First Moon Landing

[Nich]

I had done a couple moon landings on normal mode and was ready to start farming the moon for science when I decided Normal was just too easy

Advanced to career mode expert

Objective

Land on the moon with 2 small science bays 2 goo containers and 1 temp probe 1 pressure probe take a soil sample and plant a flag

Handy Caps

No Mods

No kerbal deaths

With only 3 of the of the 4th tier technologies unlocked (tundra and badlands crashes my client)

Limited to 30 parts per lift off

At the end of my campaign I was down to 120k credits. My lander was the last piece to get into space. Sadly the lander alone took 20 parts so that left just 10 to get it into space and to my space station for refueling (150k circular orbit).

Lander was extremely un-aerodynamic and cost 21k to launch. I launched it un-maned, which is a good thing because it took 3 tries to get it to space and had no parachute. Docked with space station at 150k with 3% fuel left. Transferred to the Munar orbital station (28k circular orbit) and arrived with 22% fuel remaining. At this point I am down to 60k credits and cant afford to lose this lander (all orbital stations are low of fuel and will need resupply soon). I opt to take my pilot with retrograde hold down to the moon rather then a scientist. She lowers the orbit to 6.5k circular and executes a de-orbit maneuver above the the North East crater. She touches down at 4 m/s on a 15 degree slant which the lander handles beautifully, didn't even hint at tipping over. Still had a little more then 70% fuel remaining so if I had a scientist I could have hopped to another biome. Ran all the experiments, planted a flag, took a soil sample, crew report, and eva report. Launched into orbit and returned to the Munar space station where I transferred experiments to the return pod. loaded the pod with 15% fuel and burned for Kirbin. Did the most beautiful aerobrake at 35k which reduced ap to 45k which meant I was captured in a single pass.

Outcomes

Year 1 day 42

100k for landing on the moon

208 science plus reports and previous science left me at 258 total science to spend for some nice upgrades

My scientist got level one (which he didn't have for some reason.)

Still have enough fuel on the station for 1 more Munar landing, just waiting for a mission that requires me to go down there.

Only failures of the mission

Time warp hosed me on a rendezvous so I ended up wasting 2 days orbiting Mun playing catch up. (didn't want to waste any more fuel)

Took off at the wrong time to orbit with the station around kirbin spent 5 days waiting to catch up (had no fuel to spare as I docked with 3%)

Accidentally collected both goo containers so I lost that experiment, still have the extra science bay at least

Failed to take a screen shot of my first expert moon landing :'(

[Scotius]

Do you have any pictures? I like to see lander projects of other people - especially early in the career, when there is not much wiggle room

[Nich]

It does have one flaw that the moment of inertia is not symmetrical so when you pitch forward it turns left and when you pitch back it turns right.

Not sure how to share pictures have to find an image hosting service

[Nich]

[Nich]

So I went back for a second trip. This time was rather ambitious and brought a scientist. Landed in the Munar canyons. came in high because of the surrounding mountains. Preformed the de-orbit maneuver at 6500m. Did not realize how much fuel I had burned. Did a hop to the munar midlands. Attempted to go back to Munar station and ran out of fuel about 1km away drifting away at 2 m/s. Sent the return module to pick her up and she was quite happy.

Lander preformed amazingly landing on a 30 degree incline and not a hint of tipping. Returned 545 science. it is now officially time to farm the Mun. Contracts have increased available funds to 600k plus so it is finally time to upgrade the VAB.

Plans call for a new Munar orbiter with a science lab and 4 scientist to man it on a polar orbit with a better lander(with a light for landing in the dark and fly by wire avionic hub for various modes of control )

[Geschosskopf]

Nicely done. And welcome aboard

[Nich]

Well it is a sad day. I had put the new science lab in a polar orbit. Then wanted to get Bob out there so I sent him out in a command module trasnporter. Forgot that he needed to go to a polar orbit and forgot the orbit doesn't rotate with the moon. Half way to the moon I managed to adjust his orbit to make it polar but he had about an 80 degree inclination. Attempted a very eccentric inclination adjustment at the edge of the Munar SOI but ran low on fuel and his pa had dipped into the moon. Spent the remaining fuel to get Bob in a survivable orbit. After this feasco I had one more scientist to put into orbit with the station. Waited until the moon was at the right position and inserted my self into a beautiful matching orbit. Check the inclination...... 179 degrees ......... I had inserted turning the wrong way. Luckily this was a resupply vehicle as well so I have plenty of fuel for the 120 m/s delta-v required at AP. Dock at the station with a decent amount of fuel (not as much as I had hoped) and double my science output.

[Wallygator]

Congratulations. Nice simple designs - I like it. Curious about your orbital station - any pics of that? Would be good to see and to add context.

Keep up the good work!

