THE BARTDON PAPERS - "Cancel all previous directives."

[MatterBeam]

2 hours ago, UnusualAttitude said:

Thanks. I redesign my spaceplane with each new version of KSP, and this iteration was a real pain to get right: unlike previous variants this one burns LH2/LOx (like Skylon). Also, this one has a low wing with outboard engines (also like Skylon) and this sort of airframe is a challenge to balance using FAR aero. Wobble wobble, flip out at Mach 5 and 20+ kms, every single time. I got it eventually, but this is one of the reasons for the big delay between parts four and five of this story. 

And it's still not perfect, as we shall soon see...

I really like the look of the new spaceplane. It seems more... natural? Maybe because it looks less like the Mark IV spaceplane from Nertea.

Otherwise, I really like the 'butterfly' rockets with the huge solar wings. It reminds me of the little cards from the High Frontier board game. 

[UnusualAttitude]

2 hours ago, MatterBeam said:

I really like the look of the new spaceplane. It seems more... natural? Maybe because it looks less like the Mark IV spaceplane from Nertea.

Ya, for a start unlike its predecessor, it no longer has a couple of rockets strapped to the fuselage that would probably burn through the main fuel tanks... 

And the Mark IV parts are very distinctive, no offense intended to Nertea's great mod.

2 hours ago, MatterBeam said:

Otherwise, I really like the 'butterfly' rockets with the huge solar wings. It reminds me of the little cards from the High Frontier board game. 

I read through the game description and it sounds remarkably similar to what I'm trying to do here (get large quantities of water to Earth orbit, although not for industrial purposes, yet...)

By the way, what do you think of the specs for my ELF thruster? Does it deserve the "hard sci-fi" stamp of approval? 

[MatterBeam]

2 minutes ago, UnusualAttitude said:

Ya, for a start unlike its predecessor, it no longer has a couple of rockets strapped to the fuselage that would probably burn through the main fuel tanks... 

And the Mark IV parts are very distinctive, no offense intended to Nertea's great mod.

I read through the game description and it sounds remarkably similar to what I'm trying to do here (get large quantities of water to Earth orbit, although not for industrial purposes, yet...)

By the way, what do you think of the specs for my ELF thruster? Does it deserve the "hard sci-fi" stamp of approval? 

Its hard to say without thrust figures, but I can be sure that:

-Water has molecular mass of 18g/mol. Hydrogen has 2g/mol. As you are not using thermal expansion to get your exhaust velocity, hydrogen will not dissociate into 1g/mol mass. So, the ratio of exhaust velocities between the exhaust propellants is (1/2)^0.5/(1/18)^0.5 = 3. Your water exhaust velocity should be at least 3 times lower than with hydrogen. 

-You might want to look into Wakefield E-beam. Does what you want, but very low efficiency. 

-Another option is blasting your propellant into plasma then using electromagnetic forces to accelerate it. The upside is that water dissociates into oxygen and hydrogen with lower overall molar mass, the downside is the high running cost in terms of energy. Heating water to 10000K (ionization temperature of hydrogen) loses most of the oxygen. Oxygen at 120000K becomes ionized and you can accelerate it along with the hydrogen... but that's still an impressive 161kJ per gram of oxygen and 209kJ per gram of hydrogen, for an average of 165kJ per gram of water heated to plasma....

-A final option (to use water) is to hydrogenate the molecules by running an electric current through it to produce HO- and H3O+. These are energetically cheap to make... but you'll have a pathetic charge ratio of 1 charge per 16 or 19. Hydrogen ions have a charge ratio of 1, so you'll need electromagnetic field 16 to 19 times stronger to accelerate the water. Alternatively, a tube 16 to 19 times longer. 

Open to questions 

[UnusualAttitude]

39 minutes ago, MatterBeam said:

Its hard to say without thrust figures, but I can be sure that:

The thrust figures will not be realistic in any case, simply because it is not practical to simulate the sort of thrust you would get from an electric drive in KSP due to time constraints. I know there is a mod that is supposed to make thrusting under time warp possible, but last I heard it had... issues. And, besides, I will be running several missions at once in many cases, which is not compatible with such a mod.

