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The Kerbal Space Agency: To Be Continued...?


Drew Kerman

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Operations Summary – Week of 5/22/17
 

FZX-816(C) Aerocaptured by Kerbin

When it was discovered by the Asteroid Tracking Network back on May 17th astronomers were amazed to find FZX-816(C) was potentially going to brush by Kerbin so close as to actually enter its atmosphere. It was, in fact, originally projected to miss the ground by a mere 10 kilometers! When it entered the system on May 23rd, revised observations showed it was actually going to skim only 17km over the surface, still a significant brush through the atmosphere, which begged the obvious question – what was going to happen to it? Our knowledge of the composition of asteroids is still very limited. At best we can classify them into broad categories like Stony, Metallic, Carbonaceous, etc based on what we can derive of their makeup from their orbital characteristics & limited optical observation with ground-based telescopes. How well they hold together under heat and pressure no one really knows.

To prepare for this event, scientists traveled by airship from Ockr City to the entry corridor and laid out several stations along the path with seismic sensors to measure any ground impacts and microphones to pick up on the asteroid’s hypersonic passage & possible mid-air breakup. Then, there was nothing to do but pull back to a safe distance and wait. An hour after the asteroid was due to enter the atmosphere late in the day on May 25th, the scientists moved back in to collect their data, noting along the way from station to station no obvious signs of large surface damage on the landscape. When they looked at the data they saw seismic evidence not of an impact but of the pressure wave striking the surface from the asteroid’s passage, along with audio recordings of the sonic booms as it traveled along the entry corridor… and back out into space!

Several hours of airship travel was necessary to bring the news back to Ockr from which it traveled over land comms much faster to reach Kravass City, home of the Kravass Observatory perched atop the 5km+ mountain under which the city sits. By now it was already well into the day’s first night cycle so the team at Kravass Observatory rushed to setup the infrared scope, expecting to pick up the asteroid’s signature easily due to the excess heat it would still be shedding after its pass through the atmosphere. They did have a lot of sky to cover though, being that it’s still a very small object and no one knew its size or shape well enough to even begin to predict how a pass through the atmosphere would affect its orbit. It took two night cycles of observing before the elusive target was finally spotted, and during the following night cycle (3rd sunset to 4th sunrise today) its orbit was locked down:

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The current orbit of FZX-816(C) is in blue, the original orbit is in red. The yellow patch of orbit is where the asteroid was during the time it was being hunted, which you can see was a significant deviation from where it would have been if Kerbin had no atmosphere. The asteroid has in fact been captured into orbit around Kerbin, with a period of 8 days, 21h23m04s. However it is still on a trajectory that intercepts Kerbin’s atmosphere and will remain so until it does eventually either crash into the ground or not survive one of its aerobrake passes. It is next scheduled to enter the atmosphere on June 3rd @ 19:21:01 UTC, where it will pass over Sea Ring Crater. The construction of the Arekibo Radio Observatory there will have to be halted during this event – the builders have been notified already. Again scientists will setup audio & seismic stations to record what happens. In the meantime, you can check out more details on FZX-816(C) & its current location using our Flight Tracker. The Kerbal Astronomical Society has already begun discussions for choosing a name.

Genesis Program Concludes: Fly High to Go Long (If Needed)

It’s one thing to run the numbers and say how something should happen, but always better to be able to verify calculation in actual practice, which is what the Genesis Program did when they had first Jeb and then Val fly the new Civvie aircraft home from Kravass. They both followed the exact same route (with some minor deviation due to pilot navigational errors) but Jeb flew at 2km while Val took her flight up to 4km. Engineers have studied the data from both flights to confirm their belief that flying higher is more fuel-efficient thanks to the thinner air, which causes less drag. Of course, the thin air also means less air for the propeller to push against, meaning a slower speed, but the drop in speed is much less than the drop in drag. Flying at 2km allowed the aircraft to travel an average speed of 101m/s while producing an average 0.87kN of drag. Up at 4km the aircraft flew an average speed of 99m/s but the drag force was reduced by a much larger factor to only 0.76kN on average. This reduced fuel consumption by around 24% so although Jeb managed to complete his flight roughly 2-3 minutes faster than Val even though they both traveled 530km, he consumed more fuel than she did on her flight. Still, while the gain in fuel reduction for traveling at 4km will always exceed the gain in speed for traveling at 2km, doing so only gets the aircraft around an additional 500km of range. Unless the Civvie is really going the distance to get where it needs to go, flying at lower altitudes is more feasible mainly for the comfort of the pilot, as the cabin is not pressurized and only has minimal heating – it can get as cold as 18°F up at 4km during the early hours of the day.

Progeny Mk4 #2 Looking Good for Launch May 31st

Although we said in a previous ops summary that we expected to launch by the end of this month, we realized today we hadn’t yet announced an official launch date and time. It has now been set to May 31st @ 17:33 UTC. The rocket was topped off today and will be undergoing final integration on Monday, followed by readiness checkouts and rollout on Tuesday prior to launch on Wednesday. We will be returning to the ascent profile of coasting between booster stagings, and starting with a change in pitch of 1.5° to signify the end of a coast period, with the final stage also not being allowed to drop below 100m/s of vertical speed before a staging event is triggered. Now that we know the rocket will fail under high dynamic pressure launching at full continuous thrust, we need to see how it will handle the upper atmosphere at full continuous thrust, meaning the third stage LF/O engine will ignite at 100% throttle and stay wide open the entire time. We do expect friction to become an issue as the rocket increases in speed but we won’t know how bad it will get.

KB/Genesis Mission Failure Worsens Part Shortage, Ends Joint Missions

The fourth joint mission between KerBalloon and Genesis programs ended in failure this past week when the balloon envelope failed to deploy properly after it was detached from the Civvie. Upon striking the ground, the canister of compressed gas meant to fill the balloon ruptured and blew the entire thing to bits, KerBalloon crews out to track the balloon who recovered the remains have turned them over to the Genesis program to see if they can determine what went wrong. This was Val’s first mission dropping a fully-equipped KerBalloon although she was the first to test the concept earlier this year. Both programs have already cleared her of any fault – she literally only has to press a button and reported no strike of the balloon on the aircraft, confirmed with a visual inspection after she landed back at KSC.

Until the nature of the failure is determined, KerBalloon has suspended cooperation with Genesis and will instead return to launching the balloons from the ground. They also do not feel they have seen a reasonable profit increase when teaming up with Genesis. This doesn’t limit their effect range that much, since using the aircraft to deploy the balloon rather than carrying it aboard a UTV to the deployment site only allows them to carry extra fuel to extend their range by about 200-300km. Although they anticipated contracts that would send them further from KSC, so far that has not happened.

The loss of the KerBalloon unit also included the loss of a barometer instrument and avionics unit, the latter of which is what is also known as a Master Control Unit, an integral part of any probe used in both KerBalloon and Progeny missions. It is an expensive part and so not many have been ordered since KSA began operations. This was the second to last MCU available and with the final MCU already integrated into the second Progeny Mk4 the KerBalloon program is unable to launch any more balloons until additional units arrive on Jun 2nd. These will be followed by additional units later in the month so that we eventually end up with 10 units to trade between the programs. We are also awaiting the arrival of replacements for several scientific instruments. Head of Finances Mortimer is working on a new budget that will allow for increased expenditure in part requisitioning.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database was posted here. It contains now a total count of 588 asteroids.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

We are nearing opposition with Sarnus next month which means its size has increased as we continue to move closer to it again and it has become a nice target for a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, especially during events like the one shown below, which is Mun occulting the planet. You can also see Slate, Tekto and Eeloo.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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  On 5/27/2017 at 1:34 AM, Nightside said:

Exciting news about the captured asteroid! Who spotted it first? As for a name, it seems like a lot minor celestial bodies are named for the first one or two people that saw it, who was the astronomer on duty?

