Cashen

Project Osiris Phase 1 Preparations Pase 1 and Phase 2 will each see crews of six Kerbals leaving for Jool. These crews have now been announced. For Phase 1, which will mostly be setting up equipment and doing tests of the hardware in the Jool system, three of the six are engineers, and the other three are science personnel. Phase 2, where the real science and exploration will happen, will have just 1 engineer, and 5 scientists. The Phase 1 crew is a mixture of experience Kerbals and a couple rookies. One decision made is that none of the returning Project Anubis guys are leaving with Phase 1: They'll get some more time on Kerbin to rest. Here's the team selected for Phase 1: Commander: Milke Kerman. Milke is (along with Mac and Dunlie), one of the original three engineers. The first of the engineers to fly, on Geb III, and the first to fly the Aten CSM during Aten I, Milke is one of MASEC's most experienced kerbonauts. He was also the first to be launched by a Lupus V and the first to fly the Aten Moon Lander in Kerbin orbit during Aten IV. Unfortunately he did not leave Kerbin Orbit during project Aten, which was ended after just two landings. However, he was immediately given command of Minmus Station upon its completion, and there was the third to set foot on Minmus. His experience includes operating the Amphion KERV and the Fennec rover on Minmus, and his experience running an important station, and overseeing kethane production, is the reason he's being chosen to command Phase 1. Science Leader: Milgas Kerman. Milgas, one of the original three scientist kerbonauts (along with Wildon and Kennie), his first mission was paired with Mac Kerman on Aten V, and he became the second kerbal to set foot on Mun, and the first to operate kethane extraction equipment on another celestial body. He was later transferred to Minmus Station as the Chief Scientist, and, like Milke, has experience working with the Amphion and Fennec vehicles. Chief Engineer: Elmon Kerman. Elmon is currently the chief engineer at Minmus Station, and is being assigned a similar role here for his experience there. Since Phase 1 involves kethane production using a similar vehicle, that experience is considered an asset. Engineer: Ellorf Kerman. Ellorf has experience with the Fennec rover, most recently the expedition that explored the lowest point on Mun's surface. He's a fairly experienced engineer but his path forward is blocked by Kirmin Kerman, the chief engineer at Mun Station, so this is one path to get him some more experience. Geologist: Carson Kerman. A rookie, currently serving on Kerbin Station. He's one of the two kerbonauts chosen for this mission that have limited experience. Climatologist: Thompler Kerman. Another rookie on Kerbin Station, Thompler is one of the two climatoligists hired on before Project Anubis. Thompler was not selected to go to Duna, so they're selecting him now specifically to study Laythe's climate and assist in selecting a location for a permanent base. In all, three of the six are being brought in from Minmus Station, one from Mun Station, and two from Kerbin Station. In the case of Minmus Station, all three management roles are being vacated. Bartvin Kerman will be promoted to Chief Engineer, while Ludzer Kerman, from Kerbin Station, will fill an engineer role. For the commander and chief scientist roles, two Project Anubis veterans, Richbur and Jonbart Kerman, are being sent to Minmus. Both Richbur and Jonbart enjoyed their experience in Project Anubis and expressed a particular desire in continuing work on Duna. Since the exploration of Duna is currently on hold, MASEC has decided to give these two veterans some additional experience in the Kerbin system, particularly with respect to kethane processing. In the case of Ellorf, his post on Mun Station will be taken by Milmon, also currently at Kerbin Station. Four of the six Phase 1 kerbals will be assembled at Kerbin Station. Two of them, Milke and Elmon, will be brought down to Kerbin, for the purpose of flying the two Flying Foxes up into orbit to be packaged for the transfer to Jool. Milke, Elmon and Milgas board their Aten COV and depart to come home to Kerbin. They'll dock at Kerbin Station and do a crew switch. Similarly, Ellorf Kerman departs Mun Station. This kind of crew shuffling took place before Anubis, as well. Hardware Assembly It's time to begin assembling the unmanned hardware to be shipped to Jool. This will include the upgraded tug for Amphion, the partial assembly of UKS Laythe Station in Kerbin orbit, as well as the lander and refueler. Mission Outline & Objectives Launch a second, larger Hercules MkIII Heavy Nuclear Tug and rendezvous with Kerbin Station Have the new tug swap with the old one in ferrying Amphion. Take on fuel and move into a parking orbit in preparation for departure. Have the old, smaller tug move into a parking orbit and await the Laythe Station Service Module, which the tug will ferry to Laythe. Assemble the Laythe Station Habitation Module in Kerbin Orbit. Re-activate one of the old Hercules MkII tugs which constructed Mun Station, refuel it at Kerbin Station, and have it dock to the Laythe Station Habitation Module, which it will transport to Laythe. Launch the Osiris Laythe Lander, and the Osiris Refueler, dock them to Kerbin Station to take on fuel, and then dock them together in a parking orbit, as they'll make the trip to Laythe together. The first order of business is launching a new tug to carry around the new Amphion KERV. This one has larger outboard fuel tanks to increase the delta-V available, as well as a large battery and larger solar panels. Once at Kerbin Station, the old tug undocks and turns, as shown here, while the new tug waits off to the side. The old tug would then release Amphion and move away into a parking orbit where it would wait. The new tug would grab Amphion, dock to the station to take on fuel, and then undock, moving into a different parking orbit and await the transfer to Jool. Now it's time to start constructing UKS Laythe Station. This is the station core, which consists of three node modules stacked together, with four cupola modules and an array of docking ports. This launch uses a new first stage, consisting of the Griffon XX, an old engine but one MASEC has not used before. They're trying out 3.75m KW Rocketry lower stages as an alternative to the 5m Lupus V stages built by NovaPunch. The core module arrives in parking orbit, attached to its L-IVC upper stage. It has different types of docking ports on it. Some special ports are designed for docking with other station modules, while the old, traditional ports are for docking with spacecraft. Attached to the core will be a total of five habitation modules. Four of them will have stand-off docking ports, and one will have a crew airlock/hatch. All five modules would be carried into orbit on identical carrier rockets, shown here. A look at one of the four habitat modules with the stand-off docking port. Laythe Station is expected to have a lot of spaceplanes docked to it, and these modules proved effective for docking when they were attached to Kerbin Station. The first habitat module is attached. Then the second. The first three were launched on three consecutive orbits of the core module, and then performed rendezvous later, each catching up one after another. Kerbal Alarm Clock comes in handy once again. The third habitat module in place. After the first three were attached, the other two could be launched. The first four in place, now. The upper stages are all still attached. The four that ferried up the habitat modules can be de-orbited with their RCS fuel, so any residual rocket fuel will be saved for when the tug arrives. Here's one of the Hercules MkII tugs that assembled Mun Station. There were two of them that did that job, and they were left in Kerbin Orbit all this time, until they were needed again. This one's been given the task of taking the Laythe Habitation Module all the way to Laythe. Here, it takes on fuel. It keeps enough room in the tanks to absorb the excess in all the upper stages at the habitation module. A short while later, the completed Laythe Habitation Module, with the tug attached and the upper stages de-orbited. Larger than Kerbin Station, this will comfortably house 12 or more Kerbals, with six docking ports, four of them raised up for extra clearance, plus an air-lock, and with plenty of windows. The Laythe Service Module, which consists of three separate modules (The structural truss/utility module, the kethane module, and the fuel conversion and storage module) stacked together, is launched all in one shot atop the lower two stages of a Lupus V. The small tug that wasn't up to the task of ferrying Amphion during its test flight is being put to good use, as it will ferry the service module to Laythe. Note the truss module, which is longer than the ones used presently. It contains an extra set of 3 solar panels, large batteries, and small fuel tanks inside the truss, making use of what was empty space before. It also contains a canister for Xenon gas, in case ion engines are developed and put into use. To better balance the center of mass of the whole assemble, the tug breaks the service module in half and inserts itself in the middle. Three solar panels are extended to provide some power for the whole assembly. Laythe Station, assembled in two large pieces, is ready to go. Final assembly will happen in Laythe orbit. After the station is assembled, Ellorf arrives from Mun Station, and Milmon then departs for the trip back to Mun. More hardware assembly. The Osiris Laythe Lander is launched, unmanned, to rendezvous with Kerbin Station. The radial parachutes were relocated to the core after the last test flight revealed re-packing issues. Not long after, the Osiris Unmanned Refueling Vehicle is launched in similar fashion. Retractable ladders have been added since the test flight, also to facilitate manual repacking of the chutes. Both the lander and refueler dock to the fuel module at Kerbin Station, where both take on full load. The refueler's jet fuel tanks are left empty to save weight. The two vehicles are then docked together in a parking orbit, and will travel to Laythe together, using the lander's four engines as primary propulsion, while the refueler's core fuel tank will act as spare fuel for the journey. Crew Management Richbur and Jonbart Kerman are Minmus bound, while Milke and Elmon are headed to the surface. Since this is only a two person crew swap, the big Horus SSTO isn't needed. Since flight experience with the Flying Fox is important, and it seats two, Richbur and Jonbart will fly one up to Kerbin Station, and Milke and Elmon will fly it back. Here, Richbur takes off from the runway. This is the "light" version of the Flying Fox, without its rover wheels or exploration equipment. This version is purely used as a means of transportation for 1-2 Kerbals. Richbur activates the rocket engines during the climb to orbit. The view from one of Kerbin Station's cupola modules, with the Aten IEV on the left, and the docked Flying Fox on the right. The guys from Minmus arrive in their Aten COV. Richbur, Jonbart and Ludzer take their places. Milke and Elmon then climb into the Flying Fox, while Milgas remains on Kerbin Station. Richbur, Jonbart and Ludzer depart for Minmus, with Kerbin Station visible in the background. Meanwhile, Milke and Elmon undock the Fox, and prepare to return to the surface. The two of them make a textbook landing. We're almost ready for the departure to Jool! NEXT TIME: Isis sends a probe to Dres, and the last bit of hardware bound for Laythe is assembled, followed by Phase 1's departure to Jool.

