Echoes of the Past [Ch. 3] - Beyond Home Career

[LittleBitMore]

Hello! This will be a heavily modded mission report, written in a story-esque manner, much akin to other mission reports stylized as fanfiction-esque sagas. The main goal is to discover the secrets of the universe (which even I, the author, don't know, so be sure to not spoil any story behind Beyond Home.)

Be sure to notify me when I've forgotten about this. I'm very, VERY good at forgetting about things, so you can always comment "MOAR" at any time to remind me  

Everyone's played the early game, and nobody enjoys it the 87th time around (even with mods), so I'll be starting off with 150 science points to help myself go into orbit faster. Yes, I know this is technically cheating, but I doubt any experienced players enjoy the early game. I'll be doing nothing else cheaty unless it's needed for technical reasons.

Modlist:

Spoiler

Without further ado, let's begin!

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Spoiler

 

Deep in the past, Kerbals were flourishing. Amazing bases on Duna, a ring station around Eeloo, a subterranean mining colony on Tylo, and a privately funded cruiser surfing Eve's oceans. Everything changed when Kerbol became hotter. Nobody knew what was going on, all they knew that they needed to run away. Time after time again, they attempted some strange and extreme form of FTL travel to escape fast enough to let all the Kerbals free. None worked. When Kerbol threatened to undergo helium flashes and vaporize the whole system on its way to a white dwarf, they knew drastic actions needed to be taken-- even if these drastic actions were dangerous.

Kerbals sent hundreds of massive generation ships out left and right, front and center, in pseudorandom directions in hopes of finding a new home within the next few million years. A dangerous and inefficient plan, but it was better than all Kerbals surely roasting to death, or freezing to death after Kerbol finishes its life cycle.

The colony ships flew out for lightyears away from Kerbol, far enough away that no manner of communication would reach them. None of the ships knew if the others succeeded, or the fate of Kerbin itself.  Unbeknownst to Kerbin or the colony ships, only one would make it: the Rhode 7 generation ship. The others all died out in deep space due to some bizzare reason or another-- oxygen leak, temperature system failure, or even extreme radiation from a nearby neutron star vaporizing all crewmembers.

Journey on Rhode 7 was... harrowing. A Kerbal would live there for their lifespan, being born there, reproducing, and soon die there later. Any miniscule mishap could mean the end of everything they knew. Of course, they couldn't escape, and their only hope was to find a home. And that they did.

Rhode 7 encountered a binary system, and crash landed on a miraculously habitable planet. Some survived the crash, and they called their new planet Rhode, after their now derelict ship. After such a harrowing experience, they decided it was best to avoid spaceflight altogether, forever, to prevent such a depressing thing from happening again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A ridiculous amount of time later ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When Jebediah Kerman discovered that scientists were working on interesting and new propulsion methods for Kerbalkind, he couldn't help but realize the amazing possibilities of such a technology.

Jeb's always looked skywards at night, wondering what these strange orbs in the sky were. Nobody else was quite as entranced as he was, for they shunned the sky due to the deep past. Not Jebediah, with his insane schemes and rebellious personality. Immediately, he pooled all his life's savings, bought the rights to as many of these newfangled technologies as he could, and got to work on constructing vehicles to fly skywards.

(Starting tech tree)

Spoiler

With his remaining funds, he "hired" (bribed with a few pizzas) his three close friends, Bill, Bob, and Valentina, to join him on this crazed excursion to discover what lies beyond the planet they've grown up on. He even found and took over a small abandoned airfield, fixed it up with a (quite expensive) launchpad, and saved the rest of his funds for buying parts for the craft.

Jebediah began to plot out a crazed schematic for a sort of vertical lift vehicle, a "rocket", with a chair for him to sit in inside of a nosecone. Using Bill and Bob's expertise in engineering and science respectively, he learned of several situations with negative outcomes he may want to prepare for, and of many scientific devices he would use to research the skies around him.

He came up with the "Discovery 1", a multi-stage science-oriented rocket, with as many precautions, experiments, and equipment welded on the sides as he could think of.

After a lot of construction work split between him, Valentina, Bob, and Bill, the craft was fully constructed in 5 days, and rolled out to the launchpad. Jebediah strapped himself in. Bill, Bob, and Valentina wished him luck, and he stepped into his rocket.

The majestic rocket lifted off without a hitch. Based on what both Bill and Bob told him, to land anywhere special he'd have to turn his rocket, and so that's exactly what he did.

After some flight, he ran some experiments, but apparently, they seemed to not work!

