Year 6, Day 2 (Frontier 2 Investigates Atmosphere of Sarnus!)

screenshot1777.pngFrontier 2 is instructed to attempt to dip into the atmosphere of Sarnus!  The probe will go down to an altitude of 576k, an altitude that some scientists fear might be fatal to the probe! screenshot1778.png

Thankfully the probe didn’t enter deep enough to be burned to a crisp – and KSEA engineers find new insights about Sarnus – such as how the atmosphere is so incredibly light that if there were an ocean big enough, Sarnus would float!   Next up for Frontier 2, a wider orbit will be reached, and an attempt to encounter Tekto!  KSEA estimates this will exhaust the probe’s fuel.

Year 5, Day 285 (Frontier 2 Orbits Sarnus!)

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Frontier 2 approaches Sarnus…

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Closer…

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and closer!

screenshot1657.pngFinally, the craft fires its engines to circularize its orbit – extremely close to the rings of the distant, mysterious world!

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Onboard systems relay amazing new findings about Sarnus that scientists on Kerbin will be pouring over for years!

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Slowly, the probe’s long and eliptical orbit takes it away from Sarnus!

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but the adventure isn’t over quite yet, the craft’s trajectory will take it into the gravitational sphere of Eeloo, one of Sarnus’s (many)moons!screenshot1682.png

Sarnus’s magnificent vista doesn’t fail to impress!

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Frontier 2 silently passed by Eeloo – while the probe is not equipped with the modern scanning hardware of the Surveyor probes, Frontier 2 dutifully scans what it can. screenshot1692.png

The moon Slate can be seen in the distance. screenshot1693.png

What an incredible day for science!  The most recent accomplishments of the space program have inspired all of Kerbin!

Frontier 1 & 2 Update (Journey to Sarnus)

Frontier 1 is just days from its encounter with Sarnus – Frontier 1 was launched merely to test the capabilities of the Frontier design, and was considered a bit of a long shot. However, this probe will still be the first to reach any of the outer planets. Sadly, it will only have enough fuel to do a high speed fly-by, before continuing on an escape trajectory out of the Kerbol star system!

screenshot849.pngThankfully, the Frontier 2 Probe will soon perform a minor course correction in just 36 days.  If calculations are correct, this will let the probe fly extremely close to Sarnus itself, and then have an encounter with Sarnus’s moon, Tekto. With any luck there will be enough fuel to allow the spacecraft to circularize around this mysterious Moon!

 

Year 3, Day 89 (Frontier Probe Construction)

256x256-4Development on the Frontier probes to Sarnus is finally complete!  Construction begins on two of the probes:  Frontier 1’s mission is to reach Sarnus as soon as possible – this will allow testing of long range communications equipment to ensure that future probes can even be contacted!  Frontier 2 will take a more fuel efficient journey, with the gamble that the communications and power systems work at the extreme ranges the mission requires.  Once KSEA knows the answers to these questions more advanced missions to Sarnus will be possible!

Year 3, Day 78 (Development Begins on Frontier Probes)

Work begins on developing Frontier 1 & 2, the first probes being sent to Sarnus!  Appropriately enough, the probes will each be launched atop the Sarnus V rocket.

The probes are an entirely new design and due to the enormous distances, will require more DeltaV than any craft yet launched!

256x256-11Each probe will carry on it a plaque that will attempt to explain where the Kerbals came from… hopefully some signs of the Ogres, the creatures believed to have sent that first probe that crashed on Kerbin so long ago, may see it!

Construction also begins on a new Surveyor probe… this time for Mun.  The craft, cleverly named “Mun Surveyor” should be ready soon!

Additionally, construction begins on Aurora 11, the next Mun Mission!  This time Glenica and Kimmy are at the front of the line!