The Kerbal Wilds (Career mode story in an even tinier Solar System)

[Whirligig Girl]

NEW THREAD HERE

 

 

 

Welcome to The Kerbal Wilds

 

The name comes from Outer Wilds, a space-backpacking game in a very very small solar system. This is fitting, because this space program is on a 1/10 scale stock system (1/100 Earth scale!)

Get the mod HERE!

Backstory

The United Kerbin Conglomerate of Villages has just entered an industrial revolution. Problem is, after only 50 years a significant sized chunk of their resources have already been depleted, and they have realized that it is going to be quite difficult to survive as an industrial species unless they look up into the wild black yonder: The Outer Wilds.

To this end, they have established the K. S. P., or the Kerbal Space Program. The KSP's purpose is to invest Kerbin's resources into getting resources from the other planets, and explore them for their interesting properties along the way. Unfortunately for them, many politicians believe that the KSP is a waste of resources that couldn't benefit the Kerbin people. They have done all they can to limit the funding and have soured the program's reputation, calling it nothing more than a waste.

Nevertheless, the people of Kerbin have always looked up into the sky dots with wonder, and they wonder if they will ever get a chance to visit them one day.

[/backstory]

Okay, so this is something I don't think anyone has tried yet. The story of a mini solar system's space program. The story is meant to evoke a sort of "WWI/Postwar" era feeling (1910-1939-ish) technologically and societally, with a few major differences (my Kerbals do not discriminate, unless that drives the plot. In general, society looks down on sexism and racism) so I hope that works. Telegrams and Radio broadcasts replacing E-mail and television. Dieselpunk, in a word.

 

General options:

Allow Quicksave: true

Allow Reverting: true

No Entry Purchase on Research: true

Career Options:

Starting Funds: 9,000

Starting Reputation: -20

Advanced Options:

Re-Entry Heating: 120%

Resource Abundance: 100%

Funds Rewards: 90% (reduced by the government even further to 20% (referred to by Mortimer Kerman as "essentially Bupkis.")

Reputation Rewards: 40%

Fund Penalties: 150%

Reputation Penalties: 150%

Flight 1

The Fat Arrow Mk1 said:

In order to get further funding for the space program' date=' Wernher von Kerman had to first prove that it was in fact possible to protect a Kerbal life from the extreme hazards of the vacuum of the Outer Wilds. The airtight pressure vessel of the cone-shaped pod would hopefully keep a Kerbal safe. Of course, to get a Kerbal up to altitude, a small boiler was filled with boompowder and a conical nozzle attached to it to provide the thrust. To guide it through the air, there are some thin bolt-on fins, and to land there are some metal girders leftover from the VAB construction.[/quote']

The RT-5 booster in the picture has been thrust limited to 28% and reduced to 42 units of fuel.

...and so the Fat Arrow Mk1 was pulled along to the launch pad by a small steam locomotive named Tomoly, and Jebediah Kerman eyed the contraption suspiciously.

"I'm supposed to get inside that thing?" Jebediah radioed. "No." said Gene Kerman at mission control. "You're supposed to just watch it fly up." Jeb looked disappointed. "YES OF COURSE YOU'RE MEANT TO GET INSIDE THAT THING!" Gene yelled, so loud the radio crackled. Jeb thought he might've been able to hear him from all the way over at mission control if it weren't for the suit muffling all the outside sound. Jeb smiled and climbed up the repurposed boiler and sat in the capsule, making sure to close the door nice and tight. Unfortunately he knocked one of the stabilizer fins off the rocket in the process. He didn't mention it. 'It'll be fine' He thought.

The guys at mission control watched the clock closely, and wondered whether Jebediah Kerman really was the best idea for the first Kerbal in Space. Sure he won pretty much every car race he ever entered, but they all wondered if a fighter pilot would be a better idea. "You've got about a minute left." Gene told him.

Jeb pressed the button labeled "Press this when you've got about a minute left" and a small set of cables connected to the capsule to a small battery pack on the ground became unplugged, and the capsule was now under its own power.

Jeb looked out the window and saw the Mun. "Oh, joy!" He thought. "I should like to go there one day."

It was now only 15 seconds left, and the time rapidly decreased. Gene Kerman took a sip from his coffee, and set it down. He asked all of the stations if their telemetry was good, and they all replied "well... er... probably. It depends..." and would eventually revise their answer to "good enough I suppose." Of course they said "Good enough at the precise moment that Jeb's alarm rang and told him to press the starter key.