Don't get too far ahead of yourself. I have stuff planned to happen while Phase 1 is in transit. The next update will be me setting up the Phase 1 hardware in Kerbin orbit, which is a lot of tedious, time consuming stuff to do, which is why it's taking a little while. Soon enough, though!

Osiris Development Mission 5: Laythe Lander Manned Test The Laythe Crew Transport and Rescue Vehicle was tested unmanned during ODM 1, and failed due to lack of parachutes. So, this is simply a re-test of a redesigned lander, but it will also be a manned test, so the crew will be testing some other functionality as well. This will be the final development mission before Laythe Station is partially constructed in Kerbin Orbit, and the hardware assembled to depart with Phase 1. After this mission, the crew departing with Phase 1 will also be announced. Mission Outline & Objectives First manned flight of the Osiris LCTRV. Achieve Kerbin orbit, dock and refuel at Kerbin Station. De-orbit and precision land at KSC. Test vehicle egress, Fennec undocking and redocking, and parachute repacking. Crew: Richbur Kerman and Jonbart Kerman The launch is exactly as before, riding atop a SRB before separating and consuming most of the lander's fuel to get into orbit. Richbur and Jonbart have some history together, having driven on the Mun together, and walked on Ike together. Some crew get paired together because of this mutual experience, like Mac and Wildon earlier. The additional parachutes. In this case, two of the drogue chutes were replaced with the big yellow mains, and each outboard pylon was given a radial chute as well. The crew docks to the station in the dark, and take on a full compliment of fuel. Note the tug still docked from the previous mission. They undock and attempt a new kind of landing. They're actually 270 degrees ahead of KSC when they perform a single de-orbit burn from the altitude of the station, and use the new landing prediction software to pinpoint KSC, requiring an apoapsis of just 47km. Previously it had been thought the optimum place to de-orbit was from the landing site's antipode, but there's no reason you can't de-orbit from even further away. This saves fuel and will be something that requires additional experimentation. They re-enter engines first and with the lander can's window facing down, so Richbur can actually see KSC out the bottom part of the window. Richbur: Drogue parachutes are out. Man, the RCS translation to fine tune the landing is awesome. If we'd had the foresight, we could have targeted landing right on the runway. I didn't realize this kind of fine control was even possible! The vehicle rolls 90 degrees to the left so the window shows KSC as they come down, just after main chute deployment. Coming down on the mains. It's one of the closest landings yet. The two of them get out and do all the little tasks planned for after landing. Fennec undocks and is able to drive out from under the lander just fine. Coming down the ladder is no problem. All but the back two radial chutes can be reached for re-packing. Those back two however cannot, so those four radials will be moved to the core of the lander instead to bring them into reach. Testing all these little things beforehand makes sure everything works. Laythe is far away in time and distance, it's best to discover all the little things now.

I'll have to look into that! However, for the purposes of this thread, I think I'm committed to kethane for now. I made sure to hand-wave my own science to explain its properties much earlier in the story.

It's a combination of things. Having the drills and converters separate (drills on the lander and converters at the station) means the lander doesn't have to burn fuel to lug around the weight of the relatively heavy converters, which makes the process a little more efficient. Also, conversion in-situ doesn't work when you consider that the end use may not be in the same ratio that the normal fuel/oxidizer tanks carry. For example, if you're refueling a lot of SSTO jets at the orbital station, the amount of fuel might be way higher than oxidizer, and unless your lander has dedicated fuel-only tanks, this wouldn't make sense. You'd either be carrying around extra oxidizer or not maximizing the carrying capacity of the lander. Hauling the raw kethane to the point of use allows conversion into whatever fuel happens to be necessary at the time. The reason I do such large batches is a) economies of scale, fewer trips required, and c) because I can. The use of the kethane mod was taken with some consideration when I started this thread. I'm a chemical engineer by trade and so resource extraction and conversion really appeals to me. However, kethane also makes the game easier, which I wanted to avoid. Brotoro for example did his entire Laythe mission using fuel imported from Kerbin, which would be even more challenging, which I admire. I find the addition of kethane however adds more to the story, which is something else I think about. So some decisions I made are for my own personal gameplay preferences. A good example is the flying fox and the logistics I plan to use for it. Slapping small drills and converters on it on Laythe would be easy. Too easy, for my tastes. So I prefer the challenge of developing a dedicated infrastructure to support it, instead. This same reasoning is why the Tylo lander (not revealed yet) doesn't include kethane equipment - I like the asthetics of having deidcated equipment for kethane handling and separate exploration vehicles. It's just my style, I guess. I also find it more realistic, at least in my opinion. The TWR on Bop will be lower than Minmus, true, but still good enough to get into orbit (I did the math beforehand). Amphion only used about 25% of its fuel during its part of the mission, too, which means it has a slight excess. This will be helpful on Bop, as I can a) use the extra fuel to ensure I get to orbit, or use less fuel to increase the TWR. This will require experimentation once I get there. I do plan to make a version of Amphion MkII with RCS and use it at Minmus, and retire the old design. The one at Jool probably won't need it since I don't plan to have a station at Bop or Pol, so it'll always require a tug. Solar power has never been a problem, as I always target landings at local sunrise. Days on Bop and Pol are much longer than on Minmus.

Osiris Development Mission 4: Jool Optimized Kethane Extraction The fourth of five planned pre-Phase 1 development missions, this flight will be a more complicated mission to test the type of kethane production that will be used at Bop and Pol once operations around Jool are established. It pairs two vehicles. The Hercules MkIII Heavy Nuclear Tug, a specialized and smaller four-engine tug, similar to the designs seen a long while ago, and the Amphion MkII, an upgrade on the existing Amphion Kethane Extraction and Recovery Vehicle in use at Minmus. Mission Outline & Objectives First flight of the Hercules MkIII HNT and the Amphion MkII KERV. Launch the tug and dock it to Kerbin station. Launch Amphion and dock it to the tug at Kerbin Station. Fuel up both vehicles. Transfer crew in from Kerbin Station. Undock the combined spacecraft and send them to Minmus. Undock Amphion, land, and produce a batch of kethane. Launch from Minmus, re-dock to the tug, and return to Kerbin Station Crew: Neweny Kerman (Commander), Nelgard Kerman (Kethane Geologist) The first launch, in the evening, is the unmanned nuclear-engine tug. It uses four of the FtMN 240 engines, with the highest power and efficiency, and what MASEC engineers think should be enough fuel capacity for the mission. It launches atop a truncated Lupus V, with the L-IC and L-IVB stages stacked together, omitting the L-II. Staging, L-IC falling back. The tug is designed to use large docking ports at both ends. However, Kerbin Station was never designed to work with large docking ports, so the nose of the tug contains an adapter piece that will be affixed to Kerbin Station to fix that. The L-IVB stage reaches apoapsis and transfers its remaining fuel up into the tug's otherwise empty tanks. Just enough to get to the station. At this point, the tug has performed the first docking, and attached the adapter to the station. It then undocks and turns around 180 degrees to orient itself properly for Amphion to dock to it. The two craft are weight optimized for their specific roles. The tug for example has no batteries, or many solar panels. Since the lander requires a lot of power for the drills, it contains the solar panels and batteries, and will provide the electrical power for the tug when combined. However, the lander has no RCS fuel, since the tug is envisioned as being the active participant in docking. This means the weight of the monopropellant doesn't need to be carried down to Minmus and back up. The next morning, we see the unmanned launch of Amphion MKII. A much more optimized design, this uses the same engine but increases the kethane capacity from 96,000L to 120,000L, and should still be able to launch full from Minmus (or Bop for that matter). This vehicle uses a slightly different launcher. THe L-IVC upper stage provides a little more power, since Amphion is heavier. Also, since Amphion was designed not to hold any RCS fuel (its RCS thrusters are intended for use when docked to the tug), a small Orbital Maneuvering Stage that contains a small amount of RCS is included. Amphion uses a single FtMN 240 engine, but shown here is the orbital stage with it's small SPS engine performing the orbital circularizing. This stage will be used to perform the rendezvous and docking but will be jettisoned later. Here we see the combined vehicle docked to Kerbin Station. Neweny and Nelgard EVA over to Amphion's crew cabin, and the vehicle takes on fuel. A lot of fuel, in fact. One of the things that will be measured during this mission is the fuel consumption, and the amount of kethane required to replenish it, relative to the amount recovered. The combined vehicle undocks, and makes the transfer burn to Minmus. Standard ejection followed by a mid-course plane change. The view back to Kerbin during the long coast to Minmus. Four burns in all: Minmus injection, plane correction, orbital capture, and another inclination change, to get into low Minmus orbit. Amphion undocks and begins the de-orbit. A mistake in the orbital stage design (it lacked a means of control) meant it could not automatically de-orbit at Kerbin. So, they had to carry it to Minmus and dump it there, to avoid making it a piece of debris. When landing empty, Amphion is relatively light, and has lots of power. The landing consumes hardly any fuel at all. The reservoir they're landing on holds 178,000 liters of kethane. Landed and drilling. It takes the whole remainder of the Minmus day, but they fill all the kethane tanks to maximum by sunset. As usual, the lander was not designed for EVA, but Neweny and Nelgard get out and walk around a little on the surface of Minmus. A couple of rookies, this is their first visit to the surface of another celestial body. The pair sleep during the Minmus night, and lift off the next morning. The data shows a TWR of 1.5, but it seemed like a lot less than that, as Amphion just crawls into space on a column of thrust. The burn into orbit would take nearly 10 solid minutes. The vehicle at liftoff weighed in excess of 330 tons, substantially more than a fully loaded Amphion MkI, at 260 tons. Neweny is, however, able to perform a first feat for MASEC: He achives an unassisted direct-ascent rendezvous. That is, without any autopilot assistance, he was able to go from the surface to an orbit with an intercept (on the first orbit) with one long single rocket burn. No separate ascent, circularizing and rendezvous burns. It would only require a minor correction burn. A good look at Kerbin on the way back. To save fuel, they plot an aggressive aerobrake, attempting to get their apoapsis down to just 250km in one pass. Peak of aerobrake heating effects. It's a successful aerobrake, and they get an apoapsis of around 239km in one pass. The pair plot their rendezvous burn just after emerging from the atmosphere. Re-docked to Kerbin Station, the mission is complete. Results: The crew extracted 120,000L of kethane from Minmus, and in the process the combined Hercules/Amphion spacecraft consumed 4,836L of fuel, 5,911 of oxidizer, and 52L of monopropellant. To replace that would require 26,786 L of Kethane, leaving 93,214L or 77.7% of the batch for use. This is a kind of efficiency rating or "profit margin" so to speak, and is considered quite good. No figure exists for the existing Amphion/Zethus combination from Minmus to Kerbin, but you can bet eventually one will be determined. However, the vessel return to Kerbin Station with about 500 m/s of delta-V remaining. The ejection to Minmus takes about 900 m/s or so, and the return about 300 m/s. A transfer to Bop or Pol would probably consumed between 1100 and 1300 m/s and the return about 500 m/s. Long story short, a margin of 500 m/s in this case is not enough. So, this tug is not good enough. There were some other issues with it as well, including the engine pods flexing during engine firing, and the lack of tug battery capacity, which makes docking at "night" effectively impossible. So, this tug will not go to Jool in this capacity. The fix is easy though - a battery, some more solar panels, and slightly larger outboard fuel tanks will be more than enough to do the job. Another test flight shouldn't be necessary. The existing tug of course has nuclear engines and can't just be de-orbited. It's also an expensive piece of hardware. It can be put to good use, though - as a normal tug, it will probably ferry some pieces of UKS Laythe Station, alongside one of the larger Hercules MkIIs still in orbit left over from Mun Station's construction. Neweny Kerman: Nelgard Kerman:

