Geeb Space Program

[Dosipede]

Welcome to Geeb Space Program, a story of exploration told through the independent game Kerbal Space Program. Kerbal Space Program lets you take control of little green men in a quest to explore a fictional star system using realistic(-ish) physics. I knew nothing about orbital mechanics when I began playing this game about a year ago. Now I watch sci-fi movies and scoff while saying "Why are you burning toward the planet you are orbiting?"

Anyway, this first post will serve as something of an introduction with our first mission. I'm playing with a long list of mods, which I'll detail in the following blog post, since a blog can be edited as I go along:
Episode list, mod list and glossary of commonly-used terms

Let's explore the game a little bit. The game starts at Kerbal Space Center (KSC). This is where all the decisions are made, where rockets and planes are built and where rockets and planes launch from.



In the game, you control Kerbals, which are little green men that stand about a meter tall, with heads that make up roughly 60 percent of their body mass. You start with three on your astronaut roster: Jebediah Kerman (pictured here), Bob Kerman and Bill Kerman, and you can hire more. Jeb has a reputation among KSP players for smiling through every disaster. All Kerbals have the last name Kerman, indicating a fair amount of inbreeding, which might be why they all have huge noggins and bug eyes.



Kerbals reside on the planet Kerbin, which has an equatorial radius of only 600 kilometers (compared to Earth's 6,300 or so), but has the same gravitational pull as Earth, indicating a very dense core. Kerbal Space Center lies on the east coast of a peninsula directly on the equator. Kerbin has no axial tilt, meaning no seasons. It's perpetually spring here.



(Note: there are mods which alter the game to have you playing on a real-sized Earth, complete with launching from Cape Canaveral or other stations, and real-sized solar system planets. We are not using those mods. They make It incredibly difficult and time-consuming. Rocket science is hard. Who knew?)

Kerbin's atmosphere ends at 70 kilometers, and not the way Earth's atmosphere ends (it fades away until it gets to a point where scientists go "OK, we're in space now", but there's still a tiny amount of atmosphere, which is why the International Space Station has to fire station-keeping rockets every few years to make sure it stays in its desired orbit). Nope, Kerbin's atmosphere just stops. The game does have its limits.

Kerbin is orbited by two satellites: Mün at an orbital radius of 12,000 kilometers and Minmus with a 47,000-kilometer orbital radius. These are the only two celestial bodies the Kerbals have had a good look at due to a dense cloud cover obscuring telescopes (Note: you can get a good look at all the planets in the game, but for the purpose of storytelling, I'll leave you in suspense).



While the Mün orbits in line with Kerbin's equator, Minmus has a six-degree inclination.



Mün's equatorial radius is 200 kilometers, and it is pockmarked with craters.



Minmus, mostly made up of ice, has a radius of 60 kilometers and a distinct minty tint. Its surface gravity is just 0.05G, compared to Mün's 0.166G.



The center of the system is the star Kerbol, with a 262,600-kilometer radius. The inner system starts with Moho, which scientists believe is an atmosphere-less hunk of rock roughly the size of Mün that orbits on an eccentric path ranging from about 4.2 million kilometers to 6.3 million kilometers. Next up is Eve, a planet with a purple tint indicating a thick atmosphere at about 9.8 million kilometers. Orbiting Eve is a tiny speck known as Gilly. Kerbal is the third planet from its star at 13.6 million kilometers, and the inner system finishes with Duna, a red-tinted planet orbiting about 21 million kilometers with a moon known as Ike.



The outer system consists of two rocky specks and a gas giant. Dres is believed to be a Mün-sized rock orbiting from 41 million to 48-million km. Jool is the gas giant with a green tint at about 70 million km, and Eeloo is another mün-sized stone with a highly eccentric orbit. It shoots all the way out to 113 million km from Kerbol, but drops back to 66 million, inside of Jool's orbit, at its periapsis (lowest point of an orbit). This phenomenon makes scientists believe it used to be a Jool satellite that was kicked out due to gravitational encounters with its other moons. Jool has three moons, the second-largest of which (Laythe) is believed to have an atmosphere.



A quick game note: for realism purposes, I have disabled all the little cheating mechanisms that are activated by default. The game has a "Revert" option where if you do something stupid like forget to put parachutes on your re-entry vehicle, you can revert back to the VAB and restart the mission. This has been disabled. The game allows you to save the game at a certain point and later revert back to that save. This has been disabled. And perhaps most importantly, the game allows kerbals killed in action to respawn so you can still play with ones you get attached to. This has been disabled. Any kerbals that die will stay that way, so y'all may not want to get attached to these guys the way I usually do.



The most recent release (this is still a beta game) introduced contracts, money and reputation, to go along with science points needed to unlock parts along a tech tree. To start things out we'll accept the first four mission contracts, which we'll work on fulfilling in the first two missions. Contracts come in several forms: some are to test parts in certain conditions, there are contracts to leave satellites in certain orbits, and there are contracts to explore planets and such.



I have decided to name the near-Kerbin exploration program the Ukko Program, after the Finnish god of the sky and thunder. I'll probably jump aroud to different mythologies for program and ship names based on what deity happens to catch my eye that particular day.
The Ukko 1 is ready for its maiden voyage. The mission objective for the Ukko 1 is to test the concept of rocket flight and do some atmospheric testing.



Now, the smart, conservative thing to do would be to send up an unmanned vessel to test the concept of rocket flight, but that's just not the Kerbal Way. These little frog-men don't have huge heads for nothing. The Kerbal Way is to dive in head first.

The rocket has a delta-V budget of 1,802 meters per second. Delta-V (∆V, or as I'll write it from here on, dV) literally means "change in velocity". If you are orbiting at 3,000 meters per second (m/s) and you need to slow your orbital speed to 2,400 m/s to re-enter, you need to expend 600 dV. If your rocket only has enough fuel to produce 400 dV, you're in trouble.

Ukko 1's thrust-to-weight ratio is 4.29 at launch, which is pretty high, so we won't need to throttle the thing up all the way.
Ukko 1 on the launch pad, with Jebediah ready for the maiden flight of the Geeb Space Program:



Here's what Jeb sees inside the capsule. Those information screens are made possible by a mod called RasterPropManager.



