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

[CatastrophicFailure]

9 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@CatastrophicFailure Care to share your last output_log? Maybe something in it will make sense to me.

Here's the last one where it did "it." I can't see any rhyme or reason to it, every time I've checked the log before, it just seems to have... stopped. Always at the same place on any one incident but in different places between them, if that makes any sense. The only thing I've been able to tie it to for sure is too many active vessels. *I think.* I'm about to go try it again and see if it's still working.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrt61pyyakwbxzs/KSP.log?dl=0

[JadeOfMaar]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

it just seems to have... stopped.

You're absolutely right. It just stops....... Well now I know the soviet kerbals are gonna develop flying cars.  

[Galileo]

I have kind of given up on kerbalism for the time being. Too many moving pieces, and issues currently. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

On 8/1/2017 at 1:43 AM, Galileo said:

I have kind of given up on kerbalism for the time being. Too many moving pieces, and issues currently. 

You've got a point. I might be tempted if I weren't so heavily invested into it already. It's such a lovely level of challenge for me, tho. 

[JadeOfMaar]

@CatastrophicFailure Aside from the radiation stuff which is unique to Kerbalism and is the best part, you can use USI LS and

• Turn off the habitation stuff off if you don't like it
• Crank its difficulty up beyond TAC and Kerbalism
• Never touch the Fertilizer tanks and greenhouses

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 6, day 189...

Hey, remember this old thing?

Spoiler

 

I'm not even sure what we called this launcher, the box was pretty faded when we found it shoved in the back of the VAB beneath a pile of Vlad's "supplies."

On another note, bathing in a 50% bleach solution to decontaminate isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Anyway...

 

Our ongoing power problems at the UpLab have finally led the engineers to sit around and contemplate, "what could possibly be more unstable and dangerous than Vlad's 'proclivities' while packing the same energy potential?"

They came up with NUCLEAR FLARPING POWER.

The solution turned out to be surprisingly lightweight, so we stuck a bunch of other stuff into the package like a node for future expansion, and still couldn't get the mass up enough to justify a Mallard launch.

 

Here, the new power module prepares to settle into place. Soon, those big solar panels will be nothing more than window dressing.

 

That conical baby nuke at the tip produces a whopping 50kw/60ec/s, way more than enough to keep the station fully supplied even in orbital darkness. So what's a little more radiation to the crew, they're already getting a daily chest X-ray in low orbit...

Now to do something about those malfunctioning RCS ports.

 

A NewShip follows shortly. Peter, Gilfrey and Jencine pull the ticket for this one. Peter. That's a rather unusual name. Something about him seems... off...

Well, it's probably nothing. On to space!

 

This particular NewShip has been slightly modified to assess its potential as an orbital tug, here bringing a fresh hab module to the station.

It works, but not real well. Something about cosine losses and exposing painted aluminum to engine exhaust.

 

Their first order of business is to rendezvous with the derelict Mallard upper stage from a few months ago.

However, not only is it now out of fuel and power, but irreparably broken. Jencine slaps some explosives on and the crew makes haste slowly to somewhere else.

 

Finally meeting up with the UpLap. Pete earns himself a swift smack to the face when he keeps making a "beep... beep... beep..." noise while Gilfrey is trying to back that thing up.

 

Jencine is up again. This is an experiment into the utility of new "welding" docking ports, whcih would allow true permanent construction in space with only a slight chance of the whole mess simply exploding.

First, she maneuvers one port onto the unused structural adapter. Glad we held on to that thing.

 

Then, a straightforward docking maneuver...

Then everyone holds their breath and pushes the button...

 

Well, something exploded.

 

But the station seems to be perfectly fine, and more importantly, the parts are now successfully welded!

 

Jencine quickly sets about repairing or removing the finicky RCS ports.

 

That's good, Hopefully the after-mission discussion will keep the crew distracted from the fact that they only have 18 days of supplies left...

 

Edited August 9, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

you ask what sears is? They sell stuff like washing machines and dishwashers and vacuums and stuff, lots of stuff

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 6, Day 212...

