An Apollo-style mission

[ddavis425]

I\'ve been wanting to do an Apollo style mission for a while now, and even though we don\'t have docking, we can still transfer crew members. Please note this ship was edited into orbit around the Mun, I was just trying to see if I could pull it off so I didn\'t want to waste time developing a rocket. Here is the album, with captions for the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/GJyab

[Themohawkninja]

What exactly do you mean by 'Apollo-style' anyways?

[ddavis425]

What exactly do you mean by 'Apollo-style' anyways?

I mean the landing was done the way Apollo did, as in 1 man stayed in orbit while 2 others went to the surface, and came back up later.

[Themohawkninja]

I mean the landing was done the way Apollo did, as in 1 man stayed in orbit while 2 others went to the surface, and came back up later.

What was the purpose for having one man in the orbiting stage?

[ddavis425]

What was the purpose for having one man in the orbiting stage?

Well if I didn\'t have 1 person orbiting then it wouldn\'t have been like Apollo.

[Themohawkninja]

Well if I didn\'t have 1 person orbiting then it wouldn\'t have been like Apollo.

I realize this, but why did one person stay in the orbiting stage in the actual Apollo missions?

[Imandreas]

I realize this, but why did one person stay in the orbiting stage in the actual Apollo missions?

I will just assume they were here to prevent the spacecraft from spiraling out of orbit or something.

Let us wait for the experts, gentlemen.

ON TOPIC:

Simply awesome.

[Trebuchet-Launch]

If one person is in the orbiting spacecraft, you can control it.

I\'ve been working on the Apollo style mission as well. I designed a lunar lander based on the CrewTank mod. After much design work, I\'ve made a fairly stable and capable lander unit. As a bonus, the lander stage works as a mini-space station to practice rendezvous with. If we had a 1-m CrewTank as well, I could build a seperate lunar ascent vehicle, too, and leave the CrewTanks behind to build up Munbases. Even as-is, I could land multiple units with 1 crew apiece and fly back on one of them.

My main problem is the bulky stack I have to put on Trans-Munar Injection. Building a rocket which is both beefy and reliable enough to survive has been a problem. At the moment, I\'ve settled for Kerbin orbit testing of components. Building a booster to push the whole mess out to the Mun and Minmus is next.

[GOOMH]

I will just assume they were here to prevent the spacecraft from spiraling out of orbit or something.

Let us wait for the experts, gentlemen.

ON TOPIC:

Simply awesome.

Themohawkninja this and many other reasons. Like in the actual Apollo 11 mission the people in mission control had trouble communicating with the LM but Michael Collins could so Collins would tell mission control what was going on and mission control could tell Collins to tell the LM to adjust it\'s antennas so Mission control could get critical data like fuel remaining so the LM knew if they had enough to land. Obviously without the CM the LM would have flown blind and might have been able to land safely.

[VincentMcConnell]

The reason that someone stayed in Lunar Orbit on the Apollo missions was because someone had to be there to assist in the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. Remember, Lunar Orbit rendezvous was EXTREMELY new. It was first semi-tested on Apollo 10. The ships were in plane the whole time, though.

Back then, rendezvous in Lunar Orbit with an unmanned mother ship was completely unheard of. Many at NASA were even worried about the Transposition and Docking Sequence because it meant that you had to be detached from the Lunar Module while it was unmanned and then turn around to dock with it.

They had experienced quite a few issues with docking with unmanned Agena Target Vehicles in Gemini, so it was safer just to make sure someone was on board. The Command Module Pilot did have a job to do, though. He was a navigator and an experimenter and astronomer in Lunar Orbit.

For anyone interested in Command Module Pilots, I suggest Michael Collins\'s book, Carrying the Fire. He was the third crewmember of Apollo 11.

[deadshot462]

I read that the original Constellation program was going to have the entire crew land and leave the return capsule empty in orbit - that\'s some bold stuff.

Nice pictures, it could be even better if you could create an ascent/descent stage for the lander

[opticalshadow]

do i need a mod to have two capsules liek that so i can have a ship splint into two?

[Themohawkninja]

do i need a mod to have two capsules liek that so i can have a ship splint into two?

Yes, but it is a simple .cfg edit. There might be some still on the first page of the mod releases. Look up 'empty crew-able pods'.

[opticalshadow]

ahh thanks found it, seems i have to use mechjeb though with it if i want it to be controlable though. no biggie.

[ddavis425]

I think you\'ll also need MechJeb to pilot the second ship, I\'m not sure if it\'s pilot-able on it\'s own so I went ahead and put MJ cases on it

[Themohawkninja]

I think you\'ll also need MechJeb to pilot the second ship, I\'m not sure if it\'s pilot-able on it\'s own so I went ahead and put MJ cases on it

Whatever the CM is attached to will be fully pilotable. Only the detached part that has the crewable piece will need MJ.

There is a funny glitch that allows the modded crewable parts to act as CM\'s until they are detached from the mother ship.

[opticalshadow]

I think you\'ll also need MechJeb to pilot the second ship, I\'m not sure if it\'s pilot-able on it\'s own so I went ahead and put MJ cases on it

right, the altered pods just carry the kerbanuts, it doesnt control the ship, you need mechjeb to do that (though you dont need the capsule with mechjeb, he can pilot the ship with no crew)