Ad Lunam - Final Update 2015-05-31

[Cydonian Monk]

Munlit Silence Course Correction Burn

Year 78 day 239 - Somewhere between Dres and Jool

Shepgee made sure he was strapped in and that his helmet was secured before he activated the RCS thrusters. The Munlit Silence had been rotating now for the better part of a year, and it was hard to tell what would float free once they were back in freefall. Not that freefall would last longer than it took to align for the course-correction burn, but better safe than sorry. The post-it note he'd placed over the "Kill Rot" button flaked off at his touch and landed on the faceplate of his helmet. He held his breath and pressed the button.

"Wait!" Just then Haloly crawled out of the access tube, but it was too late. The burn from the reaction control system sent him flying from the ladder and tumbling about the cabin. "Ow!" A few seconds later he floated past Shepgee, grabbed a hold of free seat and strapped in.

Shepgee gave him a sour glance. "Oly, did you not hear the warning?"

"Cheese! Ike! We've got to go to Ike! There's cheese on Ike!"

What? Shepgee punched the coordinates for the midcourse correction into the flight computer and hit the commit button. The ship rattled as the computer turned to the new heading. "There's no cheese on Ike. We're going to Jool, not Ike. Ike's behind us."

"I know that. Look." Haloly passed him a wrinkled up sheet of paper. "I've worked out a plan for getting there from Jool." He looked over the paper, searching for an explanation or even a hint of sanity. Finding nothing he handed it back to Haloly and gave the main engines a test burn.

"What's on Ike that M&M can't handle?"

"Wildfire! The Ike Contingency! If I'm right, M&M won't be allowed to land on Ike. Something, everything, will go wrong as soon as they head for Ike. So we'll have to go there. Ourselves."

"Hmm." Shepgee glanced out of the window at the stationary sky. After spinning for so long the unmoving stars seemed strange to him. Almost enough to make him dizzy. Or maybe that was just a product of Haloly's insanity. He shook off the feeling and looked Haloly straight in the eyes. "Is there anything I need to do now?"

"No. The course change happens at Jool."

"Good. That'll give me some time to think about what to do." With you, he thought but didn't say. Shepgee watched as the node counter ticked down to the target then gradually throttled up to 100%. The ship shuddered and recently-dislodged debris fell to the the back walls of the cabin. This was the first real stress placed on their ship since leaving Kerbin

Even if they made the correction now to skip Jool and go to Duna it would be at least another year or two before they got there. Sure, Haloly was usually spouting some sort of insanity, but cheese? Diverting from a return to Kerbin to one for Duna? That was a bit much. No, there had to be some other reason. The paranoid parts of Shepgee's brain began to tingle, well trained by reading "Secret Agent Kirrim" novels.

He glanced over at Haloly as the ship was throttling down from the burn. There he was, just smiling at the void as the Munlit Silence ejected superheated fuels, abnormally quiet. Shepgee armed the RCS system to spin the Silence back up to its normal rotation. What could Haloly know that he didn't? What was crawling through that strange mind of his? How did he really get to space all those years ago?

---

Ad Lunam - Origins - Upgrades

---

Mother of Necessity Survey Expedition

Year 1 day 342 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

A few münths later and Jebediah was returned safe to Cape Kerbal. The CCHR had paraded him around the country in celebration of his accomplishments, recognizing him as a "Hero of Kerbin." They made sure to show him the devastation the meteor strike had levied on their country. Mention was made repeatedly of the Unified Government's refusal to assist the CCHR in its time of crisis.

"They will only help us if we join them. Give up our sovereignty" he was told. "We have something else in mind." That was when they showed him the launch complex, well hidden in the mountains north of the spreading desert. "It is our second." When Jeb asked about the first his question was met with tears and lamentations. "At the center of a smoking crater."

The news he brought back to DEMO and the Unified Government alarmed everyone. The never-ending desert, the burning wasteland, the "enemy's" new space program. So, after a long investigation of just what Jebediah had seen and said while held as a "guest" of the CCHR, an expedition was arranged for him and Bob. An expedition for Bob to see if the deserts were spreading beyond the mountains of K2, and to determine if Jebediah was still trustworthy. There were six survey points in two clusters around K2: 3 to the north, and 3 in the pass. A few days after Jeb's second release they set out aboard the Mother of Necessity.

The plan was for Jeb to land near the center of each of the cluster of three survey points, have Bob get out and make observations, then fly to the next cluster. They headed for the northernmost set of surveys first: Kenfurt's Boundary. In ancient times this boundary had been established by a Kerbal chieftain, Kenfurt Kerman, to resolve a dispute between a Shepherd and a Farmer. Now it was little more than a memory and a line on a map.

Once they were on the ground both Jeb and Bob jumped out, Bob making some observations about the grass, the presence of any sand (they found none), and the general ridiculousness of this mission.

"I'm not sure I see the point in this, Jeb. It'd be more useful if I could take surface samples. Apparently that's not allowed. Something about paid-DLC-ransomware stuff and needing to spend more money to be able to pick up rocks. Again. Did you ever pick up rocks when you were a kid Jeb? Remember anything about needing to pay money to your parents first?" Jeb just shrugged and climbed back into his plane. "Hmm. Guess you're not in the mood to chat."

Instead of taking off again, Jeb just taxied the plane around to the other two observation points. Only once Bob had his fill of data did they take to the air again. Next stop: Mora's Prize.

On the way Jeb related the story of his time in the new desert to Bob. Of how the CCHR, the "enemy" of the Unified Government, only wanted to show him around the devastated lands. How they made a point of showing him the suffering caused by their governments's refusal to help.

And then he went into the tales of the stars. How many there were, how vibrant they seemed from orbit, the endless and vast ocean of unblinking stars that could be seen from the night side of Kerbin. Bob was more concerned that Jeb was paying no attention to the large mountains that had just passed by on either side of the plane.

A few moments later and they were there. No living kerbals remembered what Mora's Prize was, but a few educated scholars were keen to speculate on the very old name. Perhaps these were once rich, lush farmlands, prized by the ancients? Or maybe this area had been won in a raffle by some lucky Kerbal? No idea.

Jeb looked around for a landing spot. "I don't know, Bob. There's an awful lot of trees. Maybe in that gully up ahead? Hmm." He brought the plane in low, skimming over the tops of more than a few trees before he found an open spot.

This time Bob would have to walk, as there was no way Jeb could taxi the plane through the "dense" forest of Mora's Prize. And so Bob walked. And Bob ran. And Bob made useless observations about the lack of ash and sand.

Jeb wasted no time once Bob was back in the plane, setting course for KSC. The sun was getting low in the western sky and he wanted to land before darkness fell on the Cape. "We've got to get you trained for your flight" he said to Bob. "You're up next, right?"

Bob shook his head. "No, they're letting Bill go up next. They wanted me on this trip for some reason, so Bill got the Kestrel 2. After your landing," Bob was staring out the window at the grasslands west of KSC, "they weren't sure if we should fly again until they could add a remote-control to the ships."

"And?"

Bob shrugged. "Bill came up with one, but it's too heavy. So for now we get to fly."

"Just not me."

Bob looked right at him, unsure what to say. "You should've listened to Gene. He's not a kerbal you want to be on the bad side of. At this rate you may never fly again."

"Mmm-hmm. We'll see about that."

In the end their expedition proved little. The sand and ash that had claimed the Western Continent and the west parts of their landmass had not crossed the mountain range, though many considered a year too short of a time frame for such rapid desertification to have occurred. Sure, it was getting a bit cold, and it was downright chilly up in the pass, but that was to be expected. And as for Jeb? Well, maybe he was a little bit Red afterall.

---

Kestrel 2 Launch

Year 1 day 353 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

The grounds and launchpad crews had to practically drag Bill out of his workshop and throw him into the Kestrel 2. It wasn't that he didn't want to fly, but he was in the middle of fighting with a problem that had plagued him since they moved to Cape Kerbal: How to make the sounding rockets useful again.

There was no debate that the small rockets were more efficient for atmospheric testing than a full-sized K-4, Kestrel or equivalent, but the thicker air and the heavier "pre-release" components in the sounding rockets made it difficult for them to reach the higher atmosphere with a meaningful payload. He was still running over numbers and ideas in his head when the second stage of the Kestrel 2 cut out and placed him in freefall.

And that was when it hit him: He needed to develop a new type of engine for the sounding rockets if he wanted to use liquid fuels. Of course! He continued to ignore the fact that he was in space, surrounded by a vast ocean of nothingness and Jeb's endless stars, and set about scratching out ideas on his checklist. And then he happened to glance out of the window.

So Jeb hadn't been kidding about the glow. Or the noxious yellow clouds. Or the incredible mass of water vapor that was still rising from the impact site nearly a year later. The glow of the still-molten core of the impact was dim and barely visible during the day, but Bill was sure he could see active lava flows. He wondered if the impact had punched through Kerbin's crust, though he doubted anything would be dense enough to do that. He took as many pictures as he could of the new crater and the desert beyond and relayed his findings back to mission control once he was back in radio contact.

After the next orbit it was time to return home. Bill spent most of it perfecting his new small engine design, though he did make a few more observations of the impact site before the retro burn. He almost skipped a checklist item that read "expose science experiments" on account of all the random scratches and notes some lunatic had scribbled onto it, but remembered at the last second.

He splashed down safely just off the coast of KSC (like a good little kerbonaut), though most of the science experiments were destroyed by the impact with the water. Or perhaps they had burned up on reentry. Bill spent all of 5 minutes in the post-flight debriefing and press conference before he ran back to his lab to commit his ideas to paper. The press could wait.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Crew[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Kestrel 2[/td][td]Bill[/td][td]1h15m0s[/td][td]13.4[/td][td]11,195[/td][td]6,151[/td][td]10.9[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Year 1 day 364 - Gene's Office, Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

"Ike? The moon of Duna?" Gene read the contract again to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He looked up from the pages to Mortimer, the aged accountant sitting on the opposite side of his desk.

"Yes. I thought it strange too, though as you can see the contract has no expiration date and came with a generous advance."

"Ike. Why Ike? We haven't even sent a rocket to our own Mün, let alone another planet." He flipped through the pages of the contract to find a stamp and a signature on the last page. "Wait, Chris accepted this already? Doesn't he realize there's a limit of 2 active contracts?"

"As it so happens," Mortimer steepled his hands, drumming the tips of his fingers against each other, "the funds received from the advances of our 2 current contracts were enough to upgrade the Mission Control building. As a result we have hired more clerks and accountants and can now keep several more active contracts." A wrinkled and creepy smile wormed its way across Mortimer's face.

Gene wasn't sure if he should be happy or concerned.

---

Vim Sounding Rocket Tests

Year 1 day 365 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

Vim represented the first meaningful upgrade to Bill's sounding rockets in quite some time. While not as cheap as the solid-fueled equivalents, these new rockets could achieve more by their modularity and use of a more common fuel. He might have been in a bit too much of a hurry to test his design, as shortly after take-off Vim 1 pitched over southwards and met an untimely fate.

A quick trip back to the workshop and he emerged with Vim 2 - this time with more fins for spin-stabilization.

The Vim 2 exhibited a significantly improved performance over the Vim 1 and the Awk, reaching an altitude of 7.5km and falling for recovery on the KSC grounds less than 3km from the launchpad. So Bill repeated the tests as he had with the early Awks to make certain the one successful flight was not just a fluke.

It wasn't. Maybe he was on to something here.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Cost[/td]

[td]Apo[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Vim 1[/td][td]0m17s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1307[/td][td]120[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Vim 2[/td][td]4m32s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1367[/td][td]7,533[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Vim 3[/td][td]4m33s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1368[/td][td]7,444[/td][td]0.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Vim 4[/td][td]4m32s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1368[/td][td]7,396[/td][td]0.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Vim 5[/td][td]4m35s[/td][td]0.8[/td][td]1368[/td][td]7,440[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Bash-Vim Sounding Rocket Tests

Year 1 day 371 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

The purpose of the larger sounding rockets was to expose test equipment to the upper atmosphere. To reach such heights they would need a multi-stage rocket with a booster capable of lifting both itself and the upper stages. Except there was only one possible engine for a 625mm booster: The Rockomax 48-7S.

