JNSQ: To the Mun!: Epilogue

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, fulgur said:

SPACE JUNK! Also, well done for getting craft ready for a Munshot so early!

Will you try to recover Pathfinder? Also, why did the breaking of the service module mean the loss of the ship? Surely the probe core was not in that section, if they were going to land it.

Thanks! I still have more research to do to unlock the parts needed for the Lindor V. 
I plan to recover Pathfinder soonish. I could not land it on automatic because I had no probe control on the orbit that brought it in far enough to land.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 20

At the Darude Launch Complex, another Drakken leaped into the sky, carrying with it an experimental exposure facility. Unlike Drakken 3, which had a similar lab, the Drakken Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) had no means of returning the experiments to Kerbin. Instead, the craft had a docking port; their next flight in a few weeks would attempt to retrieve the experiment results.

In the meantime, ground crews at KSC towed the new Duna 1B Upper Stage over to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The D1B, nicknamed “Dibs,” was equipped with embedded communications antennae, a set of small solar panels, and an improved aft thrust structure. The B model was designed after engineers learned lessons while building the first upper stage, and its predecessor’s flight would be the one and only A model to fly. Once mated to its lower stage and payload, “Dibs” had an important mission to fly.

Three days later, after a record 25 days in orbit, Ranger completed its on-orbit research and returned home.

Fourteen days after that Viking successfully tested the MEM’s emergency engine burn procedure, de-orbiting Viking right on target. The K-20 safely landed at KSC less than an hour later. It was Pathfinder’s turn next, but it needed help.

With no docking port to connect with, KSC’s engineers had to get creative. They modified their workhorse Docking Target spacecraft, equipping it with a brand-new advanced grabbing unit (junior). Mission Planners hoped that the Docking Target could grab the K-20, circularize its orbit, and then perform the de-orbit maneuver needed to bring Pathfinder home.

The Docking Target successfully attained orbit and rendezvoused with Pathfinder. Some careful maneuvering later, the Docking Target grabbed Pathfinder and circularized its orbit.

The next day, it de-orbited after recharging Pathfinder’s monopropellant tanks and batteries. Its mission accomplished, the Docking Target disengaged from Pathfinder just before atmospheric entry. It met a fiery demise.

Pathfinder, meanwhile, careened through the atmosphere. As plasma engulfed the craft, KSC lost contact with it. Unfortunately, the glider sailed well past KSC. But Pathfinder wasn’t done yet.

The glider made a course correction and aimed for Welcome Back Island, hoping to reach the runway.

Pathfinder's autopilot realized that it couldn’t make it, so it angled for an emergency landing on the beach. It flew over the shore at just 75 meters per second and deployed its landing gear 150 meters above the sand. In moments, it was over. Pathfinder flared and kissed the ground with its landing skids, then stopped after sliding a couple dozen meters. Despite the rough treatment, Pathfinder landed safely.

A short time later, an engineering team from Wild Blue Industries set out to locate and assess Pathfinder’s condition; the K-20 landed on a steep slope along the beach and the craft looked fairly scorched from all the test flights that it endured. WBI sent out a flatbed truck to gather up Pathfinder and bring her back to the airport. Wild Blue’s engineers both sport advanced “OmniTool” prototype and one even had a prototype pair of holographic glasses- both items were much more advanced than anything else on the market or in government!

At any rate, the engineers finally managed to load Pathfinder onto the flatbed and drive her to the airfield. They unloaded the glider onto the tarmac where it waited for its ride home.

An hour later, Bill and Jeb arrived in the Sea Goat. With practiced efficiency, they backed the big plane over the K-20, Bill hooked up the winches, and then they hauled Pathfinder into the ferry position. After saying their goodbyes and expressing their gratitude, the Sea Goat took off again with Pathfinder. They landed back at KSC fifteen minutes later.

After parking the Sea Goat and gathering a team, Bill, Jeb, Gerrim, Jebman, and Valentina drove over to Pathfinder to assess her condition. The prototype had been through a lot! Her fate remains unknown: would she fly again, or would she retire?

Finally, Bob and Valentina were tasked with testing some new ground science instruments that would someday be used on Kerbin’s moons. They took a truck out loaded with the prototypes and visited the Flying Monolith near KSC. Aptly named, the Flying Monolith hung motionless in the air thanks to some very powerful magnets buried in the ground. Like a magnetic levitation display stand, there was a space in the middle of the magnet array where the monolith rested on magnetic field lines that also kept the monolith from moving around. It was another feat of engineering by the ancient Kermantians that modern society had yet to replicate on such a large scale. Just how did they manage to make a 100-ton granite monolith float? In theory, the magnets buried in the ground weren’t strong enough, and yet there it was.

Since the magnetic fields were far too strong for the instruments to handle, Bob and Valentina kept going. They settled on a cluster of palm trees near the runway to deploy their experiments. Bob took care to set up the instruments while Valentina supervised. After they finished, there wasn’t much to do while KSC ran some remote tests, so Bob grabbed a couple of drinks, a boom box, and a guitar that he’d stashed in the experiment container. Valentina was touched, even though her husband couldn’t carry a tune.

[KerballingSmasher]

19 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

After they finished, there wasn’t much to do while KSC ran some remote tests, so Bob grabbed a couple of drinks, a boom box, and a guitar that he’d stashed in the experiment container. Valentina was touched, even though her husband couldn’t carry a tune.

Smooth, Bob, smooth! Bummer that he can't play too well, maybe he'll use the quarantine time to help learn to play better

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 21

The Duna 1B lifted off the pad in the late afternoon, carrying with it three small CommStar satellites. The “Dibs” upper stage burned through most of its propellant to attain orbit, but it settled into a 105km by 127km parking orbit before heading out to the Mun. Three days later, the satellite carrier entered a 10,502km orbit around Kerbin’s closest natural satellite. Learning from the Arrow Space corporation, KSC set up a resonance orbit for the carrier. Twelve days, seven hours into the mission, the Duna 1B executed its resonant orbit burn. Every eleven days after that, a CommStar satellite deployed from the carrier and circularized its orbit. It didn’t quite go as planned; on a couple of deployments the satellite lost connection back to KSC, which rather puzzled the scientists and engineers. But after the last satellite left the nest, “Dibs” used the last of its fuel to de-orbit and impact the Mun.

Additionally, Arrow Space launched two sets of four Arrow Star satellites into equatorial and polar orbit, at last refining their launch vehicle and satellite deployment techniques. Hopefully, with all the relay satellites in orbit, there would not be any more connection issues- except for one small problem: A serious math error caught by an intern at KSC finally proved that the relay satellites didn’t have the range to reach the Mun!

KSC did not realize this until Lowlander 2 was well on its way to landing on the Mun, and the Deep Space Network lost contact with it yet again. Fortunately, Kerbin rotated just enough to gain a tenuous connection, and Lowlander 2 successfully touched down on the munar surface Highlands and sent back some scientific data.

It was clear that existing designs were too short ranged to handle anything beyond high Kerbin orbit, so KSC engineers poured over their satellite designs, invented new technologies, and tested several prototypes before settling on the Pulsar series of communications satellite. The Pulsar sprouted micro relay antennas everywhere it had room along with the solar arrays and batteries to support them. It took another Duna 1B launch- this one with more boosters to try and make up for being under-powered- to place the three-satellite constellation into orbit. It was expensive, but the Pulsars just barely had the range to reach the Mun.

Meanwhile, in the vonKerman Republic, Lagatha vonKerman and leo vonKerman walked onto the Drakken launch platform at the Darude Launch Complex, and Lagatha gave a salute to the photographers before the pair rode the elevator up to their awaiting crew capsule.

After boarding the craft and performing pre-launch checks, the launch gantry retracted, giving the Drakken full clearance to launch. As its predecessors did before, the Drakken blasted off the launchpad and roared into the sky. Minutes later, the Drakken entered a 150km by 148km orbit.

Using the Drakken upper stage, the spacecraft performed a plane change maneuver to meet up with the Drakken LDEF. The upper stage only had about half the delta-v needed, so the service module burned the rest of the way. Six hours later, the Drakken raised its orbit, and parked alongside their target. And thanks to lots of practice, Lagatha expertly piloted the Drakken for a successful docking with the automated LDEF. Kontrol could not be happier.

Leo transferred into the Orbital Module and donned his suit before closing the hatch to the descent module and depressurizing the cabin. After stepping outside, Leo clung to the ladder and examined the experiment modules. Two of them failed, but the Cryogenic Resources Study and Materials Exposure Study both yielded results. Just as Leo was about to grab the data cartridges, he slipped and lost his grip with the Orbital Module. Before he could regain his composure, he drifted a dozen meters away. And in an unplanned test of the vonKerman suit’s jet pack, Leo jetted back to the orbital module and quickly got back inside.

