When We Left kerbin - Chapter Twenty: Epilogue

[roboslacker]

And that's why I've never tried aerobraking.

[Angelo Kerman]

4 hours ago, roboslacker said:

And that's why I've never tried aerobraking.

Yup, mess it up and you skip off into space, burn up, or drop too low and lithobrake...

[Alchemist]

24 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Yup, mess it up and you skip off into space, burn up, or drop too low and lithobrake...

Yeah, the surest way to get out of trouble with aerobrake gone too deep... is to have delta v and TWR at which you wouldn't exactly need to aerobrake. On the other hand, participation in the Shuttle Challenge has taught me to appreciate aerodynamic control capabilities on aerobraking (plus, spaceplane configuration makes sure you have proper attitude for emergency boost in case you still need it).

 

Well, at least they had the lander in tow, hopefully there was enough space for the crew and enough time to get in there. But in order for everybody to get back, the two space agencies will have to cooperate for once.

[Angelo Kerman]

35 minutes ago, Alchemist said:

Yeah, the surest way to get out of trouble with aerobrake gone too deep... is to have delta v and TWR at which you wouldn't exactly need to aerobrake. On the other hand, participation in the Shuttle Challenge has taught me to appreciate aerodynamic control capabilities on aerobraking (plus, spaceplane configuration makes sure you have proper attitude for emergency boost in case you still need it).

 

Well, at least they had the lander in tow, hopefully there was enough space for the crew and enough time to get in there. But in order for everybody to get back, the two space agencies will have to cooperate for once.

Well, the crew were in cryosleep to be awakened once in orbit because I neglected to awaken them. So no crew made it to the lander...

[adsii1970]

3 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Well, the crew were in cryosleep to be awakened once in orbit because I neglected to awaken them. So no crew made it to the lander...

I am so glad that someone else has these moments happen...

 

[adsii1970]

On 7/16/2018 at 11:05 PM, Angel-125 said:

“They might as well send a rover with an empty space suit in the driver seat into space,”

Elon Musk reference... gotta love it!

On 10/7/2018 at 8:08 PM, Angel-125 said:

Marnica, MEX-2’s second in command, drove the assembly off of the construction pad and over to its permanent spot. Jane then went on EVA to configure the tanks to hold various products, perform a few repairs around the Minmus Flats Refinery, and then went back inside. The team looked at the tank farm’s telemetry data. Everything looked good.

How bad of a performance hit did you take? What was your FPS like?

In chaapter 7, where did the little yellow vehicle/bus come from? Is that one of your mods?

 

[Angelo Kerman]

4 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Elon Musk reference... gotta love it!

How bad of a performance hit did you take? What was your FPS like?

In chaapter 7, where did the little yellow vehicle/bus come from? Is that one of your mods?

 

FPS took a hit but I have a beefy machine so it was still ok. That bus came from: 

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/171377-130l-145-grounded-modular-vehicles-r40l-new-light-texture-switch-alternatives-fixes-oct-9-2018/

[adsii1970]

Good story... makes me want to really get active again writing Kerny... thanks for the nudge.

[Alchemist]

23 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Well, the crew were in cryosleep to be awakened once in orbit because I neglected to awaken them. So no crew made it to the lander...

Oops... so much for "we bring them home". Sleeping over risky mission parts is not too healthy

Kerbin Galactic really seems to share quite a bit of the tendencies to overstretch hardware capacity with where those part designs came from. Which sometimes tends to backfire, unfortunately, especially when the crew is in no position to intervene

[Angelo Kerman]

36 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Good story... makes me want to really get active again writing Kerny... thanks for the nudge.

Yay! I definitely enjoy reading the latest.  Yeah, I needed to introduce an astronomer for future story arcs and I knew just who to pick...

16 minutes ago, Alchemist said:

Oops... so much for "we bring them home". Sleeping over risky mission parts is not too healthy

Kerbin Galactic really seems to share quite a bit of the tendencies to overstretch hardware capacity with where those part designs came from. Which sometimes tends to backfire, unfortunately, especially when the crew is in no position to intervene

Yes. Both nations are trying to outdo each other and as a result they take risks. Kerbin Galactic has limited resources so going with cryosleep means less to launch. But their ships have limited resources so the crew can only be awake for so long. They’re also more interested in planting boots and flags on the ground than exploring the new worlds. They’re interested in the prestige of beating their rivals to new worlds more than the science. vonKerman kerbalnauts tend to be viewed as meat probes and spam in the can... So with Duna, they got to the ground first... just not the way they’d planned...

Edited February 22, 2019 by Angel-125

[adsii1970]

1 minute ago, Angel-125 said:

Yeah, I needed to introduce an astronomer for future story arcs and I knew just who to pick...

The one, the only... Doctor Zarkov Kerman!

OR... Dr. Giorgio Kerman, names after Giorgio A. Tsoukalos -

Spoiler

 

[Angelo Kerman]

[adsii1970]

That is the funniest thing I've seen in February! You own the forum for a day, my friend...

[Angelo Kerman]

Small interlude while I get the next chapter ready...

 

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Eleven: Going for Broke

Valentina flipped a coin. It spun rapidly in the microgravity environment. It bounced off the walls of the habitat module until she finally caught it and slapped it against her forearm. She lifted up her hand. It started to lift off oh her jumpsuit.

“Eagle,” Jeb said, looking at the coin.

Valentina sighed. “Bring her in,” she said.

Jeb grabbed the remote-control system and wiggled the controls. The Duna Tanker approached DSEV-02. Another button press, and the tanker’s docking lights came on. Several delicate RCS burns later, Jeb docked the tanker to the Protector. The crew breathed another in a long line of sighs of reliefs, then celebrated after transferring all their contingency fuel to the Protector’s tanks and refueling the lander as well. After taking on the emergency snacks, the Tanker disengaged, leaving DSEV-02 with just over 1,200 meters-per-second of delta-v. If they scavenged the lander for additional snacks and fuel and abandoned it, then they would have enough to return home. Not one of the crew even considered that option, however. They all knew they were going to land on Duna.

