The Dream Middens

[DJEN]

"Space travel is the only hope for Kerbalkind, and I'll support it under any costs."

"Kerbin is too small for us. We need more space!"

"The universe awaits us, let us grasp its open palms!"

Those were the words of Jeb Kerman, Kawazky Kerman's mentor. He was an ideological symbol in the early days of space exploration. Always having a bright smile and a fierce attitude, he emerged from the junkyards of Krenemia, became a pilot, became a kerbanaut, and led the space program in his later years.

Although his triumphs were beneficial to Kerbalkind in the short term, they were what led Kerbin to its current state; a trash heap that contains the excrement of the space program, never to return to its former state.

Kawazky gazed outside the tainted windows of the main building complex of KSC, staring at the light gray clouds and the littered ground. It was a lucky day, for such an weather was rare on Kerbin these days. All that remained of its vibrant weather patterns were the annual dry and wet seasons, containing half an year of storms vomiting acrid rains from above, half an year of burning drought, and the rest gone to pollution.

-to be updated later-

Edited June 6, 2014 by DJEN

[DJEN]

He sighed. He had seen many cloudy days, and this one was no different from the others, sans the light clouds.

The sea was no better, either. It was always black, with a mucky consistency that changed somewhat during the year. In this rainy season, it was a bit thinner than usual, and some debris floated on the surface.

Kawazky retreated from the windows, and sat on the couch in the center regions of the room.

It was covered with red viniyl, a rare substance in the resource depleted planet. Only rich kerbals could lay their hands on it and enjoy its soft texture.

The couch was facing a small table at its front. On the table were some snacks on a plate, all made with high grade ingredients grown in substance vats. He grabbed one and pondered its brown color, then placed it on the plate and sighed.

KSP was disbanded some time ago. Jedediah insisted on it being continued, but the republic officials deemed that it was too resource consuming and risky. Although KSP promised prosperity, its ideal started to crumble with the fact that vacuum smelting was highly inefficient and unreliable. Without a way to increase its efficiency and reliability, the dreams of a space infrastructure started to crumble bit by bit.

The next impact was the repeated failures of the three manned Duna missions. They were all done in different times, with much more advanced technologies supporting them each time. However, they always failed due to one reason or another.

-to be updated later-

Edited June 8, 2014 by DJEN

[mythic_fci]

Nice! Can't wait to see more!

[DJEN]

The first failed due to errors in ship structure.

During the transfer towards Duna, the crew consisting of two kerbals had lost contact with KSC for over a month due to solar flares. Even though connection was reestablished, the crew did not respond. After running a remote examination on the vessel, it was concluded that the life support had gone haywire after the flare due to the main system malfunctioning via exposure to solar flares. The reason why they couldn't fix it was debated by many engineers, and a conclusion was drawn by Scott Kerman, who analyzed the ship structure and revealed the problem: the life support was supposed to be fixed at the exterior of the vessel; however, it was a open structure, forbidding access from outside due to the vacuum.

The chief architect, Shelton Kerman, apologized to the public and vowed that he would analyze the ship's blueprints with a computer software to insure the lack of errors from the moment on. The public started being worried about space travel at this point.

The second failed due to software failure.

The ship was snapped in half due to the extreme tension, damaging the two engines and the landers. Scott Kerman, the mission commander of several missions, used the secondary antennae to communicate with KSC, saying that they will not give up in any condition. They were seen by KSC via the Herbel Telescope using their remaining RCT fuel to push themselves to a towards-Kerbin trajectory.

Although they succeeded in doing so, they were found dead by the rescue craft even with the ability to fix life support if needed. Eventually, the software team found a error in the ship's software that made the ship deny the use of life support if the main power source was destroyed. Also, the structural failure was caused by the software's inability to apply unexpected data to the ship's manuveres.

And again, the software team apologized.

-to be updated someday-

Edited June 8, 2014 by DJEN

[KSK]

A very unusual start - interesting to take a look behind the scenes at the other costs of the space program. 10/10 for the title too - extremely evocative.

Here's hoping that 'some day' isn't too far away.

[DJEN]

The third and final mission succeeded in its objective of delivering Kerbals onto the surface of Duna, but it failed due to not one, but many unexpected aspects. The First was the planet Duna itself.

The mission itself went out smoothly, pleasing Jebediah to his edge for he could acquire more funds for the space program. The crew had succeeded in landing the lander, and proceeded to extract core samples for the analysis of potential resources. Since all the other types of scientific activity were already done by the probes, the only thing left was to analyze Duna to evaluate its worth.

However, even though the probes had shown data that indicated of the existence of frozen aquifers, the samples themselves have indicated that there were none. After weeks of research, the crew had discovered a new form of silicate from the core sample that was formed in the low gravity environment of Duna, which had a density similar to aquifers. The find shed light to a ignored theory regarding Duna's supposed 'aquifers' being mere exotic silicate structures that contained little to no water. The find removed the potential of Duna becoming a prosperous resource hub for further space exploration.

The second and the least important was the lander. After the crew had finished their work, they proceeded to enter the lander and escape into orbit. It was equipped with a strong engine that had enough thrust to enter orbit on its own, that had a tendency to overheat.

-to be updated and fixed later-