y (again, not likely to be RW, but a publisher or other project financier) with RW lined up as the developer for to the work for company Y. All of that is wild speculation, but the wick seems to have been turned up regarding talk around KSA, a couple days before the news of the PD sale is confirmed. Might mean something or, it's just coincidence... and those things happen all the time. Either way, an attempt to revive the KSP franchise by RW, given the people involved, would (on the face of it at least) be a good thing... if it happened.

Same questions, then, just about Florida EPA, Florida State house staffers. I'm fine with regulation around this stuff, but having seen regulations for other areas... they tend to not make any sense. My wife lobbies Congress and State legislature for various issues around her surgical specialty—and the 20-somethings she gets to talk to about medical issues are completely clueless (can't talk to our own congress-critters in person unless she comes bearing a steamer trunk full of cash). I would imagine staffers contacted about aviation are equally clueless about that. It seems like a corollary to the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

While I was walking through the National Museum of the United States Air Force last Saturday, I was reminded of all the KSP replicas of those same aircraft. Some of them looked like they can be done with pure stock parts and no DLCs, while others (mostly the older ones) need mods that come with more parts. So, I started this thread for everyone to showcase their replicas of the aircraft that the four large hangars (plus the Missile Gallery) have on display. The guidelines for this showcase thread are simple: You are free to use any and all parts necessary, including ones that come in DLCs and mods. Vehicle has to be functional. Which means pictures/video of the craft in action. Similar performance stats are a plus. EXCEPTION: if the craft in question could not move on its own (as in it needed to be attached to a larger assembly to go anywhere) then the functionality requirement may be waived. e.g. the Apollo 15 command module. You'll only need one picture of your best replica (or half-assed; it shouldn't make a difference in that case), since it's useless unless attached to the rest of the spacecraft. If you want to make the rest of the rocket assembly, fine. Only the capsule made it to the museum, and that's what I need. Vehicle has to look as close as possible to whatever real-life craft you're trying to copy. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you have photographs to reference. Build something not yet claimed on the checklist (link below) first. EXCEPTION: for craft that appear more than once in the museum (such as the Superfortress and the Twin Mustang), you may only sign off on one of your craft's variants. Leave the rest of them for others to claim. e.g. I only do one Twin Mustang; the one in the Korean War section in Hangar 2. I'll leave it to someone else to get the other Twin Mustang in Hangar 3 and claim it on the log. If you want to show something that's already been showcased on this thread, fine - but you don't get credit for it. I don't care if you built the craft 7 minutes or 7 years ago, so long as it's yours. If you have an old stash of aircraft replicas that you're willing to showcase (and can work), great. Weaponry (e.g. guns, bombs, missiles) not necessary, although I won't object to them either. If the original aircraft was manned, so is your replica. If the original aircraft was unmanned, so is your replica. I won't object to a probe core for your manned aircraft if it doesn't deviate too much from the aesthetic, so long as you include the appropriate crew module/s. You don't need to match the passenger/crew capacity of your original aircraft, so long as your replica comes close to looking like its real-life counterpart AND it's functional. e.g. if you use one or more Mk. 3 Passenger Modules for an Air Force One variant, as long as your aircraft makes a convincing replica I don't mind you exceeding or falling behind its real-life counterpart's passenger capacity. Those things weren't designed for carrying a lot of people anyway; just provide comfort for the president and his staff. (SIDE NOTE) Whoever builds the Douglas VC-54C "Skymaster," I'm not requiring you to install an elevator in the back to load polio-stricken passengers in and out. If you do and the plane still flies smoothly, even better. The one housed in the museum was designed specifically to transport then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who needed a wheelchair. Craft files a plus. Below is the link for the replica checklist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tA9IGsSCQIuTFjw9eNHYcgv8JboCxKiAy9ep5-nflR0/edit?usp=sharing Here are the instructions on how to use it: Pick an aircraft that has not already been built Like I said earlier, if you want to build something that's already been done here, don't steal credit from the original kerbalnaut. And for duplicates, you can only claim one of the type. Once you're done, write: Column D: Your KSP Forum name Column E: The link to the specific forum post showcasing your replica/s It is acceptable to put more than one craft in the same post. Just leave a link for everyone to find it. Column F: Whatever DLCs you used to make the replica If this doesn't apply to that specific craft, leave it blank Column G: Whatever (parts) mods you used to make the replica If this doesn't apply to that specific craft, leave it blank Column H: (IF YOU WANT TO) Additional notes that other readers may find interesting Please don't modify someone else's notes. If you want to debate/talk to someone about their craft, don't do it on the spreadsheet. Source for my list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_at_the_National_Museum_of_the_United_States_Air_Force Click here to see this thread's replicas assembled on KerbalX As a prize, if you make at least one replica from each of the four hangars (not counting the air park or missile silo since they're too small; specific hangar category (e.g. Early Years vs WWII, Experimental vs Space) doesn't matter), you'll earn this sweet badge: I made it myself. It's a representation of all four hangars by using a combination of the following four logos: U.S. Army Air Corps, whose planes dominate Hangar One. Classic U.S. Air Force, which became mainstream at the time period Hangar Two covers. Modern U.S. Air Force, which has a lot of planes in Hangar Three still in service. NASA, since the space gallery is in Hangar Four. Entries from the Missile Gallery can be used as "wild cards." They're ultra-rare, so get them while they last. Depending on what hangars you lack, it can be used as either a Hangar Three or Hangar Four entry. To make things fair for everyone, only one Missile Silo entry per person All Four Hangars Badge Recipients @Mars-Bound Hokie (Me, the OP) @swjr-swis I'll start us off with my favorite, the SR-71 Blackbird. The SR-71 Blackbird on display in the SPH Picture taken February 2020. Ted Kerman enjoying himself flying at high altitudes at a speed higher than the aircraft's real-life counterpart. There you have it, folks. Have fun, and I can't wait to see what you got. Build a plane from each of the four hangars, and you get the badge.

If you've followed my National Museum of the United States Air Force replica showcase, or are fortunate enough to have entered the museum itself, you might notice that a lot of the jet-powered aircraft on display are the same kind used in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Even if you've never even heard of or set foot in any aviation museum, those who have played and/or watched AC7 as well as Kerbal Space Program are bound to have come across replicas of those aircraft at least once. Some of them look like they can be done with pure stock parts and no DLCs, while others need mods that come with more parts. So, I started this thread for everyone to showcase their replicas of craft that appear in AC7, both based on real life and original designs from the franchise. Just like my U.S. Air Force Museum replica thread, the guidelines for this showcase thread are simple: You are free to use any and all parts necessary, including ones that come in DLCs and mods. Vehicle has to be functional. Which means pictures/video of the craft in action. Similar performance stats are a plus, but not required. I'm positive everything on the checklist could move on their own. Vehicle has to look as close as possible to whatever craft you're trying to copy. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you have photographs to reference. Build something not yet claimed on the checklist (link below) first. EXCEPTION: for airframes that appear more than once in the game (such as the F-14 Tomcat, the F-15 Eagle, and the F/A-18 Super Hornet), you may only sign off on one of your craft's variants. Leave the rest of them for others to claim. Example: I only do one F-15; the F-15C in the Base Game subcategory. Someone else gets the F-15E that's also in the Base Game subcategory and claims it on the log. A third person will get the F-15J. Another example: I get the F-14D Super Tomcat in the Base Game, a second person gets the F-14A in the DLC subcategory, and a third gets the F-14A with the Top Gun: Maverick tag. If you want to show something that's already been showcased on this thread, fine - but you don't get credit for it. Just please don't hog all of the same airframe. I don't care if you built the craft 10 minutes or 10 years ago, so long as it's yours. If you have an old stash of aircraft replicas that you're willing to showcase (and can work), great. Weaponry (e.g. guns, bombs, missiles) not necessary, although I won't object to them either. If the original aircraft was manned, so is your replica. If the original aircraft was unmanned (especially the UAVs), so is your replica. I won't object to a probe core for your manned aircraft if it doesn't deviate too much from the aesthetic, so long as you include the appropriate crew module/s. You don't need to match the passenger/crew capacity of your original aircraft, so long as your replica comes close to looking like its real-life counterpart AND it's functional. Example: if you use Mk. 3 Passenger Modules for an A340 variant, as long as your aircraft makes a convincing replica I don't mind you exceeding or falling behind its real-life counterpart's passenger capacity. If whatever you're trying to copy is very large, such as the Arsenal Bird, functional scale models are acceptable. This is mainly to reduce someone's computer crashing whenever s/he's trying to operate the Arsenal Bird or something like that. Of course, if you want to fry your own CPU making a full-sized replica, I won't say no to that. I'd also think it's cute if you make a mini Arsenal Bird, for example. As long as the craft works and looks like whatever you're trying to copy, it's good. Craft files a plus. Below is the link for the replica checklist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nJl2Ph5azsRydnpn97Kgn1SlAR7qBZLUXtigqkmRI3k/edit?usp=sharing Here are the instructions on how to use it: Pick an aircraft that has not already been built Like I said earlier, if you want to build something that's already been done here, don't steal credit from the original kerbalnaut. And for duplicates, you can only claim one of the type. Once you're done, write: Column D: Your KSP Forum name Column E: The link to the specific forum post showcasing your replica/s It is acceptable to put more than one craft in the same post. Just leave a link for everyone to find it. Column F: Whatever DLCs you used to make the replica If this doesn't apply to that specific craft, leave it blank Column G: Whatever (parts) mods you used to make the replica If this doesn't apply to that specific craft, leave it blank Column H: (IF YOU WANT TO) Additional notes that other readers may find interesting Please don't modify someone else's notes. If you want to debate/talk to someone about their craft, don't do it on the spreadsheet. Source for my list: https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/Ace_Combat_7:_Skies_Unknown/Aircraft Click here to see this thread's replicas assembled on KerbalX To kick off the showcase, I've already got 11 entries down since they were also used in my U.S. Air Force Museum thread. As I specified in the guidelines, I don't care how long ago you built the craft (or what it was used for), as long as it's yours and it works. So, here we go. Base Game: DLC: Unplayable: There you have it, folks. Have fun, and solitary, now I can't wait to see what you got.

No, exact not, these are two completely different things. FireFox can't validate the certificate or can't talk with the server. But FF has an ip of the domain name to do that step. If DNSSEC would be broken, FF would not get an IP address, so no connection would be possible. 1. Browser gets a domain name 2. Browser must find minimal one ip address 3. Browser connects the ip via TCP / not encrypted 4. Browser upgrades the connection to SSL 5. If SSL is established, Browser sends the first http GET command to that ip ( GET /, Host spacedoc.info If DNSSEC is broken, step 2 doesn't work. The FF error message says: 4 is the problem, so 2 is resolved. Compare it with the really broken http://dnssec-failed.org/ - http fails. That's a (4) - problem while upgrading the TCP-connection to SSL - "while connecting" is different from "Server failed while finding the ip address". > nslookup dnssec-failed.org with a validating name server -> Server failed. If your internet provider standard name server doesn't validate DNSSEC, you will never see such a message. > nslookup spacedock.info Result: Two ip addresses, so the browser goes to step (3).

hi. JFA DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 5 I've been working on another mod for a different game and putting JFA off because... I got bored and frustrated setting up Aklin. I'm coming back to modding, but expect less frequent. Anyways, update will come out this November, but I wanted to talk about the development roadmap. 1.1 - SUNFLARE Released. Small update changing the sunflare textures. No bodies added. 1.2 - SARYN 50% Complete. (November 2024.) Adding 2 new moons and moving the wormhole to Saryn. This may seem minor, but is pretty major. Part of the originally proposed "Alpha 0.4.0" (LUNA), and than the planned version of the released update... I split it in two, those being SARYN and LUNA. Speaking of Luna... 1.3 - LUNA (Jan-Feb. 2025) Fully Planned. It's like Saryn, but for Jona. 3(?) Moons. 1.3.1 - LUNA+ (After LUNA.) In Planning. Polishing and stuff. Mostly unimportant. RELEASE CANDIDATES (No clue lol) Polishing, actual working EVE support, making the mod not suck... All those things. I'm not sure if I'll keep them private or publish them. (r1, r2, r3 r3.1...) Sorry for the lack of images! As stated, I was on break, so haven't really been... Developing.

I've noticed a few people on this forum play Ace Combat games (like five lol) and I also noticed that you could make threads about specific games here. Seeing as there is no dedicated Ace Combat thread, I made this for Ace Combat players to talk about... well, Ace Combat and such. How do you do the campaign, what's your go-to fighter and special weapon, etc. Ace Combat is a series of games that take place in the alternate universe of Strangereal. Strangereal's Earth has different continents and countries, such as the Osean Federation and Kingdom of Erusea. Most games are set after the planetfall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroids, an asteroid that devastated part of the Earth. Anti-asteroid weapons helped negate the damage but the asteroids that did hit would lead to massive instability, setting the ground for most of the franchise's wars. The player's character is a "silent protagonist" and is always a fighter pilot from one of the fictional countries. Common traits of Ace Combat and their campaign-based gameplay involve: a wide spread of aircraft and weapons, enemy ace pilots, and giant superweapons. Not to mention the excellent storytelling (usually), graphics and music. Also, fun fact: more players play KSP than Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown by monthly average from Steam, but roughly the same number of games have been sold for each. AC7 released five years later than KSP, however. *** EDIT: From this thread I've been doing a bit more research into Project Wingman and found the two games are pretty similar. I mean, obviously, seeing PW was made by AC players. But the two games are similar enough in gameplay, genre, fanbase, etc. that it probably doesn't negate creating a separate thread. Project Wingman is an indie game that takes place in an alternate, post-apocalyptic future Earth nearly 600 years in the future. All of Earth's geography and politics have been significantly altered. This was due to a disaster called the Calamity, where the Ring of Fire had massive tectonic disasters, triggering huge eruptions. While this plunged the world into winter for over a century, it also unearthed Cordium, an unstable natural material that can be utilized for energy and fuel, making this resource highly coveted by new superpower nations. Similarly to Ace Combat, the protagonist never speaks and is a fighter pilot (this time for a mercenary company). The game features plenty of aircraft and weapons, and boss battles against airships and enemy ace squadrons. The story is also well written, and the music is superb.

