The Road to Duna - The Probes are Dispatched

[MarkWatney]

The newly formed Adamantium Tech had already progressed through the early stages of its fledgling space program. But Jebediah Kerman had his eyes set on a bigger goal. A kerballed landing on the red planet  Duna.

This will be a career playthrough with an eventual mission to Duna and beyond.

Mod-list:

TAC Life Support

 Ven's Stock Revamp

USI Survival Pack

State Funding

RastorProp Monitor

Kronal Vessel Viewer

Kerbal Engineer

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Edited December 22, 2017 by MarkWatney

[MarkWatney]

Comments and feedback are welcome!

Edited April 20, 2017 by MarkWatney

[Skylon]

Good luck! I hope it goes well

[MarkWatney]

Mortimer Kerman rushed to Jeb's small and cramped office in the makeshift Astronaut Centre. "Sir we just received a contract from the Kerbin World Firsts to land on the Mun and return to Kerbin!" Jeb contemplated all of this in relative silence and then spoke' " One problem Mort... the VAB can't support a kerballed ship to land on the Mun.....". Upon hearing this Mort looked like he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. "But..." continued Jeb, "We may be able to send a small probe to land..". At this Mort instantly recovered and handed Jeb the mountain of paperwork to make the contract legal. After Mort had departed Jeb started to sketch some plans for the Mun probe together with Bill.

 

57 minutes ago, Skylon said:

Good luck! I hope it goes well

Thanks Skylon I hope it does too

Edited April 4, 2017 by MarkWatney

[MarkWatney]

The Successful Failiure

 

Jeb had spearheaded an effort to construct a probe that would fullfill the contract and had put his best man on the job to personally oversee the operation: Bill. Looking remorsely at the half constructed probe he cast his mind back to when he was a test pilot for United States of Kermerica's Air Force. Oh how he had almost touched the stars when he flew on his basic jet plane, pushing the engines as far as they could go. That was when he realised he wanted to be among the stars. 

 

A few weeks later....

The Vibranium 1 lurched into the sky carrying the hopes and dreams of the employees of Adamantium Tech. 

It was hastily contructed but Jeb and Bill were confident it could at least reach the Mun. 

The probe core did its job rather well considering it was built out of Bob's alarm clock and Valentina's toothbrush....But it managed to reach orbit successfully.

The probe then carried out its next task for its mission by preparing to execute a transfer to the Mun.

The probe duitfully carried out its orders but it was discovered that it didn't have enough Delta V to be able to land on the Mun. Jeb punched his desk in anger when he received the news and yelled at the flight team in Mission Control, "We can still press on, we must continue on, failiure is not an option!". Eventually he calmed down and spoke again in a much milder tone, "Ok what are our options if we can't land this thing...". There was a long silence in Mission Control as everyone tried to think of a way to try and save the mission. Eventually one kerbal standing at the back of the room said, "Well we can try to complete the return to kerbin bit of the contract and we'll still get some funds.". Jeb contemplated this piece of information and then started to grin. "That's the spirit!" he yelled, "Let's get this space program back on track!". There was a great cheer and the flight controllers dashed to their stations to send the probe its new instructions.

[MarkWatney]

The Successful Failiure Part II

The probe received its new instructions and initiated an orbit orbit of the moon then an immediate return to Kerbin.

The probe executed its orders with logical and precise efficiency that can only be expected from an experimental AI.

The probe flew through the darkness heading to its Creators' home: Kerbin.

It plunged through the life giving but fiery atmosphere of Kerbin and then calmly opened its parachute to a safe landing on the Kerbin Mountainsides....

 

[MarkWatney]

The Meeting

Jeb was about to enter the worst nightmare of his entire career at the company: talking to the Board Of Directors about the recent successful failiure. As he entered the conference room he noted that Bill and Werner were also present. He sat down and said, "Let's get in with it..." 

The Board members looked at each other slightly uncertain about where to begin. Then Vogel Kerman the oldest member spoke, "Jeb there's been some talks within the Board to remove you as Director of Operations."

