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United Nations Space Administration - reaching out to the real solar system


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With the mods Real Solar System, Realism Overhaul and Realistic Progression Zero along with many others (like KCT, FAR, KER, RT just to name a few) finally beeing updated to 1.1 I am now starting a new serious RSS career game. And this will be the image-based play-through thread where I will keep track of my achievements. Comments and questions are of course welcome. :wink:
 

The main mods have been mentioned. I might change the mod configuration during the campaign in case i stumble across intresting additions. Realism adjustments are deactivated ullage and unlimited ignitions. I am also using various non-RO engines as long as they are supported by RP-0 and have been set for RO/RF with the stockalike RF Engine configs. [ Stopped using those in Episode 5 already. To many bugs and conflicts with the RP-0 setup. ]

The career is set in an alternative history, beginning after Wolrd War II with the Russians, Americans and Europeans... basically the whole world cooperating in the endeavour of reaching out into space. Wether or not an actual desire to go into space would have manifested under such conditions is a question I am not going to dig into here. :wink:

The United Nations Space Administration (UNSA) is running the international space program with Kourou in French Guayana as their main launch site. Their first milestone was set in stone right away: use the german military technology to learn the basics of rocket flying and put an artificial satellite into orbit arround the Earth.

Without further ado, here is Episode 1: Pushing into orbit.

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The first launch of the international space program: the RX 1, basicly an old A-4 rocket (also known as V-2) taking off from Kourou. nxVXp1v.jpg

 

It went straight up into the atmosphere. The engineers had predicted it would reach space. But the launch crew had not much experience with this new technology yet and thus messed up the fuel configuration. The rocket had way to much oxidizer loaded and thus burned much shorter than expected. It reached 41 km altitude...
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Then tumbled over and fell back down towards the surface...
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Everybody at Kourou ran for the bunkers as mission control realized its super-sonic trajectory...
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Thankfully the Earth had rotated a little while the rocket was zooming up, and thus the V-2 impacted a few hundred meters west of the KSC.
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Next up the RX 1b was launched. The same design but with a fixed fuel setup and additional scientific equipment.
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It proceeded through the atmosphere...
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...and into space, up to an altitude of 234 kilometers.
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The re-entry was spectacular but due to the prolonged flight there was no danger for the KSC.
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After this first success, the engineers proceeded with an idea that the germans already had for attacking America: putting a second rocket on top of the first one as another stage. The result was the RX 2. Even though it had newly developed engines, the similarities to the A-4 are obvious. The fins were kept and most importantly the flight control system of the old V-2 was used as well. A piece of technology that the UNSA had not yet surpassed.
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The RX 2 taking off from Kourou...
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...pushed through the clouds...
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...and released its upper stage.
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The top stage zoomed into space to altitudes never seen before. With its improved science- and coms equipment, it sent astonishing data back to the control center.
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To the surprise of mission control, it even survived its re-entry and was able to send even more data all along the way back down to the surface.
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After proving the viability of multi-staged rockets, the engineers took the idea one step further and designed an enormous three-stage rocket, weighting 60 tons. The task of the RX 3: to put the first satellite into orbit.
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Once it was finnished, the RX 3 was rolled out to the launchpad...
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...and took off.
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...climbing into the cloudy sky over Kourou...
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... into Max-Q...
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...levelled out and accelerating horizontally...
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Stage seperation for the launcher...
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Pushing the Apo further out over the Atlantic...
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Top stage ignition...
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...and then the task was fulfilled: a stable orbit was reached.
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With 200 million $ in their budget and an upgraded launch pad, the UNSA is now beginning to pave the way for the first human in space...

