The Duna Files- The Adventures of Professor Nedmin and Commander Tedly

[Socraticat]

Socraticatic Space Industries has a contract with Donuts, Coffee, and Gas Inc. to find wicked cool spots for gas stations, condos, and a chain of Coffee and Donut Shops.

Commander Tedly was hired for his determination to further his career and his excellent piloting skills.

Professor Nedmin was the only scientist that didn't currently have a cat to feed at home, and was therefore available for long trips.

 

Before continuing on this journey the Duna Duo will need to fulfull contractual exploration milestones and boring S.O.P.s for location acquisition.

[BechMeister]

The production quality of this is Insane! Nice narration x) Kerbals sure are made of sturdy stuff - I would go nuts in such a confined space for that long.

Could you share some screenshots of the lander/rover you just put down?

[Socraticat]

Thank you for the kind words!

I like to think of Kerbals as metabolically immortal and constantly entertained by the mere thought of existence, with exploration and building as their preferred hobbies and second preferred deep thought. I feel bad whenever I leave one on a planet alone, but whenever I come back years later, they still smile... it's a bit unnerving, but to each their own. 

7 hours ago, BechMeister said:

Could you share some screenshots of the lander/rover you just put down?

Absolutely.

First are a couple of shots from the video. The "Lift" is built to lift anything that fits and balances between the two pylons. I think the rover weighs 1 ton? It was designed to be able to deliver a rover to Duna and return to Duna's orbit with only the Kerbals onboard. From a previous excursion to Duna (the monument mission) it was decided that Duna should be treated as "Pretending to have an atmosphere", therefore the lift was designed to land on a "very large moon". The great thing about this design is that on any smaller moon the rover and lift work in tandem as a really cool biome hopper, and the docking capabilities allow it to refuel with the interplanetary transport vessel waiting in orbit that holds a very large methalox reserve.

This second shot is also from the video and gives a peek of the undercarriage.  Blueprint view in the VAB was my best friend in lining everything up. I really enjoy that feature.  The bottoms of the pylons are radial attach points, I think. Something from the prior launch system. It looks cleaner than the tank alone and may prove useful later down the line, so it stays.

Undocking requires the use of the small reaction wheel installed with the docking port. There are three stabilizers alogether- 2 extra small stabilizers symmetrically opposed to the central small stabilizer. The small stabilizer is set to toggle on an action group and is manual only while the other two are set to SAS only. It's a great way to stabilize the rover for long journeys and I'm quite sure I can circumnavigate Ike at 10-15m/s with the design. The thrusters are required to redock on Duna. The tolerances for rolling over are just a little tight, and the gravity a bit too high.

 

Commander Tedly and Professor Nedmin are discussing options on where to go next. Nedmin says North and wants to conserve fuel. Tedly wants to gas it up and go explore some Volcanoes. The rover is indifferent and HQ is on holiday for 48 hours, so It's a good thing they have a good spot for conversation.

[BechMeister]

26 minutes ago, Socraticat said:

they still smile... it's a bit unnerving, but to each their own. 

This comment made me chuckle xD - I guess I am not yet deep enough into the Kerbal hole x) But yeah.. solo missions seems cruel. 

UH! your usage of Clamp-O-Tron on the "jet pack" is very smart! Definetly going to borrow that for my future missions - also your light layout on the rover looks nice. I think it can be hard to get headlights to look good.

Edited March 15 by BechMeister