For the record, its thrust is the same as the VASIMR engines from Near Future propulsion. I do try and emulate the limits of solar/nuclear electric propulsion, however: note that I use chemical transfer stages for my ion probes, and that all my crewed missions will depart from Lunar distant retrograde orbit, high in Earth's gravity well (to avoid a long, slow transfer through the Van Allen belts).

39 minutes ago, MatterBeam said:

-Water has molecular mass of 18g/mol. Hydrogen has 2g/mol. As you are not using thermal expansion to get your exhaust velocity, hydrogen will not dissociate into 1g/mol mass. So, the ratio of exhaust velocities between the exhaust propellants is (1/2)^0.5/(1/18)^0.5 = 3. Your water exhaust velocity should be at least 3 times lower than with hydrogen. 

OK, this I understand perfectly, will tweak ISP figures accordingly.

The Electrodeless Lorentz Force (ELF) thruster is actually a thing, by the way. I didn't invent it. Developed by a company called MSNW, it supposed to be the bees' knees of plasma thrusters and was selected for a NextSTEP award by NASA in 2015 (along with Ad Astra and VASIMR). It can use all kinds of propellant, from the usual argon/xenon gas to CO2 and even water, and I assume it does what you proposed here...

39 minutes ago, MatterBeam said:

Another option is blasting your propellant into plasma then using electromagnetic forces to accelerate it.

I chose it for its versatility in terms of propellant (ISRU will be mandatory), and because some nice person made a model for it in KSP....

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by UnusualAttitude

[MatterBeam]

@UnusualAttitude Ooooh that's a smart thruster. It drives an electric current through the propellant by starting with a tiny puff of plasma, and as the electrons are stripped away, the amount of conducting matter increases and increases and with it the current (current is number of electrons moving, so more plasma more electrons...).

It's like electrically stripping the atoms of their electrons in the cheapest way possible! 

[UnusualAttitude]

31 minutes ago, MatterBeam said:

Ooooh that's a smart thruster.

Exactly what I thought when I first saw it myself. 

[UnusualAttitude]

YEAR 14, DAY 25. CAMWISE.

My name is still Camwise, but for now, you will have to call me Kerski.

The blistering midday sun shone down on Madang's secondary runway. The air shimmered and broiled above the dark tarmac. Parked majestically near the runway's threshold was the long sleek shape of an RLV spaceplane. With the sunlight reflecting off the pure white skin of its fuselage panels, it was probably visible from the summits of the nearby Bismarck range, miles away to the South.

I squinted into the brilliant light and scratched my newly grown stubble. I still wasn't used to it. It was itchy at the most awkward moments.

The junior engineer standing next to me mopped his brow with a filthy handkerchief and said, “Is yer team ready, Kerski?”

I drew a deep breath. “Yeah, let's clear the area.”

Mersy raised both arms above his head. A siren sounded and the technicians surrounding the spacecraft began to withdraw to the safety of a bunker situated at the top of a small rise, two hundred yards or so to the side of the runway. We would still have a great view of the test, but we would also be sheltered in case things didn't go quite as planned.

Junior Engineer Mersy shouted at the Kerbals, struggling in the tropical heat, to hurry up. He clearly wanted to get the test over and get back to the comfort of his air-conditioned office as soon as possible. Whether the test was successful or not was none of his concern. The RLV would fly to orbit in a week's time, regardless of the outcome.

We peered out towards the runway from the relative safety of the bunker's embrasure.

“This 'ad better be good, Kerski,” he said, without meeting my gaze.

As if you give a damn... I thought.

Mersy's scepticism was understandable. The three previous test firings of the Orbital Utility Vehicle's abort system had all been more or less spectacular failures. The first time, the capsule had remained stuck firmly to its docking mount inside the RLV's cargo bay, the solid rocket abort engines firing uselessly at the adapter below it and almost melting through it to the fuel tank that it protected. Only the short burn-time of the abort engines avoided the test ending in a massive explosion of toxic hypergolic fuel that would have destroyed the test article, as well as severely damaging the spaceplane itself.