 

Edited by TrooperCooper
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16 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

What an auspicious start to a space program, launching a ballistic missile at yourself. Love me some RSS reports, subbed. :cool:

Thanks! Yeah, and it seems like it is continuing just like it began... :D

 

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Episode 2: Fire in the Sky

 

Planned manned space flights by the UNSA required them to learn the techniques of re-entry. In order to figure this out, a 4-ton test-dummy was designed. It included parachutes, scientific equipment, heatshield and enough fuel and engines to be able to maneuver in space. Delivering four tons of payload into orbit however posed quite some difficulties for the young space program. At the end the involved parties split the work of designing the setup: the Americans designed the payload itself, based on the early version of the AJ10 engine with a pressurized fuel tank and attitude control thrusters. Along with that they also created the lifters top stage with payload fairings and based on two XLR50 Boosters which were originally designed for the Vanguard missiles.
The Russians came up with an innovative design for the lower lifter sections. Instead of sticking those on top of each other, they decided to attach radial boosters to a central stage, something they already had in mind for their own R-7 rocket before the UNSA was formed...
In total the new RX 4 weighted 260 tons when it was rolled out to the launchpad...
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The rocket cleared the pad and boosted skywards...
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Flawless booster seperation, central section keeps pushing the rocket...
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Then it was time for the last lifter section to take over. Payload fairings were seperated as well...
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And at last, over Papua New Guinea the test-dummy was released into space. Looking carefully, you might notice a little design flaw that could have an impact later on...XV5Z1nz.jpg

 

The dummy made use of its RCS thrusters. This new technology allows for attitude control in space...
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It swung arround to initiate its re-entry burn. Mission control tried to figure out wether or not the last lifter stage was still to close but figured the chances of a collision at this distance would be acceptable already...
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And of course during the burn the dummy did collide with the lifter stage. Luckily no real damage was done, but the probe was put into a wild spin that forced mission control to use quite some fuel to stabilize...
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Then everything was set and mission control was expecting to continue with an easy descent. But it went downhill from there...
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Suddenly all controls were locked up. The black spot in the ground-based com network over the central pacific had been overlooked by mission control. And the lower section of the unmanned spacecraft had not been decoupled yet. The heat-shield was not free. That might be all right, some engineer said. The lower section could burn up and then the freed shield would come in to protect the test-dummy. "All right, did we arm the parachute?" some american controler asked. "Errrrrm.... nope!" :P
The old sattelite that was put into orbit by RX-3 on the earlier mission was slightly ahead of the return-dummy. A direct connection between the two vessels was active, but even for the RX-3 sattelite it was unlikely that he would get a link to a ground station in time to act as a relay before the dummy would impact.
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Soon enough the vessel dipped into the atmosphere and began to heat up...
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Ship crews in the Pacific reported "Fire in the Sky" and then followed by explosions. Bits and pieces flew everywhere...
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Finally the lower side of the heat shield was freed and it kept the hope up that a com link could be established in time to arm the parachute...
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Wouldnt it have been for the long com antennas, that sticked out over the heatshield and popped up one by one...
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Now all was lost and the dummy crashed hard into the calm Pacific water...
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After this failure, the engineers went back to the drawing board to re-design the return unit and mission control took excercises in standard operation procedures. It payed off and the repeat of the mission went successfull, though financially with the prior failure the agency barely brooke even...
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Realizing that a faulty com network would pose a threat to almost all further upcoming missions, the UNSA decided to fix that problem.
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A couple cheap lifters were launched...
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...which carried a set of five ultra-light relay probes each...
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They were scattered out in low orbits and are now forming the backbone of the UNSAs early relay network...
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Edited by TrooperCooper
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Episode 3: Reaching out to the Moon

