Forgotten Space Program

[Cydonian Monk]

13 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Ah yes.  I am SO looking forward to owning an autonomous car.  My job depends entirely on human error and driver error is a significant part of my business.  So autonomous cars will likely put me out of job, but I'll be able to drown my sorrows   

Autonomous cars will do wonders for Houston traffic. Or perhaps not, as they may instead provide the former drivers of said cars more time to reload between emptying rounds into offending vehicles. And of course the Coal Rollers will never allow their rigs to be turned into robots.

 

13 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

One of these days I'll have to try making kOS doing something more complex that what I use it for now.  

Knowing some of what you're using it for now I'm not sure that's possible. Perhaps if you start using kOS to calculate NASA's budget? Personally I'm considering writing a docking routine. Shouldn't be that hard, and I'll likely need it once the three truckloads of stuff get to Jool. (Though I'm arguing that local/remote piloting IS a thing that will work, even when you have fewer than 6 kerbals as RT2 usually wants.... May be h4x0r time.)

 

Right now I'm trying to find someplace to shove the Ti-3 and its anxious crew at Kelgee. Thinking I should've sent the Ti-2 home first. This docking port bug, whatever it is and whatever is causing it is a major pain in the nadir... parts of the station. (I have a solution that might work, might be clever, or might make things worse. We'll see.)

Once this is done the Jool 4 need to take a tour of the fleet, then we get to do the lovely decades long transfer burns.... Likely three each per ship. And then maybe I'll see about upgrading to KSP v1.1.x. Hope to have that done by Thursday. (Actually there's a contract I want to finish first, but we'll get to that later in the week.)

Long weekend coming up, lots of time for KSP on Sat/Sun. Expect things to go out with a whimper-inducing bang.  (Or something like that.)

[RocketSquid]

I must admit I haven't used kOS for much so far. I am putting a KAL-9000 unit on the Duna Interplanetary, but I might not do much with it. I find that kOS is severely lacking in I/O of various types.

[Cydonian Monk]

16 minutes ago, RocketSquid said:

I must admit I haven't used kOS for much so far. I am putting a KAL-9000 unit on the Duna Interplanetary, but I might not do much with it. I find that kOS is severely lacking in I/O of various types.

It's rather useful when playing with Remote Tech's signal delay and needing to do something more complex than the RT2 flight computer can handle, or when the game is moving at 1 frame per second. 

[RocketSquid]

57 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

It's rather useful when playing with Remote Tech's signal delay and needing to do something more complex than the RT2 flight computer can handle, or when the game is moving at 1 frame per second. 

That's true. I think I'll find it more useful when vessel-to-vessel comms are implemented (next update).

[Geschosskopf]

On 5/24/2016 at 11:35 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Knowing some of what you're using it for now I'm not sure that's possible. Perhaps if you start using kOS to calculate NASA's budget? Personally I'm considering writing a docking routine. Shouldn't be that hard, and I'll likely need it once the three truckloads of stuff get to Jool. (Though I'm arguing that local/remote piloting IS a thing that will work, even when you have fewer than 6 kerbals as RT2 usually wants.... May be h4x0r time.)

Shoot, my little script does a couple of basic math operations is all.  I still can't figure out how to make it wait for the ship to answer the helm before kicking in the drive.

I got disenchanted with RT after using it for quite a while.  I ultimately decided it's too 1960s, and also KSP isn't accurate enough to keep satellites in carefully contrived orbits, so your network is always falling apart.  So I've been using Antenna Range the last year or so.

I'm really, REALLY curious as to what the impending stock system ends up being like.  Not that I actually want it, but I can't stop it so might as well start getting used to it.  I'm rather afraid to get started with anything major until that happens, because if it actually requires communications to its own specs to do something, it can easily break a game.  And if it doesn't actually require a link, then why even do it?

 

On 5/24/2016 at 11:35 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Once this is done the Jool 4 need to take a tour of the fleet, then we get to do the lovely decades long transfer burns.... Likely three each per ship. 

KAC, MJ, BettterBurnTime, and a bottle of whiskey should really help there

 

[Kerbalstar]

Cydonian Monk sorry if this has already been asked but are you planning to replace TAC life support with anything else? Also why did you drop TAC-LS. Also if you are planning to replace it may I suggest Kerbalism. It has the features of TAC-LS* and of remote tech to with much, much more. Also I'm thinking of making a forgotten Space Program Save.** Just a dedicated fan chiming in here.

 

* If you use the default profile it gives you food and oxygen resources but not water which is considered part of the food resource, but if you use the realism profile it gives you food, water, and oxygen.

