Bare minimum lander deja vue

[teatime]

I saw a video of a stripped down lander with Kerbals hanging on the side.

I read a short story many years ago in which the main characters had built a rocket out of a water heater. They had been abandoned on an asteroid that had a small mining shack. They fabricated a rocket motor from the water heater, some piping, and valves. They used power from the shack to boil the water and then disconnected the power cables. They had attached a small motor and some sort of weight to use as a gyro. Hanging on to the side of the heater, they pointed it in the general direction of civilization and opened the valve. They skipped over the technical issues about being in a space suit for days.

That was the golden age of sci fi stories; less drama, more action, and the only character development was learning perseverance. It was a very progressive story for something written in or around the 60s. The female character knew how to use a space suit, hand tools, etc., and not once did she fall apart into hysterics.

[Vanamonde]

As this does not appear to be about KSP itself, it has been moved to the off-topic lounge.