Monday 2 December 2013

Old Kerbal Diaries: Mission to Minmus


Following on from my Mun mission [link], I've decided to land on Minmus.

Here is the launch vehicle on the pad. You'll notice that it looks similar to my Mun lander - that's because it is the same ship. Because Minmus has such low gravity, it is much easier to land on it which approximately offsets the increased difficulty of reaching it.
The main boosters were separated before burning towards Minmus, mainly because they were horrible to control. Maybe in the next version, I'll replace the LV-T30 boosters with LV-T45 boosters (for non-KSP players - LV-T30 are powerful but can't be steered, LV-T45 are slightly weaker but they can be steered).

The burn to Minmus begins. Using the lander as a transfer stage is feasible because it contains a large amount of fuel compared to what it needs to land.
The transfer goes off without a hitch, but it's a bit too inclined against Minmus' orbit. The flyby of Minmus puts on on an almost polar orbit around Kerbin, which means that my encounter puts me flying over the north or south pole of Minmus - not good, since that means launching back to Kerbin will be gard.

A short mid-course adjustment later, and the encounter hits the equator of Minmus. Perfect!

Unfortunately, the periapsis of my orbit is on the night side of Minmus, which means that I'll have to enter an orbit.

I circularise, and then lower my periapsis so it's directly above the landing site I want to land on.

Too late, I realise my landing site is going to be on a slop in the dark. That's what I get for trying to land near the terminator.
Jebediah Kerman lands on Minmus, and plants a flag which promptly falls over. This is after using almost all of my electricity in a failed attempt to keep the lander upright.
When Jebediah stands out of the way of the lander, it rolls another 115.8 m away from the landing site, before finally coming to a stop.
However, the ElectricCharge left is only 1.72, which is too small to risk taking off again. Time for a rescue mission!


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