The Works Episode 7 -- Microwaves Done Better

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 1 -- Skimming the Cream

Introduction

This is a new 23.5 career game using a bunch of mods I normally don't use. I'm doing this partly to see what all the fuss is about, partly because I was more or less challenged to do this. So here it is. I call this game "The Works" because it's got just about every mod I can think of in it that has been updated to 23.5 (or work without an update), and I plan on adding a few more as they become available. All this is happening in a parallel universe (as in separate, non-Steam install) where things like biology happen and it and its mods will be safe from game updates in the future.

At present, the mods in use are:

Parts and Game Mechanics

Aerojet Kerbodyne (SDHI Extension and Taurus 3.75m Capsule)

ASET (way cool 3-seat lander can)

Deadly Reentry

DMagic Orbital Science (because I need more Science! than normally)

FAR

Firespitter

FusTek

KAS

Kethane

KSP interstellar

KSPX

M22 Parts Pack

Procedural Fairings

Procedural Parts

RealChute

SCANsat

SDHI

Surface Lights

TAC Fuel Balancer

TAC Life Support

Instrumentation, Effects, and Visuals

Active Texture Management (to help with all the other stuff going on)

Chatterer

Connected Living Space

Editor Extensions

Enhanced Navball

EnvironmentalEnchancements City Lights and Clouds

Green Skull Inc. Custom Spacesuits

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Mechjeb

Module Manager

Navyfish Docking Alignment Indicator

Notes

Raster Prop Monitor

RCS Build Aid

Ship Manifest

Texture Replacer (with Green Skull Custom Space Suits)

Toolbar

And I've also got persistent debris set at 200. Basically, I'm using this game to see how much I can get away with given the performance enhancements of 23.5.

NOTE: My normal position is that realism should be in Orbiter and unrealism should be in KSP. Thus, I'm fundamentally opposed to things like life support ever becoming a required part of the game, especially one that applies human norms to the alien biology of Kerbals. So, as a sop to my conscious, I'm pretending the life support resources in TACLS aren't food, water, and oxygen, but tobacco, whisky, and my special Purple Haze mind control---er, MOTIVATIONAL---gas. Thanks to Green Skull, you can even see this gas in the Kerbals' helmets now (once I figured out how to use that mod correctly) .

I'm using the updated Interstellar tech tree that shifts things around somewhat besides adding its own stuff. It's also permadeath with no reversions. Jeb, Bill, and Bob do not exist (I killed them off 1st thing to get them out of the way). All this is being done by the faceless horde.

Rather than bore you all with the fumbling attempts just to get off the ground (remembering how to fly with FAR, which I haven't used since 0.20, among other things), this story will start at a point where that's not much of a problem, namely about Y1 D135. The story so far is that after getting into orbit, the Kerbals attempted to orbit Minmus but lost Richdun and Philfred to FAR-induced tumbles, after which they sent probes instead. This allowed them to send basic SCANsat probes next to map the biomes of both places, setting the stage for crewed orbital missions. I tried something I picked up in The Great Science Mission Thread, which is the real subject of this post. So, without further ado....

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The Actual Story

(all pics are clickable thumbnails)

On about Y1 D135, the tech tree of Geschosskopf's Evil Empire looked like this:

Note the 48 points in the bank. To get more, the Empire commissioned the Mun Skimmer:

The mission of this ship was to get into a 10km polar orbit at Mun and do whatever Science! was possible when passing over each biome, just to see what I could get that way (the idea from the Science Mission thread). Elsen Kerman was chosen for this historic flight. The boosters were enough to reach a 100km Ap and the launch was timed to be able to direct to Mun at Ap, pausing only to drop the fairings so the solar panels could start working.

Once headed toward Mun, the course was tweaked to come in low over the north pole.

The Mun Skimmer relied on the biome map obtained and beamed back by SCANsat Mun, the remains of which now reside in the North Polar Crater.

Then it was just a matter pointing the nose at Moho to keep the solar panels going and watching the SCANSat map watching when the ship passed over a new biome, and doing Science! The Mun Skimmer was equipped not only with Elsen and his pod, but also a thermometer, an orbital telescope, and the magnetometer from Orbital Science. Out of all this, the only things that worked on biomes (as opposed to working just once in low orbit) were EVA reports and the telescope. Because both of these data have 100% transmission efficiency, Elsen transmitted them all and returned nothing.

After spending about 5 days in Munar orbit, Elsen had passed over and Science!'d every biome. The complete list, in order accomplished, was poles, highlands, midlands, farside crater, canyon, polar crater, highland crater, polar lowlands, midland crater, east crater, north basin, east farside crater, northwest crater, southwest crater, and twin craters. Along the way, Elsen also tried to get a look at the various anomalies shown on his map but only 1 arch was ever in daylight when he went over. But he did spot the remains of SCANsat Mun.

Eventually, Elsen ran out of things to do so came home. He made 1 fairly harsh aerobraking pass that burned off his solar panels and various other parts around the bottom of his ship (sadly, this happened too fast for me to get pics of) but managed to come back in for a landing before his batteries quite ran out.

Elsen did not at all enjoy being in space, and also didn't enjoy wearing his helmet, so he took it off as soon as he landed (as in a new version of Custom Spacesuits changed something I didn't realize until this point). This was silly for him to do because I maintain that Kerbals can't breath Kerbin's atmosphere without electric stuff in their helmets, as shown in this pic.

Elsen returned nothing but his capsule for 20 points. However, all his transmissions added to a fair haul. 677 - 20 for recovery - 48 to start with = 609 points just for EVA reports and telescope images, without setting foot on Mun itself. Yay Science! This idea seems to work pretty well. Thanks.

The Empire promptly cashed these points in, resulting in the following status of the tech tree with 57 points left over:

And here's what they built with the new stuff: the Minmus Skimmer! If this great idea worked so well on Mun, it must work better at a more distant target, so this ship was to do the same thing. Only with Nedfred flying this time, due to Elsen having an adverse reaction to the Purple Haze gas.

The orange tanks and LFBs now available allowed the Minmus Skimmer to be a Single Stage to Minmus thing even with wasting fuel circularizing in LKO. Look ma, no staging! I know, totally OP, but hey, the ultimate objective is to get warp drive so this game is all about OP rockets .

The Minmus Skimmer incorporated several improvements over the Mun Skimmer. First off, it had a 2.5m heat shield down at the bottom of the fuel tank to protect all the stuff attached to the sides. And bigger batteries. And the Orbital Science Radio and Plasma Wave doohickey (the 3 long whip antennae). And the Interstellar Double Magnetometer (to cross-check the older Magnetometer). Plus the same telescope and thermometer as before. But once again, the only things that worked repeatedly were EVA reports and the telescope, although the other instruments did work in high and low orbits.

