Death Engineering

I'll be there! Well, the total ground distance covered from the F3 screenie after the flight was 3,321,998m, if that makes more sense. I tried to keep around 20km altitude with a few peaks around 25km and one plummet/off course excursion to 7km.

Have always wanted to try this challenge.. This twin J-X4 "Whiplash" Turbo Ramjet Engine completed an equatorial circumnavigation in 1:37:33. The flight was done without quickloads but took almost 8 hrs IRL time with 'pauses'. The craft was reasonably maneuverable but had a strange high speed roll tendency over 23km. As I was preoccupied while flying, I forgot to 'pause' and went AFK for too long while on the night side. The aircraft stalled and when I came back was in a flat spin below 10km! Was lucky to get it back into level flight around 7km altitude and powered back to the 21km cruising altitude. Coming in for landing, I recalled that this was the plane's maiden flight and I'd never attempted to land it yet. With that in mind, I did a very long, gradual (safe) approach and touched down (with a few bumps) with just under 10% fuel remaining. Mass on takeoff: 17.2 Fuel: 1800 Engines: 2 Turbo Ramjet Engines Parts: 27 Circumnavigations: 1 Flight time: 1:37:33 Distance: 1,608,604m Highest altitude: 27549m Flight profile: Equatorial 90° heading. Fuel remaining: 172 Fun challenge.. I may be back. Thanks, Xannari Ferrows!

Enjoyed the mission report and +1 for detail with the CSM's antenna.

Inside my Saturn 1B was a subframe of 200 I-Beams with 8 radially attached fuel tanks. Each tank had a LV-T45 under it but there was a ninth engine (LV-T30) under the I-Beams...! haxors

Fascinating about the pool playing. I'm dom lefty but shoot pool right handed. (and right the other thing, too)

I write lefty, but depending on what I'm doing, could go either way. Usually have to do things for the first time both left and right to know which is "right". And in Canada in 1972, I got beaten with a ruler by Nuns at a Catholic school because I wrote lefty.

If I may add to what DBowman mentioned, you're fine as long as the only thing that leaves LKO that went up on the Crew LV is the crew - no other supplies or equipment from the Crew LV can leave LKO other than the crew, unless it counts as one of the launches covered by the launch vehicle rules. Good luck and welcome to the challenge!

NVidia GT755 here and constant mono.dll crashes when running nearly any graphic enhancement mod. Have messed with AA and other settings with limited success (really probably none). Just going to run stock graphics for now - seems fine, but really annoyed with the random drops to the OS with no warning/popup when using a graphics mod as stock graphics are rather plain.

Rats! Missed that post - thanks, Kowgan.

Great looking update, RoverDude! But, may have a bug with the Nom-O-Matic 25000: This pic shows where the attachment node is: This pic show when it's attached: While the attachment point being offset from the center and maybe even gap to the attached part may be intentional, the problem is once attached to the craft, I could not remove it without re-loading/undo. That's probably not intentional. I haven't d/l'ed 1.0.4 yet, so to be fair this is under 1.0.2, if that matters. These are the mods I have installed:

Perhaps also related to http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/126574-1-0-4-Large-SAS-Units-Exploding-Due-to-Overheating-While-Just-Sitting-on-the-Launch-Pad

THIS ^^^^ Also, there are still times when changing SOI that no maneuver node can be placed. Only fix is EVA/ingress or save/load.

I too saw the Space 1999 'Eagle'. Too bad that great looking design didn't work out. Just wondering... are you developing a shuttle that can go two-way, or are you refueling at both points? Mine needed fuel at both the Munar surface and from the Munar station to be effective. In my playthrough, refueling on the surface turned out to be more gee-whiz than real value, as manually piloting the craft to a precision landing was thirsty work. More efficient landings and a lighter shuttle would reduce the amount of fuel that has to be flown out to munar orbit. That said, a large detachable lander that can refuel storage tanks on the surface then ferry them to orbit should be a workable solution to a closed loop munar shuttle. Happy landings!

