Planet Trek - like Star Trek, but boring

[Aelipse]

This is an experimental series based on my play-through in my heavily modded KSP (and allow me to thank to all the modders out there who make the game such a great experience!) No visual mods though - sorry! 

I play without quicksaving / quickloading, so if something goes south, I just roll with it. Expect this to be a "Game of Thrones" in space in terms of characters' death and suffering.  Here we go.

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"This is, uh, audio log of Tamara Kerman. Doctor Kouse Kerman suggested I start making these to help settle my thoughts.

My name is Tamara Kerman, I am a mission pilot, and this is, uh, year 6, day 158 since the beginning of our space program. I still can't sleep. Not after what happened on the Mun. It's been... three years? No, four. Four years ago I lost my friends and colleagues, Danburry and Tanburry; mission engineer and mission scientist, in a manned roving mission. I was driving the rover when it happened. Everybody at the KCS keeps saying that it was an accident and that I mustn't blame myself, but they weren't there. *sigh* This is still too painful to talk about. Maybe later, when my mind is more at ease.

Anyway, right after the accident I thought I would never ever go to space again, but it turns out being a space exploration pilot is all I can do. And I decided I have to do good. I cannot give life back to my lost friends, but can hopefully save those who still can be saved.

Back on the Mun, when I was rescued, it was a crew I knew only briefly. Cernard, Isarick and Urrigh if I remember their names right - they came for me and saved me from suffocating to death. They went on a long mission to Laythe afterwards, not long after the Mun disaster. The last message we got from them said they landed safely on its surface, but ran out of fuel and their mining system couldn't find any useful ore underneath. They went to cryo-sleep in order not to run out of oxygen and food, and hopefully, they're still there awaiting rescue. Our technicians finished some upgrades on Umbriel, the space ship Cernard and her crew used as well, so hopefully the rescuing crew won't come to the same fate. Who's gonna rescue them if not me? After all I'm the most experienced pilot around here. I'm only sorry for Melfel and Haydos, as I won't be taking them with me this time. I cannot risk their lives, they'Re the only friends I have now."

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"What in the Kodin's name is she doing? She was only supposed to take the ship for a short test flight!" exclaimed Gene Kerman, as he watched the flight monitor. Haydos, who was sitting in the flight control centre, sipping at her coffee, stood up and came over to take a look.

"Oh, you know Tamara. The lower atmosphere is not enough for her. What do you expect from the daughter of the one and only Jebediah Kerman?" said Haydos with a grin and took another sip.

"I expect her to at least notify me of her flight plans. I can't even connect with her on the radio. She must have disabled the communications."

"Oh? Why would she do that?" asked Haydos, now visibly worried.

"I don't know. She's been acting strange after the Mun accident. I told her it would be best if she took a long break from piloting, but would she ever listen to me?" said Gene and the question hung in the air. Haydos shook her head, thoughtful.

"I need to tell Melfel. She's one of our crew, she needs to know."

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"Audio log of Tamara Kerman, year 6, day 159. It has been surprisingly easy to convince the guys at the hangar to let me test Umbriel in flight again. I don't think they suspected anything, and even if they did, I have known many of them for a long time and don't think any of them would stop me anyway.

I disabled the communications because I don't feel like explaining myself right now. Still, Haydos and Melfel should know my intentions, and why I left them behind. After all that time we spent on Ike together, waiting for our transfer window, I consider them to be my family. I hope they're alright and not too worried about me.

Man, space is so peaceful when you're up here just by yourself. I have to savour the moment before I start planning my burn. The view gives you a completely fresh perspective on everything."

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

Melfel was sitting in her office in Research & Development Centre, studying the rock samples they brought from Ike not so long ago, when her message system on her computer started to ring. 

"Haydos? Hello, what's, um, going on?"

"Melfel, it's Tamara. She's taken Umbriel to low Kerbin orbit and disabled all communications. I'm worried."