After setting up a ruidimentary low altitude relay network, the UNSA intended to deploy a number of high altitude communication satellites for improved remote control capabilities. These satellites would feature two new key technologies: large scale solar panels and dish-based RT antennas for long range coms.
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However, delivering these heavier probes to high altitudes would have required a bigger lifter than the one that was used for the low level relay sats. At the same time the Russians faced a severe problem with their radial attached booster setup for the heavy RX 4 rocket. Thus, a new launch vessel had to be designed, which would only consist of a single powerfull lane. Based on the RX 3 the engineers developed the RX 5.
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It is a 3-stage rocket with four times the engine power of the RX 3 in the first stage and a newly developed Mainsail engine on the second stage.
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The last lifter stage is basically the RX 4's top stage with two XLR50 boosters. As an upgrade it received an integrated attitude control system to maneuver its payload into different orbits.
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As a start, three RX 5s with Com Sats were launched into Earth Orbit.
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The sats moved into their high orbits and established a first test network.
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The system was working. However, the Agency had to realize that the new dish antennas did not have the range that they had been hoping for. It was planned to send a Moon fly by probe on its way, remote-controled through the new com sats. Unfortunately, that was not an option anymore. The probe was already built though, and thus it was decided to send it blind on its course, just to demonstrate that mankind had begun to reach out to its natural satellite. Luna Visitor was based on the com sats that had just been brought into orbits. It had additional scientific instruments and an increased ammount of fuel, which was easy to add, since the central body of the com sats was mostly an empty base for the large solar panels. The engine section was also improved with four thrusters to be able to move the bigger mass. As lifter served the RX 5 which had just proven its reliability with the com sats.
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As expected, it put the probe flawlessly into orbit.
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Mission control set up a first flight plan with a Moon-rendezvousz in just under three days...
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TMI burn and seperation from the lifter top stage on the Earth dark side...
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Luna Visitor was on its way...
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...setting new world records for speed and altitude and sending back the first scientific data from high Earth orbit.
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The com network arround the Earth held connection with the probe up to its mid flight correction burn.
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Mission control had come up with an alternative flight plan in order to return the results of the automated Moon fly-by experiments back into com-range of the Earth. And thus the mid-course correction burn ensured that Luna Visitor would pass by the Moon in a retrograde orbit. Shortly after the maneuver, contact with the probe was lost.
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It did however silently continue on its path and reached its target. The automatic science instruments began to record data.
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Zooming down to an altitude of 35 km, the first manmade object rushed over the jagged Moon landscape...
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Then climbed back up on an escape trajectory that would bring it close to the Earth again.
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Five and a half days after the launch, mission control cheered as Luna Visitor came into range again and transmitted loads of data. Another milestone reached. :)
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Edited by TrooperCooper
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5 minutes ago, Kerbin vonKerbal said:

Excellent series. I tried to see if it was mentioned anywhere, but I didn't find an answer in regards to the visual mods you're using. Is that EVE manually installed? I know scatterer based off the water texture, but I want clouds for my RO save and EVE isn't up for grabs on CKAN. :P

 

Thanks!

Its Scatterer, EVE and RVE. However, RVE is not officially updated for 1.1 yet. So its kind of a hacked together install. In fact, its running the Linux version of it on my Windows system. :D

All the infos with DL links can be found here:

 

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Episode 4: Manned Spaceflight

