uA's Interactive Space Agency

[unrepentantAuthor]

Good day, gentlemen and gentlewomen! Welcome to the headquarters of the newly-founded GASA - the Global Aeronautics and Space Administration - operating under the aegis of the United Kerbin Nations. You are here today because you have chosen to participate in one of this world's greatest endeavours: the exploration of space by an international organisation. Whatever your backgrounds - industrialists, politicians, STEM advocates - you have taken a place on the GASA board of directors. It is your role to support and direct this fledgling space agency towards great feats of space travel and international prestige. Good luck, everyone.

Welcome to the Interactive Space Agency! Here, you can command GASA in the role of one of its directors. Posters in this thread will instruct me, in the role of the engineers, researchers and mission personnel of the agency, to execute various missions and achieve whatever goals they take to be important. In essence, I will construct the craft and fly the missions, and you will give me new missions. In this way, I will be challenged to achieve set goals, and participants will get to push me around and see what happens. I'm an intelligent player who's accomplished complex missions in the past, but is rusty as hell after a leave of absence and this will be my first time using mods like NEAR and Deadly Reentry. I'm seeking a balance between game playability and realism, with a touch of Kerbal-style booster fetishism on the side.

Background and a provisional mod list can be found here. The current rules are also provisional and subject to future refinement.

Rules: (tl;dr found at the bottom)

Game Format: As often as I can, I will write reports on the agency's successes, failures and frustrations. Between reports, directors may choose to make a new proposal, vote on an issue, or direct their resources. Anyone is welcome to offer suggestions, fiction, etc at any time. Roleplay is not permitted on the ksp forums, but as far as I am aware, narrative prose is welcomed, and fictionalised accounts contributing to the agency's story should take an appropriate form. If you want to become a director, either use the default setup or send me a pm about it.

Directors: You are one of GASA's directors, with the ability to propose new missions, projects, and alterations of any kind. Each director has one vote (or more, if their background justifies it), which they can abstain from using or cast as a veto under certain circumstances. Directors may also contribute to the budget of various programs, or build their own funds for the future. A director may also have the ability to provide parts, resources and other assets. For example, a director might be a prominent industrialist in the field of aircraft development - in this case, they would have a greater wealth, and could conceivably offer construction contracts.

Finances: I have elected to use the game's currency management and hack myself extra funds based on the meta contracts given to me by directors. Directors will by default enter play with $20,000 to spend and an income of $5,000 per in-game week. One can also have expenditures over time, such as maintenance costs. You may use your funds at your own discretion, but please keep your use of them reasonable.

Science and Research: I would like very much to experience a progression through a tech tree. However, the science gathering system of the base game holds no appeal for me, and I have not found mods which sufficiently ameliorate its dire state. Therefore, unless someone suggests a good alternative, unlocking tech nodes will be based on fluff - essentially, I will receive access to a tech node when the directors deem it appropriate.

Mission Guidelines: My desire is both to simulate a space program that develops through similar paths as its real life counterparts, and to push myself gradually to complete increasingly ambitious tasks. Balance reasonable goals and fun challenges! In due course, I welcome everything from Munar flybys and impactors to shuttle design and space stations, to Duna bases and Laythe jetplanes. Missions should be issued with brief, budget, goals, and any relevant information made clear and unambiguous. Remember that designing and testing a launch system can be a mission as much as making a Mun landing.

tl;dr: give me various goals and parameters, I'll interpret them as best I can and show you the results. You get $20,000 plus $5,000 per in-game week to assign to mission budgets, and one vote. I get techs when you say so.

The project has now begun, after the long an extremely arduous process of installing an enormous mod list and resolving the resultant CTD plague. Advisory comments on the running of this project are very welcome indeed. This post published at 2:30am UK time, and likely to be radically polished in the near future. Thank you for your interest!

GASA assets:

Funds: $122,608

Operational Spacecraft:

• GSR-2b/Starling II
  

Directors:

• Nicholander, Unamanned Rocketry Administrator (five votes probe issues)
  

Edited August 2, 2014 by unrepentantAuthor

[Nicholander]

Interesting... I would like to join as a director. Do I have say my directors name what he/she directs? (Ie: Director Of GASA Deep Space Operations) Would that be considered roleplay?

Anyway, my director is the "Director Of Unmanned Space Operations" (That's probably to broad, I'll change it if you think it is)

[unrepentantAuthor]

My greatest apologies for the delay in updating. My copy of KSP repeatedly CTD'd me after I installed my admittedly absurd list of mods. However, I finally resolved the issue and identified a single offending mod that my game was apparently objecting to. Or, so I thought. The game CTD's at the slightest provocation, to the point of being absolutely unplayable. I'm going to cut out all superfluous mods and then see if the game becomes workable. If not, I'll abandon the project in frustration until further notice.

[unrepentantAuthor]

The CTD's seem to have subsided, for now. I present to you the first mission report.

GASA Report 1: Project Cloudscraper

Operational Year 1

Missions completed: Cloudscraper One, Cloudscraper Two, Cloudscraper Three.

Milestones reached: First successful rocket-propelled spacecraft launch, atmospheric exit, kerbal in space, spacewalk, stable orbit around Kerbin, successful return of a kerbal from space

Craft developed: GSR-1/Stirk, GSR-2/Starling, GSR-2b/Starling II

Director roster change: +1: Unmanned Rocketry Administrator Nicho Kerman (Ordinary budget, five votes on probe missions.)

