Tales From Near and Far - A documentation of exploration

[purpleivan]

In the 13 months that I've been playing KSP... er, I mean, observing the achievements of Kerbalkind, I've accrued a huge catalogue of images that I'd like to share some of, in a series of postings over the coming days (possibly weeks... there's a lot of them), documenting their adventures.

Part 1. Small Steps

Kerbals had long looked up at the night sky and wondered what it would be like to travel to the distant planets that they saw. With the advent of rockets this daydreaming was soon replaced by plans to send Kerbals to the Mun and beyond.

A crucial early step was to send a probe to land on Mun, to see if setting down on the surface was even possible.

Following on from this successful landing, plans to put a kerbal on Mun were stepped up a gear, with testing of rendezvous, maneuvering and docking of a command module and lander pairing, taking place in Kerbin orbit, just days after the landing of the probe.

After further test flights in Kerbin orbit, the decision was made to send a manned flight to Mun. This resulted in the first kerbal footprints on another world, when Jeb Kerman took his first steps onto the surface.

Flush with their success at achieving a manned flight to the Mun, further missions took place, testing rovers on the Munar surface (with a few accidents), constructing basic space stations in Kerbin orbit (then re-entering them, just to see what would happen to them), even a manned landing on Minmus.

With these kerbalkind was taking it's first tentative small steps in exploring the Kerbol system.

In Part 2. the kerbals stretch their legs and head for the planets.

Edited September 1, 2015 by purpleivan

[Gaarst]

Really cool screenshots and ships, but please write bigger ! You're still getting rep !

[purpleivan]

Do you mean that I should use a larger font, or that there should be more text?

Glad you liked the pics.

[purpleivan]

With successful flights to the Mun, Minmus and a growing space station in Kerbin orbit, attention turned to more distant destinations... the planets.

Part 2a. Giant Leaps

The first planet that the kerbals took aim at was Duna. That red dot in the sky had always fascinated them and ground based telescope showed it to have an atmosphere that was dense enough to make a landing easier, but not so much that it would hinder an ascent from the surface.

The Duna Explorer lander and transfer vehicles were dispatched to the KOS (Kerbin Orbital Station) on separate launchers and rendezvoused there to be filled with fuel then docked together, before embarking on a kerbal's longest spaceflight to date. After a journey of 270 days the Duna Explorer arrived at the red planet, only to discover that too much fuel had been consumed entering orbit for them to return to Kerbin.

The solution to this was to launcher another transfer vehicle to Duna, which would provide sufficient fuel for both the landing and the trip home. After undocking from the first, now empty, transfer vehicle, the lander Duna XL rendezvoused with its replacement, which was fat with precious fuel. Once refueled, Duna XL undocked and headed for the surface.

After a parachute assisted landing and the dust clearing from their powered descent, the crew of Duna XL, Herman and Bob Kerman, looked out over the surface of this strange red world through the navigation window of their Mk1 Lander Can. Once all systems had been checked and made safe in case of the need for an emergency lift off, the crew exited the lander and descended to the surface, where they planted their space program's flag in the ochre coloured dust of Duna.

Once scientific observations had been made and samples of the surface dust and rocks collected, Herman and Bob returned to the Duna XL and made a rapid ascent to rejoin its transfer vehicle in orbit. Once docked, the crew hunkered down until it was time to light up the engines of the transfer vehicle for the return flight to Kerbin. After the burn was complete, the crew took their last pictures from the navigation window, of the red world they were leaving behind.

To enter Kerbin orbit, the Duna XL detached from its transfer vehicle before making its insertion burn, eventually rendezvousing again with KOS after its long journey, before returning to the surface to reunite with friends, colleagues and family.

In Part 2b. The kerbals head for Dres.

Edited September 3, 2015 by purpleivan

[Gaarst]

Do you mean that I should use a larger font, or that there should be more text?

Glad you liked the pics.

Yes, write bigger please

[purpleivan]

I've now made all the text larger by one font size. Hope that's better for you.

