Project Excalliber: Duna, Jool, Sarnus, and back

[colin_in_space]

A mission... from Kerbin, to Duna, then Jool, exploring a few moons, then off to Sarnus. 

 

Mission Duration: 10 to 15 years. 

 

Parameters: An intrepid crew of 8 kerbals, four veterans and four relative newbies. Playing in sandbox, trying not to cheat : ) But autosaves OK because nobodys perfect and some things need testing. 

 

I am not an accomplished writer so expect a lot of pics over dialoge : )

But I do have some interesting bits planned for near the end. Also, as it is summer, I may be a bit slow to post. Vacation and all that. 

Edited July 21, 2016 by colin_in_space
felt like it.

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 0: A history

 

25 years ago…

Instructor: So, after its 1000 year journey, Horizons entered orbit of the planet they named Kerbin with its 8000 Kerbals aboard. Who can tell me when that was?

Female Student: That was 95 years and 327 days ago!

Instructor: Perfectly correct Valentina. Our forbearers traveled through space for 100 lifetimes, in status, to reach a new safe home.

Young Jeb: Someday, I’ll fly through that sky like they did! I’ll break the bounds of the planet and and walk upon the Mun!!

Other students: Hahahahaha

Instructor: Jebediah, you know very well that we don’t fiddle with that stuff anymore! We need every Kerman available to make life better for every Kerman on this planet! We all have to do our part.

Young  Jeb: What about Gene Kerman? They say he built a rocket engine and it reached space!!!

Young  Valentina: COOL!!!!  

Instructor: Don’t listen to that silliness! It is the duty of every Kerbal to help make this a better planet for all of us. To help repopulate. To build and be productive.

Young Jeb: And what about adventure?? That about excitement, and dreams, and reaching out! Like our ancestors did!

Instructor: Oh, Jebediah, get your head out of the clouds! Yes they say Gene Kerman built a rocket. But he also rebuild Reactor 2. And now we have more power than ever. We’re expanding into four new settlements! Why, Bill’s father is laying out the power grid for settlement 8 as we speak!

Mean Student: Yeah Jeb what has your dad done lately? Fallen over drunk lately in that junkyard he runs?

Jeb: HEY <jumps up about to start a fight>

Instructor: OK enough of that!

Young Bill: Jeb’s dad does an important job, salvaging parts we can use!

Young Jeb: <Sullen silence…>

Instructor: Ok class open the files relating to the founding of Settlement Prime….

Young Jeb: <stares out the windows, into the clouds>

 

 

15 Year ago, an old Barn…

 

Gene: OK Jeb, the pod is secure. I think Everything is ready. Lets start the countdown.

Jeb: OK, let’s do this!

Gene: First manned Rocket, launch flight in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4

Jeb: <pulls lever>

Rocket ROAR!!!!!! <PHwwaaaaaaaaaararaarrararrarrrrrrrr>

Jeb: WHOOOOOOOwhohoho!!!

Gene: Dammit Jeb keep the nose up!!

Jeb: Weeeee!! 25 kilometers and going up!!

Gene: OK engines cut out in 3,2,1… burnout.

Jeb: Separating engine stage! Apoapsis 45 KM, in 25 seconds.  

 

 

11 Years Ago, old KSC VAB

Gene: Bill, we can do it. We can build a rocket which can reach Minmus. Once there, landing is easy. Getting back isn’t so bad, as long as the ablative holds on re-entry.

Bill: yeah, but where the hell will we get the parts??  The Council won’t fund your rocket experiments any more. They say they are useless. How the hell are we gonna pay for this?

Gene: I have an idea. Jeb’s dad just died, leaving Jeb the old Junkyard…

Valentine: No no no, Jeb’s crazy, he’ll never let us do this without him! We can’t let get involved again…

Gene: We have no choice. And Valentine, you’re a good pilot, but Jeb is amazing.

Bill: Amazingly reckless!!!!

Gene: Still though, he’s got guts, he’s got skills, and he may have the part’s we need. Valentina, he likes you. Take the jet and fly over to the island airfield. He has been playing with the biplanes over there.

Bill: Ho Boy, this will not end well….

 

12 years ago, Mission Control

Gene: KKrrT, Mission Control to Mun-1. You should be 3 minutes to touchdown, but I am reading unusual Telemetry. We show you under the surface of the Mun.

Radio: KKrrT… um mission control, we have touchdown. Sort of…

Gene: KKrrT, Mun-1 please explain!

Radio: KKrrT Umm, this is Bill. Well, Jeb went ahead and change the landing protocol. He always wanted to do the suicide burn.

Gene: KKrrT WHAT THE HELL!!!! And why do we show you Under the surface instead of on it???

Radio: KKrrT well things didn’t go as Jeb planned. We may have landed… umm… upside down. We’re  a bit buried here.

Gene: KKrrT GOSH DARN IT!!!! Is everyone OK?

Radio: KKrrT this is Bob, everyone’s OK. Well, Jeb is laughing hysterically. Bill’s fine. I’m a bit shaken up but I’ll live.

Gene: KKrrT What about the ship? Is the command pod’s hull still intact??

Radio: KKrrT This is Bill. Command pod looks intact. I don’t think we’re leaking air. I think we can dig ourselves out, but I have no idea how we are going to get the ship back upright.

Gene: KKrrT OK OK, figure out what your situation is, and send me a report. We’ll work the problem from down here.

Radio: KKrrT This is Jeb, I’m gonna go out and take a walk. I’ve got a flag to plant!

Gene: sigh….

 

9 years ago, atmosphere of Duna

Bob: AHHHHHH!!!!

Jeb: Deploying parachutes in 3,2,1… drogue shoots out!

Bob: Whoa, ahhh… Jeb, just don’t land us upside down again!

Jeb: Relax old man. We’ll be on the surface in a few minutes and you can start on those magnetic readings while I go grab some surface samples.  First on the Mun, now the first ever Kerbal to ever set foot on Duna!

Bob: This is a historic moment, as long as we survive and you get us back up!

Jeb: you worry so much old man! We’ll be fine! Main chutes deploying… now!

Bob: Ooooof!

Jeb: 10 seconds… burning for landing… now! … Touchdown!

Bob: Red Rocket to command ship, we have landed safely.

Radio: KKrrT This is Valentina, good job. We’re stable up here. Bill is confirming your position… looks like you are right on target! We’ll update mission control.

 

6 years ago:

Gene: Jeb, I am sorry. The Eve mission has been cancelled. It's just to expensive, the lander is too damned heavy. The council wn;t approve the mission. They have threatened to shut us down if we move ahead! 

Jeb: Dammit Gene, we can do it! I've got the parts, my boys are savaging all over for spare bits. We can do it!

Gene: No Jeb, the Eve mission is dead. It's a nice dream, but there is nothing for us on Eve. We landed a prob, and you wouldn't be able to stay on the surface for more than a few hours, And the winds make it too risky, the gravity and atmosphere too thick. Yeah, we can do it, but it's to expensive and too risky. The council won't agree. besides, I have Bill working on another plan. 

Jeb: But Gene! 

Gene: No Jeb. it's over. besides, I've got another plan. Bill is working on something big. I think I can get the council to keep supporting the KSC, but we need to show them the benefits. In the mean time, we need a few more orbital launches. 

Jeb: You don;t need me for going up a few hours at a time. I need to fly, to go places, to do things, to step on new worlds! 

Gene: You will Jeb, but the council let us build this new KSC for science and engineering projects. For now, that's what we need to focus on. Stay patient,  Bob's working the science program, learning more every day. We just build a gravity monitory thingamabobby, Bob says its really exciting, and the orbital lab is generating exciting results! Just be patient!

Jeb ...

 

2 Years Ago:

Bill: We got the Vasmir engines working, but even with the capacitors, we can't keep enough power flowing. The new panels and the nuclear generators are too big, and they don't provide enough thrust. With the amount of fuel we'd need, I don't think we could even reach Duna, let alone... 

Gene: Gosh Darn... I had really hoped. I ran the specs on the nuclear engines the other day, and I don't think they are a viable option either. We'd need too much fuel, and too many engines. It may be doable.... but... I don't think so. 

Bill: So maybe the mission is an impossible dream after all. 

Gene: ...

Bob: No, don't give up yet. My father told me there is still some parts of the ship, Horizons, are still intact. They took most of the hull for supplies, but some parts they kept, away, hidden, just in case. 

Gene: !!!

Bill: Darn nabbits Bob, we need to see those bits!!!!

 

1 Year Ago, KSC Research Center

Bob: Bill, I ran those calculations you sent me. It will work. The thrust to weight ratio is adequate along the parameters you sent. And the heat is in acceptable levels to avoid melting the nozzels. I think... I think we can do it. 

Bill: Manetoplasmadynamic engines... who would have thought. But we need to be able to power them. That's a lot of capacitors. Some of the burns Valentian calculated were minutes, we can barely keep them running for a few seconds. 

Bob: I spoke to some talented Young engineers today, named Gwentha and Kimjorie. Cute couple of nuclear techs. They both want nothing more to be Kerbalnaughts, and they have been working on miniaturizing reactors. They showed me a prototype which was the size of Jumbo Tank. They think they can go smaller. If they can get the funds. 

Bill: Incredible! Maybe we can do it! We need to talk to Gene! And we need to test these thrusters! 

Bob: I'll talk to Gene. We can send up Valentina in the Dynawing to release a probe with one of the smaller manetoplasmadynamic engines. if it works up to specs, we can start building it... 

Bill: The Excalliber!

Edited July 9, 2016 by colin_in_space

[Geschosskopf]

Sounds interesting.  So show us this marvelous ship.

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 1: Preparations

A conference room, KSC administration center.

Present: Bill, Bob, Gene, Wernher, Eumon, Velentina, 

Wernher: We have perfected ze engzines, designed the ships, salvaged za parts for ze fuel tanks, Ze ship is ready for construction. I present to you: ZE EXCALLIBER!

Spoiler

Others: OOOOOhhhhh, AAAAHHHhhhhh! 

Valentina: That's nice, but we're never going to land that damned thing. 

Gene: No problem, we've adopted new landers for a 2.5 meter fit, snug along the chasis next to the lab. 