Bill ran the numbers for the 48-7S and came up with a few possible options. He was tempted to develop his own 625mm engine as he had with the smaller one, but was reminded by the legal department of certain very enforceable patents held by the Rockomax Consortium. So the 48-7S it was.

The low-thrust and high-mass of the 625mm stage required for feeding the 48-7S severely limited its use in this design. As a result the Bash-Vim 1 was unable to achieve sufficient spin on launch, and pitched over to the North. The flight was terminated when it became clear it would not be recoverable. The engineering package was later retrieved from North Bay.

An extra set of spin-stabilizing fins were added for the Bash-Vim 2, with less than stellar results.

Back to the drawing board.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Cost[/td]

[td]Apo[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Bash-Vim 1[/td][td]3m13s[/td][td]2.4[/td][td]1849[/td][td]2,315[/td][td]2.4[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Bash-Vim 2[/td][td]0m52s[/td][td]2.4[/td][td]1905[/td][td]1,231[/td][td]5.0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Grep-Vim Sounding Rocket Tests

Year 1 day 371 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

Why use a liquid rocket when you have a solid that is already proven and known to work? That's exactly what happened with the Grep-Vim. The Vim upper stage was retained, this time lofted atop an old Grep.

These proved to be a great deal more reliable and successful than the previous attempts, but still not enough to reach the upper layers of the atmosphere.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Cost[/td]

[td]Apo[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Grep-Vim 1[/td][td]5m20s[/td][td]2.6[/td][td]1549[/td][td]12,582[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Grep-Vim 2[/td][td]5m39s[/td][td]2.6[/td][td]1564[/td][td]14,677[/td][td]2.4[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Grep-Vim 3[/td][td]5m49s[/td][td]2.6[/td][td]1264[/td][td]15,185[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Emacs 1 Flight Test

Year 1 day 371 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

And thus was born the Emacs - A step backwards to a refined version of a previously failed project, featuring lots of extra experiments and gizmos all glommed on for good measure. There may have even been a kitchen sink involved. Bill hinted that it could only be controlled using special key sequences, sort of like secret handshakes, all so Bob couldn't launch it early.

Of course it was a completely successful failure.

Despite not reaching any altitude that could be described as "useful," the Emacs had a horizontal deviation of effectively 0. (Actually 20m.) It landed almost on top of the launch pad from where it originated. Its designer (Bill) credited its success to freedom and a self-documenting, extensible existence. The remarkable amount of space available in its cargo bay allowed the inclusion of a mysterious new device: The Black Magic Major Mode. Something most folks were just calling a "reaction wheel."

The success of the Emacs came not from its complete failure to reach any reasonable altitude, but from its ability to prove it could lift a heavy payload on a common and extensible platform. Which meant it was perfect for the next phase of Bill's sounding rockets project.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Cost[/td]

[td]Apo[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Emacs 1[/td][td]2m35s[/td][td]3.0[/td][td]2033[/td][td]6,627[/td][td]1.8[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Grep-Emacs-Vim (GEV) Sounding Rocket Tests

Year 1 day 372-395

DEMO-18

The GEV, not to be confused with the GSA. This was a Vim riding atop an Emacs riding alongside many Greps. At this point it became obvious that Bill had lost his mind. Several of the other DEMO-project engineers confronted Bill about the rocket's seemingly non-aerodynamic side-booster design.

"Aerodynamics?" Bill was heard to respond. "Why worry about aerodynamics when you can just apply more thrust?"

By now the kerbals had mastered the use of expendable serial stages, but not so much radial stages. Bill found a way to rig vertical "Pyrotechnic Slicers" so as to cut off spent Grep stages once they were no longer needed. With the extra cargo capacity he was also able to rig a more sophisticated control computer, allowing side stages and core stages to be ignited after lift-off. The result was, well....

At first it was less than spectacular, for a multitude of reasons. First: The expanded cargo area was simply too large and too heavy for the Emacs-Vim stages. The parachute also deployed during the ascent, resulting in undefined behaviour at landing. So Bill went back to his workshop, ignored the unresolvable, refined the correctable, and came back a few days later with a new design.

This one shattered records. Not very good records, admittedly, but records none-the-less. The second GEV reached a maximum altitude of 38kms, well above the now nearly-undetectable ash layer, and high enough to conduct upper-atmosphere science. More important was the rocket's agility, which would come in handy for the third GEV mission.

The secret to the GEV-2 was that it included nearly everything in a much smaller package. Batteries, flight control, the Black Magic Major Mode (reaction wheel), and every experiment known to kerbals. No kitchen sink, but maybe on a future flight? But for now it was time to prepare for the third crewed flight of the Kestrel program.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Cost[/td]

[td]Apo[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]GEV 1[/td][td]7m12s[/td][td]9.3[/td][td]5,093[/td][td]16,718[/td][td]7.2[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]GEV 2[/td][td]7m42s[/td][td]9.1[/td][td]5,037[/td][td]38,232[/td][td]21.6[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Kestrel 3 Launch

Year 1 day 395 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

Like Bill, Bob had to be dragged onto the Kestrel 3. Unlike Bill there was considerable kicking and screaming. So much so that a security guard felt the need to make sure the "pilot" of the Kestrel 3 wasn't actually the victim of a kidnapping. A few moments later and Bob was away.

What they hadn't told Bob is that he was going to be the first kerbal to venture into the mysterious region known as "High Orbit." There was some speculation that radiation at such a high altitude could be lethal, so it was decided the best thing to do was send a scientist up and see if he came back alive.

All of the fear and apprehension had left Bob by the time he reached apoapsis (along with a few bodily fluids). He seemed awestruck by the stars and the endless black, just as Jeb had been. Most of his time in orbit was spent matching the bright clouds of stars to the constellations of his youth. He was very reluctant to align for the deorbit burn after only going around once, but followed the instructions like a good little kerbal. He changed his mind when the capsule hit the atmosphere, but by then it was too late to go back.

Bob landed safely a few kilometers west of KSC. He was shocked to learn that, for a few brief moments, he had flown higher and moved faster than any kerbal yet. This simple little farmer-turned-soldier-turned-scientist was now at the top of the record books. Even Bob had to smile at that.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Crew[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Kestrel 3[/td][td]Bob[/td][td]0h47m0s[/td][td]13.4[/td][td]11,195[/td][td]3,501[/td][td]85.0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Grep-Emacs-Vim 3 Launch

Year 1 day 395 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

What they didn't tell Bob was his launch only happened because they wanted to measure the exhaust left behind by the Kestrel 3 using one of Bill's sounding rockets. Several different branches of the government were interested in the exact contents of rocket exhaust. Was it dangerous? How long did it take to dissipate? Could it have other uses? This mission aimed to find out.

The GEV-3 was launched immediately following the Kestrel 3, this new breed of sounder quite capable of flying out over the ocean, taking a few readings, turning, and returning back to dry land. At last that was the plan.

And that plan worked perfectly. The GEV-3 followed the Kestrel 3's ascent profile, ventured out over the ocean, took a few more readings, turned back towards land and came in for an explosive landing just west of KSC. The recovery crews had already boxed up the GEV-3 and its payload by the time Bob landed, 38 minutes later in the Kestrel 3.

Mission accomplished.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Cost[/td]

[td]Apo[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]GEV 3[/td][td]6m34s[/td][td]9.1[/td][td]5,037[/td][td]19,843[/td][td]20.0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Falcon 1 Launch

Year 1 day 405 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

"Hey! Where's my Kestrel?" The pilot formerly known as Anny was visibly confused as he exited the launchpad taxi. His voice was booming across the feed in Mission Control as he argued with the pad technicians. "This isn't a Kestrel!"

Gene gave Wernher a strange glance. "He's right, you know. Somebody probably should've told him about the reassignment."

Wernher shrugged. "There was no time."

"Look! I'm supposed to be getting on a Kestrel, not, well, whatever that thing is!" They could see Annie waving his (her?) arms angrily all the way from the launchpad. "Are those solid boosters? Are those even safe?"

"Kid's got a point, Wernher. I don't know where you dug this, ah...."

"Falcon."

"... this Falcon up from, but I'm not convinced it meets any safety standards. In any country. On any planet."

"We needed another craft to place a Kerbal into outer space, no? Above the magic 250km line? I admit this is an old design, something pulled from the very early days of DEMO, but it is perfectly safe." Except for that time it killed Jebediah, that is, and maybe Bill, but nobody remembered any of that. Even Jebediah seemed to have forgotten, and Wernher didn't see the point in bringing those old incidents up again. No, this little craft had been the first he had designed when he started out as a rocket builder 2 years before, and he wanted to see how well it flew now.

"Ok, I'll take your word for it. CapCom?"

Bill turned around to face Gene. "Yeah?"

"Patch me directly through to Annie." Bill fiddled about with some cables on his console and eventually found a combination that resulted in a new series of red lights. He gave Gene a thumbs up. "Annie?" Annie was still arguing with the grounds crew and gesticulating towards the rocket, completely ignoring the radio. "Kerbonaut!"

"Yeah?"

"Look, we had a last minute change of plans. The Falcon is a perfectly capable craft..."

"But I was supposed to go into orbit!"

"And you will, just not today. Instead, today, you'll become only the second kerbal to go above 250km. How's that sound?"

"What's the point of putting a pilot on a ship that just goes straight up and down? Bob got to go to orbit, and he's not even a pilot!"

Gene cleared his throat. "Your second objective today is to test the new EVA suit in a true vacuum. Which also means you'll be the first kerbonaut to leave his spaceship while not on the ground. That's something even Jeb can't claim. So, are you ready to fly or not?"

"Hello?"

"I'll take that as a yes."

The sweet kiss of microgravity. The beauty of the endless void. The bright glow of your homeworld, far below. Bliss.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Crew[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Falcon 1[/td][td]"Annie"[/td][td]0h13m24s[/td][td]20.3[/td][td]14,137[/td][td]1,179[/td][td]21.3[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Kieve]

I only skimmed over this today, so I'll be making a point of going back and reading from the beginning (still catching up on Long Term Laythe too), but I am definitely liking what I see here. Love the story/character-oriented focus too, though I might be biased since ATS is the same way...

The various launch stations around Kerbin confused the heck out of me until I checked your mod list, but they're a very nice touch. I'll admit I don't care for the brightly-colored sounding rockets much, but at least they fit the tone here.

Definitely keeping an eye on this thread henceforth!

[Cydonian Monk]

I only skimmed over this today, so I'll be making a point of going back and reading from the beginning (still catching up on Long Term Laythe too), but I am definitely liking what I see here. Love the story/character-oriented focus too, though I might be biased since ATS is the same way...

The various launch stations around Kerbin confused the heck out of me until I checked your mod list, but they're a very nice touch. I'll admit I don't care for the brightly-colored sounding rockets much, but at least they fit the tone here.

Definitely keeping an eye on this thread henceforth!

Thanks! I really need to catch up on reading other mission reports and AARs at some point, your's included. Perhaps this weekend while I half-watch the NCAA basketball tourney?... (Because I know my team probably loses on Thursday....) I've missed quite a few that have started or returned here in the last few weeks - it's the busy season again.

Agreed on the somewhat confusing multi-launch site business, and that was part of the reason why I went back and added a pre-script header to every launch (and have stuck with it since). Things in the future... say, late April or early May post-KSP-v1.0-Release..., will be heading more out into the void, so where whatever gets launched from will be less important. It was also the reason I finally sat down and drew out the map, the country-less and simplified version of which used to be in the second post but seems to have disappeared. Hmm. Guess I need to go fix that.