This challenge was continued with permission from the previous thread manager @JacobJHC LINK to the old Jool-5 thread There are over 50 pages of entries and discussion, so look and see what made it and what didn't LINK to the older Jool-5 thread There are over forty-five pages of entries and discussion, so look and see what made it and what didn't LINK to the oldest Jool-5 thread. There are hundreds of pages of entries and discussion, so look at it to see what worked and what didn't! CHALLENGE RULES Given the scale of this challenge, everyone who completes the mission successfully gets a spot in the hall of fame. 1. No cheating, including the stock debug menu cheats, HyperEdit, kraken drives, or file editing. HyperEdit is allowed for testing but get rid of that H when you fly the real mission! 2. No part-clipping of functional parts (fuel tanks, batteries, crew pods, engines, science parts, SAS) into each other. It is okay to clip structural and non-functional parts, wings, and heat shields. 3. Any number of launches are allowed to assemble the ship in low Kerbin orbit (preferably below 100km, not a hard ceiling though, but do try to stay around or below 100km at most). All launches must be flown! 4. There's funding for one main ship only so all the crew, lander(s) and other stuff has to go to Jool as one big ship. Once the ship leaves LKO, it cannot obtain more parts or fuel unless it mines and refines the fuel itself. The ship can separate once in Jool's SOI. 5. Kerbals must be in a pod or cabin (no seats) for the interplanetary journey. Seats are okay for landing and flying within the Jool system. 6. One refueling mission is allowed in the Jool system if you run out of fuel, unless your ship uses ISRU. The refueling mission can only transfer resources, not parts, to your Jool 5 craft. This mission must actually be flown! 7. On all of the landings, the Kerbal must be able to get out and walk (or swim!) around on the surface. Make sure your ladders work! 8. Use Normal difficulty or harder, except, any ComNet settings are allowed including turning it off completely. 9. All the Kerbals have to arrive back to Kerbin surface at the end of the mission, happy and alive. You are allowed to optionally send up a craft to return them from LKO. 10. Mods / DLC: STOCK: only mods which do not add parts and do not change physics are allowed. This includes any informational, planning, visual, autopilot, or automatic functions. DLC: Any and all DLC made for Kerbal Space Program are allowed. MODDED: Use of most parts mods and certain game mechanics mods are allowed. You NO LONGER HAVE TO ASK if your favorite part pack is allowed! Some parts mods are prohibited. Please see below. Specific Mods: ENTRY SUBMISSION RULES 11. Submit your challenge as an imgur album, with good captions and descriptions, as a video or series of videos, or as a thread in Mission Reports. 12. Pictures or it didn't happen! Please keep the resources tab open, as well as show the informative windows from Mechjeb or KER if you use them. Take a picture of every important moment, including transfers, dockings, landings, stagings, and refuelings. For Jeb's Level, also take pictures of the science screen when you recover your craft. Alternatively, video submissions are a great way to show everyone your mission as well. These will help future participants to see exactly how you accomplished each part! CHALLENGE LEVELS 1ST LEVEL: one Kerbonaut lands on all the moons and come back safely. Low mass and low cost and low parts sub-challenges: with stock parts and physics, how low can you go and still accomplish the mission? NOTE: Low cost submissions may not utilize ISRU, or a negative cost would be possible. (Thanks @jinnantonix!) 2ND LEVEL: two or more Kerbonauts land together on all the moons together and come back safely. 3RD LEVEL: There's not enough time left for training one crew member to be an expert on all of the moons, so five Kerbonauts must go to the mission, with at least one unique Kerbonaut landing on each moon. JEBEDIAH'S LEVEL: collect as much Science as possible! Your score is the number of science points from the Jool system only, returned to Kerbin (not transmitted). Only stock experiments count for this! To score, take pictures of the science screen(s) when you recover the data. Otherwise, the rules are the same as 3rd Level. GATECRASHER / HONORARY MENTIONS: Missions completed the mission in spirit but didn't meet every requirement. ISRU: Use of ISRU will get a note ISRU on the entry description in the hall of fame. This includes stock ore harvesting and converting as well as mods such as Kethane and Karbonite. ISRU is allowed for any level of completion. GRAND TOUR: Not officially part of the challenge, but landing on all planets and moons in the Kerbol system in one mission will earn a GRAND TOUR note and the everlasting praise of all of Kerbal kind. Rule 4 is waived, but any Kerbals on the mission cannot return to Kerbin in between any landings and you still must follow the other rules. Additional optional information to help others see how the mission was accomplished: - Which game versions did you use? - What mods did you use, if any? - How many Kerbals are on the mission? - How many launches were needed to start your mission from Kerbin? - How much did your mission cost? - Did you needed a refueling mission? - Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc? - Share the delta-V information too, if you tracked it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, now this big announcement is in the Kerbal News, all the public is excited about this mission and even the Government is watching! Now it's up to you, to the engineers and to the bravest and craziest Kerbonauts of all time! Completion Badge: Anyone who has finished the challenge can add this badge to their signature. The Low Mass Feather badge is available for entries in the low mass sub challenge. Hall of Fame 1st Level- - @Laie Video here. Used a smaller-than-you'd-expect rocket with a dedicated Tylo lander and a spaceplane shell that encloses the Vall-Bop-Pol lander to make the Laythe lander. A very well done mission with a great video. - @Stratzenblitz75 Video here. Used a completely reusable mission involving a tiny mothership which orbited Tylo and tiny landers that explored the system. I should also point out that no nuclear engines or ions were used in the mission. Truly impressive. - @Ultimate Steve Videos here and here. Used a single launch in career mode sending Val to many places in the system including Vall. Very impressive how quickly the mission was thrown together and carried out. - @IncongruousGoat Album here. A simple, single launch Jool 5 mission that only uses 42 parts! Very well optimized and well done. Good job! - @chargan ISRU Gif here. Used an ISRU shuttle and hopped from Kerbin, to the Mün, to the Joolian moons, to Duna, and finished it off with a glorious vertical landing at the KSC. Excellent job! - @GRS Album here. Used a massive, creatively named mothersheep that carried landers for Laythe and Tylo, landing on Vall and Bop (AND DRES!) by itself. As an added bonus, the lonely Dres was even visited, that doesn't happen very often. Amazing job! - @Challyss Album here. Used a brute force 5 meter launch booster with two 5 meter side boosters. Once in LKO used a vector-power stage to boost to an elliptical orbit, then used a rhino powered mothership to go to Jool, where it completed the mission. - @Superfluous J V ideos here. Used a single launch to send three Kerbals to the Jool system, where the ship parked in an elliptical Tylo orbit. From there a tug took the landers to their respective moons where they *wait for it* landed. The ship then fired all three Kerbals home safely. An amazing mission and equally amazing videos. - @Xurkitree Grand Tour Thread here. A surprisingly small mission that not only landed on all the Jool moons, but also every other planet and moon in the system. The mission sent a craft out to Eeloo, which landed and returned to Jool before heading home. Once in orbit Derton was picked up by a recovery rocket and landed safely back on Kerbin. Outstanding. ISRU Video here. I don't even know where to start, Xurkitree didn't just do a Jool 5 in this mission, they did it twice. A large SSTO ISRU craft launched and refueled on Minmus before gravity assisting its way to Jool where it completed the landings and then returned to Kerbin, WHERE IT RELAUNCHED and then detached a small non-ISRU craft which carried out the landings again. A fun note was when the Laythe lander landed by computer control while the Kerbal parachuted down. Great job on your fourth Jool 5 submission! - @dvader Album here. A single launch using only chemical engines. Used several gravity assists to make the trip to Jool cheaper in terms of delta-v. Used a small but capable plane for Laythe, and a donut lander for the other moons (with extra fuel for Tylo and Vall.) Overall a very optimized mission, complete with a near KSC landing. - @fulgur Album here. A very small and well optimized mission with a smaller-than-you'd-expect mothership. Ions were used to scoot Jeb and Vall about the system to the various moons, and then left as the small mothership made its way home, getting into Kerbin orbit with only forty m/s of delta-v remaining. (Talk about close margins!) The crew were returned safely by an Aether SSTO. - @Pro100kerbonaut ISRU Mission report here. Used an SSTO spaceplane to go to Minmus to refuel, then flew off to Jool. This mission is the most impressive in how it handled the Tylo landing. Not only was the landing done using the SSTO, but it came directly from Vall without refueling at Bop or Pol. The landings were all completed flawlessly, but was destroyed in a crash landing back on Kerbin. The pilot survived though, and any landing you can walk away from... - @dnbattley Album here. A direct ascent mission to all five moons, starting with Pol and Bop, then Vall, Tylo, and finally Laythe. The tensions on this mission were very high, as Jeb began his Tylo descent on a NERVA powered craft with a TWR of .9, managing to get it above 1 just in time to pull off the landing. From there Jeb flew to Laythe where he somehow missed the ocean (this might be a KSP first) and used the craft's jets to push it into the water for an ocean launch. After struggling back into orbit, Jeb flew by Tylo back to Kerbin, using a Duna aerogravity assist to get the right trajectory (ARE YOU SERIOUS?) Upon returning to Kerbin he was able to sneak in a Minmus landing. This mission is without a doubt one of the more Kerbal ones submitted, complete with Jeb gliding the final stage down to Kerbin with his EVA chute. - @EveMaster Grand Tour, ISRU Thread here. Additional album here. EveMaster managed to complete the Jool 5 challenge with an ISRU craft, utilizing the power of two mammoth engines and a detachable spaceplane. Also went the extra few million miles and completed a grand tour! Both Bob and Jeb were on this mission, however Bill stayed behind on Eve, so only Jeb is being considered for this entry. Regardless, an excellently executed mission. - @ManEatingApe, @Jacke, @dvader, @Muetdhiver, @Rakaydos, and @Pds314 Mission thread here. What these users have completed is the first community Jool 5 mission for this specific thread, possibly the first ever. Furthermore, this mission was done in a 'caveman' style approach, meaning no maneuver nodes, tier one buildings, and launch mass restrictions. These restraints meant the main ship was built over multiple launches. The landings were carried out by a plane and three identical landers, which carried Jeb to, around, and back to Kerbin from the Jool system with excruciating precision. I highly suggest checking out this mission's thread, it's one of a kind! - @Space Nerd Album here. Using a long nuclear mothership, Jeb and Malvis conquered the Jool system in a surprisingly easy manner. An off-center Bop/Pol lander was docked onto the side of the mothership, leading to one of the more interesting mothership designs. Jeb took Laythe, Tylo, and Vall, and Malvis handled Bop and Pol. Once all the landings were done, they flew back to Kerbin and used a 10 meter heat shield to slow down and splashed into the ocean. - @ralanboyle Video here. Using a single brute force launch, a main station of sorts was put into Jool orbit,. From there a Laythe-plane was released, and upon returning from Laythe, a lander/fuel tank combo (and an extra part for Tylo) took on Tylo, then Vall, then Bop, then Pol. They forgot to put a flag on Pol, but who cares. Also, the lander was able to return to Kerbin all by itself. Quite the capable craft I'd say. The mission is edited into a very nice video, and I suggest giving it a watch if you've got the time. - @Carbonjvd Album here. Using the incredibly stylish IPV Excelsior spacecraft, Tridous Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, where she picked up two more crew members in Minmus orbit. From there they flew to Jool, where they refueled at Bop. After the tanks were full, they hopped to Pol, then Tylo, then Bop again, then Vall. From Vall the crew hopped back to Bop for more refueling, then flew to Laythe. After converting stored ore into liquid fuel, the crew touched down on an island, then (you guessed it) flew back to Bop! (for more fuel) From this final Bop landing, the Excelsior returned to Minmus where it all began, then safely touched down on Kerbin. A stylish landing for a stylish craft. - @camacju Grand Tour. Album here. This mission is impressive as it not only visited the five moons of Jool, but also every other landable surface in the Kerbol System. The Jool portion of this mission was completed after the mothership completed the Eve portion, then used gravity assists to get to Jool. A Tylo assist put the ship on course to aerobrake at Laythe, and after landing on Laythe the lander was then reused for Tylo. The other moons were completed using a smaller lander, and the brave Kerbonaut landed back at Kerbin after quite an exciting trip. Video here. A very well edited video of a Jool 5 mission which used only liquid fuel! Launching from the runway as a spaceplane, the craft flew up before staging its rapier engines and continuing to orbit on nerva-power. The Laythe landing was done using a smaller spaceplane, and the rest of the landings were done using a very impressive lander which used only 1 nerv engine to land on all the other moons, including Tylo! The lander also served as a trip home and as a heat shield so that the brave kerbonaut could parachute to safety. This mission is beautifully summed up in the video link, and I highly suggest checking it out. A truly unique mission! Video here. Another liquid fuel only mission! This one utilized multiple relaunches of the same spaceplane to put multiple fuel tankers in orbit. From there, the craft departed for Jool after some gravity assists and once again demonstrated the unusual, difficult, and impressive use of a nerv-powered Tylo lander. The video this mission was edited into is nice and tidy as well, and I suggest watching so you can see all the work that went into it. Video here. And yet another Jool 5 mission, but this time with only one engine! A cargo spaceplane with a single rapier made multiple launches to place several fuel tankers into orbit before flying a gravity-assist-utilizing course to Jool. Once in Jool space, the Laythe landing was conducted first, and then the plane ditched its outer shell so that just the rapier engine and a few fuel tanks remained. The craft then docked to a fuel module in orbit and flew to Vall, landed, then went to Tylo where a dedicated fuel drop-tank was used with what I'll dub "backflip staging". From there the Pol and Bop landings were done, with fuel to spare. After a fiery return to Kerbin, the brave Kerbonaut, Wildard, paraglided safely into the ocean. I recommend giving this video a watch, because it's short, to the point, and an amazing display of Kerbal engineering. Grand Tour. Video here. This mission is truly a record breaker, as not only was it a Jool 5, but it is the lowest mass Grand Tour without ISRU record holder, with a take off mass of 14.447 tons, less than a Mammoth engine! To focus on the Jool 5 portion of the mission, a spaceplane made a bouncy, thrash-flippy landing, then a tiny tiny lander was used to tackle Tylo. Pol and Bop were handled by a small ion lander, and Vall was handled by a lander so small it looks like a pancake. You should definitely give this mission's video a watch, as words cannot truly describe just how insanely optimized this mission was. - @Goufalite Video here. This mission began with the assembly of a main mothership in LKO. Once complete, the ship cruised to Jool where it used gravity assists to achieve orbit. From there, the spaceplane was deployed to Laythe, but missed its target island. Never fear! The spaceplane had such high performance it was able to fly to a nearby island. Once back with the mothership, the SSTO was drained and detatched, and a capsule on its nose was undocked and docked to the Tylo lander. The Tylo lander used 2 aerospike engines to blow its way to the surface, and the final stage of the lander redocked to the mothership to be reused as the lander for Vall, Bop, and Pol. After visiting Vall and Pol, the lander flew by itself (and out of connectivity range) to Bop, where it landed and returned to Pol all on its own (Goufalite found this method was more fuel efficient). After returning to the mothership at Pol, a Tylo gravity assist sent the crew home, and both safely landed only 50 kilometers from the KSC. This mission made me nostalgic for my first Jool 5 mission, which in turn makes this mission special to me. Nice job, @Goufalite. - @king of nowhere Grand Tour. Mission thread here. This mission was done using Kerbalism, and an absolute UNIT of a mothership. Appropriately named the DREAM BIG, this ship conducted the Jool 5 challenge with dozens of farms, radiation shields, and drop ships to keep itself self-sufficient. Fighting food limitations, mod issues, solar storms, insanity and radiation damage, the crew of DREAM BIG flew throughout the entire Kerbol system planting flags on every world. The mission thread is an entertaining read, and has a video tour of the DREAM BIG spacecraft, which I highly recommend you check it out. I congratulate @king of nowhere on completing the mission, and for not losing their sanity in the process! Mission thread here. This mission was done with tremendous build constraints, and done entirely in a no-contract career mode save. Each launch was limited to 20-25 tons, meaning it took dozens of flights to finish the main ship, the Marco Polonium. The ship used many cost and weigh saving methods, including using the Laythe lander as a stage on Tylo, and by using claws instead of docking ports in some cases. The mission also visited Duna, Ike, Eeloo, Dres, and Eve (orbit) as well. This mission is one of the most entertaining ones I've reviewed (along with one of the most optimized) and I highly recommend giving it a read. Mission thread here. This mission was much like @king of nowhere's previous two in the sense that it involved Kerbalism and self-imposed building constraints. The result was a Jool 5 mission designed and flown to be as realistic as possible, and done with a maximum LKO mass of 140 tons. Bill and Bob took the Economic Downturn and its support craft to Jool and visited Tylo first, using the Seated Man lander, then made way for Laythe to deploy the Sole spaceplane, each accompanied by the space tug Right Answer. Sole's upper stage was reused as a Vall lander, while Seated Man's upper stage was used to land on Bop and Pol. For the inner three moons, great care was taken to limit the radiation damage incurred on the crew, with Bill being irradiated all the way to 95% upon his return to Economic Downturn. The return trajectory had to be tweaked a few times to prevent the capsule overheating, but Bill and Bob ultimately prevailed, and returned to Kerbin with nearly 500kg of samples. This mission is one of the few anxiety inducing submissions due to the challenges imposed by Jool's radiation belt. If you are a fan of gripping mission threads, I suggest giving this one a read. - @Lt_Duckweed Video here. This Jool 5 mission is notable for three reasons. Firstly, it is fully recoverable. Secondly, it only uses two engines, being the nerva and rapier. And thirdly, it was edited into a masterpiece of a video. This mission began with a launch just west of the KSC, and made a direct transfer to Jool. Upon Jool arrival, the elegently designed craft deployed a nerva-propelled lander, which performed the Tylo landing. After refueling at the main ship, the lander then visited Vall, Bop, and Pol with refueling trips to the main ship in between. The lander then returned to the main craft, which transfered to Laythe, completing the final landing. The craft then returned to Kerbin and came to a stop on the KSC runway, returning with it every part it launched with. I must repeat the high quality video the mission is edited into, and strongly suggest giving it a watch. - @bwest31415 Album here. This mission began with the launch of a long thin rocket which was followed by a normal transfer to Jool. Upon arrival to Jool however, inflatable heat shields were used to induce a Joolian aerobrake, a maneuver I've scarcely seen used since the addition of reentry heating to the game. The first landing to be done was Laythe, and the final stage of the lander was used to land on Vall and Tylo. The lander then left the main ship behind and traveled to Pol, then Bop, then back to Kerbin all without refueling. Jeb landed safely back on Kerbin after a toasty aerocapture, and exited the pod to take in a nice mountain view. - @18Watt ISRU, Thread here. This mission was done as both a Jool 5 and a Kerpollo submission. The mission began with a brute force launch and direct transfer to Jool. The mothership used wolfhound engines, which was good for TWR but slow when the ship was fully fueled. The ship flew first to Tylo, and after landing, the Tylo ascent stage would be reused for later landings. Next, the ship went to Bop to refuel, then to Laythe, where a staged spaceplane returned the brave Kerbonaut to the mothership. Next Val went to Vall, then the ship went to Pol and landed, before returning the crew to Kebrin, who parachuted to the surface of one of Kerbin's icecaps. - @OJT ISRU, Thread here. This mission was fully reusable* (apart from deployed fairings but we couldn't decide if that counted or not) and landed every component of the main ship back on Kerbin upon finishing the Jool system's exploration. The mission began with three launches, one for the mothership, one for the lander, and one for the SSTO spaceplane. Due to unfortunate moon placements, no gravity-assisted captures were possible and a retroburn was conducted. From there, a surprise Laythe aerocapture was conducted, saving much needed fuel. After the Laythe landing, the main ship flew to Vall, left the plane in orbit, and then landed with the lander beneath it and refueled on the surface. Next up was a Tylo landing with razor thin fuel margins, followed by Pol and Bop. It is worth noting that this mission did not repeat OJT's previous Jool 5 mission's Pol refueling process, in which the lander did numerous trips to the surface to bring tiny bits of fuel up to the main ship. With the landings complete and plenty of fuel to spare, the ship flew back to Kerbin where it landed piece by piece, with the lander being launched an SSTO parachute module. An excellent mission, and no doubt a fine achievement. - @kspfreak Video here. This mission not only visited the moons of Jool, Bop's Kraken, and in a rather small vehicle, but also visited every other moon in the entire Kerbol System! This mission's video is a fun watch, and ends with a fun paraglide back to the KSC. A mini grand tour of sorts, and very well done. - @JeDoesStuff ISRU, Video here. An SSTO submission! Coming in with a mass at just under 30 tons, JeDoesStuff showed off an incredibly refined ISRU SSTO by flaunting it around the Jool System. Included on the spaceplane are subtle but clever features to aid in launching horizontally, such as Vernier thrusters on the nose to raise attitude during takeoff, as well as a large landing gear that is only deployed to angle the craft. I haven't seen the latter of those additions on an SSTO before, so I applaud the ingenuity! The video this submission is contained within is also very well edited, resulting in a brief, yet concise viewing experience. If you're looking for a fun video to watch, or to see a razor-thin-margin Tylo landing, then this submission is for you. - @32r ISRU, video here. A fairly large SSTO launched from Kerbin and reached Jool with intermediate refueling on Minmus and Ike. It proceeded to land on all moons of Jool and refuel each time, except on Tylo; a specialized lander was used for Tylo, that also required the pilot to finish circularizing with jetpack. Low Mass - @EvermoreAlpaca Video here. Mass of 6.2 tons. Spaceplane launch, gravity assists off Kerbin and Eve to reach Jool. Landed on Laythe with the same rapier used in the launch stage, returned to orbit with an incredible TWR, scooted over to Tylo where the most bare-bones Tylo lander I've ever seen was used to land on and take off from Tylo (saved fuel by having Bill push it to the top of the mountain), flew over to Vall where the landing was done using staged batteries and a single ion engine. The Vall lander (which was also part of the Laythe lander) completed the last two landings on Bop and Pol and returned to Kerbin using many more gravity assists before preforming an aerobraking, with Bill parachuting to the space center and landing atop the RnD. - @Alpaca Z Video here. Mass of 5.8 tons. Vertical launch using a whiplash ramjet engine, which was staged prior to orbital insertion. Resonant orbits with Kerbin and Mun assists were used to set up a KEKKJ gravity assiste route to save fuel. Spider engines were used in a two-stage Laythe lander design to save weight, and EVA construction was used to rebuild craft to negate the need for decouplers or rebuild the craft (or get away with only bringing one chair). Landings were otherwise routine apart from an incident on Tylo where the lander fell on its side, requiring an intuitive solution to rebuild the craft in such a way it could use redundant engines as support pillars. The video is very well narrated and goes into much more detail regarding the craft's design and flight plan, I highly recommend watching it to get the full picture of this mission. - @camacju Video here. Mass of 5.2 tons (Current Record!). This mission not only shatters the previous record, but does so with an impeccably made video. Launch mass was saved in numerous ways, one of which involved using tiny flags in place of landing gear for the horizontal KSC Runway takeoff. EVA construction was used to reassemble the craft(s) into what was needed at any given point during the mission. The vessels flown and techniques used are difficult to describe, so I highly encourage a watch of this mission to see some of the best of Kerbal engineering. - @camacju and @Ultimate Steve Grand Tour, Video here. Mass of 7.6 tons. This is a meticulously crafted and borderline perfectly executed low mass mission. This was not only a Jool 5, but also an entire grand tour weighing not even 8 tons! The video's excellent editing allows it to speak for itself, and I highly recommend you watch this mission to see perhaps the greatest low mass mission in the history of KSP. Low Cost - @jinnantonix Video here. 34,663 funds. The thread's first low cost submission! Using a low cost launch vehicle and a K-E-K-K-J flyby route, the mission put Val and a fuel-tanker station in elliptical Laythe orbit. From there one lander tackled Laythe, and another tackled the other four moons, with an extra few stages for Tylo. It is worth mentioning that this mission used no electrical charge and relied entirely on engine gimbal and some RCS to steer. On the way back, a double Eve flyby helped slow down, so an aerocapture could be done at Kerbin, where Vall proceeded to parachute onto the VAB. - @camacju Mission here. 24,070 funds. This mission used a SRB powered launch stage and a terrier powered transfer vehicle to get the landers to Jool (after numerous gravity assists). A dedicated Laythe lander tackled the ocean-world, while a multi-stage Tylo lander tackled the rest of the moons, and returned the brave Kerbonaut Wildard Kerman to Kerbin. Before heading back however, the new space-construction method was utilized to steal a solar panel from the transfer stage, marking the first time this creative form of staging has been used. Mission here. 17,635 funds (Current Record!). This mission is a more stripped down version of @camacju's previous low cost mission. This mission featured a visit to Laythe's ocean floor, and utilized eva construction to manually remove empty fuel tanks from the mission. Additionally, eva fuel tanks were used to refill the brave kerbonaught's jetpack to enable fuel savings by extended jetpack use. Low Parts - @bayesian_acolyte ISRU, Album here. A small, single stage craft comprising of 31 parts. Bayesian_acolyte said there could have been some part count improvements, but even without it the mission still did so much with so little. This mission shows just how far ISRU can be stretched, especially with that Tylo landing. - @Majk Thread here. A simplistic Jool 5 mission consisting of only 30 parts . The mission began using a very basic launch stage, and flew to Jool using a long nuclear ship. Lander reuse enabled part count savings, and usage of the nuclear ship as an ablative heat-shield helped return Val to Kerbin's surface in one piece. - @Majk Video here. Easily the most simple Jool 5 mission completed to date, accomplished using only 9 parts (Current Record!). This mission started with the 9th part, an RTG, stowed inside the command pod before installing it in orbit. It is also worth recognizing that a clever method of timewarping in the tracking station enabled refueling to take place while utilizing only a single RTG. The submission takes the form of a short, concise, and wel narrated video, and I highly encourage giving it a watch. 2nd Level - @jinnantonix ISRU, Album here. Used a big launch with a self-refueling vector-powered lander that made multiple Laythe landings and mined ore from every moon. Two kerbals were landed on each moon and the lander was recovered at KSC. - @Kerbolitto ISRU, Album here. Excellent mission done using two space shuttles capable of refueling on moons. Absolutely amazing job. In all things I ever thought I would see happen in KSP, a space shuttle landing on Tylo was not one of them. