The Kethane Travelling Circus 3 -- Episode 20: Luney's Saga

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 14: 3rd Duna Expedition Arrives

But first, there were 3 days to kill waiting for the SKRAP Duna Rig 1 to get there. And the scientists demanded that the boffins make them something to explore the strange ruins on Kerbin discovered during the Great Probe Massacre. Rather than waste any valuable drinking time designing an exploration airplane, the boffins merely pulled an old Minmus lander out of mothballs, stuck scientist Tom Kerman in it, and shot it at the ruins. That got at least 1 scientist out of the boffins' hair for a few days.

And then it was time for the rest of the 2nd Duna Flotilla / 3rd Duna Expedition / 1st Duna Colony to arrive. The Duna Rig aerocaptured at 11.5km and failed to produce any fireworks.

Then it was sent down to Johnden's landing site, in the only kethane field on the equator. Nobody remembered the elevation there and the existing photos sadly didn't show the altimeter. All they knew about the place was that Johnden had landed on a very steep slope but that there appeared to be some relatively flat areas nearby that they might hit with any luck.

It turned out, however, that the area didn't have much in the way of flat ground. The Rig overshot a bit and landed over the hill to the east of the flag. Not a bad shot as KTC Duna landings go, and at least the ground was a bit flatter than at Johnden's site. However, with an altitude of 3400m, using this location as an airbase would be even more of a challenge than the original KTC had faced.

Last to arrive at Duna, after the ships of the 1st Laythe Expedition had all made their mid-course tweaks, was the Duna Colony ship. It's aerocapture was totally boring due to its slow speed and the main challenge was to try to land near Duna Rig 1.

That looked to be going well at first but when the main chutes came out, the Duna Colony slowed down much more rapidly than expected and fell some distance short of Johnden's flag. But at least it's out of physics range of the rig, so not a bad shot all things considered.

Speaking of flags, Jengas "Khan" Kerman naturally wanted to put up his own (and also take down Johnden's at the 1st opportunity). Here his contribution to the landscape:

Then it was time to bring down the SKRAP K-Ute 1, the purpose of which was to span the distance between the Rig and the Colony. It was also the testbed for the Skycrane system, which had received only minimal testing on Kerbin. This was aimed at the Colony.

This one slowed down even faster than the Colony had so fell over 7 clicks short of the target area. But that's why it has wheels.

Then it was time to see if the Skycrane would work.

Amazingly, the Skycrane worked flawlessly, setting the K-Ute 1 down without so much as a broken tire. Even the separator ring fell off by itself without trouble. But as you can see above, the Skycrane itself flew off towards the colony, so it was a good thing the K-Ute 1 landed so far away .

Then the K-Ute 1 started its long drive to the Duna Colony. And immediately encountered a control problem never previously experienced in all the history of the KTC in all its incarnations or the KSP in general. Turning the wheels in yaw also caused a significant roll in the same direction.

The boffins were utterly mystified by this and tried several expedients to overcome this problem. Eventually somebody thought to try switching from staging to docking mode, which had never before been done. This solved the problem and soon the rover was speeding over the dunes towards the colony.

When it arrived, Jengas insisted on mustering the troops for a commemorative photo.

Here, Camming "Camshaft" Kerman, the only essential Kerbal on the mission, sits in the K-Ute 1's driver's seat. Jengas heads the formation of the nonessential kerbsonnel, backed by his enforcer Gregnard, with the cooks, bakers, and janitorial staff lined up behind.

And so, with this humble beginning, the KTC has established the 1st-ever Kerbal colony on another planet. Being a political boondoggle, the colony has never had a clear purpose and, at an elevation of 3400m in very hilly terrain, it will be a long time, if ever, before it gets used as an airfield. So for the foreseeable future, these Kerbals will have to find their own amusement. But there's lots to do on Duna, like counting the grains of sand. There's definitely a lot of that . However, the politicians are happy so will probably increase the KTC's budget.

Anyway, the Vall Flotilla is finally getting near Jool so expect to see that in the near future.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Northstar1989]

Great to see this show is on the road again! Sorry I hadn't been keeping up with it until now...

Interesting idea with the Great Probe Massacre- but next time you need to get rid of some obsolete ships, could I suggest... a scrapping ship?

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It works for me- all you need is to install Extraplanetary Launchpads (for the "recycling bin" part on the front and RocketParts storage containers). Don't do anything with the RocketParts if you want- it still makes sense from a roleplaying perspective (better to collect the material for future use than to throw it away).

Or, if you're ready to embrace the awesomeness that is recycling and orbital construction, utilize Extraplanetary Launchpads' spacedock parts to turn those RocketParts into something useful- like empty fuel depot tanks... (personally, I use Orbital Construction Re-Redux instead, because it spawns vessels some distance away from the spacedock, and it was around before Extraplanetary Launchpads added spacedock parts, but that's an additional mod to install...)

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. I've got a purpose for your Duna colony- movie making. Have the Kerbals start recording films, and selling them back to Kerbin. It'll both increase publicity AND raise money for the space program at the same time! And it'll be a first experiment in intellectual property trade from Duna- the necessary financial backbone of any profitable self-sustaining extra-planetary colony in the long run, like I've been telling you... (if the Kerbals can grow their own food, produce their own oxygen, provide their own medical services etc. on Duna)

Edited February 25, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Geschosskopf]

Interesting idea with the Great Probe Massacre- but next time you need to get rid of some obsolete ships, could I suggest... a scrapping ship?

Hehehe, I didn't know you could do that. But it demands a better name, like "junkophage" . I'll keep it in mind but it wouldn't have been useful in this particular purge. I was destroying ships at every planet and moon (except Tylo and Pol) from Moho to Eeloo, whereas this would need a large supply of "food" at 1 planet. And, alas, I have persistent debris turned off so I don't have a great swarm of spent boosters around Kerbin; I'm afraid the poor junkophage would be forced by starvation to attack non-junk

Or, if you're ready to embrace the awesomeness that is recycling and orbital construction, utilize Extraplanetary Launchpads' spacedock parts to turn those RocketParts into something useful- like empty fuel depot tanks... (personally, I use Orbital Construction Re-Redux instead, because it spawns vessels some distance away from the spacedock, and it was around before Extraplanetary Launchpads added spacedock parts, but that's an additional mod to install...)

