After almost three minutes of discussion, two of which were about fuel lines and asparagus, the room was locked in a three-way tie. The director sighed and cast the deciding vote. Stability is researched, giving access to new science:
Who makes these diagrams, anyways?
They are convenient, though. And pretty.Bill Kerman is advocating the research of Flight Control because he thinks it sounds better; Bob Kerman thinks General Construction would let us build bigger, more complex craft more easily; and Jebediah called both of these "sissy options" and recommended General Rocketry again. Director GreatWyrmGold notes that reaction wheels and movable winglets are both useful for controlling craft precisely, or at all, while landing struts would help with landers. He overal recommends we research Flight Control next.
As to what our glorious program does next: We decide to
crash into land on a mountain! A Mk II is launched in the direction generally agreed to be west. We reach a height in excess of 8.5 kilometers before releasing the empty rocket and dropping.
It is noted that rockets are a very fast and (in a 2/3 vote by our astronauts) fun way to travel.
The rocket crashes into the surface far below as Jebediah laughs from the relative safety of the command pod.Unfortunately, the quick trip up is followed by a slow fall down...into the grasslands. The Mk. II just isn't powerful enough to reach the mountains. Jebediah gathers what data he can.
Jebediah Kerman's plaque-writing privileges are under review.
His science duties are not.The pod, Jebediah included, is dragged back.
The engineers debated long and hard about how to make the SciMax better at sciencey stuff. The solution: Make the fuel tank bigger and add three solid fuel boosters! Also radio antennae.
The Mark Three, viewed by an intern who fell from a balcony. He will be missed.
Liftoff!
Shouldn't we be turning more?
And this isn't much better.
Why do the rockets always stick?
A majestic vista.The launch is a bit rocky, in that there wasn't enough turning in the first stage and a bit too much with the second. However, things went well, with Jebediah drifting up to a height of nearly 35 kilometers, the highest any kerbal has been confirmed to have reached, and eventually lands...
That also does not look like a mountain.
EVA is not encouraged.
We overshoot the mountains a lot and end up in the ocean, out of sight of land. Jebediah reports that the mystery goo is leaking into the ocean, leading to environmentalists worrying that adorable kergulls or something will eat it and get superpowers. An intern consumes mystery goo to test this hypothesis; after a few tests it is determined that superpowers would be the least worry of the kergulls. Very sciency.
It is hypothesized that the Mark Three could get to space, perhaps even orbit. Jebediah approves of this notion.
The director notes that we now have enough Science to research General Rocketry or Survivability. We should therefore make a research decision now, as well as general plans for the next bit. Base science? Mountains? Orbit?
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