Zylark

I'm sure the devs are having more than one late-lunch-to-early-dinner meetings, where balancing are the topic of some intense discussion. Not least considering that soon enough all those parts will come with a price-tag attached and your available funds will be restricted by your prior efforts. As it is, the tech-tree isn't much of a challenge to whiz through. So what order stuff comes in isn't that big a deal - for now. My biggest "gripe" with the current (stock) tech tree isn't so much the order you get various parts, but rather the lack of later high-end near-future tech. Once you've gone methodical to the job and done Mun and Minmus, and perhaps a fly-by of Duna, everything is unlocked.

Not lost any on my current career in 0.23.5. In my previous 0.23 career though, I did lose three and two got stranded for quite a while until rescue came. The first to die had a mysterious accident as he was attaching a KAS fuel line to his ship by a Mun Kethane base. The entire thing blew up, base, ship, kerbal. Everything. Only pieces left here and there, and I'm pretty sure some of them reached orbit. The two others had an unfortunate re-entry to Kerbin. They were in a Science Lab I de-orbited. It had a few chutes on it, but the main chutes was on the 3-man capsule it was docked to. As the chutes opened, the docking-ports couldn't quite take the stress. So whilst the capsule continued it's descent in a graceful manner and keeping its crew nice and safe, the Science Lab plummeted to the ground and blew up as it hit the ground. The stranded ones was from my first Duna landing going bad. Well, the landing went fine actually, but not enough fuel to get up again. So one kerbal got stuck. Sent off a rescue mission with a bigger lander. That too got stranded. Second rescue mission did succeed however - by first sending down what amounted basically to a full fuel tank with wheels and KAS parts for fuel lines. Drove this to the second lander who by now had two kerbals in it. Got this fueled up and all was fine.

Update Year 2 Day 241 A new Interplanetary Ship, the IPS Tyr was put into service. Very much an evolution of the IPS Loki. Doubled the engine-power, added a few fins to act as contact points for securing cargo and reduced number of radial docking ports from six to two. Seen here with two 90 degrees normal to large docking port adapters attached for hauling more cargo. Also reduced solar panels from six to four. In addition, several KAS strut-points where bolted on at various places, and a couple of storage boxes with parts for securing cargo. Mission Duna Colony Since the launch of IPS Tyr, the cargo-modules for the Duna Colony already sent up into orbit now had their ticket to ride. Though of course, that actual ride is still about a year out and there are still at least two cargo-modules more to be launched for this phase of building the Duna Colony. Getting all the pieces packed nicely on the IPS Tyr required some very delicate docking. Especially since the engineers back at KSC was more concerned with getting stuff safely up into orbit and how it'll work once on Duna, and less about how they handle and maneuver. As with the Base Builder module that also got the extra fuel needed for the trip attached. Now, that fuel tank is full and weighs a ton. The Base Builder package on the other hand weighs practically nothing. Now guess which part of that cargo-module got the RCS thrusters? Eventually everything got properly docked on the rear of the Tyr. Now all that need be done, is for Wehfred Kerman who is on the IPS Tyr to secure the cargo by means of plenty of KAS struts. As for the other modules needed to be sent to Duna in order to build the first phase of the colony there, it is not quite yet decided if they will be on their separate train or if it makes sense to have it all attached to the IPS Tyr. It would depend a bit on weight actually, and if it can be distributed more or less symmetrically if attached on the back of the existing cargo-modules already in place.

In my current career, my stations are not overly planned per-se, but they do follow a basic recipe, and parts (modules) are bolted on according to what that station is supposed to do. All my stations start out as one of the new huge tanks as the core. This got large docking ports in either end for modules, and radially three large docking ports for fuel tanks that can be attached and detached. Kerbin Station: Main function is to receive crews from missions and then send them back down in a return vehicle - which is basically just a one or three man capsule with some tiny engine bits attached. None of my actual craft are supposed (or designed) to de-orbit Kerbin with the exception of the science samples return vehicle, that deorbits three science-jr pods plus a kerbal at a time. As such, this got plenty of space for crew, and four inline docking ports in the back for return-capsules to park. Mun Station: Supposed to refine kethane. Tried first with one large converter, decided it was too slow, and sent up another converter module that I placed in the middle. Duna Station: Does refining and science. Having learned from Mun that a good refinery needs two large converters, this got designed with that from the get-go. At the far end is also a science lab and a little docking hub. This one does not feature the large-truss docking ports extensions of Kerbin or Mun stations, as all the parts had to not get caught in the engine-exhaust blast of the crafts that hauled the modules to Duna. Kerbin Biofuel Station: The odd one of the bunch, as it do not follow the basic design of the others. The reason for this, is this being a highly specialized station with just one basic task: Create fuel from Greenhouses. It's not quite complete though, it produces fuel too slow. So It'll probably more or less double in size and capacity.

