Forgotten Space Program

[Cydonian Monk]

Captain Kerman and...
The Robot Invasion of Jool

With the K-2 parked safely Laythe, the mission focus turned to completing the placement of the six probes into their initial survey orbits and the first two communications satellites into their operating orbits. First up was the Calcium 2, which had already captured at Laythe, but was working its way down into the desired 500km polar survey orbit. 

The first several passes of the Ca-2 allowed the crew to pull in more science data to compare to the data they had gathered from their eccentric, ten-degree inclined orbit. And the results were just as puzzling and spectacular as Agake had been reading locally.

With the Calcium 2 in its initial orbit, attention next turned to its twin, the Calcium 1. This probe had been placed into a slightly longer intercept to allow for Laythe to rotate and present a different face to the second probe. (This would nearly double the speed of their surface mapping.) As expected, the probe entered into its intended, 200km orbit, some 80 degrees out of phase with the orbit of the Ca-2. As all the high-orbit science had been completed by the Ca-2, the Ca-1 began mapping the surface even as it was completing the final phases of its capture burn.

--

With Laythe sorted, the next probe to begin its scheduled operations was the Calcium 4 at Tylo, entering into an initial orbit of some 305km. The largest and most massive of Jool's moon, Tylo is also the most expensive place to capture and alter ones orbit. No landers will visit the massive moon during this trip, but the crew is expected to at enter into an eccentric orbit to capture first-hand observations and photos of the surface.

The maps generated by the Ca-4 will no doubt come in handy when future missions are sent to land here. And perhaps the science data gathered here will answer some of the deeper questions about the moon, such as why its density is so much lower than the rest of the large bodies in the Kerbol system. Still, its high gravity and lack of an atmosphere make it a very scary place.

Very scary indeed.

--

And now we get to the first moon a probe was dispatched to: Pol. The Calcium 6 arrived at the tiny grain of stellar pollen to find it obviously wasn't the first thing to arrive there (except it didn't). Someone, somehow, had left a flag down on the moon's surface which was broadcasting the usual flag details: name (Pollen Grain), location (15º41'S, 56º10'W), and when it was placed (Year 61, day 93), some 38 years previous (except it wasn't). So far none of the other moons had displayed any obvious signs of being visited (aside from that one possible flare at Laythe), so this was a bit of a surprise. And yet not.

Clearly this would warrant further investigation. And a visit. [Or it would if they knew it was there..... It's just a flag, after all, and doesn't have some special transmitter. [Or does it?  ]]

The initial orbit at Pol was at a brisk 40km. Low enough to be unnerving, yet still high enough to count as high orbit. The remarkable spread of the mapping scanners meant that Pol would be the first moon to be fully mapped, but that data won't become relevant until the team needs to choose a landing site. 

--

Inward next to the highly-inclined rock curiously known as Bop. The Calcium 5 arrived at this most peculiar pebble and quickly entered into a 38km initial orbit. At first no contact was possible with the probe, as it was out of range of both the Scandium satellites and the Jumble of Parts, but Macfred later retasked the main dish on the Jumble of Parts to aim in Bop's general direction. (Which gave it just enough range to reach, thanks to the additive antenna method.)

The initial results from the probe's science instruments sent Agake's head spinning, and all of the tiny moon begged for more investigation. No flags discovered, unlike Pol, so it was unlikely to be selected for a visit by the crew on this trip unless something extremely peculiar was turned up by the mapping hardware. Agake would certainly lobby for it.

Then again there is that strange flash of green... and a good bit of warranting, much like Pol. Warrant this, warrant that.... Repetitious like robots. Hmm.

--

Only one moon left, and it's a not-quite-giant and seemingly useless ball of ice. Except that it is far denser than any ice yet observed by kerbal kind, so it must have some sort of super-dense core like the rest of the bodies in the Kerbol system. Even its blueness was unremarkable to the robot assigned to its cold embrace.

We are of course talking about Vall, the oddball of the Joolian system and home to apparently nothing at all. No previous flags, no exceedingly interesting characteristics, just cold blue desolation. The Calcium 3 entered its designated 70km orbit and, after running its initial science experiments, began mapping the surface as all its siblings had mapped theirs. 

Hopefully an interesting landing spot would present itself, as the team has every intention of landing here after Laythe and are hoping [desperately] for an option more interesting than "generic ice plain number 1". To the lone scientist on the Jool mission, this moon still appears to be a dull, boring lump of ice, and nothing reported by the Calcium 3's science instruments really changed her opinion. Near as anykerb could tell it was just a geologically dead snowball.