Eumon: We've already built a prototype of the landers. We're launching one for tests on minmus next week. 

Spoiler

Eumon: the inflatables naturally retract. The landers are designed for long term habitation as well as scientific experimentation. 

Valentina: How will they handle on landing?

Gene: Well Valentina, I want you to find out next week. We are launching one. You and Bill are going to take the protoype up next week and land it on minmus. Then, re-orbit Kerbol and we'll pick you up with a shuttle. 

Valentina: OOH! It's like we are starting already!

Wernher: Yez, dat is very excitink, but this ship, it will be very expensiv. How vill we pay for it. 

Bill:  We took care of it. Gene, Bob, and I worked together, got our families involved, lobbied the council, and they finally agreed. We're getting the biggest work party of any project yet! We can build the rocket in a few months! The council is saying it will be the dawn of a new space age for Kerbal civilization!

Gene: But there is a catch. They want Jeb. the NEED Jeb to be involved. he is a hero. Always the first Kerbal on a new world, the greatest Kerbal pilot alive. 

Valentina: Jeb was.... mad... when they cancelled Eve. And madder still we... ahhh.... have declined to include him as a pilot on our current missions. 

Gene: What we are doing now isn't suitable to Jeb's talent. Careful testing, careful flights, patience, science. Bob: You guys always under estimated Jeb. Ever since the Mun incident. 

Bill: My head still hurts thinking about it. 

Gene: Either way, we need Jeb. Valentina, fly out and go talk to him. I think he is at the island airfield again. 

Bob: No Gene, let me talk to him. I know Jeb. He'll go, we just need to approach him the right way. 

 

An hour later, Island Airfield.

Jeb: OLD MAAAAAAANNNN!!!!

Bob: Hey Jeb. Darn you I'm only 40, jsut a few years older than you! Stop calling me old man.

Jeb. Never! What the hell are you doing here. I heard you are running all the research ar KSC now, over 100 scientists under you? 

Bob: Naaaah, Wernher is really in charge of the research side, and making new Rockets. I'll always be a space Kerbal. 

Jeb: ... Yeah well... so was I...

Bob: Jeb, you once told me you'd be happy to go up to space and never come down. Well, you may have your chane. They are going to let us do it Jeb..

Jeb: What? Eve??

Bob: No Jeb, not Eve. Eve is a lost dream. This is better. Greater! This mission is unlike than anything we've done before. We're not going to drop down on one planet and come home. We're going on a tour.  First Duna. But this time, we'll do Ike, then DUna. But that's jsut the start! We're going to Jool Jeb.. To Jool! And THAT's NOT ALL!!! We'll refuel around Jool, on Pol, then, of to distant Sarnus, to see those rings with our own eyes, to drift amongst them and get... SAMPLES!!!!!! 

Jeb: Wait, really? They are going to allow that? And Gene actually wants me along? 

Bob: Gene always wanted you. Come back to KSC. i'll show you the ship. Jeb, we'll be up for 10, 12 years, maybe more. 

Jeb: We Bob? Who is we? You're to old for this. Besides I haven't been in space in 5 years. I can't believe Gene wants me back now. 

Bob: he doesn't jsut want you back Jeb, he wants you up next week. A test flight to Minmus, testing the lander. With Valentina and Bill. 

Valentina: No nononono! 

Bob: YES! Jeb, come back! Come back, and fly with us again! 

Jeb: ... 

 

10 Months later

Nearly 1000 Kerbals, engineers, technicians, scientists, electricians, cooks, gawkers, lolygangers, and machinists worked day and night. The leadership team argued and discussed, considered, recosidered, and planned. The first planned to assemble the rocket in space, but Wernher Von Kerman soon showed how this would be almsot impossible if they wanted the ship to hold together. They plotted fuel allowances, and changed plans. They argued over aerobreaking on Jool, decided it was suicide, realized it is necessary, and figured out how to make it work. A side mission to Dres was proposed, rejected, tabled, then left up to the mission commander. And the commander was argued, selected, rejected, and then it was Bob. When they tried to make it not Bob, and let Bill be in chare, Jeb walked out and said he would fly under Bob, but not Bill, or anyone else. And Made it clear, when it came to flight operations, HE was in charge. And Gene agreed. Because he needed Jeb, and despite all that had happened, he trusted Jeb, and loved Jeb, who had say in that first capsule and reached the edge of space in that first test. 

 

At last a crew was selected. Bob would command. Jeb would be chief flight officer, Valentina the commander of lander 2. Bill would be chief engineer, but others were needed. And a crew was selected. The best of Kerbals, who could do the jobs needed, and who had been in space and showed they could handle it. 

And none of whom had children, because they might never come home. 

The Crew: 

Name	Position	Attachments
Bob	Commander, chief scientist	Lab, mothership
Jebediah	Chief flight officer, commander, Lander 1	Lander 1
Bill	Chief Engineer.	Lander 1
Valentina	Commander, Lander 2, secondary pilot	Lander 2
Gwentha	Nuclear Engineer, Miner	Miner, Lander 2
Kimjorie	Nuclear Engineer, Miner	Miner, Lander 2
Lengun	Chief Medical Offier, scientist	Lander 1
Barliana	Micro-satellite Operator, engineer, miner	Miner, Lander 1

 

The ship would have 4 components: The mother ship, 2 landers, and the miner. The landers would carry 4 kerbals at a time down to the surface of the smaller moons. They only had limited fuel, so there would be no landings on largerst targets like Laythe or Vall. Bonb fought for a second mission to launch a lander which would go down to Laythe and back, but there was no budget for it, everyone was working so hard on the Excalliber that Bob's dream of reaching and figuring our how those gosh darned oceans stayed liquid would need to wait. 

The miner had 3 drills and a processing unit, and would need at least 2 trips to refuel the mothership. It would use 2 smaller magnetoplasmadynamic engines with lithium fuel. Engineers would fly solo in the lander, with only a small control cabin and a tiny personal space, for missions up to 45 days. Refueling was always the priority.

Mission parameters called for a minimum of 3 crew on the mothership at all times, leaving enough for a lander a the miner to be away at any time. 

Two MX-L fusion plants powered the ship, while the miner had a smaller mcrofusion plant. A nuclear reprocessor would allow for fuel replenishment, but the plan was to keep the reactors off for much of the mission to conserve fuel. 

At long last, a plan to launch the ship was formulated. Solid rockets and a 10 m tank with one heck of a booster would get them up. Then, the Excelliber's main thrusters would come on to circularize. This would mean running up the reactors and hoping them could keep up enough power for the burn, the first live test. If it failed, the mission was doomed. Bob didn't like it.  It was dangerous. Only Jeb and Bill would go up with the ship. the rest would join later. Gene didn't like it. if it failed, the mission was over, and Jeb and Bill might be dead. But the landers were going up on the ship, and if they had time, they could jump into lander and probably survive re-entry. 

 

And so the day came. It was the craziest launch the KSC has ever tried, and the most important. 

 

[Tomato29]

12 hours ago, colin_in_space said:

Chapter 1: Preparations

...

  Hide contents

 

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really good story for now, let's hope nothing happens to that beautiful ship

also, which mod are those legs coming from?

[colin_in_space]

Thanks Tomato. Its from one of Rover Dudes, I think Kolonization lite. I started this while I was away without net access, so I had to use whatever mods I had happened to put into that Kerbal install. 

[Tomato29]

7 hours ago, colin_in_space said:

Thanks Tomato. Its from one of Rover Dudes, I think Kolonization lite. I started this while I was away without net access, so I had to use whatever mods I had happened to put into that Kerbal install. 

haha thanks for reply  btw I love ksp stories, keep up the good work!

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 2: Launching

KKKRT! This is mission control to Excalliber. We ave completed final checks. All systems indicate ready. We are 60 seconds from launch. 

KKKRT! This is Excalliber We're showing green. ... umm... JEB! Strap in tarn naggit! KKKRT!

KKKRT! Mission control to Excalliber,.. are you... ahh.. are you OK?

KKKRT! YEEEHAW! We're great. How are you? I'm gonna press go now!

KKKRT! Ahh, Jeb, we are still 40 seconds from or launch. Starting countdown in.. 

KKKRT! Launching!!! WEEEEE!!

 

KKKRT!  Mission control, approaching 3000 meters, beginning slow gravity turn. 

KKKRT!  Jeb this is mission. We are reading your turn is going a little fast. 

KKKRT!  Ahhh... Yeah Gene, I know.. Ahh... kinda.. going,.... WHOOPS!

KRRT! JEB?!?

KRRT! Don't worry, she'll flip around and we'll be up again soon. 

KRRT! JEB! your apoapsis is only 32K, You can't be flipping around! If you don't get out you're not gonna reach orbit!

KRRT! Naw Gene, look we're up again, engines engaged. 

< 4 minutes later > 

KRRT! Control to Excalliber, you are at 75 KM. Extend radiators and initiate reactors. 

KRRT! Engineer to control. Radiators out. Reactors initiated. Temperature rising, power going up. 

KRRT! See, control, we're up. Relax down there. Reactors are up. Main engines ready. Engaging in 3 2 1...

KRRT: Control this is Excalliber, we are circularized. Current altitude200KM. Orbit stable. 

 

KRRT! Inflatables deployed. 

KRRT! Mission control to Excalliber, Well Done. Well done.

 

Two Days Later

The rest of the crew was set to go up on a specially modified shuttle with a clamp-o-tron senior on the nose. Valentina would fly up and drop of the drew, before returning for the miner on the final mission launch. There had been some arguments about sending up a rocket and deorbiting it, but budgets were tight so they wanted a reusable. So everyone strapped in. 

Mission Control to Shuttle 16. Launch in 10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

IGNITION

 

KRRT! Shuttle 16 to control. We have stable orbit. Burning for intercept in 8 minutes. 

Shuttle 16 to Excalliber, on final docking approach. Ports aligned. 

Excalliber to Shuttle 16. We are retracting externals for docking. Welcome to the party guys!!

Docking Complete!

Jeb: Welcome aboard guys! Get your gear stowed. Common abroad Old Man! Welcome to your new home for the next 10 or 12 years. 

