Project Eeloo

[RoninFrog]

Long post, I've been busy.

I've recently been taking a break from derping around in the HMS Sauron and decided to build an Eeloo base.  There are 5 rockets and 6 components, and I don't like launching separately because it takes too long, so I just strapped them all together.

You may think, "He's using hitchhiker containers as structural beams???"  The answer is yes.  And there are kerbals inside.  The transfer stage is going to be turned into a station once in low Eeloo orbit!  I'll describe the rest of the craft when it becomes important to.  Once I stuck the rocket together in the VAB, I launched.  I like excitement, I don't like to test things!  Nielbo Kerman will be piloting the craft to Eeloo, and I assume that his name's similarity to a certain astronaut's means he will be a great pilot.

Mammoths staged off, burning for orbit on the 5 rhinos:

Once in orbit, I blew the fairings and burned for Eeloo.

I won't be going to Eeloo this decade.  Maybe the next, though.  That's what you get for not using transfer windows!

I got an intercept just over 10 years away.

Launch the probe!  I crammed a probe into the top of the central fairing to go scout for ore.  It will be burning into a polar orbit about an hour before the rest of the base.

A looooong time later, the probe arrived at Eeloo.  Hello, Eeloo!

Ouch.  Goodbye, Eeloo!  These ion thrusters are garbage!

I got the probe into a weird suborbital trajectory with a Apoapsis near the edge of Eeloo's SOI.  Much finicking later, I got the base into a roughly equatorial orbit, and started ore hunting.  I wanted to land on the snow, but there wasn't any good ore there.  But I did find a good equatorial spot.  Ugh, the markers aren't visible since I turned off the UI.

Time to explain what I brought in the fairings.  Here, I am unloading the central ISRU module (thing with the drills) by dragging it around with the excursion lander (thing with the Terriers).  Once on the ground and refueled, the lander can detatch and the antennas (not very visible) can extend.  There are also four fuel-cell-powered rovers to derp around in, with docking ports that I estimated should be at the right height to dock with the ISRU module.  Underneath the rovers are four docking ports so the lander and rovers can dock to the station.  Once the rovers are off, the hitchikers are pointing in, so the station can create artificial gravity in them by spinning.  There are a lot of kerbals in this thing.  Nielbo Kerman will be piloting the lander and will be landing the ISRU, leaving Maxnard Kerman, his second-in-command, in charge of the station.

Coming down fast with an ISRU, a bunch of drills, and some awesome looking landing legs, which are unfortunately not very visible here:

That's the ground!  Gotta slow down, Nielbo!

Can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the landed ISRU.  Blast.  I also am going to be assembling at night, which is unfortunate.  There are a lot of pictures of the rovers, so I divided them up.

Rover 1:

Spoiler

Lodald's crew, with Lodald Kerman piloting and Rayton Kerman on wheel repair and ISRU duty, was the first to descend.  An unglamorous shot of the first rover's underbelly as it descends into the darkness:

Landed safely, less than 2 km from the ISRU.  Not much to see in the blackness, but the lights are cool.

Approaching the ISRU.  The docking ports look pretty good.

I ran into some slight difficulties as the rover's docking port was slightly higher than the ISRU's, but by turning the brakes on and rocking the rover back and forth with the reaction wheels and ramming the other port repeatedly, it eventually stuck.  This approach is actually really useful.  I bet it's a common procedure at NASA.

Rover 2:

Spoiler

Maegan's crew, pilot Maegan Kerman and engineer Dandous Kerman, were next.  Detaching the rover from the station:

Landed:

Docking:

Docked:

Rover 3:

Spoiler

The Dudlie and Donzon duo were the third rover crew to land.  Undocking their rover from the station:

Landing pretty close to the base this time:

Landed.  Is it getting lighter?  The sun will probably come up soon.

Upon docking, It was discovered that opposing rover's headlights are shining directly into the other cockpits.  Nobody thought sunglasses would be useful on Eeloo!

I extended all the thingy-ma-jigs, turned on all the whats-it-called's, and started up all the doohickeys.  Look at that thing pump the fuel out of solid rock!

Rover 4:

Spoiler

Sarah Kerman's crew, her and Sanlin on wheel and ISRU duty, were the final rover.  Hey, look at that!  It's morning!  I'll be able to see what I'm doing!

 

Everyone panicked and got ready to load a quicksave when Sarah realized that 300 m off the ground was not enough to slow down 80 m/s!   

But then someone came to their rescue.  It wasn't Neilbo.  It wasn't another rover crew.  It wasn't the lost kerbonaut orbiting Ike.  It was the Kraken.  I always thought the impact tolerance of a Terrier was about 8 m/s.  But this one slammed into the ground at well over 50 with a massive rover piling on top of it, bounced back up into the air (or lack thereof), and then gently drifted back down, the rover landing perfectly on its wheels.  Maybe Sarah had some epic piloting tricks up her sleeve.  I dunno.

Docking to the base:

Docked!  The other rovers were already refueled.

Base complete:

Now to do some exploring.  Any good anomalies on Eeloo?  Does Santa live here?

[RoninFrog]

Today, Lodald and Rayton set out on a trip in their rover to go see the sights on Eeloo.  They detached successfully from the base, went through the checklist which consisted of "1. Snacks", and even remembered to close the docking port.

There was a snowcapped ridge on the edge of the valley, so away they went at full throttle!

The ground was soon white, just like in the stories and legends.  They didn't meet Santa, though.  Rayton was dissapointed.

Lodald found a good spot to pull over and do some "science", which consisted of determining whether he was superior to Rayton in a snowball fight [not shown].

While they were making a snow kerbal, the ground suddenly started rumbling, the snow kerbal's eyeballs fell off, and a great ball of fire descended from space into the valley where the base was.  Immediately, Lodald and Rayton scrambled back into the rover and took off back towards base to see what had just transpired.

There wasn't a massive crater in the valley, so they assumed the base was fine.

But as they drove across the bare ground, a massive something appeared over a rise.  It looked evil.  Kind of like the bad guys look in famous fantasy books.

They shot over the ridge, and were suddenly confronted by an array of kerbals in the middle of a flag planting ceremony.  Everyone screamed, and either tried to run or stop.  But it was too late!

Kerbals flew, flags snapped, tires ruptured, and general chaos ensued.  But nobody died, and the kerbals turned out to be quite friendly.  The flag was replanted, the kerbals were collected from the surrounding countryside, and everyone admired each other's crafts.

"Hey, you guys wanna see our base?" asked Rayton.  Everyone wanted to, and Jeb (the pilot of the other craft which was named the HMS Sauron) was particularly interested in the rocket powered rovers.

[VoidCosmos]

Your a good story writer imo