[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program

Northstar1989 · June 17, 2014

Whee, another update!

Seriously though, progress continues. First of all, my LFO Tanker reached my Munar Spacedock and transferred over its fuel. My Kerbals also ripped off its OX-STAT solar panels, but I discovered that the Skycrane + ISRU Refinery had drifted too far away (10 km) for the Kerbals to easily EVA over and attach the panels without the aid of a navigational system. So I'll have to either wait until it drifts closer again (that *might* take a while) or have the panels and a Kerbal hitch a ride on the next ship to come through the refueling station...

Second, I launched the first component of my mission to Sentar- the Sentar Mission/Return Vehicle. It launched first since it has a nuclear reactor (for electricity and propulsion out at Sentar distances where my Microwave Beamed Power network won't reach, and sunlight will be EXTREMELY weak, thanks to KSP-Interstellar's accurate implementation of an Inverse-Square Law for stellar radiation...) and two Microwave Beamed Power Deployable Transceivers- which allow it both to receive beamed power to help maneuver, and beam its excess power to other ships to help them get off the ground on Kerbin while itself sitting idle in orbit.

The Sentar Mission Vehicle forms the heart of my Sentar Armada- its reactor will be beaming power to all the other ships for both electric/thermal propulsion (plasma engines and thermal rockets) and routine SAS/navigational use. It's an idea I'd been playing with in my head for a while, and it'll be interesting to see how it works out for this mission. Though, at a peak of only 54 MW of beamed power it can transmit to other ships (for short periods of time, until its reactor starts running hot and power output declines), it won't exactly be the (comparable) walk in the park using the system that maneuvering near Kerbin has become... I'm thinking I should have packed a bigger reactor.

Third, my Supply Ship made its first aerobrake pass on Kerbin. Although mildly unrealistic, I might not load it up so physics apply for every pass- I have other things to do than waiting on this $@$% in-game, and the Supply Ship has nowhere else I need it to be since it turns out the Munar Spacedock is thoroughly and completely bugged when it comes to constructing other craft in-orbit. Luckily, Extraplanetary Launchpads' ground-based launchpads work fine, even if its space-based ones are still buggy for anything more than small probes- so eventually I'll land a launchpad on the Munar surface and ferry the RocketParts from the Munar Spacedock to the ground-based launchpad.

Unfortunately, that will add greatly to the inefficiency of the whole process, as it will force all my rockets to interplanetary destinations to launch from the Mun before heading for their eventual destinations- adding greatly to rocket fuel and mass requirements. It's not the most realistic either- as theoretically it's easier to build big, bulky rockets in zero-gravity than on a moon's surface (although neither has actually been tried in real life AFAIK...)

Next on the docket, the debris from my probe-launch towards the Sentar and Inaccessible systems before crashed into the Mun, generating !SCIENCE!

Finally, my second Hydrazine ATTILA probe made a burn near the Mun. I know I originally talked about circularizing it and topping off its fuel there, but not only did I realize this would this be *EXTREMELY* inefficient (as it only spent 3 m/s of fuel since separating from its earlier stage), but I also discovered that I could easily set it to Kerbin-dive such that its periapsis would be properly set up for an ejection-burn towards Sentar- the ejection angle for which should ideally be approximately 161 degrees-to-prograde (according to the Launch Window Planner once programmed with values for Sentar).

I will probably also be placing this probe on a trajectory that sets it on an escape-trajectory from Kerbol (much lower-speed than the other probe, but still eventually escaping the sun's gravity), thus allowing it to turn around and make a flyby of ANY body in the Kerbol system.

I'll have to decide at some point where it's headed though... If it heads to Sentar, I might choose to aerocapture it there and have it wait for the remainder of my Sentar armada- its Hydrazine can also be used as fuel by the plasma thrusters of the other vehicles in the armada- although it only has Jr-sized docking ports, so I will have to remember to launch at least one vessel with appropriately-sized ports if I want this to remain an option... (or a KAS winch and an extra radial adapter- to basically drill a hole into the side of the probe and drain it's remaining Hydrazine...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 21, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 21, 2014

Lots more going on- my Sentar System Mission (SSM, in future abbreviations) is finally shaping up and most of the components have now been launched to Kerbin orbit...

