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This isn't a full mission write up, but instead a brief description of some of the more recent events in my 1.2 career game. Tourists to Mun Minmus and Duna A group of five tourists wanted to see the sights of these three bodies, including atmospheric flight over Duna. After filling up their tanks in Minmus orbit, courtesy of the orbital filling station there, the trip went smoothly. Leaving Minmus surface In Duna orbit Return vehicle sent into Kerbin orbit to being them back home for that sweet tourist cash. Getting toasty in the return. Mission to Moho This started out well enough with another vehicle stopping off at Minmus to fill up before heading out into the system. A resource scanning satellite was put into Moho orbit to find a good source of ore to refine. However a miscalculation meant that the manned vehicle only had enough fuel to get into Moho orbit and not to take it down to the surface, so it will remain there until a refueling vessel is sent out to put something in its tanks to allow a descent to the surface. Trip to Dres A mission to everyone's favourite stopping off point, Dres. Oribital insertion Detaching the resource scanner. On the surface at last, after running out of fuel a few metres above the surface, which made for a slightly bumpy landing. The return to Kerbin started out as planned, but there was too little fuel to make the insertion burn into Kerbin orbit and velocity was too high to burn some of it off by passing through the atmosphere, so a tanker vehicle was dispatched from Minmus to catch up with the speeding vehicle and give it sufficient fuel. High speed interception (the Dres vehicle was moving at over 4km/s). Caught up at last with just enough fuel to pass on to the Dres vehicle to allow it to adjust its trajectory for an intercept with Kerbin about 300 days later. Finally the Dress lander made it back into Kerbin orbit, for a later rendezvous with a surface return vehicle. Out to the Moons of Jool A complex mission to the Joolian system with a total of five vehcles (interplanetary transfer, lander, 2x probes and a resource scanning satellite) Like the other missions above, this one started with a stop off at Minmus to top up with fuel, this time from the vehicle used to transfer it from the surface mining base to orbit. Again fuel was to be an issue, but this time on entry to the Joolian system... ... which necessitated a slingshot around Tylo to reduce fuel consumption. One of the crew stretching their legs with a trip around the vehicle on the way to Pol. Another landing site, another resource scanner, this time in Pol orbit. To support the two probes on board a large communications relay was dispatched from Kerbin separately from the Manned vehicle. Touching down on Pol Next up for the crew was Laythe, with the valuable science to be picked up in orbit as well as from a probe to be sent to the surface. Here Verxy is seen resetting the instruments. Dispatching the probe for the surface. Unfortunately the parachutes were not sufficient to slow the probe down for a landing and even with the engine being burned the vehicle hit the water at about 60m/s but fortunately it wasn't a complete loss as science was gathered both in low orbit and in the atmosphere. Having left Laythe for Vall, Verxy reset the science parts again. Vall approaches After a straightforward landing the crew took to the surface for more science and the obligatory flag raising. After considerable time in the system the crew headed home with their pockets full of science. No problems with fuel this time for a returning crew, just had to park the vehicle and wait for a return vehicle to bring them home. But as this vehicle was now coated in tasty science morsels, it was decided to being it back to the surface as well as its crew. Unfortunately the return vehicle didn't have any parachutes, so had to rely on the deceleration given by the inflatable heat shield and then to use the tried and tested method of cross your fingers and waiting for the impact. Back in one piece (well one of the engines fell off), but the head shield took the brunt of the 65km/s "landing" leaving the crew and the science smeared vehicle available for recovery. In other news A pair of comms birds were sent to the inner system to give crystal clear communications in the environs of Moho. We pick up junk for cash... another hunk of space junk retrieved under contract. An asteroid snagged and placed in Kerbin orbit. Another comms bird adding to the great net, this time in orbit of Duna. Last but not least, the Minmus rescue vehicle, which has been going strong as a one kerbal transfer vehicle between Kerbin, Mun and Minmus, since being sent to the great mint gobstopper in the sky, following its use in a rescue contract to Minmus early in this career game.

This mission report details an entry to The Incredible Double Mun Double Kerbin Landing Challenge in which a a brave crew of three Kerbals was launched from Kerbin, flew to and landed on Mun, then returned to surface of Kerbin, only to head off for another Mun landing and finally returned home to Kerbin again. The vehicle at launch from Kerbin weighed 684 tons. The album of images for this mission are here. Here is a listing of the phases of the mission. Launch from Kerbin Once in a 79km orbit the Mun package (a Mun transfer vehicle and a Mun lander) were separated from the Kerbin lander vehicle that was to remain in Kerbin orbit The Mun package travelled to Mun orbit In Mun orbit the Mun lander detached from the descent vehicle and descended to the surface Kerbals ran around having fun and planted a flag The Mun lander returned to Mun orbit and rendezvoused with the transfer vehicle The Mun package returned to Kerbin and using a mixture of aerobraking (about half a dozen passes) and some fuel burning was placed in a 170km orbit Once partially refuelled from the transfer vehicle, the Mun lander rendezvoused with the Kerbin lander and docked inside its cargo bay. Here it was fully refuelled from the lander The Kerbin lander descended to the surface of Kerbin The Kerbin lander ascended to an altitude of 241km, with the Mun lander leaving its cargo bay once above the atmosphere to rendezvous with the transfer vehicle The Mun package returned to Mun orbit The Mun lander visits the Mun surface for a 2nd time Kerbals had more fun, planted another flag and had ice cream The Mun lander rendezvoused with the transfer vehicle in orbit The Mun packaged departed Mun for Kerbin, with the transfer vehicle burning until its fuel was depleted, then the burn was completed by the detached Mun lander After some more Aerobraking fun and games (only a couple of passed this time) the Mun lander descended for the surface of Kerbin The crew lands on the surface of Kerbin for the last time… and had more ice cream (possibly strawberry, details are sketchy) Overall this mission went pretty smoothly although when I deployed landing gear on the Kerbin lander, those of the Mun lander (that was tucked inside the Kerbin lander) were destroyed. Between launch from the surface of Kerbin and the deployment of the Mun lander high above Kerbin, the remaining leg met the same fate. I had originally planned to use the Kerbin lander to bring it and the Mun lander in its belly up to an orbit of around 100km and then send a lightly fuelled Mun lander from there up to the higher orbit that the transfer vehicle was parked in. However I realise on the way back from Mun for the first time, that it would be more efficient to fully fuel the Mun lander from the tank that supplied the upper stage of Kerbin lander, then release the Mun Lander once carried above the atmosphere, but not actually into orbit, for it to then burn for the rendezvous. This allowed me to bring about ½ a tank of fuel back to the Mun package, which made the final return burn to Kerbin supplied with plenty of fuel.