"Oh my! Has she left any messages or spoken to anyone before she took off?"

"Not that I know of. Come meet me at the Flight Control Centre, I want to talk to you in person."

They were long minutes before Melfel finally arrived, all sweat and out of her breath. Haydos met her outside the building, just on the stairs.

"Any news?"

"Yes. We have tracked her trajectory and it seems like she's flying to the Mun."

"Oh no. She hasn't had any suicidal thoughts lately, has she?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm worried. I've talked to Gene and he said there's a chance we might intercept her if we hurry. They will give us the old Nuclid B rocket they used to fly to Mun and Minmus. It will be on the launch pad in half an hour. Are you coming with me?"

"Of course!"

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"I forgot how annoying it is to fly one of these old pieces of wreckage manually. Especially when I'm an engineer, not a pilot," sighed Haydos in her usual grumpy manner.

"Is it that bad? I mean, um, I thought computer does the flying for you."

"Yeah, it does, but you have to keep telling it what to do. Besides, this machine is quite old, it's one of the HECS Beta models. Your phone has more computing power than this. Ugh, if Tamara doesn't crash into the Mun, I'm going to kill her myself."

"Haydos!"

"Sorry Melfel. You know me. I always get cynical and nihilistic when something interrupts my coffee break. Or someone."

"I just hope she'll be fine. Can we actually intercept her before, um, she reaches Mun?"

"Afraid not. All these systems are preset to the most efficient trajectories, which are also the slowest ones. In order to plan a new, faster route, I'd have to either reprogram everything, which would take hours, or I'd have to adjust our trajectory manually. And I am not a pilot, have I mentioned that yet?"

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"Audio log of Tamara Kerman. Time - year 6, day 159.

I landed on the Mun near the rover crash site. The skeleton of the vehicle is still there, flipped on its back, like a bug that fails to turn back on its feet and dies of starvation. It will probably remain here for thousands of years to come as there are no means of disposing of it. A grim reminder of what happened here.

I still remember the day as it if was yesterday. Maybe because I relive it in my dreams over and over again, almost every night. The mission was simple. Test the new rover's capabilities and, while at it, visit as many of the mysterious arches as possible. I drove it for what seemed like endless hours, covering over eighty kilometres a day. Danburry, the mission engineer and my good friend, was sitting right behind the cockpit in the habitations area. She loved watching films. She took a whole collection of them here with us to pass time when she wasn't performing maintenance or adjusting the mining drill to maximise its effectivity. Tanburry was sitting in her science lab back at the rear of the vehicle, examining the readings and the samples we've gathered. She was so excited about her findings she wouldn't even come join us when Danburry and I took break and played some games over a cup of coffee. Tanburry had always dreamt about having her own science lab, and getting a moving one on the surface of the Mun must have been a dream come true for her.

We have visited the remaining arch, Tanburry of course spending hours gathering data, while Danburry couldn't help herself not to fly to the top of that thing with her jet pack. When we were done here, Tanburry thought we might as well head back and explore the monolithic object just a day's drive from there. She was so excited.

After a few minutes of driving south we came upon two craters right next to each other. It would take hours to go around them, so I decided we might as well try to navigate across the narrow ridge in between them. I was careful, but the terrain there was much more treacherous than I had anticipated. The slopes were all of a sudden too steep to move safely in any direction, and when I tried to turn, the whole rover started slipping sideways, down into one of the craters.

It was then when everything was lost. Equinox, as the rover was called, gained speed despite all my effort to bring it to a halt, and then it flipped and rolled and... I heard explosion. Many explosions actually. Everything was upside down, the cabin was shaking and I thought those were my last moments. After what seemed like an eternity we came to a halt, reaching the crater's bottom. I heard Danburry's voice on the radio and saw her knock on the window from the outside. I pressurised my suit and got out as well. Danburry was alright, but Tanburry's science lab was gone. There was no trace of it.