 

***

“Holy mulch!” Munbus 2’s instruments were calculating a comfortable 50-second burn to slow and stop safely when they suddenly updated and knocked 20 seconds off their time. Marnica immediately jammed the throttle fully forward. The Munbus began to slow, but was still dropping like a stone. She immediately stood the ship on its tail and prayed that it would be enough.

 

The Munbus barely cleared the ridge and began climbing. They still had another 230 meters-per-second to burn off, so she lowered the nose until horizontal with the terrain. The Munbus stopped above and to the right of the Arch and the site of Munbase Enterprise, caught between momentum and gravity. Gravity won, and began pulling the craft down.

Marnica switched to the landing jets and maneuvered the Munbus to the platform, settling down safely.

 

“No doubt about it, this place is cursed,” she said, her heart pounding and her breath rapid. her crew felt no less scared.

***

For the third time today, Kelbin wished he had installed a fare meter in the cockpit given all the taxi flights he was making of late. At least this one was an orbital flight. He sat patiently in the Flapjack while taking on propellant at Skybase. After the incident with the A-51C, standard procedure changed to increase fuel capacity for launch and to refuel rocket saucers with plenty of propellant to return home. But Skybase kept transferring fuel well beyond what the ship needed. Kelbin tried to object, but one of his passengers, a Lieutenant Colonel Parie Kerman, countermanded him. Since she outranked him, so there was nothing he could do.

The flight computer told him that the Flapjack’s tanks were completely full. “Undock from Skybase,” Parie commanded, not taking her eyes or fingers off the computer. Kelbin did as ordered and backed away from the space station.

“This is your next maneuver node, Major,” Paire said dryly. It didn't sound like she was having a good day.

Kelbin blinked. “The Mun? Why do I get the feeling that neither you nor Captain Gedra are tourists,” he asked.

Parie said nothing.

***

Fifteen days after coming about to match Ike’s orbit, the Protector readied herself to carve a path through Duna’s atmosphere. Valentina strapped herself into the ship’s cockpit while Jeb and the rest of the crew readied their lander, the Estonian, for launch-

“Just in case this maneuver doesn’t go well,” Valentina continued her briefing. “I fully intend for the aerobraking to go well, but if it doesn’t, then I’ll order you to perform an emergency undock and land, Jeb. And I expect you to follow my orders.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Jeb said tersely.

“But what about you, Val,” Bobus asked nervously.

“The captain always goes down with her ship,” Valentina said simply.

There was nothing further to say. The Protector dipped into the atmosphere, just 30 kilometers above the surface, to slow down and lower her orbit.

She arrived back into space unscathed. The crew cheered- they were not going to repeat Das Wanderer’s fate. Half a day later, the Duna Tanker followed.

A day after her first aerobraking, the Protector repeated the maneuver. Two more gentle trips through the atmosphere later, DSEV-02 settled into a 402 by 409km orbit. The Tanker, devoid of contingency supplies, followed suit into a slightly lower orbit. With its primary mission completed, the tanker extended its solar arrays to form the basis of Duna Station and then ditched its transfer stage. Scrapper Three joined it soon after.

 

***

After their mid-course correction burn, Parie opened her sealed orders. She read them, looked surprised, and reread them. “They should have told you, Kelbin,” she said in disgust. “And me too. I understand the need for secrecy, but this is too much… Ok, uh, this briefing is classified Top Secret and Need to Know. As of now, you are on temporary attached duty to my command. Officially, this is a tourist flight to the Mun and back. In reality, we’ve been ordered to orbit the Mun and to rendezvous and dock with Groom Lake Air Force Station. From there, we will refuel and then head to the surface at coordinates that I will provide. In case you’re not familiar with it, Groom Lake is an unacknowledged space station that is part of the Air Force’s secret munar transport network.”

“Uh, okay…” Kelbin said timidly. “Er, yes Ma’am. May I ask where we’re going?”

“You may ask…” Parie said, trailing off.

“Need to know. Got it,” Kelbin responded.”

“You’ll understand when we get there. Off the record, I can tell you that it’s going to be interesting. Hopefully in a good way,” Parie added. “On a personal note, what is it like to walk on the Mun?”

“It’s uh, it’s like walking on a sandy beach in boots,” Kelbin answered, caught completely off guard. “The ground has some give to it. And, uh, it’s more of a, uh, slow motion skip than a walk. One misstep and you’ll go flying. It’s even worse on Minmus.”

“I envy you and your flight experience,” Parie said by way of apology for being so curt before. After reading her orders, she understood why she and Captain Gedra were suddenly directed to pose as tourists for a munar flight. “You must’ve seen and done a lot. You’re right up there with the Original Four. And you went around the world.”

“Valentina, Jeb, Bill and Bob still have more experience than I do, especially with their trip to Duna and all,” Kelbin pointed out.

“You never know, you might surpass them.”

I don’t think visions of exploring Eve counts, Kelbin thought to himself. “Maybe,” he said simply. “If I can be more than just a taxi driver.”

***

A week after achieving low Duna Orbit, the Duna Flyer pulled alongside and docked with the Protector. Bobus excitedly ventured outside to inspect the craft for signs of damage- the Flyer was his project. Designed as an experimental research aircraft, the Flyer was built to perform biome surveys around Duna to find a good spot for a base. With its electric propellers and atomic power source, it could fly for years around Duna if needed. Assuming it worked, of course. Nobody had ever tried flying an airplane in the thin Dunan atmosphere… He began assembling the wings.

As Bobus assembled the Flyer’s wings, Bill got to work transferring nearly all the transfer stage’s remaining propellants to the Protector, further increasing their delta-v margins. Next, Bill stepped outside and transferred the KMU mounting rack to the Protector while Bobus finished his work.

With their tasks complete, the Flyer separated from the Protector and followed its preprogrammed course for its first mission.

Several minutes after undocking, its flight computer performed a deorbit maneuver. The atomic airplane began to caress Duna’s atmosphere not long after…

 

***

Flapjack 1 approached Groom Lake AFS, matching its velocity around the Mun. As Kelbin made his way around to the designated docking pier, he noted the absence of docking ports connecting various modules together. The station also had four engines and as many fuel tanks at one end. He concluded that the whole thing must’ve been built on the ground in one piece and launched into orbit. “Wherever we’re going must’ve built this,” he conjectured aloud.

