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3 hours to get my first lander on Mun. More than 5 hours to rescue them.


Zhatt

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(Easy to read image gallery here.)

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This is the result of 'Monday-3', my 3rd mission to Mun. Rayny, Philley, and Harwig had made a successful trip there, but due to an impatient Captain Philley, fuel was wasted burning towards the moon the more was wasted on the subsequent breaking burn. Now they were stuck; their only hope was rescue from Kerbin.

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Here sits 'Tuesday-5', a modified doctorheredoctor design: http://redd.it/qx0hn I used this design because I wanted a separate Mun escape module on top of the lander to ensure (using Kerbal logic) that I had enough fuel to get back home.

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I also used it because it\'s just damn good lookin\'.

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Here we see our ship 'Tuesday-5', the Mun-stricken 'Monday-3' as well as 'Monday-4' in low Mun orbit. Monday-4 was the first rescue attempt, but they quickly ran into a similar fate, running low on fuel. Leaning from past mistakes they aborted landing on Mun, keeping enough fuel to return home. They currently sit in orbit as they forgot to pack a parachute and aren\'t in any rush to do Kerbin reentry.

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'We\'re coming for ya, boys!'

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Some minor corrections... And about three quciksave reloads.

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Easy does it now. As usual Kelrie is in the washroom and missing all the excitement.

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Made it! Not a lot of fuel left and not as close as I would have liked, but close enough! I\'m sure the crew could use some exercise after being couped-up in that capsule for a day.

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Everyone in? Time to go home!

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Sunrise over Mun. Truth be told, this is a screenshot of one five times I tried leaving Mun. This one happens to be at about 3000m...

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I finally managed to make it back, but the smaller fuel tank doesn\'t give you much to work with, so you have to be very exact, with only the smallest of corrections. This stage is also very light, so adjustments are very sensitive.

I managed to make it back by setting my initial apoapsis to only 1000m above the surface. That took about a quarter tank.

(1) Once I reached that point, I burned at 90 degrees towards the horizon until I had a circular orbit at 1000m. That took another quarter tank.

(2) I waited until I was over the centre of the largest crater on the far-side of Mun before I did my escape burn to anticipate the movement of the moon. This took a third quarter of the fuel.

(3 & 4) Last, as soon as I could see the orbit around Kerbin, I did my retro-burn. The last image is right when I cut the engine and right when I used the last quarter. I turned it back on during reentry, but it immediately ran dry.

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Moon-set over Kerbin. I hope not to see Mun again anytime soon.

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Moment\'s before splashdown this screenshot crashed the game to windows. Thank goodness for autosaves! The crew of Monday-4 also made it back 'safely' even without a chute. They\'re still in recovery, but within a month or two they\'ll be able to fly again!

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