Jump to content

Shmauck's Space Program (Stock Career 1.6.1 - 1.7)


Shmauck

Recommended Posts

The early days and the Mun chronicles

Please allow me to introduce you to Shmauck's Space Program. To begin, let me give you a brief recap of what we have achieved so far. 

The early stages of the program were probably much like you would expect them. Suborbital excursions on solid rockets, first orbital excursions including a polar orbit to learn as much as possible about our mother Kerbin and to enjoy her in all her beauty. Unfortunately we were very poorly staffed and funded at that time. We somehow lost all picture documentary of those early days when we accidentally ran an engine test next to our head offices with the windows open. Nobody had thought of stowing those precious memories properly and we could not afford a fireproof safe. 

But our team of four was soon eager to explore beyond. Looking up at the sky in many beautiful starry nights we felt an urge to reach the Mun. At first, we sent a manned ship to a Mun flyby to see if we could reach orbit and bring ship and Kerbal safely back home with at least some useful science data to exploit.

R6R3QUW.jpg

We then managed to bring our chief male pilot Jedediah safely to the surface of Mun to make him the first Kerbal who ever put a foot on another celestial body. In the absence of air it was quite  quiet up there so we nicknamed our landing spot "Tranquility base". Soon after that we balanced the gendering by also bringing our chief female pilot Valentina to a different landing site we deemed interesting and we dubbed that spot our "Venus base". Luckily we preserved some of the imagery of those important milestones, but with our limited funds we could only equip our early missions with very cheap cameras as you can tell from the image quality. 

TaLlXiS.jpg

Thrilled with our recent success we not only expanded our technology rapidly but we also dared planning further ahead. Our next big milestone would be to bring a science lab to a stable Mun orbit, both as a way to leverage our science and technology expansion and as a permanent link to the surface of the Mun. We soon found out that we lacked the capability to bring our desired configuration to the Mun in a single launch. Also, without having trained to dock two vehicles in space we did not dare to continue. We therefore designed a mission to give our pilot couple the chance to train docking procedures in LKO

6K9wZOb.jpg

With these skills we also managed to help out other space exploration initiatives by rescuing stranded crews from LKO and bring them back home to the surface of Kerbin. Overwhelmed with the selfless support they had been receiving, many of them decided to join our organization. Finally we were able to expand our head count.  

Then came the time to launch the bits and pieces of our planned Munar laboratory space station into LKO. The first launch hauled the core science lab and its two-man scientist crew to LKO, coupled with a tiny little unmanned tug. The second launch brought the reusable Mun lander and docked it to the lab. 

1hSQzTb.jpg

While bringing the actual Mun orbit insertion vessel close to the lab, we discovered a major flaw in our planning which made it necessary to abort the mission before actually leaving the orbit of our home world. Back to the drawing boards was the motto of the time and hard work proved to be the best way to overcome our frustration. We redesigned the lander/orbit insertion configuration and decided to launch both in one go. Valentina and Jedediah had to ditch the first lander into Kerbin's atmosphere and watch it burn in flames before we docked the second lander and orbit insertion stage to our lab. Urslev and Reiritz, our brave scientists, patiently waited through this difficult time but managed to focus on processing some science data they gathered from EVAs during their extensive orbiting period. 

p6QgNhZ.png

This configuration finally made its way to a stable Mun orbit on Y1 D90. It then underwent some reconfiguration to change the sequence of the modules and to free the lander for actual landing operations. Once all these steps were completed, Valentina undocked the lander and made her second visit to the surface of the dusty grey satellite.

wHlEoPdm.jpg qgcg7U6m.jpg yTxgjwUm.jpg

p5Svn5S.jpg

 

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

@Shmauck Nice!

Just a thing, you can take screenshots in-game using the F1 key. They'll appear in the Screenshots folder of your root KSP folder.

Thank you :) I found that out only later during the program. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Minmus adventures

Our strategy proved quite well. We managed to receive a constant stream of science data from our newly establish Mun lab. This helped us a great deal in pushing our technology developments further. Soon the Mun was some kind of second home to our crew so thought we were ready for the next step: exploring Minmus! 

The early missions to our mint colored neighbor in space were carried out quite similar to what we had done around Mun. We reused our proven ship designs to first complete a Minmus flyby before we had our chief pilot Jedediah to first set his foot on what looked like delicious mint slush ice. After he splashed down in Kerbin's waters he stated in an interview that he was rather sad about Valentina not having the chance to be the first Kerbal on Minmus due to her ongoing mission around Mun. His statement spawned an idea.

A science lab around Minmus - Minmuslab Alpha

We held a three-day conference at Shmauck Space Center to sketch out our plan for the next Minmus missions, certainly enjoying mint slush ice as our dessert on all lunch and dinner breaks. Our lead scientist Bob came up with the idea to ferry a new and novice crew - including himself - to our Munlab Alpha and to bring back the current team of Valentina, Urslev and Reiritz. Our intention was to launch a new lab into the orbit of Minmus and to assign the experienced Mun crew to that Minmus mission. This would allow to further enlarge their experience in space. We had acquired enough personnel during a couple of rescue missions to support Bobs plan. 

Our veteran engineer Bill - personally lacking any spaceflight experience as of then - chimed in and suggested to let both Urslev and Reiritz carry out their own Mun landings before bringing them back to Kerbin. This would not only boost their own personal experience to the same level as Valentina was, it would also give us even more valuable data from the Mun to process and research. We put this idea into practice and completed three Mun landings before the crew was ready to leave the Munlab Alpha.

It was again Bill who lead the design for a crew ferry which would serve as the launch vehicle for the new crew and as the return vessel for the current one. The following photo shows the ferry on the launchpad, ready to carry Norzenz as pilot and Bob and Norlen as scientists to the Mun.  

qv1gVYO.png

It proved a very wise decision to first complete the crew switch before we began construction work on our Minmus lab. As our Mun lab had very limited crew space without any spare seats and also did not offer an additional docking port, the crew exchange process appeared to be rather complicated. Each of the six astronauts involved had to perform EVAs one by one to travel from the ferry to the Munlab or vice versa. This cumbersome exercise helped us improve the design of the Minmus science station by a great margin. 

Bill ended up designing the following configuration to explore the farther of our two moons:

9SSGMlX.jpg

The core science lab was now accompanied by a four-seated crew compartment to which we also added four additional sideways docking ports - two small ones and two normal ones. Should we decide to switch crews again we would definitely have a much smoother approach to that. It's really good to have people like Bill on our team!

In the above picture you can see the lander docked to one of these sideways ports. To the bottom end (right side of picture) you see the original Minmus orbit insertion stage which brought the lab to its destination. At the top end (or left side) we docked an additional unmanned tanker vessel which we brought separately to Minmus. The tanker increases the onboard liquid fuel and monopropellant supplies and allows extensive research on repeated landing excursions to Minmus. The station was launched carrying a crew of three: Valentina, Urslev and Reiritz, our former Mun crew.

We also had a small tug on the station but we learned another lesson. Minmus requires serious antennas to allow unmanned vehicles to be controlled from the Space Center back on Kerbin. Bad luck we didn't think of that in advance. We lost all control of the tug after undocking it so we could only watch it float away into the vast nothingness. We added that bit to our vehicle construction checklist within minutes after the loss. 

3 hours ago, SiriusRocketry said:

What visual mods do you use? This looks really good!

None at all. It's the stock game graphics. 

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Duna orbiter (launched Y1 D157)

With two science labs orbiting our moons we achieved a constant flow of scientific research and managed to develop better technology with those results. We soon felt ready to reach beyond Kerbin's sphere of influence and Duna glowed red in the distant space. On Day 114 of our first year we accepted the challenge of the record-keeping society and signed a contract to explore Duna. 

We pulled out some of our old maths books and tried to make up our minds about what would be required to enter interplanetary space. Apparently the task at hand would result in a long journey through space so we decided that a crew of three would be the minimum if they were to sanely survive this trip. Our chief male pilot Jedediah was clearly our first choice for commanding the mission. As the contract required only a flyby and gathering some scientific data, we asked our engineering department to come up with a design for the mission. 

Logically they based their design on a Mk1-3 command pod and added the necessary components to bring craft and crew safely back to Kerbin. Their usual approach of throwing some science experiments to the outside hull of the craft seemed not fitting. We also wanted some extra batteries on the vessel just in case Duna would have a dark side which we would have to fly over. Bill Kerman, our lead engineer, suggested to add a service bay to the capsule which would also reenter Kerbin's atmosphere. This way the science experiments would be in a protected compartment which could be opened when in situ. Yes, we also learned some latin while preparing our journey. And we crammed some batteries into the service bay. The final design also featured solar panels attached to upper stage fuel tank and engine module, an antenna completed the package. As we didn't plan to dock or maneuver, we spared all RCS and docking equipment.

D3VXufz.png 

Weighing a bit more than 16 tons, we put our Duna orbiter on top of what was the heaviest launcher we ever built. We ended up with a 263-ton-ship that required us to add some concrete to our launchpad. Our first stage consisted of five Skipper engines for combined 2.845 kN of thrust at sea level, barely enough to get us off the pad. Another Skipper with a X200-32 tank should propel us out of Kerbin's sphere of influence into interplanetary space. A third stage consisting of a Poodle engine pair and a X200-16 tank would then allow us to enter Duna's sphere of influence. The upper stage with yet another Poodle and X200-16 should be enough to bring us back to Kerbin. Here is an image of our ship in the early morning sunrise. So much for our calculations. 

SvpjXse.png

Well, the good news first: the craft really made it to Duna and managed to enter a stable orbit roughly 84km above Duna. The bad news is that mission control failed to establish an encounter with Duna when leaving Kerbin's SOI. As this was our first time to enter interplanetary space we were all very surprised with what happened on our screens here at SSC. It took us quite a while to figure out what we had to do and when we finally found the answers we were already half-way to Duna. Our crew complained that they didn't like the idea of playing Scrabble in zero gravity but at least it kept them busy for most of the flight. The bottom line is that we used all of our third stage and one third of our last stage fuel to achieve the encounter and the resulting orbit. We have 1848m/s of dV left in the last tank and we figure that should be enough to leave Duna's SOI and return to Kerbin, potentially exercising some aerobraking at home. Phew, that will be another first once we are there. 

FwAbsEv.jpg

Jebediah, as well as our science duo Orburry and Meldon, are having quite a boring time up there in Duna orbit. It is one long wait for the return window to come up. With our limited fuel we don't even think about adjusting the orbit to collect more science data as we did by now. So far, our crew ran our materials and goo experiments, temperature and barometer reads in solar orbit, high above Duna and in low orbit. They also took EVA reports over seven of Duna's biomes. Here you see Orburry inspecting space around the orbiter in search of the "X" desperately missing in the crew's Scrabble game. 

fUjID5b.png

We'll update you as soon as we have reached the return window. 

