Interplanetary Expedition Team: An Adventure in Kscale2 (heavily modded)

[Sovek]

Greetings everyone. I've decided to start a new series based on Kscale 2 and a 9 hour day. Remote Tech, Real Fuels and other various high profile mods. The tech tree is replaced with SETI, TACLS also forces me to consider that...

The limitations in the VAB/SPH/Launchpad/Runway have also been changed, with some custom rules because of it. VAB/SPH now cost 200K VF for T2, and 800K VF for T3. Part count for T1 is upped to 50 for T1, dropped to 100 for T2 and unlimited for T3. Weight limit is upped to 25t in T1, lowered to 100t in T2, and unlimited at T3.

The VAB/SPH/Runway and Launch Pad arnt the only buildings to be changed. Mission control has been changed. 100 rep is lost for every kerbal death, and initial contract number is now 3 (taken from RP-0). R&D building cost upgrades changed to 250K VF for T2, and 1.2M VF for T3.

These arnt the only difficulties either. Funding is only 50%. There is also the fact that orbit requires almost 5Km/s of dV. It has been fun and the rockets are considerably larger or stripped bare, usually both. Kerbals stay permadead.... and I will only quick load on bugs, like my engine exploding for no reason on the surface of the Mun....

Although my install of real-fuels doesnt require Ullage... I will be, unless I'm using hypergolic fuels such as UDMH/NTO in pressurized tanks. LH2 and LOx, yeah, thats gonna require ullage. Also, no reaction wheels... ever.

Starting funds are are 40K (for a fifth Kerbal, the First 5, heh), leaving whatever we get for contracts to support our early launches. Though the RT missions offer some... very nice rewards, and up front cash.

Updates will be whenever I finish a mission/day/whenever is a good time to pause. I'm crap at updating if I try and put everything up to

Filter Extensions - 2.4.1

Advanced Jet Engine - 2.4.1

B9 Aerospace Procedural Parts - 0.40

CapCom Mission Control On The Go - 1.0.1.2

Community Resource Pack - 0.4.4

Connected Living Space - 1.1.3.1

Contract Configurator - 1.7.5

Contract Pack: Base Construction - 0.2.3

CC-CP-SCANSat - 0.5.2.1

Contract Pack: RemoteTech - 2.0.1

Contract Pack: Grand Tours - 0.1.7

Contract Pack: Unmanned Contracts - 0.3.10

Contract Pack: Tourism Plus - 1.2

Contract Pack: Useful Space Stations - 1.1.1

Contracts Window Plus - 1.0.5.3

CustomBarnKit - 1.1.1

DMagic Orbital Science - 1.0.8

Docking Sounds - 1.2

Engine Lighting - 1.4

Ferram Aerospace Research - 0.15.5.1

Kerbal Attachment System - 0.5.4

Kerbal Construction Time - 1.2.2

Kerbal Engineer Redux - 1.0.18

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement - 3.1.4

Kerbal Inventory System - 1.2.2

KScale2 - 1.1.0.2

KSP-AVC Plugin - 1.1.5

KW-Rocketry-Community-Fixes - 0.3

Infernal Robots - 0.21.3

ModularFlightIntegrator - 1.1.1

Docking Port Alignment Indicator - 6.2

Near Future Electrical - 0.5.3

Procedural Parts - 1.1.7

RCS Build Aid - 0.7.2

RealChute - 1.3.2.3

RemoteTech - 1.6.8

SCANsat - 1.1.4.2

SETI-Contracts - 0.9.3

SETI-CommunityTechTree - 0.9.2.4

SolverEngines - 1.11

SpaceTux: Shared Assets - 0.3.6

StageRecovery - 1.5.7

TAC Life Support - 0.11.1.20

Trajectories - 1.4.3

Kerbal Alarm Clock - 3.4

Universal Storage - 1.1.0.7

VenStockRevamp - 1.8

Waypoint Manager - 2.4.2

With that out of the way, Lets start. Our first set of contracts.

Please ignore the contract on screen, its not one we are working on... yet. Or for a while... Procedual parts seems to be bugged with its CoM and fuel tanks. Using Mk2 or Mk3 parts would fix that. Early aircraft may not be possible due to the lack of useable fuel tanks. I havnt tried using the structual option yet.