Unable to retrieve the experiments for the time being, Kontrol proceeded with the next test. Lagatha opened the propellant transfer valves and moved liquid fuel and oxidizer into the Drakken’s tanks, matching the capabilities of the Kerman States’ vehicles. She also performed diagnostics on the LDEF’s probe core. It was designed for both spacecraft and space stations, so Kontrol was quite happy that it still functioned after 70 days in orbit. And after another attempt, Leo managed to grab the viable experiment results and wrestle them back into the cabin. Despite the initial setback, things were going smoothly; they would find out in another 20 days how well the Drakken’s landing system worked.

As the Drakken 4 mission got underway, Bob and Valentina hopped into the new Munar Ground Module (MGM) Rover, nicknamed “Miss Piggy” after its appearance, and took it for a test drive. They tried out its various components, handling, and so on, and Bob tried out the geology lab as well. Every few kilometers, Bob tested the prospecting experiments. To his surprise, one of the attempts found a lode of precious metals!  Given how the space program was strapped for cash, the lode was a windfall for the Kerbal Space Program.

Valentina quickly drove back to KSC and grabbed the prototype Logistics MGM and hauled it back to the prospect site. Once Bob deployed the drills and activated them, the Logistics module began filling its tanks with the metals. The tanks filled quickly, but there was much more to dig up. Before long, Bill and Jeb drove out to the site in a tanker to offload the MGM’s treasure trove. All in all, it took three more trips to return the treasure to KSC’s coffers.

Twenty days later, Drakken 4 wrapped up its orbital mission and prepared to return home. An electrical fault caused the craft to burn late. Drakken 4 landed 20km off course but well within recovery range of the Darude Launch Complex. Kontrol sent out a helicopter to retrieve Lagatha and Leo. The two vonKermans returned to a hero’s welcome at Darude.

Finally, Pathfinder was the first prototype K-20 to perform approach and landing tests, the first to test the K-20 abort system, the first to make a suborbital flight, and the first to reach beyond Munar orbital altitude. But after a thorough investigation, engineers concluded that Pathfinder sustained too much structural stress on its airframe after all the testing that it had endured, and it was time to retire the orbiter.

Jeb and Valentina had the honor of picking up Pathfinder with the Sea Goat and flying her to the Boneyard about 30 kilometers east of KSC. It was the best place for the K-20, but perhaps she would end up in a museum someday. After setting Pathfinder down gently, the two astronauts quietly taxied Sea Goat out of the way and flew her back to KSC.

To date, the K-20 fleet consisted of:

OV-101 Pathfinder: Retired

OV-102 Pioneer: Upgraded to Block 2, In Service

OV-103 Mariner: Destroyed

OV-104 Ranger: In Service

OV-105 Viking: In Service

With trips to the Mun just over the horizon and only three K-20s available, the Kerbal Space Program needed another K-20 to bring the fleet up to full capacity.

It was time for a K-20 naming contest!

[zumadawg18]

18 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

To date, the K-20 fleet consisted of:

 

OV-101 Pathfinder: Retired

 

OV-102 Pioneer: Upgraded to Block 2, In Service

 

OV-103 Mariner: Destroyed

 

OV-104 Ranger: In Service

 

OV-105 Viking: In Service

 

With trips to the Mun just over the horizon and only three K-20s available, the Kerbal Space Program needed another K-20 to bring the fleet up to full capacity.

 

It was time for a K-20 naming contest!

Maybe since Pathfinder has now been retired, it should be replaced with it's younger sibling, Sojourner!

[KerballingSmasher]

5 hours ago, zumadawg18 said:

Sojourner

This gets my vote. Does this mean that this one would have wheels instead of skids, too, since Sojourner was a rover (albeit a mini one)?

[Misguided Kerbal]

What about Voyager? If I'm not mistaken, those are all names of probes.

[Angelo Kerman]

Sojourner: 3

Voyager: 1

Spirit: 1

Great suggestions!

Edited April 29, 2020 by Angel-125

[Space Nerd]

Counting the mars rover theme, why not Spirit?

[KerballingSmasher]

9 hours ago, Space Nerd said:

Counting the mars rover theme, why not Spirit?

Or Opportunity! Or Curiosity?  OOOH OR PERSEVERENCE!

Edited April 29, 2020 by Kerballing (Got Dunked On)

[zumadawg18]

23 hours ago, Misguided_Kerbal said:

What about Voyager? If I'm not mistaken, those are all names of probes.

Sans ranger (which were moon probes) , all of these are specifically mars probes. I suggested Sojourner because the Sojourner rover was deployed by Mars Pathfinder, so Sojourner is Pathfinder's "little sibling".

Edited April 29, 2020 by zumadawg18

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 22

Flush with funds from their windfall, KSC began to upgrade their facilities to support even bigger rockets and more launches. The project would take several months, during which KSC had a launch hiatus, and the vonKermans took advantage of their downtime.

First, they launched a modified Drakken rocket that carried with it their first attempt to land on the Mun- the Schafer (“Sheppard” in the Kerman tongue). After delivery into orbit, the modified Drakken upper stage performed a deorbit maneuver. The vonKermans wanted to see if an upper stage could survive reentry, so they aimed for a landing spot near Darude. The probe core, tested on the Drakken LDEF, detected an engine overheat, and immediately commanded the engines to fire to slow down.

Three attempts later, the main engine overheated and exploded, but the stage survived atmospheric entry. With careful management of the Vernier engine thrust, the stage made a low-speed impact into the ground. It survived and it would never fly again, but the experiment gave the vonKermans valuable data.

A day later, another Drakken took to the skies. It shed its fairing to reveal its “payload” of fuel tanks and a docking port. The upper stage attained orbit, rendezvoused with the Schafer, and docked with the awaiting rover, all using automatic guidance. An hour later, Schafer was on its way to the Mun. Four days after that, Schafer entered the Mun’s sphere of influence, and within another 8 hours, the rover slowed down, dropped its transfer stage, and landed on the Mun, nearly on the far side.

The vonKermans succeeded on delivering a small rover to the Mun on their first attempt, with far less resources than the Kerman States. Schafer zipped along the surface at a speedy 2 meters per second until it found an interesting mun stone to scan. Its science arm took several readings and transmitted the results back to Kontrol before the little rover drove over to the next interesting formation.

After soaking up the sun’s rays and charging its batteries, Schafer scanned the crater and stored the results until its batteries recharged again. It transmitted the results and took more pictures for the vonKermans to publish. With nothing more to do, Schafer set out in search of a new biome to explore. Sadly, the rover flipped and damaged several parts including its scanning arm and several antennas, and that effectively ended its mission. But Schafer had fulfilled its primary purpose of reaching the Mun, driving around, and gathering science. It rolled uncontrolled for an hour and a half until Kontrol was finally able to contact the rover and lock its brakes.

Several days later, the Darude Launch Complex launched their next Drakken rocket, this one hosting a new dedicated space tug. The craft struggled to attain orbit, but it made it with a third of its fuel remaining in the tug. Three weeks later, a modified Drakken “Sport” rocket launched with new mini side boosters to provide extra thrust and propellant.

Soon after launch, the mini boosters dropped away, followed a couple minutes later by the usual jettison of the side boosters. The “Sport” showed another difference after jettisoning its lower stage: instead of an RK-7 “Kodiak” motor, the upper stage had a newer and more powerful RK-8 “Bear Claw” motor. The upgraded booster worked; the tanker arrived near its predecessor with just over half of its fuel remaining.

The latest tug quickly docked with its older sister, took all its propellant, and undocked almost as quickly. The younger sibling deorbited via its RCS thrusters while a day later, the newer tug rendezvoused with Drakken 5 and docked. Devoid of any crew, Drakken 5 nonetheless had a mission to perform: orbit the Mun and return safely. Several days later, Drakken 5 entered a 148km by 145km munar orbit.

The spacecraft spent one day and 10 orbits around the Mun before heading home. It exhausted all the Drakken Tug’s propellant in the process; vonKerman engineers took note and realized that they would need to refuel in munar orbit as well. After leaving the Mun’s sphere of influence, Drakken 5 separated from the tug. The capsule had a maneuver to perform while the tug slowed down slightly to ensure breakup upon reentry. Three days later, Drakken 5 seperated the orbital and service modules and hit the atmosphere.