[purpleivan]

Part 2b. Giant Leaps

The next destination that the KSP set its sights on, was Dres. A rather dreary looking little world could be seen through Kerbins telescopes, but it was chosen regardless.

A daytime launch from KSC in glorious sunshine was the perfect start to what was to become a chaotic mission, due to its use of the new AGU grabber unit as the core of the program's new transfer vehicle configuration; Propulsion Utilising Linear Linkage (PULL). This placed the transfer vehicle in front of the lander, which was dragged it to its destination. This was found it to be a seriously flawed design and after a troublesome flight to Dres was abandoned before the insertion burn into Dres orbit, in favour of launching a supply vessel to meet with the lander and refuel it, before its descent to the surface.

Once refueled the lander made its way down to the surface in a mostly uneventful journey, except for a brief moment of panic when it appeared that it was approaching the surface at too high a speed, however the engines at full thrust averted disaster at the last second.

On the surface the crew of Bill and Erlin Kerman examined the surface and took samples for further analysis. Erlin, a keen runner, also tested it's potential as the location of an extreme marathon race. He believed its grey solitude would be the perfect place for the more philosophical runner to consider there place in the universe. However the low gravity and dusty surface, made for poor running conditions, so the idea was quietly shelved.

With science and fun and games over with, the lander made its way back into orbit, for a reunion with the supply ship to top up with fuel before the trip back to Kerbin.

On its return the capsule streaked across the the dawn skies of Kerbin's the southern oceans, before drifting gently to a touchdown on land.

In Part 2c. the KSP heads for sunny Moho.

[purpleivan]

Part 2c. Giant Leaps

With their next mission, a trip to the inner system planet of Moho, the KSP made the radical choice or loading their vehicle with enough fuel to both get there and to return home again. This resulted in a much quicker although less eventful mission than their previous interplanetary missions.

After a routine flight from Kerbin to Moho, the pilot Yermin Kerman put the Moho Express vehicle into a comfortable 20km orbit, while the engineer member of the crew, Rolley, prepared the lander for the descent.

After a routine flight to the surface, Yermin commented that "we're making this flying to other planets thing look easy", a statement he would come to regret, when on his next mission, that would take him to Eeloo, a serious design flaw stranded the transfer vehicle in Kerbin orbit.

After taking more time to collect surface samples and some observations of Kerbol, the lander made its way back into orbit to reunite with the Moho Express. They then waited for the desired launch window for the return to Kerbin. With the Moho Express' fuel reserves used up in the insertion burn into Kerbin orbit, the lander detached from it and rendezvoused with the KOS.

In Part 2d. the KSP strikes out towards the last of the small planets, Eeloo.

[purpleivan]

Part 2d. Giant Leaps

Following its mission to near the center of the Kerbol system, the KSP's next mission would take its crew to the outermost planet in the system, Eeloo.

Mere days after his return as pilot of the Moho mission, Yermin Kerman was to fly to the outer edge of the Kerbol system. Officially his response to this news was "Sure thing, strap me in". However unofficial sources say that he his reply was actually "What!... I just got back from Moho you $%"£!^& and you want to stuff me back in a ^&$%"^" can again... %&£* that. How about some RnR".

Whatever the truth, come launch day both Yermin and Bob Kerman were at the controls of the vehicle bound for for Eeloo, tha lander of which they nicknamed "Lucky" after Bob's dog. This was a name that they would almost immediately regret when, just after the start of the burn out of Kerbin orbit, it was realised that some bozzo had connected the fuel lines backwards between the the Rockomax Jumbo-64 fuel tanks and the small FL-T200 tanks attached to the nuclear engines of their transfer vehicle. Transferring fuel manually to the small FL-T200 tanks, Yermin and Bob put the vehicle into a circular orbit of Kerbin and waited for the arrival of a replacement transfer vehicle. Once docked with their new ride to Eeloo, an improved transfer vehicle with more fuel, just in case it was required, they set off again for their icy destination.

