UKS MASEC Mission Logs [Picture Heavy] | UPDATE: Back in business, again!

[Scotius]

Congrats Have fun at post-ceremony party

[Cashen]

Finally, the big day is here!

Project Osiris Phase 1 Arrives at Laythe

Amphion and its tug are the first to arrive at Laythe. Since it's the last component that will dock to the completed station, it'll just place itself in a parking orbit and wait.

All of the craft plot direct encounters with Laythe, bypassing Jool. In most cases, such as this one, the Laythe encounter is plotted to occur at Jool periapsis, with the hyperbolic trajectory running tangent to Laythe's orbit.

The station core is the next to arrive, which is the first building block.

Realistically, a space station would not be able to survive this, but whatever. I'm sure eventually Squad will introduce re-entry damage effects, but until then, enjoy the light show.

The orbit chosen for Laythe Station is higher than other stations: 250km. This is done to give the station a better view of Laythe at more latitudes than a lower orbit would. It also allows me 1000x time warp, which can be handy.

Next to arrive are the crew, actually, having completed the longest and by far furthest journey of any Kerbals to date. Even with the accelerated non-optimal transfer, the trip took more than twice as long as the trip to Duna did.

Milke Kerman's view. Out the left window, he can see one of the Flying Foxes, with Jool in the background. Out the front window, part of NAMLARV, with Laythe's northern latitudes visible.

Milgas Kerman, in the right seat, looking out during the fantastically bright aerobraking.

Milke climbs through the docking node and into NAMLARV, and the entire assembly, with the two spaceplanes still affixed, will dock as one unit to the station. The Interplanetary Exploration Vehicle will then dock alongside. Welcome to your new home, guys.

The lights are on and the guys get settled in. The first several days are spent waiting for the station assembly to finish.

The lander and refueler are the next to arrive. Their trajectory isn't as ideal, and takes them to about 200km above Jool (shown here) before meeting Laythe on the other side.

A view of Jool and Laythe after the lander and refueler complete their aerocapture and wait for a chance to rendezvous.

The last piece of the puzzle is the service module, which arrives on the standard tangential trajectory, shown here with Jool, Tylo and Vall in the background.

Once arrived, the service module tug has some work to do. First, the truss module must be docked to the station. Then, the two tank modules docked on either side of the truss.

The completed station, with Amphion docked to the fuel module. Both tugs have since moved away into slightly different orbits using their RCS. All available fuel has been moved into the Amphion tug.

Fuel is critically short, however. This is something that wasn't fully planned for, but only about 5600L of fuel (plus however much oxidizer goes with it) is available for use right now. This isn't enough to fill Amphion's tug. So, the first order of business is going to Pol and getting some kethane. It remains to be seen if there's even enough fuel to do that. Milke calls a meeting of the entire crew to discuss the issue, and several ideas are brought up:

1) Amphion could bring back only a partial load of kethane, reducing the mass the tug has to push back and this allowing it to return. This would be easy, but risky, since it's not clear how much they could return with. They might have to dump kethane along the way, which is wasteful.

2) The fuel conversion and storgae module could be detached from the station and brought with them, for conversion on site. This would be difficult since the fuel module would be heavy, and would have to be inserted in the middle of the stack.

If kethane cannot be obtained safely, then Phase 1 will be a partial failure. They'll be confined to the station until Phase 2 can arrive with fuel brought from Kerbin. Stay tuned!

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Isis Update: Dres and Eeloo

Both the RAMSES probes to Dres and Eeloo had their encounters around the same time as the space station at Laythe was set up; Dres just before and Eeloo just after. After this, MASEC will have visited every celestial body in the solar system.

MASEC gets its first look at Dres as the RAMSES probe brakes ahead of the orbial insertion. It's a rocky dwarf planet, and looks an awful lot like Duna's moon, Ike.

Orbital insertion over Dres' north pole. Again, the similarities to Ike are noticed, with contrasting light and dark areas, and light cratering. Kethane was discovered, but it has long since been guessed that every celestial body has at least some kethane.

The completed topographical map of Dres. Small craters pepper regions surrounding the equator, but there are no large impacts visible. Of note is a series of scars near the center of the map, including one large, very deep canyon.

