LP Beach

13: Cursed Space Number



With Val and Bob drifting toward Duna, Bill de orbits in sight of the solar eclipse.



Splash.



Now our commissioners find something for new pilot Tim to do. A simple mission to rendezvous two ships in minmus orbit. Should be easy.



Let's keep conquering.



For this mission, Bill and Tim set off for minmus in a Bigfish 2. In theory the lander should be able to rendezvous with the transfer ship and grab the objective.



It seems they are nervous flyers.



Some burns and transfers happen, you've seen it before, here's the lander separating from the transfer stage in orbit.



It seems that visiting the mun and minmus is starting to become routine. Perhaps we ought to do something spectacular in Kerbin's orbital system during the next 333 days before we arrive in Duna? If only to keep proving our dominance.



A rendezvous ahead. Standard fare at this point.



We meet, but our commissioners refuse to accept this as having rendezvoused two ships?

Maybe it's because they came from the same rocket? I don't know.



Well, if the game's going to be pedantic, let's try something. Here we're landing near where Aldnard's wreck is.



Then just gently slide ourselves into position and...



YES



I had to stop ramming here because it gets unstable trying to balance a cylinder on a ship's point without the ground underneath it to stabilise.



So to move things along, here's a different approach.



Just blast the thing with the jet of our rocket.



Still not enough.



Let's try again up there.



Okay.



Done, and a rendezvous.



We're done, right?



Well, we've not got the fuel to keep pursuing this one. We'll be back for you .



Back to the ship.



Then back home.



And just like that, Tim goes straight to being a level 2 pilot.



Then I check on Jeb's progress, and there's troubling news. It seems his projected high ellipse was, in fact, an escape trajectory. Jeb is now stranded in solar orbit.

Nataliy wrote:We will be the first to meet two ships in orbit of the sun.

ORDER!

On amendment 1 to motion 1, known as the "Janbrett Flies amendment", 7 voted in favour and 23 voted against. The noes have it, the noes have it!

On amendment 1 to motion 2, known as the "Superior Space Suit Amendment", 29 voted in favour, 1 voted against. The ayes have it, the ayes have it!

Soon we shall move on to voting on motion one as written.

Motion 1 - The Naturalisation of Janbrett Kerman

"That Janbrett Kerman shall be given asylum in LPB by means of full citizen status. She will be housed in block 15-A, and assigned to an engineering role, helping to build rockets for the space program. She will not be permitted to fly with the space program, or to independently work on mission critical hardware."

and on to motion two as amended.

Motion 2 - The Development of a New Space Suit

"that we shall develop a superior futuristic space suit design to exceed that of the suit we have recovered from a newer capitalist enterprise."

In addition to this, the chief engineer will now introduce motion 3 entitled "The Space Outpost Scheme".

Motion 3 - The Space Outpost Scheme.

"that we shall research a solar panel technology and docking mechanism pursuant to the formation of space stations and surface bases that will allow our space program to form permanent outposts in space."



This would require us to spend 240 science points and delve deeper into technological research than we have delved before. At the time of writing, we have gathered more than enough data to complete this groundbreaking research. The development of these new technologies is estimated to come at 9,000 kerbucks. While that is in excess the cost of a single orbital rocket, it is something that will advance our cause for the forseeable future.

With this technology we could begin to build permanent structures in space: stations that orbit the planets, including our own. Modular bases on the surface of new worlds. We could even distribute fuel between vessels, and create refuellable landers instead of littering the orbit of our moons with landers as we have been doing.

While this research would be a break of form for a space program that has consistently been frugal with its development budget, I hope we can all agree that exploration of distant worlds is not enough: we must begin to establish outposts in the places we have visited and this motion presents a clear way forward.

VOTE NOW ON MOTIONS 1, 2 and 3. VOTING ENDS 10:00AM BST WEDNESDAY 29th

14: Saving Pilot Kerman



This is a Littlefish based rescue mission. A littlefish rocket, but the lander on the Duna version has been replaced with a third re entry pod.



Pilot Tim and engineer Bill set off on this mission.



They carry some science with them, as we haven't probed solar orbit yet.



While it seems wasteful to use a large ship to go so close to kerbin, encountering Jeb in good time takes enough Delta V for us to fly by Duna or even Dres.



Nearly 6 days.



Seeing as Jeb is stranded, Val is drifting toward Duna and Tim is flying this mission, there's no reason not to time warp a few days ahead. Here we make some adjustments to get ourselves within 600m of the target.



If you squint you can see both ships, and a very distant Kerbin+Mun.



WHAT?



Jeb boards his pod.



Then we burn toward that distant Kerbin.



Only 9 days away.



On approach of Kerbin, any unspent fuel is burned to help us slow our approach speed before hitting the atmosphere.



And the unusual triple pod lands safely.



This yields science.



Jebediah's incompetence causes him to reach level 3. This adds the ability to point toward or away from targeted objects as well as the ability to point in the direction needed to complete a planned burn.



Our commissioners give us a boatload of money. Being the first to return someone from solar orbit has impressed them.



Our next mission has us visit Eve. There's no requirement to land on Eve for this mission, so I won't, because Eve is hell.



After taking the Eve contract, we become millionaires.



The old research facility is fine, particularly given that not a lot of research gets done here.



However, to unlock the surface sample option we need to spend 900k on upgrading it. This is required, given our stated goals

1 - Return a surface sample from each planet/moon in the solar system to Kerbin.
2 - Then we fire our political enemies into the sun.



It seems odd to me that they'll happily take Mun rocks from the surface without any upgrades, but that we need to blow a million on having them take the dirt underneath their feet.



Yep it's actually worth some science to just take a rock from the runway.



It's time to start taking track of our progress. We've got a surface sample from Kerbin, and Jool gets crossed out because it's made of gas: it doesn't have a surface to sample.

Everything else here is yet to come. It's worth noting how I'm wording this: return a surface sample from the place to Kerbin. It isn't enough just to pick up a space rock, you have to get it back to our home. That makes certain places much harder than others.

15: 5 Birds 1 stone



Our mission control room gives us a lot of contracts around the Mun. Most notable is the test of a Bobcat engine. This is an engine we haven't unlocked, but that will be made available for us temporarily while we test it in the Mun's orbit.



This is the Bigfish Weird, a one off rocket made to complete all 5 mun missions in one trip. The payload of this rocket is identical to a normal Bigfish payload, but the rocket itself is entirely new.

You can see the bobcat engine in the center of the ship behind those struts.

The bobcat engine is a good all rounder engine, with somewhat good performance both in the atmosphere and in the vacuum of space. The bobcat engine is a single unit with two rocket engines mounted on to it. They pivot independently, and that allows for roll control.



For no apparent reason, here's a picture of a Titan rocket and its LR-87 engine.



