A Stockalike Career Playthrough with tons of pictures (We can into space!)

[nsgallup]

Sarnus slowly comes into view

The rings and the larger moons come into view

Cassini passes by Tekto as it dives towards Sarnus

Eeloo and Slate

Sarnus is glorious

Capture burn

Making adjustments to intercept Hale, the innermost moon. Nearly the entire inner solar system is in view

Passing by Ovok

More adjustments, Hale has an extremely small SOI

Hale, one big asteroid more like

Edited November 2, 2015 by nsgallup

[DMSP]

I just spent 10 mins reading through all of this, and I have to say, this is great! Keep going!

[nsgallup]

The radar map of hale was extremely bland, time to transfer to Ovok

Ovok

"Smooth surface" says the description

This one took a very long time to map due to low rotation speed, and a slow orbital speed

This map was also kinda boring, maybe a high res scan? Cassini did pick up an anomaly

Stage separation

Transit to Eeloo

Eeloo

Capture burn

Great view

Fascinating

Burning for Slate

Slate.. what a piece of work this moon is

Slate is massive, which means higher orbital speeds and more delta V requirement to maneuver

Those are some big mountain ranges

The optimal scanning range is quite high

- - - Updated - - -

Another interesting radar scan and another anomaly, these will be high priority targets for future landers

Burning for Tekto, Cassini is very low on fuel so this transfer will be tight.

Tekto has a inclined orbit, making for great views of Sarnus

The crown jewel of the Sarnus system, Cassini was originally planned to bring a Huygens lander module, but the mission was slated to go ahead before the lander was developed sufficiently.

Kerbals cannot help but identify with the extremely green moon

Capture burn

This just may be my favourite moon in the game

Radar scanning commences, KSC wonders what topography lies under the blanket of clouds

Amazing! The scan reveals lakes and active geology

Cassini still has 50m/s of Delta V, KSC decides to try the Huygens maneuver with the whole probe.. nothing to lose at this point as the mission goals have been accomplished

Edited November 2, 2015 by nsgallup

[nsgallup]

Kerbol and Sarnus fade out of view partway through the upper atmosphere

The atmosphere is extremely thick, drag turned the craft around, luckily the upper atmosphere slowed the craft enough to avoid any mach effects.

Visibility is low

Speed is down to 40m/s thanks to the low gravity and dense atmosphere

The surface comes into view

Speed is down to 25m/s, the nuclear engine is out of fuel and would be useless anyways in the high pressure environment

Impact velocity was 20m/s

.........Suspenseful Static!

Edited November 2, 2015 by nsgallup

[Sanic]

I believe it's called Kassini.

[nsgallup]

I believe it's called Kassini.

Haha, I stand corrected

[Sanic]

I actually sent a probe called Kassini to Jool, but I tried to aerocapture and instead aerobroke. I'm sorry to put any kind of pressure on you, but WHEN IS THE URLUM MISSION?

Heh heh... Uranus.

[nsgallup]

I haven't planned one yet.. is it your favorite planet or something?

I've got something real big planned for the next few missions, but after that maybe a Urlum probe?

Also, Uranus is a awesome planet, I wish NASA would do more exploration of it and it's moons.

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System reboot initiated...

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System Check

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Critical systems functional

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Engine failure detected

Structural failure detected

Radar dish failure detected

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System reboot complete

Cassini landed on its side, but a little coaxing with the reaction wheels got it facing antenna up

Cassini records surface data and transmits to Kerbin, then powers down into hibernation mode.. probably will never be woken

Mission complete!

Edited November 3, 2015 by nsgallup

[nsgallup]

After that long and exhaustive mission, and before the next even longer and more exhaustive mission, all the big name astronauts were sent on a quick Mun flyby to test out some new equipment, foremost of which was the Taurus HCV command pod.

Launch!

Booster separation

Up we go

Lots of ocean

The upper lifting stage kicks in

Fairing separation

Hey Bill! Stop taking pictures of Kerbin and take a picture of me!

The Orion orbital stage powers up for a transfer to Mun

Mun

Adjusting orbit to make for an easy return to Kerbin

The crew says goodbye to Mun

Doesn't Kerbin looks so tiny! - Val.. "hey that reminds me!" exclaims Bob

Bob puts a tape into the speaker system.. "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out---" "This is boring! Where are the snacks!" -Jeb

Bob fumes in the corner for the rest of the flight

Re-entry

The Retro-rocket test over did it a little

And the pod sunk all the way to the bottom of the ocean.. While they wait for KSC to figure out how to get them, Bill writes a note to remind the engineering team to add flotation devices (the pod is the black speck in the center of the photo)

Mission completed!

