OJT's Mk.2 Shuttles (All Missions Completed!)

[OJT]

And here's a surprise: I actually did the Bonus Fuel Pod Missions!

Kerbin Series: STS-1b

In this mission, I must bring a fuel pod to orbit and land (on the runway for Commander Rank). However, the payload this time is provided by the challenge: lots of goodies on board and weighs 40 tons. Picture from the challenge thread below. The orbit altitude and inclination is up to our choice, but the orbit must be as circular as possible, with eccentricity no greater than 0.0001

Obviously, such a behemoth will not fit into Mk.2 cargo bay. But who said we need cargo bays?

Presenting to you: the Fuel Pod Carrier!

This is a rather unconventional design, but it still adheres to my self-imposed Mk.2 rules. To accomodate the Sr. Docking Port, a Mk.2 to 2.5 meter adapter is used

Here's the Carrier with the Fuel Pod attached

 

Launching the Carrier with the Fuel Pod

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After reaching space, I use fine controls on RCS to adjust my orbit. This allowed me to get the required eccentricity. You can see it in lower left corner

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Carefully undocking the Fuel Pod. I checked its parameters again to make sure the orbit still had required eccentricity, as before they are in lower left corner

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Deorbiting the Carrier

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Approach and landing, smooth as a butter

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[OJT]

Kerbin Series: STS-2b

And we are going straight into the Fuel pod recovery mission

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Rendezvous with the Fuel Pod. I carefully docked to it, but I annoyingly forgot to make pictures of actual docking 

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Deorbiting the Carrier with Fuel Pod. Reentry phase was quite stable

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I glided a bit sideways to break harder to not overshoot the runway, so this meant that I had to make a circle to approach the runway correctly

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THIS was the hardest landing I've attempted in this thread so far. Orbiter wasn't gliding very well and Fuel Pod would disassemble on touchdown if my vertical velocity was over 1 m/s. It took me multiple attempts to nail this: I firstly let the plane glide at steep angle, then pull up right at the runway and engage the engines a bit to pull up. Combination of all of this allowed me to land the plane intact, with Fuel Pod undamaged

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Proof that the Fuel Pod resources were not used

[OJT]

Starting with Test Pilot missions... NOW

Test Pilot Series: STS-1T

This mission simulates the STS Glide tests that were conducted with Enterprise Shuttle. I must put the Orbiter on top of a carrier plane, fly to 5km altitude, undock from the plane and land on the runway

Here's the whole stack. Orbiter is the same one as in Kerbin STS-1 Mission. Only thing I did to it was to attach a junior docking port to the bottom to attach it to the Carrier Plane and I removed the engine and replaced it with a nose cone. Carrier Plane is new design and also made up out of Mk.2 Parts

Taking off from the runway

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Turning westward and gaining altitude

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Cinematic shot of the climb

Once I got some distance from the runway, I turned eastward and reached the 5km altitude

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Undocking the Orbiter

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Gliding the Orbiter towards the runway and landing. You may've noticed that I parked the Orbiter to the side of the runway...

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... It's because we are actually gonna land the Carrier Plane aswell, no extra saves! I switched to it right after landing the Orbiter

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Parking both Planes next to each other

[OJT]

Test Pilot Series: STS-2T

In this Mission, we will be emulating the RTLS abort procedure: I must launch as usual, disengage one engine at T +30s, fly to 50km altitude and then reverse and return to the runway

Orbiter and Launch System is same as in Kerbin STS-1 Mission: I only switched one Mammoth with four Vector engines to allow to turn off one engine

Disengaging one engine at T+30s

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Flying to 50 km altitude

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As soon as I pass 50km, I turn around with engines still burning and fly back towards the runway

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As I jettisoned the Orbiter and engaged its Aerospike, the decoupler ring exploded under the heat of the engine plumes. The Orbiter otherwise is fully intact

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Entering thicker atmosphere layers

