Bringing Debris to the Masses

[MaxL_1023]

Hello,

I am making this thread to post all my current and future mission pictures, for as long as I am sending Kerbals, Debris and Kerballed Debris throughout the inner and outer Solar System. In reverse chronological order, the following document what I have been doing. If anyone has any recommendations for good spots to visit (especially in RSS) point me in the right direction - I suspect there are many hidden gems within the trillions of available square kilometers. 

Triton Lander

 

One place which I have never managed to visit was Neptune's moon Triton. Renowned as the coldest measured place in the solar system, the only large retrograde moon and as cryovolcanically active, it is said that the gentle slops host the best skiing in the Solar System! (Carl Sagan). The gravity is light (about half of the Moons), and the atmosphere is thin enough to not necessitate any protection. The only minor issue is getting there. 

KSP's contract generator insisted that I make it to Neptune (and therefore Triton) within 15 years of launch. I decided to accept the challenge, as it paid out more than a million in Funds which mostly financed the mission. I knew that I would need at least 30 km/s of Delta-V. After designing the launcher stage, I realized that I sorely missed the Hangar Extended mod. Long story short, the image below displays what I put into the pre-transfer parking orbit. The vessel massed about 3000 tons, with 24000 m/s of delta-v in the tanks. The launch margin was the remaining 435 m/s, which was not usable due to the SSMEs being single ignition. 

Launcher Details:

Stage 1: 42 RD-170s

Stage 2: 40 SSMEs

Stage 3: 12 J2-X

Stage 4: 3 J2-X

Stage 5: 5 Aestus-II

Stage 6: 12 1KN Thrusters

In the future, remind me to use smaller rockets. KSP barely managed to load the vessel, and the Launchpad exploded under the weight of the ship. Thankfully, it made it into orbit. 

 

To get to Neptune in a reasonable amount of time, a transfer orbit was fairly useless. It would only require about 8 km/s, but takes 40 years! Thankfully, Mechjeb has a porkchop plot which let me select the optimal launch time and trajectory to get me to Neptune in under 15 Years. I ended up needing about 11.5 km/s - I budgeted for 13.5, meaning that I did over-design my rocket. It might be useful for Pluto though, due to the larger amount of delta-v needed to enter orbit (no oberth effect due to Pluto's small mass). 

 

 

After 13 years, a couple course corrections, a plane change and about 5000 m/s worth of orbital maneuvering, I made it to Triton's SOI. I matched Triton's plane on approach to Neptune, then set my Perapsis to about 15000 KM. I burned there to enter orbit, and closed an Apoapsis at about twice Triton's orbital height. Then, I raised my PE to near Triton's orbit and corrected my orbit to get a fairly quick encounter. Due to Triton's low density, it already appears larger than Neptune even at the very edge of its SOI! My maneuvering allowed me to approach at a fairly low velocity, making an orbital insertion fairly simple. 

 

 

Below is the view after inserting into a roughly 450x450 km polar orbit (scansat FTW). I liked the atmospheric haze illuminated by the shrunken sun. I am glad I brought RTGs - I would need a football field worth of solar panels to turn on my avionics. I stayed in this orbit for a couple months until I got 100% surface coverage. 

 

 

One more orbital picture, showing Neptune highlighted against Triton's limb. In KSP it is quite well lit even at this distance from the sun, and appears about 4 times larger than the Earth would from the Moon.

 

 

Finally, I landed on Triton's Flatlands. I noticed that I had a chance to catch a solar eclipse - sadly KSP just showed the sun shining through Neptune so I decided to wait and get the "Diamond Ring" effect instead. The atmosphere also seems a lot thicker than I expected, appearing to be extremely optically dense considering its pressure. 

 

 

I checked my instrument readings - it seems like there is about 10 times as much air as there should be. Triton's atmosphere is about 1/70000th that of Earth (14 microbar) which would be 0.0014 KPA. Also, it is about 100 degrees warmer! I guess there was some global warming since Voyager 2 passed by. 

 

 

Either way, this is what I got from Triton. I suspect the RSS developers have not gotten this far out yet with detailed biome/texturing, which makes sense since most players would likely go to Mars or the Moon and do base/station missions as opposed to just throwing probes around. 

 

Finally, an older shot from a concurrent Kerballed mission -

 

 

The first moon landing in this career! I had a mothership with a science lab in orbit (docking is a pain in the cheeks!) and used the 2-person lander can provided in RP-0. I used a single-engine + drop tank configuration, as the Aestus engine is very powerful and efficient compared to the original Apollo equipment. It was a bit tricky to land without throttling - I ended up hitting the surface at about 5 m/s and bouncing a few feet. Next up is trying to land a science lab. That will require a large rocket, especially if I want to be able to bring the crew back!

I will post any future missions as additions to this OP - thanks to anyone who read this thread and feel free to share your own KSP adventures either here or elsewhere!

[MaxL_1023]

So it turns out I left Bob and Haybie sitting in a LEO Science Lab (The space station "Spacelab III") for the last 18 years. The station has a habitation module and a docking port - time to launch a rescue mission! I do hope there are only two Kerbals up there - the Pod only has 3 seats and Jeb needs to fly it. 

 

The launch was standard, with a first stage consisting of a single SSME, and a TRITON nuclear engine as the upper stage and orbital maneuvering engine. The response time and TWR of the TRITON is more than offset by its 642s vacuum ISP, plus the 75% LOX fuel mixture which drastically cuts tank volume. Spacelab III was in a 450km polar orbit - thanks to mechjeb for telling me when to launch to match the inclination - much better than trying to eyeball it. Intercept was basically entering a 450x300 km orbit until a close approach came up, then raising PE to slow the intercept velocity. MInor corrections allowed a reasonable approach, although it did take me 5 days on account of leaving my PE a little too high for a quick encounter, besides launching when the Spacelab was on the other side of the planet. 

