Ho Lam Kerman
-
Posts
236 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Developer Articles
KSP2 Release Notes
Posts posted by Ho Lam Kerman
-
-
4 hours ago, SuperMiiBrother said:
What does Gene Kerman mean by This new ocean?
This new ocean is a metaphor for space.
-
Your "tonight" for me is probably at some ungodly hour...
Heh. I still like how homemade the makeshift shade looks in comparison to the professionally-built Skylab.
-
Hey, nice station!
For the solar array trusses on my station, I used a Delta-III with an elongated payload fairing. I mounted the end to the decoupler, then mounted the decoupler to the upper stage. I used the upper stage to dock, then decoupled the upper stage.
Not sure if that will help- but still, nice station!
-
Welcome to my fanfic! I hope you enjoy it. I'll be targeting a weekly release, but I won't guarantee it as I have schoolwork. Please also note that I play 1.2.2.
As I do this in my main save, and I also play on a regular basis, I might not document each and every launch in the chapters. Instead, I will be posting regular The Kerbal Daily front pages to let you guys know what's going on in the save, so you guys don't find anything weird. These The Kerbal Daily posts are part of the story, they just let you guys know about things I do in the save that I don't feel are text-worthy.
Contents:
Chapter 1: KSC, we've had a problem
Chapter 2: We launch. Tomorrow.
The Kerbal Daily (Year 37, Day 219)
Chapter 9: There's always more under the surface
Chapter 11: The Curse lives on
Chapter 1: KSC, we've had a problem
"Booster separation at T+41 seconds."
"KSC, we've had a problem. Something seems to have hit the first stage. We've felt, uh, a big jolt and now we feel weightless. We've also heard a pretty big bang. 'Booster emergency' and 'ballistic descent mode' light is on."
"Copy that. Can you confirm separation from launch vehicle?"
"Affirmative, Capcom. LV sep confirm."
"Soyuz contingency declared."
"Roger that, KSC. Aleksey and I are preparing for ballistic reentry."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A few hours later, a press conference is held to discuss the implications of today's failed flight, its implications for the Kerbin Orbital Space Station, and the appropriate next course of action.
Gene: "So, let's reiterate again what we know. The Soyuz launched out of LC-1 today at 9:40 am in the morning. At T+41 seconds, the boosters separated, and the astronauts reported a loud bang, a big jolt and feeling weightless. They reported a booster emergency light and a ballistic descent mode light. The crew landed safely in the waters off Cape KSC at T+5 minutes and 52 seconds, after experiencing a max G load of 6.7. Val, what consensus has the investigation board reached so far?"
Val: "Based on flight telemetry, we infer that booster sep was uneven. We believe it is highly likely that one of the boosters' separatrons failed, causing it to smack against the fuselage. The first stage engine then failed due to loss of chamber pressure, and then the Soyuz abort system activated. By that time, the escape tower had already been jettisoned, but the shroud was still attached to the launch vehicle. The shroud engines were used to pull the capsule away instead. Please note that this a preliminary report and may be inaccurate or subject to change."
Gene: "Okay, so that bit's over. Second objective- what should we do with the KOSS? Can co-director of flight operations Manley Kerman radio Station Commander Jeb on his insights?"
Manley: "Jeb, this is Capcom. The team would like insights on your situation and what would fit the crew best."
Jeb: "Roger that Capcom. The crew of Expedition 36 is running low on supplies, as they should have been brought to us by the latest Soyuz. We do have a few months of supplies left over, but we're eating into reserves. My recommendation is a supply capsule ASAP.
Jeb: "Regarding the crew that should be on the station right now, my consensus is to take your time with the investigation, then send Soyuz MS-11 up when you guys feel like it. We can stay on the station for a bit longer."
Manley: "Yes Jeb, but your Command Module uses UDMH/N2O4 fuel. The problem with that is it will freeze, and it will also corrode your tanks. For that reason, we require you to land, in the CM, by November. We would like to keep the station crewed, but before we can qualify the Soyuz for flight again, you will have to land."
Jeb: "Roger that Capcom. We'll think about this. Keep my crew informed about the events to follow."
Manley: "Roger."
Manley: "Okay, so you heard the conversation- no consensus as of now."
Gene: "Okay. I'd like co-director of flight operations Emiko Kerman suggest a plan as for what to do?"
