"Per Aspera Ad Astra" - A KSP Mission Report

[TheKrakenHerder]

Hey! Some of you may know me, some of you may not. I've been on these forums for a while, and I always wanted to do a mission report, but wasn't really sure what to do it on. At the same time, I always wanted to do a big Artemis-style "Mun-to-Duna" program, but I'd always run out of motivation. Putting them together, I decided that writing a mission report would give me the motivation I needed to do what I want. Without further ado, I give you

Per Aspera Ad Astra

Background:

The report will be split into two parts. Part 1, "Per Aspera" will focus on the return to the Mun. Part 2, "Ad Astra", will focus on the exploration of Duna. 

The space agency this report focuses on is called KASA, and it's the national space agency of the Kerbal States. They went to the Mun with an Apollo-style program, but haven't returned since. Their main focus now is Space Station Harmony (Kerbal equivalent of the ISS), cooperating with Roskerbmos, the space agency of the Rusk Federal Union. 

First Post Later Today!

[TheKrakenHerder]

Prologue

Kerbolev Cosmodrome, Rusk Federal Union, 12:38 PM, 21/3/2011

The two technicians sighed. It had been a long day preparing the Baikal for launch, and they took a short break to make small talk.

"Cold day today."
"Aye. She'll be fine though. I hope..."

"Nothing left to do but pump the fuel, let's get a drink."

Walking off to the break room, they both failed to notice the frozen fuel duct on the core stage was cracking slightly.

 

Baikal Capsule, Harmony Expedition 39, 22,342 meters above Kerbin

 

Adlo Kerman wasn't even bothered by the shaky ascent. He was euphoric. After years of training, clawing his way into the KASA astronaut corps, getting his engineering degree, education, he was going to Harmony. 

A request for a status update brought him back to reality.

"Control, this is 39, altitude 25,000 meters. Trajectory's good, fuel gauges might be a little off though."
"Copy Baikal, we're seeing the fuel issue as w...."
A bright flash outside the spacecraft distracted hi-

Launch Control Bunker, Kerbolev Cosmodrome

"Flight, telemetry's out."

"Probably just a bad transmitter."
"Sir, the last telemetry shows a massive leakage of fuel, before immediately cutting out."

"..."

"Flight, the Admiral Kermanov reports debris falling onto the coast. Visual observation suggests they're pieces from the Baikal core stage, with some assorted parts from the capsule."
 

"...Lock the doors..."

* * *

The recovery teams arrived at the crash site, hoping not to find what they already knew they would.

Doodny, the engineer of the team, stepped out of his jeep to survey the damage.
"Oh man..."

To Be Continued...

Edited April 2, 2023 by TheKrakenHerder
Forgot to clarify something.

[TheKrakenHerder]

Chapter 1

Doodny hated the administration building. He hated having to walk inside, smile at the receptionists, knock on the door marked "Expedition 39 Accident Investigation Board", with the KASA and Roskerbmos logos on it, and hated having to stand in front of the committee to explain why a KASA astronaut was dead.

He had spent the whole previous night in his home in Von Kerman Village (the small village built by KASA to house personnel), putting together this presentation. But it was worth it. His blood boiled at the thought that this was all preventable.

When Doodny opened the door to enter the meeting room, he found the KASA and Roskerbmos representatives about to brawl.

"How the hell did you morons let this happen?!" shouted one of the KASA reps.

"We checked every rivet, bolt, and screw. It wasn't us."
"Well, clearly you didn't!"

"Hey! Cool it!" said Doodny.
 

"Alright." he said, taking his place behind the lectern at the front of the room. "Now that I have your attention, let's start the presentation."

A grainy black and white picture came up on the screen at the front of the room.
"This is the last frame of the footage of Expedition 39, taken by a high-speed camera."

It was difficult to make out, but it seemed to show plumes of fuel erupting from all over the vehicle, eliciting audible gasps from the committee.
"Now, if you don't mind," Doodny continued, "I'd like to give a little demonstration of what happened. You'll notice the model booster over here, filled with a gas mimicking the characteristics of Baikal's liquid fuel. 

"I took the liberty of pouring coolant over the model, so you can see the ice form on it. You'll also notice that said ice is, for want of a better phrase, falling to pieces."
"If we trigger the model injector pumps in here..."
Suddenly, sparks erupted from all sides of the booster.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think you get my point. This was a very preventable failure caused exclusively by gross negligence."

