Stumbling out to Duna [pics inside]

[kerbomatic]

Here's an illustrated (partial) mission report of my first trip to Duna, semi-RP style.

After visiting the Mün and Minmus, the Kerbal Space Program set its eyes on Duna, the next logical target.

Kerbal scientists had been speculating that the delta-V required to get there was not all that much more than what was needed to get to Minmus, although by how much they couldn't tell. So it was decided to assemble an expedition from two standard 'Kerbster III' general utility craft and a heavy lander that had been proven to be capable of landing on the Mün and making it back with fuel to spare. It wouldn't be able to land on Duna but perhaps it could attempt a landing on Ike.

Five brave Kerbals volunteered for this long range mission. They knew they wouldn't be back real soon. Between two capsules and the lander there was space for ten so it wasn't too cramped.

An intercept to Duna was plotted and the Poodle was fired up.

Waving goodbye to Kerbin.

This is where things took a wrong turn. Unfortunately no pictures are available - they appear to have been erased and the crew of the Duna Explorer mission refuses to tell what happened. What is known is that just after leaving the Kerbin system, a fine-tuning maneuver was planned. Due to a mix-up of the 'control from here' buttons it appears that instead of accelerating, the combined craft fired in the wrong direction. After expending several hundreds of delta-V the crew realised that Kerbin was catching up with them. The expedition entered a wide orbit just outside the Minmus orbit. At this point the Kerbal Space Center ordered the crew to come home and give up. However, during their deceleration burn the crew realized that they had a unique opportunity for a Mün slingshot out of the system. Before KSC realized what was going on the expedition was on an escape trajectory out of Kerbin again. All they heard over the radio was a quick 'Screw you guys, we're going to Duna!!'.

Needless to say their trajectory was not ideal and it took them quite a while to get there, but finally on day 213 Duna was in sight.

In the meantime, a rescue mission led by Bill, Bob and Jeb was assembled but that is a story for another day.

Getting close to Duna.

Prepare to break. Several aero-breaking simulations type 'F5/F9' were run before settling on a final approach.

Break, break, break. Since this was the first time getting into orbit around another planet, the Duna Explorer mission ended up in a polar orbit by accident. This was not going to help the expedition get into orbit around Ike, but at least they had a chance to do some extensive studying of Duna from orbit.

However, they eventually figured out a way to get to Ike anyway, needing a relatively modest amount of delta-V. This image actually shows the 'rescue' craft that will feature in the next mission report.

Orbital gymnastics.

Beauty-shot near Ike.

Made it to Ike orbit.

These last maneuvers took almost all the remaining fuel with no opportunity to land so the crew is currently pleading with KSC to send some fuel. While the Duna Explorer mission will not be the first to land outside the Kerbin system, they will go down in history as the first crew to reach Duna despite messing up majorly early in the mission.

To be continued...