Forgotten Space Program

ElJugador · December 24, 2016

So, a Titan. Interesting. At some point, it'll run out of luck, either from kerbal error or something more insidious. Perhaps even the Kraken itself performing an attack on it.

(/joke)

I'm really pumped for whatever happens after Chromium, too!

Edited December 24, 2016 by ElJugador

The solid fuel chemist · December 24, 2016

to be brutally honest, i cringed every single time the game updated. glad to see your moving the story into a more permanent plot.

Garibaldi2257 · January 4, 2017

@Cydonian Monk, I'm starting to jones for a fix man.... :wink: (no pressure, just letting you know that at least one person is missing your story)

Cydonian Monk · January 4, 2017

10 minutes ago, Garibaldi2257 said:

@Cydonian Monk, I'm starting to jones for a fix man.... (no pressure, just letting you know that at least one person is missing your story)

Soon. Not sure how soon, but soon.

You'll understand when I post it, but there are some things I need to finish concurrent with things that are going on, so that I can then backtrack and take care of those things in the story. Also, this was happening:

... often. Which was getting rather a bit frustrating, so I needed to take a break from the game. Had lots of other tech-stuff to get into over my not-a-vacation, plus other hobbies, college football, and the usual holiday social stuff that pulled time away.

Soon. :wink:

Garibaldi2257 · January 4, 2017

ouch, and understandable.

0111narwhalz · January 4, 2017

Sometime between Soon and Soon^TM, then.

Plecy75 · January 10, 2017

@Cydonian Monk if your save is that big, the crashes may simply because of an underpowered PC. What specs do you have?

Kerbart · January 10, 2017

On 1/3/2017 at 9:51 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Soon™. Not sure how soon, but soon™.

(...)

Soon™.

There, I fixed it for you!

(On a Windows computer: Hold down Alt, type 0153 on your numeric keypad and release Alt. I don't know how it works on the Mac but I'm sure it's extremely easy and intuitive, as anything on the Mac is).

Cydonian Monk · January 10, 2017

1 hour ago, Plecy75 said:

@Cydonian Monk if your save is that big, the crashes may simply because of an underpowered PC. What specs do you have?

Copied from my Twitch page, because I'm lazy:

Quote

CPU: Intel i7-4790 @3.6GHz

RAM: Usually 32GB, occasionally 24GB if it's not feeling too hot.

GPU: NVidia GeForce GTX 770

Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Chroma. I miss my Model M. Mechanical is love. Mechanical is life.

Mouse: None. Mice should've died off 20 years ago.

Trackball: Kensington Expert Mouse. And occasionally an Orbit.

6-DOF Thing: 3dconnextion Space Navigator. Mostly just frustration in games, useful for real stuff.

Joystick: Logitech Extreme 3D Pro.

Controller: My custom black and colorless wired X-Box 360 controller.

Displays: 2 x Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWXs running at 2048x1152. They're old, but they're nice. Like me.

It's not so much the save size, it's that KSP leaks about 500MBs of RAM at every scene change. I'm also at the lower edge of what scatterer supports, GPU-VRAM-wise. I have no idea what specifically is causing the crashes as it doesn't produce any sort of log - it just dies.

1 hour ago, Kerbart said:

(On a Windows computer: Hold down Alt, type 0153 on your numeric keypad and release Alt. I don't know how it works on the Mac but I'm sure it's extremely easy and intuitive, as anything on the Mac is).

I'm not sure how to get the (tm) symbol on OS-X, but I assume it involves the Alt key and lots of guessing. (Ex: To get ü, you have to type u and then hit Alt+j twice. No idea why.) I usually just copy/paste symbols from Wiktionary or Wikipedia these days.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

superstrijder15 · January 11, 2017

23 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Ex: To get ü, you have to type u and then hit Alt+j twice. No idea why.

Well, the j has one dot and a little bend. the ü has two dots and a large bend, so pressing j twice is totally logical. However that would make it impossible to write jj so they got a u in front of it and pressing alt as well.

0111narwhalz · January 11, 2017

Pretty sure you just need alt-u to turn on umlaut mode, then u to put an umlaut on it.

Numberyellow · January 16, 2017

So.....finally caught up.

This story is great.

