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

[briansun1]

the hdd might still work but you'll have to format it

[Patupi]

Well, I'll hold off on that for the moment. I have an old 350GB drive that'll do when I get the new comp. We'll see if I can find someone to fix the damaged HD, or figure out a way to do it myself. At least I might be able to get some of the data off somehow before wiping it. Besides, if it's been damaged (by system heat or other problems) then I don't think formatting would help. Sometimes Windows says to 'format the drive' when it just can't read the thing, whatever the reason behind the problem is.

Anyway, on to Atomic Science! At least I can finish this off, then do a text only interim (probably a bit abreviated) to fill in till the next AAR.

VKM Two On Standby

With a gentle spray of mundust Lolorf's boots made yet another impression in Kerbin's nearest celestial body. This was getting to be a habit.

Chuckling Lolorf munwalked over the large, atomic powered facility that was perched on the northern plains of the Farside Crater.

"So, shine the windows?" Lolorf said, attempting to get a little humor into it.

"Um, no thanks, and I think the polish would boil off when you open the tin." Hengee said deadpan.

Lolorf was never much good at telling jokes. Maybe he'd best stay away from that sort of thing. Sighing he got his kit out and started unwinding the hose from his ship and dragging it to the base.

"Wish they wouldn't make this things to darned unwieldy." He muttered. "Low gravity be darned, the things are still awkward as heck to link up."

After some juggling he managed to heft the socket up (with some judicious RCS usage) and make a solid connection between the ships. Landing in the grey dirt with a thump he tapped a control on his suit and his ship began pumping. From experience he stayed out of the way and slightly off to one side, but this time the pressure from the hose filling didn't dance the base or his ship around too much. Previous efforts hadn't been quite as lucky. One time it actually ripped the legs off a drone lander he was trying to refuel. OK, it still managed to launch after but... not an ideal end result.

"OK, looking good." Hengee said, and Lolorf could actually see him waving from one of the cabin's windows. Looked like he'd gone down to the living area above one of the science labs.

"Yeah, be done in a minute." Lolorf said, a little short. He hated to be distracted while he was pumping. It was darned dangerous!

Still, this time when the pumps finally gurgled to a halt ship and base were still intact and hadn't even moved. Not a bad end result.

"OK, detaching hoses and reeling in. You guys are all set up. If you need to bug out you're all... well... set up." Lolorf said somewhat lamely. He really needed to get out of his capsule once in a while and actually talk to people. He was seriously out of the habit.

"Hey thanks Lolorf!" Hengee said, waving again. "See you again sometime."

...And it seems he wasn't invited in this time either. Fine, he didn't need them anyway! He'd just have to stop over at Alpha for a card game or something. As long as Dansey didn't try that bucket trick again! He'd still got stains on his suit from last time. Dry cleaners were notoriously few and far between up here.

Grumpily Lolorf finished winding the hose and snapped it back in it's cubby hole, making sure the cover was intact. With a jump and some RCS he ascended to his capsule. His comfy, personalized capsule. That he rarely left. *sigh* Yeah, he REALLY needed some time away from here.

Lolorf looked around as he thought this. Wait, if he left someone else would have to take over. That meant... redecorating? He gazed around at the place he'd made his home for the last year or so.

Maybe he'd stretch his tour of duty a little longer. Just so someone wouldn't mess his place up. Yeah.

Strapping in he went through preflight once more and blasted off in a cloud of dust, only informing Alpha after he'd launched. He'd fly back to that Kethane patch and mine and refuel so he was ready if anyone needed fuel in orbit again. He spent way too much time in orbit. Have to get that exercise equipment out again.

***

"So, is it ready?"

Dunkel jerked and pulled himself out from under the reactor.

"Don't do that!" He took a deep breath then sighed. "Yeah, she's ready. Why are you guys always in such a rush? I thought the Council wasn't pushing us on this one?"

"It's also not that dangerous." Gene said, frowning at the engineer. "Look, I know it's mainly for testing and corroboratory purposes, but we don't need to go the whole nine meters for this. It's not going to the Mun for heaven's sake! It's a mobile science lab. Get the instruments set up, make sure the reactor systems are good and get the crew on board. I don't see what the problem is."

Dunkel looked oddly at the Flight Director. Something was up. Gene had carefully not answered his question about the Council.

"Hmph. Well if you want to take shortcuts with a radioactive atomic pile reactor, that if it fails could strew radioactive debris across hundreds of kilometers of the planet sure, I can take short cuts. Why didn't you say so?"

Gene just frowned at him for a few seconds.

"Just get it ready Dunkel. The crew are ready now. Give the word and they'll ship out."

Without another word he turned and headed back to the spaceplane hanger.

"Well someone's got a bee in their bonnet!" Dunkel muttered and got back to work on the reactor. "Hey Billybob! Get over here! I need that twenty millimeter spanner!"

***

"Are you sure he hasn't had contact outside KSC?" Gene said to Wernher when he got back to the main complex.

"Hmm? Oh director, yah, we haff Rodsy very busy. Do not vorry."

Gene turned and looked out the window and sighed.

"This is like something out of a bad novel Wernher. When did this get so out of hand?"

"Zis is not your fault Gene. Ve haff done all ve can. You know that Rodsy vould not keep this to himself. If he had access he vould tell ze vorld! I don't think ze council or ze government would appreciate that."

"I know, I know. It's just I consider the KSC my baby. I know it's not 'mine', but... It just seems like this makes me... the enemy."

"Nonsense! Gene, you are trying to protect the space program, not destroy it. Rodsy's efforts would destroy it."

Shaking his head Gene stared off into the distance, watching Kerbol rise slowly.

"Maybe, maybe. Still I don't feel right with this. There is something wrong here beyond the secrecy side. I just wish I could put my finger on it."

"Hah, maybe there are little pink aliens goink to invade, yah?" Wernher said, laughing. Gene didn't join him.

True, the likelihood that there were aliens buzzing around up there were slim. They'd seen no real evidence. Ancient stuff yes. There were plenty of ruins on Kerbin that suggested that there had once been a fairly advanced civilization here a long time ago. But those had been Kerbals. Aliens? In space? Doubtful. And even if they were, why would they decide to make a single Kerbal go insane without doing anything else? No, it had to be natural. Rodsy's inferences to the contrary were just making things far worse for the space program as a whole.

Yeah. No way it could be aliens.

***

Lolorf cruised over the Munar plains, gazing down at the familiar terrain. He'd been over Farside Crater quite a few times. He'd even landed at Jeb's first landing spot before. Heh, even ribbed Jeb about forgetting to plant a flag there. First landing on the Mun and nothing to mark the spot other than imprints in the mundust.

"VKM Two, this is Munbase Alpha. Alpha One speaking. We've had two more Munquakes and think we might be in an upcycle. Be cautious on your landing."

Lolorf blinked. More munquakes? OK, this was starting to get freaky.

"Uh, sure Bob... Alpha One. I'll be careful. I'm just gonna refuel then head back up to a forty kilometer equatorial orbit. I was planning to stay up for maybe a week then head down to Alpha. Anyone like a game of Reefer while I'm there? Or Poker, I'm easy."

"Hmm, I'm sure Alpha Two will join you, though if I remember right Loddan was never keen on Reefer, I expect I'll be too busy VKM Two. Thanks for the thought. We'll see you then. Stay in touch. Alpha out."

"Uh, right." Lolorf said to the suddenly dead channel.

Bob always was a bit abrupt, and Lolorf felt he'd been getting worse this last year. Stress probably. Maybe he'd be better now? He had recently had some down time back on Kerbin. Only a couple of weeks if Lolorf remembered correctly, but still, should help.

Watching the terrain he saw things getting closer. Glancing at his panel he smiled, just before the suicide burn alarm went off. Yeah, he still had it.

Engine lit once more and Lolorf cruised down to the Kethane patch. A hundred meters off to port he could see the mark his engine had made when he was here an hour ago. Not bad piloting!

With a light thump he touched down and set the system to get ready to mine. It'd be sunset soon and he'd likely by mining into the night so he pushed his acceleration couch back and got comfy. He'd be in for the long stretch.

[KSK]

Ahh - the loneliness of the long distance miner! Glad you had the pics uploaded already.

