Mishap on the Mun...

[HafCoJoe]

The tale of 2 dauntless green men and the rescue of a friend.

Intro thing

So when I first played KSP, I had only the demo back in .13 when the only other celestial body besides Kerbin was the Mun. I like every KSP player wanted to land and return!

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Also like a few players though, I was discouraged by buying the full game and stopped playing until in the recent past when I couldn't stand waiting no more! Below is the documentary of my true first STEPS on the Mun in .21 and the misadventures involved with bringing the ever faithful Enory and Gerbles back home safe

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I hope you enjoy:

How it all started...

Whenever I start a new KSP save I always look for the recruits high in bravery and low in idiocy, but also I look for the coolest names. Enory was a great pick! Good name, high smarts, great for marketing... Gerbles was the smartest one in the list and had a good name too. SO I decided to send the two of 'em to the Mun...

Enory and Gerbles where going to be launched in a 3 engine rocket and stay on the surface for a few days walking around and exploring with a buggy on the bottom of the craft.

3,2,1, Liftoff! Just like a charm the rocket takes off perfectly. The craft then easily gets to LKO and then to transfer, and then to Munar orbit quite fine.

Feet on the ground

I swapped Enory into the hitchhiker module and left Gerbles to "pilot" down to the surface.

It turns out Enory is almost as smiley as Jeb! Maybe he's a relative or something I don't know

. I though he'd have fun taking the first steps.

The Lander sets carefully down on the Mun and I detach the buggy from the module. I get Enory to take the first steps and then Gerbles places a flag . The mission is a success! For now...

Where'd the lander go?!?

Meanwhile back at KSC, I start experimenting with Mechjeb to try and learn how to later transfer planets. In installing the mod, I sort of accidentally delete all the default control pods :I. I later realize this when the lander Gerbles and Enory were in is deleted. But if it was plain deleted, that would have been fine! Gerbles who was in the lander, materialized at base a few days later. Enory who was still sitting in the buggy on the Mun however, did not.

Gerbles to the rescue! Sort of...

I leave Enory on the mun guarding the flag for a few days while Gerbles prepares a brand spanking new base a bit better than the last to try a rescue mission.

I planned to take the new lander to the Armstrong memorial where Gerbles could plant a flag, take off again, and then wait for Enory to circumnavigate and meet him.

Gerbles goes in for a landing by the Armstrong crater, but as I descend, I notice that the fuel level on the corner and the fuel level above the engine are off. I managed to place the fuel lines backwards. Going in for landing... dropping... descending... and BOOM. Out of fuel :I 20 meters up, I start dropping.

Crash I hit the ground at about 20 meters per second! I bounce once! Ha still good! I bounce twice... nonono! stop tipping stahp! The lander tips onto its side. WELP it looks like this craft won't be rescuing anyone. Now I have 2 Kerbals stranded on opposite sides of the Mun. I start getting Enory to trek back to Gerbles to see if I can use only 1 craft to rescue them both.

After a frustrating hour of me flipping the buggy over, plopping Enory back in the seat, and clambering out of yet ANOTHER crater, I realized that wasn't going to happen.

Meanwhile I was theorizing how to save them both with only one mission. I ended up making a tiny 2 capsule lander that would rescue them. Gerbles was coming up with his own plans though...

The plan

"the buggy when flipped upside down, made a perfect ramp."

I realized that I might still be able to get Gerbles off the ground. The lander I built for Gerbles and the Armstrong base had a buggy equipped, and a detachable stage for the return trip. I detached the buggy used its flip proof landing gear to try and catapult the tipped lander right side up. This was of no use though so I went back to the drawing board. Eureka! I built the buggy with enough RCS on board to actually fly. I also found that the buggy when flipped upside down, made a perfect ramp.

I detached the return stage and used the buggy to flip the base without the final stage on top. I then rolled the final stage (crushing some solar panels) out of the way facing the best direction for orbit. I flipped the buggy over, and using RCS positioned it about 5 meters in front of the return stage. Gerbles was getting a bit anxious...

I switch over to Enory and send him into orbit after a hectic few extra days roaming the surface of the Mun while I start thinking of the best way to send Gerbles back.

Blast off!

The sun rises over the blank gray hills of the mun and Gerbles begins final preparation for his life or death task.

I disable the engine and throttle all the way to max. I haven't tried taking off from the Mun yet with a nuclear engine so I really have no clue whether it even has enough thrust to take off ! I countdown in my head while "taps" plays in the background... 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Blast off! The rocket lurches forwards and connects with the rover. They both grind against the ground for a few meters and then the rover gives. The rocket points skyward and takes to the sky!

Huzzah! Gerbles stares out of his window and watches the rover bounce across the ground a few hundred meters below.

After the crazy takeoff Gerbles gets back to KSC quite easily and lives with his pal Enory happily for the rest of their life... Or not... I actually end up sending the 2 of 'em with a new Kerman named Scott (who I like to think of as the rich guy who decided to go for kicks) to a Jool station. The plan also of which is practically scratched and twisted into a whole new story...

The end... For now...

Thanks for reading! I'll post a link to Gerble and Enory's adventure with Jool if you guys like it enough

PS all these ships are really ugly because I had just started playing :I

See you all later!

[Horus]

To me all these ships are nice, since you are using stock parts only. Well done, man, well done.

[AtomicNinja17]

Great Job Man