How is Extraplanetary Launchpads these days? I gave it (and Orbital Construction) a go a few versions back. The latter worked but seemed entirely too simple, although the rocket parts tanks were useful as test ballast in the VAB. Extraplanetary Launchpads, though, was pretty much unusable. The pad was this bizarre, self-propelled tangle of girders and welding bottles which didn't fly very well and to which it was nearly impossible to attach anything else. Is it still that way?

But as to recycling, the KTC is deliberately non-green. Were it not for the eventual overload caused by too many ships in flight and too many parts in 1 area, I would definitely have persistent debris on like I used to, filling space with junk. I do this for those who will come in the future. Without litter, without middens, without bulldozing old buildings and starting anew on top, future archaeologists will have no artifacts or stratified sites to work with .

P.S. I've got a purpose for your Duna colony- movie making.

[Northstar1989]

Oh geez, that again . Given the personnel assigned and the complete lack of equipment for set-building, makeup, lighting, music composition and recording, special effects, and film-editing, the only movies Kerbals can make are reality shows, which would be reminiscent of "Locked Up Abroad". Not really the positive propaganda the KTC is looking for . Although..... Maybe I could send them a castle-looking thing so they could to a Kerbal version of "The Last Remake of Beau Geste" .

In the meantime, this crew will serve as lab rats, being monitored closely by the scientists to see what happens to them. I'll probably send them something reasonably useful to play with eventually, shamelessly cribbing other peoples' ideas from the Flying Duna challenge .

Aww c'mon, a reality show on Duna? I'm sure it would make MILLIONS on pay-per-view!

As for Orbital Construction, it still probably works much the way you remember it. While it is relatively simple, I don't think most players (including myself) have the time to build a realistic-looking spacedock to build things in orbit. I try to limit myself to only building things at really large space stations or specialized vessels meant to acts as orbital construction platforms to simulate there needing to be a certain amount of necessary equipment. If not for the part-count limits imposed by my weak computer, I might also build a really large enclosed workspace out of structural panels in my spacedocks (one of my mods- I don't know which- gives me a really over-sized structural panel much larger than the stock ones...) or something.

Extraplanetary Launchpads now has orbital construction parts (which are easy enough to use), ground launchpads, and even an unfolding runway (although I've never tried landing on one yet- so I'm not sure how well it works). In fact, it even added some reasonably-sized RocketParts modules (though they still hold a lot less than comparably sized containers from Orbital Construction- but that makes it more balanced I guess...) for transporting RocketParts, so you don't have to rely on a million HexCans for large projects anymore...

As for the ground launchpads themselves- though it often makes more sense to build things in orbit anyways- there are two versions. One is self-propelled, the other is not. Both are quite awkward to integrate into any rocket- but the propelled variant has a smoother launchpad surface you can reasonably drive a rover off of, and also holds a very limited quantity of RocketParts. Your best strategy (and the one I'm going to utilize to set up my first Mun outpost and Duna bases) is probably to simply land the variant with integrated engines and fuel+parts storage from low orbit where you want your base to be, and either utilize the built-in RocketParts storage to build on-site, or land separately, a large *EMPTY* RocketParts module nearby- and connect it via KAS winch or pipe. The tricky part is getting the launchpad to the planet or moon in the first place- it will either require a *highly* specialized launch vehicle and tug to bring it from Kerbin, or that you build the launchpad in orbit around the planet/moon...

It's then just a matter of landing moderate-sized full RocketParts modules there (RocketParts are quite heavy- so don't expect to safely land a full large module without a *VERY* large rocket), and unloading them to the larger ground storage unit via KAS winch or pipe until you have enough RocketParts in one place to build something useful- like crew quarters, fuel storage tanks, or KSP-I ISRU refineries at the base...

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. Anything you build at an Extraplanetary Launchpad will spawn ON THE LAUNCHPAD, so you will need some way to get it off if it's a base facility- whether a rover to drag it, a skycrane, or a helicopter. Oh, and keep in mind, the launchpads look quite strange in the VAB unless you "deploy" them via tweakables- which will allow you to see what it looks like when it's actually deployed (via the right-click menu) on a planet/moon surface...

Edited February 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Northstar1989]

By the way, here's how I deployed my first Extraplanetary Launchpad (actually to the mountains west of KSC, rather than on another planet- but the principles I worked out about how to do it remain the same). This was the non-propelled variant:

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Note that I attached it at *TWO* points on the top via KAS winch, each connecting with the helicopter at a point equidistant from and mirroring the other WRT the Center of Mass. I found this greatly improved stability (reduced the tendency to swing like a pendulum- especially when the winches were both retracted close to the chopper body) vs. only attaching it at one point to the helicopter...

Oh, and the helicopter I utilized here is actually powerful enough to lift the launchpad on Duna as well- it should be able to carry twice its weight at 2000 meters altitude on Duna, and the launchpad is only a small fraction of the helicopter's weight... (since helicopter thrust falls off exponentially with altitude, it probably can only maintain about 4200 meters on Duna unloaded- too low for the Flying Duna Challenge, or I would have entered it there) I'm considering slapping a de-orbit stage on it, re-building it in orbit around Duna (easier than building a specialized transfer vehicle from Kerbin), and seeing how it does during re-entry... If I can land it, I'll probably land a launchpad via parachutes at some random location, and then use the chopper to airlift the launchpad to where I actually want it (somewhere flat at least- the probability of a launchpad dropped from orbit landing on flat ground on Duna the first time is very, very low...)

So, it *should* even be possible for you to move a launchpad around on Duna via helicopter, if you're willing to build a 20+ rotor behemoth like I did, and stick to the valleys when loaded down... Oh, and on Eve- helicopters should work even better than on Kerbin- despite the increased gravity, thanks to the thicker atmosphere and longer scale-height...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited February 26, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Geschosskopf]

Aww c'mon, a reality show on Duna? I'm sure it would make MILLIONS on pay-per-view!

Be careful what you ask for....

As for the ground launchpads themselves- though it often makes more sense to build things in orbit anyways- there are two versions. One is self-propelled, the other is not. Both are quite awkward to integrate into any rocket- but the propelled variant has a smoother launchpad surface you can reasonably drive a rover off of, and also holds a very limited quantity of RocketParts.