There was a long silence. Then Jeb whispered in a withering tone, "If you fire me you lose the rest of the employees of this company, they only follow me!"

The Board was at a loss for words. A few minutes later the meetings was adjourned 

Edited April 10, 2017 by MarkWatney

[MarkWatney]

Mission to The Green Rock

The company had blown a lot of funds on expanding the launch complex and other facilities. This had resulted in the company being a bit cash strapped. But luckily enough there was some money being offered to launch a ship to flyby Minmmus and return to Kerbin.

A hastily built probe was sent to the launch pad with minimal science instruments and minimal ablator in its small heat shield. For some reason the administration had decided to name the probe Vibranium 1 again.

 

The probe thundered into the sky atop a column of solid rocket fuel. There was some developing debates about SRBs environmental impact.....

 

After establishing orbit it was discovered that a large plane change manoeuvre was required and burnt through a lot of the probe's fuel reserve. But there was still enough for a flyby and re-entry.

 

 

The probe swung by Minmmus and Jeb immediately received a truckload of money in his mailbox. The probe hurtled towards Kerbin and burnt through the atmosphere to a safe landing

 

Jeb and the rest of the command team began to draw up plans for a probe landing on Minmmus...

Edited April 18, 2017 by MarkWatney

[MarkWatney]

An Expensive Mishap

While building the Minmmus Landing Probe. Mortimer again ran excitedly into Jeb's office. "Sir!" exclaimed Mortimer, "There's a new space station contract being offered by the Rockomax Corporation, with a very handsome payout!....". Jeb's eyes gleamed and though to himself, "A space station could prove useful in the construction of a Duna transit vehicle." He then proceeded to sign the suprisingly small amount of paperwork to make the acceptance of the contract real and legal.

An executive decision was made to continue to use the tried and tested launch system of the Vibranium probes to launch the space station. It was also decided to launch the station in one launch providing reasonably comfortable accommodations for five kerbalnauts. 

On a relatively bright and sunny morning the Angel Pet 1 space station was launched into the sky.

The liquid fueled first stage reached MECO (Main Engine Cut Off) and the whole launch stack coasted to the apoapsis so that the Orbital Insertion Booster (OIB) ,i.e a SRB, could be fired to stabilise the Station's orbit.

The OIB firing was successful and Jeb applauded Wernher and his team on managing to jury rig such an ingenius device. Mission Control then proceeded to initiate the remote start up procedure and then patiently wait for the large amount of funds to be deposited in their bank account. They waited for fourty days and fourty nights but no funds came. Jeb then threw an enormous tantrum, "Where in the blue blazes is our money, I'm going to call Rockomax, that cheating two faced corporation!" . Jeb then dramtically walked to the only telephone in the KSC and rang up Rockomax. He then promptly fainted fifteen minutes later. For those curious to why Jeb, a battle hardened veteran of the Kerbian Air Force, fainted I shall now explain why. 

The Rockomax Recpetionist politely explained that because Adamantium Tech had decided to use DERP Inflateable Modules, kindly donated by USI Industries, the DERP modules were counted as command seats rather than actual hab modules.

Jeb was stuck in the Intensive Care Unit for several days. Leaving Bob, Bill, Val, Wernher and Mortimer to figure a way to regain a significant amount of the company's funds.

Edited April 18, 2017 by MarkWatney

[xendelaar]

darn those rockomax capitalist pigs. i hope jeb gets well soon!

[MarkWatney]

Don't worry Jeb will be back to his beer swilling, cowboy, aviator self in no time at all!

[MarkWatney]

A Green Touchdown Part I

Jeb unfortunately was still recovering in the Intensive Care Unit but Adamantium Tech continued on with its various projects with Valentina as Acting Director.

To regain some semblance of a reputation it was decided to green light the Minmmus Landing Probe and get everything ready for launch as soon as possible. It was a modified version of the highly successful Vibranium probe series except beefed up with a lot more fuel and including airbags as landing gear. In addition the venerable Vibranium Launch System was again used.

