Scattered Stories: A Kerbthology

[Whirligig Girl]

Episode 1: The Beginning Times. Part 1: A Short History of the Kerbal Dream.

I suppose we ought to start from the very beginning, shall we?

Y -20,037 D6 5:29, Prehistoric Ferleferna (Kerbin timescale)

The Kerbals had never seen the Mun before. They never usually looked up. THeir heads were black, so they could photosynthesize more energy. They were all hot, tired, and dumb. None of them wanted to do anything cool. But then, one day, a tribe member named Felefurlin fell on his back while trying to lift something that was a bit too heavy. That's when he saw it. The glorious white orb in the black darkness around it. It seemed to call out to him. Perhaps it was just because it was shiny. But this new realm that he decided to call "Sky" was alien to him. He ran back to the settlement telling his wives what he saw. They all went out of the hut, and looked up. The news spread around the tribe very quickly indeed.

This is perhaps what kickstarted the civilization of Kerbin.

Y -2,756 D23, Ancient Ferleferna

King Tutrim Kerbil II holds a meeting to discuss the announcement of the first space program.

"We have chosen as a civilization to depart the bonds of Kerbin and voyage to the Mun. We shall do this not because it is an easy feat. We intend to do it because the struggle is half the adventure. We intend to do it because that goal is one which can only serve to improve us! We choose to go to Mun."

Of course, their space program never amounted to much more than a few pyramids and a statue of Tutrim, but Kerbalkind learned a valuable lesson that week. The Mun is a lot further away than it looked.

Y -130 D9, Great Kerbland

Dersberry Kerman put on his helmet. A modified diving helmet capsule with all the holes properly plugged up. His space suit firmly locked into the helmet. Surely, they thought, this would work in the hazardous environment of space. They already knew that the air thinned with altitude, so they had to pack accordingly for the Voyage to the Mun. Dersberry Kerman was the first volunteer. A BadS before his time, Dersberry would fly on the first mission to the Mun.

He stepped inside the capsule. Several workers lifted the capsule and placed it into the large barrel of the cannon. Dersberry wanted to be the first. He'd wanted to since he was a little kid. And now he would finally be the first to the Mun.

The cannon was ignited, propelling Dersberry forth. The scientists and engineers cheered as the capsule vanished out of sight. Then they became very confused when the capsule came back. They recovered the capsule to find a half-flattened Dersberry Kerman.

"The barometer barely got out of the light blue." He said. "And the Mun didn't get any closer." Dersberry Kerman became depressed after that. His childhood dreams crushed by the laws of physics.

Over the years, scientists put their estimates for the Mun further and further upwards. Some even suggested that it was infinitely far away, like the stars. But one day, a scientist and mathematician named Ike Kilonewton discovered how gravity works. Using careful observation and a few Analytical Engine clusters for computation, he figured out orbital mechanics. Using the speed of the Mun as an estimate, and with a known surface gravity of 9.81 m/s^2, he figured out exactly how far away the Mun was. 12,000,000 meters. This was too far away for most people, but the aging Dersberry was given hope. In fact, his last dying words were, on Year -102 Day 23 at 1:20 AM, were "The Mun can be Reached." He smiled at that thought as he passed.

Y -37 D1, Usussian Empire

Konstantine Tsiolkerman had an idea. He woke up after New Year's eve, the only sober adult around. Of course, they'd all have a bit of time before it was time for school, so at least the teachers could take some painkillers to get rid of their hangovers. Tsiolkerman, very much unlike the other citizens of the North-Crater Tundra Empire of Usussia, was not fond of mixing Hydrazine, Alcohol, and Water together in his stomach. The horrible concoction they called "Wodka" was not very appetizing to say the least. He was thinking about his idea during the walk to the school that he worked at as a High School Teacher. He decided to drop the lesson plan for the day. As he walked to the school, he saw all the used fireworks littering up the streets. This was the key to his idea.

The students were all top-of-the-class physics students. They could understand his idea, surely. The idea was about getting to the Mun.