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a mothership for the first part of the mission, then resorted to ions to get to Ike and Minmus, then safely back home. Also, this is the first 2nd level mission to not use ISRU. - @GRS: Album here. The highly anticipated Sheep v2 did not disappoint, and went above and beyond by visiting not just Jool's moons but also Kerbin's and Dres. Used massive nuclear boosters to get around the Jool system and the Tythe lander to get two Kerbals on every moon and Dres, before using the Sheep v2 to land the entire crew on Minmus and Mun. Spectacular! - @Xurkitree ISRU Video here. This modded mission utilized ISRU, a nuclear mothership, and eight aerospikes to land on all five of Jool's moons with Cerdrin and Lodous Kerman. Returned the lander and mothership to LKO where a separate rocket retrieved the crew. I highly encourage watching the video submitted, it is excellently edited and the music supports the awe of the mission. - @QF9E Thread here. This mission used a blunt-force approach by lifting off on a powerful launch stage, and made quick work of Jool's moons. The moons were all visited by one lander, which dropped various attachments that helped it land on some of the bigger moons. At the end of the mission, the three brave kerbonauts safely touched down in the ocean, and a BFR style spacecraft recovered the remains of the lander in Kerbin orbit for historical preservation. Truly an impressive mission indeed! - @Mars-Bound Hokie ISRU Mission here. Using the Anubis II SSTO, Tancan, Fernal, and Kenby Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, then blasted off for Jool. After touching down on Laythe to refuel, the crew went for Bop, then to Tylo. After landing with no liquid fuel to spare, the Anubis II was refueled, then launched for Pol. After a risky auto-piloted landing, the ship refuel before bounding to Vall, where the crew had a group picture. Heading back to Kerbin, a mix of brute force and aero-braking was used to get the trajectory needed to get back to the KSC, and then the crew refused to ditch the plane and pulled off the legendary runway landing. - @king of nowhere Mission here. "And so I completed the Jool 5 in day 383, 1 hour and 9 minutes of a new career" are the words typed by @king of nowhere at the end of the mission thread, and fundamentally capture the astronomical accomplishment documented within it. In a career save speedrun, it was decided to focus on a Jool 5, and the mission was optimized for time rather than mass or cost. The amounts of delta-v put into each maneuver to achieve bullet-like trajectories around the Kerbolar and Jool systems is simply jaw dropping. Over the course of the flight, the La coscienza di xenon and its landers managed to plant flags on all 5 moons within a 12 day window, which I don't believe has ever been done before. If you wish to see the chronicles of a one-of-a-kind, record setting Jool 5 mission, the flight of the La coscienza di xenon is the mission thread for you. Grand Tour Mission here. @king of nowhere's second Kerbalism Grand Tour, but with radiation shielding 3 times less effective, bugs, life support issues, frantic crew members smashing fuel cells and dumping food overboard, and so much more! This mission chronicles the Nail Bolt on its tour around the solar system, finding monoliths on every world and making it back in roughly two decades. This mission thread covers the begins, rebeginnings, redesigns, quick fixes, and compromises that took place during the Bolt's journey not just to Jool's 5 moons, but to every other surface as well. This is one of the most thorough submissions the challenge has seen, and is a great resource for those considering Kerbalism entries of their own. - @Lyra Mission here. A single launch mission! Using a spaceplane for Laythe, a notably slim Tylo lander (with a reusable upper stage for Vall), and an ion lander for Bop and Pol, this mission was a pleasant, self contained romp around the Jool System. One unique aspect of this mission I've seldom seen elsewhere was the use of claws on the nuclear mothership's outer hull. This allowed the landers to not need docking ports and attach to the hull like barnacles. A very clever, mass saving decision for the landers for sure! 3rd Level - @iAMtheWALRUS Grand Tour, ISRU, Album here. Used SSTOs to launch the mission and used moon hopping to get around the Kerbol system. Very nicely done. Also, first 1.4 submission - @sturmhauke Album here. To put it in the words of the pilot them self; "A mostly reusable mission to all 5 of Jool's moons. Single launch SSTO carrier drone, with a separable mothership and 5 landers." Very well done and efficient mission. Used fuel cells to power ion crafts for Bop and Pol, sent a plane to Laythe, and conquered Tylo with a rocket lander. - @mystifeid Album here, ISRU. Used two launches to put a mothership and a universal lander into orbit. Then used left over launch stage to boost to Jool and then around the system until it ran out and was staged at Tylo. Bob landed on every moon, accompanied with a different Kerbal for every moon. Very nice mission, and even had the added bonus of a near KSC landing. - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a single launch of pure rocketry, no jets, ions, or nukes used in the entire mission. This mission did the Jool 5 mission in style, with some of the most interesting landers I've ever seen, including an aerospike Laythe plane. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @jinnantonix ISRU, Video here. Of all the Jool 5 missions I have seen in this thread so far, none treat their Kerbals better than Jinnantonix has. The craft was modular in design and split into several different arrangements for various landings, and came with a gravity spin for deep space transit. Very considerate, and very awesome. - @Grogs Album here. Two launches to build the main ship in orbit, one crew launch for realism. Used a giant transfer stage to get the landers to Jool. Chemical engines pushed the landers about the Jool system, with nine Kerbals in total being involved in the mission. Once the landings were completed the mothership returned to Kerbin where a fourth launch collected the Kerbals and returned them safely to Kerbin. - @Pipcard ISRU Thread here. A well executed, eight Kerbal mission with one of the longest ships I've ever seen in this game. Excellent mission that toured the Jool System in an engaging thread. Mission was assembled in multiple parts, flew to Jool, landed on the moons (being sure to refuel on Bop and Pol when needed), EVA jetpacked off Tylo, and the crew was returned to Kerbin by a separately flown space plane. - @Kerbolitto ISRU Mission here, here, and here. Kerbolitto's second submission! Using a space shuttle with several surface experiments, a crew of eight explored the system. The Tylo landing was done with perfect margins, landing with no fuel left! This craft may also hold the record for lowest TWR launch of Bop in history, and an outpost on Laythe with a mini-plane was even constructed. Bob chose to stay behind and man the base while the crew returned home. Excellent end to an excellent mission! - @Ksp Slingshooter Album here. Assembled the main ship using multiple launches, then flew to Jool, settling in an elliptical Jool orbit with some help from a few gravity assists. From there the landers detached and flew to their moons, one by one and completed their landings. Due to some unexpected occurrences at Laythe, the Vall lander swooped in and rescued the Kerbal, taking both back to the mothership. Without enough room in the command pods for everyone, two brave Kerbals rode back to Kerbin on ladders, detaching and re-rendezvousing during timewarp. A rescue craft was launched, and met the mothership just in time, with only three minutes to transfer the Kerbals before a fiery re-entry. Truly a Kerbal mission! - @RoninFrog ISRU Thread here. Using the gloriously huge HMS Sauron, Jeb and 16 friends took to Jool in this massive SSTA. First they stopped at the Mun, then flew to Pol, then Tylo, then Vall, Laythe, and finally Bop. On the way back to Kerbin, time and fuel and the positions of the planets made a Duna landing prove itself most useful, before heading back to the Mun, and finally, back to Kerbin. This 1 stage mission has some amazing screenshots in its thread, as well as most amusing comments for each picture. If you're wanting to learn more about an ISRU approach, I suggest giving this mission a peak. - @OutInSpace Video here. Using a total of eight launches, this mission's mothership was constructed methodically, complete with an enormous pair of transfer boosters. After heading to Jool directly, the mothership flew to Tylo, Vall, and Laythe by itself, and sent an ion craft to Bop and Pol instead. After numerous attempts, the Laythe plane was finally able to show what it could do, and the 5 crew returned to Kerbin orbit, where they were picked up by a landing craft. If you want to see the nitty-gritty maneuvers used during a Jool 5 mission, I suggest you check out this mission's video. Its editing and methodicalness make it an unintentional flight-tutorial for getting to Jool. - @Entropian ISRU Mission here. Using a 5 meter tank with 5 meter tanks strapped on the side and a large cluster of mastodon engines, the craft rocketed off the pad to Minmus, where it refueled and went off to Jool. Landing on Laythe proved to a close call, with ZERO delta-v remaining upon touchdown. From there the ship bounced to Vall, Tylo, Pol, and Bop, before making a rough splashdown on Kerbin. It is worth noting that the crew did forget to put a flag on Bop. However since every other mission criteria was met and the craft was landed on Bop it is still being counted. - @GRS Grand Tour. Mission here. This time with the Sheep v4 the Jool moons were visited again, along with 60 other destinations! Relying heavily on ion power, landing after landing was accomplished visiting worlds close to the sun, around Jool, and even outer dwarf planets. So many worlds were mentioned that the Jool 5 portion is only a tiny fragment of the overall mission. There is genuinely too much in that mission to describe here, so I highly suggest you check out the most expansive sheep yet's thread! - @s_gamer101. Mission here. This mission began with the launch of an enormous reusable launch system that placed the main ship in orbit. A trip to Jool ended with a fiery aerocapture above Laythe, where two of the crew members took a small spaceplane to the surface. After a tricky fuel situation in which drop tanks were accidentally kept as huge pieces of ballasts, the Tylo tug was used as an extra stage to boost the main ship. This proved to be enough delta-v, as once the landings were completed the ship cruised back to Kerbin, where they parachuted safely to complete the mission. - @AlpacaMall Mission here. This mission began with the launch and orbital construction of the KSS-J "Orca". Engineer construction added fuel lines and removed unneeded RCS thrusters, and the craft departed for Jool with a reusable lander upper stage, with lander stages for Laythe and Tylo. The landings were completed in the following order: Laythe, Tylo, Vall, Pol, Bop. From Bop, the Orca was left to serve as a relay station while the crew module left for Kerbin. The vessel landed with all the crew and 23458 science. - @BeanThruster Album here. This mission began with the launch of Vapidity, the mothership used during the mission. Instead of going to Jool, Vapidity made its first flight to an E-class asteroid so it could refill all of its fuel tanks (it launched almost empty to save weight). After flying to Jool, the first landing took place on Tylo, before leaving the engine nacelles in case later refueling was needed. Next, the last stage of the Tylo lander was used to land on Vall, then the lander flew solo to Bop where it awaited the rest of the ship. Vapidity took the time to take a spaceplane to Laythe, then went back to low Tylo orbit to refuel. Vapidity met the Vapidlander at Bop, conducted the landing, then went to Pol to do the same. Vapidity returned to Kerbin before the crew landed using the Laythe spaceplane. In total, the crew collected 20113.6 science. - @RuBisCO ISRU Album here. This mission began with a lot of mainsail engines to push the main craft into orbit, and delivered not one, but seven Kerbals to the surface of each moon. The first visit was Pol, where cleverly built piston legs kept the refueling craft perfectly level. Next was Bop, then Vall, then Tylo, where a rover and lab were brought to the surface and returned to orbit (except Tylo where it got left behind). For the Laythe landing, the crew took down a spaceplane, as well as a helicopter and a floating lab with plane-refueling capabilities. The helicopter was used to collect science from the local area, and after being refueled, the plane returned to orbit. After the main ship was refueled on Pol, the crew returned home. - @18Watt ISRU , Mission here. This mission is nearly identical to 18Watt's previous submission, but now has accommodated a unique Kerbal for each moon, bumping it from a 1st to a 3rd level submission. Main ship refueled on Minmus before heading to Jool, refueled on small moons, and pilots Val and Billy Bobfurt flew each unique specialist to their respective moons. - @Krazy1 ISRU, Album here. This mission was done with the Principia mod, which makes gravity and orbits behave more realistically. The spacecraft used was the "2 by 4", named after its two mammoth engines and four nervs. First the craft launched to Minmus, then visited a passing asteroid, then went back to Minmus to refuel, then shot off to Jool. After the Laythe landing, there was some trouble getting to Vall due to orbital issues. After Vall came a very bouncy Tylo landing, which was followed by a Pol landing, and then a Bop landing. It is worth noting that Bop is orbiting retrograde in this mod for orbital stability. After completing the landings and experimenting with weird orbits, the 2 by 4 traveled home, refueled on Minmus to prep for landing, and then touched down safely on Kerbin with its crew of 5. ISRU, Album here. This mission utilized an orange and gray aesthetically pleasing spacecraft. Once launched into orbit, the craft refueled on Minmus, then shot off to Jool where it landed on Vall, then flew to Tylo where it performed this landing, before nearly burning on Laythe, then finished up with Bop and Pol. Upon returning to Kerbin, some excess ore was turned to fuel to save weight, and the crew splashed down 10km from the KSC. - @Kimera Industries. Mission here. This mission's mission thread chronicles the Avocado on its journey to Jool's moons and back, using appropriately named components and landers. Due to its nuclear propulsion, the escape burn was split in two, though did not go gently into that good night, and upon arriving to Jool, took use of a convenient Tylo assist to go almost directly to Laythe. From Laythe, a lander was dispatched to Vall and Pol, then the entire ship reunited and migrated to Tylo where the landing was achieved on the fifth try. Next came Gilly 2.0 Bop, where an interesting SPOILER was discovered. Upon returning to Kerbin with little to no time for caution, the cargo container and its draggy friends kept the craft from overheating during airbraking, and the crew landed to live another day. - @Geryz MODDED, Video here.Pushing past 1000 tons and assembled over 8 launches, the Hephaestus ship was made to be flashy and ludicrous, and it does a good job at it. The mission uses kerbalism simplex to add life support, while radiations are turned off. An imperfect gravity assist from Tylo added inclination and complicated the mission. A nuclear-powered ion lander was used for the minor moons, its TWR barely sufficient for Vall. Hephaestus was burned in atmosphere during reentry, leaving behind only the shielded crew pod to carry the crew to safety. Jeb's Level - @Xurkitree Grand Tour, ISRU Album Here. Collected 19,711.3 science from Jool on a girl's night out mission with no lack of gravity assists. A note from the author said that the mission greatly improved their skills in KSP and proved that fact well with the insane gravity assists they pulled off. Also first Jeb's Level on the new thread yay! - @ManEatingApe Video here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. Collected 16,532.0 science from Jool. There isn't anything I can say about this mission except you need to see it for yourself. Exclusively low tech was used, and collected in space science from all biomes. This mission did the near-impossible, with primitive parts, and landed all Kerbals safely back on Kerbin. - @SolarAdmiral Video here. Collected 42,296 science from the Jool System. Single launch on a cluster of three meter parts, before heading off to Jool. Started with Laythe first, landing using a floating platform. Science was collected with a small jet-powered boat. Next stop was Tylo, where a rover was used to collect science from many biomes. On Vall one landing was done, and a hop added to it before heading to orbit again. Numerous biomes collected from Bop and Pol by hopping around in their low gravities. Direct shot home and landed all seven Kerbals to tell the tale. Absolutely astounding mission! - @jinnantonix ISRU Video here. Collected 82,510 science from the Jool System. Single launch, one much smaller than you might expect. Used a plane to gather large amounts of science from Laythe, dove into Jool's atmosphere, grabbed science from almost if not everywhere, and even managed to use the Laythe plane as the final stage on the Tylo landing. Had an artificial gravity system to facilitate the kerbals, and landed back at the KSC. Honestly jinnatonix managed to do so much in this video I can't describe it all here so I suggest you just watch the video. Amazing job. - @GRS Album here. Collected 28,643 science from the Jool System. The long awaited Sheep mission that satisfied both the Kerpollo and Jool 5 requirements led by Simone Kerman that explored the Jool system and returned home Apollo style. The mission had a heavy launch and went to, around, and from Jool using a massive nuclear stage. The usage of the Scifi visual pack gave the mission a unique look as it took science from every moon (including Jool's upper atmosphere!) in style. Incredible. - @Jim123 Video here. Collected 8780.9 science from the Jool System. Single giant launch put a large nuclear mothership in orbit. Flew straight to Laythe where the landing was completed with a dual stage to orbit (and Jeb's jetpack). From there the crew went to Vall and landed, before heading to Tylo and dropping one of the most Kerbal looking Tylo landers I've ever seen to the surface. After Tylo biome hopping was used on Bop and Tylo, before a pair of service modules detached and went back to Kerbin, boosting each other home where the crew landed. Nice video. - @jost ISRU Album here. Collected 16940.2 science from the Jool system. Flew to Jool using a long nuclear mothership. From there an ion ore probe helped find ore on every moon but Laythe for the rocket lander. Laythe used a three seat plane for the landing, and even found a geyser while on the surface. Landed on Tylo with 1m/s to spare before refueling, and landed everyone safely back on Kerbin after leaving the nukes in a graveyard orbit around Kerbin. Excellent! - @Beriev Album here. Collected 49430.1 science from the Jool system. This entire mission was done in a 6.4x solar system. Launched off the pad with an absolutely enourmous rocket, fittingly dubbed the 'Absolute Unit'. Used many kicks to get out to Jool, where the ship split up to tackle the moons. For Laythe and Tylo, ascent vehicles were landed separately, before the crew arrived on-surface. Later, both sets met up at Vall, then flew to Pol, then Bop, and then to Dres. After a fun journey, the Absolute Unit returned to Kerbin, and the crew landed safely. This mission has an incredible execution and design, as well as a well-captioned Imgur album. I highly suggest giving it a look. - @Pro100kerbonaut Video here. Collected 10238 science from the Jool system. This mission was done with a rather interesting, asymmetrically balanced ship, and had quite the bouncy ride. On Tylo parkour was done, on Laythe swimming. On Vall two landings were done, and on Pol and Bop the lander bounced around. This mission used a combination of a gravity assist off Tylo and a retro-burn to capture at Jool, and upon return to Kerbin parachutes were attached to the crew section using a klaw. A fun mission with great editing. - @king of nowhere ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 105136 science. This mission was insane from its conception, with the goal to collect every single bit of science from the Jool system as possible. While this goal was not ultimately accomplished, the mission is still one of the greatest Jool 5 submissions I have ever seen. To collect science on each world, a durable lander known as the Dancing Porcupine was deployed and driven on all moons but Laythe. For Laythe, a spaceplane called Absolutely NOT Albatross was used to collect science from each biome. In fact, Absolutely NOT Albatross did even more than just Laythe. Using a multi-stage attachment, Absolutely NOT Albatross visited the lower atmosphere of Jool and returned to tell the tale. The craft's brave pilot even took an EVA report while in flight before ascending. The main ship dubbed the Flying Christmas Tree, and was capable of refueling on low gravity worlds. Upon returning to Kerbin, a craft launched to return the brave Kerbonauts to their home-world. Having visited every biome on every moon, it is no surprise that this mission amassed more science than any other Jool 5 mission before it. I highly recommend viewing this mission's main thread. Amazing job king of nowhere! Mission thread here. Collected 11395 science from the Jool System. The sheer amount of effort put into this mission cannot be overstated. King of Nowhere started this mission as a nanocristalline diamond caveman mission, which in short meant no facility upgrades, no quicksaving, on career mode, while starting the save with severe limitations. While the mission ended up needing quick-loading, it still is eye popping to see just how much work went into it. Each launch (in the VAB) was limited to 18 tons maximum, so a work around was used by having docking ports around the base of the rocket, to which separate boosters would be docked using a runway-launched rover. This meant that many launches required multiple launches of booster attachment vessels before the rocket itself could attempt to leave the pad. After over 100 launches, the Navis Sideralis Neanderthalensis and all its cargo were ready, and the ship departed for Jool, leaving a most amusing pattern of drop tanks in its wake. Upon reaching Jool, disaster struck when the Tylo lander suffered an anomaly, and quicksaves were needed to complete the Jool 5. While at Jool, science modules were discarded after use because a lack of KSC upgrades prevented their resetting, and every aspect of the mission, from flying between moons to the landings themselves, were executed with meticulous testing and prior calculation. I cannot possibly explain everything this mission did in this little blurb, so I highly encourage anyone who wants to see some of the best Kerbal engineering I've ever seen to check out the linked mission thread above. ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 142744 science from the Jool system. This mission is perhaps the greatest Jool 5 missions to ever fly. A worthy successor to @king of nowhere's previous submissions, this mission collected practically every single piece of science that the Jool system has to offer, with only a few dozen science bits unobtained. In addition, the mission visited every single anomaly in the Jool system, performed circumnavigations of every moon, and flew a two-crew craft into Jool's upper atmosphere to collect science, and deployed an aircraft carrier to Laythe. The mission's thread linked above follows the journey of the Flying Christmas Tree 2, a massive mothership capable of landing and refueling itself, Leaping Mantis, a rover designed for climbing steep grades on alien worlds, Tamarromobile, a larger rover for Tylo, Phoenix, the spaceplane for Jool, Absolutely Not An Albatross, an SSTO for Laythe, and Garibarge, the aircraft carrier for Laythe so that Kerbals could disembark from Not Albatross and collected surface samples from Laythe's ocean biomes. The mission began with Flying Christmas Tree 2 being equipped with the landers, planes, and aircraft carrier. Use this link here to see the majesty of Flying Christmas Tree 2 in all its glory -> (https://youtu.be/h61wplb0DRw?si=HlNYwxnYPkPaem2k). From there, it flew to Minmus to land and refuel, and then departed for Jool. The following efforts to circumnavigate all 5 moons and locating the anomalies require an entire thread of its own, requiring one to view and read the entirety of the mission thread linked above. Out of all the Jool 5 missions I have ever reviewed, none have exhibited such effort or gone to the extent shown here. This is not one of many Jool 5 missions, this is the Jool 5. - @OJT ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 26871.3 science from the Jool System. This mission thread contains some of the most eye-catching, visually stunning KSP screenshots I have ever seen in a Jool 5 submission. The mission itself was tested and proofed in sandbox, and consisted of a long, skinny mothership, a spaceplane, and an ISRU lander for Tylo. With the lander and plane hanging from docking points on the main ship, the craft boosted to Jool and used a Tylo flyby to capture. Visiting Vall first, the lander took around 100 days to refuel. The ship then flew to Pol where the relatively tiny lander (in relation to the mothership) flew to Pol's surface and back numerous times to refuel the main ship before it could head to Bop. At Bop a kraken was discovered, and on Tylo the crew found it refreshingly eventless. The last destination was Laythe, where the plane and lander were left in orbit so the main ship could return to Kerbin. A return craft returned the crew and science, and crew XP was had by all. - @Robin Patenall Mission thread here. Collected 61174.6 science from the Jool System. This mission began with the construction of the Emerald Star, a large and reconfigurable interplanetary vessel that required 17 launches to complete. Once built, the Emerald Star used Eve and Kerbin gravity assists to efficiently sling itself to Jool and started with Tylo. Using one of the Emerald Star's 3 drive cores to send itself down to a lower Tylo orbit, the lander successfully brought the crew to and from the Tylic surface. When the mission reached Vall, a magical anomaly was discovered, one which would prove to be only one of many odd discoveries made on Jool's moons. An SSTO found one on Laythe as well, during one of its three total landings. A monolith was found on Pol, and a deceased kraken on Bop, one which caused a crew member to lament their inability to bury it. Once the landings had been complete, the remains of the Emerald Star returned home, where it was parked in Kerbin orbit awaiting future assignment. - @problemecium Mission thread here. Collected 8755.7 science from the Jool System. This mission thread covers the finally completed tale of the Aletheia, a massive, nearly 1.3 kiloton mothership. With numerous cargo bays, it brought landers, an SSTO, a deployable space station, numerous pieces of scientific equipment, and two ARKS to return the crew to Kerbin if needed. Upon construction, Aletheia and its seven crew members proceeded to Jool, using 46% of its total fuel. The transfer section was left behind in Laythe orbit while the rest of Aletheia continued on. After Laythe came Vall, where one of the ARKS was used to refuel the Tylo lander to enable it to tackle Vall (the ARK was then joined to the deployable station and left behind). The lander then tackled Tylo, and was left behind for future use. Bop saw the discovery of a hopefully deceased Kraken, and Pol marked landing number 5. This romp unfortunately depleted Aletheia of the fuel sufficient to return to Kerbin, so the second ARK spacecraft brought the crew home safely, using a Mun assist to tweak its final trajectory. This is one of the more aesthetically pleasing Jool 5 missions, and done in career mode in a very well typed out and necromanced thread, so if you are a fan of large stylish motherships, I would recommend giving this thread a view. - @DennisB ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 146897.4 science from the Jool System (Current Record!). When I thought there was no way to recover any more science from this challenge, @DennisB found a way to add the deployable ground experiments to the package. Those are normally not counted because they relay back their science in real time. But it is sufficient to not include an antenna, and to stove the experiments back into the ship as they're done, and you can recover their value normally. Besides that, the mission was totally overengineered - in a good way. The 860-parts, 1100 tons Tree of Life - including a menagerie of a dozen lesser animal-themed vessels - was launched all in one go, a tryumph of struts, asparagus-stacked tanks, docking pots, mobile robotic parts, and stuff dangling around that would make a ghotic architect cry. I am amazed it managed ascent without breaking up or summoning some kraken. The mission plan included several redesigns of the ship, that kept shedding old pieces, docking new pieces on different places, and leaving stuff behind to recover later along the way. Compensation for asymmetric payloads featured heavily. Sure, most of that hassle could likely be avoided, but where's the fun in that? Gatecrashers / Honorary Mentions - @JacobJHC Grand Tour, video here. Giant single launch craft, also visited every planet and moon from the OPM planet pack. Very big. Gatecrasher because crew hasn't landed yet. - @Fraus Mission here. There's nothing that can be said about this, other than that this mission definitely had more thought put into it than any other Jool 5 I've seen. - @cqIpb Mission here. This mission was flown on an Xbox, and pushed the console to its framerate limits! cqIpl was inspired to do a Jool 5 mission after finding this thread, and despite not being able to land on Laythe due to lander instability, still had a lot of fun finishing the rest of the mission, and took a few great screenshots along the way! As of writing this, cqIpb is still new to the KSP Forums. Welcome, we're glad you're here! - @Alpaca Z, using a craft built by @Lt_Duckweed (with permission) Grand Tour, ISRU . Video here. Using a rather simply built SSTA, this mission was a simple case of flying around the entire solar system and refueling everywhere. This craft utilized air-fans, ions, vectors, and nerv engines, allowing it to be not only capable of high efficiency maneuvers, but also those requiring high TWRs. A highlight of this mission was the strategy to use EVA construction to rebuild the back of the plane to enable it to land vertically on Tylo's surface. Why bring landing legs when you have wings that could do the job just as well? This mission's video submission is also of a high quality, so I recommend giving it a view. In all, the crew of three finished their grand tour in only 15 years and 117 days! Efficient and speedy Moved to Honorary Mentions due to the fact that the crew could not exit onto Tylo's surface. - @JeDoesStuff video here, ISRU, fully reusable. Mass 11.25 tons. JeDoesStuff used a diminutive plane made of a rapier, a nerv, a convert-o-tron, and some fuel tanks, with a single tiny wing; I'm surprised he managed to land the plane at the insane speeds required by that wing to provide lift without crashing. He started from Kerbin with tanks half empty, only having the minimum to reach Mun, and from there Laythe with multiple gravity assist. His plane refueled on the bottom of the sea, something I've never seen before. From there he explored all worlds, needing the full amount of fuel to land on Tylo, before landing on the runway back in Kerbin. This was supposed to be a competitor for low mass - and while it does not set the record, all those competitors that scored lower masses made extensive use of jetpacks. To the best of my knowledge, this would be the low mass record for a fully reusable vehicle landing on all moons. The reason it's demoted to honorary mention is Rule 2: no clipping of functional parts. It's not that it doesn't comply with said rule; it's that it murdered that rule and all its family and danced on their corpses afterwards. Both engines, the convert-o-tron and half a dozen fuel tanks were all compressed in the same space, inside a single structural tube, in what I surmise was an attempt to reduce the drag. It's still an impressive achievement.

