Robo's Space Adventure: Rescue on the Mun

[roboslacker]

A few days ago I reinstalled KSP and started a new science save

This is its story

So, this is a mostly stock playthrough (more on that later), with both DLCs. Last time I seriously played KSP I managed a Duna round trip, so I want to at least match that with this one. So far in this save I've done basic starter flights, launched Jeb into interplanetary space, landed a Munbase, done a Minmus landing, and scanned Kerbin's moons.

So now current stuff.

Spoiler

On Kerbin

The first scanning probe for the Duna mission is launched, to make sure I can get a maneuver set up in advance of the launch window.

I've heard some bad things about the stock transfer tool, so I launched a second identical probe for Ike. The first one will use the stock tool, and the second will use Astrogator.

After those two probes are parked in orbit, a second Minmus mission begins.

The launcher took several revisions to get into orbit, so some stuff changed between the first picture and the final version. As is, it worked okay. A little less kick that I wanted, so I finished off the orbit with a bit of the transfer stage.

As it happens, this mission began at just about the worst possible time for a Minmus transfer, so the entire transfer stage and some of the landing fuel got consumed doing the inclination shift and transfer. Ah well, guess I won't be able to do all the biome hops  I wanted.

On the Mun

While Val and her team headed for Duna, the Mun team was preparing for an expedition of their own.

Having given their rover a decent shakedown, the team decided to go on a longer expedition to try and reach a new biome. Milgun and Cersby were chosen to conduct the mission, and Wehrkin would stay behind to watch over the base.

Before they left Cersby grabbed the antennae from the skycrane to keep in contact.

The pair began their long drive, getting one last look at their home of the last month, when all of a sudden the base was consumed in a horrendous shrieking of tearing metal and hissing gasses.

The base was gone, and Wehrkin dead.

Cersby was distraught over the sudden disaster, but there was nothing that they could do, and nowhere to go back to. All there was to do was keep driving.

They soon came to a crater, and learned the hard way that craters should be avoided on long roadtrips

They lost the storage, goo, scanner, and half their solar panels in a rollover. They'd had enough driving for a while, so they stopped for a long break.

On Minmus

The landing was uneventful. Valentina could land a ship like this just fine.

The group got to work setting up the experiment stations and running the ship's scientific payload. This was Bob's second time on Minmus, so the work got done quickly. For Val and Bill it was their first time in space.

Bill and Bob got to work unpacking the minihopper.

The hopper got stuck on the edge of the cargo bay, but with Val's help they  were able to tip it out. With most of the work done, Bill began tinkering with some rockets to get seismic data. Leaving him to his device, Val and Bob set off to look for science.

"Now that's a big science" Bob thought to himself. The rock was scanned, and they returned to the lander with tanks mostly empty. When they got back, Bill had the idea to rig the hopper with sepratrons and crash it into the surface, to generate seismic waves.

Val flew up and fired the seperatrons before quickly bailing. The hopper entered an uncontrolled tumble and bounced off the surface. Should've retracted the landing legs first.

Val hovered back to the lander and the whole team climbed back into the lander for a biome hop.

They ran the experiments and then discarded the science payload before heading home

Bill detached the landing gear on the way up to try and maximize fuel margins

And that's where things stand now.

Edited February 18, 2022 by roboslacker
renamed

[Admiral Fluffy]

1 hour ago, roboslacker said:

I've heard some bad things about the stock transfer tool, so I launched a second identical probe for Ike. The first one will use the stock tool, and the second will use Astrogator.

The transfer tool isn't that bad, you just need to edit it a bit and it should work. 

Other than that, this looks cool. RIP Wehrkin though.

[roboslacker]

Three rockets go up and two return.

On the Mun

Spoiler

Milgun and Cersby kept on trucking through the day's dying light.

After about 20km more of driving it was time to call it a day. The team drove a bit farther to find flat ground, and then got some sleep

On Kerbin

Spoiler

Val and her team returned from their Minar expedition

While the construction teams were working on a new Mun base, Bill tested the ergonomics of the prototype ike lander for the upcoming Duna mission. After finalized the base design and doing some tests of the refueling arms, the construction team strapped a massive rocket to its bottom.

The new pilot Irvis and engineer Halul were chosen to crew the new base, which was planned to fuel up the Duna mission before it left.

Trouble struck as the ship entered orbit. It just didn't have the dv left to land safely on the Mun, so they had to return to Kerbin.

Irvis used what remained of their fuel to kill some velocity, and both of them got ready to bail out as soon as the craft slowed down enough.

From his bottom monitoring station Halul had a front row seat for the plasma trail as it tore off the solar array. Once the plasma and main shockwaves had ended, they threw open the hatches and jumped for it.

Irvis gently floated down to the water, scanning around for Halul. She couldn't see any sign of him.

