Mission to Minmus

[JakeGrey]

(Cross-posted from the KSP thread in SpaceBattles)

I'm not sure how, but I completely banjaxed my KSP install a few days ago and had to start from scratch. As a result, I pulled off a Mun landing without stranding the crew and blowing up several rockets trying to get a rescue boat out there with my second launch in the file! Bouyed by this success, I set out to conduct a Minmus landing, and this time I thought to take pictures.

This is the Pioneer 3, made with nearly all stock parts except for the Perfectron separators -which turned out to be a bit of a letdown, I'm sad to say- the Quad-coupler that I think is from KSPX and MechJeb. (Hey, if it's good enough for NASA...) I doubled up the boosters on an experimental basis for this flight, which might not have been such a great idea...

Liftoff!

That wasn't meant to happen!

It took me a couple more launches to figure out how, but in the course of jettisonning the booster stage, all four tailfins got ripped off; I've since resolved this issue by moving the detachment point further up the rocket body and fitting good old-fashiooned Separatrons. Jeb didn't appear to notice, and Pioneer 3 made it through the gravity turn without difficulty in spite of the only steerage power coming from the capsule's onboard gyros.

First stage away, RCS thrusters engaged. They were less than helpful, to be honest; I'm hoping RCS Build Aid will help me fix this for a future model.

Anyway, the transfer to Minmus was uneventful...

But it did offer some dramatic photo opportunities. Also, notice the landing gear deployed well before I needed it, because I'd messed up the relevant action group somehow and decided to leave it deployed rather than fiddle about trying to right-click the relevant part on final approach.

Second stage away! The handling improved noticeably afterwards.

Final approach...

... and touchdown!

Jeb watches the sun rise on Minmus.

Mission Control feels the same way, pal.

The flag didn't come out terribly well, but Jeb's ****-eatin' grin did. I can live with that.

He already got a plateau named after himself on the Mun, so I thought it was his faithful steed's turn.

(Several pictures of Jebediah using his EVA thrusters as a jetpack and falling over a lot redacted at the request of his lawyers.)

Well, we got all our soil and rock samples so we can hopefully figure out just what the hell Minmus is made of, let's head home.

Orbit is ridiculously easy on Minmus; I think I could have done it with the thruster pack. (I'm not going to test this theory, though, at least not with Jeb!)

The return trip was uneventful until the deorbit burn...

Pioneer 3 ran out of fuel mid-course correction, at which point the capsule began spinning in several directions at once and resisted all efforts to correct it. Jeb was having tremendous fun throughout.

Reentry...

Chute deployed...

Good chute! Break out the bubbly!

Jeb reluctantly poses for one more photo before stuffing his suit and helmet back in the capsule and hiking to the nearest truck stop to call a cab.

Additional pics here.

[Scotius]

Good mission Couple of things. Even when you lost control surfaces, you could still maneuver with engines gimballing. Long and slim rockets are hard to turn in KSP - you need more than 2 rings of RCS blocks to exert enough force. I recommend 'Actions on the fly' mod/plugin - it allows the user to fiddle with Action Groups outside of VAB, which help tremendously.

[Brotoro]

Good job. You may want to be careful about flying around with those medium landing legs deployed... I've had them twitch themselves loose from ships during time warps if the legs were extended.

[JakeGrey]

@Scotius: In theory, yes, but the first stage was all LV-T30s. And "Actions on the Fly" sounds pretty useful, I'll look it up.

@Brotoro: Haven't run across that issue myself, but thanks for the heads-up.

[DMagic]

You don't need action groups for landing legs, at least if you only have one set of them. Just push 'G', it's set as a permanent action group for landing legs.

And it's always a good idea to have at least on gimballing engine on your first stage. Control surfaces only work well in the lower atmosphere, during most of your ascent you will probably be reliant on other methods for turning.

[JakeGrey]

You don't need action groups for landing legs, at least if you only have one set of them. Just push 'G', it's set as a permanent action group for landing legs.

And it's always a good idea to have at least on gimballing engine on your first stage. Control surfaces only work well in the lower atmosphere, during most of your ascent you will probably be reliant on other methods for turning.

Noted. I solved the lack-of-gimbals problem in a very Kerbal fashion by strapping a quartet of Mk55s on in addition to the LV-T30s, but further testing is postoponed until my new AC unit arrives.

[DMagic]

Eww, Mark 55's are best avoided unless they are absolutely necessary. Do you have very low TWR? Because unless you are just barely lifting off, it would be better to just replace the LV-T30's with T45's, or maybe 2 T30's and 2T45's

[jwenting]

You don't need action groups for landing legs, at least if you only have one set of them. Just push 'G', it's set as a permanent action group for landing legs.

That's supposed to work, but in my experience it's unreliable. Same with the gear button on top of the screen, 50/50 whether it works or not to control the gear.

Strangely the lights button does seem 100% reliable.

[JakeGrey]

Eww, Mark 55's are best avoided unless they are absolutely necessary. Do you have very low TWR? Because unless you are just barely lifting off, it would be better to just replace the LV-T30's with T45's, or maybe 2 T30's and 2T45's

Can't tell you the TWR off-hand (I haven't got around to reinstalling Kerbal Engineer yet), but I want to use the basic deign to lift bits of space station into orbit at some point so the higher the better. Besides, the Mk55s haven't got to do much except steer, and then only if I need to start my gravity turn above 7km.