ALIEN SKIES: A 6.4-scale playthrough of GPP/Rald

[NotAgain]

10 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

our intrepid little rover achieves constant line-of-sight with Kerbin.

Gael?

[CatastrophicFailure]

19 minutes ago, NotAgain said:

Gael?

Er, you didn't see that! In fact, no one did! Alternative data! Nothing more to see here! Move along! Move along!
huh-boy...

[NotAgain]

1 minute ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Nothing more to see here! Move along! Move along!

I assume the train to Kiberia is indefinitly delayed...

Edited March 13, 2017 by NotAgain

[insert_name]

1 hour ago, NotAgain said:

I assume the train to Kiberia is indefinitly delayed...

this we do not speak of

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 2, Day 279...

GENE has now given the objective to put our first Kerbal into orbit! This will be a dangerous assignment, for all we know Triti might go mad up there. Or, more likely, just be mad. Really, really mad. So we thought it wise to take steps to make sure she didn't get blown up before she gets that far, and did some pad abort testing:

Spoiler

 

 

No, not that way! The other way!

 

Anyway, our new orbital vehicle demanded a new launch vehicle, so I present the much-less-ungainly-looking Rald-class launcher!

Actually, I think the older Gael-class still has a higher payload. But this just looks better.

 

Separation of the sleek new curve-hugging wrap-around boosters, each one sporting a single Gandalf engine and fitted with parachutes for eventual recovery, and cross-feeding fuel into the core stage. This launch is uncrewed, using a dummy capsule. Which, oddly enough, does not involve Vlad. But the ship is otherwise identical to the one-Kerbal version. Once again, we thought it wise to test everything out before risking poor Triti recklessly. We're not crazy, after all!

Well, except maybe Ivan. He's a little... off. 

 

Core stage burnout and separation. The upper stage continues on a cluster of our first engines burning hydrogen and oxygen. It's very lightweight, but still suffers from our typical upper stage lack of thrust.

 

 

The abort tower successfully jettisons just after core stage separation. And promptly explodes under its own g-forces. Need to check the torque on those bolts next time...

 

And then our problems started. Sirens started going off! It took us some time to figure out it wasn't our kar alarms. Which is odd, since none of us have ever owned a kar. It turns out it was our brand-new hydrolox engines. 

Toward the end the burn they began experiencing mysterious thrust fluctuations. Since this was just a test launch anyway, I made the call to proceed with the flight, since even if it doesn't work it should still be entertaining. Fortunately, our ascent software was able to automatically compensate for the lack of thrust this far into the flight, and adjusted pitch to maintain time-to-apogee and limp towards orbit. We got a nice payout of science once the failure data was analyzed... but still not the slightest idea what actually happened...

 

The upper stage runs out of fuel just shy of the prescribed apogee, as planned. The spacecraft itself separates, and makes its own small burn to orbit.

 

Solar panels deployed, and all systems check out! The orbiter's small supply of fuel was more than enough to compensate for the lack of performance of the booster. Despite being a dummy, the capsule is no mere waste of space, either!

Also unlike Vlad. Along with experiments, it carries a prototype monopropellant fuel cell, generating power even during orbital darkness. We thought this a worthy investment, since sooner or later we're going to need to stick something where the sun don't shine, and--

Why is Vlad running away screaming?

 

Well, moving along, after several orbits the dummy capsule separated for a thrilling re-entry, racing the daily Raldclipse toward splashdown!

 

It wins, but not for long. The unstoppable Raldclipse consumes all! Also like Vlad. We found him cowering in his room amidst a pile of pilfered Ding-Dongs.

I didn't even know we had Ding-Dongs here...

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 2, Day 298...

The big day has finally come. Vlad headed off toward Triti's room with a tank of nitrous oxide, a bottle of chloroform... and no questions asked...

 

I probably should have asked some. I still have no idea where he went. Instead I had to send Andrei in with a big sack.

