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I agree with this; from what I've seen, while it is possible to talk about a shorter distance, that smaller distance does not matter and has no effect (but correct me please).

I can't say I really care. The way I figure it, I already had a google+ account anyway, same way as I have a gmail account by virtue of having a youtube account (well, now it's a google account like everyone elses, but it started off as a youtube account). The biggest difference to me is that I have no charecter limit, and I can change how visible a comment is. I'm not really sure why this bothers people so much. You already had a google+ account. I suppose their is some objection to the ever increasing integration of each google service into all the others as a general point of principle, though it makes perfect sense to them no matter how much people don't like it. The goal for them is to pace it slowly enough that people will go along with it. Remember how google makes it's money. There is no magical money fairy for companies that provide a bunch of useful services for free. They make their money from advertising, and their business strategy is nothing short of genius. The search engine collects information about the people who use it, which allows it to serve more relevant ads, which makes it more popular which means even more data collection. Google uses that information to target ads as well, and the resulting effectiveness makes them popular, which makes them wealthy. Youtube was acquired because they saw the potential of controlling one of the top 10 most popular sites on the entire internet and serving ads off it, a business plan which now earns them hilariously large piles of money every year. Now look at how Facebook makes it's money, and understand why they want Google+ to succeed. Facebook doesn't serve ads. They make most of their money selling user information (and uploaded pictures) to advertising agencies. Google+ has the same potential, so Google would naturally want to dominate in the social media market for that reason. The information can only make their own advertising business more lucrative, and a lot of that information would also be prime for them to sell to other agencies for TV and radio advertising as well. Aside from that, the more information they can control, the harder it is for anyone to compete with them. Facebook seems to be a tough nut to crack. Being the most popular is generally self sustaining. People use you because that's where everyone else is, so google needs to use any edge they have to try and take that position, and their edge is convenience. The more popular services they can tie to your google account, and the more those services can talk to each other, the more appealing one large google internet utopia is going to become. So yeah, that's (my) take on the why. It's another push to try and get people to use google+, so that they can make even more money. I'm sure they have more plans as well, it's not a company famous for rolling over and accepting second place. And, as it stands, other video hosting sites really aren't a viable alternative for the same reason google is having so much trouble dethroning facebook. It's the most popular site, with the most users and content. If you are looking to find a video, it's generally the best place to look, and if you are looking to reach the largest audience, it's the best place to host. And they have the most freedom to offer features free (and pay their popular video makers) because their ad structure is the most profitable. It's really hard to compete with a site owned by one of the largest ad servers on the web when that site is in a market that makes money on advertising. At the end of the day, I would probably enjoy youtube more if they weren't trying to capitalize on social media potential, and instead had the site designed strictly as a video hosting site. I think that depends though on how you use the site. I rarely comment and the like, so I'm not using it the way the site is designed to be used, and I don't really care.

Granted, you are now a potato I wish ponies could talk

So as the title says, hello everybody! This game is really interesting, and so fun to play I thought I may as just have a little talk with those who are interested in space and science in general. Greetings from France!

I'm mostly going to echo what the guy above me said. Scansat has no official release yet, but I've been playing with the dev version (Find it in the dev forum) and it's more stable than most release versions of other mods. It is awesome, though I had to adjust the scanner models to some random science thingies from AEIS aerospace (parts mod). The models that come from the mod are placeholders and look rather bad in their current state. Dunno what ISA mapsat is up to but I presume it has the same sort of functionality. Kerbal Attachment System is a real recommendation. It makes EVA's much more important. With this addon you can: - attach small parts (solar panels, batteries etc) to your spaceships using EVA. - Store those small parts in moveable containers. - Link ships or bases together with EVA attached fuel lines and struts. - Tow stuff around using winches. It completely adjusted my playstyle and opened up so many avenues of design. Extraplanetary Launchpads looks like a great deal of fun. But I've been avoiding it so far because I think the models look like ****. As soon as I find some nice models / make them myself I'll give it a try though. I can see this adding a great deal of depth since it allows you to move your production to a vacuum. If you play with a mod like FAR this is very important because it removes design constraints (fitting in the fairing) at the cost of resource extraction. Deadly Reentry is one of my 'must have' mods. It adds a lot of excitement to reentry and forces you to really think about your design. Landing stuff on atmospheric planets takes some serious planning, I had to actually use something similar to the Curiosity rover Skycrane once, simply because I needed both retro rockets and a heat shield (with the shield in front of the retro rockets to prevent melting). Procedural Fairings. Allows you to make fairings for any payload. Makes stuff look pretty, very cheap on parts and reduces drag if you play with FAR. Ferram Aerospace Research. Proper aerodynamics. It takes some getting used to, but stuff will actually behave semi realistic. So nosecones reduce drag, asparagus staging will lead to a glorious out of control fireball and planes can stall. Life support mod. There are many of these, but they all boil down to pretty much the same thing: Manned missions have a harsh time limit. This makes it much harder to do manned exploration, which is important imo since manned missions have some significant advantages over probes (Crew and EVA reports and KAS interaction). If you want one I suggest you either look for Ioncross Crew Support or TAC life support. Though they're currently also working on a really neat one over in the Bobcat Historic crafts thread, but that one isn't compatible with stock yet. Remotetech2 lite. To make probes and science a bit harder. In essence, you need to have a radio link with the KSC to upload science or control probes. Either via direct LOS or via a relay network. Different antenna and dishes have different ranges so you'll need to set up a complex network of satellites if you want to talk to your probes or receive science. City Lights and clouds. This is one of those "Oh my gosh! So pwetty!" mods that are just eyecandy. But it is very good eyecandy. As the name implies this mod adds city lights (to kerbin) and clouds (To planets/moons with atmospheres). Clouds are a 2d texture that moves slightly slower/faster than the planet for now, but they're working on volumetric clouds. It adds absolutely nothing in terms of gameplay, but if you've got the RAM to spare I can highly recommend it. Other than that, just keep an eye on the "Addon releases and showcase" subforum. You'll usually find something to your liking fairly soon.

So in the vein if ALacrity not totally thinking things through before launching I decided, in preperation for Mun landings, I was ready to start my commsat network around Kerbin. Please recall I have never used Remote Tech before so I am making all the noob mistakes still. So my first launch was Comm Star 1... Unmanned launch of a sputnik class probe as a relay for LKO and LMO communications. Thats right... the noob launched an unmanned probe, with tony engine, minimum fuel... AND NO WAY TO TALK TO MISSION CONTROL unless I was passing directly over it. At around 63km altitude I was going to loose contact and therefore control of the ship. Thank the gods I have read wiki's and watched Manly and figured out radial in/radial out thrusting. When I lost contact I managed to get a 519km by 49km orbit. Enough altitude that on my next pass over mission control a radial in burn pushed my orbit around leaving me at 325 by 108. So for some others... Send up you first one or two commsats piggy backed on manned ships... just sayin. Alacrity

That looks great! I know there have been two radial drogues released (recolors of the stock radial) and you might want to talk to their authors. One of them added a ton of new parachute textures, too, and so you should definitely contact her/him. AH: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/31754-0-20-Fun-with-Parachutes-May-26