 

** Not with a mission report I had one going for my main save but that got destroyed. I will run a few other saves next to that so I will probably use the mission report thread for one of those.

EDIT 100th post! Yay!

Kerbalstar

Edited May 26, 2016 by kerbalstar
100 posts!

[Cydonian Monk]

11 minutes ago, kerbalstar said:

Cydonian Monk sorry if this has already been asked but are you planning to replace TAC life support with anything else? Also why did you drop TAC-LS.

 

EDIT 100th post! Yay!

Yay! Welcome to 100!  

 

I pulled TAC LS when I did because I honestly expected to already be playing in KSP v1.1.?, and with TAC being shuttered so abruptly didn't expect TAC-LS to be updated for 1.1 by the time the Jool mission left. Funny how that worked out. I've already redone the payload math for this mission twice now.... So I'm not about to delay it again just so my kerbals can breathe or eat.  

Until this first Jool mission has returned to Kerbin I'm (obviously) not going to replace TAC-LS. I'm very optimistic about Kerbalism, at least for non-RSS/RO, and will likely give it a shot in a separate install. As it was, all TAC-LS added was extra math, extra mass, and extra parts. That's fine when I'm playing RSS/RO, but for stock-ish KSP it just didn't do much for me.

Maybe I'll bring it back later..... Or Kerbalism.

[Kerbalstar]

9 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Yay! Welcome to 100!  

 

I pulled TAC LS when I did because I honestly expected to already be playing in KSP v1.1.?, and with TAC being shuttered so abruptly didn't expect TAC-LS to be updated for 1.1 by the time the Jool mission left. Funny how that worked out. I've already redone the payload math for this mission twice now.... So I'm not about to delay it again just so my kerbals can breathe or eat.  

Until this first Jool mission has returned to Kerbin I'm (obviously) not going to replace TAC-LS. I'm very optimistic about Kerbalism, at least for non-RSS/RO, and will likely give it a shot in a separate install. As it was, all TAC-LS added was extra math, extra mass, and extra parts. That's fine when I'm playing RSS/RO, but for stock-ish KSP it just didn't do much for me.

Maybe I'll bring it back later..... Or Kerbalism.

Ok, thanks for the quick reply.

[EbonJaguar]

Heya!

Just finished reading all of this from the start, and wanted to say that this is a truly epic story! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for putting all this up here.

[Geschosskopf]

On 5/26/2016 at 11:31 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

As it was, all TAC-LS added was extra math, extra mass, and extra parts. That's fine when I'm playing RSS/RO, but for stock-ish KSP it just didn't do much for me.

Maybe I'll bring it back later..... Or Kerbalism.

All the so-called "realism" features various folks demand be made stock are that way.  You only notice them in the design phase.  But once you've got the ship built, these features have exactly zero impact on gameplay because you designed the ship with enough supplies just like you designed it with enough fuel, so you never even think about them again.  All you really get from such things is more parts, more mass, and more cost.  Period.  So why bother?

[Cydonian Monk]

2 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

All you really get from such things is more parts, more mass, and more cost.  Period.  So why bother?

Pretty much. 

Stations are the one place where it would be a thing. If getting magic science/engineering points took considerably more time to unlock and you needed to keep a crew on orbit to do it, then resupply runs to science stations would be a thing. Also - If one is treating KSP as a simulator, such as for RSS/RO they make sense. Otherwise they add a layer of depth that may or may not be interesting. Increasingly I agree such "shadow costs" don't make for interesting gameplay. 

[Cydonian Monk]

Finishing Touches

Check the straps. Go. Check the latch again. Go. Check the chair back. Go. Check the tray table. Go. Check your helmet. Go. Check your suit pressure. Go. These endless checklists and procedures seemed to grow ever more endless each time Macfred went through them. Worst of all they were now launching in a craft with five kerbals, each of whom had to go through the same endless checklists. 

He glanced out of his window briefly, looking back before being affected by the weirdness of the world being sideways. He was about to say something witty about hanging sideways underneath several tonnes of explosive fuel when he remembered the open mic. Interrupting the checklist kerbal would probably force them to start over, and nobody had time for that. 

He watched Thomlock as he worked through his checklist responses, replying with a solid "Go" to every instruction, never once actually checking anything. Guenter went through the drill with each of them already, having long since wished a "happy flight, astrokerbs" and sealed the cabin. Repeating the process for some random kerbal on the other end of the radio really was getting into the realm of the needlessly pedantic. 

