Lanmore Kerman was next to leave our atmosphere and became the fourth Kerbal in space. He was heavily involved in the design, construction and operation of the signal relay stations used to for early satellites and launch-vehicles before the CommSat project. With this scientific background, Lanmore was the natural choice for this mission and became responsible for observing important data from the instruments fitted to his capsule. Such data included recording atmospheric pressure as the vehicle ascended out of our atmosphere.
Mission Control received the data remotely, but Lanmore had to look at the information himself and report his findings back to the KSC. This tested the astronauts ability to collect and interpret data correctly in a space environment. Lanmore passed this test, proving that Kerbals were indeed able to undertake complex mental tasks.
This was the data observed at Mission Control during launch, which Lanmore was able to reproduce with his own on-board data set
The science equipment was specially fitted to the aircraft along with various sensors. These are not normally present on the capsule and, due to the missions success, won't be fitted to subsequent Command Pods. Lanmore had just two hours to gather and interpret the data before his craft splashed down safely after three orbits of Kerbin. This completed the Unity projects' first science mission.
Unity XVIII launches from the KSC
The data collected also goes towards the next project, which will take Kerbals to the Mun. Plans for the next vehicles to be used are already on the drawing board, and this mission was another step towards these future developments.
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