So.... 18 days to cobble together a rocket before the crew on the UpLab is reduced to eating each other and drinking their own life fluids.

No sweat, right?

Well, as it turns out, it wasn't that hard. Water and oxygen are recycled, so we didn't need that much of those, but we were getting nervous about the food situation until Vlad suggested simply changing the label on the "Not Food" bin to "Food." Problem solved!

Spoiler

 

Consuming several kilos of hull sealant over the course of a few months shouldn't cause any long-term problems, right?

 

Building the rocket wasn't a problem. Getting the whole mess into space, was. Seems it juuuuust over the limit for what a Mallard can handle.

Enter: MOAR boosters!

We tried BOAR boosters first, but just wound up with a bunch of angry wild pigs running around the place, and from that we wound up with, well, wounds.

 

Anyways, with supplies en-route, first the crew had to relocate the old docking adapter.

We made sure to remotely disable the engines first, in case they got any bright ideas about sneaking back early.

 

The pluck the adapter off the central node, then back off a safe distance.

 

Meanwhile, once more we use the Mallard upper stage as a big, ungainly tug.

 

And the cargo pod full of 20 tonnes of oxygen, water, and absolutely not a homogeneous mass of adhesive and rubber derivatives is safely delivered!

 

The crew then completes relocating the docking adapter to the aft port, and sets about tearing into their new supplies before they go all "starving zombie" on each other.

Zombies in space, now that's just a silly idea!

 

Along for the ride: Mood lighting

 

Oddly enough, it seems the new menu encourages the the three to redouble their efforts in the greenhouse, leading to their first harvest in space!

 

So what if the crop was all fuzzy and wiggling, right? Strange things happen in space.

Now well supplied, the crew can kick back and take bets on who's going to start glowing in the dark first from the radiation.

Edited August 14, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[IncongruousGoat]

It would seem the mush is back. Edgas would be proud.

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, IncongruousGoat said:

It would seem the mush is back. Edgas would be proud.

Convergent evolution, I swear!

On 8/6/2017 at 7:33 PM, RoadRunnerAerospace said:

you ask what sears is? They sell stuff like washing machines and dishwashers and vacuums and stuff, lots of stuff

Yeah, but like, what's it doing on Niven? And how much extra is the shipping gonna cost?!?

Perhaps I should send a crew to investigate... 

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

hey! niven needs washing machines too!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 6, Day 260...

IOTA-UNNAMED HUGE ROCKET 2

          LODVIN - NEGY - HADALD PETE

So, with the crew of the space station fat & happy, we're going to sneak some more poor suckers brave souls right past them for our first landing on Iota!

Getting more comfortable messing with ridiculously huge rockets, and gaining confidence that doing won't kill us all in an enormous fireball, the engineering team has put together a proper heavy-lift vehicle.

Spoiler

 

They even painted this one. That show they're serious.

 

Three RD-180's shove the huge mass skyward. We skipped right through 5-meter class to a 6.625-meter diameter main stack. Because wider is better.

...but don't say that out loud around Triti.

 

We still don't know what to call it yet, since that whole "not killing us all in an enormous fireball" thing remained mostly theoretical until the thing got far enough away from the launchpad that we could all relax again.

We decided to launch at night, too, so hopefully no one's watching.

And here, silhouetted by Rald, we have the successful burnout and separation of the first stage!

No attempts at recovery yet, in case that "fireball" thing is delayed.

 

The second stage ignites a couple of seconds later, then the interstage and ullage motors are discarded.

 

Two RS-25's drive the hydrolox second stage to the brink of orbital speed.

 

Second stage burnout and separation. A quick blip from the quad of RL-10's pushes the Gael departure stage into orbit. Here, we have our main reason for going big or going home. The Mallard upperstage we used on previous cis-munar flights just didn't have enough delta-V for the full package, making the "going home" part a bit... uncertain. But we simply couldn't make the integrated upper stage any bigger, so the Mallard-based architecture has been scrapped altogether for a new-from-the-ground-up long-duration cryogenic transfer stage, which will eventually allow for much heavier payloads.

