SOS!!!! I HAVE BOB AND VALENTINA KERMAN STRANDED ON MINMUS

[PlatinumBlast]

On a peaceful mission to Minmus, the landing went wrong when the flight systems failed, and they crashed in the Midlands Biome. They are now stranded, starving, and thirsty... It is a matter of time before they die... 

You must use an Apollo Style spacecraft, and save them (find them on any Midlands Biome area)

The mission cannot be over ten days long, (just in case you do do that) as they will have starved by then

You also must have a way of proving that you did it

 

Good luck

[dire]

Do you have a save file for your crash site? And are you interested in an SSTO, or will only an apollo-style mission do?

Honestly the additional delta-V for landing and taking off on Minmus is small enough that the extra complexity of a separate lander, ascent and return vehicle are usually not worth it. You really don't need that much and unless you crashed them in some hard-to-reach place they can literally jetpack into orbit and meet with a return craft there.

[PrvDancer85]

@direI guess the tricky part is the 10 days missiontime

[oAsAo]

Actually if they have life support for 10 days then you only need to get them to rescue ship in ten days since rescue ship itself will probably have sufficient life support... but i can do whole mission in less than ten days(actually it totaly possible to do first(failed one) and second(rescue) missions in less than ten days in total)

Edited December 1, 2018 by oAsAo

[Starwaster]

Challenge solved!

I turned the comm dishes away from Minmus, made an announcement that Valentina Kerman and Bob Kerman perished fighting Space Krakens that were about to overrun our peaceful planet....

... and held a parade in their honor. They are now heroes. Let's observe a moment of silence in memory of them...

How did I do!?

Edited December 1, 2018 by Starwaster

[dire]

"Rescue?! I thought we were setting up a Minmus colony! We're good for the next fourteen years, we'll eventually need to either deploy our solar panels or refuel  the reactor."

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by dire

[Kerbinchaser]

On 11/28/2018 at 11:33 PM, PlatinumBlast said:

On a peaceful mission to Minmus, the landing went wrong when the flight systems failed, and they crashed in the Midlands Biome. They are now stranded, starving, and thirsty... It is a matter of time before they die... 

You must use an Apollo Style spacecraft, and save them (find them on any Midlands Biome area)

The mission cannot be over ten days long, (just in case you do do that) as they will have starved by then

You also must have a way of proving that you did it

 

Good luck

Are we supposed to get a save file?
 

Also, welcome to the forum! :D 

[Kernel Kraken]

Try switching SCE to AUX.

[Geonovast]

30 minutes ago, Kernel Kraken said:

Try switching SCE to AUX.

I don't think there's any lightning on Minmus.

@PlatinumBlast typically with something like this, you should set up the scenario in a save file, then share the file.  Otherwise the challenge is basically "Land on Minmus before the timer dings"

Also, welcome aboard!

Edited December 1, 2018 by Geonovast

[purpleivan]

Ok I took a crack at this today and am posting a time of 2d 1h 44m 51s for the whole mission.

The proof is a little complicated as the mission elapsed time in the HUD reset when the lander rendezvoused with the return ship in Minmus orbit.

Here's the last image showing an elapsed time for the mission before rendezvous.

It shows a time of 1d 0h 26m 12s, to add to that will be the time until rendezvous (15m 13s), plus say 5 minutes for docking (it was less, but 5m to be safe). This comes to a total of 1d 0h 46m 25s for time until the lander had docked with the return ship.

The return time from then on was 0d 5h 58m 26s, giving a total time of 2d 1h 44m 51s.

It wasn't the best time possible with this vehicle, as both for the transfer to Minmus and back to Kerbin, I did an almost full orbit before making my transfer burns. Better timing of things would probably have saved me enough to get the time down to about 2 days.

One final caveat... the parts of Bob and Val were played by Madburry and Matgun.

Here are a few pics from the mission.

 

Go get 'em.

Fat with fuel and waiting to go.

The burn for Minmus.

In Minmus orbit.

Landed on Minmus.

Docked with return ship (the 1st image after the HUD time reset).

Forgot to transfer the crew from the lander to the return ship before dumping it, so got them across the old fashioned way.

The burn home.

Touchdown.

The Imgur album for the mission is here.

Edited December 2, 2018 by purpleivan

[eagle92lightning]

Sounds like another episode of... THE BLUNDERBIRDS!

[PlatinumBlast]

On 12/2/2018 at 12:46 PM, Geonovast said:

I don't think there's any lightning on Minmus.

@PlatinumBlast typically with something like this, you should set up the scenario in a save file, then share the file.  Otherwise the challenge is basically "Land on Minmus before the timer dings"

Also, welcome aboard!

Thanks for telling me this, I will remember that!

Hi guys, thanks for trying out this challenge, even without my save file. It was cool to see the way you did things, and @Starwaster great idea, I will remember that tactic xD

Also, thanks, @purpleivan and @direfor showing me of how you did my challenge, and I also thank everybody who either read, or even tried out my challenge. 

Edited December 13, 2018 by PlatinumBlast
I forgot someone to mention

[PlatinumBlast]

On 11/30/2018 at 9:11 PM, dire said:

Do you have a save file for your crash site? And are you interested in an SSTO, or will only an apollo-style mission do?

