Vanguard Astrodynamics - Modded .90 Career

[Randazzo]

In an effort to slow the proliferation of threads with my name on them, I will consolidate into this single thread.

External thread links:

The original Kepler mission (Eeloo mission is from a different career save)

Bob gets a pet rock

Operation New Mexico Flyer

Flirting with Disaster - Bop and Pol landings

A little closer to home - Minmus mobile base

Journey to the land of 8-bits

Once more around the green monster - Vall landing

A decoupler too far - Tylo landing

Cortez comes home - Tylo lander recovery

This thread:

1. Operation: Texaco Station
   
2. Operation: Texaco Station concluded
   
3. Homefield Advantage - spoilers
   
4. Offroading on the Mun
   
5. Munshot 47 and 1/2
   
   
6. Operations: "Mason" and "Cortez Rides Again"
   
7. "Cortez Rides Again" concluded
   
8. The Dres Expedition
   

Edited March 3, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

With "New Mexico Flyer" having established a functional but very small scale fuel operation on Ike, an operation to upgrade it to large scale was undertaken tonight. Operation Texaco station saw the launch of five separate vessels to Ike. This will provide the ability to fuel large vessels in a much shorter time-frame than the program was previously capable of.

"Samson Super Heavy Fuel Transport", or SSHFT, based on the same principle as the tiny Mule transport. The SSHFT can carry a Rockomax jumbo tank worth of fuel from the surface for orbital delivery and return without using any of it's payload fuel. The result will be much faster fueling operations than Mule is capable of.

Album Link

"El Dorado Mobile Utility Platform", or EDMUP, a mobile platform capable of Monopropellant production, based on the Dominguez rescue rover. This will remove the need for transporting Karbonite to orbit for processing into RCS fuel, and will serve as a mobile linking station.

Album Link

"Iota Station". Much smaller than Kepler (and much lighter on the part count), it will have a smaller storage tank and will mainly serve as a crew station during downtime periods. Main fueling duties will be performed by SSHFT.

Album Link

Along with these deployments, two vessels from the "Boone" series of standardized craft were launched. "Boone I" crew transport craft, and "Boone II" lander craft. The El Dorado surface crew will be rotated out with the new crew aboard the Boone I. Boone II will make two trips to the surface to, delivering 2 new crew members and shuttling two surface crew back to Iota each time. Once the surface crew has been fully recovered, they will transfer to Boone I's crew quarters and both Boone vessels will return to Kerbin.

Boone I Album

Boone II Album

All vessels launched and departed for Duna in a 25 (kerbal)day period, with arrivals staggered approximately 10 days apart. The exception to this was Boone I and SSHFT which would arrive 2 days apart. Upon arrival, each vessel would perform the necessary maneuvers at Duna for an Ike transfer. Only the Boone vessels, which are both round-trip, used Aerobraking nodes. Iota station was deployed into a 55 Km orbit over Ike to replace Kepler. Once Iota station arrived, both Boone vessels made rendezvous and docked to await ground preparation. SSHFT and EDMUP descended to the surface. At Kepler, the Skiff Tug took on all the fuel it could carry and departed Kepler. It will eventually be docked at Iota, since an emergency tug could always come in handy. Kepler was de-orbited with it's RCS.

On the surface, Tarantula was moved away from the El Dorado area to reduce clutter. For the time being it will remain as there may be some future use for it. EDMUP was used to clear the LZ of debris via it's winch and grappling hook. Once this was done, fuel lines were established to SSHFT and production commenced. With this underway, crew rotation can begin tomorrow.

Album Link

Edited February 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

Picking up where we left off (sort of, another launch was made to duna carrying two more rovers for use as linking points.), El Dorados crew was standing by for arrival of Boone II to be rotated out and return to Kerbin. Boone II would have to make two trips, and would require refueling at the second landing. The new surface crew had been carried to Ike aboard Boone I's hitchhiker module, and would be transferred two at a time into the Boone II lander capsule.

Boone II's mission experienced no complications, and refueled on the second landing as planned. The second landing took place on the verge of darkness, and the resulting Iota rendezvous was also in the dark. The final two crew members transferred to Boone I. Due to the potential difficulty involved in the upcoming procedure, the operation waited until Iota station was exposed to the sun once more. First, all remaining fuel in the lander module was transferred to Iota station. The lander module was then decoupled from the capsule. Following this Iota released it's docking clamps with Boone II's main engine, setting it adrift. The Boone II capsule undocked from Iota and docked with it's main engine on RCS thrusters.

