The science return capsule trio left towards the Mun after being dropped to LKO by the 12-ton launcher.
I circularized at high Mun orbit before going for a classic Hohmann transfer orbit for an intercept with the station.
I hit a bit of an annoying snag (a game bug) here. My Mun station doesn’t have a whole lot of standard docking ports. The capsule return package does…but the plan was to undock the fuel tug first, attach the capsule return vehicle to the station, then dock the fuel tug onto that. Turns out, the docking ports between the fuel tug and the crew module of the station had fuzed together. Not great…and requires a manual registry fix, apparently…ain’t nobody got time for that.
Oh well, change of plan.
I left the science capsule truck parked up and took the passenger ferry vessel down to the lander on its low orbit with Bob onboard. Bob went for a stroll outside and reset the science equipment to ready the lander for the next trip down to the surface.
After the lander’s fuel tanks were refilled from the ferry’s larger reserves, it was time for Valentina to burn retrograde and head back down.
Her destination - The Canyons. I can honestly say that was a terrifying descent. The lander doesn’t have great TWR with its single engine and the required course correction inside the canyon to avoid a wall whilst still having a good amount of surface velocity was a decidely hairy undertaking.
Still, we made it. A cool landing site, definitely. Valentina ran the experiments, wrote her report, chose a few pretty rocks to bring back, planted a flag and boosted out of the Canyons.
Once the lander was established on a stable orbit, the passenger ferry came down for the usual pickup.
The next step was to go find the science return capsules. I took my time and did a leisurly join over a number of orbits. It’s easy on the delta-V budget and safer when down low: a poorly planned rendezvous can cause unscheduled lithobraking and catastrophic spacecraft reconfiguration when you fail to realise that someone moved a mountain between you and your orbital path. Don’t ask me how I know, I just know.
I refilled the lander’s tanks while waiting for the science capsule vehicle to float closer.
Then it was time for Valentina to take the lander over to the science capsules to offload the findings.
Uploading…10%…20%…30%…
Once uploaded, it was time to detach the pod. I brought three capsules - one trip down seems to fill up a capsule with science with one report left over, so I’ll have some reports to take home in other ways after these three have been spent, but that’s okay.
A pretty neat view of Kerbin, the lander-capsule vehicle combo, the passenger ferry and the first deployed science return capsule.
Once the capsule was deployed, Valentina drove the lander back over to the ferry so Bob could scrub clean the science equipment.
Bob reveled in his success after sorting out the science pods. We did point out to him that was kind of his only job, so it’s good he didn’t fail to deliver - but hey, it’s good he enjoys it. Once we come up with a concept of an orbital lab, he’ll have more to do.
Valentina then headed back towards the surface again, narrowly avoiding a crash with the science capture vessel on her way down. Please check your blind spot before changing lanes next time.
The ships staying in orbit were docked together in the meantime so I wouldn’t lose them so easily.
The return capsule probe fired up it’s systems, getting ready for the burn back for Kerbin.
The lander’s next trip was to the…eastern farside crater, I think. Something like that. A bit of a rushed descent, as I was going to run out of daylight in the depression before long.
I almost screwed the pooch on this one. Check out the electric charge. It was at 0…I ran out of juice. Luckily the engine has gimbal so I could realign the static solar panels and get some charge back. I got my reaction wheels back online before it was too late.
I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable with the ground whizzing past so close before the burn, especially before the view spins 90 degrees so the sky is where it is supposed to be. This was especially bad as the crater rim was higher than the rest of the terrain. My landing burn took place right after the crest of the rim.
Another day, another landing, thought Valentina, the steely-eyed missile kerbal, as she planted a flag in the fading light.
Once Valentina was safely back in orbit, it was time for the science capsule to be fired off back towards Kerbin. The transfer was uneventful and I even remembered to retract the solar panel before the first dip into Kerbin’s atmosphere. I forgot the antenna out and that got fried but that doesn’t really matter, we have probe control and we’re not intending to send the science back over radio waves.
I extended the solar panel back out after landing to act as a sail on the journey back to KSP…I’m joking.
Not a bad haul of science.
I gave some thought to the next steps on the tech tree, and I decided on a bit of a stretch goal. I like big docking ports and I cannot lie. Less wobble, cleaner looking rockets, strong connections - all the good things.
It’s an end-game technology, though…so I’ll need to upgrade the R&D center and bring home quite a bit more science. That’s okay, we’ll get there.
