Brotoro

No... but the Falcon 9 upper stage IS going to be put into a heliocentric orbit.

We don't get to watch the heliocentric insertion burn? Boo.

I just wait for Tater to find interesting Space stuff and post it here.

Meh. I miss exciting first stage landing coverage.

I hope somebody gets photos or video.

Very nice launch video today.

I was working on improving my Soyuz... Specifically the conical flare at the base. In my previous design, I used an aerodynamic adapter with a 2.5-meter wide diameter, but that was too wide. Below is a rendition using thermal radiators (they have the advantage of light weight and slightly curved shape...but there are 16 of them overlapping and clipped into the Service Module to make the flared base. Needing to use 16 parts to make a moderately acceptable base cone is not a great solution. So I have decided that there are certain things that I would like to see Squad offer in an updated Making History expansion, if they would really like to make the Making History expansion much more desirable for players: 1. A properly shaped Soyuz capsule. Fits 1.875 tube. Come on, guys...why you left this out in the first place is beyond me. (As long as we are talking capsules, a Dragon 2 capsule would be nice, with built-in motors. And an Orion. But, really, the Soyuz is too important historically that it NEEDS to be included.) 2. To solve my problem with the flared base of the Soyuz, I want them to give us a conical adapter part that we can specify any values for the top diameter, bottom diameter, and length. Yes, I know this smacks of procedural parts (which KSP has tended to avoid)...but this is just a cosmetic structural part, not a fuel-containing part, so there wouldn't be confusion when somebody looks at it and doesn't know at a glance how much fuel this part can hold (which is the reason I personally never liked procedural fuel tanks). KSP already has aerodynamic fairings, so there is the code for drawing cones in the program...I would just like this part to be similar, but it makes a structural cone. The part could be a thin ring, and have the cone build outward from the BASE of the part...or from the TOP downward, I guess, since rockets generally get built from top down... (so that the part will get enclosed inside the final cone)...and allow sections of the cone to be built straight outward. And, of course, this part should allow clipping (I think the regular fairings should ignore clipping during building, too). In the Editor, pointing at the structural cone will make it fade out so that we can see and select anything inside of it, including the base ring of the part itself. 3. As long as we are at it, give us Structural Tubes that can be stretched to any length. They already gave us structural tubes in an assortment of click-stop lengths...how hard could it be to let us specify any length? Then again...if they give us the universal structural cone part I wish for above (#2), it could make structural tubes of any length by making the bottom and top diameters the same. 4. Soyuz-sized solar panels (1x4 in a larger size to fit the Soyuz) would be nice. 5. Refueling hoses. (OK...I always ask for refueling hoses, so I can't resist putting them on any wish list.)

Atlas Again Remember my Mercury Atlas, with its entertaining little penchant to occasionally fail when staging? I really should think of the ever-so-useful engine plates first when I build things...because it turns out that when I rebuilt the Atlas with an engine plate, the staging no longer exhibits the tendency of the boosters to occasionally get stuck and explode the sustainer engine. Or at least the staging using the engine plate has worked 100% of the time for me in my tests. So, I made this version by putting an engine plate under the main tanks (followed by a FL-A151S conical tank and then the LV-T45 ...because the Atlas sustainer is tapered at the bottom once the booster engine unit is dropped). Right-click on the engine plate and set its fairing length to long enough for its fairing node to extend below the engine. Then add the Structural Tube and two side Thud engines. Then change the length of the engine plate fairing to Short. And remember to attach fuel lines to the Thud engines. Stages cleanly every time.

I first tried to build a more realistically-shaped Gemini using the tapered 1.875-to-2.5 meter fuel tank adapter...but when it came time to build a Titan II rocket for it, all the Making History parts that are analogs for the Titan engines are 1.875-meter size...so that dictated the choice of the straight service module part for my Gemini.

