Kron series (Kron 6 end of mission) - temporary halt of program

[lajoswinkler]

Bob is 100 m away from the crushed rover and begins to feel uneasy with the whole sight. The anomaly is dominating everything, towering above the crater floor.

"This is almost as tall as the vehicle assembly building at home!", Bob uttered.

However, he proceeds. For science. WalEye is there, mangled.

"It OK, I fix!", Bob yells over the radio after taking rest of the data from the probe core.

He continues to investigate the anomaly, trying to reach the top.

The sphere does not have a very solid surface. It's like a dense cloud.

Suddenly, a deep, manly "mmmmm" is heard over the radio.

Then again, louder. "MMMMMMMMM..."

Could it be? Is it possible, even here?

"It can't be! We're too far from Kerbin!", said Bob, already delusional and happy.

"Bob, get the hell out of there! Don't listen to him!", yelled Bill.

"Emergency evacuation, that's an order!", screamed Valentina.

Edited August 1, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[Mister Dilsby]

Well now who's "Hollywood"?

[lajoswinkler]

But this is real! They're in real danger, not in a studio, you conspiracy theorist!

[DMSP]

First, I'm back!

Second, GET OUT OF THERE!

[lajoswinkler]

"I have to think rationally. He will kill me. But he's so handsome. But he will kill me.", Bob was thinking while he was running away.

"What about the equipment??? And Bill should've removed the RTG first!"

"Get in the lander, NOW!", Valentina was relentless.

Kerpernicus' ascent stage fires.

Good thing Kron 4 with Jebediah inside was nearby for a fast rendezvous.

North pole of Wal was visible for a brief moment.

[DMSP]

Phew.

Bob, you are a lucky punk.

[ElJugador]

Okay, that was close. But are you going to visit Tal? Also, Wal looks kind of like earwax.

[lajoswinkler]

Yes, every body in the Urlum system will be visited.

[meve12]

What was with the humming?

[lajoswinkler]

It was the one whose muscles made of gold Kerbals like very much.

Kerpernicus has made a rendezvous with Kron 4 and performed a successful precision, manual docking.

Valentina is discussing the matter with Kerty, who will calculate the risk of continuing the mission.

[lajoswinkler]

After lots of careful computing, Kerty gave a 50% chance of getting killed if they stay, and 50% chance of survival if they go.

The team was ok with staying.

Kerty performed a polar orbit to polar orbit burn to catch Tal.

[Rolanvorxariat]

Oh my...

I have a feeling this has something to do with the Giant Naked Space Man.

[Felsmak]

I approve of this story.

[lajoswinkler]

The ship is now in an almost perfect polar orbit, some 45x45 km. Tal looks like a weird wet potato. Or a moldy tit. A wet, moldy tit.

In order to maximize delta v, to lateral engines had to be removed at this point. Fuel leftovers were transferred into the upper tanks.

Just before the jettison, Kron 4 could reach 1.6 m/s² of acceleration, but now it's back at 0.6, which is fine. In any case, it's way better than at the start of the journey.

Two very radioactive engines are now sub-subsatellites of Urlum. Revolving around Tal, which revolves around Wal, which revolves around Urlum, which revolves around Kerbol.

They will remain unavailable for any kind of manipulation for hundreds of years, but it's likely they will smash into Tal or Wal at some point in the near future because of constant perturbing.

Edited August 2, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[Angelo Kerman]

Very interesting. Caught up on your KRON 4 mission, love it. don't know what the gold muscles is about or the Naked Space Man, but the gold ball reminds me of Michael Crichton's Sphere. Too bad you couldn't drop the spent engines onto the ball and nuked the site from orbit.

[lajoswinkler]

Today Kerbals went to Tal.

Warning: Do not go to Tal. Tal will invoke the Kraken and eat your Kerbals. And landers. And flags. Before it consumes them, it will throw them on ballistic trajectories like a cat playing with its prey.

So enjoy these screenshots.

Right after this things started to do bad. Bob used his jetpack to visit one hill and then died when he touched the ground at some 1 m/s.

Quickloading made Kerpernicus and the flag detonate. Another quickloading sent the lander upwards like a spinning ball. Bill barely caught it. Then again the same thing happened.

I couldn't even get them into the lander because some form of NaN Kraken appeared, so I restarted the game and used Hyper Edit to get them one by one into orbit.

Just don't go to Tal and you'll be fine. It has an interesting rugged surface, but that's it.

[Zaddy23]

What mod are you using for the visor reflections?

[lajoswinkler]

Texture Replacer

[GabrielG.A.B.Fonseca]

"All these worlds are yours except Tal."

"Attempt no landing here."

[Zaddy23]

Texture Replacer

Which visual pack to be exact I have texturereplacer for clouds & stuff, I just want those visor reflections too.

Also, I'm guessing the Tal Kraken is related to the double-sattelite thing. Maybe it causes unstable physics or something.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Zaddy23

[Yukon0009]

Invokum krakenitis.

[lajoswinkler]

Which visual pack to be exact I have texturereplacer for clouds & stuff, I just want those visor reflections too.

Also, I'm guessing the Tal Kraken is related to the double-sattelite thing. Maybe it causes unstable physics or something.

I have no idea. It's been months since I've been fiddling with mods. I think Texture Replacer already comes with such function.

[lajoswinkler]

~ Ministry Of No Better Things To Do special report ~

The MONBTTD is considering a short, but probably the most hazardous mission so far - to send Kron 5 to Ablate.

Back in the early days, a probe lander called Wolfram 2 has been sent, and a small station called Vulkan that never served its proper purpose.

Possible goals for this mission are:

1) visiting Vulkan station to ascertain the effects of longterm intensive oscillation of hot and cold environment

2) visiting Wolfram 2 probe lander to check the effects of permanent exposure to Kerbol's radiation

3) taking samples from both poles of Ablate

4) taking samples from the permanently dark side of Ablate - night landing

Kron 5 will have to be modified to endure the enormous heat of Kerbol.

- end of report -

[lajoswinkler]

The crew escaped Tal successfully.

Polta turned out to be a surprise very similar to Minmus. More like a mixture of Minmus and Tylo, with more ices.

Here you can see Kerbol, Eve and Kerbin peeking between Urlum and Polta.

Orbital insertion was quite easy.

Jebediah was in awe. He was the only one making these facial expressions.

Kerty positioned Kron 4 into a polar orbit and the survey started.

Even though Kerty warned him not to go out because Urlum is quite dangerous this close, Jebediah had to take some time alone.

[lajoswinkler]

Bob has chosen a particularly deep crater on Polta to land on in order to observe all the layers.

I must say this was one of the most nerve wrecking landings I've ever performed. Precision, manual, crater rim and barely enough fuel.

Let's end today's screenshot spree with a salute to Urlum.

To be continued.