 

 

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A surface outpost on Minmus - Da Vinci base (launched Y2 D55)

Our agency was offered a contract to land a surface outpost on Minmus! We were thrilled by that opportunity, quickly accepted the contract and got to work. It turned out that our business partner had ideas similar to what we had just recently brought to Minmus' orbit. Instead of creating everything from scratch, Bill pulled out the plans of our Minmuslab and adapted them to the mission's requirements. 

iduo78l.png?1

He reused the core piece of science lab and crew compartment, removed the additional docking ports and drastically increased the battery capacity to keep the base operational during extended Minmus nights. He also increased the number of solar panels which later proved a bit useless. And of course he added a chemical engine, a fuel tank and RCS capability for both autonomous landing and docking. He didn't forget the antenna this time and also managed to attach landing struts. 

As a special reward for Bill, we decided to reserve a seat on the Minmus outpost for our meritorious engineer and finally give him his first spaceflight experience. Bill wasn't so sure if this actually was a reward as we didn't put any explicit end date to the mission. He soon regretted to equip the outpost with just one small docking port on its top. As it seems he felt we gave him a one way ticket. Funny how engineer's minds work. To make up for his suspicion we named the base after his favorite engineer Leonardo Da Vinci. 

GU4H7iw.png

We brought Da Vinci out to Minmus, manned by Bill and Lendon, one of our new employees and remotely controlled from the Shmauck Space Center. The outpost docked with the Minmuslab Alpha to be resupplied with fuel and to undergo the final preparations and checkouts for landing. Bill and Lendon spent a few happy days with the Minmuslab crew of Val, Urslev and Reiritz before they finally waved goodbye, slammed the hatch of the docking port and released the clamps.

Our preferred landing spot turned out to be on the dark side of Minmus very soon after inexperienced Lendon had prematurely slammed the docking port and the descent had begun. Back then we didn't have radar altimeters available for an AGL readout on the command station in SSC. That's how we ended up in a very slow powered descent towards the surface of Minmus, not exactly knowing how low we needed to go. It could easily have cost our two inexperienced colleagues their return ticket to a Minmus orbit as we have used way more fuel than we originally planned. Obviously Bill had planned for an extra reserve and it seems we still have the option to bring the two guys back.

The outpost landed on day 55 of our second year of operation and is happily researching during daylight. Bill has underestimated the length of the Minmus nights. While we have more than enough solar panels, we don't have enough batteries on the Da Vinci base. We are just glad we put a fax machine and candles on the outpost so that Bill can continue designing our next ships during those extensive nights while Lendon is cleaning the research and science equipment and washing the dishes aboard. 

SOC2asa.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unmanned satellite operations (Y2 D60 - D70)

As most of our crews were deployed to our remote vessels, stations and the Minmus base, we began wondering what to do with those satellite contracts we had been offered. We started off with a very simple test probe which we launched into a highly eccentric polar orbit around Kerbin, almost as far out as Mun's orbit. Accidentally, that first satellite encountered Mun's gravity field during our Sentinel mission and got catapulted deep into our solar system. We abandoned the craft and remotely terminated the mission to avoid further problems.  

Next up we were asked to put a surface scanner in a Kerbin orbit. Once we reached that orbit, the requirements proved to be entirely wrong and the surface scanner refused to work. We received payments nonetheless. Based on our experience with the test probe we took the money and then immediately adjusted the orbit to the scanner's profile. We now have a nice little map of Kerbin's ore concentrations as a bonus from that contract and our satellite is happily revolving high above our home world.

Sc4zlMi.png 

When we announced our recent success in satellite operations on a press conference, Gene Kerman was approached by a Kerbal in a beige trench coat, a hat and dark sunglasses. The stranger pulled Gene over to a remote corner in the hall and informed him that Kerbin was in danger. He claimed to have evidence that asteroids may someday get close to our home world and potentially hit it with catastrophic results. Then he left without a trace. We organized a cosmic video call to involve all our science crews in a discussion about how realistic such a scenario could be. It turned out that many of our staff had seen a movie called "Kermageddon" a couple of years ago and were therefore concerned that such a scenario could become real. At the same time they offered to volunteer for a manned mission to blow up an asteroid once we found one. 

Only recently our engineering team had invented an infrared telescope. The scientists agreed that this device could be helpful when searching for incoming space objects. We built a mission around this telescope which they called "Sentinel". Putting the device in an orbit around Kerbin seemed a bit useless because it would leave us with almost no warning time if the Sentinel actually found a dangerous object. We thought that an orbit around the sun, just outside of Eve's orbit, would be the best place to look out into the solar system. Such an interplanetary trajectory would also allow us to test drive the recently developed nuclear engine which we want to use during our next Duna mission. Engineers came up with a vehicle design to combine a nuclear engine with the Sentinel telescope and a new and powerful antenna. 

fa6ghkU.png

MwxAEsr.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Prepare for Duna (Y2 D256)

Having learned that Duna transfer windows are not appearing every day, we want to be prepared for the next one that opens. Not only will we have to bring back our Duna orbiter crew during that window, we also have collected a number of contracts to perform several steps out there on the red planet. Planting a flag on Duna is always a good start and it serves our owner's desire for being on magazine titles very well. Collecting science on the surface of Duna happens naturally to us when we're there. Another partner wants us to build a Duna surface outpost and yet another one asks to put a satellite on Duna orbit. Whew, that transfer window will be packed.

To add our own little extra, we would like to have a science station on orbit of Duna. The value of our stations in orbits of Mun and Minmus cannot be overestimated and we believe that we should replicate that same concept also around Duna. And that last bit is an excellent point to start our preparations. We grabbed the blueprints of the Minmus station and tweaked that design to include some of the recent discoveries of our engineering crew. A set of four large solar arrays to provide all the necessary power and to replace the many tiny 1x6 panels we used on the Minmus lab. Those things were always in the way while docking and made some of the docking operations rather complicated. We added a service bay to accommodate an OKTO2 control unit and a pile of batteries. We equipped a large ring of reaction wheels for autonomous control and a large Communotron HG-55 antenna for more bandwidth. 

With all our crews still out there in space, we shot the unmanned core component of our combined Duna mission to an 80km orbit and put it to sleep there, ready to be woken up by its crew at a later day. 

YOBpzj9.png 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Crew management (Y2 D260-D294)

One of our important milestones for the upcoming Duna mission was to reassign the crews of our manned / womanned outposts to new jobs and habitats. Just like Bill originally suggested we planned to let all crew members in Mun and Minmus labs perform a landing on their moon before moving them to their next destination. This practice would help maximize their experience levels. Only after that we would rotate the crews:

  • ferry a fresh crew to Munlab Alpha 
  • transfer the crew of Munlab Alpha to Minmuslab Beta 
  • transfer the crew of Minmuslab Beta back to Kerbin to board Dunalab Gamma, now in LKO 

Mun, D260

First in the row was Bob Kerman of our original founding team. He was yet to perform his first Mun landing and we had assigned to a descent heading for Mun's twin craters. His destination happened to be on the dark side of the Mun so we could make great use of our upgraded altimeter which now featured AGL readouts. Bob perfectly mastered all the navigational and piloting challenges of this trip, including the necessary plane changes before and after the landing. We here at mission control are quite happy about all the experience we gathered so far which is freely shared among all our staff. Also, we really embrace the altimeter upgrade. Unfortunately the dark side of Mun is really really dark so we didn't manage to shoot any decent photos of Bob's success. But he left a nice flag on the landing site with our logo and his name on it for future proof how well he did.  

Minmus, D265

Next up was Reiritz Kerman. He was the last member of the current Minmuslab crew who had not smashed a flag into slushy mint ice cream yet. Reiritz was interested to visit two or possibly three biomes with just one landing so we tried to bring him close the edge of Minmus' flats where he would have also slopes and lowlands within walking distance from the landing site. Theoretically, that is. 

d4yn1hA.png

Reiritz nailed the spot really well, got out of his lander and walked or hovered his way around the lander. He discovered not only the flats and lowlands biomes of Minmus but also that messing up the touchdown on a slope after a jetpack flight on the surface of Minmus may end in a ten-minute downhill slide. Mentioning slopes, he didn't find the slopes biome despite sliding down a slope for ten minutes. 

F2MYYrr.png

Mun, D265

This day was a busy day here at mission control. Mun lander was refueled and restocked with popcorn after Bob's excursion and ready for the last member of the Munlab crew to head for the surface: Norlen. We felt safe to assign him to a landing in Mun's highlands because we had so successfully run the new altimeter on Bob's landing. Off he went. You will see in the picture that we have meanwhile upgraded our Munlab station. It now features a separate crew compartment with additional docking ports, much like the Minmus station. This will certainly help the crew rotation activities ahead. 

9KLqSZS.png

We experienced that highlands can quite a tricky place to land, exactly how we had expected. Norlen brought down the lander on a rather steep slope and feared that the entire thing would fall over. Two of the four landing legs did not touch the ground at all. We decided to let him take off again and to slowly direct the lander to another spot, further down the hill. He bravely maneuvered his ship to a place less steep and touched down for a second time. Even here the ground was not horizontal and two landing legs barely stood on the surface at first. A little kick from the RCS thrusters corrected that issue but Norlen was reluctant to unfold the solar panels on the downhill side to avoid moving the center of mass in the fatal direction. 

SjZYn2o.png

Kerbin, D266

We allowed our mission control crew a night of well-deserved rest before we launched our round trip to the two moons and back. Yes, we would go for a single launch with our crew ferry to visit Mun, Minmus and come back to Kerbin. For that purpose we had redesigned our crew ferry, now called CF3. The upgraded ship featured the nuclear engine we first employed on the Sentinel mission, together with some additional fuel capacity. We tried pumping the liquid fuel in the oxidizer part of the tanks to use that empty space for fuel but that didn't work so well. Thus we now have a CF1 and a CF3, but no CF2.

4smlGoc.png

With this new ship already on the pad, our Mun replacement crew Danlan, Dave and Jonley were eagerly awaiting to take her on her maiden flight. As always, we had significantly overdone the launch stage and hauled way too much fuel to orbit. This time, it came in handy at the end of the mission. For now, we decided to let the launch stage burn for the transfer orbit and the Mun orbit insertion. Docking the huge cigar to the Munlab station was quite a task due to RCS maneuvering thrusters are only attached to the CF3 itself and not available at the launch stage. Danlan managed to carefully bring his large ship close enough to the docking port on the station when he found out that the port on the CF3 would not engage. He scratched the paint and gave the station a bump which pushed the CF3 backwards. We told him to park the ship fifty meters away from the station and hold while we undocked the little tug from the station. We flew the tug out to the CF3 and tried to dock, just to be 100% sure that the problem was on the CF3 and not on the station. As the tug also failed to engage the ship's docking port, we called our emergency engineers into mission control. Something must have gone terribly wrong during the redesign of the crew ferry. 

