Amphibious Rodent

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BPMP1md.jpg[/IMG] Ol' Bill didn't quite have enough juice to achieve orbit after the first landing on the Mun. So rather than sit inside a tiny capsule and wait for the inevitable, he decided to get out and watch his fate rush up to greet him. This shot was taken after his craft skimmed the surface and was on its way up in several pieces on suborbital trajectories. Bill met his end on that ridge up ahead, imprinting a Bill-shaped gouge across the dusty landscape. He left his mark to stand for eons as a testament to both the courage and folly of Kerbalkind.

"OK, now that I've attached the solar panel arm to the space station, I'll detach my unmanned lifter and de-orbit it. Undock. Turn to retrograde. Turn. Uh... why isn't it responding? Jeb, did you activate the RemoteTech antenna?" "The what?" "Aw crap."

What's left of them, anyway. I've been playing a month or so, with a few successful Mun and Minmus landings in 0.20. Tonight was my first Mun attempt in 0.21 after spending time building a 49-Kerbal space station and a RemoteTech satellite network. I first dropped an un-kerbaled hitchhiker pod and rover on Mun in preparation for a manned landing -- except I lost control of the rover while detaching from the pod, and it wound up stuck on its back like a turtle. OK, minor setback. I proceeded with the manned launch, docked with Kerbal International Space Station in its 300-km orbit to take on fuel, and set sail for the Mun. I lined up the orbit just right to land next to the hitchhiker pod, eased the lander into descent, and ran out of fuel at about 1,000 meters. Took me a few seconds to realize I'd forgotten to run a fuel line from the center fuel tank to the outboard rockets. I frantically fumbled at my keyboard in an attempt to transfer fuel, but by the time I was about 100 meters above the ground I had fuel in one outboard tank. Apparently I need to work on keeping my cool in pressure situations. I panicked and hit the throttle, firing that single rocket and sending the lander head over heels, no doubt intensifying the sheer panic of Edan, Kenberry and Mitbert's last few moments. My first deaths since death became permanent. I'm kinda sad. But hey, what can ya do? Tomorrow, I might remember to quicksave before the descent. Anyway, hi everybody.