Dreams of Cercani Part5: Dwarf Planets

[EnderiumSmith]

Part1: Moonshots and Satellites

This is my attempt at documenting my modded career game. Starting with probes and boots-on-the-ground missions, my goals are to visit most bodies in the Kerbol system, colonize several of them including Laythe and eventually reach Kerbol's 3.2Ly neighbor, Cercani.

Since Restock allows SRBs to vector their thrust, all SRB rockets have been quite popular early game. Jeb was the first to orbit Kerbin. Initially designed as a tourist ship, the Orbiter Mk2 has mostly been used to rescue kerbals stranded by other agencies. A sizable roster has been aquired.

Mun Landing. The first Kerbal on the Mun was of course Jeb. Since ive sent a scanning satellite previously i have been able to visit multiple biomes. Said satellite showed significant concentrations of ³He in the twin craters so the Mun might prove useful in the future

Minmus Landing. A scientist has been brought along to reset the experiments. While the low gravity makes landing easier, the remote location and lack of ³He means Minmus wont be as useful as the Mun

Duna probe approaching. A relay, atmospheric probe and Ike lander has been brought using a Falcon 5 rocket.

Next up Eve:

Containing a relay and 3 probes, the ship captures into a highly excentric orbit

Once the probes have landed, the transfer stage is sent into the atmosphere and the relay enters a circular orbit and begins to scan the planet. Eve wont be accessible for a while but some kerbals at mission control come up with several ideas for flying vehicles

Departing towards Dres. Larger solar panels and an upgrade to the Deep space facility will allow the probe to venture further than Duna

Scans seem to indicate Dres does in fact exist. It does not seem very interesting however

Arriving at Moho. I forgot to screenshot the surface. Several Ion powered ships will visit Moho after this and one will even locate a mysterious monolith. Possible plans of a Moho rover are in the works

Jool mission. At this point a manned Duna mission has already arrived, but thats for part 2. A tylo gravity break is used to enter orbit

First the relay is placed into orbit since its quite heavy to carry around

Relay in white. An orbit above all the moons allows communication to reach everywhere at some point. Disadvantages are barely reaching Laythe and shot windows on the back sides on outer planets. but there isnt much space between the moons anyway

Flying by Vall the exact moment Jool eclipses Kerbol

Welcome to Laythe

A bit wet

Pol Flyby

Scraping Bop. Excess deltaV allows brute forcing the inclination

Spent stage is sent into Jool along with a probe. Ran out of power shortly before hitting the bottom

A final Tylo Flyby since i dont get low space science the first pass. The probe will station itself in Laythe orbit after so it can measure its gravitational and magnetic fields. An advanced nuclear electric probe will be sent next to scout the moons for the best landing spots

In the next part will be covered the voyage to the neighboring planets, probes reaching even further places and the construction of the Jool5 ship. Orbital construction is being investigated for the latter and as a trial for a future Mun base

Edited March 2, 2023 by EnderiumSmith

[Vanamonde]

I also like sending uncrewed probes. In my last few campaigns I didn't send Kerbals beyond Kerbin orbit until after I had cleared the whole tech tree. 

[EnderiumSmith]

Part2: Press Space to Slow Down

Spoiler

After sending probes to the 4 nearby planets to scout ahead and developing a nuclear propulsion system, the agency is ready for the first interplanetary mission.

The ship contains a compact lander and fuel reserves for 4 landings. A hitchhiker module and an inflatable habitat provide accommodations for 3 crew. The engine module can detach and operate independently. The initial plan was to dunk the ship in the atmosphere and save the engine but i packed way to much fuel and managed to return to low orbit with the engine module still mostly full. The crew for this mission will be Jeb, Bob and Melming.

Launching

Escape burn

Once the engine finishes burning the crew moves into the habitation module. Looking from the windows of the cupolas they watch as Kerbin recedes into the distance and contemplate their place in the universe. They are the first kerbals to leave Kerbins sphere of influence. All of history seems small and insignificant from up here. Entire civilizations rose and fell yet their legacy remained unknown to the eternal abyss.

After about a year Duna begins to appear into the field of view

arriving at Duna

3 landing are preformed in different locations around Duna. Jeb gets to pilot the last one. Fuel has to be saved for a final landing on Ike

Arriving at Ike during an eclipse

If you look closely youll see a landing leg missing. This mission was being piloted by the Melming the engineer who miscalculated the burn and smashed the lander into the surface of Ike, tearing off a whole fuel pod. He was able to meet with the mothership with just 12m/s of deltav remaining. The agency decided to deorbit the lander as future missions will likely need more capable ones anyway. Melming gained the nickname "honeydew" due to this mistake.

