Duna return, The Martian style.

[Sharpy]

---the boring intro, feel free to skip---

I'm returning to KSP after a good year of a break. I had reached a point where my old PC just couldn't handle the constructions I was making on regular basis, I kinda burned out, completed the tech tree without really leaving the Kerbin system, my Duna mission, a huge train, was so crapping out on my old PC I just gave up. Now I got a new one. I've started from scratch, and playing more Kerbal style: no planning to last detail, no extreme redundancies, Just Do It. And it pays. The Mun landing was great, as I ran out of fuel barely reaching Mun orbit, and had to send rockets to give my craft a push. Then time came for Duna. With about half of the tech tree still missing.

---end of boring intro---

 

The mission would be moderately sized. Three craft:

an orbital base, with a lab. Piloted by Jeb, with two contractor scientists in the lab.

A lander, "diagonal start" style (jump off a hill ridge to start), piloted by Valentina (with 3 stars of skill, instead of Jeb's one), and Bill and Bob in the crew compartment.

 

And a craft consisting of a "garden chair" style lander for Ike, and a bunch of monopropellant which was a prerequisite for a base around Duna from a contract, and which I had forgotten to add when the base was launched.

 

The trip went mostly without a hitch. Some dangerously wobbling gigantors on the base, a little tight on fuel budget for the base, but way over budget for the lander, which I had planned to use to land in several biomes.

Also, some shortcomings. Like, Valentina had to get out if Bill or Bob had to go on EVA, e.g. to collect data from the instruments or do some makeshift construction/repair... Or the fact the lander had two docking ports. One in Valentina's inventory, another in Bill's. KIS/KAS. No good ideas for good port placement. Or that I forgot RCS for left-right translation/rotation.

Well, the first was a nuisance, but not a serious problem. Especially, that with no probe core, and no pilot, the craft would keep drifting while Val was on EVA. Which made Bill's work harder, as he would work first to attach the docking port to one of the external fuel tanks, then another to that monopropellant carrier drone, which happened to be just the right spot to dock to the station. Also, Bill stripped the drone of most of its RCS ports (3 4-dir, and 4 place-anywhere), and put them on the lander, to allow horizontal translation at last, and dock.

I transferred spare fuel to the station, leaving just enough to circularize right above atmosphere and begin aerobraking; I left one of the external fuel tanks (the one with the port) docked to the base, discarded the other in the upper atmosphere of Duna.

Descent went well. The parachutes deployed okay. The engine braked the last few meters to land smoothly.

Then the craft fell onto the front wheels - and the small, crappy wheel on the rear exploded.

The first sentence from The Martian was what I uttered then.

Well, the crew gathered what science was there to gather, planted the flag, picked the samples, and began planning how to get out of that place.

The first few attempts at "dragging the tail" ended up badly. RCS wasn't enough to keep it off the ground, and I just couldn't jump high enough. There were no parts that could be used as a sled. Long gone are the times when the radial air intake could be used for speeding 80m/s over Minmus flats. This craft would not start horizontally. But how to set it upright?

Then it was decided some The Martian style engineering was what was needed.

Bill detached all the RCS ports from the back, middle, or pointing backwards. He slapped them on the nose of the lander. 4-directional on the sides, unidirectional below.

Try one. The spaceplane groaned, wobbled, the wheels rose off the ground, but when the engine came in contact with the ground, it stopped.

"We need to lose weight", said Valentina. "We're not coming back to the surface again, or flying home in this thing. We just need to reach the orbit."

And so, Bob collected all the science that could be collected, stuffed it in the cockpit, and Bill went Mark Watney on the hull.

Bang, came down the airbrakes. A few violent kicks sent the expensive scientific instruments flying. Thirteen parachutes littered the ground. The solar panels rained down, leaving an empty box which refused to budge. For a while, Bill seriously considered removing the wheels and the fins, but he didn't want risking damage of the ports, and the fins would be needed on ascent.

Val got out, to let Bill through to the passenger compartment, then she got back behind the yoke, crossed her fingers, activated RCS, and pulled up.

Slowly, the nose lifted. When the angle was over 60 degrees, she floored the throttle.

 

They arrived into the orbit, did the rendezvous, and began moving to the base. Bill left the craft last. He patted the hull tenderly, and switched the lights off on his way out.

Then one last problem became apparent.

Base: 3 seats in the command pod (1 occupied), 2 in the lab (both occupied).

New arrivals: 3 kerbals. One seat short.

"Somebody will need to stay behind," said Jeb. "We should draw lots."

"Oh, we are drawing lots, alright," said Val. "But we're all coming home. There's one more seat on this ship, which you forgot about."

Jeb drew the short one.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Sharpy

[Kerbinchaser]

Nice intro! Keep it up!

[RocketSquid]

What makes the solar panels rainbow?

[Sharpy]

On 10.09.2016 at 4:40 AM, RocketSquid said:

What makes the solar panels rainbow?

Headlights, one red, one green. They are mounted on the top of the side "boosters" (stacks ending with nukes).