Long-term Laythe Mission (pic heavy) - ^_^ With Part 45 ^_^

[The Error]

*looks around*

Why did this get so quiet?

*calls Aldner*

[Brotoro]

I did some stuff...but haven't had time to write up those parts yet. The writing is often the slow part.

And last week I got fascinated with the "Mars Direct" plan, so I wanted to build some ships for a "Duna Direct" mission that I did and wrote up instead.

[Scotius]

We are holding our collective breath waiting for another chapter But Brotoro is allowed to have his fun in game too - and Duna Direct is a good read.

[BriXman]

Hey hey hey I've been following this series since Chapter 3! Great work, Brotoro!

[BriXman]

Omg i'm waiting love caps lock

[BriXman]

Crap... No caps lock...

[tuckjohn]

Wow. Duna Direct is a great read and I thouoghly enjoyed it! I hope that you can come up with a newchapter soon though!

[Brotoro]

Long-term Laythe - Part 27

Tugs

First, some housekeeping. Several nuclear Tugs have been piling up around Laythe, what with delivering all those payloads, so it was time to prepare for sending some back to Kerbin. Nuclear engines don't grow on trees, you know. The Double-Tug that was attached to the bottom of Laythe Space Station was separated (leaving a tank behind to increase the fuel capacity of the station) and I planned to boost it out to an orbit beyond Tylo to await the next Jool-to-Kerbin transfer window.

(For earlier Tug returns, I'd boosted them out into orbits between Laythe and Vall, but this was trickier to get right because Laythe's sphere of influence would tend to swallow the Tug back up as it was leaving, despite what the projected orbit said at first, requiring some evasive maneuvers. Kicking out further to beyond Tylo avoided this problem.)

But when I plotted the trajectory for the outgoing Double-Tug, it ran into a Tylo encounter that would whip the Tugs out of the Joolian system into Kerbol orbit. Well, that was nice...so I took the shot and sent it on its way.

Next, the double-Tugs from Laythe Train #2 (which had recently delivered the RASSTO SSTO) was rendezvoused with the station and offloaded all of its excess propellant. To return to Kerbin, the Tugs would only need the fuel in their side-tanks...plus a little extra in the main tank just in case. Because of the recent spate of SSTO test flights, there was room in the station's tanks to hold the propellants. The Tugs also left behind another tank to increase the station's capacity).

Then the Train #2 Tugs were separated and sent off to beyond Tylo, which took about 582 m/s of delta-V. I did not bother to wait for the perfect time to get another Tylo encounter (because I have better things to do with my time), but I suppose Thompbles would take the time to do it. Anyway...so the Tugs will need to use another 470 m/s of delta-V to circularize their orbit out beyond Vall (which the previous Double-Tug will not have to do). All of this delta-V goes to getting the Tugs out of Jool's gravity well, of course.

But wait, there's more! The Tugs from Laythe Train #1 (which recently brought the Raptor spaceplane to Laythe, and which still had the NAMOR-21 attached) was rendezvoused with the Space Station to offload its excess fuel (and add yet another tank, which nicely balanced out the bottom end of the station).

After transferring fuel and disconnecting the rear tank, the Train #1 Tugs undocked and moved up the side of the station to dock the NAMOR-21 Marine Rescue ship to one of the side docking ports. The NAMOR-21 will be stored there until it is needed (if ever). The Tugs then undocked and backed away.

Below you can see the elliptical orbits of the first two outgoing sets of Tugs, plus the plotted trajectory for the Train #1 Tugs. Again, I did not wait for a Tylo encounter, and just kicked the Tugs out to cavort beyond Tylo with their fellow Tugs. Note that Kerbal Alarm Clock is very handy when doing this kind of thing (I have reminders set for when various sets of Tugs will need apoapsis burns or have Tylo encounters, and for when the Jool-to-Kerbin transfer window will arrive.

I did a small maneuver as the first pair of Tugs passed Tylo to give them a little extra speed so that the Tugs would make it outside Jool's sphere of influence just before the Jool-to-Kerbin transfer time comes. It was nice to see Tylo close up again. The apoapsis kicks for the other Tugs went off on schedule, and they are now happily waiting for their orders to boost home to Kerbin in about 64 days.

Thompbles's Travels

Everybody agreed that Thompbles should get out more, so he assigned himself the job of piloting the Airedale plane/rover, which is basically a BirdDog modified to carry scientist passengers and their lab equipment on expeditions to points of interest on Laythe. Below, Thompbles climbs up to the Airedale's cockpit.

Thompbles: "Airedale to Laythe Base. Radio check."

Kurt: "I read you load and clear."

Aldner: "Hey, Captain Flyboy! You remember how to do this sort of thing?"

Thompbles: "Pointy-end forward? I think I recall. But hang on the line in case I have questions."

Aldner: "Will do, Cappy."

Thompbles: "I'm lined up. Nose gear is down. Forward tank fuel flow inhibited. Stability system on. Brakes off. Engine activated. Let's see what happens when I push this lever forward."

Kurt: "Nice takeoff."

Thompbles: "Gear up. Throttle one-third. Man, it has been too damn long. This is great. I'm passing the Base 1 area... We sure do have a nice spread of hardware. Take good care of the store while I'm away, Kurt."

Kurt: "Roger, will do. Have fun."

Thompbles climbed to over 12,000 meters for cruising northwest toward Jenlan Island. Nelemy had landed near the upper end of Jenlan, but most of that very large island is unexplored. There were a couple small islands beyond Jenlan that had not been visited yet, so Thompbles planned to start with them and then pick out a couple spots on Jenlan to stop at on the way back.

You can see in the picture below that the Airedale needs to maintain a high angle of attack when flying in the thin air at 12 kilometers altitude, but it makes good speed there. Because of its greater weight and drag, the Airdale is less fuel efficient than the BirdDogs, but not too bad. The LiquidFuel indicator in the lower left is only showing the fuel remaining in the rear tank (the forward tank has its fuel flow turned off to keep the CG of the plane further forward).