A rounding error that is doing better on SteamCharts than Sony's latest remake. Seriously, Sony "invested" some serious money on a high profile project that is doing less than a 13 years old space frogs game "disowned" by it's Publisher. So, yeah... It's a hell of a rounding error (and I'm not even mentioning Concorde). I wish I have a rounding error like than for me. Perhaps they should. There's still lots of smart people around here, some of them "predicting" the future with a pretty reasonable accuracy... You completely lost the point. Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft on a closed doors sell (ZeniMax). By a "meagle" 7.5B USD, essentially the TTWO net losses for May and June 2024. Two months of net losses**[twice the current net loss of TTWO], Microsoft bought ZeniMax (owner of Bethesda et all) by the money TTWO lost in only two months this year [by twice the current net loss of TTWO].** I think you are losing perspective. Essentially, you are saying "that's Ok, worst case scenario Microsoft will buy TTWO". For peanuts! Yes! Exactly! Steve the accountant, and some others like them, are the people I want to talk with. And the Shareholders, and everybody else that is going to get screwed by the current culture on TTWO. https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/t012-s001-15-ceos-who-started-on-the-ground-floor/index.html https://www.businessinsider.com/ceos-started-entry-level-at-company-2019-7 Some of these guys became CEOs from the biggest companies of all times. Chances are that these guys will be the ones working hard for recovering TTWO after all - they don't want to lose their jobs, and some of them love the company they work on. Capitalism 101: first lesson free. The later ones, however, may cost you dearly. I strongly suggest to anyone working on TTWO right now to take a close look on the VMWare buyout by Broadcom, and what happened (and still are) since them. Seriously, this scenario is not too far from what may happen to TTWO on the long run if things stays this way - and, guess who is beating VMWare to a pulp nowadays? Open Source. Thank you for mentioning Elite II: Frontier. Frontier Developments is one of my "heroes". They passed trough some really rough times and, granted, it's a pretty small company compared to the behemoth TTWO is. But, guess what, they have a positive net revenue. And a small positive net revenue beats huge net losses anytime. Interesting enough, this is the all time comparison between Elite Dangerous and KSP¹: They had a good start, got really big more or less in 2021. And, interesting enough, KSP (1 and later 2) managed to beat it sometimes - besides never reaching the success ED got at his peak. Great. And exactly what this have to do with Open Source at all? Well, Elite, Elite: Frontier and Elite: First Encounters are probably some of the most modded, reworked, recodified, and ported games of all times (perhaps losing, but not by too much, only to Doom). Someone in the 90's took the 68000 binary code from Atari ST IIRC, disassembled it, ported that code to C, and then everything and the kitchen's sink got a modern port for Elite II. Nice and naïve times, dissassembling binaries weren't yet a Copyright violation enforceable into the whole World by the Berne Convention - but since Frontier Developments is British, this is a problem that will never affect Frontier fans. Follows the original Frontier for Amiga (IMHO the best original port ever), the best IBM-PC port of the game (the sequel, First Encounters) and then a modern remake using open source code from 10 years ago: The original games are freely available nowadays: https://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Files/files.html . So you can download/fork/whatever the source code that was reverse engineered, change it if you want and recompile it and even distribute your fork, and the end user only needs to download one of the original ones from the last link and they will be able to run the game on whatever machine the source code could be targeted. And let me tell you something: Elite Dangerous probably would not had seen the light of day without all that open source work. Elite fans kept the flame alive for decades until Frontier Developments got big and bold enough to risk a Crowd Funding, and I can guarantee you that a lot (if not most) of the kickstarters never played the game in their original form on the original hardware. Elite Dangerous is one of the best (if not the best) case studies one will ever have about how Open Source can help the Game Industry to survive turbulent times. I'm proposing that Open Source can do the same for KSP¹ - and, with that, saving some jobs in the process by the way. === == = POST EDIT = == === ** I misinterpreted that chart. The chart depicts cumulative losses, not incremental!!!

