The story of Munlab-2

[Newman]

Well, after the success of Munlab-1, I always wanted to follow it up by sending a larger outpost up there. Because in rocket science, bigger and heavier always means better, right? So, the new Munlab would have to be bigger and carry more sciency stuff. More importantly, it would have to look cooler. Also, it needs a way more imaginative name than the boring old Munlab-1. After much deliberation, a bold new direction in the naming scheme was adopted, and the mission had a new name: Munlab-2! Ah, the imagination. Let\'s say I intend to send a smaller lander to pick up the crew once the mission is over so I don\'t have to bother with a return stage this time. At least, let\'s say that to the crew. I may actually send a retrieval craft. If I feel like it. But that\'s not important - whatever the outcome, it was all for science! So, I slapped on a lot of sciencey stuff on a lander, thanks to Nova and his pretty cool Probodobdyne Construction Kit. After slapping on as much crap as humanly possible on a rocket the meticulous design phase, the moment of truth came: will it blow up on launch?

Munlab-2 on the launchpad. That round gray thing in the background is where we\'re supposed to go. Bill\'s been wondering why didn\'t they tilt the rocket towards it then. But on the bright side, the betting game has totally livened up now! 1:10000 on them making it to orbit alive. Good odds, but you have to get in on the action before launch. Incidentally, the entire engineering department bet against them making it to orbit, saying it\'s a bad idea to have a heavy top and bottom and a thin middle section. Hogwash, I say!

Well, looks like the engineering department now owes me 3 bottles of beer, Jebediah\'s stamp collection, a large jar of olives and a pack of toothpicks. I really need to start betting for real money.

Amazingly enough, TMI burn complete, everyone is still alive during a fast flyby, and we still got enough fuel in the main stage to do an orbital insertion burn. CAPCOM now owes me a 'Rainbow Friends Pony Photo Album'. Don\'t ask.

Time to ditch the stage that got us here. Get away from us, empty stage! We used you up and now we\'re tossing you. Let\'s bring RCS back up and orient ourselves.. wait. RCS just stopped working. Seems my meticulous design phase managed to miss the fact that after decoupling RCS is also cut off from it\'s fuel source. Well, there\'s plenty of fuel left to abort and go home. That would be the sensible thing to do. Thankfully, this is KSP and sensible doesn\'t factor in. On the bright side, the betting scene is literally erupting with activity now. Will they make a new crater on the Mun? Or will they manage to kill all horizontal velocity using only the main engines, with no RCS to assist? A sensible person would know how to bet. Luckily, again, this is KSP. Time to go in and earn my bicycle tire puncture repair kit directly off the president!

Seems I work well under pressure. Almost all horizontal velocity is gone! Just a few more meters and I can retire a rich man! Well, a man with a bunch of useless crap anyway.

Touchdown! Still can\'t believe this didn\'t result in a big fireball. My first landing totally unassisted with RCS. Who needs it, I can be smug without it!

So, let\'s see what we got. A big comm dish, 4 sensor packages, and 4 cameras (so someone doesn\'t steal it and drive off. Someone suggested they might also work to survey the Munar surface by remote, but the cameras are actually fake, just there to scare off burglars). That\'s all on a big strut thing that looks cool and adds to rocket length. That\'s stuck on a small satellite that kinda looks like it also might be a habitable module with a bunch of windows, so I\'ll pretend that\'s what it is. That\'s stuck on a service module that\'s there to.. service.. whatever. Come to think of it, didn\'t the service module contain RCS fuel? RCS should really work, then. Could be a bug, but since this uses almost every mod under the Sun I can\'t exactly go report it. I don\'t think even I could reproduce this if I had to reinstall, would have to remember what it is I had installed first. Also starring, 2 My First Science Kit\'s. Not sure why they packed frog dissecting equipment in there? 2 RTG\'s, 4 solar panels, probe core, 4x parachute adapter with 4 small tanks and 4 lander engines. Below that ASAS stuff, 4 cool looking struts and 4 lander legs.

Bob: So, uh, you\'re sending someone to pick us up, right?

CAPCOM: You didn\'t go all that way on a mission of certain death to whine about going back, did you? Now shut up and collect rocks and we\'ll consider it.

[Commander Zoom]

A++ writeup, would lol again.