Jenlan is a rather rugged island, but Thompbles spots some seaside real estate that he might investigate on the way back. But he thinks the valley high in the mountains looks very interesting (from what he's seen of it on maps). The boys have yet to discover a monolith or other anomaly on Laythe, and Thompbles thinks that valley is the kind of place he'd put one if he were in charge on anomalies. Once he passes Jenlan, he spots the first of the two small islands he'll visit.

Once Thompbles passes Jenlan, he spots the first of the two small islands he'll visit.

Thompbles: "Airedale to Base. Target one acquired. I'm making my run."

Kurt: "Um, OK, Thompbles. But we just want it explored, not bombed."

Thompbles: "Roger. My ordnance racks appear to be empty anyway. I'll have to talk to the ground crew about that."

Kurt: "Let us know when you've landed."

Thompbles came in just over the little berm by the shore and landed the Airedale just fine. He raised the nose gear to drop the rover wheels to the ground, and drove inland a little.

Thompbles: "Thompbles to Base. I'm going out to take some surface samples. I'd like to name this island Bob Island after Bob Kerman. I know that Aldner already named a bay after him, but I think such a pioneering astronaut deserves an island, even if it's a small one."

Kurt: "Roger. Did you remember to set the brake?"

Thompbles: "Yes I did, thank you. Did you remember that geographical names need to be submitted on form 34G in the database?"

Kurt: "Yes I did, thank you."

Thompbles drove the rover/plane northwest. It wasn't too long before he managed to blow a tire at 20 meters per second on some only slightly bumpy terrain.

Thompbles: "Airdale to Base. Is Aldner there?"

Aldner: "I'm here, O Brave Explorer. How can I help?"

Thompbles: "Have you been watching the data feed from my IMU? I managed to blow a tire on what seemed like fairly small bumps."

Aldner: "Looking at it now. Hmm. Your ride looks pretty smooth. I wouldn't have expected a tire to blow in those conditions. But you do have an extra 1.2 tons of passenger cabins on your bird... so maybe you'll just need to keep things slower."

Thompbles: "Roger. Well, we knew this was going to be more of an airliner than an exploration rover."

Aldner: "Roger. Now get out an get your hands dirty fixing that flat. All part of the job of Intrepid Space Explorer!"

Thompbles reached the northwest tip of Bob Island and decided to do a standard float test to see what level he'd float at in the sea here. Another soil and water sample went into the plane.

Thompbles: "I'm going to hop to the next island now. Lined up. Nose gear down. Brakes off..... Full throttle. I'm off!"

Kurt: "Let us know..."

Thompbles: "Alarm."

Kurt: "Problem?"

Thompbles: "Flying fine. Warning light on the left rover wheel."

Aldner: "Did you have the nose gear down?"

Thompbles: "Yes. Shows down and locked."

Below, the takeoff on the left, and the landing on the right (with blown tire visible). Apparently the plane had hit a bump hard enough to allow the rover wheel to contact the ground (at over 60 m/s) and blow. I don't recall that the ground was that bumpy, really, and this sort of thing does not happen with the BirdDogs. Hmmm.

Thompbles fixed the tire and proceded to rove north-northeast along the island, which he named Bill Island, at a moderate pace because it had rougher terrain than Bob Island.

The Airedale made it safely to the north point of Bill Island.

Thompbles carefully lined up along a smooth patch of land and took off to the east. There were no blown tires.

The map below shows Thompbles's route along Bob and Bill Islands. The view is looking toward the southeast.

Thompbles flew back over to Jenlan Island and looked over the terrain. He decided to try landing in the high valley and lined up and swooped down into the westernmost end. As he was coming in to land, the surface began to rise rapidly in front of him, and he had to pull up hard. He dropped in pretty hard, but the plane survived OK...without even a blown tire. The valley is apparently made out of connected caldera, and he had not touched down before coming up on the ridge separating one lowspot from the next one.

The map view of Jenlan below showis the location of the high valley.

Kurt: "How's it going, Thompbles?"

Thompbles: "Just fine. I'm driving around looking for the lowest spot in this caldera. I think 1757 meters is the minimum. I'll get some samples, and then I'm going to set up camp for the night."

Kurt: "Well, sleep tight. Which is about all you CAN do in those cockpits."

Thompbles: "You forget...one of the rear cabins on this bird is set up as a comfy habitat. I might just sleep in late and spend some time reading tomorrow."

Kurt: "In that case, enjoy your vacation."

Thompbles: "Everything going fine there?"

Kurt: "Yep. Hellou says she's just about done with her analysis of all our previous samples, and she's keen for you to bring her more. Nelemy is designing a second shed to be made from the heat shield debris from the SCIENCE lab."

Thompbles: "Just make sure they don't set it up right in front of my window."

The next day, Thompbles drove the Airedale up and down the rolling ridges separating the parts of the valley. He didn't find any lower point, but he did take plenty of samples.

The final bowl of the valley had a bottom elevation of under 1880 meters. From the bottom of the bowl, Thompbles lined up toward the southeast, then fired up the jet engine and took off. Alas...they had still found no monuments or other anomalies on Laythe.

Thompbles landed the Airedale by a small lake near the southeast shore of Jenlan Island. The area wasn't too bad (and it's the most accessible part of the large island, being about as far south as it goes), but not a great site. He collected samples and then took off again, this time headed back to Laythe Base.

After leaving Jenlan, the fuel in the rear tank was running out, so Thompbles switched on the fuel flow from the forward tank. He landed back at Fido Bay with 107 units of fuel left (out of his initial 300), and docked with GasStation 2 to refuel. After that, GasStation 2 had less than one full plane-load of fuel left in it. But not to worry...they still have the DoubleGasStation at the main base area, and two regular GasStations waiting in orbit to be dropped in where needed.

The map below shows the route of Thompbles's training trip. The Airedale checked out fine, but as expected it is not as good a rover as the BirdDogs. It certainly can't be driven as fast as a BirdDog (not safely, anyway), and time warps over 2x should be avoided. This confirms the earlier testing on Kerbin (and it's important to heed this, because if the rover DOES fail, the passenger cabins are NOT very impact resistant).