True! Though in actuality I had the craft designed for a long time, since this is all mapped out way in advance (usually) The original plans for operations on Laythe pre-date the Horus Shuttle, so the refueler kind of got shelved for a while when I realized the Shuttle could do that. Splitting things up into phases is a new idea and that's brought the refueler back to life. At least for now.

Nice Mun-base design. I've not tried modular surface bases yet, but that's really well done. Too bad about the launch failure and the 12 Kerbals that got killed. Gotta have a launch escape system of some sort, or launch crew and cargo separately. Nice touch with the 12 flags, though.

Osiris Development Mission 3: Refueling Vehicle Test Before we get started, some minor changes were made to the Flying Fox after the last mission. Let's have a look: Subtle changes. First, the forward canards were moved back slightly to make more room for the co-pilot/passenger to climb down his ladder. Second, smaller RCS quads were used, and while they have less power, they save a little weight. Their smaller size increases the clearance. The biggest change is switching to landing gear provided by B9 Aerospace, instead of the in-house designs, which reduces weight. Also, a receiver module was added to allow the Fox to integrate into the topographical mapping data. A forward facing light was added just behind the camera, as well. The changes shed about 1,200kg of weight from the Fox in all, a fairly substantial weight savings. But the real reason we're here is to test a brand new vehicle, the Osiris Unmanned Refueling Vehicle, or URV. This vehicle will be a temporary stop-gap to supplying the Flying Foxes with fuel during Phase 1 on Laythe, when the surface infrastructure isn't in place yet. This is what the vehicle looks like. The outboard tanks carry cargo fuel. The two white tanks carry fuel and oxidizer, with enough capacity to totally refuel a Flying Fox from empty and allow it to get back into orbit. The four grey tanks carry only jet fuel, and each can fully refuel the Fox's jet fuel tanks. Normal procedure will be for this vehicle to drop onto Laythe from orbit full on liquid fuel but with the cargo oxidizer tanks empty. The Flying Fox will then come in either fully tanked, or with a small amount of fuel and full oxidizer. It'll then store its oxidizer temporarily in the URV, and explore Laythe using the available jet fuel. When time comes to return to orbit, the Fox will pick up its oxidizer and fly away. The main core tank of the URV is its own internal fuel supply that it needs to get back into orbit with. However, with its cargo tanks full, the URV cannot get back into orbit, nor does it even have a thrust to weight ratio above 1. Only when its cargo of fuel is used up, will it then be able to ascend into Laythe orbit to pick up more fuel. Until Phase 2, this vehicle MUST be on the surface, for safety reasons, if the Flying Foxes are doing expeditions. Mission Outline & Objectives First flight of the Osiris Unmanned Refueling Vehicle (URV) Launch into low Kerbin orbit and dock to UKS Kerbin Station to take on a full load of fuel. De-orbit, re-enter, and perform a precision landing on KSC property. Drive an un-fueled Flying Fox to the URV's landing site and test fuel transfer abilities. The URV launches just like the lander did, atop a large SRB. Its own fuel tanks are full, but the radial cargo tanks are empty to save weight. Kerbin Station will again be providing the extra fuel. Staging, and the URV is on its own power. It carries two NovaPunch Aerospike engines mounted on the core. Note that one of the two decouplers broke during staging, and the 1.25m interstage went flying off to the side. No damage to the vehicle. An up-close look at the URV in orbit. It sports two drogue parachutes on the LFO tanks, and four huge mains on the LF tanks, plus two radial mains on the core. Here we see the vehicle docked to Kerbin Station, taking on a full load of fuel, to test landing at maximum weight. Re-entry begins close to KSC. A different method is being used to calculate this landing. What it is, is me using MechJeb's estimated landing location. As is usual when I play KSP, I do the flying, not MechJeb (I especially do NOT trust MechJeb to land anything anywhere. All of my landings have been manual throttle and planning, using SmartASS to hold the attitude I want). So I'd never really touched the landing guidance tab before, until I realized it will display a projected landing location when you de-orbit. So I burned retrograde on the opposite side of Kerbin until the estimated landing site was on top of KSC. The technique works beautifully. The drogue chutes come out and it looks like the URV will land just to the side of one end of the runway. Mains deploy, and the vehicle touches down at 8.5 m/s. A little fast, but doable. I might add more chutes as a safety margin. Jebediah and Bill take a Flying Fox with empty tanks over to the URV's landing location. Bill tests dismounting from the rear seat with the changed canard location, and that works. Then Jeb drags the winch-mounted fuel line from the URV over to the Fox and performs a successful fuel transfer, validating the concept. This is a big step in the right direction for the exploration of Laythe.

Surface operations on Laythe would be sustained with Laythe's Kethane and space operations with kethane from Bop and Pol, in theory. EDIT: I went back and did the math, since you guys brought up a worthwhile point about the RAPIER and weight savings, and I wanted to make sure my reasoning was actually correct. Here's what I came up with: B9 Turbojet: Atmospheric ISP is 1400, thrust is 225, weight is 1.3 AIES Constellation: ISP is 320 (Atmospheric) and 370 (Vaccum), thrust is 200, weight is 0.5 The two together weigh 1.8 RAPIER: In jet mode, atmospheric ISP is 800, thrust is 190. Rocket mode, ISP is 320 (Atmospheric) and 360 (Vaccum), thrust is 175. Weight is 1.75. So you can see in most respects the AIES + B9 combination is actually better. This is harder to translate to larger spaceplanes though, because space considerations are more important, which is why I was seemingly unable to make a large SSTO before the RAPIER made the Horus Shuttle possible. Can you imagine trying to put TWELVE engines on the Shuttle? The RAPIER can do it in just six. That's the real advantage of the RAPIER.

What I've thought of doing instead is building a smaller jet-only aircraft/rover for after Phase 2 when I don't have to worry about it ever getting off of Laythe again.

I think I'd looked at that and the weight savings was fairly low. You have to remember those AIES Constellation rocket engines only weigh 0.5 tons each - they're not the most efficient engines out there (The NovaPunch Aerospike has a much better specific impulse), but they were chosen specifically because they weigh almost nothing. I think I calculated that switching to RAPIER's would save about 1 ton of weight. That 1 ton of weight would come with the fact that the RAPIERs in air-breathing mode are much less efficient than the B9 turbojet I currently use, which is key since on Laythe the jet engines are the more important ones. I don't know if it would be able to circumnavigate Kerbin if I switched to RAPIERs. Another reason is that having two engines to each side makes it real easy to make the wings wide enough to get lift, and I've deliberately avoided the bi-plane look because I don't like the aesthetics of it. I might still look at it though, we'll see.

The manned vessel with the empty seat was what I had in mind, yeah. Like the 3 man capsule with just 1 or 2 guys in it.

If they can fly all the way around Kerbin on a full load of jet fuel, they can pretty much get anywhere on Laythe and return no problem. I had thought of using that electric propeller thing (when I had Firespitter installed - I don't, presently) to make an unmanned, solar powered Eve probe.

