It's The Wrong Red Moon... Adventures of an Alternate History!

[Kimera Industries]

Also, a fair warning: since I just moved, my computer is in storage and will probably remain that way for a few weeks.

Edited August 14 by Kimera Industries
No way, page 4!

[Kimera Industries]

Alexei Kerman was not paying attention to the instructor. As the instructor, Akayev Kerman, had spent fifteen years researching advanced aerodynamics at the most prestigious schools in the Soviet Union in order to reach a level high enough to teach cosmonauts and was very prideful, this made him mad.

"Alexei!" Akayev yelled, but his frown turned into a cruel smile. "Do you have something you want to share with the class?" The other cosmonauts chuckled. As long as he isn't punishing me, they thought simultaneously. 

Alexei looked up from his desk. He had not been taking notes, but why should he? It was just hypersonic shockwave compression again. Besides, for the last month he had been working on something else. Instead of notes, his desk was covered in graphs, charts, and scribbled math equations. 

Akayev had caught him off guard. "Um, can you say that again?" Alexei said.

Akayev smiled, and as the class caught on they smiled too. "I said, do you have something to share with the class? Or do you think that just because you were the first kerbal to perform an EVA in order to fix a broken radio transponder that you are exempt from the rules?"

"Uh-"

"Rules are rules! And rules must be followed all the time, not periodically!" Akayev's yelling was heard in the adjacent lecturing halls. Spittle flew out of his mouth, and some of the cosmonauts remarked at the trajectory.

His message didn't sink in, though. Alexei grabbed an armful of papers and dashed out of the room, shouting "Of course, periodically! It makes sense now!"

Akayev sighed. Alexei already knew the subject forward and backward, he was aware of that. But, let one slip and the rest will follow. He got back to teaching the class.

<><><>

"Grigory! Grigory! When did Duna 2 launch?" Alexei came charging into Grigory Kerman's office. The head of flight operations was startled, but not surprised. He knew Alexei well, and besides, he had nothing to do besides review the schedule, and after last month he never wanted to see a calendar again. 

"Duna 2? Let me check." Even though he had vowed never to so much as touch a schedule again, he shuffled through his filling cabinet until he found last month's plans. Besides, he concluded, when he had made the vow last night he had had more than a few shots of vodka. He came to this conclusion by the fact that he didn't remember how they had gotten the pumpkin on top of the flagpole.

While Grigory searched, Alexei picked up a couple of the various model rockets in the office and flew them around the room. 

Grigory looked up from his papers. "Hardly six days ago. Is your memory that bad? You were there with me when it launched," he said.

"Neeyyoom- um, I've been busy. Thanks!" He stopped an R-7 from crashing into Salyut 1 just in time and left.

"You haven't been half as busy as I have. What with Korolev 10 and all, the last week has been quite the hassle. Oh kraken, scheduling the accident investigations alone-" Grigory was interrupted by the sound of a hastily-replaced rocket tipping over onto the floor. Alexei had vanished in a flurry of graph paper.

Grigory sighed and pulled a bottle of plastic cement out of a drawer. This was what, the third time with that particular ICBM?

<><><>

"Should- just- be able to catch it!" Alexei panted as he ran through the space complex. As he nearly flew past research and development, the scientists got some interesting data on sonic booms. Namely, that kerbals can't run that fast. But they sure can try.

He burst into mission control looking at a cheap stopwatch. "Hurry! Start recording radio data from Duna 2!"

The chatter ceased as kerbals turned and looked up.

"Do it now!"

A quick-thinking scientist flipped a toggle on his console and a reel of tape next to him began spinning. He pulled out his headset so that the room could hear.

For a couple of seconds, it was the usual background noise for a probe about to pass beyond Kerbin, where Duna 2 currently was, but then it changed.

From the nondescript white noise came a sudden burst of complex tones and reverb. Then, as quickly as it started, static again.

Edited November 15 by Kimera Industries

[B0lt]

I like where this is going

[Kimera Industries]

All KSSP missions not currently slated for a complete redo have been trimmed down in size, for a more palatable reading experience. Plus, I finally fixed the weird problems with Korolev 10.

Here's what's been changed:

• Repetitive launch sequences have been cut down
• Unnecessary/poorly written flavor text removed
• Jebediah (a not-Russian sounding name) has become Vladimir. Everybody say Hi, Vladimir!

Yes, some missions are going to be redone. Here's what that means:

• All missions I have in mind are unkerbaled
• The spacecraft will be redesigned
• The changes are purely visual, this does not affect the story at all.

Edited September 16 by Kimera Industries

[Kimera Industries]

Pavel handed the photographic plates to his companion Kronid with trembling fingers. He pointed to a single dot that moved relative to the background stars.

Kronid studied the images before giving Pavel a serious look. "Do you think... our theories..."

"We were right. At least one more." Pavel smiled nervously. The excitement of the discovery had not yet worn off.