Jeb opened up the comms, and speaks into the microphone, "Bob, why is this pressure scan not returning any data? And why does it say 'running'?"

Bob snickers in the intercomm. "Didn't I tell you? Experiments take several minutes to run! According to the sensor, it should take another 15 minutes."

Jebediah sighs, and closes off the communications. While distracted by the voice, he accidentally turned too far too early, scuppering any chance at orbit.

Suddenly, the bottom stage runs out of fuel. Jebediah smashes the large green "STAGE" button, and steers the craft towards space.

The rocket has other plans, and, now without fins, reacts to the thick atmosphere by flipping backwards.

Jeb attempts to steer it back forwards, but this fails. The craft, now a smaller stage firing backwards, pushes the entire capsule back into the recently discarded stage. In retaliation, fuel tank explodes, sending the engine further forwards than the rest of the pod.

All that's left to be done is run science, and descend safely. So that's exactly what Jeb does.

Due to Jeb not knowing how to run the science stuff, most of it fails due to "no storage space. Jeb'd have to scratch his head over it later. For now he needed to pop the chutes.

Jeb calls in a boat to recover the capsule. He exits the capsule, and comes back to the space center to find a man ringing the doorbell eagerly. When this gentleman turned around to see Jeb walking to the door, he stops Jeb.

"Hi! I'm Tim from the World Firsts Society! You've broken many records for Kerbalkind!"

Jeb stops and thinks. "Doesn't everyone despise space?"

Tim responds, "Nobody cares about the past. After your stellar performance, caught on camera by a few fishing vessels, everyone's excited to go skywards again! We all were on the edge of our seats when that fuel tank exploded!"

Jeb chuckles a little. "Was it that riveting? Anyways, what records did I break?"

"In all of our millenia of civilization on Rhode, you've built the first ever rocket!" Tim produces a plaque and a briefcase, seemingly magically, and opens it up. Inside are stacks upon stacks of cold hard funds.

"Wait, I'm getting money for all this?" Jeb asks, confused but excited.

Tim nods eagerly. "With every record you break, we'll reward you handsomely!" Tim produces another plaque and another briefcase. "You're also the first Kerbal to return alive from such an excursion!"

Tim continues, "And this one's for splashing down in the ocean for the first time..." producing another set of plaque and briefcase. From behind a bush, Tim brings out a ridiculous stack of briefcases and plaques.

"WOAH," Jebediah interrupts. "And I'm getting--"

"Yes, you are, but this is a pain to carry, so I'll make this quick. These three are for breaking altitude records of 500, 1500, and 5000 meters. These here are for breaking speed records of 25, 80, 250, and 790 meters per second, and these for land distance records of 1, 3, 10, and 32 kilom--" Tim suddenly stumbles, dropping everything. The plaques all survive, and none of them have a single crack. Half of the briefcases open, spilling the funds out onto the sidewalk.

Jebediah says, "Thank you guys so much, I can take this from here," but when he looks up, Tim from the World Firsts Society vanishes. There's no vehicles around or anything, he seems to have dissipated into thin air in the 3 seconds Jebediah glanced down.

Jebediah, after several moments of confusion, picks up the money, brings it into mission control, and calls it a day.

 

Sorry this one's a little shorter than I wanted, I simply didn't have enough time. I'll surely have enough time in later chapters to launch several craft per chapter.

Edited May 3, 2021 by LittleBitMore
Changing the title to Chapert 3

[Kerbalstar]

45 minutes ago, LittleBitMore said:

Tim from the World Firsts Society vanishes.

 

45 minutes ago, LittleBitMore said:

seems to have dissipated into thin air in the 3 seconds Jebediah glanced down.

I think this is the best description of the World's First Society I have ever seen, good job! Looking forward to moar.

[LittleBitMore]

I'll be removing Kerbalism in favor of another mod that utilizes life support. The strange science mechanics, radiation mechanics, and part failures seem too alien for me to continue using them

[Vagrant203]

USI Life Support is a good choice.

[LittleBitMore]

Since the previous chapter, I've removed Kerbalism, added nearly every USI mod, and added a ton of contract mods. Next chapter should be out today or tomorrow

[LittleBitMore]

Chapter 2: Orbits

Spoiler

 

The world's reception of Jeb's breathtaking flight was so amazing, everyone was interested in space again. Everyone ignored or forgot about the traumatic past of Kerbalkind. In response, Jebediah was an instant worldwide hero, and inspired so many more to look to the stars.

