Albatros. (Yes. One 's'. I assure you they knew what they were doing...)

[GarrisonChisholm]

While KASA awaited Phoenix-Duna's return, a few new aircraft were taken through development by the aerospace team, and another MUNA mission was launched- though this one to Minmus.  Muna-23 made it to orbit and waited four orbits for a transfer window.  Unfortunately Mission Control was perplexed that despite many previous visits it could not find any Minmus transfer that was less than 12 days, which even when added to SKANK time (Some Kerbals Absolutely Need snacKs) left little margin for an unforeseen glitch.  So, embarrassingly, Muna-23 was brought home and the VAB rolled up its sleeves to produce a MINA craft so that supplies would never be a problem again for Minmus excursions.  A move which was likely a couple decades overdue.

However after almost 300 days, Kerbin was in sight for the Phoenix crew.

They entered a not-quite circular orbit and after a few orbits returned to welcome seas.

Spoiler

A fortnight later the Duna Base was sent on its way-

Which according to simulations was perfectly capable of reaching the surface successfully.  With luck it would, and then the next stage of Duna exploration could continue.

Edited February 7 by GarrisonChisholm

[MSteele]

Great looking screenshots. I can't wait to get that far down the tech tree in one of my RP1 saves. Seriously. Pretty cool.

[GarrisonChisholm]

1 hour ago, MSteele said:

Great looking screenshots. I can't wait to get that far down the tech tree in one of my RP1 saves. Seriously. Pretty cool.

Thank you!  There's some shots that are just too good to pass up.  This game is beautiful, especially if you allow yourself to appreciate magnitude of Kerbalkind's experience. 

[GarrisonChisholm]

After the Muna-23 debacle Mina-1 became the 24th mission intended to visit "local body" sites.  The crew now had over 100 days of supplies, ensuring that for Kerbin-moon missions they'd no longer need to worry about duration.

Mina-23 landed at Minmus' northern pole and returned safely, after plans to visit 2 other biomes on this one flight were cancelled when unexplained instrumentation readings confounded the first attempt.

After a few months with mostly work by the Hangar team it was finally time to attempt to land the Duna Base.  First the Transit Assembly braked into an 80 by 1000km orbit.

Spoiler

Then an Apoapsis RCS burn of just 27m/s was planned that would bring the Base Complex down near Albatros III's landing objective, deep in the crux of the Eastern Canyon.

As the Base tore through the atmosphere it began to experience alignment anomalies that had not happened during simulations in the KRASH system, and so as the complex started to tumble the parachutes were fired early, which swiftly righted the descent.

The Rover was successfully jettisoned and also deployed its chutes, descending near the complex.

Spoiler

Systems were checked and it was discovered there were two points of damage after landing, firstly to the aft Power Storage battery.  This had happened in simulations and was found to be repairable, however a few minutes of monitoring did not indicate active power loss.  When the crew arrived this could hopefully be repaired.  The second point was indicated to be to a Service Bay, though actual damage could not be identified.  The rover was cautiously steered over to the complex and ground control would watch over both assets through the coming months as service flights to prepare Albatros for its return would commence in earnest.

Edited February 8 by GarrisonChisholm

[GarrisonChisholm]

While the next Duna window approaches the Hangar Team spends time integrating an experimental jet engine into a custom airframe.

Spoiler

The USC (Ultra Secret Craft of course) HIgh Bi-bYpass AFTerburning turbojet with low-profile drop-tanks managed Mach 3 supercruise at 35,000 feet and a high economy supercruise of Mach 2.3 at 26,000 feet, demonstrating promise for the engine configuration.  It is estimated the economy cruise might allow for the 6,400km circumnavigation range, though that will be left for future tests to determine.

(I have long loathed aircraft trailing afterburner flames across the sky, however a Whiplash at 20.5% thrust does not demonstrate afterburner so I've been playing with this combo)

At the same time a polar science expedition was attempted, & though the new aircraft shows phenomenal range with a 9 hour endurance, the pilot's endurance on this day could not match it so the mission will be re-flown after Albatros departs.

Which brings us to the main efforts of the KSC, loading Albatros with consumables.