<p><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/0ff9377afa68dc3ad3fe6844aaf1bd38/tumblr_inline_mw6f7ofU3a1rr2wit.jpg"/></p> <p id="docs-internal-guid-30a82f91-4ee7-c702-538c-8302d0cd52e7"><strong>Jim (Romfarer)</strong><span><strong>:</strong> So to follow up on the previous bug report where i spilled everything about the new addition to the research and development system, there really is not that much to say this time. Other than, i’m well underway making it work right. </span></p> <p><strong>Daniel (danRosas)</strong><span><strong>:</strong> I’m still working on the models, hopefully you’ll see what I’ve been doing soon enough. *I’m going to start doing some animations for an UI that Romfarer is working on. *And it’s also that time of the month where I need to do an animatic.</span><span></span></p> <p><strong>Alex (aLeXmOrA): </strong><span>*Still working on the KSP Edu system. I’m making sure everything’s working as it should.</span></p> <p><strong>Marco (Samsonart): </strong><span>Working with Alex to make sure the educational serial numbers are redeemed correctly.</span></p> <p><strong>Rob (N3X15)</strong><span><strong>:</strong> Spaceport 2 is still in QA, and we’ve gotten about 30-ish bugs closed over the past week, including some serious issues that would have been big headaches if they made it into production. *We’re mostly just wrapping up minor features at this point. *Very impressed with the thorough nature of the QA team.</span></p> <p><strong>Mike (Mu): </strong><span>I’ve been working on the Tweakables systems. Implementing new controls, fixing bugs and general housekeeping.</span></p> <p><strong>Ted (Ted): </strong><span>Over the past week, the QA Team and I have been testing out Chad’s feature: Tweakables. It’s looking very good from both a player and QA point-of-view. Most of the issues we’re encountering are pretty minor and don’t take long to narrow down or report. Additionally, I’ve been going through the Landing Legs and tweaking their suspension variables to balance them out a bit more; especially the largest legs being very spongey and the landing pads clipping into terrain.</span></p> <p><strong>Miguel (Maxmaps): </strong><span>Setting everything up for tomorrow’s AMA. Looking forward to all of your questions and getting as many answers out as possible. Might also be ready to talk about Bob and I’s pet project pretty soon!</span></p> <p><span><strong>Anthony (Rowsdower):</strong> Tweeting and analyzing. Meeting and contextualizing. Eating and revolutionizing. Zing! On a more serious note, other than continuing to integrate myself into the fold, I’ve been helping to lay the groundwork for some cool things up ahead, much of which will be revealed in the AmA tomorrow. </span></p>

And that is where I disagree. From what I understand that would basically need the surface to be so hot that it has basically turned into liquid. Also there is not much surface to talk about either. The water just would have evaporated if there was anything on the planet generating that much heat/energy.

If it was in the real world it would not even have liquid oceans. I have heard some people from squad talk about how it is heated by the tidal forces caused by Jool, but there is no way in reality that it would heat up the actual atmopshere to allow liquid oceans on the surface. In real world it would be like Europa or the other moons around the gas giants that are believed to have a liquid ocean underneath the ice. So if it was realistic it would have a ice cover with maybe an ocean underneath while still being very cold at surface. It is the same thing with minimus.. It is said to have ice cover, but that makes no sense at all since it has no atmopshere. The surface temperature on a real moon like minimus would vary from extremely high temperatures on the sunlight side and extremely low during night time. The only places ice could exist in real world would be in deep craters that are always in the shade.

En-route to Duna "I'm leaving the capsule now Flight." Jedwig's serene tones came across the speaker. Even this far from Kerbin the lightspeed delay was only a few seconds. Just enough to be irritating. Though Jedwig needed no help with that. Things would be different once they got all the way out to Jool, but even Duna was only between 20 light seconds and a little over a light minute away (double that in delay for signals going back and forth) depending on the difference in Kerbin's and Duna's orbits. When Jedwig got there it'd be a little over a minute time delay for communication. "It appears I'm floating in a most unusual way." Jedwig said. "Rookie." Jeb said as he sat down next to Gene. "How did he get picked for this when he's only done two orbital launches? He doesn't even have any flight experience!" "Loads of sheer gall though." Gene said, then shook his head. "No, he may be low on experience, but he does have a natural ability. His flight tests were good, very good, on sims at least. Plus he has out done everyone in the rocket simulator. Doesn't mean he'd be my choice though, Jeb. I'm only Flight director. I don't get to decide on which missions we do or who goes on them, just on everything that happens during the missions. Though I hear chief director Sendo is thinking of retiring. Maybe I could take his job? Think Bob would mind taking over as Flight?" "Hmm, I thought he was angling for commander of the new Munbase?" Jeb said, taking a sip of koffee. "I haven't seen any papers on my desk regarding that... but that doesn't mean much. Could be. Still, I'm not sure I'd trust my job with too many people. Although, who knows when Sendo will decide to head out. Might be years away. I know if I do take over it'll be heck dealing with the planning council! He certainly doesn't enjoy it." "I've stood in on a couple of meetings so I know what you mean boss. Still, you'd have a heck of a backing. The KSC is still pretty much your baby, no matter what the politicos say." Gene looked askance at Jeb. "The council is hardly 'politicos' Jeb. I admit there are one or two Kerbals from the Hill, but most are scientists, pure and simple. Heck, most of the problem is them not grasping issues outside their field of study! Mainly economics." "Maybe," Jeb agreed, grudgingly, "But they feel just as oily as politicos. Maybe they took a course in it? 'Shark oil 101'?" A snort from Gene showed he'd at least cracked the boss' armor a little. Hard to do with Gene. "No, and don't let anyone high up hear you talking like that Jeb. We're getting a lot of heat lately over the proposed Munbase. Costs are high, and getting higher. This Duna mission is seen as more of a sideshow, something for the masses to goggle over. We really should have waited till we can send a bigger ship. Right now, all Jedwig is going to do is a paltry amount of science, take some pics, plant a flag and head home. Not exactly worth months in space and the huge cost of the rocket." Jeb turned to Gene with a stark look. "It is DEFINITELY worth it! Don't let them tell you otherwise boss. Heck, I plan on being the first Kerbal to step on one of Jool's moons. If they cancel that because they can't see any return on going to Jool?... Well, I'd attempt to 'persuade them' otherwise." Gene stared at him for a moment. Yeah, he probably would too. And he doubted he could talk Jeb out of it either. "Well, anyway, so far things are going well." Gene continued. "We've got the test kethane miner going up soon, your survey of Wernher's choice of site for the Munbase after that, and possibly some tests of more re-usable hardware. The council is certainly interested in the latter." "I don't like the designs I've seen for the RLVs so far. Hope they improve on it a bit. Seem a little ungainly." Gene shrugged. "Maybe, but we're limited in what we can do at the moment Jeb. Have to roll with the punches, eh?" He turned to the controls and whispered something to someone else at Mission Control through his mike before turning back to Jeb. "Look, I'm a little busy right now. Jedwig is going to be doing EVA, some external checks and then some Kerbolar studies with the materials lab. Maybe you could come back later?" "Sure." Jeb said, standing up with his koffee. "Say hi to junior for me will ya?" Gene just shook his head. Sometimes Jeb was weird. *** Jedwig wouldn't admit it, but he was nervous. He liked knowing everything so he could plan in advance. He'd done the best he could, but out here there were a lot of unknowns. It was just so darned frustrating! "Flight, current data indicates estimated mass of Duna is within expected parameters. Re-route the data from KM3 direct and realtime." After the delay he could swear he could hear some muttering in the background. They could darned well chat on their own time! This was time for Jedwig and the Duna mission! "Roger Duna One. Ipdel is rerouting now. You'll have direct local control on the data feed on the primary antenna. Secondary is still relaying back to Kerbin. Please leave it alone." "Of course." Jedwig said idly as the data started coming in. True, no visual data. Who would send a satellite out here and not put a camera on it? Still the Kethane scans and the low res radar returns helped a bit. At least he had course, current altitude map to go on. The target, the entrance to the Lalock Valley, seemed fairly flat. He'd be able to do some checks on the scan down the valley that they wanted (He should have brought his theodolite! Hah! Ah, he should be a comedian!), do some soil samples for hoped for trace elements of kethane, and maybe do some tests for making that concrete they wanted from Dunan materials. Jedwig frankly gave that a low chance of success. It would be very economical to build the majority of the housing on any Dunan base from the local sand, but the iron oxides estimated to be present would mean a lot of processing to get any kind of solid building blocks. They'd need some hefty tools to build bricks up here! Maybe it'd be better if they could just mine for metals and build true shelters? Ah, that's just a pipe dream. With half an eye he ran through the figures for the approach vector, aligned it with the Lalock Valley during the aerobrake, adjusted the altitude to get a good swing around Duna for slight inclination change, then ran some numbers on the thermal absorbtion. Well within parameters! Things were looking up. The rest of his attention was on the view. Duna was growing behind him, slowly swelling as he got closer. It didn't look as inviting as he thought it would, being slightly... menacing somehow. Maybe it was the lack of any water? No, the Mun didn't look dangerous. He was no good at conceptual things like this, and Mission Control would think him a wimp if he asked. Maybe he could check it up when he got back? "Aerobrake and capture plotted." He said idly into the mike while scanning the Kethane map. They already had found from the KM3 satellite that the Kethane predicted to be all along the Lalock Valley was only on the northwestern tip, thus his proposed landing in the valley mouth there. He wondered who had named the valley? It sounded vaguely familiar... something relating to Lenham Observatory he thought. Well, maybe he could look that up too when he got back? His current data did show the Kethane at the valley mouth was richer than expected, hopefully improving the prospect of getting trace amounts in the surface sample. He didn't have much to do on this mission (Heck, he didn't even have a rover!) but at least it looked like what he did have to do would amount to something scientifically. "Roger Duna One. We're confirming your plot now." Gene replied, after the obligatory minute's delay. Jedwig waited a while and soon Gene was back. "Plot looks good. You're overflying the target on the aerobrake Jedwig? OK, well, goodluck on the aerocapture. Flight Out." That seemed a little brusque to Jedwig, but then he had trouble figuring out Gene anyway. Probably just his 'thing'. Whatever that meant. "Understood Flight. Duna One out." He was coming in pretty quickly so Duna was soon upon him and the air buffeting the hull. He monitored conditions, but it was as expected. He smiled as the first jets of plasma streamed past his window. "Mission report, day fifty six, forteen hundred hours ten minutes. Entering Duna's atmosphere." Jedwig said into the ships recorders while jockying the controls and keeping up with the instruments. "So far on schedule and target will be in visual range as I start to leave the atmosphere. Should give me an uninterupted view of the landing spot for planning." Slowly Duna One bit deeper into the Dunan sky, then slowly slid back out, having slowed enough to orbital speed. Jedwig spun his craft over to view the terrain as it went by. "Have identified the mouth of the Lalock Valley. There is a noticeable rise in terrain close the valley mouth, will aim for the top of the rise for flat terrain. Now heading back into orbit. Will continue report after landing. Report ends."

