Maguire Reclaimable Aerospace

[Motokid600]

 

 

Ive been playing KSP and attending these forums for so long and ive done so much. But ive got nothing to show for it. Ive always wanted to document my gameplay and share it here. But I could never get into it. I would always forget to take screenshots or record video. So this is my attempt to fix that. I want to make a thread and upload what I do have for starters. Then I'm confident once knowing that I have a thread open that will motivate me to post content.

First off I play KSP with a custom Career game. I start out with all parts unlocked except for science and gave myself enough to purchase these strategies.

I then zeroed my money, reset it to 10k and got started. This way I am free to do what I want when I want. The only hurtle being money. And this game gets expensive very, very fast. Contracts are still needed I find. Ill take whatever I can get. I'm planning a manned land and return to Duna as I type this thread and ive managed to get some field resreach and monument eva contracts. So that's a plus. And the face is close enough to the equator for a good drive. As for the past Iv moved on from Mun missions. Only did that one manned mission so far. ( With the short attention spans and all) I hadn't even thought to document anything at the start sadly. So this thread will begin a bit late but that's okay. I have some pictures from the earlier missions Ill share. ... The hardest part about making this was a name honestly.

Spoiler

Mod List

So here we go I'm going to give this a shot.

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Maguire Reclaimable Aerospace.

*because these engines are making me thirsty!*

Kerbals are ambitious creatures and they don't have much for attention spans. An interesting combination of traits.

Past mission image dump.-

Reusable rockets. The way of the future. This here is Zeus. ( I'm bad at names, but I'm working on it. ) Powered by nine FASA H1 engines and a single Chaka J2X up above. It can put an enttire moon mission to orbit and return. To be honest I don't really know its full payload capacity. Without the landing equipment... it could be all I ever need for a good while. A Dunan surface hab I made was 45 tons which needed a pair of SRB's. So that's what id call it at.

Launch of Zeus carrying the programs first manned Mun mission.

Landing of the Zeus first stage. Believe it or not I think this one did land. It used four engines instead of just one. Here in KSP we have the vast luxury of throttle. Yes that is it MechJeb. And yes MechJeb is in control. I need consistency. I need this to work every time. I can indeed do it myself, but I am far too sloppy and waste too much Dv upon which I have a tight budget. I think that one there landed with 12 Dv left. Call that getting my moneys worth. Loading quicksaves is also out of the option with a 100km load distance ( BDArmory ). And even with MJ the success rate is.. 60% at best.

The solar panel was an improvisation. It was too extend outward from a bay built into the Apollo SM. However it was "stowed" and would not deploy. Power was depleting so I had the engineer EVA and with KAS/KIS was able to refit the panel.. kinda just slapped it on.

The Zeus upper stage is itself overpowered for the Apollo hardware. I was able to do this Russian style and had the ejection stage burn off a large amount of velocity for landing.

Let there be light.

Home soon.

No light pollution out here...

Since then ive performed several missions with the Zeus booster. My approach yields a pretty good success rate and the savings really do show. So do the failures unfortunately. However the following Eve and Duna mission I was quite proud ff. Each was a slew of probes mounted on an inner rack attatched to the ejection stage. One for Gilly high/low obit, Eve high and low. Same with the Duna ( Dunan?) system. Not many pictures, but I do like them.

The Duna ascent. A sample return on its way back to Kerbin.

The same exact science probe only this one wont be coming back...

Eve's Sunset...

...the most incredible view the game has given me since I began playing. And if you haven't figured it out by now all this is the Kerbal Renaissance Pack by Proot. The man has outdone himself on this one.

That's all I have up until now. As I'm typing this I have a kerbal exploration rover on its way to Duna as well as a surface habitat. The crew is to launch asap on a new 5 meter booster Ive named Sigma.

So now that I'm actually making this thread Ill probably be taking a lot more pictures and video so I need to know. Is this format okay? Myself personally I like the blown up pictures inserted right into the post as opposed to the imguar albums. However if that's frowned upon I will use them. 

Other then that this new rocket is ready to go. Ive been testing it with dummy payloads for days. The Mission carrying the 58ton Orion-Nuke with the crew is to be next and dock with the Hab/Lander.

PS: I need to work on a flag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2016 by Motokid600

[Motokid600]

 Odyssey.