Osiris Development Mission 2: Flying Fox Rover Test After the failure of the unmanned Osiris Lander test, MASEC is busy making adjustments and building a new vehicle for the expected manned test that will follow. They've decided to go ahead with a manned test, feeling confident they've solved the problem that caused the unmanned lander to crash. In the meantime, the second Osiris Development Mission will test a new ability for an existing piece of equipment. This mission is for the Flying Fix, the small SSTO Spaceplane that's done almost everything: It can get to orbit in all one stage, it can circumnavigate Kerbin with its jet engines inside the atmosphere, it can dock to space stations and refuel, and even travel to the moons for a brief visit. However, it was always planned to have it double as a rover as well, but other than Bob Kerman's visit to the north pole, which only required it to drive on perfectly smooth terrain, nobody's ever really tested what the Fox can do with its integrated, solar powered rover wheels. Mac and Wildon Kerman, who have been enjoying some time off since the return from Duna, have agreed to undertake this mission together. This is where they're going. Mission Outline & Objectives Fly the Flying Fox SSTO with a full load of only jet fuel to a large island northeast of Kerbal Space Center Find a suitable place to land. Drive the aircraft as a rover from one side of the island to the other, over varied terrain, and test its limits on rover wheels. Take off and return to KSC. Crew: Mac Kerman (Pilot), Wildon Kerman (Co-pilot) While the crews for Project Osiris haven't been announced, MASEC is utilizing the guys available on the ground for these test flights. It doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the ones going to Laythe, but that's possible. Nevertheless, having seen the plans for Phase 1, Mac Kerman had the following to say: "My concern is fuel for the Flying Fox. The current plans would require it to land on Laythe with all the fuel and oxidizer it needs to return with, which will limit its effectiveness as a rover due to weight, and consume more fuel in the air for the same reason. Once kethane production starts on the surface this isn't an issue, but during Phase 1, I suggested they design a simple unmaned rocked-based refueling vehicle, that can carry extra fuel and oxidizer for the Foxes to make them more effective on the surface." It's a good idea. So, MASEC is also designing such a vehicle as a temporary means of supporting Laythe ground operations until Phase 2. Once built, another Osiris Development Mission will be scheduled to test it. But that's down the road. Let's get down to business. Mac and Wildon are the first guys not from the test pilot group to fly the spaceplane. This is indicative of its transfer to Project Osiris as an operational vehicle, rather than a test vehicle. Mac takes off from the KSC runway with Wildon in the back seat. They stay relatively low, below 3km altitude, and follow the coastline northeast towards the target island. Here they see a smaller island off the coast, with a large mountain in the distance. Mac: I can see our island ahead. The coastline looks pretty steep, though there's a gentler slope off to the left there, I think I can set us down. Observing terrain from the air and scouting landing spots will be key on Laythe. To conserve fuel, the Fox should spend as much time on the ground as possible, where its electrically driven wheels can operate. Here they've turned slightly north, aiming for a gentle slope on the shoreline. Wheels down with the engine off, they coast in, landing on a gentle upward slope. A slightly bumpy landing, but nothing to be overly concerned about. The mission begins in the morning to give them maximum daylight. They take a moment to test getting out of the vehicle. Wildon: The forward canard really makes it difficult to climb down the rear ladder. We'll have to make a note of that. Mac: Ah damnit. We bottomed out going over that ridge. The spaceplane has a wide unsupported undercarriage at the back end, making incidents like this possible. Also the bottom RCS quad is quite exposed. They hit this at slow speed, so there's no damage, and getting out is easy - they just have to lower the main landing gear to lift the Fox up, and keep going. But it's little things like this that are good to know in advance. They reach an overlook, facing north, and stop a moment to admire the view. They landed on the northwest corner of the island and plan to drive around the northern coast, heading east. Part of their journey takes them down along the water, testing out how the rover wheels handle sand. They can do a sustained 10m/s easily, and because of the wide rover wheelbase, they can turn rather sharply with basically no lean. They take a break on a peninsula. Wildon gets out to examine a nearby boulder, while Mac walks out across the left wing. The Fox weighs about 12 tons, which is many many times more than the six-wheeled Fennec rover, but so far is handling beautifully. Later in the day, they successfully navigate to the far side of the island, where there's a small mountain peak. Mac: It looks like we can handle between 16 and 18 degrees up-slope without losing speed. I'm surprised, these rover wheels are pretty powerful. Wildon: I think the weight actually helps us, as it gives good traction. Mac: Yep. Plus they stiffened the back end after Bob noted it flexing during his drive at the north pole. Wildon: You headed to the mountain? I don't think we'll be able to climb it, it's probably way more than 20 degrees. Mac: You're probably right, but we're going to try anyway. I have an idea. Mac's brilliant idea is to use low-level jet thrust to augment the wheels. You can see the exhaust here, only about 5% throttle, but its enough for them to hold a steady speed between 8 and 10 m/s up a slope of about 30 degrees! They ascend to the upper plateau, and then Mac and Wildon climb the rest of the way to the highest point on the island. The Fox is visible parked in the background as they admire the view west over basically the entire island. In the far background is the mountain they passed on the way here, and at the far right of the frame is the peninsula they stopped at briefly. Some problems on the way back down. They get a little too much speed hitting a bump and blow three of the four tires. Oops! Fortunately they lift the aircraft on its main wheels and Mac gets out to do some repairs, and before long they're back in business! Having put the aircraft through its paces and driven a considerable distance, they decide to do one more test. A short takeoff test. They apply the brakes and throttle up the engines, and release the brakes once they can't hold the Fox back anymore. Aiming to take off at the edge of the cliff visible in front of them. Works just as planned! Soon enough they're back in the air! This move might not have been possible if they were carrying the extra weight of the oxidizer. A look back at the whole island as they depart to head for home. It's not long before they're on approach at KSC again, having successfully finished their mission. Wildon: I can see why Jeb, Bill and Bob like this thing so much! Pretty impressive machine! Mac: Sure is! One thing I don't like though is it doesn't have any equipment to get the topographical and slope map data, but that's just because this is an older design that pre-dates RAMSES mapping data. They'll have to fix that, but it'll be an easy upgrade. That data would really be handy for planning excursions, like we did on Duna. Mac Kerman: Wildon Kerman:

You could launch a mission with an empty seat in a command pod and try to rendezvous with him in solar orbit to bring him back.

Osiris Development Mission 1: Laythe Lander Unmanned Test The first and most important piece of equipment that hasn't been developed yet for Project Osiris is a rocket-based Laythe lander. This should be a fairly easy task - it's going to be designed similar to the Anubis lander, though more efficient in design. It'll be shorter since it doesn't have multiple stages, and will be lighter since it doesn't have additional engines or decouplers. It will however carry more fuel to give it the delta-V needed to escape Laythe's higher gravity and thicker atmosphere. Mission Outline & Objectives First flight of the Osiris Laythe Crew Transport and Rescue Vehicle (LCTRV) Unmanned test flight Launch into low Kerbin orbit and dock to UKS Kerbin Station to take on a full load of fuel. De-orbit and land near KSC, test parachute landing ability. While designed to ascend from Laythe, the LCTRV doesn't have the power to get off Kerbin by itself, so it's mounted on a large solid rocket booster which will throw it high enough into the air that the lander can do the rest. Also notice, unlike Anubis, Osirus has Fennec attached to it from the start. It also uses a winch system rather than a docking port, since Fennec is meant to be taken back into space. Launch is in the morning and during heavy cloud cover. The ride on the booster is mostly vertical, and here the booster falls back as the lander takes over after pitch-over. It uses four of the NovaPunch Aerospike engines, the same engines Anubis used as descent engines, as they provide a good balance between vacuum and atmospheric efficiency. Up into orbit. Osiris depletes most of its fuel getting to orbit, but here's a good closeup view of it. It has four outboard engine pylons. The Anubis lander had these, but they were purely structural in nature, whereas Osiris uses them as outboard fuel tanks to augment the main core tank. It has four drogue chutes mounted on the pylons, plus three radial main chutes on the core. It has a crew capacity of five Kerbals, but will typically only carry two (the number Fennec can carry) with the extra seats kept empty for possible rescue mission needs. Approaching Kerbin Station on the second orbit. It'll dock at the fuel station below the solar panels and refill its propellent tanks. This fuel in theory won't be used in this mission, but since Osiris must land with the fuel it needs to return, it needs to land heavy, which is the goal of this test. The other goal of this mission is a precision landing near KSC, so a careful de-orbit is planned on the opposite side of Kerbin, using RCS as velocity trim. Osiris differs from Anubis in that it also has RCS, since it must actively dock with a passive station: Anubis only had to rendezvous and the Aten IEV performed the docking. Re-entry on the approach to KSC. The de-orbit may have been to the proper velocity but Kerbin's rotation always makes these calculations difficult, and they'll come up short. This only highlights how difficult but important precision landings will be, considering how little margin for error there will be on Laythe. Osiris is about 41km west of KSC. Not the most accurate landing, but still within easy driving distance for Fennec (if this mission were manned). Still, 40km could mean splashing down in water on Laythe. In reality, were that to happen, the procedure would be to abort the landing and come back up to orbit. Osiris comes through the clouds just east of the mountains, the foothills of which climb up through the cloud layer. By now it's nearly sunset here. This is where things start to go wrong. Anubis relied on two huge main parachutes to descend, but Osiris' original design is three smaller radial ones, plus four drogues. It turns out that's not enough, and the descent only slows to about 20 m/s, forcing the engines to fire to try to save the landing. But this starts to go wrong, as Osirus starts to move sideways (as can be seen with the angle of the parachutes), and comes down too hard and with too much sideways velocity. It crashes. The aftermath. Osiris landed hard and moving sideways and was not totally vertical. The engines were still firing. One of the outboard pylons broke away and with no ability to shut that engine off after it broke free, that booster took off, and crashed and exploded some distance away. One of the other engines, visible laying on the ground nearby, broke loose. The asymmetric thrust tipped the whole vehicle over (at this point the engines were turned off). One of the other pylons then broke loose and rolled off to the side. Surprisingly, Fennec is undamaged and the crew compartment is fine. The crash would have been survivable for any crew on board but Osiris itself is a writeoff. The mission is a failure, but the solution is simple. More parachutes. Anubis only needed two drogue chutes, so there's no reason Osiris needs four - two of them will be replaced with main chutes. More radial chutes will be added as well. Osiris is supposed to land unpowered to save fuel, using Laythe's thicker atmosphere and parachutes to land with. The next flight of Osiris is scheduled to be a manned landing test, and MASEC is confident it will be ready and the parachute issue will be resolved by then. This is why we test these things beforehand!