Maybe it would make a good source for fuel and water? Only time would tell.

--

The only other events of note were involving the two Scandium commsats. The Scandium 2 entered into its very high Joolian orbit, just beyond that of Pol. At times as the orbits align it has the needed range to communicate with the probes at Pol and Bop, and is still able to talk to the Sc-1 and the Jumble of Parts via its main dish. As needed it can use said main dish to communicate with the outer probes, but only when the main dish of the Sc-1 or the Jumble of Parts is at the other end of the link.

Not really an ideal setup, but it's all the agency had when the mission was launched.

The Scandium 1 meanwhile completed its plane-change and orbital adjustment maneuver and is enroute back to the lower Joolian system, where it will enter into its final parking orbit sometime after the new year.

As for New Year's, we'll get into that in the next update. It's been a good 99 years.

 

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Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[DMSP]

Jool, you will bow to the probes!

[Geschosskopf]

7 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

As for New Year's, we'll get into that in the next update. It's been a good 99 years.

Yup, lots of cool stuff

I'm curious about your choices of mapping altitudes.  All the SCANsat parts have manufacturer's recommended altitudes, which I use for everything whose SOI is big enough.  Sometimes these need a very tiny tweak to get a non-synchronous orbit but that's easy to arrange when looking at the equatorial tick marks in the Big Map.  But you're using very different altitudes and you always have very good reasons for what you do, so I'm wondering why.

[Cydonian Monk]

28 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

I'm curious about your choices of mapping altitudes.  

Completely arbitrary on my part. On more than one probe I moved them down or up as I switched to a different mapping instrument, and those orbits were generally not perfectly circular. Yes, there are a number of "ideal" orbits for efficiency and speed in mapping, but I generally just want maps and have effectively infinite time to get them. Once moving into low orbit I'll be a bit more precise in my choices, as those are the irbits that can take some time to fully map out.

I also discovered much too late that, thanks to power limitations, these probes can only run one of the SCANsat scanners at a time, and one of the scanners for only a short amount of time at that. 

[Geschosskopf]

7 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Completely arbitrary on my part. 

Phooey.  I was hoping gain some pearl of wisdom

 

 

7 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

I also discovered much too late that, thanks to power limitations, these probes can only run one of the SCANsat scanners at a time, and one of the scanners for only a short amount of time at that. 

I've found that SCANsat's power issues are more apparent than real.  Even though the small map screen might go to static, the mapping still happens and will be there when power comes back.  And if you go play with another ship, you don't even see the static.  Of course, this might be considered an exploit, but needs must.....

[Cydonian Monk]

16 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Phooey.  I was hoping gain some pearl of wisdom

Nonesuch here on this day. Sorry.

Quote

I've found that SCANsat's power issues are more apparent than real.  Even though the small map screen might go to static, the mapping still happens and will be there when power comes back.  And if you go play with another ship, you don't even see the static.

Absolutely correct. It also helps that these probes have a healthy set of RTGs, and more than a few batteries to spare. So I keep one of the batteries "locked" and just let the one overly power-hungry instrument run. It drains the batteries down a bit, but generally takes several orbits to do so. I think Tylo is the only moon its having any real issues mapping, and that's to be expected. Way I figure it is these probes are smart enough to switch off for a few orbits to allow the batteries to recharge, then they go back at it. And it's only the one instrument, so....

The bigger question is whether or not I'll be able to use these as effective commsats once the primary mission is over. I'm finding the Joolian moons are a bit further apart than I expected. Mission #2 may include a healthy number of higher powered relays.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Wildcat111]

MOAR LINES!!!!!!

[Cydonian Monk]

2 minutes ago, Wildcat111 said:

MOAR LINES!!!!!!

Unfortunately there are now fewer lines, at least lines visible from the Jool map view. Just the five moons, the two commsats and the inbound Potassium 3. I'll get to adding more lines sometime this summer.

[Wildcat111]

10 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Unfortunately there are now fewer lines, at least lines visible from the Jool map view. Just the five moons, the two commsats and the inbound Potassium 3. I'll get to adding more lines sometime this summer.

oh.

P.S, Today is the date of the landing of Apollo 11!

[Cydonian Monk]

4 minutes ago, Wildcat111 said:

P.S, Today is the date of the landing of Apollo 11!