“Yup,” Parie responded. “The Air Force built a base on the ground. It’s our destination… There’s our pier. See those extensions? We’ll need both of them. They’re our landing gear, dorsal and ventral. We’ll be landing on our tail. Grab them and refuel for our trip down.”

That explains the Flapjack’s new ventral docking port, Kelbin thought to himself. A brief stay at the station later, Kelbin quenched the rocket saucer’s thirst and gave it new legs- apparently the Air Force had different ideas about using spacecraft like the Munbus that were specifically designed for landing on the Mun and Minmus. No doubt future versions of the Flapjack would have legs built in or underside landing rockets.

 

A quick maneuver plot and burn later, they were on their way to the ground.

***

“Shock heating dissipating, reactor is nominal,” Bobus said excitedly. “48 kilometers to target area. Flyer is gliding, props ready to engage… Speed 750 m-sec and dropping…  Passing 2200 meters, props engaging… less than 10 kilometers to go… She’s flying! She’s actually flying on Duna! Uh, ok, 4km to target area… There it is…”

Still decelerating, the Duna Flyer zoomed past Das Wanderer at just under 200 meters per second and less than 500 meters above the surface of the planet. But it was enough.

 

“She looks battered but intact,” Bill said surprised, looking at the video. The Flyer sped onward and continued to slow. “That must’ve taken some skill.”

“Why haven’t they contacted us,” Payin asked. “We all use international frequencies…”

“They may have suffered a hull breech and died after impact,” Valentina said dryly. There was an uncomfortable pause in the conversation.

“Let’s land and take a closer look. Uh, Val,” Bobus finally said, his excitement turning to nervousness. “Can you…”

“Sure,” she said, taking the controls. “I have the aircraft. Switching to manual.”

“Good luck,” Bobus said, crossing his fingers and toes.

The Duna Flyer slipped ever closer to the ground, its speed dropping. Valentina turned it around and headed back to Das Wanderer. The Flyer had to move fast in the thin atmosphere. A sand dune appeared ahead, and Valentina pulled up, almost clearing it. She cursed as the aircraft clipped the dune and the whole tail section came off. She tried to keep the wounded aircraft as level as possible until it hit the ground again, bouncing on its wheels. The outer wings ripped away as they slammed into the sand. The crumbling airplane jumped into the air again. Then it thumped into the ground once more and spun out as it slowed, but it stayed on the ground. At last it stopped.

“I’m sorry, Bobus,” Valentina said, dejected. “I did the best I could...”

Bobus patted her on her shoulder and nodded, satisfied. “She flew. On Duna,” he said proudly. Valentina taxied the stricken aircraft over to the wreck.

“Nobody ever did that before," Bobus continued. "You got her down mostly intact, that’s good enough. We can build a new Flyer from the remains of the old. Longer wings, stronger landing gear…”

“We’re getting soil readings,” Bob interjected. “Ore, gemstones, hydrokerbon, nitronite, precious metals… lots of rock, and some zeonium. No gray water though, but we can squeeze that out of ore. Not a bad place to set up shop…”

 

“Mulch! She’s slipping down the slope, I can’t hold her,” Valentina interrupted, frustrated. She spun the craft around to stop its slide. It worked, but only briefly. It finally came to rest at the bottom of the slope nearly a kilometer away from the vonKerman wreck.

***

“Contact light. Ok, engine stop,” Kelbin said as he ran through the landing procedures. The saucer rocked gently on its heels as it settled into the ground, but didn’t topple over. Nonetheless, Kelbin held his fingers on the emergency engine start. The ship stopped moving. Everything was tilted to one side due to the slope. “Solid footing,” he declared finally.

“Glad we made it,” Gedra said triumphantly as Kelbin processed the shutdown procedures. Parie gave him a thumbs up. The trio began exiting Flapjack 1. Kelbin stepped through the hatch and turned around. He’d been so busy monitoring the instruments and flying the descent profile, he didn’t have time to look out the windows on the way down. What he saw astonished him.

 

“How long has this been here,” he asked, stunned at the sight.

“The saucer or the base,” Parie asked, starring at the enormous craft embedded in the ground.

“Yes.”

“That’s a good question,” she answered. “I only found out about this facility on the trip over. There was no mention of the alien saucer in my briefing. Just that the base was here, and that I will be taking over as the new base commander. Is it anything like the one you found?”

Kelbin looked it over. “It looks identical,” he said finally. “Same seamless construction, same size, same color, same everything.”

“Looks like we have a mystery on our hands then,” Parie declared. “Let’s go introduce ourselves.”

 

***

“As you know,” Bobak’s transmission continued, “Das Wanderer miscalculated and plunged too far into Duna’s atmosphere. After your flyby circulated on the Lattice, Kerbin Galactic publicly admitted that she didn’t break up when she hit the ground as we’d assumed. Instead, Das Wanderer apparently used her lander’s parachutes and the ship’s main engines to slow her descent enough to make an emergency landing. She landed mostly intact.”

 

Payin again wondered why the crew hadn’t contacted them. Bobak apparently anticipated that question.

“The reason you haven’t heard from the crew isn’t because they’re dead. They’re in cryosleep, a state of suspended animation according to the vonKermans. Due to the ship’s damage, they can’t wake up without help. And we don’t know how long their systems will last.”

Valentina paused the transmission. “Cryosleep? What’s he talking about?”

“Oh wow, JJ Kerman wrote about that,” Bobus said excitedly. “In the Duna Space Program, no less! Anyway, cryosleep is where you go to sleep, they freeze your body, and a long time later they thaw you out. One moment you’re going to sleep around Kerbin, the next you wake up at Duna. It’s a great way to avoid having to take huge amounts of snacks and such…“

“That’s how they got their crew to Eve and back,” Valentina interrupted. “The Abenteurer was roughly the equivalent to our early MOLE stations, there’s no way they had the supplies needed for such a long trip! They must’ve used that ‘cryosleep’ technology again with Das Wanderer. Ok, I think I know the rest, but let’s see what KSC wants.” She unpaused the transmission.

