KASDA mission log | Y59, D64 | Launching the final Kerbals to the Duna system (Ike)

Pipcard · June 26, 2013

And here they are:

Mission 37

Payload: Nebula-5 (Mk. 01c)

Description: Testing the replacement of Illuminator Mk1s with Mk2s. (Turns out that they really are weak unless you get very close to the target)

Launch Vehicle: Bottle Mk. 02-2S

Mission objective: Rendezvous and dock with Futurelab.

Crew: Hermy, Guslas, and Shepsby Kerman

Edited June 26, 2013 by Pipcard

Pipcard · June 27, 2013

Mission 38

Payload: Wanderer-1

Description: A probe designed to make a fly-by of Jool. It is mainly powered by a radioisotopic thermoelectric generator and carries a small atmospheric entry probe.

Mass at launch: 0.647 t (fly-by probe: 0.417 t; atmospheric probe: 0.230 t)

Launch Vehicle: Bottle Type-01 (from now on, I will refer to it as Type, not Mk.)

Mission objective: Make a low-altitude fly-by of Jool and deploy the atmospheric probe. (Optional objective: Achieve solar escape velocity.)

Fairing cut-away:

Travelling through interplanetary space for over a year:

Jool encounter (13 days to periapsis):

The atmospheric probe separates from the rest of the spacecraft...

...in order to put some distance between the two.

Atmospheric probe about to enter:

I didn't want to put a Rockomax Brand Adapter 02 giant heat shield, so just pretend that this is shaped like this instead of a box.

Falling through Jool's atmosphere (parachute always breaks at 500 m). Laythe can be seen in the background.

(I went back to an earlier quicksave, because I can't switch vessels while in the atmosphere)

After reaching periapsis, the probe burned its remaining fuel...

...to place it on a solar escape trajectory.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Pipcard

Pipcard · June 29, 2013

Mission 39

Payload: M/IKU-01 (Mapping/Identification Kethane Unit)

Description: A small observation satellite equipped with a Kethane detector.

Mass at launch: 0.739 t

Launch Vehicle: Onion Stick Type-05 (first stage: LV-T45 liquid engine)

Mission objective: Establish a low polar orbit around Kerbin to test Kethane-detecting systems.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Pipcard

AustralianFries · June 29, 2013

Great stuff, Pipcard. Love all these missions!

Pipcard · July 1, 2013

Mission 40

Payload: Futurelab expansion module 1

Description: Extra habitation/lab space.

Mass at launch: 6.590 t

Launch Vehicle: Bottle Type-02-2S

Mission objective: Dock to the Futurelab node module.

Mission 41

Payload: Futurelab expansion module 2

Edited July 2, 2013 by Pipcard

AustralianFries · July 1, 2013

Cool station Pipcard!

Pipcard · July 4, 2013

Mission 42

Payload: Wish-3

Description: A probe designed to orbit Ike.

Mass at launch: 0.269 t

Launch Vehicle: Onion Stick Type-05

Mission objective: Establish an orbit around Ike.

Approaching Ike's sphere of influence after having entered Duna's orbit:

Burning until fuel ran out:

891 km x 776 km orbit:

Pipcard · September 29, 2013

After almost 3 months, KASDA is back!

Mission 43

Payload: Dawn-3

Description: A probe designed for landing on small celestial bodies.

Mass at launch: 532 kg

Launch Vehicle: Onion Stick Type-05-3C

Mission objective: Land on Gilly.

Click below to see more:

Departing Kerbin

Eve orbital insertion

Initial Eve orbit

Transfer to Gilly

Gilly insertion/de-orbit burn

The probe separated from the upper stage/service module.

It used its RCS thrusters to move towards a flat landing spot, while the upper stage crashed onto the surface.

The first KASDA probe to land on the moon of another planet.

Next to the crashed stage

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · September 30, 2013

Mission 44

Payload: Futurelab expansion module 3

Launch Vehicle: Bottle Type-03 (first stage: Mainsail)

Just one more module to go.

Mission 45

Payload: Futurelab expansion module 4

Procedural fairings!

Futurelab is now complete.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

The Fog · September 30, 2013

Great! Welcome back.

I wanted to continue my Yakitori adventure though, but .21 wiped out everything, including my favorite kerbonaut Calald Kerman

Pipcard · October 2, 2013

Mission 46

Payload: Wish-4

Description: A small, lightweight rover equipped with a detachable heat shield and deceleration system (parachute/thrusters).

