Forgotten Space Program

[DMSP]

Hey, @Cydonian Monk, can I make a Tumblr blog about this? I'll post a link and give full credit, but I feel like this is a great way to pull in some support.

It's literally the only way to show some of my friends the awesomeness of this story as well.

Edited November 10, 2016 by DMSP

[DragonsForce]

2 hours ago, DMSP said:

It's literally the only way to show some of my friends the awesomeness of this story as well.

Why can't you just link them this page?

[Cydonian Monk]

2 hours ago, DMSP said:

Hey, @Cydonian Monk, can I make a Tumblr blog about this?

If you want to write a short review or a shout-out or something of the sort, be my guest (fair use would cover that anyway). If you're asking to repost the work (in large part or in full) I'll have to politely decline.

[DMSP]

2 hours ago, DragonsForce said:

Why can't you just link them this page?

Because people are lazy, I was just thinking of photos and captions.

2 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

If you want to write a short review or a shout-out or something of the sort, be my guest (fair use would cover that anyway). If you're asking to repost the work (in large part or in full) I'll have to politely decline.

Would photos be ok? Not any of the story or plot, but just photos?

[Cydonian Monk]

58 minutes ago, DMSP said:

Would photos be ok? Not any of the story or plot, but just photos?

Photos really are the story though, a large part of it.

Again, if you'd like to post a few as a "hey, check this out", or a review I can't and won't stop you. Fair use covers that. But posting many, most, or all just wouldn't work and doesn't make much sense. In that case what @DragonsForce suggested, a link to this thread, would be the proper option. The images are already here.

[DMSP]

2 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Photos really are the story though, a large part of it.

Again, if you'd like to post a few as a "hey, check this out", or a review I can't and won't stop you. Fair use covers that. But posting many, most, or all just wouldn't work and doesn't make much sense. In that case what @DragonsForce suggested, a link to this thread, would be the proper option. The images are already here.

Yes, I'll rather make a complete KSP blog, about all things KSP. The first thing I did was link it.

Thanks for letting me do this.

[Cydonian Monk]

This past week was a mess and I spent too much time messing around Saturday on Twitch, so no update tonight beyond what's here in the "What did you do in KSP today?" thread. Sneak peak of some hardware that will likely be making an appearance in FSP real soon now there, too. 

FSP definitely works in KSP v1.2.1, and we'll be moving forward in that version this week. Update maybe tomorrow.

[AviosAdku]

Thank you for more great instalments, I laughed quite a bit at Jebediah's antics.

In addition, I'm absolutely loving the depictions of a volcanic Laythe, probably due to my experience of seeing an active volcano up close for the first not that long ago during my holiday (White Island to be precise). One thing I noticed (maybe you could use it) is that all the sulphur produces a smell of rotten eggs that pervades the air and I think I even smelled on my jacket for a moment several days later.

Aku

[Cydonian Monk]

1 minute ago, AkuAerospace said:

Thank you for more great instalments, I laughed quite a bit at Jebediah's antics.

Thanks!

1 minute ago, AkuAerospace said:

In addition, I'm absolutely loving the depictions of a volcanic Laythe, probably due to my experience of seeing an active volcano up close .... One thing I noticed is that all the sulphur produces a smell of rotten eggs.

Yep. I've not been around an active volcano, per se, but for many years I lived downwind of more than a few chemical plants that produced sulphur-laced clouds as byproduct. It's not a pleasant odor.

I'm trying to remember if I've ever described my kerbals as having a sense of smell. Probably, though they don't have noses. I'll have to search through my writings when I get home. I'm pretty sure I described smells when they were exploring the abandoned stations, and possibly when Gletrix took off her helmet on Laythe??? 

Regardless, your suggestion might make an appearance in the next update or two. As anybody that's been camping knows - you usually adapt to the smell of the tent pretty quickly, and don't realize how truly dreadful it is until you get home and have to clean it out.  

[AviosAdku]

I'm honoured, thank you.

[Geschosskopf]

1 hour ago, Cydonian Monk said:

As anybody that's been camping knows - you usually adapt to the smell of the tent pretty quickly, and don't realize how truly dreadful it is until you get home and have to clean it out.  

Hmmm.  This demands a scientific observation.  I fought in Desert Storm, arriving in-country on Christmas Day 1990 and leaving on Tax Day 1991.  Due to the whims of the Deployment Gods and exigencies of the circumstances, I took my last Stateside shower on 23 December 1990 and my 1st in-country shower on 12 March 1991.  In between, I lived holes in the ground.  Due to the hundreds of burning oil wells and the wettest winter for that region in recorded history, daylight vision range was about 20 miles for a few minutes at dawn and dusk decreasing to 50m all during the day, and you couldn't see the end of your nose after dark.  Thus, the eyes were essentially useless--remember, this was back when night vision was a new thing available only to a few ossifers and illegal for civilians.  Hearing was also useless due to constant din of explosions.