Thanks! The Duna flyby took 942 days and left Kerbin about 45 days after the optimal transfer window. The Eve flyby was only 526 days and departed Kerbin about 30 before the optimal transfer window. Initial burns were definitely the highest ÃŽâ€v burns, but due to Eve's inclination wasn't able to take as much advantage of the slingshot effect as with Duna. As I returned and re-used the MORL after getting out to Duna and back, the Kerbin orbital insertion burn back from Duna was fairly costly as well (it was discarded at the end of the Eve flyby). Both missions needed around 150 m/s ÃŽâ€v burn to get back to Kerbin while in deep space.

AAP Challenge Wrap-up After nearly three years, the six crew returned safely to Kerbin. With this post, I'll call my work on this challenge complete. It was great fun using this challenge to get a feel for KSP 1.02 aero and found a few sweet mods that I'm sure to use again. Thanks, GregroxMun for the great challenge! Again, more testing would have been a good idea. Most of the co-dependent vehicles were never tested together and since I don't use any engineering mods, all ÃŽâ€v needs are done purely by experience and "ballparked". While there was plenty of ÃŽâ€v for the return trip, getting the crew into orbit and rendezvousing with the return craft was very tight for both ascent vehicles. Turned out it's a good thing they only needed to get close, as I seem to have left off the auxiliary docking ports for the return crafts to use. Instead, we pulled the return craft alongside, bailed out, and performed 6 EVA's to the return craft. All 6 crew were returned safe in the Big Gemini capsule on a ballistic re-entry after a course correction while just inside Kerbin SOI, tossing the main return craft into deep space. With a Pe of 34km, the crew passed through the atmosphere and into one suborbital trajectory before final landing. Could have gone a little lower, as not even 200 ablator was ablated - good to know for future missions from Duna. Tier 1: Normal Apollo Program 136 points - Saturn Five uses 5 engines on the first stage, 5 engines on the second stage, and one engine on the third stage. +20 - Free-Return Trajectory until in Mun's SOI. +10 - Lander stored behind a fairing. +10 - Leave Descent Stage on Mun. +5 - Include ALSEP Science Package on Apollo 11-18 +5 - Include Lunar Rover on Apollo 11-18 +10 - Include Lunar Subsatellite on Apollo 11-18.+5 - Launch Escape System. +5 - Use fuel cells for power generation only +10 - Use a Life Support mod +26 - Fly a mission to Minmus using Apollo/Saturn hardware. +30 Tier 2: Apollo Applications Program 105 points - AAP "base" mission MOLAB +0 - Duna Flyby +20 - Skylab +20 - Munar Base +20 - Eve Flyby +20 - Use fuel plant on Mun in some way for further missions +25 Land and return from Duna, using Apollo-Saturn hardware: ??? I throw myself at the mercy of the OP.

