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Standard Dres Rescue Mission, with an Exciting Return to Kerbin!


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(This seems like a better place for this story to be, now that there's a forum devoted to its purpose)

So I managed to get Bill Kerman stuck on Dres. Therefore, I decided to launch a mission to rescue him! Unfortunately, the Dres transfer window was a long ways away, so I got distracted and did other things.

Eventually, the stars did align, and Jebediah Kerman boosted away from LKO in the creatively-named 'Bill Rescuer'. This ship has absolutely tremendous delta-v, for its mission: something like over 7 km/s, way more than enough to transfer to Dres and back.

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As such, we easily get into Dres orbit, even with the inclination change. I'd like to thank ksp.olex.biz for my success; its phase angle calculations are fantastic, and the whole layout of the site is really nice too.

So now it's time to switch to our Kerbal on the ground. "Bill? How's it going?"

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"Not good, Jeb. I've got 4.76 L of fuel remaining."

"Oh that's plenty! Take off."

"What? I think we're getting some interference, Jeb--I thought you told me to take off."

"No no, that's the plan. Just fire up your engines, and you'll be fine!"

"I thought you had a lander on board!"

"Wellllll... There's a lander, but no probe body on board it, so it won't exactly land. More like crash..."

The rest of this transcription was essentially Bill swearing, which has been censored for our younger readers. Jeb took advantage of this time to make the plane change necessary so that his orbit passes directly over Bill's location.

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When the maneuver had been completed, Bill was still going on. In fact, I think he started to invent his own words at around this point. While waiting for Bill to cool off, Jeb stepped outside and took a look at the scenery of Dres.

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Jeb's words: "Pretty much the Mun, but smaller and farther away."

Based on these scientific observations, kerbal scientists have attempted to compile a map of Dres' interior, and also several competing theories about its formation. The most popular is that Dres was once a part of a larger asteroid belt, but its fellow asteroids mysteriously disappeared. The scientists hope that these missing asteroids will return to Dres' orbit so that they can study them too. However, they have started to petition the Kerbal Space Centre about sending a probe with more detailed scientific instruments, and possibly something to explore the strange crater they observed around the equator.

Anyways, it will probably take them years to submit a proposal, so let's get back to the task at hand!

Bill finally calmed down, and Jeb persuaded him to take off in his lander.

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Bill had suggested that Jeb simply land using the transfer stage, but there was no response from Jeb. When questioned after the fact, Jebediah simply mumbled something about "Rule of Cool" and wouldn't take any more questions from the reporters.

Anyway, several seconds after launch, Bill's fuel supply ran out. He didn't lose his cool, but simply EVA'd, as per Jeb's instructions, and activated his rocket pack to continue the boost to orbit.

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Eventually, Bill's expert jetpacking allowed him to achieve an extremely low orbit around Dres.

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Now it was up to Jebediah to boost into a phasing orbit and rendezvous with this tiny target. Unfortunately his instruments froze up for a moment (lag spike), and so his phasing orbit was much larger than necessary.

"Uh Bill, we have a problem"

"JEB! What is it now?!

"Well, the good new is that my ship will rendezvous with you"

"And what's the bad news?"

"The rendezvous isn't for another three days"

"You little--"

screenshot737.pngThree days later...

Thankfully, Bill's communicator's battery had run out by this point, so Jeb no longer heard the insults hurled at him across the endless void of space.

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But Jeb's legendary piloting skills saved the day, and he elegantly rendezvoused within 100 metres of Bill's position. In fact, Bill had trouble locating the ship, as they were located on the dark side of Dres, and being that close meant that its icon no longer showed up.

He made it in the end, though with 20% of his jetpack fuel remaining.

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As the ship orbits Dres, Jeb is happy to have his fellow kerbonaut onboard, but Bill just wants to go home. And homeward bound they are, on a convoluted trajectory back to the little blue planet. Anyway, after many days of interplanetary travel, the two kerbonauts catch a glimpse of Kerbin through the front window.

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It's about this point where Jeb realized that his pod was attached to the interplanetary stage, with no parachute.

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Kerbin looms larger in the window as the kerbonauts frantically debate over what to do.

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As the ship prepares to reenter, travelling at 4 km/s, Jeb decides to try to land the ship on the nuclear engines with the small amount of fuel remaining. Bill's pod with its parachute will help slow the ship.

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The ship actually aerobraked next to the KSC, but did not descend far enough downward into Kerbin's atmosphere to land. Thus, another orbit was made.

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Here's a beautiful shot of Kerbin, Kerbol, and the Mun as the two kerbonauts' trusty ship makes its final orbit.

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This aerobraking was entirely random; I fervently hoped for a touchdown site on land, as Jeb would likely not survive a water splashdown.

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As luck would have it though, the ship seemed destined to land in the water, but a small peninsula poked out, shielding the crew from the water's icy embrace.

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The ship was getting closer to the ground, when disaster struck! The Spacetech Escape Pod on top is a mod I was testing out on this mission, pretty much because it looked cool. :) Unfortunately, it includes an integrated decoupler, which I inadvertently triggered when I fired the parachute.

So Jebediah Kerman is stuck in a nearly-empty ship designed for interplanetary travel with two nuclear engines, with no parachutes, which is hurtling towards the ground at terminal velocity.

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For any other Kerbal, this would have spelt certain doom, but this is Jebediah we're talking about! He fired up the engines, safe in the knowledge that the exhaust is not actually radioactive, just superheated by a fission reaction.

However, nuclear engines have a low specific impulse close to the planet's surface.

And the fuel levels were running dangerously low.

Thus, about one hundred metres above Kerbin's surface, the nuclear engines suddenly cut out, and the ship was falling towards Kerbin's surface once more, ending in a massive explosion.

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Unlike the exhaust of the engines, this was most definitely radioactive. Fortunately, kerbal spacesuits appear to be shielded against radiation, but the wildlife in this region of Kerbin will likely suffer.

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Bill Kerman rushes the kilometre-long distance in record time, wondering if Jebediah could have possibly survived that crash. The hopes raised by seeing the command module intact were dashed when Jeb was revealed to be not present.

"He...he must have gone EVA just before the crash..." Bill reflects.

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Crestfallen, Bill wanders around the side of the wrecked spacecraft, when he spots something. Can it be?

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And it is indeed! Jebediah Kerman survived the crash and is merely trapped underneath a SAS unit.

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Bill helps him up, and the kerbonauts are finally reunited, and on solid ground once more!

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Not only are these two part of my space program once more, but Jebediah has survived yet another certain-death scenario. You've got to admit, surviving a double nuclear explosion as part of a fall from space doesn't exactly diminish his reputation.

To celebrate, I decided to create a ribbon based on this mission. I'm not generally one for the ribbons, but this mission was special as it was my most distant rescue mission:

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Tada! I established an equatorial orbit, rendezvoused, saved a kerbal, and returned both to Kerbin, using a capsule. I wish there was an 'Extreme EVA' option for Dres, but I did kind of cheat by using the small amount of fuel left in the lander. Oh well, mission accomplished, and both kerbals are safe and sound! :D

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Nicely done! And impressive use of available resources.

I won't criticize about not having all the parts you need on the right stages, since I once sent a two-part orbiter / lander probe to Duna... and left the parachutes on the orbiter. Fortunately, the landing went perfectly fine otherwise.

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