Emiko: "Cool! Why not? I suggest we do as Jeb says- send a resupply capsule up tomorrow. I've been up there myself, and I know exactly how it feels to be up there, eating into reserves. But I don't really agree that we should keep his crew up there. I say we land Expedition 36 and leave the KOSS unmanned until either we re-qualify Soyuz for flight, or Dragon 2 or Starliner comes online. We just have to hope the KOSS survives and doesn't need to much reparing once we get back up there."
Gene: "Doesn't sound fun, but it'll have to do, I guess. We've completed or attempted to complete all major objectives, so I say we call it a day."
As Gene makes his way back to the Astronaut Complex, he mutters under his breath: "This new ocean is going to be hard to conquer indeed."
-
Good point, @AVaughan. I go look up the Soyuz blueprints to see if I can find anything useful.
Edit: Could this be a feeling port or whatever, circled in grey? I'll try find more detailed blueprints.
-
On 10/13/2018 at 10:08 AM, Ultimate Steve said:
The hole is on the orbital module, not the descent module. The orbital module burns up.
Ahem. Spacecraft numpty here.
Oh and wait. Can't we manufacture any H2O2 on the station?
-
I say we have two (remotely) viable options:
1. Send remaining crew back on MS-09, leave ISS unmanned
Probably the most viable option, though we'd have to leave the ISS unmanned and unserviced, and that'd pose some complications. I think we'd able to pull through, though. (Remember that Skylab lost an entire solar panel!)
(If anybody could provide some insight on just how important it is to keep ISS serviced, please enlighten me.)2. Send a dedicated Soyuz up unmanned, make Soyuz MS-09 reenter on autopilot
That would be able to keep Expedition 57 servicing the station for some time. I say we make Soyuz MS-09 reenter on autopilot so we can better investigate the hole. That would pose a cost burden, and I don't think we have a dedicated Soyuz handy. We could possibly send Soyuz MS-11, and use Soyuz MS-12 for the MS-11 crew, Soyuz MS-13 for the MS-12 crew, etc.
Two of not exactly the best options, but this is a contingency, after all.
-
21 minutes ago, Green Baron said:
I read that Russia has decided to suspend human spaceflight.
As of now, other possibilities will not be available before the second half of the next year.
I am speculating that could be bad news for the ISS if it is left un-crewed .... ?
Can you provide sources? I'd like to verify.
-
This week, I've been doing more and more legacy missions, but I've gone old-school.
I've been doing Ranger 7 and Mariner 4.
I think Mariner 4 looked quite realistic- compare real vs. ksp version
Real version
KSP version
See? You wouldn't have known if I hadn't told you!
-
18 hours ago, kerbalstar said:
I would like a stock solution, or at least one that doesn’t risk breaking my save.
Plant a big bunch of flags, then collect them all with one kerbal. Boom, you have a kerbal that has tons of flags.
(I haven't tried this as well. So don't blame me
)
-
19 hours ago, kerbalstar said:
Oh right, I was going to say that Kerbals should be able to carry multiple flags, at the penalty of increasing their mass. During a flag planting ceremony for dead Kerbals (coming in Chapter 4 of my story) it doesn't feel particularly ceremonious to have another Kerbal have to run out there to plant the other flag. It would be cool if you could put them on your vehicle!
Try save file editing. Go there and put as much flags as you need on your kerbal.
As they say though, make a backup. I haven't tried this before and I don't know if it'll work.
-
On 9/22/2018 at 7:49 PM, Ho Lam Kerman said:
No worries, Resident Orbital Mechanic Ho Lam Kerman will fix this.
Ahem.
Cassini's gone.
I am as clueless as you are.
I have no idea, but I think I have a good estimate of what happened.
I think it had something to do with the launch of yet another legacy probe, TESS.
I time warped through 26 days to make sure the orbit was stable.
I think while I was time warping, I either hit a Sarnian moon, or I got an assist which put me on an impact trajectory with Sarnus.
The Cassini team will not be proud.
-
Today, I started science operations for Cassini-Huygens. It's amazing.
Slate and Tekto flybys achieved.
Huygens landed on Tekto.
Extremely close flyby of Eeloo achieved, closest approach ~150 m above surface.
Photos in spoiler.
Spoiler
Slate flyby.
Tekto flyby.
They took the liberty of putting a KerbPro on Huygens. At first the employee was fired, but after 7 years, he's hailed as a hero.
Pass through the rings. Ring composition and particle size was studied.
Eeloo flyby.
I kid you not, this isn't some sort of crazy zoom. This was taken about 150 meters above Eeloo's mountains.
Feel free to use this as a desktop image.