Hey.. thanks, B-STRK! The wee greenhouses are 'Nom-O-Matic 5000' waste recyclers from the USI Life Support mod. They convert kerbal waste called 'mulch' into LS. However, it's not a closed system as it takes 1 kerbal two days to excrete (?) enough mulch to create 1 day of LS. I'm really fond of this LS mod as it doesn't add a huge amount of complexity to the game and the LS is a reasonable mass, but it still adds consequence if you send a kerb on a long mission without sufficient LS or electricity. The girders are from Stock Part Revamp, another highly recommended mod. Also.. most of the habitation/station parts are from the Stockalike Station Parts Expansion. Both of these mods are excellent part additions while still staying mostly-stock. I like your reasoning on the aerocapturing around Duna. And to be fair, I did need to burn the engine retro a bit to help slow down. On an earlier attempt, I did an aerocapture with a Pe around 21km and several parts turned into smoke from overheating so it is possible to get heat damage, but not too tricky to avoid it. I have yet to go beyond Duna/Eve in 1.02.. I guess I need to head out to Jool and Laythe to get a better feel for high-speed aerobraking. On another note.. seriously impressed with the creativity in design and storytelling this thread has wrought from everyone here. As a child of the Apollo age, I think it says a lot about Apollo in general when it still inspires people over 50 years later. And, as much as I like the 70's lines of the space shuttle, it really is about as exciting as a long-haul cargo truck (although seeing one launch was impressive). Arguably, the space shuttle got more work done than Apollo but a reusable shuttle certainly wasn't needed to build the ISS. The link posted by B-STRK earlier in the thread was almost hard to read in the sense that the Apollo/Saturn systems were already fully developed when they were scrapped. Had the production lines and launch schedule kept even at a minimum, with iterative design upgrades along the way, we'd be a lot closer to the visions of Kubrick and Clarke in 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968). The 'Dreaming a Different Apollo' article reminded me a little of the Avro Arrow story. At least the cancelled mission hardware for Apollo 18 and onward still exists as monument instead of having horrible, unspeakable things done to them like the Avro Arrow. Threads like this, and the popularity of KSP in general, are testament that space exploration remains a priority to many. And that gives me hope. It [the rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven. - Wernher von Braun

Duna AAP Style This will be a two-part post encompassing first the launches and orbital assembly of the Duna vessels and their arrival at Duna, then later the landing and (hopefully..) return of the crew. This mission is a combination of various ideas presented as possible Mars solutions such as: Nerva propulsion, refillable SII stages, Duna orbital shuttles for crew transfer, in situ fuel production and multiple landing teams with heavy redundancy. Using the same Saturn family of launchers used in previous efforts, a total of 10 launches delivered these Duna-bound payloads to LKO: (2) Saturn V MLV carrying Duna Ascent Vehicles (6) Saturn V ELV to refuel the two Duna Ascent Vehicles - (1) Saturn V MLV with crew habitation module (1) Saturn V MLV propulsion stage for crew habitation module Although more testing probably would have been a good idea, getting the crew out to Duna orbit was relatively problem-free. The biggest issue encountered was requiring the deployment of one Duna Ascent Vehicle with no control whatsoever (forgot a probecore somehow...). The only option was to set the chute and drop it... amazingly, it worked first try but it appeared many legs were broken in the landing due to not being able to fire the retro-rockets. The second Duna ascent vehicle will go down with an engineer to ensure it lands safe and will be able to repair the second ascent vehicle if needed. Getting into Duna orbit felt a little cheaty, in regards to heating. Although most vessels were able to use a fairing as a heat shield, the crew vessel had and needed none; it only needed to approach Duna from a higher Pe and aerocapture with a high Ap. Several high Pe passes through Duna's atmosphere later, a high orbit was easily attained. I have heating at 120%.. no issues, still. ? The small RCS-powered crew shuttles ensured safe transit between the various vessels and also helped FPS-wise by only having to load one "big" vessel at a time. The shuttles, capable of (gracelessly..) landing on Kerbin or Duna, comprise one measure of backup/emergency protocol. There are also two inflatable crew quarters, excess life-support and two ways of returning to Kerbin should the primary system fail. Next post will land the team, mine the fuel for the ascent vehicles, and explore the surface in the rovers.

