New Horizons Co. Mission Logs:Origins [Image Heavy]

[Veggepatch]

Current fuel Price

Liquid Fuel $1 per unit

Oxidiser $3 per unit

Index

Log Book 1: Origins

Chapter 1: Debacle

Chapter 2: The Rescue

Chapter 3: New Plan

Chapter 4: Strange Object [in progress] [Contains Spoilers]

[each story is subject to slight alterations as i tweak the wording and try to provide a more immersive experience for the reader]

Backstory

New Horizons Co.The New Horizons Company was founded by the three Kerman brothers, they were all born with a passion for all things aerial, astronomical and of course prone to exploding. The eldest of the three Jebediah, works as the senior test pilot and Cockpit design official. His younger brothers Bill and Bob both share the duties of managing the engineering and R & D facilities, in addition to the finance and PR sectors.

The KMC (Kethane Mining Corporation): Also previously known as NextNuclear is a highly funded national corporation specialising in the mining and refinement of kethane, the company’s primary contract is the development of materials and resources for the construction of New Kerbin City. Shortly after the KC catastrophe KMC quickly rose to power with the new discovery of kethane, the company halted all research into nuclear reactors and changed its name from NextNuclear to KMC pouring all their funds into researching Kethane as a method of powering Kerbal Cities. Kethane proved to be a wonder substance which could not only power kerbal Cities but when coupled with the right chemicals could be converted into virtually any element known to Kerbals.

The KC (Kerbin Crater) Catastrophe: Kerbin Crater was once the location of Kerbin City, the capital of Kerbin, centre of knowledge, research and all things Kerbal. The city was powered by The Core, a large nuclear reactor at the centre of the city which suffered a melt down and exploded in a massive fire ball taking Kerbin City with it. It is speculated that the melt down occurred when one Kerbal decided to try and grill his cheese sandwich by placing it inside the reactor.

New Kerbin City: The city is based to the south west of the Kerbin Astronomical and Aerodynamic Research Centre (the current place of operations for the New Horizons Company), the city's primary goal is to aid relief for the flow of refugees following the KC catastrophe. It's secondary goal is to establish a new capital city on Kerbin, one which has a primary focus on research, education and eliminating the mistakes of the past.

New Horizons Co. Comissioned Crafts[Links to be found at bottom of the post]

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Links to craft Files

The VTOL Test Craft #1 (Hornet)https://www.dropbox.com/s/14y2cu2vo4f1q6r/Test%20Craft%20%231.craft

The Kerbal Rescue Plane Mk1https://www.dropbox.com/s/8fvdsfigj3wjdjs/Kerbal%20Rescue%20Plane%20Mk1.craft

Map Sat Mk1 (Kepler)https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmxa7d1noqsvh41/Map%20Sat%20Mk1.craft

Edited September 12, 2013 by Veggepatch

[M4ck]

Wow, the plane looks great! If it actually flies well, could you post a craft file somewhere here?

[Veggepatch]

Thanks, it took me quite a while to figure out how to make the plane take off without losing stability and still look good.

The plane flies really well when the VTOL is disengaged and the rear engines are on, but it does have a tendancy to continue moving forward when its hovering and i'm not sure how to fix it, you can rotate the engines backward to slow it down which works well when their at full thrust but as you descend it doesn't get enough power and starts moving forward again. I'll put it up later today when i finish the part of the intro story based around the craft.

[Veggepatch]

Log Book 1

Chapter 1: Debacle

As a result of their progressive designs and lectures on the importance of aircraft for transporting materials, combined with an extensive PR campaign Bill, Bob and Jebediah manage to attract the attention of the KMC (Kethane Mining Corporation). The brothers propose that rather than staying stuck on the ground when it comes to take-off and landing, they could develop a vertical take-off aircraft. KMC shows great interest in this as it would allow them to cut down on the size of their airports while also increasing their daily take-offs, which are as of now limited by the amount of aircraft the runway can handle. The corporation agrees to fund the VTOL space plane project with a significant investment of $20,000 in the hopes they can boost their annual profits.

On 12/3/2027 New Horizons debuted their $14,880 VTOL aircraft, the plane showed exceptional vertical lift off capabilities, and although prone to slight forward momentum the engines could be tilted slightly towards the retrograde cancelling out this movement and allowing for a smooth touch down. Its dual pilot cockpit allowed for Bill to be in control of the Vertical movement while Jebediah ensured that the lateral movement remained at a minimum, additionally this allowed for reduced pressure on the pilots as they could share tasks.

During the flight the craft managed to reach speeds exceeding 1000m/s making it the fastest craft in kerbal history, its high speed capabilities greatly impressed the KMC assessors watching the flight. While at this speed the pilots encountered an unforseen problem with the air pressure in front of the craft raising to such an extent that it combusted, coating the exterior of the craft in a fiery glow. Jebediah decides they should perform a barrel roll to distribute the heat evenly around the plane. While upside down Bill takes a quick photo of the mun using the high zoom camera mounted underneath the cockpit, due to the thin atmosphere they encountered at their altitude the image appears especially clear and is sent back to Mission Control for further analysis.

After 14 minutes of flying the craft reached Mu the relatively unexplored continent on the other side of the Laye Ocean, Bill and Jeb find a relatively flat piece of land situated near a small lake and decide to land there to display the landing capabilities of the craft and run a quick diagnostics. They come in to land plotting a course for landing and engaging the auto-pilot, however, the assessors from KMC request the pilots attempt a manual landing. If they prove a landing can be made without the aid of an autopilot then they could scrap the computer systems and save funds.