The Bigfish weird starts with four solid fuel boosters supporting 2 swivels and the bobcat engine.



The bobcat and the swivel engines both drink from the lower stage until it decouples.



The bobcat engine is built for a larger diameter fuel tank, which we haven't researched, so we've made do with pushing two of our tanks together side by side.



This rocket has much more thrust than any single rocket engine we've used so far, and that makes for a very short trans munar burn.



Arrival at the mun.



We rescue Trido, who tells us she's a pilot who'd love to be a part of our space program.



Jeb, demotivated from his long stint in an unsuitable moon rocket, decides Trido can do the work.

"I've been here already. Why don't you go?"



Trido finds another Mun arch. I never knew there was more than one! She also carries out a thermometer experiment on the surface.



She plants our flag and grabs our surface sample...



...All from the top of the Mun arch.



Then she heads back to the main ship.



And she doesn't forget to grab the samples and the data on her way out.



She boards the Bigfish.



Jeb carries out the tests on this engine and the science from space near the mun.



They all return home safely with the data and the rocks.

Nataliy wrote:Your repeated recklessness is an affront to the space program, Jebediah. Were we not short of pilots, you would be dismissed! You will only have missions to Kerbin's moons from here onward. Your place on the pioneering Eve voyage will be taken by Tim.

16: Odds and Ends



Since the Last Update we have launched another Littlefish rocket.



Pilot Tim and engineer Bill are the lucky crew members aboard this pioneering flight.



The Littlefish 2 is identical to the littlefish 1, with only one difference.



This rocket is headed toward Eve instead of Duna. Its lander won't be landing on Eve, however, and will instead head to Eve's moon: Gilly.





While Tim has the privilege of being the first to land on this distant moon, Jeb is in more familiar surrounds.



I didn't care to photograph this particular mission, as Minmus landings are very much old news, but suffice to say Jeb planted the flag, grabbed a surface sample and got back home safely. Then mission control had another four assignments lined up by the time got back.



What the hell happened?



This is the Pippin Quint, a rocket made to fire a stack of five onion pods into orbit.



It takes four thud engines and three swivel engines to lift the upper stage of this near to orbit.



The upper stage, which I've started calling the Cudgel, grabs one...



two...



three...



four new friends



before heading safely back down to Kerbin.



We're approaching the 600k needed to upgrade our launchpad. This would totally remove the 140tonne limit on our rockets, and the size limits. Given that the littlefish rocket weighs 139.9 tonnes, it's something we'll need to do when we get the chance.

17: No Limits



Jeb aces another mundane mission.



A single flight to the Mun encompassing many goals.



With this kind of thing becoming ordinary, and with hundreds of days to go before any of our longer missions arrive near the distant planets, I find myself asking if there is something we can do to exceed ourselves in the interim.



Jeb's mission pleased the commissioners greatly.



The launch pad had a weight limit of 140 tonnes.



This new launch pad has no weight limits.



To christen our new launchpad we launch the spacering: a hoop shaped cabin destined for orbit of Kerbin, capable of holding up to 52 kerbals.



Decoupling of the lower stage. The lower stage is six units, each a fuel tank stacked on top of a solid rocket booster. The solid rockets fire at the same time as the engines in the stages above them, and are finely tuned to burn in roughly the same time as it takes to deplete the fuel in their stack.



Decoupling of the second stage.



The final powered stage of the space ring.



The engine separates from the space ring, and the pilot returns safely to Kerbin.



The ring drifts in Kerbin's orbit.



And contains six capitalists: three pilots, three scientists. The space ring has no engine, and is no secret. There is no harm the capitalists can do here except unto themselves. Welcome to space jail.

If you have any ideas for a space structure we can launch I'll see if it's possible through the medium of stitching several cabins together to make a shape. Alternatively I'm wondering if I can get one of these things to Duna.

Azza Bamboo wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:09 am

VOTE NOW ON MOTIONS 1, 2 and 3. VOTING ENDS 10:00AM BST WEDNESDAY 29th

ORDER

As there were no thread votes on these motions, the chair reserves the right to flip a coin. Heads = Ayes, Tails = Noes

Motion 1: HEADS - Janbrett is to be offered full citizenship, but not permitted to fly.

Motion 2: HEADS - We will develop a superior space suit.

Motion 3: HEADS - We will develop the technology required for stations in orbit.

The state is pleased with all patriots who support your most wise democratic decision maker: the coin. Those who would question the coin are a threat to our way of life.

One man, one vote. even if said "one man" happens to be engraved on a coin.

18: The Long Wait

Two days ago, in the real world, the mars rover Perseverance set off from Earth to Mars. All going well, it'll arrive on February 18th next year. In that time, there's expected to be at least 40 launches from all manner of space programs across the world. Most of these are various communications satellites, and some of these are tests of the new starliner vehicle that hopes to ferry Astronauts to the moon one day. One of these launches will be China firing a robot at the moon that hopes to shoot some rock samples back at Earth, a stepping stone in their plans to build a moon base some time in the 2030s.

In this world, we've launched two littlefish missions, one at Duna and one at Eve. In the meantime there's a bunch of ordinary things going on that we've seen already: rescue missions in Kerbin orbit, mun landings, minmus landings, etc. Rather than bore you with each mundane mission I've been carrying out in the interim between setting off for Duna and arriving there, I've been quietly making progress.

Today's update is just going to gloss over the highlights of the hundred or so days that have passed already.



Various missions have raised the funds needed to upgrade our barracks. We can now support an unlimited number of personnel, which is useful if I want to fill up the space jail.



There are now 18 people in space jail, which is a useful resource.



With Jeb being banned from escaping Kerbin's gravity, he instead launches the littlefish rocket from Kerbin, then swings by space jail to pick up pilots who'll fly the rest of the missions in his stead.



We've researched technologies needed to build space stations.



Probe

The probe core allows us to fly an unmanned rocket provided there is radio link to that rocket. The probe core has none of the stability options that a pilot can offer, making these flights quite challenging.



For reference, here is Sputnik, the first man made object to reach orbit of the Earth.

Service Module

The service module is a hollow cylinder that allows us to place smaller components inside of it. it has doors on the side that can be opened and closed. Its main purpose is to neaten those clusters of scientific instruments and whatever else by having a cupboard of sorts to shove them into. It can also protect things from impact and a certain amount of atmospheric heating.

Landing Leg

These retractable landing legs can be fitted onto landers to help soften their landing and keep them upright



Structural Sections

These are just lampshade shaped pieces that help to link larger and shorter pieces together.

Battery

This battery holds 100 units of electricity, trouncing our pod batteries' 40 units and the probe core's 10 units. This is very useful for probes.

Antenna

This allows for communications between a vessel and Kerbin at distances no further than minmus. Also highly useful for probes.



