The Tale Of The Mighty Colossus

[CrashTestDummy]

Howdy folks. Here follows a quick tale of my last mission in KSP. Somewhat dramatized

Mission commander Calrod Kerbal floated silently through the vacuum. It was finally finished. So many launches, so many careful dockings and constructions; it was at last complete. The Colossus; The largest vessel ever constructed in the history of Kerbal space exploration and as the weightless Kerbal considered this idea, the thought “in this universe†popped unbidden into his mind. He shrugged off the strange conception and continued his visual inspection; the last of many such inspections. He drifted along the length of the Colossus admiring its sheer size and ambition. Its main drive, consisting of 4 nuclear engines, would have a hard time pushing its massive bulk but it sure would fly a long way; the huge orange tanks, six of them, would see to that. The Colossus weighted in at a hefty 375 tons or thereabouts; those engines had a lot of hard work ahead of them. He drifted past the extensive crew modules and midway along its length he floated by one of the two atmospheric planes docked to the sides of the ship. The planes were docked to the ends of long arms that also held the array of large solar panels. Each plane had de-orbit packs attached that would let it fall into Laythe’s atmosphere were its atmospheric engine could be ignited. The thought of flying a plane on a distant world was so exciting he wanted to jump in the main cockpit and get underway on the instant. Continuing along the length of the ship he came to the main landing craft. Like the planes, there were two of them, one docked on each side of the massive vessel. They were themselves elaborate constructions, consisting of both rocket engines and jet engines. They were each capable of carrying a crew of three but also capable of autonomous flight. Finally he arrived at the large three-kerbal cockpit and climbed inside. The last pre-launch checks were complete and it was, at long last, time to go.

The Colossus was designed to be a last ditch, all-in effort to rescue the three Kerbonauts currently stranded on Laythe. Jebediah himself was the first to be stranded there. Some simple mistakes when calculating the gravity of Laythe had various fuel budgets meant that his severely under-fueled Lander had no chance of returning to orbit, not to mention making the return journey to Kerbin. Thankfully, Jeb had been able to make some ingenious modifications to his life support systems to ensure that an indefinite supply of breathable air could be harvested from Laythe’s atmosphere. Potable water had proved simple enough to distil and Jeb had set about eating the native life forms he had discovered on Laythe’s surface, flora and fauna alike. Most of the modifications were made possible by scavenging the impressive array of scientific equipment that has been included on the Lander. Jeb has been living there for quite a while now and had inadvertently made the case for the viability of long term settlement on Laythe. A previous rescue attempt had ended in failure when the severely under-fueled three man Lander – no one had thought to actually correct the earlier mistakes in calculations - sent to take Jeb off the surface had landed in the ocean, on the wrong side of Laythe. It had borne a crew of two, none other than Bill and Bob Kerman and these brave, if not exactly competent Kerbonauts, now also needed rescuing. Jeb had sent them instructions on how to mimic his life preserving modifications. All Landers these days were equipped with the full array of available scientific instruments and this was proving a life-saving decision. In any case, as Wernher von Kerman put it “You should always be prepared to do some science!â€Â

All five Kerbonauts aboard the Colossus were securely strapped in and ready to begin the first of several burns which would slowly break them free of Kerbin’s grip. The crew consisted of the mission commander Calrod Kerman, Colossus pilot Ludvey Kerman, plane pilots Halvis and Geofgan Kerman and Lander specialist Chad Kerman. Calrod’s pulse quickened when the countdown began. 10, 9... so much work, so much time to build, so many entirely untested components...8, 7, 6....would it hold together under the strain, would all the many docking ports be able to keep the ship from shaking itself apart....5, 4, 3...would it even be possible to steer....2, 1.... go for burn. A trembling green hand reached out and pressed the big red button. The four nuclear engines came to life.

Slowly they were throttled up to full power. Even under the relatively low acceleration, the two heavy Landers held on by only a fragile docking port began to creak and strain as they bent away from the direction of acceleration. Strain as creak as it did, it was holding together. The legend that docking ports employed some form of magic to stay docked was looking a tad less ridiculous. For long minutes, the tense crew nervously gritted their teeth against disaster, but none came. The first burn was complete and the Colossus drifted higher over Kerbin. One down, many to go; all too soon it would be time for another tense burn.

Many times over the next few days, the Colossus fired its engines, hurling itself higher over Kerbin, igniting its engines as it neared its periapsis - which had remained in low Kerbin orbit. Each burn its apoapsis would be raised higher and higher. The time between burns grew longer. After several days, the time for the last burn arrived. This would be the longest burn by far and would launch the vessel far out into the Kerbol system for an eventual encounter with the titanic world of Jool.

Once more a trembling hand pressed firmly on the big red button and the engines came to life. Ludvey struggled for what seemed like hours to keep the vessel on course. With impressive determination he fought against the vibrations and oscillations that threatened to destroy the mighty craft. It was with a great sigh of relief that the engines where throttled back to stillness once again. The long and lonely voyage had commenced in earnest. The five intrepid voyagers quelled their fears that the supply of snacks might not last the duration of the mission and looked outward to Jool.