Launch went fine. Got into orbit fine. Set up a node to go to Mun. Looks good, just got to do 3/4 of an orbit before burn. At node, ready to burn. Nothing happens. Forgot to deploy solar-panels, no electricity, no control. Revert to Launchpad...

It should. Once in orbit moving at a brisk ~2400 m/s it got about 5000 dV left in vacuum. Thing about this lander is, it's part of my career (To the Planets) and part of the challenge of it, is not to cheat but rather plan well ahead and not rely on trial and error. So far it's gone really well. Thanks much in part by input such as yours, reading the forums and wiki and of course plenty of youtube videos.Sending a lander off to escape trajectory just for the purpose of "simulating" would go against the grain of my career "roleplaying". Though I will test stuff out in the career like a real space program would - one small step at a time, and no-one dies or are left stranded with any luck Oh, and as for initial lift-off from Eve, I'm thinking about bolting on some Kethane jets once I get them unlocked. Which is pretty soon as my Duna science mission is already returning to Kerbin.

I'm soon embarking on an Eve mission myself. I know it'll be difficult. Especially since I'm not only bringing a proper lander-can to do it and not "cheating" by using a command seat - I'm also intending to bring a Science Jr pod with a few extra instruments bolted on back into orbit. So far I'm thinking less is more, though I have let myself be inspired by others design. Here's what I got so far. It'll get to Kerbin Orbit with about 2500 atmospheric dV left over. But I'm thinking it is not quite enough. Initial dV is a bit over 5000 in total (over 6 stages), I'm thinking just to be safe I'll need 7000. Now, the dV readout from Mech-Jeb doesn't take into account the shedding of parts during the ascent, so it is basically a guessing game. What it do get right though is the initial TWR, which is only 1.27. Meaning I'll burn a lot of fuel just getting it up to 200m/s, which will be my speed limit until I hit some thinner atmosphere. No need to introduce more drag than necessary (burning fuel to no use) by going too fast down in the thickest soup of Eve air. So I'll have to bolt on something to help it with the initial climb. Still thinking a bit about that little detail. I just know I don't want it to grow too big, as I think for Eve it may just be a bit counter-productive. Though of-course, I've never actually landed there before - much less tried to get back to orbit.

Update Year 2 Day 225 Still a bit to go before Jeb and Bob get back and the next science mission can be launched. Besides the Window for Eve not opening for a year and some 180 days. Meanwhile planning and building for both the M.I.S.S. (Mission Inner System Sojourner) and the Duna Colony is moving ahead at a comfortable pace. And in the efforts to secure fuel production in the Duna System, especially planetside as Kethane is pretty limited at the selected base site, some new technology had to be tested. So a new Station around Kerbin was born to test out producing fuel from vegetables. Those useless green things that some insist on decorating dinner with. It took three launches to get the thing up and running. Well, four actually, but the last was a combined launch that also got the second Habitation and Fuel package for the Duna Colony up into orbit. The new Biofuel Research Station is put on a very high orbit of 60 million kilometers around Kerbin, which is outside the orbit of Minmus even. Two reasons for this. First, it requires a lot of power to run it. Three XL solar panels per greenhouse unit to be exact. High orbit means less downtime due to the home planet getting in the way. And second, it makes for a very nice place to top off the tanks of outbound interplanetary travels. It takes a ship about 800dV to get to the station. An expenditure of Delta-V it recoups when refueling there. So makes it possible to send off ships to other planets with a larger Delta-V reserve. Which is always a good thing. Fuel production is slow though. So the Station might be expanded by another greenhouse or two. Getting something similar up and running on the surface of Duna and the limitations daylight-hours pose, will be a challenge. For one thing, a new lander is needed that can handle both the weight and also position the things. But there is plenty of time to plan for that.

