Astronautic Research & Space Exploration - Mission Series | RSS/RO/RVE

[Pronoes]

 

LATEST OPERATION: DEMETER (Scrapped Design Concept)

Establish refuelling depot in LEO

 

Timeline

2021: Amateur astronomer Sarah Kershaw discovers a capsule containing strands of alien DNA in a highly eccentric Earth orbit.
2026: The DNA strands are cultured and genetically modified to survive in an Earth environment by renowned geneticist Jason Balfour.
2028: New sentient life is created, uniting the world. "HomoKershawBalfour" is born, nicknamed "Kerbal" by the masses.
2032: Kerbals now number 5 and are engaged in psychological, physical and a manner of other experiments at NASA.
2033: Bill Kerman falls over and triggers an experimental inverse anti-matter world destroying bomb. Everything outside of a 2 mile radius of Cape Canaveral is destroyed.
2033: The last few humans who haven't lost their minds commit suicide after dealing with the Kerbals bumbling around NASA while trying to save humanity.
--END HOMOSAPIEN TIMELINE--
--BEGIN KERBAL TIMELINE--
0001: Pronoes Kerman steps up and establishes a new space organisation with the purpose of exploring the solar system and establishing life on other planets.

Present Day: A name is founded for the new organisation. After ridiculing Valentine for coming up with the "Colonisation & Resettlement Astronautic Program" which had the acronym of CRAP, Pronoes plumped for Astronautic Research & Space Exploration, which has a much friendly acronym of AR... awww DAMMIT!!

 

Mission Statement

The following is a series of 'archive footage' from missions based out of what used to be Cape Canaveral. Commander Pronoes Kerman has waived the security clearance and granted you privilege to view these classified videos. Pronoes Kerman is a great and powerful leader (don't forget wise!) and is determined to reach out to the stars, possibly to colonise other planets, maybe to contact other Kerbals out there but mostly just for knowledge. Since the destruction of life on Earth, all he has is a rudimentary knowledge of physics, a stack load of parts NASA won't be using anymore, a test flight simulator and access to Google. (Apparently even though everyone died and everything got destroyed, someone downloaded the internet onto an anti-matter hard drive! *cough*) While he is no rocket scientist, this blasting things off into space isn't exactly brain surgery is it? Regardless, the videos are more cinematic than educational, with a few captions to state what is happening from time to time.

OPERATION LIST
Operation I: Iris | Status: Complete | Forum Link 
     - Establish global communications network with 3 geostationary satellites.

Operation II: Iris² | Status: Complete | Forum Link
     - Establish preliminary solar system communication network with 2 high polar orbit long range satellites.

Operation III: Demeter | Status: Design & Test
     - Design & launch core for orbital refuelling station.

Operation IV: Selene | Status: Theoretical Concept
     - Lay foundations for communication with any future manned moon landing.

Operation V: Demeter² | Status: Theoretical Concept
     - Finalise & test orbital refuelling station

(Theoretical Concept > Design & Testing > Record & Edit > Complete)

 

BORING STUFF

Spoiler

All operations are using Real Solar System, Realism Overhaul, FAR, Realfuels, RVE and a host of other mods which I will get around to listing soon. The idea is to go from 1 launch site on Earth (Cape Canaveral), to everything that is possible within the solar system. I am trying to keep the missions as realistic as possible, and as such use real fuels, rss, ro, life support etc etc. I wanted to keep it to *just* parts that have been modified/vetted by RO, but have seen that's not really possible for what I want to achieve. The second video for example uses a robotic part hinge, which is "not supported by RO" so.... I dunno. At some point, I would also like to set up colonies on a couple of planets / moons and maybe mining operations to those bases to be self sufficient to an extent. Again, a lot of mods that do this are not supported by RO so we shall see how far we can go before I get bored of doing the mundane "must put a satellite up first" and just want to record all the cool "OMG a nuclear powered space station that transforms into something resembling the love child of optimus prime & serenity" (RIP Firefly).

I am also using the 64 bit community workaround. I will gladly accept ideas for 'operations' but offer no guarantee that I will complete it. Also no stupid ideas like "go to mars with an external seat flying in reverse". I am not an experienced KSPer so yes, I will probably make a lot of mistakes. Pointing them out is cool, ridiculing me for them is not. I am not a video editor / movie maker experienced person so please don't expect award winning movies - go check nassault and others in places like the Oscar-B awards for that =D. Having said that, please enjoy  

 

 

Edited December 24, 2015 by Pronoes

[Pronoes]

OPERATION I: IRIS

Establish global communication network with 3 geostationary satellites. 

 

This is my first mission in a new RSS/RO/RVE sandbox game. If you check the "Boring Stuff" spoiler in the first post, you will see a little of what I'm hoping to accomplish.