"Don't try accelerating all at once (unless you want guacamole instead of Kerbals in the capsule) or using some kind of propeller or wheel or anything that needs to push off of something static." He then picked up a piece of chalk, and scribbled something on the board. It was a cylinder with a cone on top, and a long stick attached to it. "Can anyone tell me what this is?" A few of the students raised their hands. He picked on one of the students, Valentina Kermana. (You may recognize the name. It's not a coincidence. She was in fact the Mother of Valentina Kerman.) "You, Tina." She nervously responded. "A firework rocket?" Tsiolkerman nodded. "Yes indeed. A fire work rocket. Can anyone tell me what differentiates the rocket from other forms of propulsion?" He picked on a young boy at the back. "You there, Dudrim." The boy was very much confident in his answer, as if he thought he was better than Tina with her nervous answer. "A rocket travels through the sky instead of the ground." He looked so smug. A few of the other students frowned and sighed. "No... not really. That's not the important bit. The new radial propeller engines and airplanes travel through the air. Can anyone else give it a go?" He pointed at another kid. "Kirk, you there." Kirk thought a bit. "Because..." he started. "Because a rocket pushes on itself rather than other things, it can operate even in a place where there isn't anything." He was almost interrupted by Tsiolkerman. "EXACTLY."

"If you want to get an object into space and let it stay there, you have to make it go as fast a small moon would have to go at the altitude of just above the atmosphere. About two thousand meters per second. However, you also have to account for the fact that you have to climb out of the gravity and contend with drag, right?" The class nodded. "So you have to have the energy to go from anywhere from three and a half kilometers per second to five kilometers per second. This means that you can't just accelerate all at once. So can anyone tell me where the rocket comes into this?" One of the kids in the front already started blurting out, without raising her hand. "It's because a rocket can have a constant acceleration over time instead of a single burst like a cannon!" "Thank you Fredericklynn."

A few months later, he published a paper on the subject.

...a rocket powered by Kerosene and Oxium would have the necessary efficiency [to rival that of the Boompowder firework] to propel a two tonne vessel into a Kerbin orbit in only Three steps or stages. The equation for relating the possible velocity change of a rocket is Delta-V Equals the Specific Impulse of the Engine times the Natural Logarithm of the Mass Ratio...

To launch truly massive objects, such as a rocket powerful enough to send a gold prospecting crew to the Mun, we may have to resort to more unconventional methods of staging the vessel. It may be possible to strap several liquid powered fuselages and engines together, and have the burn out in such a way that they feed their fuel into the next tank. Due to the strange appearance of this design, one of my students called it "Asparagus" staging. If a rocket fuselage can be built that is considerably larger than one meter, it may be possible to build a rocket that can accomplish the trip in a more conventional staging setup.

For the trip through the lower atmosphere there are several ways that can give the rocket a boost. The most obvious is simply to use more rockets. For disposable rockets you would not need the efficient Liquid Fuel, but instead the raw power of the Solid Boompowder fueled booster rocket. These may be considerably cheaper and only need to lift through the lower atmosphere. For a more reusable option, it may be possible to lift the rocket on a large Dirigible to the higher altitude...

Only a few short years later, the very first liquid-fueled firework rocket rose into the sky under the Fafrikan rocket scientist Bobby Goddy Kerman.

Y-5 D96, United States of Aferica

Jebediah Kerman stepped onto the lot. A junkyard. "So this is the scrapyard. Dangit dad, you promised me a factory!" Jeb looked up at the sky, and saw the Mun and a little flickering Minmus. His brother Bob, his brother Bill, and his sister Valentina all followed him out of the truck. There was a nice medium sized house on the lot. The four Kerbals loaded the cardboard boxes onto the cart, and pushed it into the house for unpacking. The house had a decent living room with a couch, a television, and a few chairs. Jeb's father really rather liked having visitors. There was a kitchen, and five bedrooms, and a study. Jeb wasn't interested in the study. He let Bob have the study instead.

Bob decided to take a look into the study to see what books his father left for him. A few astronomy textbooks, a full set of the Encyclopaedia Kermanica, and a few science fiction stories. He saw a drawing on the table. Bob looked at it, wondering what it was. It appeared to be a rocket engine. But this was no little toy rocket. Going by the scale on the page, the rocket engine was a full meter wide. "Woah." Bob said, staring at the drawing. He looked at the drawing behind it. A full rocket fuselage section. He flipped through further. A few fuselages and engines were strung together from top to bottom. "Three stages" Bob whispered to himself The drawing had in big bold words "Mun Rocket" written on it. Bob studied the unfinished drawing.