While the developmet department of the UNSA worked hard on designing a capsule and ship for a first manned flight, several more probes were sent into space. One type of which three were launched, was the "Luna Impactor" class. Their sole purpose was to hit the surface of the Moon... hard. Just as a demonstration to any extraterestrial intelligence that might be watching mankind that we indeed would be able to hit you. If your attacking spaceship is as big as the Moon... and travels on a simple gravitational trajectory... and doesnt have defenses... pffffff...
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The RX 5 had really become the workhorse of the space program, lifting anything the concept designers decided to strap on top of it. Now it was sent into uncharted waters again...
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The engineers rightfully trusted into the RX 5's capabilities to deliver a precious payload into a polar orbit around the Earth.
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The heavy RADAR Sat had been packed with new technology: improved sun-tracking solar panels, RPWS antennas and most importantly its terrain-mapping radar arrays.
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The satellite mapped the Earth and sent valuable data back to mission control...
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...and then moved into a higher polar orbit to serve as a backup com relay.
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In the meantime, engineers had been developing the equipment to send a man into space. It consisted of the new Mercury capsule with an integrated heatshield, a fully functional launch abort system, parachutes, avionics computers and large batteries. The whole system costed a fortune to create.
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Naturally, the Agency turned to the RX 5 to lift its first manned spaceship. And the numbers matched up.
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During the final ground-based testings however, the UNSA suffered its first tragic loss. Pavel Alenin accidently stepped on the controler of the launch abort system when boarding the capsule for a planned excercise. Not belted to his seat yet, he was thrown hundreds of meters into the air at enormous G-forces. Rescue teams were only able to retrieve his dead body after the capsule had landed with its automated parachute...
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An internal investigation suggested that the launch-abort-controler should be moved away from the floor in front of the entrance. The Russians blamed the loss of one of their finest pilots on inferior american engineering with the Mercury capsule and tensions between the UNSA parties arose. While the higher ups and politicians were battling it out over the press, the space agency finally continued with its program. A few last re-entry tests with dummies were performed...
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Then the great day had come. Denise Rice had the honor of boarding the Mercury ship for a first sub-orbital spaceflight.
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Millions of people worldwide were watching as the RX 5 cleared the pad...
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...and left the Kourou Space Center behind...
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At 40,000 meters, the first launch stage was burnt out and dropped...
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Denise continued to climb over the Atlantic coast...
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Within minutes she had left the atmosphere and ignited the last lifter stage.
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The two XLR50 boosters had the capability of sending her into orbit...
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But for safety reasons, this mission was not planned to reach orbital speed. As the Apoapsis of 230 km was burned out, the engines cut off and Denise used the RCS of the RX 5's last stage to swing her vessel around.
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At apoapsis... the astronaut is obviously having a great time...
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But it didnt last long and she had to re-enter the atmosphere. Just below 100 km altitude the capsule seperated from its engine section.
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Shortly afterwards, Denise' Mercury ship seemed to be engulfed by hot plasma while the upper RX 5 stage blew up in the heat in front of her.
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The heatshield kept her cold enough. But enormous forces, peaking at nearly 20 Gs began to squash the Astronaut, even though she looked kinda unimpressed...
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Three minutes later she was much more worried about the opening chute...
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At last she safely splashed down in the Atlantic and had become mankinds first pioneer in space...
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Edited by TrooperCooper
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6 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Wait, what exactly happened to poor Pavel??

 

Killed by a bug. Game crashed during a launch abort simulation and somehow KCT didnt grasp it. In the real game he then was in orbit and run dry on supplies. Insta death and impossible to revert. So I had to make something up. :wink:

 

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22 hours ago, TrooperCooper said:

 

Killed by a bug. Game crashed during a launch abort simulation and somehow KCT didnt grasp it. In the real game he then was in orbit and run dry on supplies. Insta death and impossible to revert. So I had to make something up. :wink:

 