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Gliding towards the runway

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Smooth landing after an abort procedure

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[OJT]

Test Pilot Series: STS-3T

This mission is noticeably different from other STS missions: vast majority of this mission we will not be controlling the shuttle! Instead, what we need to do is to "recreate" the Cassini-Huygens mission: we must build an orbiter probe and a lander and then send it to explore the Joolian system

This mission has very strict requirements, both in terms of payload design and mission profile. Here's the excrept from the STS thread

• The transfer stage must consist of solid rocket boosters only, and must separate after a single burn in LKO
• The Cassini probe must be at least 1,5 tons, the Huygens lander must be at least 1 ton
• The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft + the transfer stage must fit into the long MK3 cargo bay
• The Cassini spacecraft and Huygens lander must enter Jool's SOI before separating from each other
• The Cassini probe has to flyby at least four of Jool's moons and finish its mission by entering Jool's atmosphere, where it will meet its fiery end
• The Huygens lander will land on Laythe
• The only fuel tanks allowed on the spacecraft and the lander are: a single R-12 "Doughnut" for the Cassini probe and a single "Oskar-B" fuel tank for the Huygens lander

Let's check the payload. First up is the Cassini orbiter. Weighs exactly 1.5 tons and has only one Doughnut fuel tank. Parameters can be seen on KER readouts

Here is the Huygens lander. Exactly 1 ton and only one Oskar-B tank. Although I did drain it a bit to get the 1 ton weight

Here's the stack with the SRB transfer stage. Orbiter and lander are connected to one another with a stack separator. 8 Shrimp boosters and 1 Hammer booster, and everything fits inside one long Mk.3 cargo bay, as required

Time to launch this beast to Low Kerbin Orbit

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Small correction to get circular orbit

As you can notice, the stack doesn't fit into Mk.2 bay (well, duh), so I flew up with doors open and the stack itself mounted at a small angle. And yes, this IS the Orbiter from Duna series: among the Orbiters I had this one seemed most suitable for the mission ahead

Detaching the stack from the Orbiter

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My transfer stage had exactly 2142 m/s of dV. So I setup the Jool maneuver in such a way that it would require exactly 2142 m/s dV to execute and then proceed with the burn. And even though Hammer booster burns through its fuel faster than the Shrimp boosters, it is still a single stage as all SRBs were engaged at the same time

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Proof of single stage burn

After the burn, the Stack detaches from SRB transfer stage and flies towards Jool

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Orbiter in the meanwhile does the deorbit burn, descends towards KSC and lands on the runway, easy peasy

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Stack performs a correction burn with Huygens' engine to set up a Laythe fly-by

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After reaching Jool SOI, Cassini and Huygens separate

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Proof of Stack in Jool SOI before separation

Both Cassini and Huygens perform small correction maneuvers each: Cassini sets up the Tylo fly-by and Huygens puts its periapsis into Laythe atmosphere for entry

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Huygens maneuver

Cassini maneuver to set up Tylo fly-by

First fly-by of four: Laythe. Even though it is not required by the mission and this is a Sandbox save, I perform science experiments and send them back to Kerbin

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Huygens entry. I did one small radial correction before that because I thought that I would reenter too fast and risk burning up

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Huygens survives the entry and deploys the parachute

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By some absolute miracle, I actually landed on land. Not only that, I landed on a shore very close to the ocean. To say I got lucky with the landing would be an understatement. Huygens also performed some experiments and quickly sent it to Kerbin before Cassini was out of reach

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Screenshot I made later in the daylight to show the landing spot

Returning to Cassini: it flies towards Tylo and performs the 2nd fly-by out of 4 moons required

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After the Tylo fly-by, I plotted and executed a maneuver to set up Vall fly-by. This maneuver would also raise the apoapsis high enough to reach Pol orbit

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Vall fly-by maneuver

3rd fly-by out of 4: Vall. Fly-by occured during the Joolian eclipse so I couldn't snap screenshots in good lighting, so I added another snap from map view to show the fly-by happening