During the two subsequent tests, the OUV had detached as it was designed to, but the thrust from the four small rocket motors had proved to be unbalanced. The small capsule had tumbled ungracefully, end over end, until it had ploughed into the runway just a few metres from the launch vehicle itself. Not good if the said launch vehicle was already a blazing inferno from which the capsule's occupants were trying to escape.

On the third test, the OUV had caught the spaceplane's fuselage with a glancing blow as it flipped uncontrollably through the air, causing additional damage and delays. Principal Investigator Jedfal was getting impatient, obviously under pressure from higher up to get the engineering crew up to orbit on schedule. If things didn't work as planned this time, corners would be cut, and the launch escape system would be disabled. With the relative reliability of the RLV spaceplane, it had always been seen as something of a luxury anyway.

A luxury, at least for the investigators and committee members who would never have to ride into orbit in the belly of a spaceplane themselves.

That's where I came in.

Against all odds, I had scrounged my way to Tanegashima, hitching rides on old oil-burning airships. I had earned my passage by pulling engineering duties in conditions of dubious safety offered by even more dubious employers. When I had arrived in the great Pacific city, I had made my way straight to the seediest suburban caves I could find. There, in exchange for some basic maintenance services, I had struck a deal with the mortician of a small clinic who happened to have what I needed: a new identity.

Senior Technician Kerski had been a poor soul who had emigrated from Eastern Europe and worked for half of his life at the nuclear power station of a major coastal settlement. He had then gone back to school and had managed to fulfil his childhood dream of flying as a test-technician for RATO systems at the Tanegashima Aviation Company. The rockets he worked on had significantly improved the payload capacity of TAC's turboprop aircraft when they had to fly out of challenging hot-and-high airports, such as Xichang.

Unfortunately for Kerski, his dream had come true all too literally one winter afternoon. A test article had fired accidentally during a walk-around inspection, precisely at the moment Kerski happened to be taking a closer look at the rocket's nozzle.

Kerski had happened to be somewhat of a loner who had no relatives or close friends, so his crew-mates scraped what was left of him off the tarmac and took him to the clinic, from which he would then make his final lonely journey to the crematorium. Not that there was much left of him to burn...

Except Kerski never got that far, and thanks to the shady dealings between the mortician and myself, he made a miraculous recovery and was discharged from the clinic just forty-eight hours later, with a clean bill of health.

The rest had been easy. Madang Space Centre welcomed new recruits with open arms and Kerski was an ideal candidate for the asteroid mining programme. The fact that his identity papers were slightly charred and that the Kerski in the photograph looked a little different from the one who presented himself at the job interview was overlooked.

Extensive experience with nuclear reactors: check. Proficiency with rocket propulsion systems (despite the odd mishap...): check. He was no youngster, so he only just clawed his way through the physical tests, but he made up for this by unexpectedly proving to be much more at ease than his peers during microgravity training on board the vomit comet.

That is how I, Kerski not-Camwise, made it to the top of the list. I would be going back to space soon, and in this damned capsule with its abort system I'd been asked to try and fix.

I'd attempted to recalculate the capsule's mass distribution and make sure the combined thrust from the four rockets was aligned with its centre of gravity. I'd checked and re-checked the firing mechanism to make sure that the thrusters were lighting simultaneously. Without a complete redesign of the system, there was nothing more that I could do.

“Stand by to commence test on my mark...” I said nervously into the portable radio.

“Copy, ST.”

“Three...two...one....mark.”

The spaceplane's cargo bay doors burst open and there was a loud detonation followed by an explosion of movement. The OUV leapt into view, accelerating straight upwards on four spears of fire pouring from the stubby nozzles that protruded from the bottom of the crew cabin.

About two hundred metres up, the abort rockets cut off with a bang and the OUV reached the top of its ballistic arc a few moments later.

The parachutes blossomed as planned and the capsule drifted to a gentle landing on the edge of the runway, well clear of the spaceplane.

I suddenly realised that I could breathe once more.

Mersy clapped me on the shoulder. “Well, that's settled. You 'ave yer abort system,” he said with a false cheer that meant he really didn't care, and turned to leave.

I stared at the OUV thoughtfully, mulling over what I'd just seen. “The abort engines aren't powerful enough...” I said, thinking aloud.

“Wha' were that, Kerski?”

