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

[Cashen]

Anubis and Isis depart for Duna

The big day is finally here for our seven brave explorers; Mac, Wildon, Richbur, Jonbart, Wherrigh, Jedlock, and Gilfal Kerman are set to depart for Duna, leaving Kerbin behind on a long mission of exploration. Project Anubis is Go. Project Isis will be tagging along, as a pair of RAMSES probes will be deployed to Duna and Ike on the same transfer window.

The launch of the Anubis Lander, unmanned. This will be the lander that actually lands on Duna.

Pitching to the east as the L-I separates.

Safely into orbit, the L-II backs away before de-orbiting itself.

Next comes the launch of the Fennec Rover the guys will use on Duna, with a new launch vehicle completely constructed by KW Rocketry.

The payload fairing didn't separate properly and the upper stage engine fired, causing Fennec to strike the fairing. Inspection after orbit revealed no damage to the rover, thankfully. However, if you look just below the rocket plume in this image you can see a tiny object: I didn't spot this until after uploading the image and starting to write this post, but what it is became obvious later on during the mission.

The timing for Fennec doesn't quite work right - a long wait. So in the meantime our seven explorers climb into the Aten IEV, take on a full load of fuel, and depart to rendezvous with Anubis.

Fully docked, now awaiting the arrival of Fennec to complete the package.

Fennec arrives, and once the RCS system starts taking over to move in to dock, a problem becomes apparent. One of the RCS quads is missing! While I didn't realize I had captured it in a screenshot until afterwards, striking the payload fairing knocked off one of the quads. No worries, though. To balance, the quad opposite was disabled, and Fenned docked underneath Anubis as planned.

Isis, as mentioned earlier, is tagging along, and if you thought the Lupus V coming out of retirement was interesting, well, how about the Lupus IB? Because here it is, launching a RAMSES probe. Haven't seen this rocket since the first Aten missions.

Like the last mission, the RAMSES probes aren't given a target yet, this one is just "RAMSES Duna A"

In this case the L-IVB gets RAMSES into orbit, but the probe itself will perform the transfer, since Duna requires substantially less delta-V to reach.

The second probe launches. The fifth launch of a RAMSES probe in a short span.

RAMSES Duna B makes orbit and prepares to depart.

The probes depart first, under their own power.

Now comes the big moment, time for Anubis to leave Kerbin and head for Duna. The Kerbals on board will be the first to leave Kerbin's sphere of influence entirely, the first to head into interplanetary space.

Mac Kerman: This is Anubis, everything looks good here. Our burn is plotted. Six minutes at full thrust, will carry us over KSC as we go.

KSC Capcom: Rog, Anubis. You are go for Kerbin Departure. Good luck, be safe, and come back in one piece.

Mac Kerman: Will do, guys. See you soon!

A six minute burn of the main nuclear engine as the Aten-Anubis Spacecraft passes over KSC. The boys are on their way.

Leaving Kerbin's sphere of influence a few days later.

Jonbart sits inside the habitation module inside Aten. He looks a little concerened. Meanwhile Kerbin and Mun are getting awfully small in the window. Duna is 58 days away.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Cashen]

And that's probably it for now, guys. I'm leaving on Friday to fly home to spend the holidays with family, and I won't have access to KSP until I get back on the 3rd of January. I'll still have a computer and access to internet however, so I'll still be on the board, reading and posting, but until 2014 I'll leave the thread in a sort of cliffhanger with all the missions en-route to various places.

Happy holidays!

[astropapi1]

And that's probably it for now, guys. I'm leaving on Friday to fly home to spend the holidays with family, and I won't have access to KSP until I get back on the 3rd of January. I'll still have a computer and access to internet however, so I'll still be on the board, reading and posting, but until 2014 I'll leave the thread in a sort of cliffhanger with all the missions en-route to various places.

Happy holidays!

Have a great time with your family.

[Scotius]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[Cashen]

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope everyone is having a good holiday, whatever you celebrate.

