Challenge pack 1: Escape!

[pushingrobot]

I've been meaning to post these for the better part of a week now. Well, better late than never?

Challenge 1: Escape from the Mun

Moved to Fan-Works

Objective: Return to the orbiter. Get the crew safely to Kerbin.

Difficulty: 1.5/4

Challenge 2: Escape from Minmus

Lemuel Kerman held his head in his hands. How could he have been so stupid?

But as he went through the last day's events, they made a perfect--if terrible--sense.

Before Lem took the lander down to the planet, he had surreptitiously taken one of the keys from the main engine interlock. It was the right thing to do. There was a reason Jeb had never been promoted to Commander; as amazing as his piloting skills may be, he couldn't be trusted with authority. If he had left Jeb that key, he was sure the orbiter would have been long gone by the time he returned from the surface.

Then the lander's antenna had stuck. The lander had come down hard--those engines were still a problem--a connection had broken, and the key was the perfect tool to bridge the gap. His foresight in bringing the key had saved the day again. Of course, he wouldn't forget the key--he wrote "GET KEY" in huge letters on the cover of the ascent checklist.

And then, as he was making his way back from the frozen Ammonia lake, it happened. His radio crackled with a warning tone and a recorded "fuel low" message. There was a leak. It had been leaking since he hit the surface, he was sure, and it must have been too slow for him to notice earlier. He raced back to the lander, powered up the engine--there was no time to follow the checklist--and shot back to the orbiter as fast as the engine would take him.

Even then, it wasn't enough. The engine ran dry before he had reached orbit. Fortunately, he had enough RCS propellant to finish his rendezvous, but it was a close thing. He climbed back aboard the orbiter to cheers and pats on the back...and then...it hit him.

He had been an idiot. Had he simply left the lander on the surface, he could have recharged his maneuvering pack, grabbed the key, and flown up to meet the orbiter. His older brother had escaped from the Mun using an EVA pack, and orbiting Minmus was far easier. Losing the rock samples and photos would have been a small price to pay. But now...

He would have to attempt it. There was no other way. If his brother could do it...still, this would be even harder. His destination was well south of their current equatorial orbit, and he had to not only reach the surface, but do so with enough fuel to return to the orbiter. It would take a miracle.

Objective: Return to the lander on the surface of Minmus. Operate the antenna (ladder). Return to the orbiter. Get the crew safely to Kerbin.

Difficulty: 2.5/4

Mission 1 survivors:

Mission 2 survivors:

[Markus Reese]

Got the save file up no problem but what are we to do on minmus? Both are in space and seem more than possible to return, or not sure... Mun seems a straight forward rescue.

[Kosmo-not]

Got the save file up no problem but what are we to do on minmus? Both are in space and seem more than possible to return, or not sure... Mun seems a straight forward rescue.

If you read the story, you'll discover that the key to the ignition switch on the orbiter is still in the lander back on the surface of Minmus. Keeping with the story, you have to go to the lander and back.

[pushingrobot]

Yeah, I wish there was a proper mission editor; it would make things like this so much easier. The idea behind the Minmus mission is that there is a 'key' located in the lander down on the surface (not the ascent stage floating next to the orbiter), and that key must be obtained before you can fire the orbiter's engine.

The most straightforward method would be to drop a Kerbal from the orbiter to the landing site, then fly back up to the orbiter. EVA fuel is tight, though, so if you come up with another solution I'll accept it as long as you show how the 'key' made its way to the orbiter.

And remember: You can't use the orbiter's engine--even to adjust your orbit--until that 'key' is back on board.

[AncientAstronaut]

Doesn't that require Minmus Orbit Rendezvous, then?

[Markus Reese]

I will have to re-check the save file then, I thought I checked minmus and didn't see any debris on the minmus surface, at least from map view.

[pushingrobot]

Sometimes 'debris' doesn't show up properly on the map view. However, the lander is not hard to find. It's located mat the west end of the largest lake formation, about ten degrees south of the equator. From the starting position (i.e. where the orbiter is located when you load the quicksave/persistence file) you should be able to spot it right away if you look southeast.