The post I quoted from them reads So I take it they've taken XNA and 'looked at' their homework and built up from there. Blanket statements are always bad. You shouldn't get your hopes up if all you're shown is hype and not the technical background to make those work. With KSP2 it was always smoke and mirrors and they could never talk about anything technical, save for the heating blog, which the only thing they had to show for it was paint drawings. That was a huge red flag and it flew under a lot of people's radars. I think my skepticism comes from two places: 1. Icarus is hot garbage, and 2. Stationeers has been for the best part of a decade in Early Access and they never even bothered showing a roadmap, it feels like it's a forgotten project they throw some feature in when they remember about it. They're using Solar System data because it already exist and is apparently easy to import into their system for quick testing. You can clearly see they've also scaled it down to KSP neutron-star densities.

A lot of kerbalnauts are familiar with the Ace Combat games, and a lot more know about War Thunder. However, very few know about a hidden gem from the early days of air combat gaming. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (Image source: Steam) Just like @TwoCalories's Ace Combat Thread, I decided to make one for Blazing Angels players to talk about their experiences with that game. How well did you fare in the campaign, favorite plane/s and missions, did you ever make it past the Norwegian fjords, playing with family, et cetera. For those who don't know or forgot, Blazing Angels follows the story of American pilots who partake in various iconic battles throughout the Second World War. Some of those battles include but are not limited to: the Battle of Britain, Desert Rats, Pearl Harbor, Midway, D-Day, and then you eventually end in Berlin. The player is an unnamed captain of a squadron of four composed of Tom the "shield," Joe the mechanic, and Frank the hunter; by the way, the captain talks. You can command your wingmen to stay with you, attack enemies, or protect you from incoming threats. The dialogue among the characters is great, and although the music can get repetitive sometimes it still feels appropriate for the situation. I will admit the graphics are mediocre, especially compared to Ace Combat 7, but I'll give Ubisoft a break considering it was released for the Wii in 2007; that was the version I got for Christmas two years later. The cutscenes and "old man captain" narrations before each level were very insightful since I would know more about what I was getting myself into, just like the mission briefings in AC7 only with way less advanced graphics (e.g. model vehicles and/or army guys moving on a blue and red map with the occasional explosion) - just like mission commanders using models on a map in the 1940s. After each mission was completed, I would get treated to another old man captain narration describing the aftermath. If I did well enough, I would get an "Ace" medal - and hear my dad quoting Chicken Little if he was nearby. As for the gameplay itself, although I enjoyed it a lot - and my years of playing it served me well when playing some levels in AC7 last year (despite it being on a PS5) - I was a bit disappointed that I had to do everything. Seriously, a lot of those levels had British/American air and/or ground forces with me besides my wingmen, and all they did was sit there and be green damsels in distress instead of actually blowing up enemies like they're supposed to. I can help take out the carrier decks of the main Japanese fleet, for example, but what was the point of me and the boys protecting the bombers from the Zekes if all they're going to do is fly around and expect me to sink everything? What about you all? What were you experiences with this game - or its lesser-known sequel, Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII?