Halul slowly came to his senses, struggling to process his surroundings. Everything had gone away, his surroundings replaced by a soft blue light. Down below he could see a bright white light, seemingly calling for him. "So bthat's it." he thought to himself. "This is what death feels like."

He then fully realized his situation. He was underwater, not dead. The rushing air had pinned him against the bottom of the main fuel tank after he bailed out, and the impact had forced him deep into the water. He started swimming up, and soon the recovery teams arrived and brought the two back to the space center.

The construction team strapped more and bigger boosters to the existing rocket, and they headed back up.

Orbit went just fine, and so Irvis began the Munar transfer

Back on the ground, a smaller rocket was prepped for launch

This lander carried an upgrade and repair package for Milgun and Cersby's rover.

On the Mun

Spoiler

The upgrade package was dangerously low on fuel, so the first orbital rendezvous was carried out.

As the probe drifted in, Halul extended out the fuel arm to catch it.

Halul pumped it full of fuel from their much larger tanks, and the probe began its landing.

The probe ran out of fuel before it reached the ground, but because of the refueling it was able to slow down enough for the landing legs to absorb the most of the impact.

Irvis began base's landing.

It was slow, unwieldly, and shook like a tap dancing elephant. It took everything Irvis had to get it down without breaking anything, but she managed it.

Halul extended the fuel arm booms and all the ship's panels, and began drilling for ore. Meanwhile, the others were struggling with the upgrade package.

To make a long story short, the probe had crashlanded right on the side of a ridge, so they had to move it to flat ground before they could begin construction. While pushing it along the probe broke in half, and between that and the crashlanding a good deal of the replacement parts were destroyed.

Milgun and Cersby jacked the rover up on landing gear to work on the wheels, and Cersby promptly got to work replacing the wheels and attaching some replacement parts. The pair set off the next day to stop by the refinery.

Halal inspected the landing legs. He was a bit worried by the base's tilt, and moreso by the sliding. There was nothing to be done about it, though.

The two teams posed for a photo, and they renamed the base in honor of the fallen Wehrkin.

 

[roboslacker]

The first Munar takes place, and planning begins on the second Munar rescue.

On the  Mun

Spoiler

After getting some battery packs from the mining station, Milgun and Cersby set off for the Northwest crater. Cersby had her hands full trying to tweak the new wheels to work right. The rover had a tendency to turn to the left, which was solved by fixing the motor settings.

They lost the rest of their top solar panels in another rollover. After several more minutes of driving they crossed into the northwest crater biome

A final rollover left them stranded with no power and no panels. The new landing gear and the ground were blocking both hatches, so a rescue mission had to be sent.

On Kerbin

Spoiler

The engineers were busy preparing a design for the Duna mission

Proof of concept testing was also being done for the Mun tanker.

When they got word from the Mun that Cersby and Milgun needed rescue, a ship was quickly designed and wheeled out to the pad.

Valentina commanded the mission, and took along two new recruits, Jerbles the pilot and Orke the engineer. She supervised as Jerbles flew the craft onto the mun.

Back on the Mun

Spoiler

Val's crew arrived smoothly.

Orke drained and detached one of the radial tanks, and Jerbles began the landing.

He got the lander down about 100m away from their target.

Orke detached another tank and watched as it rolled away down the hill. They then walked over to the flipped rover and attached a battery to its underside. With the power infusion Milgun righted the rover and drove it closer to the lander.

Together Orke and Cersby repaired and reworked the rover's power systems, then fitted it with a new science arm and anti-crash protection device. The work was done, so the teams got ready to separate. Before they left, Milgun packed her science into the lander for them to take back to Kerbin. She wished she was going back to Kerbin as well. It'd been quite some time since they left Kerbin, and she missed the freedom of not being in a can.

She sighed, and jumped back down to the rover, or at least she tried to?

She stamped her feet and walked around, but the void underneath her feet was as impervious as solid rock.

The others watched in bewilderment as Milgun struggled in midair. On Val's suggestion, she tried to use her Eva pack (no effect), and tried to climb out of range of whatever strange effect had taken hold of her. This only got her stuck higher up

"Wait right there." Valentina said, "I'll come and get you."

Valentina flew up with her eva pack, not feeling any of the forces gripping Milgun. She pushed on the Kerbal as hard as she could, to no effect.

She flew back down, with one idea left. She would hover the lander up to Milgun, and get close enough for her to grab the ladder. Before she got a chance to do this, however, Milgun fell back down to the mun with no explanation.

With that crisis over, there was one problem left: Fuel. The lander didn't have enough fuel to return to Kerbin, or fly to the mining station. So the team began striping non essentials from the ship, to try and maximize dV.

Milgun and Cersby raced away, glad they didn't have to deal with this mess.