Yet soon enough the checklists were done, the Titanium 3 deemed ready for flight, and its five occupants found safe and sane and all buckled up. Tetris was their pilot for today's shuttle to Kelgee, her first spaceflight since Nitrogen TC-10 and her first flight since going to the North Pole with Aluminium 8. Macfred had been along for N-TC-10 to repair the Magnesium space telescope, and had some trust in the young kerbals piloting abilities. Of course with the kOS flight computer handling the ascent only Tetris' docking skills would be put to any sort of test today. Unless something went horribly wrong. 

The ignition kicked hard, pushing Macfred back into his seat. "Ooomph." He glanced over to see clouds streaming past Thomlock's window, the elder kerbal just grinning and looking straight ahead. "Bit of a kick there, huh?"

"Yep. R&D kids said something about a 1.1 thrust to weight ratio not being...." A bit of turbulence interrupted him, shaking the entire ship. "Not being safe for a winged craft like this. So they pushed it up to 1.6 or 1.7." The ship rattled once more, this time much less violent. Macfred could feel the acceleration growing as they climbed, and looked over to see the world right-side-up once more. 

And then freefall. The main engine cut out just as they leveled off somewhere around 45km. They got a small, backwards kick as the now empty nose tank excused itself and moved towards its fiery demise. And then they were pulled back into their seats again, this time nearly twice as hard as before.  

Night fell before they reached their target. The timing of the launch had been nearly perfect, and so rendezvous with Kelgee took place after less than half an orbit. The Visiting Vehicle Officer, Maclie, radioed up to inform Tetris she would need to live up to her name if they were to dock at the station. (Whatever that meant.) The only other standard-sized docking port at Kelgee that provided enough space for the Ti-3 to dock just so happened to be malfunctioning, and had a useless science pod stuck to it. They could possibly dock to the Fluoride life support module, but they'd need to go in at an angle if the nose of the ship was to clear the recently docked Oxygen 3. 

Easy decision, really, as the only other options involved chains and tape and hoping the two craft would stick together. She docked the Titanium with ease, coming in to the Fluoride port at a 20 degree angle. 

In the dark. 

As is only right and proper. 

Thankfully sunrise was just around the corner.

Being docked to the life support module meant they'd have to EVA over to the station, which didn't particularly appeal to anyone. Macfred decided enough was enough, and offered to fix the docking port issue before they took the Sulphur 3 and left for Jool. He had a wrench, and he was going to use it. First target was the docking port at the end of the port docking arm. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it from the inside, but it simply refused to unlatch. Same on the outside, it just refused to undock.

So with spacewrench in hand he EVA'd out to remove the science pod by force. He first attempted to wrench the docking ports apart, producing the expected result - nothing. He then set out to disassemble the science pod piece by piece. The smaller bits he stuck in his inventory or transferred to a nearby storage area. The small docking port was attached to the arm itself. The larger ones, such as the Science Jr itself, he gave a good shove. Sure, they'd become space debris, but the odds of them ever hitting something were slim. 

Unfortunately things didn't go exactly according to plan. When Macfred pulled the "broken" docking port free and attached it to another spot on the arm, it was behaving as though it was still attached. The magnetic docking forces were causing the docking arm, and the entire station, to collapse in upon themselves. Strange. Macfred was able to "undock" the two ports successfully before they turned Kelgee Station into an unplanned black hole.

Unfortunately the "undocking" ripped the relocated port free from the arm and sent it speeding towards the solar arrays - which it narrowly missed. Strange. Had they discovered the secret to reactionless propulsion? No, impossible. That's all a huge myth.

With all the trimming done for the arm's docking port, Macfred moved to wrest free the orbital module of his own Nitrogen capsule. This one was a bit trickier, as he first had to transfer its contents to the adjacent docking node. He then had to remove the many pieces that were attached to it and store those as well. Once everything was stripped clear he was able to pull the large module free and shove it into the great unknown.

More space debris for somebody to clean up later. 

Afterwards he made his way to the Sulphur 3, where the next task was to transfer six of the RTGs collected from the Mün onto the shuttle. These six extra sources of power would accompany them to Jool, hopefully going unused. (It was theorized there might also be abandoned craft in the Jool system that, for whatever reason, might now be lacking a power source.)

With all the grunt work done, Macfred climbed into the S-3 and brought their shuttle online while Tetris moved the Ti-3 to the freshly opened docking port. Just a short while later they were saying their last goodbyes to Tetris, the last kerbal any of them would see for at least 6 years, and were shoving off from the station. 

Lots of work to get done and very little time.

--

First up in a trailing orbit was the Potassium 3 stack. With only three, mostly equally-sized pieces, stitching together the struts on the K-3 stack should be easy. Right? Macfred brought the Sulphur 3 in to dock on one of the refueler docking ports, grabbed his space wrench and jumped out, eager to get this payload secured. 