I think the sounding rockets could use a bit of a spray from a can of dull-cote or flat-finish, and do find them a bit too bright and cheerful. (Or maybe I just have too many ancestors from miserable places. ) In RoverDude's defense the real things tend to be bright and colorful for spotting purposes (See: Black Brant on the Wikipedia page as an example), so I guess there's good precedent. I'd still prefer to see something more in line with what's on display in front of the NASA IV&V facility in Fairmont, WV, as seen here: https://twitter.com/NASAIVV/status/565914581433090048

I've certainly gotten more use out of the sounding rockets than I expected.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Kieve]

Thanks! I really need to catch up on reading other mission reports and AARs at some point, your's included. Perhaps this weekend while I half-watch the NCAA basketball tourney?... (Because I know my team probably loses on Thursday....) I've missed quite a few that have started or returned here in the last few weeks - it's the busy season again.

Well I'd appreciate that if you get the time, but I won't be pushy. Seems you have your plate pretty full with this saga alone.

I think the sounding rockets could use a bit of a spray from a can of dull-cote or flat-finish, and do find them a bit too bright and cheerful. (Or maybe I just have too many ancestors from miserable places. ) In RoverDude's defense the real things tend to be bright and colorful for spotting purposes (See: Black Brant on the Wikipedia page as an example), so I guess there's good precedent. I'd still prefer to see something more in line with what's on display in front of the NASA IV&V facility in Fairmont, WV, as seen here: https://twitter.com/NASAIVV/status/565914581433090048

I've certainly gotten more use out of the sounding rockets than I expected.

My "brightly-colored' adjective might've been misleading - they are quite vivid, but I just meant that I find the KSP-equivalent of Estes Rockets to be uninteresting. I understand they play a role in the rocket program, I'd just prefer to read about manned and drone-controlled flights. Personal preference, and not meant as a slight against your story or their creator.

[Cydonian Monk]

My "brightly-colored' adjective might've been misleading - they are quite vivid, but I just meant that I find the KSP-equivalent of Estes Rockets to be uninteresting. I understand they play a role in the rocket program, I'd just prefer to read about manned and drone-controlled flights. Personal preference, and not meant as a slight against your story or their creator.

I can certainly understand that. We all have our preferences.

[ElJugador]

NOTE: Thanks to a bit of stumbling I did while doing research, I now know the true meaning of Grep-Sed-Awk-Vim. Remember the streams.

[Cydonian Monk]

They can all go through pipes, though I'm not sure how well vim responds to stream redirection. No real symbolism intended, just wanted simple names for the sounding rockets that had nothing to do with anything else I've ever launched. And grep, sed, awk, vim, emacs, and bash are the tools I use day-in and day-out. (Well, not so much awk and emacs.)

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

If there's one thing that's been 100% on point this whole series, it's been the naming system. Excellent update as always.

[architeuthis]

Delightful AAR. Keep it up!

[Cydonian Monk]

If there's one thing that's been 100% on point this whole series, it's been the naming system. Excellent update as always.

Delightful AAR. Keep it up!

Thanks!

No idea when the next update will be.... I've been pulling my hair out over work and now my home internet's decided to play an April Fool's prank on me and go kaput (which I shouldn't have joked about yesterday....). Busy this weekend with model train stuff and friends in town, so maybe next week? 'Course I flew most of this stuff back in late February so it's really just down to editing. Just one last Origins post and then we're off to Duna.

Also: I'll try to avoid using my new-found 1-day "April 1st" moderator powers to move this thread to the Announcements section or pinning it. (Though frankly I prefer the green name, but don't envy the real mods. It's enough of a headache moderating the model train groups I'm part of. Crazy bots.) Edit: Bah. April Fools Day is over, back to the normal color name.

Cheers.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Kieve]

So at last I am finally caught up on this wild ride...

Gotta say, I love the design on the Hydra - the way those Mk2 pods fit together as a trio is visually delicious. Will have to use that for some of my stations, I think (my Orbiters are always arranged as 3x rotational anyway). The Kraken's Harvest is equally impressive, though it looks better-suited as an orbital fixture than an interplanetary vessel.

Story-wise, I'm still itching to find out what happened to our trio on the Mun. I don't know that I'm completely sold on the whole "global conspiracy" stuff, but it's definitely piqued my interest just the same.

Looking forward to the next update, whenever it might be!

(Though frankly I prefer the green name, but don't envy the real mods. It's enough of a headache moderating the model train groups I'm part of. Crazy bots.

I go through the same thing with the FTL forums - bloody spam-bots are the universal bane of the internet.

[Cydonian Monk]

Gotta say, I love the design on the Hydra - the way those Mk2 pods fit together as a trio is visually delicious.

Thanks! There will definitely be more of the Hydra in the future, probably well after KSP v1.0 hits, but I plan for that to be one of the more important cogs in a large system I'm designing. More on that much, much later.

The Kraken's Harvest is equally impressive, though it looks better-suited as an orbital fixture than an interplanetary vessel.

Thanks! Except for those annoying NREs.... I'm strongly considering launching the "full" version of the craft I have in the VAB and HyperEdit-ing into place, just to get past whatever annoying docking port bug I've discovered. I'm not convinced that will get around the issue though. We'll see. It's pretty heavy on the part count, so using it as any sort of busy orbital station would be painful.

Looking forward to the next update, whenever it might be!

Soon! I think I've finally got the world under control now, and should be back on track with this either tonight (overly optimistic?) or tomorrow. Then it's back... to the future! Or something.

[Cydonian Monk]

.

Ad Lunam - Origins - Contractual Obligations

---

Hawk 3-2 Launch

Year 1 day 415 - Cape Kerbal

DEMO-18

"Wernher, if these numbers are right..."

"They are."

"If these numbers are right, the Hawk 3-2 has enough delta-v to be ejected well out into the solar system." Wernher replied with a smile, a somewhat unsettling smile at that. "And what happened to Hawks 1 and 2? Or 3-1?"

"We vill never speak of those, ok? This one is fine."

"I certainly hope so. For Jenzer's sake."

The Hawk 3-2 was a strange beast, and by Wernher's own admission it was an old design. Not very sleek, and not something that looks like it would fly very well. Complicated, lots of moving parts, and vastly overpowered. And expensive. Basically: completely kerbal. None of that seemed to bother the chief designer, which disturbed Gene.

In truth the Hawk 3-2 was a holder-over from a much older universe. Something plucked from the dark, usually unreachable recesses of existence. Its previous passenger, Thomlock Kerman, had launched into a vertical ascent that was perfectly retrograde to Kerbin's orbit. That lowered his orbit down well below that of Eve, which didn't even exist at the time. And when Eve finally popped into reality, it caught Thomlock and the Hawk 3-2 and expelled them from known space.

Yet that was a different universe. Today the Hawk 3-2 would lift Jenzer Kerman into low-Kerbin orbit where he would perform various tasks on EVA. And, as promised by Wernher, the launch went perfectly.

As did the mission. With the benefit of being libbed into orbit, Jenzer was able to make EVA observations of every equatorial biome on Kerbin. Unfortunately this seemed to return very little in terms of science, but that didn't matter much to Jenzer. He was just happy to be aboard. And he certainly wouldn't fall off of the capsule with the excessive number of ladders!

Nearly a day later and it was light again at KSC. Time for the Hawk 3-2 to return home. A short burn for reentry and the little capsule was propelled back into the atmosphere.

Jenzer was all smiles when the recovery team reached him, just a few kilometers west of KSC. Another happy customer.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Crew[/td]

[td]Duration[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Hawk 3-2[/td][td]Jenzer[/td][td]5h9m0s[/td][td]49.3[/td][td]31,659[/td][td]1,775[/td][td]69.2[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

The Founding of the First Kerbal Space Agency...

Year 1 day 416

... was completely without pomp or circumstance. A few members of the Senate arrived the day following Jenzer's mission to congratulate Chris and Gene and everyone else, then announced they were closing the DEMO program. If they wanted to continue to fly, they were welcome to form an agency of their own and fly, but they'd have to start paying for the privilege.

As it so happened there were already a number of contracts lined up and waiting.

---

The CCS Program

The Commercial Contract Service was to be the money making arm of the First Kerbal Space Agency. Funds raised by completing CCSs would go towards science and exploration missions, and maybe one day be used to complete contracts such as the Explore Ike one. A number of different organizations had expressed a need for placing platforms into orbit, most of which had fairly generic requirements. A simple and equally generic satellite was developed to complete these contracts: The Commercial Contract Satellite.

CCS-01 through CCS-15 Launches

Year 2 days 131-206, Cape Kerbal

First Kerbal Space Agency

Lofted by a Kestrel-Songbird booster, the CCS was an inexpensive solution to the contract satellite problem. All told, the base package cost around $16,700. The fairings used for the basic CCS package were sourced from Zero-Point Fairings. For the most part these worked as expected, though an occasional delayed deployment would result in the spacecraft pitching or yawing in an undesired manner.

All told there were 17 CCS launches to complete 16 CCS contracts. Thanks to the timing of the launch windows, CCS-02 was first to launch, becoming Staedler-A and completing the first CCS contract. Following that was an attempt to launch CCS-01 for Periapsis. This flight was launched due-South, but progressed along a less than desirable trajectory and broke up unceremoniously over the ocean.

Following the failure of the CCS-01 was the successful launch of the CCS-03 for Reaction Systems 11 days later. This became the first satellite to orbit the Mün and was designated as ReactionSys-A.

A second attempt was made at the Periapsis contract on day 137, which successfully became the Periapsis-B. Some of the contracts specified custom equipment, such as the CCS-04 and the CCS-15 with their Goo canisters, or the CCS-09 and CCS-14 which required Materials Study bays. These were all well within the capabilities and mass requirements of the launch systems.

And there were a few launches contracted into orbits around other bodies. The previously mentioned CCS-03 was the first to the Mün, followed by CCS-11 for VacCo. Minmus also received some attention in the form of CCS-09 for Probodobodyne, CCS-13 for Sean's Cannery (which has spawned countless conspiracy theories about the true origins of Sean's Mint Ice Cream), and the CCS-14 for Rokea.

On top of the specific orbits required by their new owners, the CCS satellites were often able to complete new science contracts. (Most of the later satellites included a complimentary thermometer.) And then there was the occasional satellite that was ejected into solar orbit by a close encounter with the Mün. We'll get to those later....

The money raised by the CCS program allowed for upgrading Kerbal Space Center to support larger missions and more in-depth research. It also proved that a space program could be financed simply by completing the offered satellite contracts. Time to get back to the science and exploration parts of the KSA.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Client[/td]

[td]Date[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-02 [/td][td]Steadler[/td][td]Y2d115[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]148,586[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-01 [/td][td]Periapsis[/td][td]Y2d120[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]18,000[/td][td]0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-03 [/td][td]Reaction Sys[/td][td]Y2d131[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]175,875[/td][td]70.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-01a[/td][td]Periapsis[/td][td]Y2d137[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]90,000[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-04 [/td][td]Ionic[/td][td]Y2d139[/td][td]16.3[/td][td]18,225[/td][td]155,926[/td][td]28.5[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-05 [/td][td]Rockomax[/td][td]Y2d143[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]206,989[/td][td]24.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-06 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d150[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]311,989[/td][td]22.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-07 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d151[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]320,387[/td][td]27.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-08 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d158[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]120,510[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-09 [/td][td]Probodobodyne[/td][td]Y2d159[/td][td]16.2[/td][td]18,405[/td][td]307,406[/td][td]174.5[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-10 [/td][td]VacCo[/td][td]Y2d168[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]117,033[/td][td]12.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-11 [/td][td]VacCo[/td][td]Y2d170[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]16,625[/td][td]278,938[/td][td]103.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-12 [/td][td]Reaction Sys[/td][td]Y2d180[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]17,525[/td][td]176,963[/td][td]19.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-13 [/td][td]Sean's Cannery[/td][td]Y2d184[/td][td]16.0[/td][td]17,525[/td][td]145,114[/td][td]62.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-14 [/td][td]Rokea[/td][td]Y2d192[/td][td]16.2[/td][td]17,505[/td][td]455,650[/td][td]191.0[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-15 [/td][td]Periapsis[/td][td]Y2d206[/td][td]16.3[/td][td]18,225[/td][td]113,400[/td][td]26.0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

ION Test Article 1 (ITA-1) Launch

Year 2 day 204 - Cape Kerbal

Kerbal Space Agency

The Ion Test Article was an exception to the CCS Rule. The Ionic Symphonic Protonic Electronic Corporonic wanted to test their new "Dawn" ION drive, and offered a contract to the KSA to test it in orbit. Never ones to pass up an opportunity, Gene and Wernher decided to build a fully-working Jool-capable science probe and launch it to complete the contract. If the test succeeded, great. If not, then it was a small loss. The ITA-1 was launched atop the venerable Kestrel-Songbird, which handily placed the satellite into a parking orbit around Kerbin. It would remain there until the Jool transfer window opened a few days later. it waited until then to complete the test burn of its ION propulsion system.