With Boone II complete again, there was no need to return to Iota. A course was plotted for a high Duna orbit. Once achieved, Boone I departed Iota and joined Boone II over duna. Both vessels set course for a Kerbin encounter. Boone II left in four days, with Boone I following five days after.

There were no difficulties at Kerbin, Boone II actually arriving first and establishing orbit with Boone I following one day after. Boone II also established LKO with no difficulties. Considering the fact that both vehicles would be decoupling very large engines on the way down, they would be aiming to land on the runway instead of the launch pad. Though it may have been unlikely that an engine would get dropped on the VAB or Pad, it was better to remove the possibility. Both vessels landed on the runway (with Boone II damn near hitting the flag). All crew members gained significant experience and most advanced to level 4, with a couple at level 3.

Album Link

Edited February 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

STOP!

This post contains potential spoilers.

(You were warned, no complaining)

With no missions requiring immediate attention, the program would turn it's gaze to Kerbin itself. While we have a significant amount of data about other planets, we really have next to nothing on Kerbin possessing only a few EVA reports, surface samples, and a low-resolution map. To rectify this situation, a satellite equipped with Biome scanning and high resolution mapping capability was launched on a modified Santa Maria rocket into polar orbit. Once this data was obtained, missions would be undertaken to explore anomalies revealed by the scan. Initially the plan was to send Kestrel to the polar anomaly,

but this guy beat me to it, so we would instead be focusing on less distant targets.

This allowed for the usage of the programs very old "Icarus" jet design, along with two new vehicles built specifically for expeditions. Our satellite revealed a number of anomalies in the immediate vicinity of KSC, so the Icarus was fitted with a BTDT scanner (From SCANsat, along with the Biome scanner and Radar scanners) and battery packs to power it. Naturally, Jeb would pilot the Icarus. Though I was fairly certain what two of the anomalies were (KSC, old airfield), the BTDT scanner would be used at these locations first. To my surprise, the scanner actually located an anomalous object very close by the airstrip. Icarus made visual contact with the object, but was not equipped with space-age ladders to permit the pilot to exit. Jeb returned to KSC and taxied off the runway to await pickup by Boxcar (Expedition Science Rover).

Boxcar drove to the SPH to retrieve Jeb from Icarus. Not having a ladder is no issue for Boxcar, with it's super-space-utility ramp. With Jeb on board, Boxcar drove to the launchpad to retrieve Bob and Bill. With everybody loaded up, it was off to the anomaly site. The object appeared to be a partially buried monolith. Jeb tried pushing all the Science! buttons, but no special data could be gathered aside from photographs. With this location surveyed and marked, the crew loaded back into Boxcar and returned to KSC. Jeb was delivered to Icarus, Bob and Bill were delivered to the cafeteria.

Icarus took off once again and headed toward the old airfield. No strange objects were discovered here, but Jeb landed and photos were taken anyway. It was now time to survey an anomaly located in the mountains just west of KSC. Arriving over the target area, the BTDT scan was initiated and indicated the presence of another monolith. Icarus was unable to locate the object visually, and doing low'n'slow turns in the vicinity of mountain peaks proved to be exceedingly hazardous. Another method would be required to locate this object. Icarus returned to KSC.

The Helikopter Mk I was constructed to perform the mountain survey. Unfortunately, it was too heavy and failed to lift off. It was redesigned into the Helikopter Mk II. This model proved capable of flight, rather easy and stable flight at that. It was however only a test vehicle and was not equipped with appropriate scanners. Returning to KSC, I discovered that landing is much more difficult than flying. Various parts of Helikopter Mk II were used to construct Helikopter Mk III, a fully equipped (if not very aesthetic) vehicle. Some time was spent practicing landings, and then it was back to the mountain site.

Piloting the Helikopter Mk III around the mountain proved to be no less dangerous than piloting Icarus. This may have been due to my lack of experience with helicopters. Through lots of luck and perhaps a tiny bit of pilots intuition, I did (barely, had to extend the gear a few times) manage to avoid slamming into the rock face. Despite being able to fly lower and slower with this vehicle, it still proved unable to visually locate the object. According to the BTDT scanner, Helikopter was within 100 meters of the object at least half a dozen times. I came to the conclusion that there were two possibilities with this object:

1. It's actually inside the mountain, which would explain why approaching a sheer cliff appears to be heading directly towards the object, but the object is neither at the bottom of the cliff or at the top.
   
