The KABOOM Kapollo Program Mission Report Thread

Norcalplanner · May 19, 2015

This is the ongoing mission log for my Kapollo program missions for GregroxMun's Apollo Applications Program Challenge. This is being run by my space agency, the Kerbal Administration for Big Overpowered Orbital Machines (KABOOM).

This is a general overview and is currently a work in progress. Individual missions will receive their own entries once I wrangle everything into a form I'm happy with.

I've set the following goals for myself in completing this challenge.

1. Do something somewhat historical, and stay pretty close to the original design, at least until it's MLV time.

2. Showcase NecroBones' suite of mods, which I'm a big fan of. SpaceY has great 5 meter parts, including a monstrous quincux lifter engine. MRS and Fuel Tanks Plus provide additional parts to round out the catalog, including a 3.75m probe core (perfect for a S-IVB computer ring) and a 2.25 ton 2.5m LFO tank (perfect as a LM ascent tank).

3. Do something big and quasi-realistic that I've been meaning to do for awhile that was never done in reality. Right now the leading AAP entry is a Munar base assembled in situ using Apollo-ish hardware, although we may go to other planets or do a big wet-workshop space station.

4. No MechJeb, which I normally use a lot. I might break this rule when it comes time to assemble the Munar base and need to put down a whole bunch of modules right next to each other.

5. Only use solar panels on those missions which historically had them. Using fuel cells is a new and different thing for me.

6. No fuel ducts. All designs are serially staged, although I'm working on some MLV designs that include SRBs.

With that out of the way, here's the overview WIP album:

Some of these designs are not yet finalized, and I'm still not happy with the appearance and performance of some craft. My main Saturn V rocket is a bit too tall and has too much lifting power. My Saturn IB has performance that is bang on, but the design doesn't look quite right. I may end up calling some of these designs as good enough, or may revise them further. Constructive comments are welcome.

More to come...

Edited May 22, 2015 by Norcalplanner
Added links to NecroBones' mods

Norcalplanner · May 20, 2015

Revised versions of the Saturn V and Saturn IB are largely complete, along with all LES testing. Reducing fuel capacity of all three stages, combined with some discreet use of the offset tool, have resulted in designs which resemble the real craft much more closely. As a byproduct, all lifter engines are now thrust limited at 82 percent or lower, providing an easy upgrade path for future MLV variants. Pictures to be posted later today.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Norcalplanner

Norcalplanner · May 21, 2015

And here are the pictures of the new designs and the LES testing. I may come up with some initial concepts for INT-21 and MLVs over the next few days, but I think the main thing to do at this point is start flying missions. Enjoy.

Speeding Mullet · May 21, 2015

Great start Norcalplanner! I must say I've separately arrived at a very similar set of goals (sans mods) so will be very interested to see how this progresses.

I've taken the opportunity also with 1.0 to break from old faithful (mechjeb) which I have previously been way over reliant on, so it's slow progress and a steep learning curve right now for me.

Following this one, and it's going to be really interesting to see how the mission reports from everyone doing the challenges branches out as the challenge goes on. Starting to notice a lot of the "regulars" around these really big architecture challenges, which means I'm settling in after 2 years on the forum

SM

loch.ness · May 21, 2015

I'm watching this one as well. I'm feeling similar to Speeding Mullet above - I've only been here a year and a half but I'm starting to feel like I'm finding a place I fit too.

I've got some similar goals, namely 1, 3, and 5. I'm eagerly awaiting when you get on to goal 3 just to see what you manage.

billkerbinsky · May 21, 2015

> No fuel ducts. All designs are serially staged, although I'm working on some MLV designs that include SRBs.

One of the concepts for a Saturn V "stretch" included fuel crossfeed. Aerojet proposed a 260" diameter solid fuel motor which produced 32000 kN of thrust with a burn time of 114 seconds. They apparently built & tested a half-length version.

