Interplanetary Quest

[Zylark]

Teeny tiny introduction: Had to go with a new career as 0.25 was released, but unlike my previous two write-ups this time I won't cover all the early stuff happening around Kerbin SOI, but rather the more interesting voyages to the other planets and other missions that are new to me at least.

I'll try to keep things 'real' in the sense that before any Kerbal venture out into the unknown void, probes will scout ahead and do their business to prepare for manned missions. The Career is played on unchanged Moderate difficulty settings, with a ton of mods slapped onto the game. Only 'whoopsies' I allow myself are launch reverts should I forget something. Else, if in space, there is no going back.

Progress so far: Probes sent off to Eve and Duna. Several to Duna as it happens. Stations are zipping around Kerbin, Mun and Minmus, though the latter is temporary and will be moved to Duna by the next launch window. Mun got a big Karbonite mining operation going on that will be expanded for other resources as well in due time. There's even a small Karbonite rig down on Minmus. And one on its' way to Ike. In anticipation of my manned mission there which just got underway at a near optimal launch window.

Nearing the end of the Tech-Tree and got roughly 1.2 million in funds. And have probably 6 million in available technology I can't afford to buy...

Enough catching up - onwards Kermans - for the Science!

After a long silent trek in darkness, something only seen through mildly powerful telescopes back on Kerbin caught the lenses onboard the Eve Probe Lander, EPL for short. It's round, spherical some would insist, and very purple.

Since not launching even remotely near an optimal window, my little Argon-Electric powered probe is coming in screaming at over 4700 m/s, and that number will just grow as the probe falls further into Eves' gravity well. With just about 1000dV available, that means dipping down deep into the atmosphere of Eve to bleed off some speed in order to achieve orbit. I think something around 55km for the Pe should do fine.

Some preliminary Science already sent off to KSC. More to come.

NEWSFLASH - STOP THE PRESSES!!!!

ASTEROID ON IMPACT COURSE WITH KERBIN!

'No need to panic!' say KSC spokeperson Walt Kerman. 'It's just a medium size asteroid, not a really friggin' huge one. Should it hit Kerbin it'll just wipe out a small country, probably not an important one at that. The chances of it hitting in the vicinity of KSC is pretty slim, so we're cool!'

Head of flight operations, Gus Kerman, added that Wernher von Kermans' blueprints for a massive Asteroid Redirect mission got nixed by head of finances, beancounter extraordinaire Mortimer Kerman. 'Hey, we only have so much to go around you know!' Mortimer chimed in at the press conference. 'Give us enough funding and we'll send that asteroid to a dark corner of Jool if you so desire!'

'Nownow gentlemen, no need to get agitated. We have a contingency plan, Gus, if you could be so kind...' Walt interrupted.

'Why thank you. Yes - within our rather restrictive budget we found room to send up a miniscule manned Asteroid grabber. This got sent to orbit around Mun where it met up with our massive Fuel Lander which as it happened recently topped off its' huge tank of fuel down at the Karbonite Base there.'

'Combined this ad-hoc contraption should have plenty of power and fuel to at the very least nudge the Asteroid away from a Kerbin impact. Ideally we hope to capture the thing into a Kerbin orbit for further study. Mortimer of the finance department and Linus of the science department both assure us that it would be the profitable and enlightened thing to do.'

'An intercept course have been plotted, and even-though actual capture of the rock will only happen hours before estimated impact, we're pretty confident we'll have plenty of time.'

'To increase our chances, we put one of our most experienced Kerbonauts on the job, Bill "the Bold" Kerman. He have reported in that all is nominal and is awaiting the proper time to start intercept in just over 11 days. Snacks and Fuel both are plentiful.'

---

Will Bill save millions of lives? Will the very expensive Eve probe achieve orbit around the purple emerald? This and more on the next installment of...

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited November 8, 2014 by Zylark

[Zylark]

KERBIN IS SAFE!!!

No tinpot little country under threat even!

Kerbal Space Center have the great pleasure to announce that the hero of today, Bill Kerman, have both intercepted and pushed a very dangerous Asteroid onto a new course that do not threaten to impact Kerbin.

It is however reported that Bill Kerman have some very serious problems controlling that big rock. Too much too handle even.

Whilst plenty of patented Space Tape have been applied, keeping a steady course is in Bill Kermans' words "Like eating snacks in a centrifuge!". Our engineers at KSC have a sneaking suspicion someone should have added a large SAS module to the Asteroid Grabber module. Though when asked directly they all go "Who'd a' thunk it?!"

