[RSS/RP-1] Most complicated lunar fly-by ever

[soundnfury]

In one of my RSS/RO/RP-1 campaigns, I ended up launching a spaceplane before any manned capsules (because reasons), and decided it would be fun to role-play a world where ballistic re-entry is considered unsafe for humans.

This does of course make BLEO ^{(Beyond Low Earth Orbit)} missions rather awkward, as you can't use the atmosphere to slow you down on the way back.  But, with a massively over-complicated multi-launch architecture, I managed to perform a manned lunar fly-by with nary a heat-shield in sight (and all LVs under 275t GLOM).

The full write-up, with 65 screenshots, is here on my website.

Edited July 1, 2018 by soundnfury
Add CONOPS diagram

[soundnfury]

Sequel: Most complicated lunar orbit ever

With the help of a propellant depot in LLO (yes, that means yet another rendezvous…), I stretched my architecture to perform a crewed lunar orbit mission.  Initially it went smoothly, but on the way home the oxygen tank gauges were reading worryingly close to empty.

Read the full write-up on my website with 60 screenshots.

This series will continue; I plan to do at least one more orbital mission before moving on to the obvious finale Most complicated lunar landing ever.

Edited July 1, 2018 by soundnfury
Add CONOPS diagram

[soundnfury]

Part III: Again with the complicated lunar orbit

As planned, another lunar orbital mission, this time adding an extra launch to ship some life-support supplies to the propellant depot.  Two days in LLO, a return with positive margins, and a landing at the Cape: everything worked as it was supposed to.

Read the full write-up on my website with 86 screenshots.

I have a design for a lander, and the prototype is currently stacking in my VAB for a test flight.  Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I am ready to run the lander mission and wrap up this series.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I love carefully planned RSS/RO missions. What do you use to make those CONOPS diagrams?

[soundnfury]

7 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

What do you use to make those CONOPS diagrams?

All done in GIMP, mainly through the heavy use of layers.  E.g. each spacecraft and each arrow on there is its own layer, so I can move it, copy and paste it, etc.

Two tricks I use for the pixel art are: (1) draw complex objects at about 150% of the desired size and then use the resize tool to scale them down, and (2) use a low-opacity brush to darken or lighten the edges of shapes to imply curvature.

I should also note that the style of these CONOPS diagrams was inspired by this image from the Eyes Turned Skywards alternate-history timeline.

[soundnfury]

Part IV: Most complicated lunar landing ever

It's here at last!  With a lander parked ready at the propellant depot in lunar orbit, and fuel tanks everywhere topped up, I ran the lunar landing mission, with docking after docking after docking... it felt like Operation Black Buck.  But it worked!

Read the full write-up on my website with 113 screenshots.

Also, something I didn't post before is the ongoing record of the lunar programme as a whole, including vehicle test flights and even the earliest draft plans and conops for the A-class flyby.

While I'm planning to run more of these missions, they'll mostly be much the same with nothing new, so I'm not sure I'll bother continuing posting write-ups here — at least, not unless I do something interesting like go to Mars.  So this is probably the end of this series of mission reports; I hope you enjoyed this look at a capsule-less alternate history.