We usually place a control unit right below the nose docking port of our ships because that is just such a convenient spot for these devices. Our engineers refused to say who was to blame for it but they suspected that a later adjustment could have lead to an interference between the control unit and the port. As this is an area of the capsule which cannot be reached while the docking port is closed, we were stuck without hope of repair. Our only chance would be to bring ship and crew back to Kerbin, rebuild the ship and restart the mission, not without beating up everybody on the engineering team. Then suddenly the comm lines crackled and our junior scientist Dave aboard CF3 voiced an idea. While examining the docking port he had found a hidden lever near the docking port saying "decouple node". Engineering shrugged and agreed it could be worth trying, so Dave yanked the lever. The whole ship began to shake, RCS and other gases escaped into space, whizzing loudly inside the cabin. And then, suddenly, a loud bang and everything was calm again. 

Bob, who had watched excitedly from aboard Munlab Alpha, spotted a dark object fly away from the nose of the crew ferry. Was this the probe core that had been spat out by the docking port? And if so, was the port still intact and sealed? Was the crew aboard CF3 still alive? With worried faces we turned to the CAPCOM desk. Benten Kerman, the astronaut on duty, moved his microphone close and slowly pushed the talk button on his console, calling out to CF3 for a status. After awfully long seconds of silence Daves voice came through, telling us about the loud bang resulting in explosive decoupling of the control unit. The port looked perfectly fine from the inside, so we gave it a try and again brought the tug up in front of the ferry. This time, the ports engaged!

LlQS1O4.png

Danlan repeated the procedure to move the ferry and its launch stage towards the station and after separating the tug from the ferry he managed to dock with ease. After some handshaking and hugging through the docking tunnel, the pilot and his two-man science crew debarked their ferry and made themselves comfortable inside the crew module of Munlab Alpha, their new home for the next months. Norzenz, Bob and Norlen, our current Munlab crew finished the lunch for three they had begun and packed their stuff to take over CF3 and make their way out to Minmuslab. Before they left, they pumped the remainder of the fuel in the launch stage of CF3 into the station's tanks and prepared to abandon the stage after undocking. Now finally on the nuclear engine, these three were the first manned crew ever propelled by nuclear power and also the first crew to do a direct Mun-Minmus-transfer. 

Norzenz got his calculations right for an efficient transfer inside the Kerbin-Mun-Minmus system. Twenty-one days after undocking from Munlab Alpha they arrived in a rendezvous orbit around Minmus to dock with their new home. We took a nice picture showing the nuclear-powered CF3 approaching Minmuslab Beta, backdropped by Kerbin and the Mun. 

eAeppbg.png

This time, docking went without notable incident. Valentina, Reiritz and Urslev greeted the newly arrived Minmuslab crew and showed their colleagues around. Everything looked very familiar, much like the Mun station except that extra tunnel between science lab and crew habitat which immediately gave Norlen an opportunity to bump his head. All six crew members spent an evening aboard Minmuslab, playing cards and dice and having a couple of beers. After a good sleep, Val, Reiritz and Urslev took their baggage to the ferry, boarded and undocked to head back to Kerbin. Leaving Minmus' gravity field after so many days on orbit weighed heavy on them but the blue homeworld ahead of them made up for that. Excited as Valentina was, she overlooked some strange results of the onboard navigational computations and by the time the ferry was supposed to cross the Mun trajectory she noticed she would have an encounter, but not a romantic one. Zooming past Mun, the ferry deviated from the return course significantly and now was the time to embrace all the extra fuel the vehicle had originally lifted at the beginning of its journey. 

Valentina corrected the course to enter a suitable orbit around Kerbin and meet what was supposed to be her next exciting adventure: Dunalab Gamma. 

WrdAko2.png

She docked her ship to the empty lab and together with her two scientist colleagues brought the station to life from its post-launch hibernation. Our crew ferry had spent all its fuel reserves during the approach. Surprised by the situation and in a reflex we decided to let go of the fuel tank and engine and keep the capsule docked to Dunalab as some kind of crew return vehicle. Had we thought a bit more we would have noticed that a capsule without any propulsion system would not be able to deorbit from LKO, but hey, we hadn't. For the trip to Duna we will undock the capsule anyway and dump it. For now, Val and her crew can use the extra space for leisure. 

 

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Minmus mining and fuel production (Y2 D295-D306)

While the flying staff was happily switching positions within the Kerbin/Mun/Minmus perimeter, our engineering department had brought to life something they had been dwelling about for quite some time. Following the Kerbin surface scanning experiment we had conducted as contract work earlier this year, Kerbal geologists had suspected that also Kerbins moons could be hiding valuable resources under their skins. To prove this hypothesis we approached the Integral corporation again in an attempt to partner with them on a surface scanning mission to the Mun. At the same time, our engineers teamed with our associates at Kerbodyne to develop mining tools suited for vacuum conditions. Both companies accepted their respective challenges and work began.  

A second surface scanning satellite was launched to the Mun around D260. It revealed that our inner moon indeed carries some exploitable ore concentrations. Oversized as the satellite launcher was, we left the satellite on a counter-clockwise orbit around Mun and kept the upper stage docked to it to conserve the large amount of fuel still waiting to be burned. In total, the tandem held enough juice for another 3,600 m/s of dV, good to go to Minmus later. 

In the high bay of our VAB at the space center, the engineers joined the Kerbodyne mining equipment with our usual spaceflight gear to come up with a mining and fuel production lander supposed to be deployed on the mint ice moon. 

ZyLxpqJ.png

The craft itself had undergone thorough testing here on Kerbin to prove that it is capable of excavating ore from deep under the surface, store and process the ore into all known blends of spaceflight fuels. We used our grounds at the space center for those live tests, leaving some nice holes around the otherwise perfectly trimmed lawns. We have not yet decided how to fill these holes but the good news is that we could confirm all requirements of electric power and specialized cooling in daylight and at night time without having to shoot the craft to Minmus in an untested state. The 16.5-ton-ship is supposed to be manned by an engineer to operate and monitor mining and fuel processing at all times. It features four tank compartments to store liquid rocket fuel and oxidizer and a large tank for monopropellant. At launch, the monopropellant tank contained only a minimum quantity of RCS fuel to be able to dock the ship, the other tanks were launched completely empty. The two small tanks on top of the engines were filled to cover the need for landing burns. We ended up with a 21-ton payload for launch, including two heavy drills, the large ISRU unit, thermal control systems, large solar arrays and fuel cell arrays for electricity generation and a single seated lander can.

We nominated Bardine Kerman as our engineer on duty, who had joined our team during on of our numerous orbital rescue missions. She beamed with pride when we informed her, totally surprised about the confidence we had in her after the orbital failure we recovered her from. Well, our confidence was in fact a bit less than she understood because we remotely controlled the launch, orbital insertion and docking to our Minmuslab Beta. We felt safer to trust our folks at mission control to fly the delicate craft rather than the young and inexperienced engineer. The following image shows the fuel production plant in a parking position close to Beta, waiting for the docking maneuver.  

uyWuB20.png

Bardine didn't have much time to meet the crew on Beta because our team at SSC was way too eager to see the plant in action, landed on the surface of Minmus. And we hoped to bring her back to Beta soon enough when she had completed her first mining and refining trip to the ground. After checking all systems for fuel transfer in docked state and checking out the Terrier engines for landing we undocked the plant from the station and began the landing sequence towards the Greater Flats of Minmus. The capabilities of the engines carrying the plant was the only thing we were unable to test at home. Here, in the ice-cold reality of space above Minmus, Bardine would be the first to find out if our calculations had been correct. We had no reason at all to be worried. The craft performed a spectacularly smooth landing on the flats in bright sunlight with only a tiny bit of fishtailing motion right before the touchdown. Now the only remaining question was if we would be able to lift the plant up from the surface once we had filled it with fuel.

Being our first engineer outside of LKO, Bardine was delighted to receive the "go for mining operations" from mission control. With the solar arrays and thermal control systems operational, she deployed one of the drills. After confirming a good penetration of the icy surface she activated the ore harvesting and transport. Readings on our screens here at SSC proved that the mining was actually successful, delivering minor but solid quantities of ore. Once the mining process had stabilized we were ready to activate the fuel production. All systems worked very well and within their designated specifications. Bardine also deployed and activated the second drill and the plant started to produce liquid fuel and oxidizer at its capacity limits. We were overwhelmed with our success and Bardine was elated about hers, hearing the joyful cheering from the engineering crew via comms. 

HyLdUyX.png

When the daylight faded on Minmus, we had half of our tank capacity filled with free rocket fuel! Then it was time to let the remaining parts on the plant go to work: our fuel cell arrays. Also these components proved to be well suited for their task. Power generation allowed us to keep fuel production running through the entire night of Minmus which is about twice as long as on Kerbin. When the greater flats of Minmus saw the dawn of a new day, all our tanks were full of fuel. The remaining steps were to produce monopropellant, fill up the RCS tank with it and then launch back to a rendezvous with Minmuslab Beta. We also got the final checkmark on our lists when the ascent of the plant went exactly as planned. After the docking clamps clicked we knew that we had achieved another important milestone in our space exploration program. And this time, Bardine finally left her lander can and joined the Beta crew for some serious celebration of our success. 

fVY30Nm.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scanning grounds and hauling fuel (Y2 D306-D333)

After the welcome party aboard Minmuslab Beta had ended and the crew of four had rested (or recovered from their hangovers) it was time to go back to work. Bob and Bardine began to configure the crossfeed lines so that the first load of free fuel could flow into the two tanker ships of the station. Back on Kerbin, we were all glad that our earlier missions had not only resulted in sufficient storage capacity for fuel but also given us the opportunity to ferry the fuel back to Kerbin aboard the unmanned tanker ships which had been transfer stages in the first place. Bardines first trip to Minmus had given us enough fuel to fill both tankers. Gene decided to let the first tanker undock from Beta and make the trip back home. While mission control staff piloted the tanker on its escape trajectory, Gene established a comm link to the Da Vinci lab on Minmus to get in touch with Bill Kerman, our chief engineer. We had been wondering if the tanker design allowed us to perform fuel-saving aerobraking maneuvers in Kerbins atmosphere when bringing the fuel back into LKO. Bill, who had designed the tankers himself, recommended to make careful attempts at around 55 km altitude but to retract both solar panels and the antenna during the hot phase of the braking maneuver. 