“You know the situation back home between the Kerman States and vonKerman Republic,” Bobak’s transmission continued, “Attempting to rescue Das Wanderer’s crew would go a long way towards easing tensions between our two nations. With ISRU, we think you’ll have enough resources to support both your crew and the Das Wanderer survivors, if any. Keep us informed of your progress, Mission Control out.”

“Looks like we have our landing spot,” Jeb quipped.

***

“How’d you end up out here,” Kelbin asked. He hadn’t seen Fredgan since their days in the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project. Fredgan and his crew flew the KSNS Fulton support airship, which was destroyed by the vonKermans in an attempt to grab the arctic saucer.

“The KIA recruited my crew and I after arctic skirmish,” Fredgan answered. “They trained us to be astronauts and shipped us up here to reverse-engineer the saucer.” He looked over at Parie. “Most recently I’ve been filling in as the base commander, and to be honest, I’m glad you’re here to take over, Ma’am. I was getting used to being a rocket jockey. I prefer the relative freedom of having my own ship.”

Parie nodded. “There’ll be plenty of opportunity for that. Tell me about the munar saucer,” She directed, changing the subject.

“We don’t know how long the saucer has been here,” Fredgan answered. “Remember the Armstrong rover? Munar Science Rover 2? Well it didn’t crash as reported. The KIA faked the crash and used the rover to explore anomalies on the Mun. Most turned out to be monoliths. Apparently, the KIA found this saucer a few weeks before the Akron found the arctic one. Anyway, Saucer Works was built after our skirmish with the vonKermans.”

“So, the whole time that the arctic saucer has been held up in the World Court, you’ve been studying this one,” Kelbin said, shaking his head, “wow.”

“Oh, we have been doing more than studying it,” Fredgan countered. He called up an image on the monitor. It showed a small hangar similar to temporary structures built to cover attack craft. Inside was a heavily modified Flapjack.

It lacked wings but it sported small tail fins atop the saucer and some flaps in the back. The engine mount was heavily altered to expose some kind of machinery, and it appeared to be powered by a SAFER atomic reactor.

“You reverse engineered the flying saucer,” Lieutenant Colonel Parie said. It wasn’t a question.

 

Fredgan nodded. “We found the ship’s computer surprisingly intact. It contained a maintenance manual of sorts, and we used it to figure out how the propulsion system worked. Then we built our own. It has problems, I’m afraid. We’ve lost a number of prototypes along with their pilots. And we’re in need of more test pilots…”

“I can help with that,” Kelbin immediately interrupted.

Edited March 3, 2019 by Angel-125

[roboslacker]

Neat.

[KerballingSmasher]

OH MAN!!! This is great stuff, keep it coming!

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 12: New Beginnings

“We lost the first prototype along with Doster when its singularity projector overloaded caused the ship to implode,” Fredgan said.

“What is a singularity projector,” Gedra asked.

Fredgan took a deep breath. “What we know as gravity is a curvature in space-time,” he began. “Massive objects like planets and moons and stars create the curvature. It’s like what happens when you stretch a sheet of rubber and place a heavy rock in the middle. The rubber bends. The alien saucer has technology, an artificial singularity projector, that can curve space-time by using Graviolium to produce gravity waves.”

“Huh,” Gedra said, both fascinated and confused. “And our classified payload was…”

“Graviolium,” Fredgan nodded and admitted.

“What happened to the other pilots,” Parie asked, getting the meeting back on track.

Fredgan swallowed hard. “Thompcott was killed when the second prototype exploded for no apparent reason. It was running fine one moment, then the next it just exploded. We thought it was the projector again and took precautions. We lost Thomwig, our base commander, when he climbed into the third prototype as a vote of confidence and like the second, it ran just fine for several minutes before it too exploded. We don’t know why. We finished the fourth prototype but until you arrived, I was the only other pilot on station, and I’m not allowed to fly it since I’m uh, was, in charge. But with you here…”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Parie suggested.

***

“Reactors powered down,” Bill declared. “RTGs are nominal. Lights off, resources locked down, SAS and RCS deactivated, main engine is in shutdown mode, probe cores are hibernating. Protector is napping, Val.”

“Excellent,” Valentina commended. “Go for MPU start and final systems checks.” She flipped a few switches and the monopropellant power unit powered up. “She’s all yours, Jeb.”

Finally, Jeb thought to himself. “All crew members, sound off. Spacecraft Commander is go.”

“Mission Commander is go,” Valentina said.

“Flight Engineer One is go,” Bill responded.

“Flight Engineer Two is go,” Bobus called out.

“Mission Specialist One is go,” Bob answered.

“Mission Specialist Two is go,” Payin said.

“Note in log, all crew is present and accounted for,” Jeb said for the sake of the flight recorders. “Undocking…” The crew heard a thunk as the Estonian Pathfinder unlatched from DSEV-02. “So long, Protector,” Jeb said as they slowly backed away. “We’ll be back in a year… Ok, descent engine is heating up. MC, lock landing coordinates into the nav computer.”

Valentina tapped on her computer console. “Coordinates locked,” she responded a few moments later. It was just after dawn at the Das Wanderer crash site. “Maneuver node plotted. We’ve got an hour and 20 minutes until the burn.”

Jeb sighed. That was a long time… “Ok, let’s run some more systems checks…”

An hour and twenty minutes later, the Estonian Pathfinder performed its engine burn flawlessly and then discarded its descent stage.

Jeb lit the RCS thrusters to readjust their trajectory after the jolt from the descent stage jettison. They were back on course. They were also committed. Whatever happened, they’d be on the ground soon.

Two minutes past orbital dawn, the Estonian Pathfinder kissed Duna’s upper atmosphere and began to slow down. They watched the trajectory carefully, hoping they aimed for the right spot.

“Passing 20,000 meters,” Jeb called out.

“No shock heating, smooth glide scope,” Valentina noted. “Chutes armed. 90 kilometers to target. 700 m-sec and decelerating. Looking good, Jeb.”

