Starfighters on the Mun. An atypical rescue mission. (Pic heavy)

[Tw1]

 

Part 1

Any Landing you can walk away from...

Rescue missions tend to be some of the most interesting out there. And when you do it with not-quite-conventional ships.. well, let me let you a story.

I decided to build myself a starfighter.

After a fair amount of tinkering in the SPH, this is what I produced:

*not final design

**flown under hack gravity

I call it the " - Wing Starfighter" (Or Dash Wing.) Like an X wing, it's the shape, you see?

Naturally, after a quick raid on airstrip island, it was time to test it on the Mun.

Skimming low over the surface of the Mun in an experimental, unconventional spaceship?

Sounds like a Job for Jeb!

Ever enthusiastic, Jeb relished the challenge of flying in Very Low Mun Orbit. He almost flew under a mun arch. He accidentally overheated the laserguns. He dropped explosives too, leaving them in orbit.

Satisfied with his ship's performance, Jeb decided to attempt a landing.

Using the efficient nuke engine for the long deceleration burn, Jeb maintained altitude with the vertical thrusters.

He slowed down, but then:

Opps.

But, Jeb was fine.

As is frequently said, any landing you can walk away from...

And we were on the Mun! Jeb hasn't been to the Mun for ages.

But, looks like he'll be there for a while.

Bob was sent up for another test flight. He did several low passes over Jeb, but did not land. The starfighter has only got the one seat after all. Bob was then instructed to do some observations and 'experiments'.

To be honest, I too would be worried if instructed to fire lasers at my home planet. Bob then returned home safely.

The first rescue attempt would be Bill's task.

For this, the starfighter was modified with an external seat. Bob flew from Kerbin under hack gravity, into another very low orbit. Then Bill attempted the first EVA in VLMO. Here he is, only a few Ks up, and moving at over 500 meters per second.

But it came time to pick up Jeb. As Jeb had done previously, Bill turned retro and began his breaking burn.

But wait, what?

Bill!

Jeb was back there! We'll have to stop, then fly back towards Jeb, then try to land again. I hope we've got the delta V.

But then, Bill glanced at the radar. 24.5 meters above terrain, and falling. Bill went to engage the VTOL thrust, but his ship began to roll.

It was too late!

Bill! Get outta there!

But wait!

Bill: "I'm alive! Repeat, I'm alive! And I'm standing, on the flippin' Mun!!"

(Oh yeah. Bill hasn't actually made it to the Mun before.)

His ship is now in tiny pieces, he's 30km away from his target, but won't stop smiling like a maniac. So glad to be alive.

So, I now have two kerbals stranded on the far side of the Mun. Looks like Landing from VLMO is a bad idea.

We need a Kerbal who will play it safe, and get the others home. One who has already landed a dash wing safely.

Err, um.... Well, he got back to Kerbin, Ok?

Tune in next time, for a Job for Bob!

Edited December 17, 2015 by Tw1

[Tw1]

Part 2

Bob's rescue mission

A Special Dash-Wing, the "Land-o-matic" was commissioned for the task. It had everything the previous ones had, and a little more - Landing legs! That might help.

Also, seats for Bill and Jeb. The lasers and large RTGs were striped off to save weight, they would not be necessary for this mission.

Bob stepped up to the plate with enthusiasm.

Bill Kerman (To Bob, and the KSC): "My landing failed because of a number of problems. It was dark, and dark landings from VLMO are extra dangerous because you pass close to the varied terrain, and need to accommodate that. To land the ship safely, I recommend a landing from a higher orbit. Rotate to land with the vertical thrust after killing most of the velocity with the main engine. Then landing should be fine."

Bob: "Ok then, I'll do that. Be with you soon.

Bill: "Be quick mate. We've only got so much air up here."

Launch was again done with witchcraft under hack gravity, as I didn't feel like making a launch vehicle that day. Flying to orbit this way really shows how much the atmosphere slows you down. It didn't take much speed to get an apoapsis of a few hundred Km, but soon after cutting the throttle, drag pulls it back down. To ascend properly, the engine must be left on just a fraction.

The orbit you achieve around the Mun is so close to elliptical, it looks crazy when mapped from Kerbin's SOI.

Entering the Mun's SOI marked an end to the hack gravity. Bob did the standard burn at periapsis to enter into Mun Orbit.

Taking Bill's advice, Bob planed a fairly steep descent trajectory. He doesn't trust that mechjeb autopilot.

*not final trajectory.

**May not be efficient, but it works.

One deorbit burn and one breaking burn later, Bob flips the vessel to descend on the vertical thrusters.

