The DunaMax mission to plant a flag on Duna and Ike

[DonLorenzo]

Hello fellow kerbonauts! I've been playing KSP again for the first time in a while and have decided to chronicle my missions in the form of youtube videos this time around. They can be found here:

Now on to the most recent mission; the DunaMax mission. The ship was based on a robust 4x NERVA interplanetary transfer cluster with two small independent landers for planetfall and flag planting purposes on Duna and Ike. Despite unsimilar conditions (ie. no atmosphere on Ike) the landers are identical and both pack parachutes. This was done mostly for rocket balance reasons.

See me talk through the design and initial launch here:

As you can see, things did not get off to a great start. The initial construction proved too flimsy with not enough struts. After attempting to solve this problem by using lots of boosters, struts, duct-tape and an unmeasurable quantity of 'gut-feeling' I finally gave up and went for a drink. Afterwards, things did not go well either.

The lesson learned here is that while booze may serve as rocket fuel under the right conditions providing any quantity of it to either spacecraft engineers or pilots (they're a thirsty bunch for sure) is not good policy. No one went to space today

After sleeping off the headache and cleaning out the rubble, the folks at mission control did one last launch where everything appeared to go swimmingly

Everything looks good, but once more a strut related problem throws a wrench in the works. This late-stage failure however won't hold anyone back and on the next go the DunaMax (design revision 67) finally sits comfortably on orbit

In the next video I explain for the viewers at home how to do an interplanetary transfer without any math, using just the tools provided by KSP. This maneuver is then subsequently executed.

Continued in first post!

[DonLorenzo]

Approaching Duna we attempt an aerobrake/aerocapture maneuver to put is into a stable orbit before using one of the landers to descend. The pilots and scientists at home (drunk again!) guessed an altitude far too high for any sort of braking to happen and most of the capture was performed with rockets. Fuel is starting to look low for any chance of getting home. The first of the two landers is detached (leaving the ship imbalanced) and lands on Duna. A slight design oversight in its engines impart a dreadful spin whenever they fire, but intrepid pilots cope well. What was meant to be a one way mission takes a surprising turn as there appears to be enough fuel left in the little lander to get back into orbit!

After the great success on Duna the mission continues onwards to Ike. A landing is attempted and as our Duna pioneer observes from Duna orbit contact is suddenly lost with the Ike lander AND the mothership. They have disappeared on the far side of Ike and were never heard of again. Unsure what to do, this pilot turns around once more for a second landing on Duna and will await rescue there. Watch the last video to find out what happened to the would-be-Ikeans.

Hope you enjoyed this not quite successfull mission! Next one to Eve and in .21 ofcourse

Cheers,

Lorenzo

[Geschosskopf]

This is all very interesting and I like the tutorial nature of your videos. Problem is, the videos aren't working right. They either stop completely at the same spot and never go further, or the video stops there but the audio keeps going.

[DonLorenzo]

That's odd and shouldn't happen.. Can you tell me a specific video + spot?

[Geschosskopf]

Well, like the last 1 in the 1st post, where you're doing the transfer. It goes haywire at 1:01 for me every time

[DonLorenzo]

That's very strange. I checked it on my computer, laptop and phone and they all work fine. Have you tried some different quality settings or perhaps browsers?

Cheers