“Roger that,” the Air Force pilot acknowledged. He looked at the trajectory projection. “Might be coming in a bit short.” At 15 kilometers to the target, the drogue chutes deployed. They slowed down even more. “300 m-sec and slowing,” he said calmly. Bill was chattering his teeth.

Jeb armed the landing engine, and its heat shield cover shattered as expected. The main chutes deployed, so he also lowered the landing legs.

“Altitude 4000 meters, at 18 meters per second descent rate. Still looking good,” Valentina said.

Jeb grunted and kept focus on landing the Estonian Pathfinder.

“500 meters at 15,” Valentiana called out. “Still good… 300 at 15, still good… 200 at 14.9…”

“Crew brace for landing,” Jeb said simply. At 50 meters, he lit the descent engine. The ship slowed and…

“Touchdown,” Jeb said calmly. “Engine stop, chutes cut. Welcome to Duna, team.” Everybody in the lander cheered. He checked the navigation computer. “Distance to Duna Flyer, 4.7 kilometers. Distance to Das Wanderer, 4.8.”

“Not bad, Jeb,” Valentina commended, “but you owe me twenty.”

“Mulch,” he said and sighed. The crew safed the vehicle and prepared it for its stay on the ground before donning their helmets to go outside. Jeb depressurized the capsule and Valentina stepped through the hatch.

“I’m climbing down the ladder now,” she said. “It’s very red outside, and the sky is an orange-ish brown, like a butter gel dessert…. Ok, I’m stepping off the ladder…” She planted her feet onto the Rusty Planet’s dirt and took a deep breath. She had a long time to rehearse this…

“As I step onto this new world, I do so on behalf of every Kerman who made it possible, and for all Kerbalkin.” She paused for effect before continuing. “Come on out guys!”

Several seconds later, Kerbin received the expedition's transmissions. Around the world, kerbals cheered as the Kerbal Space Program successfully delivered six astronauts to the surface of Duna and safely set foot upon its soil. The crew of the Protector filed out of their lander, planted a flag, and posed for the camera.

“Ok, show’s over,” Valentina said, “let’s get to work.”

By noon, the crew had Duna Base assembled with its initial operating capability.*

***

The next day, the crew watched as the Buffalo Bulldozer began entering the atmosphere- earlier in the day, its transfer stage reversed course, docked with DSEV-02, and transferred its available fuel before undocking and deorbiting. Protector’s tanks were now half full.

The Buffalo landed flawlessly less than 3 kilometers away from Duna Base, and Valentina paid Jeb 20 kerbucks. It didn’t take long to guide the rover to the base.

Things were almost going smoothly…

“We have to shut off the drills in order to keep the snacks processor running,” Bill said during the noon briefing. “And we’ve had to tap into the lander’s MPU, but we’re still losing power. A lack of sunlight is the problem.”

“Okay,” Valentina said. “How much food do we have?”

“18 days’ worth,” Bill responded. “The CHON processor can make more but we need additional power.”

“And how long until the Drill Truck arrives?”

“21 days, Val,” Bill admitted. “Bob has already run the math. We can stretch our supplies a bit but it will be really tight. We just need more power…”

“Which the Flyer has,” Bobus said.

“Exactly,” Bill concluded.

“Well, the Flyer isn’t very far away, I bet I can taxi it over here,” Valentina said.

It only took a few minutes to get the Duna Flyer pointed in the right direction and headed to the base. After it stopped, Bobus went on EVA and attached a cable to the stricken aircraft. Duna Base immediately had plenty of power to continue its operations.

***

“It’s a wonder that this thing made it down in one piece,” Bill said, noting the cracks in the hull. Liquid fuel had spilled out of the tanks and stained the desert, which had gouges here and there where the craft had crashed landed. Bits of metal and plastic were also strewn about.

With the Drill Truck still another week away and Duna Base’s food processors churning out enough supplies to last a good 60 days, Valentina, Bill and Bob hopped into the Buffalo Bulldozer and headed to the Das Wanderer wreck. Its cryogenic systems were beginning to fade according to the vonKermans, and they couldn’t wait any longer. The base would be crowded once they woke up the crew and brought them back, but once they reached Expansion Phase One, they’d have plenty of room.

“Let’s find a way in,” Valentina said simply. They walked over to the front of the ship where the main airlock was located. Bill helped Valentina climb up onto the handholds, and she tried the automatic controls. As expected, they didn’t respond. Forty-two seconds later- the current light-speed distance between Kerbin to Duna and back- Bill read out the manual directions provided by the vonKermans. That worked.

She turned the hand crank to close the inner door, then slowly cranked open the outer door. Air escaped into the thin Dunan atmosphere. She took one last look around before venturing inside. She moved into the “Heart” crew block and found various pieces of equipment strewn about as a result of the crash. There was no sound, indicating that the air had leaked out.

Bill hopped up onto the airlock hatch next and cycled the airlock, followed by Bob. Once inside, Bill worked his magic and found the air leaks. He patched up the holes and then repressurized the spacecraft. The trio made their way aft to the cryogenics compartment. It was as cold as a tomb. There were three chambers inside with three frozen occupants.

“We found them, they don’t appear damaged,” Valentina said. “It appears that the reinforcements and shielding in the compartment protected them from the crash.”

“The vonKermans would like you to try to thaw Ernst first,” Bobus radioed back forty-two seconds later. “She’s their commander.” He provided instructions on how to do so.

Bob studied the controls carefully. “Here goes, he said.” The astronauts watched fascinated as the deep freeze cryochamber awoke and began to thaw out Ernst. Color returned to the kerbonaut’s face. They heard the unmistakable buzz of an electric shock inside the chamber. Ernst’s body convulsed then laid still. The chamber applied another shock and her body convulsed once more. Ernst stirred, fighting to regain consciousness. The chamber’s door opened and steam escaped. her eyes opened wide and she gasped for air.

“Wie lang,” Ernst rasped.

“What she say,” Bill asked.

“Ein Jahr drei Monate,” Valentina replied flawlessly.

Bill looked at Valentina, stunned.

“She asked ‘how long’ and I replied ‘one year three months’,” Valentina said. Bill still looked surprised. “Wernher wasn’t the only rocket scientist who immigrated to the Kerman States after the Last War,” she explained. “He’s just the most famous. My parents changed their last name after they arrived.”