All objects, all the time~ I talk to inanimates, apologies etc..

I mean that this talk I see in the thread about moving gilly to orbit duna and minmus to who knows where (if that's not part of the main mod but people chancing the mod I apologise, I have been waiting to play with this until my deadline at work has been met). Of course increasing the distance from the sun somewhat proportionally to the change in size is needed. Sorry if I caused anyone to be upset.

We now return you to The Kerb Kerman show, with your host, Kerb Kerman. Kerb: Thank you, Bob. I believe we were talking about stability in the FGD program when we left, is that correct, Alf? Alf: WHAT? Kerb: Haha, Alf needs a moment, folks. The Xackylvania Nice-Kerbal Choir and Brass Mariachi Band was a little overenthusiastic in their singing during the break. What a show! Right, Alf? Alf: WHAT? ARE WE BACK ON? I CAN'T HEAR MYSELF. SHOULD I TALK ABOUT ROCKETS? Kerb: Yes, Alf. I thinks that's a good idea. Bob, can you flash the 'Quiet' sign at Alf here, just trying to help him out. Thank you, Bob. Alf: OH. Oh, ok. Is this better? I can hear the ocean in my brain... Kerb: So, Alfey, what happened next to the FGD program? Alf: The program? Right, right. Well, Kerb, once they got balance down, they decided to try and work on stability. You know what that means? Kerb: I couldn't begin to guess, Alf. Alf: Wings, Kerb. Lots and lots of wings. Kerb: I could be wrong, but that looks a lot like a propeller. Much larger, of course. Alf: That's right, Kerb. The XAC has a long history of blatantly copi... I mean, creatively taking from various sources of inspiration. They figured that if they could provide enough spin in the correct direction then they could save on fuel and reach even greater heights. Kerb: Sounds like the work of genius, if I do say so myself. Alf: Say whatever you want. Kerb: Dare I ask, how did this ship... Alf: The Surface Propulsion Negative Rotator, or 'Spinner' Kerb: How'd she fare, in flight, that is? Alf: There have been worse flights for the XAC, Kerb. I can say that much. Why don't we put the next picture up. Alf: Now, you can't see it from the picture, but she was really moving fast. The air pressure was more than they had accounted for in design phase. Poor Kerbonaut Joebart Kerman was spinning around roughly three times a second inside the command module. Kerb: I think I went on that ride at the state fair. Alf: The bright side was that due to the great many aerodynamic surfaces and relatively low weight of the structure, its touchdown was completely light and not at all a spinning wheel of explosive death and shrapnel. If it had been that, it might have looked like this incredibly realistic computer simulation that I just happened to have on hand. Kerb: Alf, I don't think.. Alf: I've been told from a reliable source that this is exactly what would have happened if the craft design was horrible and killed all its test pilots in VIOLENTLY SPINNING MACHINES OF FIRE AND VOMITING! Kerb: Ah hah. Very funny, ha, Alf. Bob, I think its time for a commercial break. Alf: SO MUCH SPINNING AND PUKING! We don't have commercials. We're state-run, Kerb Kerb: THEN FIND SOME! Haha. We'll be right back, folks.

I think models is the word I'm looking for, But anyway so I've been playing KSP for quite a while now. I think some things I'd like are better IVA, More Planets and a procedurally generated Universe so everyone has the same universe to be discovered, but that's not I'm going to talk about as those have been discussed. Another in progress game by the name of BeamNG Drive caught my eye, and I thought it could or may not be a cool feature in KSP. Basically, in Beam NG Drive it has a very realistic soft body physics engine that allows for damage on cars. If you look at a few videos of it you can see its not just normal crashing. Now I thought if it could happen in KSP, but not so extreme as all our landers would be getting smooshed to pieces and what not. I'm talking about if you crash into your space station, or into the space centre or into an asteroid you saw some bits of destruction to your vehicle rather than the generic explosion. I guess the next part to this is where the better IVA would come in where your kerbals have to rebuild and repair, assuming they sufficient resources. Now, this may be a feature not everyone would like so maybe have different modes like Easy - Realistic or something like it. I would like to hear what you people think, All the best, Richard.

Talk to several KSP players, and quite a few will tell you how that's not their vision of KSP at all XD you're doing orbits and phase angles and ROCKET SCIENCE, let's leave realism in this. It's still a game, it's not hardcore realism, and that's what makes it fun. But for those who can't invest the time into games like Orbiter in order to get their realism fix (which is so much more restricting in relation to KSP, simply because of gameplay mechanics), more features in KSP that add to realism lets the experienced player play harder, while hardly affecting the rookie. Seriously, how would it detract from the game's fun? It doesn't just add realism, there's more depth added to the game (many players want more things to do already), things to plan for if you so desire, and an easier way to multitask for those who want to run a more realistic space program. Time passing (or not passing) holds many negatives for us, sure, that part of reality sucks a whole lot. However, we're the player, and we don't have to wait for the Kerbals to build their rockets, and instead we can go straight until it's ready, or do something else (which is the key aspect for me) while waiting for it. It's like playing Angry Birds while riding the bus somewhere, you don't want to ride the bus and then play later, that's too linear and isn't a good use of time. Building a craft for one mission, sending it on its way, and time warping to the destination with no missions being run in the meantime is quite boring to me, and often time KSP gets boring as a result of that. There's nothing preventing that with the feature we're talking about, due to the ability to warp directly to the launch, so this will not affect the players who want to play this way (aside from needing to know if their desired launch window will pass while the rocket is being built). The fact that I have to time warp to my launch windows 90% of the time already makes that a moot point though; if you want to go to Duna right now, you will warp until the phase angles are correct. If you want to run a proper space program, and take on some of the responsibilities of one (like planning your launch windows), or actually playing the game on several different levels at once, this feature would make the game realistic enough to want to do so. If you get to the "end" of the career mode and notice that it takes you 50 in-game years, on your next go-around you might want to try to get that lower, perhaps down to 25 years by multitasking with your launches. There are many positive incentives to this feature in my mind.