2. I just can't see it from the air since it's a black object against a largely black background.
   

Down to less than half a tank of fuel and with the sun beginning to set, it was decided to call off this survey and perhaps try it again another day. Helikopter Mk III returned to KSC and miraculously landed in one piece. With the local surveys done, the next step will be to either use Kestrel to survey the more distant ones, or design another Jet for the purpose. Whether or not this is documented will depend on whether or not it appears to actually be interesting.

Album Link

Edited February 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

Furthering my efforts to avoid any real missions, yet another new rover was designed tonight to perform unnecessary activities on the Mun. In my waning creativity, it was dubbed "Vanguard". This rover was unique in that it required no delivery system (to the surface anyway), being capable of both landing and returning to orbit on it's own. A test to prove it's unnecessary capabilities was necessary.

The rover and a return ship were launched to the Mun on the same rocket, and once separated from the transfer engine spacewalks were performed to load the crew and attach the rovers grappling hook. It's landing systems worked perfectly, and it was ready for some more rigorous testing, like jumping into and out of a crater.

After shenanigans were successfully undertaken, the crew returned to orbit to rendezvous with the return ship. The Vanguard rover was left behind, and it can be reused in the future as it is equipped with a docking port for refueling.

Album Link

Edited February 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

Still avoiding hard work, the program sent yet another vehicle to the Mun to complete a flag planting contract. Rather than send the standard Armstrong vehicle which uses a single module to land on the surface of the mun and then return to Kerbin by docking with the transfer stage in LMO and refueling before returning, an Apolloesque (albeit with a smaller lander powered entirely by RCS) two part Lander/Command module vehicle was designed. The "Apollyon" would launch on slightly modified Armstrong lifter assembly. As Mun landings are now essentially routine, nothing of note happened during the mission. All crew were recovered safely from the ocean.

Album Link

Edited February 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

After a few days of much needed goofing off, the time has come to get back to work. Two programs were activated, "Mason" and "Cortez rides again". As an afterthought, a probe was also launched with these operations to complete a contract over Bop.

Operation "Mason":

To make use of the now large scale fuel operation at Ike, a construction yard will be deployed to Ike orbit capable of housing four modular engine units (two transfer modules and two lander modules) and two command pod units. These units can be assembled in any combination necessary, but are intended to perform Dres and Eeloo exploration missions to satisfy contracts. To perform the assembly, a construction vehicle utilizing the Advanced Grabbing Unit will be deployed alongside the construction yard. This construction vehicle will carry 8 KAS containers with various construction parts, including backup parachutes, extra RCS blocks, lots of strut points, lighting, and spare RCS tanks. Only the command pod and landing module engine units will be deployed during this stage. The transfer engine modules will be launched after completion of the Cortez mission.

Operation "Cortez rides again":

Utilizing the El Dorado facility, Iota Station, and the Mason construction yard, Cortez II will be recovered from Ike orbit and refueled. A new Cortez I landing craft will be launched and sent alongside the "Mason" vehicles. It will dock with MCY upon arrival and refuel. Once Cortez II has been recovered, the two vessels will rendezvous and the mammoth 116 ton Cortez vehicle will be reassembled. Once complete, the vessel will travel to Laythe and perform a landing. If all goes well, they will rendezvous again in LLO. Recovery of the Cortez II engine is not a priority for this mission as there will be no further use for it, with the Cortez I lander being specially built for Tylo and Laythe landings. It will still be recovered at Ike if possible for potential return to Laythe in the future. If necessary, it's fuel can be transferred to Cortez I for the crews safe return, abandoning the main engine over Laythe. If this comes to pass, Cortez II will retain only enough fuel to de-orbit into Laythe, and be destroyed on impact.