Another task for the folks at mission control was to move the surface scanner from Muns orbit towards Minmus to give us a better understanding of where to land the mining and refinery ship on the next descent. The guys in orbital maneuvering calculated a rather aggressive approach to a polar orbit on Minmus while ejecting from the retrograde Mun orbit the scanning satellite was currently in. We relit the upper stage engine on D306 and put the craft on course. 

leqln7p.png

Crossing the tanker's trajectory back to Kerbin, we corrected the satellite's flight path half way to reach a polar Minmus orbit of below 80km. After the capture burn, the surface scanner started to create a complete map of Minmus' resource reserves which proved that our assumptions had been correct. Our first landing spot was not the ideal place to mine for the precious ore and we would most certainly not go back there to continue. The lesser flats appeared to be much more promising for mining. We transmitted our new findings to Beta and ordered Bardine to prepare the mining plant for its next journey. On D311 she set foot on Minmus' lesser flats and planted a flag after the lander had made another precision landing under remote control. 

Meanwhile, the tanker control team took the steps recommended by Bill to prepare the craft for its first pass through Kerbins atmosphere. At a periapsis of about 58.5 km the tanker made its way safely through the upper atmosphere, lowering its apoapsis by about 13,000 kilometers.

zFxPLU8.png

The aerobraking proved to be a patience-testing approach but we were not in a hurry. Our goal was to refuel the remainder of Dunalab Gammas launch stage which was still connected to the lab. This stage, consisting of two X200-32 fuel tanks and a Skipper engine, was very capable of putting the Dunalab on its escape trajectory when it was completed. Unfortunately it had never been designed to be reused for that purpose so it was not equipped with a docking port or autonomous control. Gene nonetheless insisted that engineering should come up with a modular solution to allow a very cost-efficient escape, using free fuel in a free stage already on orbit and connected to the station. 

On the second aerobraking pass, we lowered the periapsis to 55km, which was Bills recommended limit. This time, the tanker was exposed to much more friction but this trajectory - together with the braking burn to lower the periapsis - lowered the apoapsis significantly by another 28,000 km to a point just outside Muns orbit around Kerbin. 

JWct8V4.png

After two more aerobraking passes we had collected enough data. Gene decided to assist the braking process with some of the fuel aboard the tanker. Considering that the tanker itself, the fuel and the launch stage to Duna were completely free in this phase of the program it would not matter much to waste some of the free fuel. On D333 the tanker finally approached Dunalab Gamma on its 80 km orbit around Kerbin and executed the docking maneuvers just fine.  

Kefpr8a.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roving Minmus (Y2 D330-D343)

While the tanker crew in mission control executed their braking orbits around Kerbin, we had another first to celebrate outside on the campus of SSC. Wolfheim Kerman, one of the engineers who joined us after a space rescue mission, had been busily working in a hangar on the research and development complex for an entire month after he was involved in one of our early briefings about our mining and fuel refining plans. He had been experimenting with wheeled ground vehicles for quite some time. When he saw the plans for our ISRU plant he urged his fellow engineers: "Do me a favor and throw some docking ports on the plant if you can, as close to the bottom end as possible. I have a great idea!" Then he ran off to his hangar and little was seen from him except in our all-team lunch breaks in the astronaut center. Then, on D330, the large hangar gates opened and Wolfheim stepped out of his lab, carrying a remote control and wearing a big smile. Behind him followed a huge 12-wheeled tubular truck. Many of our staff gathered around Wolfheim and his giant companion to admire both. 

n54xm1B.png

Wolfheim presented us the first ever roving vehicle of our fleet and Gene was very happy to officially christen it the "fuel truck" after our gifted engineer had explained what he had in mind for the vehicle. Equipped with four large tanks and a large RCS tank, the fuel truck was capable of holding the entire production of the ISRU plant but not only that. Wolfheim had added some extra tanks, engines and all other necessary bits to allow the truck to land and takeoff on its own and therefore carry the produced fuel to Minmus orbit while the plant would remain in place on the surface. Gene was immediately thrilled and headed off to the mission control building. As soon as he had understood the potential of Wolfheim's work, he had another brilliant idea. What if we would use the tanker ship that was supposed to arrive in LKO soon to carry the fuel truck on its way back to Minmus! That would give us another opportunity to reuse stuff that we already had. All it took was another launch to LKO to bring the fuel truck up to Dunalab Gamma and meet the tanker ship there. It turned out that this would actually work if we would just use some of our free fuel. So we just did it. The morning after the tanker vessel had arrived at the Gamma station we saw a clean liftoff of a mid-size launcher with a very oversized payload fairing on its top. A couple hours later, the fuel truck made its first successful docking in space and Wolfheim was a very proud Kerbal. 

bNiakMn.png 

Valentina Kerman, our commanding crew member on the Gamma station, performed the required docking maneuvers from her controls inside the station. She first undocked the tanker vessel and piloted it around the station to dock it to the fuel truck's rear docking port. She then re-balanced the fuel loads according to mission control's calculations to make sure the truck/tanker duo had exactly the right quantity to go back to Minmus with the truck's extra mass of 13.5 tons. Soon we were ready to bring the vehicles on their way to the outer moon and Val watched the lengthy ship coast away over Kerbins desert. Mission control took over and fired the tanker ships engines over the dark side of our home world for the transfer burn. 

Nine days later the Beta crew on Minmus orbit watched as mission control directed the fuel truck slowly towards the docking port right across from where their lander was docked. Our newest craft had made it to its destination. Norzenz Kerman took control of the ships and finished their journey by relocating the tanker ship to the free port at the end of the lab section. The truck was now ready for operation and waiting for its first descent to Minmus. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trucking dangerous goods (Y2 D344-D345)

„Ground, it is here, I can spot it in the distance!“ Bardine Kermans voice sounded somewhat excited out of the speakers at mission control. With the first rays of sunlight touching Minmus’ surface she had climbed out of her airlock and had taken stance atop her plant to look out for the fuel truck. Wolfheim, who had spent most of the past days at mission control without getting much sleep, produced a smile on his tired face.

During the last couple of hours, everybody at mission control had been waiting eagerly for Bardines visual confirmation. For reasons of direct communication, we had to undock and land the fuel truck over the dark side of Minmus which was facing Kerbin. Our experience from earlier night landings at Minmus made us confident that we could also land the rover based on instrument readings. As additional safety measures we performed the landing with the craft strictly pointing prograde and at least two kilometers away from the plant. The prograde orientation allowed us to roll out the twelve-wheeled rover to bleed off forward motion on the vast flats of Minmus.

According to our sensor reports the fuel truck touched down gently a little more than two kilometers away from the fuel plant and rolled out some extra two hundred meters before it came to an RCS-assisted halt on the icy surface. We left the craft there with brakes locked to wait for the dawn of the next Minmus day to approach the fuel plant only during daylight. This would allow us to generate power through the solar panels while using the electric motors and would avoid stranding the vehicle powerless.

Now that Bardine had confirmed she saw the truck we activated the motors and steering and released the brakes. The truck seemed to behave quite well in Minmus’ reduced gravity. Only during turns we had to be very careful because Wolfheim had optimized his construction so that the center of mass of the truck would be exactly centered for flight with full RCS and maneuvering tanks and empty payload tanks. Therefore the truck’s COM was high above the ground which demanded cautious steering inputs.

We slowed the truck down directly east of her plant and fully stopped it ten meters away from the plant’s east docking port. Bardine gently dove from her outlook down to the ground using her jetpack to watch the docking from up close. Wolfheim, still following the video stream of Bardine’s helmet camera, took over the remote controls to personally guide his craft slowly towards the outpost. With the help of Bardine who voiced him through the last step giving onsite visual confirmation of the progress, Wolfheim achieved a smooth docking to the plant. Everybody at mission control had held their breath until the docking clamp arrest lights showed green. Then the ground crews broke out in loud cheering. On the shoulders of his colleagues Wolfheim was carried back to the crew quarters to finally get some well-deserved rest.

dNXfFXS.png

Bardine however took over the truck by landing on its top side. She reconfigured the fuel flow lines so that her plant could start to pump fuel into both the storage and the maneuvering tanks. Soon the precious liquid filled half of the storage capacity which was our limit for the first trip back to the Beta station. As we had never had the chance to test a loaded relaunch in reduced gravity we did not dare to fully load the truck. After she had finished the loading and had confirmed that she had reconfigured all flight tanks back to flight mode Gene had a little surprise for her.

“Before we launch the truck I want you to officially name it in a christening ceremony”, Gene broadcasted from his desk in mission control. “I know I have been a bit reluctant about names in the past and I want to change that. Our fleet is growing and our ships shall have proper names so we can use them as callsigns. This truck will carry the name of the famous Kerbal truck manufacturer Kercedes.” Bardine smiled and chuckled inside her helmet. She then disconnected a water tank from her EVA pack, stopped in silence, breathed and then threw it against the vehicle’s front cone.

Kercedes was then undocked and after Bardine had made her way back to safety aboard her plant we fired the Twitch engines to lift it off. Its thrust proved sufficient for half-loaded configuration, we just had to use some of the payload fuel to adjust orbits and approach the Beta station. Docking went well and we now have all the tools in place to establish a regular fuel supply from Minmus to Kerbin for our missions. 

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A story of success (Y2 D347-D366)

“You have achieved great things for us.” Gene nodded in acknowledgement after Wolfheim had taken a seat in Genes office in the astronaut center. “Your fuel truck is a great idea and a valuable addition to our fleet. We may launch a second one to Minmus in the not so distant future. We are glad to have you on board.” The engineer straightened in his chair to receive a handshake from the boss. “Thank you so much, Gene.”

“You know”, Gene continued, “our current lead engineer Bill will remain at Minmus for a while. Our operation there is becoming a cornerstone of our entire program. Soon our fuel needs for all missions out of Kerbin will mostly be coming from Minmus. I asked Bill to take a leading position up there and to manage the expansion of the Beta station, the outposts on the surface and the operation of our tanker fleet.” Gene raised and made a few steps towards the window. He made a wide gesture. 

“Here on Kerbin we have more great things ahead. Construction work on the airstrip and the hangar will soon be finished. We have reinvested much of the agency’s money to include these two facilities into our operations.”

“Does that mean space planes?” Wolfheim asked. 

Gene nodded with a smile. “Wernher and the R&D team have presented a full range of aerodynamic parts and airbreathing engines to the committee recently. The guys have definitely delivered on that and they keep going. Very soon we will have everything we need for space planes in various sizes. It all comes together very nicely.”

Wolfheim was unable to contain himself any longer. “Gene, sir, that all sounds amazingly exciting!” he broke out and raised from his chair. “I can’t wait to have these parts available in the design team!”

“I know.” Gene smiled. “But I have to tell you that we will have a fully reusable transport soon after airstrip and hangar are ready. We have contracted Jett Quasar to construct a craft for us. Wernher and Jett are in close collaboration about it for months now.” The engineer felt a bit disappointed. “Oh”, he murmured, “that’s good for the agency. But I would have loved to be involved.”

