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Next Small Step: RP-1 Career Series


Wiseman

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Is anyone surprised Jonny Flores would behave like Ed White on the first American EVA? I (mostly) accidentally recreate the historic Gemini 4 mission, with it starting out with a dock and boost from an Agena Target Vehicle, start my EVA in the daylight, and have to be shooed back in after the sun sets. Then, I get super stoked about building a Titan IIIE!

 

 

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We've got new technology, new science parts, better solar panels, and more! We're revisiting some old mission profiles (a simple Moon orbiter), but with all-new purpose. Then, the Pioneer Venus 2 arrives!

 

 

We've finally arrived at Venus, again! But we've learned more about how to build landers with heat shields since we launched this craft... Hopefully this one still works?? And then, on to our first Gemini Advanced concept: The Translunar Gemini Centaur!

 

 

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For my 50th episode, I decided to do a dumb! Well, I didn't decide to do it. Does anyone, really? As the clickbait title implies, something terrible lurks near the end of this video, and it's entirely the fault of bad design. What will become of our intrepid astronauts on the far side of the Moon?!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Let's finally get this lunar exploration properly underway! This time, we're over-building for a Luna 16 type mission with tons of new science and the possibility to return a sample to Earth. We bookend this lovely experience with the tale of the cursed H1s, woOOooOo!

I'm back from vacation! Did you miss me? I took a week or so off to unplug, I hope you're all doing well. We've got a busy set of missions to get to! Our Lunar Returner craft comes back from the Moon, let's find out if I've finally got the right re-entry configuration! Then, a geostationary commsat test, and finally, the grand return to crewed spaceflight!

 

Edited by Wiseman
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We managed to return from the Moon with a tiny probe, can we do it with an actual Gemini spacecraft? I swear I tested it before, but that little Soyuz heatshield is not capable of protecting a full Gemini after a mission, so let's size it up! It looks a little goofy, but that's the price we pay for protection. Then, we take another swing at the Pioneer Venus mission profile!

 

 

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It's been a while since I did a design episode, so let's talk through the process of building an exciting mission to the moons of Mars! I may have forgotten to do it during the process, but we can reverse engineer, right? Then, I send a mission I've been teasing for a while - my first lunar rover!

 

 

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We've done the design work, waited for the transfer window, and have raised our rockets on to the launch pads. Now all that's left is to send them towards Mars! We've got five or so contracts riding on this, so no pressure - I'm sure it'll all go super easily!

 

 

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After waiting for the sun to rise and our new Lunacom satellite to get into position, let's see if we can drive the Solarback rover! It goes great. Really, just great. Then, on the theme of communications, we launch a heavy lifter with three satellites at once!

 

 

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The first of two Martian exploration missions has arrived! We start with the Mars Pioneer, which is intended to attain a scientific orbit, test the atmosphere, and attempt put an experimental lander onto the surface. Let's see how the Martian atmosphere treats us!

 

 

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It's taken a really (really) long time, but I think we finally have a lander capable of touching down safely on the surface of Venus! Can I finally be done with this contract? I love interplanetary missions, but the time between failure and trying again is just forever in an RP-1 career!

 

 

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The Martian Moonhopper arrives and inserts into a highly elliptical orbit. Rather than spend a bunch of deltaV going for a fast orbit, we take our time with this spacecraft - the combination of solar panels and an RTG help take the edge off the power consumption. Meanwhile, we launch our new Gemini service module, with one teeny tiny checklist item missing.

 

The Moonhopper has arrived at Deimos! It's a very silly place. The orbital velocity near the surface is 4 m/s! Four! I didn't quite comprehend just how small Deimos is, but it's still a super interesting moon. There's a big funky spire at the north pole that's probably a texture/model artifact, so let's go check it out!

 

 

Edited by Wiseman
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First, I provide an update on the state of the space program. It's 1974 and we're still chugging away with mid-60's tech, but we're getting closer and closer to Apollo! We also haven't quite decided on our final moon-mission architecture, but I've got some ideas. Then, it's time to finally fly the mission to orbit the moon with a crewed vessel!

 

 

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A busy episode this time! We bring down Gemini 6 to complete the buggy contract, adjust the orbit of a Martian probe to nail a contract I forgot about, and finally return to Johnny Flores' lunar orbital flight. Phew! As if that wasn't enough, I decide we're ready to say that before this decade is out, we will put kerbals on the surface of the Moon! (The decade being 1970, but close enough, really.)

 

 

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The Martian Moonhopper finally gets a chance to live up to its name! We descend from the high orbit of Deimos down to visit the slightly larger potato known as Phobos. Then, we check out two biomes in rapid succession, providing just an avalanche of science!

 

 

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In this busy episode, we adjust the trajectory of the Pioneer Jupiter spacecraft to see what outer planet exploration we can do. As it turns out, it's quite a bit! Then, we replace our janky lunar communications network so I can finally delete my shame.

 

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It's finally time to bring our Orblab 1 astronauts home! I've been excited to get moving on space station contracts, so we talk through that, and start looking into the future of space stations in LEO. Then, we take a design/research interlude, where I walk through the next steps in our tech tree. Finally, a daring rescue of a wildly spinning Moonhopper!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's finally time! After a crash course in Gemini Advanced concepts, we've decided to make an early push for a crewed lunar landing. This is a lot earlier than we could manage an Apollo-style landing, but let's not worry about the fact that I'm still six years behind schedule!

 

 

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We've put a lander into orbit around the Moon, and now it's time to send the crew! Two intrepid astronauts - Thomas Reed and Lisa Kim, veterans of the Gemini program so far - are preparing to launch in Gemini 8-L, and then descend to the lunar surface!

 

 

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We've finally accomplished a crewed lunar landing! Now, it's time to turn our eyes towards the future. We've got a lot of cool stuff to look forward to - Apollo mission architecture the first among them! We'll be using this to get to the Moon for longer durations, and perhaps to Mars soon enough!

 

 

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