Project Ares: Alternate Earth History in Real Solar System

[Felbourn]

Greetings Kerbanauts! This is Project Ares, a look at an alternate Earth history timeline using Real Solar System. It is a sequel to Project Gateway and Project Odyssey.

Kerbals have used a spacial anomaly to make contact with Earth in 1939. The series begins in 1949, but instead of a Space Race starting there's a new world government called the Earth Union, and instead of NASA we have the Earth Union Space Agency. The quest to explore the galaxy is about to start!

The video series shown below follows the story of the challenges faced by a small group of Kerbals who travel through the anomaly from Kerbin to Earth. There is real history, but also a lot of alternate timeline role-playing history. There are real people, but their lives may have taken different paths than what you were taught. There are some real craft facsimiles, but also hypothetical crafts that never flew, and some things I make up on my own for the story. All of it exhibits that Kerbal flair for "going big" as well.

A new video will be released as regularly as possible, hopefully once per week on Mondays. Enjoy!

 

Personnel locations and Responsibilities

Spoiler

Kerbin Personnel
Kranz, Project Administrator (Science)
Joseph, Site Commander (Science)
Sergei, Mission Commander (Pilot)
Svetlana, Anomaly Research (Science)

Earth Personnel (San Francisco)
Bob, Site Commander (Science)
Bill, Logistics (Engineer)

Earth Personnel (Mogadishu)
Jeb, Mission Commander (Pilot)
Komolak, Test Pilot (Pilot)
Katarina, Propulsion Research (Engineer)
Neil, Medic (Science)

Valentina, Mission Commander (Pilot)
Hadfield, Biology & Botany Research (Science)
Kesla, Astrophysics (Science)

 

 

Mods List

Spoiler

 

My System

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Timeline

Spoiler

1939 - First Contact
1942 - German deception discovered
1943 - contact made with all major Human nations
1944 - World War II ends in Europe on November 8
1945 - Hiroshima is bombed on January 6
1945 - Japan surrenders January 8 (there was no Nagasaki bombing needed)
1945 - earth nations elect or select first EU council members
1945 - first meeting of Earth Union council at Bilderberg Hotel on Sep 28
1947 - Hadfield is first to go through to Earth, making direct contact with Humans, but causes the Roswell incident by mistake
1947 - San Fransicso EUSA headquarters is finished on Dec 14
1948 - VAB in Mogadishu is completed, launch tests begin June 10
1949 - first orbital satellite is Phoenix 1 on Jan 7
1949 - Phoenix 2 discovers Van Allen radiation belts on Feb 18
1949 - Kerbin closes their end of the wormhole June 1 to prevent an energy drain and overload
1949 - Sphinx 1 test launch June 9
1949 - Earth Observer 1 launched June 24
1949 - Sphinx 1 moon flyby attempt #1 on July 5
1949 - moon flyby attempt #2 on Aug 14
1949 - moon flyby attempt #3 on Sep 26
1949 - moon flyby launch success on Nov 3
1949 - actual moon flyby Nov 10
1950 - first geosynchronous satellite Feb 19
1950 - Ares Station core module Apr 2
1950 - first crewed Ares July 4
1950 - Ares Station truss July 7
1950 - Ares Station habitation module Aug 26
1950 - Ares crew attempt #2 Sep 5

 

Get your own personal teal site added to my install by following these instruction.

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by Felbourn

[Felbourn]

Dear model makers,

I need a part for episode 5 (maybe 6) of Project Ares. It's a circular pipe about 3m across. The pipe diameter is about the same as a fuel line, maybe a little larger. In fact, the model will be used as part of a fuel tank assembly that makes it appear as though this is a fuel pipe linking several tanks together in a circle. I plan to use two of them, one TweakScaled to be a little smaller across, similar to what is shown here.

[Brainpop14]

One mod I found that I think will be really useful to you in this series is SSTU. Check it out here.

It's amazing!

[Felbourn]

Yep, good mod. If you look closely, you'll see some of those parts have been used in past Project Odyssey and Alexandria episodes, especially engines.

[CobaltWolf]

@Felbourn still no takers? I haven't been very active as of late but I could try and whip it up maybe this weekend.

[Felbourn]

1 minute ago, CobaltWolf said:

@Felbourn still no takers? I haven't been very active as of late but I could try and whip it up maybe this weekend.

Nothing yet. That would be great! All I need is a textured circular "tube," maybe with some ribs like shown. I'd make the CFG myself.