The initial trajectory for Jool was less than efficient, but since the capture ∆v required from the probe was zero, I could afford to be as inefficient as I liked. Zero ∆v for capture? Yes. And not using the more popular aerocapture, but instead exploiting the gravity of Jool's moons. The initial capture plan was to use Laythe, as shown below. As that's several years away we'll get back to it later in this update.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]ITA-1[/td][td]15.0[/td][td]24,599[/td][td]308,427[/td][td]140.0[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

CCS-16 Jeb-A Launch

Year 2 day 208 - Cape Kerbal

Kerbal Space Agency

Around the time the CCS-11 launched it became obvious to Jebediah and the corps of astronauts that crewed spaceflight was being eschewed in favor of lucrative launch contracts. So Jeb decided to take action, and stormed into Gene's office one morning.

"Look, we're doing these contracts so kerbals can go to space, right? And yet all I see are more and more funds spent on commercial launches. What's a guy got to do to fly around here? Put a contract out on himself?"

Gene was used to these interruptions by now, and didn't even look up from his newspaper. "It'd help."

"Ok, so I want to launch a satellite."

"Good! We have a few models to choose from, all of them excellent options for Kerbin-system orbits. Mortimer has the details."

"Not so fast. I've already got a design. Here"

Gene traded his newspaper for the sheet Jeb handed him.

"There's a capsule on this rocket."

"Yeah. That's for me." he pointed at the top of the blueprint. "See."

Gene slid the blueprint across his desk and went back to his newspaper. "We weren't looking to conduct any more crewed launches until the upgrades to KSC are complete."

"And when will that be?" No response. "We both know I can pay enough to make it worth your while. Do this one launch and there'll be more to follow."

"Ok, fine. Talk to Wernher and Mortimer, and come up with a better excuse. Some technical reason why you need to be there to deploy the satellite. Ok? Just no more screw ups, and no more unauthorized side-trips. Got it?"

A few days later and Jeb was ready to go. As it turned out he had already built and assembled the smaller part of the craft in his spare time in the bed of the Mother of Necessity, and all he needed were the two booster stages. Nobody asked where he got the parts; most were pretty sure they didn't want to know.

Jeb's Flight, as the CCS-16 was more colloquially known, was launched using an upgrade version of Wernher's "Hawk" booster from the Hawk 3-2 mission. (Which makes it the oldest piece of reused tech in my KSP play-throughs.) Atop that was a much simpler second stage, just enough for the craft to reach Low-Kerbin orbit.

From there the third stage was used to inject the payload, Jeb and his satellite, into an orbit that would intersect with Jeb's desired orbit. Mostly. Jeb took the opportunity to go for a spacewalk. A very long spacewalk. Far above Kerbin. Far above the Mün. Well out into the dark where the stars shone bright. Big as the night even.

He turned off his radio and drifted into a euphoria never before known to Kerbalkind.

It was around this time the Flight Dynamics Officer realized exactly what Jeb had in mind. He probably should have noticed early, given that Jeb's planned orbit very obviously intersected with that of the Mün, but it hadn't yet occurred to him that the Mün would also be in just the right part of its orbit. He motioned Gene over to his terminal.

"Twice?"

"Yes. Once on the ascent, where I think Jeb intends to use the gravity of the Mün to complete the plane-change maneuver for the satellite." The clearly frazzled FDO handed Gene some roughly scribbled notes, few of which were legible. The periapsis for the Mün was, though.

"That's not very close. What about the second time?"

"Well," the FDO snatched the notes back and shuffled through a few pages. "Here's the thing. The entire craft, prior to satellite deployment, has enough ∆v to make it back to Kerbin. Once the craft is split in two however, the capsule won't have enough to return home. Unless..."

"Unless he uses the Mün to drop his orbit."

"Correct. The capsule has just enough propellent to shift his orbit again after deployment into one that intersects the Mün. And perhaps a bit left over for targeting a landing. Also, there's a chance the probe of his...."

Gene turned to his right. "CAPCOM?"

"Still silent, Flight."

Gene growled and marched back to his console. He thought to look through his stack of manuals for one labeled "In Event Astronaut Absconds With Spacecraft" but realized there probably wasn't one. Yet.

Jeb coasted past the Mün at high altitude, barely noticing the slight tug it gave him and his ship. Once that was one he made his way back into the tiny capsule, jettisoned the payload fairings, and then split the ship into three parts. He got out to inspect the satellite, pressing the large "On" button he had installed on the satellite at the last minute. "Some technical reason why you need to be there" he muttered under his breath and laughed.

Jeb climbed back into the capsule and set up his return burn on the computer. He considered turning the radio back on, but by this point, nearly four days later, figured that would cause more of a headache that he wanted to handle right now. Besides, he was about the become the first kerbal to ever see the far side of the Mün! (Again.)

Five hours later and his capsule was coming in for a landing just off the coast of KSC. He had overshot his target, wanting to land at the facility, but ran out of fuel at just the wrong time. No worries, though, as he would be close enough to swim back to shore should the recovery teams not be expecting him.

The recovery teams. "Yeah," Jeb thought, "I probably should have radioed ahead." Sigsey would probably be out looking for him in the Mother of Necessity, no doubt with that obnoxious kid pilot they'd been working with. A year ago? Had it really already been a year? Time seemed to be flying past at an accelerated rate now that DEMO had come to an end. Jeb waited until the worst of the reentry flames had subsided before he popped the chutes. The sooner they opened the closer he'd be to shore.

And then he turned his radio back on.

[table=class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Mission[/td]

[td]Crew[/td]

[td]Mass[/td]

[td]Expense[/td]

[td]Income[/td]

[td]Science[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]CCS-16[/td][td]Jeb[/td][td]42.7[/td][td]29,908[/td][td]180,446[/td][td]233.2[/td][/tr]

[/table]

---

Gene's Office

Year 2 day 215 - Cape Kerbal

Kerbal Space Agency

"You're done." Gene wasn't sitting, but was instead standing behind his desk with his arms crossed. "After this little stunt, after dragging us along on your game, keeping us in the dark as you flew past the Mün, not once, but twice? You're done." his voice was calm yet stern, almost as though he had practiced the speech. Jeb smiled.

"C'mon, Gene. We both know this was good for publicity."

"Good for publicity? You've got a rap sheet a mile long. Everything you've done since joining the program has been mixed with insubordination and a complete disdain for the safety of everyone else involved. The only 'publicity' you bring is that of an astronaut who thinks he's bigger than the rest of the program. You're not. I want you gone by the end of the day."

Jeb huffed. "Fine. But don't think you've seen the last of me." He jumped up, marched out of Gene's office, and disappeared down the hall. And just like that, Jebediah Kerman was gone.

Gene really hadn't expected it to be that easy. He turned to stare out of his office window at the endless sky. It was quiet for once, with nothing being tested and nothing being launched. He could hear birds chirping. He watched crews across the lawn hard at work on the new Astronaut complex, larger, nicer, and with more bunks for more crews. He scratched at the back of his head, wondering if he had really made the right decision, and almost jumped when someone knocked softly on his door.

"Gene?" Chris Kerman, head of the Agency. Gene turned and waved him in. "So, it's done." He nodded. "Harsh, but it had to be. Jebediah Kerman is a relic of the past. Something we need to move beyond. Anyway, that's not why I'm here. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Chris walked back into the hallway, motioned, and came back in followed by a strangely familiar kerbal.

"Gene, this is Carl Kerman. He's to be your new chief of telemetry, and also knows a thing or two about radio astronomy. Maybe physics, too."

Carl sheepishly raised his hand to wave at Gene, who couldn't shake the strange feeling. "Hello."

"Have we met?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no. Perhaps in a previous life?" He chuckled.

"Gene, Carl here is a fresh graduate from one of those schools a bit up the river from yours. You might say we plucked him right out of your back yard." Chris grinned. "Now, I want you two to get to know each other, become like one mind. Ok?" He turned to leave, motioning Carl to sit, but stopped at the door.

"Oh, one last thing. That Duna mission? With the lander for Ike? That's off the table."

"What? Why?"

"Senate's orders. They didn't offer any more details, just said if it's an issue to take it up with the Senator. Ok?"

A loud noise outside caught Gene's attention and Chris was gone when he glanced back. He made his way to a small cabinet on the wall where he kept the good drinks, offered a glass to Carl, and watched as the "Mother of Necessity" rolled loudly away from the hanger and off into history. A new age had arrived at the Cape.

---

Planetary Pinball

Confusingly, many of these launch contracts place satellites into orbits that intersect with that of the Mün, and a few have the periapsis of the orbit just barely skimming the atmosphere of Kerbin. Errors from timewarp and just common interactions with the orbiting bodies meant more than a few of the CCS satellites were eventually "cast out" beyond the orbit of Kerbin.

The first to be ejected was the first to launch - CCS-02 - which, following a chance encounter with the Mün, found itself on an orbit that intersected that of Eve. A small course correction set up the intercept, and CCS-02 became the first craft to enter Eve's sphere of influence. A quick aerobraking pass left the CCS-02 in a highly eccentric orbit around the big purple mistress, In something a bit over a 10 day orbit.

Next up was the CCS-15 with its Goo experiments. It was lost due to an unobserved impact with the Mün. After that the little CCS probes declared some sort of mass exodus of the Kerbin system and set out into the void. I don't recall the exact order of events, so I'll run through the list in order of launch.

The CCS-06 joined the CCS-02 around Eve a half year later. Following the usual aerocapture and orbital adjustment, it was moved out to Gilly and became the first object to orbit that tiny moon.

CCS-08 was ejected into interplanetary space where it remains today, as it lacks the fuel required to reach any meaningful orbits.

Finally, Jeb's CCS-16 probe encountered the Mün and was ejected into a higher orbit that nearly intersected Duna. It was a possibility the FDO had considered when the mission was in progress, but he could never manage to get the message across to Gene and the others. The little probe, being operated by Jeb at whatever remote base he had set up for himself, made the course corrections required to be captured in Duna orbit. Some further tweaks set up a partial gravity capture with Ike and the final aerocapture with Duna.

And then several münths it simply disappeared, believed to have been lost to either Ike or Duna. Yet no one could be quite certain....

---

Ion Test Article 1 Jool Arrival

Year 5 day [many] - Joolian System

Which leaves us with the ITA-01. It arrived in the Jool system several years after its launch and set about visiting the three important moons. Starting with Laythe. The vagaries of the KSP physics engine (or perhaps inaccuracies in the predictions of the kerbals at KSC) resulted in a slightly different approach to the system than originally intended. Laythe would still be used for the gravity capture, followed shortly by an encounter with Tylo that would seal the deal. That resulted in a second encounter with Laythe on the second orbit that would allow for further "Fun with Gravity."

All that was set up using less than 40m/s of sweet, sweet ∆v just after entering the Joolian system. The first flyby of Laythe provided a decent view of the smaller of the two ever-present storms. That was followed shortly after by a fly-by of the not-so-stormy Tylo.