As it so happened, both of the tanks were properly lined up, meaning all Macfred needed to do was attach a strut to one end and hook it up on the other. No big deal, right?

Right?

"Uhm, Cape?"

"Go ahead S-3."

"We're getting some wild bucking up here on the K-3 stack. And Macfred just got kicked off structure and into space along with some miscellaneous parts. Now the whole ship is wriggling around like it's being, uh, thrown? Eaten?"

"Could you define wriggling?"

"Yeah, the entire stack is bending around itself in a way that shouldn't be physically possible."

Kraken strike. Gene had seen it before, as had more than a few of the kerbals currently in space. None of them mentioned it by name, as the Great Powers should never be referenced by name, but they all knew what it was. No doubt Gene was eyeing the big red button in Mission Control with the fateful text on it, the F9, but none of the kerbals at the K-3 could be sure.

"Ok, instruct Macfred to remove the strut he just added and report back with the result."

"Ahhh!!!!!!"

--

First up in a trailing orbit was the Potassium 3 stack. With only three, mostly equally-sized pieces, stitching together the struts on the K-3 stack should be easy. Right? Macfred brought the Sulphur 3 in to dock on one of the refueler docking ports, grabbed his space wrench and jumped out, eager to get this payload secured. 

Gene, who had just been lectured by The Boss about excessive tampering with the timeline (which The Boss implied might lead to further destabilization of... something), instructed Macfred to remove the strut anchors from the cubic struts and attach them directly to the fuel tanks.

Worked like a charm.

The mounting brackets for the K-3 itself were off-center from the payload, but as the anchor points were being reattached directly to the tanks, Macfred decided they didn't really need to redock the tug. He strutted it up, returned to the S-3, and then plotted up the course so they could move to the Potassium 2 stack.

The strutting of the K-2 was mostly unremarkable, though they did have to wait in a higher orbit for almost half a day until it caught up to them. The only open docking port for the Sulphur 3 was the port at the very end of the tug, meaning Macfred had to navigate his way around the eight, somewhat radioactive engines to get to the actual payload.

Once again the strut anchors were moved to the main fuel tank of the K-2, while the armatures built into the payload for holding the anchors were left as-is. This (seems to have) worked perfectly.Once the payloads were all safely strutted together and strutted to the K-2, they moved on to their home for the next several years: the K-1.

The numbers were close, and the fuel margin tight, but a quick check confirmed what the ground team had suggested - The Potassium 1 had enough extra payload capacity to allow them to take the Sulphur 3 with them to Jool. Sure, it was just another shuttle, but having it along would not only allow them to move around the system before landing on Laythe, but also give them just that much more living space for the trip out. 

As the forward docking port was occupied by the docking adapter (to be used by the K-1 once the station and LDAV payload were detached), the S-3 would need to be inserted between the Silicon Station and the Sulphur LDAV. Macfred docked up to the Station first, so Gletrix and Thomlock could move into the LDAV and the station's cockpits. (No reason to do this remotely when they could do it with kerbals.)

With that move done and the Sulphur 3 bedded down for the next three years, all that was left was strutting the whole mess together. The Sulphur 3 was strutted around, as it was lacking in anchors (though more were packed in the station's cargo trunks, should they actually need them).

Thomlock and Gletrix had drifted off to opposite ends of the ship, each claiming one of the shuttle cabins as their own. Macfred decided to take a bunk in the Sulphur 3, and figured Agake would find a corner of the station's science lab to crawl into a sleep each night. She was already busy working on some random experiments anyway, no doubt hoping to eek out a few magic science points before the transfer windows arrived. 

"Hey kid. Ship needs a name." Thomlock came bounding into Macfred's cabin, having already changed out of the flight suit he had worn for launch and into something that looked nearly identical. Macfred wasn't entirely sure it was a different suit, to be honest.

"A name?" 

Thomlock nodded. "I was bringing the ship's main computer online to start entering in the transfer trajectories, and it asked for a name."

Macfred, busy with unpacking the next seven years worth of clothes and other kit and more than a bit exhausted form the EVA work he'd just finished barely even looked up from what he was doing. "How could it need a name? It's a jumble of parts."

"Hmm. Strange, but I guess it'll work." The elder astrogator kicked off the bulkhead and went sailing back towards the rear of the ship. "Jumble of Parts it is." 

And so everything is ready for the transfer to Jool. The Potassium 3 with the extra fuel, the Potassium 2 with all the toys, and the Potassium 1, with the Jumble of Parts. Just in time for.... the update after next.

