Kerbal Diaries: Manned Solid Booster S2

 The launch begins. Bill Kerman has set out to ensure that Jebediah's sacrifice was not in vain.

 The lower SRB explodes, allowing the rocket to launch into the air

 Of course, Bill knows better than to stay in the ship. He jumps out, leaving it to complete its mission with no control.

Sadly, the mission is not a success. The Solid Booster S2 is almost completely annihilated on contact with the ground.

Kerbal Diaries: Manned Solid Booster S

With the unmanned tests being successful, it was time to test Solid Booster S rocket with a man inside.

As is customary for a launch, the rocket ignites in a pillar of smoke.

And liftoff! Jebediah Kerman does not seem confident with the quality of my rocket.

3.5 juicy science points are gained from above Kerbin's shores.

Another 0.2 are obtained when Jebediah steps out of the craft to taste the fresh air of flight. The most dangerous portion is yet to come though.

The rocket begins falling. Jebediah braces for impact.

Sadly, that is not enough. The first Kerbal to die from spaceflight is Jebediah Kerman.

Kerbal Diaries: Solid Booster-S

Bob: I see you've made a shielded version of your solid rocket booster.

Jebediah: Yep. Hey Bill, how's it going in there?

Bill: Good so far, this feels safe.

 Bill: On second thoughts...

Jebediah: It's OK, you can leave now. The ignition's started, there's no way to stop the launch.

Bill: Good. In that case, I'm running.

Jebediah: And we have liftoff!



Bob: It's landed successfully. How?

Jebediah: No idea. Manned flight tomorrow!

Kerbal Diaries: Solid Booster

Bob: What is THAT?

Jebediah: It's my new rocket. Do you like it?

Bob: Jebediah, you've just got out of hospital. Why are you so eager to return?

Jebediah: Well, it's too late now. It's already started.

Bob: Will this explode?

Jebediah: [cough] Yes.

Bob: Jebediah? Are you OK?

Jebediah: Better than OK.

Bob: Jebediah, I don't know how you did that, but dear Kod, it's actually flying.

Jebediah: Just. Wow.

Jebediah: It looks like the solid fuel has just ran out. I hope the shielding I put on it works.

Jebediah: Damn. Oh well, I can just add heavier shielding.

Kerbal Diaries: Tower Nova

Bob: Wow. That's a fairly tall tower. How much did it cost?

Jebediah: Not much - most of it is made from stuff I found in the junkyard. No - all of it's made from stuff I found in the junkyard.

Bob: Is it safe?

Jebediah: Maybe.

Bob: No. Absolutely not. I forbid it. Anyway, how could you buzz the tower? Your tower can't even move.

Jebediah: Good plan.

Bob: No.

Jebediah: Fine, I'll come down...

Jebediah: Ouch.

Bill: Hi Bob. HI JEB! What's going on?

Bob: Jebediah's trying to get down from that tower.

Jebediah: Allow me to restate my previous statement: Ouch.

Bill: Just wriggle off. The ground is sturdy enough.

Jebediah: Right.

...

AAAAHHHH OUCH

Bob: I'll get the ambulance.

[Later, in the Kerbal Hospital]

Jebediah: I've been thinking. You know fireworks?

Bob: I know what you're thinking of doing. It's a bad idea.

Kerbal Diaries: Tower

Jebediah: I have a dream!

Bob: Is it the one about all the clans being judged by the content of their character and not their second name again? Because we fixed that problem about 150 years ago when we unified Kerbin.

Jebediah: No, this one's different. I dreamt that I was walking on Minmus.

Bob: So something that's impossible.

Jebediah: So I've decided to start a space program!

Bob: How, exactly, are you going to reach space?

Jedediah: Well, you know towers?

Bob: Jeb, that's not going to work.

Jebediah: Well, if I can make one high enough, I'll reach space, right.



Bob: There's no way the city planning authorities are cool with this.

Jebediah: You'd be surprised what you can get a permit for.

Jebediah: Alright, I'm pretty high up here. By my estimation, I'm about 10 m closer to space.

Bob: That's not very far.

Jebediah: You're right. The ground looks too close for me to have a chance of spaceflight. I'm going to need to build taller.

Jebediah: I'll just hop down. I have a plan.

Bob: Please don't say that it involves a bigger tower.

Jebediah: It involves a bigger tower.

New Kerbal Diaries

I've decided to restart the Kerbal Diaries series. The New Kerbal Diaries will have more stuff, including career mode. If you're worried about Jebediah, don't worry: I was able to rescue him using a lander modified for orbital maneuvering (the C3 Minrescuer).

Another Way of Thinking About Hyper Operators (Tetration and Pentation)

The common definition of hyper operators refers to the previous hyper operator. For example, 3 ↑↑ 3 equals 3 ↑ 3 ↑ 3, and generally a↑^bc = a↑^b-1 a ↑^b-1 a ...↑^b-1 a with c a's overall.

This isn't particularly intuitive, given that it is difficult to imagine tetration and the numbers it generates (e.g.  10↑2 is a number too large to represent using digital notation even if every single particle in the universe was used to write it down).