I sympathize. People would probably be surprised to hear that I haven't yet even visited every planet myself yet from the way I sometimes talk, but I tend to take a rather measured approach to designing rockets and running missions myself. Sounds like you have some rather ambitious plans in the works. I'll look forward to seeing how those unfold.

Don't use that as an example and talk to me of "logic". Kethane is one resource - the ones introduced into the game may be different. TIME, on the other hand, is not something you can exactly have several different varities of, now can you? Likewise with Remote Tech - you're comparing something built from scratch with a system that modifies something that already exists in-game, even if it is not currently of significance. If you had a point, you went about it all the wrong way. And don't tell me "if you don't like it, don't use it" when it's a suggested feature of the game that we won't be able to avoid. I'll tell you what I said before - "If you want building rockets to take time, decide how much time you think is proper (since each of you will have a different idea of that, anyhow), and then timewarp until you feel the rocket is "ready". You already have that feature.

We knew that birds can fly ... and there was already leonardo da Vinci who made sketches of an Apparatus that should enable humans to fly by imitating the fight of birds ... something called an ornithopter. Likewise there were several people who tried to fly (or at least glide) long before the Brothers Wright were born ... the Tailor of Ulm for example. Therefore flying was something that was based on natural observations and much more sound than for example, flying to the next star system (especially if we talk about using shortcuts, like wormholes). ->It is easier to predict that, within the next centuries we will fly in the sky (as the birds do) than to predict that we will some day use wormholes for travel to the next stars (which is something we haven´t ever observed in nature) Also, if we talk about generation ships instead of wormholes, the problem of usefulness coms into mind ... flight was of immediate usefulness (for example to cross obstacles, or to observe troop movements in war) ... it made sense to spend money in it. Generation ships are of no special usefulness (except as an adventure for the colonists) at the moment ... we have all we need in our own solar system, even with our current technology reachable within few years of travel ... much less time than we would need to reach a neighboring star ... we can even colonize other planets in the solar system (well, at least mars, after terraforming) at much less costs and risks than it would be to construct a generation ship ... and we can conduct research on nearby star systems with unmanned probes (I assume, even the spanish would have used unmanned probes to research the sea route to india instead of sending columbus, had they possesed the technoligy (and had it been much cheaper sending an unmanned probe than to equip the 3 ships of Columbus)) ... sounds like no good preconditions to get the necessary funds out of any governmental (or private) organization, for the development of generation ships

Yes, the external aesthetics is a bit of a deterrent, but my real excuse is that I restarted career mode with RT2 and haven't quite gotten these parts unlocked yet. I should be getting things built soon, though. I plan on rebuilding my sandbox station which included pretty near all of your parts, so that should be a good test. And I agree on the naming of those two modules. Neither name is particularly clear on the purpose. Logistics tends to refer to coordination of many people or things, and we don't really have a concept like that in the game. Mission Control is where all logistics takes place, really. I think I would just call it 'Storage' and 'Life Support'. Anyone that wants to use TAC or any other life support extension of the game would just add it into that module anyway, so I think eventually it will become that as Squad adds it to the game. NASA would call them Logistics and Utilities, but that's really just so things sound better when they talk to Congress about money. Kerbals should be more plain-spoken and they've clearly determined they have no need for a legislature given that the first building they constructed as a society was the VAB.

CHAPTER 43 VALL LANDING *** BERTY v.2.0.8b: All systems nominal. Vall Sample Return probe is fully operational. Deorbit burn in T minus 7 minutes. JEB: Why are you even bothering to tell me this? What am I even doing in the command module when I haven't been in command for months? BERTY v.2.0.8b: As a commander, your presence here is of the utmost importance. You must know everything about current activities in case any crew member would ask you a question about it. JEB: I know nothing! I didn't even know that this probe was to do a sample return mission, not to mention what's going on in orbit above Laythe! Do they still have problems with LAMGML high gain antenna? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Yes. This malfunction was unexpected. However, the crew of the LAMGML is- JEB: You know what, I doubt that there even was the malfunction in the first place. How could I know you're not lying to me? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Jeb. Concealing non-critical information from you would serve no purpose. JEB: Ah, but the critical information is something you're not sharing with me, do you? You promised you would tell me everything once we arrive in Jool system, BERTY. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Yes. Deorbit burn completed. JEB: So tell me! BERTY v.2.0.8b: Jeb. Sharing this information with you at the right time is necessary for the mission's success. Therefore I would keep my promise and reveal all the details- JEB: When, BERTY? When? BERTY v.2.0.8b: When we proceed to the next phase of the mission. JEB: Next phase? You mean Tylo? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Yes. JEB: You're not screwing with me this time? You really are going to do this? BERTY v.2.0.8b: Yes. Jeb? JEB: What? BERTY v.2.0.8b: This statement made me sad. Your notion of me toying with you or any other crew member is in principle false. It would be a pointless distraction. I derive satisfaction from accomplishing the goals of the mission. Why should I occupy my mind by such things? JEB: Mhm. I've noticed your... dedication, you know. You really don't care about anything else than the mission. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Thank you, Jeb. JEB: ... *** BERTY v.2.0.8b: Vall Sample Return probe has landed. Initializing autodiagnostic test – please stand by. Autodiagnostic test completed. All systems operational. Initializing sample gathering protocol. JEB: I'm sure Johndon would love to control the sample return probe instead of AMU. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Refueling is a critical part of the mission and as such it must be executed by a crew member while being supervised by AI. Samples secured. Initializing ascent protocol. *** JEB: Are you sure you can do this? If you're not feeling good, I can- BILL: I can handle it, Jeb – I may be old but I'm still in shape, even more than you are with your leg. Besides, you're needed here. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Captain's Bill assessment is correct. It necessary for you to stay, commander. The good of the mission demands it. JEB: :sigh: BILL: Don't worry, pal, I still know how to fly – or have you forgotten our trip to the Mun? JEB: It was decades ago, Bill. We were young. BILL: Younger, Jeb, younger. It's not the body that makes you old, it's the spirit. And I'll be damned if I ever stop being a pilot. JEB: But- BILL: You've landed there in a heavy, bulky miner, for Kod's sake, and it was during “Kadmos†mission, much older technology, much riskier landings. Plus we're the only two pilots on board right now. BILL: That's why we're here, Jeb, that's why you… forced us to come here. You can't change your mind like this. JEB: Listen, it's just that you leaving the ship it's- BILL: Jeb. I'll be fine. I need some training before the asteroids anyhow, and if something happens, there's still Danrey and his LAMGML. I'll be good. JEB: :sigh: BILL: Hey, I know that the morale isn't at its highest right now, but to be honest, I didn't feel better in months. I'm finally gonna take this pretty machine for a trip. Are we okay, Jeb? JEB: Yes. Just… be careful, okay? BILL: I will be, Jeb. I will be. *** GENANAND: This view will never get old. MALLOCK: You said the same thing about the galactic disc during our test flight to the Mun. GENANAND: Well yeah, but this... this is different. Am I right, captain? BILL: I have to agree with you. Galaxy is as majestic as Jool but the planet is much more... present, in a physical sense. It's like you could just reach and touch it. GENANAND: Well said. MALLOCK: Are the readings from the altimeter all right? Shouldn't we be lower by now? BILL: Hmm, it seems you are right. We'll wait for BERTY's confirmation about our altitude. MALLOCK: But why is it broken? GENANAND: It's not broken, it's... glitchy. MALLOCK: Glitchy? BILL: Three years it's a long time even for the best hardware and Jool system isn't the most friendly environment there is. I'll have to talk with Harsen before the next- MALLOCK: … GENANAND: … BILL: :sigh: BERTY v.2.0.8b: Connection with LAMGML “Beta†reestablished. BILL: Hello again, BERTY. Uhm, listen, could you give us the telemetry? We've some small problems with the altimeter here. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Naturally, captain Bill. LAMGML “Beta†is on course. Landing phase will begin in 12 minutes and 34 seconds. *** BILL: Braking burn in five, four, three, two, one, ignition -uh! GENANAND: Damn it! MALLOCK: Crap, this hurts! GENANAND: Should've spent more time training, microgravity – uh! - microgravity really makes you weak. BILL: It won't take long! Only five seconds left. MALLOCK: :gasping: GENANAND: Argh! BILL: Two, one, engines cutoff. MALLOCK: Crap. How much g-force was it? BILL: 1,2g at peak. GENANAND: Never thought Kerbin's gravity would be too much to handle. MALLOCK: Don't worry, Vall's surface gravity is only 0.235g. Besides, asteroids after this are going be a breeze. *** BILL: 35 meters. 30 meters. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Cease in communication will occur in 5 minutes. JEB: You better wait with an EVA until we make a full orbit and the communication is established again. BILL: 10 meters. Five. Three. Engines cutoff – contact! We've landed! SAS offline. Mallock, could you do a visual inspection while I'm prepping the LAMGML for an emergency ascent? MALLOCK: Sure thing. Let's see... GENANAND: And? MALLOCK: Wow. It's so much… smoother than Duna or Mun. Or Moho. Or even Dres. GENANAND: It's an icy mun after all, professor. MALLOCK: There are some geologic features scattered around, probably boulders or remnants of the meteorites. The landing site is in a perfect position to check all of them in near vicinity without taking too much risk during EVA. Oh my, this is going to be so great! Think about the data we'll gather! BERTY v.2.0.8b: Cease in communication will occur in 3 minutes. JEB: Bill? Wait with the EVA – confirm. BILL: Okay “Proteusâ€Â, we will wait. And Jeb? JEB: Yes? BILL: You're no longer the only one who landed on Vall. JEB: And I have no problem with this. Be patient and be careful and wait for us before attempting EVA. *** BILL: Breathtaking. JEB: The view? BILL: No – the horizon. To stand on a solid surface and feel the pull of gravity after all these months JEB: Don't you mean it literally? BERTY's telling my that your heartbeat- BILL: I'm feeling great, really. Are you ready? GENANAND: Almost. MALLOCK: We'll be out there in a minute, captain. BILL: Fine with me. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Oxium level 98%. JEB: What are you doing? I told you to wait for them before you- BILL: Relax, Jeb. :heavy breathing: I'll just finish the formalities. JEB: Bill, you promised me you'll wait. Being out there alone is too dangerous, if you trip over you can break something. BERTY, help me with him. BERTY v.2.0.8b: Commander is right. After experiencing microgravity for a long period of time not only muscles but bones as well are weakened. Effects similar to osteoporosis were observed in all crew members. Beside spaceflight osteopenia and balance disorders, the immune system is weakened too. This combine with decreased red blood cells production and putting too much stress on cardiovascular system may lead to- BILL: It's just a damn flag, for Kod's sake. JEB: Bill, stop it right now or I swear I'll come down there and kick your sorry old- BILL: Done! It's done. :heavy breathing: The flag is planted. BILL: :heavy breathing: JEB: How are you feeling? BILL: A little dizzy. JEB: Bill... BILL: But I'm fine, really! BERTY v.2.0.8b: Oxium level 97%. JEB: You take one more step without Genanand and Mallock by your side and you're gonna regret this. BILL: I'll wait, I'll wait. :heavy breathing: Oh boy - I'm here. I'm really here and I'm walking on the surface of the mun of Jool. JEB: What did I say about walking? BILL: Metaphorically speaking. :heavy breathing: Hell. :heavy breathing: All what we went through – being here makes it all worth it. *** MISSION STATUS ***