[Nich]

So it has been an exciting couple of days. A resupply ship was sent to rescue Bob at a cost of 26k. Little does he know that will be coming out of his pay. I believe I discovered (for my self) you need power on both ships for docking ports to work. Bob was out of juice and I came in beautifully (maybe 20 degrees off) dead center at .2 m/s. Bobs ship went tumbling into space. Tried for 15-20 minutes to dock before I realized the docking ports were not working and it is probably due to power or lack there of. It was ok though the resupply ship had an empty command capsule. Bob just went on an EVA and left the dead ship behind.

The administration finally loosened their purse strings and approved funding of the new VAB. With the removal of the 30 part limitation it is time to upgrade our Munar Lander. Added Fly By Wire (FBW), a landing light, a battery, some extra boosters and control surfaces. Bob watched the whole thing via webcam at the MSS. Being the most junior on the MSS Bob called dibs on first ride. Launch, refuel, transfer, orbital alignment and final docking went without a hitch. Jeb was super excited about FBW as the ass hat who designed the MSS only gave it 6.56 e/s and 1500 total e. Pro tip 10 e/s and orbit period /3*5 total e are bare minimums. For example my 30 minute orbit requires 3000 total e. Boy was Jeb pissed when he found out that you could not target the Sun. He went on an EVA and kicked the FBW. After cooling down he realized you can target Muh which is close enough and gives all panels exposure. Once that was sorted out Bob decided it was time to test out the new features on the lander. He lowered his orbit and made an approach on the Munar Poles (North). Must have been 100 meters away from smacking a mountain at 500+m/s, but once he passed that the retrograde hold and landing light made his first landing trivial. His only issue was the light needed to be brighter as by the time he saw it on the ground 50 m/s would have been a crash. This was a worst case of a shadow landing. Next he hopped to the Polar Crater then then back to MSS. Bob sure does like to cut it close when he docked he only had 1.16/180 kg of liquid fuel left. Science from the mission topped off the data in the MPL at 497. Looks like those boys are going to be busy for a while. Bob took the duplicate reports back to Kirbin for 205 science and his first shiny star.

There was one debockle as the captain of our tourism division took off for a flyby of Minimus and left all his passengers on the launch pad. It was not a total lose has he did have some basic experiments to run and EVA reports to collect. He has been suspended without pay pending investigation as to whether any kerlcohol was involved. The NEW captain of tourism promptly left with all his passengers and sober as can be. The engineer(not bill) is now also under investigation as during ascension the pilot noticed the stages were all out of order.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Nich

[Nich]

Well after loads of research it was more likely the port was bugged.... good to know for future reference anyways.

[Mister Dilsby]

I've had ports get bugged as well, especially when I disconnect and reconnect or miss docking on the first go and have to try again. Bill explains the procedure for fixing them on this page.

[lajoswinkler]

Every first landing on Mun is special.

[Nich]

So the stations are nothing to be impressed with just basic functional things atm

MSS on a polar orbit

MS on equatorial orbit

KS around Kirbin

[Wallygator]

Your stations are functional, and that is all that matters.

The port bugging is something that I think we have all experienced. Sympathies.

Your 1x6 panel usage is well done - effective but not interfering with your docking. Your source of control authority can be improved as you advance through the tech tree, but regardless I think you are doing really well.

Good form ol' Chap!

[Nich]

It is a very exciting day. With science from the Minimus fly by and the MSS we now have entered the nuclear age. May I present the crown jewel that Jeb insisted be named after him. The JSS

[lajoswinkler]

One kind suggestion - there is absolutely no need for 4 LV-N engines given the size of your orbiter. Even one is an overkill.

[Nich]

bah my immage hosting isnt working. I have 4 of the 6 docking bays occupied. With the additional attachments is 4 engines still overkill? The burn time to minimus was 3m 21s so it had quite a low TWR for what i was used to. I had to stop after 2 minutes to let the engines cool down before finishing the burn.

[Mister Dilsby]

With the additional attachments is 4 engines still overkill? .

It depends on the mass/weight of the ship. You can land and take off reliably with a TWR (thrust to weight ratio) of about two. I'm not sure what the minimum is, but a skilled pilot using the "constant altitude" method can land on a TWR closer to 1.

Your weight in kN is the mass of the ship in tons * the acceleration due to gravity in m/s2. Kerbin's is 9.81, Minmus is 0.491, Mun is 1.63.

So if you want to land on Minmus, a single LV-N engine (60kN thrust) is sufficient for a ship massing up to 60 tons: W= 60t*.491=29.5t, 60kN/29.5 = ~2. Around Kerbin that 60t ship will have a TWR of about 0.10. You may want a higher TWR for a comfortable transfer from LKO, or if you need the nuclear stage to circularize Kerbin orbit, but that's the basics of figuring out how much you need and how much is too much.

