Kerbal Space Program: Gilly Landing

Mission: Land a Kerbal on Gilly and return to Kerbin.

Gilly: Captured Asteroid
Eve: Venus Analog

Orbital transfer from Kerbin to Eve.

Lemfry Kerbin was awoken from his sleep inside the Pancake 2 when Mission Control alerted him he would be departing for the Eve planetary system. The Pancake 2 had been parked in an orbit approximately 100,000 kilometers above the surface of Kerbin. An orbital transfer window was opening and, without hesitation, Lemfry ignited the engines and soared towards Eve.

Lemfry exploring outside the Pancake 2 near Eve.

This was not the first time we had visited Eve. Prior to the discovery of documentation, a satellite had been positioned around Eve and a small rover landed on the surface. Furthermore, when Gerlo had commandeered the Dresollo 1, the craft performed a gravity assist with the purple giant on its way to Moho. Nonetheless, this was the first officially sanctioned kerballed expedition to the Eve system. It may surprising then that the target was not the planet itself, but rather the asteroid Gilly, which was captured in Eve's gravitational influence.

Orbiting Gilly.

While the planet Eve would have made for many interesting discoveries, the gravity of the planet is too high and the atmosphere too thick to escape from the planet after landing. Any Eve landing would surely be a one way voyage. Nonetheless, Gilly is interesting in its own right. The captured asteroid is extremely small compared to any other known moon in the Kerbol system. The consequence of this is that a landing feels like a docking maneuver with a very large object.

Landing on Gilly.

Lemfry entered the Eve system and obtained a reasonably circular orbit a handful kilometers above the surface of Gilly. The landing craft was separated from the Pancake 2's nuclear engines and was directed towards the surface of Gilly. This required Lemfry to point the rocket towards Gilly's surface and fire the engines, creating a collision course with the popcorn-shaped asteroid. This procedure was reverse as the craft neared the surface and the lander appeared to silently float in place. The RCS boosters were activated and the lander was pushed against the surface to ensure it wouldn't accidentally bounce back towards space.

Lemfry floating above the surface of Gilly.

Once confident that the landing craft was reasonably stationary, Lemfry stepped onto the surface of Gilly. Lemfry claims he uttered something profound about Kerbalkind's place in the universe, but it was subsequently lost in a radio chatter argument between Gerlo and the Kerbals active at the Mun Base. Nonetheless, Lemfry collected a number of samples and experimented with Gilly's extremely minimal gravity. When jumping, Lemfry discovered he could send himself several kilometers away from the surface. It was fortunate Lemfry was equipped with RCS boosters which could direct him back towards the landing craft.

Pancake 2 rendezvoused and returning to Kerbin.

The return trip was largely uneventful and without error. Lemfry departed from the surface of Gilly and rendezvoused with the orbiting nuclear engines he had separated from when preparing to land. The Pancake 2 craft was reassembled in orbit around Gilly and Lemfry prepared the craft for the next orbital transfer window. When the window appeared, Lemfry departed from Gilly into Eve's gravitational influence, corrected his orbital plane around Eve, and finally departed from Eve towards Kerbin. Lemfry returned to Kerbin and seperated the landing craft from the nuclear engines. The parachutes were activated and Lemfry landed on Kerbin without any difficulties.