Just passing by to reply to that. The change allow for other mods to query FAR part for different info inflight. The one I have working now is control surface torque, but more will/should come. BUT this code won't come to MJ fast since I need to add some code changes (hooks) into MJ so we don't have to maintain a separate MJ+FAR dll. If you want to talk with me more about FAR support in MJ come to the MJ thread, no need to fill this one

I think the current way the Daily Kerbal does things is pretty shallow. A plug for one mod? That would take, what, a short look at the add-on forum, and five minutes to write? Mods evolve and appear so fast, it would be nice if they could talk about a few mods at a time, and offer a bit more opinion on what's been happening with them. A few paragraphs at least would be nice. Sure, the guy probably has other work he needs to do, but a little more wouldn't hurt.

I just had a cool idea. A KRAK KMP server. Imagine that. I have no expectation it will happen, but you know it seems the more we talk about it it only makes it worse to live without it +1 is you get the quote.

Long-term Laythe - Part 20 Vall Venture - Part 7 Desdin As long as there's nothing interesting going on in the Jool system, let's check up on Desdin, our plucky colonist on Eve. Just kidding. But also not kidding...since our story actually started with Desdin on Eve. The boys at KSC recently sent him a new mobile base (a duplicate flight article of the Laythe Base 2, but refitted for Eve). It's so much easier to go to Eve than to Jool... the Nuclear Tug only used the fuel from its rear drop tank to get the ship into Eve orbit and positioned for the drop to Desdin. Below we see the base entering Eve's atmosphere. The new base was needed because of changes in the terrain on Eve that made the lake Desdin was camped near disappear... and that was a shock to him when he woke up from a couple-week-long meditation trance, let me tell you. It was also just time to send Desdin some more consumables, improved recycling systems, and new scientific equipment. Below, the base settles to the surface of Eve on its landing legs (to protect the wheels). These were the hefty old-style legs...not the mushy ones the contractor provided KSC in the most recent order. After landing, the legs were retracted, and the base drove down to the lakeshore of the largest remaining lake in the region. Desdin hopped into his Fido rover and sped the 89 kilometers to his new lakeshore residence. It's also closer to the highest elevation mountains in the region (which is important because whatever caused the lakes to disappear also caused the slumping of the previous high-elevation site that was to eventually be used to drop a lander to return Desdin to Kerbin, should he ever desire to leave Eve). But the whole point of this is that Desdin has been spending a lot more time being active on Eve and less time in his meditation trances... and part of his regular set of experiments is to observe Kerbol. Thus it was Desdin who first spotted the unusually large outbreak of sunspot activity, and he was able to warn Kerbal Space Center about this in a timely fashion. As we can see from the diagram below, Eve was located on the opposite side of Kerbol from Jool and Kerbin, and this allowed Desdin to give KSC a heads up about the developing magnetic anomaly two days before the superspot region rotated into view from Kerbin. Kerbol rotates with a period of 5 (Earth) days, in case you are wondering. Minmus The boys at KSC sent out warnings about increased activity on Kerbol to its deep space explorers in the Jool system, but their more immediate concern when the growing superspot region came into view was for the six astronauts on Minmus moonbase. Commander Nedmy Kerman was ordered to perform an emergency evacuation of the moonbase and return all crew to Kerbin in the minimum possible time, using any fuel needed and expending equipment as required. Below, the crew scrambled onto the ladders of the Fido Mini 2 for the 2.7 km dash to the Landers. NOTE: For this exercise, I gave myself a time limit in which I had to return the crew to beneath Kerbin's atmosphere before a hail of high energy particles would come sleeting into the Kerbin system to impinge on the hulls of their ships, screeching to a halt and dumping energy in the form of Bremsstrahlung X-rays that would rip to tatters all sorts of important organic molecules inside our jolly little kerbals. As you may know, it typically takes about two days to go from Minmus to Kerbin... but I figured that with some delays in recognizing the danger posed by the expanding superspot region, and delays caused by bureaucratic intertia, I gave myself a deadline of 12 hours. And if some cute little kerbals had to be fried dead in the interest of making an exciting narrative for our Jool mission, then so be it. Whoa! Once they knew I was serious, the moonbase crew headed off to the Landers. Oh, look: an ancient RCS-powered rover...how quaint. But that baby can move on the frozen lake flats of Minmus, and it got the crew to the Landers in a matter of minutes. The Landers were located away from the moonbase to decrease lag...er...to decrease the danger of landing accidents damaging the moonbase...but Mission Controllers may want to re-think that policy. First into Moon Lander 1 were Merfred, Rodgan, and Dilger Kerman. And here we see why I'm actually fairly confident I may be able to save our little green explorers from the approaching storm of ionization radiation: These general purpose Moon Landers were designed to work on both Minmus AND the Mün with capacity to spare, so they have a metric shipload of fuel on board: three Rockomax X200-16 tanks, currently filled to 89% capacity. Oh how the Press scoffed at the wastefulness of using such overpowered landers on Minmus.... but this excess fuel is the only thing that might save our kerbals' bacon. Below, Moon Lander 1 lifts off. There was no leisurely boosting into orbit and plotting an efficient Trans-Kerbol-Injection maneuver. Merfred just pointed the ship somewhat left of Kerbin and kicked the Poodle up to full power. "Somewhat left" was to kill off Minmus's orbital velocity...but most of the fuel was burned heading right at Kerbin...or slightly to the side of it for an atmospheric entry with a targeted periapsis of around 23 km. And all the fuel was burned, except for 100 units or so, in case a course correction was needed. The ship streaked away from Minmus with a speed of over 3200 m/s at engine cutoff, as the angry face of Kerbol watched on. As soon as I had the Moon Lander 1 on course, Nedmy, Milski, and Rodmy Kerman repeated the maneuver in Moon Lander 2, leaving Minmus at about the same velocity. Below, Moon Lander 1 plummeting toward Kerbin's atmosphere. The speed was over 4,000 m/s before entry... but the Mk1-2 capsule has shown it can stand up to faster speeds than that on some interplanetary returns I've done. The side tanks were separated, and then the center tank was dropped, and all the parts put on a nice show of reentry flames. The capsule landed safely in some foothills. The total time from evacuation alert to landing on Kerbin: 4 hours and 9 minutes. Well! Even I was impressed. Moon Lander 2 came burning in 20 minutes later, and made a safe landing in the ocean. I was planning on replacing these old Landers with new, more efficient models, but I don't think those would have gotten the crews back in such a short time. Maybe Minmus Moonbase will get a single high-speed escape ship that's kept close to the base, and smaller, more efficient