Colonization: Ch6 Atomic Science- Part 27:Cleaning Up(AAR) [pic heavy]

I'm sorry I've been a little late in this. Been rather busy. Actually had about half of part one written for a few days but couldn't get the time to finish it off. Might be like that for a bit, hopefully not, but you never know *shrugs*

This is not a tale of a specific mission, but more a collection of projects as the Kerbals learn about atomic energy in space, and doing more science with high tech gizmos. Yes, KSPI's science lab is coming up soon in several projects.

On another note, when I played this through in game I didn't have Texture Replacer installed, let alone 'Pimp my Kerbals' pack for it. Thus no Kermins (female Kerbals) in game. As I'm playing now I do have that, but that's a way off from where the AAR written is so here you'll only have Kermins in KSC etc, written about but not seen in the pics... yet. Call it retconning if you want *shrugs*

Testing

Footsteps clattered down the mostly empty halls of KSC, the few people who were up at this hour of the early morning hurried to get out of the Kerbal's way. Although he ran rather fast, and seemed able to dodge the odd passerby, his cornering abilities were somewhat lacking.

"Wha...?"

*Screeeeech! Thump. CRASH!*

"Ooowwww!"

Ipdel shook his head, slowly pulling himself up into a sitting position, still panting hard.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" He said, holding his head and wincing. That was going to leave a mark!

"Uuunnnnggh!" groaned a rather melodious voice.

Blinking he made out the Kerbal... Kermin he'd collided with.

"Oh, OH! I'm so terribly sorry!" he said again, reaching down to attempt to help the poor girl up.

"Meh." She said, still wincing and wobbling a bit as Ipdel helped her to her feet "Me own fault for not looking up once in a while. Machel." she added, sticking her hand out.

Ipdel blinked but shook her hand almost by reflex.

"Oh, so..." he looked at the scattered papers on the floor, "... you're a... scientist?" Her very slight frown caught his attention, then he clenched his eyes shut. "That's rude of me. Sorry. I'm Ipdel, sorry. Communications and control specialist."

"Oh... Heh." She said while finishing gathering her stuff and then, suddenly grinning, she shot upright and come to an exaggerated attention, saluting Ipdel with a flourish. "Technician Machel reporting for duty, Saaah!"

Ipdel couldn't help but grin, her doing a passable immitation of a drill Sargent.

"Um, at ease Machel." he said with a grin. "Look, I'm late for the TMS launch... I'm assuming your assisting with the remote guidance study for it? Better run too!"

As Machel gaped for a moment he grinned, gave her a wave, and ran off down the corridor.

"KEEP UP!" he yelled as she desperately tried to jam her papers back in their folder, attempting to do as he asked.

***

"Late Ipdel?" Gene said as the gasping tech ran into Mission Control "Not like you."

Uncharacteristically Ipdel grinned back at Gene and then strode to his post, attempting to act nonchalant.

"Oh just... busy sir."

Barely moments later Machel dashed in, also out of breath.

"Sorry, *gasp* sir. Got... sidetracked!" she stopped seeing quite a few nearby staff eyeing her and Ipdel with a smile. Wait, had Ipdel said something?

Unable to avoid blushing she went to her post beside him and started to set up the unfamiliar systems. Her first day on the job and already things were weird!

"OK, what did you say?" she whispered heatedly as she got her panels working.

Ipdel slowly glanced her way, attempting (poorly) to suppress a smile.

"I don't know what you mean. I mere said I'd been delayed getting here."

"You said..." She blinked, glanced around Mission Control, and saw their stares in a new light. "... Oh, that's a dirty trick! I mean, you could have just asked you know."

Now it was Ipdel's turn to blink, uncomprehendingly as she calmly pulled her swivel chair over to his, leaned over, and kissed him on his cheek.

She was very satisfied with his flustered expression as she got back to getting her board working.

"So, Sir, what are your orders?"

She had to nudge him with her elbow a couple of times before he broke his gape and came to his senses.

"What?... Oh, right. We've got primary and secondary telemetry links to establish, cross check the main data bus on remote guidance feed, do a subsidiary and primary diagnostic on the sensor systems as well as a full system integration analysis." He said, slowly slipping back into his more usual, geeky persona.

"Roger wilco." She said, getting started, then after a few seconds paused and turned back, nodding towards Ipdel's cheek where she'd kissed him. "By the way, that meant yes." and she turned back to her controls, satisfied that she'd managed to fluster him again.

I mean, heck. If all these guys were going to think she was dating him, she might as well get something out of it!

This was going to be an interesting tour in Mission Control!

***

"And we have liftoff!" Gene announced.

The somewhat sombre tone in Mission Control lifted a little now that the rather truculent drone was finally in the air. The last few hours had been... troublesome. Numerous problems had cropped up with the linkage between the flight control computers and the onboard systems. Ipdel had been run ragged as the scheduled launch slipped back hour after hour.

Finally he'd sorted the last problems with the secondary data relays and the countdown had restarted for the last time. As the crew watched the ship soar into the sky the tired Ipdel pored over his controls, his new assistant somewhat worried for him.

"You know now it's going you could take a break? I can monitor the systems to..."

Ipdel frowned at Machel and shook his head.

"During a launch? You gotta be kidding!" He said, then went back to the displays. "MJ Systems speed regulation is stabilized at terminal velocity... and holding. Standing by to engage acceleration limiters."

The 'trick' of limiting your speed to the terminal velocity (the speed that an object falling under gravity stabilizes at) for a neutral object at the specific altitude you were at had been known for some time. Jeb had notoriously flown to orbit on one of the early flights without telling flight control that he'd 'acquired' a simple chart of terminal velocities (for a falling Kerbal has it happens, not the regulation 'neutral object' KSC had later approved) and manually matched it on ascent, reducing drag losses without loosing more due to gravity loss that he gained. The results were arriving in orbit with extra fuel, more leeway on landing utilizing that extra fuel, and Jeb thoroughly 'thanking' the young scientist who'd printed the chart out for him. She'd gone on to bigger and better things at least, or so the scuttlebutt around KSC said.

Up till recently the same trick was programmed into the ship's systems, giving a readout of what the current terminal velocity was at any given altitude. If the ship's engines pushed it faster than that, throttle down. Fairly simple. Now with the new automation systems the ship could automatically regulate to terminal velocity without any pilot input, on the ship or remotely from KSC. It heralded quite a few simplifications during launches in future.

The addition of acceleration limiters, to throttle back as the ship lost mass so high acceleration wouldn't stress the frame, was almost an afterthought.

"Gravity turn initialized." Machel said quietly "Systems steady."

Mission control slowly became more tense again as the shutdown of the boosters and the initialization of the new atomic engines got closer. The ship arced further and further over, slowly approaching horizontal as it's altitude increased. A couple of minutes into the launch and the ship was well over fifty kilometers up and the single stage of boosters was nearly spent. The last few checks on the new engines were run before the staging command was given. This was not left up to automatics.

"And... booster shutdown. Jettisoning boosters." Ipdel nervously eyed the readouts, but the boosters separated perfectly. "Warmup sequence on reactor is... complete. All readouts are in the green. Thermal dissipation panels extending... and locked. Pumps read green on thermal dissipators. Coolant systems nominal... I am reading slightly higher than expected thermal transfer to the dissipation systems. Flight, can I get a check on estimated thermal balance?"

Gene routed through EECOM and Telemetry as well as a few other stations to get an accurate estimate on where the current thermal systems would end up after a few hours to a day or so.

