Project Icarus

[Drethon]

Welcome to the first Project Icarus report, this is Walter Kerman.

After decades of testing, experimentation and massive explosions the Kermanity has finally conquered flight and proven it it can be safe. Thousands of Kerbals daily are flying to distant parts of the globe and fewer than a dozen a day at killed in accidents. This great advancement was not without cost however. Thousand of test pilots perished in the pursuit for higher and faster flight. Today we are left with one single surviving test pilot Jebediah Kerman.

Jebediah seen posing in front of the aftermath of escaping a nuclear powered airplane when its reactor lost containment. The test facility the explosion occurred over was lost but Jebediah survived to test a larger nuclear powered craft. The explosion also launched radios being produced into space, providing a global disco broadcast. This event inspired Jebediah to launch other things into space.

Thanks to the great wealth accumulated by Jebediah as the only surviving test pilot, and his vast repository of knowledge of building Lego spaceships, Jebediah has chosen to lead the Kerbal people to space. While Jebediah is providing the funding and skills, he has been named a global treasure. As such the Kerbal people have unanimously decided to protect Jerbediah, and his fellow Kerbalnauts, against themselves. Thus Project Icarus was born.

The story of Icarus tells us of how the first Kerbal to fly created wings out of feathers and ice cream sandwiches. With his wings Icarus traveled the lands meeting other Kerbals and helping us to learn the world was much larger than was once thought. However Icarus continued to fly after winter ended and in the warmth of summer his wings melted and he plummeted to Kerbin. Though many benefited from learning that a melted ice cream ale is a might tasty beverage. Project Icarus well see Kermanity reach the stars while reminding us not to fly when it might melt our ice cream.

To this end, no Kerbal will be risked flying a rocket that has not already been fully tested in automated spaceflight, where possible. As no Kerbal rocket has flown to date there is not enough data to create an automated system so the first few flights will be braved by Jebediah. Though attempts are being made to limit the power of the rocket to do no more than lightly toast Jebediah should an accident occur.

The work has already begun on the ground. Jebediah has recruited pilot trainee Bill Kerman and stuntman Bob Kerman. They work tirelessly to discover the secrets of spaceflight.

Bill Kerman learns to control a spaceship in a centrifuge simulator. Experiments were also performed to determine if a martini is shaken or stirred in a centrifuge.

Bob Kerman makes first flight with an experimental jet pack designed by himself and Jebediah. Unfortunately shortly after this picture was taken, Bob was rushed to the hospital with a broken collar bone and three broken ribs. Worst of all was the loss of the martini experiment in the crash.

Soon we hope to bring you news of the first flight of Jebediah's Artemis I rocket design.

Until next time, this was a Walter Kerman report.

(BTW, how do I set the size of images rather than editing their size and uploading again. Yes I'm borrowing some official artwork, I thought it fit to nicely.)

[Drethon]

This is Walter Kerman returning with updates on Project Icarus.

The first Kerbal rocket has been built and is undergoing ground tests. As you can see it is a very simple design, simply meant to give Project Icarus a chance to see how rockets go up and to make sure they keep going that direction.

We have little information on the ongoing progress as all communications have been hard wired with the rocket. We are told this is to perform testing without worrying about EMI effects. However our directional microphones picked up Gene Kerman muttering something about keeping Jebediah from saying something dumb.

We did spot Jebediah performing some ground experiments outside of the rocket. It seems he has found a way to make his voice heard.

[Drethon]

This is Walter Kerman reporting on the great day when we finally blow, er blast, er launch a Kerbal off the ground in a rocket. As of yet life support is untested so the rocket will remain in the atmosphere for its entire flight.

When we arrive at the launch pad we are surprised to see the same rocket that was being used for ground tests setup on the pad.

When asked about the lack of landing gear or larger parachutes we received the following quote from Gene Kerman. "Additional parachutes and landing gear would increase the weight of the rocket which would require more fuel to reach the target altitude. Jebediah has assured us that the rocket engines have sufficient strength for landing." It is most fortunate this project is being led by the greatest engineering minds of our time.

At the 10 minute countdown we began setting up out cameras to record the launch but at 5 minutes to launch the rocket left the pad with a tremendous roar. Our crew rushed to complete setting up the cameras but were only in time to record the aftermath of the launch.

In conversations with Jebediah afterward he revealed that the calculations used to determine the strength of the rocket engine used data from engine tests. In these tests the forces were spread across the entire bell of the nozzle. When the force of touchdown was concentrated on the bottom edge of the nozzle the engine collapsed and detonated the remaining fuel vapor in the fuel tank. Fortunately the command pod was strong enough to withstand the explosion. The goo container also survived, giving researchers interesting data about the goo's use as an explosion absorbing material.

Our inside sources tell us that the next launch will be delayed for some time while Jebediah ponders landing gear and better parachutes. As this flight did not produce enough data for automated space flight the next launch will bring Jebediah to the edge of space.