Even at less than half power, Ukko 1 takes off like a hummingbird. Look how freakin' happy Jeb is.



The flight is still going smooth as we break through the cloud layer.



As we get above the clouds at about 15 kilometers, we can see beyond the mountains behind KSP.



Nearing the high point of our flight at around 41 kilometers, we turn the rocket around so the engine and empty tanks will shield the capsule from the effects of the atmosphere. From ths height, we'll have negligible re-entry effects, but you can never be too cautious. As you can see over there, Jeb cares not a whit about caution.



As we fall through the atmosphere, we decouple the crew capsule from the spent rocket and deploy the chute. It will drag until we get below a kilometer, when It'll open up and gently lower us into the ocean. There's the Mün through a gap in the clouds.



With a soft splashdown at about 7 m/s, the first flight in the history of the GSP is a success. Using data from this mission, the space engineers get to work researching things like batteries and how to keep essential supplies (food, water, oxygen) in space for longer missions, along with better parachutes and a less overpowering engine for future orbital maneuvers.
We've fulfilled two of our contracts (launch a new craft and achieve a height of 5 kilometers) and have been rewarded for these successes with money and reputation. In our next mission, we will work on getting to space.


As a note on why I'm starting this series, I watch and read a few walk-throughs (known as "Let's Plays" in some parts of the internet, where someone plays a game for others' enjoyment), but I feel there are few games that lend themselves to good storytelling. Kerbal Space Program is one of those that offers extreme highs and lows as you follow your brave kerbals through the dangerous missions involved in exploring a solar system. I've felt the heartbreak of losing a kerbal I've become attached to as he runs out of fuel on a descent and becomes but a green smear on a desolate landscape. I've watched my little green buddies vaporize due to engineering oversights just a few meters above the launchpad. I've also felt the joy of placing a Kerbal flag on another planet and returning that little dude safely home to, I assume, become a legend among the kerbals and live the rest of his days inseminating the many willing female kerbals that flock to his side. It's a lot more fun than shooting at random strangers on the internet.

Another game with storytelling potential is Crusader Kings, where you play as the head of a medieval family. The frustration when your strong and brilliant heir is killed in battle, leaving the family in the hands of his idiot hunchback brother, is highly amusing. I may do a series on that game if this one is received well.

So, if you guys enjoy this, I'll do more. If I don't get much of a response, eh, I might do more anyway just for my own enjoyment.

Stay tuned for the flight of the Ukko 2, and in the future I'll take input on which contracts to take and things like that.

[Astroboy14]

Well?

Do more!!

(been thinking about getting this game...)

[Lungfish]

I haven't played this game for a while. I stopped once I managed to create an orbit and and get Jeb back home in one piece.

As for CKII I haved only played four hours of it. Not my cup of tea.

[Dosipede]

Originally Posted by Astroboy14

Well?

Do more!!

Fine then!

For the second mission of the Geeb Space Program, our engineers have put together the Ukko 2, a three-stage rocket designed to carry one kerbal (Bill this time) into orbit. The four solid boosters on the outside will fire first, followed by the larger solid rocket booster in the middle. When that burns out, the orbital stage will separate from the solid boosters and complete the journey to orbit.



(I just realized I was going to call this the Geeb Space Agency, but for some reason I put Geeb Space Program instead. OK then.)

Here's the view of the Ukko 2 sitting on the launch pad from Mission Control.



Bill punches the staging button to start the solid rocket boosters. The thing about solid boosters is there's no throttle and no shutoff. It just burns until it runs out of fuel.



The four smaller boosters lift the vessel through the lower, thicker part of the atmosphere.



After the small boosters flame out, the main booster kicks in.



Already far above the clouds, Bill separates the orbital module from the solid boosters. The boosters will fall back into the ocean east of KSC.



Bill brings the rocket's nose down toward the horizon and burns for orbit. Back at Mission control, the engineers watch the readings on Ukko 2's orbit as they reach above the atmosphere.



Bill becomes the first kerbal to escape the atmosphere of Kerbin, cutting off the engine to keep his apoapsis from going too high. As he enters space, Bill is coasting to the top of his flight.



Ukko 2 is above the atmosphere, but not in orbit yet. Kerbal Engineer's numbers show us the bottom of the orbit is still under ground.



A quick 200-m/s burn brings the periapsis above the atmosphere.



Bill has accomplished two firsts just 10 minutes into his mission: escape the atmosphere and achieve a stable orbit.



Here's Bill's view from inside the crew capsule.



Bill achieves another first by stepping outside of his capsule through the air lock for a spacewalk.



Kerbonauts come equipped with a small jetpack for free maneuvers in space. Bill lets the Ukko 2 drift slowly away.



Bill stares in wonder as the vast, dark emptiness of space envelops him.



Well, probably time to head back to the ship.



There we go. Easy does it.



Bill climbs back into the capsule as the Mün slips below the horizon.



With no atmospheric interference, Bill can clearly see the Kerbol system's planets. From left to right, there is Jool, Kerbol, Minmus, Moho, Duna and Eve.



As we travel around the planet, Eeloo comes above the horizon.



And finally Dres comes into view.



Ukko 2 slips into the dark side of its orbit.



Back on the daylight side, Bill plots his re-entry burn. From his orbit just above the atmosphere, he'll only need to burn about 57 m/s to achieve re-entry. In order to land near KSC, he'll need to burn on the dark side of the planet, which won't make for good screenshots.



With the burn complete, Ukko 2's periapsis is set for 20 km. You don't want to put it too low or the G forces on re-entry will kill your kerbal. Alternatively, you may just crash into the planet going way too fast. Put it too high and you may just skip back into space for another orbit, which can be bad news if you're running out of electricity. (As a side note, sometimes this skip is used to a craft's advantage to slow down from interplantary speeds without using fuel. This is called aerobraking or aerocapture).



As Ukko 2 slips into the edges of the atmosphere, it comes around the planet to sunrise.



Bill decouples the crew capsule from the mostly-empty fuel tanks.



With lower weight-to-surface area, the fuel tank is more susceptible to atmospheric drag and falls behind.



