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Nikolai -> RE: while ive been waiting.. (10/3/2013 2:36:59 PM)
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You reminded me about the first time I tested my Bop lander -- in orbit around Minmus, a comet-like body that is in far orbit around the Kerbal home world (Kerbin).
Calling it a "lander" is a bit of a stretch; it consisted of nothing but a probe controller, a docking clamp, batteries, solar panels, an RCS tank, reaction jets, and a seat. It didn't even have landing gear. The Kerbal would get out of his capsule, EVA over to the seat, undock, and put the thing down gently enough that the RCS fuel didn't explode.
I figured I should test the thing out on Minmus before taking it to Bop, so I designed a small launcher to take it to Minmus, parking the lander on top of the stack. After settling into orbit, I got Jebediah Kerman out and put the thing through its paces.
The thing performed brilliantly. I found that the probe controller's own reaction wheels were sufficient to steer the thing really quickly; I could save a heap of RCS fuel by only using the reaction jets to knock it out of orbit and to launch back to the orbiting capsule again. I was zoomed way in to see Jeb's expressions of utter euphoria. Feeling rather ingenious, I thought there was no reason not to land on Minmus and check out my abilities to rendezvous back with the capsule in orbit. I turned to reduce my velocity so that I'd fall to the surface.
But zoomed in as I was, I forgot something important: Nothing was going to slow down the capsule. And it was right behind me.
The capsule hit Jeb and the lander at a pretty good clip, knocking Jeb out of his seat and sending both him and the lander spinning into the void. I returned control to Jeb and found him unresponsive. I couldn't even get him to start up his jetpack. He was unconscious (which sometimes happens to Kerbals when they hit something hard).
Waiting was unbearably tense. The lander and the capsule were getting further away with every tick, and quite rapidly, too. By the time Jeb regained consciousness, I had lost sight of the capsule completely.
With Jeb awake and his jetpack apparently undamaged, I flew to the lander and settled back into the seat. I pulled up the consumables menu to see that electrical power was draining fast.
I spun the thing so that the solar panels faced the sun, but that didn't help. Right-clicking on the solar panels showed that they were "Broken"; the batteries were the only thing keeping the controller going, and they didn't have much juice left.
Switching back and forth between the orbital map and the normal view allowed me to get close to the capsule. By the time I got there, the lander was completely dead. I unseated Jeb and let him use his jetpack to close the remaining distance (the two ended up passing each other at a distance of about 120 meters).
The capsule, thankfully, seemed to have nothing wrong with it. I set a course back to Kerbin. And when I parachuted safely into the ocean, I have to tell you, I felt like I'd accomplished something. Like I'd put my Kerbal's butt in the fire and pulled it right back out again.
Good times. :) The Icarus, my massive rocket being sent to Vaal, just passed the halfway point in assembly. It should carry three Kerbals in a proper lander up and down from the surface of that moon when it's complete. It's this sense of butterflies in the stomach on trying new things with a space program that I'm hoping to get out of BASPM as well. :)
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