[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[DaveyJ576]

THE MIDAS PROGRAM

The Missile Defense Alarm System was the U.S. military's first attempt at a space based program designed to detect Soviet missile launches. An infrared sensor in the nose of each spacecraft was intended to detect the heat of a missile launch and broadcast a warning to U.S. military forces. Intended to be a fully operational system, the system ran way over budget and suffered from reliability concerns. In the end it wound up filling a research and development role for the later and much more successful Defense Support Program (DSP). Three of the program's 12 missions ended in outright failure, while the rest provided valuable, if not fairly limited and crude service. The program ran concurrent with Corona and SAMOS. 

The first reasonably successful flight was the MIDAS 2 mission on May 24, 1960. The Series 1 bird was a pathfinder, intended to demonstrate the technology and was not considered an operational model. Atlas 45D and Agena A A1007 boosted the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral's LC-14 to a successful, but limited flight.

Spoiler

Launch and climb out went well, with BECO and separation right on time.

 

Agena staging occured as intended, and the remaining ride uphill went fine. A slightly elliptical orbit was achieved. Comms antennas deployed as planned. Note: the few actual images of the spacecraft that I found seem to be contradictory as to whether the vehicle carried solar panels. I included them here. The coms antennas are notional.

 

The nose cone was jettisoned and the payload went to work. Note for @CobaltWolf and @Zorg, I used the Titan ICBM nose cone for this, as it worked the best, but per my earlier post it would be nice to have a two piece tapered fairing that matches the angle of the Corona adapter. The SOLTAN nosecone could be used, but you run into serious clipping issues. Also, the IRL nosecone for this flight was actually a tan color and the Titan ICBM nose cone can not be recolored. The infrared telescope that makes up the payload is from Coatl. It was the best option that I had. It looks pretty good actually.

The limited abilities of the Agena A spacecraft led the program to shift to the restartable Agena B for the Series 2 "operational" missions. The images below are meant to recreate the MIDAS 3 mission of July 12, 1961, launched from Vandenberg (Pt. Arguello) LC-1-2 on Atlas 97D and Agena B A1201.

Spoiler

Launch and climb out went well all the way through staging. A thrust transient caused the Agena to impact the shroud on the way out, damaging a high gain parabolic antenna. Other than that the vehicle was fine and proceeded to orbit normally.

As an operational mission, MIDAS 3 was sent to a much higher orbit, a 1500 km (KSRSS scale) polar orbit. Even with the damaged antenna she retained enough bandwidth to complete a limited mission. I used the same infrared telescope from Coatl as the payload, and the fold out solar arrays are Coatl as well. It is actually quite difficult to get solar arrays on the Agena B engine mount that don't clip the interstage and get damaged upon staging.

 

It was fun kitbashing this stuff, and I went through several iterations before I got to the final design. Between BDB and Coatl I had lots of parts to choose from. Next up... SAMOS!

Edited September 12, 2023 by DaveyJ576
Typo

[Blufor878]

On 9/7/2023 at 1:47 PM, GoldForest said:

Oh no.... Should I be scared to see what comes from you in the next few days? 

"For I have stared into the eyes of the gods, and man they really want a refund."





Also no final payload, I couldn't think of anything good for...this thing, and I'm too lazy to redo the staging for the Delta's fairings.

[kspbutitscursed]

1 hour ago, Blufor878 said:

"For I have stared into the eyes of the gods, and man they really want a refund."





Also no final payload, I couldn't think of anything good for...this thing, and I'm too lazy to redo the staging for the Delta's fairings.

OH NOOOOOOOO

[EStreetRockets]

3 hours ago, Blufor878 said:

"For I have stared into the eyes of the gods, and man they really want a refund."





Also no final payload, I couldn't think of anything good for...this thing, and I'm too lazy to redo the staging for the Delta's fairings.

This is ORANGES dev approved use of NLS-2 parts. LMAO

[GoldForest]

Hmmm, what could I be doing with this? 

Since this is really the only BDB thing that's part of this project, I probably won't pose any more pictures. If you'd like to follow this project, head over to my Mission report thread. 

Full album: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Edited September 15, 2023 by GoldForest

[FunniJetMan]

Im not sure if its BDB or Realfuels (or some other mod) but there seems to be an issue where the saturn upper stages and the wetlabs dont work with the realfuels mod im assuming its got to do with BDB because the rest of the BDB parts work with it, but the saturn upper stages and wetlabs dont have the fuel menu for realfuels and the BDB engines with real fuels installed work are automatically switched to the realfuels fuels but the Tanks arent (only the Saturn upper stages and wetlabs have this problem, actually the LM decent Module Truck variant also has this issue.) Im just wondering if anyone knows how to fix this.