Two missions were sent up with liquid hydrogen, supplies, fertilizer, and monopropellant-

- followed by the Duna Tank Assembly.

Spoiler

The link-up was successful, with the only lack being 800 units of fertilizer which would be added to the DUAL launch with the crew.

In addition however, also added to the DUAL craft would be a small radially mounted radiator which hopefully would be attached to the DUNA Complex.  Extended monitoring indicated that the DUNA base was accumulating damage from dunaquakes, so the mission plan would need to account for a return to orbit after a brief stay if repairs could not be executed.

(I have learned that scene loading does not like Ground Tethers, as each landing gear now has over 100% damage and the main storage battery is leaking >.< )

Edited February 10 by GarrisonChisholm

[GarrisonChisholm]

As efforts proceeded in preparing for Albatros IV the fervently demanded Laythe Life Orbiter arrived at its destination.  It deployed its imaging equipment as it prepared to settle into its 2-million by 100000 meter orbit.  Here the Functional Observation Containment-bay Kamera (nobody uses its acronym for some reason)  catches the first glimpse through the open aperture as it documents the functionality of the probe's equipment.

Spoiler

Back at Kerbin, it may be recalled that two missions were recently launched to top off Albatros with consumables-

A third rocket was at the same time in preparation, this one with mixed propellants storage that would join Albatros in Duna orbit and allow Ike to be orbited and landed on as well.  The Albatros Load mission platform had been built with an eye towards innovation and looking for an avenue to gain experience with methane engines, though unfortunately with a damnably squirrelly balance point.  To wit;

Spoiler

...

This was the infuriating last straw in the Albatros resupply platform, and the Program went deep into the archives to find a fail-safe remedy for Albatros 5.  However, for now it meant that Albatros IV would not be landing on Ike.

At last the time approached for Albatros' departure and the crew boarded the DUAL Lifter.

Spoiler

"60 seconds..."

The crew boarded the ship, starting up all the systems that had been shut down for many months, preparing for TDI in 40 days.

Edited February 12 by GarrisonChisholm

[GarrisonChisholm]

The Laythe Life Orbiter continued charting biomes on that magical world of almost too-familiar life while the two L3 probes waited for their chance to roll out to the clearing pads.  The astrobiologists were having a lot of meetings, and in addition to Laythe they began study groups for putting a scientist on Eve.  The Program office found out about this meeting when it was about half-way through and breaking into the cafeteria and shouting "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!" didn't accomplish what they hoped.  A study was actually ordered on an Eve lander, though non-binding as it was attached to no contracts, and from somewhere they also managed to convince someone in government to let two contracts calling for life studies on Eeloo.  This would be hard, but not nearly as hard as a crewed Eve, and so the two contracts were accepted.  After the mission was planned it was determined it would have to go perfectly to profit on the affair.  With some hesitation the mission hardware was ordered, just as the time for Albatros' Trans Duna Injection arrived.

"Go no-go for TDI."

"GUIDO."  "Go, Flight."

"GNC."  "We're go, Flight."

"EECOM."  "We're go, Flight."

"FIDO."  "We're go, Flight."

"RETRO."  "Go, Flight."

"Surgeon."  "Go, Flight."

"Ok, CAPCOM-"

"Albatros IV, this is Cape, you are go for TDI."

"Go for TDI, roger."

Spoiler

Spoiler

Albatros coasts through Kerbin's shadow, its burn complete

Albatros' burn went very well, with only a small burn needed to trim the encounter in a few months.  They were some 300 days from arrival at Duna.

Spoiler

 

Edited February 14 by GarrisonChisholm

[GarrisonChisholm]

There were only two launches in the 200 days until Albatros' trim maneuver.  Both Laythe Life Landers were launched into orbit to await their transfer windows to Jool.

Spoiler

The remaining Program activity stemmed exclusively from the Hangar Team.  Firstly that postponed arctic science study was completed, though the crew did not like the timing of their departure to the sun-angle near their first waypoint.

"Oh, hey.  I thought that was a cloud.  Nope, its a mountain."

The KSC had acquired a wide variety of aircraft, some former military, some purely experimental.  The crown jewel at the moment was their Mik-27, which had proven the utility of bi-modal flight.  The aircraft had managed a 35,000 foot dry circumnavigation at Mach 2.3 to land back where it departed with 2.2 kilograms of fuel remaining.