Way back when it was just a demo I tried it. Got a rocket into orbit after many failed attempts and then forgot about it until this xmas when I saw it was on sale on Steam. Since then, well 482 hours played...

I just set my chutes deployment to an action group and make sure all chutes are on stage 0 of whatever craft I'm building. Saves all the staging hassle and accidental deployment of chutes.

Looks good for the job - if a bit top heavy. So when you do go to land, pick a nice flat spot or it might just topple over. For landers, I always go for a three or four-way symmetry with as low a center of gravity as possible to ensure stability even if landing on rough terrain. Another thing, since this is a "one-shot-to-the-mun" mission, no docking involved, you strictly speaking don't need RCS. A Reaction Wheel or Advanced Stabilizer is more than enough to keep your craft tilted in the right direction. What you will need though, which I can't see on your design, is a couple of small batteries and solar-cell panels. Run out of electricity, and your craft becomes a derelict you can't control - at all. One last tip, Zeb isn't entirely lost on the Mun. Yes, his middle engine is out and I'm guessing the two outer fuel-tanks are empty whereas the middle one still got some juice. Now, you can transfer fuel from the middle one to the outer ones by first right-clicking the middle tank, then hold down the alt key (on PC) and right click one of the outer fuel tanks. Then send about half of what remains in the middle tank to the one outer tank you selected. Repeat the process with the other outer tank. Good luck and happy landings

Update Year 2 Day 141 In the lull before the return of Jeb and Bob, Wernher von Kerman is busy planning the next step of exploring the Kerbol system. "Not that the complexity of the planned Duna Colony is anything to sniff at!" he said "But we've kind of been there already. No new science to be gained!" Rumors at KSC have it Eve might be in Wernhers mind. And one sunny day it all got confirmed as this contraption was seen on the launchpad: Mitfry posing in front of the Eve Lander, mk I Alpha. So apparently a new project is born... Project Mission Inner System Sojourner (M.I.S.S.) Mission Profile (rev. 1): Manned landings on Eve, Gillo and Moho. Gather all relevant science and return with it to Kerbin. - Module: Eve Lander Design specifications: Must be as lightweight as possible and be able to land on Eve with full fuel tanks. Must carry one Science Jr and all extra science instruments. Must have excellent Atmospheric Delta-V and Thrust to Weight performance. Prototype: An elaborate Asparagus design was chosen. An inner core with all the important stuff - Mk 1 Lander Can (most lightweight crew-pod), Ladders, Science gear, Solar Panels, Stabilizer, Battery, RCS thrusters, two small Monoprop tanks, a bit of fuel and a nuclear rocket. Surrounded by six stages, with four Aerospikes and two LV-T45 engines. The former for lift primarily, and the latter for some gimbal control. Dropped off in pairs. Next up is an outer layer of 12 tanks and Aerospikes, dropped off four at a time as they go empty. And finally Landing Legs and Landing Lights on a separate stage that is detached at lift-off from Eve. And of course, plenty of parachutes. Test Results: With Mitfry as the chosen test pilot, everything looked ok on the launch pad. Ladders extended and retracted fine. No problem climbing up or down. Well inside, lights worked ok, solar panels also. Some 5000 dV in atmosphere initially with an Eve Thrust to Weight of 1.27. But KSC is sure these readouts are wildly inaccurate, as it do not take into account the shedding of parts throughout the ascent. The test-flight should be a simple one just to test all the staging, and see what we are left with when in orbit. Then meet up with Odin Station, transfer over excess fuel, and perform an unmanned return of the lander for testing the parachute configuration of the remaining parts. Too dangerous letting Mitfry sit in the lander on the way back, so he'll take one of the pods already on Odin Station for the return trip. Made it to the Station without hiccups in the staging and having about 2500 dV in atmosphere to go - 5000 dV in vacuum. Wernher von Kerman is almost positively certain that will do. Assuming a landing really high up on Eve. Fuel transferred, with just a teeny bit left over for the de-orbit burn, Mitfry moved over to the one-man return capsule, which unlike the lander is tested and very safe. Going down, the landers chutes performed quite well, allthough three of the four attached to the Lander-Can had to be deployed manually. This slight flaw will be fixed. Final descent was at about 7 m/s. Not bad, but it was dry-weight. So an immediate decision to slap on more chutes in the next build was made. Having no landing-legs for this test, the touch-down was not entirely graceful. It did topple over and one fuel tank, luckily empty, blew up. As a bonus, on the way down some science got done as well, 48 science points was gained. Not long after Mitfry came down in a nice controlled splashdown. Test flight by all accords a resounding success.

