The OTC 1.0.4 Edition -- Episode 18: The Kerbin Station Timesink

[B-STRK]

Hey your ships do have a wonderful aesthetic of their own, so I'm agreeing with Kuzzter here. Form does follow function, after all, which means that something which works good, does tend to conform to certain configurations that lean towards sci-fi imaginings. Long way of saying "Yeah, the Ironically-Named Fleet does look good."

Aaaand now you got me researching Massé orbits... which turned out to be a billiards shot. Don't worry, I think I know what you meant by the reference (slow entry into Ike SoI at its polar regions resulting to a high-inclination trajectory through Ike (relative to original trajectory around Duna)... right?)

[Geschosskopf]

Long way of saying "Yeah, the Ironically-Named Fleet does look good."

Thanks. But I put more effort into coming up with those acronym names than actually designing the ships .

Aaaand now you got me researching Massé orbits... which turned out to be a billiards shot. Don't worry, I think I know what you meant by the reference (slow entry into Ike SoI at its polar regions resulting to a high-inclination trajectory through Ike (relative to original trajectory around Duna)... right?)

I have no idea what the proper term is for moving from a polar orbit of one body directly to a polar orbit of another, without any plane changes in between. In fact, there might not be a proper term for it as it might never have been done in real life. But all I'm doing is waiting until the target (if moving from a moon to the central body) or the target's future position (if going from the central body to a moon) lines up with the plane of the polar orbit the ship is currently in, then burning prograde (so pointing up or down) more or less when over the equator of the body I'm currently at. The result is lobbing the ship above or below the equatorial plane of the system, so I'm already in a polar trajectory when I get to the target.

When going above the equatorial plane, this reminds me of tossing a hook shot in basketball. When going below, it reminds me of how you stroke the cue stick vertically down in a Massé pool shot, instead of horizontally for a normal shot. So that's why I give these maneuvers those names. I've found doing such maneuvers considerably less costly in fuel than changing from polar to equatorial, transfering horizontally, then changing back to polar at the target.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 14: The 2nd Duna Expedition Lands

Finally, all the necessary components needed for the 2nd Duna Expedition to land on Duna were in place. DUCCTAPE (which brought the Kerbals) and LLUDDITE (the lander to shuttle them to and from the surface) were docked at DUMBASS. DUMB, which would make fuel for LLUDDITE's ascent, DUFF, which would move the fuel from DUMB to LUDDITE, and DORK, which would find the best landing spots for everything else, had been in 65km orbits for some time. So now the landings started.

First to start down was DORK with its prospecting gear. The SCANsat had already formed a general impression of ore distribution so the Boffins chose a target area in the equatorial Midlands that was conveniently located with respect to both contract objectives and anomalies, as the initial place to send DORK. They weren't too worried if this area turned out ot be a dud because DORK was able to circumnaviage the planet several times on its available fuel. However, the Boffins also knew that somewhere near 7% was the best they could expect for Ore anywhere on the planet, so were fairly confident they'd find such a spot in this region, at about 147^ West.

So, the Boffins made sure DORK's tanks were still full and its control surfaces reactivated, then did a retro burn to come down in the middle of the target area. Simulations had shown that there was almost no change in DORK's trajectory due to drag. Then they undocked the DORK's tug, move it clear, and burned it back to a stable orbit. There it will await future expansion of DUMBASS because right now, it's the only thing in Duna space with a 1.25m docking port . With that done, the Boffins returned their attention to DORK.

During final approach, the Boffins discovered a major problem. None of DORK's action groups were working. The fuel cells (essential for powered flight) could not be operated without tempting the Kraken by opening the cargobay, the engine could not be put into reverse thrust (very important for safe landings), and the many science instruments all had to be worked individually. Not even the ladders would extend. But at least the brakes and gear still worked.

Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. The Boffins were able to use a little reverse thrust by right-clicking on the engine itself but this was out of the question during the actual final landing approach, especially because DORK needed forward thrust available in case it had to go around again. The result was that DORK touched down at nearly 100m/s instead of the normal 50m/s. However, the sound taildragger design, with the CoM well back near the trailing edge of the delta wing, proved its worth, and DORK didn't flip. And the small wheels under the wingtips averted disaster. So, after a very long landing run, going up and over several small dunes, DORK finally came to a safe halt, helped by runnig up the side of a big dune. It shut down its electric prop and fuel cells to conserve fuel.

Then DORK fired up its prospecting tools and had a look around. It had come down at a spot with about 5.5% Ore, but to the east the concentrations reached 7% before falling off again. So, using its powered Firespitter tailwheel, DORK trundled off that way in rover mode, doing about 30m/s or more and floating off the jumps. Eventually, after a drive of about 5^ of longitude, it found a patch of 6.5% in a fairly wide expanse of reasonably flat terrain suitable as a landing zone. The higher concentrations in the area were all on steep slopes. So the Boffins decided this was as good as they could get in this area and called a halt.

DORK noted the coordinates of where it was, then moved a couple hundred meters away so it wouldn't get landed on. And then it was time to bring DUMB down to this spot using MJ. All went well and soon DUMB was in position safe and sound.

