Mun to Minmus accidently.

[KamenRiderzero1]

First off, I should note most of my gameplay mimic's NASA methodology. My in game roster on my primary career mode save is broken up into three crews. Jeb, Bob and Bill make up crew A. I hired an engineer and a scientist to serve under Valentina's command on crew B and three other random lug nuts as crew C.

First, a summery

My current program to Kerban's moons is termed Project Luna, and all missions are named "Lunar x". Lunar One was an ambious attempt to put two probes on Mun at once. One a real lander, the other a cheep "Impactor" built around a large nose cone. But I was unable to slow the horizontal movement and the ship slammed sideways into the ground.

Everything past mission four uses the same Booster, what I've named the "Moho Five". None of the other planet names struck me as something I could name a rocket after. Stage one uses a cluster of 5 S3 KS-25x4 engines connected to two Kerbodyne S3-14400 each. The second stage is powered by a Skipper attached a Jumbo 64 and a X200 to avoid the Jumbo's heat issues. There is also Moho Six for Beyond Kerbin missions, an extra tank on each section of the first stage and the second stage is replaced by two 23-14400s with a Rhino engine.

 

Lunar Two and Four were successfully placed into orbit to scan the surface. Lunar Three missed Mun and was renamed as an "Beyond Kerbin Explorer" class probe

Lunar Five was a successful unmanned soft landing.

Lunar Six sample return mission suffered a "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly" when it snapped in half just about the Stratopause when a SRB sep went wrong.

Lunar Seven-ECRV Test One was an attempt to soft land an automated duplicate of my crewed moon ship, the Emergency Crew Return Vehicle (ECRV), to be used if any of the landings proved to only be "good landings". You know, as in the old saying "A good landing is one you walk away from. A great landing is one where they can use the thing again". The ECRV One ran out of gas in a high ApoMun orbit.

ECRV Two crash landed.

When I got to Lunar Eight it was time for the first crewed mission to orbit Mun. Much like NASA, I was tired of worrying about landing, I wanted to get bodies around Mun.  It was carried out by Crew A.

Crew A returned to Mun on my next flight, Lunar Nine, my first ever (in any save) crewed landing on Mun. After ECRV One got stuck, I switched to using "Saddle Bag" fuel tanks on lander missions to ensure safe return, except ECRV Two, which carried a Converatron. These are not connected to the main fuel supply. The second stage engine is used to begin powered decent. Once it's fuel is gone, I have two X200 main tanks attached to the ship to handle the rest of the trip. The mission plan is once the craft has landed, to transfer fuel from the saddle tanks to the main, and then dispose of the tanks so surface EVAs can begin. You can see the tanks below behind Jeb. On Lunar Nine, everything went smoothly.

 

Next, I intended to send up a rover, naming the Mission Lunar-Sirius One. yes, I borrowed that from Andy Wier, but I don't think he cares. A stage misfired and everything went RUD from there.

now onto the featured event

Lunar Ten was to be Crew B's first trip to the Mun. Everything started nicely. Good clean launch. Then things started to go downhill. First, I misstimed my TMI and put the ship with enough Delta V to escape Kirbin. No matter, not the first time I'd done that, I was still on an intercept course with plenty of gas in the tank to do a retro-burn and park in Mun orbit.

I freely admit I was binge watching "From the Earth to the Moon" on DVD at the same time.

Next I get to the Mun, and burn the second stage engine to depletion. Not enough. I burn the lander engine for a few seconds to try to get a low point I could work with. Then I was intending to warp to the apsis and retro again. But I was distracted and I warped too much and overshot. Panicking slightly for still being on an escape trajectory, I check the maps and noticed, "hey, wait, I'm heading towards Minmus!" I still needed Delta V to get the ship to intercept and ended up going through all my saddle tanks keeping the mains full. I made the mistake of jettisoning one with my solar arrays still extend, and it took one of my three Testusjin 28go... I mean Gigantor solar arrays with it.

When I got to Minmus, I was more worried about landing. I wasn't sure as to my fuel reserves, I had never intended to fly out there and back, and worst case could send an ECRV to pick them up. I entered orbit then right away committed to landing. Not paying attention to where I was going. I ended up on the night side. being careful, I lowered the ship slowly, never more than 20 m/s once the sun had set. As you can see, I wisely included landing lights around the legs. Once I saw the ground was flat I was able to make a nice, soft landing. Unable to see anything around me. I extended my solar arrays and waited/warped till the sun came up.

As the sun rose, Crew B found themselves on the Lesser Flats, about 400 meters north of the southerm slopes. I ran some surface operations, and noted how much fuel I had left, which was plenty. Once everything way packed up. I took off and parked in a low orbit for TKI. I was able to swing back into Low Kerbin orbit with enough fuel for a nice retro burn, slowing enough that re-entry and splashdown was not an issue.

 

My next major project will attempt to land two ships, one carrying Crew A (Lunar Eleven), the other Crew C (Lunar Twelve) on the Mun at the same time.