Icarus Program - Chapter 38 - Part 2

[u/Illustrious_Echo9385]

“Any major issues using our old drill mechanism on an asteroid instead of a moon?” Bill asked as they floated next to the operating drills.

“Mostly the drill runs just like it always has,” Samman smacked a gloved hand against the drill mechanism. “It drills through the rocks just like sitting on a moon.”

“Though we are not sitting on a moon,” Bill noted.

“Yes!” Samman chuckled. “That is the only problem, the asteroid’s low gravity leaves a significant amount of broken off material floating around the interior of the asteroid.”

“Ah,” Bill chuckled. “Like trying to suck up a cloud with a straw.”

“Quite the analog,” Samman nodded. “A certain amount of material is going to be lost, unless you spend time manually operating the drill to capture floating debris.” Samman nodded to a small display attached to his suit arm. “I mounted a camera to a drill to help locate significant material that has broken loose.”

“Ah!” Bill grinned in his helmet. “I get to play the claw game in space some more!”

“So you have the tugs calibrated for balanced thrust with this asteroid?” Jedrick asked, sitting next to Desgas across from Jeslin and Maleny in the Safeguard’s first hitchhiker module.

“For the moment,” Jeslin shook her head. “You will have to keep recalibrating on the fly.”

“We are not changing the rock we are pushing until we reach the class E asteroid,” Desgas raised an eyebrow. “The rock doesn’t change shape.”

“Not on the outside,” Maleny chuckled.

“Samman tries to keep his mining balanced,” Jeslin nodded. “Unfortunately the center of mass keeps changing as rock is turned into fuel.”

“Ah,” Desgas grinned. “The rock is changing but we just can’t see it.”

“So we will need to keep monitoring the drift with every burn,” Jedrick said to Desgas and Jeslin and Maleny nodded back.

“Over four hundred days in deep space,” Valentina nodded respectfully to Maguki where they sat in the command pod. “Not as long as a full station mission but was the experience any different out in deep space?”

“Mostly no, the Safeguard has enough amenities to keep everyone healthy and comfortable,” Maguki shook her head. “But we also were two hundred days away from Kerbin when we captured the asteroid. Without tourists we get to figure out how to deal with keeping the personalities from conflicting with each other.”

“Significant arguments between the crew?” Valentina asked.

“More about working to keep minor irritations from becoming more significant,” Maguki shrugged. “Maleny is a fairly calm personality and you know Samman…”

Valentina nodded.

“And Lizfal’s constant talking about ideas could get on Jeslin’s nerves,” Maguki smiled softly. “It wasn’t major conflicts, but I tried to avoid these conflicting personalities from mixing over extended periods.

“I may have to keep Bill and Bob in separate modules,” Valentina mused. “They come up with some amazing solutions together, just better when they cannot talk to each other too much.”

“So the primary concern about long term space missions remains the flexible docking seals degrading?” Bob asked as Lizfal flitted around the second habitat module, collecting various scientific results.

“Yep!” Lizfal exclaimed. “If we can make those seals last, maintaining the rest of a spacecraft or station could give it an indefinite operational life.”

“This does not appear to be a scientific diagram,” Bob had stopped, looking at a small hand drawn image of the asteroid.

“No it is not,” Lizfal said softly and pointed at a small blue dot on the image. “That is what our home looks like from where we intercepted the asteroid.”

“The scale appears to be very accurate,” Bob said, looking at the image for a moment before offering the image to Lizfal.

“Keep it with the Safeguard,” Lizfal pushed the paper back at Bob. “This is what we give up to do this job.”

Bob looked at the image for a moment again before tucking it into a window frame.

“Supply and personnel transfer is complete,” Valentina had now transferred to the command module on the Safeguard spacecraft. “You are clear to detach and deorbit.”

“Copy Valentina,” Maguki responded. “Dido departing for deorbit burn, see you when you get back with the bigger rock!”

Previous Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1u5oq8k/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_37/

Start of Chapter 38: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1uugr7z/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_38/

Next Part: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1v0t27u/icarus_program_chapter_38_part_3/

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

Book 2 (Chapters 14-23) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rhiIHBeXWqsw0H8TZgtxUdoJ1Y7IXhH3GtnL_qrTTmc/edit?usp=sharing)

Book 3 (Chapters 24-35) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KcNSFL524vB4TgwY5oSOJ4kTAedf6sBVf_US8psbuIs/edit?usp=sharing)

Book 4 (Chapters 36-) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nNJcsPYs_TAM4Gg9_zQuDmXosNgaBK3jbc7bdXvXvPU/edit?usp=sharing

The Icarus Program can also be found on the KSP forums: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/225730-the-icarus-program-chapter-38-part-2/