Ok, so our famously dead Kerbal, Thomlock...his story is reminiscent of Buck Rogers. (If only Thomlock looked more like Gil Gerard)

I'm also reminded of Star Ocean: Till the end of Time...among other things.

Very much digging this, and awaiting the next installment.

Edited January 16, 2017 by Numberyellow

Cydonian Monk · January 16, 2017

Just now, Numberyellow said:

So.....finally caught up.

This story is great.

Thanks!

Just now, Numberyellow said:

Ok, so our famously dead Kerbal, Thomlock...his story is reminiscent of Buck Rogers.

Definitely not intentional... though there's only so many ways to skin Rip Van Winkle. :wink:

Just now, Numberyellow said:

I'm also reminded of Star Ocean: Till the end of Time...among other things.

Not conciously intentional, but Star Ocean is one of those things that's so deeply ingrained in my psyche it'd be hard to say it doesn't influence things here and there. [That said, Till the End of Time came out after I lost access to a PS-2, so I've not played it, only watched it on YouTube.]

Just now, Numberyellow said:

Very much digging this, and awaiting the next installment.

Soon™.

adsii1970 · January 16, 2017

Can't wait to see the next installment. Keep it up!

Cydonian Monk · January 23, 2017

Ok, I think I have everything worked out now. Between our wacko Houston weather, these promiscuous cedar trees with their lovely pollen that I've never built a resistance to, other first of the year things that had to get done, and the whole messy ball of wax that is the world at the moment it's been tough to find the time and energy to pull all of this together. (A friend of a friend once said writing requires one to have a stable mind; something many are lacking at the moment.) I may have even "lost the story" at one point, and really did need to go back and reread large chunks of it to remind myself where certain threads are going. Hopefully I've got it right in my head and my head screwed on right.

I've flown all of the "parallel" missions I need to complete, I've worked out all of the screenshots (though editing them on my Mac has now become needlessly difficult), and I believe I have the prose how I want it. I've had to rethink a few things, and I wasn't happy with how this first part o the next update was structured or presented... so I've now rearranged it a few times. In the end I went with the words I had first written, so.... *cough* Yeah.

Expect an update later tonight, probably another mid-week, and two more for the weekend and week after that. Hopefully. After that there's... stuff, and things... and likely a large chunk of prose. Maybe two updates that will only have a single screenshot each, if at all. Following that, well, we'll see. Hopefully at some point I'll be caught up again to where reports are posted within a day or two of the missions being flown.

--

In other news: For those that don't know, I try to post the ships I've launched in this save in a public folder on Dropbox. (Here.) So far the only KSP v1.2.2 craft I've added are the four Chromium vehicles (and an unflown, updated Titanium), but more will be added in time. Keep in mind that almost every craft I've launched has used mod parts, and that several of the mods I've used have changed part names (Tantares) or have been long abandoned (in one case since 0.22...). As always there's a modlist in the first post that includes ~~all~~ most of the mods used in older KSP versions, too. If you load a craft and a part is missing ping me with the exact part name and I'll see where it went.

That link will only work until March 15th. After that Dropbox is discontinuing Public folders, so I'll need to find another solution. Likely I'll just use a direct link to another location in Dropbox, or perhaps a folder on my webserver. We'll see. Lots of things are going to break this year with Dropbox's changes (us Pro users lose yet more features in September, such as abusing Dropbox as a website), but they all seem to be for the best.

Some of my craft are also posted to Kerbal-X. ("Some" meaning "three".) I don't have any of the 1.2.2 craft up there yet, but there's something coming in the next update that I intend to upload. Keep your eyes peeled (not literally, please).

--

On 1/11/2017 at 10:02 AM, 0111narwhalz said:

Pretty sure you just need alt-u to turn on umlaut mode, then u to put an umlaut on it.

That's the one. Alt-j adds ∆, which is useful in its own right. Not sure what I was thinking. My MacBook Pro keyboard is a bit weird anyway, as I'm using a JIS layout keyboard (I was experimenting with JIS before I bought this MBP, and after four years I'm still undecided which layout I prefer), but those keybindings are still the same.

Edited January 23, 2017 by Cydonian Monk
Wrong JIS keyboard link.....

