Unpollo 11

purpleivan · July 8, 2020

This report describes the mission to send 3 kerbals to the Mun as an entry to the Apollo Style Redux v3 challenge.

Liftoff in the warm morning sun went without a hitch.

Putting this thing into a 200km orbit also went according to plan.

With the fairing dumped overboard it's time to take a look at this fine craft.

Svelt, sleek, elegant... it's none of those things.

Ok... time to head for the Mun, so 4 nukes burst into life pushing it hopefully in the right direction.

Yup, right direction it was and now Unpollo 11 is on it's way to a 20km orbit of Kerbin's biggest neighbour.

Val and Bob have a great view from the lander can that's jammed in underneath Jeb's Cupola module.

Jeb's view is strangely obscurred.

That would be the launch escape tower blocking the main window. Dragged all the way here from the KSC, it was time to dump the thing to give Jeb a better view.

Ah, that's much better.

Final orbit was a shade under 22km, due to some late dropping from warp resulting in an insertion burn that began a few seconds too late.

With orbit safely established, it was time to grab some points, er... I mean launch a pair of scientific satellites.

Fare well brave little sat.

Hmmm... the landing site is at the Southern edge of that big crater on the right and the sun's getting pretty low there, so time to hit the warp button.

That's better.

Next step was to detach the lander. Named not the Eagle, in the spirit of exploration, of the Beagle, in the spirit of scientific enquiry, but The Bungle... in the spirit of something else entirely.

Well, there she goes, floating free, ready to head for the surfa...

What's that you say... crew's still aboard the CSM.

No problem, just need to go get bit of EVA time with Val and Bob.

With the crew actually aboard now, it was time for the crew of the Bungle to prepare for the descent.

Seeing the memorial (the target for the challenge) down below, it was time to start manouvering for a nice close landing.

That should do, won't get the points for sub 5m, but definitely sub 50m.

"OK... Engine stop.

KSC... The Bungle has landed".

For the first kerching of surface based challenge points, the pair raised the flag.

Then took a moment to take in the sights.

Time for the crew to take to the rover for some... well... rovering.

But what rover I hear you say, why this one, that also happens to be the ascent stage of course.

Val pulled away from their landing site, before taking a last closeup view of it, before heading off to their first of 5 stops.

She has a fine view through the expansive glass dome.

Bob's view is... limited.

Off the set, for to carefully place the first of four scientific packages (MunSEP) at a minimum distance of 1km from their landing site, as well as each other.

That's over the 1km mark so lets make this Station 1and deploy the MunSEP.

Earlier, when I said "carefully place" what I really meant was just pinging them off the back of the rover, like a loose bit of rust flying off an old truck.

But MunSEP was built for this kind of punishment though, and all is well.

So where to dump, er... I mean deploy the next high tech Munar scientific thingamabob.

Val has an idea.

Val carefully backed up to the edge of the crater that would be Station 2.

While at college Val had a summer job driving a garbage truck, so she has all the experience she needs for this.

The MunSEP bounced and rolled a few times as it descended the steep wall of the crater before the inevitable flash of an explosion.

Well... it's still has a probe core and a thermometer.

Time to quickly set it to hibernate while no-one is looking, to make sure the 5 unit battery has a chance of lasting 6 hours (rule of the challenge). Well it's still operating, just in hibernation mode.

For the first time since the rover was deployed Bob has a view of more than 50cm from the glass of the window.

"Back it up a bit more Val, so I can get a nice photo."

"That would be a no Bob."

With the 2nd MunSEP "safely" deployed at more than 1km from the others and the landing site, it was time to head off to Station 3.

Ok... where to drop this one.

Ah... a rock.

Scientist love rocks, we'll drop it here.

Another carefully placed scientific package.

The crew then headed across the surface once more until arriving at another large crater. Val wanted to back up and dump again, but Bob is concerned that a vigilant Challenge setter might notice another damaged MunSEP and deduct points.

So the package was dropped at the top of the crate rim instead. Bob got out to check its operation as well as it's distance from it's 3 siblings.

This is looking like a good spot for Station 4, over 1km from the landing site and Stations 1 and 2, just need to check distance to station 3.

Argh... 852m, you've gotta be kidding me Bob cursed.

Well, he said something a little more colourful than that.

What to do, what to do.

Well... it's a little know fact but Bob is quite the footballer (the proper kind, not the kind with body armour and players the size of SUV's).

So he started to deftly dribble the ball across the surface.

On the left foot, then the right.

At the edge of the crater the thing was still about 50m short of the minimum distance from Station 3.

Bob knew what must be done. So he lined himself up, close his eyes and imagined that he was about the take a penelty at the World Cup.

Punt.

What... that's like 10m at best.

Some striker you are.

Bob was not pleased.

Headbutting the thing was all he could doing and in some strange quirk of physics, the MunSEP was momentarily stuck to his head, before being thrown into the distance, down into the crate.

Maradona Kerman may have had the "Hand of the Kraken", but Bob seems to have the head of it too, as the thing finally starts rolling down into the crater.

As this happened there was the sound of an explosion somewhere in the distance. Aparently in space, you can here physics screw up.

Ok... lets go check the numbers.

1097m from Station 3, we'll take that won't we.

After showing off his fine footy skills Bob returned to the rover.

Val decided to take another look at the landing site and found (well, the lack of really) the source of the explosion, as the descent stage has disappeared, presumably in a fireball.

Ok... one last task on the Mun.

Drive to a distance of over 10km from the landing site.

Almost half way, keep going.

10.1km from the flag which should count as the landing site, even if all remains of the lander there are now gone.

With all tasks accomplished on the surface, it was time to leave it, so the pair of rocket motors on the ascent stage/rover were ignited.

Pitching the vehicle up and hitting a slight bump in the ground, the ascent stage... ascended.

There's the landing site down there, the massive memorial now just a bright dot on the surface.

Finally it was time to cut the engines and coast to the point where the circularisation burn would be made.

A nice view from up here.

And a nice view of Kerbin too.

Val decides she wan't to get out and grab a quick shot of herself and their ride.

A little while (ok... many hours) the ascent stage rendezvoused with the CSM.

Docking was a pretty straight forward afair and soon Val was tanking off some of the remaining fuel to the CSM.

Not all of it though, as the ascent stage had one last points earning job to do.

First it had to be detached.

Then instructed remotely to make a descent burn to bury it in the regolith.

Yep... in this challenge you actually get points for crashing something.

With the ascent stage returned to the surface, it was time to jetison the docking port that has attached it to the CSM for more points.

Then... time to turn our eyes towards the next stop.

Kerbin.

That should do I think.

Off they went, with the power of 4 nukes blasting them away from the Mun and towards home.

That home.

On the return journey it was discovered that their entry into the atmosphere would be on the dark side of the planet.

Bad for taking screen shots (Boooo!) and also possibly for points, as there were 5 up for grabs for a splashdown, as opposed to landing on solid ground.