But we're coming down over the mountain! This craft won't survive much of a slope.

Flicking on the LV-N for just a moment, Bob burned towards Jeb. He did not want this landing to fail.

The ground was still sloped, but it was not too extreme. Bob popped out the landing legs, ready for touch down. "The Mun is beautiful," thought Bob, peering out the window. Then, Thump! The legs hit the ground... and bounced. The starfighter started to tip...

Quick! RSC on, rotate in opposite direction.. then, in a moment of quick thinking, Bob pulled in the landing legs. This gave extra time to straighten up, and helped the Dash-Wing sit flat on the ground....

Looks like legs weren't needed after all..

We made it! Yes! Mostly intact. But something fell off during that landing, Bob could feel it. He'd have to check for damage.

But, excited to finally be on the Mun, Bob leapt from his spacecraft, not bothering with the ladder.

Jeb was pretty excited too. Bob was here! He flew straight over.

Jeb: "Bob! You're here! Awesome! And you didn't crash?!"

Bob: "I lost one life support tank, and an RTG, so-"

Jeb: "Doesn't matter! She (the ship) looks good!"

It was still dark where Bill had landed, and in the interest of landing safely, Jeb and Bob decided to wait and watch the Sunrise.

Well, mainly they just wanted to watch the sunrise.

It was a good sunrise.

And then it was time to go get Bill!

To Bill, and return

The crash had knocked off one life support tank, and one RTG. This made the starfighter unbalanced. Problem.

Jeb: "We've got to get rid of the other. The ship will be unbalanced, and we both know what happens when spacecraft are unbalanced."

Bob: "But that's our only source of power! And oxygen."

Jeb: "There's enough oxygen to last the trip home in the cockpit's tank, as for electricity, that's what batteries are for. It's got to come off."

Bob gives in.

Bob: "Ok then."

Jeb: "Whew! That was good!"

Bob: "Where's the ship going!?!"

It made a kind of wobbly walk down to the bottom of the slope.

Jeb: "I'll get it!"

As soon as Jeb sat in the seat, the starfighter stopped bucking. It clearly new better than to buck him off. Or did it?

Jeb: "Bob! It's all good! Come down!"

Jeb: "Just one thing. Can we go to my ship first?"

Bob: "But your ship is in the other direction. Why?"

Jeb: "I've got a little something. My ship is still half full, and we're gonna need all the fuel we can get if we're gonna rescue Bill and get home again."

Bob: "Ok, good idea. We will go to your ship first."

Jeb: " ..... Can I do the flying?"

Jeb: "Awesome."

The trick to flying this thing over short hops is to fly it the same way you use the jetpack: bursts of thrust to accelerate forwards, then bursts from the vertical thrust to stay up. Retro thrusters are used to stop and land.

They arrived at Jeb's ship a short time later.

Jeb: "Back in a minute."

When Jeb says that, most kerbals know better than to question. What is Jeb going to do?

"Where did that come from?" asked an overjoyed Bob. He'd heard of Jeb's mysterious ability to transport large objects, but was so glad to see a KAS cable, and not an SRB.

And so began the tricky business of exchanging fuel between two ships 200 meters apart.

They filled the batteries, and the cockpit oxygen tank as well.

While Bob was handling the fuel management, Jeb planted a flag in honour of the rescue mission.

Bob: "All done. We can now pick up Bill and head home."

Jeb wanted to see the landing legs. He popped them out before take off, just because he could.

Jeb: "Man, Bill really made a mess of that spaceship. Glad he survived."

Bob: "Yeah-"

Jeb: "You could see the explosion from my ship! It was fantastic!"

Bob: "Yeah, uh, Jeb? Should'n you be doing the breaking burn? We're going to overshoot."

Jeb: "Don't worry, I've got this."

They set the ship down at the edge of Bill's debris field.

Jeb: "Bill we're here! Get yourself over here!"

Not wanting to waste any time, Bill did exactly that:

Three kerbals. Check. One working spaceship. Check. We're ready to go home!

Edited August 30, 2013 by Tw1

[Tw1]

Part 3

Return from the Mun. (Yes, finally.)

Bob: "Um, guys, we have a problem. The engineer chip and mechjeb both say we have only 650 m/s of delta V left."

Jeb frowns. "Hmm, may have to meet a tanker in orbit."

Bill: "We should have enough. Those computers use the average ISP. With the LV-N alone, we should have twice that. 1300 m/s. Should be plenty."

Bob. "Just as well. As it is, we barely have time to get back to Kerbin before the CO2 scrubbers fail. We can extend the time with the suit filters, but it is going to be a close one."

Jeb: "Well, we'd better get going then! What are we waiting for!"