Cydonian Monk · January 23, 2017

Adaptation

“Burn complete,” the Guidance Officer reported. “Chromium 13 shows good orbit at Minmus. The network is green.”

“That’s the last of them. Good work, kerbals.” Rosuki unplugged her headset and shut down the Flight Director’s station. “Snacks are waiting in the lobby, and a reliable source tells me there’s a fresh rio queso waiting to be forded. Go enjoy yourselves this evening. You’ve earned it.”

She waited until mission control was empty before she moved to the CapCom's station. Four sets of crews were highlighted on the task list: one at Transfer One above Kerbin, another at Pequoni 2 at The Mün, Sieta aboard the Memory of Tomorrow, and the final at Jool. Sieta was marked as "Do not Contact," while the Jool crew had no date for their last check in. She debated about adding the others to the list; the crews at Eve and Duna, maybe even the rest of The Forgotten. Wherever they were.

First call was the same as always: Jool.

"Kerbin calling Jumble of Parts. Please respond, same frequency. Over."

She repeated the message once, and then listened. No answer. After the acceptable time delay had passed she started scanning the frequencies, listening to the noise emanating from Jool. Still nothing.

Next she moved to Duna, attempting to reach Valentina and her crew. Last time they'd talked to anyone on Kerbin was just after they landed on Ike; just before the hard reset. Rosuki was on The Mün at the time. How long ago was that? Ten years already? More? Same answer as Jool: silent static. It was the same story from Eve. Had Bob and his crew had made it, they would have been at Kerbin years ago. Same with Val. Either The Forgotten had picked them up or the Krakens had taken them all.

She looked back at the list. Sieta. Sieta and Hallock. Where were they headed? Duna? Dres? Both? Dres would be a stretch for the Memory of Tomorrow, requiring nearly twice as much ∆v as Duna for a low orbit. Why would they go to Dres? Why Duna? What could either planey possibly have that would draw them in? As much as she wanted to dial them up and ask she knew they wouldn't answer. Probably couldn't even hear her. They probably weren't listening, at least not listening to Kerbin. Sieta was always listening to the universe.

And what of the rest of The Forgotten? The ones that weren't on Kerbin had disappeared with Elite, either by choice or happenstance. Surely their chatter would've shown up on the network by now. Whatever happened.... Rosuki didn't want to think about it.

The crew at Pequoni 2 was in good spirits, preoccupied by the science data Verly had brought back from the surface. They were all showing signs of space adaptation though, that characteristic voice as their vocal chords changed in the microgravity. Both of her crews were overdue for a return to Kerbin. She took notes on what supplies and other equipment they needed, promised to send it along on the next mission.

The story at Transfer One wasn't as happy.

"Purple. Two of them. One purple. One green. Both green. One purple. Purple. Two of them...."

Tetris was back on the radio after a few seconds. "Yes, I'd say Rozor has left the fleet, if you catch my meaning. Just keeps muttering the same phrase over and over."

"Noted."

So Rozor was still babbling and muttering. Tetris informed Rosuki that she had assumed command in the interim. They were trying to keep themselves busy, but they were preoccupied by the space crazy former commander and their other guest, Enwise, The Party Boss. None of them completely trusted Enwise, for good reasons, but the loss of Rozor as a functioning member if the crew had them at a count of 3 to 2. If another of them snapped, the two remaining would be outnumbered.

At least this time The Boss had good news for Tetris and her crew: help was on the way.

--

Burning Manganese

That "help" was in the form of Project Manganese. Utilizing the newly discovered Wild Blue labs, Manganese would allow their science crews to research a broad selection of important subjects. Space adaptation, for starters. It was hoped by the Continuum Council that Manganese would determine why kerbals go space crazy, and find a way to prevent whatever brain rust was contributing to it. Intended to serve as the first module of a new research station, the Manganese Lab Modules would first be delivered to two existing ones: Transfer One and Pequoni 2. The support modules would be send up once the two labs were in place and confirmed to be working.

The first Manganese module, Mn-1, was launched atop an extended version of the LV-10 Concerto. This proved to be severely underpowered, extremely wobbly, short of ∆v, and failed to make orbit. And so Mn-1 burned up in Kerbin's upper atmosphere, well short of orbital velocity. (The tracking station reported that most of the wreckage fell into the ocean, where it was ultimately destroyed.)