Thanks for the report. My interest in Extraplanetary Launchpads was to have an actual colony on Eve. To me, the main requirement for a colony is that it can (although might not actually) be connected to the rest of the empire by some sort of permanent transport system. Thus, the usual thing where people have this huge pile of 1.25m parts (so they can get it to and down on Eve to start with), transported by an even huger carrier, and all so that 1 Kerbal in a lawn chair can get to orbit on the smallest possible fuel tank, just don't fit the requirement. An SSTO lander is no longer possible with Hooligan Labs having gone out of business after 0.21, so the only remaining option is to build lifters on Eve. That way, you don't have to keep sending out boosters from Kerbin at huge cost. But this is way down the list of things I want to do. Still, I keep the occasional eye on Extraplanetary Launchpads to see if this sort of thing might be possible.

EDIT: BTW, your Imgur album link didn't work here but I saw it already in your "Maturing Program" theread. I see you fixed it.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Northstar1989]

Thanks for the report. My interest in Extraplanetary Launchpads was to have an actual colony on Eve. To me, the main requirement for a colony is that it can (although might not actually) be connected to the rest of the empire by some sort of permanent transport system. Thus, the usual thing where people have this huge pile of 1.25m parts (so they can get it to and down on Eve to start with), transported by an even huger carrier, and all so that 1 Kerbal in a lawn chair can get to orbit on the smallest possible fuel tank, just don't fit the requirement. An SSTO lander is no longer possible with Hooligan Labs having gone out of business after 0.21, so the only remaining option is to build lifters on Eve. That way, you don't have to keep sending out boosters from Kerbin at huge cost. But this is way down the list of things I want to do. Still, I keep the occasional eye on Extraplanetary Launchpads to see if this sort of thing might be possible.

Single-stage landers, in fact entire (Space-X style) reusable launch systems, are easily possible in a sustainable manner on Eve- especially with Extraplanetary Launchpads and KSP-Interstellar fusion reactors... (What you CAN'T build, however, is something reasonable that can land and takeoff on Eve without any stage detachment. It requires a colony capable of refueling reusable liquid-stage boosters with locally-produced fuel, and recycling said boosters back into launch platforms, to build a sustainable launch system...)

I wrote a rather lengthy reply about *HOW* you would actually go about building a reusable launch system on Eve (starting with how you would build a mountain launch facility there- one of the key steps). But it was *FAR* too long to post in this thread without feeling like I was hijacking your thread on the Kethane Traveling Circus- so I've created a separate thread for it instead. Read it here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71020-Eve-Reusable-Launch-System-%28REQUIRES-MODS%29

Regards,

Northstar

Edited February 27, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 15: Vall Flotilla Arrives

About 4 days after the 3rd Duna Expedition's inglorious arrival, the leading element of the Vall Flotilla, the KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig assembly, crewed by Luney, duly entered Jool's SOI.

Multiple simulations had shown that this craft had somehow been sent off about 500m/s short of being able to capture at Vall, let alone land both its components there. How had this happened? The boffins certainly couldn't have been drinking on the job . But at least the thing had enough delta-V to get into an orbit at Jool where it hopefully wouldn't be too hard to rendezvous with and await resupply. So it went in low at Jool to make sure it would stop safely inside Laythe's orbit because the Rescue Tanker was a long way out with the Laythe Expedition.

Despite 8400m/s and some extreme fireworks, Luney seemed to enjoy the experience. And so the KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig came to rest in an orbit of about 5Mm. He did what little Science! he could and settled down to hibernate for the next 3 months. Eventually, he'll carry his reports to the Vall MADNESS lander for transport back to Kerbin without him.

About 13 days later, in came the KVETCH Vall Refinery Station. Vall was in an unhandy place upon its arrival so it required a substantial burn coming out of Jool's atmosphere to meet up with it.

Still, it had no trouble getting into nice low orbit at Vall. Low for the convenience of the heavy kethane shuttle.

About 7 days later, its twin, the KVETCH Laythe Refinery Station, took its turn.

During the arrival of this whole flotilla, Laythe kept getting in the way but that was a good thing for this ship. It didn't take much to get a good intercept with it. Because of this and the low cost of capturing at Laythe, the boffins toyed with the idea of having it do a side trip to resupply the stranded Tug/Hab/Rig. Unfortunately, the Laythe Refinery hadn't been designed with fuel to spare so this proved impossible.

The Laythe Refinery duly aerocaptured at its destination into about a 200km orbit to await the arrival of the Laythe Expedition.

3 days later, the massive KVETCH Kethane Shuttle made its appearance. Being late in the queue, it lumbered higher through the atmosphere so had less-spectacular fireworks.

Going out beyond Tylo at Ap, it managed to catch Vall on the way back down without having to work too hard, then established itself in orbit at Vall. Calculations and simulations show it has plenty of fuel to land but will remain in orbit until the Luney and the KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig arrive. Best not to commit to anything before then.

Follow 5 days behind came the Vall MADNESS science lander, the last hurrah of the B-Series. It had an uneventful aerocapture and soon found itself in a nice orbit at Vall.

And last but not least, 6 days later, came the KVETCH Kethane Ferry, the link between Vall and Laythe. Laythe wanted it badly but Vall insisted it had first dibs on this ship. The boffins also considered having this ship make a detour to refuel Luney but again this was beyond its capabilities.

And so, finally, the whole Vall Flotilla was in the system.. 1 ship stuck in Jool orbit, 1 in parking orbit at Laythe, and the other 4 all in orbit at Vall.

But they didn't all stay separate for long. The boffins, impatient to get the kethane flowing, decided to see if 1 last self-rescue option would work. So they docked the Kethane Ferry to the Vall Refinery Station, then sent over one of the 2 tugs of the Vall MADNESS to see what it could do with all excess fuel in the flotilla.

This wasn't enough, either (the boffins having trimmed a lot of over-engineering out of their designs lately). So, there was nothing for it but to put everything on hold unitil the Rescue Tanker arrives with the Laythe Expedition. Fortunately, it's leading the charge and is due to enter Jool's SOI in about 84 days. Figure another 2 weeks or so to reach Jool and it looks like Luney will be waiting for about 100 days.

But before that happens, another window for Duna will come up in about 50 days. And the boffins have already thrown together something to entertain the miserable colonists of the 3rd Duna Expedition. Behold the HERD (Hybrid Exploration Rover for Duna).