After a thankfully uneventful trip to Eeloo, Yermin and Bob detached the lander and descended to the surface, deciding not to test the vessels lights system, but instead to pick a nice safe daytime landing site, in case their lander's nickname decided to take a bite out them again.

Once on the surface, even Yermin had to admit it was interesting to stand on the surface, look into the sky and know that all the other planets of their system were "roughly that way". After a bit more of his bar room philosophising, Yermin joined Bob in collecting samples, before heading back into orbit for a rendezvous with the transfer vehicle. After the longest "wait for the window" time in KSP history, the two travellers lit up the transfer vehicle's engines to begin their journey home.

On arrival back in Kerbin SOI, one last snag was to hit their mission, when it was realised that even the additional fuel of their replacement transfer vehicle was not going to be enough to get them into low orbit. So the newly constructed orbital rescue vehicle was sent out to refuel their craft, allowing it to rendezvous with KOS. On disembarking to the station, one of it's crew decided to play a misguided prank on the much travelled Yermin and told him that he had to report immediately for a mission to Eve. The result being a rather predictable brawl, with the unfortunate KOS crewman ending up in medical for a week and Yermin removed from the crew roster for an extended "cooling off period".

The flight of "Lucky" to Eeloo concluded the KSP's series of flights to the smaller planets of the system.

In Part 3. Kerbals make preparations for a journey to the alluring purple planet of Eve.

[purpleivan]

Part 3. Eve Early Test Flights

Following on from their string of landing on the Kerbol systems smaller worlds, attention turned to a manned landing on the intriquing world of Eve.

In order to undertake this kind of ambitious mission, the first step was to get more information on this strange world and to achieve this an unmanned probe was sent to the purple marble. After 195 days the plucky probe entered orbit around Eve, before entering its soupy atmosphere. Atmospheric readings during its decent and at its landing site, some 800m above sea level gave cause for concern, not for the probe's safety, as it had been well prepared, but for the difficulty of returning a lander from the surface through such a dense atmosphere.

Atmospheric composition readings showed there to be no oxygen, so making use of jets to aid an ascent would not be an option. So they would have to do it the hard way... with lots of rocket power!

With information from the Eve probe in their pocket, KSP engineers set about designing a vehicle that was capable of returning a crew from that purple surface. As the first step in getting back into orbit, is to get down to the surface in the first place, a proposed design for an Eve lander was placed in Kerbin orbit and then re-entered.

It was during this part of the test that "letting the interns handle that part of the mission" proved to be a bad idea, when the vehicle deployed its parachutes and immediately broke up into several parts, each gently drifting to the ground, on its own chute.

After this failure, the test was repeated with more of the "struts" that Kerbal engineers had come to admire the utility of. This test was a complete success in that the lander successfully made it to the surface of Kerbin in one piece, however its performance when lifting off from it, accounting for the more difficult conditions that would be encountered on Eve, was a different story.

It just wasn't powerful enough.

With this realisation the Eve lander design team set about the creation of a more advanced vehicle, this time giving the interns the critical role of "keeping the coffee coming".

In Part 4. More testing plus a dummy landing on Eve.

[purpleivan]

Part 4. A Trip to Eve

With the interns busy making coffee while the engineers concentrated on the effort to put a Kerbal on Eve, the KSP soon had a design that they believed would do the job.

After the dismal failure of their previous attempt, many more tests were conducted on the new, more powerful design, including several drop tests to confirm the suitability of the vehicle's parachute system and a massive ladder tower structure running down its side, that would give one brave kerbal the ability to descend to the surface of Eve and almost as importantly, climb back up to their capsule again.

With testing on Kerbin completed it was time to send the lander to Eve.

To achieve this first the lander was launched into a 200km orbit of Kerbin, followed by the launch of the transfer vehicle that would provide the thrust for the return journey to the purple planet. As the final stage of the lander's launcher still had a significant amount of fuel in it's tank, it was decided to leave it attached to the lander, to allow the transfer vehicle to dock with the single port that attached the capsule to the lander, to top up the transfer vehicle's tanks.

