Forgotten Space Program

[Geschosskopf]

42 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

And that's how Rozor lost his mind.

So, let me get this straight.  Kelgee got the shakes, there are now 2 Tetrises, and Barbara teleported from the ship back to the station?  Hmm.  Yeah, that would probably give me a mental BSOD, too

 

52 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

The Agency was officially back in business. Just as soon as they found a chief engineer. And a flight director. And somebody to run the gift shop. And a cook. You know, the important jobs.

So, will they be able to talk to Jool?

[Cydonian Monk]

48 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

So, let me get this straight.  Kelgee got the shakes, there are now 2 Tetrises, and Barbara teleported from the ship back to the station?  Hmm.  Yeah, that would probably give me a mental BSOD, too

It was weird. I did a head count using the little portrait scroller thing. 10 kerbals. Did a head count in the info panel in the Map View. 10 kerbals. I went through the ship, transferred the two pilots to the two cockpits. Then I emptied the other parts of the station, which had 8 kerbals in them. 10 total. I was in a bit of a hurry myself, as I wasn't sure how bad things were going to get.

Then, after everything was away, I switched back to the station only to find there was still a portrait. Still a kerbal onboard. Barbara was hard at work in the science lab, mainly because I had completely forgotten about the lab. And because I had moved 10 kerbals. There should have only been 10 kerbals. Didn't think much more about it and I just EVA'd her out, taking all the science too.

Then today, when I was trying to see who was where, I discovered Tetris is in two different seats on the Transfer station. I checked a quicksave from just before the evac and found there were indeed two Tetrii aboard Kelgee. There is only one Tetris in the crew roster entry. I have no idea where the second came from. I went back and checked the logs, and her last three flights were pretty clear: Brought Titanium 3 up, took Titanium 2 down, brought Titanium 4 up.

There should not be two Tetrices.

Ghosts.

Moral of this story: Don't name stations after dead kerbals.

 

Quote

So, will they be able to talk to Jool?

We'll find out. At present they can't even talk to Minmus. (Or rather things at Minmus can't talk to the network.)

Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Geschosskopf]

8 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

There should not be two Tetrices.

Ghosts.

Moral of this story: Don't name stations after dead kerbals.

I'll have to keep that advice in mind

 

[Garrett Kerman]

10 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Jonbald

I have that kerbal too!

[insert_name]

I feel like the calculator game is a description of the backstory

[0111narwhalz]

On December 4, 2016 at 8:41 AM, insert_name said:

I feel like the calculator game is a description of the backstory

I feel like it's a Dwarf Fortress reference.

[monophonic]

On Sunday, December 04, 2016 at 6:41 PM, insert_name said:

I feel like the calculator game is a description of the backstory

 

1 hour ago, 0111narwhalz said:

I feel like it's a Dwarf Fortress reference.

It could easily be both. But it definitely is a DF reference.

[Cydonian Monk]

54 minutes ago, monophonic said:

It could easily be both. But it definitely is a DF reference.

Which sadly won't fit in 384 bytes of memory... but a guy can dream, right?  

Edited December 5, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Zhetaan]

And here I thought it was some kind of existentialist commentary on the fact that every time your little green men get their space program running, the devs uncase a new point release, so no matter how many times you start the program anew, there will always be the Sisyphean torment of yet another upgrade.  But you won't let that stop you; you and your little green men will keep on trying, keep on flying, and while maybe the only way to enjoy it is to acknowledge that the game is rigged against you, you also know that if you don't bet, you can't win ...

... but yeah, it could be Dwarf Fortress.

[Cydonian Monk]

26 minutes ago, Zhetaan said:

And here I thought it was some kind of existentialist commentary....

.... which basically describes Dwarf Fortress as well. It was a bit of an overloaded reference.  

[Cydonian Monk]

1.2.2.2.2.2.2.2......

Yep, the slightly larger pinkish creatures have once again slapped us with a new version, much to the chagrin of our little green dudes. Some things seem to have been fixed (the CommNet network no long throbs like a beating heart that's hopped up on caffeine), some things have been broken (how do you screw up the collision mesh for struts?), and the game crashes more than it used to. Lots more. And it doesn't bother to dump the logs like it used to when it crashes, so no idea what's up. Probably some slightly out of date mod or the fact that I'm using a 50MB save file. (Except it crashes when I'm using 100% 1.2.2 stock, so.....)