Mass at launch: 377 kg (rover); 1131 kg (rover + deceleration system); 1233 kg (rover + deceleration system + heat shield)

Launch vehicle: Onion Stick Type-05-2L

Mission objective: Land on Duna.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

On launch pad

Leaving Kerbin

Approaching Duna

Separation from upper stage

The parachute was deployed, and the two Rockomax 24-77 thrusters decelerated the craft even further.

The heat shield was then jettisoned, and the parachute fully deployed.

After landing on the surface (around 140 degrees west on the equator), the deceleration system was discarded.

Wish-4 investigating a rock

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 6, 2013

Mission 47

Payload: M/IKU-02 (Mapping/Identification Kethane Unit)

Description: A small observation satellite equipped with a Kethane detector.

Mass at launch: 739 kg (3609 kg with upper stage)

Launch Vehicle: Onion Stick Type-05

Mission objective: Establish a low polar orbit around Minmus to find kethane deposits.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

KerbPaint-enhanced launch vehicle (now it's a proper Onion Stick)

Approaching Minmus

Correction burn to place the craft in a polar inclination

Prior to insertion burn

M/IKU-02 in orbit

Kethane deposits

Originally, KASDA had planned to send this spacecraft to a Munar orbit. But at the last minute, the spacecraft's destination was changed to Minmus.

Minmus takes about the same amount of delta-V as the Mun to get to, but landing and launching into orbit takes less delta-V. This makes it more ideal for mining.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

SpaceSphereOfDeath · October 6, 2013

MOAR

Please

I love these, it reminds me of my early KSP days

Pipcard · October 7, 2013

Mission 48

Payload: Mouhou Project 2

Description: Moho observation orbiter

Mass at launch: 965.4 kg (4292.9 kg with upper stage)

Launch vehicle: Bottle Type-02a (LV-909 upper stage)

Mission objective: Establish a polar orbit around Moho.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

On launch pad

What's inside the fairing (the second stage was later jettisoned and de-orbited)

Approaching Moho after a few correction burns to place it into a 90 degree inclination

Insertion burn

Mouhou Project 2 in orbit

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 8, 2013

Mission 49

Payload: Electric Angel

Description: Space probe with an electric xenon-ion engine, Gigantor XL solar arrays, and communications dishes.

Mass at launch: 1615 kg

Launch vehicle: Bottle Type-02b (48-7S upper stage)

Mission objective: Establish a polar orbit around Dres.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

In low Kerbin orbit, attached to upper stage. The upper stage burned on the night side of the planet, where the solar-powered ion engines wouldn't work.

20-minute correction thrust in interplanetary space (used x4 physics warp)

Encounter with Dres

Almost an hour of decelerating (x4 physics warp again)

Initial orbit

The spacecraft also had a RCS system to provide some extra delta-v.

Electric Angel in a low circular orbit around Dres

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 10, 2013

Mission 50

Payload: Wanderer-2

Description: Probe designed to explore the Jool system, with a small Laythe lander attached to it.

Mass at launch: 1641.2 kg (1282.5 kg + 358.7 kg Laythe probe)

Launch vehicle: Bottle Type-02a (LV-909 upper stage)

Mission objective: Enter into an orbit around Jool, deploy the Laythe landing probe, and conduct fly-bys of all of Jool's moons.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

Launch

Spacecraft, attached to upper stage, leaving Kerbin

Jool encounter

Orbital insertion:

Initial orbit with a Tylo encounter

After a small course correction, the spacecraft would slingshot around Tylo towards Laythe.

Tylo fly-by

Laythe probe jettisoned

Laythe probe making a course correction. At this point I realized that I forgot to put science parts (e.g. barometer) on the probe. Oh well.

Descending towards Laythe

Plasma during atmospheric entry

Parachutes deployed

Parachutes fully deployed

Landed on Laythe (with the Sun and Tylo in the background)

Laythe fly-by

(In order to rendezvous with the various moons of Jool, course corrections were usually made at Jool periapsis (Oberth effect makes it easier to change prograde/retrograde velocity) or at the ascending/descending nodes of a target body.)

Second Tylo fly-by

Vall fly-by

Pol fly-by (Pol's a bit far in the picture. And dark.)

Second Laythe fly-by

Fly-by of Bop, the fourth moon of Jool

Closer look at Pol

The spacecraft was moved into a stable orbit that was unlikely to encounter any major moons.

