Gael Force Nine

[jimmymcgoochie]

Kerbals had conquered space. In mere decades they went from rickety pods held together with spit and tape to huge space stations and interplanetary spaceships, from cheap solid rockets and inefficient, unreliable liquid-fuelled engines to the ludicrously high ISPs of electric, nuclear fission and fusion propulsion systems, from tiny probes that could be strapped to the back of a pickup truck to gigantic interstellar vessels longer than the KSC runway assembled in orbital shipyards that could have held the entire KSC inside their structures, ground and all.

The next few decades were a waiting game as those first interstellar probes hurtled across the cosmos at up to 15% of light speed, crossing the unfathomably vast expanse of the space between star systems to discover what lay at the other end. Kerbol system was colonised in a big way with populations building up on Duna, Laythe, Eve, even Tylo. Technological advances made in these intervening years made possible the next grand phase of Kerbalkind's expansion beyond its home system: interstellar colonisation.

The reports started trickling back from those early probes. Dozens of star systems from four to fourteen light-years away were investigated and many found to have worlds that looked conducive to life, with a few showing indications that life may already exist. The colossal interstellar ships sent out to begin the long process of colonisation and terraformation could have impaled Gilly with several kilometres of spacecraft sticking out at each end, their engines so large that the ignition lasers had to be carefully tuned to take the speed of light delay into consideration when they fired so as to strike each car-sized pellet of fuel at exactly the same time, every time.

Eleven targets were chosen in all, each given its own Colonisation Task Force. Those working in Task Force Nine were focussed on the star Ciro which- almost unbelievably- had two potential targets for colonisation. The fourth planet, assigned the name Gael by the automated planetary name generator, was similar in size to Kerbin, almost a perfect twin in fact, while the fifth planet Tellumo was significantly larger with a much thicker atmosphere and nearly double the surface gravity- in both cases exceeding Eve! Perhaps unsurprisingly Gael was chosen unanimously. At some point, Colonisation Task Force Nine became known as Gael Force Nine, a play on an old way of measuring wind speeds where a gale force wind was nine on the scale.

The first automated vessels departed for Gael about a decade before the initial colonisation crew, giving time to set up all the necessary equipment before the crew arrived to deploy the big terraforming systems. A century of cryo-sleep later the crew arrived and discovered that their new home had a breathable atmosphere and the automated systems had already begun releasing spores and seeds across the land and oceans to kick-start the planetary ecosystems. They worked for another decade, building up a whole city to await the arrival of the main colony ship carrying half a million new inhabitants.

But it never came.

Years passed, the new Gaelans' hopes fading all the while, until their ship's long-range scanners detected a massive object approaching at a significant fraction of light speed. They watched as it approached, joy turning to alarm as it made no effort to slow down, then disbelief and horror as the huge colony ship bombed straight through Ciro system without stopping and kept on going. Radio hails went unanswered and telescopes couldn't focus on an object moving that fast, but from what data they could gather it was clear that the colony ship's propulsion section was badly damaged, or possibly missing entirely. The population on Gael could do nothing but watch as the crippled ship receded from view, vanishing into the cold void of deep space forever.

Gael Force Nine found themselves on a planet that was perfectly habitable and would comfortably support a population of several million Kerbals indefinitely, but with mere thousands of Kerbals to populate it with. Kerbol system was seventeen light years away and a huge cloud of dust and gas had moved in between the two stars. Ciro's companion star Grannus, a stone's throw away relatively speaking, hadn't been chosen for a colonisation mission as Ciro was a more viable option. Almost all the other stars chosen for colonisation missions were even further away than Kerbol and would be using their interstellar communications systems to talk to Kerbol, if at all- with round-trip delays best measured in generations there was no such thing as a quick reply.

Gael Force Nine were totally alone.

The contingency plan prepared for exactly this scenario was activated: strip the ship of anything useful, deploy the gestation pods to start turning frozen embryos into the first true Gaelans, transition back to a level of technology nearly a millennium behind what they were used to and build back up once the population was stable and the planet's resources could be utilised.