The crew capsule continues on to the daylight side of the planet.



As re-entry heat rises, the ablative shielding begins sloughing off, taking heat with it.



The air around it catches fire as the capsule blast through the atmosphere at about Mach 5 or 6. That is the home continent with KSC up on the horizon.



The last of the ablative shielding burns away, causing the heat shield to rise to extremely high temperatures. Should the heat shield fail, there is another that is part of the capsule itself.



The crew capsule approaches land. Command calculates the trajectory to put it in the water near the coast.



There is a problem, though. The capsule is traveling way too fast for how low it is getting. Debriefing calculations will later determine that a 20km periapsis will be perfect for re-entry from about 200km, but from just outside the atmosphere, it brings the orbit down too fast. Bill needs to reduce speed by a lot in a short amount of time. He could be in danger here. At the very least, he's in for a wild ride.

At about 1.5 kilometers above the surface of the water, Bill is still traveling nearly 500 m/s. For those of you keeping score at home, that is still well above Mach 1. Bill's choices are to pop the chutes and hope for the best or plunge to certain death at 400 m/s. Bill pops the chutes.



The G meter maxes out for about two seconds, but Bill is alive and somehow still conscious. The parachute holds up, and dips a very relieved Bill into the ocean at about 7 m/s. The flight report shows a max of 7.3 Gs, but that is definitely not right. Bill must have broke the G meter.



Bill's observations from orbit give the scientists a lot to work with.



It's enough science to unlock all three of these first-tier nodes on the tech tree.



That will take some time though, thanks to the Kerbal Construction Time mod (note: a Kerbin day is six hours long).



And now that we've accomplished the four contracts we took on, we have a slew of others to choose from.



What shall we do next? Do you guys want to test out parts, or should we shoot for the Mün?

[Zeener Diode]

This sure beats the hell out of my Hedgehog Slingshot game.

[Astroboy14]

We gotta rescue Edbald!!

[BJMoose]

Gene Kerman? (I love the banner.)


I suspect you should follow NASA's incremental approach rather than shoot for the Mün now. Will the program will let you use George Low's "all-up" approach and try out several new pieces of hardware in a single mission?

[Dosipede]

We've had a request to rescue Edbald, but by the time I had a ship built, the mission had expired. I have no idea what happened to old Edbald (or how he managed to get himself into orbit), but when I went to launch, the little green man in orbit was Lanlo.



Lanlo, through some twist of fortune that I'm sure the Kerbal version of Homeland Security will be extremely eager to learn about, has found himself in an orbit about 100 kilometers above Kerbin's surface.



Bob Kerman waits until the radar says Lanlo is approaching in order to set up an encounter soon after launch.



Bob launches his modified Ukko 2 (an extra empty crew capsule and some extra liquid fuel).



We'll be close, according to mission control.



A second burn completes the orbit.



Bob winds up behind Lanlo, so he settles into a lower orbit to catch up. After a couple of orbits, Bob executes an 11-m/s burn to lift his orbit to Lanlo's. Half an orbit later, he's close enough that Lanlo and use his jetpack to complete the rendezvous.



Lanlo grabs the ladder and climbs aboard.



Re-entry seems routine until we break under the clouds to find we are heading straight for a mountain range.



Once again, our kerbonaught is forced to pop the chutes at extreme speeds and endure high G forces. But once again, the chute holds up. Bob and Lanlo land a little roughly at about 10 m/s, but are safe.



After hours of interrogation by military personnel, authorities reveal that Lanlo reached orbit via large quantities of Diet Coke and Mentos. Gene Kerman is impressed, and hires Lanlo to head up the GSA's testing division.



Gene's next order is to remove all Diet Coke and Mentos from the vending machines in the kerbonaught lounge. The only indication to the public that anything happened was a cryptic press release by the public information arm of the GSA announcing that any kerbal civilians who get stuck in orbit from now on are on their own.

As for our direction over the next few missions, I have accepted the "Explore the Mün" contract, but I think we need that first level of the tech tree to accomplish that. So while I'm waiting for those to unlock, I may do some of the part testing missions.

[Scuba Ben]

As part of building up to exploring Mün, I'd like to test a liquid-fueled engine and a higher performance parachute.

Also, I insist on stocking the GSP lounge with Coke Zero.

[Dosipede]

This entry will include testing of a liquid lander engine. I'll try to test out some of the parachutes we unlock here before we head to the Mün. And I'm sorry, but management doesn't trust a certain kerbonaut with any kind of carbonated drink, so Coke Zero is right out. The KSP lounge is now stocked with only water and Tang. And some peanuts. We're not gonna name names, but you can address your thank you letters to Lanlo Kerman.

While we wait for the scientists to research the things needed for a Mün flight, we'll do some testing. We accept four contracts:









In a bit of administrative juggling, the original three kerbonauts are assigned to the planned Mün exploration, and Lanlo is told to hire two new kerbonauts for test flights. Lanlo scours the stack of applications for kerbals with the desired combination of traits.



Langard and Rodmin are offered the two coveted kerbonaut positions. Meanwhile, the engineers complete the Ukko 3 Orbital Science Module MK1. This vessel should complete all four contracts, and we also have a new experiment: our scientists have harnessed a mysterious green goo that reacts to different situations. They want us to study it on our various test missions.



Meanwhile, our next two tech nodes come available with some valuable lander parts.





Langard Kerman climbs into the Ukko 3, and the engineers stand it up on the launch pad. It looks a bit unstable on that decoupler they wanted to test on the ground.



Uh oh. This isn't gonna be good.



Well, shit.



The rocket falls over, and the liquid fuel in the top stage explodes, incinerating most of the top half of the rocket. After several hours, rescue crews get the fire under control, and the search begins for Langard.



A few small, charred pieces of him eventually turn up in the wreckage. GSA's human resources department upgrades Langard's file, and a representative is dispatched to greet Langard's wife with a wreath and a liability waiver.



After a week or so, GSA's engineers have a replacement rocket ready to go, with promises of a much more stable launch mechanism. Rodmin crosses himself and nervously climbs into the capsule of the Ukko 4. The rocket stays standing.



Rodmin runs a goo experiment on the launch pad.