"There could be more..." Kronid's mind ran wild with speculation. 

"Let's get back to the telescope. We have work to do." 

<><><>

Vasily Kerman looked up from his sandwich to the kerbal that had entered his office. Based on the owl-chick appearance of his hair and the number-covered paper plastered to his forearms, the kerbal was a mathematician. It was odd for one to show up at the director of the space program's door.

"Um, Matvey Kerman, um, sir." Matvey shuffled his feet.

Vasily looked through the open door into the hallway and saw an easel holding diagrams. He raised an eyebrow.

"Um, you said it would be okay if I came in during lunch, um, sir." Matvey was studying the floor now.

"I did? Oh dear." Vasily had probably absentmindedly said yes to get him to go away while he was preoccupied. Korolev 10 had been tricky to hush up. Well, whether he wanted to or not, he had promised this kerbal a visit, and he needed something to take his mind away from his job for a moment.

Vasily sighed. "What is it you want to show me?"

"I- made a little presentation-" Matvey stepped into the hallway and dragged his easel into the office. Vasily noted with dismay the number of posters resting on it.

Matvey looked about to speak, but Vasily interjected. 

"Which department do you work in? Does it have to be me that sees this?"

"Um, astrodynamics, sir, and-"

"You can drop the 'sir.'"

"Um, okay. I figured that if I wanted to give this proposal a shot, I'd have to go straight to the top. It would be drowned in red tape otherwise."

"This had better be good, then. You may go on." He knew that scientists often went to great lengths to see a project through.

"Okay. So, you've heard of Pavel and Kronid, right?" 

"The astronomers?" The ones who discovered-"

"The sixth planet, yes." Matvey was glad the director knew this much.

Vasily counted in his head. "Isn't that Jool?"

"Dres doesn't count. Astronomers are thinking of calling it a 'dwarf' planet-"

"Is that relevant to the presentation?" 

"Um, no. Back to Pavel and Kronid, what they haven't published yet is the seventh planet, and possibly the eighth." 

Vasily nearly choked on his sandwich. "Whff-whuh-"

"As soon as I heard about the first one, I visited them personally for more information. I knew them in college, and they had this theory about the outer solar system. Wobbles in Jool's orbit that could be explained by the presence of other large objects. They, ah, gave me the inside scoop, so to speak." Matvey spoke with barely contained excitement. 

Vasily was quiet now. Matvey had a big idea, he could tell. 

"Of course, my main interest was in calculating their orbits, to plan missions to each of them. But I discovered something, um, interesting." He began using the diagrams on the easel. The first one showed a map of the kerbolar system, zoomed out to show the new planets in their current position. It looked hand-drawn.

"Gravity assists were mathematically proven about a decade ago. I was calculating an assist from Jool to the sixth planet and I wondered where a spacecraft would go from there. That's when I realized-" He dramatically pulled off the first poster to show the second. It was the same map from before, but with a line drawn through it, starting at Kerbin and bending as it passed the orbit of a planet, from Jool to the seventh one. Matvey looked at Vasily expectantly.

Vasily gestured for him to explain.

"I have named it- 'The Grand Tour!'" Vasily kept staring blankly at Matvel. He soon caught on.

"Oh! Right, uh, it uses the gravity assist from the previous planet to take it to the next one. It takes you on a tour, hence the name, through each of the planets from Jool to the last one discovered so far. We're really lucky, because the planets only align like this about every couple centuries!"

Vasily was catching up, but the astrodynamicist had skipped a few key points. "So... when do they next align like this?"

"That's why we're so lucky, the optimal launch window is in just three years-"

It took a few minutes for the sandwich to be fully wiped up. When his desk was clean, Vasily took a deep breath and said, "Is there a... less optimal launch window that would buy us more time? And for that matter, what makes this 'Grand Tour' of yours worth it, anyway?"

Matvey revealed the next poster. "This- is a map of trajectories for probes sent to each new planet individually, as well as the travel time, fuel requirements, and so on. As you can see, it would take decades longer and would require multiple, big launches. Um, that means expensive. The price tag does sort of pale in comparison to what I have in mind... though it would let us depart at a later date..."

Vasily had wisely given up on the sandwich. Matvey was clearly crazy, but you had to be to calculate orbits all day. His big idea had been well-researched and thought-out. His bigger idea was likely plausible as well.

"Another of my college friends recently did some personal research on a crewed mission to Duna and came up with good data for an interplanetary ship... another just published a feasibility report on mining Minmus... then there's the almost mystical research department investigating the Sakharov drive... and a year ago Pavel and Kronid published a paper on a 'telescope in space,' which they believe could find planets around other stars..." Matvey fell silent. He showed the corresponding posters instead of continuing his speech.

Vasily studied each diagram in silence. He saw the potential and had only a few questions.

"This thruster, it could get us there faster? We could launch at a later date with it?"

"Late seventies or early eighties, depending on the ship's fuel capacity."

