(Jan 25) Jool V - the hardest mission I've ever done...

[FTLparachute]

16 hours ago, Kerbalsaurus said:

The Tardigrades are so goofy looking, I love them.

Just wait until you see how I reset the science experiments - that is much stupider.

[FTLparachute]

Y3 D170ish - Laythe, Part 2

Spoiler

Waited a couple of orbits until we were aligned with Feynman Base again - annoyingly this put us in an eclipse.

T1a undocks from the J6 - every Laythe module has been detached now, and the J6 can now commence more detailed studies of Laythe's surface.

Descent took a few attempts, as I needed to do a precision landing on the north side of the island - the T1s cannot go uphill very easily.

Landed successfully, but a drive is needed to reach Feynman Base. Shortish, though.

Eclipse now over and J6 in range, the journey can commence.

The rover is (big shocker) very top heavy at speed, very prone to flipping at speed and goes down hill very fast. The brakes are needed to stop the craft from breaking itself.

Interesting geological feature.

Soon, the T1a was at Feynman Base. However, Bill needed to readjust the Scanning Arm, as it was bent too far down to properly scan any features.

No luck, as Laythe's gravity is too high to reorient it. This is a solvable problem - it just means a second landing will be needed.

As for the J6, it stays in orbit for a few more days surveying for the Tripoint between Crater Bay, the Shallows and the Sagen Sea. Once this is done, an orbit is set for better Comnet linkage with the T1a.

However, once reaching this orbit, I realized that I only had 1 set of deployables on the GTT. This meant I could only get their science from 1 of Vall, Pol or Bop. While this is the first science loss of the mission, it also means that Bill is not needed for the Pol and Bop landings. Therefore, the J6 begins to set out for Pol refuelling, with Bob doing a solo run of Bop, then Pol, with the GTT.

But the T1a is ready for its expedition...