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Before the Vall fly-by I also plotted a maneuver for Pol encounter. This maneuver would happen several orbits around Jool later

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Pol fly-by maneuver

Lots of days later, Cassini reaches Pol, completing the fly-by of 4 different moons as required by mission objective

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Now is the time to send Cassini into Jool to finish off the mission. I plot a maneuver to get a Tylo fly-by that will sling the Probe into the gas giant

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2nd Tylo fly-by maneuver

Final trajectory

Flying into Jool and hitting its atmosphere pretty much vertically

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After some explosions I found out that Power and Propulsion section of the Cassini survived this extreme reentry. Although I couldn't control it because probe core exploded, I still took the time to enjoy a fantastic sunrise. This is actually the first time ever I dived into Jool

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But not even Power and Propulsion section can survive Jool's lower layers. After reaching -250 meters altitude the rest of the Cassini got annihilated, reaching its final objective and concluding this amazingly fun mission

Edited June 2, 2022 by OJT

[OJT]

Test Pilot Series: STS-4T

In this mission, we must perform maintenance on a Skylab station using two separate Shuttles. Here are mission objectives for each shuttle (direct quote from challenge thread)

The first shuttle mission will:

• Rendezvous with Skylab
• Bring a docking adapter for all the future missions - the docking ports do not have enough clearance for a shuttle
• Remove and deorbit the solar/comms array (detachable via docking port jr.)
• Disconnect, load into a cargo bay and land the hab module (detachable via docking port sr.)
• Dock a rocket stage to Skylab, which will boost the station into an at least 200 km/200 km orbit

The second shuttle mission will:

• Rendezvous and dock with skylab (which is now in a 200 km/200 km orbit)
• Bring a new habitation module
• Bring a new solar/comms module
• Bring crew of at least 3 to Skylab

Both Shuttles must return to Kerbin afterwards

The Skylab station is provided by the challenge and can be either launched to orbit using a rocket or placed there through Cheat Menu. Either way, its Pe and Ap values must be between 80 and 90 km and inclination must be between 50 and 52 degrees. I opted for Cheat Menu placement (Inclination is in lower left corner)

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Time to check out the Shuttle I will be using. Uses similar concept as Fuel Pod Orbiter. Payload will be placed in the middle. The Orbiter on the screenshot is the first one, the second one has additional passenger bay to carry Kerbals to Skylab (I forgot to take snaps of it in SPH)

Here's payload for first mission: nuclear rocket stage, docking port adapter and Assembly Drone that will be doing the maintenance work

Launch to orbit

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Encounter with Skylab

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Orbiter is "parked" not far from Skylab and Assembly Drone gets to work. First it docks the Rocket Stage with the assistance of the Docking Adapter

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It then docks the Adapter itself to one of the side ports and attaches to Hab Module afterwards

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Now that the Adapter is ready, Orbiter can be docked to Skylab

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Assembly Drone then carries the Hab Module to the Orbiter

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Solar/Comms array is detached, Assembly Drone docks to it and performs a retrograde burn with RCS thrusters. After that, Solar/Comms array is left behind to deorbit and Assembly Drone burns back to Skylab and docks to it. It will stay docked to Skylab until the second Shuttle arrives

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Solar array survives reentry, but is destroyed on splashdown

First Shuttle returns to KSC runway with the Hab Module

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Skylab in the meanwhile is boosted to 200x200km orbit

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Second Shuttle's payload: new Hab Module and modified Solar/Comms array: it has a probe core and RCS capability for maneuvering

Launch of second Orbiter

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Additional passenger bay clearly visible in this screenshot

Approaching Skylab and docking to it

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First goes the new Solar/Comms array

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Now Assembly Drone grabs the new Hab Module and docks it to Skylab

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By this point Assembly Drone fulfilled its task. It grabs the truss structure that was used to hold the payload of second Shuttle and deorbits with RCS thrusters