Five vessels were launched back to back, "Mason Construction Vehicle" (MCV), "Mason Construction Yard" (MCY), "Mason cargo stack 1" (MCS1), "Cortez I", and the cleverly named "Bop Mapping Satellite" (BMS, poorly documented, wasn't intended to be a part of this mission package but it would have missed the Jool window otherwise). MCV and Cortez would make their transfer burn for Duna in 5 days, 3 hours apart. MCY would follow 4 days later, with MCS1 following 1 day after MCY. BMS would not have a Jool window for another 40 days. In the interim, Mule launched from El Dorado to deliver enough fuel for Cortez II to rendezvous with Iota and receive a proper refueling from SSHFT. Cortez II possesses no RCS blocks making it necessary for Iota station to perform the docking procedure. SSHFT docked axially with Iota prior to the Cortez docking maneuver. Even with it's 80 ton weight SSHFT is remarkably nimble due to packing 24 RCS blocks and two large reaction wheels and would assist with moving the station. After successfully docking, SSHFT transferred it's first load of fuel to Cortez. Two more trips would have to be made from the surface, with a second load for Cortez II and a third to be standing by in orbit for the incoming vessels. With everything prepared at Ike, all vessels in Kerbin orbit departed. Wanting to bring as much fuel along as possible, any final orbital stages that had fuel left were not staged prior to the burn. The second Duna flotilla was underway. BMS left on schedule for Jool 40+ days later.

MCV would be the first to arrive at Duna, with Cortez arriving a day after. Both vessels performed a retroburn at Duna periapsis direcly into Ike encounters. Cortez would reach Ike first, making it's circularization burn a mere 29 minutes before MCV. After establishing orbit, the operation went on standby to await the arrival of MCY in two days. Once MCY arrived, Cortez I would rendezvous first and refuel from MCY's transfer stage before discarding it. MCV would then rendezvous, further refueling the Cortez I. Ideally, this completely topped off the Cortez and had fuel left over for MCY's storage tank. MCV's transfer engine was discarded at this point, and MCV released it's grabbing unit clamp from MCY to prevent any Kraken drive incidents.

Cortez II, fully refueled, departed from Iota. It would not dock with MCY, instead stopping nearby. Cortez I undocked from MCY and docked with Cortez II on RCS thrusters. Bill performed a spacewalk to link the strut points, and Cortez was once again whole. The vessel transferred to a high Duna orbit to await the Jool departure window. Finally, eight days after the first arrival at Duna, MCS1 arrived. After transferring to Ike and performing a rendezvous with MCY, it's remaining fuel was distributed to the two landing modules and the transfer engine discarded. One member of the MCY crew would EVA over to the individual units and dock them with the construction yard, where both modules filled their tanks. Eventually, MCV will remove the landing engine units and dock them with MCY, but this will likely be after the Dres and Eeloo missions since doing it now would simply add a step to the process.

Skip a bit, brother.

With the Jool transfer window being far in the future, BMS had enough time to arrive at Jool. Desiring a very high apoapsis to reduce the cost of changing planes to match Bop, an Aerobraking node was created at 145 Km. It would be more accurate to call it a vacu-braking node as it had virtually no effect on the satellite, and BMS had to fire it's engine. This may prove not to be an issue, as BMS was carrying enough fuel to complete the Bop contract, map Bop, then transfer to Pol and map it as well. As the plane change was very cheap, it is likely it will still be able to perform these tasks. After matching planes with Bop, an actual aerobraking node was placed at 122 Km and the resulting orbit circularized. During this time frame, Cortez made it's transfer burn to Jool (entirely in the dark, picture taken afterwards). Bop transfer and orbit was easily achieved, first completing the contract, then changing into polar orbit to begin mapping.

With this underway and Cortez en route to Jool, the first stage of both operations comes to a close. Tomorrow, the Laythe encounter and landing (and maybe return).

Album Link

As an aside, during tonights Duna encounters, I became aware that the old Polonius base is still sitting on the surface of Duna. While I could simply terminate it, I feel it would be far more appropriate to hit it with an interplanetary missile. Though still early in the testing phase, it has promise. Each launch has resulted in a closer miss, but it -is- (or rather, I am) still missing it's targets. This is not the final delivery system, only a testing rig. I fudged the impact screenshot, but rest assured it missed.

(This album has been updated to include more screenshots, including a successful hit)

Album Link

Edited February 28, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

With Cortez still having several hundred days of transit time, this phase of the operation began with the Bop Mapping Satellite. Having had sufficient time and fuel to map both Bop and Pol in Low and High resolution and a multispectral scan, the satellite was sent to Laythe to help locate a suitable equatorial landing zone. It had only enough fuel to establish orbit once, and was deployed in a 750km polar orbit for High Resolution altimetry mapping.

