It Moves! - Galileo Planet Pack Career - Thalia and Eta Expedition

[fulgur]

A career mode playthrough of GPP, starting with an expedition to Niven.

Employing the following mods:

Spoiler

[X] Science

Community Tech Tree

Cryogenic Engines

Deep Sky - Airline Kuisine

Drop In Replacement Textures with JadeOfMaar's Veil Nebula

Environmental Visual Enhancements

GPP and GEP (obviously).

Kerbal Atomics

Kerbal Engineer

Kopernicus (duh)

kOS

Mark IV Spaceplanes

Navball Docking Alignment Indicator

Near Future Construction, Electrical, Propulsion, Solar and Spacecraft (but not launch vehicles or aeronautics).

Restock and Restock+

SCANsat

Breaking Ground and Making History

SSPXr

Strategia

USI Life Support

Waterfall

and at normal difficulty except 30% science.

So without further ado I present

Chapter One - Launches and Landings
 

Spoiler

Poody Gaelan was extraordinarily, exceedingly bored. She had spent over a hundred days cramped in the ancient Mark One lander can of the outdated Cetacean intrasystem vessel. It had been built and launched in a blaze of incomparable glory, with new science laboratories powered by the unbelievably advance OX-STAT surface solar panels, and a large cryogenic rocket engine providing one and a half kilometers per second of dV. However, after the success of the Ceti One mission, she found herself instead in command of a near-derelict orbital station, watching scientists crunch very, very slowly through a very large amount of data.

The Cetacean, in all its glory. The lander and side fuel tanks were abandoned to crash into the surface of Ceti.

Mitbles Gaelan was also exceedingly, extraordinarily bored. He was commander of the Whit base on Iota, and had once had a lot of fun piloting his little Mote around the surface, scooping all five of the biomes. Unfortunately, following a malfunction [couldn't pitch down with RWs!] the Mote had crashed, and by that time the Jot orbital shuttle had taken Galileo Gaelan and his several rescues back to Gael with copies of the experimental data. Therefore, he too spent his days attempting to get scientists to crunch data while sitting sideways in 1/10 gravity. It is, apparently, very hard to do any work when sitting sideways, and so he had to do a lot of cajoling before even one iota of data were processed.

The Mote pictured setting out for Iota's Skids, whereupon it skidded and lost half its solar.

This meant that they were possibly the only ones to be more excited than disappointed when the orbital assembly launches for the Niven Fleet turned out to be solely by probe core. After all, the news flashing across their screens was the only new thing they had seen for weeks.

Even if the stream of "Carrot" 2.5m boosters did get rather monotonous at times.

However, eventually...

the mothership, the Niven Necklace, was complete.

- 30 days later. Niven transfer: T-5 days-

*This is KSC to Iota. Your orders are to return to Gael* came the crackly, static-y radio transmission. Hearing Gene's words, Mitbles Gaelan leapt out of his chair, hitting his head against the ceiling of his Mk1 lander can. In an attempt to muffle the embarrassing clanging, he switched on his radio and shouted "Everybody - time to go home! Transmit the science, grab your snacks, board the orbiter!" He quickly suited up and jetted over to the Orbis, followed at a distance by his companions.

They swiftly blasted off from the surface of Ceti and burnt for a swift return to Gael. And five-halves days later,

they returned.

Glad for their safe return, Gene radioed Poody in the orbital Ceti. This time, it only took a half hour to return. In fact, she had been so impatient that she had been sitting at the controls of the Orbis for the last month, trying to persuade the scientists to leave their data behind.

With all KSP crew now safely returned to the KSC, Gene had an announcement to make.

"As you know, we are about to send off our first interplanetary expedition! The planet Niven, named by the ancient astronomers for a mythological figure associated with rings, is an excellent target for exploration; it has fairly low gravity and a thin atmosphere. Therefore, we are sending a crew to explore the planet.

"In command of the mission will be Mitbles Gaelan, formerly of the Iota project. And Poody Gaelan will be second-in-command as lead pilot of atmospheric craft.

"Our crew of scientists will consist of Bobert Gaelan, Sigma Gaelan, and Maxiana Gaelan Jr. This will ensure that we can have two scientists in the Necklace's laboratory, and one exploring the surface, at any one time.