[Patupi]

I'm just wondering, I haven't got my computer yet so I can't check, but I'm assuming you can just go into the persistence files and edit Kerbal's current names and stats, right? When I start a new game I'm going to want to match stats and names as much as I can. Luckily I did keep a few notes on characters. I know the Crew manifest mod used to be able to add and alter Kerbal's stats, so I'm assuming it's all in the files and easy to edit. I'm not sure if the current version of that mod does that, or the new resource manifest mod. Haven't checked that functionality in that newer mod, though I have tried it.

Science Rover One

Gene looked down on the runway as the Science Rover underwent final checkups. It'd been a hard slog, but Dunkel had pulled it off, getting the systems functional and tested (at least to some level) well before their official deadline. Good thing too, as he'd started to run out of errands to keep Rodsy busy.

"I'm getting them set up now sir." Thomcan said quietly, Gene nodding absently. "Why the rush, if you don't mind me asking?"

Gene sighed. Thomcan was about the best bet to take over with Jedwig off the team. But he had no real management skills or leadership training. A bunch of scientists led by scientists. From his experience that usually didn't end well.

"It's complicated Thomcan, but basically this is going to be our flagship for a while. We're not able to mount a high profile expedition to another planet for a while, and currently ecology is featuring high on the talk shows and general media focus. I want to be sure KSC gets as positive swing as we can."

"I understand sir." He said, saluting... badly.

"Just do the best you can, and try not to let Rodsy be too zealous. You have other scientists on the team and they have needs as well, OK?"

"Yes sir." He said, and turned around and strode off.

Thomcan should at least hold them together as a group, but whether they'd be effective was another matter.

***

"Hey, how's it going Sigfry?" Neilzer said cheerily. "Ready for the big day?"

Sigfry looked at the 'pilot' scornfully.

"No... not really. To have to rush here on such short notice, merely to interface with the space programs research is ludicrous! I was in the middle of field work in Lechistan! Do you know how long I had to wait to get entry visas and archeological permits for that? Then 'VOOSH!' KSC steps in and orders me home after only two months work! It is a crime I tell you, a crime!"

Neilzer's joyous expression froze, then slowly fell through out the fuming scientist's diatribe.

"Uh, yeah. Well we're glad to have you." He added lamely. "OK, come on, everyone get in. Thomcan." He saluted sharply, surprising Thomcan. "I hear you've been listed head of the project. Congratulations."

"Yeah... was a surprise to me certainly." Thomcan said with a faint smile. The guy seemed rather nervous.

Then came Rodsy, even more nervous seeming, constantly glancing over his shoulder. He'd heard some odd rumors over that guy, but he seemed to be good at his job, at least according to the reports he'd seen.

"Has the reactor been checked?" Was the first thing the guy said.

"Yes, and I'll go through a preflight before we engage the generators. Don't worry, everything's fine." Neilzer said, forcing a fairly good grin.

It was a good job he was just the driver on this mission!

Lastly Redtop came up, smiling and wondering what the bother was about.

"Um, something up?"

"Naw, everything's fine. Your desk is set up Redtop, you can just get settled in while we plan the course. First stop is a reference check on the sensors in Fendweir woods."

Neilzer first expected Thomcan to organize things, but realized the guy was a little side tracked, eyes miles away by the look of it.

"OK, so if everyone can climb aboard we can get underway!" He said cheerily.

Grumpily, anxiously, and with at least a tiny bit of enthusiasm, the team boarded the vehicle and Neilzer shook his head, striding up to the ladder himself.

"This is not going to be a fun tour of duty, I can just feel it!" He mumbled to himself.

***

Rodsy sat back in his seat and fumed. He'd been run ragged this last couple of days, and it was obvious why. They were trying to shut him down! The way he got posted to the Science Rover project so quickly, the speed with which it got ready to 'launch', and the complete lack of press coverage of it all lead to one conclusion.

KSC knew about aliens! This was some giant cover-up. Out there there was probably some sort of base or hanger where they kept the aliens locked up, or ships, or something. It just had to be! Why else would they persecute him this way?

"So, ready for the first big day?" Redtop said from beside him.

"Hmm? What? Oh.... yeah... big day." Rodsy said, not paying the intern much attention.

Redtop was a thoroughly forgettable Kerbal. No special merits from his university course. No specialty even. He just did 'Science'. How did you do that? Take biochemiphysics? From what he'd heard no-one really called themselves his 'friend' at all and he didn't involve himself in any of the KSC sports activities either. Maybe he was just a geek and kept to himself? Didn't look it though. Square jawed, though... well, almost a forgettable face. Pretty 'normal' looking overall.

"Hey, buck up! We're doing SCIENCE!" Redtop said with a grin, then turned back to his own console.

Rodsy could practically hear the guy pronounce the capital letters in that word. Oh great, a newbie with an overenthusiastic attitude! Just what he needed right now!

Rodsy tried the various comms systems but kept getting 'Sorry, this service is inaccessible during high profile missions' messages. Yeah, pretty much as he suspected. He was cut off.

He looked around and slowly a smile came across his face.

Cut off maybe, but he had a whole load of research equipment at his disposal. They couldn't keep him in here indefinitely could they? He'd just find out as much as he could from here, maybe checking on Seanbur's magnetic stuff to see if that had anything to do with it, and then when he did get out he'd have real ammunition to show the press! Yeah, put me on a science mission to shut me up? Wrong move!

***

Neilzer watched the levels rise as Sigfry watched over his shoulder.

"Incredible. Do you know how dangerous these reactors are?" Sigfry said conversationally.

Neilzer suppressed a shudder.

"No, feel free to tell me all about it." He said sarcastically.

It seems Sigfry wasn't equipped to detect sarcasm though.

"Of course. I mean after the whole TMS One debacle you should know what you're dealing with." He began. Neilzer attempted to close his ears to the guy, somewhat unsuccessfully, while he monitored the systems, the battery systems maintaining things until the pile came fully on line and the reactor could charge them back up. "The reactor pile itself is well designed. I've seen the specs. Isolated core system. Double redundancies in the heat transfer mechanism. safety interlocks with a hard-set, manual control system. Even if it completely looses power you can still manually scram the pile with the boron dampers released via springs. Heh, makes resetting them after a pain if there's no electricity! Hope you have a strong arm Neilzer."

Yeah, maybe he should get some of those almost invisible earbud things that acted as both earplugs and headphones? For times like this it would be invaluable.

"Apart from that though the systems is less than perfect. I understand they've improved the generator systems since the early days. Still, the thing has quite a few instabilities in the turbines. I heard of one in testing where a resonance built up in the system. Before they could spin it down there was a catastrophic failure and the thing just detonated, throwing turbine blades around like knives. And then of course there is the dodgy external heat transfer and cooling system!"

'Oh dear Kod! Kill me now!'

Neilzer cringed as Sigfry went into excruciating details about what could go wrong.

***

"Hey Rodsy!"

Rodsy looked up to see Thomcan popping his head in the hatch.

"Hey yourself. How are you settling in?"

Tomcan leaned on the door jam and grinned.

"Pretty good, though I'm not sure about Sigfry. I think he went up to the cap to... I mean up to the pilot to irritate him some. He got bored of me not responding to his doom and gloom stuff. I think he really needs an audience."

Rodsy shook his head.

"Heh, yeah sounds like it." He said with a smile.

"There you are!" Thomcan said. "I was wondering where the old Rodsy had gone." Thomcan then cocked his head, listening for a moment. "Hmm, sounds like the generators are picking up speed. Must have a good head of steam... Um,thermal power... Whatever."

Just at that moment a message came over the intercom.

"This is Neilzer, your pilot. We are nearly ready to set out. External couplings disengaged. data transfer to KSC initialized. All lab systems have reported operational. Reactor is stable... Turbines to speed.... Charging... Atomic batteries to power."

Jeez, that guy sounded cheesy.

"OK, we're set up for our trip guys." Neilzer said. "Um, Commander Thomcan? Can you report to the cockpit? I'd like to go over the course."

Thomcan rolled his eyes.

"Burdens of command huh? See you later Rodsy."

"Sure. Take care Thomcan."

Thomcan mock-saluted then shut the door.

"Heh, you two close then?" Redtop said.

"Hmm? Sort of. We knew each other at flight training. Oh, private training. Way before I joined KSC."

"Oh, you were in the airforce?" Redtop asked.