Lighting

Two kinds of lights that can be placed on ships. They consume electricity and provide light. The circular light acts like a spotlight or headlight, casting intense light out at a distance. The square light is much less intense and casts its light in a broad area.

Docking Ring

Two docking rings can be pushed together in flight to join them together. This allows for the construction of space stations, or to have landers dock with their command ships such as in the Apollo missions.



The final two pieces are a solar panel and a heat shield, pretty self explanatory.



With these pieces we launched a probe at Eve. It was launched on a pippin rocket but the new payload is made to resemble the Venera 13 and 14, identical ships that were launched at Venus.



The Venera 13 and 14 contained microphones that listened to Venus' atmosphere in order to gauge windspeed. The recordings these made in 1982 are the first sound recordings taken of the atmosphere of another planet.



We also launched an updated spacering, one with docking rings and lighting that brightens the inside of the ring.



We also created the moth, a solar powered probe capable of ferrying 4 people to and from orbit.



Jeb is now mostly redundant.



New pilot Maxfrid Kerman and new engineer Mirner kerman both show off our new futuristic space suit, with colourful lighting strips. Pilots wear pink/purple strips, engineers wear yellow, and scientists wear cyan.



During this time we have launched the littlefish 3 and littlefish 4. Both are headed to Jool to investigate its moons, but will take several years to arrive there.

19: Just Gonna Send It



The Littlefish Heavy.



Weighs 303 tonnes on the original Littlefish's 139 tonnes.



Its gigantic lower stages collide on separation.



The 16 thud engines on the second stage make a flower pattern.



All of this additional material is for one purpose.



It gets one more stage up into orbit.



Workhorse jeb then flies this unusual thing. I've called it the Ziggurat.



The Ziggurat barely makes its way into orbit.



Wenrick helps line up the Ziggurat with the docking ring on the Littlefish Heavy.



Getting these two docked without having researched reaction control systems was fairly difficult, but we are now the first in the world to have joined two ships in orbit. The Ziggurat refuels the Heavy and then leaves.

The Heavy will set off for Dres in about 190 days. If it seems strange that we need a bigger ship to reach the closer dwarf planet Dres than to reach the more distant moons of Jool, it's because we're able to use tricks to slow ourselves down when we arrive at Jool. Dres, however, requires us to use rocket thrust for the entire braking maneuver.



We launch yet another Heavy, the Heavy 2. This will set off for Eeloo.



Launching these big ships, however, takes its toll on our finances.



Once again we're set for the drudgery of commissioner contracts.



We've already built a station that meets these requirements in the form of the second spacering, but these commissioners want a new ship.



As they only ask for space for 5 crew members, we devise the Popplio station, a probe flown space station made from 2 crew cabins and a mk1 capsule with 4 batteries inside of a service module.



This doubles our money. Then we get The Contract



Hypothetically, here's what a lander with 6000 units of liquid fuel and 7500 units of electricity would look like.



34 fuel tanks and 75 batteries around some crew modules and a capsule.



Seeing as this thing is a giant fuel tank, we're able to drink from it to get it into orbit.



Once we've passed the worst of the atmosphere, we switch to its more efficient landing engines.



We'll refuel this thing and send it to gilly later.

The Calendar

We've set a lot of ships on their way, or have planned to, so I thought I'd make a post of the ships that currently have an ETA.

Littlefish 1



Crew: Pilot Valentina Kerman and Scientist Bob Kerman

Mission Brief: Recover samples from Duna and Ike

Estimated Time of Arrival (at Duna): 220 days - (year 1 day 420)

Littlefish 2



Crew: Pilot Tim Kerman and Engineer Bill Kerman

Mission Brief: Recover a sample from the surface of Eve's moon, Gilly.

Estimated Time of Arrival (at Eve): 1 year 165 days - (year 2 day 364)

Littlefish 3



Crew: Pilot Maxfrid Kerman and Engineer Mirner Kerman

Mission Brief: Recover a sample from the surface of Jool's 5th moon, Pol.

Estimated Time of Arrival (at Jool): 3 years 147 days (year 4 day 345)

Littlefish 4



Crew: Pilot Enburry Kerman and Scientist Neildous Kerman

Mission Brief: Recover a sample from the surface of Jool's 4th moon, Bop.

Estimated Time of Arrival (at Jool): 2 years 351 days (year 4 day 123)

Heavy 1



Crew: TBC

Mission Brief: Recover a sample from the surface of Dres

Estimated Time of Arrival (at Dres): 2 years 28 days (year 3 day 226)

Other

The heavy 2 and the Gilly Outpost do not currently have an ETA, but are in orbit of Kerbin.

Final Note

There's a disadvantage in building and sending several ships with fundamentally the same design simultaneously like this. it's a disadvantage that played out in reality: When the Soviet Union's Venera 3 entered Venus' atmosphere, the 25 bar pressure the ship was built to withstand was insufficient for Venus' crushing atmosphere (which would later be measured at 95 bar). Unfortunately the Venera 4 was already en route, and the 5 and 6 had already been built. While it makes sense in a space race to be somewhat bullish about launching new vehicles, there's an avoidable risk. It took until the Venera 7 to be able to develop the solutions to the problems found by the Venera 3 and 4. The Venera 7 would be the first probe to return data from the surface of Venus.

Imagine if there was something fundamentally wrong with the littlefish design. We've already committed 8 kerbals to long haul flights on this design. This is the danger of our rush to be first.

20: Design Limits



The Heavy 2 takes on fuel, and its caretaker (Engineer Lubald Kerman) is replaced by Jebediah Kerman. Lubald takes the Ziggurat pod back to the surface of Kerbin.



Then the Heavy 2 takes on more fuel, and Jeb is replaced with the Heavy 2's main pilot, Wehrrey Kerman. Jebediah takes the ziggurat pod back to the surface of Kerbin. The ship's fuel tanks are now completely full.



A third and final Ziggurat refueller is flown to the Heavy 2. Its fuel tanks are secured to the Heavy 2, and this ziggurat is flown by the Heavy 2's engineer Gilfrid Kerman.



Gilfrid and Wehrrey set off for Eeloo.



Their 6 minute long burn sees them discard their extra stages and fuel tanks.

Estimated time of arrival (at Eeloo) - Year 6 day 184.

Launch Date - Year 1 day 222



This space junk will drift into interplanetary space between Duna and Dres.



In the meantime, Jeb flies a new space station into Minmus orbit.



There's one really useful thing about having a station in orbit of Minmus.



Jeb is demonstrating this now.



You can land on Minmus from low Minmus orbit using just the space suit.



Then get back into orbit.



And back to the station. Now if we want to land people on Minmus all we have to do is get them to the station.



Jeb's station wins us enough money from our commissioners to launch another Littlefish rocket. This one is crewed by engineer Bartbles and pilot Isabus and is headed for Jool's moon Vall.