Jebediah couldn't quit after a single flight, so he began working on the future of his currently unnamed space program. After Jeb complained deeply to Bob about the finicky experiments, Bob agreed to find quicker and easier to use science modules. Many companies gave him goals and requests for what to do in space, in return for more publicity and money. Jebediah accepted two from the mystical World Records Society, one requiring getting out of the atmosphere, and the other requiring space. Jeb also forked some money and research data to various companies in turn for them developing better engines and tanks for him to use on his journey skywards.

Using the ridiculous amount of new funds, Jebediah also hired a team of scientists and engineers to speed up the process of building, and to design higher quality rockets.

After several days hard at work, Jebediah put the new technologies to use with the Canary 1, an automated satellite which would theoretically go to orbit.

4 days later, the amazing and quick team constructed the Canary 1 and rolled it out to launch.

Jebediah manned the console in Mission Control, and readied the throttle meter. "3, 2, 1..." Jebediah counts, then slams his fist onto the green STAGE button.

Jebediah clicks some buttons that look interesting. The probe catalogues the temperature and pressure of the air 5km directly above the space center. The rest of the flight goes off without a hitch, and the first stage runs out of fuel when expected.

Jeb bashes the green STAGE button yet again, and is about to start the throttle again, before Bill advises him, "For the most efficient orbit, we should coast until we're highest above Rhode."

Jeb sighs, and says, "Fine," and waits until then before firing the engines again.

After around 20 seconds burning, an alarm goes off. The light on the console labelled "FUEL LOW" flashes as a beeping sound plays through the speakers. Orbit was nearly achieved, but so was an empty tank.

Jebediah continues nonetheless. Slowly but surely, the map screen indicates the orbit line slipping upwards from the atmosphere and into space. The orbit circularizes, and the engines run out of fuel.

The whole room erupts in cheers! The satellite relays data about its surroundings, and transmitts the previously acquired data. Everyone's smile falters slightly when they realize the leftover power would leave only 1 hour and 6 minutes left of battery, but it was enough to send beeps around the whole world for anyone to listen in to.

Jebediah is greeted with Tim, back again to deliver more plaques and prize money.

"Thanks," Jebediah says, taking the handful of items. However, as soon as he blinks, Tim's no longer there.

Using the new amounts of funds, he repairs and upgrades some of the derelict buildings-- specifically, Mission Control, Astronaut Complex, and the VAB. Before these finish, Canary 1 runs out of battery, and its beeping peters out pitifully.

A week later, renovations complete, and Jebediah resumes his insane ideas for building new craft. His next goal? To put himself in orbit around Rhode. Using the research data from Canary 1, he employs part companies to help him by creating new technology. This technology is all about electronics. The next day, they present him with blueprints for lights, solar panels, advanced computers, batteries, and more.

Jebediah and the engineering department came up with the Woodpigeon 1-- a two stage design packed to the brim with food, electricity, and various gadgets.

After 5 days of engineering and construction, the ship finishes its construction, and is rolled out to launch.

The life support supplies would last him 7 days, so he decided that once he was in orbit, he'd stay up there for 6.

However, there was a major design flaw.

The engine chosen was not strong enough to lift the rocket off the ground, so the rocket spent a full minute burning on the pad until it could lift off.

(This was mainly due to a bug with (presumably) Tweakscale, where the fuel somehow quadrupled in the tweakscaled radial tanks, and weighed down the craft by an extreme factor, and over 100 units of fuel fit into a tiny 22 unit tank.)

The rest of the launch went unremarkable in nature, due to how nothing bad happened. This craft's fate would end up nothing like the Discovery 1's fate.

Orbital insertion was achieved fairly quickly, and additionally without a hitch.

To everyone's surprise, orbit was achieved without staging. This was mathematically impossible by all means. Everybody questioned it, and nobody had an answer.

(Hint: extra fuel somehow in the tiny tanks.)

With Jebediah in orbit, he sent some messages through the intercomm. "I'm alright, *static* in orbit. Nothing *garbled* wrong." Then, he promptly ran the Science Jr, and logged a crew report.

Jeb opens the hatch doors, and crawls out of the pod and onto the ladder.

After sending this picture to the space center painfully slowly, he enters the capsule, and begins his stay for the next 6 days in space.

Jebediah, through his spotty communications, asked for a communications network so he could watch KerbTube at 1080p. The engineering team disagreed, because there were no fairings. Jebediah agreed to launch them the moment fairings were researched.