During this time, I discovered that the human sense of smell is much more sensitive than we generally regard it; we just have its slider on our sensory equalizer pushed way down.  With sight and hearing useless, the nose came into its own.  I could tell the difference between friend and foe in the dark just by smell, and I could in addition distinguish all my squaddies individually from our larger unit,.  More importantly, I could find my way to my reeking hole in the ground just by smell in pitch darkness.  The foul stench of my sleeping bag was to me the sweet smell of home, and I began to understand why dogs hate it when we wash their bedding.

This all made for a difficult adjustment to civilian life when I got home.  There are MANY things better left unsmelt even amongst those who bathe every day (ESPECIALLY to somebody who's been on deployment for a while).  OTOH, for a while I could track deer by scent, until the olfactory assault of modern civilization forced me to forego that ability.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Garrett Kerman]

Beware, @Cydonian Monk, as I hear 1.2.1 is buggy. Very buggy. I also hear it has severe preformance issues. Have you had any problems?

[Geschosskopf]

21 minutes ago, Garrett Kerman said:

Beware, @Cydonian Monk, as I hear 1.2.1 is buggy. Very buggy. I also hear it has severe preformance issues. Have you had any problems?

Moi, j'ai pas de problèmes avec 1.2.1 ici, hein?

Edited November 17, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Cydonian Monk]

39 minutes ago, Garrett Kerman said:

Beware, @Cydonian Monk, as I hear 1.2.1 is buggy..... Have you had any problems?

It crashes a tiny bit more than "stock" modded 1.1.3 did, but otherwise no. And I suspect my "stock" modded crashes were caused by one of my mods, as I can keep an RSS 1.1.3 session running for several hours. 

I'll find out more as I dig into it. 

21 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Moi, j'ai pas de problems avec 1.2.1 ici, hein?

See, I probably wouldn't notice if it started screaming at me in different languages unless it used some non-Western character set. I'm exposed to at least three languages on a daily basis, and I can (mostly) read (and in some cases very badly speak) many of the Latin-derived languages, two of the Germanic ones, one of the Irish ones, and at least one of Slavic ones (though my few words of Polish I only know because of my Calculus teachers, all of which were Cold War refugees). My brain just adapts unless it hits a word it doesn't grok. 

Edited November 17, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Garrett Kerman]

Wut?

(quickly google translates)

I've heard a lot of bad things about it on the 1.2.1 announcment thread (in spoiler below, because I can't forum formatting).

Spoiler

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/151302-kerbal-space-program-121-is-live/

 

 

[Cydonian Monk]

19 minutes ago, Garrett Kerman said:

I've heard a lot of bad things about it on the 1.2.1 announcment thread....

Oooh. I'll go ahead and disable the F12 part highlights before that F12 bug hits me. That one seems nasty. Otherwise the game works better than it did in 1.2.0. CommNet relays didn't work at all for me before (for my existing ships), but in 1.2.1 the I/O Portals have all broken free of the MCP and are gleefully streaming data back to the users CommNet just simply works.

Thanks. 

Edited November 17, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Geschosskopf]

On 11/16/2016 at 6:46 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

See, I probably wouldn't notice if it started screaming at me in different languages unless it used some non-Western character set. I'm exposed to at least three languages on a daily basis, and I can (mostly) read (and in some cases very badly speak) many if the Latin-derived languages, two of the Germanic ones, one of the Irish ones, and at least one of Slavic ones (though my few words of Polish I only know because of my Calculus teachers, all of which were Cold War refugees). My brain just adapts unless it hits a word it doesn't grok. 

You and me both, amanni   I bet that's a word you don't hear everyday, and it's not from the East African Pidgin my own calculus adjuncts taught me .  I actually learned that word from my dog, a Border collie who supposedly came out of the box fluent in all NW European languages and their various patois forms, in most of which I can at least order a dog around.  But no, this particular collie only obeys field commands in Choctaw, being as she's from the territory of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.. I only discovered this by chance.  After exhausting my limited dog-commanding vocabulary in English, Scots, Gaelic, French, Cajun, Spanish, Tex-Mex, and even pure Latin.  Out of sheer frustration I tried my even-more-limited Choctaw and, much to my surprise, it worked.  "Ofi losa, mentih!"  Literally, "Dog, black, COME HERE!!"  I only \knew that little bit of Choctaw in preparation for the visit of a cousin from that Nation (that sounds harsh to my cousin but such simple words for common things and the cases of verbs are what you learn to start with when studying languages).  Since then, I've tried to learn a bit more but can't claim any real understanding of the language.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Geschosskopf

[Cydonian Monk]

8 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Choctaw....