“That I know as well, Wolfheim, and you will have your chance. We just wanted to get a head start on the designs and put our new assets in operation with a big bang. There will be a ceremony for the public when the transport makes its first landing on the airstrip.” Wolfheim nodded. “I understand.”

Gene walked up close to the engineer and looked him right in the eyes. “Don’t be disappointed, Wolfheim. I ask you to accept a new role here on Kerbin. I want you to be our chief designer.”

Wolheims face brightened with surprise and delight. “Now that’s overwhelming, Gene. Oh yes! I gladly accept!” They shook hands again. “Great. Then let’s go and inform the team.”

The engineering team applauded Wolfheim after they had been informed by Gene. The boss turned to the whole group. “There is work ahead for all of you. Before we think about the Beta station expansion we have one more thing on our list.” Gene elaborated on a new contract to upgrade the Alpha station around Mun to double its crew and research capacity. “This will be a good exercise to prepare the Minmus upgrade”, he added. “Also, Wolfheim and Wernher will soon have some surprises for you. Get to work on the Alpha expansion!” With that Gene left. 

Wolfheim and his team created another incarnation of the science station design, based on the latest Gamma installment. A crew module and a science lab was the requirement. To meet the high electric charge requirements of the contract they added large battery discs to the backbone and kept the large solar panels. Extra hardware like RCS fuel and a set of reaction wheels would go into a large service bay, four additional docking ports completed the exterior design. 

On the electronics side they had some great new gadgets to play with. Wolfheim decided to give the newly acquired remote guidance unit a try. It could serve well as the central control point of the upgraded Alpha complex but could also provide guidance to the Mun lander when operating on the outer side of Mun. To upgrade the communication equipment of the station further, the engineers added a high gain 88-88 antenna and an RA-15 relay antenna. 

While the next tanker ship from Minmus was completing its aerobraking orbits in Kerbins low atmosphere we rolled the Alpha expansion to the pad on top of a rather small launch stage. Gene had planned to use the Minmus tanker as a transit stage for a payload again, this time to Mun. We would just dock both the tanker and the Alpha expansion at Gamma in LKO, mate the two and bring them on their target trajectory to Mun. This plan worked out very well and the Alpha station has now doubled its science and crew capabilities. 

The Minmus tanker would have to be relocated from Mun to Minmus at some time in the future, ideally with an efficient swing-by maneuver around Kerbin. Mission control took the task to plan for the relocation. The image shows the new configuration of Alpha including both Mun tankers, the Mun lander and the Minmus tanker. 

ObEeRNc.png

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A shuttle to be re-used (Y2 D363)

„There she comes!“ 

All eyes turned westward, where a large and bright white dot was falling fast and steep from high in the clear blue sky. A large crowd of staff members, press representatives and special guests had gathered on the provisional stand next to the brand new building on the campus, the space plane hangar or short SPH. The band in front of the stand had stopped playing and immediately the sound of idling jet engines became audible. 

Soon the distinct shape of the ship was recognizable for the spectators. A voluminous body with low and short wings that ended in characteristic large upward winglets. Then the craft raised its nose the underbelly became visible and revealed the stretched delta design. The crescendo of the five large engines accompanied the rising excitement on the stand. Gene, who stood on a podium in the middle of the first row of seats, raised the microphone again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce: Kerlumbia!”

The bulky ship flattened its flight curve into a flare, hovered dramatically along the first few hundred meters of fresh tarmac before its wheels came down to touch the brand new airstrip. Heads, binoculars, telescopes and photographic lenses followed the vehicle’s path along the runway, cameras clicked constantly. The craft slowed, then exited the main runway and stopped on the taxiway to the SPH where another podium had been set up. 

“Please come with me to take a closer look”, Gene said over the loudspeakers before he put down the microphone and left his booth. Applauding spectators on the main stand raised and motioned towards the stairs on both ends of the seating rows. The band picked up their instruments again and began to accompany the walking crowd. 

“She is really an impressive ship” Wolfheim said to his colleagues when they reached the edge of the taxiway. The airlock door was opened from inside the craft and a ladder had extended down to the ground. Benten Kerman appeared in the airlock and waved to the crowd before he turned and climbed down the ladder. Then, @Jett_Quasar entered the airlock and waved as well. 

Gene had meanwhile made his way to the end of the ladder and welcomed Benten with a handshake. “Great landing, pilot”, he smiled. “Thank you, Gene”, the pilot responded calmly, “this was a bit exciting. New ship, new runway, a crowd watching… I just tried not to screw it up. But she is very patient and forgiving.” 

After Jett had reached the two, Gene turned to the spectators and guests. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are all very happy about this addition to our fleet and with all our achievements in science, research and development, construction and expansion of our facility. I wish to express my personal thanks to @Jett_Quasar who developed this ship for us and who trained our brave pilot Benten Kerman to fly it. We will now hand it over to our ground crews to prepare it for its first mission under our flag.”

Gene gave his speech about the next steps in space exploration and the upcoming milestones of our program. He elaborated on the capabilities of the new buildings on the campus and gave an overview of the recent results of the R&D department. He concluded announcing a change of plans for the Dunalab Gamma. 

“Progress has been made so fast that we decided to rethink our Duna plans. The station we currently have on orbit will not go to Duna but remain in Kerbins orbit to serve as our gateway to space. We plan to expand the station’s habitation, storage and docking capacities and use it as a main hub for all our missions in space. When the next transfer window to Duna opens in about 300 days from now we will have new skills, new developments, new capabilities. We will build a new Duna mission that reflects what is up-to-date then. And we will see it coming together at our station orbiting Kerbin which will now be called ‘Dawn’.”

The ceremony continued with a guided tour of the SSC for media and space enthusiasts. Wernher and Gene generously gave personal interviews and hosted public tours through R&D and mission control. Wolfheim had a thrilling time showing Jett around his offices and presenting his next projects to the talented constructor. The two spent quite some time and a few drinks dwelling about engineering, construction and design. Benten elatedly invited selected guests into the spacious, four-seated cockpit of the Kerlumbia and explained each and every button to them. Even the administrator himself, Shmauck Kerman, climbed the ladder and had a seat at the controls of the ship.

When Kerbol set in the west and the immense buildings casted long shadows over the campus, Shmauck Space Center had seen an exciting day and public awareness and interest in our space program had greatly increased. 

Spoiler

First of all I hope it is okay to make a reference of a talented vehicle designer in my story despite his last name is actually not Kerman. Thanks Jett for your great work and your hints about the flight profile of your "Lunar Express". I wanted a shuttle plane but I was completely unable to come up with something that performs well and gets to space properly. That will need some more exercise on my end. 

Then I want to briefly brag about having completed all building upgrades except that administration building. I have not used this even once so I had no point in upgrading it. Also worth bragging about is the fact that I have spent more than 4.500 science to unlock the entire aerodynamics tree plus the RTG at once to be able to load the "Lunar Express". I had not used any plane parts so far. 

Finally, my writings are more and more developing into a "story mode" style, featuring dialogues and characters. That is a disruption in style and I may revisit the earlier chapters at some point to tie all the chapters together again. I like to make this a real story rather than just technical mission reports. I am pretty fluent in English but certainly not a native speaker so I hope you are not constantly cringing about me messing up tenses and other grammar. Thanks for reading, I'd be glad if you enjoy. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Three-stop shuttle rescue (Y2 D366-D369)

"Kerlumbia, your launch window is open, you're cleared for takeoff", came Genes voice over the cockpit speakers. 

"Roger, let's do this", replied Benten Kerman. He turned to his right and looked at Wolfheim Kerman who was occupying the copilot seat for this first flight of the new shuttle. "You ready, mate?"

"I can't wait, get her going", Wolfheim grinned. Benten reached for the thrust levers and pushed them fully forward with one slow move. The cockpit vibrated from the roar of the five RAPIER engines in the back of the shuttle. The two pilots were pushed against the backrests of their seats when their ship jumped forward. Both had completed eight starts and landings for training purposes during the last two days, at daytime and at night. They had experienced this acceleration before but Wolfheim was still as impressed. He had not taken the training Benten had received so for him everything was still new. But this time it was for real. They would go all the way to orbit with a four-seated crew module inside the cargo bay. Their mission was to rescue three stranded Kerbals from a low orbit around Kerbin. 

Benten gently rotated the craft and Kerlumbia entered a shallow fifteen-degree climb, fully accelerating. Wolfheim retracted the gear after they had cleared the runway, headed for the stars in front of the cockpit windows on a straight eastern course. 

"It's still amazing. We just keep going and going, keep accelerating like this all the time and then suddenly we are no longer a plane, we are a spaceship", Wolfheim babbled. "This is a dream to me! And I have dreamt about this ever since I was a child!" Benten smiled at the engineer. "Sure, but don't forget to check the altimeter and engine thrust readings. Otherwise we may wake up early from your dream and will still be on a plane."

"Nine thousand five hundred meters", reported Wolfheim a while later, "airspeed two seven five meters per second." Benten pressed the radio button on his control stick. "Okay, time to go supersonic, ground, do you copy?"

"We are go for supersonic, Kerlumbia, throttle up", Gene replied. Benten carefully pushed the control stick forward to lower the craft's nose a little bit, then increased thrust. The RAPIERs screamed and the massive ship vibrated just a little more, hitting the surrounding air with increasing force. Kerlumbia climbed while quickly gaining speed. Wolfheim continued reading out the instruments for his fellow pilot and when the ship had passed twenty thousand meters at roughly 950 meters per second, Benten activated the closed loop mode of the engines. Visual signs of thin air heating up around the ship became visible, filling the cockpit with an orange glow. Wolfheim had seen this happening during re-entries before. He looked up from his instruments and saw the sun rising over the horizon right under their nose. They were on course to space. 

f1HrHmI.png

Gene called: "Kerlumbia, go for the NERV engines." Wolfheim activated the nuclear thrusters and Benten raised the nose of the ship as they were climbing faster and faster through the higher layers of Kerbins atmosphere. "Oxidizer under ten percent, RAPIER engine cutoff in twenty seconds", announced the engineer. "We're good", replied the pilot. 

At mission control everybody was watching the orbital parameters. Kerlumbia was on course to reach orbit ahead of the first stranded capsule. Gene ordered to insert the shuttle in an higher orbit so that the wreckage could catch up to the shuttle. After their circularization burn, Benten and Wolfheim were between five and ten kilometers outside of Ferbald Kerman who was the first to be rescued. Gene was satisfied. "Good job, Kerlumbia. That was one flawless takeoff for our very first spaceplane mission!" "Thank you, ground. We are glad all went so well. I guess Wolfheim will be wearing that big smile for quite some time."