After some screaming and a few minor lacerations, we finally got Triti into the capsule. I'll have to send Andrei a 'Get Well Soon' card once he wakes up. I told the engineers to paint the inside a nice, calming, blue, but, well...

Spoiler

 

I think they painted over the window, too.

 

But Triti was in good spirits as she headed skyward on another Rald booster.

Maybe it's a good thing she can't see outside. She might just think it's another simulation...

 

Here we have a closeup of the eight Gandalf engines and separation motors.

 

Once again, the abort tower breaks up under its own acceleration. I sure hope Triti doesn't hit any of that deb--

. . . what was that?

 

Oh, it was just the upper stage engine failing. Again. This is becoming alarmingly regular, and regularly alarming. Once again, the ascent software limps to space and the orbiter finishes insertion under its own power.

 

Just when everything was starting to get better, Triti insisted on stepping outside for a little air.

Yup, she was pretty mad it wasn't a simulation.

 

Between another engine failure and our pilot threatening to eviscerate every one of us with a dull spoon if we didn't bring her home right now, we decided to, well, bring her home right now.

Right now, of course, meaning most of an orbit later, fulfilling our directive. In retrospect, right now might have been better, it would have put much more of Gael between Triti and the rest of us.

 

Things got a little warm on reentry...

...but I think the fumes from the scorching fuchsia paint helped calm Triti down. I'm sure breathing aerosolized lead in an enclosed space won't have any permanent effects. Mostly.

 

For some reason, she was in a real hurry to get out once she landed. Go figure.

 

And then this happened.

 

We decided to just let Triti swim back. It's only 600km or so. Swimming is good exercise, she should be nice and tired. Really wish I knew what Vlad did with the last of our chloroform...

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[StickyScissors]

Mod question! What are you using to scale up the planets to 6.4x? I tried KScale64 in 1.1.3, but it also scaled up the surface rocks 6.4x, which is extremely unrealistic, and doubly awful since KSPRC makes them solid objects.

[CatastrophicFailure]

49 minutes ago, StickyScissors said:

Mod question! What are you using to scale up the planets to 6.4x? I tried KScale64 in 1.1.3, but it also scaled up the surface rocks 6.4x, which is extremely unrealistic, and doubly awful since KSPRC makes them solid objects.

Sigma Dimensions. It's bundled in with GPP, just requires moving a .cfg into the game folder. 

Pretty stable, but MCE keeps trying to give me contracts with orbits a couple thousand km below the surface.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 3, day 13...

Over three years, now. Most everyone has adjusted to the pattern here, these dates are becoming more of a formality. Three years now with no contact from home. No one will say it out loud, at least not yet, but I think we've all given up hope of ever hearing from home again. The strange, starless skies continue to beckon. If we can't go home again, maybe we can at least find out why. Or even... where...

Yet we press on...

Another simple satellite today. Our communications network is becoming quite robust, if just a touch underused.

Spoiler

 

 

We used excess capacity on the launch to boost a sample return into high orbit. These new hydrolox engines continue to give us difficulty on the ascent, though.

 

However this instrument package finally verified the existence of second, much larger band of radiation stretching nearly to the orbit of Rald. How easily a living thing could pass through such a belt without long-term effects remains unknown. Speaking of which, we still haven't found Vlad...

 

The science package was successfully recovered without much fanfare. Except when Andrei stubbed his toe on a rock blundering about in the dark trying to find it.

 

No sooner had we gotten back, then GENE's alarm bells began ringing! Which is odd, I didn't know it had alarm bells. I could swear they weren't there yesterday. At any rate, this time it spit out a very simple objective: rescue Ferdin Kerman from orbit.

Who this Ferdin guy is, or how he got to space in the first place, no one seems to know. All rockets were visually accounted for, but I'm pretty sure a Grand Theft Spaceship in progress would have gotten some attention before hand. As quickly as we could, we slapped together another Orbiter, this time with a probe core. The engineering team has a pretty good grasp of orbital mechanics, now, arranging a rendezvous in space shouldn't be that hard.