The Saturn V 4/260 added four of these 260" SRBs, and then (for structural engineering and VAB height reasons) rather than stretching the first stage, stacked liquid propellant drop tanks on top, with crossfeed into the first stage, with the drop tanks sized so that they'd run dry around the time that the SRB's burned out. Should have been able to put 362 metric tons in low earth orbit.

I've tried a variant of this with the SpaceY parts - stack an orange tank on top of the large 2.5m SRB's, and put four of those around a 5m core with one of the big engine clusters..

Norcalplanner · May 21, 2015

Speeding Mullet and loch.ness, thanks for all the interest and kind words. I too am looking forward to seeing how everyone's programs develop.

Billkerbinsky, thanks for the information and link. I think I'll still hold off on fuel ducts for the moment, but will keep this in reserve for any truly huge future payloads.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Norcalplanner

Norcalplanner · May 21, 2015

Kapollo 4 and Kapollo 7 are in the rear view mirror. Assuming imgur stops being so persnickety, I should have photos up tonight.

Norcalplanner · May 22, 2015

Kapollo 4 is complete, marking the first full flight of the revised Saturn V design. Everything performed well, especially my favorite part - the center engine cutoffs in the S-IC and S-II, made possible by Necrobones' great quincux engine parts. The only minor glitch was an omitted decoupler between the LM dummy ballast load and the S-IV, meaning that the CM couldn't pull the ballast free after docking. Apart from that one oversight, the mission went off without a hitch. More description is in the album below. Enjoy.

Norcalplanner · May 22, 2015

The Kapollo 7 mission is now complete! Val led an intrepid crew in the first long term test of the Kapollo CSM. Docking with the ballast tank occurred without incident, and the orbit was raised all the way up to 600 km to help the journey pass more quickly. Burning the CSM engines to increase the reentry speed resulted in a minor increase in the stress on the heat shield, but we're still nowhere near the thermal limits. KABOOM scientists are starting to think that the stock shield will be good for an interplanetary reentry, if the program funding holds out that long. More information is in the descriptions for the album. Enjoy.

Norcalplanner · May 22, 2015

The Kapollo 8 mission is now in the history books. For the first time, Kerbals have orbited the Mun and returned alive to tell the tale. Everything went smoothly, and the 9-ton fuel tank used for ballast in place of the LM was left in low Munar orbit. Although "dead", it has a docking port and may prove useful at some point in the future. The big revelation on this mission was just how heavy the fairings are - the one connecting the S-IV stage to the CSM/LM weighed 3 tons, and fairings will therefore will be ejected much earlier on future flights. Here's the photo album. Enjoy.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Norcalplanner
correcting typos

Norcalplanner · May 23, 2015

Based on the success of Kapollo 8, and in part to get Jeb to stop asking "Can we go now? Can we go now?", KABOOM mission control decided to combine the Kapollo 9, 10, and 11 missions into a single trip. The big three were in the capsule, with Jeb at the controls. Launch was uneventful. Minor tweaks were made to the S-IV to make it more useful. Mission control had started to wonder why they were throwing away perfectly good stages that were equipped with a probe core. By adding some fuel cells and some docking ports, and it's own circularization burn a few minutes behind the CSM, the S-IV has been repurposed into Mun Depot Alpha. Based on the very slow rate of fuel use by the fuel cells and a half-full tank, the depot should be controllable for at least a few months - long enough to get at least the beginning of an orbital Munar station going.

There was a brief kraken sighting - after switching back to the docked CSM/LM from the depot, parts of the craft starting shaking around. Remembering that baby krakens liked to live in the service bays, Bill quickly opened the service bay doors and the shaking stopped. Thankfully the orbital changes caused by the kraken only raised the apoapsis a bit, but it will cause KABOOM engineers to rethink the inclusion of a service bay in future CSMs.

