Mitster

Year 3, Day 317 (Explorer Departs for Eve!)

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This is the day!  Mitster triple checks the calculations, and Orlas does the same.

“Looks good!  Let’s light this candle!”
-Mitster

Explorer fires what’s left of the orbital stage to get a little extra ‘kick’ to Eve!  Then….

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The protective fairings on the nuclear engines fire!

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Explorer soars out of Kerbin’s orbit… screenshot320.png

and heads to Eve! If calculations are correct, and they better be, Explorer will arrive at Eve in 120 days… on Year 4, Day 33!

The engines stop firing, glowing red from the heat! Orlas activates the primary communication antenna as well!screenshot323.png

“Wow… those engines sure get hot!”

-Chrisnic

After the engines are done firing, the crew moves to the habitat section and get comfy… 120 days is the longest mission ever attempted by Kerbals!

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Orlas and Mitster, goofing around in the Explorer’s Habitat Section!
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Chrisnic.. waiting for something to break!

 

 

 

Year 3, Day 307 (Explorer Crew Announced… and launched!)

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The crew for Explorer 1 is announced… the brave crew of Aurora 13 are chosen for the first interplanetary journey!  Mitster, Orlas, and Chrisnic excitedly put on their new Mission Patches, and head out to the waiting Crew Shuttle Adventure! screenshot283.png

Mitster pilots Adventure into orbit… the plan is to dock with Explorer, then the crew will be on their way!

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Edan lines up with Explorer, in a 80k orbit of Kerbin…

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Once in position, Endeavor undocks from its mission cargo (the atmospheric probe and LARC), and spins around, very slowly, until its lined up with the Crew Shuttle.

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Edan then uses the RCS thrusters to dock with the huge space craft!

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Mitster, Chrisnic, and Orlas all rush over to Endeavor.  Orlas gets serious, and starts going over all the mission parameters and scientific systems.  Mitster runs through the piloting systems, while Chrisnic does a survey of the ship (and checks out the great new Habitat section, that will make the journey to Eve much more comfortable!

“Good luck guys!
-Edan

The crew get comfortable and begin getting Explorer’s systems running!  It’s a long mission to Eve… so its important to make sure that everything on the new ship is in good working order before departure!

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Meanwhile, Edan takes Adventure back to the surface!

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Mitster dives Adventure, toward the Space Center, after cooling off from reentry!

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Uh oh!  A little too much speed… Adventure flies by the Space Center….

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Thankfully all Crew Shuttles have enough fuel for manuevering in just this kind of situtation… Edan pilots the Shuttle around, and heads back for a good approach!

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Ok… I’m in the pipe, five by five…

-Mitster

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Perfect landing!  Good job Edan!

 

 

Year 3, Day 233 (Aurora 13 Returns!)

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It’s going to be a close one!  Food on Aurora 13 has run out!  Water and coffee will only keep the crew alive for so long!  Thankfully there was enough fuel to burn directly from Minmus here… so the crew needs to just hold on a little longer!

“So hungry!  We shouldn’t have had that feast to celebrate reaching solar space!  The hubris!”
-Orlas

screenshot229.pngAurora 13 comes in hot!

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The parachute deploys!  Almost homescreenshot231.pngMade it! The last time KSEA got this close to a  a loss of crew was Aurora 3, on Year 2, Day 242!  

Better care will be taken in the future for mission planning to avoid another close call! Mitster, Chrisnic, and Orlas are all rushed to the Space Center to check their well being!

 

 

Year 3, Day 225

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screenshot225.pngAurora 13 arrives in at Minmus!  And not a moment too soon, supplies are getting a little tight on the spacecraft. At 45 days into the flight, the crew is defenitely feeling the strain.

“Uh oh… foods running a little tight.  I don’t think we should have bothered with checking out Minmus!  I’m ditching the lander… we need to do a direct burn toward Kerbin if we want our supplies to last!”

-Mitster

The Minmus landing is cancelled! It looks like the calculations for deltaV were slightly off, and the food supplies won’t last as long!  Mitster fires the Aurora Spacecraft’s rockets, and Aurora 13 heads toward Kerbin at high speed!   This will be the fastest any craft has attempted reentry to Kerbin!

Potential disaster aside, this will be a good test of the Aurora era hardware for interplanetary journeys!

Year 3, Day 183 (Aurora 13 passes Minmus Orbit)

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screenshot213.pngAurora 13 passes beyond the orbit of Minmus, carrying Kerbals further into space than ever!  screenshot214.png

“Exciting!  This is the first true solar science experiment ever done!”
-Orlas

Orlas hops out and conducts some experiments….screenshot215.png

Then the rest of the crew takes their own chances at a quick spacewalk!

