Project Hercules, a.k.a kerbalkind's first interplanetary voyage

[thunderstar]

Project Hercules

all credit for this image goes to sfrost you can check some of his work here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/sfrost/works/9432072-mars-minimalist-poster

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What is project Hercules?, simple, it's the greatest and biggest adventure kerbals has ever envisioned since the mun-minmus programs that ended decades ago, it consisted of getting 3 kerbals into ike, and finally into duna as soon as posible.

The Kerbal space agency was given one of the biggest and tremendous budgets ever concivied, but with the condition of designing, testing and finally fliying one of the most complex contraptions ever built, because of time limitation, the goverment said that it should be done with the less launches possible, and the assembly of the craft in orbit should be done in a maximun of 4 launches, so the ksp had three goals.

1-build a rocket big enough that could carry a transfer stage, fuels of all sort, energy and the crew, all in one launch

2-desing a lander that could fly independet of the rest of the craft, and can also be aerodinamically enough to fly inside duna's atmosphere and get into orbit from there

3-an habitat lander, that could land close to the lander so the landing crew can rest in a bigger space than a tiny comand pod

4- and orbital habitat module that will serve like a shelter from the dangers of outer space while the crew travels through interplantary space, also this moudle should recreate gravity so the astronauts don't suffer from bone density loss after being in space for such a long time

the task was accepted, and 3 launchs were scheluded, one for ther orbital habitat, one for the lander and one for the transit stage and crew

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CHAPTER ONE: THE BIG NEWS

It was a quiet morning in Kandy shores, a small town located just outside of the KSC, most of its population was engineers and workers from the complex that during all the years of the development of the space agencie started building their houses as close as they could, it was years since the last manned mission took off from that launchpad, only small probes or company contracts satellites were launched by now, the place was almost a ghost town compared to the glory days of the mun program, ended decades ago, their succes was also their doom. After the landings the interest in space travel quicly dropped and people interested on the field became fewer over the years.

Anyway this quiet and cold morning was different, it was the launch day of a tiny probe that was the first time anything builded by kerbals will leave LKO in a long time, all of the workers woke up early in the morning, and went to the facility, one of the workers, named Solong kerman, was on the typical routine that follows a launch.

He woke up early on the morning, earlier that any other day, went downstairs trying to not wake up his family, did some exercises and then ate his breakfast, but today was not an ordinary day for Solong, he was thinking of applying for the astronaut training program, it was his dream since he had memory to go to space, it didn't matter if just to orbit or to the mun or crash into the sun, her only cared about getting there.

later in the morning, Solong took his kids to school and then drove all thw way to ksc, he was very nervous as he was one of the people responsiple of the rocket's functioning, after all he was involved in the designing and building of it, and if something failed he was going the be one of the first people blamed, also the idea of being rejected from the astronaut training program didn't really help to his nerves, also he was thinking how was going to tell that to his wife, she definitely wasn't going to like the idea, but he tried his best to remain calm and entered throught the big gates that announced he was inside KSC.

Morning, Solong we where waiting for you, said the receptionist without looking away from here screen. Morning, replied Solong, as he started running to the mission control building, he entered and started to wonder why everyone was smiling maliciosly, SOLONG! said mission control commander the recently 89 years old Gene Kerman, you're late again we almost had to cancel the launch!, so-sorry sir i had to left my kids at school, Gene said it was the last time he was going to forgive him, he sat on his chair en everyone started he pre-flight checklist.

The coundtdown started, and when the clock hit 0 the engine roared in fire and the lauch clamps relelased the beast as a giant cloud of smoke formed around the launchpad, the whole mission control watched the craft as it asccended across the atmosphere, some time later they could hear a might boom as ir crossed the speed of sound, a minute later they confirmed stage separation and the flight perfomed flawless.

they all celebrated their success when Gene said something: Alright, we have some important news, it seems the president has come personally to inform us, he'll be here in 6 minutes so get ready and go to the conference room, we'll wait for him.

Solong wondered what was so important that the president come himself to tell them, must be special, he grabbed his belongings and went to the conference room.

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PS: thank you for reading my first story, its the first time i ever write something and i need your help,tell me my mistakes so i can correct them!, a word bad written or anything else!