The main landing by Jeb and Bob in the LM was simultaneously momentous and uneventful. Lighting was really good for the pictures, however, and Jeb had to climb up on top of the LM and mug a bit for the camera. The ascent still needs a bit of work - on the first attempt to lift off, the whole lander lifted off the surface to a height of 50 m or so. Jeb immediately put the craft back down again, then manually thrust limited the descent engine to zero. With that taken care of, the second attempt proceeded as intended.

After rendezvousing with the CSM, the small satellite carried in the service bay was released. Powered only by RCS thrusters, this tiny satellite was raised into a higher orbit to minimize interference with future orbital operations. Having this small unmanned craft attached to the central battery stack in the service bay may have contributed to the kraken sighting.

With all crew members transferred back to the CSM, and all extra fuel from the LM used to top off the CSM tank, it was time to set the LM on a collision trajectory with the Munar surface. Periapsis was reduced to less than 1 km, and the remote camera feed generated some thrilling footage before the unmanned LM finally crashed into a ridge. With the LM gone, Jeb shoved the throttles forward and burned for home.

As part of the ongoing stress tests of the heat shield system, the CSM burned most of its fuel to hit the atmosphere at interplanetary return speeds, in this case 3,500 m/s. We're still not close to using even half of the heatshield, despite repeated efforts. KABOOM engineers may call this last test good enough. With an uneventful reentry and splashdown, this marks the end of Phase I of the Kapollo Program. More details in the photo album - enjoy.

Phase II, using the evolved CSM/LM design with a rover and ALSEP packages on both the Mun and Minmus, is being put on hold temporarily until the kraken issue is resolved. Instead, KABOOM ship architects and engineers are going to move on to Phase III, and start the planning process for orbital stations, surface bases, crew and cargo shuttles, and finally interplanetary craft.

In order to determine exactly what the program's options are, it's now time to explore the outer boundaries of the basic Saturn V platform. KABOOM engineers are designing a series of craft with various payload capacities to LKO. Once the capabilities of the lifters are established, detailed planning for a more permanent presence in space can begin. Photos of the preliminary designs are shown below. Enjoy.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Norcalplanner

Norcalplanner · May 25, 2015

Kapollo 15 and 16 are now in the history books. Kapollo 15 was a sparsely documented affair, largely because Jeb, Bill and Bob had somehow cut to the front of the line and flew the mission right after completing Kapollo 9-10-11. That mission takes the award for goofiest, most unrealistic fairing to date, largely due to the poor packaging of Umbra's Packrat rovers from the Exploration Plus mod.

Kapollo 16 was much more successful, featuring an all-female crew, two rovers which were more compact, and two ALSEP science packages. While the ALSEP packages deployed flawlessly, and included one with an RTG, the rovers were a disappointment. Let's just say that their compact design and short wheelbase caused some problems. Nevertheless, everyone made it back home safely. More info is in the photo album. Enjoy.

Norcalplanner · May 25, 2015

While the Kapollo 15 and 16 missions were being flown, KABOOM's engineers were hard at work on the first real space station to go up - Starlab I. The station was lifted in one piece by the INT-21 lifter. However, because Starlab ended up being significantly less massive than a standard Kapollo mission, the extra ability of the lifter wasn't really needed. The station has room for 12 in the habitation modules, and 2 in the science lab. The KTM (Kapollo Telescope Mount) is attached to the side of the science lab, and utilizes the chassis of the LM. A 1.25 meter docking port is found on the end of the science lab, in addition to two more ports on either side of the converted S-IV tank. A 2.5 meter port is found on the large end of the station to accommodate future expansion. With the successful launch of the station, the first long-term Kerbal space habitation is underway. Hopefully the lessons learned with this station will inform the designs of future ground bases and interplanetary craft. More information in the photos - enjoy.