Centuries passed. Kerbin became a legend, a mythical land lost in time and space. Technologies were reinvented, key principles rediscovered and then one day a group of like-minded individuals got together for a traditional working lunch to discuss setting up a new venture. Gaelans loved to look up at the sky, see the planets and moons moving in their ceaseless dance, and dream of joining the dance themselves some day.

Some day had become today.

It was time for Gael Force Nine to once again reach for the stars.

[Bej Kerman]

2 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Cosine Loss XII, you are cleared for takeoff 

Love the story. A bit rough around the edges but the central premise is fascinating. Please keep it up!

[jimmymcgoochie]

Galileo Gaelan was a "Jeb". The origins of that term were lost in history, but if someone tended to act first and think second, jump headlong into something with an excess of enthusiasm to cover their total lack of other qualifications and generally blunder through dangerous situations miraculously unscathed with a massive grin plastered across their face, they were a Jeb- and Galileo was the Jebbest Jeb in all of Jebdom, bar none.

Small wonder, then, that when the nascent Gaelan Space Centre put out a call for test pilots to be strapped into a rickety tin can and fired into the sky atop a barely controlled explosion, Galileo was first in the queue and first into said rickety tin can when the Test 1 craft was dragged out to the vaguely circular slab of concrete serving as a launchpad.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Test 1 was the lack of obvious rocket engines on the bottom- instead two pressure-fed monopropellant thrusters were built into the sides of a cylindrical tank strapped underneath the pilot's capsule. Gaelans were more cautious than their Kerbal ancestors, partly as a result of having such a small population to begin with, so this strange rocket system was in fact a prototype launch abort system that could hurl the crew away from a failing rocket and keep them save from the inevitable explosions that followed.

The launch procedures were a carefully choreographed series of checks and double-checks to ensure that everything was in tip-top condition ahead of the launch, taking precisely two hours in total to complete. Galileo, on the other hand, felt that the required checks were "pointy end up" and promptly hit the GO button at T-minus an hour and fifty-nine minutes.

The G-forces pinned him to his seat, stretching his already huge grin even wider until the fuel was depleted and weightlessness took over. He caught a glimpse of the towering volcano to the north of the GSC, which geologists had reassured everyone was definitely extinct and wouldn't erupt and bury the entire GSC in a wall of ash and lava (some weren't convinced), but the pod didn't even go high enough to see if there was any lava inside the caldera. Boo.

Galileo poked the buttons to deploy the science experiments, added a report of his own ("can't see the lava, go higher next time!") and spent the rest of the time trying to track down the source of a strange noise that turned out to be the pod radio, which seemed to be very angry at him for some reason, so he switched it off.

Not even an hour-long dressing-down by Director Jean Gaelan was enough to wipe the grin off Galileo's face, at which point she sent him out of her office and wondered once again why she had allowed herself to be talked into this.

The science team were hard at work processing the data from Test 1's flight and by mid-afternoon had completed construction of Test 2, a much larger rocket with two stages that might be able to put a Gaelan into orbit.

The pilot for Test 2 was Poody, almost the polar opposite to Galileo in every way: a stickler for the rules, she almost mutinied when they told her they were cutting the pre-launch checks short because otherwise they'd miss dinner. The rocket's first stage was powered by a "Swivel" engine, so-called because someone suggested they 'put it on a swivel' to get more control during the launch.

The launch went perfectly, the Swivel performing exactly as planned and stage separation occurring without incident.

Unfortunately, a misread of a manual meant that the abort pack beneath the capsule was completely unsuitable for use as an upper stage- once activated, it would burn at full power until the fuel ran out. Poody was absolutely fuming at the oversight, which left her suborbital (fortunately, otherwise she'd be marooned in space with no way to get back down!) and hurtling towards the night side of Gael with minimal control and no idea where she'd land.

And then, as the plasma licked against the window, if she'd land.

The parachute opened as planned, dragging the capsule from almost supersonic to only a few metres per second, and a safe touchdown followed seconds later.