Now, on to Io--!

... what?

What do you mean, Hadald can't go to Iota?

Pete needs to go to Iota? That's the contract?

But Pete's on the...

Oh, for flarp's sake.

 

Anyways, some delta-V-wasting orbital shenanigans later, and the GDS sidles up alongside the UpLab for an impromptu crew transfer.

 

Let's hope they're not too sore about their living conditions yet...

 

A none-too-thrilled Hadalds jets over to his unexpected new home for the next... whenever...

Stiff upper lip, Hadald, I hear the food up there is... out of this world.

 

Then Pete makes his way up to the NewShip pod.

 

Ok, now, for sure, the crew fires up the GDS and heads for their target!

Only it's Iota, not Ceti. I don't know why Ceti's up there.

 

A few days later, the GDS brakes into a polar Iota orbit. The contract calls for landing at a very specific location, so the crew will spend two weeks in orbit waiting for it to rotate under them.

 

NewShip separation...

 

Docking and extraction of the lander.

 

The lander's engine is then fired up for some final orbital tweaks. Designed to land on Ceti, it's got far more delta-V on board than a descent to Iota will require.

Despite some early complications, the mission is going exceedingly well. The maiden flight of our new lifter went off without a hitch, and everything seems to be working for once around Iota. All systems go for landing!

 

 

but I wonder why Lodvin's been so quiet this whole time...

Edited August 18, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[CatastrophicFailure]

Still year 6, Day 260...

Moving on...

It's finally time for Negy and Hadald Pete to begin their decent to the surface.

Which they seemed to be looking forward to, until Lodvin looked at them with that... look... he gives people, and ominously chided, "There's something down there."

Before slamming the hatch shut.

But, we've come this far, be a shame to waste the fuel.

Spoiler

 

Negy and Pete are able to make a nice, leisurely, on-target descent. The lander was designed for the considerably higher gravity of Ceti, so here on Iota it had loads of excess thrust and fuel available.

 

The pair make a successful touchdown on the surface!

 

Then decide they don't like that hill at all, so they take off again and land up top on flatter ground.

 

Still with a good chunk of fuel left in the descent stage, they gaze out upon the eerie, alien surface of the small moon.

And promptly start screaming about their eyes, since they're staring directly into unfiltered sunlight.

 

So, after blundering about with their arms outstretched like a couple of zombies until the little splotches in their vision go away, Negy takes the first steps on Iota!

And promptly blunders about with her arms outstretched in the minuscule gravity.

 

She's sure enjoying the view.

Pete pops out and tell her to just go on enjoying the view and not look back at him at all. He's got... sciency things to do. Over there. A bit... aways.

 

Nothing at all strange about that, no sir. Just look at that view and absolutely do not look over there at Pete!

You looked, didn't you?

 

The crew spends a solid twelve hours on the surface before packing up to leave with a bundle of... science. Should science squirm in the bag like that? With their last bit of fuel, they make an attempt for another biome about 50km away.

 

But, it's a bit too much of a long shot, and neither one wants to get stranded on this strange place. So demonstrating a mid-flight abort, they jettison the ladder...

 

...followed by the empty descent stage...

 

...before meeting back up with Lodvin in the NewShip.

 

That all went... surprisingly well... almost routine...

Well, except for Lodvin eating far more than his share of the snacks. So low on food, the three head for home.

 

Lodvin and Pete spend alot of time giving each other blank stares.

Not really their fault, turns out there's not a whole lot to do drifting home from cis-Iotar space.

 

They just miss Rald this time, using a bit more fuel to make the return to Gael and coming in at a much faster speed. The fuel-saving, velocity-shedding Rald flyby may have to be a routine part of future missions.

I'm sure nothing bad could possibly come from swinging close by a nearly-unexplored pseudo-planet with an unpredictable atmosphere...

 

But, after an uneventful re-entry...

Well, uneventful except for the engines burning off. Again.

...the crew makes a safe splashdown back home!