The first pass through the atmosphere cooked off nearly three quarters of the Drakken’s ablator, and the capsule ran out of electricity before it reached its 3,900 km apoapsis. It burned away the remaining ablator on its second trip through the atmosphere, but the heat shield held. Drakken 5’s chutes automatically deployed successfully, and the capsule landed safely in the eastern half of The Great Desert. The vonKermans were quite pleased that their craft could land intact from munar orbit, though they made a note to design a small power generator for use during the capsule ‘s landing. They even snagged a pair of World’s First Milestone awards, one for a flyby of the Mun, and another for returning home from munar orbit.

Three weeks later, a Drakken Sport Improved launched from the Darude Launch Complex. The Improved model split the upper stage in two and incorporated elements of the Drakken Service Module to form a third stage. After depositing its payload- a small probe named Das Wanderer in orbit- the vonKermans sent a small tanker to refuel it.

While it sat in orbit, Darude launched yet another pair of Drakken rockets, one carrying another Schafer rover, the other a tug, and sent them to the Mun. Twelve days later, its landing site emerged into the sun. Schafer 2 touched down successfully and ran its magnetometer experiments, checking various sites as it explored. With its primary target surveyed, Kontrol attempted the nearly 200km trek to the secondary site. Things were going well until the rover ran across a large crater that it couldn’t navigate. It flipped over and skidded to a stop, losing much of its equipment in the process. Still, it drove an impressive 47 kilometers.

A day later, Das Wanderer tested out its new Radio Plasma Wave Scanner and then lit its engines once again, burning for over two minutes and making it the first kerbal-made spacecraft to reach escape velocity. After confirming their calculations, the vonKerman Republic officially announced that Das Wanderer was on its way- to Duna! It would reach Duna’s sphere of influence in another 275 days. Three days later, Das Wanderer became the first spacecraft to exit Kerbin’s sphere of influence and enter interplanetary space. It transmitted back data gathered from its four scientific instruments.

Then a month after that, they sent a third Schafer to the Mun. Schafer 3 was unusual in that it flew above the surface to survey several sites before finally settling down. The rover drove several kilometers to reach the designated survey sites; the last one required the rover to jump before taking a temperature reading, but it worked. Fortunately, Schafer 3 landed on its wheels and safely skidded to a stop. With nothing else to do, Kontrol commanded the rover to hibernate and celebrated their success.

Finally, the vonKermans launched a trio of Drakken rockets, one of which brought their new Libelle (“Dragonfly” in Kerman) lander to the Mun. They even achieved three world’s firsts: the first rendezvous around the Mun, the first docking, and the first “station” construction. It took two Drakken Tanker Tugs to refuel the Libelle for its trip to the munar surface, but it was finally ready. After deorbiting and discarding the stage, it landed on the Mun. And after performing systems checks, Libelle lifted off the surface and achieved orbit. It even rendezvoused with the awaiting Drakken Tanker Tug, although the margins to do so where incredibly tight. Shortly thereafter, Libelle and her tanker de-orbited and crashed into the Mun.

To say the least, the scientists and engineers at the Kerbal Space Center were stunned by the vonKermans’ astounding progress. They had gone from struggling to land their capsule safely to a kermanned launch and even made automated rendezvous and docking look routine, all in a short time and with fewer resources. Then they landed the first rover on the Mun- three of them- tested a kermanned-capable lander and launched the first probe into solar orbit- to Duna, no less!

But it was their Mun exploration that bothered KSP the most. They caught up with the Kerman States’ efforts very quickly and proved that they could reach the Mun with a series of launches instead of one big, expensive, single launch. That meant that KSP could’ve reached the Mun earlier with existing rockets such as the Edna instead of creating the mighty Lindor. But it was too late to retrace their steps, they were committed.

The Kerman States’ President became genuinely concerned. KSP began out of a desire to give the nation a goal to strive for to break themselves out of national apathy and economic depression and bad leadership. If the vonKermans beat them to the Mun, there would be no telling what would happen to national morale. KSC had to act, and fast.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 23

The Lindor 5 was the largest, most powerful, and most expensive rocket ever built. The Kerbal Space Program had the budget for 4 Lindor flights before Kongress would evaluate the project and decide to either continue funding or cancel the program. Lindor had to work or the vonKermans were sure to land first and Kongress would pull funding. Losing a crew on a maiden flight was a worse fate, so KSC loaded up the first Lindor with 7 Pulsar communications satellites and rolled it out to KSC’s brand new Pad B. The satellites would improve data transmissions between Kerbin and the Mun and even reach Minmus.

Lindor needed 7 new KE-1 “Mastodon” engines- 5 in the massive 5-meter first stage and 1 in each side booster- just to get off the ground. The Mastodons had better sea level performance than the Mainsail but worse vacuum thrust and cost nearly twice as much. It was the price to pay for rushed development. A minute and 23 seconds after liftoff, the side boosters dropped away, leaving the massive first stage to carry onward for another minute and six seconds.

The decoupler and separatrons fired next, discarding the first stage and revealing five Skipper motors mounted to the 5-meter second stage. They lit up and burned for another 3 minutes, nearly placing the Duna 1B upper stage and its cargo into orbit. More separatrons and another decoupler fired to back the second stage away from the third and final stage. From there, the Duna 1B entered a 109km by 118km parking orbit around Kerbin.

After performing status checks, the stage departed low orbit and burned for an 80,000km staging orbit- nearly to the Mun! Four days later, it circularized its orbit, and five days after that, it set up a resonance orbit, expending nearly all its propellant. With only 25 m/s of delta-v remaining, the stage would never return home with its current loadout, but every 25 days it would release a Pulsar satellite to build out the network. KSC had their Mun rocket. Now they just had to beat the vonKermans.

***

The vonKermans fired the first salvo in the form of their Libelle munar lander, followed six and a half days later by a refueling tanker. After a rendezvous and quick refueling, Libelle burned for the Mun. Two days into its flight, the crasher stage engine’s throttle stuck open! Kontrol quickly closed the fuel tank values to stop the engine from firing, but it altered its orbit to impact with the Mun. Two days later, after careful fuel tank management, Libelle entered a 3500km by 8906km orbit.

A day later, another Drakken Tanker lifted off, headed straight for the Mun, and entered its sphere of influence after a three-and-a-half-day journey. Another day later, the tanker rendezvoused with the Libelle and transferred propellant to its tanks-but someone forgot to close the fuel valve and the crasher stage engine fired again, putting the craft into a spin. Luckily, the stage ran out of fuel and the tanker managed to arrest its spin. After fixing the valve issue and transferring its remaining propellant, the tanker parted company and de-orbited.

Yet another tanker launched a day later and took on fuel from the first tanker that refueled the Libelle. The older tanker promptly de-orbited. In between launches, the vonKermans also successfully repositioned the Libelle into a 183km by 191km low munar orbit.

A fourth tanker launched six days after the third to refuel the awaiting third tanker. It had a two-day chase to catch up, but it topped off its tanks. Then three days later, Lagatha vonKerman (PLT), Donner vonKerman (ENG), and Leo vonKerman (SCI) took one last look at their Drakken booster before boarding it. Lagatha gave a salute for the cameras while rookie Kerbonaut Donner freaked out. Nonetheless, the crew boarded their ship and Drakken 6 successfully launched into orbit.

***

Jeb lost the coin toss, and he was furious. He did not bother to watch Valentina (PLT), Gerrim (ENG), and Santrey (SCI) drive out to Pad A and ignored the TV as it showed them taking a ride up the launch tower elevator. He missed the dramatic shot of the crew boarding the Viking and the shift to a ground shot and then an aerial view of the enormous Lindor. But he could not escape the roar of the rocket as its engines ignited and it lumbered off the pad. His blood boiled. They were going to the Mun. Without him.

The launch went flawlessly. The boosters dropped away first, then the massive first stage, followed minutes later by the payload shroud and the second stage. A 500 m/s burn put the third stage along with its precious cargo into a 118km by 121km parking orbit. Then seven minutes after Drakken 6 docked with its awaiting tug, Viking lit its Duna 1B for the second time and burned for the Mun. And twelve minutes later, Drakken 6 departed Low Kerbin Orbit as well.

The race was on.

***

Author’s note: This is how it played out: Each space agency could process one mission at a time. The time between launches was calculated as the cost of the vehicle divided by 10,000 to get the number of days. In the time it took to process and launch the Lindor, the vonKermans launched one Libelle munar lander, four tankers, and one Drakken. Each flight got one mulligan, whether through player error or BARIS mishap. After that, I let the chips fall where they may. Each phase of the mission was flown by hand unless done so before, in which case MechJeb was allowed. That meant the vonKermans got to use it but the Kerman States did not.