Well, I won't derail this thread with offtopic talk much more, if you want to discuss this further, please post in KSPCF thread. But shortly, yes, there are differences, either for specific parts where stock is producing utterly wrong drag cubes, or typically (very) small parts, as stock is accounting for the bump map (making those parts a little more draggy than what they should be) and KSPCF don't. KSPCF drag cube values will also have "floating point error" differences compared to stock ones, but this is the case in stock too when running the game on different machines/OS, the overall technique is numerically unstable anyway. Either way, apart from the very few parts where KSPCF is fixing actual bugs where stock is generating wrong drag cubes, the differences are tiny and indistinguishable in the final behavior, as there are *tons* of much larger approximations in the overall KSP aerodynamics implementation. For more in depth information on what KSPCF is doing, you can read https://github.com/KSPModdingLibs/KSPCommunityFixes/pull/139 and https://github.com/KSPModdingLibs/KSPCommunityFixes/issues/137

This is a film, currently on Amazon Prime, that is a series of interviews talking to newspace (and a few traditional space) companies, legislators, non-profits and science communicators about the present and future of the space economy. So why should you watch it? It's light on the details (I would pay everything in my bank account to look through his B-reels), it's not that well-edited and it has a 'personality' hosting it. However. What it does do quite well is draw a picture of the growing market beyond SpaceX and Blue Origin, the diversity of the people all over the world and the warming attitude to space as a new, unique opportunity. For now, and for a future generation. If nothing else, you get names and faces to put to important, non-US companies like Planet or Exolaunch, who've been overshadowed by the billionaire behemoths but are profitable. The actions by non-profits are enlightening too: a parabolic flight of people with physical disabilities (blindness, missing limbs) to see how they performed in zero-G; or 'citizen astronauts' being paid to go to space on suborbital flights, with the understanding that they then go on to promote and talk about space. There are now space agencies being set up in over 40 countries, a specific UN body for inter-country co-operation on space, and hundreds of startups working on this or that aspect of space (he makes the point that most of them will fail, which is realistic).

