My v0.21 Mun Trip!

[DeepSpaceDutch]

Like most of you here I had an extensive infrastructure set up in v0.20, a station in LKO, around Mun, Duna, bases on the Mun, Minmus and again, Duna. And a whole crew rotation shuttle and tanker schedule set up. I´m still a relative n00b, playing since february of this year, so I was quite proud of my accomplishments. Mostly because I´ve done it without extensive help from Mechjeb. Apart from using Ascent Guidance latily because after 100+ manuals launches it gets a bit boring. I do use the Lazor Dockingcam a lot, also MechJeb´s Smart A.S.S is really great for the lazy people, like me

Then 0.21 hit and my space program vanished in a puf of update smoke. Ofcourse I will start rebuiling (and doing a better job) in 0.21, however I did want to wait until my two favorite mods where updated as well. So I decided to kill my time with a Mun mission, a bare bones, stock, Mun return mission.

So what's the plan?

- Create a Mun-lander capable of landing on the Mun and return directely to Kerbin without the need to dock with a Command Module (so we need to land on the Mun with plently of fuel left!)

- Create the transfer stage which will push the lander out of Kerbin SOI towards the Mun, do mid-course corrections if needed, burn to get into Munar Orbit and use every drop of fuel that's left during the landing phase. This is because I want the lander to have as much fuel left as possible. In order to achieve this we will not seperate the transfer stage after the de-orbit burn as we normally do. We will use all the leftover transfer fuel during landing and than stage just before landing, a bit tricky, but loads of fun!

- Build the booster, as the lander and transfer stage aren't as heavy as some of my other payloads (only around 50 tons) I can make due with a standard 5 core asperagus staging booster

- LAUNCH!!

LIFT OFF!!!! The 5 Rockomax Mainsail engines are blasting Jeb and Bill upwards! Already reaching 2G's in the first moments of flight, luckily we have the top guns of the Kerbal Space Acadamy in our Mk2 Lander Can!

Looking at their facial expressions in the lower right they can't really be bothered...

STAGING! The first asparagus stage falls away, Bil and Jeb are throwns forwards on staging and backwards again when I apply full thrust to compensate for the staged engines.

Navigation time! This is after the Munar Injection Burn.

Bye bye Kerbin!

Hello Mun! Love the new 0.21 textures and craters, makes landing a lot more exciting!!!

An ominous picture of our craft passing in front of a dark Mun. We have already burned and are now in a stable circular orbit, of course I forgot to take screenshots of the burn...DURRRRRRRRRR

A short de-orbit burn later and we're falling out of the sky. The heartrate of Jeb and Bill must be going up right now, in true Neil Armstrong style they are heading straight for a boulder filled crater! Well this is unfortunate, we cannot spend fuel on mocking around, also there is always the danger of losing control and crashing... Time to keep a cool green and oversized head!

Starting to see a lot of rocks and boulders down there! We've chosen a spot near the West rim of a large crater, it seems a ideal landing and future Mun-base spot!

Almost!!!! Our shadow is slowly coming closer! Our vertical speed is now around 2.5m/s, our ideal landing speed..

TOUCHDOWN! On Kerbin most of Mission Control now turns from blue faced to a healthy green face.

While Jeb stays in the Lander Can cockpit Bill is send outside to check things out. As this is the first ever Munar landing in Kerbin history (in this particular save file that is) they keep it short.

But there is enough time for...

...planting the Kerbanian United Space Program flag, which for some reason looks exactly like the city seal of the human city of Amsterdam....mmmhhhh

Time to return! Landing engines to full thrust, after a short vertical profile we turn dead east on a 45 degree angle in order to get a sub-orbital track over the equator. Just below the lander you can see the flag!

Also note the lander legs are translating to their stowed position.

After a few moments we are already 36km above the surface traveling at 433.1m/s, the blue target indicator is actually our flag!

Aaahhh sweet sweet Kerbin! Not going back yet, we have to complete at least half an orbit from this point until we can start burning for our transfer back to Kerbin.

Well this is fun! The plan is to transfer back to Kerbin and actually use an aero-braking manoeuvre to get into a nice Kerbin orbit (instead of using precious fuel). But in order to get into this higly elliptical orbit our transfer burn at the Mun makes us descend to 20km above the Munar service going almost 840m/s! And by complete coincidence our lowest point is right above our landing spot, sweet!

(you can see the amazement in Jebs facial expression!)

Because euphoria took a hold of me and everyone involved we totally forgot to make screenshots, this is the only screen of the aero-braking. We dip into the atmosphere down to 30km, slowing down before we leave the atmosphere again around 70km.

Lovely friction burn!

Landing!! The Kerbal Space Port is just behind that huuuge mountain range on the coast line. This is the exact moment we discover a huge mistake which cannot be solved! I totally under-estimated the effects of air resistance during this final phase, also I completely forgot the simple fact that Kerbin rotates. The result being; instead of landing on the KSP grounds we are now heading straight for the mountain range.....

In a last ditch effort to save the crew we engage the landing engines and use the ooh soo precious fuel to make sure we don't reach the biggest of the mountains. But will we have enough left to slow us down the final few meters?!

Deploy chute, deploy landerlegs, deploy prayer book!

The steep mountains in the background which we just narrowly avoided look down at us, they must also be wondering about our fuel...

There is our shadow, engage thrusters!!!!

We landed next to a tree with the Mun in the background, and in true Kerbal-style; with BINGO fuel! AWESOME!

Edited August 5, 2013 by DeepSpaceDutch

[BostLabs]

Awesome! Nicely done!

Good luck on your Mun base.

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

Apart from going back to the Mun regularly i re-live my happiness also by seeing other people go there too, great stuff, going to the Mun is always a lot of fun.

[AmpsterMan]

always fun to see a mun landing

[DeepSpaceDutch]

Apart from going back to the Mun regularly i re-live my happiness also by seeing other people go there too, great stuff, going to the Mun is always a lot of fun.

Me too, never get bored of other peoples Mun missions Could be because for most of us our first extra-Kerbin landing was there, it feels like a special place haha (ok let's not get too sentimental here )

Edited August 7, 2013 by DeepSpaceDutch