I Landed On The Mun… Sort Of…

Were I… landed…

Well, I made it to the Mun in KSP. The whole mission was frustrating. The VAB wasn’t cooperating, I almost didn’t make orbit, I almost didn’t make Mun insertion, I almost didn’t make Mun orbit. But, I was headed toward the surface. I was like, “YES! FINALLY!”

I headed toward the  Mun with my lander (I didn’t plan to return, so it had no impromptu legs and little fuel) and noticed that I couldn’t slow down. AT. ALL.

Then I ran out of fuel.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that this wouldn’t end well.

I slammed into the Mun at 380 meters per second, or 850 miles per hour, faster than sound (761 MPH), leaving the Kerbal remains splattered all over the mountain.

I walked over to my brother and said, “I crashed… INTO THE MUN!” and high-fived.

Still, I think this would be appropriate:

Kerbal Space Program: Going to the Mün: Part One

Bob and Bill were in the meeting room, celebrating their recent orbit in the Columbus 24. It was the first stable orbit in Kerbal history. Jebediah entered the room. He looked unusually serious.
“What’s wrong, Jeb?” Bill asked. “Lighten up, have a beer. We can keep training tomorrow.”

“There won’t be any training tomorrow.”

Bob looked startled. “What?”

“The king wants us to pick up the pace. Tomorrow, we test our first Mün rocket.”

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I like to imagine that is what they did. But, given that I didn’t do reentry correctly, they were probably drifting endlessly around Kerbin, never to return…
That’s right. It took me 24 tries, a lot of anguish, a little bit of frustration and the occasional death, but I made it into a stable orbit. Sure, as previously mentioned, the reentry never happened and my dudes are stuck, but I did it. My next goal? The moon (called the Mün in Kerbalese, for some reason).

So, if you missed out on the Apollo 11 moon landing, just stay tuned for this.

So, what is part one? Sending my Kerbals into orbit again, this time bringing them back.

Log:

Armstrong 1

Design: It’s basically the Columbus 24 with an extra fuel tank strapped to the orbiter stage. Three liquid boosters are used.

Result: The attempt to deorbit actually made the orbit wider, hurling our poor Kerbals into a highly elliptical orbit with an apoptosis BEYOND the Mün.

Armstrong 2

Design: Relaunch of Armstrong 1.

Result: Successful deorbit and landing. Photo lost in parachute explosion.

 

Well, now we prepare for part two! Stay tuned!