I've been brainstorming while I've not been playing, and I have some new and interesting ideas for vehicles for the eventual exploration of the Jool system. I think it's obvious that's where Horus will be going, but I've got ideas for support vehicles as well. Also looking forward to the probes getting there, and of course the guys landing on Duna.

I'll have to update to 0.23 and update all the mods when I get back, but looking forward to more MASEC mission reports in the new year.

[uncle natzer]

I read all of this in one night, really awesome and i cannot wait for the next update. If I may ask, what mod are you using for the space station parts? I reread all of it looking for the name and could not find it but I could have missed it. I love the strut and the new modules. Again, great job and I cannot wait for the next update!

[Cashen]

I read all of this in one night, really awesome and i cannot wait for the next update. If I may ask, what mod are you using for the space station parts? I reread all of it looking for the name and could not find it but I could have missed it. I love the strut and the new modules. Again, great job and I cannot wait for the next update!

Thanks! I can't wait to get back to playing KSP actually. The station parts are FusTek, and the thread for that is here. The trusses used for the station are another mod that escapes me at the moment, since I don't have access to KSP and my mod list, but they are featured in a picture in the FusTek thread so it may be mentioned somewhere in there.

Happy holidays!

[Commander Zoom]

Still one of my favorite threads, and an inspiration, just as you've said Brotoro is to you (and me also).

[Cashen]

Well I had planned to be back home tonight and maybe working on KSP, but my flight was cancelled mid-flight (meaning we got half way there and turned around) because of a winter storm. So I'm crashing at a relative's place and heading out tomorrow. Classes start Monday, and I hope to get another update out sometime this weekend. I miss my Kerbals.

[Cashen]

Okay, quick update on things.

Made it back home okay. Got KSP updated to 0.23 and updated all of the mods. I had hoped to get an update out tonight but ran into issues with some of the mods: Specifically KAS' hotkeys being incompatible with my RCS hotkeys, causing the winch to do things when I use the numberpad for RCS translation. I was installing new NAMLARV/Fennec combinations at both Mun and Minmus since the new KAS was incompatible with the old ones. So I had to undock the old NAMLARVs and allow the game to delete them. Anyway that messup with KAS was solved by removing its hotkeys, but delayed things a while. Then I realized CrewManifest now requires that toolbar plugin so I decided at that point to just call it a night. Not sure if I will talk about the new Fennec rover in a mission report or just retcon it since I had to delete and relaunch it because of KAS. Hopefully the next mission report is out soon.

[Cashen]

Pre-Duna Housekeeping

When we left off last, MASEC had seven Kerbals on their way to a manned exploration of Duna, and a series of probes en route to the Jool system to do some important exploration there. While we wait, there is some important housekeeping to take care of back in the Kerbin system.

• Some mission patches have been retroactively adjusted. The Amphion KERV, the vehicle that extracts kethane from Minmus, has been given its own symbol, the Resource Extraction symbol, in mission patches. This distinguishes it as a different class of vehicle from a lander, which it had been classified as before. Luski and Desbree Kerman therefore get an additional mission patch for having flown both types of vehicles.
  
• With Kerbin Station nearly deserted, it's time to reconstitute its population. Desbree Kerman, the Chief Engineer at Minmus Station, is being promoted to the Director position at Kerbin Station. Neweny Kerman will remain Chief Engineer, and Nelgard Kerman will become Chief Scientist. Kerbin Station will remain primarily a training facility.
  
• All stations will now be standardized with a crew of six. This means Minmus will lose one (Desbree) and Mun Station will gain another geologist, Obcan Kerman. Thompler and Dilden Kerman will be assigned to Kerbin Station, giving them all crews of six.
  
• Kerbin Station has requested another batch of Kethane be delivered. Elmon and Ludbrett, being the only pair not to do a kethane run yet, will take care of that part of the mission. Ludbrett will also accompany Desbree for the delivery to Kerbin, where Desbree will disembark.
  
