Werhner Von Kerman's mission log (1951-1962) - A RSS/RO/RP-0 adventure. (07-01-2017)

[ZaPPPa]

[Geschosskopf]

10 minutes ago, Dman979 said:

It's here?!?!

I think the scene at HQ during the discussion of the doomsday device would be more appropriate than the bomb-riding scene.  The latter, you have to admit, was only the unfortunate and unforeseen result of a very gallant prelude of persevering against heavy odds.  Slim Pickens is remembered for the going all "Cowboy Up!"  on the way down, but getting to that point was rather heroic in more classical terms.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Dman979]

4 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

I think the scene at HQ during the discussion of the doomsday device would be more appropriate than the bomb-riding scene.  The latter, you have to admit, was only the unfortunate and unforeseen result of a very gallant prelude of persevering against heavy odds.  Slim Pickens is remembered for the going all "Cowboy Up!"  on the way down, but getting to that point was rather heroic in more classical terms.

That is true, but I liked the whole "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" thing on the way down. It's his exuberance that made me choose this scene- he seems so excited to be riding the bomb, in the same way that I was when I saw the update.

[ZaPPPa]

On 2/28/2016 at 0:20 PM, ZaPPPa said:

By the way, can anybody guess the 'Kitz' reference? What/who is is based on?

Before I forget...

[Geschosskopf]

54 minutes ago, ZaPPPa said:

Before I forget...

Although I never saw that movie so still don't know the reference, that picture is EXACTLY how I pictured Kitz  One glimpse is enough to tell he's a self-serving little no-talent basitd, carried to his present position on the coattails of his betters and an accident of birth.

Anyway, so we go from nuclear war to biological war.  Dark

 

 

[ZaPPPa]

It's "Michael Kitz" from Carl Sagan's novel 'Contact' and the movie adaptation.

[Geschosskopf]

15 minutes ago, ZaPPPa said:

It's "Michael Kitz" from Carl Sagan's novel 'Contact' and the movie adaptation.

Hnm.  Well, I did see that movie.  Jodie Foster   But I guess summed up and dismissed the Kitz character as the non-entity he was and so he didn't register.

[ZaPPPa]

Drumlin is the bigger bastid in that movie.. and hits closer to home for me. But Kitz fits the story better.

[rsparkyc]

When will we have an update?  I love the story.  It actually inspired me to write my own (though not nearly as details as yours).  The hardest time is coming up with a good naming convention.

[ZaPPPa]

I will try to do another update soon. For the last two months I have been voluntarily unemployed, but I started a new job today, so I don't know how much time I will have. I have a good idea on what is going to happen next and it will involve new missions (finally).

Quote

It actually inspired me to write my own (though not nearly as details as yours).

Mine was not supposed to be nearly as detailed as it turned out to be. I had a simple mission log in mind when I started and then it all kind of went off the rails and here we are...

Quote

The hardest time is coming up with a good naming convention.

For the rockets? I went for "Famous Ancient Scientists & Inventors" for the rocket families, "Mythological Creatures" for the individual stages and "Roman Emperors" for the project(s).

Roman and Greek names always sound cool, so you could search for famous generals, gladiators, families, senators, philosophers, provinces, conquered tribes and/or famous roman women.

[ZaPPPa]

Good news... or indifferent news, depending on how much you enjoyed this thread and the story.

After a looooong hiatus, primarily caused by my new job, a bit of a KSP burnout, a pretty severe addiction to Football Manager and then the upgrade of KSP to Winx64 which caused RSS, RO and RP-0 to have to be updated, I finally got back to (re-)installing KSP. It seems a bit of a miracle happened because I never expected the Wernher save file to load, but after some manual tweaking it actually did and nothing exploded. I am now going through the process of validating the install and checking whether the saved rocket designs still function properly or if they have to be adjusted. There are still some glitches to work out, most having to do with manual edits I made to various mods to make tweaks to components or add graphics, textures etc etc..

I'm afraid I am going to have to get re-acquainted with the story and especially the launch trajectories and idiosyncrasies of the various designs, which may take a while. I squeezed every last bit of DeltaV out of each design and remember I had to launch in a very specific trajectory to achieve the various objectives.

 

[michal.don]

I've never seen this series on the forums, until now. That is great, because I did not have to wait a year for new episodes, and after reading all the old ones today, I'm really looking forward to them  Great story, I'll definitely watch it from now on.

Michal.don

[ZaPPPa]

@michal.don you read all the old ones in one day? Wow, I've been re-reading and it's taking me quite a while so far :)..

Little update. I tried to launch some of the old rocket designs and am running into some issues where the solid rocket boosters explode mid-launch without warning. Something must have changed in either the temperature or FAR settings or mods that I need to investigate. I do expect an update to the story line some time this weekend. I am also thinking about editing some of the old documents to add more color to the various missions, but I don't want to keep some of the loyal readers from last year waiting any longer.

Update: Figured it out. The version of TestFlight I used before did not contain a lot of the engines at the time. Now they have been added, but this means most of the engines have no testflight data yet and are very unreliable. I can tweak that luckily. So, with that out of the way, the story can continue.

Edited June 17, 2017 by ZaPPPa

[ZaPPPa]

Alright, here we go. 1961 was updated. All story this time. The update starts at page 17.

I'm still working out some minor issues with mods, but am able to load and launch my old vessels now.

[ZaPPPa]

I have a general question. What do people want to see? I know this story is different from most, but I'd also like to make sure that the people that are actively reading stay interested.

Heavy on story?
More world history (what specifically do you want to know?)
More mission based?
Less Text? More pictures?
Specific requests for techno-babble (calculating transfer windows, rendez-vous planning, orbital manouvers etc etc..)

As you can see I am slowly moving away from log entries to more of a first person perspective story line as this gives a lot more creative freedom in writing. If all goes well, I may rewrite some of the earlier entries and add color to it.

[michal.don]

On 16. 6. 2017 at 5:25 PM, ZaPPPa said:

you read all the old ones in one day? Wow, I've been re-reading and it's taking me quite a while so far

Guilty as charged

I really liked the story, and also read your "tutorials" with interest - I might even try to design some RO airplanes armed with the knowledge I gained here.

Michal.don

[ZaPPPa]

Small update to 1961, starting on page 21.

Couple of test launches to get back in the groove and to get TestFlight re-balanced (all test data got reset to zero after the switch to 1.2.2)

The only odd thing left is that Kerbals instantly vaporize when on EVA on Kerbin.. Something to do with overheating. Not sure what causes this, but it means I won't be able to get any crew screenshots until that is fixed.

[ZaPPPa]

1962 has started.. first update

[ZaPPPa]

New update to 1962. A topic that probably nearly everyone already knows. How to read a DeltaV map.. I put it there for completeness' sake.

However, I also added a little chapter on how to tailor the mission rocket design to the specific mission deltaV requirements.

Edited June 28, 2017 by ZaPPPa

[ZaPPPa]

New update to 1962. Moon Probe mission that completed three contracts (Moon Flyby, Moon Impact and Moon Orbit)

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by ZaPPPa