Bob: Hey!  That's captain old man to you Mr. Flight Officer. Everyone only has a small personal stash, most of our things were loaded before you got this beast up here. 

Bob: Alright Valentina, lets get to work. We've got 6 hours before you are scheduled to head back down. 

...

KRRT! Shuttle 16 to control. I am away. Burning prograde! 

KRRT! Coming in over the atmosphere. 

KRRT! Coming in for a landing!

CRASH! BANG!!

Spoiler

Well... so maybe the shuttle wasn't so much cost savings. 

 

6 Days Later.

KRRT! Miner Set to Launch. 

3 minutes later

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

THIS IS THE CRAZIEST ROCKET I EVER FLEEEEWW

3 Minutes Later: Circularization complete, Reactor Nominal. Rendevous burn in 54 minutes. 

 

KRRT! Valentina to control. Initiating rendezvous burn.

 

KRRT: Excalliber to Miner, Welcome back Val.

 

Bob: This is Ship to Mission Control. Docking Complete. All components now in place. Excalliber is ready. 

Jeb: Yeah, lets get going!

Bill: Sure thing Jeb. Only 45 days left to the departure Window for Duna. 

Jeb: Ahhh.. what?

Bob: Jeb, I KNEW you were asleep during the mission overview! 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 2: Departing Home

 

Flight officers log: Day 48. We were scheduled to launch on day 57, but we've crunched the numbers and we are going to switch and depart tomorrow. We only need an extra 10 m/s of delta-v, but we have plenty and we're all antsy to leave. Floating in space is all well and good, but it's been a bust 6 weeks and we all need to feel like we're on the way. First we had to unpack everything, then repack it all in new spots, then set up the inflatables properly so they were all fully equipped but could still be deflated at will. I am bunking in the port side inflatable with Bob, Lengun, and Barliana. Its a luxurious amount of space. We all have a private little sleeping section and even a small separated work area. I've never been in space with so much... umm.. space. It's nice. At any rate, we got everything squared away, we've run every damned test that ground control can think of, and Bob has agreed we are ready. So in a few hours we're firing the boosters and getting on our way. Val and I reran the simulations a dozen times and we think it is set. We're gonna do three burns. An initial injection, an acceleration a couple minutes after we confirm our escape trajectory, and an early correction burn to finalize our target. One burn is more efficient, yeah, but our TWR isn't great and we want to be careful. We've got lots of spare fuel for the Duna injection, so, here we are then. 

Bob, Bill, and Jeb, and Kimjorie in the command module. Valentina in Lander 2's command module, as backup flight control in case of a problem. Lengun was in the lab, monitoring crew vitals. Gwentha was in the aft control module, monitoring the reactors power. In case of an emergency, 

KRRT: Flight to reactor control, confirm reactor status.

Gwentha: Jeb, you don't need to say KRRT!. I can hear you fine the intercom works very well.

KRRT! It's tradiation for space radios to e noisy. Now confirm the damned reactor. 

Gwentha: <blushing> Umm.. Reactors 1 2 and 3 showing nominal power, heat levels steady. Reactors Go. 

KRRT! Auxillary control, confirm ready!

Val: Auxillary control.. umm.. I mean KRRT! Auxiliary control confirms ready.  Confirmed I have ship control. Keeping my hands clear of controls though. Umm.. KRRT!

KRRT! GOod aux fliht. Medical confirm crew status!

Lengun: This is medical, crew OK. Gwentha, your heart rate is a bit elevated more than I'd like. In fact, everyone's heart rate and cortisol levels appear elevated. Except Jeb... 

KRRT! Yeah I'm great doc! KRRT! All stations confirm ready. Bob, call downtown. 

Bob: Ground control, this is the Excalliber. We are showing ready to go. All sytems green, all crew ready. Burn initiation in 3 minutes. Kindly confirm Telemetry data and heading. 

Radio: KRRT! This Gene, we have a green light down here. Telemetry shows you in position, and oriented for burn. Permission for departure is granted. Good luck, and Kod's Speed. 

Jeb: Alright everyone, hang on to your hats! 

Jeb: Burning!

Bill: Hey Jeb, I am haging onto my hat, but this isn't exactly a crazt ride. 

Jeb: Yup. This baby only gonna give us a nice gentle push. Not like the Mun-1. That ship had some kick! 

Val: Aux to flight, we're showing good burn. 

Gwentha: Flight, this is reactor, we're showing some power drain, recommend capacitors. 

Bill: Ready. Capacitor 1 discharge in 3, 2, 1.... discharging, power normalizing. 

<3 minutes later>

Bill: Burn ended. Confirming Telemerty with ground Control.... showing a 2% deviation. 

Jeb: The ship fought me a bit towards the end. It started drifting off... 

Gwentha: Flight, this is reactor. We aren't maintaining full power with the engines on. the thrusters are pulling more power than we anticipated. The thrusters are draining power unequally, so we are getting unbalanced thrust. 

Val: Year, I'm checking recording now. Thurster 2 on the miner only showed 30% output once the capacitors were drained. So we are gwtting some uneven push and a bit less acceleration than anticipated. 

Radio: KRRT! Ground control to flight, we have updated burn instructions. 

Jeb: Roger, changing attitude for burn 2. initiating burn in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Radio: KRRT! Flight confirm you ave full control.

Jeb: Flight to control. We're doing OK. Bill, balance me out a bit. 

Bill: Discharging capacitor 8. We're almost out. 

Val: Jeb, Gwentha and I are looking at the numbers. Maybe drop thrust to 90%!

Jeb: Naaaaaw, I got it. using SAS to stabilize RCS standing by. ...... Dammit. 

Gwentha: Gasp! Jeb language!

Jeb: OK, cutting to 90% acceleration. 

Val: We're off by 5 degrees Jeb. 

Jeb: I know, we'll be back on target in a sec... There we go, on target. Bill, how is our telemetry looking?

Bill: We're OK Jeb, just a touch off. 

Val: Reclaulted burn with 90% thrust... uploading.

Jeb: Got it... 

....

Jeb: Burn complete. Fin adjustment burn in 30 seconds. 

...

Bob: Mission control, we have completed burn 3. We appear to be on target. Awaiting update for mid coourse correction burn, anticpated flight time to Duna, 150 days. 

Bill: Jeb, we're done buring, why are you changing our heading?

Jeb: Just wait Bill. Jeb to all crew, please report to the command pod!

< 2 minutes late> 

Jeb: Everyone, say goodbye to Kerbin for a long, long time. 

Jeb's window, all the crew is peaking out:

Jeb: Good bye, you tiny blue dot. Good bye. 

Flight Officers Log: It was a good series of burns. The ship handles well, it's a gentle ride. Even at max thrust it doesn't have much kick, but we can keep the engines running for 26 minutes. That's a lot of burn. Almost 7 KM/s of delata-v. Fast and powerful is nice, but what pilot can complain about 7 KM/s of ability to course correct? All three burns together were just over 1200 m/s of delta-v. We're now on a high energy transfer burn. Once we get close, I'll open the damned heat shield, and then Duna's puny air will help slow us down. Damn that heat sheild though, the command pod has the best view on the ship, and once the shield is opened that spoils that,. Weeeeeelll... maybe we don't need to open it as early as mission specs say. As flight officer, it is my prerogative when we open the dammed shield,  I may not have a good view as we close up on Jool, but I'm not going to deny myself and the crew a nice view of Duna. 146 days away. 

Edited July 14, 2016 by colin_in_space

[Geschosskopf]

What a monster!  Good luck with it

 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 4: Duna

 

Mission day 100:

Reactor Log: Kimjorie reporting. Gwentha and I checked reactor status today. As per mission protocol we will do so every 50 days. Reactors restarted fine. Gwentha was a bit worried about reactor 3 on the miner due to some small fluctuations, but it was within normal parameters. All reactors shut down. Next test in 50 days. 

Medical Officer's Log: Crew health normal. The initial jubilation of the mission has worn off and the crew has settled into the routine of space travel. With Duna still 98 days away we have a lot of routine to get trough. Jeb seems restless, Valentina is very focused on her work. Bill seems a bit overworked. Bob remains excited, if a little detached from his administrative duties as commander. Kimjorie and Gwentha keep sneaking off together, but nobody seems to mind.  Barliana  sends most of her time in the workshop tinkering with her satellites. 

Flight Officer's Log: Today I watched Kimjorie and Gwentha test the reactors. Kimjorie got super mad when I touched a button. val reran the numbers on the mid-course correction burn. They are still correct. Telemetry good. 

 

Mission Day 129: Mid course correction burn

Jeb: Alright, we have confirmation. Everyone says the ship is secure for burn. My stuff is all strapped down!

Gwentha: Flight, reactors are running. 

Jeb: Roger. Bill, confirm engine status. 

Bill: Everything shows green. power at 100%. 

Jeb: OK great, Initiating burn in 3, 2, 1...

Jeb: Dammit we're loosing power on miner engine 2 again. Cutting throttle to 80%. 

Val: We're steady on course. 

Jeb: Burn complete. 

Bob: Good job everyone! 

 

Mission day 175: 3 weeks to Duna SOI. 

Medical Officer's Log: Crew health normal.  Jeb seems restless, Valentina is very focused on her work. Bill seems a bit overworked. Bob remains excited, but has been neglecting his administrative duties as commander. Kimjorie and Gwentha keep sneaking off together, but nobody seems to mind. Barliana  sends most of her time in the workshop tinkering with her satellites. 

Flight Officer's Log: Today I helped Barliana fix some equipment. She got mad when I mixed up the 3cm spanner with the 3cm spangler. Val reran the numbers on the Duna intercept. They are still correct. Telemetry good. 