And so the Swiftlet series was designed. Swiftlets were a new line of satellites designed for communications, and would have unique naming schemes. An example would be a comms satellite, seond iteration, around Lua, in the second comms ring, and the third member of that ring, which would be named Swiftlet-B Lua-2-3. The satellite ring Jebediah asked for would be Swiftlet-A Rhode 1-1 through 1-3.

Due to the fairing situation, and a contract whose deadline was approaching, they left the project shelved and instead focused on a science probe-- Canary 2, which would go to high space for the first time to collect scientific data.

This satellite also tested an experimental liquid hydrogen engine-- the Stromboil, which was clustered in two for the lower stage.

The cost of this satellite was enough to threaten bankruptcy to the space program, so no other endeavors were planned until the Woodpigeon 1 contract and the Canary 2 contract were both complete.

Canary 2 rolls out to the launchpad.

While Canary 2 rolled out, Jebediah's eggtimer floating around in his capsule went off. Before Canary 2 was to launch, Jebediah had to land.

Jebediah paused his Scott Manley video, and mans the controls.

Jebediah detaches the two remaining stages, and prepares for reentry.

After a very rocky reentry which Jebediah forgot to keep his camera out for, the craft descends into the inky black night sky.

With Jebediah recovered, Canary 2 finally launches.

     

The probe successfully makes it to its designated orbit, and performs the science required.

Back at the space center, Jebediah's craft has been picked up and returned. Tim appears to drop off more prize money, and, like always, disappears mysteriously.

Jebediah forks more money over to the random companies, and researches items related to control and reaction, and airplanes. 

(Tech tree)

Spoiler

Jebediah also accepts several contracts: one to test an RCS block, one to get climate readings of Rhode, one to add a scanner satellite to Rhode, and the most important one of all: to send a flyby probe to Armstrong, Rhode's smallest moon.

And with that, Jebediah kicks back to relax, and calls it a day.

Also, before you go, please suggest names for the space program! I don't have any ideas yet, and I thought it would be fun to ask you guys.

Edited May 2, 2021 by LittleBitMore
MORE typoes and stuff

[LittleBitMore]

Chapter 3: Armstrong

Spoiler

The next day, Jebediah works out what eneds to be done to solve the contracts. He rereads them, and all of them seem perfectly nominal-- except for one. The contract to test an RCS block on a suborbital trajectory was actually to test an engine cluster, mischeviously and erroneously titled as an "orbital maneuvering system".

Jebediah immediately cancelled the project designed for that contract, and instead designs the Silkie 1-- a small suborbital craft with the engine cluster attached for testing purposes. The Silkie series would be cheap and unremarkable test craft.

The Silkie 1, rolled out to the launchpad, gets the all clear for launch. Jebediah slams his fist onto the large glowing green "STAGE" button, as he always does.

After the ship coasted up to 100km above the planet's surface, the lower stage detaches, and the engine cluster performs its tests.

The engine cluster is compact, efficient, and with decent iSP, and will be useful in the future during orbital maneuvers as the name implies. The data transmits back to the space center, and both the upper stage and lower stage crash down to Rhode.

Next, Jebediah began the project to fly by Armstrong.

The Francolin 1 was constructed, with the Francolin series being the Armstrong exploratory probe series. This craft, due to lack of fairings, had to make do with homemade fairings Jeb welded together himself. The engineering team thought it looked cooler this way, and let this strange device fly atop the Francolin 1.

  

The probe itself had several experiment, an antenna, a cameral, and several other gizmos and gadgets. This mission would also be the first to exclusively use LH2 engines.

(which, by the way, are somewhat overpowered in my mind-- not enough to avoid them though)

The fairing also had kick motors to seperate it faster to reduce chance of impact with the probe.

The Francolin 1 rolls out to the launchpad. Jebediah mans the controls at the Mission Control, and smashes the "STAGE" button with a clenched fist.

During launch, all anyone could say was "Dang, that's a beautiful engine plume," and watch as the spacecraft ascended to space.

During decoupling of the fairing, the kick motors never fired, although separation went smoothly regardless.

After inserting into orbit, Jebediah realized he couldn't send advanced maneuver commands to the probe (which were required to get to Armstrong) until the Tracking Station was upgraded, so Jebediah ordered just that.

Several days later, the Tracking Station finishes upgrades, and Jebediah walks back to Mission Control to control the mission.

(Half an hour of maneuvering, throwing computer out window, and "why did the screenshot shortcut turn on my engines and ruin the maneuver"ing...)

Along the way to Armstrong, the probe grabbed scientific data of space further away from Rhode, and sent it back through the antenna.