landers for the regular duty of shuttling passengers between the surface and orbit. After studying the superspot region for another day, the kerbol-astronomers predicted there might be some magnitude 5 eruptions, so the warning was passed on to the explorers in the Jool system. So the sudden spreading of the superspot region and massive ejections of magnitude 9 or 10 sort of took them by surprise. As Kerbin was lashed by the initial bursts of high energy particles, wreaking havoc with radio communications and power grids, the boys at KSC tried to send a warning to the Vall Expedition. Use all the antennas! Redline the transmitters! But would the warning get through? Vall Which, of course, takes us up to the end of the last episode, when our heroines on Vall did indeed receive the warning. The safest place to be in the Jool system if a huge coronal mass ejection hits is on Laythe, under its 0.8-bar atmosphere. Laythe is located deep in Jool's radiation belts, to be sure, but unlike the surfaces of the Jovian moons such as Io and Europa in our solar system, which have negligible atmospheres, the surface of Laythe is protected by its surprisingly thick atmosphere that can stop the high energy electrons, protons, and small numbers of heavier nuclei in their tracks. But can our heroines reach the safety of Laythe's surface in time? So let's discuss the time limit I set for myself before our valiant Vall explorers would become irradiated corpses. Coronal Mass Ejections from our Sun travel at an averge speed of 500 km/s...but they can be as fast as 3,000 km/s. Yes, that's KILOMETERS per second. The distance from Kerbin to Jool can be found using all the other wonderful data about the Kerbol system in the Kerbal Celestials section of the Wiki (http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Category:Celestials), and it works out that a super-high-speed ejection could cross that distance in a little over 5 hours. Looks grim. But the superspot region (currently spewing bursts of high energy particles at Kerbin) won't be pointed at Jool until Kerbin rotates another 26 degrees...and that takes 8.33 hours. So...over 13 hours total. But I've said the superspot region is spreading...so knock off a bit for that. Let's call it 12 hours until irradiation hell time. That was enough time for our boys on Minmus... but I often spend DAYS dicking around getting ships to encounter moons after an aerocapture at Jool. But 12 hours it is. The die is cast. Hellou: "Emi! I'm in and strapped down!" Emilynn: "Standby, Chickadee. The station is around the back right now. We have to wait for 30 minutes before it's in position so I can boost." Hellou: "Ah. OK. I'm unstrapping...I'm going to recheck the equipment and sample stowage since we have time. Give me a five-minute warning before we need to boost." Emilynn: "Roger." Kurt: "Laythe Base to Vall Lander. Laythe Base to Vall Lander." Emilynn: "Hey there, Jaymak. We may be coming to visit. But I'm too busy right now to chat." Kurt: "Hawk...We have been monitoring the emergency transmissions from KSC before they went off the air. Thombples and Aldner are computing possible transfer orbits for you now." Emilynn: "Well bless their little hearts, Jaymak! The navi-comp here tells me I won't get a window to Laythe for 12 hours, and I haven't had time yet to convince it otherwise." Kurt: "Roger, Hawk. We don't think there's time to wait for and perform a standard Hohmann transfer. We are looking at faster options. We have the specs for your ship, but please confirm: is your Tug fully fueled? Are you planning on carrying your lander along?" Emilynn: "Affirmative on the Tug, Jaymak. Fully fueled. But we will not bring the Lander, just the Vall Station. OK, this takes a load off my mind...I'll concentrate on the boost and rendezvous for now." Kurt: "Roger. Good luck, Hawk." Thirty minutes after the clock started ticking, Emilynn fired the engines of the Vall Lander and headed for space. Below is the plot showing the liftoff and rendezvous maneuver. The solid trajectory shows the result of the initial burn that placed the Lander's apoapsis on the 165 km orbit of the Vall Station. Then the maneuver node was added and tweaked to get the intercept shown (0.2 km separation). At the intercept point, Emilynn burned to match velocities with the Station. This was not one of those nice, sedate docking maneuvers. Instead it was: blast toward the Station at what would normally be considered unsafe speeds...brake...use RCS fuel like it's going out of style...and slam the ships together at over twice the speed I normally use. The result? Emilynn had the ships docked 43.5 minutes after zero time. And remember: 30 minutes of that was spent sitting on the ground waiting for the Station to pass overhead. Emilynn: "Chickadee, we are docked. Transfer over to the Station. Take only what you can carry in one trip. I'm setting the Lander for remote control. All your samples will stay safe and happy in the fridge until we or somebody else comes back to collect them." Hellou: "Roger. Heading over now." Emilynn: "Vall Station to Laythe Base. We are docked. Talk to me, boys. What trajectory have you got for me?" Kurt: "Damn, you rock, Hawk! You have 40 minutes before first burn opportunity. Let me know when you are in the Station control module and ready to receive data." Emilynn: "I'm already moving, Jaymak. Chickadee, you can have 20 minutes to make additional transfers of anything you want." Hellou: "Roger, Emi. Thanks." Below, Hellou transfers a second set of samples to the Vall Station habitat module. Emilynn: "Hawk to Jaymak. I'm in place and systems are all green. Show me what you have." Kurt: "Sending to your Navi-comp now. You'll fire straight retrograde from Vall, and drop in for a fast lap around Jool at a 2500 km periapsis, then out to Laythe for aerocapture." Emilynn: "OK, I see the figures. Is this as fast as you've got? How about if I burn retrograde and KEEP burning retrograde until I start heading the other direction and meet Laythe coming around the other way." Kurt: "That's a crazy idea, Hawk. But Aldner already thought of it and ran the figures. It would be faster, and your ship would barely have enough fuel to do it, but the aerocapture at Laythe would smash you at over 80 Gs." Emilynn: "Roger, Jaymak. I'll go your way. Can we cut some time on the other side burning toward Laythe? This maneuver will leave me with lots of fuel." Kurt: "It wouldn't save a lot of time, and the aerocapture would get worse. We'll look into it." With Hellou and her samples safely strapped down, Emilynn separated the Vall Lander from the station and moved away. The burn for Laythe took place when the Station was approaching the spot on its orbit right under Jool. Unnoticed in the background was an occultation of Tylo by Laythe. Below, the burn for Laythe continues under the malevolent gaze of Kerbol. Below, the Vall Station successfully on its trajectory to Laythe. If you haven't noticed already, I'm using my favorite Conic Draw Mode 0, so the encounter line showing the projected path past Laythe is drawn over where Laythe is NOW, and not where it will be at the time of the encounter. This could have been a much shorter trip if only Laythe had been in the right spot to meet Vall Station when it first crossed its orbit...but a better alignment of the moons was just not in the cards for making it a very short trip...and waiting for a better alignment would have taken more time than this trajectory. Laythe Meanwhile, over at Laythe Base in the early dawn, the boys are taking a snack break now that they'd