- - - Updated - - -

With the first AAP mission completed, it's time to tally up the points earned so far. They are:

5-5-1 engine designs for the Saturn V +20

Free return trajectory until in Mun's SOI +10

Lander stored behind a fairing +10

Leave descent stage on Mun +5

Include ALSEP Science package +5

Include Lunar Rover +10

Include lunar subsatellite +5

Launch escape system +5

Use fuel cells only +10

Impressing GregroxMun with my beautiful return trajectory +???

Total: 80+

Norcalplanner · May 25, 2015

Kapollo 19 is now complete. Richdock and Wilzie Kerman were the first to land on Minmus. Because rovers don't work well, they took along the first iteration of the LLES craft. The LLES worked well, taking them to the top of a nearby mountain and back to the lander again. With over 900 m/s of delta v on tap, the monopropellant-powered craft is definitely good for getting into Minmus orbit, and should be good for getting into Munar orbit. More information on the photos below. Enjoy.

Points update:

Fly a mission to Minmus with Apollo/Saturn hardware +30

LLES in Kapollo 19 +7

New Total: 117 (scoring now clarified)

Edited May 26, 2015 by Norcalplanner

Norcalplanner · May 26, 2015

As I get deeper into my AAP missions, I'm beginning to think I need to work more on packaging my payloads in a compact manner. Some of the fairings (such as those for Starlab, and the MOLAB mission I'm currently working on) are getting large and are moving further away from the Apollo aesthetic. Does anyone have any ideas for helping my designs to help bring the fairings back in line? Clever packaging ideas? Should I look into infernal robotics or do a lot more in-orbit assembly? Or just stick with the large fairings and live with the aesthetic compromise?

Edited May 26, 2015 by Norcalplanner
dang auto correct

loch.ness · May 26, 2015

I'm not sure I can help too much. The one note that I can see is the Apollo Telescope Mount on starlab could have been originally docked line with the rest of the lab and then piloted and re-docked in orbit via RCS after. Since it is made in-part out of a LEM ascent stage this shouldn't be too hard. to justify even if the original didn't do that. (Note - I haven't done my Skylab yet... so I'm not sure if I'll face the same problem or not).

I know Majirm (sp? The author of the Kethane Mod) used to have a Constellation Program on the shipyard exchange with amazing packaging. Tons of stuff fit into small areas and angles. I used something similar in m 0.90 stock constellation-ish journey to Duna. I likely will again when I get to that stage in AAP and beyond.

The other thing I sometimes to is set structural parts (like Girder segments) and then clip into those if needed.

|---spspsp---\

|.................|--------\.[-ATM-].../---------

| SIVB............Hab.....----------[].CSM....|<

|.................|--------/.()()[]()().\---------

|---spspsp---/

[]= Gemni docking port. ()=RCS fuel and/or Life-Support to offset ATM weight.

This is what I currently have in mind for my SKylab like configuration. Excuse the poor ASCII art, I'm at work and don't have access to my VAB right now.

I hope this helps - I don't really have any good answers yet. I am planning on getting to Skylab after I've got Apollo 11 up (and thus complete "basic mode" of the challenge and start into advanced mode (adding a Rover, MOLAB, Munar refinery, Minmas, LLES, and more)

WooDzor · May 26, 2015

Why didn't you put the telescope mount and solar-panels on top of the 'Starlab', like its real world counterpart? Get it into orbit and dock the thing on the side. it will make your craft a lot more stable as well since it's nicely symmetric during launch.

Norcalplanner · May 26, 2015

Thanks for the ideas and diagram. I thought about doing exactly what you described with the ATM, but my fairing was already going to be big because of the booms for the solar panels on the main body of the craft. I believe that the booms for the panels were launched folded flat on the real thing, and then deployed (or were supposed to deploy) once in orbit. However, there's no folding boom like that in stock, so my only other option was to make the boom a separate part with Jr docking ports and assemble it in orbit. Maybe I should have just created the approximate correct solar panel shape with five 1x6 panels coming out of each side. Hmmm. Well, the long term plan involves more stations in different orbits, so I'll have more chances to get it right.

