The Wotan Incident (Lot of pics)

[Szkeptik]

In what will surely go down in history as one of the boldest strides in science and engineering, the Prime Minister of The United Kerbal Republic has given the go-ahead for the Wotan Project. The Kerbal Space Administration will build and launch a three man expedition to Duna that will return safely after more than a year of doing science on the red planet.

Though it's everyone's dream come true, the prime minister did request a hefty budget cut that required a last minute redesign of the Wotan mothership and its subsystems. Instead of a single use station design that would stay at Duna even after the crew returns, a modular system will be designed that will return to Kerbin orbit in its entirety, to be restocked and reused for later missions. The Plans are as follows:

The Wotan is constructed in orbit from the mission-expansion section and the engine section. Two probes take up the primary fuel canisters and another brings the two minimalist design landers (Lander A and . The landers were designed as cheaply as possible in order to allow for their jettisoning in case the Wotan proves too heavy to return.

Once the construction is finished the Wotan waits for the launch window in 200km orbit.

Our three brave "volunteers" are:

Jebediah Kerman, mission commander and pilot for Lander B

Bob Kerman, senior research fellow and test pilot, pilot for Lander A

Bill Kerman, Aeronautics expert, Piloting the Wotan

The launch window finally opens and the team receives the burn vector from mission control.

Fuel canisters are jettisoned as they are spent

Aftera long journey, the Wotan arrives in polar orbit around Duna, using the planets atmosphere to lose speed, conducting measurements as it approaches.

After the Wotan achieves stable orbit, Bob kerman goes EVA, inspects the ship and boards Lander A for the long awaited Duna descent.

The lander enters the atmosphere and effortlessly glides towards its polar target. Bob seems satisfied with the situation. He must be thinking "Not Bad".

The lander succesfully returns to orbit with lots of science, but runs out of fuel and monopropellant just shy of a randezvous. Damn budget cuts!

Jebediah jumps into Lander B and rushes to help his friend in need.

He manages to dock the two landers together and tow Bob back to the safety of the mothership.

Reunited in the Wotan PCC, all the aquired precious science is uploaded to the mainframe, samples are cataloged and stored.

Jebediah soon grows impatient to test his own landing skills and insists that he do an Ike landing. He hops back into Lander B, checks all systems and fills up the fuel supplies and sets course for the large moon.

...and lands with great finesse.

On the way back, however, things go horribly wrong... Jeb returns into Duna orbit, but on a very unfortunate vector... and runs out of fuel. It seems the scientists at KSC made a grave miscalculation when they believed returning from Duna would be more costly on fuel than from Ike. Bob immediately jumps into lander A to return the favor to his friend, but not long after he undocks, Bill contacts him and tells him the computer did the calculations, and he does not have enough fuel to randezvous with the stranded Jeb. After a quick redock, Bob insists that they use the Wotan's main engines to do the rendezvous, but the mission directive strictly forbids the use of emergency fuel supplies if the mission itself is not in danger. Bill, as the designated Kerbal in command decides mission protocol is primary, and Jeb cannot be helped.

All the while, Jeb, knowing the rules better than anyone and realizing his predicament, starts to expend his precious remaining energy to transmit the scientific results he collected on Ike's surface. The transmissions towards KSC continue for several minutes before the connection is lost and Jeb's lander goes dark forever.

Bob and Bill are heartbroken, but they must press on and the launch window back to Kerbin is not open for much longer. If they stay now they might get stranded around Duna as well. Bill sits at the helm, plots the couse and engages the return protocols. The Wotan sheds all the used scientific experiments, extra monopropellant and the now useless lander to minimise the fuel needed to get home.

We have a good return vector to Kerbin. Starting escape burn... now.

After a long journey back home and quite a few passes into Kerbins atmosphere to burn off speed, we finally settle into a stable 200Km orbit, and soon meet the small pod with Kirbert Kerman at the helm, tasked with bringing the crew back to KSC safely.

The Wotan is powered down with only a minimal lighting and computer control active, awaiting its next mission.

Though the Wotan Project was considered a great success by all politicians involved in the decisionmaking, and it did return home with a massive amount of interesting data that allowed for a large leap forward in materials science, the cost of the mission was felt gravely by all in the KSC complex. If only we had more resources, we could have built better landers. We could have taken more fuel...

The media didn't buy the political ploys to make the mission seem perfectly executed, and the attempt to push Jebs tragedy onto the sidelines. The mission became widely known as the Wotan incident, and it is unlikely that the great NERVA engines of the slumbering beast will awaken again anytime soon.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Szkeptik

[The Jedi Master]

Nice! Now send Jeb a rescue mission. I'm sure that the PM would give some cash for a rescue.

[The Error]

Given tbat they can survive in a one kerbal capsule for years, I feel Jeb is just awaiting rescue.

[Scotius]

Nice story, though i'm sure you could spend the fuel to save Jeb. Until you save him, this mission is a failure.