Anyway, I designed my own launcher specifically for this mission. After hours of testing on er, ahem, the "test flight simulator" we have here at A.R.S.E. Space Center, I came up with a monstrous 16k delta-v. This is because it wasn't a simple launch to GTO. I had to get the apoapsis up to GTO, but then increase the periapsis to achieve a 16 hour orbit, allowing me to achieve equally spaced/timed satellites. Before that, I had to achieve LEO and circularise. I didn't have to circularise, BUT, I wanted to ensure apoapsis was also in the same place as the equatorial node. This meant that my inclination burn, from 28° to 0°, could be done at apoapsis, therefore using a lot less delta-v. So in summary - launch > leo > circularise > gto (where apoapsis=equatorial node) > inclination change > increase periapsis (for 16hour orbit) > launch 1 satellite at apoapsis for 3 revolutions > reduce periapsis for re-entry.

I will try to post a picture of the craft itself and some stats / blueprints. Having trouble at the moment though since a clean up of mods means a couple of parts got deleted!

The video isn't the best in the world. Was my video virginity. I wanted to keep the whole "space is dark mmmkay" but as a result, I think it's a little too dark for mainstream viewing. I also forgot to record a few key moments such as SRB separation, capsule separation etc. Some footage was corrupted, most notably the return journey and inclination burns. Also, just noticed I've been spelling separation wrong this whole time!! NOT redoing video  

Please enjoy

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2015 by Pronoes

[Pronoes]

OPERATION II: IRIS²

Establish preliminary long range communication network with 2 high polar orbit satellites 

 

Operation number 2! This was a pain in the backside if I'm honest. Designing the satellites was a semi laborious task. I had originally theorised 2 identical satellites with 8 long range antenna on each, covering a single planet each. Instead, I opted for 2 differing, 1 for the inner planets and 1 for the outer planets. Again, I will try to post some form of spec / blueprint when I have time. For the time being, each satellite has 5 long range antenna. Hopefully, eventually, each one will point to a satellite in orbit around a planet which in turn will relay to other satellites, maybe on the ground. There's a spare long range antenna dedicated to "Active Vessel". 2 short range antenna, 1 in cone setup for covering Earth's geostationary satellites (see Operation I: Iris), 1 as a spare / future proofing. I'm sure there are more elegant solutions out there, but my lim Commander 'Pronoes' Kerman's limited brain capacity leaves a lot to be desired.

Getting the rocket up to altitude was not an issue at all. Numerous iterations of the launch vehicle were 'tested' on our 'simulator' before actual launch. 14k delta-v on the launch vehicle "Seshat", another one of my personal creations. Spacing out the satellites was the issue. I could have, and probably would if I were to upgrade / replace the satellites, gone for a similar mission profile as Operation I, ensuring the transfer orbit was half the time of the final orbit. As it stands, I didn't do that so the satellites are slightly askew. They have almost identical orbit times so drift and corrections should be minimal as time progresses. This was also an unmanned flight so no return journey required!

What else? Ah, I was a little disappointed with the flickering of Earth in some of the initial shots. However, I think the clip of the alignment turn of the satellite near the end of the video makes the Earth look exquisite in the background. I also enjoyed messing around with one of my all time favourite mods, Chatterer and subtitles. It was a late addition to the edit and I had to download the ALCOR mod to 'simulate' a mission control centre. The whole arguing about 'tunes' was because I could not find a piece of music to go with it!  

Sidenote: This video has been blocked for German users of Youtube due to copyright stuff. Apologies! If the series ever gets popular enough, I will either reupload with no music, or find some copyright free tracks. I should do this anyway really but between everything else that goes into making a video, listening to dozens of tracks I've never heard of, searching for one that's 'just right' is time I don't have to spend at the moment. For now, Mission Control will simply play whatever he believes adds to the video. After all, who doesn't like the radio on at work?

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2015 by Pronoes

[Pronoes]

This has been an extremely difficult and frustrating month. After moving house and dealing with everything that comes with that (also christmas), I finally managed to sit down and take a look at actually getting my space station into orbit. Unfortunately, after spending at least 25 hours on the design, testing, launcher construction, mod management, dealing with crashes, corrupted files, rendezvous errors and hitting stage instead of start engine (you know you've all done it), I am calling it quits on the fancy robotic space station. I'll be aiming for something far simpler and more practical, although I may very well keep the design in some form.

My first scrapped idea was this one right here, I posted for posterity because ... cool!

And the latest and my best IMO piece of work that doesn't actually work is here. You can see how it's supposed to work. Ship docks, crew transfer to elevator and taken to main station / habitable / science area. The fuel pipes stretch in space so the "selector" moves up and down and pumps fuel into the ship once the tank is locked on. This is not just for show. There are docking ports everywhere you can see a potential join. Took some serious tweaking and duct tape to get stuff to match up properly. It takes 7 launches to get up to space (with empty tanks), however, Infernal Robotics seems to break when either tweakscaled or just generally flown through space, or has too heavy a tank on it - I don't know - after all this time I've had enough of running into the same issues so I am sacking it off and going for a basic design. Watch this space.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2015 by Pronoes

[Gauga159]

Hehe A.R.S.E but looking through the pages looks gud hehehe i'm still laughing for the A.R.S.E

Edited June 18, 2016 by Gauga159
auto correct

[cubinator]

I was going to point out your acronym, but it seems you've already noticed.