Here is the whole Sagan speech from his amazing book Pale Blue Dot, one of my favorite quotes from anyone ever

[Sanic]

Dres is my favorite planet in KSP, but Uranus is IRL.

I think NASA has a Uranus orbiter slated for 2025, but I doubt it'll be built.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Nah, Dres before Urlum, cuz Dres is lonely even in stock KSP.

[Sanic]

Dres awareness!

I've only seen one Dres mission, but never a Urlum mission.

[nsgallup]

Dres is my favorite planet in KSP, but Uranus is IRL.

I think NASA has a Uranus orbiter slated for 2025, but I doubt it'll be built.

NASA has a lot of things planned in the next 20 years... it will be interesting to see which ones actually get funded

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Nah, Dres before Urlum, cuz Dres is lonely even in stock KSP.

You must have missed my Dres mission, I do enjoy Dres. I had a pretty big science station there in my previous save... I may yet return in this save.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/137222-A-Stockalike-Career-Playthrough-with-tons-of-pictures-%28Sarnus-Cassini-Orbiter-Carl-Sagan%29?p=2263934&viewfull=1#post2263934

[AlextheBodacious]

What mod adds those visuals? (the hues and whatnot)

[DMSP]

Also, make sure you look at a color map of Tekto. There is a Orange Mountain that might be considered an "Anomaly".

[nsgallup]

What mod adds those visuals? (the hues and whatnot)

What hues are you talking about? There are a number of visual mods I have installed and I think I listed them all in the OP.

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Also, make sure you look at a color map of Tekto. There is a Orange Mountain that might be considered an "Anomaly".

Indeed I did see that location, and it is a potential landing site for future missions

Also my favourite planet IRL is Mars followed by Saturn, and my favourite moon is Titan followed by Europa... least favourite planet is probably Mercury

Edited November 3, 2015 by nsgallup

[KSACheese]

I'm loving this so hard right now, nsgallup! KEEP IT COMMMINNNN'!

[nsgallup]

A new mapping probe is on its way to its destination

[Sanic]

Umm...

Urlum?

[nsgallup]

Umm...

Urlum?

Not yet XD

This is the beginning of the big project I told you about, after that is complete KSC has decided to make an Urlum Mission their top priority!

Edited November 4, 2015 by nsgallup

[nsgallup]

Things are going great at the R&D department

[nsgallup]

Time for a high res scan of Eve

The probe begins radar mapping

Meanwhile back at KSC the first human spacecraft element of the Venera program is launched, though without an occupant

Booster separation

Fairing separation, the vessel begins its transfer to Eve

Meanwhile the mapping has been completed and an ideal landing site selected thanks to the new high res scan, the probe burns for Gilly

Map of Eve

More scanning commences

A slightly less boring map of Gilly, the probe still has plenty of fuel so it leaves Gilly influence and prepares to transfer back to Kerbin

Meanwhile the KRV (Kerbin return vehicle) has been captured into Eve orbit, the orbit is still pretty eccentric, but there is no point circularizing because it will probably have to make inclination changes later anyways

The mapping probe intercepts Mun and prepares for mapping

Capture burn

Cool! (Yes I went to the moon again but didn't bother reporting cause it was just a mundane science grind mission)

To Minmus!

Minmus capture burn

Minmus map completed

Transmitting collected data

Launch of the next Venera program mission

Edited November 4, 2015 by nsgallup

[nsgallup]

Booster separation

Ascension

Fairing separation

Circularizing

Burning for Eve

Closing on Eve

Entering the atmosphere

Drogue deployment

All chutes have been deployed, the module automatically starts gathering data from the atmosphere

After some timewarping for better lighting, the Venera Habitat & Research Module has landed in a valley with an altitude of about 3.5km above sea level, it awaits a crew

[nsgallup]

The EAV (Eve Ascent Vehicle)

[nsgallup]

We need bigger rockets

This ship is a lagfest

Detaching the first stage

Second stage detachment

Circularization

This is a big rocket.. we are sending Bob by the way

Eve transfer burn