Bay 12 Games Forum

Alright. I think we want to go to Minmus. So, let's build a rocket for that lander and...go from there.

It is with pride that I reveal the newest, most impressive rocket that we have built and not exploded:


_{You know, nine failed versions were so worth it just so we could call this one the Minmushot X.}

Bob flies this potentially vital, definitely historic, mission.

Takeoff is swift. The craft develops a slight westward tilt and clockwise spin (Next version should include fins), but despite that minor snafu things are alright. We reach gravity-turn elevation with the boosters, discard them when empty, and...the main engine doesn't fire? It seems we put too much weight on it. The launch is aborted, and a couple minor flaws (tilt, spin, engine breaks off) are fixed.
This takeoff is smoother. We fly up straight as an arrow in one of those video games where arrows fly straight, nothing falls off, and I take that back the engine fell off again. I move the rocket higher to prevent this.
The third time's the charm! No important bits fell off. We discard the solid boosters and the rocket engages.


_{Now, that is a good little rocket. Like a...flaming...pointy...thing...in the sky...maybe we should hire more poets.}

I cut the fuel to the main rocket as we get an apoapsis of 72,500 meters. Turns out I shouldn't have bothered--the rocket's fuel ran out right then. So, no intra...something stages will be perpetually orbiting Kerbin just yet. I quickly set up a decent maneuver node that brings our periapsis to within space-spitting distance of the current apoapsis.


_{I can't help but wonder if MechJeb is impacting the quality of my pretty pictures.}

The lander has over 3,000 m/s of Δv, and over 1,200 in the landing stage. That should be enough to reach Minmus, right? The Δv map says we only need 920 for an intercept, 80 more for a low orbit, and...240 to land...well, we can get orbital science I guess. Then crew reports and stuff from various biomes.
The estimated burn time, 37 seconds, was evidently for the wrong stage; it jumps up to nearly two minutes once we start burning. I keep an eye on the periapsis, preparing to cut throttle once we break 70k. Even with this focus, I can't help but notice that for a while the apopasis is rising a meter for every kilometer added to the periapsis.
Orbital speed breaks two km/s. Periapsis still subterranean. Subkerbal, sorry. Shortly thereafter, the burn is half-done, periapsis still underground. Rising faster, though.
We hit the upper edges of the atmosphere, periapsis still underground. Uh-oh.
The periapsis rises above 30 kilometers. The camera turns. The periapsis rises. The maneuver node runs out, and begins to turn. I quickly cut the throttle and prepare to fiddle with maneuver nodes.
The apoapsis is over 250 kilometers. Rather than circularize that, I just bring the periapsis up to just below 90k.


_{Cruising up to apoapsis for a burn. Pretty picture.}

That was sunset. Bob waits through a brief night...


_{Still cruising...getting pretty close, though...}

...and burns.
(No picture because of brief burn.)
We're in orbit and ready. We have...eurgh, not quite 450 m/s of Δv in this tin can. That's not enough for much of anything, now is it? If we tapped into the nearly 2,000 m/s of Δv in the capsule, we could probably make it to something, but...well...I suppose orbital science is good too.
A quick bit of research determines that we were within a few kilometers of the altitude for space high above Kerbin, so a quick burn at periapsis brings our apoapsis to 260 kilometers, high enough for space high above Kerbin. We snap up some science once high enough and then empty the "lander"'s fuel tank for a rapid descent. I considered leaving the lander orbiting in space, but by the time this occurred to me the periapsis was already at 50 kilometers, and we were well on our way by the time I thought about maybe raising the periapsis to drop the thing. Eh, I'd need to retrieve the experiments first, and...will the parachutes even support the lander's weight?

Time to stress-test it, I guess. Better save some fuel.


<sub>Water. Lots of water, stretching to the horizon in all directions...

...except that one, I guess.</sub>

Aerobraking and a little enginework help brake my fall. Okay, mostly the air.


_{No, I don't know why the solar panel pop-up is there. It's been hanging there a while, despite my best attempts to close it.}

We experience some mach effects once the re-entry flames die down, but they're not as strong as the ones on Meleny's pod. The parachute is deployed at 8,000 meters, and the engine is used to slow down the descent in hopes of not smashing the experiments when the parachute deploys. This is successful, or maybe the experiments wouldn't have broken--I don't know. The rest of the fuel is used slowing down upon final descent, killing our vertical velocity for final splashdown.


_{A few seconds after an explosion.}

It was too little too late, but eh. Well, the boys in R&D managed to get a little data from the surviving mystery goo.