Forgotten Space Program

[Don't touch me]

On 4/22/2016 at 9:10 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Just a wee little bit by blood. Like 75% or so. Though not for five generations to be true. Quite a few of the old words live on in my melting-pot lingo, and my grandfather spoke a bit of Gaelic, though I don't know if he knew he did. He just knew the weatherman didn't know níl.

At this point I just look unmistakably Irish but I'm all [West] Virginian. 13 generations or so of it, if not more. And 0% Texan. 

 

Edit: Welcome to the forums!

Thanks, and ah. Great job with the posts. May the Kraken not Eat you!

 

[Geschosskopf]

On 4/22/2016 at 3:10 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Just a wee little bit by blood. Like 75% or so. Though not for five generations to be true. Quite a few of the old words live on in my melting-pot lingo, and my grandfather spoke a bit of Gaelic, though I don't know if he knew he did. He just knew the weatherman didn't know níl.

Where I live, folks commonly use a few words from 5 or 6 different Indian languages (not all from the US or even North America) without even thinking about it, besides quite a few West African words (probably from several languages) and their usual mix of obsolete forms of several European languages.

 

On 4/23/2016 at 10:23 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

There's still some voodoo with PR, though most of it seems to be unlocked when in proximity of the claw. There's also a pretty nasty thing that happens if you dock two craft together without the plugin installed... especially when one is a big asteroid and another is a slightly smaller ship.... As I may or may not have recently discovered. Easy to fix if you know which files to delete.

Edit: Craft still pull a Crazy Ivan when crossing the Prime Meridian.  

Hehehe, I meant besides not doing its main job quite right.  IIRC, it introduced a few new features in other areas that I found inconvenient.

 

[Cydonian Monk]

3 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Hehehe, I meant besides not doing its main job quite right.  IIRC, it introduced a few new features in other areas that I found inconvenient.

Well, the automatic death by g-forces is gone now, if that's what you're referring to. Asteroids still spin at discovery though. 

 

As far as unexpected "features," I just discovered you can't transfer crew between cabins with Remote Tech installed without a comms link - which makes the design of the Sulphur lander design a bit dangerous..... (I blame Agake for locking everybody out of the cockpit.)

[Geschosskopf]

3 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Well, the automatic death by g-forces is gone now, if that's what you're referring to. Asteroids still spin at discovery though. 

I can't remember,  It was long ago and far away.

 

3 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

As far as unexpected "features," I just discovered you can't transfer crew between cabins with Remote Tech installed without a comms link - which makes the design of the Sulphur lander design a bit dangerous..... (I blame Agake for locking everybody out of the cockpit.)

Oh joy.  I wonder why something involving Kerbals has an issue with RT...?

[Cydonian Monk]

41 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Oh joy.  I wonder why something involving Kerbals has an issue with RT...?

Likely an oversight. Because the hatches on the Mk1 cabins are obstructed, I have to use the right-click transfer option. Generally those only work if you have local control (which requires a kerbal in a cockpit) or a probe with a link. I had neither. The transfer by clicking on a hatch probably still works. 

Edited April 24, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[superstrijder15]

3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Where I live, folks commonly use a few words from 5 or 6 different Indian languages (not all from the US or even North America) without even thinking about it, besides quite a few West African words (probably from several languages) and their usual mix of obsolete forms of several European languages.

I live in The Netherlands, but at my school my friends and I tend to speak a mix of Dutch, English and sometimes even a little Spanish to one another! And we tend to speak the 'game language' of the games we're playing. Poor teachers

[Geschosskopf]

8 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Likely an oversight. Because the hatches on the Mk1 cabins are obstructed, I have to use the right-click transfer option. Generally those only work if you have local control (which requires a kerbal in a cockpit) or a probe with a link. I had neither. The transfer by clicking on a hatch probably still works. 

Ah.  and of course no Kerbal can be in the cockpit if anybody needs to move in or out of the passenger cabin.  That thing really needs a hatch on the roof.