Still buzzing with adrenaline, Poody stuck her head out of the capsule, spotted something shiny and ran over to investigate.

Alas, she had nothing suitable to break a piece of the shiny crystal off to take home with her. It would take until the next day to get back, but the science team were already hard at work building a proper orbital rocket with an engine that could be switched on and off at will. With Poody half a world away and nobody else willing to risk being stranded in space forever if the new engine didn't work as advertised, it fell to Galileo to take the helm for Orbital 1's flight.

Everything went perfectly and Galileo found himself floating around in his capsule, Gael's surface racing by 100km beneath him. For centuries Gaelans had looked up at the clouds and envied their speed and height; now the tables were turned at last.

The old adage "what goes up must come down" may not hold true in orbit, but Galileo was getting hungry and it was almost dinner time in the GSC canteen so he decided to get back ASAP. Trouble was, he had no idea how to aim at the GSC and didn't particularly fancy the idea of crashing into the formidable cliffs to the west- or the smouldering lava in the volcano- so he aimed a bit further east into the ocean and tried to line up his course so he'd fly right over the GSC.

Nobody said anything about being set on fire after the rocket-y bits were detached!

By blind luck he landed almost exactly on top of the GSC, splashing down a little ways off the coast.

But in all the excitement, he forgot to look and see if there was lava in the volcano. Drat!

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/O2MNKck

[Nazalassa]

So what happened to Poody?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Looking to rectify an egregious mistake from an earlier mission, as well as to try out some new-fangled experiments, Science 1 was next out to the launchpad with scientist Bobert at the controls. His grasp of flying rockets goes about as far as "pointy end up, flamey end down" so who knows where this is going to end up...

Alas, the onboard camera seems to have been malfunctioning at a critical moment, so the question of there being lava in the volcano will have to wait for another day.

For a few alarming moments it looked like Bobert was going to land inside the volcano or else on its very steep slopes, but in the end he came down mere metres from the water and the science payload was completely intact.

The research and development department were working overtime, coming up with the revolutionary concept of flying a rocket by remote control. Sort of. Why they decided that the perfect shape for this "probe core" was a blatantly unaerodynamic sphere with no stability assistance whatsoever, science has yet to discover.

Despite the token attempt to make the pointy end, well, pointy, things went a bit pear-shaped. (Although, isn't the probe core with the nosecone on top already pear-shaped?)

Mission aborted due to the rocket trying to do donuts in the sky, recovered just offshore.

How about we spin-stabilise it? It worked in RP-1...

TOO MUCH SPIN!

Another bout of head-scratching later and someone suggested using huge fins to keep it pointing straight. This actually worked, however a staging issue on the boosters meant they deployed their parachutes too early and had to be jettisoned while still burning.

It went a bit higher than expected! And unfortunately, what goes up must come down...

The samples were recovered and processed; meanwhile Bobert was back and somehow found himself at the controls of an even more unwieldy science mission.

Now with wings!

Not sure he's quite grasped the concept...

It actually flies!

...what's that, Bobert? Oh, yes, we totally knew it was going to work, absolutely first time, no reverting to launch required at all. Never you mind what a 'revert' is, just focus on staying in the sky and doing the science.

And do the science he certainly did, flying over several different biomes and snagging lots of science reports as he did. He even managed to complete the most important observation of all:

The floor is, in fact, NOT lava. Boo.

While the 'does the volcano have lava' sweepstake paid out, Bobert headed down to land on the slopes of a mountain to get even more science. This was a tricky thing to do, landing while flying very slowly and onto an uphill gradient too, but he nailed it first time without a single F5 required. The plane could fly at under 30m/s with full flaps, full throttle and a mildly absurd angle of attack, though getting it down without bonking the tail off the ground was a bit more challenging.

Stop asking stupid questions, Bobert, you're not getting paid enough to need to know what an F5 is.

Science done, getting back off the mountain was much easier- just point downhill, gun the engines and hope the wingtips don't clip the ground otherwise it's a loooooong way down to the sea...