 

A single Lindor mun rocket costs 472,847 Funds. A Libelle launch costs 73,027 Funds, one tanker costs 76,934 Funds, and a Drakken launch costs 71,024 Funds. The total for the Kerman States: 472,847 Funds; for the vonKerman Republic: 451,787 Funds.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Angel-125

[AlphaMensae]

Did Donner just come in off the turnip truck?  

[Angelo Kerman]

2 hours ago, AlphaMensae said:

Did Donner just come in off the turnip truck?  

Lol, yeah.

[KerballingSmasher]

On 5/24/2020 at 12:24 PM, AlphaMensae said:

Did Donner just come in off the turnip truck?  

Awww, be nice, they gave him a 'decent' amount of training before they sent him up!

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 24

Gerrim checked the numbers and then checked them again. In two days, ten hours, and eighteen minutes, they would enter the Mun’s gravitational sphere of influence. In three days, five hours, and fifty-seven minutes, the vonKermans would reach the Mun’s SOI. They beaten them to the Mun by a day by performing a trans-munar injection burn just twelve minutes before the vonKermans did. Viking’s crew breathed a sigh of relief, but it was not over yet. Gerrim and Santrey moved into the habitation module and powered up its recyclers while Valentina took the first watch.

Two days, ten hours, and eighteen minutes later, Viking entered the Mun’s sphere of influence and the crew made some observations- mostly for the media. Santrey went on EVA via the Munar Excursion module to perform a mystery goo experiment, collect the results, and reset it for the next round. By the time that Viking reached periapsis and circularized, Drakken 6 had entered the SOI as well.

After slowing down to attain a 45.6 km by 49.2 km orbit, Santrey again ran the lander’s goo experiment and collected the results. The team at Mission Control cheered. “Settle down,” Gene said, “There’s still a lot more to do.”

Viking spent an orbit scouting the landing sites and verifying spacecraft systems before Valentina and Santrey boarded the Finch, their Munar Excursion Module. Gerrim sat in the K-20 cockpit, ready to release the struts and free the MEM. At orbital dawn of their third orbit, Gerrim hit the decouple switch, releasing the Finch from its perch. As Valentina scooted Finch out of the way, Gerrim backed Viking to dock with the Duna 1B upper stage- they’d need it to return home.

“Good luck,” Gerrim radioed, “I’ll see you guys when you get back.”

“Thanks, Gerrim… Flight, Finch, we are free and clear to navigate,” Valentina said.

“We copy, Finch,” Gene said. He went around the room, every station reported ready. “Finch, Flight. You are GO for landing. Good look and Squad speed. Be advised, the vonKermans are six hours from their braking maneuver.”

“Copy, Flight,” Valentina said. She didn’t need the reminder; she knew what was at stake. She made the initial de-orbit burn without issues. Minutes later, Finch slowed down even more.

“Passing 2000,” Santrey said, “Delta 750… Speed 100… Horizontal at 5… Altitude 1800…”

Valentina activated the RCS thrusters to cancel Finch’s horizontal speed.

“Altitude 1200,” Santrey continued, “Delta 575… Altitude 500… 200… 100… 50…”

“Touchdown! Lowlands Base here, the Finch has landed,” Valentina called out. “Descent Delta 447, Descent Mono 0, Ascent Delta 01204, Ascent Mono 030, E.C. 150 and holding. Descent engine safed and shut down. Ladder extended…” Valentina continued her checklist, using it to help her calm down. She landed on the Mun!

Santrey quickly took some science readings just in case they had to make an emergency ascent. Fortunately, nothing happened.

“Copy that, Finch,” Gene yelled over the cheering ground. “We show 8 days of snacks and 10 days of air,” Gene radioed.

“Confirmed, Flight,” Santrey radioed back. “Not that we need that much,” she muttered.

Valentina checked her timer. The vonKermans still had 5 hours and 40 minutes before their braking maneuver. They’d beaten them to the Mun- barely. Still, she exchanged congratulations with Santrey and the two breathed deeply to calm their heart rates down.

“Finch, Flight. The crew of, uh, ‘Drakken 6’ say that on behalf of the vonKerman Republic, ‘Congratulations on a successful landing, and we hope that the rest of your mission goes well’,” Gene radioed.

“Tell them, ‘Thank you and have a safe landing,’” Valentina responded.

“Copy last, Finch. Drakken 6 requests that you delay your first EVA until after they’ve attained orbit. They’d like to watch too.”

Valentina looked to Santrey, who nodded. “Wilco, Flight.” She checked her watch. “Suggest EVA in… Mark. Six hours and 39 minutes.”

“You’re too gracious, Finch,” Gene responded. “Six hours and 39 minutes it is. Get some rest in the meantime.”

“Looks like we get to stay a bit longer,” Santrey said.

***

Aboard Drakken 6, the mood was nowhere near as elated. In fact, it was nearly as quiet as a tomb with electronics running. They followed the flight plan precisely. None could question that. But twelve minutes had cost them the Mun. They worked in silence as the hours passed by. “Prep for circularization burn,” Lagatha said simply. A few minutes later, Drakken 6 safely entered munar orbit.

Forty-five minutes later, they aligned their orbit with the Libelle. They had to wait another seven and a half hours for their orbital transfer burn. It was times like these that Lagatha wished that they’d taken the single launch approach that the Kermans did. At least Kontrol allowed them to watch the Kermans’ EVA for “motivation” purposes…

“I’m stepping off the ladder of the MEM,” Valentina said, “the landing legs are barely depressed into the regolith.” She began to say something dramatic but was cut off by radio static.

“Copy that,” Gene radioed. “Wait, what?”

“Let’s grab some rocks,” Santrey shouted as she exited Finch.

Santrey gathered up the science results from the pressure, temperature, and goo sensors and grabbed a surface sample while Valentina made an EVA report and set up the flag. Valentina saluted the flag. Unsure of what to do, Santrey, a civilian, saluted it as well.

She then dug into the ground science experiments that Bob and his wife had tested back on Kerbin (back in Chapter 20). Santrey had no trouble deploying the equipment, but the goo observation got stuck. A quick smack of the console got it working again.

As Santrey calibrated the instruments, Valentina took a jaunt with her jetpack. She spotted something unusual on the surface and landed to check it out. “Hey, I think I found you a rock, San,” she said. The scientist jetted over to take a look.

“Hm, looks like a carbonaceous contrite,” she began, “a meteorite.” She on top of it and spotted another one. “Let’s head that way,” she said. Another jet-hop later, they landed next to a large boulder. It appeared to be of the same type as the meteorite. Nearby, Santrey saw an impact crater, and the pair took some time to investigate.

“We’re near our 1.5 km exploration limit,” Valentina warned, “and I’m running low on jetpack fuel.”

Santrey sighed. “Time to head back.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get another chance,” Valentina consoled. They jetted back to the Finch and climbed back inside. An hour later, Santrey headed out again. She headed back over to the first rock they’d spotted and noticed something odd off several meters off to the side. She landed there instead and examined the rock. She grabbed the munstone and squealed as she jumped for joy. It was perfect.

When she returned and showed it to Valentina, she suddenly understood why munstones were so valued by the scientists- well, for competitive pilots they had a different meaning... She had to grab one. “I’ll be right back,” she said. “Don’t leave without me.” Fifteen minutes and nearly 4 km later, she found her prize and headed back in.

“Don’t tell Gene,” she said to Santrey.

***

Four hours later, after spending a day on the surface, it was time to leave. As Viking passed overhead. They launched into a conservative 33 km by 36 km orbit. The Finch had a two-day chase to catch up with the Viking, but neither of its occupants minded much. It gave them time to reflect on their surface trip.

Meanwhile, Drakken 6 finally arrived at the awaiting Libelle, and their tanker tug undocked and linked up with the munar lander to refuel it. After Kontrol assured them that the backup tanker was nearing launch, the Drakken 6 crew docked with the Libelle, boarded the vessel, and undocked. They waited for the tug to reconnect with their Drakken before heading to the surface.

Lagatha carefully opened and closed the fuel tank valves to control the engine burn, and it worked; they were headed down. Minutes later, they slowed their lander down to reach Newton’s Crater, long a source of fascination to the vonKerman public. Lagatha canceled all forward motion and stood the Libelle on its tail. She was supposed to discard the crasher stage; instead, she kept it with its fuel reserves and extra propulsion. Kontrol was not happy at first, but a bright engineer saw the merit in her plan and took notes.

The crew of Drakken 6 stepped outside taking in the view. None spoke for several minutes.

“Magnificent desolation,” Lagatha finally commented as she gazed out towards the horizon.

“The crew of das Viking wish to congratulate you on a successful landing,” Kontrol radioed, “now get to work.”