 

The ten degree plane change is gonna need how much delta-V?!?

 

Um, hang in there, Ferdin. We'll, er, get back to you.

Anyone wanna buy a slightly used space capsule? Low kilometers, you haul...

 

At some point, this contract came up in the list.

Something about this smells very fishy to me. Oh, Vlad's back.

 

And then this... well, we don't talk about this...

 

Just call it a simulation. I'm sure that'll buff out...

Edited March 27, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[monophonic]

On 3/19/2017 at 7:09 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Vlad headed off toward Triti's room with a tank of nitrous oxide, a bottle of chloroform... and no questions asked...

I probably should have asked some. I still have no idea where he went.

 

On 3/19/2017 at 7:09 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Really wish I knew what Vlad did with the last of our chloroform...

 

5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Speaking of which, we still haven't found Vlad...

 

5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Something about this smells very fishy to me. Oh, Vlad's back.

Was he out somewhere quiet... trying to hear whispers... to find this squidlike thing... ?    

Edited March 22, 2017 by monophonic
Jeb snuck to the top of the post.. again.

[NotAgain]

8 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Year 3, day 13...

Over three years, now.

Actually, I belive it's two years.

From Year 1, Day 1 to Year 2, Day 1, it's only one year. As KSP saves start on Year 1, Day 1, not Year 0, Day 1, it must be two years.

[0111narwhalz]

5 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Actually, I belive it's two years.

Curse you, off-by-one error!

[CatastrophicFailure]

16 hours ago, monophonic said:

Was he out somewhere quiet... trying to hear whispers... to find this squidlike thing... ?    

 Shhh....

13 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Actually, I belive it's two years.

From Year 1, Day 1 to Year 2, Day 1, it's only one year. As KSP saves start on Year 1, Day 1, not Year 0, Day 1, it must be two years.

Well...

Um...

That is, er, technically, one Gaelean day is only 15 hours, while the mission clock still counts 24-hour days, a ratio of 1.6, so if you figure that one Gaelean year is 340+-ish days, multiply by the ratio, carry the 1, divide by zero, apply pi R squared, calculate the tyranny of the rocket equation (then correct for imperial vs metric units) subtract the gravitational constant while compensating for E=mc^hammer (ΔV/2_legit-2_quit), consider pi r round, cake r square (m³ cake!), and figure for the quantum uncertainty x-y=1, then you see

Time is strange here.

Vlad did it.

[NotAgain]

15 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

That is, er, technically, one Gaelean day is only 15 hours,

This, I did not know of...

[FL-T400]

I wonder how Vlad feels after waking up from his "nap"?

[CatastrophicFailure]

4 hours ago, FL-T400 said:

I wonder how Vlad feels after waking up from his "nap"?

Groovy. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 3, Day 13... still... also... time is strange, here... anyone have some pi?

Ignoring the apparent temporal paradox (and the... odd-tasting calamari Vlad whipped up), or maybe as a result of this and liberal application of mathematical baked goods, we finally came up with this: 

Spoiler

If boosters are good, then MOAR boosters can only be better, right? I hope ol' Ferdy brought a book, or something. This might take a while...

 

Hey, look, it's working!

 

Still working!

 

Heh, who knew slapping some extra boosters on a Rald launcher would come out so--

Um... it's supposed to do that. But it still left us with a fully-fueled Rald rocket already very high and going very fast.

 

Booster separation is nearly into space, now!

 

Um... that's not supposed to do that... 

Hey, who stuck an abort tower on an empty capsule in the first place?! We're on a budget, here, people!

 

Our difficulties with the cryogenic engines have finally been solved, too. Apparently someone flipped the "Launch Failure" switch on the panel to "On." We have, er, disabled that feature for now...