Next up, the inner shepard moons- but they have really tiny SoI, so this is going to be a technical challenge. I'll need a gravity assist to get into the right inclination- I'm going retrograde right now- then a bunch of burns to get into the right encounter. I'm thinking of a 1000 m/s budget for the inner moons- costly, since I still have 3500 m/s on the spacecraft. No worries, Resident Orbital Mechanic Ho Lam Kerman will fix this.
-
Today, I replanned my Cassini-Huygens mission a bit. (A lot.)
Now, I will fly by Slate before I begin my Orbit Insertion Burn. The OIB puts me straight onto a Tekto impact trajectory. As soon as I enter Tekto SoI, I decouple Huygens, and perform a 58.4 m/s burn to 1. get out of the way of Tekto and 2. get into a Slate flyby, and 3. get into an Eeloo flyby after the Slate flyby.
So, yes. Excluding the OIB (which I would have to do anyways), I would fly by Tekto once, Eeloo once and Slate twice for the grand total of 58.4 m/s. The Cassini team would be proud.
Unfortunately I ran out of conic patches to see where I would be going after the Eeloo flyby. After I finish my first Slate encounter, I should be seeing where I'm going after the Eeloo flyby, so I'll try to engineer the Eeloo flyby so that it puts me into a lower orbit. I want to try flying by the small moons, but I have a really high apoapsis right now.
If that looks confusing to you, then here's the timeline:
1. Enter Sarnus SoI
2. Slate flyby at 3,749,501 m
3. Orbit insertion burn at 696.1 m/s
4. Enter Tekto SoI
5. Release Tekto landing probe (Huygens)
6. TCM at 58.4 m/s
7. Tekto periapsis at 478,767 m
8. Exit Tekto SoI
9. Slate encounter at 4,911,450 m
10. Eeloo encounter at unknown altitude
I hope all these SoI changes aren't going to affect my delicately-balanced mission plan. I hate it when the SoI changes, and then everything glitches and all my encounters are gone. Anyways, all cameras will be trained on the Sarnian moons. Meanwhile, they'll just have to look at these images taken by Kerbin's greatest orbital telescope.
Hale and Ovok
Slate
Tekto
Eeloo
-
8 hours ago, DunnoAnyThing said:
BTW any chance anyone in this forum *might* get a ride?
(Just a wish, you know)
Well, Scott Manley's a DJ, Everyday Astronaut's a photographer, and Matt Lowne is a filmmaker (sort of)- I say we stand a pretty good chance!
(Though with all three of them on board, I worry they'll coordinate a landing- they definitely have the skill!)
-
Well, today I did a lot of stuff.
First up, I tested my Cassini-Huygens replica by HyperEditing a copy to Sarnus. I tested the Huygens landing bit, where I had to manoeuvre to an impact trajectory, then release Huygens, then manoeuvre back to a flyby trajectory. Apparently there's no reentry plasma, even when I entered Tekto at Tekto escape velocity. Everything worked out well for the test, so I'm happy with sending the real one over to Sarnus. (I reverted to launch afterwards,)
Second, I conducted more science on my Parker Solar Probe replica, which reached perihelion. Took a few measurements. The twin solar panels generated 46000 units of electricity per second, which surprised me.
Third, I brought the Sputnik replica back to the KSC. I sent up a grabber probe, and then I planned a descent that would take me to the KSC peninsula. And then I recovered it, and made it a statue, which I put next to my Giotto statue.
Lastly, I launched yet another legacy probe. This time, Kepler, which is en route to the Kerbol-Kerbin L5 point. I did this by putting it on a Kerbol-centric orbit, which had a period of 1 year and 71 days (1 and 1/6 years), and a perihelion at Kerbin's orbital altitude.. Since the L5 point is 1/6th of an orbit behind Kerbin, when I get to perihelion again, I would be in the L5 point, if you get what I mean. Once I get to perihelion I can just burn to slow down, and the I would be in the L5 point permanently. (Not like KSP even simulates an N-body problem- I just want to put the probe where it would be.)
(I was a orbital mechanics numpty when I thought the L5 point was at 1/3 of an orbit behind Kerbin, and aimed for a 1 year 142 day period. Only when I had checked Wikipedia then I found that I was utterly wrong, so I had to slow down before I was too far from perihelion.
)
-
1 minute ago, DAL59 said:
Please don't be a JWST...
Run tap water over burned area.
-
"I choose to go to the Moon!"
-
It's been taking quite a while, don't you think?
-
Hey, are they launching a Kuaizhou-1A?
I don't think they've done that since last year!
