Duna To Stay

[Bekiekutmoar]

A long time ago - in the year 0.20 - the KSC already launched brave pioneers to Duna in primitive spaceships. Although the landings weren't always without problems, no deaths were reported and some important information about the red planet was obtained, like the planetary landscape and atmosphere.

Nowadays - in the year 0.21 - the KSC has decided to send 4 Kerbals on a one-way mission to Duna. Goal of this mission is to begin the colonization of the planet and to spread the Kerbal race throughout the Kerbol system. Two ships are launched towards Duna; the Grotesque I and Grotesque II. The Grotesque I is shown below and contains stuff like a Copula Module, Hitchhiker Container and some science instruments. At the time of launch the Grotesque I was unmanned; in case of failure no lives would be lost ... !

The Grotesque II is launched next and carries two rovers; the top rover has two seats and is supposed to be delivered near the landing site of the Grotesque I, to increase the possibilities for the Kerbals to explore the terrain.

After that, three Kerbals are launched in an old rocket that has proven itself as reliable 'taxi' in especially LKO.

The last Kerbal got transferred from a space station (for some reason I don't have pics of that transfer). The Grotesque I has now 4 crewmembers; Jeb, Bob, Bill and Denham.

Then both craft (Grotesque I and II) begin the Hohmann-transfer to Duna. Number I takes 61 days to complete the transfer, number II 69 days. After some aerobraking and correctional burns number I achieves a stable orbit (64-67 km) around Duna. The crewmen are surprised when they see the landscape beneath them; it looks somewhat intimidating with souring mountains and deep valleys, and doesn't match the description the pioneers made back in the year 0.20 ... !

The ship manages to descent into a valley but runs out of fuel too early. The vessel approaches the ground with 14 m/s and that's a bit too fast ...

The subsequent landing is a bit rough and the landing module flips over, but the crew survives and nothing seems to be damaged. Jeb rushes outside to admire the alien beauty of the Dunian landscape.

After several days the Grotesque II arrives in the Duna area but the landing procedure didn't go as planned. The top rover (important for the landed Kerbals as it provides somewhat fast transportation) lands at the other side of the planet and now has two broken wheels. So much for pinpoint-landing ... The other rover lands around 70 km away from the Kerbals and is currently the only properly functioning rover on Duna. Looks like more material and men are required to patch up this somewhat rocky mission.

[jwenting]

Seems your landings are as predictable as mine. Maybe we should design landers that end up being oriented as intended after they flip over instead of before

[Bekiekutmoar]

That's an option ... ! Or something like a pancake. Especially now that the Dunian terrain has 'roughed up' a bit. Gotta say it'll be a while before another launch window comes up (I'm doing a similar mission to the Jool system and also attempting to construct a proper SSTO) so the colonization of Duna remains in 'ragtag' mode for a while.

[zekes]

you should do resupply missions for them.

[Bekiekutmoar]

That is my intention and I'd like to do it with decent space-planes. Too bad I really suck at building space-planes yet.

[Bekiekutmoar]

Right. I've fabricated a space-plane that might be usable on Duna. Nothing compared to the creations of the space-planes experts on these forums, but the chances are it might actually work. Gotta say it was a pain to get it into orbit, took almost 15 minutes. The initial mass of the plane is almost 15 tonnes and has one jet-engine and two LV-909's. Despite having 5 air intakes the jet-engine couldn't provide useful thrust anymore at 32 km altitude and going roughly 1.400 m/s.

I think the plane is certainly capable of traveling to Duna on its own power, but a 'network' of orbital and ground-based fuel-stations is required. The KSC will deal with this matter when the next launch window to Duna will arrive ... !