This meant it was time to bring down DUFF, the big fuel truck. DUFF lacked any and all descent engines and the only notice it gave the atmosphere was using parachutes---no heat protection at all. So once its transfer stage did the deorbit burn and separated, DUFF was just a ballistic impactor. But the Supernova of '104 had so altered Duna's atmosphere that such landings, which would have been madness before, were now quite possible. The only hard part was trying to land close to a given target.

As it happened, DUFF came down about 12km short of DUMB and DORK, but it hit at 8.5m/s and suffered no damage.

DUFF, powered by fuel cells, was capable of moving about 30m/s in empty condition on DUNA once it got going down a hill, and had no trouble at this speed. However, it took half a county to stop so the Boffins decided to limit speed for most of the trip to just 15m/s. And DUFF lost traction at any more than 2x physical warp, so the trip too quite a while. It was nearly dark when it parked next to DUMB. And with that, the ability to refuel LLUDDITE for its ascent was assured.

Local sundown caused a pause in operations while Duna slowly rotated the LZ back into daylight. Once satisfied with the lighting, the Boffins had DORK drive off in search of another flat area more than 2.3km from DUMB, the accumulated parts of DORK, DUMB, and DUFF having had a negative effect on framerate. DORK eventually found a flat spot about 4.2km away so the Boffins made sure LLUDDITE was topped up with supplies and mono, and its bilges pumped into DUMBASS, then cast it off with Sanie, Meglin, and Kerburry aboard.

LLUDDITE got down with no problems and soon Sanie, Meglin, and Kerburry emerged to plant their flags (although only Sanie's was left up) and do the obligatory science. This completed the Explore Duna contract and also a contract for planting a flag there, for a couple of big paychecks.

Then DORK drove over, the Kerbals got aboard, and they drove back over to DUMB and DUFF.

Once there, Sanie, whose job was to run DUMB and DUFF, set about getting them going. First, she had to move KIS kontainers from their travel position under the drills (for streamlining) to the engines. Then she climbed up to DUMB's cab and got the drills running, a priority as there was a contract to collect 450 units, besides having to refuel LLUDDITE.

So at long last, after much hard work, the OTC is finally getting Ore out of the ground. Yay! Sanie is now (thanks to Field Experience), a Chief Artificersmate (3 stars). With 2 drills running in 6.5% Ore, she was getting about 0.11 Ore/sec. Not too shabby.

While Sanie was so occupied, Kerburry began work on cleaning up DUFF's roof. Armed with his trustry sonic screwdriver, he began salvaging the parachutes which would never be needed again. Salvaging parts results in cool explosions .

Then he disconnected the cubic struts that had been under the chutes and stored them away safely. Can't ever have too many struts .

And there things rested while the Boffins searched for a way to restore DORK's action groups (as in a mod). DORK is grounded until that happens due to the importance of reverse thrust, not having to open the cargobay, and not wanting to have to right-click on all the science instruments individually. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. Tune in next time for the DORK's 1st sortie.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Geschosskopf

[Mister Dilsby]

Excellent set of precision landings! And loving DUFF's descent stage, which looks meaty enough to fling almost anything almost anywhere. Ah, Duna-- a joy to land on, fly over, drive on. Man, I miss Duna sometimes.

[Geschosskopf]

Excellent set of precision landings! And loving DUFF's descent stage, which looks meaty enough to fling almost anything almost anywhere. Ah, Duna-- a joy to land on, fly over, drive on. Man, I miss Duna sometimes.

Thank Sarbian for the landings. That, and MJ not being foxed by Duna's atmosphere, unlike at places like Laythe, for example . Pre-1.x, MJ was spot-on at Laythe, Eve, and Kerbin, but just chased its tail at Duna so all my previous trips there were totally manual landings with mucho retrothrust, way more chutes per ton, and blind luck. I considered it a good job if I could group 3 ships within a 5km-diameter circle . But these days, it's the other way around.

As to Duff, that was actually its transfer stage, the last duty of which was the deorbit burn. It was a Space-Y 5m thing, with a 2-part radial 5m SAS ring on it, and lots of mono tankage for the copious amount of RCS it needed to maneuver the thing in space and keep it straight during ascent. The empty DUFF didn't weigh enough to need a 5m rocket to lift it, but rockets of smaller diameter just wouldn't fly straight pushing DUFF's huge fairing. This is why DUFF was the most expensive ship in this expedition, nearly $400K, despite just being empty fuel tanks on wheels.

BTW, I forgot to put a TAC Self-Destruct on the transfer stage so for a while I was afraid it might hit the ships already on the ground. Fortunately, DUFF came down well short, the engine came down shorter thanks to having been jettisoned towards the surface, and in any case DUFF slowed enough during the descent that the engine exceeded 23km from it and vanished before hitting the ground .

[Geschosskopf]

Update: The Boffins have installed the wonderful Action Groups Extended software. DORK's action groups have been restored. And there was great rejoicing.

