Problems

Year 4, Day 203 (Harmony Station First Landing)

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Mission Planners determine that the first landing site for the Harmony Science team will be at the Greater Flats, at a site designated HSS LS01. Due to the very low gravity of Minmus, there are several additional biomes the team will check out, marked A through D.  (Officially they are catalogued as HSS-LS01-A, etc.

This will be the first mission that makes use of the new telemetry data gathered by the Minmus Surveyor probe, that has been carefully mapping the surface of Minmus for future exploration!screenshot948.png

Samner and Robart board the Automated Lander, and head down!

screenshot954.pngThe lander sets the crew down perfectly at HSSLS01-A, the Greater Flats.  This is the first time a mission has been conducted entirely by a science team – some of the pilots look a bit nervous about this!screenshot961.png

Next, on to HSSLS01-B, a hill on the Lowlands of Minmus!screenshot963.png

“This is a pretty precarious landing site! I don’t think we should plant a flag… just in case!  We’ll gather all the science data though!”

-Samner

Thankfully, the lander sets down nicely… while the team conducts SCIENCE!  The mission needs to stay on a timetable… communications with Kerbin are necessary, due to the remote systems on the lander!

screenshot964.pngNext, on to HSSLS01-C – the Midlands! This landing goes much better… however not much science is gathered.  Hopefully site “D” will have better luck! This time, a more precise landing along the Slopes of Minmus will provide some interesting data.  Probably another tricky landing though!screenshot966

Unfortunately, the last landing site doesn’t yield much more data. However, interesting research was conducted on the Great Flats, the Lowlands, the Slopes, the Midlands, some of it already known, but nonetheless valuable to Kerbin!

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As the lander reaches orbit in the first leg of its rendevouse with Harmony Space Station, the crew gets a good look at the region they were just exploring.

“Wow – will you look at that!”

-Robart

screenshot973.pngThe lander docks with Harmony Space Station!  However, a small problem has become clear… the station is not equipped to handle refueling of the RCS thrusters that make docking possible!  A mission will have to be done soon to resupply the station… and Unity Space Station’s design has already been changed, swapping out two Life Support bays for RCS fuel. This will reduce the amount of time crews can inhabit the station, however it is doubtful a crew would be left without supplies for over a year!

 

 

Year 4, Day 178 (Harmony Station Arrives at Minmus)

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screenshot892.pngHarmony Space Station finally reaches Minmus, and after another very long and akward burn, circularizes.

Relieved cheers and sighs can be heard all throughout Mission Control.  The mission was not a complete success however.  The amount of fuel required to get the Station into Minmus orbit has left it with less than half of the anticipated fuel reserves for it’s lander.

“I suppose we can send a fuel craft to refill the station. But a redesign for the next Space Station is clearly called for.”

-Robart

Meanwhile, Edan returns from Kerbin orbit – as engineers try to figure out the best way to deal with the situation on Minmus!

Year 3, Day 360 (MunBase Alpha Disaster!)

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screenshot371MunBase Alpha launches!  The Sarnus V Heavy rocket easily carries the base into orbit! The night launch goes perfectly, and before long, the base is on its way to Mun… where Aurora 15 is waiting!

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The fairings eject… and the base sails off to Mun!  A slight modification was made after some pre-launch simulations… a RA-2 Relay antenna was installed to replace the secondary Communotron antenna.  (Engineers promise it won’t unbalance the craft…. too much…)

Uh oh!  As the base heads down for landing communications are lost.

“Um, I think I saw some explosions on the surface!  Might be time to make a new base! While we’re at it, a depot in orbit of Mun might be nice too!  This pod gets pretty stuffy… even with the extra space the lander has!”
-Edan

Engineers think that a power loss led to communications failure… work on a revised MunBase beins at once!    The crew of Aurora 15 graciously agrees to stay in orbit of Mun until the replacement is complete.

 

 

 

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 2

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“Uh… KSC… We have a problem!”
-Samner

Samner, aboard the KSS, reports that the  original station core has a leak! In order to save the entire station, the affected area is evacuated, and the module is ejected!

“Jeez, as this thing gets older, more and more parts keep breaking!  We may need to think about getting an engineer up here or we might have to replace the whole thing!”
-Glenica

Indeed, the KSS has been having multiple problems lately. KSEA engineers start work on a systems upgrade to the station! With the myriad of problems on the station it’s not clear exactly what can be done to save the KSS.

Year 2, Day 307

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screenshot502.pngMitster, Robart, and Chrisnic are chosen to be the first crew to take the Sarnus V Launch Vehicle up to orbit!screenshot506

The launch goes perfectly!   However during the orbital maneuvers, sensors indicate the Oxidizer on the Aurora Spacecraft is leaking!  Good thing this just a test in orbit!screenshot510.pngFor safety, the mission is scrubbed, and the crew returns home.  Sorry guys! Thankfully a second Sarnus V Launch Vehicle has been under construction and should be ready to go, for another test.

“We’ll get this right!  Just hang tight everyone!”
-Bill, Senior Engineer

Year 2, Day 145

sayburstuff Year 2 ,

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The unkerbaled launch of the Cupola Module blasts off from KSC!  As Kerbals watch from below the crew on the KSS keep their eyes open for their new expansion!

After the first stage ejects, Mission Control pilots the module to the Space Station….

Uh oh… trouble!  It seems that the Orbital Maneuvering section doesn’t have enough power to operate on the darkside of Kerbin.  What a waste!  Upgrades will need to be made before the launch can be tried again.

“The module is in a stable orbit – we may be able to retrieve it again later and upgrade it in orbit… ”

-Bob

 

 

 

Year 2, Day 98

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screenshot309.pngScout 3 heads down to the dark side of Mun! The communications array constructed around Mun provides data to the probe.

Unfortunately, no one thought that the dark side of Mun would mean things would be quite dark… and the craft is powered by solar panels…screenshot311.png

In a landing that had every Kerbal int he Space Center of the edge of their seats, Scout 3 sets down, as the power got closer, and closer to zero… finally showing 1% power remaining as the sensors indicated the craft had fully set down!   Success!  Scientists wait until signal can be restored!