The extreme Joolian apoapsis also included a not-very-close flyby of Pol. The ITA never entered the small speck's SOI, but got close enough for a photograph. Can you see it? It's the small 14-pixel-wide speck on the lower left. I think.

The second encounter with Laythe (not shown) allowed the ITA-1 to lower its periapsis down far enough that it could collect "Near Jool" science, which was nice. It was also close enough for a small bit o the green to reflect off the probe, thanks to the Planet Shine mod.

Now it was decision time. No matter what, a burn would be needed to pull the probe up from its eventual fatal dance with Laythe. The ITA-1 had more than enough oomph to reach every moon in the system, but I wanted to see if I could set up an encounter with Tylo using the absolute minimum amount of Xenon expended. So I set up a third encounter with Laythe and a second with Tylo to pull the orbit up to that of Vall. The third encounter with Laythe gives us a nice view of the other superstorm that's raging on the small watery moon. The second encounter with Tylo gives us a nice view of some more craters, none of them with mysterious glowing white spots.

So that leaves Vall and the final disposition of the ITA-1. (Nobody cares about Bop.) After some review, I decided to use Vall to boost the ITA's final orbit up high enough that it could circularize into a roughly 1-Kerbin-Year orbit around Jool. I had also considered using Vall+Tylo to eject the ITA-1 back into the lower solar system, perhaps even returning to Kerbin, but decided against it.

Vall is an interesting little world, with a nice, believable color scheme and some interesting looking terrain. Even from orbit Vall makes for an intriguing target, and one I will very likely return to in the near future. Just not today. No, today all I need form Vall is a boost into high-Joolian orbit so I can bring this episode of "Fun with Gravity" to a close. Vall happily obliged.

With that, and a short burn of its Ion drive at apoapsis, the journey of the little ITA-1 was complete.

---

Kraken's Harvest Duna Approach

Year 78 day 421

"That probe of mine wasn't the only mission we sent to Duna, but boy did I ever get in trouble over it. After the First KSA was dissolved it was a good long while before another came along that could reach Duna. A probe here, a mapsat there. One year there was a flood of ships, both from the KSA and the CCHR."

Jeb took another sip of whatever he was drinking and leaned forward in his chair. By now half the crew of the Harvest had gathered to listen as Jeb, Bill and even Bob wove their yarn about the old days. "Funny thing is, none of them ever reported back. Just as soon as they'd enter orbit..." A loud alarm interrupted Jeb mid-sentence. The glance he gave Meldo sent the young kerbal scurrying off to the nearest terminal. "... They'd disappear."

Meldo clacked at the keyboard then sighed visibly when the message appeared. "Story time's over folks. Duna is right ahead. Time to prep for the capture burn."

"About time" Bob interjected. "I was starting to wonder if we'd ever get Jeb to shut up."

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Yukon0009]

Yay update!

[Railgunner2160]

Great update, now we can finally learn what conspiracy is plaguing your space agencies!!!!

[Cydonian Monk]

Now we can finally learn what conspiracy is plaguing your space agencies!!!!

The conspiracy of the clock! It robs us of our free time and reminds us the end is coming!

[Cydonian Monk]

Anny Kerman

Present Day

Anny awoke in a familiar room, his legs sore and the back of his head aching. He jumped out of bed and groaned and scratched at the back of his skull. Was this his room from the Academy? Looked like it. No no, this must be a dream. He'd graduated more than a decade ago. He blinked around at the dim light then remembered. "Lights Up." The room brightened immediately. Way too fast for the dorms in the Academy - those always took several seconds to process voice commands.

"Yep, definitely a dream."

He made his way to the dresser across from his bed where a set of clothes were laid out, rags far too ordinary for The Anny Kerman. He put on the trousers and tossed the rest over his shoulder to land near the bed. Fishing around through the drawers he found one of his old brightly-colored linen shirts and a pair of sandals. Just what he was looking for.

A few minutes later Anny Kerman, Pilot Extraordinaire, walked out of his dorm room and into what should have been the busiest lounge in the Academy. Instead he found a nearly empty room. Three other doors and a kerbal sitting behind a simple desk. He smiled and started walking towards him.

"Dreams are weird things, aren't they pal?" He wondered if this was one of those dreams where he could fly. Or would this be the one with the creepy bright lights in the sky? No, no, this was probably something boring that he'd vaguely forget come morning.

The other kerbal was busy tapping away at some fancy keyboard gizmo and greeted him without looking up. "They are indeed. Though from what I understand your dreams must be especially, ahem, strange. Please, have a..." he looked up at Anny and cringed. "... seat. We set out clothing specifically chosen to match the needs of your day."

Anny tugged at his shirt. "This is comfortable, unlike that horse blanket back in my room."

"How do you know? You never tried it on."

"Didn't need to. Those space digs are all the same." He looked around the empty room, taking the time to glance up at the skylights. It looked to be daytime. He turned back to his host and grinned. "So, Mr. Sandman, what dream have you brought me this time?"

"This is no dream, I can assure you of that." Sure it wasn't. Just like that time Anny hadn't landed on the Sun. The other kerbal grinned dryly and looked at Anny in such a way that Anny almost felt he was reading his mind. "Tell me, Anny Kerman, what do you know of the artifact we recovered from the Mün?"

---

Ad Lunam - Duna

---

Thabit 4 Duna Capture

Year 78 day 366

Rebel "18th" Kerbal Space Agency

The first out of the gate was, in this case, also the first to arrive. Thabit 4, the mapping and science satellite was sent to Duna well ahead of the other two ships. The intent was for it to begin mapping the surface and relaying information back to the Kraken's Harvest so they could narrow down the list of initial landing sites.

I didn't bother trying to use Ike to shave a few m/s off of Thabit 4's velocity as it was bound for a polar orbit. And Ike was in the wrong place anyway. When the capture burn was complete, the little probe was sitting comfortably in a 1,000km by 100km orbit at roughly 88° inclination. Survey work began at once.

---

Osprey Duna Capture

Year 78 day 421

19th Kerbal Space Agency

Next up was the Osprey mission: Dudry, Herhat, Enlan, Jack and Donnie. These five brave kerbals had continued on to Duna, despite losing contact with Cape Kerbal (and seemingly everything else in the Universe). They had considered the abort options, but ultimately voted to press on. Herhat's campaign of "Hey! We're going to Duna dudes! Kerbin can wait!" was all the convincing the other four needed. And besides, had they opted to abort they would have been forced to abandon the lab and all the attached station components - none of them cheap. They had put considerable effort into preparing this mission and along the way had lost their shuttle, Wanderer. They really couldn't afford to lose this mission hardware as well.

Dudry set about preparing the ship and its kit for the most dangerous part of their trip - the Duna aerocapture.

Too low and they'd be landing a bit earlier than desired. Too high and they'd be forced to use the engines to finish, possibly leaving them without enough fuel to return home. There was also a chance they might smack into the side of one of Duna's large mountains. Fun. The pass was set for just above 15km.

Even at 15km the air was too thin to seal the deal, and Dudry was forced to make a short burn, bringing their apoapsis down inside of Ike's orbit. This was followed by a later burn to pull their periapsis up to the desired 150km, and the final burn at periapsis to circularize.

Next order of business for the Osprey crew was setting up the science station. This was one of the simpler stations - all they needed to do was move the solar arrays into position and then redock the lander and the Osprey. Dudry was about to take over control of the construction bot when he remembered that he was no longer a pilot.

"Herhat? Why don't I let you do this."

"What's this now? Our fearless leader afraid of a little thing like union regulations?"

"Yeah, something like that."

So Herhat slipped into the pilot's seat and backed the little bot out of the crevice where it had been stowed for the trip out to Duna.

"Y'know, the little prick might just be a bit hot. What with sitting 'round all that radiation on our backsides."

Dudry clapped Herhat on the shoulder and made his way for the hatch to the lab. "We'll be fine. That bot'll only be out and about for however long it takes to us to install the solar panels."

"Well, I guess it's like Anny says. You ing-gah-neers know best. I should know. Used to be one."

Herhet aligned the bot with the end of one of the solar arrays and nudged over to connect up. Inside he was scared and nervous - if he accidentally punched a hole in the side of the ship all the way out here at Duna there was a good chance their bodies would never be found. On the outside though he was clam, cool, and collected. Or so he hoped.

He pulled the first array free and spun it around, pulling far enough back that he couldn't possibly scrape the other end of the array along the paper-thin walls of the Osprey. A quick jet forward and the first array was installed. Herhat flipped the switch to extend the panels. The power gauge spiked up at once.

"Good news boys. We've got sails!"

A few minutes later and the other solar array was installed. Dudry was smiling as he floated back into the cabin.

"Osprey Station is open for business." He looked around and then tapped his radio. "Jack?"

"Sir?"

"Would you be so kind as to go unpack the lander and park it on the station's main docking port?"

"Gladly."

"Ok Herhat, once Jack has safely docked with the station you're free to move us over to the opposite docking port."

"You got it chief."

The lander had been stowed at the far end of the Osprey stack, and had made most of the trip without any appreciable atmosphere inside the cabin. Jack had to keep his suit and helmet on as he brought the lander's systems online and pressurized the cabin. That was no reason to wait though, so he proceeded to undock, back away, and reorient himself to his chosen port.

Once Jack docked back up, Herhat took the opportunity to stick the construction bot to the back of the lander. Whoever was chosen to land on Duna would then discard it during reentry. Afterwards he moved the Osprey out and rotated it to face its home for the next couple years. A quick burst from the RCS and they drifted forward and docked up.

Now it's time to find a place to land.

---

Kraken's Harvest Duna Capture

Year 79 day 14

International Kerbal Explorers Society

Several days later and it was the Kraken's Harvest's turn to get caught by the webs of Duna. Aboard the Harvest were Meldo, Milzer, Derbald, Gilvin, Gusbrett, Podner, Mitwig, Billy-Bobford, Gersted, Sigcas, Mac, Deruki, Lorim, Newwin, Dercal, Danlong, Melden, and none other than Bill, Bob, and Jebediah Kerman. Twenty kerbals representing five different organizations: The 18th Kerbal Space Agency, The Independent Southern Coalition, The Space Operations Consortium of the Highlands, The Forgotten Islands, and last but not least Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Inc, LTD, GmbH, etc. Collectively known as the International Kerbal Explorers Society.

Along with the Kraken's Harvest was the Diophantus Laboratory and three Duster landers, all docked ahead of the main bulk of the spaceship. And there the mission package would remain until they had completed their capture at Duna.

They had already performed a few alignment burns to bring their periapsis down within Duna's atmosphere, planning for an aerobraking pass just above 15 kilometers. I hadn't originally designed the Harvest with the intent to perform aerobraking, so I wasn't sure how badly the cheat-y "we're wings" Mk2 fuselage cabins would behave on the pass. So I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. The kerbals on the other hand seemed to be blissfully unaware that they might violently flip end over end and smash into one of Duna's many deserts. Even then it was a known fact the aerobraking pass would be insufficient for Duna capture.

An artifact of launching and building the Harvest from Lake Fortunate was its 15º entry orbit at Duna - one I intended to retain. Being in a non-equatorial orbit would allow the landers a greater selection from the list of landing sites. This extra 20º inclination at Kerbin is also what contributed to the longer travel time to the mighty orange planet, but it would save lander fuel in the long run.

With the worst of the atmosphere behind them, Meldo set up the initial capture burn. The plan was to keep the Osprey and its crew as far away from the Kraken's Harvest as possible - best accomplished by being on the far side of the planet in an identical orbit. They had plenty of time to observe the objects in orbit while on approach, and so timed the two legs of the capture burn accordingly.

With the capture complete, it was time to start unpacking the landers. The three Dusters had been shipped still in their tied-down state in front of the laboratory and needed to be moved to the area aft of the habitat ring for easier access. Jeb, tired of being cooped up inside for more than a year, offered to take the first of these moves.

