An orbiting stone gathers some MOSS - tales from the Mun

[paleorob]

When I started my most recent save I decided to give it a focus. Some of my previous saves attempted to have a theme but they quickly fell apart. This one I determined to make and stick to. The name? Munbase. So far it is living up to this goal.

In this save I actually laid out a goal and steps to accomplish it (instead of building rockets and flinging them willy-nilly across the solar system). My goal was to have a permanent manned base near the equator of Mun with exploration capabilities (rovers and science equipment), crew return and rotation capabilities (that are actually used), abort-to-orbit options, and a Mun-orbit station to support Mun-side activities.

To pave the way I sent up Pathfinder III to mark the Munbase location and potentially serve as a surface-to-orbit shuttle (Pathfinders I and II didn't make it off the launch pad). Jeb and Bill made the flight and I plopped them down about 3* south of the equator on a relatively flat plain that isn't an apparent impact crater. No pictures of Pathfinder III by itself.

The next step was my orbital base of operations. This would serve as my orbiting fuel depot and staging point for surface-to-orbit taxis, crew living quarters/waystation for Kerbin-Mun traffic, and local command and control center for Mun operations. Its name? M.O.S.S., or Mun Orbital Science Station. MOSS was inserted into a circular-ish equatorial orbit at about 55km. Commander of MOSS at the moment is none other than the legendary Bob Kerman.

MOSS core inserting into Munar orbit.

MOSS with Kerbin Return Vehicle (KRV) docked at service node.

Next the surface habitation unit was launched from Kerbin and landed some 35 km ESE of Pathfinder III. Instead of worrying too much I just moved Pathfinder III over. This used up enough fuel to probably strand Pathfinder III on the surface but it got Jeb and Bill to a permanent habitation unit.

Munar base Lonely Outpost

Meanwhile in orbit MOSS gets a new addition: a Munar Shuttle, designed to transfer Kerbals to and from the surface. Unfortunately it doesn't have enough thrust to land safely but it will see service as a Munar orbital tug and rescue craft.

Munar Tug on the right with injection module still attached. Its remaining fuel is drained and used before being ejected.

Undeterred by the failure of the first surface shuttle, the second generation of SSTMO craft are readied - this time with four more toggle-able engines to provide much needed braking/ascent thrust.

Munar Shuttle II Spirit of Sedona burns with the payload module for a Mun encounter.

A south pole landing proves the versatility of this design.

Sunrise shocks the crew. This slack-jawed idiot has been nothing but problems for this whole operation. More on that to come.

The second of the improved shuttles heads for Mun. Spirit of Prescott will head straight for MOSS, refuel, and head to the surface to increase the crew on the ground to 4 and provide orbital access for those on the ground that are doing...whatever it is they are doing...maybe I should get around to having them do something...

Lonely Outpost and Pathfinder III await their arrival.

MOSS with Spirit of Prescott refueled and awaiting departure. Spirit of Sedona is stuck in some stupid, highly inclined orbit. I'll deal with that after Bill and Jeb have a way to get back home.

A few orbits later (and after checking on my crew at Lonely Outpost) I come back to MOSS to find chaos!!! Something has made Spirit of Prescott spawn inside MOSS, causing intense damage. Not all is lost, however. A save file edit puts things to rights and ends up with Spirit of Prescott safe and on the regolith. The boys on the moon now have a way back home. Having taken care of that I decide to equip the crew with a rover.

Munar rover Verde's disappointing ending 2.5km from the base. I am starting to wonder about the quality of the pilots KSP trains. So now I have the idiots in Spirit of Sedona looping around the place and these two clowns upside-down when they are almost home. What to do first? Save the idiots or the clowns? I opted for neither and built part of an interplanetary mothership to ease my frustration and then launched a comsat. Having achieved a couple successes I was ready to get back to the crew at MOSS/Lonely Outpost. Most importantly: I had learned how to get a full orange tank into orbit with my mothership construction. I figured that I would need that fuel at MOSS to support my next two operations.

AOTtO (Auxiliary Orange Tank to Orbit) with some gas left. By the time we get to Mun the tank will be 4/5 full. I might be able to get some performance tweaks lower down to ensure a full tank to Munar orbit with my existing launcher though.

I didn't take any photos during the rescue of Spirit of Sedona but you can see it here docked to MOSS, along with the AOTtO and the Munar Tug. I planned to transfer the two-man crew out of Spirit of Sedona so that I could pick up the guys in the rover and still have extra space down below.

This freaking idiot again. After gazing dumbfounded at the south pole AND getting stuck in a stupid orbit he decides to forget how to grab a ladder. I press F and he violently recoils from the station at an unnatural angle, right through one of MOSS's solar panels. I thought about abandoning him to the cruel void of space but I hadn't killed anyone yet so I didn't intend to start then. I reluctantly jetpacked him back to MOSS. Next KTV outbound is containing him though.

No photos of the descent but Spirit of Sedona with one aboard performed a precision landing only ~800m from my flipped rover. The two rover drivers walked over and are currently aboard. Tomorrow I'll hop Spirit of Sedona over to Lonely Outpost and we'll prepare for the next phase of the mission.

I am inordinately pleased with myself for pulling off this landing. Here you can see the lander close by and the base just beyond the ridge in the distance.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR UPDATES

Edited May 22, 2013 by paleorob
Wrong images

[paleorob]

Spirit of Sedona retrieved the clowns from the rover and sucessfully landed ~250m away from the hab unit at Lonely Outpost.

As seen from the ground. Hab unit in the front, obviously. Spirit of Sedona is on the left, Pathfinder III and Spirit of Prescott are on the right. Love the new ground detail.

[miketheveeg]

read this in Walter Cronkite's voice

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5170520n

[Specialist290]

Nicely done!