Now, to Eeloo. A smooth ice-planet from a distance, and the furthest planet (most of the time) from the sun. Again, the transfer stage burns to near depletion prior to orbital capture.

The discarded transfer stage sails over Eeloo's north pole and crashes into its icy surface at a high latitude at around 900 meters per second.

RAMSES brakes into orbit. The surface of Eeloo appears remarkably smooth, and covered in some kind of icy substance of unknown composition. The ground is occasionally scarred with craters or fairly straight canyons which reveal a brown rocky substance beneath.

The smoothness of Eeloo's surface is apparent in the topographical map, as are the cracks or canyons in the icy top layer. Only a few impact craters are visible, indicating a possibly young surface.

A fairly complete kethane map of Eeloo, confirming the abundance of kethane everywhere.

[macdjord]

Might've been better to send the Amphion directly to Pol.

Hrm. What are the dry masses of the Amphion and the converter module? I'm pretty sure that, unless the converter weighs nearly as much dry as the Amphion's full load, it'll be cheaper to send them out together than to ferry stuff back.

[Cashen]

Might've been better to send the Amphion directly to Pol.

Hrm. What are the dry masses of the Amphion and the converter module? I'm pretty sure that, unless the converter weighs nearly as much dry as the Amphion's full load, it'll be cheaper to send them out together than to ferry stuff back.

That problem's already been solved in-game, I've just not posted the update for it yet.

[Scotius]

I'm sure it will be interesting story

[Cashen]

Pol Expedition 1

With a critical shortage of fuel, Milke Kerman calls a meeting to determine what to do about it. Elmon Kerman, the chief engineer, comes up with a solution:

"Okay, I did some calculations. We should be able to get to Pol and back on two conditions. One, we'll need a gravity assist from Vall or Tylo, and we can cut down on the delta-V required to get to Pol, which will be the largest burn. Second, we'll need to come back with only a partial load. If we can get between 50,000 and 60,000 liters of kethane, it's enough to totally fuel up Amphion and its tug. With a full load of fuel, we can make a second expedition to grab a full 120,000 liters and we'll be good to go. We could then do a third expedition, to Bop, just to test how that works out. But if we can pull off this first one with the limited fuel, we know we're in business."

Elmon's idea looks good on paper. Milke Kerman, the commander, has insisted on performing the mission. Milgas Kerman will accompany him. Their surface stay on Pol will be limited. Mostly, they're going to get the kethane and return, but this will be the first manned landing on any of Jool's moons.

Every liter of fuel and oxidizer is loaded into Amphion's tug, as well as a full load of RCS fuel, on a one-shot gamble to bring back enough kethane to get them started. Everything hinges on the success of this mission.

Milke Kerman: We're off! Looks like we've got a gravity assist with Vall to help us out.

A flyby of Vall gives them a slingshot out to Pol. It saves about 100 m/s of delta-V, a critical savings of fuel on what will be a fuel-constrained mission.

The journey to Pol takes about 10 days, far longer than missions to Minmus. Here, they prepare to brake into orbit.

The engines fire to place them in low orbit, about 12km above Pol's rugged surface. They find what appears to be a level spot to land Amphion.

The fuel shortage means that locations could not be scouted using NAMLARV ahead of time, which was the plan. So they're landing without knowing the details of the terrain. Also, Amphion was not designed with integration with the topographical map, which limits their ability to tell what kind of land they're coming down on. The best they can do is visual.

Milke: We're coming down on a slope. I think if we come down nice and slow, we'll be okay.

They come down at just 1 meter per second, and roll to orient the landing legs along the direction of slope, to take advantage of Amphion's wide stance.

Milke: We're on the surface!

Milgas: Woohoo! Wow, look at those rock spires.

Milke: Yeah, we're lucky we didn't land on any.

Milke: Hold on, I've got Jool and Laythe out my window. Going to snap a quick picture.

Milgas: Wow, Laythe seems so far away from here.

Milke: Haha, that's because it is!