Kethane, Kethane, Kethane!

No, I'm not going to install the Kethane Mod... But I am going to let my Laythe kerbals hunt for kethane.

[As to why I choose not to use the Kethane Mod, there are a couple reasons. First, I generally avoid lots of mods because they make upgrading my save-game file more difficult (although I love certain user interface enhancement mods). Also, when I look at things that people have done with the stock game, I am familiar with the parts, so I can easily tell what they did. If there are mod parts I'm not familiar with, I never know what I'm looking at. I prefer it if people can more easily understand the capabilities of my ships and what I'm doing.]

[Also, some mods just strike me as odd in concept, and Kethane is one of those. What is this kethane stuff, and why do we find it on all kinds of planets and moons? And you can apparently convert it into liquid fuel, oxidizer, monopropellant...and even Xenon. What alchemy is this? I love the idea of exploiting indigenous resources to make propellant and whatnot...but I'll leave the Kethane Mode to others.]

So, anyway... I wanted to have some kethane deposits that my kerbals could find. But how much kethane should there be? And how should it be distributed? What I decided to do was take a "typical" kethane distribution and use it as a basis for my kethane map. Geschosskopf (he of the wonderful Kethane Flying Circus missions) had a kethane map posted for Laythe in one of his threads... so I took that image, copied the region markers, resized it to fit my Laythe map, and then generated ramdom numbers to decide how to flip it vertically, horizontally, and shift it in longitude. And I got the map shown below:

I noticed later that I had made a mistake in my process... Geschosskopf's map had a gap in longitude with no kethane deposits, but when I resized the marker overlay to fit my map, that gap got lost... So I have more kethane than I should, I suppose, but I'll live with that. I'm not actually going to exploit the kethane (since the engineers in Division 19 never came through with the anticipated resource extraction equipment)... I just using it for roleplaying my missions.

As expected, most of the kethane deposits are underwater (easy to happen on Laythe). And whereas Geschosskopf had kethane all over what I call Dansen Island, my home base, my Dansen Island has none. But what my kerbals do have are lots of samples picked up on BirdDog missions, bagged and sealed and labeled. And they have Hellou, with equipment delivered in the shiny new SCIENCE Lab, including, I contend, sensitive spectral analyzers that can detect kethane. So she has been sucking the air out of the sample bags and running it through the infrared spectral analyzer and finding signatures of kethane.

The results are shown below: Places where my kerbals have picked up samples that show positive for kethane:

Looking at the map above, we see that my kerbals hit upon various pieces of five of the deposits. The large area of hits on Fredoly Island includes samples from Aldner's initial survey there, but is filled in a lot more because I had Hellou and Emilynn stationed at the Base 3 there for several months, so Hellou would have been all over the easily-accessible spots in that area. Not shown on this map are additional data points that did NOT show kethane, which help to delineate the sizes of the deposits. For example, Thompbles's samples from the high valley show kethane, but his samples from Bob and Bill Islands, and from the southeast coast (and Nelemy's older samples from the northeast tip) show NO kethane.

Nelemy: "Kethane?"

Hellou: "Yes. KH₄. A simple hydrokarbon. Where it occurs close to the surface, it leaks out and we can detect it."

Kurt: "And this stuff is useful as rocket fuel?"

Hellou: "For future Laythe explorers, yes. You need an oxidizer to burn it, but one can process LOX from Laythe's atmosphere, or just suck in the air to burn kethane in jet engines built for that."

Aldner: "And our samples show kethane?"

Hellou: "Some of them do. Some weak, some strong. But now we know where to look in more detail."

Kurt: "Didn't you say the other day that you found karbohydrates in one sample?"

Hellou: "Yes, but that was just a snack bar that SOMEBODY had mysteriously stuffed into a sample bag."

For some reason, everybody looked at Nelemy.

Thompbles: "Do you have a plan of where we need to do more detailed surveys?"

Hellou: "Yes. I'm putting some equipment into the Lab module of the Airedale, and I'll need a ride to some places. And the SCIENCE Lab has some equipment for upgrading Aldner's atmospheric sensor."

Aldner: "My what now?"

Hellou: "On your BirdDog. There is an Sensor Array Computing Nose Cone on the tail."

Aldner: "Oh, that. Since we upgraded the software in the cockpit computers, that thing has been useless."

Hellou: "Yes, but this new upgrade will allow it to detect kethane. If you'll help me install it."

Below, under Hellou's direction, Aldner and Kurt climb all over the BirdDog and install the sensor upgrade.

Aldner: *In the BirdDog's cockpit* "So how does this work?"

Hellou: "The Sensor Nose Cone now has two kethane sensors: One is an IR spectral analyzer, the other is a catalytic detector."

Aldner: "Hmm. Both of the new indicators are showing positive. Do we have kethane deposits by our base?"

Hellou: "Both?"

Aldner: "The one marked 'IR' is barely flickering. The one marked 'CAT' is stronger."

Hellou: "The IR sensor is very kethane specific, and it's just picking up the background amount in the atmosphere. I'll adjust the bias so it won't do that. The other one is picking up your kerosine."

Aldner: "My what?"

Hellou: "Your BirdDog is venting a little fuel. The JP-A or RP-1 or whatever you guys call it. It's basically kerosine, a hydrocarbon."

Aldner: "Kerosine? Do you scientists have to name everything starting with the letter K?"

Hellou: "Sorry. Anyway, once you get moving through the air, it won't pick up the tiny amount of fuel venting."

Thompbles's Travels Two

The hatches to the two passenger cabins of the Airedale can be reached by a kerbal standing on the ground. One of the cabins is outfitted as a comfy habitat module. In the other cabin, the passenger rides is less comfort because it is packed with lab equipment. To its standard equipment, Hellou added what she needed to test samples for kethane out in the field.

