Pathos 1 - The Story Prologue

[LukesWorks]

Hub thread: Pathos 1 - The Story

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                Hello! I'm Iriella Pare, one of Pathos 1's most prestigious scientists. I was born in January 2014, and was hired by Pathos at the age of twenty eight. I wasn't here since all this began, but I've been looking through some archives, and gathered some of the most important information about this programme. Here we go...

 

Prologue - I

The creation of Pathos 1

                It's 2030. The entire scientific community got together and just made a petition to the United Kerbalese Nations to start a space mission to take kerbals into outer space, further than where they had gone so far - Minmus. They made it look clear that further, more in-depth study of the Kerbol system had to be done, as it would benefit kerbalkind massively and allow us to finally "leave this stagnant moment in history".

                Well, this all started roughly in 1960s, during a major conflict between two of the largest countries on Kerbin. One of them launched a satellite into orbit, the other one had to follow and a race began - they couldn't fall behind or the worst could happen. Well, this went on and on, progress being made nearly every month - new rockets coming almost every week and being tested and launched, probes were sent out to the far reaches of the System and beyond. In 1969, the Kerbal States put a kerbal on the Mun and in 1970, after a scrapped Mun mission, the Kovjet Union put one on Minmus. They would keep going, but political affairs cooled down and competing was soon pointless. Then in 1972 they officially stopped trying to beat each other in space and even performed a joint mission!

                Ever since that space race, none of the two nations has achieved any noteworthy feat and neither have the nations that entered the space exploration afterwards. In the year 2000 (the change of millennium, oh I'd love to have been there!), all nations who had a space agency of their own got together and decided to found a new agency, the Kerbal Space Agency, or KSA for short, funded by every country in their own way. Now there was absolutely no competition, and since governments did not care about science and progress that much, the funding was so scarce that barely any missions were made each year. This caused a lack of interest in space by the population, which caused even less interest in the governments funding the agency, spiraling from there.

                Over these sixty years, scientists grew tired of looking at the same data over and over again, only to discover the same values with the same fluctuations they had found twenty years before, only with three more decimal cases. Most felt utterly useless, they begged for something new to happen but it just didn't come until 2027 when most of the international scientific organizations got together and devised a plan to boost us out of this! The Kerbal Organization of Planetology and Astronomy wanted to go out and search, hands-on, the planets of the Kerbol system and beyond; the Faculty of Medicine wanted to test the effects of long interplanetary trips on kerbal bodies, data that would be used for future improvements to the vessels themselves and even medicine in general; and so on. Nearly all of the scientific departments entered this conference to discuss what could be done. Of course not all wanted to explore outwards, some would rather dive deep into the waters of Kerbin - and with that the concept was divided into what would later become Pathos 1 and Pathos 2.

                The concepts were developed into ideas and later into somewhat feasible plans, over the course of two years. The interest in the new Pathos programmes grew larger and larger in the scientific community, and soon after it started to expand into the general public. Posts about this on the kerbalnet were going viral, news channels would all talk about this, sooner or later, writers were publishing books based on the expectations, Kertubers were making videos and posting them online, overall everyone was excited for it to begin. That was also part of the plan - hype the society so much that, when in 2030 the petition was finally made, the governments couldn't just shrug it under the rug and make it look like nothing happened. The reaction to the petition wasn't surprising though: they were hesitant... everyone knew they didn't want to approve it, but they knew that if they didn't, then they'd have an entire Kerbin angry at them. After some time of "discussion", they finally gave in and let the Pathos programme begin.

                Pathos 2 was delayed because the creation of the infrastructure to house all of the required tech was beyond what the governments wanted but Pathos 1 was allowed - created as a subdivision of the Kerbal Space Agency having its own facilities and administration, however.

                The programme's main site was located in a rarely used equatorial launch site of the KSA. It had a fairly well furbished Vehicle Assembly Building and a launch pad in good condition. Work began in building a hangar for airplane designers and engineers to work on, as well as a runway for their experiments to crash violently to. Also, an astronaut complex was being designed and built, alongside an upgrade to the dinky tracking station and mission control building.