Our First 5

And the Quickshot 1, a sounding rocket that exceeded what I had expected...

It only took the ground crew a couple minutes to bring it out to the launch site after 2 days of work, but here we are in day 3 for the launch. So without any more... LIFTOFF

Oh look, 92km Ap... I think this clears two contracts...

Out of power, QS1 is unable to send any more useful data and is heading for its demise

Almost 6 minutes of flight time

The results, 20K funds, and a bunch of science

Which gets us our first 4 nodes

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sovek

[Sovek]

With the successful test of the Quickshot Sounding Rocket, R&D was quick to exploit what was learned and come up with our FIRST artificial satellite. A contract incentive has nothing to do with that . After a month of locking themselves away, they've done it... kinda. Lack of any solar panels prevents any real lasting data transmissions, but its something

Gentlemen, the Team's first artificial Satellite, the Spud

Its a 3 stage rocket... and kinda has to be. First stage is powered by a BA-8 engine using LH2/LOx... while not terribly great at sea level, it gets it off the pad and is throttled down during flight. Second stage is a BA-2 engine using RP-1/LOx. Third stage is a set of 3 solids that push the craft even after it has passed outside of communications range and LF/O engines would shut down.

Engine Start....

And LIFTOFF

Climbing above the KSC for the stars

Passing through 17km for 18, Already moving at almost 2 times the speed of sound

2:05 MET and coming up on SECO

2:11 MET and the Ullage motors ignite, giving the RP-1/LOx time to settle before the second stage engine ignites

With a successful 2nd stage ignition, we can watch the first stage falling back to Kerbin

Almost to third stage sep.

Successful sep of the third stage. Only the rocket motors and probe body stay up. The second stage and decoupler fall back to Kerbin.

Third stage ignition

And we are now in orbit

Which means.... Contract complete

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sovek

[Sovek]

I'm back with IPETs third "official" mission. After learning about the affects of drag, our scientists have developed fairings for our payload and were eager to test them out on a modified Spud. Thus, the Spud 2. Its the same as the first Spud, but it does have the recently invented magnetometer on top.

Behold, the Spud 2

Ascent profile is considerably different than the first Spud however, its going almost flat.

Second stage ignition

Releasing the fairings and payload

Third stage sep, pay no mind the red "no connection" icon. I had disabled the battery circuits on the probe so as to get as much usefulness as possible until third stage.

Third stage ignition

Final Ap of 1M meters

Its ultimate fate was to burn up on the atmosphere though. It did get us science though

After Spud 2's flight, a Mr Beck was kind enough to do some experiments around the KSC. Although it wasn't completely exhaustive.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sovek

[Sovek]

The first of 4 relay Com Satellites called Horizon is now in orbit, Horizon A is in orbit with a 1h:31m:0s orbital period, roughly 1M Km altitude. Its launch platform is the R3 Light Booster, designed ultimately for manned orbital flights, but works well as a booster for satellites, especially those headed for the Mun or Minmus. The second stage has enough fuel to get the probes into orbit and still have enough fuel for TMI.

Horizon A was not without its difficulties though, and in retrospect, I should have left some power on the Spud 1 so it could act as a relay for a more efficient orbital insertion.... alas, it was not to be. So lets see what I had to deal with.

Horizon A, the first of four, as seen from orbit.

Engine ignition

And liftoff of our first relay satellite.

Because of the danger of loosing coms with the rocket during orbital insertion, Horizon A is having to follow a much steeper flight path than preferred.

30 degree pitch at 54km, by now I'm mostly flat on most launches.

Second Stage beginning, at 70km...

Fairings released and extending our omni antenna's, and the first of the solar panels.

5m MET and second stage engine cutoff. This is to prevent the Ap from rising outside of the desired 1M Km

Still not in a stable orbit, and quickly loosing sight on KSC, I'm forced to burn on the radial to get the Pe above 70Km untill KSC comes under the satellites Ap

Horizon A makes its burn at Ap to bring the Pe up to 1M Km. After this its just a matter of making a few corrections and our first of four is done.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sovek

[Shania_L]

Nice! What engine is that you have on the probe? it looks quite futuristic even though you are only at the beginning of the tech tree.

