Duna Exploration Mission (Updated in Near Real Time, Pic Heavy)

[Taki117]

45 Days to Launch, Outside KSC:

Bill Bob, Lomy, Ludorf and Patbro sit outside the Vehicle Assembly Building with a few reporters asking questions.

Reporter: “Why don’t you introduce yourselves?â€Â

Bob: “I’m Bob, and I’ll be the Mission Commander, in charge of ensuring everything goes smoothly.â€Â

Bill: “I’m Bill, Ships Pilot, I’ll be ensuring we arrive to and back from Duna.â€Â

Lomy: “I’m Lomy, Mission Specialist. I’m responsible for keeping everyone alive. We have enough food on board for 838 days, more than enough. There are also Air and Water purifiers, as well as an emergency 70 day emergency supply.â€Â

Patbro: “Patbro, Lead Mission Scientist, myself and Ludorf will be processing and transmitting all our science data.â€Â

Ludorf: “That’s correct, and I am also the Ships Medic. I will be assisting Patbro in the science analysis.â€Â

Reporter: “Why send a manned mission to Duna? Why not send a probe first?â€Â

Patbro: “A manned mission was chosen because of the impracticality of sending a probe. Since the launch windows only open up about once every 234 days the next if we sent a probe we would have to wait until the next window before we could send a manned mission.â€Â

Reporter: “Let’s talk about the ship ‘Duna Explorer I’. Tell us what it’s going to be like.â€Â

Bill: “The ‘Duna Explorer I’ was designed specifically for this mission. *He presses a button to bring up an image of the ship, seen below* Let’s start aft. We have the main drive section that was designed to get the entire craft to Duna and it has a high enough Thrust to Weight ratio to ensure we leave Kerbins’ Sphere of Influence as quickly as possible, this section will be deposited in solar orbit. The next visible section is the Return and Secondary drive section. It also has Retro engines in the event we enter Dunas’ thin atmosphere too fast and will be sued to get us safely home. Between those is the Lander section, with enough fuel to get to the surface of Duna and back again, and if we have enough fuel it might even go to Ike. Continuing forward we have the Science and Habitation section. It contains all of our life support equipment, as well as living quarters and the science processing lab where Patbro and Ludorf will be spending most of their time. Forward of that Is the Command Section, with an inflatable heat shield.â€Â

Reporter: “What will you do until it’s time for launch?â€Â

Bill: “Training mostly, System familiarization. Really we do what we can to help pass the time. The ship is being assembled in orbit and there’s not a whole lot we can do until that is complete.â€Â

Bob: “We will also be reviewing mission parameters and objectives, as well as running various simulations and preparing for about 400 days in space. That’s all the time we have for now, thank you for your time.â€Â

From Left to Right: Patbro, Bob, Bill, Lomy, Ludorf

Edited January 1, 2014 by Taki117

[Taki117]

Launch Day, 3 days to Mission Commencement

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Bill: “Welcome to your new home.â€Â

2 days to mission Commencement

Patbro and Ludorf have moved into the Science Module and have begun system checks. Bill, Bob and Lomy have begun ship wide system and life-support checks.

Bob: “Lomy, see if you can’t get those scrubbers and purifiers online, I don’t want to burn emergency food any longer than we have to in orbit.â€Â

Lomy:†I got it Bob, CO2 scrubbers and H2O purifiers are online, we have 838 days of food, system checks are good.â€Â

Bob: “Roger that, Bill, how’s the Course input coming?â€Â

Bill: “Everything looks good, we have about 2 days until the transfer window opens up. I suggest we all get settled.â€Â

At this point Bob keys the radio back to the KSC and keys the mic.

Bob: “KSC this is Duna Explorer I, how copy?â€Â

KSC: “Copy you loud and clear Duna I, how go the System Checks?â€Â

Bob: “System checks look good KSC, we are mission go.â€Â

KSC: “Roger that, we have you Mission Go, Godspeed Duna I.â€Â

Bob: “Thanks, and we’ll be in touch. Duna I out.â€Â

Lomy: “Commander, I’m getting weird readings from the engines, something about ‘Start up checks not required.’â€Â

Bob pulls up the information on his screen. “Well of course they don’t need to be done, the shrouds are still in place. Once we jettison those we can just fire up the engines and go.â€Â

Lomy nods and returns back to his system checks. A little embarrassed that he missed something so simple.

[Taki117]

The Alarm begins going off inside the cockpit.

Bob: “KSC, this is Duna I, transfer widow is open we are mission go.â€Â

KSC: “Roger that Duna I, godspeed.â€Â

Bob: “Roger that, Bill hit it.â€Â

Bill smiles as he jettisons the shrouds and prepares to fire the engines.

Bill: “Firing in 3…2…1…Hold onto your shorts!â€Â

The rockets roar to life as the crew is slammed back into their seats and the ship accelerates.

Soon enough the crew is well on their way to Duna, leaving Kerbin far behind. They have reached the point of no return.

Patbro: “Alright, we’re moving to the Science lab. Call if you need.â€Â

Bob: “Roger that, Standby for Main engine jettison.â€Â

Bob hits the stage button and the main booster stage falls away and the shrouds to the nuclear engines falls away.