Because of the need to position the passenger cabins' hatches to be accessible, their windows give a not-overly-exciting view of the vertical stabilizer and docking port of the Airedale... but these kinds of things happen when you repurpose existing modules. For it's first fully-crewed exploration trip, Thompbles would be taking Hellou and Emilynn to check out the extent of a couple of the kethane deposits.

Thompbles: "Airedale to Base. The first scheduled flight of Laythe Airlines is ready to depart."

Kurt: "Roger, Airedale. You are first in line on runway 14."

Thompbles: "Thank you. Keep the boys out of trouble while we're gone."

The Airedale took off, climbed to cruising altitude of 12 kilometers, and headed southeast to Thompbles Island.

Back at Laythe Base, Kurt, Aldner, and Nelemy were having breakfast...

Nelemy: "Dudes, I hope Thompbles likes being a airline pilot."

Aldner: "Yeah. But I guess some people have to settle for the secondary jobs."

Nelemy: "Yeah."

Kurt: "What?"

Aldner: "Well, you know. It's like the difference between the guys who fly fighters..."

Nelemy: "...or are test pilots..."

Aldner: "...and the other guys who fly the transport aircraft."

Nelemy: "Yeah, Dude. But not everybody has the right stuff. Some of us explore with hot BirdDogs or test spaceplanes...others fly passengers, Dude."

Kurt: "I see. You do realize that while the three of us are sitting here, Thompbles is off on an extended mission with the only female kerbals within 70 million kilometers, don't you?"

Nelemy: "..."

Aldner: "..."

Kurt: "Now eat your mush."

Below, the Airedale approaches Thompbles Island. Thompbles has the image from the nose camera piped into the passenger cabins.

Emilynn: "Smooth flying there, Thompbles. Remember, if you get tired of flying, I can take over for any leg of the trip you want."

Thompbles: "I'll keep that in mind, co-pilot."

Hellou: "Look! We are flying right into the mouth of the dragon. A whole new island for me to study!"

Thompbles: "Yes. But let's avoid any jokes where we refer to the geography as parts of my body just because the island has the same name as I do."

Hellou: "Not a problem...we left Aldner at home."

The Airedale flew over the head of the dragon and targeted a landing along the middle of the west coast of the island. This is the area where Aldner picked up the samples with the strongest kethane signature.

Thompbles: "Make sure your tray tables and seat backs are in their full upright and locked positions, ladies."

Emilynn: "And in the event of the plane having to make a water landing, those of us in the fragile passenger cabins can kiss our butts goodbye."

Thompbles: "Now, now. Your seat cushion serves as a flotation device for your psychological convenience."

Emilynn: "Yes. I'm sure it would float away nicely after my cabin and I sink like a rock."

Hellou: "Can we please skip the 'jokes.' Landings always make me nervous."

Thompbles: "Sorry, Hellou. Don't worry, we have a nice, smooth beach ahead. Expect a tilt to the right as we touchdown."

The landing was perfect, and Thompbles switched over to rover mode and drove closer to the water. While Emilynn did a walkaround inspection of the plane, and Hellou started shifting through the sand, Thompbles went out to do a standard float test. Hellou popped a surface sample into her cobbled-together kethane detector, which heated the sample to help drive off any kethane residue into the IR analyzer.

Thompbles: "How does the sample look?"

Hellou: "Strong kethane signature, as expected. Aldner's samples were showing higher and higher concentrations of kethane the further south he went, and he got to about here before turning east. Can you drive us south along the coast, please?"

Thompbles: "Sure thing. Hop in."

Emilynn: "Gee, Thom. Can't you drive a little faster?"

Thompbles: "Not while I have valuable cargo on board. OK...the area ahead is smoother... I'll take it up a little...but 30 m/s maximum."

Hellou: "Slower is fine with me."

A little bump later, and the Airedale blew a tire.

Thompbles: "There, you see? We aren't really going to travel any faster if we need to stop and fix a flat very often."

Emilynn: "I'll hop out and fix the tire. This bird really is more sensitive to blowouts than the BirdDogs. And that bump didn't even feel that big. Who'd have thought that an extra ton of cabins would make such a difference."

Hellou: "Well...have you considered that with these lander-can cabins you have a lot of extra control torque that's trying to keep your plane steady as you go over bumps, putting more force on the wheels and making them hit harder?"

Emilynn: "..."

Thompbles: "..."

Emilynn: "You see... That's why every plane should come with a science geek installed as standard equipment."

Thompbles: "OK. Switching off the lander can torque systems. Thank you. Emilynn, please remind me to turn them back on before we fly again...the extra control authority can help keep the plane from doing any unexpected pitch-ups."

Below, the Airedale stopped at two peninsulas jutting out to the west so that Hellou could analyze her samples. These locations showed the strongest kethane yet.

Our intrepid explorers continued south until they got to the duck-foot peninsula of the dragon. The samples continued to show signs of kethane, so probably the deposit continued ate least partway out onto the foot of the dragon, but the terrain of the foot was high and rough, and the crew was looking for easily-accessed kethane deposits... so they decided to not continue their drive south and would switch to heading east.

Below, the duck-foot of the dragon is visible across a small bay from the Airedale.

As the Airedale got up into the rougher, higher elevations, the sun was getting low in the sky.

Thompbles: "OK, we'll stop here for the night."

Emilynn: "I'll pass out the grub. I'll let you have the comfy cabin for tonight, Chickadee."

Hellou: "OK, thanks. But don't thrash around and wreak any equipment in the lab module."

Thompbles: "I'm camping out under the stars, myself. Aldner says it worked quite nicely with the suit heaters on medium."

Emilynn: "Well in that case, I'll sleep in the cockpit if you don't mind. That's usually where I slept in the Vall rover."

Thompbles: "OK, sounds like a plan. There's a nice view of Jool."

The next day, Thompbles continued the drive eastward between a ridgeline to the north and taller hills to the south. Kethane continued to show up in the samples. Eventually they reached a small bay on the backside of the dragon where Hellou investigated some strange luminescent spots on the ground. After another campout, Thompbles drove the Airedale back and over the ridge to the north, then east along the ridge overlooking the large circular bay in the belly of the dragon.