A VTOL/Seaplane for Laythe is something I've been kicking around for a while. That might come later. I don't want to send all my good ideas at once. As for Tylo, I'd thought about doing the kethane in-situ thing, and I might, but it takes part of the challenge of Tylo away, for me. Plus secretly I already have a lander designed that can probably do the job.

Does he have a docking port?

Chapter 6: Brave New World Project Osiris: Big Plans Detailed The big-picture plans for Project Osiris, the establishment of a permanent base of operations in the Jool system, have been set, given the data returned from the previous probe missions. The large quantity of accessable kethane discovered on Laythe has de-emphasized the need for orbital stations at either Bop or Pol. The first and most important decision is that the exploration of the Jool system will be headquartered from a single orbital station at Laythe. The fact that MASEC wants to get started as soon as possible, combined with the fact that not all of the desired technology is available yet, and only so many vehicles can be sent to Jool at one transfer window, mean that operations at Jool will be built up in phases. The first phase will take with it mostly existing technology, and operations will be expanded later when newer technologies and techniques become available. At the moment, the first two phases are more or less planned out, and should take place over the next two transfer windows to Jool if possible. There will be also be a series of Osiris Development Missions, or ODMs, to develop the technology and techniques used at Laythe and elsewhere. Project Osiris, Phase 1 UKS Laythe Station: An orbital space station, similar in design to but slightly larger than Kerbin Station, to be placed in a circular orbit at Laythe's equator. It will contain enough habitable space for between 12 and 16 Kerbals, and will include a kethane refining and fuel storage module, but probably not kethane storage. All operations in the Jool system will be based from here. The decision to use one large orbital station is designed to keep the teams in close contact with each other at all times, rather than spread out over two or more orbital bases. The Aten IEV: Just returned from Duna, this vehicle is currently docked to UKS Kerbin Station, but will be returned to service for the mission to Jool. Once there it will be the primary means of getting about the Jool system, including pushing around the various landers that will be developed. Flying Fox SSTO Spaceplane: Formerly known as the Horus SSTO Spaceplane, Flying Fox is being transferred to Project Osiris. The discovery that Laythe's atmosphere will support jet engines means that this SSTO will hopefully become the primary means of exploring Laythe's various islands. There will likely be two of them taken during Phase 1, for redundancy. While Flying Fox has been throughly flight tested in the Kerbin system, no attention has been paid yet to how it handles as a rover on the surface, so at least one ODM will be dedicated to trying this out on Kerbin. An Anubis-based Lander: The performance of the Flying Fox in the Laythe atmosphere is still unknown. Rocket landing and ascent is, however, well understood, even in atmospheres, such as Project Anubis' landing on Duna. This vehicle will be similar to the Anubis lander and will carry a Fennec rover underneath. It will however be designed to be reuseable, and therefore a single stage, capable of landing on Laythe and returning to orbit. This vehicle does not yet exist and the first ODMs will be to design and test it, but this should progress quickly as it's largely based on existing technology. While the long-term plan is to get down to, and up from Laythe using SSTO aircraft only (because they are easy to precision land), a reliable rocket-based vehicle is desired in case an aircraft breaks down and a crew requires rescue. NAMLARV/Fennec: The tried and proven Mun lander/rover combination. Calculations have determined that NAMLARV/Fennec is capable of landing on Vall without modifications. Fennec should also handle fairly well on Bop, which is similar to Minmus in terms of gravity. It may not handle well on Pol, however, and while NAMLARV is overpowered for both Bop and Pol, this is seen as acceptable over the alternative of designing a whole new lander for those moons. NAMLARV will be important in finding landing sites for kethane production, since nobody's seen the surface of Bop or Pol up close yet. An Amphion-based Kethane Extraction and Recovery Vehicle, and a dedicated Heavy Nuclear Tug: An upgrade to the existing Amphion in service at Minmus. That vehicle only has to shuttle from Minmus Station to the surface and back. In this case, the base will be at Laythe, so the new Amphion will be partnered with an unmanned heavy tug, based on the existing Hercules MkII, which will ferry it to Bop or Pol, and remain in orbit while Amphion goes to the surface. Once Amphion and its load of Kethane return, it will then push it back to Laythe. Since Phase 1 does not involve the use of Laythe's kethane (or any permanent structures on Laythe yet), this will be the primary source of fuel until Phase 2. The new Amphion will be more aggressively designed with a higher capacity than the current one, using Bop as the design constraint. This will enable both Bop and Pol to be used for Kethane, instead of having to choose one. Planned for Phase 2 Laythe Surface Base: This will be a technological challenge. MASEC will have to design and build a surface base capable of supporting 6-8 Kerbals on the surface of Laythe, and design a way to deliver it to a specific point (to be determined later) on Laythe's surface. Once in place, this will serve as a base of operations for Laythe exploration, rather than relying on expeditions dropped from orbit. While orbital stations are often modular in design, the surface base will probably be one large piece assembled on Kerbin and launched at once. The base will be on the Jool facing side of Laythe, and preferably on or close to the equator. Proximity to kethane will be considered, but isn't critical. The development for this will include dropping a similar base from Kerbin orbit onto a remote location, probably on the south polar ice cap, and train Kerbals in living in a hostile environment for long periods. More Fennecs: At least a pair of dedicated Fennec rovers will be dropped onto Laythe to support the surface base. Idealy the surface base will be on one of the larger islands, and this will allow exploration near the base location without using the Flying Fox. Plus they're handy to have around. Laythe Kethane Wells: Unmanned, solar powered kethane drilling wells on one or more of the accessible kethane reservoirs. They'll contain drills and converters, with minimal tankage. Preferably located in flat areas where aircraft can easily land. These need to be reasonably precisely landed, and will all be away from the equator, so delivery methods are still being considered. This will permit surface operations on Laythe to be self sustaining and independent from space operations. Horus Space Shuttle: Once Flying Fox verifies that flight in Laythe's atmosphere is fairly straightforward, the window will be open to deploy the Shuttle there. The Shuttle will serve two functions, idealy. One will be crew rotations between the surface base and the orbital station, replacing rocket based transportation. The other will be transporting fuel from the remote kethane wells to the base, acting as a refueling vehicle/fuel storage for the Flying Foxes. NAMLARV Heavy: A much bigger, more powerful NAMLARV lander (with Fennec, of course) capable of landing and returning from the surface of Tylo. Analysis of the size of Tylo and its gravity indicate that a minimum of 6.5km/s of delta-v plus significant thrust would be required to do this with a reusable vehicle. Such a vehicle could in theory get to orbit from Kerbin in all one stage, something that's never been done with rocket based vehicles to date. Phase 2 is still subject to change. Other MASEC Business Here's a look at what else MASEC has its eyes on for the future. More RAMSES: The next interplanetary transfer window is to Dres, and there will be a RAMSES probe sent there. Not long after that, another window to Eve will open, and a pair of RAMSES probes will be sent that way as well, one to retire the IKSS in orbit around Eve, and the other to orbit Gilly after the failure of IKSS Gilly to get into orbit. Project Anubis: This project isn't over. It will remain in existence at a low level. There are long term plans for a permanent outpost at Duna, which fall under the jurisdiction of this project. Current ideas include a "base on wheels" to avoid being tied to a specific location, coupled with an orbital base and a rocket-based crew transfer vehicle. This will also include kethane extraction from Ike, but that will require a redesigned Amphion KERV since Ike is a large moon. Mobile base testing may occur on Mun, but this remains to be seen. Exploration of Moho: After the discovery of the hole in Moho's north pole, interest has been expressed in sending probes there. Manned exploration is also possible, probably in a mission intended to return, since there is not yet any desire to establish a permanent outpost at Moho due to high delta-V requirements. Exploration of Eve: There's a rover on the surface of Eve. It's still active, though we've not heard from it here in a while. Eve is a difficult place to explore owing to the thick atmosphere and high gravity, and this has thus far discouraged any plans for manned exploration there. A manned landing on Gilly would be easy, but at present isn't interesting enough to warrant serious attention. Stay tuned.

