Duna Station (Pic Heavy)

[Boots]

I got bored of my last career save in the middle of an Apollo mission profile Duna Mission, only realising too late that my poor Kerbals would be stuck in a tiny pair of tin cans for two years while they waited for a return window (and I wasn't even using Life Support at that point)! This time around, Duna I was a more sophisticated mission. A combination orbital lab and lander was launcghed with the return supplies on board, while a 7-man shuttle launched at the same time witht he other half of the supplies. The orbital lab, named 'Dunalab I' achieved a stable near-equatorial orbit before Duna I rendezvoused and docked. The lander made planetfall and returned, and the seven crew (two pilots, one engineer and four scientists) processed the data while they waited for a return window.

There were three mission critical failures in Duna I:

- None of the ships possessed an antenna capable of transmitting the data back to Kerbin,

- The fuel pipes on the lander failed en route, causing the crew to have to manually pump fuel between tanks on ascent, and

- The decoupler for the reentry module was jammed by poor strut placement, nearly causing the deaths of seven Kerbals.

Here is the only surviving photo of Dunalab I from during the mission. Lab and shuttle on the right, lander (during systems test) in the centre, discarded transfer stage to the left.

Here is the Duna I shuttle on return to Kerbin:

And here is Duna I having just shed its last two tanks, just prior to reentry burn and (failed) jettison of the cockpit.

These three mission critical failures were far from acceptable. Duna I was not a wash (the original data still brought back several thousand science points) but the costs of sending Dunalab I was non-trivial. Hence, Duna II was planned. It had two goals: rendezvous with Dunalab I and send back the research data, then continue to research stored data that had been abandoned by the Duna I astronauts when the return window came up. Duna II would be a smaller mission, only three Kerbonauts, and no fuel would be brought for the lander, so no planetfall would be made.

During the planning stages of Duna II, a massive contract was awarded to the Agency for the consctrution of an orbital base around the red planet. Therefore, Duna II's mission parameters were altered. As Duna Station would be launched in the same transfer window, The small crew of Duna II would be charged with towing Dunalab I to dock with the much larger, permanent orbital station, and performing caretaker maintenance and systems tests of the new station. Priorities shifted to the construction, 200,000km above Kerbin's surface, of Duna Station.

First the spine of the station was launched - a custom built structural pillar with four hubs placed along its legnth, with a pre-installed but disposable nuclear engine for trans-Duna injection, orbital insertion and manouvre. Then, in four separate launches by reusable tug, the fuel for the nuclear engine was docked with the spine. Then, two kerbitats and two aeroponics odules were launched to fulfil the contact's life support goals.

Here is the first aeroponics module, having left atmosphere, jettisoning its protective nosecone before orbital insertion burn.

Here it is approaching the Station. Note the four hydrogen tanks and two kerbitats already installed.

In these two shots the remotely-controlled module can be seen approaching the docking port and manouevering to dock...

...before the tug is released and pilots itself to disintegration on re-entry.

Finally, the disposable LF/O transfer stage is refuelled to enable a quick burn out of Kerbin's SOI.

The completed (per contract) station:

And the Trans-Duna injection burn.

Next post - The Station in Duna Orbit with Duna I's caretaker crew aboard and Dunalab I docked.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Boots

[DunaRocketeer]

Great looking ships