With that, Rodmin hits the launch button to leave the (relative) safety of the launch pad, completing the contract for testing the stack decoupler at surface pressure.



When the solid rockets expire, Rodmin waits to the desired height and tests the radial decouplers. They work perfectly. The liquid engine test is next, but the rocket is leaving the desired altitude for that test. Rodmin fumbles for the staging button and finally presses it, but not within the desired range for the test. In his hurry, he forgot to shut down the engine from the previous stage. Luckily, it flies away harmlessly.



Rodmin tests the other goo container in the upper atmosphere.



Then, as the craft leaves the atmosphere, he burns at the horizon until out of fuel to create a better re-entry angle.



As the Ukko 4 reaches its apoapsis, Rodmin gets out and collects data from the two goo containers. They will be part of the orbital stage that burns up on re-entry, so we need the data to be safe in the capsule. He also collects some EVA observations to complete the orbital science contract.



The craft descends back into the far reaches of the atmosphere. Rodmin decouples the crew capsule in preparation for re-entry.



The re-entry trajectory travels over a coastal city as it heads to the dark side of the planet.



Rodmin keeps a close eye on the radar altitude and airspeed. Both seem to be within acceptable limits.



Rodmin pops the chutes about a kilometer over the ground and experiences the same G spike as the previous two missions, but far less intense. He floats down onto the grassland as the dusk fades out.



A few days later, the engineers have a surface-testing rig prepared for a couple of other contracts. The newest contraption is the Launch Clamp Stabilizer, which they hope will prevent accidents like the one that killed Langard. The rig will test two solid rocket boosters as well as a small lander liquid fuel engine.



Lanlo Kerman conducts this test himself, and the crew capsule includes a parachute in case the launch clamps give way during the test. Lanlo fires the outboard solid rocket, and the launch clamps hold up.



After the engine flames out, Lanlo waits until the smoke clears and fires the second solid rocket, a new, much larger rocket, covering the area in smoke once again.



The second solid rocket flames out, and Lanlo decouples it to fall to the ground. Now he can test the LV-909 liquid fuel engine, designed to power a lander on low-gravity bodies like the Mün or Minmus.



All tests are successful, and the launch clamps worked exactly as advertized, a big step in the safety of the program's kerbonauts.

With the tests complete, Lanlo makes his way out to the flagpole in front of the Kerbonaut Complex.



In a solemn ceremony, Lanlo plants a small flag as a memorial to the program's first casualty. Langard was so new to the program that Lanlo misspells his name on the monument.



Lanlo takes a moment to remember "Lanberg" and the good times the rookie had in his four days as a kerbonaut.



In our next mission, we'll begin working toward a Mün landing.

[Scuba Ben]

I'm saddened by the loss of poor, unknown Langard.

What is a stack separator, and what happened that the rocket fell over?

[Dosipede]

A stack separator is an inter-stage decoupler that has a little force to it to give the stages separation so they're not a danger to each other in space. The contract generation engine in the game does things fairly randomly, so sometimes you get counter-intuitive goals for the contracts, like testing an interstage decoupler on the ground. I've had contracts calling for the testing of a jet engine, which needs oxygen, on the Mün.

I guess my rocket finally got tall enough that it was unstable on the single balance point. And looking back now, if you look at the rocket in the previous episode, the four solid rocket boosters jut out below the center engine, giving it a much more balanced stance on the pad. I didn't do that on this one for some reason -- a mistake that poor Langard paid dearly for. As the rockets get bigger and bigger, the launch clamps become more and more necessary.

[Scuba Ben]

As in the real world, we have a design question: direct ascent, Kerbin rendezvous, or Münar rendezvous?

Are the rendezvous modes possible in this game?

[Dosipede]

Since we haven't unlocked multi-kerbal capsules or docking ports in the tech tree yet, we'll be working with a direct ascent mission.

[rayh]

In a similar vein you can also look at -
Space Engineers
Or
Habitat

[Astroboy14]

**mourns Landberg**

[Flying Squid with Goggles]

Originally Posted by Scuba Ben

I'm saddened by the loss of poor, unknown Langard.

It is a sad shame.

You don't find Kerbals that brave and stupid often. We can only hope we will see his like again.

[Dosipede]

We are 74 days into our space program, We have launched four aircraft and lost one kerbal. We'll call it a 75 percent success rate. That's a solid C.

Our mission planners don't feel comfortable attempting a Mün landing until we unlock our next two tech tree nodes, so in the meantime, we'll test the lander our engineers have thrown together.



The Mün program will be known as the Igaluk program, after the Inuit god of the moon.

The Igaluk 1 lander is ready for testing.



The test version has 2,900 dV, which the mission planners say is more than enough for a Mün landing and return. Its thrust-to-weight ratio is 1.36 on Kerbin, meaning we can launch this thing. That also means its TWR will be extremely high on the Mün, so we'll probably be landing this thing at maybe a quarter throttle. It will probably even work for a Duna landing in the future.

Our immediate challenge will be getting it into orbit, which will require our biggest launcher yet.

Jeb is at the wheel for this test launch. His mission is to test its flight in the atmosphere, up to the edge of space.



He begins a gravity turn at about 7 kilometers.



You can see the launch profile curving toward an orbital path.



Uh, Jeb? We're not going to orbit today. That thing doesn't have the dV to make it to orbit (we need about 3,700 to get to orbit if you take into account atmospheric and gravitational drag). Jeb, though, is going to space, damn it. He conducts goo experiments in low atmosphere, high atmosphere and low space, then climbs out at the 99-km apoapsis to collect the data.



That re-entry trajectory is going to be very steep though. Once again, Jeb is in for a bumpy ride.



Jeb decouples the crew capsule at the edge of the atmosphere.



He'll have less speed to bleed off, but due to the steep angle, he'll have far less space in which to do it.



The capsule rockets through the atmosphere. At about 7 kilometers above the surface of the ocean, the pod is still traveling at 1,300 m/s at a 45-degree angle. This is gonna be bad.



Jeb has no choice -- he pulls the chute. The G-meter maxes out instantly, and Jeb is shoved back in his seat. He blacks out, which is good new for him, because the G-forces turn him into green goo seconds later.



