Kerbodyne Space Program

[The Space Dino]

Kerbodyne Space Program (Basically my first career mode in a story)

 

Chapter 1: A Beginning

After The Great Disaster, all kerbals were wiped out from the face of Kerbin except for those engineers and astronomers plus a few hundred other civilians that everyone had called crazy who built a giant bunker at the equator near the coast. They decided it was just too boring to stay on Kerbin so they decided to start a space program to explore the universe. At first, when they were building the facilities no one had any idea what they would call it, so they just warped a name of a company called Rocketdyne from Human Space Program, a game they created to pass out time in the bunker while chaos ensured above ground.

As soon as the facilities were completed, Wernher von Kerman immediately asked Gene Kerman to ask the few companies in their "bunker city" to provide them with contracts to fund them. And soon enough, Gene found a few, and Wernher and the R&D guys got to work.

Jebediah Kerman got out and took a short swim ( and some science apparently ) which made Gene a little worried. With some cash and science now, Gene bought some snacks for everyone from below while Wernher looked at what he could do with the science he got.

Wernher spent all his science on the only nodes available while Gene got more contracts to do. During one of the contracts, Bob Kerman climbed out and ran around in a spacesuit. That made Gene worry if all his kerbonauts were mad. Wernher thought it was fine because the "spacesuits" was technically just tinfoil.

 

Edited October 27, 2016 by The Space Dino

[The Space Dino]

Chapter 2: A Space Program

As the funding (and snacks) poured into the space program, Wernher was on the quest to harvest more science, which he thought was tasty even though he couldn't taste it. Wernher slapped a bunch of science modules together and called it his "science masterpiece". Apparently the space center itself needs to can be researched, even though they built it themselves. An astronomer from below blames this on some magical kraken thingie.

 

Wernher continued to abuse the fact that every single building of the KSC was a individual biome and continued to farm science. He was beginning to forget that this was a space program, not a science jacuzzi.

Wernher got back to the R&D complex and prepared to "bath" in science until Gene ran in and held a contract in Wernher's face.

"You want to do this Wernher? It's really exciting! The other guys are running out of snacks because of their excitement. I bet they will go crazy when the snacks run out and I don't want that to happen."

Wernher then snapped back out of his science craziness and got serious. Gene felt a little uncomfortable.

"Let's do this. Time to go to space."

Wernher then researched the tech needed to build the rocket.

He rushed back to the VAB and caught everyone munching on snacks.

"I've accepted that contract. Drop those snacks and get to work!"

All the snacks were thrown aside and they started to build a prototype. Wernher named it the Kerbodyne 3 (because Kerbodyne 2 nearly killed Jeb).

 

[The Space Dino]

Chapter 3:  An Orbital Attempt

The Kerbodyne 3 was rolled out to the launch pad and was prepared for launch. Jeb reported that the systems were nominal.

"Jeb, we are go for launch. Are you ready?"

"Gene, I'm always ready for everything, don't you know?"

"Okay then, LAUNCH!"

The Flea kicked in and the Kerbodyne 3 lifted off the launchpad. 

"All systems are nominal-"

"Gene, I saw that coming."

"Aww... that was a fail."

The Flea burnt out and the Swivel kicked in, which explosively decoupled the Flea in a great firework bang. 

Jeb flew on top of the rocket while Mission Control cautiously watched the rocket.

"Preparing for second stage ignition and first stage seperation... 3,2,1, mark!"

"Decoupler fired and second stage activated!"

"Engine cutoff! Map view shows that we are going to space!"

"Jeb, how's the view?"

" I can see the KSC, some water, some islands..."

"Take a picture then!"

"Picture? What picture?"

"You know, take a picture with that camera we told you to bring."

"Oh, that camera! I... kinda left it in the Astronaut Centre..."

"NOO! JEB! MY SCIENCE!"

"Calm down Wernher, we can always send another mission..."

"Orbital insertion burn started!"

"Already, Booster?"

"While you guys were fussing about that camera we were preparing for the most important part of the mission. You are the flight director, you're supposed to tell us to do stuff!"

"Okay... sorry..."

"Telemetry says we are out of fuel, and were still suborbital!"

"Hey Jeb, you're not going to orbit today."

"Oh never mind, I'm enjoying the view you'll never see..."

Gene then destroyed the CapCom console with a sledgehammer that no one knew where he got it from and left the control room. Meanwhile, Wernher was already at the VAB with the engineers building another rocket.

"Guys... I guess we'll have to bring Jeb back without Gene then."

The reentry was pretty much quiet apart from the random sparks from the broken CapCom console. And they could not communicate with Jeb either, since the plasma around the capsule blocked communications anyway, plus the CapCom console was totaled. Thank god telemetry was invented, if not who knows what Jeb might do without anyone watching him...