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Remesis was discovered by accident and named after its discoverer (easter egg - the name is an anagram of a real celestial discoverer), however Chikelu was named after the fact that it seemed to appear in orbit by itself without help from Mun (easter egg - it's a real name, though its meaning was slightly altered to simply "brought into existence" for KSA's purposes). We'll see which way this one goes sometime next week

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Operations Summary – Week of 5/29/17
 

Progeny Mk4 Launch Analysis Still Ongoing

During its second launch yesterday the Mk4 once again suffered a break-up in flight, this time later in the ascent during the 3rd stage boost. You can watch the video of the entire ascent, including the break-up, unfortunately some hardware issues created a few errors in the data that we couldn’t completely scrub out. The tracking cameras will be inspected prior to the next launch. Progenitor engineers spent all day today going over the telemetry data as well as the radar contact data sent to us from MSV Tongjess and of course the video recordings of the ascent. They worked late today but were still deliberating on analysis results and overall conclusions when Lead Engineer Simon finally told them all to get out for the weekend and come back fresh on Monday.

What we can say right now is that while the failure of the rocket during ascent is of course unfortunate, remember that we once again intentionally pushed it as hard as possible to exceed any unknown or theoretical limitations. As much as we would have loved for it to have survived everything that was thrown at it, we now at least have a much better idea of the forces at work on the craft during a rapid ascent through the upper atmosphere. We can also state that although telemetry data was lost before the rocket’s apokee reached past 70km, a good portion of today’s analysis was projecting the probable apokee at the time of break-up, which does in fact come out in excess of 70km. We can confirm that space is within our reach with the Mk4!

We’re currently expecting to release a full analysis sometime late in the day on Monday.

Weird Asteroid-Related Weather?

A persistent and very large band of moisture appeared to work its way around the planet in the days following the passage of Pilirani through our atmosphere, impacting the launch of our latest Progeny Mk4 rocket. It first reached the Arekibo Radio Observatory construction site and poured rain down on them for two full days, halting construction for a day when the dish bowl became flooded and had to be pumped out. It then struck Kravass City, which wouldn’t have been a big deal for an underground city except for the fact that Kravass General Airport flight trainees under instruction of our Captain Jebediah were carrying out some landing pattern work in a Civvie as the valley was fogged in within minutes. Luckily the student pilot was able to land in <500m visibility with only minor damage to the aircraft and no injuries to himself. The storm reached KSC later that day and also stuck around for over an entire day. The intensity of the storm was low, with only moderate winds and rainfall, lightning and thunder were reported but no ground strikes were seen. Meteorologists have done what research they could into the storms after the fact, and have put forth theories that include the asteroid’s passage dumping large amounts of material in the air that were carried aloft by winds to form huge cloud banks filled with moisture – perhaps most of it from the asteroid itself? They are planning to perform a more detailed study after this next pass of Pilirani over the weekend.

Kravass Flight Training Takes to the Skies

For the past several weeks Commander Valentina and Captain Jebediah have been taking turns training a cadre of new pilots for the CIvvie aircraft, who will in turn eventually begin to train the dozens of want-to-be private kerb pilots who have expressed interest in buying the aircraft and experiencing the surface of Kerbin from above. C7 Aerospace built a factory in Kravass to manufacture new Civvies and so far 4 have rolled off the line. Two of those have gone to us to expand our fleet to three aircraft while the other two and three of the four coming in June will be for Kravass General Airport to train kerbs on. Last week Jeb started allowing trainees to take the Civvies up for actual flying, talking to them from the ground by radio to guide their flights and landings. So far, other than the incident mentioned in our previous story, everything has been going very well – although there have been moments. The four trainees will continue to pilot actual aircraft for the remainder of their training and each will conclude with a cross-country flight between KGA and KSC. Best of luck to everyone!

Successful Solo KerBalloon Inland Mission

Today the KerBalloon crews along with Bill and Bob carried out a mission to launch & recover a balloon from the highlands northwest of KSC. Normally they would simply recover the balloon that was dropped & deployed by a Civvie aircraft in cooperation with the Genesis program but as they are still trying to determine why deployment failed on the last attempt, the launch was done from the ground this time. While KerBalloon would be willing to partner up with Genesis again in the future, the distances needed to make the joint venture worthwhile will have to be much larger than current contracts are asking our UTVs to travel.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database was posted here. It contains now a total count of 615 asteroids. A surprising revision was made to BDN-506(C), which was predicted to pass 938km from Kerbin in 2030 – turns out it is actually passing that close to Minmus. The mistake was noted on the second observation and recording of the asteroid’s orbit, so this could hold up. We’ll see if the next orbital check up in September still shows this encounter.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

This is a really cool image of Minmus taken by Bob, which looks like a good chunk of the normally roundish moon is completely missing. What’s really happening is the lowland areas like the ones you see lit at the top are completely shadowed by the higher elevations.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 6/5/17
 

Progeny Mk4 Launch Analysis & Future Plans Detailed

The full report on the second launch of the Progeny Mk4 and plans for how we are going to move forward was posted earlier this week. As we mentioned in last week’s ops summary, the Mk4 has the capability to reach space, which is a relief to Progenitor engineers who were not looking forward to the added complexity of strapping on Mk1-B boosters for additional thrust. Our next series of launches will play around with the ascent profile to see how changes to thrust and coasting periods affect the apokee of the rocket. Umbra Space Industries is continuing to move forward with a redesign of the engines across all three solid fuel boosters as well as finishing up work on the Automated Master Control Unit, which will be able to carry out commands programmed into its memory prior to launch. Once it is ready for use we will transition over to the final planned iteration of the Progeny series, the Mk5.

Pilirani’s Fate Unknown, Likely Impacted Water

Even though we were lucky enough to witness what scientists say had to have been the final pass through our atmosphere of Pilirani, no one saw it break up before it disappeared below the horizon as seen from Ockr City. Its estimated trajectory would have carried it out over mostly water, so that is most likely where it ended up impacting the surface. Still, the fact that no one can say for sure has only helped to fuel the belief of Monolith worshipers that this was no asteroid but really a space ship that was sent to collect “true believers” on its final pass – however no one can seem to find reports of anyone actually missing. There exists another, darker side to people obsessing over the Monolith and word from them is that this was a reconnaissance craft making an overflight of Kerbin civilization to check on the progress of our development. No one here at KSA gives these “theories” any serious attention.

What scientists have found interesting though is that the passage of Pilirani through the atmosphere has caused some very weird weather to erupt in the days that follow. Meteorologists are only beginning to study what has been going on, but all cities have reported lots of rain and very overcast skies, while here at KSC we experienced some damaging winds shortly after the final pass that came close to us. It’s suspected that particle material shed by the asteroid has lingered in the atmosphere – studies remain ongoing.

Finally in related news, it was confirmed that a second asteroid struck the water north of Kravass City the same day Pilirani was due to make return passes through the atmosphere. Scientists still studying the area report clear evidence of high waves striking the shoreline, and are considering whether they want to attempt an underwater expedition to search for fragments.

KerBalloon Faces Recovery Issues

Both missions carried out this week by KerBalloon suffered problems when it came to recovering their payloads after landing. In the first mission two launch zones were so close together we deployed balloons simultaneously, both of which drifted east but then caught an upper-level stream of air that sent them west towards the mountains. During recovery one of the units was retrieved but the second was found to be inaccessible upon a high and steep slope, forcing us to call in a special search & rescue airship to retrieve it the following day.

The second mission was by far the most intriguing, as it appeared some sea creature found our parachutes appetizing. The MSV Lymun was in close proximity to the probe when it splashed down in the water and when its recovery craft approached to fish out the unit they saw the chute get pulled under, taking the balloon casing with it. Despite waiting and searching for it to re-appear, no sign of it was seen again. If it had been pulled down to a depth greater than 150m or so it’s likely the casing would have ruptured under the pressure and the unit would have sank even if the creature had released the chute or it had broken free (unlikely the chute lines would have parted though).

Marine experts have been consulted and note there are a few predatory species that go after large invertebrate animals, which they say our parachute might resemble to them. The KerBalloon team is looking into a way to have the chute cut itself off from the casing after touchdown to help ensure this doesn’t happen again. It also might explain what happened to the KerBalloon unit from this mission last year that also disappeared without a trace on relatively calm seas.

