March 13, 2014
Kassie Come Home
Log Entry, Mission Day 179: Bill and I have wound down our experiments, retrieved the last set of logs from the wreck of the Kerbasus, and are prepared to depart the surface of Eve. We've both gone over the Kassie looking for any problems. The landing gear on the northern, uphill side are extensively damaged, but the ship itself is undamaged and we've done sufficient repairs to ensure that the jettison bolts will function. We've repackaged the parachutes that will be used for our Kerbin descent, and in a few minutes we'll launch back into space.
Launch goes without a hitch, and Bill and I resume breathing. The craft lifts off easily and rises on a straight, controlled path. The moment we're clear of the ground and verify that all systems are operating, I eject the landing gear. We're committed now, we can't land again, but we need to lose that weight to have any chance of reaching orbit.
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This will be the most critical phase of the mission. Will the craft hold together on launch? Do we have sufficient delta-v to reach Eve orbit? Will we successfully rendezvous and dock with the refueling craft in orbit? Or will we remain stuck here on Eve, hoping for another rescue mission? In just a few seconds, we'll find out...
For the first minutes of flight, the rocket cores drop off in pairs, one after the other, separated by only a few seconds at first, then the pause grows longer, as each successive stage has less engines guzzling fuel.
We burn straight up to an altitude of 35 kilometers. By this time we're down the core of just four boosters, and our velocity is up to around 300 meters per second. After the turn, we begin accelerating in earnest while we continue to climb. Soon we pass 50 kilometers and 1,200 meters per second, and the last boosters fall off. Now is the true test. We still have a massive amount of delta-v available, over 4,000 m/sec. But with just a single Nerva rocket, will we have the thrust to break free of the atmosphere and Eve's gravity, or will we be pulled back down?
The answer is almost immediately apparent. Our thrust is low, our acceleration barely 20% of Kerbin gravity, but it's enough, our velocity continues to increase, we continue to climb, and our projected apoapsis as displayed on the navigation console continues to rise. Soon enough, we have a circular orbit 115km above the surface of Eve, and we have enough fuel left that we can burn back to Kerbin even if we don't manage to refuel. Ladies and gentlekerbs, Bill and Jebediah Kerman are coming home.
The rendezvous and docking with the refueling module are entirely anti-climatic. We manage an approach 17 hours after achieving orbit, and bringing the refueller in for docking under remote control is entirely painless. We stabilize within 400 meters on our first approach, match velocities, and then close to within 50 meters. From there, one slow easy approach brings the docking nodes together and we have a confirmed dock.
We departed the surface of Eve a week before our return transfer window would open, in case we had any problems to resolve. With the clean launch and refueling, now we just have a week to relax in orbit. But the week passes quickly, and soon enough we begin our transfer burn.
The purple landscape of Eve has been Bill's home for nearly a year, and mine for several months. We're both glad to be back in space, and we'll be even happier when we return to the green hills of Kerbin.
We make a mid-course correction burn on day 32 of our return trip. This burn puts us on target for a clean equatorial orbit of Kerbin. After the burn, we each take a few minutes of EVA time to experience being adrift in deep space, with only the distant specks of the stars.
The remaining days pass quickly, and Kerbin quickly expands in front of us. As planned, we're coming in on the equatorial plane.
We decide not to do a direct re-entry with our interplanetary velocity of nearly 4 km/sec, as we have more than sufficient fuel left to establish orbit. Mission control wants us to remain in orbit until KSC is in daylight, but they don't really expect us to wait, and indeed we don't. On our second orbit, we burn much of our remaining fuel and begin our descent. We enter the atmosphere of Kerbin at a sedate 2km/sec, barely enough to raise a welcoming glow as we aero-brake.
Mere minutes later, we drop the fuel tanks and rocket, and float down under our parachutes. We land mere meters from the launch pad.
Apparently the tours and parades are already planned. I plan to go sleep for a few days first. I believe Bill plans to go drink all the beer available within an hour's drive of the KSC.
Posted by: TheSquirrelPatrol at
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