First of all, there is the Sentar Transfer Vehicle (STV) Mk1- which is to be used to transport the Sentar Mission Vehicle (SMV) to its destination, as well as to return the Return Module (the SMV splits in half- leaving the reactor, microwave transceivers -the transfer vehicle has its own receivers- and some empty fuel tanks behind while the rest of the vehicle heads back for Kerbin) when the mission is complete. Here it is blasting off from Kerbin:

The STV was so over-engineered it acted as an SSTO (minus the disposable Solid Rocket Boosters), however- so I had to dump the launch stage in a "graveyard" orbit at around 900 km, since the full vehicle is too long and high part-count to safely transfer the SMV without ripping apart... The SMV will be rendezvousing with the transfer vehicle in an even higher orbit (to keep the launch stage out of loading-range) in order to initiate hard-dock and make the transfer to Sentar.

Second, I launched the Sentar System Lander module- which includes a reusable lander (designed for use on Erin, Skelton, and Pock- it doesn't have enough Delta-V to ascend back to orbit from the surface of Ringle or Thud without a separate fuel-lander), a service module to transport the lander around and refuel it between landings, and a disposable fuel-tank which also improves the aerodynamic profile of the rocket for aesthetic/roleplaying reasons (as I am not running FAR yet). All launched atop a single Heavy Reusable Thermal Launch Platform- which now has a much greater lifting capacity thanks to my 2nd Reactor Cart:

The recovery of the launch and upper stages of the Heavy Reusable Launch Platform:

Note that the launch stage did a weird bouncing-act where it kept bouncing sideways along the (relatively level) ground and GAINING speed while it did so, despite my attempted use of engines to put it to a stop. I'm going to ignore this (totally unrealistic and physically-impossible IRL) bug, and treat it as a fully-successful touchdown for roleplaying reasons...

The upper stage touched down HARD though- at something like 17 m/s (sorry, no screenshots of most of the landing), due to making an unpowered descent. I'm surprised the landing legs sufficiently cushioned the impact (they've failed to in similar landings before), and no parts broke. I guess that just shows how robust and over-engineered my designs are though!

The SSM Lander Module (shown below) and STV Mk1 (not shown) then deployed their Microwave Transceivers in Relay Mode so as to provide additional relay-points for the launch of the remaining modules of my Sentar Armada, ensuring sustained access to beamed power, and the shortest-possible relay path lengths (to minimize distance-losses)

Third, I launched the Sentar Transfer Vehicle Mk2- an entirely redesigned version of the basic STV Mk1 that relies MUCH more heavily on ion thrusters for the later part of its transfer (an engine cluster of: two KSP Interstellar plasma thrusters, four NearFuture dual-stage four-grid ion thrusters, and a single 1.25 meter thermal receiver form its final stage propulsion system). It may, depending on remaining fuel budgets and Delta-V predictions for the return, form the transfer stage for the Return Vehicle instead of the STV Mk1's final stage. A lot depends on how the capture and lander-missions go.

That's not all though!

I also made the ejection burn for the second Sentar/Inaccessible Probe. As this was performed at the closest-approach of a Kerbin-dive following a Munar gravity-assist, the final trajectory was radically different from the first probe- likely setting it up for different flyby maneuvers when it dives back inwards on the Kerbol system. It also likely consumed less fuel than the first probe in setting up its trajectory- due to the Munar gravity-assist, the benefits of the Oberth Effect, and the fact that it made only the minimal burn necessary to escape Kerbin's gravity well... (the first probe made a much faster and higher-energy escape burn with reduced eccentricity)

And, finally, the upper stage of the Medium Reusable Launch Platform that I had in orbit made a recovery to the KSC launchpad (quite literally- it landed back on the launchpad), to be re-used in the future for one of the final components of my Sentar armada (a mobility system for Erin- but its precise nature is a surprise for now...)