[Pappystein]

18 hours ago, FunniJetMan said:

Im not sure if its BDB or Realfuels (or some other mod) but there seems to be an issue where the saturn upper stages and the wetlabs dont work with the realfuels mod im assuming its got to do with BDB because the rest of the BDB parts work with it, but the saturn upper stages and wetlabs dont have the fuel menu for realfuels and the BDB engines with real fuels installed work are automatically switched to the realfuels fuels but the Tanks arent (only the Saturn upper stages and wetlabs have this problem, actually the LM decent Module Truck variant also has this issue.) Im just wondering if anyone knows how to fix this.

BDB does not natively support RealFuels patches... you would have to approach the maintainers of whatever real fuels mod you are using.

 

[Ganyymeede]

Pulled off some space stations. I like how they turned out.

[septemberWaves]

On 9/10/2023 at 2:51 PM, Zorg said:

Um no I dont think I have the time or motivation to do that. I *would* like to do the actual SSME candidate version which was a fair bit bigger and does have a boattail mount type thing. But not sure when (plus I dont have good refs as the layout is a bit different but its a maybe for someday).

What is this engine, and why is it wearing a jacket?

[alberro+]

[Stolas]

[Royalswissarmyknife]

5 hours ago, Stolas said:

Who painted Sn-26/B-10/11 white?

[Pappystein]

On 9/16/2023 at 1:43 PM, septemberWaves said:

What is this engine, and why is it wearing a jacket?

It is literally one of the original Proposals for the what became the RS-25/SSME for Space Shuttle and now Artemis (as well as a few other oddball proposals)

 

The "Jacket" is an extendable bell for higher ISP in space, the final frontier these are... rrr sorry Star Trek is on in the background

 

[Gupyzer0]

Hello guys, made a new issue in the Github repo. I'm using remote tech and Explorer 1 is not working,

https://github.com/CobaltWolf/Bluedog-Design-Bureau/issues/1395

Don't know much about the config files but will try later this in the compatibility code file. Maybe I'm missing something.

//GameData\Bluedog_DB\Compatibility\RemoteTech\remotetech_Probes.cfg

@PART[bluedog_Juno1_Explorer1]:NEEDS[RemoteTech,!SETIRebalance]:BEFORE[RemoteTech]
{
    !MODULE[ModuleRTAntennaPassive]{}
   
    %MODULE[ModuleRTAntenna]
    {
        %Mode0OmniRange = 3000
        %Mode1OmniRange = 2500000
        %EnergyCost = 1.5
        %DeployFxModules = 0
       
        %TRANSMITTER
        {
            %PacketInterval = 0.3
            %PacketSize = 2
            %PacketResourceCost = 15
        }
    }
}

 

Edit:

 

Well, this worked but the EC needs to be lower as it drains the battery fast.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Gupyzer0

[Rodger]

Ah yeah as I said on GH it’s a community maintained patch, if you get it to a state that works well I can merge it in. Those packet fields look like they’re based on the stock antenna modules, the values of them should probably be set to the same as is on the stock part - interval .6 size 2, cost 1.5

4 hours ago, Gupyzer0 said:

Hello guys, made a new issue in the Github repo. I'm using remote tech and Explorer 1 is not working,

https://github.com/CobaltWolf/Bluedog-Design-Bureau/issues/1395

Don't know much about the config files but will try later this in the compatibility code file. Maybe I'm missing something.

//GameData\Bluedog_DB\Compatibility\RemoteTech\remotetech_Probes.cfg

@PART[bluedog_Juno1_Explorer1]:NEEDS[RemoteTech,!SETIRebalance]:BEFORE[RemoteTech]
{
    !MODULE[ModuleRTAntennaPassive]{}
   
    %MODULE[ModuleRTAntenna]
    {
        %Mode0OmniRange = 3000
        %Mode1OmniRange = 2500000
        %EnergyCost = 1.5
        %DeployFxModules = 0
       
        %TRANSMITTER
        {
            %PacketInterval = 0.3
            %PacketSize = 2
            %PacketResourceCost = 15
        }
    }
}

 

Edit:

 

Well, this worked but the EC needs to be lower as it drains the battery fast.

 

[Gupyzer0]

6 hours ago, Rodger said:

Ah yeah as I said on GH it’s a community maintained patch, if you get it to a state that works well I can merge it in. Those packet fields look like they’re based on the stock antenna modules, the values of them should probably be set to the same as is on the stock part - interval .6 size 2, cost 1.5

 

All right, will work on it this week. Will test all the explorer series of probes and submit the change.

[TaintedLion]

On 9/11/2023 at 10:08 PM, DaveyJ576 said:

THE MIDAS PROGRAM

The Missile Defense Alarm System was the U.S. military's first attempt at a space based program designed to detect Soviet missile launches. An infrared sensor in the nose of each spacecraft was intended to detect the heat of a missile launch and broadcast a warning to U.S. military forces. Intended to be a fully operational system, the system ran way over budget and suffered from reliability concerns. In the end it wound up filling a research and development role for the later and much more successful Defense Support Program (DSP). Three of the program's 12 missions ended in outright failure, while the rest provided valuable, if not fairly limited and crude service. The program ran concurrent with Corona and SAMOS. 