While this rover has enough RTG power to move about 15m/s, it also sports a kethane-burning generator. When this is running, the thing can reach about 30m/s and climb much steeper hills. It would have been simpler to just add more RTGs but the boffins wanted to do SOMETHING with the Duna kethane rig and the KAS parts they'd put there.

It has seats for 6, SCANsat mapping, and all the reusable Science! instruments. It will be the 1st thing ever landed on Duna solely by parachute, without any rocket braking following the deorbit burn. Simulations show this will work even at the high altitude of Duna Colony 1, although the 1st wheel to touch the ground will probably pop. But that's why it's got so many, and also a herd of Kerbals on the ground to fix it, assuming it can be made to land anywhere near the colony . Due to being pretty light, it's got a conventional transfer stage which will reduce the transfer burn to less than 1 minute. Yay!

Perhaps before the Duna window, the boffins will have had other crazy ideas. Tune in next time to see.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Silverchain]

Aren't Jool flotillas fun?

[Geschosskopf]

Aren't Jool flotillas fun?

Flotillas in general are quite fun. I enjoy them rather more than just sending 1 ship at a time. They give a better sense of accomplishment and you have the feeling of having founded an empire .

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 16: Duna Reality Show

Meanwhile, back on Duna......

The political boondoggle that is Duna Colony 1 just won't go away. The politicians decided that it would be great to make a reality KV show of the daily lives of the forlorn exiles--er, I mean colonists. So after many technical difficulties (mostly due to the prison--er, I mean colony--not having been intended for this) the 1st episode of "Duna Dynasty" aired to a Kerbin-wide audience. It followed the nominal leader (at least in his own mind) of the 3rd Duna Expedition, Jengas "Khan" Kerman, through the course of one of his typical days.

And so, without further a do, the KSP presents a Kethane Travelling Circus production of "Duna Dynasty", starring Jengas. Departing from normal KTC format, Jengas provides the narration himself.

And with that, "Duna Dynasty" was immediately canceled. Just as those who enjoy sausage should never watch it being made, so neither should those who enjoy the benefits of Science! watch it being made....

---------------------------------

HOWEVER, Jengas' minions did indeed have tasks to perform. Camming and his understudy Wehrbald were told to get Duna Rig 1 up and running, ready to receive traffic. So they jumped on the SKRAP K-Ute and made the 3.7-click trip across the valley and over the hill.

En route, they performed a task given them by Jengas: to remove the flag of the 2nd Duna Landing, planted by Johnden after he proved repacked chutes could actually be made to work. It was in the way of the direct route between the Colony and the Rig and was something that had outlived its usefulness as an aiming point anyway.

Eventually, they reached the rig.

Once there, they deployed the solar panels to power up 1 drill. Soon, kethane fumes began swirling around just as expected. This got enough kethane in the tank to start the generator, which would run both drills and once, after which the solar panels could be stowed. While they were at it, Camming repacked the chutes even though the Rig was never intended to leave the ground again.

Then they began their main task, which was laying a pipeline down the hill from the Rig to make it easier for customers. While Wehrbald got the 1st pipe connector out of a box on the Rig, Camming returned to the K-Ute and got one of the ground pylons out of its trunk. He then brought this back to the rig where he turned to face in the appropriate direction and carefully stepped off 45 paces. This was the distance the instructional videos said was about as far as one joint of pipe could reach.

Wehrbald, meanwhile, had attached a pipe end to the Rig. Then he put another on the ground pylon and together, the Kerbals ran pipe between them. They were somewhat surprised this actually worked.

Then they repeated this procedure to make the pipe 2 joints long. They also added extra pipe ends on the pylons to be the actual fueling ports for customers. While installing the 2nd length of pipe, Wehrbald had an industrial accident.

But the pipe missed all his vital organs so he just shrugged it off.

By the time the Kerbals had finished the pipeline, the Rig had filled its tank with kethane so they powered it down and paused a moment to admire their work.

Camming and Wehrbald had griped about have to do all this right now. What was the rush? The window from Kerbin wouldn't open for 50 days and then whatever was coming would need another few months of travel time. They already had a rover and didn't want to see another, especially if it was just busy work for them. But they'd have been a lot more enthusiastic if they had known what the boffins have cooked up in addition....

BEHOLD, the strangest thing ever created by the Kethane Travelling Circus, and that's saying something.

The dangly bit between the legs is the DIRGE (Duna Intel and Recon Generator Electroplane). It refused to be pushed into space atop a conventional rocket. It refused to be pushed into space in front of a spaceplane SSTO ascent stage like the old D'OH. So there was nothing for it but to drag it backwards into space, kicking and screaming, behind a gangly SSTO rocket.

Amongst themselves, the boffins refer to the DIRGE as the "Walloping Windowblind" due to its 5 layers of wings. Oh how I miss B9 Aerospace. So, it's got 10 stock swept wings.

The fuselage, nearly buried by all the wings, is a 1000-bbl kethane tank. At the rear, behind the probe core and SAS unit, is a kethane generator, the sole source of power for the twin Firespitter electric props. Besides the 12x airbrakes mounted inside and outside on the vertical tails, the props have also been rigged to reverse their thrust, It has 4 control surfaces for every axis, Firespitter landing gear that can move it rover-style on the ground, and my favorite Firespitter cockpit seating 2.

Simulations on Duna show it outperforms the old D'OH in every way except perhaps range. Having no solar panels, the DIRGE can only fly as far as its kethane lasts but this seems to be quite adequate. But it can take off without needing an upslope, can fly slower on landing approach and stop in a shorter distance thanks to its reversible props, is MUCH easier to control, and can land at the elevation of Duna Colony 1, or even higher. It's so floaty, in fact, that on Kerbin the wheels in rover mode can make it reach flying speed at 8m/s. It weighs 5 tons empty, 6 tons full of kethane.

So yes, the KTC is going to fly on Duna again. Yay!

And even better, the DIRGE lifter requires a probe core of its own to fly in the right direction during launch. This means it won't disappear by itself like non-persistent debris. Instead, it has to be "recycled", for everybody's entertainment .

"And on that bombshell, we're outta here!"

Edited March 3, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 17: Laythe Colony Preparations

Meanwhile, back in the Jool system, SCANsats Advanced Laythe and Vall moved on to other moons. I'll keep this part short because probes are boring. The Laythe probe went to Pol and lacks the fuel to go elsewhere, so will remain there keeping an eye out for any sign of Azathothian activity.

