Muna 17 mission

[sgt_flyer]

Hello, here's a stock recreation of luna 17 and lunokhod

Munokhod tests in KSC

Full Mission album :

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Here are the files (to be used with the space plane hangar /runway) :

Proton-K with the luna17 payload (953 parts)

http://www./download/d9aznzwa6wcz78m/Muna_17.craft

Proton mobile service tower (354 parts)

http://www./download/3zka47zk9d778an/Proton_mobile_service_tower.craft

Pre-launch operations (if you want to use the mobile service tower - optionnal):

load the service tower on the runway, and carefully drive it off the runway, before loading the rocket.

once the rocket is loaded, switch to the service tower, and drive it back up on the runway, and try to line up the service tower with the rocket's launch pad. (shadows are useful there )

stage the service tower to free the service tower's arms.

switch to each of the two set of arms, and use your roll keys to open them. (you can use T to 'hold' the position of the arms.)

drive carefully to place the service tower around the rocket (up to nearly touching it with the tower's platforms), then switch to the arms to close them around the rocket (again with the roll control)

to prepare for the launch, simply do the previous steps in reverse : open the tower's arms with the roll control, move the tower away from the rocket, and close back the tower's arm.

Launch sequence :

crank up the throttle to the max, then hit space to lift-off all of the pads systems are automatic and start at the same time as the rocket's lift-off (smoke generators and launch arms retractation)

i usually like to start my pitchover between 5000m and 6000m - not a lot of time before the 1st stage burns out.

once the first stage is empty, stage once to both separate and activate the 2nd stage engines, and stage a second time to drop the interstage fairing. (this one part is hard to get infos on some people says it detaches after, others something else - and the russians launch videos are particulary unhelpful on this point )

continue your g-turn (i generally aim for 45° above the horizon at 20 / 25km, and 30° at 30 / 35km)

once the 2nd stage is empty, stage once to separate and activate the 3rd stage verniers for separation, and stage a second time to active the 3rd stage main engine. stage a third time shortly after to eject the payload fairing.

i usually try to get an apoapsis around 100km and a periapsis around 20km with the 3rd stage before staging it (so both the stage and the blok D fairings would fall back) - if you burn out earlier, the blok D has a bit of reserve fuel to allow you to continue the mission.

circularise / correct your orbital angle relatively to the mün with the blok D. (there's no reaction wheels at this point use both the gimbals and the RCS to control the attitude )

make your mün transfer (i pick use the standard one here (around 837m/s of dV from a 100km LKO) , no need for a Free return trajectory) - i aim for a 30km / 35km mün periapsis - then separate the blok D from the ye-8 lander.

Lander operations :

fuel is tight from here, so be sure to quicksave several times

use RCS / main engine gimbal to control the lander's attitude. (can create some unwanted roll sometimes, especially as the fuel tanks drains), but it can be corrected easily)

shortly before arriving at your mün periapsis, make your circularisation burn with the main engine. (should be a roughly a 1mn burn)

then, make a manoeuver to lower your mün periapsis to less than 10km around your target landing zone (try to target a flat zone the rover don't like disembarking on steep slopes ).

once you near the periapsis, start your landing sequence - kill horizontal velocity while trying to stay under 100m/s of vertical velocity - slow down more and more your vertical speed as you approach the ground. (you can control that through both the spacecraft angle and throttle) early during this part, your drop tanks will be empty (check their fuel levels, but there's as much fuel in the drop tanks than in the lander itself), stage once to drop them (at this point, they will impact the mün)

once you are near the ground with almost no horizontal velocity and under 10 m/s of vertical velocity, use action group 1 to switch to the two low power engines for the landing. (don't forget to crank your throttle up at this point - the engines are much less powerful than the main engine, but it gives you a much broader throttle control range)

Rover operations :

for low gravity driving safety reasons, i disabled some of the wheel engines

once you landed, stage once to decouple the two ramps. (if you landed on a slight slope, one of the two doors might fall back towards the rover, but it's not a problem - the rover will be able to push them - move the rover slightly away from the ramp, then back towards it to push it in it's correct position)

turn on your parking brakes before decoupling the rover from the lander. once the rover is stabilized, move carefully down one of the ramps. - note, there's a control bug with the rover, you might have to click on the probe core and click 'control from here' to restore correct control. the probe core is slightly visible at the front of the rover)

once the rover made it on the ground, activate the parking brakes before decoupling a last time to deploy the solar panel. (the separatron hidden inside the rover will both push the solar panel away (it will dock back automatically to the rover) and provide stabilisation to the rover during the solar panel docking (the wobbling of the rover during solar panel docking was enough to flip the rover without the separatron )

finally, click on the rover's small ladder to deploy it to mimmick the rover's antenna - you are free to rove around mün with Munokhod !

and congratulations, KSC's kitchen staff is angry at you, because you stole their pressure cooker to transform it into a rover

of course, you're free to disassemble the rocket itself to check how it's made ^^

Have fun !

Edited March 27, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[eddiew]

That's a rather cute little critter there

[Majorjim!]

I think your one of the best, most innovative builders on this forum man.

This is a great piece of work and a great demo of your amazing tiny hinge. Good job, truly!

[Jon144]

The level of awesomeness here is unparalleled. That rocket is sure a beast.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Nice!

How do those service arms retract?

[sgt_flyer]

The ones in the launch pad ? Or the service tower ?

For the service tower arms, i've simply used torque wheels to control the whole SRBs + the arms attached on it. (Each 'arm' of one side of the tower is in fact part of the same object once decoupled - and the whole is free to roll 90° inside the roll cages created by i-beams at various heights) - it was meant as a simplification to limit the overral part count a more complex mecanism would have required (either through making them turn with engine thrusts, or using landing legs) this is easier, andcomes with the added bonus of providing torque wheels to the tower, helping it's stability when climbing / going down the runway

The tower is a separate .craft 354 parts anyway - so you can test it as you wish, but the mecanism is really simple

For the launch pad itself, the i-Beams first fall in their current angle when decoupled, until the lower part of the I-Beam hits a 'basket' at the bottom of the support structure. At this point, i have counterweights attached to the falling i-Beams, which makes the i-beam naturally fold inside the recess of the launch pad.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Clever!

Thanks for answering my question.

[Yukon0009]

Beautiful.

[Columbia]

Wait.. THAT is stock?!

I am breathless! Marvelous work!

[Rune]

Wow. Incredible detail!

Rune. Duly rep'd.