Project Isis arrives at Jool Bear with me here as this will be by far the longest and largest post I've done in this thread. In all, eight probes were sent to the Jool system on six launches, spaced out over two launch windows, and all arrived over a span of about 10 days. In the first launch window, the Jool/Laythe Science Package, containing atmospheric probes for Jool and Laythe, as well as a probe to land on Laythe was launched. Alongside it were RAMSES probes for Laythe, Bop and Pol (RAMSES Jool A, B and C). They were sent on a low-energy transfer. The next launch window saw two more launches (RAMSES Jool D and E) destined for Vall and Tylo, on a much higher energy transfer in order to catch up to the probes already on their way. In the interest of clarity, the following is not in chronological order of what happened. Thanks to Kerbal Alarm Clock I was able to juggle so many missions back and forth as they required attention, but I will instead present the results per celestial object, starting with Jool and moving outwards. As a note, all measured and displayed quantities (such as temperature, pressure and molecular weight) in this post are either actual in-game measurements, or values calculated from those in-game measurements using the proper equations. Nothing is made up except my interpretation of said data. MASEC has given destinations to the five RAMSES probes based on the remaining deltaV in their transfer stages (all RAMSES probes have around 2100 m/s of their own deltaV in addition to this) [TABLE=class: grid, width: 50%, align: center] [TR] [TD]Launch Designation[/TD] [TD]Transfer Stage Delta-V (m/s)[/TD] [TD]New Designation[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]RAMSES Jool A[/TD] [TD]565[/TD] [TD]RAMSES Laythe[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]RAMSES Jool B[/TD] [TD]658[/TD] [TD]RAMSES Bop[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]RAMSES Jool C[/TD] [TD]652[/TD] [TD]RAMSES Pol[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]RAMSES Jool D[/TD] [TD]1194[/TD] [TD]RAMSES Vall[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]RAMSES Jool E[/TD] [TD]1424[/TD] [TD]RAMSES Tylo[/TD] [/TR][/TABLE] Jool The Jool/Laythe Atmosphere Package arrives in Jool's massive sphere of influence. Carried on a single package are two atmospheric probes (the cylindrical objects), dubbed the Isis Jool Atmosphere Probe (IAP Jool) and the Isis Laythe Atmosphere & Oceanic Probe (IAOP Laythe). Both are roughly the same as the IAOP Eve probe. They are subtly different. The Jool probe has no parachute and is on a suicide mission to Jool's atmosphere to study it. The Laythe probe has a parachute and in addition to studying Laythe's atmosphere, will spash down into its oceans to study them as well. Further back on the vehicle is the Isis Laythe Atmosphere & Landing Probe (IALP Laythe) which will attempt to land on solid ground on Laythe and transmit back pictures. In this photograph, the IAP Jool probe has separated from the rest of the spacecraft, and will, using its own tiny propulsion system, navitage itself to Jool. IAP Jool makes a flyby of Tylo on its approach to impact Jool's atmosphere. Vall and Laythe are visible in the background. The probe adjusts its approach to ensure impact with Jool, and jettisons its tiny little propulsion system as it rapidly accelerates toward the gas giant. All the sensors activate. I had to do an update of the Graphotoron 2000 mod (the 0.23 update had broken it), but it works now and is recording all important data, such as temperature and pressure, as the probe smashes into Jool's atmosphere at interplanetary speeds. The forces experienced are far too much for the internal gyros to hold attitude, and as the probe slows to where shock heating is no longer an issue, it begins to tumble on its side. Jool's atmosphere is, understandably, extremely thick. By about 20km from the cloud tops or so, the probe is essentially falling gently straight down. Communications was lost around 5000 meters from the cloud tops, but investigation of Jool's upper atmosphere was successful. Analysis of Jool's Upper Atmosphere This figure tracks the probe during descent from entry interface around 135km up until the probe was lost at just under 5km. The velocity is relative to the local atmosphere (surface velocity instead of orbital velocity) and the dynamic pressure is shown. Prior missions had shown dynamic pressure in Pascals, but the dynamic pressure here is shown in kilopascals due to how high it was. These were the highest dynamic pressures seen in any re-entry. Here we see the temperature and pressure of Jool's atmosphere as a function of altitude. The upper, tenuous atmosphere is quite cold, reaching nearly -250C at 100km. However, as the pressure increases in the lower parts of the atmosphere, the temperature rapidly begins to rise and becomes quite hot. Much hotter than expected. The pressure is extremely high, as one would expect in a gas giant, reaching just over 9 Kerbin atmospheres before the probe was lost. (Note that I did fudge the temperature numbers slightly. The actual recordings showed a temperature in the -300 to -400 range early on, which is impossible in Celcius as absolute zero is -273.15. So I instead converted the numbers as though they were instead recorded in Farenheit, where absolute zero is -460, into Celcius, and in that context they make much more sense.) Both the gravitational acceleration and the atmosphere's density are quite high as well. Density was not directly measured, but can be calculated from velocity and dynamic pressure in the first figure. This last figure uses the previously calaulated atmosphere density, plus pressure and temperature to calculate the average molecular weight of Jool's atmosphere, which can help in uderstanding its composition. As can be seen, the molecular weight is very low in the upper atmosphere, which consists mostly of hydrogen (weight of 1) and helium (weight of 4) and other light components. As one descends lower, the molecular weight increases. This is indicative of increasing concentrations of heavier gases, such as methane (weight of 16) ammonia (weight of 17) and carbon dioxide (weight of 44). In the denser atmosphere, the average molecular weight increses even further beyond this, indicating the presence of more complex, heavy molecules, potentially organic chemicals and kethane, lending Jool it's distinctive green colour. Laythe The rest of the Jool/Laythe Science Package, bound for Laythe, has a close encounter with Tylo, briefly entering its sphere of influence. This is not good, because it slightly bends the probe's inclination out of Jool's ecliptic plane, which will be trouble later on. The probe swings around Jool, passing over its atmosphere, on a direct course for Laythe on the way out. Here, the onboard camera snaps a close photograph of Laythe's daytime surface, confirming that while Laythe is mostly ocean, there are in fact islands on its surface. Also note the clouds. Laythe looks surprisingly hospitable! The combined probe first aerobrakes to get into an inclined and eccentric orbit around Laythe. Once captured, the IAOP probe would separate from the rest of the spacecraft. The orbit is actually retrograde, highly inclined, and highly eccentric, but that's not really a big deal, since its a temporary orbit anyway. It stresses the importance of being more careful on your approach: Laythe is better thought of as a planet, as its large size and high gravity (larger than Duna, even) make it expensive to move around nearby, deltaV wise. At this point, IAOP Laythe has separated and expended all of its fuel to get a proper intercept course with Laythe, aiming for a spashdown in the moon's oceans. Much as IAP Jool did, the probe then jettisons its propulsion system. Note the parachute at the top: This probe is intended to survive. Just like IAP Jool, the sensors are activated and begin recording just before entry interface. Here the probe lights up the sky as it punctures Laythe's atmosphere. Mach effects as it passes through the cloud level. The parachute opens as planned, and IAOP Laythe then gently coasts down to the ocean surface. Successful splashdown on the surface of Laythe! The sensors were able to record atmospheric data right down to splashdown. Let's have a look. Analysis of Laythe's Atmosphere As before, we see the probe's re-entry profile, showing its surface relative velocity and the dynamic pressure. In this case, both parameters are much lower than those seen at Jool, as expected. The two stages of parachute opening can clearly be seen near the surface. Perhaps the most interesting graph is this, showing the temperature and pressure of Laythe's atmosphere. The pressure is higher than would be expected for a moon. 80% of Kerbin's atmospheric pressure at sea level! The temperature is also higher than one would expect from this far away from the sun. In the last kilometer of altitude or so, the temperature actually rises a few degrees above freezing. Scientists theorize that tidal heating from being this close to Jool may account for this. This also explains the vast oceans of what is presumeably water on the surace (more on that later). The acceleration due to gravity is quite high. Lower than Kerbin, but higher than Duna. As mentioned before, Laythe is better thought of as a planet in its own right, due to its size, gravity, and thick atmosphere, all of which surpass Duna. Similar molecular weight calculations were performed as with Jool, and it was found that Laythe's atmosphere is not differentiated like Jool's. The avergae molecular weight changes extremely little with altitude, indicating much better vertical mixing. The average molecular weight throughout is essentially 27.8 kg/kgmol, which is extremely close to that of Kerbin. The eventual analysis shows that Laythe's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (28 kg/kgmol) with a substantial amount of oxygen (32 kg/kgmol) and ammonia (17 kg/kgmol). The quantity of oxygen is enough to support combusion inside air-breathing jet engines, but the ammonia makes the atmosphere impossible to breathe directly. Ammonia can burn in oxygen normally, but the mixture ratio in the atmosphere is well away from this combustion range (much too ammonia-rich), allowing the two gases to coexist. It's likely that reactions between them do happen, producing oxides of nitrogen and water in a potentially complex nitrogen cycle. The full processes which make this mixture stable are poorly understood, and may possibly be biologically driven. Analysis of Laythe's surface liquid confirms that it is mostly water, with a substantial amount of ammonia mixed into it. This ammonia greatly reduces the freezing point and helps to keep the ocean liquid at all lattitudes, except at the poles where there are visible ice caps. While the temperature was above the normal freezing point of water, this measurement was near the equator, and variations with weather could easily bring temperatures below zero (such as at night, potentially). The presence of ammonia in the ocean explains the ammonia in the atmosphere. Ammonia is more volatile than water and will evaporate more easily. It's quite possible that rain on Laythe would be composed of mostly the ammonia portion of the liquid, and it may have an "ammonia cycle" analagous to Kerbin's water cycle. The ammonia in the ocean also makes the liquid quite basic (caustic) with a high pH, definitely not safe to drink or be exposed to for a Kerbal. This image shows IAOP Laythe's landing point, on the prograde side and slightly on the far side from Jool, which is not visible in the sky from there (or could not be seen at the time due to clouds). The exact landing site is 9 degrees 38'33" North by 156 degrees 8'55" east. IALP Laythe arrives one orbit later. The transfer stage remained attached during the initial entry, and burned to depletion in order to avoid missing land. Here it's discarded and aerodynamic forces carry it off to the right where it begins an uncontrolled tumble. This is just before re-entry heating, and you can see IALP's heat shield is still attached. Entry goes smoothly and the heat shield was ejected. The parachute opens partially at the highest altitude possible to further slow the probe down and avoid landing long in the ocean. It works, as the probe begins to drift down onto what appears like a sandy surface. Touchdown on the surface of Laythe! The camera begins to pan around and examine the nearby geology. Note Vall visible in the sky. The surface here appears to be