--

Manganese 2

The crews took some time with the second Manganese launch, trying to find a launcher that was both powerful and capable enough to place the heavy payload into orbit. Eventually they settled on the LV-10-H, or Concerto Heavy. This design added six solid rocket boosters, fur that fired at launch, two that fired when the first four were discarded. The extra kick, and some extra struts to fix the wobble, were all that was needed to loft the Manganese 2 to its intended orbit.

A few orbits later and the Mn-2 arrived at its temporary destination: Transfer One. The existing power infrastructure of the station would allow research to begin now, instead of waiting for the Manganese Station modules to be fully completed.

The final rendezvous and docking occurred at night, as is only fitting and proper.

The crew moved in to take a look once the module was docked up and linked in. Tucked away into the various pockets and cabinets of the lab were kits for four specific experiments. First, the afore-mentioned Space Adaptation study. This was to be conducted on all current members of the crew, as well as any new recruits that might arrive at a later date. Next up was a study of power tools and how well they operate in space. To date the crews had only used the standard Space Wrench, but it The Plan was to be executed fully they would need to build far more complex things in space. Power tools were just one of the many items they would need.

The final two experiments were of a rather secretive nature. One, a study into cryogenic preservation, was inspired by the freezer unit recovered from Thomlock's Hawk 3-2 capsule. The actual unit had been long lost, but Wernher had been quite careful in taking notes. Notes which were stored in the archives recently recovered from the Mün. It was a strange device, using a technology long lost to kerbal kind. Freezing kerbals for long spaceflight missions might even enable them to send craft to nearby star systems.

The final experiment was undoubtedly the most important. How can kerbals live in space if they can't make ice cream in space? That is a secret that MUST be revealed.

--

Cobalt Testing

Jonbald had been busy in the space plane hanger. He hadn't chosen it for his office by accident, and it certainly wasn't chosen because it was quiet. No, Jonbald had spent some time adapting Thomlock's designs for the X-4 into a five passenger craft that could be used on Kerbin. The end result was the Cobalt X-5. A few early versions had failed to make it off of the designs, so the final, flight-ready version was dubbed the Cobalt X-5C.

The Cobalt represented a substantial upgrade from the Aluminium X-4. While the frame design was essentially the same, the engines were considerably more powerful and the craft's wingspan was a bit wider. All necessary if they were to carry four passengers and a pilot around in it. The addition of heavier landing gear should help with certain landing issues that had plagued the Aluminium in its later days.

Jonbald's first test was simple: Make sure the aircraft can fly. A few backs and forths over the space center proved that it could, so he brought the jet down to the deck and punched the throttle through the dash. He was more than supersonic by the time he buzzed the old tower at the abandoned island airstrip. (Thankfully its windows had been broken many years before.) After the flyby he pulled up hard, climbed through several cruising altitudes, and kept a watch on the Cobalt's performance.

It was generally a well behaved craft.

After several minutes of testing he found the ideal cruising altitude was above 20km. Closer to 22km, truth be told, though keeping the craft right at 22km was difficult. Still, above 20km the fuel efficiency was such that he could likely fly around the planet if so desired. Max atmospheric velocity was something near twice orbital velocity, even at such high altitudes. Quite a nice bird indeed.

His final test was to see if the craft could survive a fast descent. A dangerous test, one that would require him to pull out of a steep dive at full throttle. He remembered one of the Jebediahs losing an aircraft to a similar test, coming in to land without a nose and not much of a cockpit. There was a chance he might suffer the same fate. And so, somewhere on the far western end of their continent, he pushed down on the stick and let it speed towards the ground.

To his relief the dive worked perfectly. Some parts were complaining, a few sensors screeching their heat warnings in the cockpit, but nothing melted. (At least nothing important.)

He kept the aircraft throttled down as he cruised over Kerbin City, gliding up the coast at a leisurly rate. After a triumphant trip around the space center, Jonbald brought the X-5 in for a landing and coasted to the space plan hanger. The craft had performed beyond his expectations, and was now considered safe for flight. It was perhaps a bit short on range unless flying above twenty kilometers, but should serve nicely as a transport between their facilities on Kerbin. And possibly even serve as a future transport jet on Laythe.

