Kerbin: Earth Analog
Kerbals: Humankind Analog
Duna : Mars Analog
Ike : Duna's Moon
The existing infrastructure of our Duna Space Station was lacking and needed improvements. The station also needed an orbital adjustment to place it over Duna's equator and such a maneuver would consume nearly all of our fuel; thereby putting an end to any additional Duna missions. We decided to construct a large fueler which would replace the existing station's engines and increase it's fuel capacity. We would attempt bring as much fuel as possible to enable future Duna missions.
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| Construction of the Duna fueler. |
We began construction of the fueler in low Kerbin orbit. The craft consisted of seven separate parts which were docked individually through six orbital rendezvous. We fitted the craft with three large fuel tanks, three smaller tanks which would be used during the Duna transfer, and twelve nuclear engines. The Kerbals constructed an interplanetary vessel which would be used to eventually return a handful of Kerbals from Duna. The interplanetary craft was docked to the front of the fueler.
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| The finished Duna fueler. |
In the meantime, we had the Kerbals aboard the Duna Space Station adjust their orbital plane such that it matched Ike's. This orbit would position us over Duna's equator and would simplify the orbital rendezvous of landing craft returning to the station. Additionally, it would greatly simplify transfers to Ike as we would need no orbital adjustments. We might even be able to rescue the poor Kerbal who has been stranded on Ike for several years!
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| Top-Left & Top-Right: Adjusting our terrible Duna Space Station orbit. Bottom: The Duna Space Station. |
We calculated the transfer window and ejection angle and waited for the appropriate opportunity to move the fueler to Duna. Although we had twelve nuclear engines, we missed our first opportunity to have an appropriate ejection angle. Consequently, we waited for the next orbit around Kerbin and ejected appropriately.
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| Top-Left: Planning the transfer from Kerbin to Duna. Top-Right: Planning the ejection angle. Bottom: The fueler in action. |
We encountered Duna with no difficulties. We planned a transfer that would give us a smooth Duna encounter, slightly adjusted our orbital plane to match Duna's, and waited until we arrived at our periapsis with Duna. The Kerbals instructed the craft to burn retrograde until we would experience an encounter with Ike. We performed a gravity assist maneuver with Ike to decelerate and achieve a desirable orbit with Duna. We then performed multiple aerobrake maneuvers to acquire an orbit that was comparable to the Duna Space Station and would allow for an orbital rendezvous.
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| Top-Left & Top-Right: Gravity assist with Ike to decelerate. Bottom-Left & Bottom-Right: Aerobraking with Duna. |
We rendezvoused with the Duna Space Station and began the low-orbit constructions. We detached the engine module from the station and, likewise, we detached the the interplanetary craft from the fueler. In an extremely careful procedure, the Kerbals docked the fueler with the station. The interplanetary craft was attached securely to the side of the fueler module and the existing engine module was left to float forever in the vacuum of space.
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| Various stages of low-orbit construction of the Duna Space Station. Unfortunately during the night above Duna! |
The Kerbals celebrated the success of the mission! The Duna Space Station now had an appropriate orbit, a reasonable amount of fuel, and an interplanetary craft capable of returning home to Kerbin. We were prepared for many future missions.
Our next mission would likely be an Ike rescue mission. We have a Kerbal who has been stranded on Ike for a number of years and has run out of science to do. The Kerbals believe we should be able to use our interplanetary craft as a space tug. We could tug our smaller landing craft to Ike, land on Ike, rescue the Kerbal, launch and rendezvous with the tug, and have the rug return the landing craft to the station (in a manner very similar to the Apollo 11 landing!). The would be the plan anyways!
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| The complete Duna Space Station with various spacecraft attached. |
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