hard packed sand with occasional strewn boulders. There is significant evidence of weathering in the soil and surface rocks. There are no discernable traces of life on the surface, such as vegetation. The possability of life in the oceans remains. The probe's landing site, at 22.23 degrees South by 113.096 degrees west. The elevation is 458 meters and the local atmospheric pressure is 71.33 kPa. Now it's time to begin mapping Laythe. This is arguably the most important part of the mission for eventual manned exploration. In this case the approach trajectory was off, and required the transfer stage to burn to depletion to correct. RAMSES then corrected for proper aerobraking, but the upper stage is lost. It will swing past Laythe and eventually out of the Jool system entirely, a piece of space junk lost forever. Mission tracking later determined that the spent upper stage actually achieved solar escape velocity due to the gravity slingshot from Jool, and will eventually leave the solar system entirely! Note that RAMSES Eeloo's trajectory is also visible here: Its mid-course correction burn took place during all of this, and was one of the probes on my list in Kerbal Alarm Clock to pay attention to. RAMSES Laythe brakes into orbit, circular and polar at 125km. The orbit was initially low, to prioritize kethane scanning first, and mapping later. Here we see the map of Laythe, completeed in low definition, and mostly complete in high definition. While mostly covered in water, there are numerous small islands. In particular, a large group to the right of the map near Laythe's prograde side. Most of the retrograde side is a huge expanse of ocean. A nearly complete kethane map was also generated, to the point that a complete survey of all of Laythe's kethane reservoirs were detected and quantified. The results are presented in the following table. [TABLE=class: grid, width: 50%, align: center] [TR] [TD]Reservior Location[/TD] [TD]Accessable from Land?[/TD] [TD]Reservior Volume (L)[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]27.3N 24.3W[/TD] [TD]No[/TD] [TD]485,305.7[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]19.6S 9.6W[/TD] [TD]No[/TD] [TD]460,782.3[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]34.4N 90.6E[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]443,493.9[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]43.1S 110.6W[/TD] [TD]Maybe[/TD] [TD]349,877.2[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]61.4N 140.0E[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]296,838.8[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]59.3N 31.4W[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]295,667.8[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]59.1N 125.1W[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]214,260.3[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]49.3S 165.2W[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]192,805.1[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]27.5S 81.4W[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]173,017.4[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]11.8N 64.7W[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]168,018.6[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]16.1S 64.7E[/TD] [TD]No[/TD] [TD]105,467.7[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]36.2N 7.0E[/TD] [TD]No[/TD] [TD]80,646.5[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]74.3S 163.8W[/TD] [TD]Maybe[/TD] [TD]80,269.6[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]17.7S 24.7E[/TD] [TD]No[/TD] [TD]69,756.4[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]32.9N 49.3W[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]66,555.2[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]42.7S 3.4W[/TD] [TD]No[/TD] [TD]50,069.0[/TD] [/TR][TR] [TD]11.8N 152.3E[/TD] [TD]Yes[/TD] [TD]28,132.3[/TD] [/TR][TR][/TABLE] The important thing to note in this table is the large number of reservoirs that are accessable from land. Though some of them only overlap small parts of land, such as the fringe of an island, or a very small island, it was much more than expected. Nearly 53% of the total kethane volume discovered on Laythe is accessable from land. None of the reserviors in question however are also on the equator AND on the side of Laythe facing Jool, two key criteria for any permanent base, but the in-situ use of kethane on Laythe is a definite possability in the future! An interesting fact about RAMSES in the Jool system. It has a large battery supply to enable it to remain powered during passes over a moon's night side. However, when the moon is behind Jool and the sun is blocked, the probe goes dead, until the sun re-appears. This meant that there were certain parts of the inner three moons that were difficult to map - they could only be mapped when the moon was exactly in front of Jool, 180 degrees away. These regions took longer to map due to this phenomenon, and it's something that any permanent structre at the Jool system must consider. Vall RAMSES Vall, along with RAMSES Tylo, were launched at a later launch window than the other missions, and plotted a much faster approach in trajectorites that would, if not for Jool, carry the probes out past the orbit of Eeloo. This is why they carry the larger upper stages and why they have more delta-V remaining on arrival. It also means they're going very fast. Here, RAMSES Vall performs an aerobraking at Jool. Given Vall's closeness to Jool and the extra speed, this was the lowest and brightest aerobreaking of the whole mission, at an altitude of just 115km, 20km inside Jool's atmosphere. It turns out to be the most accurately plotted aerobrake yet. An encounter with Vall exists as soon as atmospheric exit, and a tiny correction is made to lower the Vall periapsis. In chronological order, RAMSES Vall is the first to actually complete its mission, while RAMSES Pol, visible in the long elliptical orbit, was the first to encounter Jool. All of the other probes are still approaching at this point. RAMSES Vall approaches Vall by the same method used at Moho previously. The upper stage burns retrograde to depletion to kill as much excess velocity as possible, before ejected to impact the moon. Orbital capture follows soon after. Unlike RAMSES Laythe, which started in a low orbit to prioritize kethane, RAMSES Vall starts off high to prioritize mapping, before swinging lower to assist the kethane scan. A nearly complete topographical map is generated. Vall appears to be an ice moon, coloured slightly blue by the presence of some minerals. The lack of any cratering suggests that this icy surface is young, and periods of melting and re-freezing may occur due to tidal heating from Jool. A patchy kethane map is also generated. Vall is a low priority target for kethane, as Bop and Pol are much easier and more likely targets for that. Vall will be more interesting for eventual surface exploration. Tylo Chronologically, RAMSES Tylo is the last mission to arrive. It, like RAMSES Vall, is from the second launch, indicated by the larger upper stage. It similarly aerobrakes at Jool, but not nearly as aggressively. As it turns out, not aggressive enough, as the orbit is only brought down just inside that of Pol, instead of much closer to Tylo as had been desired. Initally, a second aerobrake through Jool was considered, but since this mission has by far more delta-V to spare than any of the others, mission planners instead perform a small move at Jool apoapsis to get a proper Tylo encounter. Tylo has a large gravity well, and the backup plan, if this approach is too expensive, is a close flyby of Tylo to peform a negative gravity assist followed by a second aerobrake at Jool. It turns out this approach is affordable, and the method of approaching Tylo is identical to that used at Moho and Vall previously. RAMSES has no trouble getting into Tylo orbit to begin mapping. Tylo is the largest moon in the entire Jool system, though it has no atmosphere, which is curious, considering Laythe. It appears to be a mixture of rock and ice, with ice covering the highlands and rock exposed in the lowlands, and crater bottoms. Its surface is older than Vall's, due to the visible cratering, suggesting that Tylo is less geologically active, perhaps due to its increased distance from Jool. Like Vall, a patchy kethane map is also generated. Tylo is much like Vall in that it will be interesting for surface exploration, but it's extremely high gravity will make landing and taking off a challenge. It will require a whole new kind of landing vehicle that has not yet been designed, and so Tylo may be the last of Jool's moons to be explored up close. Bop RAMSES Bop has the more difficult task of reaching Bop's inclined orbit. Here, it gently aerobrakes in Jool's atmosphere at an altitude of about 124km. The apoapsis is perfect, but a significant plane change burn was required at the decending node. This shows the first orbit This is after a periapsis boost at apoapsis, and after the plane change while heading back to Jool (that node was further away from Jool and therefore required less delta-v) Visible is a third burn at the new periapsis, planned to get a Bop encounter. The approach to Bop required the most burns. An unfortuante side effect of this was the upper stage ran out of fuel during the plane change, shown here being discarded. By this time the Jool periapsis was well out of the atmosphere and the orbit was not yet in Bop's plane. So, this upper stage will remain a piece of space junk in an inclined and highly elliptical Jool orbit. Later, mission trackers would note that the stage's ascending node is just inside Vall's orbit, and it's descending node just inside Laythe's, so in the future the stage may be perturbed by encounters with Jool's inner moons. Fortunately Bop is a fairly small moon requiring low velocities, and RAMSES had more than enough to get into orbit. The radar mapping was attempted, but Bop's extremely irregular surface made mapping difficult, as the variations in elevation are beyond the resolution of the scanner. Thus, the topographical map is not shown (it's mosty pure white, since most of Bop is greater than 8000 meters high. This may be fixed in a recent SCANsat update but I've not updated it in a while). In all, Bop is an irregular non-spherical body, but in spite of these large hills and valleys, it otherwise seems quite smooth, and may in fact be easy to land on. The kethane map is patchy, but good enough to have inventoried the entire moon. Bop was interesting for kethane reasons and so it was prioritized to get an essentially complete picture of its surface. All kethane reserviors were cataloged as with Laythe, but that table is not presented here. Neevrtheless, a total of 18 reserviors were found, with a total volume of 4.4 million liters of kethane. Of this, 3 reserviors with a combined volume of 678,324 L (Around 15%) were easily accessable from equatorial regions. Pol A familiar sight at this point. RAMSES Pol was the first to arrive, chronologically, but the last we will be discussing today. This was the first aerobrake and so the calculations were slight off, meaning the elliptical orbit continued out past Pol's orbit. However, a minor correction burn just after atmosphere exit was able to give a Pol encounter. Pol's orbit is only inclined a few degrees, making it easier to reach than Bop, even though Bop is technically closer. The approach to Pol is also familiar, mirroring those at Vall and Tylo, with the stage burning to depletion and then being ejected. RAMSES brakes into orbit at Pol, with Jool and the inner three moons visible in the background. The topographic map of Pol. Pol is contrasted with Bop in that Pol is very close to spherical, and doesn't have wide differences in elevation. This is contrasted however with how rugged it is, with many steep slopes and jagged mountains, which may make landing on it difficult. As with Bop, Pol is completely mapped and cataloged for kethane reserviors. While the total amount of kethane discovered, around 4.2 million liters, is slightly less than Bop, 1.25 million liters or just under 30% were accessable from regions within 10 degrees of the equator, making them more easily accessable. That being said, plane change away from the equator at Bop and Pol is probably highly inexpensive. And that concludes Project Isis' tour of the Jool system! Next, we learn what Project Osiris decides to do with this new and plentiful information in planning the manned, permanent exploration of Jool's moons.