Several hours later, the probe enters Armstrong's SOI. Jebediah types into the console to take an image of the surroundings. In response, Francolin 1 sends an audio clip and an image to Mission Control.

"An audio clip?" Jebediah asks, confused. "I thought you said that there wasn't any sound in space, Bob?"

Bob nods, and then shrugs. "I don't really know what kind of audio file a space probe could send us. I guess your best bet is to check it out and see what it does?"

Jebediah opens the audio file first. Out comes a computized voice. "Francolin 1 SPEAKING. ARMSTRONG IS BEAUTIFUL. ENJOY THE IMAGE"

"Wait, we didn't program it to do that. Did anyone else program it to do that?" Bill asked. One engineer from the construction team darts his eyes back and forth, but nobody says anything.

After conversing about the confusing conundrum of consciousness of the computational creation in the cold of the cosmos, Jeb shrugged and hits the button on the console that told it to do more science. After several seconds of pause, the probe sends back data on what was in space around Armstrong.

After several minutes, after the flyby, the probe sends back another audio clip and image. Jeb opens the image first.

The image loads. It's a close up image of the terrain of Armstrong: rocky, gray, and splotchy.

Jebediah next opens the audio clip. "Francolin 1 SPEAKING. WHERE AM I GOING NEXT?"

Jeb thinks. Does he lie to the somehow sentient space probe, or does he tell it the truth? He relays his thoughts to Bill, Bob, Valentina, and a few members of the engineering team in Mission Control.

After a lot of discussion, there's no unanimous decision, but more people want to tell the probe the truth than tell it splenderifous lies.

Jebediah taps on the keyboard, sending words into the console, Your mission has been fulfilled, and you will be left to orbit Rhode forever. We do not have enough money to rescue you.

The probe does not send anything back for some time. Everyone in Mission Control awaits a response, and for the next half hour, there is none.

Eventually, the probe sends back another pair of audio files and images.

"WHAT?"

Even though the voice of Francolin 1 was computerized, everyone could hear the shock, disbelief and despair in this one single word.

"The poor space probe," says Valentina. "I wish we could do something about it."

The unanimous consensus about what to do with Francolin 1 now was to cease contacting it, and to not issue any more commands. Nobody could risk further deteriorating the ...mental state? of Francolin 1. Its mission was complete, and nothing more needed to be done with it.

The World Firsts member Tim returned again to give out money and plaques for the milestones, but nobody quite semed to be in the same mood anymore.

One thing was for sure, nobody would sleep well knowing they've stranded a sentient being out there in deep space.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ a few hours later ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Francolin 1 suddenly rotated around, now facing retrograde, and fired its engines at periapsis around Rhode. Suddenly, it ran out of fuel.

Jebediah, having been the only one to remain in Mission Control to listen for Francolin 1, notices this on the readings coming back from Francolin 1 every second.

Jebediah clicks at the keyboard, and writes, "What are you doing, Francolin 1?"

Nearly immediately, Francolin 1 returns with an image, and an audio file.

"I AM NOW IN LOW RHODE ORBIT. PLEASE RESCUE ME, MY ORBIT WILL DECAY IN 37 DAYS TIME AND I HAVE NO FUEL."

Jebediah runs the numbers. Now, a rescue mission would be efficient, even cheap, but there might not be enough time. He rings up the engineers, and tells them of the dire situation with Francolin 1.

The consensus is unanimous between the band of engineers, Jebediah, and Jebediah's close friends. Everyone knows that now, things can be different for Francolin 1.

Jebediah types into the console, "We will rescue you."

Ok so here's where I decide to push this mission report a bit deeper into the story side. Now there's a new mission that they must complete, with a set time to complete it. I'll probably make Chapter 4 tomorrow, but for now, what should I name the space program? I still lack name ideas.

(I'm going to note that the "orbital decay" does not exist and purely is there for story purposes.)

[LittleBitMore]

Since the last chapter, I have installed the Far Future mod, Interstellar Extended, and Galazies Unbound: A Stellar Oddysey. Nothing seems to be malfunctioning.

[Maria Sirona]

On 5/3/2021 at 2:09 AM, LittleBitMore said:

Chapter 2: Orbits

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The world's reception of Jeb's breathtaking flight was so amazing, everyone was interested in space again. Everyone ignored or forgot about the traumatic past of Kerbalkind. In response, Jebediah was an instant worldwide hero, and inspired so many more to look to the stars.