Given the relatively large size of Laythe this would take a significant amount of time, so it was over to the Cortez. With so many recent near-failures in the forefront of my mind, it was time for Vanguard Astrodynamics to live up to it's name and start exploiting some orbital mechanics to save on fuel. Instead of aerobraking once low over Jool and then burning for a proper laythe encounter, the plan was to utilize three braking nodes to minimize the necessary fuel for both plane change and transfer to Laythe. Further aerobraking would be performed at Laythe to save even more fuel. There was one complication to the plan as Tylo was in position to block ingress to the first braking node over Jool, requiring a burn to avoid it. Several attempts at plotting a course within the Tylo encounter for an acceptable resulting orbit were made, but ultimately less fuel was required to simply avoid it. The first node was completed successfully, followed by a matching planes with Laythe at a cost of only 189.1 m/s. The second and third nodes were also completed without incident. Transfer to Laythe would occur in 10 days at a cost of 16.8 m/s. At Laythe, aerobraking was performed in two shallow nodes. The first established an elliptical orbit from which an inclination of zero degrees was set, which required little over 1 m/s due to the previous plane matching. Periapsis was lowered slightly and the second node resulted in an apoapsis of just over 100km. The periapsis was then established at 58km and the orbit circularized. The entire encounter, including corrections of inital Jool encounter and dodging Tylo (at a cost of 140 m/s), cost a grand total of 452 m/s calculated from the total remaining after the initial transfer burn (3853 m/s) against the total remaining in final low Laythe orbit (3401 m/s).

Having achieved low orbit, a crew report was taken and transmitted to complete the second of three (the first being the probe at Bop) contracts which would cover the expense of the mission. The final contract was to place a flag on Laythe. The Cortez lander undocked from the main engine and the map from BMS was examined to locate a suitable landing site which would not require any change in inclination. Options were very slim as there is little enough land on Laythe as it is, even less flat land, and even less on the equator. The lander had an extremely narrow margin for error as it had only 3491 m/s, and orbit to 65km from sea level on Laythe requires a minimum of 3200. The plan was to land on a suitably flat stretch of terrain that was elevated relatively high to minimize the launch costs, but this proved not to be an option. A landing site at ~1300 meters was the highest safe area available.

With a landing zone outside of desired parameters and an already very slim margin for error, I once again threw out lessons learned and turned on Mechjeb's landing guidance. While it did place the Cortez on a suborbital path to land in the desired area, it was also indicating an expenditure of 200 m/s to achieve this landing, beyond the ~150 m/s required to enter the atmosphere. At the last few moments I decided the autopilot was being overly conservative with safety concerns, hence the large braking burn it was indicating, and turned it off. The Cortez had nine chutes, and though it weighed ~30 tons I felt I could land safely with a far smaller burn. This hunch fortunately proved to be correct, with the chutes slowing the craft down to a very manageable 12 m/s once fully deployed. It took only a short burst before touching down to reduce landing speed to safe levels. After all was said and done, the Cortez was on the surface with 3317 m/s Delta V, slightly more than enough to return to orbit.

With the Cortez lander safely on the surface, the ladder was extended and the crew was prepared for EVA on the surface to complete the final contract and take glamor shots. That was when an astounding discovery was made. I was truly, truly dumbfounded to see this:

I would say I was left speechless, but that would be a lie. I had many words to express my displeasure. I can provide no reasonable explanation for how this happened. This Cortez module was simply loaded from the saved plans from the previous one, on which the command pod was aligned properly. The only modification made was the addition of the extra parachutes. Regardless of how it happened, there was no circumventing the problem as EVA thrusters are not sufficiently powerful to function on Laythe. The idea of letting a Kerbal fall from the pod and then attempt to remove and reattach the ladders was deemed to be too risky as failure would mean having one of the big three stranded on Laythe, or possibly even dying from the fall. No flag would be planted. Considering the necessary time and cost of sending yet another mission against the payout, the contract was simply dropped and penalties paid. With nothing left to do but leave, the Cortez returned to orbit. With such a tiny fraction of it's fuel remaining, the Cortez lander would wait in orbit for Cortez II to perform the rendezvous. While it waited, Bill went on EVA to repack the main chutes in preparation for the return to Kerbin. The two vessels docked successfully and Bob was sent to place the struts. With everything in place the Cortez transferred to a 30,000km parking orbit over Jool, safely between Laythe and Vall.