Director of Continuum or not, Jonbald was required to pose for the compulsory post-flight photo.

Another successful test flight in the books.

--

Iron Birdie

The Boss wasn't quite sure what to make of the craft awaiting launch. She hadn't really thought to look at it while it was being assembled in the VAB, too busy with the tasks usually assigned to the Flight Director. So it was a bit of a shock when she looked up from mission control and saw something rather peculiar. “What is that... thing?”

The answer almost made her jump. “That, my dear Rosuki, is Iron.” Jonbald had slipped into Mission Control immediately following his Cobalt test, unnoticed until just now.

“Iron? The thing on the launchpad?”

“Yes. It's an older design, something Wernher cooked up before, well, before the madness. It's a Sulphur, quite truthfully, updated for more range, with more powerful engines, a relay antenna, and built-in landing legs. Should be able to land on and return from any body in the Kerbol System except the usual suspects. Eve, Tylo, Laythe, what have you. We were somewhat lacking in launch vehicle department, nothing capable of placing it into orbit, so I had to be, ah, as you see, creative."

"Not sure that's exactly the word I'd use." She scratched at the back of her head, a habit she had probably picked up from Gene. "Ok, let's see if your design flys as crazy as it looks."

"It'll fly. Trust me."

She started the count down and ran through the pre-flight checks. Nothing seemed out of place, the flight computer was happy with all of the onboard systems, no kerbals had snuck inside of the cockpit, the "rocket" was fueled and everything was good to go. And so it went.

It wasn't the design Rosuki would've settled on, something of a large metal badminton shuttlecock, but she supposed it would work. At its vacuum rating it really would land almost anywhere, and could probably make it back from most of those places. Duna would perhaps require landing chutes, but otherwise it should work just fine.

Getting it to orbit? That was a different task entirely. The first stage, its motley assortment of tanks and engines, carried it well out of the atmosphere. Once it was expended the stage's fairings deployed, the stage was blown free, and the Iron 1 deposited itself into orbit of Kerbin.

Except something was missing.

"We've lost the relay antenna. Looks like the fairings ripped it off."

"Pity. I'll have to update the design, move the antenna down and away from the fairing walls. It's hard to say exactly what fits where these days."

In the shuffling of ships around the Kerbin system following the Kelgee ghost strike, the crew at Transfer One had been left without an in-system shuttle. Three of the Sulphurs were at The Mün (though one of them was disabled), and all that was left at the transfer station was an older shuttle without a cockpit and stripped of its RTGs.

The Fe-1 would fix that problem. The rendezvous occurred after just one orbit, allowing for a daytime docking for a change.

As an added bonus it could seat five, enough room for the (living) crew members at the station. It may not be able to return crews to Kerbin, but in the event of another anomaly such as hit Kelgee, it would get them somewhere safe. Assuming there was somewhere safe to run to.

Because in this business, safety isn't always a guarantee.

--

Navigation: Next Post

Edited February 1, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

Railgunner2160 · January 25, 2017

The iron launcher is not even the craziest launcher I've seen, though it does remind me of a tanker I built using the old Spherical Tank mod. 4 Mainsail engines with 3 of them mounted on the side angled downward and in tri-symmetry. Looked absolutely mad, but it flew into orbit on it's own with better than 2/3rds of it's primary tank left. That was way way back though, I think it was around .21 or .22 IIRC......

Also great chapter!! Looking forward to the next one!!!

Edited January 25, 2017 by Railgunner2160

greenTurtle1134 · January 26, 2017

~~Weight~~ ~~weight~~ ~~mass~~ Wait, let me get this straight... Forgotten Space Program seeks to avoid the information-devouring updates by creating a self-sustaining kerbal population in space (currently around Laythe) while Continuum Space Program seeks to alleviate the effects of the Crashes by shielding as much information and personnel as possible from the effects and rebuilding science faster on Kerbin after each cycle? Did I get that right? We're looking at two parallel narratives, each trying to beat the update cycle in its own way?

Cydonian Monk · January 26, 2017

1 minute ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

We're looking at two parallel narratives, each trying to beat the update cycle in its own way?

We are definitely looking at multiple entities that have different end goals and differing paths to reach those goals, yes.

adsii1970 · January 26, 2017

Love it... And recycling "old" designs is brilliant! I've enjoyed your writing and look forward to your next chapter! Great images, too...