The rescue ship makes it safely to orbit with nearly a full tank of fuel in the upper stage.

 

And here we have that 900m/s plane change that brought this whole mess about in the first place.

Note to self: Do NOT go accepting these rescue contracts any more! Where are they all coming from, anyway?? There's no one else here....

 

Chasing down Ferdin's scrap proves exceptionally difficult, as its orbit is somehow entirely within the atmosphere yet it hasn't decayed at all. Strange place, this...

Even with that upper stage, by the time the rescue capsule closes in, it has to finish on its own engine. And hope the empty stage doesn't smack poor Ferdlin.

 

Nope, the rescue ship will take care of said smacking itself.

 

Go, Ferdlin! You're rapidly running out of space!

 

Incredibly, Ferdlin gets himself aboard, snagging some upper-atmosphere science in the process. No sense trying to get back to a stable orbit now, just point backwards and blow this pop stand.

 

Cloudy with a chance of spaceships.

 

Against all odds, we have successfully rescued Ferdlin Kerman from space!

Who, of course, has no idea how he got there, where he came from, who he is, how he stayed alive, or where he got that ridiculous name. Isn't that... convenient.

 

Ironically, his scrap safely reenters on its own not long after.

 

In other news, the entire complex is now on medical leave due to, er, metabolic difficulties resulting from copious ingestion chloroform-laced seafood... *hurk*

Edited March 27, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[Ten Key]

I love the wrap around boosters on that rocket.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you launch directly into Ferdlin's orbital plane?

[IncongruousGoat]

6 hours ago, Ten Key said:

I love the wrap around boosters on that rocket.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you launch directly into Ferdlin's orbital plane?

The launch pad on Gael is some 9 degrees off the equator, making it impossible to launch into an equatorial orbit.

[Ten Key]

1 minute ago, IncongruousGoat said:

The launch pad on Gael is some 9 degrees off the equator, making it impossible to launch into an equatorial orbit.

Ah. Yep, that would do it. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

9 hours ago, Ten Key said:

I love the wrap around boosters on that rocket.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you launch directly into Ferdlin's orbital plane?

@IncongruousGoat beat me to it, yes. I don't think I've actually mentioned it before, actually. In my game it's about a 600km difference. Just one of the many orbital... incongruities I'm coming up against. 

Those tanks are an old mod that thankfully was adopted again. I don't use them nearly enough, I haven't looked into making them work properly with SSTU yet. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 3, Day 128...

With Ferdlin still too ripe for a proper debriefing, we just opened his cage room and threw in a box of Borax and some moist towlettes.

Once they'd all run away, I had to explain to Vlad exactly what a "towlette" is, and how it does not, at all, involve juvenile strigiformes.

 

Welp, then we sent a satellite to Rald...

Spoiler

 

Which was an unmitigated disaster. GENE wanted a very specific low orbit, and due to our position almost 10 degrees off the equator and the synchronized rotation of the two planets, getting into said orbit would have required an absolutely ridiculous amount of delta-V.

Then the antenna failed. Moving on...

 

Time for another rover...

Um, it's supposed to do that. I swear.

 

That, at least, actually worked. But again, due to the orbital regularities, we missed our target LZ by over 1600 km.

 

We did take the opportunity to confirm that the water on Rald is, in fact, wet.

Also, electronics are not waterproof.

 

We didn't need that circuit, anyway. It took nearly a month, by RaldRover2 was finally able to complete the trek. Here we see the other side of the daily Raldclipse.

 

GENE finally decided it was time for us to set our sights a bit higher. Quite literally. It's time to build our first space telescope!

Wait, we need to put it where?

Just outside the orbit of Rald. All 3.5 tonnes of it. Lovely. Hey! Poindexter! We're going to need a bigger *BOOM!* nevermind.

 

Nope, we do need a bigger rocket. So here it is, the new Kommissar-class moderately-kinda-sorta-big-boned-heavy lifter!