A problem occurs with this flight, as the mun is in its path to Jool. The rocket spends some fuel diverting its path over the mun, calling into question whether there is enough left for this mission to be successful in returning home.





We have samples from Kerbin, Minmus and the Mun

We have launched for Duna, Ike, Gilly, Pol, Bop, Vall and Eeloo

We have a rocket parked in orbit that is due to launch for Dres

That leaves four locations remaining to complete our sample collection:

Jool's innermost moon, Laythe. The innermost planet, Moho. Jool's largest moon, Tylo. The second planet, Eve.

These last four locations are going to require something more than just a Littlefish variant.



Laythe is a large moon with an atmosphere. It's more difficult to exit than Duna, and not quite as difficult to exit as Kerbin. The lander required to leave Laythe will be somewhat larger than our typical Littlefish lander.



Moho is not very difficult to land on or leave. It has no atmosphere and is only slightly more challenging than the Mun. The difficulty with Moho is getting to it in the first place, and getting back. As it is deep in the gravity well of the Sun, it takes a lot of fuel to descend to Moho's orbit. Launching to Moho takes almost twice as much as it took to launch out to Jool. The rocket needed to reach Moho will be somewhat larger than even the fully assembled Eeloo rocket launched earlier in this post.



Tylo is effectively 80% of Kerbin in terms of how strong its surface gravity is. However, Tylo has no atmosphere. Tylo is extremely challenging to land on and return from because it's a planet sized moon with no atmosphere. We have to provide the rocket fuel to both land on and leave this rock, which is not too far from being Kerbin sized. The lander for a Tylo mission will be sizeable, and we'll need a rocket capable of carrying that thing into Jool's system.



Getting to Eve is easy. Eve is close and has more mass than Kerbin, so finding Eve's gravity well is simple and takes hardly any fuel.
Landing on Eve is super easy. Eve has a thick, soupy atmosphere that makes aerobraking and parachutes very effective.

However, Eve's mass makes its surface gravity 1.7 times that on Kerbin. Its surface atmospheric pressure is 5 times that on Kerbin. This makes leaving Eve the endboss of Kerbal Space Program. Not only does the huge gravity make it harder to lift off from Eve, and the thick atmosphere provide ungodly air resistance, but the air pressure wreaks havoc on our rocket engines. In the atmosphere, a rocket engine has to push against the air surrounding it. High atmospheric pressures make for a significantly less efficient burn, and the early stages of an Eve ascent means contending with completely nerfed rockets.

The lander required for an Eve landing, especially with our level of tech, will be colossal.

Because the Littlefish 5 burned a lot of its fuel dodging the mun, I may use the Littlefish 5 to go to Pol and use the Littlefish 3 to go to Vall, switching their destinations. At the moment they're both drifting out to Jool.

21: Departure for Laythe



This is the Aspiration 1



Its 9 swivel engines and 6 solid rocket boosters make a combined 3 Meganewtons of thrust. It's an odd coincidence that the Kerbals also had a groundbreaking physicist called Newton.



Pilot Trido and Scientist Laoly set off on this mission.



The rockets of the first stage collide on separation.



The second stage consists of nine swivel engines, which burn through 54 tonnes of rocket propellant in 88 seconds.



Once the nine swivel engines separate, three more ignite along with the three Thud engines of the Laythe lander. All these engines drink rocket fuel from the tanks of the lower stage.



Once those tanks are separated, we get to see the basic idea of this rocket. Its lander has three powerful Thud engines, and the lander is attached to a large set of fuel tanks which it draws its fuel from for the Jool transfer burn.



Attached to the front of the Laythe lander is a series of box struts. This is because we haven't yet researched ladders, so I've made a climbing frame of box struts that will allow Trido to climb from the surface of Laythe back into the lander.



Trido climbs from the lander pod into the more comfortable crew cabin.

Soon we will refuel this rocket and send it on its way to Jool, but first we need more funds and that means finding more commissioner contracts.



There are two things to note about this design.

First is that this is only sufficient to reach laythe, land and then enter Laythe orbit. Another vessel will need to bring these kerbals home.

Second is that the entire ship pictured above, with full fuel tanks, is sufficient to go from Tylo orbit to landing on Tylo and back into Tylo orbit. The Aspiration is not a one off design.

There is something fucked about a tech level that allows space travel but not ladders. Like, all this other stuff I can see being iteration on spaceship design, but how hard is it to bolt a few hand/footholds to the outside of a rocket? (I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me how it is in fact, incredibly difficult to bolt a ladder to a rocket.)

If we put a pod on the launch pad,



then get Jeb to hop out and walk over this way



there's some fuel tanks this side of the launch pad.

22: Return Flight



Our Commissioners give us a mission: Identical to the Gilly base contract, but on Minmus.



We launch the Minmus base, identical to the Gilly base. As Jebediah is still at the Minmus station, Pilot Macul Kerman has flown this mission.



Engineer Lubald Kerman flies a a Ziggurat rocket to the Aspiration 1, filling its fuel tanks.



The Aspiration 1 sets off for Jool and its moon Laythe.



Estimated Time of Arrival (At Jool) Year 6 Day 42.



The remaining fuel is then placed into the Minmus base before engineer Lubald returns home in the Ziggurat's capsule.



Which Macul brings down to the surface.



In hindsight it would be much easier to give this base its requisite 6000 units of fuel in Minmus orbit rather than trying to refuel it on the surface, but that's a problem for later.



As for now, Pilot Macul uses his space suit to join Jeb in the Minmus station.



This leaves us with an issue. Jeb and Macul are the only pilots we haven't launched into deep space, and we need to launch another vessel at Jool ASAP to meet up with Aspiration and bring its crew home after it has returned to Laythe orbit from its landing.

Our commissioners paid us to put this station in Minmus orbit, but we have no obligation to leave it there.



So here it is in Kerbin's atmosphere. We could have launched a ship at Minmus to retreive Jeb and Mac, but that would have taken 9 days to arrive at their location.



This space station naturally isn't designed for re entry, and narrowly avoids burning up.



The slide in Kerbin's atmosphere doesn't slow us sufficiently to land, and we see here that the ship begins ascending out of the atmosphere again.



After completing this orbit of Kerbin we re enter the atmosphere again.



We pull up again.



In the moments before the final descent into the atmosphere we see that these burns have torn off the stations antenna and solar panels.



The final issue with landing a space station is the lack of parachutes.



8000m high we find ourselves plummeting at mach 2.



Thankfully our pilots carry their own parachutes. Macul bails out here.



Jeb bails out much closer to the ground.



They land themselves close to the station's service module, which seems to have survived the impact.



The resilience of this component gives the crew some bad ideas.



Macul and Lubald then set off in the Littlefish Quad: A Littlefish rocket with two extra re entry pods in the place of the usual lander.