Sploosh.



Silence envelops the control room. The agency has lost another kerbonaut. When the sun rises, Bill makes his way to the flagpole in front of the astronaut complex and plants a memorial next to Langard's.



I guess we're not as space savvy as we thought we were. I think we're at about a D-minus now. Our scientists are still working on those Mün-landing technologies, so by the time those roll around, we'll want to have our re-entries nailed down pat.

In the meantime, we'll take on a few more ground testing contracts. Here's one for a lander rocket engine. Testing by Rodmin.



The same rig is testing a new radial decoupler and a sepratron (a small solid rocket designed to thrust large stages away from each other upon decouping).



The testing gives us enough science to set our researchers upon the final node of the second level in the tech tree.



We've taken a step back as a program in this episode, and we've lost a beloved kerbal. This is not the brightest day in the short history of the Geeb Space Agency.

Hopefully we'll get those re-entries down pat and head to the Mün soon.

[Astroboy14]

Jeb! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

[Lungfish]

You killed Jeb!!!. You bastard!!!

[Scuba Ben]

Oh poor Jeb. Where will we find another Kerbal as bravely stupid as him?

And why didn't anybody use the engines to smooth the reentry trajectory?

[Amp]

This is the best thread in the history of the Internet! I can't until the next entry of this gripping saga.

[Dosipede]

Our goal in this episode is to get our re-entries down pat. And by "down pat", per the Kerbal way, we mean one successful re-entry.

Our engineers also want us to try out these radial parachutes and see if the width of the crew capsule will protect it from re-entry heat. We'll still carry the normal MK16 chute in case the test fails.



Lanlo Kerman climbs into the standard Ukko launch craft with the radial chutes added and launches.



Lanlo starts his gravity turn as he passes through about 150 m/s.



Upon decoupling the solid rockets, the wind resistance causes them to collide with the main liquid stage. No damage done, though.



Lanlo's gravity turn is too aggressive, and the non-aerodynamic top of the craft disrupts the stability of the craft. As Lanlo loses control of the Ukko 5, he cuts out the engine.



As the craft flips in the atmosphere, high aerodynamic pressures and G forces cause a R.U.D. (Rapid Unplanned Disassembly).



The crew capsule is still intact, and drifts away from the majority of the newly-formed debris.



Lanlo takes the opportunity to test the goo.



Then he uses the craft's still-functioning reaction wheels to situate the capsule for descent. Since were not dealing with re-entry and we can't exit the capsule and gather date, Lanlo decides not to decouple the goo experiments.



The radial parachutes work as advertised, but we're more worried about whether they'll survive an actual re-entry.



The capsule floats down about eight km from the space center.



It's been a hair-raising few minutes for Lanlo, but he splashes down safe and sound. While floating in the coastal waters, Lanlo figures he'll see how the other go experiment reacts to the ocean water.



Uhhh... It escaped? By the way, if a mysterious green invasive species disrupts the local ecology, I was never here, OK?

Wait... does this mean the goo is sentient? Should I feel bad about letting goo experiments burn up in the atmosphere?

About six days later, the GSA engineers have the Ukko 6 ready to go. This one includes a few changes: we have parachutes on the solid boosters and first liquid stage, an attempt to save some cash on reusable parts; the goo experiments, and associated airflow problems, have been removed, since we're more worried about successful re-entry; and we've added life support supplies: a container filled with food, water and oxygen, plus another container or waste products. Our engineers want to test the viability of long-term missions of the type necessary to travel to other celestial bodies.



Rodmin Kerman is the pilot for the Ukko 6. He climbs in and launches.



Rodmin gently nudges over into a gravity turn.



In low space, Rodmin decouples the second stage and lights the small top stage engine.



Rodmin's trusty orbital program shows exactly what his orbit looks like.



After a lengthy burn, he's almost there.



Now in orbit, Rodmin checks out his supply situation. The plan was to stay in orbit for several days for the longest mission yet, but we forgot one thing: extra batteries. We only have about an hour and a half of battery life in the capsule.



After one full orbit, Rodmin burns for re-entry (a 30-km periapsis) and decouples the crew capsule as it slips into the upper wisps of the atmosphere.



As he streaks through the upper atmosphere, Rodmin arms the radial parachutes and double checks the automated settings, flashing back to his conversation withe engineers earlier in the day. "Just let the program do its thing. It will work perfectly. Trust us." "Yeah, but pre-deployment at 25 kilometers?" "Yeah, it will slowly brake the craft instead of popping it out at low altitude for a high-G snap." "But 25 km? Won't I be surrounded by fire at that point? Will the chutes survive?" "Uhhhhh... yes? We think. Dude, you'll be fine."



Check out that Münrise. Too bad Rodmin can't see it, being all surounded by fire and stuff.



The chutes come out, and they seem to be holding up well.



The Gs stay low, but the speed is dropping. This new system may actually work.



Ain't that a pretty picture?



As we reach the cloud cover, we are well within safe speeds.



I think we've done it, folks. Rodmin hits the water at about 4 m/s. He had a rougher impact on the toilet this morning.

So we are now experts at re-entry. We're still about 25 days away from unlocking the first of those two tech nodes we want to start exploring the Mün, but our engineers are getting impatient. Our next planned mission is a Mün fly-by.

[Astroboy14]

YAY RODMIN!!!!!!!!

[Scuba Ben]

Hurray for a soft landing!

I'm curious why the chutes were set for pre-deployment at 25km - and glad they worked as designed - followed by full deployment at 700m.

I hope the consist for the Mun fly-by includes extra batteries.

[Dosipede]

Pre-deployment at 25 km gives you some drag to slow you down before that violent jerk at full deployment. It acts like a drogue chute.

[Dosipede]

The Igaluk 2 is ready for launch. This mission is a possible Mün fly-by, depending on how much battery life that bank of batteries at the top of the transfer stage will give us. The mission guidelines state that the craft will achieve LKO, then the crew will check the battery life and a decision will be made from there.

Our rockets are getting big enough that we need stabilizing fins to keep it pointed in the right direction in the atmosphere. This one also comes with four fairly large solid boosters.