First try! (Actually first try this time, which is a good thing because I completely forgot to save after landing on the mountain )

It seemed Bobert wasn't happy about something after the mission because he drove around the KSC for ten minutes afterwards, rattling all the windows with the jet exhaust, poking at the science experiments and insisting he was "doing science" until the ground crews managed to catch up and stop him.

On an unrelated note, new applicants to the Space Program can now look forward to bunk rooms with unparalleled views of the night sky and rocket launches, because roofs are overrated anyway.

Another day later and Poody had finally made it back to the GSC; she was a bit miffed that she missed out on the plane flying and lava spotting, but was appeased by promising her a lucrative mission in the near future.

Not this one, though. This one's a probe called Oh, Relay? which as the name suggests will be serving as a communications relay.

It was supposed to launch to the east, but someone must have been holding the blueprints sideways because it ended up going south instead, then veered west after doing a backflip halfway through the ascent for no particular reason.

As if to emphasise exactly why a relay was needed, the probe spent nearly half an orbit out of contact with any of the small listening stations scattered across Gael before finally reconnecting with the Space Centre and boosting to a higher orbit.

A 3000x2500km orbit with an inclination the wrong side of 150 degrees wasn't anything like what they were aiming for, but Mission Control are just pleased that it made it to space in the first place and the weird orbit may well turn out to be useful for communicating if more relays are launched to more conventional orbits.

With that done, the GSC team turned to the commercial side of space exploration and started doing a load of boring and seemingly pointless tests of various parts being developed by several companies: rocket engines, parachutes, separators and decouplers, even new wheels (Bobert was particularly keen to see that one, complaining about whiplash due to the fixed gear on the science plane having "suspension made out of girders").

They were interrupted by a stupid offer, one so unbelievably dumb that only a Jeb could possibly have come up with it. Which is somewhat ironic, since the person who came up with it was in fact called Jebediah.

The mission? Make him pass out from G-forces.

Bit of a waste of Space Program time and resources, many grumbled, but if the crazy fool wants to pay us that much to just yeet him into the air for a minute or so then who are we to say no?

Whoops... It seems somebody got something wrong regarding parachutes, but Jeb was fine and the added explosions on landing just made him even more excited. He stumbled away unsteadily promising to tell all his friends about his awesome experience, and evidently he did because two more idiots turned up to do the same thing.

Their launches used half fuel loads in the boosters to make it cheaper and also quicker, with a landing on the launchpad making it quicker and cheaper to get the rocket back to the VAB to get it ready for the next launch. Even more people are sending emails about this, along with a few who want to be launched into space even before professional astronauts have had their turns, but they're offering a lot of money that could be used to upgrade the GSC facilities...

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/agLYhXV

Maybe if we get enough of these "space tourists" together we can pay for a really big heater to melt the floor of the volcano's caldera and make it have lava?

[Nazalassa]

42 minutes ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

It seemed Bobert wasn't happy about something after the mission because he drove around the KSC for ten minutes afterwards, rattling all the windows with the jet exhaust, poking at the science experiments and insisting he was "doing science" until the ground crews managed to catch up and stop him.

I love how funny this story is.

+1 rep!

[Bar27262]

I like your rocket designs! Very exciting.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Spoiler

OOC: I installed Parallax but then the game crashed whenever I entered Iota's SOI so I had to remove it again later. Some screenshots look a bit different than others as a result.

/OOC

Here we find two Gaelans in their natural habitat: making it look like they're hard at work when they're actually skiving.

Bobert and Jade insist that they needed to build that wheeled contraption and drive around the KSC for a while, then stop to dump some science-y looking things beside the flagpole, "for science". They could have walked over there or driven one of the GSC's little yellow electric carts, but oh no, they had to build a whole new rover for it...

While many grumbled about wasting time and money on pet projects with no tangible benefits, the VAB teams were hard at work putting together the next mission: a probe to fly past Iota, gather scientific data and samples and then return to Gael to be recovered.

Cheap, reliable solid rocket power sent the probe nearly all the way to orbit, while the upper stage handled the rest of the mission perfectly.

