To Everywhere, and Back, Before KSP2!

[LHACK4142]

Since KSP2's coming out in February, I wanted to see if I could visit all the CBs with a kerballed craft and bring all kerbals back home before KSP2 releases, to give my KSP1 save a grand sendoff. The self-imposed rules are: No exploits, unlimited quicksaves and reverts (although I'll try to do as few as possible) and mostly stock+dlc except for some invaluable and not-overpowered modded parts (like Near Future Construction's 2.5m to 3.75m structural adapter. I'll also present each mission like a mission report, and try to explain bugs and my errors as malfunctions and stuff.

Before I thought of doing this challenge, I'd already visited the Mun and came back, but forgor to take photos. For my next landing, still before I thought of the challenge, I had wanted to visit one of Duna's valleys, so I flew a 4-Kerbal rover there. Unfortunately, I landed very far from a valley, so I needed to make a looong drive.

Spoiler

Just landed.

Driving with some hills in the distance.

A solar eclipse, caused by Ike!

And a long time later, the rover arrived at the valley!!

 

So with those missions described, I'll go on to my first, in-progress mission after I thought of the challenge, which will fully abide by all my rules and stuff: The Dream of the Desert Wanderer, a rescue mission for these 4. (they have no way to get home)

Another goal of this endeavour is to improve my writing skills, so if anybody has any criticisms or advice at all, please do tell me! I'm also trying to get to know more classical composers, and I don't have enough patience to just sit in my chair for 2 hours listening to music, so I'll be listening to it while doing these missions. I'll write down which pieces I listened to also.

Edited November 25, 2022 by LHACK4142
added stuff

[LHACK4142]

Dream of the Desert Wanderer Mission Specifications:

The ship uses an Apollo-style format, with a lander and a service module. They are separately launched, due to their heavy weight. The lander has space for 5 kerbals, and the tug is an unmanned probe that uses NERV atomic engines. One kerbonaut will be manning the ship on the outbound trip for repairs and to control the ship if needed, hence the extra crew capacity. The two modules will dock in LKO, and transfer to Duna. Once there, the ship comprised of the two modules puts itself into a parking orbit around Duna, potentially through aerocapture. Then, the lander will undock and land using its descent stage and parachutes. The descent stage is made of 4 fuel tanks with 4 "Terrier" engines, and will detach for ascent. The two modules will again join and escape from Duna, returning to Kerbin, where yet another ship will rendezvous with the DODW and fly its crew down to Kerbin's surface.

The lander, formally called the Dream of the Desert Wanderer, launched without problems:

Spoiler

As did the launch of the tug:

Spoiler

The two modules met and docked successfully:

Spoiler

epic docking cam courtesy of HullCamVDS

Almost immediately after the rendezvous and docking, the sole crewman reported that the flight computer's Delta-V readings were significantly less than necessary for the mission. Mission Control directed the crew to test-fire the engines to ensure proper functioning of the fuel tank sensors, and those sensors were confirmed to be functional. The cause for this was found to be a faulty seal between the tug, which contained most of the fuel, and its launch vehicle. This caused some fuel reserved for the transfers to be used to accelerate to orbital velocity. An emergency mission carrying fuel, spare parts, and an engineer was then launched to refuel the tug and supply it with spare parts. This went successfully except for some damage to solar panels, and the DODW was ready for Duna transfer.

The engines ignited for the transfer, and it was performed successfully. Due to the long burn time, the ship was not facing totally prograde for part of the burn, which may have increased the amount of fuel consumed unnecessarily.

Spoiler

The fuel levels were observed to be suboptimal following this burn, so the decision to perform an aerocapture was made, necessitating a mid-course correction manuever. Some communications and computer systems were nonfunctional, likely due to a burst of solar radiation. This caused the engines to be unable to throttle for the maneuver, and firing all four at maximum thrust caused unacceptably low accuracy. Therefore, three of four engines were shut down, and the RCS thrusters, usually used for docking, were also used for fine-tuning. 

Spoiler

Arriving at Duna...

Aerocapturing!

The  Duna aerocapture was performed very well, without any overheating or damage whatsoever to any components. The ending orbit had an apoapsis of about 120 km and a periapsis of about 12 km. Because fuel levels were somewhat lower than expected, the decision was made to undock the tug, have it place only itself into a stable orbit, and allow the lander to re-enter the atmosphere for a landing. This was done without any problems.

The lander experienced some non-fatal problems in its ultimately successful descent and landing. Reentry was performed without a problem, and so the heat-shield was jettisoned. After being jettisoned, it collided with the ascent engine. No damage was done to the engine, but something could have easily happened. Following this, parachutes were deployed, and these performed much better than expected, slowing down the lander to 20 m/s. Ignition of the descent stage failed, with the ascent stage's engine igniting instead.  This appears to be the result of faulty electronics. The ground underneath the lander was observed to be very steep, but near a plateau, so the ship was steered there. It then landed on the plateau with no problems. Overall, the outbound mission was a success, and taught the agency many valuable lessons for the next missions.

Spoiler

And a successful landing!

I was listening to Mendelssohn for most of this mission- I've hardly heard any of his pieces and wanted something romantic, so I decided to give it a go. I was specifically listening to his 1st symphony, and it's very pleasant.

Edited November 25, 2022 by LHACK4142
added piece