Spoiler

The Program had a long history of trying to push the boundaries, most notably during the test-flight of their Mik-13 almost 40 years ago, after the original Phoenix had departed for Eve.  Burvan Kerman had the craft in a shallow high-speed dive attempting to approach hypersonic speeds.  When at 10,000 feet it became clear that he wouldn't get above Mach 4.5 on this run he buried the stick pulling up.  When he regained consciousness is engines had starved and his control surfaces had very little bite, as he was on an unplanned ballistic sub-orbital trajectory.

Spoiler

So back in the present day the team managers wanted to challenge the purely air-breathing hypersonic mark of Mach 5, which had never been achieved by atmospheric power alone.  The USC-2 was designed to accomplish this, employing an almost ridiculous oversized engine.  Burvan and Sudas took the ship up, circumnavigating the globe but never getting faster than Mach 4.94, despite numerous changes in test profile.

The USC-2 sweats out its workout after a bumpy landing.

It really seemed that the excessive power could not be harnessed, so a revision to the more reasonable engine used in the Mik-13 was completed, however sim-testing showed it could never climb to even Mach 4.5, so there being no reason to rebuild the aircraft the existing airframe was broken up.  Some new things had been learned though, and so a new, cheaper way for crew to access low orbit was realized, mocked up and ordered into construction.

So with mixed results from work in airborne flight, Albatros IV reached its trim-manuever in space-flight, setting up its orbital breaking burn in about 90 days.

Edited Saturday at 04:04 PM by GarrisonChisholm

[MSteele]

Dat MiK-27! Awesome!

[GarrisonChisholm]

11 minutes ago, MSteele said:

Dat MiK-27! Awesome!

Thank you, I'm pretty proud of that.  Maybe I should do an airshow, and just park them all out and label them.

[GarrisonChisholm]

The crew of Albatros IV arrived at Duna, their landing site in view as they approached their low-orbit insertion burn.

They would now settle in for 10 days as they prepared to descend to the Eastern Canyon Complex, which would also allow the Cape to focus on getting the two Laythe Landers under way from their current LKO parking orbits.

The VAB dug into its archives and was able to provide this image of what the Albatros Launch Assembly looked like.  Quite an expensive collection of hardware, but there were now test plans for 3 other missions of similar magnitude, and one was actually under construction.

[MSteele]

Look at that mass. lol. And here I am struggling with a 6k down range rocket. 
 

edit: btw, the visuals are fantastic.

Edited Tuesday at 11:17 PM by MSteele

[GarrisonChisholm]

As the time for departure approached Wehrden and Merson climbed into the DUAL lander and went through their checklists.  Batteries engaged, mono-prop valves were opened, and the descent program uploaded.  Given the Base Complex had targeted the lander probe the same point was selected to deliver the crew.

"-decoupled."

Into the dark side of their orbit they initiated their burn.

As they came down into the Eastern Canyon it began to look like they would be going long-

Fortunately they had the rover to facilitate their travels, so when they saw the distance to the Complex would be 12km they were not terribly concerned.

Spoiler

The chutes triggered, and Wherden watched the rate of descent tumble, and seeing it fall within parameters opted to pass on a power-assisted landing.

" ...touchd- "

Spoiler

Wehrden and Merson react to a noise to their left

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:25 AM by GarrisonChisholm

[MSteele]

The suspense!

[GarrisonChisholm]

1 hour ago, MSteele said:

The suspense!

Heh.  It'll be a while to pay-off. 

 

[GarrisonChisholm]

"What's it look like?"                                                                                                                                                     Wehrden

"It's hard to tell right off- "                                                                                                                                             Merson

"- ok, the bell of 1 is compressed, ... there's quite a bit of constricted tubing."                                Merson

"Is it leaking anything?"                                                                                                                                               Wehrden

"Neg.  No frost, no discoloration."                                                                                                                             Merson

"That matches the gauges, both steady.  ...will it start?"                                                                           Wehrden

"...I don't think I'm qualified to answer that."                                                                                                       Merson

Spoiler

Merson essays the damage to their main ascent engine

 

(despite the possibilities offered by the Repair button, clicking it did nothing)

They both knew that if they reported damage they would be ordered to re-launch immediately.  If they reported an anomaly they'd be ordered to send pictures and descriptions, and then most likely re-launch immediately.  They also knew that they had Years of sustenance just 12km away, and they had trained for this mission.  They also weren't going to lie to their superiors, so when they re-keyed vox for the next 30 minutes of voice transmission they reported touchdown and that Merson found no damage to the landing legs and then swiftly went on to marveling about the view, dancing around the "unsaid" bits.  They would find out in two years if the engine would fire, after they had completed their work.

