The Pixie Project

[Wabbit]

After the success of the Kemini program, it was clear that the next stage would be the Mun. Immediately, plans were drawn up to send a Kerbal there. An early manned launch attempt's failure prompted the PSE to rethink its Munar plan. An unmanned lander and a surface scan would precede the original plans. Finally, then we could start manned landings.

Kelsey 1

I sent out Kelsey 1, an unmanned probe lander. A rather simple, small, and effective design, it worked very well. Its mission was to land, do some crater hopping, and then stay on the surface as a marker.

Kelsey 1, hidden away in the fairing, right after ignition. It had to fit into the fairing, so I just decided to go with something small and light. Below we see the Alpha's third stage pushing the periapsis out of the atmosphere with its three Rockomax 48-7s. It is powered entirely by a single RTG, so there is no need to worry about doing things on the daylight side, other than for screenshot purposes.

Here you see I put us on a trajectory with a very steep Munar impact. I did not actually mean to, so I let MechJeb circularize it at the right time since I am rubbish with circularization maneuvers. Below is a nice picture of Kelsey coming in high over the Mun in its very steep crash-course. This was taken a few hours before I needed to make my circularization burn. I think that unmanned missions are less fun, because there are no Kerbals to talk about. Kind of lonely.

So, the burn was made, and we de-orbited on a path to a small crater. It actually looks like a combination of several craters; I will have to check out the topography when I land. Below you can see Kelsey doing "her" braking burn, coming down over the triple crater.

After that, the landing. It was a very smooth landing, near the edge of a cliff. I'm quite happy I didn't fall down, as it certainly would have been the end of Kelsey. Or maybe not, as these things seem to be pretty tough. The landing was good, and below is Kelsey with antennae unfolded, probably transmitting all of the juicy Science back to Kerbin.

After a couple of minutes, I decided to do some sub-orbital hops. Kelsey had fuel to burn (haha, punny) and I had time to spare. The first hop was not very far, just from my little ridge to the crater's edge. Below, the first hop.

Its landing location

The next hop took me a little farther- to the middle of a small cluster of craters. Unfortunately, there was no fuel for a third jump so I left it there to sit. And that marks the end of Charlotte's mission.

For now...

Edited February 19, 2015 by Wabbit

[Randazzo]

I eagerly await the arrival of manned missions and potential for lost-in-spaceness.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Randazzo

[Wabbit]

The lost-in-spaceness is entirely possible, as I am using both Dangit! and Entropy. It adds a bit more unpredictabiliy to your mission outcome

[Wabbit]

The unlucky Pixie 1. It was the first of the Pixie missions, carrying Edvy, Kelsby and Lolorf Kerman to the Mun. It was launched on an undertested prototype lifter, and it had no separatrons on its side boosters. This is what happened next.

An all-too-common mistake, from something as simple as neglecting to add separation motors... The adventures of Pixie 2 and Pixie 3 coming soon.

But, despite the failure, there were no casualties and it turned out a great crew picture.

Also, it seems Kelsby and Lolorf are twins... Pixie 2 is on the way.

[Zephram Kerman]

Good stuff Wabbit! It's just like re-living the good ol' days. Nice work on the screenshots too. It's a shame about Pixie 1, but the loss is mitigated by lessons learned. Fortunately kerbals are disposable clones, or something.