 

 

The docking approach was slow, and complicated by both the need to match orientation, the somewhat sketchy KSP docking controls ( or my lack of pilot skill, likely the latter) and the annoying tendency for the auto-capture mechanism to wobble my craft around like two mating Sea Cows. 

 

 

Eventually, I managed to dock. Nothing really impressive with my station - just a bunch of science equipment from DMagic, Scansat and RP-0 mixed with a lab, a hab module and associated solar panels, antennas and RCS blocks. Thankfully, my two Kerbals did not reproduce in space, meaning I had enough seats to take them back to Earth. The LEO science data is basically exhausted now - the next stop would be Mars or Venus orbit ( I put one around the moon along with my landing mission). 

 

 

To summarize the remainder, I undocked, deorbited using the nuclear engine (PE to about 56 KM) and did a lifting re-entry by toggling the pod's descent mode. This feature is so useful that it is worth the extra weight compared to some of the other non RP-0 pods, as it reduces the G-load and makes lunar re-entries much easier to control. 

 

 

 

 

Peak G-load topped out at 5Gs at about 50km up. 

 

 

I semi-deployed the chutes at about 5000 meters, and made a DIY solar eclipse visible to a random camera floating via T. Kerman's patented gravioli manipulation. 

 

Finally, I displayed my shamefully low graphics settings by splashing down while appearing to be floating in the air. 

 

 

I now have 2 more scientists available who have proven able to stay reasonably sane (by kerbal standards anyways) after an 18 year space mission. When I decide to send Kerbals to Mars or Jupiter's Moons, I know who to pick. 

Next up, I am planning to put a lander on Mercury. Since I have no clue how to time a Venus flyby to reduce the approach velocity, I am just going to torch ship it. 

Edited September 2, 2016 by MaxL_1023

[MaxL_1023]

Updated with mission photos. 

[MaxL_1023]

Alright everyone - I am starting a KSP stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/maxl_1023

I will be on fairly regularly and will use this thread to post updates. I also have a Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QP0BvaZg2x2z1YK3tt3AQ

(It is a couple years old) which I am revitalizing by posting my streams and any other interesting videos. Bear with me for the first little while as I iron out any technical glitches. 

 

[MaxL_1023]

I will be streaming this evening. I couldn't find the streaming calendar, so I will just post in this thread until I dig it up somewhere. 

[MaxL_1023]

Stream is online! (likely until 10 or 10:30 eastern time).

https://www.twitch.tv/maxl_1023

[Wallygator]

1 hour ago, MaxL_1023 said:

Stream is online! (likely until 10 or 10:30 eastern time).

https://www.twitch.tv/maxl_1023

Only saw a few minutes of your stream, but it was entertaining. Keep it up!

Nice - I appreciate folks that make the effort to stream their efforts.

 

[MaxL_1023]

Lesson Learned : Rovers are easy to make - hard to fit into service bays!

[MaxL_1023]

Stream is online!

[MaxL_1023]

I somehow managed to get a rover to float in space 5km above Iota, motionless. Gotta love KSP troll physics!

[MaxL_1023]

Streaming again! Today I am going to finally fix those rovers and potentially make an attempt at a crewed Niven landing. 

[MaxL_1023]

I have uploaded two videos splitting my last livestream  one focusing on rover shenanigans (breakdancing, etc.) and the other detailing the design and launch of the Niven project. If you want to see a 20,000 ton rocket, go no farther than:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QP0BvaZg2x2z1YK3tt3AQ

I will also be streaming very shortly - this one will be interesting, as my mission is en-route to Niven with a orbiter, lander and satellite ready to go!

https://www.twitch.tv/maxl_1023

Galileo's Space Porn, free of charge!

[MaxL_1023]

Lessons learned:

1. Do not put all the mass on top

2. The undersize signals intelligence satellite is not a ballute

3. Do not decouple parachutes, landing legs and half your fuel while supersonic 4km up.

[MaxL_1023]

Stream is online, live from the surface of Niven!

[MaxL_1023]

Streaming - today the target is Tellumo. 

[MaxL_1023]

Observations:

From the surface of Tellumo, Lili orbits so quickly that you can see it moving without any time warping!

Holy crap, Tellumo re-entry is insane!

Antennas suck in 10x - time for more config editing!

[MaxL_1023]

Streaming now - a follow up mission to Tellumo/Lili, followed by an attempt to capture and land a Class A asteroid!

[MaxL_1023]

Ok - Tellumo/Lili was bugged out just a bit - I messed a few things up. 

I have designed a ship which should be able to capture and land a Class A asteroid - I will stream that attempt tomorrow!

[MaxL_1023]

Streaming now - the asteroid Capture mission is a go!

[MaxL_1023]

Ok - the CLASS A asteroid weighs 15000 TONS!!!

This is not going to work as planned. 

[MaxL_1023]

Now streaming the Gratian program!

[MaxL_1023]

The lander is designed and the crew is ready - now streaming the first Kerballed mission to Gratian!

[MaxL_1023]

After returning home, the crew decides what to do next while the intrepid ion probe continues to explore. Streaming live on Twitch!

[MaxL_1023]

I have split apart my last few livestreams into a series of highlights based around mission objectives. If you are looking to see anything specific without needing to watch an entire recorded stream, this is the place. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QP0BvaZg2x2z1YK3tt3AQ

[MaxL_1023]

Now streaming - we have 4 scientists in orbit and we need to return them to Gael! Problem is - their lab can't survive re-entry!