AAP/MORL landing on Ike Using a revised MORL configuration, this multi-launch mission to Ike's surface not only tested long-term interplanetary travel and safe return, it was a dress rehearsal for the next mission to explore multiple sites on Duna. The LM is the design used for late Mun landings supporting extended stays, but carried no rover to save weight. Also to save weight, the LM remained moored to the CSM in its launch position until landing, with the ascent stage returning to dock to that structure after the landing. When it was time to leave Ike, the ascent stage and rear docking structure were jettisoned together. All orbital maneuvers in Duna SOI were propulsive; no aero braking. After a very short stay in Duna SOI, a long burn pushed the craft back to Kerbin in a fast-return trajectory. As the CM re-entered, the heat shield actually burned up - however no other damage was sustained. Settings are at 120%, so.. I dunno. No kerbals lost, but probably shoulda been. Destruction of the mining platform (no kerbals lost..) Unfortunately, a hard-landing near the Munar arch damaged the landing platform. As the shuttle approached the pad, its thrust developed a destructive wobble causing a complete loss of the landing platform. Landing on fumes after an emergency abort, the shuttle had no way to refuel. An un-crewed Saturn V launch landed a remotely controlled LM near the shuttle and rescued the crew. Early attempt at launching the Duna ascent system Refueling the Duna ascent system. This vessel carries no crew until just before landing. It also carries two shuttles used to ferry between the Duna ascent system and the main crew laboratory when in Duna orbit. Duna Ascent System Duna surface exploration craft docked to the habitation module.

Good point. I'm referring to the 1970's plan proposed here . I confused myself.

That was a neat link, B-STRK.. don't think I've come across it before. GregroxMun.. how close do you want to see "Das Marsprojekt" implemented to earn this?: Land and return from Duna, using Apollo-Saturn hardware. +65 (which references this) Rules for my challenge "Das Dunaprojekt" or Duna von Braun Style" left a few details to the imagination, but most of the von Braun concepts are part of the challenge. I'd like to try it from another approach. Since Duna is the next obvious step (have already done Ike landing with Apollo for this challenge), thinking of cooking up something with similar planning to Das Marsprojekt but more of a convoy of ships instead of a monolithic mission assembled in LKO.

Eve Flyby Docked to the same MORL that took three crew past Duna and back to Kerbin, a single Saturn V ELV launch carried another three crew and the Eve flyby mission payload to the MORL. The new configuration injected the Eve lander to an encounter. A separation burn adjusted to a distant Pe, with the altered the trajectory making a Kerbin encounter after passing very near Duna's orbit. Total mission time was 529 days. Using a relatively short mission and lighter payload than the Duna mission, the Eve flyby focused on reuse of the Duna MORL, but for the last time. After deploying an Eve rover to the surface, the crew moved to the CM and the MORL was kicked into an ejection orbit. The Eve flyby crew landed safely. Second MOLAB deployment Precision landing on the Munar surface is routine and safe, within a few kilometers. The second MOLAB landed just inside the 2.2 km physics limit. With Jeb at the helm, the drive to the TaxiPad was uneventful. With its higher safety margin, re-landing the shuttle onto the pad was "routine" and the mining crew refueled the shuttle in less than two days. The MOLAB spent 20 days touring the surface and the entire surface team returned to Kerbin 26 days later. The mining platform, piloted remotely, has been moved to a new location of particular interest. - AAP extension 4: Eve Flyby +20 - Use fuel plant on Mun in some way for further missions +25 Tier 1: Normal Apollo Program 136 points - Saturn Five uses 5 engines on the first stage, 5 engines on the second stage, and one engine on the third stage. +20 - Free-Return Trajectory until in Mun's SOI. +10 - Lander stored behind a fairing. +10 - Leave Descent Stage on Mun. +5 - Include ALSEP Science Package on Apollo 11-18 +5 - Include Lunar Rover on Apollo 11-18 +10 - Include Lunar Subsatellite on Apollo 11-18.+5 - Launch Escape System. +5 - Use fuel cells for power generation only +10 - Use a Life Support mod +26 - Fly a mission to Minmus using Apollo/Saturn hardware. +30 Tier 2: Apollo Applications Program 105 points - AAP "base" mission MOLAB +0 - Duna Flyby +20 - Skylab +20 - Munar Base +20 - Eve Flyby +20 - Use fuel plant on Mun in some way for further missions +25