Civvie Science Flight & Deuce Completion

Genesis program saw a good week, starting with a purely science-driven flight of the Civvie equipped with an Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer to take high-resolution sample data of the surrounding Shores and Grasslands. The data was too much to store on the Civvie and so was transmitted via direct link to the Tracking Station. The antenna aboard the Civvie is powerful enough to send data at a rate approaching 512kb/s but understandably this drains more energy than the engine’s alternator can put out at full throttle so eventually the batteries will run down and need to be replaced. The are pretty big, so this operation can take upwards of 30-45 minutes. Captain Jeb made two flights, meandering all about the surrounding areas while staying within visual range of KSC. While the mission did generate enough revenue to overcome the cost of deploying and fueling the Civvie, pretty much all gain was immediately spent on more batteries so future missions can be carried out – hopefully with additional backing from the Field Research Team in the R&D labs.

Other news from Genesis is that the Deuce has finished construction, which was started at the beginning of last month, and will begin ground trials next week. These trials will ensure that the engines, landing gear, control surfaces, electrical and fuel systems are all in working order before the aircraft is cleared to attempt takeoff and flight. Captain Jeb is excited to be the first to have mitts-on the new aircraft since Val was able to test the original Civvie while his arm was broken. Although the Deuce is a multi-crew aircraft it can just as easily be operated by a single pilot and given that we only have two we don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket – plus Val is still away at Kravass through next week for the last training session of new Civvie flight instructors (which has been going well – no one has been injured or completely wrecked an aircraft yet).

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database was skipped this week – we guess everyone was still too caught up in the excitement of Pilirani’s passing. We can tell you though that as of today the total asteroid count stands at 665 and there have been no new alerts.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

A wide-angle shot of the night sky, with the Lagoo Nebula stretching across in all its glory. You can also spot Sarnus, Urlum, Neidon and Duna.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 6/12/17
 

Deuce Crash Investigation Underway

With a successful ground trial earlier this week and after review of the data turned up no major issues that required further fixing & testing the Deuce was cleared for flight trials. Captain Jeb was in command of the first flight trial, which ended with the Deuce losing control on final approach and crashing into the water 6km short of the runway. The Deuce impacted the water nose-first at a near-vertical orientation, crumpling the nose cone and damaging the leading edges of both wings. The engines were knocked off as designed so that they would sink without bringing the rest of the craft down with them if the cabin remained intact. Our rescue boat was shadowing the aircraft on its approach so was able to reach the scene of the accident within a minute to confirm that Jeb was okay and the aircraft was not taking on water. A tow cable was attached & the Deuce was slowly tugged back to shore, where it was loaded up on a carry vehicle & trucked back to the HAB for inspection. Jeb was taken to the medical center for evaluation & released without any serious injuries, although he will be on short-term medication for some strained muscles & bruises.

C7 Aerospace Division has opened a formal investigation into the crash to determine exactly what went wrong so it can be fixed when the Deuce is rebuilt. Both engines were recovered today from the sea floor, where they had sunk to a depth of 745m. The Telemetry Data Unit that records all the flight details was also preserved without damage in the tail section of the aircraft. Investigators have all the information they could ask for and plan to spend at least the next week digging through it. When they release their conclusions later this month we will also include a detailed report of the Deuce’s first flight.

Jeb was on medical leave today & will remain so over the weekend but is expected to return to full duty on Monday.

Airborne Rocket Launch Postponed Indefinitely

Last week Jeb came up with the idea of using the two Progeny Mk1-B boosters we have in surplus to test the feasibility of launching a rocket from a plane. Lead Engineer Simon initially scoffed at the idea but since the Progenitor program has slowed down waiting for their new parts to be delivered, he had time to actually think about it and decided it was worth looking into. Jeb had suggested the idea with the Civvie in mind but after drafting up various mounting ideas Simon realized this just wouldn’t be possible for various reasons. The Deuce, however, could carry the rocket on its back and in fact carrying payloads atop its tail section is what the aircraft was designed to do. However with the recent crash the airborne rocket launch idea will have to wait a while longer. Still, the Mk1-B currently under assembly will continue to be built so it is ready when the time comes.

It should be noted that using a Mk1-B isn’t just being done out of convenience for having the boosters available. The fact that we know how the rocket performs when launched from the ground will allow us to properly analyze how it performs when launched from 4km ASL.

KerBalloon & Genesis Continue Science Missions

Both programs dispatched missions to collect science and/or satisfy contracts this week, with KerBalloon launching both low-altitude and high-altitude balloons and the Civvie flying another atmospheric sampling mission, this time over the Highlands and Mountains. All the missions were successful and especially in the case of the Civvie, which was already out on the tarmac from the previous sampling mission and thus saved cost in not needing to be deployed from the HAB. Our profits continue to come mostly from the KerBalloon program, as Genesis & Progenitor have both seen recent hard setbacks with the Deuce and Mk4, respectively.

KGA Instructors Graduate

Captain Jeb and Commander Val are super proud of the 4 Civvie flight instructors they have trained over these past eight weeks & will be pinning wings on them this weekend in a small graduation ceremony to be held at Kravass General Airport, where the training school is based. Mungee, Tedman, Helta and Aldeny completed their flight training by flying cross-country from KGA to KSC or KSC to KGA – two were at either location in order to be able to fly a Civvie both ways. They will now in turn begin to train the private pilots who will soon be receiving their own aircraft. The first delivery of a Civvie to a private individual will be at the end of this month. Those still waiting for their own aircraft will be able to use one of the 5 Civvies that will be stationed at KGA – 4 have already been delivered (one is still out another week or so for repairs from a bad landing).

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, and covers all additions & changes made over the past two weeks since the ATN missed a report last week. There are now a total of 674 known asteroids. No new alerts have been issued.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Sarnus is pretty big now even through a low-powered scope thanks to the fact that we were at opposition to it at the start of this week. Sadly, a double-shadow transit of Eeloo and Slate will not be visible over KSC until the beginning of July.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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  On 6/21/2017 at 3:40 AM, Nightside said:

It sounds like the crash was somewhat controlled, so I guess there is no question of negligence on Jen's part is there?

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no, the crash was not controlled, but the aircraft was controlled up to the point of crashing. In fact Jeb was struggling so much to keep the aircraft in control that he most likely stalled because he forgot to watch his approach speed (which is faster than the Civvie he is intrinsically used to). Pretty sure the investigation will clear him

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Operations Summary – Week of 6/19/17
 

QEF-511(C) Skims Atmosphere & Remises Plots Departure

Later today the class-C asteroid designated QEF-511 by the Asteroid Tracking Network will pass through Kerbin’s atmosphere to a depth of 52km, taking only about 2 minutes to dip in and back out while traveling at around 3.2km/s. Scientists have already placed instrument stations on the ground that contain seismic sensors and audio recorders as well as infrared detectors hoping to spot the trail as it heats up during its passage. Due to the asteroid’s orbit being over the poles, once through the atmosphere it will be out of sight from all observatories until later this weekend, and it will take almost that long as well for scientists to collect the data from the ground stations and return to Kravass, so we don’t expect to hear any news until Sunday at the earliest.

In other asteroid news, one of our resident captured asteroids Remises was caught making an unscheduled pass through Mun’s SOI this week, which greatly frustrated astronomers who had predicted this would not happen until September of this year. This is the second time their prediction proved false and they once again took a close look at the software being used to plot orbital trajectories, finding that if they searched for the earlier SOI intercept themselves, they could see it happening but the software failed to detect the event. They have since increased the bounds by which SOI events are picked up. The good news is the continued improvement of this software will only further aid us in future orbital missions. The bad news is that after leaving Mun’s SOI and being re-observed for updated orbital data new predictions show that the next SOI pass in late August will fling Remises back out into orbit around Kerbol.