When using RemoteTech, especially with only 1 ground station, you are going to find the flight scheduler very useful. You can set it to perform burns while the probe is out of communications range, before you unlock manoeuvre nodes it will be a case of guessing an initiation time and burn length required though!!

Good Luck

[Sovek]

Nice! What engine is that you have on the probe? it looks quite futuristic even though you are only at the beginning of the tech tree.

When using RemoteTech, especially with only 1 ground station, you are going to find the flight scheduler very useful. You can set it to perform burns while the probe is out of communications range, before you unlock manoeuvre nodes it will be a case of guessing an initiation time and burn length required though!!

Good Luck

Shania, thats the AJ-10... I think it came with FASA. As for that bloody flight scheduler, I've NEVER gotten it to to work well, and the last time I played around with it, it bugged out pretty good and would not let me control anything even with the bloody window closed. I'm not using it, and now that I have a network up, I really dont need it.

As I said, our network is finally up, Horizon B, C, and D were launched with no problems. Horizon B is up, and connected to the KSC via Horizon A.

Horizon C waiting on the launchpad for its window, which has just about come up

Horizon C is in place, this makes D by far the easiest as it will have a line of communication at almost all times, giving us ample opportunity to correct problems

D is finally in place, and now our Mun/Minmus network is up and online. [

IMG]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/646622015391083623/896297338C50E830085E5025D169F02B17038CA5/

And after 2 days of testing to verify, our contract is complete and we are awarded a hefty sum, Its been used (80K of it) to upgrade our launch pad as the Horizon satellites were pushing the height limit.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sovek

[VASMIR]

More!

[Sovek]

More!

I have more

With the successful launch of the Horizon Satellite Network (HSN from here on), IPET Directors felt it necessary to prove that yes, we can indeed go to other planets. Kerbins nearest neighbor, The Mun was chosen. A new version of the Spud (4) was fitted with some scientific equipment and strapped on to an R3 booster.

The ORIGINAL flight plan called for a Trans-Munar-Injection using the second stage of the R3, then detach and let booster crash into the Mun, then slingshot around head off for a Kerbol Orbit.... this did not happen.

Spud 4 Liftoff

Roll complete and pitch started

Second Stage Seperation and Ullage motors firing

RP-1/LOx engine burning for orbit

Fairings detached and magnetometers, solar panels and antenna's deployed

This is about all that went right. When the second stage re-ignited for TMI, the decoupler detached. When the thruster lost the connection with primary spacecraft, the engine was shut off. IPET Engineers decided to go for it anyway hoping that it could still catch the Mun. The burn was good, almost. Engine was shut off too early and the probe barely came into the Mun's SOI. Ap with the Mun is at 3,700 Km, however it had enough fuel to reach a 35Km Pe for some extra science gathering.

With the extra science, research has been started in several nodes.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Sovek

[Sovek]

While R&D is working on 3 new nodes, Another probe, Muna 1 was launched. Muna 1's mission was simple, crash into the moon. It did carry two material bays for study around the moon and was supposed to transmit data before crashing into the Mun. However... things happened... Again.

So here is our contract, it pays well.

LIFTOFF!

Roll & Pitch

Throttling down due to the power of the Wildcat V engine

Fairings released

Panels and Comms deployed

Still burning for our orbital insertion

With our insertion burn complete, our eccentricity is .003, excellent

11:33 MET and Muna 1 burns its second stage again for TMI

Oh thats perfect

The dish is brought online and our omni antenna's are stowed to conserve power

Now that we are in the Mun's SOI, our first material bay is used, and data transmitted. We are so going in...

Umm... where did the sun go? and why can I not transmit the data? UGH...

Final speed, approx 1200 m/s.

But we got paid, so kinda a win all around

[Sovek]

The HSN has made another contract possible as well. While the dishes on the HSN only have a range just outside of Kerbin's SOI, they extend just far enough to make this mission possible. A new R3 booster was built and the probe Explorer 1 was launched. Explorer 1 carries basic scientific equipment for probing Minmus and just outside of Kerbins SOI. However the first launch wasnt a success. Comms were lost not long after the second stage ignited, and were never re-aquired. Its presumed lost. Explorer 1B was built to replace the failed mission.

The mission requirements per the contract.

