CSSPS Mission to Minmus report

[Hero of Time AND Space]

Ship: Explorer Mk2

Crew: Jebidiah Kerman

Result: Jeb died trying to return

Report: The first Minmus lander, Explorer Mk2, was launched on Year 1, Month 2, Day 5. After having a rough landing on Minmus, after landing and receiving the science, KSC pointed out there was no possible way to return with only 7.5 liters/gallons (I don't know the measurements) of liquid fuel. KSC Left Jeb on Minmus for 330 days! Returning to the mission after bill spotting a lander on a Minmus flyby. 2 Escape attempts were launched to try to get Jeb back to Kerbin. None worked because of KSP's top rocket builders being on break (Really I didn't calculate fuel correctly, but that works fine, I hope) KSP gave Jeb a shot at burning strait towards Kerbin in hopes of having part of the orbit in LKO and rescuing the rocket and Jeb when it flys by.

But sadly Explorer Mk2 ran out of electric charge and Jeb suffocated to death. An uncontrollable craft stuck in HKO was terminated by KSC.

Sorry for no pictures and a very bad description of the mission report, this is my first post on the forums and I felt like sharing this mission really badly.

[Zylark]

Poor Jebediah! In the future though, when designing rockets, use the mods MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer Redux so that you get some crucial information on your vessel as you are building it. Such as weight and dV per stage - even adjusted to the various planets and moons. That way you never run out of fuel by anything other than screwing up the actual flying of the thing. Which do happen to the best of us

Oh, and welcome to the forums. May your stay be long and enjoyable

Edited August 12, 2014 by Zylark

[Hero of Time AND Space]

Thanks for the mods, and the warm welcome. I just got the mods but really.... I don't know how much dV it takes to get to Minmus, meh I can experiment and now I have a satellite heading towards Duna so that'll be an interesting report from mission control.

[Zylark]

To find out how much dV you need to anywhere, just put some satellite into a decent orbit (300+ km), and then use that to plot a dummy course to wherever. Down at the Navball, you will see how much dV is needed to perform the maneuver.

With experience you will get to know that with a very roomy dV budget, you will need about 1500dV to get to Mun and back, and 2000dV to Minmus and back. Plus whatever an optional lander will need to get down and up again to either moon.

There is plenty of information both here on the forums and the wiki. Read some mission reports, look at some videos (Scott Manley is always a favourite) and just dive deep into the wast ocean that is KSP and all the wonderful mods that make the game your game, not just any game