NOTE: From reading what this mod does, it seems I know what happened, and it's quite troubling. DORK of course was built in the SPH and saved as a subassembly that I could attach underneath the main body of the lifter I built for it in the VAB. And despite double-checking that all the action groups were assigned properly in the VAB version, because DORK was a subassembly, none of the action groups actually carried over once on the launchpad. Apparently this always happens with subassemblies but Action Groups Extended claims to solve that problem.

HOWEVER, there's another problem. As mentioned previously, I'd also loaded the seats of the VAB DORK with various KAS/KIS stuff: tools, struts, and pipes in the cockpit, and extra EVA fuel and survival ration packs in the passenger section. None of that stuff carried over to launch, either, apparently another form of the same subassembly bug. Aaarrgg!! Fortunately, DUMB brought 2 complete sets of tools and parts just to be safe (I've got a long history of losing critical KAS parts for no apparent reason, all the way back to my 1st Mun mission in 2013). I also put a set in DUFF, but that was built in the SPH as well. However, instead of being a subassembly, I just opened DUFF directly in the VAB and built the rocket under it, so MAYBE that set is still there. I haven't checked yet.

Oh well, nothing ever goes quite as planned in KSP, which is why we play the game

Edited August 13, 2015 by Geschosskopf

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 15: 1st Sortie of the DORK

With the new software loaded and DORK cleared for flight operations, Kerburry and Meglin murmured prayes to the Kraken, fired up the fuel cells and electric motor, and took off.

Their initial objective was to complete a contract for taking temperature scans in flight on either side of Aerobrake Canyon, a location long known to the OTC and the KTC and KaTC before it. The eastern point needed an altitude less than 12.1km, which was never a problem before even for the old D'OH . But the western point needed an altitude of over 12.2km. Prior to the Supernova of '104, this would have required a rocket, but now DORK, which could actually push itself out of the atmosphere if it tried hard enough, would have no trouble with it. In fact, the main trouble was keeping DORK below the 12.1km limit for the 1st target.

Kerburry had to throttle back to about 1/2 to 1/3 throttle to keep the speed below 300m/s (so as not to fly through the target area too fast) and the altitude from getting out of hand. To the Boffins back home, this was totally bizarre. Throttling back when flying Duna?!?!? Worrying about excessive altitude?!?!? How times change. Soon, DORK was approaching the 1st target.

With that objective complete, Kerburry shoved the throttle to the firewall to climb hard and turned (quite easily) towards the 2nd target.

And soon the contract was complete for a total, counting the payments for the 2 objectives, of about $500K. Not a bad mornings work .

The Boffins then directed Kerburry to recon Aerobrake Canyon, the western extremity of this trench. Back in the day, it seemed that nearly every ship that came to Duna aerocaptured at 10-11km right through here, and had always looked dangerously close to the ground. So the Boffins wanted to know if that was an illusion or real. Besides, the bottom of the canyon was Lowlands biome which the Scientists wanted to sample anyway. So killing 2 birds with 1 stone, Kerburry chopped throttle, popped the airbrakes, and coasted down into the canyon.

The pic also shows a display in the Action Groups Extended mod, which optionally colorcodes non-obvious action groups. The Boffins had used this for the status of the internal fuel cells and the reverse thrust of the motor. But it took them a bit to get the hang of setting this up so it wasn't showing anything useful at this moment.

Soon, Kerburry made a good landing despite the slopes and Meglin ran all the experiments, grabbed a handful of sand, and planted a flag. Meanwhile, Kerburry busied himself with the prospecting tools. Then it was off towards home and a low patch of Highlands biome on the way, with the belly-mounted scanner now showing both Midlands and Lowlands resource concentrations.

On the way out of Aerobrake Canyon, Kerburry and Meglin determined that the mountains on either side were about 7500m high and the bottom was at about 150m. Thus, the ships of ancient times had been safe, although it was a powerful illusion that they weren't.

The patch of Highlands on the way home was only about 4500m, not much higher than the Midlands where the base was located. It also proved to be relatively flat, for which all were quite thankful. Kerburry lined up on the flattest area he could see and began his descent. Meglin again did her science and flag thing, Kerburry analized the resources of the Highlands, and soon DORK was on its way home, now able to map Highland concentrations en route as well. But these results verified what had been seen from orbit, that only the Midlands were worth anything.

Soon, the base came into sight amidst the otherwise featureless dune fields. Kerburry began a long, gentle descent from 50km away and didn't bother trying to slow down until 5km out. This was a huge change from the old D'OH, which needed to start slowing down about 25km from its landing zone .

After an uneventful landing stopping about 500m from base, Kerburry and Meglin were safely back in LLUDDITE. They had been gone only about 1.5 hours but had traversed the equivalent of about 1/3 of Duna's circumference there and back. The trip had consumed about 15% of DORK's fuel. This was a bit higher than expected and was attributed to not using high-altitude supercruise at all. But this was more of a test flight and the Boffins plan to be more aggressive in future flights.