Waiting for our launch window when the KSC passes under the orbital plane of Minmus. Inclination needs to be a perfect 6 degrees.

KSC is on the Ascending Node this swing around... Correct heading is 84 degrees.

Throttle down.

Due to the weight, second stage sep happens at 54K, not the 30K that will happened with Kerbal flights

Fairings released

Comms and solar panels deployed

5:22 MECO, Explorer 1 is now in orbit. FDO gives a go for Trans-Minmus Injection.

TMI Burn

Course correction to bring the whole thing in a close pass over Minmus

A week later, Explorer 1 arrives at Minmus

Explorer 1 is all set for a burn to take it out of Kerbins SOI. The transfer stage impacted Minmus.

Explorer halfway through its burn

And success. in a few days, Explorer 1 will leave Kerbins SOI

[Sovek]

With Explorer 1 well on its way, Its time to turn our attention back home. IPET is looking to clear two more contracts, the mapping satellite contract. Its worth some decent science and funds. The project was simple, put up a scanner on the reliable R3 rocket, second stage is used for orbital insertion. The RCS tanks, battery, probe core and scanner is kept inside fairings. The whole thing will be deorbited once finished. The new series of probes are titled the Sparrow Project. Sparrow 1 will be used for Kerbin, Sparrow 2 is slated for the Mun, and Sparrow 3 is slated for Minmus. Its unknown if any further Sparrow probes will be built for other planets outside of Kerbins SOI.

The mission went well... except for the limited range of the di-pole antenna. It would seem that it just doesnt have the range to pick up the HSN while right directly over the poles.

While waiting for our launch window at dawn, Explorer 1 finally crossed out of Kerbins SoI. It transmitted the data and we now have that contract complete

Liftoff of Sparrow 1

At throttle-down. Unlike previous R3 Launches, this one calls for the engine to pushed to full power at 30km altitude due to the need for a high Ap above the poles to keep a signal from the HSN

30Km, and the R3 throttles back up.

There is the sun. Dawn was chosen as the launch time to provide continuous power the Sparrow 1.

First stage burnout and second stage ullage motor firing

Second stage ignition, spent stage is falling back to kerbin

3:11 MET the fairings release, exposing the SP and scanner

SP and scanner deploy. In a few seconds the probe will roll 90 degrees to provide full exposure to the SP

Sparrow 1 is now in its designated orbit.

[Sharkman Briton]

Hey! Love it so far!

[Sovek]

With Sparrow 1 finished with its mission, its time for Sparrow 2 to take wings... literally. Sparrow 2 was finished and a new set of contracts for a mapping mission of the Mun. Sparrow 2 had to be slightly redesigned however due to the need for a dish pointed at kerbin. The scanner was moved to the side and a dish was placed opposite to make the craft balanced. Since the Mun is only a day away, boiloff isnt a major concern so the second stage of the R3 is used to insert into Mun's orbit.

Now, for the juicy stuff. Also, a tad long.

Liftoff of Sparrow 2

Throttle down right at the 10km mark.

Passing through 30Km

Sparrow 2 is the first of the R3 rockets to release its fairings prior to the second stage firing. This is so the RCS jets can be used while the spacecraft is staging.

With the fairings clear, the staging commences, first with the decoupling of the spent first stage and ullage motors firing

Second stage on its way to orbit.

Solar panels deploy so the craft can get power.

Sparrow 2 in orbit

Sparrow 2 breaking orbit of Kerbin and transferring to the Mun.

Burn complete, perfect burn

Approach to the Mun adjusted for polar orbit

Burning at Periapsis

Sparrow 2 took a couple days to complete its mission, but the result was a perfect scan of the Mun

Edit: Got confused as which mission this was for... Things will be fixed later.

Edit2: Fixed the screenshots.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Sovek

[CatastrophicFailure]

Well this looks like an interesting read. What's the Explorer-1-looking payload & telemtry science thing from the first launch from?

[Sovek]

Sparrow 3's mission was identical to the previous Sparrow 2, except for its destination. Minmus. IPET was finally returning to Kerbins second moon, Minmus. Sparrow 3 however had missions ahead of it. Its primary mission was the mapping of Minmus using the RADAR scanner, as was Sparrow 2s mission. Its second mission included getting Geiger counter readings around several areas of the small moon, and its third mission was collecting temperature scans in a specific region for the science heads back on Kerbin.