Bill and Jeb were slightly nervous going into their first manual landing with so much at stake. Airbrakes are engaged as the plane is brought into hover mode with the auto pilot disengaged. This is the defining moment, the plane is slowly eased down as the throttle is reduced, 70m above ground with the throttle set to half way the plane begins to slowly move forward, Jeb rotates the engines to 100 degrees then to their maximum of 120 to counteract the movement. 30m above ground with lower thrust and the forward movement is picking up again, RCS thrusters fire in a vain attempt to slow down lateral speed. “Pulse the engines, this is our only shot" Bill says, Jeb complies and pulses the engines to counteract the forward movement and get them to the ground faster, 10m, 5m, the front wheel touches the ground just as Jeb went to fire a pulse, the force makes the rear of the plane move upwards as the wheel acts like a pivot. Jeb pitches the plane up desperately trying to counteract and the rear engines grind into the ground ripping them off the plane, with the plane now unbalanced it is now impossible to control "Brace yourself!" Jeb Yells, as the plane crashes into the ground side wing first, the wing crumples as the weight of the plane comes bearing down on top of it, the cockpit hits the ground now, the impact testing the strength of its welds, it shears off from the rest of the plane, Bill and Jeb holding their seats white knuckled as it comes to a halt.

Jeb gets out and assesses the damage, at least they both survived. For now . . . . Kerbin nights can be extremely cold.

Images references are provided below

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Edited September 11, 2013 by Veggepatch

[Veggepatch]

Log Book 1

Chapter 2: The Rescue

Due to the disaster that befell Test Craft #1 a rescue plane is sent out to save the stranded pilots and prevent any further bad PR for New Horizons, there is only one man for the job, Bob Kerman. Bob must cross the Laye Ocean quickly if he wants to reach his brothers before they risk freezing to death in the harsh Kerbin cold, the pilot’s suits are meant to keep heat out not in.

Pushing his plane to its limits he manages to reach the halfway point over the Laye Ocean within 14 minutes, the rescue plane reaches Mu just under 30 minutes, Bob turns on the underside camera and begins scanning the terrain for light sources. Bob lets out a sigh of relief as he sees his two brothers’ show up on the feed from the underside camera. He lands 200m away from their crash site and uses the engines to slowly taxi himself over to his brothers’ cockpit, Bob doesn’t want to risk having another crash on his hands. Once he reaches them Jeb and Bill climb aboard before they begin the long flight back home.

Just as Bob brings the plane in to land the financial managers of KMC make an announcement.

Due to the destruction of the VTOL and the loss of almost 75% of their initial funding KMC decides that although the VTOL technology shows potential it requires much more development to become a viable and cost effective option. Current Kethane extraction and transportation methods will suffice for the rest of the financial year one of the assessor’s states.

KMC decides to pull out of the contract with New Horizons, taking their remaining funds with them and claiming Jeb and Bill’s poor piloting skills are the cause for the debacle.

Not wanting to lose the contract Bob decides to fly the rescue plane upside down at low altitude to showcase his piloting skills, the side wing clips the ground just as Bob finishes the rotation and the plane makes a sharp leftward nose dive. Jeb reaches for the control pitching up just in time to save the cockpits from certain destruction but losing the rest of the plane. The three brothers are back at square one.

Image references are provided below

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Edited September 11, 2013 by Veggepatch

[Veggepatch]

Log Book 1

Chapter 3: New Plan

With no contracts New Horizons must find a way to obtain funding, otherwise the company becomes as useful as a fish on a bicycle. Jeb comes up with a brilliant strategy, until now Kerbal mapping has always been done by plane, the process is slow and the maps develop numerous inconsistencies with one another, if they were to somehow map Kerbin from space they could get one large highly detailed map and sell it.

Bob protests “impossible, we’d need to go faster than 2000m/s to do that and at the moment we just don’t have the technologyâ€Â. “True, but that’s because we’ve always been moving big objects, what if we moved something small?†says Jeb, “I think you’re on to something†Bill exclaims excitedly. “Well whatever we do we’re going to need more rockets†says Bob.

The three set to the task of designing this new craft Bob decided to call Kepler, they commission a group of private contractors to salvage any parts they can from the crashed VTOL and the rescue plane agreeing to pay them 30% of the final profit. However the part recovery will take 4 months to complete. They manage to salvage and sell $19,380 worth of parts, giving 30% to the contractors as they had agreed and leaving them with $13,566 to complete their mission, Kepler’s construction costs approx. $12,355 fully fuelled leaving $1,211 for refuelling and part replacement.

Prior to its flight the team must test Kepler’s engines and fairing decouplers to ensure everything they have built is in good working order, given the current fuel costs they can only afford to run one short test on the rocket’s engines before it is to be launched. The tests all come back positive, the engines and fairings work perfectly although at a price, fairing replacement costs the team approx. $350 while the refuelling costs them a whopping $840 almost draining their budget to zero.

16/7/2027 and Kepler is launched into the fray, having all of its commands pre-programmed into its computer all the team has to do is wait until Kepler passes over Mission Control once more.

On its second pass over Mission Control the team gets its first batch of data from Kepler, data continues to be sent for the next 5 days until the map is complete. New Horizons Co. sold the topographical maps to the Kerbal Academy of Applied Sciences in New Kerbin City for $20,000

Image references are provided below

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