First Kerballed Landing on Duna - The Kraken dooms Jeb!

[GigaG]

Note: This is a true story.

Launching the first mission to Duna was a great mission for Kerbalkind. Jeb, Bill, and Bob went atop their massive rocket. It's central core was a super-powerful 4-engine cluster, followed by "asparagus-staging" 4 massive liquid rocket boosters. Atop it was a short Rockomax Skipper stage, and atop that was the Kommand and Service Module, a 2 Kerbal capsule whose twin nuclear engines would provide the primary propulsion during transfers. The Dunar Module sat on top - it was built similarly, with the same amount of fuel, but had provisions for landing, more RCS capability, science equipment and a capacity of only 2 kerbals. It also had twin nuclear engines, which would work for launch in Duna's low gravity. Finally, the DM had 6 parachutes - 2 drogue chutes and 4 normal chutes - which would slow the craft down. The KSM and DM were stacked on top of each other, with the KSM's nose connected to the DM's tail. The whole upper stack was stabilized with struts for the launch and trans-Dunar injection. The cost of the mission was almost $300,000, but Duna was the next frontier of space exploration - besides, plenty of science would be returned.

Duna I was launched into an equatorial Kerbin orbit with little issue, besides the known issue of this rocket producing mysterious explosions when the first set of liquid boosters are jettisoned.

The mission profile called for a transfer to Duna, of course. This went perfectly fine. After a few reloading of quicksaves (first attempt went too low), Duna I entered orbit around Duna. Ike was not a problem - the approach led Duna I into a near-polar orbit. The Dunar Module separated with Jeb and Bob aboard - Bill had just respawned after a Kraken attack at Minmus, and he didn't really want to participate in what may be the riskiest mission in the history of the program. He would stay up, functioning as Kommand Module Pilot for this portion of the trip. Entry of the Dunar Module went smoothly, with chutes deploying despite the fact that the drogue chutes deployed later than originally designed (I changed the atmosphere pressure value and could not return it.) As the parachutes approached full opening, Jeb throttled up the nuclear engines. Before landing, the engines slowed the lander to a safe landing speed.

Out on Duna, Jeb and Bob did science, collecting all the data that they. They did wish that they could have brought more disposable modules (Mystery Goo or Science Jr.) or even a processing lab for the Kommand Module, but that was impractical, considering the size of a lab. The first Kerbals on Duna planted a flag. Right before liftoff, the parachutes were repacked. The Dunar module would not be returning to Kerbin, but looking back, this feature would be useful if liftoff failed. Liftoff used quite a bit of fuel, but they were able to get into a near-polar orbit and rendezvous with the Kommand and Service Module.

The docked ships proceeded to Ike. Despite transferring from a Dunar polar orbit, the crew successfully encountered Ike and got into an orbit at about a 45 degree inclination. This time, Bill decided to accompany Jeb to the surface. Once again, the Dunar Module detached and proceeded down to Ike. Ike was thoroughly studied, and liftoff went without incident (besides nearly smashing into some mountains at periapsis.) Rendezvous was conducted once again.

Once the Dunar Module was docked, the crew began to transfer supplies and science. But as Jeb spacewalked to check some of the scientific sensors to make sure we didn't leave any data, he got stuck in struts atop the Dunar Module. Somehow, this act summoned a Kraken (I think a Gyro Kraken), causing Jeb to contort and fly away at ludicrous speeds. I accidentally quicksaved while Jeb was being Krakened, so I could only reload with him stuck on a suborbital trajectory towards Ike. Despite using all of his EVA fuel to insert himself into orbit, his periapsis was underground (most of Ike is at high elevation.) Jeb smashed into the surface, dying instantly. Hoping to avoid the fate of their comrade, Bill and Bob checked the sensors from inside the ship. (I didn't realize that I could get all the info I needed from in the ship until after Jeb was doomed.) Luckily, the only 2 sensors that needed to have data removed were easily accessible by ladder. After topping off the Kommand Module's RCS tanks with the surplus fuel from the Dunar Module and transferring all the remaining fuel from the Dunar Module into their own fuel tanks, the now-unmanned Dunar Module was cast off. It had the ability to operate autonomously, so it was de-orbited using RCS and crashed into Ike.

About a year or so later, the planets had aligned. Bill and Bob were eager to get home. They changed their Ike orbit to an equatorial orbit and found a rather efficient path home. As the Kommand Module approached Kerbin, the Service Module, with barely any fuel, was jettisoned. All that was left was the Kommand module, consisting of a docking port, an RCS tank, some thrusters, a large reaction wheel, 2 radial parachutes, and the core capsule. Slamming into Kerbin's atmosphere, the Kommand Module glowed brightly, but made it through. The Service Module made its uncontrolled re-entry nearby, and from external view, one could see its solar panels breaking off. The parachutes deployed without incident. With 3200-something (if I remember correctly) science points and one less Kerbal than they departed with, Duna I splashed down without incident almost 3 years after liftoff, allowing the Kerbineers to finish designing most of the remaining technology that they were working on.

As of the last time I checked, Jeb is still listed as "dead" and has not respawned. He has died once before. I imagine he will respawn someday, though.