Ah, so a good ol' fashioned coverup. Way to play the UN angle right.:D

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Episode 5: Redesign
 

The UNSA faced some more technical difficulties. Due to faulty alloys, many of their used engines were grounded. Eventually the engineers were forced to re-design most of the concepts used in the space program. [I uninstalled Real Fuels Stockalike Engine Configs - its was not really playing along nicely with RP-0, to many bugs and imballances - now I have less engine variety but more realism *horray* :D ]
Naturally the RX 5 workhorse had the highest priority to get up and running again. The overhaul however, resultet in what was pretty much a complete new rocket. The general concept of three stages and its payload-capacity of 4.5 tons remained. But the upper two of the three engine sections had to be replaced and their fuel composition with them. And while they were at it, the engineers installed new fins as well. These had no control surfaces anymore and thus just acted as stabilizers since the old fins tended to fight with the engine-gimbal. In the end the new design costed 33% less than the old RX 5 and now was designated as RX 6. Makar Korablyov had the honor of riding it on its maiden flight to become the first human in orbit.
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Second stage with the new RD-107 8D74PS configuration running...
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Top stage separation with the ported Mercury setup...
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The top stage is propelled by a Gamma 8 engine and features powerfull RCS alongside with it for fine adjustments of the payloads orbit.
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Makars Mercury II setup reached orbit. With its upgraded batteries and a new adapter, it has become a sturdy little spaceship.
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Makar spent only a few hours in orbit, then returned back to the surface to celebrate his achievement.
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The next launch of the RX 6, more than half a year later, was unmanned again.
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It carried GlobeCom 1 into orbit, the prototype of a new commuication satellite generation.
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These flying antenna arsenals are made for long range communication with the Moon and beyond.
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GlobeCom 1 went into its assigned orbit and established his com links.
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Four month later, Sergei Datsishin blasted into space with the next RX 6 / Mercury setup.
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He became the first spacefarer to go on EVA.
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GlobeCom 2 followed its predecessor into space.
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Then it was time for the UNSA to go for the Moon again. The plan was to send an orbiter there with a wide range of scientific equipment plus strong com antennas and enough fuel so that it could become the master-link for a planned orbital network. In order to move such a vessel into orbit, the UNSA had the opportunity to make use of a powerfull new technology: the first early Hydrolox engine had been invented. Based on the LR87-LH2, the engineers designed a new lifter class for 15 ton payloads, the RX 7.
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Lift off with the Moon Surveyor.
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The first stage is a cluster of nine good old RD-107 series.
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Second stage running, burning liquid hydrogen for the first time ever in this program.882BWPx.jpg

 

Top stage and fairings separation...
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The top stage is very similar to the RX 6, just four meters wide instead of three.
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Moon Surveyor leaving its lifter behind and beginning to burn for the Moon with an XLR81 engine which historically was used in the Agena vehicles.
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On the way to the Moon, GlobeCom 1 and 2 keeping the Moon Surveyor linked up.
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Arrival over the target.
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Examining the Moon with everything the scientists had to offer...
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On 5/10/2016 at 9:04 PM, TrooperCooper said:

The United Nations Space Administration (UNSA)

Just some random ramblings, but if the UN is involved, it would probably be an Agency, not an Administration. (But then yours is an alternate history scenario, so of cause it might be different :))