The few days between the departure of the Aspiration 1 and the launch of the Littlefish Quad have magnified in their trajectories.

Estimated time of arrival (at Jool): Year 6 day 418. There will be 376 days between the Aspiration's arrival at Jool and the Littlefish Quad. I suppose that gives them plenty of time to complete their mission.

Commander Keene wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 05, 2020 10:07 pm

(I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me how it is in fact, incredibly difficult to bolt a ladder to a rocket.)

The only technological thing of note about space ladders doesn't really explain why we'd go for a box strut monstrosity instead of a steel ladder.

The Apollo moon landers' ladders were built as light as possible, as every kilogram on the final payload needs about 400 to get it to the moon. Because of this, the ladders were built with the understanding that their pilots would be climbing them in moon gravity. The ladders used in the Apollo mission were so thin and light that they would have torn under human load on Earth.

23: God Closes the Windows

It is Year 1 Day 286.



Interplanetary space has become crowded.



Since conquering the Mun and Minmus we have refused to slow our progress. We have launched 8 vessels out to the new worlds, and a ninth waits in Kerbin's orbit for its departure.



As we have been working, the planets have moved in their relative positions. Windows of opportunity to throw ourselves efficiently out to other worlds have been and passed.

We are leaving a Jool window, meaning our future lauch for Tylo will have to wait.

We are far from an Eve window, and will need to wait until next year at the earliest to send anything there.

The Dres window opens in less than 100 days. During this time we will launch the Heavy 1, which is currently parked in Kerbin's orbit.

While we are currently in a window for a ballistic Moho launch, we will not be able to raise the funds for a Moho vehicle in time. It's also possible that we might instead go for a nonstandard transfer such as a bi elliptic transfer or a gravity assist to reach Moho.

Given that it could be a long time before we launch to another planet, this seemed a good time to take stock.





link to the above image

The Heavy 1 is in orbit right now, but its brand new crew (Matdrin and Verbrett) have not yet boarded.



Verbrett is instead flying the Aspiration RF - An Aspiration lower rocket but with a payload geared toward delivering rocket fuel to Minmus.



I do love the pattern of the second stage of this rocket system.



The final rocket is similar to the Aspiration, with three Thud engines similar to the Aspiration's configuration except the entire vessel is a fuel tank instead of being a lander strapped to a fuel tank.



In orbit of Minmus, Verbrett heads down to the surface in her suit.



She reaches the base.



Thankfully it has enough fuel remaining to re enter Minmus orbit.



Verbrett adds fuel to the base. Eyeballing it from here, it'll take 7 more of these missions to fill the base with sufficient fuel to meet the commissioner's objectives.



Verbrett leaves the base in Minmus orbit and heads back to Kerbin.



Once again we're entering Kerbin with an ill suited re entry vehicle.



Verbrett is a pilot, and that means she carries a parachute everywhere.



Verbrett is a fine choice for an interplanetary mission.

24: A Glorious Dawn



Several ordinary missions in Kerbin orbit and on Kerbin's moons raise enough money to upgrade our mission control center. We can now accept unlimited contracts, where we could only have 7 contracts active before. This will be useful toward the end of this LP.



In in the months leading to the arrival of the Littlefish 1 at Duna, we capture an eclipse sunrise from the KSC.



Year 1 Day 316: Our Venera inspired mission, launched roughly 135 days ago, arrives near Eve. This probe was able to fly a much faster trajectory to Eve than the Littlefish 2 as its low mass allowed for a much quicker, less efficient, trajectory.



On hitting the upper atmosphere at about 16,000 mph, the rocket engine at the leading edge of the probe is vapourised.



Soon the fuel tank follows.



Finally the probe is whittled down to its heatshield, which halts the creeping vapourisation



The rocket engine was originally attached by a decoupler. With the probe far out of radio range, this machine has no means to trigger a separation. A more technologically advanced space program would have researched the large radio antennae needed to bridge data between planets. In lieu of decoupling, it seems the atmosphere dealt with the unnecessary additional weight for us.



While the plasma storm roars on, I watch the map of our trajectory (blue arc). The heat shield is holding, but now I wait to see whether the aerobraking will suffice to capture us in Eve, or whether we'll simply blaze through the air and drift back out into interplanetary space.



The blue arc forms into an ellipse: an orbit around Eve that dips below its atmosphere at its lowest point. This orbit will eventually decay down to Eve's surface.



We rise out of Eve's atmosphere and orbit the planet once.



At the low point of our orbit, we head back into the fire.



The probe slows to a descent path.



Having slowed to a less incandescent speed, the probe flies to the dark side of this alien sunrise.



Silhouetted in the green of Eve's dawn, our probe begins to hang from the ropes of its parachute. (Anticipating that the probe's radio would cut out, I activated the probe's parachute on Kerbin exit trajectory)







The sun rises to fill the probe's solar panels. We have landed the first kerbal made object on another planet.



While we don't have the radio signal needed to control the probe, it is being tracked in our tracking center.



For this historic feat, our state commissioners throw money at our space programme.

Nataliy wrote: Our message in a bottle has arrived on the shores of Eve. Inside is our message of hope, of curiosity, and our proclamation of the dawn of our species' interplanetary age.

25: Arrivals and Departures



Our commissioners want us to double the living space on the Popplio in Kerbin orbit.



So Jeb just rams a near identical station into its docking port.



Verbrett keeps working on getting the Minmus base filled with the 6000 units of fuel it needs to meet our contract. Each flight seems to add anywhere between 900 and 1100 units.



These flights don't need safe landing capsules.





Verbrett's made for this kind of action.



We then get a strange mission. I think our commissioners may be losing the plot.



A littlefish rocket with no lander can do this odd mission easily.



Tandorf and Katemone set off in the Littlefish 6. Destinations: Eve, the Mun, Minmus.



In the meantime, this is the Pippin Twin Auto: A Pippin Twin with a probe core to allow it to fly via remote control. Ships like this and the moth are great for space jail and rescue missions.

A Brief Note On Space Jail



Space jail is holding steady with 18 innmates. I think I'll take this chance to explain what space jail is for. While I joke that it's somewhere to put political enemies, it's actually just a quality of life thing for me.



The more crew you hire, the more money the next crew member would cost to train.



When you rescue people from space, they join your space program. Naturally I've been hiring this way instead of paying the ridiculous sums of money it takes, because there's no actual espionage mechanics that's just something I added to the plot.



I want pilots, because they have all the skills that are useful for flying rockets. The things engineers and scientists can do for us are things we probably won't research this play-through. These are things like laboratories, deployable surface science experiments and fuel mining rigs.



The game will always randomly determine which role a stranded kerbal has. There's no way to see their role before you accept the contract for their rescue. You just have to keep grabbing kerbals until you get the ones you want.