Milgas fires up the kethane drills, and they extract 55,000 liters of kethane. Slightly less than a half full load, but calculated to be enough that, when converted into fuel and oxidizer, will completely fill Amphion and the tug. With a full load of fuel instead of a slightly-more-than-half load, they'll be free to get a full 120,000 liters on the next expedition. That should be enough to attempt the first Laythe landing after that.

After extracting the kethane, Milke joins the "first" club; along with Mac (Mun, Duna), Dunlie (Minmus), and Wildon (Ike), Milke becomes the first Kerbal to set foot on Pol. To mark the occasion, Milke plants a flag, while Milgas looks out to Jool and Laythe on the horizon.

The location was actually near local sunset, but since days on Pol are so long, that was seen as irrelevant. Also of note is that the six large solar panels were not enough to sustain the two drills at full speed, so the extraction took longer than expected. In any case, the surface stay doesn't last very long. This is one of those critical missions where success is not guaranteed, and so the two are anxious to return to Laythe. There will hopefully be more time for Pol exploration at a later time.

Milke: I've got Vall and Tylo visible now. They were just below the horizon when we landed.

Milgas: It's hard not to think of Jool like its own small planetary system, with all these big moons.

On the way back, things are tight. The burn to escape Pol and return to Laythe, followed by the plane change, consume most of the remaining fuel. They reach Laythe with about 175 m/s remaining. The aerobraking will be critical.

This is the result of the first aerobraking, and a second is plotted to bring the apoapsis down to just inside the orbit of the station. Shown here is the orbital prediction after the second aerobrake. They're trying to save every bit of fuel here. The circularization burn consumes all but 50 m/s of fuel. The initial transfer consumed another 25 m/s, and then the burn to match velocity with the station consumed 26.5, but 2 m/s of that was done using RCS to allow enough fuel to complete.

They make it back. Here, during docking operations, you can see how much fuel remains. Almost none! They also consumed quite a lot of RCS. All of the docking operations in Pol orbit used RCS (because velocities are so low there). Without the use of RCS, and without the gravity assist from Vall, the mission would not have succeeded. But now, with enough kethane to fully fuel Amphion for another run, UKS Laythe Station is officially operational.

Milke Kerman:

Milgas Kerman:

[Scotius]

Well done, sir

[macdjord]

Should have burned the monoprop earlier. You get much better total delta-v that way.

[FishInferno]

Is this dead? Please let it not be dead!

[Cashen]

Is this dead? Please let it not be dead!

Oh no, not dead. I've had longer breaks than this before. I've just been busy with other things lately. You might have noticed a flurry of activity right after I finished school, but lately I've been focusing on looking for that first entry-level job to get my career started. One company actually flew me out to the west coast for a second interview and I'm kind of waiting to hear back from them in the next few days. If I get it, it means moving out there, and probably a longer hiatus from here. But I've been getting the itch to play again recently, so we'll see!

Next month this thread will reach 1 year old.

[Scotius]

Next month we might have 0.24 finally I sure hope you will find some free time to continue this story. But first: Good luck with quest for the job

[FishInferno]

Yes, best of luck to you in your career. May I ask, what career are you starting?

[Cashen]

Yes, best of luck to you in your career. May I ask, what career are you starting?

By trade I'm a chemical engineer. Just finished my degree and still looking for work.

With respect to KSP, I've started playing again and so we can expect another return-from-hiatus shortly. It won't be anything too exceptional, just another Pol expedition, but it won't be long before MASEC is on the surface of Laythe.

EDIT: Also, happy Canada Day everyone!

Edited July 1, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Another quick update. Disregard my last post, the first mission report to get us going again will actually not be a second Pol expedition (though I still have to do one before we go to Laythe). The next update will be something entirely new, actually. That'll be coming sometime tomorrow.

[Cashen]

Anubis-Osiris Test Project, Part 1: Mobile Mun Base

You may remember a while back, we got to see some new pieces of hardware MASEC was working on developing. One of them was the future mobile surface base project Anubis intends to use for Duna. In that tour, it was mentioned how the team behind Project Osiris was looking at it with interest, as a possible surface base for Vall and Tylo. So, the two projects have decided to collaborate on one large development mission, establishing a mobile base on Mun, as well as some new vehicles and infrastructure that will follow on and serve as a model for future operations at Duna and Jool.