Meanwhile, Sanie had been running DUMB's drills and had accumulated the 450 units of Ore required for another contract. That put another $500K in the bank. $1M in a morning, not bad at all . This also finished all contracts the 2nd Duna Expedition had set out to do, the return from an Ike flyby having been, somewhat surprisingly, snagged by Ansen in DISCO a while before. Even though he'd actually orbited Ike, and the contract had been accepted after he'd done that. Oh well, now 2DE was free to explore Duna without worrying about money (unless something else came along).

Anyway, with the Ore coming in, Sanie began converting it into LFO and hooked a pipe up to DUFF to start filling it up. She only dropped and destroyed 2 pipe end pieces in the process. Good thing DUMB had a lot on board.

So now it's about local noon at the 2nd Duna Expedition's base. There's time for another DORK trip before it gets dark there (probably) so tune in next time to see where they go.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Geschosskopf

[Cydonian Monk]

Good to know about that subassembly action group bug. Explains some of the weirdness I've seen, though that more often manifests as symmetry parts losing the action groups on everything except the original part. (I tend to just edit the craft in a quicksave file when I discover it, though I might start using AG-X (AG-E?). Already use it for RSS.)

[Geschosskopf]

Good to know about that subassembly action group bug. Explains some of the weirdness I've seen, though that more often manifests as symmetry parts losing the action groups on everything except the original part.

I find the loss of action group symmetry comes from moving the parts after you've defined the action group. Like if you put on solar panels, define their group, then test the ship on the launchpad and discover the panels block the hatch or some such. So you revert and slide the panels down the hull slightly. That's enough to ruin the action group so you have to go in, delete it, then reinstate it.

[Cydonian Monk]

I find the loss of action group symmetry comes from moving the parts after you've defined the action group. Like if you put on solar panels, define their group, then test the ship on the launchpad and discover the panels block the hatch or some such. So you revert and slide the panels down the hull slightly. That's enough to ruin the action group so you have to go in, delete it, then reinstate it.

I've definitely seen that, though I'll usually catch that particular scenario. I'm starting to think the offset gizmo tool is clearing actions group symmetry at times too, though I don't have any real proof. More often than not its only missing on solar panels, which generally don't matter anyway. (I bind all of them to 0 by default, but the menu works just as well.)

[Geschosskopf]

I'm pretty sure the gizmos in some sense break the bond between ship and parts in the same way that normally moving parts does, and thus break symmetric action groups. I think Squad just disabled part highlighting when doing it because the purpose of the gizmos is precision placement and the highlights in the in the way.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 16: The Pyramid Scheme

FIRST OFF, Thanks to whoever rated this thread at 5 stars! Even if this did make it harder for me to find it. Used to be, I just looked for the green subscribed symbol on a non-rated thread. Now I have to read the title to make sure I'm not clicking on somebody else's story .

While Sanie was doing her thing with the Ore, Kerburry and Meglin stayed in LLUDDITE only long enough to store the data they'd gathered and enjoy their daily grog ration. Then they jumped back in DORK and buzzed away heading nearly due south. This time they climbed steeply to take advantage of supercruise as soon as possible because they had a long trip ahead of them. The Boffins and Scientists, in rare agreement, had ordered them to find the Lost Pyramid.

Nobody in the OTC, KaTC, or even KTC had ever reached this fabled anomaly. The closest anybody had come was way back in the original KTC, when Samlorf and Obbal had just returned to base (not that far from 2DE's base, acdtually) after visting the other Duna anomalies in D'OH. Like Kerburry and Meglin, they had ducked inside for their grog and were about to head south when the Supernova of '22 obliterated them. Whether they'd have actually gotten there is open to debate, given that there was a lot of terrain aournd the Pyrmaid that was higher than D'OH could fly. But at least they'd have tried. Now Mission Control was insistent that the Lost Pyramid be found without further delay, and Kerburry and Meglin were excited to (hopefully) be the first to see it.

So, at about 40km south of base and 13.5km altitude at a speed of 350m/s, Kerburry pushed DORK's nose down to the horizon, left the throttle firewalled, and DORK started its run to supercruise.

Speed built up quickly as DORK slowly climbed into Duna's stratosphere. In almost no time, DORK crossed the edge of the southern ice cap.

DORK was really honking along by this point, exceeding 900m/s (higher than orbital velocity) at over 22km altitude. It almost had a periapsis above ground level on the other side of Duna. And still with enough FScoolant from the atmosphere to go higher and faster. Claiming DORK could be an SSTO with just a little bit of rocket is no idle boast. Maybe an artificiersmate on some future expedition will replace the now-useless docking port on the tail with a 909 and see .

Of course, then DORK would not have a docking port, and it doesn't have RCS at all, so it would be a pretty useless SSTO. So what would probably happen is the Boffins would send out a totally new SSTO, but based a lot on DORK.

But that's mere speculation. What mattered now was finding the Lost Pyramid. And while all DORK's speed and altitude were great for covering a lot of ground quickly, it all now had to go away to land. So Kerburry popped the airbrakes, slammed the prop into reverse, and aimed DORK at the target area. It took a long time for DORK to slow down.

Once slowed to just under 200m/s and low enough to see terrain features in more detail, Kerburry and Meglin began circling the area looking for the Lost Pyramid. In the pic below, their instruments were saying the Lost Pyramid should be just above DORK's port tailfin but the Kerbals couldn't spot anything but the normal undulations in the ice.