The probe wasn't on a free return trajectory, merely one that would bring it back towards Gael for the engine to push it the rest of the way down. The probe was overbuilt for this mission and so had lots of fuel left over, allowing it to return to Gael and slow down significantly. Unfortunately, someone forgot that only one copy of any given experiment can be stored in each sample container and with two mystery goo samples from both space high and low around Iota, one sample of each had to be transmitted.

Good thing they did, too, as two of the goo containers melted during re-entry.

It wasn't all bad news, though- the rocket stage wasn't detached, survived re-entry and was recovered for some extra funds.

Next to launch is Oh, Relay? 2, heading to Iota orbit. The GSC administration has decided to make landing probes on Iota its top priority so this mission will provide important information about the orbital situation over at Iota while also providing some coverage of the far side for future landers.

This launch saw the first use of an automated tracking and recovery system designed to, well, track and recover dropped rocket stages and boosters to recoup some of the costs of each launch. It'll also cut down on the number of people trying to claim "struck by rocket debris" on their car/home/pet insurance policies.

Tales of old Kerbin insist the primary moon would loom in the sky, day or night; Gael's moons, Iota and Ceti, are far less visible, though both can still be spotted even in daylight.

With over 1km/s left in the second stage and an unused third stage, it's clear that Iota is a far less challenging target than initially anticipated. Observations of the outer moon Ceti indicate that it'll take more fuel for just about everything, but missions to Iota don't need nearly as much fuel as they've been given so far.

Relay in place, the first Iota Lander was dispatched.

It was only as the lander headed towards the surface on a direct descent trajectory that Mission Control realised just how lumpy Iota's surface is.

Trying to pick out a flat area to land on was almost impossible, but a few somewhat less steep areas were available instead.

A successful landing in the midlands. Science was transmitted, valuable contracts paid out- and then everyone realised that they had no idea where else to try and land as simply saying "not midlands" wasn't very helpful and they had precisely zero topographical maps of the surface to work with.

If only the next lander could move around on the surface after landing so it could visit several different points of interest in one mission...

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/4pTEQQ4

[Maria Sirona]

This is just lovely! You're one great writer.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Introducing a brand new concept that will revolutionise space exploration, keep the science rolling in and-

OK, fine, we stapled some wheels to a probe core. Happy now, spoilsport?

The mission to Iota went as planned, with a landing site just beside a very large canyon chosen as it offers the greatest potential for having several biomes in close proximity.

Is any part of Iota flat?

Following a bit of flying around with the remnants of the landing stage and a bit of driving around after that, the Iota Probes strategy was completed and a good haul of science transmitted. There were plans to add a Bon Voyage autopilot module to the rover, but it wasn't ready in time for this mission so this rover will remain parked at the bottom of a deep canyon.

Following the success of Iota-bound missions, the next logical step is to head to Gael's second moon Ceti. Oh, Relay? 3 was launched to do just that.

Upon reaching Ceti, first impressions are that it's every bit as wrinkled as Iota but much uglier:

It's not so bad at a distance, though, which is good news as the team at Mission Control managed to stop retching long enough to send the commands up for a circularisation burn.

With some high-tech scanning satellites under construction in the VAB, there was just enough space left in the VAB to put together a replacement for the old Tourist Knocker-Outer which delivered all the fun for a fraction of the funds. The Mk2 uses a cluster of seven smaller solid rockets, tuned for maximum thrust.

Fully reusable, lands back on the pad, tourist rendered unconscious in less than 5 seconds; what more could you ask for?

Next up, those scanning satellites- but not before the VAB and launchpad were upgraded to allow much bigger and heavier rockets to be built!

Scanners were sent to polar orbit of Gael and towards both moons, though for some reason the transfer to Ceti will take just three days whereas the one to Iota will take 11 even though Iota is closer than Ceti...

Meanwhile, a new rover design requires field testing on Gael before deploying it elsewhere- but the GSC is on an island surrounded by water surrounded by mountains and sheer cliffs. Logically, the solution is just to stick the rover on a boat and ferry it to land, but why do that when you can use a rocket?

