Speeding Mullet

Merory and Bob decide it's safer if Eddrin stays in the habitat while they go on the mission to the polar cap 50 or 60 km away. They are planning on being gone for a good few days and desperately hope that Eddrin won't break anything while they are away. They make a final check on the rover and circle back round out of the base. the pair stop by a rock within the first 10km, and quickly begin to realise it's going to be an arduous journey. The batteries on the rover are running out fast so Bob deploys the solar panel for a quick charge while they are stationary. Bob remarks "We'd better get going soon, not long before the sun sets and we need to be higher than this to catch the sunrise early." Merory! Merory!!! Quit grinning in awe and get back here! Another ten kilometers go by..... This time Bob gets caught up in the view, but to be fair it is a stunning view over the dune fields to the mountain beyond, almost certainly an extinct volcano. They are driving up a massive shield structure now, already having gained nearly 1500 meters altitude. Before the sets they will cover much more ground, but they cannot help take in the beauty of the views. Strange shadows dance across the landscape near sunset. One last charge before the sun goes down. They will need to max out the battery bank before the sun goes down. Bob wants to use the microwave to heat up some porridge, and Merory needs the computer to log the days activities. The next day starts early, with Bob at the wheel. This is the technical section and he knows he's the more careful driver. They can little afford an accident at this point, and a major incident would mean abort. It would also mean Eddrin completing a sucessful sub orbital hop in the KRV to pick them up, and neither wanted their baby in the hands of Eddrin. "Thinking of Eddrin, we'd better check in" says Bob. "Affirmative Bob, that guy is a grade a snack muncher, lets see if we can keep him occupied. Get him to power up the KRV and use the long range to send a message back to Kerbin." "this is Merory, Eddrin come in, over...." "Eddrin, are you there? Come in, over" "Scccchchhhscchhcopy this is Eddrin, how can I help you fella's?" Due to the curvature of Duna, it's not nearly sunset here yet which fully explains the brightness of the pictures. "Er see if you can power up the KRV and get a message back to Kerbin for us. Tell them they are going to have to look at more power on the rover, and some medium range communications wouldn't go a miss: we are nearly out of range now." "copy" Ohhh the guys are going to kill me when they get back! Oh well. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Merory and Bob press on at sunrise. They have covered nearly 50km now and things are getting tricky. The terrain is the steepest they have yet faced, but the rover handles it perfectly. If only the battery life was better. Coming over the top of the highest point so far at nearly 6000m altitude the polar cap is laid out in all it's glory before them. They will reach the snowline before the morning is out and Merory floors it. The rover is surprisingly nimble even at high speeds "50 m/s Merory, we are cooking on gas! Better reign it in a bit, and don't forget the retro engines if we get too much air.." Despite multiple changes of space pants, Bob manages to hold on to his mars bar (He always wondered what a "Mars" was?!?) and they descend the other side of the shield volcano on to flatter ground: By mid morning the sun is casting super long shadows over the ground. The ground itself has started to change too, There's more of a crust here, the beginnings of the polar cap and the ground is saturated with frozen Karbon Dioxide. This is one of the more stunning views they have enjoyed so far: Having driven nearly 75km manually (The other thing the engineers back at home forgot to install was rover autopilot) Bob and Merory stop the rover. They are a good few Km onto the polar cap now and fully out of range of the KRV. This is as far as they dare go in this rover, it's just too short range and an orbital relay is needed before they can really test the limits, so they both get out and set up the camera for a group shot. They are reminded as they look out over the ice how pristine this environment is, and how careful they need to be in only leaving footprints and wheel tracks behind when they go.

The Kethane converter worked it's magic and the tanks filled rather quicker than expected. Total Delta-V in the KRV is just over 2000 atmo, and just under 3000 Vac. The telemetry confirms that should be enough to easily support the return mission: The second mission is greenlighted and launch preparations are rapidly brought forwards to get the mission underway at the earliest possible opportunity. Launch day comes and the crew of three (Bob, Eddrin, and Merory) blast off into space on the heroic journey to Duna: Booster and Main engine separation go off without a hitch and it's not long before the mission is on it's Duna bound trajectory, with a small mid course correction to make the arrival as smooth as possible. This second mission is right at the top end of the launch vehicles capabilities and there will only be about 150m/s to play with for in system maneuvers at Duna: As previously mentioned the Delta-V is tight, so tight in fact that Merory calculates that inclination change, orbital insertion, and entry descent landing will all have to take place at once, in one take or they are done for. Luckily his piloting skills coupled with Bobs bravery bring them in low over the pole, past some incredible scenery which distracts Eddrin just enough to stop him pressing any buttons: Completed entry and landing profile: The upper stage is cut away and so begins the moment of truth. No engines available, the landing has to be accurate enough to make the distance workable on landing for the rover and everyone holds tight for parachute deployment: Looks like we are on the nose, that was some nice mathematics from Merory! And touchdown! Due to the altitude the lander came in a bit hot, but some quick thinking from Bob who fired the tiny engines on the rover saved the day and scrubbed off a couple of m/s, which was all that was required. The team actually managed to land within 10km of the KRV, which was no mean feat considering it was after a full orbit with no fuel, half of which was in the atmosphere. It was only a short drive and the rover handled the heavy load well, even managing to perform some acrobatics with Eddrin at the wheel! Parked up at one of the boulders in the dune field recharging the batteries and getting some science in: Finally after a long journey across the reaches of space, arrival at the KRV and detachment of the rover: The next mission will be another KRV launch, which has to make to it Duna before the existing crew leaves in the current KRV. The reason for that is that if there is any problems with the first KRV, the second can deorbit and provide redundancy. If anyone has any feedback on this so far I'd like to hear it, I don't feel like I'm striking a fantastic balance between story telling, pictures, and mission descriptions, and would very much like the support of the community on this! Any pointers or comments gratefully received!