The first part of this involves delivering a mobile base to Mun, and then having a couple Kerbals land and test drive it to make sure it works properly.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• Launch UKS Mun Base and send it on a course for Mun.
  
• Successfully land Mun Base on the surface of Mun.
  
• Land Mac and Kirmin Kerman near Mun Base using NAMLARV and have them drive the Fennec rover over to it.
  
• Test drive the mobile base on Mun's surface to verify that it performs as expected.
  

The Lupus V rocket, MASEC's most well known and reliable heavy lift launcher, is chosen as the mobile base's launch vehicle.

Obviously, the first order of business is getting the mobile base over to Mun. Landing tests have been conducted on Kerbin. Basically, it will land with its front end pointed straight up, atop a descent stage with landing legs. Tests show that the low center of mass of the base will then cause it to tip forward and fall wheels down. However, the center of mass needs to stay centered prior to then. So a radially mounted ballast tank is in place to do this.

The L-IVB stage gets the base into orbit. The stage attached directly to the mobile base will be what does the rest.

That descent stage performs the ejection burn to Mun.

A short while later, it also brakes into Mun's orbit, and then performs a descent orbit insertion.

The targeted landing site is a relatively flat area just east of the large impact basin visible here, and west of the displayed periapsis.

The center of mass is still ever so slightly shifted towards the wheels-down side, meaning a natural tilt that way, so the base is oriented upside down during the braking and landing so that the natural tendency to pitch that way is WITH the pitch-over at landing, and not against it. Future versions will make use of RCS thrusters to hold attitude more easily.

Here the descent stage is throttled down and pitch-over is nearly finished. This landing was actually quite difficult because of the slightly offset center of mass.

Right at touchdown, the engine was cut and the ballast tank ejected, causing the stack to begin to lean forward. Then, the decoupler fired to release the base, which then fell wheels-down as expected. The descent stage then popped back onto its landing legs, and it will remain as a piece of debris on Mun's surface, forever marking the base's landing location. The ballast tank was destroyed when it hit the surface.

Not long after that, Mac Kerman and Kirmin Kerman, the two senior engineers at Mun Station, board NAMLARV and prepare to descend. The mobile base can carry a Fennec rover but doesn't currently have one, so the plan is to use NAMLARV's.

Mac: Yeah our distance downrange seems to be a little long.

Kirmin: Not a problem. We'll just have to drive a little further.

Mac: Pitch-over! I can see the surface now. Going to roll 180 degrees so the sun isn't in my eyes.

The pair get down on the surface and unpack Fennec. They're about 15km east of the base and so will have to drive. In theory, if the base turns out to function properly, this will be the end of this particular NAMLARV. It will remain parked here indefinitely, while a new vehicle will be used to perform crew rotations with the base.

Mac is driving. This is his first time driving on Mun, though he drove considerable distances on Duna. For Kirmin, this is actually his first trip to Mun's surface.

Here we can see the two landing locations and the spacing between them. Their trek east will take them through the small crater south of that larger one that separates them.

As mentioned, they reach a large crater, seen here, that has a smaller one overlapping on the south edge, which is off-camera to the left. They descend into that crater and make their way across.

Mac: Wow, I didn't think to look up earlier, but climbing out of this crater I caught Kerbin in my peripheral vision. That sight never really gets old.

Mac: Okay, I can see the base now. Wow, it's much larger in person than it is in photographs.

Mac backs the Fennec under the base, and then dismounts. He uses his headlamp to illuminate the scene as Kirmin manually affixes the winch cable to the top of Fennec.

In the background, Mac has entered the base and powered it up, and is doing system checks. Meanwhile, Kirmin takes the opportunity to fly up atop the descent stage using his personal RCS pack.

Eventually the two of them get underway, and begin driving west towards the large depression. The base handles alright on Mun. They stick to around 6 meters per second or so.

Mac: I have to say, I really like this pit layout. The view fro up here is great, even to the sides. But especially in front.

Kirmin is sitting in the back seat keeping an eye on all the base's systems.

Kirmin: Everything looks good back here. I think we've got ourselves a good little home here. Not as roomy as the station but I like having some gravity. And having the detachable rover? Brilliat idea.