Budget change: $10,000 -> $122,508

Astronaut debuts: Jebediah Kerman

Project Cloudscraper, authorised by the UKN in 1954 and developed since then by our predecessor GACA, has now been turned over to us, as part of GACA's disestablishment. We are expected to show a strong series of prestige-worthy results ASAP, and to put an artificial satellite in orbit within a single month. It seems that GACA was a poorly run enterprise - it's a wonder that any of their personnel ever expected to get to space - but we have inherited most of their work. We have done our best to make do. The UKN have become impatient and cynical after a year of vague promises by GACA about the potential of their 'More Boosters' program, and we are entirely beholden to them, even flying their flag rather than one of our own. Therefore, we have had our staff working around the clock to turn what rocket technology we have into something useable.

Funds are limited, after GACA spent their bloated budget on increasingly elaborate stacks of boosters, so we've had to ask for preliminary funding from the KWFRKS to support our efforts. Perhaps fortunately for us, GACA never bothered with enough transparency to earn even 'first rocket launched' so we've been able to snap up several world firsts and receive a meagre sum from the Society in return. Notably, GACA did not bother developing any unmanned rocketry capability, forcing us to launch our early rockets with kerbal pilots. Fortunately, we have sufficient volunteers and basic heat shielding and spaceworthiness technology. If nothing else, we certainly have a lot of rocket fuel lying around...

As you are about to see, this was enough to stagger into a temporary orbit and meet our objective within the time limit. We've learnt a great deal from these two missions, in terms of engineering, technology and even administration. Hopefully, we can put the new equipment we're approving to good use and achieve something spectacular by the end of the decade.

Mission 1: Cloudscraper One

Craft: GSR-1/Stirk

Crew: Jebediah Kerman

Status: Successfully launched, surpassed 5000m and left the atmosphere, reaching a final altitude of 105,000m, before returning to KSC

This was a test-flight of the first GASA-designed, purpose-built spacecraft to enter service: the Ground to Space Rocket 1; reporting name 'Stirk'. The Stirk is a simple design: a MkI pod fitted with twin antennae and a parachute, affixed to a squat liquid-fuel rocket. Heat shields requisitioned from GACA's old projects have been roughly fashioned into an elementary decoupler and a crude launch stabiliser. The Stirk is practically useless in the long term, but we should learn a great deal about elementary ballistics from the recovery of the craft and the pilot's notes.

The pilot, Jebediah Kerman, is delighted to be the first kerbal in space, and has been awarded seven ribbons - though several were technicalities he insisted on for the sake of correctness. Or, perhaps, his own ego. In any case, Jebediah reports experiencing no ill effects, and is in fact eager to man another rocket ASAP. The mission was declared a success, and Jebediah was cleared to man the second mission.

GSR-1/Stirk Specs

$3,603

5.6 tons

Extra-atmospheric capable

Mission 2: Cloudscraper Two

Craft: GSR-2/Starling

Crew: Jebediah Kerman

Status: Successfully achieved an unstable low altitude orbit before returning to Kerbin

This was an attempt to radically refine and augment our existing design in order to brute-force a low orbit before the end of the month. The resulting 'Starling' craft has an extended fuel tank, and an entirely new first stage, consisting of five clustered solid-fuel boosters. This booster stage is intended to be recovered. The GSR-2 is twice the weight and twice the cost of the Stirk, but its reach is incomparable - and its successful orbit will grant us reprive from UKN budget-hawks. Jebediah was also able to give a detailed account of a brief spacewalk during the orbit. Unfortunately, the KWFRKS insist, somewhat fairly, that since the orbit wasn't stable and was not completed, it is not a 'true' orbit.

GSR-2/Starling Specs

$6,154

12.6 tons

Unstable LKO capable

Mission 3: Cloudscraper Three

Craft: GSR-2b/Starling II

Crew: Jebediah Kerman

Status: Successfully achieved a stable low altitude orbit before returning to Kerbin

The enhanced version of the Starling has nine clustered SRB's, extended outwards from the main body to reduce overheating risks. In addition, the fuel tank for the liquid engine has been further-extended. The ascent profile and SRB clustering have also been optimised to squeeze out the extra altitude necessary. The mission proceeded without hitch or fault, netting GASA the largest influx of cash yet from the KWFRKS. Cloudscraper has been deemed a successful project, and its missions are to be suspended, pending more research and orders from the agency's board of directors. Jebediah Kerman suffered a trivial injury in the after-party in the KSC astronaut complex, and has been removed from active service until he has recovered and been appropriately reprimanded. Nevertheless, GASA has now achieved a complete manned orbit of Kerbin.

GSR-2/Starling Specs

$8,953

15.9 tons

Stable LKO capable

Report summary: GASA has achieved a modest goal in remarkable time, and with very limited technology available. The research potential of the recovered spacecraft components and the numerous detailed observations made by premier pilot Jebediah Kerman should allow us to develop an enormous number of critical new components for rocket construction. We have also multiplied our meager original budget tenfold. Despite these significant advances, the agency has established a number of critical needs, including, but not limited to: unmanned probe capability, dedicated decouplers, fairing shrouds, specialised scientific instruments, the availability of power cells and/or power generation, attitude control mechanisms and improved rocketry components. It remains to be seen what the agency will be granted in the near term. A handful of contracts are available to us from third party agencies, generally either insignificant or unfeasible. It is the hope of the agency administration that the board of directors will issue bold new missions and commission next-generation spacecraft with all due haste.

tl;dr: I had the devil's time making KSP run without crashing. Jeb made orbit with starting parts only. Give me access to new junk and a new mission based on the early space race milestones, please. Cheers!

[unrepentantAuthor]

I'm considering restarting this with Construction Time mod to determine when I get new techs, a list of roles for people to fill, and a mission template to make all this more interaction-friendly. I have a few days away from my computer to think about this.

[unrepentantAuthor]

Next update due by the 22nd due to academic reasons. A new thread will be made with a new set of rules and better planning.