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[cubinator]

I'm loving the casually professional attitudes of the kerbonauts! Keep up the spectacular work!

[Angelo Kerman]

Fun to watch all the different developments with the Forgotten Space Program.

[Cydonian Monk]

20 hours ago, cubinator said:

I'm loving the casually professional attitudes of the kerbonauts! Keep up the spectacular work!

 

15 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Fun to watch all the different developments with the Forgotten Space Program.

 

Thank you. Another update tonight! (And hopefully tomorrow and Tuesday....)

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

US WANT MOAR

[Geschosskopf]

On 5/28/2016 at 5:41 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

"Hmm. Strange, but I guess it'll work." The elder astrogator kicked off the bulkhead and went sailing back towards the rear of the ship. "Jumble of Parts it is." 

And it looks considerably cooler than the stolen Jool ship   I imagine it takes ages to orient for a burn, though.

I hope Macfred's exertions solved the docking port issues.

BTW, was putting the cubic struts on a strut anchors an aesthetic thing?  I've never done that, just strutted the main parts together on the theory that they have the most say in whatever gyrations the ship will do.  

[Cydonian Monk]

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

I hope Macfred's exertions solved the docking port issues.

BTW, was putting the cubic struts on a strut anchors an aesthetic thing?  I've never done that, just strutted the main parts together on the theory that they have the most say in whatever gyrations the ship will do.  

The docking port issue, whatever it is, is only fixed for those two ports. Every other craft docked to the station at whatever recent point in time the station broke is/are still bugged. Iritating, to say the least.

As for the cubic struts - yes and no. I've always strutted along large launch vehicles in the VAB using that process, cubic struts to offset the actual struts from the tank core. (Well, not always..... 0.90 didn't have super-weak joints like every other version of this game.) So, when I was building these parts with "field strutting" in mind, I naturally used cubic struts to again offset from the core. And in doing so discovered some sort of bug. Lesson learned.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Kerbart]

On 5/28/2016 at 6:41 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Macfred, busy with unpacking the next seven years worth of clothes and other kit and more than a bit exhausted form the EVA work he'd just finished barely even looked up from what he was doing. "How could it need a name? It's a jumble of parts."

"Hmm. Strange, but I guess it'll work." The elder astrogator kicked off the bulkhead and went sailing back towards the rear of the ship. "Jumble of Parts it is." 

Taking after Larry Niven with wonderful ship names? Eagerly awaiting the arrival of the HOT NEEDLE OF INQUIRY!

[Cydonian Monk]

Little House on the Minty Prairie 

The Jool transfer window was still a good 40 days away, and in the interim there was one very specific contract the agency wanted to finish: Build a base on Minmus. The base requested by Integrated Integrals wasn't overly complex - living space for 5 kerbals, a docking port, an antenna and all the usual trimmings. The advance from the contract was enough to pay for the launch, so The Boss green-lit it and the interns in the VAB got to work.

A few days later and the Vanadium 1 was ready for launch. Using an LV-07 Crescendo as the launch vehicle was overkill, but the plan was to leave the upper stage behind in Minmus orbit so that future missions could leach fuel from it. The bae itself would be landed by use of a "skycrane" (a technology learned from examining Pioneer Base on the Mün), all operations conducted by the kOS onboard computer and monitored from Kerbin.

The launch and the transfer to Minmus went exactly according to plan. Seven days later the RT2 Flight Computer was burning the V-1 into its temporary parking orbit around the minty green moon. It remained there until ground controllers were happy with the state of the craft, the largely unspent upper stage left in its 20km orbit.

Once crews were content with the status of the base and its lander, they decoupled it from the transfer stage and waited for the planned landing site to be both on the day side of Minmus and accessible from one of the orbiting relay satellites.

The Boss had big plans for Project Vanadium. These small bases capable of housing two kerbals comfortably would make for nice exploration posts. Better yet, they could be placed in camps along surface transportation routes on bodies such as the Mün, allowing rover-equipped crews to rest and restock along the way. Small and inexpensive, they were something of a camping tent in space.

The chosen site for the first Vanadium base was at the edge of the Lesser Flats on Minmus. The location would allow crews easy access to at least three different biomes - Lesser Flats, Slopes, Midlands - all within walking distance of the base. (If anything on Minmus can said to be within "walking distance", that is.)

Three different sets of burns were required to safely land V-1: A plan change and an initial deorbit burn, both conducted by the RT2 Flight Computer, and the final descent burn, handled by the kOS landingcurve script (adjusted for Minmus-specific tolerances). 