Since we're already here I see no reason to not push forward in 1.2.2. I copied the save over this morning, copied the strut part up from 1.2.1 (seriously, how do you screw up struts in a game that's 99.999% about struts and boosters?), updated as many mods as needed it, and jumped in left foot first.

 

One of the things I wanted to mention with the 1.2.1 update was how I handled the tech tree. The Engineering Tech Tree nodes and many of the parts have moved between when I last launched a vessel (1.0.5) and now (1.2.2). Instead of trying to figure out or clean up that mess I did the next best thing: I added up all the science from the 1.0.5 save, started a "new" save and awarded myself that much science. I then tried to unlock all of the nodes I knew I had used prior to when the Jool mission launched, and was... mostly...?... successful. There was one specific case that will be worked into the next update. After that I copied the new unlocked nodes over to the Forgotten save and we were rolling.

Here's my tree as it looks today, not counting one node that's way off in left field.

I know this doesn't tell you much without being able to see the nodes...... Sorry.

 

One last image: This was the comms network around Kerbin and the Moon before I did the things that we'll cover in the next update. Not hard to imagine why this was causing the potentially seizure-triggering flashing I was seeing in 1.2.1.

 

Expect that next update in the next 30 hours or so. The Forgotten Space Program is finally back in business. (Or should I say the Continuum Space Program?)

Cheers.

Edited December 11, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Just Jim]

4 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Expect that next update in the next 30 hours or so. The Forgotten Space Program is finally back in business.

[Garibaldi2257]

5 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Expect that next update in the next 30 hours or so. The Forgotten Space Program is finally back in business. (Or should I say the Continuum Space Program?)

Cheers.

whoop whoop!!!!!

[greenTurtle1134]

19 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Expect that next update in the next 30 hours or so.

I will hold you to that by the minute! Time and date calculation courtesy of http://www.timeanddate.com.

 

 

(also)

 

 

19 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

(Or should I say the Continuum Space Program?)

With better formatting

19 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

(Or should I say the Continuum Space Program?)

Huh. Overanalyzers, get ready to overanalyze!

[Cydonian Monk]

== Begin Kerbal Space Program version 1.2.2 ==

Chrome Plated

Mission Control was a cold place, especially without the familiar face of Gene Kerman. It was still very early in the morning, before sunrise, but Rosuki knew Gene wouldn't show up today. No matter how much she wanted him too. No, Gene Kerman had no idea they existed. They had just gotten back on their feet from the last cycle when another hit. One day your friends and coworkers are there, the next they're gone. Their new Gene was still out there somewhere. Maybe they'd find him, maybe he'd find them. Hard to say.

Besides, Rosuki had other business to attend to. Somebody had to take charge. Their new "boss," Cartina, had backed down from her self-appointed bosshood. It was one thing to try to run your own program, an entirely different thing when kerbals who have done it many times before turn up out of the blue. Now Cartina was just there to help with the public outreach. The easy tasks. And she was still on this council of Jonbald's. Continuum. A council reduced to four members, having recently lost their chief designer, their first astronaut, and their flight director. 

As usual their first act in the new cycle was for Jonbald to get the tracking station working. He had the network lit up in no time at all. Still no word from her crews at Jool, same as before. (Still no word form the others, either. Eve? Duna? Who knows. Rosuki could only hope they were all ok.) The records in the box recovered from the Mün was still there, and those were the first bits they downloaded. They had hard-wired the memory in those boxes. Burned the data directly into the gates that stored it. Read-Only. Permanent. Rosuki wondered why nobody had tried it before. And then she realized. Someone had. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the task at hand. Chromium 1. "T-minus two minutes," some kerbal from another trench called out. That was her cue. Rosuki. The Boss. The Flight Director. Wake up and do some work. She quickly ran through the Go/No-Go checks and gave the clearance for flight. It was all automated after that. What had she been thinking about? Cold. 