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar1989 · June 23, 2014

I present the final component of my Sentar Mission:

A seaplane- yes, a friggin' seaplane! This is the mobility system for my exploration of Erin (the Laythe-like moon of Sentar).

It's electrically powered, and designed to operate off the beamed power from the Mission Vehicle (although it has a great deal of battery capacity, and a few OX-STAT panels as a backup power system, VERY LITTLE light should penetrate through Erin's thick atmosphere at that great a distance from the Sun. Hmmm, maybe I should have attached some lights to it so the Kerbonauts can see where they're going- nahhh, they've got lights on their spacesuits! I wonder what the battery life on those lights are though...)

The recovery of the Reusable Launch Stage (shown below) and reusable drop-tanks (shown above) went without a hitch:

And recover of the Upper Stage was also successful (although MechJeb decided to blow all the fuel I was saving for a soft landing as soon as I activated Landing Guidance, it still had enough parachute mass to touchdown without breaking anything...)

Now that all mission components have been launched to Kerbin orbit, it's time to assemble the Lander and Mission Vehicle with their respective transfer stages (due to its low mass, the Erin Seaplane launched already assembled with its own transfer stage), and get all the components to Sentar!

The remainder of the Duna armada, meanwhile, also nears its destination. Among the components still en-route are the Duna Supplementary Equipment Vehicle (complete with a FUNCTIONAL DUNA ELECTRIC HELICOPTER!) and the Duna Heavy Equipment Platform (hopefully its Orbital Construction functionality still works- I'm almost afraid to test it after all the difficulties I've had with the Munar Spacedock... If it doesn't work, I guess I can poke around on the surface with multiple round-trips to the surface using my two spaceplanes in the armada, and waiting for the next transfer window home... Or maybe I'll just send contingency equipment on an Orion Nuclear Pulse Rocket- which has so much Delta-V it basically can ignore transfer windows...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 23, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · June 24, 2014

In-orbit assembly is always !FUN!

And by fun, I mean that in the Dwarf Fortress way- boring, tedious, and with the potential for great disaster (luckily no incidents this time). Still, here it is...

First of all, the docking of the Sentar System Lander (SSL) with the Sentar Transfer Vehicle (STV) Mk2:

The SSL broke into two pieces, for more stable (and less Kraken-prone) interplanetary transfer...

The Lander itself remained attached to the small conical transfer vehicle (what I referred to as a "drop tank" before- containing over 83k m/s Delta-V with just the lander attached!)

The Service Module, meanwhile, undocked from the Lander and rendezvoused with the STV Mk2. It also stole some LFO from the launch stage of the STV Mk2 that made it to orbit- the LFO will be necessary to refuel the Lander between sorties (the SMV also contains a quarter-load of additional LFO, which will probably be required at some point).

The Service Module holds EXACTLY enough for two full refuelings of the Lander- which means enough fuel to rendezvous with the SMV in orbit of Erin or Sentar (to pick up Kerbals) using the STV Mk2 (which will stay with the SMV to act as the then-renamed Return Transfer Vehicle), position the Lander for ground insertions (refueling from the SMV at some point in the series), refuel the Lander one-and-a-half times (a Pock landing can be done on a 1/2 fuel load) for a total of three landings (Erin, Skelton, and Pock: the Lander reaches the Sentar system fully-fueled), and *just barely* reach the Sentar Mission Vehicle with the Lander (and Kerbals it contains) attached- possibly without (for a return to grab the Lander once refueled with pure LiquidFuel stored on the SMV) if landings prove especially costly...