Progenitor Program Pushes Towards July Mk4 Reflight

This week we received all the Mk1-A and Mk3 boosters needed to begin building the core stack that comprises the Mk4. Each of the six boosters have had their thrust decreased in order for us to see how the Mk4 flies with less and less of a TWR at lift off. The two boosters will be joined together with their fins also attached. Fin angle will be increased as the thrust lowers so that a spin rate of 100-200 RPM is maintained during the ascent for stabilization of the rocket. We also already have the fuel tanks needed to complete the 3rd stage minus the engine, so when we get our first new LF/O engine at the end of this month there will only be several days left of integration work to complete the rocket. We remain on track for a launch no earlier than 7/10.

Also announced this week was the final design for the Automated Master Control Unit that will allow us to begin programming rockets to carry out tasks during final countdown, ascent, and most importantly out in space beyond the range of regular communications when the rocket falls below the horizon. In addition to this separate part, our current MCUs will all be upgraded with a much more limited programming capacity due to their size but still will allow for several hundred lines of instructions to be stored locally.

Genesis Program Continues Civvie Science Flights & Deuce Rebuild

Another science mission was carried out this week in the Civvie using the Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer instrument, coupled with a contract for crew observations that Commander Valentina used to get the altitude needed to safely fly over the water a few kilometers offshore for atmospheric data collection and be able to glide back to land should she suffer an engine failure. The Civvie will continue to be used for science missions while Genesis considers other uses for the aircraft. Speaking of which, the investigation into the failed drop of a KerBalloon last month has turned up inconclusive evidence that the mechanism used to release the balloon failed to activate the timer triggering the release of pressurized gas to inflate the envelope. Engineers are working to redesign the release mechanism to be more robust, hoping that future KerBalloon missions will once again seek support from Genesis.

The Deuce crash investigation remains ongoing. The engines that were recovered from the sea floor show they were in fine working order when the crash occurred, consistent with reports from the telemetry data. They are now looking more closely at the faulty aerodynamics that Captain Jeb reported in his complaints about large sideslip he was forced to constantly counter. While this is going on, HAB workers have fully inspected the aircraft and determined the main wings, nose cone and the engine pods with all attached parts will need to be replaced while the rest of the aircraft remains structurally sound and operational. Depending on what the crash investigation finds regarding the sideslip issue, work to the tail section may be needed as well.

KerBalloon Program Profit Continues, Contracts Stream In

The continued overall success of the KerBalloon program is leading to another month of profit for KSA despite the numerous setbacks in the Genesis and Progenitor programs. Thanks to weather and logistics this week saw just one mission, which only half succeeded due to a failure of one balloon on launch. They will attempt the launch again with a new balloon next week, while also looking to perform two launches out at sea. More contracts proposals are already waiting to be reviewed once these are completed and you can always see what contracts are still on deck via the program page.

Astronauts Carry Out Badlands Survival Exercise

Returning from space will not be an exact science the first several times we get around to trying it out. No matter where the astronauts end up landing downrange from a sub-orbital flight they will be far away from any sort of support until we can reach them. To prepare for this they have chosen the worst possible landing location, the Badlands, and are spending 3 days seeing how well they can eke out an existence with minimal supplies that would be carried aboard a small space capsule. Today was their final day and so far we have heard no word from them, which is good because if we had it would be from them returning early due to some emergency. We expect to have them back at KSC by Monday.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, and contains 729 asteroids, no new alerts.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Eclipses are a regular occurrence thanks to Mun have no inclination to its orbit, but the ones that occur at sunrise and sunset are relatively rare and the sky conditions due to being so near the horizon make them a wonderful sight to behold.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary - Week of 6/26/17
 

Extremis Program Explores the Kerbol System - and Beyond!

We finally announced our oft-hinted interplanetary probe program earlier today. That post contains all the information we are able to release at this time, however now that the program has been officially formed with a team dedicated to it you should start seeing a lot more updates in the coming weeks and months. This endeavor will tie closely to the outcome of our orbital program, which will be formed once we have a better idea of the delta-v requirements necessary to reach space, as from there we can easily determine how much delta-v is needed to achieve orbital velocity. Once we have this information from the Progenitor program we can lock in design specifications and move forward with our orbital program.

KerBalloon Ponders Logistical Issues

Several high-altitude missions were launched this week by KerBalloon, and all were successful. The mission north of KSC presented a bit of a problem in initially acquiring the signal of the payload after it had cleared the horizon because the VAB was actually blocking the signal (the building is shielded to protect the sensitive electronics of payloads prepared within). To get around this for future missions we will be mounting a small dish atop the VAB that will be used solely for tracking distant objects over the horizon - it will not be able to elevate, but will be able to swivel to point anywhere along the horizon. The dish should be installed by the end of July. The second mission of the week was carried out at sea with no issues, launching two separate payloads off the deck of the MSV Lymun.

We are also looking closely into purchasing our own airship. We have worked well with the charter lines so far, using them to recover hard to reach payloads, rescue crew and relay communications over the horizon, but the cost of renting their services has taken a large chunk out of the profits for KerBalloon. The fact that the program is still highly profitable (net income to date is funds.png163,885 while Genesis & Progenitor are both in the red) only serves to prove that we could earn back the investment in our own airship rapidly. however there is more to owning an airship than the initial purchase cost. In addition to any maintenance that will be required as well as hiring on a crew to run it we will have to store it. Currently airships are tucked away in underground hangars at the various cities they are based from. We do not have a structure large enough to house an airship of the size that would be suitable for our purposes. Building one isn't an issue but we have to consider any future expansion of the KSC to ensure that we are not forced to build around it - because it will be a massive building that will not move once it has been laid down. We are also looking into renting or hollowing out a berth at Umbarg.

Genesis Continues Civvie Science Flights and Deuce Investigation

This past week saw only a single Civvie flight thanks to a hydraulics cable leaking and causing Captain Jeb to gradually lose the ability to maneuver the control surfaces with ease. Thankfully he was able to make it back to KSC before the aircraft became completely unmaneuverable and performed a great non-standard approach over the bay in order to get back on the ground as quickly as possible once the problem became apparent. The aircraft has since been repaired and is ready to be redeployed once the weather is agreeable for an atmosphere sampling mission out over the West Shore Desert. Val will rotate into the cockpit for that mission.

Investigation into the crash of the Deuce is wrapping up and we expect to hear a final verdict sometime next week. All mechanical issues have been ruled out after inspection of the engines showed they were operating normally at the time of impact. The fuel system issue that was identified during the ground trial was also determined not to be a factor. Interviews with the HAB & ground crew, as well as Captain Jeb, have all been conducted and the aircraft's short maintenance history has been examined. C7 engineers are now focusing on the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft, given that Jeb reported a large amount of sideslip in flight and a left-roll tendency at stick neutral. It is suspected the tail design may need some reworking.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 736 asteroids, 9 updated observations and no new alerts.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

The team that was observing yesterday’s transit of Minmus returned to Kravass from the Great Desert where they setup a temporary observatory for the event and we now have an updated transit composite. The desert outpost was done not only for a high chance of clear skies but because it was the place where they could see the transit for the longest length of time. Even still, they won’t be able to see the entire event. The next transit of Minmus is January of 2019, although if anyone goes above 40°N latitude they will be able to see Minmus transit again in late August of this year.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 7/3/17
Imgur Gallery of Weekly Images
 

Progeny Mk4 Makes Ready for Return to Flight

The third Mk4 has been fully integrated today in the VAB after the 3rd stage was added yesterday. The rocket has been tweaked in several ways since the second Mk4 was launched at the end of the May. The most obvious change is the lengthening of the 3rd stage by adding an additional payload truss. This was done to both increase the effectiveness of the fins that are now lower on the rocket and allow us to add two more batteries so the rocket can stay powered up throughout its entire flight from launch to coast to re-entry and splashdown, gathering precious data the whole way. Another change was the bottom booster had its thrust reduced to just 81% so the rocket leaves the launch base at an initial 6Gs of acceleration. Coupled with the second stage booster’s thrust reduced to 52% we are hoping the rocket will see stresses no greater than 40kPa as it ascends under power from both engines. Finally, the fins on the second and third stages have had their pitch increased by 0.1° to account for the lower thrust. The added weight from the extra truss, batteries and fairings has increased the mass of the rocket from 1.764t to 1.789t and decreased the Δv from 2.543 km/s to 2.273 km/s. However we’re pretty sure that anything above 2 km/s shot nearly straight up should be able to reach space and the Mk4 second flight had a projected apokee of over 100 km.