There were a few nervous minutes when the base was due for final touchdown as it had moved out of sight of its orbital relay. The craft reported success a few seconds following reacquisition of signal and the contract light lit up in Mission Control. The techs reviewed the data, decided the base was where they wanted, then radioed up the instructions for the skycrane to detach from the base and land a short distance away.

Contract complete and the base ready for visitors. The crew schedule was full at the moment, so visitors would need to wait. More than likely the first crew to occupy the station would be the four chosen for the Dres mission (and Sieta, if they could convince her to leave Baile Speir). 

--

The agency had some other work to do before any crews could be sent to Minmus. First on that list was returning the Titanium 2 to the surface of Kerbin, a task Tetris was assigned. (instead of the Titanium 3 which she had just flown to orbit.) She undocked the spaceplane from Kelgee Station, moved into a lower 70km orbit, and waited until it was daytime at the space center. 

Assuming the Titanium 2 survived reentry (which was as of yet unproven), it would be cleaned, refitted, refueled, and prepped for a rapid turnaround. The agency had two new astronauts who needed flight experience, and The Boss wanted to send Rondous up to prepare one of the other "relic" stations for regular use. (Reasoning the "Transfer One" station with its long docking arms would be better suited to berthing Titanium shuttles than Kelgee.)

As soon as the reentry window was upon her, Tetris made the final burn to deorbit. Her initial target (based on predictions) was the K2 mountain range, using it as the ballistic entry point. (Which hopefully she would miss, as a ballistic entry likely meant her craft had disintegrated and was now a molten mass of death and metal.) The atmospheric interface took place just after dawn.

The reentry profile for the Titanium shuttles calls for maintaining at least a 20 degree angle of attack above the horizon, yawing occasionally from port to starboard and back to spread out heating. Even then the plasma was enough to trigger the overheat alarms in the cockpit, thankfully not severe enough to cause more than just superficial damage.

Near as Tetris could tell, everything was working as designed.

The Titanium was still moving at near orbital velocity as it screamed over K2. Her ground speed was above 1600m/s and altitude higher than 30km when she sailed over the space center. The plasma was still going strong but the Ti-2 was deep enough into the atmosphere that the wings had some "bite", so Tetris pulled one of the craziest stunts in the history of the space program.

She inverted the spaceplane and dove towards the ocean at Mach 3+.

Somehow her insane reentry-by-Split-S worked. (Many suspect Tetris is secretly a BadS, despite all other evidence to the contrary.) Intended to reenter the atmosphere somewhere near KSC and then use the supplied jets to reach the runway, Tetris had instead set up the nearly perfect overshoot and glide, instead managing to return to the space center without even so much as warming up the auxiliary Juno engines.

No time to relax though, as the Titanium X-5B I was quickly wheeled over to the VAB and outfitted with a new nose tank. And, as the only pilot on Kerbin, Tetris was the only option for the next launch. 

--

 

And Another Thing...

A dual-purpose mission, Titanium 4 would both prepare the "Transfer One" station for use, inspect another "Thing" station, and finally see a new science crew transported to Kelgee Station for long-term research. Commanding the mission and serving as pilot was Tetris, with Rondous and Steve along as Engineers and Barbara serving as the lone scientist. Barbara and Steve, the two newest kerbals, were referred to internally as the "Titanium Twins." (No relation.)
 

(And from his appearance, it would seem Steve might be older than even Thomlock, though his birth certificate disagrees.)

Flying an adjusted flight profile with a target apoapsis of 80km and "level-off" altitude of 41km, the launch of the Titanium 4 felt somewhat different. More efficient, even, as it used considerably less fuel to reach its 50km-lower-than-usual orbit.

Transfer One was tumbling slightly when they arrived, just as it had been when Rondous first found it. This time, however, they had a radio link to its flight computer, thanks in part to the reactivated radio network. A quick "ping" on the radio and its SAS kicked in, bringing the tumble to a slow stop. Station keeping was perhaps maladjusted, but nothing they wouldn't be able to handle once aboard.

The station was otherwise as it had been left. No way in except for the two open docking ports at the end of the two large docking arms. Two dead in the water shuttles awaited at the end of the other two. So far none of their crews had been aboard Transfer One, as Rondous and Gletrix had found it all locked up. Even the docking port gave them a bit of trouble, though it turned out to just be ice buildup inside of it. 

The station had an atmosphere, just a very cold one. Several degrees below freezing it appeared as though the environmental controls were set wrong by whoever, or whatever, was here last. The electrical systems all appeared to be functioning, as were the other basic essentials. The motors in the solar arrays had perhaps been getting more of a workout than they were designed for, but otherwise all seemed to be in the right.