                After three years (2034) of repairing, refurbishing, rebuilding and building anew, the now-called Pathos 1 Space Centre was fully ready to operate. The dirt runway no longer existed, replaced now by a much longer, much smoother concrete one, that even had marks for when you should start taking off with your planes and lights for night takeoffs. Both the VAB and the Plane Hangar looked as good as new, in part because they were, in fact, new, but also because of all of the functionalities that they were able to serve now. The Hangar had an incorporated Control Tower and could house even the largest of the airliners designed for the kerbals, while the VAB had an immense storage for all sorts of engines and tanks, developed and yet to be, and more than seventy meters of vertical space to assemble all sorts of explosive contraptions. In the launch pad there were no marks of anything, but you could only imagine a live launch happening right there... the smell of the fuel, the ignition and sudden flame creating massive clouds of smoke around it, and finally the launch clamp detachment and the rocket lifting into the air with a fireball, hopefully not to come back like that as well.

                The tiny little dish that comprised the old Tracking station was now replaced with three massive dish antennae that look like they could capture even the remotest transmission coming from outer space and the tents that previously were the so-called "R&D" were replaced with all kinds of buildings, creating a city-like complex within the Space Centre. It had everything, wind tunnels, particle accelerators, centrifuges, massive spheres of highly reactive liquids ready to explode at any given time, three storey laboratories for the chemists and physicists to work all day and night and plenty of space for rocket designers to prepare and test their new spacecraft parts.

                The mission control also received massive upgrades, including now an antenna of its own (not as powerful as the massive dishes in the Tracking Station, but cool either way) to control all of the little probes we launch and communicate with the occupants of the spacecraft that roar into the skies. It now had six control rooms and one launch control room, with a panoramic view of the launch pad, in the third storey of the building.

                Finally, the brand new Astronaut Complex was incredible! It was basically like an hotel for the entire staff, and its main "attraction" was the massive common room left of the entrance. It had an LCD television that covered almost the entirety of the wall height and was about three meters wide, with a large soft sofa that could sit more than ten kerbals. Besides the television, there were many other forms of entertainment in the room: vintage arcade games, billiards, table football and table tennis. Also plenty of tables and very comfortable chairs were in the room, giving the ones who'd just like to sit and read or use their laptops a fine place to do so. The canteen was a common one, with over a hundred seats, but nothing unusual. Right in front of it, a flag pole exhibiting the Pathos 1 flag.

                This sounds kind of strange, does it not? With all of the reluctance the government showed, and even with the delay of the Pathos 2 programme, one wouldn't expect upgrades on this scale. And that is true - while the governments did provide just enough money for these builds that would reach the budget limit. However, kerbals all over the world donated to our programme, summing a total of five hundred million Keuros. This was the safety net that allowed these works to take place. Otherwise, the administration would've just kept the facilities as they were and use the governmental budget for mission preparations.

                If, however, no one was around to see the beauties that had been built, what would be the purpose of them? It would look like one of those locations that was hastily abandoned while being used, the perfect scenario for an horror film of sorts. That didn't happen, though, as the administration began hiring more and more personnel to give life to the structures very quickly. Five kerbals were hired to manage the five most important aspects of the programme. Mortimer McKeller was in charge of finances, Walt Syemens showed the outside world what it wanted to see (and hid what it didn't want to), Gus Heather was the leader of the Ground Engineers, Wherner Pietrowski led the science team and Gene Busby directed the launches that were made and the missions in progress.

                The workers these kerbals would manage were hired soon after, and the number of living things in the complex increased from roughly ten to over a two hundred, among science teams, rocket and airship designers, VAB and PH engineers, launch pad and runway cleaning crews, air and mission control staff, cooks, janitors and so on and so forth... Lots of kerbals were put to work in these facilities, not even accounting for astronauts, that weren't even being trained or for that matter, selected, yet.