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3 Kerbals board the Skylab one by one

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Shuttle undocks and descends towards KSC

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Smooth landing

And this concludes the mission! Final screenshot showing 3 Kerbals inside Skylab and its orbit parameters in KER window

[OJT]

Test Pilot Series: STS-5T

This mission will be the Shuttle-Apollo crossover: a Shuttle will carry the Command module for three and Munar lander for two kerbals to Mun. There, Apollo will undock and complete its mission of landing on the Mun and returning. Shuttle in the meanwhile will return to Kerbin through free return trajectory, perform direct entry into atmosphere and land on the runway

I will be using Duna-spec Orbiter again due to its sizeable cargo bay, generous deltaV and best reentry capabilities of all the Shuttles I designed for these challenges. Apollo Stack is pictured below: Mun Lander is made out of two Mk.1 command pods (therefore two seats), Command module is made out of one Mk.1 command pod and one Mk.1 passenger bay (therefore 3 seats).

Launch

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Setting up a free return trajectory maneuver and performing the burn

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Maneuver

After entering Mun SOI, Apollo undocks from the Orbiter and enters low Mun orbit. Due to initial periapsis being quite high, Apollo first performs a radial correction and then does a retrograde burn, entering a 13x15km orbit

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Proof of Mun SOI

3 kerbals inside: two will land, one will stay in orbit. Just like in real life Apollo missions

Apollo Mun orbit

After parking Apollo in orbit, I switch back to Orbiter. It does one small correction burn (as is allowed by the challenge requirements) on way to Kerbin. After hard, but safe entry Orbiter descends and lands on KSC runway

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Safe landing

After this, I switch to Apollo again to commence the landing

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Spotted the Munarch from orbit. If I noticed it earlier I would've tried to land near it

Planting a flag and posing for a photo

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Launching from Mun. I timed my ascent really well so I only needed to make a small correction after achieving orbit to encounter the Command module

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After docking both crafts, I transfer the kerbals and what little fuel there was left in Lander into the Command module. Then, I span my ship around and undocked the Lander during the spin so the craft is deorbited without fuel usage. After this Command module burns towards Kerbin

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Entry into atmosphere. Shortly before that I decouple the S/P module and turn retrograde

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After slowing down the parachutes are deployed and Command module softly lands in Grasslands region

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And with this, only one mission in STS Challenge remains! Mun flag location is below

[OJT]

Test Pilots Series: STS-6T

Final mission in the STS Challenge thread, and it is an unusual one. In this mission you must make a recoverable version of the booster that can safely land or splashdown on Kerbin. Booster must be "dumb" one, as in it must have no probe cores or any other means of controlling it after it detaches from the Orbiter. What's the unusual part? Booster must be recovered manually: whether it is a boat, a helicopter or any other method, I must fetch the landed/splashdowned booster and bring it to Spaceplane Hangar in KSC

First we will be doing the launch. I will be using the same Launcher configuration as in STS-2T, which itself was a functional equivalent to Kerbin STS-1 Launcher. Only difference is that the Orbiter has a probe core that I can use to control the ship, but the recoverable booster part will be still uncontrolled

To make recoveries for me easier, I will be taking more vertical approach compared to other launches. The Orbiter still has enough fuel to enter orbit by itself, which will be demonstrated, so the real launch is, while less efficient, is still possible with this profile

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After emptying the Booster, it is detached from the Orbiter. I put parachute activation on the same stage as decoupling so they will deploy by themselves when booster slows down in lower thicker atmosphere. Orbiter in the meanwhile turns on its engine and reaches (slightly elliptical) orbit

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Orbiter's final orbit

Switching back to Booster. As you can see parachutes are engaged and it has no means of controlling it. After entry parachutes are deployed and it splashed down not too far from KSC

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Booster location

Time to bring it back. After some testing I ended up with this rather unusual boat. Made out of Mk.2 fuselage parts, has winglets as aerofoils and Goliaths for propulsion