• Parts have been shipped to both Mun and Minmus Station to make modifications to the Fennec Rovers, making them heavier and shorter, to both improve NAMLARV's leg clearance and to hopefully solve the issues seen earlier on Minmus. So Milke and Milgas Kerman will take the new Fennec down to Minmus and give it a test drive.
  

It's a busy few weeks indeed, with lots of little tasks to get accomplished.

A quick sneak-peak at the upgraded Fennec rover. They used batteries to try to weigh it down, since the theory is a lack of weight/traction in low gravity was the cause of the issues on Minmus. This design also adds a winch system at the back and a plug at the front. Total weight is increased by about 200kg.

First, though, Elmon and Ludbrett get started with Amphion. The goal; extract another batch of 96,000L of kethane, and bring it back to Kerbin. They land just after sunrise and accomplish the mission, then get out and walk around a little.

I seem to be missing some screenshots at this point. My F1 key might not have been working. But since this is a big post with lots happening, it's not a huge deal. I didn't get any shots of them on the surface, though, in spite of clearly remembering trying to take some.

The pair make their way back to Minmus Station. The kethane is pumped across to the Zethus transport vehicle, which will be flown to Kerbin by Desbree. Ludbrett will also accompany him to fly Zethus back, since Desbree, who's been promoted to lead Kerbin Station, will be staying there. This will reduce Minmus Station's roster to six Kerbals, as planned. Elmon Kerman has been promoted to Desbree's old position.

Once Amphion is safely back and Zethus has departed, Milke and Milgas, the two most senior Kerbals at Minmus, descend in NAMLARV to test the upgraded Fennec rover. They're also testing precision landing on an airless body, in this case targeting the old ILP probe, which can be seen in the lower left.

Milke: We've landed. Easily within walking distance of the probe. You go and get started on undocking Fennec while I power down the lander.

Milgas: Roger.

Milke can see the ILP probe, plus Milgas preparing Fennec for use.

Milke: It seems to be handling the slope pretty well so far!

Milgas: So far, yep! Only a 15 degree incline, though. We'll see how it handles that mountain up ahead.

The two of them are driving southeast towards one of Minmus' large plateau areas, which has rather steep slopes. Fennec failed to ascend one of these last time.

Milgas: Wow, 37 degrees of slope, and we're still holding steady at 4 meters per second!

It's usually always an engineer and a scientist paired together on all exploration missions. The engineers are usually the ones that drive and look after the equipment, but the scientists are the ones who navigate to points of interest. Also, the upgraded Fennec has a portable Kethane scanner and other equipment, which Milgas operates from the back seat.

Milgas: Woah!

Milke: Little air coming over the ridge there.

The design is validated. Fennec works on Minmus. The pair tour around the top of the ridge, heading southwest along the rim and then back down towards the lander, covering around 35km total distance.

They stop at the ILP landing site, and Milke uses his RCS to get on top of the probe.

Milke: I remember seeing pictures of Dunlie and Kennie when they landed here, and that NovaPunch engine over there.

The engine in the distance was from the transfer stage that brought ILP here, and somehow survived to become a piece of space garbage.

After a successful test drive, Milke returns to NAMLARV while Milgas finishes re-latching the rover under the lander. The clearance is obviously much better now.

The two of them re-launch to return to Minmus Station.

The route the pair drove. They moved clockwise in this image.

Desbree looks out at Kerbin as Zethus approaches with its delivery of kethane. I'm using the Clouds and City Lights mod now after completing the 0.23 upgrade. I love how that looks.

Docked to the station, the kethane is transferred and Desbree gets settled in to his new home and job. When asked what he felt about it, Desbree remarked "It's a new challenge. Certainly I enjoyed Minmus and the more technical side of the work there, and I was fortunate to be assigned there right out of training, but this is a great opportunity to be closer to home and to play a role in training new Kerbals and sharing my experience with them."

