WARNING: LONG POSTS INCOMING. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Project Jool – Final Mission Debrief:
Alright, so the last time we heard anything from Project Jool, it was that we had just landed on Laythe, right?
Okay, the first need we need to do is to bring down the rest of the crew. TtTOtW’s team is still on the Avalon and they are going to be our ocean explorers, so we need to land them and take them to Cassiopeia. For that we are going to launch the Stingray, dock with the Avalon in orbit around Laythe, land, and take to the base using the MTRV. The MTRV can only carry two Kerbals, so we are going to need two rides.
There we go. Now, we can take Cassiopeia to Crater Bay for the first dive of the mission! We took a lot of science readings from the bottom of the ocean.
I don’t know if you guys noticed, but Cassiopeia has a small deck, where Kerbals can stand, enjoy the view and have a little fresh air. They can also walk from there to the stern deck.
Now, anyone remembers the first airbase I sent to Laythe a loooong time ago? Yeah, now we need to carry the crew that is going to work there.
Now, that everyone’s in position, we can finally begin the exploration of Laythe! The first step is to take the MTRV to several biomes that are very close to the Angus base.
This mission included science reading on all biomes, in flight over them, while splashed down as well as several dives using the submarine mode of the MTRV.
Anyway, we don’t want to do the whole Laythe mission on day 1, so for now, let’s go to the Avalon, in orbit around the moon, and let’s go pay Vall our first visit! (Vall the moon, not Val the pilot).
I decided the Original Four (you know… Jeb, Bill, Bob and Val) are not going to land on Laythe, but each one of them is going to have the privilege to be the first on the remaining 4 Joolian moons.
-Val on Vall (obviously
).
-Bob on Bop.
-Bill on Pol.
-Jeb on Tylo.
I left Tylo for the end because is the most difficulty location, and because after returning from its surface my Universal Lander, the Zireael 05 aka Blocky McLanderface, is stuck in orbit and can’t do anything besides docking with The Avalon.
Back to Laythe! Time to find the anomaly of this world! Here it is, lol:
It is a shame that Laythe only has one anomaly. Since is the only habitable world besides Kerbin, they could put some more anomalies or easter eggs that could suggest that there was once an alien civilization on Laythe, like ancient structures and stuff like that… that would be sooooo cool.
Surprisingly, this thing was only 11.8 km away from my Windsearcher Airbase…
Unfortunately, this base was sooooo full of trouble and it was sooooo hard to operate anything from here, at least in comparison with Angus, which is why I made the decision to scrap it and send the planes I had there (the Seagull and the Thundercraft) to Angus. The Seagull went first. Unfortunately, it didn’t had enough fuel to make it… damn afterburners…
Since I was determined to scrap Windsearcher anyway, if the Seagull couldn’t make it to Angus, it was going to be stranded wherever it landed, which is why there was no point in returning to a previous quicksave, instead I decided to accept my fate and let the Seagull fall to the ocean…
Now I have 3 castaway Kerbals, in the middle of the ocean, and the middle of the cold Laythian night…
Rapidly, the Stingray takes off from Angus, carries a pilot and a doctor (there are no doctors in the game, but I always pretend scientists are doctors
).
No big deal, lol. 15 minutes later, they were safely back at Angus. Too bad we lost the plane, but anyway… The Thundercraft’s voyage was very smooth and fast in comparison, it got to Angus in 20 minutes or something like that. Very fast…
Alright, time to return to the Vall mission. Vall was cold and cool, but we have other places to visit, so let’s get that to the Avalon. It’s time to Bop.
Now we have to take advantage of Bop’s low gravity and lack of atmosphere and refuel The Avalon for the upcoming Tylo mission. However, the lander can only deliver 1200 units of liquid fuel per trip, and The Avalon carries up to 12 000 units, so we are going to need to fly 10 resupply missions… I decided to have 5 here on Bop and 5 more when we get to Pol.
The resupply missions were tedious and boring so I didn’t screenshot them. They all were the same: Land, mine some ore, refine it into fuel, liftoff, fly to the Avalon, dock, transfer fuel, start again. However, during a resupply mission here on Bop we discovered something interesting that I wanted to share with you guys.
Yes, the Kraken! Well, its body… Unquestionable proof not only that Kerbals are not alone in this universe, but that all those space stations didn’t just explode because of my building skills, but because they were attacked by these things! Are there more of them, or are our space stations safe now? No clue. That’s a question to answer another day. Anyway…
Another dive on Laythe. This time on the Sagen Sea. No pics this time cause is the exact same procedure as the previous one on the Crater Bay. Just this one because the sight was beautiful.
Expedition to the Poles of Laythe! Single Kerbal, on the Flyer 6 “Thundercraft”, doing a lot of science. It was on that mission where I took this little series of pictures. I’m posting all 4 of them because I can’t decide for just one. I like all 4 of them.
Meanwhile, the Bop crew concludes the first five resupply missions, and The Avalon departs towards Pol, the smallest moon of the system. Also, the farthest to Jool.
Unfortunately, I kinda forgot to take the classic picture of the crew, planting the flag, lol. Since I had to do 5 resupply missions to fill The Avalon, I always thought that I was going to take the picture on the next landing. In the end, I did all 5 landings and I completely forgot the damn picture. All the proof I have that I landed on Pol is this picture of… Bill Kerman, I think he is, staring at the rare Polian landscape.
Anyway, with The Avalon fully fueled, and despite the clock saying it was 3:00 AM, I decided I didn’t want to wait up to the next day to do the Tylo mission. No time to lose, first Tylo, then bed!
Anyone remembers how I said that I haven’t tested my lander on Tylo, but it should work there? Well, it did, it actually did
in un
After several attempts…
This is a great achievement, at lemast for me. That’s because Tylo is, by a lot, the hardest place to land on, in this game (not the hardest place to LEAVE, that would be Eve). It has an absurd deltaV requirement of about 3150 m/s to land on (roughly what my lander can carry), it has a gravity of 7.85, and there is no atmosphere to help you slow down, so landing anything there is a great challenge, especially if is your first time.
With this, we have landed not only on the hardest place to land on in this game, but we have also landed on the final destination, completing The Avalon’s mission to the other moons of Jool, AAAAAAAND, we have finally landed in every single landable body in the game, which is great, at least for me
Like I said, I had already been to and returned from anywhere else before Project Jool. The green planet and its moons were the final destination, the prize which I saved to the end.
Oh god, 5:30 in the morning, time to bed…
