KSP Log: 001 - Bill Goes Skydiving

I've been using Facebook less and less, but I really love sharing my experiences on Kerbal Space Program. So today I decided I would start logging my adventures through space on my very own blog. Previously, I've reviewed games and my own life experiences and to an extent- I may still. But perhaps this aspect will really take off and what I have to share will really help other players in their own space faring adventures across the Kerbal System. While I'm still not entirely settled on what kind of information I'll be sharing beyond personal Kerbal stories. I would certainly like to see this become a resource for other players who'd like to master what can seemingly be the impossible. Looking back, I know I was scrambling across the web looking for any information I could find on docking, orbiting or any other (now) basic maneuvers that at the time seemed to be frustratingly difficult.

Today however, I'm going to keep it simple. You'll note from the picture above that Bill wasn't doing so good for himself as he fell through the Kerbin atmosphere (ProTip: I use a couple of mods, in this case an atmosphere mod that really adds to the visual experience.) So here's the story, I have a craft that I'm trying to return home from Minmus but the problem is, I ran out of fuel to slow my craft down and unfortunately I was coming in at a really steep slope. Which means my craft didn't have the necessary time to slow down, nor did it matter as the craft didn't have a heat shield. After a few moments of flight the entire craft started to rip itself apart before exploding into shrapnel in the sky! Luckily, I quick-saved (F5) prior to entering the atmosphere. This gave me a few tries to get it right, but no matter what I tried, I just couldn't cause enough friction to slow down my craft quickly enough. The re-entry heat can be a real pain sometimes.

So in my final try I decided all was lost. I sent out via transmission all the science data I had collected and hunkered down. The craft thrashed and flipped but held together just enough for Bill to exit the craft. Even while the craft was sheering apart from the heat, Bill was protected from the bulk of the heat. The cockpit exploded, but again Bill was saved from the worst of it. The flaming craft finally slowed, the fire reseeded and Bill was left in free fall with a pile of metal around him. There wasn't much choice, he was going to have to jump solo.

This created a bit of a situation, as Kerbals don't come stock with parachutes. But I knew there was a slim chance he may still survive. I was only a few thousand meters over the ocean at this point, so I ignited my jetpack and vectored myself against the looming ocean. It wasn't a slow decent, but I burned off enough speed to still slam hard into the ocean. To my surprise and perhaps the Kerbal Gods themselves Bill survived. The mission may have been a failure, but that's not to say everything was lost. Bill would return to fly another day- and hopefully with better equipment.