So eventually, the Boffins told them to just pick out a good place to land in the general vicinity and they'd drive the rest of the way. As it happened, Kerburry put DORK down 8.7km from the Lost Pyramid.

Kerburry ran the prospecting instruments while Meglin did the science for the poles. Then it was just rovering along via the powered tailwheel, for which the RTGs sufficed. They were following the lead of their anomaly detector but at first it seemed to be lying to them. They could see all the way to a very distant horizon, much further away than 8.7km, and there was nothing remotely pyramidal to be seen.

But finally, DORK rolled up a small rise and there it was, hidden by a fold in the ground. It did look more like a dome than a pyramid, however.

The anomaly detector was sure that glowing lump was it, however, so Kerburry drove up its slope as far as he dared. Sure enough, the sensor indicated this was indeed the place.

Kerburry and Meglin climbed out and dashed the rest of the way to the summit, shoving and tripping each other in an effort to be the first Kerbal every to stand on the Lost Pyramid. It ended up being mostly a tie but Meglin got there slightly sooner, which meant Kerburry got to plant the flag.

Then all ears and receiver antennae strained to hear the fabled SSTV signal coming from the new-Found Pyramid. If the legends were true, then it should be audible. But try as everybody might, nothing of the sort was heard. There was, however, a very faint, very deep, irregular throbbing coming from the Found Pyramid. After listening to it for a whle, the Scientists decided that it was indeed the legendary SSTV signal, but that it was extremely redshifted, like the voice of Bowman Kerman falling into the huge Monolith in Jool oribt. "MY KOD, IT'S FUll oooooofffffffffffff sssssssssttttttttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssssssssssssss...."

So after hanging out long enough to record the whole message, which was very long due to the redshift, the Kerbals got back into DORK and Kerburry carefully backed it down the Found Pyramid until he thought he could safely turn around. As it happened, there was a nice, long, reasonably smooth patch of ground right beside the Found Pyramid running to the north, the direction they needed to go. So Kerburry punched the throttles and away they went.

On the way home, supercruise was established as before but this time, science instruments on DORK's nose started getting warm. So Kerburry throttled back to 2/3 power to go a little slower, and climbed a bit higher where the air was thinner, in an effort to protect them.

This seemed to work and nothing exploded. After a short time, the base came over the horizon.

Kerburry idled the engine and popped the airbrakes at 50km out, and began his descent. At 30km out, realising DORK wasn't slowing fast enough, he added full reverse thrust. By this point, the instruments around the cockpit was starting to get warm. Kerburry cursed the fact that the 2 small radiator panels, which had been packed in the cockpit for just such problems, had somehow disappeared en route to Duna.

The slowdown was now quite effective and DORK rolled to a stop less than 1km from LLUDDITE. Then Kerburry taxied the rest of the way using the tailwheel. This trip had consumed about 20% more of DORK's fuel.

The instruments were still hot so the Scientists demanded, and the Boffins agreed, that DORK should be left to cool off for a while instead of going on another sortie immediately.

Meanwhile, Sanie was making good progress with fuel production.

So tune in next time for whatever happens next.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Geschosskopf

[Mister Dilsby]

So I've always wondered--what exactly does one see/hear, in game, for this so-called SSTV signal from the lost pyramid? Am assuming that the displays shown in this report are from some sort of anomaly-detecting mod...or is that all stock?

[Geschosskopf]

So I've always wondered--what exactly does one see/hear, in game, for this so-called SSTV signal from the lost pyramid? Am assuming that the displays shown in this report are from some sort of anomaly-detecting mod...or is that all stock?

The SSTV signal you USED to hear at the Pyramid sounded like any other SSTV signal, a long series of chirps and tweets. If you have Chatterer, you can hear a bunch other SSTV signals as background noise if you want. It sounds rather like old dial-up modems doing their handshake when connecting, actually.

All those chirps are a way to encode still images in a radio signal. It was used by a bunch of the old probes to send back pictures of Mars and such, and I believe the original fax machines back in the day used the same technique. Basically, if you run the sound through the right software, which is in a printer, then you can convert the sound back into the still picture. And it used to be that the signal at the Pyramid drew a picture that would lead you from the Face on Duna to the Vall Henge.

Anyway, the anomoly detector is one of the many instruments in the DMagic Orbital Science mod, which I HIGHLY recommend. All sorts of cool stuff in there, modeled on real life probe, lander, and rover instruments.

[Mister Dilsby]

Ah, that explains it--I almost always play with the sound off, so I would have missed it entirely anyway. I love the idea of the Easter eggs in the game all being connected, hope that they will someday tell a coherent story no not necessary, SQUAD can provide whatever and you and I can tell the stories, n'est ce pas?

[Geschosskopf]

Ah, that explains it--I almost always play with the sound off, so I would have missed it entirely anyway.

Heheh, and I almost always play with Chatterer, although not in this game as it's near its mod limit and Chatterer is a BIG mod due to all the sound clips.