Hellou: "Based on what we've found, along with Aldner's samples from further north, it's pretty clear that this whole island is sitting over a kethane deposit, except for the nose of the dragon where Aldner first landed. And a lot of the areas are easily accesible."

Emilynn: "So Thompbles's gas will be supplying the fuel needs of future Laythe colonists?"

Thompbles: "Now, now."

Hellou: "Anyway, I'm done here. We can move on to Manley Island whenever you'd like. But an extra day here to let me do some sample cataloging would be nice."

So the next day, Thompbles took off and headed the Airedale northeast.

Below we see the Airedale flying away from Thompbles Island, and a map showing the exploration route across the dragon-duck-shaped island.

I'll halt now and get this posted, and then write up the rest tonight.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Brotoro

[Daddy Cecil]

woo new chapter!

[tuckjohn]

Another incredible read! Keep up the great work and I can't wait to read part 28!

I have a question though, have you considered adding in something to "celebrate" the 30th part in this series?

[Logan.Darklighter]

Woohoo! New chapter!

Nice juggling of transfers there.

So I have to comment: I think you should bite the bullet and go with Kethane. Yes - I know - ONE resource that breaks down into all those others isn't realistic. But you could look at it as if "Kethane" were simply an aggregate of several different compounds mixed together that you can separate and refine out into the different fuels.

Or in other words - assume for the purposes of your story that a "Kethane Deposit" is actually a of a bunch of different resource deposits.

Eventually yes, I think KSP will have a stock resource system. But I don't think it's going to be soon. Not in the next update at any rate.

On the other hand - you've been doing quite a fine job handling the logistics of constantly supplying the Laythe/Vall crews with fuel from Kerbin. There's no reason you can't continue to do so.

I'm just the impatient sort myself.

[Brotoro]

...Or in other words - assume for the purposes of your story that a "Kethane Deposit" is actually a of a bunch of different resource deposits...

I thought of that... But, as I understand it, one can take kethane away from the deposit, and then later decide what you want to change it into elsewhere. Which doesn't really fit the explanation.

...Unless kethane is some kind of quantum-entanglement ore that doesn't know what it is until you observe (refine) it elsewhere, and only then will you and the deposit know what kind of ore was taken. OK...that was nonsense

But, as you say, it really hasn't been that bad supplying them from Kerbin. It's almost as easy to send out extra fuel along with every payload I send to Laythe as it is to send just the payload. Anyway, I probably have enough fuel there now for them to complete their mission.

[ShakeNBake]

Wow, this is epic.

Subscribed.

[Logan.Darklighter]

...Unless kethane is some kind of quantum-entanglement ore that doesn't know what it is until you observe (refine) it elsewhere, and only then will you and the deposit know what kind of ore was taken. OK...that was nonsense

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...

[Lundmunchkins]

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...

I'm not alone!

[Scotius]

Brotoro, if you don't mind complicated work, you might want to take a look at KSP Interstellar. Most people associate this mod with FTL drive and some big reactors, but actually Fractal_UK coded in an impressive spectrum of resources - from uranium and thorium to aluminium and methane. All of them can be extracted and refined using realistic means. For example water can be electrolysed into oxidiser and liquid fuel, monopropellant can be made using ammonia and hydrogen peroxide from water etc. Like i said it can be complicated and rather energy intensive. You could delete parts you don't want to use, and keep only resource-related (and some fusion reactors at least, because refineries are power hungry )

[borisperrons]

Intertellar has pretty good resource mechanics, as Scoyius pointed out. Also, it can allow you to send specialized craft for every refinement/resource collecting need, instead of seng an all-purpose extraction and refinery installation.

That said, Cashen, in his MASEC mission report, explained the kethane with some pretty convincing techno-babble (at least, for a biologist):

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42266-UKS-MASEC-Mission-Logs-Picture-Heavy-Chapter-5-Here-to-Stay?p=550229&viewfull=1#post550229

I'm not alone!

Of course you're not. Would you like a jelly baby?

[TehDarkNoob]

"As they climb all over the birddog".

That made me laugh.

[The Error]

While I agree Kethane is :/, I feel that adding HotRockets would be cool, no pun intended, because the glow from the jet engine (and LV-Ns!) is awesome.

[Hello moto]

Very enjoyable read. I really appreciate the level of detail and I thank you for continuing this longer then most people would have done so.

Edit: also how long IRL and in game has this gone for?

Edited February 23, 2014 by Hello moto
Dint wantah dubblepowst

[Brotoro]

Long-term Laythe - Part 28

Thompbles's Travels Three

When we left our brave explorers, Thompbles, Hellou, and Emilynn Kerman had just departed Thompbles Island in the Airedale, heading northeast to Manley Island in their quest to explore strange new places, seek out the boundaries of kethane deposits, and boldly have a generally enjoyable outing.

Below, the Airedale out in mid-ocean, with no sight of land in any direction (and you can see a long way cruising along at an altitude of 12 kilometers). I don't know about you, but I always get nervous flying over oceans out of sight of land (although flying through a vacuum millions of kilometers from land doesn't bother me, oddly enough).

Thompbles landed the Airedale by the GasStation 3 at the "Manley base" site.

Hellou: "You know... it really is kind of disconcerting to look up and see a giant green planet hanging over your head."

Thompbles: "It always seemed to bother Aldner. It doesn't seem too odd to me."

Thompbles: "Let's see if we can get this plane docked to the GasStation."

Emilynn: "You better hope we can...we don't have enough fuel left in the Airedale to fly home."

Hellou: "Why didn't anybody tell me about the happy possibility of being stranded here?"

Emilynn: "Oh, passengers never need to worry about the fun stuff."

Thompbles: "We have many rescue options: remotely-piloted BirdDogs, spaceplanes, SSTUBBY, NAMOR... but the most efficient probably would be using the RASSTO SSTO. Besides, since we got the software update that allows us to control the hydraulics of the lander legs, it's easier to get one of the refueling ports at the right height. Hmm... How does the docking port alignment look through your window, Emilynn?"