Yep! B9 and AIES haven't been updated in a long time but they're essentially parts mods which are hard to break with game updates. The others are all more or less up to date and function fine. The only one that worries me is FusTek because I know the next major update will break craft files and all three of my space stations use parts from it. I have no idea when that update will occur, and I'm kind of hoping its before I assemble any more stations further away from Kerbin. On another topic, get ready for a huge update. I'm assembling what will be my largest post in this thread to date, documenting a mission that took me two days to finish and is taking another day just to write the post for.

Here's a complete list, more or less: Active Texture Manager AIES Aerospace B9 Aerospace Crew Manafest Distant Object Enhancement Kerbal Engineer Environmental Visual Enhancement FusTek Space Station Parts Graphotron 2000 KAS Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Kerbal Alarm Clock Kethane Kommit-Nucleonics KW Rocketry MechJeb Tal's Spherical Fuel Tanks, including spherical Kethane tanks NovaPunch 2 Protractor Lazor Camera and Lazor Docking Camera (but not the complete Lazor systems mod) SCANsat THSS Trusses

Project Anubis Returns Home It's been a long adventure for Mac, Wildon, Richbur, Jedlock, Gilfal, Jonbart and Wehrrigh, but they are about to return to Kerbin as conquering heroes from an alien world! Mac Kerman: On the approach home, we were all watching Kerbin out the window, usually with binoculars or the onboard telescope. Since we were approaching from further out, eventually Kerbin disappeared in the glare of the sun, but we could still see it with solar filters, kind of like a transit but not really moving. Gradually it got bigger and bigger to the point that we were able to see, essentially, a total solar eclipse. Then we started to swing towards Kerbin's prograde side and got this picture, with Mun at the lower right. Richbur plots an aerobreake, with a periapsis of just 31,000 meters, aiming to get captured with an apoapsis of 500km. Still high over Kerbin but falling fast, they've retracted the solar panels and oriented themselves engine-first. They pass low through the atmosphere, and, looking backwards, they can see Kerbin's surface relatively close! It's been a while since they've been here, and while Duna was spectacular, it's nice to be home. Wildon: Mountains! Mac: Forget that! Water! The light show is pretty impressive! They get captured into a proper orbit and make preparations to rendezvous with UKS Kerbin Station. The Aten Interplanetary Exploration Vehicle cannot re-enter and land, so they'll need another way to actually get home. In the meantime, Jonbart and Wehrrigh seem happy, with the view of a cloudy Kerbin out the window. Cue the shuttle. With a total capacity of eight Kerbals, it takes off around the same time, with only a single pilot: Jebediah Kerman. Jeb docks to Kerbin Station in preparatin for the arrival of the Aten IEV. Desbree Kerman: Well hello there! Long time no see, guys! Good to see you back agian. Mac Kerman: Good to be back again! Three craft docked to Kerbin Station. The Aten IEV on the left and the Shuttle at the top. The Anubis crew transfer from their vehicle (which will remain docked here until it's needed again for some future interplanetary mission) over to the Shuttle to come home in. Jeb undocks from the station in preparation to return. Mac sits up front with Jeb, the other six stay in the passenger cabin. Mac: Wow, what a view out these huge windows! We'd only heard and seen pictures of this thing while we were on Duna. Jeb: Yeah it's a pretty amazing machine! This time the re-entry looks perfect, right on target. The only thing: It's cloudy at KSC. They've taken off and ascended through clouds before, but never had to deal with them coming back. Mac looks out the window at the clouds as the Shuttle descends through them. You can see the slight nose-down attitude on the navball. In spite of the clouds, looks to be a perfect approach. Almost home! They land successfully, and are welcomed home as heroes. Here, all seven members of Project Anubis(plus Jebediah on the left) pose for a photograph in front of the Shuttle. Welcome home, boys!

Isis XIX & XX: RAMSES Moho & Eeloo Project Isis' plan to "map everything" is humming right along. Five RAMSES probes are active (Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, Duna & Ike) and another five are on their way somewhere (All five of Jool's moons). The only problem with RAMSES is that it's big and heavy and so requires a substantial launcher. Recall that the launches to Jool were performed using huge Lupus V launch vehicles, occasionally with strap-on solid boosters and larger upper stages. So, when fortune came along and aligned a transfer window with Moho and one with Eeloo, the innermost and outermost planets, within just a couple of days of each other, Isis just had to do something, and fortunately, an even larger launch vehicle is ready to make its first flight! Mission Outline & Objectives First launch of the Lupus X (Lupus 10) super-heavy launch vehicle. Deploy RAMSES probes to both Moho and Eeloo Isis 19, the RAMSES Moho launch. The core is mostly a Lupus V rocket, with the L-IC lower stage and L-II second stage, but the third stage is a huge L-IVD stage, using the largest 3.75m fuel tank. Four L-IIIB radial boosters, each sporting three NovaPunch Bearcat engines, and equipped with fuel crossfeed, are added to lift the huge vehicle off the pad. A total of seventeen bearcat engines fire at liftoff! The boosters are too big for separation motors to work properly. They simply slide away while the rocket is still vertical The L-II places the payload in orbit. Including the L-II and its residual fuel, about 205 tons was placed in low Kerbin orbit. The L-II would separate and de-orbit itself. Also notice the upper stage engine has been changed. This marks the first flight of the Kerbodyne KR-2L Advanced Engine, which is also the first time a Kerbodyne engine has flown with MASEC. It offers higher thrust and higher efficiency than the KW Rocketry Wildcat-XR, which had flown as the upper stage engine on all previous Lupus series launches. The next day, Isis 20, RAMSES Eeloo. Separation of the L-IC stage and payload fairing jettison at the start of the L-II burn. The rocket actually flies extremely well. The ascent is broken into three phases: Vertical while the boosters are attached, 45 degrees pitch during the L-IC burn, and a slow pitch down to horizontal during the L-II burn. Isis 19 makes its ejection burn for Moho on Kerbin's day side. The Eeloo mission would eject on the night side, and is not shown. Leaving Kerbin's sphere of influence. Normally I wait and do some missions between launch and arrival of probes and long distance flights, but a trip to Moho is extremely quick. It actually arrives at Moho before the guys coming back from Duna arrive, and since that's the next thing I want to get done, I decide to fast forward to the arrival at Moho. Don't worry, we'll hear from the Eeloo flight again, but not for a long while. The approach to Moho is rather straightforward. The transfer stage doesn't have enough energy to capture into orbit, but the hyperbolic trajectory is going to hit Moho. So, the engine points at Moho and burns until stage depletion, killing about 3.5 km/s of excess velocity. Then, the stage is ejected. The probe corrects to a polar inclination and adjusts its trajectory away from an impact, aiming for a periapsis of 490 km. The L-IVD stage will smash into Moho. With the sensors active, they begin scanning even before orbital capture, and as shown here, almost instantly RAMSES detects a kethane reservoir under Moho's surface. This further lends credence to the theory that kethane is abundant everywhere in the solar system! Arriving over the north pole of Moho, RAMSES begins its orbital capture burn. Notice that the small KW Rocketry engine has been swapped out for one of the FtMN 40 nuclear engines. This gives RAMSES about 1500 m/s of additional deltaV, which was deemed necessary for this mission. It turns out not to be, but, better to be safe, yeah? RAMSES has deliberately avoided anything nuclear in its design, ever since scandal broke out when Isis 8 crashed its IKSS probe into Eve after failing to make Gilly orbit, resulting in the spread of the IKSS' RTG nuclear fuel into Eve's atmosphere. Moho's rotation is slow, but within a few days a nearly complete kethane map is achieved. The terrain mapping is even more impressive. 100% coverage after one full revolution of Moho under the probe, generating this lovely topographic map of Moho. It's a heavily cratered airless planet, with brown highlands and very dark and smooth lowlands and crater interiors. RAMSES also uses it onboard camera to take photographs of Moho from long distance. It snaps this photo of Moho's north polar region and discoveres something unusual. It appears to be a cone shaped depression of substantial size! Analyzing the topographical map indicates the hole may be as much as five kilometers deep (note the elevation registering as 375m, compared to the 5-6km elevation around it). This warrants some closer investigation! When passing Moho's south pole, RAMSES performs a burn to lower its periapsis extremely close over the north pole. All that extra deltaV has come in handy! RAMSES flies over the north pole at just a few thousand meters above the surface at traveling at nearly a thousand meters per second, but snaps a photo looking straight down the hole from directly above! Moho had been a low priority target which is why it (along with Eeloo and Dres) had not been targeted for any missions until now. Only Dres remains, as far as celestial bodies that don't have something on them, or on the way to them. The discovery of this hole in Moho's north polar region has interested MASEC geologists, however! Nobody's talking about manned exploration yet, but the idea of a probe to land on the surface, perhaps a rover, is already being discussed.