Along those lines, where I grew up everyplace is either a Shawnee, Cherokee, or Lenape word for something. 

Mind also I never said anything about _understanding_, which is a whole 'nother turtle. 

Edited November 17, 2016 by Cydonian Monk
Well, that's not entirely true. Understanding is a subset of grok.

[Geschosskopf]

7 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Mind also I never said anything about _understanding_, which is a whole 'nother turtle. 

So true.

[Cydonian Monk]

One Final Sunset

"We should've done this ages ago!" 

Gletrix was right, they should've walked down the hill to visit the beach some time ago. Perhaps even first. It was their last day on Laythe, and Macfred decided at the last minute they'd all take a hike down the hill and walk on the shore. Why? Because. It's the beach. It's what you do. The whole planet was a beach, endless sand and water, so of course every day was a day at the beach. Of course it was. What else could it be?

It was hard to believe that this was the first time any of them had been in Laythe's water, though up to now doing so meant something failed. Badly. Now? Something had gone very right. Almost. It was the beach, yes, but not the beach. Agake didn't seem to notice. She had waded out helmet-deep to collect water samples. A scientist at work. At work gathering cold, calculated science. The other four still didn't feel right. Something was off.

How could you enjoy the beach in an EVA suit?

Yes, it was the last day on Laythe. Why on Kerbin had they waited so long to visit the ocean? Who knows. Some questions don't have answers. 

And it was over far too soon. Who goes to the beach and only stays there for half an hour? someone in an EVA suit. You quickly learn that yes, floating in the water is nice. Getting out of the water? No so much. Especially when the waves are angry like they always seem to be on this dreadful moon. One wrong splash, one slip, and you'd end up kilometers offshore. Or worse. 

One of the biggest downsides of going to the beach in a spacesuit? Bigger than being ragged away by some ocean monster? The mud. Maybe at first it's not such a problem. Just wade in the water some more to wash it off. And then comes the walk back up the hill. The crawl back up the hill. The slog to get anywhere. Sure, you washed as much of it off as you could, but that water attracted more. And more. And before you knew it your spacesuit was a mudsuit. Mud. Everywhere.

And it wasn't the good kind of mud either. This mud was thick and slimy. Would it dry off? Eventually. They hoped. They were still slimy and muddy more than a kilometer later when they reached the top of the hill. They used a few bits of scrap from the ship to peel as much of Laythe off of their suits as they could, but it was a losing battle. Their spaceship was destined to get muddy.

The rest of the day was mostly just rest and relaxation. Macfred removed the remainder of the excess mass from the LDAV. Mostly this meant the science experiments and other now useless equipment that were attached to the lander's first stage. These bits of scrap joined their comrades on the pyramid. Gletrix helped with the disassembly, Jeb provided moral support. While he was busy doing that, Agake and Thomlock walked to the flag. Agake was in search of the mysterious shadow square, which was nowhere to be found, while Thomlock just wanted to go for a walk.

They all made it back in time for the Sunset.

"One final sunset."

"We hope. If not it mean's we're stuck here."

"Maybe it's the last because the ship explodes."

"Or maybe we run out of oxygen."

"Or maybe the Sun explodes."

"Hey," Macfred interjected, "we'll have no more of that. It's a sunset, nothing more. Relax and enjoy it. It's our last." He scratched at a patch of dried mud with his boot. "Besides, you two're our pilots. Keep your wits about you, ok? Unless you want Jeb to fly us to orbit."

Silence and the glistening sea. The quiet evening of the ocean moon of Jool was a thing of beauty, something that really touched at the heart of a Kerbal. Here they were, on some small speck of dust some many many kilometers from their own speck of dust, watching as the same ball of fire sank beneath an unknown sea. Each of them enjoying it in their own way, standing in their muddy suits. 

When the last light of the Sun flashed its green signal, each of them turned and made their way to the LDAV. As the reached the bottom of the ladder they each kicked around in the sand, found a small pebble or two, bagged it, and then made their way inside. A bit of dust from this speck of dust. A memento to wow future generations. 

The sun had set on their exploration of Laythe.

 

--

Leaving Laythe

"What's wrong with the flight computer?"

"I'm not sure." Not the words one wants to hear from their captain and chief engineer. "When I brought it online it just blinked at me. Everything I type makes it angry. Angry beeps all around." Great. Here they were, ready to take on the most complicated launch in history, and the guidance system has turned into a cranky, beeping mess. 