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Episode 6: Misjudgements

To initiate the next round in the manned spaceflight project, a RX 6 lifter brought a hub into low Earth orbit. It was equipped with some science pods, lots of solar panels, a chunk of life support goods and most importantly: a primitive docking port.
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To practice rendezvousz, docking and prolonged space operations, it was followed by Connie Armstrong with the third modification of the Mercury spaceship.
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Since this was the first time ever the UNSA tried to have two vessels meet up in space, the maneuver almost failed. The required fuel needs had been miscalculated. Connie matched orbits with the hub and was already down to less than 200 m/s dV. Subsequently mission control locked up her primary fuel tank to reserve what was left for a re-entry burn. They told her that she had to choose now between initiating the rendezvous and docking with her RCS fuel only or aborting the mission. Her reply: "challenge accepted!".
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She actually achieved to meet up with the hub but misjudged her approach speed, bumped into the installation, fell back... and with the last bit of RCS fuel managed to swing into position and dock up.
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Now she had some loiter time. Aside from running the hubs science experiments in EVA, she was enjoying the view from 200 km above Earth for nearly a week and set a new record for the longest space mission so far.
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Shortly after Connie had safely returned back home, the UNSA sent the first in a series of privately sponsored sattelites to the Moon.
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Meanwhile Research and Development finnished their work on a new long range communication antenna dish. With those put into service, the gate to interplanetary exploration would be open. So engineers concepted a first master uplink satellite for an interplanetary com-network. The satellite would feature five dishes with a range up till Saturn and eight 35° spreader antennas for connections around Earth. This baby would have to be accelerated up to almost escape velocity... in a polar orbit. And that while the construction works at the polar launch base had been delayed. The good old RX 6 was not suited for launching this, so the UNSA was forced to strap it on the heavier and more pricey RX 7.
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And even for the thus far strongest lifter in the UNSA's fleet, this task was a real burden. The stretched out antenna profile required an aerodynamicly stressing payload fairing.
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But in the end it did get up there...
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...and soon it was accelerating over the south pole...
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...and then shot up to an altitude, just a hair wide from the border of the Earth' SOI. The extreme orbit minimizes link downtime to about an hour every 35 days. It was debated whether or not a backup would have to be installed to close this gap. But the mission concept department of the UNSA is willing to accept those chances for the upcoming interplanetary missions. :sealed:
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Every 35 days now the IP master link comes down screaming with 10.700 meters per second, zooming low over the south pole to shoot back up again...
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To help with the UNSA's budget and to further improve the network arround the Earth andMoon, they created a standardized class of satellites for private partnership missions.
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The first one that went on its way revealed a massive design error, beeing built around a lightweight ballon tank while the engine cluster required heavily pressured fuel supplies. Luckily the mounted RCS thrusters required the exact same fuel type that were stored in the main tanks and could handle the low pressure. So the poor engineer that was responsible for the designs shortcoming was capitvated onto a chair in the missions control room and forced to press the "H-" key for hours, trying to make amends and hoping that the thrusters lower ISP would not ruin his day completly.
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He was lucky. With the last bit of fuel he managed to get into the proper geostationary orbit.
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Afterwards the satellites design was improved with a proper engine / tank layout and the next one was sent on its mission to the Moon...
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...and the UNSA almost had to fire the next engineer for packing simply not enough fuel (notice the remaining dV and engine burn time at the top left). But some may just call it efficient planning. :cool:
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Edited by TrooperCooper
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1 hour ago, Kiwa said:

Just some random ramblings, but if the UN is involved, it would probably be an Agency, not an Administration. (But then yours is an alternate history scenario, so of cause it might be different :))


Eh, I guess you are right. I do reffer to it as Agency sometimes, too. Maybe some bureaucrat should fill out and sign the "Name change request request-" form to get the name change request form to change the organisations name at some time... maybe... if he doesnt have something better to do... :wink:

 

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5 hours ago, Kiwa said:

it would probably be an Agency, not an Administration.

Expound, please?

3 hours ago, TrooperCooper said:

...forced to press the "H-" key for hours...

Now, did he actually do that, or just wait till everyone left the room and then use the built-in RCS throttle in MechJeb?:wink:

Edited by CatastrophicFailure
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19 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Expound, please?

Comrade Failure, my brain automatically registered "Administration" as terminology predominantly used by a certain single nation, and not something I have ever come across in my dealings with the UN. It was the first thought that came to my mind when reading the introduction to this thread, and it [edit: the choice of name] would be certain to cause an amount of discussion with potential to cause tensions not unlike those of the later incident involving Pavel Alenin, da?

Edited by Kiwa
clarification
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Episode 7: Moon Visitors


Overall progress during the last years had been slow with the UNSA and higher ups were worried that fundings would be cut short if they didnt achieve something inspiring soon. The Russians stepped in and sped up development of their new spaceship. The Voskhod was ment to surpass the Mercury and certainly did so, however, due to constrains in time and spending, it had its shortcomings as well. Originally it was concepted as a one-man capsule, but the engineers scrapped out unessential instrumentations, propaganda materials and Vodka reserves and then actually were able to cram three Cosmonauts inside it. It was designed as a bowl which did not allow the installation of a launch escape system, a feasible heatshield had to be hobnailed onto its bottom end in a strange way and due to the resulting horrendous aerodynamic profile, the crew had to sit locked in inside payload fairings during the launch. The ships service section offered a range that would allow it a trip arround the Moon and it had life support reserves for ten days for three people on board. In order to lift this thing into space, the new RX 8, certified for up to 20 tons was designed. Lift off from Kourou...
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On its first testflight into LEO, it was boarded by Zhanna Utyuzhina, Elena Anisimova and Emilia Krasnova from the Soviet Union (someone from PR at the Agency has to figure out why we almost only get female applicants :P ).
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Into second stage, burning liquid helium again...
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The crew calmed down after the thrilling take off when they were breaching into space...
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Finally, on the RX 8' third stage the fairings were removed and the ugly, yet most advanced spaceship showed its face...
2wNgoYK.jpg

