Meeh Aerospace : The Duna and Ike story

[ShaggyTed]

Today Meeh Aerospace is finally going interplanetary and to signal the arrival of this momentous event, engineering presents the newest class of vessel....

The KSS Kerbalprise D1b

This vessel is another Nerv build and is equipped with living quarters for 6 , full science compliment, and a rover with full science compliment and medium scanning arm.

Jeb, Bob, and Helrick are the senior crew for this mission and they will be bringing Cernand, Valentina, and Dinie along for experience in future interplanetary missions.

The crew become familiar with the apsects of the new explorer class and prepare for escape from Kerbin SOI....as Bob inspects the ouside of the ship he calls over comms, "Hey guys, you see there is ANOTHER ship attached to this thing!?!?!?!? Looks like they expect us to land with that...that....THING!!!"

The crew contemplates on the looooong trip to Duna if this KerbBrain idea the enginners have to save fuel will actually work!!! Let alone land at both bodies...........

The crew prepare and enter Ikes SOI and seperate from the new "Mothership" as Jeb coined it and yells at Valentina, "Don't get any  bright ideas and go for a joy ride!!! We are a looooong way from home!!!"

The landing goes far smoother than Jeb expected almost having autopilot of a sort with the new prograde and retrograde locks. As they land the debate becomes which body wpuld be better for the new deployed science....Bob presents his argument, "Surely Duna would be better because it is BIGGGER....BIGGER is BETTER!!!" Helrick speaks up and says, "BUT from a fuel standpoint we could technically jettision the extra weight here!!!"

Bob stomps his boot "Bigger is better because bigger equals more research!!! End of discussion!!"

Bob decides to scare Helrick back into his way of thinking lol

They redock with the mothership and head for Duna....

Upon circularizing at Duna they realize the lander used over 85% of its fuel on ascent....the decision is made to refuel from the "Mothership" and continue the mission......

Once on the ground the crew get hard to work deploying the science tech....meanwhile Bob and Helrick go for another ride......

Once the crew returned, as enjoyable as the D1b lander was to fly, the decision was made it must be left behind to conserve fuel....

They say farewell to Duna and begin the long journey back to Kerbin hoping the rendevous ship is on time......someone at ground control thought it would be funny to give Jeb some Taco Night MRE's... sigh

 

R&D revels at the sheer amount of data brought back from Duna and begin turning the gears on the next interplanetary mission..."If we can do Duna AND Ike then surely we can do Dres!!!!.....get to work!!!"

The Kerbalprise E class was then commissioned.....Duh duh duuuuuuuuuhhhhh

Side note: To those who struggle with piloting rovers especially small wheelbase rovers, I stick a small reaction wheel on the rover and set it to SAS only....I could make almost full speed turns and stay entirely level while also changing this resulted in no longer pitching forward with the throttle. That aspect only helped me greatly in PS4 and piloting my rovers. Hopefully that helps someone so until the Dres episode.....Fly safe!!! Or the appearance of it.....

Edited February 7, 2020 by ShaggyTed

[Vanamonde]

That is one elaborate ship. 

[ShaggyTed]

Thanks, but what I learned here helped make it possible. The E class that has already left dres for Jool I am even more proud of. Soon as it gets to Jool I will upload a post of its progress.

Thanks again for the compliment!