So I've been playing around with KSP and I've written up a little story about my adventure. Note that it's all descriptive of what really happened to me in KSP, I just dramatized it a bit to make it a bit juicier to read. Hope you enjoy ---------------------- *KKkzzzzzzbrrrrzZZZzzzzt*! The command module's radio picked up the signal. Commander Jebediah Kerman turned the dial to tune in on it until the message was clear. "Kerbal Space Center to commander Kerman... *cough* I mean Jebediah Kerman. Not Bill Kerman. Or Bob Kerman for that matter. Jebediah, we've got a way to get you out of there! You'll be home in time for dinner!" ... Jebediah Kerman had launched with his "Crapollo 3" rocket almost 6 days ago. The mission: to land on the Mun, plant a flag and return home. So far, the planting of the flag went without problems. The landing itself turned out to be more like a crash though, which left Jeb's command module without either fuel or an engine to burn it with. This meant that the "return home" part of the mission had to wait for just a little longer. Jebediah posing in front of what's left of his rocket Not too long ago, a remote controlled rescue pod had actually safely landed on the Mun, but the landing was performed in darkness so it ended up more than 12km away from Jeb's current location. Bringing the pod closer would burn too much fuel and the risk of that going horribly wrong (and knowning his luck, probably killing Jeb) was too great. Jeb had to come to the pod. Walking was not an option. Not even Michael Kerbson had ever moonwalked for 12km's straight. It would probably be the death of Jeb. Death by boredom that is. The landing pod right after its touchdown on the Mun's surface To solve this problem, a group of elite Kerbal scientists over at the Kerb Propulsion Labs have devized what they officially call a Classified Advanced Rover, or C.A.R. The C.A.R. is mounted on top of a Crapollo 3 carrier rocket (the kind that took Jebediah to the Mun), which has been enhanced with additional solid fuel booster rockets. To the great surprise of the scientists, mounting a 2 tonne vehicle on top of a rocket caused some stability issues early in flight. The scientists unanimously agreed that the C.A.R. itself could not be the issue, because it's design could be nothing short of perfect. Eventually, the decision was made to mount RCS thrusters on the rocket which would help the SAS module to keep the rocket stable at launch. The Crapollo 3 mounted C.A.R. After these modifications, the launch itself went pretty smooth. Achieving orbit around the Mun was no hard feat either. Landing the C.A.R. with it's mounted rocket was a problem though. It turned out that during descent, the C.A.R. was not in direct sunlight which meant its batteries were drained before it could touch down. Suffice to say, the C.A.R. crashed and burned. This caused great aggrevation between the KPL scientists and the Crapollo team. The KPL scientists blamed the Crapollo team for not including additional batteries on their rocket while the Crapollo team blamed the KPL scientists for not being able to power their own remote control module. The Kerman Appreciation Foundation (set up by Bill Kerman, not Jebediah, or Bob) was just happy that Jeb didn't get killed in the incident. With both parties eager to prove that it wasn't their fault, a second C.A.R. was mounted on a Crapollo rocket. Not being confident that the Crapollo team could solve the issue, the KPL scientists mounted additional solar panels on the C.A.R. Packing enough power, everything was sure to go right this time. And indeed, descend to the Mun's surface went great. Up to 100 meters from the surface that is. The C.A.R., still mounted on the last stage of the Crapollo 3 carrier rocket, descending towards the Mun *Sputtle* is the last sound the engine made. The folks at Mission Control looked at each other in horrified surprise. The lander had ran out of fuel. Angrily the KPL scientists looked at the Crapollo team who, in turn, appeared to be involved in a game of "who can whistle a tune the most non-chalantly". The C.A.R. started to plummet towards the surface of the Mun. At least it was going the right direction. Then, a miracle happend. The C.A.R. crashed on top of the engine and fuel tank it was mounted on, which snapped off and exploded. The C.A.R. tumbled around but came to rest on its wheels. No critical systems were damaged, although one of the wheels failed to function. The C.A.R. was riding with a limp. The C.A.R. after its "landing" The KPL scientists wasted no time and pushed forward their resident C.A.R. driver, Lewis Kerbilton. He should be able to remotely drive the C.A.R. to Jebediah Kerman. This ended up being a great success. This is not what a great success looks like. And with that, KPL decided to withdraw from the mission for now, to go back to the drawing board to design a new C.A.R. that would be able to not flip over. The Crapollo team realized that they had been wasting their time all along. Their original rescue pod mission may not have been such a disappointment if the landing wasn't done in the dark. So the decision was made: a new lander would be mounted on a new Crapollo 3 rocket and be sent to the Mun to save Jebediah! Much to everyone's surprise, the landing of this rescue mission was succesful in landing close enough to Jebediah that it was a viable option for him to attempt a world record shattering moonwalk! Jebediah standing next to his crashed command module. The rescue lander is only 994m away. Behind it, home, just a tad further away It appeared that using the Jetpack to build momentum and then using your face as a slide was the fastest means of travel Hurrah! He made it! Jebediah is laughing maniacally Kerbalkind was ecstatic. Jebediah made it and is finally coming home! He climbed aboard the lander, flipped the switches to turn on power and strapped himself in. Meanwhile, Mission Control was asking itself whether anyone had ever done this before and if there was some sort of protocol to follow for returning to Kerbin. The general concensus was that there probably was some protocol description somewhere, but that someone must have misplaced it. "You're on your own now Jeb, Kerb Speed!" Jebediah pulled the lever to power up the engine. The lander started to shake heavily but eventually started clearing the ground. "I'm going home!" Jeb shouted. He put his rocket at a slight incline to head for a stable orbit around the Mun. Being the expert pilot he is, achieving an orbit around the Mun was not much of a problem. Jebediah orbiting the Mun The next step was to set up a transfer orbit towards Kerbin. "Jebediah to mission control. Jebediah to Mis-sion Contrrrroll!", Jeb shouted in his radio. "Mission control here, go ahead". "I have a question. Which way do I go?" The radio remained silent. "Mission control to Jebediah. Please stand by". Mission control erupted in confusion. Go left? Right? Up or down? The conclusion was drawn quickly: up is the right way. Now it was just a matter of figuring out which way "up" actually was. "Mission control to Jebediah. Mission control to Je-be-di-ah! You need to go up!" "Roger that", Jebediah replied. Without thinking twice about what they meant with "up", Jebediah pushed the throttle lever all the way down and the rocket started picking up speed. The Crapollo Savior 2-A2 in a transfer orbit towards Kerbin Soon Jebediah's capsule entered Kerbin's SOI and Jeb soon found himself in a stable but wide orbit around Kerbin. Only a couple of million meters to go! Not sure what to do now, Jeb decided to use his last bit of fuel to do a retrograde burn to lower his orbit. However, due to some advanced phsyics he does not quite understand, his orbit didn't quite shrink but expanded. Quickly he turned the ship around to do a prograde burn, but after a few seconds of burning... *spluttle* Jebediah's current predicament: an oval shaped orbit around Kerbin with a periapsis of 11 thousand kilometer. "I actually kind of liked it, on the Mun..." [TO BE CONTINUED]