Meanwhile, the Sentar Mission Vehicle (SMV) itself moved into a higher orbit around Kerbin, where it rendezvoused with a short-range, rather archaic (chemical, despite beamed-power thermal rocketry providing both better TWR and ISP) fuel tanker that had been in orbit over 2 game-months (since Project Amadeus/Williams) to top off its fuel reserves:

The tanker then made a transfer-burn to the Mun to deposit its remaining fuel in the Munar Spacedock and join the growing list of decommissioned ships in Munar orbit, as new debris... (from a roleplaying perspective, most Lunar orbits are unstable- which can justify the constant fuel-runs to the Munar Spacedock as station-keeping fuel, for small station-keeping thrusters it would have been equipped with if necessary, and "Termination" of the debris as their having eventually crashed into the surface if I don't decide to restart my orbital debris-scrapping operations)

Finally, for those of you wondering which mission component will be the first to depart for the Sentar System, it will be the entirely non-mission-critical Erin Seaplane. Due to the phasing and altitudes of the orbits, it will have the next transfer window to Sentar (remember, the ideal Angle to Prograde of ejection was approximately 160 degrees- meaning the Seaplane is already a bit past its idealized ejection angle in an East/West direction, as well as past Periapsis- but it also has not yet reached its Ascending Node- the best angle to eject with respect to the North/South component of its inclined orbit).

Additionally, it makes the most sense to eject this module first- as it lacks any Microwave Transceivers (it is equipped with smaller Receiver dishes) that could be used to relay power from the KSC to the other mission components for their ejection burns while still in Kerbin orbit...

Also, for those of you wondering- I still haven't decided what to do with the Sentar Mission Vehicle Mk1. It's become apparent that I won't need it to meet the primary mission objectives (reach Sentar orbit, make at least one landing on each of the three separate inner moons), and it won't help with attempting a landing on Thud (*shudder*- it has 3 G's of surface-gravity, 50% higher gravity than Eve!) or Ringle (like a different-textured Tylo- the lander can land, but can't get back to orbit without refueling on the surface).

But perhaps I could use it to transport a fuel-lander for Ringle, or a parachuted-rover for Skelton... (which has a highly mountainous terrain with a dense atmosphere in the valleys that doesn't reach to the peak of the mountains... Due to its Duna-like low gravity, a landing on a mountain is probably preferable if I can't manage a difficult landing at a "sweet spot" of between about 0.5 and 0.2 Kerbin-atmospheres of pressure on a valley slope- enough to slow the Lander's descent with its parachutes, but not choke the engines when trying to ascend again...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 24, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 12, 2014

I apologize for the long delay since my last update. Real life got in the way, but so did this:

For those of you wondering what you're looking at- that's a rocket launch from a SimCity4 Space Port.

I got drawn into a couple other games for a while (SimCity4, Dwarf Fortress, and even a little bit of the terrible game "Endless Space"), and haven't been doing much with Kerbal Space Program for a bit. I also needed some time to figure out what to do about a design/foresight failure with my getting my Erin/Pock/Skelton lander to the Sentar system... (more on that later)

Anyways, SimCity 4 gave me a brilliant reminder of Kerbal Space Program when my most technologically advanced city petitioned me to build a Space Port (they also asked to build a Hydrogen Power Plant a few months later). The "liters of orange-flavored beverage" statistic on querying the Space Port, along with the distinct similarity of the pre-launch countdown audio to some of the Kerbal chatter from the KSP "Chatterer" plugin (which I used to run before memory got too tight as my mods list expanded) both subtly reminded me that it was at least time to post an update here of (and probably build upon in-game) my KSP activities- some of which I carried out only a few days after my last post, but have been sitting on the screenshots of for some time...

So, long intro aside, the first vessel of my Sentar Armada successfully made its ejection burn in the direction of Sentar: the Erin Seaplane.

That burn went without a hitch, so I then went to check back up on my Sentar Mission Vehicle, and wait for its reactor to cool down a bit so I could start pumping some additional juice in the direction of the Erin/Pock/Skelton Lander, which I determined should be the second vessel in the armada to make its ejection burn, due to its similar lack of relay-capable transceiver units.

The radiation of enough of the built-up heat from before to use the reactor took quite some time, though- which should have been my first hint that I didn't build quite enough radiator mass into this armada... (with the Sentar Mission Vehicle that was intentional, to same on mass/part-count and allow the Sethlans 2 Solid Bed Reactor to heat up to higher temperatures than any reactor of the molten salt classification, for higher ISP when utilizing thermal rocketry. For the lander, however...) I missed this clue, however, and proceeded onwards to the Sentar System Lander's ejection burn...

