KSEA unveils designs for the third component of Kerbin Spaceport: A modular refueling vehicle! Construction has already begun, and will launch soon along with the other components for Kerbin Spacedock!
KSEA is pleased to announce the newest space station – Kerbin Spacedock! This fully stocked crew facility in orbit will serve as the central hub for the Deep Space Vehicle fleet, providing a place for crew to return, rest, train, and even get promoted!
The station has three distinct components: the Docking Section with three ports at the end for Deep Space Vehicles, and two on the sides for Crew Vehicles arriving from the surface. The Habitat Section provides comfortable long-term orbital living for Kerbals and has almost all the comforts of home! Not pictured is a new Fuel-Supply module that will provide in-orbit refueling and resupply of the DSV fleet!
Construction has begun on the three modules (depleting the bulk of KSEA’s funds for quite some time!) Blueprints will likely be updated as launch date gets closer, and feature-creep inevitably slows down the production!
“Kerbin Spaceport has served KSEA and the Kerbal States well for years. However, it was built with a different kind of spacecraft and a different kind of mission in mind – Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer tanks with no option for changing fuel types, and docking ports that are too close together for the DSV fleet! With Kerbin Spacedock we’ll finally have a true home in the sky!”
-Gene
KSEA announces that Malcolm, Dunwin, and Shepely have been selected as the crew for Explorer 7! Explorer 7 itself is rolled out to the launchpad, and the crew will board tomorrow! In the meantime, everyone’s talking about how colorful the new patches are!
Malcolm and Shepely have never been to Duna, however Dunwin, the mission engineer, is a veteran!
The Advanced Duna Lander is already in orbit, and will leave a day after Explorer 7!
The Explorer 7 Duna Mission will make use of the Advanced Duna Lander’s capabilities to target landing sites that were out of range of previous missions. Additionally, many of the new surface experiments deployed and tested on Mun by the Aurora 18, 19, 20, and 21 crews will be deployed on Duna!
KSEA is excited to release plans for the next Duna Lander, the Advanced Duna Lander! Succeeding the Super Duna Lander, this new craft has greater deltaV, and additional life support and crew space – able to carry FOUR Kerbals!
The re-usable lander will launch on a Sarnus Va rocket, and travel a few days behind the Explorer 7 mission to Duna!
KSEA releases blueprints and announces construction of the next generation of Aurora Crew Vehicles, the Mk10!
This new design solves (hopefully) a problem the space program has had for sometime – resupply missions to Kerbin Spaceport have often required specialized equipment or utilizing expensive and overpowered launch vehicles for taking snacks and other essentials to Kerbin Orbit.
The streamlined design also forgoes the traditional escape tower for integrated landing rockets that double as an escape system and to slow the spacecraft down on return to Kerbin! Not shown is the integrated parachute that blueprint designers forgot to make note of.
The next Explorer spacecraft is designed, Explorer 7! This spacecraft was designed as a lower cost spacecraft that would require fewer launches to prepare. Previous Explorer spacecraft required two launches: one for the spacecraft and another to deliver crew.
This was largely due to the nuclear fuel component that was part of the Pathfinder-derived vehicles.
The new design features a new Mk10 crew module at the top, which allows emergency escape options on launch. Once in orbit, the crew fires a transfer burn to Duna, then exits the vehicle and climbs from a ladder into the cryogenic stasis chamber. They’ll reverse the procedure once they arrive at Duna Spaceport!
Explorer 7 costs less than 1/10th the cost of the much more versatile and longer range Deep Space Vehicle Discovery, and is more suited to visiting Duna (and possibly Eve) than further flung missions such as Jool and beyond!
The next Duna Mission won’t be for another year – once the launch is closer, a crew will be chosen and a new mission patch will be released!
After years of designing, preparation, and waiting, the day is finally here… the Discovery crew will leave the Spaceport and take their Spaceplane ‘Endurance‘ to land on Laythe!
Even the mission profile has been carefully planned, as no spaceplane has ever landed on another planet!
“OK – ‘Endurance’ is undocked from the Spaceport… using maneuvering thrusters to reach safe distance to activate engines!”
-Jeb
Endurance’s solar panels deploy to soak up as much energy as possible, while the orbital maneuvering engine fires to drop the craft out of orbit!
“So far so good!”
-Bill
Airbrakes deploy to create more drag, slowing the re-entry of the spaceplane! From inside the cramped science bay, Bob is growing concerned:
“What’s going on!? It’s getting hot! I can’t see anything from this seat!!”
-Bob
“Everything’s fine! We’re through the worst of the heat now – on course for a chain of islands near the equator!”
-Jeb
“Switching RAPIER engines to ‘air-breathing‘ – looks like a lot of flat desert down there, setting down shouldn’t be so bad!”
-Jeb
“Slowing our speed, deploying Air Brakes… starting landing procedures. Hold on everyone!”
-Jeb
Endurance needs to be going as slow as possible before it deploys it’s landing parachute. On Kerbin this parachute wouldn’t do a very good job of slowing an X-10, however on Laythe (combined with the VTOL engines) it should do the job just fine!
The Air Brakes retract, and the parachute deploys! The aircraft pulls up until it starts to even out…
“Ahhhhhh!”
-Bob
“Hang on back there! We’re almost down!”
-Bill
The VTOL bays open, and the aerospike rockets fire to slow the spacecraft! The housing of the chambers is thermally lined to protect the rest of the spacecraft, nonetheless, the rockets aren’t meant to be fired for anything but short bursts!
“Just about there! VTOL is slowing us down to about 5 m/s…. we’re in the pipe, five by five!”
-Jeb
“Why do all the pilots say that before they land!?!”
-Bill
Endurance sets down on Laythe!
“Finally! What a rough ride! Opening science bays… deploying ladders… antennas and solar panels deploying!”
-Bob
The crew will do tests for a short time before heading out to the surface!
The Deep Space Vehicle Discovery is finally nearing Jool – and it’s watery moon, Laythe!
Along with it are two other components of the Laythe Mission, the X-10 Laythe Spaceplane, Endurance, and the hub of the entire mission, the Laythe Spaceport!
Jeb, Bill, and Bob remain in Cryo-Stasis – remote systems show they’re doing fine! The convoy of spacecraft arrive at Jool’ SOI tomorrow, and will perform circularize it’s orbit in 11 days!
Once there, the crew will thaw out, and prepare for the landing segment of the mission – a dangerous endeavor, as they’re the only Kerbals in the area!
The Kerbin Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (KOAA) and KSEA are teaming up to build an orbital scanner that can take high resolution images of Kerbin’s surface! This should help detect any anomolies that may have been missed, and possibly other forgotten facilities! KerbScan1 will launch on an Aurora Rocket any day now!
Mission Planners are excited to announce that Kerbals will be returning to Mun for the first time in years! The early Aurora missions to explore Mun and Minmus were done before some of KSEA’s more advanced scientific equipment was developed. This return to Mun is intended to test new surface science equipment and a new rover that will allow exploration of terrestrial worlds!
Kerbal States | Kerbin Space Exploration Administration 