As Jeb reentered the atmosphere he was once again enjoying the view. What a coincidence that he had landed in the middle of a sunset. The capsule splashed down into the ocean with the water still sizzling around it as it was still hot from the reentry heating. Jeb pulled out the snacks he secretly stashed in his spacesuit. For some reason the people at the KSC would not let him bring any because they were concerned about the affects of zero gravity on snacks. ( Apparently the kerbals were only concerned about the edibility and taste of the snacks, not the crumbs that the usually crispy snacks would produce.)

When Jeb got back to the KSC, he was given a ton of shiny plaques and medals and trophies for being the first kerbal in space. But by then, Wernher and his magical engineering team had built the Kerbodyne 4, fitted with new thermometers and radial decouplers. Jeb was literally thrown into the capsule and was rolled out to the launchpad. With a sudden BOOM, Jeb was once again flung into the sky. Finally he was caught by surprise. For once.

 

Edited November 2, 2016 by The Space Dino

[The Space Dino]

Chapter 4: Achieving Goals

As Jeb continued to fly upwards, the kerbals at Mission Control had totally forgotten about celebrating and snacks. They would have kept doing missions without having snacks until it was completed...

The Hammer SRBs cut out and the Swivel kicked in, propelling the rocket out of the atmosphere. Jeb was still confused what was going on. No one was saying anything on the comms and he had just been thrown in like that. He decided it was a awesome dream and just enjoyed the ride. 

The Swivel stage was decoupled and the LV-909 kicked in. With its Isp of 345, Wernher was sure this would bring Jeb to orbit, just that if it had enough fuel to work with, that is.

Everyone was holding their breath as the orbital lines got longer and they were getting closer to a full circle, which was what they hoped for. Jeb was actually sleeping at this point because his "awesome" dream was getting kinda boring apparently. 

And then his ears nearly blew up. 

Everyone at the KSC was shouting in happiness except Gene, who no one knew went where. Jeb was still confused when Wernher shouted over the speaker:

"JEB! GET OUT IN YOUR SPACESUIT AND GRAB THAT SCIENCE!"

"Grab?"

"GET AN EVA REPORT!"

"Huh?"

"JUST GET OUT AND DO A REPORT ON WHAT YOU SEE!"

"Oh...."

Jeb got out in his tinfoil spacesuit and just held onto the spacecraft. Technically all he could see was the hatch of the capsule but Wernher said that the science was collected and he could get back in. Weird. Just weird. It was also kind of relieving for Jeb because that spacesuit only had a bunch of ice in it as coolant.

After a lot of EVA science and one orbit, Mission Control activated the LV-909 for a few seconds to lower the apoapsis for reentry. Of course they did it because they didn't trust Jeb. Closer to the atmosphere the LV-909 stage was decoupled and Jeb was told to hang on. Jeb didn't know what "hang on" meant though, so he just held onto a button ( for no reason, who knows what he was thinking ).

As he reentered the atmosphere it got a little stuffy. Then it got really stuffy. Then it was like an oven. Jeb thought he saw some smoke. There was just a fiery blaze outside his spacecraft. Then it started to shudder. He finally realised what "hang on" meant.

The unheated decent was just fine, the parachutes never failed ( so far ).There was sweat up to his ankles already. When it splashed down into the water Jeb immediately popped the hatch and jumped into the water.

Bad idea.

The water was bubbling from the reentry heat. He jumped back into the capsule and the beacon fell out.

Even worse idea.

Jeb was stuck in the middle of the sea for a day until he was finally picked up by the recovery teams.He didn't receive any medals or plaques or anything when he got back to the KSC.

Maybe they had gotten bored waiting for him.

[The Space Dino]

Chapter 5: Taking A Further Leap

A contract was accepted to fly by the Mun after Jeb's mission, but they did not have the technology to reach the Mun, nor did they have enough science to get them. Another orbital mission to get moar science from high above Kerbin was put into action and Wernher and his magical engineering team got to work. It was called the the Korbiteer 1, even though it was technically the second spacecraft to go to orbit. They sticked with duct tape attached two 'Thumper' fireworks SRBs to the Kerbodyne 4 and added one more fuel tank to the core stage. Once again, Jeb was squeezed into the pod and shot into space. The launch pad was also upgraded so that they could launch bigger rockets in the future. They also had a lot of money anyway.

After a while, the rocket had already broken the sound barrier below 10km, which was way too much TWR. Wernher jotted that down in his brain, since his brain was technically better than a notebook, at least he thought so.

The SRBs were jettisoned perfectly without any explosions, thankfully.

