The Moderation Nation Space Program

[James Kerman]

On 8/19/2020 at 3:14 AM, Vanamonde said:

Insufficient pre-flight testing? Amateurs! 

You'll be happy to know that in testing the Dogsbody has a 100% chance of landing back home. Kerbals that math estimate a 75% failure rate.

While awaiting the transfer window to Duna The Crew Tug is returned to the MNOS for future use.

We burn for Duna and perform a mid course correction to bring us close to the atmosphere.

Once the 'Science from Duna's orbit' is complete a de-orbit burn is followed by a power assisted chute landing. We land safely and the 'Science from Duna's Surface' contract is fulfilled, the Dogsbody is refueled, returned to orbit and sent on it's way to Ike.

The Magnetometer module is released once in orbit of Ike and we land and refuel, ready for the home stretch.

[Deddly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

180.5 hours of actual mission time, not including all the many hours it took to design all the craft that were used, planning and calculating, and writing the reports in comic format. Phew!

Thanks for watching, and thanks for your patience

[KerballingSmasher]

Wow.

[Vanamonde]

The lost mission is found! 

Wasn't there supposed to be a submarine on that? I'll have to read back and see if it ever showed up. 

Edit: Ah, there it is. About 17 months back. 

[Deddly]

22 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Wasn't there supposed to be a submarine on that? 

Indeed! 

Oh wow, I just realised this single mission, from initial planning to the final report, took me over two Earth years to complete. 

Slightly longer than anticipated. 

[Vanamonde]

But worth it. 

[Deddly]

1 minute ago, Vanamonde said:

But worth it. 

Are you saying I should try the whole thing underwater next time? 

[Vanamonde]

Why not? 

[Deddly]

14 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Why not? 

You make a powerful point. And now my brain is going into high gear thinking up ideas to do this. Curse you, Banana!

[James Kerman]

Once in Ike's orbit, Largerdorf's entangled pair and Nebald realize there is a problem. 

The burn for Kerbin has a problem - I left the fuel cells running and by the time I realized we only have enough propellant to make an eccentric orbit around Kerbin. 

A landing module is built and docked to the Dogsbody carrying Alnard, a one star engineer and there is a problem. I realize I have not enabled crossfeed on the decouplers that hold the engines.  For the whole mission. 

EDL is surprisingly free of complications and our crew and tourists are finally safe home.

And we are done. 

[Vanamonde]

That's a lot of parachutes. 

[James Kerman]

31 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

That's a lot of parachutes. 

I believe the correct term is moar.

[Deddly]

Hey, that missions page is completely empty, now we have to fill it up again 

[Vanamonde]

Bill: I saw somebody worked out all of the bugs for a ship that can place relays around the whole Jool system with a single launch, so I sent 5 box tops in and got the plans! 

Bob: Good. We need relays out there for... in case we get around to sending missions to Jool. Or something. 

Bill: Critical indeed. So let's build the thing. 

 

Bob: It's been about a year and we have a transit window. Time flies, eh? 

Bill: It's been three more years already and it's time to aerobrake into orbit. 

 

Bob: Release the probes! 

 

Bill: Wow. This orbit kind of sucks for placing probes in moon orbits. Inclination is high and the peri/apo axis is whonky. Maybe we should have done more planning. Or asked one of those glory hound pilots for help. 

Bob: Stuff and nonsense! All we need to do is cut a probe lose and keep checking every orbit for any moons it might be able to reach. 

Bill: Won't that take ridiculous amounts of time? 

Bob: You got something better to do? 

 

Bill: Hey, it's working! Sort-of! 

 

 

 

Bill: Now the probes can not only remain there and serve as relays for future missions, but also transmit orbital science back through the mothership. 

 

Bob: Neat. What did we get? 

Bill: About $1.1mn profit from world first contracts, 6,250 science, and +2% reputation! 

Bob: Yay! We can now invent everything there was left to be invented and still have 6000 science points left over! 

Bill: Yay! 

[Deddly]

1 hour ago, Vanamonde said:

We can now invent everything there was left to be invented

This is how science works in real life.

 

How many years did the mission take?

[Vanamonde]

Just under 4 game years. 

[Deddly]

Time flies

[Vanamonde]

For sure. 

[peteletroll]

If it's ok for everybody, I'd plan to do a mission in about 12 hours.

[peteletroll]

Mission completed, report will be released soon™. Who's next?

[peteletroll]

Mission report:

Cool contract available: land AND splash on Laythe

The rocket on the launch pad

Liftoff!

Gravity turn

Staging

Space, here we come!

Revealing the payload: two identical probes, with large heat shields. They'll be very useful in the end.

Circularizing

Jettisoning the second stage

Sepratrons send the second stage back into the atmosphere, no further Kessler syndrome

Now we plan our Jool transfer

And we burn! Now I start noticing that I might be short on Δv... and the fact that Δv readings from stock indicator and from KER are vastly different doesn't help...

Well' I'll find a way.

Inclination adjustment

Jool in sight

Now we perform a Tylo gravity assist to stay in Jool orbit without wasting any fuel

Tylo approach...

... and the gravity assist worked as planned!

Now, to spare some Δv we release the first probe so that it aerobrakes and lands on Laythe 

Tuning the Laythe periapsis...

... and releasing the first probe

Now, the main ship uses a litttle fuel to adjust the Laythe encounter and lower the Jool apoapsis.

The first probe enters Laythe's atmosphere

Parachute opens

And the first part of the contract is done!

Now the main craft has another Laythe encounter. We're running on fumes, so the plan must change: the transfer stage was supposed to stay in Laythe orbit to act as relay, but we definitely can't afford it now. So we'll dive into the atmosphere, and let the transfer stage burn.

Problem is, the second probe must land on solid ground, and there's not much of it on Laythe.

The super-secret F5F9 supercomputer at KSC computes a correction burn that will land the second probe on the ground.

The entry is very steep, and the large heat shield proves very useful.

... and the probe survived!

... almost there...

... and touchdown!

Sending science home

Beauty shot. Mission complete!

[Deddly]

Nice! How much science and fund$ did you get from the mission?

[peteletroll]

2306 science points, and 1,748,435 funds. The craft costed about 161,000 funds.

[Deddly]

[Vanamonde]

What kind of weirdo angles the antennas to the side so the probes are not radially symmetrical?