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The Integrated Program Plan | A reconstruction of NASA's follow up to the Apollo program from 1969


Beccab

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This is the coolest thread ever. Dunno how I missed it.

Been sending pics to my friend at MCC. Mission Control replies via text just now: "That is glorious "

 

NASA approved ;)

 

"Gonna use those as screen backgrounds!" (also from my friend)

 

Edited by tater
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8 minutes ago, tater said:

This is the coolest thread ever. Dunno how I missed it.

Been sending pics to my friend at MCC. Mission Control replies via text just now: "That is glorious "

 

NASA approved ;)

 

"Gonna use those as screen backgrounds!"

 

Thank you! It will only get cooler from now on, since the preparations for the 1979 lunar landing start on the next post with the Orbital Propellant Depot (OPD) launch. Also, here's a sneak peek of what's now in the plans 2-3 posts from now thanks to the new docs I found in NTRS
1LFmGhM.png

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27 minutes ago, MikoYurei said:

Awesom report! Really like the carrier ship design with wings on back! One question - does the space shuttle heatshield made of conformal decals black flags?

Thanks! Yep it is, many parts in this mission report were colour switched with conformal decals for prettyness. I also did something similar with the space tug, with a lighter shade of gray applied to make the texture look a bit more fresh and BDB-like

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3 minutes ago, Beccab said:

Thanks! Yep it is, many parts in this mission report were colour switched with conformal decals for prettyness. I also did something similar with the space tug, with a lighter shade of gray applied to make the texture look a bit more fresh and BDB-like

I see, so does this flags impact on performance like normal parts? 

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3 minutes ago, MikoYurei said:

I see, so does this flags impact on performance like normal parts? 

Nope, it's just cosmetic. It doesn't make things heavier, but it doesn't work as an actual heat shield either

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5 hours ago, Beccab said:

Nope, it's just cosmetic. It doesn't make things heavier, but it doesn't work as an actual heat shield either

I truly hope that in KSP 2 there will be an official way to put a heat shield onto space planes. I'd like it if my wings didn't explode when coming in from deep space, it really does make it hard to land a whole space plane in one piece.

Edited by BigStar Aerospace
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Just now, CatastrophicFailure said:

Dude, this is gorgeous:o Mod list, plz. 

All of them ;)
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When the time for lunar landing mission comes, I'll also add Parallax to the list and if it still works the footprints mod

2 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

and framerate. My computer is bogging down just from the pictures. :confused:

3.6 fps, not great, not terrible
 

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1976: The Orbital Propellant Depot (and Space Tug)
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A lot has happened in the last year: the first EOS has made its maiden trip to space, followed by two more orbiters; a comet has been observed from a close distance for the first time; and finally, the Apollo CM has finally been fully replaced by a more advanced transportation system, hoping to reduce the cost of going to orbit by orders of magnitudes. With the year coming to a close, two more missions need to launch to be able to meet the goal of returning to the moon before this decade is out.

Part 1 - The crewed Space Tug

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It's a foggy morning of December at Cape Canaveral. On the top of pad LC-39B, the orbiter Endeavour is ready to return to space; her flyback is the good old Odissey, still maintaining her old appearance after NASA's decision of continuing to fly the original flybacks (Odissey and Constitution) without converting them to the new SOFI insulation. It's time for the Space Tug to make the next step: the original schedule has been plagued by long delays, but almost two years after the original launch date the time has come to test the first crewed Space Tug (for more info on the designs see 19710011980 on NTRS).

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Once in orbit, to begin the test the "Eagle" space tug needs to be relocated to the EOS's docking port. There, a mission specialists and an OTV pilot will move to the cockpit to begin testing the manuevring system moving around Endeavour.

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The second part of the test involves the main engines: the tug will move from Endeavour to Skylab, where it will dock for longer duration tests and mating to another tug to deploy more probes in the near future. It will also test the new arms of the tug, necessary to transfer cargo and repair satellites in an orbit that the EOS can't reach (side note: no matter how much I tried, but I couldn't find these arms anywhere on NTRS, it always involved a separate mini module with them. I went with this design because it's just too iconic not to use, but it's probably not historically acccurate unfortunately).

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Part 2 - The OPD
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Back when the IPP was conceived, an orbiting propellant depot was considered essential for the progress of the space program. It would have been capable of refueling with hydrogen and oxygen nuclear stages, chemical boosters and space tugs - even the Shuttle itself in a particular proposal. Without it, reusability of space based vehicles would have been extremely difficult or even impossible; however, few designs based on Apollo era vehicles are still available today, partially because those vehicles were abandoned half a decade after their specifications were finalized. Some of them are in here, but they are not nearly detailed enough for use as you can see below
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That's why I went instead with this one instead: the whole report is pretty amazing in that it has a dozen of different designs for tankers and such, but in particular it showed four detailed OPD schematics I was looking for. In the spoiler below you have the first three, while the one outside is what I went with.

Spoiler

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(the one below is missing the schematic, probably someone forgot to scan it or something. These drawings is all that's left of it)
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This design also means that, for the first time this year, the Saturn V is ready for a new launch!

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Now that the main tank is in a stable orbit, the next pieces of the OPD will reach it in early 1977 with the help of some new EOS launches. See you on the next post!

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1 hour ago, Beccab said:

What do you mean?

I have no idea ngl. was trying to replicate the shuttle somewhat but im on some funky new meds that make it hard to focus so really I'm grasping at straws here. what size tanks did you use anyways?

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7 hours ago, TheLoneOne said:

I have no idea ngl. was trying to replicate the shuttle somewhat but im on some funky new meds that make it hard to focus so really I'm grasping at straws here. what size tanks did you use anyways?

It's S-IV sized iirc, that's the one tank I didn't tweakscale I believe

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10 hours ago, Beccab said:

It's S-IV sized iirc, that's the one tank I didn't tweakscale I believe

sorry if i was being unclear last night when i asked you this, i had a seziure around 30 mins after i asked this so i wasn't with it at the time. thanks for the info!

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12 minutes ago, TheLoneOne said:

sorry if i was being unclear last night when i asked you this, i had a seziure around 30 mins after i asked this so i wasn't with it at the time. thanks for the info!

Oh no worries at all, I hope you're okay now!

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