[Brainpop14]

On June 28, 2016 at 11:33 AM, Felbourn said:

Yep, good mod. If you look closely, you'll see some of those parts have been used in past Project Odyssey and Alexandria episodes, especially engines.

Yeah, I love it. I got it a few months ago and it completely revolutionized my gameplay. It ended up replacing many of the mods I used to use. And I do think that some of the engine models were borrowed from other mods like FASA and SpaceX launchers.

Edited July 1, 2016 by Brainpop14
More info.

[Brainpop14]

So, will you eventually be doing the Constellation Program in this series?

[Felbourn]

The Kerbals will be going to the moon using proposed technology instead of real (meaning not Apollo stuff), but when it was proposed was much earlier than Constellation. You can take guesses, but I'm going to leave the "reveal" as a surprise in the show.  

[harleyquinneth]

Hiya. I posted a comment under the video but i thought here would be better. 

I love using hard fairings. I'm aware of your old school fairings mod. I've used it in the past with AIES fairings. But i can't for the life of me figure out how to install and use the old KW fairings. Been missing them since 1.0

Thanks for all the effort and time you put into your work!

(oh gosh i've just noticed that the mod mentions kw fairings. Are they included?

Edited July 4, 2016 by harleyquinneth

[harleyquinneth]

28 minutes ago, harleyquinneth said:

Hiya. I posted a comment under the video but i thought here would be better. 

I love using hard fairings. I'm aware of your old school fairings mod. I've used it in the past with AIES fairings. But i can't for the life of me figure out how to install and use the old KW fairings. Been missing them since 1.0

Thanks for all the effort and time you put into your work!

(oh gosh i've just noticed that the mod mentions kw fairings. Are they included?

Whoops, so sorry, they're included, my bad.

Are there plans for a 1.1.3 update?

again, sorry about that

[CobaltWolf]

On 7/1/2016 at 10:24 AM, Brainpop14 said:

Yeah, I love it. I got it a few months ago and it completely revolutionized my gameplay. It ended up replacing many of the mods I used to use. And I do think that some of the engine models were borrowed from other mods like FASA and SpaceX launchers.

@Shadowmage makes all his own parts - mighty impressive for someone who is not an artist by trade!

[Felbourn]

1,000,000 thanks and quatloos to @CobaltWolf who has taken on helping with my request for a circular fuel pipe!

 

[Felbourn]

Also... episode 2:

 

[Felbourn]

Current release schedule:

E1	27-Jun-16
E2	4-Jul-16
E3	11-Jul-16
E4	18-Jul-16
E5	25-Jul-16
E6	1-Aug-16

I have finished five episodes, so I am pretty sure we can air this at the assigned times above. I will eventually have enough episodes built up that I can spend 3-4 weeks on 1969 Alexandria. That said... I'm kinda having a lot of fun making Ares right now. So we'll see.

[DaleTheGoat]

Hey @Felbourn In the episodes I notice a button in the VAB that is a green attach node is that a in game node editor? If so can I have a link to where to find it?

[Brainpop14]

I'd love to see the MOL in this series!

[Felbourn]

episode 3:

 

[Felbourn]

6 hours ago, DaleTheGoat said:

Hey @Felbourn In the episodes I notice a button in the VAB that is a green attach node is that a in game node editor? If so can I have a link to where to find it?

It's in my signature already.

[DaleTheGoat]

24 minutes ago, Felbourn said:

It's in my signature already.

Thanks I didn't see it there.

[Felbourn]

Hey guys, I've said before that I like to give my forum-goers more of an "inside look" at my series (because there's about 100 of you who come here out of ~13,000 subs) so here you go...

Some ideas I am thinking about:

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Von Braun's moon recon vessel:

 

And a LEO space station, but bigger and more "kerbalized"

 

And Von Braun's moon lander ideas:

 

A manned Europa submarine:

 

An Aldrin Cycle to Mars:

 

Mars colonization:

 

Maybe some some real life replicas too:

 

A GPS system:

 

And much more!

 

 

Edited July 12, 2016 by Felbourn

[Felbourn]

Latest fuel pipe example:

 

[Brainpop14]

Can you do the MOL?

[Felbourn]

Can I? yes. Will I? It might be a little low tech for what I am thinking. I'll probably head straight into larger space stations.

[Kerbiter]

Where are the lights??? I don't see any lights on that rocket. Also I might want to eventually see a Lunar space station as a fuel depot for interplanetary travel.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Kerbiter