The game doesn't organise your unassigned kerbals at all, just dumps them all in this big list. However, the list of kerbals currently on space ships is a separate list. In order to tidy the unassigned kerbal list and keep a nice balance of pilots to non pilots, I bung any surplus kerbals into space jail so that they move to the other list.



You can fire your unassigned kerbals, at which point they join the applicants list and you'd have to pay the hiring cost to get them on board. Firing kerbals is obviously less effort than launching kerbals into space, but having the space jail as a storage allows you to get those guys back for free if needed. Also, seeing as we have to head out into space anyway to carry out rescue missions, there's no reason we can't drop people off at space jail on the way out and then use the now empty ship to carry out the rescue. It's a nice round trip!

If you want to know why my missions usually have one pilot and one non-pilot, I just feel guilty if I don't give the pilot someone to talk to on long haul missions. The second person sometimes has uses, like pushing things around with their jetpack, but it's mainly for company.

Back To Scheduled Viewing

Day 387, three days before Verbrett is due to set off for Dres on the Littlefish Heavy. Verbrett has landed a Pippin Twin XL capsule from a rescue mission in Minmus orbit. in this pod is Jorbert, a scientist who is destined for space jail after we claim the reward for recovering him on Kerbin.



The capsule begins to roll down a steep sand dune, barely slowed by its parachute.



The capsule picks up speed, launches from the terrain, then smashes into the desert. Verbrett's pod takes the brunt of the impact, while Jorbert's separates. He bails out (and can be seen in this image if you look hard enough).



This is the first loss our space program has encountered, and it raises concerns. The Bigfish style double entry pod is something we have fitted to every littlefish rocket. At the time of this incident there are 18 kerbals in space who will be relying on this subassembly to get them home safely.



Nataliy is not one to slow down for these concerns. Pilot Kany takes Verbrett's place on the Dres mission, heading out here with Scientist Matdrin.



Their Pippin Twin rocket meets up with the Littlefish Heavy



Engineer Wenrick, who has been looking after this ship for almost 100 days now, heads out to the Pippin Twin for her flight home.



Kany and Matdrin head out to Dres.



Although an engineer, Wenrick has levelled up in space, meaning she also carries a parachute.



Her bailing out was a wise choice, as this capsule also begins to roll down a mountainside.

26: Duna



Year 1 day 420. Valentina and Bob drift toward Duna on what will be 6 days of exploration.



They hit Duna's atmosphere in order to lower their speed.



This changes their trajectory from one that would pass by Duna to an orbit of Duna, without having to fire any rockets.



A few corrections later, they create a nice low orbit of Duna.



Valentina hops into the lander.



She descends heading engine first into the atmosphere.



Our rocket is tilted slightly upward into the direction of its travel, providing a slight lift as we hurtle through the air. This buys us more time in Duna's atmosphere to slow down.



Duna's atmosphere is thinner than Kerbin's, and provides much less resistance from orbital speed. Here we are moving at about 400 m/s (900mph) and are struggling to shed that speed.



At about 3000m from the surface our parachute deploys. Finally we can lose that horizontal speed.



At about 2000m we begin descending vertically at a reasonably safe 15 m/s.



In spite of our best efforts, the lander falls on its side.



Valentina Kerman: First kerbal to set foot on another planet. She takes a sample for our collection.



The next thing to do is point the rocket at an Eastward facing dune.



Then gently slide the rocket up the side of the dune.



Once we're near the crest of the dune, we thrust at full power to ramp ourselves into the air.



It works.



Valentina hops back into the Littlefish



Then we head to the next location.



Ike



The ship barely has enough fuel to land on Ike, then get back home to Kerbin. Also it's not designed for a landing. Trying to land this thing here would be a bad idea.



Instead we've slowed ourselves into an arcing trajectory with 100m/s of mostly horizontal speed, then flipped ourselves to face the direction of travel.



The next step is to get Bob into the rocket engine.



Thrusting here serves the dual purpose of getting the ship back toward an orbit and shedding some of Bob's horizontal speed.



Any amount of fuel we can save is a huge help, as it would take four fifths of the fuel in a space suit just to land on Ike from low orbit. Here we only use about one fifth landing from a much slowed trajectory.



Bob hits the ground with some force, to save some fuel.



Val gets the ship back into orbit.



Bob sets up the expedition flag and takes a sample in view of Duna. Note that Duna and Ike are mutually tidally locked, which means they both face each other at all times. If you can see Duna from Ike, Duna will always appear to be hanging in that part of the sky from Ike. Likewise if you can see Ike from Duna, it'll hang in that same part of the sky. This Duna is neither a rising Duna or a setting Duna, it just stays there.



Bob sets off to get back to the ship, but he doesn't have enough fuel.



Bob sets off at a precise timing to allow Val to intercept him on his suborbital arc.



While this looks like an ordinary rendezvous they are both in fact falling toward the ground, roughly 55 seconds from their projected impact.



Valentina has to take the ship back to Duna.



She forgot to take the samples out of the lander again.



All of this messing about near duna has left the ship with a meager 700m/s of delta v remaining. There is a window to reach kerbin for that little amount of fuel... ...in a year and a half's time. So they wait.



By the time all of this is done, it is Year 1 Day 426 - New Year's Eve.

27: Happy New Year!



It is Year 2 day 1, marking the first anniversary of our space program.



We've come a long way since the launch of the Sergei.



In the space of one year, we have thoroughly conquered our moons and have set off on our way to numerous distant worlds.



And we have got this far with very little in the way of real technological change.



Our rockets may be bigger, but they are mostly the same pieces bolted together in larger amounts.



Keeping the same systems may not have been the best idea.



But if it works, it works!



Perhaps it is that attitude which has brought us so far in such short time.

But if our aim is to be first in all that we do, what chance did we have at failing? Who was our competition?

KSP doesn't have other space programs rolling out, even though it does spawn some ships in space for the rescue missions. If the game doesn't provide competition, I suppose I'll have to sort something out.



Year 1 Day 1



Bronslo Kerman's expedition to the desert will be greatly overshadowed by news of communists entering space.



By the time he sets foot on the desert sand the news will have broken.



New saves usually start you out with Jeb, Val, Bill and Bob. With the power of savefile editing we're able to start this campaign with four different characters, Including playboy CEO and pilot Bronslo Kerman.



In fact, it's the plaintext savefiles which allow me to make comparisons between the files. Each spaceship, flag or piece of debris has the time of its creation in the savefile. It's stored as a number - the number of seconds from the start time of the career. By carbon dating the flags, ships and debris from Nataliy's save, I can see exactly which date certain events happen at.



While Bronsair's Keirjet aircraft can't get anywhere near as high as the Sergei rocket, a Keirjet has its own advantages.



A Keirjet costs roughly the same amount to build as the Sergei, but returns all of its hardware. The only thing lost in this flight is the fuel.