Same plan as before, skimming along as low as possible Science!'ing biomes. The Double Magnetometer actually got more data that it could transmit so it was hoped to be able to recover the rest. Anyway, Nedfred hit all the biomes he could find on the map: midlands, lowlands, pole, slopes, greater flats, lesser flats, highlands, flats, and great flats. This took about 4 days. Then he packed up his instruments and headed home. All told, he was gone 21 days.

Having learned from Elsen's experience, this time the boffins brought Nedfred in for 2 reasonably gently aerobraking passes at 33 and 34km, which dropped his Ap down to about 200km. During these passes, nothing burned up, perhaps protected by the wide heat shield on the bottom of the stack.

Nor did anything burn up during the final landing after circularizing at 100km. During the final descent, Nedfred burned off all his fuel to help slow down more and hopefully increase the odds of the Double Magnetometer and its extra data surviving. But the whole Service Module assembly crashed and exploded. Oh well. Still, Nedfred's capsule came down OK and he had become so addicted to Purple Haze that he kept his helmet on when he got out (as in, I figured out how to make that happen). In the desert, where it turned out no Kerbal had ever been before, so he picked up a handful of sand to bring home.

And Nedfred's transmissions, despite coming from fewer biomes, added up to a big steaming pile of Science! 946 - 57 to start with - 40 for returning ship and desert stuff = 849 points. Yay Science!

What will the Empire do with this treasure? For those who actually care, tune in next time to find out. There may be some high-tech Interstellar stuff starting to appear.

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PS: I'm finding this an interesting experience so far. Interstellar hasn't really made a difference yet (other than move some of my favorite parts up the tech tree). Its waste heat system isn't unduly burdensome in a fresh game starting with it from scratch, although it will kill existing games if you have stuff in flight that relies on solar panels but lacks radiators. Life support hasn't become an issue yet, either, because the trips so far have been so short that it's just a matter of adding 1 part to check that box off. However, I can see this being a pain later on because of the hard duration limit and/or resupply requirement it will impose on long trips. FAR is something you just need to know how to deal with and once I remembered the routine, it was no problem. But Deadly Reentry has immediate and rather significant effects. There's now a limit on the size and shape of things that I can land, and I have to bring back enough fuel to set up a reentry within heat shield parameters. That's where I'm having to do the most rethinking.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 2 -- FLAILING AROUND

(Subtitle: The Cruel Tutelage of FAR)

(again, all pics are clickable thumbnails)

So, with some shiny new toys, the Evil Empire's quest for galactic dominance continued. The creaky rocket-based economy's mills needed more Science! to grind, of course, and one of the new discoveries from last time was an orbital infrared telescope that generates 1/2 a Science! every day. All you have to do is get it into space. And its tank of cryogenic helium. And the nuclear power plant needed to keep the helium cold.

It was in the course of doing this that the main theme for this episode 1st became apparent: FAR is a harsh mistress. It wasn't really a big deal several versions ago but these days it's got a mean streak. This might be more noticeable because I got the distinct impression that not all the mods I'm using, which say they're 0.23.5-compatible, don't use the 0.23.5 joint strength but wobble as much or worse as before. And I'm not entirely sure Procedural Fairings really do more than look pretty because my rockets were often acting like the wind was blowing right through them. But it's a poor craftsman who blames his tools so I'll take the blame for the long string of disasters that ensued, through poor design and bad flying.

Still, through serious trial-by-error, I did come to understand some general parameters that FAR tries hard to impose nowadays, and they basically boil down to almost forcing you to make short, narrow payloads relative to the rest of the rocket. It really doesn't like long payloads and it especially doesn't like wide payloads. Because both dimensions are limited, the amount of stuff you can do with 1 launch is pretty limited unless you're prepared for a long, hard fight getting off the ground. I don't like limits so I spent hours today butting my head against them. For the most part, FAR won.

Anyway, after much frustration and the expenditure of countless billions on failed launches, the Evil Empire's 1st orbital IR telescope (by necessity, a long payload) was up and away. It also had the 1st full-blown, flying fission reactor Kerbin had seen. And after all that, IT DIDN'T WORK!

It turns out that KSPI's nuclear power plants, unlike all those in the real world, don't make electricity even though they claim to produce megawatts of power, they just make heat. You need a separate rather large part, a "thermal generator" (aka a steam turbine?), to turn the heat into electricity. Needless to say, the Evil Emperor was furious when he found this out, especially because the KSPI thermal generators don't seem to make electricity out of any other heat source like rocket exhaust, being HyperEdited into low solar orbit, etc. And the only reason people lug nuclear reactors into space is to make electricity. It's not like they're making steam to spin turbines to move the ship. So why?

Anyway, after numerous public executions of boffins who either hadn't read or hadn't understood the user's manual, the orbital IR telescope was redesigned, and the lifter redesigned for the higher payload weight and even longer shape, and many more failed launches followed, but eventually the Orbital IR Telescope Mk 2 was in place, operational, and making Science! while the boffins sleep.

According to the user's manual, the reactor will last for about 7 years. The cryogenic helium will probably run out before then. But at least the Empire has plans for one that flies so should this parallel universe last that long, a new one can be sent up come the day. And perhaps a few more in the meantime because 1/2 a Science! per day ain't very much given all the trouble this caused.

So then it was back to trying to get a Kerbal on some moon or other. The boffins dusted off the Sacred Blueprints of the Standard Science!-Plundering Lander from back in the pre-FAR days, hung a fairing around it, stuck a lifter with sufficient delta-V under it, and expected great results. They even sent Elsen up in it to redeem himself.

But it was not to be. The sacred standard lander is short and wide, the better to land on steep slopes. FAR really HATES this. All attempts to launch this lander, and there were many, ended in a cascade of rocket fragments with Elsen somehow managing to come down safely in a variably sized fragment of the lander.

Eventually, the boffins decided that the Sacred Standard Science!-Plundering Lander just wouldn't work with FAR, so they slimmed it down by deleting about 1/2 its Science!-plundering parts and merging the descent crasher stage with the return stage. This resulted in the Mun Lander Mk 3 vehicle:

FAR wasn't happy about this and cause the rocket to do 2 somersaults at SRB burnout, but Elsen managed to regain control and got it into orbit. The original idea was to just orbit, test various systems, and then land, but after so much trouble just to get off the ground, the Senior Boffin decided to go on and attempt a landing on Mun. When told that the new lander design only had a single 48-7S to deorbit at Kerbin and test reentry properties, the Senior Boffin took out his slide rule, decided the lander had a TWR > 1 at Mun, and said it should work there OK. So Elsen went off to Mun, again, and actually got there.

But the Sacred Standard Lander Descent Profile (stop at 10km and drop) was intended for a Poodle-powered crasher stage so didn't work with just a single 48-7S. Elsen was able to achieve a high negative vertical velocity without coming close to killing off his horizontal velocity. The erstwhile Senior Boffin is now shorter by a head and Elsen now has a fresh, shiny crater named after him.