This was a new building, this refrigerator on the coast. They had built it and the other new space center buildings using plans the monks had brought them. Same plans as before, just somehow preserved. As usual the buildings were financed with the Funds delivered by the Kerbin World First Record Keeping Society. Record Keeping. Regular as clockwork, that lot. Always showing up with snacks and money just when they'd reached some new high. Orbit Moho. Land on Eeloo. Dock in Laythe Orbit. How did they know? Many times the representative would show up within moments of them bringing the tracking station online. Arriving out of nowhere. Seemingly instant travel. 

Just like the monks. 

It was no great surprise then when Munlin greeted Orsby, their World's First representative, just as he'd greeted Jonbald: With a bow and a smile. The World Firsters seemed to know everything about everything. How could they know there were spacecraft around Laythe? Even the network failed to pick them up. No, these monks really seemed to know everything. Most of them were in a space program at one time or another. Even Archibald had been to the Mün with Rosuki and a couple others. He'd claimed to have been a spacekerb in the distant past, too.

It made sense to her now. It was only natural the monks, these space veterans, would set up a records organization to both finance and reward future endeavors. Run by their order. With access to all of their records. Records that went back who knows how long. Records that somehow persisted. She considered calling up Archibald to ask how when the Chromium 1 pulled her attention away once more. Time for first stage burnout and second stage ignition.

They had been forced to use a new launch vehicle for this flight, the LV-10 Concerto. Rosuki wanted to resurrect the older Sonata or Cantata launcher, but the local fab shops were both unable and unwilling to build the parts they needed. So they started over. This new rocket was a simple design, inspired by a mid-sized "home grown" booster Munlin had described to them. The worker kerbs had called it Titan. A titan that was now screaming its concerto as it raced towards the heavens. 

The Sonata parts hadn't been the only things the local factories refused to build. NERVAs also landed on the "no can do" list. Rosuki had a design for the Jool return ship stuck in her head. Something she'd worked out with Wernher. Her Wernher. The old Wernher. And it needed NERVAs. A few of them, at least. The nuclear materials for which had been rejected immediately. The shop foreman hadn't minced words about it either. "The RTGs, yeah, we can do that. Simple. Any numbskull can shove blutonium into a tube. But these here fuel rods? Highly enriched blutonium? Ya can't just whip that up overnight. That'll take time. And money."

Money they didn't exactly have. So they were a bit stuck. A few contract later, and perhaps. By then it might be too late though, so Rosuki gave the go-ahead to start the refining process. She still wanted her crews back, even if the Continuum as a whole was only concerned with its two big issues: Communications and Off-Worlding. 

And then the second stage was done. Mission Control erupted into applause as the telemetry showed the craft had entered a safe parking orbit. 245km by 130km. It took a few moments for Rosuki to realize this was the first time any of the kerbals had launched a rocket, let alone placed something into orbit. This type of over-the-top celebration was something she'd almost forgotten after such tasks became routine. Best to let these new kerbals celebrate. They'd earned it.

Afterwards the Cr-1 burned its way into Keosynchronous transfer. Inefficient, entering a parking orbit like this, so Rosuki made a mental note to change the ascent of the rest of the satellites. Direct ascent to KTO. At least the second stage had been programmed to deorbit itself with the fuel left over, but that could be accounted for without the waste.

A few hours later and the first of the Chromiums was in its intended orbit, looking down at them judgmentally.

They launched two more Chromiums over the next several days, each placed roughly 120 degrees behind the previous. These small satellites used their four omnidirectional Communicatron 16s for uplink and cross-talk, while their two mid-sized relay dishes handled downlink or communications with other ships. They didn't add much network capacity, but the older Neons still worked quite well. The new Chromiums were just insurance.

The second and third used the revised launch profile. Instead of a parking orbit, the Concerto launcher placed them directly into Keosynchronous transfer. The second stage would fall back into Kerbin's atmosphere while the satellite would burn into whatever orbit it needed. The same was used by the Chromium Heavies.

The Chromium Heavies, decked out with the largest dish they could find, would allow them to talk to the Argon and other satellites in deep orbits. To make room for the large dish, they had to move the two smaller relays to the bottom pf the craft and double the satellite's fuel reserves. This added mass also required more fuel in the launch vehicle, accomplished by just adding a larger tank to the second stage. Simple.