After planting the flag for DUAL-2 they called for an Uber, and with a chuckle Mission Control activated the Duna Excursion Vehicle.

The DEV's automated piloting was genuinely astonishing.  Slowly Mission Control allowed it to get faster as it proved able to make small trims without any serious yaw.  Eventually it was closing on the DUAL Lander at over 100kph, arriving in less than 10 minutes.  The stop also went a long way towards lifting trust in the machine as it drifted to a slow roll with not a hint of instability.  The crew watched the dust settle as their ride stopped just outside.

Spoiler

Given the success demonstrated by the rover driving itself over, Mission Control allowed them to continue on to the Duna Life Lander that was just 2.8 klicks away. 

Wehrden began to get a feel for the DEV's stability, and started allowing himself to have fun.  Just as the probe hove into view Merson drew a breath to caution against turning and breaking at the same time-

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

Merson rolled over in the acrid red dust and applied emergency patches to two holes in his suit, then stood up.  Wehrden had managed to stay strapped in, and had just brought up the DEV.  Merson knew he didn't need to say anything as Wehrden asked how he was doing, and just walked over to the probe.

The drill was indeed crazily mangled, but Merson could see it was just a few panels popped out of place, and just a couple minutes of work was able to repair it.  He then went about collecting data, which was more trouble than it should have been because the data storage unit wouldn't respond.  Mission Control had to ask KPL to have the probe re-run all of its experiments so that Merson could just collect the results from each experiment.  That was done in just a few minutes, and then Merson climbed back in and tied his seatbelts where the buckles had snapped before they started the long drive to their B&B.

Spoiler

Spoiler

The crew crest the last rise and see the Duna Complex before them

Home sweet home.  Wehrden carefully parked the DEV and then jumped out to get on board and begin the system start-up procedures, while Merson went straight to his rehearsed walkabout to make sure the Power Bank was repairable.  They wouldn't starve for a while at least.

Edited Wednesday at 11:17 PM by GarrisonChisholm

[GarrisonChisholm]

Merson went first to the Power Bank, and after a few minutes it was indeed able to be repaired, followed by resetting the garish RTG lights and then repairing each foundation brace.  While he worked Wehrner observed the cliff-rise to the north from the Command Cabin.

It was at this point that Merson remembered they'd brought along an extra small radiator panel to attach to the Power Bank... which was still stowed back at the lander.  He advised Wehrner where he was headed and that he'd be back in 20 minutes, to which Wehrner responded, "- in a dust storm?"

Spoiler

Merson was sure he'd be instructed to wait if they asked, so he just hopped in the DEV and headed back as the visibility varied wildly.

Once there Merson retrieved the radiator and propped it in the back seat for the drive back.

(It was too heavy for Merson to carry so I had to just weld it to a seat)

One back home Merson attached the radiator and did the last of his necessary housework before settling in for a long life-sciences stay.

Meanwhile in Orbit, Lenlas attempted to find out what the Additional Tanks Jettison should look like-

Spoiler

"...smooth as glass, Cape."

And lastly, back at the the Cape, the new orbital crew vehicle that stemmed from the hypersonic USC testing was taken on its inaugural flight.

Spoiler

It couldn't quite make it back to Island Runway 09 and had to ditch, but it did so safely and demonstrated a very inexpensive path to LKO, finally causing the Program to consider whether or not to construct a low-orbit space station.  The ensuing 2 1/2 years before Wehrner and Merson returned would be filled with cross-Duna exploration and design study meetings for an 80km permanent space station.

(I've never built a space station, so if I decide to it will be another bucket-list item checked off in this save!)