Time to return

The news of their accomplishment have been so significant that 4 wealthy kerbals payed a very significant sum for the chance to meet the crew as they arrive, on the Ares ship itself

A shuttle has been developed to return the crew

The Ares seems small with the shuttle docked to it. The 4 kerbals will get to spend a week with the crew before they will all return using the shuttle. The life support systems are only designed for 3 kerbals but there are enough supplies buffered to last

The shuttle arrives home. I overshot the ksc and had to burn the rest of the fuel just to reach

With the Ares having arrived intact it has been decided to send it to Gilly next. The Crew for this mission consists of Aiko, a daring pilot of the likes of Jeb and Val, Piko the scientist and Bill. While Gilly isnt exactly the most interesting target, Aiko wants a chance to prove her skills and a mission to Eve is a long way off as not much funding has been allocated there due to the manned missions

Another fuel module. The cargo part has a new science module since the old one was on the lander

To deal with the inclination a complex transfer was required

Aiko Kerman with the Ares. Due to the radiator on the back the ship cant lay down without obstructing the exits

Time to return. The space camera had its calibration updated so it can properly see the plume of the nuclear engines

Due to the extreme inclination there is not enough fuel to enter a low orbit and the Ares will be sent into the atmosphere. The development of centrifuge rings has rendered its design obsolete anyway

Surprisingly the life support module has survived impact with the ground and rolling down a hill. Other surviving pieces include an RCS thruster, a docking port and one of the cupolas

By this time a mission to Jool has already departed. A high energy transfer will mean it will arrive slightly before the probe meant to scan the system for landing spots. The agency will now focus again on probes to the inner system, with Moho being the next target for a manned mission. The science team will focus on more advanced fission systems for going even further out but fusion and even antimatter propulsion is just around the corner. Fusion is required to kickstart and allow colonization of increasingly further out places but initial designs have low thrust so a foray into antimatter might be a better choice for initial exploration of the outer ice giants.

 

[EnderiumSmith]

Part3: A Jool in the Sky

Spoiler

Spoiler

This is the venture star. A reusable SSTO for lifting heavy loads into orbit. Results have been mixed as it tends to land far away or in the sea and get damaged, but its lifinting capacity will be needed to assemble the Jool mission

First launch is Cogswell Station. Since some of the modules would be very hard to fit in fairings, orbital assembly will help a lot.

A seconds Launch brings the mothership packed as material kits. a smaller rocket will send the fuel for the lander.

Meet Olympus. On the top is the Hephaestus landing system for visiting all of the vacuum moons. Lower down is the Demeter surface base and Hermes space plane. An orbital ring will provide habitation for 4 crew for a 4 year mission.

2 more launches of the venture star bring the fuel needed for the journey. the sphere contains oxygen for a boost in thrust at the time of ejection.

On a smaller ship is launched the Triton engine module, equipped with 3 trimodal NTRs which will also serve as the power source.

A spaceplane is set to load the crew of Olympus an bring the crew of Cogswell back down. The crew for this mission will be Val, Bob, Danfry and Lupond Kerman

Leaving Kerbin

Jool begins to appear on the window.

At this distance the other moons are also visible

Capturing at Laythe. Kerbol looks small from out here. Since Laythe is in the radiation belt, Olympus will release the planes and head for the outer moons until it is time to depart again

By drawing straws, Bob and Danfry were selected as the ones to visit Laythe. The targeted landing site is the island of the leading side of Laythe, where Jool can be seen

The Hermes has landed. Jool is just peaking above the hills

Since the Demeter base is quite draggy and only has a small engine this landing has to be quite precise

Just hit the land. Its on a hill so its staying there

Meanwhile at Tylo

A nuclear rover will be used to explore the surrounding. Unfortunately for Lupond, she will have to spend several days in just her space suit

Spoiler

By coincidence both anomalies happened to be located on the target island. Unfortunately the scanning satellite i sent didnt include a biome scanner so i had to guess based on the resource data. Also the monolith gave me tech relating to harvesting antimatter and He3 which is quite fitting

As the sun sets Bob and Danfry make splashing contests at Crater Bay. After flying all the way here the fuel reserves are getting worryingly low. Im not entirely sure how to efficiently fly this

