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Back in March, while playtesting my Whirligig World planet mod, I had a bit of adventure. This is the story of that adventure, retold to the best of my recollection, with the help of the discord chatlogs I made during that playthrough. Please note that the Kerbmun terrain shown here is old, Kerbmun looks almost nothing like this anymore. PROLOGUE The Mesbin System. Mesbin has a mass of 71 Kerbins, and spins once every 1701 seconds for an equatorial gravity of 1.28 gee. Kerbmun orbits around three Munar distances out and has a mass of 1 Kerbin. Kerbmun atmospheric pressure is identical to Kerbin, though oxygen is only roughly 1/4th of Kerbin's. Troymin is in a trojan orbit permanently 60 degrees ahead of Kerbmun in its orbit. Every 14 of Mesbin's rotation periods is a "fortnight" and is approximately as long as a Kerbin day. By this point in the Mesbin Space Program, several re-usable spacecrafts were in semi-regular use in the Mesbin System. The Troymin/Kerbmun fuel tanker was launched from Mesbin to Troymin, and brings four medium size-5 tanks of fuel (minus a bit for manuevering) to a Kerbmun space station. Troymin Fuel Truck approaching the tiny satellite. The fuel truck would carry fuel to the KerbMun Orbital Station (KMOS) Which at this point was quite simple, just a few habitats, a laboratory, and five docking ports. The Trans-Kerbmun Orbital Shuttle (TKOS) ferries up to nine Kerbals between Low Mesbin Orbit (or the Mesbin Low Orbit Space Station/ MLOSS) and the KMOS. That orange-tanked NTR ship was the return section of a Graymun expedition that had some leftover fuel. I figured it might come in handy some day and so kept it attached to the LMOSS. Aerobraking was necessary for the ship to work. Getting between Mesbin's surface and Low Mesbin Orbit is done with the Mesbin Space Shuttle. Here it is, landed at home. It can be used in single-stage-refueled-at-station mode or lifted into space on a booster. The general mission plan for exploration missions was that instead of the exploration ships and ferry ships carrying a return pod (which is fine when the air can slow you down, less so when you have to spare 2 km/s to slow down), they would simply park in Mesbin orbit, and would either catch orbital ferries down to low orbit (or if delta-v allows, park in low orbit) and then the crew would be taken down by these space shuttles. After a successful but uneventful robotic mission to the asteroid 1 Vizea, the space program needed something really exciting. They had planned only to start exploring Kerbmun when the space station was complete and when there was a better understanding of winged aerodynamics, but they figured an ol' fashioned Flags And Footprints mission would tide the public over. Part One: Launch and Landing of the Kerbmun Lander The entire lander craft was the conical section at the front, which the engineers calculated would have enough delta-v combined with the engines chosen to launch from Kerbmun and enter orbit, where the crew would be taken to the KMOS and eventually ride home on a TKOS. After a near miss with the tiny low-orbiting Statmun, the crew burned their rocket towards Kerbmun. Our brave Kerbonauts: Valentina, Bob, and Virmund, were on their way. After several aerobraking passes, among which we got a really good look at the highlands of Kerbmun, the spacecraft entered orbit. The spacecraft's engines were hidden away by the heatshield, and would only be usable after it was detached. Unfortunately the drag-to-weight ratio was not properly calculated--Mesbin engineers of course do not have much experience with atmospheric aerospace. The spacecraft splashed down hard into the ocean. (Yes they're floating above the water disregard this please) Only the command pod survived. Valentina tried to radio for help, but received no signal. Upon further inspection, it would seem that the only long-range transmitter was on the part of the ship that exploded. The astronauts were not only stranded at sea, but they were lost, unable to contact home! What will our intrepid Kerbonauts do? What will happen to the Mesbin Space Program? Find out in the next thrilling part!