The Harsh Realities Of Engineering Mk 2: Why do I never learn?

[Monkeh]

My career game has gone quite well so far but it was time to do more. To go further. Maybe even to return. With science. And goo. And samples.

Laythe! Via a Joolian aerobrake, and capture of even more science in the green atmophere, to collect samples and return home with Laythian sand in between your toes and a heavy dose off radiation poisoning from Jools mighty presence. Hoorah!

I had been made aware of the potential for mission ruining details when I went to Duna in my sandbox game. Moderately interesting mission report can be found here, the mk1 of The Harsh Realities Of Engineering which appears to be turning into a bit of an unintentional series now...great!

The Laythian craft had had some...minor teething problems.

Which looked real pretty and all, but got me no closer to Laythe. In the end I think I had it all worked out, my handy Engineer coming up with all the required equations and even a solution or two as well.

Not a pretty one, but solid, dependable and with as much OOMMPH! as you could need.

Orbit was achieved easily and everyone was feeling confident and looking forward to a mission of success.

Hudemy isn't a terrible pilot, managing to get an aerobrake encounter, good work Hudemy!

The final part of the aerobrake happens to give a nice Laythe encounter, today really is his lucky day!

Ahhh, here it comes, the ocean jewel itself, waiting to divulge it's glorious science load.

Utilising the atmosphere of another world again, Hudemy closes in on his target, a minor stabilisation burn and it's done, low Laythe orbit.

Taking the mapping stuff was definitely worth it...

Sunrise above laythe.

Leave the big-ass nukes in orbit and get ready to fire the insertion stage, need to find a spot of land to land on first of course.

That little island should do it. Aim to land quite a way in front as the atmosphere will slow me right down and the blue line lies when atmosphere is involved. Hope my guess works out ok...

Quick phone home scene.

Jool rising above Laythe.

My guess on the blue reduction from the atmosphere is looking just about right, the parachutes are popped and we should drift down slow and steady.

The beach awaits...

"Wish you were here!"

Now the fail. Again. Ladders this time. Didn't actually check there was room for a kerbonaut's helmet on the way up. There wasn't.

He's stuck. Unable to get back to his craft and take off. The science is stranded. This is awful news. We need that science....what? Oh yeah, and it's a terrible shame for the family of Hudemy blah, blah, blah...my GOD, WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT SCIENCE?

A rescue of the science shall be commissioned immediately, what? I mean, the brave kerbonaut shall be rescued forthwith, lest the science coffers lay empty. Oh yeah, and some family somewhere can be happy again.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Monkeh

[Monkeh]

So I went for an automated probe rescue affair. I got to the Joolian system easy enough and managed to get a nice Joolian encounter that appeared to give me a nice aerobrake.

However, my carefully produced Joolian encounter, with an apoapsis of 118,000m, happened almost exactly at the south pole.

This meant a polar orbit and incredible amounts of delta v to correct. But I got there.

I didn't have quite enough to make an accurate landing. Splashed down quite a way from target.

That, however, was yesterday, and today...well, today...isn't!

[Monkeh]

No, today isn't yesterday, but it's still poo, or I'm poo, I don't know, there's definitely poo somewhere though, I can smell it.

I got to Jool quite uneventfully, managed a decent aerobrake this time that didn't put me in a polar orbit, (got to watch the purple orbit line and make sure it's as horizontal as the rest), but my design is a bit poo and doesn't work very well.

Glad I brought the poodle and a bit of fuel for it. It was originally meant as the insertion stage but it was used to get to dry land after a mis-judged atmosphere deceleration.

The little seat.rocket combo is supposed to just lift Hudemy onto the ascent vehicle so he can jump off and into the command pod. So far, no luck after a few attempts. Then it was late and bed called to me. Tonight, I shall have another go and am determined to nail it, that, or re-design the thing and send another one.

Best effort so far:

So damn close but getting out of the chair just dropped him back to the floor. Praise be for quick save!

Science. You will be mine, oh yes, you will be mine.

[Monkeh]

So this epic mission finally came to a close last night. Hudemy finally got himself back onto his return craft using the overly complex system worked out for him by the KSC engineers.

Safely stored science aboard, the return home was on...

We had a nice intercept burn planned. Was a fraction of a tenth of a m/s delta v taking me from under 20,000m periapsis to over 100,000m. This needed to be a very accurate burn with the little fuel I had left.

Hudemy just couldn't find the accuracy required this time and found himself with no fuel and a periapsis of 860,000m, way too high to start an aerobrake.

There was only one thing for it. To get out and push. That's right, using the EVA jetpack, Hudemy lined his craft up, got out of the capsule and pushed his craft into a lower trajectory.

Slowly and steadily, with 4 or 5 trips back to the command pod to refuel his pack, Hudemy, against all of the odds, managed to get an intercept with his home planet that would start the aerobrake and bring him down safely.

Drifting down nice and safe.

An epic mission lasting over 3000 days is finally brought to an end. Hudemy waited on Laythe for the rescue ship for over a year, he traveled millions and millions of miles and finally got back with a load of over 3300 science. Good work Hudemy, here's to the next trip!

Kerbal Space program. The only space program where getting out and pushing really can be the best thing to do!

Edited January 27, 2014 by Monkeh

[LordFjord]

One word: epic

Grats on the successful rescue. The beautiful pics as well.

[Monkeh]

Cheers man, it certainly felt pretty epic

I do love me a screenshot.