Procris probes - catching forked, realistic Ascension comet

[lajoswinkler]

Some of you know about Planet Factory, mod by @Kragrathea, one of the first mod planetary bodies addons for KSP. It died long time ago and was resurrected by Sentar Expansion which was also forgotten, but it still works.

So I've pruned the mod and left Ablate (sungrazing burned body) and Ascension, a comet. Ascension was a great concept, but poorly made, so I've edited it and thus made a fork of this mod. More on calculations and changes I did can be found here.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/156656-tweaking-ascension/

 

It made a lot more difficult to catch. SOI became appreciably small and gravitational attraction at orbiting heights so low, the periods turned to days not far from the surface. That's what comets offer in real life.

 

First I've sent Procris 1 (thanks to @Aethon for the name) which was a total failure because the amount of fuel it had was not enough.

Procris 2 was a success. I've used a two stage rocket and a KSPX ion engine.

 

It took a couple of years to finally get an encounter. Catching bodies on highly eccentric interplanetary orbits is a nightmare.

 

I flew past it really fast and it took a lot of time to remove relative speed.

 

Procris 2 is now in orbit.

 

It's at 6.3 km, highly inclined circular orbit, orbiting at 2 m/s and it takes more than 7 h to complete one turn. Ascension is no longer a featureless snowball. Now it's crumpled body 1800 m wide (tracking station says 2 km, but I've made it 1800 m) that looks and behaves like a tailless, real life comet.

 

 

Gravioli detector can't detect anything at this distance from the nucleus. Geiger detector is exposed to normal interplanetary ionizing radiation.

Magnetometer says there's little to no detectable field, and radio plasma wave scan is detecting electrostatic pulses from the dust ionized by Kerbol.

 

I think Procris 3 will feature a lander. Rosetta-Philae style. By the time it gets there, the comet will already be close to Kerbol.

Edited February 19, 2017 by lajoswinkler

[lajoswinkler]

Off we go. Procris 3 with Kentron lander are leaving Kerbin.

 

Kentron lander is a QBE probe with a three second thruster and a harpoon.

[lajoswinkler]

The probe is set to capture Ascension somewhere around Duna's orbital distance.

 

The plan is to get close to Ascension and start adjusting the orbit way before an encounter occurs.

Edited February 20, 2017 by lajoswinkler

[lajoswinkler]

Orbital insertion took some ten minutes at 100% throttle. Procris 2 is visible as a faint point of light orbiting the comet.

 

Global view of the nucleus.

Same view in near infrared.

 

Some surface details.

 

The probe is now preparing for the release of Kentron lander.

 

 

[lajoswinkler]

After 1.4 m/s deorbit burn, Kentron lander was deployed and Procris 3 returned to orbit.

 

First Kentron's photo.

 

Just like Philae, an iconic photo of the little lander falling down.

 

It's tumbling a bit.

 

One hour until impact. I will do this without timewarp and post updates live.

[lajoswinkler]

30 minutes until impact. 4700 m above nucleus. Procris 3 is some 3 km away.

[lajoswinkler]

17 minutes and 3450 m to go.

[lajoswinkler]

5 min until impact. 973 m.

 

3 min, 714 m (shadow is visible on the middle right part)

 

1 min, 280 m

Edited February 20, 2017 by lajoswinkler

[lajoswinkler]

Impact. Even though it was tumbling, the lander went harpoon forward like a knife into dirt. No top thruster used, no harpoon ejection.

 

Pics soon.

[lajoswinkler]

As you can see here, it was an excellent landing.

 

No bumping, no nothing. Just halt.

 

Kentron is sending its photos to the probe. There are 4 cameras onboard.

 

[lajoswinkler]

Kentron's cameras are radially positioned, so the center black square is where the harpoon goes into the screen.

 

Mission is a complete success.

[NotAgain]

Aaargh! 25 +rep limit!

[lajoswinkler]

Not long after the end of the primary mission, Ascension reached its perihelion which lies inside Moho's orbit.

 

The comet, if it had coma and a tail modelled, would be spewing gases at high rates now.

 

Let's check the lander probe.

 

As the nucleus was rotating and exposing its surface to Kerbol, the highest temperature recorded was 870.1 K which is 596.95 °C. Let's round that up to 597 °C. At those temperatures iron glows red.

 

This is the end of the probe's life. Even though it survived all this, it's depleted of charge.