Duna North Pole Mission (permanent outpost)

[Mephane]

I had this plan for several weeks now, and decided to run my Duna North Pole Mission when 0.20 is released and I start my new safegame. Well, the time has come, I had already a satellite/probe in a polar orbit in preparation. I had my standard Small Outpost model ready, and I had a lifter* capable of getting the outpost plus interplanetary and descent stage into orbit.

(*Originally a tanker for my fuel station; and I found that the entire ship for this mission was actually even lighter than the amount of fuel the tanker regularly lifts into orbit.)

But who would have to bear the honor and burden of being only the very first Kerbals to set foot not just on Duna, but also the very first to walk around on any other planet? And if that were not enough, they would be the first Kerbals to live on another planet! The first ones to live on another planet's North Pole! A few minds at KSC were literally blown when the historic implications were finally understood.

Well, as history usually goes, the task fell to Jepediah and Raybald Kerman, by the throw of two dice.

Here is the entire launch vehicle in the VAB:

It made it to orbit smoothly, with the inner tank of the first stage ~75% full. Not surprisingly, as the lifter has been tried and tested many times already. As usual, the ship was christened only after actually being in orbit, and its name shall be remembered by history - Forever We Yearn:

Time and position was right anyway, so they used the Mun for a gravity assist, aka 'slingshot', to gain some free delta-V into a Kerbin escape trajectory:

Eventually, after months of snacks and boredom, the Forever We Yearn approached Duna. A few slight corrections were made in preparation of the polar orbit.

The ship's twin nuclear engines in action:

And finally, stable Duna polar orbit:

It took me several attempts, but eventually I managed to land the base safely and surprisingly close to the North Pole. I know it would have been easier with MechJeb, but the sense of accomplishment was much greater this way. At the right edge of the image are Jepediah Kerman and the flag he planted at the North Pole:

Indeed, it had come down only 182.9m shy of the North Pole:

Jepediah, standing proud before the flag:

He was also very proud of his wisdom, which he expressed when standing on the North Pole and inscribing the plaque:

P.S.: A few notes for Squad:

- Near the North Pole, it is almost impossible for Kerbals to walk in a straight line. Apparently the constantly rotating coordinate system is used to determine their direction, thus Jepediah looked as if he were drunk when marching from the base to the pole.

- When standing precisely on the pole, he falls over, and the camera jolts violently, sometimes even briefly looking out from unter the terrain. Jepediah actually stands about half a meter away from the pole on the images, and the flag itself is about a Kerbal foot away from it.

- Due to the rotating coordinate system, it was extremely tedius to plant the flag this close to the pole, as Jepediah would always turn around by a quite unpredictable amount, often planting the flag further away from the pole.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Mephane

[minerman30]

Awesome, but one thing:

JEPEDIAH!?!?!?!?!

[Astrobug]

This is such a well done mission, I'm in awe.

And that flag. You have earned much respect from me, sir.

[Mephane]

This is such a well done mission, I'm in awe.

And that flag. You have earned much respect from me, sir.

The flag is the logo from the old Lego "Futuron" series which I remember fondly from my childhood, I merely googled it for use in 0.20.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Mephane

[Venerator]

Do you think I could get the craft file?

[Mephane]

Mediafire seems to bug out on me constantly today, so all I got is this crappy download link here (click the file name at the top).

Be advised that you need to do a hybrid parachute/powered descent using the nuclear engines (atmosphere efficiency doesn't matter at this point any more), and stop the engines and drop their stage only after the parachutes have fully deployed, otherwise the sudden surge of force will rip the base off the parachute block*. After that, the small radial engines at the top activate and you need to use those to further slow down your descent for a smooth touchdown.

When the base is landed, just activate the final stage, and the parachute block will be launched off into oblivion (and crash down somewhere too far away to even be see or heard).

Launch from Kerbin on the other hand is easy, just do a continuous gravity turn starting at ~10-12km. Oh and double-tap 0 on the keyboard to turn off gimbals on the outer asparagus engines before you take off.

*Strutting would most likely prevent that, but I wanted to go down in a rather steep angle in order to land as precisely as possible. If the precise landing site does not matter, I suppose adding a few struts between the outpost and the parachute block and then doing a long aerobreak should work. The small radial engines should still be used to slow down before touchdown, however.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Mephane