Again, it used the same R3 launcher, and the final payload unlike Sparrow 2 included an early hypergolic engine due to the time required to transfer to Minmus, the result is the boiloff off all the LOx on the transfer stage. Once inside Minmus's SOI, the transfer stage would impact Minmus. This however didnt happen. Despite that, the mission was a complete success

Due to the amount of orbit changes required for its third mission, a large amount of dV was needed to ensure the completion of all of its missions. Had it not been for the amount of dV onboard, the mission would have been a failure on all three counts most likely

The inclination of Minmus requires a specific launch time. In this case, its about dusk when Sparrow 3 lifted off the pad.

The single Wildcat V engine lighting up the night sky

Passing through 33Km

Faring sep after SECO

Sparrow 3 burning for LKO

Once in orbit, the Trans-Minmus Injection burn is calculated. Looks good here

Timing was good, it didnt even take one orbit for Sparrow 3's burn to come up, as a result, burning at night time though

Burn looks good though.

Things did not go according to plan however. For some odd reason, Sparrow 3 barely made it into the SOI of minmus, and in order to keep it in and not let Minmus fly past, it required a 350m/s burn.

The resulting Apoapsis is extremely high, and requires another 90m/s burn to bring it inline with the scanning contract. Total dV cost of 430m/s... not what was in mind.

Sparrow 3 preforming its burn to lower the Apoapsis

Science underway

Sparrow 3 on its way to impact Minmus. Before it does it will take one last reading.

Contract complete. Alot of science was gathered on this mission. And whats better, the techs back at R&D FINALLY completed their work to allow us researching a faster number of other technologies. This included crewed command pods.

Overall, complete success. The transfer stage will no doubt have a munar encounter and be flung out into the surrounding solar system at some point

[Sovek]

While Sparrow 3 was mapping Minmus, the techs at Kerlington were finally able to deliver a working single seat command module for the upcoming crewed missions. IPET however takes safety VERY seriously, and thus ordered a test of the whole thing unmanned. An abort system was designed using newly delivered Ullage motors from KW Rocketry and provided more than capable of lifting the capsule out of harms way. A science package from Universal Storage was fitted in-between the CM and its heatshield to give further science experiments and continue IPET's growing knowledge of the universe. The first flight was fitted with 4 blocks of goo, purchased from DMagic Orbital Science, and exposed at various times. Results were promising. Further scientific break through's were finished as well, giving a wide range of technology never seen before. such as more powerful upstage engines and new launch clamps.But for now, IPETs' official report on the Moho 1 launch

Moho 1 was fitted on top of the most useful R3 Booster. Its proven itself capable in the past and should prove more than capable of sending Kerbals to orbit. Total dV with the R3-M rocket is approx 5.4km/s, more than enough to get into orbit. Its also been given some different launch clamps.

R&D has also managed to complete most of the tier 4 projects, allowing for work on tier 5 research projects.

The launch tower arm retracting at the T-50m mark

LIFTOFF!

New science experiments being performed on ascent

Moho 1 at throttle down

More science in the thinner atmosphere

Coming up on first stage sep

Seperation and second stage ignition

Solar panels deploy while the service module inserts into orbit

More science performed high above Kerbin. A fourth one was finished before Moho 1 went into LKO

Now its just time to go home and test the heatshield

At the entry interface with the service module detached.

At 40km, heat is really starting to pick up

At 35km, now experiencing 1g of deceleration.

13.5Km, still decelerating, still going supersonic

Chutes fully deployed

Loads of science gained

[Sovek]

With the complete success of Moho 1, IPET officials were looking at a historic first, putting a kerbal into orbit. This of course is a very small step into putting kerbals onto other celestial bodies, but its a very important one. Can a Kerbal survive in space. So far it looks promising, but we have to test it to make sure. Kathryn Pearson is unfortunate kerbal volunteer for this historic mission. For all purposes, the flight follows the same profile as the previous mission, but with four material bay science equipment, and an attempt at a targeted landing just off of KSC's coast.

On the pad, she cant get out now, haha

Ready to make history? no? too bad, you're going anyway

Quit screaming... you'll be fine.. assuming the rocket doesn't explode.