The first reasonably successful flight was the MIDAS 2 mission on May 24, 1960. The Series 1 bird was a pathfinder, intended to demonstrate the technology and was not considered an operational model. Atlas 45D and Agena A A1007 boosted the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral's LC-14 to a successful, but limited flight.

  Reveal hidden contents

Launch and climb out went well, with BECO and separation right on time.

 

Agena staging occured as intended, and the remaining ride uphill went fine. A slightly elliptical orbit was achieved. Comms antennas deployed as planned. Note: the few actual images of the spacecraft that I found seem to be contradictory as to whether the vehicle carried solar panels. I included them here. The coms antennas are notional.

 

The nose cone was jettisoned and the payload went to work. Note for @CobaltWolf and @Zorg, I used the Titan ICBM nose cone for this, as it worked the best, but per my earlier post it would be nice to have a two piece tapered fairing that matches the angle of the Corona adapter. The SOLTAN nosecone could be used, but you run into serious clipping issues. Also, the IRL nosecone for this flight was actually a tan color and the Titan ICBM nose cone can not be recolored. The infrared telescope that makes up the payload is from Coatl. It was the best option that I had. It looks pretty good actually.

The limited abilities of the Agena A spacecraft led the program to shift to the restartable Agena B for the Series 2 "operational" missions. The images below are meant to recreate the MIDAS 3 mission of July 12, 1961, launched from Vandenberg (Pt. Arguello) LC-1-2 on Atlas 97D and Agena B A1201.

  Reveal hidden contents

Launch and climb out went well all the way through staging. A thrust transient caused the Agena to impact the shroud on the way out, damaging a high gain parabolic antenna. Other than that the vehicle was fine and proceeded to orbit normally.

As an operational mission, MIDAS 3 was sent to a much higher orbit, a 1500 km (KSRSS scale) polar orbit. Even with the damaged antenna she retained enough bandwidth to complete a limited mission. I used the same infrared telescope from Coatl as the payload, and the fold out solar arrays are Coatl as well. It is actually quite difficult to get solar arrays on the Agena B engine mount that don't clip the interstage and get damaged upon staging.

 

It was fun kitbashing this stuff, and I went through several iterations before I got to the final design. Between BDB and Coatl I had lots of parts to choose from. Next up... SAMOS!

How do you convert from real scale to KSRSS scale?

[Stolas]

[DaveyJ576]

8 hours ago, TaintedLion said:

How do you convert from real scale to KSRSS scale?

I am not sure what you are asking. I started with stock scale, and when I loaded KSRSS it converted it 2.5x. Is that what you wanted to know?

[Zorg]

On 9/16/2023 at 10:43 PM, septemberWaves said:

What is this engine, and why is it wearing a jacket?

To elaborate on what @Pappystein wrote, this was Pratt & Whitney's proposal for the SSME, competing with Aerojet's and Rocketdyne's (who won of course). It was derivative of their earlier work on the XLR-129 and in fact early on in the program when the thrust requirements were a lot lower, I believe the initial proposal was more or less an XLR129 and what we see here is a mockup of a later uprated and enlarged version.

Throughout most of the program, P&W were considered the leading candidate as they had been working on staged combustion ideas long before the shuttle program, first through the RL20 concept and then the XLR129 which had components tested on the stand (for the ISINGLASS rocket powered boost glide spyplane). You will find a lot of the earlier Space Shuttle concepts from various contractors outright mentioning the XLR129 as the baseline engine.

The thrust requirement from NASA kept rising though when it got to over 500k lbf, P&W were really struggling while Rocketdyne shot ahead to frontrunner by demonstrating an engine on the test stand at the required thrust level. However the chamber for this test was fed by fuel pressurized directly from the test stand and didnt have functional turbo pumps, I guess they thought they would figure out the turbo pumps later! Much to P&W's anger Rocketdyne won the contract despite their protests. As it turned out the early SSME was plagued by turbo pump issues which werent fully resolved until NASA hired P&W to fix the pumps

Anyway its a strange tale of what might have been. The engine in the strictest sense isnt really within the scope of BDB. I suppose but I made the original XLR129 as part of series of oddball hydrolox engines as Cobalt had always wanted some of them in the mod (not the XLR specifically but M1 and RL20 were mentioned long ago). And since this is related and because I like It I might still do it someday.

ps. more general comment re lack of Atlas updates, been a bit preoccupied but hopefully can resume work on it soon!

Edited September 19, 2023 by Zorg

[Stolas]

[yeag4]

4 hours ago, Stolas said:

What mods are you using here besides bdb?

[CollectingSP]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:59 AM, yeag4 said:

What mods are you using here besides bdb?

Looks like RO (Realism Overhaul) to me. 

[kspbutitscursed]

KSRSS

1 hour ago, CollectingSP said:

Looks like RO (Realism Overhaul) to me. 

 

[Stolas]