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Kerbal Space Agency (A very Kerbal history) OOC Introduction: Normally this is the part of the blurb where a writer explains in great detail every mod they are using. I'm not going to do that, but I will list the key mods that I feel make this an interesting play through. (But more on those later.) 'Kerbal Space Agency' a.k.a. 'A very Kerbal history' is a play through of the historic mission pack created by @Whitecat106 by me, @RobertJPowell. Through a series of photo albums (note, currently via direct link until imgur album bug found, squashed and fed to the Space Kraken!), and hopefully interesting and fun to read blurbs, I intend to document Kerbal Space Agency's quest for the stars. Quite how far I will get in this quest, I do not know, but i hope you will come along and join me for the ride. With this little introduction out of the way, I'll now move on to the boring preamble. Key mods list: KCT Settings: Core Game Settings: END boring preamble! Table of Contents: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the beginning: It is the Kerbal year 1950. Following a decade of massive infighting between the kountries and kontinents of the planet Kerbin, peace has finally settled. On the 12th of Docenam 1948, which by chance happened to be a Brant, the 1st kerbernational peace accords were signed, aptly named the Docenam Brant treaty. It turns out that the governments of the planet Kerbin had managed to realize something that most average Kerbals had figured out already, that they were all just little green males and females living on the same small rock, orbiting a big orange thing in the sky, with a little tiny rock orbiting around them. One of the biggest ideas to come from the unilateral peace was the theory that there might just be things out there beyond what the naked Kerbal eyes could see, way out there in the deep, dark inky blackness of space. Almost immediately the greatest scientific and engineering minds on Kerbin began talking and discussing the possibilities of perhaps reaching out, beyond the confines of the tiny planet, out there into the great beyond. The newly formed Transkerbonian Authority took a shining to the idea, and a budget of 1.3 million Kerbits was pledged to fund this great adventure. By 1950, at a total cost (including labour) of 1.2 million Kerbits Wernher Von Kerman Space Centre (referred to from now on as WVKSC) had been completed, and the tiny planet's greatest minds were strategizing and formulating ways of reaching into the inky blackness. (WVKSC, 1950) The team that had been given control over the fledgling space agency were as follows: Gene Hackenbacker and Wernher Von Kerman, crewed and unmanned mission specialists respectively. These two were the hive mind of mission control, with both dedicated to the same goals very early on in the space program. Wernher of course had a much more in-depth role in the early years of course, given that KSA had absolutely no intention of launching manned projects until the space program had proved itself. That being said however, Gene paid very close attention to the performance and reliability of various rockets being used. He would of course need the detailed information garnered from early testing for his own manned programs, if/when they ever got off of the ground. Mortimer Willson, although not very scientifically or technically minded, was a very dab hand at financial matters, having been the CEO of the Bank of Kerbland for 20 years prior to his appointment as Chief of finances. Although he himself had no vested interest in the inky blackness beyond Kerbin, he certainly could not resist the huge pay cheque that KSA was offering. Linus Jones graduated from Kale University with a doctorate in physics. He had been a key member of the team that first cracked the atom, and was awe inspired by just how much energy was produced by doing so. It was probably his paper on 'Nuclear physics of today and tomorrow' that ultimately earned him his place as lead scientist at KSA, a role that would see him liaising very closely with both Gene and Wernher over the coming years. Walt Franks was just your normal average Kerbal until he stumbled upon his previous job quite by accident. Whilst working as a janitor at the KBC (Kerbal Broadcasting Company) in the former Unified Kerbdom head anchor of the 3 O'clock news, Justin Lavery feel violently ill. Walt Franks just happened to be in the right place at the right time. With no chance of finding a replacement anchor, and no Kerbal at the KBC willing to try to step into Justin's shoes, Walt found himself thrust into the limelight, broadcasting live to millions of Kerbals in their own homes. The rest as they say is history. It was probably a combination of his electrifying personality and his ability to be succinct yet entertaining that earned him his spot as chief of public relations for the KSA. The final member of the team, Gus Michaels is the head of operations at WVKSC. Although not strictly a part of the chain of command, his role is no less important than any other member of the team. As the operations chief, he is responsible for the hundreds of staff employed by the KSA as well as the Kerbonaut team. This includes the health and well being of those under him as well as their morale. Gene Hackenbacker even went so far as to say that Gus may well have the most important job in the entirety of the KSA. Throughout the years to come, strategy would play a huge part in how the space program at the KSA would develop. In the early years, the budget would only allow for a small strategy team, managed by Gus himself. This meant only a maximum of three strategies, closely monitored at all times, could be in effect at any given time. It was decided very early on that due to cost constraints, there would only be limited scope in what could be done very early on. Gus, after conferring with both Wernher and Gene settled on just three strategies to begin with: One: The public relations directive, codenamed Free Ice Cream phase I. Free Ice cream phase I would heavily involve Walt Kerman and his team of public relations experts. The general idea was that every kivilian that walked through the doors of WVKSC would be given a free ice cream, on the stick of which was a code that when redeemed at any participating news outlet, would grant the bearer a free 6 month subscription to the monthly KSA news bulletin, a glossy magazine created by Walt's department that detailed what had been happening at WVKSC over the past 30 days. Gus was most impressed when Walt informed him that the whole project could be done for a small budget of just 5,000 Kerbits a month, and an initial setup fee of just 35,000 Kerbits. Of course, that monthly budget was more than any of the early initial costings for space program rockets (not including overtime costs to get builds completed to strict contract deadlines!), but over time, with the press and goodwill generated would probably prove fruitful. After all, the better the agency was doing on the public relations front, the more money the Transkerbonian Authority would be willing to provide to them in the quarterly budget. Two: Scientific endeavours I, code named local Science phase I This strategy involved Gus working very closely with Linus Jones on an appropriate plan of action regarding scientific experimentation. Phase one simply involved a down payment of 5,000 Kerbits from the budget to kick-start the development of new scientific instruments, all of which would need to be trialed at WVKSC to test their validity and performance before being inserted onto expensive probe cores for experimentation out in the big bad world! (and beyond!). This strategy was of course much less glamorous than project Free Ice Cream, but it was no less important. The key deciding factor in implementation though, the cost. All that would have to be paid for on top of the initial outlay of 5,000 Kerbits was the cost of the experiment modules themselves. Two: Scientific endeavours II, code named To Boldly Go phase I To boldly go was more of a Government project rather than a proper strategy. Gus somehow managed to convince the Transkerbonian Authority that paying the KSA Kerbits every time new information was found out about a biome wasn't necessarily a bad idea. The Authority bought the preamble and immediately signed up, though they did state unequivocally that the funding would be limited to just 1.5K Kerbits. Gus was completely fine with this and signed the contract there and then. Wernher thought he could have gotten slightly more but Gus explained that the plan was so audacious he did not want to pus his luck. The greatest of things more often than not are born from the most humblest of beginnings. This is very much the case with regards to the technology at the disposal of the engineering and scientific teams at the KSA. Seen below is a snapshot of the technology tree as it was at the start of the program. Coming next... Meet the initial successful Kerbonaut Program applicants.