Desbree Goes to Minmus!

[Skyhawk]

After the some-what success of Tritium Aerospace's Astatine project (which it is now taking credit for, in a plea deal with its scientists), Tritium Engineers set their sights to the heavens, mainly, that big blue rock in the sky: Minmus. They quickly constructed a new vehicle to launch 1 lucky kerbal into the void of space, and onto the frozen tundra of Kerbin's second moon. The Regal 1 was then rolled out to the launchpad, and an eager Desbree Kerman climbed into the capsule and waited for launch.

The Regal 1 rocketed higher and higher, until it eventually reached orbit, with only a little fuel to spare.

Satisfied with how things were going, Desbree calmly detached the lift stage and plotted a burn for Minmus.

A short time later, Desbree had burned out to Minmus, gotten into an orbit, and still had half of the fuel left in his transfer stage. Since Desbree felt no reason to waste this fuel, he decided to use it for his descent to Minmus, with the plan of separating it from the lander just before he touched down, then gently bringing the lander onto the surface. This plan, however, would rapidly change during the descent.

He began to burn retrograde, aiming to put his rocket down on the icy lake below. Since he had so much extra fuel, he decided to be lazy and completely stop his horizontal motion. This meant that he only had to focus on vertical speed on the ride down to landing.

Just before touchdown, Desbree noticed he was going much to fast to land. He throttled the engine all the way up, praying to Jeb that the engine would save him. He closed his eyes and counted down to impact...

..which as it turned out, wasn't very hard at all. The NERVA strapped to the bottom separated, but didnt explode, and the ASAS combined with capsule torque managed to keep the main body of the spacecraft upright, safe and secure.

The drive stage fuel tank provided the base of the new craft, making the poor landing legs feel bad that they came all the way for nothing. Happy to be alive, Desbree Kerman exited via EVA pack, and made a mental note to remind the engineers to add a ladder on the next one.

He landed a few meter away from the Regal 1 and planted his flag, calling the site "Desbree's First Landing". He intended to lift the lander off and land somewhere else, but decided against it after calculating his fuel costs. Before he left, however, he paused to take some inspiring pictures for his friends back home.

After that, Desbree picked up a small rock off the ground, called it mission complete, and headed home.

He quickly burned out of Minmus' sphere of influence and headed home. After a short adjustment to bring down his periapsis, he separated from the lander stage and prepared for his descent. Depressed, the unloved lander legs crashed into Kerbin, the only surface the would ever touch.

Desbree's capsule came in at an fairly steep angle, quickly burning through the atmosphere, showing bright re-entry effects and even mach effects on the way down.

Still, Desbree managed to safely deploy his parachute and safely land in the ocean.

Desbree was picked up moments later by a waiting boat and taken to shore, where he boarded the next plane to KSC. When he arrived, he found that his fellow Kerbonauts had planned a suprise party for him, complete with a radioactive cake that Jeb had cooked with a NERVA. Desbree was a hero, the first kerbal to land on Minmus, and he was paraded down the runway, surrounded by his fellow astronauts, while one kerbal carried a recording of clapping on the side to simulate a crowd.

The scientists were overjoyed with their rock they acquired, and were preparing to study it when a clumsy member of the team dropped it in a pile of gravel. That member was quickly sentenced to the next test flight going out, and after that would have to sift through all the rocks in the pile to recover the sample.

The broken NERVA and transfer stage continue to sit on Minmus, silently keeping watch over the frozen tundra.

[zekes]

Cool story! Send more missions in the future! Make a base!