 

( I also need to create my own decals... )

Thomgar ( Pilot ) Enrissa ( scientist ) Raynard ( engineer )

 

 

( This is the first video ive made in an editor in years so its a bit poorly edited. I meant for there to be no edits in the video to demonstrate the seamless method here to recover stages in KSP. However I needed to cut out a few things one being me struggling to recover the booster ( from the shaking legs. need a solution for that. ) and some long load times. And somehow a fancy transition snuck in there  I like to think ill get better as I go on. )

With DBArmory I am able to set the load distance to 100km. The max sadly it wont go higher. But 100km opens up a lot of possibilities. The tricky part is making a second stage that can boost to a high enough Ap within that 100km distance to give me enough time to land the booster. In this case four J2X engines from Chaka. They give the upper stage a very high TWR and it boosts to the determined Ap successfully all the while the first stage is landing. I'm sure two J2X's would be the better choice. I might give that a go especially on lighter payloads. The plus with having four is great room for expansion. The second stage is also recoverable. How often Ill be able to use the return as opposed to the entire stage is yet to be determined.

And if you saw in the video MechJeb lands just like the Blue Origin New Sheppard. Ive tried on my own to some degree, but efficiency is difficult. MechJeb is not as efficient as a suicide burn, but its better then me.

Separation of the Odyssey space craft from the Sigma upper stage. They've been launched into a chaser orbit behind Mother 1. The Habitation module for the trip and a lander to get on and off the surface of Duna. The Odyssey is an Orion capsule sitting on top of a Chaka Nerva engine. It burns oxidizer with 300kn of thrust with an ISP of 800. With nothing docked to it Enrissa, Thomgar and Raynard could go to wherever they like in the solar system. If only they could survive on 15 days of oxygen.

Reentry and landing of the second stage. I set the trajectory far past the KSC. So at 50km I have to retro burn to put me on the KSC, which also prevents peak heating. This one hard landed just beside the launch pad destroying an engine, but was mostly intact. Fuel cut out 10 meters up.

So far ive yet to successfully land both the first and second stages. Its usually one or the other.

Docked with Mother 1. A long-term habitable science lab containing seven years of life support for the three kerbals. I had originally designed it to hold more and.. it might one day. For now its three off to Duna.

Meanwhile from a past Zeus launch.

The Mako rover will be the first of the hardware to arrive at Duna and land. I do have a specific landing point near the face, but with a probe controlled rover I can land anywhere. Just depends how far I feel like driving. The rover itself I must say is incredibly strong. The girders act as a roll cage. Protecting the crew cabs and expensive science equipment mounted in the rear. KAS containers contain replacement parts and spare wheels. Its mostly USI, but I wasn't able to use RoverDude's wheels. This rover here can cruise at 55m/s stable. His wheels are too tall I needed something low to the ground. The wheels are cfg hacked to not explode and obtain those speeds. Call it cheating? I call it a challenge. And a thrill. So if you were wondering about the fins. That's why. They're spoilers to keep the Mako forced to the ground best I can. Itll go a whole lot fast downhill.

The ejection stage is depleted. The remainder of the burn needed to be done with RCS. So multiple runs through the atmosphere were needed to slow down to be able to land. No retro thruster, nothing. Turns out rocket stages make good heat shields.

A pure parachute landing will always cut it so close on Duna. The parachutes contribute to a significant portion of the weight, but I needed their simplicity for this one. Rover deployment can be tricky. The ejection stage blows off and the first set deploys followed by a second allowing the Mako to rest correctly.

The Mako will sit and wait for the surface Hab to arrive. Where it will then make its way over and await the arrival of the crew.

The next step.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Motokid600

[Motokid600]

Family Portrait.

From left to right. Jool, Eeloo, Dres, Duna ( in case you cant tell ) Moho, Eve, Kerbin.

Taken from Odyssey while approaching Duna.

DuneHab separates from Zeus upper stage for Duna entry. No heat shields are needed. Multiple passes through the upper atmosphere insured the slowest entry possible.

Parachutes open a thousand meters up and slow the craft down to a "subtle" 8 m/s. Much faster then I would've liked. With no propulsion what so ever the Hab landed uncomfortably hard and bobbled around like a top before coming to a rest standing straight up. Now Thomgar. Enrissa and Raynard can enjoy a nice stay instead of a brief visit. DuneHab has enough life support to last the three Kerbals seven years having originally been designed for six occupants.