"Finally, the engineer Gledra Gaelan will be on hand to fix any broken parts and ensure that the experimental ISRU rover is working well. Gledra is an essential member of the crew, because since launching our expedition, we've had some real breakthroughs in regards to negative gravioli particles, and we want to measure them all across the surface of Niven." Gene bowed theatrically and left the astronaut complex meeting room.

It wasn't long before a slightly modified Orbis, launched on the old reliable Carrot booster, sent the team of six into orbit.

A few hours later, they pulled up next to the Necklace and engaged in a short excercise of parts-juggling, since ace engineer Gledra Gaelan had asked for a lengthy list of spare parts to be packed with them, Just In Case.

Soon after, Gledra suited up and EVA'd, taking with her a bag of struts and a trusty laser pointer.

About half a day later, the fleet began to burn for Niven.

[Yeah, there are a lot of identical looking craft, and some non identical looking ones. More fun if it's a surprise for you].

Finally, it was time for the Necklace to leave Gael. Mitbles calmly watched the countdown timer approach zero. Precisely on the mark, the new and experimental [one of those God's-gift contracts for testing a trimodal nuclear engine] engines fired, precisely as calculated.

 

And with that, they were away.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by fulgur

[fulgur]

Chapter 2 - Niven

Spoiler

A very long while later, the fleet began to arrive at Niven.

Eventually, the Niven Necklace followed into a low orbit. However, it was now fairly low on fuel, and so they checked up on the ISRU systems.

Which were not doing particularly well.

The small rover was designed to use fancy robotic systems to connect to the ships, and rather unfortunately, these had gathered the attention of the Great Space Kraken - at a time when they were connected to the refuelling plane. In an instant too fast to photograph, the two ships were flung away from each other and into the dunes of Niven. No fuel would be forthcoming.

Poody Gaelan made the executive decision. The Necklace had supplies which would last until KSC could send a refuelling mission, so they would gather data from the surface and analyse it while they waited to refuel. The lander therefore rendezvous'd with the Necklace, and departed.

It wasn't long before she, Gledra and Sigma Gaelan were on the surface, setting up the deployable experiments.

Suddenly, over the hills she heard the unmistakeable sound of electric motors. For some reason, the Great Space Kraken had spared the helicopter!

But as it arrived, he made his displeasure known nonetheless...

with an attack on Gledra Gaelan! He knocked her sideways and off balance, but luckily, she could still slide towards the helicopter...

and floated upwards to recuperate in its airlock.

Poody and Sigma Gaelan checked the helicopter's scientific instruments and the maps of Niven's biomes, and slowly lifted off...

for a very long and slow flight around most of Niven.

and eventually managed to return back to their landing site.

Finding the ascent vehicle firmly planted on the ground once again, they scrambled up the sides and left Niven forever.

KSC wasted no time in sending out vast quantities of liquid hydrogen, but nonetheless it was going to be a very boring year. Again.

 

 

[fulgur]

Meanwhile - some SSTOs!

Spoiler

Langley One takes Galileo Gaelan to orbit of Ceti and back. We had a contract to do this when we originally explored Ceti, but we ended up keeping the science lab in low Gael orbit for a while.

We then kick off space tourism with the tiny Cives I,

which makes a near-perfect landing very close to the KSC. Fuel margins are a bit tight.

Some more space tourism! Cives II can seat 5.

but it falls somewhat further short of the KSC.

We also hold a space camp for 3 new astronauts! Genewise, Donsby and Tomdock will be very useful.

At this point we get RAPIER engines, so we send those three plus some tourists to our base on Iota.

 

Not very nice to fly, and the Klaw was rather annoying to link up to the base (contract required the tourists to enter the base).

We ran another space camp with the excellent Cives III, which is actually very easy to fly.

And we also sent some satellites via the Carolean, an excellent cargo SSTO!

Two interplanetary satellites delivered for the next windows to Tellumo and Gratian.

Plus, she flies well on the return.

even landing on an actual airfield!

We also redevelop my old reliable Aether SSTO,

which has a range of ~1.5kms-1 in orbit and flies very well in the atmosphere.

squeaking to a halt just halfway down the runway.

 

[fulgur]

Chapter 3 - Gratian & Geminus

Spoiler

While the Niven Necklace was waiting for a transfer window back to Gael, it was time to visit Gratian! A mission this important clearly deserved its own flagship, better built than the Necklace and with much greater fuel capabilities.