Emilynn: "Move forward a bit more...10 centimeters."

Thompbles: "OK. And now, nose gear down....and CLICK! We have fuel."

The crew got out to have a look at the Manley base site.

Hellou: "Ah. I see we have another one of Aldner's silly flags here."

Emilynn: "You don't think she's a cutie?"

Hellou: "I think she's freakishly thin. "

Emilynn: "Like those elves you like?"

Hellou: "Elves are different. Besides, if that's supposed to be Laythe, she'd be freezing her butt off. You don't approve of these flags, do you, Thompbles?"

Thompbles: "Me? Don't mind me...I'm just seeing what Aldner left behind in the half-tank storage compartment. There might be surprise snacks for supper."

Emilynn: "Hellou, take a picture of me by the flag so I can send it to Buzz!"

The next morning, the crew set out to drive to the east end of Manley Island. Aldner only took samples as far east as his base site on Manley Island, and Hellou wanted to see how far the kethane deposit extends.

At the eastern tip of Manley Island, Thompbles acted as a hydrometer to measure the density of the sea water.

Thompbles: "I'm definitely floating higher than normal. What causes this, Hellou?"

Hellou: "I'm not sure. I doubt that the density of the sea water is changing by that much. Maybe your weight has changed? Or your suit pressure is different? Or some as yet unknown physics? What have you got in your pockets?"

Emilynn: "Are we playing riddle games now?"

Thompbles: "Suit pressure is set to normal. And I certainly had more snacks than normal last night, not fewer."

The crew took surface samples along the north coast as they drove back to the GasStation. Hellou's analysis showed that the kethane concentrations were generally increasing toward the east, so the centroid of the deposit was probably off shore.

The next day the crew took off to the north to explore some new islands. Aldner's samples had indicated kethane on Manley, Scott, and Its Islands (but not on Hellou Island to the west), and there were some islands further north that had never been sampled. Also, Aldner only sampled about half of Scott Island, so Hellou wanted a sample from the north end of Scott. Below, Thompbles checks out the north end of Scott Island as they fly by (it has moderately steep slopes) to decide if they will land there on the way back.

Thompbles: "We're approaching the first island."

Emilynn: "Is that one island or two?"

Hellou: "It looked like one island from the orbital imagery, but I couldn't tell for sure."

Thompbles: "I'll land on the low area in the middle. If it's two islands, I'll land on the south one first."

Thompbles: "OK, I can make out a small gap. It's two islands. But we have a nice smooth landing area. You said you wanted to name the island?"

Hellou: "We want to name a couple islands after our Vall Expedition's backup crew members, Tomster and Corfrey. This one I was going to call Tomster...the bigger one further north would be Corfrey. But I'm not sure what to do now that this one is two islands."

After landing, Hellou tested a soil sample...which came up negative for kethane. So she tested a couple more samples to be sure. Meanwhile, Emilynn and Thompbles checked out the gap between the two islands, which was almost shallow enough to walk across. So they decided that this would be named South Tomster Island, and the other part would be North Tomster.

They then drove to the southern tip of South Tomster to see if there was kethane seeping out there. No. So the Manley kethane deposit did not extend this far north. Thompbles did another float test off the south tip of Tomster, where he floated lower in the water. Such a mystery.

Thompbles: "You see? I'm floating lower today."

Hellou: "Well, I'm confused. I guess we just need to keep gathering more data."

Emilynn: "Then let's all go swimming!"

Hellou: "Um...OK. But isn't it cold?"

Thompbles: "No, the suit heaters compensate quickly."

Emilynn: "Let's be sure to take a picture for the boys at Laythe Base so they can see we're all working hard and not out here having fun."

Thompbles: "I'm sure they'll appreciate that."

The map below shows the location of the beach party at the south end of South Tomster, and the arc of unexplored islands to be visited next.

Back at the northern tip of South Tomster, Thompbles was able to just drive the Airedale across to the rest of Tomster Island because the water was so shallow the rover wheels never lost contact with the bottom.

The north part of Tomster also showed no kethane, but Hellou was having fun taking samples anyway. The image below shows a small island (more of a large sand bar) offshore, and off in the distance is the next small island.

Thompbles flew the Airedale in a short hop from Tomster to the next island, which he named Dunsel Island after the commander of the first Duna Mission. Again...no kethane.

From Dunsel, they flew on to the larger next island, which Hellou named Corfrey Island, after their Vall backup crew pilot. Corfrey was also the first kerbal to successfully fly an SSTO spaceplane into Kerbin orbit (after a few unsuccessful attempts), and has more recently tested the prototypes of the Ladyhawk and Rapier spaceplanes back at Kerbin. Alas, despite being named after such a heroic astronaut, Corfrey Island was devoid of kethane.

Corfrey Island did have some moderate highlands to the north. Below we see the Airedale coming 'round the mountain so that the next island can be seen.

That next island was basically a big smooth bump. Thompbles named it Lembart Island afterthe kerbal who first landed on Duna's moon Ike. You know... I really have ignored Duna too much in this particular save-game. One manned landing, followed by some unkerballed rovers, and that's it (other than the Duna system being visited to explore Magic Boulder). Once the kerbals found out how wonderful Laythe was (Oxygen! Water! All the sand you can eat!), they have mostly been ignoring the other celestial objects. Anyway...Lembart Island had no kethane.

After vacationing on Lembart for a day, our intrepid explorers returned back south, stopping off at the north end of Scott Island. It was a moderate uphill landing, but Thompbles set the Airedale down just fine. Hellou tested the surface samples and found kethane concentrations stronger than what was on Manley Island...so the kethane deposit obviously ends somewhere between Scott and South Tomster Islands.

In the image below, you can see that when a kerbal exits one of the Airedale's side cabins, they are oriented sideways...and letting go results in a clumsy fall to the ground. Since it's impolite to watch a lady being clumsy, we'll look away before she lets go.

