Kerbol Landing Attempt - At Night

[LeroyJenkins]

Once again the intrepid Kerbonauts just can't say no to an adventure, no matter how dangerous it may be. They attempted to land on Kerbol. At night of course so they don't burn up.

In bound to Kerbpeapsis, and is it getting big..and warm. "Just got to make it around to the night side and we'll be good" our fearless explorers stated with a tone of conviction in their voices. 

Amazed at Kerbol's undulating convection layer (yes it really was moving), Jeb Kerman (Pilot) decided to have his lunch of Hot Kerb-dogs, nicely roasted by the Chromosphere.

Landing struts deployed, flight approach aligned and stable. All GO for final touchdown. "Night side is just over the horizon" Floyd Kerman (Science Officer) exclaimed.

601km Altitude and 90,000 m/s approach velocity. Nothing our Kerbonauts can't handle. Lower stage spent, so Bob Kerman (Engineer) detached it for an easy entry with the heat shield. Bob always likes to press buttons.

At 100,000km, Mission control received an abrupt LOS (loss of signal) indication from the Kerbol Landing expedition.  Investigation is still on going, though early speculation says that if one is traveling 100,000 m/s it only takes 1 second to reach the ground from 100km. Which is very little time for the drag chutes to deploy. Mission planners are now stating that beyond the 12,000m/s dV needed to get into Kerbol orbit and SOI capture, the Kerbonauts would need an additional 100,000m/s of dV to slow down enough to safely land on Kerbol..... still at night of course, hate to burn up during the day. Werner Von Kerman is at the drawing board designing a spacecraft with the needed dV.......to be continued......

Edited March 14, 2023 by LeroyJenkins