"It's going to be high, but within tolerance. With the reactor at 30% it should stabilize at maybe 80% to 85% thermal load." Gene said finally, relaying the data from various sources around Mission Control. "Since the reactor only needs to be at 100% for the main engine, and the main engine actively cools the systems I don't see it as a problem."

"Understood flight. Going for NuExT initialization." Ipdel said, routing the reaction mass of the large quantity of hydrogen from the tanks to the 'Nuclear Exhaust Thermal' engine. "Telemetry reads good. We are on heading for circularization burn. Engaging drive."

Everyone tensed as the nuclear rocket warmed up, slowly rising to twenty five percent thrust at first. True, they'd had LV-Ns running for over a year now, but this was a more complex animal altogether. No-one wanted a nuclear accident to rain radioactive debris on someone. Right now they were sub-orbital and were relying on the engine to finalize the orbit.

When everything read nominal Ipdel ramped the engine slowly up to the maximum one hundred percent on the throttle and the flight computer adjusted course to stabilize the already high apoapsis. They'd purposely aimed for the boosters to kick the ship high, rather than adding more horizontal velocity. That way they gained more time outside atmosphere for the nuclear engine to stabilize the orbit. Now the apoapsis rose beyond a hundred and fifty kilometers as the engines burned.

Ipdel and Machel monitored the systems carefully, Machel checking the subsidiary system computers such as thermal control while Ipdel focused more on navigation and guidance, his speciality anyway. Things seemed to be going well but Ipdel didn't let himself be lulled into a false sense of security and kept on the readouts right to the end of the burn. With a maximum acceleration of less than a third of a gravity that would take a while.

"Booster confirmed beginning re-entry." Milton said over on Telemetry.

At least this launch wouldn't add to the already debris-packed orbits in LKO.

"OK, nearly there." Ipdel muttered as the acceleration rose while the mass dropped. They wouldn't be using all of the fuel by a long shot, but it was enough of a shift to leave the vessel pulling higher gs as it went on.

"And.... engine shutdown." Ipdel announced and immediately checked the navigation feeds. "Stable orbit at 198 kilometers!"

A sigh seemed to race around Mission Control as the automated ship settled into orbit, it's reactor slowing to thirty percent load. Machel was the only one not relaxing and Ipdel's smile faded.

"What is it?" he said softly, Gene starting to look in his direction questioningly.

For a few moments Machel didn't answer, then she glanced up with an anxious expression.

"I'm reading a failure on number four coolant pump. The re-routing isn't functioning. Panel four is getting dangerous vibrations and a pressure build up." She said, returning hurriedly to her panel.

"Vent it!" Ipdel said, going to his own display to attempt to assist.

"I can't. Systems aren't responding. Pressure levels rising. I can't..."

"Catastrophic failure on radiator pump assembly!" She almost shouted. "The manifold blew. I'm reading nothing from any of the Panel readouts."

Ipdel sighed and settled back in his couch.

"That would be because the panel has been blown clear of the ship." He said slowly. "Double check all other coolant pump assemblies, isolate the number four systems and recalculate the thermal load."

Gene, Machel and others went over the data, but it didn't look good.

"It's going to over heat even on 30%." Gene said finally, getting a last feed in from Milton. "Shut it down."

Ipdel looked with pained expression at Gene, but with a sigh began the shut down proceedures. Unfortunately the restart systems could not be automated. Perhaps they could send someone up to fix it later, then restart it? Maybe. Otherwise this whole project was a bust.

"OK people!" Gene said loudly. "I know this is a disappointment, but don't loose sight of the goals. This was a test vessel. Gather as much data as you can before we shut the rest of the ship down. We need to know why this happened. Get to it people."

Mission control personnel began tapping keyboards again furiously as the attempted to gain as much as possible from the ship before the project was shut down.

"I don't know what happened." Machel muttered, and Ipdel went over to her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"It happens, more often when things are rushed like this whole thing was too." He said carefully. "It's not your fault. Just try to find out what happened, OK Machel? We'll figure it out."

With a wan smile she knuckled down to her job and Ipdel sat back down to help her.

Not a fun day!

Edited March 17, 2015 by Patupi
Part link updates

Patupi · February 23, 2014

Munar Science Base Launch

Rodsy492: Yeah, the whole data stack has been locked down, but I can't tell who by. The ID request at source is too much.

Seanbur looked idly at the screen, the Munar view through the window behind the computer still catching him on occasion. He'd been here at Munbase for maybe four months this time, and was due to shuttle back due to bone decalcification. Excercise and drugs could only do so much.

Meanwhile he had to deal with minor irritations like this IM with Rodsy back on Kerbin. It was only one of many he was dealing with at present, though most of the others were more interesting. Currently he was talking to Senbo himself on possibilities of extending reusability designs on vessels to the Mun. Two scientists on the continent of Lal that were interested in his theories on Solar ejecta and Electromagnetic resonance with planetary body local magnetic fields. A cartoonist in Barkton wanting to serialize his epic (as he told it) trip to Minmus with death defying feats and close call with Eastern music. Rodsy had chimed in half an hour ago and started talking about the Jool mission and why he couldn't look at the information from the recorders.

SeanKEclectic: I thought you said you couldn't find any trace of it on the servers? How did you find what to look for to see it was locked down?

Rodsy had been... a little odd since their trip to Jool. Seems something he wouldn't talk about had made him reluctant to talk about anything to either Jedwig (which Seanbur could understand) or Jeb. The guy needed to get another hobby or interest to keep him away from this conspiracy nonsense! Or at least find someone else to bother about it!

SeanKEclectic: Look, why don't you try to look at data remotely gathered? I know there are several telescopes pointed at the Jool system. With what you know you could cross correlate and try to work out any missing data.

Rodsy492: You're not serious? None of the scopes get near enough resolution to analyse the moons themselves. I hear there have been a few efforts to get funding for a space telescope but they haven't 'got off the ground' LMAO.

Rodsy's sense of humor could do with some work too.

Rodsy492: Besides, I can't remember enough to cross correlate like that. And what I mostly want is from Bop. None of that information is available to the public... or me. Why can't I get access to data from a mission I was on! It's infuriating!

Seanbur shouldn't double post like that. Rodsy never answered the first post when he did that. Now he was more focused on Professor Lehnrick's theory on a weak plasma envelope, riding the Kerbolar wind and linking the different planetary bodies. Holding five conversations at once was hard!

"Hey, Seanbur!" A hoarse cry from the corridor made him jump. "Satellite's nearly below the horizon. Better wrap it up."

He wished they'd launch another to replace the comm-sat that had died last week. Getting out of touch with KSC periodically was annoying. He quickly typed various apologies to the people he was talking to, but Rodsy was still typing posts.

Rodsy492: I've been taking a course in planetology to make me more likely to get picked for the next mission to Jool, but I just caansnsndlo&&&&&&&&

*Signal lost, data packet integrity check failed.*

"Dang!" Seanbur berated himself. "Never got to say goodbye to Rodsy! That's just going to beef up his conspiracy theories even more now *sigh*"

With reluctance he got up to see what new disasters Dansey had thought up while he was busy. That last 'flight' with the rover had nearly smashed into the base. Bob had given him a real talking to! Not that it seemed to do much good. The guy seemed to not care about anything outside his rover when he was driving it.

A loud cry and a rather slow sploshing sound made Seanbur wince. Ah. Dansey must have been grounded again. He only got the 'bucket of water balanced on the hatches' routine going when he couldn't leave the base.

"DANSEY!" Bill's voice echoed through the base.

Oh this was going to be good. Seanbur headed out to see how bad it was this time. Rodsy would have to wait for later.

***

Rodsy looked up at the poster on the wall of the central hall at the personnel center. His finger tracing a list of Kerbonauts... without his name on it.