After this fiasco, and during the interregnum while a new Senior Boffin was being selected, attention turned back to probes. The object now was to make a probe that could carry all the Orbital Science and SCANsat stuff, plus whatever KSPI science fit in, plus a Kethane scanner, all at once. The initial concept was to try out the new KSPI thermal rockets, too. This led to the Science Probe Mk 2....

....which, after a long, hard fight against FAR just getting off the ground, proved to have 2 problems. 1st, it turns out the thermal generator is not only necessary to be on the ship but also has to be connected directly to the reactor to work. Why? If fuel lines can run through the reactor core to the exhaust nozzle, surely steam lines can run through the fuel tank to the thermal generator. Here on Earth, the steam turbines are often 100m or so from the reactor core with the steam pipes going through all the shielding in between.

Oh well, at least this ship had enough battery power to prove that the thermal rocket itself is useless at this tech level. Sure, it's Isp is 1000 but it only produces 8.9Kn thrust. The LVN, also available to the Evil Empire at this point in time, although inferior in a few details, is vastly superior in overall operational characteristics. For instance, it took an inordinate amount of time to de-orbit this misbuilt ship (yes, I crashed a reactor on Kerbin, but on a Rebel stronghold so no harm done ).

But there was 1 thing where the thermal rocket out-did the LVN, and this was important to FAR. The LVN is an unhandily long SOB from FAR's POV, much longer than the weaker thermal rocket. So this sort of thing happened a lot.

Eventually, the boffins decided to quit trying to do everything in 1 probe and to separate things out. So this is what they came up with for the various Science!-pillaging OS and KSPI parts.

The little 909-powered probe therein has both the OS and KSPI magnetometers, a stock thermometer, and OS telescope and RPW instruments. Being a small payload, FAR had no real issue with it. The prototype was the 1st Empire vehicle to leave Kerbin's SOI, gathering Science! in high Kerbol orbit 1/2-way between Kerin and Duna.

Checking the Sacred KAC Almagest, the boffins determined that transfer windows for Jool and Duna were coming up soon so followed up this rare success with a bunch of repeats for Duna, Jool, Laythe, and Vall. Given the pace of technological progress, they didn't want to launch any more than this.

But the boffins also wanted to pillage SCANsat Science!, so their last order of business was to make a probe that could do that and then launch it. Most places they wanted to send it had several destinations available so at first they wanted enough dV to go everywhere. This resulted in more long payloads that FAR absolutely hated, like this:

Which had a strong tendency to get sideways and come apart, like this:

Various unsuccessful attempts were made to launch this with shorter, wider launch vehicles with more drag on the back end in hopes of keeping the front end steady and not breaking the whole thing in half from control forces.

But FAR kept chewing them up and spitting them out.

So eventually the boffins repurposed the proven 909-powered Science! probe to SCANsat, adding a little to the lifter due to the higher payload weight. This required abandoning the idea of the probes going to multiple destinations in the same system but the boffins hope future tech advances will provide that capability. The final result was this:

And it actually worked:

So now the scene is set. 2 flotillas are in LKO awaiting departure. 4 ships bound for Jool in 4 days and 2 for Duna in 47 days. In between there's a window for Eeloo, for which the boffins will be working on to fill in the meantime.

But all this has just been things to keep the factories running; the overriding goal of getting Kerbals on the gound at Mun and Minmus remains. No Evil Galactic Empire can be taken seriously until it can at least do that . From that POV, today's carnage was a big step in the right direction. Instead of killing 2 Kerbals without leaving the atmosphere, today the Evil Empire only killed 1 Kerbal by impacting him on Mun. PROGESS! EXCELCIOR! Ad astra per aspera! Oderint dum metuant!

Edited April 17, 2014 by Geschosskopf

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 2 POSTSCRIPT

You might have noticed that the little magnetometer probes are nice and short, using the 2.5m pancake tank, while the SCANsat probes use the long, skinny, FAR-defying 1.25m tank of the same volume. Why did the boffins make that switch, knowing it would arouse the demons of FAR? Because, after going to all the trouble to fill LKO with the magnetometer probes, somebody pointed out that the usual tactics of aerocaptures in the Duna and Jool systems might be problematic because they hadn't put any heat shields on these probes. AARRGGHH!!!

So, for a while the boffins were quite despondent, thinking they'd have to deorbit the lot and start all over before reporting to the execution dock. But then they realized these probes don't actually have to capture at any place they're going because their instruments are 1-shot things for high and low orbit, that will work just fine on fly-bys. They might actually capture into huge orbits around the central planets by just skimming the atmospheres, which they might get away with even without heat shields, especially at Duna. But no need to capture at any Joolean moon, raising the possibility of playing gravity ping-pong there and Scienc!-ing all the moons. In which case the boffins wouldn't have to be executed after all.

But it's a different story with the SCANsat probes, which definitely have to capture into fairly low orbits. So these probes needed heat shields. But they also couldn't retain their fairings for the trip out due to the need to run the ships on solar power during the trip. Thus, the boffins used a 1.25m tank with a 2.5m SDHI "reusable" heat shield on the bottom, between the tank and the 909, so its overhang will hopefully protect the stuff radially mounted on the tank. This was tried on previous probes and seemed to work although what you see in the game makes you think otherwise. All the radial parts show as "isShielded=false" and the reentry graphics come off the rocket nozzle and the radial parts instead of the shield edge. Might be a limitation of Deadly Reentry. We shall see.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 3 -- LANDINGS! FINALLY!!

(click pics to enlarge)

So, while waiting on the Jool window for all the probes in LKO, the Empire decided to make another attempt to land a Kerbal on some moon or other. To this end, they created the Mun Lander Mk 5, put Nedfred in it, and shot it off. Things did not go well.

The rocket proved to have bad harmonics, causing SAS to reinforce oscillations until the ship broke up. LES systems not yet having been invented, Nedfred did what he'd done many times before, hitting the stage button repeatedly as flying debris knocked off parts of his lander. What was left of is lander got clear with enough functioning chutes to come down safely and it looked like just another routine launch failure. But for some reason, perhaps the accumulated trauma of a dozen or so such incidents, Nedfred then climbed out of the lander can, lost his grip, and plummeted about 450m to his messy demise. So perished the last of the Kerbals who'd survived going to space so far. Next in line was Mitsen, whose 1st duty prior to taking his turn was to plant a memorial flag for Nedfred.

Mitsen then climbed into an identical Mun Lander Mk 5, which hadn't been tweaked at all. The only difference was that SAS was not engaged until SRB separation. During the SRB burn, the rocket wobbled somewhat and didn't want to go in the right direction, but at least it went up. Once the SRBs were gone, Mitsen switched on SAS and the rocket calmed right down and flew fine, although on an inefficient path. Once out of the atmosphere, Mitsen popped the fairings, deployed his solar panels, and only then exhaled the huge toke of cigarette smoke and Purple Haze he'd been holding in since ignition.