The very next launch was even smaller than that, yet it made it all the way to orbit:

Wow! A probe core with a docking port! How amazing! Said nobody, and they're right- on its own this probe is really boring. However, the second half of this mission, Duplex 1, is the star of this show: the first mission with two crew on board and the first to attempt an orbital rendezvous and docking.

Launching from a launchsite at nearly 9 degrees latitude does present some difficulties for getting the right inclination though, especially when the technology required to launch into the same orbital plane doesn't exist yet. Fortunately, the probe still had ample fuel left and was able to fix this discrepancy.

Pilot Poody took the controls and guided Duplex 1 in closer, lined up and then docked successfully.

And that's pretty much all this mission was meant to do. Time to go home, then. Are you two still in orbit?

If it were Galileo piloting this mission he'd probably try something like this saying "finders keepers", but it's Poody and she usually follows the procedures to the letter so it's a bit odd that she didn't undock the-

Hmm? What do you mean, 'the mission manual has a page missing'?

Whoever was in charge of checking the mission manual is in serious trouble now, Poody's on the warpath and she did NOT look happy!

And finally, right on schedule the Ceti scanner arrived and parked itself in a polar orbit.

Even these rudimentary maps will be invaluable for the future missions that will land on the surface, allowing a much more precise system than the "that looks like a big canyon, there'll be lots of biomes there" used for the Iota rover.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/m4Ahlsq

In other news, the research department are complaining loudly that their three portakabins and a garden shed with a hole in the roof for a telescope are no longer enough, and that bigger and better facilities will need to be built in order to allow bigger and better technologies to be researched and developed. Their list of "required facilities" is many things, but the one word that sums it up more than anything is "expensive" and after upgrading the VAB and launchpad the GSC administration is operating on a shoestring budget so this might take a while. Maybe we can do a charity fundraiser, auction off some old rocket parts or something?

[Maria Sirona]

The pictures took ages to load and the last six didn't, only showing up as links to imgur :c

That being said, this chapter is another demonstration of your excellence at writing!

[what the heck bro]

awesome! 

[jimmymcgoochie]

For all that stuff about how Gaelans are less prone to rushing and making stupid mistakes than their Kerbal ancestors, they seemed to do an awful lot of rushing and making stupid mistakes recently.

First this happened:

(And yes, it exploded shortly afterwards)

Then the Gael Rover decided to drive off a cliff for some reason.

Following the sat-nav a bit too literally? Wait- we don't have sat-nav!

Then Bobert realised Space-Lab 1 had a critical flaw- no antenna to send science data home- so a probe was assembled to bring one up.

Except that there's no docking port on the station and no engineer who could stick either a docking port or an antenna to Space-Lab 1. And the GSC's only resident space engineer is currently sitting in orbit with Poody waiting for their chance to fly over to Iota and land, which is waiting for the Ceti Rover to hurry up and visit some biomes already. Another planning failure to add to a growing list...

A new engineer was bought hired and launched to the station ASAP.

Except she can't do an EVA because... The Astronaut Complex needs an upgrade?

Nobody can give a definitive answer on why upgrading a building on the ground will somehow allow someone already in space to pop the hatch and go outside- employment law? locked behind a paywall? the instruction manual to open the hatch while in space is lost inside the old building and clearing it out completely is the only way to find it?- but after a great deal of head-scratching the upgrade was done and the EVA was begun immediately after.

Galileo tried to get in on the action by taking a picture of the Orbiter 2 spacecraft as it floated outside, but his timing was a bit off.

With all that done, it was time for Orbiter 2 to come home. And since there's no point leaving that sorry excuse for a probe sitting in an orbit where it could come back and hit the station, might as well bring that back too.

(Of course, it would have been better to put it on the station to allow it to function without a pilot, but it's unlikely that the station will be reused in future and nobody thought of that idea until after the re-entry was well underway.)

Newbie back on the ground (what was her name again?) and for some reason there was a flag in the capsule so she stuck it down beside her landing spot.

