Jaxal1's Mission Report - Minmus return

[Jaxal1]

So after sending Jeb to the Mun and back, I set my sights on Minmus, using the same rocket and lander.

First try, I attempted a gravity assist around the Mun. The assist worked, flinging the lander into an elliptical orbit with an apokerbin at Minmus's orbit. Trouble was Minmus was around the other side of its orbit. After time warping around Kerbin a couple times waiting for an encounter, the mission was scrubbed (because the next encounter turned out to be with the Mun, and would have gravity-assited the lander out into Kerbos orbit. A small burn at apokerbin dropped the lander into Kerbin's atmosphere, to recover a paltry amount of science from exposing the materials bays in deep space (essentially repeating experiments from the Munar mission.)

The mission was re-staged with Bill Kerman in the capsule. Unfortunately, something went wrong during launch (still not sure what I did wrong: the exact same craft went to the Mun and back), and the lander failed to make orbit. As a result of coming down with fuel tanks too full and heavy and an overuse of time warp, Bill did not survive the landing, and no quicksave was available. Sorry, buddy.

Re-staging the mission again (and swapping the LV-45s for LV-30s to help ensure orbit, using an in-line reaction wheel (unlocked with Munar science) to make up for the lost gimbals), with Jeb in command of the mission, launch went off without an hitch: First stage to 70 km apokerbin, second stage to circularize and initiate Minmus-injection (direct, this time, no mucking with assists), lander to complete injection. At periminmus of the encounter, a relatively small burn set the lander onto an ellipical orbit. After circling (and collecting high above and near minmus science in two of three science pods, and transmitting crew reports), a small burn (less than 5 m/S of delta-V, gotta love Minmus gravity) dropped periminmus within the body, for a day-side landing. I suicide-burned a little early and had to wait to fall down to the surface, but the mission had plenty of fuel. Jeb landed, collecting surface samples and planting a flag. A memorial for Bill was left on the plaque. Jeb wishes you were here instead of him.

Jeb re-boarded the capsule, exposed the final materials bay and goo canisters to the environment, and reported back to KSC that Minmus was not, in fact, a giant ball of mint ice cream. Not even lime sherbet!

At launch, the side-tanks (nearly empty anyway) were jettisoned when Jeb over-enthusiastically slapped the throttle. Turn-over was immediate, and the lander blasted retrograde until its projected path led into Kerbin's atmosphere. At 100km, retract solar panels, deploy chutes, drop landing gear. After the flame effects dissipated, Jeb notices he's set for an ocean splashdown. He leaves the gear down anyway. Some of the extra lander fuel is spent slowing the lander, mostly to use the extra fuel (there really should be an option to vent fuel, when you need to shed mass, but not thrust). At 500m, the chutes fully deploy, dropping the lander to a stately 6.7 m/s, for what should be a soft landing.

However, the craft still broke up on landing! I blame the ocean surface: by allowing the engine and fuel to sink in, the side science pods struck the water at 6.7 m/s, just over their 6.0 m/s impact rating. They exploded, taking the fuel tank and engine with them. Fortunately, Jeb (with his EVA report and samples) survived, as did the Goo canisters.

In the end, I gained enough Science to unlock the probe parts I need for my next mission: A constellation of ComSats in Kerbisynchonous orbit. Following that, a return to Minmus to get the material science that was lost on landing, and possibly to other biomes on the Mun to get more Science to assemble a returnable interplanetary craft.