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

[qzgy]

57 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

And also HWHAT SOURCERY IS THIS?!?

Only something described deep in ancient texts, called the Microsoft photos app edit and adjust.

Such a powerful and truly remarkable spell, in just two easy steps you can change something like this

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Into this!

(yeah it doesn't always work great).

To invoke said sourcery, open the spoiler.

Spoiler

Yeah when viewing the photos, you can click the edit&create button in the upper right. The clicking adjust or so takes you to a menu like this

Just drag the light slider and it makes it brighter. Somewhat.

YMMV, but it generally at least helps. In other programs or things its just adjusting the brightness of the image.

personally I'd also consider getting ambient light adjustment, or bumping up your ambient light settings from the settings menu. Makes it easier to see during the night.

[CatastrophicFailure]

This thread is not dead! 

I've got the next post uploaded, have had for a couple weeks now , just need to write it out.

Meanwhile, here's a teaser for... eventually... spoiler warning

Spoiler

guess what's different

[roboslacker]

Does the station have a name yet? If not, can we (also) name it Bob?

[lunardog15]

we should name it Larry 

[Patupi]

Moe? Sorry, wrong franchise.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 13, Day 157...

Here, at long last, we finally have a daylight shot of the new med-lite Otho-based lifter. This, being the 2.5-stage variant.

Spoiler

 

...seems a bit underwhelming at this point.

 

This uncrewed launch drops off another massive mess of modules to an increasingly schizophrenic station...

Hey, who left the lights on? You were supposed to turn those off after you poked your heads in!
Just look at that spotlight lighting up the surface of Gael like a second sun, no wonder we're having power issues!

 

First order of business in the newly reshuffled construction sequence, the interim power and propulsion module is prematurely separated...

 

...and just stuck back on wherever we could find a spot, since still need all the solar panels we can get some someone left the dang lights on!

The universal docking ports are proving quite the worthy investment, though.

 

Now the next modular mess moves in, moving in, well the mess. As in food.

 

And right away, we have another little problem. It seems somewhere in all the chaos over the last few weeks, someone completely mis-read the docking port blueprints and neither welding port is the right size!

Really, guys? You're supposed to be rocket scientists! Why does this keep happening??

 

But, since it's been working so well up til now, we decide to stick with the conventional wisdom of "just get it close enough then hit the EXPLODE button."

Which, oddly enough, works.

 

Now the standard-issue tug detaches, and moves over to one of our new greenhouse modules...

 

Which is then carefully plucked...

 

...and relocated to the mess node, and... hey! The docking ports actually worked this time, we've got a solid soft dock!

Maybe our luck is finally changing...

 

Now wash, rinse, repeat...

 

 

And, of course, it doesn't work. Someone misread something again, and now the two modules are making contact before the second greenhouse can dock.

 

So for now, we stick it on the opposite side. Once again, it's time for rocket surgery!

 

Time to give Bob another shot at it...

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by CatastrophicFailure

[roboslacker]

Has anything worked on the station?

[Patupi]

Ha ha ha.... that's silly talk! Why would they spend all the time sending functional hardware up into space? Surely tis just a convenient dumping ground for 'Things Vlad Has Messed up This Week' of course.

[qzgy]

On 2/11/2019 at 6:56 AM, roboslacker said:

Has anything worked on the station?

Welding ports and explosives, apparently.

[lunardog15]

are the RSQ going to make an appearance? 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Year 13, Day 188...

Strange...

Once again I have that peculiar feeling, as if days, weeks, even months have gone by, but reality for us was somehow stopped...

Time is very strange here, sometimes feeling as if it's dragged along by something as stubborn as it is insane...

But, moving on, and Bob's your uncle!

Well, not really, since Bob is a spacecraft and thinking too much on the matter leads to all sorts of uncomfortable realizations. But once again, here's Bob.

 

Bob is carrying an extra heavy load this time, so to really test the the system's envelope, the abort ring is deliberately activated after booster burnout. This means we can't re-use it once the booster is fished out of the ocean, but it adds and extra few hundred m/s to compensate for the extra weight.

 

Lodvin, Hellenna, and Negy are in good spirits despite the jolt.

And given what the planning team didn't tell them before launch, they'll need all the good spirits they can get. Since Bob has a decided lack of spirits, good or otherwise. Can't bring alcohol on a mission, after all. Though before long they might all need a drink...

 

Bob rendezvouses with our troubled station, and hold position...

 

Then it's all hands on deck, or more specifically, Hellenna's hands on deck, since no one else is trusted with the space wrench.

We don't really trust Hellenna with it that much, either, but someone had to draw the short straw...

 

The solution to our continuing misalignment troubles is, once again, MOAR BATTERIES! Since they're fairly non-explosive and we always seem to need more, anyway.

This spaces the construction ports out enough that the other two greenhouses should fit now.
If not, Hellenna also brought a space hammer.

 

Once that's squared... or, more specifically, rounded away, Hellenna moves on to the machinery stack.

She gets by with a little help from her friend... after threatening to sing out of tune 'til Negy gave up and got out. These processor modules are heavy, and need two Kerbals to move around, even though they technically don't weigh anything right now.

Space is strange like that.

The entire assembly has to briefly separate from the station for a nail-biting game of musical modules to get everything into place.

Procedure took longer than planned as it took some time for the two to realize they cannot actually bite their nails through their helmets.

 

Once that's done, Bob backs off and 40 tonnes of slightly broken spacecraft makes an automated approach...

 

And once again, the dock doesn't work.

So it's wash, rinse, repeat, and then explode.

 

Speaking of explode, that's exactly what the crew did when we told them they couldn't come back yet. This is why spirits, good or otherwise, don't mix well with space missions. Not wise to have flammable liquids around exploding crew members. More on this later, we more rockets to launch.

 

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

On 2/11/2019 at 3:56 AM, roboslacker said:

Has anything worked on the station?

To (finally) answer your question, pretty much everything has worked. Eventually. After sufficient exposure to expletives, brute force, and explosions. 

Lots of explosions.  

Space is hard. 

[Patupi]

36 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

To (finally) answer your question, pretty much everything has worked. Eventually. After sufficient exposure to expletives, brute force, and explosions. 

Lots of explosions.  

Space is hard. 

Everything can be fixed with explosions!

*crickets chirp in the background and he suddenly realizes everyone is staring at him*

well, it's true!.... right?

[lunardog15]

kaboom *hand motions* 

[The Minmus Derp]

Is this dead? pleasenotbedeadpleasenotbedeadpleasenotbedead

THIS WE DO NOT SPEAK OF

[CatastrophicFailure]

57 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Is this dead? pleasenotbedeadpleasenotbedeadpleasenotbedead

 

Sadly, the time may have finally come for this thread to move on... but not yet. My KSP time has been focused elsewhere, in a very “this we do not speak of” way, and much as it pains me to say so, I probably won’t be able to give this the time it deserves (right as it was getting interesting ). 
 

But there will be at least one last official post, and for anyone following my other work, some questions will finally be answered. 
More will, no doubt, be asked. 

[The Minmus Derp]

aww. I wish it could be revived.

[roboslacker]

I eagerly await the conclusion

[BowmanA081]

I hope it doesn't end in a cliffhanger.

[The Dressian Exploder]

Can I just say this is such an addictive mission report?

[fulgur]

On 11/26/2019 at 5:26 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Sadly, the time may have finally come for this thread to move on... but not yet. My KSP time has been focused elsewhere, in a very “this we do not speak of” way, and much as it pains me to say so, I probably won’t be able to give this the time it deserves (right as it was getting interesting ). 

Our glorious Ussari Union shall forever endure! ☭