"Dang it, didn't get on again!" he said, putting his phone away, his IM lost. Dang satellite interference! Now he was more interested in the dilemma of his failure to get on the Munar Science Base mission.

He'd been turned down for the four next missions due up and wasn't sure what to do about it. He hadn't finished his Geology course with the planetology extension yet, so that wouldn't help in his qualification for any off world missions...

With some effort Rodsy forced a smile on his face. Things had seemed so much easier before KSC. He'd been a happy go lucky Kerbal, loving everything life had thrown at him... until Jool. Partly it had been the two 'officers' on the mission. Jeb and Jedwig had either been at each other's throats or laughing with each other... and usually at the wrong times, as far as Rodsy could see anyway. Partly it had also been the sheer terror of the whole thing.

He'd been near death, several times. To be in a dangerous situation was one thing, and just working through it going by your own efforts to see you through... but that Jool mission? He was glad they hadn't woken him up earlier as they were nearing Kerbin. He'd already been worked up and that would have sent him over the edge.

"Rodsy? Hey, long time no see!"

Rodsy turned, still a little shaky. Probably too much Koffee.

"Thomcan? Oh my Kod, since when were you at KSC?"

Thomcan had been a friend a long time ago, helping him learn to fly at the Kelford Aerodrome. Last he'd heard Thomcan had joined the airforce. He looked well, healthy, though as Rodsy gazed at him Thomcan's expression seemed to falter, suddenly anxious.

"Um. Are you OK Rodsy?" He said, resting a hand on Rodsy's shoulder.

"What? Yes yes, I'm fine!" Rodsy paused, then wondered. Why was Thomcan thinking that? Oh god, they'd done something to him! The mission, some radiation. Were they keeping the med reports from him? "Oh Kod, or am I? W... where's the infirmary?"

"Hey, HEY! Rodsy, what's with you? I didn't mean you looked sick it's just... I don't remember seeing you without a smile before. It looks, weird."

Slowly Rodsy's heart starting beating normally.

"Oh, right. Um. Lot of stress." Rodsy managed a weak smile. "So, you're here as...?"

"Scientist. Actually went in for biology. Right now I'm trying to get a grant to study plant life and atmospheric interaction. I came to KSC to look into future of life support systems and how to improve them."

"Wow, well we could use that certainly." Rodsy said, the horror of his trip flooding back. "And maybe a radiation shielded system too."

"I'm guessing this is a long story huh?" Thomcan said, putting an arm around Rodsy's shoulder.

"Oh yeah." Rodsy said, then as he glanced up at the Roster without his name on it he sighed. "Guess I have time to go over it with you now though. Come on, I'll fill you in."

Rodsy escorted his friend towards the cafeteria where he could go into laborious detail on what had been happening.

This might take a while.

***

Meanwhile, on the mission Rodsy didn't get on the flight roster for...

Hengee lay back on the acceleration couch with a wide smile. This was what he lived for!

"Are we nearly ready?" A voice came over the comms.

"Nearly." Hengee replied. "Don't worry Gregson, we'll be fine. And you know you can bring the ETA of the launch on your screen, right?"

"Um, yeah, I knew that!" he said in a squeak.

Baby sitting four egg heads wasn't Hengee's idea of a fun time, but he did get to go to the Mun to make up for it! The Mun! Oh this was gonna be good!

"T-minus five... four..." Gene's voice came on the line as Hengee finished going through the checklist.

"Main engines lit, boosters..." he said softly while Gene counted

"...Zero, Ignition!"

With a roar the solid rockets exploded into life and lifted the ship from the ground, the launch clamps falling away with a clang. Seven engines, four from the second stage and three from the third stage blazed away, with the boosters assisting in catapulting it into the sky.

It was an ingenious design. The lower three skipper engine pods were exactly opposite in alignment to the upper three skipper engine pods. Thus the exhaust from the upper first stage engines went down between the second stage pods. Fuel from the second stage fed the first until it was jettisoned, thus saving having to put extra engines on the second stage.

Hengee could care less. It was a thunderous thing of beauty and it leaped high, carrying him skyward. That was all that mattered.

With a clang the solid boosters around the lower second stage separated and fell away.

"We're starting the gravity turn." He shouted into his mike.

"Really?" Came Gregson's sardonic response. "I hadn't noticed! Oh god, where's the barf bag!"

Hengee shook his head and focused on the flight. That guy was a total wuss!

"He's OK!" Mac said from down below. He was in the same pod as Gregson... poor guy! "Um, we might need a cleaning crew in here once we get to orbit though."

Oh, that was not a nice thought! Thanks heavens Hengee didn't have video feed from in there!

The ship thundered higher, the odd twin configuration of the main vessel, balanced on top of the first stage, waving a little as it rose.

"Second stage away!" Hengee shouted as the spent engine stack tumbled beneath them.

The three engines that had been aiding the second stage were now joined by one last engine that had been cowled by the coupler. The acceleration picked up a little as they turned over more, but it wasn't going to be enough of course.

With a grin Hengee started the warmup procedures on the reactor. The engineers swore to him they'd ironed out the bugs from the TMS-1 and the system now was fine. All Hengee knew was that when the first stage fell he'd be lighting his very own NUCLEAR ENGINE!

His grin slowly spread as the fuel in the first stage fell and finally, with a heavy jolt, it was cast aside.

"Atomic motors to power!" Hengee said and slammed the big red button. He'd actually had to beg a technician to make the button big and red, but it was SO worth it!

The acceleration was nothing to write home about, not even quite a half a gravity, but they were now running on nuclear... stuff. This was so cool! While he stabilized things he unfurled the new, improved radiators that he had total confidence in, yes siree! Oh they'd better get them right this time!

It wasn't long (with the wonderful accompaniment of melodious barfing from Gregson) till they were in a stable one hundred and twelve kilometer orbit, give or take a little.

"OK, we're here guys. Engine is off and now we're waiting the booster fuel."

"I still say they should have just send more fuel for the whole ship, not just little hydrogen drop tanks!" came an annoyed call from the other pod.

"Oh, you worry too much Joecott." Hengee said, his grin still plastered on his face. "Besides, they wanted to test the engine in it's other mode for the transfer. This way we'll still have enough fuel in the internal tanks to set down on the Mun on normal mode. Everyone just sit tight. KSC will send our tanks up soon."

"Oh Kod, stop the ship from spinning! *BLAARF!*"

Hengee winced and shook his head.

"Uh, we aren't spinning Gregson. Please try to aim for the bag?"

Well yeah, babysitting these guys might not be that much fun, but... THE MUN! Hengee just sat and gazed out of the forward window as the Mun rose before him. Soon. Soon he'd be there!

Edited February 28, 2014 by Patupi

Patupi · February 23, 2014

By the way, I had to re-organize my sig again. Yet again hit the 1000char limit on it with all the links. Just set the 1st chapter and the currently updating one. With links at the start of each chapter to the rest of it that should be enough.

OK, now to get back to Hengee and his crew.

Fuel Transfer

Gregson washed his face with a damp cloth, for the tenth time. OK, space was worse than he thought it'd be! Slowly his stomach was getting used to it... he hoped.

"Uh, are we," he paused, trying to think of the right word, "stable, for the moment?"

Mac got up from his console, floating awkwardly, and put the last bit of cleaning supplies away.

"Well, you know the profile. We're accelerating again, but not for a while. The fuel tanks will be up in an hour or so, then we'll be heading to the Mun for heaven's sake! Lighten up."

"I'm light enough right now!" Gregson said, looking down at his feet floating off the floor.