"Um, no. Private as in 'I paid to get trained.' I was going to be a commercial pilot back then. Got side tracked into university, then KSC." A smile crossed Rody's face, which promptly faded as he remembered that last horrible mission and the current conspiracy.

"Well, turned out well for you then? Glad to hear it." Redtop said.

Redtop didn't have very good timing it seemed.

***

Thomcan passed a disgruntled Sigfry in the corridor (was there a time when Sigfry wasn't disgruntled?) as he headed to the cockpit.

"Neilzer, Commander reporting for duty." Thomcan said with a grin.

"Uh huh." Neilzer said slowly "Look, Thomcan. I know you haven't done this before, but you really need to take charge here. I know, it's just a scientific mission, but we do need to be organized at least." Neilzer finished and just stared at Thomcan who smiled nervously. "Well, we're ready to set out sir."

A pause lengthened as Thomcan just nodded idly.

"Um... orders sir?" Neilzer prodded.

"Hmm? Oh OH. Sorry.. Yeah Um, engage.... wheels? Just head out."

Neilzer rolled his eyes again.

"Yeah, any particular direction? You have planned a route haven't you?"

Thomcan blinked.

"Well, I thought that had all been set by KSC?"

"Preliminary sites of investigation, no defined route."

Thomcan looked out the window ahead, realizing that the outcome of this project might depend on where he took them. Oh this was fun! He never wanted this!

"I guess... head west.... maybe north west for now. I'll mark up a course for us."

"You do that boss." Neilzer said and turned back to the controls.

***

With a roaring sound the exhaust vents thrummed, coolant cycling smoothly. Slowly, the wheels turned on the second largest land vehicle the Kerbals had ever constructed. (The first was a single use vehicle about twenty years ago that shipped the first rocket, complete, from the fabricators back when KSC only launched rockets, not assembled them) The white and grey paint shone in the sun as it rolled off the runway and onto the grass, suspension surprisingly firm given the hefty weight it was carrying.

Careful, gentle turning, eased the craft onto a northwest heading and it slowly picked up speed, sliding into the dim early morning. The wheels barely even tugged at the power the generator put out. Most of that power was set aside for use in the various high-energy physics experiments to be done later.

After about five minutes the words "Why didn't anyone put any darned headlights on this thing?" wafted from the cockpit's open window, and the vehicle reluctantly slowed down as it left the glow of KSC's surrounds. Soon enough though the sun rose and it picked back up to a hefty fifteen meters a second (fast for such a large craft at least).

Rolling carefully up a slight slope it crested the ridge and settled down a little rise before cruising into Fendweir Woods beyond. Well, OK, to call them 'woods' was a bit of an overstatement. The odd tree here and there does not constitute a wood.

"Ooooh! Look at that one!" Came the cry from one of the windows in the vehicle.

Shortly afterwards the vehicle slowed, turned, and bore down one tree. One rather large tree... OK, a friggin enormous one!

Yeah, they could do wonderful science with this! The heat radiators unfurled and the reactor sped up to 100% as various burbles and beeps came from the science labs as they got stuck into their research.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Patupi

[KSK]

Go go nukular powered science car!

Just need to make sure that the reactor output goes up to 1.21GW and then try and hit 39.34 m/s* (more boosters may be required ). And then you'll really see what that baby can do...

*assuming Kerbal miles are the same as Terran miles.

Edited March 4, 2014 by KSK

[Patupi]

As long as they aren't Red Miles! Ouch!

And is it bad that I've had rovers go faster than that before? And they even survived! I've even had a mobile 8 Kerbal base go over 30m/s... though it did blow the occasional tire now and then.

I'm surprised you didn't comment on Redtop. Needless to say that wasn't the name of the Kerbal that KSP generated.

[Patupi]

My computer arrived yesterday, though I had some trouble. The hard drive I hoped to use was already set up and the motherboard setup was incompatible with the new machine, despite both being MSI and both being fairly new. It just wouldn't boot and even setup as an external drive I didn't know how to install via an external drive. Windows sucks like that

Anyway, I had to buy a new drive (or format the old one and lose everything on it. Already lost my current HD, didn't want to lose more!) and am now getting everything installed. Will take a while, but eventually I'll have KSP back up and running. For now enjoy the early works on Resuable tech.

Unfortunately the competition that came after this with about nine different designs of RLV is lost. Some were rather funny (Intake Spam A lot! which didn't do too well with KSPI and it's overheating jets) others failed rather dismally, but a surprising number of them get just into orbit. For reference Patupi entered a modification to the Atlas shown below with engines on the drop tanks and parachute to recover them that could launch light, 8ton (if I remember correctly. Might have been 15tons, not sure) payloads as well as 3 Kerbals. With this and other RLV tests, I ended up with about six or so 'test payloads' in orbit from with a tiny nuke reactor, generator and some radiators and a docking port. Never actually used them afterwards I think *shrugs*

Some were a 'just barely' design, getting into a sub orbital hop, but fairly high, release payload and use it's RCS to circularize before the launching vessel got below 25km. They worked, but better designs came along. Given my past success rate with aircraft none of these designs were planes Surprise surprise!

Atlas One

With a thump Gene's door opened and Milton burst in.

"Sir sir! I... they're early!"

Gene almost dropped his koffee cup as the eager Kerbal entered, glee written all over his face.

"OK, try that again with a little more information Milton."

"Uh, sorry sir. I mean Patupi Enterprises has just given confirmation that all sections of their new TSTO are complete and are being shipped here for assembly!"

Gene blinked. That was ahead of schedule, more than two months ahead. He began to wonder if the corporation was falsifying their initial estimates to make themselves look good. Hopefully it was that. Otherwise it meant they had skimped somewhere in construction which would give Gene a really bad headache... and give some unlucky kerbonaut a really bad flight!

"I assume Dunkel and Wernher have already been informed?" Milton nodded enthusiastically. "Well, do we have an ETA on the components?"

Milton glanced down at a sheef of paper in his hands and skimmed a little before answering.

"Well, the primary hull is in four sections for transport. All those are coming in via airborne shipments. Currently, estimated at two days tops till they're actually loaded and another five hours for the last plane to arrive here. Other sections are either standard, like the skipper engines and we can supply them, or have been completed ahead of time and have been en-route to us via ocean trade routes. They aimed for those transports to start arriving tonight, and the last to arrive here tomorrow."

Gene blinked. Why the hell were they messing around with KSC like this? They should have been informed about these arrival schedules ages ago! Gene then paused and pondered.

"Have we heard anything from the Council recently to do with reusable vehicles?"

"Uh, I think there is a memorandum from them about a proposed contest that... wait, you think Patupi Enterprises heard about it and rushed to beat the competition to the punch?"

"Highly likely, though their system isn't completely reusable. I think they may find they've messed up if it's a reusable competition. Unless they aim for this to be a demonstrator for a similar craft of theirs that is completely re-usable?" Gene mulled it over. "Alright. Have Dunkel sort around to see if we have spares of engines and any 'standard' systems that Patupi thinks we should have. If we can at least get one model built we can plan ahead for later versions. Second, I need to get Patrick on the phone immediately. He should have informed me directly if his company was going to try and pull something like this."

"Um, sir?" Milton said, nervously. "You know you said you shouldn't be disturbed, what with the whole business with Rodsy and you trying to sort out how to stop the media interaction with the Science Rover? Well... Patrick has been calling you for the past four hours."

Gene grimaced and muttered some rather dark comments to himself.

"Fine, fine, just get him on the line will you?

This would be a long call he suspected.

***

Seven days was not enough time to assemble, test and ready a completely new rocket for use. Gene wasn't that keen on this rapidity. True, they'd got rockets ready far faster than that in the past, but those were tried and tested things. This....

"Atlas huh?" Dunkel said to himself, looking up at the ship. "Well, he's a big un I'll grant you that, but not exactly fitting. You'd expect something called 'Atlas' to heft pretty large payloads, not just ferry three Kerbals up or down."

The ship was using the Skipper engines mostly, with a core of three LV-Ns to circularize.

"If they can get to orbit with just those side tanks ditched, I'll be happy. Low payload or not."

"No payload, from what I hear. It'll handle the crew and that's it." Dunkel said, shaking his head. "I still think it's too early to be messin' with this stuff. When we have more efficient engines, yeah maybe. But now? We ain't ready for re-usable launchers, and it shows! If this is supposed to spark competition to build them? Well... I don't think it'll get far."

