Disaster makes for an Awesome story. - well, to me anyway!

[GarrisonChisholm]

I finally had my first manned landing attempt yesterday, and it succeeded- but what made the story more incredible was the near tragedy that preceded it.

The Program was in trouble. Too many expensive designs and bad contracts, with much Air-vehicle trial and error expense. After a Failed attempt to take atmospheric surveys on the far side of Kerbin which only succeeded in visiting one of the poles for the first time, the agency was down to 41k Funds. It was clear that the next contract was Make or Break- it had to succeed, and it had to make a profit. Through judicious care, luck, and a grant, a Munar Pass Tourist contract was accomplished, granting us just enough to try for the Program saver. I had 4 missions which, if I could pack them all into one mission, would net me over 200k- Planting the Flag on Minmus, returning safely from a MMP, getting Minmus space Science, and testing a part on a hyperbolic trajectory. So the engineering staff got to work. Valentina would take a specially designed lander out to Minmus, and once she had her maximum energy outbound she would disengage Interplanetary Probe 1 which would then escape Kerbin and test the part on its way to (hopefully) some science. The Lander was designed with 4 radial fuel tanks, with one radii being the Probe and the other being an over-sized fuel tank to balance mass.

Valentina set out on the 255 part-count rocket. She couldn't get a rendezvous with Minmus straight out of orbit, but we made for a close pass figuring to correct half-way there. Objective One was accomplished by releasing the probe and setting it out on an inward trajectory to the orbit of Eve- there was no immediate encounter, but we could look at that in the future. The Part was tested, contract accomplished.

Now, half-way out, Valentina plans to make the correction burn to get her into Minmus orbit (maybe some of you have already guessed what's coming). The engines are fired- & Kouston we have a problem! The mass of the Lander is so out of balance without the probe attached that lander violently rotates through about 1400 degrees before the engines can be killed. Suddenly we have a crisis- Valentina will be stranded in a high eliptical orbit if we can't burn for a valid re-entry profile, but the radial tank holds nearly 2/3's of the remaining fuel- if it were detached we might not have the fuel to bring her home. Unfortunately the engineers cannot advise Valentina how to re-balance the fuel. So what was found during trouble-shooting tests on the free-return trajectory back is that with the engines on the lowest setting, SAS & RCS could just barely compensate. The orbit was lowered to re-enter the atmosphere, and Valentina was saved. However despite the successful test, due to the expensive rocket this was a "treading water" exercise; we still needed a big return.

This sets the stage for Jebediah's heroic first landing; two biomes visited, much science returned, plus a satellite dropped into orbit. It was a hair-raising return as on re-entry Jeb started to skip back out at 34k, however his orbit started lowering again at about 62k, so he returned successfully.

This is *everything* that is enjoyable and fun about KSP; a program down to its last launch saved from disaster & bankruptcy to achieve heroic success. Thank you Squad! Now I am looking forward to trying to manage an Eve encounter burn with my first interplanetary probe when I get home from work.

[Vanamonde]

Thread: moved to Mission Reports. Pictures: requested.

[GarrisonChisholm]

Alas, I am inept upon how to capture pictures; I will spend some time Googling the function and see what I can find. The only pictures I have are the ones of Jeb's successful landing, and they are on my phone taken "old school". I do not have any pictures of the amusingly out-of-balance lander that Valentina was piloting.