Jebediah Kerman, robbed of the title of "First EVA" so many decades ago, was also not the first kerbal to EVA in the Duna system. That title belonged to Jack Kerman of the 19th KSA. Jeb didn't seem to mind. He was more interested in keeping an eye on Duna than any record books. The orange inspired in him a euphoria he had not known for many years.

(1600x1000)

He spent so much time on EVA that the Harvest completed a quarter of an orbit and moved into the night. So all the "unpacking" was seen only in the warmth of the ship's flood lights.

With the first lander moved, Meldo ventured out to take the second. Later Gersted would complete the third and final Duster relocation, both EVAs and moves taking place in the shadow of Duna. It wouldn't be KSP if it wasn't happening at night.

The Kraken's Harvest passed back into the sunlight just as Gersted returned to the Hab Ring. Now it was time to prepare for the Duster landings.

---

First Duna Duster Landing

Year 79 day 16

International Kerbal Explorers Society

The Thabit 4 provided a tremendous advantage to the "Rebels" in its ability to be on-station many days in advance. The maps and survey data helped the crew narrow down the options for landing sites. So, while the 19th KSAers were still poring over pictures, the crew of the Kraken's Harvest already had several candidates ready for landing.

The first landing site selected was in the lowlands roughly 15º south of the Dunan Equator. It was selected for having many flat areas of terrain and because it just so happened to be at the bottom of the Harvest's orbit when I undocked the first Duster. I oft subscribe to the "that a way" method of choosing a course, this landing not excluded.

Milzer and Meldo were selected by the crew to be the first to land on Duna. Given the energy and effort they had put into making this trip a reality there was never a chance anyone else would have been selected anyway. Even Jeb voted for M&M. (Bill and Bob voted only "Not Us.")

So a scant 2 days after their arrival, Milzer and Meldo pushed away from the Harvest in their simple little lander and set up their descent burns. Meldo in the lander can's "pilot seat" with Milzer overhead in the ride-along capsule.

"How is it I'm the director of FLIGHT operations, and yet I'm not even allowed to fly?"

"Why is the water commission in charge of the railroads? And why is the railroad commission in charge of oil and gas? Milzer, some thing we're just not meant to ever understand."

"Such as why we chose a pilot to be Chief of R&D?"

"Yeah. That too."

The Duster rattled slightly as the non-existent Dunan air bit into it. The Dusters had been outfitted with wings to provide limited control during ascent, but in practice they did nothing while landing. If anything they made the craft want to spin around and fall like a dart.

"Say, M? Shouldn't we have popped the chutes by now?"

"Nah, I designed this thing to land even without chutes. Remember?"

"But if we run out of fuel out here in the orange..."

"Relax M, I've got this. If not, then I'll get out and push."

The exhaust plume is something I'd forgotten about from my last landing on Duna (well over a year ago now). It was sort of a pleasant reminder that, yes, Duna does in fact have an atmosphere. It showed up somewhere around the same time the engine burn became audible. Its dull roar growing to a crackle and then rumble. The orange glow of the planet below made it difficult to determine exactly where the ground was. Chutes really would have helped here. The landing light was the only indication the Duster was close to touchdown.

Meldo was sweet on the engine though, and brought the Duster down ever so gently. The orange powder of the surface kicked up and stuck to the underside of the craft. And where it didn't stick the intense glow of the planet made it look like it had anyway.

"Y'know, this is just one big empty orange ball."

Milzer started clicking away on the buttons on his science console, running the various experiments that were attached to the outside of the Duster. "Lowlands. I thought we were landing in the Midlands."

"Nope. The impact biome readout from Engineer plainly said 'Lowlands' the whole way down."

"The map from the Thabit disagrees though. It almost looks like the highlands are only a few meters away, too. All of these experiments are reading as Lowlands."

"Whatever M. You just keep exposing your science bits to the orange. I'm going out for a walk."

Meldo threw open his hatch and moved delicately out onto the ladder. This was the first time they'd been in real gravity for more than a year and he wasn't too sure how his muscles would react. He paused halfway down the ladder to take a closer look at the etching the kicked-up dust had given the underside of Duster. It had nothing at all to do with him being out of breath from eating too many bowls of Krunchy Bits cereal and spending entirely too little time on the exercise bike during the transit. Nope. Not at all.

He backed away from the ladder and floated the rest of the way down, pirouetting around as he fell. Meldo's landing kicked up another bright orange cloud of dust, which he brushed from the arms of his suit as he started into a pre-prepared speech.

"That's one short fall for a kerbal, one..."

"Hey! Take a soil sample while you're out there!"

"Would you shut up in there! I'm making history here!"

Moments later and Milzer's hatch swung open. He opted to climb _upwards_ instead of downwards, and spent several minutes taking in the view. Little did Milzer know that his undocumented 'Standup EVA' would later become the crux of a major conspiracy theory. Had he known at the moment he probably wouldn't have even cared. All he could think of was the view. "Wow."

"It sure is orange."

"Yeah." Milzer started working his way down the ladder, eager to take some samples so he could mix them with his suit's water supply. "Do you think its some sort of sports drink? Maybe Kang or powdered KerbalAide?"

"Don't be silly, M. It's obviously dehydrated Orange Soda."

"Say, you got the flag?"

"We both have flags."

"I know that. I mean do you have _THE_ flag. Or do I have _THE_ flag."

"Guess I'll take it. Would anyone remember which of us planted it anyway?"

"Will we?"

"Probably not. They'll just remember the picture of us standing next to it looking super cool."

---

Second Duna Duster Landing

Year 79 day 16

International Kerbal Explorers Society

The second landing was targeting the Highlands on the opposite side of the planet from the first. Which meant it was to be a nighttime landing, the first I've ever attempted on any planet or moon except Kerbin at any time in Kerbal Space Program. At least that I can remember. Along for this trip were two of the international crew memberss: Dercal Kerman of the Independent Southern Coalition as Pilot and Danlong Kerman of the Highlands as Scientist.

Dercal backed the Duster carefully away from the Harvest, allowing the two craft to drift some distance apart before he set up for the descent burn.

It's my understanding the light blue area on the Biome map is supposed to be "Highlands." It's surrounded by the green bits that are connected to the dark blue bits, and the dark blue bits were very apparently "Lowlands" for the first crew. Right? Well, the second lander crew would find differently, and apparently the "Highlands" are actually the "Midlands" which are surrounded by the "Highlands" which then touch on the Sea of Confusion and the Mists of Insanity.

Unlike M&M, D&D opted to use the parachutes for their landing. Mostly because it was pitch black outside and they had no good feeling for exactly what type of terrain they were landing in, but also to conserve fuel. M&M may have been quiet about it, but they were left with considerably less than half their fuel reserves after landing, which is cutting it a bit tight.

Dercal was still forced to land "on the flame" as the Orange Planet's air is still a bit on the absent side. They settled down nice and soft and at only a slight incline.

It wasn't long before Danlong was cursing at the science instruments in his strange Highlands tongue. He eventually filled Dercal in on the situation: Despite having clearly landed in the Highlands the science instruments were all incorrectly reporting as being in the Midlands, which made it difficult for him to properly record the results.

"Look out the side. All Highlands. Yes?"

Dercal peered into the inky black night beyond his glass. "Looks like a whole lotta nothing to me."

"Grr." More strange words Dercal didn't know.

They both opted to sleep for a few hours instead of wandering about in the deserts of Duna at night. Dercal took the pilot's option at sunrise and went for the first EVA. He spent half a lifetime hanging from the side of the ladder, watching the Duster's shadow shorten from several kilometers long to just a short hop. There was absolutely nothing out there beyond the darkness - just dust and rocks.

Danlong followed him down a short while later and both of them planted their respective flags in the soil of Duna. The Green Cross of the Independent Southern Coalition and the somewhat new flag of the Space Operations Consortium of the Highlands, obvious derivative of the old CCHR vexillum.

Afterwards they spent the rest of the day collecting rock samples and EVA reports from their area of the "Highlands" that were actually "Midlands". Despite wandering around on the hilltops, Danlong was completely unable to locate any actual "Highland" biomes. That would no doubt be a disappointment for the kerbals back home, possibly seen as a mission failure.

Not that either Dercal or Danlong cared at that moment.

---

Duna Duster Recovery

Year 79 day 19

International Kerbal Explorers Society

Both crews were allowed to spend several Kerbin days on the surface so they could each experience a full Duna day. Duna has a roughly 18 hour day, three times longer than the usual ones on Kerbin, which can be both disorienting and psychosis inducing to the poor ground controllers back on Kerbin who have to adjust to it. Our 4 crews seem to have been unaffected thankfully. (Though I still my have doubts as to the sanity of their ground crew.)

First to land were the first to launch, and M&M were more than ready to get off the giant orange dust ball. Meldo nudged the throttle up slowly so as not to blast their flag out of the loose Dunan sand. Somehow it worked.

He pitched the Duster over as soon as it made sense to do so and winced when he saw the ∆v numbers the Engineer console was spitting out. "Hey M. You know what I said about needing to get out and push?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Really. Maybe we should've used the parachutes. I'm going to only bring us up to 50km at first, but I'm not sure we'll have enough to pull us up out of the atmosphere."

"M!"

"Look, what can I say? I swear these Dusters had more oomph when we launched! Something must've changed between now and then!"

"Ok. Just start burning the RCS. The more of that we dump the better off we'll be."

A few minutes later and they were nearly at their apoapsis. "Bingo RCS." Meldo turned the system off to save power. "Not that we had much to start with. Bingo fuel."

"Ok, so where are we?"

"55km by 40km, give or take. You following this Harvest?"

Derbald's voice came booming over the radio. "We are, but we're too far behind you to be able to swoop down and save the day. The numbers don't work on the far side of the planet for an at-speed rendezvous. Best we can do..." The radio cut out momentarily. "Best we can do is have Dercal launch early and shove you the rest of the way. Over."

"Great." Meldo started unstrapping from his seat. "Guess it's time to get out and push. Just like the old days."

---

Second Duna Duster Recovery

Year 79 day 19

International Kerbal Explorers Society

The GOAP maneuver, otherwise known as the "Get Out And Push" maneuver, was only enough to raise the periapsis of the first Duster above Duna's trace atmosphere. Which meant Plan-C was in effect: Dercal and Danlong would launch in the second Duster, rendezvous with M&M, transfer some mono-propellent (so the first Duster would be able to dock with the Kraken's Harvest on its own), and then push both of them back to the rendezvous with their mothership.

Naturally the launch was at night. Wouldn't be KSP without it.

A few hours later and the second Duster drifted by Meldo's window. Dercal's voice snapped loudly across the radio.

"Heard you two needed a lift. We've got some attractive towing rates if you're interested."

"Very funny Dercal."

"Maybe you should use the chutes next time. Or did you not read the operators manual after you wrote it?"

As planned, at least in the alternate plans, the second Duster docked up with the first, transferred half of its monoprop over, and then boosted both vessels up to an orbit that met up with the Harvest. A meeting that also happened to be at night. (When else?)

M&M moved in to dock first, just in case something else went wrong and they needed another rescue. Not so this time, and the docking went off without a hitch. Dercal and Danlong followed shortly thereafter. Each crew shuttled several canisters of surface samples and science data over to the Diophantus Laboratory, to be processed and compared at a later date by one of the scientists. (Likely Milzer.)

Another successful set of landings and recoveries.

---

Third Duna Duster Landing

Year 79 day 20

International Kerbal Explorers Society

Milzer and Meldo spent the better part of the debriefing explaining to Podner and Deruki why they should absolutely use the parachutes when conducting their landing. There wouldn't be a quick rescue for them if something went wrong, though both of the other two landers had been refueled and there would be at least one crew on standby. They were at too high of an orbit to drop down and safely grab another fuel-dry ship.

The two new soon-to-be-Dunans had already EVA'd over to their Duster when Milzer decided his exhaustion was too much.

"I'm going to bed."

"Don't want to watch the landing?"

"No, I'll just doze off if I stick around here. Wish those two luck for me."

