I've been to the Mun and beyond many times in KSP, in many different ways. I've built spaceplanes, single-stage round trip ships, orbiting stations that drop dozens of tiny rovers, self-sufficient Munbases etc etc. But for some reason I've never done an honest-to-goodness Apollo-style mission, with a single multi-stage streamlined rocket (no boosters, no asparagus-staging, not even any onion-staging) carrying three Kerbonauts, a command/service module, a two-stage Mun-lander (descent and ascent, duh!) and a Munrover.
Our befuddled victims gallant heroes prepare to board the crew bus for the launch site - Bob, Jeb and Bill Kerman. No, wait, isn't that Jeb on the left? Whatever...
This plan took up a surprising amount of time tinkering in the Vehicle Assembly Building, trying to achieve something like the right power without crossing the all-important 'it's going to blow itself apart' line. The test runs were fun, loud, and extremely dangerous for any kerbals living downrange, but finally a design was locked in.
No, honestly, it's bigger than average. It's just looks a bit short from this angle.
After all the testing, it was time to paste on the mission flags and roll out our final design. I'm slightly concerned that it looks far too much like a 'proper' rocket, instead of the kind of ramshackle cobbled-together engineer's fevre dream that the KSP design process normally conjures up. This could not possibly bode well. I'd decided on a night launch, because night is the best time for the kind of fireworks display that this threatened to turn into.
We filled the nosecone with red and green sparklers just in case.
Despite its size, it seems to sit fairly steadily on the pad. I seem to have avoided the usual KSP problem of bendy rockets. Of course, it remains to be seen how it holds together once we release the four hu-feckin-mungous docking clamps and fire the seven gigantonormous primary engines.
This seems like a nice safe place to observe the launch from.
Anyway, the important thing now is to get launched before anyone chickens out and tries to test the escape chute (spoiler - there is no escape chute. KSP missions are all or nothing affairs so strap in and shut up).
Shit! I accidentally hit the button with my elbooooow...!
So, we're off to the Mun and there's nothing to stand in our way. Apart from poor design decisions, shoddy engineering, pilot error, and the sheer bloody-minded obstinacy of the laws of physics. So no worries then...
"Woohoo! Goodbye Kerbin. Goodbye Mum, goodbye Dad... erm, goodbye lunch!"
The engines all run up smoothly and our rocket, well, rockets in to the night sky. I've not really run any acceleration simulations so at this stage I don't know how she'll behave, but I do know that despite her enormous size the phenomenal first stage engines give us the thrust to weight ratio of Warwick Davies in a Ferrari. As a result, as we pass through the 10km mark we also go through the sound barrier, causing some interesting and unnerving vibrations.
In future years, the vessel would be used as an 'entertainment' ride for lady-kerbals.
Despite the shaky ride, the ship holds together in a triumphant marketing victory for the Kerbal sticky-tape industry. At this point the sensible thing would be to back the engines off a little before our Kerbonauts are turned into little green smears in their seats (or at least make little green smears in their seats). But this is Kerbal Space Program (!) where our engines only have three settings - 'Off', 'On' and 'Scattered in Tiny Pieces Across the Cosmos'! - so we keep the throttle firewalled, waiting with interest to see how things turn out.
Pretty much as expected, actually.
By 20km altitude we're travelling fast enough to experience re-entry heating in reverse! Fortunately the air is getting pretty thin up here, so the flames subside before I'm forced to make a choice between a cowardly thrust reduction and crispy fried Kerbals. We escape the atmosphere of Kerbin, the roaring and shaking dies down, and we start to circularise the orbit in peace and quiet.
Hey! Where'd the planet go?
About halfway through the circularisation burn our first stage is depleted and we eject the enormous engines and even more enormouser fuel tanks...
"That's funny. The damage doesn't look as bad from out here."
As the second stage fires up, the first stage, engine bells still glowing from the incredible heat they've generated, starts the long fall back to Kerbin. This first stage will not make a controlled descent and land on a ship to be reused, because this is not SpaceX and we are neither environmentally friendly or technologically proficient. The is Kerbal Space Program (!) so the fate of the first stage is probably fifty-fifty between 'exploded magnificently somewhere over the ocean' and 'survived re-entry heating to plough into a major population centre as a sort of glob of semi-molten metal and sharp pointy bits'.
Either way, we don't care because we don't live down there!
The second stage has much lower thrust, but we're a lot lighter now (having already burned over two-thirds of the energy that we'll need for this whole mission) so we're still able to achieve levels of acceleration that require the use of nappies. Before long we've achieved a nice stable Kerbin orbit and are in good position for our Trans-Munar injection burn. Time to light the candle once more and steer roughly in the direction of our target. What could possibly go wrong?
"Goin to the Mun, be right back..?"
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