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Great Space Race, Season 1, Episode 27: Kerbal Space Program

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Episode 27 of the GopherCraft Great Space Race picks up where the last one stopped: Bob Kerman and the Mun Lander VI closing on the Mun for a direct landing. The lander gets down on its last fuel, then tips over at touchdown and loses its engines. When the video ends, Bob is out on the surface beside a new flag, with no way home.

The slowing burn

The video opens on the planned burn, with the navball showing an estimated 13 seconds. The burn runs long. "So it's 15 seconds." Then: "Something just happened. I'm gonna go ahead and kill the engines." After a look around and some time warp, the map shows the path curving down across the Mun. "So here is the Mun coming up."

Map view labeled Focus: Mun Lander VI, with a green flight path curving low across the cratered gray face of the Mun

Coming down on empty

Basket puts the landing legs out early and points the ship straight down. The fuel runs low fast. "I don't have a whole lot of fuel left." The plan is to wait until the navball switches to surface speed and then throttle up hard. That leaves the ship in "this crazy arc," so Basket turns it to kill the sideways speed. "Which is what I should have done a while ago."

A white lander with four legs out descending toward the gray surface of the Mun under a starry sky, the navball reading Surface 51.4 m/s

The last stretch is slow. "We're almost there. We're almost out of fuel." Basket throttles up a little at a time to keep the drop gentle. "Come on Bob, you can do it."

Touchdown

The lander reaches the ground, rocks, and goes over. A burst of flame comes off the side, and two of the four fuel gauges vanish. "We lost an engine, we lost something else." The ship ends up lying on its side.

A burst of red and yellow flame on the gray Mun surface as the lander touches down, with Bob Kerman's portrait in the corner

"Well Bob, welcome to the Mun. You don't have any engines."

Science and a flag

Transmitting does nothing, and the crew report turns up nothing new. The hatch is blocked, so Basket rolls the ship until Bob can climb out. The EVA report is "Nothing good." Bob plants a flag, and Basket names it "Second Mun Landing." "It is in the dark, unfortunately."

A kerbal in a white spacesuit standing beside a planted flag on the dark Mun surface, next to a capsule lying on its side

Where it ends

"So sorry Bob, but you're stranded here too." Basket thinks the lander hit "a slight bump" while going very slowly, and plans to change the design. The video ends with Bob outside, Basket trying to steer the kerbal back to the hatch. Nobody has made it to the Mun and back yet.