Commanders Log: What an exciting week! The Spectrochonometer has been reading the reflection of solar flares of the atmosphere of Duna. The results are exactly as I predicted!! There is a 0.001% oxygen increase at the poles due to oxygen escaping from the polar ice! This helps confirm my hypothesis that we may be able to terraform Duna if we added glass reflectors to focus energy and melt the polar ice. I estimate we could make Duna's air marginally breathable in only 450 years! I know we have lots of space or Kerbin, after all there is only 150,000 Kerbals on the whole planet but heck, or ancestors had to abandon a whole planet! Maybe we should be prepared for the same! If only we were landing at the poles this mission. I requested a change of mission profile for a polar orbit around Duna and a landing site at Sarge's crater on the north pole, but Gene said no deal. Mission to continue as planned. Tomorrow we switch take graviatric sample number 38, as well as switching the main telescope to a focus on Sarnus, which is coming into clearer view. Oh, yeah, crew seems good, ship status normal. Everything is hunky dorey! Bill has started helping with crew rotation scheduling. 

Mission Day 196: Entering Duna SOI

Bob: Alright crew, we have finally entered Duna's SOI. We are slowly pulling towards it. As Val pointed out a couple weeks ago, we are a bit off our optimal intercept course. Our mission plans for a 20km periapsis in Duna to let us slow down a bit, and arrange our Ike Intercept. Then we will decelerate a bit, intercept Ike, and circularize a equatorial orbit. 

Jeb: Everyone hold on, I am rotating the ship. 

Val: there it is. Duna! 

Crew: OOHHHH! AHHHH!!!

Bill: Jeb, the view is nice, but we need to deploy the heat shield. We need to confirm it works, and we are less than 2 days to Duna intercept. 

Jeb: Don't worry bill, the heat sheild shows green. We'll deploy it when..

Bill: Jeb! We should have deployed it a week ago according to mission schedule. I want to know the shield works before I run head long into an atmosphere.. 

Jeb: Bill, as flight commander I have authority on this. We will deploy it when I think it is time. The ship is staying pointed at Duna. Enjoy the view! 

The next Day:

Excalliber approaching Duna, with Ike peaking out. 

 

Jeb: Val you awake? Ready for a midnight burn?

Val: Yeah Jeb, I am up. Half the crew will probably sleep through this. 

Right. Keeping throttle at 50%. Reactors show full power. Confirm burn plan as entered:

Val: Confirmed, we're good. Oriented on node. 20 second burn at 50% throttle. 

Jeb: burn Complete. Periaps now 21.3 KM. Alright Val sound wakeup. We are 37 minutes from atmosphere. 

Val: Now here this. EVERYBODY UP!!!

Jeb: Flight to crew, report to command for one final view of Duna before intercept. 

Bill:Kob Darn Jeez louise JEB!!! You promised you'd raise the ehat shield overnight!

Jeb: Alright Bill, alright. Deploting heat shield now.

Bill: It had better work or we are all gonna fry Jeb! 

Jeb: Naaaaw, I ran a backup, we ave enough delta-V to avoid Duna and still hit Ike. May need an extra miner refuel. 

Bill: Jeb we don't have time for anoth..

Jeb: Deploying shield!

Jeb: Shileds up. See it was fine. 

Bill: Grrrr.... shields show full deploy. Tension nominal. 

Jeb: Dammit it ruined my view. 

Bob: Alright everyone. Lets secure the ship for reentry. Retrac the inflatables, solar panels, and radiators. 

Bill: All systems secured. We are ready for entry. 

Bob: Ok, we've got 29 minutes. I want everyone to go strap in and get ready. Lengun, Barliana, do a final sweep and make sure everything is strapped down. 

Barliana: Aye aye sir! 

Jeb: Alright everyone, breaking atmo! Ready for a ride! Four minutes to the other side! WEEE!

Jeb: 60 seconds to atmospheric exit!

Gwentha/Kimjorie/Lengun/Baliana: AHHHHH!

Val: We're showing good on heading and velocity. 

Jeb: 30 seconds to atmospheric clearance. Getting less shaky!

Gwentha/Kimjorie/Lengun/Baliana: Ahhhh...

Val: Lookin' good. I can see craters!

Jeb: Alright we are clear. 

Bob: Great work team! Return to flight mode. Extent radiators and restart reactors. Time to Ike SOI is 41 minutes. 

Val: Recalculating! 

Jeb: OK guys,here we are. ike periaps burn in 3, 2, 1....

Val: Circularization complete!

Bob: Crew, welcome to Ike!

Crew: Yay!!!

[colin_in_space]

interlude: Visual inspection

 

Time to inspect the ship. Chief Engineer Bill going on a space walk. 

Checking Landr 2:

Checking fuel tanks:

Checking Reactors 1 and 2. 

Inspecting Miner:

Checking Reactor 3

Long distance view:

 

Chief Engineer's Log: Visual Inspection complete. All systems appear intact. There was some minor scorching on the fuel tanks. The reactors were well shielded during our fiery plunge into Duna. Jeb and Val ave checked internals on flight control and given a green light. Gwentha confirmed reactors ran nominal, though Kimjorie says he saw a small twitch in reactor 2. Barliana is set to launch the first of two microsatellite com relays. Mission protocol requires two days of system checks before Ike, and Bob is running this one by the books. normally Jeb would be bouncing off the walls, but he is puting a bit because Val is taking Lander 1 down to the surface while Jeb sits on the ship. He'll never set foot on Ike. And for the first time, another Kerbal will be the one to plant the flag. 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 5: Refueling at Ike

Gwentha (in Miner): KRRT! Miner detached.. umm.. undocked I mean. 

Val: Good, good. Just follo the course instructions and I'll guide you down. Don't worry, Ike is a nice gentle moon. It'll be a breeze going down nice and slow. 

Gwentha: KRRT! Roger. I know. We'll be OK. Orienting retrograde. Decelleration burn in 15 minutes. Reactor running fine. 

Val:  Good, Start te throttle at 60% and once we know you're running good we'll ratchet up to 100. 

Gwentha: KRRT! OK. 

Val: OK Gwentha, 60% throttle in 3, 2, 1, go!

Gwentha: KRRT! 60% going... Looks good. 

Val: ... OK got 100%.

Gwenthat: KRRT! OK at 100%...  power draining.... umm... engine 2 loosing thrust. 

Val: OK set SAS to compensate!

Gwentha: KRRT! Roger... engine two at 25% thrust... SAS not compensating!

Val: Cut to 80%!

Gwentha: KRRT!Umm... OK at 80%.... Ship leveling returning to retrograde. 

Val: OK, burn cutoff in 45 seconds... you're going to overshot the target a bit but we should be OK. 

...

Val: Ok, you're at 6KM altitude We've re-calculated your course with 80% thrust. Get ready to burn at 80%... 3, 2, 1.. now!

Gwentha: KRRT! OK burning. 

Jeb: You're decelerating a bit early aren't you Val? 

Val: We have lots of fuel and she isn't a great pilot Jeb. We're taking her in slow. 

Bob: Shut up Jeb, Val is guiding Gwentha here. You're only here as backup. 

Val: OK Gwentha, Shut thrust when you hit 35 m/s and we'll drift down a bit more.... 

Val: Ok Gwentha... burn now.... drop to 40%... drop to 20%.... keep that... no back to 40%... OK now 20%..... 10 meters... and you're down!

<the game glitched here>

Spoiler

Ike or the death star? 

Bill: OK Gwentha, now you're down, go through your post-landing checklist and get ready to start drilling. 

35 minutes later...

Gwentha: KRRT! OK deploying drills... 

< OK editors note. I am a dummy. the three drills on the miner were upside down. I think this has to do with how the reactor is designed. So I had to edit the save file and change the part orientations manually. It only worked for two>

Gwentha: KRRT! Ummm... drills 1 and 2 deployed... drill 3 isn't registering as deployed..

GGRRGGGSSCCRRRKKKT! HORRIBLE GRINDING NOISE

Gwentha: KRRT! We have a problem, drill 3 showing temperature redline! 

GGRSHTCRUT! PUT put put...

Gwentha: KRRT> Drill 3 showing meltdown! Umm... I've only got two drilled showing deployed. I think we lost Drill 1! 

Bill: OK Gwen, It is what it is. Things go wrong in space. Activate the drills. 

Gwentha: OK drills 1 and 2 extracting Ore... we're not getting as much as projected.. 

Bill: Well Gwentha, your mission was pegged at 35 days, but I think you may be down there a bit longer than expected. But at least you won't be on your own for long. We'll see you in about 5 days. 

 

About 5 days later... 

Val: Lander 2 deployed! 

Lander 2 Crew for Ike landing mission: Val (pilot), Kimjorie (engineer), and Lengun (scientist).

On the ship: Jeb (being bored), Bob (taking science measurements), Bill (Overseeing Gwentha from aboivr and managing ship's maintenance), Barliana (managing micro communication sats and ship maintinance).

A note on Microsats: I am just going to assume the ship has some small "micro-sattelites", which I didn't actually make in the game. If the hanger mod was available I might have used it for that. There are 4 kinds of micosats: communication (4 available, two usually deployed to allow a com relay around a body), 4 camera sats,  12 impactor probes, and 3 spacial sats for mission specific objectives). Yeah it's a cop-out to not actually do the sats, but the part count was high enoughand I never really t hough about it anyway. 

 

Val: Lander 2 is down, near the miner. Inflatables deployed. Going out for a walk! (FInally, I get to plant a darn flag!)

Val: Everything out here looks good. 

Gwentha: KRRT! Permission to visit Lander 2. 

Bill: KRRT! Gwen, why? Drill 2 is showing a it of a temperature spike, and the reactor is nearing redline. This isn't the time. 

Gwentha: KRRT! Well... I just thought.. it's a bit cramped in here... and... well... 

Bill: KRRT! Sorry Gwen, not today. We'll consider an excursion tomorrow or the next day. But only for a few hours at most. 

 

Medical Officer's Log: Gwen came over today. her physical health checks out. She commented that the lander has only a small cramped space available and she was having trouble sleeping, even though Ike's gravity is quite mild. Kimjorie was pleased to see her. She was on the lander for 2 hours. We have decided she will return to the lander every 5 days for a checkup and exercise.My assessment is that she is in good health, though tired. She was, however, a bit shakey when she suited up to go back to the miner, and was slow to get out the door. I think she was reluctant to leave, I imagine because Kimjorie is here so close, but from the Miner he may as well be in the ship. Space has been hard on all of us, in it's way. I miss fresh air and sunshine. 

20 days later....

Val: Lander 2 underway. 