The Odyssey space craft burned into a 70km orbit around Duna with an inclination of 55 degrees. Our landing site being far from the equator. The nuclear engine on the Orion does not have as much fuel as I intended. I'm hoping after the LM re-docks it has some left over. And after its ditched I should have more then enough. Always got to cut it close... hopefully not too close. Worst comes to worse Raynard will have to start pulling parts off of it.

The Duna landing module does not have individual stages for decent/ascent. It was a design decision made awhile back to save weight and an entire rocket launch. The LM depends entirely on parachutes like the Hab except it has monoprop engines so our Kerbals can have a nice soft landing. The small sepetrons burn before parachute deployment to ensure enough speed is burned off so they're not destroyed. Landing legs and all of the above sit on a simple frame that will stay on Duna. Because even with the ascent I will be cutting it close on the Dv budget. All bridges to cross later on. See you in a few years Odyssey.

Thomgar, Enrissa and Raynard were the best Kerbin had to offer, but their heart rates spiked to dangerous levels once they realized the ground was coming up fast.. really fast. The retro rockets did their job. The parachutes were opened intact, but the rate at which this chute was set to open was much lower to keep gforces down. At one thousand meters the LM was still plummeting. Our Kerbals thinking the worst said their goodbyes to eachother, but as their last words got out they felt the huge force of the parachutes. The lander had settled just a few hundred meters from the ground.

With a burp from the mono engines Thomgar, Enrissa and Raynard touched down on the surface of Duna with a small thud. The first Kerbals to land on another planet.

The Kerbals knew they were instructed to wait for the arrival of the transport vehicle before conducting an EVA, but Thomgar was too eager to get outside and plant their flag. Who was gonna stop him? Thomgar was mission commander and everyone else was on some other green planet out there. Having been a little too eager Thomgar positioned the flag backwards for his photo... and forgot to wait for the others.

Having detected a successful touchdown the Duna Transport Vehicle began to make its way to the landing site.

Once on sight our Kerbonauts decided to bunk down instead of driving to the Hab. Once inside they were able to enjoy some gravity without their suits and a good meal. Tomorrow they'd begin the journey to DuneHab where the real work would begin.

The DTV being able to cruise at 50m/s across the surface was able to travel the 100km in record time. Raynard performed an EVA to then mate the rover to the Hab and our three Kerbals made their selves at home. Over the next few days they'd construct the solar farm so the Hab can operate at 100% and complete the list of science gathering contracts. Soon they'd set out for a long drive to explore the Face.

*And again ladies and gentleman please do let me know if this is simply too much pictures to be directly posting. I personally like it this way. But If this is too much just let me know and ill switch to imgur slides.*

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Motokid600

[boccelounge]

2 hours ago, Motokid600 said:

*And again ladies and gentleman please do let me know if this is simply too much pictures to be directly posting. I personally like it this way. But If this is too much just let me know and ill switch to imgur slides.*

 

For what it's worth, I think your presentation (and your vehicle designs) are excellent.  I'm looking forward to more-- thanks!

[Motokid600]

22 minutes ago, boccelounge said:

 

For what it's worth, I think your presentation (and your vehicle designs) are excellent.  I'm looking forward to more-- thanks!

Thank you. Ultimately this is all practice for something id like to later do in RSS. So when it comes to narration, editing, writing and posting I'm experimenting. Also gotta find a nice balance between documenting and gameplay. The moment I find myself reloading for a certain shot is when I loose interest in both.

[Motokid600]

Meanwhile back on Kerbin....

 

Wanderer 2.

 

The very same sample return probe I first used to go to Duna and Eve. This one is set for Dres as of...

now.

 

The Zeus launch vehicle.

Stage consists of a twin bulkhead design as opposed to the Sigma's common bulkhead ( like the Falcon ). The upper tank carrying the oxidizer and the lower the fuel. 9 H1 engines from the FASA pack power Zeus making it more capable then the Falcon 9. This rocket will serve for the majority of my needs.

The upper stage consists of one Chaka J2X. It is overpowered at a TWR of 1.2. This is necessary to push the upper stage to the set Ap of 150km within the BDArmory 100km window. The truss segment you see is not for hot-staging. It is an adapter piece for quick swap payloads. I could not find a solid piece that fit well, but that one. And in the end I liked it better then anything I could cobble together. The upper third stage is actually part of the payload however I thought It could make for a great expansion to the rocket should I need the full capacity of the second stage one day. For this particular Dres mission the second stage was for ejection and the third will be used for burn in, land and the trip home.

Wanderer.

I could send these things anywhere...