And so he floated back to his cabin. Had the ship not been spun down he would've tried to take a shower, but such a feat was next to impossible in the microgravity. (And he had no desire to drown himself in the attempt either.) So he just changed out of his dusty orange jumpsuit and strapped himself into bed. (He wasn't sure if the orange on his suit was from Duna or if he'd started out in an orange suit that morning.)

The dream was terrible. As always. Something large and black was looming outside the ship, silent and deadly as the night. A giant tendril was wrapped around the hab ring and Milzer was scrambling for his helmet. It was just overhead in the emergency storage. He could hear the proximity alarm glaring loudly in his ears as he fumbled with the storage lock.

"Why won't this open!" He smashed his fist on it, sending himself flying across the room into the far wall. The alarm grew silent as the air vented from his cabin. And then he woke up.

Woke up to the sounds of the proximity alarm, louder in real life than in his dream. He was floating in the middle of the room, blood bubbling from a gash in his head. Had he forgotten to strap himself in? No. Maybe this was still a dream. He kicked off from a nearby object and made his way to the storage locker again, already hanging open. He grabbed the helmet and twisted it down over his head just as the ship's RCS system fired hard. The radio light blinked to life in the corner of his vision.

"Milzer reporting in. What's up?"

"Commander! Automated impact avoidance!" He barely recognized the rushed and panicked voice. Was that Gersted? "Ship's radar shows an object inbound, picked it up about 5 kilometers out. It's adapting to our maneuvers!" The radio went silent for a moment and then crackled back to life. "All hands brace for impact!"

Milzer pinched himself, feeling the pain at once. This was not a dream. He reached out to grab the rails beside his bed but they slipped slowly from his grasp. He tried to push off of the ceiling with his feet just as the cabin lurched violently forward. The last thing he saw were the rails he had been reaching for, rushing forward with violent intent.

The Kraken had come for its Harvest.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Railgunner2160]

ALERT! ALERT!!! The 1.0 cataclysm is approaching!!! 7 Days and counting!!!!!

(The Harvest was only the prologue I guess!!)

Edited April 21, 2015 by Railgunner2160

[Cydonian Monk]

ALERT! ALERT!!! The 1.0 cataclysm is approaching!!! 7 Days and counting!!!!!

(The Harvest was only the prologue I guess!!)

Brunch for the Kraken!

(Nah - the rest of this is far less destructive. That started as an accidental physics warp that NRE'd and phantom-forced the Kraken's Harvest apart... and grew to become a plot point.)

[Railgunner2160]

I was being a little roundabout in trying to alert you to the fact you might want to disable the auto updates or isolate this install, According to the video Squad released there is 6 days left before 1.0 comes out.

The patch is coming and it looks interesting!!!

[Cydonian Monk]

Thanks. I'm good there. While I own a copy of it on Steam (and have even played 35 hours or so!), I originally bought it through the KSP Store. All is well and backed up!

Very much looking forward to 1.0!

[Cydonian Monk]

Osprey Duna Landing

Year 79 day 20

19th Kerbal Space Agency

The day had finally arrived. The crew of the Osprey had spent the last several hours poring over the photos they'd taken and the maps they'd drawn since arriving at Duna, and now they had chosen a landing site. An interesting spot at the base of a large mountain, believed to be the lowest point on Duna. Also thought to be the likeliest place to find a viable atmosphere and liquid water. Dudry, Herhat and Donnie were eager to begin their trek.

Except there was one small problem.

"The hatch is stuck."

"Stuck?"

"Stuck. See." Dudry pointed at the control panel for the hatch linking the station to the Osprey Lander. "The safeties kick in every time I try to open it."

Enlan floated in and diagnosed the situation in a single glance. "Vacuum, boss. See the red stripe there? Something you ing-gah-neers outta notice, right?"

Dudry cursed under his breath and made his way aft. "Ok, fine. I'll suit up and go pressurize the lander. Thought Jack had done it already." Dudry had only been out of the airlock for a few seconds when the issue became obvious: They no longer had a lander.

---

Ad Lunam - Shadows of the Mind

---

Project ORTHO - Eagle-2 Launch

Year 77 day 320 - Cape Kerbal

"19th" Kerbal Space Agency

(Previously portion of mission report here.)

Barting's Mission

Barting Kerman awoke to the roar and rumble of a launch. He didn't know where or what, just that he was inside and it was dark. It was obviously a smaller capsule, very likely the Jebediah Kerman special of the week. A single light was glowing from a single switch in front of him. He flipped it and the cockpit sprang to life, dim lights casting him in an awkward glow.

A small booklet was dangling from the top of the capsule, bouncing in the excitement of the launch. He grabbed it, snapping it from the string that was holding it and started to read. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it or not, is to fly to Duna, confiscate the Osprey Lander, and use all means available to your person to prevent the crew of the Kraken's Harvest from landing on Ike. Use your imagination. We have unfinished business to attend to with some of your fellow guests, none of which are bound for Duna. You will find a supply of snacks and toothpicks in the compartment under your chair. Payment for services rendered will be made following successful completion of mission. This message will self destruct in microgravity."

Sure enough, once the rumbling stopped the booklet disintegrated into a fine dust, being promptly filtered out by the cabin's air filtration system.

The trip and burns were handled by the ship's computer, leaving Barting without even so much as a view of the universe outside. If not for the dim light in the capsule, he would have spent the entire trip in the dark. The first major burn was many, many münths after the launch, Year 78 day 150 to be exact.

All the waiting left Barting with time to think. Why was he here? Why was he doing these tasks for the faceless Council? Sure, they were obviously the ones in power, but why? Should he be worried? What would they do if he failed? Of all the tasks he had done for them this was easily the most dangerous and most questionable. Sabotage a camera? No problem. Chuck a nosy kerbal into the vacuum around the Mün? Accidents happen. Deorbit an unoccupied station? Who would miss it? But this? Many kerbals could die from this. Lots of them, and not just that meddling fool Shepgee.

Barting was conflicted and confused.

Shortly after the second jolt the fairings exploded out from the craft and Barting had his first glimpse of Duna. Bright, orange, Duna. It was a very pretty world, a serene place about to be marred by very un-kerbal-like violence.

He checked over the ship's systems and aligned his orbit as best he could with the Osprey. Most of the ship's primary fuel was expended in the injection burn for Duna. The two SRB packs were used to complete the capture and lower his orbit. All he had left to burn through was the RCS, and shortly that too sputtered and died.

"Ok Barting, fuel's dry. Guess we do the rest with jetpack, eh?" The easiest way to do this would be to align the ship in the direction he needed to face on EVA. He ran some quick numbers for how long of a jetpack burn it would take to finish matching orbits with the Osprey, waited until the node was near, then started out of the ship. He looked around the capsule one last time, grabbing an extra snack and another box of toothpicks before he made his way out into the void.

One orbit later and he arrived at his target. He made his way silently to the hatch of the lander, careful not to spray his jetpack at the station. No need to alert its occupants to his arrival. His suit's radio was off and he had approached the ship from out of the sun. All he could do was hope none of the five aboard decided to look out of a window just as he was floating by. And that none of them were waiting in the lander.

He checked the capsule's windows before he made his way inside, just to be sure. He was quiet and he was quick. As soon as the airlock opened he moved to close off the ship from the station, venting atmosphere as he worked. Undocking at full cabin pressure would set off alarms, but if he slowly bled the pressure down maybe they wouldn't notice. Hopeflly.

"Are you sure you want to do this, boss?" he asked himself. "No time like the present to stop, float yourself into the station and join your friends for dinner. Right?" He watched the sunset through the cabin windows, thinking of how distant he had grown from everyone. "No," he said resignedly, "a mission is a mission. Best not bite the hand that feeds ya." And as the Osprey drifted into the night of Duna its lander drifted away towards a grisly fate.

Once safely away Barting burned to increase his orbit. The Kraken's Harvest was exactly 180º out of phase of the Osprey at a 15° incline so he should be able to reach it in one orbit. Better to hit it while dropping down from a high orbit to increase the speed differential. "Use your imagination" the orders had said. Unfortunately Barting was sorely lacking in original thought.

The intercept would occur just as the two ships were emerging from the night. Less than ideal, with the lander approaching the station from opposite the sun, but nothing Barting could do about that. He locked in the heading, set up the burn, and then abandoned the lander to its fate. "One last chance" something whispered to him, but he primed his jetpack and backed away. He watched as his new weapon fired its engines and sped away, death itself looming down on the Kraken's Harvest.

The initial impact was bright, but not blindingly so. Barting watched as the lander clipped the habitat at well over 400m/s, sending ripples through the Harvest as it tore its way to the ship's drive. The entire bulk spun in the direction of the impact, pieces of superstructure tearing away and reaching out like broken bones that had punctured their flesh. One of the small landers was backing away from the burning wreckage, furiously ejecting mono-propellent, its damaged capsule dangling by a thread. A cloud formed as fuel and air leaked into the void, wisps of fire burning at its periphery.

And then the Harvest's drive section exploded.

The blinding flash opened Barting's eyes to the true extent of what he had done. As he drifted through the debris field his mood changed from joy to terror. These kerbals were once his friends. How could he have fallen so far? He panicked and started to hyperventilate. He needed a ship. Any ship. He could run. Hide. Somewhere. Anywhere. Anywhere that's not here.

And then it hit him.

"It" being a small chunk of debris. The impact sent him spinning, jets from his pack streaming out as he fought to stop the rotation. And in his panic, in this hyperventilated state, terror gripping his mind, shaking him to the core of his sanity, Barting Kerman blacked out.

---

Kraken's Harvest Debris Field

Year 79 day 20

International Kerbal Explorers Society

When Milzer came to, the world was spinning. He was in his room, which still had an atmosphere unlike in his dream. He considered removing his helmet then decided against it. No telling if there would be secondary explosions or if there was a leak of some toxic substance in the air. Best keep it on.

The noises emanating from the ship did not put his mind at ease. There was obviously a fire somewhere, and the walls of the ship creaked and groaned endlessly, sounding not unlike a breathing giant. He glanced out of the window and noted that the stars were spinning. Duna flashed past his view, quickly made invisible by the sun. And that's when he saw the endless field of brightly glistening shards.

The gash on his head was still throbbing, but appeared to have at lest stopped bleeding. Which was good, because he wasn't about to remove his helmet to bandage it. He pushed off the wall and floated through his door and into the crewspace beyond. The scene outside was one of pure chaos. Bunks and cabinets that had been sealed away were now blown wide open, contents spilled out and floating everywhere. Milzer swatted his way through them as he made his way to what counted as a control room.

Inside he found two kerbals. Meldo looked to be pretty frazzled. Gersted too. Both were helmeted, though Gersted's helmet appeared to be a little worse for wear. Milzer moved into one of the open chairs and strapped in.

"What's the situation?"

Meldo looked up at him and smiled. "Good to see you too, M. Seems we've been hit by something. Not sure what yet, but it took out part of the habitat and pretty severely damaged the drive section. Which is nothing compared to what the drive section did when it exploded. Somehow we're still here. We're running off of the systems in the lab module, which seems to be unharmed, so there's that. As far as I can tell the habitat's main computer was sheared away with the rest of the drive section."

"Casualties?"

"Not sure yet. I've sent Newwin and Lorim around to check on the crews, but so far the only kerbals unaccounted for are Deruki and Podner, both of whom were in the C-Duster preparing for their descent. Podner had detached, but the Harvest attempted another collision avoidance move and smacked into the lander just as they were backing away. Communications are down, so I can't tell if either survived. Everyone else has reported in. Some are in pretty rough shape, a few broken bones. Melden has some nasty-looking burns. Almost everyone has a new bruise or three."

Milzer watched as Jebediah floated in, helmetless and unmoved. He casually took the fourth seat and strapped in. The elder kerbal's bravado inspired Milzer to remove his helmet, globs of mostly-congealed blood floating freely into the thin cabin air. And Jeb didn't have a scratch on him of course. Meldo continued with his report.