I was in tears and those would have been my last if it wasn't for Danburry. She thought fast. She first noticed that one of the other destroyed parts was the nuclear reactor, and the solar panels, formerly mounted on the roof, were of course gone too. We had enough supplies to last us ten days, but the electricity required to keep us warm, dispense water and food from the storage and most importantly run the oxygen dispenser, was only gonna last for a couple of minutes. We were doomed.

I started writing my farewell note, knowing that my time was up and I would never leave this place alive, but Danburry had a different idea. With oxygen worth just a handful of minutes, she rummaged through the storage module, which miraculously survived even after being blasted away during the crash. She found spare solar panels and attached them to the chassis of the rover's remains. The empty batteries in the rover started filling up with power; or so we thought. What we didn't realise at the moment, in all that shock and confusion, was that Kerbin was partially blocking the Sun, and the solar panels didn't manage to gather enough energy to run the pressurising system again. Danburry went inside first because she had only seconds of oxygen left in her suit, but when she took her helmet off... There was nothing I could do. I watched helplessly from the outside as she was suffocating inside the cabin. When the Sun appeared again and the life support started running again, she was already dead. I tried resuscitating her, but to no avail.

I had to spend five hours in the cabin next to her dead body before the rescue crew arrived. These images will haunt me for the rest of my life.

I think that's enough for this log. I AM actually feeling a little bit better now that I got it out of my chest. I should now open the comms and let the KSC know that I'm after Laythe. I also need to say a proper goodbye to Melfel and Haydos. Tamara over."

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"I have located her on my screen. She's at the crash site near the arch," said Haydos.

"Well, um, that can be good or bad," replied Melfel in her usual meek voice.

"Everything can be good or bad, Melfel. Especially when this damned thing doesn't have a proper autopilot. I should contact KSC and ask for instructions."

"Wait, I'm receiving incoming call."

"Tamara to KSC, I am alright. Sorry for... borrowing your ship," Tamara's voice was crackling through the speakers. "I am going to-"

"Tamara! What in Tut-Un Jeb-An's name are you doing here?"

"Haydos? Is that you?"

"Of course that's us! Melfel and I got worried... well... Melfel was worried, I was sure you'd be doing fine," said Haydos. Melfel rolled her eyes.

"We came to make sure, um, you weren't in any danger." Melfel's voice sounded determined. Tamara replied with a slight smile:

"You don't need to worry about me, Mel. I know what I'm doing."

"When you girls are done with chit-chat, I'd like to you to walk me through the landing process on this thing."

"You want to land here?" Tamara appeared genuinely surprised.

"No, I'm going to shoot right through the Mun. That's if you don't tell me what to do next. I'm already on a collision course, you know."

"Sweet Hangar, have you ever landed with a rocket before, Haydos?"

"No, but I have played a lot of Human Space Program. Does that count?"

"Alright, so listen carefully then. There's a button labeled *landing*. That will show you where your current landing location is. Does your computer support the prograde / retrograde assist?"

"That's the only thing it can do. That, and spewing warning messages all over the screen."

"Alright, focus. Here's what you do next..."

[Aelipse]

"How was the landing?" asked Tamara as Haydos entered Umbriel's cabin.

"Don't even ask. I think Melfel just made a study about the amount of vomiting bags on the vessel. To be fair, I would have vomited too if I didn't have to pay attention to the landing."

"And you left her there? Is she alright?"

"Tamara, I'm joking. I thought you knew me better than this. And Melfel's fine. She's just behind me." The door of the compressing chamber opened again and this time Melfel stepped in, with her helmet already off.

"Hello."

"Good to see you, Melfel. In fact, good to see you both. Why did you bother to come after me?"

"Bother? You are one of us. We spent over two hundred Kerbin days on Ike together. Remember that?"

"I am sorry, both of you. I was just about to let you know where I was and what my intentions were, but you were quicker than I'd thought."