[Cydonian Monk]

Two Star Detour

With all their science data from the Mün packed up and the copies of the "recordings" found in the mystery lander secured, Macfred and crew made their preparations to return to Kerbin. They had one last thing to do before they could go home, though: Visit Minmus.

Sure, it was a bit out of the way, and at first The Boss was less then enthusiastic about such a long side trip. But, as Gene pointed out, the experience [points] the crew gained by visiting the minty green moon would elevate the three younger members of the crew to 2.5-star kerbals, and would cement Thomlock's position as "most experienced kerbal", brining him to three-stars. Whatever these stars were.

And the detour would buy the kerbals in the lab enough time to polish off their designs or an advanced drive system to replace what was originally planned for the Memory of Tomorrow. And none could question the extra science points the mission would gather.

So Thomlock plotted a course and the Sulphur 4 made its way outbound. The burn was completed in the dark, as is only right and proper.

--

 

Meanwhile, Sieta and Baile Speir had arrived at their new mooring point - The Cajun Moon. (Or, more specifically, Billy Bob's Cajun Spice Shack in the Sky.) When Sieta first saw the rock, and its mad spinning, she knew she just had to somehow dock the station to it. But how?

Docking the entire station to the spinning pebble would never work, and remote piloting the two Obair shuttles docked at Baile Speir was out of the question as they were lacking onboard electronics of any sort. The stability modules of the station, while powerful enough to stop the spinning, had such limited electrical power that their batteries would be dead by the time they made it over to the tiny moon.

So Sieta took the Nitrogen out for a spin, including the docking adapter, which would allow the small craft to dock up with one of the two anchors. The spin of the rock was slow enough that she was able to "brush" the rock to get it to slow down. (The docking ports wouldn't catch while spinning, but after a few taps that didn't matter.) After the spinning had slowed enough, she moved in and docked up with the Nitrogen.

Now it was back to get the station. This was the hard part - moving a many-decades old collection of random parts and orienting it well enough to dock to a large rock. First she needed to free the standard-sized docking port on the end of the station. (This required another dangerous move of the Obair craft, which she was a bit more capable of working worth this time, but nowhere near as competent as a pilot would be.)

With that cleared, Sieta oriented the station to face the docking port on the other anchor and moved the station. Slowly. The Sun was setting by the time she had the bulk of the station where it needed to be, and moved in to make the final docking.

Ok, so Baile Speir now has a large pebble attached to it. What now? Sieta certainly didn't know.

--

A few days later Macfred and gang arrived at the tiny mint green moon of Minmus. Thomlock was rather speechless as to the bright colors of Minmus, a moon that didn't exist (or hadn't been discovered) when he left Kerbin. Agake was too busy conducting science experiments to really notice. 

After finishing their orbital science tasks the crew set about selecting a landing spot. Gletrix and Macfred both agreed somewhere along the flats adjacent to other biomes would be the best option, and so they dialed in the first part of the descent to the flight computer. 

Agake meanwhile was still working to pull results from the science instruments strapped to the outside of the cockpit. Constantly climbing in and out, so the other just let the cockpit stay empty. And then she floated her way into the back cabin, allowing the hatch to the cockpit to close behind her.

"Ok, I've got all the readings I need. Who's up?"

Gletrix jumped up and made for the hatch. "Me. Let's get this going." A quick pull on the hatch lever and... nothing. So she gave it a harder tug. Stuck. A swift kick sent her tumbling back through the cabin. 

"Locked?"

"Does it have locks?"

Macfred looked back through the cabin at his science officer. "What'd you do to the door?"

"Me? Why's it my fault? Aren't you the engineer?"

"Yeah, yeah. Ok." Macfred spent some time fiddling with it, long enough that the pre-programmed descent burn started. Time was running out and the door wasn't budging. "Ok, everybody get their helmets on. I'll EVA from the rear airlock and work my way to the cockpit." 

Thomlock unstrapped from his seat and silently made his way to the cockpit hatch. He pulled a screwdriver from an overhead bin, jimmied a panel loose, pulled out a mass of wires and then slid the hatch open casually. He handed the screwdriver to Macfred and then slid back to his seat.