On Monday the rocket will get its final checkouts and, assuming all goes well, will be rolled out and mounted to the launch base after 3rd sunrise. It will then stand ready for launch the following day. Everyone is extremely excited!

Genesis Continues Science Flights, Sets New Records

The week kicked off with a science flight by Commander Valentina, who rotated into the cockpit and continued the mission Captain Jebediah had to abort last week due to a hydraulic leak. To gather atmospheric sample data from the West Shore Desert required her to perform two separate passes of the region, as it was too far west to be within sight of our ground station at Umbarg so data could be transmitted while she flew over the area. The entire flight lasted 2:06:28 and covered 680 km, which put Val back on the Agency records for both continuous flight distance and time. For now, the maximum flight time a Civvie can endure is limited by the length of the day, not its fuel tank, as there are as yet no facilities either here or at KGA to allow planes to takeoff or land after dark. The Air Safety Administration has frustratingly been dragging its heels on setting up night flying regulations for aircraft and ground facilities. As a former Lead Policymaker for the ASA, Flight Director Lanalye is no stranger to such things but is nevertheless starting to get fed up with her former colleagues.

The weekend also ended with another science flight as Captain Jeb took a Civvie out over the Western Mountains to observe an area for Sean’s Cannery. The weather was barely within minimums for the mission, with a cloud ceiling dropping as low as 3km. ASA VFR flight rules stipulate 150m of separation from clouds, so Jeb could climb no higher than 2.85 km over an area where the land itself could rise up that high, or higher. The flight was approved by C7 Aerospace Division although Flight Director Lanalye raised an objection to the Civvie being out of contact with KSC behind the mountains as there was no time to bring in a comms relay airship. Thankfully Jeb was able to navigate around the mountains to the location and back without any problems, but Lanalye has still logged a formal complaint stating that an emergency situation would have left Jeb with no means of alerting KSC.

Along the route to his observation area, Jeb was also able to fly past a possible launch site for a future KerBalloon mission. He took some photos of the area so the Kerballoon team could determine whether their Utility Task Vehicles could access the site to launch the balloon.

KerBalloon Tests New Science Instrument

After several days of delay waiting for ideal conditions, a high-altitude balloon was launched from KSC to test the new negative gravioli instrument designed to measure the changing force of gravity around an object the size of a moon or planet. Cameras were also attached to the payload as it’s been a while since we’ve had any photos from the upper atmosphere. After recovery and analysis Head of R&D Wernher Von Kerman announced today that the instrument performed as expected, measuring the decrease of gravity as the balloon carried the instrument higher and higher. The instrument will be a passenger aboard a future Mk4 sub-orbital flight.

Two other missions occurred this past week for KerBalloon. A low-altitude balloon launch was carried out in the Highlands north of KSC and recovered without incident. A high-altitude balloon launch out at sea was scrubbed due to sea conditions being at the far end of viable for the recovery craft to operate safely in the water. It probably would have turned out fine, but Specialist Bob and his crew did not see any reason to take the chance, even though the contract deadline was that day. We regret the loss of income but we would regret even more the loss of life.

KSC Activity Day Welcomes Staff Family & Friends

This past Saturday we held an even larger public opening of the Kerbal Space Center for KSA/C7 staff families and close friends. Many activities and exhibits were setup throughout the campus to let kerbs explore what was going on around KSC and learn more about space and science along the way. Although the weather started out crummy it cleared up and allowed outdoor activities like water rocket launches as well. For several weeks now upper-level KSC management have been working out details to open the Center to the public on weekends when normal operations are shut down, or at least largely scaled back. Over the past few months the goings-on here have attracted more and more attention from kerbs, and there are no other above-ground tourist attractions yet in existence. We are still unsure when KSC will be open to the public or even if it will, but this past weekend was a great test nonetheless.

ATN Database & KSA Financials Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 755 asteroids, 15 updates and no new alerts issued.

Head of Finances Mortimer Kerman has also closed the books on a profitable June, you can see our income & expenses broken down by month, program and vessel in this report.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Bob & Val finally got the opportunity to view and photograph a double-shadow transit of Eeloo and Slate over Sarnus, which is nearly a month past opposition but still more than large enough to resolve the transit. Tekto hangs out far to the lower right, its inclined orbit will be aligned properly to the sun to begin dropping a shadow across Sarnus’ north pole in late September of this year, although it will be a month too late to also still see Eeloo and Slate shadow transiting together.

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What happened at the KSA today? 

I was following the rocket launch (with my phone on my lap at work). after the rocket got to space the KSA website died! 

What happened?!? 

Did the first stage fall back on the KSA server? Did an untracked asteroid take everyone out? Did the monolith do something monolithic?

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  On 7/12/2017 at 2:14 AM, Nightside said:

 

What happened at the KSA today? 

I was following the rocket launch (with my phone on my lap at work). after the rocket got to space the KSA website died! 

What happened?!? 

Did the first stage fall back on the KSA server? Did an untracked asteroid take everyone out? Did the monolith do something monolithic?

 

Expand  

I had the same problem, here's a pic:

nEjxp3m.jpg

is that the same you got?

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Operations Summary – Week of 7/10/17
Images from the Week
 

Reaching Space and the "Monolith Incident"

KSP_x64.exe_DX9_20160605_050611-e1465103462237-239x300.png During the ascent of the third Progeny Mk4 earlier this week, the Progenitor program at last succeeded after months of operation when the rocket broke through 70km ASL at L+1m44s and officially entered into space above Kerbin, heading for an apokee of nearly 135km. Cheers and applause had barely gotten underway when all of the sudden arcs of electricity began to shoot from all the consoles in Launch Control and the Tracking Station. Kerbs still outside reported a huge ball of plasma around the Monolith. The scene inside quickly dissolved into barely-organized chaos as several severely-burned operators were tended to by emergency medical personnel that arrived shortly after the arcing had ceased after several seconds of crazy sparking. Elsewhere around the KSC campus similar reports were made, although at the time of launch no other building had as much electronics in operation as Launch Control and the Tracking Station. After nearly two hours of tending to injuries (no deaths, thankfully) and putting out small fires here and there, an overall assessment was finally begun - which is when all hell broke loose again. Thankfully with most active electronics destroyed during the first event there wasn't as much widespread damage done, lots of melting components but no serious arcing or fires, however new equipment brought online to help determine the overall situation of the KSC was knocked offline. Repair work was begun again from a rapidly dwindling supply of spare parts when roughly two hours later a third event struck, and all recovery efforts were put on hold for 6 hours in case the events continued to repeat.

Now nearly 00:00 UTC, during this time we had been able to send and receive a courier to Umbarg via the access tunnel and the report came back of similar timing to events that included huge bolts of lightning coming out of cavern walls and melting power lines, exploding transformers and in some horrible cases rendering kerbals into instantaneous piles of ash. We had hoped to receive some aid from the city but it turned out they had their hands full. MSV Tongjess and MSV Lymun were both able to lend supplies, but the need for aid was still extreme. Commander Valentina volunteered to take a Civvie aircraft up to Kravass, the next-closest city. Thankfully one aircraft had still been in the Horizontal Assembly Building, which is heavily shielded, and was able to start up and take her aloft, which she did at 4th sunrise (01:16 UTC ). At best speed it takes a Civvie roughly an hour to reach Kravass and spending just shy of an hour there Val got back 3 hours later just as the sun was setting. Unfortunately the tale was the same as Umbarg.