"Speaking of which, what are your intentions, Tamara?" Haydos spoke in a slightly annoyed manner which Tamara assumed must have meant her coffee break had been interrupted.

"Remember Cernard, Isarick and Urrigh?"

"Of course I remember. They're stranded on Laythe and in cryo-sleep."

"Well, they saved my life back in the day, and I just couldn't watch them being left behind. They've been there like that for over two years."

"Tamara," Melfel stepped in, giving her an amused look, "they are not left behind. The scientists have been working out why they landed on, um, barren ground. They have even developed new scanner device that is supposed to, um, accurately find sites suitable for mining."

"That's right," Haydos nodded her head, "if you paid attention to the news in science and technology, you would have known this. If we let you fly to Laythe alone, with the same data Cernard's crew had available, you might have as well ended up just like them. Stranded alone on a distant moon with no fuel."

"Oh," Tamara leaned back, thoughtful.

"But, I have some friends at the Vehicle Assembly Building and they told me a new scanning probe is ready for launch - with the newest technology on board of course! I'll talk to the Flight Control and convince them to launch it ASAP."

"Wait, you're not here to stop me?" Tamara gave them both a confused look.

"No, we're of course flying with you," said Haydos, her tone now being a definition of confidence.

"We are?" Melfel's eyes opened wide and the scientist looked even more confused than Tamara.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"Fiiiinally a decent chair." Haydos was spinning on one of the chairs in the spaceship's cockpit, only barely staying on it in the lower Mun gravity.

"So, um, what was your flight plan anyway, Tamara? You came here to refuel before setting off to Jool?" asked Melfel, as she was nibbling on a bluish jelly dish.

"Pretty much, yes. I was originally intending to refuel on Minmus, since taking off from it is more fuel efficient, but then I thought, being on my own, why not stop by the crash site and, uh, revive a few memories. Say a proper goodbye, you know."

"How much time do we have to the Jool transfer window? Like 200 days?" Inquired Haydos, when she stopped spinning.

"Two hundred thirty, actually." Haydos' eyes opened wide. Tamara continued, "well, I was going to go to cryo-sleep for most of that time. The ship has more than plenty of glykerol for just one person. Now there's three of us though..." Tamara fell into silence, mulling something over, then added, "you know, there isn't enough space on the ship for all six of us. If we actually find and manage to rescue Cernard's crew, we cannot fit on the ship anyway."

"We won't have to. Their ship is fully operational according to all the data we have from the last transmission. It just needs to be refueled. I can see to that. Umbriel should have all the necessary equipment for fuel transfer. I see it this way. We find a landing spot rich with ore. We fill our tanks, fly to their ship, connect it to ours and transfer about half of our fuel to them. Then both our and their ships can fly back to the mining spot, each filling their respective tanks to the rim, and we'll be able to fly off." Haydos grinned, apparently being proud with herself.

"I see you have really thought this through," said Tamara and gave Haydos an impressed nod. Then she turned to Melfel who seemed to be deep in thought, not paying attention to their conversation.

"What's bothering you, Mel?"

"Hm? Oh... Well. I would like to take a closer look at, um, the crash site while we're here. If you don't mind that is."

"I don't mind. We can all go after you've finished eating. I'll finally tell you what exactly happened, if you want."

Edited July 27, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

"Audio log of Tamara Kerman. Year 6, day 171.

Haydos and Melfel went to cryo-sleep three days ago. Mining will take longer without Haydos' interference, but we've still got over two hundred days before the transfer window to Jool, so there's nowhere to rush.

I stayed awake for now. I mean, I could just program the computer to finish mining and take off in the desired direction at the desired time, but I'd rather see to that personally. Now that my crew is on board, it's not just my life that's at stake. Besides, I don't mind being alone with my thoughts for a while. There's plenty of entertainment on the ship - films, video games - even some with the virtual reality goggles - then there are books... and painting software. I like painting. A creative hobby gives one a feeling of purpose. There will be enough time for cryo-sleep once we've escaped Kerbin's sphere of influence.