 

But oddly enough, it seems Pete's gone missing, now. Come to think of it, I'm not sure where he came from in the first place. I thought he was one of the random orbital pickups, but going back through the paperwork (we actually have someone here who does paperwork?), there's no record of him anywhere.

That's... odd...

Edited August 20, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[NotAgain]

On ‎10‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 1:08 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

We tried BOAR boosters first, but just wound up with a bunch of angry wild pigs running around the place, and from that we wound up with, well, wounds.

Thank you for making me laugh.

[Galileo]

There always a few good quips in here that make me laugh 

[CatastrophicFailure]

3 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Thank you for making me laugh.

Don'tcha just love the vagarities of the English language? 

I've got one more long intermoonar mission to post, then a couple short ones before I'm caught up and can actually start launching stuff again.

[Just Jim]

3 hours ago, Galileo said:

There always a few good quips in here that make me laugh

Agreed... I still get a good chuckle thinking about the chicken and the goat.... lmao.... Oh, wait... wrong series... 

Edited August 19, 2017 by Just Jim

[CatastrophicFailure]

7 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Agreed... I still get a good chuckle thinking about the chicken and the goat.... lmao.... Oh, wait... wrong series... 

I was scratching my head, "wait, where'd I write the chicken & goat into this one...?" 

tho that does give me an idea...

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 6, Day 337...

CETI-OTHO 2

NO ONE - NO ONE - NO ONE

The investigation into Pete's abrupt disappearance... and arrival, for that matter... is on going.

Which basically means I sent a couple of guys blundering through the facility at night with cheap flashlights. They're probably in the cafe pilfering snacks right now.

What's more, that stupid "RESCUE" alarm started going off again. Even though the box was unplugged. And sealed in concrete. And dropped in the sea a year ago.

Maybe. Time is strange, here.

And apparently these new distressed damsels are on Ceti. Which we've only been to once. And I'm mostly sure we didn't leave anyone behind.

Mostly.

But, it's provided a convenient way to test our newest launcher evolution without having to thump and gag any volunteers down here.So I bring you, the new Otho-class heavy-lift launcher!

Spoiler

 

It's really hard to grasp the scale of this thing.

Just shy of 1200 tonnes on the pad, 88.5 meters tall, and we haven't even come close to squeezing all the performance possible out of the design, yet!

Since everyone's afraid to go near it.

 

Building on the lessons from the last installment, the booster stage has been upgraded from three to five RD-180's, as well as stretched a few more meters.

 

Successful booster separation! See that ginormous parachute in the middle? This thing's recoverable!

Once you scrape the seaweed and crabs out of it. They've taken up residence in the corners of the VAB. We still haven't gotten use to the singing.

 

Second stage sep. This thing is far too big to try to recover without a huge payload penalty. The mission package continues into orbit with a blip of the engines.

Shalalalalala gender roles, and really big plot holes you gotta-- *crunch!*

 

No, it's not going to Grannus. Not yet. 

Though we've started running the numbers. Big things are in the works. If we can build an even bigger rocket, we might be able to get there before we all turn to dust.
But I digress...

 

A safe arrival over Ceti, and the payload is deployed. With no crew aboard, there's no need to dock...

...with our new, improved, much bigger lander!

 

This new design runs on light, efficient hyrdolox engines, giving it both the thrust for a pinpoint landing and enough descent endurance to loiter.

Though with our new, improved transfer stage carried over from the previous launch, we'll even save most of the descent fuel. There's enough delta-V left in the transfer stage to nearly land the whole mess on Ceti outright, as long as it doesn't...

 

...smack right into the surface during a moment's inattention.

I guess that's the downside to not having a crew screaming over the radio "Oh Kerm Oh Kerm we're all gonna die!" to keep one's focus.

 

But, the engineering team built this one to last! Just need to pop off what's left of the payload adapter...

 

...power up the on-board nuclear reactor, and it's ready to go!

Don't laugh, it's cold in space. Really cold.

 

With the lander up and running, it's time to go rescue some Kerbals!

 

And try not to squish them.