Again there are some missing screenshots here. The vehicle docked to Kerbin Station is the Aten CTV, or Crew Transfer Vehicle. It flew one unmanned mission back in the Project Newet days, and works as a stage-and-a-half to orbit vehicle for ferrying large numbers of Kerbals up to the station and back. There hasn't been a need for it until now. Since this is the first manned flight of it, all three test pilots, Jeb, Bob and Bill are at the controls. Meanwhile, Obcan, Thompler and Dilden ride as passengers. Here, Obcan has boarded the Aten COV with Neweny at the controls, to ferry him to his new job as a geologist at Mun Station, and round out the six man crew there.

Shortly thereafter, Jeb, Bob and Bill return to Kerbin with the Aten COV. It's not clear if this re-usable vehicle will fly again or not in this configuration. MASEC has never been quite happy with the concept and this is only a stop-gap until a true crew shuttle can be developed.

They do however manage to pull off the most accurate in-atmosphere landing to date!

Obcan arrives at Mun Station, and Neweny then prepares to return to Kerbin Station. Note the Fennec rover here has been upgraded as well.

Ludbrett returns by himself to Minmus meanwhile, and admires this spectacular view out the side window of Zethus' cockpit.

Re-docked to Minmus station, the various housekeeping chores complete!

Meanwhile, Anubis draws close to Duna...

[astropapi1]

Aw yis, we're back on business!

[Scotius]

MASEC is still pretty busy. Is it weird that i like to read about minor maintenance missions just as much as about epic exploratory expeditions? Maybe it's because in space even minor mission is an adventure.

[Cashen]

Project Anubis: The Landing at Duna

After two months of coasting through interplanetary space, Anubis enters Duna's sphere of influence, and Richbur Kerman spots Duna and Ike out his capsule window.

Anubis and the two RAMSES probes will arrive staggered by about 2 days each. Anubis arrives first. However, since the crew will be here for as long as 150 days, they will not land right away, but spend the first week or so in low orbit around Duna, conducting observations and taking photographs. In that time, the two RAMSES probes will set up, particularly the one at Duna, and begin mapping. This will be used to pick a suitable landing site. Considering the effort needed to get here, they might as well land somewhere good.

Mac: Adjust periapsis to 11.9km, expected apoapsis 500km.

Richbur: Roger, plotting the burn now. We'll be passing through the atmosphere in daylight, should be a good chance to take some pictures.

Solar panels are pulled back for aerobreaking. Richbur, Mac and Wildon are sitting up front in the IEV capsule while Jonbart, Wehrrigh, Gilfal and Jedlock are in the habitation module right behind it. The lander is empty, having not been powered up yet.

Richbur: Aaaand... capture! We have orbit around Duna. Apoapsis is coming down nicely, probably close to 500km.

Richbur snaps this picture from his left hand window as they pass through periapsis, just 11,900m above Duna's surface.

Mac: How do we look?

Richbur: Good. Plotting two burns. First, lift periapsis to 60km, then circularize half an orbit later.

A historic day, Kerbals arriving at another planet for the first time. Here the Anubis stack reaches apoapsis at around 490km.

The team spends the next two days in orbit observing Duna.

RAMSES Duna B arrives, and is re-designated RAMSES Duna. It's adjusted into a polar approach, here closing in on Duna's south pole for aerobreaking.

The solar panels retract through the atmosphere. The mapping equipment is active already, and another two days are spend mapping Duna in detail. The probe gets into a stable 490km orbit.

Another two days elapse, and RAMSES Duna A arrives, renamed RAMSES Ike.

RAMSES Ike performs an equatorial aerobreake down to Ike's orbit altitude, and then plots a burn near apoapsis to encounter Ike in a mostly polar direction. Interestingly, as it plunged downward into Duna's atmosphere, it passed just 7.5 km in front of the Anubis stack, which is close enough for the crew to see it (and had I had the foresight to enlarge the rendering distance, I could have even snapped pictures from the Lazor cam on Anubis).

Successfully into orbit around Ike!