The Vall probe went to Tylo. By sheer chance, when the transfer window came up, the plane of the probe's polar orbit at Vall happened to be pointing in the right direction so it didn't have to do a plane change before leaving. Never had that happen before. Anyway, it left over Vall's north pole and came in under Tylo's south pole a full orbit of Jool later, so didn't have to do a plane change there, either.

Which was all just as well because the transfer and capture burns used up the last of the booster stage, meaning it had to be dumped during capture. And once again, the little blue separator ring provided entertainment. In fact, the boffin who'd thought of using it instead of a normal decoupler put together a presentation to convince his superiors to make this standard practice. Here it is:

So only Bop remains for hi-res mapping. The Vall probe will attempt to do this as it seems to have enough fuel, but we'll see.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

And now to something more interesting: preparing the 2nd Laythe Expedition, which will establish the 1st permanent colony there.

First off, the boffins poured over the available data from the hi-res SCANsat map and the kethane scanner. The more they looked at it, the less they liked it. Here's what they had to work with:

White areas are definitely where there's kethane on land. Pink areas are where there MIGHT be a pinpoint sandspit above the surface. Red is useless, totally submerged kethane. As you can see, while there are a number of places where kethane's on land, none are very auspicious. Where it occurs on large islands, they're far off the equator and include mostly the most mountainous areas on the moon. Otherwise, the kethane is available only on tiny islands, or just tiny slivers of larger islands. This is definitely going to be a challenge.

Fortunately, the 1st Laythe Expedition includes the Probe Bomb. The 6 lander probes there will attempt to land on various islands to at least survey the lay of the land there and help pic specific landing spots. If they happen to land in a good place, they can also serve as aiming stakes for later ships. On the map, the numbers 1-6 are the islands the probes will investigate. The 2 areas marked A are sandbars that present no terrain issues other than their small target areas. Area B might nor might not have an island in it; if so, it's extremely small. In any case, that's something for a later recon plane to decide.

The overall plan for Laythe is as follows: 1st Expedition (due to arrive in the next 47-61 days) does Science! and establishes a permanent station. The 2nd Expedition, in planning now to leave in 42 days, will establish a permanent ground base to serve as the spaceport for future bases scattered over the moon. This means the spaceport needs to be near the equator and have kethane available to refuel ships leaving Laythe. Nothing on the map, however, really enthused the boffins as a good place for the spaceport so before committing to anything, they decided to at least experiment with means of exploiting underwater kethane.

These did experiments produced nothing but wreckage:

The idea here was to use the rockets on top to push the rig down. When it got close to the bottom, the KAS winches would fire grappling hooks to keep it there while drilling. However, this oculd never be made to work, always exploding pretty early in the attempt to dive.

So, reluctantly, the boffins had to admit that the only real option was this place. They processed their data through Kerbal Maps to really see what they were up against.

They call this place "Beachhead Island", due to the only kethane being on a slight strip of beach. As it happens, a kethane hex fits right into "Kethane Bay" off the east coast, just barely intersecting the land. The rest of this kethane field is unreachable offshore. But the one virtue of this place is that its pretty much on the equator (red line), and has reasonably gentle slopes in the equatorial region.

So, the boffins eventually decided to build the spaceport at the south end of the island near the small crater. Seemingly decent ground, a wide enough area to maybe hit, and kethane nearby. Then the boffins set to work figuring out how to get kethane to the spaceport.

The 1st challenge was to get something onto the narrow beach. Simulations had already shown that the standard SKRAP-type lander, such as Duna Rig 1, usually couldn't hit such a small target. Thus, the boffins decided the only real option was to put the drills on a seaplane which could land in the water and taxi up onto the beach. This led to the birth of the SHTICK:

SHTICK (SSTO Hydroplane to Tiny Islands for Collecting Kethane) is a fully functional SSTO in case it needs to move elsewhere later. It has drills and a refinery powered by a kethane generator and what the Kethane Travelling Circus says is a "Halfhiker", a 1.25m compartment with room for 2 Kerbals. It can thus serve as a camper for pilots of single-seaters.

But as usual, even though the thing can get off Kerbin on its own, pushing it out to Jool is best done with a transfer stage attached to the rear with a decoupler, so it went up on a rocket. With Tom Kerman aboard, to pump gas on Laythe for all eternity.

The next thing the boffins had to do was figure a way to get the SHTICK's kethane to the spaceport on the equator. It's fairly long trip and the terrain doesn't look that friendly for a rover anyway, especially if it's humping a 16,000-bbl tank of kethane to refuel thirsty rockets. So the boffins wondered, why not send a boat instead? Amphibious, of course. So they started tinkering.

This was the 1st prototype of the BARGE (Boat and Rover for Ground Expeditions), powered by Basic Jet Engines. The reason for this was in case it landed in the water, it needed to be able to move ashore. However, while this could reach decent speeds even with a full tank of kethane, it proved impossible to balance atop a rocket. Plus, the experimental pontoon attachment system wasn't really that great.

The BARGE Mk II had the same problems, although it was interesting in using the Firespitter Lancaster engines, which have a very cool sound and nice prop effects. No pictures survive of the Mk III, which used intakes instead of Firespitter pontoons. This one balanced well but was way too bouncy and uncontrollable on the sea.

Therefore, eventually the boffins abandoned the idea of jet-fueled engines or even trying very hard to land close to the beach. Instead, the BARGE would land somewhere on Beachhead Island and rover over to the SHTICK. This enabled them to power the Mk IV with kethane-burning jets. They'll burn some of the kethane both coming and going but not enough to really matter. And that solves a problem with all the earlier marks, which had only about a 100km jet fuel.

This powerplant got it slightly faster when full and way faster when empty. Of course, the thing has to be able to hit the island and then drive for what could be a long trip, but Beachhead Island is relatively large and the BARGE is stable on its wide base, so this should work OK, although it will probably be boring. Then the issue remained of how to balance the misshapen thing atop a rocket and make it capable of landing on Laythe. But the boffins eventually managed it.

The BARGE Mk IV and its transfer stage combined to about 90 tons (with the kethane tank empty), so it required a bit of a large lifter. But it actually worked.