The sky is so beautiful here. I have been flying to space for six years now and I still cannot get over how gorgeous the universe is. Tamara over."

Edited July 28, 2019 by Aelipse

[Geschosskopf]

A rescue mission with ghosts of the past.  Love it

[KerballingSmasher]

Wow. Can't wait to see how this continues!

[KSK]

You and me both.

Great start and yeah - what @Geschosskopf said.

[Aelipse]

Thank you! Glad you like it. And we're moving on:

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"The audio log of Tamara Kerman. Year 9, day 168.

I woke up from cryo-sleep a couple of hours ago and my head is still throbbing. The take off from Mun wasn't exactly a piece of cake, but I managed. Wouldn't that be a stupid way to go? 

Anyway, we've reached the Jool system. Melfel and Haydos are still in the freezers, as they like to call the cryonic chambers back home. I think it's better to let them sleep for now. We need to conserve our supplies, especially in case something goes wrong and we get stranded.

Speaking of which, I was looking at the radar and could't find the ore detection probe Haydos talked about. Maybe it's just not responding to our signal, but there is no reason why it should go into hibernation or cut off all comm channels. Something must have gone wrong.

We are currently on our path to Tylo's sphere of influence. Umbriel's flight computer made a correction burn, which I thoroughly checked and it looks good. I did some calculations and if we perform a deceleration burn at periapsis with Tylo, we'll fall down under Jool's escape velocity. Let's hope there will be enough fuel left to slow us down before entering Laythe's atmosphere. I'd do the math, but I still feel like a zombie after two years of sleep. And the coffee in zero gravity is killing me.

If everything goes well, the next log will be from the surface of Laythe. If not... well... then this is a goodbye. Tamara out."

Edited July 30, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

After the Jool capture burn over the rocky wastelands of Tylo, the ship Umbriel was left with less than fourteen hundred metres per second of delta v and Tamara was getting worried. The moons Tylo and Laythe were fortunately aligned in a such a way that it only took a couple of hours to reach Laythe's sphere of influence. But the speed at which the space ship was approaching Laythe was beyond all previous estimations.

There was a tough choice to be made. Set the trajectory for the highest layers of Laythe's atmosphere and risk escaping the moon's gravity, inevitably falling into the planet Jool, or go for the low altitude trajectory, which, at these velocities, would probably mean melting the ship and destroying everything - and everyone on board. Tamara looked at the screen monitoring her two frozen companions and friends, and she felt her throat going dry.

"We're not going to burn," said Tamara stubbornly to herself to boost her confidence as she turned the vessel retrograde, preparing to lower the periapsis. "Twenty thousand metres altitude. If that doesn't slow us down, I don't know what will."

It was only a handful of minutes before Umbriel reached Laythe's exosphere, soaring at over three and a half thousand metres per second, but to Tamara they seemed like an eternity. Her face was covered in sweat and her hand was already cramped from holding the joystick, when she finally hit the atmosphere, nose pitched wildly up.

The cabin started to shake violently and all monitors except those essential for flight control were now ablaze with overheat warnings. Tamara held her hand firmly on the side-stick, keeping the space craft at the best possible angle of attack, while glancing from monitor to monitor. She saw the values for vertical speed exceed negative five hundred, then caught a glimpse of the temperature gauges, which were flashing ninety five percent and rising, while another screen informed her of parts of the ship being already lost due to overheating and dynamic pressure. Her chest now felt tremendously heavy, as the g-forces were quickly rising up, and she gasped for breath. She turned her attention back to the navigation panel and realised with a pang of horror that the ship was slightly inclined to the right and just about to fall into a spinning stall. The acceleration was crushing her body, and she, in a desperate attempt not to black out, turned her head to the right. The faces of Melfel and Haydos in cryo-sleep, now strangely dormant and peaceful, were the last thing she saw before everything went dark.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Aelipse

[xendelaar]

wow, your designs looking really stunning! you put a lot of effort in them, and the story as well! I love the idea of an ironman playthrough but I haven't got the guts to do so! 