Welcome to Kerbalism Hundreds of Kerbals were killed in the making of this mod. Kerbalism is a mod for Kerbal Space Program that alters the game to add life support, radiation, failures and an entirely new way of doing science. Go beyond the routine of orbital mechanics and experience the full set of engineering challenges that space has to offer. All mechanics can be configured to some degree, or even disabled if you don't like some of them. A big part of the mod is fully data-driven, so that you can create your own customized game play with only a text editor and a minimal amount of espresso. Or simply use a set of rules shared by other users. Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ Current version: 3.11 What's new: New and Noteworthy Download: Github - SpaceDock - CKAN Docs & support: Github wiki - Discord - Github issues License: Unlicense (unless stated otherwise, parts might be licensed differently) KSP version: 1.5.x - 1.10.x Requires: Module Manager, CommunityResourcePack See also: Mod compatibility - Change Log - Dev Builds Download and installation Download on Github releases or use CKAN Two packages are available: Kerbalism is the core plugin, always required. KerbalismConfig is the default configuration pack. It can be be replaced by other packs distributed elsewhere. Requirements - Module Manager: must be installed in GameData - CommunityResourcePack: must be installed in GameData Third-party configuration packs Make sure to install exactly one configuration pack only. Don't combine packs unless there is explicit instructions to do so. - ROKerbalism for Realism Overhaul / RP-1 by standecco - SIMPLEX Living by theJesuit - KerbalismScienceOnly for Kerbalism with the science feature only Installation checklist for the "GameData" folder required content : - CommunityResourcePack (folder) - Kerbalism (folder) - KerbalismConfig (folder, can be replaced by a third-party config pack) - ModuleManager.X.X.X.dll (file) Mod compatibility and support Checking the mod compatibility page is mandatory before installing Kerbalism on a heavily modded game. Kerbalism does very custom stuff. This can break other mods. For a lot of mods that breaks or need balancing, we provide support code and configuration patches. However some mods are incompatible because there is too much feature overlap or support is too complex to implement. Documentation, help and bug-reporting - Tutorials and documentation are available at the Github wiki - Need help? Ask on Discord or in the KSP forums thread - You found a bug? - Maybe it's related to another mod ? Check the Mod Compatibility page. - Maybe it's a known issue ? Check the GitHub issues and ask on Discord. - You want to report a bug? - Reproduce it consistently, provide us with screenshots and the KSP.log, modulemanager.configcache and persistent.sfs files. - Report it on Github issues (preferred) or in the KSP forums thread. - You want to contribute or add support for your mod? - Check the technical guide on the wiki - Pull requests are welcome, especially for mod support configs. For code contributions, it is recommended to talk to us on Discord before engaging anything. - Read the contributing documentation - To build the plugin from the source code, read the BuildSystem documentation Disclaimer and license This mod is released under the Unlicense, which mean it's in the public domain. Some parts are released under a different license, please refer to their respective LICENSE files. It includes MiniAVC. If you opt-in, it will use the Internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the Internet and no personal information is sent. For more control, download the full KSP-AVC Plugin. What does it do? Kerbalism is a mod for Kerbal Space Program that alters the game to add life support, radiation, failures and an entirely new way of doing science. Go beyond the routine of orbital mechanics and experience the full set of engineering challenges that space has to offer. All mechanics can be configured to some degree, or even disabled if you don't like some of them. A big part of the mod is fully data-driven, so that you can create your own customized game play with only a text editor and a minimal amount of espresso. Or simply use a set of rules shared by other users. All vessels, all the time Contrary to popular belief, the observable universe is not a sphere of a 3km radius centered around the active vessel. All mechanics are simulated for loaded and unloaded vessels alike, without exception. Acceptable performance was obtained by a mix of smart approximations and common sense. The performance impact on the game is by and large independent from the number of vessels. Resources This isn't your classic post-facto resource simulation. Consumption and production work is coherent regardless of warp speed or storage capacity. Complex chains of transformations that you build for long-term life support or mining bases just work. Environment The environment of space is modeled in a simple yet effective way. Temperature is calculated using the direct solar flux, the indirect solar flux bouncing off from celestial bodies, and the radiative infrared cooling off their surfaces. The simulation of the latter is especially interesting and able to reproduce good results for worlds with and without atmosphere. Radiation is implemented using an overlapping hierarchy of 3D zones, modeled and rendered using signed distance fields. These are used to simulate inner and outer belts, magnetosphere and even the heliopause. Solar weather is represented by Coronal Mass Ejection events, that happen sporadically, increase radiation and cause communication blackouts. Habitats The habitats of vessels are modeled in terms of internal volume, external surface, and a set of dedicated pseudo resources. These elements are then used to calculate such things as: living space per-capita, the pressure, CO2 and humidity levels of the internal atmosphere, and radiation shielding. Individual habitats can be enabled or disabled, in the editor and in flight, to reconfigure the internal space and everything associated with it during the mission. Inflatable habitats are driven directly by the part pressure. Life support Your crew need a constant intake of Food, Water and Oxygen. Failure to provide for these needs will result in unceremonious death. Configurable supply containers are provided. Kerbals evolved in particular conditions of temperature, and at a very low level of radiation. You should reproduce these conditions wherever your crew go, no matter the external temperature or radiation at that point. Or else death ensues. The vessel habitat can be climatized at the expense of ElectricCharge. Environment radiation can be shielded by applying material layers to the hull, with obvious longevity vs mass trade off. Psychological needs The era of tin can interplanetary travel is over. Your crew need some living space, however minimal. Failure to provide enough living space will result in unforeseen events in the vessel, the kind that happen when operators lose concentration. While not fatal directly, they often lead to fatal consequences later on. Some basic comforts can be provided to delay the inevitable mental breakdown. Nothing fancy, just things like windows to look out, antennas to call back home, or gravity rings to generate artificial gravity. Finally, recent research points out that living in a pressurized environment is vastly superior to living in a suit. So bring some Nitrogen to compensate for leaks and keep the internal atmosphere at an acceptable pressure. ECLSS, ISRU A set of ECLSS components is available for installation in any pod. The scrubber for example, that must be used to keep the level of CO2 in the internal atmosphere below a threshold. Or the pressure control system, that can be used to maintain a comfortable atmospheric pressure inside the vessel. In general, if you ever heard of some kind of apparatus used by space agencies to keep the crew alive, you will find it in this mod. The stock ISRU converters can host a set of reality-inspired chemical processes. The emerging chains provide a flexible and at the same time challenging system to keep your crew alive. The stock ISRU harvesters functionality has been replaced with an equivalent one that is easier to plan against, as it is now vital for long-term manned missions. The means to harvest from atmospheres and oceans is also present, given the importance of atmospheric resources in this regard. No life-support like mod would be complete without a greenhouse of some kind. The one included in this mod has a relatively complete set of input resources and by-products, and some more unique characteristics like a lamp that adapts consumption to natural lighting, emergency harvesting, pressure requirements and radiation tolerance. A planetary resource distribution that mimics the real solar system completes the package. Reliability Components don't last forever in the real world. This is modeled by a simple system that can trigger failures on arbitrary modules. Manufacturing quality can be chosen in the editor, per-component, and improve the MTBF but also requires extra cost and mass. The crew can inspect and repair malfunctioned components. Redundancy now becomes a key aspect of the design phase. Engines have their own failure system: limited ignitions, limited burn duration, and an overall ignition failure probability will even make your 100th moon landing feel like an achievement! Science Experiments don't return their science output instantly, they require some time to run. Some complete in minutes, others will take months. Not to worry, experiments can run on vessels in the background, you don't have to keep that vessel loaded. There are two different kinds of experiments: sensor readings and samples. Sensor readings are just plain data that can be transferred between vessels without extra vehicular activities, they also can be transmitted back directly. Samples however require the delicate handling by kerbals, and cannot be transmitted but have to be recovered instead. They also can be analyzed in a lab, which converts it to data that can be transmitted. Analyzing takes a long time, happens transparently to loaded and unloaded vessels alike, and can't be cheated to create science out of thin air. An interesting method is used to bridge existing stock and third-party experiments to the new science system, that works for most experiments without requiring ad-hoc support. Transmission rates are realistic, and scale with distance to the point that it may take a long time to transmit data from the outer solar system. Data transmission happens transparently in loaded and unloaded vessels. The resulting communication system is simple, yet it also results in more realistic vessel and mission designs. Automation Components can be automated using a minimalist scripting system, with a graphical editor. Scripts are triggered manually or by environmental conditions. You can create a script to turn on all the lights as soon as the Sun is not visible anymore, or retract all solar panels as soon as you enter an atmosphere etc. User Interface Kerbalism has a nice user interface. A planner UI is available in the editor, to help the user design around all the new mechanics introduced. The planner analysis include resource estimates, habitat informations, redundancy analysis, connectivity simulation, multi-environment radiation details and more. To monitor the status of vessels, the monitor UI is also provided. This looks like a simple list of vessels at first, but just click on it to discover an ingenuous little organizer that allow to watch vessel telemetry, control components, create scripts, manage your science data including transmission and analysis, and configure the alerts per-vessel. Modules Emulation Most stock modules and some third-party ones are emulated for what concerns the mechanics introduced by the mod. The level of support depends on the specific module, and may include: simulation of resource consumption and production in unloaded vessels, fixing of timewarp issues in loaded vessels, the ability to disable the module after malfunctions, and also the means to start and stop the module in an automation script. For Modders Kerbalism has a lot of interfaces ready for other mods to use. If you are a mod developer and want Kerbalism to play nice with your mod, please see the wiki or contact us on discord. Legalese

Including Iridium Next, New Horizons, Haven-1 and soon many more! (Check roadmap for what is coming) Join me on Discord! (DEV talk only) Tundra Exploration pics: Tundra Technologies pics: Planned features Roadmap Known issues "No tank type named 'RR_CryoMLOX' exists" means you have RR but not CRP, or you have RR, CRP, and WBI classic stock, and the WBI feature isn't working right. Make sure you have RR 1.16! Required Mods Kerbal Reusability Expansion (For the F9 legs and grid fins) B9 Part Switch (For part switching) Module manager (For all your module manager needs) Recommended Mods FreeIVA (So you can fly around inside Rodan and Gaira-1 parts! Modular Launch Pads (For those awesome towers) Waterfall (For those amazing plumes) Smokescreen (Realplume NOT required!) Flight Manager for Reusable Stages (For landing your F9 first stage) Omega482's Stockalike Structures NTR (For your Ghidorah landing needs) Basic DeltaV - Basic Orbit by DMagic (For better understanding of how much fuel you have to land all your crafts safely back) Tundra's Space Center (To launch from LC-40!) Near Future Solar (For the Solar Panel plugin if you want full 180 degree tracking) Not supported Mods Atmospheric autopilot FAR (Version 7.0 looks to perform a lot better) Beta versions on GitHub A very special thanks to @Beale, @CobaltWolf and @Nertea for the help and advise they gave me to make something awesome. And @DiscoSlelge for creating those awesome patches! And a massive thanks to @ValiZockt, @Rock3tman_, @Nessus_, @JadeOfMaar, @Starwaster, @neistridlar, @SofieBrink and @Infinite Monkeys for the help they gave me making this mod perfect! Changelog: Any of the configs are distributed under CC-NC-SA-4.0 License. All Textures/models/plugins are distributed under All Right Reserved License. SootyShaderLoader is based on the custom shader importer by shadowmage and modyfied by DMagic with custom modules and settings.

Is this seriously all your here for. Your not contributing to this post and making an argument out of peoples communication issues disguising it as development talk. Please stop your not cool because of it and it doesn't solve the thing you clearly have a problem with, people that talk differently. I made a upset earlier about semantics for a really bare minimum case but seriously this is now the extreme excrements so I'm gunna say it screw off with the semantics YOUR arguing about what you most likely see as idk "Basic negativity" but there's constructive arguments being made. All your doing is making negative statements about what you see wrong based on (from what I can see) a basic surface level computer sciences understanding which I am guilty of to but you should hold yourself accountable if your gunna distinctly rat on peoples ability to talk to one another, and on a post specifically telling you not to do this. Anyways back to the discussion distractions aside if you are confused about the fundamentals of how computers operate or the history of coding and the difficulties involved and what hasn't change in over 13 years and how it applies to the programming of this game and its indie roots just ask someone. P.S. No Unity as a game engine does stem a portion of the issues its not a great engine.

YEAR 1, DAY 76 - VALENTINA KERMAN Always an early bird, Valentina was the first to arrive at the airfield in the morning when Jeff and Shearer Kerman arrived to talk to her. Her shoddy homemade flight suit was quite common among pilots in the Rusiya Region. Superstition states that, “Any pilot with the rich man’s suit will be cursed by ye Kracken”. Kerbals up here aren’t all too fond of the wealthy, as rich oil businesses immediately abandoned the region when larger reserves were found in the desert. Therefore, the rich government agents who drove up the runway to talk weren't all too welcoming of a sight to her. They better not be here to take my plane, she thought to herself. Meanwhile, in the car, the agents weren’t all too eager to talk to her either. “I’m not sure about Ms. Valentina, Jeff,” Shearer Kerman said. “She has quite the reputation among the aviation community. Many have said she’s close to impossible to work with.” “She’s one of the best pilots we can get,” Jeff replied. “Sure, her stubbornness may be annoying to some, but I mean the agency wanted Jeb, so…” “Still, are you sure she’ll want to hop onboard the program?” “She’s a pilot, Shearer. When pilots are asked if they want to fly fast and high, they will most definitely say yes.” As the men exited the car, Val tensed up. People have approached her in suits before, saying bizarre things like Your lisence has expired, or Please, PLEASE pay your taxes. “Good morning Val!” Jeff said to her. “What do you want?” Val quipped. “Money? A ride? My plane only has one seat, so you two are gonna have to strap onto the tail.” “No, we’re here to talk to you about a new opportunity, one that’s just up your alley. Tell her, Shearer.” “How would you like to fly higher, further, and faster than any Kerbal has flown before?” asked Shearer. “The UKA has taken notice of your flyign abilities. Your hours astound them, and your… creative ways of landing a plane and walking away without harm are a skill that we think could be valuable to our goals.” “Oh I see,” Valentina said matter of factly. “You two want me to become one of your Kosmonauts. Not happening” “Why not?” Jeff asked. “Because I fly planes, sir. Not missiles. Planes. I know for fact your sissy scientists and engineers wouldn’t let me fly a single one of those rockets.” “Not even to one up Jeb?” “Please, I know you guys approached him about all that already. He was probably your first pick, wasn’t he? He and his dimwit friend Bill? Why would I join your program if all the flights would be handed to him anyways?” “Beyond wouldn’t ‘hand’ flights to anyone.” Shearer said. “You’d have to work for them, earn them.” “Yeah, I’m sure you’d believe that. This is going to be nothing more than a popularity contest. All the cameras are going to be focused on him, and I’ll just be on the sidelines. No thanks, buddy.” “Oh, alright.” Jeff said defeated. “I mean, we were gonna pay you handsomely and all, but…” “Wait, wait, wait, pay me? How much?” Valentina asked, suddenly interested. “Around $300,000 dollars or so, but I understand if you aren’t inter-” “Screw that, I’m in!” Valentina yelled. “Alright then. Hop in the backseat!” “How did you do that?” Shearer whispered to Jeff. “Well I forgot to tell you the one other thing pilots jump for.” Jeff whispered back. “Money.”