“Meine crew?”

“Schlafender, Kommandant,” Valentina answered.

“Sind wir deine gefangenen,” Ernst asked.

“Nein,” Valentina again responded. “Wir sind zusammen. Not prisoners. We are together,” repeated in Kerman for Bill and Bob. Ernst looked relieved. “Welcome to Duna,” she said in vonKerman. “You have landed.”

Astonished, Ernst said something that Valentina didn’t recognize. It sounded like a curse.

***

The Nautilus pulled up alongside Minmus Station carrying a crew of two and three passengers. As the ship docked and refueled and resupplied, the passengers disembarked and met with the station commander. They spent over a day in several meetings discussing business until the passengers said thank you and goodbye and took up residence in the brand new DSEV-04 Discovery. After powering up the craft and ensuring that Discovery had all the necessary supplies and equipment aboard, the ship’s new skipper, Captain James T. Kerman, undocked the DSEV-04 from its berth in the space dock where it was built. He backed the last Protector-class vessel out of the yard.

Once well clear of the station, Discovery lit her main engine and boosted on a trajectory that headed out of Kerbin’s sphere of influence.

Nautilus departed a few days later and headed back to Low Kerbin Orbit.

***

The Drill Truck slammed into the atmosphere and aimed for Duna Base. Once it emerged from wireless blackout, the expedition crew took over piloting it to the ground. Valentina realized that the truck was going to overshoot, so she fired up the still attached descent stage to slow and then reverse the craft’s trajectory.

She added a bit of height for good measure, then ditched the stage before it ran dry. The landing frame’s chutes deployed almost immediately, followed by its landing engines, and the craft gently touched down a mere 1,071 meters away from Duna Base.

Jeb cursed and reluctantly handed 20 kerbucks to Valentina.

Valentina dropped the truck onto the ground and lit the landing stage’s engines one final time to dispose of it.

A few minutes later, the Drill Truck arrived at DunabBase, bringing with it fresh snacks, 3D printing materials, drills, and the base’s main power plant. And with the expedition crew’s hard work- and a little help from Ernst, Karl, and Alder vonKerman- Duna Base completed Expansion Phase One.

The Duna One Expedition was off to a great start.

***

For the umpteenth time, Kelbin wished that he could take a walk outside. Without his spacesuit. The last several weeks had been pure Moho. His tolerance for dealing with kow mulch was maxed out. Lodory, the saucer design team’s engineering lead had been relentlessly grilling him on the specifications and flight procedures for the A-51D Flapjack Block 1, the heavily modified flying saucer sitting in the base’s hangar. But without the exotic technology, it wasn’t all that different from the X-51 that he rescued from the scrap heap.

Sure, instead of watching the heat levels and adjusting the fan RPM of a jet engine, he had to adjust the atomic reactor and monitor the output of the gravimetric displacement generator- the thingy that zaps graviolium with electric charge to produce gravity waves. Instead of nudging the throttle to produce more thrust, it told the flight computer to feed more gravity waves into the engine. And just like how the principles of a jet engine are uncomplicated, the gravitic engine’s operation was straightforward too. It concentrated gravity waves on a single spot ahead of the craft- or behind it, to either side, or above or below it- and created a localized “gravity well” for the saucer to fall into. The distortion in space-time didn’t last very long so the engine repeated the process thousands of times per second.

“Kelbin, you’re behind on your guidance computer studies,” Lodory complained. He loved complaining. It made him feel like he knew what he was doing when he was in charge.

“Um, you wanted me to evaluate the engine start checklist,” Kelbin pointed out, not mentioning that if guidance computer studies were the priority, Lodory should have said so earlier.

Lodory stared at him blankly. “Be sure to file your checklist assessment by the end of the day,” he said, getting up and walking towards the ladder.

I already told you that I was going to do that, Kelbin thought to himself.

The problem wasn’t understanding the technology, it was his micromanaging boss. If he didn’t need him to clear him to fly the new Flapjack, he’d have left weeks ago. Instead, every day was an endurance test. At least Kelbin would soon get to fly the saucer, and that made the daily mental torture worth it.

Lodory returned to Kelbin’s workstation. “Have you talked to Danrick yet about the engine warmup issues?”

“No,” Kelbin said tentatively.

“Why not?”

“Because you didn’t tell me to?”

“Well, you’re an experienced pilot, you should’ve talked to him,” Lodory huffed. Kelbin fought the urge to strangle him. Fortunately, he walked away again. “Make sure you talk to him before the end of the day too,” he said as he went down the latter to torture some other hapless kerbal.

Kelbin stifled a scream and got back to work.

* At long last, I finally got to fly the KSP equivalent of the Mars One mission from the Mars One Crew Manual!

[Sky The Heck]

Sorry if this has been asked already, But what mod does the parts used in the Estonian Pathfinder come from?

[MacLuky]

Deep Space Exploration Vessels by @Angel-125

[Angelo Kerman]

I haven’t forgotten about my story, I’ve been pretty busy rewriting Snacks of late and had personal issues to handle as well. Once that settles I can get back to the KFS Mothership and start wrapping up this story too. It is still on KSP 1.3.1!

[RealKerbal3x]

8 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I haven’t forgotten about my story, I’ve been pretty busy rewriting Snacks of late and had personal issues to handle as well. Once that settles I can get back to the KFS Mothership and start wrapping up this story too. It is still on KSP 1.3.1!

Well, I look forward to its return...it'd be really cool to see this in 1.7.1 with the Breaking Ground DLC, if that's at all possible.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Thirteen: Lucky You

Duna Expedition One Mission Commander’s Log, Sol 25

Jeb is starting to get on my nerves. Again. Ever since the vonKerman crew arrived, he’s been sullen and brooding. He’s not much more than three minths older than me, but he acts like he’s been personally affected by the horrors of the Last War. The fact is, neither one of us were even born yet when the Last War ended. Unless I can solve this soon, it will seriously affect the crew’s morale. Besides, we’ll accomplish more by working together than we will by keeping the crews separate.