 

Edited August 22, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[CatastrophicFailure]

So, when last we left our intrepid remotely-controlled lander, someone at a console with a two-second comm delay was trying very hard to land within walking distance of his target without actually landing on the target.

Now, despite the statistically large area such a maneuver encompasses, Murphy's Law dictates that it is, in fact, extremely difficult.

What a dated Foreign TV show is doing dictating statistical anomalies in the first place, we're still not sure. Nor are we sure why the engineer is watching TV when he's supposed to be landing the flarping lander, but as I've said, this place is strange.

But oddly enough, it works!

Spoiler

 

Despite its rather unceremonious arrival, the new lander design is performing flawlessly, handling this hill with aplomb. We're hopeful this new crop of castaways will be more... stable... than the last bunch.

 

Nope, didn't think so. Welcome aboard, Jedtry!

Hmm. Apparently he was stranded here by someone named Rokea. Now why does that remind me of something? 

 

So, after cursory initial decontamination and interrogation debriefing, Jedtry is let into the spacious new 3-Kerbal lander. He remarks right away on that new Lander smell. Which turns out to be what's left of someone's lunch hidden in the corner a week ago.

As expected, Jedry has absolutely no idea how he came to be on Ceti, who Rokea is, or indeed anything until our lander got within a couple of klicks of him. Curiouser and curiouser. But, there's work to be done, so despite Jedtry's attempt to smash them off with a handy rock hammer, the control locks hold and the lander takes off again on remote.

 

It's a 600-km jaunt to the next target. Packing just over 2km/s of delta-V in the descent stage in this configuration, the lander has no trouble with the long suborbital flight.

Oh good, she's alive. It would be a bit awkward if Jedtry's first official action had to be to haul aboard a space corpse. Might help the smell, though.

 

We'll have to make a note of this place, it looks like a nice, flat, open area, perfect for a base. And there's even a spacious landing capsule waiting to get things started.

 

Haylotte has her own parting words for the major moon.

If you think the food there stinks, Haylotte, just wait till you take your helmet off.

 

The pair spend a full four days further on the surface, waiting for the NewShip's orbit to align. We refuse to ask what they were doing those four days. We kept the mics off. What happens on Ceti, stays on Ceti. Hopefully.

Then finally, the ascent stage blasts skyward on a trusty SuperDraco hypergolic engine.

 

Once again, it's a fairly straightforward rendezvous with the return ship.

As always, punctuated by bouts of hypothermia and gasping during orbital night as we're still having electrical issues without the nuclear-powered descent stage.

 

Well no wonder they keep running out of power, just look at the spotlights on that thing! Was that really necessary, Engineering Team?

I think it may be time to use the parental locks on the facility TV's.

 

Coming back from Ceti, it's another week-and-a-half-long return flight. This time the NewShip swings low by Rald, giving Haylotte a chance to pick up some yet-uncollected science. Maybe next time we can swing even closer...

You can just ignore that busted solar panel. Perfectly normal. Nothing unusual there. That's it, guys, it's nothing but the Weather Channel for you, now.

 

The low pass flips the return trajectory into a high swing over Gael's south pole.

 

And finally, we have a nice, safe--

What's exploding?!? Stop with the exploding! Why is everything always exploding around here, they're landing on a giant flarping airbag for flarp's sake!?

 

So, while it remains highly conjectural whether it's possible to recover a NewShip without loosing an engine, our newest arrivals are back safe and sound and only mildly traumatized.

 

Maybe it's time to pay attention to the crew on the space station, now. They've been awfully quiet recently. I'm sure that alarming yellow heart icon is perfectly normal.

Edited August 24, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 7, Day 1...

Happy new year!

I think. Time is strange here. And somehow, we've ended up with at least two different calendars saying two entirely different things, but the crew around here has never needed much of an excuse to run around yelling and screaming and occasionally blow something up. But someone tried to push a big, round fuel tank off the top of the VAB to celebrate, and I had to put a stop to that.

Meanwhile, the long-duration crew on the UpLab has also celebrated their first and last New Year's in space. Now, it's time to come home.