After two orbits the shuttle lowered its trajectory to rendezvous with the tiny one-seated can Ferbald was orbiting in. Kerlumbias cargo bay doors were opened to expose the crew module and Benten maneuvered the 100-ton ship carefully up to the can. The remaining distance of roughly one hundred meters would be easy to bridge for Ferbald's EVA jet pack. Ferbald climbed out of his tiny can and pushed it off which lead the small craft to enter a wild spin. The scientist initialized his thrusters and brought his own spin under control before he aligned himself to face the shuttle. He reached the cargo bay easily and slipped inside the crew module where Benten greeted him. "Welcome aboard, kerbonaut!" "Glad you came by, I was starting to feel very alone and very hungry inside that tiny thing", Ferbald said. "They shouldn't be doing this to scientists like me. I would much rather like to work in an environment like this." "I am sure we will have an offer for you. We are constantly looking for scientists as far as I know", the pilot replied. "Now have seat and a snack. Make yourself comfortable, you will soon have company in here."

2QNRVG8.png

Benten and Wolfheim raised Kerlumbia's orbit again to wait for the next ship to come by. After they had repeated the procedure for a third time over three days they had successfully rescued pilots Kirwell and Zeldous from similar orbital mishaps, had closed the cargo bay doors and had prepared their shuttle for the deorbit burn. They relit the nuclear engines just south of the large meteor crater and entered the upper atmosphere of Kerbin soon after. Benten put the craft in a 35 degree nose-up attitude to expose the full underbelly to the airstream and to bleed as much speed as possible. Wolfheim closely watched the temperature sensor readings and announced necessary attitude corrections. Kerlumbia made her fiery metamorphosis back from spaceship to plane when the engineer reopened the air intakes and fired the RAPIER engines up in air breathing mode. They were exactly on course.

"Ground, we have visual contact. The weather is spectacular. We can clearly see the SSC", Benten reported. "I am just totally thrilled!", shouted the engineer in a much more enthusiastic outbreak. "We have made it! We are almost back home in the same craft that we launched in! What a great piece of engineering!" Benten activated the intercom to the crew module in the cargo bay. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are preparing to land at SSC. Put your seats in an upright position and fold up the tables in front of you."

2iKuYKD.png

The pilot performed another perfect landing on the runway at the space center. Kerlumbia touched down in the bright afternoon sunlight of D369 and rolled out before Benten brought it to a halt on the taxiway to the SPH, just like he had done six days earlier during the opening ceremony. 

"Thank you for flying with Shmauck air and space lines", he announced over the intercom. "You may now unfasten your seat belts. Time for a photo shoot."

z3U6Vhy.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Workload (Y2 D369)

"Here are our plans." Gene clicked and the big screen on the wall of his office revealed the upcoming milestones to the Kerbals around his conference table. Wernher, who knew what was presented, looked into the faces of Benten and Wolfheim. "First of all, Kerlumbia will carry the second part of the Alpha expansion into LKO. It will be mated with a tanker transit at Dawn station. On your way there you will pick up another stranded pilot from orbit."

"Not again!" Benten leaned back in his chair. "Oh yes", Gene chuckled, "I have no idea what these guys are doing wrong but they keep doing it. Anyway, the contracts pay off, especially with our fully reusable shuttle. And most of the stranded folks are happy to sign with us after their rescue. Take that new girl Zeldous, she reminds me of Val when she was new. So positive and enthusiastic, even after her breakdown up there. And Kirwell, the other new pilot, he is almost as relaxed as you are, Benten. You should consider picking him for that mission. We'll run him through the simulator at Quasar's place so he can join you then." Benten nodded briefly, then Gene continued running them through the plan.

"Then we will launch your new tanker vessel, Wolfheim. It already has a name. Administrator Shmauck managed to acquire sponsorship from the Kerbonas corporation so that will be its new designation." The engineer leaned forward. "I am thinking about a three-letter-acronym system that works so well in many fields. Can we name the tanker ships FTVs as in fuel transport vessel?" Benten rolled his eyes and grabbed a bottle of water. "What would we call the Kerlumbia then? BMW as in 'big multi-use workhorse'?" Gene smiled but ignored the remark. "Actually I like the idea. FTV Kerbonas sounds rather professional. I will pass it to Shmauck. And you develop a system that works for other vehicle classes and types, Wolfheim." "Oh, I have already", the engineer quickly responded, "the fuel storage modules for Dawn station will be FSMs and the manned construction vehicle should be called MCV. For the Kerlumbia I could imagine STS as in space transport shuttle." 

Gene interrupted gently, immediately picking up the suggestion. "Speaking of the shuttle, there will be another mission for STS Kerlumbia before the end of this year. Wernher?" "Oh... yes, sure." The head of R&D cleared his throat and sorted his papers. "We have this new device which we call the claw. No idea how that fits into your three-letter acronyms, Wolfheim, but it could be very useful to collect debris from space. We could mount it on a tiny little probe and take it up to orbit in the shuttle cargo bay. And once we collected valuable remains of space debris we could bring it back down with the shuttle." "You must be kidding", said Benten, slowly shaking his head. "Recover the stranded and collect the garbage, that's what we use this great ship for? STS should stand for stranded and trash service!" A moment of awkward silence passed, then Wernher, Gene and Wolfheim broke out in laughter. Benten, irritated at first, joined in.

"That was a good one, Benten", Gene finally giggled, "but really, the Kerlumbia can show how versatile she is and you will have an additional mission to train the second pilot." "I will think about that small probe to carry the claw and also about an acronym for it", added Wolfheim.

The boss prepared to close the meeting. "To wrap it up, gentlemen. First is a shuttle launch to bring up the next part for Munlab Alpha and to recover a kerbonaut. Second is the commissioning of the new tanker Kerbonas to Minmus. Third is the shuttle launch to recover some component from the orbit. That should bring us close to new year's eve. We could think about some fireworks." Benten smiled briefly and Wernher caught it with a strict look. "Don't even think of blowing up equipment!" "Wait and see", the pilot replied. Gene raised from his chair. "It's time for me to get back to mission control. We are currently moving the Munlab into a polar orbit and once we are there we will prepare a landing in Mun's polar crater."

A viewpoint for the Mun (Y2 D389-D392)

"That's close enough, well done." Benten patted his copilot's shoulder. Kirwell Kerman had proved to be an eager and fast learner. He had gone through the shuttle trainings and simulator runs with ease. On his first real mission aboard Kerlumbia he was tasked to take over the shuttle's controls and to rendezvous with the Dawn station. He had managed to maneuver the large vessel within close range of the station in orbit above Kerbin. Benten pressed the talk button to activate the radio transmission. "Dawn, Kerlumbia here. We have a package to be delivered to the Mun. Will you take over?" Valentina responded promptly. "Sure thing, guys. I hear you also have a passenger? Welcome to the show, Sigsel!" Benten turned and looked over his shoulder. Sigsel occupied the seat behind Benten. The pilot had been recovered from his stranded capsule two hours before and had since been quietly sitting in the backseat to follow the procedures between Benten and Kirwell. "Hi, this is Sigsel Kerman. Thank you for the warm welcome."

8Yj08EC.png

Valentina undocked the Kernoco tanker from the station. The tanker had been brought back to LKO to transfer fuel coming from Minmus and Gene had once again decided to take advantage of a tanker rotation to bring another expansion to the station in Mun orbit. Val directed the fully loaded tanker craft from her remote controls inside the station and maneuvered it towards the shuttle. After she had stopped all relative movement, Benten took over the shuttle controls. He brought the shuttle up below the tanker. The payload was a crew module with a viewpoint called cupola, intended to be used by third party crews aboard the Mun station. The module was entirely lacking any means of control and therefore the handover of the payload would have to be treated with maximum care. Kirwell had left his copilot seat and watched the cargo bay monitors to assist Benten and to release the payload from its docking point when needed. Benten called Valentina. "Dawn, Kerlumbia, we're perfectly aligned, ready when you are." Again, Vals response came quickly. "Then release and slowly dive away so I can pick it up. Ground, you copy?" "Green for payload release", came Genes brief confirmation. 

R7I7yQX.png

Kirwell activated the undocking mechanism and Benten very slowly moved the shuttle aft and down to avoid even the slightest touching of the module. "Dawn, Kerlumbia, we are slowly falling away, payload is stable and stationary, go ahead", the pilot reported calmly. Val ordered the tanker to follow the shuttle's movement in constant distance. She used her own instruments and cameras to see what was happening, but Kirwell gave additional visual clues from inside the shuttle. After long and tense minutes she had brought the Kernoco tanker in the correct position to dock. With a final puff of lateral forward motion she moved the ship towards the module's docking port. "Contact, all sensors green", she reported and then, "docking ports engaged, payload is locked." "Well done, Val, congratulations! We're all very happy here at mission control." "Thank you, Gene", she responded, "now let's bring Kernoco and the module on course to their destination." "Sure, we'll take over from here", Gene said. "The trajectory is already programmed. You can watch together with the shuttle crew. We have not docked Kerlumbia to the Dawn station yet. Time for another first. And show Sigsel around. Ground out."

JzEUwVZ.png

The Kernoco tanker brought the new module safely to the Mun station and released it by a similar procedure. Danlan Kerman, the current pilot aboard Munlab Alpha, remotely controlled the undocking and left the module stable and stationary in space close to his station. He then undocked the unmanned mini tug and piloted it remotely to dock with the payload. Once he had docked the tug with the module he used the tug to bring it back to the station. Alpha had now received another upgrade and the external contractor happily acknowledged the successful delivery of their module to the station. The mini tug provides the link between the new module and the station for now until there will be a way to move an uncontrollable component from one docking port to another. The new claw may come in handy at some point. 

Gi00yjZ.png

At the end of day 392 Kirwell performed his first landing of the shuttle at SSC under the eyes of Benten. He came in too high and zoomed past the runway at supersonic speeds some twenty kilometers above the SSC so he entered a wide downward turn to perform a first shuttle landing from the east. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Rendezvous (Y2 D408-D417)

“Aren’t you Wolfheim?” 

The engineer turned his head to the woman behind him in the queue. Being approached by females always startled him. While he generally felt secure when being an engineer talking to colleagues or superiors he kept feeling somewhat insecure and uncomfortable with strangers in a more personal context.

He blushed. “Oh, yes, I am.” She smiled. “Hi, I am Xandra, from mission control. I helped launching your new tanker.”

Wolfheim avoided to look her straight into the eyes but couldn’t suppress a shy smile. “Well, thank you.”

“No, thank you”, she replied and placed her tray on the canteen counter to pay for her meal. “I’m sure the new tanker will take away some of the tanker juggling we had to for the last couple of weeks. Just crazy! Would you join me for lunch?”

This was almost too much for Wolfheim. He felt that he was blushing again and only managed to nod in reply. Xandra turned and moved to look for a free table and the engineer followed her. She walked up to a two-seated table by the window and sat down. “Enjoy”, she said after he had taken the seat opposite of her. She grabbed her fork.