"Except maybe push someone to develop those more efficient engines." Gene added softly.

Dunkel nodded with a chuckel.

"Aye, guess so. Mmmm. So you got a crew? This is a tad short notice, especially with this complex a ship. You gonna put Jedwig or Jeb on it?"

"I don't think Jedwig is quite ready yet, and though the docs have cleared Jeb for this... well, I think we'll pick from the best and the brightest of the rest."

"Best and brightest huh? So, I'll be in the development center to watch the fireworks." Dunkel said caustically, and strode off, shaking his head.

"Fireworks!" Gene shook his head too. "I don't think so. We've had too many niggling problems of late. We'd better make sure this goes well. It'd sure be good PR!"

***

The techs grinned at him as he passed, his two co-pilots wearing nervous grins somewhat like his own, as Lodrin walked down the accessway. Out of the side windows he could see the shape of the new ship. Somehow it looked a little different than the simulations.

"Are you sure this is safe?" He whispered to Gus.

"Uh, sure. Hey, come on this is gonna be fun!" Despite Gus' words he sounded just as nervous as Lodrin. Giffrod looked no better.

Soon enough they were at the hatch, which a tech promptly opened.

"Dawn of a new era eh?" The guy said to them.

Lodrin blinked uncomprehendingly at the tech. An awkward silence fell as Gus and Giffrod attempted to look elsewhere.

"Huh?" Lodrin said finally.

The tech glanced around nervously, his smile fading.

"You know... the whole... re-usable thing?" He said sheepishly.

"Oh... yeah... right. Go KSC." Lodrin said, unenthusiastically, putting a fist in the air in a rather weak gesture.

Gulping he stepped in with his two crew-mates following behind, the techs helping them get plugged in. This was nothing like the sim, that was for sure.

"T-minus two minutes." Came across their comm headsets.

"Two minutes?!?" Giffrod said, panic in his voice? "They haven't even retracted the accessway!"

"Hey, it's OK!" Lodrin said, attempting to calm the guy down, though he did have a point.

The three started going through pre-flight as the techs finished setting up and closed the hatch. The clang sounded rather final to Lodrin.

Two minutes went by in a blur, time seeming to compress as the Kerbals tried to connect their hasty training with the actual capsule controls. At least some things were where they thought they should be.

"And five, four, three..." the crew took deep breaths and gritted their teeth.

The familiar roar of Skipper engines catapulted them upwards, their bodies firmly crushed into the acceleration couches. Wisps of fog skimmed by the craft as it picked up speed. Things were a little slow on acceleration than most rockets, but things would speed up soon enough.

Giffrod gulped and tapped a panel in front of him.

"Five thousand meters. External drop tanks nearly empty."

"Roger, priming bolts." Lodrin responded, attempting to sound calm as he flicked the six switches in sequence."And three, two, one..."

With the push of a final button all six drop tanks fell clear of the ship, dropping rapidly behind as it took off... well, like a rocket.

"Rolling over." Lodrin added as he maneuvering the ship.

It sluggishly responded, the heft of the craft, nearly full of fuel, a little too much for the torque systems at present.

"You're over the ocean, on course and we have no errors on the system Atlas One." Said Gene on the comms.

"Roger Flight. I read no problems on this end so far either." Lodrin said back.

Silence filled the craft for a time, all three Kerbals monitoring the flight carefully. But all seemed to be going to plan for once. The sky turned darker and darker, soon a faint blue streak on the horizon all that remained of the cyan sky of Kerbin. Below the clouds drifted lazily, forming shadows over hill, plains and seas, them flying high above.

"I'm level, circularizing craft." Lodrin said, throttling down a little as they passed forty kilometers. "Engaging nukes."

Lodrin switched on the LV-Ns and disabled the Skippers. The burn was long all the way up to Apoapsis, but slowly their path turned into a longer and longer arc, eventually making a complete circle.

"And orbit stable!" Lodrin said with a sigh of relief, shared with his two companions. "We've shut down drives and awaiting orders."

The sounds of muted applause and congratulations went around the Mission Control in the background as Gene contacted them again.

"Roger Atlas One. We're glad everything went to plan. Congratulations, and good work all of you." He said. "When you're ready if Gus can do an EVA and check everything out it'd be appreciated."

"Roger Flight!" Gus said, chuckling. "Be nice to get out of the capsule, it's already getting kind of stale in here!"

***

As Gus closed the hatch behind him he felt the hiss of the systems repressurizing the capsule once more. This ship certainly wasn't big enough to warrant an airlock!

"I'm clearing the ship." He said, engaging his thrusters. "The solar panels are looking good. Fully extended and no damage. The ladders extended well too. Er, I don't think I need them up here though Lodrin."

"Heh, I think I'll leave them." Lodrin said back on the radio. "It'll give you something more to grab when you're floating out there."

"Huh, sure, why not?" Gus said, then grinned.

This was why he was here! He stared down at the beautiful sight of Kerbin revolving below him and sighed. All worth it! With a shake of his head he took the controls of his flight pack once more and cleared the ship and headed aft. Chuckling he admitted flying like this too was why he was here. It was why he'd become a pilot in the first place!

"Chutes seem secure." He said as he passed them. "How'd they read in there Lodrin?"

"Nominal. Don't worry, we have some fuel for landing, just in case they fail. Might be hard landing, but we'd survive. Not sure about the ship."

"Lets just hope the chutes work then, OK?" Giffrod added sarcastically.

Slowly Gus drifted aft, gliding past the main fuel tanks before coming to the rear engines.

"From a visual inspection the skippers look good. Some distortion on the rims, but should be fine. It's minimal. No ruptures in the cooling lines."

Gus slid around as he spoke, taking in one engine from all sides before focusing on the cluster of LV-Ns in the middle.

"Nukes seem good. I'm not seeing any distortions at all and not even any discoloration in the bells. Don't think they'll need much servicing compared to the rest."

"Good, Patupi Enterprises will be glad to hear their ship came through with flying colors." Gene said. "And me too. I think this will finally get... certain individuals off our backs about reusable ships for a while."

Lodrin chuckled.

"That's something we can definitely agree on. Though I doubt we'll get that lucky with... those certain individuals."

"Just keep yourselves safe up there Atlas. Flight out."

"Roger flight."

Lodrin signed off just as Gus drifted up to the hatch and grabbed hold. As he went back inside he wondered, would this really open up the ways to cheap, affordable spaceflight? Would the missions they were launching get more rapid and numerous from now on? He could only hope.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Patupi

[KSK]

*shakes head*

Gotta love those kerbals. Terrified of the launch but no worries at all about drifting untethered in open space.

[Patupi]

Well doh! I mean, there's nothing to crash into. I mean, all that ground is WAY too scary!

[briansun1]

hum the pictures seem to be broken again

[Patupi]

Hmm, they seem to work for me. Plus they're all through Imgur now, so my website getting bandwidth problems shouldn't affect anything but chapters 1 to 4 (if I remember right).

As to my current status on this AAR, there are two more missions to complete, then then the lead in to the next AAR. However I'm just starting to get things set up for that in-game. Might be a while before I get things set up the way I want. I had issues with the windows version not working properly, then windows registry issues. I stupidly bought my hard drive separately from the computer, so windows wasn't pre-installed and my old Vista disk couldn't be re-used. I did briefly think of getting Win 7 (Not Win 8 ever! Looks horribly maimed OS to me), but it's not available for purchase in stores directly any more, except one store who sold the full $200 version. Yeah, old windows costs more than new windows? Way to go MS.

Anyway, I got impatient, and so even though I could have bought it online or through a store to be delivered later I instead installed Ubuntu Linux on a clean drive. It's been a while since I used it so it might take me some time to get back in the swing of things, but seems to be going well.

I'll try to get back into writing up the rest of this AAR but have been a bit side tracked, plus had a death in the family last Friday. My Brother-in-law who has had liver problems for a long time now finally gave out. Been a little rough weekend.