With the Cortez having sufficient fuel to be recovered intact, a course was plotted for Duna. Upon arriving, aerobraking at 10km followed by a short retroburn was necessary to achieve orbit. The Cortez then transferred to Ike orbit, transferred all remaining fuel into the lander module, and the main engine was left in orbit for potential recovery and re-use. Cortez lander docked with Iota station to take on sufficient fuel to return to Kerbin. After transferring back to Duna orbit, course was set to finally return home. No aerobraking was necessary at Kerbin, but the landing was unfortunately inaccurate due to my neglecting to set the parachutes to an action group and forgetting they cannot be deployed by staging when repacked. This meant I had to manually right click and deploy each chute. The engine was discarded just prior, and splashed down hard in the water just beyond KSC and was destroyed (or would have, it got too far away and vanished). The command module landed safely and all crew were recovered. Despite the failure to plant a flag, significant data was gathered and funds from the two successful contracts had nearly offset the cost of the mission.

Testing also progressed on the Interplanetary missile, finally scoring it's first hit. The missile itself was completely redesigned with a mechjeb unit for Smart A.S.S. guidance as standard SAS proved to be more of a nuisance than help and a proper target (an Icarus model Jet) was deployed at the Old Airfield for testing purposes. After several near misses, two consecutive hits were scored (via reverting) finally proving the concept. The next step will be an orbital delivery system.

Complete mission album

(Missile album available in previous post)

Edited February 25, 2015 by Randazzo

[Randazzo]

 

 

 

---

Objective: Obtain complete scientific profile of Dres

Expedition Crew

Dildard Kerman Pilot Grade 3
Hangas Kerman Scientist Grade 1
Malbrett Kerman Engineer Grade 3

 

 

 

[TABLE=class: outer_border, width: 500, align: center]

[TR]

[TD]Expedition Vehicles[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 550, align: center]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Boone IV

Crew launch and recovery

Modified Boone Mk Ia with additional crew compartment removed.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Mason Exploration Vehicle

Primary Expedition Craft

Assembled from components delivered to Ike orbit as part of the Mason Operation.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Vanguard Rover

Initially designed for horseplay on the Mun, the Vanguard has proven to be remarkably stable, durable, and reliable. Equipped with a full sensor suite and an antenna. KAS winch also included for utility purposes.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Interplanetary Mapping Satellite

Equipped with a complete set of SCANsat modules and a Karbonite detection array.[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

---

 

The Dres expedition began with two sets of launches. IMS I and Vanguard II would launch one week prior to the Dres window, with Boone IV and Mason Engine Module I following 170 days later for the Duna window. All launches and transfer burns were executed sucessfully. The Duna vehicles would arrive almost 2 years before the Dres vehicles, making their management much easier. In preparation for the arrival of Boone and MEM, SSHFT (still in orbit with a full load of fuel left over from the recent Cortez Operation) docked with MCY to provide fuel for the expeditionary vehicles. MEM arrived first, docked, and was refueled. Upon Boones arrival, the MEM would be required to undock to free the port for Boone. The crew transferred from Boone into the smaller of two Mason Lander Modules, MLM I, and docked with MEM to form the completed Mason Exploration Vehicle.

 

 

 

 

MCV was required to perform some minor assembly duties, such as placing strut points on the engine module of the Mason vehicle. In addition, a spotlight was added to the lander to make night landing possible. After MCV had completed it's function and backed away, it was realized that the lander had three radial parachutes still attached. Originally intended to be removed by the MCV crew and stowed in one of it's many KAS containers, Malbrett took matters into his own hands and went on EVA, hurling the parachutes into space. Relieved of their bulk, the Mason vehicle experienced no noticeable gain in Delta V budget.