As if saving a little insignificant country was not enough, another great win for the KSC - Yes, we've made a good landing on Eve!

Two aerobrakes and a little bit of thrust, and all was good to go on sending the puny Eve Lander to do its' business, landing on Eve.

It all went very well, and for some reason Mortimer over at the Finance Department got a smile that even bad coffee won't wipe.

Still to do for that particular mission is using the little dV still left to get the orbiting probe into a more polar inclination. More science to be done, and get the rock properly mapped should some Kerbal be stu... - uhm - brave enough to attempt a landing!

---

Next up, will Bill manage to get his big Asteroid to a sensible orbit? What is on with the Duna missions that nobody told anyone about yet?

This and more in the next episode of...

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited November 8, 2014 by Zylark

[Zylark]

Look up! A new Moon have arrived!

The latest press release from KSC goes into a lot of technical details on how they finally managed to wrangle the large-ish piece of rock who was about to hit Kerbin into a nice stable 300km orbit. The short of it being they had to send up something with a bit more control. Since the Eve landing provided plenty of new funding, a brand new Heavy Tug was sent up to take over for the Fuel Lander with the job of pushing the Asteroid around.

Even with massive reaction-wheels, some adjustment with thrust had to be made to keep it all nice and steady. Once parked in its new orbit, a capsule with plenty of science instruments to probe the rock got sent up.

Bill later hitched a ride on this capsule back to Kerbin for a heroic welcome. A truly massive achievement that not only saved the lives of millions, but also gave all of Kerbalkind something pretty to look at - assuming one have a pair of decent binoculars...

In other news, it is reported that the first probe to Duna is getting close. This is followed by two more probes and even a two-man crewed mission to investigate the little red planet.

Meanwhile in a mission where not many details are known yet, KSC released this picture of Bob Kerman hitching a ride to orbit in a strange new craft.

He do not look overly confident.

---

Will the probe to Duna arrive safe? Exactly what is Bob up to, and what is that thing a rocket got strapped to? Where is Jeb by the way?

This, and more, in the next installment of...

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited November 10, 2014 by Zylark

[Zylark]

SINGLE STAGE TO PROFIT!

New technology tested that promise great savings.

Some at KSC think Rockets are big dangerous things - despite very few mishaps so far. If one disregard the initial phase of testing the by now standard lifters in service. Which by the way comes in three sizes, 5 Ton, 15 Ton and 45 Ton payload to at least 150km orbit. The smallest of these standard lifters now seem to have some competition however.

The SP Seagull just delivered 7 Tons of machinery to the Research Station orbiting Kerbin up at 200km. It reached the Station with a good 200dV to spare. The engineers back at the SPH was pleased, but looking over the data they noticed quite a bit of mismatch of LF to Oxidizer. Plenty of the former, not very much of the latter.

Back on Kerra Firma, another slight snag revealed itself - the Center of Mass might just be a teeny bit too far back once this new Spaceplane is empty of cargo. The engineers assured KSC program managers that this issue will get resolved. It is quite dangerous as it is. Standing with the tail to the ground when sitting still is one thing, but the approach was a bit hairy. Several rounds at full throttle had to be done to bleed off enough fuel to be able to pitch it down at all before landing.

In other news, and as many from the Kerbin Press Agency had guessed from the previously released picture of Bobs' new mission, he was indeed sitting in a Rover - the first so far.

The mission was to check out some anomalies detected on the Mun. It all went pretty swimmingly until a rather steep hill had to be negotiated to reach the last two checkpoints that was inconveniently situated deep inside a crater. The engineers back at the SPH however had anticipated such scenarios, and indeed using RCS as retro-thrusters made certain the downhill speed was at all times within safe limits.

Mission accomplished, and the Rover, creatively named MunBuggy, got hoisted back onto the BaseLander ship for a return to orbit and future missions. Bob later transferred to the Crew Shuttle Anton, and will get back to Kerbin soon.

Meanwhile, the first of two Cyclotrons got delivered to the testing facility around Minmus, where Jebediah is overseeing operations. This is a shakeout mission to test all relevant parts before a major mission to Duna and quite possibly the outer planets.

Essentially, in due time, the entire thing will be pulled apart, two Cyclotrons will dock with the protoype Interplanetary Ship - seen here in the forefront - whereas the Station Core itself will be shipped off behind the Heavy Tug. Before then however, Minmus will be sucked dry of science and plenty of experiments will be performed whilst in orbit there.

Last, but by no means least...