Speaking of sticking together, we finally have enough room to spread out a bit, and Bob moved in with me yesterday. The whole crew knew about our liaison, of course- you can’t hide anything like that aboard a ship as small as the Protector- but it’s nice to finally make it semi-official. We hear the workshop’s machinery running while we doze in the loft, but it’s a steady rhythm and we got used to it pretty quick. I’m glad that KSP doesn’t frown upon interrelationships between crew members, but they don’t exactly condone them either. So we’ll keep things discrete and focus on our mission objectives.

With the Drill Truck’s arrival, we have enough snacks to last us a good 177 days, and the CHON processors will keep improving that number until the greenhouse’s efforts can literally bear fruit. Additionally, Bill solved our power distribution issues.

The Drill Truck’s SAFER reactors are providing us with plenty of power, and we even managed to print up another reactor. With basic survival secured, our resource stockpiles growing and initial base expansion complete, we can focus on our next set of goals: explore the Rusty Planet and prepare for the next phase of expansion.

We have plenty to explore as well. Atmospheric tests show that while the ground is incredibly dry, the air has water vapor in it, so our next goal is to collect as much as we can. Also, Bob and Payin were analyzing the images taken by the Duna Recon Orbiters when they spotted several anomalies to investigate. But with the Duna Flyer wrecked- I still feel bad about that- we won’t be able to take a look until we rebuild it. Bobus is strongly in favor of making an improved Flyer, but to do that we need a working vehicle foundry. But to get that we need more equipment, which means- Well, suffice to say that we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Ok, time to brief the vonKermans about our status. It’s better that I do it than put up with the 42-second delay round trip needed for the translators back home. I’m the only one who speaks vonKerman, and they still need reassurances that they’re not our prisoners. I haven’t figured out why, and of course “Kerbin Galactic” has no comment on the matter…

***

Six days later, Bill and Bobus finished assembling the Rangeland as well as a small mule that Bobus used to tear up the Duna Flyer.

Its scrapped materials were then recycled to form a new and improved Mk2 Duna Flyer. Just before launch, Bobus made a quick EVA and installed a last-minute sensor to help detect anomalies. Finally, the Mk2 Flyer was ready to fly.

“Atomic pile is hot, SAFER is running at capacity. Flight computer is green, BTDT is operational, and atmospheric sensor is active. Water vapor confirmed,” Bobus rattled off. “She’s all yours, Val.”

“You’re sure?”

“Jim- uh, Captain James- once told me that the best way to get over your fear of something after a failure is to get back up and do it again,” Bobus explained.

Valentina knew this lesson all too well. She also knew that tenacity wasn’t about avoiding failure, it was about keeping going when you do. “I appreciate your trust,” she said simply as she sat down at the remote piloting station. Carefully she maneuvered the Flyer off of the construction pad and onto the desert floor. After lining up with the first navigation waypoint, she firewalled the engines.

The plane’s four electric motors struggled to gain enough speed to lift off, but the Flyer slowly lifted into the air.

It clawed for altitude, so Valentina retracted the landing gear. That worked, and soon the Mk2 Duna Flyer cruised through the air. It flew straight for several minutes before Valentina began lowering its altitude and extending the landing gear once more. If things went wrong, at least the radioactive debris would be well away from Duna Base.

The Flyer inched even lower to the ground. “Here we go,” she said quietly. The wheels touched down and then the plane bounced into the thin air once more. Valentina gently lowered the craft again, and the plane again fought to stay in the air. At last it settled onto the ground and stayed there. The pilot immediately applied the brakes, stopping the Flyer. Everyone cheered.

“Looks like the longer wings worked,” Bill said, congratulating Bobus.

Bobus beamed. “Welcome to the Duna Space Program,” he said, quoting a line from one of JJ Kerman’s stories. “Anyway, we should be good to go scouting now, and our foundry should be up to the task of building tankers to refuel the Protector.”

“Excellent,” Valentina said. “We can start work on that tomorrow. In the meantime…” She pushed the throttle controls to their maximum and let speed build up on the Flyer. At 54 meters-per-second, she rotated the craft and it lifted off, slowly clawing its way to altitude. At 7,000 meters, Valentina leveled off and flew for an hour while tracking their first navigation waypoint. When the BTDT sensor lit up along with Payin’s eyes- her sensor worked- Valentina set the craft down in the local night and taxied around until they finally found their quarry.

The team silently stared at the weathered relic encased in sandstone.

Somebody had reached Duna long before they did.

***

“Don’t worry, Kelbin, you’ll get your chance to fly the saucer,” a familiar voice said behind him. “If I had qualified to fly the saucer, it would be me in there instead of Fredgan though.” Kelbin turned around and gasped.

“Ribbles? Holy Moho! Is it really you?”

“News of my demise was greatly exaggerated,” Ribbles responded, grinning.

“But.. how are- Munbase Enterprise vanished without a trace! How are you here?”

“Oh,” Ribbles began, “that. Well, see, after the KIA took over the Armstrong MSR-2 rover to explore the munar anomalies that nobody told us about, they stumbled onto the crashed saucer. They teamed up with the Air Force to reverse engineer it, and sent the original team out from a secret launch site. That nearly tipped off the vonKermans. When it came time to expand, we needed a way to get resources and personnel…”

“They abducted you?”

“Oh no,” Ribbles continued, “we were in on it from the beginning. Gene did a fantastic job of staging the whole mystery… Anyway, we played prerecorded transmissions while we packed up Munbase Enterprise and shuttled it over to Saucer Base, then unpacked and expanded the base. I must say, we have been really enjoying reverse-engineering that saucer.” He looked around before quietly adding “at least when we don’t have to deal with Lodory…

“Our families know that we’re on ‘special assignment’ but beyond that nothing else. We’ll get to go home soon enough, but then it’s on to some other top secret project. Squad knows the Air Force has plenty of top secret projects.”

“If he's that good at keeping secrets, remind me to never play five-cards with Gene… But doesn’t it bother you that KSC thinks you’re all dead,” Kelbin asked.

Ribbles shrugged. “At first yes, but after a year we-“

“LGM 4 you are go for main power up and engine warming,” Lodory’s voice blared loudly over the base’s public announcement system. He really liked to flaunt his authority.

