K.S.S. Kolony

The **K.S.S. Kolony** is an example colony ship that appears in loading screen pictures and various KSS promotions. It is designed to transport 50 kerbals (100 if 2 rows of habitats are added) to distant worlds. With its massive size, it is capable of carrying kerbals for long periods of time, and, unlike the K.S.S. StarChaser, can visit almost every area of space except for things farther than just before The All.

The ship uses a single SRX-Flux Plasma Engine, currently the most powerful engine in existence

## History

Short after the departure of the K.S.S. StarChaser, kerbal scientists started the development and construction of the first kerbal colony ship. Based on the design of the StarChaser, a new bigger ship was constructed: the K.S.S. Kolony. The basic design allows a crew of 50 kerbals. The more advanced design can transport 100 kerbals.

The first mission of the KSS Kolony was to visit Duna, just to test how the crew lives under long-term spaceflight. It spent 3 years in space, and returned to Kerbin, ready for interstellar flight.

After returning to Kerbin, the KSS Kolony went on towards Kerolon to scout out the unknown system of planets orbiting it. It arrived using a gravity assist from Mesmo, slowing it down significantly to where it had to use little fuel to insert itself into an orbit around the planet.

   It stayed in a high orbit around Mesmo for several weeks, before performing a short insertion burn to get into an orbit around Nisc. It was there that they discovered a new moon around Nisc, which they named Cad. Initial scans and observations concluded that the moon was extremely dense for it's tiny size, and that it formed separately from Nisc and Mesmo.

After the studies of Nisc, the Kolony used a gravity assist from Velar, along with a small burn to get it on a path to Ernes. When they arrived at Ernes, the crew of the Kolony were shocked at how life managed to evolve on a moon outside the habitable zone, which is also dosed with radiation from Mesmo. The Kolony dropped some of its kolonisation pods down to Mesmo, in preparation for a manned colony.

After final preparations, the KSS Kolony left the orbit of Mesmo and departed for a short slingshot around Rilna; Which would allow the ship to study Rilna for just the required amount of time and return to Mesmo for a slingshot and a large burn out of the Kerolon system. When it arrived at Rilna's periapsis, the crew quickly realised that their escape point would not bring them to the required periapsis around Mesmo. The crew had 2 choices, either slow down and stay in the Kerolon system, which would allow more time to study the Kerolon system, but would mean the ship would not return to Kerbin, or doing a small burn which would enable the study of the Kelnis system, but not Rilna. The crew eventually decided to go with the second option, but left behind a small transmitter that would relay data about Kerolon to the Kolony for processing.

After initiating the burn and escaping Kerolon, the crew put themselves into Kryo for the long journey.

    The Kolony arrived in the Kelnis system 30 years after Kerolon, and after using a gravity assist from Irke, it slowed down for more studying. After Irke's encounter, it heads for and does a flyby on Ora, another candidate habitable planet. Somewhat to their disappointment, it was also tidally locked (on the bright side, at least it had some land and even life). They then headed for Cyln, and as they escaped Kelnis, inserted themselves into orbit. While Cyln was uninhabitable, they studied it for possibilities of a subsurface sea and resources. After about a year, they left Cyln orbit and took advantage of the alignment of the Kelnis system, and performed a double-flyby on Nelvem and Telim. Speeding towards the center of the system, they slingshotted around Avor and headed for one last encounter with Hilio, before ejecting from the system.

39 years later, while passing Kerulum, the K.S.S. Kolony lost contact with Kerbin. Initially thought to be a small error, the Kolony could receive messages but not send them. Later in the same year, all contact was lost with the Kolony. 10 years later the Kolony arrived in LKO, with 4 damaged antenna. It turned out that an interference with Kerulum's magnetic field fryed the electronics in all 4 antennas.

It was soon repaired and sent out within 5 years to further explore the Kerolon and Kelnis System, but all contact was lost before it reached the systems. Scientists are still unsure what happened.

## Appearances

The K.S.S. Kolony's first mission was to transport 50 kerbals and a small amount of essentials to the first extraplanetary colony on Duna.

    K.S.S. Kolony leaving Kerbin carrying 75 kerbals on board.