Edited January 26, 2017 by adsii1970

Just Jim · January 26, 2017

On 1/10/2017 at 10:57 AM, Cydonian Monk said:

Copied from my Twitch page, because I'm lazy:

It's not so much the save size, it's that KSP leaks about 500MBs of RAM at every scene change. I'm also at the lower edge of what scatterer supports, GPU-VRAM-wise. I have no idea what specifically is causing the crashes as it doesn't produce any sort of log - it just dies.

Sorry to go off topic, but I just read that we have nearly identical computers, except you have more RAM. Mine doesn't crash, but after playing KSP a while gets... squiggly... I guess would be the best way to put it. The screen seems to squiggle a little. I wonder if it's that same 500mb leak causing it?

Edited January 26, 2017 by Just Jim

Cydonian Monk · January 26, 2017

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I wonder if it's that same 500mb leak causing it?

It's possible. I often see weird graphics glitches or physics "wiggles" just before a crash. Like the game is skipping some of its code or running some of it twice.

FWIW, it only leaks that much while I have this save open, so it is partially related to the save size. Other saves crash just as frequently, and they don't get anywhere near 16+GBs like FSP does. With the unpredictability of crashes in v1.2.2 it could be anything.

(I'm still reasonably certain most of my crashes are either due to graphics, or because of mods that think they've been updated but haven't really. I just wish they'd log SOMETHING. The crashes have been less frequent this year, too, and I updated a few plugins this month....)

DarkOwl57 · January 26, 2017

On 1/22/2017 at 9:31 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

Cobalt Testing

Jonbald had been busy in the space plane hanger. He hadn't chosen it for his office by accident, and it certainly wasn't chosen because it was quiet. No, Jonbald had spent some time adapting Thomlock's designs for the X-4 into a five passenger craft that could be used on Kerbin. The end result was the Cobalt X-5. A few early versions had failed to make it off of the designs, so the final, flight-ready version was dubbed the Cobalt X-5C.

The Cobalt represented a substantial upgrade from the Aluminium X-4. While the frame design was essentially the same, the engines were considerably more powerful and the craft's wingspan was a bit wider. All necessary if they were to carry four passengers and a pilot around in it. The addition of heavier landing gear should help with certain landing issues that had plagued the Aluminium in its later days.

Jonbald's first test was simple: Make sure the aircraft can fly. A few backs and forths over the space center proved that it could, so he brought the jet down to the deck and punched the throttle through the dash. He was more than supersonic by the time he buzzed the old tower at the abandoned island airstrip. (Thankfully its windows had been broken many years before.) After the flyby he pulled up hard, climbed through several cruising altitudes, and kept a watch on the Cobalt's performance.

It was generally a well behaved craft.

After several minutes of testing he found the ideal cruising altitude was above 20km. Closer to 22km, truth be told, though keeping the craft right at 22km was difficult. Still, above 20km the fuel efficiency was such that he could likely fly around the planet if so desired. Max atmospheric velocity was something near twice orbital velocity, even at such high altitudes. Quite a nice bird indeed.

His final test was to see if the craft could survive a fast descent. A dangerous test, one that would require him to pull out of a steep dive at full throttle. He remembered one of the Jebediahs losing an aircraft to a similar test, coming in to land without a nose and not much of a cockpit. There was a chance he might suffer the same fate. And so, somewhere on the far western end of their continent, he pushed down on the stick and let it speed towards the ground.

To his relief the dive worked perfectly. Some parts were complaining, a few sensors screeching their heat warnings in the cockpit, but nothing melted. (At least nothing important.)

He kept the aircraft throttled down as he cruised over Kerbin City, gliding up the coast at a leisurly rate. After a triumphant trip around the space center, Jonbald brought the X-5 in for a landing and coasted to the space plan hanger. The craft had performed beyond his expectations, and was now considered safe for flight. It was perhaps a bit short on range unless flying above twenty kilometers, but should serve nicely as a transport between their facilities on Kerbin. And possibly even serve as a future transport jet on Laythe.

Director of Continuum or not, Jonbald was required to pose for the compulsory post-flight photo.

Another successful test flight in the books.

--