"Oh ha ha." Mac pulled himself into his seat and started typing. "Look, just get seated and warm up the systems. Rayzer and Joecott are already starting up Lab 2."

Reluctantly Gregson joined Mac by the active consoles and started to warm up the various test equipment.

"So, have they updated the research schedule?" He added nervously.

"Nope, still that test piece from Michelablo High school on goldfish in zero gravity. After that we test the particle accelerators to do comparison work on ambient Kerbolar radiation."

Nodding Gregson got down to work in the first off-planet science lab... other than the other lab on this ship anyway. Base. Whatever. Why were they calling a big conglomeration like this a base when it had an engine? It should be a Science Ship, not a Science Base.

Maybe he should make a bumper sticker 'My other car is a Research Ship!' Nahh, doesn't sound right. 'My other car is a Science Vessel!' Yeah, that was it.

***

KSC was back to routine, sort of. This launch was a much more traditional design. The payload was a bit different, and much more attention was being paid to making sure nothing that wasn't used stayed in orbit.

"GUIDO, do we have confirmation of target lock with MJ systems?"

"Roger Flight." Ipdel confirmed. "MSB One is locked. Launch window is tied into flight control."

Mission Control was only three quarters full right now, being just on a shift change and not too many missions up at the moment. Machel was taking a break too. Given she'd just finished a ten hour shift he couldn't blame her. KSC were still trying to wrangle a new Munar Communications Satellite to tie into Munbase Alpha, but budgetary dealing were bogged down, again.

"We are at T-minus one minute and counting." Gene said softly, then clicked on his panel. "Flight to MSB One. We are ready for your fuel launch. Standby."

"Confirmed Flight. We'll hold here till it rendezvous with us."

The counter slid down and finally a blaze of Skipper engines vaulted the rocket into the air.

"You'll have your fuel soon MSB One."

"Thanks Flight." Hengee responded with a chuckle "Do I need to tip the delivery boy?"

***

Hengee monitored the little ship as it finalized it's orbit and began to rendezvous with his ship.

It'd been a long wait as the flight had been a little off. Apparently they needed to work on the onboard flight controls a bit. Upgrades huh? Never work as advertised! After six whole hours of orbital shifting the little probe was nearing his ship.

"Rayzer, you have the control locked?" He asked on the comms.

It was a long crawl through rather small access ways to get to one of the two habitat spaces so Hengee was going to stay here till they landed on the Mun. There was no way he was crawling down there only to crawl all the way back again every time they needed to fly this ship!

"Yes sir!" The crisp voice of Rayzer came back.

Rayzer was an oddity. A Marine graduate of Eastpoint, worked on submarines for Lantech enterprises a few years ago, recently did test work for KSC in their aircraft division, then studied particle physics in his spare time for heck's sake! Yet the guy constantly underplayed his own efforts. That and his Marine perfect attitude did start to grate after a while.

"Well, bring her in easy. I'm orienting the ship for the best lock."

Hengee watched on the monitors as Rayzer remote guided the probe in, little bursts of RCS guiding it towards one of the rear docking modules.

"Lined up on port docking collar. Commencing docking maneuver." Rayzer's crisp voice came through the speakers.

The guy was certainly good at what he did, and being such an all rounder was a help when they were scheduled to be on the Munar surface for over a year doing research. There was talk of relocating to another spot on the Mun, or heading to Minmus later to extend the research work, but that hadn't been decided yet. Maybe they'd have to rename the ship the 'Moonar Science Base'? To go and do research on any moon?

With a clunk the docking collars connected and the first tank was secured.

"Firing decoupler." Rayzer announced. "Coupler away. Backing off to align with starboard docking collar."

Again the crewcut marine guided the probe in to the other port and lined up for his dock. Well, at least this mission seemed to be going well so far. Uh, OK, best not think to hard on that. Might jinx it!

A second clunk and the other tank was docked.

"Final clamp released. Withdrawing probe. Locking on docking collar for debris removal."

Yeah, KSC was being picky about this whole debris thing. Aside from starting a project to design and build a ship specifically to de-orbit all the debris already up there, KSC had now decreed that no useless debris was to be left in orbit unless there was no way around it. Now they had a probe to get rid of, plus the tiny decoupler ring that had seperated the two hydrogen fuel tanks.

On remote, the expert marine lined the probe up pointing retrograde, then slid in behind the loose decoupler. Taps on the RCS nudged closer till it held against the piece of debris...

"Engines engaged. De-orbiting." Rayzer's monotone continued.

The engine on the probe was barely visible, but slowly and carefully it accelerated away, slowing in it's orbital speed to dump itself and the decoupler safely in the atmosphere.

"I wonder when that de-orbiter thing KSC is working on will be ready?" Hengee mused. "I mean, they've been talking about it for ages."

"Last I heard they were stuck on the design again." Mac chimed in. "Wernher wanted an entirely nuclear ship, so it's fuel would last as long as possible, but with all the orbit changes and stuff it's got to do having a high thrust engine would be a plus. I hear the Council has approved funding for it at least."

"That's a shock." Hengee said with a chuckle. "They've been wanting the darned thing for years!"

"Path now set for atmospheric entry." Rayzer interrupted. "Checking orbit."

"Confirmed. Set to de-orbit twenty kilometers off-shore from KSC."

"Well, that wraps that up." Hengee said, checking the fuel linkages and switching the engine to hydrogen reaction mass mode. "Everybody set? Our launch window is in... sixteen minutes."

"Roger sir." Rayzer said crisply. "All items stowed and ready to burn."

Hengee rolled his eyes and pitied Joecott for having to be stuck with that guy for the next year!

Edited February 28, 2014 by Patupi

Patupi · February 24, 2014

Munar Landing

Rodsy stared blankly ahead, barely even seeing the screen in front of him. Things were not right!

Last night he'd finally got Thomcan to help him crack the KSC data block. The guy had been a little reticent, talking about 'this weird change in you Rodsy'. Rodsy just wanted to know what was going on. He hadn't like what he found.

KSC was hiding that Bop's magnetic field made people mad... and it seemed to match certain readings from Minmus, and recently even the Mun, albeit weaker that Bop's field by a long shot. They thought they could cope, protect against it, but they were planning for what they knew was the case now. Rodsy wondered about that. He'd seen a paper by Seanbur that claimed the current oddities on Minmus weren't the case in the past, that the moon's magnetic field had changed.

Early this morning Rodsy had begun relearning what little he knew about planteray magnetism and kerbolar winds, and he was coming to the conclusion that Seanbur may be right, but he didn't believe it was natural at all.

"There's no way, no way this can be caused by the sun. The timing relative to kerbolar events is just too far off, especially with the data from Bop." He muttered, not even seeing the screen of data he'd been poring over the last few hours. "Seanbur would agree if he'd seen that data. I've got to tell someone, but who? Who'd believe me? I can't send it via the comms to Seanbur, KSC would stop it before it was sent!"

Somehow he had to get the message out that aliens were messing with magnetic fields on the Kerbol system moons!

***

"Um, Gene? We may have a problem." Milton said, stepping into Gene's office.

Gene glanced up and didn't like the worried expression on Milton's face.

"What is it?" Gene became more worried as Milton came in, carefully closing the door behind him and checking the window before closing the blinds. "Alright, you've got my attention Milton. Spill."

Milton paused a few seconds, staring at his hands, before answering.

"I think Rodsy may have gone off the deep end. We just caught him trying to claim that aliens were trying to kill our space program by messing with planetary magnetic fields."

"What?" Gene couldn't help it, it was just too bizarre. "Y... you're serious? This had better not be some kind of prank."