180 days later the crew arrives at Duna.

As the Crew approaches Duna they prepare to aero-capture into the atmosphere by opening the heat shield, and activating the Retro Rockets. The solar panels will be retracted later.

Bob: “Alright everybody, strap yourselves in, it might get a little rough.â€Â

At this point, the solar panels are retracted and the crew ready for reentry.

Due to the thin atmosphere the retrorockets were fired to establish a stable orbit (It was later determined that due to a faulty readout they might not have been needed)

As the ship was aero-braking Ike decided to rise over Duna’s horizon as the ship was coming out of the atmosphere.

Once the desired Apoapsis was reached the ship circularized and the crew prepared for landing.

It was determined that Bob and Lomy would make the journey to the surface. All of the crew had been trained on landing operations so any one of them could have gone. Patbro and Ludorf continued working on scientific data analysis while Bill maintained an appropriate heading.

Bob and Lomy undocked from the rear of the vessel and began their descent to the surface.

At the predescribed altitude the chutes deployed and slowed them to a gentle descent.

Bob: “And we’re down. Welcome to Duna.â€Â

Lomy: “I’ll head out and take some samples, maybe plant a flag.â€Â

Lomy descends the ladder and shortly after planting the flag Bob joins him.

Bob: “KSC wants us to take a picture.â€Â

Their mission complete the duo returns to the ship.

Edited January 1, 2014 by Taki117

[Taki117]

KSC: “Duna I this is KSC. We’ve determined you have enough delta-v to make it to Ike and back. Mission parameter update. See if you can get us some samples.â€Â

Bill: “Roger that KSC, I’ll tell Bob when he gets back. Duna I out.â€Â

The lander has successfully docks with the ship and bob returns to the cockpit. Bill greets him and updates him on their mission to Ike.

Bob: “Straps yourselves in, we’re heading to Ike.â€Â

Bill plots the course and fires up the engines at the appropriate time.

The ship glides towards Ike uneventfully. As the ship approaches Bill fires the engines to get them into a circular orbit.

Once again Bob and Lomy board the lander and descend to the surface.

At about 3000 meters Lomy fires up the engines and descends to a relative flat spot.

This time Bob was the first out with Lomy to pose for the photo.

Their mission complete they once again depart to join Duna I

As the ship enters the atmosphere the crew jettisons the science equipment and the lander. This was done to reduce the return weight since the Lander isn’t going to be used again, and the science containers had already collected everything that they could.

The lander descends into the atmosphere and slams into the ground.

[Taki117]

136 days after setting out from Kerbin the Return window opens.

Bob: “Alright, boys, we’re going home!â€Â

Bill fires up the engines and the craft lurches forward.

Soon enough Duna was well away and the crew was heading home.

Nearly 300 days later Kerbin finally comes into view.

The crew prepares for reentry, the Heat shield is inflated, the solar panels retracted, and the retro rockets activated.

Bob: “Alright boys, everybody into the command pod, we’re coming home! KSC, this is Duna I, we are prepped for reentry. Standing by for comms blackout.â€Â

Patbro and Ludorf scramble into the command section as the ships draws closer to Kerbin. Duna I slams into the upper atmosphere at 3200 meters per second.

Almost immediately flames from atmosphereic compression begin to lick at the underside of the ship.

The ship continues to accelerate as the heat rises. The ship is now approximately 36 kilometers up.

The ship finally begins to decelerate as the ship passes 30km. The retro rockets were not needed and the scientists at KSC determined that Duna was simply going to land without trying to reach orbit again.

The crew is safe behind the heat shield, the retro engines taking the brunt of the heat for the aft drive section.

The ship is rocked by an explosion.

Lomy: “What was that? What’d we lose?â€Â

Bill: “No idea, but I still have control.â€Â

Bob: “Relax, struts are overheating. Structual integrity is fine. We’re going to try and land.â€Â

The reentry had began to subside as the ship descended. The command section was decoupled and the drogue chute deployed.

At 900 meters the drogue chute was jettisoned and the man chutes reefed.

Bob: “KSC, this is Duna I, we are through the atmosphere, chutes out.â€Â

KSC: “Roger that Duna I, rescue crews en route.â€Â

At approximately 500 meters the main chutes fully deploy and the ship slows to approximately 6.8 meters per second.

Bob: “KSC this is Duna I, Good chute, I say again Good chuteâ€Â

KSC: “Confirmed, we have good chute Duna I.â€Â

Several moments later the ship successfully splashes down into the ocean.

KSC: “Splashdown! We have splashdown!â€Â

When Duna I first left I had 55 science we it returned I had 3167 science

[Pipcard]

Where's the inflatable heat shield from?

[Taki117]

Where's the inflatable heat shield from?

It's from the Deadly Reentry Mod. I use DRE, FAR, and TAC life support (Among others)

[Smallish]

I'd love to know how you got all your first/second stage into orbit, and it looks like you have struts to everything, surely you can't get all that up in one go can you?

You ditch your mobile processing lab, does that mean you lose all your science you got from it? (i don't know how they work at all )

It was a great report and look forward to your next adventure : )