By the following day, the 12th, we had decided the events were over and had begun to get basic systems and utilities up and running again after repairing our emergency generators with the last of our spare parts. Shortly after second sunrise at 13:34 UTC an airship en route to Umbarg stopped by with kerbs from Sheltered Rock and Ockr wondering why all communications with us, Kravass and Umbarg had been lost. To our relief, we learned that both cities on the other end of the continent had remained unaffected. We accepted some aid supplies from them and they continued on to Umbarg, apparently another airship was sent to Kravass as well.

More good news for us to share is that the Mk4 third stage survived re-entry and was recovered 135km downrange by Lymun! We never were relying on any command to be sent to the vessel to deploy its chutes, which were armed at 8km during ascent and set to a pressure sensor. It is in pretty bad shape, the engine is almost completely destroyed and the fuel tanks crushed but they did a great job absorbing an obviously higher than intended impact with the water and the payload bays are still intact. We'll have much more analysis once we have a chance to go over all the data from the rocket's TDU and what we can recover here at KSC.

As for the Monolith - the evidence we have at this time it was in some way responsible includes the eyewitness reports and the roughly 250m diameter patch of scorched ground that now surrounds it. Thankfully all researchers were here at KSC to watch the launch and no pilgrims/worshipers were gathered around it at the time. The kerbs that stopped by from Sheltered Rock and Ockr also relayed information that they had picked up large amounts of radio static from the upper atmosphere that coincided with the timing of events here. What exactly the Monolith did will require a lot of investigation to determine if this was a deliberate act to sabotage our attempts to reach space or an unintended side-effect of its true purpose for which we happened to be unfortunately vulnerable.We have spent yesterday restoring as much of our vital equipment as possible with what parts we were able to scrounge up, salvage or re-purpose. We can communicate again via this website and our media accounts, but it will take until next week until we are able to restore our operations services (Flight Tracker and Crew Roster). Beyond that we are expecting additional airships from Ockr and Sheltered Rock but with the need to also support Umbarg and Kravass getting things patched up here will still be a slow process. We will see how next week goes.

From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 7/17/17
 

KSC Recovery Continues in Wake of Monolith Incident

After working overtime this past weekend senior staff met on Monday to present plans for bringing various areas of the KSC back up to full operational status. The majority of the damage was done to active electronics as currents spiked and fried out pretty much anything that was drawing power at the time the Monolith… did whatever it did. There was still damage also done to sensitive electronics equipment in any unshielded labs and buildings. Hardest hit were the Tracking Station and Launch Control buildings as they were in full operation for the flight of the Progeny Mk4. While it’s been estimated to take at least 3 weeks to get the KSC back up to supporting operations for the KSA and C7, primary systems are mostly all back up and running with final work being done over the next few days to at least allow support of Genesis and KerBalloon missions to commence once again. Assembly work in the VAB and HAB is also expected to begin picking up once more by the end of next week. The first full week of August should see mostly everything back up and running, although redundancies will still be missing in some non-critical areas.

Progenitor Plans One-Two Launch for Comeback Flights

We’ve gotten caught up on the recent Mk4 launch with a full timeline on its vessel page and telemetry data posted online. We are still missing the launch video and flight analysis, which will come next week. After that, we have the two new LF/O engines as of today and plan to integrated them once VAB assembly work starts up again. Two booster stacks are already assembled and waiting for their 3rd stage, both will be assembled together and launched within two days of one another, assuming weather allows it. Each rocket will carry a new set of instruments to gather more scientific data from beyond the atmosphere, and each rocket will also have a decreased thrust.

What about cameras in the payload? Well… it’s complicated. We’ll discuss it more once we’ve worked out a solution. It’s not a priority as far as Wernher is concerned, but our nascent PR department has been bugging him about it.

Monolith Investigations Turn Up More Questions

After waiting several more days to see if the Monolith would do anything else, scientists began to cautiously approach the structure, starting by probing the 500m diameter ring of scorched ground around it for toxic compounds and radiation. Finding nothing but charred grass, they moved in closer and received no subsonic vibrations typical of the Monolith’s “keep back” behavior, which was also lacking in the days leading up to what scientists can only describe right now as a “discharge”. The biggest difference instruments have picked up is that the object is now extremely cold, even colder than the surrounding air, whereas in the days before its discharge sensors nearby had detected increasing levels of infrared radiation. Work has only just begun in such close proximity to the Monolith, and a security perimeter has been setup to keep back anyone wanting to visit it for the foreseeable future.

Additional investigation is underway at Kravass and Umbarg by local scientists to determine what caused the massive energy spikes that threw huge bolts of electricity around the interior of the large hollowed-out spaces. Many of the arcs grounded themselves on power structures, but many were also seen connecting between seemingly empty spots on the walls, floor and ceiling of the caverns. In these locations the surface of the rock literally exploded with the force of the released energy, which also killed and wounded many kerbs. Inspection of these sites has revealed crystals embedded into the rock that keologists have never seen before. Excavations of the areas have only just begun.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 788 asteroids, 17 updates and no new alerts issued.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Due to the 6° inclination of Minmus, it and Mun do not often cross paths in the sky from a single location, even though the opportunity for such an event comes every 7 days or so. But then you have to figure that Mun is not always up in the sky over KSC, or any other place on Kerbin except the poles

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Operations Summary – Week of 7/24/17
 

Progenitor Wraps Up Latest Mk4 Mission, Sets New Launch Dates

All the data from the last Mk4 mission is finally available, from the mission report to the flight timeline to the telemetry data to the launch video to the launch analysis report.

The Mk4 has two more launches scheduled:

After which we will transition over to the automated Progeny Mk5 to begin working on the software that will guide the rockets in our orbital program.

Kerballoon & Genesis Return to Missions

Both programs ran a single mission this past week, which is the most we could support while also working to rebuild the infrastructure here at KSC. KerBalloon launched a low-altitude payload that was recovered successfully. They used a new balloon-lofted radio antenna to communicate with KSC rather than using a relay airship. This is an effective cost-saving measure for missions relatively nearby where terrain blocks line of sight – going further over the horizon will still require a relay airship with more powerful communications equipment. Genesis flew a science mission that gathered atmospheric samples from two locations and coming home from that mission Captain Jebediah was able to give us our first aerial look at the giant burn scar left by the Monolith’s discharge. Speaking of which…

Monolith Investigations Continue

Scientists are being carefully guarded in terms of what information they are releasing regarding the ongoing close study of the Monolith. So far all we know is that they have been able to approach and setup instruments right next to the object for the first time. No one has yet been allowed to walk up and touch it or even place instruments on the surface itself but we hear that is what’s being worked up to. Everyone is being extremely cautious, not knowing if the object has served its purpose and expired or is simply awaiting another event to trigger it to do something else perhaps more devastating.

Keologists studying the crystal formations in the caverns of Kravass and Umbarg are still carefully excavating the rock around them in several sites that were chosen for their ease of accessibility – many more lie on the ceilings and high up on the walls of the caverns. They are also relying on eyewitness reports from kerbs to help identify crystal cluster pairs that arced current between them to see if there is any difference between the two. As with the scientists around the Monolith, they are taking every precaution that can be thought of to avoid triggering some other event.

A third team has been assembled as well this past week to see if they can use data from the other two teams as well as their own investigations to try and determine why Ockr and Sheltered Rock were not affected.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 830 asteroids, 7 updates and no new alerts issued.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Here is how Duna appears with Ike at the same magnification during opposition, when it is closer & near conjunction, when it can be over 5.5x further away

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 7/31/17
 

Progeny Mk4 Heads Back Into Space

You can review the flight of the fourth Mk4 in its mission report and also check out the Flight Tracker for an updated vessel page that now includes splashdown location and total distance traveled. Flight telemetry data has been posted now as well. We’ve done a basic comparison between this flight and the last, but full analysis will not be done until Monday. Still, there are some interesting things to note, like how the 4th flight staged the first two boosters both higher than the 3rd flight and ascended slightly more vertically but ended up with a lower apokee – no doubt due to the lack of throttle-up on the 3rd stage engine. Also despite being higher the rocket was traveling slower, which made the nose pitch over faster and decreased the coast times. We are also still going past 40kPa during ascent, this time topping out at 61.42kPa – but only during the first stage boost, so if the rocket can ascend with an initial 2G of thrust we may stay below 40kPa the duration of the flight. We also noticed a large precession, or wobble, to the rocket as it was re-entering this time versus the last flight and are not sure why. Thankfully although it did slam sideways into the atmosphere a bit the spin did not turn flat and the engine still took the brunt of the re-entry force as intended. Definitely a lot more scorching on the sides of the rocket though. Finally, the landing was perfect this time around, with the initial chute deployment adjusted down from 6km to 4km. Further analysis Monday will lead to decisions for our ascent profile for Tuesday’s launch.