Soon Mitsen was on his way to Minmus, chosen over Mun as a low-gravity shakedown. The pic below shows the main features of this ship. The boffins had found a way to cram the Sacred Standard Lander's 4-barreled Science! assembly on a rocket skinny enough to survive FAR after a struggle. There's a tank of TWPH (tobacco, whiskey, Purple Haze) under the can, 1.25m heatshields under the Materials, a 2.5m heat shield on the main shaft below them, then 2x Poodle-powered stages on the bottom with the remains of the fairing in between. The lower Poodle does 1/2 - 2/3 of the transfer burn, all the capture burn, and what's left acts as a crasher stage during descent. The upper Poodle does the final landing, the ascent, and the return.

With the big tank on the bottom, the lander is taller than I like but such is the price of using FAR. Also note the 8x medium legs, the big legs not yet having been invented. The box between the legs is an Orbital Science drill, which was soon found only to work on places with atmospheres.

But it took a week or so to get out to Minmus. In the meantime, the Jool window came due so off went the 4 probes, 3 identical Science! probes intended for Jool, Laythe, and Vall, and 1 SCANsat probe for Laythe. But as usual, I got interrupted while in the middle of hurriedly burning this flotilla 1 after the other, with the result that 1 probe went WAY off course. It has no hope of getting to the Jool system but has a decent chance of hitting Dres in a century of so when their orbits synch up. This one will require some serious tweaking to get anywhere.

Then it was back to Mitsen, who by now had reached Minmus orbit. Due to the tallness of his lander, he wanted to land on a flat but none of those would be in the daylight for a while so he ultimately decided to land atop a big plateau that looked reasonably level. Despite being the highest terrain around, this area turned out to be "Lowlands".

Once committed, Mitsen stopped and dropped, using the crasher stage to keep his sink rate under control, then jettisoned it once it was empty.

Everything went perfectly and in due course Mitsen became the 1st Kerbal to stand on the surface of another world. He gathered all the Science! he could then posed for a picture. Unfortunately, he seemed to be having an adverse reaction to the Purple Haze. In fact, he appears to have been dead for quite some time now. But the purpose of Purple Haze is to make Kerbals do what they really don't want to do, and apparently it works quite well .

Zombie Kerbals from Outer Space! Run for your lives!

Not wanting to decompose further, Mitsen hurriedly got back into the lander and flew home uneventfully. He made 3 gentle aerobraking passes at 38km, 38km, and 35km, circularized, took his best guess at how to land in a good place, and did his deorbit burn.

You might have noticed at this point that I've now installed the clouds and lights mod. This was my 1st reentry using it and I immediately discovered that the new volumetric clouds do an excellent job of hiding entire mountain ranges until it's too late to do anything about them.

But fortunately, Mitsen just squeaked by over the mountains and landed safely right at the edge of their foothills. This mission scored about 500 Science!

One of the things the boffins spent Mitsen's haul on was an abomination I personally call the "Science! Pig". There being no pigs on Kerbin, the Kerbals call it the Totally WAsted Technology (make your own acronym out of that ). It's another Interstellar thing that makes Science! while you sleep, provided you staff it with smart Kerbals. In this case, it's Geofmal and Camlin, with zero and 5 stupidity ratings, respectively. They were at least smart enough to drive the thing about 3km SW of KSC before starting to work, out from under the usual impact area of failed rockets. They have tobacco and whisky for 648 days, unlimited electricity from their own nuke plant, and a system that continually makes fresh Purple Haze out of the atmosphere. And for all this, they'll generate only 0.288 Science! per day, meaning this entire beast will only make 186 Science! after 2 years. Geofmal and Camlin are way too smart to waste their time this way so they'll just stay out a few days to make sure the core doesn't melt down, then drive it back for scrap. Provided a piece of failed rocket doesn't fall on them in the meantime.

The boffins also used some of the Science! to overhaul the Mun Lander Mk 5 and created the Mk 6. They shortened the central stack to change the harmonics, removed a 2.5m SAS to reduce the chance of overcorrections, and went with liquid boosters for better control during ascent. And it actually flew reasonably well. It still has to fight FAR but not as much and SAS can be used during the early part of the ascent.

With Mitsen still recovering from his emergency dezombiefication surgery, it fell to Richhat to make the 1st trip to Mun with this ship. As usual, once out of the atmospheric clutches of the cruel FAR demons, the ship flew fine. Once at Mun, Richhat picked a reasonably well-lit, reasonably flat-looking area amongst all the craters and came on down.

The basic lander remained essentially the same as the Mk 5, only with the new big legs, the removal of the useless core drill, and the relocation of a few instruments to make them easier to access on EVA. Thus equipped, Richhat successfully made it down to Mun's Farside Crater. He also seemed to have a higher tolerance for the Purple Haze.

He then wafted over to examine the remains of his crasher stage. Interestingly, despite a higher drop in stronger gravity, a fairly large chunk survived whereas Mitsen's had totally vaporized on Minmus.

Richhat made 2 aerobraking passes on his return, first at 35km then at 38km, and used some of his fuel to circularize. One thing the boffins had developed a while back was a MechJeb module that allowed precision landings. In fact, instead of just "Target KSC" like before, now it had 2 buttons, one for the Launchpad and 1 for the roof of the VAB itself. What with all the launch failures, nobody had had a chance to try these new features yet so Richhat was ordered to try to land on the VAB. To this end, he came down with his ascent/return stage still attached so MJ could use it for corrections during the descent.

However, it appears the boffins have a lot of work still to do on this module. MJ has as much trouble with FAR during landing as it does during launch; it's utterly useless at both. In this case, MJ's ineptitude was going to put Richhat down squarely in the center of Reentry Mountains just W of KSC. Quickly, Richhat disengaged the autopilot and used the last of his fuel in a desperate attempt to avoid at least the worst of the peaks.

But it was not to be. Richhat watched in horror as his empty stage and heat shields bounced and tumbled down the steep hillside below, powerless to do anything but await his turn on the same slide.

As luck would have it, Richhat managed to land on a very narrow, relatively flat ledge halfway up the mountain. By "relatively flat", I mean sloped about 45^ N-S with nearly vertical slopes to E and W. For a moment, it looked like things might work out after all. But then the lander touched down on the SDHI 2.5m heat shield, which doesn't decouple like those in Deadly Reentry. It's curved surface proved Richhat's undoing. His reentry vehicle slowly tumbled down the ledge despite his frantic attempts to make it stop. Each time it rolled, one of the Material bays and Goo cylinders exploded, destroying the priceless Mun Science! inside. The tumbling didn't stop until the lander can had been stripped bare and stopped on one of its flat sides.

