ESSR - Soviet Style Space Program

septemberWaves · March 6, 2017

This is a thread that will be used to document my Soviet-style missions to the Mun and beyond for the Doing It Soviet Style challenge. I am playing with the Kerbol system at 4x scale, and atmospheres set to 1.4x scale. The ultimate goals of this playthrough are the construction of a Mun base, as well as flybys of Eve, Duna, and Jool, and perhaps some landings on their moons too.

So far, I have designed most of the basic N1-L3 hardware (though the Lunniy Korabl needs more engines), but I have yet to fly any of the missions.

Edited March 6, 2017 by eloquentJane

septemberWaves · March 7, 2017

Zond LS-1

This is the first test of the N1 system. It will test all five stages of the N1 rocket as well as the systems of the LOK spacecraft.

Spoiler

Ignition.

Liftoff of Zond LS-1.

Commencing gravity turn.

Breaking sound barrier.

The first and second interstages.

Approaching maximum dynamic pressure.

First stage cutoff and separation, second stage ignition.

Second stage cutoff and separation, third stage ignition.

Fairing separation.

LES separation.

Preparing to circularize at apoapsis.

Circularizing.

Circularization complete.

Third stage separation.

The launch vehicle performed as expected. It is now time to test the orbital stages.

Testing stage 4.

Stage 4 separation.

Testing stage 5.

Stage 5 separation.

De-orbiting.

Service module separation.

Orbital module separation.

Re-entering.

Heat shield separation, retrorocket ignition.

Parachute deployment.

Landing successful.

All systems performed as expected.

septemberWaves · March 11, 2017

8-L

I decided to skip a couple of test flights and go straight to the Mun landing (mainly because I didn't want to show off the LK before the landing mission).

The crew of this mission are Valentina Kerman and Lisuki Kerman. Valentina will pilot the LK to the surface of the Mun and back, while Lisuki waits in orbit in the LOK.

Spoiler

The N1 is a three-stage orbital launch vehicle with two additional stages in its N1-L3 configuration for propelling the LOK and LK to Munar orbit.

Ignition. All 30 first-stage engines ignite successfully.

Liftoff of 8-L.

Commencing gravity turn.

Breaking sound barrier.

I use MechJeb to limit the acceleration on this ascent to about 3g. This helps to minimize losses to drag while still allowing a high enough acceleration to reach orbit (high acceleration is far more important in scaled-up versions of the Kerbol system than it is at the stock scale).

Reaching maximum dynamic pressure.

First stage cutoff and separation, second stage ignition.

The second stage has 8 engines.

I adjusted the staging at this point so that the LES would separate after the fairing.

The second stage has quite a long burn time, made longer by the extreme amount of lag I was experiencing with this high-part-count vehicle.

Second stage cutoff and separation, third stage ignition. The use of separators instead of decouplers has the side effect of also separating all 16 struts into separate vessels. This is obviously very painful for my computer.

Fairing separation.

LES separation.

The cloud of debris currently visible in the background is mostly composed of the numerous interstage struts.

Third stage cutoff as 125km apoapsis is reached.

Circularizing.

Circularization complete.

Third stage separation.

Preparing the Mun transfer.

Commencing trans-Munar injection burn.

Trans-Munar injection complete.

Fourth stage separation.

Approaching the Mun.

Executing a minor periapsis correction burn.

Preparing the circularization burn.

Circularizing.

Circularization complete.

Valentina leaves the LOK descent module to EVA to the LK.

LK separation.

The landing site. I chose it because it's near the equator and I know there's an anomaly in that crater.

Lowering the thrust on the N1 fifth stage.

A brief normal burn ensures that the orbit passes over the target location.

De-orbiting.

Fifth stage cutoff and separation.

LK engine ignition.

Some good views of the Lunniy Korabl.

The anomaly is now visible, though it's further away from the intended landing site than I thought it would be (a result of visiting it recently at normal scale and then switching to 4x scale).

Final landing approach.

Touchdown successful. The Lunniy Korabl has landed.

Valentina leaves the capsule to plant the always-important flag.

The Munar arch is just about visible on the horizon. It's about 10km away (I know because at the stock scale it's usually about 2.5km away from the center of this crater, which is where I landed).

With the flag planted and samples collected, Valentina returns to the LK.

Liftoff, and separation of landing equipment.

I took a lot of screenshots of the lander because I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I don't usually make custom-built command pods but I thought it worked quite well this time.

Circularizing.

Circularization complete.

Rendezvous with the LOK with a plane change followed by a bi-elliptic transfer (to reduce phasing time).

The LOK points towards the LK.

Zeroing relative velocity.

The two spacecraft point toward each other and the LK engines fire briefly.

Docking successful.

Valentina EVAs again to transfer to the LOK descent module.

The LK undocks and autonomously de-orbits.

The LOK prepares the return maneuver.

Leaving the Mun.

Instrument module separation.

Orbital module separation.

Re-entering.

Heat shield separation and retrorocket ignition.

Parachute deployment.

Splashdown successful.

Mission outcome: success.

Martian Emigrant · March 12, 2017

Your LK look wonderful.

Quite good looking.

I recognize some of the components but not all.

How did you make them green? Change in the texture files or mod?

ME

septemberWaves · March 12, 2017

9 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

How did you make them green? Change in the texture files or mod?

The mods this lander uses are Modular Rocket Systems, RLA Stockalike, Lithobrake Exploration Technologies, and most importantly Fuel Tanks Plus and Color Coded Cannisters (with Interstellar Fuel Switch). The last two provide most of the appearance. It's a custom command pod built around a command seat, and all of the green parts are actually fuel tanks. FTP and CCC use the same textures to switch between, and the greenish one I used is a Soyuz-based texture. The lander was originally white but I thought it looked better like this.

Generally the fuel tanks you'll see me using are from FTP/CCC (unless they're 1.875m in diameter, in which case they're from M.O.L.E). They allow for significantly more design variety than the number of parts they add would imply (and CCC only changes stock tanks without adding new ones). The N1 is sort of an exception to this because the outward appearance of the bottom two stages is due to fairings from SpaceY (which conceal fuel tanks from SpaceY), but SpaceY is made by the same mod author and its tanks have a similar texture switching functionality.

Edited March 12, 2017 by eloquentJane

septemberWaves · March 12, 2017

LM-1

Further operations at the Mun will require a Mun base and a larger landing vehicle, but such extended surface missions will require a space station in Munar orbit. This way no pilot will have to remain in the LOK for weeks at a time during a long surface excursion, and there will be no need to leave any spacecraft uncrewed in orbit. The Lunniy Mir space station will also provide a location to analyse surface samples and to study long-term habitation in space.

The Lunniy Mir space station consists of four modules. The core module is launched first. This module contains the main control systems for the station, as well as the main habitation space and basic power systems. It also includes a Soyuz docking port.