It is indeed. It's also the 40th anniversary of the landing of Viking 1 on Mars, lest we forget our robot overlords. 

:hailprobe:

[Wildcat111]

1 minute ago, Cydonian Monk said:

It is indeed. It's also the 40th anniversary of the landing of Viking 1 on Mars, lest we forget our robot overlords. 

:hailprobe:

All hail the probes!

[Planetfall]

I just caught up... I cant press the next page button anymore! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! 

Fantastic serise. I love the plot, the dioloug, the pictures, everything!  Keep up the amazing work please. Or in the time honored phrase of this thread...

MOAR!!! 

[DaMachinator]

1 hour ago, Planetfall said:

MOAR!!! 

BOOSTERS!!!

Sorry, I had to do that at least once.

[Planetfall]

10 minutes ago, DaMachinator said:

BOOSTERS!!!

Sorry, I had to do that at least once.

Well actually that reminds me of a question I have. Where are the original four? It seems like they would be the people that could remember the old worlds, but than again Gene and the staff can't remeber them ether. Still it's odd Jeb and the rest go unmentioned. Hmmm. I bet they will turn up. Maybe Jebs the party boss or somthing. 

[Cydonian Monk]

2 minutes ago, Planetfall said:

Where are the original four?

We are all Jeb. 

 

 

[Garibaldi2257]

very nice reference

[Cydonian Monk]

Setting up the Fireworks

While all of the probes were arriving at their future homes, the crew aboard the Jumble of Parts was working out how to bring all the various bits together in as simple a manner as possible. In the end they decided to move the Potassium 1 with its very jumbled payload into a ten degree inclined orbit (it was already at some 9 plus degrees), and to circularize at one hundred and fifty kilometers. 

The burn to adjust their inclination was little more than an engines test, less than ten seconds using only a pair of the main engines. The burn to bring their apoapsis down to 150km was a bit more involved, and, as with all things fitting and proper, mostly took place while they were in Laythe's shadow.

And with that, the Jumble of Parts had reached its final destination: Laythe orbit. Technically speaking the Jumble is more the station module itself, while the Parts are the various landers, shuttles, and other bits sent along with it. And since all of the parts in the K-1 stack were tightly secured by struts, somebody needed to venture out and remove said struts. 

Well, they didn't really need to, but it's best to not have razor-sharp strands of metal flapping about from the sides of your spaceship. And Macfred needed an excuse to go on EVA for the first time while in Laythe orbit. After collecting all of the struts and the end plates, he stored the mounts in one of the station's "SC-62 Container" EVA closets and made his way back inside.

The rest of the "assembly" required kerbals at the controls. Gletrix took her place in the LDAV's cockpit, Thomlock took his in the Jumble of Part's command pod. Macfred took the controls of the Sulphur shuttle, but only as a precaution in case it needed to break free to rescue something. (Agake remained buried under the mountain of science tasks she had discovered hiding in the lab's cabinets. Many things were cooking and bubbling, and all of them needed semi-constant attention.)

Step one was to flip the whole mess around. Docked to the nose of the Jumble of Parts was the docking adapter for the Potassium 1. This Large to Standard docking port node would allow the K-1 to dock up with other standard ports, such as that the back of the K-2. As you may recall, for the trip out the LDAV had been docked to the K-1 using its temporary mounting port, an assembly that will be discarded during their drop into the Laythean atmosphere. 

(Docking these two mini-behemoths together proved to be a bit daunting.... And the crew [me] was glad to have the new docking camera alignment gizmo to go along with the usual DPAI.)

The next step in this dance was to move the LDAV to one of the standard ports on the JoP. This would free up the Sulphur shuttle for the crew, should they need it to go rescue the K-2 or any other piece of equipment lost outside of EVA range. This was a walk in the park compared to the previous move, less mass and less to the maneuver. Even then, the RCS on the LDAV wasn't balanced for this, so Gletrix couldn't just phone it in.

Safely done and back in the main station, Gletrix kicked Macfred out of the Sulphur shuttle's cockpit and moved it to the docking port opposite the LDAV. 

And with that, the Jumble of Parts was sorted. As sorted as such a mess can ever be.

Next up was the K-2 stack, which needed to "take out the trash" before it could move in to dock up with the JoP. That trash being the now-empty harness that had carried the eight satellites to Laythe. It would be discarded into a Laythe-intercepting orbit, sending it to a fiery end in the atmosphere, though it was expected some parts would survive until impact with the moon's ocean.