 

 

Prologue - II

Preparations

                The complex was fully functional and populated, and it was time to move on and start to get things into the air. Of course, the tech would not be novelty, but after the sixty years of no progress, the launchers used at the time by the KSA were outdated and faulty. The rocket designers began immediately designing and testing parts and setups: some would try to improve the existing lifters, others were simply starting from scratch and building up the rockets from dust.

                These initial years, from 2031 to 2037, were most likely the less amusing for the community, since nothing at all happened to strike their interest. After the upgrades to the Space Centre's infrastructure, the design and testing process for rockets was done behind fences, and no one outside the staff could watch... not that they'd want to, even that wasn't terribly exciting.

                The plans for the lifter were to design an original one, and from that just make it larger, add more boosters and struts, to make the ones that'd carry the big payloads. This starting rocket took about four months to design completely. In paper, it should be able to ferry five tons to Low Kerbin Orbit, which should suffice for most of the satellites the programme would be putting up there. Any satellite that needed a larger D-v budget would just have a tank with a little engine put beneath it within the fairing.

                An amusing thing occurred during the testing phase of the main booster stage. The testers just strapped a bunch of 0.825m wide tanks together to serve as a temporary fuel supply for the engines to fire from. However, the interns really liked what it looked like, and told the designers that it should be kept like that on the finished product. Not believing in them, the design team headed to the test site only to find that they actually really liked the way the rocket looked with the temporary tank. After some math to make sure the performance hit wouldn't be too hard (it actually is almost null, the tank that would've been used could only carry a few more liters of fuel), they officially incorporated the design into the rocket, creating the defining feature of the Alpha-08 Lifter.

                This rocket, the Alpha-08 Lifter, is a low payload lifter, designed with two core stages and two radial Solid Rocket Boosters. The SRBs provide an initial buffer for the heavier payloads to not slow the rocket too much, and add a bit more D-v to the final craft. They are ignited the moment the launch clamps detach and are decoupled after running out of fuel, by the action of radial Separatrons mounted on them. That leaves us only with the core rocket left, comprising the core stage with a "Skipper" Engine and the characteristic fuel tank, with six control surfaces mounted on its side. This stage ignites before the clamp separation, to warm up the engine so it doesn't fail mid-flight. After the burnout of the 2.5m wide core stage, four Separatrons attached to it push the tank away from the rest of the rocket. That rest is the upper stage, designed for insertion and orbital maneuvers, which ignites soon after separation. It is more complex than the core stage, because it has to be prepared to do much more complicated tasks. It has a "Terrier" engine with four linear RCS thrusters both at the engine and at the avionics package, each fueled by a dedicated tiny Monopropellant tank. The RC-S01 Rocket Avionics Package is a contraption designed for this rocket itself (with other variants, the RC-N## and the RC-L##, designed for future crafts), which contained a computer core, attached to avionics sensors to provide the guidance system information. It had installed a program made to provide automated throttle control, Stability Assistance, and a myriad of other functions. Overall, this rocket was a massive improvement from the ones used up until that moment, and it's dummy launch, in July 2037, was a major milestone for the Pathos programme.

 

                During the time of the rocket designing, there were numerous conferences within the administration to shape the programme's goals and means to achieve them. Almost a year prior to the final test of the Alpha-08 Lifter, the administration published the programme's objectives. They were most unreasonable - the programme was aiming to colonize the Kerbol system. It would be a massive task to be taken at once, so the administration subdivided Pathos 1 into multiple Projects, each would develop and test parts of technology that would be of necessity to ultimately achieve their goal.

                Project Selene would be the first one to be tackled. It was the very first stepping stone to colonize Kerbol, it involved setting up a base on the Mun. The base that was to be located on the Mun should be able to survive on its own for a few months, but would have frequent resupply missions either way. The still-to-be-named base would be located atop an ore deposit and would have facilities to mine and refine the material. The entire Project had to analyze the surface of the Mun and search for ore deposits - for which two satellites would be orbited, one to make a general analysis and another to research the most suitable sites -, setup a feasible "Kerbin Surface - Kerbin Orbit" transport method, as well as a "Kerbin Orbit - Mun Orbit" and "Mun Orbit - Mun Surface" one. On paper, that would involve a spaceplane to carry crew up to space from Kerbin Orbit and an Orbital Ferry to transport the crews to and from the Mun, to which would be docked a shuttle to land on the Mun, refuel at the base and return to the orbiter, resupplying the main craft and keeping it in working order for future trips. The Project had a fairly simple concept, but of course wouldn't be so simple to carry out successfully.