See, it's fine... mostly

Oh look, the shaking stopped, just don't expect it to last, get ready for a little jolt

Ullage motors kicking in

Now in orbit. Getting really good at the timing

Of course, while we're here, might as well test that suit you brought. Kathryn was forced persuaded to go on the EVA

De-orbit burn. You're coming home... can't guarantee that it's not in millions of atomized particles.

At re-entry interface

The fire is fine... maybe

See, fine

Did come up short though... This might be a bit of an impact

more science and funds too. Good Job Kathryn.

[Sovek]

With the overwhelming success that IPET has had with the two Moho flights, it was time to prove that kerbals could stay up there for more than a few hours, so a mission spanning 2 days was planned. The R3 rocket however was not the chosen booster. The newer, heavier and more powerful R4 booster was. The R4 is designed to get a Moho capsule into a Free-Return-Trajectory around the Mun. Total mission time would be a couple of days. The R4 also takes advantage of specialized ullage motors, clustered engine first stage, and a LH2/LOx burning second stage. For now though, our second victim volunteer was ready for Moho 3. This also included the testing of DMagic's orbital telescope, which was nothing more than a glorified camera. It does prove promising in getting us an idea of possible landing spots for the upcoming Munar/Minmus missions.

The R4 booster. Its got way more dV than the previous R3.

Grigory Yakolev all strapped up and ready to go

Liftoff

10Km, everything looking good

Coming up on SECO

Staging

Second stage boosting Moho 3 into orbit

Service Module completing the burn required for a stable orbit. SME uses Aerozine-50/NTO as its propellant.

Orbit achieved, even if it is eccentric. Grigory seems to be enjoying it.

Coming over the poles in a higher orbit

Getting ready for our de-orbit burn after an extended stay in orbit.

Re-entry interface

2G's of deceleration forces, command pod engulfed in super heated plasma, Grigory is fine with this, you may have more missions yet

Chutes deployed. Still way off from where I was aiming, but at least its ocean

More science, more funds

[Sovek]

Although Kerlington got the contract for the Moho Command Capsule, C7 is looking for some help with getting their Mk2 cockpit ready for space. C7s Mk1 cockpit was considered, but ultimately the weight is what gave the contract to Kerlington. Nevertheless, C7 is asking for some help in getting their Mk2 ready for space. The modifications required to the Mk1 cockpit were already done and most of the tech was going to be used in the Mk2, so C7 has asked for our help in getting their modified Mk1 to Minmus to test long duration spaceflight. IPET is looking at the Mk2 as a cheaper alternative to expendable rockets. It also gave them a chance to test their new R5 rocket. The R5 uses 2 Wildcat V engines that have been modified to burn LH2/LOx on the first stage. Second stage uses five AIES MODC-2 engines, burning LH2/LOx. Service module still uses an LV-900 Beagle burning Areozine50/NTO.

Fully fueled on the launch pad, the new R5 booster is certainly taller due to the lower density of LH2.

Liftoff

Roll complete, now starting to pitch

Passing through 25Km, Moho 4 is now traveling 2.3 times the speed of sound.

First stage burnout, second stage taking over

5 MODC-2 engines burning, providing 75Kn of thrust.

CECO (Center Engine Cutoff) is initiated when the computer detects when TtA (Time to Apoapsis) stops decreasing.

SM doing the rest, as well as doing the transfer burn

Slight inclination change puts us almost dead on the Minmus' plane

Trans-Minmus injection burn

Projected course after burn

After the actual burn

8 days later, Moho 4 arrives at Minmus, ready to take its final plunge.

Contract complete

[legoclone09]

Awesome! Can't wait for the next one!

[Monsterlunch]

You got some really nice missions going on here! Keep the good stuff coming!

[Sovek]

You got some really nice missions going on here! Keep the good stuff coming!

I wish I could, but my save glitched, twice. Lost pretty much all my crafts (including my network) and havn't felt like continuing the series because of it. I had an insane amount of frustration trying to get the HSN back, which was a nightmare.Plus, because of all the work involved in posting 20+ screen shots a mission, It bites into my play time.

I HAVE however, perfected the Hiyruu Booster.

Night time launch