Ironically, the small, delicate instruments mounted next to the can's hatch all survived; it was the bigger stronger parts, carrying the most data, that were lost. And a single Goo had merely broken off instead of expoding so it could be recovered, too. But the mission only netted 130 points, the vast majority of the hard-won data having been lost. Such a disaster has never befallen the KSC. Kerbals are expendable but data are not. All the flags at KSC were hung at half-mast, even those in the graveyard, the Emperor declared a period of mourning, and operations ceased for the duration.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 4: The Rush to Eeloo

(click pics to enlarge)

NOTE: updated mod list in 1st post.

The boffins' almagest (aka Kerbal Alarm Clock) said a window for Eeloo was coming up in a couple weeks, actually a few days before the Duna window. But the boffins had been ignoring it because they were having trouble just getting to Mun and didn't think they could cobble together an Eeloo-capable and FAR-proof ship in that amount of time. But the Emperor had other plans; when he heard about the Eeloo window, he ordained that some sort of probe should go there forthwith for the Glory of the Empire or heads would roll. So the boffins frantically looked at the tech tree and picked out 2 on the next tier they felt essential to meet the (literal) deadline: RTGs because Eeloo is so far from Kerbol, and the 3.75m rockets to go that far. But how to get that much Science! in less than 2 weeks? The only option was to do a couple more Mun landings, so they hastily cobbled that together.

For the 1st mission, they selected Hadry, the bravest and stupidest Kerbal on the roster, and put him into another Mun Lander Mk 6. A feature of the Mk 6 was a SCANsat downlink which so far hadn't been used. But this time the boffins used it and MJ's point-landing feature to lock Hadry (who was too stupid to fly such a mission on his own) on course to land at one of the anomalies previously detected. Somewhat to the surprise of all (MJ's landing routine seems to work in a vacuum), this worked and Hadry made an amazing discovery.

With the Science! gained on this trip, the boffins quickly upgraded the lander to the Mk 7 and sent Richhat to the East Farside Crater in hopes he'd redeem himself for the tragic loss of all his data last time. The initial phase of getting there worked just fine. Observe Richhat's new Mk 7, the most noticeable improvement being that it runs on RTGs. No more solar panels and all the problems they cause. Yay Science!

Another new feature of the Mk 7 Mun Lander is the replacement of the fixed, highly curved SDHI heat shield with the flatter, detachable DR heatshield so the lander can come down on a flat bottom at slightly lower speed. Also, the Imperial Landing SOP was changed so that all returning vehicles intended to survive the experience will come down in the water. All these changes worked and Richhat brought all his data back safely.

With these 2 missions, the necessary nodes for Eeloo were unlocked with about 1 week to spare.

NOTE: FAR has really imposed a different tech progression on me. In my previous careers without FAR, I've just gone alone the top and the bottom of the tree (rockets and Science! parts), ignoring the middle, which is mostly airplane stuff, until I had nothing better to spend points on. However, FAR demands streamlining. FAR demands control surfaces and even actual wings on rockets. So in this game, I've often had to prioritize the airplane stuff just to make flyable rockets, THEN worry about getting Science! stuff and bigger rocket parts. Hence, I've been pretty much filling in whole tiers from the middle out before moving on to the next tier.

Anyway, with the new technology in hand, the boffins set to work throwing together an Eeloo probe. When they were finished, it looked like this on the pad, and was a fairly interesting beast:

With FAR, payload fairings need to be proportionally small compared to the rest of the rocket, but you don't want the rocket too long or it will get all wobbly. So, a payload of the size shown here pretty much needs the 3.75m rockets just for stability in flight, not simply for the power. You can launch payloads this size on 2.5m rockets but don't expect FAR to like it at all.

Also note the high placement of the boosters. This is another FAR-induced thing. When the main rocket stack is about the correct proportion for the payload, and its tail feathers and all have it aerodynamically balanced (CoM as high as possible, CoL at the very bottom), but it just doesn't quite have enough delta-V, you have a choice. You can add another tank to the stack or you can add boosters. FAR doesn't like you to do either. FAR really likes SSTO rockets but sometimes you just can't make that happen. So.... Making the stack longer makes the rocket too long and it gets all wobbly. But OTOH, adding boosters in the conventional position at the bottom brings the CoM down and the CoL up, ruining stability. But if you hang the boosters up near the top or at least in the vicinity of the CoM, you preserve the aerodynamic balance while avoiding excessive rocket length. But it does look rather silly.

Anyway, it worked. In fact, this rocket flew better than any before it. When it got up, it shed its fairing so the probe could extend its panels and instruments to make sure they all worked. It has panels simply for the high power denands of transmitting, especially with the big dish antenna. The probe is armed with both magnetometers, the orbital telescope, the standard instruments that work in orbit, and the low-res SCANsat altimetry and biome mappers. The boffins sent up 2 of these for redundancy.

Once the Eeloo probes were up, the boffins set about trying to plot their course, but immediately ran into a problem. The KAC Almagest says to burn on Y1 D240. Alexman's website (which KAC supposedly uses) says to burn on Y1 D280. And MJ says to way over a year. Perhaps confusion was introduced with the 0.23.5 changes to the calendar. Anyway, with nothing firm to go on, the boffins programmed alarms for all 3 dates and crossed their fingers.

While waiting for the 1st of the alarms, they went back to work on the Duna flotilla, adding a 1-way probe lander to the mix. This thing will transfer out on the Poodle stage, keeping its fairing through aerocapture. Then it will do a deorbit burn and ditch the Poodle and the fairings, coming down with a 2.5m heat shield to protect all the exposed things, using a 48-7S and 8 radial parachutes for landing. It's got all the stock instruments plus the Orbital Science core drill and lasers, and the Interstellar gas chromatography. The guts are the only interesting part; it went up on a simple 2.5m SSTO rocket with no real FAR issues.

Then the boffins wanted to see if Interstellar's Science Lab would do any better in LKO than it had on the ground. So they put together a 3.75m rocket to see. Inside were Jondous and Camwise, 2 of the smartest Kerbals in the world. They almost bought it as the rocket flipped several times but Mission Control regained control and they ended up in the 80km orbit desired. Which was quite fortunate because non-stupid Kerbals are a rare commodity and there wasn't a single parachute on the whole rig .

And so Science Lab Kerbin, with provisions for a 3-year mission, began work. And it quickly became apparent that this was another ghastly mistake. It only produced 0.148 Science! per day, half of what the Total WAste of Technology had managed safe at home. AAARRGGHH!!! But it did make for a pretty picture and is now my wallpaper, so at least I got that out of it.

While the boffins were putting together a crew recovery vehicle 3 years ahead of schedule, operations couldn't stand still so the unzombiefied Mitsen was sent back to Minmus to see if he'd built up an immunity to the Purple Haze. But it'll take him 13 days to get there, by which time the Duna Flotilla and maybe even the Eeloo flotilla will have launched. So ignore him for the nonce.

So then the boffins wheeled out the Crew Recovery Vehicle Mk 1. The entire upper part including the adaptor is the SDHI Service Module stuff complete with the Aerojet extensions. The adaptor isn't just wasted space, it's full of fuel and an engine. Pretty nifty.

