Phobos I - Mission to Dres [IMAGE HEAVY]

[WillHop]

After the resounding success of Deimos I, who made a successful return trip to Duna and back, the KSA planned a trip to a planet generally forgotten by the Kerbal race - Dres. It has no moon, no anomalies and attraction of any sort, but that won't stop Phobos I from going there anyway!

The brave crew of Deimos I pose for a picture after their return to Kerbin.

Eager to start my next mission, I assembled the Phobos I in orbit. The only difference between this and the Deimos was the lander. It had no chutes and also carried a small rover.

I messed up my ejection burn horribly and I ended up completely missing Dres first time round, having to change it on the way back round the Sun.

This was the view of the sun at my Ap.... looks cold.

When I finally do reach Dres, it is at this point I realise the delta v requirements are a little different to Duna. I massively under packed on fuel and during my orbital insertion burn I had to steal about 75% of the landers fuel to finish it off. My mind immediately thinks to a rescue mission.

Orbit secured, Bill and Jeb strap themselves in to the lander (fully aware they won't be coming back of course) and set off for the surface.

Meanwhile, Bob breaks the news to Geofmal, the youngest astronaut to board a spaceship.

Down goes the lander.

Boom! Touchdown on a steep hill - good thing Jeb was at the helm.

Bill has an issue with the rover...

*sigh*

Not even Bill can fix this..

Thats it thanks for reading, just thought I would actually post one of my missions that I did for once, except this one went horribly wrong. It was fun to plan all this out even if I did completely mess up all of my calculations, but oh well

[BostLabs]

Oh no! You can't stop now!

[Cydonian Monk]

Time for the thrilling rescue mission!

[BostLabs]

Yes, yes. You must save them all!

[AndrewBCrisp]

The rover gifs gave me a good chuckle. *sigh* indeed.

Casting my vote for a rescue mission as well. Let's bring them home... so we can send them out again, of course!

[WillHop]

Rescue mission it is! This is going to be one hell of a mission..

[Scotius]

Rescue mission it is! This is going to be one hell of a mission..

I don't see why? You have docking ports on your ship - send automatic tanker. It doesn't have to come back, so you can send it on sub-optimal trajectory. As long as it delivers enough fuel to ship stranded at Dres all is fine

[WillHop]

I don't see why? You have docking ports on your ship - send automatic tanker. It doesn't have to come back, so you can send it on sub-optimal trajectory. As long as it delivers enough fuel to ship stranded at Dres all is fine

For the ship in Dres orbit, thats the plan! Its the two guys on the surface I'm worried about, my pinpoint landings are terrible. I've also never had to send a tanker out in to interplanetary space, so this is a new and daunting experience

Edited October 11, 2013 by WillHop

[Bishop149]

I had a similar mission failure once. . . got most of the way to Jool with the objective of Laythe before realizing my craft was horribly flawed. . . the chute system tore it apart on deployment and 2 Kerbals were in a module with a obstructed docking hatch and had no way out.

I aborted the mission before burning into Jool orbit and as luck would have it had enough DeltaV left (didn't need much) to arrange an intercept with Kerbin on the loop back to Sun Pe.

But then had almost no DeltaV left at all. I solved it by areobraking from full Jool Pe speed in Kerbin's atmo! . . . It took a few goes to avoid either shooting back out with escape velocity, crashing horribly or killing the Kerbs with the excessive G's.

Ended up in Kerbin orbit, rescues one Kerb with a rendezvous in orbit and did actually manage to land the other two trapped in the craft with the broken chute system by being VERY specific about chute deployment and cut order.

So long story short: I would have aborted back to Kerbin before burning to Dres orbit . . . .

[WillHop]

I had a similar mission failure once. . . got most of the way to Jool with the objective of Laythe before realizing my craft was horribly flawed. . . the chute system tore it apart on deployment and 2 Kerbals were in a module with a obstructed docking hatch and had no way out.

I aborted the mission before burning into Jool orbit and as luck would have it had enough DeltaV left (didn't need much) to arrange an intercept with Kerbin on the loop back to Sun Pe.

But then had almost no DeltaV left at all. I solved it by areobraking from full Jool Pe speed in Kerbin's atmo! . . . It took a few goes to avoid either shooting back out with escape velocity, crashing horribly or killing the Kerbs with the excessive G's.

Ended up in Kerbin orbit, rescues one Kerb with a rendezvous in orbit and did actually manage to land the other two trapped in the craft with the broken chute system by being VERY specific about chute deployment and cut order.

So long story short: I would have aborted back to Kerbin before burning to Dres orbit . . . .

It would have made a lot more sense to abort back to Kerbin, but unfortunately Jeb got cheese sauce stuck in the orbital map and there was no knowledge as to where Kerbin was, so we decided to carry on with the mission. Cleaning supplies will be brought with the rescue ship

[BostLabs]

Ahh, like my Munstrosity ship. Grape juice in the flight computer. Jeb loves grape juice, but it is no longer allowed for missions.

[WillHop]

UPDATE:

After attempting to launch the lander back in to Dres orbit to save myself the time of designing another lander, it went almost perfectly.

Apart from the two stranded astronauts in orbit.. without a capsule..

I dumped the empty fuel tanks and re docked the 6 nuclear engines just to make things look a little neater and also to make things easier when my rescue ship arrives.

Then I set to work on launching and assembling all different bits of my refueller. First launch went well (it didn't)

Eventually I got the first of 5 full orange fuel tanks in to LKO. My plan is to attach a whole mesh of nuclear engines and fire it roughly at Dres, in the hopes I can rescue my brave astronauts. I also need to think about a small shuttle design to pick up Jeb and Bill who are currently aimlessly floating around Dres in bizarre orbits..

[WillHop]

Just docked the second big fuel tank!

And it escaped. But it left the docking port behind! Thanks, stupid fuel tank

[Geschosskopf]

Great story. I look forward to seeing more.

[Rhyunix]

Love this - gotta have the rescue mission

[WillHop]

Loving all the support! Didn't think it would be particularly interesting but clearly I was wrong! Gonna try again with the tanker tomorrow as I am utterly worn out at the moment, but have no doubt these Kerbals will be rescued. It also outlines why I think the KSP community is one of the best communities out there

Edited October 11, 2013 by WillHop

[mellojoe]

I have not been to Dres, yet. I love this story. Keep it up. Rescue missions are tough, and complicated. Good luck to you. And wait a moment ... why are there kerbalnauts floating in orbit without a ship? When did that happen?

[WillHop]

why are there kerbalnauts floating in orbit without a ship? When did that happen?

I tried to get the lander to orbit but ran out of fuel half way through, so I had to use their RCS packs to get each one in to orbit..

[mellojoe]

Of course! That's the Kerbal thing to do.

[Giggleplex777]

This is how real men do drop tanks:

[Pockrtplanesairways]

NOOOOOOOOOO call it rosetta or something else, phobos is for ike