I love the idea of the Easter eggs in the game all being connected, hope that they will someday tell a coherent story no not necessary, SQUAD can provide whatever and you and I can tell the stories, n'est ce pas?

I'm no good at stories. The Muses occasionally wink at me from across the ballroom while dancing with folks like you, but that's it. And I was wrong about the Pyramid picture in my description of it above. It's actual meaning is rather opaque. It's the Face itself that has the map to Vall carved on its side.

Brotoro had a very interesting take on the Duna anomalies in his "Developing Duna" thread. I sure hope he gets that going again.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 17: Launch of 1st Jool Expedition

So another Jool window was coming up fairly soon and the Scientists cashed in their IOU from the Boffins to do a specifically science mission. What they wanted to do was put another SENTINEL in orbit between Jool and Dres to look for Kerper Belt Objects, defined as asteroids and comets way out there. Extensive testing indicated that the SENTINEL IR telescope didn't need much power so this required a relatively simple vehicle.

The Boffins, of course, had their own plans. They now had contracts to explore Pol and Bop so were going to Jool (for the 3rd time) anyway. While they were doing that, they decided to send SCANsats for both Laythe and Vall in preparation for further expeditions. These probes were identical except that the Laythe version had a heatshield on the off chance that aerocapture at Laythe turned out to be viable. Because of this option, the Laythe SCANsat kept its fairing but the Vall SCANsat shucked its once up to save a bit of dV. As usual, TAC Self-Destruct removed the lifters after they had used their remaining fuel to put the probes into eccentric parking orbits.

And then the money-maker for the 1st Jool Expedition, the ABJECT FAILURE (Amazingly Big Jool Expeditionary Cryogenic Transport For Attaining Increased Learning Upon Return from Exoplanets). This was the biggest ship launched in recent times by the OTC, 1170 tons on the pad. It was also the most expensive at $673,295. Most of that went into giving it Kron-scale dV to come home without refueling or aerocapturing, although it did have a heatshield and airbrakes in case that proved possible.

Aboard was Ansen serving out his grad student sentence to gather more data to complete his disertation. This time, his main ship, ABJECT FAILURE, had supplies for over 9 years and was expected only to be gone 7-8 years. But just to be safe, it also included newly developed technology to freeze Kerbals for long periods. So the 1st step in the launch process was to freeze Ansen for the out-bound trip. ABJECT FAILURE then put itself into an 85km parking orbit to await events.

To allow Ansen to explore Pol and Bop, he was to be sent out with PABLUM (Pol And Bop Lander with Unstable Mobility). This will be pushed out to Jool by ABJECT FAILURE, and maybe left there, but ABJECT FAILURE has enough smash to bring it home if desired.

The "Unstable Mobility" part of the name PABLUM derives from its powerplant of RTGs-turned-engines from the Atomic Age mod. As with all engines in this mod, they make beaucoup heat.

Anyway, PABLUM launched into a 200km orbit and from there, rendezvoused with ABJECT FAILURE, ditching its OMS stage once close enough.

Once PABLUM was aboard, ABJECT FAILURE fired up its highly unstable Nuclear Lightbulb engines to put itself into an elliptical orbit to await the transfer to Jool. It's got about 90 days to wait but Ansen will sleep through it.

While this was going on, a contract to test LV-Ns on escape trajectories from Kerbin came along. Wow, the OTC has a bunch of those positioned for just that already. Easy money .

Tune in next time for when events will probably jump back to Duna.

[Cydonian Monk]

Oooh. Jool. Looks like a nice, compact mission.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to send out my first big Jool mission in 1.0.4 or wait for 1.1.... I'm thinking that with the 1.1 and Unity 5 changes I may be able to run a legit "Really Large Ship" out to Jool, with all the goodies hitched to that one ship instead of in a large fleet.

[Geschosskopf]

Oooh. Jool. Looks like a nice, compact mission.

4 ships is rather small by my standards, yes . But in this game, I'm opting for incrementalism rather than spam gobs of stuff. While I can easily afford the latter (I've now got about $20 million in the bank), I'm having more fun trying to anticipate my needs several years in advance.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to send out my first big Jool mission in 1.0.4 or wait for 1.1.... I'm thinking that with the 1.1 and Unity 5 changes I may be able to run a legit "Really Large Ship" out to Jool, with all the goodies hitched to that one ship instead of in a large fleet.

Regardless of partcount stuff, IMHO a flotilla is way better than One Big Ship in terms of flexibility, expediency, self-rescue, and overall dV requirements.

[Mister Dilsby]

Once again those names are win...and poor Ansen! So, Kerbal grad students have to take decades-long space voyages to finish their work? Good thing they're practically immortal. One wonders whether Mort could make some more money for the space program by running a student loan program.

[Geschosskopf]

Once again those names are win...and poor Ansen! So, Kerbal grad students have to take decades-long space voyages to finish their work? Good thing they're practically immortal. One wonders whether Mort could make some more money for the space program by running a student loan program.