And here's a surprise: it flies! Not very stable mind you, but stable enough to quickly reach the Booster 120ish km away

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Here's the Booster! Time to land. Except that Recovery Craft doesn't glide well at low speeds, so it has parachutes to slowdown and gently splashdown

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Part of the reason I chose Goliaths is their reverse thrust capability. This allowed me to reverse towards the Booster and grab it with the grabber arm

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Time for a slow swim towards KSC: it took me about half an hour with 4x phys time warp

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Slowly approaching shore and driving out of the water. My initial plan was that I could use one Vector on the booster briefly to power through steep slope. Recovery Craft even has some Oxidizer for this purpose. But thrust of two Goliaths proved to be sufficient, so help from Booster was unnecessary

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Driving towards Spaceplane Hangar

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Booster is returned to KSC!

And this, finally, at last, concludes the STS Challenge! I completed all of the missions using Mk.2 fuselage parts for my Orbiters, all on Commander ranks and all with Stock parts. But this might not be the end of my STS shenanigans. If I come up with something interesting that adheres to STS Challenge rules (or if there will be new additions to STS Challenge thread) I will be posting it here 

[SkyFall2489]

Idea: STS jool 5... can you pack all that in the payload bay? If you want even more of a challenge, no ISRU.

[OJT]

Hello people, long time no see

I was fairly inactive in the forum in general. Partly due to IRL stuff, but also because I was mainly playing Beyond Home planet pack and because vast majority of the challenges are aimed towards stock planets, I didn't have much reason to post here. However, STS Challenge thread does allow custom planet packs, and because of that I decided to put together a lil sumthin sumthin.

Introducing:

Rhode-Lua STS-1

Rhode is the home planet of Beyond Home planet pack. It is slightly smaller than Kerbin and has slightly less dense atmosphere. The main feature of Rhode however is that it has three (yes, three) moons with vastly different features and characteristics. In this mission we will be going to the nearest moon: Lua. Lua is a very unique moon: it has thin atmosphere, is partially terraformed (according to in-mod lore) and it also has its own (fully usable) launchpad and runway! So to flex our capabilities, we will be landing on Lua Runway, deploy a payload and return back to Rhode and land on KSC Runway

Here's our craft, still adhering to Mk.2 rules

Here's the payload: a small unmanned rocket that can launch from Lua sea level and reach its orbit

Here's the Launcher: SRB first stage and Poodle-powered second stage

Launch and ascent to orbit

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Yes, these are two suns! How cool is that?

Decoupling SRB

Deploying fairing

Burning towards Lua

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Approaching Lua and entering low orbit around it. I could aerobrake, but I had enough fuel to circularize, so I engaged the engine

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After doing my deorbit burn, I decoupled the transfer stage and glided towards the runway

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Pointing radial out to reduce velocity

Runway was just over the hill, so I briefly turned on the engine to not crash into it

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Now was the hardest part of the mission: actually sticking the landing. My velocity was still way too big, atmosphere was too thin for my wings to provide enough lift and due to runway not being perfectly aligned with equator I was approaching it at a slight angle. For this purpose I packed up some parachutes but even with those the landing was on thin margins: I briefly went over runway surface during braking but I steered my way back to it

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And we are landed on Lua! Time to deploy our payload rocket

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Our mini rocket launches and reaches orbit around Lua with around 700 m/s deltaV left for future orbit adjustments

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In the meanwhile, Bill repacks the parachutes, and the Orbiter taxies for a bit to get more space to accelerate

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Launch. I baaaarely made it off ground, but in the end we reached orbit

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After one orbit, we burn towards Rhode

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Reentering Rhode's atmosphere

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KSC runway was, unfortunately, on the other side of the planet, so I basically had to glide around half the globe (with periodically burning to extend the glide) to reach it

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Smooth landing on the runway

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And this concludes another STS mission, this time on another star system!