Tomdock Gaelan volunteered to lead the expedition, with engineer Donsby and scientists Bartoly and Genewise.

"Thank you very much for your inspiring contributions to science and snacks, have a great time, see you in several years."

The HKS Nutmeg was launched upside-down and almost empty of fuel.

Refuelling occurred by "Pecuniam" SSTO.

which did not re-enter very well, and so aborted to an island in the South Gael Sea - what is that?

A fast aeroplane was sent to investigate.

Later, the "Orator" mining + refuelling craft launched into orbit,

along with the short and aerodynamic "Turmeric" science lander.

Leaving for Gratian! This is the most exciting event for the next few years. There are a couple of new science experiments, such as the gravioli detector and the magnetometer, which Bartoly and Genewise can investigate in the lab. But Tomdock and Donsby are quite bored of floating up and down the cabin.

Meanwhile: fuel arrives at Niven.

slowly and responsibly linking up with the Niven Necklace

It turns out "Necklace" doesn't have any 2.5m docking ports, so Gledra Gaelan goes outside and lasers a Klaw onto the front of the vessel.

which is then crashed into the ground for passive seismometer science.

Even later... the Oculi probe arrives at Gratian and begins peering with interest at the Infinite Saffron.

The transfer stage having been detatched, it makes its way over to Geminus.

About a month later, Tomdock excitedly announces, "We have entered Gratian SOI!" The science experiments are immediately run and data comes pouring in. But due to a patchy connection with KSC, we don't manage to send many reports back.

Running quite low on fuel, HKS Nutmeg hauls herself into low Geminus orbit. Bartoly takes a minute to stretch his legs.

and soon, Orator is away! All four of them go down to investigate the surface of Geminus and its lovely, lovely ore.

Thanks to the Oculi's SCANSat capabilities, we have a somewhat interesting landing zone...

The flag of the Kerbal Space Program now proudly flies on Geminus!

Genewise investigates the enigmatic rock arch while the rest of the team set up the drilling equipment.

There are several refuelling runs since Orator carries only 3,000 units ore.

Later, Tomdock and Bartoly take the Turmeric lander for a jaunt. She's much nicer to fly than Orator.

Places of interest are investigated and many science points are gathered.

Soon, the fully fuelled HKS Nutmeg burns for Gratian.

and the little lander is soon exposed to the fires of Gratian's upper atmosphere! Tomdock notes that the scent of dry-fried cumin is quite appealing.

The aroma of saffron wafts gently through the atmospheric analyser as the Turmeric floats slowly down to a soft landing.

Time for science!

Genewise collects the science experiments and climbs slowly down the ladder, taking dignified first steps onto the surface of Gratian's Infinite Saffron. Tomdock jumps down and takes the dignified first faceplant into the surface of Gratian's Infinite Saffron.

Suddenly, Tomdock runs off into the distance!

and grabs a pile of "blueberries". Blueberries and saffron is an interesting taste combination, to be sure...

Ascending the ladders is real work after so long in zero-gravity...

and we make a slightly suboptimal ascent as Geminus rises over the horizon.

and into orbit...

Later, HKS Nutmeg meets up with the Orator, which we left in Geminus orbit, and refuels.

A little while later - it is time to return! Poody Gaelan triumphantly throttles up and leaves the somewhat mildly cursed planet of Niven behind.

Boy is she glad to be back in interplanetary space.

To break up the tedium, a couple more science expeditions are done, using up the last of Turmeric's fuel.

We find some interesting ejectra from Gratian, which has kindly seasoned the otherwise bland meal of Geminus with a little bit of its paprika terraces.

and the HKS Nutmeg finally leaves for Gael!

 

[fulgur]

Chapter 4 - Thalia & Eta

Spoiler

As Niven is one of the inner planets, Poody and her crew were not quite so bored on their way home; they arrived back at Gael fairly quickly.

Using the last of the Necklace's fuel, they pulled into a low Gael orbit, where a seven-seater SSTO was sent up to collect them and their science.

It was expertly landed in the middle of the Island Airfield runway. (Nobody is really sure why it's the Island Airfield, because it's right in the middle of Gael's largest continent...)

In addition to the transmissions from Necklace's science lab, we recover 3300 Science! points, even at 30% value.

We invest these SCIENCE! points and put them to good use; there is a window to Thalia coming very soon!