And just like that, Chromium Heavy 4, 5, and 6 were also overhead, though not looking quite as judgmental. Probably because their large dish would almost always be pointed away from Kerbin.

They went with a similar design for the Mün and Minmus. No need for the uber-long-range dish, but the would need the extra fuel. So the design reverted back to using the two mid-sized relays on the top of the satellite, and added two more smaller relays to the side. Three of these were planed for both of the larger moons. All launched by the versatile LV-10 Concerto.

The first of the Mun launches, Chromium Mun 7, blasted skyward in the dark of night. This was also a direct ascent, not entering a parking orbit and instead burning directly Münward. 

And then, two days later, the first of the Chromium Münsats was in its 1500km orbit. It must have seemed surreal to the crews in this new space agency, to reach the Mün after only seven launches. It wasn't like they'd tried to keep the existence of their old space program a secret from them. Quite the opposite. They knew going into this that there was a crew orbiting the Mün. Kerbals, in space. It was still quite the accomplishment for these mostly unexperienced kerbals to be able to build and direct such a complex device to the Mün. 

They spent the next two munths placing the Chromium 8 and Chromium 9 into their orbits that were 120 degree out-of-phase with the others. And then the Mün had good satellite coverage for the first time in many, many years.

--

Missing Minmus Mishap

"Wait, that's not right."

Never good words to hear in Mission Control. The launch had gone perfectly so far, the Chromium Minmus 10 launching to an azimuth of 84 degrees. They had timed the launch so it would be aligned with Minmus' orbit. The Cr-10 had waited in a parking orbit for the window to open. The second stage had relit, burned out, been discarded, and then the satellite had burned its way to its new home. 

Or so they had thought.

"We overburned."

Rosuki was out of her trench and at the telemetry station before anybody else could speak up. The operator looked back at her sheepishly, obviously worried about what was their first apparent failure. Rosuki leaned into the console to look at the predicted orbit path and the numbers. "By how much?"

Asking the question only resulted in rapid pecking at the terminal from the telemetry kerbal. "Several hundred meters per second." More hurried button smashing. "It's.... It's on its way to Duna. Or just beyond Duna. Nowhere near Minmus."

The room was silent, deathly silent. Everyone waiting to see how The Boss responded to such obvious incompetence. They were all relieved when Rosuki sighed, returned to her station, and then announced that they'd now launched their first deep-space relay. And that they'd have to program in the circularization burn now, as there was no guarantee they'd be able to communicate with the Cr-10 once it was at its perch high above Duna's orbit.

How did this happen? She was certain she'd checked the transfer burn numbers before they wired the burn program up to the Chromium 10. How did it overburn by several hundred meters per second? It didn't seem possible. Unless.... He wouldn't, would he? She finished with the launch, debriefed the staff about what went wrong, what went right, took notes. And then went for a walk.

Jonbald had chosen one of the most remote parts of the facility for his office. It was a strange spot for an office, buried deep within the lesser-used parts of the Spaceplane Hanger. A quiet spot, if also a bit dark. It would be a much busier place soon, assuming they reopened the Titanium program, but for now it was the quietest place on campus.

Jonbald greeted her without looking up from his desk.

"It's remarkable, really, the amount of work one can get done when they're removed from society. The North Pole was cathartic in a way, a return to my older life. A hermit's life." A large model project was spread out on his desk. His early design for the off-world station where they would move the program administration. It was Rosuki's idea, at least at first, but one which Jonbald had embraced fully. A plan which he had made his own. The New Plan.

"Why do I get the suspicion this wasn't an accident?"

The aged kerbal looked up from his work and smiled. "I've found the noise of civilization to be, disconcerting. Yes. Disconcerting. We are a noisy people, Ros. And this is a quiet place. It's no accident that I find myself here."

"I'm not talking about the office, I'm talking...."

"... About the Chromium 10. Yes, I know. It had a small computer glitch. Struck out on its own, you might say. Surely it won't be missed? I've already ordered a replacement for Minmus."

Jonbald Kerman, back to his meddling ways. Something had told her that Jonbald had been responsible, some hunch. It was Jonbald, afterall, that had worked to hide the Forgotten all those years ago. Taking personal control over the communications system and erasing all the mystery blips. No need to let the uninitiated in on their little secret now, was there?