"Might need to fix the radio once we're landed, kid."

Gletrix wasted no time getting into the cockpit and preparing for the final landing.

After a short ceremony they planted the flag and named the site "Tasty Frozen Gulf." The three non-scientists then set about playing in the low gravity while Agake got to work. 

Lots of science data to collect here, and she wanted to get samples from each of the nearby biomes. In addition to the Great Flats, Agake was able to collect data from the Minmus Slopes and the Minmus Midlands biomes, both netting several hundred science points. 

Flags, footprints, and science pillaging done, the crew packed everything into the Sulphur lander and made their way back towards Kerbin. Macfred had the important parts of the radio fixed long before takeoff, and had restored their data connection by the time they completed their escape burn from Minmus.

There was some discussion of burning on the other side of Minmus and kicking their orbit out of the Kerbin system, but Macfred wasn't sure their food and oxygen supplies would last and Mission Control wasn't sure they'd make it back to Kerbin before the window to Jool closed, so all involved decided to NOT go for the three-star mission.

In eight days they'd be home again.

--

Shortly after the Suplhur 4 left Minmus, another ship arrived. Silently and without any fanfare....

 

--

There was some sort of software glitch affecting Kelgee Station when the Sulphur 4 arrived there eight days later. It was barely noticeable at first, when the Sulphur 4 almost failed to dock despite the two docking ports touching. Thomlock backed off from the port and made a second approach, and that time it worked. 

"Weird."

All four of them helped Agake transfer the 109 science experiments over from the S4 to the Nitrogen capsule she would return to Kerbin in. (For some reason science experiments can still only be transferred by EVA. None at Mission Control had a good explanation for this.)

Nothing else really happened until they went to leave. Agake and Gletrix's Nitrogen craft, s you might recall, was docked to the station using a small Docking Port Jr bolted to the side of the orbital module. Attempting to undock from this connection repeatedly failed. 

Exhausted and running out of ideas, Macfred instructed them to instead activate the decoupler used to free the capsule form the orbital module. This freed the Nitrogen from the station, but left the stub behind. Whatever, they could clean it up later.

The reentry burn was conducted once the Nitrogen TC-14 was clear of the station. They targeted the bay near Delta City on the Central Continent for a splashdown point, for no other reason than the sun being up at the landing site. 

Agake and Gletrix were picked up by the recovery team a short time later.

The science returns were incredibly impressive. 3258 points. More than enough to unlock all the nodes needed to supply the space agency with RTGs and nuclear propulsion systems for the Jool mission.

Nice!

Macfred and Thomlock followed next in the Nitrogen TC-13. Once again the docking ports refused to release, forcing them to instead fire the decoupler to blow them free from the orbital module. Somebody would have to look into this issue before they could return to Kelgee. (Maybe Sieta was right? Maybe Kelgee really is cursed?)

Instead of a bevy of science data, Macfred and Thomlock were riding down with the recordings they recovered from the Mun Lander at Pequoni 1. With their somewhat more sensitive and important cargo their landing was targeted directly for the Space Center. And they hit the mark fairly well.

With such a long mission complete, and safely at that, all involved were ready for a short break. Gene was describing the party they had planned for the four astronauts to Thomlock and Macfred as the recovery team was dragging their capsule up the beach. Endless oceans of cheese, a mountain of corn chips, some drink none of them had every heard of but the representatives from the local beverage company were insistent tasted incredible, and of curse funds galore. The World's First had been showering them with plaque and check after plaque and check while the four of them were out picking up rocks and landing everywhere.

They had just pulled their way out of the capsule and kicked off their helmets when the head of the Office of Surface Imaging walked up to them. 

"The Boss wants to speak with you. Both of you."

Thomlock handed him his helmet and held up the data store with the cabin transcripts on it. "About this?"

Mr way-too-serious OSI guy nodded. 

"Sure thing, right after the party."

"Now."

"Or we could go now. Lead on, camera dude."

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[cubinator]

49 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

When Sieta first saw the rock, and its mad spinning, she knew she just had to somehow dock the station to it. But how?