In the end, it's not the claustrophobic conditions, recycled air, constant threat of agonizing, near-instant death, or even the layers of poo shielding smushed all over the walls that's finally driving them home. It's the radiation.

This, we didn't see coming. Literally, because it's like, invisible. But after 200-some days (I think), Jencine and Gilfrey have reached 86% of their mission tolerance, and are beginning to run out of places to stick the extra limb's they've grown.Also, their NewShip itself is beginning to break down, so Jencine stuff her superfluous extremities into a space suit and goes out to fix some things.

Spoiler

 

It's a bit disappointing, we were hoping to make a full year in space, but the science team doesn't want to take the risk of the crew simply evaporating, evolving into the next plane of being, and buggering off with their space station. So, it's time to come home.

 

It's a long, slow re-entry burn, since one of the engines has failed irreparably, too. 

But they're soon on their way... way... WAY off course!

 

Someone flubbed their calculations and the ship is coming down a couple hundred kilometers short of the space center, somewhere in the high desert. 

I'm sure it'll be--

 

WHAT'S EXPLODING?!? Stop exploding! There's been way too much exploding around here!

 

Oh. It seems the air at nearly 7000 meters above sea level was a bit too thin for the parachutes.

 

And of course, we've lost the obligatory engine as well. Which, of course, would have to be the good one.

That'll buff out.

 

But the crew is home, relatively safe and only mildly scrambled. We'll keep them under observation for a while to make sure they don't do anything too... unusual...

...extra limbs and all, y'know? In the long term, this calls into doubt plans for a moonar base. The crew accumulated dangerously high radiation doses in only a fairly short time, and out beyond Gael's magnetic field on Iota or Ceti, the problem would be even worse. A careful review of our long-term objectives is now being conducted.

 

Further more--

Ahhhh, THIS again!? Who forgot to jiggle the handle?!? I've told you guys a thousand times, you've got to jiggle the handle!

 

And... why's there a fish in my sock drawer again? And... why's it have whiskers?! And a long, skinny tail? And--

Mmrgrphff!

Edited August 28, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[qzgy]

26 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

And... why's there a fish in my sock drawer again? And... why's it have whiskers?! And a long, skinny tail? And--

Meow, motherflarper.

Seems like you made kerbalism work again? Also wonder if you should try expanding the station to have more radiation shielding.

[CatastrophicFailure]

20 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Seems like you made kerbalism work again? Also wonder if you should try expanding the station to have more radiation shielding.

For the moment. I'll have to keep a close guard on the number of active flights, one of the reasons I'm debating whether to ditch or double down on the station. It seems it takes an awful lot of poo on the walls to equal a single mm of lead. Who knew, right? I suppose I could send more Kerbals per crew and tell them to start polishing, too, but the fridge logic on that leads to a very dark, smelly place. 

Also, frame rate is really starting to suffer. Welding docking ports do seem to work, but rebuilding the whole mess with them just wouldn't be feasible. 

And now if you'll excuse me, I feel a powerful need to wash. 

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

For the moment. I'll have to keep a close guard on the number of active flights, one of the reasons I'm debating whether to ditch or double down on the station. It seems it takes an awful lot of poo on the walls to equal a single mm of lead. Who knew, right? I suppose I could send more Kerbals per crew and tell them to start polishing, too, but the fridge logic on that leads to a very dark, smelly place. 

Also, frame rate is really starting to suffer. Welding docking ports do seem to work, but rebuilding the whole mess with them just wouldn't be feasible. 

And now if you'll excuse me, I feel a powerful need to wash. 

I assume you might have better parts and heavier lifters now? Maybe it might work to deorbit the station (and have perhaps parts miraculously survive re-entry hor revovery, IDK how) and chuck into orbit a new and better station with bigger parts and more optimization. For instance, inline batteries instead of the radial one. Same with fuel. Could in theory reduce part count and thus, lag.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Quite so, one of the options I'm considering. Going interplanetary is going to be a challenge to say the least. But I've got some stuff coming up to expand the horizons.