However, they can also be expressed using power towers, and low-quality ASCII art. Firstly, observe that:
For Tetration:
              10 <-
             10   /
           ...   / 10
10       10     /
  10 = 10     <-

10 tetrated to ten is equal to a power tower of 10s. Generally, a tetrated to b is equal to a power tower of a with a height of b. Let's continue with pentation:
For Pentation:
             10 <-         <-    10 <-
            10   /          /   10   /
           ...  /- . . .   /-  ...  /- 10
          10   /          /   10   /
10↑↑10 = 10  <-         <-   10  <-
         ^                              ^
         |------------------------------|
                       10

If this is difficult to read, then notice that it is a power tower of 10s, with a number of tens equal to a power tower of tens... and so on.

Another to think of this is to imagine the sequence:

• 10 (a power tower of tens with a height of 1)
• ¹⁰10 (a power tower of tens with a height of 10)
• ¹⁰¹⁰10 (a power tower of tens with a height of ¹⁰10)

And so on, until you reach the tenth term in this sequence. That number is 10 pentated to 10.

You can actually continue in the diagrammatic method forever - for example, 10 hexated to 10 is equal to the above diagram for pentation, but the "10" in the length of the power-tower-chain is replaced with ten copies of the pentation sequence. And so on.

--Thomas

Old Kerbal Diaries: The SSTV Probe

On a KSP forum thread about the SSTV transmission on Duna, someone claimed that another SSTV transmission is heard when passing more than 10 Em from the Sun. This is probably false, but I decided to test it out.

Here is the probe on the launchpad. Most of the delta-v (20 km/s) of it is in the tiny ion stage at the top, above the rockomax adapter. Next is the nuclear stage (10 km/s), and then the launch stage that sends the rest into orbit. This will give it a final velocity of about 33 km/s, enough to reach the target in just a hair under 1 million years.

As it flies into the air, it actually looks kind of elegant.

Unfortunately, the launch stage had insufficient delta-v so I had to circularise using the nuclear stage instead.

With the solar panels deployed, the space probe can now begin the nuclear booster stage. This is just before ignition of the NERVA engines.

After the nuclear stage runs out of fuel, the Ion stage takes over. This has a very long burn time - Brachistochrone trajectories to the Mun and Minmus are actually possible with this rocket. In otherwords, you can literally point towards the Mun, thrust, and you will get there.

Eventually, the probe reached its final velocity of 33 km/s, and I modified the save file to simulate 1 000 000 years of travel.

There was nothing, but the probe, frozen in space.

And I mean literally frozen in space.

As in, not moving.

Weird.

Old Kerbal Diaries: Saving Private Kerman

Jeb was stranded on Minmus.

I can't stand for that, so I decided to make a better lander that fixes the design flaws in the B1 Munlander. Known as the B2 Minlander, it has a few modifications.

As you can see, it has a wider base, solar panels, and a probe core which allows it to be piloted without crew.

The engines are also LV-T45 engines, which make it less impossible to control.

The launch to orbit and rendezvous with Minmus go off without a hitch. My apoapsis is slightly higher than I would have liked, but it'll do.

Getting my orbit over Minmus to pass Jebediah's landing site was a challenge. I was able to get this, which goes almost directly over where Jebediah landed.

Landing is tense, but successful. You can see the downed corpse of the Munlander, where Jebediah is.

Jebediah walks over to the Minlander, and jumps inside the command pod. He's positively quaking with excitement.

However, after entering orbit around Minmus, I realised that I don't have enough fuel to get back to Kerbin. That means that I'll need another rescue mission, to rendezvous with the lander in orbit and finally return Jebediah.

Old Kerbal Diaries: Mission to Minmus

Following on from my Mun mission [link], I've decided to land on Minmus.

Here is the launch vehicle on the pad. You'll notice that it looks similar to my Mun lander - that's because it is the same ship. Because Minmus has such low gravity, it is much easier to land on it which approximately offsets the increased difficulty of reaching it.

The main boosters were separated before burning towards Minmus, mainly because they were horrible to control. Maybe in the next version, I'll replace the LV-T30 boosters with LV-T45 boosters (for non-KSP players - LV-T30 are powerful but can't be steered, LV-T45 are slightly weaker but they can be steered).

The burn to Minmus begins. Using the lander as a transfer stage is feasible because it contains a large amount of fuel compared to what it needs to land.

The transfer goes off without a hitch, but it's a bit too inclined against Minmus' orbit. The flyby of Minmus puts on on an almost polar orbit around Kerbin, which means that my encounter puts me flying over the north or south pole of Minmus - not good, since that means launching back to Kerbin will be gard.

A short mid-course adjustment later, and the encounter hits the equator of Minmus. Perfect!

Unfortunately, the periapsis of my orbit is on the night side of Minmus, which means that I'll have to enter an orbit.

I circularise, and then lower my periapsis so it's directly above the landing site I want to land on.

Too late, I realise my landing site is going to be on a slop in the dark. That's what I get for trying to land near the terminator.

Jebediah Kerman lands on Minmus, and plants a flag which promptly falls over. This is after using almost all of my electricity in a failed attempt to keep the lander upright.

When Jebediah stands out of the way of the lander, it rolls another 115.8 m away from the landing site, before finally coming to a stop.

However, the ElectricCharge left is only 1.72, which is too small to risk taking off again. Time for a rescue mission!