The KASA side's chairman spoke up. "We agree, Doodny."
"It's become disturbingly clear that Baikal is, as of now, unsafe. Therefore, I will be recommending to Kongress and Greenhill that all KASA contracts involving Baikal, including Harmony expeditions, be immediately pulle..." He was drowned out by the shouts of protest from the Roskerbmos side.
 

As the committee went back to arguing, Doodny just walked out to his car. Driving back to Von Kerman Village, a truck parked at the KSC caught his eye. Or rather, the logo on it did.

"Korbital Industries...huh..."
As the HSS silently sped overhead, an idea formed in Doodny's mind...

To Be Continued...

Edited April 2, 2023 by TheKrakenHerder
Fixed a few things

[TheKrakenHerder]

Hey! So, these first few chapters will be more story-focused and will mainly center on Doodny spearheading a commercial crew program. Once we get those done I'll focus more on the missions.

Edited April 2, 2023 by TheKrakenHerder

[TheKrakenHerder]

Chapter 2

Harmony Space Station, 300 kilometers above Kerbin, 27/3/2011

As Bill stared at Kerbin, transfixed, the radio crackled to life, bringing him back to reality.

"Bill, time to come in. Control wants to talk to all of us."
Bill stole one last glance at Kerbin's glittering seas before jetting over to the airlock.

Once the crew had all gathered in Kopernicus, the Kerbal States hab module, mission control relayed the bad news that the crew was expecting; They would not be coming home as planned.

"If KASA's done with Baikal, how are we going to get home?"

"We'll need a resupply, that's for sure."

Bill floated out of Kopernicus, over to the Service Module. His buddy Doodny wanted to talk. Something about this company "Korbital Industries".

As Bill listened to Doodny's idea, he immediately knew how they were getting home.

Korbital Industries "Dunes Spaceport", 28/3/2011

Doodny was hot, tired, and wondering where he was.

After pitching his idea and getting KASA's blessing, he had spent the previous night repeatedly calling the CEO of Korbital, but getting stonewalled. Yet when he came into work the next morning, there was a sleek private jet with the Korbital logo on it idling on the runway. He was told that he needed to come with them, and they wouldn't take no for an answer.

After a long flight, the plane landed at a small facility in the deserts. They hadn't told him where it was, but he suspected he wasn't even on the same continent anymore.

As soon as he descended the airstairs, he found a man waiting for him with a jeep.

"Welcome to Dunes Spaceport! I trust you had a comfortable flight?"

"Uhm. Yeah, thanks. If you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

"My name is Kirk Kerman, but please, call me Kirk. I'm the CEO of Korbital. You called my office quite a few times last night."

"This is our state of the art launch facility. Would you follow me please?"

Speechless, Doodny followed him into the jeep.

"So, why all the cloak-and-dagger?"

"Well, as one of Kerbin's first private launch providers, we need to be able to test our proprietary technology. Out here is the perfect place."

Kirk didn't tell him any more than that, but Doodny spotted a few buildings himself, including what looked like a horizontal assembly building.

When they reached the offices, Doodny stood in the lobby for a moment to appreciate being in a building with air conditioning.

"Please, step into my office." said Kirk.

Doodny began his pitch.

"Mr. Kerman, I understand your company has a contract with KASA to resupply HSS using your Kirbani spacecraft

"Mhm, of course. We launch it from here using our Kappa launch vehicle".
"And, you of course understand we have four astronauts on HSS with no way to get home."
"Indeed."

"Well, I'll get to the point." said Doodny. "I've been instructed by KASA to contact you to find out; Can you modify a Kirbani cargo pod into a reentry capsule for our astronauts?"

Kirk thought about it for just a moment, then got up and extended his hand.

"I'd be happy to help."

To Be Continued...

Edited April 3, 2023 by TheKrakenHerder

[TheKrakenHerder]

Would like to also inform people that real missions, when they happen, will not be written from the perspective of characters.

[TheKrakenHerder]

Currently on hold while I play with JNSQ and think of where I want the story to go, will return.

[TheKrakenHerder]

Hey everyone, so this report is cancelled, however this is not the end.
I decided that writing a story-based report isn't really what I wanted to do with this. Rather, I'm going to create a new thread and write about my Artemis-style program from my perspective rather than the perspective of Kerbals.
See you soon! 

[TheKrakenHerder]