The probe was hauled out onto the launchpad and prepped for launch. The administration department again had decided not to change the name of the spacecraft...

It was as always at the Space Centre a beautiful launch filled with the toxic fumes from the crude first stage SRBs.

The probe managed to establish a succesful orbit and began making the necessary plane adjustments to get it on course with  Minmmus. The probe flew through the darkness of space to the large green ice cream scoop that was  Minmmus.

As with the previous probe sent to Minmmus the probe immediately established an orbit. This procedure was executed to allow Mission Control to select the best landing sites from a good perspective.

The probe then lowered its orbit even further to allow Mission Control to squeeze every last drop of science, from LMO (Low Minmmus Orbit), before beginning the final landing. It was at that moment that Jeb hobbled down into the Mission Control centre, having just been rushed from the Intensive Care Unit to the Space Centre, and demanded to remote pilot the probe himself.

Valentina was obviously annoyed at this as she had wanted to do the honors herself in Jeb's absence. Another thought on her mind was that Jeb might do a bit of showboating and crash a several thousand funds probe into Minmmus' surface.

In the end whether for the best or for the worst she gave the remote control station to Jeb and then hurried to a nearby chapel to start praying......

Edited April 20, 2017 by MarkWatney

[MarkWatney]

A Green Touchdown Part II

Jeb calmly enganged the probe's engine to start its descent towards Minmmus' surface. The probe replied in turn by enganging its several small Spider engines in a retrograde fashion and the probe began falling towards the icy moon. All in Mission Control were all in awe at the calm and controlled way that Jeb was handling the probe, despite a minor transmission delay. But they were more in awe of the beautiful pictures of another celestial body reminding them all why they had joined a space program. Not for the money and fame. But for the sense of wonder and desire to seek out new world and boldly go where no kerbal has gone before.

The probe flew over several craters and narrowly avoided more than a few mountains thanks to Jeb's almost inhumanly perfect piloting skills. But through that all the probe's camera kept on clicking away taking in much of the landscape as possible without a hint of emotion. The probe then began a second burn so that its trajectory began dropping vertically towards the surface...

Jeb was ever so slightly sweating now and the rest of Mission Control looked like it was on the verge of a nervous break down but finally it touched down on Minmmus.

[MarkWatney]

A Small Side Project

Jeb was given a large party after the succesful Minmmus touchdown and Valentina returned from the chapel. She was ever so slightly miffed that Jeb was thrown a party but quickly regained her spirits after swigging down several pints of hydrazine.....

Jeb had returned to his usual position as Director of Operations but was still under careful watch for any more fainting episodes. While sitting in the cafe with the rest of the Original Four he had a small epiphany. Why not make a fully reusable spacecraft to reduce payload prices and general day to day financing. He then proceeded to hold a meeting with Wernher, Mortimer and the rest of the Original Four.

Mortimer was obviously overjoyed. 

Wernher was slightly worried about the engineering challenges of building such a craft.

Jeb was feeling pretty pleased with himself.

Bob was absolutely scared stiff at the thought of possibly having to fly an untested spacecraft.

Valentina was looking forward to flying a new vehicle.

After a couple days of hard unrelenting building and designing the VAB doors opened to reveal:

The Immersion I the world's first fully reusable manned spacecraft. It then became apparent that a highly skilled pilot was required to control this new spacecraft. Valentina and Jeb went for a quick chat in the conference room to discuss who would be flying the Immersion I.

"Jeb I want to fly that spacecraft." stated Valentina in a matter of fact tone.

"Well I think I should fly it. Considering that I just recovered from my slight shock," countered Jeb.

"Yes. But you already flew the Minmmus Probe and a whole bunch of other prototypes when we were setting up the company"

"But the Minmmus Probe was remote controlled. You can hardly call that piloting!"

This went on and on for several hours until Jeb and Valentina decided to have a quick rock, paper, scissors match to settle the matter. Guess who won? None other than Jebediah Kerman. Understandably Valentina demanded that in return she would pilot the first of the Duna Missions. 

Swallowing his pride Jeb accepted the deal.