 

Goodbye to Ike... 

 

Val: Approaching Excalliber. 

Jeb: KRRT! Looks good Val! Good luck docking! Bloody pain getting italong side like that. 

Val: Don't you worry Jeb I can do this!

Val: Aligning anti-parallel. 

Jeb: Nice work Val. Nice work. 

Miner DAY 35:

Gwentha. Ship this is miner. Daily status report.... 

Miner DAY 39:

Gwentha. Ship this is miner. Daily status report. Still behind schedule.... 

Miner DAY 45:

Gwentha. Ship this is miner. Daily status report.... Lithium completed. Switching to LF+O. 

Miner DAY 52:

Gwentha. Ship this is miner. Daily status report.... 

Miner DAY 60:

Gwentha. Ship this is miner. Daily status report. Mission now double original plan... 

Miner DAY 67:

Gwentha. Ship this is miner. Mission complete. Preparing to return. Please confirm ascent profile. 

 

Val: Good Gwen. Your distance is 55 meters and the docking ports are aligned. Fire your forward RCS and make for 4 m/s.

Gwen: KRRT! Roger. Wait, is it the yellow button tom start RCS? Wait.. sorry, OK set... OK, we can do this... RCS Firing. Ummm.... too fast... 5.6 m. 

Val: OK Gen, calm down. Give a couple quick pulses on the RCS back. Its OK if you are a bit faster or slower than 4 m/s.

Gwen: KRRT! OK, umm... oh darn was that up???? Sorry, I'm a bit shakey... 

Val: OK Gewn, it's OK, just slow down a bit. Drop to closer to 2 m/s. We'll take it slow. It's OK, we got all the time in the world. 

Gwen: KRRT! No no, lets get this over with!! Pulsing up!! Oh a little to much!

Val: OK Gwen, you're at 11 meters and a bit off. Just pulse back a bit and bring your speed down to near zero. I'll get us aligned. OK good you are at 0.5 m/s now. Jeb, please RCS adjsut the ship along 95 270 270.

Jeb: Roger. Attention crew, this is flight. Prepare for RCS adjustments.... OK I brought us to 0 m/s with the miner and ports aligned. 

Val:; OK good. Gwen... take it slow. Give a small forward RCS pulse.... good good... speed 0.7 m/s. Docking in 21 seconds. Just be patient Gwen... I know it was a long mission. 

Jeb: Docking complete. Seal achieved. 

Bob: Good work everyone. Gwen, can you confirm you are fully suited up and ready for EVA? 

Gwen: KRRT! Ahh.... yes, I'm ready. Suit shows green. Permission to EVA transfer from Miner to Main ship... 

Bob: Permission granted. Skip the sample recovery just come back to the ship. 

... 5 minutes later...

Bill: Hatch closed. Repressurizing.. Kimjorie back off a bit she'll be in in 30 seconds... Gosh naggit back off! Ok, pressurized, Gwen you can take of the helmet.

Kimjorie: !!!!!

Gwen: Sob!! Sob sob sob!!! SOB!!! <shaking trembling shaking>

Kimjorie: Hug! Kiss!! Bill: OK OK, settle down you two. 

.... the next day ....

Jeb: We can get by on the fuel we have for the main ship, but we only at 73% fuel. I would rather be nearer 100% prior to leaving Ike. The Jool burn will use over 2500 m/s of Delta-V. As you all know it will be a high energy transfer. And we'll only get so much slowing from aero-braking at Jool. It's too damned dense, we'll explode. 

Bob: Jeb please do not use the E-word.

Jeb: Yeah, whatever, we'll be fine. My point is I don't want to expl... umm... we can only go so deep into Jool and will need a lot of delta-v to slow and then reach orbit of Bop and refuel. Yeah we should have spare fuel but I don't want to take chances. 

Bob: Ok we'll do the second refuelling mission. We have time. 

Gwen: <Shudder!>

Bob: This mission will limit to 30 days max, espepcially since the lander won't be down. barliana, you'll be going down this time, and Val, you'll be doing guidance. 

The next day:

Val: OK Barl, keep firing till you hit 20 m/s then drop thrust to 30% until you are at 500 meters.

Barliana: KRRT! Roger that... thrust now at 30%.

Val: Good good, you should be down in about 90 seconds. 

Jeb.. grumble grumble could be 45 seconds if you just burned at the end  grumble grumble...

30 days later, mission day 299:

Commander's Log: The miner is properly docked. Barliana came in a bit on the wrong rotation, just Val popped over and fixed it. If the miner solar panels are in the engine's thrust they'll get wrecked. Everything is good now, the panels are about aligned with the radiators. We're burning for Duna in 8 hours. Everyone is excited for a change of scenery. Especially Jeb, who has had little to do for the past 90 days except bug everyone. I've got him helping with small maintenance jobs, he always was good at small repairs. But he is nearly bouncing off the walls with excitement o go down to Duna again. I am too! It will be my first time off the ship in a loooong loong time. Plus, we'll be launching our first probes down, including an orbital impactor probe. So a lot of exciting new data. ANd I haven't even gotten through 10% of what we pulled from Ike!! Maybe the secondary job I need to switch Jeb to is lab assistant... then again... maybe not. 

 

 

 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 6: Duna or Bust

 

Jeb: Crew, this is flight, we are now in a circular orbit of Duna. Current Altitude 85 KM. 

Bob: GOod work Jeb. Bill, begin all system checks. 

Bill: Roger. System checks underway. Alright everyone get cracking. We want status updates. 

Barliana: Well, 300 days in space, and here we are, our friendly neighbor. I'm really excited to go down!

Lengun: Even the gravity of Duna may seem strong after 300 days in zero G. And those days on Ike left you behind on your exercise regime. As chief medical officer, I am not sure I can clear you to go!! 

Barliana: !!!!

Lengun: Tee hee hee. JUST KIDDING! I am excited as well. 30 days in gravity, what Bliss!

Bill: Alright you two, calm down. We still have 5 days before we launch the lander. Get to work, we need to finish these post burn checks. 

Jeb: Bill, I am still worried about the delta-V budget for this. The lander will be at the redline once we get up from Duna. It's gonna be tight... 

Bill: Jeb, we ran the numbers and we're fine. What's wrong, don't think you can do it? We could ask Val to pilot, she's a good steady hand. 

Jeb: Damn you Bill, you know I can. But there is the simualtion budget the egg-heads on the ground make, then there is reality. There is a reason we aim for 15% lee-way. We only have about 5% here. Any problems, and this lander won't make it back up! For Kod's sake, we're relying on RCS to finish the burn!!

Bob: OK Jeb, calm down, and watch your language. We have faith in you. If we didn't think you could do it we wouldn't be sending you down. 

Jeb: I know old man, but it's still to tight for even my tastes... 

Gwentha: Did the Horizons crew visit Duna on the way to Kerbin? 

Val: No Gwentha, I am surprised you don't remember your history. They did a areobraked at Sarnus and ended up orbiting Jool. And from there, they surveyed the system and made for Kerbin. It was really lucky for them they found an oxygen rich planet! They had been in space for 1000 years, and all they new was that Kerbol had planets. In fact, they didn't have the capacity to try another star! They had these big 'ol' boosters for breaking, and they ejected them on the way in. They couldn't even have really escaped Kerbol, let alone tried another star if this had been a bust for them.

Gwentha: OHHH! I never liked history, I liked science. What would they have done if the system hadn't had a good planet?? 

Val: Well, they supposedly had a backup plan to either set up an orbital colony or land and make an enclosed colony, then slowly try and rebuild a new ship. Given that most of the kerbals on board were ins tatis, I guess the plan was to only wake up a few. 

Bob: You know Val, they actually considered Laythe as a home. In fact, they achieved orbit around Sarnus. But they happened to end up in a poor transfer window for Kerbin, but an optimal transfer for Jool. So they went to Jool to check out Laythe before burning for Kerbin. They even landed a crew down to Laythe.

Val: Oh I didn't know that!

Bob: My great grandfather was a bigwig on the ship. He passed the story down. They sent down 3 Kerbals, and apparently, they got stuck, and they never made it back to the ship. It was a sad story actually. 

Val: Ohh...

Mission Day 305:

Jeb (in Lander 1): We are away! 

Jeb: OK everyone, hang on, doing our injection burn... go!

Bill: Steady Jeb don't get too excited..

Jeb: Shutdown in 3, 2, 1, shutdown. We are now heading for the atmosphere. Reorienting up for max aerobreaking. 

Jeb: Entering atmosphere. Hey Bill, remeber how scare Bob was last time?

Bill: Yeah Jeb. Remember how you landed us upside down on the Mun? He had every roioight to be scared. There was no rescue for us that time. At least now we have the other lander. 

Jeb: You guys worry too much. How you other guys doin down there?

Lengun and Barliana in the lower deck: OK! 

Jeb: OK we're well in in now... I think we are gonna over-shoot our target. We are on target according to the decent plan.... yeah we'Re GonNa Go OvEr ForRRr SurrRRre.

<jostle jostle>

Lengun and Barliana: AHahAHahAHwaHAWHA.

Bill: Chutes in 15 seconds:

Jeb: Pulling early, maybe we can kill some of this extra delta-v! 

Everyone: oof!

Jeb: Drogues out... slowing down.... Val: Give me a Telemerty Readed!

Radio: KRRT! Jeb, you're still too fast, gonna over-shoot! 

Jeb: OK, pulling main chutes! 

Everyone: oof!

Radio: KRRT! Too late, you are over the target site by 10 kilometers already... 

Jeb: Damn, passed the valley. We are gonna l;and higher up. This is gonna cost us some extra fuel...

Lengun: Yeah but we'll save on the way back up right?

Jeb: Not by as much as we are gonna spend to slow down at a higher altitude... burning now!

KRRRRRRRRowt

Jeb: Engines off! Len, we need to kill extra horizontal velocity to avoid comming down sideways, AND exta vertical because the chutes don't work as well up here... comming, in! Burning!

KRRRRRRRRowt! KRRt. KRT KRt Puff. 

Jeb! We are down! Looks like we're on a bit of a hill though. Kinda slanty don't you think? 