Successful booster separation! They'll parachute down for later recovery, which is good too, this thing is costing us a fortune...

 

No, not that way! The other way!

No, your other left!

Well. . . PЦГЇЍ.

 

Eventually we got it working. Here, we see the core stage separating and ullage skirt firing...

 

The skirt gets jettisoned shortly after upper stage ignition.

 

That puts our eight-tonne payload and hydrolox boost stage into an initial parking orbit before not-quite deorbiting itself.

 

Between cryogenic hydrogen boiloff and a razor-thin margin to begin with, the new Bubble Space Telescope just barely squeaks into its final orbit without a single m/s to spare! Way out there, beyond Rald, where no one could possibly get to it any time soon. I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

The boost stage then becomes yet another useless piece of space junk, leaving the unpowered telescope all alone...

 

Right away, it begins beaming back incredible pictures of our world!

Hey, I can see my...! Nope, that's a bug.

 

And here we have majestic Ceti. Or is it Iota? We really ought to go out and survey these places...

 

We point it out into the great abyss, to track the distant planets we've seen moving in the sky. Here, a stately blue Jool jewel, a gas giant Andrei has named "Gauswithtwoesses." Bit wordy name, if you ask me.

It seems to have its own set worlds, too.

 

And here is the bright traveler that has captured out attention in the night sky nearly as much as Rald! The lens settings need a bit of adjustment, still, but it appears to be a massive terrestrial world with an atmosphere and even oceans! If the scientists' estimates are correct, travelling to such a massive place will be no easy feat, but we must try! 

They scribble some notes on the back of an envelope and predict a transfer window approaching in approximately 360 days. Why they didn't just use the computer we have for exactly this purpose, I have no idea.

 

We wanted to image all the other incredible worlds we see in these strange starless skies, but then Vlad blurted out "I wanna see something!" and promptly pointed the telescope directly at the sun.

In the commotion that followed, we only lost a few bits. But unfortunately they were exactly the bits we needed to actually make the thing work.

 

...and so another piece of space junk takes its place among the angry crimson heavens...

Oh, and apparently on Gael there are bugs as big as houses. Anyone got a spare room? Couch I can crash on? Dog blanket in the corner? Hellooooo?

Edited March 29, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[CSE]

11 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

 

Fantastic picture!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 3, day 178...

As they have a habit of doing, the Kommissar is back!

Spoiler

 

(Don't turn around...)

 

Now that we finally have a lifter capable of lobbing a useful weight into orbit, we quickly loaded it down with every experiment we could possibly think of, for a Long Duration Expl... Excur... Exhu... Flarp. Just call it LDEF.

But we forgot the ice cream. Pity about the ice cream.

 

It ended up being just a little heavier than we estimated...

 

In the end, it finally managed to limp into a somewhat useful orbit, but not high enough for the telescope to work. We also discovered that some fool put one of the no-tracking solar panels on backwards, so we're only getting half our required power output. Of course, everyone suspected Vlad at first, until I reminded them that he couldn't figure out how to use a screwdriver in the first place...

Somehow, we also neglected to get any pictures of the deployed unit...

 

Once we'd let the LDEF marinade for a while, we decided to send Ferdlin up to sample the science and see if he could fix the problems. The smell just isn't going away, so at least it gets him way downwind for a while.

Hey, who left the dang service bay open?!? There's sensitive... stuff in there!

 

This is probably the final form of our little Orbiter capsule, now equipped with full translation RCS, a forward docking port, and one a case of those little tree air fresheners. Without too much trouble, the engineers manage to track down the LDEF in space. Since Ferdlin is strictly forbidden from touching the controls. Which is odd, since he's also an engineer, but what do I know? I'm not an engineer, after all.

 

Ferdlin remains in good spirits. Actually, maybe a dunk in some good spirits would do something about the smell, hmm...

 

Closer.... clooooser......

