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Apollo Y and one of the Arches

lajoswinkler

By lajoswinkler
in KSP1 Mission Reports

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lajoswinkler

lajoswinkler

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Basically, I'm in the middle of a typical Apollo landing mission. Stock parts, except for the MapSat. This is not the first time I've been to the Mun, but this is the first attempt to bring the bastards home and the first time I'm trying to emulate Apollo. Three Kerbals.

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The rocket is functionally very similar to Saturn V, but you obviously can'd make it look like one. I didn't bother about the looks. The stages lift you to similar heights. Despite numerous struts, the rocket swings ~10° sideways. There's an abort system at the top that works like a charm in case something goes wrong during liftoff.

This is after transmunar injection.

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The Command module is turned into appropriate position and docked. Funny thing, that procedure involved bumping into a jettisoned ring which just stayed in the way. I had to move it like a dog uses his nose to move stuff around. The ring went away, you can see it as a mark 5.2km away. Later, during the orbit injection burn and while viewing the map, I actually slammed into it (what are the odds?!) and my whole ship exploded, except the capsule. F9 time. :wink:

The landing went well.

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I've chosen a spot on the rim of a large impact crater. After a bit of hovering around, I landed the thing and let the Kerbals out to plant the flag.

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Just as I was preparing to liftoff, I've noticed a weird object on the top of a nearby mountain. It was barely visible against the black sky.

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I remembered reading about those anomalies, but never actually visited one. I had enough fuel so I went for a visit using the ascending stage of the LM. Didn't fall sideways. :kiss:

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I had to land at a considerable distance to avoid slanted terrain, so jetpack travel was a must.

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Ascending to the top measures ~135 metres of height.

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Here you can see the kerbonaut as a tiny dot in the arch shadow at the base of the foot.

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This is the complete structure beneath the surface.

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And this is the spot on the map.

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After final ascent, I've orbited right above the two landing sites. I'm still surprised how I actually managed to see the anomaly.

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There was not enough fuel for extending the orbit to reach the Command module, so I used RCS. I still haven't performed the docking.

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Kerbinrise.

I hope you can dock again with the same pair of ports. I've noticed they aren't reacting to each other after undocking. Any experiences and recommendations? It's not about the Kerbals. I need to transfer the monopropellant into the CM.

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BostLabs

BostLabs

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<head scratch> Are you using set target on the docking port of the vehicle you want to dock to? And set control from here on your docking crafts docking port?

i don't think it has anything to do with power loss on the target craft as I managed to dock to a powerless capsule last night. Are you docking the CM to something else later? You should be able to return from the Mun without RCS if you still have fuel to do your burns.

if you can get close enough to the CM you can just do a EVA to get your Kerbals transferred to the CM.

whoops!

Nice find on the Arch. I stumbled across it like that the first time too.

Edited by BostLabs
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lajoswinkler

lajoswinkler

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You're trying to say that after undocking, those preferences are gone? I'll report what has happened after I do the rendezvous. Ports not reacting happened after the initial undocking. I increased the distance by like 20m and then returned to try to dock again.

Power loss is out of the question. Both modules have solar panels and the capsules have internal batteries.

There is some bipropellant fuel in the CM. I don't remember how much, but I think it might not be enough, so I need to squeeze out every last unit I can.

Even if there's enough fuel, I'd like to replicate Apollo as much as I can, but if there isn't, I'm stranded like the other ship from the first mission.

Apparently there are 3 arches on the Mun. When Mechjeb starts working for me again, I'll try to land there, as well.

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BostLabs

BostLabs

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Try MechJeb 2.0. It seems to work much better with .21.1.

if you are getting close and just pushing the target around then one of the ports may be damaged. I've had that happen once but I really messed up. It takes a lot to break the ports.

In my AAR there is a scene where the transfer vehicle goes crazy and starts doing a hard right turn under full thrust. The lander is docked to the CM and is being whipped around like a yo-yo.

It never broke loose and I managed to stop the terrible rotation, but you would have thought the docking ports would be been broken. Nope, they worked just fine.

Edited by BostLabs
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lajoswinkler

lajoswinkler

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The docking worked fine. :huh:

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It took me only a few minutes to arrange a rendezvous using nothing but RCS, because that's all I had left at the munar module.

This is what I was left with after deorbit burn for Earth. I've literally came back on a tight budget.

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I've splashed down in the relative vicinity of the Space Center. Tadpoles were promptly recovered.

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For some reason this mission went great. I thought something was bound to happen, because I've never tried this ship configuration (fuel etc.) before, and never seriously worked on coming home.

Now to update my signature. :wink:

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