[Geschosskopf]

Well, that's certainly a cliff-hanger ending.  

So Umbriel is going for landing direct from interplanetary velocity, or are you just braking right now?

[Aelipse]

"Come on, come ooooon!" uttered Gene Kerman impatiently, staring at the huge screen in the Flight Control Centre. The whole room was staring with him, breathless.

"How long has it been?" asked Sean Kerman.

"Ten minutes since we lost their signal."

"Ten minutes is long for a plasma black-out. Still, I've seen re-entries that cut off the signal for up to fifteen minutes. I'm sure they're fine."

"What if their antenna was broken during the descent?" asked another flight operator. Gene didn't answer. He just stood there, hypnotised by the radar monitor. He was still clutching to his mug of coffee, now cold, too anxious to drink it.

"We need a stronger transmitter," said Gene finally.

"The strongest one we have is the Survey-relay Satellite in polar orbit, but the core went into hibernation some five months ago," Sean pointed out.

"Then we have to fix it ASAP. Get me Scott on the phone."

Scott's real name was Dilwig, but for some reason everybody at KSC was calling him Scott. He was just working in the hangar on some final adjustments of the new experimental aircraft they had built when he received the call.

"Oi, lads. What's up?"

"Scott, we're gonna need to fix a satellite in low polar orbit. Do you have anything that flies?"

"We do have an experimental space plane ready to go. When do you want it?"

"Right now," demanded Gene Kerman sternly.

"Alrigh'. Fly safe!"

"You're flying too, Scott."

"What?!"

"We need an accomplished aeronautic engineer, and there's no one better than you. Johnlan will be piloting, you just fix the satellite. I'm sending you all the details right now."

"Oh diddy..."

Edited July 30, 2019 by Aelipse

[Aelipse]

When Tamara came to her senses, it was completely dark outside, and she could hear a swoosh of air flowing around the wings. She blinked twice to make sure she wasn't dreaming and a quick glance at the monitor before her told her the ship was cruising through the air, slowly descending towards the sea. The ship must have stabilised itself on its own when she was unconscious. 

She instinctively checked the readings from the cryonic chambers, which seemed to be nominal and untouched by the fiery entry, and then proceeded to open the radar map. The space craft was indeed plummeting towards the huge body of water, somewhat gliding on its large closed wing. The altitude was seventeen thousand metres and the descent rate over two hundred metres per second. Tamara quickly reviewed the options in her head and started to search for the closest dry land on the radar map. She found an island not too far from her current position, and to her surprise, it was the island where Cernard's crew landed. 

A hasty check of the fuel status followed, revealing that the few drops of fuel she saved for the atmospheric cruise were still intact and ready to be used. She switched the atomic vacuum engine off, while turning the atmospheric turbo-ramjets on. A brief test of the engines. They appeared to be working fine. Another quick glance at the map. The landing spot was 340 kilometres away. Tamara grabbed the joystick, rolled the aircraft to the starboard side and started pitching up. The altitude was now twelve thousand, but as the wings leaned into the air properly, the descent rate plummeted to zero and the ship even started to ascend. 

Tamara switched the breathing engines on again and this time brought them to their full throttle. Their powerful hum carrying through the hull made Tamara feel alive again.

"OK, we have enough fuel to gain us proper altitude and speed. If we can reach high atmosphere and hypersonic speeds again, it shouldn't be too difficult to glide to the destination even without the engines," Tamara told herself, aloud as there was nobody around to hear her anyway. She realised that without the detailed scans of the ore deposits they could easily end up stranded on a barren piece of land with no fuel to move anywhere. Just like the crew they were trying to rescue. Despite that, she remained hopeful. They had survived the most dangerous part of the journey and there was still room for more luck.