The Immersion shot up into the sky and performed a standard gravity turn. When the First Stage reached MECO tt was jettisoned and left to carry on its current suborbital trajectory. 

Jeb gunned the engine and piloted the Immersion into Low Kerbin Orbit. He reached over to the radio and spoke,

"Mission Control, this sure is a beautiful ride!"

Valentina who was the active CAPCOM replied in an almost monotonous tone, "Copy that Immersion, we'll handle the first stage recovery now."

"Jeez Kermise where's your sense of humour Val."

"Did not copy that Immersion,"

Meanwhile the First Stage had survived the rigors of re-entry and was now drifting relativel slowly to the recovery zone.

"Hmmm" thought Wernher, "Ve better increase ze fuel levels on ze stage, ze speed is a bit high...."

As it turned out the stage could not slow down fast enough and plummeted down into the recovery zone instantly destroying the stage. 

A memo was sent to the Board and a list of improvements was sent to the VAB construction team. 

Jeb returned home safely on a bright and sunny morning and did not realise there was a nasty suprise waiting for him with the Board of Directors...

[MarkWatney]

Sorry for the wait but here's the next chapter!

Another Board Meeting

"For Squad's sake Bill do I have to see the Board again!"

"Jeb appparently they want to tell you something rather important.."

"Important my behind they wouldn't be able to tell what important was even if they looked up from their budget sheets!"

After Jeb completed his little rant he headed to his appartment to have a stiff drink and a change of clothes in preperation for the Board meeting.

A few hours later Jeb walked into the Administration Building carrying various files and a medium sized projector. As he walked in he noticed that most of the Board members looked like that they had all simultaneously suffered a severe stroke but one of the members spoke up and said "Mr Kerman give us a status update on all our current operations."

Jeb was slightly puzzled as to why the Board looked so worried but he set up his projector and began his presentation.

"Well since the test flight of the new Reusable Launch Vehicle we have modified it and added a bit more fuel to the first stage. Allowing a softer landing upon touchdown. Moreover we have added some stabilisers to the second stage to increase stability and prevent any tumbling during re-entry..."

"Also the VAB team and the R&D Depatrment are busy working on a second version to be used as a refuelling tanker for various spacecraft..."

"Finally the Minmmus orbital probe is under the final stages of construction and we're beginning pre-flight simmulations..."

 

After Jeb had completed his presentation a junior member of the Board stood up and said to Jeb, "Mr Kerman what do you know of The Kerbin World Firsts Society."

"Well only what's heard in the press. That it's a small government funded charity for space programs. Why do you ask."

The Board member ignored the question and then asked Jeb, "Mr Kerman how sure are you that you can get us to Duna..."

"Almost one hundred percent sure that we can land a kerbanaut on Duna in around five to eight years."

The Board member nodded and said, "You might need to rethink your schedule." He then slid a small file down the table to Jeb. Who opened it and then proceeded to faint to the floor.

What had made Jeb faint you ask? Well in the seemingly harmless file Jeb had saw images and classified articles stating that the Kerbin World Firsts Society had managed to assemble its own funds and started its own space program with the intention of landing kerbalnauts on Duna.

Below are some of the images that were in that file:

CLASSIFIED

KERBIN WORLD FIRSTS SOCIETY PROPERTY

LEVEL ALPHA SECURITY CLEARANCE TO ACCESS THIS INFORMATION

 

Jeb was again rushed to the nearest hospital and the rest of the Original Four was left to sort out the situation the Board had dumped on them....

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by MarkWatney

[MarkWatney]

Hey guys I've been a little busy due to the onslaught of exams coming. But the next post should be coming soon!

 

[MarkWatney]

A Space Race

Valentina rubbed her forhead in a vain effort to relieve some of the pain from the headache she had developed after Jeb had been incapacitated again... 

So all the usual tasks of running the space centre were handed over to her. Under normal circumstances she woukd have been thrilled but she was under sever pressure from the Board to get ahead of the competition. She glanced at some of the intellegence reports regarding the Kerbin World Firsts Society. Frankly she had no idea how the Board had managed to come by this information and nor did she particularly want to find out. 