Is that something red we see in the background there? Indeed, our Duna Sample Return probe is getting close to its' ultimate goal.

---

Will Jeb have the patience to miss all the action by merely orbiting Minmus for months on end? Will the next Spaceplane have less balance issues? Will the red planet finally get a visit?

This and - quite possibly but not entirely certain - more, on the next

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited November 13, 2014 by Zylark

[Zylark]

PLANET PROBING PROBES!

The Duna Sample Return mission is on track. Reports have come in that the Probe made a good landing.

Some at KSC mission control was a bit nervous regarding parachute deployment possibly compromising the structural integrity of the lander - as it is a pretty big one. By means of staged deployment however all was good, and no excessive forces threatened to rip the thing apart during descent. The targeted landing site was situated deep in a canyon to take advantage of the thicker atmosphere down there. The first batch of parachutes opened fully at 1500 meters, the next at 1000 meters and the final batch at 500 meters. Touchdown was at a smooth 6.5 m/s. Well within safe limits.

Only little problem is that the landing site was not perfectly level. Seeing as the ascent stage is fitted quite snug with the lander stage, this might cause problems if launched in its current position. This contingency have been anticipated however. The little dV left on the lander stage will be used to lift the entire thing a little, get it nice and level, and then trigger the ascent stage.

In other news, it is reported that between 1.3 and 1.5 million in funds have been gobbled up to to develop and launch a trio of identical new lander-probes.

These are set to visit Gilly, Dres and Moho. KSC spokeperson Walt Kerman explained that 'These are test missions to put a plethora of new technologies to use before heading off far away to the outer planets. Getting there requires efficient designs that do not rely on solar-power. With these new Argon-electric engines and electrical power supplied by a fission generator, we've reached new heights in packing plenty of range and speed into a tiny package. Well, tiny-ish.'

All three probes are set to go at uneven intervals during the next two months.

---

Will the Duna Sample Return mission manage to return a sample? Is Jeb finally sick and tired of eating snacks in zero-G?

We might possibly get to know in the next exciting update of...

Interplanetary Quest!

[Zylark]

JEB IS BACK!

(and orange really is the new black...)

Before moving on to the headline news, a little update on the Duna Sample Return mission.

The ascent stage made it to a good 45km Duna orbit with plenty of fuel to spare. The plan of using the descent stage to get a nice horizontal launch platform worked wonders - though it did get a bit higher up than planned before staging.

The descent stage made it back down in pretty good shape all things considered. A few struts broke, one spent parachute and a solar panel snapped off. But it is standing upright after some convincing, and is ready to send more data from Duna as needed.

The captured asteroid, imaginatively named NuMun, is now eagerly getting hollowed out. KSC got plans for that rock - apparently it can eventually hold until now unimaginable amounts of fuel once reduced to what will result in a slightly discoloured and disfigured ping-pong ball in space.

In the process it will give us some much needed substrate for the experimental food production back at the Research Station. Not much mind you, but that is not the point according to KSC spokesperson Walt Kerman.

The big news of the week, is that celebrated test pilot and general good guy, Jebediah Kerman is back on Kerbin.

He hitched a ride strapped to the Heavy Tug whilst in a tiny little lander carrying Experimental Pods with exciting samples from research done around Minmus, plus some surface samples from that tiny very pleasantly coloured rock itself.

'Hey, nothing got damaged, no-one gut hurt - why so many silly questions?!' Is all Jebediah Kerman had to say at the press conference. Mortimer Kerman from the KSC budget office however was all smiles and giggles. 'Suffice to say - if we can think it, we can afford it!' he commented smugly.

---

What exactly will the KSC engineers conjure up next?

Who knows, certainly not the chronicler of...

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited November 30, 2014 by Zylark

[Zylark]

KERBALKIND HAVE SET FOOT ON ANOTHER PLANET!

Mike Kerman landed safely on Duna. All of Kerbin celebrates!

A slightly hungover Walt Kerman gave a presentation on the mission. 'As you may know, the Crew Shuttle Bernhard with a lander attached have been underway to Duna for well over 250 days before finally reaching the elusive yet so intriguing red planet.'

'After a very uneventful aerobraking maneuver, the CS Bernhard got into a stable orbit of about 100km, from which the lander got manned and detached.'

'Mike got selected for the landing for no other reason than his name was better sounding than Frosen Kerman, his companion on this voyage.'

'Mike landed safely and then proceeded to promptly do all the science he could, following up with a pose for the mandatory flag and lander shot which we all love and appreciate!'

Walt continued briefing on a few other achievements. 'Our in-situ fuel generator have reached the Duna system.'