[Contamination? What's that?]

The K-2 required a bit more of an alignment burn, being a good twenty or so degrees out of alignment with the JoP. (While it was in an initial orbit inclined at seven degrees, it was far enough out of phase with the JoP to be a problem.) And due to the nature of their intercepts, this adjustment needed to be performed at a relatively low point in the obit. Not very efficient, but the K-2 had more than enough ∆v to spare.

Now properly aligned with the station, the next step was to coast to apoapsis, discard the harness module, and then set up the burns for intercepting. (This meant breaking the struts by force, which no one was quite sure about. In the end it caused no obvious problems.) 

The harness had enough left-over monoprop to deorbit itself, and was ordered to do so while the crew had the other two pieces of the K-2 stack dock back up. 

The communications link to the K-2 was direct using the ship-to-ship dishes, so operations could only take place while the two had line of sight. (Relay through the two orbiting map sats wasn't possible with the K-2 at apoapsis due to the range involved, and the two Scandium satellites were in the completely wrong place.) The Jumble passed behind Laythe just before the redocking was to be completed, so they had to line up the vectors precisely and hope for the best. And they wouldn't know if the redocking had worked until the next orbit, mere minutes away from the K-2's rendezvous burn.

[In one of Gletrix's nightmares the K-2 docked up with the Aluminum X4-B and promptly exploded, showering hundreds of pieces of debris into Laythe orbit. Thankfully that didn't actually happen.....]

Afterwards the K-2 performed a short pre-programmed adjustment burn to place it into an intercept with the Jumble of Parts, and the crew (still hoping the K-2 had redocked correctly) settled in for the celebration. 

What's this celebration you ask? We'll find out next time.

 

[I was going to post this yesterday (Sunday), but ran into some internet issues and had to postpone it. And then I forgot I hadn't posted it.... Busy week, but the next post is almost done and should follow in a couple of days. Let's say Wednesday.  ]

 

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Edited December 4, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[DMSP]

This is getting interesting. No. More than interesting!

Good luck out there.

[Angelo Kerman]

Neat to see the JoP reach Laythe and get ready for ground ops.

[AviosAdku]

It's really coming together now, not just in this S.A.V.E but other works, with @Kuzzter at Jool too, it's really happening here at the moment.

[Cydonian Monk]

Just now, AkuAerospace said:

It's really coming together now, not just in this S.A.V.E but other works, with @Kuzzter at Jool too, it's really happening here at the moment.

Yep. The months spent planning and prepping are now paying off for many of us. Kuzzter has a much bigger operation on his hands than my little expedition though.  

[Geschosskopf]

21 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

[Contamination? What's that?]

Exactly!  It's all panspermia anyway, so what's the difference?

 

21 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Thankfully that didn't actually happen....

I have nightmares like that myself

Anyway, I look forward to the ensuing lag best when the 2 Ks get together, before they start shucking landers.  Hopefully you won't have to endure that for long

I'm really curious as to what the Forgotten Laythe colonies have done in the past few decades.

 

Edited July 27, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Cydonian Monk]

12 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Anyway, I look forward to the ensuing lag best when the 2 Ks get together, before they start shucking landers.  Hopefully you won't have to endure that for long

It was almost completely lag-free. I think I was running at ~1.5 times normal speed at worst. Ditching the eight satellites helped tremendously, and losing the part-count-heavy harness they were all mounted to even more. We'll get into the exact details tomorrow.

Most of my lag now comes from Scatterer and EVE, which is likely unavoidable given how many cloud layers they have to handle between Jool and Laythe. 

[StickyScissors]

16 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Most of my lag now comes from Scatterer and EVE, which is likely unavoidable given how many cloud layers they have to handle between Jool and Laythe. 

What kinda GPU are you running? I've never been able to run clouds without halving my already crappy average of 30FPS :/

[Geschosskopf]

16 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Most of my lag now comes from Scatterer and EVE, which is likely unavoidable given how many cloud layers they have to handle between Jool and Laythe. 

Scatterer is very cool but it was continually crashing my game back in in 1.1.2 so I quit using it.  I'm guessing it's better now?  Also, EVE hasn't been updated to 1.1.3 yet, has it?  I forget what version you're in now.

Edited July 27, 2016 by Geschosskopf