But in any case it looked like the KWFS was off to a good start (good news for them but terrible news for Adamantium Tech). They had managed to place several satellites in orbit

Valentina chuckled at the crudity of their design but also admired their genius. Using several SRBs coupled together they had managed to lob a 0.218 ton satellite into Low Kerbin Orbit. 

She then examined an aerial shot of their space centre noticing that it was remarkably similar to Adamantium's space centre. She supposed it was because it was designed by Wernher's twin brother Wernher. But the buildings and facilities were not as advanced as Adamantium's and she hoped it would stay that way...

Turning her attention away from the reports she glanced at the mission summary of Adamantium Tech's unkerballed Minmmus orbital return probe. From what she gleaned it was rather successful...

 

[MarkWatney]

Sorry for the wait guys I've just had a few busy weeks of exams new posts will be coming soon!

 

[MarkWatney]

A Few Interludes

Valentina was sitting at her desk sifting through the mound of paperwork that had surely but slowly accumalated on her desk. As she was about to get started she heard a suprised yell come from the reception room of Mission Control. Sighing she got up to see what all the fuss was and to her amazement there was Jeb sitting on one knee and raising a ring to a rather young looking female kerbal called Mismera. Valentina couldn't believe her eyes. Jebediah Kerman of all people was proposing to someone?!

A large party insured and everyone quickly became intoxicated after the large amount of hydrzine present. Wernher in particular was wobbling quite a lot and was jabbering on about his childhood in Kermany. 

The morning after Jeb woke up in his office and quickly noticed that a) he seemed to have lost his shirt and tie. And b) he was on the ceiling. As this registered he fell down with a loud thump thankfully not breaking anything. The Intensive Care Unit at the local hospital was starting to get tired of Jeb's increasingly frequent visits.

Jeb glanced to his desk and noticed that someone had left a large parcel there. He brushed himself off and opened the package inside there was a picture of the new RLV and signed at the bottom was the message: "My love one day you'll touch Duna...Mismera"

Jeb smiled and got dressed ready to continue the road to duna 

[MarkWatney]

The Big Dumb Booster

Jeb sat rather anxiously in the cramped capsule and muttered to himself, "How the hell did I end up here......?"

 

A few weeks ago....

"Ok Bill what hair brained idea do you have now ? " sighed Jeb as he plonked his large cowboy boots on his large mahogany desk. It was now a few days after Jeb had gotten engaged to Mismera and he was hoping to not end up dying before his wedding.

"Well Jeb I was thinking..."

"You're always thinking Bill and it usually ends up with me in some contraption of yours that nearly kills me!"

"This is different it's important and it will be exciting."

"How so?"

Bill then proceeded to take a large blue print out of his briefcase and smoothed it down on Jeb's desk. Jeb peered down at the blueprint and then said to Bill, "What exactly are we supposed to use this for?"

"Well Jeb I was thinking that we could use this BDB..."

"BDB?" interrupted Jeb.

"Big Dumb Booster."

"Ah."

"Anyway" continued Bill, " We could use this BDB as a form of low cost orbital tourism and/or transportation. If we exploit this the right way we could drastically lower the cost of rocket launches!"

Jeb pondered this large deluge of information in silence he then exclaimed, "My Squad Bill. The whole thing is made up of SRBs how is this in anyway safe?!"

"Well that's why I"m asking you to pilot a test flight..."

Back to the present (but a few minutes before Jeb end up in orbit)

Jeb gritted his teeth as the g-force acceleration slowly built up as the SRBs roaring thrust increased.

 

The acceleration was nothing like he had ever felt before even when he was flying the first spacecraft for the company. The noise was overwhelming and it seemed like his head would explode from the vibrations and din the SRBs were causing. 

Suddenly there was a loud clunk then a bang as the first stage, composed of five clustered SRBs, seperated and the large second stage ignited. The noise and chaos built up even further and Jeb was finding it hard to keep his eyes open.