"How?"

"Oh, we have our ways. Was there anything else?"

"Why?"

"A lady of few words. Not at all like you, Rosuki. Answers in time, time in riddles. The usual." One last smile and he returned to his models. An aircraft of some sort, with more seating than the usual small research jets they operated. He dismissed her without even looking up again. "If that's all I'd like to get back to my work."

She knew Jonbald well enough to know she'd get no more out of him today. She turned to leave and was almost through the door when he spoke up again, his soft old voice little more than a whisper.

"Oh, one last thing. I trust you'll keep this matter between us." He looked up and smiled an all too disturbing smile. "Yes?"

What else could she do but agree? This was Jonbald's game now, and only he knew the rules.

 

--

Navigation: Next Post

Edited January 23, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

[Railgunner2160]

Question: When you manage to find our wayward Flight Director & Head of R&D are you going to take the first chance you get to strap those 2 in a capsule and send them to space?? Once they've been in space IIRC they are officially members of Forgotten aren't they?? The way the story appears to be going it seems like you plan to send them off-world anyway?

Or is it a case of the continual disappearances are going to be a major plot point??

Edited December 12, 2016 by Railgunner2160

[Cydonian Monk]

1 hour ago, Railgunner2160 said:

Question: When you manage to find our wayward Flight Director & Head of R&D are you going to take the first chance you get to strap those 2 in a capsule and send them to space??

That is the intent of the Off-Worlding, yes. That, and to build a giant space station.....

[greenTurtle1134]

So, @Cydonian Monk... thirty hours and six minutes, I'll round down the difference. You win.

 

(plus)

 

So what... exactly went on, there? So there was the original save, with the rockets named after elements, discovering relics from past 'verses? Then the first Crash happened, deleted all the people on the surface, and leaving the Jumble of Parts alone... I remember we got a communist world and a cockroach apocalypse. But the Boss and a bit of her team survived, as did the monks and blueprints... so we are now again starting to name probes after chemical elements and launchers after musical elements? It's called Continuum Space Program now, I can live with that... but how did the Boss survive? Does the deletion shielding extend to anyone that has ever been in orbit? I remember the Boss was shot into space against her will by the Party Boss after the Communism crash, but how did she even survive that deletion? Shouldn't a black hole wipe everything from the surface? Or only her name survived, and another Kerbal was born on the new universe, the original Boss came to an end... After that they had the Boss and Party Boss working together on Balie, but then they evacuated it... did they land and found a new program or something? And how did the monks survive?

Can anyone give me a recap?

[Railgunner2160]

@greenTurtle1134, I'll give you the short version. The boss was already one of the Forgotten by the time the story began, the audio logs & transcripts aboard the old munar lander is proof of that. Thus when the Communist crash as you called it occurred she was already shielded, thus as has been described kerbin disappeared around her then popped back into existence....

[Cydonian Monk]

50 minutes ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

And how did the monks survive?

They have their ways.  

[Railgunner2160]

9 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

They have their ways.  

Now why is it I'm thinking that the monks are made up of the tourists and astrokerbs of the Forgotten???

[Cydonian Monk]

4 hours ago, Railgunner2160 said:

Now why is it I'm thinking that the monks are made up of the tourists and astrokerbs of the Forgotten???

Bingo. Sort of. We'll get into them a bit more as things progress, but not too much. Some questions don't have answers. 

I'm also going to put together a "who the heck are these kerbals" type of recap here soon. At least for the major players. (I obviously have my own notes, but those are filled with spoilers....) It'll do me good to reread some of the older bits to see what parts haven't been as obvious as I thought they were. (And I might need to tweak with a word or three, and fix some known typos.) It's been a year since the start with a fairly sparse Late-Summer/Autumn post count, so a recap might do well.

One of the downsides to writing this sort of iterative found fiction is you don't get to see the whole thing until it's done. That makes it difficult to keep the pacing good and the relevant points prominent. You don't get the chance to go back and remove the parts that aren't the story, especially when this is 60% mission report and 40% story.

For anyone that goes back and rereads - or is just stumbling into this - I've added "Next Post" links to the end of all of the posts except the last two.

 

15 hours ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

Can anyone give me a recap?

