BasketMC

Rooty Scooty Junior IV, Season 2: Kerbal Space Program

  • Published on

This Season 2 stream on GopherCraft's multiplayer server has one goal, in the commentary's first words: "get some kerbals in space and have them not die." The title card says Rooty Scooty Junior IV, but the rockets that fly are The Rooty Scooty Junior VI and VII, each with a pilot aboard. The first reaches the Mun and burns up on the way home. The second reaches orbit around Kerbin, then leaves it for good, and the stream ends with Joebles Kerman going around the Sun.

A crew for the Rooty Scooty

Basket opens an earlier Rooty Scooty design in the VAB. According to the commentary, the last stream "was all just robots," and now it is time for "real people." A decoupler goes in, the antenna gets moved, and after reading the stats of two parachutes Basket puts one on top. The ship is saved as The Rooty Scooty Junior VI.

The first launch attempt stops before it starts. There is no one in the capsule, because the crew was not assigned. Basket opens the crew tab, picks a pilot, and Hilchel Kerman sits on the pad. The Tracking Station, opened briefly later on, lists two older craft called The Rooty Scooty Junior V, one orbiting the Sun and one orbiting Kerbin.

The Rooty Scooty Junior VI lifting off at night, four solid boosters firing white exhaust around the core, the navball reading Surface 420.8 m/s

The rocket goes up full blast, mostly straight, and spins less than earlier designs did. Basket kills the engines high up, sets a maneuver node, and burns. A viewer suggests starting long burns a little early, and the commentary takes it.

Hilchel goes to the Mun

The fuel runs low, but a new node shows the ship meeting the Mun and coming back. Out near the Mun the science starts: temperature readings, a crew report, and the Mystery Goo, whose window reads "Mystery Goo Observation while in space high over the Mun" with the line "The Goo feels right at home here." Basket plans to transmit one result and keep the rest, then gets "No communication device." The antenna, it turns out later, was never on the ship. "In case you were wondering, if you don't have an antenna, there is no antenna."

A science window reading Mystery Goo Observation while in space high over the Mun, "The Goo feels right at home here.", worth 20.0 science if recovered or 6.0 if transmitted

The ship swings past the Mun and heads back to Kerbin over about two weeks of time warp. Viewers coach the way in: burn retrograde, make the entry more shallow. Basket sets a node for that and points retrograde.

No heat shield

There is a moment of confusion first ("this isn't my ship"), when the game treats a different piece as the ship instead of the one carrying the crew. Then the commentary works out what is missing: there is a decoupler, but no heat shield. "I don't think we'll survive this." The capsule hits the air, glows, and trails a long plume of fire.

The Rooty Scooty Junior VI capsule trailing a long plume of red and orange re-entry flame above Kerbin's blue horizon, the navball reading Orbit 3577.1 m/s

The Flight Results read "Catastrophic Failure!" The Mk1 Command Pod exploded due to overheating, the science parts went with it, and Hilchel Kerman was killed. The highest altitude was 503,965m.

Rooty Scooty Junior VII

Back in the VAB, Basket adds the heat shield and an antenna, splits the rocket so a smaller engine on a separate stage handles the upper part (a viewer's pick), and sets the pod to "Control From Here." The Rooty Scooty Junior VII goes to the pad with Joebles Kerman.

The first flight ends up on a path that looks too low, so Basket reverts to launch and tries again. This time the burn starts long before the node, about half the burn time early, as viewers advised. It works. The map shows a Kerbin Periapsis of 117,570m, and the commentary calls it: "We're in orbit!"

Out of Kerbin's reach

With fuel left, Basket plays with a new node and finds a Jool encounter, "only in 8 years." The burn is about four minutes long, and a viewer points out there is only about half the fuel for it. "I might try it anyway. Why not?" The fuel runs out before the burn is done, but the ship leaves Kerbin and goes into orbit around the Sun.

The radio works this time, so a crew report goes home. Joebles climbs out, and the game reports "EVA Report while in space high over the Sun Added" before Joebles boards again.

Joebles Kerman on EVA beside the dark Mk1 command pod of The Rooty Scooty Junior VII in deep space, an EVA Report button open and the Crew Hatch label showing

Where it ends

With no engines left, the plan is to warp and hope an orbit crosses a planet. Viewers show how to set Duna as the target and read the closest-approach markers, which show Duna far away on each pass. The mission clock passes eight years with no encounter. The stream ends with The Rooty Scooty Junior VII still orbiting the Sun, Joebles Kerman aboard. The commentary plans to "leave this running in the background" to see whether it ever meets Duna. How that turns out is not shown.