As Thalia is closer to the Sun than Niven, we need some bigger fuel tanks. Also, we wanted to launch a nice big rocket.

The "Niven Necklace" is re-assembled in orbit, with bigger solar panels, bigger fuel tanks, and a far too complex lander-refueller-rover assemblage. [There are a lot of parts. My computer slows down whenever I think about it.] And in honour of its new mission to Thalia, it is renamed the HKS Lehrer. (and Iodine, and Thorium, and Thulium, and Thallium...)

Galileo Gaelan plots a course to Thalia, and engages the two large nuclear engines. As Thalia's moon Eta has very low gravity, we also burn most of the fuel in the "Etrik" lander for extra thrust and dV. HKS Lehrer falls quickly inwards towards Thalia...

and in a few months, the Ocul-eyes satellite pulls into high orbit on its fancy new ion engines, beginning to map first Thalia and then Eta. Rather annoyingly, it's not done mapping by the time the Lehrer arrives.

Scientist Maxiana Gaelan Jr. takes the first spacewalk in orbit of Thalia, collecting lots of new science and attempting to blind herself looking too hard at Ciro.

Soon after, we insert ourselves into a high orbit of Eta. Maxiana and Milgas start researching our orbital science, while Galileo and engineer Obgas just wait for the Ocul-eyes to be done mapping.

Soon however, Galileo takes Maxiana and Obgas down to the surface in a slightly overcomplicated lander configuration.

The descent to Eta is very easy thanks to powerful RCS thrusters and low gravity.

We carefully lower the "Astrove" down to the surface and take it for a test drive!

While Obgas runs the drills, Galileo and Maxiana take the rover on a tour of a couple of biomes. Unfortunately, Eta's gravity is a bit low for any really fun roving...

A while later, Galileo eases the rover into position underneath Etrik's docking port. The piston is then retracted and Obgas attaches a few struts for safe storage.

Return to orbit, rendezvous, and delivery of a thousand units of ore.

As we take several trips to the surface to refuel HKS Lehrer, we also explore other biomes and interesting landmarks.

Somehow, crashing into a bright green monolith gave Galileo a very good idea about spaceplane engines...?

Examining a large ridge

Eventually, we plot the manoeuvres for Thalia. The radiators are working perfectly, keeping us at perfectly livable temperatures - all the same, at 40km this is a little worrying...

But the Etrik makes it down to the surface safely! In the high gravity it is important to lower the Astrove safely, lest its wheels break under the stress of having the entire Etrik lander rest on its tyres.

It turns out we can even stand around for about five minutes without heating up to dangerous levels!

There's quite a bit of molten rock about. Galileo and Milgas investigate the nearby lava formations. It is hypothesised that the small and semi-random localisations of molten rock occur due to a high proportion of Thalia's radioisotopes in that part of the surface crust, leading to small quantities of molten rock rising up to the surface and forming these small "pancake domes" which contain delicious, crepe-y basalts freshly crystallised from the melt. Covered in scrumptiously radioactive lava sauce.

It's pretty fun roving on Thalia - the gravity is high enough that we can get up to 40ms-1 fairly safely.

But if you enter the wrong biome, beware! In around five seconds, the heat was incredible. It then took my computer about five minutes to process every part of the Astrove overheating and exploding at the same time... I quickloaded very swiftly afterwards.

The crew can't quite shake the feeling that something very awful would happen if they enter the next biome, so they turn around and drive quickly back to Etrik, pack up and leave Thalia behind. It's a cursed planet.

GOODBYE, THALIA! WE WON'T MISS YOU.

Amazingly, HKS Lehrer makes it back to Gael a couple of weeks before HKS Nutmeg.

We gathered almost seven thousand science from Thalia and Eta, not to mention the lab research.

And soon after, the mission to Gratian and Geminus returns! We decide to keep them in orbit for a little while, processing the data in their onboard laboratory.

So we just take home the science in a little science box.

Since we didn't really explore Gratian, that only earnt us 5,000 Science!

I invested this in Near Future plasma engines. Next time: visiting Icarus!

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

Thalia has strange heat characteristics, apparently that’s by design. And now you’ve got that song stuck in my head  (theeeeeeere’s Antimony, Arsenic, Alumin(i!)um…) 

[Eclipse 32]

what happened to this? i was looking forward to plasma drives