Honestly the additional delta-V for landing and taking off on Minmus is small enough that the extra complexity of a separate lander, ascent and return vehicle are usually not worth it. You really don't need that much and unless you crashed them in some hard-to-reach place they can literally jetpack into orbit and meet with a return craft there.

I will be happy to make an exception if you really want to use an SSTO

[dire]

@PlatinumBlast @eagle92lightning The Blunderbirds actually did a Minmus rescue. I think they've pretty much been everywhere.

 

As far as me using an SSTO, my current save is doing the Duna Outpost Mission Architecture challenge (hence why the schoolbus on Minmus), and the rules of that mission would make an SSTO problematic as I only have a limited amount of mass that can leave LKO and I don't want to waste too much on things my Duna colony doesn't really need. 

Edited December 13, 2018 by dire

[PlatinumBlast]

Hang on... Have the Blunderbirds been to Eeloo? I don't remember seeing that....

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I can rescue Bob and Val easily.

 

I mean, I have a lander that's able to take THREE people to the Mun AND Minmus before returning to Kerbin - it's just not Apollo-style. If that's unacceptable, I just need to modify the craft design to have an orbiter waiting in Minmus orbit and then rendezvous the lander with that orbiter when it's time to return.

• Honestly, @PlatinumBlast, I don't even think Apollo-Style is necessary.
• Is the design in the embedded video okay ? It may not be Apollo-Style, but I guarantee you it will get the job done.

 

As for the mission time, we'll have to assume that the lander is carrying the necessary resources to last the crew for the trip home. I mean, COME ON, you have to be dumb NOT to load that. Additionally, @PlatinumBlast did not specifically mention that the entire mission (to AND from Minmus) had to last ten days total. I can get to Minmus in way less than that, but once I reach Bob and Val in the Midlands they should be good for the trip back - even if the total mission time takes me more than ten days.

[PlatinumBlast]

3 hours ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

I can rescue Bob and Val easily.

 

I mean, I have a lander that's able to take THREE people to the Mun AND Minmus before returning to Kerbin - it's just not Apollo-style. If that's unacceptable, I just need to modify the craft design to have an orbiter waiting in Minmus orbit and then rendezvous the lander with that orbiter when it's time to return.

• Honestly, @PlatinumBlast, I don't even think Apollo-Style is necessary.
• Is the design in the embedded video okay ? It may not be Apollo-Style, but I guarantee you it will get the job done.

 

As for the mission time, we'll have to assume that the lander is carrying the necessary resources to last the crew for the trip home. I mean, COME ON, you have to be dumb NOT to load that. Additionally, @PlatinumBlast did not specifically mention that the entire mission (to AND from Minmus) had to last ten days total. I can get to Minmus in way less than that, but once I reach Bob and Val in the Midlands they should be good for the trip back - even if the total mission time takes me more than ten days.

Well, since I've already let some people get away with it, I'm just going to say that whoever reads this post DOES NOT have to use Apollo Style, although, please ask if you would like to try this challenge with an SSTO :)

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

16 hours ago, PlatinumBlast said:

Well, since I've already let some people get away with it, I'm just going to say that whoever reads this post DOES NOT have to use Apollo Style, although, please ask if you would like to try this challenge with an SSTO

Don't count on that; I stink at SSTOs. I can't even get a full orbit ready in one, and not to mention I have trouble landing planes.

• Besides, I already have a craft that works. The embedded video is proof enough that I am more than capable of rescuing Bob and Val from Minmus with ease.
  • "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

[dire]

21 hours ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

Don't count on that; I stink at SSTOs. I can't even get a full orbit ready in one, and not to mention I have trouble landing planes.

• Besides, I already have a craft that works. The embedded video is proof enough that I am more than capable of rescuing Bob and Val from Minmus with ease.
  • "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

Spaceplanes just sort of take lots and lots of practice. Lots of failures, lots of flights where you spend 20 minutes getting up to altitude and speed and then still don't quite make it into orbit. And then lots of practice getting them back down after they do get into orbit. Sometimes I land my SSTO's on the runway, and that's awesome. And sometimes I land them 600 km away, and that's OK too.

Now, if you want a SSTO rocket, that's a lot easier. Just pack on twice as much thrust and four times as much fuel as you would otherwise need, and don't forget to pack fuel for the return trip also.

In both cases I'd say, the secret to getting back down successfully is airbrakes and drogue chutes. You don't absolutely need control surfaces that don't rely on EC, but it helps an awful lot. Airbrakes will get you from 2300 m/s to 600 m/s without exploding. On a rocket, drogue chutes will get you from 600 to 50, and you'll need some combination of fuel, regular chutes and landing gear to get you the rest of the way to 0. On a spaceplane, airbrakes will get you all the way down to landing speeds, and then landing gear will get you the rest of the way stopped, but I still like to pack some chutes (drogue chutes and regular chutes) for those landings where I just can't seem to get things lined up right to touch down. Then I can pull the parachutes out and instead of exploding on touchdown maybe I only lose a wing :p

Also, if you are in career mode and you haven't got rapiers yet, drop tanks and solid rocket motors can make a big difference on ascent xD

Lastly, I made this for a Duna rescue but it can also do apollo-style Minmus rescues https://kerbalx.com/direstorm/Duna-Express

That's probably more in the spirit of the challenge than my duna rover xD

Edited December 19, 2018 by dire