Jebediah couldn't quit after a single flight, so he began working on the future of his currently unnamed space program. After Jeb complained deeply to Bob about the finicky experiments, Bob agreed to find quicker and easier to use science modules. Many companies gave him goals and requests for what to do in space, in return for more publicity and money. Jebediah accepted two from the mystical World Records Society, one requiring getting out of the atmosphere, and the other requiring space. Jeb also forked some money and research data to various companies in turn for them developing better engines and tanks for him to use on his journey skywards.

Using the ridiculous amount of new funds, Jebediah also hired a team of scientists and engineers to speed up the process of building, and to design higher quality rockets.

After several days hard at work, Jebediah put the new technologies to use with the Canary 1, an automated satellite which would theoretically go to orbit.

4 days later, the amazing and quick team constructed the Canary 1 and rolled it out to launch.

Jebediah manned the console in Mission Control, and readied the throttle meter. "3, 2, 1..." Jebediah counts, then slams his fist onto the green STAGE button.

Jebediah clicks some buttons that look interesting. The probe catalogues the temperature and pressure of the air 5km directly above the space center. The rest of the flight goes off without a hitch, and the first stage runs out of fuel when expected.

Jeb bashes the green STAGE button yet again, and is about to start the throttle again, before Bill advises him, "For the most efficient orbit, we should coast until we're highest above Rhode."

Jeb sighs, and says, "Fine," and waits until then before firing the engines again.

After around 20 seconds burning, an alarm goes off. The light on the console labelled "FUEL LOW" flashes as a beeping sound plays through the speakers. Orbit was nearly achieved, but so was an empty tank.

Jebediah continues nonetheless. Slowly but surely, the map screen indicates the orbit line slipping upwards from the atmosphere and into space. The orbit circularizes, and the engines run out of fuel.

The whole room erupts in cheers! The satellite relays data about its surroundings, and transmitts the previously acquired data. Everyone's smile falters slightly when they realize the leftover power would leave only 1 hour and 6 minutes left of battery, but it was enough to send beeps around the whole world for anyone to listen in to.

Jebediah is greeted with Tim, back again to deliver more plaques and prize money.

"Thanks," Jebediah says, taking the handful of items. However, as soon as he blinks, Tim's no longer there.

Using the new amounts of funds, he repairs and upgrades some of the derelict buildings-- specifically, Mission Control, Astronaut Complex, and the VAB. Before these finish, Canary 1 runs out of battery, and its beeping peters out pitifully.

A week later, renovations complete, and Jebediah resumes his insane ideas for building new craft. His next goal? To put himself in orbit around Rhode. Using the research data from Canary 1, he employs part companies to help him by creating new technology. This technology is all about electronics. The next day, they present him with blueprints for lights, solar panels, advanced computers, batteries, and more.

Jebediah and the engineering department came up with the Woodpigeon 1-- a two stage design packed to the brim with food, electricity, and various gadgets.

After 5 days of engineering and construction, the ship finishes its construction, and is rolled out to launch.

The life support supplies would last him 7 days, so he decided that once he was in orbit, he'd stay up there for 6.

However, there was a major design flaw.

The engine chosen was not strong enough to lift the rocket off the ground, so the rocket spent a full minute burning on the pad until it could lift off.

(This was mainly due to a bug with (presumably) Tweakscale, where the fuel somehow quadrupled in the tweakscaled radial tanks, and weighed down the craft by an extreme factor, and over 100 units of fuel fit into a tiny 22 unit tank.)

The rest of the launch went unremarkable in nature, due to how nothing bad happened. This craft's fate would end up nothing like the Discovery 1's fate.

Orbital insertion was achieved fairly quickly, and additionally without a hitch.

To everyone's surprise, orbit was achieved without staging. This was mathematically impossible by all means. Everybody questioned it, and nobody had an answer.

(Hint: extra fuel somehow in the tiny tanks.)

With Jebediah in orbit, he sent some messages through the intercomm. "I'm alright, *static* in orbit. Nothing *garbled* wrong." Then, he promptly ran the Science Jr, and logged a crew report.

Jeb opens the hatch doors, and crawls out of the pod and onto the ladder.

After sending this picture to the space center painfully slowly, he enters the capsule, and begins his stay for the next 6 days in space.

Jebediah, through his spotty communications, asked for a communications network so he could watch KerbTube at 1080p. The engineering team disagreed, because there were no fairings. Jebediah agreed to launch them the moment fairings were researched.

And so the Swiftlet series was designed. Swiftlets were a new line of satellites designed for communications, and would have unique naming schemes. An example would be a comms satellite, seond iteration, around Lua, in the second comms ring, and the third member of that ring, which would be named Swiftlet-B Lua-2-3. The satellite ring Jebediah asked for would be Swiftlet-A Rhode 1-1 through 1-3.