                The second Project to be devised was called Project Helios, and it intended to setup, throughout the Kerbol System, a base infrastructure for any projects that would follow. To accomplish this mission, Project Helios would set up two stations on Moho, each on opposing longitudes, that would monitor Kerbol and its weather, analyzing patterns and predicting the occurrence of kerbolar storms (directed surges of electromagnetic waves strong enough to disenable electronic components on Kerbin that would be devastating on any spacecraft), ensuring the safety of launching kerbals into interplanetary space and the ability for them to prepare for an anomalistic situation mid-flight, should it arrive. Also, deep space telescopes should be deployed - one being a new module for the Munar base, the other orbiting Kerbin in a High Orbit, the last two orbiting in Kerbin Lagrange Points, one between Kerbin and Kerbol, the other behind Kerbin - to search the asteroid rings of the System and find both potential threats and potential objects to study.

                The third idealized project was Project Gaea which aimed at building a self sustained base on the surface of Duna. The infrastructure used for Project Selene would be used again, to analyze the surface and locate the best landing site, as well as a constellation of satellites that would be orbited to ease communications. Then, after the information was received at Kerbin and the following transfer window opened, the base modules would be sent, and assemble both a small outpost on the surface of Ike, and the main base on the surface of Duna, alongside rovers that would be deployed there. After a third launch window, the crew would mount on a vessel and fly towards Duna where they would later land and populate the base. Besides this, the project would involve the development of a reliable interplanetary transport vehicle which, after designed, would serve as a ferry to and from the base, landing and returning to orbit with a separate shuttle. Two of these would be built, so that whenever one launched towards Duna, the other would begin the return voyage.

                The fourth, Project Eos, was the culmination of all of the previous projects. Its premise was to setup, on the surface of Laythe, a fully independent colony, with all of the luxury that Kerbin itself would allow. The orbital infrastructure for this would be similar to that used in the Dunian base, being sent first and placed into their specific orbits - a constellation of communication satellites, two scanner satellites and, as a specificity, one weather satellite and one telescope (on a high Laythe orbit). The modules that comprised the base would be sent afterwards, on another launch window, and the crew would follow (me among them), after even another window arrived.

                Project Asteria was a side project and consisted of the interception of an asteroid in Kerbin Orbit (or Duna or Laythe if bases were already setup), and subsequent analysis of its composition. Then, if it was deemed suitable, it would be captured by the probe and put into a stable orbit over the parent body to be further studied. Then small outposts could be built on them. Those would not be self sufficient and would mainly serve the goals of resource extraction for surface industries on Kerbin (which would be extremely profitable) or tourism for very wealthy kerbals. Note there could be more than one Project Asteria, as multiple asteroids that fit the required criteria may be found and utilized for the diverse purposes.

                And, at last, there was another project... the most complex of all - Project Coeus. On paper, it would consist of the construction of a spaceship, in Kerbin orbit, which would later send itself into the darkness of interstellar space. This, however, wasn't so simple, as any means for this to be accomplished were still out of reach, and would remain so until heavy experimentation was made with the interplanetary flights that would occur during the previous projects. Also, life support replenishment, safe power generation, psychic problems on the astronauts, physical ones, were all issues that were still to be solved efficiently enough to be viable in such an endeavor.

                It was with these ideas established that the administrators began working on and solving many of the logistical issues that were around. With that worked, the rocket built, and plans made, it was time to finally "kick the wheel" and set the entire thing in motion.

 

Hub thread: Pathos 1 - The Story

Chapter One: (WIP)

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And with that folks, here's the prologue for my story... Hope you enjoyed it, happy Christmas and may this be my gift for you.

Edited December 23, 2015 by LukesWorks