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“It’s so pretty… and Kerbin looks so … small!”
-Mitster

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“The Damage to the hull doesn’t look so bad from out here!”
-Chrisnic

Everyone’s a bit confused about Chrisnic’s non sequitur, since no one even mentioned any hull damage… but once everyone’s had some fun, Mitster pilots Aurora 13 back into Kerbin Space, on a course toward Minmus!

Back on Kerbin, Frontier 9 launches, also heading to Minmus!

 

Year 3, Day 178 (Aurora 13 Launch!)

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The crew is chosen for Aurora 13: Mitster, Orlas, and Chrisnic!  The three Kerbals are extremely excited that they might be the crew for Explorer’s mission to Eve! screenshot210.png

Aurora 13 blasts off!  Today’s mission: leave the Kerbin sphere of influence for a long duration space flight, re-enter Kerbin’s sphere of influence, transfer to Minmus, then return to Kerbin after the mission is complete! This will be one of the most complicated and longest duration missions ever attempted!

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The transfer stage fires and sends Aurora 13 on its way!  Unlike a normal Aurora Mission, the docking and transposition maneuver will be conducted much later in the mission. This is to allow extra fuel for mission planning purposes!

“Get comfortable everybody!  16 days until we leave Kerbin’s gravity and make history!:
-Mitster

Year 3, Day 118 (Shuttle Intrepid’s First Flight)

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screenshot132.pngThe third shuttle, Intrepid, takes off on its first flight!  Mitster pilots the craft up to the KSS.  It’s time for a crew rotation!  Unusually, one shuttle will fly up and take the crew that’s returning, and a second will launch and remain docked to the station.  This will allow for evacuations in case of emergencies!  The plan is to cycle shuttles docked to the KSS every time there is a crew rotation.

After the Intrepid docks with the station, Endeavor blasts off, piloted by Jeb!

For the first time, two shuttles are docked at the KSS!

Not for long though… Mitster stays behind to keep an eye on the station, while Jeb, Orlas, Robart, and Samner head back to Kerbin! Endeavor will remain docked at the station.

Year 3, Day 56 – Kerbin Exploration

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screenshot29.pngThe newly launched Kerbin Surveyor begins scans of Kerbin – right away several anomalies are detected!  The X-5 is sent to investigate! Mitster and Bill fly there…. quite fast!screenshot63.png

Sadly… they can’t find anything at the site indicated!

“We’re gonna need some more precise readings if we hope to find anything here!  It might help to put a sensor package on the X-5 itself! ”
-Bill

Mitster returns the X-5 to base for refurbishment and the crew for refreshments!

Meanwhile, construction begins on two new crew shuttles – the Endeavor and the Intrepid! Along with Adventure this will raise the number of crew shuttles to three!

Year 3, Day 15

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The Crew Shuttle Adventure blasts off from the Space Center!   Mitster and Jeb both pilot the craft.  This will be a mission of many “firsts”:the first orbital mission of the Crew Shuttle, the first docking with the Space Station, and the first crewed re-entry of the shuttle!screenshot815.png

Because the Crew Shuttle doesn’t have any solar or other power generation methods, it can’t remain in orbit for too long before docking. Future upgrades will likely include better onboard power.screenshot818.png

Adventure achieves orbit, and manuevers to the KSS! Meanwhile on Kerbin, sea vessels recover the orbital launch vehicle.  As before, the craft is recovered for almost all of its construction costs!screenshot820.png

Adventure docks with the KSS!  The two crews say hello, then the shuttle detaches.  Everyone is a bit nervous.. this is the first time a crewed shuttle will re-enter Kerbin’s atmosphere!screenshot826.png

Rentry goes very well… But as the craft gets close to landing, it starts rotating strangely – tests will need to be done to determine why the craft partially lost control!    Thankfully Mitster is able to correct for the rotation.

Adventure sets down at the space center! While the mission wasn’t perfect, it was a success!

Year 2, Day 422

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screenshot770.pngThe X-5 blasts off, carrying Mitster and Robart to the next anomaly detected by the overhead satellites.

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“Huh – readings indicate it’s down in that mountainous valley – this landing will be tricky!”
-Mitster

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“Whew!  Close one!”
-Mitster

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“Huh. Look at that!”
-Bob

The two head back to KSC to share their findings – some Kerbals want to build research centers around the planet to study these strange anomalies!