"Ok, fine." Thomlock locked his helmet into place and pulled his straps tight. "I'll do it myself." 

No flight computer? No problem. What's the point of bringing three pilots on a mission if you don't let them do their jobs? They'd already flown a barely stable aircraft down from space and all around this moon, how hard could it be to sling a shuttle into orbit? He hooked his suit lines into the ship's and turned on the fans. His suit vented and in no time the rotten smell of Laythe was gone. Mostly. A short reprieve. All that mud? It'll take them years to clear that out of the ship. The EVA suits were stored and stowed, but the damage had been done. The stench might just be permanent. 

They waited a few minutes for the Edge of Infinity to drift over the horizon. It was in a high enough orbit that they needed to let it get overhead before liftoff, catching up to it would be easy. Jeb had a crew to rejoin and they had a couple more moons to visit. A quick radio check told him all four of his passengers were ready. All tucked into their gravity seats, anxious for liftoff. Their precious science was stowed safely away, too. 

He brought the three main engines online one by one, giving each switch an animated flip. Each reporting green and ready. 

A test of the throttle, ten percent. Just enough to get the fuel flowing. The ship groaned and a dust cloud rose outside. The frame of the craft shuddered, the horse trying to buck its rider. Weird vibrations from a weird ship. Whatever. Thomlock was just happy that all three engines were going strong, still green across the board. He worked the throttle forward until they floated off the sand. 

"Liftoff." So long, Laythe. Thanks for the sulphur. 

The ascent profile was weird. Weird weird. Everything about this ship was weird. The weirdness was one of the reasons they wanted to use a flight computer for this launch. Thomlock wasn't sure he'd piloted anything to orbit since the Hawk 3-2. His first flight. Usually he was just holding on for dear life. This time was completely different. The LDAV, smooth as it looked, was still not terribly aerodynamic. To make matter worse, the designers, Wernher, Thomlock, et al, had omitted all wings and strakes and other bits. Less mass, easier to land. Less cost. Fewer moving parts. Fewer things to go wrong.

Just not easier to take off. 

These changes meant they had to do a few strange things to keep the LDAV aimed the right way. 

First, the airspeed had to stay below 100 m/s until they were out of the lower atmosphere. Easy enough, and they had fuel to spare. Supersonic was right out of the question. Too far into the equivalent airspeed and their little ship would spin out of control. (Thomlock seemed to recall it worked better in Kerbin's thicker air... for reasons he still didn't quite understand.)

Second, the landing legs had to stay extended. This increased the drag at the rear of the craft, offsetting the drag from its blunt nose and other protuberances. No fins? No problem. We'll just use the legs instead. The legs would be ditched once they were into the "thin air" (wherever that was), after which the engine gimbal would be sufficient to offset any lift/drag peculiarities.

Finally, they had to keep it aimed absolutely vertically until they were above the thickest atmosphere. The craft was slightly imbalanced, and any serious deviation from vertical would play havoc with its distinct lack of aerodynamic soundness. A gravity turn was one thing, but when you need to stay subsonic and keep your thrust just above the force of gravity, any lean would be fatal. 

Yep. Weird. 

Nothing Thomlock couldn't handle. 

He hoped.

By the time they hit the "thin air" the craft had already rolled so that their "up" was facing downrange. Thomlock wasn't entirely sure if he'd done it consciously or if the craft had just decided to roll that way. Thomlock pulled back on the stick softly, pitching over towards Jool. Good control, much better than the wobbly flight through the lower soup. Might as well let it sing. "Hang on, it's about to get rough" he muttered into the microphone just before he buried the throttle into the dash. 

Whoa. so much for the pleasant ride into space. What had once been a bit over 1G was suddenly much, much more. The ship rattled a bit more than before too. Of course it rattled. Why wouldn't it? He watched as the altimeter spiraled upwards. The air ever thinner. Once they were above thirteen kilometers he flicked another switch and the landing legs blasted free. 

More junk for future scavengers to hunt. Assuming they survived their fall from thirteen kilometers up. 

The legs, that is, not the scavengers.

Of course scavengers wouldn't survive a thirteen kilometer fall. 

Unless they landed on their helmets.

They were just past twenty five kilometers when the first stage ran dry. It was a strange sensation, the few moments of freefall, but short lived. Thomlock didn't want to tempt the fates or the four winds by drifting through the upper atmosphere, so he staged the ship and blew them free. It had done well, that lower stage, but now its job was done. Their apoapsis had just drifted below thirty-six kilometers when Thomlock hit the second stage. No time to waste.