Excepting the two shuttles.

Prior to the launch, Rondous suggested it was perhaps a mistake for him to have taken the RTGs from both of the shuttles, and so both he and Steve had each packed spares. (Steve somehow "lost" his RTG during the launch.... Thankfully Rondous is a bit more meticulous.) It was a simple matter and a quick EVA and Rondous had plugged the spare RTG into the RTG-shaped hole atop one of the shuttles, bringing it online once more.  

They spent the next several days cleaning up the station and preparing it for use. Near as they could tell no crews had spent any considerable time at the station in the past. It was almost entirely devoid of food and other supplies, and whatever water they had left aboard had frozen solid and destroyed its containers. They thought it unlikely the station was intended to be a short stop-over, as it had housing and bunks for anywhere from 12 to 24 kerbals. More likely that whoever had built the station had simply never made a supply run. 

Even the bunks themselves were seemingly unused, the majority of them still sealed in what must have been their factory wrappings. One of the shuttles had seemingly spent some time away from the station, having used an unremarkable bit of fuel. The shuttles were also a bit of an enigma, each with enough ∆v to reach Duna or Eve, or travel to and from the Mün without refueling. Almost as capable as their Sulphur shuttles, excluding the lack of a rear docking port.

Their tasks at Transfer One seemingly complete, Gene suggested they check out another Thing on their way to Kelgee. They were certain this Things was yet another transfer station. It had told them as much when they established a telemetry link, but as of yet no crews had visited it. If they left soon, this new Thing would be in the perfect position for them to drop in. 

And so they did. Tetris was a bit confused by the shuttles, lacking entirely in direct pilot input. Instead all operations had to be dialed in the craft's flight computer. Everything aside from docking, of course, which most suggested was beyond the capabilities of the simple, pre-kOS onboard flight computers. Rondous helped her plot out their course for the new Thing and then opted to take a nap.

They arrived nearly half an orbit later, with their target coming into view just as the sun slipped neared the limb of Kerbin. From what Rondous could see of the station it was similar in construction to both Kelgee and one of the stations orbiting the Mün, perhaps built by the same spacefarers. The sun slipped out of view just as they came in to dock, as was only fitting and proper, so their final approach was conducted using the shuttle's forward spotlights.

The following morning (18 minutes later) they had a good, clear view of the exterior of the station. By then they had gone over as much of the inside as they could access, discovering the station was once called "KTS 3.0.1 Station One", and was some 39 years old. The core of the station was to serve as a long docking bay, where up to four large shuttles and one very large spaceship could dock and freely transfer crews and cargo. Much like Transfer One the station appeared to have been mostly unused, though the docked shuttle was missing a good bit of fuel.

A quick inspection of the docked shuttle also revealed something they probably should've known better than to take, but did anyway: More RTGs. To make up for his "lost" one, Rondous had Steve EVA to the business end of the docked shuttle to unlatch its two wonderfully warm power sources. These were transferred to the outer hull of their borrowed shuttle, for future attachment to whatever needed them.

This was when Steve noticed some odd struts attached to the rear of their shuttle. He was fairly certain they hadn't been there when they left Transfer One, and couldn't see much of a use in leaving them attached to the rear of the shuttle. So, without consulting with Rondous or anyone, he just trimmed them off and chucked them into space. 

What's a bit of space debris between friends?

With no other obviously interesting or useful things to be found at this old station, Rondous and crew set out for Kelgee. It was a simple transfer up to the station, tough it took them at least two orbits to rendezvous, and they had their fair share of open docking ports to chose from. (These small shuttles thankfully don't need to account for wing clearance when docking.)

Barbara was eager to get to work on the handful of science experiments the interns had sent up with them (including some strange purple mixture they had called "explodium exorem"), and Rondous wanted to take a closer look at this docking port issue Macfred and others had been complaining about. Steve had the simple instructions of "Don't touch anything, don't lose anything else. Please."

Tetris finally had some time off, her only orders calling for some well deserved rest and relaxation.

--

In other news, Gene and the other members of the Mission Operations Directorate had spent the last several Münths gathering the fleet of Chlorine tugs at a particular 300km orbit. Nothing special about the orbit, per se, aside from being well above the usual Station Orbit bands, but in the future 300km would be the target parking orbit for anything large going to either the Mün or Minmus. Such as more Vanadium bases. 

The transfers up to the 300km-Cl-Orbit weren't yet complete, with two of the larger Chlorine craft yet to make it to the collected mass, but the pieces on hand were already a frightening mess.

Who in their right mind ever thought collecting used spacecraft was a good idea?