The rocket went up like a shot! As it went up, Jebediah looked out the window and saw the ground and ocean recede. It rocketed past the 1,100 altitude record set by the famous fighter pilot Valentina Kerman, as the fuel ran out, where it then coasted all the way up to 16 hectometers. As far as a Kerbal is concerned this is a vacuum. Low air pressure and temperature would kill a Kerbal quickly and the radiation would kill him slowly if it weren't for the protective capsule. Of course, it wouldn't matter that much considering he was only up there for a good ten seconds. But ten seconds of freefall is more freefall than any other Kerbal has experienced before. The only thing going through Jeb's mind was "This is cool, I want to go higher."

He then started to descend back to the Kerbal Spaceport Complex. The fall would be fatal if not for an expertly devised system in which a parachute made from all of Gusby Kerman's sweaters was made to fold up in the tightest possible package, and the parachute unpacked itself wonderfully. The empty Fat Arrow Mk1 rocket motor hit the ground with a THUD and the parachute cut. After a few seconds contemplating his flight, he kicked open the pod door and got out, landing on the ground with a thud.

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The world went black.* Unfortunately for him, he had just fallen on his head and the next thing he knew he was waking up in a hospital. "Hey, nurse, can I buy you a drink?"

*the game crashed

Edited February 27, 2016 by GregroxMun
corrected kilometers to hectometers.

[Whirligig Girl]

Valentina Kerman listened to her radio, sitting down at the table in her small apartment. She'd heard the news of a space program and of a race-car driver who would ride the first space ship. Today was the day of the launch. Live feed of Mission Control was played through, and Valentina secretly hoped this launch would fail. If not for the Space Program, she'd be given the go ahead to launch her new jet plane which would be able to go fast enough to give the Fat Arrow a run for its funds. But alas, the government was siding with the Space Program because of the more practical uses of it. She held her cup of tea, and sipped it once or twice. The radio stopped playing the standby music (A swingy version of the Planetary Anthem) and the live news report came on.

"We now return to The News, sponsored by Billington's Soap Products and Locomotive Works!"

Valentina looked at the soap sitting on top of the sink, and at the train outside her window. She realized that Billington definitely held the monopoly on soap, even if not Locomotives. The large, non-Billington steam locomotive began to puff away loudly, and Valentina turned up the volume on her radio set.

"It is a very exciting day here at the aboveground Kerbal Spaceport Complex, we are about seven minutes away from the launch of the Fat Arrow Mark One, Kerbin's first manned rocket. The pilot is Jebediah Kerman, who is currently riding on a small steam train pulling the rocket to the launch site. The time here is three o'clock and the sky is clear, and we are all very excited for the mission. I am talking to Dr. Wernher von Kerman, the head rocket designer at the Kerbal Spaceport Complex."

Valentina scowled at the designer's name.

"Yes, hello Mr. Reportmanson." The high pitched, almost squeaky voice of Dr. Wernher von Kerman said. "The Fat Arrow Mark One is a great step ahead in technology, though most of it is in the crewed section. Plenty of rockets have been created in the past, one from the ancient period was once even rumored to have entered a brief orbit. In fact the rocket section is little more than repurposed junk, including an old boiler and leftover gunpowder. The real advancement is really in the capsule. Such capsules lay the groundwork for space stations which might deliver communication across the globe nearly instantly. If you live on the Eastern hemisphere you probably won't hear this broadcast for almost an hour as it gets processed at various radio stations. With a space station, two totally separate villages could communicate instantly, and a live radio broadcast would be only seconds away! Of course, the first step in maintaining a space station is the capsule, a test device which can prove that an airtight vessel can practically protect a Kerbal from the hostile environment of space." The reporter made a sound that was something like an "uh-huh" mixed with a "whaaa?" He then spoke. "Alright thank you Dr. von Kerman for your time." The reporter paused for a moment, and then began again. "The pilot of the rocket is the world-renowned race-car driver Jebediah Kerman, who had his claim to fame by excecuting what has since been called 'The Jebediah Manuever' in a race to save huge amounts of time at the cost of not having a squishy brain. We now turn the sound directly over to Mission Control."

Valentina finished her tea as the radio made a clicking sound.

"...EANT TO GET INSIDE THAT THING!" A voice was yelling. The voice was of course that of Gene Kerman, the head of Mission Control. There was a lot of technobabble chatter in the intervening time as systems were being checked by the engineers, scientists, and technicians. "You've got about a minute left." the voice said again. Gene then uttered a few strange phrases, followed by other people saying things such as "Maybe" and "I don't know." "FIDO?" "Probably." "BOOSTER?" "I think it should work." etc.