Vostok Verisimilitude The Making History expansion contains lots of nice parts for making a Vostok replica, so how can I resist recreating the first manned spaceflight? Below is my vehicle. The Vostok launch vehicle is similar to the Soyuz launcher I built for my ASTP Project, except that it has a different upper stage. My upper stage is 1.875 meters in diameter and uses one Terrier engine and four Ant engines as the attitude control engines. The central core stage is 1.875 meters in diameter, but tapers to 1.25 for the lower section. The core uses an RK-7 Kodiak engine and four RV-1 Cub vernier engines, clipped in. The side boosters also use the Kodiak engine, but each booster has only two Cubs, clipped in, to match the engine configuration of the original. I found that the rocket was too powerful, resulting in all sorts of atmospheric effects that made taking pretty pictures difficult...so I limited the thrust of the Kodiaks to 50%. I also reduce the fuel levels in this stages a little so that the second stage would be required to reach orbit. My second stage and Vostok tanks, on the other hand, were full to increase the mass of the payload (to compensate for the overly powerful booster). So let's head over to the Tyuratam launch site for this historic...What? We are calling the launch site 'Baykonur'? But isn't Baykonur 250 kilometers away? Oh! I see. Yes, yes...we are most definitely launching from Baykonur. Not Tyuratam. Would we lie? On board for this historic first crewed flight to space is Comrade Major Valentina Kerman, a brave pilot indeed, considering that the test flights for the Vostok were having a 50% failure rate. Mission Control: "Preliminary stage...main stage...Lift off!" Valentina: "Let's go!" Mission Control: "The rocket is working fine. Wishing you a good flight!" Valentina: "Kedr calling Mission Control. G forces are slowly increasing." Mission Control: "Everything is working fine. You may continue." Valentina: "I have any choice now?" Below we see the staging of the side boosters. If you want a nice Korolev Cross, it helps to reduce the solid fuel of the built-in separation motors to 10%. Valentina: "The shroud has ejected. I can see Kerbin through my Vzor viewport. I am continuing." Valentina: "The upper stage has ignited. I can feel it working." Valentina: "Kedr to Mission Control. Upper stage cutoff. I have achieved first cosmic speed!" Mission Control: "Da. Continue with the mission." Valentina: "How is my orbit?" Valentina: "Spacecraft separation! That was a bit violent...maybe we shouldn't have clipped parts together so much. Attitude control thrusters are stabilizing the craft." Valentina: "Kedr to Mission Control. Zero-G is very pleasant." Mission Control: "You may continue." Valentina: "How is my orbit?" Mission Control: "Well...Your periapsis is higher than expected. But even if your retro rocket doesn't work, you will reenter in 20 days." Valentina: "Ah... But I only brought enough snacks to last 10 days as planned. What do I do?" Mission Control: "Hope your retro rocket works. Continue." Internal view through the Vzor port. To manually align for reentry, the cosmonaut must center the view on the planet (the horizon will be visible all around in a circular mirror system...not shown here), and the surface features should be moving upward along those vertical lines. Speaking of reentry, less than one orbit later it was time for Valentina to align her capsule and fire the retro engine. Valentina: "Kedr to Mission Control. Retro fire was successful. Jettisoning antennas and instrumentation module." Happily for Val, the instrumentation module separated cleanly, and didn't hang around through part of the reentry (just ask Yuri how disconcerting that can be). Valentina: "Capsule is oscillating. Reentry flames are visible. Hello? I guess I'll continue." Because her capsule lacked an ejection seat, Valentina waited until the capsule's chute was out before exiting from the capsule. Valentina: "I will continue without the capsule!" Valentina deployed her parachute and waited for it to open fully...then dived down to catch up with the capsule. Valentina had fun chasing the capsule on the way down. And Valentina made a safe touchdown without face-planting. Valentina: "Mission Control, I have ejected and landed safely!" Mission Control: "Nyet, comrade Major! You did NOT eject. You landed in your capsule! Are we clear on this fact?" Valentina: "Umm...what?" Mission Control: "The Federation Aeronautique Internationale does not recognize setting a flight record if the pilot ejects from their craft." Valentina: "Huh?" Mission Control: "Get back to your capsule for the official photo op!" Below, the historic photo of Valentina next to her Vostok capsule. Which she landed in. Really. Really. Would we lie?

