The Dresliner

Magzimum · August 17, 2020

Welcome to Mission Control. Please make a selection.

Searching through some archives, an intern at the Dres Tourist Board made a startling discovery. The market for luxury cruises to Dres is ripe for the picking. The Dres Tourist Board needs luxury ships to visit Dres, and they needed it yesterday. And that's why they need our help.

We decided to go to Dres before the Tier 3 science upgrades, not because it's hard, but because we didn't have the cash to upgrade the R&D center. Playing career at difficulty level "moderate".

Figure 1, Dres. Beautiful.

Having 13 kerbals all equally eager to ~~get a quick promotion to a safer job~~ visit Dres and see the sights we decided to build a luxury spaceliner to bring them to Dres and back. Dres needs love. Lots of love. Pity that our career really could not afford to send so much love, but more about that later.

The idea was born, the seed was planted, and the kerbal was out of the bag. We will build a spaceship with 54 seats. It shall be a VTOL. With wings. And it shall go to Dres.

Enter the DRESLINER.

Figure 2, Glorious.

The engineers at the VAB were initially worried when the boffins at HQ let the Dres Tourist Bureau into the design team. It turned out they had underestimated the problem.

Figure 3, Sturdy VTOL.

Money, money, money

So, our cashless career struggled to upgrade the R&D center. The idea was to launch to Dres, make some world-firsts-cash, and then move on. Initial models to launch the Dresliner into orbit showed that it needed a gargantuan launcher and we could not build gargantuan launchers in the Tier 2 VAB, so, we took out two contracts to take a series of temperature readings on Gilly, put those contracts into a box, marked it with "do not open until Year 10", and upgraded the VAB with the cash we got up front.

Spoiler

This is an early version of the launcher, with two stacks under each wing engine. We went with a single stack in the final design.

Solution:

The design for the launcher went through various iterations, in a frantic search for more dV without exceeding the remaining budget. In the end, we accepted an Eve orbital space station and a Gilly space station mission, and use the cash to build the launcher. And when we realized that we needed moar boosters, we accepted a Minmus space station mission to buy some big SRBs as the final punchline.

Our space program is set for the next 5 years... but Dres needs love now.

Figure 4, The up front cash of these missions funded the Dresliner

Dres, we are coming!

And with all the bureaucracy done, it was time to fly. So we loaded up all the Kerbals we had on the list, and rolled it onto the pad.

Figure 5, "For here am I sitting in a tin can, far above a giant stack of explosives. Planet Kerbin's blue, and there is nothing I can doooooaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaahhhh!!!!"

Figure 6, "Can someone please close the front bay doors, we are about to go supersonic"

In all its glory, the Dresliner made it to Low Kerbin Orbit...

Spoiler

Because it was actually flying quite well, we made an early turn - somewhat like a gravity turn.

Which caused all sorts of fireworks on the outside. Nothing to worry.

Coasting to the Apoapsis.

Maybe if we unfold the solar panels, the reaction wheels will start working again and we can point this thing forward.

... And towards Dres.

Spoiler

The booster tanks had just a drop left for the burn towards Dres. With extra sepatrons, the separation was worth the wait. And because all 4 boosters had 3 Mainsail engines, it also provided a little kick.

The bottom stage with 4 Mainsail engines finally burned out, and we switched to the 4 Cheetah engines that are a little more efficient.

And with the G-forced at a more manageable level, cabin lights were turned on and snacks were served.

After a rather unexpectedly large midway course correction (> 600 m/s Oops, some of the boffins at the tracking station got a little worried here) to get the Dresliner into the orbital plane of Dres, we managed to get an intercept and a nice Periapsis.

The boffins that got worried realized that we would probably need the same 600 m/s to get an intercept with Kerbin on the way home. And they decided to put those reports into the same box where the Gilly contracts were kept.

We first emptied the last fuel in the Cheetah tanks...

And thus the Dresliner arrived at Dres. They were made for each other.

Figure 7, Upgrading the VAB: 1,267,500 funds, Building and launching the Dresliner, 848,478 funds. Getting the Dresliner into orbit around Dres: priceless.

And Dres immediately started giving love back to the Kerbals. It was not luck that we were coming in for a landing right next to the impressive Dres Canyon. It was meant to be.

Figure 8, Dres really opened up to us.

And there she was. The Dresliner had landed.

Figure 9, We actually landed.

(editors edit - I actually landed on the first run, no save games needed all the way from the launch - but this luck would not continue)

Spoiler

A few pictures showing that it was quite a steep slope. This thing really was stury and stable.

The scientists at home said this was the Midlands biome. But the Kerbals on the Dresliner thought it might also be called the Canyon.