At ten seconds, a lone Kerbal in the back of the room was counting down. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One." The radio was filled with a loud, thunderous crackle as the rocket ignited. "The rocket has passed 11 hectometers, the record previously set by fighter pilot Valentina Kerman." A few seconds passed, and Valentina was fuming. "The rocket has reached a maximum altitude of 16 hectometers!" The mission control crew all cheered.

At this point, Valentina was so furious that she had to turn the radio off.

Edited October 22, 2015 by GregroxMun
changed kilometers to hectometers

[Whirligig Girl]

Valentina could not be a whole lot happier this morning. She was out for a walk down the street when she decided to pick up the newspaper. She knew she wouldn't like it. She was wrong. She picked it up, and the headline read "Legendary race-car and rocket driver Jebediah Kerman knocked out upon leaving his command pod. Freak Accident, says flight surgeon William Kerpentier" She read the whole story with a huge smile, very much appreciating what she thought was proof that karma exists.

A few hours later, she was sitting in a reclining chair reading a book. At this point she heard a knock on her door. She got up, closed the book, and went to the door. She opened the door to see a young Kerbal wearing a Kerbal Postal uniform. The kerbal smiled when he realized who he was delivering the letter to. "Wow! You're THE Valentina Kerman." Valentina smiled. "Can I shake your hand?" The kid had been told that if you could choose between a hand shake and an autograph, the hand shake is better. Valentina shook his hand. The kid was beaming from eye to eye. "It's a telegraph from the uh... Kerbal Spaceport Complex." Valentina's soft smile became an annoyed frown. The kid's excited smile became a sad disappointed frown. Valentina noticed this, and said "it's not your fault. It's just... The KSP stole my job." The kid looked confused. "But you fly airplanes and the KSP makes rockets!" He said. Valentina sighed. "If only the government would see that." Valentina opened the letter at the door, and the delivery kid stuck around, and Valentina made no attempt to get rid of him. Valentina's frown once again became a smile, and the kid looked as confused as ever. "Well I'll be darned." She said. "Looks like they need my help." The kid looked at his pocketwatch and realized he had better get going if he wanted to finish his deliveries. Valentina signed her name a bit of the letter's envelope and gave it to the kid (she could tell how obvious it was that he wanted a signature), who then smiled again. He left, and Valentina closed the door, looking at the letter with a sneer She then turned it over and read the rest of it.

The telegraph read the following:

Greetings, Miss Valentina Kerman.

We need your help.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you may or may not be aware, Jebediah Kerman is bedridden at the hospital due to a head injury

and we need another pilot. At first we considered one of his brothers Bill or Bob, but neither of those

are pilots, only an engineer and a scientist. We asked Jebediah who he thought would be the best to

replace him temporarily, and he said that the only person qualified to replace him was Valentina Ker-

man. We weren't sure if he was only saying that because he was mentally damaged, or if he was

serious, but when we actually checked your records we were so impressed that we quite frankly felt

kind of stupid for not considering you earlier.

Enclosed in the envelope is a train ticket to the Kerbal Spaceport Complex and a KSC Staff card.

We hope you would consider our offer, the train leaves on Tuesday. Thank you for being

an awesome person.

Sincerely, Walt Kerman.

Valentina's sneer became a genuine smile, and she carefully looked over the letter two more times. She began to pack her things. She was determined to become the world's first Outernaut. She'd better hurry, she thought, after all: the train leaves Tuesday.

Edited October 21, 2015 by GregroxMun

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Moar!!!!!!

[Whirligig Girl]

Flight 2

Packed with a significantly higher amount of boom' date=' the Fat Arrow Mk2 can actually send a Kerbal into really actual space, where there isn't ANY atmosphere. With this exciting occasion, the spacecraft carries some scientific experiments found in a dumpster behind KSC.[/quote']

Tomoly the Tank Engine wasn't feeling too well today. His fire went out and there was not enough steam. And it was nearly time for the launch! They ended up having to get a different locomotive to pull the Fat Arrow Mk2 to the launching pad, one with significantly less personality.

"Hot-dog!" Shouted Valentina. "Don't say that so loud or the KETA will be after us!" Gene warned. "Alright." She said. "Hot-rod!"