"No prank sir I'm afraid." Milton said, putting a folder on Gene's desk. "He's sent emails to about twenty different newspapers and e-magazines telling his story. We think we intercepted most of them, but... well, you never know. Nothing has shown up in the news yet, but we just can't afford this!"

Gene sighed. Rodsy was a good kid, but the stress of the Jool mission had been a bit much. Now what could they do? If they publicly did anything to him it would just attract attention, not deflect it. No, they had to keep him busy, but Medical had insisted he wasn't ready for another off-world flight yet, especially anything to do with hibernation.

"Can we keep the lid on comms with the Science Rover?" Gene asked cautiously.

"I... guess so." Milton agreed, then seemed to ponder a few moments. "It would have the advantage of keeping him busy, getting him thinking about something else. It's worth a shot."

"See to it, and see if you can get Dunkel to get the mission prepped sooner. The sooner he leaves and is under a comms blanket the better."

"It's hardly fair to the guy, but I understand. There is no telling what the Council would do to our funding if this became public knowledge! I think at least two council members believe in the Killuminati at least. This wouldn't be a stretch for them."

"I know, believe me I know." Gene said tiredly.

He hated politics, and the Council was getting way too much like politics for his liking. Conspiracy theories about alien invasions was all they needed!

***

"I... what?" Rodsy said, looking up at his friend who had so rudely burst into his dorm.

"You got in you dope! You're on the mission! Hah! We're going to be bunking together on a field science mission for the next few months!" Thomcan said, lightly punching his arm. "Come on, lighten up. Looks like my contacts came through!"

Rodsy couldn't believe his luck! He was back in business again! True, this wasn't in space, but the meds said it'd be a while before he recovered from 'hibernation sickness' as they were calling it now. Jeb and Jedwig were both off from missions for a little while too, though curiously Jeb seemed to have recovered better, despite his bad reaction to it.

"I... that's great news!"

"Yeah, better get things done while you can, they're talking about getting it going soon, maybe in the next day or so, and the comms will be severely limited. You know, sensitive science stuff an all. Best tell your friends you'll be incommunicado for a while."

Thomcan slapped him on the back and ran off grinning.

Wait, incommunicado? Blinking Rodsy began to have a sneaking suspicion it wasn't Thomcan's friends who got him on this mission.

***

"YEEEHAAAH!" Hengee said, a little too enthusiastically.

True, this was slow compared to the launch, but it was still exhilarating.

Systems were holding steady, and actually seemed to be better on stability on Hydrogen mode. Flow was smooth, heating dissipation system was going well, better with the engine on actually. This was great! He was flying an atomic spaceship to the Mun!

"Doesn't get much better than this!"

*HURRRLL*

"Could someone shut the audio feed from lab one." Hengee said irritatedly. "I mean, I'm sorry for you Gregson, but we really don't need to hear that."

OK, that spoiled the mood!

"We're set up down here to start the rest of the phase one experiments sir." Rayzer reported from pod 2. "Maintain level acceleration for the duration and we should be good here. Permission to begin prelimaries for phase two experiments for arrival in Munar orbit?"

"Er, permission granted Rayzer." Hengee said. "Just watch it when I terminate thrust. Liable to knock some things around back there."

"Roger sir. Commencing remainder of phase one experiments sir."

Oh that was going to get old fast wasn't it. Best enjoy the good parts of this trip while he could.

***

It'd been a busy few hours, accelerating out, coasting to Munar influence (you could hardly call a crash course an 'orbit') and then going through the fun of telling school kids how well their goldfish swam in zero and micro gravity.

Hengee hated kids.

"Primary deceleration burn complete in three, two, one, engine off." Hengee disengaged the drives and began re-aligning them. "Switching to afterburner mode, routing oxidizer tanks to auxiliary feeds. Mac, check the main coolant lines on the NuExT, it's gonna be a whole lot hotter next time we burn."

"Um, technically hydrogen mode has a higher thermal condition within the chamber, although actual amount of thermal energy is lower, a lot..."

"OK, OK! I got it." Hengee said, hurriedly cutting off another long science speech."I just want to be sure things are working in high thrust mode again. OK?"

"Um, right. I'll get on it Hengee."

Checking his course Hengee saw they seemed to be on the line up to Farside Crater. It'd be an almost straight burn in all the way down. Plans early on for this mission had originally intended the ship to stop north of Farside Crater on a Kethane deposit to refuel, but with the success of the VKM Two it was felt repositioning the Science Base was more trouble than calling the VKM in to refuel the ship. Even though at the moment VKM Two had actually been busy refueling the Munar Transporter as it had hopped around, thus right now it too needed to refuel.

Timing sucked.

Still, they were due to ditch their tanks, and there was no-one beneath them on the Munar surface, so...

"Alright, releasing docking clamps on hydrogen tanks. And... tanks away."

With a clang they were jettisoned and would eventually collide with the Munar surface fast enough that no debris would be left... so the theory went anyway. They'd even made sure that their touchdown site (and the tank's touchdown site!) was well clear of the first Munar landing on the east side of Farside Crater. They were scheduled to touchdown more on the North by North West part of it.

This maneuver itself was outside the normal. Usually ships came into Munar orbit first, then landed. They were going straight in, mainly as the target was on the retrograte side of the Mun, thus when their orbit intersected it they tended to be on the retrograde side. Some thought to a base being built there more permanently was considered, just for the advantage of being able to lift straight off vertically and give a vector back to Kerbin without orbiting the Mun first. Doubtful the Council would approve yet another Munbase though. Hard enough to get this mobile one approved! At least with this they could claim that they could re-use it on other planetary bodies.

"MSB One, this is KSC." Gene cut into Hengee's thoughts. "I hope things are going smoothly?"

"Hmm, sure Ge... er, Flight. We're right on the money for a landing. What's up?"

"We have a few people from Michelablo High school here who want to have a word with you about gold fish."

Oh nuts! Kids. With a sigh Hengee put on his best face to the camera and tried to smile.

"Sure Flight, put the little brats... I mean wonderful kids on and we'll see what we can do."

Fun times.

***

"On course Flight." Hengee reported later as they began approach to the Mun. "We're just about ready to light the drive again."

"Roger MSB One. Bob has been appraised of your vector, though with the hole in the satellite coverage you won't have communication with him for another few hours. VKM Two is en-route to it's refueling position north of Farside crater now. I'll keep you updated on it's situation."

"Acknowledged Flight. I'm engaging drive in.... three, two, one..."

With a jolt the engine lit once more and the ship shuddered under half a gravity of acceleration. Hengee heard a few muffled 'oofs' coming from pod one. Wait, hadn't he warned them a couple of minutes ago? Glancing down he saw he still had pod one on 'mute' from the last of Gregson's bouts of space sickness. Oops!

"Uh, you alright there Mac? Gregson?"

"Y... yeah, I'm fine," Mac said, with an anxious tone, "and Gregson.... might need some clean up. He was storing his... space sickness bags when acceleration hit. I think he'll need a change of clothes!"

Oh ewww! TMI!

"OK, well, just to warn you we'll be accelerating off and on the whole way from here, so I'd keep things locked down." Hengee said.

"Yeaah... we'll keep that in mind boss." Mac said.

From the background on the mike Hengee heard 'Next time! Could have warned us THIS time! Oh god, is that even going to come out? What do you use on stains like that? I hadn't even eaten any carrots!"

Definitely TMI!

The next few minutes were tense. Hengee had done this plenty of times in the simulator, but he'd only flown conventional rockets before so this was rather new. Well, it was new to everyone right now. Jeb and Jedwig had flown the LV-Ns before, but these new sectioned engines were a different beast all-together. Designed to be mounted in completely separate sections you could chop and change between reactor+generator and reactor+engine combinations, even different sized components. A lot of possibilities with this.