I like this design. I can't wait to use it elsewhere.

Mac Kerman:

Kirmin Kerman:

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[macdjord]

\o/fillertext

[DevL]

Glad to see you're back!

[Norcalplanner]

This is one of my favorite threads to read.

[Scotius]

^Seconded Good read too.

[Cashen]

Pol Expedition 2

Last time we checked in on the team in orbit around Laythe, they had just completed the first kethan expedition to Pol. It was a short and risky mission. They gathered enough kethane to fully fuel the Amphion and tug combination. Now that the pressure is off, it's time to do another kethane run to get all the remaining vehicles fueled up and ready for exploration. And since there's less pressure, the crew (Elmon and Carson Kerman) will do some more significant surface exploration of Pol while they're at it.

Elmon and Carson take their turn with Amphion, shown here during the Laythe ejection burn. They're attempting a ballistic trajectory which explains the inclination. There will be no gravity assist this time either, but fuel is not an issue this time around.

Elmon gets a good look back towards Laythe as they make their escape. It's a few days to journey to Pol.

The two get a Pol encounter without much issue, and here begin the long capture burn to be placed into a 15km cicular orbit around Jool's tiny moon. They're going to attempt to land on the same reservoir Milke and Milgas landed on last time, since it happens to be about noon local time there.

This time, however, they bend their trajectory southward, hoping to land a few kilometers south of the first landing site, where the ground isn't quite as heavily sloped.

The powered descent begins. Up ahead you can see the mountain ridge where the previous landing took place.

Landing on Pol is different from basically any other body MASEC has landed on so far, due to combination of mountanous terrain and extremely low gravity. Descent orbits drop down to around 5km altitude but the low gravity means they haven't lost much altitude at all by the time of throttle-down and pitch-over. So here, Elmon looks east out his window at 2km altitude, having cut the engine to just drop straight down.

Elmon: Hey how about that! We are on the surface of Pol!

Carson: Excellent! I'll get the drilling equipment up and running.

Carson is a rookie, this is his first real mission, and it's a long way from home for a first mission! One other thing of note, the six large solar arrays are actually enough to power all the equipment when the sun is direcrtly overhead like it is here. On Minmus, the days are short, and so landings are usually done at sunrise to maximize the time in sunlight. On Pol, days are so long, this doesn't matter - the sun hardly moved from directly overhead the entire time, and kept the batteries charged. This time they extract the full load of 120,000L of kethane. The reservoir still contains about 185,000L after this, meaning it's good for one more full extraction.

Previously, only the first landing mission got to plant a flag. However, after the Duna landing, which saw each excursion plant a flag, they've decided each expedition in the Jool system can do the same.

Carason: Strange. The soil here is a brown-ish colour, and these massive rock spires are green. I'm going to have to collect some samples for analysis. I've never seen terrain as differently coloured as here.

Elmon: Yeah, Mun and Minmus are kind of boring in comparison. I'm just glad we managed not to smack our solar panels on one of these while landing.

Elmon: Walking around in this gravity is nonsense. Let's try doing high hops with the RCS. I bet we can cover a lot of ground this way.

Elmon: Wow, we're a long way up from where the lander is down there, and hardly used any fuel. This could actually be a really good way to get around here.

Carson: The soil here is gradually getting more and more green. I'll take some more samples.

Carson: Holy crap this feels weird to be this high up and hardly moving. Good thing I'm not afraid of heights.

They locate the first flag that Milke and Milgas left behind earlier, while Jool and the inner three moons are visible in the sky.

The ballistic arc idea works great, and now they're doing even further hops with it. Enough that I'm watching it in map view. They hop up to the top of the nearby mountain ridge.

Elmon: Man, I have to be like three or four kilometers off the surface here. I wonder if anyone's done the math to see if you can get to orbit with just the RCS packs (Hint: MASEC has, and you can)

By the time the two of them reach the top of the mountain, they've consumed about 3/5ths of their RCS fuel, but they are more than six kilometers distant from the two landing flags.

Carson: See, look at that. Up here, the soil colour matches the spires.

Elmon: This is truly one strange little moon.

Another hop directly back to the lander. They're nearly out of RCS fuel so the expedition is over, but they covered quite a lot of terrain all things considered!

