Kerbal Space Program: Moho Rescue

Mission: Rescue the Kerbals stranded on Moho.

Unmanned Pancake 3 lander approaching the surface of Dres.

Moho had proven to be a very a challenging target for operations. The closest planet to Kerbol had been avoided for quite some time because of its high orbital velocity and steep orbital inclination made encounters very challenging. When Gerlo Kerman, rogue Kerbalnaut, commandeered the Dreollo 1 landing craft and guided the it to Moho, mission control knew the poor Kerbal would be stranded on the unwelcoming planet for many decades.

There was one rescue attempt, before developing the Pancake 3 rocket, which had failed miserably and was purged from records. With the invention of the Pancake 3, there was renewed hope in rescuing the Kerbals from Moho. However, one problem was that the Pancake had room only one Kerbalnaut, and mission control needed to rescue three. The solution was simple; two chairs were strapped to the outside of the spacecraft and the unlucky Kerbals would have to ride outside the craft for the duration of the voyage.

With this plan, an unmanned Pancake 3 spacecraft was launched to Moho!

Two Kerbalnauts enjoying the view outside.

The Pancake 3 arrived at Moho and performed insertion burns as it done for many similar missions. The landing location was spotted and mission control guided the spacecraft to within a few kilometers of Gerlo Kerman. The stranded Kerbals EVA'd over to the Pancake and boarded their ride home, with Gerlo Kerman forcibly claiming the comfortable seat on the inside.

The return trip to Kerbin was uneventful. The landing, however, was quite terrifying. The parachutes failed during the last kilometer of descent and the engines needed to be fired to be soften the imminent explosion. The two kerbals unfortunate enough to be on the outside of the spacecraft ejected at the last minute to prevent their bodies from being destroyed by the exploding Pancake. Their bodies were thrown down the side of a mountain and battered tremendously.

Fortunately, everyone survived and the kerbals had made it back from Moho in a manageable number of pieces!

Surviving the parachute failure!

Kerbal Space Program: Mods and Minmus Science

I've been experimenting with a number of mods recently. I already had Kerbal Attachment System installed, because I believe the ability to refuel a spacecraft without docking it should be included in the base game, but I wanted to explore the magnitude of mods which exist for the game. I was particularly looking for mods which made bases and space stations worthwhile. I copied my existing KSP directory and added the following mods:

• Procedural Fairings - Introduces fairings which cover payloads.
• Kerbal Alarm Clock - Allows creation of alarms which interrupt time acceleration.
• TAC Life Support - Introduces life support (food, water, oxygen).
• Kerbal Engineer - Displays spacecraft information (thrust-to-weight-ratio, delta-v).
• Infernal Robotics - Introduces a number of small gadgets (hinges, washers).
• KSP Intersteller - Introduces future tech (nuclear power, antimatter, FTL travel).
• Kethane - Allows mining of Kethane from moons & planets which can be refined into fuels.
• Biomass - Introduces modules which can grow food or create oxygen.
• TAC Fuel Balancer - Provides a convenient way of moving resources throughout a craft.

The inclusion of these mods has meant that I've needed to start a new game in career mode. This isn't very problematic because I'm already familiar with the game concepts and it allows me to revisit places I haven't visited in a while. The 0.23.5 patch rendered my previous career mode corrupt and effectively turned into sandbox mode, thereby making collecting science meaningless. In my new game, I'm collecting science again and re-experiencing the challenges of hauling science equipment.

Minmus Mobile Science Lab

As part of this science gathering process, I created a Minmus Mobile Science Lab that was capable of gathering science from at least five of Minmus' biomes in a single expedition. I've been wanting to experiment with building a lander that utilizes nuclear engines, but haven't found the opportunity. Nuclear engines are highly efficient in the vacuum of space, however they have an absolutely horrible thrust-to-weight ratio (TWR) and are so long and heavy that building a lander that utilizes them becomes challenging.

I was able to use Kerbal Engineer to determine what the Science Lab's TWR would be before I launched the spacecraft and could be confident the lander would operate on the gravitational weak moon of Minmus. The mission was very successful and I collected a ridiculous amount of science from Minmus' flats, lowlands, slopes, highlands, and poles.

I have one more mission to report on from my previous save game, however I will likely switch focus to my moded save game moving forward.

Kerbal Space Program: Eeloo Landing

Mission: Land on and return from Eeloo.

Eeloo: Europa

Launching the Pancake 3.

Eeloo is the outermost and least explored planet in the Kerbol system. Although approximately the size of Kerbin's moon, Eeloo has somehow managed to clear its immediate orbital neighborhood and become locked in a 2:3 resonance with the significantly larger Jool. It is covered with large sheets of ice which are assumed to be cracked as a result of gravitational forces causing tidal flexing on Eeloo.

The origin of this gravity is unknown and was described as dark matter by an overexcited group of Kerbal scientists when reporting their results to news outlets. Nonetheless, there are a number of mysteries surrounding Eeloo which warrant further investigation. We are interested in discovering if the laws of physics continue to operate as expected that far into space.

A successful orbital insertion at Eeloo.

This Eeloo mission was very similar to our recent missions. Sigfried Kerman, the renowned Kerbal pilot, was chosen to pilot the reliable, interplanetary Pancake 3 spacecraft. Lemfry, our seasoned kerbalnaut, would be resting after his recent decades in space during our Jool missions. Sigfried represents our efforts to expand our available crew and provide experience to younger Kerbals.

Descending to the surface of Eeloo.

The journey to Eeloo was long and dreadfully uneventful. Sigfried performed a rendezvous and orbital insertion with Eeloo. While descending towards the surface of Eeloo, Sigfried remarked on how overwhelming desolate the planet appeared. The notable terrain features were the collision regions between ice sheets and were observable only while several kilometers above the surface. There was nothing of note on the surface of the planet or in the immediate vicinity.

Eeloo landing site.

We were unable determine how Eeloo managed to clear it's orbital neighborhood or discover the gravitational source of tidal acceleration on Eeloo. Nonetheless, while the mission was unsuccessful and largely uneventful, we now have landed kerbals and probes on every planet in the Kerbol system. What remains is rescuing Gerlo Kerman from the surface of Moho and performing a landing and return on both Eve and Tylo.