The orbital insertion burn was also perfect and there was also no fear of running out of fuel. Wernher's magical team had apparently mastered going to orbit in two missions. They were magical, after all.

Onboard cameras were also added to make the space program less magical, since some people were thinking that the space program was just a video game and what they did was all fake.

Nevertheless, orbit was achieved successfully and after letting Jeb enjoy the view the spacecraft was boosted into a higher orbit for the science.

While grabbing all that science at the apoapsis a nice view of Kerbin and the Mun appeared. Of course Jeb stopped the science and kept looking out the window.

The periapsis was lowered to 35km and Jeb wasn't even hearing what Mission Control told him, because he was too busy enjoying the view. 

Near the atmosphere the LV-909 stage was ditched and the capsule started heating up. Really fast.

The reentry this time took a while because the capsule was coming back down from a high orbit and had a higher velocity. Jeb did not know that, since he was enjoying the view while Mission Control was telling him the Do's and Dont's. He got a little unpatient and turned the capsule sideways to increase drag to the capsule to slow down.

"Wait Jeb don-"

BOOM!

Uh-oh.

Gene, who had just finally appeared out of nowhere, came into Mission Control and slammed the big blue "Reset Universe" button.

The whole mission was done again. Jeb did not seem to recognise that he had maybe done this mission before. He was just enjoying the view.

Gene planned to seal off the windows on any spacecraft with Jeb in it.

Edited November 14, 2016 by The Space Dino

[TheEpicSquared]

Nice story

[Lokachop]

best story ever

[The Space Dino]

Thanks for the support guys! I will have a new chapter coming right up tomorrow. Stay tuned!

[The Space Dino]

Chapter 6: Target Practice

Gene wanted to take a break from all that spacecraft launching and grabbed a contract to test a jet engine in flight. Wernher and his magical team slapped a plane together quickly and rolled it out to the runway, or dirt strip, maybe.

Turns out building a plane and taking off from a dirt strip was harder than they thought. The first few times the plane did not want to get off the ground. When it finally got into the air they rejoiced. Then when Jeb tried to pitch up it flipped. Good thing parachutes were on that thing.

Turns out flying is much harder then going to space.

Screw that contract.

No one gave any plane contracts after that.

A contract for a Mun flyby was accepted and Wernher's team were delighted that they did not have to build planes again. The new rocket was named the Munshot I and was rolled out to the launchpad with Jeb in it again. No windows this time. Only blue tape to make it look like they had one.

The launch was textbook. The transfer to the Mun went well too. The trajectory was good and they got an encounter. Science was picked up from the Mun. After a short burn the trajectory back would hit the atmosphere. The LV-909 stage was jettisoned before hitting the atmosphere. Jeb was still babbling about not having any windows. Of course Gene muted him.

The spacecraft was reentering at a higher velocity so the heat built up. And fast. The heat shield was holding but the Goo canister experiments were burning up. Gene spinned the spacecraft to shed off some heat but they were also deviating from their path slightly. Jeb stopped the spin and fixed the trajectory. 

Bad idea.

Something went BOOM outside the spacecraft. It did not sound good. There was also a bunch of smoke and debris.

They had been going so fast that the atmosphere could not bring them back down to Kerbin. A damage check from the magical third-person camera confirmed that the goo was gone.

"NOOOO! JEB! NOT MY SCIENCE AGAIN!"

That was when Wernher became obsessed with the service bay.

Jeb went around Kerbin again and reentered the atmosphere again and finally got back into the atmosphere. Good thing they had extra batteries on that thing.

Jeb decided he wanted to have some fun after that boring flight and turned the spacecraft around. Gene did not say anything. 

Jeb splashed down and did not jump out of the spacecraft this time. He activated the beacon and the recovery teams picked him up in an hour. When he got back to the KSC Gene was already working on another mission: To land on the Mun.

Edited November 17, 2016 by The Space Dino

[The Space Dino]

Chapter 7: Broken Cameras

There were two tourists who wanted to go to space so badly that they said they would shut down the space program if they could not go to space. Gene had to reluctantly accept so Wernher and his magical team got to work. They stuck a bunch of parts together and called it the Take-Your-Tourist-Everywhere.

Who has time to name a rocket if they’re frustrated?

Jeb was again put into the capsule because tourists can’t control anything.

The rocket was rolled out to the launch pad and well, got launched.

The SRBs were ignited and it was pretty obvious that Wernher had overdid the TWR on the boosters.

No one cared.

During the launch the tourists were actually scared. Why would they even go on this trip if they were scared?

The ascent went well and they were in orbit quickly.

After a couple orbit the tourists were satisfied and the spacecraft deorbited and reentered back into the atmosphere.