Elmon: Liftoff! Wow, we're climbing slow. Real heavy.

They're passing the ridge which is north of them. By this time their apoapsis is around 4km and rising, and since the target orbit is just 6km, they have already leveled off, even though they're still below the top of the mountain! The important thing is there's no mountain between them and apoapsis.

And finally, the burn back to Laythe. The mountain ridge they visited is visible here just to the right of the rocket exhaust, though this view is now looking south.

The trip back is pretty uneventful. The kethane they returned with was enough to fully fuel all of the vehicles docked to Laythe station, with a small amount left over in the spherical storage tank. Laythe station is officially open for business, and you can bet they're just itching to make a Laythe landing. Can you blame them? They've been looking down on it from orbit since they arrived.

Elmon Kerman:

Carson Kerman:

Just a quick reminder. The first page of this thread contains an updated table of all of MASEC's kerbals and their achievements!

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Project Osiris: The Laythe Landing

There's enough fuel to execute the first expedition to the surface of Laythe. While no site has been selected for the future base yet (that's part of what Phase 1 is supposed to find out), an initial landing site has been chosen for the first Laythe expedition. This location is close to the equator and on the Jool facing side of Laythe, on one of the larger islands. It also appears fairly flat from the topographical information.

The target ellipse is centered around 0.5 degrees north by 167.3 degrees west. This looks like a great location for a potential base, but it's not on or near a kethane reservoir, so other locations will be scouted for their potential. This will be Phase 1's temporary base of operations however.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• Land the Laythe Crew Transport & Rescue Vehicle inside the target zone.
  
• LCTRV Crew: Milke Kerman & Thompler Kerman
  
• Land the Unmanned Refueling Vehicle near the LCTRV landing location.
  
• Have Milke and Thompler re-pack the parachutes in the LCTRV, then drive over to the URV with Fennec and do the same with it.
  
• Land one of the Flying Fox SSTO Spaceplanes in the target zone.
  
• Flying Fox Crew: Ellorf Kerman & Milgas Kerman
  

A three-phase attack on Laythe, well planned in advance. The first step: Milke and Thompler Kerman climb into the fully fueled Laythe lander and depart Laythe Station. The target island is visible below them.

Here we see the landing calculator as they approach. The red target is the selected landing site, and blue is the predicted. There appear to be light clouds at the site.

Milke: Okay we have drogue parachute deployment. We're slightly long of the peninsula. The landing predictor didn't seem quite as accurate - started shifting downrange during re-entry.

The chutes deploy in three stages. Drogues, then the twin mains, and later the radials. This lander is inspired by the Anubis lander used on Duna, but is meant to be reusable.

Milke: We're coming down. Engines on, nice and slow.

Milke and Thompler announce a successful landing to Laythe Station overhead, to much celebration. Landing on Laythe has been a long term goal since the very beginning, so this marks a historic occasion for MASEC. Milke Kerman then climbs down the ladder, and becomes the first to step onto Laythe's sandy surface.

Milke: The longest journeys begin with a single step. It's been a long journey so far, and there's a long way to go, but this step is perhaps the largest.

Milke: I can confirm we've planted the flag and unpacked the rover.

Ellorf: Beautiful. What is it like down there?

Thompler: The surface where we landed is a very flat plan, and appears to be covered in sand. It looks like your typical beach sand, like you might find on Kerbin, honestly. The sand particles are rounded by weathering and their seems to be some moisture content given their apparent bulk properties.

Ellorf: Rog, we'll be down there shortly. The URV is already on its way, we'll be trying to land that close-by.

Milke: Understood, we're standing by.

The refueling vehicle is required to support the space-planes on the surface, so it will land before the plane does, carrying a large amount of jet fuel.

The landing prediction isn't that accurate on Laythe. Not nearly as much as it is on Kerbin. But it might be the way I'm coming in - more on that later.

Ellorf: Okay, it should be landing now.

Milke: Yep. We saw the whole thing, re-entry, chute deployment and landing. It's maybe two kilometers from where we are.

The parachutes on the LCTRV have been re-packed for reuse, and Milke and Thompler climb into the Fennec to drive over to where the fuel vehicle landed.