By this time, most of Duna has been mapped, and it's time to select a landing site for the crew. The area is shown magnified, a canyon. This will give them access to varying terrain, both lowlands and mountains, within a short distance. Notice on the full map, moving left from the landing site is a strip of high resolution data along the equator. This tapered streak was taken by RAMSES Ike, as it slingshot around and aerobraked in Duna's atmosphere on its way to Ike.

The proposed landing site viewed at sunset. The crew settle in to sleep, preparing to land the next morning.

In the morning, the Duna team transfers to the Anubis Lander. Richbur seats himself in the pilot's seat of the landing module with Mac behind him. Wildon, Gilfal and Jedlock ride as passengers in the upper rendezvous capsule. Once powered up, the Aten IEV would burn into a descent orbit, lowering periapsis to 45km on the opposite side of Duna from the landing site. Then, the lander undocks, and the IEV backs away with RCS. Jonbart and Wehrrigh will remain in Duna orbit for the duration of the surface stay.

Richbur: Descent orbit looks good, 61km by 45km.

Mac: De-orbit periapsis should be 19km.

Richbur: Roger, plotting it now.

The landing site is visible in this image, right below the actual apoapsis. This is right after undocking. A de-orbit node is planned to drop the periapsis to 19km, and slightly long of the canyon.

Mac: Deorbit started.

Wildon (Over the radio): We'll be in touch when we're on the surface.

Jonbart: Loud and clear, safe landing, hope to hear from you.

Mac: How are we looking for velocity? Keep me updated.

Richbur: Looking fast so far. 900 m/s, slowing, but the ground is going by really fast.

Mac: Yeah, I hope the atmosphere can slow us. We'll fly pretty close over the near edge of the canyon.

Richbur: This is going to be tricky. I'm going to deploy drogues as we pass over the canyon wall but we may end up on the opposite slope a little ways. Lots of horizontal velocity.

Richbur: Drogues out! 600 m/s, slowing quickly. 500. 400. Pitching over. 300 m/s velocity, 3km altitude. Standby for mains.

They burn 1/3rd of the descent stage fuel to slow down about 100 m/s

Mac: Pitching over nicely. Nice and smooth.

Richbur: Mains out! 50 m/s. 20. Seems to have settled at 17 m/s. 500m altitude.

Richbur: 100m altitude. Descent engines on, coming down at 6 m/s

Mac: Nice and slow, looking good. We're a little long but the slope looks manageable here.

Mac: Contact!

Richbur: Engines off!

Wildon: Good show, guys!

Richbur: Welcome to Duna.

Mac: Alright, I'll get suited up. You power up Fennec and undock it and we'll get out and use our legs a little for the first time in ages.

As usual, Fennec is dropped and drives itself out from under the lander before the ladders are lowered. This Fennec uses a simple docking port rather than a winch and cable, since it's not meant to be returned. Then, Mac Kerman, the first Kerbal to perform rendezvous and docking, the first to walk on Mun, makes another historic first, as he sets foot on Duna.

Mac Kerman: I'd like to dedicate these first steps to everyone in the United Kerbin States, and to those who made this historic event possible.

Mac walks under Anubis to the uphill side, and plants the UKS flag at the site. Looking uphill, Ike is visible through the clouds, peeking above the horizon.

All five Kerbals are present during the planting of the flag, here shown looking back into the valley. They've arrived! And now they have almost half a year to explore.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Scotius]

Good job Will you explore Ike while Anubis is still in system? If you have enough fuel left, of course.

[Cashen]

Good job Will you explore Ike while Anubis is still in system? If you have enough fuel left, of course.

Yep. Note the upper stage of the Anubis lander has folded landing legs on it (visible in the very last image). This is the stage that will return to orbit and meet up with the command ship, which will then re-fuel it and ferry it to Ike to land there. The lower stage of the lander, with the big heavy landing legs, parachutes and descent engines will remain at the Duna landing site, and the middle stage, between the two, will be discarded during ascent from Duna.