And here it is in orbit. Balancing its mass for straight pushing involved careful placement of the kethane jets and radial descent tanks and engines, plus putting the kethane generator up high in the front. The side tanks and engines are on separators to ditch them once on the ground and its got a tiny probe core on top to control the descent. It was actually a pretty good challenge making it, but I think the BARGE will do the job. It's got a refinery so when it delivers the kethane to the spaceport, it can drive up to whatever needs it and make whatever kind of fuel demanded.

So, now for the spaceport. This was originally going to be just a slightly modified version of the Duna colony but the boffins weren't particularly happy with that design so make something totally new, with easier access and better views for the colonists. Not because the boffins care about the pressganged colonist, but because Laythe is a big deal and will surely attract junketing politicians someday, and this colony will be the port of entry. So it ended up looking like this, once in orbit and docked with its standard C-Series transfer tug.

Aboard, filling half the seats, is the jolly crew of fresh-faced pressees: Matgard, Elfurt, Sean, Ercas, Danley, Munzen, and Malgan. They are led by former pressee and now thoroughly institutionalized Hadfrid, the first Kerbal to land on Duna. The scientists did indeed dissect him immediately upon his return, but then put him back together. More or less. Nobody's really sure what extra pieces went into this RoboKerbal nor what original equipment was removed, but he seems to be functional and no stupider than before, so was deemed fit for this mission.

There's a slight problem with Laythe Colony 1, however. During docking with the tug, it was discovered the thing had run out of power due to the boffins having forgotten to attach RTGs or solar panels. So now some poor Kerbal will have to go install some on EVA sometime in the coming month before the transfer window.

And so once again, LKO has become crowded with ships waiting for transfer windows. This time, we have 2 flotillas: 2 ships for Duna and 5 for Jool (the other 2 ships for Jool are probes, 1 to dive into Jool and the other to grab Science! from orbiting it). And they won't be gone long before the 1st Laythe Expedition begins to arrive.

And so here's where we are at the big picture level. Still have a probe at Gilly which I really need to kill. There's the colony and station at Duna, the Vall Flotilla at Jool, the 1st Laythe Expedition about to arrive, and the SKRAP Eeloo System still with a long way to go.

It is now Day 78 of Year 4 since the Supernova of '23. IIRC, this thread started early in Year 3, so it's been going a bit over 1 year of gametime. Given the pace of real space exploration, I figure I've accomplished a fair amount in that time .

Anyway, tune in next time for solving the Laythe Colony's power problem and probably the departure of the 4th Duna Expedition at least.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Geschosskopf
added pic I forgot

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 18: Upgrading Laythe Colony

Once again, the boffins congratulated themselves on their standard policy of launching interplanetary ships a month or so in advance of their transfer windows. Not only does this allow plenty of time for the crew to learn their jobs from instructional videos, so they can hibernate the whole trip and arrive fresh and rested, but it also allows the boffins correct any prob---er, I mean, enhance mission capabilities of the ships.

Such was the case with Laythe Colony 1, which had, through monumental oversight, been launched without a source of power. The instructional video players all stopped shortly after the opening credits had rolled. When the tug docked, this restored electricity to the Colony but obviously a powerless Colony had little chance of making an accurate landing, and accuracy was at a premium on Laythe. Totally unacceptable, so the boffins considered several ways to fix the problem.

• Option 1: Land with pre-deployed chutes and hope for the best, then have Tom drive over with the BARGE, pull an RTG off it, and stick it on the Colony. This seemed rather risky, especially because there was no guarantee Tom could even reach an RTG on the BARGE.
  
• Option 2: Deorbit the Colony and replace it with the Mk II version that had already been built. This seemed too boring and too much an admission of failure, which is bad for PR.
  
• Option 3: Send up the necessary parts and attach them in EVA using KAS technology. This could also add additional parts, upon which media attention would be focused, so the whole mission could be passed off as an upgrade, for which the RTGs could be claimed as necessary power sources.
  

The boffins ultimately decided to at least try Option 3. However, previous experience with Kerbals trying to jetpack while carrying parts had shown this to be extremely difficult and inaccurate. It simply wouldn't do. Therefore, the boffins decided to dock a ship to the colony that would have a framework specially designed to hold the necessary parts close to where they needed to go on the Colony, with ladders the EVA Kerbal could hang onto while doing the work. Then the only EVA flight would be from ladder to ladder under perfect control. Thus resolved, the boffins went to work and, thanks to the magic of Sub-Assemblies, were able to create this in fairly short order:

It didn't take much to get this into orbit. Once up, the Laythe Colony Upgrade Vehicle posed for a PR shot:

On the inner parts of the arms are the necessary RTGs, 4 in total just in case the Kerbal dropped some in space. The outboard ends of the arms have 2 fingers, each holding the upgrade parts. The boffins decided that the Colony should have deck chairs on its roof so any visiting VIPs would be able to enjoy the fresh air and view. Because much depended on docking at the correct angle to line the framework up with the Colony's parts without hitting things like the parachutes, much of the design effort went into making the Upgrade perfectly balanced under RCS control. This is, ultimately, what required it to have 2 command pods, the lower one being for recovery of the Kerbal who'd do the job.

This task fell to Johnden, recently released from post-Duna experimentation at the hands of the scientists. Of the available Kerbals, he had the most experience with EVA due to having carried a lot of data from the Duna Lander to the Duna SHEER MADNESS. He rode up in the 2-seat can as it was closer to the framework arms and the same diameter as the Colony, so maneuvering around inside the framework would be easier.

In due course, the Upgrade Vehicle docked with Laythe Colony 1. Johnden took the opportunity to resume his custom of domineering Hadfrid who, not wanting to lose face in front of his crew, was only stopped from going out to fight Johnden by Mission Control locking the Colony's hatches and disabling Johnden's radio transmitter. And also activating various electrodes inside Johnden's suit...

Thus chastened, Johnden got down to business. First thing was to attach an RTG so Johnden flew to the nearest one, grabbed the ladder, and put the RTG on his back.

He then attached it to the Colony in exactly the place where it comes as standard equipment on the Mk II version.

Next, Johnden moved to the adjacent ladder and tried his hand at installing a deck chair.

This was also pretty simple, although Johnden put it on facing the opposite direction to that desired for the Mk II configuration. The ability to rotate attached parts apparently exists but the boffins hadn't read that far into the KAS user manual so had to be happy with it as-is. But no biggie--if the boffins can figure out how, the colonists can turn it around at Laythe.

