Disaster on the Mun!

[wired2thenet]

Attention Mr. and Mrs. Kerman, and all the ships at sea in space!

Flash! Three intrepid Kerbonauts, after experiencing a major malfunction, have been stranded in Munar orbit while attempting to investigate the Munar Analomy at Silisko Crater!

Dateline: The Mun

KSC, in conjunction with the local Kerbal government, is mounting a bold and ambitious rescue mission to recover Munolith Investigator 1c from low Munar orbit. Though this is frought with extreme danger, Jebediah Kerman, who is currently on the Mun investigating Munolith Anomaly 1, had this to say: 'I\'ve looked at the plans. They\'re bold. They\'re sound. They\'re very Kerbal.'

While trying to re-establish my Munolith bases after .15 Kerbalized my persistence file, I began a new and more efficient program to take Kerbonauts to the Munoliths. A new rocket was born, utilizing the Cuttlefish Delivery Vehicle and Bigtrak 'Puddle-Jumper' rover designs by chickenplucker (by Jeb, I love that design!). After launching Munolith Investigator 1c to Munar orbit (Kerbals don\'t talk about 1a or 1b ... or the Kraken they encountered >), I sent another orbiter to re-establish contact with the Munar Anomaly at Silisko Crater. Once I was able to re-establish its position, I switched over to the Investigator, only to have a catastrophic malfunction destroy most of the delivery vehicle and lander ... ie, I was left with the pod, a mechjeb, and a parachute ... no engines, no fuel, and no RCS, approximately 12km above the Munar surface in a slightly eccentric orbit.

Thinking quickly, I decided to embark on my first ever rescue mission. It would require a vehicle capable of going to the Mun, establish a rendez-vous and capture, and then return to Kerbin. So I thought, Hey! Why not try the Cuttlefish for this mission, slightly modified. I hadn\'t seen anyone else use it in such a capacity, so I figured I\'d give it a whirl.

After many days of trying to figure out the mechjeb Rendez-Vous module, I decided to pretty much wing it. It took a GREAT MANY quicksaves before I got my orbit perfected to intercept the wayward craft. And after a series of catastrophic disasters practice runs in a simulator, I finally managed to do it!

This is the story of Rescue 1, Investigator 1c, and our six brave Kerbonauts:

Munolith Investigator 1c Flight Crew:

• 
  [li]Henrie Kerman[/li]
  [li]Gusble 'Gussie' Kerman[/li]
  [li]Dunvin 'Dun-Dun-DUUUUN' Kerman[/li]
  

Rescue 1 Flight Crew:

• 
  [li]Hensey Kerman[/li]
  [li]Sidrick 'Spidey-sense' Kerman[/li]
  [li]Fredrey Kerman[/li]
  

The Cuttlefish Modified Delivery Vehicle:

The Cuttlefish Modified Rescue Vehicle:

Note: The 'Cuttlefish' legs were removed for this picture

And the video of the journey:

(Side note 1: I did not realize that my video recorder was picking up audio of a Minecraft Let\'s Play series featuring Two Awesome Gamers, Whitelight and Jaeza. During editing, I heard the commentary, and decided to leave it in pending a couple of modifications to the audio track, as it sort of fit .)

(Side note 2: Some of the scenes had to be recreated due to unforeseen glitches, HD space, and corrupted video files. I\'ve tried to make subsequent recreations as faithful to the original mission as possible, but in some instances, this was impossible. Some artistic license was required, due in part to the cinematic-esque quality I wanted to capture. The actual capture was never caught on video ... someone forgot to push the record button :-[.)

Part 1/2:

This retrieval mission - Well, sort of ...

Note: Due to the extra RCS tanks, it was required to fire up RCS thrusters in order to get this beast off the ground.

http://youtu.be/XKKwh9lSmig

Part 2/2:

The return mission - Well, sort ... well, you get the idea ...

Note: Most of this was a recreation of the original event.

http://youtu.be/1kGm6nNtJOc

Soundtrack from KSP sounds folder: editorLoop01.ogg

Taps, US Army

)

And yes, I managed to land that close to KSP by accident, although in the original mission I was a bit more east of there (about 1-2km IIRC) on both occasions. Rescue 1 splashed down approximately 50m from Investigator 1 in the original ... would have been more Kerbal if I\'d managed to nail them

On a completely side-note ...

rendez-vous is HARD!

[Kosmo-not]

Rendezvous is easy.

Says me.

[wired2thenet]

Rendezvous is easy.

Says me.

I studied your chart extensively when it was posted, just never put it into practice, but if I remember correctly, it\'s mainly geared for Kerbin rendez-vous events, rather than Munar ones. Although I finally managed it, it was still a pain in the Kerbal-behind to do at 12km with only a 3rd warp available. Only saving grace was I had a rover on the ground to help speed things up.

Btw, you\'re chart only covers circular (or nearly circular orbits), doesn\'t it? How about eccentric ones. I had a difference of about 3-5km in the vessel\'s orbit that I had to deal with, and it took a GREAT many orbits to get it right.

I\'m more visually oriented (being an amateur artist), so I\'m waiting to find someone to do a perfect rendez-vous video tutorial to help explain and show it in action, against a number of scenarios. Until then, it\'s trial and error for me.