[Thunderbird]

[Tim_Barrett]

Design a way to get back and then I will rate it 22/7 stars

[Newman]

Design a way to get back and then I will rate it 22/7 stars

I\'ve already done that with Munlab-1. This one\'s design goal was never to go back, it was always intended for it to stay. It did, however, have most of the descent stage fuel intact, thanks to the fact I still had enough in the TMI stage to do most of the descent braking burn and only had to use up a small amount of the lander\'s fuel to actually land. There\'s enough juice in there to get back, only it wasn\'t designed for it so there\'s no chutes. However, I was planning on taking this further, with Munlab-3. The design would be based on this, but with one difference - it has to get back to Kerbin. The entire lander, not just a small stage that detaches on the Mun surface. And, it has to do a hard landing on it\'s legs and survive intact. Sort of a practice for future interplanetary missions, though when they introduce atmo friction and the possibility of burning up during reentry, it\'s not going to be nearly as easy.

[Tim_Barrett]

I\'ve already done that with Munlab-1. This one\'s design goal was never to go back, it was always intended for it to stay. It did, however, have most of the descent stage fuel intact, thanks to the fact I still had enough in the TMI stage to do most of the descent braking burn and only had to use up a small amount of the lander\'s fuel to actually land. There\'s enough juice in there to get back, only it wasn\'t designed for it so there\'s no chutes. However, I was planning on taking this further, with Munlab-3. The design would be based on this, but with one difference - it has to get back to Kerbin. The entire lander, not just a small stage that detaches on the Mun surface. And, it has to do a hard landing on it\'s legs and survive intact. Sort of a practice for future interplanetary missions, though when they introduce atmo friction and the possibility of burning up during reentry, it\'s not going to be nearly as easy.

Well what you could actually do is use those four engines to land, and use the middle shaft as another, but larger, engine with exclusive fuel.

[Newe6000]

Sorry to be that guy but where dose the circle window dome thingy come from? I see it everywhere.

I added a screenshot of the part I\'m talking about.

[sarkun]

Sorry to be that guy but where dose the circle window dome thingy come from? I see it everywhere.

It\'s one of the satellites in the Silisko Edition.

[Newe6000]

It\'s one of the satellites in the Silisko Edition.

Really? I have the silisko edition and I dont have that part.

[Newman]

Well what you could actually do is use those four engines to land, and use the middle shaft as another, but larger, engine with exclusive fuel.

I didn\'t omit a return trip because I don\'t know how to do it, I omitted it by design this time. Like I explained in my first post, what you\'re suggesting is exactly what my Munlab-1 did a while ago. Only difference is, you don\'t need a larger engine, really. Mun\'s gravity is pretty low and if you know how to plan your trajectory you don\'t need a lot of power or fuel to get back to Kerbin.

See here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=4040.msg53158#msg53158

So, I see no point in repeating it I\'ve done a Mun return trip safely a lot of times now and am over the whole 'omg made it there and back' thing. Suffering from the NASA syndrome - been there, now what?

So, this time I just wanted a larger 'outpost' that stays there. If and when I decide to do a return trip once again, I see no point in repeating the same old return stage story, but making it fun by upping the stakes - the craft that lands on the Mun also has to land on Kerbin. On hard land, on legs. Chutes allowed to slow down and stabilize, though so far I\'ve had a problem with them. I\'ve tried to put chutes on the Munlab-2 but for some reason they won\'t activate on only the lander during atmo tests on Kerbin. If they\'re stuck on a lifter rocket, then once the lander is detached and I ignite it\'s engines the chutes auto-activate. I don\'t want this because those engines fire for the first time somewhere over the Mun surface. Meh, I think I\'ll just wait for 0.13 before I make a ship that lands on the Mun and then back on Kerbin, on dry land using lander legs or wheels, without detaching stages. Fuel lines ought to give me a lot more freedom with the design. Von Kerbraun\'s MunShip ftw!

[NovaSilisko]

No, it\'s in SIDR. Might be in NovaPunch but I don\'t use it, so I wouldn\'t know.

[sarkun]

No, it\'s in SIDR. Might be in NovaPunch but I don\'t use it, so I wouldn\'t know.

Damn you Nova, for making SOOO many parts!

And seriously - yeah, it\'s from SIDR, sorry for the mistake. It\'s just the satellites are the only things I\'m using from that pack.