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After exploring Cercani, the agency prepares to aim for the next destination: Nova Kirbani C, a small red dwarf orbiting far out from the binary pair, with 4 planets detected. The mission specialists selected are: Takane Kerman - Chief Pilot: A kerbal with a rather grounded history, she proved her spacial navigation skills inside virtual reality before getting a career at mission control plotting trajectories for probes, including the ships hauling fusion fuel from the outer system. Rayleigh Layman - Chief Scientist: Famous for being the first kerbal born on Laythe, she comes from a corporate outpost set up for prestige before the colonization wave even began. The transition to self sufficiency during her childhood inspired her interest in planetary science Polta Kerman - Chief Engineer: A specialist in fusion technology that oversaw the 3He mining operation around Urlum, he gathered a loyal following back on Kerbin for his series of introspective music, often released in conjunction with the arrival of the 3He shipment Katya Kerman - Second in Science: Hailing from a less developed region of Kerbin, she managed to score an apprenticeship with one of the best scientists on the continent, thus becoming a renowned scientists in the field of stellar wind interactions 16 other kolonists to oversee ground operations Part 1: Planetfall HMS Tempos of Wind Chimes lifts off from the Mun Passing through the glare. Due to a miscalculation the ship ended up with much tighter margins than expected. Some deltaV saving manuvers will be needed. Gravity braking off Sian, the third planet in the system Gravity breaking around your destination is tricky, as you cant change your speed relative to it, only a third body. Instead you must burn at apoapsis to raise your periapsis back to the planets orbit, to encounter it tangentially, thus limiting the normal component of your capture burn relative to the star. About 2/3rds of deltaV can be saved this way if you fly well. Weather this is worth it is another question., as while the capture went from 1400 to 300, another 1100 must be spent to get to low orbit, so the total saving is less than half This little asteroid moon of Sian provides an amazing view of the icy planet bellow Exploring on a lawn chair A mining ship is constructed to source raw materials, as the starship only carries the minimum amount required. The onboard factory and orbital shipyard will turn the ore into material kits. It will also top up the starship with hydrogen as the afterburning mode is much more efficient at conserving fusion fuel Probing Sian. So it turns out the atmospheres in this mod are complete nonsense. I had to rebuild the atmo configs from scratch for this one especially Leaving Sian Trying the same gravity break, this time it wasnt as efficient but the ship is bleeding mass from converting ore to fertilizer so the longer transfer added some deltaV Passing by Narath. While the presence of oxygen is a strong biosignature, the planet is a lot more bleak that it was hoped for. The very thin atmosphere combined with the frequent flares of its parent star restrict life to the oceans, which are slightly greenish Entering low orbit and preparing to deploy the colony. Also is should point out this planet is the buggiest ive ever seen, with bugs i didnt even think were possible Observing the rock formations. For some reason these things are very laggy so ill have to disable them Planetfall. A crumple zone was used on the underside to allow landing with just parachutes with the help of lithobreaking. This will serve as habitat until a large one can be built The colony. Since the planet is tidally locked, solar arrays can provide constant power, even if a mod i cant find is causing them to only output a third of their power when the sun is low in the sky. Does anyone know how to fix that? Time to resupply the starship so it can visit the other planets To be continued... ✶●●● ●

Recently, Breakthrough Starshot tested 6 Sprites in orbit around Earth. For those who don't know, these tiny 4-gram probes (sometimes called Star Chips) are planned to go to the Alpha Centauri and Proxima systems, being accelerated by light bouncing off huge graphite "sails". They would travel at 20% light speed, reach their targets in 20 years, and send their data back on a 4-year trip to Earth. While there was quite a lot of planning for these things, none have been officially tested until now. Based on the article, it seems like this test was to see how the tiny interstellar probes work in the vacuum of space and how well they connect/transmit data to each other. It was reported that all Spites were "performing as designed". http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/prototype-star-chips-called-sprites-are-being-tested-in-orbit-ahead-of-a-proposed-visit-to-alpha-centauri/news-story/211d7e4b2db9d124e619a6b1c38689ab Finally, after years of waiting, humanity is making its first big step on the road to interstellar travel.

So recently, the ESO confirmed the existence of an Earth-mass planet around our nearest star, the midgety red dwarf Proxima Centauri. Because of how monumental this discovery is, it's only fitting to give Proxima b a name. What do you think it should be named? Also, since there appears to be at least one other hard-to-detect planet in the system, what should other planets orbiting Proxima be named? I like to call Proxima b Feronia, after the Roman goddess of the Earth, nature, health, and fertility. Since this system is so close to us, I feel like giving it the Greco-Roman naming convention we use for our solar system.

It's about time!!!! We're FINALLY doing a detailed search for potentially habitable exoplanets around our closest neighbor (Other than the sun), Proxima Centauri!!! The observing will take about 2 months and will use the Doppler method to find them. Youtube video Website Twitter (Use the # Pale Red Dot) Facebook Yay!!! June 19th, 2017, ESO has launched a second campaign to search for planets around Barnard's star, and Ross 154! As well as continuing the search for additional planets around Proxina centauri.