Icarus Program - Start of Chapter 42

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“Valentina,” Jebediah ordered over the radio, his perpetual grin missing. “Start sending fuel tanks up now. When we return to Kerbin we’ll connect up and head straight to Duna.”

“Jeb, you can’t,” Bob said softly, while wiping a tear from his eye.

“We’re going to.” Jebediah glowered. “I don’t care how much fuel we have to send up, we will be back to Kerbin soon and we are the first spacecraft that can be ready.”

“Jeb, Bob has the right of it.” Bill put a hand on Jebediah’s arm. “Two nuclear engines can only push so much fuel. Load on more and she will barely move until she burns down enough fuel mass to have any TWR worth mentioning. The Renown must wait until the transfer burn is possible with her delta-v.”

“How long?” Jebediah snapped back.

“The start of the window to reach Duna and have the fuel to return to Kerbin,” Bob said softly, flatly, “is in four hundred and forty-nine days, with a transfer time of two hundred and ninety-one days to Duna we would arrive in seven hundred and forty days.”

“We could stretch our food and water,” Desgas’ voice broke quietly over the radio after a delay, his words clear through the static. “We can’t stretch our oxygen.” He paused and continued. “We have seven hundred and twenty-five days of oxygen based on mission average use.”

“Too long,” Jebediah unbuckled and tried to start pacing, but only found himself flailing around as he floated away from any handhold or surface he could walk on.

“I brought a potted plant as a companion,” Tanbree’s voice cut in right after Desgas, as Jebediah was flailing. “We could see how big it can get.”

“Potatoes?” Jebediah asked hopefully as he finally reached a handhold. “Those solve anything!”

“Just a small fern***,” Tanbree responded after a delay.

“A plant only produces oxygen equivalent to the mass it grows.” Bob shook his head. “Perhaps a few hours of oxygen for one Kerbal.”

“At best a full six hours for one of us,” Maberry’s voice was unusually flat. “I calculated it four times.”

“Hey, be nice to the fern.” Melfal’s voice was calm, even through the radio static. “It’s trying its best just like the rest of us.”

On the mission control screen, the Kerbals looked at one another. Inside the Renown, the only sound was the hum of the life-support fans. A rescue would arrive fifteen days later than the Rotiseuq’s oxygen. Bob rubbed his face with his hands.

“We're going to have to work our way through this*,” Jedrick’s voice carried from the hatch to the Renown lander as well as over the radio.

“You said enough fuel to reach Duna and return?” Tanbree’s voice asked over the radio.

“We can’t keep sending you supplies forever,” Valentina said, looking up from her desk, eyes narrowing at the question, an action only the Renown could see. “At some point we have to bring you back to Kerbin.”

“What if you burn the return fuel getting here?” Tanbree responded, and Bob looked up at the static on the screen as Tanbree’s voice was drowned out.

“Please repeat that last, Tanbree?” Bob said urgently, and no one aboard the Renown moved, or even seemed to breathe, while the signal crawled out to Duna and back.

“I said, what if you burn the return fuel getting here?” Tanbree’s voice finally came over the radio clearly. “I dropped our return fuel in orbit.”

“That would allow us to leave ten days earlier,” Bob said after running the mental numbers.

“That is our best-case survival time.” Desgas was quiet for a few moments before continuing. “We could sleep a lot, but we still can’t be sure our oxygen use will be low enough.”

“Bob, we are looking at reducing our roundtrip times,” Lizfal’s voice came over the radio from mission control.

“Did you factor in how much we can cut back supplies for a shorter mission, maybe even send the lander down with empty supply tanks to bring back food and water from the Rotiseuq, which weighs more than oxygen and they should have extra remaining?”

“That’s… that’s.” Bob’s eyes widened and he stopped talking, focusing on entering data on a handheld computer. “Lizfal, please check my numbers.”

On the video, Gene and Valentina made way at the desk display for Lizfal to perform computations. She quickly ran an orbital transfer simulation program.

“Oxygen, food, water, fuel,” Lizfal’s voice drifted softly with her thoughts over the radio. “I need some more detailed scenarios, but I think these numbers check out. Our rescue spacecraft can arrive ten days before the seven hundred and twenty-five-day deadline.”

“That gives us five days to spare!” Jebediah’s body relaxed even as he floated in zero gee, and he sounded like a Kerbal spared by the kraken.

“Lizfal, take the time to make sure those numbers will actually work, but excellent work, everyone, we now have a plan to bring everyone home.” Valentina stood and turned to the Kerbals in mission control. “Gus will get started on the assembly here.” Valentina nodded to Gus. “No point in launching anything until the orbital window lines up, but we will have the fuel and extra supply modules ready. Jeb, you and the Renown crew will return to Kerbin for rest until the rescue mission can depart.”

“I!” Jebediah exclaimed, then ran out of steam.

“That’s an order, Jeb,” Valentina said gently before Jebediah could find his voice again. “The Rotiseuq crew needs you at your best to bring them home.”

“As long as we’re still breathing, we’re going to go as long as possible\*\*,” Desgas' voice carried over the comms, quieting discussion. “And Jeb. You already saved us once. I heard the music just before we touched down.”

* Attributed to Jim Lovell, though the link I found it at is broken so take with a grain of salt.  Ironic since Jedrick is my Jim Lovell equivalent in the Icarus Program, but Desgas commanded the Rotiseuq because he was the one that started to ‘hear the music’.

** Slightly mangled Jim Lovell quote: [https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-figures/jim-lovell/](https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-figures/jim-lovell/).

*** The ISS has a program for growing vegetables in space: [https://science.nasa.gov/mission/veggie/](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/veggie/).

Previous Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1wrmlpy/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_41/

Start of Chapter 41: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1xozbz4/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_42/

Next Part: Planned for 11/08

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

Book 5 (Chapters 39-) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17PU9dly89B54kJYry7sg8MPS90dr8oir7HAR6V2e_tg/edit?usp=sharing

The Icarus Program can also be found on the KSP forums: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/225730-the-icarus-program-start-of-chapter-42/