She climbed into the capsule. This one had a decoupler which would allow for a safer re-entry without having to worry about carrying all that extra boilerbooster mass. Valentina was ready for action. With only thirty seconds in the launch countdown left, a young Kerbal barged into the mission control building, panting and sweating, yelling "STOOOOPPP!" Gene Kerman was upset at this. "What is your problem mister!?" He shouted at him. "If you launch with the current ascent profile you will kill Valentina!" Everyone stopped. "Alright." Gene said. "Stop the countdown. Now if you would please explain yourself so we can get to work getting this darned thing flying?" The kerbal pulled out a piece of paper that had lots of carefully drawn lines and number written on it. "I did the calculation, several times over. Even had it checked by The Calculator. I did a wind tunnel test. The parachute will not be able to slow the capsule down enough if you launch straight up. You have to get the ship to turn over to the west to make sure it doesn't come slamming in the atmosphere to fast before the 'chute can do anything about it." The Kerbal handed his paper of calculations to Gene, who looked at it confused, and gave it to Dr. von Kerman. He looked at it and nodded. "Well zen it seems you have saved Valentina's life. These calculations are correct from what I can tell. What's your name, mister?" The Kerbal corrected his glasses and saluted. "Linus Kerman, sir!" He said. "Sthank you Mr. Linus." von Kerman replied.

"Alright Valentina, we've got some important change of plans." Gene Kerman said. "You're going to use the emergency joystick to turn right to about fifty degrees." "Alright Gene, you got it!" Valentina acknowledged.

The countdown then proceeded as normal. Finally it was time for the loud crackle of the rocket thrust, and the rocket went up and sideways. Valentina smashed the green button which said "Do the science thing in the air!"

Valentina saw how shallow her ascent was and didn't want to risk not going to space just for a little safety. She turned the rocket up just a little bit to ensure she would make it to space.

The rocket booster flamed out. She desperately hoped that the Apoapsis was over 7 kilometers. She saw the atmosphere gauge read vacuum. "Woohoo! I am the first Outernaut!" Valentina exclaimed. Her childhood dreams were coming true before her very eyes as you rotated the capsule to take a look at the planet. "I can almost see my house from here."

The vessel was now falling, and Valentina remembered to press the green button that said "Do the science thing in SPACE!!!!" and she remembered to jot down a few describing words about the experience.

The atmosphere gauge clicked, and the pressure increased. She was heading in a bit fast, but managed to deploy the parachute without cooking it. She was pushed backward in here seat about five times as much as the initial rocket blast, but survived uncrushed. The capsule splashed down into the water. Unfortunately, the KSC hadn't planned for that because of the last minute change of plan, so it was several hours before they got a boat out there to fish the capsule (which had taken on water due to the damage) out of the water, and was given a dry tower and a change of clothes.

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When she got back to the KSC, she underwent a physiological examination--something which was not particularly comfortable--to confirm that she suffered no ill effects from her voyage into space. Upon finding nothing wrong, the space program was given the go ahead to launch something into orbit, and perhaps later: the Mun.

Meanwhile in the research and development center, Dr. Wernher von Kerman was overseeing the material and chemical science labs as they were disecting the goo that survived the flight. There was a lot of interesting stuff found from the mysterious goo. The knowledge gained from the experiments would be directly applicable to creating the next generation of rockets: The liquid fueled rocket. But that would be later. The immediate spin-off would of course be larger, specially built solid rocket boosters.

Could a stable Kerbin orbit be reached with non-throttleable solid fueled rockets? As far as Dr. Wernher von Kerman was concerned, the answer was "probably." and as far as Valentina was concerned the answer was "probably not."

Unfortunately, the politicians were not particularly impressed with tossing a girl in a tin can. They docked the Kerbal Space Program's funding even further from 90% fund gains to 20% fund gains. It would not be much much harder for the KSP to make money. The solid rocket boosters would have to be used in favor of the liquid rockets now, simply to save money.

Edited October 22, 2015 by GregroxMun

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Gregox, mind if I use your mod for a KSP series? I'll link ya if your fine with it.

- - - Updated - - -

Gregox, mind if I use your mod for a KSP series? I'll link ya if your fine with it.

[CatastrophicFailure]

The Island Airfield.... is no longer an island. Tré bizarre.

[Whirligig Girl]

Gregox, mind if I use your mod for a KSP series? I'll link ya if your fine with it.

- - - Updated - - -

Gregox, mind if I use your mod for a KSP series? I'll link ya if your fine with it.

I don't mind at all! That was what publishing the mod is for.

[lajoswinkler]

http://i.imgur.com/TMTtgqF.png

Wow, a perfect capture.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

I know this is off-topic, but how do you install your mod?

[Whirligig Girl]

I know this is off-topic, but how do you install your mod?

You must first install Kopernicus.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

k thanks. plus, when are you post moar reports?