Well, Ansen's situation is largely his own fault. He chose his research subject, after all, and was aware of the potential risks. He could have chosen to study temperature variations on Mun but instead opted for Goo at Duna. See, Ansen's rather ambitious; his career goal is to get on the board of the OTC as a full-fledged Scientist, and he reckoned he'd have a much better chance at that with some daring, distant research. With the arrogance of youth, he figured nothing would stop him from completing his project on the way home from Duna. When that didn't happen, he then had the choice of dropping out of grad school or taking another trip. He opted for the latter and, as fate would have it, the contracts fell in such a way that he's now going to Jool.

Oh well. I'm sure he'll be an older, wiser Kerbal when (if) he gets back this time. And also quite bitter when he sees how all his contemporaries have moved up the ladder in all the time he'll be gone. Once he wakes up, I'm sure the sound system in ABJECT FAILURE will play a ditty from Kilbert & Sullivan repeatedly:

Science kerbs all, whomever you may be

If you want to rise to the top of the tree

If your soul isn't wedded to a lab tech's stool

Be careful to be following this golden rule:

"Stick close to your desks and never go to space

And you all may be the rulers of the OTC base"

Student loans.... interesting idea. The OTC operates on the basis of endentured servitude, however: labor for some fixed duration in exchange for room and board. This normally applies to pressganged members of the lower deck but also extends to grad students.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Geschosskopf

[Mister Dilsby]

...a ditty from Kilbert & Sullivan ...

Excellent. Reminds me I've been meaning to do "Modern Kerbfleet Admiral".

[Geschosskopf]

Reminds me I've been meaning to do "Modern Kerbfleet Admiral".

Hmm, how many verses, so how many rhymes needed for "admiral"? Let's see, desirable, admirable, and then linguistic invention such as "conspirable" .

Anyway, the full lyrics to

When I was a Sprout

When I was sprout I served a term

As officesprout at a science firm

I mopped up the Goo and I took out the trash

If I didn't then they beat me with a long spiked lash

I mopped up the Goo so carefully

That now I am the ruler of the OTC

As officesprout I caused no wreck

So they gave me the post of a junior tech

I carried the equipment with a smile so bland

And I copied down the data in a big round hand

I copied down the data so carefully

That now I am the ruler of the OTC

In carrying equipment I acquired such fame

That a senior tech I soon became

I combed my hair and wore a brand-new suit

For the entrance exam of the Science Institute

That entrance exam did so well for me

That now I am the ruler of the OTC

Of scientific knowledge I acquired such a grip

That I designed a fraction of a rocket ship

Some pressganged lout rode it off to Mun

And the OTC recovered a nice science boon

That fraction of a rocket did so well for me

That now I am the ruler of the OTC

I grew so famous from this science hoard

That I became advisor to the OTC board

My advising always favored my party's call

And I never thought of thinking for myself at all

I thought so little they rewarded me

By making me the ruler of the OTC

Science kerbs all, whomever you may be

If you want to rise to the top of the tree

If your soul isn't wedded to a lab tech's stool

Be careful to be following this golden rule:

"Stick close to your desks and never go to space

And you all may be the rulers of the OTC base"

Edited August 23, 2015 by Geschosskopf

[Mister Dilsby]

Bravo, bravo!! :applause:

- - - Updated - - -

And pretty sure I can get away rhyming 'admiral' with anything G&S rhymed with 'general', so no worries there

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 18: The Kerbin Station Timesink

When we left the OTC, it had just launched the 1st Jool Expedition and was about to return its attention to Duna. But the Boffins like to surf the classified ads while sipping their morning whiskey-laced tea and, on this particular morning, they noticed a contract to build a station in LKO. Some quick jottings on the back of a tea napkin showed they could turn a quick $100K profit on it so they made the fateful decision to accept the contract, thinking they could knock it out well before lunchtime and get on with their proper business. Little did they realize, however, that they were setting in motion a chain of events that would consume vast amounts of time, work, and whiskey, and thereby delay events elsewhere.

The actual contract station was deceptively trivial. The usual docking port, power, antenna, 7 Kerbals, and a lab. But it also needed 4000 units of liquid fuel, essentially a Big Orange Tank of it. The Boffins had no trouble getting all this to orbit in 1 shot, not even needing a 5m rocket for it. But the presence of all that fuel in LKO made them start thinking it might be put to use. And that was the fatal step over the edge of the precipice. They added extra docking ports for future use and a greenhouse for recycling supplies.

So anyway, the contract-fulfilling station module went up routinely on a 3.5m rocket. It got into a 100km orbit and ditched its OMS unit with the usual gratuitous explosion. It did, in fact, make the anticipated $100K profit.

But because the Boffins had nearly $20 million in the bank, they now decided that they didn't need a mere $100K, so decided to spend it fleshing out the station to what they considered might make it fully operational. So the next step was to add a tree of 1.25m docking ports. This was all small and cheap, although the immense drag of the tree required massive fins on the small rocket to keep it going in the correct direction. The tree was a small probe with nothing but RCS, so once its OMS got it in the vicinity of the station core, it created another gratuitous explosion and docked.