Lagatha planted a flag while Leo jumped up and made an EVA report. Donner took a surface sample and pocketed it. After finishing with the flag, Lagatha went hunting for a munstone, finding one nearly 5 km away.

With nothing more to do, the trio boarded the Libelle for the trip back to orbit. She lit the forward landing jets and goosed the throttle forward to lift the craft up, then kicked open the crasher stage’s fuel tank values to light the broken Terrier. It burned to exhaustion before Lagatha ditched the stage at last. Everything was going well-until the match planes with Drakken burn caused one of the Spark engines to explode! Lagatha shut down another engine to balance thrust, and then recomputed the burn. The Libelle kept spinning, so she cancelled the burn again and redistributed propellant. That worked, and several hours later, the vonKerman lander returned to the awaiting Drakken.

After some orbital acrobatics, Lagatha, Donner, and Leo were back aboard Drakken 6, and the Libelle was on its way to impact the Mun. That’s when Leo realized that he’d left the science samples in the Libelle! Fortunately, Kontrol was able to halt its sub-orbital plunge. Nearly out of rocket fuel and monopropellant, the Libelle returned to Drakken 6. Embarrassed, Leo stepped outside and grabbed the samples. The lander was stuck in orbit, but at least they saved the science. An hour later, they were on their way home- or so they thought. A control malfunction partly burned through their fuel until Lagatha managed to reroute control to the tanker tug. It worked. If nothing else went wrong, Drakken 6 would return home with their munar samples before the Viking.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 25

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. They had beaten the vonKermans to the Mun, landed, and gathered their science, even delaying their first EVA so that their competitors could watch. They’d lifted off before the Drakken 6 crew even set foot on the regolith. Now here they were, five hours after Drakken 6 left the Mun’s SOI, and they finally reached their maneuver node. They’d beaten the vonKermans to the Mun, but the vonKermans were going home first. Valentina wondered if they should have gone for a higher orbit for a quicker rendezvous, but Flight forbid it for safety reasons. It was the first flight to the Mun, after all…

Valentina performed the transfer burn flawlessly, and 20 minutes later, they rendezvoused with the Viking.

“I hope they add another docking hatch,” Valentina quipped. She depressurized the Finch’s cockpit and the two astronauts briefly spacewalked over to the K-20. Valentina made sure to gather all their experiment data and took one last look at the lander before heading back into the Viking.

“So long, Finch, we thank you,” Valentina said.

Fourty-five minutes later, with over 1400 m/s delta-v remaining, Viking performed its Trans-Kerbin Injection burn. They were headed home.

***

As both spacecraft coasted back to Kerbin, the Darude Launch Complex launched the first of the second round of tanker tugs into orbit. The Kerman Aerospace Defense Command monitored the new tug’s trajectory as it arced over the Kerman States. After it altered its orbit, there was no question about where it was headed…

***

Two days later, Drakken 6 reached Kerbin. One of the Drakken’s service module engines refused to arm, so Lagatha disarmed its opposite number.  At 100 km, Drakken 6 undocked from its tanker tug and left it to its fate. It also discarded its orbital module and service module.

As the capsule reentered the atmosphere, the service module impacted against the heat shield and the player panicked and fat fingered the jettison button dislodged it. Drakken 6 burned up 74.57 km above Kerbin. It would have landed safely in the Great Desert west of Darude just a few minutes later.

***

Viking’s crew were saddened by the news, but they still had a mission to complete. They re-entered Kerbin’s atmosphere a couple of days later, skimming along at 62.5 km altitude. The Duna 1B upper stage ignited to slow them down. It undocked after expending its remaining propellant. Shortly after, Viking’s service module engines lit up to slow the craft down.

Unlike the vonKermans, Viking skipped out of the atmosphere and lowered its orbit.  A second pass through ended without incident as well. But after the second time through the atmosphere, Valentina performed a de-orbit burn and made a couple of correction burns to fine-tune their landing spot. It worked out well; the K-20 approached KSC in the dead of night and made a hard-right turn onto the runway at just the right moment, touching down and skidding to a stop a few dozen meters later.

They made it. They were home.

***

Munflight 1 brought back an impressive amount of science, pictures, experiences, and national pride. The effort required to fly the mission drove technology advancements to new levels. It demonstrated the utility of winged spacecraft. And it finally nudged the Kerman States nation out of its nation-wide apathy.

The Kerman States had beaten the vonKerman Republic to the Mun. But it had been close. If the vonKermans had burned for the Mun just twelve minutes earlier and still left the Mun as quickly as they arrived, they would have won the race. If their service module had missed their capsule instead of colliding with it, Drakken 6 would have landed safely and brought their munar science back before the Kermans. The Kerman States won, but they still doubted their abilities due to the closeness of the race. They needed something definitive. Fortunately, Kerbin had two moons…

[Misguided Kerbal]

12 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Chapter 25

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. They had beaten the vonKermans to the Mun, landed, and gathered their science, even delaying their first EVA so that their competitors could watch. They’d lifted off before the Drakken 6 crew even set foot on the regolith. Now here they were, five hours after Drakken 6 left the Mun’s SOI, and they finally reached their maneuver node. They’d beaten the vonKermans to the Mun, but the vonKermans were going home first. Valentina wondered if they should have gone for a higher orbit for a quicker rendezvous, but Flight forbid it for safety reasons. It was the first flight to the Mun, after all…

 

Valentina performed the transfer burn flawlessly, and 20 minutes later, they rendezvoused with the Viking.

 

 

“I hope they add another docking hatch,” Valentina quipped. She depressurized the Finch’s cockpit and the two astronauts briefly spacewalked over to the K-20. Valentina made sure to gather all their experiment data and took one last look at the lander before heading back into the Viking.

 

“So long, Finch, we thank you,” Valentina said.

 

Fourty-five minutes later, with over 1400 m/s delta-v remaining, Viking performed its Trans-Kerbin Injection burn. They were headed home.

 

***

 

As both spacecraft coasted back to Kerbin, the Darude Launch Complex launched the first of the second round of tanker tugs into orbit. The Kerman Aerospace Defense Command monitored the new tug’s trajectory as it arced over the Kerman States. After it altered its orbit, there was no question about where it was headed…

 

***

 

Two days later, Drakken 6 reached Kerbin. One of the Drakken’s service module engines refused to arm, so Lagatha disarmed its opposite number.  At 100 km, Drakken 6 undocked from its tanker tug and left it to its fate. It also discarded its orbital module and service module.

As the capsule reentered the atmosphere, the service module impacted against the heat shield and the player panicked and fat fingered the jettison button dislodged it. Drakken 6 burned up 74.57 km above Kerbin. It would have landed safely in the Great Desert west of Darude just a few minutes later.

 

***

 

Viking’s crew were saddened by the news, but they still had a mission to complete. They re-entered Kerbin’s atmosphere a couple of days later, skimming along at 62.5 km altitude. The Duna 1B upper stage ignited to slow them down. It undocked after expending its remaining propellant. Shortly after, Viking’s service module engines lit up to slow the craft down.

 

 

Unlike the vonKermans, Viking skipped out of the atmosphere and lowered its orbit.  A second pass through ended without incident as well. But after the second time through the atmosphere, Valentina performed a de-orbit burn and made a couple of correction burns to fine-tune their landing spot. It worked out well; the K-20 approached KSC in the dead of night and made a hard-right turn onto the runway at just the right moment, touching down and skidding to a stop a few dozen meters later.

 

They made it. They were home.

 

 

***

 

Munflight 1 brought back an impressive amount of science, pictures, experiences, and national pride. The effort required to fly the mission drove technology advancements to new levels. It demonstrated the utility of winged spacecraft. And it finally nudged the Kerman States nation out of its nation-wide apathy.

 

The Kerman States had beaten the vonKerman Republic to the Mun. But it had been close. If the vonKermans had burned for the Mun just twelve minutes earlier and still left the Mun as quickly as they arrived, they would have won the race. If their service module had missed their capsule instead of colliding with it, Drakken 6 would have landed safely and brought their munar science back before the Kermans. The Kerman States won, but they still doubted their abilities due to the closeness of the race. They needed something definitive. Fortunately, Kerbin had two moons…

 

*Like*

Sorry, I'm out of likes today.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 26

Flight Director Gene Kerman was happy with today’s progress. When they went for the Mun, they could only process one mission for launch at a time. However, they also introduced Pad B and flew the first Lindor rocket from it. But what good was having two launch pads if they could only process one mission at a time? As of today’s meeting, that was no longer the case. The Vertical Assembly Building got more cramped inside, but now they could process two launches at a time. If they wanted to handle more flights simultaneously, however, they would need more VABs and more launch pads.