I use the Ironcross life support mod, so death due to high CO2 levels is certainly a possibility. But this did not stop the big three enjoying one of the most beautiful Munar ascents I've had.

Enjoy.

They had one orbit to complete before that main Mun escape burn

Just before the burn, Bob noticed something.

Bob: "Guys, the air scrubbers have failed. We're relying on the suits for air and life support."

Jeb was totally unfazed. Bill, not so much. Scrounging for power, it would be a long, cold trip for our brave kerbalnauts

The return journey continues.

Reentry and landing!

Bill (Reporting to KSC): We have entered the atmosphere, and aerobraking has commenced. Over"

KSC: "Sounds good Bill! Looking forward to having you all back safe and sound soon. Over and out."

Bob: "I'm looking forward to getting out of this cold ship, and back to warm Kerbin."

Bill: "Well, we're going to be warm in a minute, that's guaranteed. "

Jeb: "Hell Yeah."

Bob. " You guys know what I mean. ."

Jeb : "I Can feel the warmth already!"

Bob: "How are you guys holding up outside? It's pretty warm in here."

Bill: "It's very hot, but but tolerable. We'll need to recover before-

Jeb: " This is intense! My skin is burning! THIS IS INTENSE!"

Eventually, the starfighter began to rise, rather than fall, returning to space in a much less eccentric orbit.

Bill: "Um, Bob, we have a problem. Something wrong with the seats."

Bill: "Jeb and I are stuck. We're still held in, but can't reach the controls. And the oxygen supply pipe is disconnected.

Bob looks at them through the camera.

Bob: "Ok, that is not Good. I am landing this thing right away. "

Fortunately, they were right over a large continent. The Dash Wing does not tolerate water landings very well.

Soon enough, the flames of reentry returned.

Parachute time!

Suddenly:

Jeb: "My seat restraint is broken! I'm holding on for dear life! :D"

Bob: "Oh No!"

Bill: "Bob! Is there anything you can to soften the landing? Jeb might not survive full parachute deployment."

Bob: "I'm trying!"

Bob desperately fires the retro thrust, and the vertical thrust, hoping they'll slow the ship somewhat. He does his best to keep the ship level.

Bob: "We're out of fuel! Bracing for full deployment! Hold on Jeb!"

Jeb: "I'm in the air! I'm flying!

Bob: "JEB!" :0.0:

Jeb, now loose from his seat, flew through the air, as Bill watches in horror. Then suddenly,

"Thump"

Jeb: "It's all good! I'm back on board."

Bill: "That was a close one."

The starfighter continues on its path towards the ground. Then finally:

Minus one LV-N and spotlight.

We made it! We're back!

Oh, Jeb.

And that was that. Our intrepid trio posed for the media and rescue crew, (and didn't move until they came around to the right angle), then were returned home to their families, safe.

And thanks to their efforts, and that of Sidtrey the parachute tester, Kerbality has a starfighter with which they will hold their planet from all who would take it from them, and defend themselves from the alien threats that totally exist, btw. #Sarcasm

I did eventually make a launch vehicle!

And that's

The End.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Tw1

[bgraves]

That was fantastic. Great job.

[Tw1]

That was fantastic. Great job.

Thank you! I'm quite pleased with it.

Though I think some of my gifs are too fast. I'm still new to making them.

[Odo]

Nice! I've never been in a nasty situation where I need to send a rescue mission before. I hope I get it one eventually, it looks fun and overly complicated

[The Jedi Master]

I love it! The Spongebob time cards really complete the whole feeling of the story.

[Geschosskopf]

Simply and amazingly epic job there, man.

[Tw1]

The Spongebob time cards really complete the whole feeling of the story.

I tend to read them in that narrator's voice. *french accent* "Three hours later.."

I think it helps keep you in the characters world, rather than the players: "Then I timewarped for 5 seconds."

Glad you guys are all enjoying it. It was a pretty fun mission to do. Those three make a good team.

[Tw1]

I just remembered I had this album of all the pics.

They're a little out of order, and there are a few that are here that got cut from the final story, but someone might like to see them.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited July 21, 2013 by Tw1

[Sesni]

Liked that.

[Tw1]

If nobody minds, I'll put this link here.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/45604-Going-to-space-With-a-Mass-Driver-A-small-adventure

Looking through stuff I'd written a while ago, it seemed like it worked as a sequel, so I'm putting it in for easy access.

I like reading older stories again from time to time.

[KASASpace]

Not half bad. Actually, not 3/4 bad, or should it 1/4 bad? Whatever. Good job, though. I don't use mods as much, however.