[Patupi]

OK, first, sorry no new posts. Sorry if this gets anyone's hopes up. Right now I'm having rather serious, if intermittent issues with my computer and KSP. I do intend to finish this story off and lead into the next one, but for that to happen I need to have a stable platform. I have been able to run some games and even got a little way into setting up the next story up... but have run into graphical glitches, crashes and some oddities with running the Linux version of KSP. Yeah, I had to get rid of Windows when my HD fried and I gave up for a time and am using Linux, Ubuntu actually, right now. I also don't seem to be able to use my graphics card at all. The computer just refuses to boot at all with it plugged in. I suspect it's a power supply issue, even though the power supply should be way more powerful than it needs to be. I know, I'm repeating myself. Happens when I get annoyed with this stuff! *sigh*

Suffice to say I haven't been playing KSP much lately (in between crashes), even though I do have a version of 23.5 installed... which has more issues than 23 does for me, and have kind of pulled away a little. I'm hoping I can save up to afford a decent upgrade to my computer and to buy Windows nine when it comes out. As I say above...Win 8?... no, just no! And apparently MS has decided in it's infinite wisdom that Win 7 new should cost tons more than Win 8.... right, makes perfect sense! I know, you can get cheaper versions of Win 7, but trust me I've been through that and had issues with most of it. I'll deal with Ubuntu for now, then get back to windoze later.

If anyone is starved for my story telling I have started on a tale that doesn't need a game to play out. It's on the Alternate History forums, and unfortunately where I posted I think you have to register and sign in to be able to read it. However, if anyone is interested it's an attempt to continue on from where the movie of Galaxy Quest left off.

Galaxy Quest: Return to the Void

[KSK]

I confess that a new chapter was my first thought. Not to worry - sounds like you have enough computer woes to be getting on with. We'll still be waiting eagerly when you get them sorted out!

The Galaxy Quest link does indeed require registration. A job for tonight methinks.

[Joshwoo70]

Bump and chapter?

[Engineer of Stuff]

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?

It's the Kraken!!!

Also, are you still working on this story? Your post was in April.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Engineer Of Stuff

[Patupi]

It's the Kraken!!!

Also, are you still working on this story? Your post was in April.

I've recently bought a new computer that does seem to work with KSP. Since I bought a game on the computer I did have... which then refused to work on that, I did kind of go overboard on that when I bought my new computer. Hence I'm sort of involved in XCOM Long War right now, but when that's done I'll be back into KSP again. Also the HD that said it was blank? Somehow it does work on the new comp! I've got my old save games from KSP: Colonization. I've copied them over to the new HD as there are definitely bad tracks and probably other problems on that old hard drive, but it is at least salvageable! I have a series of pics I took from the old game, so those can go up as the next bit of the story... but I've really got to go over them and remind myself what the BEEP happened. It's been a long time since I played this, and KSP was pretty much unplayable on the computer I was using till the one I've just bought.

It'll be a little while, but this series IS coming back, don't worry.

[Patupi]

Yup, it's that time again. Continuation of the RLV competition that Patupi Enterprises kind of jumped the gun with the Atlas. They included a variation on the Atlas into the competition, but I get ahead of myself. Note, not sure how quickly this story will update, and right now all of this is from pictures I salvaged from my (thankfully!) recovered hard drive. I haven't even started setting up playing any more of colonization through in KSP yet! Might wait for 0.90 for that (Once mods are up to date!)

OK, first on with the show and the completion of the Atlas mission!

Atlas Landing

"Plotting re-entry burn now" Lodrin said with a slight smile.

This had gone easier than he.... Lodrin suddenly lost his smile. No! Not gonna think like that! That way lies doom and gloom and explosions. Pretty they may be, he didn't want to be in the heart of them! He ticked off a small note in his head. 'Do not tempt Kraken with overly optimistic expectations of flight'.

"Roger Atlas One." Gene replied. "You're ready for LV-N burn to de-orbit. Feeding you flight data for KSC rendezvous."

Working with Giffrod he got the systems set up, then slowly engaged the nuclear engines. The slow thrum of the drives seemed rather calming after the heavy roar of the Skippers on launch and soon they were set to re-enter the atmosphere.

"AR unit shows us on course for a touchdown close to KSC. Get the trucks ready to receive us, we'll be there soon!" Lodrin said. Optimistic perhaps, but for some reason saying it like that was OK. At least for Kerbonauts. KSC tradition mainly.

The hefty ship oriented itself around for the aerobraking and the crew began to prepare for landing. Systems were checked and course monitored to ensure things went correctly. This time more care than usual was being taken on little things that normally were ignored. This ship would not just survive entry and landing if all went well. It could be re-serviced and re-launched with only the addition of a few cheap fuel tanks bolted back on. As long as everything went well that is.

Slowly they sped downwards, Giffrod showing his nerves mainly by twiddling a pen in his hand almost continuously all the way down. Gus seemed rather jovial after his EVA and things seemed to be fine.... so far. Lodrin couldn't avoid thinking of the worst that might happen. Don't assume the best! That way the Kraken lies!

"W... we're hitting thicker air." Giffrod said, peering at the monitors. "Nearly at drogue release point."

Lodrin nodded and followed the track. Slowly they bit deeper into the cool embrace of Kerbin's upper atmosphere and began to slow. After a few more seconds he pulled safety covers off switches and nodded to Giffrod.

"Ready to release drogues.... now!" He said, tripping the switches.

Up above them six small chutes opened and drew out, fluttering high overhead. Looking up he could see the flickering shapes as they bit into the rarefied atmosphere.

Soon flames began to lick the hull and the ship slowed harder and harder, braking hard.

"Looks good Flight. We're on approach and setting up for landing. Standing by to cut the drogues."

This time the drogues were going to be cut. This was some sort of safety technique that the manufacturers, Patupi Enterprises, recommended for chute operations to avoid fowling with the rest of the chute system. Lodrin wasn't so sure. He couldn't see there being much problem with popping all the chutes at the same time. Every bit of deceleration would help! Still, for now he followed the recommendation and hit the switch after they'd been slowed enough and the chutes snapped off and vanished into the distance above them while flames continued to lick around the ship around it's shallow slice through the air.

Now he set up for the primary chute deployment, talking quietly with Giffrod on the landing profile, and with Gus on the state of the ship. Though he wasn't technically an accredited engineer Gus was the technician monitoring the ship systems and was called an engineer for the purposes of the flight. While Lodrin watched Gus set up the landing legs and confirmed they were locked as they slid closer to their target.

"Plot looks good. I can't guarantee a hit on the pad, I'm gonna veer to the right. We're gonna end up on the south side Flight." Giffrod said, and though he talked clear and confidently his brow was covered in sweat. Giffrod was not used to this!

"Standing by.... and.... Popping chutes!"

The ship shuddered and jerked as the chutes rapidly slowed it as it sank towards KSC. Giffrod frowned as the ship shook though.

"Getting more drag than predicted Flight. I think we're gonna end up short."

Gene's voice came back over the mike calmly a few seconds later.

"We concur Atlas Three. Estimate two kilometers to our West. Don't worry, we'll have the trucks out to you in no time.

The ship seemed rather sedate now as it glided lower and the tension in the cabin certainly was calmer. Looked like things were... No! Don't think like that! Lodrin scowled. Bad captain!

"We're nearly there Flight." Lodrin said. "Chutes fully deploying..." Lodrin gasped instead of adding 'now' as the ship shuddered from the extra drag. "OK, we're stable and coming in... pretty steady. Be seeing you soon Flight."

The three Kerbals watched the atlimeter drop slowly and there were three strained expressions as the ground neared.

"And we're down!" Lodrin said with a gasp. With a sigh he relaxed in his seat, finally the tension over. They'd made it! A re-usable... almost... system had been tested. Soon things would get interesting in Kerbin orbit!

[KSK]

Opening caveats duly noted, but.... it's back!!

[Patupi]

Thanks KSK, and at least I have quite a few pics from before on file so I should be able to keep going for a while before I need to think on the next step in game.

Right now it's the RLV competition, followed by a couple of atmospheric plane explorations, testing new hardware.

[Patupi]

Reusable Launch Vehicle Competion

Gene stared up at the ungainly monster above him in the VAB. OK, it was by no means the largest rocket he'd seen. It was actually fairly small, but it didn't look anything like a rocket. Not even close!

The technicians from Undive Engineering were still taking down the carrier equipment that had hauled this thing in... intact!... from the ship it had come in on. Those guys were nuts, attempting to haul a complex vehicle like this in one piece. It would have been far easier for them to ship it in and assemble, like the other 'contestants' were going to.