*intense organ starts playing*

[Cydonian Monk]

4 minutes ago, cubinator said:

*intense organ starts playing*

And that's exactly what I thought. "It's impossible." "No, it's necessary."

[cubinator]

2 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

And that's exactly what I thought. "It's impossible." "No, it's necessary."

You should have actually brought up the soundtrack when you did it! I've never docked while spinning (except the one time I was using the Endurance mod, because it wouldn't be right if I didn't) but recently I docked two non-spinning craft whilst playing "Imperfect Lock" and it was perfect.

[Cydonian Monk]

Just now, cubinator said:

You should have actually brought up the soundtrack when you did it! I've never docked while spinning (except the one time I was using the Endurance mod, because it wouldn't be right if I didn't) but recently I docked two non-spinning craft whilst playing "Imperfect Lock" and it was perfect.

It's an experience. One hand was going mad with the joystick controlling pitch/yaw/roll and some of the translation, while the other was also working translation with the keyboard. I very nearly ran out of monoprop in the Nitrogen craft, and actually made the spinning worse originally by hitting one of the claw anchors too hard. Basically went into "orbit" of the asteroid before I gave up and decided to bump it to slow it down.

[KAL 9000]

I've done that before! And it was actually a mission to save Kerbalkind, in a role play save. Doing it from IVA view is a moving experience.

[cubinator]

5 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

It's an experience. One hand was going mad with the joystick controlling pitch/yaw/roll and some of the translation, while the other was also working translation with the keyboard. I very nearly ran out of monoprop in the Nitrogen craft, and actually made the spinning worse originally by hitting one of the claw anchors too hard. Basically went into "orbit" of the asteroid before I gave up and decided to bump it to slow it down.

It could have been worse. In the movie, the docking port was actually offset from the center of mass because of the explosion, so Cooper had to not only spin the Lander, but also translate it in circles around the new center of mass to keep up with the docking port. AND the whole thing was subject to more-than-vacuum atmospheric drag. I tried to simulate the shift in mass by exploding those Endurance modules and failed miserably. I couldn't have done it by hand.

[Don't touch me]

Dude! This is great keep up the good work!

Where to on the first mission to Jool?

And then?

Don't Let the Kraken Eat you!

 

Edited April 25, 2016 by Don't touch me

[Geschosskopf]

21 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Two Star Detour

And no "agonizers" for Hadfield for letting his ship get stolen?

Go Sieta for her magnificent docking.  You know, her name and her dealings with ghosts reminds me of an ancient sci-fi/horror story (published in Astounding, Nov 59 and republished in whatever anthology I discovered it in) featuring a possessed bulldozer.  She was a Caterpillar D-7 so her bi-lingual Mexican operator punned the literal translation "De Siete" into the English "Daisy Etta".  The title of the story featuring "Daisy Etta", BTW, was called "Killdozer" by Theodore Sturgeon. 

I wonder what the Multiple Shovel-Murderer's business is on Minmus.....

 

 

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

I wonder what the Multiple Shovel-Murderer's business is on Minmus.....

The ship was getting low on ice cream. It's not like he can just pick some up from Kerbin; he's an infamous space pirate!

[Cydonian Monk]

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

And no "agonizers" for Hadfield for letting his ship get stolen?

There will no doubt be repercussions, but unlike Kerbulans we don't torture kerbals for being overly trusting. (Especially those from other universes....) Rank does have its privileges though, and Macfred and crew now outrank basically everyone.

Quote

[insert broken forum quote here.....]

Ah, yes, Killdozer. Pretty sure I've seen the film, also sure I haven't read the story. I'm fairly poorly read on older science fiction, aside from the usuals like Verne and Asimov. Too much modern stuff to read through. Especially since I've been buying up anthologies and magazines to read my friend's work, and haven't read any of the other pieces in said anthologies and/or magazines..... And there's all the Kim Stanley Robinson stuff I'm slogging through..... Too little time, too many stories.

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

I wonder what the Multiple Shovel-Murderer's business is on Minmus.....

