Say hello to the Igaluk 4, which is basically a Ukko 7 modified with extra ful to give it enough dV for Mün orbit. Today Bob will pilot the Igaluk 4 on a Mün mapping mission.
The engineers have basically added fuel to the top stage, giving it a total of 5,776 m/s of dV. That's enough for a Mün orbit, but there will be less room for error than our first Mün orbit.
Notice the use of the launch clamps. The only problem is that somebody wired the launch sequence wrong, and after Bob fires the solid boosters, he has to scramble to hit the clamp release. They hold strong, and no damage is done, but we've lost about five valuable seconds (and precious dV) of burn time.
As Bob lifts into the cloud cover, we have a nice view of the island chain to the east of KSC. Even with the extra stabilizing fins, we're still tilting a bit in the early stage of the flight. Luckily, again, we're tilting more or less in the direction we want to go. Still, though, we need our researchers to hurry up with figuring out those fairings.
The solid boosters burn out at about 22 km, and Bob hits the staging button to decouple them and light the second-stage rocket at the same time. Good thing, too, because aerodnamic pressures push the solid boosters back toward where the second stage was just a second ago. Bob watches the solid boosters collide with each other on his external camera.
A minute later, he's on track to orbit. The guys at KSC don't think he lost enough dV to scrap the mission. We're shooting for the Mün.
At almost a stable orbit, Bob separates the final stage from the second stage and watches it drift away.
Once in orbit, Bob plans his Mün transfer burn. Since he's going to want a polar orbit, he's planning on aiming straight for the Mün and fixing the orbit when he gets closer. For the first time in the Igaluk program, a kerbonaut is headed for the Mün without a free-return trajectory. If the engines malfunction, Bob will wind up a small crater among many on the surface of that distant satellite.
Bob burns on the dark side of Kerbin as the Mün hovers above the horizon.
The burn complete, he watches Kerbin drift away.
Once inside the Mün's SOI, Bob adjusts his orbit, swinging it up into a 90-degree inclination.
The guys on the ground, meanwhile, are tracking all kinds of numbers.
Bob takes the opportunity to go ahead and start up the terrain radar as the planet looms underneath him.
A quick insertion burn puts Bob in a 170-km orbit that crosses both poles, and leaves the craft with 513 m/s of dV. Should be plenty to get back.
The first orbit around shows there is no gap between the mapping paths of each orbit. That's good news, indicating the mapping should be done fairly quickly.
Three days later, the mapping is 100 percent complete -- no gaps in coverage. Bob exits the vehicle to pull the data from the radar.
He plots his return to Kerbin. Same concept as before -- shooting out of the back of the Mün's orbit.
Bob gets one last view of the Mün's south pole as he swings underneath the planet.
He returns toward Kerbin's dark side, giving a look at the lights from the planet's cities, but the re-entry trajectory will take him around to the daylight side.
Just above the atmosphere, Bob separates the capsule.
A look at where we came from as we rip through the atmosphere at 3 kilometers per second.
This re-entry business is getting to be old hat at this point. We're totally experts.
The mission is a success. We now have maps to help us plan a landing. But first, two new kerbals have been hired. Charlie Kerman and Eddin Kerman will join the Ukko Progam, and Rodmin, who has proven himself thus far, will be promoted to the Igaluk Program.
Here's our basic map, with the major landmarks labeled.
The radar also produced a slope map, so we can get an idea of how flat an area is.
After studying the map, mission planners have narrowed out options to six landing sites. Since Kerbin and the Mün are aligned, we'll definitely be shooting for something along the equator to save on fuel. Here's the map:
Sites 1 and 3 are inside craters, but the problem with them is that where the equator cuts through those craters, there's still a fair amount of slope. Site 4 is in a fairly flat area between a pair of highland ridges. Sites 2 nd 5 have the problem that there are smaller craters nearby that could cause problems. Site 5 has craters in the area, but they're a little bit more scattered.
What do you guys think?
Oh yeah, and there's still the big task of getting that lander that killed Jeb into orbit. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about that.