Finally the second stage sperated and Jeb drifted in a moment of relative peace.

 

Jeb let out a relieved sigh that at least he had made it this far. Then he groaned as his computer informed him that the orbital kicker stage was about to ignite. A slight rumble and acceleration occured significantly less compared to the chaos that was the launch of the BDB. Finally everything stopped and Jeb was able to relax once again.

The present(as in the present where we have finally caught up with the main narrative)

Jeb was reporting back to Mission Control about his current observations and was sneaking in a few selfies of him with Kerbin in the backround to show to Mismera. While he was taking his one hundreth selfie a loud beep sounded inside the capsule indicating that Mission Control wanted to speak to him. 

"BDB 1 this is AT Control prepare to begin reentry and splashdown."

Jeb smiled as he realised that it was Mismera speaking to him and replied, "Copy that AT Control and I'll be home in time of dinner darling!"

"You better be." replied Mismera.

Jeb then seperated the depleted orbital kicker stage and prepared to fire the retrorockets that would deorbit the capsule and land him back on Kerbin.

Jeb fired the first pair of retrorockets which lowered his orbit by a little bit however not enough to enter the atmosphere. This procedure was all part of the mission plan. To save weight Bill had designed the BDB to have just enough retrorockets so that the capsule would be able to skim the atmosphere then finally enter it via the use of several long aerobrake passes.

 The light outside the capsule vanished as the craft passed into the dark side of Kerbin and the first pair of retrorockets had been depleted. 

For several hours Jeb and his capsule spun around Kerbin bit by bit lowering the velocity of the craft to allow it to reenter.

Jeb then fired up the second pair of retrorockets which gave the push for the capsule to properly enter the atmosphere and allowing Jeb to safely return home to see his fiancée. 

 

[MarkWatney]

Another Station!!!?!?!

Jeb was sipping his morning coffee while looking through the large amount of paperwork and budget reviews that had been dumped on his desk. Suddenly someone or something burst through his office door nearly knocking it off its hinges said person was in fact Bill.

Jeb sighed and said, "What is it now Bill, if it's another accident at the VAB I'm not sure our insurance can keep covering ,"injury while handling experimental rocket fuel"......

"No it's not that Jeb!" exclaimed Bill, "I just came along to talk about my new brilliant idea."

"Oh what is it?"

Bill then plucked a hastily drawn sketch out of his bag and showed it to Jeb. Jeb took one glance at it and promptly fainted. Making it Bill's cue to once again call the ambulance to collect Jeb.

You see this is what Bill's brilliant idea was: 

Don't recognise it.? Well here's a picture of another spacecraft from earlier in the narrative:

 Well if you didn't you might remember the aborted Angel Station that wasted a significant amount of the company's money. Bill's brilliant idea was to launch a second iteration of the station for use as a training and target vehicle in addition to being used as a laboratory and construction outpost. So it was quite understandable that Jeb fainted namely because he didn't want to launch the same type of station that wasted a significant amount of the company's funds....

[MarkWatney]

Another Station?!?!?!? Part II

Valentina glanced up anxiously at the Imersion 2 Station the successor to the ill fated Angel Station. 

"Bill I still think this is a bad idea." said Valentina.

"Nonsense Valentina this whole mission will go great and Jeb will be extremely pleased." replied Bill.

"Hmmm..." muttered Valentina.

A few minutes later

"Standby for launch."came the loud voice of the launch commentator.

"T-minus 10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"Main Engine Start"

"3"

"2"

"1"

"Lift-off of the Imersion Station successor to the Angel Station!"

Inside Mission Control there was a frenzy of activity as the mission was underway. There was currently a running bet to see if either the ship would explode upon reaching space or the station would not fulfill the contract at all.

"Beginning gravity turn" continued the launch commentator.

At the hospital Jeb watched the launch in his bed with his fiancée Mismera. Jeb was visibly sweating and muttered to Mismera:

"By Squad this launch better be successful or the Board will have my head!"

"Don't worry my love the launch will go according to plan." consoled Mismera.

Jeb felt the thumping in his ears reduce by a little bit after hearing that comment.