Minmus is an interesting spot. At a guess I'd say he's looking for fuel, but probably also privacy. Pretty easy to spot something the size of the MoT orbiting the Mün (given enough time). At Minmus the ship could most likely land safely, though I doubt Hallock will try anything that challenging. He's insane, not crazy.....

And maybe he's after some mint ice cream. I know I'd be if I'd had nothing more than bananas for several decades.

[KAL 9000]

Probably ice cream... The local ice cream restaurant on Minmus in my save received a huge order from the Munolith (which was apparently relaying the request from another reality, called "/user/CydonianMonk/version/1.1.0/saves/ForgottenSpaceProgram" (at least that's what it told us...))

[cubinator]

*off-topic* Wouldn't it be cool if Minmus had a ring made of ice cream cones? And sprinkles? *imagines what that would look like* Whoa, literal rainbow rings?? I WANT THAT AS A MOD!

[Kiwa]

On 3/28/2016 at 6:00 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

I'm still not sure how I managed to get the two double docks to work in the figure eight, but 0.23.5 (and/or 0.24) handled it properly - no broken docks, no dock seeking, just docked. Compare that to the Kraken's Harvest from Ad Lunam where fewer than half of the double/triple docks in its ring worked.... Though it was a hub and spoke style of build versus the ring of Pioneer.

Any bases I build going forward probably won't be this large, and will likely rest entirely on a single-craft underchassis.

I did quite a number of double dockings last year (in 1.04?) because of "launch new station" contracts, and found they were actually easier than before. With a straight in approach, probably at about 0.25 m/s or thereabouts, straight as in "symmetrically" (i.e. along the diagonal), it was 100% successful, not once did I have to undock/retry. Pics in the spoiler below.

Not sure if 1.1 has changed anything in that regard? If not, it might still be quite viable to use the docking method.

 

Spoiler

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514351909

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514351775

 

[Cydonian Monk]

2 minutes ago, Kiwa said:

Not sure if 1.1 has changed anything in that regard? If not, it might still be quite viable to use the docking method.

It's my understanding that multi-docking is not supported in KSP v1.1. Maybe 1.1.1?

[Kiwa]

18 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

It's my understanding that multi-docking is not supported in KSP v1.1. Maybe 1.1.1?

I have to admit I've only played a little bit in 1.1 so far because it was kind of surprising they ended the beta so quickly, because of the still unresolved asteroid bugs and because of the landing legs digging way too deep into the ground. Seriously no double docks any more? That would.. will.. make some things quite a bit more difficult, if not impossible.

[Kiwa]

4 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

It's my understanding that multi-docking is not supported in KSP v1.1. Maybe 1.1.1?

 

4 hours ago, Kiwa said:

I have to admit I've only played a little bit in 1.1 so far because it was kind of surprising they ended the beta so quickly, because of the still unresolved asteroid bugs and because of the landing legs digging way too deep into the ground. Seriously no double docks any more? That would.. will.. make some things quite a bit more difficult, if not impossible.

So, I had to try it (with KSP 1.1 Win64), and as far as I can tell, multi-docking still works perfectly fine. I launched 4 lander cans on a boom stick, each with top/bottom standard ports and 4 junior ports on the sides; then decoupled them one after the other and docked them using the junior ports for the final configuration as shown in the image below in the spoiler. Diagonal approach for the last can, and got a perfectly fine all-around dock on the first try again (at least that's how I interpret the 4 "undock" options). Not sure whether it's "not supported" as you said, but it sure does seem to work
 

Spoiler

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=674056235

Not visible in the shot here and not really revelant, on the dark side (top of each can) there is a 1.25m battery, an RTG and 4 RCS thrusters.

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2016 by Kiwa
spelling/grammar

[Cydonian Monk]

1 minute ago, Kiwa said:

So, I had to try it (with KSP 1.1 Win64), and as far as I can tell, multi-docking still works perfectly fine..... Not sure whether it's "not supported" as you said, but it sure does seem to work

Good to hear. It was (at least) one of the streamers fighting with getting it and some other comments on the forum that led me to the impression it wasn't working.