[lajoswinkler]

For changing orbital parameters, you can go with TWR of 0.1, there really isn't need for more. Plan the maneuver and let it burn.

Kerbal Engineer Redux - try it. It should be stock.

[Nich]

The reason I used Nuculear for LKO was because I wanted the station to have nukes for my station at minimus. With the 140t limit i didn't have any budget to spare for a circulation stage. Hell I sent the thing up there with only 2/3 fuel and then seent up a refueling ship to top her off before the voyage.

Most of my burns to the Mun and Minimus had been 1 minute 30 secondsish. I was rather surprised when the burn to minimus was 3 minutes 13 seconds.

So 4 engines is 60*4=240kn or 240 kg*m/s/s

delta v was 855 m/s

855m/s / 193 s = A = 4.43 m/s/s

F=MA

so (240 kg *m/s/s) = F

M = 240/4.43 = 54.175 kg which which means my ship only ways .054 tons? Where did I screw up?

- - - Updated - - -

Oh newtons are kg not g so force is 240,000 kg*m/s/s giving a final average ship mass of 54 tons

bah ya an inline nuke would have been a lot nicer and I am guessing heating would have been the same just over a longer burn, still not sure if I would have been able to get it into space with the 10 tons it would have saved. Nice to know landing on minimus wont be an issue

Oh and if the engine takes 1.53 kg/s * 4 * 193s then I burned 1181 kg of fuel which sounds about right but not right at the same time. That means my ship started at 54.55 and ended at 53.45. Guess all that JUNK adds up. I though I had a lot higher fuel weight percentage.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Nich

[Mister Dilsby]

60kN* 4 = 240,000 kg*m/s2

[Nich]

Well it was a rather boring week. On MSS they were standing outside looking for something new to land on but everything in the orbit seems to have already been researched thoroughly. KSS had reached Minimus and is preparing and scouting for suitable landing locations. Science transmitted back to Kirbin from KSS paid for badly needed Tech to resupply KSS with more liquid fuel. Initial designs appear wobbly but Bill has some ideas Rescued more DAM pilots. Why do scientist never need rescuing? The administration wanted to land KSS on Minimus after some outside sources told them they have more then enough TWR to accomplish this however the engineers were quick to point out the lander and other pods had no way of docking in a gravity environment and would run out of fuel quickly. Finally engineers began development work on the First Munar Base however with out powered wheels this proves to be an interesting task. One team lead by Jeb says just land the entire base as one piece. The other side lead by Bob wants to play around with small aircraft wheels

Edited June 11, 2015 by Nich

[Nich]

KSS in space on the way to Minimus. I have 2 return pods, a science lab, and lander docked for the burn.

First landing on Minimus. Lander is WAY over built. It is the same lander as for the Mun. Had to intentionally tip her over to get sun exposure. Found a way to get some good science. Transmit everything back and then re-sample once for MPL and Once for return pod. Should maximize my science pretty quickly.

Made a liquid tanker to resupply KSS. I just now realized it has no Mono prop supply Guess I will have a return pod transfer fuel if I cant dock it.

And in new news Jeb has bankrupted the Kerbal Space program. 6 failed launches of the following Minimus base means captain of tourism needs to get busy and get us back in the black.

[lajoswinkler]

You might want to install this because temperature gauges are causing a memory leak.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/120731-1-0-2-DMagic-s-Modlets-Latest-Update-Portrait-Stats-v3-0-6-10-2015

[Nich]

OK well now I am pissed. I reduced the base weight to 19 tons and put it on my platform that normally launches 24 tons to an initial AP of 45,000m, a center core that reaches 110,000 with 1000m/s velocity at AP and the circularizes on a poodle with 50% fuel to spare. This base only made it to 30,000m initial AP, center core managed to get to 150 but with very little horizontal velocity and the nuke was unable to circularize. The final kick in the pants, 2 of our best scientist and our best pilot hopped on a test flight that was supposed to be unmanned. The agency reports that recent attempts at a base on Miniums has depleted nearly all funds and pending failed contracts will thoroughly bankrupt them as they do not have the funds or personnel need to complete them. The spokes man for KSA officially announced their plans to file for chapter 11 and released an official appologie to the families of additional kerbinaughts who will not be able to return home. Finally he added we blamed this program failure entirely on C7 aerospace and the difficulties trying to design around the mk2 liquid fuel tanks.

I plan on trying again on Normal mode with the goal on Manned base (with science labs) on both the Mun and Miniums within 100 days, No Kerbal deaths, No mods other then Kerbal alarms (this should be part of vanilla)

On a more personal note I would like to thank you for your support and encouragement on this attempt at an expert play through. If you would like to follow my progress feel free to request it otherwise I will not bore you with the trivial stuff until I am caught up with my current expert career.