All my stations are nice and clean - no RCS thrusters to be seen on any module. And I do build my stations the modular way. Mostly pre-planned, but occasionally extra modules get bolted on or some get ditched and replaced by something better (read: more efficient using less parts).The "trick" to building stations without RCS thrusters on it, is to have a dedicated station-builder tug. This got trusses down the side so it can almost embrace a module. On this truss, are RCS thrusters so you get RCS on all ends of the center of mass of the combined tug and station module. On the top right is my current station builder tug (this also lands modules for bases on low-G moons) after just attaching the Science-Lab and in the process of dropping off the two Science Jr pods it had on its nose. The Science Jr pods was originally attached to the sides of the Science-Lab during transit to Duna, but had to be removed from there in order for the Lab to fit within the trusses of the tug.

Update Year 2 day 126 - Duna Discovery Finally fully fueled up. took not one, nor two but three kethane runs from Ike to Duna Station (still to be named) to top off the tanks of the IPS Loki. Which leads mission control to worry a little about the kethane situation on Ike and its potential for servicing future missions. Roughly 20% of Ikeberg Kethane Field is already depleted on this mission alone. Anyway, IPS Loki is on her way back home. So long and thanks for all the Science! With full fuel load-out and nearly no cargo, she has 9100dV and change. Now due to Jebs eagerness to get back home to Kerbin, giving a green flying fart in fuel expenditure, the burn back to Kerbin uses roughly four times more fuel than if one had the patience to wait for the optimal transfer window. As it stands, there is about 4200dV to go on the Loki now that the burn is complete. Estimated arrival at Kerbin is in 190 days. - Project Duna Colony: Module Habitation and Fuel Storage Back at KSC the men with hard-hats are busy getting all the pieces together for the future Duna Base. Some ten days ago, the Base Builder was launched, and just today the first Habitation and Fuel Storage modules got sent up into orbit. Considering the scope of the base, Wernher von Kerman have stipulated having two cargo-trains going for Duna at the next window. Carrying in total four Habitation Modules, two Fuel Storage Modules, the Base Builder, Solar Array Module, Kethane Drill Module and last but by no means least, Kethane Refinery Module. Exactly what will serve as locomotives have not been decided upon, but rumor have it a new Interplanetary Ship is under planning which should be able to tug along at least 2/3 of the cargo listed above. Once all that is underway, it's time to start planning phase two of the base, as in the end it is supposed to have eight Habitation modules. We're also looking into some new greenhouse technology for producing all we'll need over there - including fuel.

Long time since I've done a completely manual docking. I'm kinda' lazy, so I do use Mech Jeb a bit, first to match velocities with target, and then as I get close to the wanted docking port, I engage Smart A.S.S. to keep me aligned parallel to the docking port. From there on in it's a simple matter of going up/down/left/right as needed. Lining up using Lazor Docking Cam, and come in for a nice smooth "pigs kissing in space" docking. Going totally automatic with Mech Jeb is a bit unpredictable and in either case usually takes longer and certainly burns a lot more monoprop. But if handling some huge ungainly thing with a framerate in the low single digits, enabling Auto-Docking after you've done the grunt work of getting close and parallel to the docking port do have its use.

Around Kerbin, the use of space-stations is a bit dubious. But I like having an orbital gas station. I also use mine for crew exchanges and return to surface. Basically I send up a simple rocket with a three-man pod carrying crew, and leave the pod for later re-entry when crews get back home. From the station, crews get to and from it using a simple shuttle. This to prevent having large ships with a ton of various modules attached for interplanetary missions getting anywhere near the station and the resulting loss of frame-rate. same with fuel really, I got an orbital refueler that pick up fuel from either Kerbin or Mun stations, and carry it to whatever large outbound ship that needs it - with the occasional refueling directly from KSC. My current career station around Kerbin. Still got one one-man pod attached from when that module got into orbit, and three three-man pods that's gotten there since then. Also plenty of fuel obviously. Around other planets, stations are quite useful though, especially if doing the entire kethane thing. Like this one orbiting Duna which got a very good kethane refining ability and also doubles up as a science station. Not quite finished yet as I have some plans for it, besides bolting on two more jumbo-tanks. (The big ship on the side is not part of the station - it's just refueling for the return trip to kerbin) I don't do too much out of my stations, they are there to serve a purpose. So my basic design is aimed at keeping parts down and make them easy to assemble and change or add to as needed. A functioning station of this design requires two modules (read: launches), and use less than 40 parts. Leaving plenty of CPU headroom to add to as needed for whatever additional purpose the station shall serve apart from the usual gas-station and temporary crew storage.

I got a few essentials I'd hate to not play with. - Mech-Jeb: Things can get tedious very fast. If routine launches and twiddling with maneuver-nodes for the umpteenth time bore you as much as me, get MJ and never look back. Leaving you to do the important stuff - drinking coffee. - Alarm Clock: Never miss a maneuver node or transfer window ever again just because you got a bit heavy on the time acceleration or something slipped your mind. - Kethane: Gives a reason to make bases and stations, and helps tremendously with long-range missions. - Kerbal Attachment System: Build stuff (connect and/or strut really) in space. Making really complicated missions a breeze and not a wobbling monstrosity. Also great for hooking up base modules and a lot else in addition. Also comes with some handy storage units for spare parts (lights, batteries, solar panels and more) or storing the various KAS connectors. - Infernal Robotics: Lets you have parts you can manipulate for building all kinds of fun stuff. Cranes, robot arms, unfolding probes and rovers and much more. Go wild. - TAC fuel balancer: Transfer fuel the easy way. - Lazor Docking Cam: Makes docking easy. Just make sure you got some docking-lights or something when docking in the dark. Which you will do often enough. I like using four small batteries with the green light pointing out surround many of my docking ports. Makes aligning using LDCam even easier.

Apart from the usual "simulator mode" usage and of course having a slight case of Mech-Jeb dependency (addiction evil tongues may say), I have never - ever - even considered making a space-plane or anything else with wings really. It just seems like a really tedious way of doing stuff. With a pod it's easy enough; de-orbit burn, brake burn if necessary, deploy chutes. Done.

I'd say yes. I like knowing how much more juice I got left before I embark on some maneuver. Not that, I do tend to over-engineer my crafts, and I do use Mech-Jeb for all the data it gives (and a fair bit of the automation as well) - so it's not a big deal for me. But I do feel such essential information should be available as default in a complex game like this.

Update Year 2 Day 115 Just a small progress report on the planned future Duna Base. One module are now ready for launch, the actual crane that will build it. The other modules (Habitation, Kethane Drill, Kethane Converter, Solar-Array, Fuel Storage, Power Storage) are still in various stages of development. - Project Duna Colony: Module: Duna Base Builder A wheeled crane for assembling all the other modules into a neat and nice looking base. Will also double up as a fuel rover if need be (read: landings missing the target by quite a bit). Despite efforts to make it as compact as possible in order to get it to the surface using the AS Hrym, it nevertheless got quite big and ungainly. So it will be a self-lander with detachable engines and landing gear. Tests at KSC show it will happily lift and position just about anything that fits in between its wheelbase. All packed up and ready to be hurled into orbit.

I am blind, blind I tell you. I play the game by touching the screen...

Why so many solar panels on a simple lander - you know apart from the "it looks cool!" factor? It's not as if you need that much juice on such a small craft. It just adds weight (not a good thing for a lander) and parts (not a good thing for your frame-rate). I see the mothership of the previous iteration got a science-lab that do need quite a bit of power, so wouldn't the sensible thing be to keep the majority of the solar panels on that? From experience, I've found that most ships do just fine with two six-cell solar-panels for keeping the batteries stocked up if only needing juice for maneuvering and such. The more power-hungry applications such as Science-Lab, Ion drive and everything Kethane related is the only things I've found that warrants large solar-panel surfaces and plenty of battery-storage. So I tend to keep things simple, keep parts count as low as possible - and knock on wood, no Kraken yet

Update Year 2 Day 114 - Duna Discovery Almost there, almost there. Bob had to take the lander out for one last science gathering mission before the Duna Discovery could conclude all tasks for this phase of the operation. A sample was needed of the Duna upper atmosphere. Not a biggie, but dipping down into it and get back did take a day or so. All done and finished, it was time for the IPS Loki to head towards the as of yet unnamed Duna Station in order to refuel and get ready for the return journey. When docked and safe, Bob took the lander out for a final spin. Moving the connector hub from the back end of the Loki to the Science-Lab end of the Station. Then pick up the surface samples from the lander, deposit these in the cockpit of Loki before finally taking a well deserved rest in the Hab module. Meanwhile Bill and Mitmal got busy analyzing some science from one of the pods on the Loki. It had doubled up on experiments from space near Ike, and needed that pod nice and fresh for taking another interplanetary sample on the return trip. At about this time, Jeb as commander of the Duna Discovery mission held a little briefing. "OK lads, you want the good or the bad news first? Fine, we'll do the good news first. In about three to four days, we'll be all fueled up and ready to go back home...". "Yay!" cheered Bob and Gillo. "However, the optimal window back to Kerbin do not open for another year and well over 100 days...". "No way!" Bob and Gillo protested. "Now, hang on, it's not all doom and gloom. I got stuff to do, press conferences to hold, paperwork to fill out, new missions to plan, new vehicles to test...". "Mhm, sure." Bob and Gillo muttered, both knowing it was all just a bad excuse to as fast as possible slouch on the beach surrounded by his entourage of kerbalinas. "So as soon as the tanks are full, we're off!". Bob and Gillo couldn't be more pleased. Melrod from Ikeberg Kethane Rig however asked when they'd come pick him up? "Uhm, yeeees. Kind of a change of plan there... you're staying until the next stage of fleshing out Duna infrastructure is scheduled..." Jeb informed him. "...in roughly one and a half years time!". Melrod was not in the slightest pleased. - Duna Driller KT Hrimfax is filled to the brim with delicious green gold, and set forth towards Duna Station, whatever that will be called when the naming commission back home get to agree on something. After docking, all 16000 units of Kethane got refined into fuel. Not quite enough to fill up the Loki or the Station reserves, but it did raise total fuel stocks from about 2-3% to roughly 25%. All parts of the Duna Driller mission now done and tested to perfection, the mission is declared a success. Bill and Mitmal will remain on the Station for the time being, doing some follow-up science. Melrod from the Duna Discovery crew will also remain to help out where needed. Right now that means manning Ikeberg Kethane Rig. Duna Driller mission signing off. Hello dreary routine...

Update Year 2 Day 108 - Duna Discovery Finally time to get all the landing operations in the Duna system going. But first order of business whilst flying high over Duna, launch the first Kethane probe. Got a clean separation, but discovered a teeny tiny snag... The fairing protecting the engine was still attached to the probe - no matter how much the probe tried to thrust to get into its planned higly inclined orbit, it didn't move at all. Just because some nitwit engineer back at KSC put the stack decoupler on the wrong friggin way!!!! To make things worse, a slight inspection later revealed the same situation with the second probe that was intended for finding Kethane on Ike. Jeb kept his cool however. "Ey, we still got one probe, right? And eventhough it'll cost a ton of fuel and certainly time - delaying the landings quite a bit - we could just put good ol' IPS Loki on a highly inclined orbit and go around in circles for a few days finding Kethane!?" KSC agreed to this scheme. Science might be the priority of this mission, but getting Kethane drilling and refining up and running ASAP doesn't excactly lag far behind. A few days fast turned into 20 before most of Duna was mapped for the green gold. Pretty disappointing results too. Only two fields over 400k, and those where both pretty close to the ice-caps. Best candidate for setting up shop near Dunas' equator was a field of about 380k units of Kethane. Considering this will only support shuttles to and from a future Duna base, that'll have to do. Off to Ike then, and pretty much repeat the process. Since the plan was to set up drilling pretty much right away, the first landing might as well be on a rich Kethane field to find a nice flat place to land the Kethane rig modules on. After doing a rough survey, the probe was released into a highly inclined orbit of Ike, and the IPS Loki proceeded to drag the Duna Discovery mission to an equatorial orbit and then shift crew over to the lander. Landing went very well - albeit in the dark at least this lander got proper landing lights. Bob and Melrod set foot on Ike, and even found time to get a photo taken. Melrod on the left, Bob to the right. By luck, their landing spot was nice and flat. So Bill over at the AS Hrym was radioed, and told to commence with getting the rig modules down. Before Bob could decide between a sandwich or a chocolate bar for lunch, Bill arrived with the first module. Their business done, science gathered, Melrod remained on Ike to man the rig being assembled there, whilst Bob lifted off and met with IPS Loki again. Deposited the used Science pod and parked on the rear end of the ships temporary connector hub for the short trip back to Duna orbit. Due to the inherent dangers of landing on Duna, the lander not having been tested and certified for the job quite yet for natural - some would say obvious - reasons, it was decided Bob would do this solo. Just in case he got stranded down there with not enough fuel to get back up again for a very long time. Bob started by picking up a fresh Science pod. Then taking stock of the situation. About 2100dV available for the round-trip. Calculations done back at KSC estimated some 1100 to 1400dV to get back to orbit from the surface of Duna. It suddenly dawned on Bob - he'd forgotten to ask how much would be needed to get down there. He asked Jeb if he knew. "Dunno!" he said. "Now get down there. We've not traveled this far just to get the jitters now. Duna or bust!". Very well. De-orbit burn complete, it was just a matter of being very sparse with the fuel, and use the parachutes to best effect. Still plummeting at a very scary speed, the lander-cans chutes was released first at about 5km up. At 4km the rest where released. At 1km Bob initiated the braking burn. Getting speed down to some 300 m/s. The cans chutes where then fully deployed, and when 500 meters from the surface, the rest of the chutes where fully deployed as well. So far so good. Descent stabilized at just above 8 m/s. Just a touch of thrust right before landing and contact was made at a rather violent 5 m/s. Well within the limits for the landing legs. Delta-V remaining was reported in as a comfortable 1500 and change. Bob on Duna, perfectly happy. Not only did the landing go great, no prolonged stay needed as there was plenty of fuel to get back. The extra bonus was landing on a nice flat piece of real-estate. Just ideal for a future base. Bob put the flag down and having no bouts of shame named it "Bobs' Base". All that remained was getting back to the Inter-Planetary Ship Loki once the science was done. Which is pretty much routine by now. Well back into orbit 350dV remained on the lander. - Duna Driller Once the message came from Bob on Ike to start landing the rig modules, Bill got to work. Having already docked with the modules, which was a bit fidgety, it was a simple matter of disconnecting the hab module and set down the drill module. Who also feature a small converter for topping off the tanks on whoever visits later. But first of-course, get back to orbit and pick up the hab module. A few hours later, that was landed as well. After they got into position, the AS Hrym got refueled, and Bob met up with IPS Loki and the Duna Discovery mission. Bob transferred over and the Hrym was put into a parking orbit around Ike for now. It won't be needed again until a Duna Base will be built. On Ike, Melrod radioed in the first Kethane Truck to come down and fill up. KT Hrimfax arrived. Melrod laid out the piping needed to get the juices going. "Everything is going swimmingly" he commented. "Indeed!" Jeb, Bob and Bill replied from the Loki.

Update Year 2 Day 052 - Duna Discovery Arrived safely at Duna. Reports from Duna space have been sent off and samples taken for later processing and transmission. Settled in on a stable orbit of 300km above Duna after doing an aerobraking maneuver with an altitude of 16km being the lowest point. The drop tank came off nicely during the aerobrake, and will in due time slow down enough to crash on Duna. - Duna Driller About two weeks after Duna Discovery settled in around Duna, the Driller train came hurtling in as well. On a near polar orbit. So in addition to spending some 1200dV getting into orbit around Duna, another 300 and change had to be used to get an equatorial orbit. After that settled in for an orbit of about 180km to drop off the Base modules for later pick-up and then to a 130km orbit to park the Station module. Soon after, KT Hrimfax dropped by to attach the Standard Fuel Cell, whilst the Assembler Ship Hrym met up with Duna Discovery to pick up the Science Lab and then later attach it to the Station. Now that all the pieces are in place, landing operations will commence soon, both for science and kethane.