Bill: Deploying Habitats. Sigh. 

Lengun: So, are we gonna be OK to get back up???

Jeb: Oh sure Lengun, no prob. <whispers to Bill> it might be a problem...

Jeb: I'm gonna go for a walk! 

Bill: Wait for me darn it! You don't get all the glory. Ahh, Lengun, Barliana, Check the lander! 

Barliana: Hey wait! 

Bill: <dissapears out hatch after Jeb>

Bill: <reads plaque> Jeb was here!?! It was supposed to say "Duna landing site two, for all of Kermanity"!!! 

Jeb: Naaw, this was better. Now, the Kerbals will know I was here. 

Bill: Well we got work to do. Here, I brought you sample bags. Start grabbing Rocks. Bob wants lots of different colored ones this time. Not just the shiniest and reddest. 

Jeb: Well, Bob said I could have 1 for my very own as long as it was not too big! 

Radio in Lander: KRRT!! Hello? This is Excalliber! Did you guys land? Anyone down there????? HELLO??? 

The Lander 1 crew on Duna. Jeb, Bill, Barliana, and Lengun. 

 

____________________________________________

Sorry to have not posted in so long. It's summer, and kids, work, etc. I have pics for several more posts so will try to move things along when I can. 

 

Happy flying! : )

Edited August 14, 2016 by colin_in_space

[MDZhB]

This is pretty awesome, in my opinion. Maybe others see this as routine, but I've never done anything more than small probes and a single kerbal Duna lander way back. Keep it up! I can't wait to see your exploration of Jool.

[colin_in_space]

10 hours ago, MDZhB said:

This is pretty awesome, in my opinion. Maybe others see this as routine, but I've never done anything more than small probes and a single kerbal Duna lander way back. Keep it up! I can't wait to see your exploration of Jool.

Thanks. The thin I most enjoyed about KSP is the ever expanding learning curve. For example I've never really made a proper return from Moho! Which I think is the hardest planet to land on and return. But I do tend these days to try to make realistic missions rather than one super rocket with a tiny pod : p

I am nearly done my play through of this mission actually and some stuff will happen later on. : D

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 7: Duna's Done

For 27 days the crew worked on Duna. Jeb, Bill, Barliana, and Lengun. Bill and Barliana ran experiments for Bob, giving directions from up in the mothership. Lengun ran his own set of experiments, on how the lower levels of gravity on Duna affected Kerbal physiology. He mainly experimented on Jeb, who was happy as can be since most of Lengun's studies involved going outside and doing crazy things. When lengun realized Jeb was an great shape and a bit crazy, and maybe not a very representative subject, he tried making Barl be his test subject. But EVA made Barl feel sick, and Jeb was possibly the world's worst scientist. Orders came down from above: Barliana does research, Jeb does the outside work. 

 

As the end of the 30 day mission period drew to a close, Jeb and Lengun tried to argue for an extension. The Duna to Jool transfer burn was scheduled for 135 days. Lots of time, and there was ever more studies to run, more samples to study. Jeb was a bad scientist but he was great at finding rock samples for Barl and Bill to run through the science equipment aboard. He was also a surprisingly good gardener. The greenhouse experiments were supposed to be a test of extra-kerbinary growing, to determine if a Duna colony could be sustained, but for the crew it was an excuse for fresh food. Mostly it grew different types of edible algae, but Bill and Jeb had grown some rapid-grow tomatoes. They sat in the command module while the others slept, sharing a small and under-ripe tomato. The winds of Duna howled. 

Jeb: I like it here.it's nice. I feel like I could stay, if only I had something to fly. I wonder how well the biplanes would fly on Duna?

Bill: Not well, I'd guess. Quite the sand storm tonight. 

Jeb: Yup. Not much by Kerbin standards though. Flew to the desert one. A sandstorm hit while I was camping. Half burried the jet. Took me 2 days to dig it out. I thought I might need to call for help. 

Biil: Really? I didn't know? When was that? 

Jeb: About 5 years ago. After the first Duna mission, just after they cancelled Eve. I was mad.. 

Bill (interupting): No Jeb you were livid. Furious. Absurdly mad.  Childish eve.

Jeb: Yeah yeah. Well Eve was taken from me, and Gene made it clear we wouldn't be visiting any new planets soon. In fact they just wanted to put up a small station and do things like cargo runs and sat launches. Gene was focused on building the shuttle programs. A bunch of short hops. They didn't need me for that kind of work. I knew if, and Gene knew it. He had val, and she had a fine crew of eager youngsters. So I left, and flew all over Kerbin. You guys were up doing menial jobs in space, while 95% of our own planet had never been seen up close by anyone. So you guys flew around in your station, looking down, and I flew all over the planet, looking around. 

Bill: Jeb, those missions build for us the knowledge and expertise we needed for Excalliber. Those missions were important. 

Jeb: I know Bill. Important, but not very interesting for someone like me. I need to see new places, do new things. So that's what I did. If we ever get back home, maybe I should show you my picture collection. Kerbin has some amazing places. Home city pales in comparison to the beauty in the mountains, the rustling of the grass jungles, the glittering snow of the arctic... 

Bill: Jeb, are you waxing poetic? I never knew you had it in you. 

Jeb: Yeah well... on Kerbin I am restless. Here in space, I feel at peace. For now. 

Bill: You weren't at peace on the flight out. You paced around like a caged Kear. 

Jeb: Yeah, I am restless on the journey. But at least I know there is somewhere to go at the end. Its always better up here than on Kerbin. I really wish we could stay another month on Duna. It's a damned shame to waste outsives in Orbit while there is so much going on down here. 

Bill: Yeah, well mission specs say 30 days. And they have a point. These landers need to last us a long time, and they can suffer wear and tear down here. 

Jeb: I know, but I like it here, it's a  nice change to go outside and feel gravity, and there is several more years of experiments we could be doing. Bob's happy, even from up top. He is getting piles and piles of data. Lenguna has complained he needs more than 30 days to really see what he wants to see, Barl seems happy enough, even you seem less grumpy down here. 

Bill: Yeah well it is what it is. Bob is mission commander, but Gene runs the show. Besides, at least you have the ascent to look forward to. 

Jeb: No Bob, I am a little scared. Its tight. Much too tight. We landed in the wrong spot. The damned calculations for the aerobrake were off. I was spot on the decent. We have enough fuel to get back up... I think.. but it needs to be perfect. And if it isn't, and we can't get our periapse above 40 KM or so, I don't know if Val will have time to bring the lander in for a rendezvous before we dip to deep. And we won't have a fuel reserve to brake on landing. So we will be chutes only. With an unknown landing spot. And we need to brake. 

Bill: Well, maybe you can save a bit of fuel...

Jeb: No I need every drop. I am even going to have to use the RCS to get us circularized. And the TWR on the RCS system is low, which means I need to bring us higher and with a faster horizontal speed before we make our circularization burn. If I don't, we might have enough fuel to make it, but we won't have time and we'll fall back in. If we drop into atmo even a little, we're toast. 

Bill: Wow, I never thought I would here the mighty fearless Jeb talk like this!

Jeb: Yeah, well, I think you and Bob are the only Kerbals I would admit this to, but this time I am a bit scared. Not for me, but for Barl and Len, sitting below. If we fail maybe Val can come get us in lander 2, but if we go back down... I am not sure I can keep them alive. We'll hit hard. And I won't know we're going back down until it is too late... 

Bill: ...

 

Three days later ....

Bill: Altitude 500 meters and rising. 

Jeb: Yeah I see. Starting to turn...

Bill: Roger. Lander to Excalliber, we are rising from the sands of Duna! Retracting Panels. 

Radio: KKRT! This is Val, I am at 85 KM stable orbit, waiting to come get you. See you soon!

Jeb: Ok, now at 60 degrees, holding stable. Altitude 15 KK... I am getting some buffeting on the ship. 

Bill: The Excalliber said the weather looked clear today. 

Jeb: yeah well they were wrong, a lot of wind... it's clearing up... 25 KM and rising, but we''re a bit behind... we are 2 KM behind schedule... 

Bill: Are we still within our mission reserve? 

Jeb: Ahh... Yes, we are... I think it's OK... 40 KM and rising...now at 15 degrees, apoapsis 48 KM and rising slowly... 

Bill: OK, our periapse is now at 2 KM and rising.. fuel almost out. 

Poot!

Jeb: Main fuel exhausted. Burning RCS... 

Bill: Are we good Jeb?

Jeb: ... 

Bil: Jeb???

Jeb:... ahh.... yeeeeeess???

Bill: Jeb, are we good or not tasn sarnit?!?

Jeb: Umm..... close...... umm.... yes periapse now 48 KM... I think we're good... RCS out. 

Bill: Ornit now 52x50.5. 

Jeb: Dammit Bill, we were 6 secoonds of RCS fuel from not making it high enough. That was to damned close Bill! 

Bill: Well we made it, we're up and Val will be meeting up with us in about 

Val: miner to Lander 1, transfer burn in 13 minutes. See you in about 45 minutes. 

Radio: KRRT! OK Val. Bbut we are right on the edge of the precipice here, with no fuel and no RCS, so when you come in to dock, don't bump us. Nice and slow!

Val: Yes father Jeb, I can see where we all are. Don't worry I know how to dock to ships. Like a gentle lover's kiss. 

about 43 minutes later...

Val: Burning to brake! Coming in at 35 m/s... 

Val: Annnnnd... done. Distance 54 meters. Aligning to your docking port. 

Jeb: KRRT! Roger aligning to your port. 

Val: Comming in a 2 m/s... 10 meters... 5 meters... now at 1 m/s... gentle... DOCKED!

Jeb: Welcome to lander 1 val. Begin fuel transfer. 

 

the miner had pretty small engines. They were a lot more effecient than the lander, but their low TWR meant that they were ill suited to push both the miner and lander back to Excalliber. Plus Jeb wanted to fly himself. So, it was decided that the refueled lander would fly separately, followed by the miner. 

Jeb: Alright everyone, we are going back home! Lander to Excalliber, Bob, I saved you a tomato. 

Bob: KRRT! Oh good I can see the effects of zero gravity on tomato water density!

