27: Happy New Year!
It is Year 2 day 1, marking the first anniversary of our space program.
We've come a long way since the launch of the Sergei.
In the space of one year, we have thoroughly conquered our moons and have set off on our way to numerous distant worlds.
And we have got this far with very little in the way of real technological change.
Our rockets may be bigger, but they are mostly the same pieces bolted together in larger amounts.
Keeping the same systems may not have been the best idea.
But if it works, it works!
Perhaps it is that attitude which has brought us so far in such short time.
But if our aim is to be first in all that we do, what chance did we have at failing? Who was our competition?
KSP doesn't have other space programs rolling out, even though it does spawn some ships in space for the rescue missions. If the game doesn't provide competition, I suppose I'll have to sort something out.
Year 1 Day 1
Bronslo Kerman's expedition to the desert will be greatly overshadowed by news of communists entering space.
By the time he sets foot on the desert sand the news will have broken.
New saves usually start you out with Jeb, Val, Bill and Bob. With the power of savefile editing we're able to start this campaign with four different characters, Including playboy CEO and pilot Bronslo Kerman.
In fact, it's the plaintext savefiles which allow me to make comparisons between the files. Each spaceship, flag or piece of debris has the time of its creation in the savefile. It's stored as a number - the number of seconds from the start time of the career. By carbon dating the flags, ships and debris from Nataliy's save, I can see exactly which date certain events happen at.
While Bronsair's Keirjet aircraft can't get anywhere near as high as the Sergei rocket, a Keirjet has its own advantages.
A Keirjet costs roughly the same amount to build as the Sergei, but returns all of its hardware. The only thing lost in this flight is the fuel.
While the Sergei destroys nearly all of its 9000 kerbucks building cost, this flight of a Keirjet only spent 325 kerbucks in fuel.
A jet like this can fly to the farther reaches of Kerbin, returning science from places like deserts and the ice shelf.
Some research later, test pilot Kathy flies the new model "Brocket".
The Brocket is just a big solid rocket booster with some wings and jet engines attached.
It enters space on a suborbital trajectory, albeit on the same day Valentina Kerman becomes the first person to enter Kerbin orbit... ...and then set off for a flyby of the Mun.
The Brocket also returns all of its hardware. This model only burned 651 kerbucks.
Bronsair inc. employs a different strategy than Nataliy.
They also never pass up a space tourism contract. These crazy tourists want to blackout due to high G.
EXTREEME TOURISM TO THE MAX
As Valentina drifts out to the Mun on the Horsfield, Bronsair inc plays catchup.
The Bronsorb is a rocket powered plane capable of suborbital spaceflight, dragging an orbiter capsule on its back.
While the plane flies its suborbital arc, the orbiter detaches and fires out into orbit.
I can't be in two places at once, so the trick is to make sure you can get into orbit quick enough to be back at the plane before it crashes.
This thing doesn't have enough fuel to get back to the airfield, so it has to ditch in the ocean. There's a cost associated with recovering your hardware at a distance from the space centre: it takes a percentage out of the money recovered.
Because we're still at the point where Valentina was flying the Horsfield, it seems Bronslo does actually beat Nataliy to one thing. Bronsair is the first to make this design with a terrier engine, a fuel tank and a capsule. This is Nataliy's go-to lander, but the fact Bronslo got there first opens up the possibility that this was actually stolen tech.
The sum of the fuel and the recovery costs on this mission comes to 3062 kerbucks. There's definitely a lot of improvement to be had there, but it's the most cost effective orbital launch at this time.
Bronsair inc starts taking tourists on suborbital flights. This is something Virgin Galactic tried to get working with its really interesting Stratolaunch system, but flying such novel technology has a risk associated with it, and the system has been frought with
issues.
There's a huge difference between space flight conducted by the nation's top military space pilots for the sake of pushing mankind's boundaries, and space tourism. The tourist operators have to build something that its customers feel comfortable with, and that they can trust to get them home. NASA, on the other hand, was prepared for the possibility that the launch engine on the moon lander of the Apollo missions might fail. This would have left two astronauts stranded on the lunar surface, and they would have suffocated before there was any chance of sending a rescue mission. Famously, the US president at the time (Richard Nixon) had a speech prepared for him by his speech writer just for this event.
I suppose what I'm saying is that Nataliy is fine to bung kerbals on several years long space flights with only the space of two pods and a crew cabin. If the communists come back with their bones completely decalcified and their face inflated like a balloon, so be it! Bronslo, however, has to take a different tack.
It might be a while before the next update because I don't intend to be as thorough on Bronslo as I have been with Nataliy. Nataliy was the person you voted for, after all. I don't want to be away from her too long. Instead I'm thinking about blazing through the first year of Bronslo's save and returning here with the highlights reel and where it compares with Nataliy.
If there are people reading and I'm not just doing this for the fun I'm having, let me know if you'd like me to go into detail with Bronslo or just keep it short.