Then, because the orange tank on the station has been fuel-switched to have a full load of liquid fuel, the Boffins decided the station needed an equal amount of oxidizer. This entailed send up 2 identical rockets with 1/2-size 2.5m tanks of that. They followed a similar procedure to the docking tree and resulted in the station having the equivalent of 2 full orange tanks of LFO. With this done, the station was declared operational. And the $100K profit from the contract had been consumed (and a tiny bit more, but nobody bothered about that).

So there was the station. But now the real timesink came into effect. The station would require upkeep. More fuel if anything ever used what was already in orbit. Supplies for any crew ever condemed to serve there. Something to move crew around. Having already blown all the contract money on building the station, the Boffins decided that the maintenance missions would have to be done as cheaply as possible, which meant SSTO spaceplanes. And thus began a long, hard slog of design, testing, redesign, more testing, familiar to any spaceplane-builder.

The Boffins first went for something that could take up the crew. They eventually made several prototypes of different sizes that could do the job in 1 pr 2 trips but weren't really satisfied with any of them. Still, one of these or something similar would do in a pinch so the Boffins decided to set this problem aside and try one of the others.

The Boffins now turned their attention to making an SSTO that could carry a full orange tank's worth of fuel as a payload. Really, the less said about those horrible monstrosities, the better. Huge, ugly Mk3 things with spammed 1.25m engines, even 2.5m engines from the Mk3 Hypersonic mod. Some of these would work but they were all even less worth the effort than the Mk 2 crew shuttles, taking seemingly forever to rearch orbit.

So then the Boffins cast about for new technology and tried out OPT's products. This system has the "J" hull, which has the same diamond proportions as the Mk2 system but is built around a 2.5m circle instead of 1.25m. It also has the "K" hull, which is essentially turning the diamond "J" into a wide, flat rectangle with the same height and width, and then giving it some protruding corners that happen to fit Mk2 parts rotated vertically. An interesting feature of OPT is the absence of separate passenger fuselage modules, the mod instead having a variety of cockpits capable of holding various large numbers of Kerbals.

So the Boffins did much experimenting with this system and eventually came up with a monstrosity using a combination of J and K parts. This naturally suggested naming it the Jebediah Kermin but because he's not dead yet, he can't have a ship named after him. Therefore, they instead called it the JOKE (Judiciously Omnipurpose Kerbin Express). It can lift 7 Kerbals, 3/4 of an orange tank, and 5100 units of either Supplies, Mulch, or Fertilizer to 200km all at once, and return without refueling.

It's powered by 2x OPT Advanced Turboramjets, which are Mk2-sized and mounted radially on the sides of the K-sized central cargo area, fed by Mk2 Extensions big shuttered intakes. These engines can get it to about 2000m/s at about 30km, after which an OPT linear aerospike takes over. All the Kerbals are in the cockpit, behind which is a docking port which will work on both 2.5m and 1.25m connections. The K-sized central area is a cargo bay capable of holding 2x 2.5m tanks side-by-side. It's just long enough for the mid-sized tanks but using 2 of those proved too much so instead it carries 2x 1/4-sized tanks side-by-side with a 3rd centrally mounted on the other end, along wiht a 2.5m Supplies tank, some radial Fertilizer tanks, and 2x 2.5m reaction wheels. There's a K-size fuel fuselage but it's mostly empty central space, a cargo bay without doors, and the fuel only in the sideways Mk2 areas outboard, so isn't all that useful.

The JOKE weighs 112 tons on the runway and flying it is about like a slightly heavy SSTO of smaller size. It's no skyrocket and is in fact a bit sluggish, but it's better than anything using Mk3 parts and 1.25m engines.

But the JOKE costs about $300K fully fueled and loaded, and the while it can deliver everything the station might need in 1 trip, the Boffins thought smaller ships would be more practical if not everything was needed at once. So now they decided to make a small SSTO that could just carry a decent amount of life support supplies. Given that 2 of the Mk2 turboramjets from OPT would get the JOKE so high and fast, the Boffins decided to try one of them on a Mk2 spaceplane. The results were rather frigtening. While the smaller Supply Runner topped out at about the same speed and altitude as the JOKE, it got there so fast that it was in danger of burning off its own cockpit. Ascents had to be made at reduced throttle for safety. But by getting so high and fast, nuclear engines from Mk2 Extensions could be used thereafter, not only making it an LF-only SSTO but giving the ship sufficient space dV to go to Minmus and back. Sadly, the OTC has nothing on Minmus needing supplies but it's nice to have that capability anyway.

Then the Boffins enlarged the Supply Runner into the Crew Runner, a ship capable of carrying 14 Kerbals to Minmus and back. While not quite so blisteringly overpowered as the Supply Runner, it's still quite a monster. And the nuclear engines have pretty magenta flames.

So, now the Boffins had a huge multi-cargo vehicle for all their LKO needs and the ability to send crew and supplies out as far as Minmus, all with reusable spaceplanes. They decided they'd wasted enough time on this whole project and lined the SSTOs up for a press conference and photo op.

Whether any will ever be used is an open question. But they're there if needed.

Hopefully, next time the OTC will get back to its real missions.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Geschosskopf