 

 

 

With all preparations complete, the Mason vehicle transferred to high Duna orbit and made it's transfer burn to Dres. While in transit, IMS and Vanguard II arrived at Dres. IMS commenced mapping operations while Vanguard went into standby on a near-equatorial orbit. Distressingly, both vehicles required 2200+ m/s burns to circularize. If the Mason vehicle required such an immense burn, it would complicate the mission. Research prior to the mission indicated a transfer from Duna would require less than 2000 m/s total for both the ejection and insertion burns. Fortunately it turned out not to be an issue, as upon arrival the required insertion burn was indeed within expected margins at slightly over 900m/s. Utilizing the maps from IMS, what appeared to be a plateau in the northern polar region was chosen as the LZ for it's relatively close location to several other biomes. The Mason vehicle changed into a 90 degree polar orbit, and the Lander module separated and prepared for descent. Having prepared for a night landing, there was no delay to wait for the LZ to be exposed to sunlight.

 

 

While the spotlight did allow me to prevent the Mason lander from slamming into the surface, as you can see, it did nothing to expose the nearby terrain. Daylight would be needed to discern if the vehicle was close to the desired LZ. When the sun finally came up, there was no plateau in sight. We had at least not landed directly on a sheer cliff, and so the expedition proceeded. A flag was placed on a reasonably flat area nearby for Vanguard to aim at on descent. Once the Vanguard rover was on the surface, the crew would drive ~30km to five different biomes to run sensor analysis, collect samples, and take reports. Vanguard touched down successfully, and the expedition set out towards the first waypoint. The terrain was rather treacherous with more time spent floating off the surface than with wheels on the ground. The Vanguard rover proved to be entirely capable of performing in this profile at relatively high speeds of 25m/s with no difficulty. The longest jump I bothered to count was 17 seconds off the surface at a speed of 23.4 m/s. Equipped with two small reactions wheels, the rover could easily change it's attitude and always land on all four wheels at once.

 

 

 

 

After collecting the final samples at what was intended to be the final site, I decided it would be a pity to leave without collecting data from the final biome of "Impact Crater" (I didn't know about "Canyons" until after I left ). Given that the closest crater site was about 180km away, a radical plan was implemented. Considering that the Vanguard had been designed to land on the Mun and return it's crew to orbit under it's own power, it would have ample fuel to do the same here. In fact, it would have more than enough since it wouldn't be required to attain full orbit. The mother of all reckless moves was initiated, and Vanguard lifted high off the surface heading towards the crater. This hop actually went very smoothly (Yes I used mechjeb to land safely in the crater, it's one thing to land from a controlled orbit. This was something else.) and a full survey was done from the Crater.

 

 

 

With that remarkable feat accomplished, it was time to return to the lander. Unfortunately, there was only enough fuel to jump about halfway back. In reality, there wasn't even enough for that. I ran out on descent and fell the last few meters and busted a tire. With an experienced engineer onboard, this was quickly rectified and the Vanguard was underway again. There was one near disaster, while driving through a very very dark valley the ground suddenly dropped out from under the rover and it plunged quite far and fast. I couldn't see the surface to orient the vehicle for impact, and Vanguard blew out a tire on hitting the ground while tilted awkwardly and nearly flipped over. The only thing that saved the crew was the grappling hook on the front. As the vehicle pitched over hard, it clamped on to the ground and prevented the flip. After this incident, I took a longer route that kept the Vanguard on well lit hills and avoided the black pits. The drive was just over 90km and took about an hour and a half, but the crew finally made it back. A mission portrait was taken, and the Mason lander ascended to dock with the engine module.

 

 

 

 

Once assembled again in orbit, Mason set course back to Duna. The recovery portion of the mission was entirely without event. Mason arrived at Ike, delivered the crew back to the Boone, and all vessels were refueled. Boone returned to Kerbin and the crew were safely recovered. The mission was considered to be a complete success until I discovered the Canyons biome (which is a tiny friggin strip on the map), and even without it all biomes known to the program at the time of the operation were fully surveyed. This mission will be chalked down as another success, and now the program prepares to visit Moho. On a side note, for anyone who's followed, the Interplanetary missile project has been cancelled. While it had success at hitting targets from a suborbital trajectory on Kerbin, a full scale missile was deployed to Duna and missed. The difficulty of hitting a relatively tiny target from orbit while under full acceleration is simply too much to overcome. I do not possess the piloting ability to hold the missile on target, nor does SAS, nor Mechjeb, nor any combination of these three. The cost of the full scale missiles is simply too high for repeated attempts.

 

 

Complete Album

 

 

Edited January 12, 2016 by Randazzo