“You wouldn’t believe it”, she continued. “Organizing the fuel transports between Minmus, Kerbin and Mun means juggling the four transit stages between the worlds. ‘Kernoco’ goes from Mun to Kerbin and back to Mun. ‘Kervron’ goes from Minmus to Mun, then swings by Kerbin to go back to Minmus. ‘Kermobil’ brings fuel to ‘Dawn’ from Minmus, then goes back to Minmus. Aaah.” 

She started to eat and Wolfheim nodded. “Oh yeah. These stages were never intended to make numerous trips around the Kerbin system to carry fuel. When the whole idea of mining at Minmus came up they were just the immediate option to do it. The two ones at Mun don’t even have antennas to make the trip to Minmus. None of them has special tanks for liquid fuel so it’s inefficient to use them for that. They’re just an interim solution.”

Xandra nodded, chewing on her lunch. “That’s over now, I suppose. We launched ‘Kerbonas’ ten days ago and she made her way to the ‘Dawn’ station. We checked out her engines and control systems while on orbit and she docked flawlessly. So tell me more about the new tanker. It’s a much bigger ship. What were your design goals?” Again she stated her questions with an open, natural smile on her face. She seemed so positive and full of friendliness.

KtwA6pV.png

Wolfheim was surprised about Xandras interest in his work. But every time he saw her smile he started to feel warm and excited. So he tried to focus on the topic of her questions rather than on his feelings about her appearance. “Yeah… um… design goals were to carry a much larger amount of payload fuel much more efficiently”, he elaborated. “That’s why I fitted those nuclear engines which save the oxidizer. I also wanted the ship to have enough consumable fuel to make the trip down to Kerbin and back up to Minmus without refueling. That way, we only run on processed fuel and have the entire payload for other purposes. The third goal was to add crew capacity so we can use the tanker for crew rotations. And finally, we should also be able to use it as a tug to carry payloads out to Mun and Minmus because we’ll be expanding those stations.”

“All goals met for ‘Kerbonas’, I suppose”, Xandra smiled. She could not hold back on asking further. “what is your next project?”

“The expansion for the ‘Dawn’ station is already in assembly. It consists of a long central spine called the ‘Dawn fuel core’ and four large fuel tank assemblies very similar to the payload tanks on ‘Kerbonas’. In fact, it is the same concept for each of the four. All this will be going up early next year. The first launch will also carry a single-seated manned tug which we’ll use to maneuver the other subassemblies to their final locations on the station.”

“Oh yes!”, Xandra exclaimed excitedly. “These launches are on our mission schedule already. Five launches for the ‘Dawn’ expansion! Much more fun and excitement than tanker juggling!” She giggled and Wolfheim was completely overwhelmed. While her smile was already very attractive to him, her giggling was just completely cute. He was stunned, unable to move a muscle. He just sat and stared like a little boy.

She looked at her empty plate, then at his lunch. “Are you not eating, Wolfheim? Isn’t yours good?”

The engineer had completely forgotten to eat, so thrilled was he about his company. He didn’t really know how to react. “Umm… Ah, I’ve been talking so much, I must have bored you with all my ramblings and I… I really forgot to eat because… I… talked.”

Awww”, she made, “I am sorry. I was so curious and so eager to hear all these things. Not boring at all! I just should have let you have your lunch! My bad!” She giggled again. “But I’ll have to run now. We’re docking ‘Kerbonas’ to the ‘Beta’ station tonight and we’ll start loading it with a first trip of your tanker truck!” She raised from her chair and Wolfheim felt a tiny little sting in his chest. 

“Thank you for your company, Wolfheim, I really enjoyed lunch with you. Why don’t you come over to mission control after your shift and watch me dock your tanker to the Minmus station?” Xandra waved goodbye with a smile and turned to leave the canteen without waiting for his response.

Wolfheim followed her with his eyes and watched her leave without a word. He felt clumsy and sad but at the same time he smiled to himself. What a bundle of energy this cute Kerbalgirl was! And did she just invite him to come see her again? He tried to turn his attention to his lunch again but felt unable to eat, as excited as he was. He would definitely check mission control’s schedule to see when ‘Kerbonas’ would be docked and he would not miss that opportunity to see Xandra again.

cUUXNx3.png

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Fireworks (Y2 D420-Y3 D001)

“Ground, Kerlumbia, we are in range. The mystery is solved. This piece of debris looks like a structural fuselage adapter.”

The response came immediately. “Roger, Kerlumbia, we copy. Object HR8-Q9 is a fuselage adapter.”

“We’ll move a bit closer before we release the claw tug.” Benten nodded in Kirwells direction. The copilot activated the shuttle’s RCS and grabbed his control stick to slowly move the ship towards the floating piece of equipment. Benten looked out the main cockpit window. “I have a bad feeling about this. It’s quite big. I wonder if it fits into the bay. Opening cargo bay doors.” The pilot reached for the payload bay levers. Kirwell eliminated all relative motion of the shuttle in reference to the object and deactivated the maneuver thrusters. Benten flipped a couple of switches on his console to reconfigure his controls to payload remote control. His main screen now showed the claw tug as it was docked inside the cargo bay of the shuttle. 

“Okay, let’s see what this thing can do”, he murmured when he pressed the undock button and activated the tug’s RCS system. The small tug came free and moved slowly towards the rear end of the bay. With very gentle control inputs Benten stopped the rearward movement and let the craft climb slowly out of the cargo bay. Once the tug had cleared the shuttle, Benten moved it forward until it came into their view outside the cockpit windows. 

“Ground, I am unleashing the beast now”, the pilot commented into his headset, then he activated the claw on the tug. The small ship retracted its front cover and revealed three large metal teeth which spread out at an angle. “Looks like we are ready to bite.” Kirwell had his hands on the shuttle controls and followed the action outside the windows closely, ready to react if needed. “I am”, he said, “you can go ahead.”

Benten steered the tug in an angle towards the narrow end of the piece of fuselage. The main screen in front of him showed a camera view from inside the claw. His eyes frequently moved between the front window and the screen while Kirwell was reading the distance measurements for him from his instrument panel. “Ten meters at one per second… eight… six…”, Benten activated forward thrust, “… three at one point four… contact…” The claw mechanism activated itself due to the proximity of the object, the teeth closed and grabbed the hull. “Ground, we have a capture.”

“Good job, Kerlumbia!” Genes response came promptly. “Can you provide us with visual clues about the actual size of the piece?” “Sure we can”, Benten replied, “I will maneuver the tug over the cargo bay so we can take a closer look.” A few minutes later the tug and its prey was parking close above the shuttle and it was very obvious that the combination of both would not fit inside the cargo bay. 

UsjB8K6.png

Gene communicated the next steps. “Okay, Kerlumbia, we will work something out. For the moment we want you to dock the tug to the shuttle nose port and report back. We have a mission update for you.” Benten and Kirwell exchanged looks, then Benten pressed the talk button. “Roger, ground, we can’t wait.” The two men proceeded as they were told. Benten aligned the tug’s rear docking port with Kerlumbia’s nose and Kirwell opened the shield. “Now our ship gets a real mouth”, he chuckled. 

When the claw tug was safely docked to the shuttle, Gene revealed the adjusted mission objectives to them. “I know how you feel about it, guys, but we have two more stranded astronauts to rescue. One of them is in a very practical spot between your current position and Dawn station. You’ll be passing by anyway so just pick up the poor soul.” Benten sighed. “And?`” “The other is on a highly inclined and eccentrical orbit around Kerbin. We did the maths down here. You managed to get to orbit very efficiently with lots of spare fuel. You won’t have problems to reach that other guy after your rendezvous with ‘Dawn’.” Benten nodded. “That second one sounds like fun, actually, as it involves more flying and higher orbits.” Gene sounded happy. “I knew you would like that, Benten. Proceed to the capsule of Nelely Kerman and then on to Dawn. We need to get that piece of fuselage stowed properly and the folks aboard the station will help you with that.”

The rescue of Nelely Kerman went smoothly and four and a half hours later Kerlumbia arrived at the Dawn station with one additional crew member on board. Mission control linked the comms of the two crews together and Gene, Wernher and Wolfheim joined the conference from the SSC. Gene explained: “We have a solution which involves some construction work on the cargo bay doors. As the fuselage adapter will not fit inside the bay we will have to cut out a circular hole. Here’s a drawing.” He switched from camera to presentation mode and showed them what Wolfheim had rapidly scribbled. 

“That means we release the fuselage from the claw, re-grab it on its upside and let the narrow bit stick out upwards when we dock the tug in the bay?”, the shuttle pilot asked. “Exactly, Benten. And that shape needs to be cut from the cargo bay doors”, Wolfheim added and Benten laughed. “That’s so crazy that I actually like the idea!” Valentina raised her hand. “Are we sure that the shuttle’s structural integrity is not affected?” ”Yes, I checked that with Jett”, said Wolfheim and Gene added: “We will also have no problem during re-entry as the upper fuselage of the shuttle is not exposed to plasma. Aerodynamics will suffer a bit but Kerlumbia can cope with that. And after landing she will get a new set of doors.” 

Gene talked them through the planned EVA and explained the required procedures to perform the construction work. The fuselage adapter was released from the claw, re-grabbed and docked inside the bay. 

zSxqQxe.png

Valentina, Urslev, Benten and Kirwell went outside while Nelely remained in the shuttle and Reiritz remained aboard the Dawn station to watch over the operation. Another three hours later the team had completed the task and had re-entered their vehicles. The cargo bay doors had been closed to confirm the successful completion of the work and the hole was exactly where it was needed. The narrow part of the debris stuck out of the shuttle’s top side. Mission control congratulated the joint crews for their accomplishment. Benten and Kirwell docked the shuttle to the station and the crews finally got to meet without their EVA helmets. 

The astronauts spent some free hours it was time for the shuttle crew to prepare for the last leg of their trip. Kirwell undocked Kerlumbia and fired the nuclear engines to put them on an intercept trajectory with Hadfel Kermans capsule five and a half thousand kilometers above Kerbin. It took them five days and a couple of orbits to reach their rendezvous point and when they finally reached it, Hadfel was as impressed as Nelely was about the shuttle and the precision with which Benten flew it. 

YqyMOwd.png

Hadfel climbed out of his capsule and performed a very short spacewalk to enter Kerlumbia and fill the last seat in the cockpit. Benten then turned to his three companions. 