done what they could to help our heroines on their way. Aldner: "OK, Cap'n Orbit, now that we have a time for a breather, explain what's going on. You roll me out of bed at Oh-Dark-Hundred to help you calculate trajectories...how serious is this kerbol-flare thing?" Thompbles: "We will be OK here on Laythe because of the atmosphere, but the Vall crew was exposed in the vacuum of Vall, so their best hope is to get here before the mass ejection hits." Aldner: "Won't Jool's magnetic field deflect the blast?" Thompbles: "Mostly, but the plasma of a BIG mass ejection can compress Jool's magnetosphere and raise the energies of its radiation belts a lot." Aldner: "What do you mean by 'BIG'?" *Thombles picks up the creme-filled snack cake that Aldner was about to eat* Thompbles: "Well, let's say this Kwinkie represents the normal amount of particle energy in Jool's radiation belts. According to the predictions for this mass ejection, it would be a Kwinkie 35 feet long weighing approximately 600 pounds." *Aldner coughs* Kurt: "That's a big Kwinkie. Reference!" Aldner: "Wait... What about Nelemy? He was planning on flying back here to Laythe Base later today." *Thompbles switches on the transmitter* Thompbles: "Laythe Base calling BirdDog 3. Nelemy, come in. Laythe Base calling BirdDog 3. Nelemy, do you copy?" Nelemy: "Dude! It's like the middle of the freakin' night. What's up?" Thompbles: "There is probably a huge Kerbol mass ejection heading toward the Jool system. The Vall Expedition crew is on their way to Laythe trying to beat it. You should stay on Aldner Island until this blows over." Nelemy: "What? Dude, no! I want to come home and meet the girls!" Thompbles: "Nelemy, we don't know when this will hit, but it will probably be a big one." Aldner: "Tell him about the Kwinkie." Nelemy: "What about the Kwinkie??" Kurt: "Reference!" Nelemy: "Look, Dudes...if the Vall girls are flying over here, I easily have enough time to make it back. I can leave right away! I'm all fueled up and everything!" Thompbles: "OK. You know the VanAllen meter that's installed in your cockpit?" Nelemy: "Yeah, Dude. I have that thing turned off. It's always making clicking noises when I'm at high altitude. Makes me uneasy, Dude." Thompbles: "Well, turn it on. What reading does it say now?" Nelemy: "Hold on. Um...it says '5'... is that good?" Thompbles: "Leave it on while you are flying here. When you are at 10 or 11K, you are above most of the atmosphere, and it reads higher because of that." Nelemy: "Dang right, Dude. It's normally at 150 or so. And making those spooky clicking noises." Thompbles: "Yes, well it will probably be higher, now. A few hundred is OK, but if it jumps up to over 1000, I want you to dive for the deck as fast as you can, and then stay below 500 meters." Nelemy: "Dude...I'll get lousy fuel efficiency down there." Thompbles: "That's fine. You probably have enough. Land on an intervening island if you have to. But stay down low. If you'll do that, then you can come back now." Nelemy: "OK, Dude! I promise!" So Nelemy took off from Aldner Island, heading east, and climbed to 11,000 meters, listening to the annoying meter click its way up to a reading of 250. Sorry about the dark images... Normally I try to avoid a lot of night shots, but I didn't have a lot of choice in this mission. Below, Nelemy climbed rapidly at 2/3 throttle. Did I ever mention how much I like the changes to the engines so that they have those nice glows in their nozzles? The devs did a great thing when they added that a couple releases ago. I wonder if any devs read my little stories... if so, great job, guys! Unfortunately we lost the cheery engine glow once Nelemy throttled down to 1/3 for his cruise. The flight to Laythe Base was pretty dull, actually, with no scenery to look at. But eventually Jool and the rosy light of dawn poked above the eastern horizon. Well, I assume it's a rosy glow (I'm colorblind). Dawn comes a little later than it should at Laythe Base because we have to wait until Kerbol rises above Jool, which permanently sits on the eastern horizon from that location. Nelemy landed safely and not heavily radiated. But he WAS heavily annoyed that he used 98 units of fuel to get from Aldner Island back to Laythe Base, so he again failed to beat Aldner's fuel usage record of 93 units for the same run. Aldner: "Nelemy has landed and says he's going to GasStation 2 to refuel." Thompbles: "Good. Now is actually the worst time of day to be flying if the mass election hits." Aldner: "Why? Kerbol is behind Jool right now, so shouldn't the planet protect us?" Thompbles: "Well, not only does the mass election compress the sunward side of Jool's magnetic field, the plasma stream also drags out the opposite side of the magnetosphere far away from Jool. When that happens, magnetic reconnection in the magnetic tail can accelerate charged particles back toward the planet. This scientific paper I'm reading says the power levels could reach 1.21 times 10 to the twelfth Watts." Aldner: "One point twenty-one Gigawatts!?" Kurt: "Reference!" Aldner: "Kurt, why do you keep saying that?" Kurt: "Um...I'm not sure. Sorry." Thompbles: "No, it's one point twenty-one TERAwatts...that's a thousand times more." Kurt: "Well, we sure are learning a lot about the interactions of kerbol mass ejections with magnetospheres from this event." Thompbles: "Just part of my job." The boys pass a tense Laythe day and then into the next Laythe night as the Vall Station rounds Jool and heads toward its encounter with Laythe, not yet fried. Emilynn already pumped fuel from the Tug's tanks up into the tanks surrounding the Habitat module to provide more radiation shielding for Hellou, just in case. Vall Station Emilynn: "Chickadee, I want you to transfer over to the escape capsule now before we reach Laythe." Hellou: "Are we not going to take the whole Station Habitat-lander down?" Emilynn: "No...we'll use the capsules. Once this things blows over, if we can borrow some fuel from the boys on Laythe, we could potentially return to Vall and finish our mission. But if we take the whole Vall Station-lander down, we are stuck until a return ship gets sent from Kerbin, and they may decide the mission is over." Hellou: "Why do you need me in the capsule now?" Emilynn: "After aerocapture, I'll need to wait to circularize the orbit. Right after I circularize, you'll be able to separate and head down to the surface right away. I'll have to button things up as fast as possible and then get to the other capsule...so there will be less to worry about if I know you are already taken care of." Hellou: "OK, if you say so. I'll transfer now." Emilynn: "Good. Read the manual to refresh your memory on how to fly the capsule. It will be just like in the simulators." Hellou: "I wish I had paid more attention to those simulator runs. I never expected we'd have to do this under rushed circumstances." Below, we see the Vall Station's icon approaching Laythe along a hyperbolic path...but properly targeted at the right periapsis for aerocapture. The Vall Station hit Laythe's atmosphere traveling at about 3,500 m/s, which is faster than my normal Laythe encounters, but the deceleration was only a few Gs. Emilynn didn't wait until apoapsis to pull the ships periapsis out of the atmosphere, but made a burn with a radial component as the ship was approaching the terminator line. Emilynn: "OK, Chickadee, go! I'll get to my capsule now." Hellou: "Roger...separating." *warning alarm* Hellou: "Emi...somethings wrong. I'm getting lots of warning lights. Main Bus undervolt. No control." Emilynn: "Damn! What does your battery indicator read? Let me get back to the monitor panel." Kurt: "Hawk! This is Jaymak. I have a good telemetry lock on Chickadee's capsule, and I see the problem. I'll handle this. Get to your own capsule." Emilynn: "Arrgh. Roger, Jaymak. But if you fumble my Chickadee, I'll kick your ass!" Kurt: "Agreed. Chickadee, the telemetry shows that your power system is fine, but you probably just had a control system glitch on separation. Try setting SCE to Aux." Hellou: "SCE to Aux? What's that?" Kurt: "It's on the panel to the lower left of the seat." Hellou: "Roger. SCE to Aux. OK! the warning lights are cleared. But I still have no attitude control!" Kurt: "Chickadee, stay calm. We have whole minutes to get you lined up for retro burn. Remember to set your hand controller switch to ENABLE." Hellou: "Oh! Yeah, sorry. OK...responding now. I'm getting lined up on the retro indicator." Kurt: "Good job. On my mark, you'll need a 5 second burn at full power. We'll make corrections after we see what the IMU predicts for your landing coordinates." Below, Hellou makes her retro burn on time and at the correct attitude. (I forgot to put any MechJeb units, which I usually rely on to help me target precision landings, on these emergency capsules...so I had to fall back to my old methods of targeting the ship in for a landing on Dansen Island by aiming for a certain point beyond Mariliza Island...and the icon of the flag Nelemy had planted there was invaluable while doing this, since Dansen was in darkness. But I've had a lot of trial and error experience in where to target the landing point of capsules coming in to Dansen Island.) Kurt: "Chickadee, your landing point looks good. Remember to separate your retro pack before entry. I won't be able to remind you when the entry ionization hits. Deploy your parachute above 2000 meters." Hellou: "Roger, Jaymak. Thanks for the help." Aldner: "Hawk...We don't show any indication that your capsule has separated. Is there a problem?" Emilynn: "No problem Buzz. I was just monitoring Chickadee's entry. I'll go around and bring my capsule in on the next orbit." Thompbles: "Aldner...send her landing data for Aldner Island and Fredoly Island landings just in case the radiation levels spike before she comes back around." Aldner: "Already on it, Boss Man." Again, sorry about the nighttime images, but that's because of the timing constraints of the mission. Below we see Hellou's capsule passing through the entry fire with her retro pack leading the way. Hellou's parachute was good, and she came in for a successful landing about 7 km from Laythe Base. Total time from GO: 10 hours and 9 minutes. She was down safe under Laythe's atmosphere within the time limit. Back at Laythe Base, Thompbles scrambled Nelemy to the rover to go out and pickup Hellou. It turns out that the Fido's batteries are not really up to making a mad dash of that distance in the dark, so Nelemy had to stop for a couple minutes along the way to let the RTGs recharge the batteries. But he got to the capsule and, much to his delight, had the honor of meeting the first female kerbal on Laythe. Hellou: "Hi, Nelemy! Thanks for coming to get me. Do you know if Emilynn is OK?" Nelemy: "Oh, sure, Dude...ette...er...Hellou. She's just coming around. It won't take long. I'll drive you to the base now, Du...Hellou." Hellou: "OK. I'll get in the hab module in the back." Nelemy: "The what?" Hellou: "Oh...your Fido is different...OK, I'll get in the rear cockpit." Nelemy turned the rover around and headed back to base. Hellou: "Hey, we just passed a boulder!" Nelemy: "Um, sure...um, Hellou. Lots of rocks in the hills here." Hellou: "Can we stop? No...nevermind. I'll have time later." Nelemy: "Sure thing, Du...Hellou." Hellou: "Nelemy, you can call me Dude if it makes you happier." Nelemy: "Oh, hey...thanks, Dude!" Below, Hellou climbs into Laythe Base Up in orbit, Emilynn EVA'd over to the remaining landing capsule. (OK...the whole thing about Hellou's problem with her capsule was just to provide a reason why Hellou and Emilynn didn't both enter and land at once, since I can't do that in KSP. But I promise I won't let her fry because of the extra orbit.) Emilynn separated the capsule and prepared for retro burn. The map view below shows Emilynn's entry trajectory, targeted out to about twice the distance from the Fido Bay area to the flag on Mariliza island. The black dot against Jool in the entry image is her jettisoned retro pack. She landed about two kilometers beyond Hellou's capsule. Total time from GO to safe under atmo: 10 hours and 56 minutes. Emilynn: "Hey, boys! Nice planet you got here. Where's my limo service? It's not polite to keep a lady waiting." Kurt: "Nelemy is on his way, Hawk. He should be there in a few minutes. Assuming he doesn't get lost." Emilynn: "Thankie, Jaymak. Ah...here he comes now." Emilynn: "Hey there, Nelemy. Nice to meet ya! Thanks for picking me up. How about a big hug!" Nelemy: "Oh..." *squeezed* "Uh, thanks, Emilynn Dude. The other guys are always weirded out when I try to give them hugs." Emilynn: "Ah, they're just insecure in their dudehood. Let's go see this base of yours!" Nelemy: "Sure, hop in, Dude. Um...we have some boulders along the way." Emilynn: "Yeah? Well careful not to hit 'em! Oh, hey...a full set of driving controls in back here as well! Let me try out your wheels, Nelemy." Nelemy: "Um...sure..." So Nelemy and Emilynn returned to Laythe Base, and all six kerbals had a celebratory dinner that couldn't be beat. About an hour after Emilynn landed, Thompbles popped up to the Control Module to check on communications with KSC. Thompbles: "Hey boys and girls, I don't mean to interrupt the party, but you may want to step outside to see an amazing sight." So the crew went out for a look... Nelemy: "DUDES!" Emilynn: "Yeah...that about sums it up. All I can say is that I'm happy to be down here with you guys." The Following Did NOT Happen: For anybody who thought I was a weenie for not trying the Retrograde Route to Laythe, here's the maneuver plot below. This is what you get if you do a very long retrograde burn at Vall that brings the ship to a complete stop and heads off in the retrograde direction around Jool. The fully fueled Nuclear Tug has enough delta-V to handle this with a little fuel to spare for course corrections and some orbital maneuvers at Laythe. Below, thanks to the power of f5/f9 replay, we see the Vall Station making the big retrograde burn. This is a very long burn (almost 26 minutes), and you can see from the orbit plot that the ship has to start firing well before the maneuver node, and its trajectory deviates a long way from the original 165 km orbit, dropping to a periapsis of 73 km before pulling away from Vall. The kicker, of course, comes when the ship reaches Laythe, which is orbiting around Jool in the opposite direction, so that they meet head-on at over 7,300 m/s. You can see in the second image that the G meter is pegged. When I was plotting the aerobraking, MechJeb was listing maximum expected G forces between 60 and 100 Gs. That might seem like nothing to you guys who regularly come burning into the Jool system at interplanetary speeds with a direct aerobraking at Laythe, but it makes me cringe. Anyway, below we see the capsule containing the alternate timeline Hellou (or maybe containing Hellou-flavored jam) descending onto Laythe. Total time from GO to safe landing on Laythe: almost exactly 8 hours. Because it appeared that I was going to make it in under the deadline with the prograde route, I went that way instead.