'Once Ike is mapped out, we'll land that Karbonite miner, and start producing fuel for the return trip of the CS Bernhard. The latter will by the way also do some science on Ike when refueling. The details are not quite finalized, some instruments not yet used will probably be moved from the Duna lander to the CS Bernhard as this do not have any such instruments at all.'

'In other news, our Research Station around Kerbin received an important update. The second Cyclotron. This will allow us to do more high quality, prestige and profit experiments in our own backyard so to speak.'

'Our Station Assembler docked with it, and then proceeded to attach it to the Station.'

'The Research Station is now getting close to finished. Still some 3-4 launches to go, but we're in no hurry. Now excuse me whilst I'll go back to sleep and get this headache to disappear. There will be no questions. Thank you and goodni, umm, good day!'

---

Will Walt get over his hangover? Is Mike making it back to the CS Bernhard and his now very familiar but possibly a bit upset friend Frosen?

This and quite possibly more, on the next...

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited December 4, 2014 by Zylark

[Zylark]

THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION SUMMIT

To decide the future of the KSC efforts, all principal parties gathered at a lush resort on Kaiti to discuss the matter. In between pool-time and liquid snacks.

Though nothing official have been released yet, correspondents from the Kerbal Press Agency have learned that essentially the path forward will take one of three routes.

1: Slow and careful does it. Continue sending out propes to the remaining planetary bodies and their moons, and then follow up with manned missions where practical. The Jool system is one such obvious candidate for immediate attention.

2: There are indications that on Eve some unheard of fuel exist that may revolutionize space-travel as we know it. It would require a major effort to get to it, harvest it and not least get it to where it is needed. Though, assuming the science department isn't entirely on a collective hallucinogenic trip, it may very well be worth the effort. Some speak of engines with well over 10k ISP using the esoteric fuel. Imagine the possibilities.

3: Going further out is all well and good, but making a second home is better. A large colony on Duna would ensure Kerbalkind to survive any disaster. Besides building a foundation for further exploration. Eventually.

During after-hours discussions in the pool, the waters got quite agitated, so obviously no conclusion have been met yet.

---

What will the KSC decide?

Perhaps we will know, in the next letter from a divided front of

Interplanetary Quest!

[Zylark]

WRAPPING UP DUNA

Business there done, for now...

The first manned Duna mission is just about done. Mike made good orbit, with just a hair under 1000dV to spare. Much more than the engineers back at KSC estimated. But that is just a bonus. It do mean the lander is more than capable of reaching where-ever on Duna and get back up again.

Once in orbit, Mike proceeded to collect all the data from the various instruments and pack the parachutes for later use. Then caught up and docked with the CS Bernhard. Pretty routine stuff, after which he transferred himself and all the goodie science and left the Duna Lander to orbit Duna unmanned. KSC is confident the lander will come in handy at a later date.

Whilst in Duna orbit, Mike and Frosen undertook a little side mission to refuel the Duna Surface Return Mission probe so that it could get back to Kerbin post-haste under its' own power.

It required some delicate maneuvering getting the thing really close and not drifting in order for Mike to get out there and bolt a pipe end-point to it so as to facilitate a fuel transfer and also repack the chutes on the thing. In the end it all went well, and the Duna SRM probe now got just about 2000dV to burn. Which it turns out will just about do it. Although being far from an optimal transfer window, a small opportunity presented itself in a few days that require about 1700dV for the return trip.

The CS Bernhard then visited Ike. At this point both Mike and Frosen was a bit absent minded, as both of them forgot to take any pictures. The short of it is that days earlier the little Karbonite Miner sent out a long time ago landed on Ike. The CS Bernhard then landed next to it, topped off the tanks and did some nice science whilst there. Frosen Kerman even planted a little flag. After returning to Ike orbit and then transfer to a high Duna Orbit, the Bernhard have just shy of 5000dV to burn for the return trip. More than enough for a speedy transfer back to Kerbin.

Back at KSC, the various heads of departments have pretty much agreed to a two-pronged road ahead. Windows to Eve and Jool are opening up in about 60 and 160 days respectively. At Eve, plenty of infrastructure need to be set up to go look for and harvest an elusive fuel that if found will greatly enhance our capabilities. For Jool, since transfer windows to the mighty giant are so sparse and far between, it's been decided to go all in. One mighty big manned expedition.

It is reported that Jeb is positively giddy with anticipation.

This and more, coming up in

Interplanetary Quest!

Edited December 4, 2014 by Zylark