Meanwhile at Tylo, Lupond reaches the end of her journey and drives over the hill to take a look at Jool. While her colleagues have a spaceplane cabin she will have to sleep on the ground

By the time she returns night sets

Time to return. Tylo doesnt have much to offer so its possible she is the last kerbal to set foot on this moon for a very long time

Next up is the space potato that is Bop

To avoid having the mothership spend fuel on inclination changes the lander quickly lands them catches back up with the Olympus while shes on a hyperbolic trajectory. Bop is the worst of Jools moons due to its high inclination and featureless brown surface

Next up is Pol

After a more thorough examination including Val landing with her jetpack, Olympus departs for its final destination: Vall

Another night arrival

Landing during an eclipse

Laythe peaks over the horizon

After a long stay in excentric Vall orbit it is time to pick up the rest of the crew. While breaking into a low Laythe orbit isnt efficient, its required to make sure Olympus can eject into the right direction towards Kerbin and also avoids most of the radiation since theres still a month until the return window

Correction burn after leaving Laythe. There was not enough time to eject the empty tank midway through the ejection burn

Jool recedes from view

Returning to Kerbin. A speed of over 7000m/s causes the crew to pull over 20Gs. Thats enough to turn a human into paste

The capsule skips back into space and the engine modules arrives a little latter to enter orbit. It finishes the burn with only 100m/s of deltaV remaining

A huge gain of 30K. This is enough to unlock 2 tiers of fusion tech

 

A manned mission to Sarnus was supposed to depart before Olympus arrived home as enough science has been gathered from other places to unlock the nuclear lightbulb. However the first probe to Sarnus would only arrive a few months before Olympus so the mission had to be delayed to first scout the system. Meanwhile a nuclear probe has been set on a high energy transfer to Plock. Since i dont want to skip engine tiers the Sarnus mission will still use the lightbulb as tier 1 fusion is too weak

Edited January 23, 2023 by EnderiumSmith

[EnderiumSmith]

Part4: To Moho on Solar Wings

Putting images inside spoiler tags is annoying so ill post them directly instead

A Venture Star with smaller solid boosters will launch the Moho mission. The crew consists of Aiko and Piko Kerman, which also crewed the mission to Gilly

Arriving at Moho

Slowing down. A bare bones lander carries a rover containing all the science gear

Using a radial science junior as the main body, this 2 seat rover can quickly cover a lot of distance, but its not very stable to actually drive for some reason

On the way back from the southern lowland they meet with a robotic rover send a lot earlier, which contains mystery goo from places that are currently in darkness. Meeting up with the rover was quite difficult since its at the top of a very jagged mount in the highlands. I had to use Bon voyage to get within a few meters then quickly get in the way once physics loaded so its doesnt roll down the cliff

Leaving for home. Correcting for inclination is quite expensive so it used most of the fuel to get back

Preparing for reentry. Moho didnt produce much in terms of science but was a short mission at least. With the inner system being mostly explored all thats left is to  wait for the scouting probe to arrive at Sarnus. Dres will only get a sample return while Eve is still some time away and will likely use a less important kerbonaut for crew in case of failure. As for Moho is doesnt hold anything valuable that would warrant returning besides maybe a quicker way to gain XP

[EnderiumSmith]

Part 5:Dwarf Planets

Sample return mission arrives at Dres. I forgot that Dres didnt have a relay so it will have to wait for the next transfer

Once a relay arrives the rover can land. Unfortunately i realized at this point i didnt put a rover control module on it. But due to the large amount of fuel it was able to fly around and still complete half the objectives at least

Driving into the canyon. Who said wheels have no friction?

At the bottom it meets with the return vehicle and transfers the samples

The samples return home. A new rover will need to be sent to complete the rest of the mission, but Dres isnt interesting enough to send crew

Now to the actually interesting dwarf planet: Plock

The Plock probe launching on an R6 rocket

A large antenna will be needed to reach Plock

Ejection burn. It has over 30k deltav

After about 2 years it arrives at the Plock-Karen system

Behind both Plock and Karen, the probe is now the furthest object in the system

After scanning the system it comes in for landing

Landed. Karen peeks over the hill. Kerbol is so far away that without the flare it coulnt be distinguished from the background of stars, yet its light still light up the planet. While Plock is a featureless ball of ice, its distance makes it a destination worth pursuing.  Back on Kerbin a Mun outpost is being established to mine Helium3. With a less complex system of moons, the ice giants and Plock would be a great use for lower TWR fusion tech