His father--Jason Kerman--was a big fan of astronautics and the possibility of Space Exploration. He usually saw Duna and Jool as better goals than the Mun. He taught his kids all about astronomy and aeronautics and rocketry. He was a high-school friend of Wernher von Kerman, another huge figure in astronautics, and once met Bobby Goddy Kerman for a drink. He was an aeronautical engineer for C7 Aeronautics and Locomotive Works Company, before quitting his job to work on the principle of rocketry. He built his first Liquid-Fueled rocket that marched past five kilometers. He wanted to get one big enough to take pictures of space, but he knew he would need a bigger rocket than the half-and-a-bit meter diameter fuselages that were being used at the time. So--just before he passed--he was working on concepts for a larger rocket fuselage. The Fuel-Tank-800, and an engine to go with it, the Launch Vehicle Test-15.

Bob was a scientist. He could help only with theory. He couldn't build a sandcastle without giving up, let alone a rocket. Jeb was the idea man, and not afraid to get his hands dirty. Bill was the engineer, having gotten a degree as a birthday gift from one of his friends. He was an idiot in almost every way, except he could put things together perfectly and figure out why they didn't work if it didn't. Valentina was more about coming up with practical applications for these machines which the other three were so enthralled with creating. A machine that can make things cold, she once said, would better be put to use in equatorial homes and buildings rather than as an industrial skii-park generator. Their patent-pending Extend-O-Maxx joint would not be practical on doors as it would be on large robots. Of course, she knew what a rocket would be used for. She looked up through the sun-roof, listening to the other three discussing their engineering plans to build off of their father's design...

It wasn't long before they had assembled a test mockup of the engine. Using not much more than scattered pieces of junk that were not being used, the LV-TP15 prototype thruster stood on a thrust structure, upside down. Jeb, Bill, Bob, and Val all hid in a makeshift bunker while Jeb pressed the pump start button, followed shortly by the ignition cartridge button. A few sparks spat from the motor as the cold, white oxygen gas bubbled out of the rising alcohol pool in the engine bell. Jeb pushed the button again, despite the others begging him not to. The engine's nozzle extension exploded as the rocket ignited successfully, while the rest of the engine continued producing thrust for about 30 seconds before the fuel ran out.

After reading the industrial pressure dial, the thrust of the rocket exceeded 180 kilonewtons. Valentina was already running through the phonebooks and newspapers, trying to find a use for this high-power thruster. That's when she saw it. An advertisement for workers for an industrial project just across the continent. She read it aloud to her brothers. "Wanted: Laborers, Pilots, Technicians, and Inventors for a Kerballed Space Program effort."

Valentina looked into more detail about the Kerbal Space Program, finding a news article from a few months prior about the start of a public Fafrikan Space Agency.

SHERMAN ROCKET SCIENTIST FOUNDS AFERICAN SPACE PROGRAM

The Sherman rocket scientist Wernher von Kerman, the inventor of the LV-2 Bomber Missile, pushes for a Kerballed Spaceflight Program in the United States of Aferica. "We're going to go to the Mun in this decade, not because it's easy, but mostly because of just how difficult it is and always has been."

The space program administrators have claimed that any company which is able to produce a valid space exploration technology will be given the industrial resources to extend their manufacturing, including the capability of in-house specially built components. "We don't want junk flying into space." says PR manager Walt.

Jebediah picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Hey, this is Jebediah Kerman, head of Jebediah Kerman Junkyard..." he paused a bit to think. "... and Space Ship Parts Company. Is this the Kerbal Space Center?"

Edited August 29, 2015 by GregroxMun

[Whirligig Girl]

Updated with the Story of Tsiolkerman and a teaser for tomorrow's story of Jeb, Bill, Bob, and Val.

[Whirligig Girl]

With episode one drawn to a close, here's a bit of a preview of things to come. Further episodes will generally be one story per episode. Think of episode one as a long pilot episode.

