Episode 21 of the GopherCraft Great Space Race follows the two Mun Lander III ships from the last episode. Bob Kerman's ship finally gets a Mun encounter, and after a long burn it is in orbit around the Mun. Basket starts bringing that orbit lower, plans a new burn for Bill Kerman's ship a day out, and the video stops with Bob's ship waiting on its next burn. No Mun landing yet.
The burn that works
The video opens on Bob Kerman's ship as its planned burn starts. "Five seconds to burn. And burn." Basket nudges the heading a few times along the way. "Hopefully we're not using up too much fuel doing this." Afterward the map shows the path meeting the Mun, with a Mun periapsis of 1,921,044 m about half an hour out.
Into orbit around the Mun
Basket adds a node to try for an orbit. "This isn't the best orbit I've ever seen in my life, but at least I've found that I can get an orbit around it." Then, "I have faith in Bob." The burn turns out to be about two minutes. "I feel like that's too long," and Basket is not sure the fuel will last.
It does. "Oh, we are in orbit." The map shows Mun Lander III on a closed orbit with a Mun periapsis of 568,871 m.
A Mystery Goo reading high over the Mun comes back with "The Goo seems to be less dense here," but Basket says it is not worth much, since this was done before. A crew report follows "just to be safe."
A plan for the landing
The plan is to lower the orbit a bit at a time, firing in the direction of travel to slow down "and then we'll land is what I'm really hoping, but I have two ships to attempt that plan." An 11 second burn brings the low point much closer. "Okay, so we have a pretty close orbit over here."
Bill's ship
Basket switches to the other Mun Lander III, the one with Bill Kerman. The Mun is already its target, but the map readouts are hard going. "What does that even say?" In the end Basket finds a spot that looks like the closest point and puts a node there: 99.2 m/s, a little over a day away. "So hopefully I remember to come back to this guy."
Where it ends
Back on Bob's ship, Basket wonders aloud whether the orbit might escape in a few days. "I don't know." Basket plans one more burn about four hours out to make the orbit closer, points the ship at the node and speeds up time. "I will come back to you guys when it's closer to the burn." Then "To be continued..." comes up. Bob's ship is in orbit around the Mun, Bill's ship still has its burn ahead of it, and neither has landed.