"And the ship could be built in a decade?"

"If we acted fast to build a large base on Minmus. We were planning on one anyway."

"And it would get funding because of the space race-"

"We could mine Minmus for money, too," Matvey added.

"-That too, and our technology would be centuries ahead of the Americans if a fraction of that money went into R&D..."

The director was quiet again. For a few minutes, he was deep in thought, more excited than he'd been about his job in a long time.

"Planets around other stars?" he queried.

"Coincidentally, the path a spacecraft would follow once its Grand Tour was over would take it close to the nearest star, with a little course correction."

Vasily considered the implications of this statement. It was unthinkable. And yet, someone had thought of it. 

"You're crazy, Matvey," he finally said. Seeing Matvey's anxiety at his statement, he added, "Which is why I'm putting you in charge of the project."

<><><>

PROJECT ZEPHYR

[B0lt]

Huzzah! Its finally back!

[Kimera Industries]

1 hour ago, B0lt said:

Huzzah! Its finally back!

Until I can get my computer out of storage, (the real limit here is not having room to put it in the place we're staying at for now) there won't be any missions, but I hope the pure-text posts can keep things going. I love doing this thread, I'm glad the forums are still here for me to share it.

Edited November 17 by Kimera Industries

[Kimera Industries]

"No." 

"Why not?" Matvey had let Vasily drag him all this way, to the head of the Soviet missile and rocket program. He didn't want to turn back now.

"Funding. No chance in a million years we can afford this 'Project Zephyr' of yours." The Minister of General Machine Building's face looked stern and immobile over a plaque on his desk that read, "Sergey Aleksandrovich Kerman."

"But, the moon mining, it could-"

"Be honest. By the time we can make a profit from Mun rocks this launch window will be long gone. Even if you could make some of the components on Minmus itself, it would be more expensive than covering the Soviet Union in solid gold. Figure of speech," he added. 

Matvey slumped in disappointment. He was ready to leave when Vasily had a stroke of genius. 

"Sir, do you remember the 'Korolev'- 'Apollo'  experiment under development?" Vasily was smiling. He had started to work things out in his head.

"The joint project? That's something we can actually afford." The minister raised an eyebrow.

"And it's something NASA can afford, too. Their budget is still going strong- Apollo 16 should land on Minmus later this year."

"Much to our chagrin, yes."

"Our equipment is, let's face it, inferior. Our technology is generations behind. No space probe has lasted longer than a couple of years. The LM can carry far more weight to the munar surface than the Nightingale could dream of. We can only pull off Minmus landings because the moon is so small." 

"Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I had no idea the U.S. was technologically ahead by leaps and bounds." The minister frowned.

"This space race is unsustainable. Any way you look at it, the U.S. will win in a few years. We can't afford to keep doing flags-and-footprints with the costly N1. And even when the Americans win, space travel will suffer a lapse in progression. Funding will collapse. Motivation will dry up." It was clear Vasily had given this much thought. 

"Then what do you think we should do about it?"

"A joint project, grander in scale than 'Korolev- 'Apollo,' could unite us. Working together on a massive mission that would revolutionize kerbalkind's understanding of the universe would make bonds that cross the gap of a government or economic system. We are the same people. We are all engineers and scientists working towards the common goal of touching the stars. Yuri Gagarin said Kerbin is too small for conflict and just big enough for cooperation. That's what it's all about- cooperation. Sharing ideas, experience, budget, skill, and technology is the only way to guarantee the success of our species. If we can convince the Americans of this, it would ensure the project and usher in the greatest period of peace the world has ever known. Even if every single rocket blows up in our faces, the bridges we will have built to cross the divide between our people will be worth it. It will pave the way for countless future agreements. It's not about the technology, it never was. Frankly, we have nothing to offer in that department. It's always about the people." Vasily took a deep breath and let the minister think. 

The minister chuckled and said, "I'm glad that was on tape. It will make it easier to convince Brezhnev."

<><><>

Alexei watched the stream of numbers pouring out of the printer. With him was a kerbal he had recruited from the math department. When the printer had ceased, Alexei tore off the receipt-like ribbon at a perforated edge and handed it to the mathematician. They began looking it over.

"I'd tweak your logarithm like this, see, now it matches..."

"How long, then, until the next one?"

"Just a few months, and it looks like it asymptotes in..."

"Nine years..."

"1980."

"And the location..."

"Not enough information to triangulate, yet. That and the fact that it's an unknown coordinate system."

"How soon could we know?"

"If we want to be sure we've got it right, only a few weeks before it reaches the asymptote."

"Whatever the thing that happens even is." 

"I suppose for now we just wait?"

"For now we wait."

[Kimera Industries]

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! (To those who celebrate it, anyway. I wish everybody who doesn't to have a good day as well!) Intermission Part 3 is the last "story" post on my itinerary. Enjoy speculating, and in the meantime, "For now we wait."

Edited 10 hours ago by Kimera Industries