Year 5, Day 422 (Unity Space Station Landing on Farside Crater, Munar Canyons!)

July 13, 2017July 14, 2017 sayburstuff Year 5 Gilian, Kerlorf, Luly, Mun, Robart, Unity Space Station

LandingMapMun

Luly and Kerlorf prepare to head down in the (very) delayed USS-LS03 landing! Both the Farside crater and the Munar Canyons will be investigated!

The Unity Research Lander undocks, and heads down to the surface!

Luly watches as Kerlorf plants the flag at the Farside crater landing site!

“It’s time to head over to those canyons!”

-Luly

Luly and Kerlorf land at the Munar Canyons and take readings – both are getting pretty exhausted, especially Luly! A future Aurora mission is being planned to swap the crew out!

The lander heads back to orbit, then sets course for Unity Space Station!

“Fuel on this one is very, very tight. I think future landings we should keep it to just one landing… no jumps! This isn’t Minmus afterall!”

-Luly

The next crew for the Unity Space Station is slated to be Robart and Gilian – both have experience landing on Minmus, but this will be their first time on Mun!

Year 4, Day 342 (Next Unity Mun Landing Announced!)

June 16, 2017June 16, 2017 sayburstuff Year 4 Kerlorf, Luly, Mun, Unity Space Station

The next landing for the research team at Unity Space Station is announced! The landing will be at the far side crater, at site USSLS03-A. From there, the somewhat more dangerous investigation of the Farside Canyons will be conducted.

Luly and Kerlorf will be the crew for this landing!

“Before we go back to the surface I need some time to rest! We need to get more scientists up here!”

-Luly

“Well, in the meantime we can ditch the Munar transfer stage… we’ve finally used up all its fuel! ”

-Dunwin

Year 4, Day 339 (Unity Station Arrives at Mun!)

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 sayburstuff Year 4 Aurora 16, Dunwin, Edan, Kerlorf, Luly, Mun, Seely, Unity Space Station

Aurora 16 blasts off, taking Edan, Dunwin, and Kerlorf on their way to Mun (and with them, the new Lander that Unity Space Station will need!)

Aurora 16 will also be a test of the new second stage for the Sarnus V Heavy – a mono-propellant based engine called the LV-601-4.

Success! Aurora 16 arrives at Mun. First, the lander heads over…

Then the Command Module docks with the station.

“Wow! Quite the crowd up here!”

-Luly

Luly is correct – along with her, Seely, Edan, Dunwin, and Kerlorf are staying on the station for a decent amount of time. The crew is mostly rookies, at least in regards to landing on other worlds! Each of the crew will get a chance to head down and investigate a different region of Mun. It should be quite teh adventure!

Year 4, Day 288 (Unity Space Station Heads to Mun!)

June 7, 2017June 7, 2017 sayburstuff Year 4 CTS-1 Adventure, Edan, Luly, Mun, Seely, Unity Space Station

Seely and rookie scientist Luly are chosen for the first crew aboard Unity Space Station! Edan pilots them up in the refitted Adventure! The new Cargo Module performs well!

Unity Space Station is sitting in a 100k orbit. The shuttle is capable of reaching orbits up to 120k, however tolerances for errors and safety start getting pushed above 100k.

Adventure docks at Unity Space Station!

Luly and Seely head over… but Seely takes the scenic route and installs the new Gravity Sensors on the station! Edan takes a second to correct the orientation of one of the Station’s Habitat Modules…

“There we go… now the other side matches!”

-Edan

Then disconnects.

Unity Station begins its transfer to Mun!

This time the launch goes much better than Harmony Station’s… keeping the insertion stage’s engine’s gimbals set lower appears to solve the problem (that and the station has been designed to be symmetrical!) Adventure will remain in orbit until KSEA signals that the Station is safely away!

Unity Station arrives at Mun!It’s just a short 5 hours trip to Mun!

With just a little work, the station is put into a 31k orbit,. Now all the crew needs is a lander, and science can begin! (The Transfer stage still has a little precious fuel in it, so it will remain until the lander arrives!)