While the Sergei destroys nearly all of its 9000 kerbucks building cost, this flight of a Keirjet only spent 325 kerbucks in fuel.



A jet like this can fly to the farther reaches of Kerbin, returning science from places like deserts and the ice shelf.



Some research later, test pilot Kathy flies the new model "Brocket".



The Brocket is just a big solid rocket booster with some wings and jet engines attached.



It enters space on a suborbital trajectory, albeit on the same day Valentina Kerman becomes the first person to enter Kerbin orbit... ...and then set off for a flyby of the Mun.



The Brocket also returns all of its hardware. This model only burned 651 kerbucks.



Bronsair inc. employs a different strategy than Nataliy.



They also never pass up a space tourism contract. These crazy tourists want to blackout due to high G.



EXTREEME TOURISM TO THE MAX



As Valentina drifts out to the Mun on the Horsfield, Bronsair inc plays catchup.



The Bronsorb is a rocket powered plane capable of suborbital spaceflight, dragging an orbiter capsule on its back.



While the plane flies its suborbital arc, the orbiter detaches and fires out into orbit.



I can't be in two places at once, so the trick is to make sure you can get into orbit quick enough to be back at the plane before it crashes.



This thing doesn't have enough fuel to get back to the airfield, so it has to ditch in the ocean. There's a cost associated with recovering your hardware at a distance from the space centre: it takes a percentage out of the money recovered.



Because we're still at the point where Valentina was flying the Horsfield, it seems Bronslo does actually beat Nataliy to one thing. Bronsair is the first to make this design with a terrier engine, a fuel tank and a capsule. This is Nataliy's go-to lander, but the fact Bronslo got there first opens up the possibility that this was actually stolen tech.



The sum of the fuel and the recovery costs on this mission comes to 3062 kerbucks. There's definitely a lot of improvement to be had there, but it's the most cost effective orbital launch at this time.





Bronsair inc starts taking tourists on suborbital flights. This is something Virgin Galactic tried to get working with its really interesting Stratolaunch system, but flying such novel technology has a risk associated with it, and the system has been frought with issues.



There's a huge difference between space flight conducted by the nation's top military space pilots for the sake of pushing mankind's boundaries, and space tourism. The tourist operators have to build something that its customers feel comfortable with, and that they can trust to get them home. NASA, on the other hand, was prepared for the possibility that the launch engine on the moon lander of the Apollo missions might fail. This would have left two astronauts stranded on the lunar surface, and they would have suffocated before there was any chance of sending a rescue mission. Famously, the US president at the time (Richard Nixon) had a speech prepared for him by his speech writer just for this event.

I suppose what I'm saying is that Nataliy is fine to bung kerbals on several years long space flights with only the space of two pods and a crew cabin. If the communists come back with their bones completely decalcified and their face inflated like a balloon, so be it! Bronslo, however, has to take a different tack.

It might be a while before the next update because I don't intend to be as thorough on Bronslo as I have been with Nataliy. Nataliy was the person you voted for, after all. I don't want to be away from her too long. Instead I'm thinking about blazing through the first year of Bronslo's save and returning here with the highlights reel and where it compares with Nataliy.

If there are people reading and I'm not just doing this for the fun I'm having, let me know if you'd like me to go into detail with Bronslo or just keep it short.

I feel like the comparison adds some useful context to just how fast Nataliy has been getting things done. I would argue in favor of enough detail, a lot of the fun in this kind of game/LP is in the shenanigans, there's no need for much detail in the day-to-day of space tourism, but it would be a shame to miss out on a lot of the fun nonsense that's going to go into the space planes.

28: You Said, We Did



Launching these one-man orbital capsules are a great milestone, but they're little use to a space program with tourism in mind.



sub orbital flight doesn't cut it for the tourists. In Bronsair's mission control center the tourism contracts are all demanding orbital flight. He needs to figure out how to launch more than just a pilot into orbit.



Bronslo finds himself nursing a delicate scientific experiment through the heat of re entry by angling the pod to generate lift and slow his fall. This is something Valentina will be doing at the end of the year to land on Duna.




By landing both parts of this Bronsorb at airfields, where recovery is free, we're able to figure out the real cost of this mission: 1372 kerbucks in fuel.



Sod's law strikes when we need 45 science to unlock new technology.



Once we've sorted out the 0.1 science, we launch the Jetlab. It carries an array of scientific instruments and a lot of jet fuel.



Two of the scientific instruments on this jet need to be reset by a scientist between uses. Because the science experiments can be reused, the jetlab takes a round tour of some of the flatter biomes on Kerbin.





During this tour Valentina will have returned from her flyby of the mun and Jeb will have set off for Minmus in the Pippin 1



Bronsair uses the science from the Jetlab to research a new landing gear. It can withstand greater loads and doesn't explode under the weight of this Kerbliner aircraft.



Like the Bronsorb it reaches sub orbital trajectory before firing a separate rocket.



Unlike the Bronsorb this rocket is a plane, and lands like a plane.



I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with this part.



The space tourists seem to enjoy it, though.



Assuming you get both parts to a runway and get the free recovery, the mission only costs 1504 kerbucks in fuel.



Given that the tourism contracts often yield 10k to 20k per kerbal sent to orbit (and this carries two) that's a disgusting amount of profit.

29: Always Overshadowed



Orbital and Suborbital space tourism is a steady income for the company.



Also, a few rescue missions arrive at about the same time Jeb is heading out to Minmus on the Pippin 1.

It turns out Bronslo beat Nataliy to another thing: He was the first to rendezvous in orbit of Kerbin.



Replacing the Crew cabin on a Kerbliner's orbiter with a fuel tank and some science experiments allows Bronsair to stretch the limits of the design.



A Mun flyby, about 15 days after Nataliy's. 15 days might sound close, but in this game there's no research time or build time, your research and your ships just pop into existence.



Pilot Kathy has to push her rocket along, too.



Nailed it.



A routine flight sees Bronslo spiralling to the ground.



He levels out roughly 800m from the water. He should really have bailed, but he's the CEO of this company, flying a plane that represents 20,000 kerbucks.



The Mundart is also destined for the mun. Heavy, it requires that the rocket fuel tanks on the Kerbliner are extended slightly.



This carries more science experiments, more fuel and more rockets.



Mun flybys are old news. One day after this flyby, comrade Jeb will plant a flag on Minmus.



These aren't ready for tourists just yet.



Tired of trying to stretch the Kerbliner beyond its orbital limits, Bronsair decides to go back to the drawing board.



The Eagle is a rocket plane just like the Kerbliner.



The Swift sets off from the Eagle, just like a Kerbliner's orbiter.



By this point, Valentina will be days away from landing on the Mun.



By the time the nosecone of this Swift rocket melts upon re entry, Valentina will have returned from the Mun, then Nataliy's space programme will have launched the Littlefish into Kerbin orbit.