[Whirligig Girl]

At the research and development building, Wernher von Kerman and several engineers gathered to discuss new space capsule designs. They all agreed that the next step was to make a capsule that two Kerbals could fly in. This is because any operations they thought they might be able to do on the surface of the Mun or Minmus would have to involve two astronauts. Although they could just stack two Mk1 pods, this would be ineffective and the two astronauts would have to be separated from each other. An integrated design would be needed. The program needed a new space capsule, and the Mk2 was precisely what they needed.

The design they came up with was a larger version of the Mk-1 command pod. It would squeeze two Kerbals together at 45 degree angle from each other. One would be right next to the door as in the Mk1 pod, the other would be further away. Thus the capsule could be spontaneously disassembled in an emergency. The engineers all patted each other's backs, telling each other how smart they were, and were just about to conclude the meeting and get to work. And they did.

The capsule was being built in the R&D building the next day. Valentina stopped by the shop, after hearing about the new capsule design. She was mildly appalled at the direction they were taking with it. It was basically just a larger Mk1 pod, which was not very fitting for an air service pilot. Instead of complaining about it, she drew up her own concept. Jebediah had just gotten out of the hospital. He also had a few ideas on how to improve the design.

The two astronauts submitted their designs to Dr. von Kerman.

In the end, Valentina Kerman's design was chosen, mostly because the car-like design used too much glass, and also because Dr. von Kerman liked Valentina better.

[Whirligig Girl]

Jebediah Kerman was now out of the hospital, and it was time for the launch. The rocket was of totally untested design, which made Jebediah happy and made Valentina skeptical. She was not scared of it by any means as Bill or Bob would have been, but instead was more concerned about whether the space program would actually have two pilots after the launch. The actual part she was concerned about was the fact that the rocket booster was manufactured in-house, instead of using the proven pressure vessel design of the (albeit used) boilers of the previous RT-5 type boosters. One of the engineers assured Valentina that the design is basically a stolen boiler blueprint, and that she really ought not repeat that fact unless she wanted the space program to get sued.

built with specially made custom-built rocket booster engines instead of a used boiler' date=' the Corvus 1's heavier dual-crew command pod can be lifted not just to space, but to a sideways velocity fast enough to stay up there for a while. The mission of the Corvus 1 is a tri-tier program.

1: Achieve Low Kerbin Orbit.

2: Observe the effect of weightlessness on Kerbals.

3: Photograph Kerbin and other celestial bodies from Space.[/quote']

Valentina and Jebediah both entered the cramped command pod. The launch countdown proceeded normally. By this point an RT-5 type booster launch was mundane at this point.

The moment the rocket lifted off, Jebediah took the controls and yawed the rocket over to the side. The first booster was very quickly out of fuel, and the second one ignited. Even more rapidly this one ran out, and all that was left was the capsule. The problem was that Valentina saw the orbital velocity was not high enough. She had an idea that she had been thinking about as a contingency. She turned the capsule to its opposite side and burned the RCS thrusters in the nose-cone. Jeb was surprised, having no idea of what was happening. Valentina then waited until Corvus 1 was at Apoapsis and thrusted backward retrograde (equivalent to forward prograde; the Corvus nosecone has no back-facing thrusters for forward thrust) to increase her speed. Unfortunately she forgot to account for how low power the thrusters were.

Over the next few minutes as the Corvus sailed into the night, she held the Corvus at the right heading and kept accelerating even until it entered the atmosphere. Jeb then realized what she was doing. "Wait" he said. "You don't have to keep accelerating. The A P is high enough that we will remain in space after the quick atmosphere pass." Valentina looked at Jeb, Jeb looked at Valentina. Valentina stopped the thrust, and waited to see if Jeb was right. He was. At Apoapsis, Val pointed the Corvus 1 in the retrograde direction and retrothrusted into a circular orbit.

Valentina was too busy checking the velocity to notice, but Jeb took a picture of the sunrise from orbit. "Wow" was all he said.

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In orbit, some observations were made of Kerbin. This lasted a good three hours in orbit before Jeb and Val were both ready to come home.

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"Alright." Said Jeb as they passed over KSC with their long range radio transmitter. "When do we get to come back down?" The mission controllers chatted among themselves about it for a moment. "For a few more days." was the response given to them just as KSC passed below the horizon. "Dammit!" Said Valentina, looking scornfully at Jebediah.

The actual reasoning for this was not obvious to Valentina, nor was it to Jeb. But it was obvious to Dr. Wernher von Kerman. "If we want to start doing long voyages to the other planets" he said, "then we need to keep them up there for a while." Gene agreed, seeing no reason why not.

Wernher had an ulterior motive. He didn't want to have to launch two more rockets at the same time for the upcoming experiment when he could just use the one that was already there. He equipped the Corvus with a docking port for a reason.