"Guys, it's time to hurry home. I had a little surprise on my mind and it seems our timing is just right. If all goes well, we will arrive at SSC for the new year's fireworks and I think we should add some flames to it." He smiled. "I plan to re-enter the atmosphere a little later than I normally would so we zoom across the night sky above SSC in a ball of fire." Kirwell laughed, but the newcomers looked somewhat concerned. "Will you be allowed to do that?", Hadfel wanted to know. "I guess not", Benten replied, "that's why I won't ask." Nelely shared Hadfels concerns. "Will we be facing negative consequences for such a stunt? I wanted to apply for a spot in your team after our landing." "You should not worry", Benten tried to calm them. "All responsibility is with me. I am the pilot and if I make a bad judgement on the re-entry angle then who would blame me for that?" They all smiled. 

Nine hours later the shuttle hit the upper atmosphere of Kerbin and Benten informed the ground crew about his "error". "I knew it. He hinted something like that", Wernher told Gene. "I remember. It may be spectacular though, so let's get the staff outside", Gene said smiling. In the end, most of the night shift watched a bright orange trail of fire high above the SSC campus to welcome the third year of Shmauck's space program. 

Edited by Shmauck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

New Year (Y3 D001)

“Welcome, my fellow space enthusiasts.” Administrator Shmauck’s voice filled the large void inside the VAB, amplified by speakers mounted on the first floor of the assembly structure. The entire staff of SSC was seated in long rows of chairs on the VAB floor, facing away from the giant main gate. Shmauck stood at a sleek desk in the middle of the first floor and smiled down at the crowd. Below him, a large banner had been attached to the platform which read “Happy New 3rd Year” in big letters.

“Behind you on the launch pad is our first flight of the year. It marks the beginning of the exciting next steps of our mission into the Kerbol system. In this third year we shall greatly enhance and advance our capabilities and our facilities. Before I come to the future, let’s look at what we have achieved until this day.” Behind Shmauck a projection screen showed a timeline with milestones of the past two years.

“We learned to fly into the atmosphere, then into space. We learned to dock vehicles in orbit and to assemble multiple vehicles to stations. We learned to put Kerbals on orbit and to perform EVAs and spacewalks. We flew to Mun and Minmus. We established permanent outposts on orbits around Kerbin, Mun and Minmus. We launched satellites and probes to these bodies and beyond. We deployed two bases on Minmus and established a productive mining operation there. And we sent a manned ship out to our neighbor planet of Duna.” He paused for a round of applause from the audience. “We learned, we researched, we designed and constructed. We made mistakes and learned from them. We flew and we landed, we rescued and grew, we recovered and reused. Our story is a great story of success and we can all be very proud!” The audience applauded again. 

“At this very moment we have three Kerbals orbiting Kerbin…” While the administrator spoke, the screen behind him changed and showed a live camera image from the Dawn station. Valentina, Reiritz and Urslev were happily floating in zero gravity and waved into the camera. “… three Kerbals orbiting Mun…” The picture changed again to show Danlan, Dave and Jonley. “… Three of us are orbiting Minmus…”, Norzenz, Bob and Norlen appeared, “… three of us are on the surface of Minmus…”, Bardine in her mining plant and Bill and Lendon aboard the Da Vinci base appeared, …and three Kerbals orbiting Duna!” The final sequence of Jebediah, Meldon and Orbury was obviously prerecorded and froze to a still picture at the end. “This year we will bring these three back home because they really miss us and we miss them.” All Kerbals in the VAB cheered and applauded. 

“And we are all facing an exciting future. During this year we will largely expand our ‘Dawn’ station in Kerbins orbit. We will establish permanent communication capabilities at Minmus. We will turn our orbital outpost there into the much larger ‘Rise’ station. We will develop, build and send a roving base to Duna and Ike. And we shall reach out to other worlds in our system. I don’t want to be too specific about that because our plans are in the making.” 

The crowd clapped hands again and Shmauck continued his presentation with an outlook of the financial situation and the budgets for the coming year. Xandra and Wolfheim sat side by side in the audience. They had been seeing each other for lunch and dinner on several occasions in the past weeks and both enjoyed the growing friendship between them. Xandra was attracted by Wolfheim’s humble intelligence and Wolfheim enjoyed her openness and her always positive attitude. She hinted over her shoulder with her thumb and leaned over to him. “We should get this thing into space rather than listen to boring budget details”, she whispered giggling. “I can’t wait”, he replied. 

Zeldous Kerman, the former stranded pilot, was seated between Kirwell and Ferbald, who had been rescued during the same Kerlumbia mission with her. After their rescue, all three had abandoned their former employers and had moved into a shared house close to SSC. While Kirwell had almost immediately been named as the second Kerlumbia pilot, Zeldous and Ferbald had started to train for an assignment to the roving base Shmauck had mentioned during his presentation. Kirwell whispered: “Nelely over there is a great guy. We rescued him from LKO and I spent six days with him in the shuttle. He is going to apply for a spot and he could fit nicely in your team.” Zeldous asked: “And the other one you picked up?” “Hadfel? I really can’t say much about him. We didn’t have much time to talk during our return”, Kirwell said. 

“… a continuing positive trend.” Administrator Shmauck was finishing his budget presentation and another round of applause helped everybody focus again. “With that I invite you all to have a glass of sparkling Kerpagne with me. I wish all of us a very happy, healthy and successful new year!” A band started to play music under the gate of the VAB while the administrator made his way down to the ground floor. The audience raised from their chairs and moved towards the long tables at both sides of the large building. The celebration lasted for another hour with Kerbals chatting, laughing and having the occasional sip of Kerpagne. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dawning part one (Y3 D002) 

"MCV Dawn, you are go for launch."

Wenbrecht Kerman relaxed his muscles willingly. He felt very tense in his excitement and he repeatedly found himself grabbing his armrests much tighter than necessary. "Roger, ground, I confirm go for launch."

"T minus ten, nine, eight, ..."

The only thing Wenbrecht saw outside the cockpit canopy of his Mk1 inline cockpit was the inside of a huge payload fairing. His tiny manned construction vehicle was mounted on top of a long thin structure called the Dawn fuel core and both parts were stowed in the protective fairing. His seat began to vibrate as the fuel pumps far below started to come to live.

"Five... four... three..."

Wenbrecht felt the chemical engines ignite. He closed his eyes. This was supposed to be his return to space after he had experienced a catastrophic incident more than one year ago with another agency. Since then, he had received treatment to slowly recover and overcome his panic attacks. He had spent endless hours in the simulators at SSC to achieve flight readiness again. And now he was assigned to an extended mission in LKO to work as a pilot operating the construction vehicle which would carry out the assembly of the Dawn space station. 

"Two... one... go!"

The memories of his last real launch flooded Wenbrecht as soon as he felt g-forces grasping his body. The incident had begun immediately after his orbital rocket had lifted off the launch pad. One of the booster engines had started to lose thrust and the failure of the engine had led to a significant course deviation and then to an inability to reach orbit normally. His former ground crew had then decided to burn the first stage with just the main engine and to shut down and separate the boosters as quickly as possible. The faulty booster had exploded briefly afterwards causing damage to a fuel pump of the main engine. In the end, they managed to put him in orbit in one piece but with a damaged heat shield. That was the moment when they had called for help. All this appeared before Wenbrecht's eyes while his Dawn launcher ascended from SSC. 

"Clean liftoff and we're right on course, Wenbrecht."

Gene spoke very calmly, knowing that the pilot would be under additional stress during this phase of the flight. The head of mission control had decided to be the capsule communicator himself as an additional sign of safety. "We've passed maximum dynamic pressure and are throttling up again into the gravity turn. It all looks very good."

Soon Wenbrecht felt the first pair of boosters separate from his launcher and to his relief, no explosion occurred. He started to calm down when the acceleration lowered. His navball indicated that his trajectory was already below 45 degrees and his orbital speed increased over six hundred meters per second. After the second pair of boosters had separated he was very confident that he had overcome the worst part, safely and flawlessly. He pressed the talk button on his control stick. "Ground, I am okay now. Thank you all for your patience. It's great to be back in space and I didn't think I would say that someday." "Roger, Dawn MCV. Standby for payload fairing deploy. It's about time you see where we brought you", replied Gene with a smile.

The shell around his cockpit broke up and Wenbrecht saw the giant ball of Kerbin hanging dark above his head. "Standby for main engine shutdown", came Genes voice out of his headphones. "Okay, we're almost there. Circularization burn in about two minutes, Wenbrecht. All systems nominal." The pilot turned his head. His eyes followed the struts to the central part of the Dawn fuel core. Everything looked stable and in perfect order. 

FeNEaS7.png

After the cicularization burn the ground crew confirmed a good orbit. Wenbrecht took control of the long thin vehicle and tried to roll, pitch and yaw on reaction wheels only to see how it responded. "The ship feels bulky and slow but I am sure it will work as it did in the simulator", radioed the pilot. "Roger, MCV, you should be seeing the station soon. We have some spare fuel in the launcher that we want to conserve so your first docking will be forward." Val came over the radio. "Ground, Dawn here, we can see the ship approaching."

Wenbrecht confirmed the sighting and a little while later brought his ship to a halt close by the orbiting station. 

XuUQKxg.png

"Okay, ground, I am ready for the first docking", the pilot reported. Gene gave his go-ahead and Val confirmed the station was ready to receive the MCV and its fuel core subassembly. By then, Wenbrecht had completely overcome his anxiety of the launch phase. He was now a fully-focused pilot, having his hands on the controls and his eyes locked onto his target, the northern docking port of Dawn. He maneuvered his ship around the station and finally docked the front port of the MCV with the station. After he had confirmed good docking to mission control, all the excess fuel of his launcher was pumped into the original launcher stage of the Dawn station. With enough fuel for a controlled termination in Kerbins atmosphere left in its tanks, the launch stage was undocked from the station expansion. 

hlyicQ1.png

"Okay, now comes the hard part", Gene said after the launch stage was out of sight and on its way to its fiery death. Wenbrecht undocked the MCV and turned the remaining MCV and fuel core combo by 180 degrees. The detached launcher stage had freed the docking port which was supposed to make the final connection to the existing segment of Dawn. The pilot carefully reversed the subassembly into the northern port. Val assisted with visual clues to ensure a correct alignment of the expansion module. After the docking ports had engaged, the Dawn station had become more than three times as long as it had been. 

kibwEhr.png

Val connected the systems of the fuel core expansion and the station and took the necessary steps to even out the air pressure between both. Then she opened the docking hatch. "I am feeling a little adventurous here, I go where no one has gone before", she giggled into her headset. "Reminds me of the day when I entered the Dawn station for the first time!" Val pulled her floating body forward through the long pipe towards the center module of the fuel core. She inspected the center module and the other pipe as well, then reported to mission control. "Looks like everything got here in great shape. Thank you for all this new space!"

"Roger, Dawn, that's just the first step, there is more to come", Gene replied. "Wenbrecht, you can now release the struts and redock the MCV to join the Dawn crew. Take a bit of a rest, we are ready to send up the first fuel module." 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...