With a sigh he turned to the 'support group' that had followed him in here like a bunch of groupies. Even now pens hovered over pads, dozens of eyes staring intently at him.

"It looks... sound." Pens scribbled momentarily. "Look, guys. I haven't had a chance to examine the vessel itself, but from the specs you sent it seems a serviceable vessel..." He paused, then looked over his shoulder, squinting up at the large mounting frame on the top of the craft, "... though I'm still uncertain why you put a two and a half meter mount up there. There is no way that thing is going to carry anything that large up to orbit.

"Empty fuel tanks!" One of the suits said suddenly, then got fixed stares from all the others and he became suddenly conscious that he just interrupted the 'Great Gene'.

Before today Gene had not known anyone outside of Capitol Hill and the Space Center even knew he existed, but apparently in Undive there had grown some kind of cult about him among the founders and the engineering staff. It was rather embarrassing really. More Jeb's cup of tea than his... or more likely Jedwig's frankly!

"I see." Gene said. "Alright. I can see large, low weight payloads might be a possibility in the far future, but why ship it with that here and now? You're aware that most of the payloads going up will be small? Assuming this wins the competition that is."

"Oh yes, we understand!" Another groupie chimed in. "But sir, we just wanted the craft to be at it's worst, with the maximum mount weight available, to prove it can get to orbit with that at least! Without that it should be easy."

Gene privately thought they just hadn't considered lighter loads until recently... either that or their whole project was rushed when the competition was announced.

"Very well. For now I'm glad you've got a vessel here." The eyes of the group still pinned him. Oh yes. They were waiting weren't they? "I formally announce this craft to have the designation of RLV-1 for the course of the competition. Congratulations on your entry."

Smiles went among them and several patted each other on their backs. Ye gods how long would he have to put up with this? The next few months were going to be annoying in the extreme!

***

The next few months were indeed annoying, and also extremely busy for the KSC. In the end, of the twelve 'contestants' only eight companies shipped vessels in for the competition. Thankfully the rest did ship them as components to be assembled rather than complete as Undive did, and some designs were... interesting.

RLV-1 was not as good as expected, with some inefficiencies in it's rocket systems leading to only achieving a sub-orbital trajectory. Definitely a let down for Undive.

The second entry, RLV-2 by the Intrum Conglomerate was one of the few non-airbreathing proposals, simply a huge rocket with capacity for up to ten passengers. Unfortunately, despite a very good launch and orbit profile, it had rather nasty issues on landing. Mainly the tendency to topple over. The thing was way too tall for it's leg base!

RLV-3 by a consortium funded by the Council was... over-engineered. The first KSC engineer to see it in the 'flesh' had to be held down, he was laughing so hysterically. It was nicknamed 'Sir Spamalot' by someone in the VAB, and there were a lot of snickers during testing.

The testing did not go well.

RLV-4 was one of the craft to succeed all objectives. During initial tests it performed well in both aerial flight and orbital maneuvering, and when loaded with the standard test payload (a small atomic reactor, to ensure the craft could cope with small amounts of radiation from it's cargo) it put into a quite acceptable 71kmx73km orbit. Since the payload in fact had quite a load of RCS it could have lifted it's orbit quite a ways from that. Not a bad effort.

The RLV-5 was successful, but was deemed rather over-engineered in a lot of respects. Unfortunately under-engineered on the landing equipment and some of the navigation equipment. It had issues targeting a landing site accurately and tended to drift. Plus, with the ship mainly focused on rocket power rather than jet power it had very little maneuvering ability once back in the atmosphere to change it's landing site. The ship also had severe difficulties on even slight slopes and toppled twice on testing, once damaging the prototype, the next time igniting the small amount of fuel left inside and destroying it.

It didn't get into the finals.

The RLV-6 was a design by Patupi Enterprises, loosely based on the recent, all rocket propelled, Atlas tests. However in this version the older LVN rockets were replaced with six newer Atomic Thermal engines, and the detachable fuel tanks on the Atlas were given extra engines as well as parachutes for recovery. Although a two stage rocket it still was totally reusable and although some griped that it stretched the limits of the competition rules it was allowed.

It also succeeded very well, easily achieving orbit with the payload and without, and proving rather stable in flight. The atomic systems also provided power for the ship so it did not need solar panels and wouldn't have to worry about brownouts in the dark. It was mainly entered into the competition for the personnel shuttle role, ferrying six passengers, but also had a light mount on top for payloads, here actually configured for docking rather than payload mounting.

Preen System's RLV-7 didn't go well. Another attempt to use newer nuclear propulsion techniques it had issues reaching orbital velocity, mainly due to lack of thrust at key points during the flight rather than efficiency. It was able to make a high sub-orbital launch, letting the payload take up the slack with it's RCS for it to reach orbit while the launch vessel returned to base. Technically a success it wasn't highly rated.

Rhondan corporation's RLV-8 had two versions, RLV-8p and RLV-8x, one for carrying personnel and the cargo version shown above. The 8x was the only model to use a cargo bay rather than an open mount for carrying cargo, a significant selling point for protecting the cargo during the rigors of launch. This also meant it could recover payloads from orbit and return them to the ground. The last entry, and one of the more successful, both variants easily achieved orbit with their payloads, though with less dV to spare than the RLV-6 had done. The RLV-8p had the same 6 crew transport capacity as the RLV-6, but required two distinct craft to do it's task. The RLV-8x though did have a large payload capacity than the RLV-6.

All in all the tests were a success. They were televised, and the failures actually drew bigger ratings than the successes. Not a surprise really.

In the end RLV-6 was deemed winner of the personnel shuttle contract, and RLV-8x for the cargo contract. None of the entries could manage heavy payloads so it was not certain how much usage RLV-8x would get from KSC. Still, the Council and the Government was happy with the results.

Next time a detailed report of the second flight of RLV-5

Edited November 14, 2014 by Patupi

[briansun1]

*Fangirl squealing.* He's back he's back he's back!!!!

[Patupi]

RLV5 Test Flight 2

Jedwig stared up at the odd looking conglomeration of jet engines and rockets. His expression was pensive, with a hint of a frown.

"Huh, I think I can still make out the dents. Are you sure they fixed it sufficiently?"

Ipdel sighed.

"You're not the one who's going to fly it anyway, so I'm not sure why you're asking." He said cautiously.

Jedwig shook his head and looked askance at Ipdel.

"Ipdel! I'm surprised at you! After all my efforts to be nice and friendly, you think so little that I wouldn't care if there was a crash?"

Ipdel stared solidly at Jedwig for about ten seconds.

"Absolutely." He said not even batting an eyelid. "Of course if you had a bet on it...?"

Jedwig had the decency to look away at that, especially as Ipdel knew darned well Jedwig had bet on the competition. He still wasn't sure which ship he was betting on though. Ipdel stared at Jedwig carefully.

"Look, I'll be flying this... thing, tomorrow on remote. Feel free to stop on by and peer awkwardly over my shoulder the whole time."

Jedwig stared at Ipdel. That guy had changed quite a bit in the three years he'd known him. He was a lot more confident, especially recently. Jedwig wondered what that was about? Shaking his head he just turned back to the odd looking structure.

"Well, I wish you luck. Hope this thing at least functions OK."

Ipdel declined to comment. He did too. The last thing they needed was a disaster at KSC right now. This thing blowing up on the pad and plastering nuclear residue over the area would make their day real nasty!

***

"T minus two minutes." Gene intoned quietly, managing not to stare at the camera crews in Mission Control.

"Don't worry." Jebidiah said quietly, leaning over from his seat towards Gene. "I'm sure they'll keep under control. And if not we can just have reporter flambe."

Gene snorted into his koffee for a second, then glared at Jeb, though at least he had a faint smile on his face.

"I don't think we'd have enough sauce to blanket their sickly sweet, cloying aroma." He replied, deadpan, though rather quietly. The last thing they needed was this repartee to be broadcast somewhere!

This of course wasn't the only reason Gene was tense.

Rodsy was attempting to bypass the cutouts on his terminal, breaking the radio silence from the mission. It was odd thinking that a darned atomic research bus was considered a mission nowadays, but apparently it was. Jeb wasn't sure the exact reason why Gene was tense, but he'd seen Wernher report on Rodsy's last attempt to break radio quarantine. That guy was nuts! Go against Gene? And for what, some kind of publicity ploy? Pah, the idiot actually wanted to get closer to a reporter? Gene should just let the guy shoot himself in the foot. Why he stood up for him like this was beyond Jeb.