[Cashen]

Project Anubis: Duna Excursion 1

Last time on UKS MASEC Mission Logs: Project Anubis successfully landed on Duna! The morning landing means they have time to do an excursion with Fennec on the first day on the surface. While Jonbart and Wehrrigh will remain in orbit above Duna for a long period of time, they are very much a part of the mission, and are in constant communication with the team on the surface. They will receive data from the mapping RAMSES satellite and then select points of interest to direct surface excursions to. They will also take high resolution photographs from orbit and, being geologists, will provide consultation for geology questions. The two of them will of course get their chance to do some close up exploration when Project Anubis shifts to Ike near the end of their stay.

Wehrrigh photographs the general area of the landing from the front rendezvous window, which shows the dark terrain of the valley on the left, and the highlands to the right. Anubis is somewhere in the red colored terrain between the two, and closer to the bottom half of the window view.

Mac: Anubis has landed.

Jonbart: Good show. Mind giving us the details? We might try to image your landing site later on.

Mac: Roger, landing coordinates are 0.0 degrees latitude, so right on the equator, and 57.7 degrees west longitude. Elevation of the landing site is 1,868 meters. Current temperature is -31.3 degrees Celsius, pressure is 10.728 kilo-pascals, and we measure the local acceleration due to gravity to be 2.92 meters per second squared. Everyone is in good spirits and the flag has been planted. Fennec undocked nicely and is powered up, all systems in the vehicle look good.

Jonbart: Excellent. If you are still go for the first excursion today, we have a general area we'd like you to check out that's fairly closeby. Northeast of you is a large massif, that effectively acts as the east wall of the canyon and the north wall of the southern impact basin. We'd like you to check it out. Would be a good test of Fennec's abilities on Duna.

Mac: Sounds like a plan. Richbur and Wildon will head out. Jedlock and Gilfal will explore on foot near the landing site, I'll stay in the lander for communication.

This far from Kerbin, real-time communications are ineffective, so the team is calling their own shots. Normal procedure is that at least one person will remain inside Anubis at all times, to communicate with Aten in orbit. The other four can be outside exploring, taking samples and performing experiments, with two driving Fennec long distances on days when an excursion is planned.

Richbur and Wildon are chosen to drive the first excursion as both of them have experience with Fennec during their time on Mun. Richbur in particular is noteworthy for driving Fennec during the mission to explore a Mun arch. Gilfal wishes them a safe trip.

They begin heading northeast up the slope, with a heading of 30, towards what has been named the Northeast Massif, and out of what's been named Anubis Rille, which may be an ancient riverbed.

7.8km away and over 3km higher up, they turn their camera around and snap a picture of Anubis behind them. They also have access to the detailed mapping data, which RAMSES is still actively producing.

Near the top of the ridge, and no longer able to see Anubis, they stop for a moment to study a small boulder.

Wildon: The terrain is already different. Back at the landing site it was a bright red, now it's almost like an orange as we get higher. This rock is still pretty bright red though.

Wildon is seated facing backwards, but operates the forward facing camera, allowing him to see ahead through a small display. This gives the crew eyes in all directions, more or less.

Wildon: I see some white-ish material near the crest of that hill, let's check that out.

Wildon: Yeah, patches of white material interspersed with darker soil.

Richbur: I wonder what it is? Water ice? It's too warm here to be dry ice.

Wildon: Could be water-ice, yeah. Or just white minerals. I'll take some samples.

During the excursion, Wildon is in communication with both Mac, back at the Anubis site, and Jonbart up in orbit during the period they are overhead. This allows Jonbart and Wehrrigh to give updates, as they have more detailed mapping data.

Wildon: We've crested the highest part of this area. Elevation is 6,712 meters, our position is 1.9 degrees north latitude, 55.9 degrees west longitude.

Jonbart: Copy. If you continue due east there is an even higher elevation, if you'd like to press on. We'd be interested to get pressure and temperature data there as well.