The ship had never been designed to just land and then hop around. They were coming in hot and once down wouldn't have enough fuel to get off into orbit again. Even hopping over to that Kethane patch would be problematic, depending on how well Hengee did with the landing. After a couple of minutes they were down below seventy kilometers and things were looking good. He had been a little off on the timing of his burn start. Looks like they wouldn't be a perfectly efficient landing, but they had some spare fuel on board.

Another couple of minutes and they'd dropped below twenty kilometers and Hengee was starting to get worried. Fuel was getting alarmingly low in the tanks. He didn't want to alarm the crew so he did a few spot checks, calculating how much they'd have on touchdown. It was tight alright.

"Rayzer to Hengee. I'm ready to commence the munar radiation comparison. Particle accelerators are warmed up and targets are secured. All sensors are initiated. Do I have a go?"

With a sigh Hengee clicked on his mike.

"Yes, of course Rayzer. Go ahead. I'm just glad the darned goldfish stuff is over and done with. Kids!"

"Amen to that sir!" Rayzer said, with a surprising amount of feeling for him. Maybe he didn't do so well with kids either?

"Nearly there..." Heangee muttered as they neared the Munar surface, fuel was very low.

He eased her down, saving a burst of thrust of the last few meters. Then they had...

*THUMP!*

...um, well 'touched' down seemed a little inadequate.

"Oh god, are we OK? DID we crash?" Came from Gregson nervously.

"Trust me, if we'd crashed you'd know it!" Hengee said, trying to put false hillarity in his voice. "We're down, if a tad harder than I'd like. I think someone best go and check out the external hardware, especially the fuel connectors and the mining drills."

"I'll do it!" Mac said quickly, and Hengee began to wonder how bad it smelled down in pod one.

Hengee meanwhile checked to see how well they'd fared. Yikes! Less than a hundred units of fuel left! They had maybe one hundred and fifty delta V left. Not enough for a small hop even! Good job the VKM Two was on it's way. It was on it's way wasn't it?

Edited October 29, 2014 by Patupi

Patupi · February 25, 2014

OK, this (hopefully) won't affect AAR updates, but this morning my computer broke. Luckily I already uploaded Atomic Science pics so just the writing to do (though I was considering adding a bit to it and uploading a few more pics *shrugs*). Basically last night the fan sounded a bit off so I powered down for the night. This morning, won't boot and the bios can't even see the hard drive I've take a brief look inside but there don't appear from a cursory inspection to be any cables missing/unplugged, thus likely some kind of overheat problem that only came to fruition this morning. Here's hoping it isn't an expensive fix!

I'm writing this on my tablet needless to say, and that means no access to my data on my hard drive unless I decide to strip the HD out of the desktop and link it via an external case. I'd rather not mess with it that much. Still, I've got a decent text editor (the basic android one sucks) so I can still write and I thoughtfully put a copy of the pics for reference on a flash stick

Edited February 25, 2014 by Patupi

Patupi · February 25, 2014

VKM Two Mining

With a clunk the airlock cycled and Mac sighed. It was good to get out of there. Yes, Gregson was a nice guy, but oh god that stank! He hoped the vacuum would get the smell off his suit.

Opening the outer hatch he stepped out and looked around, then felt the ladder shudder.

"What was that?"

Another slight shudder, lasting longer, maybe three seconds, vibrated through his gloves.

"Um, not sure." Hengee answered. "Rayzer is checking.... wow, really? He says it was a munquake! That's odd. Didn't think they happened very often. Have to ask Bob about it when a comms satellite rises above the horizon."

"Uh, yeah. Is it safe to head out?" Mac said nervously.

"Heh, sure. Like you said, they're pretty rare. You shouldn't have another one for over a year."

Somewhat molified Mac continued down the ladder.

"OK, I'm checking out the fuel couplings first." Mac said as he got to the surface and started bouncing across the regolith. "This is cool!"

"Yup, I'll be down out there myself once the post-flight checks are done. Glad to be out of this darned cockpit!"

Working his way around Pod One Mac looked up at the fuel coupler. From here it looked good, and there was no vibration or shock damage around the mount. Standing on tip toe he couldn't quite reach it, great design huh?

After a few minutes he bounced on his heels, trying to see high enough. As far as he could tell there were no visible cues of any damage on top either.

"Well, it looks good on the fuel coupler, but I really need a ladder or something to check it with. I don't think hovering on RCS will cut it either." Mac said, chuckling.

"Really? You do surprise me." Hengee quipped back. "I'm sure the great Jedwig would be doing it one handed, with RCS pack blazing away, and check on the Kethane drill at the same time."

"Well of course. He is Jedwig." Mac said back. "For us lesser mortals we'll just have to make do with ladders."

"Well, I don't see any damage on the Kethane drills either." Mac said a few minutes later. "How's our fuel supply coming?"

"I've been trying to get a contact with Lolorf for the last ten minutes. So far no... Oh, speak of the kraken!" Hengee went silent for a minute and Mac took the chance to put his tools away and finish up here. While he finished up he heard Hengee come back on the line. "Yup, he's got the message and is heading over to a nearby Kethane deposit. He was all ready to go, just waiting on confirmation that we got down OK."

"Well then," Mac said with a sigh as he headed back up the ladder to Pod One again, "Best get him over here ASAP. If he needs any help on the EVA to hook everything up feel free to ask, I'm available day and night."

"I'm sure you are Mac. I'll be down in a minute to check on you and Gregson. Lolorf might take a while to fill his tanks before heading over here."

Mac resigned himself to cleaning the Pod with Gregson. Oh this was going to be bad wasn't it?

He was right.

***

Lolorf fussed over the controls. He'd become very used to them with the various stints he'd had on the VKM Two. The ship was starting to show it's age a little, though he and Gernand had serviced it about seven months ago back at Munbase Alpha. Maybe the Council would consider a brand new model to replace it? Probably not.

Bringing up the nav display he plotted in a course to the Kethane field north east of Farside Crater. It wasn't a very dense field, but it was enough for his needs.

Fingers flew across keys and he made an almost automatic running commentary back to KSC of his actions as he brought the mining vessel down over the Munar landscape once more. The capsule was a little cramped, and once every five days he went down to Munbase Alpha for some down time, more than half a day usually. At least there was room to stretch your legs there! Outside of a space suit too!

From his current orbit it didn't take too much dv to alter the inclination and reduce velocity to intersect the targeted landing site. It'd have been better if he were in a higher parking orbit to shift inclination, but then he hadn't expected to need to. Usually he just had to land on various spots close to the equator or rendezvous in orbit, also usually an equatorial orbit.

One short burn later and he was barreling down towards the Mun. Swinging around to point the engines to the regolith far below he waited on the 'suicide burn' indicator on his panel to tell him when to ignite the rocket. while he flew he idly wondered if Loddan was up for a Kanaster game next time he was back at Munbase Alpha.

The inside of the pod certainly looked lived in now. The seat had a personalized cover, for both comfort and the pleasing shade of blue that Lolorf preferred. Posters of kermins in various states of undress (one of these left by the previous occupant: Jebediah. Why he'd left it behind Lolorf couldn't say) adorned three of the capsule's walls, basically anywhere there wasn't a hatch, window, or control panel. A crude table made from parts aquired at poker games at Alpha folded down from the rear wall (when folded up it's underside too was covered in a poster: Kiminy, Lolorf's favorite movie star.)

