I have been away from New Horizons for a bit but now I want to get going on the next two phases of the program which occur in parallel. The first is the local system landing missions.  That craft is designated the Erikson and will land and transmit science from the local worlds.  Later, the worlds will be scanned for new biomes, but this initial foray only makes a single landing on each, so that is not necessary. The second is the Magellan craft for heading to some other worlds in the Kerbol system.  Eve is first, but others will follow. It doe snot require an orbit, a flyby should work just fine and keep the rocket size down for now. Both of these craft need to be simmed and tested. Eriksen (misspelled) simulation. Standard ascent config: 98.9 turn, 15 deg 50%, alt 200 Sim went fairly well to Serran except I separated too early and ran out of juice (my panel is retracted for landing).  I will run the sim starting the Serran orbit to test the lander aspect. Landing sim went pretty well.  The heat generated on entry started at 35km and never caused any heat warnings (I was going about 1500 m/s so it may be faster).  I can keep the 2nd stage longer I think.  To land, you do need to apply some engine because the atmosphere is too thin and you come down too fast. I think this is ready for a real mission! Launch Date: 1y 160d Erikson 1 Erikson Lander craft (6609 dV) Serran Mission. This will be the only atmosphere mission of the Erikson series (at this stage) so it will use the parachute and atmospheric braking. Night launch! 811 dV needed for rough transfer to Serran (2824 avail) 212 dV needed for adjustment (~700k periapsis) Need 842 to land on the sunny side, so I will be using part of my lander fuel to do that (559 dV in 2nd).  I think it is okay because I only need a little due to the parachute and atmosphere. Speed is just above 1960 as it hits the 61k atmosphere. Probe fell over on landing.  Came down a bit hard.  Gamma doesn't work in atmosphere (great).  I was able to extend the panel and am getting science.  Not pretty, but functional! Barometer also does not transmit full value (?) The biome is called "Dead Continents" and is very rocky.  I can't get a picture because of the craft being on its side. <Erikson 1> Next up is the Magellan mission.  I am not going to upgrade the craft before I go with new science (or octo probes) because I just don't get enough from the lander.  I would need a lot of missions and multiple biomes, so I think it is time to head into the larger system! Launch date: 1y 169d Magellan 1 Magellan Core craft (8480 dV) Science mission flyby of Eve.  May go into orbit if I can. 697 dV needed for Sonnah orbit (40mmx47mm). 4159 dV available to start journey to Eve. 1521 required for push to Eve (1941 in stage, 4159 total) We have about a small adjustment in 354 days which has been put into the Kerbal alarm.  Until then! <Magellan 1 Underway> Taking a break.  Looking at my science (227.7) it looks like another lander mission and I may have enough for a telescope which could get me a bunch of science. Launch date: 1y 199d Erikson 2 Erikson Lander craft (7043 dV) Eli Landing Mission. 1049 for transfer to Eli (656 left in stage, 2164 total) In a 60k orbit of Eli.  252 dV left in the stage and the full 1508 available in the lander.  Should be golden! Solid mission.  Auto landing a little slow, I needed to do some manual adjustment along the way.  Good science and photos. Biome: Surface <Erikson 2> Got enough science that I can now explore the telescope options!  Going to play with making some telescope ships.  I have choices so I may try three variants. I simmed with the other new scopes and they don't really offer anything.  They take pictures.  Minor science (only one picture as well).  One is for surface (seems heavy-handed for that).  Guess I will go with my traditional space scope again. Lowell 2 needs another sim run/test.  But it seems ready to go! Simming Lowell 2 at 6505 dV (need polar launch).  Shift to 150 km orbit.  Looks like a good sim run.  Last engine is a bit wonky (requires heavy reaction wheel to compensate) but it is good enough and not needing to change. Launch date: Lowell 2 Lowell 2 craft (6505 dV) Space telescope mission.  Go into a high polar orbit to reduce movement.  150 km initial orbit. 'Final' orbit of 150km x 5.24mm. About 360 m/s near apoasis.  Not bad.  Still a bit shaky.  Better without the big reaction wheel active. I got more than 1000 science off that mission!!! <Lowell 2 First Light> So now the door is open to many new things.  I can upgrade my scanning capabilities and map all the planets in the Sonnah system.  I can build the octo probes which will allow me to do return missions from the planets as well as send out some interesting long distance probes.  I also can start doing some basic Kerbal missions and build up to build a space station which could bring even more science and then launch me into my next level of interplanetary exploration even deeper!