Mac: I agree, I say press on.

Wildon: Can do. Lots of daylight left still.

They reach the highest point of elevation in the entire Northeast Massif, and plant a flag. Since this is a one-time mission to Duna, each excursion is allowed to plant a flag at a particular point of interest, in contrast to the ongoing exploration of Mun and Minmus, which (currently) do not plant flags to respect the importance of the original flag (though this might change).

Wildon: Okay, we are 19.5km from Anubis. Position is 1.6 degrees north latitude, 54.8 degrees west longitude. Elevation is 6,756 meters. Current temperature is -34.22 degrees Celsius, so a little colder than at the landing site. Pressure is 2.13 kilo-pascals, so just one-fifth of what it was at the landing site. Local acceleration due to gravity is 2.82 meters per second squared, slightly less.

Mac: Wow, no wonder we hardly slowed down until we got really low. Hardly any atmosphere at all up there.

Jonbart: Yeah that more or less lines up right with the atmospheric data we have from the IALP mission Isis sent here.

Wildon: I'm looking south and I can see what looks like a pretty high peak. I estimate it's around 10 kilometers from us which I imagine is near the edge of the impact basin. Should we go check it out?

Jonbart: Let me look. Uh, negative, that peak is only about 5km high, doesn't look like anything special. Plus it's around noon, we should probably think about heading back.

Mac: Agreed. We'll have more time to do longer excursions later.

They take a more southerly route back, and in spite of the excursion coming to an end, Wildon still seems in pretty high spirits!

Mac: Okay I can see you guys coming over the ridge now, I've got the camera locked on you.

Wildon: Yep, we can see you as well.

Wehrrigh: Nice job, guys. Some of the pictures and video you guys have uplinked is really fantastic.

They make excellent time on the way back, and in actuality there's lots of daylight left. Still, not bad for a first drive on Duna, and the rover seems to have performed well.

Gilfal and Jedlock welcome Richbur and Wildon back as they park Fennec, this image taken by Mac who is sitting in the Landing Pilot's chair, with the view.

Jonbart and Wehrrigh pass overhead, in the process of raising their orbit to 100km. The landing site and the newly planted flag are visible, giving an indication of the distance driven. Given they landed in the morning, and were able to get that far over rough terrain and get back with plenty of daylight left, they should easily be able to visit places further away, such as two even larger mountain formations to the north and northwest, and the massive impact basin to the south.

[Scotius]

Ahh, i hope Duna and Ike are next in line for biomes Now that will be worthy of half-year stay on the surface.

[Commander Zoom]

Ahh, i hope Duna and Ike are next in line for biomes Now that will be worthy of half-year stay on the surface.

As someone else who currently has an expedition on the surface, I agree!

[Cashen]

As someone else who currently has an expedition on the surface, I agree!

That would be cool, though I'm doing this in sandbox mode and I'm unsure what purpose biomes and science have there. Maybe someone can inform me. Call me old fashioned, I've not changed my playing style at all really since 0.21

[Commander Zoom]

Officially, none at all. (More's the pity.)

I'm playing in a sandbox game that I converted/imported into career mode, so that I could have the fun of actually doing science, getting reports, etc (even if everything is already bought).

[Cashen]

Isis XV & XVI: RAMSES Maps the Moons

Naturally, project Anubis is getting lots of attention. But part of its success is due to the RAMSES satellites in orbit, mostly the one at Duna, which is providing excellent information for planning surface exploration. That combined with its kethane mapping abilities makes it an extremely useful tool. So naturally funding has been made available for more such probes, and since there is already active surface exploration at Mun and Minmus, the teams there have requested the same kind of mapping!

The fifteenth Isis mission is to place a RAMSES mapping probe in orbit around Mun. It's being launched on a Lupis IB, in order to give it the maximum amount of fuel on-station. It could get to Mun with a smaller booster, likely.