Thompler: Everything looks good with the refueler. Milke is up on the ladder repacking the parachutes.

Milke: We were able to drive 15 m/s with absolutely no stability issues. Good luck doing that on Mun or Minmus.

Ellorf: We're about to depart, see you in less than an hour.

Ellorf and Milgas climb into one of the two Flying Foxes and de-orbit. The de-orbit takes places over the landing site, so that they kind of spiral down to a landing.

After the de-orbit burn, Ellorf begins to turn from a retrograde attitude to a prograde one, and his field of view sweeps over the target island.

The single de-orbit burn over the target site has some interesting properties. It means the vehicle spends more than 180 degrees of Laythe longitude inside the atmosphere. Here you can see them approaching periapsis within the atmosphere nearly on the other side of Laythe from where they're going. It also means that their path through the atmosphere isn't a continuous descent. They reach a periapsis on the opposite side from where they're going, before they start to gain altitude again, before reaching an apoapsis about 90 degrees from the target (but without exiting the atmosphere) and dropping in on a terminal descent. I wonder if it might be this down-up-down path that confuses the landing prediction.

As they come around Laythe's prograde side on the approach, Jool begins to rise over the horizon.

There's a thick bank of clouds over the ocean when they re-enter.

Ellorf: Coming through the clouds now, we're about 130 kilometers away.

Ellorf: Would ya look at that. Jet engines working in an alien atmosphere.

Milke may have been the first to step on Laythe, but Ellorf is the first kerbal to fly an aircraft in an atmosphere that isn't Kerbin's. The Flying Fox was de-orbited with a full load of propellant, but flying characteristics in Laythe's atmosphere weren't properly anticipated, and they're forced to dump a bunch of it to lighten the craft before landing, otherwise its glide characteristics are terrible. A shame to waste fuel, but that's what the refueler is for.

Ellorf: We've landed! We're about a kilometer and a half south. Going to drive over on the rover wheels.

Milke: Right on. We saw your approach but you dropped behind a dune so we didn't see the actual landing.

Ellorf: Okay, we can see you guys now. Doing a steady 10 m/s.

The four kerbals assembled on the surface at last. Milgas chats with Milke and Thompler, while Ellorf does some fuel transferring - loading the Fox up with jet fuel, and offloading any left-over oxidizer. Welcome to Laythe!

Milke Kerman:

Thompler Kerman:

Ellorf Kerman:

Milgas Kerman:

Plans for the Laythe Surface Stay

• Explore the chosen target zone, and the rest of the island, using the Fennec.
  
• A circumnavigation of Laythe using the Flying Fox to better understand Laythe aerodynamics.
  
• Visiting several potential base locations (ones near kethane) using the Flying Fox
  
• Return the Flying Fox to orbit to evaluate SSTO behavior.
  

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[DevL]

Nice! I only recently made landfall on Laythe, at a location dictated by kethane availability. It's certainly not the best runway and there seem to be very few decent landing sites on Laythe for anything but the smallest planes. Makes me inclined to investigate VTOL designs.

[Scotius]

Nice and smooth Also - that's why we need some sort of fuel lines in stock game. Convoluted operations using docking ports or CLAW just look silly compared to KAS usefulness.

[Cashen]

Nice! I only recently made landfall on Laythe, at a location dictated by kethane availability. It's certainly not the best runway and there seem to be very few decent landing sites on Laythe for anything but the smallest planes. Makes me inclined to investigate VTOL designs.

The location I landed at is a common location for Laythe bases. Brotoro started out here as well. I'm using it as a starting point but I have a list of kethane sites to visit using the Flying Fox, and if any of them are suitable for landing aircraft I may set up shop there once the base arrives. However, recall that I have the big Horus Shuttle, and so if I don't set up shop on a kethane site, it will be used to haul fuel from kethane sites to the base location, using those unmanned kethane rigs I used earlier.

Nice and smooth Also - that's why we need some sort of fuel lines in stock game. Convoluted operations using docking ports or CLAW just look silly compared to KAS usefulness.

Agreed. That's basically why I got KAS in the first place. Well, that and a way to hold a rover under a lander without docking ports too.