Jeb: It's to eat Old Man! Kods!

Bill: OK Jeb course plotted. 

Jeb, OK, burning.. Weee! Its fun to fly when i am not scared to kill a bunch of my friends! 

editors note: 

Docking the landers: You may have noticed how the landers dock onto the side of Excalliber in a more upright position, and I don't use the docking indicator mod. It's a great mod, but I am sort of glad I stopped using it because I have learned to more quickly dock using the nav ball and sight. To dock the landers, I have to be careful not to bump the mothership. I target the correct docking node, and position myself next to Excalliber. I then set smartASS to the anti-parallel orientation to target. This causes my post to align in the same direction as the docking post, such that if I burning I would be going retrograde to the port. Then I rotate my ship and take a side view of the mothership. so I know which RCS keys move towards-away or back and forth. Then I carefully get it aligned to I can see that I am properly parallel to the docking port, as in the pic above. I think shift views, as to the pic below, and slowly move in. When I am close, I burn RCS retrograde into a nice clean dock. 

It is an unusual orientation for docking and was a bit of a challenge, but it was fun to work out the mechanics of how to dock into the side-mounted type of position, and I think I am a better pilot now. : )

Jeb: Docking complete. Welcome home everyone. 

Val: KRRT! Glad to hehar Jeb. Initating breaking burn!

Jeb: OK Val, give me 3 minutes to get up to the command center! There i no way I am letting Bob pilot my ship! 

Val: Ports aligned. Coming in to dock.

Docked, and back to normal operating mode. 

The next Day, in the command module, a meeting of Jeb, Val, Bill, and Bob: 

Bob: OK, lets review our status. The landers:

Val: Both are great. We finished checking our Lander 1 and it is in tip top shape. Both landers are at 60% fuel capacity. We evened them out so we have a balanced load. 

Bob: Ok good. our lithium load? 

Bill: It's great! We have just over 7 KM/s of delta-V available. We are good to go. 

Bob: And the burn to Jool?

Jeb: We reran it and Gene concurred. Departure in 97 days. We'll be burning about 1550 m/s. Its a high energy transfer  burn, but Jool's atmosphere is hell. We can't go very deep in our aerobrake. And we can't be going to fast when we hit that atmo, or else... splat! So, we're rushing it as much as we can...  but our estimated time to intercept Jool is 1 year, 227 days after departing from Duna. 

Bob: Well no surprises there. Just about according to the initial plan. Gonna be a long flight. 

Jeb: Yup. We're splitting the burn into three segments. Initial ejection, prograde for velocity, and then an adjustment at the end. We'll be burning for several minutes. Between all three segments, almost 10 minutes. 

Bob: Alright, same as usual. Me, Bill, Jeb, and Gwentha in the command pod. Val in lander 2, as backup pilot monitoring the telemetry. Kimjorie in aft reactor control. Barl and Lengun in Lander 2 with Val in case of an emergency. Everyone clar:

Bill, Jeb Val: Yup! 

Bob: OK, well, we still have work to do while w e are in orbit. Barl is getting a microsat ready for an impactor probe for the polar ice caps. It's like Kristmas! 

Jeb: I get to mirco-pilot it! Gonna be fun! Barl added extra shielding and the whole point of the impactor is to go extra fast. Make a big boom when it hits. This is the first time I've ever been asked to deliberately crash something! 

Bill: Sigh.. 

95 Days later:

Jeb: Burn one complete. Confirming Telemetry. Reorienting. Val, check my numbers. 

Val: Confirmed... looks good Jeb. We have less than 0.0001% deviation from course. Nice! 

Jeb: OK, burn two in 20 seconds... 

Jeb: OK, burning outward to increase velocity to Jool! 

Jeb: Done burn in 3, 2, 1.. engines off. 

Gwentha: Reactors nominal. Everything looks good. We are on course for Jool. Arrival to Jool periapsis in 1 year, 227 days, 8 hours. 

Jeb: Goodbye Duna... I may never see you again, but I hope I will....

 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 8: Intermission... ARRIVAL!

It's very cold... in space....

Commander's Log: Interplanetary transfer day 375. I finally finished analysis of the data we got from Duna. And now... well.. I am not sure what I should do! We are still making stellar measurements, but honestly distant stars never excited me so much as the planets and moons of our beautiful system! Well, I have more than 400 days to wait until we get another look at a planetary body. At least on Jool we'll get some atmospheric readings on the way in and while aerobraking. 

The crew is in good spirits I guess? They have each been dealing with the long dark in their own ways. Jeb cleared out the storage space to the fore of the command c enter and has declared it his own little sanctuary. He sits and stares into space, and occasionally checks our telemetry, over and over. Val mostly stays in Lander 2. She runs a lot of simulations. Sometimes she plays cards with Jeb and Bill. I joined them once but I had to trade 3 days of decent rations for 3 days of Koylent Green, and I'm not doing that again. Bill... is Bill. He works, constantly. The ship is in excellent shape. However, he has gotten a bit snappy with the other engineers, and seems to want to do all the work himself. Since he runs the duty roster, he mostly gets his with. 

Barliana tinkers his satellites, and occasionally runs tests, and on a few occasions he has launched one to zip around the ship. But then Jeb flew it too close to a solar panel and I had to put a stop to their little joy rides. Gwen and Kimjorie spend a lot of time in the aft reactor control. That is their job, they are the fusion engineers after all, but we all know they are cuddling. Ii have spoken to Bill about it, and he has suggested that when we do landing missions, we keep them separated. He thinks it will be good for them to get some time apart later. 

Chief Flight Officer's Log: Bored bored bored bored. Mid-course correction burn in 12 days. Reran numbers, checked telemetry. OK. Bored bored bored. Bill  now owes me his good rations for 28 days. He is bad at cards. But I owe Val my good rations for 56 days because she is very good at cards. The math on that is to hard, so I'm keeping Bill's food and giving her mine. Bored bored. 

 

Mid-course correction:

Jeb: Burn Initiated. WOO! Feel the gravity! 45 second!

Bill: Yes Jeb we all feel it. 

Val: Checking Telemetry... hmmnn...

Bob: What do you mean Hmmn, Val?

Val: Well... according to the flight computers the burn is on course, but my Telemetry seems a bit off. But this deep in space it is hard tog et a good reading... 

Jeb: 20 seconds.

Val: Umm... Yes, something is wrong.

Bob: Well what is it??

Val: Jeb cut the..

Jeb: Burn complete. Yeah Val, I see it too. We should have decreased our periapse on Jool to a near intercept, but it looks like we drifted out. Our time to intercept went up by a good 35 days!

Bob: What in the name of space happened guys? Bill, run a systems check!

Bill: I show green across the board. I'm not seeing anything wrong! 

Val: Jeb, I'm running the numbers now... Jeb it is like we burned retro to our course!

Jeb: Say what now? 

Bob: Oh poppy-pop. I am checking the telescopes reading. Val, what direction should we be facing?

Val: 95 by -5 degrees. 

Bob: Well well well.... We are facing the wrong way. 

Jeb: The flight computer disagrees  old Man. Are you sure?

Bob: Yes I am sure. I can't see Duna where it should be, but the constellation Klio is visible. Bill. Why are we facing the wrong way?

Bill: I really don't know Bob!

Jeb: I see it. The damned flight computer has reset and has set the aft docking port as our reference node!! 

Bob: Why did it do that? Bill, Val, any ideas? 

Bill: I don't know Bob. That program has over 12,000 lines of code. And about 27 sub-routines. 

Bob: Well, OK, you guys have some work to do. Val, help Bill out, Bring Barl in as well. IKn the mean while, can we plot a backwards burn and get back on course?

Jeb: Naaaw, it's OK Bob, I manually reset the command module. Our new course has been plotted. Val, confirm the course!

Val: Confirmed Jeb, looks good. Lets turn around!

Jeb: OK coming about.... Bob we're pointing at our node. Can you confirm we're pointing the right way?

Bob: Yup looks like.

Jeb: OK, Flight to crew, we are burning for 90 seconds! 

....

Val: OK we're good! 

Bob: OK good, finally. You guys have fun with that code : )

 

Chief Flight Officer's Log: Bored bored bored bored.....

Commander's Log: At last... Jool!

 

 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 7: Jool, and an Unexpected Finding

Bob: OK Jeb, we are 20 hours from Jool intercept. This is your show. Ypu're in charge now. 

Jeb: Alright Old Man! Everybody listen up! We all know this is the most crucial moment in our mission. Jool's atmosphere is 300 KM of hell. And we're going to dive into it. Not to deep, we don't want to get smashed to itty bity bits. We're diving to deep right now, so in about 2 hours we'll do a small correction burn. Then we batten down the hatches and get ready. Usually when we go diving, we keep some of the crew in the landers in case of trouble. Well this time, the landers are to risky. There is a bit of risk the landers will catch atmo and drag us down. SO we are going to keep everyone in the center of the ship. Me, Bill, Bob and Val will take the command pod, Lengun and Barliana will strap down in the lab, and Gwen and Kimjorie can remain in aft reactor control. The reactors will be down while we dive, but we need to make sure they don't heat up. And, in case of emergency, we might need you guys to pull the emergency release. 

Gwen: How will we know??

Jeb: If we are spinning around any everyone is screaming and I yell PULL IT NOW AHHHHH! Then pull the release. 

Gwen: Ahh.. umm... roger?

Jeb: Don't worry, we'll be fine. Val, stay here with me and we'll quintouple check the correction burn. The rest of you, get to work getting the ship ready! 

Crew: Roger!! 

----------- 2 Hours Later --------------

Jeb: Dammit, we're backward again. The flight software auto set control to the rear docking port. BILL! Can we get a reset?

Bill: Yeah yeah, here <tinkers with computer>. To reset it, jsut set the flight controol to the rear port, then back to the command pod. That should take care of it. 

Jeb: OK, flight to crew, rotating for burn!

Val: Confirming orientation.... We're good! 

Jeb: Burn complete! 

Val: Looks like we are good. Common, lets get to work getting the ship secured. 

Val: Approaching!

Jeb: OK everyone get ready! 4 minutes in HELL here we come!!

Crew: AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

.....