 

After circularization by the lifters top stage, the fatty was let loose...
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The ship is powered by two XLR81 vacuum engines, which had proven to be very effective in the UNSAs program.
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Solar panels and com antennas deployed. The Voskhod stayed in LEO for almost a week while the three cosmonauts tested out its systems...
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On the first re-entry a big piece of debry from its own service module burning up ahead slammed into the descending capsule and reminded mission control that they should decouple sooner. The accident showed however, that while the capsules connection with the heatshield was unfavorable during the ascent, the improvised design guaranteed excellent stability during return as it orientated itself right without a control impulse, despite beeing bumped into a wild spin by the debry at first.
yUVPIii.jpg

 

A little shocked but safe, the crew landed in the Atlantic again...
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Now it was time for the UNSA to accept a high profile mission. Sending a crew into space arround the Moon and returning in good shape. The politicans offered a budget of more than six billion $ for the endevour. They probably did not know that the russian engineers had already delivered most of the gear.
GOtRgwT.jpg

 

On its next flight with two russian and one US-american passenger on board, the Voskhod left low Earth orbit.
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Enroute for a fly-by that would bring the crew back home in less than a week.
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Bye bye, Earth...
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Closing in on the target. The Voskhod sent the first crew- and EVA reports from high orbit back to mission control.
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Shortly before they would transit behind the moon, the crew took a minute to look back at their home planet, contemplating about how far they had come, with the space program... and as the whole human species...
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They would have loved to stay. But the Voskhods limited capabilities did not allow such an undertaking yet. Thus, after passing around the dark side of the Moon, the first human visitors were on their way back home already...
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Firing the engines for the last mid course correction...
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Home, sweet home...
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Swinging her arround for re-entry, using the tail end control section...
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This time, the crew decoupled way ahead of re-entry...
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And while the service section burned up in the distance, the capsule was well protected by its Luna-rated heatshield.
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After splash down in the Pacific, the crew and the whole UNSA celebrated their recent achievement.
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The enormous budget payments they received for this mission were well spend into upgrading the spaceport and research and development,... unlocking marvelous new pieces of hardware, including the famous F-1 engine as well as the engine clusters of the soviet N1.
hpZhXKy.jpg

 

Edited by TrooperCooper
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6 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

 

Expound, please?

Now, did he actually do that, or just wait till everyone left the room and then use the built-in RCS throttle in MechJeb?:wink:

Maybe he put a weight on the keyboard. :D Honestly, I realized that somehow my RCS engines kept firing if I hit full throtle. I was a little irritated, but decided to not let this opportunity pass. So I didnt touch anything and just let it burn for a long time. Was that MechJeb? I dont know, I dont use that program, its just part of the default RO/RP-0 install I guess. *shrug*

 

Edited by TrooperCooper
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1 hour ago, TrooperCooper said:

Maybe he put a weight on the keyboard. :D Honestly, I realized that somehow my RCS engines kept firing if I hit full throtle. I was a little irritated, but decided to not let this opportunity pass. So I didnt touch anything and just let it burn for a long time. Was that MechJeb? I dont know, I dont use that program, its just part of the default RO/RP-0 install I guess. *shrug*

 

Yup that's MechJeb, it will treat rear firing RCS as throttlable engines when RCS is activated but no other engines are. Quite useful as very-low-power propulsion for prescision orbit tweaking or conserving ignitions, or main power on tiny probes. You can turn it off under the "Smart RCS" MJ menu. 

