The Bitter Sweet Tale of Cmdr Elbald Kerbal

[Chris -BEANS-]

The dream was to put a Kerbal on the Mun.

Audacious I know, but through hard work, dedication and sheer will to succeed the Kerbal race was ready to slip the surly bonds of Kerth and make their mark on the universe around them.

The 'Mun Machine' was commissioned, designed and built at the KPL (Kerbal Propulsion Laboratory) at KASA (Kerbal Aeronautics Space Administration).

The best, brightest and bravest applied to be the heroic pilot on this mission, but one was big green head and slender shoulders above the rest.

The mission was set, calculations made and on that fateful morning the countdown came.....

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LIFT OFF!!

Up they went, man and machine in heroic union.

Once in space Elbald wasted no time in stabilising his orbit before burning his thrusters hard and heading off towards the unfamiliar territory of the Mun.

Eventually his beloved home planet was eclipsed by the looming figure of the Mun, now tantalisingly close and pulling unsympathetically down on the 'Mun Machine', dragging it ever closer to its barren and eerie surface.

Now was the time for a controlled descent. Cmdr Elbald Kermin had trained for many months to tame the great grey beast tugging at his craft.

Elbald battled, he used all his training, exceeded his abilities and his dexterity bordered upon being superkerbal as he seperated the cumbersome boosters and manouvered the nimble lander towards the now inviting, exciting, dusty playground below.

Descent speed minimal, orientation, perfect, lateral speed.... 4.4 M/S.

"4.5 M/S, a little faster than I'd hoped, but still negligable, and with a couple of meters to go do I rise again and try once more, or do I grab destiny with both hands and claim my place in history? I choose history!!", Elbald thought to himself.

Five meters, two meters, one meter.... Touchdown!! Woo Hoo!!

But wait!! "I'm toppling, too late to abort, too late to correct!!"

The ship toppled, ever so gently, ever so slowly, a credit to Elbalds superior descent control. But the softness of the topple was almost hurtfully sarcastic, as it counted for nothing.

Before the capsule itself hit the surface, Cmdr Elbald had already come to terms with the fact that he would end his days, now numbered, on this desolate and lonely rock.

The capsule thudded down and a small cloud of dust was disturbed.

Cmdr Elbald steadied his nerves, took to the radio and gave the grave news to the control centre, now a lifetime away.

He gave his full situation report, said his goodbyes and then declared that this great tragedy that has befallen the entire Kerbal race would not be in vain.

Kerbals shall walk on the Mun!!

R.I.P Cmdr, you will be remembered always.

Hey all, I'm new to the game and as you can see, rubbish!! It's fantastic fun though and so addictive!!

I expect I'll be around here a fair bit (mainly lurking as I have little to contribute right now..), so thought I'd say hi

[Paprika]

Your ship's in one piece which is a lot better than my first moon landing! Do you have any RCS fuel left? You could try to get it upright with those maybe.

[PakledHostage]

Great writeup! I Laughed, I Cried! It was better than Cats!

[Vanamonde]

You know you can just leave Commander Elbald there until you learn how to reach him with a 3-man capsule with an empty seat, right? The story doesn't have to have a sad ending. Instead, it's the beginning of a whole new exciting adventure and technological triumph. The Rescue of Commander Elbald!

[Earthpulse]

Great story!

A good tip is to make your landing vehicle less tall, that way it won't tip over so fast. You only need 1 small fuel tank and a small engine to reach Kerbin from the Mun.

[Seanoog]

Welcome to the official KSP forums Chris.

Great to see you moved over from overclockers, will see you about.

Have you not rescued Elbald yet.

[jfx]

I was able to right one of my landers using rcs and very gentle main thruster throttle once.

I like Cmdr. Elbalds transfer stage btw., No kidding arround just bring out the big guns! ... for science.

[Chris -BEANS-]

Cheers for all the encouragement and advise guys.

Mounting a rescue would have been awesome!! However, I didn't want to leave Elbald stranded so I ended the flight.

Bit miffed I did now

[Chris -BEANS-]

I like Cmdr. Elbalds transfer stage btw., No kidding arround just bring out the big guns! ... for science.

Cheers! I reckon it should get me to minimus too, but I need to master the Mun first.

Big lesson learnt here is do t end flights. A rescue would be orders of magnitude more rewarding than a simple successful landing!

[Vanamonde]

Bit miffed I did now

If you're like the rest of us, there will be many more missions in need of rescuing.

[vexx32]

Also, just as a note... landing on Minmus is substantially easier than the Mun, provided you can avoid landing on the immense slopes. The low gravity makes it substantially easier to correct for errors.

[UNSC]

The brightest and the bravest...

His portrait shows him screaming

[Chris -BEANS-]

The brightest and the bravest...

His portrait shows him screaming

You clearly know nothing of the intense training and survival techniques these heroes go through.

That, to anyone in the know, is clearly his 'war face'.

[simplemunrockets]

Great story! And not to be a killjoy, but should this be in fan-works?

[beastcat]

I'm pretty sure this thread belongs into the KSP Fan-Works Section.

[sal_vager]

Yes this would be best in fan works, next time someone PM me