Golden Moments

[rodion_herrera]

Please close if there's a similar kind of thread (I checked 2 pages back and there was none so I started this).

I was doing a probe mission to Duna in my 0.90.0 easy career. There was also an Ike exploration offer, so I accepted both. I didn't really know if I could do both missions in one go, because I wasn't sure if my probe lander had enough fuel for the job. However, when I arrived in the Vicinity of Duna, I noticed that right after my aerobraking maneuver, my orbit was just enough to get me into encounter with Ike. It was such that I didn't have to expend a lot of propellant to do all the maneuvers, so I managed to land on Ike, notch up a contract completion, then land on Duna and notch that one up too. I call these 'golden moments' in KSP, very rewarding feeling. I guess there would be certain launch windows that could really predict such moments accurately, but the very reason why you get all glowey is because it happened without really planning for it.

[moogoob]

Well done! It helps a bit that Ike encounters are a dime a dozen given how big and close to Duna the bloody moon is, but it's always a thrill when you knock off multiple contracts on one mission.

[Rolanvorxariat]

That first time I used a gravity assist, to get to Duna via the mun. And that time I was aiming for Duna, accidentally burned too much, and got a laythe encounter.

[[email protected]]

Setting a probe up to do a Munar flyby and getting a free return entirely by accident.

[Travisfv]

After messing around for god knows how many hours trying to build a space plane, I finally design one that can make orbit, and it could reach my station at 200km orbit. Literally, first plane that could do it. 650 hours into the game, I built my first space plane. Great feeling.

Next though is the Golden Moment. In my never ending tedium of just trying to make orbit, I always forgot something. This time it was any source of electricity generation or storage. I arrived 5km out from the station on just RCS and a good pilot. Next mistake, only the monopropellant from the cockpit was on board. I managed to make two maneuvers with my rockets, KW rockets that were the type that take time to throttle up and down, and place myself within 200 meters.

By this time I'm running on 5.35 units of monopropellant. In painstakingly slow approach, with a twitchy craft with poorly placed RCS blocks (Still my first successful attempt at a space plane), I get within 5 meters of my target. 2 units of Monopropellant left.

The space plane is about 20 degrees off of the proper rotation to line up. I do a quick burst in translation mode to reverse the craft (which rotates it downward and for some unexplainable reason lifts it up), and then quickly burst the last unit of monopropellant upwards and shut down the pilots control, which honestly did not matter because he had nothing left to work with.

I attach and now they sit and wait on the station until the next successful plane arrives with an engineer and some KAS parts to power the space plane enough to return home. Docking is something I can do in my sleep when it comes to regular pods and service modules of any size. But this was extra special for me.

[rodion_herrera]

That first time I used a gravity assist, to get to Duna via the mun. And that time I was aiming for Duna, accidentally burned too much, and got a laythe encounter.

Like...wow. That's crazy. I don't know if it's "golden" though...I mean did you like being there? LOL

[rodion_herrera]

After messing around for god knows how many hours trying to build a space plane, I finally design one that can make orbit, and it could reach my station at 200km orbit. Literally, first plane that could do it. 650 hours into the game, I built my first space plane. Great feeling.

Next though is the Golden Moment. In my never ending tedium of just trying to make orbit, I always forgot something. This time it was any source of electricity generation or storage. I arrived 5km out from the station on just RCS and a good pilot. Next mistake, only the monopropellant from the cockpit was on board. I managed to make two maneuvers with my rockets, KW rockets that were the type that take time to throttle up and down, and place myself within 200 meters.

By this time I'm running on 5.35 units of monopropellant. In painstakingly slow approach, with a twitchy craft with poorly placed RCS blocks (Still my first successful attempt at a space plane), I get within 5 meters of my target. 2 units of Monopropellant left.

The space plane is about 20 degrees off of the proper rotation to line up. I do a quick burst in translation mode to reverse the craft (which rotates it downward and for some unexplainable reason lifts it up), and then quickly burst the last unit of monopropellant upwards and shut down the pilots control, which honestly did not matter because he had nothing left to work with.

I attach and now they sit and wait on the station until the next successful plane arrives with an engineer and some KAS parts to power the space plane enough to return home. Docking is something I can do in my sleep when it comes to regular pods and service modules of any size. But this was extra special for me.

These are moments that should really have been caught on video, and everyone watching would have been biting their lip or seated at the edge of the seat ahaha, great story!

[Nemrav]

with 30 parts and most basic tracking station....

the asparagus got me 1/3 of the dv to the mun, the little (1/2 sized 1m stack,pod,goo,2parachute,4panels,lv-909) pod had to do the rest...

I did a blind landing (litterally could not see anything on external) using only iva instruments at best... I even chose my landing spot blind...

Landed, almost perfectly flat terrain, fufilled contracts and proceded to get into the wrong orbit direction for a return....

Boosted out of the mun, only to get into a bigger kerbin orbit....

Waited til apoaps, tried to de-orbit, but not enough fuel..

So jeb got out and pushed, and it worked, I returned successfully..