Thompbles flew the Airedale back to Manley Island for some refueling and a couple days' of R and R. After refueling the Airedale again, GasStation 3 had less than one full-plane-load of fuel left on board, so it was time to consider dropping in a replacement. But I'll do that later.

Thompbles: "Emi, I assume you wouldn't mind if I let you pilot the Airedale for our return trip?"

Emilynn: "I wouldn't mind at all, Thom! I've been waiting for you to ask."

Hellou: "Wait! Only if she promises to drive slowly. Otherwise I'm staying here."

Emilynn: "OK, Chickadee. I'll only go fast in the air."

Hellou: "You mean when you're flying us back...not when you bump over a ridge while roving, right?"

Emilynn: "Of course."

So Emilynn drove the Airedale in rover mode to the west. They stopped often so that Hellou could collect samples. Aldner's sampling was kind of spotty in this area, and they needed to better determine the western edge of the Manley kethane deposit.

Emilynn: "Hey, Chickadee, we have some boulders ahead. Want to stop and play?"

Hellou: "Big rocks? You bet! I'm bored of sand and small rocks. I could do with a good boulder or two."

Thompbles: "You do get some unusual conversations on a planetary exploration rover."

Emilynn: "It's just our girl-talk."

Below, the Airedale roved along the south slope of Manley Island, which is mostly one long ridge. Eventually, the samples failed to show kethane, indicating the western edge of the deposit.

Hellou: "I'm done here. We can go back to Laythe Base anythime you want."

Emilynn: "OK, boys and girls. Strap in tight, we're going to fly. Let's point a little downslope, lower the ol' nose gear, turn on all the pod stability systems, inhibit the forward tank, activate the engine, unlock the brake...am I forgetting anything, co-pilot?"

Thompbles: "Checklist complete. We should also call in to Laythe Base to let them know."

Emilynn: "Roger. I'll give you a minute to do that, and then we zoom."

Below is the map of the Airedale's exploration of the Manley Crater area.

On the flight back to Dansen Island, Emilynn pushed the cruising altitude up over 13,000 meters. This required a pitch angle of 40 degrees at a tick over one-third throttle, but she was able to reach speeds of over 420 m/s this way. Don't be alarmed by that fuel indicator in the lower-left corner that reads almost empty...that's just the amount in the rear tank.

Emilynn: "Well, tarnation! I was hoping I could make it all the way back using less than half of my fuel, but it looks like I'm not going to make it."

Hellou: "'Tarnation'?"

Emilynn: "There's a gentleman present, Chickadee. You have to watch your language around the weaker ***."

Thompbles: "You've gotten far enough that you could glide in to the east plateau area and then drive the rest of the way, so that counts as getting us home on half your fuel. But let's just switch on the other tank and take the easy way."

Emilynn: "A sound decision."

Emilynn landed the Airedale near Base 2 ('So Thompbles won't have so far to walk') and refuled the Airedale from the DoubleGasStation.

Below, the Airedale parked back at Base 2 where the kerbals all got together for a celebratory dinner that couldn't be beat. And there's the new shed that the boys built out of the remains of the SCIENCE Base's heat shield. It's designed so that it could be shaped from the debris with minimal cutting and bonding...mostly folding (after making partial cuts, I assume, to make the folding possible). And it isn't sitting right outside Thompbles's window.

Aldner Again

But what about Aldner and the fancy new kethane detector on the tail of his BirdDog? After Thompbles returned from his expedition and got himself firmly ensconced again in his control cabin chair, he sent Aldner on a mission to do a quick investigation of the extent of the kethane deposits on Fredoly and Jenlan islands.

The southern extent of the Fredoly deposit was well established by surface samples Aldner and Hellou/Emilynn picked up via rover explorations. But the long, narrow island north of Fredoly (officially part of Fredoly Island, called North Fredoly) not only seemed like it should be in the deposit area, it is also a very accessible spot... so it's important to know if there is kethane there. In fact, the second landing made by kerbals on Laythe (as part of the original Mark Twain Laythe expedition) was on North Fredoly. That landing was made by Fredoly Kerman, by the way... hence the name of the island.

Even as Aldner came swooping down from his cruise altitude far east of North Fredoly, his kethane detectors started beeping. The deposit obviously extended well out into the ocean there.

Aldner: "Aldner to *beep* Base."

Thompbles: "Go ahead, Aldner."

Aldner: "Can *beep* ask Hellou how the *beep* I can turn off the *beep* noise from the kethane *beep*tector?"

Thompbles: "Hold on. I'll get her."

Aldner: "Well, hurry the *beep* up. This is annoying as *beep*."

Despite the beeping distraction, Aldner easily landed the BirdDog on the southeast tip of North Fredoly. The dotted line shows the first part of his drive.

Hellou: "Hellou to Aldner. Can you hear me?"

Aldner: "Yes, I can *beep* you. Have you got *beep* way to shut off this *beep*ing noise?"

Hellou: "Yes. On your DSKY, input verb two one noun zero two enter."

Aldner: "OK. I did *beep*"

Hellou: "Then input zero three four four two enter zero enter."

Aldner: "...OK. It's off. And the kethane indicators are still displaying. Thanks."

Hellou: "I'll permanently patch the code later. Sorry it was so loud."

Now beep-free, Aldner drove along the north coast of North Fredoly, taking occasional surface samples and recording the detector data. Below we see where Aldner stopped at the narrowest part of the island and did a float test in the sea...floating very low.

(I've always wanted an excuse to send on of my Laythe boys to this little island because I wanted to see if I could locate Fredoly Kerman's original landing site. I have the map view image from the original mission (see below), but would that be good enough to locate the exact spot? Fredoly's landing took place before kerbals had invented flag technology, and there were no parts left at the site, so that map and the images of the landing were all I had to work with. And a lot of places on Laythe look alike, right? After some searching, I was able to use the background peak and map to find the approximate location, and then spent some more time trying to match up sand texture patterns.)

Below, the original image of Fredoly's landing, followed by an image of Aldner and his BirdDog at the same spot. Things are certainly darker in KSP these days. The view is toward the east.