"T minus thirty seconds."

All eyes were focused on the pad as the seconds ticked down, steam bursting from the pad under the rocket. The odd whine of jet engines spooling up. Then cables snapped clear of the ship, the countdown went into single digits, and finally the ship shuddered slightly.

"...two, one... Liftoff!"

The flickering plumes under the ship increased in intensity as the engines were kicked into full throttle and the ship slid up off the pad, minus the normal roar of rocket engines. The landing gear folded up as it cleared the concrete and tucked itself away against the body as the ungainly monstrosity picked up speed.

Ipdel carefully monitored the launch, the ship rapidly canting over at a slight angle, building up horizontal velocity far earlier than a rocket would. As it passed five kilometers altitude it was already going over a fifty meters a second horizontally, with similar vertical speed, though the latter was rising rapidly.

"Fuel feeds seem stable." Milton said.

"Roger Telemetry." Lildel said "I'm reading instability from payload of under one percent of threshold. Looks green."

There was perhaps slightly less chatter than usual in mission control and it was slightly more subdued. This was mostly due to the reporters. No one wanted to mess up in front of them. However there was more activity over the net systems, the various specialists sending data feeds and messages via the computer system instead to keep tabs on one another and the systems of the mission.

"I'm reading all turbines in the green, thrust stable and within two percent optimal thrust." Milton said quietly.

Ths ship had tipped over a lot now, building it's horizontal velocity higher and higher, roaring up over fourteen kilometers altitude. As it climbed higher it's ascent slowed, the crew wanting to build as much velocity on the jets as possible before switching to rockets.

As the ship passed twenty kilometers the air intakes began to struggle to keep the fuel mix even and it was nearly time. At over eight hundred meters a second speed they should just about have it.

"Commencing roll up maneuver." Milton said, his calm tones hiding his inner nervousness.

This was a tricky point. The ship would be aerodynamically unstable as it rolled up for rocket ignition, relying on it's inertial systems to maintain stability.

Leaning back the ship pointed yet again to the heavens and it's vertical velocity built once more, air becoming rapidly thinner. Milton watched the meters, waiting for the point where the engines would start to be starved of Oxium.

"And.... Ignition!" He said, and the rockets burst into life, jerking the ship skyward.

For a few seconds jets and rockets pushed the ship up at a steep angle, then the jets and the intakes were shut down. After a minute the center, high thrust rockets cut out, leaving the more efficient engines to boost it higher.

Climbing higher and higher the ship sailed up to over forty kilometers, then cut engines, cruising until it left the atmosphere. As it left the air behind it began to stabilize it's orbit. The crew in mission control began to relax. Things seemed to be going well.

"And we have a stable orbit." Gene announced. "Monitor the on board systems and prepare to release the payload."

As applause went up around Mission Control the representatives from Algon International were patting each other on the back, grinning and joking, thinking that this time maybe they'd got it right! Ipdel shook his head. Far too early for that!

[Patupi]

RLV5 Testflight Completion

"I'm glad the cameras are high resolution on this thing." Ipdel said with a faint smile to his console.

The view was incredible! If only he could actually be up there to see it for himself. Well, maybe someday?

"OK people, final checks. Is the payload stable for release?" Gene intoned firmly.

The various retorts of 'Green' and 'OK' from the various sections in mission control made the circuits, till Ipdel as mission controller was left.

"Primary control systems read go Flight." He said smartly, double checking first of course. "Release bolt safeties are... off. Ready to release."

Gene checked his board one last time, then nodded back at Ipdel.

"We're go for payload separation."

The action down in mission control was minimal. A single button press was all it took. On the screen images of the atomic reactor separating showed on the ship's cameras and smiles circulated the room, though no cheers this time. Best wait a few seconds, right?

"I'm reading systems green on payload. ATS-09 is stable.... RCS systems are online." various comments around mission control came as the small craft extended it's cooling fins and then stabilized itself and it's internal systems, going through final checks now it was free and clear. "Separation is one five zero meters. Clear for maneuvering Flight?"

Gene glanced at Milton, who nodded back.

"Clear GUIDO." Milton replied.

"Roger Telemetry. Engaging flight systems."

The little ship shuddered, then shifted as it's RCS jets pushed it clear of the ship that had brought it here.

"OK people." Gene said firmly. "Lets stay on schedule. Stand by for de-orbit burn on RLV5."

A few pats on backs were made now, but mostly people focused on the job at hand.

"I see you're people are working well today?" Kilgree, the head of the delegation from Algon said to Gene.

Gene raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder at the balding Kerbal.

"This is the same way they always work. Our people do not give less than their best, sir." He retorted.

Kilgree's smile faltered a bit, but his glance at the reporter's cameras was unnecessary. Gene was keeping it quiet enough no-one would overhear.

"Well, of course. I didn't mean to suggest otherwise." Kilgree managed in reply, now also somewhat quieter. "Please, I promise the fuel feed problem is fixed. There shouldn't be a stutter on final approach this time!"

Gene turned sideways and stared at him.

"I should hope so. However our personnel have decided that, given past experience with your ship that we are going to the tertiary landing site. Just to be safe."

Kilgree's smile faded and his eyebrows shot up.

"Oh come on! That's miles away from the pad!" He said a bit louder, then quietened once more. "Look, the cost of recovering it will be.... awkward. Can't we just touch down on the pad again?"

"I am beginning to doubt your software can pinpoint the site that well Mr director. Last time it was off by over two hundred meters. All indications are that that was a 'good day' for you system as well. Once we hit atmosphere your on-board controls are the only thing that can guide it in. We can't make good signal connection during re-entry, at least not reliably enough for remote control."

Kilgree held his hands up defensively.

"I know, I know. Don't worry, we'll be accurate."

Gene shook his head.

"I doubt it, but don't worry. If you're that sure of the craft just drive a fuel truck out, refuel the jets and fly it back to base. Keep it below two hundred meters and I think we'll allow it."

Kilgree merely raised an eyebrow in reply.

"Commencing de-orbit maneuver." Ipdel said from his console, drawing Gene's attention back to the mission.

As the ship burned it's main outer engines it accelerated away from the payload, Milton keeping a firm track on it to ensure the exhaust didn't damage the cooling fins.

Mission control was focused (as always) as the craft slid down, gradually biting the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Things so far were going well and as it slipped deeper and deeper into Kerbin's skies the drogue chutes deployed and began to slowly grip on the tenuous air.

"Main chutes deployed." Ipdel reported, though his readings were spotting right now from the ship, plasma from re-entry hindering communications.

He watched the plot and frowned. Looking at Milton he realized that Telemetry had the same thought.

"We're off beam on the plot Flight. Estimate it coming down... way west of tertiary landing site. It's going down in the mountains!"

Gene turned to glare at Kilgree for a moment before turning back to Ipdel.

"Do we have control yet?"

Ipdel shook his head.

"Sorry Flight, in fact we're starting to get serious plasma. We're probably going to lose signal in a few seconds."

Mission control was tense as Algon's second flight seemed to be going worse than the first. Still, if they could just put it down securely things should be OK.

The plot showed it curving down, the data mostly coming from ground Radar returns, not from the craft's inertial guidance data. The ship did seem to be arcing higher, sporadic engine usage attempting to lift it, but with the chutes out it couldn't change orientation much. Slowly, as the ship got lower, the signal came back as it's rapid burn through the air slowed, and the ship began to tip up for landing.

"Flight? Do we want to abort chute landing and go for jet touchdown? I don't like the looks of the inclines below it."

Gene was about to reply but Kilgree interrupted him.

"No. The on-board systems are not designed for this terrain. Unless you can confidently remote land it rather than use the autopilot then go with the chute landing."

For several seconds silence reigned in mission control, then Kilgree started to blush, realizing he'd overstepped his bounds.

"Yes...." Gene said finally, glaring at Kilgree. "Please follow the director's... request GUIDO."

Ipdel monitored the landing and stood ready on the controls. He really didn't like the looks of the terrain below the ship, but orders were orders. As they got lower the jet engines were ignited to help brake for touchdown.