"The other two landers are floating just aft of us, out amongst the twisted wreckage of the drive section. I had to close off half the system due to leaks, but our RCS is functional, and so far I've managed to stop most of the rotation. We're missing a chunk of the habitat, so spinning the ship back up again is out of the the question. Here in a bit I was going to attempt to move us closer to the landers and send out two pilots to bring them in. No telling if they're still flightworthy."

Milzer nodded. "I'll go."

"You're not a pilot anymore M, remember? Even if you were I wouldn't send you out with that cut on your head. Besides, Jeb and Gersted have already volunteered."

A few minutes later and Gersted was suited up and ready to go. Milzer watched as he floated out of the adjacent airlock and drifted over to stand on the tube linking the hab with what was left of the core of the ship. With communications down they were limited to the short-range, low-power, suit-to-suit radios, so Jeb stayed behind to act as a relay.

"Lots of debris out here guys. Really want to be careful when moving around."

"Copy that Gersted. Proceed with caution." This was Meldo's show, which was perfectly ok with Milzer. He still felt like he needed a nap.

"Ok. Making my way to the harness wreckage now." His radio started to crackle as he moved to the edge of their reception range so Jeb stated out of the airlock to lengthen the bridge. "Looks like the main computer is still active, probably leaching power from the two landers. Both appear intact, undamaged at first glance. Same with the landers, though I can see some smashed solar panels. If need be we could likely salvage the data from the computers."

"Don't worry about that for now. Go ahead and pick a lander, hitch to the delivery harness on the other end of the lab. Jeb, you take the other one."

"You bet."

Meldo wasn't sure about his tone. "And bring it back to the Kraken's Harvest, not land it on Duna."

"Ha! No reading my mind!"

A short time later and both landers were docked safely with the harness that delivered them. Having both landers docked up again reenabled local communications - no more hack-job suit radio relays. Meldo activated the emergency distress beacon and set about finding their two missing crews. Milzer dozed off where he sat.

Podner, as it happened, was unharmed and alive in the lander can of the C-Duster, and in an orbit closely matching the main debris of the Kraken's Harvest. Both the capsule and the remainder of the C-Duster had been ripped away cleanly by the explosion. Podner used what little RCS was left in the lander can and set up a rendezvous with the Harvest. He completed the rest of the journey with his suit's jetpack.

Deruki was also alive and unharmed, though considerably further away. The C-Duster's capsule had absorbed much of the momentum of the initial impact, placing it into the higher orbital band of debris. His only chance at a rendezvous was to jump out and use his suit, the capsule lacking in RCS thrusters or any other means of propulsion. (Though one could argue venting the cabin atmosphere is a 'means of propulsion', it's not one allowed by KSP.)

Luckily, two orbits later Deruki's capsule would almost meet back with the Kraken's Harvest. A short jump at apoapsis would set up a rendezvous. Returning from such a trajectory provided Deruki with a unique view of the greater debris field as it stretched out across Low-Duna-Orbit. It also gave him a nice view of Eve, Gilly, Kerbin, Minmus, and even Moho for a few brief moments before the Sun rose over Duna's thin atmosphere.

Finally all their fellow crew members had returned home. All for the most part safe and sound. They spent the next several days licking their wounds and hoping for a rescue that would likely never come.

---

Gene Kerman

Present Day

"No. No more." Gene was sitting at the edge of his seat in Lem's office, staring down the elder psychologist. The same position he'd been in for some münths now. "I've been here how long? 23 days? And all I've seen since I woke up is the inside of that room and the inside of this one. And you. I've asked before where we are, and I'll ask again. Except this time you'll get no more stories from me until you answer." He leaned back and crossed his arms, stern in his resolve.

"Very well then. Follow me." Lem stood, pressed a button, and walked through the door behind his desk. Gene's chair melted away from under him, prompting him to roll forward onto his feet.

Beyond the door was a long, shapeless, empty hallway. To Gene's eyes it was nearly a hundred meters long. Being cooped up in a small room for so long will alter one's perception. He followed Lem to the end, reaching another nondescript not-grey, not-white door. Lem waited for Gene to catch up, and then pressed a small silvered pad to the left of the door. Beyond was a wall of glass, black against the night. Kerbin rotated into view as he walked in.

"Behold. Academy Station, home of the Academy of Kerbal Spaceflight. Quite a sight, no? It's not as large as some of the other stations, but it suits our needs. The shuttle you see on approach is one of the Hydra Void Shuttles, transferring a group of young trainees from our landing base on Minmus. Here recently we've had to go back to the old ways of training."

A flash of light from the arriving Hydra drew Gene's attention, his focus shifting to the reflections in the glass. The stars swirled by outside, a blur against the unfamiliar kerbal looking back at him. No, not unfamiliar. Gene knew this kerbal. Somehow. And he knew it wasn't himself. "Who?" He turned to Lem, the shock of understanding still painted on his face. "What? How?"

"We were wondering how long it would take for you to notice." Lem put his hand on Gene's shoulder to comfort him. It didn't help. "You see, Gene Kerman died seventy-three years ago."

"I?" Gene swallowed back the sudden sensation of sickness. "I what?"

"Died. Of natural causes, as they say. It was a pleasant passing at a venerable age, surrounded by your family and closest friends." Lem looked out at the stars and Gene followed his gaze. The station twirled around them, a blur against the unchanging universe. "Hopefully now you understand why we've been rather reserved with you. It was quite a surprise for us too, you see, meeting a ghost."

Gene turned away from the endless star field, head spinning. "How? If I'm dead, how am I here?"

"That's a story I had hoped you would remember yourself. Many years ago one of your crews found a crashed vessel on the Mün. This was back in the very early days of the space program. The space program was immediately moved into deep secrecy. An excavation crew was sent up, and in a short time they had found the entrance. Inside they found a strange device and a glimpse at the long distant past."

"By then you had risen through the ranks to become head of the Agency. And yet you were on thin ice due to a few fatal training accidents. One of them very preventable. One of them involving the son of a prominent member of the Senate. And so, when the engineering teams conducting the investigation of the recovered craft found the device and discovered that it placed its user in a very realistic and very believable simulation, you acted."

"And I tried it out myself."

"As any good leader would. The interface was simple, seemingly designed to fit any intelligent being that matches our basic composition. Neurons being the universal constant, of course. Inside you found a nearly perfect representation of Kerbin and the Kerbol System as it appeared several millennia before the rise of the first civilizations. Before the cities overtook the continents. Before the skies were filled with aircraft and advertisements. In other words, the perfect place to train kerbals without killing them or innocent bystanders.

"Except there were ghosts in this simulation. Kerbals that appeared to be independent, yet were not avatars of those on the outside. The longer a kerbal spent inside, the more creeped out they would become. As though someone was watching over their shoulder. Someone inside their very head. This sensation drove many of the early trainees mad, and so the project was cancelled, the device hidden away in a secret bunker, and all knowledge of it struck from the records. Until we found it."

"We? We who?"

"The Academy, of course. We've been training kerbals to face life in space for more than seventy years. Yet accidents do still happen, and irreplaceable lives are lost. So we started searching for a solution, found the device, all the notes on how to use it, and we moved it here.

"We recently discovered, completely by accident, that the device was keeping a backup of every kerbal who used it. Quite the fortuitous accident, and it hinted this technology may be far beyond our comprehension. Previous research had shown the participants were only learning and remembering when they left the simulation. The device exploits the natural dream-state memory reinforcement mechanisms already present in our brains. Knowing this, and the nature of where the device was found, led us to conclude it had only one practical purpose. Interstellar travel."

"And reviving the dead?"

"More precisely their memories and personalities. Traversing the dark between the stars is no easy feat, and one not many biological beings will survive. Far better to transfer yourself, your knowledge, into a construct that can be recovered at the other end. Something far beyond out capabilities, but to a sufficiently advanced society shaping neurons and synapses would be a simple task. And why keep the passenger static? Why not allow them to train and plan as they travel? What better way to do that than in a near-perfect simulation of their destination?

"So you see, the device you and your crews recovered from this crashed ship on the Mün was far more than a simple simulation. It was the entire crew of the ship, the hopes and dreams of a long-dead alien race, trapped in an electronic playground for their minds."

Gene smiled dryly, almost madly. "The second landing site."

"I'm sorry?"

By now Gene had slumped to the floor and was mindlessly staring out into nothing, smiling at the empty glass in front of him. The station was well past the terminator and more than halfway around the nightside of Kerbin, only visible for the warm glow of its flood lights. "The second landing. The crew I sent to the Mün just before being, extracted? The rebels said I would find the truth of our space program there."

"Curious. We're not even sure ourselves where the alien vessel was found, and we're positive none that entered the Simulation with you did either. So many of the missions you've related during our chats were classified and not public knowledge. The Ospreys, for instance. And the ORTHO shuttles that built them. Secret military operations each. Which means something, someone is still alive on the inside and they must have been feeding you information. Possibly the old crew, having survived thousands of years in solitude on the Mün."

"So why continue?" Gene asked, changing the subject. "Why did I, whoever I am, use this device again if you knew what it really was?"

"We didn't know. As it so happens you were our fortuitous accident. You and your class of seventy trainees were trapped inside, all because you chose to identify yourself to the Simulation as Gene Kerman. In an instant you, our best instructor, ceased to be and became the bewildered and confused ghost you are today. Worse yet, the device seemed aware something had gone wrong and refused to eject you. We've been trying to get you out for nearly a decade, every attempt thwarted. Eventually you found your own way."

"Who was I?"

"Carl Kerman, and you still are for the most part. Yet you are also Gene Kerman, which makes for a rather peculiar situation. Most would declare you insane and send you to the institution on Dres, but I know better." Lem smiled in a way that made Gene wonder if that wasn't to be his ultimate fate anyway.

He shook his head, trying to make sense of it all. The sun had risen again and the shuttle that had seemingly just arrived was leaving once more. He watched as it slipped silently out of the spinning station, backing into the void. It cancelled its rotation once clear, flipped 180 degrees, and then burned prograde.

"So what now?"

"Now? Now we need your help. We need you to go back in. One last time."

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[Cydonian Monk]

Some thoughts that I posted over in the "What You Did Today in KSP" thread that I might as well copy here: Along with this last update came some peaks at designs that I will likely not carry over into KSP v1.0. Things that I've been working on since at least January but could never get to work completely right. Ex: Academy Station, seen below:

Another shot, not seen in the update:

I've been trying to build a rotating cylindrical / barrel station (or whatever the proper nomenclature is) for most of KSP 0.25 and 0.90 with no success. Some may remember a post I made on reddit in February (album link) about a launch where "suddenly everything went wrong". Well, I've got these designs for a station that simply come unglued between 4km and 8km above the launchpad no matter what I do, and also don't take kindly to being persistence-file-edited into orbit.... which is immensely frustrating.

Academy Station was the end-goal of those designs, and no matter how what I tried I couldn't get what I wanted to work. Minimum population was to be at least 3,000 kerbals (which I met in the end), but the early ones were in the several tens of thousands of kerbal range. Sure, I'd never in one lifetime be able to get that many kerbals into orbit, but that was the goal. And this was the usual result:

Sometimes it didn't even make it off the launchpad before it accordion-ed in on itself:

No amounts of struts would fix this - and adding more seemed to actually make the issue worse. At one point I found some "part count limit" bug caused by either KSP or one of the plugins I use, where once above 6km the camera would get "stuck," acting like it does when going below the water. This was somewhere around 2048 parts I think. (Or maybe it was a mass limit bug?) And part-welding was out of the question, as I was intent on using stock-only parts for this. So I had to keep trimming and cutting back until I had something that worked. That something is what you see in the update.

Still, I was aiming for a station more like this:

Maybe later. Maybe once I do a clean restart in KSP v1.0. Or maybe never. We'll see. All I know is it definitely won't make it into Ad Lunam.

Cheers.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Cydonian Monk

[ElJugador]

The.. the only thing I can say. I hope you appreciate it.

[Railgunner2160]

Well, this is getting interesting!!