At least the agency knows where to get more RTGs in the future... and any other repair parts they might need. This is the real Jumble of Parts.

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Commander Zoom]

Damn, Tetris.

After that stunt, I think you need to make her a BadS.  (By setting the flag manually, if you have to.)

Edited May 30, 2016 by Commander Zoom

[Cydonian Monk]

I'm halfway through the escape burns for the three Jool ships. Chose to do these burns in two steps instead of three... ~800m/s for the first and ~1200m/s for the second. After watching the radiators heat up on the Potassium 1, I'm not sure if I'm playing Kerbal Space Program or Children of a Dead Earth....

Hopefully I'll finish the other half of these burns tomorrow night. Next update when all three payloads are free from Kerbin's SOI!

 

7 hours ago, Commander Zoom said:

After that stunt, I think you need to make her a BadS.  (By setting the flag manually, if you have to.)

Done!

[Geschosskopf]

23 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

 

Spoiler

 

It looks like he's got water in his helmet, which might explain his expression, although the water shouldn't pool up like that in orbit

1 hour ago, Cydonian Monk said:

I'm halfway through the escape burns for the three Jool ships. Chose to do these burns in two steps instead of three... ~800m/s for the first and ~1200m/s for the second. After watching the radiators heat up on the Potassium 1, I'm not sure if I'm playing Kerbal Space Program or Children of a Dead Earth....

A pox on needing radiators for nuclear engines.  Where did that idea even come from?

Anyway, how many hours does it take for Jumble of Parts need to make a 1200m/s burn?  I just did a 3.75-hour burn myself at 4x physical warp.  I played a lot of solitaire

 

Edited May 31, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Cydonian Monk]

23 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

It looks like he's got water in his helmet, which might explain his expression, although the water shouldn't pool up like that in orbit

Interesting observation. I'm not convinced Steve would've noticed had he drowned in space. 

23 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

A pox on needing radiators for nuclear engines.  Where did that idea even come from?

Nowhere good. That wizard bad idea came from the Mün. At least in Children of a Dead Earth the massive banks of radiators are for the huge nuclear reactors inside the ships, not for the neutron-spraying self-radiating nuclear thermal drives.

 

23 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Anyway, how many hours does it take for Jumble of Parts need to make a 1200m/s burn?  I just did a 3.75-hour burn myself at 4x physical warp.  I played a lot of solitaire

At 1x PhysWarp, the game was proceeding at 1/4 real time (in KSP v1.0.5). An 800m/s burn took a little over 7 minutes (give or take) to complete at full thrust. 28 real minutes then at 1x PhysWarp, not counting the time required for the helmskerb to bring the ship to bear. Presumably then, the upcoming 1200m/s burn will be in the neighborhood of 11 kerbal minutes, or 40 real minutes. Parts of each of these burns were attempted at 2x PhysWarp, which will not be attempted again for the K-2's future burns.

The real time required was roughly the same for all three: Even though the K-2 has a lower mass than the others, it has more than twice the number of parts as the K-3.

I spent the time reading up on missed forum posts, mostly. And realizing I'm not a huge fan of the most recent well-aged beverage I picked up.... At least not without mixing it into something with a better taste.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Geschosskopf]

7 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Interesting observation. I'm not convinced Steve would've noticed had he drowned in space. 

I take it, then, that your hiring criteria value willingness,far above intelligence, due to the extreme rarity of the former?  I once had a similar policy for girlfriends but found it didn't lead to long-term success

In that case, if Steve's not too bright, maybe he saw the same reflection of Kerbin from the inside and panic-assumed his helmet really was full of water.  Despite not feeling wet and supposedly knowing water shouldn't pool up like that in mircogravity.  

 

7 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Nowhere good. That wizard bad idea came from the Mün. At least in Children of a Dead Earth the massive banks of radiators are for the huge nuclear reactors inside the ships, not for the neutron-spraying self-radiating nuclear thermal drives.

It really surprises me that the realism-mongers aren't screaming about KSP's handling of thermodynamics, but instead go on about what are essentially cosmetic issues.....

 

7 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

At 1x PhysWarp, the game was proceeding at 1/4 real time (in KSP v1.0.5). An 800m/s burn took a little over 7 minutes (give or take) to complete at full thrust. 28 real minutes then at 1x PhysWarp, not counting the time required for the helmskerb to bring the ship to bear. Presumably then, the upcoming 1200m/s burn will be in the neighborhood of 11 kerbal minutes, or 40 real minutes. Parts of each of these burns were attempted at 2x PhysWarp, which will not be attempted again for the K-2's future burns.

Egad.  Salute for putting up with that