Time to offload the Kerbals. They look tiny on this giant ship. Also, Arson Kerman is a really fitting name for a rocket pilot. What could possibly go wrong?

Once landed on a new planet, the Kerbals did what Kerbals do, which is to line up in a neat row, plant a flag and smile for the Picture-with-Kerbals-in-the-foreground-and-the-lander-in-the-back. And never mind the 2,295 m/s worth of fuel left in the tanks. Surely that is enough to get home. Right?

Figure 10, 13 Kerbals on Dres. Guys, next time we take a photo with the sun at a better angle.

The Kerbals played around a bit...

Spoiler

Our brave Kerbals hopped into a few other biomes - you cannot ignore the Canyon.

And litter the solar system with more flags.

Going home

... But in the end, this was a first date. We' re not moving in yet.

Figure 11, Two Skipper engines came to Dres only for this picture.

Spoiler

Getting into orbit of Dres.

Those Skipper engines did not really get hot. They were used for 2-3 seconds only. It was a gesture of love, not efficiency.

Also, seriously Bob, we are only doing 0.2 Gees, and you're screaming as it we are about to go into interplanetary space with far too little fuel.

Anyway, the Dresliner made a nice low orbit around Dres, for some more tourism.

And when the planets were aligned in just the right way, the Kerbals waved their last goodbye and promised to be back one day. The Dresliner aimed for Kerbin. Or, rather, aimed far too high, and made the mid-flight burn to get into the same plane as Kerbin is orbiting.

Figure 12, Surely 95 m/s worth of fuel is enough to slow down this giant ship as it comes in from interplanetary space. Right?

After the ship had found a course to meet Kerbin at 71 km, it was finally obvious that there really was not enough fuel. So, a rescue mission had to be built.

Spoiler

Once the boffins realized that perhaps they shouldn't have put the report about the lack of fuel into a box, the Kerbins started ~~panicking~~ doing what they do best: Improvise!

The intercept at 55 km altitude was adjusted to 71 km. A really low aerobraking was not possible with two cupolas built into the belly and the top of the ship.

Luckily, the World-Firsts society had wired some 400,000 funds into our bank account so we could build a big and very fast tanker.

Figure 13, Darn it: Flying Fuel Services

Spoiler

Editors edit: I'm actually really proud of the rescue. The rescue tanker-probe was launched 1 day ahead of the Dresliner passing through space near Kerbin. It was launched when the space center was exactly under the ~~orbit~~ flyby course, and into (almost) the right inclination. It then matched periapsis and inclination with the Dresliner, and increased its apoapsis - it had to speed up anyway. And once the Dresliner got close, it increased its Apoapsis so much that it had an intercept right at the Periapsis.

It then still had to accelerate 1200 m/s, so it was not exactly a close intercept (20 km after they matched speed), but it was a regular docking procedure from that point on... pity I made no screenshots.

Figure 14, Thirsty Dresliner gets a drink. Check out the vertical speed.

Spoiler

With the tanks partially refilled, the Dresliner aimed for Kerbin (again), and got into orbit.

A very high orbit at first, with a very worrying Periapsis.

At the expense of more fuel, the Periapsis was raised to a safe altitude - safe for aerobraking with lots of squishy melty parts on the plane.

A few orbits later, the Kerbals were getting used to having a sauna on board.

This is the final approach - we burned off the last fuel, leaving 18 m/s for an attempt to make a landing burn. Luckily, there was an alternative. The Dresliner did bring 32 parachutes all the way to Dres and back.

Things got pretty hot.

Figure 15, Carefully entering the atmosphere. Nothing went boom, so that's a success.

Spoiler

Even with empty tanks, she really cannot fly. The wings were only show. We needed to open the front bay doors to raise the nose to less than 45 degrees down.

It's really a pity that the parachutes did not spread out a little more. I arranged them into clusters of 8 around 4 girder segments. It was easier to balance the ship under the parachutes when they were all in the middle, but it looks a bit silly to have so much ship and so little parachute in the picture. It worked though. Btw, no idea why I couldn't fix the roll - she was leaning to one side.

And thus, 13 Kerbals made it home. Thank you Dres.

Figure 16, Next time we put sails on our ship.

Epilogue

Since landing back on Kerbin, the design team has started to design for the Minmus station. Eve is not yet in the right position. Nothing has been launched yet.

All Kerbals received medals and promotions, but they all decided to stay on the flight roster. They can always become one of the boffins later.

Spoiler

We could have made a little more science if we did not forget to do all the experiments in high orbit around Dres. But 1746 extra science helps - if we ever upgrade that R&D center.