- - - Updated - - -

Alright, I now officially feel foolish. In all of the photos I looked at of Skylab, and all the text I read, I never thought to search out the launch configuration. It launched exactly as you said. With that change and the tweak to the solar panels as I noted above, I think I can wrangle the next station into a sane fairing. Thanks both of you for the help.

Norcalplanner · May 28, 2015

The first half of the MOLAB mission is complete. The MOLAB and two ore-scanning satellites were sent in the first launch, while the crew and a prototype Munar habitat were sent in the second launch. Lots of ore was discovered in the East Crater, so that's where our focus will be.

The MOLAB went down first, and landed without incident via a single-use skycrane. The habitat went next, followed by the LM with Jeb and Herbus. All landed within a few hundred meters of each other, so that bodes well for future surface base construction. After jettisoning the skycrane, Jeb was eager to get his hands on the latest in extreme 12 x 12 off-roaders, er..., that is, he was ready to carefully pilot the mobile science lab exactly where he's told by KABOOM mission control.

After checking out the habitat and making sure that everything was OK, Jeb and Herbus set out on their survey. The two took turns planting flags at landmarks and promising base sites along the way. There are some good spots near the Munar arch at the lip of the East Crater, with a nice view of Kerbin, but the ore isn't quite as good as it is further away from this interesting feature. We'll need to decide where to go. Or maybe have one fueling base run by engineers, and a second base for scientists and tourists near the arch. Time will tell. Enjoy the photos.

B-STRK · May 28, 2015

Great to see how far ahead you've gone!

I've been meaning to ask, apart from dropping the TWR towards the end of the SIC and SII stages (and because that's how it was done in real life, like you love to replicate :sticktongue: ) are there any additional lifting or dV or time-to-stage benefits to the center engine cut-off that you've observed?

Norcalplanner · May 28, 2015

The primary thing I've found it useful for is controlling the angle of the craft's gravity turn. If you're going a bit steep, shut off the center engine a little earlier to get a shallower trajectory. If you're going a bit shallow, leave all five engines on to slow down the turn rate. Other than that, it just feels right in terms of time to orbit and not going too fast in the lower atmosphere.

Norcalplanner · May 30, 2015

So I really screwed up while finishing out the MOLAB mission, and only took two pictures. Even worse, only one of them is well lit - here it is:

This shows Jebediah and Herbus reentering the CSM after boarding the LM and rendezvousing in orbit. Everyone made it back home, and I technically have a base on the Mun with that first habitat module, so I'll go ahead and claim the points:

+20 for MOLAB

+20 for a Munar Base

New Total - 157 points

However, we're far from done with Munar activities. I've found a good spot that's flat with around 11% ore only a few degrees south of the equator, so that will be our base location. The plan is to refine the habitat module design, make a few different flavors (e.g., one with a cupola, one with a science lab, etc.) and then ship them up there with a Mun buggy truck that can move them around and dock them together. I'll have to test everything out on Kerbin first, and will post pictures once I have something that's worth showing.

Norcalplanner · May 30, 2015

Here's a photo album with a little bit of the MOLAB aftermath, along with some of the designs for the larger Munar base that we be assembled on the surface. KABOOM's engineers are still working on designs for a refinery, a tanker to take fuel to orbit, and on-surface fuel storage. For that last bit, the plan is to use 3.75m tanks in a configuration similar to the habitat modules (so the trucks get repurposed as bowsers after the base is assembled). Future plans may include a dedicated orbital station (Munlab) and a small shuttle to take Kerbals and a little cargo to and from the Mun base. Enjoy.

B-STRK · May 30, 2015

I've tried experimenting with this with my own design, but it seems what I've adopted depends too much on positive control to maintain a controllable turn rate, so I just end up leaving all engines firing throughout (when I center-cutoff it also drops gimbals, it seems).

The KABOOM Kapollo Program Mission Report Thread

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