After all those failures, it was good to see that the Ceti Rover was working almost entirely according to plan:

The landing site was chosen due to its proximity to no less than four biomes which should make visiting them pretty quick and will also increase the science returns. One of the mystery goo units exploded for Reasons^TM but other than that everything is fine, we're all good here, how are you?

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/qOkoeKr

To make up for the recent failures, a number of contracts have been performed- send some data back from orbit of Gael or one of its moons, test stuff on the launchpad, that sort of thing- which has made enough money to upgrade R&D to two-storey portakabins with new(er) equipment to unlock the mysteries of even more complicated technology. Like foldy-uppy solar panels, for example. R&D are very excited about their new foldy-uppy solar panels.

[jimmymcgoochie]

After several days spent aimlessly floating around in Gael orbit waiting for... something admin-related(?), Poody finally got tired of waiting and demanded that the Iota landing mission went ahead ASAP. The administration team squawked and protested about "red tape" and such, but Poody was having none of it and started describing in considerable detail exactly what they could do with said red tape- apparently forgetting that all radio transmissions were being live-streamed to the entire world.

Fortunately for all concerned, the Ceti rover drove up a hill and did some more science and the admin team hastily marked the "Ceti Probes" program completed and started filling out the paperwork for crewed exploration of Iota and the funding that Gael's governments and industries were offering for it. Because as first words on another planetary body go, you really can't beat "That's one small step for a Gaelan, one giant leap for Gaelington Model Rockets and Paper Products Inc."...

Up close, Poody and Jade were able to confirm what the probes had reported earlier: Iota is the complete opposite of flat, there's no flat ground anywhere at all and the entire surface is lumpier than the vegetable gloop- er, soup- they serve in the GSC canteen.

With no obvious landing sites in sight, Poody just aimed at the surface and hoped for the best; if she landed on a cliff then the gravity was low enough that the lander would most likely be able to recover and fly away. In the end she ended up on a fairly significant slope, but low gravity plus six landing legs meant the lander was stable.

Gaelans' first words on another planetary body? "That's one small- oops *bonk* ow my face, no wait stop rolling away COME BACK YOU STUPID TIN CAN!"

Turns out the SAS turned off when she got out the lander and after tripping and head-butting it, it began rolling down the hill at a rather sedate pace until she caught up with it, pried the door open and dragged it upright again with the reaction wheels and RCS. She climbed out a bit more carefully the second time and did the whole flag-planting-photo-op thing.

Some of the R&D team wanted her to try something with the emergency ration and object size comparison reference a.k.a. a banana, for scale. Why exactly they wanted her to hit it with a hammer wasn't clear, but what happened next was... tragic.

She stood like that for several minutes, occasionally letting out a little whimper, as the shattered banana shards slowly slid down the hill, getting coated in dust in the process.

To distract her from the Great Banana Travesty, Mission Control had Poody do some other tasks- gathering samples of the Iotan surface, deploying some longer-term surface experiments and so on.

When Jade flew overhead again in the command module Poody flew up to join him. A trivial rendezvous and docking later...

And Jade headed out on an EVA of his own, clutching a part of some kind that he insisted wasn't required for the continued functioning of the spacecraft.

Poody wasn't convinced...

The return trip to Gael was uneventful, right up until Poody decided to keep the lander attached to the top of their capsule for re-entry. Mission Control weren't overly concerned when she did that with the little docking target probe earlier, but an entire lander!? What happened to the old stickler-for-the-rules Poody who nearly mutinied when they tried to cut the launch countdown short on her first flight?

When the plasma subsided, the lander was somehow completely intact and- better still- remained that way after splashdown. The research and engineering teams were positively salivating at the thought of getting their hands on it to see how all the various components had handled the extended spaceflight and the trip to Iota's surface and back.

Well, most of them... Though the spate of banana-related injuries at hospitals around the GSC is probably completely unrelated.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/Wq5GqtK

Where to next? Back to Iota for an extended stay, over to Ceti, out to other planets? Stick your ideas in the suggestions box and at the end of the week Director Jean will stick them all in a bag and pull some out at random.