Close-up of the flag

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 12, 2013

There used to be something here about the suborbital test flights that took place before the first mission. I wanted it to seem like a prequel, with version 0.20 and no fairings. But later I thought that it didn't look too good and so I deleted it. Sorry.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 19, 2013

~~KASDA is now in a separate blog!~~

Mission 51 - experimental unmanned SSTO

Reusable Prototype Vehicle Type-01

Description: A robotic vehicle designed to reach low Kerbin orbit without jettisoning parts (single stage to orbit) and return to the surface. It contains a toroidal aerospike engine for great efficiency in the atmosphere and in space.

Mass at launch: 12002.5 kg

Mission objective: Launch into low Kerbin orbit, then de-orbit and land near the space center.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

Going straight up until reaching an altitude of 10 km

Gravity turn

The RPV Type-01 in a stable orbit of 70 km

UI screenshot for proof

After one orbit was completed, the spacecraft deorbited on the opposite side of the planet from the mountains west of the space center. (note: This took several trial and error attempts, most of which landed in the ocean. I'm considering using the Mechjeb autopilot mod for the maneuvers that are too precise to be done manually.)

Plasma during atmospheric re-entry

Parachutes deployed at about 23 km above sea level

Fully deployed at 500 m above the surface

And thus concluded the flight of KASDA's first SSTO.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 20, 2013

Mission 52 - one-Kerbal rocket SSTO

Reusable Prototype Vehicle Type-02

Description: A single-stage-to-orbit vehicle capable of carrying one Kerbal into low Kerbin orbit and back.

Mass at launch: 25545 kg

Mission objective: Launch into low Kerbin orbit, then de-orbit and land near the space center.

Crew: Newmin Kerman

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

For the first time, the MechJeb software was installed on the spacecraft; however, its autopilots were not used. More on that later.

The craft ascended with two toroidal aerospike engines, connected to the main fuel tank via Radial Attachment Points (in suborbital test simulations, the Stack Bi-Adapter tended to fall off when the parachutes fully deployed).

Vessel in stable 70 km orbit

Watching the sunrise from the inside

MechJeb's landing autopilot tended to waste too much fuel. Instead, a maneuver node was set up, and MechJeb showed the predicted landing site. A manual de-orbit burn occurred at the node. Any deviations from the landing site were corrected using short and careful bursts of the engines. Final predicted landing site was 2 km west of the space center.

Re-entry

Deployment of the six parachutes caused the predicted landing site to shift to about 9 km west of the center.

Landing gear down

Touchdown

Newmin Kerman stands beside the vehicle.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

ZodiaK · October 20, 2013

love the vocaloid-themed mission names

Pipcard · October 20, 2013

ZodiaK said:

love the vocaloid-themed mission names

They're not all Vocaloid-themed. Here's an explanation:

KERTSUNE: Kerbalized version of Hatsune (Miku) [note: If you don't know who she is, click here. And Vocaloids are basically a kind of singing synthesizer program.]

Songbird: Not really Vocaloid-themed, just music-themed in general

Moon Princess: The Japanese lunar probe is nicknamed Kaguya, who is a Moon princess.

Starlight: Taken from this Miku song (titled "space infrastructure")

Wish: Literal translation of Nozomi, the Japanese Mars probe (which failed to enter Mars orbit)

Dawn: Literal translation of Akatsuki, the Japanese Venus probe (failed to enter Venus orbit but will make another attempt in 2015)

Mouhou Project: not Vocaloid-themed; a pun of Touhou Project (but I haven't played any games in the series and don't really plan to)

Wanderer: Named after this track

M/IKU: Obviously a direct backronym

Electric Angel: Named after this song (but I prefer the trance remix; it's more fitting for an ion probe travelling through space)

Reusable Prototype Vehicle: possibly based on JAXA's suborbital Reusable Vehicle Testing program

Peregrine Falcon: Literal translation of Hayabusa, the Japanese asteroid sample return probe. There is also a song about it, but I prefer this version.

World is Mine: it's a well-known Miku song.

Snow Fairy: the song "Snow Fairy Story" (but "The 9th" is the one about Pluto)

Emerald, Topaz, etc.: this doesn't really have to do with anything other than "jewels" (i.e. Jool)

Kujita: Kerbalized version of Saki Fujita (her birthday was yesterday - October 19), voice sample provider of Hatsune Miku.