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37 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Yup that's MechJeb, it will treat rear firing RCS as throttlable engines when RCS is activated but no other engines are. Quite useful as very-low-power propulsion for prescision orbit tweaking or conserving ignitions, or main power on tiny probes. You can turn it off under the "Smart RCS" MJ menu. 

 

Ah, good to know. Hmmm... I might just keep that on. I wasnt sattisfied with MJs autopilot capabilities (it couldnt handle my RSS rockets). But this might be usefull. :)

Here is a little chart that I made. Comparing all my standardized lifters thus far and the experimental rockets at the beginning of the career. All real scaled in sizes to each other.
 

6NMUCtj.jpg

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5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

That rocket comparison is awesome! Did you put that together yourself or is it part of KVV now?

 

Thanks. I made screenshots of the vessels with KVV, took their data out of the game and measured their imaged size down to the pixels. Then resized them accordignly with Paintshop. :)

 

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Episode 8: Interplanetary Exploration

 

UNSA launched its first in a series of interplanetary exploration probes: the Mars Visitor
FycV27c.jpg

 

The IP Earth Master Link (see Episode 6) began to work with what it was designed and launched for...
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While Mars Visitor was on its way, production of the Automated Luna Lander (ALL) was finished and it was launched with a RX 7.
tAFnFy2.jpg

 

ALL arriving over its target, still sitting on its travel-stage.
kHap1FC.jpg

 

When it was put down at the edge of the Lunar Seas, it became the first man-made object to safely land on the Moon (dumped and crashed travel-stage in the background).
MRXw3g8.jpg

 

While they were heavily reaching out into space, the UNSA did not forget about Earth observation... an upgraded ScanSat with a high resolution scanner was brought into a polar orbit.
1Q3T1dH.jpg

 

The Venus Visitor pushing out of LEO.
hMi5tbd.jpg

 

Soon followed by the Mercury Visitor probe (in retro-perspective, those two missions could have been combined - but the UNSA was to busy to think about that :P ).
FmOuhNf.jpg

 

Another ALL landed near the Luna north pole with direct view back home.
u2Npk2C.jpg

 

Mars Visitor arrived at its target and sent fascinating data back to Earth.
1s88Ffb.jpg

 

Venus Visitor was also able to reach its destination, the Earth' closest neighbour planet.
NRHyfKY.jpg

 

Now that the UNSA had peaked into the Solar System, public support was high enough that they could commit to a bold long term operation: landing a man on the Moon and bringing him back safely. The politicians agreed to pay a budget of more than 8 billion $ up front and suggested another 3.5 billion for further studies if the UNSA was successful. With these enormous sums at stake however, failing to achieve the goal till the mid 70ies would most certainly mean the end of the space program.
cmevSki.jpg

 

As a first step, the agencies higher ups agreed to invest one billion $ into developmet of a new capsule and the engineers began working on a ship that could reliably bring a crew into Luna orbit and back home. This CSM-like vessel (which is yet to be named) could serve within either a "Luna Orbit Assembly-" concept for the Moon operation, which the UNSA is currently leaning towards,... or it could be adapted to different mission plans like an Earth Orbit Rendezvous type. In its basic configuration, the ship would ride on the newest rocket lifter that is beeing worked on right now: the RX 9 will be certified for 55 ton payloads, possibly up to 60 tons, while weighting more than 2,000 tons and for the first time featuring the new F-1 and J-2 engines.
TRKuBU6.jpg

 

A blueprint of the RX 9 with the Moon ship on top (without fairings).
c8wPoVp.jpg

 

The setup will soon undergo extensive testing of the launch escape system and ascend profiling...
 

Edited by TrooperCooper
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