If his next meeting with the Ministry of Space representative went well, then they’d be able to process three launches at a time. Technically the mcKerman Kingdom’s space agency would handle everything; they’d get an upgrade in technology and KSP would get the upmass that it needed.

After that meeting, he had another one with the DSN team. Something about bandwidth issues on the public broadcast channel. Then he had the status meeting with the Duna Launch Vehicle team to discuss upgrades. It was another meeting-full day…

As he pondered his schedule, Gene watched as the Sky Barge delivered a Lindor 5 first stage to the space center. The stage lacked its guidance fins; they would be attached during vehicle integration. Contractors already began gathering components for one more Lindor 5; given how expensive they were, Kongress wanted to see the results of their next two missions before committing to additional vehicles. He checked his watch and sighed. Time to go to his next meeting…

***

Hanse vonKerman left the meeting exhausted. He argued against covering up the fact that Kontrol issued Lagatha orders that ultimately resulted in loss of crew and mission. The Board finally saw his point. Lagatha, Leo, and Donner were to be remembered as pioneers and heroes of the vonKerman Republic. Instead of trying to Alt-F9 their way out of the tragedy or blaming a decorated pilot, the nation’s space program would go on record as making a mistake, learning from it, and moving forward.

As the weary advocate headed back to his office, Oskar vonKerman, Director of Kontrol, stopped him in the corridor. Hanse gave him a quick salute.

“Hanse,” Oskar began, “you really gave them what for. They have a lot to think about.”

“Lagatha and her crew deserved no less,” Hanse responded.

“Of course, this way forward… will cost us reputation,” Oskar pointed out.

“Integrity always has a price,” Hanse admitted, “but not having integrity often carries an even higher price.”

“Even if it costs you your life?”

“If the cause is just,” Hanse answered.

“Good,” Oskar said, smiling, “because you’re commanding the mission to Minmus.”

***

Over the next couple of days, both the vonKerman Republic and the Kerman States both had a flurry of activity. First, the Darude Launch Complex lofted a new Libelle into low-Kerbin orbit and matched orbital planes with an awaiting tanker.

Next, as the Libelle waited for its transfer node to line up, KSC launched a modified Duna 1B into orbit from Pad B. It carried no payload except a small auxiliary tank and some monopropellant for its new reaction control thrusters.

Then, as the Libelle approached the Drakken Tanker Tug, its main engine’s fuel flow value got stuck open- the same problem that plagued the previous Libelle’s transfer stage engine. Kontrol finally regained control of the tanker, but it needed to re-align with Minmus again before the Libelle could dock with it and take on fuel.

Afterwards, the McKerman Kingdom launched a prototype Arrow 3A from the Yeager Astrodrome. The one-off launcher sported a trio of surplus Mainsail engines spread across three common cores- two side boosters and a central core. The side boosters themselves had solid rocket motors for extra liftoff thrust. The Arrow 3B had a different engine arrangement but the engines weren’t ready yet.

The launch went flawlessly thanks to the technology shared by the KSP, successfully delivering a prototype Arrow Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into orbit. After unfurling its solar arrays, ATV 1 matched planes with the Duna 1B, rendezvoused and docked with it, and then offloaded its precious cargo. It then undocked and performed some orbital maneuvering for a more proper shakedown cruise.

After that, the Libelle rendezvoused and docked with the Drakken Tanker Tug, ready to top off its propellant tanks- and promptly spun out of control due to the tanker engine’s stuck throttle. The spinning sheered off the Libelle’s docking port and pushed it into the atmosphere, causing it to burn up and spread debris across the Western Sea. Not long after, Kontrol allowed the stricken tanker to burn all its fuel in a deorbit maneuver. It practically stopped in orbit and fell straight down in the Arid Midlands of the Great Desert.

Finally, Kontrol tried to perform a status check on Das Wanderer.

“We have lost telemetry,” Karla vonKerman, the Spacecraft Communications Officer, declared.

“What happened,” Oskar asked.

“The relay network lost connection to the probe. It should have transferred over to the Pulsar 5 by now,” she responded

“Is there something wrong with the Kermans’ satellite network?”

Karla looked over her data feeds. The vonKermans had benefitted from the Kerman States’ open-source satellite network for some time now. The Pulsar satellites didn’t appear to be transmitting. On a hunch, she scanned the frequencies and found them again, but her telemetry computers couldn’t interpret their signals.

“Uh, it looks like the Pulsars are on a new frequency band, but I think the Kermans are encrypting their signals now.”

Sure enough, they lost connection with the Duna-bound space probe.

 

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 27

As the Kerbal Space Center launched a modified Docking Target- their favorite workhorse- into orbit to transfer propellant to the Duna 1B, the vonKermans, launched Drakken Star 1, followed seven days later by Drakken Star 2. The Drakken Star satellites were the first of their new proprietary tracking data relay system network that provided communications for their spacecraft. Each satellite boosted to an orbit between 20,000 km and 30,000 km to provide a wide coverage.

A second Docking Target launched and began making its way to the Duna 1B, followed by the first production-level Arrow 3B and Arrow Transfer Vehicle. The Arrow 3B had its new “Vector” main engines, and the ATV sported a relay antenna and docking light in addition to a split fuel tank to support resource transfers. Between the earlier ATV, the production version, and the two Docking Target tankers, the Duna 1B was finally refueled.

Seven days later, KSC launched their new SCANSat 4 satellite with upgraded radar mapping and imaging resource management sensors. After attaining a 277 km parking orbit and matching planes with Minmus, SCANSat 4 burned for Kerbin’s furthest moon. It had an 8-day trip to become the first spacecraft to enter Minmus’ sphere of influence.

At about the same time, a third Drakken Star launched into high orbit as well.

But six and a half days after SCANSat 4 launched, Munflight 2 took to the skies. Bill, Bob, and Jeb climbed aboard the brand-new K-20, named Sojourner (thanks for the suggestions!), that sat atop its Lindor 5 rocket. Sojourner lifted off from Pad B. Instead of heading to Minmus right away, Sojourner entered a 99.1 km by 101.2 km orbit and then headed for the Duna 1B that had been refueled by the ATV and Docking Target vehicles.

A day later, SCANSat 4 became the first kerbal spacecraft to enter Minmus’ sphere of influence. It had another 5 hours until it could circularize its orbit, but in that time, Sojourner met up with the Duna 1B, now designated the D1B Minmus Tanker. Taking advantage of the new docking port in Sojourner’s service module, the Tanker docked and topped off Sojourner’s departure stage fuel tanks. Twenty-eight minutes and just over 1,500 m/sec later, Sojourner began its 9-day trip to the Mint Moon.

Meanwhile, the vonKermans resumed launches of their tanker craft. A navigation error resulted in a large plane change burn and expending a significant amount of propellant. But with the Kerman States’s Minmus mission already underway, there was no way for them to catch up. They clearly lost the race to Minmus. The mood at Darude was somber.

“If all we do is compare ourselves to others, then we’ll always be unhappy as the next supposedly better person comes along,” Oskar said at the televised all-hands meeting. “Should we keep looking to others to define our own worth? Should we give them that power? I say no! Let’s look to ourselves for inspiration and set our own measurements for success. Yes, the Kermans will reach Minmus first, but we haven’t been there to see for ourselves what it’s like. Yes, we lost the race to the Mun, but we haven’t been there and back safely. Enough is enough. Let us create our own firsts! Let us go to Minmus and go back to the Mun. Let us make an outpost there, a town. A city. Let us build a station in space and learn how to stay there for long periods. Let us reach for Eve, for Duna, and land there! But all on our terms and in our own time!”

The next mission performed flawlessly.

***

Ten days, nine hours and twenty-eight minutes into their mission, Sojourner crossed over to Minmus’ gravitational sphere of influence. The food recycler didn’t work as well as expected, so Bill pulled the reserve snacks from Sparrow, their Munar Excursion Module. That gave them 12 more days of food and drink. Based on their projections, they could spend at most two days on Minmus before they had to head home. At least they had plenty of fresh air.

Five hours later, Sojourner entered an 85.5 km by 86.4  km orbit around Minmus.

“It sure is green,” Jeb said, looking out the cockpit.

“I’m pretty sure its kopper oxide,” Bob answered.

“Whatever,” Jeb quipped. “As soon as we loop back around to the day side, we’ll reconfigure for landing ops.”

Shortly after looping around to their periapsis, Jeb and Bob transferred over to the Sparrow, powered up its systems, and fired the explosive bolts to separate the MEM from the stack. With practiced efficiency, Jeb moved Sparrow out of the way while Bill backed Sojourner up and docked with the Duna 1B. Then Sojourner rolled over to expose its ventral docking port. Finally, Jeb maneuvered Sparrow and docked to the port.