And so Johnden worked his way all around the Colony attaching RTGs and deck chairs. In the process, he got better at the job. For instance, he discovered he could simply move a part from the Upgrade Vehicle to the Colony without having to put it on his back in the middle. But all the deck chairs ended up facing inboard instead of outboard. Oh well, at least the colonists will now have something to do until they get more toys to play with.

The task was completed in a very short amount of time with no problems at all apart from the backwards chairs. The boffins were totally surprised--they'd been expecting all sorts of glitches and disasters as the tribal legends of the Kethane Travelling Circus told always happened when messing with KAS stuff in space. They made Johnden fly all around the ship twice to make sure everything was really OK.

Satisfied at last that all parts had been attached and nothing had exploded or glitched off into space, Johnden was allowed to enter his return pod.

The Upgrade Vehicle then undocked and pulled away from the Colony in preparation for its de-orbit burn.

After doing a burn to come down near KSC, the return pod separated from the main part of the Upgrade Vehicle. Both were now on landing trajectories sufficiently far apart to not hit each other on the way down. And while Mission Control really wanted to watch the big part crash and burn, they had to devote their attention to Johnden's pod. So sadly, no explosion pics .

And so Johnden returned safely from his 3rd trip to space. He only had to walk about 4 clicks to get back to KSC. Meanwhile, Laythe Colony 1 is cleared for departure on schedule.

Tune in next time for something hopefully more interesting.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 19: Dual Depature

When we last left the Kethane Travelling Circus, it was about 18 days until the departure of the 4th Duna Expedition and about 42 days until the departure of the 2nd Laythe Expedition. There was only 1 thing worth doing in the interim: destroying the SCANsat Advanced probe taking up space at Gilly. Cue the gratuitous destruction.

If you look close, you can see Gilly in the lower left and Eve center right, This was when the probe was departing Gilly for a very low Pe at Eve.

The probe screamed into Eve's atmosphere and was eventually destroyed on impact. It had to burn towards the ground the whole way to get a speed over 2 digits.

That out of the way, it was soon time to send the 4th Duna Expedition on its way. This hardly counts as a flotilla due to being just 2 shps. Here, the HERD departs on its conventional transfer stage with a burn time of about 2 minutes. Jengas has already called dibs on the rear, more luxurious compartment.

Shortly followed by the DIRGE Mk II to give the colonists some real exploration power. Again, a very short burn.

And that was it for the 4th Duna Expedition. No Kerbals were harmed or sent into space without any hope of retrieval, rather a 1st for the KTC .

There being no other pressing business, nothing happened until it was time to get the 2nd Laythe Expedition on the road. As usual with burns for Jool, all this happened on the dark side so no pics of transfer burns worth showing except this one of the SHTICK.

Why is this significant? Because it contained Tom Kerman. And if you remember from a few episodes back, which your humble narrator hadn't until he reread this whole thread just now, Tom was the scientist who researched the Pyramids on Kerbin. All Kerbals with "normal" names are supposed to be scientists, not pressees. So how did Tom and also Sean, aboard Laythe Colony 1, end up dragooned into heading for Jool? Because they happened to be snot-slinging drunk in a Kerb City spacer dive when the pressgang came through. Since the whole tech tree has been unlocked long since, the scientists have been keeping rather casual working hours so nobody had noticed the absence of Tom and Sean until the 2nd Laythe Expedition was conducting its burns. By which point, of course, it was too late to alter circumstances. But at least Mission Control now understood why they'd been getting a constant barrage of complaining messages. which they'd naturally ignored, despite the chemical indoctrination being administered to the crew spaces of the SHTICK and Laythe Colony 1.

The boffins, of course, couldn't stop laughing despite being bludgeoned about the heads and shoulders by the still-overwhelming numbers of scientists who stormed Mission Control in protest. So this went up to senior KSP level where it soon ended up on the desk of the Benevolent Autonomous Dictator of All Space Stuff (BADASS). The BADASS decreed that it was fitting punishment for the youthful indiscretions of Tom and Sean to spend some time on a Jool trip cooling their heels, they should still be given something Science! to do. Forget that Jeb, Bill, and Bob in the 1st Laythe Expedition are due to arrive any day now and do all the Science! Laythe has to offer. Somebody must carry on the fight!

So the boffins were directed to give Tom and Sean something to Science! with. Due to it being needed RIGHT NOW, there wasn't much choice but to put floats on a mothballed prop plane and shoot it up after the others. They called this the SPLAT (Scout Plane for LAythe Terrain), quickly strapped a lifter under it, and shot it up in time to leave with the others.

And here's a pic of the previously unseen Jool Orbit Return Probe (JORP) with 2 Science! Bombs on the nose. It's to get high and low orbit data and bring it back to Kerbin.

And also the Jool Diver Probe:

Anyway, with the addition of the SPLAT, the 2nd Laythe Expedition ended up being 6 ships. Here they all go:

In the background you can see the Vall Flotilla already there, the 1st Laythe Expedition due to start arriving in the next few days, and whatever's at or en route to Eeloo.

So this gives us the following Big Picture:

1 ship heading for Eeloo, the 1st and 2nd Laythe Expeditions en route, and also the 4th Duna Expedition. I like busy transfer orbits

Tune in next time for the arrival of the 1st Laythe Expedition.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 20: Luney's Saga

After the departure of the 2nd Laythe Expedition, it was only 4 days until the 1st ship of the 1st Laythe Expedition entered Jool's SOI. However, this ship was the KVETCH Rescue Tanker so it properly belongs to the 1st Vall Flotilla. Besides, it arrived at Jool 13 days ahead of the rest of the 1st Laythe Expedition and a lot can happen in that time. So, instead of this episode being about the 1st Laythe Expedition's arrival, it will continue the tale of the 1st Vall Flotilla, specifically as regards Luney stuck in a 5Mm orbit around Jool in the KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig. His stay there had stymied all other efforts of the 1st Vall Flotilla and getting him where he needed to be ended up being quite a story in itself, so that's all this episode deals with

Here, the KVETCH Rescue Tanker aerocaptures at 105km to rendezvous with Luney's 5Mm Jool orbit. It had been apparent for some time that not only had the design boffins been drunk when they designed Luney's ship, but whichever junior boffin had been on duty in the middle of the night when Luney arrived hadn't given the situation much thought. It would have been far better to have had Luney aerocapture out near Vall instead of close in to Jool. But the situation was what it was so the main boffin team, rather hung-over, had to deal with it when they got on duty again.