With the transfer completed, the lander's launcher stage was detached and the transfer vehicle docked to its intended location, at the rear of the lander. Finally the little capsule was returned to the tip of the combined vehicle.

With the vehicle now complete its eight nuclear engines were lit up and the transfer to Eve was made. After making the necessary burn to put the vehicle in a circular orbit, the lander was detached and fired up its own engines to begin the descent to the surface.

The lander endured a long and spectacular entry through the dense Eve atmosphere before slowing on its many parachutes to a sedate landing on a near flat area of terrain. With the successful landing made, the lander systems were given a quick check over before the testing of the vehicle's surprise feature, detachable ladder towers.

The lander's designers had realised that carrying the two (a second one was included for balance) enormous ladder towers through part of the ascent would be wasteful on fuel, so the recently certified "F for fun" Sepratron 1 mini SRB was used to push the detached towers clear from the vehicle. With the towers now just scrap on the surface the long series of staging and burns to the hoped from orbit was begun.

However it was again found that the hell hole that was Eve's atmosphere, would not allow a Kerbal rocket to leave it's purply grip and at a maximum altitude of 50km the thankfully unmanned capsule began its second descent to the surface that day, although not one slowed by parachutes. The loss of signal from it was reported some minutes later.

With a second failed attempt to build a vehicle capable of returning a capsule to Eve orbit, some engineers at the KSC started to seriously doubt if such a feat was possible, with a small secretive group forming the short lived "goddess of Eve" cult, that had come to believe that a purple haired deity was throwing it's luscious locks around any departing ship, angry at their failure to bring supplies of the famous Kerbin snack bar, "Kerby Krisps", in their distinctive purple wrapping, as an offering.

Following a round of psychiatric evaluations, and the removal of all Kerby Krisps from the vending machines at KSC, the engineers redoubled their efforts to design a lander fit to send a kerbal to Eve.

In part 5. A brave young kerbal lands on the purple planet. A kerbal named Malzor.

Edited October 3, 2015 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Part 5a. Malzor's Folly

With attempts to design a lander capable of a return mission to Eve, crawling towards that goal, a young kerbonaut named Malzor decided to accelerate this process by volunteering to fly the next design, untested, to Eve.

His fellow kerbonauts at first laughed this off as a stunt by their inexperienced colleague, to push his way up the flight roster, expecting him to come up with a last minute excuse not to fly such a high risk mission.

But no such last minute excuse came and Malzor was launched into Kerbin orbit on top of the largest launcher that the KSP had designed to date.

On reaching orbit the fuel of the combined transfer vehicle and lander was topped up for the trip to Eve. However before launch could take place, a fault was discovered with the fuel transfer lines in the lander, that would have prevented Malzor's ascent from the Eve surface. Fortunately a sister vehicle was in the later stages of construction at the time and with the made fix to its fuel lines made, it was launched for a rendezvous with Malzor.

After a tortuous docking of the two huge vehicles (allowing fuel transfer to the replacement vehicle) its pilot for the launch, Herman Kerman and Malzor went EVA to inspect the new vehicle and to shake hands before Malzor's departure. With the two pilots having swapped vehicles, the faulty one, at the hands of Herman, detached from the Eve bound craft and de-orbited.

Malzor took a final look at his old ship from the navigation window before setting his new one on course for Eve.

In Part 5b. Malzor lands on Eve.

[purpleivan]

Part 5b. A Kerbal on Eve

After a flight of 200 days, Malzor entered orbit of the planet that he had been watching grow from a purple spec in space, to the world that now dominated the view from the navigation window.

A burn was made of the transfer vehicle's engine to de-orbit the combined vehicle. The transfer vehicle, which had insufficient fuel for the return to Kerbin, was detached and went through the fire of re-entry along with the lander.

Much to Malzor's relief, all parachutes opened correctly and with the lander hanging level below them, he drifted gently towards the surface.