“A lot better than what Val had to deal with,” Bob noted. Jeb ignored him. “Keep an eye out for our LZ, Bob,” Jeb said, “I want my boots on the ground by the next orbit.”

In the cockpit, Bill rolled his eyes at Jeb’s icy attitude- he'd been like that since he'd known him- and ignited a SOCS oxium candle to replenish their fresh air reserves. On the third orbit, Jeb ran through the landing checklist, undocked Sparrow from Sojourner, backed away from the K-20, and extended its legs. Bill performed a visual inspection before clearing Sparrow to land. Not long after, they were on their way down.

“Descent burn nominal,” Jeb said cooly.

“Altitude 14,000,” Bob said a few minutes later. “114 seconds to impact. Speed 259. Delta 1377.”

“Starting descent burn,” Jeb said. Several seconds later he’d canceled all forward velocity.

“Altitude 2947, delta 1067,” Bob called out. He tried to hide his nervousness but failed. He gulped. Sparrow began to fall downward. “2000… 1000… 500… 100… 50… and… touchdown! Uh, uh, delta, uh, 995.”

“Ok, engine shutdown,” Jeb said. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

“Uh, we’re in the Highlands,” Bob continued. “No radio contact-“

“Run your science experiments,” Jeb said coldly. By the time Bob finished, they had a link back to KSC. “Highlands Base here, the Sparrow has landed. Let’s go outside while we still have a connection.”

“We copy you done, Sparrow, well done,” Gene radioed back from KSC. Kerbals were cheering in the background, but not quite as loudly as the first landing on the Mun.

They donned their spacesuits and Jeb took the first steps outside. He leapt off the ground, setting back down again a couple seconds later.

“That’s one tall leap for a kerbal, one giant leap for kerbalkin,” Jeb said triumphantly.

Bob scooped up a sample of Minmus’ regolith and bagged it just in case they needed to make an emergency ascent. He recognized the substance in the dirt. “Kopper oxide for sure,” he said.

Jeb ignored him and set up the flag, then posed. It would make a good publicity photo. “Now that that’s out of the way, grab the lander’s experiment data,” Jeb commanded, “I’m grabbing a munstone.”

Bob frowned but did as directed. He’d get a rock for analysis later. Jeb flew a few hundred meters away and found what he wanted. It was a green sandstone, but it was close enough. He hacked away a piece and pocketed it, then headed back to the Sparrow. “Ok scientist, do your science thing.”

Bob rolled his eyes and got to work. He didn’t like Jeb much- and Jeb didn’t like the fact that he was married to Valentina. When Jeb wasn’t in front of the camera, he could be a real jerk. But Bob pushed that aside and got to work assembling the ground science station. It was nice to deploy something on another world that he had a hand in developing. Before long, he had the system put together and calibrated.

“Uh, no signal…” Bob said, trailing off. “We might need a ground transmitter if we can’t get a CommNet link from SCANSat 4.”

“I wish we had a rover,” Jeb mused.

“I think Bill is designing one for Munflight 3.”

“That’s if we get at Munflight 3,” Jeb quipped.

“We have one Lindor left,” Bill radioed from orbit. He’d been monitoring the EVA. “There’s definitely going to be a Munflight 3. The question is, do we get more Munflights. Kongress meets in a couple of weeks to evaluate the program. Hopefully, we’ll get more.”

“We have another day of being here, and I’m bored already,” Jeb quipped. “I want to go to the Mun.”

A day later, Jeb had eaten through all the snacks and Bob was getting hungry. At sunrise, they prepped Sparrow for its ascent into orbit. Bob took one last look at the science station- it finally had a connection back to KSC- and they launched into a 31.2 km by 37.3 km orbit. Minmus’ lower gravity compared to the Mun left them with plenty of propellant to line up with Sojourner’s orbit.

Not wanting to wait 7 hours for the rendezvous burn, Jeb simply pointed Sparrow at the K-20 and burned hard- and surprised Mission Control. Another course correction later, the two spacecraft were within 260 meters of each other. A third and final burn brought Sparrow right alongside Sojourner- in the dark, as is right and proper. Total time: less than an hour and a half. Jeb wasted no time docking Sparrow. He and Bob found Bill hung over after he raided the cockpit’s “secret” stash of vodka. Nonetheless, Bill was able to transfer all the useful resources from Sparrow into the K-20 and Bob grabbed all the science before Jeb unceremoniously discarded the lander’s ascent stage.

With a nine-day trip ahead of them and twelve days of food and drink, it was time for Munflight 2 to head home. An hour and 240 m/sec later, Sojourner was on her way.

 

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 28

With Munflight 3 undergoing vehicle integration, KSC and their McKerman allies focused on refueling the D1B Minmus Tanker and launching a similar tanker for flights to the Mun. Kongress began debating the merits of the Munflight program; each mission cost north of 475 grand apiece, or two months of KSC’s regular budget with an 18% cost overrun. They had been compensating by receiving World’s First awards and the occasional contract, but that was guaranteed not to last.

They’d achieved their goal of landing on Kerbin’s moons and returning safely and breaking the nation out of its apathy, but did the benefits of continuing the program justify its expense? Was there some way to reuse the launch vehicles in the same way that KSC reused their K-20 gliders? Ultimately, Kongress authorized the Funds for three more Munflights and one spare Lindor 5- a total of 2 million for the flights- while directing KSC to find a more cost-effective launch system.

Meanwhile, Darude launched a rocket containing a heavily modified Drakken spacecraft. It replaced the descent module with two orbital modules welded together and added landing legs. Known as Hause 1, the new spacecraft was designed for extended habitation on the moons of Kerbin. After linking up with the refueled tanker tug, Hause 1 headed out to Minmus. A few days later, the vonKermans launched a Libelle into orbit as well.

Back at KSC, Flight processed another launch of the Docking Target workhorse. The mission went flawlessly- right up to the point where it temporarily lost connection to Mission Control, regained it, and collided with D1B Mun Tanker 10 minutes later. The collision sheered the D1B in half, ruined the Docking Target's engine, and scattered parts everywhere.

The stand-down at KSC gave investigators time to determine that the venerable Docking Target design wasn’t keeping up with the latest communications standards. A further evaluation showed that the newer ATV delivered a greater propellant capacity for a similar cost. KSC concluded that going forward, the Arrow Transfer Vehicle would handle all refueling missions for the D1B Minmus Tanker. And due to its modular design, ATV flights would provide a contingency solution to refueling munar flights.

During KSC’s downtime, Hause 1 entered Minmus orbit, followed by the Liebelle four days later. The lander exchanged places with the outpost on the tanker’s docking port, refueled, and went into hibernation mode. Then the tanker de-orbited, followed by Hause 1. But while the outpost set down so gently in the Brown Basins that it retained its service module, the tanker deliberately crashed into the Mint Mun at high speed. After assessing the situation, Kontrol decoupled Hause 1 from the service module, lifted off, extended its landing legs and settled back down next to the service module. The vonKermans unexpectedly had a new addition to their little outpost.

After lofting another tanker tug, the vonKermans launched a heavily modified Schafer rover to greet it. The pair then headed out to Minmus. Eight days later, it landed safely at Hause 1. It also marked the first time that a tanker tug soft-landed on another world. Kontrol carefully detached the Schafer from its transfer stage. It plopped down to the ground but tipped over due to the increased mass and lack of gyro control. Kontrol made a note to bring spare parts when it sent a crew.

Finally, Darude launched its next tanker on a new Drakken “Turbo” rocket. The Turbo model had 6 side boosters instead of the normal four and a stretched second stage, both to put more payload into orbit. Unfortunately, it failed. Turbo’s first- and subsequently only- flight crashed back into Kerbin.

Undeterred, the vonKermans rapidly introduced the Drakken T2 with stretched fuel tanks and a new KS-10 “Walrus” central core engine. The new single-chamber engine was a prototype for a much larger booster engine in development, but it had better thrust and fuel consumption than the Kodiak. T2 performed well, leaving ¾ of the tanker’s propellant load available for on-orbit maneuvering, and half available after the Minmus plane change. But the vonKermans also realized that to do better, they needed a more powerful rocket.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 29

“Ranger, you are go for undocking. Fifteen minutes until your munar injection burn,” Gene radioed from Mission Control. Dudmon (PLT), Jebman (ENG), and Ferwin (SCI) were excited- they were going to the Mun! The string of ATVs (and one  Docking Target with a busted engine) topped off Ranger’s newly renamed L5US- Lindor 5 Upper Stage- and Dudmon watched as the makeshift tanker backed away and performed its de-orbit burn. At least that part of the mission went well.