Also, in another attempt to pacify the FAR demons, a new aerodynamic control system was tried. Instead of putting control surfaces on the big tail feathers, they were just for stability and regular winglets put in between on the cardinal directions set to be Pitch or Yaw (and Roll, too) but not both. This ended up being quite successful, although it pretty much precludes using any boosters.

Once out of the atmosphere, the SDHI fairings were ditched, exposing the capsule and the working parts on the narrow Service Module. Launch Escape Towers still not having been invented, the boffins kluged one by simply sticking Sepratrons on the capsule's blast shield and patching the hole on to with a nose cone.

Then the ascent stage was dropped, taking the tapering, hollow adaptor with it and exposing the 2nd stage that had been inside. This was used for the rendezvous, way more rocket than needed but this thing can do rescues out as far as Minmus if needed and this was a good chance to test this rather complex assembly.

After rendezvous, the 2nd stage was ditched and the CRV closed in on the Flying Total WAste of Technology using its plentiful supply of RCS, accomplishing the Empire's 1st docking maneuver, assisted by the superlative Navyfish Docking Port Alignment Indicator.

Jondous and Camwise EVA'd across to the CRV where they had nothing at all in common with its occupant, the 95% stupid Hadry. Then the CRV backed off, allowing Mission Control to deorbit the station.

As mentioned, this thing had no parachutes; it was always intended to crash it, nuclear reactor and all. Fortunately, it didn't burn up in the atmosphere and scatter its fissionables all over. Instead, it came down intack (except for the radiators) and was utterly destroyed on impact. No mess whatsoever .

Then it was time to bring the CRV down. A short retroburn to come down in the ocean (the SDHI Service Module only fits using the fixed SDHI heat shield). This allowed a test of the new-fangled parachute system. The SDHI and Aerojet mods include docking ports with built-in lights and parachutes, but the chutes require the RealChutes mod. A previous attempt to use RealChutes had ended tragically so the boffins didn't trust it, but this time they'd read the instruction manual and it actually worked. And it looked pretty cool, too. No more silly overlapping chutes .

Here endeth this chapter. Tune in next time for the departure of the Duna Flotilla, MAYBE the departure of the Eeloo flotilla, and in any case whatever trouble Mitsen gets into on Minmus.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 5: Flotillas Away!

When we last left the Evil Empire, there was much confusion about when to leave for Eeloo because none of the Sacred Texts agreed. KAC said one thing, Alexmoon said another, and MJ said something else. So the boffins prayed to all the Kods and left it as their decision. And sure enough, when KAC said it was time to go, MJ decided to agree. All hail Trigger_AU as the supreme Kod! Meanwhile, the priests of Alexmoon wonder why their Kod has forsaken them.

But anyway, the twin Eeloo probes still had a lot of smash in their ascent stages so used that for the 1st part of their transfer burns.

Is it just me or does the clouds mod make everybody want to take pics in LKO and use them for wallpaper?

Anyway, the burns went in very timely fashion due to no nukes being involved, and soon both probes were waving good-bye to Kerbin.

A few days later, it was time for the Duna Probe Flotilla to leave. 1st off the mark was SCANsat Duna, using its lifter core for the entire transfer burn.

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Same for Science! Probe Duna. Investment in big rockets was a good thing .

Finally, the Duna Probe Lander went off with just its transfer stage, still keeping its fairing as the only member of the flotilla to have RTGs.

So after this, Imperial Space looks like this:

2 probes bound for Eeloo, 3 for Jool, 1 eventually to Dres, and 3 for Duna. All this despite having only landed on Mun 4 times (3 successful returns) and once on Minmus. The skimming of the cream in the 1st episode really paid off. Which brings up the fact that Mitsen was heading for Minmus for the 2nd time while all these transfers were taking place. By the time they were done, he'd almost arrived. Soon, he'd captured into a low near-equatorial orbit and was looking for a landing site. Nobody having landing on one of the flats yet, he picked the 1st one that presented itself on the daylight side.

Soon enough he was safely down. Since his dezombiefication surgery, he seemed to be doing just fine. Note his huge grin in the pic below, with no decomposition or other signs of adverse reaction to Purple Haze:

Science! collected, Mitsen burned for home.

And came back safe and sound with over 700 Science! aboard. How he managed that much is still a mystery.

Tune in next time for more boring stuff.

[Tw1]

I like how you're sticking with your "Kerbals can't breathe Kerbin air" even though the point that made it a useful explanation is now sort if removable. I might to the same in my stories, and stick with 24 hour days, though six is now sort of official.

Far looks hard. Most of my rockst are just slapped together now.

And I agree about the clouds. They make all the planets more alive, and photos much cooler.

Clouds: more dramatic too.

[Geschosskopf]

I like how you're sticking with your "Kerbals can't breathe Kerbin air" even though the point that made it a useful explanation is now sort if removable. I might to the same in my stories, and stick with 24 hour days, though six is now sort of official.

Well, at the very least, when have you ever seen an Imperial Storm Trooper without a helmet? This being the Evil Empire, helmets are required as part of the uniform if nothing else .

As to 6-hour days, that's what Kerbal clocks run on but I keep using 24 hours because otherwise the numbers displayed in KAC look ridiculous .

Far looks hard. Most of my rockst are just slapped together now.

For fun, I prefer not to have FAR. To me, going places and doing things in space is where the fun is, and anything that gets between me and that, like FAR, I find annoying. But I do like it for a change of pace from time to time, simply because it won't let you just heave any old lumpy thing into orbit so long as you've got enough MOAR boosters.

But I find the real constraint of using FAR is that it likes payloads to be rather small in size. This means that any multi-part thing you build in orbit, like an interplanetary ship, has to be built of more modules than without FAR. Besides the tedium of the extra launches and dockings this entails, you also end up with more docking port joints and thus more wobble. This puts a premium on the 2.5m docking ports. I haven't unlocked those yet, which is why I didn't send a crewed mission to Duna in this window.

Another thing I have against FAR is that it's generally considered a "realism" mod but in its current form it's not that realistic. I refer to the issue with boosters having to be mounted up at the top in a tractor configuration. The last version of FAR I played with (back in 0.20 IIRC) didn't have this problem so my rockets looked nice with the boosters at the bottom as Kod intended.

And I agree about the clouds. They make all the planets more alive, and photos much cooler.

That's a pretty pic

[KeithStone]

Just in case you havent seen it before, you might be interested in the development of this.

[Tw1]

Just in case you havent seen it before, you might be interested in the development of this.

But-but-but he's the guy who does cool massive flotillas....

[KeithStone]

True, but now they can get bigger!

[Geschosskopf]

Just in case you havent seen it before, you might be interested in the development of this.

Wow, that's nifty. I can think of many applications for this. Thanks for the tip.

But-but-but he's the guy who does cool massive flotillas....

