Campaign: Kerbollo 13

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Introduction

The Mun Race was over. Neil and Buzz Kerman's exploits on the Mun were now recent history. Kerbollo 12 landed near Kerveyor 3 and fixed it, and things were becoming routine at the Kerbal Space Center. A feeling of "business as usual" began to creep in, and shortcuts were made to save money. The Kerbican government had decided to scale back the planned Munar expeditions and Gene Kerbin had finally returned to the KSC to serve as flight director for the remaining missions to the Mun, and now Minmus. He was glad he could get what missions he could from the governement, and settled down to a nice mug of hot Kerbin tea to read over the latest news going on in Kerbiet territory. It was a relaxing time. Kerbollo 13 was on its way to the Mun. It was so much routine, that even the news networks weren't carrying the broadcasts being made by James, Jack, and Haze Kerman. Well, all except KBS.

After this mission, you will be much more prepared for future catastrophes when they occur. Notice I said when.

Specifications

• Length: 20 hours
• Difficulty: Harder than reading a fuel gauge, but doable nonetheless.
• Skills needed: Navball navigation, Orbital Mechanics 101, Rendezvous, daft piloting skills, and how to read a fuel indicator.
• For version: Every version (tested on 0.20.2)

Minmus Polar Orbiter

While the Kerbicans stole the show with their Kerbollo Program, the Kerbiets scored another victory, albeit a token one. Kerbins have always wondered about their smaller moon, Minmus. Is it really made of lime sorbet? In preparation to land the first probe and eventually the first Kerbal on the captured asteroid, Kerbiet Mission planners decide to send a mapping satellite around the icy moon.

• Launch a mapping probe into a sun synchronous polar orbit of Minmus.

1. Probe must orbit within 10 degrees of the polar plane.
2. Orbital plane must be sun-facing so that every orbit on the day side looking down from the probe is near noon on the ground to eliminate shadows.
3. Final orbit must be circularized around 10km.

Kerbollo 13

They went up, but no one knew if they would ever come back down.

• Launch a three man spacecraft with Mun lander on a trajectory to the Mun, and halfway there disable your Service Module. Then bring the boys home on a free return trajectory.

1. You must disable your Command Service Module engines or eject your Service Module entirely or at least its fuel tanks or engine, at or after the halfway mark on the journey to the Mun to begin your mission. For realism, find a way to eject your CSM fuel or burn it off on the way to the Mun.
2. You must return all three Kerbonoughts to Kerbin safely via a free return trajectory.
3. You must only use your Mun lander's engines to accomplish the task.
4. You must land on or near a landmass other than where the KSC is. (The Kerbiets want to help.)

(Tip: Radial maneuver nodes are your friend.)

Operation: Saving Comrade Kerman

While Kerbollo 13 was returning home, the Kerbiets sent up a man to orbit the Mun, but missed. The Kerbiet people went nuts after Kerbiet mission planners discovered a slight miscalculation in the amount of fuel required to reach the Mun with a manned orbiter, and Pravda Kerman's ship missed the Mun. Entirely. Now he's orbiting Kerbin, but on the same plane as the Mun, where there is real danger that if you don't rescue him this month, the next pass around the Mun might eject him out into an orbit around the sun, Kerbol. The Kerbiets decide to reach out to the Kerbal Space Center asking for help in designing a rescue mission.

• If you have a Kerbal stranded within the Kerbin Sphere of Influence from a previous failed mission, then you must launch a rescue mission at this point. At least one attempt is required. If you have not stranded a Kerbal up to this point yet, skip to the next mission below.

1. Must return all Kerbals thus far lost back to Kerbin, unless they are on a Kerbin escape trajectory (if they are on a Kerbol escape trajectory, well, um... end the poor guy's mission ok?). You will rescue any Kerbals stranded outside of Kerbin's SOI in a future mission.
2. Your rescue ship must be capable of robotic control in case you strand your rescue team too.

• If you don't have a Kerbal stranded from a previous failed mission, and you want a challenge, then you may optionally strand a Kerbal in an orbit around Kerbin with a apoapsis over 11 million km. Else you may skip to the next mission below.

1. You must rescue your stranded Kerbal within 1 Kerbin month, else you must end its mission while on his EVA (but leave any remaining spacecraft intact as a memorial to the fallen hero).

• If you have never rescued a stranded Kerbal before, and opted out of the above missions, then for any and all future missions were you strand a Kerbal, you must design and launch an immediate rescue mission, even if they are ejected out of the Kerbin SOI (but not on a Kerbol escape trajectory). You must make at least one attempt. If you strand the rescue team, you must only send remotely piloted rescue ships to rescue all stranded Kerbals after which you may send manned rescue missions.

1. Any and all future rescue spacecraft must be able to be piloted remotely.
2. One attempt required for any mission that strands one or more Kerbals.

Final Word

With Kerbollo 13 safely back home, and the rescue of Pravda Kerman secured, the Kerbiets realized that space exploration was a mutual enterprise. The Kerbicans welcomed Kerbiet hospitality with the safe return of their Kerbonaughts and relations warmed. In a big step toward normalizing relations, space programs from both countries were merged to form the (new) Kerbal Space Program, a program to further the cause of space exploration by all Kerbalkind. It was decided that such space exploration must go on, and so it did, with the first unmanned lander on Minmus in what was to be the start of the Kerbol System Exploration program. Pravda Kerman would himself never return to space but was fated to go on to develop the crazy idea of designing robotic supply ships for the upcoming KIR space station.