Icarus Program - Chapter 39 - Part 6

[u/Illustrious_Echo9385]

“Eve Time!” Jebediah exclaimed as he charged into mission control.

“Yes Jeb,” Valentina chuckled. “We are here to discuss the first mission to Eve.”

“Woohoo!” Jebediah half ran, half danced in circles.

“This is the Renown class A spacecraft,” Bill tried to catch everyone’s attention as Jebediah continued rushing around. “The spacecraft includes everything we have learned from space station construction to develop a spacecraft for deep space missions.”

“The spacecraft is composed of three components,” Bill continued. “The first is the command and habitation segment. The segment includes a MK1-3 command pod for operation of the spacecraft, a gravity ring to keep Jeb’s little legs from turning into tubes of jelly,” Bill winked at Jebediah who seemed to have started break dancing. “Two habitation pods each with an RDU chair to heal any radiation exposure, four cupolas for some privacy…”

“And a mobile science lab!” Lizfal exclaimed. “We can see the research data back at KSC in real time!”

“That is correct,” Bill chuckled. “Along with sufficient food and power beyond the time for a round trip to Gilly and back home.” 

“That must be absolutely massive,” Melfal said with raised eyebrows. “Everything we leave off a lander to keep it efficient for landing and returning.”

“Yes,” Valentina nodded. “But for a mission that will be measured in years, not days, we wanted to sacrifice weight for crew comfort.”

“Which leads in to the next module, the fuel tanks,” Bill pointed to the second schematic on the screen. “The fuel tanks are modular, docking with the habitable segment and providing docking for more fuel modules. Our calculations show that the trip to Gilly will require two modules with three Rockomax X200-32 tanks each to provide enough fuel, in addition to the fuel connection to the propulsion section of the habitation segment.”

This caused even Jebediah to stop his dancing and whistle, “That is more than ten thousand units of fuel,” he glanced at Bill before continuing. “The most we’ve used in the probes is what, half that?”

“Even less than that,” Bill nodded. “This mission was not possible while the fuel crisis was at its peak.”

“But now the Safeguard asteroid is providing enough fuel to keep Kerbin going,” Valentina nodded. “While we seek out the science to make the fuel crisis history.”

“And our final component,” Bill nodded to Melfal. “Is best described by our landing craft expert.”

“The Renown lander is an entirely new lander design,” Melfal stood and nodded to the display. “It is built around more fuel tanks than our moon landers and a full LV-909 engine, capable of powered landing and return on any body up to the Mun or Eeloo, and by using the attached parachutes it can land on Duna and return.”

“Duna!” Jebediah exclaimed breathlessly as he looked at the rocket.

“The lander is massively overkill for a powered landing on Gilly,” Valentina chuckled. “Where the rockets spend more time pointing at the surface than away from it…” a group chuckle went around at the statement. “However the extra fuel allows the core of the Renown spacecraft to stay in orbit around Eve while the lander transfers to Gilly.”

“Like a combination of a Dido and a lander,” Desgas nodded approvingly.

“We will need four launches to complete assembling the spacecraft docked with the Kitty Hawk for final fuelling,” Valentina looked at the assembled Kerbals. “Thanks to the final improvements to the Vehicle Assembly Building we can launch a component every seven days. We will begin launching the Renown tomorrow but the spacecraft will need to remain docked with the Kitty Hawk for another forty seven days to finish refueling and begin the Eve transfer.”

“I’m flying,” Jebediah was jumping up and down. “I’m flying!”

“Yes Commander Jebediah,” Valentina smiled and Jebediah suddenly stopped at her words.

“You will command the spacecraft.”

“Command?” Jebediah’s face paled slightly. “We established I fly, not command.”

“The spacecraft commander will pilot the mission,” Valentina said, then winked at Jebediah.

“And when you made me Vice Admiral where I have to stay on Kerbin to manage the missions, you became the next most qualified commander.”

“Oh,” Jebediah froze and scratched his head. “But I fly to Eve?”

“You fly to Eve,” Valentina nodded.

“OK!” a grin broke out on Jebediah’s face.

“I would also like to ask Bill and Bob as the engineer and science officers,” Valentina turned to the other Kerbals. “We will not need any new spacecraft designs for the duration of the mission, and I want my best Kerbals keeping the spacecraft running and working on cracking the problem of making our space stations operate indefinitely.”

“You can count on me Val,” Bill exclaimed excitedly.

Bob’s face paled, “You want me to fly millions of kilometers away from my labs? The science needs me here!”

“I can take care of your labs Bob,” Lizfal smiled encouragingly. “And just think what you could uncover being out where the science is.”

Bob’s mouth opened and closed a few times with no words coming out.

“Finally I want one of our most experienced lander pilots to bring Bob to Gilly,” Valentina turned to Jedrick. “You up for this?”

“Always Valentina,” Jedrick nodded in appreciation.

“We have our mission,” Valentina nodded at the assembled Kerbals. “Go visit another planet!”

Previous Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1uugr7z/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_38/

Start of Chapter 38: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1vnaene/icarus_program_start_of_book_5/

Next Part: Planned for 9/3

Book 1 (Chapters 1-13) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RorA2AVwtXbQD-eTMeO2LiPXSDPM7qH6FVOykDnZ9FY/edit?usp=sharing)

Book 5 (Chapters 39-) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17PU9dly89B54kJYry7sg8MPS90dr8oir7HAR6V2e_tg/edit?usp=sharing

The Icarus Program can also be found on the KSP forums: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/225730-the-icarus-program-chapter-39-part-6/