Explorer and Discovery Mission Update 3

Explorer 03

Having taken all the reading and measurements it could from Vall, the Explorer 03 fired up its engines at the appropriate moment. Using a less than 300 m/s burn it could get an encounter with Bop. Back at KSC scientists were eager to get scans of the moon since the text in the Munar saucer talked about a battle that had taken place near this moon between the Kraken and the rebellious Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn. Perhaps there were traces to be found.

Discoverer 05

Meanwhile, Discoverer 05 started its braking turn and entered the orbit of Moho. It would start by making a more detailed scan of the planet, before attempting a landing. It would also make an attempt to locate the crashed Discovery 02 but that would be a slim chance of actually retrieving any data from the craft.

30 days later it attempted a landing. It turned out there was plenty of fuel left. In all the excitement KSC forgot the command to jettison the external tanks. Later they spun it to make it look like it was a deliberate impact test, which provided some additional data indeed. Based on the reserves and the data from the gravioli sensor KSC had spotted a very interesting site, but the margins would be slim.

They boosted almost half the diameter of the planet north and made a suicide burn to the target landing site. Fuel burned quickly and actually ran out 10 meters above the LZ. Fortunately, the low gravity and the abundance of landing legs saved the day.

When the camera panned left it saw an interesting lava rift, but when it panned right.. it saw a special monolith. The pattern of the pulsating gravioli beams revealed some unique insight in nuclear power behavior which made several breakthroughs possible.

Explorer 01

Explorer 01 also came back to life. After nearly 3 years in space and various swings around Kerbin and Moho, it finally had another chance. A small maneuver placed the craft on an intercept with Moho, its target from the beginning. 60 days later it might actually perform its intended flyby mission.

Discoverer 04

S201A Discovery 04 arrived at Duna with insane amounts of delta-v left, after all the Discovery design was meant for Jool and it was showing. Before the team would drop the R202A Snuf 01 on top of the rocket, it performed a number of small adjustment burns to put it in an ideal position to survey the red planet below.

It would take a couple of days but the results were stunning. Both water and ore seemed to be just below the surface in large quantities. KSC selected a number of sites to survey in addition to the anomalies detected in the Explorer program.

Spirit 04 Snuf Lander

R002B Spirit 04 arrived 10 days later and was put in a low inclination orbit. Using the relays of the other spacecraft KSC managed to create a trajectory that would cover all potential landing sites. R202A Snuf 02 would reach the surface before its twin brother. The onboard maneuvering system picked the polar region as a landing site and started the deorbit.

In fact, the was so much delta-v that the heatshield never heated up properly. Much lower than anticipated the parachute deployed and also the deceleration was less than expected. Fortunately, the system was also designed for a powered landing, or as Jeb put it: “ridiculously overengineered.”

The wheels proved hard to control, never the less the Snuf made some major discoveries and sent back a lot of data. The polar ice caps consisted of, well, ice. Who would have thought that? The range of the vehicle proved very limited, which KSC took into account for the second rover and their big brother Sprit.

Discoverer 04 Snuf Lander

The time had come to release the second lander. This one was not targeting water ice, but rather a strange reading from the south pole. The lander was set on course by the Discovery. shutes deployed early, and the shield was no longer needed.

The Snuf landed fine, close to the pyramid-shaped hill that had been photographed from space as the potential source of the emissions. Scientists could make little of it. It was not of Kraken origin, nor did it seem to match something created by the ancients. This would require deeper investigation and it pushed the agenda for a kerbaled mission to Duna further.

Shortly after that the Discovery was relocated to Ike to man the surface. In 50 days it would return to Duna for an atmospheric sample.

Spirit 04 Main Lander

R002B Spirit 04 started its inclination burn and pushed for a goldilocks site. Ore, water, flat terrain, near-equatorial and near an anomalous reading. Chutes deployed nominally, and heatshield was gain found to be not needed.

The landing was a bit hard and bent the shelter that was designed as a surface-based relay, carrying a variety of antennae. Spirit struggled to get loose and ultimately KSC fired the engines to burn through some of the panels.

It rocked some explosions and tore off the relay antenna. Fortunately, the Spirit rover had enough capability to contact the relays in Duna orbit.

Images did not do justice to the anomaly, which was clearly artificial, probably designed from similar rocks as found nearby. Spirit would circle the plateau looking for a flat landing site. Large artificial constructs on Duna were enough to release funds at KSC for the Duna program. Scientists, engineers and pilots alike were over the moon at the prospect of this mission.