The cast-off scrap tumbled away, now forgotten. It wouldn't burn up as it reentered the Soup of Laythe, and would most likely crash into the waves. Perhaps some eager explorer might one day find it at the bottom of the sea. Or maybe it would fall short, and land back on their island. The island. Maybe they should've named it, just so somebody could forget it.

Their apoapsis hit fifty-five kilometers before he pulled the ship horizontal. They had a nice view of the gas cloud that enveloped the southern tip of their island, carried off to the West by the winds. It looked heavier, darker now. Darker than it had in Agake's photos at least. Perhaps it too had grown into a full-fledged eruption?

Thomlock let their apoapsis drift upwards a bit more before he went to work on circularizing. They needed to climb to meet their target, some distance above and ahead of them. And then it was back. That sweet, sweet microgravity. Gone for what felt like half a year, though it had only been a few short days. In orbit. At peace. They had made it. He punched up the mapping computer to check their intercept. Just needed one small correction burn. Short, two hundred meters per second or so, and then they'd have their rendezvous. In less than half an orbit, too.

Couldn't get any better.

Macfred floated into the cockpit and patted him on the back. "Good work."

"What can I say? Second time's a charm."

A short chuckle. "I want you to check something for me. Pull up the Jumble of Parts' computer and check for connection traces. Messages. Anything. See if we've heard from Kerbin while we were on the surface."

Something was up. He knew as well as anybody that Macfred could check that from the terminals in the back cabin. The Jumble wasn't in direct line of sight, but was still in range. Just a short hop through one of the Scandium relays. He scrolled through the remote ship's data logs, finding nothing. Nothing at all.

He unlatched his helmet and let it float free, turning off his microphone in the process.

"Ok, what's going on?"

"Here." He pointed to a curious new box in the display window. "I think this is the data link symbol. It's different, right?"

Maybe. 

"I skimmed through the logs and didn't see anything about a software update, but I could swear that's not how it used to look. Also, check the map."

Thomlock exited the remote session and pulled up the map. The new symbols were there, too. And the old ones were gone.

"Something changed."

"Right. So it's not just me. Click..." he pointed at the screen "that box." And then the map lit up with lines. Green lines, red lines, completely new noise that hadn't been there before. "If you scroll out," Macfred had basically wrested the computer away from him at this point, pulling out o the map view to show the entire solar system, "... you'll see that we're connected through the Scandiums and Argons back to the Neon relays. The trace stops there." 

"What about Kelgee? Sieta on that old wreck?"

"At least one of those should be connected, but neither is. At least our route doesn't trace back to them. I'll dig into this some more when we're back at the Jumble. If they're on the network, we should be able to reach them. Let's drop off our guest first. It would appear things just got weird."

"Just?"

"Ok, fine. Just got weirder."

Right.

--

 

Twenty-five minutes later and they were at the Edge of Infinity. They needed a few adjustment burns to bring their close approach to a manageable level, but otherwise they just drifted in. It was dark, of course, and the station was still spinning. And unlike the first time they docked here they were coming in at a strange angle. Thomlock turned on the flood lights and lit up the station to get his bearings. Much better than coming in blind.

He gave the RCS a nudge and flipped the LDAV around to face it. If he did it right, he'd be able to keep from spinning up the shuttle until just a few meters off the docking port. Hey, maybe the docking port's magnetism would even help spin them up. (Wishful thinking.) After all they'd been through he didn't want to tempt the kraken, so he gave the RCS a quick twist to match rotation. 

And so, after what seemed an eternity on the surface of the sulphur-laced wet moon of Jool, the LDAV and its crew had returned to the Edge of Infinity. All hands accounted for, all safe and sound. Considerable science gathered in the process and many memories for the future. Docking with the station occurred in the dark, just a few moments before sunrise.

As is only right and proper.

== End Kerbal Space Program version 1.1.3. ==

 

Navigation: Next Post

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[DarkOwl57]

THIS IS AWESOME!!!

[Angelo Kerman]

Very nice! Hope the story continues in KSP 1.2.1 or 1.2.2.

[cubinator]

Beautifully written! I love the style, you make a sunset at the beach into so much more using only your words!

[Mister Dilsby]

12 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

== End Kerbal Space Program version 1.1.3. ==

And what a great way to end it! Still looking forward to my first Laythe sunset--I guess I'll see you on the other side of 1.2  

[Cydonian Monk]

Thank you, each of you. 

1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

I guess I'll see you on the other side of 1.2  

Yep! Unless something goes wrong I'll be jumping into 1.2.1 tomorrow morning. (I was thinking about waiting for 1.2.2, but with that logic I'd be waiting until forever.)