All in all Lolorf had made himself thoroughly at home and rather enjoyed the solitude... as long as he could stop off at Munbase Alpha whenever he got bored.

"VKM Two," Gene's voice broke Lolorf's reverie, "we have you on course for the North East area of the Kethane deposit. Current readings show approximately thirty seconds to descent burn. Do you confirm?"

Lolorf checked the panels and smiled as the buzzer he'd set earlier went off at 20 seconds to suicide burn.

"Roger Flight, engaging engines."

Just before he engaged the drive he saw in the rear view panel that Kerbin was rising due to his progression over the Munar surface. Smiling he hit the controls and felt the g's kick in behind him.

True, this ship was... old. True it didn't really handle well and he generally would like something a bit more maneuverable, but he'd become really used to it. Gliding over the Munar surface, performing a maneuver he'd done many a time before, he barely had to look at the controls as he burned in.

Warming up the converters and mining equipment Lolorf smoothly swung the ship around as he neared the surface, gradually aiming up as he cancelled his horizontal motion.

It looked like there was a slight incline in this area, but he'd handled worse so didn't bother to slide to a new landing spot. He slowed the ship to a crawl, then lightened the throttle to ease down the last few meters. Easy as pie.

A light bump and he was back on Munar soil again. A few clicks and the pumps and drills began their thing, filling his tanks with Kethane, then fuel. He tapped number three display, frowning.

"Dang thing. Have to get that fixed next stop." He said, retracting Drill number one and extending number two instead. This would be fairly quick anyway. Then he'd hop over to the newly landed base. Be nice to see some new faces.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Patupi

KSK · February 25, 2014

Fun stuff! New tech, more Munar infrastructure, building paranoia over the Jool mission and a little romance to lighten the atmosphere. And as always, no amount of Right Stuff can fend off space sickness.

briansun1 · February 25, 2014

I demand more jedwig slaping

Patupi · February 25, 2014

I'm sure Jeb will work it into his tight schedule Briansun, and thanks KSK, nice to know a bit of healthy paranoia is still appreciated

briansun1 · February 25, 2014

The thing's I've seen maaaaan I telling you it alien. YOU'LL NEVER TAKE MY ALIVE!!!!!!

Patupi · February 25, 2014

Cue X-files music "Do do do do DO DOOOOOOO!"

Mulder Kerman: I'm telling you Scully, it's real. You can't really believe all those kraken photos were faked can you?

Edited February 26, 2014 by Patupi

briansun1 · February 25, 2014

And I be you Jedwigs in on it... a kerbal can't possibly be that smart... and Jeb he's in on it too he only wnat to make everyone think he's insane... but really he's just waiting for the right time to KILL EVERYONE...

briansun1 · February 26, 2014

have you ever though about using the near future propulsion mod.

Patupi · February 26, 2014

For that end of things I'm using KSPI, though recently I have added in a variation of the Ion Hybrid electric pack by EPD, though I've simply been attempting to cut down the part count on using traditional Ion drives. So I repurposed some of the really nice engines there as a x8 scale ion drive, and a x64 scale ion drive. Basically the 1.25 and 2.5 meter equivelants of the stock ion. They certainly look cool.

I've got another project planned for when Colonization AAR finishes (though that won't be soon. Especially with my computer down!) and I suppose I could put things for that in, but balance is key. I'd have to attempt to fit them in at the appropriate TL alongside KSPI (and KPSI is definitely in that one)

Anyway, for now here's the next part of chapter 6:

MSB VKM Refueling

Rodsy492: I know, but this is different! Ipdel, you have access to the data from Jool, surely you can port me a stream? I need access to what Jeb found on Bop! His sensor reports at least!

IKFreely: No way! I'm not taking sensitive data and shipping over the net! KSC is my livelihood. My bread and butter. I'm not throwing that out the window. Look, I'll talk to Gene about this, but you can't go throwing conspiracy theories like this around. You know what kind of trouble we've had getting funding. This would make things ten times worse!

Rodsy492: Funding? You're worried about funding? Something is making people insane, and if Seanbur is right it could easily be spreading.

IKFreely: Spreading? Oh come on Rodsy, look conspiracy thing is one thing, but what? Planets 'catch bad magnetics' like a virus? I don't think so.

Rodsy492: *User Rodsy492 has been blocked. Please contact your system administrator*

"Huh?" Ipdel looked at the screen, shocked at the abrupt end to the conversation.

"What is it?" Machel said from the terminal across from him.

"I... I was talking to Rodsy and he was banned from the chat. I thought these things were private?"

Machel 'ooh'ed dramatically.

"What WERE you talking about Ippy?" She said, chuckling "Do I need to come over there and wipe your hard-drive?"

Blushing despite himself Ipdel glared back at her.

"Oh come on! I'm serious here!" He got up, exasperated "He was talking... about..." Ipdel said, grinding to a halt with a worried expression. "No... it couldn't be. Could he be for real?"

Machel got up herself, obviously intrigued.

"OK, I'll bite, what was he talking about?"

"Conspiracy theories." Ipdel said simply.

Machel stared at him.

"And then he gets conveniently cut off? Is this guy a computer nerd or hacker or something by any chance?"

Ipdel raised an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah, he knows a fair bit about computers. I wouldn't call him a hacker but... OK... I see where you're going. No, he wouldn't do that."

"So he never pulls practical jokes?"

Ipdel sighed.

"OK, yeah, maybe on occasion. I don't know him that well." He sighed even harder. "Yeah, you're probably right. I guess."

"I think it's a bit more likely than him being clumsily cut off by some giant conspiracy don't you?"

Reluctantly Ipdel agreed and they went back to their data analysis of the TMS-1 Cooling system, attempting to refine it further and stop any such failures from happening again on future missions. Ipdel still looked a touch skeptical. Was it all a game? Or was something really going on?

***

"That was clumsy Wernher." Gene said, glaring at the scientist as he finished blocking Rodsy's various internet privileges.

"I'm zorry herr director. But I had to act fast. I vill attempt to be more zercumspect next time. "

This was getting out of hand! Gene just hoped they could get Rodsy safely isolated on the Rover mission before anything got out. They'd have to make sure Rodsy was busy until then. If the Council, or worse still the media, got wind of this... the repercussions could be drastic!

However, this was just a temporary measure. He'd have to pull Jedwig from that mission, despite the guy begging for something after his down time. Anyone on that mission would be 'compromised' as far as security went now. And Jedwig just had too high a public recognition to risk something like that. What the heck were they going to do about this?

***

Meanwhile, back on the Mun, Lolorf was just about finished re-fueling.

"Aaaaand, there." He said, finally clicking off the converter as the oxidizer tanks were finally filled. "Uh, Bob? You there?"

"This is Alpha One, yes." Bob said tiredly "We've got satellite comms for... about thirty minutes by the look of it. What's up VKM Two?"

"Well, I'm ready, just letting you know I'm heading over to Hengee... er, MSB One for refueling." He paused, then added nervously "Is that OK with you boss?"

"*Sigh* Yes, of course it is. I'll inform them you're on your way. Be warned we've had several Munquakes in the last few hours."

"Several? What's up? I thought we barely had them?"

"Normally, no. The last month or two there have been an increased number. In the last two days however we've almost had one every two hours. Seanbur thinks there is some kind of magnetic instability in the Mun's core causing ripple effects."

Lolorf blinked.

"S... should we be worried?"

"I don't think so. I'm guessing it's just a cycle, and they are very weak quakes. You're just lucky you've been in orbit so much of late, or you'd have caught a few of them."

Lolorf did manage a weak laugh, but didn't really find it very funny.

"Right, yeah. Look I'm heading out Bob... uh, Alpha One. Thanks for the help."