On touching down, the parachutes were cut free, leaving the lander standing proudly on the surface of Eve. Minutes later Malzor opened the hatch of the Mk1 Lander Can and stepped out onto the ladder. After the long descent down the ladder sections, he finally placed a Kerbal bootprint on the surface of Eve.

With the distance from Kerbin being so great, Malzor was responsible for monitoring his scheduled activities on the surface. He took the obligatory press shots of himself standing in front of the lander, including one some distance away from it, during which he remembered that he'd left the controls set to "auto return", so raced back to it, before it could zoom upward leaving him stranded.

This first error was followed by another that would haunt his career, which was that either due to his excitement of finally being on Eve, or his urge to "get out of this hellhole ASAP" he forgot to place the KSP flag on the surface.

Not realising his error,, Malzor decided it was time to leave and ascended the ladders back to the hatch, slammed it shut and prepared the ship for its ascent from the surface.

In Part 5c. Malzor heads for home.

Edited October 3, 2015 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Part 5c. An ascent and return

With the mass of LV-T45's and Aerospikes blasting below Malzor's feet, the lander crawled away from its landing site. Stages dropped like flies as the engines pushed against the gravity and dense atmosphere of the world Malzor hoped to leave. With no previous test of an Eve ascent with this vehicle, it was uncertain if it, along with Malzor, would become a permanent resident of the planet, in the form of a debris field at the end of an unpowered descent.

After dropping the last of the Aerospikes, Malzor ascended on the last two stages, powered only by pairings of tiny 24-77 "Twitches", but these proved to be more than sufficient for the climb through Eve's upper atmosphere and circularisation of his orbit. Once in orbit the Malzor rendezvoused with the return transfer vehicle, that had been dispatched from Kerbin a few days after his own launch.

After docking with it he waited for the return window, then sped for home.

With the return to Kerbin behind him, Malzor detached from the transfer vehicle and re-entered Kerbin's atmosphere. At his landing site he waited for the heroes welcome that he was expecting, but no such welcome came. Unfortunately his forgetting to "put up that damned flag", had sufficiently irked the senior staff at KSP, as well as the kerbonauts he had leapfrogged in the roster, that his meeting party was a couple of guys with a pickup truck, that he had to ride in the back of, all the way to the KSC.

A said end to the mission that put the first Kerbal on Eve.

In Part 6. A return is made to Eve, this time in greater numbers.

[purpleivan]

Part 6a. The Eve Party Boat

In part due to Malzor Kerman’s oversight in not planted a KSP flag in the soil of Eve, but also due to other kerbonauts desire to visit the strange world, a new mission was started, to send an even larger vehicle to the planet.

With the new lander, nicknamed the “Eve party Boat†due to its capacity for a crew of four, the design team of the KSP went all out. It dwarfed even Malzor’s Eve lander and putting down something the size of a large apartment block on Eve was going to be a real test of the crew’s skills. For that reason it was decided to put their most experienced kerbonaut, Jebediah Kerman, in command of the mission.

As Malzor Kerman felt he had unfinished business on Eve he persuaded the senior management of the program to give him a break over the flag incident and the unlucky member of the previous mission was added to the crew.

The launch of the lander from KSC was an awesome sight, turning daylight into even brighter daylight. After all stages of the massive lifting vehicle were spent, the lander was placed in a 150km orbit of Kerbin. This was followed by the visit of six large fuel vehicles, some sent from the Kerbin Orbital Station (KOS), others launched from KSC. Additionally two transfer vehicles, each equipped with 6 nuclear engines were despatched from KSC to provide the propulsion to Eve.

With the fuel tanks full and the lockers crammed with a variety of tasty snacks, including some Kerby Krisps that a launch technician stashed onboard as a last minute prank, the transfer vehicles ignited their twelve engines and they set off for Eve.

In Part 6b. The Party Has Landed.