(These are moments I wished they had webcasts)
-
Well, seems like I posted too early. The day isn't over, but I just launched a probe, and dropped an atmosphere probe into
UranusUrlum.That probe I was talking about was a replica of Cassini-Huygens. Yup, another legacy probe, the others being Sputnik, Parker Solar Probe and Giotto.
(I actually had another sputnik replica constantly orbiting Kerbin, but it was gone after a glitch.)
I built a Titan IVB replica just for it, but I can foresee myself using it for other heavy probes as well.
(I skipped the flybys as I still can't get them right. And I don't want to wait for a Eve-Eve-Kerbin-Jool-Sarnus window, if that's even possible in KSP.)
Fortunately, I was only 19 days from the Sarnus launch window, so I didn't have to wait long.
I planned a few manoeuvres, and now I'm on course to a Tekto impact trajectory (I forgot to put propulsive sources on the Huygens, and so I'd have to manoeuvre Cassini out of the way once I'm on the right orbit.)
And now, we wait. A year and a half to the plane correction, and 7 years to the orbit insertion.
Meanwhile, I dropped my atmosphere probe into Urlum. I had a look-see around the Solar System after Bill's stroll around the KSC, and so I discovered that the Urlum probe that I put into orbit quite a few years ago hadn't dropped its atmosphere probe. So I did.
(I'm just doing the atmosphere drop probe for fun- I'm not in career. Heck, I'm not even in science. I play sandbox.)
Only after I had separated and started the deorbit burn, then I discovered that I was going the wrong way- into the shadow instead of the bright side. But then, I'd actually packed enough propellant for a complete reversal of direction- so I started crossing the terminator again.
Well, now travelling retrograde, I entered Urlum's atmosphere. I didn't use a single drop of ablator. Urlum's atmosphere is quite thin. I then began my descent, not using a parachute.
I quickly made my observations with the atmosphere spectrometer, and transmitted them with the slowest antenna I've ever flown. Didn't want them to break off. I had no idea how dense Urlum's atmosphere was, mind you.
The descent was actually quicker than I expected. I thought it'd take an hour. But it took only 40 minutes in-game, at 4x warp, so it cost me about 10 minutes of game time.
So that concludes today. For real this time.
-
40 minutes ago, Cyrious said:
Also while I was out, the space center got flooded again.
Here where I live, we had a bad typhoon (what Americans call hurricanes) which necessitated the Typhoon Signal No. 10, which is the strongest on the scale. Many places got flooded, chaos and havoc reigned and some people were hurt, but everyone survived.
Anyways, after watching the launch of a Sputnik replica today yesterday evening, Bill Kerman had no missions or tasks to complete today, so he went for a stroll in the KSC.
He first visited the Mk. 1 pod memorial.
He then took a look at the satellite/statue that was put there a few days ago. If you recall, it was made from an actual satellite that skimmed past Comet Halley.
Bill then contemplated life on a tank full of highly explosive fuel.
Bill played around on the stairs.
Bill tried climbing the flagpole. Look at his determination!
And he gets to the top, admiring how extraordinarily huge the flag is. Gene Kerman is going to be so angry when he sees this.
He then visits the asteroid garden, located a few hundred meters away from the runway. I think there's about 20 something asteroids there.
Bill takes a swim. Usually Jeb accompanies him, but he's currently in Gilly orbit.
Bill then checks back into the Astronaut Centre to continue playing Human Space Program. Fitting, since he's a kerbonaut.
-
Yesterday, September 15th 2018, was a day of two endings.
It was both the last day of the Delta-II, and the first anniversary of Cassini-Huygens mission completion.
So, I'll put a little text-based tribute to them both, here in this thread.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cassini-Huygens was a mission of firsts. A trailblazer. First mission to orbit Saturn. First soft-landing in the outer solar system.
Weighing 6 tons when fully fuelled, it is going to be a long time before a mission of this scale is launched again.
Spending 13 years (half a Saturnian year) at Saturn, it observed the changes in the Saturn system over Spring and Summer.
Discovered 7 moons (6 of which are named). Took 453048 images.162 targeted flybys of Saturnian moons. 360 engine burns. 635 GB of data collected.
Its ride-along sister probe Huygens made the first soft landing in the outer solar system, landing on Titan on January 15th, 2005.
It discovered methane rivers and lakes on Titan. Evidence of salty, liquid water sea heated by hydrothermal vents under Enceladus. Tests of general relativity. Radio occultations of the rings, revealing their composition and particle size. Verifying spokes in the rings, first confirmed by the Voyagers.
