Year 19: Yet more Ike

Plus various other frustrating bugs

It's been a while since we've played, various other real world things intruding. It does mean I mostly forget what was going on in the game.

I have *not* upgraded to KSP 1.1 yet. Thought maybe I'd complete all pending contracts first (ha, foreshadowing). Especially as various of our important bases depend on landing legs and wheels for their proper operation.

We finally found a window to launch the rescue of Bill and Detrix, so away it goes:

Meanwhile, en-route to Ike, Jeb is dreaming about a training mission from his sandbox days. I think they survived that one although the plane didn't.

Fast forward a bit, and our robot crew-return vehicle is entering the Duna system! I think we launched this second but it had a more ideal Hohmann orbit.

Approaching Ike Station Zebu. We're even mostly lined up with the only remaining Clamp-Jr. This should be easy!

An hour of frustration later, we are docked. I feel a lot like those Kerbals look.

Now it's about time to carry out the deep-space rescue. It looks like we'll be getting reasonably close:

Bill and Detrix look happy to see us! They've been lost in space for 10 years since that unfortunate IkeStation expansion bingo fuel disaster and subsequent ejection out of the Duna system.

I think I sent Bill first, here he is arriving at the robot rescue craft:

Here comes Detrix:

Look how happy they are to be in a ship with excess fuel!

I then spent a *lot* of time clicking trying to get a maneuver node (note this for later) but couldn't because the other ship was so close. In the end we had to scuttle the other ship since it was now useless space debris anyway.

Meanwhile, dark and brooding Jeb has finally arrived in the Duna system with his Ike base. This is not the first time Jeb has been here, hopefully the mission ends better than the last one.

Hey, Ice Station Zebu residents. Have you decided who is rotating back to Kerbin? The window opens in a few days but there are only three seats. Maybe that's why they are still looking so horrified.

And Jeb lands on Ike, first try, no disasters! That never happens! Great job Jeb! Let's start up those drills although I'm not sure what we're going to do with any fuel we make. Ferry it up to the orbiting station somehow?

I'm curious to see if we got the contract, as it specified we must be on wheels and while we have wheels I am not sure if they have to touch the surface yet. Let's look at the contracts:

What? All gone????? We had like 10 pending contracts! Most involving our Pol mission! What happened? UGH. I thought this would be transient sort of like the money/science momentarily blanking out bug, but no, this is apparently permanent. It sounds like a known bug where being on an interplanetary mission and clicking around a lot trying to get a maneuver node can delete all contracts. Annoying. Maybe it's payback for the financial maneuverings we did to get that cash advance a while back.

Meanwhile, Luzor has "arrived" at Jool, though in a completely useless polar orbit. He's supposed to either go to Pol (though what's the point anymore) or else rendezvous with the previous half-stranded Pol mission. It's made difficult because Luzor is a scientist and so we can't use SAS at all. Also for whatever reason the solar panels refuse to generate much charge (either due to angle or else distance from Kerbol).

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