NO NOT THAT CLOSE! Don't scratch the space paint, we've only got basic coverage on this thing! Thanks for the cut-rate insurance, Jake from State Farm.

 

Ahem, well, anyway, with the autopilot maintaining position and pinky swears all around from Mission Control that we would let him back in again, Ferdlin steps out. Ironically enough, his first task is to attach the docking port he brought along, as the engineers forgot to put that on, too.

 

Then he does something about that backwards solar panel. Now... what does that remind me of...?

Float like an Egyptian. . . . dun nuh nuh nuh nuh, duh nuhnuhnuhnuh, duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh, everybody! Why... are you all staring at me like that?

 

Once that was done, we successfully completed the first docking in space! And I sent the entire staff back to their rooms for rudimentary musical appreciation lessons.

 

Ferdlin remains docked to the LDEF for a full day, collecting what experiments have finished. We might have left him up there longer, until someone pointed out that if we wanted the experiments back, we'd have to bring Ferdlin back, too.

 

So he leaves the now fully-functional LDEF to fend for itself and begins his return.

 

Our landing accuracy is really improving. The engineers came this close to a perfect hole-in-one from orbit into the old volcano. Ferdlin was fine, once he stopped rolling.

 

...and here I thought the smell couldn't possibly get any worse...

Edited April 3, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 3, Day 263...

As if the smell wasn't bad enough, our financial department (when did we get a financial department? Who is paying all these people?!) passed me a spreadsheet with a lot of numbers on it, which is apparently a very complicated way of saying, "we're broke."

It seems the engineering department (now I do remember them) has been spending roots faster than GENE can spit them out developing an enormous oversized rocket that didn't use a single off-the-shelf part. Well, those initial part buy-ins did to our metaphorical root cellar about the same thing Vlad did to our literal root cellar, which is why we can't have potato salad any more, and why we will shortly be reduced to eating actual roots. This is somewhat less than ideal, as the only time Vlad did try one of the locally gathered roots, we had to beat him down from the ceiling with a broomstick.

Well, in any case, that immediate catastrophe was averted by accepting several new contracts, which gave us just enough of an advance to fulfill one very old contract, to test a jet engine while splashed down on Rald.

This, of course, again required our largest and most expensive booster.

 

And here we see what will soon be the first aircraft on Rald!

 

A high-altitude view of the daily Raldclipse. Somehow, that never gets boring...

 

Unusually for a Rald transfer, using the upper stage of the Kommissar launcher as the transfer stage has left us just enough fuel to actually brake into orbit before landing. The RaldFlyer begins sending back copious amounts of data from the new multigawhatsit scanner the scientists tacked on.

We also discovered these bizarre pulsating lakes on the surface...

 

Finally able to time our landing carefully, Mission Control aims right along this wide river for the descent.

 

Preparing to detach RaldFlyer...

Well. That cant be good.

 

It seems that somehow the payload fairing base has remained attached to the aircraft.

Someone must have forgotten to carry the 1...

 

Yet in a clear violation of the laws of physics and aerodynamics, it's somehow easily able to maintain level flight!

That's gonna be a really huge ticket...

 

One of the engineers has the brilliant idea to fly low and try to knock the fairing base off on the terrain.

Apparently he's has plenty of experience with both tickets and crashing things into terrain. So of course, it worked. RaldFlyer is now flying free!

 

And shortly thereafter, we have the first water landing on Rald!

 

And shortly thereafter we have the first underwater flight on Rald!

 

And shortly thereafter we have the first underwater landing on Rald!

 

And shortly thereafter we have the first jumping out of the water like an enraged, hormone-crazed dolphin takeoff on Rald!

(Thanks for all the fish)

 

Actually land landing on Rald, however, proves... challenging.

That bit probably wasn't important, anyway.

 

But hey, we completed the contract! Now we can finally get back to--

What? The citation was how much?! Doesn't our insurance-- Oh, we haven't paid insurance.

So... anyone got a shovel?