I realised that Mersy had heard me, and cleared my throat. “Their thrust is too low. A successful static test is one thing; pulling a capsule free from the cargo bay of a vessel that is breaking up at hypersonic speed is entirely another.”

Mersy stared at me suspiciously. “Wha' der you ken 'bout hypersonic breakups?”

More than you can possibly imagine... I nearly replied, but instead I held my tongue, dropped my gaze and resumed being Kerski.

“'This ain' no time for a redesign, man. That capsule is goin' ter space in a week, wether yer on board or no,” Mersy called over his shoulder as he rushed back towards the space centre and the comfort of his office.

I watched him go with relief. So far, no-one I'd met had recognised me for who I really was. A couple of weeks ago, I'd caught a fleeting glimpse of the familiar figure of Froemone disembarking from the hypersonic flight in from Tanegashima. Fortunately, our paths had not crossed during his inspection of the proceedings here in Madang. My cover was still intact.

And Mersy was right anyway. Launch escape systems be damned, I just want to get back to space.

I certainly don't belong on this planet any more.
 

YEAR 14, DAY 32. CAMWISE.

I had vowed never to leave Earth horizontally again, yet there I was, once again trapped inside the cavernous folds of a spaceplane cargo bay.

The ascent was mercifully short. I closed my eyes and let the feelings wash over me once more. The sickening lurch of take-off and climb out. The steady, inexorable build up of thrust as the craft climbed through the Mach numbers. The brutal kick in the backside that pressed me into the capsule's acceleration couch as the massive dual-cycle engines switched over and the nose lifted again, straining to win its seemingly impossible fight against gravity and reach space.

RLV had granted me the seven-point-eight kilometres per second necessary to achieve weightlessness. When the thrusting ended, a blissful smile on my lips, I loosened the buckle of my lap and shoulder straps, eager for the manoeuvring to be over and fully enjoy the feeling of microgravity once more.

The cargo bay door slid open to reveal the pure, brilliant daylight of space, unaltered by the shroud of Earth's atmosphere. I drank it in – the first time in nearly five years.

I am back. I am home.

This time, the stay will be short and there is much work to be done before I return to Earth one last time.

My pilot Jenbles and I are here to assemble the Company's new ship, the NES Prosperity. Once this is accomplished, the first teams of Kerbal engineers will be dispersed amongst the Near Earth Asteroids. I will be on one of those teams.

Out there in deep space, I will work hard. Be discreet. Prove myself – as I always have – to be quietly competent.

The Company will learn to count on me. Appreciate the efficient way in which I get things done without complaint. They will entrust me with running tests on their mining equipment, on their landers and their rockets.

I will watch and learn the secrets of their new generation of nuclear reactors, and how to exploit them to their fullest potential.

And once they trust me completely, they will then learn who Kerski really is, and I will remind them of what they took from me.

My life, my family, and my love.

Then I will make sure that the Chairman and the members of his Board never, ever forget the name Camwise again.

Edited April 21, 2017 by UnusualAttitude

[Garibaldi2257]

revenge... interesting motive for camwise, didn't think he'd turn that dark.

[UnusualAttitude]

5 minutes ago, Garibaldi2257 said:

revenge... interesting motive for camwise, didn't think he'd turn that dark.

Well, you have to admit that the past eight years or so have been pretty rough for him...

[Garibaldi2257]

well, there is that.  maybe its just me looking in a mirror.

[NotAgain]

9 hours ago, UnusualAttitude said:

 

And once they trust me completely, they will then learn who Kerski really is, and I will remind them of what they took from me.

My life, my family, and my love.

Then I will make sure that the Chairman and the members of his Board never, ever forget the name Camwise again.

Goood, good. Let the hatred run through you.

[insert_name]

considering that the board plans to send some of these kerbs on a suicide mission, I would be surprised if they didn't have some sort of fate worse than death that they could use as leverage against camwise or whoever he threatens/decives into going along with his scheme

[KAL 9000]

8 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Goood, good. Let the hatred run through you.

And your journey to the Dark Side will be complete!

[UnusualAttitude]

15 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Goood, good. Let the hatred run through you.