That didn't go so well, though, as can be seen- after burning through the lander's small supply of Hydrazine, and switching over to Hydrogen (LiquidFuel) I got maybe a minute of thrust before the lander's cooling systems overheated and forced an emergency shutdown of the Microwave Receiver...

So, lesson learned- don't try and push 8 Gigawatts of power through a spacecraft with only 8 Megawatts of radiator capacity- even with what I can only assume are far-futuristic coolant fluids (no real-life coolant could absorb so much energy per kg for such a small change in temperature: KSP Interstellar coolant specific heat capacities must be INCREDIBLE), I only got about a minute and a half of total thrust before emergency shutdown...

In the meantime, though, I've been obsessing over what to do with my poor lander. The easiest solution would seem to be to perform a large number of "periapsis kicks" utilizing the short burn times it IS capable of- but I simply don't have the time for that (in-game or in real-life) before the Sentar transfer window closes... Another solution would seem to be to dump the plasma thruster and associated Liquidfuel tank (fortunately there's no boil-off in KSP yet, as that tank doesn't have an independent power source to keep the Hydrogen cryogenic...), and fly the lander to the Sentar Transfer Vehicle Mk1 or vice-versa and use THAT to get the lander to Sentar.

And then, there's my plan...

I could tell you guys what it is- but I prefer to leave you with a bit of suspense...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 12, 2014 by Northstar1989

Northstar1989 · July 18, 2014

I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

To load back up my KSP save, and continue where I left off, that is.

Some of you might have guessed what was on my mind by this point...

Thing had simply became too bloated. I had too many missions going on at once, too many orbital stations I felt the need to send "crew rotations" to, too many outposts/colonies I was planning, and too many complex rendezvous that I couldn't afford to miss. In short, the game had started to feel more like a job than like !FUN!

Plus, this thread has become so long that it's entirely different than how it started, anyways- and few new readers probably have the patience to read through 26 pages of text/pictures.

So, I'll be closing this thread. I will be starting a new thread, chronicling my adventures with 0.24, however.

I'll be re-installing KSP from scratch (to get rid of some bugs that had accumulated from simply updating with each new version for roughly 12 months at this point) and limiting myself to just stock and MechJeb, probably FAR, and possibly Chatterer or Environmental Visual Enhancements (should work great for me with 64x, a fresh install, and no parts-mods) for the time being. I'll be focusing mainly on getting used to Budgets, as well as the new stock Vernier pods, monopropellent engines, and re-balanced parts.

Here's a link to my new thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86535-Kerbin-and-Beyond-A-New-Beginning

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 18, 2014 by Northstar1989

Geschosskopf · July 18, 2014

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for the ride.

Northstar1989 · July 19, 2014

No problem. It's a pleasure to hear that you kept following this through to the end Geschosskopf!

The ride's not over, exactly, though- it's just starting again *from the beginning* (something I always wanted to do after getting into this thread) with "Kerbin and Beyond: A New Beginning". I'm really enjoying playing with Budgets and FAR (though I've decided it was crazy to think I could play with FAR without at least some sort of fairings... I've played with NovaPunch a lot in the past, but I think I'm ready to try out KW Rocketry this time around- the various procedural mods are going to take a lot longer to become appropriately balanced for 0.24, I imagine...) so far (pun intended), and I'm just going nuts with all the contracts, seeing if I can find the most efficient ways to fulfill them while meeting additional goals in the same mission... (like testing a rocket destined for a Munar flyby in my latest rescue contract- shhhhhh, that's a spoiler)

I am hating the heavy return of lag when viewing Kerbing from orbit, thanks to Active Texture Management not being updated for 0.24 yet when I installed the update. I hope that I can add that back in soon...

Regards,

Northstar

Edited July 19, 2014 by Northstar1989

Sign In

[CLOSED] Kerbin and Beyond: a Maturing Space Program

Recommended Posts

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Geschosskopf

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Northstar1989

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation

Forum

Activity

Community

Mods

Social Media