Back at Mission Control everyone was preparing to recover the experimental reusable first stage which had yet to go successfully.....

"Flight we have 1st stage seperation and re-entry into the atmosphere." announced the Booster Systems Engineer.

"Copy that Booster." replied Valentina who had decided she needed to be personally in control of this whole affair.

On the Main Screen at the front of Mission Control the booster was diving through the first layers of the atmosphere.

While all of this was happening the second stage, i.e the station was continuing onto orbit.

"All right everyone," said Valentina, "Let's prep for parachute depolyment."

Everyone's gaze returned back to their own individual stations and instruments then suddenly the Booster Systems engineer called out,

"Flight we have drogue chute deployment....now we have main chute deployment,"

 

There was a collective sigh of relief in the room as there was a higher chance of the  mission succeeding. On the screen the booster drifted downward....

Suddenly there was a loud shout from the Booster Engineer, "Oh karp! Flight she's falling way too fast and the ship's out of any more fuel to slow down!"

Valentina calmly replied, "Booster what's the stage's current speed?"

"Approximately 35 m/s" came the reply

"Karp!" exclaimed Valentina, "The whole stage is going to crash!"

The whole of Mission Control watched helplessly as the rather expensive reusable first stage plummeted into the North Kerbian Ocean.

Valentina rubbed her forehead trying to relieve the pounding headache she had just developed then she spoke the words that every flight director hoped to never say:

"Gc lock the doors....".

To be continued

[MarkWatney]

Jeb Talks to The Board

"By Squad!" yelled Jeb, "Why do I need to be hauled into another Squadawful Board meeting!?"

"Calm down Jeb!" pleaded Bill, "They're only conducting a review on the program."

"Only conducting a review!" snorted Jeb, "Ha! If they find anything out of place they'll have my head!"

"Whatever you say Jeb..." sighed Bill.

The two of them walked into the Board room once again and Jeb began the laborious process of recounting what events had recently happened in the program. Clearing his throat Jeb began his presentation.

"Regarding the Board's worries about the Kerbin World Firsts Society we have intelligence, provided by my contacts in the Kerbian Air Force, that their operation is not exactly going to plan and their schedule is slipping week by week..."

However what Jeb had neglected to mention is that he had recently sent Wernher to deliberately sabotage the KWFS' rocket production line by replacing all of their rocket fuel with melted cheese and snacks. Wernher later commented when he returned back to the space centre that: "It vas like being back in ze Kerman Bomb Squad! Ah those vere the days!"

Returning back to Jeb's talk...

"Regarding our own program it was decided that we would cancel the Immersion reusable vehicle program and instead focus on Bill's new low cost Big Dumb Booster project...."

At this there was some grumbling among some members of the Board who were slightly miffed they had poured several thousand funds into the Immersion program only for it to be cancelled. Jeb then proceeded to flash on the projector screen a picture of a new launch vehicle which quickly piqued the interest of the Board members.

Continuing on Jeb said, "We have made extensive modifications to the original Big Dumb Booster design allowing this bad boy to reach LKO for a cost of around 8000 credits making it one of our cheapest Kerballed manned orbiters...."

At this there was some polite but large amount of applause from the Board.

Ignoring this Jeb pressed on, "This Big Dumb Booster Mark II is also partially reusable with the command module able to be reused multiple times with minimal repair and servicing drving down the cost even further.."

There was even more applause from Jeb's enthralled audience.

Ignoring them once again Jeb concluded his talk, "This vehicle in combination with unmanned fuel/ supply tankers and our recently launched space station will be able to reach a variety of destinations in the Kerbol System! In fact in a few days to prove to you the applications for this new vehicle we will perform our first ever manned docking and crew transfer with this vehicle and the Immersion Space Station!"

There was now a thundering of applause as the Board realised the implications and applications for this brand new vehicle.

Jeb took his bow and quickly dashed out of the Board room with Bill. 

Sighing out loud Jeb said to Bill, "Thank Squad all of them forgot about the Immersion stage crashing into the ocean!" 