Mercury-Atlas The Atlas stage-and-a-half configuration is difficult to model well... or at least I haven't found a solution that I am 100% happy with. But here is my best solution for a replica of the Mercury-Atlas. This final version has a stage-and-a-half configuration, and also has the two small vernier engines (that I initially forgot to put on...I used Ant engines as the verniers). The stage-and-a-half configuration means that all three main engines ignite at launch, and later during boost the two side engines are jettisoned. This odd configuration was adopted for America's first ICBM because engineers were not sure if they could air-start rocket engines to make multi-stage rockets. The stage-and-a-half design allows all engines to be started on the ground, where higher thrust is needed for liftoff, but then allows the rocket to save weight by dropping the side booster engines and continuing on the single sustainer engine when a lower thrust-to-weight ratio is fine. I would prefer it if the rocket could use three identical main engines, but I couldn't get that to work (because it required clipping the side engines into the airframe, and clipping in some cones as shrouds...and I could never get that configuration to separate cleanly as a single unit). So I ended up using an LV-T45 Swivel engine in the center and two Mk-55 Thud engines on the sides. I don't like to look of the flames in this configuration...but I'll live with it. Below we have Jebediah recreating a Mercury-Atlas flight. CAPCOM: "Goodspeed, Jeb Kerman!" Oh... This flight was using an older version of my Atlas that didn't have the vernier engines in place yet... Sorry. Jebediah: "Liftoff! The clock is running!" My Atlas has moderately low thrust, so it needs a fairly vertical launch path. The tricky part comes at staging. It's possible for the booster engine unit to get hung up on the sustainer engine after separation. If it does get stuck, sometimes it rattles free...sometimes the Atlas blows up. This is not the reliability I wanted, of course, but I actually find it kind of interesting the there might be a random failure. Remember, when the Atlas was chosen as the launcher for Project Mercury, it was not an extremely reliable booster, and it did suffer occasional launch failures (happily, never on a manned Mercury flight). Oddly enough, the reliability of the staging is IMPROVED if the rocket is not pointing dead-on prograde at the time of staging... I think the aerodynamic forces help wiggle and pull the booster unit free. Staging should wait until after the vehicle is going faster than 400 m/s because the stability of the sustainer is a bit questionable in the transonic region of the high 300s. To help the stability of the booster, I have my fuel tank priorities set so that the front tank is used last (the conical tank). The escape tower is jettisoned using Action key 1 once the staging has been successful (I was a bit slow on jettisoning the tower below...I was busy taking pictures, you know). Once the Atlas gets up into the thin air at around 40 km, I tip it hard over to build up horizontal velocity. Once the desired orbit is achieved, the Mercury capsule is separated and a brief posigrade burn moves the capsule away from the Atlas. The real Mercury capsule retro pack had three small posigrade solid rocket motors to perform this maneuver. The retro pack also had three larger solid fuel retro motors for deorbiting. My capsule's retro pack is liquid fueled and uses three Ant engines for both separation and retro burns. Jebediah: "Zero-G and I feel fine! The capsule is turning around. I can see the Atlas booster." CAPCOM: "Roger, Friendship 4. You are go for at least ten orbits!" Here's some close-ups of my Mercury capsule. The Oscar-B tank on the front is empty...I'm just using that space to hide equipment (and because the real Mercury capsule had cylindrical forward sections). The bit of protrusion at the base of the front cylinder is the end of a Z-100 battery pack (with just enough sticking out that I can grab it as needed). In the bottom picture, some bits of the radial parachute are similarly sticking out. The antenna is laid alongside the cylindrical section (the top extension on the real Mercury capsule was called the antenna fairing, so this is a good place for the antenna). There is a Junior docking port on the front, but I don't intend to use it for docking...it just looked nice and I needed something that could decouple the escape tower. The Oscar-B tank on the back (attached with a TD-06 decoupler and partially clipped in) is only 30% full of propellant to start with. Three Ant engines are clipped in and angled to represent both the posigrade and retro rockets. There is no monopropellant onboard (to save weight). After only three orbits, it was time to bring Jeb back. The three Ant retrorockets were fired to target the landing. Jebediah: "Whoa! That felt like I was headed back toward crater island!" Separation of the retro pack is shown below. Of course, if you are properly simulating John Glenn's flight, you should leave the retro pack on and let it disintegrate during reentry. Reentry flames. The capsule just uses the built-in heat resistance of the Mk-1 capsule...no extra heat shield is need from low Kerbin orbit. The parachute deployed and the ocean landing was successful. Jeb got out for a victory swim. The real Mercury capsule had TWO hatches...the main one on the side (which you would NOT want to open while floating in the ocean...just ask Gus Grissom) and a small hatch leading out of the top cylinder (part of the control panel needed to be removed to reach it), which the astronaut could use to exit the capsule while afloat (Scott Carpenter, who landed quite long, used this to get out and wait around for recovery in his life raft). Flight notes: I was a bit slow at staging and jettisoning the escape tower in the flight above. More typically, I do these events lower: Construction notes: To build the stage-and-a-half configuration, put a decoupler on the bottom of the sustainer, then use the Move tool (with Toggle Snap off) to slide it up. Sliding it up is needed to expose the nozzle (since the Atlas nozzle is visible)...but the further up you move it, the more unreliable the staging becomes. Then add a structural tube and side-mounted Thuds to the bottom of the decoupler...and then use the Move tool to slide the structural tube up relative to the decoupler. Note: The side boosters must protrude down lower than the center engine...if not, the coupler (which is actually on the bottom of the engine) will 'lock' the rocket to the launch pad when you try to launch (you could also solve this problem by using launch clamps to elevate the rocket). Run fuel lines to the side Thuds. The actual Atlas has tunnels down the sides there, so I didn't attempt to hide these lines. My escape tower is an I-beam attached to the docking port and then slid upward using the Move tool. Three angled Sepratons are sufficient to pull the Mk-1 free of the rocket. The three tower legs are made with struts. Did I test the Launch Escape System? Of course! The Abort Action decouples the capsule from the Atlas and fires the Sepratrons. Action key 0 separates the expended escape tower and retro pack. There you go!

Yes, the nodes are very frustrating.Does anybody ever use that big, ugly circular shroud that appears when you connect to the big node (the one that's way too easy to hit)? And it surprises me that graphic designers, who are supposed to have a good eye for proportions and such, didn't notice the sizing problems of the SM and M.E.M. visually.

Well...the far side of the Sun is always illuminated, I guess. I think I fixed all the Sun/Mun autocorrupts now.

Today I posted three Soviet-style lunar mission reports in my Making History replica missions thread. Here's a couple pictures from my N1-L3 lunar landing mission. It's certainly much easier to make a nice N1 from stock parts now than it was a few years ago! The other two were a circumlunar Soyuz 7K-L1 flight on a Proton K/D booster, and a Lunakhod flight on a Proton booster (in preparation for the above N1-L3 landing mission).

Yeah. My darn autocorrect kept changing Mun to Sun... I didn't notice until later.