Due to the fairing situation, and a contract whose deadline was approaching, they left the project shelved and instead focused on a science probe-- Canary 2, which would go to high space for the first time to collect scientific data.

This satellite also tested an experimental liquid hydrogen engine-- the Stromboil, which was clustered in two for the lower stage.

The cost of this satellite was enough to threaten bankruptcy to the space program, so no other endeavors were planned until the Woodpigeon 1 contract and the Canary 2 contract were both complete.

Canary 2 rolls out to the launchpad.

While Canary 2 rolled out, Jebediah's eggtimer floating around in his capsule went off. Before Canary 2 was to launch, Jebediah had to land.

Jebediah paused his Scott Manley video, and mans the controls.

Jebediah detaches the two remaining stages, and prepares for reentry.

After a very rocky reentry which Jebediah forgot to keep his camera out for, the craft descends into the inky black night sky.

With Jebediah recovered, Canary 2 finally launches.

     

The probe successfully makes it to its designated orbit, and performs the science required.

Back at the space center, Jebediah's craft has been picked up and returned. Tim appears to drop off more prize money, and, like always, disappears mysteriously.

Jebediah forks more money over to the random companies, and researches items related to control and reaction, and airplanes. 

(Tech tree)

  Reveal hidden contents

Jebediah also accepts several contracts: one to test an RCS block, one to get climate readings of Rhode, one to add a scanner satellite to Rhode, and the most important one of all: to send a flyby probe to Armstrong, Rhode's smallest moon.

And with that, Jebediah kicks back to relax, and calls it a day.

Also, before you go, please suggest names for the space program! I don't have any ideas yet, and I thought it would be fun to ask you guys

 

On 5/3/2021 at 2:09 AM, LittleBitMore said:

Chapter 2: Orbits

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The world's reception of Jeb's breathtaking flight was so amazing, everyone was interested in space again. Everyone ignored or forgot about the traumatic past of Kerbalkind. In response, Jebediah was an instant worldwide hero, and inspired so many more to look to the stars.

Jebediah couldn't quit after a single flight, so he began working on the future of his currently unnamed space program. After Jeb complained deeply to Bob about the finicky experiments, Bob agreed to find quicker and easier to use science modules. Many companies gave him goals and requests for what to do in space, in return for more publicity and money. Jebediah accepted two from the mystical World Records Society, one requiring getting out of the atmosphere, and the other requiring space. Jeb also forked some money and research data to various companies in turn for them developing better engines and tanks for him to use on his journey skywards.

Using the ridiculous amount of new funds, Jebediah also hired a team of scientists and engineers to speed up the process of building, and to design higher quality rockets.

After several days hard at work, Jebediah put the new technologies to use with the Canary 1, an automated satellite which would theoretically go to orbit.

4 days later, the amazing and quick team constructed the Canary 1 and rolled it out to launch.

Jebediah manned the console in Mission Control, and readied the throttle meter. "3, 2, 1..." Jebediah counts, then slams his fist onto the green STAGE button.

Jebediah clicks some buttons that look interesting. The probe catalogues the temperature and pressure of the air 5km directly above the space center. The rest of the flight goes off without a hitch, and the first stage runs out of fuel when expected.

Jeb bashes the green STAGE button yet again, and is about to start the throttle again, before Bill advises him, "For the most efficient orbit, we should coast until we're highest above Rhode."

Jeb sighs, and says, "Fine," and waits until then before firing the engines again.

After around 20 seconds burning, an alarm goes off. The light on the console labelled "FUEL LOW" flashes as a beeping sound plays through the speakers. Orbit was nearly achieved, but so was an empty tank.

Jebediah continues nonetheless. Slowly but surely, the map screen indicates the orbit line slipping upwards from the atmosphere and into space. The orbit circularizes, and the engines run out of fuel.

The whole room erupts in cheers! The satellite relays data about its surroundings, and transmitts the previously acquired data. Everyone's smile falters slightly when they realize the leftover power would leave only 1 hour and 6 minutes left of battery, but it was enough to send beeps around the whole world for anyone to listen in to.

Jebediah is greeted with Tim, back again to deliver more plaques and prize money.

"Thanks," Jebediah says, taking the handful of items. However, as soon as he blinks, Tim's no longer there.

Using the new amounts of funds, he repairs and upgrades some of the derelict buildings-- specifically, Mission Control, Astronaut Complex, and the VAB. Before these finish, Canary 1 runs out of battery, and its beeping peters out pitifully.