Bob has been selected for this first trip to the Mün. He sets the launch in motion. All systems are nominal.



At about 31 kilometers, the solid boosters flame out. Bob hits the staging button and decouples them without incident.



After exiting the atmosphere, Bob burns horizontally for orbit.



As planned, the second stage runs out of fuel just short of orbit, leaving almost all of the transfer stage's fuel for the Mün mission. The second stage, meanwhile, will fall back around to the other side of Kerbin, leaving no space junk floating around.



The Igaluk 2 settles into a stable orbit with a low of 141 km and a high of 153 km. Back on Kerbin, engineers work out a plan for a transfer burn. The staff comes up with a free-return trajectory. The scientists consider two options for the free-return route. Plan 1 (circummünar) will send the craft screaming past the leading edge of the planet at low altitude (going around the far side of the planet), allowing the Mün's gravity to grab the craft and fling it back toward Kerbin. Plan 2 (cismünar) is to send the orbit higher than the Mün, then allow the craft to fall back in front of the planet. This plan would have the craft traverse the Kerbin-side of the planet, then fling it back into a higher orbit, where it would fall back to Kerbin.

Plan 2, since it deposits the craft into the planet's area going the same way the planet spins, will be best for achieving orbit. But it also takes a lot more time. Since this mission is only a fly-by with limited battery time, the scientists choose Plan 1.



Mission control compares the battery life to the travel time and weigh whether to proceed with the mission. Bob will have roughly three hours of battery life to spare (without power, he will be unable to turn the craft and the cabin will slowly fill up with carbon dioxide, eventually to fatal levels). Mission Control consults Bob over the radio, and he is gung-ho about it. The bosses give the go-ahead.

If Bob does the transfer burn correct, the trajectory will deposit him back into the Kerbin atmosphere without him having to adjust the flight at all once the initial burn is completed. The burn will take a minute and a half to complete. As Bob begins his burn, the Mün comes up over the Kerbin horizon.



With the burn complete, Mission Control re-calibrates its numbers. According to the calculations, Bob will come around the far side of the Mün just 23 kilometers above the surface, and come tearing back into the Kerbin atmosphere at 11km. He'll probably want to adjust that Kerbin periapsis up to about 20km on the way back, but it's damn near a perfect burn.



It will take Bob about three and a half hours to get out to the Mün. In the meantime, there's not much to do except watch it get closer.









This is what the trajectory will look like once Bob reaches the Mün's sphere of influence (gameplay note: since an actual N-body physics calculator would be extremely costly in terms of memory, the game instead assigns each body a "sphere of influence". Once you leave one body's SOI for another, the original body no longer has an effect on the craft. So the Igaluk 2 is now only affected by the Mün). The orange line shows the loop around the Mün, the yellow line is Mün's orbit and the purple line shows what the new orbit around Kerbin will be.



Kerbin looks pretty small from way out here.



The Mün, by contrast, looms over the craft.



Bob falls toward the Mün's dark side. As he drops lower and lower, the dark planet blots out more and more of the sky. As Bob swings around toward his periapsis, the sun rises over the jagged horizon.



Advancing farther into the light, still falling toward periapsis at about 30 km, Bob looks down to see a cratered, foreboding landscape.



To the south is a ragged landscape of craters and ridges.



To the north we can see the outline of the giant Farside Crater, a remnant of some ancient catastrophic event.



The inside of the crater seems flatter. Bob wonders if it would make a good landing site.



The edge of the Farside Crater passes behind the ship.



Bob ran one goo experiment high above the Mün and another at periapsis. As the craft rises away from periapsis, Bob exits to collect the data and to get a first-hand look at the landscape he's passing over.



The surface offers a variety of terrain types, with some flat areas and some areas riddled with craters.



Bob can't tell if the area to the west is less cratered or if the angle of the sun just creates fewer shadows.



Bob is rising now, up to about 50 km. He does what one should never do from a great height, and he looks straight down. A panic attack sets in.



After returning to the capsule, Bob is treated to a nice Kerbin-rise.



Bob bids farewell to the Mün, promising to one day return.



A few hours later, Bob is falling back toward Kerbin. He will swing around the dark side and probably re-enter somewhere around the dawn.



Yep. As the re-entry heat builds up, the sun rises. That dark patch in the middle there is the mountain range behind KSC, which makes Bob nervous. He's not sure if he'll wind up in the capsule rolling down a steep mountainside, which would be bad.



At 25 km above sea level, the chutes pre-deploy and begin imparting drag. Not enough to jerk the craft into a high-G situaton, but enough to start slowing it down.



The chutes do their job, and the Igaluk 2 loses its horizontal speed. Vertical speed is down to about 275 m/s.



As we fall through the cloud layer, the morning sun lights the mountains, which we missed by about 30 km.



The chutes gently set the capsule down in the grassland. Bob exits and poses for a photograph taken by a nearby villager.



The mission has been a resounding success. The science gathered has allowed Kerbin's scientists to start work on another round of advancements. Soon we will be able to add solar panels to our crafts so we won't have to load them up with batteries.

Our scientists hope to soon put a lander on the Mün.

[Scuba Ben]

Great flight, Bob! A fine step for Kerbalkind.

[Astroboy14]

WOO HOOOO!!!!!!! Well done, Bob!

(quite enjoying this, Dosipede! Thanks for posting it...)

[Dosipede]

Good. I'm glad its not just me in a corner playing with myself. ...wait.

[Lungfish]

Way to go Bob!

[Scuba Ben]

While we're waiting on the solar panels, can we pick up a bunch of paying contracts to fulfill in a single flight?

[Dosipede]

With a new tech node unlocked, we have some new toys to play with. The Science Jr materials study will give us plenty of science to work our way further in the tree, and the external cameras will add to the atmosphere when flying with in-cockpit views.



The engineers at KSP get to work on two rockets to make use of the new technologies. The Igaluk 3 is shooting to be the first craft to obtain stable orbit around the Mün. It is loaded with the new batteries, with enough battery life for just over five days.



The Ukko 7, meanwhile, will be a radar mapping mission around Kerbin. The engineers have strapped batteries to just about every imaginable surface to give it a little more than 21 days of battery life (although that's at optimal conditions. With the terrain radar going, it will drain the batteries much quicker).



