Khaos Theory - A Principia Report Series(Inactive)

[JaviAvali]

Hello. I'm a bit of a forum lurker, but I hope this can change that. I'll be documenting most of my missions with Principia, Ferram Aerodynamics Research, and Restock++ in one of my sandbox saves. I'll try to post reports actively, but don't be surprised if I don't post for the better part of a week (or longer). Images will be in spoilers to prevent atrocious loading times, and links to them may be below the spoilers.

 

This is my save as of November 11, 2020. I have lots of satellites, with no interplanetary missions yet.  \/

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https://imgur.com/a/eUQCqg9

This is the SSTO I have made that can launch the ion powered relay satellites into orbit with around 1600 delta V to spare. It takes advantage of the lifting body aspect of FAR to shave off weight that would be added by wings, and also because it looks awesome. It is also the best SSTO I have ever made, by far. It could probably go to the Mun and back, and that's excluding the ion surprise inside. One of the downsides is it needs a lot of space to get off the ground which makes it quite hard to get it into a polar orbit.  \/

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https://imgur.com/a/KbyZHYU

I will be uploading more reports, and if anyone has ideas I'd be happy to try and make them into a craft or mission.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by AccidentalColonies
To embed images into the post.

[JaviAvali]

 

Here I'll be showcasing the average procedures a Space Needle SSTO(one shown above) has to take in order to get to orbit. 

Liftoff is shown below. The craft needs to tilt upwards at the beginning in order to get the lift it needs and to put the TWR to good use.

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The craft speeds upwards, going into a less aggressive tilt

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The spaceplane soars far above the clouds at speeds no regular plane could endure

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The Space Needle activates the dual Terrier engines, in order to get that extra power needed that the Whiplashes couldn't provide with such low air pressure.

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The Space Needle is well on its way to orbit.

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This is mission control's perspective of the situation.

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At last, the Space Needle is in orbit. However, mission control isn't satisfied. They want to extend the orbit to go to a Mun/Kerbin Lagrange point  in order to relay more signals. 

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Part 2 coming Soon™

Edited November 12, 2020 by accidentalcolonies

[JaviAvali]

Part 2 is here!

After making the transfer burn, the craft makes it's way towards the final burn zone.

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The probe is released and unfolds it's solar panel array.

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The little probe is on it's way to the burn.

 

The burn itself was uneventful, but the trajectory that resulted was almost ideal. It will fall out of the gravity well later on though. so it needs some tweaking.

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This below is the tweaked trajectory the probe will burn into. Much nicer, right?

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The maneuver was executed, not exactly as predicted but stable nonetheless.

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The satellite is stable, now to deorbit the SSTO.

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Now that the SSTO's on a crash course with Kerbin, we have safely disposed of all the space junk we can. That's it for today's adventure. 

[JaviAvali]

Due to competition by rival space programs, we have taken the liberty to construct and send Superfluid Alpha out of Kerbin's grasp. It will drift around the Kerbol system, being interfered with only to prevent collisions and occasionally to spice things up.

Superfluid Alpha is currently under construction. What do you think of the concept?

Edited November 14, 2020 by AccidentalColonies
Made it a bit more lore-compliant

[JaviAvali]

Unfortunately, a powerful solar storm has damaged all of our probes and craft in space so we are no longer able to make contact with them. We will have to start from scratch and send probes out again. The storm isn't all bad however. Solar wave measuring facilities on Kerbin have revealed new planets and moons farther out in the Kerbolar system. In the Kerbal spirit, once we get a communications network set up, we'll send out Superfluid Alpha and get to work on our first manned flight.

(I really just installed OPM and I don't seem to be able to load the previous save)

Edited November 16, 2020 by AccidentalColonies

[JaviAvali]

The final satellite relay probe is launched into a polar orbit.

The lifter has odd, juno powered side boosters. They deliver fuel to both the junos and the swivel in the middle.

Here it is, the CMS-1 "Refresher" lifting off.