Below, another original image of Fredoly standing by his Clark Laythe lander, followed by an image of Aldner at the same location. This view is toward the northwest.

Aldner: "Aldner to Laythe Base. Are you there, Fearless Leader?"

Hellou: "Hi, Aldner. Thompbles is away from console right now, so I'm monitoring."

Aldner: "Suits me fine. I have located Fredoly Kerman's landing site. I'm going to erect a flag to mark the location."

Hellou: "This isn't one of your goofy flags, is it?"

Aldner: "Well, you can come look if you want to know. I'm sure Fredoly would approve of it."

Aldner continued his drive all the way to the west end of North Fredoly, collecting samples to be tested later to verify the positive kethane indications his sensor was giving him. You can see Jebediah Island in the background.

After completing the sweep of North Fredoly, Aldner flew across to Jebediah Island. The terrain is generally very steep along the shore of Jebediah Island, but there was a bay where the slope wasn't as bad, so Aldner swooped in a curve to land along the shore there.

On Jebediah, the kethane detectors showed no kethane. Apparently the deposit does not extend that far west. Aldner collected surface samples, then started driving north along the coast. The coast curved outward toward the east, so there was some hope of picking up the kethane again.

As Aldner continued along the coast, the terrain got very steep, almost as much as 40 degrees in places...but Aldner has experience driving the BirdDog along such terrain. There was still no kethane detected. Below, Aldner gets out at a slightly-less-steep spot to grab a surface sample.

Aldner: "Aldner to Laythe Base."

Nelemy: "Dude! How's it going! This is Nelemy speaking, Dude!"

Aldner: "I guessed that. I'm stopping for today. I just drove through a long stretch of really steep coastline, but it has leveled out a little here."

Nelemy: "So is it a great location, Dude?"

Aldner: "No. It's not like you'd choose this spot to build a tourist resort or anything. But it's a lot less steep than what I just drove through."

The next day, after sleeping late as usual, Aldner took off and headed north to do a quick sweep of Jenlan island for kethane. Below you can see where he was located on the high ridge that surrounds Bill Lake, which Aldner had named on his first visit to this island.

Aldner got up to high cruising altitude and headed for the south shore of Jenlan Island...

...and was greeted by the annoying beeps from the kethane detector as he was coming in to land. Arrgh. Apparently the system reset when he powered it up in the morning. Or at noon, as the case may be. So he had to call in to get Hellou to read him the code fix again.

Aldner drove north until the terrain started getting rough, and then took off to fly over the terrain and let the detector do its thing. The detector is more accurate when flying low, but Aldner was quite happy to buzz along the terrain at relatively low altitude. There were lots of rough areas, but also lots of smooth depressions that could allow acces to the kethane the detector was showing.

As Aldner got even with about the center of the huge bay to the east, the kethane signature faded out. So Aldner swooped around a high mountain peak and started back toward the southeast. He picked of the kethane signature again over the bay and headed down along the southeast arm of the island, keeping low.

Aldner: "Aldner to Laythe Base. Checking in."

Nelemy: "Hey, Dude! What are you doing?"

Aldner: "Just screaming along doing 250 at tree-top altitude."

Nelemy: "Dude, there are trees?"

Aldner: "Not anymore."

The kethane signal faded out less than halfway down the arm of the island. The two secant lines where kethane was detected would give a good indication of the extent of the kethan deposit (assuming it was roughly circular, as Hellou says these things tend to be). So Aldner boosted back up into the stratosphere and headed home to Laythe Base.

It was getting late by the time Aldner landed at Fido Bay. His plane didn't need a full load of fuel, so there was enough to top off his tanks at GasStation 2, but that GasStation was also just about empty.

Below, the map of Aldner's kethane expedition. I, of course, was quite happy to have located the site where Fredloy landed the Clark Laythe lander...over 16 years earlier (back in version 0.18). I suppose I'll be disappointed once Laythe gets an art pass and all the places I know in detail get washed away. But I suppose it could be worth it for the addition of active volcanoes or something cool like that.

GasStation 5

Manley base is important for reaching a lot of islands around the BAIF Ocean, so Thompbles decided to drop GasStation 5 in as a replacement for the nearly depleted GasStation 3. Manley is located about 5 degrees north of the equator, which is within the inclination range of the deorbit motors on the GasStation...so the GasStation was separated from its Tug and headed down to Manley Island.

Below, the entry flames appear as the GasStation approaches the east end of Manley Island.

I deployed the chutes a bit later than I should have, so GasStation 5 landed about 800 meters east of GasStation 3, but that's plenty close enough. The arrow in the landing picture below points to the old GasStation 3.

Below: GasStation 5 in place and ready for future explorers.

[Brotoro]

Very enjoyable read. I really appreciate the level of detail and I thank you for continuing this longer then most people would have done so.

Edit: also how long IRL and in game has this gone for?

The first post in this thread was May 4, 2013, so that's when this Long-term Laythe mission started in real time. In-game time for mission is now over three years. I wanted to keep the mission going in "realistic time"… i.e., be doing things on Laythe while waiting for payloads to arrive, but there were a couple times where I got impatient and just zipped ahead to get the next payloads to arrive (while my kerbals apparently weren't doing much on Laythe). So it shouldn't have taken this much in-game time. Also, I intended to rotate in a new crew by now…but then that massive solar flare happened…you know how it goes. I'll keep doing it if I get good responses, but I've recently been working on the ships for their exit strategy.

The Long-term Laythe mission is part of the save-game I've been managing to keep updating since November 2012…almost 26 years of in-game time.

[Scotius]

I will be very sad when/if you decide to pull out from Laythe - this crew is amazing Unless you decide to send them as spearhead in Duna colonisation program

[meve12]

That dinner keeps being beat.

[Hello moto]

Thanks that's great to hear and Scotius is right, it will be sad when this merry band err disband I guess. I'd love to read about more adventures from this group if they ever go to another planet or what ever your mind thinks of.