And, on September 15, 2017, it literally tasted the atmosphere of Saturn itself.
1500 km above the cloud tops, Cassini entered the Saturnian atmosphere. Struggling to keep radio contact, signal was finally lost 7:55:46 AM EDT on 15th September 2017. The spacecraft is believed to have broken up 45 seconds after loss of contact.
And so, on that fateful day, the probe was united with the planet it had studied for over a decade.
Ad astra, Cassini-Huygens. We will certainly miss you.
The Delta-II rocket was a reliable workhorse.
Launching 54 science missions for NASA, our current understanding of the solar system wouldn't have been possible without it.
It launched 2001 Mars Odyssey, Dawn, Deep Impact, Genesis, Mars Phoenix, MESSENGER, NEAR-Shoemaker, both STEREO spacecraft, both MER rovers Spirit and Opportunity (Hang in there buddy!), WISE, WMAP, Spitzer Space Telescope, all 5 THEMIS spacecrafts, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, 24 GPS satellites, 60 Iridium satellites (which are now an endangered species, if you've been paying attention to Scott's science videos), the Kepler spacecraft, and so much more.
Without Delta-II, we wouldn't have had any of this:
(Asteroid Eros imaged by NEAR-Shoemaker)
(Comet Tempel-1 imaged by Deep Impact)
(Vesta imaged by Dawn)
(Asteroid Mathilde imaged by NEAR-Shoemaker)
(Comet Siding Spring as imaged by WISE)
(CMB as measured by WMAP)
(Polygonal Martian terrain as imaged by Mars Phoenix)
(The sun, as imaged by one of the STEREO spacecraft)
(Heinze 206 as imaged by Spitzer)
(Mercury, as imaged by MESSENGER)
On 15th September 2018 at 13:02 UTC, the final Delta-II launched ICESat-2 out of SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The mission went as planned, and earned the launch vehicle a streak of 100 successful missions in a row. Thus ended the illustrious career of the Delta-II.
Ad astra, Delta-II. Goodbye, old friend.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(Feel free to add your own tributes below, in any format.)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Edit: I've decided to make this a tribute thread to other spacecraft too, as Dawn and Kepler have come to an end.
-
Remember our Giotto yesterday? I brought it back.
I didn't want to keep it in deep space, nor did I want to just terminate it.
So I HyperEdited it into Low Kerbin Orbit (Forgive me- the apoapsis of the thing was beyond Jool), and sent a spaceplane up to fetch it.
I brought it down, and recovered the spaceplane.
Then I went into the VAB, brought up the probe, and made it into a statue.
I now have Giotto placed in front of the VAB yellow doors.
(Pretend it's the real thing- I recovered it, after all.)
2 minutes ago, Triop said:Nope, they just broke off and floated like ducks.
Guessed that.
This new ocean (Chapter 11: The Curse lives on)
in KSP1 Mission Reports
Posted · Edited by Ho Lam Kerman
Chapter 2: We launch. Tomorrow.
Gene: "They've decided on launching CRS-16 tomorrow. You people at SpaceX will need to hurry up."
Hanson Kerman: "But... the Falcon 9 and the Dragon needs a few weeks to prepare!" (@HansonKerman)
Gene: "You'll have to try your best. Now go on with the inspections, we don't have any time for a static firing. Inspections will have to do."
Hanson: "We'll think of this."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A few hours later, the SpaceX team is working into the night.
Hanson: "We've inspected the vehicle fully. We've also come up with a clever plan to integrate the firings into the launch- we will fire the engines at T-10s, then launch. We use pad fuel during the fire, then use onboard fuel during the actual flight."
Gene: "Nice work. So you'll be ready for launch tomorrow?"
Hanson: "Yup! The team's been working really hard."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Liftoff! We have a liftoff! 51 minutes past the hour, liftoff of CRS-16!
Jeb: "Finally! A Resupply capsule!"
We have first stage landing.
Jeb: "We have a visual on the capsule."
Jeb: "Wait. I don't see the docking receptacle. KSC, the docking receptacle is not armed. Repeat, docking receptacle is not armed."
Manley: "Copy that, station. Send manual receptacle arm command."
Jeb: "Capcom, we still do not see any sign of receptacle arm."
Emiko: "Station, abort docking procedure. Land and recover Dragon now."
Jeb: "Copy that, Capcom."
As Val hears about the news, she mutters, "Two failed launches in a row... somebody might be sabotaging our efforts to conquer this new ocean..."