Space Race of the Cool Schools

The politically and economically failing Kerbal Space Program reaches out to universities across Kerbin to design a cubesat to be launched on a KSP rocket to get the public interested in space again. A large, politically and economically failing high school decides to join the competition as well.

Invaders from Jupiter

In the future, a Laythe tracking station picks up a signal of an extremely powerful and large atomic rocketship charging towards the Kerbolar System, Kerbin panics. But then of course, why does Kerbin have to be the obvious target for colonization?

Two Much Space

Dan Kerman is instructed to abort his Duna mission when they find a space anomaly in a Kerbolar orbit with a minimal course correction requirement. Upon entering the anomaly, he finds a planet with some pretty flat characters.

Ghost from Krismas Past

An intern at the KSC Tracking Station picks up an unaccounted for object on a course to pass by Kerbin. It surely must be an asteroid. Strangely, material scans indicate it is made from spaceship materials from a hundred years ago. No missions in record could account for the trajectory... so what is it?

Warp Factor One

Sammi Kermana invents a device that seems to break a lot of rules. The obvious next step is to put it on a rocket and send it to space. What she finds may open up the cosmos to Kerbal Kind.

No particular order here, so what ought to come next?

Edited August 29, 2015 by GregroxMun

[KSK]

Well I put a fuller answer on the 'writing about writing' thread but if you had to push me, I'd say Space Race of the Cool Schools. That looks very interesting.

Thread added to the Fanworks library too.

[Yukon0009]

Very cool, would like to see these expanded.

[Sharkman Briton]

I don't like the idea of all the places being based on real places, especially Aferica, since it's annoying how american this place is.

[Yukon0009]

i don't like the idea of all the places being based on real places, especially aferica, since it's annoying how american this place is.

MMURICA WINS AGAIN!g

[Whirligig Girl]

I don't like the idea of all the places being based on real places, especially Aferica, since it's annoying how american this place is.

Well it's pretty annoying how... er... briton you are. If you're just going to call my choices annoying then I have no patience for you. A valid criticism explaining what a better idea might be would be welcomed, but not merely a statement of your own annoyance. Don't read it if you don't like it.

And its only loosely based on real places anyway. I threw out a post listing the United States of Aferica because I myself thought it was dumb. It is still based upon America, mostly just because of the KSP's Space Launch System style parts. SLS is made by the American space program. That and I like America. I don't love it, but it is my home nevertheless.

When I say based on, I really do mean quite loosely. The first president wasn't George Washingkerman and the current isn't Barack O'Kerman. (During the last story, it's President Desdin Kerman)

Edited August 30, 2015 by GregroxMun

[Whirligig Girl]

Warp Factor One

The Wheel. The Steam Locomotive. The Rocket Motor. Revolutions in transport. Because of the wheel, Kerbals were able to transport goods between villages and homes to shops. Because of the steam train, Kerbals could transport goods and people across the planet. The rocket engine created a vast empire spanning the Kerbolar System. But Kerbalkind had sort of stopped past Eeloo. There wasn't anything else for trillions of miles. Sure the thought of colonizing the depths of the outermost wilds was attractive, but impractical. A rocket would have to be several orders of magnitude more powerful and efficient than anything within reason to get a Kerbal colony ship to another star system.

Sammi Kerman was used to people underestimating her intelligence. She had ideas that made sense in her head, but she couldn't communicate them. Thus, she had a heck of a lot of trouble getting a grant for her experiment. She got all of her materials from cheap sources, like the Jeb Kerman Jr. Junkyard and Advanced Machinery Company. Finally she managed to complete her machine. It was meant to be a more efficient form of television. It didn't work like that at all. As a matter of fact, it didn't work as a television at all. But something definitely wasn't right. When a certain irrational number was plugged in to the input, it began to move. Something was not right at all. It seems as though it was breaking the rules. When the power was boosted, she narrowed down exactly what was happening. It was moving. Upward to be precise. But there was no thrust. She tried interfering the machine with a supermagnet, with no effect. So a magnetic force was ruled out. It worked in a near vacuum chamber. It worked underwater. There was only one way to figure out what was really causing the effect. She'd have to put the device in space. Deep Space is the only place where there isn't stuff. No strong gravitation, no atmosphere, and no magnetism.