The Igaluk 3 is ready first, and will be followed about 10 days later by the Ukko 7. Here's Bill's view inside the Igaluk 3, with a camera looking down at the launchpad.



Bill launches the Ukko 7. At first it flies true, but after a while is starts tipping in a southwestern direction. Not much, but enough to cause concern among the engineers on the ground.



External Camera 3 captures the mountains as we fly through the cloud cover.



Bill decouples the solid boosters, and with less mass, the gimbal of the rocket engine and the stabilizing fins are better able to control the craft.



Soon Bill is back on track and heading for orbit.



At about 100 km, Bill burns for orbit.



He ends up in a stable orbit of 118 km by 108 km.



The planners at KSC set up a cismünar free-return trajectory that sends the Igaluk 3 to a 13,000-km apoapsis before dropping it down in front of the Mün's path. This will set up an easy Mün-orbit injection. The Mün encounter will take place in about two days, leaving us plenty of time in the batteries to orbit for a bit and get back home.



Bill executes the burn along the prograde vector (along the direction of his Kerbin orbit).



Almost two days later, Bill has passed apoapsis and is falling back into the path of the Mün.



Here's what the cismünar free-return trajectory looks like.



As Bill gets in near the Mün, he runs materials experiments. Woo! Science!



At the right spot, Bill burns retrograde (against the direction of travel) to inject the Igaluk 3 in a 54-km orbit. Bill has become the first kerbal to achieve a stable orbit around the Mün.



He takes a moment to admire the view.



Coming around the other side, one of the onboard cameras captures Kerbin-rise.



With both of the science jr materials studies conducted (one high over the Mün, one low over the Mün), Bill exits the craft to collect the data.



The external cameras, meanwhile, continue to pick up excellent views.



After orbiting the Mün for about a day, Bill begins plotting his return to Kerbin. Generally the most efficient way to do this is to exit the Mün's gravitational influence by exiting retrograde to the Mün's orbit. This achieves two things at once: exiting the Mün's sphere of influence while also slowing down from the Mün's orbital speed. It's a similar idea to the free-return concept.



Bill conducts the burn and bids farewell to the Mün.



Bill's view of Kerbin from about 1,000 km.



Just above the atmosphere, Bill separates the command pod.



And comes floating in under the chutes on the night side of Kerbin.



All that new science allows the researchers to get to work on a few more of the tech nodes on the tree. That department is humming right now.



A few days later, the Ukko 7 mapping mission is ready to go. Lanlo will pilot this mission. The idea for this one is to launch into a north-south orbit instead of an equatorial one. This allows the planet to spin underneath the orbit and gets as much terrain as possible under the radar. The researchers want the orbit along the terminator line (the border between daylight and night). They didn't give a reason why, and Lanlo suspects it's just because they think it's cool.



Lanlo launches in the twilight. Once again, the craft's nose wants to pull over on its own, despite pilot input to the opposite. This may be a problem in larger crafts, and we may need to add some stabilizer fins on the solid boosters. Luckily, in this case the nose falls toward the south, exactly the direction we want to go.



At about 120 km, Lanlo separates the final stage and aims for a 300-km orbit.



As he coasts up to 300 km, he opens the radar and starts scanning the terrain.



Almost a day into the flight, the craft has about 49 percent of the planet's suface mapped.



Lanlo doesn't have much to do in his cramped capsule except watch the map slowly fill in the gaps. Almost exactly five days into the voyage, and we're at 99 percent. About two days in, Lanlo notice he was covering ground already mapped. The craft was in an orbit that didn't cover some ground because the orbital period synched up with a portion of the planet's rotation. So he bumped up to about 330 km for a slightly longer orbital period.

But, as expected, the radar drains the battery juice pretty fast. His instrument tells him he has two days left of battery life. His cutoff is one day of life.



After another day drains in a couple of hours, Lanlo shuts off the radar, collects the data from it and burns for re-entry.



Lanlo separates the capsule over the north pole, and as he comes down into the atmosphere, an aurora is visible on the horizon.



Lanlo comes down above a northern desert near a wicked-looking mountain.



Two successful missions back-to-back. It seems like the space program is on track. Lanlo is disappointed he wasn't able to get that last one percent of the map, but a mission like that is geared more for an unmanned mission, and the researchers are rumored to be inventing a photovoltaic panel that will turn the sun's light into electricity, making unmanned missions possible.

The pilots are itching to land on the Mün, but the scientists say we'll need to squeeze at least another thousand dV out of our ships in order to accomplish that. We'll see what we can do.

[Scuba Ben]

I dance the dance of engineering accomplishment.

Do we know what caused Ukko 7 to tip like that?

I would like to see a Münar mapping mission.

[Dosipede]

I'm pretty sure it's because I have that very non-aerodynamic bit up at the top with the batteries and scientific stuff. You have a whole lot of thrust in the back end of the rocket countered by drag at the front end and it wants to flip the thing around. One of the upcoming tech nodes, I forget which one, has some fairing parts that will help with that.

And a Münar mapping mission is probably a good idea, if we can haul enough batteries over there. We'll be able to pick out a landing spot and properly plan a landing mission.

[Scuba Ben]

More batteries = more nose mass. The mapping mission would benefit from photovoltaics and fairings

What would be needed for an unmanned (unKerballed?) mapping mission?

And who is both brave and stupid enough to fly the landing and return mission?

[Flying Squid with Goggles]

Just popped in to say that this thread inspired me to start playing KSP again - and it's fantastic with the career mode now... I'm really enjoying it. Even if it's a real hassle trying to get Jebediah back into his capsule after an EVA.

[Dosipede]

Is it doing the thing where he bounces off when you try to grab the ladder because his big freaking helmet gets in the way? I've found if you change the camera angle (press "v"), he'll orient better with the ladder sometimes.

[Flying Squid with Goggles]

Yeah. I bounced him off his giant helmet 5 times or so before I figured out I can make him pitch down and pitch up.

On more recent missions, I've even started reorienting the spacecraft before an EVA to make it easier for him to get back in.


Obviously the evolutionary advantage applied to the big giant head of the Kerbal is not a useful adaptation in space travel!