No problems. I think the silliness is a big attraction to the game and it really feeds some of the forum life on here which you can see as a theme running through a lot of the mission reports etc. If you were so inclined you could take your above drawing and use it as the basis for a mod package of parts, or possibly make a thread in the mod section and see if one of the well known modders thinks it's an idea good enough to run with....

Whoops, clearly not reading well today apologies. Still it represents a workable solution...

^^ An example of what Captain Sierra is talking about would be this, which is a very basic Apollo style mission, with radial boosters on a two stage lander, with a little bit of part clipping thrown in as an introduction:

You sir have earned some internet points (edit: I have to spread them around before giving them to you again it seems!) Redesigned as specified, apart from I'm using up engines instead of legs, and worked a treat first time. My Duna Direct mission is back on track after some hasty testing!! It was really important for the docking port to work as I wanted the Kermans to be able to get into the rover without suiting up, and in terms of the small amount of base mobility required it was also important in joining up later missions. Thanks once again!

I'm sure this has been extensively copied already across the KSP world, but I thought I would have my own shot at Robert Zubrin's "A Case for Mars". THE ARCHITECTURE: First Launch - The first flight of the Kares rocket (not to be confused with the similarly named rocket of the now defunct Konstellation program) will bring an unmanned KRV to Duna with just enough fuel to make the landing. Once there the Kabatier reaction will fuel the KRV with enough go-juice to return home on the conclusion of the surface stay, and also provide generation capability for other components in the mission. Second Launch - Some time after the KRV has signaled full capacity, the Duna Habitat Unit will be launched with a crew of 3 (specifically so the crew can be split in two, leaving someone alone). The crew will then spend an uneconomically short period of time on the surface before flipping the rover and running out of snacks, and will then return home. Follow up missions - More KRV's and Duna Habitats dispatched at intervals, possibly expansion into small community base for long term habitation, with additional infrastructure. MISSION CONSTRAINTS: - Stock plus Kethane, limited mods adding dead weight styling - Hopefully roughly realistic rockets shapes. - Mechjeb - I'm partially using Mechjeb to handle orbit and IPT maneuvers. - No Nuclear, only chemical engines allowed. - I experimented with KAS to tether the habitat to the spent upper stage to create 1G, but it stopped working as soon as I sped time up so I won't be using it. REPORT: First Mission - The first mission stands on the launchpad fully fueled for launch. Merory, having unnaturally high levels of both courage and stupidity, will be leading the first manned mission to Duna in 2 years and piloting the KRV sitting on the launch pad so feels the need to inspect the engine bells up close. His hope that the mission goes off without a hitch is only matched by Eddrin (limited courage, unlimited stupidity) who is keen to know more about what flavor snacks might be on board, but also has the envious task of providing the public announcement countdown to launch: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, Cheese...onion...bbq...marmite...salt and vinegar...PRAWN COCKTAIL! The evening sky lights up with the fireworks of 3220 kN of thrust, and at 205 tonnes, the ship majestically begins its unmanned ascent. First stage separation complete, the mainsail throttles up, punching the payload through the atmosphere into the gravity turn: Gravity turn complete, and now searing along far downrange of launch the main engine burns the last of it's fuel. Four large ullage motors assist in clearing the heavy main stage from the upper, and a short drift later, the upper stage ignites circularising the orbit. The team back at KSC are jubilant, as exactly the same rocket (previously untested) will catapult them on their long journey to Duna in two years time. The burn to Duna is non eventful, although not planned the onboard cameras did manage to snap this amazing image of Mun and Minmus in conjunction. Mun went on to eclipse Kerbol on the way out of the system: As mission one arrives in system, the careful calculations look like they have paid off. By not matching planes with Duna the entry will give a heavily inclined orbit allowing for extensive coverage of Kethane scanners, and also free access to most landing sites given enough orbits: Paydirt! Not expected so soon in the mission and perhaps a weaker signal than desired, it is fantastic verification of the technology giving hope to those sitting on the fence about the missions feasibility, and converting some of the naysayers who didn't believe in the science. Scooting to a low periapsis of just under 12km aerobrakes us to about 100km, perfect scanning altitude. Ike rises majestic: After many orbits of Duna, plenty of deposits are found. It is decided to make use of the inclination to land near the southern polar kap which should provide some more interesting things for the crew to do when on the surface. The upper stage makes the initial deorbit burn and then decouples to crash into the surface some km away from the landing site. It was always going to be a parachute assisted deorbit due to the minimal fuel contained in the KRV. The team would bring prepacked replacement chutes with them for the return journey in the lander module. Parachutes detached it's left the for the engine to provide a soft touchdown on the surface: Touchdown, solar panels confirmed deployed, batteries charging!! Deployment of kethane drill. The landing site couldn't be much better. A small slope to contend with, but within shouting distance of the polar kap, and some interesting rock features nearby. Ike in the sky to boot! The telemetry shows the kethane tanks slowly beginning to fill, and at this moment Merory knows that the second mission is basically a go. Funding is agreed and the construction of the second rocket gets the green light. In the next update: testing of mission two, and the project stays (hopefully) on the rails! Visions of Duna to sign off with:

Haha, not quite unfortunately, the docking ports have clipped through each other and are slightly misaligned!

Thanks I checked everything with the persistent and all seemed fine. I just tried it again and turns out that there is clearly a weak point in my design surrounding the docking port and the 1-4 node, possibly the problem, although it's the first time it's done this as well as not docking! I may have to rethink the lander design which would be a shame...

Tried relaunching the mission without F5 for the entire trip. replicated docking and still didn't work. No, how would I do this? There is actually 4 hitchhikers clipped off a 1 to 4 adaptor. I checked the docking ports nothing seems duplicated or out of the ordinary. I tried that, the magnetism worked but it didn't engage. I tried attaching engines to do the same work, still nothing. I've tried this, on Kerbin and Duna and it's not working, I drove around, wobbled braked sharply, bounced everything I could thing of, and nothing. Is it possible that the vertical weight of the lander is too much for the docking port in some way? I've noticed once or twice the docking port just going straight through the one on the rover... Still unresolved on this but appreciate all the tips!

I'm pretty sure I didn't, but to test would I run the mission from the start without f5ing? It's pretty central to the mobility of the base so I'd like to get to the bottom of this!

Yup magnetism doing it's thing, trying to lift the rover up. SAS off on both craft I've tried on even ground, centered perfectly, button bashing the legs, driving etc but to no avail. Ports on correct way confirmed. Thanks for all the suggestions so far much appreciated, no resolution at this point.

I'm still trying to figure this one out:

In which case I will defer to more experienced players, but I would still thoroughly recommend sturmstiger's challenge! Best of luck!

So I've googled and googled and cannot find the answer to my conundrum. I am very much hoping someone can put me back on track without forcing a major rethink. Basically this all goes very well until I try and re-dock the rover to the lander. No matter how exquisitely I line up the docking ports, when I retract the landing legs to mate the docking ports it will not happen (despite magnetism going on) and it either looks like it has docked but hasn't, or the docking port on the lander jut sails straight through it's counterpart on the rover. If anyone can shed light on this I would be most grateful, and kudos to the person to first identify the mission architecture....

If you talk us through your space program a little bit, what have you done, where have you been etc. then I'm sure some excellent suggestions on direction and design would be forthcoming. Also it depends whether you want to continue with your current save, or you want to play in career or sandbox mode starting new saves etc. Have you considered some of the challenges available. Sturmstigers Duna Challenge is a very well thought out one as an example.

Climbing from the maria, which may be have been an ancient lake bed billions of years ago was always going to be the most perilous part of the journey for Harwise and Neilorf, but the land train proved it's worth on the steep terrain and beyond the peril they were able to access the highlands, and conduct worthy science at the sinkholes. Note: No science was done, but Neillorf did stand on Harwise's head for a photo. Stock.

Great stuff I did one of these yesterday although it wasn't nearly as well thought out as this. Nice reporting!

Krobby the Kerbot?

Seconded, it's a really great mod; it's got a good quality sci-fi feeling to it.

^Great quote for sure. My first SSTO was more of a plain tube, and if you carry on that theme you can eventually turn it into sleek if not plane-like:

Temstar has a pretty awesome guide which may be of use to you.

This is the second module of the base project I've just started and it's rather enormous. It's supposed to be a completely sealed unit for long term living and science in comparative luxury. Goes with the first module, pictured below also for posterity. You can see the skycrane flying away in the background: Solar factory on the roof powering the facility: Expansive greenhouse assists with air recycling and cuts down on the need for supplies: The first module, designed for the most remote Munar outpost conditions:

Bulls eye thanks!

Neillorf gave it full beans on the engine test, probably should have clamped it down..