That's right, by the time Bronslo is grappling with Minmus, Nataliy has built and launched the hardware that will send Valentina to Duna by the year's end.



Once Bronslo gets better tracking facilities and the ability to plan maneuvers, I'm sure the efficiency of these flights will improve enough to land them on the runway.

30: The Dove



A Swift was sent to the Mun in order to complete a contract in orbit there. This flight began with calamity, though.



It struck its carrier plane on separation.



What a mess.



Kathy had to ride this dead Eagle back into the atmosphere before bailing out.



This Swift did manage to land on the runway, which is neat.



Sending one-seater rockets to Minmus and Mun orbit isn't enough for a program centered on space tourism, so here's a new design: The Dove.



It carries four passengers and has enough delta V to land on minmus and get back home.



Flying the Eagle at over mach 1.3 starts to overheat its jets.



The maiden voyage of the Dove sees four tourists into orbit of the Mun.



Seeing as we landed this thing at the runway, we can see its true cost (after also having melted its nosecone).

These things cost 80,000 kerbucks to build but a flight only burns 7,500 in fuel. This makes it simultaneously more expensive than a Littlefish and cheaper than anything Nataliy has launched.



Having a four seater capable of long distance flight opens up all kinds of possibilities, including combining many missions into one. Pictured: a combined rescue and mun tourism mission. They also rescued someone from orbit on their way out to the Mun.



This post brushes over at least 6 missions carried out on the duration between days 42 and 62. In Nataliy's save, this duration would be the first half of the wait between launching the Littlefish into orbit and having it depart for Duna. It seems both space programs at this time are tied up in little jobs.



It's during this period between the launch and departure of the first Littlefish that we saw some rescue missions pop up on Minmus and around the Mun in Nataliy's save. It seems that Bronsair is perfectly timed with the other capitalist orgs in reaching these places. Maybe in someone's headcanon he's to blame for some of Nataliy's rescue missions.

31: Banned In All States Except New York



The easiest way to get a Dove off the surface of Minmus is to reach near orbital speed horizontally. This is in the region of 300mph.



Eventually the curvature of the tiny moon peels away from the bottom of the spacecraft.



The science brought back from another Minmus mission goes toward the advancements needed to make this beauty: The Broncorde.



After gaining some distance from the airfield, the Broncorde activates its afterburners and accelerates to mach 2.3



Only then does the Broncorde fire its rockets and head out to orbit. This version is capable of carrying 10 kerbals including its 2 pilots/crew. If you divide the fuel cost of this mission between its 8 passengers, it is by far the cheapest orbital mission per passenger in orbit. This remains true if there are at least 5 kerbals heading out.



Once the Broncorde reaches a high velocity, it switches off its less efficient (though more powerful) outer rockets.



This cargo version carries up to 4 tons into Kerbin's orbit, though it often requires additional payloads such as this fuel tank to balance it properly.



Bronsair is in the commercial satellite business now.



During this flight a rescue mission came up: rescue this person from their stranded crew cabin.



There were no spare seats on the Broncorde, so I had the stranded pilot shove his cabin into the cargo hold.



That'll do.



let's de orbit.



I was hoping to try and land the Broncorde with this thing in the cargo hold, but video game collision detection sucks. This thing popped out before it hit the atmosphere so I put the Broncorde back into orbit and let this thing enter.



The passenger was a pilot and was able to bail out before it smashed into the ocean.



We also launched this space station into Minmus orbit.



Several tourist missions, satellites and rescues later, Bronsair reaches day 100. By this point the Littlefish will have set off for Duna and a rescue mission will be on its way to Jeb in solar orbit. By this point, however, Bronslo has bought the same level of upgrades to his space center as Nataliy would acquire over the whole year. They effectively have the same upgrades, only Bronslo has upgraded the hangar and runway where Nataliy upgraded the assembly building and the launchpad.



Bronslo is also plowing ahead with science, focusing research on improving his space planes. Impressive, except he hasn't even landed on the Mun yet due to his obsession with reusability and cost reduction. Nataliy, on the other hand, will launch all of the interplanetary vehicles from the Littlefish 2 through to the Aspiration over the next 150 days.

This is very enjoyable, I've blitzed through it in the last two days

biosterous wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 21, 2020 9:15 pm

This is very enjoyable, I've blitzed through it in the last two days

Thanks, I have a lot of fun making it. Hope you don't mind that I've slowed down a little. (I've offered to DM for my DnD group and my spare time has gone on learning our virtual tabletop system seeing as we're in lockdown)

32: Heavy



The cargo version of the Broncorde is redesigned to house its payload closer to its center of mass. That way it's not relying on having a mass in its cargo bay for stability.



Reaction control thrusters allow this lander to undock from the Broncorde in Kerbin's orbit.



Bronslo finally sets foot on the Mun, although Nataliy already has ships drifting out to Duna and Gilly by this point.



The lander makes it back to the Broncorde in less than 4 days.



A few of these missions bring back great scientific data and financial reward.



It's time to go up to the next level: The Cygnus.



The Cygnus carries up to 16 passengers in its cabin.



Four of those passengers get to board the Muntours touring vessel.



Here's what decadent wealth can get you.



As with our Minmus flights, the Mun tourer speeds horizontally into orbit.



It docks back inside of the Cygnus' hold.



I just wanted to show you that nothing works first time, and I often have to make use of the game's savescumming.



In the canon universe that flight lands safely with all 16 passengers on board. What's more, the numbers are in. This thing cost 13549 kerbucks to fly. That's about the cost of a Bigfish rocket, which is Nataliy's Mun rocket capable of landing only one soul on the Mun. This thing gets four passengers and one pilot there while taking 16 into orbit.



It's time to go to the next level with this rocket powered SSTO: The Magpie. This machine's rocket is oversized and overpowered for getting into orbit, but for a good reason.



In lieu of a Mun lander, this Cygnus carries fuel tanks in its cargo hold. The Magpie drinks.



A second Cygnus is sent with a weighty crew cabin and some extra fuel capacity. In the crew cabin is scientist Ozmos. At the controls is Pilot Riddous.



The Magpie's oversized engine will have no problem hauling this extra load.



and so they make their way to Duna, on a course that will have them arrive 76 days later than Nataliy's Littlefish.

It's fun to read about people's exploits in Kerbal Space Program, but it goes so deep that my brain would just throw down a towel in surrender if I ever tried to play it myself. I'd never be able to anticipate stuff like other heavenly bodies suddenly orbiting in the trajectory of a space ship, much less be able to think on the fly and come up with a way to salvage the expedition by swapping final destinations with another mission already in progress.

It's been a real treat to see the space tourism side of things for the last few updates. It's wild how many different designs and goals there are to aim for in this (big yikes at the Cygnus failure shot, tho).