Lunar Mapping and Survey System (LM&SS) Using a variant of the KH-7 Gambit imaging satellite used by the NRO, this is a crewed mission to a Munar polar orbit carrying the LM&SS aboard in place of a standard LM. The purpose is to scan for rich deposits of ore, for use with the Mobile Mining and Landing Platform. The mission needs to be crewed, as the original design for retrieving images from KH-7 Gambit was by manually extracting the film and returning it for developing. The C/SM is a standard Apollo with the sub-satellites removed and replaced with some life support and retractable solar panels. Munar Shuttle and Mining/Landing Platform After surveying the surface to find some good ore locations, a re-usable surface/low Munar orbit shuttle was launched on a Saturn INT-21. This was docked to the Big Gemini Munar Laboratory in preparation to land on the Mobile Mining and Landing Platform. A Saturn V ELV launched the Mobile Mining and Landing platform, which landed autonomously on the surface before being joined by the Munar surface shuttle. Landing and docking to the platform was a bit hairy... - Saturn Five uses 5 engines on the first stage, 5 engines on the second stage, and one engine on the third stage. +20 - Free-Return Trajectory until in Mun's SOI. +10 - Lander stored behind a fairing. +10 - Leave Descent Stage on Mun. +5 - Include ALSEP Science Package on Apollo 11-18 +5 - Include Lunar Rover on Apollo 11-18 +10 - Include Lunar Subsatellite on Apollo 11-18.+5 - Launch Escape System. +5 - Use fuel cells for power generation only +10 - Use a Life Support mod +26 - Fly a mission to Minmus using Apollo/Saturn hardware. +30 - Have a fuel processing plant on the Munar base. +20 - AAP "base" mission MOLAB +0 - AAP extension 1: Duna Flyby +20 - AAP extension 2: Skylab +20 - AAP extension 3: Munar Base +20

Hehe.. I did a Big Gemini, but a Gemini lander would be awesome! Fun fact: I'm from the same stupid small town that Jim Chamberlin is from (designer of Gemini) and share his birthday, too!

MORL Refit using Saturn V ELV and Big Gemini 'Space Taxi' Having completed the Duna flyby mission and returned to high Kerbin orbit, it was time to refuel, restock and reuse the station. Two Saturn V ELV (Saturn V with 4 SRBs on first stage) were launched to the uncrewed MORL and then it was flown back to low orbit. Unsure what this station will be used for currently, but its in orbit with fully refueled tanks and full life support. With permanent stations in place around Kerbin and plans for a station around the Mun, there is a need to get large crews to and from space. The Big Gemini scaled up the proven technology in the Gemini program to large crews, making it a perfect Space Taxi to and from low orbit. With a 'kicker' stage, can also serve Mun and Minmus excursion. This update also introduces the Big Gemini Orbiting Research Laboratory (ORL), a single-launch solution for a Kerbin orbiting lab. In this mission, a nearly-full refueler left over from the MORL refit was used to boost the station to Munar orbit instead of around Kerbin. The station currently has 6 crew aboard with 77 days of supplies and will be the first part of a permanent Munar orbiting lab. Two modified Saturn V's used to refuel and restock the MORL in high Kerbin orbit. Big Gemini test-launch with a 20 day orbital test then the Saturn V MLV launch with the Big Gemini ORL, deployed around the Mun.

Really enjoying every entry on this thread! This mission uses a variant proposal of the AAP Manned Orbital Research Lab (MORL) as a flyby mission past Mars. The original proposal launched three fully-fueled S-IVB docked in serial arrangement on separate Saturn V launches. These were all attached to a Douglas Manned Orbiting Research Laboratory. The spacecraft supported up to four crew but roomy enough for three for the 942 day flight. Getting to Duna doesn't require much more ÃŽâ€v than Minmus, so this mission used only three Saturn V launches: MORL, Duna injection stage (enhanved S-IVB), modified Apollo CS/M with three crew and Duna science package (including a surface rover). Got within 119km of Duna and only needed 190m/s burn at Kebol Pe to get back Kerbin. MORL returned to orbit, ready for the next mission (Eve flyby) and crew landed safely. MORL in Mars flyby configuration