KerBalloon and Genesis Continue Contract Missions

Both programs had missions this past week to satisfy 4 contracts in total. KerBalloon launched two missions simultaneously, one at sea and one over land. Both were high-altitude missions which are heavily dependent on weather conditions. Thankfully skies cooperated for the most part, although the land mission did not launch in conditions that were as ideal as they had thought. Genesis took care of two contracts in a single flight again, this time with Commander Valentina at the controls. High winds were a concern but Val had enough experience to handle them, although she almost ended up making a mistake during landing that could have led to a serious accident when she forgot to reset her pitch trim on approach and couldn’t fully raise the nose on touchdown. Although it is an item on her pre-landing checklist she either skipped over it or was briefly distracted and returned to the wrong item. The high winds did not provide for a pleasant landing approach. With the Deuce we hope the multi-crew cross-check will help to prevent these kinds of mistakes.

Speaking of the Deuce, reconstruction is coming along well and you can expect to hear more about it next week.

What’s New Regarding the Monolith? We Can’t Say

A pall of secrecy has descended over the projects that are currently ongoing to study the Monolith and the crystal formations in the caverns of Umbarg and Kravass. Earlier this week the Presider was forced to enact an official order that prevented anyone from approaching the Monolith or talking to anyone working on the research project. Ever since the Incident religious groups who see the Monolith as a central part of their faith have been mounting demonstrations in all 4 cities, saying that the lack of access to the object in the days leading up to “The Incident” during which closer scientific scrutiny was being carried out prevented them from being near it when it activated. Apparently they believe the burnt out area is just the after-effect of the transport bubble that was meant to take the True Believers away to meet their Creators. Or Creator – there are a few factions that differ in this regard. The Presider and his Assembly have become concerned that any information released prior to a complete investigation could only lead to more wild speculation by the religious radicals and have thus clamped down on security. With the operation being conducted on KSC grounds, KSA Operations Director Drew Kerman is among the few that still receive regular briefs, but we are unable to share any information at this time. However we will continue to release any details we can as soon as possible.

ATN Database Update & Financial Report

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 844 asteroids, 13 updates and no new alerts issued.

Have a look at our extremely profitable July thanks to the bountiful rewards reaped by the Progenitor Program for making it into space. We are well-funded now for future Mk5 development.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Almost all the naked-eye planets are clustered to the west at sunset these days, and here Mun and Minmus join in on the party as well. Jool and Duna are the only ones missing, but they are keeping each other company further to the east.

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Operations Summary – Week of 8/7/17
 

Progeny Mk4 Program Completed

With the fifth launch this past week we are closing out the Mk4 program and directing all of our attention on the Mk5. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the final launch still provided us with valuable data that will be useful to the Mk5 program. After review of data collected during the brief 17s mission it’s been determined the primary cause of failure was the low TWR, which was unable to keep the rocket pointed downrange as lift at the nose brought it about to 87° pitch west, carrying it up over KSC. After the 1st stage was expended, the entire rocket was blown up via the Flight Termination System command sent by the Range Safety Officer after confirming the rocket’s course with Guidance and receiving the order to terminate from Flight Director Lanalye, who had a brief consultation with Operations Director Drew Kerman. Running out the first stage reduced the size of the explosion and limited debris raining down towards spectators, but it also allowed us to see how fast the rocket would be accelerated – it stayed below 40kPa. How this data will be applied to the Mk5 program is still under review, the Progenitor team expects to release a report next week. We can say at this time that the first Mk5 launch will not occur until early September, however we do plan to launch all 5 initial rockets in a cadence similar to the last two Mk4s.

Have a look also at a video comparison of the three last Mk4 launches that allow you to see how TWR affects the rocket at launch.

Deuce Rebuild Complete, Trials to Resume Next Week

The Deuce has finished its reconstruction in the Horizontal Assembly Building, sporting its new tail design. C7 engineers have also tweaked down the control inputs for the elevators and ailerons so not only will the aircraft be more stable but control should be more subtle as well. Commander Valentina will put the aircraft through its paces on the ground similar to its first ground trials next Monday while Captain Jebediah plans to be busy with a scheduled Civvie mission that was delayed multiple times this week due to weather. Assuming all goes well after a day or so of data analysis & mechanical checkouts from the ground trials Jeb will once again take the aircraft up to see if flight performance meets engineer expectations. If this is the case, further flights by both Jeb and Val will continue to push the aircraft’s limits to attempt to identify and address any remaining design flaws.

KerBalloon Mission Marathons See Success

Both missions run this week on Monday and Wednesday by the KerBalloon team, including Specialists Bill and Bob, were 12+ hour affairs that saw combined use of land and sea assets due to the launch locations being so close to the water. Prevailing winds out of the west would usually guarantee a sea recovery after the launch, so a Maritime Service Vessel should have been all that was needed for both missions, however we still don’t fully understand upper-atmosphere air currents and the chance that the balloons could drift back over land had to be accounted for which is why Utility Task Vehicles launched the balloons. As usual, with these contracts completed the KerBalloon program is already evaluating several new proposals for next week.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 857 asteroids, 15 updates and no new alerts issued.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Although it didn’t turn out to be lucky, it was still nice to capture an eclipse with a rocket on the launch pad for the first time. Moho and then Sarnus are visible above the sun, with Eve down near the horizon.

lucky-eclipse_36075891665_o-1024x640.png

From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Operations Summary – Week of 8/14/17
 

Progeny Mk5 Program Begins

This week we officially retired the Mk4 and announced the Mk5, moving on to the new rocket series. The dates for all five initial launches have been set, here are the first two:

Flight 1: 9/12 @ 23:23 UTC
Flight 2: 9/14 @ 17:29 UTC

Proving that we can turn around and launch again in two days with the last Mk4 missions, we will be extending this concept across all five launches for the Mk5 – it will be an exciting two weeks! Parts such as fins, decouplers, stack adapters, etc. have already begun to arrive for the VAB to sort and prepare for assembly, with the 3rd stages being worked on starting this week. The final specifications for the boosters, which need to be pre-made to a certain thrust setting, were sent to USI this week so they can finish manufacturing them by the end of the month. By the time the first rocket is ready the fifth will already be partially assembled, but not all of them will be completed before the first launch.

Deuce Returns to Flight

After Commander Valentina conducted a ground trial on Monday, we had two successful flights of C7’s Deuce aircraft this past week with Captain Jebediah at the controls. The initial flight was still hampered by over-sensitive controls and after they were dampened still further for the second flight it became apparent that the aircraft was inherently unstable – Jeb could now feel that it wasn’t him causing the plane to pitch up & down violently (at some points there were momentary forces as high as 7Gs while traveling over 140m/s). This means that more work on the design of the Deuce’s air frame will be needed, and C7 engineers are already working with several new models in R&D’s modest wind tunnel. We don’t expect to see the Deuce return to the air until September, but hopefully when it does its stability issues will be resolved.

Cpt Jeb also flew a successful Civvie mission while Val was testing out the Deuce.