[purpleivan]

Part 6b. The Party Has Landed

Prior to their launch from Kerbin, two robotic rovers had been dispatched to Eve to search for a high altitude landing site, which would provide a reasonably large and flat area for the landing, plus a high altitude location for the ascent to orbit. After months of searching, one of the rovers found a suitable site, at an altitude of 6000m and was parked at one end of the plateau to act as a positional marker for the manned landing.

On their arrival in Eve orbit, Jeb and his crew acquired the beacon signal from the rover and set about preparing the lander for its descent to the surface. The first action was to transfer all fuel from one of the transfer vehicles to the other, which would later be their return vehicle to Kerbin. Secondly the transfer vehicles were detached and the one which was not required for the return trip was pushed into a slightly lower orbit using its RCS.

Finally the time came to fire up the engines beneath them in the lander and at that moment the crew realised just what kind of machine it was they were riding. The massive collection of Mainsail’s, Skippers and Aerospikes blasted furiously during the de-orbit burn, quickly putting them on course for the location of the rover.

After several minutes the friction with Eve’s dense atmosphere turned the “Party Boat†into a massive fireball, streaking along the equator. Once the vehicle had decelerated to a safe velocity, the enormous collection of parachutes were released, carrying the vehicle gently down towards the landing site. But the descent was not gentle enough for Jeb to be happy with it, when the aim was to set down a 1200 ton lander, so at the last moment he blasted the engines to bring the vehicle in for the softest of landings.

In Part 6c. The Party Begins.

Edited October 3, 2015 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Part 6c. The Party Begins.

Once the dust had cleared and the vehicle made safe, Jeb’s crew scrambled for the hatch, each wanting to be the first onto the ladder. Jeb’s experience of similar situations on previous missions gave him an advantage and his boots were the first to make it to the ladder. Finally all four of the crew were making their way down the rungs to the surface.

Once on the surface, the job of erecting the flag was Jeb’s as the commander of the mission, but at the last moment he handed it to Malzor, to let him do the honours, which he did with a good hard stab at the purple soil and a muttering of something that had to be bleeped from the TV broadcast.

With the flag planting out of the way, Jeb circled the lander to take a look at the rover that had guided them to their small, high altitude landing site. When he reached it he was shocked to find that the lander had set down within half a metre of the little (in comparison with the huge lander) rover.

With the sightseeing and surface photo opportunities dealt with, the crew made its way back up to the capsule, stopping briefly on the two main ladder sections to take some†Kabbey Road†style group shots, before re-entering the “Hitchhiker†module. Malzor then closed the hatch, chuckling slightly insanely as he did so.

In Part 6d. A Triumphant Return.

- - - Updated - - -

Part 6d. A Triumphant Return.

With the lander prepared for liftoff, the full fury of its 28 engines was unleashed on its landing site, as well as the four landing structures that were detached at launch. With Jumbo-64 fuel tanks being dropped off like rapidly drunk, empty beer cans, the huge vehicle clawed its way upward through the Eve soup.

Once the Mainsail and Skipper stages had done their work, the center tank, powered by four Aerospikes, continued the struggle of might against matter. With that stage finished, a pair of Mk-55 “Thuds†carried the vehicle through the upper atmosphere, leaving the final stage , powered by two tiny “Twitch†engines to power the rendezvous with the return ship.

Once safely in orbit, the crew took a look at their landing site via the camera on the rover (which had been moved to a safe distance prior to their ascent) to see the mass of wreckage they had left behind on the surface, with the KSP flag standing proudly next to it. After docking with the return vehicle, the partying began in earnest, lasting until the time came for the burn back to Kerbin.

On their arrival in Kerbin orbit, the Hitchhiker module detached from the return vehicle and burned the Twitches to de-orbit. The blue hues of the Kerbin sky blended to the searing orange of re-entry, until finally it was time to release the chutes that brought them to a safe return to Kerbin.

With this mission, the KSP gained the experience, confidence and large cadre of risk taking kerbonauts, that they would need for their future efforts to thoroughly explore the Kerbin system. Searching for extractable resources, anomalous features and even signs of other forms of life.

But that’s another tale.

The end.