She brought the device to the Kerbal Space Center. Without speaking much, she turned the device on. She showed the Kerbal Space Program Administrators the device and its motion at a scheduled appointment. She then passed a supermagnet by it. The device didn't change at all. She dropped the device in water, and they all watched as it rose out. She didn't have a vacuum chamber on hand, but she showed a video of the device working there as well.

"it definitely seems to be moving without thrust." one said. "But we don't have the funds right now to risk launching some unknown device into space without payment. And from the looks of it, you don't have much money." another said. A third nodded his head. "Sorry, Miss Sammi." Sammi left, feeling sad and a tad bit embarrassed.

For weeks, she did nothing, but every day she thought about the machine and how it needed to be tested. Finally she became fed up. She was going to call one of her old friends. His name was Zeffy Kerman, and dealt with black-market rocket parts. Real cheap stuff, not government regulated, and definitely not actually space grade. For only a few hundred funds, Zeffy would be able to provide Sammi with a rocket capable of launching five of her devices into orbit. She jumped at the chance. Calling the Jeb Junior Junkyard, she ordered the parts for the spacecraft to hold one of her devices. The final design would cost only two thousand funds. It was time to break into her retirement funds. Any sane Kerbal would never dream of this. Sammi may not be entirely sane.

Five weeks later, her rocket was assembled in an old grain elevator. She brought a cargo of camping supplies in case she landed somewhere dangerous for a while, and climbed into the cramped used Sescnah cockpit.

3

2

1

Liftoff. The rocket rose into the sky, with a few sputters of sparks coming from the nozzle. Second stage is cut. She's now in orbit. Stabilizers up. Running perfect.

The spacecraft, which had been christened "Krakensbane," was now ready for the test. The device was activated. The most confusing part was what happened next. Kerbin very rapidly vanished into the distance. Krakensbane flew across the skies. Sammi took control. The stars seemed not so far away now. The sun vanished to a point. Sammi steered the ship towards the nearest star. She didn't think this would happen. She didn't know why she was flying a junk spaceship to another star using a broken television that disobeys the rules of physics using a power source comparable to a microwave oven. She supposed that bringing her camping gear was a good idea after all.

Nearing the star, she found a planet on the map screen. It was un-named, uncharted, and undiscovered. She throttled down the device, steering in for the final approach. Approaching the gas gia---

[lawrencetyle]

wow, thats long, but it's worth to read! nice share!

[Whirligig Girl]

KSC, Kerbin, Y145 D12
Mindy Kerman, an intern working in the KSC Tracking station, noticed a peculiar unknown object in the sky. "Hey, Kelly, what do you make out of this?" She said. Kelly stared at the screen for a few seconds. "Strange. It's probably just an asteroid." Mindy tapped on the touch screen and zoomed the window out. "It's coming from Jool though!" She said. Kelly looked at the trajectory, and the predicted course. "Hmm. That is rather strange." He tapped the screen where the object was and said "We ought to track it." He went to the main tracking station controller and pressed some keys. The giant tracking dishes rotated and aimed at the unidentified object. Tracked. It was a Class-B object. It was entered into the Object List as Ast. Y145-KSC-9.

Mindy Kerman fell asleep at her computer once again. An alarm beeped, which forced her out of her nap. She looked at the screen, and saw that Ast. Y145-KSC-9 was now changing its course. "What? Impossible." She said, dialing Kelly's number. "Hey Kelly. That asteroid is changing its course" She said.

In the main tracking station room they pointed the spectroscopic instruments at Ast. Y145-KSC-9 and read the composition. It was metallic, but also had... paint. Grey and orange paint. "What sort of asteroid is covered in paint?" Kelly asked. "A... spacecraft?" Mindy responded.

In fact it was paint very much unlike any that had been used for quite some time. The spectrometer was able to get a very accurate image of the exact paint chemicals that the object was covered in, and in fact allowed for the discovery that the paint used hadn't been used on a spacecraft in almost a hundred years. Clearly this was not just any spacecraft it was a very old spacecraft.

Edited December 1, 2015 by GregroxMun