One issue RAMSES has to deal with is the fact that mapping and kethane detection are optimized at different altitudes. This is one reason RAMSES missions are done to give it as much fuel as possible on site. So far there's been no real consensus on how to operate the probes. The one at Kerbin, and the subsequent ones at Duna and Ike, were placed at 'compromise' altitudes, in order to do both tasks at the same time. These missions will do something different: They'll first enter orbit as low as possible and perform both a kethane survey and low-resolution mapping, and then boost to a high orbit to perform high resolution mapping.

The results are pretty good. The low orbit is able to completely map Mun's kethane reserviors.

Then, with plenty of fuel left, it boots into a very high polar orbit, around 750km.

And a complete high resolution map of Mun is generated as a result!

A little while later, Isis 16 launches, headed to Minmus, shown here rising through the clouds. The launch, as with most missions to Minmus, is timed to launch directly into the inclination of Minmus' orbit.

Circularizing in a low orbit. Minmus is tricky because its small gravity means orbital velocities are lower, and it also rotates much faster than Mun.

Not quite a complete scan. IKSS had mapped most of Minmus already before being decomissioned, and RAMSES filled in the gaps quite nicely.

And again, produced a nearly complete high-res map of the surface.

[Cashen]

Anubis Duna Excursion 2

So, after a week or so away from KSP for University-related reasons, it's time to do a little more Duna driving!

One interesting characteristic of the Anubis landing site is that Ike is so close to the horizon. This means that, while both bodies are locked to each other and hence should have no visible rotation or movement, Ike's orbit is slightly inclined and slightly eccentric. This means it does move slightly in the sky. As can be seen here, at night Ike actually rises fully above the horizon, whereas during the early day it sits on the horizon.

Ike sits atop the horizon during sunrise, which means that every sunrise is, instead of rising above the horizon, rising above Ike.

It's time for the second Duna Excrusion. For this mission, Mac Kerman will be driving, and Gilfal will be the passenger. Gilfal, the biologist (but with special geology training) will be searching for signs of present or past life on Duna.

The two of them get started just after sunrise. Richbur will remain inside Anubis to monitor the mission. They move west and then north, aiming to follow the valley they landed in as far as possible.

Here we see the pair descending into the valley in the early morning, targeting the dark looking terrain at the valley floor

The view from space. This early, shadows are still visible on the eastern wall of the valley. The pair have reached the lowest point.

Gilfal: Some of the rocks here look more weathered than you'd expect with such a thin atmosphere, almost as if there was water here at some point.

Mac: You think this is maybe an ancient riverbed?

Gilfal: Certainly seems likely. I'll grab some samples to take back with us.

Off they continue northward through the valley, with mountains off to the east showing an interesting white pattern, the same sort of thing Richbur and Wildon had spotted during their drive. Also note the sun is clearly much higher in the sky given the overall brightness.

They plant a flag at the furthest point from the landing site.

Mac leaves a plaque at the flag site marking their journey.

The two of them then spend most of the mid-day period exploring this area, much further north in the same canyon. Gilfal takes more samples which seem to be quite similar to the ones collected earlier.

The view from space, showing the extent of their drive. Much further than the first expedition, but over much easier terrain. Eventually, it's time to head back.

Ike reaches its furthest extent above the horizon in late afternoon, around the time our two explorders return to base!

[Scotius]

Hmm, next logical extension to the mission would be a rover with pressurised cabin, allowing for longer excursions. I think i will go in that direction once Duna gets biomes. My standard procedure of sub-orbital hops to explore different biomes on Kerbin's moons is not practical on Duna.

[Cashen]

Hmm, next logical extension to the mission would be a rover with pressurised cabin, allowing for longer excursions. I think i will go in that direction once Duna gets biomes. My standard procedure of sub-orbital hops to explore different biomes on Kerbin's moons is not practical on Duna.

You're pretty close to what I had been thinking. My line of thought was actually to just have a surface base on wheels, with a transport ship at an orbital station for things like crew rotations. Then the whole base could move wherever it likes. But my mind is already on things other than Duna for now.