A week later, renovations complete, and Jebediah resumes his insane ideas for building new craft. His next goal? To put himself in orbit around Rhode. Using the research data from Canary 1, he employs part companies to help him by creating new technology. This technology is all about electronics. The next day, they present him with blueprints for lights, solar panels, advanced computers, batteries, and more.

Jebediah and the engineering department came up with the Woodpigeon 1-- a two stage design packed to the brim with food, electricity, and various gadgets.

After 5 days of engineering and construction, the ship finishes its construction, and is rolled out to launch.

The life support supplies would last him 7 days, so he decided that once he was in orbit, he'd stay up there for 6.

However, there was a major design flaw.

The engine chosen was not strong enough to lift the rocket off the ground, so the rocket spent a full minute burning on the pad until it could lift off.

(This was mainly due to a bug with (presumably) Tweakscale, where the fuel somehow quadrupled in the tweakscaled radial tanks, and weighed down the craft by an extreme factor, and over 100 units of fuel fit into a tiny 22 unit tank.)

The rest of the launch went unremarkable in nature, due to how nothing bad happened. This craft's fate would end up nothing like the Discovery 1's fate.

Orbital insertion was achieved fairly quickly, and additionally without a hitch.

To everyone's surprise, orbit was achieved without staging. This was mathematically impossible by all means. Everybody questioned it, and nobody had an answer.

(Hint: extra fuel somehow in the tiny tanks.)

With Jebediah in orbit, he sent some messages through the intercomm. "I'm alright, *static* in orbit. Nothing *garbled* wrong." Then, he promptly ran the Science Jr, and logged a crew report.

Jeb opens the hatch doors, and crawls out of the pod and onto the ladder.

After sending this picture to the space center painfully slowly, he enters the capsule, and begins his stay for the next 6 days in space.

Jebediah, through his spotty communications, asked for a communications network so he could watch KerbTube at 1080p. The engineering team disagreed, because there were no fairings. Jebediah agreed to launch them the moment fairings were researched.

And so the Swiftlet series was designed. Swiftlets were a new line of satellites designed for communications, and would have unique naming schemes. An example would be a comms satellite, seond iteration, around Lua, in the second comms ring, and the third member of that ring, which would be named Swiftlet-B Lua-2-3. The satellite ring Jebediah asked for would be Swiftlet-A Rhode 1-1 through 1-3.

Due to the fairing situation, and a contract whose deadline was approaching, they left the project shelved and instead focused on a science probe-- Canary 2, which would go to high space for the first time to collect scientific data.

This satellite also tested an experimental liquid hydrogen engine-- the Stromboil, which was clustered in two for the lower stage.

The cost of this satellite was enough to threaten bankruptcy to the space program, so no other endeavors were planned until the Woodpigeon 1 contract and the Canary 2 contract were both complete.

Canary 2 rolls out to the launchpad.

While Canary 2 rolled out, Jebediah's eggtimer floating around in his capsule went off. Before Canary 2 was to launch, Jebediah had to land.

Jebediah paused his Scott Manley video, and mans the controls.

Jebediah detaches the two remaining stages, and prepares for reentry.

After a very rocky reentry which Jebediah forgot to keep his camera out for, the craft descends into the inky black night sky.

With Jebediah recovered, Canary 2 finally launches.

     

The probe successfully makes it to its designated orbit, and performs the science required.

Back at the space center, Jebediah's craft has been picked up and returned. Tim appears to drop off more prize money, and, like always, disappears mysteriously.

Jebediah forks more money over to the random companies, and researches items related to control and reaction, and airplanes. 

(Tech tree)

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Jebediah also accepts several contracts: one to test an RCS block, one to get climate readings of Rhode, one to add a scanner satellite to Rhode, and the most important one of all: to send a flyby probe to Armstrong, Rhode's smallest moon.

And with that, Jebediah kicks back to relax, and calls it a day.

Also, before you go, please suggest names for the space program! I don't have any ideas yet, and I thought it would be fun to ask you guys.

First and foremost, i would like to declare my approval of this mission report! I really do like it, and i just love the system for the World First Society!

Also, here's my suggestion for a name: Unelma Aerospace! Unelma means dream in finnish, my native language.

[Admiral Fluffy]

On 4/30/2021 at 11:13 PM, LittleBitMore said:

Be sure to notify me when I've forgotten about this. I'm very, VERY good at forgetting about things, so you can always comment "MOAR" at any time to remind me  

209 days later.

MOAR