Can one truly love without loving everything? That is, is true love love if there is hate at the same time? As I was dealing with my nuclear anxiety in Tokyo, I was overcome by the intense feeling I could not hate anyone or anything, period, if I was to truly have compassion for anyone at all. The thought that entered my head was this: loving one thing alone is an excuse to hate another. Thus it isn't true love. Note that this notion applies to my very philosophical and... how to put it... spiritual? mind. Of course, by applying this rule, I love those who love one thing while hating another. As someone who values personal autonomy to the highest degree, I do not translate love for all into being love for all on the condition that they are eventually "transformed" into a different, very specific state that suits my personal liking. By love I mean love in the sense of agape. Some context though: I consider much of what I see to be an illusion. A cruel illusion that can hurt, of course, but nonetheless an illusion. I hope this next part isn't too political. What drove me to this was the nonsensicality of existing nuclear disarmament arguments. It just makes zero sense to eliminate one class of weapons without not only eliminating other weapons, but violence as a whole. There's no argument there that anyone will ever be able to agree on. Side A and Side B will never convince each other to try and prevent the mass violence of a nuclear war if *some* violence is okay. Because which form of violence is okay is totally opinionated. You can't form logic around it. Justifying violence requires saying, "I have the right to end this person's life... because I said so." You can do mental gymnastics, of course, but realistically if you have the right to take someone's life, so do they have the right to take yours. Because what you're really saying is "It's okay for me to kill because I have a good reason. If I didn't, it wouldn't be okay." And thus all they have to have is a "good reason" and it's okay for them to kill you, and anyone else. But what a good reason is is entirely up to the person deciding. Because there is no objective "good reason." And what we're left with is it being quite natural that violence and war seems to never end, because the people trying to create peace aren't creating peace for all, they're creating peace for themselves. In the way they want. But I can't hate these people, those who accept violence in some instances. Because to hate and dislike... dislike unless a certain condition is met, i.e. them becoming more like how I think they should... would be to become one of them. Or rather, to join this endless cycle of suffering. Inflicting suffering and having it inflicted back on me. Infinitely. Or until "There's two of us standing and only one of them." Thus I am led to believe one cannot find peace or have compassion without eliminating the concept of us and them, and instead only seeing all. This involves an immense degree of compassion and trust. It involves seeing those who potentially threaten your own life as sentient, feeling beings, rather than part of a machine-like "Them." Hoping... because that's really all that can be done, it's impossible to know... that they will make a reciprocal decision about how to interact with yourself. And then even if they harm you, still loving them anyways. Loving them despite what they do. Not what they do, of course. But loving the person. Not the action. And (bear with me) not loving them believing they "truly" are or can be different, but simply loving them. Loving everyone and everything. I have no idea how to explain this in a way that makes more sense. Human society, as well as human behavior, is, at least from some scientists' POV, specifically structured around an "Us" and "Them" system. That's who we are. Talk of inner humanity and such, is, IMO, just mental gymnastics to convince ourselves "Us" are better than "Them." At the end of the day even the most peaceful person is, if left with no other option, gonna take the life of another in order to defend something they love. The problem is, from the point of view of "Them," we are "Them." Thus there's no way out of this sort of "game." But we... especially I... was left with the question of why this keeps happening. Why do people hurt each other? Which brings me to the other solution to this question. Which is to realize our "morals" are just fantasies we cook up to convince ourselves we are better than "Them," as evidenced by how what we do does not differ from what they do except who it's targeted towards, and that the reality is that these moral distinctions are silly. What matters is that we are alive and they are not (in other words, unable to harm us). There is no point in handicapping responses to threats beyond making yourself feel good that you are. Feeling good is an intangible thought. Fake, in other words. But the threat is real. The possibility is real. So why wait? Why not hit the threat now before it hits us? There's nothing holding us back except ourselves. The same is the only thing holding them back. But can we trust them to hold themselves back? We don't even trust them now. It's the whole point of classifying them as a threat (note that this may sound like I'm describing geopolitics but it can mean anything. Household against robber, business against business, person against murderer, and so on). やれる前にやれ. A yakuza saying to kill before being killed. And my own little phrase I've come up with to describe this thought process. Hit hard, hit fast, hit now. Anything less is inviting an attack on you and what you care about. And this brings me back to that notion of mine. You either love all or you don't truly love at all. Because the end result of allowing some violence to be okay and not others is just a pure free-for-all murder fest. Group against group. Individual against individual. History does not occur according to formulas or patterns. It shifts without rhyme or reason. If one doesn't recognize that and make the choice to take a position and defend it no matter what, they will find themselves suddenly looking a lot like the people they think they are different from one day. Because if pushed... if the external situation was in a certain way... we'd do exactly what they are doing to us. Because if there's a "good" enough reason to do something... But if we stick to one idea and never violate it... not "because of the extraordinary situation," or "because of the demands of the environment around me," etc... I think we will find ourselves suddenly in a much more peaceful and friendly world. Even if we are indeed different in many ways. Because I vow not to take your life, and you vow not to take mine. No matter what. We can talk about how to resolve issues like getting enough food and water, securing shelter, etc., for as long as we want. Because we're alive, and will be for a long time. The specter of many rather choosing to kill me... and millions of others... and take all the food and water for themself haunts me everyday. Killing, killing, killing. Not only "until there is no one left." Because anyone dying in the first place is a tragedy. Mass death doesn't suddenly become more tragic when there's no one left to kill. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk Some notes: These references to killing apply to humans vs. humans. I don't see any sense in militant vegetarianism, we are omnivores and the idea that animal life should not be taken but plant life can devalues plant life, who have just as much a right to life as do animals. I.e. I don't think capacity to feel pain or sentience defines the value of life. Anything living should live. But living things need to eat other living things in order to live. Thus eating animals is simply part of the way reality is. On the other hand, I do object to making these animals suffer for extended periods of time in the process of raising them (in other words I don't like factory farms), but that's my opinion... any how I digress. Some of the stuff about war may sound political. If you choose to respond, please try to talk about war as a concept rather than listing real life examples. I'm not trying to point fingers at specific individuals, because one man is just as culpable for justifying and carrying out violence as any other. All violence is bad, IMO, not just specific instances.

Resurrecting this topic to talk about monopropellants, spurred by this article talking about a company getting money to develop 'green' monopropellants for satellites: https://payloadspace.com/benchmark-wins-4-9m-afrl-ascent-award/ But to talk about it and why they're 'green', I want to go over the classic and lesser-used monopropellants first. (Monopropellants for thermal and electric thrusters are a different use-case as they take energy from external sources, though they're fascinating nonetheless.) Generally, a monopropellant used as a fuel is fed over a catalyst bed, exothermically decomposing it and using that heat energy to accelerate it through a nozzle. It makes throttling as simple as turning a valve on and off while being an improvement on cold-gas thrusters, which lose energy as they continue to operate. Nearly all monopropellants are used in RCS thrusters, so performance is less desired than storability Hydrazine: With the chemical formula N2H4, it's one of the most popular monopropellants for a number of reasons. First is performance. There's a lot of energy bound up in that nitrogen bond, there's all that light hydrogen for exhaust velocity (vacuum specific impulse of 220 seconds) and it's a tiny bit denser than water, liquid in between 2 deg. C and 114 deg. C Second, storability. The USAF drove the bulk of the research here (because ballistic missiles) and it has a long history as a storable liquid propellant. Not that it's perfect in that regard. Even back in the Apollo era, it was known to slowly decompose in the tank; the tank pressure in Mariner IV rose from 20 psi (1.38 bar) when it completed its flyby of Mars to 80 psi (5.51 bar) two years later when they re-established contact. (Source: "The Status of Monopropellant Hydrazine Technology", JPL, 1968.) The toxicity issues, carcinogenic attributes and the contamination issues are both well-understood and well-known. The images of people in positive-pressure suits working around the Space Shuttle on landing, which used it in its (bipropellant) RCS thrusters are fairly widespread. It's also why the European Union wanted to phase it out entirely under the REACH act, but eventually left in an exemption for spaceflight use. It is still the monopropellant of choice from a performance standpoint. Its derivatives monomethylhydrazine (MMH) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UMDH) are also used as either mixtures with hydrazine, or additives in hypergolic bipropellant engines. ------ Green propellants mitigate the cost and risk associated with the transport and storage, cleanup of accidental releases, and human exposure to traditional propellants. Hydrogen peroxide: Always the bridesmaid, never the bride in US rocketry, H2O2 has a long and storied history. The earliest ICBMs and the current Soyuz 1st and 2nd stages (but I repeat myself) still use monopropellant peroxide turbines to power the turbopumps in the RD107/106. Thrusters that use it for RCS are rare, but available off-the-shelf. Indeed, the Vega-C uses H2O2 thrusters as RCS on its upper stage. The performance is OK, with 160s vacuum specific impulse and roughly the same density as water, depending on the concentration. This is the key. Peroxide is a strong oxidiser, and decomposes exothermically and releases oxygen, which means it will react with a wide variety of substances. It decomposes slowly and spontaneously as the temperature rises, which means tanks have to have a vent to equalise pressure. This may be a larger ask on a satellite than on a disposable upper stage. The higher the concentration, the more reactive it becomes. The linked RCS thrusters use 87.5%, which is no joke but relatively easy to ship and handle, as long as you keep the equipment and tanks clean. It can be handled with protective gloves, overalls, boots and eye protection as opposed to full environment suits. 95-98% peroxide, popularly called "high-test peroxide" or HTP, is trickier. Most of the hopes and dreams of the SSTO efforts hinged on it and kerosene, and the British space program were experts at it. As high-energy oxidisers go, it's almost benign but it's still not safe, with splashes on organic materials liable to flare up quickly with a few sparks or even explode. (LOX has the same issue, but something soaked in peroxide looks merely bleached/wet, not visibly smoking with frost.) Further, the stabilisers it is usually shipped with to stop it decomposing in the tank also stop it decomposing when passed over a catalyst, which precludes its use in both certain illegal chemical reactions and perfectly legal rocketry. You have to secure a supplier willing and able to provide it unstabilised at 98%. ------ Dinitrogen monoxide: AKA "nitrous" or "nitrous oxide" or "NOx" or "laughing gas", with the chemical symbol N2O. This is an oxidising gas at room temperature, that can be liquefied, is self-pressurising and can be encouraged to decompose when passed over a heated catalyst bed, or simply heated at sufficient pressure. Its specific impulse can be up to 180s. It is also safe enough to be sold in low-pressure canisters to the public for whipped cream. (Round where I live, it also is used as a recreational drug. :-/) For these properties, it is seeing increasing interest in both monopropellant and bipropellant systems (usually with butane), as it does not decompose, but simply sits there in the tank. ------ Mixed cryogenic oxygen/methane: Only mentioned in Ignition! once, because it's a very, very bad idea. We've said before that a relatively small amount of oxidiser can turn organic material explosive. This is worse. Bright light can make it explode. ------ Energetic Ionic Liquids: This consists of oxidizer salts dissolved in aqueous solutions, called Ionic Liquids (ILs), mixed with Ionic Fuel (IF) or Molecular Fuel (MF), forming a premixed propellant. The propellant blend performances are increased by the addition of other fuel components. The EILs can be further categorized into HAN-based (Hydroxyl Ammonium Nitrate) and ADN-based (Ammonium DiNitramide). They stretch the definition of a monopropellant, but as it's technically all in one tank, it counts. Rocket Labs uses an unknown EIL in its Proton kick stage. This takes us to the header article. ASCENT is actually AF-M315E, which was first developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory way back in 2010. It's a mixture of hydroxyethylhydrazinium nitrate (HEHN) and hydroxylammonium nitrate (HEN), water and an unknown amount of other stuff, including methanol. On first glimpse it's great. It can be handled in the open, without respirators, and only eye protection and rubber gloves. It has a prospective ISP of 235s, better than hydrazine. It has a lower freezing point so the tanks need to be heated less. You can use plastic like polypropylene or PTFE with it (for bladders), You can tip this potent pink propellant into a wood fire with only a "mild burning reaction". It's perfect. Except it's a little finicky about metal tanks, requiring titanium-aluminium-vanadium alloy or platinum/iridium or gold plating for long-term storage and burns hotter than hydrazine. Only now has this company gotten money to redesign the thrusters to cope with the much higher temperatures and eliminate the expensive catalyst bed.

i don't need a psychiatrist to attempt to break this down to hopefully see with words, and perhaps directly by other users reading it. :3 (thankfully) See's a post about LTT doing the worse rated parts, and had ksp 2 in it.. Due to experience of building computers, i have some input in this with the parts regardless of what the video is about. I join in talking purely about how the parts are not suitable for the situation for ksp 2 due to the lack of GPU performance. Then talk in more detail about where it stands with more "common" GPU's that are easier to understand due to the intel dedicated GPU scene is new and there is tons of users not understanding where it sits, (just like saying "i have a 4090", people understand better when it is compared to other things they might be familiar with) and thought it would have been beneficial for users to have this context. In this context i talk about how the gpu isn't allowing the real struggle of the game which is CPU intensive to actually show the game, simply due to the gpu not performing well due to its lack of power. Saying the power you get is simply not up for the task for 2024. Then i end off saying t2 shouldn't have ended it with production, and wasn't happy with the performance it ended in. to then finally end this statement off with stating the GPU was horrible. Thats perfectly understandable. You then state stuff about consumers are expecting the a310 to do stuff it simply will not do in ksp 2 due to the well known issues ksp 2 has. Then you remark that out of the three games ksp2 was the only game tested that was considered unplayable. (see the whole video) then you talk about linus never played it yet enjoyed it. And then a remark towards someone in this conversation this could be stated as the entire party in this topic however, There is no one else in this comment you sent only as users you and me.This however makes it harder to say "its in general" due to being only user remarked or replied, using "your", so the concept of saying "everyone in general" cannot be applied here. This is directed at someone in this convo in this direct comment when this was stated.. Stating about gpu specs to "learn my mistake" life can be more simple. simply by trying add an "s" to the next word beside it doesn't make it a party when there is only two participants in this as we concluded a few sentences up. I then state that the section was about worse review bombed games, and stated the reasons why the three games had there reasonings of being worse, with knowledge that ksp 2 will be the worse, and then requoted a statement to show that the review bombings are not due to performance, and it isn't a fair comparison with all three games, then finally remarked about talking the a310 or in statements that it is just not a good gpu. Then end off its illogical to pursue further, due to i strictly wanted talk about the gpu but this kept getting dragged on. Then you reply within your statement, with another inflammatory statement in the mutilible replies to a single user that there is one person in this convo that is being illogical and is failing to cope with reality, however not stating who it is that this comment is being told to. i asked if there is a disconnect about what we are talking about, and asked to explain further. And finally, you agreed there is a disconnect but decided instead of commenting on what was wrong, you attempt to misdirect the user by attempting to start something with this statement: Now that i have professionally mastered this convo without needing to exercise either intellectual honesty, on talking about computer parts performance nor needing to get a bare minimum of doctorate degree in a profession that isn't needed for this, I shall now ask how there is a disconnect and what it is about? i see we talked about both, computer parts and where the gpu stands, and aswell that ksp 2 performs poorly and out of the 3 games ksp 2 didn't do well and was the only one that failed to work well. Now I'm not frustrated, not angry, not mad nothing, i will like to see where you are trying to gather to formulate this conversation, due to trying to understand where you sit with information that was given by me about gpus, and about ksp 2 being poor and didn't show ksp 2 in good light.. i will be enlightened about where you think the faults of this convo stands due to stating in total Stop covering your arses and start learning from your mistakes. Life can be simple like that sometimes. We finally reached an agreement. There's no point on arguing with illogical people. Obviously, one of us is failing to cope with reality. Let's give time to time and see who. I would recommend to exercise some intellectual honesty and reread the posts - I'm not a Psychiatrist, I'm forbidden by Law to do such advises. With your wording users can and will attempt to try get frustrated with passive aggressive talking and would attempt to outlash, I'm just honestly curious where you sit with this convo due to one party is missing a larger key that the other user is using. And with this user that is missing the larger key asks about what is missing, only to get aggressive comments that can only be directed at two users instead of a direct the answer to a question. i shall go to sleep to see what i am missing in the morning in this conversation so i am better able to understand where the connection is lost about talking about gpu part performance, where the a310 stands, where the game stands within a video, and how poor the game actually runs.