“Let’s catch up more later,” Kelbin said quickly, turning to a nearby monitor to watch the test flight.

“Atomic pile is hot,” Fredgan said over the wireless. “Gravimetric displacement generator is active, gravity wave output is holding steady at 0.01. Gravitic engine is armed… and good start. Ok, engine is idling, all systems are in the green.”

“We concur, LGM 4,” Lodory proclaimed, “stand by for final clearance.” A few minutes later, he gave the go ahead. Kelbin watched as the small saucer lifted off with electrified plasma trailing in its wake. It remained motionless for several minutes while its systems were checked and verified.

Kelbin watched the monitors as LGM 4 accelerated upwards and way from the base. The craft flew out along the plains and craters of the Mun, with Fredgan calling off various readings.

“It’s starting to get warm in here,” he noted. The same thing had happened before.

“Mulch,” Lodory cursed, “I thought we really fixed it this time. Fred, can you-“

Suddenly, a loud static buzzing threatened to deafen everyone listening to the wireless. It sounded like a power transformer shorting out. They could hear Fredgan yelp. “Uh, circuit breakers just tripped. Lots of red warning lights, Alert! Alert! Alert! LGM 4 going down!”

Kelbin watched the monitors helplessly as the gravitic saucer headed for the munar regolith. Fredgan slowed the craft as much as he could and frantically hit the landing gear button, not remembering that the gear was already down. The saucer smashed into the ground, kicking up dust.

“I’m ok,” he finally said, his voice wavering. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nice lithobraking,” Lodory said acidly.

***

“Well, we knew that the Ancient Aliens visited Kerbin,” Valentina pointed out, “so why wouldn’t they have visited other planets in our solar system too? Maybe this is one of their old probes?”

“It could be,” Bob admitted. “It’s encased in sandstone, so it must’ve been here for a long time.”

“Yeah…” she pondered something quietly before continuing. “Uh, is there anything else we can learn from this site? If not, let’s mark it on the map and move on.”

A few minutes later, the Duna Flyer II was back in the air and winging its way across the rusty desert once more.

It flew north-northwest up to the Great Canyon in search of its next landing zone. A couple of hours later, it touched down safely and taxied up next to an old space probe.

The Duna Expedition One team was delighted to inspect the old Elcano-1 probe, the first kerbal-made spacecraft to land on the Rusty Planet. It looked surprisingly intact despite some weathering. The team took additional readings before shutting the aircraft down for several hours. Their next target was still in darkness.

***

Danrick took the Mule out to get LGM 4 back on its feet and tow it back to base. As Kelbin watched the replay of the saucer’s flight, he was mesmerized by the lightning cracking away from the saucer. He froze, formulating an idea…

“Hey, Lodory,” Kelbin asked, “we use electricity to charge up the graviolium to produce gravity waves, right?”

“Yes,” Lodory answered. “What of it?”

“Does all the electricity get converted?”

“Of course.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, Kelbin, I’m sure. Why?”

“What about all that lightning coming off the saucer?”

“Ah, that’s just static discharge from the plasma venting,” Lodory explained. “That happens as small amounts of graviolium are vaporized as it gets charged up.”

“Well, couldn’t the saucer gain a static charge as it flies through the plasma? Or could the system accumulate a static charge as the generator zaps the graviolium? I mean, no system is 100% perfect, right?”

“It would- Uh…” Now it was Lodory’s turn to freeze, lost in thought. “Hm…” He suddenly got out of his chair and went back to his lab.

***

A few days later, Lodory went outside to install several small lightning rod-like spikes onto the gravitic saucer. After checking his handiwork, he resumed his post in the base.

With Fredgan too spooked to fly the saucer again, Kelbin finally had his chance. He boarded the craft, taxied it out of the hangar, and began powering up its systems.

“Don’t crash, Kelbin,” Gedra said over the wireless. “You still have to fly me home.”

“If he crashes, it won’t be because of the gravitics,” Lodory proclaimed. “LGM 4, you’re cleared for hover. Don’t forget to activate the dischargers.”

Kelbin sighed. Micromanaging appeared to be part of Lodory’s hierarchical culture. He tried not to take it personally. It was hard though. “Copy that, Control. Dischargers are active. Xenon gas is flowing at 0.001 units per second. The new static charge meter shows that the levels are… dropping!”

Kelbin couldn’t help but feel elated. He flipped the saucer upside down as it hovered above the platform. “Acceleration is independent of orientation,” he said by way of explanation.

Lodory was about to complain when Gedra directed him to proceed with the flight testing.

Kelbin jammed the throttle forward and the saucer rapidly accelerated. A few kilometers later, it slowed down just as fast. He again flipped the saucer upside down, this time to get a look at some debris left over from the base’s construction.

Several minutes of flying later, it was apparent that the static dischargers were doing their job; there was no danger that the gravitic craft would explode.

As he returned to base, Kelbin rotated the saucer to roughly match that of the crashed alien vehicle that provided the technology that made the flight a success. Then he eased LGM 4 into its hangar and slowly set it back onto the platform.

“Doctor Lodory,” Gedre began, “I must say, it looks like Project Excalibur is finally coming together.”

[KerBlitz Kerman]

@Angel-125  is there a reason why you don't use stuff like OPT Space Plane?

 

Also, for some reason, I think that while your exteriors are great, the interiors are fabulous, almost beyond the game you're playing. I'm surprised you haven't made your own interior mod yet though.

Edited August 25, 2019 by KerBlitz Kerman
Punctuation error.

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, KerBlitz Kerman said:

@Angel-125  is there a reason why you don't use stuff like OPT Space Plane?

 

Also, for some reason, I think that while your exteriors are great, the interiors are fabulous, almost beyond the game you're playing. I'm surprised you haven't made your own interior mod yet though.

My KSP 1.3.1 save is pretty full and takes a long time to load, so adding more part mods like OPT would bog it down even more. It's probably something to consider for a future game, one updated to the latest KSP.

As for IVAs, thanks! I try to make my own where appropriate, but they're incredibly tedious and time consuming, and almost not worth my time. Hence I don't have plans to make an interior mod.