[MarkWatney]

Val Flies BDB 2

Val sighed inside the cramped capsule. Why the hell did she have to be the first to fly an experimental and potentially dangerous spacecraft? The reason for Val's crabby mood was due to the fact that Val was flying the company's new prode and joy a.k.a the Big Dumb Booster 2:

Val sighed again. Instead of spending a relaxing afternoon flying with her former sqaudron from the Air Force she got to fly the BDB 2 and rendezvous with the Immersion Station. The launch control announcer steadily counted down the seconds with a clear and crisp pronounciation:

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"Main Engine Start"

"3"

"2"

"1"

"Lift Off!"

The BDB 2 leapt off the launch pad faster than a bat out of hell and faster than Val's beloved KAF-23 fighter jet. Inside the capsule Val gritted her teeth through the extreme acceleration cursing Bill for designing such an uncomfortable ride. After a few painful minutes the first stage seperated and Val primed the second stage for ignition.

A few seconds later she heard the loud beep in her helmet telling her to pull the priming handle. Then she felt a large force pressing her deeper into her seat as the craft built up speed and then finally it cut out. Through her window she could see the red and white flames of plasma licking the outer hull of the ship as it passed into space.

As the ship was drifting towards the apoapsis she decided to call Bill to give him an earful regarding the ascent of the BDB2:

"Bill what in the name of Squad made you decide to use SRBs on a freaking kerballed spacecraft!"

Poor Bill on the other side of the line nearly jumped through the ceiling when Val yelled at him.

She then proceeded to call him a few choice names which were too vulgar to be included within this narrative. 

Val then noticed that the ship was getting rather close to the apoapsis so she ceased her verbal bashing of poor Bill and gunned the four engines to power the small little ship into orbit.

Bit by bit the ship nudged itself into orbit with every moment filled with Val cursing Bill for being such a cheapskate. 

To be continued 

 

 

 

[MarkWatney]

Val Meets and Greets the Station

Val wriggled around in her acceleration couch again cursing Bill for not designing a more comfortable ship. After a few minutes of wriggling she gave up namely due to the fact that a message had come up from AT Mission Control informing her that the BDB 2 had completed its automated rendezvous burns and would be soon ready to dock with the Immersion Station.

Val gave a sigh of relief as she was just about fed up with the cramped and uncomfortable confines of the BDB's capsule. Glancing out of the window she noticed the world roll by like a blue and green carpet covered with scatterings of clouds and shadows. She began to cheer up and said aloud, "At least the view makes up for the rubbish couch."

A loud chime emmenated from her computer warning that she was approaching the rendezvous point. Val quickly decided to throw all protocol out of the window (figuratively speaking as that could possible smash the glass causing the ship to depressurise) and switch to manual control for the deceleration and docking. The main reason for her deciding to this was just so she could wind up Bill

Down on the ground in AT Mission Control Bill went into a panicked frenzy when he realised what Val was doing and immediately yelled into the communication system, "WHAT IN SQUAD'S NAME ARE YOU FRAKING DOING VAL!!!???".    

Val replied in a calm and controlled manner saying, "Bill I'm fraking bored I'm going to fly this baby in and dock her by myself with no automatics."

"WHAT!!!"

At this point Val simply muted the communication system and focused on docking. Counting silently in her head the seconds until she would need to burn retrograde to the station so she could slow down the ship just enough that it matched speeds with the station and she could dock to it. 

The appointed time came and Val gently squeezed the thrusters slowing her little craft's speed to match the station. Slowly but surely she turned around the capsule lining the capsule's docking port with the station's main airlock and slid the docking probe smoothly into the station's docking port and engaged the docking clamps which hauled the BDB 2 into position with a loud clunk. 

Val quickly unstrapped herself from the acceleration couch and floated into the station. It smelt like a new car and old socks and there was a constant buzz in the backround but it was her home for the next few days. She floated over to a sleeping bag and wrapped herself in almost instantly falling asleep. 

Outside the station continued to circle around Kerbin with its new occupant fast asleep.