Nebula: Named after my first favorite Miku song

Futurelab/Futurebase: (Miku (ミク) sounds like a nanori reading of future, 未来, normally read as "mirai"[2])

Reusable Crew Vehicle: CV (Character Vocal) series by Crypton Future Media (Kerpton is a Kerbalized version), of which Miku is a part of.

- RCV-01 "First Sound": what "Hatsune" literally translates to

- RCV-02 "Mirrored Sound": see here

- RCV-03 "Circulating Sound": see here

Moon Rabbit: East Asian folklore

Project DIVA: Hatsune Miku rhythm games (but I've never played one because I'd rather just listen to the songs instead of playing a rhythm game)

Negi Star: green onion (although some people translate it as "leek" but I'm not sure because I do notice a difference between the two); NASA/Lockheed Martin has a supersonic aircraft concept which coincidentally looks like one.

Mirai: See Futurelab/Futurebase. It's also a recreation of an add-on project I'm doing for the Orbiter simulator.

Hope Base: the Japanese module on the ISS is known as Kibo (hope)

Song Princess: literal translation of "utahime" (songstress/diva)

Hikari: Dawn is the only probe to visit Ceres, and is also the name of a character from Pokémon; Hikari [light] is the Japanese name of the latter.

Edited April 5 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 23, 2013

Mission 53 - 5-Kerbal reusable spacecraft

Reusable Crew Vehicle 01 "First Sound" | RCV Flight 01

Description: A reusable spacecraft which is capable of carrying 1 pilot and 4 passengers into low Kerbin orbit and back.

Mass at launch: 4990 kg

Launch vehicle: Symphony-5k Type-01

(reusable SSTO booster with 5000 kg payload capacity)

Mission objective: Launch into low Kerbin orbit, then de-orbit and land near the space center.

Crew: Newmin Kerman, Henly Kerman, Lemfrid Kerman, Patwin Kerman, Wilke Kerman

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

"Symphony-5k" SSTO booster on launchpad

Launching into orbit on five toroidal aerospikes. (Started using MechJeb's ascent autopilot this time; 50+ manual launches got tedious)

RCV-01 "First Sound" decoupled from booster, in a 71 km orbit.

The Symphony-5k booster was de-orbited and recovered near KSC.

Landing solely with parachutes

Once in orbit, the capsule is propelled solely by RCS thrusters.

Top-down view of the spacecraft. The pilot module is in the front, while the passenger module is in the back.

Inside the passenger module

After completing two full orbits, the spacecraft was brought home. Three parachutes were added instead of four to save some mass, but this caused the spacecraft to tumble slightly due to the asymmetrical configuration. This was corrected by the SAS on board the pilot module. This particular spacecraft will be retrofitted with four parachutes (on the pilot module instead of the passenger module) the next time it flies.

From left to right: Newmin (pilot), Henly, Lemfrid, Patwin, Wilke

KASDA plans to construct two more RCVs in addition to "First Sound".

Edited September 30, 2017 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 23, 2013

Made some retcons:

Reusable Prototype Vehicle -> Reusable Prototype Vehicle Type-01

Reusable Crew Vehicle Type-01 -> Reusable Prototype Vehicle Type-02

Reusable Crew Vehicle Type-02 -> Reusable Crew Vehicle

Also changed the founder's name to Hiroyuki Kerman (formerly Keroyuki Ito). The Kujita capsule is now named after Kujita Kerman (formerly Itoki Kujita).

Edited October 23, 2013 by Pipcard

Pipcard · October 27, 2013

Mission 54 - Moho lander

Mouhou Project 3

Description: A probe designed to land on Moho.

Mass at launch: 650 kg (7352 kg with upper stage)

Launch vehicle: Symphony-10k Type-01

(reusable SSTO booster with 10000 kg payload capacity)

Mission objective: Land on Moho.

Click below to see more:

Spoiler

The Symphony-10k launch vehicle is propelled by nine aerospike engines.

Mouhou Project 3 and its upper stage, separated from the launcher

It was realized that a powered descent using MechJeb's landing autopilot only costed about 350 m/s in delta-v. So, that landing method was used instead of the parachutes (which added more mass to the vehicle and weren't as effective at slowing the craft before it reached the ground).

Upper stage performing trans-Moho injection

Arrival at Moho

Initial orbit

At apoapsis

Lander in circularized orbit

De-orbit burn

Falling towards the surface

Landed on Moho