Several months passed and the crew settled into a daily routine. Jeb’s reports to mission control were relayed to the five brave, if bored, Kerbonauts daily. Jeb’s adventures on Laythe soon became the highlight of their day. He was scouting out a suitable landing site but his suit’s limited air supply prevented him from venturing too far from the Lander. He occupied a large amount of his time finding, cataloging and eating the surprising number of species on Laythe. While there were no macro species, at least on land, that were anything like the size of the larger ones found on Kerbin, there was a wide variety of species, each with fascinating adaptations to its environment and local ecosystem. It seemed that most were edible when cooked in Jeb’s jury-rigged oven. He had located some local ‘spices’ and was busily compiling a book on Laythian cuisine. It would become the first cook book in which recipes were arranged by the taxonomy of the main ingredients. His two ill fated, would-be rescuers were trying to modify their own Lander to turn it into a makeshift boat. The engines were still attached but the craft was never intended for controlled atmospheric flight. They were stranded very far from land and the Landers on the Colossus could not set down in water. It seems this problem, which everyone once had the highest confidence would be resolved by the time the Colossus reached Laythe orbit, was not yet solved. Still, there was plenty of time...

There was considerable drama when it came time for the mid course correction. Turning the Colossus was bit like trying to get a Kreationist to budge from the view that Kerbin had been created last year by the space Kraken’s grandfather. Not easy to do, to say the least. Burn calculations were checked and re-checked, on occasion discovered to be calculations of Minmus mass if it had the density of a popular Kerbin desert, discarded and done again. Getting the periapsis at the right altitude would be vital if the Colossus was to be captured at Jool and neither flung out into space or destroyed in its murky depths. Finally, the burn which would bring the Jool periapsis down to an acceptable altitude was completed. Final adjustments would need to be made on approach but it was close enough for now. Fuel was transferred about the remaining tanks so that empty tanks could be jettisoned to reduce weight.

Once again the crew settled down to the task of fending off boredom as they slid silently through the inky blackness of the void between Kerbin and Jool. One morning while on EVA, Calrod spied a tiny greenish point of light. A sense of excitement began to grow among the crew. Every day they would go for a brief EVA and every day that green dot would be a little larger. Soon it was no longer a dot but a tiny orb. They were getting closer to their destination.

It came time to adjust the trajectory of the colossus once more. In order to save fuel, they would be aero braking at Jool. On the drawing board, this had seemed like a great idea. With Jool looming ever larger by the hour, the thought of plunging into its atmosphere was now a source of considerable unease. Calrod had rechecked the calculations, not wanting a repeat of the two previous missions’ embarrassing miscalculations. With the most intense care and focus, the engines were fired up once more. Holding the erratic ship on course was tricky, although the ship had lost some weight by jettisoning the empty fuel tanks. It still had a tendency to wobble and oscillate and holding it on course was a panic-inducing task. When the brief burn was done, Ludvey collapsed in a sweaty heap, worn out from the stress. There was nothing to do now but wait for the fiery encounter with Jool.

The five Kerbonauts were strapped into their seats and one of them mumbled a prayer for delivery to the great Kerboonicus, in whose image all Kerbals were reputed to be made. Jool filled the windows of the Colossus; the ship’s name rendered a little pathetic as it vanished to insignificance against the enormity of the vast green giant. At first there was a relatively gentle sensation of deceleration but as the vessel descended this feeling grew. The ship shook and vibrated from the strain, an orange glow could be seen as the shock heated Joolian gases burned hot against the frail hull.

Five Kerbonauts, wide-eyed and panic stricken, cast silent prayers to the heavens. Sweat beaded on their brows and they held their breath. Ludvey clutched the stick with a death grip, determined to maintain the Colossus at the correct attitude. Metal creaked and groaned but the ship was still intact.

Almost imperceptible at first, the weight of their deceleration began to lessen. The altimeter finally stopped ticking down and with an almost perverse laziness it seemed to delay an eternity before it ticked back up the first meter. With gathering vigour the Colossus made its way back out of the green haze of Jool.

A few minutes passed in which the crew wallowed in an overwhelming sense of relief. They would have to wait a little while for their telemetry to be relayed to mission control and for the return signal to arrive before they would have confirmation of their orbit. Their own calculations showed that they had been successfully captured into Jool orbit. Further burns would correct its fairly extreme eccentricity but for now, they were feeling confident and uplifted. Their exuberance strained a little when the return transmission seemed to be taking a lot longer than it should have to reach them. They checked the radio equipment and everything seemed to be in order. Just as their puzzlement began to turn to concern, the radio crackled to life.

“Colossus, this is mission control. We can confirm that the burn was successful. You are in orbit around Jool.....however......ah....I don’t know how to tell you this fellas but ah, you are orbiting Jool in the wrong direction. You are in a retrograde orbit over Jool, I repeat, your orbit is retrograde. We’ve run some simulations and I’m sorry to say that any attempt at Laythe capture will fail. Aero braking at Laythe at the likely encounter speed would certainly destroy the Colossus...I’m really sorry fellas but the mission is looking like it has failed. For now, we would like you to circularise your orbit and just hold tight and await further instructions...we’re going to see if there is anything we can do to salvage the situation... Control out.â€Â

The mission commander looked out the window of the great ship Colossus, staring at what he knew to be the moon Laythe. His heart sank and a lone tear rolled down his cheek...