Thanks for the compliment. But I'd like not to be "THE" guy. I'm trying to proselytize the rest of the community .

This could indeed be a useful thing for flotillas although I'd have to approach it cautiously. My instinctive concern is that this might reduce scatter too much. You want some scatter in arrival times, so 1 ship isn't irretrievably hosed while you're flying another one, but not so much that the 1st arrivals have to wait months for the rest to show up. However, if all the ships are going to the same place, and aerocapture isn't particularly finicky, then it aught to make my life a lot easier. For instance, at Laythe, there's only like a 3-4km band of altitude between not capturing, capturing into a decent orbit, and lithobraking, so that's not a good place for simultaneous arrivals. Nor are simultaneous arrivals desirable if your ships are aerobraking at different heights at Jool to go to different moons. But for most other applications, it might well work.

But think of the other possibilities. Fighter squadrons flying in formation. Landing multiple base modules (or massive invasions of troopships) simultaneously. Multiple warhead missiles .

[The Jedi Master]

Wait--ISA MapSat was updated?! I need a link!

[Geschosskopf]

Wait--ISA MapSat was updated?! I need a link!

Not that I know of. The current thing to have is SCANsat, which is in the development section, never officially released. And it appears to have been abandoned itself. However, it at least works in 0.23 and later while MAPsat doesn't

[KeithStone]

I'm thinking that even during aerocapture, you can pack your vessels more tightly to reduce apoapsis differences between craft. Being able to pilot them all at once means you just need enough room to maneuver (and make sure you dont turn the jets on each other). There are however, as you say, plenty of concepts for use of that mod. I havent messed with it yet myself, but I plan to in the future

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 6: Microwaves Done Wrong

The Emperor had been noting the space program's faltering progress towards high technology with growing impatience. Eventually, he could stand it no more. Minions fled in terror as the Emperor shook his fist at the sky and issued yet another edict: "We decree that a microwave beamed power network shall be established immediately! All shall tremble before our might!"

The boffins, meanwhile, had been preparing for a long grind further plundering Minmus of its Science! In fact, they'd already put the Mk 7 lander atop the same launcher recently used by the CRV to make the Mun Lander Mk 8, and had already sent Richhat on his way.

Richhat got there and back uneventfully and pretty much ignored by all because everybody at KSC was now working on the Orbital Microwave Generator (OMG) project like their lives depended on it, which they did. Richhat collected about 600 Science! and the boffins absentmindedly cashed them in on 2.5m docking ports and related parts.

Then the boffins rolled out the prototype for a ground-based microwave system was in the process of being rolled out.

This consisted of a 3.75m fission reactor and generator designed to dock with a separate microwave transceiver vehicle via the Claw, which had just been invented. It was hoped that the Claw would solve all the previous problems encountered docking wheeled vehicles. It certainly did work great for docking. Unfortunately, the boffins discovered that none of the electricity from the reactor made it through the Claw to the antenna. Thus, the entire thing was utterly useless and immediately scrapped. The boffins responsible were merely flogged instead of beheaded because the recent purges had created a noticeable brain drain in the R&D department.

After this fiasco, the boffins decided they had to do something really grandiose to keep the Emperor happy-ish, so they now decided to put a massive reactor system not only in space, but in Kerbostationary orbit visible from KSC. Attempts to launch the 3.75m reactor all failed due to 3.75m fairings not yet having been invented. While the 2.5m fairings would stretch that far, they created a weak neck on the rocket. Furthermore, the sail area of the fairing was so great that no amount of tail feathers could make a stable rocket. So in the end, the boffins decided to start with a 2.5m reactor just to see if they would work. And they created this, the OMG Power Unit Mk 1.

This module contained a transceiver attached to the reactor by docking ports, which ground tests had shown DID let the power flow through, unlike the Claw. Strange. The reason for the docking ports is so the antenna might someday be upgraded to a bigger model the boffins had already noticed looming on the tech tree horizon. Anyway, the rocket was a 3.75m SSTO and while a fairly large machine, the fairing even on the 2.5m reactor was so wide (to cover all the folded radiators) that it nearly overpowered the tail feathers. Still, it worked.

The boffins then sent up a nearly identical unit on the same launcher. This one had the same reactor, generator, and radiators, but lacked the transceiver antenna and had a smaller LFO tank on the back.

The 2 power units docked up in an 80km orbit.

Then they had to be taken up to Kerbostationary altitude. For that, the combined mass of nearly 70 tons needed a rather large tug, which needed an even bigger rocket to launch it.

The upper big tank, above the tops of the orange tanks, is the payload. A nose cone covered the 2.5m docking port on the nose, which itself was balanced atop a 65cm probe core, bigger ones not yet having been invented. Note the 12 tail feathers, necessary to keep this beast reasonably stable.

Otherwise, this was a very poorly made rocket. There was no SAS unit on the tug so it had too be steered totally with RCS, so it was lucky it had a lot of it. Some idiot had neglected to lock the gimbals on the booster engines so the initial stages of the ascent were quite wobbly. And finally, another idiot had forgotten to put Septratons on the main lifter so getting the payload free of it proved difficult and dangerous. But it was good enough to work after a fashion, which is about all you expect for such an unrealistic and poorly conceived plan rushed into production.

And in due course the tug delivered the OMG to Kerbostationary orbit somewhat east of KSC, with the idea that rockets launching from there could start on a ground-based system that actually worked and then using the orbital station once out of the atmosphere. This was the 1st attempt by the Empire to put anything in Kerbostationary orbit so at least they learned better how to do that.

That's because the station itself was definitely not worth all the effort and expense. It turned out that while each reactor make 5000 MW, their generators could only make 50 MW out of it, so the whole thing only transmits 100 MW, which turns out to be totally inadequate for any imaginable purpose. Still, the monstrosity had a very menacing appearance looming ominously over Kerbin like the Deathstar it most definitely was not. The Emperor, being more for symbolism over substance, was happy, so everybody was happy, and a holiday was declared.

Also, the Emperor enjoys explosions, so the OMG Tug was brought back down to crash. But even better, it totally vaporized in the atmosphere, so most of the night hemisphere could enjoy the show, too.

This "success" was soon followed up by a ground-based microwave transmitter that actually worked. This was a 1-piece rig, 3.75m again. And this time, the boffins tried sticking a generator on each end, in an attempt to use more of the reactor's power. And this actually worked. The resulting PMG broadcast over 1.7 GIGAwatts from a position about 3.5km SSW of KSC. So the OMG will have to be redesigned with this double-generator set-up.

This was enough power to actually do something with. In fact, it allowed the use of plasma thrusters in the atmosphere. So for their next trick, the boffins attempted to set up the microwave relay network using simple, plasma-powered rockets.

However, while this rocket managed to reach over 40km altitude before its power failed, it never exceeded 120m/s at any point in the flight, no doubt because of the immense drag of its unfaired transceiver payload. So there was nothing for it but to build the relay network with conventional rockets.