"Good flight VKM Two." Bob said tiredly.

Lolorf shook his head, worrying despite what Bob said. Munquakes? He hadn't felt anything here. Maybe it happened before he touched down? Or myabe while he was asleep? Twiddling his fingers he worried about that too. He really shouldn't have taken a cat nap. OK, this was stuff he was used to, easy, but still...

Shaking his head he put that kind of thinking out of his mind. Best focus on now. He had a flight to do!

With practised ease he checked the systems and engaged the engine, blasting clear of the ground with a spray of mundust.

"I'm on my way Hengee." Lolorf said to no-one in particular.

The VKM Two sailed over the munar plains in a low arc, Lolorf only accelerating enough to hop over to the MSB One's location.

Lolorf drifted, litterally and mentally, but managed to not actually fall asleep during his ballistic flight. A buzz on the panel from an alarm he'd set long before warned him that a suicide burn was nearly ready. Tightening his straps he double checked everything, angled a bit to be sure his exhaust wouldn't blast straight at the base, then engaged his engines once more.

The munquake problem stuck in his mind as the ship vibrated during it's descent. Why would there be a cycle of munquakes? Magnetics? Really? Wasn't Seanbur that guy who made that scare a few years ago about dangerous magnetics around Minmus? Yeah, and he just happens to be here when more magnetic anomolies cause munquakes?

But what else could cause them? Lolorf was no scientist, but maybe he gould Koogle it when he got back to Alpha later?

"You're on course VKM Two, cool flying there bud!"

Lolorf blinked, then realised it was Hengee calling.

"Yeah, thanks. Be there in a bit." He said as he fine tuned the thrust a little. "This rust bucket is hardly a fighter but it handles OK."

"Sure, we'll set a place for you at dinner. Oh, and Mac says if you need help connecting the pipes give him a bell."

Um, right. Like he needs help doing the job he's been doing these last couple of years?

"I'll keep that in mind Hengee. Er, MSB One I mean."

"Hey, I don't hold with protocol. Call it like I see it man. Do the same eh?"

"Or perhaps the two of you could stick to official protocol?" Gene's voice softly cut in.

"Uh, sure we could do that." Hengee said quickly "Is there a pay raise in it for us?"

"How about a lack of a pay cut?" Gene retaliated.

Lolorf winced. Gene wasn't a guy to joke with apparently.

"Well, sir, I'll be down there shortly anyway. Um... Anything else you need me to do?"

"No, that'll be all VKM Two. Just make sure the refueling goes smoothly. We aren't on a tight schedule here."

"Roger G... Flight." Lolorf said and cut the line.

Oh he hated dealing with the boss!

It was a somewhat more nervous Lolorf that landed beside MSB One a minute later. At least he didn't get a munquake while he was there!

Edited February 28, 2014 by Patupi

Patupi · February 26, 2014

Darn it! Somethings up with my website! None of my image links are working! This has been a bad week. Car trouble, computer trouble, and now website trouble! I'm gonna have to ring my site manager when I get home. Hopefully this will sort itself out later on (or I find out it's just a weird trouble meaning it's just me who can't see the image links )

briansun1 · February 26, 2014

KSC mess up this time... now Rodsy's will know for sure that there trying to hide something...

Patupi · February 26, 2014

So can you see the images? I get broken links for anything from the Atomic Science folder.

EDIT: Scratch that, once I control+refresh I get broken image links for everything from my website Anyone else seeing this?

EDIT2: Gah! Bandwidth Exceeded Well, at least it's a sign I'm popular at least. And at least I now know what the problem is. Hopefully it'll be sorted out in time.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Patupi

briansun1 · February 26, 2014

no I can't but I read up to the part where there arn't pics

briansun1 · February 26, 2014

I demand more jedwig slaping

and apparently I not the only one...

Patupi · February 28, 2014

Says you quoting yourself!

Anwyay, My computer is still down *BOO!* But I'm buying myself a new one *YAY!* Which I can't really afford... *BOO!* and it's possible the hard drive is not salvagable from the old comp... meaning this AAR might be dead as is *AARGG* I really hope not, that was a 2 TB hard drive! Once I get the new comp I'll check.

For now I've uploaded all of Atomic Science pics to Imgur and I've updated all this thread to match. It's annoying as Imgur doesn't maintain your filenames when you upload so I have to go to Imgur's site to check the file names rather to my flash stick on the backup folder. If I have a poor signal when I'm doing this I could take all day just to find the names of the pics I want to use! *GRR* Well, enough silly noises, this isn't sixties batman after all. Though I suppose a *SLAP* wouldn't go amiss in certain circumstances.

Let me know if all the pics for this are working. Once my new computer is here and running I'll do the same for the other chapters. I think my old server should be OK for the occasional use, but this long AAR was just too much for it!

briansun1 · February 28, 2014

well all the ones here are working

Patupi · February 28, 2014

Ungh! This sucks.

I managed to pull my old hard drive out and install it in an external mount (basically converts an internal to an external hard drive) and guess what? It's dead. Won't even register. Comes up with 'do you want to format this drive?'

...

Well, I can finish Atomic Science from the pics I already had uploaded, but the rest I hadn't formatted, renamed and put into folders yet... and of course my copy of KSP is dead with it... along with the AAR save game... *sigh*

I'm probably going to do a truncated version of what I planned for the story, minus any curve balls the play through might have thrown me, but it'll be text only and probably a good deal shorter that what I originally had planned. I was going to start a new save game later and import as much in as I could for my next AAR project, so that at least is doable... except now I don't even have the ship files I built for this AAR to continue. I'll have to rebuild them as well. Probably not going to be an exact match.

I'm also going to have to switch back to an old 350GB hard drive... I was hoping to re-use my 2TB one on the new computer... which of course I saved money by not buying it with an HD installed. This hasn't really been a good week for me. I'm just going to go stand in the corner and repeatedly smash my head against the nearest hard surface, OK?

*Bong Bong Bong...* (This may take some time)

briansun1 · February 28, 2014

how much mony do you have?

KSK · February 28, 2014

That does indeed suck. I was about to post something cheerful about the pictures being back up but.... yeah.

Hope you didn't lose anything essential along with the KSP stuff.

Patupi · March 1, 2014

I had two entries for the logo contest I don't think they would have worked for this actually. Too involved. There were more like four color posters rather than logos, but they were pretty good. I almost posted them last week, but someone else said in someone elses post to keep such entries underwraps until the contest started. *sigh* It was one for the R&D division and one for FLOOYD Dynamics. I still have the pencil sketches so I suppose I could scan them in and send that, but they look pretty rough and ready compared to the computer drawn ones.

As to money, I spent $400 on the new computer (More than I was planning really), an AMD dual core (don't really need more cores), 3.7GHz Richland which comes with a half way decent onmotherboard GPU. If it isn't up to scratch I have my old Radeon 5670 that I can put back in. I made sure it had enough power to run that if need be. Some decent 8GB memory (I forget the speed, but on the bottom level of 'high performance'). I missed the HD as I said, added in bare basics on everything else. 2.0 USB as the motherboard standard only, basic DVD writer, though I did go for 'quiet' versions of all fans, power fans etc. I know the on-chip 'quiet' fans are pretty much the same decibels as normal fans, but if they don't need to run as much to cool it down, and also have the same db on the same speed, it's a winner.

I don't know if my old 2TB hard drive is salvageable. I hope so, but I'm assuming it's fried for the moment. I certainly can't get any data off it.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Patupi

Colonization: Ch6 Atomic Science- Part 27:Cleaning Up(AAR) [pic heavy]

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