As the first stage ran low on propellant, the launch suffered from some wild oscillations that threatened to wrench Ranger off course and turn its occupants into paste. Some quick thinking and careful maneuvering by Dudmon saved them from an embarrassing abort. Then when the payload fairing was supposed to separate, the second stage decoupled instead- with its engines still running! Dudmon carefully balanced Ranger and its L5US on the out of control second stage while its propellant ran out, again saving the mission. Then the makeshift tanker had a difficult time docking with Ranger, finally making a hard dock just at orbital sundown.

Ranger performed its departure burn without incident and four hours later made its course correction burn as well. On mission day 4, Ranger entered the Mun’s SOI, made another burn to avoid smacking into the Mun, and settled into a 31km orbit on mission day 5. Back on the daylight side, Dudmon and Ferwin boarded Parrot, their MEM, and then decoupled the stack. The MEM got out of the way while Ranger backed up and docked with the L5US.

“Looking good, Parrot,” Jebman said from Ranger’s cockpit, “have a good flight.” An hour later, Dudmon performed the de-orbit burn. Parrot was an upgraded MEM with an additional donut propellant tank in the descent stage, re-positioned science experiments, a third solar panel, and a mun buggy strapped to its back. Designed by Bill Kerman, the buggy was a far cry from the Munar Ground Module system proposed awhile back but at least it gave the crew more mobility. With the vonKermans building an outpost on Minmus, Dudmon hoped that the MGM system got a second look.

“Ok, engine stop,” Dudmon said as Parrot plopped down onto the munar surface. “Descent engine shutdown.”

“Delta 448 descent, 1151 ascent,” Ferwin said, calling out their propellant status.

“Copy that. Mission Control, Lowland base here, the Parrot has landed. Commencing contingency science experiments.”

Having landed in the munar Lowlands before, there wasn’t much new to reveal from the temperature and pressure sensors. But the new surface ablation laser light experiment found new things for the scientists back home to ponder. A short while later, Dudmon and Ferwin exited the lander.

“So much dust,” Dudmon said as he planted the flag. After the obligatory publicity photo, Ferwin got to work setting up the ground science station. While the goo sensor likely wouldn’t find anything new, the Grand Slam Passive Seismic Sensor was another story. It was designed to measure seismic events from munquakes, meteor strikes, and the like, and use them to study the Mun’s interior. Munflight 3 had something fun planned at mission’s end…

Finally, Dudmon climbed back aboard the Parrot and deployed their next experiment: the mun buggy! It decoupled successfully, but didn’t drop down onto all fours as expected, so Dudmon gave it a push. That worked nicely. The two took the rover for a spin, easily traveling 1.5km within minutes and proving the rover’s worth.

As they drove around, they crossed over into the Midlands, and Ferwin insisted that they move the science station. Dudmon was more than happy to assist. With each of them holding one of the parts, it took three round trips to pack up and move the ground station. By the time they were done, Engineers were already looking into adding more storage to future buggies.

After a day on the surface, Dudmon fired the explosive bolts holding Parrot’s ascent stage to its descent stage, lit the ascent stage’s engine, and said goodbye to Lowlands/Midlands Base. The module rendezvoused with Ranger and the astronauts transferred all their science and usable resources.

On their next trip to orbital day-side, the crew said goodbye to the Parrot and Dudmon hit the undock switch from Ranger’s cockpit. But instead of being consigned to forever orbit the Mun, Parrot’s autopilot initiated a pre-programmed maneuver to de-orbit and impact it instead. 30 minutes after the burn, it smashed into the regolith a few dozen kilometers from Lowlands/Midlands Base- for Science!

With nothing else to do at the Mun, Ranger began her trek home, left their L5US in orbit for future use, and arrived safely four days later.

But despite touting the challenges and celebrations and new things to show, the Kerman media networks never covered the mission beyond a brief mentioning of its launch and landing.

[AlphaMensae]

Not quite the simple beauty of "SCE to AUX", but yay Dudmon!  

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 30

The Fliegenross (“Flying steed” in Kerman) was the vonKerman’s newest and most powerful rocket to take to the skies. Powered by a quartet of Walrus motors in the core along with Bear Claw motors in its four strapon boosters, the Fliegenross placed its tanker tug payload directly into orbit fully fueled, which also meant that it could place large space station modules into orbit as well. They just needed to finish developing their Drakken Palast (“Dragon Palace” in Kerman) space station first...

The tug docked with its counterpart launched by the Drakken T2 and waited for its payload. Seven days later, Hanse vonKerman (PLT), Karl vonKerman (ENG), and Sara vonKerman (SCI) launched in Drakken 7, met up with the tug, and headed to Minmus orbit, arriving 8 days later. Within 3 hours, the Libelle lander rendezvoused with Drakken 7 and sheered off half of its solar arrays. Hanse proceeded with the mission anyway. Drakken 7 undocked with its tug, connected with the Libelle, and transferred the crew over to the lander. Out of communications range, Hanse spacewalked to the Drakken and manually docked it with the tug before jetting back to the lander. They were safely on the ground within hours.

The crew posed for a publicity photo, and then Karl got to work bolting gyros onto the Schafer. The rover successfully righted itself shortly afterward, and Karl use the rest of his tools to drain the sky crane of its propellant and hooked up Hause 1’s service module to the outpost, increasing its fuel supply.

Meanwhile, Sara and Hanse took the Schafer for a test drive, and Sara activated the Libelle’s seismic sensor pods. Unfortunately, neither one survived their jettisoning and impact, but the seismic hammer still produced some results. The scientist collected all the experiment data she could from the rover’s sensors and made an important discovery: Brown Basins was comprised of 3.8% ore! Where there was ore, there was the possibility of refining it into useful products like liquid fuel and oxidizer to power Hause 1’s fuel cells- and potentially refuel the grounded tug. The discovery had the potential to change how the vonKerman Republic space program shipped propellant to low Kerbin orbit.

Flush with their discovery, while Karl activated the outpost while Hanse and Sara set out to find some rocks to scan. They came across a large olivine formation, scanned it with the rover’s arm, and checked out other rock formations as well. But it soon became apparent that the Brown Basins was flat with not much else to see. As they headed back to the outpost, Hanse discussed an idea with Karl…

Karl got to work mounting the service module’s and Schafer crasher stage’s solar arrays onto the outpost, scavenging parts from the rover and Libelle, and heavily modifying the landing crane into a science hopper. Hanse was delighted to say the least. He jumped into the science hopper’s seat, hopped over to the nearby Highlands, took some readings, and then hopped to the Midlands to take more readings. With half his propellant remaining, he hopped back over to the outpost, arriving late in the afternoon. There were a couple more biomes to visit but he needed to refuel first and wait for morning.

The next day, Hanse hopped to the biomes he missed: the Basin Lowlands and Basin Midlands. After gathering all the science data he could, he returned to base and stored the results in their lander. It was a major accomplishment, but without additional resources they could not reach other biomes. Kontrol asked them to sit tight and wait for resupply, so Karl took the time to make some additional changes to the outpost. He disassembled the rover’s service module and the now redundant docking port on the outpost and mounted the service module’s propellant tank to the top of Hause 1. The makeshift addition tripled the outpost’s liquid fuel and oxidizer capacity. Then he raided the Libelle for supplies and added them to the outpost. That gave them enough to wait for resupply.

Three days after Tesen (PLT), Jofrey (ENG), and Malus (SCI) headed for Minmus on Munflight 4, a heavily modified Drakken service module and its tug touched down next to Hause 1. After some careful maneuvering, the new Drakken Driller did a backflip off its grounded tug and plopped onto the ground. In addition to bringing an experimental In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) drill set and resource converter, the craft had a large supply of fresh air and snacks for the outpost.

Karl immediately got to work bolting the new supply containers to the outpost, repositioning the Driller’s solar arrays, and hooking up the pipelines. He ignited a pair of Solid Oxium Candle System cannisters to replenish their dangerously low fresh air and got to work activating the ISRU. Its air maker slowly replenished the outpost after the SOCS ran out and demonstrated that kerbals could live off the land with the right equipment. They were still limited by their snacks supplies but it was only a matter of time before they solved that problem too.

A couple of days later, as the Munflight 4 expedition explored Minmus' North Pole and Pioneer maintained its vigil in polar orbit, the vonKermans still could not produce any liquid fuel or oxidizer from the local ore. Kontrol traced the issue to a lack of ore storage, but Karl simply lacked the training and experience needed to make the necessary modifications. Worse, the crew was staring to show signs of stress- Karl more so than the others. With nothing more that they could do, Kontrol praised the crew of Drakken 7 for their efforts and innovation and ordered them to return home.