Mission reports from the Jupiter 2, courtesy of OPSGUY

[Atragon9 0]

We have scoured the ruin of the Jupiter 2 and collected fragments of old magnetic tape recordings. The voices are badly degraded, but our computer core has been able to collect and piece together some of the info and provide us transcripts. They follow below:

 

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The date is mid-year of 2001, according to our ship chronometer, which is set to track our relative time movements. This is John Robinson, recording my first log entry for planet four in our search for a suitable colony world. We came out of our freezing tubes as we began our descent into the atmosphere, to discover that our daughter, Penny, our pilot, Major Don West, and our special stowaway, Dr. Zachary Smith did not survive this trip to our fourth planet. Taking the controls at the last minute, I was able to keep us from a totally destructive landing, but it was really just a controlled crash on a hilltop. We buried our dead on the south side of the hill - but why do I think they won't be the last to die here. It's so cold on this world...

 

... late 2002, Maureen Robinson recording. Yesterday, I buried my husband John, who died from a wasting sickness that began with the loss of Penny last year. Judy has been a great comfort to all of us during our time on planet four, but I also know that she has not stopped mourning her loss of Don. In the past year, we have put the Robot to work on our engines in the hope of getting us off this planet again. It does not look good, considering the damage to the Jupiter 2 and the limited metals available on this world...

 

... 2012. This is Judy Robinson, recording my first official log for the mission. Last week, my mother succumbed to a long illness that she has been trying to fight off for over a year. Will has become more and more withdrawn, spending all of his time with B-9, working on some crazy scheme to get us out of here. He has been ripping apart sections of the ship, to get parts for a smaller vehicle that can be ready to travel with the new engine being built. That is a careful and slow process that B-9 has been tasked with for more than three years. No one knows if any progress has been made...

 

... early 2058. I'm not sure why I am recording this, but I stumbled upon some of the older logs that had been saved and decided to bring the records up to date. This is William Robinson, age 70. I am the last human alive on this planet when my sister, Judith, passed away last year. I directed B-9 to pause in his engine design long enough to help me bury her, as mu back has been hurting me a lot, of late. The new, lighter, stronger Jupiter 2 is ready to launch as soon as B-9 has the new engine ready. He tells me it is just a year away from a first test fire, but he has been telling me that, every year, for the past 12 years. Sometimes I hate how much human emotion he has picked up over time...

 

... 2070, William Robinson, age 82. We still have not tested the engine and my food supply is finally depleted. I have programmed B-9 to split his time on the engine work and on going to the lake to scan the system for any other vessel. I know now that I will never leave this planet, soon to join my family on the south hillside. If B-9 can get the parts he needs from some other source of metals, he will be able to take off and try to get home. he has all of our mission data and recorded logs in his system and he has the energy cells to keep him going for centuries to come. I hope that is enough time...

 

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The Admirals have directed the search parties to try and find the engine that has been in the process of building for five centuries