The engines have indeed soon gulped down all the liquid fuel they had left, but not before they brought Umbriel into a graceful soar some thirty thousand metres above the sea level at four times the speed of sound. Tamara had vast experience with gliding the hundred-ton weighing colossus, as that had always been her favourite part of every mission. Umbriel's large wing kept her in the air with no difficulty, descending along a rather gentle slope, and after almost 200 kilometres Tamara had to start pitching down not to overshoot the island.

It was larger than it appeared on the radar, and with some rather tall peaks as well. Tamara quickly decided for a landing spot near one of those peaks. If the soil really proved to bear no ore suitable for mining, she might get another chance by releasing the brakes and sliding into the valley.

The surface was still engulfed in dark when she extended the landing gears and got ready for landing. Five hundred metres above ground. Four hundred. Three hundred. Looking out of the front window, she could just barely make out shapes of the surrounding landscape. Two hundred. She checked the speed again. It was below 150 metres per second. Almost safe to land. She pitched up a little to slow down some more. Umbriel was now flying almost horizontally, but as she was approaching the highest hill she could find, the ground level underneath was rising, coming closer and closer.

A hundred metres. The spotlights from the landing gears now lit the dunes below with light and revealed the slope ahead. Tamara raised the nose up some more to ease the space ship gently on the ground, deployed the drag-shoots and a moment later the craft was sitting safely on a mild slope of one of the Laythe's islands. The moment of truth was still to come, though. Tamara opened the cargo bays, deployed all the cooling systems, started the nuclear reactor and lowered the drill. She was watching the monitor nervously as the drilling device was slowly biting its way through the soil. Still zero percent. The screen flickered a few times and all of a sudden the ore concentration jumped to positive figures. Tamara collapsed into her chair and let out a long breath of relief.

 

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OOC footnote: Sorry guys for not having replied to your questions; I didn't want to spoil anything.  Yeah, the Umbriel space craft was entering Laythe's atmosphere with the intention to land at (almost) interplanetary velocities. I did a burn of about 400 m/s delta-v at Tylo's periapsis, hoping its gravity assist would slow me down enough, but as it turned out, the craft was far from slow enough to enter the atmosphere safely.

I actually performed the landing yesterday, but was too tired to write it all down, hence I was able to afford to insert the little intermezzo from KSC for drama effect.  Even though it probably doesn't seem like it at this point, nothing is planned ahead. I was genuinely glad that the ship didn't explode during the entry (and those temperature gauges were really really close to full!), as that would be highly anticlimactic. The ore was also a pleasant surprise, since I proved to be a complete idiot and forgot to launch the scanning probe... Anyway, thanks for reading this far.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Aelipse

[KerballingSmasher]

Woah!

[Geschosskopf]

On 7/30/2019 at 12:27 PM, Aelipse said:

OOC footnote: Sorry guys for not having replied to your questions; I didn't want to spoil anything.  Yeah, the Umbriel space craft was entering Laythe's atmosphere with the intention to land at (almost) interplanetary velocities. I did a burn of about 400 m/s delta-v at Tylo's periapsis, hoping its gravity assist would slow me down enough, but as it turned out, the craft was far from slow enough to enter the atmosphere safely.

I actually performed the landing yesterday, but was too tired to write it all down, hence I was able to afford to insert the little intermezzo from KSC for drama effect.  Even though it probably doesn't seem like it at this point, nothing is planned ahead. I was genuinely glad that the ship didn't explode during the entry (and those temperature gauges were really really close to full!), as that would be highly anticlimactic. The ore was also a pleasant surprise, since I proved to be a complete idiot and forgot to launch the scanning probe... Anyway, thanks for reading this far.

Well, you need to retitle this thread.  There's nothing boring about hitting Laythe at interplanetary speed, especially if intending to make that stick, AND THEN risking all on unknown ore concentrations.  Cajones de hierro fundido  verging on tres fou couyon.  Either way, I salute you and was very entertained 

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by Geschosskopf