This gives Jeb enough fuel to land on Mun and begin to return to orbit. We redesigned the orbital payload to increase the second stage fuel capacity. He was going to need to land on instruments alone, and he was up for the challenge.Īs he slowly ascended to low Kerbin orbit, he remarked on the durability of this new vehicle. With the doors open, he would be able to see straight up, but the forward view would be fully obstructed.
So, Jeb reluctantly agreed to move the command chair into a service bay. The only compromise was to use the next lightest part. This time, we acknowledged the fairing was enough to protect the pilot, but we couldn’t keep it past ascent circularization without making it impossible for the pilot to have any visibility.
.png "kerbal space program service bay status")
So, we rallied behind him, made some radical changes to the flight vehicle, and prepared for another potentially demoralizing flight. The entire planet was reinvigorated when he decided to make another attempt. At this point, all of Kerbin was devastated by the loss of two intrepid Kerbonaut brothers. It was pure determination that motivated their other brother Jeb to take bold action. Given the recent loss of his brother, everyone at the Kerbal Space Center took this news pretty hard. They told him there was no way he could make it, but he tried anyway. Before the medical team could assess him – and against the advice of the ops team – Jeb decided to chart a course to Minmus. We really need to get that fixed… The landing must have disoriented Jeb. And just like his brother, his landing suffered the same awkward pitch jerk, bouncing off the ground. Just like his brother before him, Jeb was able to pilot his modified craft to a smooth Mun landing. The resulting fairing was a little too close for comfort on the ascent, but he felt like it was a rite of passage and left the discomfort out of his report. He liked the overall design, but he felt there should be just a little more fuel in the third stage. He would use the same craft, but he would make a few adjustments first. He hoped for the best, but…Īfter an appropriate mourning period, Jeb’s brother Jeb announced he would honor his brother’s sacrifice with another attempt. He had mistakenly dropped the Kerbin periapsis too low when leaving the Mun, and he had no fuel left to correct the mistake. The engineers warned about the possibility of some light heating on the re-entry, but Jeb got an A in ablative materials class. He had to jettison the engine to reveal the heat shield he would use to keep cool during the aerobraking maneuver. His report explicitly praised the helmet designers.Īs he left the Mun surface, he pondered his likelihood of surviving the re-entry into Kerbin’s atmosphere without any kind of enclosure. Jeb had to react quickly to prevent catastrophe. Forensic evidence from the, uh, “returned craft” would reveal the retrograde vector bounced off the ground plane and went negative. The landing was amazingly smooth … until the last moment, when there was an unexpected jerk in the pitch input. He knew he would need less energy to return to orbit if he landed at a high altitude. Dropping in around 6km, he charted a retrograde burn to settle into a nice equatorial orbit before descending into the munar highlands.
Kerbal space program service bay status full#
The view was amazing!įrom low Kerbin orbit, Jeb aimed for a low Mun periapsis to take full advantage of the Oberth effect. It ended up being basically a motorcycle in space. Looking back, it’s pretty clear the fairing was a lot more luxurious than originally anticipated. So, the team hastily assembled the first prototype, and Jeb hopped into the cramped quarters of its command seat.
It was immediately clear the optimal design would include a big first stage, deploying a tiny orbital vehicle payload to low Kerbin orbit. Everyone wanted to give Jeb at least a fighting chance of landing this thing. We even considered leaving the battery out, but quickly realized the engine gimballing alone would make it very difficult to pilot. The first iteration used just a command chair and one of each of the things Jeb needed to maintain control of the vessel. We knew every design decision would be critical to the success of the mission. There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s dive right in.Īt first, the engineers focused on landing only on Mun and returning. This story focuses on one such problem: land a single Kerbal on both moons in a single mission and return safely using the lowest budget at takeoff. In the realm of hard problems, Kerbal Space Program offers many options.
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