You basically had it. The Boss was in orbit during the bugpocalypse that was KSP v1.1.1. I then skipped over KSP v1.1.2, because it was just more of the same - bugs. The Boss was at Baile Speir, captured by Sieta & Hallock, while the remainder of her team was at Kelgee. 

15 hours ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

It's called Continuum Space Program now....

Arguably it's been the Continuum [Space] Program for three years now. Since.... KSP v0.22, if not earlier. It exists somewhat in parallel with the Forgotten Space Program... perhaps with a different end goal. 

15 hours ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

Does the deletion shielding extend to anyone that has ever been in orbit?

Yes. Space. Suborbital counts. Because reasons.

[Cydonian Monk]

It's the holidays, I'm on "vacation" (staycation?), and even though I had planned to do absolutely nothing I've so far been super busy. Or super sick, thanks to our lovely 80 ºF / 29 ºF / 70 ºF / 34 ºF / 65 ºF weather patterns. Yay, silly season. I at least got in a bit of Dwarf Fortress streaming on Saturday before I succumbed to my sinuses and broken sleep cycles again..... Oh, and my gaming desktop now sports 32GBs of sweet, sweet RAM.  

 

Anyway, a short update. I discovered the source of my "let's accidentally send a Minmus probe to Duna" issue. If you stage and then change focus away from a ship during the middle of a planned burn, the ∆v of the maneuver resets back to what it was at the start of the burn. I'm not sure how long this bug has been there, but I'm 100% certain it didn't work that way in 1.0.5. Explains why my first Minmus relay ended up about 600m/s over its target velocity - that happens to be just how much was left in the second stage of the launch vehicle before it relit in Kerbin orbit.

How this happened: The LV-10 Concerto launcher has a guidance unit in it, a bit of a holdover from my RSS/RO habits. (Needs sufficient avionics for the tonnage, etc.) So, to avoid creating "debris" that's marked as a probe, I was switching back to the just-expended second stage, marking it as actual debris, and then switching back to the satellite. Doing that is what tripped me up, as it "reset" and added another ~600m/s or so to the burn that I didn't notice until it was too late. (I blame Jonbald.)

 

Spoiler Warning (for as of yet unreported missions).

Spoiler

I've now placed the three subsequent Minmus relays where they belong, which I touch on briefly in the next update, whenever that is. They're in a kinda-sorta Minmus-stationary orbit, but will have some wobble if observed from the surface as I wasn't inclined to clean up their inclinations.

And another Spoiler Warning (for Network stuff that is and isn't a plot point but might help you out if you're scratching your head over an old save).

Spoiler

 

In the process I discovered something else curious. The conversion to KerbNet communications seems to have only partially worked. While some craft can talk to the network, namely those launched in 1.0.5, many of my older satellites that had been working under RemoteTech (using the ModuleRTDataTransmitter and whatnot) suddenly stopped working. Three of these were the antiquated relays in Minmus Stationary Orbit. I didn't go into much detail of exactly _what_ was in the old network, but those three were the only reason I was able to operate anything at Minmus using RemoteTech.

This issue with loss of a big chunk of the network also affected operations at the Mün, but to a lesser extent.

Upon inspection I discovered that only some of the craft with existing ModuleAnimateGeneric PartModules were converted to the new ModuleDeployableAntenna used by the CommNet. I have no clue as to the rhyme or reason why some worked and some didn't, but after hacking on one of the old Minmus relay craft for 45 minutes or so I decided it wasn't worth the effort to fix the ones the game couldn't fix itself. Sometimes it's good to move on.

 

 

In closing I'd like to wish a Happy Holidays to all of you, regardless of what (if any) special day you celebrate in the next few weeks.

Cheers.

Edited December 22, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[DragonsForce]

9 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

In closing I'd like to wish a Happy Holidays to all of you, regardless of what (if any) special day you celebrate in the next few weeks.

Cheers.

Happy holidays to you as well, and hope you are feeling better!

[Railgunner2160]

Sounds like something you'll weave into the story, consecutive failure of the old sats on software upgrade attempt or when the universe last reset kerbin. You did already mention that something seems to happen to them each cycle that requires quite a bit of work to restore them, given alot of those sats are ancient you could always weave it into the narrative fairly easy!