Willtor's [ill-fated] Mission to Minimus

[Willtor]

Forward:

I wrote the following story of my first lander mission in early May (2013) in an email to my brother, who had bought me KSP as a birthday present. I hope you will find it entertaining, though I apologize for the lack of pictures as it hadn't occurred to me to take screenshots.

Mission to Minimus:

As my first landing mission, I decided I'd put some Kerbals on Minimus because it was smaller than the Mun. I designed a ferry that could transport a lander to and from Minimus, launched it, and docked it at my space dock. Then I designed a lander that could safely deposit Kerbals on Minimus, allow them to walk (hop) around on the surface for a while, and take them back to the ferry. This part was difficult because I didn't know exactly how to plan -- how much fuel to carry? How much thrust was required to escape Minimus? Meh -- too much effort to check the Wiki. I made my best guess and launched the lander to rendezvous with the ferry. Jebediah and Bob Kerman were geared up to be the first Kerbals ever to set foot on another world!

The ferry/lander made the trip out to Minimus where it entered a tight orbit at ~40km altitude. I separated the lander and picked a fairly flat landing area and began my decent. As the lander approached the surface, I realized the decent was too shallow, but I was so close to the surface I needed to extend the landing legs and try to reduce speed. It was then that I realized the landing legs came up short with respect to the height of the rocket. But it was close, so I thought maybe I could still make a good landing.

Wrong. The craft tumbled a few times, finally coming to rest on its side. But in the tubling process, the docking clamp came off. I had not anticipated this. The lander was supposed to be reusable, so I hadn't put any parachutes on it, and the rocket (which was _way_ overpowered for Minimus) was totally underpowered for landing on Kerbin. "Oh, well. We've made this whole journey," I thought. "Jebediah can do a Minimus-walk."

Jebediah stepped out of the lander can and hopped around on the surface for a while (hops were a full 10m!). He collected a few samples for Kerbal scientists, and then it was time to go back. Given the extreme lack of gravity (and lack of atmosphere), I figured I could get a little bit of acceleration along the ground and turn the lander upright where it would begin its ascent. Once in space, I would send another rocket to rendezvous (but not dock, obviously), and my Kerbals would EVA and rocket themselves to the other ship. My plans were foiled when I discovered that Jebediah couldn't get back into the lander can! It was turned too far to the ground! I then managed to get Jebediah wedged under the lander.

So I took control of Bob and attempted to _gently_ twist the lander so as to free Jebediah and expose the portal. My slightest touch was magnified 10-fold, and the lander went spinning and lost one of its legs, nearly crushing Jebediah in the process. But it didn't crush him, and he was able to get back into the lander. At this point, I took stock and realized that there was actually a fair amount of lander debris lying around the site. But I thought I was still good to get back into orbit. I throttled up... and immediately exploded, sending debris all across the area. Miraculously, the lander can was still intact and upright. But the Kerbals were not getting home under their own power.

Thus, I planned out a rescue mission. I designed a second lander that didn't require legs -- it had 3 small rockets that it could use to land safely. It was not intended to be reusable, which also greatly simplified the design. There was a small pod at the top and an empty can underneath, which the stranded Kerbals could enter. Finally, I attached 3 parachutes to the pod, figuring this would be sufficient to slow my decent back to Kerbin at the end of the mission. The rescue lander was then launched and met the ferry at space dock.

The journey back to Minimus was filled with trepidation. Not only had I never successfully placed a lander on a moon, rightside-up, but I also had never tried to land at so specific a target. Even a tiny body like Minimus could still be pretty big when it came to precision landings.

When the new ferry/lander combo arrived at Minimus and assumed (a much higher) orbit, I separated the lander and planned a steep decent that I thought I could control, better. Bill looked terrified, of course. Probably, he had seen my earlier "landing" on the news. Amazingly, I managed to land his craft quite gently and upright... ~12.4 km away from the other landing site. Remembering my previous maneuvering attempts, I decided to call it good enough and make Jebediah and Bob come to the second lander.

Bob was first to EVA. He was all smiles as he exited the lander can (the only remaining part of the first lander intact, remember), and he immediately set about to hopping towards the rescue craft. Hop, hop, hop! Good old Bob, making time with his giant hops. After a couple of minutes, I gauged the distance to the second lander... ~12.3 km. Being that it was already 1:00am for me, I decided Bob would like to make use of his rocket pack... and make use of it, he did. With a massive boost forwards, he skimmed along the surface at an altitude of 4m, at speeds that would give Mario Andretti pause. But who could complain, with the distance to the second lander rapidly decreasing? Ah, but terrain. At 4 meters altitude, the ground came up to meet Bob without warning, and he suddenly disappeared in a puff of irresponsible smoke.

Okay. Need to be more careful with Jeb. I still decided to use the rocket pack, but to maintain a higher altitude (~14m) and travel at lower speeds. Jeb used most of his fuel, but he actually made it to the second lander and entered the can. Television audiences on Kerbis breathed a sigh of relief as the rescue craft launched from the surface. I had plenty of fuel to get back to Kerbin without the ferry (hard to get away from a planet, easy to get back to it), so I sent the rescue lander straight home.

It entered the atmosphere of Kerbin a couple of days later and began its decent. I jettisoned the engines and the remaining fuel (there was quite a lot, actually) that I thought might keep the parachutes from slowing the decent, sufficiently. As I approached 500m, I deployed the parachutes. At that moment, it occurred to me that attaching a couple of them to the giant can rather than the tiny pod might have been wise. Too late, now. The pod slowed to about 6m/s, and the rest of the lander did not. KABOOM!

Bill landed safely on Kerbin.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Willtor
Fix typos.