Alright guys, time for the monthly update!
God, sometimes I’d wish to never start this project in first place. 200 years have passed in my game and I still haven’t send a single Kerbal to Jool, only because I want to do it as a part of this project. But anyway, I’m ALMOST ready to execute it, so, it’s a little late to back down.
Anyway, I got my science base to Laythe.
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This will be the main settlement for the Laythe surface crew. The jets and other science vehicles will fly to all the biomes on Laythe, collect the science and then they will bring it to this base for processing and to increase the science data. The place is quite large, so it will also serve on future missions outside of the project, as the main crew habitat for future colonization crews.
You can see is on the water (it was the easiest way to balance it), but next to the shore, so the drills touch the ground and we can use to refuel our vehicles. And speaking of vehicles, we’ve got two here!
One is a helicopter.
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We are going to use to explore the nearby islands, since is very efficient, and very fun and easy to fly. I’ve noticed Laythe has a lot of slopes, and some not too tall mountains, but very sloped mountains that are hard to climb with rovers and to land on with planes. That’s what this helicopter is for. And once again is very fun and easy to fly, and that’s a plus in my book, even if is not the sexiest chopper in the world…
The other one… well I call it the MTRV: Multi-Terrain Research Vehicle, and you can really find it ANYWHERE on Laythe.
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Air, water on the surface, below it, or dry ground. This vehicle really cares not about your terrain. It can be used as a rover, boat, submarine or plane: your decision. It also does science and carries two Kerbals. However, its fuel is not infinite, and it can’t replenish it by itself, so it can’t spend very long periods outside the base, either on the sea or on the ground, which is precisely the reason why I created this:
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Cassiopeia, as her name indicates, is a self-suficient amphibious mobile base.
And by amphibious, I mean that it can go by both solid ground and salty sea (Laythe’s oceans are salty, right???), in short terms is a giant rover, and a small boat. Also, a base. It can do science, process it, mine ore and refine it, produces food. It can be used to explore all the many islands on the moon, as well as to cross its oceans. It also comes with its own vehicle. It is powered by two nuclear reactors as well as some RTGs, meaning it has unlimited power for hundreds of Kerbal years.
It also has an additional vehicle, a small research submarine.
Mars Pathfinder remember when you told me go do sub dive on Laythe? Well, here I am…
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Unfortunately, I did make a small mistake when I sent it to Laythe: I forgot to put a probe core on it. This is not too much of an issue. It only means it can only operate while manned, unlike all the other vehicles you’ve seen so far. The image you are seeing here was taken on Kerbin…
Still, this sub can comfortably take 10 Kerbals to the deep oceans of Laythe and return them safely to the surface, to Cassiopeia, that acts kinda like a mothership for it. The plan is to launch it from Cassiopeia, do underwater science, return and dock with Cassiopeia, drive the base to another ocean or interesting place and deploy again.
Anyway, that is the FINAL PIECE of the puzzle I needed for the project. AT LONG LAST, EVERYTHING is now set and in place, ready to receive the first crew on the Joolian system!!!!
Now all we need to do is to bring the crew and FINALLY, after many months initiate the project. But of course, since this project is supposed to be kinda realistic (not Cosmo-levels of realism), we need to find a realistic way to bring the crew through deep space, all the way to the gas giant. They are not going to be 4 years inside a small cockpit, they are going to be 4 years inside THIS:
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The Avalon is the result of a lot of effort. It is designed as an interplanetary exploration mothership. With the proper transfer stage (I am using one specifically designed for the Joolian mission here), it can go basically anywhere on the Kerbol system. The ship itself also has 4 NERV nuclear engines, that give it a deltaV of 2000 m/s while carrying 100 tons of cargo, or 3200 if no cargo. Can comfortably carry the 20 Kerbals that will travel to Jool and to Laythe for the first time.
The Avalon can and will also be used for future missions outside Project Jool. The ability to transport a large crew, as well as 100 tons of cargo, on a fully independent system, to anywhere on the system is something that worth a lot.
After Project Jool is completed The Avalon will assist in the exploration and colonization of other planets and moons.
Anyway, time to send the first part of the crew! And speaking of the crew, I’ve assembled the crew very carefully, choosing ONLY veteran and decorated astronauts with several interplanetary missions completed. The leaders are the toughest elite of Blazing Aerospace. True professionals…. well, for the Kerbal standards…
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Anyway, let’s bring those suckers up! For that we have the sixth iteration of the ‘Space Racer 2’ series of LKO SSTOs: The Stingray!
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Now, some time ago there was a debate between Horus and a guy and Horus was saying that a well-designed lander can land and return from almost anywhere, all it needs a good transfer stage to get there. I gotta say that inspired me to try and create a “Universal Lander”, a vessel that can land and return from almost any body on the Kerbal system (except Eve and Laythe for different reasons). So I created the vessel that will be used to explore the other Joolian moons: The “Zireael” Universal Lander.
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This was a test mission to Eeloo. The “Zireael” can transport a crew and science experiments between the surface and the orbit of any body on the system, except Eve and Laythe (and except Kerbin, Jool and the Sun, for obvious reasons). I haven’t tested this on Tylo, that is a part of Project Jool, but it should be fine, since it has good TWR and more than enough deltaV to land there. Comes with its own ISRU, so it can also refuel itself. Anyway, time to attach it to The Avalon!
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And we are docked! One more launch to go! ONLY ONE MORE LAUNCH TO GO!!!!!
The FINAL piece of the puzzle is that Jool impactor I designed a loooooooooooooong time ago… anyone remembers? No? Not too surprising…
Anyway, to launch it is a perfect opportunity to show my Space Shuttle “Fulcrum”, as well as to deliver the final crew.
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There we go… Now, all we have to do is to attach the Impactor to The Avalon… And here is where we have a problem: for some reason the probe can’t separate from the shuttle… I’ve tried everything, but the damn thing can’t decouple…
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WHY DO YOU THIS TO ME KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM?????????????
I just want to get to that fucking green planet with a cool moon…
*sighs* That has to be it for today guys, I really wanted to get this done. But it seems that we have to land the shuttle and launch it again…
Damn, KSP really doesn’t makes it easy for me…