Again, the lack of 3.75m fairings was sorely felt. The boffins have decided that's the next thing they'll invent from amongst their many choices. But after a bit of a struggle, OMG Relay 1 managed to achieve a 500km orbit.

The boffins launched 3 more of these at 3-hour intervals, creating a 4-ship relay network all around Kerbin. Their alignments aren't perfect but they should work.

And with that, the Emperor's microwave power network was complete. It just doesn't do anything right now due to a major lack of power outside the atmosphere. However, the Emperor isn't concerned with such minor details, and the boffins hope to rectify that in the future, with the lessons learned here along with some parts they need to hurry up and invent. Besides 3.75m fairings, 2.5m probe cores would be very handy as well. But for that, they need more Science! and this network isn't going to get that for them.

So tune in next time for more desperate attemplts to gather Science!

[ElJugador]

Cool. I would use Interstellar myself, but I want to experience the game without too many mods first.

_{(& the OP already knows what I think about the Kerbin's-air-is-unbreathable hypothesis.)}

[undercoveryankee]

Not that I know of. The current thing to have is SCANsat, which is in the development section, never officially released. And it appears to have been abandoned itself. However, it at least works in 0.23 and later while MAPsat doesn't

Some of the contributors are still active in the thread, even if the original author isn't. Next release might be with a new maintainer, but it's still got some life in it.

[Geschosskopf]

Some of the contributors are still active in the thread, even if the original author isn't. Next release might be with a new maintainer, but it's still got some life in it.

Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic. I've been subscribed to that thread since it 1st appeared so have been following it's progress. I've never had any of the problems reported by others anyway, but there is talk of new features, getting proper models for all the parts finally, etc. We'll see what happens. But I find it works fine for me in 23.5

[Geschosskopf]

Cool. I would use Interstellar myself, but I want to experience the game without too many mods first.

_{(& the OP already knows what I think about the Kerbin's-air-is-unbreathable hypothesis.)}

I'm normally not this into mods, either, especially things that get between me and fun (FAR, Deadly Reentry, any life support). I'd have even done Remote Tech if it wasn't broken at the moment, despite me thinking it's rather old-fashioned given today's autonomous drones .

I'm just doing this for a change of pace. Mainly, I'm trying to understand why anybody would want to torture KSP this way instead of playing Orbiter.

[Geschosskopf]

EPISODE 7: Microwaves Done Better

NOTE: Updated mod list in 1st post.

The boffins knew they couldn't let matters lie with the Emperor's pet project, the Orbital Microwave Generation (OMG) thing. The OMG Mk1, hard-won triumph of rocketry over gravity and the FAR Demons though it was, could only be classified as a failure due to its pathetic output of only 100 MW. Useful microwave networks need multiple GIGAwatts. And besides, the "never say die" faction of boffins refused to give up on getting a 3.75m reactor to space. So while the Emperor was busy deciding on the new carpet for his palace, the boffins started over from a completely clean slate. And they eventually came up with the OMG Mk 2.

To overcome the lack of a 3.75m fairing, and to reduce the fairing size as much as possible, the boffins switched from the problematic folding radiators to the big fixed ones. Then they let them and the reactor and generator ride up naked, limiting the fairing to a 2.5m covering only the antenna. And to lift it, they finally got around to using one of the 3.75m M22 multiple adaptors they'd invented a while back but hadn't had a payload worthy of yet. Even with the huge mass of the OMG Mk 2, this was an SSTO lifter with over 5000m/s in the tank.

The big fixed cooling fins acted as wings mounted up high, which the FAR Demons naturally hated, but by nailing on 20 delta wings at the bottom, the boffins were able to overcome this. At least in the wind tunnel. Would it work in real life? Would the radiators survive the DR Demons on the way up? Only 1 way to find out.

Yes it did! In fact, it flew quite well. The boffins had, in the meantime, taught MJ to how to take off with FAR by editing the ascent profile to match what Mission Control had been doing manually so far (start turn at 1km, level at 100km or higher, depending, 70% curve, and limiting acceleration to 15m/s). Thus, they were finally able to enjoy the show without having to focus constantly on the navball.

In due course, the OMG Mk 2 arrived in a 300km orbit with about 500m/s to spare.

In due course, the OMG Mk 2 arrived in a 300km orbit with about 500m/s to spare. IN YO' FACE, FAR DEMONS!! HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW, GRAVITY?

Once up, the OMG Mk 2 fired its 1 and only stage, dropping its lifter and shedding its fairings. Then it fired up the nuke and began transmitting microwaves.

NOTE: I decided not to put a generator on each end of the reactor because I now think that's an exploit of KSPI. Looking at the double-ended rover, it's putting out 2x the power but says it only has 1x available, so basically it's getting 1/2 its juice for free.

Anyway, this great success gave the green light to launch 2 more OMG Mk 2s to be spaced out ~120^ around the 300km level. With the 4x relay stations at 500km, it was hoped this would provide the system's total power in all directions from Kerbin.

For the 2nd launch, the boffins only changed 1 thing. They added another 4 heavy Sepratron MK IIs to the lifter because they didn't think it had separated well enough. But then a new problem arose. The 2nd rocket sank into the Launchpad and refused to budge when the engines lit. So the boffins had to jack it up on a few launch clamps to solve that problem.

But after that, the other 2 launches went just fine and by late morning all 3 OMG Mk 2s were up. Not symmetrically spaced but with each of them always able to see 2 or 3 of the relays, no big deal.

Now the question was, how many usable microwaves was this constellation actually making? The instrumentation on the OMGs and relays didn't really say and in fact looked quite confused, which was confusing. There was only 1 way to find out: send up a microwave-using probe to see how much juice it could pick up. And to really taunt the FAR Demons, the boffins decided to again try a plasma thruster from the ground up.

The stats looked good on the ground but what would happen? How long could the probe use the ground-based source? Would the space-based sources kick in soon enough? Would they be sufficient? Would the FAR Demons go berserk over the appalling lack of aerodynamics? Only 1 way to find out.

The ground-based power flowed and while there was a noticeable drop at about 30km, after that the space-based power started coming in at ever-increasing levels. The FAR Demons tried hard to stop the probe's ascent but they only succeeded in making the probe burn a lot more fuel than it otherwise would have. As it turned out, the probe ended up with insufficient dV to achieve orbit, which was just as well because it was only a flying test instrument with no destination in mind. But it did get completely out of the atmosphere where it was able to measure 1.98 GW of available power, pretty close to the theoretical maximum the OMG Mk 2 network should have been producing.

And then, xenon tanks exhausted, the probe fell back into the vengeful clutches of the FAR and DR Demons. It beat the latter but not the former.

So the boffins, quite satisfied, took the rest of the day off. They had accomplished much, they had learned much, and they had kept their heads on their shoulders. They repaired to the pub to meditate on what they could do with all these microwaves. Tune in next time to find out (maybe).