[Dosipede]

You can pitch up on EVA? This changes everything!

[Flying Squid with Goggles]

On my system it's right-click and scroll up for pitch up, right-click and scroll down for pitch down. It seems to be a little limited through, in that it's harder to get the Kerbal to go 90° this way than it would for him to swivel left/right.

I'm still toying with it though. Have only just gotten a Kerbal in a stable orbit around Kerbin on my most recent mission.

When looking at contracts, I'm a bit bewildered by the fact that there are so many. How do you choose which contracts to take and which ones to avoid?

[Dosipede]

I choose the contracts I feel will move the program forward. You can go crazy trying to complete everything, or you can pick them out. I lean more toward the exploration contracts. For the part-testing things, I look for the ones that are either easy (such as those that need to be tested while landed) or those that I'm already probably going to be doing.

I also added the Fine Print mod, which offers a few more contracts later on, such as putting a satellite in a specific orbit.

[Dosipede]

Say hello to the Igaluk 4, which is basically a Ukko 7 modified with extra ful to give it enough dV for Mün orbit. Today Bob will pilot the Igaluk 4 on a Mün mapping mission.



The engineers have basically added fuel to the top stage, giving it a total of 5,776 m/s of dV. That's enough for a Mün orbit, but there will be less room for error than our first Mün orbit.

Notice the use of the launch clamps. The only problem is that somebody wired the launch sequence wrong, and after Bob fires the solid boosters, he has to scramble to hit the clamp release. They hold strong, and no damage is done, but we've lost about five valuable seconds (and precious dV) of burn time.



As Bob lifts into the cloud cover, we have a nice view of the island chain to the east of KSC. Even with the extra stabilizing fins, we're still tilting a bit in the early stage of the flight. Luckily, again, we're tilting more or less in the direction we want to go. Still, though, we need our researchers to hurry up with figuring out those fairings.



The solid boosters burn out at about 22 km, and Bob hits the staging button to decouple them and light the second-stage rocket at the same time. Good thing, too, because aerodnamic pressures push the solid boosters back toward where the second stage was just a second ago. Bob watches the solid boosters collide with each other on his external camera.



A minute later, he's on track to orbit. The guys at KSC don't think he lost enough dV to scrap the mission. We're shooting for the Mün.



At almost a stable orbit, Bob separates the final stage from the second stage and watches it drift away.



Once in orbit, Bob plans his Mün transfer burn. Since he's going to want a polar orbit, he's planning on aiming straight for the Mün and fixing the orbit when he gets closer. For the first time in the Igaluk program, a kerbonaut is headed for the Mün without a free-return trajectory. If the engines malfunction, Bob will wind up a small crater among many on the surface of that distant satellite.



Bob burns on the dark side of Kerbin as the Mün hovers above the horizon.



The burn complete, he watches Kerbin drift away.



Once inside the Mün's SOI, Bob adjusts his orbit, swinging it up into a 90-degree inclination.



The guys on the ground, meanwhile, are tracking all kinds of numbers.



Bob takes the opportunity to go ahead and start up the terrain radar as the planet looms underneath him.



A quick insertion burn puts Bob in a 170-km orbit that crosses both poles, and leaves the craft with 513 m/s of dV. Should be plenty to get back.



The first orbit around shows there is no gap between the mapping paths of each orbit. That's good news, indicating the mapping should be done fairly quickly.



Three days later, the mapping is 100 percent complete -- no gaps in coverage. Bob exits the vehicle to pull the data from the radar.



He plots his return to Kerbin. Same concept as before -- shooting out of the back of the Mün's orbit.



Bob gets one last view of the Mün's south pole as he swings underneath the planet.



He returns toward Kerbin's dark side, giving a look at the lights from the planet's cities, but the re-entry trajectory will take him around to the daylight side.



Just above the atmosphere, Bob separates the capsule.



A look at where we came from as we rip through the atmosphere at 3 kilometers per second.



This re-entry business is getting to be old hat at this point. We're totally experts.



The mission is a success. We now have maps to help us plan a landing. But first, two new kerbals have been hired. Charlie Kerman and Eddin Kerman will join the Ukko Progam, and Rodmin, who has proven himself thus far, will be promoted to the Igaluk Program.





Here's our basic map, with the major landmarks labeled.



The radar also produced a slope map, so we can get an idea of how flat an area is.



After studying the map, mission planners have narrowed out options to six landing sites. Since Kerbin and the Mün are aligned, we'll definitely be shooting for something along the equator to save on fuel. Here's the map:



Sites 1 and 3 are inside craters, but the problem with them is that where the equator cuts through those craters, there's still a fair amount of slope. Site 4 is in a fairly flat area between a pair of highland ridges. Sites 2 nd 5 have the problem that there are smaller craters nearby that could cause problems. Site 5 has craters in the area, but they're a little bit more scattered.

What do you guys think?

Oh yeah, and there's still the big task of getting that lander that killed Jeb into orbit. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about that.

[Astroboy14]

I'm voting site 1 or 3! How cool to land inside a crater!!

[Borborygmi]

This thread is the most ridiculous, wildly entertaining waste of time and effort I've seen on this board and that is coming from someone who has read all the Megapoll forum posts. I salute you, Dosipede! Great narration and commentary throughout, by the way.

Also, yeah: crater landing... wooo!

[Flying Squid with Goggles]

In the finest of Kerbal traditions, don't play it safe - land in the crater. You never know, there could be ice surviving in the shadow of the crater walls - or, as Bob Kerman is hoping, possibly jellybeans.

[Dosipede]

Originally Posted by Borborygmi

...ridiculous, wildly entertaining waste of time and effort...

This is exactly what I'm going for here.

[Astroboy14]

Originally Posted by Dosipede

This is exactly what I'm going for here.

Challenge achieved! I also salute you, Sir!

[Pere]

I am proud of our GSA kerbonauts. Onward! The sacrifices of Langard and Jeb must not be in vain.

[Chocodile]

As the craft rises away from periapsis, Bob exits to collect the data and to get a first-hand look at the landscape he's passing over.

As this talk of periapsism is giving me a stiffy that just won't go away.