"Fifteen meters." Ipdel said quietly as the readings came in. "I'm reading fifteen... eighteen degree incline below craft! Ten meters. Abort?"

Gene quickly glanced at Kilgree.

"No. That's... within parameters." He said nervously.

Gene nodded back to Ipdel sardonically.

"Roger. Four meters. Two. one... touchdown."

Gene saw the red lights immediately, the chutes automatically cutting on touchdown and the jets couldn't hold orientation. The ship pitched to the side, and the other legs hit hard. Very hard.

"Red light on five and six! We have..." Ipdel stopped as the monitors said it all.

The ship keeled over and the cameras showed dizzying views of debris as it struck the ground, then explosions and most of the cameras cut out.

"You know Kilgree, I believe you won't be entering for a third test flight..." Gene said calmly. "Unless you have a spare vessel laying around?"

Kilgree didn't deign to comment, just looking rather ill as he saw the view from one camera that had survived and was sending an image of the remains of his ship.

Not a good day for Algon International.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Patupi

[KSK]

Yeah - I'd say that it's al-gone wrong for them.

Nice chapter though!

[Patupi]

Titan RLV Launch

"And here today is the sixth entry into KSC's Resuable Launch Vehicle Competition." Slidwell said, beaming at the camera, standing in front of a huge multi-pane window showing a wide bodied rocket on the launchpad. "As you can see it is an impressive piece of technology, supplied by Patupi Enterprises. Unlike most of the entries this vessel does have fuel tanks and engines that separate during launch, but these parachute down to the launch site and are recovered and reused for the next launch." He turned to someone beside him as the camera panned to take both of them into the shot. "Patrick. As head of Patupi Enterprises perhaps you can fill us in on some of the details of this fascinating piece of engineering?"

The bearded, suit wearing Kerbal next to her nodded amiably and looked at the camera.

"Of course Slidwell. The Titan is the second incarnation in this line of vessels, the first, the Atlas, having already been tested successfully at KSC previously. However that craft had quite a few differences from the Titan, most importantly, as you've mentioned, the resuability of the entire vessel now."

The view of Patrick slid to one side with the left side of the screen now showing schematics for the rocket.

"The vessel utilizes an advanced atomic drive system, with six small nuclear piles connected to a thermal rocket system. This is primarily a safety feature allowing the vessel to continue even if one of the engines fail during the mission. If this happens that engine is shut down along with the opposite system to keep things in balance. We've tried to keep the systems external so they can easily be maintained."

"Fascinating." Slidwell said, a fixed smile on his face. "But how does she feel to fly?"

Patrick let a soft smile crinkle his face and he nodded out to the pad as the view opened up again to show the ship outside behind him.

"For that you'd have to ask the pilots... later today anyway, once they've actually flown it."

*CLICK!*

"Darned garbage!" Derfred said, frowning at the TV he just switched off. "I can't get away from the stuff now even on my time off! Not like I don't have much time off." He added, glancing up at the clock.

Yeah, due for final launch prep by now... probably should be going over the systems huh?

He glanced at the clock, then at the TV, then at the clock....

"Ah to hell with it." He said, and turned the TV back on, trying to surf to find something NOT about KSC.

***

"There you are!" Lisred said as he burst into the room. "They've been looking everywhere!"

Derfred snorted, opening his eyes.

"Huh? Oh, right.... wait, what time is it?"

"T minus twenty." Lisred said, a scowl on his face.

Derfred lazily gazed at the tech and sighed.

"Dang. There goes my free time." With a sigh he got up from his chair and Lisred raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, how long have you been in your space suit?" Derfred just shrugged. "God, most people can't wait to get out of the darned things! Come on, I've got the shuttlebus waiting outside."

It was a short drive to the gantry and then an elevator trip before Gerfred found some frantic techs, Lisred included, strapping him into the three person capsule.

"Ya know, it really does inspire confidence that KSC decided in it's infinite wisdom that they only want to risk one pilot on this trip."

"It's a test." A tech said grumpily from beside him. "We don't need any more pilots."

"Yeah. And they cut down to the absolute minimum. To me that smacks of 'Lets minimize losses' time." All he got from that comment was a raised eyebrow.

"Come on Derfred. Don't tell me you're chickening out now?"

Derfred snorted.

"Hardly. Just wanted to add in a pointed 'I told you so' before the fact kinda thing." He said tugging on his straps. "Yeah, that'll do. Thanks."

"T-Minus three minutes." Came over the speaker. "All tech crew debark now."

"Go easy up there man." Another tech said, slapping Derfred on the shoulder. Derfred just stared down at his shoulder with a frown. "Jeeze, sourpuss."

Soon he was alone in the capsule, surprisingly roomy compared to the two other times he'd been up into the inky black.

"So, are we rested Titan-1?" Gene's sarcastic tones carried well through the radio. Lots of practice Derfred suspected.

"Hmmm... I don't know. Could probably do with a few more winks? Wake me in ten?"

"I think waking you after the launch would be counter productive." Gene said in a careful monotone. "Perhaps you would prefer to begin pre-flight? Just for the cameras."

Derfred gave a melodramatic sigh, perhaps making a little too long.

"I suppose if we must." he said, and slowly began the standard pre-flight.

Gene shook his head. To be honest this was actually a good image for KSC. Things were so straightforward and safe that the pilots could afford to be laid back.... but unfortunately that probably wouldn't be the message they got. He was dreading feedback from the public on 'irresponsible, lackadaisical kerbonauts' bringing down the space program's image. At least the reporters seemed to be busy elsewhere right this moment. That was something.

The big clock counted down and soon the moment approached. Behind him Gene could see Patrick standing at the rear with his arms crossed. He looked intense, but not exactly worried. He also didn't bring a load of sycophants with him as some of the other project leaders in this competition had.

"T-minus 30 seconds."

Gene took a deep breath, went over the board one last time, then stared out at the main monitor.

"Kod speed Titan-1."

On the internal view Derfred glanced lazily up at the camera and gave a non-committal nod. At least the guy knew what he was doing.

"Three... two... one... Liftoff!"

***

Derfred smiled softly to himself, then began to whistle, which in itself was tricky with the vibrations from the engines. Rocketing skyward on plumes of super-heated gas the Titan-1 cleared the KSC and made a beeline for the heavens.

"Main engines stable." Derfred reported dutifully. "Temperature in the yellow. Pizza is cooked. Say, Flight? How do I eat in one these here helmets?"

"Very carefully Titan-1." Gene said deadpan. That at least got a raised eyebrow from Patrick, though Gene wasn't paying attention to him right now.

"Eh, I'll figure it out. Coming up on booster separation. I hope it's clear down there. Don't want one of these things landing on someone."

With a clunk the six boosters were free, parachutes automatically unfurling as they soared away from the craft.

Gene kept close tabs on the boosters as they arced up, then came back down, the chutes popping open at five hundred meters.

Carefully monitoring their course Gene gave a sigh of relief as all six boosters touched down safely, not even falling over.

"Boosters are down and safe Titan-1." Gene said as he watched other screens.

"I read you at 14km and rising." Milton said from the Telemetry desk. "Take her down 2 more degrees from profile. She's drifting."

"I read you Telemetry." Derfred said, frowning as he realized he'd come off profile slightly.

Things were looking good so far Gene had to admit, and Patupi Enterprises seemed to be far better on quality control than most of the entrants. Both the Atlas and the Titan seemed pretty reliable, though he wasn't sure it was worthwhile switching to the newer atomic engines for orbital work. There wasn't a lot for something like this to do with those engines, and the old LV-Ns work just fine. Still, they seem to be functioning OK.

"Coming up on main engine shut down." Derfred said.

With a cough the main rockets cut out, leaving enough fuel for a brief re-ignition on landing, if necessary. Now just the Atomic rockets were propelling the craft into orbital velocity.

The flight profile didn't call for a long burn on the nukes. They were too low thrust to assist much with a launch profile, but they were efficient. One possibility was refueling one of these ships in orbit and using the nukes as a tug drive. But that was for later. Right now they had to keep things working well.

"And... we have orbit!" Milton said, uncharacteristically chipper. "95km by 108km, inclination less than 1 degree. Good going Derfred... I mean Titan-1."

Gene merely smiled.

Now they just had to get the thing down in one piece!

Edited December 23, 2014 by Patupi
Got the final orbit wrong. Was thinking of a different flight!