The KVETCH Rescue Tanker's aerocapture was a bit inside Luney's orbit so it needed a bit of a burn to rendezvous with him.

After this burn, the orange tank was empty apart from gobs of RCS fuel so it was left in an elliptical Jool orbit while its tug continued on to the KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig. The tank can still probably get somewhere if need be.

The tug then rendezvoused with Luney's ship and with this extra fuel and thrust, the assembly went on to Vall no problem.

By the time Luney was in the appropriate Vall orbit, the rest of the 1st Laythe Expedition had entered Jool's SOI. All these other ships had about 1 day between their Jool Pe's. All are bound for Laythe. But it was still nearly 2 weeks before the 1st of them reach its Jool Pe so that was more time to deal with Luney.

With Luney now in Vall orbit, it was time to test the waters. So the KVETCH Vall Shuttle separated from its tug and headed down to the richest kethane field closest to the equator (5^ S latitude). At this point, all tanks are empty except the radial columns beside the central tank.

The 50-ish-ton KVETCH Vall Shuttle landed in the chosen kethane field no problems with a few hundred delta-V to spare.

The on-duty boffins, after 2 weeks on the job already, had begun drinking again, however, and had forgotten how much delta-V the KVETCH Tug/Hab unit had with full tanks. Thus, they sent the full 2nd tug from the Vall MADNESS Lander over to the KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig/Rsscue Tanker Tug just to be sure

Once it was docked and the whole KVETCH Tug/Hab/Rig assembly pumped full of fuel, the KVETCH Vall Rig separated and started down to hopefully land near the KVETCH Vall Shuttle already on the surface.

The lander legs worked perfectly to protect the tires and the landing was well above the usual standards of the Kethane Travelling Circus in terms of being close to the target.

Just to make sure Luney's ship was fully fueled, the tug from the KVETCH Vall Shuttle joined the party, totally unnecessarily. The it was time for the KVETCH Tug/Hab module with Luney aboard to try to land somewhere near the previous landings.

'

This landing went even better than the Rig's, putting Luney about halftway between that unit and the Shuttle.

Then the Vall Science Lander separated from the Vall MADNESS and started on down.

The lander's descent looked quite good on the way down.

But almost too good. The lander just barely missed Luney's KVETCH Tug/Hab module. Still, a miss is as good as a mile and once the Vall Science Lander was down, the KVETCH Rig drove over to refuel it. In fact, it really didn't need refueling to get back to orbit but Mission Control, having had enough of all this drunken mucking about, wanted to make sure the new KAS pipe system worked as intended. Anyway, it automatically fired all its Science! parts once it landed.

At this point, Luney got out, grabbed a handful of Vall's surface gravel, and planted his flag. He also put his data from his stint in Jool orbit in his pockets, and made new observations about conditions on Vall.

Now, your humble narrator has mentioned several times that Luney is to be left on Vall for all eternity. But Luney himself didn't know that. He thought he was going home with the Vall MADNESS Lander. Thus, what happened next is best told by the radio transcript between Luney and Mission Control.

Luney needed some persuasion from electrodes in his suit but eventually agreed to carry out the mission plan. Meanwhile, the Vall MADNESS Lander went on up to rendezvous with the rest of the Vall MADNESS. Which by this time had only 1 tug and nearly no fuel in the big orange tank. So the orange tank was pumped dry and discarded, although like the 1 in Jool orbit it has enough RCS to go somewhere should need arise. The end result was the lander docked to the last tug.

Now, there's a window for leaving Jool for Kerbin coming up in about 11 days, which the Vall Lander will need a fueled-up tug to meet. The scientists of course demanded that the Vall Lander and its data start heading home at that time. Fortunately for the KSC, however, the boffins run Mission Control. The homeward-bound window was put on the agenda but at low priorty. With the rest of the 1st Laythe Expedition already within Jool's SOI and soon to be needing attention, it might happen that the Vall Lander will miss this window. But the boffins figure no big deal because by the time the next window comes around, the 1st Laythe Expenditoin will be sending its own data home in the Laythe SHEER MADNESS. That way, the scientists will get 2 loads of data at once. So the for the time being, the kethane brought up by the KVETCH Vall Shuttle will be used to send a load of fuel to Laythe and the Vall Lander will just have to wait.

Meanwhle, back on Vall, Luney glumly drove over to the KVETCH Vall Shuttle and hooked it up to the KVETCH Vall Rig. This not only filled the outrigger kethane tanks to capacity but also refueled the ascent/descent LFO tanks.

This accomplished, Luney drove the rig back to his KVETCH Tug/Hab module and climbed inside. The pic below shows the panoramic view afforded Luney by the wall-to-wall HDTV screens affixed to the inside of his Hitchhiker. which can never be turned off. So who can really feel bad for him? He's got a creat view (of the industrial wasteland of Vall), a Hitchhiker all to himself, a company car (that does about 8m/s flat out),. and a whole world to call his own. Plus, he's got immortality for being the 1st Kerbal in the Jool system and the 1st Kerbal on Vall. Beats being in KSP (Kerbin State Prison) for 20-years-to-life for that DWI hit-and-run on his record.

Of course, pretty much none of the above ever made it into the mainstream media back on Kerbin. Instead, media attention focused on the huge load of kethane rocketing up from the surface of Vall. And anyway, the alternative for Luney would have been dissection upon arrival back at Kerbin. And he'll never get there to receive any accolades anyway. So all in all, he's got it better than most Kerbals.

Despite weighing in at a bit over 100 tons, the KVETCH Vall Shuttle made a rendezvous with the KVETCH Vall Refinery and KVETCH Kethane Ferry with a bit over 300m/s delta-V to spare. But almost zero RCS fuel remaining. Making sure the Shuttle has enough fuel to land again, and topping up the Ferry besides making sure its kethane tank is full, will no doubt require another trip or 2 for the Shuttle. But this is just the expected extras for getting the whole show going, only made a bit worse by the poor design of Luney's ship. It's still expected that the KVETCH system will provided all that's needed to support all anticipated Laythe expeditions, which is its purpose after all.

Tune in next time for the more mucking about at Vall, the arrival of the 1st Laythe Expedition, and/or perhaps the departure of the Vall Lander.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Geschosskopf