KerBalloon Waits Out Perfect Weather

Specialits Bill and Bob lead out a crew in all three Utility Task Vehicles 84km north into the central plains region to launch a high-altitude balloon. They carried 3 days of supplies to last them to the weekend and camped out through rain and cloudy skies until things finally cleared early Friday for them to launch into a perfectly pristine sky. No serious icing formed during the balloon’s ascent and it made it all the way up to 24.990km before bursting. This was great as we haven’t had a clean ascent in a while, however the fact that it took 3 days meant that our net income on this mission was almost nil thanks to requiring a relay airship to be on station for that long. This will be less of an issue in a few months, as Lead Scientist Cheranne returned this week from Wild Blue Industry’s headquarters in Ockr City saying initial design drafts were underway of our new airship.

You can read the full KB mission report here.

KSC Readies New Dish, DSN Sees Setback at Arekibo

The base for our new tracking dish has been installed, and by the end of the month a second ground dish will join the first and the one on the Tracking Station roof. That roof dish will then be dismantled and moved to the ground as well after the second ground dish is fully commissioned in October. This will set us up to begin trying to tie all three dishes together as an array in order to receive signals from deep space.

Speaking of deep space, the Arekibo Radio Observatory under construction at Sea Ring Crater hit a major obstacle last month when the walls of the dish bowl being dug into the uplift island kept collapsing. Keologists working at the site have determined that the material forming the island is not stable enough to support an inset bowl as originally designed, which flies in the face of earlier reports by a separate team that did the initial site survey. The backers of Arekibo have since signed off on an alternate construction proposal, which would see most of the material already excavated treated into a concrete mixture and used to build a dish atop the island. The downside to this is that the original 180m dish has been reduced to just 84m, which will still make it the largest on the planet but radio scientists are nonetheless dismayed. The original July 2018 completion goal has been moved back two months.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 876 asteroids, 8 updates and no new alerts issued.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

Moho and Sarnus reach appulse while Urlum and Eve hang out below. Neidon is there as well if you look veeery closely below left of Urlum. It’s easy to forget that all of these planets were visible to the west after sunset just over 2 weeks ago

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 8/21/17
 

Genesis Takes on Most Demanding Contract Yet

Previous science flights flown by the Civvie have had to adhere to a general area, which was marked by a radio beacon dropped by the client via airship ahead of the mission. Commander Valentina and Captain Jebediah have both flown through and around these areas in various fashions to collect the data required, but this past week Tarsier Space Technology asked if we could go a step further. They requested that data be collected around the target area within 4-5km of the center, from 1km to 4.5km (Civvie’s service ceiling). To attempt this, we equipped the Civvie’s radio beacon receiver to emit pings as Val flew within the proper range, with decreasing intervals as she drew close and increasing intervals as she flew away. Using this, she was able to successfully fly within the required constraints. You can read the details of the flight in the mission report. Whether more contracts will require this is unknown, but it’s nice to know we can do it.

This week also saw the announcement that the Deuce is being redesigned to account for the pitch instability found during the recent flight trials.

KerBalloon Continues High-Altitude Data Gathering

Demand remains popular for our high-altitude KerBalloons as three launches were carried out this past week. The first was off to the west past the mountains and although 3-days of supplies were taken to wait out good weather, conditions turned out to be fine on the first day. When the payload landed however it got caught up high on a steep slope. Unlike last time this happened, frequent updrafts in the area prevented airships from lowering crew to the location. Specialist Bill had to return with a crew and proper climbing gear the following day and has vowed to keep the gear with them on future missions. The second and third launches were at sea from the Maritime Service Vessel Lymun and were more routine, with the weather again cooperating very well. Everyone is looking forwards to what will hopefully be a nice weekend!

Research & Development Focused on New Science Instruments

Head of R&D Wernher von Kerman this week revealed that they are working on a new dedicated accelerometer instrument that can also be used on the surface to detect seismic vibrations. Currently we have a small sensor built into the rocket’s avionics core but a dedicated instrument would give us much more accurate readings. No timeline has been revealed but we expect it will take a few weeks at least to transform this well-known tech into something suitable for the high-demands of rocket flight.

R&D have also reminded us they are hard at work determining the science suite that will be built into the Extremis probes. Right now there are no constraints because mission planners are still working out Δv requirements, so ideas are running wild as to what sort of science would be best performed during the various flybys and deep space travel. It is important that the chosen instruments remain generalized though because we want to outfit each probe similarly so one could replace another in the event of a launch failure.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 902 asteroids, 16 updates and no new alerts issued.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

If the night sky in this photo seems a bit washed out compared to others we’ve posted, it’s because this is what it looks like to the naked eye. We commonly use either more sensitive light-capturing optics or longer exposures for a more vibrant look to the stars and nebulae above.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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Operations Summary – Week of 8/28/17
Hopefully imgur albums will be fixed soon - for now click here
 

Mk5 Development Kicks into High Gear

Two big milestones occurred this past week for the Progeny Mk5, the first being the arrival of all 10 boosters that will be used to make the first and second stages of the rocket. The third stages have been undergoing construction for the past two weeks already and all 5 are almost done and ready to be integrated with their payloads as launch draws nearer. Over this next week leading up to the first two launches two Mk5s will be completed with the other three finishing up as the first two and third are launching, assembly-line style. Everything is on schedule for launch #1 on the 12th.

The second event was running kOS code on flight hardware for the first time. Previously engineers had been using development kits with unfinished hardware but the Mk5 probe cores we got last month were the final deal & some late changes were made since the last shipment of development hardware. Thankfully USI did a great job keeping the programming team informed and they were able to run code on the new hardware with only minor issues. We are patching up our code but the hardware looks solid. We will periodically push updates to our source repository on Github. Now that we will be unifying control systems on both the ground and the rocket the AFCS has been renamed the Automated Flight Control System from Automated Firing Control System.

Genesis & KerBalloon Maintain KSA Income

Mortimer, Head of Finances, is still tidying up the books to publish our latest financial report next week but says despite some added expenses from the Deuce and Progeny Mk5 development in addition to purchasing two new communications dishes, thanks to the efforts of the Genesis and KerBalloon programs our overall fiscal outlook remains positive despite a large red number for this past month’s income. This past week KerBalloon launched both high-altitude and low-altitude payloads from land and sea. Genesis only flew a single Civvie mission as they’ve been having to turn down multiple contract submissions – a typo was recently uncovered in the submission guidelines that led companies to believe we can offer high-altitude aircraft flights. Fixed now, hopefully some more valid contracts will start arriving soon.

Remises Departs the Kerbin System

The second known moonlet of Kerbin, Remises, exited Kerbin’s SOI earlier today. Due to its accidental discovery already in orbit we don’t know when it was captured, but since it was discovered back at the end of January it has stuck around for 213 days and circled Kerbin 44 times. Remises’ multiple Mun encounters played a pivotal role in helping us advance our astrodynamics models, with several improper predictions showing that we still had a flawed understanding of how Mun tweaked an object’s orbit during flybys. Ironically, the first accurate prediction turned out to be the latest one, which sent Remises out of the system. It will now continue to be watched by the Asteroid Tracking Network, and updates to its database will include observations for Remises every time it laps the sun along its new orbit. Astronomers have been making tons of observations during the course of Remises’ stay and can now finally start to go through all the data they have collected these last couple of months.

ATN Database Update

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 916 asteroids, 16 updates and no new alerts issued.

Edlu Kerman, head of the ATN, has also recently released information about the drop in Near-Kerbin Object findings. Recent months have seen a larger influx of observation data from amateur astronomers as telescopes continue to become more widespread and cheaper, in addition to more kerbs willing to spend time on the surface exploring. Overall asteroid detection rates have gone up, but it has also become more generalized and less-focused on the NKOs that could pose a threat to any future surface inhabitants. The ATN has gone back and reworked their search protocols in the hopes of being able to identify a greater number of NKOs moving forward.

Celestial Snapshot of the Week

It’s not just lack of time that has kept Bob & Valentina away from the telescope so much, but lack of any exciting celestial events this time of year. Currently the only grouping of planets to be had are Sarnus, Urlum & Neidon, which will continue to become a tighter and tighter cluster as the months go on, although their various inclinations will prevent any occultations.

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From the Desk of Drew Kerman (Out of Character Behind the Scenes stuff)

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