 

7 hours ago, insert_name said:

considering that the board plans to send some of these kerbs on a suicide mission, I would be surprised if they didn't have some sort of fate worse than death that they could use as leverage against camwise or whoever he threatens/decives into going along with his scheme

 

6 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

And your journey to the Dark Side will be complete!

Don't know if you guys are old enough to remember this one, but this would be closer to my inspiration for Cam's state of mind right now. 

"Luck and I weren't on speaking terms..."

Spoiler

...sorry for the dreadful photoshop chainsaw job. 

Edit: by the way, this was back in the day when game studios had their own soundtracks written and didn't just resort to generic royalty free music (jab intended). Pour a drink, sit back and listen to this masterpiece. Ah.... the moodyness. 

Edited April 12, 2017 by UnusualAttitude

[greenTurtle1134]

On 4/11/2017 at 5:50 PM, UnusualAttitude said:

Then I will make sure that the Chairman and the members of his Board never, ever forget the name Camwise again.

Ooh boy.

I would not like to be a Company employee right now.

Engineering + Anger = Problems. Possibly massive. Possibly energetic. Possibly both.

Like I said (and will continue to say) pure science beats pure bureaucracy any day of the week.

[KAL 9000]

Camwise is going to exploit Murphy's Law for fun and profit (and revenge), isn't he?

[HamnavoePer]

On 11/04/2017 at 10:50 PM, UnusualAttitude said:

And once they trust me completely, they will then learn who Kerski really is, and I will remind them of what they took from me.

My life, my family, and my love.

Then I will make sure that the Chairman and the members of his Board never, ever forget the name Camwise again

Daaaaaang. This just got dark real quick. I didn't think Camwise would get this dark. But yay! Moar plot-ness

[Plecy75]

so, what happened to bartdon and the Laroque's crew? i must have missed that part

[insert_name]

2 hours ago, Plecy75 said:

so, what happened to bartdon and the Laroque's crew? i must have missed that part

Laroqe supposedly broke up during areocapture. However given the boards shining record of honesty, there is small chance that they are alive.

[UnusualAttitude]

On 3/5/2017 at 8:26 PM, UnusualAttitude said:

“Froe, is there any news of Bartdon and his crew? Anything? Maybe Trans Atlantic made a mistake, or maybe they're covering something up...”

Froemone stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder awkwardly. “Cam, stop right there. The official version of what happened hasn't changed since it was first reported. Quissac's circularisation burn was miscalculated and she re-entered over the Atlantic. She broke up on the way down. Trans Atlantic found the wreckage on the west coast of Africa. There were no survivors.”

“Yeah, that's the official version, but...”

“There were witnesses, Camwise. Many independent witnesses, and reliable ones. An airship Captain saw her come apart, and the scatter of debris. You and I are engineers, Cam. We both know that Quissac was designed to land on Mars, not on Earth. You have to let it go, now. They're gone, Cam. She's gone. I'm so sorry.”

From Year 13 Day 204. Quissac, not Laroque. 

Edited April 13, 2017 by UnusualAttitude

[Plecy75]

On 4/13/2017 at 2:59 PM, UnusualAttitude said:

From Year 13 Day 204. Quissac, not Laroque. 

Sorry, bad habit with ship names.

[Plecy75]

On 4/13/2017 at 2:40 PM, insert_name said:

Laroqe supposedly broke up during areocapture. However given the boards shining record of honesty, there is small chance that they are alive.

what if Quissac broke up, but the crew module survived and used rcs thrusters to circularize

[KAL 9000]

11 hours ago, Plecy75 said:

what if Quissac broke up, but the crew module survived and used rcs thrusters to circularize

THAT WOULD WORK! 

#TheresStillHope 

#SaveBartdon 

#IOnlyCareAboutBartdonScrewTheRestOfThem

[UnusualAttitude]

On 4/18/2017 at 2:57 AM, KAL 9000 said:

#IOnlyCareAboutBartdonScrewTheRestOfThem

You monster...

[HamnavoePer]

On 18/04/2017 at 1:57 AM, KAL 9000 said:

#IOnlyCareAboutBartdonScrewTheRestOfThem

#WellTheOtheresHaveFellingsTooRespectThem