Jeb: And we are clear and good. On target for Bop. 

Bob: Good job everyone. The hard part is over now. We'll be diving again at Laythe eventually, but that's a long way off. We have 4 other moons to visit first, and the Laythe dive will be a gentle walk through the meadow by comparison. Jeb, what is our ETA to Bop?

Jeb: 2 days! We've lucked out and only need a little twitch of the engines for a few seconds to get an intercept. 

Bob: OK, so who's turn is it to man the Miner this time? 

Bill: I am going to do it. It was going to be Kimjorie, but I made some changes to te crew roster. Since Gwen is going planet side in the lander, I thought Kimjorie could stay above to watch the reactors. 

Bob: OK good. Let's secure from the dive and get ready for the intercept burn! 

< 2 days later, Bill in the miner!

Bill: OK I've killed my horizontal velocity. Going down. 

Val: KRRT! OK looks good Bill. Your next burn is in 134 seconds. 

Bill: Don't worry Val I can follow a burn plan. I don't need play by play. Just let me know if you see any problems. 

Bill: Braking Burn

...

Bill: I am down.

Val: KRRT! Roger. I see you as down. OK Bill you have 30 days to fill up. Get drilling. 

Bill: I know my job Val. Deploying drills immediately. 

Editor's Note: OK, so I landed a lander on Bop as well. It landed close to the miner. Val, Bob, and Barliana had a lovely time, and occasionally Bob poopoed over for a visit. But I forgot to take any screenshots until the miner was going back to the ship : ( But I did the landing mission I promised! Bob giggled while gathering samples. Val planted a flag and sent Jeb a teasing message that Bop was her's, but he replies he gets Pol so its OK. 

32.5678543 Days after landing: 

Bill: OK I am home. Positioning for Dock. 

 

in the command Pod, a meet. Bob, Barliana, Jeb, Bill, and Lengun. 

Barl: We have an unidentified contact. I thought at first it was an asteroid or something, but it is radiating a bit of heat and EM radiation, and it's to shiny. It's orbiting at an inclination of about 19 degrees, with a 117,000 by 177,000 kilometer orbit, going from inside Bop to outside Pol. I think.. I think it is not a natural object...

Bill: Well then what the hell is it??

Bob: Horizons stopped at Jool before the made for Kerbin. Maybe it is a part of that ship? 

Barl: Well, I don;t know. It is hard to judge the size of the contact, but it's not a little peice of debris. I think it is worth checking out. 

Jeb: That is a lot of fuel to reach that. We could take a lander, but if we do we will need to refule it before landing on Pol. 

Barl: No, I have another idea. One of my micro-sat's could make it. They don't have a lot of fuel, but I could manage a fly-by. Val helped me work the numbers. It will be a bit fast, but I think we could get 3 or 4 good pictures to send back. That should give us a good idea of what it is. 

Bob: What about the Pol transfer tomorrow?

Jeb: Bob, we have a second transfer window, for only a bit more fuel, in 12 days. 

Ok Barl, those sat's are valuable, but I think this is worth spending one. Our transfer fo Pol is not for 12 more days, so we can afford the time. 

.... Four days later....

Barl: Ok, the first pic is uploading... 

Spoiler

Jeb: What the Kell is that? It sure is no rock Barl!! 

Bob: Hmmnn.... 

Bark: Picture 2 incoming.... loaded

Spoiler

Bob: HMMNN!!

Bill: What is it Bob? It almost looks like a sattelite with a solar array? Did Horizons drop a sat around Jool?

Bob: I don't think so..

Jeb: Common Old Man what is it?

Barl: That's to big to be a sattelite. That pic was taken at 700 meters range. OK wait, pic 3 uploaded! 

Spoiler

Jeb: !!

Val: !! 

Bill: What?!?

Barl: Gnnck?!

Gwen and Kimjorie: <look at each other confused and hold hands>

Bob:I think... I think I know what it is. Val, set the transmitters, I need to send a message home to Kerbin! 

[colin_in_space]

Chapter 8: An Interesting Finding

A meeting of all crew in the command pod

Bob: I messaged Gene and my grandfather back on Kerbin. They confirmed what I though. We are looking at a part of Horizons, which brought our ancestors to Kerbin from the ancient home world. More specifically, it is their main reactor. When they were in orbit of Jool, they had a reactor meltdown and they ejected the whole thing. But I've been taking radiation readings, and it looks contained. 

Spoiler

Jeb: Can be visit it?!

Bill: Yes, can we?

Bob: I think so. Lengun?

Lengun: I looked over Bob's data and I agree. The radiation from the meltdown is barely more than the background radiation around Jool. I would allow the crew to have up to 30 days of close exposure, or 25 hours of EVA. 

Bob: OK, we're going to send a team. But a minimal team. Jeb, you will fly. Bill, you'll come along to inspect the reactors. And I'll join you, because I've always wanted to see a piece of Horizons. And for... errm... scientific reasons. 

Jeb: Old Man, that's all three command crew. Are you sure that's..

Bob: Yup. i'm going. You're flying, and Bill is gonna check that reactor. I'm going to do a scientific and historical assessment. 

Gwentha: But.. but... that reactor... we'd ahh.... we'd just love...

Bill: Bob she raises a good point. I am a good engineer. But there are no Kerbin's alive who know more about reactors and fusion. 

Bob: Ok, I will allow a 4th on board. Gwen, we'll take you. 

Lengun: Well, Bob, we'll need to monitor the radiation. Maybe I should join with my portable kit and radiation meds. 

Bob: Sigh. No Len, you stay here. No more than four on the lander and four on the Excalliber. That's what we are doin. Val, when is our nearest window? 

Val: I've been keeping track, and you could leave in 9 1/2 hours. 

Bob: Ok lets load up then. Jeb, Lengun, help me get some lab gear to Lander 1. Val, plot us a course and transfer to Lander 1's CPU. Bill, Gwen, figure out whatever you need and get ready. Let's go!

Jeb: Ye Haw!!

.... Three days later ....

Jeb: We're getting close. Braking burn to match velocities in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... burn. 

Spoiler

Jeb: Here Old Man, Lean in and take a look.

Jeb: Coming in for Dock

 

 

Jeb: Dock.. achieved? Wow it worked! I can't believe these ports are comparable. 

Bill: Jeb, we salvaged a  lot of parts for Excalliber from the decommissioned remnants of Horizons. The Clamp-o-tron senior is a thousand year old standardized design. It's not surprising at all. 

Jeb: Hurmph! 

Bob: Wow, this is so exciting! can we open the docking port and go inside? 

Bill: Bob slow down! sigh. We need to check for rads and see if it is safe. Gwen, how is the radiation levels here?

Gwentha: Umm... very low. I don't think the reactor containment failed. I am not reading above the background for this region of Jool. And the port readings show it is clear to open.  There is even air on the other side of the port. It shows green to open. 

Bill: No, we're suiting up first. That air is over 100 years old. We need to be safe. 

Bob: OK, Jeb, suit up with me. We'll go inside the docking area. Bill, you'll go EVA and inspect the ship from the outside. Gwen, you man the radio. Oh by the way tell Excalliber we are fine.

... some minutes later. More than 5 but less than 500. However long it takes Kerbil's to  EVA up....

Jeb: We'll, this isn't very exciting. It's just a port junction. There's some old EVA suits here, a few ports, and a couple computer terminals. 

Bob: YES! Terminals!!! 

Jeb: OK, have a blast. Can I go outside with Bill?

Bob: No. Go get my portable computer and a ATXP to HVX connector. I think I can interface! Also, take one of those old EVA suits. As a keep sake 

 

Bill's EVA Report

Spoiler

I am at the docking port outside the lander. I can see the lithium tanks. They look like they are in good shape. 

The other side of the docking juncture, showing the battery banks.There are four ports in total. There are a lot of batteries. They are really big. 

 

Wow, those are the biggest capacitors I have ever seen! We could never match those. 

 

I am at the radiators. There is a lot, but they are the same basic design as ours. I guess what works works. 

I am at the base of the main reactor. it is huge. We don't have anything this big on Kerbin. The main thing about this is, it's the scale of it all. Huge. 

Approaching the forward section. I can see the decouplers. 

 

Like everything else, the decouplers are just massive. Looks like an older style charged release design. They look low yeild, but I bet they shook the Horizons when they popped these suckers off. 

 

The forward section. Looks like a pinhole connector. I can see a power coupler in the front end of it. Looks pretty high capacity. 

 

Swinging back around the other side. 

OK, coming back. 

Later...

Bob: Wow what a find. That reactor is huge, and the batteries and capacitor are beyond anything we could make right now. We need to take some time to inspect this thing. 

Gwentha: I took a look att hat computer interface. It's Kobolt, if you can believe that! 

Bob: I leanred to program Kobolt as a kid. I think I can make a K++ interface. We should be able to access the computer system and link it with the lander. 

Gwentha: There is more Bill. I was able to access the ship's system status. the lithium tanks are not empty. Not empty at all. In fact, we could fill a good amount of Excalliber's reserves from them. 

Jeb: Oh sweet! Old man, bring in the ship! 

Bob: Well.... I don't know....

Jeb: Why the hell not?

Bill: Jeb, we don't know for sure it is safe yet. 

Jeb: If we fly the lander back to Excalliber it will be down to 14% fuel capacity. Which means when we reach Pol, we probably won't want to risk a landing. Which means we need to send down the miner, reload on LFO, and dock it before we can send the landing mission down. And first, we need to go back to Excalliber ourselves, and then transfer to Pol. In fact, it would be better for us to just meet them there. Our current orbit requires a slightly lower delta-v for Pol transfer. The ship could join us here, save us days of wasted time, and we could load up on fuel, saving us an extra 30 days of waiting for the miner. It's an all around win! 

Bill: But if soemthing happens we could loose the ship!

Jeb: We're on a dead platform. What could happen? Old Man, it only makes sense to have them come to us. 

Bob: Ok Jeb, I see your point. Get on the horn with Excalliber and have them transfer here. They should be able to get here in another 5 days or so. I want them to go easy on fuel in case we have a problem with the lithium on board here. 

Jeb! I'm on it!!!! 

 

A few days later: