Tiakatt

Last night I did my first Duna mission - which I didn't expect to return from anyway, but still. It was largely successful, I didn't intend the polar orbit I came in with but that's no biggie. What was not okay was the dead engine. My build philosophy tends to be test a craft and err on the side of removing things when they fail or are struggling. So I tested this ship and its staging extensively, then not long before launching to Duna I removed a fuel tank from a lower stage without making any other changes to staging - so I didn't test that change beyond to look and make sure the engine was in the right place in the staging list. Well...apparently I also removed that fuel tank's decoupler and didn't notice it missing from the stage list. So an intended late stage engine is sitting there on top of a fuel tank, with no decoupler. Because the engine was still in its own stage in the right place relative to everything else, it did not fire (and overheat the fuel tank below, so there's that) when I fired the lower engine. I finally ran out of fuel with the lower engine and realized I couldn't decouple it, and that this next engine wasn't firing because was also also out of fuel -- this was the moment I discovered that Engines have fuel crossfeed to parts below. So not only was I carrying the dead weight of that engine the whole time when I never even ended up using it, but I was carrying the lower engine and its fuel tanks after I should have been able to progress to the next stage. I might not have had to use so much of my lander's fuel on orbit and landing if I'd not carried so much dead weight the whole trip. I have enough fuel to enter Duna orbit easily, but not enough to return home. This knowledge disappoints me, despite the fact I was okay with possibly stranding those Kerbals. Fail.

So far, definitely Mun. It's the only place I've had unplanned extended stays at. It's also where I've learned how to rescue Kerbals from places other than Kerbin. Minmus never gives me these problems, Mun, you should learn from it and its green cuteness how to not be a kerbalnapper. Did my very first Duna run last night, very easy intercept, was surprised at the low delta-v needed. Ended up coming in for a polar orbit, not what was planned but apparently spared me having to deal with interference from that imp, Ike. Landed on the northern ice cap, which I learned has a few nice, flat places that are 5000 meters up. Yay for quicksaves! Once I realized that landing was a breeze, though I used half my lander's fuel, might use more than 3 parachutes next time - among other things I'm going to fix. It was also my very first planned "Abandon the Kerbals" mission Transmitted some sweet, sweet science back, though, which will make future missions a bit more return-capable. Maybe some day I'll bring them home or move them to a base I establish a bit closer to the equator (which I imagine will involve dealing with some Ike shenanigans).

This is the story of a n00b, of a cascade of failure, and of Bob. I had barely figured out the basics of how to get ships into space, and to get them into orbit and home again. At this time I was still quite hazy on this whole Navball thing, beyond how to turn East from KSC. I hadn't even heard of maneuver nodes. Naturally, I decided it was time for Kerbalkind to shoot for the Mun - for science. For this mission, I chose Bob. The trip out was exciting, it was my first Mun attempt at all, and I was pleased that I had designed a ship that could make it, and Bob and I successfully piloted there. Sort of. Bob and I didn't set up a very circular or low, or even equatorial orbit, and we'd never landed at all without a parachute before. Landing was...a frustration. So many attempts where I ran out of fuel only to slam poor Bob into the ground anyway. At one point, I quicksaved, uh, a lot lower than I probably should have, and due to my aforementioned confusion over the Navball I wasn't exactly oriented quite right when I did this, either. So each quickload, I would (somewhat slowly and tbh sometimes not at all) manage to reorient myself and try to immediately burn to slow down and slam into the ground. But eventually I got faster at orienting myself and could do it very quickly. Because I was still failing, I did not dare to quicksave so I got a lot of practice at that little maneuver. I was convinced at one point that I had irretrievably murdered Bob, but kept on out of stubbornness. Finally, after a lot of practice and to my surprise, humiliation gave way to success! Mostly. Oh well, Bob seems happy He even has a little fuel! We righted the ship, and Bob got out for his historic moonwalk. Took samples, and reboarded his ship to return home. Ohhhh, wow, that is not nearly enough fuel. I tried everything I could think of, flying in every direction and at every thrust level including bursts to get an escape trajectory and it just was not happening. Then I remembered Bob's EVA pack. He'd die, but he'd die on his home world. Getting as high an apoapsis as I could manage with the ship, I ejected Bob and had him burn straight up away from Mun. He didn't like it, though. He had just barely enough fuel to escape Mun. I tried several times to get him out with any fuel left at all, and could not. Any variation ended with him failing to escape. And he couldn't return to Kerbin. Quickloading back to the surface and the safety of his lander seemed the best option for now. In response to the fuel issues I modified the launch stage and came up with a design that I've now used for many successful missions to both Mun and Minmus. I also widened the design of the Lander. Jeb was the first beneficiary of these redesigns, successfully landing on and returning from Mun. But he could not rescue Bob. Two missions to Minmus later, I finally remembered probe cores are a thing and researched Stayputnik. Took my usual lander, replaced the parachute with a Radial one, added solar panels, slapped Stayputnik on top of the command pod and EVAed its Kerbal. It was time for Bob to come home. In hindsight, I should have waited for Bob's landing site to move back to dayside. The rescue probe landed on the opposite side of Mun from Bob. No problem, Bob's ship has fuel. Seriously?? I know it can't escape Mun but it can't go even half way to the other ship on any trajectory either? Fine. Bob will EVA and then walk to the ship. He's much happier about this trip than he was during those earlier escape attempts. He has plenty of fuel, it's all too easy to put him into orbit. Instead, I set him a landing point a little beyond the rescue probe. The EVA camera doesn't always like to be where I want it to be but I quickly figure out where his retrograde is without the Navball and which key to fire to burn it since it refuses at some altitudes to let me turn him that way. I also learned about the limitations of EVA packs. This was yet another instance of trying over and over to avoid the inevitable. Finally I gave up, quickloaded, and just put him into Orbit. Then I remembered the rescue probe. I knew if I used the fuel for an intercept I would not be able to get him home to Kerbin, but I could at least get him back into a command pod. He was on a Polar orbit, so I waited until his orbit was aligned almost perfectly with the rescue probe, and launched. At pretty much exactly the wrong time. Set him as target and circularized my orbit. Matched it perfectly to his to have a place to make adjustments from. Then changed the orbit (by far, far too much) and waited a very long time for a decent intercept window. Never really quite got one. Tried a few futile and foolish intercept attempts with that awful, awful orbit. I could have kept trying with a less excessively elliptical orbit. I could have launched a second rescue attempt. But I didn't. I finally knew. None of this was really happening. Bob died weeks ago, on that very first failed landing attempt. This, all that had happened, was some fragment of Bob; searching repeatedly, desperately, futilely for some way home which was never meant to come. This was torture, and it was time for it to end. With one final, retrograde burst of his rocket pack, I ended Bob's orbit and bid him sleep well. ------------- He didn't bring home any science to KSC, but I learned more from Bob's disaster of a mission than from anything else I've done.