The descent went well too and while they were a few meters above the ground Jeb got out of the spacecraft for science.

For once.

“JEB!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!!!”

“Gene, it’s just for sci-“

*capsule’s comms and Gene’s mike break*

Jeb got back in just as they landed and he activated the beacon. The recovery teams came quickly and picked them up.

When they got back Wernher and his magical team had already built the rocket to land on the Mun, the Munshot II. There was also a contract to plant a flag on the Mun for extra cash.

Valentina was put into the capsule and was blasted off into space. The ascent went well, so did the Mun transfer, even though it was the first time they were doing it. The Mun capture went well too and Val was soon the first Kerbal in Mun orbit. The spacecraft then went on a landing trajectory.

"We are around fifty meters up, descending at 3 m/s."

"Mission Control, this is the Munshot II and we have kicked up dust!"

*mission control celebrates like crazy*

Val got out of the spacecraft and did some science, walked around and did some science, then planted the classical flag.

After the glorious moments Val blasted off from the Mun to head back to Kerbin.

Suddenly they realised that they had not been paying attention to the fuel gauge.

Gene hit the reset button.

The mission was done again and again and again and again and again and again with different variants of the spacecraft. Even Val was getting bored of going to the Mun again and again and again and again and again and again.

Then something happened.

On the last trip to the Mun Gene did not want to reset again so he decided Munshot II would be a orbital mission only. When Val tried to do an EVA report the universe glitched out and she was sent flying away from the spacecraft.

Really fast.

Gene directed Val to thrust herself into orbit at apoapsis since she was apparently on a sub-orbital trajectory. Thankfully she was going away from the Mun, not towards. 

"Gene, what am I going to do now?"

"Well, since in space you don't need anything to live apart from wearing a spacesuit you'll stay in orbit until we pick you up later."

"Okay then..."

Everyone at the KSC then took a month's break after that.

Talk about emptiness.

[The Space Dino]

No,no, I am bringing this back to life. ( After 2 months' break )

Chapter 8: That Big Grey Rock

After the break ( while Valentina was still stuck around the Mun ) there came a contract to put a satellite in a specific orbit of the Mun. As the Munshot II wasn't coming back any time soon with the science, well why not just go pick it up. A probe was smacked together, named the Mun Contractor ( no time for fancy names ) and was sent on its way.

Another textbook launch and the probe was soon in orbit. As they cut the engine they checked the fuel and saw this:

Exactly 0.01 units of fuel and oxidiser left. Precision controlling,eh?

Once again, another trans-munar injection although the encounter was way off from the intended orbit. Good thing the LV-909 is overpowered.

After some tinkering around it was fixed and they just waited for it to get to the Mun. The capture was done with the controllers at Mission Control eating snacks. Gene did not say anything. Weird...

Apparently the mission was harder than they thought. Mission Control fiddled around with the probe for a few hours and they got it close, but not close enough. Weird...

After more fiddling around the contractors gave them the funds and they were done ( FINALLY ). No way any of the kerbals at the KSC were gonna do that kind of contract again. They played around with it later and the probe was left in an eccentric orbit with some fuel left for later use.

Meanwhile Jeb did some more of those "test this part" contracts and had more fun. Wernher just threw him the "manual" and told Jeb to fly it himself. No insurance provided to him too. Guess they really wanted to get rid of him after the previous flights.

-END-  ( no no no this is not going to be the end of this. Below are parts added by Gene Kerman. Dont tell anyone the space program wanted to cover this up )

So right after Wernher did all his fancy R&D stuff those stupid tourists came back again. HOW I HATE THOSE KERBALS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

Okay, back to the point. So Wernher reluctantly built a Take-Your-Tourist-Anywhere-Remote-Control for them, and also to test out the new probe tech. And most importantly without that Jeb guy.

  And it also turned out that we Jeb left some junk in the ocean. Why do we even need to clean up after him?

They were kept in orbit for a while until they started to mess with the telemetry. We did turn off comms. We aimed for them to land near the KSC and hopefully in some mud too as to the west the mountains dump tons of water on the soil below them. Dont wanna know how their reentry felt but they came down on the other side of the mountain from the KSC. Then we saw the mountain closing in and we quickly deployed the parachute but forgot to look at the speedometer.

KABOOM BOOM BBOM BBOOOM!!!!!

TAKE THAT YOU STUPID TOURISTS!!!! 

And it also turned out that the Reset button was not functioning too.(YEAH) We lost some funds and rep but we have loads of them anyway.

If the other Kerbals out of the KSC finds out about this the Space Program is ded. Thats why i told u not to tell anyone. No one picked up their shattered remains from the mountain. And from the telemetry i found this photo of one of the tourists which i warped: