The Astronomers of Gael: Blind GPP at 3.2x Scale

[Starman4308]

19 hours ago, MaxL_1023 said:

Also, did you take a second look at Gratian?

It is still angry, red, and I can't see any planets/moons despite fiddling with the Distant Object Enhancement settings to try to get some flare going. There probably are such bodies, but I'll have to try things like turning up the contrast.

EDIT: And at this post, I was very much a doofus, confusing Gratian with Grannus. They're both red and start with "Gra".

Edited May 22, 2017 by Starman4308

[CatastrophicFailure]

O.o

You have many boosters, my friend. 

[Starman4308]

7 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

O.o

You have many boosters, my friend. 

Very many, indeed.

I'm still a fair distance from the end of the tech tree. I'll look into SSTOs with SpaceX-style recovery for my second flight of boosters, which will probably be once I've unlocked tech-level 7 engines.

I do have another crop of images from Telescope son of Telescope son of Telescope, although I think I'll hold off on that until I can get at least one more story-ish post in. Due to having a lot of things like rescue-Kerbal contracts that don't really do anything for the story, the only material I have for that right now is the Lifson crew transfer vehicle, which has sent the first set of four tourists to orbit Iota and Ceti. I do, however, have Plans (TM), some of which will come to light in approximately 80 game days when a certain transfer window opens up.

Hopefully the pace will pick up soon; I'm almost at my goal of 12 Kerbals of each specialty, after which I'll stop accepting rescue-Kerbal contracts, which is a lot of time not spent doing anything that will feature in-story. I'm also filthy rich, at almost 8 million roots so dangit me, stop clicking accept contract.

[MaxL_1023]

9 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

It is still angry, red, and I can't see any planets/moons despite fiddling with the Distant Object Enhancement settings to try to get some flare going. There probably are such bodies, but I'll have to try things like turning up the contrast.

That's weird. You should have spotted something, especially if you are looking 20 odd planetary radii out.

[Starman4308]

17 hours ago, MaxL_1023 said:

You could standardize the first stage core for a 10 ton payload (for example), then by changing the upper stage and adding 2, 4 or 6 strap-on SRBs probably get anywhere from 8 to 15 tons on it without needing to change that much. 

Also, did you take a second look at Gratian?

Wait, Gratian, not Grannus.

Yes. This solar system's Ike analog is just as trolly as the Kerbin system's, it seems. I forget the name, but I did take a photo of it. It'll be in the Solar System Update post following the next story post.

Haven't found anything around Grannus, despite looking very, very hard and playing with the Distant Object Enhancement flare settings.

[MaxL_1023]

Grannus is still "under development" - the guys behind Kopernicus are working on getting things to work better with two stars. 

[Starman4308]

Year 305: Interplanetary

The Gael Space Center has become confident in our near-Gael operations, but much as our ancestors yearned to explore the Kerbol system, so must we explore Ciro and its many planets.

Tellumo is chosen as the first target for multiple reasons: its large bodies of liquid water, the excellent photographs that can be taken at opposition, and its lack of major moons that could disrupt operations.

Day 197, 00:52 Hours

Pioneer 1, the first interplanetary probe constructed, launches from KSC in the dead of night, a launch time imposed by the location of the GSC launch complex and Tellumo's inclination. Massing 5.7 tonnes, it is the first payload to be lofted aboard a Pebble booster. Loaded down with 700 kilograms of scientific payload and 3675 kilograms of MMH and MON for Tellumo insertion and orbital maneuvers, her target is a series of three polar orbits over Tellumo: the first, a highly elliptical orbit to establish Tellumo's magnetosphere, which will last for 123 days, followed by a second, circular mapping orbit at 800 km, followed by a third, lower orbit for high-resolution imagery. At completion of the Pioneer mission, the probe will be crashed into Lili to avoid any possible contamination of Tellumo.

Spoiler

Translation: a 123-day DMagic contract requiring >0.60 eccentricity, 800 km circular to let the SCANSat scanners do their magic, followed by low orbit to collect all that juicy low-orbit science. Followed by a moon-shattering kaboom.

Notable is the Communotron HG-55 antenna with an 80,000,000 km range, far more powerful than the previous Reflectron KR-7, which has a maximum rated communication range of 288,000 km. To feed this dish and all the science equipment onboard, Pioneer carries eight solar panels massing 17.5 kg each, as well as half a tonne of batteris and capacitors.

Spoiler

 

 

Following insertion into parking orbit, at 01:33 Hours, Pioneer's Pebble booster commenced Tellumo injection, burning for almost 2 minutes to add 2060 m/sec to her velocity.

 

Spoiler

 

As Pioneer passed out of the Gael system, scientific systems were tested on Iota and Ceti, which were fortuitously close to Pioneer's ejection path.

 

Spoiler

Pioneer 1 passed the orbit of Iota at 11:45 hours that day traveling at 2.15 km/sec, and Ceti's orbit at 10:05 hours the next day, at 2.07 km/sec.

Day 200, 00:04 hours

Pioneer 1 separates from the Pebble booster, which will continue onto Cirocentric orbit, and initiates a 15 m/sec correction burn to adjust her entry into Ciro. Estimated time to arrival is 97 days. She also takes the opportunity to conduct experiments in Ciro orbit, away from the magnetic influence of Gael.

Spoiler

 

Tellukhod 1: The First Lander

In addition to the Pioneer orbiter, a second mission, the Tellukhod lander is launched on Day 199, 1:15 hours, aboard an Alanine booster. Massing just 3 tonnes, of which only 705 kg is the lander, Tellukhod is a much simpler vehicle than Pioneer, with just 30 kg of scientific experiments. The vehicle does not have enough delta-V to circularize; the Tellukhod lander will separate itself approximately two hours prior to periapsis, and the transfer vehicle will attempt to bring itself into some sort of stable orbit as a relay for both the Tellukhod lander and future missions.

Particular care was taken to sterilizing Tellukhod; the vehicle and fairing interior was washed down with irradiated ethanol and heat-sterilized for a week. Pioneer was also treated as per planetary protection protocols, although due to her more sensitive instruments and the planned disposal on Lili, the sterilization was not quite as thorough.

Spoiler

I'll need to look into whether kOS can be coerced to load things on boot; I'll probably pre-load a maneuver node into the Tellukhod spacecraft and jump to it following landing of the lander. I imagine I'll probably also want to write a kOS script to handle the Tellukhod landing: probably just locking steering to retrograde, collecting and attempting to transmit thermometer/barometer data on the way down, and all data when landed, just in case the Kraken strikes when I attempt to re-load it once it has communications again. The parachutes will be armed manually prior to everything.

Spoiler

 

 

Tellukhod 1 launched on Day 199 at 1:15 hours, with a 2055 m/sec Tellumo injection at 1:53 hours. On Day 202 at 00:45 hours, a 7 m/sec correction burn brought Tellukhod to a 20 km periapsis, although it will likely be refined again as the vehicle approaches Tellumo.

 

Spoiler

 

The Lifson Program: Space Tourism and the Armstrong Moon Landing Project

The Lifson Program has created a multi-purpose Kerballed vehicle for transportation to and from Gael's moons. The vehicle masses 16 tonnes, a payload for which the Laythe booster was designed. While its first usage has been commercial, to transport tourists to the orbits of Iota and Ceti, it is also planned for the Armstrong project, named for the first Kerbal to set foot upon the Mun.

Spoiler

Yes, this backstory gives me a perfect excuse to borrow names from NASA, Roskosmos, etc: that was just the space program back on Kerbin!

 

Spoiler

 

 

The Gael Space Center would like to submit this photographic evidence that no parts of the vehicle have ever been damaged by SRB separation.

 

Spoiler

Launch abort system separation occurs shortly after second stage ignition. Lifson launches are timed to begin 4-5 days prior to an Iota-Ceti transfer window, so that both moons can be reached before the 40-day life support supply is finished.

Spoiler

12-hour days, so 480 hours of life support for 4 Kerbals is carried onboard.

 

Spoiler

 

The Laythe booster upper stage, while not strictly necessary for the mission, is carried through usually until at least Iota circularization, so that the Lifson vehicle has plenty of delta-V remaining for emergencies.

 

Spoiler

On return to Kerbin, a lifting reentry ensures a peak acceleration of 4 Gs, ensuring a comfortable ride back for tourists and Kerbonauts alike.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Starman4308
Pageload spoilers

[Starman4308]

A short note: sorry about the delay getting this out, but I had some real-world stuff going on, and now I'm behind again... as will become particularly evident at the Tellumo section.

An Updated Planetary Catalog

By: Prof. Winkel Vallten, Head of Planetary Astronomy, Lippershey Astronomical Society

We at the Lippershey Astronomical Society would like to remind the public that yes, there are 10 planets and a smaller star orbiting Ciro, and our interns in particular that just because the orbital telescope program has not seen a planet does not mean it does not exist.

In preparation for launch of the Augustus orbital telescope later this year, we're publishing our most up-to-date catalog of Ciro's planets.

Spoiler

The Augustus satellite is a small shoutout to @_Augustus_, who's currently grinding a 6" f/5 Dobsonian telescope. It'll be my first with the big CactEye optics tube with the shutter and all; I'm not sure how much that will improve things other than to be even bigger. Instead of launching new telescopes whenever needed, I'll at least try to keep Augustus functioning, as it has a KIS service bay loaded with some spare parts and tools.

Icarus: Ciro's First World

Not much is known about Icarus. Named after the myth of a boy who flew too close to the Sun, Icarus is known to orbit very close to Ciro, and is presumably very hot. Atmosphere is unlikely given its small size and extremely close proximity to Ciro. While my colleagues at GSC are reasonably confident about their ability to place satellites into orbit of most of the inner planets, a flyby may be called for with Icarus due to the difficulty of matching velocities with something that orbits so close to Ciro.

 

Spoiler

 

Thalia: Ciro's Second World

The deplorable state of our knowledge about Icarus is echoed with Thalia. Presumably hot, and orbits close to Ciro.

Spoiler

 

 

Niven: Ciro's Third World

Our knowledge of Niven is not quite as atrocious as that of Icarus and Thalia: we can say with reasonable confidence that it is rocky, and any atmosphere is at best tenuous. Plans for a survey of Niven are underway.

Spoiler

Gael, Iota, and Ceti: Home

While reasonably well covered by our prior publications, my colleagues at GSC are reveling in lunar samples obtained from the Lifson-Armstrong missions.

 

Tellumo: A Strange Terrestrial World

We are looking forwards to launch of the Armstrong telescope, which should occur before Tellumo is terribly out-of-sync with Gael. One thing that the Pioneer and Tellukhod missions have revealed is what appears to be a faint equatorial ring orbiting Tellumo, strange for an inner planet.

Spoiler

 

Lili: Tellumo's Small Moon

With Pioneer in orbit around Tellumo, we have now confirmed that Lili is the only significant object (except for the ring) orbiting Tellumo. An expedition is planned for the next Gael-Tellumo transfer window.

 

Gratian: An Arid, Duna-Like Planet

Not much has been discovered about Gratian itself, but orbital telescopy has helped to resolve its moon Geminus.

Spoiler

Geminus: Gratian's Known Moon

The sheer degree of similarity between the Gratian-Geminus system and the Duna-Ike system has prompted me to assign one of my students to devise models: perhaps the outermost of the inner planets is usually subject to bombardment by large planetoids diverted by the outer gas giants. It may be a coincidence, but truly a striking coincidence, possibly one that has led to life on Kerbin, Gael, and Tellumo by diverting early-solar-system impacts to itself.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Otho: The First Gas Giant

Improved telescopy has revealed the presence of a truly gigantic storm, larger than Ceti, moving through Otho's atmosphere.

Spoiler

 

Augustus: Otho's First Moon

Large. Brown. Presumably airless.

Hephaestus: Otho's Second Moon

Repeat observations from new-generation telescopes have revealed, shockingly, that Hephaestus continues to be gray, probably airless, and a moon of Otho.

Spoiler

 

Jannah: Otho's Third Moon

The smallest of Otho's observed moons, Jannah is once again presumably airless.

Spoiler

 

Moon X: Otho's Fourth Moon

My calculations show that Otho must have a fourth moon, but it has yet proven elusive to telescopes. I intend to name it "Don Quixote".

Spoiler

I have no idea whatsoever why I thought Otho had four moons. Maybe I had a lucky screenshot with something else. Maybe I miscounted. All I know is that I will expend significant effort searching for the elusive Moon X.

 

Gauss: The Second Gas Giant

While Gauss, Catullus, and Tarsiss have been adequately covered previously, we now have orbital telescopy of its second known moon, Loki.

Loki: Gauss's Second Moon

My students' jokes aside, Loki did not "trick" us into forgetting to take an image, it was simply forgetting to take an image with my first telescope technical difficulties.

Spoiler

 

 

Nero: The Third Gas Giant

Very distant from Ciro, Nero is the palest of our gas giants. By this point, our current telescopes do a very poor job of resolving anything.

Spoiler

 

Minona: Nero's First Known Moon

Minona is small and barely resolvable with current technology. Presumed airless.

Spoiler

 

Hadrian: Nero's Second Moon

Not much is known about Hadrian: its albedo is so low that it can be barely distinguished from the background.

Spoiler

I'll insert a replacement image once I have one that behaves with Imgur. The old one is acting up.

 

Hox: The First Dwarf Planet

Hox is the first known dwarf planet orbiting Ciro. Due to orbiting over a billion kilometers from Ciro, it is presumed cold, and known to be very, very difficult to get good telescope images of.

Spoiler

Argo: Hox's Moon

Shown alongside Hox in the above image, Argo is difficult to resolve with current technology, and we know about as much about Argo as we do Hox: very, very little.

 

Leto: The Second Dwarf Planet

Barely visible on our scopes, Leto has no known moons.

Spoiler

 

 

Grannus: The Other Sun

Big. Red. Angry. No known planets despite a large amount of searching.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Honestly, I kinda appreciate being spoiled on "Grannus has no planets", because I spent waaay too much time fiddling with the telescope and my distant object enhancement settings trying to find them.

 

This announcement was funded via GSF grant R03-481992, and the Minmus Ice Cream Corporation (TM).

Edited June 5, 2017 by Starman4308
More image load spoilers

[_Augustus_]

32 minutes ago, Starman4308 said:

The Augustus satellite is a small shoutout to @_Augustus_, who's currently grinding a 6" f/5 Dobsonian telescope. It'll be my first with the big CactEye optics tube with the shutter and all; I'm not sure how much that will improve things other than to be even bigger. Instead of launching new telescopes whenever needed, I'll at least try to keep Augustus functioning, as it has a KIS service bay loaded with some spare parts and tools.

Thanks!

[CatastrophicFailure]

I continue to be awed by your scope pix. 

[JadeOfMaar]

17 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

I continue to be awed by your scope pix. 

Dem scope pix!!!  

[CatastrophicFailure]

10 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Dem scope pix!!!  

This guy gets it. 

[Starman4308]

I'm glad you guys enjoy the telescope pictures at least. If you have any advice or criticism, please pipe up: I full recognize it's been years since I last did any serious creative effort, and I'm bound to be making mistakes... to the point at which not even I'm sure what tone I'm trying to take with this story/report series.

 

Year 305: The Lifson-Armstrong Project: Kerbals on the Moons

The goal of the Lifson-Armstrong project was simple: to use the proven Lifson crew transfer vehicle design to rendezvous with expendable landers positioned around Iota and Ceti, and to take Kerbals to the surfaces of Iota and Ceti and return them home safely. Each 9.7 tonne "Neil" lander, named after Neil Armstrong, first Kerbal on Minmus, is lofted on an Oz booster, and is powered by a single Sparkler engine fed by MMH/NTO, with four radially mounted droptanks carrying the landing legs.

Spoiler

It is also ludicrous overkill; I realized it wouldn't fit on a Pebble booster, which to me means "Time to cram it full of fuel until it can barely fit onto an Oz". On top of that, the Oz booster generally gets me all the way to lunar insertion, such that I have a pretty full 2866 m/sec of delta-V. It's also my first payload in a while whose shape lends itself well to the two-tiered Proton fairing, with a squat base and a long-ish section with an extra crew compartment, materials bay, and docking port.

 

Day 252, 05:37:22: Launch of Lifson 7

After endless testing and preparation, Lifson 7 launched into parking orbit prior to Iota injection. Mission policies called for a reserve Lifson vehicle to be ready, and two Neil landers ready to go in orbit around each moon. Thus, if any single component fails, rescue is still almost certainly possible.

Spoiler

 

Four days later, Lifson 7 captures into Iota orbit, and rendezvous with Neil II at 07:35:09

Spoiler

 

Jebediah Kerman makes the command decision to alter the landing point; instead of landing at a well-established equatorial zone, with the large fuel reserves available, Jebediah makes a 415 m/sec inclination change to land on the polar Droops of Iota, landing at 08:50.

You're lucky we don't have your head for this stunt, Jebediah! This mission cost GSC almost 300 grand!

Spoiler

 

Shortly thereafter, Richemy Kerman becomes the first Kerbal to step foot on a world not Gael in the Ciro system, that the spirit of Kerbal-kind might endure far from our original home, to explore for the sake of all.

The statement given by Gilinne Kerman as she debarked upon Iota was "Oh, and this time, we didn't flub our opening line."

Spoiler

 

 

Shortly thereafter, the crew of Lifson 7 departed the surface of Iota; life support supplies are limited, and there was a transfer window to Iota to meet.

Spoiler

 

 

 

I know this is kind of a half-chapter, but the hour grows late, and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Now, to needlessly drum up some drama, I shall leave you with the cliffhanger: does the Ceti landing go perfectly fine, or does it end in DISASTER AND FIRE?

Edited June 18, 2017 by Starman4308

[CatastrophicFailure]

13 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

 

I know this is kind of a half-chapter, but the hour grows late, and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Now, to needlessly drum up some drama, I shall leave you with the cliffhanger: does the Ceti landing go perfectly fine, or does it end in DISASTER AND FIRE?

My money's on "everything went well until someone said, 'well, this is going well.'" 

...well??

[Starman4308]

On 5/31/2017 at 10:47 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

My money's on "everything went well until someone said, 'well, this is going well.'" 

...well??

I did say it was needless drama, did I not?

Also, the first version of this post got eaten. If anybody has suggestions on how to deal with that, I'm all ears. And a little bit of eyes, torso, toes, etc.

 

Ceti: Year 305, Day 264, 09:58

Lifson 7 arrived in Ceti orbit twelve days after the Iota landing, and rendezvoused with Neil 3 the next day, targeting a landing on Ceti's lowlands.

The landing site chosen was much closer to the equator than previously, requiring minimal inclination change.

And is also the planned landing site, Jebediah.

Powered descent began late on day 265, with touchdown at 10:49:40

Spoiler

 

 

 

At the landing site was placed a plaque, which reads:

"Here landed four brave Kerbonauts, blazing a trail to the stars much as did our ancestors. We have come a long way since the Transplantation. While the journals and knowledge of our ancestors has carried us a long way, it is time to go beyond; much remains not just to be rediscovered, but also discovered for the first time. For the first time in centuries, we have walked upon new worlds, and should we meet again with the Kerbals of Kerbin, we should be glad to share with them the worlds we have found."

At 11:06, the Lifson 7 crew took off from the surface, achieving an almost circular 18.5x3.9 km orbit with the initial ascent, for which we congratulate the crew of Lifson 7.

Spoiler

By 00:20:34 the next day, Neil 3 had docked to Lifson 7, and the crew returned home ten days later, splashing down at sea.

Spoiler

 

The Lifson 8 and 9 missions have had more thorough and technically challenging scientific goals, as the first mission was kept conservative in its goals. Notable achievements are samples which show that the Ciro system, unlike Kerbol, likely had a late heavy bombardment period, where the inner planets were subject to a great number of impacts.

Jebediah, 70 degrees latitude is not an accidental deviation from a nice, safe, equatorial landing.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Spoiler

As a side note: with Lifson 9, there was a wee little "OH GOD PULL UP" moment where I had the craft pointing straight up and blasting the RCS to boot so I wouldn't smack into a ridgeline I'd underestimated.

 

Tellumo: Year 306: The First Interplanetary Probes Arrive

Early in year 306, the Pioneer 1 and Tellukhod probes arrived in Tellumo. On the first pass around, Pioneer 1 confirmed the existence of van Allen belts, a faint ring system, and a strong magnetic field around Tellumo.

 

Spoiler

 

Shortly thereafter, Tellukhod arrived and began its descent. While it was intended that the transfer stage separate from the lander and be used as a relay, the transfer stage's attitude control system was completely forgotten failed, and while Tellumo impact was prevented by throttling the two side engines, that only allowed control in one axis, and the transfer stage had to be abandoned to Cirocentric orbit.

The probe itself, however, performed above expectations. An intentionally low periapsis was set, as Tellumo's atmosphere was not well characterized at the time, and with no engine aboard Tellukhod, the decision to enter at a low periapsis of 25 km, potentially risking a high-G aerocapture, but with more certainty of aerocapture period.

 

Spoiler

 

What Tellukhod discovered was a relatively thin atmosphere, that only became significant at 63 km... but which very quickly gets denser at lower altitudes. Tellukhod peaked at 30.6 Gs of acceleration during descent, and the only major hardware malfunction was a failure to have the heatshield separate.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

I wrote a kOS script to handle this one, because I knew there was a good chance the probe would be out-of-contact.

About twenty days later, when Pioneer 1 circled around into communication range of Tellukhod, the probe returned data from all instruments, as well as images clearly showing the presence of trees.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Later on, Pioneer 1 conducted three two-minute braking passes over Tellumo to bring itself down from a highly eccentric orbit to a circular, 800x800 km polar orbit and began mapping activities

 

Spoiler

 

Preliminary mapping shows that there is just one major landmass on Tellumo; the smaller continent is connected to the larger by a small land bridge. Otherwise, Tellumo's ice caps are significantly larger than Gael's, not just in terms of extent, but also in how deep they are.

Spoiler

I have no idea what's going on with the thermometer readings at the Tellukhod landing site. It reported a temperature of about 180 Kelvins, which is almost 100 below the freezing point of water, but Tellumo clearly has life. My only real guess is that it might not have been properly configured; I'll in-story treat Tellumo as being cold, but not too-cold-for-life cold. Some images from the Augustus scope are up next on the docket, including a few taken at 300x zoom (which, as I understand, is about the level that @_Augustus_'s telescope could get to).

 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Starman4308

[insert_name]

what mod are the tiny chutes from?

[Starman4308]

Just now, insert_name said:

what mod are the tiny chutes from?

They're just the radial chutes from RealChute, set to minimum size.

[CatastrophicFailure]

9 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

Also, the first version of this post got eaten. If anybody has suggestions on how to deal with that, I'm all ears. And a little bit of eyes, torso, toes, etc.

Cussing helps. Especially loud cussing. And also, throwing things. But try not to hit the cat. Don't ask me how I know. 

[Starman4308]

So, hopefully I actually remember what I did in the past couple weeks.

Year 306, Day 125: Launch of the Augustus Telescope

To improve reliability and serviceability, the newest telescope under GSC jurisdiction, the Augustus orbital telescope was launched to an equatorial 500x500 km orbit over Gael, with a full service bay, and a most wonderous invention by Prof. Vallten's group, a lens cap. We can now have much less fear of optics getting destroyed by Ciro's light, as the sensitive optics can be shuttered away as day breaks.

While the optics are not overwhelmingly superior to prior telescopes, Augustus can be much more easily serviced than previously possible. Some of its early images include a shot of Jannah.

Spoiler

I'll probably put up a new batch once I finally get around to researching top-end cameras.

 

Project Mercury: Interplanetary Communication Networks

To assist in interplanetary missions, a standard set of relays was designed for Thalia, Niven, and Tellumo. Three relays are stacked onto a single Laythe booster, with the upper two having PPT Teflon RCS thrusters.

 

Project CLOSE: Ciro LOcal Satellite Exploration

Project CLOSE is the codename for the first series of probes sent to the inner planets. While Pioneer 1 was not under the auspices of CLOSE, probes have been sent to Thalia, Niven, and Gratian, with plans to send additional CLOSE probes to Thalia's newly discovered moon Eta, and a probe for an Icarus flyby.

CLOSE-N: Niven: Launch, Year 306, Day 252

Status: Primary Mission Complete, Standby

Despite CLOSE-N being theoretically our pioneering mission to Niven, it was preceded by a radio/telescope surveillance platform built on contract with the Luxtine government. This satellite entered Niven orbit on Year 7, day 49, at 11:25. Surprisingly, Niven appears to have an atmosphere, although its thickness is yet to be determined. Niven Surveyor completed entry into the requested orbit on day 65 at 11:39, with just 346 m/sec of delta-V remaining.

CLOSE-N itself arrived on day 68 at 01:35:00, and inserted into its final orbit on day 81, 06:43:15.

A very final orbit. There's not a drop of fuel left. The southern hemisphere is not quite as well-observed as a result.

Scientists are still unsure of what caused the enormous Nivenean Trenches, although some suspect a volcanic origin.

 

CLOSE-G: Gratian: Launch: Year 306, Day 342

Status: still in-transit to Gratian

 

CLOSE-T: Thalia: Launch: Year 307, Day 153

Status: Initial high-orbit mapping in-progress

CLOSE-T is noted for a relatively unusual shape, with an upper, tapered cylindrical tank above a narrower cylindrical tank. This was to allow the enormous radiator panels to fit inside the fairing, while still shortening the overall propellant tank. Due to the strict delta-V requirements of transit to Thalia, the probe itself had to complete the final 125 m/sec of the Thalia transfer burn, rather than the upper stage of the booster.

On Year 7, Day 319, CLOSE-T approached Thalia, and the wide-field camera discovered an unknown moon, Eta. Unfortunately, the mission did not budget enough delta-V for an extensive survey of Eta, and remains focused on its primary mission of surveying Thalia. The capture burn was immense, a 2617 m/sec burn that took fourteen minutes to complete.

Thalia itself is a blasted landscape with no apparent atmosphere. More will be known in the coming weeks, as data continues to come in from CLOSE-T, which is currently in a 400x1500 km mapping orbit.

A relay vehicle was sent; however, one of the three relays had to be jettisoned as mission planners realized they would not have enough delta-V to capture into Thalia orbit. This will help ensure constant communications back to Gael, and mission planners are pondering whether to send a third relay to complete a polar constellation.

Spoiler

I think CactEye can get glitchy in some circumstances and render moons as pretty dark, which is probably why I never saw Eta in the telescope images. I did kinda-sorta know about it beforehand, though, because to focus the map on other planets, I often use the tab key in the map, and eventually I wound up accidentally realizing there was a moon in there.

 

Project ISRO: In Situ Resource Operations

To test the concept of ISRU, the ISRO satellite was launched towards Iota on Year 7, Day 285. The mission objectives: land upon Iota, drill for hydrated minerals such as epsomite, retrieve the water contained within them, electolytically crack the water for hydrogen and oxygen, use that fuel to launch back to orbit, land again, and fill up a second time.

The first landing, at an equatorial midlands location, succeeded on day 288, 09:34. ISRU operations proceeded apace, filling up both the water tank and topping off the fuel. Each of the four lightweight drills provided about 55 grams of hydrated minerals per second, from which about 15.5 grams of water could be extracted. By day 295, almost half a lunar day later, ISRO was ready for launch.

By 11:28:39 on day 295, ISRO landed much closer to the poles. ISRU operations did not immediately commence, however, as night was about to fall.

About five days later, Ciro rose over the hills west of ISRO. Mission planners scribbled in their notes, "do not land on the leeward side of a hill".

Unlike the equatorial landing, this time, ISRO landed with the solar panels on an east-west axis instead of north-south. As a result, it took nearly twelve hours to bring ISRO fully online, as Ciro painfully slowly rose over the horizon to give the solar panels a better angle for light collection. Because of this, and the much more depleted tanks from the round-trip landing, it took two Iota days (each 5 Gael days, with a 5-day night) to refill the tanks.

Spoiler

And yes, I am actually mining the "hydrates" resource, converting it to water, and then to LH2/LOX. The 28% hydrates-to-water ratio came from an average of three common hydrated minerals: epsomite (MgSO4-(H2O)7), kieserite (MgSO4-H2O), and gypsum (CaSO4-(H2O)2). It took a bit of doing and some clever Module Manager stuff, but I'm finally mostly happy with having real-ish water cracking operations. I'll have to consider what to do for CO2 and NH3.

I've also taken the liberty of adding a few engine configs with large numbers of restarts but less thrust to a few engines, generally aiming for hydrolox, methalox, and hydrazine-NTO, which I consider the most likely candidates for ISRU. All glory to Raptor and his config maker.

 

Finally, the GSC continues to insist that images such as these are not black magic, and are simply caused by the Sigma Dimensional KSCS optical illusion.

Spoiler

Sorry Sigma! It's got something to do with KSC Switcher, and I haven't quite yet worked out what the issue is, beyond "doesn't stop me from playing KSP".

EDIT: Next time, on Dragonball Z Astronomers of Gael: Rovers, Extended Surface Experiments, and Even Bigger Boosters!

I am really liking my new Ike series, which uses the same upper stage for: 25 ton payloads to Gael escape, 32 ton payloads with a bigger first stage engine, 40 ton payloads with a pair of Kickbacks, and 55 ton payloads with a pair of 70-ton KW Rocketry SRBs. The really fun thing is that I can take that same upper stage, replace the central Poodle with a Penguin and give it more propellant, and probably get even more payload capacity. I've overhauled all payload categories now that I have tech-level 7 boosters, but the big one is the one I like the most.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Starman4308
With apologies to Sigma

[Sigma88]

On 11/6/2017 at 1:43 AM, Starman4308 said:

Finally, the GSC continues to insist that images such as these are not black magic, and are simply caused by the Sigma Dimensional optical illusion.

what kind of setup is this? I might take a look if it's possible to avoid those kinds of optical illusions

[Starman4308]

3 hours ago, Sigma88 said:

what kind of setup is this? I might take a look if it's possible to avoid those kinds of optical illusions

Okay, it isn't Sigma Dimensions.

I've finally tracked down what I think is causing it; it's the KSC Switcher configuration. For some reason, if you switch to "KSC Main"*, it's placed above where it should be with GPP, with the 3.2x config.

*You don't start at "KSC Main", but rather at a launch site that is actually at ground level at the same spot.

[Starman4308]

As a heads-up: unless you guys really want me to, I'm not going to put as much effort into recording exact dates; it's a distraction from what I want to do: play the game and write about it.

CLOSE-T Mission Completion: Scorched, Blasted, and Beautiful

The CLOSE-T probe completed its primary mission of surveying Thalia, giving our scientists important information about Thalia's origins.

One hemisphere is dominated by the Face Scar, which appears to be ground zero for a tremendous collision, throwing enormous amounts of material around the impact site. Supporting the impactor hypothesis:

Thalia has no surface water deposits, not even in the deepest, most shaded polar craters, suggesting that Thalia's poles were not always at the same spot.

Thalia's moon Eta is thought to possibly be formed from the impact, although a more careful study will be required.

Thalia is even hotter than would be expected from its distance to Ciro, suggesting a relatively recent influx of energy.

Also, I really wish I knew the slightest thing about what I was talking about, and could spin a convincing science story. Alas, I'm a biochemist, not a doctor physicist.

 

Long Range lunar Roving Project: LRRP

One issue with all our prior landings has been a lack of mobility: immobile unmanned landers, and manned missions limited to walking speed and EVA endurance.

As responsible scientists, there is only one way to address this problem.

The LRRP project used a skycrane to place unmanned, solar-powered rovers on Iota and Ceti. Equipped with laser ablators, thermometers, accelerometers, and numerous other scientific instruments, these rovers have gone many places that the one-site landers have not, sharing pictures of our beautiful moons along the way.

These investments have been treated responsible at all times, with risky maneuvers and joyriding banned. For example, observe this photograph of a rover which is definitely heading in the same direction as it is oriented and not screaming towards a boulder at nearly 50 m/sec with just one bounce to avoid destruction.

Numerous landmarks have been visited by these rovers, such as the site of the first landing on Iota:

A curious rock formation:

 

And these str...

Hold on, there are technical difficulties, please hold...

And these perfectly normal vistas of Iota and Ceti

The Gael Space Center would like to remind everybody that giant space monkeys need not be invoked to explain the perfectly natural origin of our universe.

 

oh god who put these things here? That's clearly writing for Kerb's sake. Who was here before us? 

Spoiler

 

 

Thank you all for your continued support of exploring our universe and the beautiful Gael system.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Starman4308

[Starman4308]

Time to catch up some more on the backlog. Also to confess that I've downloaded KSPTOT, I love it, and I have no idea how to actually use it well.

 

Daphne: The Second Tellumo Lander

To investigate the oceans of Tellumo, a second lander was conceived.

While not hugely more complex than the original Tellukhod, Daphne required a substantially larger propulsion unit to allow for a precise, targeted landing.

Spoiler

It also had a surface ablation laser and core drill that turned out to be completely useless in water. Oh well.

After splashdown, Daphne made a number of important measurements, and discovered, among other things, that its seas have a high degree of salinity, helping explain their continued existence as liquid water instead of ice, that dissolved oxygen levels (at least locally) were below the Gael mean value, and that these seas are home to very curious, very large, very hungry predators.

Our astronauts have recently expressed preference for a continental vs. sea landing on Tellumo, should we mount a manned mission to this world.

 

CLOSE-I: The Sungrazer

CLOSE-I is the only CLOSE-program probe that has not and will not orbit its destination, due to the high velocities on approach.

At exit, CLOSE-I set a speed record for Gael escape, reaching a peak of 8.4 km/sec relative to Gael, so as to cancel a great deal of Gael's velocity around Ciro.

At Icarus, CLOSE-I had a very brief window for data collection, as the relative velocity was in excess of 14 km/sec.

Spoiler

At one point, I freaked out thinking I had left timewarp on as I approached Icarus. Nope, that's just what 14 km/sec approaches look like. I'm pretty sure I spent less than two minutes in "low Icarus orbit", rather frantically activating every science experiment onboard.

In the all-too-brief pass over Icarus, CLOSE-I revealed a highly varied terrain, one worthy of closer study... if, at least, we can deal with the tremendous insertion delta-V. In the meantime, CLOSE-I has over a kilometer per second of delta-V remaining, allowing subsequent flybys to be arranged.

 

CLOSE-E: Estimated Time to Eta.

The first orbiter intended for a moon outside of Gael, CLOSE-E launched aboard an Ike-C

During its eight-minute, 3.6 km/sec insertion burn, CLOSE-E's sensors detected overheating of the propulsion module, forcing heavy throttling down, such that when the burn completed, CLOSE-E was on an escape trajectory. Fortunately for Mission Control, that was a relatively gentle escape trajectory with a close flyby of the destination, Eta, allowing a small correction and gentle Eta insertion burn.

Spoiler

Note to self: Thalia is toasty in low orbit, even on the dark side. And this is with two medium-sized radiators going full blast.

 

Ballute Development Project

Daphne, while not enduring the 30G descent of Tellukhod, nevertheless hit a peak of 15G during Tellumo entry, an acceleration considered too fast for delicate instruments and Kerbals. One of the proposals was to use ballutes for extra drag in upper atmosphere. Tests from low Gael orbit have been a success, and ballutes are planned for use in future missions to Tellumo and possibly other worlds.

 

Project LTHab: Lunar long-Term Habitation

As a stepping stone to further destinations, enormous orbital and surface installations are being planned for Iota and Ceti. To loft the core module, the Ike-E booster was devised, with a 5m stack and 75 tonne payload capacity to Gael escape.

The first stage is powered with a 6-tonne Emu and two 2-tonne Mainsail liquid fuel engines, as well as two 100-tonne solid rocket boosters

The second stage is a modification to the typical Ike upper stage. Instead of nine Poodle hydrolox engines, the Ike-E uses a stretched tank and replaces the central Poodle with another Mainsail, which is ejected after the additional thrust is no longer needed.

The station cores themselves feature a habitation module with theoretical capacity for sixteen, plus a laboratory, cupola, life support supplies for a year, and a Sabatier reactor and water purification plant to extend endurance in orbit. While initial operations will likely be supplied straight from Gael, later operations may harvest water from Iota and Ceti themselves, requiring only food and spare parts from Gael.

Spoiler

Those are two Duna-class heavy habitation modules from SXT, each with a capacity for 8 (the lab and cupola technically bring occupancy to 19, not that I'm likely to station more than eight at a time anyways). Also, actual life support supplies not included; I barely fit it all on the Ike-E without a drop of supplies onboard. Regardless, it's a lot of hab room for these guys; the Duna heavy hab modules are bigger and heavier per Kerbal than other, more balanced parts, which is why I like to use them for anything resembling long-term habitation.

The second module to be added to the LTHab stations was the ELSIE Extended Life Support and ISRU Extensions module. Not quite as heavy as the first, core module, the ELSIE modules are connected to the 5m docking port at the bottom of the core module. This module supports ISRU operations to convert hydrates into usable propellant and provides backup Sabatier and water purification plants.

Note: while it may seem like the core station's attitude thrusters are firing, it is simply a bug optical illusion.

 

Miscellaneous Updates

CLOSE-G completed its primary mission to map Gratian from orbit

To replace the abandoned Thalia relay, I sent up a replacement, after removing the upper two sub-relays from the standard design. Lots of extra delta-V when your payload is reduced by almost 2/3.

[Starman4308]

I know it's been a while, but I have an excuse.

The cable repairman held up a severed piece of cabling, as an Aztec priest might hold up the still-beating heart of one of his victims, a tribute to our collective masters. As he chanted the divine words and made the sacred motions to patch a line to my apartment from the main box, the heavens themselves quivered, and then stilled, as once more gigabytes of inane arguments, memes, and silly cat videos flowed through.

 

Augustus Servicing Mission 1: Partial Success

The first mission to service the Augustus telescope was a partial success. While the optics and gyroscope were replaced, the crew failed to add a docking port, as the servicing vehicle, clumsy with the transfer stage still attached, drifted too far away from the Augustus telescope while operations were in progress.

 

Project LTHab: These Stations are Fully Supplied and Operational

The lunar space stations have been fully assembled. In addition to the core and ELSIE modules, a pair of standard lunar landers have been docked, as well as the enormous propellant supply depot, affectionately named the "cat-tail" for its appearance when still attached to the booster. While sent completely empty, it should be possible to fill the hydrogen and oxygen tanks with surface hydrate mining operations, send hypergolic propellants from Gael, and manufacture a small amount of methane from the onboard Sabatier reactor as a byproduct of recycling carbon dioxide to oxygen.

 

Unmanned Niven Landing

A lightweight lander has been successfully deployed to Niven, making crucial measurements of atmospheric and surface conditions. As is the standard for landings on worlds with poorly measured atmospheres, the Niven lander used a combination of a heat shield, hypergolic engine optimized for sea-level operation, and a parachute.

In surveying the surface around the landing site, Icarus was spotted just over Ciro.

Key to future exploration is the detailed measurements of the Niven atmosphere on descent; it's Karman line appears at 91 km, and at the landing site, atmospheric pressure was 0.083 atm. The relatively thin but deep Nivenian atmosphere suggests the possibility of aerobraking; while velocities are high enough that any probes must have thermal shielding, it could save significant amounts of mass in propellant and engines, particularly for lander missions that would use a heat shield in any event.

 

Project HIGGS: High Impulse Gas Giant Survey

The HIGGS project has two aims: first, to characterize the two inner gas giants, Otho and Gauss, and two, as a technical demonstration of nuclear power and propulsion for high-impulse missions. No less then three technologies are being field-tested for the first time: cryogenic ZBO (Zero Boil-Off) tanks with active radiators, nuclear-thermal engines, and radioisotope thermal generators for power.

While Otho could be reached solely on the launch vehicle, with all of the liquid methane working fluid for the "Shiba" engine reserved for deep-space and near-Otho maneuvers, the Gauss mission required the use of the Shiba for the last few hundred meters per second.

While an interesting trajectory that would brake around Catullus twice was investigated, eventually mission designers decided against entering to a retrograde orbit: the final trajectory will pass by Catullus once on the way in, perform a relatively small propulsive maneuver at perigauss, and begin science operations.

 

Geminus Lander

A lander festooned with solar panels for operation at Gratian's distant orbit landed successfully at Geminus, inserting directly into Geminus orbit instead of first capturing at Gratian.

 

Vehicle Design Notes

Not in-character as the Gael Space Program, just noticing a few design patterns I've used.

First, a couple missions to the Gratian system have used a Gigantor solar panel on one side of the service module to approximately counter-balance the main communication dish, which becomes superfluous once in range of the Gratian relays. You can see it on the Geminus lander before the service module is discarded.

Second, you may notice a lack of failures for the most part. There's been a few cases where I've had to revert-to-launch because I forgot some silly part, or the staging was messed up, or I forgot to lock the gigantic empty fuel tank and the launch clamps filled it up, or I forgot to change the RCS ports from using hydrazine to the bipropellant used by the main engine, but rarely do I have a failure beyond launch. Part of it may be simple, self-contained unmanned missions, and another part may ironically be all the things that TAC LS, Remote Tech, and Real Fuels force you to consider. You have to consider which antenna, so you have to consider your power supply, etc. Generally speaking, my failures end with a facepalm, revert-to-launch, and a whimper, not with an earth-shattering kaboom.

Third, I've noticed my recent crop of landers for atmospheric planets could use additional capacitors to help power science transmission from their atmospheres; the stock atmosphere sensor, in particular, goes through EC at a ridiculous rate, meaning I can't extract all the science I want. It can also mean very long recharge periods to finish transmitting surface science. In the case of the Gratian lander I'll talk about next time, very long recharge periods.

Finally, no, I did not notice that the lunar propellant supply depot modules looked like giant cat-tails until after they launched.

[CatastrophicFailure]

5 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

The cable repairman held up a severed piece of cabling, as an Aztec priest might hold up the still-beating heart of one of his victims, a tribute to our collective masters. As he chanted the divine words and made the sacred motions to patch a line to my apartment from the main box, the heavens themselves quivered, and then stilled, as once more gigabytes of inane arguments, memes, and silly cat videos flowed through.

All things serve the Beam Signal.  

5 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

While an interesting trajectory that would brake around Catullus twice was investigated, eventually mission designers decided against entering to a retrograde orbit

Oh c'mon, would have been worth it for the awesome nearly-free gravity brake.