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Its ascent profile is quite steep, due to it's planned 1,000 km orbit.

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It pushes forwards, detaching the side boosters once they drain out of fuel.

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The second stage uses a modded pug to power its lower stage and the stage is quite really overkill.

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After a few adjustments, it gets into a polar orbit.

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Superfluid Alpha is on it's way.

[JaviAvali]

Here comes Superfluid Alpha!

This is the rocket. 

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It launches upwards, into the blue sky.

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This is a drone capture of it beginning it's gravity turn.

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This is a view from near the bottom of the ship, trailing into the upper atmosphere.

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These two images show the side boosters detaching and exploding.

 

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The spacecraft is cutting through the atmosphere, far past the cloud layer.

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It is now heating up, and the view it has is spectacular. It can see most of the celestial bodies around, including the dark side of the Mun. 

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It decouples the lower stage and activates the second.

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Once it gets into orbit, we can get a view of the satellite we sent up.

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This is the first part. The next will be cinematics after sending it out of Kerbin's orbit.

[JaviAvali]

The cinematics are here, finally. There was a lot of game crashing going on inside of Kerbin and I forgot reaction wheels on the probe. It's fixed now though.

 

 

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That's it. It's just pictures this time. They should be mostly self explanatory.

[JaviAvali]

Our first manned flight, the "Hemisphere" sits on the launchpad, waiting for liftoff.

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It doesn't have to wait for long before clearance is given.

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The initial turn is uneventful, save for the side tank detachment.

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After getting quite high up, we can get a nice view of the plume expanding.

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After detachment of the lower stage, the engine camera boots up. 

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Jebediah Kerman is ecstatic about this situation and peers out the window.

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He's already in orbit, so he might as well perform an E.V.A.

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After a good few orbits, Jebediah receives an order to come back down onto Kerbin. He doesn't like the idea, but after some promised snacks & spaceplane rides he finally agrees.

Jeb hops back into the command pod, holstering the throttle. The optimal time to burn retrograde is coming soon, and he doesn't know if he'll bake when re-entering.

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After executing the burn, mission control tells him to point forwards until told otherwise. Jeb was a bit skeptical of this, but he didn't want to miss out on testing a prototype spaceplane.

Flames begin to lick the sides of the spacecraft.

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 Jeb is nervous, but he can't tell much of a difference in temperature yet. Mission control notifies him that the reason they want him to point forwards is so that Jeb could land somewhere near the KSC for easy recovery. They would direct him to detach from the upper stage when he is close to the peninsula the KSC is located on.

Jeb is really feeling the heat now.

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He soars through the atmosphere like an ungraceful meteorite. Jeb's getting closer and closer to the KSC, waiting for when mission control would direct him to detach.

One of the side fuel tanks bursts from the heat, and Jeb struggles to resist pressing the big red ABORT button. The craft tumbles around due to the shifted center of mass.

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Mission control finally directs him to detach, and he does so without hesitating, as he knows he can't stay without that heat shield for long. 

The upper stage flies past Jeb, melting apart. He doesn't know how mission control could manage to cut it that close.

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As Jeb zooms past the mountain range near the KSC, he realizes that he's going to splash down in the ocean at this speed.  A welcome surprise, he thought. He did need to cool off, after all this plasma surrounding him. He slows down in the lower atmosphere, and watches the clouds pass him and his command pod by.

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Jeb thinks about how this flight could have ended in his demise, but his negative thoughts were interrupted by a whoosh above him. The parachute must have deployed. He tried to continue thinking about the negative implications this mission could have had on him, but he was again interrupted by the splash of his command pod. Even the universe seemed to disagree with his negativity. He decided that from then on, at least for a little while, he'd try to look on the bright side of things. This stuck with him for much longer than he expected, giving him the courageous spirit we know as, well, Jeb. 

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Thank you for sticking around, and I've noticed that it's much easier to write when you have a kerbal in command.